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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

THE MONKS OF THE WEST

THE

MONKS OF THE WEST

FROM ST BENEDICT TO ST BERNARD

BY
THE COUNT DE MONTALEMBERT I,.
MEMBER OF TITE FRENCH ACADEMY

FIDE ET VERITATE

AUTHORISED TRANSLATION

VOL. VI.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCLXXIX

P E E F A C E.

During the years which preceded 1848, M. de Mont-
alembert had prepared an Introduction to the ' Life
of St Bernard,' which it was his intention to write
after the ' Life of St Elizabeth.' This Introduction,
which would have been in two volumes, was intended,
according to the idea of the author, to make known
" the real character of the Monastic Orders, and the
work they had accomplished for the Catholic world,
before St Bernard had attained the highest place
in the esteem and admiration of contemporary Chris
tendom." Almost the whole of the first volume was printed
and ready for publication when the Revolution of
February imposed other labours on M. de Montalem-
bert, and plunged his countrymen into political tur-
Vmoils little compatible with the studious calm of
- 5 history. It was therefore resolved, by common con-
f^sent of the author and publisher, to defer the publi-

VI PREFACE.

cation to a season of less public excitement. Four
years after, when the establishment of the Empire
had sent back M. de Montalembert to more leisurely
occupations, it was his desire to resume his inter
rupted work : he submitted it " to the judgment of
Monsignor Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, and did
not find it satisfactory." These are his own words.
He then decided upon a sacrifice sufficiently rare
among authors : he bought back from his publisher
the large edition which had been printed, and con
signed it to oblivion — then recommenced his work
on a different plan and a much more extended form.
From this new beginning issued the ' Monks of the
West.' It was not meet, however, that the work so bravely
sacrificed should be altogether thrown away. The
critics to whom M. de Montalembert had submitted
his work, and the severity of his own judgment of
it, concerned only the first portion — the First Book of
the printed volume. The rise and early days of the
Monastic Orders had seemed to their historian to be
described too briefly : the portico had been judged too
narrow for the proportions of the edifice. Thus, all
the substance of the four hundred pages composino-
the First Book appears in the volumes of the ' Monks
of the West ' now given to the public.
But following this First Book, there came a picture

PREFACE. VII
of the relations between the Monastic Orders and
the feudal system extending to the eleventh century,
which the author has traced with affectionate interest,
and which he has nowhere else repeated. There was
also a second manuscript volume, almost completed,
the purpose of which was to remind the world of
the position, constantly growing in importance and
in honour, held in the Church and in Christendom
during the eleventh century by monks, and to lead
the reader to St Gregory and St Bernard. In order
to represent briefly the progress and services of the
Monastic Orders at this period, the author evoked a
few grand figures — monks who were almost all popes,
popes who were almost all monks. He formed,
through the dense and living forest of the middle
ages, a kind of open avenue, marked by a series of
monumental statues, by which the traveller might
reach the threshold of the temple he meant to con
secrate to St Bernard. This temple was destined
never to be raised by his hands. All he was per
mitted to do was to gather a portion of the ma
terials. The persons to whom he bequeathed his papers,
and the task of publishing such of them as were fit,
think that they fulfil their mission in printing what
remains of a work already considerably advanced,
but not finished. All who have been able to examine

Vlll PREFACE.
these fragments have judged them worthy of their
author. And after having set aside the earlier part
of his work, the author himself, ever his own severest
judge, had yet the intention of some day publishing
that which is now put forth.
It is true that the task of preparing these volumes
for publication after his death was not altogether an
easy one. To bring these pages into faithful con
formity with the manuscript of M. de Montalembert —
to oversee the printing of a book drawn from the most
various sources, filled with quotations and abounding
in notes written in different languages — required a
man possessed of a watchful and unerring erudition,
who should at the same time be of one mind with M.
de Montalembert as to religious beliefs and historical
predilections. M. Aurelien de Courson has consented
to undertake this delicate and laborious task, thus
contributing to the good work of giving to the present
generation such a picture of the monks of old as shall
do justice to their uprightness and show their virtues
in true colours.
Let us hope that this posthumous work of the his
torian of the ' Monks of the West' may be found use
ful ; that an exact and faithful narrative, which, by
never trying to conceal a stain, vindicates its right to
unveil every glory, may serve to exalt, together with
the honour of a noble institution long calumniated

PREFACE. IX
and proscribed, the honour of the Church herself.1
This sacred hope inspired M. de Montalembert when,
in 1860, he published the first page of that work, the
last page of which is now about to appear. This sus
tained him later when, in painful trials and cruel
suffering, already in the grasp of death, he still con
tinued his labours.
He hoped that his pen might become " a sword in
the hard and holy war of conscience, truth, and the
disarmed majesty of right against the triumphant
oppression of falsehood and evil." 2 The holy warfare
is not less fierce now than in the time of M. de
Montalembert, and his sword may yet do service.
1 Introduction to the Monks of the West, chap. i.
2 Ibid. , chap. x.

NOTICE.

The two following volumes should have been com
pleted by an Appendix, to which M. de Montalembert
repeatedly refers his readers. But either the MSS.
intended to compose this Appendix were lost among
the enormous mass of documents left by the illus
trious author, or he must have thought that the nu
merous notes placed at the foot of his pages might do
double duty with the texts that were to be placed at
the end of vol. vii. However this may be, we have
thought it our duty to warn the reader. If, after a
fresh revision of M. de Montalembert's papers, docu
ments of real importance should be found, we shall
not fail to print them with a new edition.
Yet another word. The biography of St Anselm,
which is to be found in its place in the last volume
of the ' Monks of the West,' is not unpublished. At
the same time, before incorporating it with other
narratives, the author altered and added to it con
siderably. Aurelien de Courson.
Paris, January 15, 1877.

CONTENTS.

BOOK XVIII.
THE CHURCH AND THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. — THE MONASTIC!
ORDERS AND SOCIETY.
Chap. Page
I. The Influence of the Monastic Oedees on Feudal
Society, ....... 3
II. The Nobles people the Monasteeies which they
have founded, ...... 36
iii. seevices eendeeed by the monks to society. — theie
Shaee in the Political Constitution of States, , 109
iv. seevices eendeeed by the monks to science, educa
TION, Lettees, and History, . . . .130
V. SEEVICES EENDEEED BY THE MONKS TO AET, . 216
VI. The Monks and Ageicultuke. — The Monks and the
Pooe. — Fundamental Tendency of the Monastic
Spirit, . . ... 217
BOOK XIX.
ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
I. State of the Chuech in the Middle of the Eleventh
Century, . . . . . .301
ii. hlldebeand befoee his eleotion to the popedom, . 331
iii. co-opeeation of the monastic oedebs with pope
Geegoey VII  375
IV. Pontificate of St Geegoey VII. — Condemnation of
Investituees, ...... 457
V. How and why St Gbegoey VII. deposed Henry IV., 499
APPENDIX,  583

BOOK XVIII.
THE CHURCH AND THE FEUDAL SYSTEM.
THE. MONASTIC ORDERS AND SOCIETY.

" Conflabunt gladios suos in vomeres et lanceas suas in falces. " — Isale,
ii. 4.
"Sedebit popnlus meus in pulchritudine pacis, et in tabernaculis
fiduciss, et in requie opulenta." — Isam, xxxii. 18.
" Ai-ma militiae nostras non earnalia sunt, sed potentia Deo ad destruc-
tionem munitionum, consilia destruentes, et omnem altitudinem extol-
lentem se adversus scientiam Dei, et in captivitatem redigentes omnem
intellectum in obsequium Christi." — 2 Coeinth. x. 4, 5.
" Nota i gran patrici
Di questo imperio giustissimo pio.''
— Paradiso, c. xxxii. p. 151.

CHAPTER I.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS ON
FEUDAL SOCIETY.
The feudal system and the Church. — The most celebrated monks belonged
to the high feudal nobility. — St Gerald, Count of Aurillac. — Gifts of
the Seigneurs and of their wives. — Motives of these gifts. — Feudal
patronage. — Care of the Seigneurs for monks. — Letter of Pope Victor
II. to the Count of Blois. — Repentance of those who had failed in their
duties to the Church. — What price they attached to the prayers of
monks. — Imprecations against spoilers.
The preceding volumes have been dedicated to the
object of recalling the immense and too much for
gotten part played by the monastic orders in the
midst of religious society, up to that epoch which
saw the reign of St Gregory VII. and the birth of St
Bernard. Before entering upon the history of the
great struggle in which the former of these twp saints
undertook, aided by the monks,, to enfranchise the
Church and secure her from lay usurpations, it is ne
cessary to glance at the influence exercised by these
monks over the differentbranches of secular society.
Let us begin with the feudal aristocracy, which The feudal
for several centuries governed Catholic Europe : and and the
, . Church.
after having instanced the memorable conversions

4 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
of many great lords in the eleventh century, who
ranged themselves under the crosier of Abbot Hugh
of Cluny, himself sprung from their own rank, we
will show what close ties united the feudal aristo
cracy to the Monastic Orders, during the whole
period in which these two institutions existed in
their full force and freedom.
And here we ought, in the first place, to refute the
paradox by which superficial observers, too servilely
imbued with recent prejudices, seek to prove a con
stant warfare between the Church and the feudal
system, and in their writings constantly oppose the
monk to the knight, and the abbey to the castle.
Many propagate this strange error from pure
motives, believing themselves thus able to be use
ful to the Church, even while sacrificing to their
modern instincts. But the best way to serve the.
Church is to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth. Whatever prudence may
counsel us to do when we treat with contempora
ries, in history at least let us leave to this sacred
Truth all her freedom and power ; do not let us
sacrifice her to ignorant declamation — do not let
us, above all, sacrifice with her the honour of those
heroes who slept tranquilly in their monastic tombs
until the day when Vandals came at once to pro
fane their sepulchres and to raze to the ground the
secular abbeys which they had founded.
We have not here to write an apology for the
feudal system, from either the social or political

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 5
point of view ; * the point more or less at issue
is to draw from it some deduction applicable to
modern society, present or future. But the past
belongs to justice, and justice imposes upon im
partial and sincere men the duty of recognising
a verity as resplendent as the light of day, by
declaring that, of all the phases through which
society has passed, the feudal period is that which
has been most constantly favourable to the devel
opment of the Church. After the most conscien
tious study of the facts, we do not fear to pro
claim, that of all the powers which have ruled the
world before or since the feudal aristocracy of the
middle ages, not one has yielded to the Church so
large a share of authority, of wealth, of honours, and,
above all, of liberty ; that not one has endowed her
with monuments so gigantic, so admirable, or so
1 Let us only cite, in passing, the sentence passed upon the feudal system
by two jurisconsults of our own day, as learned as they are unsuspected of
any partiality for the side of Catholic institutions. M. Troplong spoke in
the following terms at the Academy of Social and Political Sciences, Jan. 10,
1846 : "If the feudal system lived a life so vigorous and so widely spread
over Europe, it was because it had a right to live. It was popular at its
birth, and it was popular simply because it satisfied the generally-received
ideas as to sovereignty, and the rights of the family and of property. The
length of its reign, the grandeur and originality of its creations, the influ
ence which it exercised during several centuries on public manners,
attest that its power was no borrowed one." — Eapport sur Us coutumes
du bailliage d'Amiens, ap. Revue de legislation, Jan. 1846, pp. 8, 9.
M. Charles Giraud, Inspector-General of Law Schools, Member of the In
stitute, speaking, in presence of the same Academy, of the judicial insti
tutions founded by the conquerors of Normandy and of Palestine, by the
contemporaries of St Gregory VII. and St Bernard, had already said,
" Feudal law is not what it might be supposed, tyrannical, grasping, bar
barous, stupid ; it is, and we must own it, healing, generous, enlight
ened, and civilising." — Notice read at the Academy, Nov. 12, 1842 ;
Revue de legislation, vol. xvii. p. 28.

6 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
lavishly scattered over the face of the earth ; that
not one has listened so respectfully to her voice, or
furnished such numerous and valiant armies for the
defence of her liberties and her rights ; that not one,
in fine, has peopled her sanctuaries with so great a
crowd of believers and of saints. There is nothing
more natural, nothing more logical, than to attack
the feudal system in the name of philosophy and of
modern democracy ; but to attack it in the name of
the Church, which was indebted to it for all that
monarchy and democracy have now made their
prey — this is at once the height of ignorance and
of ingratitude.
Undoubtedly, under the rule of the Catholic
feudal system of the middle ages the world was
stained by a thousand odious acts of violence, a
thousand atrocious injustices ; but has it ever been
otherwise here below ? And have the successors of
the feudal rulers, from Henry VIII. down to the
Convention, departed from this fatal law 1 Yes,
truly — during the centuries of which we speak
there was seen, as there will always be seen,
cruelty, avarice, and debauchery, rebelling against
the teaching of the Church, and maintaining the
empire of evil on earth. Yes, certainly, in those
days the churches, and, above all, the monasteries,
founded or endowed by the feudal nobles, often
became the victims of usurpation and oppression
committed by the very heirs of those who had
built or enriched them. Yea, more — these very

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 7
nobles, carried away by the eternal passion which
corrupts all the great ones of earth — by pride, by
the intoxication of power — might be seen permit
ting themselves to overstep the limits of justice,
of moderation, and of honour. But what has never
been seen in the same degree is the constant atone
ment for these violences, and the immediate expi
ation of these crimes, by marvels of humility,1 of
penitence, and of pious liberality. What has never
been seen is the existence of a class of men, who, all-
powerful both in law and in fact, were yet almost
always modest and humble before the voice which
reminded them of the nothingness and the dangers
of their power, always open to repentance, always
ready to make the most generous sacrifices for the
salvation of souls and the interests of heaven, and
perpetually anxious to defend, to enrich, and to for
tify the Church — that is to say, the only power which
could then counterbalance and repress their own.2
1 Let us instance, among so many other examples, those of Godfrey,
Duke of Lorraine, and of Boniface, Marquis of Tuscany, who, in the
eleventh century, both caused themselves to be publicly flogged in the
presence of their subjects, to obtain the Church's pardon for violence of
which they had been guilty (Gest. Vird. epis. in Calmet, Hist. Lothar.
probat., p. 210). Guido sacer abbas Bonifacium ne venderet amplius,
ipsum ante Dei matris altare flagellat amore verberibus nudum. — Quoted
by Hosflee, Deutsche Pdbste, ii. 32.
2 It is the monks who, in the chronicles of various monasteries, in the
biography of tie saints of their order, have preserved to us the memory
of the violent acts of the nobles, adding the strong expression of their dis
approval ; but it is there also that they have placed on record the innum
erable proofs of generosity, devotedness, and penitence given by these same
nobles. It would therefore be falling short of the first laws of historical
equity to study these sources of information only to draw from them a re
cital of the abuses of a power whose benefits are inscribed on every page.

8 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
The easy task of proving that this was the case
in the middle ages is not imposed on us here.
As for what specially regards the Monastic Orders,
wre think that we have partially accomplished
it in the narratives already given, and in those
The most which will follow. Let us only recall the fact
monks be- that, during all the great centuries of monastic
the noblest splendour, from St Benedict to St Dominic, the
families. founders of all the orders, the builders of all the
principal houses, most of the monastic saints, and
a very great majority of those abbots who are
still remembered, were sprung from the high feudal
nobility. It is not we alone who affirm this.
Open what collection you will of the memorials
of the epoch — what volume you will of Mabillon,
DAchery, Canisius, or Martene — and find, if you
can, a page which does not prove this fact. Need
we recall here all the reformers of the monastic
orders — Colombanus, Benedict of Anagni, Dun-
stan, William of St Benignus, Poppo of Stavelot,
&c. ? all the founders of new orders — Herluin,
Romuald, Jean Gualbert, Stephen de Grandmont ?
all the Benedictine doctors and pontiffs — Gregory
the Great, Ulric, Wolfgang, Leo IX., Peter Damian,
Lanfranc, Didier of Monte Cassino ? all the dyn
asty of the great abbots of Cluny, Bernon, Odo,
Mayeul, Odilon, Hugh? all the martyrs drawn
from the cloister— Adalbert, Bruno, Boniface, Al-
phege, Gerard Sagredo, and the many others whose
names fill the pages of history ? It is easy to con
vince ourselves that they all belonged to the noblest

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 9
races of their time or of their country. But what
is important to insist upon is, that their example
was never without effect upon the class in which
they were born ; and that while the nobles were
supreme over society, they furnished her with
models innumerable both of intrepid defenders and
of benefactors whose generosity was inexhaustible.
It would seem that evidence to the truth of this
proposition must be borne by all that we have
already written ; but how many names and facts
still remain to be cited in order to render full
homage to the historic truth upon this ' point !
How many admirable incidents, how many entire
lives, have we been obliged to omit ! There is one,
however, which we cannot pass over in silence,
so faithfully does it represent the true character of
a notable portion of the. dominant feudalism.
Gerald, Count of Aurillac, did not spend his Gerald,
. _ Count of
life in the cloister, but practised all its virtues and Auriiiac.
austerities in the midst of the world. He was
born1 of one of the noblest houses of France,2
already illustrious in having given birth to two
saints.3 In the many combats in which he en
gaged for the defence of the poor and oppressed,
no one was ever able to resist him,4 though he
1 In 836.
? " Carnis nobilitate tarn excellenter illustris, ut inter gallicanas fami-
lias ejus prosapia, tam rebus quam probitate morum, generosior vider-
etur." — S. Odonis, Vit. S. Geraldi Auril. eomit. , ap. Bill. Gfera., p. 67.
3 St Cesaire of Aries and the beatified Areq or Arige, founder of St Yrieix.
4 " Non enim auditum est aliquando quod vel eum vel milites ejus,
qui sub il-lius fidelitate pugnaverunt, eventus victoria fefellisset. " —
Ibid., p. 71.

10 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
took the most minute precautions to render as
bloodless as possible the defeat of his enemies.1
In his youth he allowed himself to be' inflamed
by the beauty of a vassal's daughter, but at the
moment of yielding he remembered the infinite
sweetness of Divine love ; 2 and to shelter from his
passion her who was the object of it, he caused
the young serf to be married, giving her as a
dowry her liberty and one of his own domains.3
He loved to enfranchise his serfs ; but so mild was
his yoke and so loved was his person, that most of
them refused the freedom he offered them.4 St
Odo of Cluny, who wrote the life of St Gerald,
relates a hundred delightful instances of his gentle
ness towards his vassals, of his ardent and tender
charity, and of the extreme delicacy which distin
guished him amidst a society where the idea of
individual property was far from being under
stood or respected as it is now. Thus, the pro
duce of certain of his lands was devoted to feeding
the poor, that of others to clothing them. One day,
seeing a peasant woman driving the plough because
1 " Suis imperiosa voce pracepit, mucronibus gladiorum retroactis,
hastas in antea dirigentes pugnarent." — S. Odonis, Ibid., 70.
2 ' ' Species per oculos cordi impressa remansit. . . . Interim sicut solent
captivi inter vincula pristinse libertatis gementes memorari, suspirat Ger-
aldus, et consuetam divinae dileetionis dulcedinem recolebat. " — Ibid., 72.
3 " Jubet protinus patri ut hanc nuptui traderet. Quam et libertate
donavit, et quoddam prsediolum jure testamentario concessit. " — Ibid.
4 " Innumera sunt qua emancipavit. Quam plures ex ipsis amore ejus
perstricti libertatem recusantes, permanere magis in servitute ejus malu-
erunt. Quo facto pervideri potest quam dulce dominium in eos exercuerit.
. . . Habebat enim idem senior divinitus hoc donum ut tarn ipse quam
sermo ejus gratiosus esset." — Ibid., 105, 81.

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 11
her husband was sick, he stopped greatly moved,
and having questioned the woman, gave her money
to pay a man to take her place. Another time,
when his servants had prepared his table under a
cherry-tree, from which they had gathered some of
the fruit, he caused the price of the cherries to be
given to the grumbling owner. Again, another day,
the pages who preceded him having taken some peas
from a field where the harvest was being carried in
by a labourer, he put his. horse to the gallop, and,
going up to the man, asked what they had taken.
" Nothing, monseigneur ; for I gave them those
peas," said the peasant. " Then may God requite
you ! " answered the count.1
These are very small things in themselves, says
the pious biographer, but how do they show the love
of justice in this noble seigneur ! 2 Count Gerald
of Aurillac was at the same time capable of greater
things ; for he gave up his immense fortune to St
Peter, regarding himself only as an administrator
intrusted with its employment solely for the honour
of the Church, and the good of the monks and the
poor : and in order to remind himself of this obli
gation, he went to Eome every second year with
ten pieces of money hung round his neck, which
1 " Emisit equum, et ad hominem concitus venit. ... At ille : Ego,
domine, gratis dedi. . . . Et senior : Bene, inquit, faciat tibi Deus. " —
S. Odonis, Ibid., p. 78.
8 "Hsec ergo res per se exigua est, sed affectus recti hominis naturas
legibus conveniens, earn grandescere facit. . . . Forte dicet aliquis quod
hsec relatu indigna sunt. Sed nos timorati hominis mentem per hsec
exigua demonstramus." — Ibid.

12 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
he laid on the tomb of the blessed apostle, like a
humble serf who brings his tribute to his seigneur.1
During these journeys, as well as at home, the life
of the count was passed among monks whose prac
tices and rules he lovingly studied. He was de
terred from taking the monastic habit only by the
prayers of his bishop, who wished him to retain
the free use of his sword for the safety of the
province.2 However, by continence, fasting, and
penances of all kinds, he assimilated himself to the
monks as much as possible ; and he was permitted
to consecrate the last years of his life to the erection,
in his town of Aurillac, of a great monastery, the
building of which he himself directed, and which
he endowed with great part of the wealth he had
assigned to St Peter. He died without being able
to install the monks there, according to his wish.3
But, some months afterwards, Cluny began its exist
ence and entered upon the magnificent inheritance.
Donations How many other great landed proprietors trans-
made by „ .j
the nobles formed into monastic endowments, some, like
andbytheir wives. Count Gerald, their whole patrimony, some the
most considerable part of it ! To those whom we
have already named, such as Gerard de Eoussillon or
the Norman leaders whose gifts we have previously
indicated,4 we may add, among a thousand others,
1 " Decemque solidos ad proprium collum dependentes, tanquam sup-
plex servus, domino suo quasi censum deferret. "— S. Odonis, Ibid. S5.
2 " Pro communi salute comprovincialium. "— Ibid., 88
3 In 909.
4 The 5th book of Ordericus Vitalis contains, in the enumeration of

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 13
Aymard, Sire de Bourbon, who gave Souvigny to
Cluny ; 1 Guibert,2 who founded the Abbey of
Gemblours in Brabant, on the very site of his own
castle, and endowed it with all his possessions;3
Count Eilbert of Vermandois, conqueror of Charles
the Simple, who, in concert with his wife Hersende,
built, first, Vasor,4 at the gates of his castle, then
St Michel in Thie"rache,5 and five other abbeys,
to atone for the ill done by the garrisons of the
seven fortresses he had inherited from his ances
tors ;6 William Lord of Talmont, in Poitou, who
also wished to establish a monastery within the
bounds of his castle, because, as he says in his
deed, "if I cannot myself live worthily for the
service of God, I wish at least to assure a home to
those with whom it pleases God to dwell ;"7 An-
gifts to St Evronl, which almost fills it, the best picture of the relations
of a monasteiy with the nobles of a province.
1 In 921.
2 "Cujus avum et aviam fatentur longam antiquse nobilitatis traxisse
lineam." — Act. SS. 0. B., vol. viii., ad ann. 962.
3 In 923. The Abbot-Count of Gemblours held, until the Revolution,
the first rank among the estates of Brabant in the order of nobles.
4 Valciodurum, in 944. The second abbot of this house was a young
Scottish prince, St Cadroc, who left his own country to become a monk
in France. — Act. SS. 0. B., vol. vii., ann. 975.
5 This abbey, situated at the extremity of Picardy, and on the confines
of the Ardennes, still exists, changed into a manufactory. The church is
well preserved, and presents some curious peculiarities in its five apses and
its transept, which certainly date from the first years of the twelfth century.
6 " Construxerat septem maledictionis domicilia ; . . . benedictionis et
obedientise habitacula septem complere deliberavit." — Chron. Valciod.,
ap. D'Acheey, Spicileg., vol. ii. p. 712. These were Vasor, St Michel,
Bucilly, Humblieres, Hartieres, Florennes, and a seventh, of which I
cannot trace the name.
7 " Ut qui videlicet vacare non possim quomodo Domino digne facerem,

14 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
selm, Count of Eibemont, who, having founded
Anchin in 1079, afterwards turned his own fief of
Eibemont into an abbey before going to die glori
ously in the First Crusade ; Alain, Count of Bre-
tagne, who founded St Georges, at Eennes, as a
dowry for his sister Adela, whom he offered to God
as his most precious treasure;1 Geoffrey Martel,
Count of Vend6me, and his wife Agnes, who built
at Vend6me itself the great abbey which for so
long was one of the first in France.2 This pious
pair did not stop there : besides Vend6me, they
founded Notre Dame de Saintes 3 and L'Aiguiere,4
being inflamed with the desire, then so common, to
contribute to the salvation of their souls by some
alms which would not perish.
When the fortune of a seigneur did not allow
him to make important foundations or donations,
illi saltern per me domum haberent, in quibus Dominus habitaret. "—
Deed of foundation, in 1042.
1 " Sororem meam, thesaurum scilicet mihi sub sole pretiosissimum,
Deo obtuli." — Deed of Foundation, 1030.
2 That is to say, the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, dedicated in 1040 by
seven bishops, assisted by twenty-four abbots. The Abbot of the Holy
Trinity was endowed in perpetuity by Alexander II. in 1063, with the
dignity of cardinal of the Roman Church by the title of St Priscus.
This monastery, the beautiful church of which is still standing, was cele
brated later for the possession of the relic of the Holy Tear. The Abbot
Matthieu, of Venddme, became regent of the kingdom under St Louis. We
shall have to speak later of the Abbot Geoffrey, one of the warmest de
fenders of the Holy See during the pontificates of Urban II. and Pascal II.
3 In 1047. This house was destined for nuns ; and it is remarked in
the deed of foundation that they are allowed a certain number of tame
animals — " propter femineam imbecillitatem." — Mabill., Ann., iv. 447.
4 OrL'Eviere, in 1056. " Pro liberatione animarum nostrarum desid-
erantes aliquid non facile abolendum eleemosynae votum Deo
offerre."

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 15
he offered himself as a serf or vassal. This was
done by a knight named Eobert de TAnguille, who,
to obtain the right to see the bones of the abbess
St Hunegonde, offered his person in vassalage to
the Abbey of Humblieres, in Vermandois, under
the symbol of a leash of deerskin, and added to
this the gift of a garden.1
High-born women followed these examples.
Eichilde, a lady of Lorraine, when about to cele
brate her second marriage, after having lodged for
some time at the Abbey of St Maur of Verdun,
presented herself on the eve of her wedding-day
at the abbey church, and made there the offering
of herself, and the children who might be born of
her marriage, to God and St Maur, engaging to lay
an annual tribute on the altar of the saint.2
Other women, widows and mistresses of their
wealth, disposed of it for the profit of Monastic
Orders. Traunstein, in Austria, was thus founded
by Ida, sister of the Margrave Ottocar ; Muri, in
Switzerland, by another Ida, Countess of Haps-
burg;3 Banz, near Bamberg, by Alberade, Mar-
1 " Militaris vir . . . cognomen to Anguillula. . . . Se ipsum ob de-
votionem per cervinam corrigiam servum obtulit, atque in exhibition
servitutis hortum jure prsedii tradidit in villa qua? Marceja fertur." —
Translatio S. Hunegundis, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. vii. p. 226, ed. Venet.
2 " Placuit ipsi ut de se ipsa potius quam de rebus ceteris et alienis
victimam Deo et S. Mauro solveret. . . . Seque ipsam et liberos ex se
nascituros Deo et S. Mauro vovit, ea lege ut unaquseque proles annuum
censum ad altare S. Mauri offerret, mas quidem denarios duos, femina
tres obolos." — Mabill., Ann. Bened., 1. lxx. c. 71.
3 In 1027. This abbey, which has just succumbed to the attacks of tho
vile imitators of French vandalism, was celebrated for its rich library,

16 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
chioness of Hohenburg;1 St Denis of Broqueroie,
in Hainault, by Eichilda, widow of the Count of
Hainault and Flanders.2 The Viscountess Hilde-
garde of Chateaudun gave her estate of Beaumont
to the monks of St Pere at Chartres, on condition
that they should bury her in their cloister, where,
walking over her tomb, they might remember to
pray incessantly for her.3
Motives It would be vain to seek a worldly reason, a tem-
donations. poral end, for a generosity so constant and complete.
It would be difficult to explain it by the mere
desire to secure a venerated tomb with an epitaph
as laconic as that which may still be read amidst
the ruins of the Abbey of Margam in Wales : 4 —
s^ere : lies : JRauttce : te : iLtmbres : the : founter :
: ffioti : recompense : fits : iaoxk.

It would be a mistake, above all, to attribute
these sacrifices to a disgust for the good things
of this world, to satiety, to melancholy, or even to
the lessons of misfortune. Such dispositions are
met with only in societies tending to their decline ;
they agree in no way with the young and energetic
life of the middle ages.
where, in the twelfth century, were found Martial, Persius, Statius, and
Homer. It had the' privilege of ennobling all who took the vows there.
— Huetee, vol. iii. book xxi. c. 6, notes 379 and 588.
1 In 1058. 2 In 1080.
3 " Eo tenore quod post exitum meum sepeliar in claustrum mona-
chorum, ut semper transeuntes super meum tumulum orent pro me
jugiter."— Act. SS. 0. B., vol. viii. p. 281, ad ann. 1030.
4 Of the order of Cistercians, in Glamorganshire. — J. M. Neale,
Hierologus, p. 66.

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 17
It was, on the contrary, from the very midst
of gaiety, of happiness, and of power, that there
issued those spontaneous and abundant offerings,
those acts of generosity and devotion, which were
at the same time acts of faith and humility. Let us
hear the testimony on this matter of the greatest
English noble of the tenth century, iEthelwin, Duke
or Count of East Anglia, as widely renowned for
his rank and his valour as for his joyous and cor
dial good-nature.1 " I am," said he to the Arch
bishop St Oswald,2 in allusion to the words of
the Gospel, "a man subject to others, and having
command over many men; birth, fortune, talent,
eloquence, the affection of rich and poor, have
placed me very high : but as all power comes from
God, I fear lest I should abuse mine to the injury
of my soul ; for I know only too well that the
more there is given to me, the more will be de
manded of me. ... I please myself sometimes
with good thoughts, but the unforeseen necessities
of my position turn me away from them ; I am
drawn from them sometimes by the oversight of
the king's labourers, sometimes by the cares of
military exercises, the payment of the soldiers, the
decision of lawsuits, the punishment of criminals,
and many other affairs in which it is hard not to
1 " Dux inclytus . . . domi religione, foris virium exercitatione et dis
cipline militaris usu percelebris, nobilitatem quam natales contulerant,
morum venustate perornans, jocundi vultus et hilaris aspectu, reverendus
urbana facundia, comis sermone, &c. . . ."—Chron. Eamesens., c. 8, ad
Vit. S. OswoMi in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. vii. p. 718.
2 Monk of Fleury and Archbishop of York.
VOL. VI. B

18 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
do wrong to any one." x The archbishop calmed
the duke's anxieties by recommending him to
found in some part of his domains a mon
astery, the monks of which should pray for him.2
iEthelwin adopted the idea eagerly; and thus rose,
in the midst of the fens of Huntingdonshire, the
great Abbey of Eamsey, which the Anglo-Saxon
lord endowed richly with estates, which he pro
tected with the tenderest solicitude, and which he
chose as his sepulchre.
Sometimes it was a sudden and irresistible in
spiration which dictated to generous hearts these
acts of great and constant munificence. This,
for instance, is what is related by Count Hugh
of Champagne at the end of a deed which recites
the numerous gifts made by him to the Abbey of
Molesmes : " We were coming from the council
of Troyes,3 Hugh, William Count of Nevers, and
I, and we were going to Molesmes to settle differ
ent affairs. In spite of us, the brothers came in
procession to receive us. At the end of the pro
cession my heart was, as I believe, touched by
God ; in presence of the Abbot Dom Eobert, and
1 "Ego enim homo sub alterius potestate, super alios potestatem
exercens, quem ingenuitas generis, quem opum copia terrenarum, &c.
. . . attollit . . . quem etsi bonis forte juvat aliquando studiis impli-
cari, improbus contrarise necessitudinis non permittit accessus, ... me
enim seu angariarum regalium, seu exercitationum bellicarum . . . seu
aliorum quorumlibet negotiorum forensium . . . importuna vexatio de.
fatigat." — Chron. Barnes., loc. cit.
2 "Quorum precibus et defectus suppleri et peccata tua possent
expiari." — Ibid., p. 719.
3 Held by the cardinal legate, Richard, Bishop of Albano, in 1104.

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 19
the other monks still in their albs, I approached
the altar, and placed upon it my ring, taken from
my finger, to show that I made over to them half
the lands of Eumilly, of which, however, I retain
the use during my life, having already given them
the whole of the first half of these lands. The
Count of Nevers, the Viscount of Damecy,1 the
Count of Bar, and others, acted as witnesses for
me."2 Sometimes it was to sanctify their entrance into
the order of knighthood that the nobles presented
these pious gifts. William de Tancarville, chamber
lain of Normandy, and grandson of the founder
of St George's at Bocherville, obeyed one of these
impulses when he came, the fifth day after having
been armed a knight, to offer at the altar of St
George his sword, which he ransomed by giving
several churches to the monastery.3
1 Damiciaci ?
2 "Post processionem vero, ut credo, divinitus tactus, in praesentia
domini Roberti abbatis ceterorumque monachorum adhuc in albis
astantium, accessi ad altare . . . extracto de proprio digito annulo in
donum de tota potestate super altare ponens, deincepsque perpetuo
possidendam contradidi." — Deed of confirmation granted at Chdtillon in
1108, ap. Mabill., Ann., vol. v., Append., No. 60.
3 " Quinto die post susceptum militia? cingulum . . . ibi obtuli gladium
meum super altare S. Georgii, et tunc, consilio et admonitione sociorum
meorum, nobilium virorum, scilicet Roberti de Sis, dapiferi mei, &c,
redemi gladium meum per dona et confirmationem plurium. ecclesiarum. "
— Oedeeic. Vital., 1. vii. p. 698. This fact belongs to the year 1114.
In transcribing it and some others which we quote in this chapter, we
have passed the chronological limit that we had fixed for this first exam
ination of the Monastic Orders ; but in this class of facts there is no dif
ference between the tenth and eleventh centuries on one hand, and the
twelfth on the other, as indeed will be seen in the continuation of this
history when we have to speak of the life of St Bernard. Moreover, in

20 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
Sometimes the purpose of donations and alms
was to expiate culpable extravagance, as is con
fessed by Arnold de Lay, who, to live generously
according to the dignity of the century, and not
to seem miserly, had loaded himself with debt,
and had no longer even the means of giving alms.
Being reduced to borrow two thousand sous from
the monks of Savigny in the Lyonnais, Arnold
repaid the obligation by the gift of the village of
Vindreu.1 Sometimes, finally, the donors despoiled them
selves in order to seal the generous pardon of
a mortal offence; such was the wish of Eoland,
Seigneur of Lyre,2 when he brought the murderer
of his brother to Marmoutier, and placed him in
the hands of the abbot and chapter, that he might
be tried and punished. There the homicide, who
was named William Girolet, was able to atone for
his crime by giving up, for the benefit of his vic
tim's soul, all that he possessed in the parish of
Saint Sauveur ; and this sacrifice was made sym
bolically by laying on the high altar of the abbey
a penance-rod,3 after which the generous Seigneur
order to avoid repetitions, it was necessary to endeavour to bring together
in our work any analogous features.
1 In 1128. "Vir nobilis . . . quia secundum seculi dignitatem
gloriose vixeram, et ne parous viderer, multa largiendo sere alieno
oppressus fueram, nee habebam in thesauris unde clamor pauperum
posset reprimi," &c.< — MaetSine, Ann., book lxxv., No. 46.
2 Lyriaci ?
3 "Generale capitulum, monachis hinc inde residentibus, intravit et
pro anima ejus quem occiderat, . . . cum virgula disciplinali . . .
¦ donum inde cum ipsa virgula super majus altare posuit." — Archiv. Maj.
Monast., ap. MaetSne, Annal. Bened., book lxxiv., No. 170.

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 21
of Lyre added to this ransom of his brother's life
a tithe of his own vineyards.
Moreover, these noble benefactors took care
themselves to reveal the thoughts which animated
them, and we are perfectly acquainted with the
motives which led them thus to strip themselves
of their wealth. The gratitude of those they
enriched has preserved their narratives in the
charters of foundation or donation, "which form
the grandest titles ever possessed by any nobility.
They are so numerous that we may take one at
hazard. " To Almighty God," says William Count
of Provence, in giving Manosque to the abbey of
St Victor at Marseilles — " to Almighty God, who
has given us all we have, we desire to offer in
return some portion of His own gifts in the form
of alms or allodium, to Him and to His holy martyr
Victor." l " If it is just," says Odo Count of Blois,
son of the restorer of Marmoutier — "if it is just,
and according to Christian piety, that the great
ones of the century apportion for the maintenance
of the churches, where they serve God, a share of
the riches which they have received by hereditary
right and lawful succession from their ancestors,
it would be in the highest degree unjust not to
restore to the house of God what it has been robbed
of by the iniquities of the past." 2
1 In 1013. "... Offerimus atque donamus omnipotenti Deo, qui
nobis dedit omnia qua? habemus, de ipsis donis suis aliquid in eleemosyna
ad proprium alodem sanctoque Victori ejus martyri, et abbati prasenti
domno Wilfredo. . . ."— Mabill., Ann. Bened., vol. iv. p. 216.
2 In 1027. "Si justum esse credimus et Christiana? pietati congruum

22 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
Most frequently it was the interest of their
souls which guided the givers. " I, Gervais "—so
runs the deed of gift of a noble of Maine in favour
of Marmoutier— " I, Gervais, who belong to the
chivalry of the age, caring for the salvation of my
soul, and considering that I shall never reach God
by my own prayers and fasting, have resolved to
recommend myself in some way to those who
night and day serve God by these practices; so
that, thanks to their intercession, I may be able to
obtain that salvation which I of myself am unable
to merit." 1 " It is written," says a knight of Aqui-
taine, "that almsgiving extinguishes sin as water
extinguishes fire. And having well considered
this, I, Codoere of Guillac, yield and give up my
forges and their dependencies to the monastery
of La Sauve." 2 " The prudent ant," says Peter,
Seigneur of Maule in Vexin, at the founding of
the priory of his own name for the benefit of the
Abbey of St Evroul — "the prudent ant, as she
ut potentes sa?culi hujus de propriis facnltatibus quas a. prioribus suis
jure hereditario possidendas per legitimas successiones suscipiunt, ecclesiis
Dei famulantibus unde sustententur, tribuant," &c. — Mabill., Ibid.,
Append., No. 41.
1 ' ' Ego Gervasius homo militia? sa?cnlari deditus, curam gerens de
salute anima? mea?, et perpendens me jejuniis et orationibus meis ad
Deum pervenire non posse, cogitavi aliquo modo me illis commendare,
qui Deo in talibus die ac nocte deserviunt, ut eorum intercessionibus
qua? per me non poteram, salutem illam mererer invenire," &c. — Act.
SS. 0. B., in Vit. S. Bartholom. abb., vol. ix. p. 394, ad ann. 1070.
2 About 1106. " Scriptum est quod sicut aqua extingnit ignem, ita
eleemosyna extinguit peccatum. Quod ego, Codoerius, percipiens con-
cedoforgia. . . ."—Chartul. Maj.,io\. 50, ap. Cieot, Histoire de Notre-
Dame de la Sauve, vol. ii. p. 13.

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 23
sees winter approach, makes the more haste to
bring in her stores, so as to assure herself of
abundant food during the cold weather. I, Peter,
profiting by this lesson, and desirous, though a
sinner and unworthy, to provide for my future
destiny — I have desired that the bees of God may
come to gather their honey in my orchards, so
that when their fair hive shall be full of rich
combs of this honey, they may be able, while
giving thanks to their Creator, to remember some
times him by whom the hive was given." 1
Monasteries thus founded, restored, or enriched,
were regarded by the nobles as the most precious
appanage of their houses. Thus, Count Theobald
of Blois and Champagne, son of that Odo whom
we have recently quoted, having been defeated
and taken prisoner by the Count of Anjou, and
finding himself obliged to cede Touraine as ransom,
chose at least to reserve expressly for himself and
his descendants the patronage of Marmoutier,
near Tours.2 This patronage, apart from the abuses
which pertain to the lawyers, was at once an honour
1 " Unde formica prudens, tanto attentius quanto hiemem venire sentit
ocius. . . . Apes Dei meis in viridariis eo tenore mellificare volui,
quatinus cum canistra sua gemmata favis plena fuerint, Creatori suo
exinde referent laudes, atque sui benefactoris sint aliquando memores"
(here follows the enumeration of the lands given). — Deed of 1076, ap.
Oedee. Vit., 1. v. p. 440, 442, ed. LepreVost. The learned editor adds
that one of the churches built by Peter de Maule was completely razed
after the Revolution, except the base of a tower, which was turned into a
dwelling. 2 See the charter of the son of this Count Theobald, who died in 1090,
ap. Mabill., Ann., vol. v., Append., No. 40.

24 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
and a burden. It was not enough, to build mon
asteries and endow them; being founded, they
must be preserved. It was constantly necessary
to repair, to re-establish, and to protect these holy
houses, exposed as they were to all the vicissi
tudes of the times, and to all the violences of a
society expressly organised for war. Omitting
some regrettable exceptions, the chivalry of Europe
did not fail in this noble mission, which was
imposed as a duty of their rank.1 Who can tell
the number of those knights whom the historian
Aimoin saw arrive, sword in hand, for the defence
of Fleury 1 2 After having drunk to the memory
of the venerable father Benedict, and eaten of the
monks' bread, these valiant men rushed upon the
enemies of the monastery and put them to rout.2
How many times was there found, for the pro
tection of the nearest or most honoured abbey,
an association of seigneurs like that of the ten
knights of Guienne, who, taking as leader the
nephew of the noble Duke William of Aquitaine,
united themselves under the title of defenders and
protectors of the Abbey of Notre-Dame de la
Sauve, and, after having communicated, kissed the
1 "Est nobilium hominum quosque religiosos pro posse suo venerari
eorumque possessiones tueri et augmentando de suis propriis largitionibus
accrescere."— Charter quoted in Dom Lobineau, Hist, de Bretagne, vol.
ii. p. 292.
2 Towards the year 1000. "Vino in amore patris Benedicti prius
epoto . . . panes ex iis quibus monachi vescebantur, quos ipse cum
suis certaraen intraturus, in escam sum eret."— Aimoin. Floe., ap. Du
chesne, Script. Franc, iv. 138, 140. The body of St Benedict was
at Fleury.

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 25
paten, and caused their swords to be blessed in
the church of the monastery, engaged themselves
by oath to avenge the injuries suffered by the
monks, to defend their property, and to protect
the pilgrims who visited them ! 1
Even those who did not fight for the abbey, interest
. ^ felt by the
acknowledged, in time of war, the rights of mon- noWes '«
asteries to special protection — a protection which
these holy communities extended in turn to the
poor, and to the inhabitants of their neighbour
hood.2 Those who transgressed this law of piety
and honour, who despoiled or insulted the de
fenceless monks, were objects of the fierce deri
sion of their fellows. " Come," they cried, " and
measure yourselves with us. We do not wear
cowl and capuchin ; we are knights like yourselves.
We defy you to combat ; we will teach you what
war means." 3
1 Towards 1080. Cieot de la Ville, History of the Abbey and Congre
gation of Notre-Dame de la Sauve, vol. i. p. 297. The author gives the
names of the ten knights, among whom are the Count of Bigorre, two
viscounts of Blanquefort, &c.
2 ' ' Parnenses autem exultabant, eo quod monachis subderentur, sper-
antes ut eorum patrocinio contra collimitaneos Normannos tutarentur."
— Okdee. Yit., book iii. p. 132, ed. Leprevost. The protection enjoyed by
the serfs and peasants belonging to monasteries is shown by many anec
dotes, related by Aimoin of Fleury and by Raoul called Tortarius, on
the miracles obtained by St Benedict at Fleury, in the environs, at
Pressy in Burgundy, &c. There may be found, also, a touching instance
of the force of this intervention, in the case of a holy monk alone and
on a journey, for the benefit of a population suffering from the march of
invading armies, in the narrative of Raoul, a monk of St Trond, ap.
DAcheet, Spicileg., vol. ii. p. 659, quoted also by Digby, Mores Cath.,
x. 361, and by Stentzel, Geschichte der FrancJcischen Kaiser, in fin. ,
vol. ii.
3 " Cum opprobrio et derisione a militibus sibi obviis frequenter audi-

26 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
This constant solicitude of knights and nobles
for the monasteries was shown in a variety of
minute and affectionate cares, the recital of which
animates and embellishes the monastic annals.
We see there that the greatest personages of the
feudal system did not regard as beneath them the
smallest precautions which related to monks.
William VIII, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of
Poitiers, did not think it enough to have founded
and richly endowed the Abbey of Montierneuf
in his capital of Poitiers,1 after having2 made
a journey to Eome to confer about it with Pope
Gregory VII. ; 3 at his return from his frequent
expeditions — undertaken either to subdue rebellious
feudatories, punish oppressors, or restore security
to the roads or villages — he never failed, before
entering his palace, to pay a visit to the monks,

erunt : Hue venite, miliies. Non enim cucullati, seu coronati sumus; sed
niilites in armis vos ad bella provocamus. Socii vestri sumus ; experiri
debetis quid agere possumus. Improperiis hujusmodi crebre erubuerunt, et
plures eorum duros ictus perpessi corruerunt." — Oedee. Vit., book xiii.
p. 904. It may be noted, also, with what zeal and courage two knights
named Adalbert and Bozon hurried to the help of the Abbey of Stavelot,
in the time of Abbot Poppo, in 1020, and put to flight the invaders
of the monastery.— Eveehelm., Vit. S. Popponis, No. 20, in Act. SS.
Bolland, January, vol. ii.
1 In 1075.
2 Charter of 1086, quoted by M. de Cheeg£, ex MSS. D. Fonteneau,
Mem. des Antiquaires de VOuest, ann. 1844, p. 249.
3 " Ita cervicositatem Aquitanorum procerum sibi subdiderat . . . tanto
terrore cunctos per fuderat, ut nee in ipsis hominibus illi tyrannice
potestatis jure auderent, ut prius soliti erant, grassari. Tanta pace
regnum Aquitania? potiebatur, ut nunquam auditum sit uspiam viatorem
aut ruricolam disturbatum fuisse."_MAETiNi Monachi, Hist. Mcmast.
ivoD.,ap. Maktene, Thesaur. Anecd., vol. iii. p. 1215.

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 27
whom he called his lords.1 He went even into
their kitchen, and inquired of the cellarer what
the monks were going to eat that day ; and if
he heard that it was only eggs, cheese, or very
small fish, he would order his treasurer to provide
the cost of a more nourishing diet.2 In return,
the monks, after William's death, showed the most
affectionate anxiety for his soul; and beside the
daily prayers on his behalf and the solemn cele
bration of his anniversary, they caused his cover to
be laid every day in the refectory, with the justitia,s
or measure of wine allotted to each monk, as if the
duke were one of them, and was going to sit down
with them to their meal. Sometimes the givers
stipulated beforehand the price to be paid for their
generosity. Thus, this same Duke William of
Aquitaine, when he granted to the Abbey of Grande-
Sauve the right of sauvetat — that is to say, the
right of having a special court, being freed from
all jurisdiction and all imposts and tolls, and the
right of asylum and sanctuary for pilgrims and
travellers — stipulated that in exchange for this they
should sing a mass for him every week, and should
every day give to the poor the rations of one
monk, for his benefit, as long as the abbey church
1 "Non ante ad palatium descendebat . . . quos suos ipse dominos
vocabat." — Maetini Monachi, Ibid., p. 1214.
2 " Ipse quidem in coquinam ibat, et cellarium quid monachi comesturi
erant interrogabat : a quo cum audiret ova aut caseum, vel certe de
minutis pisciculis, statim suo stipendiario jubebat ut nummos exhiberet
ad meliora fercula pneparanda. " — Ibid.
3 Ibid., p. 1217.

28

INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS

should stand.1 Twenty-four years later, after
having founded the Church of St Barthelemy on
his estate of La Barde, and having given it to La
Grande-Sauve, with many other offerings, Eaymond
Sanche de St Paul, when on his deathbed, sur
rounded by seventy knights, demanded that, in
gratitude for his gifts and in memory of his name,
they should receive and entertain, in the priory,
one poor man, in perpetual succession for ever.2
The responsibility they thus took upon them'of
maintaining the prosperity and independence of
the monks, and so securing the salvation of their
own souls, they called, according to the expression
of Pope Victor IL, doing the work of God. The
Pope wrote in the following terms to Count Theo-
Letterof bald of Blois : " We know the anxiety which
tor n. to -animates you on the subject of good and bad
the Count . . , . . . .
of Biois. monks, and the glory which the Almighty has
caused you to win before all men, on account of
it. . . . The Abbot of Montierender has related
to us with tears of joy all the services which the
greatness of your piety has rendered to his abbey,
in correcting unworthy brothers, causing his vil
lages, mills, and other property, to be restored to
1 " Prsebenda pro eo pauperibus eroganda quandiu steterit ecclesia.''
— Cieot, i. 282-285-596; Mabill., Ann. Ben., vol. v., Append., No. 14.
2 Towards 1156.— Chartul. Majus, No. 180, ap. Cieot, ii. 91. In
1182, Pierre de Rions, another benefactor of the Abbey of Grande-Sauve,
caused five of the principal monks to be summoned to his deathbed. He
took in his arms his son, who was still a child, and begged the monks to
be as a father to him ; then he received from them the monastic habit, and
died in peace. — Chartul. Majus, f. 82 ; Cieot, Hist, of La Grande-Sauve,
vol. ii. p. 3.

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 29
him, and rebuilding his bridges to the great satis
faction of many, as far off as the isles of the sea
in England and Scotland, and to the great dis
pleasure of the wicked. We give you abundant
thanks, and we exhort you always to remember
that if you listen to those who speak to you of
God, God will listen to those who pray to Him for
you. For this is why the Almighty Lord has in
trusted the government of the people to good men ;
it is that by their hands He spreads abroad the
gifts of His omnipotence among those whose chiefs
they are. Do the work of God, and God will do
yours."1 When, in the course of their warlike lives,
these princes and seigneurs had not done the work
of God, when they had failed in this sovereign
duty, with what humility they sought to expiate
their fault ! When Count Geoffrey of Vend6me Repent
ance of
had violated the immunities of the burgher vas- those
0 who had
sals of the great Abbey of the Holy Trinity, founded Jhreonsed
by his father at Vend6me itself, we see him, touched Churcl1-
by the grace of repentance, and by the exhortations
of the apostolic legates, entering the abbey church
barefoot, throwing himself at the knees of the abbot,
1 "Quia si pro Deo loquentes auditis, pro vobis orantes Omnipotens
idem exaudiet. Propter hoc omnipotens Deus bonos quosque ad popu-
lorum regimina perducit, ut per eos omnibus quibus pra?lati fuerint
dona sua? potestatis impendat. Facite quod Dei est, et Deus faeiet quod
vestrum est." — Mabill., Ann., 1. lx., No. 80, ad ann. 1056. St Gregory
VII. wrote in the same way to Countess Aldilasia, recommending to her
the Abbeys of Fructuieres and of St Michel at Cluses : "Ad hoc tibi
a Domino et honoris dignitas et potentia? amplitudo cbncessa est, ut in
suo suorumque servitio expendatur, et tu eis carnalia tua libenter im-
pertiens, de spiritualibus eorum participium merearis."— Ep., i. 37.

30 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
and swearing, while he placed on the altar his pon
iard and four silver coins, that he would hencefor
ward respect the right of the monks.1
Let us now suppose ourselves present at the
last moments of one of the greatest nobles of
Germany and Italy in the eleventh century,
Godfrey with the Beard, Duke of Lorraine and
Tuscany, husband of the Countess Beatrix, and
indomitable rival of the Emperors. Feeling his
end approach, he implores Thierry, Abbot of St
Hubert, to come to Bouillon to receive his last
confession. The monk arrives, and at the sight
of the duke lying in the agonies of death, far from
seeking to conciliate him by softness, he lifts his eyes
to heaven, and addressing himself to God in the
language of the prophet, " Lord," he says, " Thou
hast brought down this proud man as one wound
ed ! " " Nothing is more true, dearest father,"
replies the duke ; then having made his confession
in the midst of tears and sobs, he calls for his
sword, and giving it with his own hand to the
abbot, says to him, " My father, I yield it to
you ; you shall bear me witness, at the judgment
of God, that I have humbly renounced the chivalry
of the age." Then remembering the promise of a
monastic foundation which he had made in pre
sence of the Pope himself, he caused himself to be
carried, followed by his son and his nobles, to the
Church of St Peter of the Bridge; and having
1 " Quatuor solidos cum cultello suo."— Mabill., Ann., 1. lxix., No. 92.

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 31
solemnly endowed it with some lands and a thou
sand livres of silver out of his patrimony, he makes
a present of it to the Abbey of St Hubert, and
requests that the monks may be immediately in
stalled. At the sound of the bell which calls the
brothers to their canonical hours, the duke feels
himself refreshed, and forgets all his sufferings.1
The son of Godfrey, the unworthy husband of
the famous Countess Matilda, deferred for a long
time the execution of his father's donation ; but the
sound of the monastery bells, which had consoled
the old man's last moments, served this time to
trouble the conscience and vanquish the greed of
the avaricious young one. During a winter night,
when he had given up his own bed to his guest,
Bishop Hermann of Metz, beside whom he was
sleeping, the bishop, awakened by the bell for
matins, asked what monks lived in the neighbour
hood ; to which the duke replied, they were those
whom his father had placed at St Peter's of the
Bridge. " Happy those," said the bishop, "whom
neither the dulness of night nor the inclemency of
the bitter winter prevent from praising the Creator
1 "Tu humiliasti sicut vulneratum superbum. Dux ad verbnm abbatis
compunctus : Pater, ait, carissime, nihil verius. Gladium suum deferri
jussit, quem . . . abbati reddendum pra?sentavit, eumque sibi testem
futurum, &c, inclamavit. . . . Auditis campanis quibus hora? canonica?
nionachieo ritu significabantur, ejusdem infirmitatis quasi oblitus, qua-
dam mentis hilaritate recrearetur. ... Ex quo enim coepit infirmari
nullos convivas nisi pauperes habere voluit. Hujus, inquit, officina?
semper procurator esse debuissem, si mihi," &c. — Hist. Andaginensis, c.
32, in Ampl. Collect., vol. iv. He died in 1070, and his son Godfrey the
Hunchback in 1076.

32 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
of the world ! But unhappy, a thousand times
unhappy, thou, whom neither the fear of God
nor the love of a father canst move ! Unhappy
thou, who hast fraudulently detained the alms he
gave, and still refusest them to brothers so pious ! " x
The duke, confounded, burst into tears, and without
further delay repaired his fault.
The nightly chant of the monks, which thus
awoke remorse in the souls of the negligent, on the
other hand filled with courage and confidence the
sons of knights who had faithfully done the duties
of their rank and kept their engagements towards
the servants of God. For example, two centuries
after the epoch which has been the special object
of our researches, Count Ealph of Chester, founder
of the Cistercian Abbey of Deulacres,2 was com
ing back from the crusade in which Damietta had
been taken, and in which he had covered himself
with glory,3 when a violent storm assailed his ship.
Towards ten o'clock in the evening, as the danger
1 " Inhorruerat hyems asperrima, exceptus a duce ut decebat . . . cum
post ccenam in lecto ducis pausaret, duce altrinsecus in eadem camera
quiescente. . . . Miratus episcopus ea tali hora campanas audire, inter-
rogavit. . . . Tu quoque infelicior infelicissimis, quem necdum emolliunt
vel timor Dei, vel amor patris, qui eleemosynam ejus defraudaveris, " &c.
— Hist. Andaginensis, c. 38.
2 In 1214. The name of the abbey was given in the following manner :
The grandfather of Ralph ordered his grandson, in a vision, to remove the
white friars of Pulton to a more convenient site. Ralph announced to his
wife, Clemenee de Fougeres, his resolution to obey the injunction ; to which,
says the chronicler, the Countess replied, Gallicis verbis, "Deux encres," or
' ' Deu lacres " — that is to say, God prosper it. And then the Count, ' ' con-
gratulans ad dictum ejus:" "Hoc,'' inquit, "erit nomen ejus loci, Deula
cres." — Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. i. p. 890, ed. 1682.
3 "Ubi Rannlfus comes dux Christiania? cohortis prastitit gloriosa.''
— Ibid.

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 33
every moment increased, the Count exhorted the
exhausted crew to redouble their exertions until
midnight, promising them that at that time the
tempest would cease.1 At midnight he himself confidence
lent a hand, and worked harder than anybody.2 nobles in
the prayers
Soon afterwards the wind fell, the sea grew calm ; of the
0 monks.
and when the pilot asked Ealph why he had com
manded them to work until midnight only, the
Count answered, " Because from that hour the
monks and other religious persons whom my ances
tors and I have established in different places, rose
to sing the divine service ; and when I knew that
they were at prayer, I had reason to hope that,
thanks to them, God would command the tempest
to cease."3
But it was not only a pious confidence in the
prayers offered in the monasteries which kept up
among the princes and feudal lords their respect
for old foundations ; this respect was, above all,
strengthened in their hearts through the terror
inspired in faithful believers by those fearful mal-
1 " Laborate interim usque ad mediam noctem. . . . Gubernator navis
dixit ad comitem : Domine, commenda te ipsum Deo, quia tempestas
crescit et nos deficimus laborare, et in periculo vita? sumus."
2 " Coepit juvare fortissime in rudentibus et antemnis. . . . plus quam
omnes viri qui erant in nave." — Dugdale, Ibid.
3 " Quia e media nocte deinceps monachi mei, et alii religiosi quos pro-
genitores mei et ego in diversis locis fundavimus, surrexerunt ad cantan-
dum servicium divinum, et tunc confisus sum in eorum orationibus," &c.
 Bnd. William le Breton, in his ' Philippeide, ' c. iv., relates a similar
story of the confidence of Philip Augustus in the prayers of the monks of
Clairvaux, during a terrible storm which assailed him in the Straits of
Messina, on his way to the Holy Land, and which ceased after midnight,
at the hour when matins commenced at Clairvaux.
VOL. VI. C

34 INFLUENCE OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS
edictions which their ancestors had fulminated
against whoever should attempt to despoil the
monks. It is, in fact, rare to find any deed hav
ing reference to a foundation or donation made by
the nobles, which does not contain express mention
impreca- of menaces and imprecations hurled by the found-
agamst ers or donors on the heads of future spoilers, as
spoilers.
if they had foreseen that a day would come when
that patrimony which men of the first rank had
offered for the use of God, the Church, and the
poor,1 should become the prey of the barbarous and
the sacrilegious. The formulas employed varied
little. Among those preserved to us in such great
numbers in the various collections of charters, we
will take two from the cartulary of the Abbey of
St Pere at Chartres, because they belong to the
eleventh century and to the time of St Gregory
VII. One of them was pronounced, vivd voce, in
1080, by Walter de Garancieres, a knight, who,
when giving part of his property to the monks of
St Pere, spoke thus : " I make this donation with
the consent of my son, in presence of several wit
nesses ; and I implore the Lord to smite with His
curse all who shall infringe the said donation ; so
that, if they do not repent, they may expiate their
crime in hell with Judas the traitor." 2 The other
1 "Ob pauperum Christi recreationem," are the terms used in the deed
of gift of Reynauld, Seigneur of Chatillon, to the Abbey of Saint Benignus,
in 1038, ap. PIseard, Becueil de pieces curieuses, p. 186.
2 " Hanc donationem, per assensum filii mei Gualterii, in prasentia plu-
rimorum hominum, faciens, imprecor maledictionem omnibus nitentibus
contraire prafate donationi, utin inferno, nisi resipnerint, cum Judapro-

ON FEUDAL SOCIETY. 35
is found in the act by which a knight named
Guaszo surrendered his property to the abbey
where he became a monk, in 1053, to expiate
the excesses of his military life,1 and is expressed
as follows : " If any one attempt in future to
oppose or to deduct anything from this my
donation, may he be smitten with the curse of
Ham, who revealed his father's shame ; if he does
not repent, may he go to hell with Dathan and
Abiram, whom the earth swallowed alive — with
Judas the traitor, who hanged himself by the neck
— and with Nero, who crucified St Peter and be
headed St Paul : may he remain in hell, and never
leave it until the devil himself is pardoned."2
ditore poenas luant." — Gu^raed, Cartulary of St Fire, i. 222. Fglibien,
in the Piices justificatives de V Histoire de St Denis, No. 2, quotes on the
same subject a charter of Theodetrude, daughter of Brodulphe, under
Dodo, Abbot of St Denis, in 627 : "Propterea rogo et contestor coram
Deo et angelis ejus et omni natione hominum tam propinquis quam ex-
traneis, ut nullus contra deliberatione mea (sic) impedimentum S. Dyon-
isiodehacre . . . facere pra?sumat . . . si fuerit quia manus snas " (the
text has "minus suus") "ad hoc apposuerit faciendo, a?ternus rex pec-
cata mea absolvat, et ille maledictus in inferno inferiori et anathema et
Maranatha percussus cum Jnda cruciandus descendat, et peccatum quem
amittit in filios et in domo sua crudelissima plaga ut leprose pro hujus
culpa a Deo percussus, ut non sit qui inhabitet in domo ejus, nt eorum
plaga in multis timorem concntiat, et quantum res ipsa meliorata value-
rit, duplex satisfactione fisco egenti exolvat." — Dom M. F^libibn, Hist.
de S. Denys, pieces justif. , No. 2.
1 " Sub balteo militari multis implicatus crimmibus," he says of himself
in his charter.
2 " Si quis autem huic largitioni mea? contraire ant minuere ex hac re
quippiam temptaverit, maledictione Cham, qui patris pudenda deridenda
fratribus ostendit, feriatur, et cum Dathan et Abiron, quos terra vivos
absorbuit, et cum Juda traditore, qui se suspendit laqueo, et cum Nerone,
qui Petrum in cruce suspendit et Paulum decollavit, nisi resipuerit, et ad
satisfactionibus remedium confugerit, cum diabolo in inferno poenas luat,
donee abiturus veniam cum diabolus est accepturus. Amen." — Cart, of
S. Fire, ii. 624, ann. 1053.

36 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES

CHAPTER II.
THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES WHICH
THEY HAVE FOUNDED.

Nobles becoming monks before their death. — Bouchard de Melun. — The
monastic habit adopted at the hour of death. — Consent of wives and
children asked. — Calmine, Count of Auvergne, and the grand feuda
tory Romaric, under the Merovingians. — The monk Amat at Luxeuil.
— Counts Rodin, Unroc, and Badillon. — The Belgian nobility in
the tenth century. — Guibert de Gembloux. — Gerard de Brogne. —
Ansfred de Louvain. — St Robert, founder of the Chaise-Dieu, and
his disciples. — St Adelelme of Louvain in the eleventh century. — St
Gerard of Picardy founds the Grande-Sauve in Guienne. — Other
Picard knights imitate Gerard. — Gascon knights. — German knights
and peasants monks at Hirschau. — Many feudal lords monks under
Gregory VII. — Ebrard de Breteuil, Thibalt de Provins, Simon
Count of Valois, &c. — The example of the latter attracts illustrious
personages. — Gamier de Montmorillon. — Arnoul de Pamele, &c. —
Foundation of Afflighem by penitent knights. — Humility of the
nobles in monasteries. — Frederic of Lorraine at St Vannes. — Raoul
d'Osmond and his wife. — Numerous conversions among the feudal
aristocracy. — What the nobles hoped for in becoming monks.
From the eighth to the thirteenth century all the
monasteries in Europe, except the small number
which owed their existence to the piety of kings,
were founded by the feudal aristocracy,1 in this
sense that they received from the hands of the nobles
1 Hurtee, vol. iv. pp. 56, 102.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 37
the territorial endowments which were necessary for
their support. But these nobles were not content
with founding abbeys and endowing them richly ;
they themselves entered them in crowds, they peo
pled them with their bravest and most illustrious
children.1 For it did not suffice these generous
knights to deprive themselves of their wealth for the
love of Christ; it was above all, of their persons, their
liberty, their pride, their entire being, that they
aspired to make an offering to the Lord of Hosts.
When penitence touched their hearts, they were not
satisfied with diminishing their ancestral patrimony
to augment that of the Church, and the poor ; it
was by immolating their whole nature, by bend
ing all their habits and all their passions to the
yoke of monastic rule, that they hoped to atone for
the faults and excesses of their youth, or the some
times barbarous abuses of their power.2 These
abuses are commemorated in many charters. There
we see tyrannical and rapacious knights as well as
discontented and rebellious serfs ; 3 but of these
1 St John Chrysostom ( ' ' Adversus oppugnatores vitas monasticas ") de
scribes the fury of a rich father who sees his only son " inhonestius vesti-
tum atque ad abjectura missum." . . . They persuade this son of a
noble race, says the personage brought on the scene by Chrysostom,
' ' ut, spretis omnibus, vestem se rusticam induat, ac, relicta urbe, ad montem
confugiat, ibique plantet, riget, aquam ferat, cxteraque monachorum faciat
opera quae villa et indigna esse videantur," &c.
2 The monastic chronicles are full of stories which show us how knights,
previously known for their sanguinary violences, and justly described
as "feri homines," were constantly transformed into docile and humble
" converts." — See the Annals of Corbie, date 871, for what is there related
of Ecceric, ap. Leibnitz, Script. Brunswicenses, quoted by Digby, x. 387.
3 V. Gu^eaed, Polyptique d'lrminon, vol. ii. p. 370.

38 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
most ended by being converted.1 Monks sprung
from the conquering race excluded no one from
their communities; they treated serfs, peasants,
workmen, and the burghers of the towns, as their
brethren, and very often obeyed them, though they
were themselves generally the most numerous, and,
it may be boldly affirmed, also the most holy. After
having occupied the foremost place in parliaments,
in royal courts, or on the field of battle, they would
not consent to be last in the race of penitence and
of piety. Thus they were rarely passed in the nar
row road of austerity, of voluntary humiliations, and
of thev roughest labours. They devoted themselves
to the most irksome tasks, not out of melancholy
or weariness of life, but, as they loftily proclaimed,
to gain heaven upon earth, to obtain the pardon
of their sins, or to expiate the crimes committed
by their race. And these were not, as has been so
often said, and as we have seen in later times,
younger sons, the impoverished, or those branded
by nature or fortune ; they were, on the contrary,
the richest, the most famous, the most powerful,
elder sons, and heads of houses, sometimes even the
last scions of the most illustrious lines, who, in
becoming monks, transformed into monasteries their
feudal fortresses, the cradles and the centres of
«
1 Among monastic writers the word conversion means taking the vows
of a religious order. They call those "converts" who renounced the world
to embrace a cloistered life, in order to distinguish them from children
offered or given to monasteries by their parents.— (V. Reg. S. Bened.,
cap. 58 and 63 ; St Geeg. Magn., Epist. 7 ; St Anselm., De Contentione
inter monachos nutritos et conversos. )

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 39
-their power.1 Throughout the duration of the
feudal era, and in all the countries of Christendom,
innumerable lords and knights thus merited the
eulogy pronounced by history on the ancestors of
the holy Pope Leo IX. ; " After having, by force of
arms and valour, vanquished all who withstood
them in war, they were able in their old age to
trample under foot the pride of birth and the luxury
of the world, to clothe themselves with the humility
and poverty of Christ, to give their patrimony to
churches, to found monasteries, and to follow the
precepts of Christ, in the monastic habit, to the
glorious day of their death."2
It was the desire of most of these generous bene- Nobles
factors of monasteries to end their lives in the peace monks be-
„ fore their
ot the cloister, and in the habit which they had so aeaft.
long honoured. Thus did the Counts of Vend6me
and of Blois, and the Sire de Talmont ; and before
them, Fulk the Black, Count of Anjou, Senes
chal of France,3 Milo, Count of Tonnerre, who re
tired to the abbey restored by him at the gates of
his own town,4 the three Williams,5 Dukes of Aqui-
1 This is what was done in Germany by the Counts of Andechs, Schey-
ern, Arnstein, the lords of Cappenberg, Dorstadt, and others. — Huetee,
vol. iii. p. 430.
2 "Quorum patres et avi, armis et animis, supra modum fortiter acie
compresserunt sibi resistentes, circa senium, abjecta omni superbia generis
et luxu mundi, induerant humilitatem et paupertatem Christi . . . coeno-
bia construendo in suis et ex suis pra?diis . . . laudabilique per cuncta
fine decesserunt. " — Wibeet, Vit. S. Leonis, in Act. SS. 0. B., c. 1.
3 In 997.
4 In 980. " Comam capitis et barbam totondit." — Deed quoted by
Mabill., Annal., book xlix. c. iii.
6 WiUiam Tow-head, who took the habit from the hands of St Maieul,

de Melun.

40 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
taine and Counts of Poitou, and later, Adalbert,1
Count of Calw, the indefatigable champion of the
Holy See, and restorer of the great monastery of
Hirschau, where he became a monk before he died.
Thus also did many others, among whom none
Bouchard showed himself more zealous than Bouchard, Count
of Melun and Corbeil, friend and supporter of Hugh
Capet. Bouchard had laboured, during part of
his life, to bring-about the reform of St Maur-les-
Foss<3s, near Paris ; 2 and in his old age, offering to
this much-loved abbey the glorious sword which had
often defended it,3 he himself took the vows there.
He proposed to fill the office of the lowest of the
acolytes, and said to the monks who dissuaded him,
" When I had the honour to be a knight, a count,
and leader of many other knights, in the world, I
was very willing to carry before a mortal king the
light which he required ; how much more then,

and died in 963 ; William Strong-arm, who died a monk at St Maixent in
990 ; finally, William V. the Great, who went every year on a pilgrim
age to Rome or to St James, founder of Maillezais and of Bourgueil,
reformer of St Jean dAngely, which he gave to Cluny, the great friend
of St Odilon, and who died in the monastic habit in 1030, — all three
successors of Duke William, founder of Cluny in 910.
1 "Adalbertus, in fidelitate sancti Petri contra schismaticos jam ex
antiquo studiosissimus, et demum ex comite monachus factus, feliciter
diem clausit extremum in monasterio quod ipse de propriis construxit."
— Berthold Constant., ad ann. 1099.
2 We have already referred to the detailed and very curious account of
this reform, brought about by the cares of Count Bouchard, and thanks
to the intervention of Cluny ; it is to be found in the Bibl. Cluniac.,
pp. 299, 301.
3 " Aureus quoque ensis ex quo hoc magnum monasterium dicitur esse
ineoeptum, a lumbis resolutus, ejus dono allatus fuit" — Vita Burchardi,
auci. Odone, ap. Duchesne, Script. Hist. Franc, vol. iv. p. 122.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 41
now that I am in the service of the immortal
Emperor of Heaven, should I not carry these tapers
before Him, in token of my humble reverence 1 'n
The same spirit induced the Giroies, the Grant-
mesnils, the Montgommerys, and many other Nor
man heroes, to bury themselves in monasteries
which they had founded or restored. It is but
just to cite, as one of the worthiest among these,
Hugh d'Avranches, surnamed the Wolf, who was
created Count Palatine of Chester by William the
Conqueror, and enriched with one hundred and
sixty-two manors or lordships in the new kingdom.
In England, as in Normandy, Count Hugh was
always to be seen in the first rank. After the
Conquest, he succeeded in subduing or retaining
the impatient Welsh under the Norman yoke. In
spite of the many excesses which disfigured his
life, he never lost sight of the interests of God.
Eestorer, in 1085, of the Abbey of St Sever, in
Normandy, and founder, in 1093, of the monas
tery of St Wereburga, in the county of Chester, he
ended by becoming a monk in the latter house,
and died four days after having entered it.2
Often, hindered as they were by marriage or by
1 " Si cum militari honore sublimatus essem, atque, ut dicitis, militum
stipatus agmine, comitates dignitate fulgerem, mortali regi lucerna
indigenti cereum manu anteferebam, quanto magis nunc immortali
imperatori debeo servire, atque ante ipsum candelabra ardentia manibus
cum exhibitione humilitatis reverenter ferre ! "— Odone, Ibid., p. 123.
Do not these words of Bouchard recall the custom of the bougeoir, as it
was practised at the coucher du roi at Versailles before 1789 ?
2 Oedeb. Vital., p. 522, ed. Duchesne. Cf. Le Meeoiee, Avranchin
monumental et historique, vol. i. p. 65.

42 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
Themonas-the engagements of a secular life, the nobles de-
assumed layed to make the offering of their persons to God
dying6 until they were on their deathbeds. The instances
of solemn investiture in the case of dying nobles
are innumerable.1 We will quote only one of them,
with the touching details furnished to us by a
contemporary historian, Ordericus Vitalis.
Peter de Maule, of whom we spoke in the pre
ceding chapter, left a son, Ansold de Maule, who
was one of the companions in arms of Eobert
Guiscard, and aided him to vanquish the Byzantine
emperor. When, after fifty-three years of knight
hood, Ansold felt himself dying, he sent for his
wife and son. He reminded his son of the duty
he owed to the Church, to God, to the king, to his
vassals, and to the monks endowed by his grand
father ; he conjured him to keep towards his sub
jects that faith which he owed them, and to watch
over the tranquillity of the monks, under pain of
his paternal curse.2 Then turning to his wife,
1 See chiefly the many charters dictated by knights on their death
bed in the inestimable publication of the Carkdaires de St Pere de
Chartres and of St Berlin, made with such care by M. Guerard, for the
collection of Documents inedits relatifs a V Histoire de France. These
three volumes of the original texts, with the commentaries of the learned
editor, are indispensable to the thorough study of monastic institutions.
They will be advantageously completed by the Cartulaire de Redon, yet
more ancient and more precious, which M. Aurelien de Courson has
recently transcribed, and is about to publish.
2 ' ' Pontificem tuum ac regem ut patronos tuos time, venerare, &c. . . .
hominibus tuis fidem quam debes exhibe, eisque non ut tyrannus, sed ut
mitis patronus, dominare. ... Si vero secus, quod absit, egeris, male
dictionem ex auctoritate Dei et Sanctorum Patrum tibi relinquo." —
Ordee. Vital., 1. v. p. 458, ed. Leprevost.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 43
Odeline de Mauvoisin, he said to her— " Dear consent of
sister and excellent wife, we have lived together cMiLn "
more than twenty years without a quarrel ; now I
must die : whether I will or no, I feel my end
approach. I ask your permission to become a
monk, and to take the black robe of St Benedict.
I wish to become the comrade of those who, for the
love of Christ, have renounced the charms of the
world ; and I pray that you, who are my lady, will
release me from the conjugal tie, and recommend
me faithfully to God, so that I may be worthy to
take the dress and tonsure of a monk." x The
good lady, who, according to the historian, was
in the habit of never resisting her husband's will,2
wept much, but agreed to his request. Then the
monks of the Priory of Maule, who had been un
willing to act without the consent of Peter's wife
and son, cut off his hair, and clothed him in the
monastic dress. He died the next day but one,
the Feast of St John the Evangelist, 1118.
It must be remarked here, that the nobles who
thus took the habit always added to the sacrifice
of their persons that of a portion of their patri
mony ; and that, in the case of donations made
when dying, as well as of all others, they took care
1 " Grata soror et amabilis conjux Odelina . . . viximus sine litigio
plus quam xx annis ... velim, nolim, mortis appropinquo confinia . . .
Mihi licentia detur a te ut monachus fiam, et indumenta S. Patris Bene-
dicti, quamvis sunt nigra . . . accipiam. ... A conjugali ergo nexu,
qnaeso, absolve me, domina." — Order. Vital., Ibid., p. 459.
2 " Bona mulier, ejus voluntati nunquam resistere assueta . . ." —
Ibid.

44 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
to assure themselves of the consent of their wives
and children. This is shown by millions of charters
relating to these donations, almost always in terms
similar to those used by Eaynauld, Lord of Chatillon,
who, giving the church of St Germain-sur-Norge
to the Abbey of St Benignus of Dijon in 1038, thus
expresses himself : " To all followers of the Chris
tian law it appears natural and desirable to enrich,
according to their means, our holy mother Church,
and to provide thus for the wellbeing of Christ's
poor ; and this for the healing of their own souls,
the remission of their sins, and the honour of God's
name and of His saints. Considering all this,
therefore, and being much disquieted as to the
salvation and deliverance of my soul, I have given
to the sanctuary of the martyr St Benignus, near
the Castle of Dijon, a certain part of the wealth
which I derived from my parents by hereditary
right ; and just as I received it from my ancestors
by royal precept, and have held it as allodium, so
I give it up to God and His holy martyr Benignus,
through the hands of the Abbot Halinard, who has
this day consecrated me a monk. The said dona
tion, approved by my wife Elizabeth and our son
Humbert, has been presented by their hands, in
presence of several prelates and noble lords." 1
1 " Omnibus Xn* legis cultoribus proprium debet esse et optabile,
sanctam matrem Ecclesiam, ob pauperum Christi recreationem, pro posse
suo ditare, pro remedio animarum suarum et remissione peccatorum
ampliare, ad honorem quoque nominis Dei et sanctorum ejus sublimare.
. . . Ha?c omnia cogitans, ego Raynaldus, dominus Castellionensis ut

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 45
But however numerous were those seigneurs who
chose to pass their last days in the Benedictine
frock, there were yet very many more who did not
wait for the approach of death, and who, still
young, and having a brilliant future before them, Conver-
¦, i <¦ -i sions in
tore themselves from grandeur, from riches, from the midst
.1 „ of youth.
the entanglements of the passions and of warlike
enterprise, to give themselves entirely to God, to
spend their lives in rustic labours, in the exercises
of penitence and of cloistered prayer ; in a word,
to exchange, as they said, the servile liberty of
a worldly life for a servitude which should give
them the freedom of heaven}
From the earliest gleams of monastic splendour,
and before the days of St Benedict, Sulpicius
Severus had remarked the presence of Gallic or
Gallo-Eoman nobles in the monasteries founded
by St Martin. These nobles, reared in luxury,
practised, nevertheless, the harshest austerities.
Striking examples have been seen at almost every
pote de salute et liberatione anima? mea? sollicitus, donavi quamdam
partem de rebus meis, jure ha?reditario a parentibus mihi relictis, ad
locum S. Benigni martyris, juxta Divionense castrum siti, et sicut ego
per pra?ceptum regale ab antecessoribus meis accepi et ex integro in
alodum tenui, ita Deo et S. ejus martyri Benigno tradidi, et in manu
Halinardi Divionensis monasterii abbatis, qui me eodem die monachum
fecit, devote mihi tenentibus mecum et dantibus eamdem donationem,
propriis manibus, atque laudantibus conjuge mea Helisabeth, et filio
nostro Humberto, in pra?sentia quornmdam pontificum et nobilium
hominum qui pra?sentes fuerant " (here follows the designation). —
PIsrard, Fecueil de pieces curieuses, p. 186.
1 " Qnidam liber, de servili libertate se in liberalem seryitutem trans-
ferens, Deo, qui servire regnare est, et S. Benedicto se ipsum obtulit." —
Monum. Boica, vol. viii. p. 73, ap. Huetee, vol. iii. p. 461.

46 THE. NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
page of our work. No one can have forgotten the
names and deeds of those grand feudatories of the
Merovingian epoch who occupied the first rank
among the propagators of monastic orders in
France. St Evroul, St Junien, St Vandrille,1 St
Eiquier, St Germer, who endowed famous founda
tions with their patrimony, their names and their
examples, all separated themselves in the flower of
their age from the bosom of the highest Frankish
nobility. It was the same with St Yrieix, chan
cellor of King Theodebert;2 with St Ansbert,
keeper of the seals to Clotaire III. ; and with St
Leger, mayor of the palace of Neustria. Like
them, St Bavon, St Ghislain, St Trond, St Lam
bert, St Vincent Madelgar, and the other monkish
apostlesof the Flemish provinces, had passed through
the splendours and the temptations which beset the
aristocracy of the period before they submitted
themselves to the rule of St Benedict. Throughout
the whole duration of the Merovingian race, striking
conversions of this kind flashed through the ranks
of the warlike nobility, and peopled the new clois
ters which rose all over the country.3
1 Or Vandregisile.
2 " Generosissima? nobilitas parentela? et illius praedicabilis strenuitas
de domo ilium parentum regiam transire coegit in aulam." — Vita S.
Aredii, abb. Lemovic., in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. i. p. 331. St Yrieix died
in 591.
3 See the admirable pages in which M. de Montalembert has narrated
the conversion of nobles of the Merovingian epoch — Rutbert hanging
up his arms under the vaulted roof of Luxeuil, Romaric surrounded by
the slaves he had enfranchised, &c. We shall publish elsewhere some
remarkable pages of the author on the nobles of the same period. — [Note
by the Editor in the French edition.]

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 47
There was then nothing more common than to
see fine young men, the favourites of kings, and
sprung from the highest ranks, offering to the
abbey where they wished to become monks their
baldricks, and the bracelets which formed part of
their Court dress.1 This was done by Lantpert,
the successor of Vandrille at Fontenelle, nephew of
the grand referendary2 of Clotaire I., and favourite
of Clotaire, Childeric, and Theoderic. At the same
period the successor of St Colombanus at Luxeuil,
Walbert, a rich and valiant noble of Ponthieu,
went to lay upon the altar of that abbey the arms
in which he had won a spotless renown in battle,
and which were preserved there for centuries after
wards as the noblest monument of victory which
man could obtain.3 Others renounced at once

1 "Nobilissimi generis prosapia ortus ... in aula regis juvenculi
Hlotarii filii Hlodovei sub sseculari prius habitu militavit. . . . Anno
regis octavo . . . gladiis e ferro formatis exutus, ad fulgida Christi
castra devotissime convolavit et indutus galea salutis, lorica fidei ac
gladio spiritus, contra invisibilem hostem feliciter dimicavit. . . . Erat
ditissimis atque honorabilibus parentibus . . . atque in domo regia in
maximo fulgens honore . . . statura quoque procerus adspectuque de-
corus . . ." — Act. SS. 0. B., vol. iv. p. 319, ed. Venet. The bracelets he
offered were set with precious stones, and, according to the contemporary
narrative, were worth 70 :sols. Landpert was elected Abbot of Fonte
nelle in 665, and afterwards became Bishop of Lyons.
2 "Summus palatii referendarius. "
3 " Cujus annos adolescentia? in armis tradunt excellentissime flomisse
. . . inclyta prosapia clarissimus . . . hominibus et rerum dignitate
juxta natales suos ditissimus . . . miles optimus inter fasces constitutus
et arma . . . armisque depositis qua? usque hodie" (at the time of Adson,
about 950) "in testimonium sacra? militia? ejus in eo loco habentur." —
Act. SS. 0. B., vol. iv. p. 411. There may still be seen at some distance
from Luxeuil the hermitage where St Walbert passed the first years of
his conversion. He died in 665.

48 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
their fortune and their liberty at the very moment
when a brilliant marriage was about to crown
their earthly existence. Vandregisile, Count of
the palace of Dagobert ; Austregisile, who held an
office near the person of King Gontran,1 and was
afterwards Archbishop of Bourges; Herblain, a
Picard noble, and grand cupbearer to Clotaire IIT. ;2
Menele\ a young Angevin lord,3 founder of Menat,
in Auvergne ; and many others, gave, by such
sacrifices, the first pledge of future holiness.
The highest dignities, the most brilliant positions,
seemed to these men of no value compared with
the sweet humility of the cloister. Auvergne still
keeps in remembrance the two powerful seigneurs
who contributed to introduce the order of St Ben-
caimine, edict among its mountains : first, Calmine, Count
Auvergne. of that province, and of a part of Aquitaine, re
nowned in history for his numerous train of young
patricians, for his immense riches, and his vast
domains, crowded with towns and castles ; 4 and,
secondly, Bonnet, descended from a Eoman race,
1 Mapparius.— Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ii. p. 88.
2 " Ex Noviomagensium incolarum nobilissimis parentibus processit.
. . . Parentes ejus regi Francorum magno cum honore militaturum com-
fnendaverunt. . . . Militarem habitum suscepit. . . . Principem pin-
cernarum."— Act. SS. 0. B., vol. iii. p. 306.
3 "Claras ortus natalibus antiquam nobilitatis lineam reddidit ful-
gore meritorum splendidam." — Ibid., vol. iii. p. 385.
4 "Apud Arvernam urbem floret et pra?est vir christianissimus dux
inclytus Calmilius nomine, cujus suberat ditioni Aquitania? pars non
minima, nobiliumque innumerosa tironum clientela, oppida, rura, castella,
ca?terarumque rerum copiosa affluentia, cum etiam suffultus dogmate
litterali nullo carebat negotio mercuriali." — Vit. S. Theofr. Calmel.
abbat., in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. iii. p. 450.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 49
who, after having been cup-bearer and referendary
to the King Sigebert,1 became governor of Mar
seilles and Bishop of Clermont : both renounced all
their greatness to embrace the monastic life.
The Vosges mountains owe one of their principal Romaric.
glories to the high-born Eomaric, a wealthy and
distinguished feudatory of Theodebert II. and
Clotaire II.2 While still a layman, this seigneur
practised every kind of virtue, until God willed,
to quote the contemporary chronicler, that His
knight should be recompensed for the valour he
had displayed in the battles of his time, and be
led into the fields of celestial light.3 Amat, a The monk
monk of Luxeuil, himself of noble Eoman origin, Luxeuil.
having come to preach in Austrasia, Eomaric in
vited him to his table, and during the meal ques
tioned him as to the best way of securing his sal
vation. " Look," replied the monk, " at this silver
dish ; how many masters has it had already 1 or
rather, how many slaves ? and how many more will
it have1? 5 And thou thyself, willing or unwilling,
1 " E senatu dumtaxat romano, nobili prosapia. . . . Annuloexmanu
regis accepto, referendarii ofncium adeptus." — Act. SS. 0. B., vol. iii.,
p. 79. He was a monk at Manlieu, and died in 709.'
2 " Nobilis in palatio . . . clarissimis parentibus procreatus ... in Lo-
tharii regis palatio cum ceteris electus." — Vit. S. Romarici,auct. monacho
subpari, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ii. p. 399. " Qui primus inter nobiles fuerat
apud Theodebertum habitus." — Vit. S.Eustasii, auct. cocevo ; ibid.,j>. 112.
3 " Ineffabilis Deus videns militem suum sub tenebrosis hujus sa?culi
bellis fortiter belligerantem, voluit ilium ad lucidos producere campos.''
—Ibid., p. 399.
* " Nobilibus natns parentibus ex romana oriundus stirpe, in suburbio
Gratianopolitana? civitatis." — Ibid., p. 121.
5 " Cumque jam mensa posita esset, coepit inter epulas flagitare. . . .
VOL. VI. D

50 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
thou aft its slave, since thou possessest it only to
preserve it. But an account will be demanded
from thee of it, for it is written, Your gold and
your silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall
be a witness against you.1 I am surprised that a
man such as thou art, of high birth, rich, and intelli
gent,2 should not remember the answer of our Lord
to him who asked how he should gain eternal life :
If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast,
and give to the poor, and follow me, and thou shalt
have treasure in heaven." 3 From this moment
Eomaric was conquered by the love of God and the
desire of heaven. He distributed to the poor all
his possessions except one great estate, gave freedom
to a crowd of serfs of both sexes, and presented
himself at Luxeuil to take the vows of a monk.
When he went to the abbot to have his hair cut
off, according to the ritual of admission into the
Order, several of his servants who were still in
attendance, and to whom he had given their liberty,
offered their heads also to the monastic scissors.
Eomaric was glad to acknowledge these former
servants not only as brothers, but also sometimes
Cernis hunc discum argenteum ; quantos iste dudum servos habuit, quan-
tosque deinceps hahiturus est. Et tu velis, nolis, nunc servus suus es.
. . . " — Vit. S. Eustasii, auct. coaivo, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ii. p. 123.
1 " Aurum et argentum vestrum a?ruginavit, et a?rugo eorum in testi
monium vobis erit," James, v. 3. — Ibid.
2 ' ' Ausculta paululum, vir bone : cum sis nobilitate parentum exeel-
sus, divitiis inclytus, ingenioque sagax, miror si nonnosti," &c. — Ibid.
3 S. Matt. xix. 21. This story has already been published, but we do
not feel justified in suppressing it here. See the explanations given on
this subject in the Preface. — [Note by French editor.]

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 51
as superiors ; for in the monastery he sought the
lowest occupations, and surpassed all the monks in
his assiduity in gardening, learning the Psalter by
heart while he worked.1
Towards the end of his life Eomaric founded
upon the sole estate which he had reserved a
nunnery, the government of which he confided to
Amat, the holy monk who had converted him : he
himself became its second abbot, and this house
was called after him, Eemiremont.2 It afterwards
became one of the most famous of the noble chap
ters of Europe, and around it grew up the present
town of Eemiremont.
If we did not fear to extend our researches too
much beyond the limits of Merovingian France,
we could find analogous examples in all Christian
countries. For example, we hear of three young
nobles of Beneventum, who having started from
their native town with their usual stately train,3
suddenly sent back their equipages, changed their
1 " Ulos denique servulos quos dudum ministros habuerat, socios sibi
detondens plerosque adjunxit ; et effectus est illorum subditus, quorum
prius dominus pra?potens fuerat. . . . Ut quidquid despicabile in mon-
asterio agendum esset, ipse adsumeret." — Vit. S. Romarici, auct. mon-
acho subpari, in Act. SS. 0. B. , vol. ii. p. 400.
2 Romarici-Mons. The domain was called Habend, and the Abbey
of Eemiremont bears, in its earliest monuments, the name of monasteri-
um abendense. This foundation took place toward 620, and Romaric
died in 653.
3 " Tresex nobili genere orti, jure consanguinitatis propinqui, Paldo,
Taso et Tato. . . . Sicuti nobiles decet, oneratis animalibus stipendiis,
pra?paratis ad sedendum equis, famulorum fulti obsequiis, gressus ad
ambulandum movent." — S. Autpeeti, Vit. S. Faldonis, &c, in Act. SS.
0. B. , vol. iii. p. 403. " Cum essent divites et potentes. " — Leo Marsic,
Chron. Cassin., vol. i. p. 4.

52 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
rich dresses for the rags of three beggars whom
they met on the way, and pursued their journey
to Eome on foot. Thence, after having renewed
their courage at the tombs of the holy apostles, they
travelled to Farfa, and there took the monastic
vows, becoming in later times the founders and
three first Abbots of St Vincent on the Volturna.1
Among the Anglo-Saxons, where the kings them
selves became monks, the nobles who had shared
the sovereign authority with them disputed with
them also the honour of peopling the cloisters.
Examples of this abound : first of all, as we have
already said, we find Owim, one of the greatest
lords of East Anglia, abandoning his offices, his pro
perty, and his friends, and presenting himself at a
monastery with a woodman's axe in his hand, to
show that he meant to work as a common labourer.2
Then comes the rich and illustrious Benedict Biscop,
founder of Wearmouth, and his cousin, Esterwin,
who associated with the humblest monks, and took
delight in the rudest employments — thrasKing bar
ley, milking the sheep and cows, cooking in the
1 St Vincent on the Volturna is twelve miles from Monte Cassino, and
was founded in 703. A little later, Walfroi, a patrician of Pisa, father
of five children, quitted the world with his wife's consent, and became
Abbot of Palazzuolo, in Tuscany. ' ' Sa?cularis et Magnus in vita . . .
mutuo inter se sua cum conjuge quaarere cceperunt, ut istud triste deser-
erent saeculum." — Act. SS. 0. B., vol. iv. p. 178, ad ann.' 765.
2 " Monachus magni meriti . . . primus ministrorum domus ejus. . . .
Relictis omnibus qua? habebat, simplici tantum habitu indutus et securim
atque asciam in manu ferens, veniret, atque ad laborem se monasterium
antrare signabat. . . . Quominus sufficiebat meditationi scripturarum, eo
implius operi manuum studium impendebat." — Bed., Hist. Eccles.,iv.3.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 53
kitchen, forging iron, gardening, driving the plough
— in one word, giving himself up to the hardest of
farm labour.1
During the whole of the Carlo vingian epoch the
same spirit reigned among the nobles who com
posed the armies of Pepin, of Charlemagne, and of
the princes of their race. It is well known that
Carloman, brother of Pepin, set the example of
giving up greatness and wrealth by becoming a
monk at Monte Cassino, where he did not wish
to be recognised. History proves that this spirit
of humility found imitators among the most illus
trious seigneurs of the Court of Charlemagne, such
as William Court -Nez, St Benedict of Anagni,
St Bernard, Angilbert, and Ogier the Dane.
Many other splendid names might be quoted.
Thus the rich and noble Count Eodin, born in counts
the Ardennes, father of St Amalberge the abbess, Auroc', and
who was equally distinguished by his courage in
war and his zeal for the good administration of
public affairs, abandoned the high position he held
at the Court of Carloman, King of Austrasia, the
brother of Charlemagne, to go to Mount Soracte,
and there take the monastic habit, after having
divided his inheritance into two. parts — one for
1 " Minister Ecfridi regis, relictis semel negotiis sa?cularibus, de-
positis armis . . . mansit humilis fratrumque simillimus aliorum ut
ventilare cum eis et triturare, oves vitulosque mulgere, in pistrino, in
horto, in coquina. . . . Ubi operantes fratres invenit, solebat eis in
opere conjungi ; vel aratri gressum stiva regendo, vel ferrum malleo
domando . . . erat enim viribus fortis . . . animo hilaris, honestus
aspectu," &c— Bed., Vit. B. B. abbot., p. 372, ed. Giles.

54 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
churches and monasteries, and one for the poor.1
Thus, Count Unroc, who in 811 had negotiated
the peace between Charlemagne and Hemming the
Danish chief, embraced a religious life at the Abbey
of St Bertin.2 Thus, under the Emperor Lothaire
I., an Italian Count, Eotgar, became a monk at
St Faron-lez-Meaux, to fulfil a vow made one day
when, in a combat between the Franks and Bulga
rians, he was thrown from his horse and in 'danger
of falling beneath the swords of the enemy.3 Thus,
under Charles the Bald, Count Badilon, one of
the richest seigneurs of Aquitaine, not content
with having consecrated a great part of his patri
mony to restoring the monastery of St Martin of
Autun, decided to enter there himself that he might
wash away the stains of his soul ; and when there,
he was not slow in becoming what the writers of the
feudal period call Christ's perfect knight} Thus,
1 " Cum administrationem rerum publicarum inter primos ut nobilis-
simus gereret . . . sub obtentu militia? . . . inclytus Christi miles
Rodinus . . . patrimonia sua quibus in regno Francorum clarissimus
ac ditissimus, utpote regum sanguis, poliebat, sacris locis . . . partim
contradidit, partim pro commutandis pauperum refrigeriis distribuit."
— Vit. S. Amalbergoe, c. 6 and 24, in. Act. SS. 0. B., vol. iv. p. 220.
2 Joann. Impeeius, c. 13, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. iv. p. 221, ad
ann. 772.
8 " Italica regio cum plurimos comites ex primoribus Magnatorum juxta
regalem potestatem . . . olim possedisset, specialius unum novimus.
. . . De equo fidenti ch-cumseptione resistentium corruere compulit . . .
cumque telis aculeatis loricam reluctantem," &c. — Hildegaeii, de Reb.
gest. S. Faron., c. 119, ap. Act. SS. 0. B., vol. v. p. 627.
4 " Comes quidam, Badilo nomine, veniens ex Aquitania? partibus ; vir
licet in seculari vita positus, correctis tamen et religiosis moribus et con-
versatione sacris viris post omnia consimilis. Exstiterat enim opum
gratia opulentissimus. Ccepit postmodum de propria ' salute acrius
sollicitus esse, qualite* sa?culi hujus ambitionesf et illecebras postponeret,

Which they have founded. 55
finally, Count Easto or Eathier, son of the Count
of Diessen, after having brilliantly led the Bava
rian armies against the Hungarians, founded the
Abbey of Graffrath, where he died in the Bene
dictine habit in 954.
In the tenth century, — that ill- understood epoch
when all the great European peoples laid the foun
dations of their national existence — when there
was first rooted in France, Germany, England,
and Spain that social organisation which was to
endure till the new birth of paganism, — we see the
feudal nobility, which, after the Church, was the
soul of this puissant organisation, furnishing the
same examples of self-abnegation and penitence
as in later times. No doubt there were few sac
rifices so striking as that of a certain Turketill,
Chancellor of England, who forsook the govern
ment of a vast kingdom to become a monk among
the ruins of Croyland ; 1 but in all Christian king
doms we meet with admirable monks who left the
ranks of the highest nobility to draw near to God
in solitude, and to devote themselves without re
serve to the general restoration of the monastic
order, which had suffered so cruelly from the at
tacks of Saracens, Danes, Normans, and Hungarians.
At the period of which we are speaking, Bel
gium seems to have been specially fruitful in men
semetque in monasterio tonsorare et monachum fore disposuit . . . quem
etiam Vener. Hugo . . . perfectissimum Christi militem reddidit." — Vit.
S. Hug. jEduens., c. 7 et 10, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. vii., ad ann. 930.
1 We shall return elsewhere to this subject.

56 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
The Bel- of lofty character. There flourished Gilbert de
tufty m Gembioux, one of the noblest knights of Brabant,
century, who, after having shared in all the wars of his
Gembioux. time, built, on the site of his paternal castle, the
great monastery of Gembioux.1 This he endowed
with all his property, and directly afterwards as
sumed the monk's frock at Gorze, where, as his
biographer expresses it, the veteran knight became
the recruit of Christ, and the old serf of this world,
purchased by divine liberty, became the freedman
of God.2
From Belgium, also, came Gerard de Brogne.3
This noble knight was descended from a Duke of
Austrasia,4 and had passed the first years of his
career in the service of the Count of Namur, who
highly valued his valour and prudence.5 At that
time it was remarked that, at great hunting-parties,
while the Count and other hunters halted for
dinner, Gerard often retired to a little church on
his estate at Brogne.6 Being sent as ambassador to

1 The Abbot Count of Gembioux or Gemblours occupied, till the
Revolution, the first place in the Estates of Brabant.
2 "Cujus avum et aviam fatentur longam antiqua? nobilitatis traxisse
lineam. . . . Postquam diu sub chlamyde militaris habitus latuit. . . .
Mundi veteranus, terrena? militia? rude donatus, coepit esse novus Christi
tirunculus, et longa?vus mundi servus, per vindictam divina? libertatis
factus suus, effectus est Deo libertus." — Vit. S. Guib.,fund. Gembl, c. 3,
in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. vii., ann. 962.
" He became a monk in 918, and died in 959.
4 " Claris quidem natalibus enituit ... ex prosapia Haganonis Austra-
iorum ducis prosatus." — C. 2.
6 " Quia (quod perrarum est) et militia valebat, et consulto prudentiori
pollebat."— C. 3.
6 " Post gratum ergo venationis laborem, et sol jam in antro poli poscebat

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 57
Count Eobert of Paris, the knight stopped at St
Denis, where the sweet and solemn harmony of the
monks' singing completed his conversion.1 He Gerard de
Brogne
earnestly begged from them 2 a relic of St Eugene becomes
of Toledo, whose body was then possessed by the
abbey; and having become a monk to obtain it,
he carried it in triumph to the little church where,
during his lord's hunting-parties, he had so often
come to pray. There, shortly after, he erected a
monastery, wThich soon became a centre of attrac
tion for the noblest souls, and, according to the
language of the times, resembled a fruitful hive,3
whence issued swarms of pure and zealous monks,
who went, directed by their founder, to reform and
repeople eighteen other monasteries in Flanders
and in Germany.
In Belgium, also, flourished Count Ansfred of
Louvain or Brabant, the heir of fifteen count-ships,
and renowned from his youth for his courage and
intelligence. After having gone to Eome in atten
dance upon Otho the Great, who charged the Count
to watch over him, sword in hand, while he prayed
prandii panem, comes et sui qua?rentes refectionem regredi maluerant.
. . . Ipse Dei amicus . . . antiquam petit ecclesiam Broniiimpransus."
1 "Contigit ut ipsa eadem hora vespertinam synaxim monachorum de-
cantaret caterva : quorum dulcisonis modulationibus cum vir ecclesiastieus
auscultaret attentius." — C. 5.
2 "0, inquit, patres amantissimi Deoque devotissimi, si vestrse com-
placeret dulcissima? dilectioni, ut reliquias hujus sancti conferretis mea?
tantillitati."— C. 6.
3 " Videres quasi ex diversis alvearibus apes ad banc florigeram arborem
convolare, ut inde fa vis arentibus nectar melliflui roris possent instillare."
— Vit. S. Gerard., in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. vii., ad ann. 959.

58 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
at the threshold of the apostles,1 Ansfred under
the two other Othos took a considerable part in
the government of the empire,2 in all the wars of
his time, and, above all, in the repression of bri
gandage, which then desolated Brabant. He used
his great wealth to found, in concert with his wife,
the famous Abbey of Thorn,3 in the diocese of
Liege. Having become a widower, he was about
to enter a monastery, when the Emperor Otho III.
gave him the bishopric vf Utrecht. There, un
buckling his sword, the pious soldier laid it on the
altar of Notre-Dame, at Aix-la-Chapelle, saying :
" Till now I have employed my honour and my
temporal power against the enemies of Christ's
poor; henceforward I confide to my blessed pa
troness, the Virgin Mary, the guardianship and the
salvation of my soul."4
Ansfred Having, however, reached the decline of life,
founder of' and having lost his sight, Ansfred fulfilled his first
themonas-teryof vow, and became a monk in the monastery of
Hempen- Heiligenburg. There, he fed each day with his
burg. own narL(is seventy -two poor men, and, moreover,
1 " Dum ego hodie ad limina apostolorum perorabo, tu gladium continue
super caput meum teneto ; nam fidem Ronianam antecessoribus meis
semper suspectam fuisse non ignore "—Chron. Magd., ann. 955, ap. Act;
SS. 0. B., vol. viii. p. 78.
2 Anon. Monachi S. Paul. Traject. Vit. S. Ansfredi; ibid.
3 This abbey was changed later, like Remiremont, Maubeuge, &c,
into a chapter of noble ladies, where the probation was very difficult.
4 " Accepto gladio quo erat cinctus. . . . Hactenus hunc terrenum
honorem obtinui, et hostes pauperum Christi et viduarum expuli : nunc
deinceps huic domina? mea? S. Maria?, qua virtute honorem et salutem
anima? mea? obtineam, commendo."— Anonymus, Vit. S. Ansfred., I. c,
p. 81, ed. Ven.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 59
bathed the lepers and tended the wounded who
were found among his poor. He who had been
bishop and lord of the country, submitted readily
to receive the discipline administered by the
superior of the abbey which he had himself
founded and endowed.1 On his deathbed God
gave him back his sight, and he then said to those
who surrounded him, " Round about the Lord is
the only light which shall never be darkened." 2
These were his last words. When they carried his
body from Thorn to Utrecht, a delightful perfume
shed itself along the way ; it issued from the bier
of this hero of his time, this servant of Christ,
whose life had exhaled the inestimable sweetness
of humility and charity.3 ;
The attraction which drew- all these representa
tives of the feudal nobility to renounce their rank
and their fortune, and to enrol themselves in the
army of St Benedict, was never more powerful than
in the eleventh century, and during the time when
Hildebrand, supported at once by the monastic
orders and by a considerable portion of the nobles,
undertook to purify and enfranchise the Church.
When we would distinguish among the holy

1 Anonym., I. c, p. 83.
2 " Appropinquante carnis ejus dissolutions, vidit crucem in fenestra,
qua? ibi post caligationem oculorum ejus facta fuit. ... In circuitu tuo,
Domine, lumen est, quod nunquam deficiet." — Chron. Magdeb., -he. cit.,
p. 84.
3 " Post translationem corporis sacri, fragrantia miri odoris per viam
ultra tria milliaria veracium hominum, sicut ipsi testati sunt, nares
perfudit et pectora." — Ibid.

60 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
monks of this period some who unite the fame
of a brilliant and chivalrous life in the world with
that of a generous and exemplary penitence in the
st Robert, cloister, we at once turn to St Eobert, founder of
founder of . _. .
the chaise- the Abbey and congregation of Chaise-Dieu, in Au-
hjs disci- vergne. This Eobert was a worthy descendant of
pies. & J
the noble Count Gerald, already spoken of. He
also was the son of a Count of Aurillac, his mother
being daughter of the Count of Eodez. When his
mother presented him, directly after his birth, to
the knight his father, the latter kissed him with
the liveliest joy, and, delighted to have a son, placed
a great sword in his hand, as if to show to the new
born child the noble trade which, having been that
of his ancestors, should one day be his ; but the
infant pushed away the fatal weapon with his little
hand, and it fell to the ground and was broken,1
thus presaging his love of a peaceful life.
Having arrived at a proper age, he went to
Monte Cassino to study the best monastic tradi
tions : and on his return to Auvergne, took as com
panions two old knights of his father's, and estab
lished himself in a forest between Auvergne and
Velay, which was so extensive that it would have
taken a strong ho rsefour days to traverse it at
a gallop.2 The three recluses cleared a large por
tion of this forest, and there founded the famous
Abbey of Chaise-Dieu, which for a time seemed
1 Beanche, V Auvergne au moyen dge, vol. i. p. 98.
2 Dom Genoux, Hist. Cases Dei., Bibl. roy. MSS. F. S. Q. Lat. 5552,
quoted by Beanche, p. 103.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 61
likely to rival Cluny, and which counted among its
dependencies 293 priories, in different provinces
of France, Spain, and Italy. Eobert died there iu
1067, after having, in the course of twenty years,
governed 300 monks, restored 50 churches, and
civilised, by his patience and his virtues, the still
barbarous population of these mountains.1 Even
now, it is not without emotion that the traveller
visits the site where monastic genius raised an
immense church and caused a town to spring up.
Iu the midst of pine woods, opened up by successive
clearings and poor attempts at culture, the mind
loves to contemplate such a figure as that of Eobert,
the son of heroes, standing on the desolate plateau,
300 feet above the level of the sea, and casting
his eyes westward towards Cantal, then north and
east towards the mountains of Forez, bristling
with dark forests, where horror and silence reigned.
Great stones, which must have been erected by the
hand of man, alone attested the presence of human
inhabitants- in this savage region, where, how
ever, there existed a few half-pagan peasants who
waged a bitter war against the three knights.
Nevertheless, in spite of all difficulties, in spite of
the persecutions they sustained from the moun
taineers, Eobert and his two faithful friends perse
vered in their design. At night, from the recesses
of the wood, voices shouted to him, "Eobert, Eobert,
1 "Incolarum mitigabat pristinam feritatem, paulatimque eos brutis
moribus exuens, tanquam de feris homines faciebat." — Maebod., Vit. S.
Roberti, in Act. SS. O. B., vol. ix. p. 200.

62 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
why dost thou, a stranger, try to chase us from our
dwellings ? " l But Eobert would not allow himself
to be alarmed by these cries, which he attributed
to the demon. Armed with axe and spade, he
opened paths through the wood and began to till
the ground. It was then, according to the hagio-
grapher, that the rule of St Benedict was brought
to him by an angel, who immediately disappeared
in the form of a white dove.2
The nobles of Auvergne, among whom Count
William and the barons of Mercosur and Livradois
showed themselves the most generous, offered to
Eobert many rich donations : they did more, for
they furnished him with numerous disciples.3 One
of those whom Eobert loved the best, Eaoul de St
Sauvin, was a troubadour and jongleur (as poets
were then called), but was also a very rich knight,
who gave four estates to Chaise-Dieu when he be
came a monk there.4 Another of Eobert's followers
st Adeiei- was the noble Adelelme, of Loudun, in Poitou, a
me of Lou- ,..'.,,
dun in the member of a very distinguished race. To please
eleventh J ° r
century, j^g family, though he secretly aspired to a spiritual
life, he wore the baldrick of a knight for several
1 "Roberte, Roberta, quare e nostris sedibus, ad vena, nos tentas ex-
tradere?" — Dom Genoux, loc. sup. cit., p. 23.
2 Labbe, Biblioth. nov. man., vol. ii. p. 637.
3 " Non parva multitudo clericorum et militia? cingulum deponentium. "
— Liber tripartitus B. Roberti, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 214.
4 Branche, V Auvergne aumoy en dge, p. 141. Cf. Mabillon, Annal,
Bened., vol. v. p. 9.
6 " Ingenuitate conspicuus . . . parentes ejus, cum secundum sa?culi
pomposam gloriam illustres fuissent."— Rodulph., Vit. S. Adelelmi,
auct. monach. coaquali, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 866.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 63
years.1 But one day, yielding to one of those invin
cible impulses then so common, Adelelme distrib
uted all his property to the poor, and, lest he should
be detained by his friends, started at night attended
by a single squire. A little later, sending back this
troublesome companion, after having forced him to
exchange clothes with him, he travelled on to Eome
barefoot, and then made several other pilgrimages.2
Having passed two years in these travels, worn out
by fatigue and fasting,3 he settled at Chaise-Dieu,
where he took the vows, says his contemporary
biographer, with the deepest humility.4 He was
so much changed that no one could recognise him.
He told the secret of his birth to none but to the
Abbot Eobert, who, finding in him all the qualities
of a true monk, made him master of the novices.
Adelelme became the third Abbot of Chaise-Dieu ;
but he was soon summoned to Spain, where later
we shall see him at the same time preaching the
strict observance of the Benedictine rule, and march
ing at the head of the Castilian armies in the war
with the infidels.

1 "Hie utrumque tenuit, Ecclesia? videlicet spiritum, et militia? quo-
que sajcularis" habitum . . . cum jam per litterarum cucurrisset exordia,
balteum militare, suadentibus cognatis ipso vero reluctante, pra?cinxit,
cujus exercitamentis nonnullos sago miles, corde monachus transegit
annos." — Rodulph., Ibid., p. 867.
2 " Intempesta nocte, cum armigero quodam suo . . . clam discessit.
. . . Permutatis cum comite vestibus pretiosis, pedulo viliore . . .
nudis pedibus iter arripiens," &c. — B>id.
3 "Alias orbis partes, hudis pedibus, corporis maceratione languidus,
jejuniis continuis . . . exilis, peregrinus et incognitus in visit. " — Ibid.
4 "Invicta animi demissione, induit cucullum."

64 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
La Grande- After the death of St Eobert, there arose in the
Guienne. centre of France a congregation — founded, like that
of Chaise-Dieu, by converted nobles — which also had
ramifications in Spain. When, in 1079, a second
St Gerard, of Picard descent, a monk and saint like
Gerard de Brogne, went to Guienne and founded
the congregation of La Grande-Sauve,1 he had as
sharers in his pious enterprise several Picard knights,
equally famous for their birth and for their courage,2
of whom the principal were Ebroin, who had quitted
the profession of arms to serve God till death in
the cell of a recluse,3 and Herloy, brother of the
chdtelain of Noyon, extremely rich, who, even in
the world, had always known how to be the mas
ter, and not the slave, of fortune.4 In his youth
i St Gerard, founder of the Abbey and congregation of the Grande-
Sauve, born in Picardy in 1015, was first a monk at Corbie, where he
wrote the life of St Adalard, and then a pilgrim at Rome, under Leo IX.,
who ordained him a priest in 1050. Having been cured of a long and
severe illness by the intercession of St Adalard, he undertook a second
pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1073. On his return he was named abbot of
the monastery of St Vincent, at Laon, which he tried in vain to reform,
then Abbot of St Medard, at Soissons, whence he was driven by Queen
Bertha. Protected by the legate Amat, and by William VIII. of Aqui
taine, he undertook to found the Abbey of Grande-Sauve, near Rions,
between the Gironde and Dordogne. He governed it till his death,. in
1095, and was canonised by Celestine III. in 1197. In 1844 an interesting
work was published on this house and its founder, called Histoire de Vab-
baye et congregatwn de N. D. de la Grande-Sauve, ordre de S. BenoU, en
Guienne, by the Abbe" Cirot de la Ville : Bordeaux, 1844.
2 "Milites secundum sa?culum non ignobiles."— Vit. S. Oeraldi, Syl-
vee Majoris abb., auct. monach. cooequali, c. 18, in Act. SS. O. B., vol. ix.
p. 857.
3 " De militari habitu egrediens, Dei amore inclusus, usque ad mortem
fortiter pugnavit." — Ibid., c. 22.
4 " Divitiis nimirum abundavit, et eas liberaliter, non ut earum servus,
sed ut dominus tractavit." — Ibid.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 65
Herloy had given himself up to study ; but the
duties of his rank, and the example of his equals,
had forced him into a soldier's life, which he re
garded as most suitable to a noble. He made him
self a famous name in the service of King Philip of
France, and he had for a long time lived in camps,
when, touched by grace, and rebaptised by the tears
of penitence, he renounced his great possessions
to become the disciple of Abbot Gerard.1 Three other
knights of the Laonnais — Guy, Gauthier, and p?cardy°
Lithier, all renowned for their warlike exploits 2 — Gerard's
• • i> -i • mi example.
came to join the new foundation. The youngest
and most remarkable of those who arrived later
was Tecelin de Coucy, who, according to the con
temporary annalist, had never been vanquished in
the many combats in which his love of glory had
involved him.3
All these brave men renounced their families,

1 "Armorum probitate strenuus . . . dignitate ad plenum munitus
... ex regiis militibus non infimus . . . dimisso litterarum studio,
militia? ha?sit, nimirum quia nobilis et nobili genere ortus, animum suum
non poterat ab hujus modi exercitiis refrenare, pra?sertim cum videret
a?qua?vos suos talibus negotiis inclinari. Iterum undis lacrymarum et
confessione pura baptizatus. " — Vit. S. Geraldi, ibid.
2 " Wido . . . divitiis refertus et nobilitate sa?culi satis decoratus. . . .
Walterus . . . vir militaris et probus. . . . Litherius ... in armis
satis valens . . . inter ca?teros milites probitate inferior esse despiciens,
semper ad majora militia? exercitia se erigens." — Ibid., c. 23.
3 "Nunquam anna sua alteri deseruit, nee timore militis ullius un-
quam mutavit ; sed semper ubicumque esset, victoriam et palm am ac-
quirere super omnes socios elaboravit." — Ibid. He was married to Ade
laide, Viscountess de Coucy, and had three sons. — Cieot, loc. cit., p.
219. When her husband devoted himself to God, Adelaide became a
nun at Nogent — a famous abbey situated at the foot of the hill of Coucy,
and which (except its church) still exists as a country-house.
VOL. VI. E

66 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
their fortunes, their career, their country, and the
allurement of military life ; 1 and having gone on
pilgrimage to St James of Compostello in their
knightly armour,2 returned to take the Benedic
tine habit at La Grande-Sauve, and to put them
selves at the disposal of the Abbot Gerard, who
employed them in clearing the immense forest
which surrounded the monastery.3 There the
heroes employed their strength in rooting out
brambles and cutting down trees,4 thus literally
accomplishing the prophet's words : " They shall
turn their swords into ploughshares, and their
spears into pruning-hooks." 5
The example of these knights of the north of
France induced many Gascon seigneurs first to be
come defenders of the abbey where their children
were educated ;6 secondly, to provide, by liberal
donations, for all its necessities ;7 and, finally, to
1 " Hi omnes digito divina? misericordia? compuncti, renuntiantes omni
bus qua? possidebant, et de terris et de cognationibus egressi, Christum
secuti sunt. " — Vit. S. Geraldi.
2 " Laicali habitu induti."— C. 21.
3 It took from this forest its name, Sylva Major.
4 " Sylva in circuitu tam densa vepribus et sentibus creverat, quod
nullus ad ecclesiam appropinquare poterat, nisi gladio aut alio aliquo
ferramento prius ita fecisset. . . . Sordebant induti vestibus vilissimis
. . . fiunt nemorum et sylvarum fortissimi extirpatores, qui prius fuerant
strenuissimi bellatores. " — Ibid. , c. 20, 23.
6 "Conflabunt gladios suos in vomeres, et lanceas suas in falces." —
Isaiah, ii. 4.
6 Cieot, i. 292 ; ii. 97 et passim.
7 " Quanquam nil ibi inveniretur in densissima sylva, tamen omnibus
qua; sunt homini necessaria adeo nos ditavit dementia ut jam multi pos-
sint tunc habere suffragia." — Chartul. min. Syl. maj., fol. 14, ap. Cirot,
i. 275.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 67
become monks there themselves. Arnold, of Cas-
tillon in Medoc, thus relates his own conversion,
in the deed by which he gives all his possessions
to La Sauve : " Work while it is day, lest the
darkness overtake you ; for I desire not the death
of a sinner, but that he should be converted and
live.1 I, then, Arnold, knight, having learned Gascon
» to » & knights.
to understand these words of the Lord, immedi
ately, with my heart full of repentance, began to
reflect upon my doings, and to tremble at the
terrible punishment my sins deserved. For this
reason I have taken refuge with you, Dom Gerard,
most reverend abbot, in this great forest where
you have laid the foundation of a church, and,
renouncing my secular knighthood in presence of
all your brethren, I give myself and all my posses
sions to St Mary and to you." 2 This pious donor
was followed by Eaymond de Genissac, who occu
pied a distinguished rank among the nobility of
the country; 3 by old Eaymond of Mangaude, who
had long been weary of the glory of the world, and
who presented himself at the eleventh hour 4 to gain
i John, xii. 35 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 11.
2 " Hanc igitur dominicam vocem cum ego Arnaldus miles audirem,
compunctus corde. ... Ad vos igitur, domine Geralde, reverendissime
abbas, atque in sylvam majorem ubi inccepta est ecclesia, confugio,
renuntiansque sa?culari militia?, me meamque possessionem S. Maria?
vobisque coram cunctis fratribus trado." — Chartul. min., fol. 78, ap.
Cieot, i. 288.
3 Cieot, i. 289.
4 " Quidam vir nobilis nomine Raymundus Mangaudi, satis diu usus
sa?culari gloria, tandem jam a?tate decrepita deficiens, mundana? militia?
' renuntiavit, . . . non dubitans quod qui vineam Christi etiam hora
undecima ingreditur, plena denarii mercede muneratur. Hie igitur venit

68 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
the promised reward; and by the young Gaucelme
of Montfaucon, who learned to hold glory light
without having ever made an ill use of it.
Benedict de Civrac, in his turn, came to offer
to La Sauve, himself and the portion of the family
inheritance to which he was entitled ; but one of
his brothers, who wished to remain in the world,
opposed the gift, reclaiming the patrimony Benedict
had given to God. The opposer, however, being
conquered in his turn, soon submitted, accepted
with goodwill what had been done, and for the rest
of his days served God as a simple convert in the
abbey where his brother was priest and monk.2
The Lignans, the Tragomains, the Eions,3 and
many other lords of the neighbourhood, came, one
by one, to people the new monastery. Filled with
respect for and sympathy with the devotion of the
monks, the pious Duke William of Aquitaine, with
the consent of his barons, at the Council of Bor
deaux in 1080, added to the spiritual exemption
pronounced by the legates of Gregory VII. the
right of sauvetat — that is to say, he entirely freed
ad conversionem in monasterium Silva? Majoris." — Chartul. min., fol 49,
Cieot. 1 " Quidam miles Gaucelmus in Montefalcone parvulus cunctis spretis
sa?culi vanitatibus, sumpta cruce, est Christum secutus. Hie itaque in
monasterium Silv. Maj. ad conversionem venit." — Chartul min., fol. 77,
84. 2 " Laicus in sa?culo remanens, quod f rater dederat, rapuit. . . .
Postea coactus, se ad serviendum in laico habitu eidem monasterio tra-
didit." — Ibid., fol. 32.
3 In the next century we find there the seigneurs of St Exupery, Ca-
banac, Aubeterre, La Ferrfere, Villars, &c. — Cieot, vol. ii. passim.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 69
the abbey and the surrounding territory, with the
persons who chose to inhabit it, from all temporal
jurisdiction and all taxes. The monks further
obtained the right of asylum, of justice, and of
safe-conduct in favour of pilgrims and of travellers
accompanied by a monk.1
The renown of the new foundation spread even
to the King of France, Philip I., who gave to it
in 1083 the Church of St Leger au Bois, so as to
obtain the benefit of the prayers of those noble
personages who were clearing and sanctifying the
great forest.2 Thanks to such powerful protection,
and to the inexhaustible munificence of the feudal
nobles, the Abbey of La Grande-Sauve soon counted
among its dependencies seventy monasteries and
priories in France, Spain, and England.3
The curious picture of the Abbey of Hirschau in Knights
and peas-
the Black Forest, traced by Trithemius, succes- ants in
J German
sively its historian and abbot, refers specially io £^s"
this interesting and little-known period. " There
was then," he says, " in our abbey a crowd of per
sons of consideration, who shone in the Monastic
Order like stars in the firmament. Many of them^
before they entered religion, had borne great names
and attained high dignities in the world. Side by
1 See the text of this act, ap. Cieot, vol. i. pp. 282, 494.
2 " Audita fama nobilium virorum qui in sylva majori nuper incepe-
runt monasterium, cogitabam quomodo me possem commendare orationi
bus eorum." — Chartul. min., fol. 143.
3 The precious ruins of this great and powerful abbey have been
snatched from complete destruction by the enlightened and generous
solicitude of Mgr. Donnet, present Archbishop of Bordeaux.

70 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
side with these monks, sprung from the most
illustrious blood, were others of humble race-
poor men and peasants. But, as a true brotherly
love united them, so a life of the same kind was
imposed on all : the noble had, in fact, no superi
ority over the serf; the purest blood gave no right
to hold office in the house. Good works and the
practice of humility were the only titles recog
nised there. And, nevertheless, there were num
bers of monks versed in all kinds of knowledge,
and not less remarkable for their profound ac
quaintance with Holy Scripture than for the
excellence of their lives. Thanks to these monks,
the name of Hirschau became famous throughout
Europe : some of them, sons of dukes, counts, and
powerful lords, had been celebrated in the world ;
others, canons or prelates of cathedral or collegiate
churches, were extolled for their science or for the
importance of their families, — but all had trodden
under foot the greatness of this world, to become
monks for the love of God; all practised the
humility of Christ's poor, with as much happiness
as if they had been the most ignorant of men,
and descended from a race of beggars."1
1 " Erant si quidem in hoc ipso monasterio temporibus Gebhardi
abbatis et numero, et merito, viri pra?stantes, et magni, qui ordinem
monasticum sicut coelum astra decorantia illustrabant. Ex his nonnulli
ante introitum religionis magni et nominis, et ampla? dignitatis in sa?culo
extiterunt. Erant hie monachi alto de sanguine nati : erant et humili
propagine rusticorum ac pauperum sati. Summa tamen inter eos fraterna?
charitatis dilectio semper extitit, unus vivendi modus omnibus fuit, non
pra?ponebatur ingenuus ex servitio converso : nee sanguis poterat sibi
locum usurpare honoris in medio monachorum, sed virtus. Nam sicut '

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 7l
In short, wherever we look throughout Europe
in the eleventh century, from the time of the ele
vation of Hildebrand to the government of the
Church, in all places where penance and the love
of solitude had gathered Christians together, the
acts of these converted knights, the victories won
by God Himself over these brave hearts call forth
our admiration. In Apulia, two patricians of Many no-
bles be-
Capua, Ladenulphe and Adenulphe, followed by come
their nephew, climbed the heights of Monte Cas- under Gre-
sino, to adopt the habit of St Benedict, almost at
the very tomb of the holy patriarch, and to offer
to him their extensive possessions in Campania.1
In the Marches, young Eodolphe, with his two elder

regula nos docet monachorum, sive servus, sive liber, omnes in Christo
unum sumus, et sub uno Domino a?qualem servitutis militiam bajulamus ;
quia non est apud Deum personarum acceptio : solummodo in hac parte
apud ipsum discernimur, si meliores ab aliis in operibus bonis, et Sanctis
virtutibus, humilesque inveniamur. . . . Unde non immerito nomen
Hirsaugensium monachorum in omni Europa celebre fuit. . . . Inter
quos multi fuerunt in omni genere scientiarum doctissimi, et non minus
vita? merito, quam eruditione Scripturarum venerandi ; et multi quidem
in sa?culo magni, et gloriosi ducum, comitum, nobiliumque filii seu
cathedralium, aliarumque canonici, vel prailati ecclesiarum, ac viri docti,
sive magnifici, odore sanctitatis monachorum Hirsaugiensium excitati,
omnia contemnentes qua? possederant, ad consortium pauperum Christi
venerunt, et pro Dei omnipotentis amore monastica? conversationis
habitum suscipientes tanta se in pauperum Christi huniilitate dejecerunt,
ac si cunctis vita? diebus idiota? indoctissimi, aut mendicorum filii
extitissent. " — Teithemius, Chron. Hirsaug., ad ann. 1099, vol. i. p. 322,
ed. 1690.
1 In 1051. "Nobiles Capuani una cum Petro nepote suo simul ad
hoc monasterium gratia conversionis venerunt, cunctasque facultates et
ha?reditates seu possessiones suas, quas in toto principatu Capuano habe-
bant B. Benedicto ex integro obtulerunt. "— Leo Ost., Chron., ii. c. 86.
We read there a long enumeration of the domains which the two knights
sacrificed.

72 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
brothers, gave liberty to all his serfs, offered his
castle, reputed to be impregnable, to Peter Damian,
and became a monk in the congregation directed
by that holy doctor.1 In Suabia, Count Eberhard
of Nellenburg, acknowledging the favours God
had heaped upon him, separated from his wife
and six children, gave up his vast domains and
his military life, and shut himself up in the
monastery which he founded on the banks of the
Ehine, and which was destined to become the
cradle of the town of Schaffhausen.2 Cham
pagne saw Count Guarin de Eosnay, at the call
of Gregory VIL, and enriched by his apostolic
benediction, give himself and all his fiefs to the
prince of the apostles and to St Berchaire, in the
Abbey of Montierender,3 where he took the vows.
In Normandy, one of the greatest of the victorious
race, Hugh, Count of Meulan, entered as a simple
convert at the Abbey of Bee ;4 and one of the brav
est knights of the Vexin, Eoger of Heudiecourt,
having been severely wounded in fight, gave up
1 "Servis duntaxat libertate donatis, castrumsuum mihi inexpugnabili
munitione vallatum cum omnibus qua? sui juris erant pra?diis contulit,
atque ad eremum veniens, habitum monastics professionis accepit." —
Sanoti Petei Damiani, Vit. S. Rodulph. in Oper., p. 357.
2 He died in 1075.— Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. vi. p. ii., vol. ix. p. 342.
3 In 1082. " Consilio habito cum domno apostolico Hildebrando
nomine . . . ut morerer mundo et viverem Deo, in remissionem
omnium delictorum et ad salutem antecessorum meorum, cum benedic-
tione apostolici, cum licentia episcopi mei Hugonis Tricassenis, et cum
favore Teobaldi comitis palatini, cum laude etiam propinquorum meorum,
dedi me cum alodiis meis, principibus apostoloruni Petro et Paulo, vene-
rabili quoque Berchario. "— Mabill. , Ann., vol. v., Append. No. 16.
i In 1072. — Oedee. Vital., 1. iii. p. 14, ed. Leprevost.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 73
all his patrimony to the Abbey of St Evroul, where
he became a monk, and where for seven years he
willingly endured the Benedictine rule in spite of his
wound, which, by frequently reopening, constantly
reminded him of his former glorious exploits.1
And who were these charcoal-burners, who, in Ebrard de
Breteuil,
the depths of so many half-felled forests, o-ave them- Theobald
¦*¦ J n de Provins,
selves so heartily to the labours of their calling ? ^nf oT1
There we find Ebrard, Count of Breteuil and vidame J^vace
of Chartres, with many companions in his sacri- t^iife™8"
fices : a man who, young, rich, and magnificent,
and holding a place among the first nobles of
France, had been so haughty and so irritable, that
men hardly dared to speak to him ; 2 until, sud
denly touched by divine grace, he stripped him
self of all, fled, poor and naked, far from his vast
patrimony, and set himself as a penance to burn
charcoal — happy in finding himself able to say,
as he came back from the town where he had sold
his work, " At last I have attained the highest
riches." 3
1 "Sanies quantum testa ovi anseris capere possit." — Oed. Vit., book
iii. p. 114. From 1061 to 1066.
2 "Is in a?tate positus florulenta, cum gratissima? esset elegantia?,
pra?sertim cum sa?culi nobilitate genus ejus, ita et mirabili specierum
conspicuitate polleret . . . divitiarum etiam omnium claritate pateret :
mens hominis in multo superbia? fastu constituta. . . . Vir inter pri-
mores Francia? undecumque famosus. . . . Adeo indignabunda? habi-
tudinis, ut facile cuipiam, vel verbo aggressibilis nequaquam videbatur."
— Guibeeti Novigenti, De vita sua, 1. i. c. 9.
3 " Cum carbonibus faciendis . . . operam daret, et hac illacque cum
suis per rura et oppida venum ferret, turn primum ratus est se supremas
attigisse divitias." — Ibid. After having lived some years in this way,
Ebrard became a monk at Marmoutier, where the monks spoke of him

74 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
Count Ebrard, however, only followed the ex
ample of one of his peers — Theobald, son of the
seigneur of Provins, of the family of the Counts of
Champagne, whose history deserves that we should
linger a moment over it. One day this young
noble, who was soon to receive his knightly spurs,
escaped from his father's castle with his faithful
Walter; and having resolved to forsake parents,
friends, estates, and fortune, he left his horses and
squires at an inn in the outskirts of Eheims, and
fled to conceal himself in Germany.1 There he
entered the service of a rough peasant, earned his
living by the sweat of his brow, and resolved to
vanquish his pride by mowing the hay, cleaning
out the stables, and burning charcoal in the woods.2
One afternoon, when he had hired himself out to
weed a vineyard, and when the fatigue of his
stooping attitude and the scratches on his too
delicate hands and on his unshod feet had made
him work languidly, the rustic who employed him,
in these terms in a deed of 1072 : " Domnus Ebrardus nudus et pauper
effectus, patria et parentibus derelictis, peregre profectus est." — Ap.
Mabill., Ann. Ben., vol. v., Append. No. 6.
1 ' ' Parentibus non solum nobilibus, rerum etiam clarissimis atque
ditissimis. . . . Assumpto Waltero, quodam milite suo . . . relicta
domo, patre, matre . . . mancipiis, amplissimisque pra?diis, cumque
omnibus sa?culi pompis, quasi proximo Pasche accincturus militia? cin-
gulum. . . . Apud S. Remigii suburbium, . . . arraigeris atque equis
in hospitio relictis . . . nudis pedibus pervenerunt ad locum qui dicitur
Picingo in Teutonicorum regno. " — Vit. S. Theobaldi, auct. Petko, abbat.
cequali, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 167.
2 " Isti usque ad vilissima et laboriosissima rusticorum opera devoluti
sunt . . . lapides ferendo, fcenum ex pratis secando, stabula curando,
et maxime carbones, ut idem Beatus simpliciter postea referebat, ad
opera fabrilia faciendo. " — Ibid.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 75
but who did not even understand his language,
began to beat him soundly with a goad; all of which
he supported patiently, and even joyfully, says
the holy writer, for love of penance.1 After this
rude novitiate, the young Count went on pilgrim
age to St James of Compostello, then to Eome,
and ended by becoming a monk in Lombardy.2
This trade of woodman or charcoal-burner, willing
ly embraced by the Counts of Breteuil and Provins,3
1 " Ut ad vineas herbis inutilibus purgandas conduceretur . . . dorso
inclinato dolente, excruciatis quoque nudis manibus in herbarum eradi-
catione, pedibus nudis per sentes et silices excoriatis . . . stimulo
aculeato ca?dere cospit et pungere. . . . Alter enim alterius linguam non
intelligebat." — Vit. S. Theobaldi, ibid., p. 168.
2 He died in 1066, and was canonised by Alexander III. It was in
his honour that Duke Robert II. of Burgundy, about 1290, built a priory
church, the choir of which, still standing, is a perfect prodigy of ele
gance, elevation, and beauty. It contains the shrine of St Theobald, of
which Didron's Annates archiologiques have given an exact description ;
a lateral door, admirably carved ; and, finally, the tombs of a knight and
his wife, considered among the best-preserved monuments of Christian
sculpture. St Thibaut en Auxois is situated on the road from Semur to
Pouilly, on the banks of the canal. Every traveller who passes through
this corner of France ought, at any sacrifice, to visit this little-known
marvel of Burgundy.
3 This is what we must conclude from the following verses, attributed
by some to Theobald de Mailly, and by others to Theobald de Montmor
ency, Seigneur of Marly, who took the cross in 1117, and became a Cis
tercian monk in 1179. This poet-knight of the twelfth century is quoted
by Labbe and by Mabillon in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 374 : —
" Ains vos vueil amentoivre de Simon de Crepy . . .
Quant qu'il avoit au siecle laissa et enhajf,
Bien le laissa voir, que sa terre en guerpi.
Dedans une forest en essil s'enfoui ;
La devint charboners, 1 tel ordre choisi."
We do not know why Pere Chifflet and the Bollandists (vol. viii. of Sept.,
p. 730), have chosen to see in this word charcoal-burner nothing but
a simple designation arising from the black colour of the Benedictine
frock ; they had' no doubt lost sight of the passages in Gilbert de Nogent
and the contemporary biographer of St Theobald of Provins, which we
have quoted above..

76 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
was also an object of ambition to a yet more
illustrious penitent, whose conversion caused a pro
found sensation under the pontificate of Gregory
VII. : Simon,1 Count of Valois, of Crepy, of Amiens,
of Mantes, of Vexin, of Bar and Vitry, standard-
bearer to the king, heir of the ancient race of
Counts of Vermandois, so terrible to the Carlovin-
gian kings, one of the most powerful and warlike
vassals of Philip I., and reputed the richest landed
proprietor of France.2
1 For a full account of the titles and possessions of Count Simon, see
the Bollandists (vol. viii., Sept., p. 719). It is generally thought that
the ducal house of St Simon springs from the sister of Simon, who
married Herbert, Count of Vermandois, and took the name of St Simon
in honour of our saint. — Imhof., Geneal. exc. Familiar. Franc, p.
199 ; Act. SS. Bolland., book c. pp. 713, 744.
2 As we learn from the notice discovered at St Claude by the Pere
Chifflet, and inserted in the vol. of 30th Sept. of the Bollandists, No. 43,
Raoul HI., Count of Valois, Crepy, &c, the father of this Simon, had
married Adele, daughter of the Count of Bar-sur-Aube, in the most
romantic fashion. One day, on his journey to Rome, Raoul, passing
beneath the Castle of Bar, was told that a young lady, an orphan and
a widow, was living there. He presented himself to this lady, asked
" her hand, obtained it, and continued his journey after having sworn to
marry her on his return. But during the knight's absence, the nobles
of the neighbourhood, unwilling to submit to too powerful an ascendancy,
decided that the Countess should marry Rainard, Count of Joigny, who
carried her off to his castle. On his return from Rome, Raoul besieged
Joigny, destroyed the castle, delivered his betrothed, and conducted her
to La Ferte\ whence she was again carried off. Finally, he delivered
her a second time, married her at Crepy, and became by this marriage
Count of Bar and of Vitry ( Vie des saints de Franche-Comti, vol. iii. p.
334 et seq.) Raoul III. married afterwards Anne of Russia, widow of
Henri I. , his relation in the fifth degree, for which he was excommuni
cated. Simon, second son of Raoul III., born in 1048, and brought up
at the Court of William the Conqueror, whose wife, Matilda, was his
cousin, was passionately fond of hunting, and this passion led to his
conversion. One day when he was hawking, holding his falcon on hig
wrist, he happened to fly the bird at a prey which he was extremely
anxious to take. Being disappointed, he gave way to a violent fit of

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 77
Unjustly persecuted by his suzerain, who endeav
oured to despoil him during his minority, he assem
bled his vassals and made war on the king with
equal energy and success.1 At the same time, de
siring to clear up any doubts as to the lawfulness
of his possessions, he went, in 1075,2 to Eome, to
consult Pope Gregory VIL, whose instructions he
followed in scrupulously repairing every injustice
his father had committed.
On his return to France, Simon resumed hostili
ties against the king, and showed himself so skil
ful a knight that he forced Philip to conclude a
treaty, ratified by an assembly of nobles, by which
his rights were recognised and his domains restored.3

rage, in which he swore that, from that moment, he would hate every
thing good and love everything evil. This sort of treaty with the devil
was quickly followed by repentance, and from that moment the young
man earnestly endeavoured to strengthen himself in welldoing. Wal
ter, elder brother of Simon, having been killed in war, the latter re
mained sole heir of the Count of Valois. A little older than Philip I. ,
the son of his stepmother, the young Count had to support, with varied
fortunes, a fierce struggle with the king, who wished to deprive him of
his dominions. Obeying the advice of St Gregory VIL, Simon did not
hesitate to exhume the body of his father from its tomb in the town of
Montdidier, of which place Raoul III. had unjustly possessed himself.
At the sight of the decaying body of a prince once so powerful and so
much dreaded, Simon was seized with a disgust for power and glory. —
Guib. Novig., de Vit. sua, book i. c. 10.
1 " Concitat gentem suam, et velut frendens leo, licet corde dolens,
perturbat et devastatquod in regis reperit possessione, et donee proprium
possideat asserit nullo modo retroire." — Vit. S. Simonis, comitis Crespei-
ensis, auctore Synchrono, c. 1, post Ven. Guibeeti Novig. opera, ed.
d'Achery, 1651, fol., p. 672. This life is found also in the Act. SS. 0. B.,
vol. ix. p. 374 ; and in the Bollandists, vol. viii. of Sept.
2 In 1075, the Bollandists say ; but 1074, according to Alberic.
3 " Rursus regem aggrediens, certamen ut miles optimus amplexatur
et donee victor existeret, licet invitus a belli negotio minime relaxatur.

78 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
This warlike life did not make the brave Count
forgetful of the practice of piety; however wearied
he might be by the combats and exploits of the
day, he never failed to make it a duty to be pre
sent at the matins of the monks.1
Meantime, an ardent desire of conversion, and
a passionate aspiration towards monastic life, had
taken possession of the knight's soul. This young
and brilliant victor, this powerful lord, who passed
for the richest man in France after the king,
thought only of sacrificing his glory, his- opulence,
and his life for the love of God.2 His barons
having chosen for his wife the daughter of Count
Hildebert de la Marche, who was as beautiful as
she was high-born, the Count ratified the choice
by going to seek the princess in Auvergne, fol
lowed by a brilliant cortege. But amidst all the
pomp of the marriage, he profited by the first mo
ments of liberty allowed him with his betrothed,
and the first caresses which their future union
authorised, to preach to the young girl the duties
of continence and of a retirement from the world.3
. . . Fit conventus nobilium, judicium fit a sapientibus, qua? jure con-
tigerat ha?reditas Simoni judicatur et redditur." — Vit. S. Simonis; ibid.,
c. 3.
1 ' ' Cum fere triennio labore militari implicitus caro illius requiem
non haberet, nocte tamen armorum fatigatione minime detentus solo
tantum comite contentus ecclesiarum limina subiens, matutinis semper
interesse gaudebat." — Ibid., c. 2.
2 " Omissis deliciis, quarum ubertas tanta illi affluebat, ut pene post
regem in tota regione nullus ditior, nee rebus opulentior videretur." —
Ibid., c. 6. Cf. Guibeet Novig., de Vit. sua, vol. i. c. 10.
3 " Eleganti forma, facie pulcherrima, genere nobilis. . . . Magnatum
multitudo mandatu'r, ornatus diversitas appetitur. . , . Sponsa venienti

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 79
When she saw her affianced husband resolved to
renounce her and their wedded life, she determined
to equal him in generosity ; and accordingly fled,1
the same night, with two knights who were her
near relations, to take the veil of a nun at Vau-
Dieu, in a wild and narrow valley, near the source
of the Allier,2 where Eobert, the great monastic
apostle of Auvergne, had founded a place of refuge
for widows of the province.3
Scarcely had Count Simon returned to his do
mains after this glorious victory over himself, than
the King of England, William the Conqueror,
who had been his guardian, sent in haste to offer
him the hand of his daughter Matilda. Simon
refused, making their too near relationship4 the
pretext, and left home on his way to Eome, saying
that he must seek counsel from the Pope. But
first he wished to give a pledge of his devotion to
the monastic metropolis of Cluny, whither flowed,
Simoni oscula pergens amplexatur. . . . Oscula dabantur sanctitate con-
dita, amplexus implicabantur luxuria remota, aliisque credentibus eorum
dicta lasciva jucunditate repleta, vir Domini pra?dicationis verbum et
dulcia vita? colloquia, utambo sa?culo renuntiarent, cordiilliusinserebat."
—Ibid., c. 4. Cf. Guib. Novig., de Vit. sua, i. c. 9 ; Albeeici Teium
Fontium, Chronic, ad ann. 1076, ap. Leibnitz, Acces. histor., c. ii.
1 " Qua? cum amantissimum juvenem sibi et mundo repudium dedisse
rescisset, ipsa inferior videri non tolerans, virginalibus turmis," &c. —
Guib., 1. i. c. 10.
2 " Junctis illis conversionis et generis propinquitate collegisduobus."
— Ibid. Both became monks, and one was afterwards Archbishop of
Bourges. — See further on.
3 We may still admire the deserted but yet standing cloister where
lived so long and holfly the generous bride of the Count de Crapy.
4 Simon was, in fact, related in the sixth degree to the wife of the
Conqueror, Matilda of Flanders.

80 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
so to speak, all the piety of the age. On the 22d
of March 1070, by a deed signed in the presence
of Philip of France, and sealed with the royal seal,
the Count gave to the Abbot Hugh the monastery
which he had founded in his castle of Crepy, and
where the ashes of his fathers rested.1 After this,
Simon started; but before crossing the Alps, he
wished to stop at St Oyant or St Claude, the
celebrated abbey in the Jura, whose origin has
already been related, and he there obtained his
admission as a monk. But soon, desiring a yet
harder life and a yet more complete solitude, he
asked and obtained permission to betake himself
to the almost uninhabited heights of the mountains
north of St Claude. Then he sought the spot
where the rapid waters of the Doubs rush out
from the depths of a cave in the side of Noir-
mont, and spread into a broad current as they
traverse the wide and gloomy forests. In these
woods, not appropriated by the Burgundians after
the conquest, but which a vague tradition de
clares to have been given to St Claude by Char
lemagne — on this sterile soil, which, in fact, be
longed to whoever should first occupy it — Simon
built himself a cabin by the edge of the Doubs,2
1 In this act Simon declares, that having for Hugh of Cluny "more
affection than for any other in the world, he gives to this abbot and his
successors the monastery of St Arnoul, built in his castle of Crepy, and
that he wishes the abbot of it to be chosen from among the monks of
Cluny, according to the Spirit of God and the rule of St Benedict." —
Ap. Bolland, 30th September, No. 117.
2 Simon's cabin was the origin of the Priory of Mouthe, which grew

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 81
where he earned a poor living as a woodman, in
imitation of the two counts spoken of above —
subsisting on bread and wild fruits, and even
of this poor food keeping something with which
to relieve hungry travellers.1 He thus contributed
to the clearing of the Jura, which was gradually
effected in the course of several centuries by the
monks of St Claude ; and to him is generally at
tributed the foundation of the twelve monasteries
or priories in the midst of these scarcely inhab
ited mountains.2 But he was not long permitted
to enjoy this much-desired solitude. The report
of his conversion spread far and near, exciting
wonder and admiration throughout Normandy,
and all the provinces of Flanders to the borders
of Germany, where he was known and loved.3
And the Abbot Hugh, taking advantage of the
to be the capital of the canton of the same name in the present depart
ment of the Doubs. The Church of Mouthe is still consecrated to St
Simon.
- 1 "Co?pit namque ut de proprio manuum viveret, ubi novalia fierent
scindere cum . securi. Cibus erat tenuis panis cum aqua, legumen et
poma sylvestria, et hoc semel in die, excepta Dominica. . . . Et qua?
domi contulerat aquam collo deferens ipse mala cum pulmentb decoxit.
.... Accidit ut quidam viator esuriens illic agapem postularet : Panis,
inquit, deest, sed sunt poma sylvestria." — Guibert, c. 9, 10.
2 See as to this clearing of the Jura, the excellent Essai sur Vhistoire
de la Franche-GomU, by M. Edouaed Cleec (vol. i., 1837);. the
Memoires de Droz, on Portarlier (p. 121); and the Life of St Simon in
vol iii. of the Vies des saints de Franche-Comte, by the professor of the
Catholic College at Besancon, 1856.
3 "Igitur Flandria?, Normania; . . . tanti viri rumore suscepto stu
por^? mirabantur : quippe qui notus regionibus illis dilectus Domino, et
tarn cams omnibus erat," &c. — Vit. S. Simdnis, post Guibebtum, c. 6."
All the contemporary chronicles celebrate with enthusiasm the conversion
of Simon. "See," says one of these, "this golden star, this handsome.
VOL. VI. F

82 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
influence which the illustrious penitent was likely
to exercise,1 begged him to undertake a mission to
King Philip to ask the restitution of certain pro
perty taken from Cluny by that prince. The Count
of Vermandois, not long ago the victorious rival
of the monarch, but now humbly clothed in the
Benedictine robe, accepted the mission, and went
to visit his ancient enemy at Compiegne,2 though
he was still suffering from a wound caused by the
fall of a pine while he was labouring as a pioneer
in the forests of the Jura. Entering the town,
Simon was recognised by the people ; an immense
crowd, eager to see him, assembled round him and
conducted him in a kind of triumph to the palace,
making the air resound with shouts.3 The king
received him with all honour, and immediately
granted him the object of his request. Thence
Simon went to the Court of the King of England
to try to establish peace between him and his
eldest son Eobert. At the news of the saint's
arrival, several knights who had been his vassals,
Simon, who gave up his beautiful wife, and the country where he ruled
over millions of vassals." " Sydus aureum, . . . pulcherrimum Simon . . .
reliquit sponsam decoratissimam . . . et totam deserens Francorum gentem
in qua inter millia servorum dominabatur."— Haeiulf., Vita S. Arnulfi,
c. 25.
1 "Notum sit vestra? Celsitudini, beatissime pater, me plus quam
omnes homines in came viventes in Deum diligere," &c.  Ad. V. Gui-
berti, opera, not. et observ., ed. D'Achery, p. 597.
2 Where he was present at the translation of the Holy Shroud.
3 "A quibusdam, qui festivitati intererant, statim agnoscitur. . . .
Vox populi et turba? ketantis clamor attollitur. Simon fere ab omnibus
clamabatur; Simon certatim aspicitur, et sic usque ad palatium regis
vix, turba premente, subtrahitur. " — Vita, c. 11.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 83
and others, to the number of nearly a thousand,
came to meet him with presents of gold, silver,
mules, and palfreys.1 Simon refused all these,
contenting himself with the success of his inter
vention between the father and son. Before leaving
William, the Count had private interviews with
him and his wife, in which he urged upon their
attention the serious j^et consoling lessons of re
ligion ; the Queen, bathed in tears, was so over
come that she could not speak.2
Simon then went to visit Bee, of which his
friend the great St Anselm had just been appointed
abbot ; and after having spent some time in his
own domains of Valois and Vermandois, he re
turned with gladness to his dear solitude, whence
Gregory VII. soon after recalled him to Eome.3
The Pope then confided to him the mission of
reconciling Eobert Guiscard with the Holy See.
Simon prospered in this new negotiation, and also
rendered to the Eoman Church, then engaged in
a most dangerous struggle with the Emperor
Henry IV, the inestimable service of securing to
it the Norman Alliance, which was destined to
be the safeguard of Gregory VII. and his suc-
1 "Qui sui in sa?culo dicebantur, alii et quamplures, pene milites
mille . . . et quisqne de proprio aurum vel argentum, mulam seu pale-
fridum ut acciperet, devote precabantur." — Vita, c. 11.
2 " Adeo ut regina, sicut bonarum moris est mulierum, loqui nequiret
verba, intercedente ploratu." — Ibid.
3 The Abbot of St Oyand, wishing to keep Simon in the Jura, hid from
him the Pope's letters ; but Gregory threatened to interdict the abbey if
his call were not obeyed.

84 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
cessors. Shortly afterwards Simon fell ill and
died at Eome1 in the arms of the Sovereign
Pontiff, who caused him to be buried among the
Popes.2
The exam- The conversion of the Count of Valois produced
Count a profound impression upon the contemporary
influences nobles, and found many imitators among them.
other il- . - _,
lustrious When Simon left his home to take refuge at bt
Claude, five knights of his household, all well
born and of great reputation, joined3 their fate
to his and followed his example.
Another lord named Stephen, descended both on
the father's and mother's side from a long line of
nobles,4 had scarcely assumed the arms of knight
hood when he put off its symbols to present himself
also at St Claude, in order to learn how best under
the yoke of monastic rule to sacrifice the inclina-

nobles.

1 The 30th September 1082, according to Mabillon (Act. SS. 0. B.,
vol. ix.) ; but in 1080, according to the Bollandists (vol. viii., September,
p. 742).
2 "Turn, pra?cipiente episcopo, sepultura? locus inter apostolicos pra?-
paratur : et quia apostolicam vitam studuit imitari, merito hujus apicis
adeptus est dignitatem." — Ibid., i. 14.
3 "Junctis sibi de familia qnibusdam viris nobilissimis. " — Vit. S.
Simon., post Guibeetum, c. 6. " Prasmiserat ante se duos illustrissimos
viros, domnum Rodulfum et domn. Franconem ; secum vero duxit D.
Rotbertum, D. Arnulfum et D. Warnerium. Hi omnes et secundum.
genus sa?culi clarissimi et secundum Deum nobilissimi, postea se holo-
caustum Deo obtulerunt." — Joann. Monach., Chron. Besuens. , in Spici-
leg., vol. ii. p. 434, ed. in-fol.
4 "Patve nobilissimo progenitus, qui et ipse non solum consul, sed
etiam a patre et avo consulibus originem duxit. De matre . . . quod
dixerim, nisi quod ex utraque parte ... ex progenie consilium, imo
ab ipsis consulibus est generata." She was daughter of the Count de
Resnel. — Ibid.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 85
tions of fallen human nature.1 During his travels
in France, Count Simon, by the humility and sweet
purity of which his countenance and language
bore the impress, had exercised over Christians of
all ranks and ages an influence so powerful, that
wherever he went, a crowd of men and women, on
seeing him, determined to embrace the religious life.
But it was the order of knighthood which supplied
him with the most numerous recruits. A con
temporary writer says that it was the example of
Simon alone which sufficed to decide the Duke of
Burgundy and the Count of Macon to become
monks at Cluny, and many other nobles to give
up the world.2 In Italy the Count exercised the
same influence. During his mission to Eobert
Guiscard in the interest of Pope Gregory, he per
suaded by his preaching nearly sixty Norman
knights to put on the armour of God — that is to
say, to take the monastic habit — in the different
abbeys of Apulia.3 Thus a Benedictine chronicler
1 " Erat adhuc tenellus, militaribus tamen armis decoratus . . . sa?cu-
lari balteo abrenuntians, in pra?fato ccenobio monachilem vitam arripuir,
ibique . . . per decern annos se in Dei servitio mactavit." — Joann.
Monach., ibid. This Stephen became in 1086 Abbot of Beze, and was
one of the most distinguished superiors of this great monastery.
2 " Tot tantosque sermonum ejus puritas, et animi, quam in facie pra?-
ferebat, humilitas, viros animavit et foeminas, ut infinita sexuum agmina
ad via? prosecutionem istius . . . conflarentur . . . exemplo ejus
nomine. . . . Equestrium siquidem virorum studium hominis mnltum
sollicitavit examen." — Guib. Novig., de Vita sua, i. c. 10. "Jam cams
omnibus erat quatenus Hugo Burgundia? dux . . . et ejusdem ordinis
quamplures, pietatis affectu et illius dulcedine inflammati, anna depon-
erent, seculum relinquentes. . . . Nobiles pariter et ignobiles, audito
ejus nomine, imitabantur. " — Vit. S. Simon. , c. 6.
3 "Cujus allocution! assensum pra?bentes, pene sexaginta milites

86 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
designates Simon as the chief of those princes who
were "formerly like lions for the terror which they.
inspired, like leopards for the diversity of their
crimes, but who, later, became humble as hyssop,
odorous as myrrh, and whiter than snow."1
Gamier de Among those nobles whom the example or the ex-
riiionZd hortations of the Count of Valois induced to take
Arnold . _! . •,
dePameie, the vows, we may cite Werner or barnier ae
Montmorillon, one of the two knights who had
accompanied their cousin the young Countess of
Marche, the betrothed of Count Simon, in her
flight and retreat at Chaise-Dieu.2 Werner was
reckoned among the noblest lords of Poitou. He
had, while still in the world, prepared himself for
his monastic vocation by a pilgrimage to St James
of Compostello ; and on his return from the holy
shrine, he had sacrificed, in order to relieve a sick
beggar, a pair of richly -ornamented gloves, the
gift of a lady whom he tenderly loved.3 Having
afterwards entered as a monk at Chaise-Dieu, he
secularibus omissis, arma dominica susceperunt ; et sic viri Dei praedica-
tione monachilem habitum . . . susceperunt." — Vit. S. Simon., c. 13.
1 "Principes enim qui prius fuerant similes leonibus propter crudeli-
tatem et terrorem, et leopardis propter, &c. . . . hysopina, humili
scilicet, confessione mundati, per myrrham mortificationum candore
sunt super nivem dealbati. Horum autem caput et dux exstitit comes
Francorum nobilissimus, Simon nomine," &c. — Chron. Besuens.
2 The other was Hildebert de Montmorillon, brother of Gamier, and
afterwards Abbot of Deols and Archbishop of Bourges. — Oedee. Vit.,
book viii. p. 714, ed. Duchesne ; Mabill., Ann. Ben., book lxiv. c. 98.
3 ' ' Miles illustris . . . dum adhuc in armis mundo serviret, in in-
troitu cujusdam sylva? solus cum armigero suo languenti mendico repente
occurrit, et poscenti stipem nummos quos daret manu non habuit : sed
pretiosas chirothecas ab arnica sibi directas devote porrexit." — Oedee.
Vit.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 87
served God there for forty years.1 One day one
•of the monks of the monastery had a vision, in
which an angel, after having imposed upon him a
special mission, added these words : " I speak in
the name of Him whom Martin clothed with half
his mantle, and to whom Gamier gave his em
broidered gloves." The monk related this vision
to the abbot and the elders of the monastery ;
they knew perfectly the story of St Martin at
Amiens, but puzzled themselves as to what could
be meant by Garnier's gloves. At last the old
knight Gamier de Montmorillon was questioned,
and simply related the history of the love-gift
which he had sacrificed in his youth. Then the
monks, being all assembled, gave thanks to God,
the invisible and immortal witness of the least of
our good deeds.2
Part of the vast estates possessed before his
conversion by Simon, Count of Valois and Ver
mandois, belonged to the diocese of Soissons. This
town received, shortly after, as its bishop, the Arnoui,
monk Arnoul, who, previous to his elevation to the the strong.
1 "Casa? Dei monachus fere XL. annis Deo militavit." — Oedee. Vit.
But it should have been at St Cyprian, according to the biographer of
the B. Bernard de Tiron. Perhaps this Garnier is the same as the one
who accompanied Count Simon to St Claude. — Cf. Mabill., Ann. Ben.,
book lxiv. c. 98, and book lxvii. c. 61.
2 "Cuidam religioso . . . post matutinos in oratorio supplicanti
angelica visio apparuit. . . . Ule me misit ad te, et ha?c tibi mandavit
quem Martinus parte chlamydia sua? vestivit, et qui Guarnerius chirothe-
cas suas donavit. . . . Senioribus historia de Martini divisa chlamyde
satis claruit . . . sed res de Garnerii chirothecis omnino diu latuit.
Tandem ipse . . . simpliciter detexit. . . . Deoque qui bona facienti-
bus semper prassto est, gratias egit. " — Oed. Vit. , book c.

88 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
episcopate, lived in a cell in the environs of the
Abbey of St Medard, of which he had been abbot.
At the very hour of the death of the saintly
Count Simon at Eome, the event was revealed to
the recluse Arnoul in his cell at Soissons by a
vision. He announced it to the monks of the
monastery, advising them to celebrate the obse
quies of their illustrious countryman and bene
factor.1 The monks obeyed, though doubting the
truth of the prediction ; but before the end of the
month, they were able to convince themselves that
the solitary had spoken truth.
This Arnoul had many points of resemblance to
Simon : like him, he had given up all the honours
and advantages of the world to devote himself. to God
in a monastic life. Sprung from a very wealthy
and illustrious Flemish house,2 nephew of the
Counts of Namur, of Louvain, of Loos and of Mons,
he had early attained the rank of knighthood,3 and
had distinguished himself by a valour and physical
strength above that of all his contemporaries, which
procured him the name of Arnoul the Strong.
1 ' ' Ite, fratres, festinanter ; nuntiate abbati et fratribus, quia domnus
Simon, olim comes Vermandensis, hodie de hac vita recessit, et jubeat
abbas velociter celebrari offieium pro exitu tanti viri. . . . Notate diem,
notate horam, et invenietis ita esse." — Habiulfi, Abb. Aldenb., coce-
qualis Vit. S. Arnul., 1. i. u. 25, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 524..
2 That of Parnfele. His father was "non solum generis spectabilis
nobilitate, sed et rerum copia mundanarum ditatus inter ca?teros com-
patriotas." — Ibid., c. i.
3 " Susceptis juxta votum amicorum, ritumque nobilium. militia? Isignis.''
— Paid., c. 3. "Omni humana virtute pra?stantior in rebus militaribus
fuit." — Compend. Vit. S. Am. eod. loc.,n. 555.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 89
He was so strong, in fact, that he used the mast of
a ship as a lance, and could lift up a waggon loaded
with hay with the help of one other man. When
the Emperor Henry held his Court at Utrecht,
Arnoul astonished and surpassed all the German
knights by his Flemish vigour.1 He made, how
ever, the noblest use of his strength in the distant
expeditions in which, as a vassal of the empire, he
took part ; and he constantly endeavoured to put
an end to the private wars which desolated Brabant
and Flanders. He often succeeded in this, thanks
to his valour, which was irresistible, and above all
to his eloquence, which gained him great influence
in the courts of justice of those princes whom he
served as a vassal or as a companion in arms.2
In the midst of all this success, Arnoul one day
ordered his squire to prepare everything in the most
splendid manner, as if he were going in state to visit
the French king. But instead of appearing at the
Court of France, it was to the cloister of St Medard
that he turned his steps, there to offer to God his
arms, his rich garments, and his long hair.3 He

1 Haeiulfi, c. 4. ?
2 " Omnia denique militia? studia percurrit, imperialibus seu regalibus
bellis interfuit, in principium curiis quaquaversum veniens facundus
causidicus enituit . . . lites . . . seditionesque tremore sua? incom-
parabilis fortitudinis compressit : dum non esset qui ilium viribus seu
verbis ratione validis obviare tentaret." — Ibid., c. 5.
3 " Convocatis duobus armigeris suis, jubet quantocius omnia armorum
vasa aptari, qualiter cum eximio decore et pompa decenti, curiam regis
Francorum valeret adire . . . festinus expetit ecclesiam. . . . Armaque
cum vestibus cultissimis quas attulerat ad ecclesiam conferentem atton-
dent fratres." — Ibid., a. 5.

90 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
lived there as a recluse and monk without pro
nouncing a single word for three years and a half,
until the day when his superiors dragged him by
force from the cloister to appoint him abbot. But
at the end of some years, in spite of the entreaties
of the monks, who conjured him in the name
of the martyr- saint Sebastian, of the venerable
confessor Medard, and of the holy Pope Greg
ory, whose relics they possessed,1 that he would
not abandon them, he laid down the abbatial cro
sier in order to escape the importunities of King
Philip, who wished to force him to accompany his
military expeditions at the head of the knightly
vassals of the abbey.2 Arnoul refused to take up
again the trade of arms, which he had renounced
when he became a monk ; he returned with delight
to his solitary cell, whence his fame spread
throughout France, and whither the nobles of
the kingdom came to visit him and consult him 3
for the peace of the Church and the salvation
of their souls. On the death of the Bishop of
Soissons, he was again forced to leave his retire
ment and occupy the episcopal throne. After
wards, Gregory VII. charged him with the duties
1 " Monemus te per martyrium Sebastiani, per confessionem Medardi,
per papatum Gregorii," &c. — Haeiulfi, c. 16.
2 " Ego infelix, qui militiam causa Dei abjeci, rursus stipabor milit-
ibus ? . . . Rex misit legatos qui dicerent fuisse morem antiquum ut mil-
ites abbatia?, abbate pra?vio, regali expeditioni inservirent." — Ibid., c. 16.
3 " In terra Francorum gloriosam adeptus estfamam ; in tantum ut tota
regni nobilitas ejus uti benedictionibus congauderet, et totius dignitatis
homines ejus colloquium ardenter requirerent, tarn de pace Ecclesia? quam
de salute animarum consilium flagitantes. " — Ibid., c. 8.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 91
of legate, and sent him to pacify the sanguinary
quarrels which were perpetually bursting out afresh
in Flanders, and to maintain the threatened rights
of the Church there ; but even then the humble
monk would travel in no other way than on an
ass, thus better to express his entire renunciation
of all the splendour of chivalry.1
About the time when Bishop Arnoul fulfilled this
peaceful mission in the Belgian provinces, there was
at St Peter's, in Ghent, a monk of noble family named
Wederic,2 who, provided with credentials from Pope
Gregory VIL, began to travel through Flanders
and Brabant with the object of preaching faith
and pure morality, which had been injured by the
struggle between the Church and the empire. At
his summons, six knights, among whom was Gerard
the Black, accounted the most famous warrior of
these provinces,3 hastened to give up all their un
justly-acquired wealth, and during several months
humbly followed the steps of the apostolic preacher.
1 " Postquam sa?culi militiam deposui terga equi nunquam sedere pro-
posui . . . non aliqua vanitate, sedD. N. J. C. imitatione." — Hakiulei,
Vita S. Arnul. in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. pp. 510,516, 543. This life of
St Arnoul is one of the finest and most curious narratives in this invalu
able collection. Amoul died on the day of the Assumption 1087, after
having been comforted by a vision of Our Lady, who promised him that
she would receive his soul for the glorious feast of the Assumption. An
immense number of miracles were worked on the tomb of the saint,
which drew great crowds of pilgrims from Flanders, Hainault, and
Artois, until his solemn translation, which took place in 1121. — L. c,
p. 552.
2 ' ' Wedericus sacerdos et monachus . . . vir sa?culare nobilitate, et
quod majus est, divina religione valde conspicuus." — Historia Affiigemi-
ensis, c. 1, ap. D'Achery, Spicileg., vol. ii. p. 770.
3 " I n armorum strenuitate per has pro vincias tunc famosissimus .' ' — Ibid.

92 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
Then Wederic, seeing them all inflamed with the
desire to abandon themselves entirely to the reli
gious life,1 directed them to Hanno, Archbishop of
Cologne, who was then head of the Catholic party
in the empire. Following his advice, the six
neophytes resolved to consecrate themselves to
penance in the very places where they had dis
graced themselves by rapine.2 They chose a desert
spot between Brussels and Alost, not far from a
highroad where the brigands were accustomed to
lie in ambush to pillage merchants and travellers.3
There they installed themselves, having with them
nothing but three loaves, a cheese, and some wood
man's tools ; 4 and there they built a little oratory,
and a modest shelter for pilgrims and the poor.
Foundation Hardly had they established themselves, when a
ghemby knight of the neighbourhood named Gerard the,
knightly & &
penitents. White, still more famous for his cruelty than for
his courage, became the hero of an extraordinary
adventure. Eeturning one day to his castle after
having committed a murder, Gerard suddenly saw
before him the demon whom he had long served, and
who own came to claim his prey.5 At this sight,
1 " Magistrum pauperum pauperes sequuti sunt. . . . Deinde arctioris
vita? desiderio a?stnantes." — Histor. Afflig., ibid., o. 2.
2 " Ut locum quem rapinis innocentium ante maculaverant, voluntaria
afflictione divino servitio manciparent." — Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 " Tres tantum panes et ipsos eleemosyna acceptos, et unum caseum
secum detulerunt, cum pauois ferramentis, et Mam terram desertam
excolere coeperunt." — Ibid.
6 " In hac provincia crudelitate et robore opinatissimus. . . . Inimicus
humani generis in via apparuit. . . Jamque illi cui diu servierat man-

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 93
the knight, seized with horrible fear, put spurs to
his horse and fled at a gallop to the place where
the new converts lived in penance and in poverty.
He implored them to admit him among them ; and
very soou, according to the expression consecrated
to such cases by the monkish annalists, the wolf
was changed into a lamb.
This surprising news passed from mouth to
mouth ; and a great impression was made on the
general mind by the sudden conversion of a man
considered until then as a monster of cruelty ; an
event for which all the country round, much mar
velling, returned thanks to God.1 A few days
later another knight, Henrard, also guilty of homi
cide, but whom remorse had filled with disgust
for the world, came to visit the asylum of the
new hermits and examine their life.2 Touched
by their union and their austerities, he decided to
give up his patrimony and to live by the work
of his hands among the penitents of Afflighem.
Such was, in 1083, the origin of that rich and
famous abbey, destined to become the most opulent,
the most productive, and the most popular in
Belgium and the Low Countries. In a deed of con-
cipatum se credens, cogitans tamen si quo modo jus illius posset evadere."
— Hist. Afflig., ibid., c. 3.
1 " Ad pra?dictos fratres concito cursu pervenit . . . de lupo in agnum
Dei gracia confestim mutatus . . -. tanta?que admirationis apud universos
conversio ejus exstitit, ut alter alterius maxima? novitati gratia hunc
tam crudelem, tarn immanem conversum esse referret," &c.—Ibj,d.
2 " Cui a?que ex pcenitentia homicidii sa?culum omne viluerat, coepit
explorare loci situm et inhabitantium conversatipnem. "—Ibid.

94 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
firmation, Count Henry of Brabant, suzerain of all
these noble converts, declared distinctly that they
had put off their knightly armour to enter the
knighthood of Christ.1 Less than three years after
this beginning of their spiritual life, the new monks
of Afflighem had already given such proofs of devo
tion to Gregory. VII. and the Eoman Church, that
they had drawn on themselves persecution from the
party of the Emperor Henry IV. 2 They were shortly
joined by Heribrand, the rich and powerful lord of a
neighbouring castle,3 followed by his wife, his neigh
bours, and his friends. Armed, for the last time,
with his sword, and holding his banner displayed,
no longer against temporal enemies, but against
those of his soul, this penitent came to strip himself
of his armour and to profess himself the perpetual
serf of God and St Peter.4 At the end of thirty
days, a happy death having called him into the pre
sence of his new Master, so speedy a reward excited
the ambition of the five sons and of the brothers of
1 ' ' Balteo militari deposito, ut meliorem invenirent hereditatem, mili-
tiam Christi professi sunt." — Aubeet. Mir.bds, Codex donat. piar., No.
62, Opera, vol. i.
8 Histor. Afflig., c. 7. These persecutions are easily explained. The
monks of Afilighem had, in fact, chosen as abbot a monk of Lorraine
named Fulgence, who had been exiled from Verdun for asserting the
liberty of the Church, and who brought to Afflighem the spirit of
Cluny and St Vannes.
3 "Princeps quidam vicini castelli, vir secundum sa?culi hujus fastum
genere inclytus, pra?diis et possessionibus ditissimus. " — Ibid. , c. 12.
4 " Accinctus ultimo militia? cihgulo, erectoque vexillo proprio, armatus
videlicet contra spirituales nequitias, velut ad bellum iturus Afflighem
properat . . . non jam cum uxore sed sorore sua, deposita veste militari,
se omnipotenti Deo et pra?lecto ejus apostolo in a?ternum servum se
mancipat." — Ibid., c. 12.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 95
the dead man, who all successively became monks,
though several among them were married, rich, and
powerful. One of the brothers of Heribrand spe
cially distinguished himself by his great humility ;
he who had been formerly renowned as a bold
knight, might be seen begging as a favour to be
allowed to lead to the mill the asses which carried
the grain belonging to the monastery, or to grease Humility of
with his noble hands the shoes of the monks.1 monks.
This lowest menial office these converted knights
and great lords, eager to humiliate themselves
voluntarily in order to heighten the contrast be
tween their past and present modes of life, seem
to have specially chosen.
We have already said that the Duke of Bur
gundy, having become a monk at Cluny, under
took exactly this kind of service. At this period
Eoger de Warenne, nephew of the Earl of Surrey,
whose beauty was as remarkable as his valour,
left the victorious Normans in England to enter
at St Evroul, where for forty-six years he lived,
washing the stockings and greasing the shoes of
his brother monks.2 In the previous century,
Adalbert, the apostle of Bohemia and Poland, son
1 " Vir tanta? nobilitatis et nominis. . . . Erat vir in armis strenuus . . .
asinos cum annona fratrum ad molendinum minavit, et ut mos est infi-
mis servulis, panem suum in sinu gestans hora prandii super sacculum
suum residens, epulas sumpsit . . . fratrum calceamenta . . . ipse lavit,
ipse egregiis manibus suis perunxit." — Ibid., c. 14, 15.
2 " Erat corpore venustus. . . . Per plures annos ultro solitus est om
nium calceamenta fratrum perungere, pedulesque lavare, aliaque servicia,
qua? quibusdam hebetibus et turgidis despicabilia videntur libenter
exercere."— Oedee. Vit., book vi. p. 601.

96 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
of the Duke of Lubicz, intimate friend of Otho III.,
and monk at St Alexis on Mount Aventine, while
he resided with the Emperor at Mayence, had a
custom of going each night, secretly, to look for
the shoes and stockings of the palace servants,
which he cleaned and put back in their place with
out being seen ; x or sometimes he went out at
nightfall into the neighbouring forest, and there
cut wood, which he brought in upon his shoulders,
for the use of the household.2 Thus he consoled
himself for being far from his monastery, and pre
pared himself for the martyrdom which attended
him on the shores of the Baltic.3
These voluntary humiliations, this severe dis
cipline to which the noble penitents subjected
themselves, they also, when they became abbots
or priors, imposed on all who ranged themselves
under their authority. Thus the son of a Flemish
noble, St Poppon, Abbot of St Trond, known
before his conversion as a very valiant knight,4
put to a most severe test the humility of a young
1 " Cunctis qui in regia domo erant . . . vilissima qua?que manibus
tractat . . . noctibus quoque cum' carpserant somnum, calceamenta
eorum componere cura fuit, a janitore usque ad principem regia? domus
omnium caligas aqua lavit et purgatas sordibus eas suo loco restituit.
. . . Serviminis auctor diu latuit incognitus, donee quidam Wolferius,
regius imperialis minister et sibi dilectus cubicularius, sanctum prodidit
furem.'' — Vit. S. Adalberti a Cooetaneo, c. 33, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. vii.,
and Peetz, Scriptores, vol. iv.
2 ' ' Nocte intempesta solus abiens ad silvam, ligno propriis humeris
nudis pedibus deferebat." — Adhem. Cabanens., Chron., ap. Labbe, Bibl.
Nov. MSS., vol. ii. p. 168.
3 Labbe, Bibl. Nov. MSS. , loc. cit.
* EvEehelm, Vit. S. Poppon., c. 4, ap. Act. SS. 0. B., vol. viii. p. 503.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 97
monk of high birth named Gontran, whose pious
disposition he had noticed. Wishing to overcome
the prejudice which everywhere prevailed among
the noble or equestrian classes against any kind of
pedestrian service, he ordered Gontran to follow
him on foot from St Trond to Stavelot ; and when
the young novice returned exhausted by this un
usual fatigue, Poppon made him sleep at the
monastery door.1 Gontran endured the test well,
and soon afterwards became Abbot of St Trond.2
In the same manner, says St Peter Damian, Eom-
uald, sprung of the ducal family of Eavenna,3
was accustomed, while he governed the Abbey of
Classe and the hermitages of Pereo, to enforce the
observation of the common rule on monks of the
noblest birth as well as on those of the most illus
trious piety. But contemporaries who had seen,
shortly before, these seigneurs surrounded by all
the aristocratic luxury of the time, dressed in rich
embroideries of silk and gold, and commanding
their numerous vassals, wondered to find the same
men clothed, of their own free will, in a simple frock
as their only garment, with bare feet, spending
their days in a wretched cell, where they occupied
1 " Elegantissima? juvenis qualitate perfecta . . . nee pudore insueti
peditis motus (erat Claris natalibus ortus), nee difficultate itineris exter-
ritus. . . . Agebat pius pater ex industria qualiter ejus comprobata ex-
altareturhumilitas."— Chron. Trudonen., book i., in DAcheey, Spicileg.,
vol. ii.
2 He died in 1055.
3 " Ravenna? civitatis oriundus, illustrissima ducum fuit stirpe pro-
genitus."— S. Pete. Dam., c. 3.
VOL. VI. G

98 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
themselves in making cooking-utensils or fishing-
nets.1 Among such monks, one of the most dis
tinguished by his humility and fervour was the
young Boniface, cousin of the Emperor Otho III.,
who trained himself in this school to become the
successor of St Adalbert as an apostle and martyr.2
count When some special circumstance occurred which
Lorraine, obliged one of these wolves changed to lambs to leave
a monk of ° ' .
stvannes. his retreat,, he invariably showed himself faithful.
Count Frederic, son of the Duke of Lorraine, had
become a monk at St Vannes, at Verdun, after
having been one of the most famous soldiers of his
time.3 One day he had to accompany his abbot,
the holy and celebrated Eichard of St Vannes,4 to
an assembly held by the Emperor Henry II. In
his quality of cousin to the Emperor, Frederic was
conducted to the dais where sat the princes and
chief nobles of the empire, while his abbot re
mained in the crowd of ecclesiastics.5 Frederic at
1 " Begebat itaque monachos sub districta regula? disciplina . . . non
denique nobilis, non litteris eruditus per actus in dextram la?vamque
partem deflectere audebat. . . . Quis non obstupesceret . . . cum
vidisset prius homines sericis, immo deauratis vestibus indutos, crebris
obsequentium cuneis constipatos, omnium deliciarum affluentiis assuetos,
nunc cerneret uno birro contentos, inclusos, discalceatos. . . . Faciebant
omnes opera manuum, alii scilicet cochlearia, alii nebant, alii retia necte-
bant, alii cilicia." — S. Pete. Damiani, in Vit. S. Romuald., c. 33 and 41.
2 Act. SS. 0. B., vol. viii. p. 260.
3 "Hosti terribilis." — Hug. Flaviniac, Chron. Virdun. , ap. Labbe,
Bibl. nov. MSS., vol. i. p. 164.
4 Act. SS. 0. B., vol. viii. p. 472.
5 " Inter primos eminentiorique loco sederet, ut regis et principum con-
sanguineos . . . dum abbas . . . longe inferius sederet. "— Chron. Hug.
Flavin., Act. SS. 0. B., die Ujun., p. 980, and Labbe, Bibl nov. MSS.,
vol. ii. p. 164.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 99
first submitted ; but, unable to endure an appear
ance of superiority, however temporary, over him
whom he had adopted as his father, he took the
footstool placed for his feet, and going down from
the dais, seated himself below his abbot. The
pious emperor, touched by so much humility, de
sired that both should be placed near himself, but
that the abbot should have the place of honour.1
Having returned to his monastery, Frederic
resumed his humble habits. His brother Duke
Godfrey coming to see him one day when he was
washing dishes in the kitchen, exclaimed, "Well,
this is a fine occupation for a count ! " Frederic
answered nothing, because silence was commanded
in the kitchen, but when he had followed the duke
into a place where he could speak, he said, " You
are right, duke ; the work I was doing just now
does not suit such a person as I am — it is, in fact,
much above my birth, for the master whom I
serve is so great, that I ought to think myself
much honoured in being employed in the smallest
office in a house where the blessed apostle St
Peter and the glorious confessor St Vannes have
their residence." 2
1 " Regalis magnificencia, humilitatem nobilitatis illius amplexata . . .
cum eum ad se invitasset, et ille a pedibus patris avelli nollet, rex altiori
ingenio . . . abbatem ad se evocatum e latere suo sedere fecit, atque
post eum domni Frederici sedem sisti pra?cepit. "— Chron. Hug. Flavin.,
ibid. 2 " Optime prosecutus es, o dux, quia tanta est dignitas hujus officii, et
tantus est cui impenditur, B. scilicet Petrus apostolus, et sanotus con
fessor Vitonus, quod nee mea? congruit parvitati, ut pra?sumem ad hoc eis
exhibendum quasi pro nobilitate generis mei." — Ibid., p. 981.

wife.

100 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
When the rich and powerful of this world who
desired thus to unite themselves to God by the
sacrifice of their whole existence were married, as
in the case of Heribrand of Afflighem and his
sons, it was necessary to obtain the consent of
the wives, who very often followed the example
of their husbands.1 The history of one of these
mutual vocations has been related with many in
teresting details by the son of the husband and
wife who thus dedicated themselves.2
Raoui There was at Tournay, towards the close of the
and his eleventh century, a knight named Eaoul d'Osmond,
of the highest birth and most unstained reputation.3
This knight, being extremely ill, received the last
sacrament with great contrition ; but on his un
hoped-for recovery, fell back into the faults which
the fear of death had taught him to regard as
perilous. Uneasy about the state of his soul,4 he
went to St Amand to ask advice from a monk
1 A very curious example, quoted by M. Guerard in his excellent pro
legomena to the Chartulary of St Pere de Chartres, p. ccij, would lead us
to suppose that in the eleventh and twelfth centuries the wife whose hus
band entered a cloister was considered a widow, and had the right to
marry again. But many new proofs would be required to establish this
conclusion. What is certain is, that wives thus left in a kind of widow
hood (itaque ab eo viduata, says another deed quoted by M. Guerard,
ibid., p. 222) did not always take the veil, as the discipline of the
Church required, and that husbands did not always wait for the con
sent of the wives before embracing the religious life.
2 Heemann, Abbot of St Martin at Tournay, in his valuable little
work, entitled Narratio restaurationis abbatics S. Martini Tornacensis,
ap. D'Aoheet, Spicilegium, vol. ii. p. 898, in-fol.
3 " Nulli civium inferior. " — Ibid. , p. 892.
4 " De salute anima? sua? consulere coepit. . . . Hoc mihi non videtur
vera esse confessio, quando infirmor, peccata confiteri, quando convalesco,
peccatis iterum sordidari. " — Biid., p. 907.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 101
there, who was his wife's brother. The monk
having questioned him, declared that he could only
secure his salvation by embracing a monastic life,
and exhorted him to ask his wife's consent that he
should do so ; but that if she refused, he should
nevertheless betake himself to solitude to serve
God — "for," the holy man added, "I will never
counsel you to lose your soul out of love for my
sister." x
On his return home, after this conversation,
Eaoul sat down upon his bed and began to weep
bitterly.2 His wife, whose name was Mainsende,3
and who was only twenty-four years of age, see
ing him in such distress, asked what troubled him.
Osmond at first endeavoured to conceal it from her,
but she insisted; and having heard what had
passed, told Eaoul to console himself, for that she
also wished to provide for the safety of her soul
in the same manner and at the same time as he
for his. " I have the same fears for myself," she
said, " as you have for yourself." 4 Eaoul, de
lighted at this confession, proposed to his wife
that they should both retire from the world the
1 " Nunquam consulo vobis ut pro sorore mea animam vestram perdatis
. . . quam (licentiam) si noluerit dare, consulo ut ea relicta parteque
substantia? vestra? ei dimissa, adDeumfugiatis." — Heemann, ap. D'Aoh-
eey, Spicileg., ibid.
2 ' ' Lectulo residens amarissime flere incipit. "
3 "De militibus provincia? progenitam." She was the daughter of
Hermann, provost of St Amand.
4 "Vult ille celare, sed ilia nimis instante. . . . Et quare propter
ha?c sic vos cruciatis. . . . Propter me bene agere non dimittatis, quia
sicut vos de anima vestra timetis, sic ego de mea."

102 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
very next day; but Mainsende told him that she
was looking forward to the birth of her fourth
child.1 They waited, therefore, until a son was
born; and after this, Eaoul resolved to join the
Abbot Odo, who was then occupied in restoring
with the utmost sternness the ancient Abbey of
St Martin at Tournay. In presence of many
ecclesiastics and a great- crowd of people, the
knight took the hand of his young wife, and rais
ing his eyes to heaven, spoke thus : " Lord, Thou
gavest me this wife, and I take Thee to witness
that I have kept, until this day, the faith which
I owed her : now, for love of Thee, I forsake her,
and commend her to Thy care." 2 He then took
his children in his arms, and lifted them up to
wards heaven, as offering them also to God; for
his wife had said to him, " Do not let us leave our
little ones to the devil, but let us present them
with ourselves to God." 3 Osmond joined the
monks of St Martin. The Abbot Odo, admiring
1 " Exhilaratus super his verbis Radulfus. . . Quiddam secret! nec-
dum dixeram vobis, quoniam jam menses duo sunt ex quo me concepisse
sensi, et utique rationabile non esset, ut pra?gnans de sa?culo exirem.
. . . Sed continenter de hinc vivamus. Post ha?c sicut multoties mihi
retulerunt, anno integro et dirnidio in vita sa?culari manserunt, in uno
lecto indivisi jaeuerunt, nee tamen aliquid carnale gesserunt, non sua
fortitudine, sed Christi gratia eos protegente." — Heemann, ap. D'Aoh-
eey, Spicileg., vol. ii. p. 907, in-fol.
2 " Domine Deus, ut mihi dedisti hanc conjugem . . . nunc autem
pro amore tuo earn relinquo, tibique earn commendo. "
3 ' ' Non in manu diaboli relinquamus, sed potius nobiscum Deo pra?sen-
temus, divites enim sumus, et quocunque voluerimus libenter cum eis
succipiemur." These last words show that there already existed a custom
which afterwards degenerated into an abuse — that of demanding a dowry
with those who presented themselves for the novitiate.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 103
the zeal of so wealthy a man, said to his monks,
"We monks think ourselves good for something,
and see how we are outdone by this, layman, this
publican, this Zaccheus ! " x Odo would not, how
ever, admit him at once,- but, to try his vocation,
ordered him to go, and, for a whole year, earn his
bread by the work of his hands in carrying water,
cutting wood, and cleaning stables. The good
knight submitted without the least shame to work
so completely new to his habits.2
Mainsende, far from being discouraged by this
harshness, offered herself, on her side, to the new
church of St Martin, which she endowed with her
whole fortune.3 Those present shed tears when she
laid upon the altar the cradle that contained her
new-born child.4 The abbot imposed upon her the
same kind of trial as that of her husband ; she was
1 "Ecce nos monachi aliquid . . . fecisse putabamus, et tamen a
sa?culari Zacha?o publicano victi sumus." — Heemann, ap. D'Aoheey,
Spicileg., vol. ii.
2 " Vade et publice coram populo victum tuum laborando qua?re, aquam
ad tabernas portando."— Ibid.
3 " Mainsendis nullo timore terretur . . . super altare ducentas ar-
genti marcas ponit." — Ibid. To give an idea of what the property of
a very rich knight at this period might be, we will describe here, from
the Abbot Hermann, what constituted the fortune which this husband
and wife gave up entirely to the Abbey of St Martin — a great hotel, built
of stone, at Tournay (domum lapideam non parvoz amplitudinis), four
mills on the Ries, a fifth on the Scheldt, and two others super Costenten ;
the surrounding lands, with a farmhouse; a stxia\.(gregem equorum), which
was very profitable (equos magni pretii mdrivimus et vendidimus) — the
whole valued at about 1000 livres. Besides all this, a sum of money,
with which the abbey, which had not hitherto possessed possum quidem
terroi arabilis, might buy the lands which surrounded the church, and
some others also.
4 " Minimumque cum cuna super altare ponit, non sine lacrymis mul-
torum circumstantium." — Bnd.

104 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
to earn her living in the town by weaving, spin
ning, and carding wool, and have no food but the .
crusts which she begged here and there.1 The
ladies of Tournay pitied her, and sent provisions to
her by their maids. But she refused them, and
fulfilled the task allotted to her not merely with
out repugnance, but with joy. Being soon judged
worthy to enter the new monastery which the great
number of conversions had forced the abbot to set
up in the house formerly belonging to Eaoul, she
had the happiness of living for forty years, hum
ble and almost forgotten, in the very mansion of
which she had once been mistress.2 Such was the
conversion of the knight Eaoul d'Osmond and of
his wife ; " and I do not believe," says their son,
who has left us this narrative, " that the good
Lord can ever forget it." 3
Many rich and high-born knights, with their
wives and children, followed Eaoul's example ; 4
more than sixty noble ladies hastened to enter
as converts the Hotel d'Osmond, now become a
nunnery. We must remark, in concluding our study of the
1 " Vade per urbem, et victum qua?re . . . lanam pexendo, et si forte
tibi aliquis integrum panem dare voluerit, non suscipias, sed frusta panis
more pauperum conscissa." — Heemann, ap. D'Acheet, Spicileg., vol. ii.
2 "Exultat femina talibus pasci deliciis, pulsoque rubore, publice
eleemosynas petit, matronis qua? ha?c videbant flentibus, et per pedisse-
quas, &c. . . . Exultabat quod in domo cujus quondam domina fuerat,
nunc pro Deo tribulationem sustinebat." — Ibid., pp. 903, 910, 921.
3 " Cujus non credo pium Jesum posse oblivisci."— ibid., p. 908.
4 Ibid., pp. 909, 910. — See the curious trials to which Abbot Odo sub
jected his neophytes.

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 105
Catholic nobility of the eleventh century, that these Numerous
. . conversions
conversions, these devotions, these acts of generous among the
If iii.ls.1 3T1S"
humility, were by no means individual or excep- t°°racy;
tional. We should be less astonished to see from
time to time, in certain privileged places, some
few men of the highest type, some exceptional
Christians, offering so sublime a spectacle to the
world ; but it was, on the contrary, by large com
panies, in all countries, and during all the cen
turies properly called feudal, that the aristocracy
thus peopled with its most illustrious offspring
the monasteries which it had founded. The fact
is specially easy of proof in Germany, where pride
of blood was always so powerful. At Eeichenau
the greatest nobles disputed the honour of put
ting on the Benedictine cowl ; 1 at Einsiedlen the
monks beheld their solitude transformed into a
sort of seminary for young nobles, dukes, princes,
and barons ; 2 at Hirschau, at Schaffhausen, at St
Blaise, in the greatest monasteries of Germany,
especially in the eleventh century, there was such
a gathering of converts of noble race that every
where it became necessary to enlarge the different
monastic buildings in order to lodge them. Once
1 " Ingens ad Augiense monasterium cum propter florentissima illic
studia, turn religionis monachica? desiderio concursus, ita ut illustrissi-
morum Germania? magnatum liberi certatim cucullum exambirent,
potentissimi religiosissimique pontifices infulas abjicerent, ultimi mona
chorum esse expeterent." — Buoelin, Constant. Rhenana, ad ann. 807.
2 "Hue quoque se receperunt plures prima? nobilitatis totius Ger
mania? superioris viri, adeo ut principum, ducum, comitum et baronum
natu minorum veluti seminarium quoddam fuerit Eremus." — D. Calmet,
Diarium Helvet. Einsiedlen in German means solitude, hermitage.

106 THE NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES
admitted, they always sought the meanest tasks ;
the more illustrious was their birth, the lowlier
were the services they wished to render to the
community. "So that in the monasteries," says
the historian Bernold, " one saw counts cooking
in the kitchen, and margraves leading the pigs
out to feed." 1
The feudal aristocracy, then, still offered, in the
eleventh century, the marvellous spectacle which,
700 years before, had excited the triumphant admir
ation of St John Chrysostom, when he showed, with
legitimate pride, to the rich and learned Byzan
tines, the descendants of the most noble houses clad
in the dresses of servants or peasants, lodging under
thatched roofs, sleeping on hard beds, occupied in
planting, in watering, in carrying water, in fulfil
ling, as monks, the duties of the poorest labourers.2
1 "Ad qua? monasteria mirabilis multitudo nobilium et prudentium
virorum hac tempestate in brevi confugit, et depositis armis, &c. . . .
tanto in quam numero, ut ipsa monasteriorum a?dificia necessario ampli-
arint, eo quod non aliter in eis locum commanendi haberent. . . . Quanto
nobiliores erant in seculo, tanto se contemptibilioribus officiis occupari
desiderant : ut qui quondam erant comites et marchiones in seculo, nunc
in coquina et pistrino fratribus servire, et porcds eorum in campo pascere,
pro summis computent deliciis. Ibi nempe et porcarii et bubulci, prater
habitum, iidem sunt qui monachi." — Bernold., Chron., ad ann. 1083,
ap. Peetz, v. 439.
2 We have already spoken of the complaint which St John Chrysostom
puts into the mouth of a father who is lamenting that his son has be
come a monk. See the treatise called Adversus Oppugnatores Vitce Mm-
asticce, lib. ii. vol. i. , ed. Gaume : ' ' nepi$a\eo8ai i/i&Tiov aSp6v . . . vpbs
rbv ipov <petiyeiv, «ol tpvreieiv &cei Kal ilpSetv Kal u$pocpope7v, »col rh &\\a
Si) irdvra t& r£y povaxuv TroieTv, to. Sokovvto. efatu Kal euTeAi; itai ivoyti-
tiara.' ea-ra Be Kal ai/vir6Seros, Kal xa/i<H Ka8evS4ra (p. 72). . . . "OTax
ray euTfAeo-T^ptw aypomwv tKe'ipaiv arifl.6repov ahrbv r\fx<pi.«jjxivopiiui (p. 73).
. . . "Otiw diri \aparpov fiiv Sp/Mipepov yivovs, \ap.-rrpas Si ovuias, roaovrav
Be IXirlSav, irpbs iKeivnv ISaxriv 4\86vtb. tV oper^v " (p. 86).

WHICH THEY HAVE FOUNDED. 107
The feudal system, so much calumniated, thus
ennobled labour while sanctifying it, and justified
beforehand the words of a distinguished writer of
our own days — " In an aristocracy it is not exactly
work which is despised, but work done for gain.
Work is glorious when undertaken at the call of
ambition or of simple virtue." 1
It was then, we repeat, not only their property, what the
their money, their castles, their estates, which hoped for
• - ii /-, *n becom-
these Christian nobles gave to God; it was also, ing monks.
and above all, their persons and their lives. On
the stone of monastic altars they sacrificed not
only love of wealth, but their habits of life, the
distinctions of their rank, their delicacy, their
luxury, their pride, supreme and unconquerable
passion ! It was not for the common people, for
the poor, for vassals and inferiors, that these
knights, lords, and princes of royal blood under
the feudal system, founded and endowed monas
teries. Nor was it that they might live as mere
spectators of the virtues and austerities of others.
No : it was that they themselves might renounce
all the seductions of a pomp and greatness of
which modern society cannot offer even a shadow,
since she has not left standing a single greatness
which is worth sacrificing ; it was to exchange
wealth and power for the stern joys of labour,
mortification, and solitude — to substitute for their
wild and warlike mood the gentle humility of the
1 Tocqueville, de la Democratic en Amerique, vol. iii. c. 18.

108 NOBLES PEOPLE THE MONASTERIES, ETC.
cloister. What they wished, and what they ob
tained, was to till, among the humblest and most
obscure Christians, the field of penitence; to gather
there, as elsewhere, the first-fruits of courage, de
votion, and honour ; to form the van in the war
against sin and against the oppressors of the
Church ; and to give the first and deepest wounds
to the enemies of God and of men's souls.

SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO SOCIETY. 109

CHAPTER III.

SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO SOCIETY. —
THEIR SHARE IN THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION
OF STATES.
Temporal utility of religious orders in maintaining the unity of Christen
dom. — The monks keep in memory their humblest as well as their
most powerful benefactors. — The rolls of the dead. — Monks were able
to resist abuses and injustice.— They repressed the violence of the
nobles. — They strongly defended the rights of the poor. — The people
had full confidence in them. — They exercised a great influence on the
laws. — Conduct of monks in the English Parliament.
In the preceding chapters we have shown the power- Value to
ful and fruitful influence of the monastic spirit over the reli
gious or-
an important part of that feudal nobility which ruled <lers.
Europe in the middle ages. We must now pass
quickly in review the service done by the sons of
St Benedict in various branches of social life until
the end of the eleventh century, and this will assist
us to complete our description and explanation of
the impulse communicated by the monks to a pro
foundly Catholic society. The chief source of their
influence lay in the deep respect naturally felt by
the believing and enthusiastic minds of that epoch
for the faithful observance of Gospel precepts, the

110 SERVICES RENDERED BY
constant practice of Gospel commands, and, yet
more, those miracles of stern penance and of holy
energy which accompanied the foundation of all
the principal monasteries. But it must be remem
bered that they had also titles of another kind not
less direct nor less positive, but more human, to
the confidence and affection of Christian people,
through the manner in which they supplied some of
the most legitimate needs of the world.1 This was,
in all times, one of the great glories of the mon
astic orders. Founded exclusively for a spiritual
\J purpose, and having nothing for their object but
individual sanctification, they nevertheless contri
buted everywhere and always to the general pros
perity, to the greatness and force of lay society.
Never were the words of Christ, " Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
things shall be added unto you," more admirably
verified. And, thanks to this divine promise, the
historian of the Monastic Orders may fearlessly
/ challenge his rivals to show any class of men what
ever, who at any time have rendered to temporal
society and the earthly wellbeing of humanity,
services comparable in number and importance
to those which the world owes to monks.
1 " From the depths of the Thebaid St Euphrasia begged the Emperor
Theodosius to enfranchise, and, in case of their embracing a religious
life, to dower, all the slaves who cultivated her father's immense estates :
' ' Omnes constitutes sub jugo servitutis manumitte, et eis legitima
concede. Manda actoribus patris mei ut omne debitum dimittant agri-
colis, quod a die patris mei usque ad hanc diem reddebant."— Vit. S.
Euphrosynce, c. 13, ap. Rosweyd, p. 354.

THE MONKS TO SOCIETY. Ill
It was they who, more than any other, after the
Papacy itself, served to tighten the bonds of unity
between the different nations constituting that
great body entitled, with such eloquent correctness,
"Christendom." Every man who has given any
care to the study of manners and events in the
middle ages is astonished at the identity of ideas,
institutions, and customs which then reigned
throughout the public and private life of different
nations. Except in rare circumstances, and among
people of exceptional manners, the most generous
hospitality rendered journeys much more frequent
and easy than wTe are now apt to imagine. To
describe it truly, Christian Europe formed but one
state, or rather one association — under separate
masters, indeed, but subjected to laws and usages
almost identical, by which no Christian was re
garded as quite a foreigner. This order of things,
which had the Catholic faith for its source, the
Church of Eome for its rule, and the Crusades for
its results, was entirely changed in later days by
the encroachments of legislation, and finally de
stroyed by the Eenaissance and the Eeformation ;
but it existed in full vigour from the ninth to the
thirteenth century, and monks were its principal
instruments. They it was who taught the races
under their influence a more liberal sentiment than
that of narrow nationality, and discouraged that
pagan patriotism, revived in our own days, which
consists in looking upon every foreigner as an ob-

y

1/

S

112 SERVICES RENDERED BY
j ect of suspicion or hostility. An abbot of the ninth
century could say, with good reason, to a travelling
monk, that wherever he should find, the Christian
religion, there he would find his country.1 Mon
asteries were, in fact, peopled by monks from all
countries, and all countries alike received the lessons
and benefits of the sons of St Benedict.2 As perma
nent missionaries, they had, so to speak, no house
hold fires but those which burned on the altars of
truth and duty. No jealous police asked the monk
whence he came or whither he went when .the
command of his superior took him from Ireland
to Calabria,3 from Hungary to Spain,4 or from
Picardy to Denmark,5 carrying with him light
and virtue. No pagan legislation restrained the
generous courage of strangers who wished to en
rich a neighbourhood by their devotion and their
labours. And just as the great abbeys sent their
children abroad without distinction of country, so
the munificence of princes and nobles did not
hesitate to extend itself over other lands than
their own, when they had sufficiently provided for
the wants of those religious establishments which
had a direct title to their care. In this manner
Alfred, not content with numerous donations to
1 " Docet enim ut ubicumque religionem suam, hoc est christianam,
invenerit, suam quoque patriam recognoscat." — B. Luri Feeeaeiensis,
Epist., n. 106, ed. Baluzii.
2 Thus St Remi of Rheims collected considerable dues in th« dio
ceses of Mayence and Liege. — See Gueraed, Polyptique de St Remi,
p. xxvii.
3 St Cataldo. * St Martin de Dumes. 6 St Anschaire.

THE MONKS TO SOCIETY. 113
English monasteries, extended his bounty to vari
ous abbeys of France, Brittany, and Ireland : thus
Athelstane, another Anglo-Saxon king, sent a con
siderable sum to St Gall, in Switzerland;1 and
Edward the Confessor gave lands in Oxfordshire
to St Denis, in France ; 2 and German bishops
and princes endowed in their own towns establish
ments which were specially reserved for monks
from Scotland and Ireland.3 We will not speak
of the generosity of the German emperors towards
Monte Cassino, for this might have had for its
object the strengthening of their pretensions to
the sovereignty of Italy ; but when Castilian kings
loaded with presents the French abbey of Cluny,
it is evident that they simply yielded to a desire
to give in this manner a proof of their affectionate
admiration for a religious institution which they
regarded, with reason, as a power and glory com
mon to all Christendom. ;
In return, the monasteries opened their doors Monastic
hostelries.
to all travellers and all strangers, whatever might
be their origin or their destination. Abbeys were
the principal inns of the time. Pilgrimages, espe
cially those to Eome, to St Michael of Monte
Gargano, to St James of Compostello, and to the
1 In 929. 2 Digby, Mores Catholici, vol. x. p. 650.
3 These monasteries bore the name of monasteria Scotorum; there
were such at Metz, Verdun, Wiirzburg, Ratisbon, Erfurt, Cologne,
Vienna, and elsewhere. That of Ratisbon still stands, preserved by the
express will of King Louis of Bavaria, and inhabited by a small number-
of Scottish Benedictines. When we visited it in 1834 there were four
monks and two pupils.
VOL. VI. H

114 SERVICES RENDERED BY
Holy Land, which then drew so many believers
from their homes, brought every day to the monas
tic doors Christians from all lands and of all ranks.
The situation of abbeys generally determined the
route taken by pilgrims. By assuring to these
indefatigable travellers a peaceful shelter and a
brotherly welcome, by bringing together and bring
ing into sympathy men whom faith and repentance
had drawn from their distant dwellings, these mon
astic caravansaries became, even without such in
tention on the part of their inhabitants, very im
portant intermediary points for the intercourse of
nation with nation.1
Association This wide-reaching link of unity which we have
of abbeys .
among iust remarked was much facilitated by the rela-
themselves. _
tions of the princes and nobles of various countries
to the foreign monasteries which they enriched by
their bounty, as well as by associations formed
among themselves by abbeys belonging to different
provinces or kingdoms. These two customs date
from the beginning of the Benedictine order. In the
eleventh century, especially, the ramifications of new
orders and special congregations spread the empire
of a powerful confraternity over all the kingdoms
1 See L' Histoire de la Grande-Sauve, by M. l'Abbe- Cieot, vol. i. p.
504, for the curious description of the Voie de pSlerinage de Vabbaye de
la Grande-Sauve a St Jacques de Compostelle, with an indication of all
the halts in different churches and monasteries which served as stations
at almost every day's march. The learned historian remarks judiciously
that the search for ancient pilgrim-roads is at least as interesting as that
for Roman roads ; and he has given himself up to this search with equal
erudition and sagacity. '

THE MONKS TO SOCIETY. 115
of Christendom. Cluny and Monte Cassino were,
like Eome, centres to which all tended, and whence
the spirit of charity and devotion shone out to the
very extremities of Europe. The obituaries of the
principal monasteries bear witness in the most
touching manner to that union of hearts and com
munity of prayers which drew together the most
dissimilar races, and enriched the Christian mind
with the most precious treasures. At the Abbey
of the Grande-Sauve, for instance, the monks of
Aquitaine celebrated yearly, by solemn services
and extraordinary alms, the memory of monks
or canons affiliated to their association at Valen
ciennes, at Saragossa, at Burgos, at Eome, at
Pavia, at Corbie, at Aurillac, at Orleans, at Monte
Cassino, at Laon, at Meaux, at Anchin, even at
Lincoln and Bardeney in England.1
These obituaries also prove the holy and admir
able equality before God established by the monks
among their friends and benefactors of all nations
and all conditions. Opening, at hazard, that of
the great Abbey of St Germain des Pres, which con
tains the table of obits or notices of the monks and
benefactors of the house from Pepin le Bref to Louis
le Gros, we find on one single page, the following
entries : " Clement, layman, our friend. . . . Mam-
burge, our friend. . . . Drogon, knight, our associ
ate. . . . Louis, King of the French. . . . Eichard
1 See L'Extrait du necrologie de I'abbaye de la Grande-Sauve, ap. Cieot,
Histoire de la Grande-Sauve, vol. i. p. 500.

116 SERVICES RENDERED BY
Third, Duke of the Normans. . . . Adelaide, a
woman. . . . Francis, a bishop. . . . Constance,
queen. . . . Chrollinde and Bertrude, daughters
of counts. . . . Philip, King of the French. . . .
Louis, Emperor of the Eomans. . . . Obolerius,
knight of Dreux ; " and further on — " Odo, lay
man, our servant. . . . Charles II. , emperor, friend
of churches."1
Another custom, incontestably ancient,2 witnesses
also to the unity of faith and the spirit of charity
which attracted towards each other Christians of dif
ferent races and nations. Whenever a monk died,
notice was sent to the associated churches and con
vents so as to obtain prayers for the dead. These
notices, written at the top of a long band of parch
ment wrapped round a cylinder, bore the name of
" Eolls of the Dead." Generally the formula was
very simple ; 3 but in case of the death of some
celebrated man or some illustrious personage, the
most eloquent monk in the community took pen
in hand to celebrate the virtues of the defunct.
This encyclical letter was then confided to a courier
1 " Clemens laicus, noster amicus. . . . Mamburgis nostra arnica. . . .
Drogo miles nostra? congregationis. . . . Adelaidis femina. Constancia
regina. . . . Odo laicus, famulus noster. . . . Depositio Caroli quoque
secundi imperatoris, ecclesiarum amatoris." — Necrologe Ancien, months
of July and August, apud Dom Bouillaet, Histoire de St Germain des
Prfa, pieces justificat. , p. cxiv.
2 See the learned work of M. Leopold Delisle on the rolls of the dead
in the Bibl. de VEcole des chartes, vol. iii. 2d series, p. 371 et seq.
3 "Such a one, a child of our congregation, is dead. We conjure all
the faithful engaged in the religious life to intercede for him with God."
— See D. Maktene, De Ritibus, vol. iv. col. 794.

THE MONKS TO SOCIETY. 117
or rotulifer1 who went with it from church to
church, from abbey to abbey, carrying the mourn
ful message hung at his neck.2 On seeing him, Rolls of
the monks ran to meet him with anxious questions,
" Where do you come from 1 What new misfor
tune have you to tell us of ? " 3 After having an
swered these inquiries, the messenger unrolled tKe
fatal missive, and as soon as the abbot or prior
had read it, the. bell tolled to call the monks to
church, that they might pray together for the soul
of the dead.
1 " Roluliger, rotulifer, brevifer, tomifer, rotularius," &c. The roll-
bearer was to be entertained wherever he presented himself : ' ' Ciirsorem
. . . reficite lassum, operite nudum, et itineris ei quantulumcumque addite
supplementum.'' He was even furnished with money ; at St Germain des
Pre"s, for example, he received four deniers, and the lay clerk was to
attend to all his wants : " Cantor debet roUigero ministrare." — Hist, de
St Germain des Pris, pieces justificatives, clxx., and L. Delisle, loc cit.,
pp. 370-373. 2 " Inde cutis colli teritur pra? pondere rolli.
Rolligeri collum nequit ultra tollere rollum.''
— Rot. de S. Brunone, No. 173.
3 " Tomiferum fratres ut conspiciunt venientem :
Qui vestros apices fert nimium lugubres,
Unde domo qua?runt, vel qui gems, unde Rotulus
Unde vel errantes prof erat unde pedes."
— Ex rotul. Gauzberti, ap. D. Maet^ne, Hist, de Marm. , vol. i. No. 45.
The frequent presence of these roll-bearers in certain countries spread
great melancholy there. Thus, one of the most original poets of his
time, Baudry de Bourgueil, at an epoch when faith was beginning to be
weakened, laments the continual sight of the birds of ill omen : —
" Obsecro jam parcat tarn ssepe venire veredus ;
Per nimioa usus nimium sua verba veremur.
Vivant praelati pro quorum morte vagatur
Vultur edax, corvnsque niger, volitansque veredus,
Necnon bubo canens dirum mortalibus omen,
Significant mortem, prcesaganturcrae cadaver.
Sic rotulus semper mortem eujuslibet affert.
Ergo sit a nostris penitus conventibus exsul,
Nam si ssepe venit, nummi mercede carebit. "
— Duchesn., Script. Franc, vol. iv. p. 253.

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The monks thus became the countrymen and
brethren of all Christians ; thanks to their gentle
and incessant influence, charity and faith could
henceforth bring about among men the only
equality which does not imply confusion and the
destruction of every social hierarchy ; they were
able to realise, for a time, that brotherhood of na
tions which men have since sought, but in vain, to
found upon industrial greed and the love of gain.
But the Monastic Orders exercised a yet more
evident and more fruitful action upon the princi
ples and rules of political constitutions in the king
doms of Christendom. Sharing with kings and
nobles in all the important acts of national life,1
the abbots of the principal monasteries had seats
in the Diets of Germany and Hungary, in the
Cortes of Spain, in the Parliaments of England and
Sicily, and in all the public assemblies of France
and Italy. Hither they brought that knowledge,
that order, that practical wisdom which all, willing
or unwilling, must acknowledge to have belonged
to the chiefs elected by the religious orders.
They re- >/ Many of those thus elected had, before their
abuses and conversion, filled the most important positions in
injustice. . .
armies or in the world, and the people felt that
nowhere could kings find more disinterested ad
visers, nor nations worthier or more independent
representatives. 1 Twenty-nine Benedictine abbots were summoned to the consecration
of Philip, son of Henry I. of France, in 1059.

THE MONKS TO SOCIETY. 119
The regular monasteries everywhere offered mo
dels of good government ; in them authority was
scrupulously respected, but at the same time it was
tempered with prudence. The three constituent
elements of a good political organisation were rep
resented there by the absolute obedience of the
community to the orders of the abbot, and the obli
gatory intervention of the chapters and the council
of deans; by the election of superiors, reserved to
the elders; and by the free suffrage granted to all
in the disposition of monastic property.
Beside their great experience of men and affairs,
the monks brought to the councils of kings and
nations a courage which did not recoil before any
danger. Nowhere did the fatal tendency of men
to abuse the power intrusted to them by God meet
with so effectual a restraint as from the sons and
brothers of St Dunstan, of St Gerard of Hungary, of
St Dominic of Silos, and of the many other monks
who remained immovable in presence of tyrannical
princes. The right of resisting unjust power, which
formed the basis of all political constitutions in the
middle ages, found inexhaustible nourishment and
unfailing support in the monastic spirit.
We are often asked, What is the disposition upon
which every guarantee of order, of security, and
of independence, invented by political wisdom, is
founded ? what is the virtue without which all these
guarantees are ridiculous % It is, undoubtedly, that
moral energy which inspires men with the ability

120 SERVICES RENDERED BY
and the desire to oppose themselves to injustice, to
protest against the abuse of power, even when this
injustice and this abuse do not directly affect them
selves. Now this moral energy was inherent in the
character and profession of the monks. We have
seen a hundred examples of it in the preceding
pages ; we shall find a hundred others in every
volume of monastic annals till the time of the
ruin of monastic independence and the triumph of
the Commendam by the concordat of Leo X. At
the distance of a thousand years from each other,
the same calm and invincible courage appears in
the reprimand addressed by St Benedict to King
Totila,1 and in the answer of the obscure prior of
Solesmes to the Seigneur of Sable, against whom
he had been compelled to maintain the privileges
of his convent. This Seigneur of Sable" one day
meeting the prior on the bridge of the town, said
to him, " Monk, if I did not fear God, I should
throw you into the Sarthe." " My lord," replied
the monk, "if you fear God I have nothing to
fear." 2 Scarcely did a village begin to rise in the
neighbourhood of a monastery, before freemen, too
weak to resist the attacks of Frankish feudatories,
came toshelter themselves under the revered pa
tronage of the monks. Commerce implored their <
1 S. Geegoeii Magni, Vit. S. Patr. Bened., c. 15.
2 MS. de la Bibl. royale, quoted in VEssai historique sur Vabbaye de
Solesmes, 1846, p. 46. This prior's name was Jean Bougler ; he was
elected in 1515, and ornamented his church with some remarkable sculp
tures, that are still to be admired.

THE MONKS TO SOCIETY. 121
aid against the greed of the inferior nobles, indus
try against the vexations of taxation, the feeblest
class against the oppression of the strong and
violent. Over these various kinds of men the
monks extended that unlimited protection which
was secured to themselves by royal charter and
the respect of nations ; they had a heartfelt desire
to share with their vassals the freedom bestowed
upon themselves by Dagobert and his successors.
In the middle ages the abbots of great monas
teries generally made themselves remarkable for
an intrepid zeal, not only in defending the rights
and privileges of their order, but also in punishing
all kinds of oppression. Nearly all deserved the
eulogy pronounced on Abbot Godehart, afterwards
raised to the bishopric of Hildesheim, of whom it
was said that kings and princes feared as much as
they honoured him.1
To recall oppressors to their duty, the monks
knew how, at need, to use the sternest language,
being convinced, as is said by the historian of the
venerable Abbot Peter of Perouse, that it is need
ful not only to touch, but to sting, the guilty; fol- Theyi

lowing the saying of Solomon, where it is written, thevioience
" The words of the wise should pierce the heart bies.
like goads, or like nails driven into a wall."2 Born,
1 "Fuit ergo regibus et primoribus, et formidini et honori." — Vit. S.
Godehardi auct. , Wolfeeo, ej. eequal. in Act. SS. 0. B. , vol. viii. p. 362.
2 " Potentum non formidavit aliquando personas delinquentes, sed as-
peris objurgationibus, devios monendo ad gremium quos poterat sancta?
revocabat Ecclesia? ; non ignorans delinquentes, non tantum palpandos,

122 SERVICES RENDERED BY
as we have seen, for the most part among the
feudal nobility, they none the less braved the pas
sions and interests of that nobility whenever it was
needful for the maintenance of the rights of the
poor or those of the Church.
We may quote, on this point, a story of En-
guerrand, Abbot of St Eiquier in the eleventh
century,1 who, says his biographer, eager for jus
tice, feared no earthly power.2 It was the custom
at that time for all the gentlemen of Ponthieu to
meet yearly to celebrate the festival of the blessed
Eiquier, and to honour him whom they regarded
as their suzerain and heavenly patron.3 Now the
Count of Ponthieu, lord of the province, was so
much afraid of the abbot's just severity,4 that he
did not dare either to visit him or to omit the
duty of presenting himself before him at the head
of his knights. Enguerrand, on the contrary,
sought an opportunity to reproach the Count
openly for his crimes against God and against the
poor, — and did it with such harshness, says the
sed etiam pungendos esse ut resipiscant, Salomone dicente : Verba sapi-
entum quasi stimuli, et quasi clavi defixi in altum." — Act. SS. 0. B., Ap
pend., vol. viii. p. 647.
1 Died in 1046.
2 " llle justitia? famelicus . . . constantia quippe interna? fortitudinis,
qua? menti ejus inerat, multam potentiam superbium edomabat : quia
fiducia sanctitatis se vallante nullius potentiam verebatur. " — Chron. Cen-
tul., lib. iv. c. 6 and 8, in DAcheey, Spicileg., vol. ii.
3 " Antiquitus servata est consuetudo, ut in festo S. Rieharii tota Pon-
tivorum militia Centulam veniret, et veluti patria? Domino, ac sua? salutis
tutori et advocato, solemnem curiam faciebant."— Poid.
4 " Magno timore erga ilium agebatur, quippe apud quem humani in-
genii pravitati nihil successum sciebat." — Ibid.

(i

THE MONKS TO SOCIETY. 123
hagiographer, that one would have supposed him a
master speaking to his servant, rather than a monk
speaking to a count.1
r- The monks, however, did not restrict themselves
to reprimanding great criminals or denouncing
flagrant misdeeds ; the least violation of the laws of
eternal justice, the smallest attack on the rights of
the poor, was sufficient reason for them to intervene,
to protect, to expose themselves to a thousand an
noyances, and sometimes to a thousand dangers,
by threatening the oppressors with the wrath of
eaven. Thus, Ysarn, Abbot of St Victor, at Mar
seilles, employed by turns gentleness and severity
towards a robber-lord of the environs of Castellane,
in getting back from him the pigs and sheep which
he had stolen from the neighbouring peasants,2 and
in obliging him to expiate his robberies by becoming They bold-
a monk. Thus Amico, a holy monk of Monte Cas- the rights
• iii ^ -i of the poor.
smo, being appealed to by a poor labourer, whose
only ox had been taken from him by a neighbour
ing knight, did not hesitate to leave his cell for the
purpose of converting the robber. After having
in vain exhausted all the resources of persuasion,
Amico told the thief that he would die by violence,
which, in fact, came true the very same day — the
i " Ut miro modo non comitem a monacho, sed servum a domino in-
crepari putares." — Chron. Centul., ibid.
2 " Adalardus quidam erat sa?cularis pompa?, ferus homo nimis et pes-
simus . . . porcos videlicet, arietes, ca?teraque id genus suis usibus com-
moda . . . abripiens. "— Vit. S. Tsarni, auct. Anonym, (equal., c. 14.
in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. viii., ad. ann. 1048.

124 SERVICES RENDERED BY
knight was killed in an affray, and the ox restored
to the peasant by the dead man's relations.1 In
the same way, St Eomuald, having retired to an
abbey in the Pyrenees, found himself obliged to
interfere in a case where a proud and wealthy
count had carried off the cow of a poor labourer.
The count remained inflexible, declaring that he
would eat that very day at dinner a steak from
his vassal's fat cow ; but he died, choked by the
first mouthful he tried to swallow.2
The protection which the people thus received
from the monks while living, was also sought from
them after their death. St Peter Damian relates
how a poor woman in Tuscany, from whom a certain
1 " Cuidam rustico rapuit solum quem possidebat bovem. . . . Erat
siquidem vir Dei afflictis valde compatiens et super oppressos pia gestans
viscera. . . . Coapit eum rogare ut bovem suum sibi redderet. . . . Scito,
homo miserrime, repentinam tibi immmere mortem, quoniam non es
veritus omnes ministros Domini parvi pendere ; ideoque, crudelis, vita
extorquetur a te hodie." — Act. SS. 0. B., vol. viii. p. 653, ad. ann.
1045. Gregory of Tours (Vit. Fatr. except., vol. ii. p. 450) relates
the following story of B. Nicetius protecting the harvests of the poor :
" Cum propinqui ad urbem, cadente sole, fixis tentoriis mansionem para-
rent, illi confestim laxatis equitibus per segetes pauperum dimiserunt;
quod cernens B. Nicetius, misericordia motus, ait : Expellite quantocius
cquos vestros a segete pauperis, alioquin removebo vos a communione mea.
At illi indignantes dixerunt : Qua?nam est ha?c causa quam loqueris ; ad-
huc enim episcopalem apicem non est adeptus, et jam excommunicationem
minaris? . . . Tunc cursu rapido abiens, ejecit equos a segete."
2 " Comes quidam superbus et tumidus. . . . Ecce autem rusticus
cellam Romualdi festinus aggreditur, jactura? sua? casum clamosis ulu-
latibus vociferatur, spem suam et sua? domus ablatam esse conqueritur.
. . . Cujus preces comes protervo spiritu respuit, et quem saporem cras-
sa? vacca? lumbi potuissent habere, se ipso die gustaturum esse asseruit.
Adveniente hora prandii, vacca? carnes allata? sunt. ... In ipso edendi
initio comes frustum bovini lumbi abscindens, sibi in os misit quod re
pente in gutture tam immobiliter ha?sit. . . . Sicque terribili morte
necatus est."— S. Petei Dam., Vit. S. Rom., No. 17.

THE MONKS TO SOCIETY. 125
Castaldio had stolen her cow, ran weeping to the
church where this same St Eomuald was buried,
crying out, " Ah, St Romuald, protect my poverty !
do not despise my desolate condition, but give me
back the beast they have unj ustly taken from me!"1
Her prayer was answered ; the robber, as if driven
by some supernatural influence, gave back his prey,
and went to his house, where he died.
The same faith prevailed in all Christian coun
tries. At Perrecy, in Burgundy,2 a much-dreaded
knight, named Hugh Bidulphe, had, on the occa
sion of a riot, beaten a peasant belonging to the
Abbey of Fleury, and broken his arm ;3 the wound
ed man, finding no one to avenge him, entered the
Abbey Church, and approaching the altar, sacred
to St Benedict, laid his arm on it, saying, " My Entire
lord St Benedict, I acknowledge that I am thy placed in
" J them by
serf, and that thou art my master; look now atthePe°Ple
1 " Eheu, sancte Romualde, exaudi miseram, ne despicias desolatam et
redde mihi gubernatricem meam injuste sublatam." — S. Pete. Dam., I. c.
No. 104.
2 Perrecy, in the Charollois, had been given to the Abbey of Fleury in
840 by Eccard, Count of Autun, Macon, and Chalons (see his will, and
all the valuable cartulary of this priory in PjSoaed, Reeueil de pieces curi-
euses servant a I' Histoire de Bourgogne, pp. 22 and 46). Part of the curious
church of Perrecy reproduces, on a smaller scale, but with exactitude,
the magnificent porch of Fleury or of St Benoit-sur-Loire. There is
nothing more interesting for the history of art than this influence of the
mother over the daughter, even in architecture.
3 " Cujusdam seditionis in eadem villa (Patriciaco) inter equites exorta?
occasione, una dierum aggressus quemdam rusticum Guarinum nomine, a
loco de Cumbis cognominatum, et ipsum de Patris familia progenitum,
nulla justa? querela? existente causa, tarn erudeliter verberavit, ut ei bra-
chium contriverit." — Radulph. Toitakius, Mon. Floriac, de mirac. S.
Ben., in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. vi. p. 431.

126 SERVICES RENDERED BY
this wounded arm — it was thine, and no one else
had any right to it ; if thou hadst broken it, I
should have had nothing to complain of. But, my
lord, why hast thou allowed Hugh Bidulphe, to
whom it did not belong at all, to crush it in this
manner % Know that in future I shall not be able
to do any service to thee or thine, unless, indeed,
thou wilt take a just vengeance on him for me." 1
The monks, gathering round the altar, joined their
tears and prayers to those of the sufferer. We are
not told whether he was cured ; but, a few days
after, the wicked knight began to feel an acute pain
in the same arm as that which he had broken for the
peasant ; the illness spread to his whole body, and he
shortly died, a prey to the most terrible anguish.2
By such acts and such narratives the monks
accustomed the oppressed to feel a confidence in
their rights and in the justice of heaven. They
thus sowed continually in the midst of the Christian
world an incorruptible seed of strength and free
dom, which, marvellously mingled with respect for
legitimate authority, was destined to render im
possible among Catholic nations a return to pagan
1 " Sancte Benedicte, mi domine, tuum me profiteor servum, et te meum
jure dominum : cernis hoc contritum brachium : tuum erat, et prater
te nemo alius. . . . Si tu illud confregisses, adversus te nnllam haberem
qna?stionem, quoniam est tui juris. Sed, mi domine, quare permisisti ut
Hugo Bidulphus, cui in nullo obnoxium est, illud contereret ? " — Radulph
Toitaeitjs, ibid.
2 " Brachium enim ipsius ejusdem lateris, cujus et rustici brachium
verbere demolitus fuerat, cum toto humero tanta vi a?gritudinis pervasum
est, ut omnino inutile factum . . . eodem morbo omnia ipsius membra per-
currente. " — Ibid.

THE MONKS TO SOCIETY. 127
tyranny. St Columba, the founder of lona, the influence
/-< i • i of monks
monastic apostle of the Celtic races, was known, on the
laws.
even in the sixth century, to use his immense influ
ence in Scotland and Ireland for bringing about
the enfranchisement of slaves. At one time he
refused to cure the foster-father of the Scottish
king, except at the price of freedom for a poor
Irish slave;1 at another, he sent a sword with an
ivory handle, the most valuable article he possessed,
to ransom a man of the lower class, who had been
condemned to slavery as a murderer and sent to
lona to expiate his crime.2
v This was not all : monks laboured to bring the
laws and customs, whose exponents they often
were, into subjection to humane ideas ; their influ
ence predominated in courts and assemblies of all
kinds, where their places were always reserved
among the bishops and barons, and where there
were often associated with them both citizens and
peasants.3 For a long time abbots formed the
1 " Quandam Scoticam postulavit servam humanitatis miserationem
liberandam. . . . Scito quia si mihi hanc peregrinam liberari captivam
nolueris . . . citius morieris." — Adamnan., Vit. S. Columbm, ap.
Bolland., Act. Junii, vol. ii. p. 220.
2 Ibid., p. 223.
3 For example, in 1039, at a trial between the monks of Redon and the
chaplains of the Dnke of Bretagne : " Tunc episcopi simul cum abbatibus
qui illic aderant, et optimates, et milites, ruricola? nee non et burgenses,
et etiam ipsi judices, uno ore conclamaverunt monachorum causam esse
justam, clericorum vero injustam." In the deed of foundation of the
Abbey of Rille, in 1150, we see that the Sire de Fougeres convoked,
with the clergy of his estates, " maximam partem baronum suorum, bur-
gensium et rusticorum. " These two deeds are quoted in the excellent
Histoire des peuples Bretons, by M. Aurelien de Courson, vol. ii. p. 218.

128 SERVICES RENDERED BY
majority in the English Parliament : it was owing
to them that the wisest and most durable consti
tution that the world has ever known was able to
establish itself and take firm root. We have seen
the monk Hedda presiding as Bishop of Winches
ter at the drawing up of a code for the protection
of labourers and the poor. In this code, promul
gated in 692 by the Anglo-Saxon King Ina, with
the consent of his nobles, it was expressly stipu
lated that serfs forced by their masters to work on
Sunday should be immediately enfranchised.
We borrow from one of the most learned writers
on early English history the following testimony :
" Although English bishops may have often tried
to extend their privileges beyond fitting boundaries,
yet the existence of an order possessed of liberties
which kings cannot infringe is in itself a direct and
efficacious guarantee of the rights of other classes
of the community. However powerful the nobles
may have been, it is doubtful whether they would
have been able to maintain themselves against the
monarchy if they had been deprived of the support
conduct of of the abbots and bishops, who were placed in the
monks in pit mi
the English first rank as peers of the realm. The mitre has
Parlia- *
ment. resisted many blows which would have broken the
helmet, and the crosier has kept more foes in awe
than the lance. It is, then, to these prelates that
we chiefly owe the maintenance of the form and
the spirit of free government, secured to us not by
force but by law ; and the altar has thus been the

THE MONKS TO SOCIETY. 129
corner-stone of our ancient constitution."1 Now
it must not be forgotten that in England, until the
twelfth century, not only the abbots who sat in Par
liament, but also the primate, and nearly all the
bishops, were monks, and elected by monks.
1 Sir F. Palgrave, Hist, of England, 1831, Anglo - Saxon period,
p. 70. It is, however, this same author who declares that he can only
explain the austerities of St Dunstan's youth by supposing him to have
been mad.

VOL. VI.

130 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO

CHAPTER IV.
SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO SCIENCE,
EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY.
Cultivation of literature in monasteries. — Love of books among the
monks. — Monastic schools.— Fame of St Gall.— The Ekkehards and
the Notkers. — Studies prescribed by all monastic rules. — Monasteries
centres of light and intellectual life. — Monks remarkable for literary
zeal from St Pachomius to St Bernard. — Holy Scripture the principal
study of monks. — The Bible not studied by the clergy only. — Educa
tion of children intrusted to abbeys.— Most schools had monks for
masters. — Public instruction almost entirely centred in cloisters. —
Two sorts of schools in monasteries. — Education which laymen received
there. — Monastic schools for women. — Learned nuns. — Antiquity of
monastic libraries. — Abbey libraries not solely theological. — But for
the monks we should have possessed nothing of classic antiquity. —
Transcription of MSS. by monks. — Spiritual goal of their literary
labours. — Special services rendered to history by monks in France,
Germany, England, and Italy. — Qualities of monastic historians.
cultivation We now reach the borders of a region much
ture in more fully explored than that through which our
monas- . .
teries. path has hitherto lain, and we will profit by this to
abridge, as much as may be, the task we have im
posed upon ourselves. The outcries raised against
the religious orders through many centuries, by
ignorance, hatred, and cupidity, have gradually
ceased, so far at least as concerns the literary and
scientific side of the institution ; these outcries

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 131
now come only from that lowest stratum of the
mob where error and falsehood survive long after
they have been abandoned by those who at first
believed in them. Men capable of judging, even
those most superficially versed in historic know
ledge, are aware by this time that to speak of
monkish ignorance would be only to proclaim
their own. Nevertheless, as the echo of these
worn-out calumnies still makes itself heard from
time to time even in books and lectures intended
for the young, it may be useful to recapitulate here
certain undeniable facts- as to the nature and
extent of the services rendered to literature and
public instruction by the Monastic Orders, taking
care, in our researches, not to come further down
than the age of St Gregory VIL, and that which
immediately preceded St Bernard.
When the new forms of Christian society had
been worked out through a thousand obstacles and
a thousand storms, the persevering efforts of the
Church and of the Benedictine army were required
to establish that system of knowledge and instruc
tion which naturally accompanied Christian civi
lisation. Illustrious monks, such as Bede, Alcuin,
Eabanus Maurus, for a long time laboured unre
mittingly for this end, and during the whole course
of the tenth century their successors devoted them
selves with equal zeal and success to the care of
education and to the culture of literature, the future
progress of which remained entirely in their hands.

132 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
study pre- i As we have no desire to follow Mabillon x and
scribed b;
all monas
tic rules.

an monas- Ziep-elbauer2 in their incontrovertible demonstration
t.in rnlps ©

of the immense literary and scientific labours of
their order, we will content ourselves with showing
that, from the fall of the Eoman empire until the
thirteenth century, it was owing to monks that
learning, study, and education were sheltered from
the ravages of barbarism, and received that develop
ment which suited a Catholic and military society.
All the monastic rules agreed in authorising or
ordaining the study of literature. The oldest of
all, that of St Pachomius, is very distinct on this
point. It requires that every monk shall be able to
read and write. When one who could not do this
presented himself, they immediately put an alphabet
into his hands.3 The rule of St Benedict assigned
to every monk four hours daily for reading — that
is, for study. Cassiodorus, the contemporary and
rival of the great St Benedict, made his vast Abbey
of Viviers, in Calabria, a real academy. He com
posed, for the use of the children under his charge,
a special treatise, in which he prepared them for
the study of Holy Scripture by detailed instruc
tion in grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic,
music, geometry, and astronomy — in other words,
1 Mabillon, Traits des etudes monastiques, 1691, and Reflexions sur
lo reponse de M. I'abbe de la Trappe au Traite des etudes monastiques,
Paris, 1693, in-12.
2 Magnialdi Ziegelbaueb, Observationes Hterarice ordinis S. Bened.
Aug. Vindelic, 1784, 4 vol. in-fol.
3 " Omnino nullus erit in monasterio qui non discat litteras et de Scrip-
turis aliquid teneat." — Reg. S. Pacom. V. Alb. de Beoglie, iii. 104.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 133
in the seven liberal arts. Dialectics were taught by
himself and by his assistant Denis the Little, a
monk who, though a Scythian by birth, could ex
plain Greek at sight, and translate it into Latin
with equal facility.1
At the same time, but at the other end of
Europe, Abbot Maglorius in Jersey conducted the
education of the children of noble houses, whom
the hagiographer describes as going out to recite
their lessons aloud among the wave-beaten rocks,
so as not to disturb the siesta of their masters.2
The famous rule written about a century later
than that of St Benedict by an unknown hermit
called " the Master," because none could be found
to equal him, required that the monks should devote
themselves to study until they reached the age of
fifty.3 The rules of St Aurelian4 and St Ferreol5
rendered this rule universal, and that of Grim-
laiicus identified the character of hermit with that
of doctor.6
1 Cassiod., Inst., c. 23.
2 "Tunc parvuli monachi, nobili prosapia editi, qui inter claustra
monasterii rigore disciplina? constringebantur . . . dicentes : Permitte
nobis portum atque littus adire ut garrulitas nostra? vocis monachis
quiescentibus somnum non possit eripere, et ut securius alta voce legentes
nostras lectiones valeamus commendare . . . hilares effecti per devexa
montis lacera et scopulosa ad loca maritima descenderunt." — Act. SS.
0. B., p. 228.
3 "Usque ad quinquagenariam a?tatem litteras meditari," c. 50. Cf.
Mabill., Traite des etudes, pp. 43, 44, and Reflexions, vol. i. p. 59.
4 "Litteras omnes discant."
5 "Omnis qui nomen vult monachi vindicare, litteras ignorare non
liceat.' 6 "Solitarius debet esse doctor, non qui doceri indigeat," c. 20. We
borrow these various texts from Mabillon.

134 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
Monastic tradition was, on this point, always
completely in accordance with the rule. In the
East as in the West, literary culture, without
being by right inseparably attached to the reli
gious profession, became in fact a constant habit
and a special distinction in the greater number
of monasteries.1 In the depths of the deserts
of Tabenne and of Nitria, the study of Holy
Scripture and of the Fathers was placed by the
solitaries of the Thebaide in the same rank with
penance and prayer. It was the same in all coun
tries where the Benedictine order flourished. The
more an abbey became famous for the learning
of its monks, the more it was approved and ven
erated in the Church. " The neglect of letters," 2
as a monkish historian expresses himself, was
always noted as a cause of decadence, and the
re-establishment of learning was an essential part
of all reforms. Duke Tassillon of Bavaria, speaking
of the foundations made by his ancestors, was
therefore perfectly justified in describing them as
" monasteries of study." 3 It is impossible to name
any abbey famed for the number and holiness of
its monks which was not also famed for learning
and for its school of literature.
Monaster- 1/ We have said elsewhere, and we cannot repeat
ies were .
centres of it too often, Fulda, Corbie, Ferrieres. Anagni,
intellectual ' • ' & '
life. 1 See the proof of this assertion in Mabillon, Traite, vol. i. c. 13
and 14.
2 "Oblivio litterarum."— Guillelm. Malmesb., De Angl., i. 3.
3 " Monasteria studiorum. "

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 135
Marmoutier, Croyland, Fleury, Cluny, Bee, were
homes of enlightenment, centres of intellectual life,
such as have never since been seen in the world.
These holy houses, and many others, rivalled in
most respects that illustrious Abbey of Lerins
which Mabillon so justly describes as " an academy
of virtue and learning open to all the nations of
the world." 1 Monte Cassino, the metropolis of the
Monastic Orders, nobly vindicated its claim to the
foremost place by the fruitfulness and permanence
of its intellectual labours, which astonish modern
erudition,2 and upon which was founded the fame
of men such as Paulus Diaconus, the friend and
correspondent of Charlemagne ; Abbot Berthaire,
a Frenchman by birth, physician and monk, who
was martyred by the Saracens in 889 ; Abbot
Frederic, Archbishop Alphano, and Abbot Didier,
whose literary tastes did not hinder them from
entering the lists among the most intrepid cham
pions of the Church's liberty and the most active
auxiliaries of Gregory VII.
It cannot be disputed that from the time of Monks
noted for
St Pachomius and St Basil to that of the contem- their i°ve
1 Mabillon, Reflexions, vol. ii. p. 38.
2 See the recent history of Monte Cassino, in 3 vols. in-S, by D. Luigi
Tosti, a monk of this abbey, who promises to be a worthy successor to
the ancient fathers of the house. Cf. Giesebeeoht, De Htterarum
studiis apud Italos primis Medii jBvi saculis; Berolini, 1845, in 4°.
The last 30 pages of this little work are consecrated to Monte Cassino,
and contain most valuable details. A glance through the Chronicon S.
Monast. Casinensis, by Leo of Ostia and Petrus Diaconus (apud Muea-
toet, Script., vol. iv.), will convince any doubter of the growth of
learning in this monastery.

136 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
of study, poraries of St Anselm and St Bernard, nearly all
from St x
Pachomius eminent monks were distinguished for their love
to St An- °
selm- of sacred literature and their zeal for education.
To support this assertion it should be enough
to cite a small number of brilliant names such
as Cassiodorus, Denis the Little, St Benedict
of Anagni,1 Eabanus Maurus, Alcuin, Loup de
Ferrieres, Gerbert, and all the abbots of Cluny
from St Odo to Peter the Venerable. All showed
themselves faithful to the precept which St Jerome
wrote to his disciple, "Have a book always in
your hand or under your eyes ; " 2 and to the
example of Bede, who said it had always been
delightful to him either to learn, to teach, or to
write.3 In every monastery there was established first a
library, then great studios, where, to increase the
number of books, skilful caligraphers transcribed
manuscripts ; and finally, schools, open to all those
who had need of, or desire for, instruction. At
Montierender,4 at Lorsch, at Corvey, at Fulda, at
St Gall, at Eeichenau, at Nonantula, at Monte
1 The words of the biographer of this holy reformer of monastic orders
seem to deserve quotation : " Monasteriorum salubres consuetudines
didicit suisque tradidit monachis observandas. . . . Instituit cantores,
docuit lectores, habuit grammaticos, et scientia? scripturarum peritos,
librorum multitudinem congregavit. " — Vita, c. 27, Act. SS. 0. B., vol.
iv. p. 192, ed. Venet.
2 "Nunquam de manu et oculis recedat liber." — Epist. ad Rustic.
3 "Semper aut discere, aut docere, aut scribere dulce habui."— Epist.
ad Accam, quoted by Mabillon, Traite des Etudes, p. 80.
4 Gerbert sent to the library of Montierender for the Commentaries of
Cassar, which the monks had copied. ^.

/

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 137
Cassino, at Wearmouth, at St Albans, at Croy-
land, there were famous libraries.1 At St Michael,
at Luneburg,2 there were two — one for the abbot
and one for the monks.3 In other abbeys, as at
Hirschau, the abbot himself took his place in the
Scriptorium, where many other monks were occu
pied in copying manuscripts.4 At St Eiquier,
books bought for high prices, or transcribed with
the utmost care, were regarded as the most valu
able jewels of the monastery.5 " Here," says the
chronicler of the abbey, counting up with innocent
pride the volumes which it contained — " here are
the riches of the cloister, the treasures of the celes
tial fife, which fatten the soul by their sweetness.
This is how we fulfil the excellent precept, ' Love
the study of the Scriptures, and you will not love
vice.' " 6
If we were called upon to enumerate the principal Principal
. r x seats of
centres of learning in this century, we should be learning
obliged to name nearly all the great abbeys whose elev™th
o J o J century.
1 See the catalogues of many of these great libraries recently published
by Cardinal Mai in vol. v. of SpiciUgium Romanum, 1839-42.
2 Founded in 961.
3 Httetee, vol. iii. p. 582.
4 Geebeeti, Hist. Nigr. Silvoe, i. 162.
6 "Jam quod ingenti studio fuit qua?situm, profertur magna? scientia?
praecipuum margaritum, reparantur libri, conscribuntur necdum con-
scripti. Educantur pueri, dispertiuntur sapientia?. "— Chron. Centul.,
book iv. c. i., in D'Acheet, Spicileg., vol. ii. There were in this abbey,
in 831, two hundred and fifty-six volumes containing five hundred differ
ent works.
6 "Ha3 ergo divitia? claustrales, ha? sunt opulentia? coelestis vita?,
dulcedine animam saginantes, per quas in Centulensibus impleta est ilia
salubris sententia : Ama scientiam Scripturarum, et vitia non amabis.''
— Ibid., iii. c. 3 ; Spicileg., ii. p. 311.

138 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS' TO
founders we have mentioned, for most of them
then were great homes of knowledge, not less fre
quented by tlie children of serfs and of the poor
than by those of free and noble birth.1 In the
middle of the preceding century a council of May
ence had ordered that all children should be taken
either to the monastery schools or to those kept
by their priests to learn the rudiments of belief
and the Lord's Prayer in their mother-tongue.2 It
was not then to the future inhabitants of the cloister
alone, but to all Christian children, that the monks
opened their doors and granted the benefit of their
instructions. Thus history considers every monas
tery as a school,3 its importance varying with the
greatness of the house, where science and profane
learning were taught as well as theology, and where
Latin was studied at the same time with Hebrew,
Greek, and Arabic. Among the most famous of
these schools out of France were Monte Cassino,
St Maximin at Treves, St Alban at Mayence,
1 " Et non solum servilis conditionis infantes, sed etiam ingenuorum
filios adgregent sibique socient." — Capit. a" Aix-la-Chapelle de Van 789,
ap. Baluze, quoted by M. Mignet. We shall return to the subject of
the education of laymen in monasteries.
2 Hdetee, vol. vi. p. 579.
3 ' ' Erat autem his temporibus . . . hsec consuetudo celeberrima ut
schola? monachorum in singulis fere ccenobiis haberentur, quibus non
seculares homines, sed monachi moribus et eruditione praficiebantur
noniinatissimi, qui non solum in Divinis Scripturis docti essent, verum
etiam in mathematica, astronomia, arithmetica, geometria, musica,
rhetorica, poesi, et in ceteris omnibus sa?cularibus litteratura? scientiis
eruditissimi. Ex his multi non solum in Romana lingua docti erant, sed
etiam in Hebraica, Gra?ca et ArabiGa peritissimi, quod ex eorum opusculis
facile dignoscitur." — Teitemius, Chron. Hirsaug., anno 890.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 139
Priim, Fulda, St Gall, Hirschau, Gandersheim,
where the nun Hroswitha composed her celebrated
dramas, and Eeichenau, where St Wolffgang pre
pared himself to become the apostle of Hungary : a
while in France we find Fleury, Gorze, Corbie, St
Denis, St Martin at Tours, St Bdnigne at Dijon, St
Vincent at Toul, St Germain des Pro's, Luxeuil un
der Abbots Adson and Constance, Aurillac, where
the future pope, Gerbert, was trained, and, above
all, St Ee"my at Eeims, where Flodoard and Eicher
wrote the annals of their age and country. The re
nown of the Abbey of Fleury was very widespread,
and the monks who there, beside the tomb of St
Benedict, spent their lives in the pursuit, of learn
ing and piety, created a centre of intellectual light
whence the future regenerators of education and
of the monastic rule in England were later to
draw their inspiration.2
St Peter's at Ghent was almost the equal of
Fleury ; the monks of these great houses declared
that they there found, at the same time, repose,
1 " Ubi tunc in Germania? partibus maxime pollebat scholare stu-
dium." — Othlonis, Vita S. Woffgangi, c. 3, ap. Peetz, Script., t. ii.
p. 522. This life contains also curious details of the literary and philo
logical studies to which the young nobles applied themselves even out of
monasteries. — V. c. iv. and v. "Cum autem quadam die in Martiano
de nuptiis Mercurii et Philologia? legeret Henricus, eximia Francorum
Suevorumque prosapia genitus," &c. This same work of Martianus is
quoted as forming part of the library of St Gall in the ninth century. —
Ratpeeti, de Casibus S. Galli, c. 10.
2 We should overstep our assigned limits if we quoted from the origi
nal writers proofs of the scientific greatness of these houses. Many may
be found collected in the notes to the Vie du B. Lanfranc, p. 35 of
the edition of his works published by D'Achery in 1648.

140 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
happiness, learning, the glory of their order, and
their own salvation.1 All the holy abbots, all the
monks become bishops, whose names are famous
in contemporary history, watched with unwea
ried solicitude over the culture of letters in their
monasteries : 2 [amid] the qualities which deter
mined the election of superiors, special knowledge
took rank among the most meritorious virtues;
the government of schools seemed an essential
branch of the government of souls.3
^ The zeal for knowledge thus universal among the
monks was not confined to the walls of their mon
asteries; they conducted schools even in the palaces
of the German and French kings.4 Bishops drawn
from the Monastic Orders continued in their dioceses
the practice of public instruction.5 When a monk
such as Gerbert, famed for his attainments, opened
a school, an army of scholars gathered round
him,6 and his renown excited the emulation of dis-

1 "Hinc veterum ccenobitarum freqnens erat istud keleusma : ex
scholis omnis nostra salus, omnis felicitas, divitia? omnes, ac ordinis
splendor constansve stabilitas." — Ziegelbatjeb, Hist, reilitt. 0. S. B.,
i. 65.2 Richer, 1. Ill, 42; Mabillon, Act. Sanctor. 0. B., vol. vii., et
Ann. Bened., vol. ii. and iii., passim.
3 " Posuit Abbonem . . . morum sanctitate pra?clarum, litterarum
scientia excellenter instructum, qui monachos doceret, scholas regeret,
et in disciplina regulari et scientia litteraliprodesset."— Fitatf. Oswaldi,
c. 10, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. vii. p. 711.
4 Mabill., Annal., vol. iii. p. 164.
6 See the example of St Ethelwold in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. vii. pp.
599-605 ; and of St Dunstan, of which we shall speak later.
6 Turmce discipulorum, says Richer, in speaking of the school kept by
Gerbert at Reims, 1. Ill, c. 45.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION,- LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 141
tant contemporaries.1 But whether the monks
placed the theatre of their teaching outside the
monastic walls, or whether laymen gathered within
the abbeys to profit by their lessons, the result was
much the same. Let us glance at the important
history of the monk Eicher, lately discovered,2 or
at the admirable plays of the nun Hroswitha,3 and
then say whether these productions of tenth-cen
tury monasteries do not show a development of
mental culture entirely incompatible with the idea
which modern ignorance has rendered popular of
the " night of the middle ages ! " Then, at least,
the Christian world did not deceive itself; it went
calmly and confidently to seek in the shelter of
Benedictine abbeys that vigorous education of the
Western races which rendered possible all the mir
acles of faith, courage, fervour, and humility that
illuminated Europe from the eleventh century to
the fifteenth, from St Gregory to Joan of Arc.
We have named St Gall, and we must return Greatness
for a moment to that vast monastic establishment Abbey of
c -tit- st 6al1-
the glory of which shone out so widely during the
three centuries which separated Charlemagne from

1 It is worth while to read the curious story of the metaphysical
contest between the Saxon Otric and the French Gerbert before the
Emperor Otto at Pavia in presence of many scholars— numerus quoque
scholasticorum non parvus.— Richer, vol. iii. c. 55-65.
2 See the critical notice on Richer by M. Guadet, in his edition of the
historian, vol. i. p. xxii, &c. See, above all, Richer himself, pp. 616,
642, 643, of the edition of Pertz.
3 They have just been translated and published with great care by M.
Charles Magnin.

142 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
Gregory VIL, and, above all, during the epoch of
the later Carlovingians. For more than a hundred
years St Gall had to struggle to maintain its inde
pendence against the power of the Bishop of Con
stance. St Othmar, whom Charles Martel had
made abbot, was dead, martyr to a cause1 only
gained under Louis the German by the efforts of
Abbot Hartmot.2 But during these struggles, as
well as after their conclusion, the possessions of
the monastery gradually increased, and we are
assured that they came to comprise 160,000 jour-
naux of land,3 in consequence of the innumerable
donations made by Swiss and Suabian nobles and
freemen. The principal lords of these countries
considered it an honour to be vassals or tenants of
the illustrious abbey under different titles ; others
confided their children to it; others furnished it
with the greater number of its most distinguished
abbots.4 In the shade of its walls there dwelt a
whole nation divided into two branches : the
familia intus, which comprised the labourers, shep-

1 He died in a dungeon into which he had been plunged by Bishop
Sidonius in 759. — Walafeid, Vit. St Othmar; Iso, de Miracul. S.
Othm. ,- Ratperti, de Casibus S. Galli, c. 2 ; Von Ahx, Geschichte des
kantons S. Gallen, vol. i. pp. 23, 29.
2 Aex, i. 25, 52, 71, 158, 181.
3 Ibid., 156. 'She journal was an ancient measure of land varying in
different provinces.— Littee. Probably originally as much land as a
man could plough in a day. — Tr.
4 Hartmot, abbot in 852 ; Bernard, in 883 ; Solomon, in 890 ; Bur-
kard, in 959 ; and also the physician and schoolmaster Iso, who died
in 871; Notker, the Stammerer, &c, were sprung from military or
knightly families of the Duchy of Allemania or Suabia.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 143
herds, and workmen of all trades; and the familia
/oris, composed of serfs bound to do three days'
work in each week. In the tenth century there
were at St Gall five hundred monks, of whom
fifty-two were priests and thirty-nine deacons or
sub - deacons, and there were twenty students.1
All these monks mingled with the great family
of husbandmen in cultivating the fields ; and the
greater part, says a contemporary chronicler, found
a path to heaven through their humility, and
gained an eternal kingdom by their charity.2 The
monks excelled themselves in building their
church ; 3 and, as the monkish historian already
quoted says, "It was easy to see from the nest
of what kind the birds were." 4
A numerous series of eminent men issued from
this nest. The first to be recorded is Abbot Solo
mon, Bishop of Constance, who, while minister of
Louis the German and his four successors, governed
for thirty years the great monastery in which he
had been brought up. After him St Gall was ruled
1 Ildeeons von Arx, Geschichte des Jcantons S. Gallen, i. 55, 128.
2 ' ' Non dedignentur opus rusticum per semetipsos actitare, pensantes
scriptum : humilitate penetratur coelum, et caritate pervenitur ad reg
num sempiternum." — Fragm. Eemeneici ad Grimoald., e"crit vers 840,
ap. Mabill., Veter. Analecta, p. 421, ed. in-fol.
3 " Insula pictores transmiserat Augia clara." — Cod. Ms. S. Gall., 397.
4 " Bene in nido apparet quales volucres ibi inhabitant : cerne basili-
cam, et coenobii claustrum," &c. — Ebmenb., Epist., loc. cit. St Gall still
retains the primitive plan of the abbey and of all its dependencies
such as they were in the ninth century. This unique monument, so
invaluable for the study of monastic architecture, has been imperfectly
reproduced by Mabillon in vol. ii. of the Ann. Bened. ; but M. Keller
has published it in facsimile in an opuscule ad hoc, Zurich, 1844, in 4°.

144 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
TheEkke- by two dynasties of celebrated monks — the Ek-
Notkers. kehards and the Notkers. Ekkehard I., head of
the schools, and afterwards dean, privy councillor
of the Emperor Otho the Great, is the author of
a historical poem on Walter of Aquitaine ; a his
nephew, Ekkehard IL, also head of the schools,
chaplain and tutor to Otho IL, possessed the then
very rare art of stenography,2 and was considered
the handsomest monk who ever wore the frock of
St Benedict ; 3 Ekkehard III., cousin-germ an of the
preceding, was for thirty years dean of the Abbey
of" St Gall in the eleventh century, and inspired
such affection in one of his brethren named Wick-
ard, that the latter, seeing him die, flung himself
upon his body, and died also of pure grief j4 final
ly, Ekkehard IV., a learned philosopher, principal
author of the invaluable chronicle of the commu
nity,5 who, during his lifetime, saw a crowd of
counts and knights, young and old, adopt the
1 This poem is lost : in 1155 it existed at Pfeffers ; in 1220 at Muri.
Ekkehard I. died in 973.
2 Ekkaed, c. 16, p. 58.
3 " Facie decorus, statnra procerus. . . . Nemini unquam Benedict!
cucullus decentius insederat." This Ekkehard was surnamed Palatinus,
from the fact of his life being passed at Court. He died in 990.
4 Necrolog. S. Gall., 21 mart. Ekk. iv., in cas. et lib. Benedict., p.
261. " Intitled de Casibus S. Galli. The title of Casibus S. Galli is also
given to a chronicle begun- by Ratbert of Thurgovia in the tenth cen
tury, continued by Ekkehard IV. to the eleventh, by Burkhard to the
twelfth, and by Conrad of Pfeffers to the thirteenth. It was published
complete by Goldastin Script, rer. Alamanicarum, vol. i., ed. Senkenberg,
in fol., but with extreme incorrectness. We do not believe there exists
a more valuable and more complete monument of the interior life of a
great monastery.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 145
cowl, and follow the long procession of monks in
the cloisters of the ancient abbey.1
Before the Ekkehards, the Notkers had shown
themselves yet more remarkable. The first, Notker
the Stammerer,2 sprung from the blood of Charle
magne, a poet, a famous musician, author of fifty
prose works, and of songs which were long sung
by the people, was, after his death, venerated as
a saint. Another, painter, physician, poet, and
caligrapher,3 much sought after by the two first
Othos, was surnamed Peppercorn,4 on account of
his severity, which, however, did not prevent his
brethren from inscribing his name in their obituary
with the title of very gentle doctor and physician.5
A third, named Notker "the excellent," or the "good
abbot," nephew of the preceding, governed the abbey
from 973 to 981 with equal skill and success.6 A
1 "Comites aliosque potentes, locique milites, pro delectione festis
diebus nobiscum crucem sequentes per claustrum, sequendo juvenes et
senes quosdam ad cingulum barbatos monachicis indutos froccis. " — De
Casibus, c. 16. Ekkehard IV. died 1070. There was a fifth Ekkehard,
caUed Minimus, who, under Innocent III., wrote the life of Notker the
Stammerer, which is to be found in Goldast's second volume.
2 Balbulus. In his writings he called himself " jEger et Balbulus et
vitiis plenus . . . Notker cucullariorum S. Galli novissimus." He died
in 912. His poem on the danger of death, which commences, Media
vita in morte sumus, was for more than a hundred years a popular
song, and even much used as a war-song in Germany. — Aex, i. 95.
The last Ekkehard wrote the life of this first Notker, and Ekkehard
IV. speaks much of him in his De Casibus S. Galli.
3 "Scriptor, pictor, medicus, et poeta." — Ekk., de Casib., c. 9 and
12. 4 " Piperis granum, propter severitatem disciplinarum." — Ekk., de
Casib., c. 9.
5 " Obitus Notkeri, benignissimi doctoris et medici." — Necrol. cocev.
6 The results of his good administration were compromised by a bad
VOL. VI. K

146 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
fourth, Notker the historian, after having been for
a long time provost of St Gall, left it to reform and
direct the diocese of Liege.1 Finally, the fifth Not
ker, called " Labeo," was reputed at once the most
learned and the most agreeable man of his time : 2
theologian, poet, musician, philosopher, astronomer,
mathematician, thoroughly versed in the Greek and
Latin languages, he was considered also as one
of the chief creators of German literature by his
translation into the vulgar tongue of the Psalms
and the Book of Job, and by a commentary on
Aristotle which he wrote in that language.3 In his
last illness the old monk -called together the poor
of the neighbourhood to dine round his bed ; and
having for the last time enjoyed the pleasure of
seeing their repast, he died in the midst of them.4
Literary ./"Under men of such an order, intellectual work
st Gaii. could not be neglected at St Gall. A learned pos
terity has been able to make this clear by collect
ing together the MSS. of their famous library,5 the
abbot named Gerard (990 to 1001) ; but the latter was replaced by Burk-
hard II. , who re-established all that Gerard had compromised or dis
honoured. 1 He was made bishop in 971, and died in 1008.
2 ' ' Nostra? memoria? hominum doctissimus et benignissimus. "—Chron.
Hepidanni, ad ann. 1022.
3 He succeeded in expressing philosophical abstractions in the scarcely
formed German of his time ; we see remarkable instances in the quota
tions of Von Aex, vol. i. pp. 262, 269. His translation of the Psalms
is printed in the Thesaurus of Schilter.
4 In 1022, at the age of seventy-six years. There was in the thirteenth
century a sixth Notker, described as doctissimus ct benignissimus.— Act.
SS. O. B., vol. vii. p. 13.
5 See the successive additions to "this library given by Ratpeet and
' Ekkehard, Dr Casibus S. Galli, passim.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 147
finest and most exact in existence,1 ornamented
with the most delicate miniatures, and transcribed
by the monks with religious care on parchment of
extreme fineness prepared by their own hands.2
The fame of Sintram, the greatest of these labori
ous copyists, was so spread abroad, that all the
countries north of the Alps were acquainted with
it ; 3 and his zeal was so indefatigable, that every
great abbey in Germany possessed at least one
book written by his hand.4
The vast dictionary which bears the name of the
Vocabulary of Solomon, and which was edited by
the monks of St Gall, was in reality a kind of
literary and scientific encyclopaedia.5 Latin was
their habitual language,6 and they wrote it better
than any of their contemporaries ; but that did not
prevent them from giving a great share of their
attention to the literary development of German.
In the two schools attached to the monasteries,
lectures wrere given on Cicero, Quintilian, Horace,
Terence, Juvenal, Persius, Ovid, and even Sopho
cles.7 Greek also was cultivated by monks called
1 This testimony is borne by Mabillon, Baluze, and other competent
judges. 2 They also bound their own books, and the names of the most skilful
binders have been preserved. — Digby, Mores catholici, x. 242.
3 ' ' Omnis orbis cisalpinus Sintramni digitos miratur. . . . Scriptura
cui nulla, ut opinamur, par erit ultra." — Ekk., in Casib., c. i. p. 20.
4 Ekk., c. i.
5 This MS., of 1070 pages, was printed in the fifteenth century. — Arx,
i. 101.
6 " Nemo prater exiles pusiones quicquam alteri nisi latine loqui
ausus est." — Ekk., c. 10.
7 Ekk., Lib. Benedict., p. 345 ; quoted by Arx.

148 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
"Hellenic brothers."1 The Duchess Hedwig of
Suabia herself taught Greek to Abbot Burkhard II.
when he was a child, and rewarded him by the
gift of a Horace for his readiness in verse-making.2
This duchess, in her turn, had learned Latin from
the Dean of St Gall, Ekkehard I., in partnership
with whom she wrote a commentary on Virgil. As
to Ekkehard III., Notker Labeo, and Ekkehard IV,
they read Homer and made Greek verses,3 and in
dialectics took Plato for their guide as well as
Aristotle.4
/ As may well be supposed, Scripture was the
principal study of the monks. In examining, even
superficially, those ages which heresy has dared to
represent as without the knowledge of the sacred
writings, it is easy to convince ourselves that not
only churchmen — that is to say, those who made
a profession of learning — knew the Holy Scriptures
thoroughly, but that laymen, princes, soldiers, even
the poor, knew them almost by heart, and could
perfectly comprehend the numberless quotations
and allusions with which everything that has
descended to us from this period — conversations,
correspondences, deeds, written documents, histor
ical narratives, and sermons — are filled.
1 " Fratres hellenici. "—Cod. MS., 381, p. 9. Ibid., p. 184.
2 He had described in verse the embarrassment caused by a kiss which
the learned duchess had given him.— Ekk., ire Casib., c 10. He was
elected abbot in 1001.
3 V. Aex, i. 260.
4 Notker Labeo made a paraphrase of Aristotle's Logic in German.
Arx quotes a considerable fragment of it, vol. i. p. 262.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 149
Those who have ever opened any volume what
soever, written by the professors or historians of the
middle ages, must stand amazed before the marvel
lous power of falsehood, and the incredible ease with
which it takes root and grows, when they reflect
that it has been possible, even in our days, to make
a large portion of the human race believe that the
knowledge of Scripture was systematically withheld
from the men who composed, and from those who
read, the books of that age. Considering the inti
mate relations which, in the middle ages, existed
between monks and laymen, how is it possible to
imagine that these latter should not have acquired
the knowledge of Bible histories and language ?
If it is beyond a doubt that the monks made
Holy Scripture the basis of their theological studies,
it is equally certain that they brought to these
studies a mass of other knowledge, and, notably,
all- that they could gather with regard to physical
science.1 Thence it arose that in most medieval
works the term scriptures or scriptures sacrce does
not always mean Holy Scriptures, but sometimes
all sorts of books which treat of Christian or
ecclesiastical truths, and are useful aids to under
standing the Word of God.2 Thanks to this wide
extension, the monks were far from limiting their
labours to the interpretation of the Bible or the
1 See Mabillon's fine demonstration of this fact in his Reflexions sur
la reponse de M. I'abbe de la Trappe, vol. i., art. 15, and the valuable
passage which he quotes from St Gregory Thaumaturgius.
2 See the proof in Mabillon, Reflexions,vo\. i. pp. 199, 236 ; vol. ii. p. 99.

150 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
different branches of theology, which are com
monly supposed to have been their exclusive study
before the Eenaissance. No knowledge was strange
to them : philosophy in its scholastic form, gram- /
mar and versification, medicine, botany, mechanics,
astronomy, geometry 'in its most practical applica
tions — all these were the objects of their researches
and their writings.1 Their life in the cloister was,
in a certain sense, the permanent continuation of
their earlier education.2
This laborious and varied knowledge acquired
by the monks found in the education of youth an
application equally natural and universal. We may
safely affirm that this was the principal employ
ment of monastic activity throughout the medieval
period. The benefits of instruction were almost
exclusively dispensed by their care from the ninth
to the fourteenth century — that is to say, during
the epoch of the Church's greatest power and splen-
Theeduca- dour. When education passed into the hands of
children secular corporations by the foundation of universi-

1 Among a thousand monuments to this diversity of studies in monas
teries, we may point out a curious poem, addressed by the holy nionk
Alfano, descended from the princes of Salerno, to Theodin, son of the
Count des Marses, a novice at Monte Cassino : we find there a detailed
account of the daily occupations in the great monastery, and the ideas
of astronomy, botany, &c, which were held there. This poem has been
published by Giesebrecht in the little work which We have already quoted.
2 This is very well shown in a curious passage relating to the monks
of the Abbey of St Michael at Hildesheim in the eleventh century, of
whom it is said : " Ita ut timidius in claustro quam in scholis manum
ferulos subducere viderentur." — Chron. S. Mich., ap. Meib., Script, rer.
Germ., vol. ii. p. 517.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 151
ties, the religious orders in all countries neverthe- remained
l -in -I'-ii if *n onarSe
less remained charged with the task of providing of the
religious and intellectual training for a large pro- fi:ois the
° to to r muth cen-
portion of Christian youth. From the epoch of the ^lenti*116
first foundation by Cassiodorus in Calabria till that
of the last communities which have been suppressed
in our days in Bavaria, Spain, and Switzerland,
monasteries have always remained faithful to this
tradition — excepting, indeed, those of whom the
Commendam had devoured the substance and
destroyed the discipline.
It may be said, in general terms, that every
monastery was a school, and that these two words
were almost always synonymous.1 The solitaries
of the Thebaide received from the hands of their
friends who remained in the world, the children
whom it was their mission to bring up.2 St John
Chrysostom shows that, in his time, the inhabitants
of Antioch sent their sons to the monasteries to
study.3 The rule of St Benedict made an express
mention of the care required for the education of
pupils : 4 the saint himself gave lessons to the
1 This is the reason why Tassilon, Duke of Bavaria, in a deed given at
Krerusmunster, describes the abbeys founded by his ancestors as monas-
teria studiorum. — Htteteb, vol. iv. p. 99. A French author, Baudoin
Moreau, quoted by Ziegelbauer (i. 8), proves this fact in the following
terms : " Omnia coenobia erant gymnasia, et omnia gymnasia cosnobia."
2 "Dedit earn ad discendas litteras intra monasterium." — Vit. S.
Marines, ap. Rosweyd, p. 393.
3 Advers. oppugnatores vit. monastica, lib. iii.
4 ' ' Infantum usque ad quintum decimum a?tatis annum, disciplina?
diligentia sit et custodia ab omnibus ; sed et hoc cum omni mensura et
ratione." — Cap. 70. See other analogous passages in chapters 30, 37,
45, and 63 of the Rule.

152 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
young sons of Eoman nobles.1 The most ancient
rules, such as those already quoted of St Basil, of
the monk called " the Master," of Grimlaiicus, and
others, contain analogous passages.2 Under the
Merovingians, when an abbey was founded either in
France or Belgium, new converts came in crowds
to implore the monks to instruct their children in
science and literature. It was the common custom
that all monasteries should receive the scholars
who came to them from all sides, " like bees to
the hive."3
The decrees drawn up by the monk Lanfranc,
Archbishop of Canterbury, for reorganising the
English abbeys after the Conquest, contain most
minute directions as to the education of both poor
and rich pupils who were destined to spend their
youth in the cloister.4 In turning over the leaves
of the customs of Cluny, arranged by the holy monk
Udalric, himself also a contemporary of Gregory
VIL, we may easily convince ourselves of the rigid
and exact discipline which, together with the most
scrupulous solicitude, ruled the education of the
1 " Coepere ad eum Roma? urbis nobiles et religiosi concurrere suosque
filios omnipotenti Deo nutriendos dare." — S. Geeg. Magn., Dial., i. 3.
St Maur and St Placidus, his first disciples, were sprung from the first
families of Rome. — Cf. Mabillon, Traiti des etudes monastiques, p. 65.
2 See Mabillon, Reflexions, art. 6, vol. i. pp. 53-65.
3 Ibid., art. 12. — St Benedict did not fix an age for children to enter
monasteries. St Gregory the Great required eighteen years for a defini
tive profession ; but there are very many examples of children received
at seven, at five, and even at three years old. Dom Pitra quotes many
in his History of St Leger, p. 100.
4 Decretapro ord. S. Bened., ap. Wilkins, Council. Anglic. &ni Bibl.
Patrum, vol. xviii. p. 763, ed. Lugd.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 153
troops of children gathered together by this queen
of abbeys.1 The good monk thus concludes the
chapter which he consecrates to the children :
" After having often considered the vigilance which
watches over them day and night, I have said in
my heart that it would be difficult for the son
of a king to be brought up with more care in a
palace than is shown to the very least of these at
Cluny."2 But nothing, perhaps, shows more clearly how
the work of education was identified with the
monastic spirit than a charter preserved in the
archives of St Gall, in which a serf (homme de
corps) of the abbey consecrated a part of his earn
ings to founding an annual bequest of a cup of
wine to be given to each scholar of the abbey on
Easter Day.3
1 Antiquiores consuetudines Cluniacensis monasterii, colleclore S. Udal-
eico, monacho Benedictino, lib. iii. c. 8, ap. D'Acheev, Sjncileg., vol. i.
p. 690.
2 " Et ut tandem de pueris concludam, sa?pe numero videns quo studio
die noctuque custodiantur, dixi in corde meo difficile fieri posse, ut ullus
regis filius majore diligentia nutriatur in palatio, quam puer quilibet
minimus in Cluniaco." — I~bid.
3 " Pueris adhuc schola? deditis cyatus cum vino pra?beatur." This
serf was named Erchenbert, and his property was situated at Elk. —
Deed quoted by Aex, Hist, of St Gall, vol. i. p. 189. M. de Courson
relates, in the Moniteur universel of March 17, 1854, col. 302 (les An-
ciennes ForUs), a delightful story of the life of St Lubin (Leobinus), who
lived about the middle of the sixth century, and died, after having been
Bishop of Chartres, in 550. One day when he was keeping his father's
herds in a pasture near Poitiers, Lubin saw a monk of Noaille coming
towards him ; and as he had a great desire to learn to read, he implored
the monk to draw the letters of the alphabet for him. But the latter,
"Cum non haberet codices aut tabularum supplementum, prout potuit
apices in cingulo scripsit . . . ut qui multis erat profuturus ad exemplum.

154 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
Most After the regulation of learning in cathedrals
schools ° °
imd monks an(j monasteries effected under Charlemagne, a cer-
for masters. ° '
tain number of episcopal schools were preserved in
the chief towns of some dioceses, but not of all.1
The episcopal schools themselves were generally
founded and conducted by monks.2 We see this
from the example of Gerbert at Eeims, and, still
better, by that of the monk Theodore, Archbishop
of Canterbury, who, with the help of his friend
Abbot Adrian, taught the young Anglo-Saxons not
only the Holy Scriptures, but also the rules of
poetry, astronomy, and arithmetic, and brought
his scholars to use Greek and Latin almost as
readily as their mother-tongue.3 But most dioceses
sent their pupils to the monastery schools. In the
castitatis, ipse cailibatus zona circumdatus, candoris instar fragrantis lilii,
circa renes haberet cingidumlitterisinscriptumveritatis." — Act. SS. 0. B.,
sa?c. i. p. 123.
The hagiographer adds, that the father of the young Lubin gave him
tablets, but would not allow him to renounce field-work. Lubin passed
seven years in a monastery. Obliged during the day to do the work of
a cellarer, he gave his nights to study ; and as he feared to excite the
murmurs of the brothers, "fenestra; quo?, oculis fratrum patula erat,
velum opposuit, ut lumen eis reddcret subobscurum, et ipse lectionis caperet
incrementum." Later, Lubin became a pilgrim of knowledge, visited St
Calais, St Loup, St Cesaire, Lerins, and came back to die in his first
cell. 1 Giesebkeoht, Dc litter, studiis ap. Italos, p. 14.
2 Mabillon, Prof, in scec III. Bened. , p. 46.
3 " Et quia litteris sacris simul et saecularibus . . . abundanter ambo
erant instructi, congregata discipulorum caterva, scientia? salutaris quo-
tidie flumina irrigandis eorum cordibus emanabant ; ita ut etiam metrica?
artis astronomia? et arithmetica? ecclesiastica? disciplinam inter sacrorum
apicum volumina suis auditoribus contraderent . . . usque hodie super-
sunt de eorum discipulis qui latinam gra?camque linguam a?que ut pro-
priam, in qua nati sunt, norunt." — Bed., Hist, cedes., iv. 2.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 155
eleventh century, for instance, the youth of Lyons,
Besangon, Autun, Langres, Chalons, and Strasburg
used to go to Luxeuil to study under the teacher
Constance, who died in 1015. 1 There were schools
called Palatine in the palaces of the kings of France
and Germany, and other private and free schools
in many towns; but nearly all which are still
known were kept by monks. In the first rank of
monk - professors stood the famous Alcuin, head
of the schools at the Court of Charlemagne —
and Eemy, a monk of St Germain d'Auxerre,
who successively directed the rural school of the
priests of Eeims and the palatine school at Paris,
established in the palace of Charles the Bald. This
holy man chiefly taught dialectics and music, and
is thought to have done more than any one to ex
tend the study of letters in France in the ninth
century.2 Later, we must notice Hilderic at Bene-
vento, under the Emperor Louis II. ; and in the
eleventh century, Guillaume d'Averse and Bene-
1 This Constance was author of a treatise on the nature • of liquids. —
Hist. litUr. de France, vol. vii. p. 82. His disciple, Gudenus, wrote a
touching elegy on the death of the learned monk. — Voy. Ed. Cleec,
Mssai sur I'hist. de Franche-Comte, vol. i. p. 243 ; and D'Acheey,
Spicileg. 2 " Ex Remigio propagata est per universam fere Galliam scientia
litterarum." — Mabill., Prcsf. in V. sozc Bened., No. 43. Cf. Prof, in
IV. sax., No. 181, and in VI. swc, No. 7 ; Flodoaed, liv. iv. c. 5 ;
Ziegelbadee, vol. i. p. 26. It was Remy who educated St Odo, second
Abbot of Cluny. See, for the character, both lay and ecclesiastical, of
the teaching in the Merovingian and Carlovingian schools of the palace,
the excellent demonstrations of Dom Pitea, Hist, de St Leger, u. 2 and
3, and D'Ozanam, F,tudes germaniques, vol. ii. c. 9. Under Clotaire
II. the chief of the palace school bore the title of Abbot of the Palace..

156 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
diet of Chiusa.1 The best judges regard the Bene
dictines as the first masters and true founders of
the most celebrated schools of modern Europe —
such as the universities of Paris,2 Oxford,3 and
Cambridge,4 and the medical school of Salerno.5
Theciois-/ Public 'instruction, then, was almost entirely
ter the
centre of centred in the cloister,6 and was thence abundantly
public in
struction, distributed to all who claimed it. There, accord
ing to the testimony of St Boniface,7 the German
apostle and martyr, little children came to learn to
read ; and there were trained men who, like Bede,
Boniface, Alcuin, and so many others, were at once
the light and the glory of Christendom : thither
gathered a crowd of students of all ranks and all
countries^a crowd so numerous that the abbatial
school of Fleury or St Benoit - sur - Loir alone,
counted, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, its five
thousand scholars.8 There were schools even in the
1 Giesebeecht, lib. c. pp. 15, 16. Cf. Mabill., Annal., vol. iv. p.
726 ; and Prof, in scec. IV. Bened., § viii. No. 181.
2 Mabill., Prof, in IV. sozc. Ben., No. 182.
3 Wood, Hist. univ. Oxonien., 1. i. p. 12.
4 Later, we will give the history of this foundation, due to an Abbot
of Croyland in the twelfth century.
6 Zieqelbauee, par. ii. c. 3, sect. 3, p. 305.
6 The great Alcuin, by turn pupil and superior of the great monastic
school in the metropolis of York, tells us that grammar, rhetoric, juris
prudence, poetry, astronomy, natural history, mathematics, and chrono
logy were taught there, and at the same time explanations were given
of the mysteries of Holy Scripture. — Alcuin, Poem, de Pont, et SS.
Eccles. Eborac, v. 1431-47.
7 Speaking of the inhabitants of the Abbey of Fulda, St Boniface says :
" Sunt pene omnes peregrini, quidam presbyteri, quidam monachi . . .
et infantes ad legendum litteras ordinati." — Act. SS. Boll., vol. i. June,
p. 490.
8 Joan, de Bosc, Bibl. Floriac, ap. Ziegelbauek, pars i. p. 233. Cf.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 157
cells or priories dependent on the principal abbeys,
and that even from the ninth century ; 3 though
those of the abbeys themselves were naturally of
greater importance. While ordinary monasteries
served as primary schools for the youth of the
neighbourhood, more distinguished pupils were
collected in the higher schools established in great
and rich communities, under the direction of monks
not less learned in secular literature than in theo
logy.2 Afc the risk of repeating once again names
already often mentioned, we will enumerate the
monastic schools which, by the extent and variety
of their teaching, and by the number of their pupils,
became the true centres of education for all Chris
tian races. In Italy these were Monte Cassino, Non-
antula, Pomposa, and Classe ;3 in Germany — Ful-
Acheby, Essai sur la question de savoir si le christianisme a nui aux
sciences, in the Annates de phihsophie chretienne, vol. xviii. p. 156. This
valuable work has been printed, but only fifty copies of it were pro
duced ; therefore we prefer to quote from the better-known collection,
in which it appears in the form of extracts. It is known that under the
anagram D'Acheri is concealed the name of a pious Jesuit, Father Cahier,
perhaps the most learned archa?ologist of our days.
1 Legend. S. Meinrad. in Propr. Einsiedlensi, quoted by Landolf, XJr-
sprung des Stifles Maria Einsiedl., p. 34.
2 This distinction is perfectly established by Teithemius : " In om
nibus ordinis nostri ccenobiis, in Germania et Gallia maxime, mona
chorum scolastici et monachi habebantur, qui juniores quosque et ingenio
pra?stantes in primitivis literarum scientiis erudirent, et postea qui habiles
inventi fuissent, ad altiora transmitterent. In solis autem famosioribus
coenobiis . . . constituebantur ad officium docendi alios monachi omni
um doctissimi, et non solum in divinis sed etiam in secularibus Uteris
eruditi, ad quos mittebantur monachi altioribus disciplinis eruditi." —
Chron. Hirsaug. Cf. Ziegelbatjee, pars i. 189.
3 We may remark that the Italian monasteries bore less fruit in this
respect than those of Germany, France, and England.— Giesebeecht,
The school at Monte Cassino was suppressed during the eleventh cen-

158 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
da,1 Fritzlar, Hersfeld, St Gall, Eeichenau, Corvey,
Priim, Hirschau, Wissembourg, Metloch, St Maxi
min and St Matthias at Treves, St Alban at May
ence ; in England — another St Alban, Glastonbury,
Malmesbury, Croyland, and St Peter at Canter
bury ; in France and Belgium — Marmoutier, Fon
tenelle, Fleury, Lobbes, Aniane, Corbie, Ferrieres,
St Germain d'Auxerre, St Michael in Lorraine, St
Amand, St Evroul, Gembioux, Bee, Cluny, Chaise-
Dieu, St Mayeul in the Puy.
These were,- in fact, the universities of Christian
Europe, from the epoch of Charlemagne to that of
St Louis.2
Two kinds Naturally these great schools were of two kinds ;
in monas- or rather, in each of the principal monasteries there
existed two schools : an inner one for the novices
— the future monks — and for those children whom
their parents destined for the life of the cloister ;
an outer one for those who were to return to the
world, where, together with the sons .of the war
like nobles, were received the clergy sent thither
tury, in consequence of disorders which had crept into it, and Peter
Damien congratulates the abbey upon the fact. — Ep. ii. 17. But this
school was soon re-established; for Gelasius IL, Pope in 1118, was
brought up there, and St Thomas Aquinas was placed there at the age
of seven years.
1 ' ' Erat Fulda pulcherrima academia honestissimarum rerum ac dis-
ciplinarum." — Bedschids, Monast. germ, chron., p. 59.
2 For a detail of the services rendered to education by the monastic
orders, we must refer to the excellent works of Mabillon, Prcef. in sozc.
III. Bened. , sect. iv. ; and, above all, to those of Ziegelbatjee, Hist, rei
lit. 0. S. B., pars i. c. 1 and 2. The latter really exhausts the subject.
There is also a good resume in Huetee, Essai sur les institutions de
VEglise an temps d'Innocent III., vol. iii.

teries.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 159
from different dioceses.1 There were, indeed, two
distinct kinds of education, or of discipline, as it
was called — monastic education and liberal educa
tion.2 Both were supplied from the bosom of the
monasteries, where, since the time of Charlemagne,
the Benedictine rule, in harmony with the civil
laws, had called together alike the sons of the
warlike nobility to learn the duties of their high
station towards the Church and the world —
and the sons of the poorest serfs, to be freed
and elevated by education.3 Hurter, in his re-
1 "Exteriorem in qua magnatum nobiliumque liberi fingebantur." —
Beouwee, Antiq. Fuldens., p. 36.- Cf. Mabillon, Traite des etudes, p.
51 ; and Prcef. in scec. III. Bened. , sect. iv. No. 40 ; Ziegelbauee, Hist.
lit. 0- S. B., pars i. 190, 208. The Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 817,
tried to forbid these double schools : "ut scholoz in monasterio non habeatur,
nisi eorum qui oblati sunt. " But this order was not executed. Children
destined to the cloisters were named oblati ; and the others, or scholars
properly so called, nutriti. This distinction is perfectly marked in the
text of Ekkehard of St Gall, brought to light by Dom Pitea : " Tradun-
lur post breve tempus scHOLiE claustri cum B. Notkero et cceteris mon-
achici habitus pueeis. Exteriorcs vero, id est canonical, Isoki cum
Salomone et ejus comparibus." — Ekkehard, Vit. S. Notkeri, c. 7.
2 Disciplina monastka et liberalis, or Disciplina regulari et scholaris.
— Act. SS. 0. B. passim, and elsewhere.
a In the capitulary of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 789, is the following : " Et
non solum servilis conditionis infantes, sed etiam ingenuorum filios ad-
gregent sibique socient, et ut schola? legentium fiant, psalmos, notas,
cantus, computum, grammaticam per singula monasteria vel episcopia
discant." — Baluze, vol. i. p. 174. Here is what is said on the subject
by a learned Protestant of the seventeenth century : " Nee modo in
genuorum sed servorum etiam liberi erudiebantur, quorum qui infimo
ordine erant, psalmos canere et sacros libros legere discebant, qua? eadem
et abbatum cura erat, delectis quidem monachis magistrisve, qui ei muneri
pra?essent. Nobiles maxime in collegiis et monasteriis instituebantur,
ex quibus, qui magis profecissent, sa?pe sodales faeti et promoti ordine,
magno honori et collegiis et monasteriis fuere." — Joach. Vadiani, De
collegiis m&nasteriuque Germanice, in Goldast., Script. Alamann., vol.
iii. p. 3. Other examples— in the tenth century Irish monks open «.

teries

160 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
markable Essay on the institutions of the Church
to the time of Innocent III., thinks that he has
found, in a passage from the rule of St Ferreol,
quoted below,1 the first trace of that common
instruction which, in our days, some have tried
to employ against Catholicism. A learned modern
writer has even said that in the twelfth century
knowledge was distributed to the people at the
convent doors, just as bread was given to the
poor and medicine to the sick.2
Education Those writers, therefore, who have maintained
of the laity . , • i t i •
in monas- that the ancient monastic schools were only in-
tended for the training of youths destined to be
monks, have deceived themselves as completely
as those- who have asserted that any interfer
ence in education on the part of monks was an
infringement of their rules.3 Facts prove that
everywhere monasteries were centres of educa-
school on the site of Glastonbury Abbey : " Suscipiunt filios nobilium
liberalibus studiis imbuendos. . . . Adest ergo nobilissimus in Christo
puer Diinstanus . . . litterarum studio intentus acerrimo. . . . Flebat
scholasticorum coa?tanea turba. . . " — Osbeen, Vit. S. Dunstan, in An-
glia sacra, vol. ii., and Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. iv. parte secund., p. 842
et seq.
1 "Ediscendo memoriter psalterio, partito agmine toto in decurias, ac
prestituto singulis decuriis lectore, quem ceteri audiant."— Huetee, he.
cit., vol. iv. p. 571.
2 M. Charles Magnin, Revue des Deux Mondes, vol. vii., first series.
He quotes the example of the Abbot of St Genevieve at Paris in the
twelfth century, who divided his monastic school into two classes — one
in the abbey for novices and the professed, and one at the door of the
house for scholars from without.
3 Such, for example, as M. Etienne-Marie Portalis, Minister of Pub
lic Worship under Napoleon I., who maintains that "the monks who
claimed any share in education proclaimed themselves unworthy mem-

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 161
tion, not only for the younger clergy, but also
for young laymen ; and that students went there
as Lanfranc and St Anselm did to Bee, without
any intention of adopting monastic life.1 Let us
open, at hazard, almost any volume of the Acts
of the Saints of the Order of St Benedict refer
ring to the first half of the eleventh century, and
there will appear on nearly every page undeni
able proofs of the existence of this custom. One
example we find in the case of Athenulfe,2 son of
the Prince of Capua, who, being delivered as a
hostage to the Emperor Otho, is sent to Germany
to be brought up in a monastery,3 where he does

bers to their order." — Discours, Rapports, &c, publies par son petit-fils.
When we confront such affirmations with formal passages in the rule
of St Benedict, and with a crowd of examples given by the holiest
monks, we perceive that the ignorance of the so-called prince of modern
legists was almost equal to his instinctive dislike to the liberty of the
Church. 1 It is true that the canon forty-five of the decree rendered by the great
assembly of abbots convoked by Louis le Debonnaire, at Aix-la-Chapelle,
in 817, forbade the admission into monastic schools of children other
than those dedicated to the cloister by their parents (oblati). But this
command was evidently in opposition to the course of events. The love
of Christian people for the monks overthrew this prohibition, which was
not executed, as can be proved by a thousand examples of the contrary
custom. — See Ziegelbauee, Hist. lilt. Ord. S. Ben., pars i. c. 3, and Le
Peee Cahiee, Si le christianisme a nui aux sciences, c. xix. p. 118,
note 2, loc. sup. cit.
2 Giesebrecht, p. 18, 19, has collected several proofs of this important
fact, and does not hesitate to declare that the young Italian nobles gen
erally studied in cloisters. But he is mistaken in thinking that the
monastic annals of other countries furnish less numerous or striking-
examples than those he has gathered in Italy.
3 He afterwards became Abbot of Monte Cassino, and died towards
1010. VOL. VI. E

162 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
not even wear the monastic dress ; 5 another in
that of the young Count of Sommerschenburg,
Bernward, afterwards Bishop of Hildesheim, who,
during his studies in the monastery of that town,
went out when he pleased, in order that his family
might be able to admire the progress he was
making in versification, in logic, in painting, and
engraving.2 The successor of Bernward, St Gode-
hard,3 found the monastic school of his episcopal
city filled with young, zealous, and well-trained
scholars, who enabled him to supply all the wants
of his diocese.4 Another instance is that of Gote-

1 It is easy to perceive this from the text of the Chronicle of Monte
Cassino, book ii. c. 29, where it is said, in speaking of his flight from
the monastery : ' ' Monastica veste indutus fugam arripuit . . .
cucullam, quam fuga? occasione simulanter induerat." If he only put
on the cowl as a means of concealment in quitting the monastery, it
is evident that he did not wear it habitually. See also what is said in
c. 30
2 ' ' Mea? parvitati, qui primicerius schola? puerorum pra?eram litteris
imbuendus depntatur . . . quem interdum extra monasterium excedens
ducebam . . . sa?pe totnm diem inter equitandum studendo attriirmus ;
nunc legendo . . . prolixam lectionem . . . nunc poetizando per viam
metro collusimus . . . sa?pe syllogisticis cavillationibus desudavimus.
Ipse quoque me crebro, etsi verecunde, acutis tamen et ex intimo aditu
philosophia? prolatis qua?stionibus sollicitabat.- ... In scribendo (cali-
graphy) apprime enituit : picturam etiam limate exercuit. Fabrili quoque
scientia et arte clusoria (chasing, or the art of setting), omnique structura
(architecture) mirifice excelluit. . . ."—Vit. S. Bernwardi, auct. Tang-
maeo, presbyt. osquali, in Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. vi., pars prima, p. 203.
3 Died in 1038.
4 The whole text deserves quotation: " Coenobium suum pastorali
cura sapienter gubernavit . . . Juvenes quoque et pueros, quos inibi bona?
indolis et sapidos invenit, per diversa scholarum studia circumquaque
dispertivit, quorum certe postea servimine variam ac multiplicem ecclesia?
sua? utilitatem in lectione, scriptura et pictura, ac plurali honestiori
clericalis officii disciplina conquisivit. "— Vit. S. Godehard, auct. Wol-
febo, ejus mqual. et discip., in Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. vi. p. 409.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 163
scale, son of a Slav prince of Mecklenburg, and
afterwards son-in-law to the King of Denmark,
who studied at the monastery of Luneburg, from
whence he escaped on hearing of his father's death.1
And again, we find a holy abbot, William of St
Be"nigne,2 during his struggles against the ignorance
and stupidity of the secular clergy in Normandy and
other French provinces, summoning to the monastic
school, which he managed at Fe'camp, Beze, Dijon,
&c, a crowd of pupils drawn indifferently from the
families of rich or poor, freemen or serfs. The latter
paid no fees, and were maintained at the cost of
the abbeys,3 which were thus transformed into real
seminaries, in the modern sense of the word.
No doubt this was an indirect means of recruit
ing the monastic ranks, since many of the pupils
1 After having begun by making war on the Christians to avenge the
death of his father, Gotescalc became the apostle of Mecklenburg, and
died a martyr in 1068. — Act. SS. Boll., die 9 Junii ; Helmold, Chron.
Slav., book i. c. 28.
2 Died in 1031.
3 Here also the text is curious enough to deserve all the reader's atten
tion : " Cernens vigilantissimus pater, quodnam non solum illo in loco
(Fecamp), sed etiam per totam provinciam illam, nee non per totam
Galliam, in plebeiis maxime scientiam psallendi ac legendi deficere et
annulari clericis, instituit scholas sacri ministerii, quibus pro Dei amore
assidui instarent fratres hujus officii docti, ubi siquidem gratis largiretur
cunctis doctrina? beneficium ad ccenobia sibi commissa confluentibus ;
nullusque qui ad hozc vellet accedere pi-ohibetur. Quin potius tarn servis
quam liberis, divitibus cum egenis, uniforme caritatis impenderetur docu-
mentum. Plures etiam ex ipsis coenobiis, utpote rerum tenues, accipiebant
victum. Ex quibus quoque nonnulli in sancta? conversationis monachorum
devenerehabitum." — Radulph. Glaber., in Vit. S. Guillelm., n. 11. "We
see, then, that Abbot William had founded real seminaries five cen
turies before the Council of Trent, and that these houses for education
even resembled the petits seminaires of our own times.

164 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
would naturally prefer a religious life to any other.
No doubt, also, the Church had a right to the best
fruits of such teaching ; but — we repeat it again —
it was a benefit not denied to any layman who
desired it, even with the avowed intention of re
maining in the world.1 Thus the sons of the
possessors of fiefs held from St Gall were edu
cated in that great abbey,2 where, as in so many
others, no superiority or distinction but that of
capacity was acknowledged.3 Often, indeed, there
might be seen, seated side by side, the sons of serfs
— ennobled by learning and fed by the charity of
the monks — and the sons of knights, such as those
whom the nobles of Aquitaine had confided to the
founder of the Grande-Sauve ;4 or like that young
crusader, afterwards lieutenant to the gallant Bo-
hemond, who, on his return from Palestine, full
of gratitude to his master, St Anselm, sent to him
at his Abbey of Bee a reliquary containing some of
the hair of the Blessed Virgin.5
1 See the many examples and testimonies quoted by Ziegelbauee, Hist.
litt. 0. S. B., pars. i. c. 1, and c. 2, sect. 1 el seq. ¦ " Wernherus, dictus
Kempho, curtem nobis contulit hoc pacto ut Marquardus nepos ejusdem
quindecini annis apud nos erudiendus si libenter profiteri voluerit, con-
sortio nostra adunetur." — Monumenta Boica, vol. x. p. 149. In the
same collection we find a donation made to the monastery of Au for the
benefit of a child who was only to choose an occupation after having fin
ished his studies.
2 It is said of Tutilo, the famous musician, " Filios aliquorum in loco
ab abbate destinato fidibus edocuit " — Ekkeh., De Casib. St Galli, c. 3 ;
and of the Abbot Notker (975-985), "Filios aliquorum quipatrum bene-
ficia habituri erant, adsumptos severe educaverat " — Poid., c. 16.
3 Ekkehabd, Casus S. Galli, 10.
4 Cirot, Hiit. de la Grande-Sauve, vol. i. p. 292 et passim.
6 " In quo sub tuo patrocinio ad a?tatem hominis provectus sum." —

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 165
In Germany, the children of the highest nobility
were at a very early age confided to the monks.1
Under the Carlovingians, the Abbey of St Eiquier,
in Picardy, had one hundred children in its school,
among whom were sons of dukes, counts, and the
first lords of the kingdom.2 At Fleury and Eeich-
enau there were special colleges for the young
nobles, whence they issued to marry or to follow
a soldier's life.3 At St Germain d'Auxerre, at the
time of the Norman conquest of England, the
Abbot of Selby offered to the young Hugh, who
had been brought up in that monastery, the choice
between the knightly spurs in the world and the
monastic knighthood of the cloister.4 At the same
period, the young Jarenton, who had been educated
Eadmee., Hist, novorum, book iv. p. 75, ed Gerberon. He was named
Igyrus, and was magister militum to the celebrated Bohemond.
1 "Sub a?vo Carolorum, Ottonum, Henricorum, regum ducumque
liberi, tenelli adhuc, in canonicorum aut monachorum collegia aman-
dabantur ; ut apud religiosos homines, procul a strepitu offendiculisque
aulicis, a tenero ungui ad exercitia pietatis, honestarumque ac liberalium
artium et linguarum cognitionem assuefierent. " — Meibom., in dedic
Vindiciar. Billing., ap. Ziegelbauee.
2 ' ' Centum pueros scholis erudiendos. . . . Statuimus. . . . In hoc
enim ccenobio duces, comites, filii ducum, filii comitum, filii etiam r^-
gum, educabantur : omnis sublimior dignitas quaqua versum per regnum
Francorum posita, in S. Richarii monasterio se parentem habere gaude-
bat. " — Chron. centul. in Spicileg. , vol. ii.
3 " Principes, comites et barones illic educarentur . . . turn bene in-
stitutis ac libero educatis integrum ac liberum erat prodire iterum vel
uxores ducere, vel aulas principum, vel militiam sequi." — Beuschius,
Monast. Germ. Chron., p. 8. See Ziegelbauee's reflections on this pas
sage, Hist. litt. 0. S. B., pars i. p. 217.
4 " In eodem educatus monasterio abbati diu servierat . . . benignus
Dominus. . . . Duarum illi proposuit optionem . . . vel militia? cingu-
lum in sa?culo, vel militiam in monasterio. " — Hist, monast. Selebiensis in
Anglia, c. 4. Ap. Labbe, Bibl. nov. ms., i. p. 597.

166 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
with the greatest care at Cluny, renounced the mon
astic profession, which he wTas destined later to make
illustrious, in order to embrace a military life.1
\s Sometimes, even, there were found in the monas
tery-schools sons of kings, and future kings, such
as Pepin the Little and Eobert the Pious, who
were brought up, one at St Denis, the other at
Eeims. Sancho the Great, King of Navarre and
Castile, came from. the monastery of Leyre2 — as
Louis le Gros, King of France, did from the Abbey
of St Denis, where, in the words of Suger, he had
become a very accomplished theologian,3 which,
1 "Militaria potius instrumenta appetens." — Hugo Flaviniac, ap.
Labbe, vol. i. p. 197. This incident was not new : four centuries earlier
the noble Aicadre, after having studied from the age of ten to that of
fifteen in the monastery of St Hilaire, at Poitiers, re-entered the world,
and passed several years in it before returning to the service of God. —
Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ii. p. 954 et seq.
2 Mabillon, Annal., book lv. c. 29.
3 " Litteratissimus theologus." We must here note the error of M.
Guizot in the sixth lesson of his History of Civilisation in Europe, where
he argues that the Church schools were meant only for the education of
the clergy, and that the Church did nothing for the intellectual develop
ment of laymen. In her schools (which were, we repeat, nearly all mon
astic) the Church, on the contrary, offered instruction to all laymen who
required it. But it can be easily understood that a great number, destined
to war or agriculture, according as they were born nobles or peasants,
felt no need for any great education. To reproach the Church with this
is to reproach her for having submitted to the conditions of that social
order over which she presided. One of the fundamental principles of
this social order was that which obliged him who desired to devote him
self to learning or the work of education to devote himself at the same
time to the Church either as clerk or monk, so that he might be able to
find in this vocation, — first, a moral and intellectual discipline, and,
f secondly, a benefice which might supply the daily needs of a learned life
at a time when no one enjoyed the products of any literary property.
This identity between the ecclesiastical calling and the profession of
letters or science was perfectly expressed in old French by the word
clergie, which signified science, as the word clerc meant a man of edu-

y

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 167
however, did not prevent him from being a most
gallant knight and skilful politician.
Finally, the great Alfred, the most illustrious
of English kings, the liberator of his country, the
hero of fifty-two battles, was not ashamed, when
he had reached mature years, to repair his imper
fect education by going to the school established
by the Benedictines in Oxford, and there studying
under their direction grammar, philosophy, rhetoric,
history, music, and versification.1
The monasteries of women, following the example Convent-
. schools.
of abbeys for men, contained schools where were Learned
nuns.
trained not only the future novices, but also num
bers of young girls destined for the life of courts
or of the world.2 One of the oldest rules relat
ing to convents — that of St Cdsaire of Aries, insti
tuted in the fifth century, and brought a hundred
years later to Poitiers by St Eadegonde — required
that all the sisters should be able to read, and that
they should devote two hours daily to study.3 St
cation (un loup, quelque peu clerc prouva par sa harangue — a wolf, some
what educated, proved by his harangue . . . — La Fontaine). The
same identification of the two words, science and clergy, is found in
the German language at the present day, in which the term lay is used
in the sense of strange to a science, art, or trade of any kind. It is well
known that ancient German society was divided into three orders or
estates, thus qualified — Lehrstand, Wehrstand, NceJirstand; literally, the
order of teachers, the order of defenders, and the order of providers for
the other two and itself— or, in other words, the clergy, the nobility, and
the people.
1 Cf. jEleed, Spelman, Oudin, ap. Ziegelbauee, pars i. pp. 326, 327.-
2 Hist. litt. de la France, vol. ix. p. 127. Cf. P. Cahiee, 1. c, vol.
xviii. p. 107, note 5, and p. 108, note 1.
3 "Omnes bonas litteras discant ; omni tempore duabus horis, hoc
est a mane usque ad horam secundam, lectioni vacent." — C. 17.

168 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
Leoba, the friend and helper of St Boniface, in
troduced the study of the Fathers, and that of
canon law, into her convent, which she transformed
into a kind of normal school, for the service of the
neighbouring abbeys of women.1 Princes and
nobles went thither to seek wives, as Henry the
Fowler went to Herford. All the distinguished
abbesses were noted for their care of the material
wellbeing and intellectual progress of their young
pupils. Monastic history does not disdain to speak
of the caresses lavished by the illustrious Ade
laide of Luxembourg, Abbess of Vilich,2 on those
little girls of her school who answered correctly the
questions of their grammar mistresses, and the
trouble the good, superior took in going every day
after matins to warm the feet of her young novices
who were still in bed.3 History speaks with
admiration of the illustrious monasteries of Beth-
1 Vit. S. Liobce, ap. Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. III. M. Michelet, in a me-
moire read at the Institute, May 2, 1838, spoke as follows of the learned
Lioba : " The Bible was hardly ever out of her hands; even in bed she
had it read to her. They continued to read while she slept ; and her
biographer asserts that if they missed a syllable she instantly woke." —
Miohelet, Discours sur V education des femmes. Canon 22, book ii., of
the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, contains detailed directions for the edu
cation of young girls in the abbeys of women, on the choice of mistresses
among the nuns, on the parts of Holy Scripture which the pupils ought
to study, &c.
2 Died in 1015.
3 "Hyemis tempore, matutinorum officio completo, dormitorium re-
petens cum ordine sororum, lectulos puellarum visu diligenter lustravit,
pedes singularum, donee calori redderentur, piis ipsa manibus fricavit.
. . . Schola? . . . qua? semper fuerunt summa? cura? officii. Has cum
frequenter ingressit, moveret de arte grammatica qua?stiunculas," &c. 
Fit. S. Aldelheid. abbot, auct. Bertha, ejusd. sanctim. et coozqual., cc.
10, 13, in Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. vi., pars prima, pp. 142, 143.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 169
lehem, founded by St Paula and her daughter,
under the auspices of St Jerome. These were at
once schools of theology and of languages. He
brew and Greek were the daily study of these
two admirable women, who advised St Jerome in
all his difficulties and cheered him in all discour
agements.1 From the first introduction of the Monastic Orders
into various Christian countries, schools for girls,
managed by nuns, never ceased to furnish Catholic
society with a class of exceptional women, as dis
tinguished for intelligence as for piety, and who, in
the study of literature, rivalled the most learned
monks.2 It is known that all the nuns of the
choir were required to understand Latin, and that
letters to them were always written in that lan
guage.3 It would be easy to quote a crowd of
learned and accomplished abbesses and nuns. We
have only to remember St Aura, the friend of St
Eloi, and the nun Bertile, whose learned lectures
on Holy Scripture drew to Chelles, in the sixth
century, a large concourse of auditors of both sexes ;
St Eadegonde, whose profound study of the three
Greek fathers, St Gregory, St Basil, and St Athan-
asius, is commemorated by Fortunatus ; 4 and,
finally, St Gertrude, Abbess of Nivelle, who sent
1 S. Hieeon., Epist. 92 ad Eustoch. Cf. Ozanam, vol. ii. p. 101.
2 " Sanctimonialium studium quondam ardens in litteris excolendis,"
says Mabillon, inprosf. sosc. III. Bened., No. 47.
3 Histoire litteraire de France, vol. ix. pp. 127-130.
4 Foetunat. Oper., p. i. liber viii. c. 1. The life of St Radegonde has
been written with admirable simplicity by one of her nuns.

170 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
messengers to Eome and to Ireland to buy books,
and to bring learned foreigners thence.
The Anglo-Saxon race, above all, was rich in
women of this kind : many are to be found among
the princesses established in the numerous abbeys
of England — such as Edith, natural daughter of
King Edgar, who, brought up by her mother in the
nunnery at Wilton, was equally famed there for her
knowledge and her virtue.1 In Germany,2 among
the nuns associated with the mission of the Eng
lish monk St Boniface, was St Lioba, placed by him
at the head of the first abbey of women founded in
the new patrimony with which he had just endowed
the Church. It was by her side that the great mis
sionary chose to be interred. Lioba was so eager
for knowledge that she never left her books except
for divine service. She was well versed in all which
were then called the liberal arts ; was thoroughly
acquainted with the writings of the Fathers and
canon law ; 3 cultivated Latin verse, and showed
her attempts to St Boniface, who admired them
1 ' ' Litterarum ac virtutum splendore . . . multa sanctorum exempla
in codicibus lectitabat." — Act. SS. 0. B., vol. vii., ad ann. 984. She.
died in 984.
2 " Chunihilt et filia ejus Berathgiht valde erudita? in liberali scientia,
in Turingorum regione constituebantur magistra?." — Othlo, Vit. S.
Bonifi, 1. i. c. 25.
3 " Lectionis studio tanta diligentia incumbebat ut nisi orationi va-
caret, nunquam divina pagina de manibus ejus abscedebat . . . ab ipsis
infantia? rudimentis grammatica et reliquis liberalium artium studiis
instituta . . . eruditissima. . . . Dicta SS. Patrum et decreta cano-
num, totiusque ecclesiastici ordinis jure plenitudini perfectionis adjecit."
—Rudolph., Vit. S. Liobai, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. iv.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. l7l
greatly. By her lessons and her example she
trained many pupils, who in their turn became
famous abbesses. To her is due the honour of
having trained in Christian knowledge the young
girls who filled the new nunneries founded under
the teaching of the Saxon missionaries.1 The
Germans really owe to her the introduction among
them of that monastic culture which, later, was to
shine with such brilliance in the person of Hros
witha, the illustrious nun of Gandersheim, whose
pure and poetic genius has2 received from con
temporary erudition a late but splendid acknow
ledgment.3 It is known that she wrote, in rhymed
verse,4 the history of the Emperor Otho the Great,
1 " Eo in Parthenone non parvus ancillarum Dei numerus . . . qua?
ad exemplum B. Magistrse ccelestis disciplina? studiis instituebantur, et
in tantum doctrina proficiebant, ut plures ex illis postmodum magistra;
fierent aliorum." — Vit S. Lioboe.
2 There was at Gandersheim another Hroswitha, daughter of the Duke
of Saxony, and fourth abbess of this convent, in the ninth century. She
composed a much-esteemed treatise on logic. She has often been con
founded with the author of the dramas ; but wrongly, as M. Magnin has
shown, p. xiv.
3 She died in 997. The curious works of this celebrated nun, always
attractive to the learned, seem now destined to obtain a new popularity,
thanks to the excellent publication of M. Charles Magnin, entitled,
1'hedtre de Hrosvita : texte et traduction. (See also M. Philarete Chasles'
ingenious article on this work in the Revue des Deux Mondes, 1845, vol.
xi. p. 707.) M. Magnin has, by this publication, rendered an essential
service to the history and literature of the monastic ages. But it is diffi
cult to understand why so conscientious a savant should still speak seri
ously of the " night of the middle ages," and so fail to understand the in
tellectual development of the Monastic Orders, particularly in the tenth
century, as to say that the Abbey of Gandersheim was, in Germany, " like
an intellectual oasis in the midst of the steppes of barbarism ! "
4 See, in M. Magnin's introduction, the exact enumeration of the re
ligious, historical, and dramatic poems of this illustrious woman, who
herself, with the greatest modesty, gives the following account of her

172 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
that of the famous nunnery she inhabited, and
the lives of several saints. But the greatest glory
of the pious writer was to have composed the
plays which she caused to be acted in her abbey.
These dramas astonish us by the extraordinary
acquaintance they prove with the authors of classic
antiquity — Plautus, Terence, Virgil, and Horace —
and yet more by a knowledge of the human heart,
truly remarkable in a woman completely shut out
from the world. In these works, equally edifying
and curious, Hroswitha has clothed with a new
and attractive form many of the most touching
legends of Catholic tradition; and in language often
pathetic, and sometimes sublime, she paints with
wonderful energy the sacrifice of human to Divine
love, and the glorious triumph of the sacred weak
ness of Christian maidens over all earthly passions
and all earthly sufferings.1 Hroswitha was the
studies : " Hec matura adhuc a?tate vigens, neo scientia fui proficiens ;
sed nee alicui sapientum affectum mea? intentionis consulendo enucleare,
ne prohiberer pro rusticitate. Unde, clam cunctis et quasi furtim nunc
in componendis sola desudando, nunc male composita destruendo, sata-
gebam juxta meum posse, licet minime necessarium, aliquem tamen con-
ficere textum ex sententifs Scripturarum, quas intra aream nostri Gan-
dersheimensis collegeram ccenobii." She adds that her first success is
owing to Rikkarde, mistress of the novices, and then to the Princess
Gerberge : " Cujus nunc subdor dominio abbatia?, qua? a?tate minor, sed,
ut imperialem decet neptem (Ottonis Iml) provectur, aliquot auctores quos
ipsa prior a sapientissimis didicit, me admodum pie erudivit." — Heos-
vith^e, in Opera sua prosfatio, Vignon edidit, p. 16.
1 This is how she herself describes the object of her plays : " Quo . . .
laudabilis sacrarum castimonia virginum, juxta mei facultatem ingenioli,
celebraretur. . . . Detestabilem inlicite amantium dementiam et male
dulcia colloquia eorum mente tractavi . . . quia quanto blanditia? aman
tium ad illiciendum peremptiores, tanto et superni adjutoris gloria sublim-

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 17.3
most famous but not the only learned nun of this
period. In the age of St Gregory VIL, Cecilia,
daughter of William the Conqueror, Abbess of the
Trinity at Caen, and Emma, Abbess of St Amand,
were equally famed for their skill in grammar, in
philosophy, and in poetry.1 A little later, Herrad
of Landsperg, who governed forty-six noble nuns
at Mont St Odile in Alsace, composed, under
the name of Hortics deliciarum,2 a sort of cos
mology, which is regarded as the first attempt
at a scientific encyclopedia, and is noted for the
breadth of its ideas on painting, geography, phil
osophy, mythology, and history. Germany is also
indebted to an abbess of Eichstatt for having pre
served the Heldenbuch, the treasury of her heroic
stories, to which, with good reason, she attaches so
great a value. 3
The principal and most constant occupation of
the learned Benedictine nuns was the transcrip
tion of manuscripts. It can. never be known
ior et. triumphantium victoria probatur gloriosior, prsesertim cum feminea
fragilitas vinceret, et virile robur confusioni subjiceret. " — Hrosvith a,
Prmfatio in conuedias.
1 Hist. litt. de France, vol. ix. p. 130.
2 This famous work exists in MS. in the library at Strasbourg. It is
the subject of a very incomplete essay by M. Engelhard, entitled, Herrad
von Landsperg und ihr Werk: Stuttgard, 1818. See the valuable notices
in the essay of the learned and indefatigable Pere Cahiee, Si le chris-
tianisme a nui aux sciences in the Annates de philosophic chretienne, vol.
xviii. p. 437, and vol. xix. p. 54.
3 Goeees, Histor. polit. Blatter, vol. xvii. p. 482. Hurter, vol. iii.
pp. 575-580, mentions an abbess litterarum scientia Clara from Egmonti
Chron. Belg., and nuns near Admont, described as valde litteratoz et sci
entia S. Scriptural mirabiliter exercitatoe, by Geebeet, Hist. Nigr. Silvoe,
p. 91.

174 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
how many services to learning and history were
rendered by their delicate hands throughout the
middle ages. They brought to the work a dex
terity, an elegance, and an assiduity which the
monks themselves could not attain, and we owe
to them some of the most beautiful specimens of
the marvellous caligraphy of the period. The in
troduction of this art dates indeed from the first
ages of Christianity. Eusebius speaks of young
maidens whom the learned men of his time em
ployed as copyists.1 In the fifth century, St
Melania the younger distinguished herself by the
beauty and exactness of her transcripts.2 In the
sixth, the nuns of the convent at Aries, excited
by the example of the Abbess St Cesarie, sister
of the Archbishop St Cesaire, acquired a not less
brilliant reputation.3 In the seventh century, St
Gertrude, so skilled in Holy Scripture, sent to
Eome and other foreign countries not only to ask
for works of the highest Christian poetry, but also
for teachers capable of directing the meditations of
her nuns, and enabling them with the help of the
Holy Spirit to comprehend the mysterious mean
ing of certain allegories.4 In the eighth century,
1 Peee Cahiee, 1. c, p. 215.
2 Mabillon, Traite des etudes monast, p. 39.
3 " Libros divinos pulchre scriptitant virgines Christi, ipsam magistram
habentes." — Cypeiani, Vit. S. Caesar., in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. i. p. 688.
4 "Per suos nuncios . . . sancta volumina de urbe Roma et de trans-
marinis regionibus gnaros homines ad docendum divina? legis carmina, ut
sibi et suis quid esset meditandum . . . ut pene omnem bibliothecam
divina? legis memoria? reconderet et obscura allegoria? mysteria Spiritu
sancto revelante, aperte auditoribus aperiret. " — Vit. S. Gertrud., cc; 2,
3, ap. Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ii. p. 465.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 175
St Boniface begged an Abbess to write out for him
in golden letters the epistles of St Peter.1 In
the ninth, the Benedictine nuns of Eeck on the
Meuse, and especially the two holy Abbesses Har-
linde and Eenilde, attained a great celebrity by their
caligraphic works, and by the splendour of the orna
ments which they used.2 Finally, to stop at the
epoch of St Gregory VIL, a contemporary nun, Die-
mude, at Wessobrunn in Bavaria, undertook to tran
scribe a series of important works, the mere enumer
ation of which would frighten a modern reader.3
These works formed, as we read in the saint's epi
taph,4 a whole library, which she offered as a tribute
to St Peter ; but which, however, did not prevent
her from carrying on with Herluca, a nun at the
neighbouring convent of Eppach, a spiritual cor
respondence remarkable for the grace of its expres
sion.5 As may well be supposed, these noble and
pious ladies did not copy without understanding ;
but were able to profit by what they transcribed.6
1 S. Bonieacii, Epist, 28.
2 ' ' Pra?ter textilia opera, quatuor Evangelia, Psalterinm integrum,
aliosque plures divina? Scriptura? conscripsisse, ac liquido auro gemmis,
margaritisque exornasse memorantur." — Act. SS. 0. B., vol. iii. p. 658.
3 The list, which is extremely long, may be seen inPEZ., Thesaur. Anec-
dot. noviss. Dissert. Isag., in vol. i. p. 20.
4 "III kalendas Aprilis obiit pie memorie Diemut inclusa qua e
suis manibus bibliothecam S. Petro hie fecit." This pious nun seems to
have left a lasting memory of herself in the minds of the sisters of Wesso-
bninn ; for, more than a hundred years after her death, her anniversary
was kept by a special meal and a solemn service, in virtue of a legacy
left by the monk Conrad Pozzo for the benefit of his learned brethren :
"Omnibus Htteratis confratribus Deo ibidem militantibus." — Hist, polit.
Blatter, vol. xxiii. p. 847.
5 " Epistola? suaves valde,'' &c. — Poid. p. 21.
6 Peee Cahier, 1. c, p. 217.

176 SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO
y Nuns, therefore, were the rivals of monks in
the task of enlarging and fertilising the field of
Catholic learning.
Every one is aware that the copying of manu
scripts was one of the habitual occupations of
monks. By it they fed the claustral libraries
already spoken of, and which are the principal
source of modern knowledge. Thus we must again
refer to the first beginning of the Monastic Orders to
find the earliest traces of a custom which from that
time was, as it were, identified with the practices
Antiquity of religious life. In the depths of the Thebaide,
of monastic ... . rn
libraries, in the primitive monasteries of labenna, every
house, as we have said, had its library.1 There
is express mention made of this in the rule of St
Benedict.2 Cassiodorus, who honoured all the great
Catholic traditions, endowed his abbey with books
alike numerous and valuable. Dating from these
y patriarchs of the Monastic Orders, through all the
ages of their history, to name an important mon
astery is to indicate a sort of oasis of knowledge.
/ Every notable abbot, every monk famed for piety
or austerity, made himself remarkable for zealous
and laborious efforts to collect, buy, and preserve
books, and to increase the number of them by
transcription. I doubt whether it is possible to
point out one well-known monastery or abbot pre
senting an exception to this general rule.3 Hence
i Traite des etudes monastiques, pp. 10, 34. 2 C. 48.
3 In order to be brief, we are obliged to refer the reader for proof of
this assertion to Ziegelbauer, Hist. lit. ord. S. Bened., pars. i. cc. 5, 6,
sect. 1, from wliich Pere Cahiee has extracted the excellent article

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 177
comes the saying, "A cloister without books is a
fortress without an arsenal." 1
To avoid repetition, we will confine ourselves
to the mention of a few names and facts. In
the seventh century, St Benedict Biscop, founder
and abbot of Wearmouth in England, undertook
five sea-voyages to search for and purchase books
for his abbey, to which each time he brought back
a large cargo.2 In the ninth century, Loup of
Ferrieres transformed his monastery of St Josse-
sur-Mer into a kind of depot for the trade in books
which was carried on with England.3 About the
same time, during the wars which ravaged Lom-
bardy, most of the literary treasures which are nowT
the pride of the Ambrosian library were being col
lected in the abbey of Bobbio. The monastery of
Pomposa, near Eavenna, had, according to contem
poraries, a finer library than those of Eome or of
any other town in the world.4 In the eleventh
century, the library of the abbey of Croyland num
bered 3000 volumes, v The library of Novalese
Des bibliotheques du moyen Age, in his Essay already quoted, Si le Christi-
anisme a nui aux sciences.
1 Literally, " Claustrum sine armario [of books] quasi castrum sine
armamentaria," quoted by St Bernard. Cf. Maetene, Tlies. Anecdot.,
vol. i. c. 511.
2 " Libros non paucos vel placito pretio emptos, vel amicorum dono
largitos retulit . . . innumeram librorum omnis generis copiam appor-
tavit. . . . Bibliothecam quam de Roma nobilissimam copiosissimamque
ad vexerat. "
3 Lupi Fereae, Epist., 62.
4 It was collected, by the Abbot Jerome in 1093. — Heneici cleeici,
Epist., ap. Monte aucon, Diar. Italic, c. 6. Nonantule, Casa Auria, and,
above all, La Chiusa, were, however, in this respect, rivals of Pomposa.
VOL. VI. M

/

178 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
had 6700, which the monks saved at the risk
of their lives when their abbey was destroyed
by the Saracens in 905. Hirschau contained an
immense number of manuscripts.1 But, for the
number and value of its books, Fulda eclipsed all
the monasteries of Germany, and perhaps of the
whole Christian world.2 On the other hand,
some writers assure us that Monte Cassino, under
the Abbot Didier, the friend of Gregory VIL, pos
sessed the richest collection which it was possi
ble to find. This was the result of the residence
in Italy of the African Constantine, who, after
having passed forty years in the East studying the
scientific traditions of Egypt, Persia, Chaldsea, and
India, had been driven from Carthage by envious
rivals ; and coming to the tomb of St Benedict,
to assume there the monastic habit, endowed his
new dwelling with the rich treasure of books col
lected in his wanderings.3
The libraries, thus created by the labours of
monks became, as it were, the intellectual arsenals
of princes and potentates. The Emperor Charles
le Gros took from St Gall St Gregory's homilies on
the Gospels. The Empress Eicharda borrowed from
the same monastery the great doctor's commen-
1 " Ingens copia," says Trithemius, in speaking of the devastation of
this abbey in 1002.
3 Ziegelbauer, vol. i. p. 484. He gives the old catalogues of the
libraries of this and several other abbeys, with a number of details of
great interest for bibliographic science.
3 Pete. Diac, Chron. Cassin., 1. iii. c. 35.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 179
tary on Ezekiel ; and the Arch-chancellor Luit-
ward, the Epistles of St Jerome. A century and
a half later, the Empress Gisela sent thither in her
turn to ask for the German translation of Job and
the Psalms.1 These books, so much sought after,
naturally brought about an exchange of good offices
between the abbey and the different congregations :
owners of books offered them to each other, and
sent them to eaeh other from great distances.
Charity, and the spirit of union as well as learn
ing, gained by this. " We send you a pledge of
our affection, and we would fain have one from
you in return,"2 wrote Durand, Abbot of Chaise-
Dieu, to St Anselm, then Prior of Bee, when he
asked for St Paul's Epistles. The correspondence
of Loup de Ferrieres, and those of Gerbert, Lan-
franc, and Peter the Venerable, all contain details
on this point which are equally touching and
instructive.3 We must conclude, then, that at the period of
which we speak, as is generally supposed, books
were far from being as rare in that old Christian
Europe covered with monasteries, each of which
possessed its own library. There were also col-
1 Marginal notes on the old catalogue of St Gall, quoted by Arx,
vol. i. pp. 95, 191. " Unum ex his datum est Carolo regi. Habet domna
Richardis," &c. — Ekke., iv., in lib. Benediction. S. Gall.
2 8. Anselm., Epist., i. 61. See also the passage of book i. ep. 10 :
" Domno abbate concedente, me volente, nullo fratrum resistente, nostro
pariter et vestro compensato commodo, libenter vobis quoscumque libros,
vel potius qua?cumque habemus, mittemus quando exigetis : quos vero de
nostris vos habetis, dimittemus quamdiu exigetis. "
3 Pere Cahiee, book c. vol. xviii. pp. 29-33.

180 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
lections of books in all the cathedrals, in all the
collegiate churches, and in many of the castles.1
Much has been said of the excessive price of certain
books during the middle ages : Eobertson and his
imitators, in support of this theory, are fond of
quoting the famous collection of homilies that
Grecia Countess of Anjou bought, in 1056, for two
hundred sheep, a measure of wheat, one of millet,
one of rye, several marten-skins, and four pounds of
silver.2 An instance like this always produces its
effect ; but these writers forget to say that the books
boughtfor such high prices were admirable specimens
of caligraphy, of painting, and of carving. It would
be just as reasonable to quote the exorbitant sums
paid at sales by bibliomaniacs of our days, in order
to prove that since the invention of printing, books
have been excessive in price.3 Moreover, the ardent
fondness of the Countess Grecia for beautiful books
had been shared by other amateurs of a much earlier
date. Bede relates that Alfred, King of Northumbria
in the seventh century, gave eight hides of land to
St Benedict Biscop in exchange for a Cosmography
which that book-loving abbot had bought at Eome.4
1 Pere Cahiee. 2 Mabill., Annal, book lxi. c. 6.
3 I borrow this remark from the English writer, Maitland, in his valu
able wgrk called The Dark Ages (p. 67), where he justly ridicules the
foolish stories repeated for a century past by Protestant and philosophi
cal historians as to the barbarism of the middle ages. He quotes on
this subject an instance of an English nobleman who, in 1812, paid, at a
sale, the sum of £2260 for_the_unique copy_ of a certain edition of the
J?ecameror^ "Certainly," says Maitland, "the purchase oTthe Countess
Grecia does more honour both to her wit and to he.r century.''
4 Bbde, Vit. abb., p. 388, ed. Giles.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 181
The monks loved their books with a passion
which has never been surpassed in modern times.
We find proofs of this both in their writings and in
a thousand incidents of their lives. They often
undertook long and difficult journeys to procure
manuscripts, or even merely to consult them : we
possess, for example, a curious account of an
excursion made by the monk Eicher of Eeims
to the town of Chartres, for the purpose of seeing
the Aphorisms of Hippocrates.1 And books, once
acquired, were regarded as the most precious trea
sure of the monasteries. The monks of Monte
Cassino, when forced, about the year 580, to aban
don their abbey to the rage of the Lombards, made
no attempt to carry anything with them except
their books, and the text of the Eule given by their
holy Patriarch.2 When the Saracens came, in 905,
to Novalese in Piedmont, the first care of the monks,
after a short prayer to the Virgin, was to run to
the library. There, says the chronicle,3 they loaded
each other with manuscripts as if they were beasts
of burden, and so carried them across the mountains
to Turin. " Our books," said Hugh, Prior of the
Chartreuse at Witham, to his monks, " are our
delight and our wealth in time of peace, our offensive
and defensive arms in time of war, our food when
1 Richee, book iv. c. 50, p. 642, ed. Pertz.
5 Paul. Diac, De gest. Longob., book iv. c. 18, ap. Mueatoei, Script.,
vol. i.
3 Quoted by Audin, Hist, de Leon X., p. 400, as being in Muratori,
Antiq. Ital., vol. iii. p. 187 ; but this is no doubt a mistake, for we
have searched in vain for it.

182 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
we are hungry, and our medicine when we are
sick."1 "Without study and without books, the
life of a monk is nothing," said a monk of Muri.2
Unfortunately, at a certain epoch, the price of
manuscripts became so exorbitant, that the poor
clerks found it impossible to acquire those which
were needed for their studies. The most learned
student of our Ecole des Chartes has recently
remarked, "There has not been sufficient regard paid
to the services rendered by monastic libraries in
such cases. The loan of books was considered as
one of the most meritorious of all acts of mercy."3
We must add, however, that to avoid doing
this, some communities placed the books of their
libraries under an anathema — that is to say,
they forbade, under pain of excommunication, all
borrowing or lending of books. But this selfish
strictness, so alien to the true monastic spirit, was
formally condemned in 1212 at the Council of
Paris, the fathers of which urged, in touching terms,
more charitable sentiments on these bibliophiles.
" We forbid monks to bind themselves by any oath
not to lend their books to the poor, seeing that
such a loan is one of the chief works of mercy.
1 ' ' His pro deliciis et divitiis tempore tranquillo, his bellico in pro-
cinctu pro telis et armis, his in fame pro alimonia, his in languore pro
medela monachis esse memorabat." — Quoted by Mabill., Reflexions sur
la reponse de M. de Ranee, vol. ii. p. 139. Hugh was afterwards Bishop
of Lincoln, and canonised.
2 "Vita omnium spiritualium hominum sine litteris nihil est." — Acta
fund. Murens., p. 48, ap. Huetee, vol. iii. p. 576.
3 See L. Delisle, Bibliothique de I'Ecole des Chartes, III6 series, vol.
i. p. 225.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 183
We desire that these books should be divided into
two classes — one to remain in the house for the use
of the brothers, the other to be lent out to the poor,
according to the judgment of the abbot."1
All these facts show how much instruction was
valued in the middle ages. St Maiieul of Cluny
was so fond of reading, that even when he travelled
on horseback he had always a book in his hand.
Halinard, Abbot of StBenigne at Dijon, and after
wards Archbishop of Lyons, one of the boldest
champions of ecclesiastical liberty, had the same
custom ; and it was remarked that the volumes he
thus read "to amuse himself" were chiefly those of
the ancient philosophers.2
It is an error, therefore, to suppose that books Monastic
libraries
of theology or piety alone filled the libraries of the not exciu-
°J r J sively filled
monks. Some enemies of the religious orders have, f ith ^°-
° logical
indeed, argued that this was the case ; but the proof works-
of the contrary is evident in all documents relating
to the subject.3 The catalogues of the principal
monastic libraries4 during those centuries which
1 Labbe, Sacrosancta Concilia, vol. xi. cc. 69, 71.
2 " In itinere positus sa?pius libellos gestaret in manibus ; itaque in
equitando aninium reficiebat legendo. . . . Philosophos vero sa?cularis-
que sapientia? libros turn legebat. " — Chron. S. Benig., in Spicileg. , vol. ii.
p. 392. Halinard was made archbishop in 1046.
3 See the excellent refutation of M. Libri's thesis on this point by
Pere Cahiee, op. cit., vol. xvii. p. 355, vol. xviii. p. 31.
4 See chiefly Ziegelbauee, book c. In the catalogue of Pfeffers, given
by Arx, Hist, de S. Gall., vol. i. p. 295, we find Homer, Theocritus,
Aristotle, and all the Latin classics. It is the same with the catalogues
of the libraries of Lorsch, Orbais, Corbie, Fulda, Nonantula, and other
monasteries, from the seventh to the twelfth century, published by Car
dinal Mai in vol. v. of his Spicilegium Romanum, 1841 ; and in those

184 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
historians regard as most barbarous, are still in
existence ; and these catalogues amply justify the
sentence of the great Leibnitz, when he said, "Books
and learning were preserved by the monasteries."1
/ It is acknowledged that if, on one hand, the
Benedictines settled in Iceland collected the Eddas
and the principal traditions of the Scandinavian
mythology, on the other all the monuments of
Greece and Eome which escaped the devastations
of barbarians were saved by the monks of Italy
France, and Germany, and by them alone.2 And
if in some monasteries the scarcity of parchment
and the ignorance of the superiors permitted
without the destruction, by copyists, of a certain small
we should number of precious works, how can we forget that
possess no
remains of without these same copyists we should possess
classic an- , . .
Equity, nothing — absolutely nothing — of classic antiquity?
But the monks did not content themselves with
guarding carefully and transcribing scrupulously ;
they studied the remains of previous civilisations
with intelligence and skill. Most monastic writers
of St Alb.an, St Michael of Bamberg, Benedictbeuren, &c, to be found
in Ziegelbauer. Pierre Diacre, Chron. Cassin., book iii. c. 63, gives the
list of the library of Monte Cassino in the time of Gregory VII. ; nearly
all the poets and historians of antiquity are comprised in it.
1 " Constat enim libros et litteras monasteriorum ope fuisse conserva-
tas. " — Letters to Magliabecchi.
2 We may enumerate, amongst others, the first five books of the An
nates of Tacitus, found at Corbie ; the treatise of Lactantius on Tlie Death
of Persecutors, discovered by Baluze at Moissac ; the Aulularia of Plautus
and the commentaries of Servius on Virgil, published in the sixteenth
century from the Eleury MSS. We see, by a letter from Gerbert, that
the Republic of Cicero was found in the library of Fleury in the tenth
century. — Ziegelbauee, ii. 520.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 185
made many quotations from the ancients ; and it
is surprising to find how familiar they were with
writers whose tendency was in general so far dif
ferent from their own. Lieven, the Irishman, the
monastic apostle of Flanders in the seventh century,
invoked the muses in verse, which he dictated
during the laborious journeys destined to end in his
martyrdom : he boasted of having drunk of the
Castalian spring, and of knowing how to touch the
Cretan lyre. 1 Alcuin enumerates among the books
in the library at York the works of Aristotle,
Cicero, Pliny, Virgil, Statius, Lucan, and of Trogus
Pompeius. In his correspondence with Charle
magne he quotes Ovid, Horace, Terence, and Cicero,
acknowledging that in his youth he had been more
moved by the tears of Dido than by the Psalms of
David. The abbot Jerome of Pomposa, when he
was reproached with having mingled in the library
of his monastery the fables of the Gentiles with
the grave theology of Christians, answered that
he had wished to leave every one free to follow his
taste and to exercise his faculties as he thought
best.2 In the list of books distributed to the monks
of Farfa, according to a regulation of 1009, we find
Titus Livius by the side of Augustine and the
1 " Et qui Castalio dicebar fonte madentem
Dicta?o versu posse movere lyram ;
Carmine nunc lacero dictam mihi verba Camcena?. "
—De S. Bavonis epitaphio, Act. SSj 0. B., sa?c. ii. p. 405.
2 " Gentilium codices, fabulasque erroris . . ut unusquisque pro
studio et merito sno habeat in quibus oblectetur et proprie exerceat in-
genium." — Montfauoon, Iter Italic , 1. c.

186 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
Venerable Bede. 1 We see in the correspondence
of the pious and zealous Loup de Ferrieres that he
successively borrowed from bis friends the treatise
De Orator e of Cicero, a commentary on Terence,
the works of Quintilian, those of Sallust, and those
of Suetonius, and that he was occupied at the same
time in correcting the text of the orations of Cicero
against Verres, and that of Macrobius.2 One of
the most excellent monks of the eleventh century,
Hermann Contractus, when on his deathbed, still
dreamed of the happiness of reading and re-reading
the Hortensius of Cicero. 3 Abbot Didier of Monte
Cassino, who succeeded Gregory VII. as Pope, caused
Horace and Seneca, Cicero's treatise De Natura
Deorum, and the Fasti of Ovid, to be transcribed.4
Didier's old friend, Archbishop Alfano, a monk of
Monte Cassino, constantly quotes in his writings
Plato, Aristotle, Varro, Cicero, Virgil, and Apuleius,
and imitates Ovid and Horace in his verses.5 St
Anselm, Abbot of Bee in the time of Gregory VIL,
recommended to his pupils the careful study of
Virgil and other profane writers, setting aside the
too licentious passages.6 Finally, St Peter Da-
1 This rule applied the Consuetudines of Cluny to this Italian abbey.
2 See the curious polemics between Ranee" and Dom Mabillon on this
subject. 3 " Per totam noctem hanc in ecstasi quadam raptus fuerarn, et vide-
bar mihi, in Hortensium Tullii Ciceronis lectitando et mox relectitando
vigilanter percursitare. " — Beethold, ann. 1054, ap. Peetz, p. 268.
4 Chron. Cassin., book iii. c. 43.
6 GlESEBEEOHT, op. Clt. , p. 52.
6 " Exceptis his in quibus aliqua turpitudo sonat." — Epist., i. 55.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 187
mian seems to have expressed the true mind of the
Church when, speaking of the studies of Gregory
VII. himself in pagan writers, he applies to him
this passage from Exodus : " To study poets and
philosophers for the purpose of rendering the wit
more keen, and fitter to penetrate the mysteries of
the Divine Word, is to spoil the Egyptians of their
treasures in order to build a tabernacle for God."1
It appears, then, that the supposed ignorance of
the middle ages in general,2 and of the monks in
particular, with regard to pagan antiquity,3 has
been considerably exaggerated.
An attentive study of monastic remains shows,
on the contrary, that classic writers were perhaps
more generally known and admired in France then
than they are now. It is true that the code of
1 "Thesaurum quippe tollit -ffigyptiis, unde Deo tabernaculum con-
struat, qui poetas et philosophos legit, quibus ad penetranda mysteria
coelestis eloquii subtilius convalescat." — B. Petei Dam., Opusc, xxxii.
c. 9, p. 635. See also an important passage in the life of St Maieul, on
the discernment with which this Abbot of Cluny studied the ancient
philosophers, ap. Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. v. p. 791. The famous passage of
St Ouen against pagan writers must not be invoked here against the
opinions quoted above ; for Ouen, though a pupil of the monastery of St
Medard, and founder of Orbais, was not himself a monk. Cf. Ozanam,
Etudes Germaniques, vol. ii. c. 9, p. 466. It is there clearly proved that
the very vehemence of the attack upon ancient writers shows how much
authority they had retained.
2 In the tenth century itself — that "dark age,'' par excellence, accord
ing to our modern doctors — they used to study, in the episcopal schools
of Paderborn, Horace, Virgil, Sallust, and Statius, together with astro
nomy, mathematics, dialectics, and music. — Vit. S. Meinverci, c. 52, ap.
Leibnitz, Script. Brunsw., i. 546.
3 See the chapters entitled Historia studii antiquit. and Hist, poll-
tioris litteraturaz, in Ziegelbauee, pars ii. c. 5, sect. 3, and c. 6. We
have already given proofs of the Greek and Latin studies carried on at
St Gall and other places in the tenth century.

188 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
morality and of politics meant for the use of
Christian nations was not, as it has been since the
Eenaissance, drawn. from these writers, and that
the dangerous influence they were likely to
exercise on public morals was clearly under
stood ; but the study of the chefs-d'ceuvres of
pagan authors possessed so strong an attraction
for the monks, that throughout the duration
of the ages of monastic splendour, and in all
Christian- countries, we find that the saints and
doctors were obliged to repress in the cloister the
fondness of the monks for those very studies which
they are accused of having despised, but which
really often exercised too great a dominion over
them.1 St Basil,2 St Jerome,3 St Gregory the
Great, St Paschase Eadbert,4 Loup de Ferrieres,
Eathier of Verona, St Peter Damian,5 Lanfranc,
and others, were obliged to protest against this
excessive devotion to pagan literature, and to
1 It was chiefly Virgil who seemed, so to speak, to turn the heads of
these pious solitaries. See several parts of the lives of Alcuin, of St
Odo (Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. v. p. 154), and of St Maieul (ibid., p. 768).
2 He approved of the reading of Homer as a book which tends to
virtue, but at the same time disapproved of teaching pagan fables to the
young monks. — Apud Mabill., Reflexions, vol. i. pp. 187, 209.
3 " Qua? enim communicatio lucis ad tenebras ? quid facitcum psalterio
Horatius ? cum Evangeliis Maro ? cum Apostolis Cicero ? " — S. Hieeon. ,
vol. i. c. 51. See also, in the epistle to Eustochius, the famous vision of
the judgment which awaited him in the other world, where the heavenly
Judge reproaches him for being, not a Christian, but a Ciceronian.
4 ' ' Miror . . . quod non velint mystica Dei sacramenta ea diligentia
perscrutari qua tragcediarum na?nias et poetarum figmenta sudantes cupi-
unt investigare labore." — In prof., lib. iii. in Matth.
5 "Parvi pedentes regulam Benedicti, regulis gaudentes vacare D -
nati." — Opusc, xiii.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 189
point out the dangers to morals which might arise
from it.1 . These warnings and reprimands, which
we find falling, century after century, from the
pens of the most illustrious monks, prove at least
that the use of classic authors was sufficiently com
mon among the Benedictines to have degenerated
into an abuse. Many curious facts of monastic
history show clearly that this danger was by no
means imaginary.2 And there is one direction to
be found in the Customs of Cluny, in the passage
which prescribes the different signs to be used
in asking for books during the hours of silence,
which proves at once the frequency of these studies,
and the small esteem in which a true monk ought
to hold them. The general rule, when asking
for any book, was to extend the hand, making
motions as if turning over the leaves ; but in
order to indicate a pagan work, the monks Avere
directed to scratch their ear as a dog does —
because, says the regulation, unbelievers may well
l St Augustine in his Confessions (vol. i. c. 12), St Gregory the Great
in his letter to Bishop Desiderius (book ix. p. 18), and Lanfranc, all
speak, not only against the abuse, but even against the use, of pagan
authors. Maitland, in his work already quoted, has recited most of the
monastic inhibitions relative-to this subject (The Dark Ages, No. 11, p.
175, &c.) M. Ozanam has also given some valuable indications in his
excellent work on les Sources poetiques de la divine Comid.ie. See le Cor-
respondant, vol. ix. p. 514, and the Etudes Germaniques, vol. ii. p. 338,
where this eminent writer has treated the subject thoroughly and with
his accustomed mastery.
2 See a curious passage in the Chronicles of St Riquier, c. 13, in
D'Achebi, Spicileg., vol. ii. p. 338. There is also an important poem
of St Alfano, a monk of Monte Cassino in the eleventh century, against
the excessive study of Aristotle and Plato at the monastery of Casaurio.
— Ap. Giesebeecht, book c. p. 32.

190 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
be compared to that animal. x In the same spirit,
two German monks, apologists of Gregory VIL,
placed the following inscription at the head of a
treatise addressed by them, in 1076, to a learned
contemporary : " To Dom Bernard, who, to the
great profit of his soul and of his auditors, has
given up the frivolous lyre of Horace for the mystic
harp of David."2
Transcrip- To return to the constant transcription of manu-
tion of .
manu- scripts, which fed and multiplied the cloister libra-
scripts by •*¦ x
the monks. rieSj ft is notj sufficiently known how laborious
and meritorious a work this really was. Its char
acter was such, that it was regarded by monastic
rules and usages as completely equivalent to that
manual labour, that rude agricultural toil, by which
the Benedictines brought great part of Europe into
cultivation, and which constituted, as every one
knows, one of the strictest obligations of all the
rules. St Martin imposed no other task on his
disciples.3 Cassiodorus — that great man, who, after
having been minister to four or five kings, ended
his life in a monastery founded by himself — settled
the rules of the art of copying in his treatise De
1 "Pro generali signo libri, extende manum, et move sicut folium libri
moveri solet . . . pro signo libri sa?cularis, quem aliquis paganus fecit,
pra?misso generali signo libri, adde ut aurem tangas digito sicut canis
cum pede pruriens solet, quia nee immerito infideles tali animanti com-
parantur." — Martene, De Antiq. Monach. ritibus, 1. v. c. 18, p. 289.
2 " D. Bernardo . . . non jam nugacem lyram Horatii, sed mysticam
citharam David fructuosius sibi et suis auditoribus amplexanti." — Epist.
Adalberti et Bernaldi, de Damnat. Schismat., ap. Usserman, Prodro-
mus Germanice sacra; vol. ii. p. 214.
3 Sulpit. Sever., Fit. S. Martini, c. 7.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 191
Orihographia, where he recommends this work in
preference to all others,1 while at the same time
teaching the first elements of that art of binding,
the productions of which are now so anxiously
sought for. He desired that the workers should
learn to ornament manuscripts, so that the beauty
of the holy writings might be set off by the splen
dour of a rich cover, and so realise, as it were, the
parable of our Lord, who, when He called His elect
to the heavenly feast, would have them robed in
wedding garments. St Ferre"ol says expressly in
his Eule, written in the sixth century, that "he who
does not turn up the earth with the plough ought
to paint the parchment with his fingers."2
We find, also, that the most illustrious monks
did not disdain this kind of labour as a penitential
exercise : St Jerome, St Eustace, Abbot of Luxeuil,
the Venerable Bede, Eabanus Maurus, Lanfranc,3
and a crowd of other holy and learned abbots,
transcribed sometimes their own works, and some
times those of others.4 This work was nowhere
more carefully or zealously organised than in the
great German abbey of Hirschau, in the eleventh
1 See the admirable extract given by Pere Cahier, op. cit., vol. xviii.
p. 148. There were caligraphers among the monks of the Thebaid who
excelled all others in austerity. — Pallad., c. 39, Hist. Lauriac, ap.
Rosweyde. 2 " Paginam pingat digito qui terram non proscindit aratro." — C. 28.
3 The library of Mans possesses a MS. of the Hexameron of St Am
brose corrected by Lanfranc during his residence with the Benedictines
of that town. At the end of the MS. may be read, in the great man's
own hand, " Lanfrancus ego correxi."
4 See the many examples collected by Mabill. , Traite des etudes, v.
36 ; Reflexions sur la reponse de Ranee, vol. ii. p. 95.

192 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
century. The Abbot Frederic himself took his
place in the scriptorium, where a number of monks
were occupied in copying.1 His successor, William
of Hirschau, had chosen from among the brothers
twelve excellent caligraphers, to whom he intrusted
specially the transcribing of the sacred books and
of the Fathers. Others, whose number was un
limited, copied works of less importance.2 It was
a real penance — for the men of the middle ages,
monks or not, had little fondness for a sedentary
life ; they could only give themselves up to it by
putting a perpetual constraint upon their habits
and their nature. But the example of so many
excellent persons, of so many great men, and,
above all, the holy virtue of obedience, attached
the monks to this fatiguing duty. More than one
avowal, slipping from the pen of laborious copyists,
betrays at once the hardness of the trial and the
merit of the sacrifice. A monk of St Gall has left?
"these lines, traced on a corner of one of the beauti
ful manuscripts belonging to the abbey : " He
who does not know how to write imagines it to
be no labour ; but though three fingers only hold J
Jhe pen, the whole body grows weary."3
* Between 1061 and 1069. — V. Trithem., Ann. Hirsaug., p. 214 ;
Geebeet, Hist. Nig. Silv., i. 162.
2 " Duodecim e monachis suis scriptores optimos instituit, quibus ut
divina? auctoritatis libros et SS. Patrum tractatus rescriberent, deman-
davit. Erant pra?ter hos et alii scriptores sine certo numero, qui pari
diligentia scribendis voluminibus impendebant." — Teithemius, p. 229.
3 " Qui nescit scribere non put'at esse laborem : tres enim digiti scribunt,
totum corpus laborat." — Eadbeet., in Cod. MS. S. Gallens, No. 243,
ap. Arx, vol. i. p. 87.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 193
There were no fires in the cells of the monks,
and during the long hours of day and night they
had to bear the severest cold.1 We cannot, there
fore, read, without emotion, the few lines placed by
the monk Louis of Wissobrunn at the end of the
1 "Ex hoc dum, lector bone, fructum codice carpis,
Qui fuerit scriptor interdum, qua?so, memor sis :
Pauper et exiguus huic nomen erat Ludovicus.
Sedibus externis hie librum quem modo cernis,
Dum scripsit, friguit, et quod cum lumine solis
Scribere non potuit, perfecit lumine noctis :
Sis Deus istorum merces condigna laborum."
— (Pez, Thesaur. Anecd. noviss. Dissert. Isag., vol. ii. p. 913.)
M. de Montalembert has written in pencil on the margin of the inter
leaved volume which we are using for this edition the following lines :
" Here should be placed the delicious inscription quoted by M. L. De-
lisle, and transcribed on a separate sheet, Carlov. studio B." We have
vainly sought for this separate sheet ; but the second volume of the
learned work entitled Le Cabinet des manuscrits de la Bibliotheque na-
tionale, contains several inscriptions relative to copyists, and no doubt
the one which struck the illustrious historian of the ' Monks of the
West ' was among these. Here are the verses traced at the bottom of a
Gospel book of the eleventh century, classed among the Latin MSS. in
the National Library under No. 11,960 : —
" Nauta rudis pelagi ut saevis ereptus at> lrodis,
In portum veniens, pectora lseta tenet :
Sic scriptor fessus, calaraum sub calee laboris
Deponens, habeat pectora lata quidem.
Ille Deo dicat grates pro sospite vita,
Proque laboris agat iste sui requie.
Mercedes habeat Christo donante per ajvum
Ille qui hunc librum scribere jussit. Amen. "
In a sacrament book inscribed under No. 12,050 of the Latin collec
tion, the copyist, who -was called Rodrade, and was ordained priest in
853 by Hilmeralde, Bishop of Amiens, invokes, in these words, the
prayers of the priests who should make use of his book : —
" Ego Rotradus, misericordia Dei indigens, victus Hilmeraldi antisti-
tis jussionibus, victusque episcopalis auctoritatis excommunicationibus,
IIII. Nonas M&rtii, sacerdotalis ministerii trepidus suscepi officium,
anno incarnationis Domini DCCCLIIL, indictione I., epacta VIL, con-
currente VIL, termino paschali IV. Kalendas aprilis. Quicumque hanc
ordinationis mea? adnotatiunculum legeris, et per hanc codicem dominici
corporis consecrationem recitaveris, tuis, qua?so, precibus adjutus dicat-
VOL. VI. N

194 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
commentary of St Jerome on the Book of Daniel :
" Good readers who may use this work, do not, I
pray you, forget him who copied it : it was a poor
brother named Louis, who, while he transcribed
this volume, brought from a foreign country, en
dured the cold, and was obliged to finish in the
night what he was not able to write by daylight.
um Christi exhibere sacerdotium et superna? visionis consequi merear
bravium. " Te quoque suppliciter, Christi benedicte sacerdos,
Codicis istius frueris qui forsitan usu,
Inter saerorum solemnia sis memor ipse,
Posco, mei, precibusque Deum mihi eonciliato
Obsequio cujus coelestia munera libas."
At the end of another Latin manuscript bearing the No. 12,296, the
characters of which belong to the Carlovingian epoch, we read an in
scription in which the scribe, named Garembert, begs the reader, who
perhaps does not suspect the difficulty of the copyist's art, to take care
not to efface the letters with his fingers : ' ' Amice qui legis, retro digitos
teneas, ne subito litteras deleas . . . sicut navigantibus dulcis est portus,
ita scriptori novissimus versus."
At the head of a martyrology written in the twelfth century, is pic
tured a monk on his knees offering a book to St Peter, and the painting
is accompanied by this inscription : —
" In nomine sancte et individue Trinitatis. Ego, frater Nevelo, hujus
sancti cenobii Corbeiensis alumnus, in sancto habitu constitutus, sed con-
scientia? sarcina utcumque peragravatus, hunc libellum, propriis sump-
tibus elaboratum et propria manu prout potui descriptum, obtuli domino
et patroni nostro beatissimo Petro apostolo."
The frontispiece to the rule of St Benedict in the same manuscript
represents brother Nevelo prostrate at the feet of the saint ; then, at the
end of an abridged martyrology which concludes the volume, the good
monk has placed the following notice: "Quicumque lector hie legerit,
hoc deesse non ignorantia Nevelonis sed detrancatione folii exemplaris.
Qui vero alio repperit hoc quod hie deest, huic pagina? caritatis amore
iuserere procuret. Quicumque nos tenes sive legis, scito domnum Neve-
lonem nos ad hoc scripsisse ut nos adjungamur libro de capitulo ab eodem
Nevelone composite "
At the bottom of the page is this recommendation: " 0 lector, me
mento Nevelonis qui prout potuit ad compendium legentium nee [non]
caritative scripsit. Amen ! " — V. L. Delisle, Cabinet des manuscrits
de la Bibliotlieque nationale, vol. ii. pp. 111-121.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 195
But Thou, Lord, wilt be to him the full recompense
of his labours."
^ These humble copyists worked in silence, and
with unfailing assiduity. Thus, twelve young
monks in the reformed monastery of St Martin
at Tournay, laboured with so much zeal in copying
the manuscripts collected or borrowed by Eaoul
their prior, that very soon no abbey of the Nether
lands possessed a more extensive library;1 and thus
also worked Othlo, a monk of Tegernsee and St
Emmeran, of about the same time, who has left
us a startling enumeration of his productions,
among which are nineteen missals written with his
own hand, and which nearly cost him his sight.2
Thus, even supposing, as ill-informed authors have
done, that the monks undertook this work merely
to beguile their idle hours, how can we refuse to
admire men who, according to the just observation
of a modern writer, must have undertaken, by way
of recreation or pastime, a work to which the most
skilful of copyists needed to devote so many days
and nights ? 3
1 " Narratio restaurationis," &c, in Spicileg., vol. ii. p. 913.
2 Apud Pez, op. cit., vol. iii. p. x. ; Mabill., Analect., vol. iv. p. 448,
fol. ed. Othlo was born in 1013.
3 " Da que' monaci, che molti filosofi nel nostro secolo si han fatto legge
di sprezzare . . . facease per modo di riposo, di sollievo e per indulgenza,
cio che la pigrizia e molezza nostra riguarde como occupazione si seria
e si grave," &c. — Denina, delle Rivoluz. d' Italia, vol. iii. p. 265.
Maitland proposes to the English savants who speak contemptuously of
monkish idleness, to begin by making an exact copy of the works of
Bacon, or any other rather voluminous writer, so that they may get
a practical idea of this pretended idleness. — The Dark Ages, p. 417.

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We must remember, moreover, that this kind of
recreation, or rather this excess of fatigue, was not
only justified but sanctified among monks by the
spiritual end for which they worked, Ozanam
reminds us that in the Abbey of Fulda an inscrip
tion in verse, written over the door of the Scrip
torium, exhorted them to multiply books, taking
care to reproduce the texts carefully, and not to
deface them by frivolous inscriptions.1 From the
commencement, Cassiodorus had defined the true
aim of literary work, and, above all, of that work
of transcription, to which the monks devoted their
time. " What a happy invention," he says, " and
what glorious labour, is that which enables us to
preach to men by the hands as well as by the
voice ; to use our fingers in place of our tongues ;
to place ourselves in relation with the rest of the
world without breaking silence; and to combat
with pen and ink the lawless suggestions of the
devil ! for each word of Holy Scripture writ
ten by the studious monk is a wound given to
Satan. . . , A reed shaped into a pen, as it glides
over the page and traces the divine word there",
repairs, as it were, the wrong done by that other
reed with which, on the day of the Passion, the
devil caused the head of the Lord to be struck."2

1 Ozanam, he. cit., ii. 501.
2 ' ' 'Felix inventio, laudanda sedulitas, manu hominibus pra?dicare, digitis
linguas aperire, salutem mortalibus taciturn dare, et contra diaboli sur-
reptiones illicitas calamo atramentoque pugnare ! Tot enim vulnera
Satanas accipit, quot antiquarius Domini verba describit. . . . Arundine

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 197
It is certain that the lowly sons of St Benedict
made no pretensions whatever to the title of sa
vants or pedagogues ; such was neither their mis
sion, their intention, nor their duty. The words
employed at the consecration of the Scriptorium,
or transcribing- room, show sufficiently the object
and spirit of their work. " Deign, Lord, to bless
the Scriptorium of Thy servants, that all which
they write there may be comprehended by their
intelligence, and realised in their works. " 1 All that
monks have done for learning, then, was but a
work of supererogation ; it was out of the sur
plus of their time, their powers, and their zeal that
they gave this alms to posterity. Consequently,
we may boldly affirm that the most learned men
the world ever saw, became so only by accident.
They studied — so said, a thousand years after Cas-
siodorus, the most learned seventeenth - century
monk, Dom Mabillon2 — they studied, not in order
to become learned, but that they might be more
capable of practising their duties as monks. Their
monasteries were not " academies of science," but
" schools of Jesus Christ."3 Thus they reconciled
the love of study with the renunciation of all
literary and merely human glory; for, to borrow
currente verba ccelestia describantur, ut unde diabolus caput Domini in
passione fecit percuti," ko.—De Instit. divin. Script., vol. ii. c. 7.
1 " Benedicere digneris, Domine, hoc scriptorium famulorumtuorum,ut
quidquid scriptum fuerit, sensu capiant, opere perficiant. " — D'Aoheev,
in not. oper. Guibert. novig.
2 Reflexions sur la reponse de Vdbbe de la Trappe, vol. i. p. 47.
3 Ibid., p. 137.

198 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
again the language of Mabillon, it is quite pos
sible to despise earthly knowledge, and yet to
make it profitable to holiness and virtue ; just as
one can make use of wealth to subsist and to give
alms, even while contemning it as a Christian and
as a monk. Thus the Benedictines kept them
selves for twelve centuries midway between two
extreme and erroneous opinions, — one which pro
claimed study and learning useless and even hurt
ful to true monks;1 and the other, which would
allow to monks no other mission than that of being
savants, writers, or commentators.2 We may re
mind those who still hold this last error, of the
beautiful prayer of St Autbert, Abbot of St Vin
cent at Volturna in Italy, at the end of his com
mentary on the Apocalypse : —
" May it please Thee, 0 Lord, to grant me,
together with learning, the study and practice of
virtue ! But if I have not the happiness to possess
both, I prefer to pass for a fool rather than for a
learned man without goodness. For indeed I have
quitted my country and my family, not to obtain

1 The celebrated Ranee" was the chief promoter of this paradox, so
admirably refuted by Mabillon in his Treatise on Monastic Studies and
in the Reflections on the Answer ofiM. I' Abbe de la Trappe : Paris, 1693,
in 12mo. This latter book is a model of style, and of moderate, noble,
and conclusive discussion. It is the chef-d'oeuvre of Christian polemics.
It deserves to be reckoned among the finest literary productions of the
seventeenth century.
2 It is an illusion of certain persons who wrote in the previous century
that monasteries were first established only to serve as schools and
public academies, where the teaching of worldly knowledge was made
a profession. — Mabillon, Traite des etudes monastiques, part i. c. i.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 199
from Thee the gift of knowledge, but rather that
by Thee I may be led to eternal life by the road
of perfect virtue. I have no wish to change this ;
if I do not deserve both knowledge and goodness,
take knowledge, I pray Thee, away from me, so
that Thou mayst leave me the fruits of goodness."1
But we must abridge. If we were not bound
to do so, how delightful would it be to follow so
many illustrious monks in the long and laborious
journeys which they often undertook for love of
learning, from the distant times of St Ildephonso
of Seville 2 and St Adson of Vienna,3 up to those
of Mabillon and Montfaucon, of Quirini and Pez,
whose pilgrimages offer the material for perhaps
one of the most animated and profitable chapters
of literary history ! 4
How pleasant would it be to enumerate in detail
the services rendered by the indefatigable zeal of
the monks to all branches of human knowledge :
to theology, in which so many controversialists and
1 " Neque enim ideo patriam parentesque reliqui, ut mihi scientia? dona
largireris ; set ut perfectione virtutum ad vitam a?ternam perduceres.
Nolo certe hanc commutationem. Quod si utraque non mereor, doc-
trinam scilicet atque operationem : aufer, qua?so, doctrinam, tantum ut
tribuas operationem virtutum.". — Quoted by Mabillon, Traite, p. 8.
2 In the seventh century. — Mabill., Annal., book xxiii. c. 37.
3 Ibid., book xxiii. p. 163.
4 There are few more interesting narratives than the Voyage litteraire
des deux Benedictins, DD. Martene and Durand, from 1700 to 1710,
This journey gives an idea of what the literary pilgrimages of their
predecessors must have been. Ziegelbauer has collected some valuable
details on this subject (pars i. c. 5), which are well completed. by the Cor-
respondance of Mabillon and Montfaucon during their travels in Italy,
lately published by M. Valeet. See also the Iter Italicum of Mabillon, .
the Iter Alemannieum of Gerbert, &c.

200 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
missionaries have distinguished themselves ; to
canon law and civil law, the first collectors of which,
Denys the Little and Eeginald of Priim, Burkhard
of Worms and Gratien, author of the famous
Decretal, were all monks, as well as Marculphus
and Antegesius, the editors of the Capitularies;
to medicine, constantly practised and taught in
cloisters from the time of St Benedict to that of
St Bernard,1 and endowed by the monks of Monte
Cassino with the famous school of Salerno ;2 to
astronomy and mathematics, cultivated by so many
holy monks ; 3 finally, to philosophy, which, to
quote one of its most learned historians, had for
eight centuries no other asylum than the family
of St Benedict ! 4
Special This task, already accomplished by Ziegelbauer,
services . .
rendered -would surpass our limits ; but before quitting the
by monks x . .
to history. Vast subject of the scientific and literary activity
of monks, we cannot help alluding to the import
ant services they have rendered to history.
On this ground wTe may fearlessly affirm that
they are without rivals ; and people in general are
willing to acknowledge that it is so. The idea of
1 See the numerous and conclusive examples collected by Ziegelbauer,
pars ii. c. iii. sect. 3, Hist, medicines prout inter Benedictinos excultm.
2 That is to say, the Abbot Didier, Archbishop Alfano of Salerno, and
the monk Constantine the African — all monks of Monte Cassino.
3 Cassiodorus, Gerbert, Notker Labeo, Adelbold, Hermannus Con
tractus, &c.
* " Qua? philosophia in coenobiorum secessns his temporibus majori ex
parte coacta est aufugere, S. Benedicti familia una fere et tota, usque
ad Scholasticorum tempora eruditionis possessionem et publice tradendi
munus sibi vindicavit." — Beuckee, Hist, philosoph., vol. iii. p. 556.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 201
the most solid and laborious historical researches,
allies itself readily in most minds with the idea
of the Benedictines ; but too often this homage
is paid only to the congregation of St Maur, and
other modern monks who have filled our libraries
with their excellent collections. This, however, is
not enough : justice ought to be done to the ancient
monks, who, from the foundation of their order,
neglected no effort for regulating and preserving
the annals of Christian nations j1 for we should
not forget that it was these ancient monastic
chroniclers who, by their numerous and unwearied
labours, furnished to Mabillon, Pez, D'Achery, Mar-
tene,Calmet, and so many other illustrious Benedic
tines of the two last centuries, the principal materials
for those precious compilations to which, without
abandoning their usual modesty, their editors may
so justly give the name of Treasuries.2 It is owing
to these monks of the middle ages that we are
acquainted with the history of six or seven cen-
1 Any one who will glance at the really startling enumeration of
monastic historians of all countries given by Ziegelbauer (pars iv. pp.
319-626), will be confounded by the number and importance of their
works. 2 Thesaurus novus anecdotorum of D. MAETENEand D. Dueand, 1717,
9 vols, folio ; Thesaurus anecdotorum novissimus of D. Bernard Pez,
Aug. Vindel., 1729-31, 6 vols, folio. See in the Preuves of the History
of Bretagne by Dom Morice (vol. i. p. 243) the curious passage where the
author of the Actes de Vabbaye die Redon compares himself to a labourer
who cuts down forests, burns the tree-trunks, &c. : " Primitus silvas
excidit, truncos incendit ; postea aratrum bene aptat, terram aperit,
sulcos dirigit : dehinc domum revertitur nee multo post ipsam terram
coa?quat, deinde semina ex ordine jactat. . . . Ita et nos similiter," &c.
This passage was quoted by M. de la Borderie in his discourse on the
Saints of Bretagne, pronounced at the Breton Congress of 1848.

202 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
turies, which, without their writings, would have
remained completely unknown to us, and which
embrace the period when all the nations of Europe
took their rise. Thus, not content with having
preserved for us the remains of pagan antiquity,
the monks have bequeathed to us the memorials
of our own origin in two series of works which
have immortalised their laborious exactitude — their
Annals or Chronicles, arranged in chronological
order, and their biographies of saints and other
famous persons.
Even those who did not compose books expressly
historical, have left us in their cartularies the only
documents by the help of which the archaeologist
can resolve the most important problems relating
to the social, civil, domestic, and agricultural life
of our ancestors.1 Thanks to their strongly con
servative spirit, their libraries serve for the archives
of States, of churches, and of families.

1 "Their cartularies are the most curious monuments of the history
of the time," says M. C. Giraud, Recherches sur la Bretagne, p. 579.
Among these remains, daily quoted by learned men of all countries, we
may remark the cartularies of several Breton abbeys at the end of the
Histoires of D. Lobineau and D. Morice ; those of different Burgundian
houses in Perard ; and, above all, the Polypiique of the Abbot Irminon
of St Germain des Prgs, recently edited by M. Guerard: the cartu-.
laries of St Pere de Chartres and of St Bertin, by the same editor ; and
that of the St Trinite of Rouen, by M. Deville, in the Collection of
Unpublished Documents published by the Ministry of Public Instruc
tion. That of St Bertin was finished by Folcuin, a monk, in 948, and
fourth in descent from Charles Martel. Let us hope that the publication
of the valuable Cartulaire de Redon, long since prepared by the learned
historiographer of Bretagne, M. Aurelien de Courson, will soon appear,
to increase our store of this kind of riches.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 203
All Christian nations may join in the testimony
which an English Protestant did not fear to give
in their honour, even in presence of the Puritans of
the sixteenth century. " Without the monks, we
should have been as ignorant of our own history
as children."1 England, converted by monks, has
special reason to be proud of the historians fur
nished by her abbeys. One monk, Gildas, has
painted with fiery touches the misery of Great
Britain after the departure of the Eomans.2 To
another, the Venerable Bede, author of the Ecclesi
astical History of Britain^ we owe the detailed
account of the Catholic renaissance under the
Saxons. The exactness of his learning, and the
empire which he exercised through his writings
over the middle ages, may justly entitle Bede to be
regarded as the father of Catholic history. After
him Ingulphus, abbot of Croyland,4 and Ordericus
Vitalis, a monk of Shrewsbury,5 have left us the
most faithful, the most impartial, and the most
1 "Absque monachis, nos sane in historic patria, semper essemus
pueri. . . . De monachorum fide non est quod ambigamus ; cum illi res
tantum suas tractent, sibique notissimas." — Joan. Maesham, Ilpon-ii-
\aiov, in Monastic. Anglican., vol. i. ad finem.
2 De Excidio Britannorum : Londini, 1586.
3 Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum; it extends to 731. Bede
died 735. See the notice by the new English editor, the Rev. J. A.
Giles, in vol. ii. of the complete edition of the works of Bede, in 12
vols. 8vo, 1843.
4 Historia Croylandensis, ap. Gale, Script, rer. Anglic, vol. i. His
history extends to 1091. He died in 1109.
5 Historia ecclesiastica, in Duchesne's collection, Scriptor. hist, nor-
mann., 1619. M. Leprevost is publishing a new and excellent edition,
three volumes of which have appeared. This history reaches to 1141.

*^

204 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
animated picture of the struggle between the
Saxons and Normans, and the vicissitudes of the
Church of England at the same period. Their
writings, an inexhaustible mine of information as
to the manners, laws, and ideas of their times, join
the attractiveness of biography to the importance
of history.
France is not less rich. According to a tradition
which is not without authority, her oldest historian,
and one of the noblest personages in her ancient
Church, St Gregory of Tours, belonged to a monastic
order. 1 • After him a long series of monk-historians,
each day more valued among us, successively laid
the first stones of the great edifice of our annals.
Abbon, a monk of St Germain des Pres, wrote the
history of the wars of King Eudes, and also that of
the siege of Paris by the Normans, of which he him
self was an eyewitness.2 At St Bemy at Eeims,
the annals of the tenth century were drawn up
with conscientious care, first by Abbot Frodoard,3
1 This is the opinion of Trithemius and Ziegelbauer ; but haud con
stat, says Mabillon, Anna!., book viii. c. 62.
2 We have already said that this Abbon, surnamed Cernuus, must be
distinguished from the holy martyr Abbon, Abbot of Fleury at the end
of the tenth century, and author of an Epitome de vitis Roman. Pontifl-
cum. 3 Frodoard, born in 894, was still living in 966. He was author of the
History of Reims and of Annates, which extend from 919 to 966. Ma
billon sees in him prozcipuum decimi saxuli ornamentum, and proves that
he was a monk. — Annal., vol. iii. book xliii. u. 10. His epitaph, in old
French, shows that he was also an abbot : —
" Vequit caste clercq, bon moine, milieu abbe."
M. Pertz, the most learned historiographer of Germany, calls him "in
signia historiarum scriptor." — Monum. hist. Scriptores, vol. iii. p. 366.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 205
a poet, and renowned for his learning ; and later
by the monk Eicher, whose history, recently dis
covered, has been hailed with so much delight by
modern students. 1 The work of these two illustri
ous monks of St Eemy is continued and completed
by Helgaud2 and Almoin,3 both monks of Fleury;
by Oderan, monk of St Peter le Vif at Sens;4 and
by Adh^mar de Chabanais, monk of St Cybar
at Angouleme.5 Eaoul Glaber, one of our most
valuable annalists, was a monk of St Germain
d'Auxerre ; he wrote the History of his own Time,6
in obedience to the commands of St Odilon, Abbot
of Cluny, and of William, Abbot of St Boniface,
and also in answer to the entreaties of the studious
monks of Cluny, who were distressed to see that

1 Richer's history, from 880 to 995, has been found at Bamberg in
1833 by M. Pertz, and published first by him in vol. iii. of his Scriptores;
afterwards by M. Gaudet for the Historical Society of France, in 2 vols. ,
with translation, 1845-46.
2 Author of the life of King Robert.
3 Died in 1008 ; author of the Vie du saint martyr Abbon and of Re-
cueil des miracles de saint Benoit a Fleury, where are found a number of
curious facts of contemporary history. See the collection of Duchesne,
and that of D. Bouquet. Aimoir, who wrote the four books of the
Gesta rerum Francorum, where he abridges, with intelligence and saga
city, the narratives of Gregory, of Tours, of Fredegarius, and of other
older writers, adds many valuable traditions, probably borrowed from the
epic songs of his time.
4 Mabillon, Annal., ad 1022.
5 " Ex pra?nobili Cabanensi familia." — Mabill., ad 1018. He was born
toward 988, and died in 1028 on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. His
histoiy reaches to 1025 ; it was first published by P. Labbe in his Bib-
lioth. nov. manuscr., and then republished entire, and with great praise,
by Peetz in the fourth volume of his Scriptores.
6 In five books, from the accession of Hugh Capet to 1046.— Ap.
Duchesne, vol. iv.

206 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
no one took the trouble to transmit to posterity
the events of a century not less important for the
Church than for the people.1 Finally, Hugh,
Abbot of Flavigny, has given us, with more detail
than any one else, the whole history of the eleventh
century.2 These various monkish chronicles have
served as a basis for the first national and popular
monuments of our history, the famous Chronicles
of St Denys, which, written very early in Latin,
translated into French in the beginning of the
thirteenth century, and containing the very essence
of the historic and poetic traditions of old France,
specially helped to establish before the eyes of
kings and of their chief vassals, the tribunal of
posterity. Italy offers nearly the same spectacle and the
same resources. Anastasius the librarian, the most
eminent historian of the Papacy, was a monk. 3 The
first volumes of Muratori's4 great collection are
filled with monkish chronicles, invaluable sources
for the study of the origin of Italian nationality,
especially those of the Abbey of St Vincent at
Volturna,5 of Novalese, of Farfa,6 and of Casa
1 "Tam in Ecclesiis Dei quam in plebibus."— Rad. Glaber, in Vit.
S. Hugon., c. 27, ap. Act. SS. 0. B.
2 His history ends in 1102 ; it was published by Labbe, ubi supra.
Cf. Hist, litter, de la France, vol. x. p. 81.
3 Abbot of St Maria in Transtevere, under Nicholas I. Cf. Ziegelbauer
and Muratori, Script. , vol. iii. pars i. p. v.
4 Rerum Italicarum Scriptores ab anno 500 ad ann. 1500, 24 vols.
folio. 5 Chronicon Vulturnense, from 703 to 1071.
B From 681 to 1104.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 207
Aurio.1 Monte Cassino, as befitted the mother
abbey of the West, was a nursery of distinguished
historians : thence came Johannes Diaconus,2 the
biographer of St Gregory the Great, and Paulus
Diaconus, the friend of Charlemagne, and historian
of the Lombards ;3 then Leo, Cardinal-Bishop of
Ostia, first author of the famous Chronicle of Monte
Cassino ; and, finally, Petrus Diaconus, the con-
tinuer of Leo, who finished this important work,
placed by savants in the first rank of historical
writings of the middle ages.4 Another monk of
Monte Cassino, Amato,5 related the wonderful story
of the conquests gained by the Norman chivalry
in the Two Sicilies — a story reproduced and com
pleted by the Sicilian monk Geoffrey Malaterra.6
1 From 866 to 1182.
2 He lived at Rome under John VIII., and in the time of Charlemagne.
3 Pauli Varneeridi Diaconi, de Gestis Longobardorum, libri vi.,
ap. Murat., vol. i. pars ii.
4 Leo, called Marsicanus, from his native province, and of Ostia, on
account of his bishopric, died in 1112. Charged by Abbot Odorisio to
write the history of the abbey, he composed the two first books and the
thirty-five first chapters of the third book, which bring the reader up to
1086. Petrus Diaconus, a Roman sprung from the Counts of Tusculum,
and librarian of the abbey, composed the last chapters of the third book,
and the whole of 'the fourth : he left off in 1138, and died in 1140 at the
age of thirty-three. Mabillon says he does not deserve the same confi
dence as Leo. Muratori has given the best edition of this chronicle,
with the notes of the Abbot Angelo de Noce, in vol. iv. of his collection.
6 M. Champollion-Figeac published, in 1833, for the French Histori
cal Society, a version, in the French of the thirteenth century, of this
important history, which was believed to be lost. It is the oldest author
ity for the account of the rise of the Norman power in Italy. In his
introduction the learned editor has clearly proved that the true author
of this history was Amato, a monk of Monte Cassino, afterwards Bishop
of Nusco, who died in 1093.
6 Mueatori, Script., vol. v.

208 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
As to Germany, thanks to her Benedictines, she
seems, even from these early times, to have merited
the crown of historic learning, which she has so
gloriously won in our days. x Eginard, Theganus,
Nithardus, and, above all, Eodolphus of Fulda,
from whom we derive all we know in detail of the
destinies of the Carlovingians, belonged to monastic
orders. Among the historians of Charlemagne was
a monk of St Gall;2 and the memoirs of that
illustrious abbey,3 successively drawn up by the
most distinguished monks, generally contemporary
with the events they relate, have left us the most
sincere and most picturesque representation of their
epoch. The ninth century had an excellent his
torian in Eegino, Abbot of Priim. 4 The Abbey
of Lobbes, in Belgium, produced three annalists of
great merit : Abbot Folcuin, who wrote the history
of his predecessors ; Abbot Heriger, who composed
that of the Bishops of Liege;5 and the monk
Adelbod, afterwards Bishop of Liege, biographer
of the Emperor Henry II. 6 The reigns of Henry I.
1 See the innumerable monastic chronicles in all the German collec
tions of Scriptores, chiefly those of Eckard, Pez, Leibnitz, Canisius,
Freher, Pistorius, Mencken, CEfel, &c.
2 De Gestis Caroli Magni, libri II., scripti a quodam monacho S.
Galli, anno 884, ap. Canisium, Thesaur. Man., ed. Basnag., vol. ii.
3 De Casibus S. Galli.
' His chronicle, inserted in the collection of Pistorius, ends in 905.
He died in 908.
5 Gest., pontif. Leodiens., ap. Chapeauville, vol. i. He died in
1007. 6 He died in 1027. He was an astronomer as well as a historian, and
was also author of a Libcllus de ratione inveniendi crassitudinem sphwraz,
ap. Pez, Thcs. Anecd., vol. iii. p. 2.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 209
and Otho the Great were chronicled with ability
and honesty by Witikind, a monk of Corvey, who
for forty years directed the school of this great
monastery.1 Ditmar, a noble Saxon, first monk of
Magdebourg and then Bishop of Mersebourg, has
left us the most detailed chronicle we possess on
the period of the emperors of the house of Saxony.2
In the first rank of the eleventh-century historians,
we find Hermannus Contractus, son of the Count
of Woringen, brought up at St Gall, and a monk at
Eeichenau.3 He is one of the most interesting and
attractive personages of his period, as humble as
he is learned, severe towards himself, indulgent to
others, an eloquent teacher, an unwearied student,
inimitably patient, an earnest defender of ortho
doxy and rule, and all in spite of terrible infirmities.
He was much sought after, on account of his pro
found and varied learning, by many pupils from
all countries, and was passionately loved by his
brother monks, whom the extreme gentleness of his
character completely subjugated.4 He, however,
1 His Res gestw Saxoniee and Vita Othonis I. have been published by
Meibom, Scriptores, vol. i.
2 It extends from 920 to 1018. — Ap. Leibnitz, Script, rer. Brunswic
3 "Ex nobilissima Alamannorum prosapia ortus." — Peetz, vol. v. p.
67. He died in 1054, aged forty-one. See his chronicle in Peetz and
elsewhere ; his life in Usseemann, Germanim sacrce prodromus, vol. i.
p. 145 ; and the touching eulogy of his successor in his work, Ber-
thold, ap. Peetz and Usseemann, confirmed by Stenzel, Geschichte
der frankischen Kaiser, i. 138 ; ii. 99.
4 "Auditoribus suis eloquens et sedulus dogmatistes . . . humillima?
caritatis et caritativa? humilitatis executor industrius, mira? custos pa-
tientia? . . . integerrima? fidei orator vere catholicus, veritatis assertor
et defensor invictissimus . . . qui ab infantia nunquam carnes mandu-
VOL. VI. 0

210 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
together with all other contemporary writers, was
eclipsed as a historian by Lambert of Aschaffen-
bourg, monk of Hersfeld, who drew the picture of
the great struggle between the Church and the
Empire1 with an authority and impartiality no one
has ever dared to question.2 This history was
continued and developed in the interest of the
Church by Berthold of Eeichenau, Bernold of St
Blaise,3 and Ekkehard, Abbot of Aurach ;4 and later,
under the influence of the imperialists, by Sigebert
of Gemblours, a monk remarkable for his fervour
and devotion to his rule, in spite of his notorious
partiality for the enemies of the Church.5
caret. . . . Mira? benevolentia?, affabilitatis, jocunditatis, et humanitatis
omnifaria? conatu sese omnibus morigerum et aptum exhibens, utpote
omnibus omnia factus, ab omnibus amabatur. Iniquitatis autem et in-
justitia?, et totius pravitatis, vel quicquid contra Deum aversator et im-
pugnator fit, indefessus adusque finem vita? feliciter perduravit. " — Ber
thold, ap. Pertz, vol. v. p. 267.
1 It ends in 1007, after the interview of Canossa.
2 See the testimony rendered by the Protestants Stenzel and Pertz
(Script., vol. v. p. 146). There is a good dissertation on him, entitled
Comparatio critica Lamb. Schafn. Annal. cum aliquot ejusdem mvi chron . ,
auct. P. Frisch., Monachii, 1830.
3 This historian is often confounded with Berthold, monk of Reiche-
nau, pupil and successor of Hermannus Contractus ; but his separate exist
ence has been clearly proved by D. Gerbert in the preface to vol. ii. of '
the Prodromus Germanice sacra; of Usseemann, 1792 — and by Peetz
(Script., vol. v. p. 385), who first of all published the text of this valu
able chronicle from the MS. in the library at Munich.
1 The important chronicle of Ekkehard has been found complete by
Professor Waitz of Kiel, and published for the first time by Peetz in the
sixth volume of his Scriptores. The editor does full justice to the can
dour and perspicacity of the historian, whom he places in the first rank
of medieval Writers. We may add to these three historians Bruno,
author of the narrative entitled De Bello Saxonico, if, as a passage in
his work seems to show, he was a monk of Merseburg.
6 Mabill., Ann. Bened., book lxxii. t. 46. Sigebert died in 1112, the

/

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 211
Toward the same period an Irishman, Marianus
Scotus,1 became a monk in Germany, where he
employed himself in profound study, for the pur
pose of rectifying all the chronology in use, which
he did in a chronicle then widely known, and
continued by several writers.2 A French monk, S
named Martin, became the first historian of Po
land;3 while another monk, Nestor,4 of Polish "^~
origin, drew up the primitive annals of Eussia, then
newly converted to Christianity. These annals
were composed in the national tongue at Kiew, in
the monastery of Peczora, then the nursery of the
orthodox clergy, and the home of that Catholic
civilisation which Eussia had first accepted, and
which she was soon unhappily destined to reject.5
It will be sufficient to cite, among the writers
of the eleventh century, William of Malmesbury,
Gilbert of Nogent, Otho of Frisingue, Abbot Suger,
and Odo of Deuil, to prove that during this period
year in which his chronicle ends. It has been continued to 1206 by
Robert of Thorigny, Abbot of Mont St Michel.
1 " Ego Marianus, peregrinus factus pro regno ccelesti, patriam mu-
tuavi, et in Colonia monachus effectus sum." — Chron., ad ann. 1056.
* It ends in 1082, and was continued by Dodechin (ap. Pistorium,
Script, rer. Germ., vol. i.), and Florentius, monk of Worcester, from
1083 to 1117 (London, 1592 ; Frankfort, 1601 ; and ap. Peetz, vol. v.)
See the interesting preamble which Waitz has inserted in the collection
of Pertz.
3 He wrote, in 1109, the life of King Boleslas III. and his ancestors.
—Martini Galli, Chronicon, ed. J. V. Bandtke (Warsaw, 1824), pp.
xx, xxii. Cf. Ossolinski, Anmerkungen zu Vine. Kadlubek, p. 110.
4 Born 1056, died 1116. His chronicle has been translated and
published by M. Louis Paris.
6 It is well known that the connection of the Russian Church with
Catholic unity Was only completely broken in the fifteenth century.

212 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
the monks did not shrink from their mission as the
historians of the Christian world. And who can deny
them most of the conditions necessary for the fulfil
ment of this high mission 1 They worked neither
for gain nor fame, but simply for the glory of God.
Their object was to keep alive in the memories of
their brethren the events passing in their time and
in their neighbourhood — to collect together those
which they had witnessed, or had received from
tradition. Thanks to the social organisation of the
middle ages, this tradition had remained equally
powerful and durable. The monks wrote amidst
the peace and freedom of the cloister, in all the
candour and sincerity of their minds.1 They had
neither family nor property to endanger in daring
to speak the truth to those in power; and their
writings, composed under the eye of their monas
tic superiors and the sovereign protection of the
Church, escaped at once the coercion of temporal
rulers, and the dangers or flatteries of a wide
and immediate publicity.2 Their only ambition
was to be faithful interpreters of the teach
ing which God gives to men in history, by
reminding them of the ruin of the proud, the
1 " Decet utique ut sicut res nova? mundo quotidie accidunt, sic ad
laudem Dei assidue scripto tradantur. . . . De rebus ecclesiasticis ut
simplex Ecclesia? filius, sincere fari dispono . . . ea tamen qua? nostro
tempore vidi, vel in vicinis regionibus accidisse comperi, elaboro cohi-
bente Deo simpliciter et veraciter enucleare posterorum indagini." —
Oeder. Vit., Prolog, in Eccles. hiator.
2 This has been wisely remarked by the Protestant Stenzel, Geschichte
der frankischen Kaiser, vol. ii. pp. 15, 16, in his work on the criticism
of the sources of German history in the twelfth century.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 213
exaltation of the humble, and the terrible cer
tainty of eternal judgment.1 Calm amid the
safety and obedience of the cloister, and in the
happiness of holy poverty,2 the monkish annalists
offered, to those Christians whose lives, spent in
the world, debarred them from historic research,
the rich fruit of their long study.3 If princes
and nobles never tired of founding, endowing,
and enriching monasteries, neither did the monks
grow weary of chronicling the services and exploits
of their benefactors, in order to transmit them to
posterity. 4 They thus paid a just debt of grati
tude to Catholic chivalry. " 0 princes and lords,"
said one of them, " you give us peace by braving
all perils and performing great feats of arms ; it
is our part to create for you by our toils a fame
which shall last for ever."5
1 " Cunctipotens . . . mire disponit cursus seculorum, et dociles in-
struens animos terrigenarum . . . memorabilium exhibitione gestorum.
Nam dejectione sublimium, et exaltatione humilium . . . incessanter
eruditur genus humanum, ne per execrabilem theomachiam fiat pro-
fanuni ; sed ut divinum semper metuat judicium," &c. — Order. Vit.,
book vi. p. 632.
2 "Roboratus securitate subjectionis et paupertatis tripudio." — Id.,
book xiii. p. 924.
3 " Dulcem fructum longi studii . . . filiis Ecclesia? tanta rimari per
se non valentibus charitative obtulit." — Id., book iii. p. 159, ed. Lepre-
vost. 4 ' ' Quemadmodum pii majores, reges, magnates alii templis constru-
endis, monasteriis fundandis, dotandis, ditandis, immunitatibus conce-
dendis ad miraculum usque magnifici fuerunt, eaque re in seternum hon-
orandi, ita non defuit etiam monachis sua laus, quod pia cura et sedula
gratitudine collata in ipsos beneficia mandarunt litteris : adeoque de
bene merentibus nominibus ipsi bene meruerunt." — Joan. Marsham,
ap. Dugdale, book c.
5 " 0 duces . . . vestra industria est nobis incitamento : ut quia

214 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO
The composition of these monastic chronicles, far
from being given up to individual caprice, was the
object of special solicitude to the heads of com
munities. At St Gall the official history of the
¦ house, which embraced that of all the empire, was
begun at a very early date, and continued during
several centuries. At Corvey, the provost or prior
was charged with the same duty during the whole
period of his office. 1 In England, in all the
monasteries which were royal foundations, an ac
complished and trustworthy monk was chosen to
collect the feats and actions of the reigning king ;
then, at the first general chapter held after the
death of each sovereign, a commission, formed of
the most prudent of the brotherhood, arranged
out of these notices a chronicle of the reign
just ended, to be placed in the archives of the
monastery.2 As to the loyalty and impartiality
of the chroniclers, it is sufficiently guaranteed by
their candour in themselves transmitting to pos
terity the narrative of the disorders which too
often disturbed and injured the reputation of their
own monasteries ; and assuredly they have thus
pericula vestra paci nostra? impenditis, vos vicissim per labores nostros
omni a?vo inclarescatis." — Guill. Malmesb., proomi. libr. de Gest. reg.
Anglor. 1 Ordinances of Abbots Marqward (1093) and Wibold (1150), ap.
Stenzel, ii. p. 12.
2 " Peritum accuratumque scriptorem . . . ut ex omnium collatione,
a sagacioribus quibusdam a capitulo designatis facta, accurata chronica
conscriberentur, in archiviis monasteriorum diligenter asservanda." —
Scoti, Chron., book xvi. c. 39, quoted in Proef. to Matth. Paris., ed.
1571.

SCIENCE, EDUCATION, LETTERS, AND HISTORY. 215
acquired the right to be believed in the judgments
they express with reference to exterior events.1 It
is to the monks of St Denis that we owe the
most exact account of the ignominious troubles
of the reign of Charles VI. It is owing to
the annals of St Vaast that we are able to trace
the refinements of cruelty and perfidy used by
Louis XL in endeavouring to snatch from the
heiress of Burgundy the rich domains of her
ancestors. The noble independence professed by
Ordericus Vitalis was no vain formula when he,
an English monk in a Norman abbey, said, "I
will describe the revolutions of England and of
Normandy without flattering any one, for I ex
pect my reward neither from the victors nor the
vanquished."2 1 This impartiality did not exclude patriotism, especially among the
French monks, such as Richer and Suger. The learned Pertz reproaches
the first for being ' ' patria? ultra quam ferri potest studiosum, et vana?
gloria? qua? vel in Napoleonis nuntiis (bulletins) indignationem popu-
lorum incurrit, deditum." — Scriptores, vol. iii. p. 564.
2 " Miseras mutationes Anglorum et Normannorum sine adulatione
referam, nullius remunerationis a victorious seu victis expetens honori-
ficentiam." — Book iii. c. 15.

216 SERVICES RENDERED BY

CHAPTEE V.
SERVICES RENDERED BY THE MONKS TO ART.
Artist monks. — Architects. — Masons. — Painters and caligraphers. —
Diversity of studies in the cloister. — Monks as sculptors, jewellers,
and smiths. — Glass-makers, engravers, and enamellers. — Religious
music and Gregorian singing in the abbeys. — The organ brought to
perfection by the monks. — School of singing at Wearmouth. — Writ
ings upon music by monks. — Guy of Arezzo, a monk.1
If we cross the narrow boundary which in the
human mind separates the domain of learning and
literature from the domain of art, we find monks
there, as everywhere, in the post of honour, in the
vanguard of Christian progress. We recognise in
them the principal instruments of the slow and
salutary regeneration which freed art from all
pagan influences, and clothed it with that form,
completely and exclusively Catholic, which has pro
duced so many and such inimitable masterpieces.
Too long despised by the narrow spirit which has
1 On the margin of the interleaved volume we are using, M. de Mon
talembert has written in pencil the following words : " Refer for this
chapter to the Nova bibliotheca MS. of Labbe, vol. i. pp. 470-507."
We have found there, in fact, many details on the arts of the tenth and
eleventh centuries. Further on, the author indicates a special chapter
to refer to on the subject of monastic burial - places. — (Note by the
editor. )

THE MONKS TO ART. 217
misunderstood at once the history, the learning,
and the greatness of the Catholic ages, the monu
ments produced during those ages, by a marvellous
union of enthusiasm and humility, have at last in
our own days been studied, comprehended, and
admired ; and the justice now so generally done to
them cannot fail to be reflected upon the Monastic
Orders. If it were permitted to us here to include
in our review the age in which Christian art
reached its climax, how delightful would it be
to show this art developing itself, by the help
of the monastic spirit, in new forms, but in all its
vigour, purity, and productiveness, especially among
the preaching friars ! 1 How eagerly should we
follow its wonderful progress till the day when it
attained that ideal of beauty glorified by faith —
that enchanting perfection of grace, nobleness, and
purity, the type of which is found in the Madonna,
such as Dante has sung her, and such as she is
painted by the blessed Dominican, Giovanni of
Fiesole, so justly surnamed Fra Angelico! But
even while confining ourselves to the period which
specially occupies us, we may at least make it clear
that the monks prepared, by their numberless
works, the dawn of that day of Catholic art which
reigned from the twelfth to the fifteenth century;2
and we shall have the consolation of finding on
1 We can only indicate here the excellent work of P. Marchese, a.
Florentine Dominican, on the glory of his order, entitled, Memoria del
pittori, scultori e architetti domenicani. — Firenze, 1845-46, 2 vols. 8vo.
2 See Rio, de la Poesie chretienne ; forme de Vart.

J

218 SERVICES RENDERED BY
our path no trace of that degradation of Christian
ideas which has been called the Eenaissance, and
which, in our opinion, has dug the grave of true
beauty and of true poetry.
From the beginning of monasticism, St Bene
dict, in his rule, had foreseen that there would be
artists in the cloister, and had imposed on the
exercise of their art and their freedom but one
single condition — humility.1 His previsions were
accomplished and his commands faithfully obeyed.
Benedictine monasteries soon contained not only
schools and libraries, but also studios where archi
tecture, painting, mosaic, sculpture, engraving, cali-
graphy, ivory-carving, the mounting of gems, book
binding and ornamentation in various branches,
were studied and practised with equal ardour and
success, without any injury to the severe discipline
of the institution.
The teaching of these arts even formed an essen
tial part of monastic education.2
1 "Artifices si sunt in monasterio, cum omni humilitate et reverentia
faciant ipsas artes, si permiserit abbas. Quod si aliquis ex eis extollitur
pro scientia artis sua?, eo quod videatur aliquid conferre monastico : hie
talis evellatur ab ipsa arte, et denuo per eam non transeat, nisi forte
humiliato ei iterum abbas jubeat." — C. 57. We shall see later how St
Bernard of Tiron, one of the monastic reformers, attracted and employed
artists. To those who choose to translate the word artifices literally by
workmen, we will answer, — 1st, that in the middle ages artists indeed
were mostly workmen, but that also almost all workmen were artists ;
and 2d, that the nature of St Benedict's precepts shows that they applied
to workmen occupied in tasks of an elevated and intellectual order, such
as might inspire pride — that is[to say, to true artists, in the modern sense
of the word.
2 See the passages quoted above on the study of painting in the
monasteries of Hildesheim.

THE MONKS TO ART. 219
The greatest and holiest abbeys were precisely S
those most renowned for the zeal they displayed
in the culture of art. As we have already said,
St Gall in Germany, Monte Cassino in Italy, and
Cluny in France, were for many centuries the
centres of Christian art. Later, St Denis, under
Abbot Suger, disputed this honour with them.
In the shelter of its immense church, the largest in
Christendom, with innumerable abbeys depending
on it, Cluny formed a vast centre where all the
arts received a prodigious development, such as to
attract the exaggerated reproaches of St Bernard.1
Monte Cassino followed the same impulse ; and
we find that Abbot Didier, lieutenant and succes
sor to Gregory VIL, carried out on an enormous
scale the rebuilding of his monastery — while vast
works in mosaic, painting, embroidery, and car
ving in ivory, wood, marble, bronze, gold, and sil
ver, were executed there by Byzantine or Moorish
artists, in a manner which obtained the admira
tion of all his contemporaries.2 The sacred grotto
of Subiaco, the cradle of monasticism, the wild
nest from which civilisation was to spring, received
in turn the adornment of art consecrated by faith.3
1 See the curious picture which St Bernard has left us of the artistic
magnificence of Cluny. — Apologia, ad Guillelmum, c. 12. We will
return to this subject.
2 Leo Ostiensis, Chron. Cassinens., book iii. cc. 11, 20, 28, 29, 30,
33 — full of valuable details.
3 The Abbey of St Scholastica, also at Subiaco, was decorated with
mural paintings at the time of its reconstruction in the eighth century,
after the ravages of the Saracens. — Chron. Sub., ap. Muratori Script., book
xxiv. p. 930.

220 SERVICES RENDERED BY
The monastery which encloses this sanctuary, and
which Hildebrand, before becoming Pope, confided
to the Cardinal-monk Crescentius, was, during the
fifty-two years of his government, decorated with
many paintings,1 which partly remain, and testify
to the tradition which Cimabue and Giotto, the
Pisans and the Florentines, were to carry on so
gloriously and so intelligently. On the other side
the Alps, a second lieutenant of Gregory VIL, St
William, Abbot of Hirschau, showed no less ar
dour in the cultivation of art; he established two
schools of architecture, one at Hirschau itself, and
the other at St Emmeran at Eatisbon.2
In the eleventh century, we may affirm that,
following the example of Didier and William,
most of the monks celebrated for their virtues, their
learning, or their devotion to the liberty of the
Church, were equally distinguished by their zeal for
art, and often by their personal talent for engraving,
Artist painting, or architecture. They relaxed the rule by /
monks . 1 1 . . - *
carry the permitting, and even commanding, artist monks
rules of art ....
to foreign whose conduct was blameless to leave their cloister,

countries.

and travel, in order to perfect their skill or extend
1 " Conbamerationes coloribus perfectissimis multa pictorum arte pra?-
cellentium pictura decorantur. Ibi spectare est colorum et figurarum
tam vetustatem quam ordinem et ut ita dicam decentiam : quod oculi
inspectantium facile et cum delectatione teneantui-. " — Chron. MS. S. Celle
par Bini. V. Memoria del sacro speco, p. 28. The same abbot orna
mented the church of St Scholastica with a number of art objects of
admirable workmanship. — Chron. Sub., p. 988.
2 His services have been duly appreciated by Heideloff, Die Bau-
hiitte des Mittelalters in Deutschland, p. 5. Cf. Trithemius, Chron.
Hirsaug. Ann. 1070 and 1083.

THE MONKS TO ART. 221
their studies.1 When charity required it, they
sent them abroad, true art missionaries, to carry
to foreign lands the traditions and rules of archi
tectural beauty. Thus an abbot of Wearmouth,
from whom Naiitan, King of the Picts, had asked
builders, hastened to send them, that they might
teach his people how to build churches of stone in
the manner of the Eomans.2
Ecclesiastical architecture everywhere owed its
remarkable progress to monks. It was the noble
Benedict Biscop who introduced it into the north
of Great Britain,3 where the Saxons as yet had
only wooden buildings. Abbot Biscop, on his
many journeys to Eome, had studied the rules
of ecclesiastical architecture. He was able, in
France, to find masons capable of applying
them; and he was sustained, says the historian,
in his hard labours, by the double love of his
country and of art.4
The order of Cistercians, for whose history all
1 This is proved by a passage relative to Tutilo of St Gall : ' ' Abbatum
vero sub quibus militaverat permissu, plerumque et pra?ceptis, multas
propter artificia simul et doetrinas peragravera terras." — Ekkeh., De
Casib. Sancti Galli, c. 3.
2 " Naitanus, rex Pictorum . . . architectos sibi mitti petiit, qui juxta
morem Romanorum, Ecclesiam de lapide in gente ipsius facerent. . .
Reverentissimus abbas Ceolfridus misit architectos. . . ." — Beda, Hist.
eccles., 1. v. c. 21. Ceolfrid was St Benedict Biscop's successor in the
seventh century (690).
3 ' ' Benedictus, Oceano transmisso, Gallias petens, ca?mentarios, qui
lapideam sibi ecclesiam juxta Romanorum, quem semper amabat, morem
facerent, postulavit, accepit, attulit." — Beda, Vit. BB. abbat., p. 366,
ed. Giles.
4 " Amor patria? et voluptas elegantia? asperos fallebant'labores."

222 SERVICES RENDERED BY
that we write now is but a preparation, is the
one which has left us the most admirable monu
ments. During the six centuries which separate
St Benedict from St Bernard, as well as during
the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen
turies, the monks were able to exemplify in innu
merable buildings the magnificence and solidity
characteristic of that which may be specially
entitled the Noble Art. Not only did they build
/ at Cluny the greatest basilica of medieval
Christendom,1 but they covered all the countries
of Catholic Europe with a profusion of churches,
cloisters, and chapter-houses, of which only the
names and some ruins remain to us. Among
these ruins are some which deserve to be counted
among the most precious relics of the past. Of
monasteries remarkable for architectural beauty,
and the remains of which even now are worthy of
admiration, we may speak of Croyland, Fountains,
Tintern, and Netley, in England ; Walkenried,
Heisterbach, Altenberg, Paulinzelle, in Germany ;
the Chartreuses of Miraflores, Seville, and Granada,
in Spain ;2 Alcoba§a and Batalha, in Portugal ;
1 It was 555 feet long, only 9 feet less than the present church of
St Peter at Rome (564 feet), which was then much smaller. N6tre
Dame at Paris is only 396 feet. Three other abbatial churches — Vezelay,
St Denis, and Pontigny, still standing— are 375, 335, and 314 feet long
respectively. I borrow these figures from the Chronique de Vezelay, by
l'Abbe Maetin.
2 I do not know whether anything of these two latter Chartreuses, so
rich in objects of art, still remain. When I visited them in 1843, one
was being demolished, and the other was transformed into a pottery by a
Belgian Vandal who refused admission to strangers.

THE MONKS TO ART. 223
Souvigny, Vezelay, St Denis, Mont St Michel,
Fontevrault, Pontigny, Jumi^ges, and St Bertin,
in France, — names for ever dear to true architects,
and which only need to be pronounced to brand
with ineffaceable disgrace the barbarians who have
ruined and profaned so many glorious works !
England must be visited in order to form an
idea of the majestic grandeur of monastic build
ings. The work of devastation has been less com
plete there than elsewhere, partly because mon
astic property was little disturbed after the confis
cation, and partly because the skill of the monks
was then devoted to the construction of cathedrals,
in which they took the place of the chapters.
These cathedrals are still standing, and have even
been preserved with most laudable care by the
Anglican schismatics. We find in them, in spite
of recent additions, visible traces of that immense
architectural movement 1 which spread itself over
England after the Conquest, thanks to the Norman
monks called thither by Duke William, and to
whom we owe the magnificent churches of Canter
bury, Lincoln, Eochester, Durham, and Gloucester.
When we say that the numberless monastic
churches scattered throughout the whole of Europe
were built by the monks, the assertion must be
taken in its literal sense. They were, in fact, not
only architects, but masons ; after having arranged
1 This movement has been well understood and perfectly described
by M. Vitet inhis excellent article on medieval architecture in England.
— Revue Francaise, July 1838, vol. vii. p. 223.

224 SERVICES RENDERED BY
their plans, the noble and skilful designs which still
excite our admiration,1 they executed them with
their own hands, and generally without the aid of
stranger workmen.2 They sang psalms while they
laboured,3 and quitted their tools only to go to the
altar or the choir.4 They undertook the hardest
and most lengthened tasks, and exposed themselves
to all the fatigues and dangers of a mason's life.5
The superiors themselves did not confine their
efforts to drawing the plans and superintending
the work ; they gave the example of courage and
humility, and shrank from no fatigue : so that,
while simple monks were often chief architects,6
abbots were to be seen willingly descending to the
1 We will quote only one example out of a hundred. It is said of
Ansteus, a monk of Gorze, and Abbot of St Arnoul at Metz, in the tenth
century: " Architecture non ignobilis ei peritia suberat: ut quidquid
semel disposuisset, in omnibus locorum et a?dificiorum symmetriis vel
commensurationibus non facile cujusquam argui posset judicio. " — Vit.
S. Joann. Gorz., c. 66, in Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. v. p. 387.
2 This is expressly stated in the life of St Ethelwold, monk and Bishop
of Winchester. — Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. v. p. 618.
3 For example, at the building of Ramsey, in the ninth century. — Act.
SS. 0. B., sa?c. v. pp. 727-760.
4 " Henricus in cujus manu semper dolabrum versatur, excepto quan
do stat ad altaris sacriministerium." — Eemenrici, Epist., ap. Mabillon,
Analecta, p. 421, ed. in-fol.
5 For example, at the building of the monastery of Pomposa, under
Abbot Guy (1046) : " Fratribus operantibus aliquando crates lapidum
ruderibus graves, non sine diabolico instinctu de superioribus, muri ruer-
unt in terram. In quo casu quidam ex operariis quia supererant crati-
bus, delapsi ad ima . , . quidam vero dum corruentes muro tignisque
aliquibus inhferent. . . ." — Act. SS. 0: B., sa?c. vi. pars i. p. 511.
6 The fine church of the Abbey of Montierneuf, at Poitiers, still partly
standing, had one of its monks for builder in 1080. — MSS. Fonteneau,
quoted by M. de Cherge', in the Mem. of the Antiq. of the West, ann.
1844, pp. 174-255.

THE MONKS TO ART. 225
toil of simple workmen. Thus, in the ninth cen
tury, it happened at St Gall one day, that when
a part of the community had laboured in vain
to loosen from the quarry one of those enormous
columns of a single block which were to support
the abbey church, Abbot Eatger, seeing all the
brethren worn out by fatigue, continued alone at
the work, until, St Gall coming to his help, he suc
ceeded in detaching the mass of stones required. 1
In the tenth century, St Gerard, Abbot of
Broigne,2 on his way from Eome, himself drove
through the difficult passes of the Alps the mules
which he had laden with blocks of porphyry, to be
transported from Italy to Belgium ; because, says his
biographer, he intended his church to be beautiful.3
At the first building of the Abbey of Bee, in
1033, its founder and first abbot, Herluin, great
Norman noble as he was, worked as a simple mason,
carrying the chalk, sand, and stone on his back.4
Another Norman, Hugh, Abbot of Selby in York
shire, did the same thing when, in 1096, he rebuilt
in stone all the edifices of his monastery, which
were before constructed of wood : dressed in a work
man's frock, and mingling with the other masons,
1 " Omnis congregatio per totum diem laboraverat in una columnarum
illarum qua? in basilica ipsa superstant . . . abbas solus . . . sed frustra
sudabat . . . Sancte Galle, finde illam. . . . Immensa moles rupis illius
sua sponte inde fissa enituit. " — Fragm. Eemenrici, ubi supra.
2 See his life, related above.
3 ' ' Incaute gradiens unus e sagmariis sarciuatus lapidibus porphyreticis
quos ad sua vir Dei transvehebat causa necessaria? venustatis." — Vit. S.
Gerard, Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. v. p. 274.
1 Willelm. Gemeticensis, book vi. c. 9, ap, Duchesne.
VOL. VI. P

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he shared all their labours.1 Monks sprung from
the most illustrious families distinguished them
selves by their zeal in manual labour. Hezelon, for
example, after having been a canon of the chapter
of Liege, the noblest in Germany, and after having
made himself famous by his learning and eloquence,
became a simple monk at Cluny, and there directed
the building of the great church founded by St
Hugh, preferring to his titles, his prebends, and
his worldly reputation, the surname of Ccemen-
tarius,2 borrowed from his habitual occupation.
Hugh of Flavigny relates, that at the time of
the vast works undertaken at St Vannes, about
the year 1000, one of the monks of the abbey,
Frederic, Count of Verdun, brother of the Duke of
Lorraine, and cousin of the Emperor himself, dug
the foundations of the new dormitory, and carried
away on his back the earth he took out.3 One
day, during the building of the towers of the abbey
church, when the number of brethren was insuf
ficient to carry the mortar in hods to the upper
stages, Frederic commanded one of the monks
present, who was of very noble birth, to undertake

1 " Ipse cucullo indutus operario, lapides, calcem, et alia necessaria,
propriis humeris cum ceteris operariis, ad murum evehere solebat." — .
Mabillon, Ann., vol. v. book lxix. c. 86.
* Mabillon, Annal., ad 1109.
3 " Vere monachus terra? fossor accessit, et quod effossum est, onere
acto exportavit. Quis jam similia facere erubesceret, cum videret Frede-
ricum, comitis filium, fratrem duorum ducum, imperatoris consanguine-
um, et fecisse et non erubuisse."— Hugo Flaviniac, Chron. Virdun.,
part ii. c. 7, ap. Labbe, Bibl. Nov. MSS., i. 164.

THE MONKS TO ART. 227
the office; but he, reddening, replied that such
work did not suit a man of his rank. Then the
former Count of Verdun himself took the hod,
put it on his shoulder, and carried it up to the
platform where the masons were at work. When
he came down he gave the hod to the young rebel,
and exhorted him never again to let any one see
him blush to undertake a task which had been
fulfilled in his presence by a count and the son
of a count.1
When, in the eleventh century, the institution of
lay brothers {fratres conversi) became so general,
these brothers assisted the monks in their building,
but without completely taking their place, or de
priving them of their share in the erection of im
portant edifices.2 In the bosom of those establish-
1 "Cum jam in altum structura porrigeretur, et instrumentum illud,
quod avis nominatur, subvectione ca?menti aptatum, perpauei essent qui
ferrent . . . videns vir beata? memoria? quemdam de nobilioribus ad-
stantem, ut sumeret ligneum illud instrumentum, et ca?mentum collo,
ut moris est, subveheret admonuit. Qui cum erubesceret, et suis id
natalibus incongruum adstrueret, vir mitissimus cervice subposita. ...
Deinde porrecto juveni instrumento eodem . . . ut disceret faeere quod
fecerat comes eomitis filius ; nee erubesceret, si ei improbaretur factum
quod constaret ab ipso quondam comite primitus attentatum." — Hugo
Flaviniac, ap. Labbe.
2 The comparison of various texts relative to the building of the abbey
church of Hirschau, 1083, gives positive information on this subject :
" Inter quos (conversos) fuerunt omnium artium mechanicarum peritissi-
mi operatores ; qui omnes totius ccenobii structuras suis manibus summa
diligentia consummaverunt. Erant enim fabri lignarii et ferrarii, latomi
quoque et muratores optimi : qui monasterium simul et ecclesia? (ut in
sculptura turrium hodie cernitur) totius a?dificium pulchra dispositione
construxerunt." — Trithemius, Chron. Hirs. , ann. 1070, p. 228.
"Hujus structura? artifices, pro magna parte monachi fuerunt, Barbati,
sive conversi, et oblati, quos hodie Donatos appellamus . . . ; inter
quos erant latomi, fabri lignarii, ferrarii et magisfri procul dubio in

Great va
riety of

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ments, whose plans and construction, we repeat,
were the wTorks of the monks themselves, there were
organised, as we have already said, vast workshops,
where all the other arts were exercised, but always
under the great and strict law of humility, which
the holy legislator of the Order had imposed.
Enough attention has not been paid to the variety
worUpro- of occupations in which the artist monks simul-
artist ' taneously engaged, nor the extraordinary facility
monks. .
with which they brought their talents to bear upon
different objects. The same man was often archi-
J tect, jeweller, smith, miniature-painter, musician,
caligrapher, and organ-builder, without ceasing to
be theologian, preacher, author, and sometimes even
bishop or privy councillor of princes.1 We have
quoted more than one example of this in the course
of our narrative.2 We may add several others which
belong to the eleventh century. Thus, Mannius,
Abbot of Evesham in England, is described as
skilful at once in music, painting, caligraphy, and
omni scientia architectural peritissimi, qui totum opus consilio et manibvs
pulchro tabulatu lapideo perfecerunt, sicut in ipsius ecclesia? fabrica
usque in pra?sens cernitur." — Teithem., Chron., ann. 1083, p. 255.
1 This is the reflection of Pere Cahier, who was, we think, the first to
point out the diversity of talents in these multiple men, as he justly
calls them. — Si le christianisme a nui aux sciences, sect. xiv.
2 Among others, St Eloi, Tutilo of St Gall, St Dunstan, St Bern-
ward, St Godehart, and Gerbert. Let us bring together the different pas
sages relating to Tutilo : ' ' Erat valde eloquens . . . ca?latura elegans,
pictura? artifex, ac niirifieus aurifex ; musicus in omni genere instrumen-
torum, et fistularum, pra? omnibus ... in structuris et ca?teris artibus
efficax, concinnandi in utraque lingua promptulus. . . . Picturas et
aurificia carminibus et epigrammatibus decorabat singulariter pretiosis. "
^Ekkehard, De casibus S. Galli, c. 3, ap. Goldast.

THE MONKS TO ART. 229
goldsmith's work.1 Foulques, precentor of the
Abbey of St Hubert in the Ardennes, was equally
good as an architect and elegant as a miniature-
painter.2 Hermannus Contractus, a distinguished
monk, whom we have already mentioned among
the historians, was able, infirm and crippled as
he was,3 to find means to cultivate with great
success poetry, geometry, mechanics, music, and,
above all, astronomy; he was thoroughly acquainted
with Greek, Latin, and Arabic,4 and was without
a rival as a maker of musical instruments and
clockwork.5 During the war of investitures, and under the
pontificate of Urban II. , the Catholic party in
Germany counted among its chiefs Thiemon, a
Bavarian noble, who- was successively Abbot' of St
Peter's at Salzburg and Archbishop of that city,
and who, after having been long persecuted and
1 "Plurimis artibus imbutus ; videlicet cantoris, scriptoris, pictoris,
aurique fabricis operis scientia pollens." — Monast. Anglic, i. 151.
2 " Pra?centorem ... in illuminationibus capitalium literarum et in-
cisionibus lignorum etlapidum peritum." — Chron. Andagin., ap. Mar-
tene, Ampl. Collect., vol. iv. p. 925. It is Pere Cahier who gives us
these two latter indications. He rightly translates the terms of the
chronicle by the following words : " A master-builder either for carpentry
or for stonework."
3 Hence his surname Contractus. "Ne . . . per se movere, neve
saltern se in aliud latus vertere posset ; sed in sella quadam gestatoria a
ministro suo depositus, vix curvatim ad agendum quodlibet sedere pote
rat." — Berthold, ap. Pertz, vol. v. p. 267.
4 "Trium linguarum, gra?ca?, latina? et arabica?peritissimus." — Tri-
themius, Ann. Hirsaug.
5 " In horologicis et musicis instrumentis et mecanicis nulli par erat
componendis." — Berthold, loc. cit., p. 268. He also found time to
address a correspondence in verse, ' ' ad arnicas suas quasdam sanctimoni-
ales feminas." — Docen, Archiv., iii. 8, quoted by Peetz.

230

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Monkssculptors,
jewellers, watchmakers, &c.

imprisoned for his faith, died a martyr in Pales
tine. This Thiemon, educated at the monastery
of Altaiich, there became a painter, a smith, and
a sculptor. During the intervals of the terrible
struggle in which he took so noble a part, he
decorated the monasteries of his province with
the productions of his various talents.1 When,
having been made prisoner in Syria, he appeared
before the tribunal of the Mussulman prince, to
be sent to martyrdom, he was asked his trade ;
upon which he replied that he was an architect,
a jeweller, and a painter — and that, moreover, he
applied these arts symbolically to the truths of
that religion which he professed, and for which
he was willing to die.2
Let us now show, in a few rapid touches, what
importance the monks constantly attached to the
practice of painting in miniature, which was really
a preparation for the great art of religious paint
ing.3 The art of the miniaturist is scarcely to

1 ' ' Altensi monasterio, tam regularibus quam scholaribus disciplinis
traditus est imbuendus . . . cumque non solum non esset iners in arti-
bus quas liberales appellant, sed et in mechanicis universis, sicut pic-
toria, fusoria, sculptoria, . . . subtilissimus, ut in quibusdam monas
teriis, et in nostro specialiter in ejus sculpturis et picturis perspicuum
est cernere. " — Vit. S. Gebehard, arch. Salisb. a quod. , Admontensi
monacho, 1619, in-18, p. 142.
2 " Qui interrogatus quis esset, vel quam artem sciret. . . . Scio quidem
diversas artes ; sed pra?cipue ut sapiens architectus fundamentum scio
ponere firmum. . . . Et insuper materiales artes, ut desideras, videlicet
aurariam sive pictoriam scio plenarie." — Passio S. Tiemonis, ap. Gretser,
Oper., vol. vi. p. 461.
3 This is the opinion of the Jesuit Lanzi, who, however, was not very
intelligent in matters of Christian art.

THE MONKS TO ART. 231
be separated from that of the caligrapher, since
the object of both was to embellish and glorify
the sacred writings or books of the liturgy,
religious literature, history, or ancient classics,
transcribed by the monks upon parchment, or
sometimes on purple-tinted vellum, in letters of
gold or silver. They also ornamented the capi
tal letters and the margins with those delightful
paintings which are still the most precious treas
ures of our libraries.
In the sixth centurj^, Cassiodorus instituted, ^
in those abbeys which he founded in Calabria,
studios for painting in miniature, as well as for
the copying of manuscripts. In the ninth century
there were skilful painters among the monks of
Corvey, and Sintram of St Gall was at once the
admiration and the despair of caligraphers. God-
man, Abbot of Thorney in 970, ornamented with
the richest paintings a Benedictionale, which is
regarded as the chef-d'oeuvre of Saxon art.1 The
monk Bernward, afterwards Bishop of Hildesheim,
excelled in the decoration of the manuscripts he
copied. 2 This delicate art was specially cultivated
among the order of Cluny. St Bernard says that
they feared no expense for this object, and re
proaches the Clunists with having powdered gold
1 This celebrated MS. is in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire,
at Chatsworth. A facsimile has been published by Mr Rokewood Gage,
a learned Catholic, who died some years since.
2 " In scribendo enituit. . . . Picturam limate exercuit." See above,
a curious passage in the life of St Bernward.

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to use for their miniatures. In the convents, also,
^ the nuns ornamented their caligraphic work with
precious miniatures; those of the Hortus delici-
arum, by the Abbess Herrade of St Odile, add an
infinite value to that important collection.1 For
ten centuries, from the age of Cassiodorus to the
epoch of the Eenaissance and the Eeformation,
monks, especially the Benedictines and the Camal-
dolines,2 in Germany and Italy, persevered, with
indefatigable care and increasing success, in their
work of painting and caligraphy. 3 It is doubtful
whether the world ever saw an example of labour
so constant and so fruitful.
But at the period we have now reached, monks
did not confine themselves to miniatures. At St
Gall especially, they worked upon a larger scale : the
annals of this illustrious house boast of the variety
of subjects and the brilliance of the colours which
covered the walls of their church in the tenth century.4
1 A curious facsimile may be seen in P. Cahier, p. 164, in the reprint
of his Memoire.
2 Let us only recall the admirable choir-books of Ferrara, of Sienna,
and of the monastery degl' Angeli at Florence, the work of monks in
the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, so well judged by
M. Rio, De la Poesie chretienne, pp. 180-182.
3 Pere Cahier quotes positive proofs of this in his chronological
enumeration of ecclesiastical caligraphers and miniature - painters, the
most exact we know of. — Si le Christianisme a nui aux sciences, sects.
xxv., xxx. This art has been longer preserved in the Greek monasteries,
and is still practised there, but with the inferiority which characterises
all the works of the Christian East as compared with the West. See
Didron, Voyage au Mont Athos in the Annates archeolog. of 1846, and
his translation of the Guide to Painting ; and finally, an excellent note
of Pere Cahier on this subject, sect. xxix. p. 193 of the reprint.
4 This is said, among others, of Cunibert, Abbot of Altaich : "Doctor

THE MONKS TO ART. 233
The monks of Eeichenau sent painters to their
brethren to help them in this work. Two centuries
earlier, St Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth,
had caused the whole circumference of the two
churches of his monastery to be covered with paint
ings representing the history of Our Lord and the
agreement of the Old and New Testaments.1 In
823, by command of Ansegisus, Abbot of Fonte
nelle, Madalulphus of Cambrai had painted the
refectory of Luxeuil, which was 200 feet long.2
The beautiful frescoes of the abbey church of St
Savin in Poitou, even now excite the admiration of
artists.3 The churches of the order of Cluny,
always in the first rank for grandeur and beauty,
were generally ornamented with paintings, prob
ably frescoes.4 Other monks employed their pic-
sermone planus, pictor ita decorus, ut in laquearis exterioris S. Galli
ecclesia? circulo videre est." — Ekkeh., De casibus, c. 3. Cf. Buekhaed,
De casib., cc. 1, 2.
1 " Tunc divina? historia? picturas, quibus totam B. Dei Genitricis,
quam in monasterio majore fecerat, ecclesiam gyro coronaret, attulit ;
imagines quoque ad ornandum monasterium ecclesiamque B. Pauli apostoli
de concordia Veteris et Novi Testamenti summa ratione compositas
exhibuit." — Ven. Beda, ed. Giles, p. 376, Vit. S. Bened. Biscop, cc.
5, 9.
2 ' ' Variis pieturis decorari in maceria et in laqueari fecit a Madalulfo
egregio pictore Cameracensis ecclesia?." — Act. SS. 0. B., inVit. S. Ansegis.,
c. 9.
3 They furnished the material for the magnificent publication lately
issued by MM. Merimee and Gerard Seguin in the Collection des docu.
inedits relatifs a I'hist. de France.
4 " Omitto oratoriorum immensas altitudines, immoderatas longitudines
supervacuas latitudines, sumptuosas depolitiones curiosas depictiones." —
S. Beenaed., Apolog. ad Guillelm., c. 12. It is known that the great
Saint was swayed by violent prejudices against religious art, which his
order happily rejected after his death.

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torial talents for the propagation of the true faith
among the infidels. For example, we find that
Michel III., King of the Bulgarians, was baptised
/ with his court in 866, in consequence of the fright
^ inspired by a view of the last judgment, which had
been painted on the walls of his palace by Me
thodius, a missionary monk.1 The constant aim
of these pious artists was not only, says the Vener
able Bede, to decorate the churches, but also to
teach the illiterate, by placing before their eyes
subjects borrowed from sacred history, from the
Gospel narratives, from the Apocalypse, or from the
Painting lives of saints. 2 The monks also assisted in giving
First paint- to painting its grandest and most serious applica-
known. °ws tion by fixing it upon glass, and thus creating those

windows which form the most glorious ornament of
the Christian temple. St Benedict Biscop brought
to England3 the glass-makers employed in France
1 "Pingendi non rudem."— Cedrenus, edit, reg., p. 540, quoted by
D'Agincouet, Hist, de Vart., ed. ital., vol. i. p. 264. Methodius was
the apostle of the Bulgarians, Moravians, and other Slav nations ; he
was also one of the authors of the Slavonic liturgy.
2 ". . . Picturas sanctarum historiarum . . . non ad ornamentum
solummodo ecclesia?, verum ad instructionem intuentium." The words
of Bede, important even in a technical point of view, deserve to be here
quoted fully : "Picturas imaginum sanctarum, quas ad ornandum ec
clesiam B. Petri, quam construxerat detulit (S. B. Biscop) ; imaginem,
videlicet, B. Dei Genitricis, simul et duodecim apostolorum, quibus
mediam, ejusdem ecclesiae testudinem, ducto a pariete ad parietem tabulato,
pra?cingeret ; imagines evangelica? historia? quibus australem ecclesia?
parietem decoraret ; imagines visionum Apocalypsis B. Joannis quibus
septentrionalem a?que parietem ornaret, quatenus intrantes ecclesiam
omnes, etiam literarum ignari, quaqua versum intenderent, vel semper
amabilem Christi sanctorumque ejus, quamvis in imagine, contem-
plarentur aspectum, vel," &c- — Beda, Vit. B. abb., p. 368, ed. Giles.
3 " Misit legatarios Galliam, qui vitri factores, artifices videlicet

THE MONKS TO ART. 235
in the seventh century by Abbot Philibert, founder
of Jumieges. St Philibert distinguished himself by
building a dormitory 300 feet long, where there
were as many windows as beds ; and each window
was filled with transparent glass, to the great com
fort of the readers. a
In Germany, the first glass windows known
were those of the monasteries of Hirschau and
Tegernsee. Those of Tegernsee were made at the
cost of a neighbouring noble, Count Arnold, whom
the Abbot Gosbert 2 thanked in these words :
" Until now the windows of our church were only
covered with old pieces of cloth ; thanks to you,
the sun for the first time pours his golden rays
upon the pavement of our basilica through pictures
drawn upon many-coloured glass. All wTho enjoy
the new light admire the astonishing variety of
this marvellous work, and their hearts are filled
with a joy hitherto unknown."8
Britanniis eatenus incognitos, ad cancellandas ecclesia?, porticuumque et
ccenaculorum ejus fenestras adducerent. . . . Anglorum ex eo gentem
hujusmodi artificium nosse ac discere fecerunt. . . . Cuncta qua? ad
altaris et ecclesia? ministeria competebant, vasa sancta vel vestimenta,
quia domi invenire non potuit de transmarinis regionibus advectare
curabat." — Ven. Beda, ibid., p. 366. I believe this to be one of the first
examples of the employment of glass windows ; and it is not certain that
these windows were coloured.
1 " Singula per lecta lux radiat per fenestras, vitrum penetrans lychnus
fovet adspectus legentis." — Vit. S. Philiberti, c. 7, ap. Act. SS. 0. B.,
sa?c. ii. c. 7, p. 820.
2 Elected in 9821 He was nobly born, and famous for learning.
3 *' Ecclesia? nostra? fenestra? veteribus pannis usque nunc fuerunt
clausa?. Vestris felicibus temporibus auricomus sol primum infusit
basilica? nostra? pavimenta per discoloria picturarum vitra, cunctorumque
inspicientium corda pertentant multiplicia gaudia, qui inter se mirantur

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The monks of this same Abbey of Tegernsee
were distinguished through several centuries for
another art — that of engraving and working in gold,
in which they showed as much patience, zeal, and
skill as in the painting of manuscripts.1
The principal goldsmiths or silversmiths of the
middle ages were monks. Monastic chronicles often
mention monks, and even abbots, whose talents as
engravers or goldsmiths 2 were famous in their own
day. The annals of St Gall hand down a tradition
which shows the value attached by men of the
ninth century to the carvings of Tutilo, a monk
celebrated at that time for the number and diversity
of his talents. One day when he was carving an
image of Our Lady, two pilgrims, who came to
ask alms, thought that they saw in his workshop a
lady of the most brilliant beauty, who seemed to
be guiding the artist's hand, and whom they took
for his sister ; but they having told the story to
insoliti operis varietates." — Pez, Thesaur. anecdot. Eccles. , vol. vi. part
i. p. 122. These windows were made by the monks themselves ; thus the
abbeys had soon glassworks, where they made windows for the bishops
and nobles of their neighbourhood.
1 Three monks, all named Werner, were the chief artists and writers
of this learned abbey from 1081 to 1180. Of the first, who lived in 1090,
it is said : " Artificiosus Anaglypha in scripturis et in picturis et in
ornamentis librorum de auro et argento subtilis. Tabulam in superiore
parte triangulatam, de auro et argento et electro et gemmis et lapidibus
ornatam, et quinque vitreas fenestras et quoddam fusile opus de a?re
factum et lavacro aptum, huic ecclesia? contulit." — Pez, Tliesaur., vol.
iii. pars iii. p. 515. See, as to the services rendered to German art and
poetry by the monastery of Tegernsee, the thesis of Dr Kuglee, called
De Werinhero, sa?c. xii., monacho Tegernsensi, &c. : Berolini, 1831.
2 They called them auriferes, aurifabrilis artis periti, argentarii, &c,
but oftenest sculptores.

THE MONKS TO ART. 237
the other monks, the latter believed that it was the
Holy Virgin herself who directed the sculptor's
chisel. x
We must not forget the Englishman Anketil,
who, after having been Master of the Mint to the
King of Denmark, came back to England, and be
came a monk at St Albans, where he distinguished
himself by making a magnificent shrine to receive
the bones of the sainted patron of the abbey.2
Notwithstanding the disappearance, in the de
vastations occasioned by the Eeformation and the
Eevolution, of a mass of medieval works of art, we
have still enough sculptured and enamelled shrines
— enough precious book-covers, in gold, silver, and
carved ivory — enough abbatial crosiers, diptychs,
and marvellous bas-reliefs — enough beautiful works
in copper or bronze, such as baptismal fonts,3 cru
cifixes, censers, and candlesticks, — to enable us
1 " Sed est ne soror illius domina ilia pra?clara, qua? ei tam commode
radios ad manum dat, et docet quid faciat ? . . . Benedictus tu, Pater
qui tali magistra uteris ad opera." — Ekkeh., De Casib. S. Galli, c. 3.
2 ' ' Unam thecam gloriosam inchoavit, opere mirifico. . . . Regiis pra?-
erat operibus aurifabrilibus, moneta? custos et summus trapezita. . . .
Dominus Anketillus . . . monachus et aurifaber incomparabilis, qui
fabricam feretri manu propria (auxiliante quodamjuvene sa?culari dis-
cipulo suo Salomone de Ely) et inccepit et consummavit, diligenter in
suo opere nuiifabrili et animo studuit et manu laboravit." — Matth.
Paeis, Vitce S. Alb. abbatum, pp. 37, 38, ed. Watts. This happened
about 1140. There is, indeed, nothing more curious than all the nar
rative relative to this shrine, and to the vicissitudes of the great work,
in Matthew Paris.
3 See the learned, eloquent, and conscientious notice of M. Didron on
the^ copper fonts ornamented with sculpture in bas-relief still existinor
at St Barthelemy at Liege, and which were made by command of the
noble Hellin, Abbot of St Marie, in 1113. — Ann. archeolog., vol. v. p. 28.

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to judge of the degree of elegance and perfection
to which the monks had brought their productions
of this kind.
We find most curious details of their work in
the treatises of the monk Theophilus,1 who lived
between the tenth and twelfth centuries. Let us
only say here, that this branch of monastic art
was placed under the guardianship of two holy
monks, both of them goldsmiths and enamellers :
St Eloi, minister of King Dagobert ; and St Th^au,
a Saxon slave, whom St Eloi ransomed and made
his pupil and comrade. The reader is not ig
norant that monks and abbots long figured as
heads of the great school for work in gold and
enamel founded in Limousin by the two holy ab
bots of Solignac, and restored to its due honour
in our days by the modest and solid learning of
M. 1'AbbeTexier.2
Our powers fail us to speak of another art,
the most charming and most powerful of all — the
one which best responds to the needs of the soul,
and best expresses its emotions — the one which
exercises the most incontestable though the most
ephemeral empire over the heart. The Church
1 Theophile, PrUre et moine ; Essai sur divers arts, published by
Count Chaeles de Lescalopieb, and preceded by an introduction by
J. Marie Guichaed : 1843, quarto.
2 Essai sur les argcntiers et emailleurs de Limoges, by the Abbe" Texier :
Poitiers, 1843. M. Texier mentions particularly the monk Willam, in
the tenth century ; the monk Grimamond of Chaise-Dieu, in 1077 ; Abbot
Isembard of St Martial, a monk from his childhood, Abbot from 1174 to
1178 ; Peter, Abbot of Mauzac, in 1168.

THE MONKS TO ART. 239
alone has been able to give to music a character at Religions
-iii n n t 1 • 1 nmsio and
once durable, popular, and sacred. In this work, the Gre
gorian
as difficult as it was meritorious, she had monks pj13-11* »\
the cloister.
for her zealous and indefatigable auxiliaries. St
Gregory the Great, the father of true sacred music,
gave himself up to it, as we know, in the monastery
of St Andrea at Eome, before he became Pope.
The Gregorian chant, the fruit of his genius and his
authority, often thrust aside, and still oftener al
tered by later generations, has been maintained and
practised by the order from which he sprang, more
faithfully than by any other branch of Christian
society. 1 The reason of this was simple : music
— that is to say, vocal music, which is the highest
form of the art — was identified, for a monk, with
the accomplishment of his first duty. In every
monastery the compulsory celebration of certain
services in the choir seven times a-day, by the
whole community, naturally imposed upon the
monks the most attentive study of sacred music.
Thus the monasteries always had schools, where
this art occupied the most important place.
The musical tradition was communicated to St
Gall by a Eoman monk, who was received at the
abbey as a guest when travelling to Metz by order
of Charlemagne, to establish schools of Gregorian
singing. It was there that most of the compositions

1 See, on the introduction of the Roman or Gregorian chant into France
and England by the monks, Mabillon, prozf. in sac. III. Bened., No.
104, ed. folio.

240 SERVICES RENDERED BY
used for divine service, and consecrated by the
Church during the middle ages, were composed.1
History has preserved the recollection of that
enthusiasm which transported Conrad I., King of
Germany, when he heard at Mayence the High
Mass on Easter Day, sung by a monk of St Gall
and three bishops, his pupils.
In the same period lived three musicians,
united by the tenderest friendship ; 2 Notbert
the Stammerer or the Saint, Eatbert, and Tutilo.
Eatbert, a Thurgovian noble, after having written
the valuable annals of his monastery,3 composed
chants in German, and, on his deathbed, saw him
self surrounded by forty priests and canons, his
enthusiastic pupils, who were come to the mon
astery to celebrate the festival of St Gall.
Tutilo taught the young nobility of France the
art of playing on wind and stringed instruments,
and was, moreover, a painter, architect, Hellenist,
Latinist, astronomer, and very skilful sculptor,
which did not prevent him from being a man of
1 The following extract, which may be compared with many others, is
interesting for the establishment of this point. It refers to Gerwold, a
rich and noble lord, Abbot of Fontenelle under Charlemagne : " Scholam
in eodem ccenobio esse instituit, quoniam omnes pene ignaros litterarum
invenit : ac de diversis locis, plurimum Christi gregem aggregavit, op-
timisque cantilena? sonis-, quantum temporis ordo sinebat, edocuit. Erat
enim quanquam aliarum litterarum non nimium gnarus, cantilena? ta
men artis peritus, vocisque suavitate excellentia non egenus." — Chronic.
Fontanell., c. 16, in Spicileg., vol. ii. p. 278.
8 " Cor et anima una erat, mixtim qualia tres unus fecerint . . . tres
isti nostra? reipublica? senatus." — Ekk., De Casib., c. 3. p. 24.
3 See the collection called Casus S. Galli. Ratbert died about 897. — ¦
Aex, i. 96-192.

THE MONKS TO ART. 241
prayer and secret tears,1 and, in the opinion of
many, a true saint.
All the reformers of the Benedictine order, all
its principal doctors and writers, St Benedict of
Anagni,2 St Dunstan,3 St Odo of Cluny, and many
others, were good musicians, and employed their
authority to keep up and perfect Church music.
The holy monk Adalbert, the great apostle of
the Slavonic races, composed the music and
words of a Slavonic hymn, beginning " Hospo-
dyne pomyluy ny," which, after the missionary's
martyrdom, became the national song of the Bo
hemians.4 Even during the great struggles of the
eleventh century between the Church and the
Empire, many of the monks who took part in it,
such as Humbert, Abbot of Moyen-Moutier, Wil
liam of Hirschau, the Popes St Leo IX. and Victor
II. , continued to cultivate music zealously.5

The organ, that special creation of Christian art, The organ
-, ... ..... brought to
alone worthy to mingle its mystic voice with the perfection
pomp of the only truly divine worship — the organ monks.
owes to the monks the perfection of its construction ;
and it is owing to them that it passed into general
use.6 Cassiodorus, an illustrious monk of the sixth
1 "Filios nobilium fidibus docuit," &c. — Ekk., in Cassibus, iv. c. 3.
2 Ibid.
3 " Instituit cantor," &c. See above, with respect to St Benedict of
Anagni. 4 The air to be found noted in Boleluozkt, Rosa Bohemica, 1657,
folio. 5 See the curious testimonies to this fact in Ziegelbauee, Hist, liter.
0. S. B., pars ii. p. 342.
6 Organs first appeared in France under Pepin in 759, one being sent
VOL. VI. Q

242 SERVICES RENDERED BY
century,' has given at once the most ancient and
the most exact description of this king of instru
ments.1 Elphege, Abbot of Winchester in the
tenth century, caused to be built the largest organ
mentioned in medieval annals — it required seventy
men to manage it.2
/ The Benedictines introduced the Gregorian chant
into England together with the Catholic faith. . A
Eoman monk named John, arch-precentor of St
Peter's, who accompanied St Benedict Biscop to
Wearmouth, founded there, according to the Eoman
fashion, a sort of central school for singing, whence
issued a great number of pupils.3
to him by the Emperor of Constantinople. Shortly afterwards a monk,
Wicterp, Bishop of Augsburg, had one built for his new cathedral. —
Stenzel, Comment, de reb. August., pars ii. p. 65. Their use spread in
France and Germany more quickly than in Italy. There is interesting
information as to the services rendered by monks in the building of
organs, in the article by M. de Coussemaker, published by the Annates
archeologiques, vol. iii. p. 280.
1 " Organum itaque est quasi turris diversis fistulis fabricata, quibus
flatu follium vox copiosissima destinatur, et ut eam modulatio decora
componat, Unguis quibusdam ligneis ab interiore parte construitur quas
disciplinaliter magistrornm digiti reprimentes, grandissimam efficiunt, et
suavissimam cantilenam. " — Cassiod. Cf. Civilta cattolica, 22d Septem
ber 1851.
2 There is a rhymed and very minute description of such an establish
ment (ap. Act. SS. 0. B., sa?o. v. p. 628 et seq.) in the prologue to the
life of St Swithin. At the same period Count Ailwin gave to the Abbey
of Ramsay an organ, which is thus described : ' ' Cupreos organorum cala-
mos, qui in alveo suo super unam cochlearum denso ordine feraminibus
insidentes, et diebus testis follium spiramento fortiore pulsati, prajdulcem
melodiam et clangorem longius resonantem ediderunt. " From this time
the monks accustomed themselves to make this instrument and to play
upon it. Cf. Mabill., Ann., vol. ii. b. xxiii. c. 29, and Prof, in sox.
III. Benedict, vi., No. 105.
3 " Vir venerabilis Joannes, archicantator ecclesia? S. Petri et abbas
monasterii S. Martini . . . quatenus in monasterio suo cursum canendi

THE MONKS TO ART. 243
The English seem to have been, among all the
monks of the order of St Benedict, those who loved
music most passionately. An Abbot of Jarrow, dis
ciple and successor of the Venerable Bede, wrote to
his compatriot St Lullius, Archbishop of Mayence :
" I am very anxious to have a harpist who can
play upon the harp we call a rote ; but I have the
instrument, and I have not the artist. Send me
one ; and, I beg of you, do not laugh at my re
quest."1 This passion sometimes led to grave
abuses. To repress them, the Council of Clones-
ham, in 747, ordered the expulsion from monas
teries of all harpists, musicians, and buffoons.2
But the monks, thus zealous for music, thus skil- School of
. , . . . . Singing at
ful in making instruments and in musical com- wear-
mouth, and
position, were no less devoted to the higher theory writings of
1 ° J monks on
of the art. Throughout the middle ages, its princi- music-
pies were maintained and interpreted by their care,
and the most famous authors upon music belonged
to the Monastic Orders. A hundred years before
the birth of St Benedict, an Egyptian monk, St
Pambo, Abbot of Nitria, had written a treatise on
annuum sicut ad S. Petri Roma? agebatur, edoceret. . . . Ordinem vide
licet ritumque canendi ac legendi viva voce pra?fati monasterii cantatores
edocendo, et ea . . . etiam litteris mandando. . . . Ipsum per loca in
quibus doceret, multi invitare eurabant. "— Bed. , iv. 18.
1 "Delectat me quoque citharistam habere, qui possit citharizare in
cithara, quam nos appellamus rottm, quia citharam habeo, et artificem
non habeo. . . . Obsecro ut hanc meam rogationem ne despicias, et
risioni non deputes." — Inter Epist. S. Bonif ac, No. 89, ed. Serearius.
2 " Monasteria non sint artium ludicrarum receptacula, hoc est poet-
arum, citharistarum, musicorum, scurrarum, sed orantium, legentium
Deique laudantium habitationes. " — C. 20.

244 SERVICES RENDERED BY
psalmody.1 Later, from century to century, we
find a succession of monks authors of learned
treatises on music, among whom chiefly figure
Hucbald of St Amand,2 whose contemporaries or
pupils were Eeginon of Priim, Be'myof Auxerre,Odo
of Cluny, Gerbert, Aurelien of Eeome, and, later,
William, Abbot of Hirschau ; Engelbert, Abbot
of Amberg ; Hermannus Contractus, who, to all his
other qualities, added that of being the most accom
plished musician of his time ; 3 and many others
whom we have already named as among the lumi
naries of the Benedictine order.4 St Bernard, in
his treatise De Ratione Cantus, gloriously continues
this series of eminent writers, which was only to
close at the end of the eighteenth century with
another Gerbert, Prince-Abbot of St Blaise in the
Black Forest, editor of a celebrated collection of
writers upon music, in which the highest rank
is justly assigned to Benedictines.5
1 Instituta Patrum de modo psaltendi sive cantandi, published by the
Prince- Abbot Gerbert of St Blaise in his collection.
" Died in 932. Mem. sur Hucbald et ses traites de musique, by M. G.
de Coussemaker : Paris, Techener, quarto.
3 " Cantus historiales plenarios, ut potequo musicus peritior non erat,
de S. Georgio, &c, &c, mira suavitate et elegantia euphonicos, prater
alia hujus modi perplura neumatizavit et composuit." — Beetholdi,
Herimanni continuat., ap. Peetz, vol. v. p. 268. " In musica sane pra?
omnibus modernis subtilior exstitit et cantilenas plurimas de musica,
cantusque de Sanctis satis auctor nobiles edidit." — Anonym. Mellicens.,
ap. Pertz, vol. v. p. 267.
4 Trithemius, Chron. Hirsaug., passim.
6 Scriptores ecclesiastici de musicd sacrd, potissimum ex variis Italim,
Galliot et Germanise codicibus manuscriptis collecti, et nunc primum
publico luce donati a Maetino Gerberto, monasterii et congr. S.
Blasii, in silva Nigra ahbate ; 3 vols., in-4° : Typis San Blasianis,
mdoclxxxiv.

THE MONKS TO ART. 245
It is well known that the modern system of
notation was first used in the Monastery of Cor
bie, under Abbot Eatbold, and that after him
Guido Aretino, by arranging the diatonic scale, Guido a™-
1 1 • ei l /¦ • i i *'n0 was a
became the inventor of the son eggio ; but how many monk at
. && J Pomposa.
people know that this Guido was a holy monk
of the Abbey of Pomposa near to Eavenna ?,1
Thus it is to an illustrious monk, St Gregory
the. Great, that ecclesiastical music, the highest
expression of the art, owes its origin. It is to a
monk that modern music owres the increase of
simplicity which has made its study less difficult.
They were monks who, in the solitude of the The-
baiid as well as in the monasteries of the Black
Forest, during fourteen hundred years, enriched
the store of musical science by their researches and
their treatises. They were, finally, poor monks who
from the eighth to the twelfth century composed,
in the solitude of the cloister and under the inspira
tion of prayer, those immortal masterpieces of the
1 Ratbold died in 985 ; Guido was living in 1026. The former sub
stituted the notulas caudatoz, which are still used, for letters ; Guido
Aretino added to this the system of clefs and lines. Such is not the
opinion of the most learned moderns who have written upon music.
They affirm that Guido invented nothing of what is generally attributed
to him, neither the lines nor the names of notes ut, re, mi, fa, but that
he simply made intelligent use of all the methods already known,
thus rendering to music the great service of introducing into its study
that lucidity which belongs to the Italian mind. See Mabill., Ann.,
vol. iv. book lix. No. 80 ; book lv. No. 100 ; and Append., No. 7 :
Fins, Biographie des Musiciens, article Guy d'Arezzo : Kieseweller,
Histoire de la musique Europeenne. See also what Ordericus Vitalis says
as to the talent for musical composition displayed by various Norman
abbots of the eleventh century, lib. iii. p. 95 ; iv. p. 247,

246 SERVICES RENDERED BY MONKS TO ART.
Catholic liturgy, misunderstood, mutilated, paro
died or proscribed by the barbarous taste of modern
liturgists, but in which true knowledge, does not
hesitate to acknowledge in our days an ineffable
delicacy of expression, an inimitable mingling of
the pathetic and powerful, the flowing and the
profound, a soft and penetrating strength, and, to
say all in few words, a beauty always natural,
always fresh, always pure, which never becomes
insipid, and which never grows old.1
Until their last day, faithful to their ancient
glory, the monastic churches preserved the trea
sures of that divine melody which, in the words
of the monk Ordericus Vitalis, never ended a single
strain without having filled Christian hearts with
peace and joy.2
1 " Gn non so che di ammirabile ed inimitabile, una finezza di espres-
sione indicibile, un pattetico che tocca, una naturalezza fiuidissima :
sempre fresco, senipre nuovo, sempre verde, sempre bello, mai non
appascisse, mai non invecchia. . . ." — Baini, master of the Pontifical
chapel of the Vatican, Memorie storiclie sulla vita di Palestrina, vol. ii.
c. 3, p. 81, quoted by Jouve, Essai sur le chant eccUsiastique, in the
Annates archeologiques of Didron, vol. v. p. 74. Cf. Jansens, Vrais
Principes du chant gregorien, p. 187. The learned writer Baini adds,
with too much reason, that the melodies substituted by the modern
liturgy for these ancient masterpieces are stupid, heavy, discordant,
cold, wearisome — "stupide, insignificanti, fastidiose, absone, rogose." —
Ibid. 3"Dulcis cantilena divini cultus, qua? corda fidelium mitigat ac
la?tificat, conticuit." — Order. Vit., book xiii. p. 908.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 247

CHAPTER VI.
THE MONKS AND AGRICULTURE. — THE MONKS AND
THE POOR.  FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF THE
MONASTIC SPIRIT.
Agricultural monks— Abbot-farmers. — Clearing done by monks. — The
monk a martyr to over-work. — Comfort of peasants on monastic lands.
— New industries introduced by monks. — Manufactures created by
Benedictines. — Public works accomplished by them. — Irrigation- and
draining. — Foundations in fens. — Boldness and prudence. — Labour
made honourable. — Poverty mitigated. — Regular alms. — Extraordi
nary charities. — The poor assimilated to the monks. — Almsgiving in
poverty. — The poor of Cluny. — Work of a convent almoner. — Visit
ing the poor. — Care for the insane. — Monastic hospitality. — The bell
of the wanderers. — Salvation the monks' only aim.
In trying to point out the innumerable services
rendered to temporal society by men whose regu
lar aim was the renunciation of all the competi
tions and all the advantages of worldly life, we
have entered upon a field too vast for our powers.
All that we can do is a brief survey of it. After
having very superficially enumerated what monks
have done for that chosen part of the human race
which has leisure to cultivate science, literature,
and art, we are bound also to point out in a few
rapid sketches what they attempted to do for the
good of that multitude whom God has destined to

248 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
earn their bread by the sweat of their brows, and
who find themselves too often powerless even to
fulfil that hard law of their worldly condition.
Monies ^ Agriculture, as we all know, is the profession
lands. of the great majority of the human race. Now we
can safely affirm that monks have done more for
agriculture than for any other science ; and sec
ondly, that no one has done so much as they for
the improvement of the soil. It was their glory
in Italy, in Spain, in Gaul, Germany, and Great
Britain — so says a contemporary, too early lost to
science1 — to have commenced the clearing of the
land, and by their labours to have revealed its fertil
ity. It may be affirmed, without any exaggeration,
that the rise of the monastic system was also the
rise of free agriculture and industry in the world.
The Cenobites were obliged to struggle with the
barrenness of the lands where they established their
retreats, just as they were obliged to contend
against the darkness of the human intelligence
and the depravity of the human heart. But
their perseverance triumphed over all obstacles.
Encouraged by the liberality of kings and nobles,
1 M. Paillardde St Aignan. This writer has remarked the greatresem-
blance which existed between the ancient monastery, as conceived by St
Benedict, and an agricultural colony established on a piece of land lately
explored, and which was meant to be self-supplying. The author adds —
and nothing can be more true — that a Benedictine monastery offers an
exact copy of a rich Roman villa. Gardens, mills, ovens, stables, and
workshops, grouped round a central building, complete the resemblance.
Varro would even have found there the slaves in their brown tunics,
with cowls. But instead of the maledictions of the ergostulum, he
would have heard the music of prayer, &c. M. de Courson, in the
Moniteur Universel of March 1854, Fragments sur les anciennes forUs,
made also the same remark.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 249
they cut down woods, drained marshes, fertilised
the sandy soil, conquered the first polders from the
sea, and, as the reward of their devotion, which
shrank neither from fatigue, sickness, nor death,
they beheld vast fields, formerly bristling with
brushwood or covered with stagnant and fetid
waters, clothe themselves with harvests and with
fruit. The very men whom we have just seen
fulfilling with constant success the difficult task
of teaching, who preserved and developed the
tradition of the most delicate and refined arts —
these very men quitted their cells, pick or axe in
hand, to cut down forests, cultivate plains, drain
swamps, and make known to the Christian world
the wisest and the most productive of agricultural
methods ! They carried on, side by side, labours of
the most various kinds.1 Since the world began,
no class of men ever consecrated to the cultivation
of the soil efforts more persevering and more fruit
ful.2 This homage must be rendered to the order of
St Benedict, without, however, attempting to con
centrate its services to this one single sphere.
At the same time, the ardent devotion of the
Benedictines to the work of clearing and cultivat
ing the soil, and the admirable results of their
1 The Benedictine monk was by turns a religious thinker, a labourer,
an artisan, a man of letters. He passed from the church to the studio,
from the culture of the fields to the study of literature. — Mignet,
Memoire sur la conversion de I'Allemagne, 1841, p. 141.
2 To obtain a correct idea of the care given to agriculture by the
monks, from their origin, it is needful to read an extract from the life
of St Mesmin, Abbot of Micy, borrowed from the Act. SS. 0. B., and
quoted by M. A. de Courson in his work on Ancient Forests.

250 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
labours, may be easily explained. The principal
cause may be found in the very Eule which regu
lated their life, dividing it between work and prayer,
according to the traditions of the first solitaries of
the East, and in obedience to the express will of
St Benedict. Just as the celebration of the offices
of the Church several times in each day led the
monks to cultivate and perfect their music with
ever-increasing success, so the constant practice of
the law of manual labour revealed to them the abun
dant resources of agriculture, and the ingenious and
profitable applications of which it was capable.
The following extract from the Eule of St Bene
dict will show how, by imposing upon the brothers
of the order the great law of material labour, this
Eule procured for the world such magnificent
results : " Idleness is the enemy of the soul ;
therefore the brothers ought at certain hours to
work with their hands, and at others to occupy
themselves in sacred reading. We think right
to regulate their time thus : From Easter to
the kalends of October,1 they shall go out in
the morning and labour at whatever may be
judged necessary from Prime until the fourth
hour. From the fourth hour to Sexte they shall
read. After Sexte and a meal, they shall rest in
silence on their beds ; or if any one wishes to read,
he may do so, but without disturbing the others.
After Nones, the brothers shall work until vespers.
1 From the 1st October to Lent they were to work from Tierce to
Nones, and during Lent from Tierce to the tenth hour.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 251
If poverty or any local necessity oblige the brothers
to gather in their own harvest, let not this grieve
them ; for they may show themselves true monks
while living by manual labour, as their fathers and
the apostles did. But let everything be done with
moderation, so as not to lay too great a burden of
work on the feeble, who, however, ought not to be
idle."1 If sometimes, as we have seen, the transcrip
tion of manuscripts and other intellectual tasks
were considered equivalent to the cultivation of
the soil, it is no less certain that study, and
even the teaching of literature, did not absolutely
dispense the monks thus engaged from the obliga
tion of manual labour.2 There was therefore still
1 ' ' Otiositas inimica est anima? : et ideo certis temporibus- occupari
debent fratres in labore manuum, certis iterum horis in lectione divina
. . . Mane exeuntes . . . laborent quod necessarium fuerit. ... Si
autem necessitas loci aut paupertas exegerit ut ad fruges colligendas per
se occupentur, non contristentur : quia tunc vere monachi sunt, si labore
manuum suarum vivunt. . . . Omnia tamen mensurate fiant propter pusil-
lanimes." — C. 48. Further on, this recommendation is thus developed:
" Fratribus infirmis vel delicatis talis opera aut ars injungatur, ut nee
otiosi sint, nee violentia laboris opprimantur. "
2 Certain chapters of the Benedictine Rule read like pages of Varro,
Columella, or Cato. See Dom Calmet, vol. i. p. 514, on the thirty-second
chapter of this rule ; and vol. ii. p. 424, on chapter lxvi.
The Benedictines knew how to practise, with the ardour and intelligent
energy of free and devoted workmen, the excellent precepts of agriculture
adopted at Lerins and Monte Cassino. For them, it is no exaggeration
to say, the cultivation of the soil was like an immense alms spread over
a whole country. By turns carpenters, masons, architects drawing the
plans of great buildings, painters and goldsmiths employed in the decora
tion of churches, engineers engaged to drain marshes, to direct .water
courses, and to confine rivers to their beds, the monks, when all these
different tasks were accomplished, became once again farm-labourers,
shepherds, and vine-dressers, more unwearied than the rudest peasants of
their neighbourhood.

252 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY' OF
more reason that the monks. who did not give
themselves up to learning, and the great number of
nobles and soldiers who entered the monasteries of
the tenth and eleventh centuries in the character
of converts, should give proof of their industry
in agricultural occupations. After the many in
cidents we have related of this laborious activity
among the sons of kings, among princes, nobles,
and knights, it will be sufficient here to recall
to the reader some names, such as those of Carlo-
man, uncle of Charlemagne ; William, Duke of
Aquitaine ; Adalbert, son of a Duke of Bohemia ;
Hugh, Duke of Burgundy ; Guy, Count of
Albon ; Hermann, Margrave of Baden ; Frederic,
brother of the Duke of Lorraine, and many
others, who, having become monks, distinguished
themselves by the zeal and courage with which
they undertook the most painful and least varied
Even ab- labours. At the same time, it is well to remark
bots held
the, plough, that the abbots and other superiors themselves
set the example of the bravest submission to toil.
Each time that the government of monasteries or
the general interests of the Church left these heads
of communities any leisure, they were the first in
the field at the head of the labouring monks. It
was thus during the whole period of which we have
sketched the history. In a previous chapter, we
have shown Herluin, first abbot of the famous Abbey
of Bee, occupied in digging, sowing, and weeding a
1 " Videres abbatem colo sementem, manu rostrum vel savculum gestan-

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 253
the enclosure of the monastery which was soon
after to receive Lanfranc and St Anselm. It is
expressly said of St Benedict of Anagni, the great
reformer of Monastic Orders under Charlemagne,
that he guided the plough with the ploughmen,
used the axe with the woodmen, and reaped with
* the reapers.1 One story, related by St Gregory Agricui-
the Great respecting the holy Abbot Equutius, the dom? C*
eloquent missionary, contemporary with St Bene
dict, proves this custom to have existed among
Benedictines from the commencement of the order.
One day a Papal envoy came to the monastery of
this holy man in order to conduct him to Eome ;
but having gone to look for him among the copyists
of the Scriptorium, was directed elsewhere by the
caligraphers whom he questioned. Their answer
was, "He is down there in the valley, cutting hay."2
If we tried to enumerate the different countries
in which the beneficent influence of the monks in
respect to agriculture was evident, it would be
necessary to go over all the provinces of Europe
tem, ad agriculturam pra?ire monachos," &c. Among the abbots placed
over monasteries after the barbarian invasions, there was not one, we
may say, whose biographer has not proved his participation in the labour
of the soil — in ploughing, in harvesting, in mowing, &c.
1 " Cum arantibus ipse arabat, cum fodientibus socius erat, cum
messoribus metebat." — Vit. S. Bened., auct. Aedone, discip. suo, in Act.
SS. 0. B., sa?c. iv. pars i. p. 204.
2 " Festine ad ejus monasterium cucurrit (Julianus), ibique absente Ulo
antiquarios scribentes reperit, nbi abbas esset inquisivit. Qui dixerunt :
In valle hac qua? monasterio subjacet, fcenum secat."— S. Geeg. Mag.,
Dialog., i. 4. As Pere Cahier remarks (xviii. 150), in these two lines
what a perspective, what a flood of light, on the future of an institution
then in its cradle !

254 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Gulf of
Bothnia, and from the north of Scotland to the
mouths of the Danube. This would be a task
equally long and superfluous ; it is at once shorter
and surer to invite the detractors of monastic in
stitutions to seek and point out the country where
the plough of the monk did not precede or at
least develop that cultivation which has enriched
an ungrateful posterity. Certainly we shall have
to wait long for their answer.
We must not, however, judge these rural labours
by the condition of monastic estates at the time
of their confiscation. On the contrary, we should
remember that for the most part monks established
themselves in wild and not easily accessible places,
which were left to them precisely because they
were uncultivated, and no one was willing to
undertake the task of clearing them.1 It is certain
that generally the lands granted to monasteries
were of no value, and such as the donors did not
think worth keeping for themselves. In the time
of St Gregory VIL, as well as in that of St Seine
and St Evroul, in the sixth and seventh centuries,
most of the abbeys rose in inaccessible forests,
on sites considered almost uninhabitable even by
1 " It must be said that the monks alone seemed to have any regard
for the soil. It was of no value, it produced nothing ; they had only to
wish for it in order to obtain possession of it. They did wish for it ; and
great was the advantage to humanity, for even in this matter they for
warded civilisation. They cleared unbroken lands, repeopled abandoned
countries, founded parishes, . . . established markets, converted rivers
into highways.'' — Giraud, Recherche sur les coutumes de Bretagne,
Revue de legist., vol. i. (xvii.) p. 585.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 255
the rude and energetic populations of that period.
Chaise-Dieu, in Auvergne ; x La Grande-Sauve, in
Aquitaine ;2 Eeichenbach, in Suahia ;3 Anchin and
Afflighem, in Belgium4 (to quote only some of the
chief foundations of the eleventh century), — were
built in the midst of vast forests, furrowed by
ravines, peopled by wild beasts and brigands,
which it was only possible to cross by cutting a
path, axe in hand, through reeds and brushwood.
They were forced to resign themselves to live for
long years in these unproductive solitudes, in a
constant struggle with hunger and with the in
clemency of the seasons, before they could fertilise
them by their labour. But the monks never shrank
from this necessity. Throughout the twelfth cen
tury we find the new order of Cistercians seeking,
with care and perseverance, the wildest and most
inaccessible sites, on which to establish its innu
merable foundations.5
1 In 1046. " Inveniunt spinas et vepres, horrorem ac solitudinein,
locum bonis omnibus indigentem. . . . Auxit loci difficultates vicino-
rum improbitas, qui morum immanitate feris consimiles, servos Dei,
quos sustentare deberent, conviciis urgebant et minis, insanos etiam
judicantes, qui locum sterilem, quem vel si eopias attulissent, non essent
passuri, nihil habentes co?pissent incolere. Incolarum mitigabat pristinam
feritatem, paulatimque eos brutis moribus exuens, tanquam de feris
homines faciebat." — Marbod, Vit. S. Roberti, abb. Cases Dei, in Act. SS.
0. B., sa?c. vi. pars ii. pp. 192-94.
2 In 1079. " Sylva in circuitu tam densa vepribus et sentibus creverat,
quod nullus ad ecclesiam appropinquare poterat, nisi gladio aut alio
aliquo ferramento prius iter fecisset." — Vit. S. Gerardi, c. 20, in Act. SS.
0. B., sa?c. vi. pars ii. p. 886.
3 In 1083. " Pra?diolum nemore densissimo hispidum. " — Trithem.,
Chron. Wirsaug., i. 255.
* In 1079 and 1083.
6 Is it necessary to recall to our contemporaries the admirable achieve-

256 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
In the middle of last century much was said
about the pretended discovery of the famous valley
of Chamouny at the foot of Mont Blanc. The
savants of the time declared that it had remained
unknown to Europe until 1741, when it was pene
trated, not without difficulty, by some English tra
vellers.1 It is very true that Chamouny was only
then pointed out to the idle curiosity of the public ;
but it ought not to be forgotten that long before
Pococke and Windham, St Francis of Sales had
passed the defiles which lead to this hidden corner
of his diocese, with hands and feet bruised until
they bled as he climbed; or that in the year
1090 the Benedictines obtained of Count Aymon
of Geneva the gift of this valley, then entirely un
cultivated and uninhabited, and that they founded
a priory there,2 the territory of which, gradually
brought under cultivation, was found, in 1330,3
to be so populous as to require a code to regulate
the relations of the inhabitants among themselves,
towards the monks, and towards strangers. Nat-
ments of the Cistercians of our own days in Africa ? The clearings of La
Trappe de Staoueli prove, certainly, that the sons of St Bernard have not
degenerated, but have known how to remain faithful to the tradition which
for thirteen hundred years has constituted the glory of the Monastic
Orders. 1 Pococke and Windham. M. de Saussure followed them in 1760.
2 The deed of gift was found in an old coffer at Chamouny and pub
lished by Sherwill, an Englishman, Historical Sketch of Chamouny:
Paris, 1832. Count Aymon there fixes the limits of the valley from the
Dioza, near Servoz, to the Col de Balme, and gives the whole to the
Benedictines under the name of Campus munitus, a very natural etymo
logy for the modern name Chamouni or Chamonix. It is seven and a
half leagues in circumference.
3 January 12, 1330. The inhabitants are there described as Com-
muniens.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 257
urally the savants of the eighteenth century, even
while they ate bread made from grain harvested
in the desert that had been long ago reclaimed
by the monks, did not deign to recall their
memory; and the Eevolution acted in the same
manner by them when she expelled them from
the place which owes to them its cultivation, its
population, and even its name. This is, indeed,
the history of a thousand such colonies spread over
the face of Europe.1
To triumph over the numberless obstacles op
posed to these pioneers of Christianity by nature,
and too often by the ingratitude or violence of
men, demanded an ardour and a perseverance more
than human. These qualities the Benedictines drew
from that spirit of self-abnegation and self-sacrifice
which constituted their power in this world, and
from the hope of that heavenly reward which
should one day follow their humble submission to
voluntary toil. Thus discouragement was unknown
to them. What though they saw their labours fail,
their cultivation disappear, their lives wasted in
profitless efforts ; they returned to the charge, they
or their spiritual descendants, until the day when
victory declared for them. In vain the barbarian
hordes — Saracens, Normans, Huns, Danes — came
1 The country which separates Belgium from Holland, and which is
called La Campine, was cleared by the Premonstratensians of Averbode
and of Tongerloo, who served as parish priests to more than 100 parishes
in that country, and who, until the spoliation by the. French in 1793,
taught the peasants agriculture as well as Christianity. — Verhoeven, op.
cit., p. 79 ; Aubert MiRiEUS.
VOL. VI. ' R

258 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
from all quarters to ravage their harvests, burn
their buildings, and quench in blood the smoking
ruins of their monasteries ; new monks continually
presented themselves to take up the work of the
martyrs, and to recommence the struggle even in
those very spots where it had been most sanguinary.
Thus, after the horrible devastation of Brittany
by the Normans in the tenth century, when that
province was but one vast funeral pile, and briers
were growing in the very sanctuary of the cathe
dral of Nantes, we find the monks of Ehuys, with
their abbot, St Felix, at their head, setting them an
example of toil and courage, and beginning at once
to rebuild the ruined monasteries and houses, to
plough the fields, to plant vines and orchards, and
thus bring back fertility and life to the country.1
a monk We see also, in the seventh century, in spite of
iawr. ° the sacrifice of one as a martyr, other monks un
dertaking to clear the Black Forest in Suabia. A
young Irish prince, Trudpert, brother to the first
Bishop of Salzburg, had chosen a desert valley at
Brisgau for his retreat. He was not less than
three years clearing this solitude, rooting out the
brushwood and levelling the ground.2 As laborious
1 "In solitudinem et vastum cremium omnino tota regio, Dei judicio.
. . . Erant in ipsis ecclesiis cubilia ferarum. . . . Videbatur omnibus
laboriosum et valde difficile aggredi tarn immensum opus : sed ille non
dubitavit invadere illud . . . domos a?dificavit, vineas plantavit atque
pomaria." — Act. S. Gild., ap. Aurelien de Courson, Hist, des peuples
Bretons, ii. 370, 373. Cf. Chron. Nannet., apud D. Bouquet, vol. viii.
p. 256.
2 ' ' Hanc vallem prorsus incultam propriis manibus coepit excolere,

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 259
as if he had been born in some rude peasant family,
Trudpert, when he had worked all day, spent most
of the night in prayer. One day at noon, when,
yielding to fatigue, he had fallen asleep,1 one of the
six workmen given to him by the seigneur of the
place, angry with the saint for having made him
work too hard, split his skull with the stroke of
a hatchet.2 A monastery soon rose upon the site
consecrated by the death of this martyr to labour ;
and from that moment until the eleventh century,
the Black Forest became one of the chief centres of
the activity of the Benedictines.
Thanks to this indomitable perseverance, the j
monks were enabled to bring agriculture to a per
fection such as it had never before attained, and to
make the ancestors of their future spoilers aware of
the value Of the land. Unlike most successful en-
terprises in this world, the growing prosperity of
the monks harmed no one ; for it was only at the ^
expense of forests, deserts, rocks, swamps, or the
sea, that they managed to enrich themselves. They
never attempted to drain their estates of all that they
could produce,3 for they thought of the future, and
exstirpare virgulta, fruteta purgare, coa?quare solo tumores, aptare plani-
tiem, ac tanquam non principis sed agricola? filius genitus ad labores." —
Vit. S. Ruperti, ap. Canisium, Led. antiq., pars ii. p. 319.
i " Fatigatus ex labore meridiano . . . super scamnum se quoddam
ut somno reficeretur, aliquantisper ex nimia lassitudine reclinavit. " — Ibid.
2 Vit. S. Rudperti, in Act. SS. Bolland, die IS April. Cf. M. Gerberti,
Historia silvm Nigral, vol. i. pp. 46-54.
3 This was one of the principal arguments opposed by spoilers of our
own days in the Swiss Diet to the monasteries of the canton of Argovia ;
¦and they made it a pretext for giving these monasteries lay administra
tors, even before confiscating all their goods for revolutionary purposes.

260 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
comfort would neither exhaust the soil nor the men who
of the pea- , . , . , .
sants on hved on it. As soon as they were in possession
lands. of a new estate, and before deriving the least
profit from it, they always gave up to the poor,
who gathered round them everywhere, those es-
sarts, or clearings, which were intended for them.1
/ The numerous rural population which invari
ably grouped itself about each monastery, shared
largely in its wellbeing, and found under its gentle
and paternal administration, together with spiritual
assistance and security for life, an exemption from
very many of the oppressive burdens which have
at all times weighed heavily upon dwellers in the
country. In proportion as monastic property in
creased in extent and value, the peasants of the
neighbourhood saw their own small fortunes gradu
ally enlarge, and they ended by being, as it were, put
in possession, in the monks' stead, of a portion of
their domains. This revolution was greatly favoured
by the easy conditions which the monks earnestly
desired to make with the labourers whom they
employed. To quote only one example of this,
let us remind the reader that Monte Cassino, the
At the same time, with the usual logic of spoilers, they accused these
very monks of being too rich. It was in vain for the victims to answer
that, if they were too rich, it proved their administration not to have
been bad — while, on the other hand, if their administration had been
bad, it was absurd to accuse them of being too rich ; force triumphed
over justice and reason, and the convents of Argovia have disappeared,
notwithstanding the federal pact which guaranteed their existence.
1 " Dedit quoque omnes incisiones ipsius sylva? qua? ad pra?sens tunc
facta? erant, et qua? deinceps facienda? essent, causa seminandi, ab omni
bus qui operari ibi voluissent." — Charta de fundat. S. Genesii Thier-
nensis, ap. Branche, I' Auvergne au moyen Age.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 261
queen of all the Western abbeys, took from the
farmers who cultivated its lands only one-seventh
of the grain and one-third of the wine produced.1
Never hoping for an immediate return, and having
no families to enrich, they could easily offer to
their tenants, the farmers associated with their vast
agricultural experiments, profits which encouraged
them to labour, and yet left wholesome leisure for
the care of their souls. Thus most of them re
cognised the truth of the saying which gratitude
rendered popular in Germany, " It is good living
under the crosier." 2 The system of farming pur
sued by the monks was as skilful as it was benefi
cent. With what art and what care did they con
sult the exigencies of soil and climate, so as to
bring old modes of culture to perfection and to
introduce new ones ! An eminent historian of the
present day, in his Picture of the State of the

1 This law was introduced by Abbot Aligernus of Monte Cassino when,
in 960, he wished to repeople the lands of his monastery, laid waste and
burned by the Saracens : ' ' Prudens abbas,, a vicinis terris, qua? vastata?
non fuerint, agricolis mox evocatis in possessiones illos monasterii quot-
quot cultoribus indigebant, cum universis eorum familiis habitaturos
induxit : placito tarn cum eis quos ibi invenerat, quam eis quos ipse con-
duxerat, libellari statuto, ut de tribus totius ejusdem terra? redditibus,
hoc est tritici et hordei ac milii, partem septenam : de vino autem ter-
tiam annualiter monasterio darent : cetera in suis suorumque usibus pos-
siderent: quod usque hodie stabiliter ac perenniter observatur." — Leo
Ostiens., Chron. Cassin.,1. ii. c. 3.
2 ' ' Unter dem Krummstab ist es gut wohnen ; " and the populations sub
jected, since the secularisation of the ecclesiastical sovereignties in 1802,
to the rule of modern States, must often repeat it. This saying applied
equally to bishoprics and to abbeys ; but we have shown that most of
the German dioceses were founded by monks, or, like Fulda, Warden,
&c, arose from the transformation of some great monastery into a see.

262 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
Church under Innocent III.1 has devoted his in
comparable learning and his rare clear-sightedness
to examining and describing the services rendered
by monasteries to Christian nations with regard to
work of this kind. We could only copy from him,
and we choose rather to refer our readers to his book.
It would be a long but easy and interesting
task to complete this enumeration by examining
the different works which treat of agricultural pro-
New indus- gress in each country. We should see everywhere
duced by 'j how the monks instructed the population in the
most profitable methods and industries, — naturalis
ing under a rigorous sky the most useful fruits and
the most productive grain ; importing continually
v, into the countries they colonised, animals of a
better breed, or plants new and unknown there
y before ; here introducing the rearing of cattle and
horses — there, bees ; in another place the brewing
y of beer with hops ; in Sweden the corn trade ; in
Burgundy, artificial pisciculture; 2 in Ireland, salmon
fisheries ; 3 about Parma, cheese-making ; 4 finally,
occupying themselves with the culture of the vine,5

1 Hurtee, History of Innocent III., vol. iii. book 21, c. 7. The last two
volumes of this book have been partly translated by M. de St Cheron,
under the very fitting title we have given in our text of Tableau de
Vital de VEglise sous Innocent III.
2 Dom Pinchon, a monk of Moutier St Jean, proposed to propagate
trout artificially by a process described in a MS. dated 1420, and pub
lished by the Baron de Montgaudry, La Pisciculture, p. 1012.
3 The monks of Cork. — Digby, Mores Catholici, vol. x. p. 488.
4 Padee Angelo Fumagalli's Antichita Longobardiche-Milanesi.
6 The famous vineyard of Clos-Vougeot owes its existence to the Cis
tercian monks ; that of Johannisbcrg to the monks of Fulda ; those of

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 263
and planting the best vineyards of Burgundy,1 the
Ehine, Auvergne, and England, and in several
other countries from whence the vine has now dis
appeared.2 In their double solicitude for the im
provement of cultivation and for the wellbeing of
the people under their guardianship, the monks on
the one hand established the outlets indispensable
for the commerce and industry which were, in
their time, first beginning to be practised ; and on
the other hand, they effected vast works of public
utility which no power but theirs could have
undertaken. The most frequented fairs and mar- /
kets had chiefly their origin in the pilgrimages
which assembled the faithful from different coun
tries at the monastery doors.3 The manufacture Manufac-
turps crc-
of linen and of cloth especially, was every where ated by the
a ™ Benedic-
brought to perfection by monks.4 At St Florent- tines.
the Bergstrasse were planted by the Abbey of Lorsch ; those, still much
admired, of Weilheim and Bissingen, by St Peter's in the Black Forest.
There are a thousand similar instances.
1 The Benedictines of La Voute brought vines from Beaune to plant
on the banks of the Allier ; those of Pebrac covered the valleys near
their monastery with fruit-trees brought from the Vivarais. Lower
Auvergne owes to the monks of Mozat its abundance of walnut-trees, still
so valuable. Chaise-Dieu was a great centre of trade and of agricultural
improvements, on account of the possessions of the Abbey scattered in
different provinces, the productions of which were necessarily gathered
there. — Beanche, V Auvergne au moyen age, p. 463.
2 The monks of Croyland introduced it even into the fen3 of Ely. —
Matt. Paeis. For curious details as to the many monasteries which
cultivated vines in the north of France, see the learned Mimoire of Dr
Fuster on the Changements operes dans le climat de la France, inserted
in Le Correspondant, vol. x. p. 439 et seq., 1845, and since published
separately. .
3 We find a curious enumeration in Branche, op. cit., p. 503.
i Goeees, Hist, polit. Blatter, vol. xvii. p. 482.

264 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
lez-Saumer, they set up in the tenth century a
flourishing manufacture of tapestry. In Nor
mandy it was they who introduced the processes
by which skins were prepared for the tanner, and
it is from these processes that St Pierre sur Dives
still derives its prosperity.1 In Lombardy the
weaving of cloth and of silk, one of which em
ployed in the twelfth century 60,000 souls, and
the other 40,000, were begun by the Benedictine
order of Humiliates, of which St Bernard was the
founder.2 In Pomerahia and Prussia the Cister
cians were the first to introduce the weaving of
cloth ; and it was from a few scattered nunneries
that Belgium derived those famous manufactures
of lace which, under the names of Mechlin, Valen
ciennes, and Brussels, have done so much to en
rich the country.3
The services rendered to society by the monks
through the great works which were allied to their
agricultural experiments, were, however, far more
extended and universal. After having cut down
forests wherever they obstructed the progress
of cultivation and population, the Benedictines
watched with enlightened care over the conserva
tion of those same forests, the gradual disappearance
of which brought about so many evil consequences
to the climate or the fertility of the soil. They
1 L. DE Glanville, preface to the new edition of L'Histoire des
miracles, by l'Abbe Haymon.
2 Cesaee Cantu, Milano e il suo territorio, 1844, vol. i. p. 23.
3 Verhceven, Memoire sur la constitution beige, p. 114.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 265
planted trees wherever the need for them was felt.
In their management of water there was the same
prevision, the same laborious care. Everywhere Public
1 t n works ac-
we may admire their endeavours to make fish- compiishedby monks.
ponds, to distribute the water of springs,1 to
build dikes along the coast, to rectify river-
courses, to prevent inundations, to fence in allu
vial lands, to keep up ferries on the swiftest
streams, and to construct bridges whose solidity,
boldness, and elevation still astonish the eyes of
travellers.2 Some English writers have attributed to the
monks the invention of drainage. A proprietor
bought a kitchen-garden once belonging to a mon
astery. Struck by the extreme fertility of this
garden, the Englishman greatly increased it in size.
But as the newly-added piece of land gave no pro
ducts comparable to those of the old, the soil was
turned up, and a complete system of trenches and
pipes for drainage was found. Is this story strictly
true \ It is, at all events, affirmed by men most
worthy of credit. However that may be, the
1 The monks of the Abbeys of St Laurent and St Martin were the
first to bring together and conduct to Paris the waters of springs which
were wasting themselves either in the Pres St Gervais or at Belleville. —
Hoeace Sat, Etudes sur V administration de Paris.
2 It was a monk of Einsiedeln who built the first bold bridge, known
by the name of the Devil's Bridge. — Chron. d'Einsied., c. 27. See the
enumeration of bridges built by monks on the rivers of Auvergne in
Beanche, l' Auvergne au moyen dge, p. 470. It is known that a special
order called the Freres Pontiles was instituted by a shepherd, St
Benezet, builder of the famous bridge of Avignon, in 1177.— Act. S. Bol-
land, die 14 April, p. 260.

266 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
monks never ceased to labour with invincible per
severance for the salubrity and fertility of the
earth, drying up swamps and creating immense
pasturages by irrigation. Lombardy owes the ^
system of irrigation which has made it the most
fertile country of Europe, to the Cistercians brought
into the neighbourhood of Milan by St Bernard.1
They were not content with cutting through
swamps health-bringing channels and indestruc
tible roads, which brought upon them the bene
dictions of all Christian people ; 2 but they estab
lished their own abode in such places, in order
to be less distracted from their work. Soon,
irrigation /thanks to their industry, and to the wholesome
age. influence of good example, inaccessible and pestif
erous swamps became centres of life and popula
tion. In France, Clairmarais, near St Omer, still
bears in its name the proof of such an origin.
In England, illustrious abbeys were founded in
such situations : thus Glastonbury, Croyland,
1 See the special treatise of P. Fumagalli, SulV Irrigazione deiprati
promossa ed estesa dei monad di Chiarivalle, in vol. ii. of Antichitd
Longobar. -Milan, p. 133. " I monaci Cisterciense aveano fra noi di-
latato i prati perenne regolandone le acque in modo si artificioso, che
ogni anno si facea triplice ricolto di fieno, oltre restarvi la pastura per le
bestie. "— Cabtu, Milano e il suo territorio, p. 23. Cf. Lavezaei, Ele-
menti d'Agricoltura, Milano 1784 ; Gregoire, Essai sur I'agriculture en
Europe; L'Abb^ Sibour, Discour sur I'alliance de la religion et de Vagri-
culture, Aix, 1844.
2 Abbot Egelric, who became Bishop of -Durham in the reign of Ed
ward the Confessor, caused the great fen of Deeping to be crossed by a
solid road constructed with logs and sand — an immense work, which
was called, after him, Elriehrode, and which caused his name to be blessed
by all the inhabitants of the central parts of England. — Ingulph. Croy
land, p. 64, Gale's edition.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 267
Eamsey,1 Thorney, above all, Ely,2 now become
an episcopal city. More than once, in the fol
lowing pages, we shall have occasion to revert to
these great monastic achievements. We cannot
resist the desire to place here before our readers
the picture which an old historian has drawn of
one of these fen-dwellings in the centre of Eng
land. Of Thorney Abbey,3 founded by St Ethel-
wald, William of Malmesbury writes as follows :
" It is a counterfeit of Paradise, where the gen
tleness and purity of heaven appear already to be
reflected. In the midst of the fens rise groves of
trees, which seem to touch the stars with their tall
and slender tops : the charmed eye wanders over
a sea of verdant herbage ; the foot which treads
the wide meadows meets with no obstacle in its
path. Not an inch of land lies uncultivated.
Here, the soil is hidden by fruit-trees ; there, by
vines spread upon the ground or trained on trel
lises. Nature and art rival each other, the one
supplying all that the other forgot to produce.
1 " Habeo " (it is Duke Ailwin, the founder, who speaks) . . . " fun-
dum quemdam . . . palustri uligine circumseptum. . . . Ab hominum
frequentia alienus et solitaria? conscius est tranquillitatis. . . . Videns
vir sanctus locum mariscorum paludibus undique cinctum, . . ." &c. —
Vit. S. Oswald, ... in Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. v. p. 759. Cf. Eadmer, in
Angl. Sacra, vol. ii. p. 199.
2 " Est qua?dam regio famosa . . . paludibus et aquis in modum in
sula? circumdata, unde et a copia anguillarum qua? in eisdem paludibus.
capiuntur, Elige nomen accepit." — Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. v. c. 23, p.
615. 3 " Thorneie propter condensitatem dumorum vocata. At vero Ethe-
woldus vepres extirpari, spinas sarciri jussit." — Guillelm. Malmesb.,
de Gest. pontifi, p. 169, ed. Savile.

268 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
What can we say of the beauty of the buildings 1
Who would not be astonished to see vast edifices
rise upon firm foundations in the midst of the
marsh 1 0 deep and pleasant solitude ! you
have been given by God to the monks, so that
their mortal life may daily bring them nearer
to heaven 1 " 1
Founda- If then, injustice and ingratitude have truly
tions in the > ) J & ^ J
midst of reproached the monks with the possession of the
marshes. r l
most fertile lands, the richest meadows, and the
most profitable orchards, these were the fruit of
their own toil, the consequence of the service they
had rendered to Christian nations, and of the ben
efits which, for ten centuries, they had heaped upon
the indigent and labouring classes. Hence their
riches — the most legitimate in their origin, and
the most honourably employed, that ever existed.
Hence that visible blessing of God upon possessions
which realised so manifestly the words of the royal
prophet : " Thou visitest the earth, and waterest
it : Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God,
which is full of water : Thou preparest them corn,
when Thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest
the ridges thereof abundantly : Thou settlest the
furrows thereof : Thou makest it soft with showers :

1 " Paradisi simulacrum, quod amoenitate jam crelos ipsos imaginetur,
in ipsis paludibus arborum ferax, qua? enodi proceritate luctantur ad
sidera, a?quorea planities herbarum viridantibus comis oculos advocat,
currentibus per campum nullus offensioni datur locus. . . . Solitudo
iugens ad quietem data monachis, ut eo tenacius ha?reant superis, quo
castigatius mortales conspicantur." — Guill. Malmesb., ubi supra.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 269
Thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crown-
est the year with thy goodness ; and Thy paths
drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the
wilderness : and the little hills rejoice on every
side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the
valleys also are covered over with corn ; they
shout for joy, they also sing." — Psalm lxv.
Thanks to the constant and strict economy of
the monks, their farming was a model of bold
and prosperous toil ; and exhibited to all, the most
perfect union of prudence and ambitious effort.
Up to the last day of the existence of the mon
asteries, and from one end of Europe to the other,
the superiority of their administration and of the
products of their lands over those of lay proprie
tors, has been formally proved ; a just and striking
recompense, it must be owned, for their admirable
activity — a noble homage which cannot be refused
to them even by those who contributed to their
ruin and enriched themselves with their spoils.1
Catholics owe to them another homage and jus-
1 See, among others, for Germany, the work of Fabricius, entitled,
Ueber den Werth der geistlichen Staaten und Regierungen in Deutschland,
Frankfort, 1797 ; and for the Spanish peninsula, the remarkable avow
als of Lord Carnarvon, in his Journey through Portugal and Galicia,
London, 1839, pp. 219, 220, 393, &e. Both these authors are Protest
ants. See, also, the journeys of Beckford and Murphy in Portugal. I
will add, that my own observations of these unhappy countries, though
too rapid, inspired precisely the same convictions as those of these writers
on the excellent mode of cultivation, and on the good fortune of the in
habitants on estates belonging to those monasteries which modern Van
dalism has just suppressed. The farming of the Trappists in France,
who are objects of so much jealousy and so many hindrances, may fur
nish the same demonstration.

270 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
Manual' tice — the acknowledgment that they gave to the
labour en- . .
nobiedand Christian world a most grand and most salutary
poverty .....
consoled, lesson, by ennobling manual labour, which in the
degenerate Eoman world had been exclusively
reserved for slaves. The monks taught this lesson,
— first, by consecrating to agriculture the energy
and intelligent activity of freemen, often of high
birth, and clothed with the double authority of
the priesthood and of hereditary nobility; and,
secondly, by associating, under the Benedictine
habit, the sons of kings, princes, and nobles with
the rudest labours of peasants and serfs.
Let us remember that honour rendered to pov
erty has always been one of the rules of the Bene
dictine order, and the love of the poor one of its
principal cares. For the children of St Benedict
almsgiving was the first duty of the rich : an
army of the poor, relieved by their hands, formed
the fairest ornament of their domains. " It matters s~
little," said one abbot of the eleventh century,1
" that our churches rise to heaven, that the capitals
of their pillars are sculptured and gilded, that our
parchment is tinted purple, that gold is melted to
form the letters of our manuscripts, and that their
bindings are set with precious stones, if we have
little or no care for the members of Christ, and if
Christ Himself lies naked and dying before our
doors."2 1 Thieffroy, Abbot of Epternach, died in 1106.
2 " Non appetunt sancti in altum exstructa oratoriorum a?dificia, non
ex auro fabricata columnarum epistylia . . . non ut membrana? purpureo

J

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 27l
It is above all due to the monks, that poverty,
which had been proscribed and despised among
the degraded Eomans, was placed under the pro
tection of the Church, ennobled and lifted to the
top of the social scale — that pauperism, that scourge
of modern times, was, as it were, strangled in its
cradle — that alms became a certain and universal
resource for the poor — and that inequality of for
tune, that evil inseparable from all forms of society,
ceased, up to a certain point, to produce the sad
dest and most dangerous of its consequences.
We can understand, from what has already been
said of the nature of monastic cultivation, how
misery disappeared from tracts of country farmed
or possessed by monks. The permanence of con
stant and moderate work, with assured privileges,
kept want at bay, and consolidated a firmly-
founded prosperity. In the day of distress, in the
midst of the greatest calamities, the charity of ab
beys everywhere opened asylums for. the indigent.
In famines and in epidemics, it was to the doors of
the monasteries that the afflicted hastened, sure of
there finding shelter, consolation, and help; for they
knew that the last penny the monks possessed be
longed to them, and that the most precious trea
sures would be freely sacrificed to bring succour
colore inficiantiir ; non ut aurum liquescat in litteras ; non ut gemmis
codices vestiantur ; et meinbrorum Christi aut minima aut nulla dili-
gentia habeatur, et nudus ante fores eorum Christus moriatur." — Flores
Epitapkii Sanctorum, Luxemb., 1619, ap. Mabi£lon, Ann., 1. lxxi.,
No. 23.

272 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
Regular to the suffering members of Jesus Christ. This
Extrkordi- was abundantly proved in the great famine of
nary chari- J i. » i 1 nr,
ties- 1031, by the admirable charity of Abbot Odilon
of Cluny, who sold even the golden globe he had
received from the Emperor St Henry; and of Abbot
William of St Benigne, who stripped the tomb
of the holy patron of his abbey of the gems, pearls,
and precious metals which covered it, and em
ployed them in feeding the hungry. In the famine
of the year 1000, Leopic, Abbot of St Albans, sold
the sacred vases, and used, to buy food for the
poor, all the money long kept in reserve for build
ing a new church. " The faithful of Christ," said
he, " and, above all, the poor, are the true temple
of God, and the one which we must most carefully
build up and preserve."1 A century later, in
1140, a year when the harvest failed, another
Abbot of St Albans, Geoffrey, distinguished him
self by the same charity. He had caused the cele
brated goldsmith Anketil to make, at great" cost,
the famous shrine of which we have already spoken,
destined to hold the relics of the first English
martyr. But seeing the misery of the people, he
caused the shrine to be stripped of the silver plates
and precious stones which were already set on it,
and sold the whole to buy food for the starving.2 In
1 " Fideles Christi et maxime pauperes, Dei esse ecclesiam et templum,
et ipsum specialiter a?dificandum et conservandum." — Matt., Vit. abb.,
p. 42.
2 ' ' Laminas argenteas sed nondum deauratas, cum quibusdam gemmis
incastonatis, fecit avelli, et omnia redegit in numisma ; et emi exinde

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 273
1082, at the height of the contest between St Gregory
VII. and Henry IV., when famine was most severe
in Germany, thousands of the poor escaped death,
thanks to the charity of the Abbey of Gottweih,
lately founded by one of the Pope's legates.1
This charity did not show itself only in emer
gencies and periods of extraordinary distress ; it
formed, so to speak, part of the daily life of the
monks, in due proportion to the wealth of each
abbey. Some instances will suffice to show the
facts which meet us on every page of history, and
which we bring forward less to do honour to the
monks than to enlighten certain minds which are
uncharitable, because ignorant.
If we examine the chronicles of different abbeys,
and the constitutions peculiar to them, we shall
see that almsgiving was systematised with equal
precision and solicitude : these minute details form
so many rays in the crown of monastic glory.
The special regulations which Archbishop Lan
franc, monk of Bee, gave to English monks, insti
tuted in each house an almoner expressly commis
sioned to seek out in the neighbourhood all the
infirm and helpless poor.2
jnssit victualia, ut pauperes inde sustentarentur, fame tabescentes. " —
Matt. Paris, Vit. XXIII. abbat. S. Alb., p. 37, ed. Watts.
n Vit. S. Altamni, ap. Geetsee, vol. vi. p. 455.
2 " Eleemosynarius aut per se, si opportunum sibi est, perquirat, aut
per veraces et fideles homines cum multa sollicitudine perquiri faciat, ubi
a?gri et debiles jaceant, qui non habent unde se sustinere valeant." —
Decret. pro Ord. S. Bencd., c. 8, sect. iii. p. 257. M. A. de Courson, in
a work on ancient forests published in the Moniteur universel in 1854,
says : " We must not believe that even in the most remote provinces it
VOL. VI. S

274 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
In Picardy, at Corbie, St Adelard commanded 1
that there should be distributed each day, at the
hospital for the poor which adjoined the monastery,
forty-five loaves, weighing three pounds and a half
each, and five wheaten loaves ; but he takes care
to add that this number is to be increased if more
travellers or pilgrims than usual shall arrive, for
he does not wish the portion of each individual to
be lessened.2 This is not all : the generous nephew
of Charlemagne notes, in writing, all that is to be
given to the poor in drink, vegetables, clothing,
cheese, and money ; he declares that a fifth of the
tithes of cattle and farm-produce is to have the
same destination ; and he concludes his charitable
regulations by charging the monks intrusted with
the office of hospitallers to show themselves less
parsimonious than himself.3
was in those days impossible to find skilful doctors. The acts of the saints
of Bretagne prove, in fact, that in the depths of Armorica, St Melaine, St
Malo, and St Magloire practised medicine in the fields as well as in the
cities. Educated by Druids converted to Christianity, the apostles of Bre
tagne acquired, if not a deep and well-founded science, at least a medical
skill built upon a long experience. From the time of the famous Elpidus —
the priest of Lyons whom Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, called to his
court as physician — the healing art never ceased to be cultivated among
the Gauls. Thus Reovalis, a doctor of Poitiers, went to study in the
land of Hippocrates, and many disciples profited by his lessons. On the
other hand, the biographer of St Prix tells us that this bishop collected
several skilful physicians in his hospital at Clermont, where twenty beds
were always filled with sick people (seventh century).
" Ferrieres, St Gall, and many other communities, had installed a
medical service and a pharmacy in the midst of forests and mountains."
1 " Quales vassali accipiunt."
8 D'Acheet, Spicileg., vol. i. p. 486 : notos ad Guibeet. Novig., Opera,
p. 582.
3 " Obsecramus igitur omnes, quibus ordinandi fuerit officinm in
hoc monasterio, ut, in largitate ac distributione, Dei potius attendant

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 275
At St Cyprien of Poitiers, when a monk died,
the almoner took his livery, or portion, for thirty
days and distributed it to the poor. This almoner
" every day at the sound of the bell gave alms to
every one who came and went ; kept up five beds
in his house for the sick poor ; and was commis
sioned to pay a woman to nurse, feed, and wash
for the said poor. On the Monday after the Sac
rament thirteen of them received each two loaves
weighing two and a half pounds, two herrings,
two dishes of beans worth four deniers ; while
to six score other poor people there was given
each a loaf weighing one pound, one dish of
beans, and one herring." 1 At Willich, near Bonn
on the Ehine, the Abbess St Adelaide of Luxem
burg2 commanded that fifteen of the poor should
be fed and clothed for ever with the annual income
of one of the manors belonging to the monastery,
which to this end should be considered as belong
ing to God ; while the food of fifteen other poor
persons was. to be provided, throughout the year,
from the provisions of the community, which was
also to pay to each of these pensioners fifteen sols on
Christmas Day, and twelve sols at each feast of an
apostle.3
voluntatem, quam nostra? parcitatis exemplum, quoniam unusquisque
est pro se reddituras rationem." — Ibid., lib. I. de Miraculis S. Adalardi,
ap. Cieot, Hist, de la Sauve-Majeure, vol. i. p. 402.
1 Redet, Rapport sur les titres de S. Cyprien, ap. Bulletin de la Societi
des antiquaires de VOuest, 1842.
* Died in 1015.
3 Vit. S. Adelheidis abbot., auct. Beetha, sanctimon. coosquali, c. 2, in

276 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
The poor One of the principal peculiarities of monastic
equally almsgiving was the assimilation of the poor to the
monks. monks themselves. Thus in the Italian monasteries
three poor men sat down daily at the abbot's table,
and received the same portion as the brothers.1 At
Marmoutier in Touraine, the same custom remained
in force until the end of the twelfth century ; the
three guests were regarded as representing the
actual person of Christ.2 At Moissac in Gascony,
the same mode prevailed ; and besides this, on Holy
Thursday they distributed wine and a little money
to two hundred of the poor. At Selby in York
shire, Abbot Hugh was accustomed, every day at
dinner, first to help all the monks to soup, and
then to fetch from the kitchen and place on his
own table two portions intended for the poor,
which he compared with his own, to be quite
sure that they equalled it.3 At Eatisbon, the holy
Abbot Romwold, who later became a bishop, every
day in the refectory served with his own hands
fifty poor men. As he always carried with him a
purse to hold his alms, they gave him the name
Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. vi., pars prima, p. 142 et seq. We may read in this
biography the story of the tender precautions taken by the Abbess of
Willich to nourish the poor and sick, during a famine, with her own hands.
1 S. Petri Damiani, Opusc, 33, c. 7.
2 In 1182. Ep. Guibert. Gemblacens., in Martene, Thes. anecd.,
i. 606.
3 He died in 1096. " Ei moris erat ut ante prandium ingressus refec-
torium, primum pulmentum per omnes mensas circumferret et apponeret.
Insuper singulis diebus duorum pauperum cibum de coquina acceptum
ad suam ipsius mensam afferebat, ut facta cum suo cibo comparatione,
distinctiorem sibi cibum indiceret. " — Mabillon, Annal., vol. v. 1. Ixix.
No. 46.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 277
of "the poor man's purse-bearer."1 At St Hubert,
in the Ardennes, Abbot Theodoric, friend and con
temporary of Gregory VIL, each day waited on
twelve poor men at table; and after having washed
their feet and their hands, prostrated himself
before them as before our Lord Jesus Christ.2
At St Evroul, under Abbot Osberne (1063), on
June 25, the day fixed for the anniversary, or
" Commemoration," of the monastery, the almoner
assembled as many poor men as there were monks
in the abbey ; the cellarer gave them food and
drink in the guest-house, after which the chapter
and the whole community washed their feet, as
was done on Holy Thursday at the ceremony of
the Mandalum.3 This ceremony of the Man- Ceremonies
PT-i -i-kt of the Man-
datum} used m all the abbeys of France and Nor- datum.
mandy, spread rapidly after the Conquest to those
of England. Archbishop Lanfranc, monk of Bee,
carefully arranged the form to be used, in his
decretals for the English Benedictines : according
1 " Saccellarius eorum appellari et esse non erubuit." — Vit. S. Romuoldi,
c. 2, in Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. vi. pars i. p. 13. This title of Saccellarius
answers to that of Satckelmeister, still borne by the treasurer of certain ad
ministrations in Switzerland, which means literally, Master of the little sack.
2 " Prater communem monasterii eleemosynam duodecim pauperes
quotidie alebat, quibus lotis pedibus et manibus, et refectura sufficienti
impensa, satis humiliter tanquam Christo se eis in terram prostabat. " —
Hist. Andagin., No. 14, in Ampl. Collect., vol. iv.
3 This custom had lasted a century in the time of Ordericus, and was
carried to Noyon-sur-Andelle and to St George de Bocherville. The same
Abbot Osberne ordered that seven lepers should be maintained in per
petuity by the community, and that they should receive each day the
provisions of seven monks. — Ord. Vit., b. iii. p. 101, ed. Lepr&v.
4 So called because during the washing of the feet they chanted the
anthem Mandatum novum do vobis.

278 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
to his directions each monk and student was to
wash one poor man; while the abbot had the
privilege of washing two. When the monks
were ranged in line, each had his poor man before
him,1 and knelt to adore Christ in the person of
His suffering member;2 then, the ablution over, he
kissed on the mouth and eyes this chosen friend
of the Divine Master. The brothers who had
died during the year were not deprived of their
privileges, but other monks were appointed to take
their places, and perform the ceremony of ablution
in their name.3 When Ingulphus, the learned
historian, an Englishman by birth, was called by
the Conqueror to govern Croyland, then the most
important abbey in England, he introduced the
same custom there, but ordered it to be practised
daily. Every day after High Mass the monks
washed the feet of three poor men ; then, the
consecration being finished, the almoner opened
the great door of the monastery and brought in
three poor travellers or strangers — or, if they failed,
three old men of the vicinity — who received the
homage of the Mandatum and the succour which
accompanied it.4
Aims taken We should deceive ourselves if we supposed
from the . rr
necessaries that these alms were given out of the mere
of life. . &
superfluity of the monks ; on the contrary, they
1 "Ante pauperes suos."
2 "Ut adorent Christum in pauperibus."
3 Decret. pro ord. S. Bened., in Oper., Lanfranct, p. 263, ed.
D'Achery. * Ingulph. Croyland, Hist. , p. 102 ; Gale's edition.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 279
borrowed them from their necessaries. How many
times, in monastic annals, do we see the poor
receiving the last loaf which remained in the
monastery 1 The nobles of the neighbourhood
came almost immediately, it is true, to replace by
some offering that of the good monks. But this
exchange of brotherly sentiments was not made in
vain ; the fire of charity passed from man to man,
like that torch in which the ancients beheld the
symbol of life !
St Eobert, founder of Chaise-Dieu, had as yet
but three monks with him, when one day, having
remained alone to pray while his companions
worked, he was interrupted by a poor man who
asked alms. Eobert ran immediately to his cell,
and gave all he found there, which was the half of
a loaf left from the supper of the previous night.
When the three solitaries on their return from the
fields perceived that there was nothing to eat, one
of them named Dalmatius, who had been a knight,
complained loudly ; but the saint appeased him
with a word, and at the same instant there arrived
three beasts of burden loaded with provisions sent
by a neighbouring abbot.1 The life of St Simon of
Crepy, of St Jossius, and of many others, offer simi-
1 " Quadam die profectis ad laborem fratribus, audit vocem petentis
eleemosynam : surgit festinus, ingreditur cellulam, dat totum quod
reperit. Totum illud erat pars panis qua? snperfuerat hesterna? coena?,
suffeetura tamen itemm tribus ad mensam. . . . Reversis ab opere,
cibu3 defuit, quod cum moleste tulisset Dalmatius, cito vir sanctus
querelam compescuit. "— Maebod. , Vit. S. Robert., in Act. SS. 0. B.,
sa?c. vi. pars ii. p. 193.

280 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
lar instances. They trusted at once in the mercy of
God and in the generosity of their brethren ; and
this confidence was rarely deceived. Their senti
ments agreed with those of St Adelard, Abbot of
Corbie, who, when he was remonstrated with for
wasting the provisions of the abbey in. gifts, re
plied, smiling, in the words of the Psalmist,1 " In-
guirentes Dominum non minuentur omni bono."2
With still greater reason, monastic generosity was
boundless where, thanks to good administration
and skilled economy, there was an abundant super
fluity. Anxious to encourage the liberal nobles
wTho, in the time of Gregory VIL, were eager to
endow and to people the regenerated monasteries
of the Black Forest, a contemporary annalist
relates that these illustrious penitents regarded as
lost all the money which was not spent for the
poor and sick.3 At Hirschau, the chief of these
abbeys, there were two hundred poor fed daily at
the doors ; on Shrove Tuesday and Holy Thursday
nine hundred poor men each received a pound
of bacon and two pounds of bread.4 At Cluny
The poor seventeen thousand poor were annually fed and
assisted.5 While we are speaking of Cluny, let us
1 Lib. I. Miracul. Adalardi, No. 4, ap. Cirot, Hist, de la Sauve-
Majeure, i. p. 402.
2 Psalm xxxiii. 11.
3 " In exhibenda hospitalitate insudant tarn mirabiliter, ac si perdidisse
a?stimarent, quidquid pauperibus Christi et hospitibus non erogaverint."
— Bernold., ann. 1083.
* Cless, Cultur - Geschichte von Wurtemberg, ii. 443, ap. Hurter,
iii. 593.
6 S. Udaleic, Consuet. Cluniac

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 281
add that the valuable collection called the Biblio-
theque de Cluny contains a true code of charity,
and also a register of the obligatory and permanent
alms which were given in the different houses of
the order, even at the end of the fourteenth century,
a time at once of poverty and spiritual decadence.1
In it are arranged, by provinces and kingdoms,
the abbeys and priories, the deaneries and simple
residences, of this immense community ; under the
name of each house is the number of monks who
ought to inhabit it, and the offices and obligatory
alms ; at each page are entries such as this : Alms
(that is, distribution of gifts) every day; alms three
times a-week; alms to all passers-by; general alms
on Sunday; alms to all who shall ask.2
At Cluny, the great St Hugh regulated the
service of charity, even in the smallest details.3
1 " Catalogus abbatiarum, prioratuum et decanatuum, mediate et
immediate abbatia? Cluniacensi subditcrum, per provincias, et numerus
monachorum . . . et quot missa? consueverunt celebrari, ante magnam
mortalitatem . . . et quibus diebus fieri debet eleemosyna." — Bibliotlieca
Cluniacensis, &c.,colleg. D. Maet., Maeeier et Andreas Quercetanus,
Lutet. Paris, 1614, in-fol., pp. 1705-52.
2 Let us take at hazard the page 1707-1708, and copy it. At the priory
of Luzy : ' ' Debent celebrare quotidie unam missam et debet fieri omni die
eleemosyna." At the priory of Chaudiaco, in the Lyonnais : "Debet
ibi fieri eleemosyna generalis omni die dominica, et quotidie omnibus
transeuntibus et advenientibus. '' At the priory of Bourbon - Lancy :
"Debet ibidem fieri eleemosyna generalis ter in hebdomada," &c, &c.
Elsewhere we find for the priory of Vaulx, near Poligny: "Antequam
detur (eleemosyna) pulsatur sicut in Cluniaco." At the priory of Carrion,
in Spain: "Eleemosyna fit omni die transeuntibus peregrinis petenti-
bus." At the priory of St John at Vercemale, in Lombardy : "Fit ibi
eleemosyna omnibus petentibus."
3 Antiq. consuetud. a Bernard. Monach. digest, c. 14, ap. D'Acher.,
Not. ad V. Guib., Oper., p. 582. Cf. Udalr., Consuet. Clwn., iii. 24.

282 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
According to his command, travellers on horseback
were received by the keeper of the guest-house
(hospitium), travellers on foot by the almoner : the
granaturius provided each with a pound of bread at
the time of arrival, and half a pound the next morn
ing ; they received also fish, vegetables, meat when
the season permitted, and also wine and a piece of
money.1 If they came from a distance, they were
brought into the refectory with their luggage.2
Every day twelve great pies were baked for little
children and old people, for the blind and the
lame.3 Eighteen poor men lodged in the abbey
had prebends — that is, portions at the different
meals exactly similar to those of the monks. Besides
this, there were three prebends in honour of the
memories of the holy Abbot Odilon, of the Emperor
St Henry, and of Froylan King of Spain ; 4 they
were all three served in the refectory, at the abbot's
table, and then given to the almoner to be distri-
office of buted to the poor. The latter had so much, and
the almon- . •in
er of a con- such fatiguing work, that he required five servants

vent.

to help him. Once a-week he had to visit all the
sick poor of the neighbourhood, to whom he took
1 " Custos hospitii. . . . Eleemosynarius. . . . Granaturius." — Antiq.
consuetud. 2 ' ' Cum autem pedites seu pauperes clerici peregrini de longinqua
terra veniunt ad eleemosynarium . . . accepta licentia, ducet illos in
refectorium cum peris suis." — Ibid.
3 " Dan tur quotidie XII. torta?"(of three pounds each) "pupillis et
viduis, claudis et ca?cis, senibus et aniculis." — Ibid.
4 This prince is always called Fredelannus by Cluniac writers ; it is
he who is usually called Fernand I., King of Castile and Leon, father of
Alphonso VI., the great benefactor of Cluny.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 283
bread, wine, and baskets full of meat •} he entered
the houses of the men who were sick, but where
there were women, he remained at the door, and
sent his servant in with the food. If the wife or
companion of some poor traveller,2 either from ill
ness or over-fatigue, could not reach the monastery,
the same portion as was given to the others, was
to be sent to them by the hands of one of the
other persons relieved.
A contemporary of St Hugh of Cluny, Abbot visits to
William of Hirschau, the great light of monastic gent.
. . Care given
Germany in the eleventh century, occupied himself to the
J . insane.
with anxious care in comforting the needy, visit
ing them in their cottages, and himself performing
their humble funerals. He laboured, above all, for
the cure of the insane poor, using spiritual means
for this end,3 even in the midst of the prolonged
contest which he was forced to maintain against the
Imperialists for the independence of the Church
and the rights of St Gregory VII. The intimate
1 "Assumptis secum famulis suis et pane et came in cophinis et vino,
visitans illos qui pauperes alicubi jacent a?groti. " — Antiq. consuetud.
2 "Si autem aliquis peregrinorum habuerit ad hospitium suum" (that
is to say, outside of the abbey) " conjugem debilem, vel lassatam, seu
socium. quibus non sit commodum venire ad eleemosynam, debet eis
misericordiam facere, et quantum dat aliis mittere per eorum socium,
qui revertetur ad eos, propter eorum debilitatem. " — Ibid. p. 585.
3 " Rusticosin villulis infirmos jacentes humiliter visitavit, ac piis con-
solationibus fovit, postremo obeuntes diligenti cura sepnltura?. tradidit.
Eorum vero qui insaniam mentis patiebantur, nullum suscipere dedig-
natus est ; aut enim cum toto fratrum conventu psalmos et benedictiones
recitavit super eos, aut cum quibusdam fratribus, qua? tali negotio con-
gruebant explevit."— Hetmo, Vit. B. With., Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. vi.
pars ii. p. 733.

284 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
friend of this Abbot William, the monk who served
as intermediary between Cluny and Hirschau, and
who was an illustrious champion of ecclesiastical
liberty, as well as a great monastic doctor, -St
Udalric, editor of the Customs of Cluny, stripped
himself, while on a journey, of hisunder-garments,
to clothe the poor whom he met, and he was seen
during the winter taking off his furred shoes to
give them to a beggar who asked for them.1 As
for St William, in the overflowings of his pitiful
soul he did not even forget the young birds. He
said, in winter, to the disciple who wrote his life,
" See how these poor birds suffer from hunger and
cold ! take some bundles of hay and scatter them
round the thickets, so that they may find some
thing to eat." 2 The same story is told of St Ans
fred, the brave knight who became a monk in his
old age, and of whose wonderful love for his
brethren we have already spoken.3 The Abbot
William of Fecamp was in the habit of wander
ing about the cross-roads and entering cottages, in
i " Se plerumque non arubuit denudare. . . . Aliquoties in itinere . . .
a via secretius divertens, lumbare indumentum, quo interioris corporis
tegebantur, latenter eductum, nudo tradidit. . . . Soccos pelosos contra
frigoris algorem valde commodos . . . nee mora, exutos soccos petenti
libens tribuit. . . . Parva ha?c et relatu digna viderentur, si muneris
quantitas, potius quam caritas affectus dantis pensaretur. " — Vit. S. TJdalr. ,
cc. 37, 38, in Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. vi. pars ii. p. 799.
2 " Volatilia fame et frigore pereunt. Sume manipulos avena? et defige
circa sepes, utinveniant quo pascantur." — Heymo, ubi supra.
3 " Aviculis etiam in hieme manipulos super arbores ad manducandum
intuitu pietatis poni fecit."— Anon. mon. S. Pauli, Vit. S. Ansfr., in
Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. vi. pars i. p. 91, c. 10 in fine. See the History of
St Ansfred already related. •

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 285
search of the starving or lepers, whose misery he
wished to relieve.1
It is to the monks that Europe owes the first hos- t 
pitals and the first lazar-houses that are known. St
Pammacus, an abbot at Eome in the time of St
Jerome, St Basil, St John Chrysostom, and St Au
gustine, inaugurated by their foundations this mar
vellous invention of Christianity. In his enthusiasm
for the immense hospital created by St Basil at
Cesarea, St Gregory of Nazianzen gave that town
the glorious title of the city of charity, and placed it
above the seven wonders of the ancient world. And
it was not to the poor of their own neighbourhood
that the charity of the monks was limited : they never
asked the country of any unfortunate ; foreigners
and travellers were, on the contrary, special objects
of their care. The rule of St Benedict is particular
on this point,2 and never was precept more exactly
obeyed. The most generous hospitality offered to Hospitality
all who came, was one of the practices dearest to teries.
monastic charity, the common and constant law of
all regular communities. The monk who under
the name of provost of the guests (propositus hos-
pitum), was charged to receive strangers, was to
show them tender and respectful attentions ; he
1 " Circuibat angulos et compita ; leprosorum tuguriola subintrabat, ut
omnium necessitatibus adesset." — Balde. aechiep., Epist. in Neustria
pia, p. 227.
2 " . . . Omnes supervenientes hospites, tamquam Christus, suscipian-
tur, quia ipse dixit : Hospes fui et suscepistis me . . . pauperum et pe-
regrinorum maxime susceptis omni cura sollicite exhibeatur : quia in
ipsis magis Christus suscipitur, nam divitum terror ipse sibi exigit
honorem." — Regul., c. 53.

286 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
even knelt before them to wash their hands and
feet. Thus did St Cuthbert at the Abbey of
Eipon.1 The lodgings of the travellers and guests
(domus hospitum, domus peregrinorum et pau
perum) constituted an essential part of the build
ings of every monastery. We may see, from the
plan of St Gall in the ninth century, the import
ance and extent of the edifices applied to this
object.2 The history of the monk Eicher shows us
the pleasure experienced by a traveller of the tenth
century, called from his home by duty or the pur
suit of knowledge, when he came to ask shelter
from the brotherly kindness of the monks.3 At St
Gall, by a refinement of delicate attention, the
most learned or the most famous monk was the
one appointed to the office of host or guide to
strangers.4 Notker the Stammerer, and Tutilo,
both celebrated men, each fulfilled this duty.
Thus contemporaries are never tired of praising
the reception which strangers received in monastic
lodging-houses. " Each one," they say, " is there
received by Charity, the mother of all virtues ; by
1 "Pedes ipse abluit (Cuthbertus) linteo extersit, fovendos humiliter
manibus suo insinu composuit." — Bed., Vit. S. Cuthbert.
2 They contained a brewery, a bakery, two dormitories, &c, all kept
for the use of poor travellers. — Kellee, Bawriss des Kl. S. Gotten,
pp. 26, 27.
3 " Nox inhorruerat . . . cum basilicam S. Pharonis introii fratribus
adhuc parantibus potum charitatis ... a quibus ut frater exceptus, dul-
cibus alloquiis, civisque sufficientibus recreatus sum." — Richeei, b. vi.
c. 50, ed. Pertz, p. 643.
4 A similar disposition is found in the orders of the monastic council
of 827 : " Ut docti fratres eligantur qui cum supervenientibus monachis
loquantur." — C. 63, ap. Balttzii, Capitular.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 287
Harmony, the daughter of Charity ; and by Sim
plicity, who is the handmaid of both. All three
have chosen their dwelling there, all live there in
common, and all hasten to meet the traveller when
he reaches their door." x
It was thus known everywhere, that monas
teries were gratuitous inns, always accessible, not
only to monks upon missions, but to foreign tra
vellers, to the shipwrecked, to pilgrims, and to the
poor. However great might be the number of the
visitors, each of them, without question of rank or
nationality, might count upon a kind reception in
a tranquil and safe resting-place. " Let them ask,"
says a historian, speaking of the customs of the
Norman Abbey of Bee — " let them ask Spaniards
or Burgundians, or any foreigners whatever, how
they have been received at Bee. They will answer
that the door of the monastery is always open to
all, and that its bread is free to the whole world." 2
1 " Jussisti me de Auvavensi monasterio ad monasterium S. Galli
commorandi et discendi gratia proficisci . . . quod et feci. . . . Navem
conscendi, atque illuc cum omni prosperitate, Deo gubernante, perveni,
tantasque virtutes in iisdem fratribus conspexi, ut vix illas, ne dicas me,
sed neqne Pythagoram de Samo egressum putem eloqui posse. . . . Sola
caritas ibi principatur, et justitia regnat. Et sic caritas mater est vir-
tutum, et concordia filia ejus, ac siinplicitas earum pedisse qua illic sine
dubio domicilium proprium habet, qua? et si pro tempore in aliis locis
commorata fuerit, et particulatim se ibi ostenderit ; hie tamen semper
cum filia et ministra tota consistit. Nee est adventantium hospitum
ullus, cui ab his tribus non occurratur. Sunt enim jugiter simul indis-
solubiles, ut funiculus triplex, et inter omnes sparsa?, integra?, tamen
unum omnibus ministerium habent. . . . " — Eemeneici, Epist. ad
Grimoald. (ann. 840), ap. Mabillon, Veter. Annates, p. 421, et Ziegel
bauer, vol. i. p. 206.
2 "Interrogati Burgundiones et Hispani, aliique de longe seu de prope

288 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
The good monks were to be met with on the most
frequented roads as well as in the depths of the
countries most rarely visited. From the shores
of the Baltic to the Apennines were two or three
great lines of monasteries which marked out, as it
were, a road for pilgrims, for wandering artisans
and workmen, and offered them refuge and help
throughout their journeys. The duties of hos
pitality were regarded by the monks as most
sacred and obligatory. When Gebhard, Arch
bishop of Salzburg, chief lieutenant of St
Gregory VII. in Germany, had founded in 1074
the Abbey of Admont on a wild and almost inac
cessible gorge in Styria, he chose his burial-place
there, and on his tomb they engraved an epitaph,
in which the poet, addressing the abbey, says,
" Flower of Admont, . . . Gebhard called thee into
existence that thou mightst be the consolation of all.
He has richly endowed thee that thou mightst have
wherewith to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked,
to give shelter to the traveller, and an asylum to
those who have wandered from their way." 1
To their last day, even when the most deplo
rable laxity had been introduced among them,
monks still practised these charitable virtues.
advenientes, respondeant, et quanta benignitate ab eis suscepti fuerint
sine fraude proferant. . . . Janua Beccensium patet omni viatori, eorum
que panis nulli denegatur." — Oed. Vital., vol. iv. p. 246, ed. LepreVost.
1 " Fecit et hoc, in te sint ut solatio cuique.
Plurima nam tribuit, de quibus hoc statuit :
Esuriens victum petat in te, nudus amictum,
Et vagus hospitium, perditus auxilium."
— Vit. S. Gebhard., a Monach. Admont., ed. 1619, p. 139.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 289
Tn the midst of the Ardennes, even at the close
of the eighteenth century, the hospitality of the
monks of St Hubert was the only resource of tra
vellers between Brabant and Luxembourg.1 On the
top of the highest mountains such as the St Bernard
and St Gothard, the most provident and disinterest
ed watched over all who stood in need. By the side
of the two hospices founded on Mont St Bernard
by Bernard de Menthon, the immortal archdeacon
of Aosta, stood a monastery. At St Michele of
Chiusa, situated at the opening of one of the most
frequented passes of the Alps, Abbot Benedict, the
same who had suffered persecution for the cause
of Gregory VIL, received all travellers ; gave
clothing, money, and horses to those who wanted
them, or who had been robbed on the road; him
self saw to their food, waited upon them with his
own hands, bathed the sick, kept them sometimes
months or even years under his roof.2 And each
traveller in succession, on leaving these asylums,
carried with him proofs of the munificence of his
hosts ; for, as said the monks of Fecamp, "it is a
1 Verhoeven, Mimoire sur les constitutions de la nation Beige : Liege,
1790, p. 63. See also what Albert le Mire says of the hospitality of the
Abbey of Postel during the seventeenth century. — Ibid. p. 77.
2 " Quorum frequenter multitudo, quoniam locus in Romano itinere est
positus, fessa et lassabunda ad eum confluebat. . . . Beparata habitacula
et tapetibus suflicienter strata singulis apte distribuebat. . . . Ipse vero
succinctus hospes, hue illucve cursitando, tempore prandii omnium
manibus infundere festinat . . . cum eos seeum haberet per aliquot
menses, seu annuum tempus, quin (ut verum fatear) biennium vel trien-
nium, non mutabatur nee minuebatur erga eos prior benevolentia," &c.
— Act. SS. 0. B., sa?c. vi. pars ii. p. 705.
VOL. VI. T

290 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF .
custom transmitted to us by our ancestors, never to
/ let any one depart without some present." 1
At Aubrac, where a monastic hospital was
founded at the end of the sixteenth century, in
the midst of the wildest mountains of the Eouer-
gue, the monks every evening, for two hours, rang
a bell, meant as a call to travellers wandering in
the mists, or overtaken by darkness in the forest :
this bell had inscribed upon it the words, Errantes
The monks' revoca ; and the people called it "The bell of the
bell, or A L
bell of the Wn n rl orprc! " 2
wanderers, wanderers.
f The monks and their bell are found also on the
sea-shore, on the most dangerous coasts, warning
sailors of every perilous passage, and preparing
refuge for the shipwrecked. Their charity was
earlier than that of our lighthouses. The abbots
of Arbroath, in Scotland, conceived the happy idea
of placing a great bell on the most dangerous rock
on the Forfarshire coast, which still bears the
name of the Bell Bock.3 The motion of the
waves stirred the bell, and its sound warned the
passing ships. The Benedictines of Tavistock
1 "Hujus monasterii consuetudo est a majoribus ad nos usque trans-
missa, ut nemo indonatus hinc recedat. " — Baldric. , Epist. , 1. c.
2 This custom lasted till the confiscation of the hospital, 1791. The
" Cloche des Perdus," newly founded by the latest monks in 1772, has just
been restored to the new church of Aubrac, now made a chapel-of-ease.
See L'Ancicn Hdpital d' Aubrac, by I'abbe Bousquet, cure of Buseins,
Rodez, 1845, a work full of valuable details for the history of the last
centuries. 3 The rock is 430 feet by 230 ; it is 12 feet under water at the highest
tide. The bell was stolen by a Dutch captain. Between 1807 and 1811
a lighthouse was built.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 291
Abbey established themselves, in 961, on the Scilly
Islands, situated at the extremity of Cornwall, and
sadly celebrated for the number of shipwrecks on
their coast.1 The city of Copenhagen owes its V
origin to a monastery founded by Archbishop
Absolon, on the Baltic coast, for the reception of
the shipwrecked.
The gratitude of the faithful could not fail to Gratitude
follow this tender and unwearied solicitude for people.
the suffering members of Christ : it showed itself
sometimes in traditions, sometimes by a popular
consecration of names and memories which all
the genius of the learned would be unable to
establish or to replace. Jean de Montmajour,
Abbot of St Alleyre, having, during a scarcity,
given all the wheat of his house to the poor,
the people of Auvergne used to relate that from
that time the monastic barns always remained
full ; and that after the death of the abbot, when
his armorial bearings had been engraved on his
tomb, a heavenly and shining hand effaced them,
and substituted three loaves of bread as the true
blazon of this friend of the poor.2 One of the
principal priories of the Order of Cluny had for
its arms, truly parlantes, three open purses. In
this monastery, situated on the banks of the Loire,
1 Under Henry I., Richard de Wick gave them the tenth of the pro
duce of these isles, and especially of the rabbits, for the good of his own
soul and those of his relations. — Troutbeck, Survey of the Ancient and
Present State of the Sdlly Isles : Sherborne, 1795.
2 Audigier, MS. History of Auvergne, ap. Branche, p. 468.

292 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
between Orleans and Nevers, the Prior Gerard was
accustomed not only to invite strangers passing
along the great highway to accept the hospitality
of his house, but even to force them to do so ; 1
thus the poor were in the habit of saying, " Let us
go to the charity of the monks ! " and from this
popular and touching homage arose the new name
La charite- of la Charite-sur-Loire, the only memorial still
sur-Loire. J
preserved by ungrateful posterity.2
Such, then, were the men whose enormous and
fruitful labours claimed homage from the bitterest
malevolence, but who were unable to disarm the
power of an implacable and stupid Vandalism. In
the very midst of the degeneration which lay in
fluences had introduced into the religious orders,
j the monks were, to their last day, the benefactors
of the poor and the useful servants of society.3
It is a thing for ever remarkable that these ser
vices, rendered to all, were so much the more emi
nent and the more numerous in proportion as the
monks remained more faithful to the primitive
rigour of an institution which withheld them from
1 Consuet. Cluniac, prooem. in Spicileg., i. 641.
2 " Pauperes se invicem iuvitantes : Eamus, dicebant, ad sanctorum
karitatem. Unde factum est ut, ex ilia et frequenti et diurna invita-
tione, nomen hujusmodi aptarent loco.'' — Richard. Cluniac, Chron.,
in Gallia Christ., xii. 403. This priory was founded in 1056 by Hugh,
Bishop of Cluny, at the expense of Challent, the donor, on the site of a
ruined Abbey of St Cyr, whose name it bore at first. It contained a
hundred monks, and had fifty-two cells immediately dependent upon it.
— Bibli. de VEcole des Chartes, vol. iii. p. 561.
3 It would be well to consult on this subject the work above quoted
on the Hospital of Aubrac, and also all books and traditions relative to
the later times of the monasteries.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 293
all human passions and interests, which forbade
them all the enjoyments and all the splendours of
social life. In one word, the more they were able
to renounce the world, the better they served it.
For, we repeat, all for which we have praised them
was entirely apart from the object which they pro
posed to themselves ; their works, however meri
torious, were merely the consequences, logical in
deed, but very indirect and very subordinate, of the
inspiration which gave them birth. They did not
aspire to the admiration or gratitude of posterity.
They had no intention of proposing remedies for
pauperism, or facilitating communication between
the different countries of the West. They had in ^~
view neither public utility, nor the development of
science, nor the charms of art, nor the progress of
agriculture, nor any glory of this world.1 They
would have been, we may be sure, painfully sur
prised if they could have suspected that one day
Europe would be able to admire and understand
them only by means of one or other of the indirect
and inferior results of their institution. Neverthe
less they made no mystery of their true object, salvation
Nothing was easier to penetrate than the secret of object of
their greatness and duration. They had, as they
always declared, the abnegation of self for their
ruling principle, obedience for their method, and .
1 Their principal merit was not, as has been said with too much hu
mility, that they preserved manuscripts, or literature, or agriculture,
but virtue — stern, Christian virtue. — Comte Cesare Balbo, delle Sper-
anze d 'Italia, c. 7.

294 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
salvation for their sole aim. The sanctification of
the soul by prayer, labour, and solitude — this was
their ambition and the very first cause of their
existence. To obey always — to obey, above all, the
chief who represented God, — this was the secret
of their power, their duration, and their success —
the essence of that rule to which they sacrificed
everything, even the most legitimate inclinations.
" We have all," wrote the monk William of St
Eemy to his old tutor, " an incredible fondness for
reading ; but there is not one of us who would
dare prefer the pleasure of reading to the duty of
obeying." x
In study, as in all' kinds of work, even in alms
giving, they aspired only to the salvation of their
own souls and those of their brethren. All that is
great, useful, beautiful, or touching in their lives,
springs from this one thought. It was for the soul of
Alfonso VI., King of Castile, their benefactor, that
the monks of Cluny bethought themselves of wash
ing the feet of thirty poor men in memory of him
every Good Friday ; of giving food to a hundred
others on Easter Day ; and, finally, of serving
every day, at the first table of the refectory, the
dinner of the dead king^ which was afterwards
given to a poor man : 2 thus, with admirable deli-
1 "Virtus autem obedientia? sic pra?pollet, ut cum nobis incredibile sit
studium legendi, nullus tamen obedientia? proferre audeat lectionem." —
Mabil., Ann., vol. v. b. lxii., No. 89. William was made abbot in
1071. 2 Lorain, Essai sur Cluny, p. 91.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 295
cacy, mingling the gratitude due to the beloved
dead with charity to the living. When the monk
Guido Aretino, the inventor of the solfeggio, had
enriched musical science with a method which im
mortalises him, he did not think of glory, or of the
progress of art, or of material profit, but only of
the good of his soul, and wrote modestly, " Since
we can now, instead of iu ten years which were
formerly necessary to learn singing imperfectly,
make a chorister in one year or two, we hope that
all those who come after us, and who may profit
by this progress, will pray God for the remission
of our sins, and that their charity may obtain it
of the divine mercy."1
The Emperor Otho III. having gone to visit the
Abbot St Nilus at Mount Garganus, said to him,
" Ask of me what you will, as if you were my son,
and I will give it gladly." The monk, laying his
hand upon the emperor's heart, replied, " I ask
but one single thing of your majesty, and that is
the salvation of your soul." 2
Thus, then, in the greatest things as in the
1 ' ' Unde ergo, inspirante Domino, caritatem non solum tibi, sed et
aliis quibuscumque potui summa eum devotione ac sollicitudine a Deo
mihi indignissimo datam contuli gratiam, ut quia ego et omnes ante me
summa cum difficultate ecclesiasticos cantus didicimus, ipsos posteri
summa cum facilitate discentes, mihi et tibi et reliquis adjutoribus meis
a?ternam optent salutem, facietque per misericordiam Dei peccatorum
nostrorum remissionem vel modica tantorum ex caritate oratio. Nam
si illi . . . qui hactenus vix decennio, . . . &c." — Baron., Ann., ad
ann. 1022. Mabill., ad ann. 1026.
2 "Ektewos tV xe'Pa TP0S T$ orrfiti rod fiaoOvkus flircv OiSec &\\o
Seopai rrjs arts fiaaiKelas, dAA' ^ tJ)i/ ownipiav ttjs t^vx^s aov. — Act. S.
Nili, ed. Caeioehtlus, ap. Peetz, Script., vol. iv. p. 616.

296 FUNDAMENTAL TENDENCY OF
smallest, for themselves and for others, the inter
ests of the soul were the only care of the monks.
For the founder of abbeys, who cut down forests
or pierced rocks in order to build a house of God ; 1
for the knight who stripped himself of his patri
mony, or consecrated himself to the life of the
cloister ; for the copyist who covered parchments
with his laborious transcriptions, and for the artist
who adorned them with his miniatures ; . for the
convert who tilled the ground or kept the flocks ;
for the monks who sang the praises of God in the
choir of the church, who shared the labour of the
peasant in the fields, who devoted themselves pas
sionately to study in the solitude of their monas
teries, — for all these chosen souls eternal salvation
was the one pole of intelligence and of will, the
ocean into which flowed all the currents of their
thought. But in consecrating themselves entirely to
God, they merited, according to the divine promise,
that all other things should be added unto them ;
and with their eyes always turned to that one only
light, strength was given to them to last longer
than the most powerful monarchies, to save all the
treasures of literature and science, to write the his
tory of ages illuminated by their virtue, to regener
ate and sanctify art, to fill libraries with their books,
to raise innumerable and gigantic monuments, to
clear the soil of half Europe, to display all kinds of
1 Gotteshaus, an expressive term commonly used in Germany for a
monastery.

THE MONASTIC SPIRIT. 297
courage against all kinds of enemies, to suppress
want by the power of charity ; and after having
thus lived, to die in transports of love and joy, How
. . monks
having peace in their hearts and a smile upon their died.
lips. For it was thus that they died. We know it,
thanks to the same chroniclers who registered the
acts of their life and preserved the memory of
their last hours. Beside the happy death, the death
of the saints (mors felix), there was the joyous
death (mors hilaris), that of the simple monk, glad
to die as he had been glad to live.1 Monastic
annals are full of details of the end of these ser
vants of God ; they tell us, for example, how the
monk Gerold of St Gall gave up his soul, glorify
ing God, smiling at his brethren, and saluting the
saints whom he saw gather round him.2 They
tell us also how, at Monte Cassino, the monk Ean-
discius, on his deathbed, stopped the chanting of
the monks by saying, " Hush, hush ! do you not
hear the Laudes sounding in heaven ? Do you
not see the angels who are singing, with their
garments and their faces shining like snow \ I
conjure you, in God's name, be silent, and let me
1 See, in the table of contents of the Menologium Benedictinum of
Bucelinus, the article entitled Mors hilaris, distinct from that on Mors
felix. 2 " Sursum spectando Domino dat psycheo amando . . .
Fratres arrisit Gerolt animamque remisit,
Cum visis la?te Sanctis dixisset, Avete ;
Prosper doctrinis, asper disciplinis. . . . "
—Ekkehard, Lib. Benedict., MS. S. Gall., p. 154, ap. Arx, i. 271.

298 TENDENCY OF THE MONASTIC SPIRIT.
enjoy the sweetness of their song." And as he
said these words, he died.1
Philosophers, so sure of your knowledge — politi
cians, so skilful in directing nations — toilers, so well
versed in the art of creating wealth — legislators,
who have led religion and liberty captive — princes,
who have built up absolute power on the ruins of
ancient freedom — social reformers, who have levelled
all things under the yoke of democratic uniformity,
— all of you, authors and guides of modern society,
this is not your work ; all this was done before
you and without you ; your achievement has been
to enslave, to corrupt, and finally to destroy, these
august institutions ; and after having spoiled and
profaned the sanctuaries where for twelve centuries
reigned charity, prayer, and happiness, to introduce
into them egotism and covetousness, or to give them
up to devastation and destruction.
1 " Cceperunt fratres, sicnt mos est, ejus animam omnipotenti Deo
commendare. . . . Tacete, tacete ! Numquid non auditis, quanta? reso
nant Laudes in ccelo ? Numquid pueros, qui Laudes decantant, videtis ?
. . . Per Deum obnixe vos postulo, ut sileatis, mihique tarn suavissi-
mum cantum audire sinatis. Ha?c dum diceret, extremum alitum fudit."
— Chron. Casin.,1. iii. c. 51, ap. MuratoR., iv. 468.

BOOK XIX.
ST GEEGOEY, MONK AND POPE.

" Surrexit Elias propheta, quasi ignis, et verbuih ipsius quasi facula
ardebat. "... quis potest similiter sic gloriari tibi ?
"... qui dejecisti reges ad perniciem, et confregisti facile potentiam
ipsorum, et gloriosos de lecto suo.
"... qui ungis reges ad pcenitentiam, et prophetas faeis successores
post te." — Ecclesiasticus, xlviii. 1-8.
" Et dixit Dominus ad me : Ecce dedi verba mea in ore tuo : ecce
constitui te hodie super gentes, et super regna, ut evellas, et destruas, et
disperdas, et dissipes, et a?difices, et plantes." — Jeremiah, i. 9, 10.
" Delia fede Christiana il santo atleta,
Benigno a' suoi et a' nemici crudo . . .
. . . Con dottrina et con volere insieme,
Con l'ufBcio apostolico si mosse,
Quasi torrente ch' alta vena preme ;
E negli sterpi eretici percosse
L'impeto suo pin vivamente quivi
Dove le resistenze eran piu grosse . . .
. . . Tal fu l'una ruota della biga,
In che la sancta Chiesa si difese
E vinse in campo la sua civil briga. "
— Dante, Paradiso, c. xii.

CHAPTEE I.

STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE OF
THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.

Abuses and scandals in the Church. — Lay tyranny. — Healing interven
tion of the monks. — The spiritual supremacy of the Holy See remains
unhurt. — The Council of Sutri. — Deposition of three rival popes. —
Triple scourge : simony, incontinence of priests, and encroachment
by the temporal power. — The monk Arialdus, martyr to ecclesiastical
celibacy. — Philip of France protects the simoniacal priests. — The
evil more widely spread in Germany than in France. — Accession of
the Emperor Henry IV. — Shameless sale of bishoprics, abbeys, &c.
— The whole Church corrupted. — Monk-bishops not more than an
exception. — Ridicule cast by simoniacal clergy on the monks. — The
latter called upon to save the Church.
While the Monastic Orders shone with so pure
a splendour, the Church, arrived at the eleventh
century of her existence, was going through the
greatest trial she had yet known.
The Holy See, the episcopate, and the entire Abuses and
secular clergy, bent under the load of inveterate theChm-ch.Lay tyr-
abuses and odious scandals. Skilful in taking aDny-
° Interven-
advantage of such internal corruption, assured of tion°fthe
the support of many accomplices in a debased
episcopate and a depraved clergy, lay tyranny was
able to stretch its victorious hand over the bride

302 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
of Christ, and try to chain her for ever to the foot
of the throne of human sovereignty. But God
reserved for Himself a liberating and avenging
army. The Order of St Benedict, stronger and
more fruitful than ever in the eleventh century,
might indeed be hurt by the general corruption,
but yielded to it never. It was destined still to
bring forth innumerable champions of the divine
justice and mercy. The salvation of the Church
and of freedom were yet to spring from its bosom
under a series of holy pontiffs, almost all belonging
to the Benedictine family, and amongst whom, pre
eminent in glory andin genius, was to be Hildebrand,
the greatest of monks and the greatest of popes.
It is necessary to describe the evil, so that we
may rightly appreciate the remedy. Let us meas
ure, then, as far as possible, the abyss into which
the Church was sinking when Hildebrand was
sent by God to save her, and let us commence
with the papacy. Here the mischief was of an
early date. The Holy See seemed only to have
cleared itself from the stains inflicted on it by
certain unworthy pontiffs of the tenth century, in
order to yield itself to the domination of the tem
poral power — a mere exchange of one disgrace
and danger for another.
Otho the Great, when he came to the rescue of
the papacy, then constantly endangered by the
passions of the Italians, found himself drawn on,
by the very faults of the popes, to assume towards

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 303
them something of a protecting and superior atti
tude, completely different from that of Charle
magne and his successors.1 This attitude was the
more unreasonable, since, like all the French, Ger
man, and Italian princes who attained the imperial
dignity after the death of the great emperor,2
Otho owed his title to the papacy alone. He had
presided at the deposition of two popes — John XII.
and Benedict V. — one utterly worthless, the other
pure and exemplary, but both legitimately elected,
and canonically inviolable ; 3 he had dictated the
choice of Leo VIII., of John XIII., and of Bene
dict VI., who must naturally have regarded them
selves as his creatures, especially in presence of
the continually-recurring revolts of the Eomans.
However, by a special providence, no enfeebling
of the spiritual omnipotence of the popes showed
itself during this period of moral abasement.4
1 This essential point is perfectly established by Hopler, Hist, of the
German Popes, vol. i., Introd., pp. 46-52 ; by Bowden, Hist, of Gregory
VII., o. i. cc. 2, 3 ; as well as by Jager, in his excellent Introduction to
the translation of the Hist, of Gregory VII. by Voigt, where he success
fully refutes the bad faith of Fleury.
2 This is perfectly shown by the authorities collected in the work of
M. Gosselin, du Pouvoir du pape au moyen Age, ch. 3, art. 3, pp. 615-
628. 3 " Romanorum pra?potens imperator valentiorem sibi in Christo apos-
tolicum nomine Benedictum, quem nnllus absque Deo judicare poterit,
injuste ut spero aecusatum deponi consensit, quod utinam non fecisset."
— Dithmae de Mersebourg, ap. Leibnitz, Script., vol. ii. p. 327.
" Voltaire himself acknowledged it : " It is astonishing,'' he says,
"that under popes so scandalous and so weak the Roman Church lost
neither its prerogatives nor its pretensions." — Essai sur les moeurs, vol.
i. p. 35. To which Comte de Maistre replies, " It may well be called
astonishing, for the phenomenon is humanly inexplicable.'-

304 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
There are innumerable proofs of the recognition of
their supremacy over metropolitans, bishops, and
all orders in the Church;1 and this supremacy
was fully exercised by zealous and pure-minded
popes, such as Gregory V. Some even among the
less exemplary proved, by official acts, their care
for the regularity of monasteries, and for other
ecclesiastical institutions. What perished in them
was not their infallible and immortal authority;
it was, alas ! their dignity, their liberty, and their
personal virtue.
The papacy revived, however, and enjoyed some
years of splendour under two monks — Gregory V.
and Sylvester II. ; but after this last pontiff it
fell, as in the preceding century, under bondage to
the passions and interests of this world. During
all the first half of the eleventh century, mediocre
and feeble monks (with the sole exception of Gre
gory VI.) succeeded each other, first at the pleas
ure of the Counts of Tusculum — powerful and dan
gerous enemies to Eome — and afterwards at that
1 Many writers attribute this uncontested supremacy of the popes of
the tenth century to the influence exercised by the code of false decretals
which had appeared in the middle of the preceding century, and which
gradually acquired the force of law throughout Christendom. But these
decretals were silent as to the most essential prerogatives of the-papacy ;
and besides, they were only false in the sense that they transformed
biographical narratives into solemn decrees, and placed recent decisions
under more ancient names. To wish, like M. Guizot, to date from them
the origin of pontifical power, is to mistake all the conclusions of history
for the first eight centuries of our era.— Cf. Ozanam, de V Etablissemcnt
du christianisme en Allemagne, in le Correspondant, vol. iv. p. 413 ; La-
eeeeieee, Revue de legislation, vol. viii. p. 612 ; and Pieeee Varin
Archives administrates de Reims, vol. i. p. 109.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 305
of the German emperors. A new dynasty had
risen after St Henry.1
Conrad IL, the first sovereign of the house
of Franconia,2 though infected by the common
vice of his age — simony3 — did not leave the
path marked out by his pious predecessors : like
them, he showed great sympathy for the monks ; 4
like them, he visited Monte Cassino with respect,
defended the imperial abbey against annoyance
from the princes of Capua,5 and showed himself
worthy to be mourned by the friends of order and
of the Church. But under his son, Henry III.6 —
praiseworthy, indeed, for his fine qualities and
sincere horror of simony7 — the inconsistency of
the position taken up by Otho the Great with
regard to the Church began to reappear and in
crease. It then became evident that the Church
no longer governed herself, but was at the mercy
of the German sovereign. This Henry apparently
intended to make clear when he disgraced Bishop
Wazon of Liege, guilty only of having declared that,
as bishop, he acknowledged the obligation of fidelity
1 Vide supra. 2 From 1024 to 1039.
3 Voigt, Hildebrand und sein Zeitalte, Th., p. 9.
4 "Si paci et tranquillitati ecclesiarum Dei pia ac benigna sollieitu-
dine prospicimus, hanc vicissitudinem nos a pio creatore nostro acceptu-
ros credamus, ut et regni nobis a Deo commissi gubernacula in hoc tem
pore cum pace et tranquillitate possidere valeamus, ac in regno a?terna?
beatitudinis requiem . . . inveniamus." — Dipl&me pour l'abbaye de Cor-
vey, in Ampliss. Collect., vol. ii. p. 607.
5 He gave them an abbot when the monks had voluntarily placed the
right of election in his hands.
6 He reigned from 1039 to 1056.
7 Stentzel, Geschichte der framkischen Kaiser, vol. ii. p. 30.
VOL. VI. U

306 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
to the emperor, but of obedience only to the pope.1
Nor was Henry content with disposing, as absolute
master, of the abbeys and bishoprics of all Ger
many, of a great part of Italy, and of the two
Burgundies, or kingdom of Aries. He went so far
as to interfere with the appointment even of the
popes themselves, taking advantage, now of the
unworthy choice and of the tumults which oc
curred too often at Eome, now of the services
which he rendered to the Eoman Church as her
advocate against the tyranny of the Counts of
Tusculum, and finally succeeded in confiscating
all liberty for the aggrandisement of the imperial
council power. At the Council of Sutri, in 1046,2 he pro-
Deposition cured the deposition of three rival popes,3 who
of three f , .
rival popes, were successively replaced, thanks to his predom
inant authority, by three others, all Germans.4 A
shameful decree of the Council of 1047 completed
his usurpation by submitting all future elections
to the will of the emperor, as Eoman Patrician.
We may judge how much independence was left to
1 ' ' Summo pontifici obedientiam, vobis autem debemus fidelitatem. "
— Anselm.,. Gest. Lead. Episcop., c. 55, apud Hcsfler, vol. ii. p. 27.
2 The most complete account of this crisis, so humiliating for the
Church, is to be found in the work of Bonizo, Bishop of Sutri and Pla-
centia, martyred in 1089. This book, entitled Liber ad amicum (apud
GSfele, Script, rer. Boicarum, vol. ii. p. 801), is very inexact upon earlier
events, but contains a most faithful narrative of what happened in Italy
after the reign of Henry III.
3 Benedict IX., Sylvester III., and the virtuous Gregory VI., who
confessed himself guilty of simony : " Nihil melius putabat quam elec-
tionem elerico et populo per tyrannideni injuste sublatam his pecuniis
restaurare." — Bonizo, p. 802.
4 Clement II., SSamasius II., and Leo IX.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 307
bishops and abbots under the sceptre of a prince
who thus disposed of the tiara.
Henry III. was nevertheless actuated by a
praiseworthy and energetic zeal in favour of the
Church : x no doubt he believed that he was serv
ing and defending her by subordinating her to his
authority, and making her pay the price of her
liberty for the peace and security she expected
from him. He sincerely- wished the good of the
Church, but on condition of governing her him
self; and to say truth, it was he alone who guided
her during the first ten years of his reign.
This confusion of powers raised fewer difficulties
than might at first have been expected. The influ
ence of the prince was considered a natural conse
quence of the great authority which the generous
piety of the emperors of the house of Saxony had
purchased for them in ecclesiastical affairs. It seems
to enter into the purposes of God that His eternal
Church, as if to render more visible the miracle of
her duration and triumph, should be ceaselessly
exposed to a double danger ; for such is the ex
treme and perpetual delicacy of her position, that
she has often not less to fear from her friends than
from her enemies. Too often the sons of her most
devoted protectors have made her repay, with
usury, the benefits she received from their fathers.
1 Thus, St Gregory VII., in his correspondence, always speaks of this
prince with respect and affection. He could appreciate his intentions
even while demolishing hi? work.

308 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
This is a lesson in which the Franconian emperors
and the English Plantagenets were not her only
instructors. But this subjection of the mother and mistress
Church was not all. All the churches crouched
under a yoke yet more shameful — that of an un
bridled, and, according to all appearance, irremedi
able corruption. Faith lived undiminished in the
heart of the catholic people whom no heresy had yet
infected ; but, except in the monasteries, sacerdotal
virtues seemed to have deserted the ranks of the
clergy who were charged to guide and sustain the
nations in the way of truth. If this state of things
had continued, no one can calculate the results
to the future of humanity that must have followed ;
for the Church and civil society were then in too
close alliance for one to suffer without the other.
Triple The evils of the time may be summed up under

scourge :

simony, three heads : simony, that shameful commerce in
marriage of
the clergy, sacred things in which the chiefs of the clergy
encroach- ° D'
thfsecuiar were *00 often the active accomplices of the laity ;
power. ^e cus^om 0f marriage or concubinage among the
clergy, who, after having bought their benefices
from the nobles, lowered themselves to the level of
these nobles by incontinence ; finally, the encroach
ments of the secular power, and the destruction of
liberty and purity of ecclesiastical elections in all
ranks, in consequence of the abuse of investiture,
and the powers which royal authority pretended
to found upon this institution.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 309
It is difficult for those who know the Church
only as she issued from the furnace, purified and
saved by the heroic efforts of nearly a century of
struggle, from St Leo IX. to Calixtus II. — it is dif
ficult for them to imagine that she could have fallen
so low as that kings could dispose, absolutely and
without control, of all ecclesiastical dignities — that
all was venal, from the episcopate, and sometimes
even the papacy, down to the smallest rural bene
fice ; and that the whole clergy, with the excep
tion only of the monks and of some bishops and
priests quoted as marvels, lived in permanent and
systematic concubinage. And yet these things
were so ; for all authors are unanimous in prov
ing it by irrefutable testimony. This we must
acknowledge and proclaim, in order to under
stand at once the terrible extent of the dangers
which may menace the Church on earth, and the
immense services which have been rendered to her
by popes sprung from the Monastic Orders. No
where was the evil greater than in Italy — no- Depravity ,
where did the depravity of the clergy reach a Italian
more horrible height.1 The episcopate there was
not exposed to the attacks of royal despotism, as
in Germany, France, and England ; on the con-
1 The strongest proof of the depravity which then reigned among the
secular clergy of Italy, is found in the treatise of St Peter Damianus,
entitled, Liber Gomorrhianus, which was approved by St Leo IX., but
which Alexander II. judged, with good reason, to be too crude to be
given to the public. For this reason the Pope carried off the work from
its author, and shut it up in a casket. See St P. Damian's complaints
on the subject, b. ii. c. 6.

310 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
trary, the powers of the bishops had grown con
siderably since the days of Charlemagne. Italy was
not the seat of any sovereignty capable of eclipsing
or repressing such an authority, except during the
rare appearances of the German emperors or kings.
But the great influence of the episcopate, far from
proving a benefit to the Church, was, on the con
trary, an arm against her in the hands of her most
redoubtable enemies. Most Italian bishops were
not content with supporting, to the detriment of
the Holy See, the encroachments of those emperors
from whom they received investiture, following thus
the example of the German bishops ; they more
over exercised and propagated simony with the
most revolting effrontery.1 They had fixed a tariff
for all ecclesiastical employments, and the market
for them was public.2 We will only cite one ex
ample. There was, in 1060, at Florence, a bishop,
son of a noble of Pavia named Theuzo Mezzabarba,
whose authority was little respected by the monks
or zealous Catholics, because he was accused of
having notoriously bought his bishopric. The
father of the intruder, who was of a frank and
simple character, being on a visit to him, the
Florentines said to the old man — " Signor Theuzo,
did you pay much to the king for your son's
1 Dollingee, Lehrbuch der Kirchen Geschichte, vol. ii. sect. 82 ;
Stentzel, Geschichte der frankischen Kaiser, vol. i. p. 109.
2 " Omnia ministeria ecclesiastica eo tempore ita habebantur venalia,
quasi in foro sa?cularia mercimonia." — Radul. Glabri, b. v. c. 5.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 311
bishopric \ " " By the body of St Syr ! " answered
Theuzo, " there is not so much as a mill to be had
from the king without plenty of money ; so, for the
bishopric of Florence, I had to pay three thousand
livres, as if it had been a sol." ]
After having thus bought their dignity, either of
the emperor, or of his vicars, or of some other lay
usurper — after having paid to the metropolitans
and chapters the gold which was the price of their
pretended election — the prevaricating prelates, in
their turn, created large resources by selling to the
inferior clergy ecclesiastical offices of all degrees,
and the right of occupying parishes and benefices.2
Such were the bishops whom a contemporary, St
Peter Damian, also a bishop, calls heretical bri
gands, and of whom he says, it is easier to convert
a Jew than to bring them to repentance.3
1 Fleuey, Hist. Eccles., b. lxi. c. 1.
2 Already Pope Sylvester II. had denounced bishops who paid to arch
bishops the price of their consecration, and who, in turn, sold orders to
the inferior clergy. Domnizo, author of the Rhymed Life of the Countess
Matilda, which is one of the most authentic sources for the history of this
time, says — " Sed et omnis episcopus urbis
Plebes * vendebat, quas sub se quisque regebat
Exemplo quorum, manibus nee non laicorum
Ecclesiae Christi vendebantur maledietis
Presbyteris, cleric is, quod erat confusio plebis."
3 "Venenata ilia ha?resis pra?sertim in episcopali ordine, tarn dura et
ad convertendum rigida, ut semper promittens, semper de die in diem
producens, atque in futurum procrastinans, facilius possit Juda?us ad
fidem converti, quam ha?reticus latro plene ad pcenitentiam revocari." —
S. Pete. Dam., in Vit. S. Romualdi, c. 35.

Plebes means parish; in Italian pieve.

312 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Even the popes had reason to reproach them
selves for having given way to this unbridled
cupidity. Such is the witness borne against them
by Pope Victor III., in the picture which he drew,
while still a monk at Monte Cassino, of the dis
orders and mischiefs in the Church under the Em
peror Henry III. : " In consequence of the neglect
of the sovereign pontiffs," said the venerable ab
bot, " the whole of Italy feels the scourge : the
clergy, almost without exception, buy and sell the
gift of the Holy Ghost;1 the priests and deacons live
publicly with their wives, and occupy themselves
in providing for their children ; 2 bishops entertain
concubines in their houses, under the name of
wives, in the midst of Eome itself." 3 Another
contemporary, a great enemy of the Germans, is
obliged to acknowledge that, in 1040, when Clement
was elected to the papacy, " it would have been very
difficult to find at Rome a single priest who was not
illiterate, or simoniacal, or had not a concubine." i

1 " Dum negligentia sacerdotum, maximeque romanorum pontificum,
Italia a recto religionis tramite paulatim devians, labefactaretur, in tan
tum mala consuetudo adolevit, . . . ut populus electionem, et sacerdotes
consecrationem, denumque sancti Spiritus, quod gratis accipere et dare
divina anctoritate statutum fuerat, data, acceptaque per manus pecunia
ducti avaritia vendebant, ita ut vix aliquanti invenirentur, qui non hujus
simoniaca? pestis contagione foedati. . . ." — Desiderii, abb. Casin.,
Dial, de mirac, lib. iii. ap. Mueatoe., Script., iv. p. 396.
2 " Ipsi presbyteri et diacones . . . laicorum more, uxores ducere sus-
ceptosque filios hseredes testamento relinqnere. " — Ibid.
3 " Nonnulli etiam episcoporum verecundia omni contempta, cum
uxoribus domo simul in una habitare : et ha?c pessima et exsecranda
consuetudo intra urbem maxime pullullabat. " — Paid.
4 "Cum non haberent de propria dioecesi . . . ut in tanta Ecclesia

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 313
But the principal scene of this plague was Lom
bardy. From 820, Pope Pascal I. had reproached
the Milanese Church with selling holy orders.1 Since
then the evil had increased, and was at its height
in the eleventh century. Hunting, drunkenness,
usury, debauchery of all kinds, wTere habitually and
universally practised by ecclesiastics of all ranks.2
Priests strove who should have the most sumptuous
dresses, the most abundant table, or the most beau
tiful mistress.3 The whole clergy bought ordina
tion and benefices, gave themselves up to all kinds
of disorders, and nourished a profound hatred to
Roman supremacy. In vain did a few priests
and clerks who remained pure, directed by two
Milanese nobles — Canon Anselm of Badoagio 4 and
deacon Ariald5 — and supported by a certain num-
vix unus posset reperiri, quin vel illiteratus, vel simoniacus vel esset
concubinarius."— Bonizo, Lib. adamic, p. 802.
1 Dollingee, Lehrbuch der Kirchen Geschichte, vol. ii. p. 87.
2 •' Aut cum canibus et accipitribus hue illucque pervagantes, alii vero
tabernarii, alii usurarii existebant, cuncti fere cum publicis uxoribus sive
scortis suam ignominiose ducebantvitam." — B. Andeeje, Vit. S. Ariald. ,
ap. Act. SS. 0. B., die 27 Junii.
3 " Ille sacerdos laudabilior cujus vestis comtior, cujus mensa copio-
sior, cujus concubina splendidior. " — Vit. S. Anselm. Lucens, c. 12, in
Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix.
4 It is necessary to distinguish between the two Anselms who figure in
Church history at this period. The first, Anselm of Badoagio, Bishop of
Lucca, was Pope under the name of Alexander II. ¦- the second, nephew
of the preceding, was, like him, Canon of Milan and Bishop of Lucca ;
he was the director of the Countess Matilda, and the Church venerates
him under the name of St Anselm of Lucca. We shall see later the
history of a third Anselm, also au Italian — St Anselm of Canterbury.
6 " Ex equestri progenie trahens ortum vir liberalibus studiis ad prime
eruditus." — Bonizo, I. c, p. 805. The partner in his attempt was an
other deacon, Landulphus, whom Bonizo thus describes : "Ex majorum
prosapia ortus, vir urbanus et facundissimus."

314 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
ber of faithful laymen, form, under the name of
Pataria, a great association for the defence of the
faith.1 This association, encouraged by the apos
tolic legates Peter Damian and Hildebrand, only
succeeded, after a heroic struggle of twenty years
against the depravity and sanguinary violence of
the Lombard clergy, in giving a temporary check
to the disorders ; the mischief, fomented by
Guido, the simoniacal Bishop of Milan, always
revived, and carried all before it. The captains of
towns and the feudatories, who sold benefices for
their own profit — the families of the countless
simoniacal clergy, backed at the same time by the
relations of their concubines, — formed an army too
numerous and too much concerned in the scandal to
permit the efforts of orthodox Catholics to triumph.2
The deacon The deacon Ariald, head of the Catholic party, at
fender'of6 last attained martyrdom. It is in these terms that
bacyofthe his disciple — like himself, beatified by the Church —
clsrsrv dies
a martyr, the Blessed Andrea, relates the last conflict of this
glorious defender of ecclesiastical celibacy : " Two
clerks, sent by the niece of Archbishop Guido,
arrived suddenly in the desert island which Ari-

1 "Crescebat quotidie gloriosum genus paterinorum." — Bonizo, I. c
2 ' ' Multitudo clericorum qui in eadem ecclesia est innumerabilis ut
arena maris, concitaverunt capitaneos et vavassores ecclesiarum venditores
et consanguineos et concubinarum suarum propinquos." — Bonizo, I. c.
See, for interesting details of this struggle, Aenulph., Hist. Medial., and
Landulph. Seniob, Hist. Medial., ap. Mueat., Script., vol. iv. ; Puei-
celli, de SS. martyr. Ariald. et Herlemb., 1657, etap. Act. SS. Bolland.,
die 27 Junii. The Manual of Ecclesiastical History of Professor Dollin-
ger gives an excellent sketch of it.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 315
aid inhabited, and threw themselves upon him
like famished lions throwing themselves on their
prey. Having unsheathed the swords with which
they were armed, they seized their victim each by
one of his ears, and spoke to him in these words,
' Say, rogue, is our master a true and worthy arch
bishop 1 ' ' He has never been so,' replied Ariald ;
' for neither in the past nor present has he ever ful
filled the office of an archbishop.' At these words
the two bandits cut off the ears of the holy deacon,
who, raising his eyes to heaven, cried, ' I thank
Thee, Lord Jesus, for having to-day deigned to
admit me among Thy martyrs.' Questioned a
second time, Ariald replied, with heroic firmness,
' No, your master is not what you call him.' Then
the two butchers cut off his nose and upper lip,
and blinded his two eyes ; after that they cut off
his right hand, saying, ' This hand wrote the letters
thou sentest to Rome.' This done, the wretches
mutilated the sufferer in the most shameful man
ner, adding, in derision, ' Thou hast preached chas
tity, now thou wilt be chaste for ever.' Finally,
they tore out his tongue, through an opening
made under his chin, pronouncing these odious
words,.' It will be silent now, this tongue which
has demanded the dispersion of the families of the
clergy, and caused husbands and wives to be sepa
rated.' But already the soul of Ariald had quitted
the earth." T
1 We borrow here the translation of the original text, given by M. le

316 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
This Christian hero died June 27, 1066 ; but
his death did not end the war : the blood of the
martyr only served to fertilise the germs of that
victory which afterwards brought about the tri
umph of the cause of unity and celibacy even
in the Church most rebellious to Roman dis
cipline. In Spain similar disorders had arisen from the
marriage of priests ; for we find the Council of
Girona, held in 1078 by a legate of Gregory VIL,
condemning, by three different canons, the heredi
tary transmission of ecclesiastical benefices to the
sons of priests and clerks.1
simony in In France the royal power already dominated
France, . .
Spain, and episcopal elections, and gave full scope to simony.
A crowd of French prelates, it is proved by con
temporary narratives, owed their dignity only to
the money with which they had bought it. Simony
had become the principal revenue of the kingdom
— the one whose produce was most regular and
most abundant. King Philip I., distinguished in
history as of all men the most venal in spiritual
matters,2 was not content with selling ecclesiastical
dignities ; he added to this source of revenue that
of pillaging the foreign merchants who came to
the fairs in France. Following his example, cer-
Comte d'Horrer in a narrative entitled, La Pataria de Milan, in vol. xxiii.
of L' Vniversite Catholique, June 1847.
1 Can. 3, i, and 5, ap. Labb. and Coletti, Concil., vol. xii. p. 627.
2 " Hominem in rebus Dei venalissimum." — Gdibeet. Nov., De Vita
sua, b. iii. c. 2.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 317
tain nobles held at ransom the French pilgrims
who were going to Rome.1
As to the lower clergy, we may judge how they
had profited by the example set by their superiors
from the resolute resistance they opposed to the
reforming decrees of St Gregory VIL, especially
in the metropolitan sees of Reims and Rouen. In
Normandy, priests were publicly married, only
paying a tax to the bishop ; 2 and they audaciously
bequeathed their churches and benefices to their
sons, or gave them as a dowry to their daughters.3
Everywhere the children of priests, dishonoured
by the very fact of their birth, objects of popular
reprobation, as well as of canonical interdiction,
became bitter enemies of the Catholic cause. " The
Church," said Pope Benedict VIII., in open coun
cil, " has no worse foes than these infamous sons of
infamous fathers." 4
In Germany the evil was yet more general and Germany
. especially
more inveterate than in r ranee, for it infected overrun by
the evil.
1 See the energetic reproaches heaped upon Philip I. by St Gregory
VII. — Regist., book i. ep. 35 ; ii. ep. 5 and 18.
2 See the prohibitions of the Council of Lillebonne on this subject in
1080. — Labbe and Coletti, vol. xii. pp. 650-654.
3 " Pro consuetudine tunc temporis per totam Normanniam hoc erat,
ut presbyteri publice uxores ducerent, nuptias celebrarent, filios ac filias
procrearent, quibus ha?reditario jure post obitum suum ecclesias relin-
querent, filias suas nuptui tradentes, multoties, si alia deesset possessio,
ecclesiam dabant in dotem."
4 " Ipsi quoque clerici . . . ampla pra?dia, ampla patrimonia et qui
cumque bona possunt, de bonis Ecclesia? . . . infamis patris, infamibus
filiis adquirunt. . . , Hi sunt qui tumultuantur contra Ecclesiam : nulli
pejores hostes Ecclesia? quam isti." — Prozfat. Benedict. VIII, ad concil.
Ticin, Mansi, vol. xix. p. 344, ap. Hojflee, vol. i. p. 206.

318 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
even the Monastic Orders. There simony, in all
its varieties, reigned supreme ; it imposed upon
the whole clerical order a servile submission to the
will and interests of the earthly master, and thus
in a manner established ties of shameful sympathy
between the vices of princes and the weakness of the
Church. It was not alone the purchase of benefices
which the Catholic doctors reprobated under the
name of simony; they reproved the obsequious
complaisance and culpable flatteries with which the
clergy treated princes, in order to obtain benefits
from them.1 However, money was the means most
frequently and profitably employed : beyond the
Rhine, as well as in France and Italy, bishops were
for the most part the authors or interested abet
tors of this profanation, which took proportions so
much the more alarming that it was combined with
the custom of investiture, more frequent and more
universal in Germany than elsewhere, which had
led the emperors to arrogate to themselves not
only the right to confer on favourites the terri
torial fiefs attached to different benefices, but also
to appropriate all Church dignities to candidates
of their own choice.
Priests, among whom ambition often took the
place of conscience, habituated themselves to con
sider the lay power as the only source of ecclesi-
1 This is St Peter Damian's definition of simony : " Tria dicuntur
esse munerum genera, scilicet munus a manu (i.e., pecunia), munus ab
obsequio (i.e., obedientia subjectionis), et munus a lingua (i.e., favor
adulationis)." — Opusc, xxii. c. i., contra clericos aulicos.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 319
astical dignities ; they knew that this power was
always in want of money, and that their pecuniary
offers would seduce even the best - intentioned
princes, since simony constituted their most cer
tain revenue. This monstrous abuse was so in
veterate that the most pious, and sometimes the
most austere, princes jested about it as a common
infirmity. When Otho the Great conferred the
bishopric of Ratisbon on a holy monk of St Em-
meran, named Gunther, he asked him what he
intended to give as payment for the episcopate ; to
which the good monk replied, laughing, " Nothing
but my shoes."1 Who cannot understand how
many abuses must follow such venality among
clergy, from whom the disinterestedness and sim
plicity of Gunther were not to be expected %
History shows us the court of the emperors full
of greedy priests of bad morals, hunting after
vacant bishoprics, disputing the right of purchase,
and always ready to maintain themselves by the
most servile complaisance in the dignities which
they owed to the most scandalous traffic.2
1 "Quid mihi, frater, pro adipiscendo episcopates honore vis dare?
Senior ad hoc subridens : Calceos, inquit, meos." — Annalista Saxo, ad
ann. 952 ; Diethm. Mekseb., Chron., ii. 8, c. 17.
2 " Nullus enim tunc in subrogandis ponticificibus vel aliis ecclesias-
ticis dignitatibus canonica? sanctionis ordo servabatur : sed qui tantum
regis vel principis manum implevisset, seu aliud qualecumque obsequium
sibi placitum impendisset, regia pra?fieiebatur violentia ubi voluisset." —
Gesta Trevirens. Archiep., ap. Maetene, Ampliss. Gollectio, vol. iv. p.
171. See also, passim, Lambert of Aschaflenbourg, all the contempo
rary authors, and those of our times, Voigt, Stentzel, Dollinger, Alzog,
&c, &c.

320 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
We must do the Emperor Henry III. the justice
to say that he made most generous efforts to de
stroy the plague of simony,1 which his father,
Conrad II. , had, on the contrary, developed. In
a general meeting of the bishops of the empire,
this prince one day addressed to them energetic
remonstrances on the subject of the avarice and
cupidity of the clergy. "All the orders of the
ecclesiastical hierarchy," said he, " from the heads
of the Church down to the porter at her gates, are
crushed under the weight of their own condemna
tion ; and spiritual brigandage, according to the
word of the Lord, rules over all." 2 Henry even
made an edict by which it was forbidden to pay or
receive money for any ecclesiastical rank or office,
under pain of anathema. He promised to set the
example himself : " God," said he, " has given me
freely for no price, and of His mercy alone, the
crown of the empire ; I will therefore do the same
with all that belongs to the Church." 3
But it was not for a layman that God reserved
the honour of purifying the Church ; it was neces
sary, in the first place, to set her free, and this
was little in the thoughts of Henry III. The good
1 This is the testimony borne to him by St Peter Damian.
a " Ingens vos incipio loqui. . . . Vos enim avaritia et cupiditate cor
rupt!. . . . Omnes quippe gradus ecclesiastici a maximo pontifice ad
hostiarium opprimuntur per sua? damnationis pretium et juxta vocem
dominicam in cunctis grassatur spirituale latrocinium." — Badulph.
Gabei., Hist., book v. c. 5, ap. Duchesne, Script., vol. iv. p. 58.
3 " Sicut enim mihi Dominus coronam Imperii sola miseratione sua
gratis dedit : ita et ego quod ad religionem ipsius pertinet, gratis im-
pendam. '' — Poid.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 321
intentions of this prince -remained, therefore, com
pletely without effect ; and when, on his death in
1056, the crown of Germany passed to Henry IV., Accession
who was still a child, simony and concubinage vied rv.
with each other in desolating the German Church.
From that time onward these two plagues spread
and rooted themselves. They attained their climax
when the young king began to govern by him
self. Henry sold openly, to the highest bidder,
bishoprics, abbeys, and deaneries ; sometimes he
gave them to shameless clerks, his companions in
debauchery,1 or to those whose base complaisance
wTould, as he knew, never resist his will.2 Often,
even, he provided two candidates for the same see,
reserving to himself, as if to add derision to the
most sacrilegious cupidity, the right of deposing
the first as simoniacal if the second should offer
a higher price.3
Thus freedom of election had entirely disappeared ;
election itself, indeed, existed only in name ; the
i " Non quisquam episcopus, aut abbas, sive propositus esse potuit,
nisi qui majorem pecuniam habuit, vel ipsius spurcitiarum compos extitit,
et fautor assensit." — Vit. S. Anselm. Lucens., c. 22.
2 "Rex recolens Annonis conscientiam et invictum adversus omnes
nefarios suos conatus spiritual, consulto talem successorem. ordinare sata-
gebat, cujus facilitate ad omnia qua? vellet pro libitu suo abuti posset."
• — Lambeet, ann. 1076.
3 " Episcopos enim non pro qualitate meritorum . . . constituit, sed
si quis majorem pecuniam dedit, vel ipse major ejus flagitiorum adulator
extitit, hie dignior quolibet episcopatu fuit. Cumque alicui sic episco-
patum dedisset, si ei alius plus daret, vel ejus magis facinora laudaret,
ilium priorem quasi simoniacum deponi fecit, et istum secundum quasi
sanctum in eodem loco conseerari. Unde contigit ut multa? civitates in
illo tempore duos episcopos simul haberent," — Beuno, De Bello Saxon.,
c. 15, ap. Peetz, v. 334.
VOL. VI. X

322 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Audacious choice imposed by the king was disguised under a
andabbe°Ss vain f°rmality> as & si>ill is in the English Church.
If, by chance, the clergy of a diocese would not
accept the candidate whom it was the king's
pleasure to indicate, Henry interfered, and ren
dered any other choice virtually impossible : x the
clergy always yielded in the end. It was in this
way that the king succeeded in placing in the
metropolitan see of Cologne an obscure person
named Hidulphus, who was so detested and de
spised, that when he appeared in the streets the
people threw stones at him, and followed him
with taunts and insults.2 Yet Hidulphus had
been for a long time a member of the Chapter
of Goslar, where Henry IV. usually lived, and
where the canons, men degraded by all the vices
of a debauched and unbridled court, formed, as it
were, the nursery which furnished bishops to the
great sees of Germany and Italy.3 The contempt
1 " Coloniensis clerus et populus ad eligendum sibi antistitem frequens
confluxerat. Quibus rex Hildolfum quemdam, Goslariensem canonicum,
oflerebat, atque ut eligerent, insistebat . . . contestatus quam sancte se
vivo aut nullum eos aut hunc habituros esse pontificem." — Lambeet,
ann. 1076.
2 "Ut sicubi in publico arparuisset, omnes eum tan quam aliquod
antiquitatis monstrum inconditis clanioribus et canticis perurgerent, lapi-
desque in eum.pulverem . . . jactarent." — Ibid.
3 For example, beside Hidulphus, Archbishop of Cologne, the unworthy
successor of the great Hanno, Rupert, Bishop of Bamberg, William,
Bishop of Verona, all members of the Assembly at Worms, where Gre
gory was declared to have forfeited the papacy. — Cf. Dollingeb, Hand-
buch, vol. ii. pp. 137-150. An old Life of St Benno, reproduced by the
Bollandists, Act. SS. Junii, vol. iii. p. 160, gives the complete list of
the forty-six bishops who were drawn from this chapter in the reigns of
Henry IV. and V.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 323
and horror inspired in the faithful by pastors of
such a kind passed all bounds.1
It is easy to understand the strong and fatal
link which bound together the three plagues of
incontinence, simony, and investitures. The mis
erable priests who began by buying dearly of the
prince or bishop their benefices or their priest
hood, had, in addition, to support a wife and
children. Consequently, their ardent desire must
have been, first, to indemnify themselves for their
pecuniary sacrifices ; and, secondly, to secure the
fortune of their family, by transforming, as far
as possible, their benefice into a hereditary pro
perty, which they endeavoured to hand on to one
of their children or relations. But, to accomplish
this, they needed the support of the temporal
power. Hence the eagerness of the clergy, ener
vated by their own dishonour, to accept imperial
investiture, to seek there the true source and sole
guarantee of all spiritual authority ; and hence,
also, the complete annihilation of freedom and
of ecclesiastical dignity.
According to the vigorous language of a doctor
of the twelfth century, the princes of this time
imposed upon the Church not the elect of God, but
creatures of their own, that after having chosen,
i " Virum pessima? existimationis in populo, eo quod regi familiarissi-
mus et omnibus ejus secretis semper intimus fuisset. " This is what is
said by Lambert of Aschaffenburg (ann. 1075) of that Rupert whom
Henry had chosen from the Chapter of Goslar to make him Bishop of
Bamberg.

324 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
they might the better humiliate them. The Church,
from being mistress, became a servant. It was no
longer the election of the clergy, the consent of the
nobles, tbe petition of nations, which determined
the choice of bishops. Neither holiness nor learn
ing was sought for. The first comer had only to
present himself with his hands full of money, and
he became a priest, not of God, but of Mammon— of
that prince of this world to whom Satan has said,
" I will give thee all if thou wilt bow down and wor
ship me." The dependants of monarchs constantly
worked upon the pride and avarice of their mas
ters, and showed them the more servility, the more
sure they were of arriving by that means at the
height of ecclesiastical dignity. This leprosy,
springing from one polluted source, the Emperor,
and passing through pontiffs already corrupted,
spread through the whole body of the clergy.
When a bishop had bought his see for so many
hundred marks, his next business, in order to refill
his empty purse, was to sell to priests abbeys,
provostships, archdeaconries, and parishes — and
at the same time ordination to the clergy ; while
those who had acquired these things, traded, in
their turn, in the different offices of the Church,
and even in burial-places, so as to reimburse them
selves for the money which they had advanced.1
1 " Reges in Ecclesia Dei non quos volebat, sed quos volebant . .
exaltabant ; et quos volebant, humiliabant. . . . Ecclesia qua? erat do-
mina, facta est ancilla. . . . Non electio cleri, non consensus honora-
torum, non petitio populi . . . sed quicumque volebat, implebat manum

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 325
This was the state of affairs in Italy, Germ any, and TJ]e^rch
even France. The whole Church was polluted.
All witnesses agree in proving that from the bishops
to the humblest curates, the whole ecclesiastical
order was attacked by a contagion, the painful
memory of which is prolonged through the Catho
lic ages, and which only increased in intensity till
the day when Hildebrand set himself against it
like a wall, re-established the ancient law, saved
both the purity and the freedom of the Church,
and turned the torrent of corruption back into its
ignoble bed.1
But we may affirm, positively, that all the genius
of Hildebrand would have been impotent to arrest
the evil and cure it, if he had not been able, in that

suam, et factus est sacerdos non jam Domini sed Mammona? et principis
hujus mundi, &c. . . . Principum in quibus superbia? et avaritia? spiri-
tus habitabat, ad hoc clientela? deservire. . . . Unde e capite, impera-
tore videlicet, non bene sano et e pontificibus hujus lepra? contagio ma-
culatis per totum fere cleri corpus pestis se diffuderat. Nam dum epis-
copus episcopatum marcarum aliquot centenariis coemisset, &c. . . .
quidnon et ipsi ecclesiasticarum administrationum usque ad sepultura?
locum et officium venale haberent ? . . . quatenus saltern marsupia exi-
nanita replerent." — Geehohi Reicheespekg., De stat. Eccl., c. 10, ap.
Geetsee, vol. iv. p. 249.
1 "In diebus istis " (that is to say, in the twelfth century, after the
triumph of the Church), " magna est libertas canonicis electionibus epis-
coporum, abbatum, &c, provehendorum in dignitatibus, quas per multos
annos po?ne temporibus Ottonis I. usque Henricum IV., vendere solebanr*
ipsi reges vel imperatores, regnantes absque simonia, dum per simoniacos
episcopos in cathedra pestilentia? positos mortifera ilia pestis dilata est
usque ad infimos plebanos et capellanos, per quos valde multiplicatis
Ecclesia pene toto fcedabatur, usque ad Gregorium VII. , qui et opposuit
murum pro domo Israel, reparando in Ecclesia canonicas electiones juxta
pristinas canonum sanctiones." — Geehoh. Reicheesp., Expos, i/n Ps.
xxxix., ap. Pez., Thes. anecd. noviss., vol. v.

326 ST GREGORY", MONK AND POPE.
supreme struggle, to wield the resources offered to
him by the Monastic Orders.
It has been shown, by all which has gone before,
that these Orders had striven constantly and glori
ously against human corruption, not only in the
world, but also, and above all, in the bosom of the
Church. At the period we have now reached, the
Church groaned under the triple yoke of simony,
sacerdotal incontinence, and temporal supremacy.
Now the Monastic Orders had been growing for six
centuries in dependence upon three principles dia
metrically opposed to those which ruled the world,
and which were expressed in the three vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience. Monks, as we
have said, did not always escape the contagion.
Who, indeed, does not know the scandals and cor
ruption which sullied some monasteries ? But it is
incontestable that the scandals were less striking,
and the evils less incurable, there than elsewhere,
and that the primitive energy of the institution
constantly revived and shone forth with renewed
and unequalled lustre.
With regard to simony, the very idea of "pro
perty had been greatly modified, and in a manner
transformed, in all monastic institutions by the
invariable rule which rigorously forbade to the
monk any private possessions. Simony reigned,
it is true, wherever princes had arrogated to them
selves the right of disposing of the abbeys ; but it
naturally disappeared when pious princes, as often

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 327
happened, renounced the right of appointing to
abbacies, even while they retained that of filling up
bishoprics and other secular benefices. In France,
for example, from the accession of the line of Capet,
for two or three centuries, the kings gave up the
nomination of abbots, and simony was only practised
in the relation between the abbots and bishops, or
of the monks amongst themselves. Even in Ger
many the influence of the mischief was not so
deleterious nor so great among the monks as among
the members of the secular clergy holding ecclesi
astical dignities — since, beside the abbot elected
by purchase, there were always monks who, having
been stripped of everything the day they entered
the cloister, must necessarily revolt, sooner or later,
agamst a simoniacal head.
As to ecclesiastical celibacy, continence had,
from the beginning, been the universal and obliga
tory law of monks — a law constantly confirmed by
councils and popes, both in the East and West.
Whatever might be the practice followed, the doc
trines professed, the abuses tolerated at different
times and in different countries, relative to the mar
riage of priests, everywhere and always monks had
remained free from the slightest suspicion on this
score ; never had any tie of exclusive or domestic
affection hampered their devotion to God and
their neighbour. Individual failures had not
affected the fundamental principle of the institu
tion ; for even amidst the greatest irregularities, in

328 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
purity at least they had almost always been found
without reproach.1
Finally, in respect to the subordination of spir
itual to temporal power, there was little fear that
men, bound at once by a solemn vow, and by
all the habits of their lives, to give the strictest
obedience to their spiritual superior, could hesi
tate to prefer the supremacy of the Church and
its head to all other rule. The popes, when they
laboured with such constant solicitude to secure the
independence of the Monastic Orders against the
excesses of episcopal power, were guided by an
instinct most admirably just. They had thus a
right to find, at the chosen moment, in the ranks
of the monks, the army which they needed to
defend the sanctuary and free the episcopate it
self. We shall see that, in spite of the nunjberless
donations and exemptions which it had pleased
princes to bestow on the sons of St Benedict,
their gratitude never went so far as to induce them
to betray the cause of unity, or of that sacred
liberty of the Church, without which their exis
tence would have been only a contradiction and
an absurdity.2
1 It was said of those English monks of the time of the Conquest
whom Lanfranc reformed : " Secularibus haud absimiles erant nisi quod
pudicitiam non facile proderent, canum cursibus avocari. . . . Spuman-
tis equi tergum premere, tesseras quatere, potibus indulgere, delicatiori
victu . . . et ca?tera id genus, ut magis illos consules quam monachi
frequentia famulantium diceres." — Wilhelm Malmesbub., De Gestis
pontif. angl., lib. i. c. 1, in Lanfranco.
2 Dollinger, Lehrbuch, vol. ii. p. 15.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 329
Indeed, the instinct of kings never deceived Monk-
. . . bishops are
them m this matter : according as the systeJn an excep-
° J tion.
which tended to subject the Church to the royal sneers of
•> J the simo-
authority by means of investitures developed in °h;scss°^.
their minds, the bishops, whom Charlemagne and Ject
his successors had drawn chiefly from the mon
asteries, ceased to be chosen ; the imperial chapel
became the school of bishops. A monk-bishop
became an exception, exciting the surprise and
discontent of those about the court. Different
incidents show us how great was the repulsion
between courtiers, both lay and ecclesiastic, and
the monks in general. At the end of the tenth
century, when the Emperor Otho II. conferred the
bishopric of Ratisbon on St -Wolfgang, a monk of
Notre Dame des Ermites, in Switzerland, the high
birth of the holy monk a was not sufficient to raise
this choice above criticism. One day, seeing the
bishop say mass, wearing under his pontifical orna
ments his monastic robe of coarse cloth, a knight
remarked, aloud, " The emperor was very foolish
when he took this ill-looking and ill-dressed man
to make a bishop of, in preference to all the noble
lords that abound in his States."2
The German bishops were still more rarely chosen
1 He was son of the Count of Pfullingen, in Suabia, and of a Countess
of Veringen. — P. Landolp, Ursprung Einsiedlens, p. 106.
2 "Valde insipiens fuit imperator illo tempore quo pannosum istum
ac despicabilem in pontificali promotione pra?tulit potentibus personis
qua? abundant in regionibus sua? ditionis." — Aenolftts, De memoria B.
Emmerani ejusque cultorum, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. viii. p. 10.

330 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
out of monasteries. In 1032, when Conrad II.
called to the metropolitan see of Mayence a pious
monk of Fulda named Bardo, the familiars of the
imperial court loudly blamed the nomination of a
man of this kind, as they said, to so important a
see : " He is a monk who may be worth something
in his own little monastery," they said, " but he
is not made for an archiepiscopal throne ; " and
they ridiculed the newly-elected archbishop by
shouting " Mo, mo," the first syllable of the word
monachus, which was odious to them. This peas
ant, however, was of a very valiant race, and a
near relation of the empress ; but in their eyes the
word monk was sufficient to obscure all his good
qualities.1 It is evident, then, that the remedy existed side
by side with the evil, and that the authors of the
evil felt it to be so. Monks had already converted
half Europe ; they had filled the Church with the
perfume of their virtue and the splendour of their
sanctity — it remained for them now to save her
from the greatest danger she had yet incurred.
1 " Erat hie Dei servus regina? consanguineus. . . Invidia? sua? fel
evomuerunt : causantes tanta? rusticitatis homunculum, tam pra?celsa?
sedis factum episcopum, re autem vera invidentes eum esse monachum.
. . . Monachus est, aliquid esse potuit in suo monasteriolo, nequaquam
tali congruit s'olio : et quicumque aliquod in eum jaculabantur convicium,
hoc in prima parte lingua? jacuit, ut dicerent eum mo, ut aperte intelligi
posset, quidnam in illo sibi maxime displicuisset. Rex pene impransus
est. . . . Quoniam ipse amaris morsibus carpebaturlacerantimn." — Vit.
S. Bardonis, Act. SS. 0. B., vol. x. pp. 9-14.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 331

CHAPTEE II.

HILDEBRAND BEFORE HIS ELECTION TO THE
POPEDOM.
Different opinions as to Hildebrand's origin. — A monk at Rome, and
pupil of Laurentius of Amalfi. — He accompanies Gregory VI. to
France. — His residence at Cluny. — His travels in Germany. — His
interview with Leo IX. — His advice to the Pope. — First blow given
to the imperial power. — Decretals of Leo IX. — Importance of the
Council of Reims. — The liberty of episcopal elections vindicated. —
Condemnation ofBerenger. — The Norman champions of the Roman
Church. — Sublime death of Leo IX. — The Eastern Church separates
from Rome. — Accession of Victor II. — Death of Henry III. — Stephen
X. elected without the intervention of the emperor.— Peter Damian,
— His austerity. — His independence of mind. — Dominic with the
Cuirass. — The Counts of Tusculum. — An intruding Pope. — Pontificate
of Nicholas II. — The authority of Hildebrand always increasing. —
The election of the Pope confined exclusively to the cardinals.' — Alli
ance with the Normans. — Hanno, Bishop of Cologne. — St John Gual-
bertus and the monks of Vallombrosa. — Accession of Alexander II. —
Progress of the temporal power. — Hildebrand elected Pope.
Every effort, then, that should be made to reform,
to purify, or to enfranchise the Church, must neces
sarily be dependent upon the Monastic Orders.
This fact was thoroughly understood by the great
est of the sons of St Benedict — by Hildebrand —
whom the Monastic Orders seem to have given to
the Church and to Christianity as a glorious equiv-

332 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
alent for all the benefits with which both one and
the other had loaded them.
Different Son of a Tuscan carpenter,1 but, as his name
opinions as
to Hiide- shows, of German origin, Hildebrand had been from
brand's °
origin. childhood a monk in the monastery of Sta Maria, on
Mount Aventine,2 at Rome, where his uncle was
abbot, and where he became the pupil of a learned
Benedictine archbishop, the famous Lauren tius of
Amalfi,3 and formed a tender friendship with St
Odilon of Cluny. Having early attached himself
to the virtuous Pope Gregory VI., it was with in
dignation that he saw him confounded with two
1 Onuphrius Panvinns, b. iv., De varia creatione Rom. Pontif., main
tains that he was noble, and sprang from the illustrious house of the
Aldobrandini, princes of Pitigliano. Petraccius, abbot of the order of
Vallombrosa in the seventeenth century, has tried to prove that Hilde
brand was a son of the Count de Soane, of the celebrated family of Aldo-
brandeschi, since merged in the Orsini and Sforza. The learned Bollan-
dist Papebroch (Act. Sonet. Maii, vol. vi. pp. Ill, 150, and 159) does
not seem disinclined to attribute to the holy pontiff a more noble birth
than is generally supposed. We have followed the common opinion,
first supported by the Saxon annalist in the year 1074, ap. Eccaed.,
i. 513, and confirmed by Cardinal Baronius in his Annals. A con
temporary, but the keenest adversary of Hildebrand, Benzo, says of
him — " Natus matre suburbana, de patre caprario,
Cucullatus fecit nidum in Petri solario."
— Panegyr. Henry IV. 1, 6, ap. Mencken, Scr. rer. germ., vol. i.
We like the tradition which ascribes to the father of the greatest of
Christ's vicars the humble trade exercised by the foster-father of our
Lord Himself. We only ask that consequences may not be drawn from
it which are at least anachronisms, such as that of Count Alexis de St
Priest, who, at the end of his book on Royalty, declares that " democracy
ascended the throne of St Peter in the person of Gregory VII."
2 Which bears to-day the name of the Priory of Malta.
3 " Potens in litteris ac biglossus, grace noverat et latine." — S. Pete.
Dam., in Vit. S. Odil. Bibl. Cluniac, p. 328. "Quorum uterque ani
mus conglutinabatur individni amore spiritu." — Gotsadus, in Vit.
ejusd., 1. i. c. 14.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 333
unworthy competitors, and deposed together with
them by the arbitrary influence of the emperor mide-
at Sutri.1 He followed the exiled pontiff to France, Prior of
r . Cluny.
and, after his death, went to enrol himself among
the monks of Cluny,2 where he had previously
resided,3 and where, according to several writers,
he held the office of prior.*

1 "Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa Catoni," says Otto of Frisin-
gen (vi. 33). On this occasion he adds that Hildebrand having become
Pope, took the name of Gregoiy VIL, out of love of the deposed Pope, and
to protest against the injustice of his deposition. Gregory VI. , whom
Bonizo describes as "idiota et vir mira? simplicitatis," acknowledged the
spending of money to assure his election.
2 " Venerabilem Johannem . . . quem secutus est Deo amabilis Hil-
debrandus, volens erga dominum suum exhibere reverentiam ; nam antea
fuerat suus capellanus. . . . Quo mortuo et in pace sepulto, Cluniacum
tendens, ibi monachus effeetus est, et inter religiosos viros adprime philo-
sophotus est." — Bonizo, pp. 802, 803.
3 Paul Beeneied, Vit., cap. 1, says expressly that after his first edu
cation by his uncle on Mount Aventine, "jam adolescentiam ingressus,
profectus est in Franciam, domiturus inibi carnis petulantiam et molestia
peregrinationis et instantia eruditionis," and that he only returned to
Rome after some years. The good results of such a journey could evi
dently only be obtained in a monastery; and the many incidents which
different authors relate of Hildebrand's relations with Cluny, entitle us
to believe that he lived there during his first absence (Act. SS. Ord. Ben.,
vol. ix. p. 407). It is the opinion of Papebroch, I. c, p. 107, which fixes,
with great accuracy, the date of Hildebrand's excursions into France —
the first, of which we have just spoken, in his youth, and the other after
Gregory's deposition. As to the second visit, it clearly embraces all the
time between this deposition and the accession of Leo IX., since Gregory
VII. says of himself (in Cone. Rom. VIL, ad ann. 1080) : " Invitus ultra
montes cum domino papa Gregorio abii ; sed magis invitus cum domino
papa Leone ad vestram specialiter ecclesiam redii."
4 "Cluniacum, ubi forte Hildebrandus prioratus ut dicitur obedien-
tiam administrabat." — Otton. Feising., vi. 33, confirmed by Duchesne,
in Not. Bibl. Cluniac Mabillon, Ann., i. 58, No. 113, says that he has
found no proof of the exercise of these functions by Hildebrand : and
Papebeoch, I. c, thinks that he was then too young; but he forgets
that Cluny, at this same period, elected as abbot a man of twenty-five
years of age, St Hugh, previously prior, and that Hildebrand was not

334 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
During a part of his youth, however, he must
have lived at the German Court, where he made a
great impression on the Emperor Henry III., and
on the best bishops of the country, by the eloquence
of his preaching. The emperor said that he had
never heard any one preach the Word of God with
more courage } it was like Moses before Pharaoh.2
Hildebrand, therefore, inhabited, and was able
to study successively, the two camps whence were
to issue the most devoted soldiers and the most
bitter adversaries of the cause which he himself
was soon to personify. God thus prepared, partly
by the austere discipline of the cloister, partly in
the midst of worldly agitation, the genius of the
monk who, with the aid of monks, was to vanquish
the world.3
It was at Cluny4 that Hildebrand met, in 1049,
younger than he, if, as the learned hagiographer proves, his birth took
place about 1020. It seems to us that Hildebrand must have held this
office during the short interval between the election of St Hugh, who
was prior under Odilon, and the arrival of Pope Leo IX. ; that is to say,
during the month of January 1019 — St Odilon having died January 1,
and Leo IX. being enthroned at Rome, February 15.
1 " Occulta Dei pra?paratione moram fecit aliquantum temporis in
aula Henrici III. . . . Aiebat nunquam se audisse hominem cum tanta
fiducia verbum Dei pra?dicantem ; probatissimi quoque episcoporum rei-
publica? consulentium admirabantur," &c. — Paul Beeneied, c. 4.
2 See the curious legend (incompatible, however, with the age of the
two personages) relative to the disputes of the young Hildebrand, while
he was at the Court of Henry III., with the son of the king, afterwards
Henry IV., the empress's dream, &c, in the Annalista Saxo, ann. 1074,
ap. Peetz, vol. vi. p. 702.
3 Schopflin, Alsatia Illustrata, p. 474 ; Ho'flee, Die Deutsche Pdbste,
ii. 1, 3.
4 It is Otho of Frisingen who places this decisive interview at Cluny :
" Cumque assumpta purpura pontificali per Gallias iter ageret, contigit
eum Cluniacum venire. ... Is (Hildebrandus) Leonem adiens a?mnla-

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 335
the new Pope, Bruno, Bishop of Toul, sprung from interview
¦n of Pope Leo
the powerful and pious race of Nordgau and Eg- ix. and
gisheim, whose ancestors had distinguished them- brand.
selves, some by their monastic foundations, others
by ending their warlike career under the cowls of
monks. Bruno himself had been a monk ¦} his
cousin, the Emperor Henry III., had, by his own
authority, caused him to be elected at Worms,
December 1048, and proclaimed under the name
of Leo IX. Hildebrand, seeing him already clothed
with the pontifical purple, reproached him for
having accepted the government of the Church,
and advised him to guard ecclesiastical liberty by
tione Dei plenus . . . redarguit, illicitum esse inquiens, per manum
laicum summum pontificem ad totius Ecclesia? gubernationem violenter
introire. Verum si suis se credere velit consiliis, utcumque, et quod
majestas imperialis in ipso non exacerbetur, quodque libertas Ecclesia?
in electione canonica renovetur, se pollicetur effecturum. Inclinans ille
ad monitum ejus, purpuram deponit, peregrinique habitum assumens du-
cens secum Hildebrandum iter carpit." — Lib. vi. c. 33. This version
has been adopted in the lessons for the festival of St Gregory VII. in
the Roman breviary, and followed by most historians. But Bonizo, who
is, according to Stentzel, the most exact of contemporary authors, recurs
to show that the meeting was at Besaneon. He says the Abbot of Cluny,
having wished to go to meet the new Pope, Hildebrand ' ' coepit rogare
patrem ne illo tenderet, dicens eum non Apostolicum sed Apostaticum qui
jussu imperatoris Romanum conaretur arripere pontificatum. " The Abbot
St Hugh went none the less to Besaneon, and " ha?c venerabili episcopo
(Brunoni) intimavit. " It is not precisely said that Hildebrand accom
panied him ; but the Pope asked to see him : " quod et factum est, "adds
Bonizo, without saying whether it was at Besaneon or Cluny. — See Liber
ad amicum, ap. Q?fele, Scrip, rer. Boicar. , ii. 803. Bruno de Segni, in
his Life of Leo IX. (Bib. Max. Patr., xx. p. 1730), thinks, on the con
trary, that it was at Worms Hildebrand persuaded Leo to take this side.
This opinion is followed by Mabillon, b. lviii. No. 113. However this
may be, all authorities prove the influence Hildebrand had obtained over
the new Pope before going with him to Italy, necessarily passing by
Besaneon and Cluny. — See Act. SS. Boll., p. 109.
1 This is proved by his last words, which we shall quote further on.

336 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
being canonically elected at Rome. Bruno yielded
to this salutary remonstrance : laying aside the
purple and the pontifical ornaments, he caused
Hildebrand to accompany him to Rome, where his
election was solemnly renewed by the Roman
clergy and people.1 This was the first blow given
to the usurped authority of the emperor. From
that moment Hildebrand was withdrawn from
Cluny by the Pope, in spite of the strong resistance
of the Abbot St Hugh.2 Created Cardinal Sub-
deacon of the Roman Church, and Abbot of San
Paolo fuori le Mura, he went on steadily towards
the end he had in view. Guided by his advice,3
Leo IX., after having renewed his courage at Monte
Cassino, prepared several decrees of formal con
demnation against the sale of benefices and against
the marriage of priests ; and these decrees were ful
minated in a series of councils on both sides the
Alps, at Rome, Verceil, Mayence, and Reims.
The enemy, till then calm in the midst of his
usurped rule, felt himself sharply wounded.4
Nevertheless, the simoniacal bishops, accomplices
or authors of all the evils the Pope wished to cure,
pretended as well as they could not to understand
1 See the details of this re-election in Bonizo, p. 803.
2 " Quem ab abbate, multis precibus vix impetraverat. " — Bonizo, I. c.
3 "Ejusdem Hildebrandi consilio omnia in itinere et in hac civitate
fecit." — MS. de Vita Pontifi, ap. Bolland., p. 109. "Cujus consilio
synodum mox congregavit." — Bonizo, I. c.
"Tunc fortis armatus, qui in multa pace custodierat atrium suum,
sensit se obligatum. . . . Ha?c synodus gladium in viscera mersit ini-
mici."— Bonizo, I. u.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 337
the nature and drift of the pontiff's act.1 They
hoped time would be their friend ; but they were
soon undeceived.
Among the many assemblies convoked and pre- Great im-
. T -n • portanceof
sided over by Pope Leo IX., the Council of Reims, the council
J r ' of Reims.
held in 1049, was the most important.2 Influ
enced by the suggestion of certain nobles who knew
that their violence and licentiousness would be
exposed and censured before the eyes of Christen
dom,3 and excited by the prelates who had simi
larly compromised themselves, Henry I., King of
France, opposed the holding of this Council
with all his might ; i and many of the French
bishops who had acquired their sees by simony,
made the opposition of the king a pretext for
avoiding an assembly where they feared to see
their misdeeds brought to light. The Pope stood

i " Quod audientes episcopi, primo quidem veritati non volentes re-
sistere tacuere ; postea vero, suadente humani generis inimico, inobedi-
entes celavere." — Bonizo, Episcop. Sutrknsis deinde Placentin., p. 803.
2 See the curious account of this Council in Hist, dedicationis ecclesia;
S. Remigii, apud Baeon., Annal., in Append., ad 1049 ; Mabill., Act.
SS. 0. B., vol. viii.; Coletti, Concil, vol. xi. p. 1397.
3 Such were, to judge by the sentences pronounced by the Council,
the Counts Enguerrand and Eustache, Geoffroy of Anjou, Hugh de
Brame, and Thibaut de Blois.
4 We find the counsellors of Henry I. using the arguments lately re
vived by modern lawyers : " Regi suggerunt, regni sui decus annihOari,
si in eo Romani pontificis auctoritatem dominari permitteret. . . . Ad-
dunt quod nullus antecessorum ejus id reperiatur aliquando concessisse
nt ob similem causam in Francia? urbes ingressus pateret alicui papa?." —
Hist, dedicat., p. 1400. The king, however, did not dare to state his
objections publicly ; he contented himself with summoning the bishops
and the Abbot of St Remy (in whose church the Council was to be held)
to an expedition against insurgent nobles.
VOL. VI. Y

338 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
his ground : he was only able to gather round him
twenty bishops ; but, on the other hand, there
came fifty Benedictine abbots.1 Thanks to their
support, energetic canons were promulgated against
the two great scandals of the time, and several
Decree of guilty prelates were deposed.2 They went still
liberty of further : a decree pronounced by this Council vin-
election. ± J
dicated, for the first time in many years, the free
dom of ecclesiastical elections, by declaring that no
promotion to the episcopate should be valid with
out the choice of the -clergy and people.3 This
was the first signal of the struggle for the en
franchisement of the Church,4 and the first token
of the preponderating influence of Hildebrand.
From that time all was changed. A new spirit
breathed on the Church — a new life thrilled the
heart of the papacy.
But it was not only the discipline and freedom
of the Church which were endangered ; Catholic
faith and piety were menaced to their very roots
by the heresy of Berenger regarding the Holy
Eucharist. Here, also, the monks were the instru
ments of safety. Leo IX. was the first to condemn
this impious doctrine,5 leaving to his successors the
1 Hist, dedicationis ecclesice S. Remigii, loc cit.
2 The Bishop of Langres accused and convicted of horrible crimes the
Bishops of Nantes, Coutances, and Nevers. — Ibid, and Acta SS. 0. B.,
vol. ix., in Vit. S. Leon., b. xi. c. 4.
3 " Ne quis sine electione cleri et populi ad regimen ecclesiasticum
proveheretur. " — Can. i., ap. Coletti, Condi., vol. xi. p. 1411.
4 Dollingee, Lehrbuch, vol. ii. p. 9.
5 At the Council of Eome in 1050.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 339
care of confirming his sentence, and to Hildebrand, cowiemna-
/i • i ii i tion of the
Lanfranc, Durand, Guitmond, and other monks, hereticBerenger.
the task of refuting, by the authority of learn
ing and tradition, the dangerous heresiarch whose
equivocal attitude and crafty writings rendered
him difficult of repression.1
In the interval of these assemblies, Leo IX.,
indefatigable in his zeal, carried the cause of
improvement and monastic reform 2 into Alsace
and Lorraine, wherever he met with the founda
tions of his pious ancestors, as well as beyond
the Rhine, into Italy and even Hungary. St
Diey, Fulda, Hirschau, Subiaco, and Farfa,
among other great houses,3 received new life
from the hands of the illustrious pontiff. Monte
Cassino three times saw him climb its steeps
to repose from greatness in the bosom of peni
tence, and to mingle in all the exercises of the

1 " Jamque scatebat omnis Gallia ejus doctrina per egenos scolares,"
&c. — See Continuat. Bed.b, ap. Commelin, iii. c. 57. It is known that
Berenger died, as Abelard did later, after having shown all the marks
of sincere repentance, and having regained the esteem of many of the
most orthodox persons of his time.
2 " Ipse enim est qui sanctorum scita canonum restituere conatus est,
qua? jam transactis temporibus nimis deciderant, et pene a notitia homi
num defluxerant : ipse est qui Remis coacto concilio de castitate justi-
tiaque ministrorum Dei tractavit, et salubria decreta qua? jam antistites
etpresbyteri nesciebant, renovavit." — Oedee. Vital., b. i. p. 372.
3 Among the other monasteries which owed to him the confirmation
of their privileges or the vindication of their rights, we may remark
Nonantula, Cluny, Stavelot, St Remy of Reims, St Augustine of Canter
bury, St Vannes of Verdun, Andlau, Remiremont, Corbie, St Victor of
Marseilles, Mount St Odile, St Maximin of Treves, St Sophia of Bene-
vento. The official acts are pointed out by Hoflee, Deutsche Pabstc,
vol. ii., passim.

IX

340 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
monks, whose feet he humbly washed.1 Van
quished and made prisoner by the Normans — not
yet, as under St Gregory VIL, transformed into
devoted champions of the Church — Leo IX. van
quished them, in turn, by force of courage and
holiness, and wrested from them their first oath
of fidelity to the Holy See while granting to them
a first investiture of their conquests.2
sublime Death claimed the pontiff when he had reigned
Pope Leo five years. His last hours were sublime. After
having exhorted the bishops in the most solemn
terms to watch over the Lord's flock, and defend
it from wolves, Leo caused himself to be carried
to the church of St Peter ; and there, beside his
coffin, which he had ordered to be placed ready,
he passed almost the whole of two days, some
times exhorting, with infinite gentleness, the faith
ful who gathered round him, sometimes pros
trate before the altar praying aloud, " 0 Jesus,
0 good Shepherd, hear the prayers of Thy servant
for this Church, where Thou hast willed that I,
unworthy, should occupy the place of the Blessed
Peter. It is to Thee, 0 Lord, that I commend
her : surround her with the impassable rampart of
Thy protection ; put far from her schism and the
perfidy of heretics. Deign to defend her from
1 Chron. Cassin., b. 2, Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 582.
2 ' ' Ferocissima gens Normannorum . . . crudelitate deposita, ex
tunc populos quibus cohabitabat, ut compatriotas amicabilius tractavit,
ac venerabili papa? quoad vixit, in omni subjectione fideliter deservivit."
— Wiberti, VitaS. Leonis, in Act. SS. 0. B., ix. 75.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 341
the snares of her enemies, Thou who hast shed for
her Thy precious blood ; and if, in defending the
faith, I have wrongly bound or excommunicated
any, do Thou absolve them, who art kind and mer
ciful." x When he had thus prayed, a delightful
perfume exhaled from St Peter's altar and em
balmed the church. Then, approaching his stone
coffin, in which he seemed to see the likeness
of his monk's cell, the Pope spoke to the people
of the transitoriness of earthly glory. " See, all of
you," he said, " what human life is ; see me, who
sprang from nothing to attain the height of earthly
greatness, now ready to return again to nothing.
I have seen my monk's cell change to a spacious
palace, and now I must return to the narrow space
of this tomb. ... 0 stone, be blessed among
all stones, and blessed be He who created thee,
and has willed that thou shouldest guard my dust !
Be faithful to me, 0 stone ! and as Jesus Christ
founded His Church upon the apostolic stone,
mayest Thou faithfully keep my bones until the
day of judgment, so that at the coming of the ter
rible Judge thou mayest render me up to thy Cre
ator and mine." 2
1 " Salutifera verba et omni dulcedine plena non cessabat proferre.
. . . Tibi eam commendo, illam defende inexpugnabili muro tua? pro-
tectionis. ... Si quos etiam pro tua fide ligatos, vel excommunicatos
ab ea crudelius separavi, te, clementissime, precor, absolve." — Leon
Benevent., De obit. S. Leon., in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. pp. 81, 82.
2 " Sarcophagium, quod sibi pra?paraverat, et se quoque in loco deferri
in ecclesiam beati Petri pra?cipit. . . . Cellam quam monachus incolui,
in epatiosissima palatia jamdudum vidi conversam : modo ad hujus sar-

342 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Towards dawn those who watched by the dying
Pope had a vision : x they thought they saw the
blessed apostles Peter and Paul talking with
their successor, and writing mysterious words.
The last utterance of the pontiff confided to Hilde
brand the administration of the Roman Church.2
At the moment when Leo IX. expired, the bells of
St Peter's sounded of themselves. They buried
the Pope, as he requested, in the church of the
prince of the apostles, and before the altar of St
Gregory the Great. Thus died the first of the
reforming pontiffs who was affected by the influ
ence, henceforth irresistible, of the monk Hilde
brand. With Leo IX. the Order of St Benedict
took possession of the Holy See, as of a hered
itary patrimony. And, in fact, for a whole cen
tury this patrimony remained in the glorious
Benedictine family.3
At the moment when the struggle between the
cophagii angustias iterum est remeandum. . . Benedictus sis inter
lapides. Benedicat te qui et ex nihilo fecit et mea? terra? ac corporis
voluit esse custodem. Sis mihi, precor, fidelissima petra, ut quemadmo-
dum super apostolicam lapidem suam firmavit Christus Ecclesiam, sic
mihi contingat usque ad diem judicii, te meorum ossium fidum habere
custodem, ut in die ilia cum districtus judex venerit, meo ac tuo me
reddas creatori." — Leon Benevent., De obit. S. Leon., in Act. SS. 0. B.,
vol. ix., pp. 81, 82.
1 " Apparuerunt duo viri in vestibus albis cum eo loquentes, et nescio
quid scribentes. " — Ibid., p. 83.
2 "Coram omni clero et romano populo tradens Deo amabili Hilde-
brando ejusdem ecclesia? curam, ccelo spiritum reddidit. "• — Bonizo, I. c,
p. 804.
3 "Adeo ut turn Romana sedes quasi hereditaria successione ad nos
tras transisse videretur."— Ziegelbauee, Hist. rei. lit. 0. S. B., parsi.,
c. 1, p. 45.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 343
papacy and the Western empire became open and The East-
• t , t, .em Church
terrible, the East, by a mysterious decree of rrovi- separates
from the
dence, finally separated itself from Catholic unity. Roman
Although Photius had, two centuries earlier, fatally
' attacked the purity and orthodoxy of the Byzan
tine Church, this Church was far from having
broken all connection with the Holy See. But
degraded by the passions of her clergy and by her
complicity in all the wretchedness of a corrupted
people, she escaped more and more from the pater
nal authority of the Holy See, to become the play
thing of imperial despotism. Finally, after a long
succession of patriarchs elected and deposed at the
will of the lay power, the schism was completed
by Michael Cerularius, whom the Emperor Con
stantine Monomachius had placed, in 1043, on the
patriarchal throne. The separation took place
under the vain pretext of Greek and Latin obser
vances on the subject of unleavened bread, of
strangled meats, and of the singing of the Alleluia.1
Pope St Leo IX., after having combated by his
writings the pretensions of the Greeks, neglected
nothing to prevent the rupture : he died before it
became irreparable.
The Order of St Benedict had furnished to Leo
IX. zealous and intelligent defenders of the pon
tifical authority. Among the legates sent to Con
stantinople to try to bring about a reconciliation
1 See, among others, Fleuey, Rohebachee, and Abbe Jagee, Cours
d'hist. eccles., lesson 19, in VUniversite Catholique, vol. xviii.

344 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
between the two Churches, we remark two monks
of Lorraine whom Leo IX. had learned to know
and esteem in his diocese of Toul. The first was
Humbert, Abbot of Moyenmoustier, whom he had
made Cardinal-bishop of Sta Rufina and Abbot of
Subiaco ; and the second, Frederic, brother of
the Duke of Lorraine, afterwards Abbot of Monte
Cassino, and Pope under the name of Stephen X.1
Humbert refuted the assertions of the schismatic
patriarch and1 of his apologists in a work full of
energy and learning.2 He retired after having laid
upon the altar of Sta Sophia an act of excom
munication against the author and supporters of
the schism.
Frederic, having become Pope, charged his suc
cessor at Monte Cassino, Abbot Didier, to continue
the same task, which Didier did, fruitlessly indeed,
but not without honour.3 Later, under Alexander
II. , another monk, Peter, whom Hildebrand had
brought from his monastery of Salerno, was taken
to Rome, and presented to the Pope, who made
him Bishop of Anagni, and legate at Constanti
nople. He remained there until the death of the
Emperor Michael Ducas, contributing to the ut
most of his power to maintain an appearance of
unity between the Court of Byzantium and the
1 Frederic only embraced the religious life on his return from Con
stantinople. They had, as colleague in their legation, Peter, Archbishop
of Amalfi.
2 It is inserted in the Appendix to vol. xi. of the Annals of Baronius.
3 Chron. Gassin., b. ii. c. 98.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 345
Roman Church ; x but he succeeded no better than
his predecessors in changing the real state of
affairs. Leo IX. being dead, the Romans wished to elect
Hildebrand, and only renounced their project 2 at
his most earnest entreaties. He then hastened to
cross the Alps, and directed his steps to Germany,3
provided with full authority from the Roman clergy
and people to choose, under the eyes of the Emperor
Henry III., whoever, among the prelates of the
empire, that prince should judge most worthy of
the tiara.4
Thus, thanks to the influence of a monk, the
condition of things had been much modified in a
short time. The same emperor who formerly had
been able to depose three popes, and to nominate
three others, yielded, in less than eight years after
the Council of Sutri, to the initiative of the Roman
Church, while awaiting the rapidly approaching
moment when she should become the exclusive
mistress of her choice.
1 Mabillon, Ann., b. lxx. c. 114. Peter died in 1105, and was
canonised by Pascal II.
3 " Cum persensisset ven. Hild. Romanum clerum et populum in
ejus consensisse electionem, vix multis lachrymis et supplicationibus
potuit impetrare. . . ." — Bonizo, p. 804.
3 To the Council of Mayence in 1054, according to Stentzel, in his ex
cellent chronological table at the end of the History of the Franconian
Emperors, ii. 234.
4 " Id fuit in Victoris II. electione singulare quod unius Hildebrandi
suffragio Romanam sedem adeptus est. Id enim Hildebrandi in Ecclesi
am meritis ab universo clero datum est, ut quem ex imperatoris consensu
elegisset ejus rata esset electio." — Cantelius, Met. urb. hist., ii. 4, ap.
Bowden, Life of Greg. VII, i. 173.

346 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Hildebrand selected Gebhard, Bishop ofEich-
stadt ; x and in spite of the emperor, who desired
to keep near him a bishop who enjoyed his entire
confidence — in spite even of Gebhard himself2 — he
carried him off to Rome, where, according to the
ancient custom,3 the clergy proceeded to his elec-
Accession tion under the name of Victor II. The new Pope,
of Victor
ii. to the at the risk of his life/ adhered to the counsels of
pontifical .
throne. Hildebrand, and continued the war made by his
predecessor on simoniacal bishops and married
priests. Hildebrand being sent as legate to France,
hastened to assemble a council in the province of
Lyons, where he immediately deposed six bishops
convicted of that crime, which was then regarded
as the sin against the Holy Ghost. The Archbishop
of Embrun had been accused of the same crime ;
but as he had bribed his accusers, no one said a
word against him. Hildebrand required him to
1 Such is the version of all the historians, and notably of the continua-
tor of Heemann Contract., ann. 1054; of Bonizo, p. 804; of Leo of
Ostia, in Chron. Cassin., ii. This version has been adopted by Fleury,
Mabillon, and Hofler ; and it is difficult to understand why Stentzel
(Geschichte der Frank. Kaiser., i. 162) has preferred, to the testimony of
contemporary writers whom he so justly praises (i. 138, and ii. 72), the
improbable account of Benzo, whose clumsy falsehoods he has himself
denounced, ii. 80-88. See also Voigt, p. 31. Gebhard was the son of
Count Hartwig of Calw, in Suabia, and a very distant relation of the
emperor. 2 The chronicle of Monte Cassino says that from this moment he ceased
to like monks, in consequence of the violence which the monk Hildebrand
had done him in forcing him to accept the papacy. — Book ii. c. 89, ap.
Mueat., vol. iv.
3 Bonizo, loc. cit.
4 The simoniacal party tried to poison him in the wine of the Com
munion. — Lamb. Aschaffenb. , ad ann. 1054.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 347
say aloud, " Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost." The archbishop was able
to say, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son," but
he could not succeed, in spite of all his efforts, in
uttering " and to the Holy Ghost." Seeing himself
thus convicted by the judgment of God, he con
fessed his crime, and consented to his own deposi
tion. This example produced so salutary an impres
sion on the Church of France, that forty-five bishops
and twenty-seven prelates of a lower order confessed
themselves guilty of simony, and abdicated their
dignities.1 At this crisis the Emperor Henry III. died in Henry in.
diss lc3.v-
the flower of his age,2 leaving the throne of Ger- ingthesuc-
. cession to a
many to his only son, a child of six years old, but child. '
already elected and crowned- — the regent being his
mother, the Empress Agnes.3
This latter circumstance could not but be favour
able to the enfranchisement of the Church. Accord
ingly, Victor II. had scarcely followed the emperor
to the tomb4 when the Roman clergy hastened, for
the first time, to elect a Pope without any imperial
intervention. In the absence of Hildebrand, the
unanimous choice of the electors fixed on the for
mer chancellor and legate at Constantinople of
1 S. Petei Damian., Epist. ad Dominic, opus 19 ; Coletti, Concil.,
vol. xii. p. 6 ; Baeon., Ann., 1055. "Hujus miraculi testis fuit abbas
Hugo . . . de quorum verborum certitudine dubitantem omnis Europa
confretat." — Guill. Malmesb., De gest. reg. Angl., b. iii.
2 October 5, 1056, at the age of thirty-nine.
3 Bonizo, Lib. ad amic, p. 805. 4 July 28, 1057.

348 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Leo IX., on Frederic, monk and abbot of Monte
Cassino.1 The new Pope, who was bound by the
closest ties to the cause of the liberty of the Holy
See, was 'brother to Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine,
the husband of the Countess Beatrice of Tuscany,
and one of the princes best able to resist the
Stephen x. emperor. Raised to the throne by the name of
and Peter x J
Damian. Stephen X., he had scarcely time to distinguish
his too short pontificate by a few energetic meas
ures in favour of ecclesiastical discipline and celi
bacy, and by new negotiations intended to bring
back the Church of Constantinople to unity. It
was Stephen who created Hildebrand Archdeacon
of the Roman Church,2 and who, following the
latter's advice, named Peter Damian, the most
austere and most eloquent monk of the day, Car
dinal-bishop of Ostia.3
This remarkable man, born in 1007, who in after
life was one of the greatest adversaries of the mar
riage of priests, bad, strange to say, when a child,
and abandoned by his mother, been saved from death
by the care of a priest's wife. Before he became a
monk, Damian made himself famous for his learn
ing, and the zeal he showed in the education of his
1 See details of the election in Leo Ostiens., Chron. Cassin., b. ii.
c. 97.
2 This promotion is attributed by some authors to St Leo IX., by
Hugh de Flavigny to Nicolas II., by Baronius to Alexander II. Bonizo
says distinctly that it was the work of Stephen.
3 Bonizo says that Leo IX. made St Peter Damian a cardinal ; but
his testimony cannot outweigh that of the contemporary biographer of
the saint. — Cf. Act. SS. Bolland., vol. ii. (February), pp. 411, 417.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 349
numerous pupils.1 At thirty-three years of age -he
embraced the monastic life.2 From that time he
began to attack the disorders of the clergy in many
writings, and made himself remarkable by his ten
der devotion to the Holy Virgin.3 Stories were
told of the excessive penances which he imposed on
himself and on the monks of his monastery.4 For
many years he had devoted himself to the salvation
of Italy, addressing to the various popes useful en
couragements, vigorous remonstrances, and even
sometimes bitter censures.5 He had to be com
pelled, under pain of excommunication, to accept
the rank of cardinal ; and having accepted it, he
began by a severe exhortation to his colleagues
on the decadence of ecclesiastical discipline.6 But
the hours he passed with popes and emperors
seemed to him as useless as those employed in
writing on sand.7 His soul thirsted for heaven,
1 Act. SS. O. B., vol. ix. p. 256.
2 ' ' Cumque discendi finem ex omni liberali scientia peritus f ecisset,
mox alios erudire, clientium turba ad doctrina? ipsius famam undique
confluente studiosissime coepit." — Vila Petri Damiani, in Oper. S. Petr.,
i. 111. 3 It was he who first introduced among monks the use of the daily
office of the Blessed Virgin.
4 At Fonte Avellana, in Umbria, where the rule was observed in its
primitive simplicity. This abbey, three centuries later, served as an
asylum to Dante, who wrote great part of his poem there. Many Italian
monasteries gradually ranged themselves under the authority of Dami
an, without, indeed, forming a distinct order (as Vallombrosa or the
Camaldoli), but in- a very close union. — Mabill., iv. 515.
5 See his letters and writings addressed to Gregory VI., Clement II.,
Leo IX., Victor II.
6 He says : ' ' Ecclesiastici siquidem genii ubique pene disciplina negli-
gitur." — Lib. ii. ep. 1.
7 " Nolite, qua?so, monachi, nolite sub ecclesiastica? compassionis spe-

350 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
and he awaited impatiently the day of that triumph
of the saints, which he sang in admirable verse.1
In his impatience to die to this world, he desired
nothing so much as to live in retreat — which was
due to him, he said, as repose is due to an old
soldier.2 But the ever-active Hildebrand contin
ually sent him as legate to Milan, to France, and
to Germany, forcing him, till his last day, to carry
on the combat with simony, immorality, and lay
oppression.3 Peter always obeyed, though not
without protest, the man whom he called the im
movable pillar of the Apostolic See.4
An attempt has been made to interpret some
passages of the correspondence of this great saint
so as to discover in it symptoms of opposition to
Hildebrand. Nothing could be more unfounded.
The great bishop complains of one thing only, and
cie regum aulas irrumpere. . . . Credite experto : credite in hujus gratia?
studiis non leviter fatigato. Imperatoria? majestati sa?pe qua? suggerenda
videbantur expressimus : a summis pontificibus modati, conciliis inter-
fuimus ; sed qui hoc tempore ista prosequitur, tanquam si semina crederet
arenosis littoribus." — Opusc. xii. c. 30.

"Ad perennis vita? fontem
Mens sitivit arida,
Claustra carnis pra?sto frangj
Clausa qua?ret anima,
Gliscit, ambit, eluctatur,
Exul frui patria. . . .

" Nam et sancti quique, velut
Sol praclarus, rutilant,
Post triumphum coronati
Mutuo conjubilant,
Et prostrati pugnas hostis
Jam securi numerant."
— In fine Operum, p. 785.
2 " Ut quiescendi municipium veterano et emerito militi permittatur,
itnploro." — Lib. i. ep. 9.
3 "Ad mortem usque strenue decernavit," says the Roman breviary
for February 23. Leo XII. rendered his worship obligatory by giving
him the title of Doctor of the Church.
4 " Immobili columna? sedis Apostolica?. " — Ep. ii. 9.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 351
that is the severity of Hildebrand in obliging him
to remain in the midst of public struggles, and
engaged in the work of ecclesiastical government,
while he ceaselessly longed for peace and solitude.
In this sense only should those passages be under
stood in which Peter calls Hildebrand a tyrant,
a kind of Satanic saint, a divine Pope, and the
sovereign of that Rome where it was more neces
sary to obey the master of the Pope than the Pope
himself.1 Notwithstanding, Peter himself struggled
with even more vigour and passion than Hilde
brand against the horrible disorders of the Italian
clergy.2 The unison of their views and their efforts
was complete ; and Damian, in writing to his illus
trious friend, might well render to him the curious
testimony which follows : — ¦
" In all thy combats, in all thy victories, I have
followed thee closely not only as a companion in
arms or a squire, but like a thunderbolt of war. Thy
will has had for me the authority of canon law ; I
have judged, not according to my impressions, but
1 Lib. i. ep. 10, aliter opusc. xx. c. i. : "Sed hie forte blandus ille
condoluit : qui me colaphizando demulsit, qui me aquilino ungue palpa-
vit, qnerulus erumpet in vocem. . . . Sed hoc sancto satana? meo re-
spondeo," &c— P. 580, edit. 1623.
And in his poetry —
" Vivere vis Roina?, clara depromito voce:
Plus domino papas quam doinno pareo papa?."
And in another passage —
" Papain rite colo, sed te prostratus adoro :
Tu facis hunc Dominum, te facit iste Deum."
2 See what we have said above of the Liber Gomorrhianus of St Peter
Damian.

352 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
according to thy desires. . . . Moreover, with
what blessings have my lips always pronounced thy
name ! Ask of the lord of Cluny " (that is, of Abbot
Hugh). "One day, disputing with him about
thee, * He does not know,' said he, ' with what
tenderness thou lovest him ; if he knew it, his heart
would glow for thee with a love beyond compare.' " 1
The horror which simony and the incontinence
of priests then inspired in pure and fervent souls,
led to the peopling of new monasteries in Italy.
And among the number of the solitaries who fol
lowed the direction of St Peter Damian at Fonte
Avellana, in the mountains of Umbria, was a peni
tent whom the Church honours under the name of
st Dominic St Dominic with the Cuirass.2 Dominic embrac-
cuirass. ed monastic life in order to expiate the fault of his
parents, who had bought his ordination by the gift
of some beautiful fur.3 The recollection of this
fault so weighed upon the conscience of the man
of God, that he never consented to receive the
1 ' ' Tuis cceptis tuisque conatibus semper obtemperare contendi, et in
omnibus tuis certaminibus atque victoriis, ego me non commilitonem
sive pedissequum, sed- quasi fulmen injeci. . . . Tibi scilicet non aliam
auctoritatem canouum, nisi solum tua? voluntatis sequebar arbitrium, et
mera tua voluntas mihi canonum erat auctoritas. Nee unquam judicavi
quod visum est mihi, sed quod placuit tibi. . . . Saltern domnum Clu-
niacensem qui tibi non ignoturus, inquire. . . . Nescit, inquit ille, tan-
tam tibi sui amoris inesse dulcediuem, quam profecto si nosces, ineom-
parabili penes te amore flagrares." — Lib. ii. ep. 8.
2 Loricatns. He died in 1062. "" '
3 " Hircina? pellis aluta. . . . Hoc pavore perterritus, contempsit
sa?culum, induit monachum, arduumque mox eremitica? vita?, tanquam
bellator intrepidus, arripuit institutum." — S. Pete. Damiani, De Vit.
S. Dominici, C. 6.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 853
priesthood.1 But, in compensation, he imposed
upon himself the most terrible penances, always
wore upon his breast a sort of iron breastplate,
and condemned himself to long and frequent
flagellations, the history of which elicited the
admiration and redoubled the fervour of his con
temporaries. St Peter Damian, who has handed
down to us the life of St Dominic with the
Cuirass,2 proclaimed him his master, recognising
him as a true philosopher of the school of Christ,3
and, after the saint's death, wept for him as for
the light of his life}
Hildebrand did not suffer himself to be absorbed
by his direct participation in the struggles of the
papacy : even while filling the office of legate, in
which capacity he astonished France and Germany
by an admirable learning and eloquence,5 he never
lost sight of his duties as monk and Abbot of San
Paolo at Rome. He introduced the strictest reform
1 ' ' Quia male promotus est, donee advixit sacrosancti altaris usurpare
ministerium non pra?snmpsit." — Ibid.
2 In Oper., pp. 358-63, ed. 1623, fol., and Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix.
3 " Dignatus est vir sanctns mihi misero, et indigno . . . sicut ab
bati monachum subjugare. . . . Quem . . . gaudeo me in schola Christi
vere philosophum percepisse doctorem. " — Ibid., c. 7.
4 St Peter was warned in a dream that he was about to become blind.
He consulted his friend Hildebrand on the subject, and the latter replied :
' ' Familiaris tibi aliquis extinguetnr, qui tibi et chanis sit sicut oeulus
et lumen tuum et splendor in bonis operibus videatur." Three days
afterwards Peter heard of the death of his beloved Dominic— Ibid.
c. 13.
5 "Aderat ibi" (to Merseburg, at Christmas 1057), " inter alios regni
prmcipes etiam Hildibrant abbas de S. Paulo, mandata deferens a sede
apostolica vir, et eloquentia et sacrarum litterarum ernditione valde ad-
mirandus." — Camb. Aschaf., ann. 1059.
VOL. VI. Z

354 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
into his abbey, which had fallen into such a state
of disorder, that cattle freely entered the church,
and women waited on the monks in the refectory.1
Hildebrand, whose power daily increased, had
just gone as legate to the empress-regent, when
death surprised Pope Stephen X.2 A few days
before his end, the venerable pontiff, having con
voked the cardinals and Roman clergy, said to
them, sadly, " I know that after my death there
will arise among you men full of themselves, who
will seek to take possession of this See by the aid
of laymen, and in opposition to the decrees of the
holy fathers." All with one voice protested, and
promised the Pope that it should not be so. Shortly
afterwards Stephen died in the arms of Abbot
Hugh of Cluny, begging the Romans not to ap
point his successor till Hildebrand should return.3
Notwithstanding this, the tyrannical faction of
the Counts of Tusculum roused itself to a new
effort, and in spite of the efforts of Peter Damian,
succeeded in placing an intruder of that family,
Benedict X., on the pontifical throne. If this can
didate had been able to maintain himself, the
papacy would only have escaped the imperial yoke
to become the prey of the Roman aristocracy by
an impulse similar though opposite to that which,
under the Othos and Henry III., had snatched the
Church from patrician violence, only to subject it
1 Paul Beenried, Vit. S. Greg. VIL, c. 1.
2 March 29, 1058. a LK0 Ostiens, b. ii. c. 100.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 355
to the policy of the emperors. Hildebrand could
consent neither to the one nor to the other of these
ignominies ; but he took advantage of one against
the other on this occasion, by employing for the
last time the imperial authority against that of the
barons. On the news of the death of Stephen X.
he came back to Italy ; but pausing in Tuscany,
he strengthened himself by the support on one side
of the Regent Agnes and the German nobles, and
on the other of the Roman orthodox party, and
thus obtained, at Sienna, the election of Gerard of
Burgundy, Bishop of Florence, under the name of
Nicholas II. The intruder could not resist this
double influence ; he returned into obscurity, and
the Church was for ever delivered from the mis
chievous influence of that house of Tusculum whence
so many unworthy or indifferent popes had issued.1
Under the pontificate of Nicholas II. the autho- Election of
the Pope
rity of Hildebrand continued to increase.2 He exclusively
reserved to
profited by it to consecrate solemnly the results cardinals.
already obtained, and that by a measure the wis-
1 "Florentia? substitit, suisque litteris super hoc Romanorum melio-
res conveniens, eorumque omnium consensum recipiens. . . . Geraudum
Florentihum episcopum in Romanum papam elegit." — Leo Ost., iii. c.
13. "In quem et Romanorum et Teutonicorum studia consenserant."
— Lambeet. Schafnab., ann. 1059.
2 This is shown by the coarse invectives of Bishop Benzon, who ad
dresses himself as much to the orthodox popes as to their first minister
Hildebrand: "Tempore quidem Nicolai quem velut asinum pascebat
in stabulo . . . postremo jurejurando ligavit ilium miserrimum, quod
nil ageret, nisi per ejus jussionis verbum." — Ap. Menck, Script, germ.,
i. 1006-1063. An authority far more respectable confirms the founda
tion of these savings : St Peter Damian, as we have seen, calls Hilde
brand Dominus papce.

356 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
dom of which has been proved by the experience of
seven centuries. A council of 113 bishops, held at
Rome,1 renewed the former condemnation against
simoniacal and married priests ; and to free the
Church, the mother and mistress of Christendom,
from this gnawing evil,2 the council ordained
that in future the election of the Roman pontiff
should be exclusively confined to the cardinals,
save in so far as respect was due to the future Em
peror Henry, and to those of his successors who
should have personally obtained from the Holy
See the right of intervention.3 This respect was,
indeed, very different from the servile and absolute
submission which the empire formerly required.
Nevertheless, matters were not to rest there.
Among the signatures to the decretal of Nicholas
II. figures that of " Hildebrand, monk and sub-
deacon," 4 and it is not risking too much to impute
to him the responsibility for it. Another decretal
of the same council, and not less important, ordered
that in the case of any one being raised to the See
of Rome without canonical election on the part of
the clergy and cardinals, for a sum of money, or by
human favour, or by popular or military violence,
1 April 1059. 2 " Ne venalitatis morbus subrepat."
3 ' ' Salvo debito honore et reverentia dilecti filii nostri Henrici, qui
in pra?sentia rerum rex habetur ; et futurus imperator, Deo concedente,
speratur, sicut jam sibi concessimus : et successoribus Mis, qui ab Apos-
tolica Sede personaliter hoc jus impetraverint." — Concil. Labb. et Cos-
seet., ed. Coletti, vol. xii. p. 50.
4 " Hildebrandus, monachus et subdiaconus." The signatures of all
the fathers of this council were existing on a manuscript copy of this con
stitution at the Vatican in the time of Father Labbe. — Condi., vol.c. p. 57.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 357
the person so elected should be considered not apos
tolic, but apostate ; x and it should be permitted
to the clergy and faithful laity to expel the in
truder by anathema or by any other means, and to
replace him by the worthiest, even out of Rome,
investing him with full apostolic authority to gov
ern the Church, even before he could be enthroned.2
Thus it appears that there was no longer question
of imperial sanction in this second decretal, in
which the Pope and the fathers of the council seem
to have intended, by a prophetic instinct, to op
pose beforehand all the efforts of the simoniacal,
married, or imperialist clergy to choose popes to
suit themselves, as they did in the schismatic
elections of the anti-popes Cadalous and Guibert
of Ravenna.
In the same council, the rule of canons and
canonesses, although it had been in existence al
most everywhere for more than two hundred years,
1 "Si quis pecunia, vel gratia humana, vel populari, seu militari tu-
multu, sine concordi et canonica electione et benedictione cardinalium
episcoporum ac deinde sequentium ordinum religiosorum clericorum fuerit
inthronizatus ; non papa nee apostolicus, sed apostaticus habeatur, lice-
atque cardinal, episc. cum religiosis et Deum timentibus clericis et laicis,
invasorem, etiam cum anathemate et humano anxilio et studio a Sede
Apostolica repellere."
2 " Nostra auctoritate apostolica extra urbem congregati . . . eligant
quem digniorem et utiliorem Ap. Sedi perspexerint, concessa ei auctori
tate regendi et disponendi res ad utilitatem S. R. E. , secundum quod ei
melius videbitur, juxta qualitatem temporis, quasi omnino inthronizatus
sit."— Condi, Coletti, vol. xii. p. 46. Cf. Bonizo, Lib. ad amic, pp.
806, 807. A similar clause, though less explicit, is found in the decree
which reserves the election to cardinals. — Ibid., 50. There are good re
flections on this point in Alzog, Universal History of tlie Church, trans
lated by MM. Goschler and Audley, vol. ii. p. 165.

358 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
was abolished on the proposition of Hildebrand,^
because, since the changes introduced under the
Emperor Louis the Debonnair at the Council of
817, that rule authorised individual property.
Louis himself was blamed, in the decree of the
council, for having changed an ecclesiastical insti
tution without the consent of the Holy See, because,
emperor and pious though he was, he was none the
less a layman.2
The imperial party, which had many adherents
among the simoniacal bishops, could not but be
irritated by a decree which reserved the election of
the Pope to the cardinals alone : they considered
as an innovation that law which their adversaries,
and the whole Monastic Order, considered as a ne
cessary and happy return to the regular conditions
of the free government of the Catholic Church.
1 Space has failed us to give an account of all the phases through which
the institution of regular canons passed after its foundation by Chrode-
gang, Bishop of Metz, in 730. We have said that Louis the Debonnair
had already been obliged to reform it in 816. It will suffice to show that
all attempts to reconcile the life of a community with the enjoyment of
individual revenues, authorised by the rule of Chrodegang, had succes
sively failed. One of three things always happened, — either the canons
of cathedrals or collegiate churches, who had adopted the rule of Chro
degang, let it fall into disuse, and became regulars ; or they were re
placed by monks ; or they were obliged to acknowledge the principle of
evangelical piety and the community of goods. This is what happened
in the abbeys of regular canons founded or reformed in the eleventh cen
tury, after the Council of Rome, in 1075, and which were only distin
guished from Benedictine abbeys by some unimportant differences.
2 ' ' Nee Ludovicus mutare qualibet ratione debuit aut potuit sine auc-
toritate et consensu S. Romana? et apostolica? Sedis : quia quamvis im
perator et devotus, tamen erat laicus." — Decret. ap. Gorch. ; Reichee-
speeg. in Balluz., Miscell., vol. v. 123 ; and Mabill., Annal., b. lxi.
No. 34.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 359
Meantime it was necessary to find means to The Pope
seeks an
maintain the new work, which every day caused alliance
' •> J with the
more disquiet to the partisans and instruments of Normans.
the old abuses. Hildebrand perceived that very
efficient support against imperial enmity might be
given to the liberated papacy by those warlike
Normans whose exploits against the Saracens and
Greek schismatics were constantly increasing their
renown and their power in the south of Italy. He
had seen them faithfully keep the promise of sub
mission which they had made to Pope Leo IX.,
their prisoner at Civitella ; and for this reason he
had advised Nicholas II. to make advances to
them, and to invest their chief, Robert Guiscard,
with the title of Duke of Apulia, in return for an
annual tribute, and for his oath to support the
papacy against all enemies, to submit to it all the
churches given up to him, and. to assist in defend
ing the free election of all future popes.1 William
de Montreuil, sprung from the generous race of
Giroie, of whose pious liberality to the Norman
abbeys we have already spoken, was proclaimed
gonfaloniere of the Holy See, and by his exertions
all the schismatics of Campania were brought un-
1 " Ego Robertus Dei gratia et Sancti Petri Dux Apulia? . . . ero fidelis
Sancta? Romana? Ecclesia? . . . S. R. E. ubique adjutor ero ad tenendum
et ad acquirendum regalia S. Petri, ej usque possessiones pro meo posse,
contra omnes homines . . . omnes quoque ecclesias qua? in mea persistant
dominatione cum earum possessionibns dimittam in tua potestate. . . .
secundum quod monitus fuero a melioribus cardinalibus, clericis Romanis
et laicis, adjuvabo ut papa eligatur et retinatur ad honorem S. Petri." —
Baeon., Ann., ad ann. 1059.

360 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
der subjection to the pontifical authority.1 Nicho
las also used the arm of this champion to extir
pate simony and the concubinage of priests in the
south of Italy.2 The aged pontiff well deserved,
by his pious humility, that his efforts should draw
down the blessing of heaven. Each day he him
self washed the feet of twelve poor men ; and this
soft and gentle charity in no way excluded firm
ness — -for at his death, after a pontificate of two
years, he left to the Church, together with the
memory of his rare virtues, stronger means of de
fence than she had ever hitherto possessed.3
Each new election to the papacy brought with
it a dangerous crisis, such as must have compro
mised and destroyed the work of Hildebrand if
his constancy had been less energetic and the
protection of heaven less uniform. It happened,
on the contrary, that each election contributed
either to root his authority more firmly or to
augment his power.
On the death of Nicholas IL, tbe cardinals,
carrying out the decrees of the last council, sent
a report of their proceedings to the imperial court ;
1 Oedek. Vital., b. iii. pp. 56, 87, ed. Leprevost. Cf. Chron. dc Robert
Viscar, b. i. c. 2, ed. Champollion.
2 "Per eos citissime Romanam urbeni a Capitaneorum tyrannide lib-
eravit." — Bonizo, 806. Cf. Guill. Apull., ap. Mueat., Script., vol.
v. p. 252.
3 Hoflek, Deutsche Pabste, 358, 360. It is pleasant to see across the
centuries how not only doctrine and power, but mind also, have remained
identical in the sovereign pontiffs. Leo XII., who died in 1829, made
twelve poor men dine daily at the Vatican, from the day of his accession
to that of his death, and often went to wait on them himself. — Aetaud,
Hist, de Leon XII., b. 338.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 361
but Gerard, a monk of Cluny, whom they had sent
with it, not having been received, they went on to
the election, according to the advice of Hildebrand
and of the Abbot Didier of Monte Cassino. Their
choice fell upon one in whom they hoped to find
not only the person most agreeable to the imperial
court, but one who, at the same time, offered most
substantial guarantees to the Church ; they pro
claimed Anselm of Badagio, Bishop of Lucca, of an
illustrious Milanese house, and formerly a disciple
of Lanfranc at the Norman Abbey of Bee.1 Anselm
had distinguished himself as legate in Lombardy
by his zeal against the simoniacs and Nicolaitans ;
afterwards he reigned twelve years, under the name Accession
of Alexander II.2 anderii.
The Lombard bishops — those indomitable bulls,
as a contemporary calls them — always the most in
favour of simony, always most hostile to the inde
pendence of Rome, had made up their minds to ac
cept as Pope only one of their own countrymen, who
would naturally bear with their infirmities ; 3 but
their efforts failed. In vain did they persuade
the Regent Agnes and her counsellor to consent to
the election of an anti-Pope in the person of Cada-
lous,4 Chancellor of Henry III., whose scandalous
life offered all possible encouragement to the cause
1 Life of Alex. II. , in Condi., Labbe, ed. Venet., xii. 69. He was a
Milanese noble, named Anselm of Badagio.
5 October 1, 1061.
3 " Cervicosos tauros. . . . Deliberavit non aliunde se habere papain
nisi ex Paradiso Italia?, talenique, qui sciat compati infirmitatibus eorum."
. — Bonizo, p. 807.
4 At Bale, October 28, 1061.

362 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
of the simoniacal and anti-celibate party; in vain
did this anti-Pope secure for himself the support of
Germany and of the Italian imperialists, and the
alliance of the Csesar of Constantinople ; 1 in vain
did he obtain the approval of the majority of Ger
man bishops, and that of the married priests : 2 the
Church was already strong enough to resist and
vanquish, even by arms. Guided by Hildebrand,
whom, on his accession, he had named Chancellor
of the Holy Church ; supported by Monte Cassino,
by Cluny, and by the sword of the Normans, —
Alexander carried the day, and won the right of
being remembered by posterity as the Pope to
whom the Church, so long enslaved, owed the
Hanno reconquest of her ancient freedom.3 The wise
Archbishop ±
of cologne. an(j ]j0iy Hanno, Archbishop of Cologne, after
having deprived the Regent Agnes and her un
worthy favourite, Adalbert, Archbishop of Bremen,
of the administration of the empire, declared him
self, at the Council of Augsburg, in favour of the
legitimate Pope, moved to do so by the skilful
pleading of Peter Damian,4 — justly called by
1 Benzo, Panegyr., ii. c. 14 ; Stentzel, i. 210.
2 " Clerici uxorati . . . amodo vocentur et Cadaloita?. Sperant enim
quia si Cadalous, qui ad hoc gehennaliter a?stuat, universali Ecclesia?
Antichristi via? pra?sederit, ad eorum votum, luxuria? fra?na laxabit." —
S. Petri Dam., Opusc, xviii. diss. 2. o. 8. " Tunc simoniaci ca?labantur,
concubinati vero sacerdotes ingenti exultabant tripudio." — Bonizo, p.
807. 3 "Ecclesiam jamdiu ancillatam in pristinam reduxit libertatem. " —
Otto Feising., vi. 34.
4 See the discussion between him and a "regius advocatus" at this
council. — Ap. Labbe, ann. 1062, vol. xii. Stentzel rightly translates the
Latin Osbor by Augsbourg, i. 230.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 363
Alexander II. "the eye of the papaqy, and the
unshaken support of the apostolic throne." 1
In all regions, Catholic sentiment awoke; the
number of the faithful increased, and their zeal
was more and more excited against the simoniacal
and married clergy.2 This was the special work
of monks. Everywhere and always, we repeat,
these admirable auxiliaries, with the approval of
Hildebrand and of Peter Damian, flung them
selves, with equal energy and devotion, into the
struggle which was to save the liberty and purity
of the Church. They clearly perceived that this
cause was inseparable from that of the holiness
and durability of their own institution.
It was the monks of the new order of Vallom- st John
brosa, having St John Gualbertus at their head, and the
new order
who curbed the power of simony in Tuscany, by of vaiiom-
the opposition which they raised to the simoniacal
bishop Peter of Pavia. The monks of the same
order at Florence had been attacked in the night
by armed servants of the bishop, beaten, robbed,
wounded, and mutilated. Accused at Rome, blamed
by St Peter Damianus himself, fiercely persecuted
by the episcopate, menaced with death by Duke
Godfrey of Tuscany, they found no supporter ex
cept Hildebrand.3 But they did not hesitate to
1 " Qui nimirum noster est oculus apostolica? sedis immobile firmamen-
tum." — Epist. Alex. II., ad Serv., arch. Remens.
2 " Interea crescebat non solum per Italiam, sed et per. omnes Gallias
numerus fidelium. Simoniaci de die in diem propalabantur sacerdotes."
— Bonizo, p. 807.
3 At the Council of Rome, 1063. "Pars maxima Episcoporum Petro

364 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
continue the struggle ; and they ended it victori
ously, thanks to the devotion of one of them, Peter,
who submitted to the ordeal by fire, passing across
a pile of blazing wood, in order to prove the guilt
of the bishop. x The Florentine people were con
vinced ; the deposed bishop was converted, and,
turning back with laudable penitence to the bet
ter way, became a monk at Vallombrosa, among
those who had prosecuted him with such eager
ness ; while the heroic Peter became Bishop of
Albano, and cardinal, under the immortal name
of St Peter Igneus. "We cannot, then, be
astonished at the special favour with which
Alexander II. always regarded the monks. The
generous pontiff, even while his own rights were
being contested at Rome, was heroically defending
the privileges of Corbie against the Bishop of
Amiens ; those of St Denis against the Bishop of
Paris ; 2 those of St Michael of Chiusa against the
Bishop of Turin ; 3 and in the same year he ex
empted the Abbey of the Trinity at Vendome from
favebat, et omnes pene monachis erant adversi : sed archidiaconus Ilde-
prandus monachorum in omnibus auditor et defensor factus est." — Vit.
S. Joann. Gualb., c. 61, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix.
1 S. Joann. Gualb., ubi supra. 2 In 1062.
3 The Archdeacon Hildebrand especially was useful to the Abbot of
Chiusa during this struggle. In full council, he reprimanded the bishop
in these words: "Quid est, episcope, quid loqueris? ubi est sapientia
tua ! Tuum ne dicis Abbatem, tuique solius fore juris ? qua auctoritate,
qua?so, aut qua ratione tuum asseris ? Num possessio tua aut servus tuus
est ? Itane sacri canones animo exciderunt tuo," &c. And as the bishop
refused to recognise Abbot Benedict, who was elected without his consent,
the Pope blessed and consecrated him himself. — Vita V. Bened., Act.
SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 700.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 365
all episcopal jurisdiction, at the prayer of the dio
cesan bishop himself.1 It was Alexander II. who
put a final stop to the incessant persecution of
Cluny 2 by the Bishop of Macon, and who declared
that sanctuary beyond all episcopal interdiction or
excommunication, so that it might be, for all people,
and under all circumstances, a haven of salvation
and mercy.3 The holy father also extended to all
the abbeys dependent upon Monte Cassino the
great exemptions enjoyed by that illustrious mon
astery, and secured its immunities and vast posses
sions against episcopal attacks, by replacing them
under what was called the "tutelar freedom of
Rome." 4 In 1071, Nicholas himself dedicated
the mother church of Monte Cassino, recently built
with great magnificence by the care of Abbot Didier,
at the same time that the Abbot Hugh was rais
ing at Cluny the greatest church of Christendom.
The Pope himself celebrated this imposing cere-
1 " Ne cujusquam episcopi interdicto aut communication! subjacerent
. . . ut idem locus omnibus ad se ad salutem animse confugientibus, sit
misericordia? sinus, sit totius pietatis et salutis portus : obtineatque in
eo locum Justus, nee repellatur poenitere volens iniquus." — Bibl. Cluniac ,
pp. 507-511 ; Mabill., Annal., b. lxii. No. 12. At the Council of Cha
lons, held for this purpose by St Peter Damianus, legate of Alexander,
the Bishop of Macon swore that in future he would respect the liberties
of Cluny, and did penance for seven days on bread and water. — Ibid.
2 In 1066.
3 "Contra quam anctoritatem qui Hildebrandus Capuenns archiepis-
copus submurmurare prassumpsit, coram nobis . . . se peccasse confessus
est. Unde tam sibi, quam suis successoribus Apostolica auctoritate sub
distincti anathematis vinculo interdicimus, ut nullam ulterius inde aude-
ant assumere qua?stionem vel contra pra?fatum venerabilem locum litem
permovere," &c. — Bull of May 10, 1067.
» "Sub tutela et Romana libertate." — Ibid.

366 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
mony, assisted by Hildebrand, in presence of fifty-
four archbishops and bishops, many Norman and
Italian nobles, and an immense population which
covered the sides of the holy mountain and the
surrounding meadows.1 All this crowd was fed
and lodged by the splendid generosity of the great
monastery, to which the Pope, in a bull relative to
this dedication, gave the title of " normal school
of monastic rule, founded by the holy father Bene
dict, in virtue, not of a human desire, but of an
express command of God." 2
This professed admiration for monastic greatness
naturally united itself in the mind of Alexander IL,
as well as in that of Hildebrand, to a scrupulous
respect for the rights of the Roman Church. For
this reason it was that, after the conquest of Eng
land, Lanfranc, the first Norman placed in the
1 S. Leo., mart. — Chron. Cassin.,b. iii. c. 30. Monte Cassino, under
the excellent administration of Abbot Didier, of the princely house of
Benevento, had regained its ancient prosperity. It was in this same year,
1071, that, at the prayer of Barisenus, King of Sardinia, Didier sent
monks to found six abbeys in that island. It must be said that this holy
house, the constant and useful ally of the papacy, knew how to defend
• its own rights and electoral liberty, even against the papacy, when the
latter threatened to attack them : this was what happened in 1056, when
Victor II. wished to reform the election of Abbot Peter. — Leo, Chron.
Cassin., b. ii. c. 95.
2 "Quod monastica? norma? constat esse principale gymnasium . . .
non studio hominum, sed Dei imperio, a sanctissime Patre Benedicto con-
structum. "—Bull of Oct. 10, 1071. This bull, and the one quoted in note
3, p. 365, unpublished till 1842, have been found in the archives of Monte
Cassino, and published by Dom Luigi Tosti in his history of this abbey.
They both bear the signature of Hildebrand, written thus : "Ego Hilde-
brandus qualis cumque Rom. Ecclesia? Archidiac, SS." The facsimile of
this august signature, as well as those of St Peter Damianus and of Ab
bot Didier, has been given by Dom Tosti, vol. i. p. 410.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 367
archbishopric of Canterbury, was summoned by
Hildebrand to come to receive the pallium at
Rome, according to an old custom, which, since
1027, had fallen into disuse. Lanfranc hastened
to obey ; and on seeing him approach, the Pope
rose to do him honour, saying, " It is not because
he is an archbishop that I rise, but because at the
Abbey of Bee I sat at his feet with the other
scholars." x
Meanwhile Germany had become the centre of
encroachment against the temporal power. The
freedom and the rule of the monasteries, as well as
the rights and privileges of laymen, had been scan
dalously trampled under foot during the adminis
tration of Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen. But
still greater evils followed the majority of the
young Henry IV., who was early given up to all
kinds of excesses. The last act of the long career
of Peter Damianus as apostolic legate, was to
bring about a temporary reconciliation between
Henry and his wife Bertha, whom he wished to
repudiate without any other reason than an in
vincible dislike. Peter declared plainly to the
young king that the Pope would never consent to
give the imperial crown to a prince who should
have caused so grave a scandal.2 Here, as always,
and in all countries, the rupture between the Church
1 " Non ideo assurexi ei, quia archiepiscopus Cantuaria? est, sed quia
Becci ad seholam ejus fui : et ad pedes ejus cum aliis auditor consedi." —
Gislebeet, Vit. S. Lanfranc, ed. d'Acher., c. 11.
2 Lambeet, ann. 1069. Peter died in 1072 at Faenza, persevering to

368 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
and royalty had for its origin, or at least for its
occasion, the protection extended by the Holy
See over the rights of an innocent and undeserv
edly persecuted woman. But this was not the
only complaint of the Church and the Germans
against Henry IV. In agreement with Sigefroi,
Archbishop of Mayence, this prince attempted to
exact the dime from Thuringia and the possessions
of the Abbeys of Fulda and Hersfeld, in contempt
of privileges which dated from the introduction
of Christianity into Germany. The Thuringians,
whose interests were in unison with those of their
monks, at first tried to resist, but underwent the
most cruel oppression. The Saxons, on their side
pillaged, harassed, and outraged in the honour of
their women by the garrisons of castles built by
order of the young king, revolted against a yoke
until then unknown, and resolved to break it. The
most powerful princes of the empire, such as the
Dukes of Bavaria and Carinthia, were themselves
the object of calumnious accusations, driven to
extremity, and deprived of their fiefs, according
to the caprice of the king. The complaints and
indignation of the German people redoubled in
violence,1 and Henry IV. had occasion to con
gratulate himself that he had taken the precau
tion of forbidding the Thuringians, under pain of
the end in the practice of the most extraordinary austerities, after hav
ing reconciled the inhabitants of Ravenna with the Holy See.
1 Lambert, ad ann. 1072-73, et passim.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 369
death, to appeal to Rome.1 But it was not easy
to silence the voice of oppressed justice. Alex
ander II. heard this cry, and felt himself strong
enough to act ; he excommunicated the perfidious
councillors who abused the youth of Henry IV.,
and. summoned the prince to appear before him.
But God called the Pope from this wTorld before
the war had broken out with its full violence.
Alexander II. was permitted to die without fear
of seeing the degeneration of the work he had so
nobly begun. His obsequies were not yet ended
when the unanimous voice of the Roman clergy
and people called Pope Gregory VII. to croAvn the
enterprise of Hildebrand the monk. ' He had, i%
must be remembered, more than once refused the
papacy ; 2 he strongly desired to leave to others
the honour of command, while he shared in the
second rank the responsibility of the struggle.
But God and the Roman people judged otherwise.
While Hildebrand presided at the solemn funeral
of the dead pontiff, a unanimous and irresistible
movement began among the clergy and the faith
ful, who, with one voice, declared that he was the
Pope they desired. Surprised and alarmed by
1 Lambeet, ad ann. 1073, ap. Peetz, v. p. 193.
a A testimony beyond suspicion — that of Thierry, Bishop of Verdun,
one of the vehement supporters of the imperialist schism — tells us that
Hildebrand had been several times called to the papacy, but had saved
himself by flight : " Decentibus patribus sa?pe electum et accitum, sem
per quidem animi, aliquando etiam corporis fuga dignitatis locum de-
clinasse." — Tliesaur. Anecd., vol. i. p. 218. We shall see, further on, a
very curious extract from the important letter of Thierry.
VOL. VI. 2 A

370 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
these popular clamours, Hildebrand tried to mount
a pulpit to calm the tumult, and dissuade the
multitude from its resolution; but he was fore
stalled by a cardinal,1 who spoke thus : " You know,
brethren, that since the time of POpe Leo it is
Hildebrand who has exalted the Roman Church
and delivered the city. Now, as we cannot find
a better, nor even so good a candidate, let us
choose unanimously, as Pope, him who has been
ordained in our Church, and all whose actions we
know and approve." 2
Hildebrand Immediately loud acclamations echoed through
pontifical the Lateran church, and they shouted, " St Peter
throne. has elected Lord Gregory Pope !
Crowned and enthroned in spite of his tears and
lamentations,3 Hildebrand for some time hoped
1 Hugh, surnamed the White (Candidus or Blancus), a very equivo
cal personage. It must be remarked that Gregory deprived him of his
charge some time after — "propter ineptiam et ejus mores inconditos." —
Lamb. Schafnab., ann. 1074, ap. Peetz, v. 242. See curious details
about him in Bonizo, Lib. ad amic, pp. 807, 809, 810.
2 " Viri fratres, vos scitis quia a diebus Domini Leonis papa? hie est
Hildebrandus, qui sanctam Romanam Ecclesiam exaltavit et civitatem
istam liberavit. Quapropter quis ad Pontificatum Romanum neque me-
liorem neque talem, qua eligatur, habere possumus. . . ." — Bonizo,
Lib. ad amic, p. 811.
3 "In Lateranensi Ecclesia . . . dum Hildebrandus archidiaconus
esset in ejus exsequiis occupatus, repente factus est in ipsa Ecclesia maxi
mus cleri et populi Romani concursus clamantium et dicentium. . . .
Nimis expavit, et quasi extra se raptus cucurrit ad pulpitum, cupiens
populum ipsum sedare. . . Sed Hugo candidus cardinalis, ubi omnium
vota in Archidiaconum convenisse indubitanter cognovit, citius pra?cu-
currit . . . nos Episcopi cardinales unanimiter ipsum . . . eligimus.
. . . Et continuo universitate Populi et Cleri acclamante, Dominum
Grcgorium papam S. Petrus elegit; indutus rubea chlamyde . . . et
papali mitra insignitus, invitus et mcerens in B. Petri cathedra fuit in-

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 37-1
to escape from the burden he dreaded.1 In fact,
the young King of Germany, the future Emperor
Henry IV., had not been in any way consulted as
to this election, which the corrupt bishops of his
kingdom desired to see annulled, representing to
the prince the dangers which menaced him from a
man of Hildebrand's character.2
The Pope, on his side, wished to have his conse
cration deferred until after the acquiescence of the
German king and nobles in his election ; he even
wrote to Henry to beg him to refuse his consent,
and to declare to him that, once Pope, he would
tronizatus." — Acta Vaticana, ap. Baron., Ann., ann. 1073, andGRETSEE,
vol. vi. p. 13. " Concursus clericorum virorum ac mulierum elamanti-
um : Hildebrandus episcopus." — Bonizo. " Dum sanctissimus Gregorius
. . . voto communi clericorum et laicorum diu renitens esset electus. "—
Vit. S. Anselm. Lucens., c. 2, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. According to
another version, Gregory hid himself for several days near the church of
San Pietro in Vincula : " Sed tandem vix inventus ad apostolicam sedem
vi perductus . . . qrdinatnr." — Berthold. Constans, Chron.,. ann.
1073, ap. Usseemann, vol. ii. p. 17. " Id culminis captus atque coac-
tus cum magno ejulatu ostendit." — Epist. Bernaldi ad Bernardum, ap.
Usseem., vol. ii. p. 417, and Geetser, vol. vi. p. 87. Cf. Paul Been-
RiED, e. 27, and the letters of Gregory himself, b. i. ep. 1, 3, 4, 8, 9.
The official account given by Baronius, from the Acta Vaticana, places
the election at St John Lateran ; while the decree of election given by
the cardinals, and also published by Baronius, places it at San Pietro in
Vincula : perhaps the sacred college assembled in the latter church to
deliberate, even before the popular movement showed itself in St John
Lateran, where the funeral would naturally be celebrated. Bonizo, a
contemporary, says expressly that the election took place in St John
Lateran, and that Gregory was carried off and enthroned at St Peter in
Vincula. 1 " Onus quod mihi invito et valde reluctanti impositum est." — Re-
gest. S. Geeg. VIL, Ep. i. 1.
2 " Asserentes quod nisi impetum hominis pra?venire maturaret, ma
lum hoc non in alium gravius quam in ipsum regem redundaturum esset."
— Lamb., ann. 1073.

372 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
not leave unpunished the excesses to which the
king was abandoning himself.1 But Henry, con
tent with the kind of deference shown to him by
Hildebrand, approved the election of the man who
was to destroy for ever his usurped prerogative.2
It had been, however, long in his power to know
and appreciate, with all Christendom, the great
man who was to be his opponent. Long since, the
eyes of the world had been fixed upon Hildebrand,
whom friends and enemies alike recognised as the
most energetic representative of the authority of
the Holy See and the majesty of Rome. A proof
of this may be found in the following lines ad
dressed to the first minister of Alexander II. by
Alfano, a monk of Monte Cassino, who afterwards
became Archbishop of Salerno. They well express
the opinion of the Catholics of the time ; and,
1 " Pertractans . . . quid faceret, non aliud in venit, quam- ut regi
suam notificaret electionem, et per eum si posset, sibi papale impositum
onus devitaret. Nam missis ad eum continuo litteris et mortem papa?
notificavit, et suam ei electionem denuntiavit, interminatusque si ejus
electioni assensum pra?buisset nunquam ejus nequitiam patienter puta-
turum." — Bonizo, p. 811. "Ne assensum pra?beret attentius exoravit
quod si non faceret, certum sibi esset, quod graviores et manifestos ipsius
e'xcessus impunitos nullatenus toleraret." — Caed. Aeagon., ap. Muea-
toei, Script., vol. iii. b. i. p. 304. This letter is not found in the col
lection of the Pope's epistles ; but the authority of Bonizo is incontestable
as to contemporary and Italian facts (see Stentzel, vol. ii. p. 72). It
is also certain that Gregory deferred his consecration for two months,
since he heads all his letters from April 21 to June 28, " Gregorius in
Romanum Pontificem electus ; " and those of June 30 alone bear " Gre
gorius episcopus servus servorum Dei." Bonizo says expressly that he-
was ordained priest on the vigil of Pentecost, and consecrated on St
Peter's Day, 1073.
2 See in Lambert of Aschaffenburg the account of the embassy of
Count Eberard of Hellenburg to Rome.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 373
moreover, they show how, in the minds of the
monks, the Christian greatness of the mother and
mistress of Churches was allied with the brilliant
memories of that pagan Rome which only papal
Rome could replace and surpass : —
" Thou knowest, Hildebrand, what is the glory
reserved for those who devote themselves to the
public good. The Sacred Way, the Latin Way,
the splendid summit of the Capitol,: that throne of
empire, all these still exist to be thy teachers.1
For this cause thou falteredst not before the hardest
labour or the most perfidious treachery ; thou fear-
est not the hidden venom of envy, more dangerous
than pestilence to good men, and fatal only to
them. But that great knowledge of honour and
virtue which is thine, has proved to thee that it
is better to excite envy than to feel it. Justice
is always with thy judgments; the rare energy
of thy soul, thy noble life entirely devoted to the
pursuit of good, furnish to thy genius both the
strength and the weapons she employs.2 Thanks
to thee, Rome is again becoming the queen of
cities. Thanks to thee, Rome is again becoming
righteous ; and barbarism, all proud as she is of
her royal genealogies, pauses and trembles before

1 " Idem sacra
Et Latina refert via,
Illud et Capitolii
Culmen eximium, Thronus
Pollens imperii, docet."

; " Omne judicio tuo
Jus favet. . . .
Cordis eximius vigor
Vita nobilis, optimas
Res secuta, probant quidem
Juris ingenium, modo
Cujus artibus tueris."

374 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
thee. Armed with thy genius and with the flaming
sword of the arch-apostle Peter, go forth, and break
the strength and violence of the barbarians, and
make them feel, to their latest moment, the weight
of the ancient yoke.1 Oh how terrible is the power
of the anathema ! All that Marius, all that Csesar,
could buy only with the blood of so many soldiers,
thou canst gain with a simple word ! To whom does ,
Rome owe the greatest debt ? to her Scipios and
other heroes, or to thee, whose zeal has reconquered
for her her lawful power 1 Their reward, we are
told, for having loaded their country with benefits,
is to dwell in everlasting peace in a region of light.2
But thou,,who art far greater than they, thou shalt
live in eternal glory, and be for ever ranked with
the apostles, thy fellow-citizens." 3
1 "Eas timet | Maxima uece militum,

Seva barbaries adhuc,
Clara stemmate regio.
His et archiapostoli

Voce tu modica facis.
Roma quod Scipionibus

Fervido gladio Petri Ca?terisque Quiritibus,
Frange robur et impetus Debuit mage quam tibi ?
Illius, vetus ut jugum _
tt *•* if .. Tu quidem . . .
Usque sentiat ultimum. ] 1

' Quanto vis anathematis !
Quicquid et Marius prius
Quodque Julius gerant

. manet
Gloriose perenniter
Vita, viribus ut tuis
Compareris Apostolis."

3 The entire'text of the poem, in iambic verse, the sense of which we
are not sure of having always understood, has been published by Baronius
(Annal., ann. 1061), and by Ughelli in his Anecdota, in vol. x. of the
Italia Sacra. A new version of it has been given by Greselrecht in his
Latin Opusculum, called De litterarum studio apud Italos, p. 46.

,ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 375

CHAPTER III.

CO-OPERATION LENT BY THE MONASTIC ORDERS
TO POPE GREGORY VII.
The monks, nobles, and peasants defend the Pope. — The townspeople,
simoniacal clergy, and excommunicated nobles follow the emperor. —
The aid of laymen more useful to the Pope than that of the clergy.
— Herlembald, the knight of Christ. — Laymen charged to see the
canons obeyed. — Terrible saying of St Hugh of Cluny. — Only two
German bishops dare to publish the papal decrees against married
priests. — Philip, King of France, protects those guilty of simony.—
Assembly of Brixen. — Letter of the clergy of Cambray to those of
Reims. — Only three monasteries take the part of Henry IV.— The
Monastic Orders furnish Gregory's most intrepid champions. — The
councillors of Gregory VII. chiefly monks. — Absolute confidence
placed by Gregory in Hugh of Cluny.— Popular election of Hugh
of Burgundy to the see of Die. — Jarenton, Abbot of St Benigne of
Dijon. — Three French monks devoted to Gregory VII. — The three
monks most dear to Gregory VII. auxiliaries furnished by Monte
Cassino. — St Anselm of Lucca. — Conversion of Archbishop Hanno.
— Re-establishment of Hirschau.
Nothing is more important to the object of this
work than to prove the intimate and fundamental
union between the destinies of the Monastic Orders
and the cause of freedom and reform in the Church.
This is why, before describing the events to which
those we have already recorded serve as preludes,
we think it needful to prove that the family of St
Benedict, whose immense growth had, for five cen*

376 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Monks, turies, so powerfully contributed to the greatness
nobles, and ... ,
peasants and independence of Catholicism, was still, at the
alike de- r
tn" p0s °f Peri0<l °f which we speak, the chosen army of God,
and that the monks were almost the only instru
ments of the vast and wholesome revolution worked
by Gregory VII. in the discipline and organisation
of the Church.
This truth becomes apparent, indeed, in the
general situation of the different orders of the
ecclesiastical hierarchy as we have already pictured
them ; but we have still to prove, by special facts
and precise indications, that if the order of St
Benedict had not then existed, the Pope would
really not have known what earthly force to in
voke to combat the inveterate evils which it was
necessary, at any price, to root out.
It was not that Gregory found only adversaries
among the clergy, and could count no partisans
among the Christian people. Those who then boast
ed of the exclusive title of Catholics, and to whom
that title has been confirmed by posterity, were,
on the contrary, all devoted to the Pope.1 In his
camp ranged themselves all those who, as he said
in his correspondence, "feared the Lord, loved
justice, and prized the liberty of the Bride of
Christ."2 We shall see, further on, what political
1 " Catholicis viris bene placuit : simoniacis vero et fautoribus regis
nimium displicuit." — Marianus Scotus Chron., ann. 1074.
a " Omnibus in partibus vestris Dominum timentes ac sponsa? Christi
libertatem diligentes." — Ep. ix. 3. "Te tuosqne omues socios qui jus-
titiam amatis, et beati Petri sedem diligitis." — Ep. vi. 14, to Duke Welf.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.

37V

motives, apart from religious sympathies, would
draw to his banner the greater part of the German
nobility. The country people, who received an
impulse from their lords and from the monasteries,
seem to have generally pronounced for Gregory, and
to have formed that " vulgar herd " whose favour
the Emperor Henry IV., in the famous letter which
announced to Gregory the sentence of deposition
pronounced against him by the Diet of Worms,
accused the Pope of having stooped to beg.1
Henrv, on the other hand, found natural auxil- The towns-
¦' ' people and
iaries in the populations of the great towns, and, ^j^°ni"
above all, in the episcopal cities, which, equally JJ^1^.
hostile, by habit and instinct, to the rule of bishops peror-
established in their midst, and to that of the feudal
nobles of the country round, always showed them
selves disposed to support royal despotism. Worms
and Cologne, in rebellion against their orthodox
bishops, pronounced from the very first for Henry,
whose armies were principally formed from the
trading class.2 The- Tuscan and Lombard towns,
1 "Tibi favorem vulgi comparasti." — Beuno, de Bello Saxon., c. 67,
and Cod, Udalr. Bab., No. 163. We see, however, that even among the
peasants there were some who were of the imperialist party, as is proved
by the curious story of the countryman who, seeing the Pope's entrance
to Salerno, secretly murmured against him, and was punished for it
by losing his speech, until Gregory prayed for him : " Adstans quidam
rusticus. ... En auctor prasliorum et seditionum; postquam totum
commovit orbem, hanc inquietare venit urbem." — Paul Beenried, in
fin. 2 "Maxima pars ex mercatoribus erat."— Bkuno, de Bello Saxon., p.
213. There were also some free peasants of the Duchy of Franconia ; at
least this is how Stentzel (i. 440) translates the comprovinciales ruslicos
of whom Bernold speaks.

378 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
which, in the twelfth century, were to be seen in
voking the aid of the papacy after throwing off
the imperial yoke, were now almost all devoted to
the German sovereign.1
Naturally the encroachments of royalty and the
relaxed morals of the clergy did not fail to meet
the approbation of some laymen. Henry could
count among his partisans all the irreligious and
profane members of society, — nobles who had been
excommunicated for brigandage, and whose just
condemnation the king himself had begun by ap
proving ; usurpers of Church property, patrons and
accomplices of simony throughout the empire : in
a word, all those whose passions had been thwarted,
whose disorders had been repressed, or who wished,
in their rage, to annihilate all spiritual power,
and at the same time to destroy, if they could,
the unchangeable truth which restrains the incli
nations and humbles the pride of fallen human
nature. In proportion, however, as this party was nu
merous, its moral inferiority was evident, even
from the beginning of the struggle, excepting in
the case of a small number of nobles, such as God
frey of Bouillon,2 who honestly believed that they
1 Milan, above all, which was later the centre of resistance.
2 The pillar of the first crusade. He had received as a fief the marquis-
ate of Antwerp, on the death of his uncle, Godfrey Duke of Lower Lor
raine, and husband of the Grand-Countess Matilda, but almost entirely
separated from her, who was, till his death in 1076, one of the principal
supporters of Henry IV. It was supposed to be by the hand of Godfrey
that King Rodolph received his mortal wound at the battle of the Elster :

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 379
were fulfilling a feudal duty by remaining faithful
to their suzerain, although excommunicated. The
practice of Christian virtues, the enthusiasm of
faith and charity, then so powerful in all classes
of Catholic society, had almost disappeared from
the imperial camp : yet many contemporary his
torians have defended this party ; a it has found,
even among bishops and clergy, up to our own
day, numerous apologists ; but in their narratives
we shall seek in vain for one trait of that generous
courage, of that humble piety, or that magnanimous
unselfishness which brighten every page of the story
of their adversaries.
Laymen of pure and elevated character, on the The aid of
contrary, were to be found in the party of Gregory, more useful
Among these laymen he generally found more valu- than that
able resources than among the clergy ; and he him- cler&y-
self acknowledged this fact in a letter to a certain
Count Adalbert and his wife, wdiere he thanks God
that simple believers, and even women, devote
themselves to the defence of religion, while bishops
shamefully subvert the law of God.2
but, apart from this circumstance, he does not appear in the later portion
of the struggle ; and the good understanding which reigned between the
Pope and him at the time of the first crusade shows that his devotion to
the emperor must have been considerably modified.
1 See the collection entitled, Apologia pro Henrico IV., published by
Goldast in 1611.
2 " Gratias Deo referimus quod vel laici et mulieres ad Dominum
mentes erigunt, et cultum religionis . . . tenere contendunt. Nam et
illi qui propter lncrandas animas episcopi vocati et constituti sunt . . .
his temporibus seducti a diabolo non solum verbum Dei deserunt, sed
impugnare et omniconatu subvertere non desistunt." — Epist. II. ii.

380 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
In the first rank of the lay supporters of the Pope,
men and women, we find Beatrice Countess of Tus^
cany, and above all her daughter, the immortal Ma
tilda, whose affection was Gregory's greatest earthly
consolation — Matilda, who lived in the sight of
God like a nun, and in the sight of men like a
knight ; 1 and who, borrowing the words of the
apostle, declared to Gregory that neither tribula
tion, nor anguish, nor hunger, nor peril, nor perse
cution, nor the sword, nor death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor
the future, should ever separate her from the love of
Peter.2 We know how the heroine kept her word.
Heriem- By their side a place may well be given to Her-
brave lembald, a Milanese noble, who, in the pontificate
knight of
Christ. 0f Alexander IL, had directed, in concert with the
deacon Ariald, the resistance offered by the Lom
bard Catholics to the Nicolaitans3 and simoniacal
priests. Herlembald brought to the service of his
cause remarkable eloquence, undaunted courage,
and indefatigable activity.4 To keep himself hum
ble during the contest, he took pleasure in washing
the feet of the poor, and after having wiped them,
would kiss them and place them on his head while he
* " Qua? spiritualis et religiosissima in occulto, secularem aut, ut verius
dicam, militarem agebat vitam in manifesto." — Vit. S. Anselm. Lucen.,
c. b. Cf. Hug. Flav., p. 228.
2 " Quod non tribulatio, &c. . . . poterat eam separare a caritate Petri.
. . ." — Rom., c. viii. ; Baron., Ann., ad ann. 1074, No. 10.
3 This was the name given to the advocates of clerical marriage.
* " Ipse orator facundissimus et sub habitu seculari athleta Dei soler-
tissimus, &c. . . ." — Bertholdi, Ann., 1077, ap. Peetz, v. p. 2. Cf.
Bonizo, Lib. ad amic, pp. 809, 810.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 381
prostrated himself. The eloquent letters of Gre
gory to his friend bore this inscription — "To Her-
lembald, the intrepid soldier of Christ."1 The
knight justified this title by dying a martyr to
purity and devotion — " killed," says his epitaph,
"by the hands of the slaves of Venus and of Simon
Magus."2 The Catholic world, watching the com
bat, wept for the Christian hero ; his death spread
consternation among the friends of the Church,
even in distant England.3 Urban II. canonised
Herlembald.4 His successor, as head of the Catho
lic party in Lombardy, was another knight, named
Wifred, whose perseverance and courage Gregory
delighted to praise.5
Even at Rome laymen showed devotion and sym
pathy for the Pope, while he was abandoned by
a great number of the cardinals and of the clergy
who held the principal offices in the pontifical
1 "Strenuissimo Christi militi." — Lib. i., Ep. 25, 26.
2 He was killed in 1075. These verses were inscribed on his tomb —
" Hie Herlembaldus miles Christi reverendus
Occisus tegitur: qui ccelesti sede potitur:
Incestus reprobat, siiuonlas et quare (?) damnat,
Hunc Veneris servi perimunt Simonisque maligni. . . ."
3 " Non solum Roma?, sed usque ad Britannicum mare omnes Catho-
lici contristati sunt, nentesque dicebant." — Bonizo, p. 813. There were
miracles worked at the tomb of Herlembald. — Id., p. 821.
4 Cf. Puricelli, Vit. SS.HerlembaldietArialdi; Act. SS. Bolland.,
26 Junii ; Giulini, Memorie delta Citta di Milano, vol. v. p. 106 ; ' Ar-
nulph., Hist. Mediol., b. iii. c. 14, and b. iv. e. 10 ; Landulph.
Senior, b. iii. ap. Muratori, Script., vol. iv.
6 "Sollicitum te de honore Christiana? fidei significasti . . . volumus
ut tu etiam, quem ad confortandos Christi milites animuni et fortitu-
dinem resumpsisse intelligimus, finniter in Deo confidas." — Book iii.
ep. 15.

382 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
court.1 Both complained bitterly of his excessive
severity in repressing abuses. But many chiefs of
the Roman nobility, while Gregory was besieged in
the Castle of St Angelo by Henry IV., remained
inviolably faithful 2 to the Holy Father amidst the
general defection of the people. In this they fol
lowed the example set by Censius, Prefect of Rome,
the unwearied adversary of the schism. Gregory
had prevented this devoted friend from embracing
a religious life, in order that in his high office he
might continue to defend justice and the freedom
of the Church ; and he had been obedient as a
duty: but while remaining in the world, he led the
life of a monk rather than that of a layman.3 The
purity, the almsgiving, the courage, and the mo
desty of Censius, caused him to be regarded as the
model of Christian knights. His glorious life was

i Cardinal Benno, in his diatribe against Gregory, names nine cardi
nals, four of them invested with this dignity by Gregory, who shamefully
betrayed him. Hugh le Blanc, who was the Pope's accuser at the Diet
of Worms, is omitted from the list. Bennon enumerates the function
aries of the Roman court who also abandoned Gregory, and adds, ' ' Et
cuncti milites banda gestantes. " But he adds also that the Pope suc
ceeded in restraining the suburban bishops by arming the laymen against
them t " Convocatis ad se laicis . . . turbis laicorum stipatus. "¦ — Benno,
De Vit. Hildebrandi, ap. Goldast, Apol., p. 2.
2 " Permanserunt quoque nee corrupti, nee decepti, aut devicti nobi-
liores quidam Romani, magis obedire Deo, quam homini cupientes ha?re-
tico." — Vit. S. Anselm. Lucen. a discipulo B. conscripta, ap. Gretsee,
vol. vi. p. 473.
3 " Indefessus miles S. Petri contra schismaticos." — Bemold., Chron.,
ann. 1077, ap. Peetz, p. 434. "Qui non ut laicus, sed veluti fidelis
monachus Deo serviens, justitiam excolebat in omnibus. " — Paul. Been-
ried., ap. Geets., p. 138. See the magnificent eulogy of him by Beeth-
old, Ann., aim. 1077, ap. Peetz, p. 304.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 383
crowned by martyrdom ; and he had the honout
of perishing, chief layman among the Lombard
Catholics, under the sword of the imperialists.1
His holiness was proved by more than twenty
miracles worked at his tomb, and attested before
a synod.2 We have seen how, in France, the powerful
Count Simon of Valois, before becoming a monk,
professed and practised submission towards Gre
gory. In Germany, the greatest nobles of the
empire were found in the front rank of the Pope's
partisans. Among them was the Margrave Leo
pold of Austria, who endured the most cruel suffer
ings in consequence of his unalterable attachment
to the Holy See. There, too, was Count Frederic
of Montbeliard, whom Gregory VII. loved like an
only son, and whom his contemporaries compared
to St Sebastian, the martyr-knight of the first ages
of the Church, and who, after having all his life
fought for St Peter, had the happiness to die on
the day of his festival.3 There was Count Mane-
1 " Hunc propter fidem Gregorio exhibitam . . . Christus martyrio
coronavit . . . occisus est ab apparitoribus. Henriciana? persecutionis. "
— Paul. Berneied., p. 152. " Mira? religionis miles industrius et ad
ministrator, qui beata? vita? et Christiana? militia? tyrocinio. . . . Pro
justitia et fide fausto triumphans martyrio." — Berthold, ap. Pertz,
p. 305. Gf. Bernold, ibid., p. 434.
2 We must not confound this Censius with another noble of the same
name, who held Gregory prisoner in his tower in 1076, after having beaten
and wounded him, and wh om Lambert of Aschaffenburg wrongly describes
as prefect of Rome. Cf. Berthold and Bernold, ad ann. cit. ; Bonizo^
¦Lib. ad amic, pp. 812, 816.
3 "Abhorrens tyrannidem Henrici regis et schisma . . . dominum
ejus jurejurando abnegat. . . ." — Vit. S. Altmanni, ap. Gretser; vol:

384 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
•gold of Woringen, brother of the famous monk
Hermann Contractus, who had brought him up in
the most orthodox principles and habits. The vir
tues of Gregory had gained the heart of the Count,
who often went to visit the Pope in Italy •} but he
paid dearly for his devotion and zeal in carrying
out the decrees fulminated against the incontinence
of priests. His wife was poisoned by the wife of
a priest, who had declared that she would make
Manegold endure the same anguish as she had her
self felt, when she had been forced to separate from
him whom she regarded as her lawful husband.
Laymen Strong in the support of these lay champions,
with the whose intrepid constancy was able on occasion to
execution A J
of the brave martyrdom itself, and, on the other hand,
canons. J '
despairing of being able to bring back to the right
path the greater part of the episcopate and of the
secular clergy, Gregory made incredible efforts to
reawaken the consciences and to stimulate the zeal
of the mass of believers — to act upon them by his
letters and his legates — to raise them up in opposi
tion to the guilty bishops and priests. Such was
his confidence in the Dukes Rodolph of Suabia
vi. p. 454. "Luitolfus ditissimus marchio, in causa S. Petri fidelissi-
mus contra schisma." — Bernold, ann. 1095, ap. Pertz, vol. v. p. 463.
1 " Hie comes sub habitu sa?culari more sancti Sebastiani strenuissi-
mus miles Christi fuit, ecclesiastica? religionis ferventissimus amator et
catholica? pacis indefessus propugnator. Nunc . . . Gregorius, nunc
Ansctinus . . . quasi unicum filium amaverunt. Nunc clerici et mo
nachi, immo omnes religiosi ferventissime dilexerunt. iHic in fideli-
tate S. Petri contra schismaticos usque ad mortem studiosissime certavit
in cujus etiam festivitate de hujus vita? ergastulo ereptus." — Bemold.,
Chron., ann. 1092.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 385
and Berthold of Carinthia, and in Count Robert of
Flanders, that he ventured to confide to them, al
though laymen, the execution of the canons against
simony and the marriage of priests — enjoining
them expressly to brave the authority of the pre
varicating bishops, and to send to him all who
should dispute their competence in such matters.1
Acts such as this served Henry IV. as a pretext
for obtaining from the bishops of the Diet of Worms
a sentence of deposition against the Pope, which was
accounted for in these terms in the letter of notifi
cation sent to Gregory VII. : " Thou hast trampled
under foot the pastors of the Church, the arch
bishops, bishops, and priests, and thou hast thus
courted the favour of the vulgar ; thou hast armed
inferiors against superiors ; thou hast taught con
tempt for the bishops called of God,2 thou wdiom
God has not called ; thou hast given to laymen
a mission against priests, empowering them to
depose and condemn those very men whom the
1 " Rogantes vos et admonentes, ut quidquid episcopi loquantur vel
taceant, vos officium eorum, &c. Si qui autem contra vos quasi istud
officii vestri non esse, aliquid garrire incipiant ; hoc illis respondete, ut
vestram et populi salutem non impedientes, de injuncta vobis obedientia,
ad nos nobiscum disputaturi veniat. " — Regest., Greg. VIL, b. ii. c. 45.
Cf. b. ii. c. 11.
2 "Rectores sancta? Ecclesia?, videlicet archiepiscopos, episcopos, pres-
byteros . . . sub pedibus tuis calcasti, in quorum conculcatione cibi
favorem ab ore comparasti. . . . Dum subditos in pra?latos armasti, dum
episcopos nostros vulgi a Deo vocatos, tu, non vocatus, spernendos do-
cuisti, dum laicis ministerium eorum super sacerdotes usurpasti, ut ipsi
deponant vel condempnent, qui ipsos a manu Domini per impositionem
manuum episcoporum docendos acceperant. . . ." — Bruno, de Bello Sax-
onic, c. 67, ap. Peetz, vol. v. p. 353.
VOL. VI. 2 B

386 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
imposition of episcopal hands had placed over
them as directors."1
The extreme danger of the situation was felt by
the most zealous partisans of the Catholic cause, who
mourned the sight of a Pope compelled to invoke
the help of laymen against men whose duty and
mission it was to serve as models to all believers.
But upon whom could Gregory depend % and what
was the help of the laity, however numerous and
pious, compared to the hostility of the episco
pate ? We must not forget that the episcopal
body, the natural auxiliary and instrument of the
papacy, was then, by a very great majority, given
over to the cause of passions and doctrines most
Terrible contrary to the cause of the Church. Gregory con-
of st Gre- fesses, in one of his letters to St Hugh of Cluny,
gory to St .
Hugh of that it was hard for him to find any bishops justly
and legally appointed in the Western Church2 —
a terrible confession, unique in the mouth of a
Pope, and which shows to what a degree simony,
and a worldly and dissolute life, had degraded the
pontifical character.
1 "Persona igitur Apostolici erigit ab eo . . . ut gladium spiritus
evaginet in episcopos, qui nos per ostium intraverant, qui eum pra?cipien-
tem . . . non audierant : id sibi necessitatis imponentes, ut in correc-
tionem ecclesiasticorum opera utatur secularium, et quorum esset specu
lum vita? clericorum de agendis consulere, sibi modo arrogent clericis
magistrare." — Epistola Beenaedi ad Adalb. et Bernold., de damnatione
schismaticor. , ap. Usseemann, vol. ii. p. 196; and Geetsee, vol. vi. p.
77. Cf. Trithem., Chron. Hirsaug., ann. 1074.
2 " Cum mentis intuitu partes occidentis sive meridiei, aut septen-
trionis video, vix legales episcopos introitu et vita . . . invenio." —
Ep., ii. 49.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 387
Thus the greater number of the bishops were,
both by the shameful origin of their dignity and
by their scandalous manner of life, the systematic
enemies of the independence of the Holy See
and of ancient ecclesiastical discipline, and con
sequently strenuous adversaries of the reforms at
tempted by the sovereign pontiffs from the time
of Leo IX. In all Germany only five or six prel
ates remained faithful to the liberty of the Church
and of her head.1
1 A contemporary names only five : Gebhard, Archbishop of Salzburg ;
Adalbaron, Bishop of Wurtzburg ; Hermann, of Metz; Altmann, of Pas
sau; and Meginhard, of Frisingen. "Pra?tor hos solos quinque, in toto
regno Teutonico £piscopus catholicus inveniri non poterat." — Auct.
Anon., Vit. S. Gebhardi, ap. Canisium, Antiq. led. We must, however,
add to these five prelates, Bureard, Bishop of Halberstadt, the soul of the
Saxon revolt, and great ally of Gregory ; Benno, Bishop of Misnia, apos
tle of the Slavs from 1066 ; and Werner, Bishop of Mersburg, who died in
1093: "Solus tunc in Saxon, catholica? communionis episcopus. " Ac
cording to Bernold, Gregory, in his letter, i. 77, to the Countess Matilda,
only speaks of one among the prevaricating bishops — Werner of Stras
burg, who had come to Rome to prove his repentance. Later, ITdo,
Archbishop of Treves, and Pibo of Toul, Thierry of Verona, and several
others, returned to their duty ; and in 1085, at the end of Gregory's
reign, he had fifteen German bishops on his side, while twenty-five re
mained attached to the emperor. — Waltram, Apolog., vol. iii. c. 20.
But some years later the number of orthodox bishops again sank to five
— those of Passau, Constance, Worms, Wiirtzbnrg, and Metz. — Beenold,
ann. 1089. It is hard to tell in what category we should place Sigefroy
of Mayence, Primate of Germany, who had wished to become a monk at
Cluny : we see him by turns presiding, in 1076, at the Diet of Worms,
which ventured to depose Gregory at the command of Henry, and after
wards electing and crowning, in 1077, King Rodolph, whom the Catholic
party set up in opposition to Henry IV. Cf. Paul Berneied, Lamb.
Schaff., ann. 1076 ; Beethold, ann. 1077 ; Walteam, Apolog., vol. ii.
c. 9. Sigefroy appears to have been truly converted, for, in speaking of his
death, in 1084, Bernold says of him, "Gregori papa? per multas tribn-
lationes adjutor indefessns." — Peetz, v. 439. His successor, Wecilon,
put himself openly at the head of the schismatics.

388 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Among them, indeed, were men admirable for
their courage, virtue, and capacity, such as the
three illustrious and holy friends of the Pope —
Adalbaron, Bishop of Wurtzburg, the boldest ad
versary of Henry IV. ; x Altmann, Bishop of Pas
sau, who voluntarily resigned his see into the
hands of Gregory, because he had received inves
titure from the emperor ; 2 and especially Gebhard,
Archbishop of Salzburg, who always occupied the
foremost place in the Catholic party,3 was its
spokesman on the most solemn occasions,4 and
suffered for the good cause nine years of exile
and trials of every kind. We must mention
side by side with these good shepherds St Ben
no, Bishop of Misnia, who for more than forty
years occupied this see5 adjacent to the Slav
1 See the fine portrait of him given by his antagonist Waltram. — Apo
log. pro Henr. IV. , vol. ii. c. 29.
2 "Hoc offenso scrupulo quod ejus investituram a, manu laica reci-
pisset." — Vit. S. Altmanni, 1619, ap. Geetser.
3 All three distinguished themselves by their sympathy and care for
the monks and their great foundations, to which subject we will return.
See the collection entitled Vitos et miracula SS. Adalberonis episc. Her-
bipolemis, fundatoris monast. Lambacensis : Altmanni episc. Pataviensis,
fundat. monast. S. Nicolai extra inuros Patavice et Gottincensis in
Austria superior. : Gcbhardi, archicp. Salisburg. fundat. monast. Ad-
montensis in Styria.— Omnia ex vetust. Codd. MS. Bibl. Lambacensis
eruta. Augusta? Vindelic, 1619, 18mo.
- Notably at the Conferences of Kauffungen in 1081, and of Gerstun-
gen in 1085. — Bruno, de Bell. Saxon., c. 126, et ap. Peetz, v. 328 ;
Walteam, Apol., b. xi. c. 19 ; Chron. Ursperg., 1015.
5 From 1056 to 1106. He was born in 1010 of a family of Counts,
and was Canon of Gosck. Teithemius, Chron. Hirsaug., ann. 1057,
says that he was first a monk of Corvey, then first abbot of the new
monastery of Gosck, in Thuringia ; but we find no trace of the saint's
monastic life in the remains collected by the Bollandists. — Act. Bol-
land., vol. iii., Junii, p. 148 et seq.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 389
countries, and was the apostle of the province of
which Gregory VII. had made him legate. This
apostolic mission, which kept Benno apart from
the most active combat, did not prevent him from
showing energetically his fidelity to the pontifical
decrees.1 He caused the keys of his cathedral to
be thrown into the Elbe, so as to prevent the ex
communicated from entering it ; 2 and he was pub
licly assailed and struck by the imperialist mar
grave of the country, who, having drawn upon
himself the episcopal censure by usurping the pro
perty of the Church, died suddenly, a year after this
sacrilegious attack, as the bishop had predicted.3
But what could the few orthodox prelates do
against the almost unanimous body of the bishops omy two
of the empire, whose elevation was due either to venture to
. publish
simony or to the caprice of their imperial master, the decree
and whose minds were bent upon throwing; offVI1- ,
x o against
the salutary yoke of canonical discipline ? 4 When ™*™Zf
Gregory, in 1074, issued his first decree of con-
1 " Prsesul sanctissimus tyranno in facie restitit et pro defensione auc-
toritatis Romani Pontificis cunctis diebus fortitur stetit." — Trithem.,
p. 199.
2 They were found again in the belly of a fish : this is why he is
always represented in episcopal robes holding his crosier in one hand,
and in the other a fish and a. key.-^Act. SS. Bolland., 1. e. pp. 150,
169, and 204.
3 Act. SS. Bolland., pp. 149, 171 ; Teithem., 1. c. St Benno died
June 16, 1106, and was canonised by Adrian VI. in 1523.
" In the first rank of these great criminals we must place William
Bishop of Utrecht, the chief instrument in the deposition of Gregory at
Worms, and who died soon after, convinced of his own eternal condem
nation, and bidding his friends not to pray for a lost soul such as his. 
Paul Lang., ap. Bowden, ii. 127.

390 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
demnation against married priests, out of more
than forty bishops in Germany, two only —
those of Mayence and Passau — dared to publish
it. Two years later (1076) nineteen German
bishops sat at the famous assembly of Worms,
where, at the command of Henry IV., they did
not hesitate to declare the Pope deprived of his
dignity, even before any sentence had been given
by him against the king. There were three
bishops among the five imperial councillors ; and
it is usual to regard as the principal authors of
Henry's crimes these three prelates, whose dis
missal had been often and vainly solicited by the
Empress Agnes, Pope Alexander IL, and Hilde
brand himself.1
If the French episcopate had for some years
offered a less scandalous spectacle, it was owing
to the wholesale execution done by Gregory when,
at the Council of Lyons, in 1055, being then only
a sub-deacon and apostolic legate, he had, as we
have seen, persuaded fifty-one bishops to give up
the sees which they had obtained by simony.2 But
the simoniacal leprosy was not entirely extirpated
from the Church of France till long after the time
of Gregory, and, then, thanks to the predominance
of that new spirit which he had infused into the
clergy.3 Almost immediately upon his acces-
1 Those of Ratisbon, Constance, and Lausanne. The latter, Burcard,
was publicly married.
2 Labbe and Coletti, Condi., vol. xii. p. 5.
3 A bishop, equally pious and learned, has borne severe testimony to

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 391
sion, Gregory was obliged to reprove the French pwiip,
bishops . severely for their blamable weakness France,
* J protects
with regard to King Philip, who was disgracing ^1S^°";
his kingdom by all kinds of excess.1 Had they
not seen Manasses, Archbishop of Reims, and
enemy of the monks, crown Henry IV. at the
very time when he was besieging Gregory VIL
in Rome ? 2
As to the Italian bishops, they were yet more
scandalous and more embittered against the Holy
See than those beyond the Alps. In Lombardy
they showed themselves faithful to the traditions
of their predecessors, who, from the ninth century,
under the Emperor Lothair, had taken the part of
temporal authority against the independence of
the Roman Church.3 The bishops of Northern
Italy, for the most part, signalised themselves
throughout the struggle as the most implacable
and dangerous enemies of the Holy See. It was
these bishops, and especially those of Milan, Bo-
the simony still practised by the French bishops at the beginning of the
following century : —
" Nam sunt praalati vigilantes utilitati
Qui fa. 'knit questum, si dona Dei mauifestum
Et Christum vendunt. Nee eos alii reprehendunt :
Quidam ten-ore tolerant : aliique fervore :
Nulli donatus aratis est pontificatus . . . :
His plenus vitiis est totus Gallicus orbis."
— Marbode, Bishop of Rennes, in Elog. Milonis, ap. Mabill., Anna!.,
vol. v., App. No. 58.
1 Ep. ii. 5.
2 Stentzel, i. 476. This coronation, which took place in 1081, is
different from the one celebrated by the anti-Pope Guibert after Henry
had taken possession of Rome.
* Lenormant, Cours d'histoire moderne, 1846, p. 115.

392 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
logna, and Trevisa, who most bitterly reproached
Henry IV. for his humility, perhaps sincere, at
Canossa, and who urged him into the abyss by
inciting him to break his oaths.1 Thirty Lombard
bishops at Brixen chose Gilbert of Ravenna, one of
their number, as anti-Pope ; 2 and even before this,
they had acknowledged the intruding Archbishop
of Milan, and supported all the schismatic violences
of the Assembly of Worms.3 In many provinces
there were scarcely any orthodox bishops,4 and
the small number of faithful prelates were consi
dered as fools or infamous by the crowd of pre
varicators,5 who, to quote the words of Gregory,
" instead of being the pillars of the Church, de
sired only to injure her, and, if possible, to bring
her to destruction." 6
In Italy, as in France and Germany, the clerks
1 " Schismaticorum et concubinariorum episcoporum instigatione ac-
cidit, ut vix in Germaniam reversus iterum in pristina relaberetur. " —
Vit. Greg., ap. Labbe, Condi, ed. Coletti, xii. 233. "Stabat turba
maligna pontificum valde metuentes hanc fore pacem,'' &c. — Donniz.,
Vit. Mathild.
2 June 25, 1080. 3 At the Council of Placentia, 1076.
4 " Quod faciebant reliqui Episcopi Lotharingia? et Langobardia?, ex-
ceptis perpaucis qui magisterio Petri adha?rebant, quorum vita . . .
publica notabatur infamia, insana dicebatur et ha?retica." — Hugo Fla
vin., Chron. Vird., p. 228, ed. Labbe. We see that the bishops of
Lorraine, those of Toul, Verdun, &c, rivalled those of Lombardy in ill-
doing. 6 The church of Lodi, under Bishop Opizonus, escaped this universal
contagion. — Regest. Greg. VII., b. ii. ep. 55. " Per omnem Longobar-
diam ubi catholici non haberentur episcopi, qui tunc inveniebantur certe ¦
rarissimi." — Vit. S. Anselm. Lucens., ap. Geetsee, vol. vi. p. 474.
6 " Longobardorum Episcopi . . . quantam superbiam quantosque
malitia? conatus adversus nos adorsi sint, ad dicendum quidem triste, ad
audiendum est abominabile, cum illi qui in ecclesia Dei columna? esse

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 393
or secular priests offered even a more stubborn
resistance than that of the bishops; and this is
explained by the fact that upon them fell the
whole weight of the prohibition of marriage. The
episcopate, with some exceptions, had indeed re
mained free from this stain. Notwithstanding,
the clergy in most dioceses opposed, by the most
violent means, such of the bishops as wished to
obey the Pope. At Rouen, the Archbishop John
narrowly escaped death at the hands of his clergy,
who drove him with stones from his metropolis
when he pronounced the anathema against married
priests. At Brescia, when the bishop, alone among
his Lombard colleagues, wished to publish the
decrees of the Council of 1059, he was assailed by
his clergy, and so seriously hurt, that at one time
his life was despaired of.1
When Archbishop Sigefroy of Mayence tried to
read the decree of the Pope, which ordered the
priests of his province to give up either their wives
or the ministry of the altar, these priests flung
themselves upon him, and compelled him to save
his life by stopping the reading he had commenced.2
The virtuous Altmann, Bishop of Passau, one of.
debuerunt, non modo in compage comporis Christi nullum locum teneant,
sed pertinaciter impugnatores et quantum ad se destructores existant." —
Ep. Geeg. ad Genuenos, ap. Hug. Flavin., p. 217, ed. Labbe.
1 In 1072. " Multum contra impudicos presbyteros pro auferendis
pellicibus laboravit : a quibus dum in synodo concubinas eas sub anathe-
mate prohiberet, lapidibus percussus aufugitde ecclesia." — Oed. Vital.,
vol. iv. c. 2. See the canon he wished to publish. — Lbid., c. 9.
1 Dollinger, vol. ii. sect. 82, p. 89.

394 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
the five German prelates who always remained
faithful to the cause of the Church, would have
been torn in pieces by his clergy if some nobles
had not snatched him out of their hands.1
council of Otto of Frisingen 2 says expressly that at the
Brixen. s-~_
meeting at Brixen, in 1080, where Gregory was a
second time deposed by the imperialist bishops,
and where the anti-Pope, Gilbert of Ravenna, was
elected, the bishops were chiefly determined by
the violent protestations of their clergy against
the prohibition of marriage fulminated by Gre
gory.3 Almost everywhere the secular clergy pronounced
themselves in crowds for Henry IV. : they under
stood, by a true instinct, that the cause of sacer
dotal concubinage was intimately connected with
the encroachments of temporal power. Naturally
the priests and deacons suspended or interdicted
by orthodox bishops found a secure refuge with
Henry.4 On the other hand, a contemporary says
that the moment a clerk renounced the world,
1 Vita Altmanni, c. ii., ap. Pertz, Scrip, rer. Austr., vol. i.
2 " Laici seculari consideratione accensi, et episcopi consilio clericorum
suorum, quibus recenter connubia ab eodem pontifice inhibita fuerant,
inflammati, voluntati principis accedebant." — Otto Frising., ap. Gol-
dast, Apol., p. 19.
3 Herm., book lxii. sect. 22. See also on this subject the letter of St
Anselm of Canterbury to Urban II. on the violence which Foulques,
Bishop of Beauvais, had to endure from the clergy of that diocese :
' ' Quia eos a pravis consuetudinibus, et maxime a muliemm remota
conversatione vult prohibere, et filios eorum ... a pra?bendarum here
ditaria successione . . . arcere." — S. Anselm., Ep., ii. 33, ed. Gerberon,
p. 354.
4 See the story of the deacon whom Bishop Altmann forbade, in a

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 395
fasted and mortified himself, let his beard grow, or
showed any other mark of gravity in his dress or
behaviour, he was accused of high treason, loaded
with abuse, and branded with the name of Church
man x or sacristan. The married and imperialist
clergy denounced these virtues as an insult to their
master, and thus themselves indicated the true
nature of their opposition to the Pope. This
clergy, besides, shrank from no violence,2 being
sure of always finding a supporter in a sovereign
who defended their interests with so much warmth
that he publicly flogged and expelled the regular
and celibate canons of St Nicholas of Passau, in
order to replace them by married priests.3
The famous letter written by the clerks of Cam-
bray to those of Reims, to incite them to defend Letter of
the pretended freedom of the clergy, is wellofCambray
¦ 1 1 1 ill *° tnose of
known — a letter which clearly proves both the ap- Reims.
probation felt by the masses of the people for the
papal reforms, and also the unity existing between
solemn mass, to read the Gospel : " Ad Heinricum, pravorum refugium,
fidens confugit." — Vit. S. Altmanni, ap. Gretser, vi. 455.
1 "Si aliquem qui forsitan pro amore patria? ccelestis sa?culum reli
quisset, carnem macerasset, quemque aliqua corporis molestia attenuas-
set, sive qui, ut tunc moris erat, barbam quasi in signum religionis enu
trisset, quasi regii honoris proditores contumeliis afficiebant, insultanter
eos Ecclesianos appellantes." — Gesta Trevir. archiep., ap. Marten.
Coll. Ampliss., vol. iv., quoted by Bowden, ii. 137, who has well pointed
out this important point of view.
2 Mabill., Ann., b. lxv., No. 112 ; Vit. S. Altmanni, ap. Pertz et
Grets., vi. 452.
" These wretches had burned alive a man who maintained that simon
iacal and married priests ought not to celebrate mass. — Regest. Greg.
VIL, b. iv. ep. 20.

396 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
the defenders of clerical marriages and those of
imperial usurpation. " We are loaded with abuse
by our neighbours ; we are becoming objects of
derision and contempt to all around us ; and the
evil will be without remedy if we do not skilfully
organise our resistance.1 You know that the
audacity of the Romans is such that they no
longer respect anything, since they dare to en
croach even upon the royal majesty, to excom
municate metropolitans, to depose bishops,2 to
enthrone ambitious men under pretext of religion,
to hold councils without number, and to subject
us to foreign domination. They command each
one to be content with a single benefice, when we
require two or three at least in order to live de
cently.3 They spare us in nothing : already they

1 " In tuenda publica clericorum libertate.''
2 " Facti sumus opprobrium vicinis nostris, subsannatio et derisum his
qui in circuitu nostro sunt, nisi ad ea qua? pra?tenduntur vestra nostraque
solerter invigilaverit industria. Si quidem Romanorum, ut audistis, im-
portunitas tanta tamque vehemens nobis incubuit, ut nihil jam intaetum
relinquas : pra?sertim cum etiam de imminutione regia? majestatis agere
audeant, metropolitanos vero excommunicare," &c. — Epist. cleric Cameras
ad Rem. in gratiam uxorum suarum, ap. Mabill., Ann., vol. v. App.
No. xi. The popular rage against married priests often degenerated into
horrible excesses, if we may believe other popular complaints: "Quo-
cumque prodeunt, clamores insultantium, digitos ostendentium, colaphos
pulsantium proferunt. . . . Alii membris mutilati . . . alii per longos
cruciatus superbe necati." — Epist. cujusdam ap. Martene et Durand,
Thes. nov. Anecd., vol. i. p. 231. " Laici sacra mysteria temerant . . .
in extremo vita?, viaticum dominicum et usitatum ecclesia? obsequium
sepultura?, a presbyteris conjugatis accipere parvipendunt. . . . Corpus
Domini a presbyteris conjugatis consecratum sa?pe pedibus conculcaver-
unt . . ."— Sigebeet Gemblac, ann. 1075.
3 "Cum vix duobus aut tribus possit provenire necessariorum suffici-
entia." — Ibid.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 397
have forbidden the ordination of priests' sons, and
now they wish to forbid marriage not only to
priests, but to all orders of the clergy. . . .
Our pastors, that they may have the air of obey
ing the authority of Rome, willingly listen to all
these things. . . . We ought to feel the intol
erable dishonour which is about to fall upon us ;
we are about to be shamed by all the laity who
formerly honoured us. If you are men, therefore,
you will protest with us against measures which
will bring such opprobrium upon us ; for our part,
we are irrevocably determined to maintain our
customs, which have been wisely established by
the indulgence of our fathers, and in no way to
agree to unaccustomed and dangerous prescrip
tions." 1
In Germany the priests held the same language.
" The Pope," they said, speaking of Gregory,
" wishes to force men to live like angels, and to
do violence to human nature. As for us, we would
rather renounce our priesthood than our marriage ;
and then the Pope will have to get angels, if he
can, to govern the Church of God."2 Gregory,
1 " Apud laicos, quibus lecturi sumus in sibillem. . . . Quod si viri
estis, si viriliter agere vultis, parvipendenda sunt hujusmodi concilia.
. . . Nobis autem ha?c est immutabilis sententia. Consuetudinem hac-
tenus nostram, religiosorum patrum a?quanimitate sapienter incultam,
inconvulsam tenere, neque inusitatis ac periculosis traditionibus in aliquo
consentire." — Ibid. Do we not seem to hear the modern advocates of
the pretended national traditions of France against Catholic unity ?
2 " Vehementer . . . tota factio clericorum, hominem plane hereti-
cum et vesani dogmatis esse, clamitans, qui . . . violenta exactione
homines vivere cogeret ritu angelorum, et dum consuetum cursum na-

398 £T GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
however, had no need to seek angels to confound
and replace these rebels : had he not about him
thousands of monks who, for seven centuries, had
been giving to the world the example of chastity,
devotion, and obedience, and who hurried in crowds
to the banner he had set up 1 It was, as might
have been expected from the fundamental law of
their foundation, among the children of St Bene
dict that the generous attempt of Gregory to re
store to honour clerical celibacy, purity of election,
and the independence of the Church, found the
most energetic and most persevering support.
only three Among all the monasteries of imperial or royal
teries take foundation placed under the hand of the emperor
part with .
the em- 0r his lieutenants, only those of Farfa in Italy,
and of Hersfeld and St Gall north of the Alps,1 '
are spoken of as having joined the party of Henry
IV. St Gall was then ruled by a relation of the
emperor, who had been forcibly installed there, to
the prejudice of a monk of the house who was
devoted to the Pope.2 Henry had also placed
tura? negaret, fornicationi fra?na laxaret . . . malle se sacerdotium quam
conjugium deserere, et tunc visurum eum, cui homines sorderent unde
gubernandis per Ecclesiam Dei plebibus angelos comparaturus esset." —
Lambeet. Aschaff., ad ann. 1074.
1 Mabill., Annal, b. lxv. No. 24. The German Cassander, in his
recent writings against Gregory VIL, p. 107, cites complacently the
letter of the Abbey of Lorsch to the emperor contra Hildebrandinos
monachos de Hirsaugia ; but he forgets to say that this Abbey of Lorsch
had been violently confiscated in 1066, and given to Adalbert of Bremen,
enemy of the legitimate Pope. This letter also belongs to the time of
Henry V. We quote some passages from it further on.
2 This monk was called Lutold of Nellenburg.— Burkaed, Cas. S.
Galli, c. 7. Cf. Beethold, ann. 1079, 1092, ap. Usseem., vol. ii. pp.

peror.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 399
abbots of his own choice at Hersfeld, and at the
Same time had chosen as bishops there some of his
most zealous partisans.1 None the less, however,
this abbey furnished, in the person of the monk
Lambert of Aschaffenburg, the most impartial and
orthodox historian of the epoch.2
In other regions of the empire monks endured
insult, floggings, and expulsion, rather than betray
the cause of the Church, being certain that they
should find, in their exile, certain and generous
support from those of their friends whom perse
cution had not yet touched. This support never
failed them, whatever might be the greatness of
distance or the difference of countries. When
Bishop Thierry of Verdun, to punish the monks
of St Vannes for their unalterable attachment to
the true Pope, drove them out naked upon the
highway, they escaped to Burgundy, forty in
number, and, at St Benigne, at Dijon, under the
crosier of Abbot Jarenton, found a -new home,

97, 152. From this crisis onward the great Abbey of St GaU lost its
ancient ascetic character, to become a political and feudal military
association under a monastic exterior. Its monks, however, long main
tained their abstinence and regularity of worship. — Aex., vol. i. pp.
324, 326.
1 Among others, Hartwig, Archbishop of Magdeburg, his principal
negotiator with the Saxons, whose metropolis Magdeburg was. We
must not confound him with another Hartwig, Archbishop of the same
diocese, who succeeded the partisan of Henry, and placed himself in the
first rank of orthodox prelates ; also Waltram, Bishop of Naumbon, the
most skilful of Henry's apologists. — Goldast, Apolog. pro Henr., pp.
10, 15, 20, 29, and 41.
2 Goldast describes him thus : " Monachus pra?ter sententiam collegii
sui schismaticus et Hildebrandinus. " — L. l. p. 15.

400 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
where they were received as angels,1 and where
they lived in the most complete union with their
new brothers, till the day when their dying per
secutor recalled them that he might obtain their
pardon and their blessing.2
The order Gregory, himself sprung from the monastic ranks,
diet su™e and to whom his adversaries applied the title of
lory vii. monk as a term of reproach,3 had never doubted
with his . .
most zeal- that the order of St Benedict would furnish the
ous parti
sans, boldest and most numerous champions to the cause
of the Church. It was for this reason that during
the twelve years of his pontificate he applied
himself, as his predecessors had done, to defend
and maintain with energy the special liberties of
1 " Velut angeli Dei recepti sunt. "—Laurent, Leod., Hist. Episc.
Virdun. , in Spicileg. , vol. ii. p. 245.
2 Ibid. Among them was the historian' Hugh de Flavigny, author
of the celebrated chronicle published by Labbe, Nova Bibl. manuscr.,
vol. i. Soon after their return, on the death of Thierry, they were again
exiled for the same cause, and Rodolph, Abbot of St Vannes, died in
1099, at Flavigny, in Burgundy, surrounded by the highest nobility of
the country, who reverenced him profoundly. There is nothing more
curious for the study of the dispositions and sentiments of the clergy and
people of Lorraine at this time, than the account of the translation of the
body of this abbot from Flavigny to Verdun, ap. Hug. Flavin., pp. 265,
267, amidst the applause of the crowd who had before applauded his
exile, and considered him an enemy of the laws and of his country.
' ' Qui aliquando ab ineptis et minus sapientibus subversor legum et
patriae . . . appellabatur, hie nunc ab omnibus pater civitatis et patria?
prommciabatur. . . . Videre erat suburbanos homines et etiam rusti-
canos, compati doloribus monachorum . . . et dicere : Boni monachi,
non amplius recuperabitis patrem tarn pium, tarn amantissimum ; merito
dolitis, merito tristamini." — Ibid., p. 207.
3 ' ' Heinricus, non usurpative sed pia Dei ordinatione rex, Hilde-
brando, jam non apostolico, sed f also monacho." This is the heading of
the letter by which Henry announced to Gregory the sentence of deposi
tion pronounced against him at Worms, January 24, 1076.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 401
monasteries, and, above all, their freedom from
episcopal jurisdiction. At the time of his acces
sion, in 1073, Gregory espoused, warmly and suc
cessfully, the cause of the monks of St Remy of
Reims against the Archbishop Manasses.1 In the
same year he ordered Lanfranc to maintain the
liberties of St Edmundsbury against Bishop Ard-
fast.2 At a later period, he successively and effec
tually protected the privileges of St Hubert,3 St
Michael of Verdun,4 St Gilles,5 Poultieres,6 St
Michael of Chiusa,7 Remiremont,8 St Benigne,9
and many other monasteries, against the bishops
who denied the authority of these privileges.
In Germany and Spain he granted several new
exemptions, and gave to the communities thus en
franchised the privileges of Cluny. He acted in
the same manner with regard to the important
Abbeys of Schaffhausen on the Rhine, and of St
Victor of Marseilles,10 both of which furnished him
with valuable auxiliaries. He re-established the
privileges, and at the same time the strict observ
ance of the rule at Grasse and at Monte'najour.11
One of his letters to the Bishop of Turin, in
favour of the monastery of St Michael of Cluny,
deserves to be quoted : " Do you think," the Pope

,..l., b. i. ep. 13. 2 Ep. i. 31.
Ep. i. 61, and Vit. Theod. abb., in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 575.
4 Ep. i. 81. 6 Ep. i. 68. " Ep. ii. 15.
7 Ep. ii. 33, 69. 3 Ep. iv. 2.
9 Bull of June 18, 1078, ap. Perard, p. 94.
10 Ep. vii. 8, and viii. 24. u Ep. ix. 6. j
VOL. VI. 2 C

402 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
writes to this prelate, "that bishops have re
ceived, with their pastoral staff, such an amount
of power and licence that they may oppress as
they please the monasteries which are in their
dioceses, and diminish religious fervour there by
capricious and unlimited requirements 1 Are you
then ignorant that popes have frequently freed
the monasteries from the rule of bishops, and
bishops from that of metropolitans, on account
of the vexations inflicted by superiors ? Do you
not know that it has been their object, by the
gift of lasting liberty, to attach the churches to
the Apostolic See, as the members are attached
to the head % Consider the privileges granted
by our predecessors, and you will see that it
has been forbidden even to archbishops to fulfil
their office in abbeys unless invited by the abbots,
lest the peace of the cloister should be disturbed
by the influx and the conversation of secular
visitors." l
We must, however, guard ourselves from any
1 " Numquid ne existimas episcopos hanc in pastorali regimine potes-
tatem atque licentiam suscepisse, ut monasteria, qua? in suis parochiis
consistunt, quantum velint opprimant, et studium religionis sua? pra?la-
tionis occasione, ha?e et ilia potenter exigendo, et potestatem suam exer-
cendo, comminuant ? An ignoras quod sancti patres plerumque et reli-
giosa monasteria de subjectione episcoporum et episcopatus de parochia
metropolitana? sedis propter infestationem pra?sidentium diviserunt, et
perpetua libertate donantes apostolica? sedi velut principalia capiti suo
membra adha?rere sanxerunt ? Percurre sanctorum patrum privilegia, et
invenies ipsis etiam archiepiscopis ofiicium, nisi forte ab abbate vocatis,
in plerisque ccenobiis facere prohibitum esse, ne forte monastica quies
sa?cularium personarum frequentia et conversatione turbaretur." — Epist.
Greg. VII, b. ii. cp. 69.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 403
hasty conclusion, founded upon the preceding
facts, that Hildebrand despised the rights of the
episcopate. On the contrary, when the bishops
had reason to complain of the monasteries, he
never hesitated to do them justice,1 even when
it was to the detriment of the holy house of
Cluny, from which he himself came.2 As prince
of bishops, what he chiefly desired in favouring
and protecting monks wTas to free his brethren of
the episcopate from the shameful bonds which en
chained them, and to restore to them that freedom
and dignity which become those whom the Holy
Spirit has chosen to oversee the work of God.3
In order to succeed in his work, Gregory VII.
was forced to draw from the Monastic Orders the
counsellors, ministers, and legates, whose char
acter, talents,- and devotion to the Church we
have now to describe.
Among these invaluable fellow -workers theThecoun- sbIIots of
highest rank belongs, by age and authority, to Gregory
the holy Abbot Hugh of Cluny, whose virtues monks-
and character we have already celebrated, who
was the superior of the monk Hildebrand at
Cluny, and whom Gregory never ceased to rever
ence and to consult, from the day of his entrance
into the monastery to that of his departure for
Rome. The profound and affectionate respect felt
1 See, among others, ep. i. 30, 33, and 66 ; vi. 11.
2 Ep. vi. 33.
3 "Pcsuit episcopos regere Ecclesiam." — Act, xx. 28.

404 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
by Gregory VII. for Hugh had done nothing but
increase since the time when, having gone as
legate to Cluny, he had thought that he saw our
Lord seated in the chapter beside the abbot, dic
tating to him his instructions for the maintenance
of the rule.1 At all times, indeed, Hildebrand had
anxiously sought Hugh's approbation, knowing,
by virtue of that mysterious gift which certain
souls possess, how to read the old man's secret
thoughts when his approbation was not thorough.
Interesting anecdotes have been transmitted to us
which show the profound sympathy and commu
nity of thought between these two holy monks.
One day when they were travelling together,
coming back from the deposition of a simoni
acal bishop condemned by Hildebrand, as they
reached the ford of a river, the latter, passing
before Hugh, said to him, "Why have you such
thoughts of me ? " Hugh, astonished, replied,
"Are you a god, thus to know men's thoughts.?"
" No," answered Hildebrand, " I am not a god,
but I seemed to hear what you said to your
self in your own heart : you were asking your
self whether I had not deposed this bishop out
of pride rather than out of zeal for God. . . .
I looked at you while you were still in the middle
1 "Ubi cum aliquandiu sedisset, collateratum B. Hugoni Christum
vidit, monastici regulas ordinis ac decreta suggerentem. Egressus inde,
nonnullis qua? viderat indicavit. Ex tunc ille et familiaritatem servi
Christi devotius amplexatus est, et sanctitatem pra?dicavit." — Hildeb.
Cenom., Vit. S. Hugo., ap. Bibl. Cluniac, p. 419.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 405
of the river, and this idea came, as if by a myste
rious thread, from your lips to my ear."1
Another time, when following with the papal
retinue, seeing Gregory surrounded by the official
pomp of his position as Chancellor of the Church,
and receiving marks of the profoundest submission
from the secular authorities, Hugh asked him
self if so much splendour lavished upon a low
born little man2 would not fill him with pride.
At that moment Hildebrand called out to him,
" You judge wrongly a man who, in this at least,
is innocent ; for he knows perfectly well that all
these honours are rendered, not to him, but to the
holy apostles."3 It was not, then, a mind pre
judiced in his favour, not the yielding spirit of a
flatterer, which Gregory, when made Pope, desired
to bind to him ; he wanted a friend to whom he
could confide his anxieties, and of whom he could
ask the light and consolation he needed. Hugh,
1 " Simul anibo profecti ad flumen quoddam pervenientes transvade-
bant. . . . Archidiaconus vero pra?cessit abbatem ; transmisso flumine,
conversns retro respexit et dixit : Cur talia de me cogitasti 1 Abbas
vero respondit : Tu ne es Deus qui cogitationes hominum te scire asse-
veras ? Deus, inquit, non sum. . . . Venientem te per alveum fluminis
respexi, et quasi filum tensum ab ore tuo usque ad aures meas : inde,
hoc perpendisse te sensi." — Paul^Bernried, Vit. S. Gregor. VIL, ap.
Bolland., vol. vi., Maii, p. 115.
2 " Cuncta ei submittebatur secularis potentia. . . . Homuneionem
exilis statura?, despicabilis parentela?. " — Guill. Malmes. , ed Savil. , b.
iii. p. 60.
3 "Male cogitas de homine hujus duntaxat rei innocente. Non enim
hunc honorem mihi, sed beatis apostolis tributum existimo." The good
Hugh, "suffusus pudore," asking his friend how he had been able to
guess his thoughts, Gregory answered, "Ha?c ex animo tuo quasi per fis-
tulam ad aures meas deducta est." — Ibid.

406 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Gregory's besides, occupied a kind of intermediary position
absoluteconfidence between the emperor and Rome. Of a naturally
in Hugh r -if.
of cluny. moderate character, he had been, since the first
years of • his abbacy, the intimate friend of the
Emperor Henry III., who persuaded him to be
godfather to his son, the unhappy Henry IV. A
special embassy to Hungary with which he was
charged, for the purpose of reconciling the king
Andrew with the German emperor,, shows the
double confidence the negotiator inspired. At the
Diet of Worms in 1072, he had been chosen, with
the ex-regent Agnes, then a nun at Rome, to
re-establish peace between the young king and
the princes of the empire ; and after the famous
interview of Canossa (1077), he was the media
tor, together with the Countess Matilda, between
Gregory and Henry IV.1 Although the Abbot
of Cluny, like all the Church, considered the em
peror's excommunication valid,2 yet it is prob
able that he did not cease to show to his royal
godson all the interest compatible with his duties
as a Catholic.
Gregory had nevertheless boundless confidence
in his friend. In the first year of his pontificate
he complained bitterly that his beloved Hugh
would not join him at Rome.3 Nothing could
1 Paul Berneied, Vit. S. Greg. VIL, No. 84.
2 Ep. i. 62.
3 See passim the Regist. Greg. VIL, ap. Labbe, Condi., especially vi.
17, where he calls Hugh his dearest brother. We see by ep. viii. 2,
that attempts were made to separate them.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 407
shake this faithful friendship:1 he employed Hugh
whenever it was possible in the most important
legations and" missions, being persuaded, as he
wrrote to the Bishop of Die, that no entreaties, no
favour, no acceptance of persons, would ever turn
the holy monk from the path of justice. " I beg
you," he wrote to Hugh himself in 1075, "I
conjure you, I implore you, to obtain, by pressing
solicitation, from those whose merits deserve that
they should be heard, that they will pray to the
Lord for me with all the love they owTe to their
mother. And since we must fight with both
hands to vanquish the rage of the impious, and
protect the peace of the monks, seeing that no
prince cares for them, we enjoin you with brotherly
affection to lend us as much assistance as you can,
exhorting those who love St Peter, if they would
be truly his sons and his soldiers, not to prefer
secular princes to him ; for they can give only
ephemeral rewards, while he promises eternal ones,
and, thanks to the power intrusted to him, can
lead them into the heavenly country. For I need
to distinguish clear as the day who those are
who are truly faithful, who serve the prince of
heaven for love of the celestial glory, with as much
devotion as those other princes who can give them

1 "Confidimus enim in Dei misericordia et conversatione vita? ejus,
quod nullius deprecatio, nullius favor aut gratia, nee aliqua prorsus per
sonalis acceptio eum a tramite rectitudinis dimovere poterit." — Lib. iv.
ep. 22.

408 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
only a miserable and earthly hope."1 Hugh, who
said of Gregory that he was a gentle tyrant— a
lion when it was needful to strike, a lamb when it
was fitting to pardon2— could only atone for his
own absence from Rome by giving up, so to speak,
to Gregory the most eminent monks of his abbey,
such as the pious and learned Gerald, Grand-prior
of Cluny, created by Gregory Cardinal-bishop of
Ostia;3 Odo, a young noble of Champagne, who
became in succession Prior of Cluny and Cardinal-
bishop of Ostia, and was pointed out by Gregory
on his deathbed as worthy to succeed him, and
afterwards elected Pope under the name of Urban
II. ; and Anastasius, a Venetian noble and legate
in Spain.4 These three monks held the first rank
among the indefatigable legates who propagated
and nourished the work of Gregory in Europe, and
whom he instructed to make themselves known
to the oppressed as their natural defenders, and

1 "Precor, exoro, rogo, ut eos qui merentur audiri pro vita? mentis.
. . . Et quia utraque manu debemus pro dextera uti . . . quando qui
dem non est princeps qui talia curet. . . . Eos monendo . . . qui
beatum Petrum diligunt, ut si vere illius volunt esse filii et milites, non
habeant illo cariores sa?culares principes. . . . Volo quidem luce clarius
intelligere, qui revere sint illi fideles, et qui eumdem ccelestem principem
non minus pro coelesti gloria diligunt, quam eos quibus pro spe terrena
et misera subjiciuntur. " — Ep. ii. 49.
2 " Blandum tyrannum, quia leonem videbat, et agnum : leonem in feri-
endo, quando culpa exigebat ; agnum in parcendo, quando ratio postula-
bat."— Bibl. dun., p. 452.
3 Regist. Greg. VII., b. i. c. 62. See the history of his conversion
in the Vit. S. Udalr. Clun. in Act. SS. 0. B. , vol. ix. p. 786. He died
in 1077.
4 Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 488.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 409
to the oppressors as the faithful friends of
justice.1 Another Hugh, also sprung from the monastic
ranks, had sufficient merit to be employed by
Gregory in the most important missions, and to be
one of the four monks from among whom he wished
his successor to be chosen.2 This was Hugh of
Burgundy, prior of the monastery of St Marcel-lez-
Chalons,3 and afterwards treasurer of the church at
Lyons. While holding this office he passed through
Die, on his way home, at the moment when the
legate Gerald was deliberating with the canons and
principal citizens of the town on the means of sup
planting the simoniacal Bishop Ancelin, who had
refused to appear before the representative of the
Holy See, and remained shut up in his episcopal
palace with a well-armed garrison.4 It was not
1 " TJt oppressi vos prudentes defensores inveniant, et opprimentes
amatores justitia? cognoscant."— Ep. vi. 8. The Pope had the more rea
son- to employ monks as legates because he had seen himself betrayed in
a manner most hurtful to the Church by two of his bishop-legates, the
Patriarch of Aquilea and the Bishop of Padua, in 1079. — Berthold, ap.
Peetz, v. 319.
2 Didier, Abbot of Monte Cassino, who was Victor III. ; Odo, formerly
Prior of Cluny, Bishop of Ostia (Urban II.) ; Anselm, formerly monk of
Cluny, Bishop of Cluny ; and Hugh, then Archbishop of Lyon.
3 Preuves de Vhist. de la maison de Vergy,n. 82; Mabill., b. lxx.-
lxxxv. ; Hist. litt. de France, vol. ix. p. 302. He was nephew of Hugh
of Bui-gundy, and elected Bishop of Die in 1073 ; legate of Gregory
VII. from 1074 to 1085 ; Archbishop of Lyon in 1085 ; legate of Urban
II. in 1088 ; went on pilgrimage to St James' of Compostella in 1095,
to Jerusalem in 1102, and died in 1106.
4 See the curious account of this election in Hugues de Flavigny,
Chron. Virdun., p. 194, ap. Labbe. Ancelin had so wasted the revenue
of his diocese that his successor had no means of living ; all the
churches dependent on it had been given up to knights or other laymen.

410 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
without some surprise that at this moment the
orthodox party assembled in the cathedral saw
the young Hugh, all booted and spurred,1 enter
the building to pray there, before remounting his
Popular horse to continue his journey.2 A sudden inspira-
Hughof tion took possession of the Catholics of Die, and
to the ' warned them that this stranger was the bishop
bishopricof Die. they required. They surrounded him, seized upon
him, presented him to the legate, and proclaimed
him their legitimate bishop.3 He resisted, strug
gling with them ; but suddenly the sun having
pierced a fog which, until that moment, had ob
scured his light, every one saw in this circum
stance a mark of the Divine approbation, and
popular enthusiasm carried all before it.4 The
legate forced Hugh to accept, and he resumed
his journey to Rome in the character of Bishop-
elect, though he had only received the tonsure.5
This was the year in which Hildebrand, by a
similar impulse, had been constrained to become
bishop of bishops. He recognised in the young
elect of Die a worthy instrument of his own views.
His soul, says a contemporary historian, delighted
1 Ibid., p. 197.
2 " Pra?cinctum et paratum ad equitandum . . . cum calearibus.''
—Ibid. 3 "Rapitur, tenetur . . . deducitur . . . acclamatur." — Ibid.
4 ' ' Cum esset nubilus dies, lux in modum sphera? per aliquas horas in
gvemio et facie splenduit ecclesia?, qua? sic accendit cunctos qui aderant,"
&c. — Ibid. "Non humana sed divina electione episcopus factus est."
— Beethold, Annal, ann. 1078.
6 " Quia solam clericatus tonsuram acceperat, detestabatur enim siino-
niacorum ordinationes. " — Hug. Flav., I. c.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 411
in that of the young man,1 whom he made his
legate in France. Hugh retained this office
during the whole pontificate of Gregory. To
speak truth, it was he who governed the Church
of France for a quarter of a century. He had
energy enough to suspend the four metropolitans
of Reims, Tours, Bourges, and Besaneon, and
enough authority to make his sentence respected,
until Gregory, with that moderation which char
acterised him, remitted the punishment of the re
pentant bishops. Hugh succeeded in purifying
the French episcopate, and in subduing, if not in
extirpating, the simoniacal heresy, thanks to the in
defatigable activity, the intrepidity, and the vigour
which he displayed in the provincial councils con
voked by him in all parts of the kingdom.2
The efforts of Gregory and his legates were
powerfully seconded in France by those of Wal
ter, Abbot of Pontoise, who, on receiving from
Philip I. the investiture of his abbey, took the
crosier above, and not below the royal hand, and
said to the king, " I hold it from God, and not
from you." 3 Not long after, being desirous of
giving up his dignified office, he went to Rome
1 " Complacuerat enim sibi in illo'anima ejns."— Arid.
8 See in Coletti, Cone, vol. xii. p. 602 et seq., the councils held by
him at Dijon, Clermont, Autun, Poitiers, Bordeaux, Lyon, Issoudun,
Meaux, Saintes, and Avignon, and the reports which he addressed to
Gregory on several of these assemblies. Cf. Hug. Flavin., Chron., ap.
Labbe, Nova Bibl. MS., and above all, Baluz., Miscell, vol. iii., Nos.
53 to 70, ed. Mansi.
3 "Non enim a te regimen ecclesia? suscipio, sed a Deo." — Vita S.
Gualterii altera, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 831.

412 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
to obtain Gregory's permission to abdicate.1 But
the Pope, who had learned to value him, obliged
him to continue in his abbacy. Walter came
back to France, where he warmly remonstrated
with King Philip upon the unworthy manner in
which clerical promotion was given ; he asked
him who had given to him the keys of the celes
tial kingdom, from whom he had received the
right to bind and to loose ; and dared to tell
him that the prince must in the end be respon
sible for the scourge which was devastating the
Church, since he sold bishoprics to clerks who
in their turn sold the office of the priesthood.2
Finally, in a council held at Paris, where the
French clergy had protested against what they
called the insupportable yoke of Gregory's decrees,
AValter defended these decrees at the peril of his
life. The prelates, irritated by his boldness, ex
pelled him from the council ; their followers struck
him and spat upon him ; they even went so far as
to threaten him with death, but he quietly replied,
"I would rather die for the truth than basely yield
to falsehood."3 Happily some nobles who were
1 "Papam expetiit Hildebrandum nomine. . . . Domno Apostolico
notus ac familiaris . . . frequenter ad colloquendum adsciscitur. " —
Vit. S. Gualterii prima, ibid., p. 876, and Act. SS. Bolland., die 8
April. 2 ' ' Die mihi si nosti unde claves regni ccelorum accepisti ? Dum enim
tu ipse honores ecclesiasticos quibusdam vendis, ipsi rursus sacros ordines
et manuum impositionem vendunt aliis, horum omnium malorum, si bene
perspexeris, caput esse videris." — Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 817.
3 ' ' Quum omnes fere tam episcopi quam abbates et clerici censerent
Domni Apostolici . . . jussioni non esse parendum, dicentes . . . im-

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 413
touched by his fervour and courage delivered him
from the hands of his persecutors, and restored him
to the austere freedom of his cloister.1
It was not in France only that Gregory
employed the devotion of the monks in de
fending a cause which was at once that of the
Church and of the Monastic Orders. St Simon of
Valois, a monk of St Claude, whose exploits and
conversion we have related elsewhere, had, as we
have seen, negotiated the alliance between Robert
Guiscard and the Pope — an alliance necessary to
the security of the Church in Italy, and which
alone could save Gregory from the imperial grasp.2
When the help of the founder of the Norman
power in Sicily had become quite indispensable to
the Pope, then besieged in the castle of St Angelo,
Jarenton, another French monk, was the messenger
who called Robert to his aid.3 This Jarenton was Jarenton,
• m A. i Abbot of
a young noble who had received at Cluny4 thestBenigne,
J ° J at Dijon.
most brilliant education, but who, far from embrac-
portabilia esse ejus pra?cepta. . . . Ipsum de concilio rapiunt, trahunt,
impingunt, colaphizant, conspuunt. . . . Mortemque minantibus hilari
voce respondit : Malo mortem pro veritate sustinere quam falsitati tur-
piter cedere."— Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 818.
1 " Quorumdum optimatum, qui eum prius noverant et dilexerant,
virtute, de loco in quo custodiebatur, eripitur." — Ibid. He died about
1084, after having set the grandest example of monastic penance and
austerity. Francois de Harlay, Archbishop of Rouen, ordered, in 1658,
that the day of his festival should be a holiday throughout the whole of
the French Vexin.
2 See above.
* Huao Flavin., Chron. Vird., p. 229, ed. Labbe.
4 "Litteris imbrutus est ab his qui majoris auctoritatis videbantur in
Cluniaco.' — Ibid., p. 197.

414 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
ing the religious life, had entered upon a worldly
and military career with such enthusiasm, that his
conversion seemed to all who knew him to be impos
sible.1 But nevertheless, this extraordinary work
was accomplished. Wearied of pleasure, and at the
same time overcome by fear of eternal judgment,2
he went, a year after the accession of Gregory VIL,
to take refuge at Chaise-Dieu, in the austere soli
tude which the second repentence of St Robert
had made a home of spiritual life.3 Jarenton was
elected prior there, and in that capacity must have
been present, in 1077, at one of the provincial
councils held at Autun by Hugh of Die. The
fervent piety of the young monk was remarked by
the Bishop of Langres, who had formerly known
him in the world,4 and that prelate called him to as
sume the office of abbot at the head of the greatest
abbey of his diocese, that of St Benigne at Dijon.
"Give me," said he, kneeling before the council,
and indicating Jarenton, " this fish from the foun
tain of God."5 Duke Hugh of Burgundy joined
1 " Postquam vero adolevit, sa?culo adha?sit . . . militaria potius in-
strumenta appetens . . . animus . . . domari non poterat. Ita
sa?culo deditus ut ejus jam facta conversio omnibus videretur miraculo."
2 "Ubi vero voluptati satisfecisse se vidit, coepit ta?dere. . . . Vicit
metus mortis et gehenna?." — Ibid.
3 See above.
4 " Ante conversionem notum habuerat . . . divinam collaudans po
tentiam, qui levitatem dissolutionis ejus quam habuerat in sa?culo, in-
frenaverat monastici ordinis et regularis gravitatis freno." — Hug. Flav.,
p. 199.
5 " Manu designans et simul in verbis procumbens, et genua fiectens :
Date, ait, mihi hunc piscem de fonte Dei." — Ibid., 200.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 415
his entreaties to those of the bishop, and the
council yielded to their desire, in spite of the re
sistance of the humble monk. The nomination
was ratified by the unanimous vote of the monks
of St Benigne.1 The latter had never seen the
candidate proposed to them ; but they accepted
him with enthusiasm, happy to return to the regu
larity and authority which had not existed since
the death of their illustrious and rigid Abbot
William. Jarenton fulfilled the general expec
tation ; he re-established order and earnestness in
his abbey, whither flocked men of all conditions,
great and small ; 2 and he distinguished himself by
an ardent and faithful attachment to Gregory.
The pontiff quickly appreciated the new abbot ;
he loved him tenderly, and called him his com
panion in slavery, because they had both suffered
much for the cause of justice.3 After having
1 The nomination of Jarenton took place at the Council of Autun on
Friday, October J5, 1077. The monks of Chaise-Dieu, who wished to
retain their abbot, obtained that, if the election were not ratified by the
time of the council closing on the following Sunday, it should be con
sidered void ; but the messengers of the Bishop of Langres and the Duke
of Burgundy made such haste, that having left Autun on the 15th, after
the sitting of the council, they returned on Sunday 17th with the monks
of St Benigne, who ratified the election, and assisted the same day at the
consecration of the new abbot. Notwithstanding the improvement in
the modes of communication, nothing better could be done in the present
day. 2 " Coeperunt ad ejus monita multi nobilium et mediocrium sua relin-
quere, et regulari disciplina? se subdere, seque abnegantes sub ejus ducatu
Deo regi uni et vero militare." — Hug. Flav., p. 202.
3 "Domino papa? per omnia fidelissimus. Quem pro ingenito sibi
bonitate et obedientia debita B. Petro dulcissimo amplectebatur afTectu,
adeo ut concaptivum eum vocaret, quia non eum movebant pericula pro
justitia suscepta." — Ibid., p. 229.

416 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
brought Robert Guiscard to Rome,1 Jarenton
accompanied Gregory into his exile at Salerno,
and quitted him only a few days before his death,
in order to fulfil a mission in Spain.2 The Abbot
of St Benigne carried with him on his journey the
last and most sublime of the apostolic letters of
Gregory VII. — a letter in which that great man
himself gives, in immortal lines, his own history
and his own apology.3
Bernard, Gregory was nobly supported by three French
st victor, monks. Bernard, Abbot of St Victor, at Marseilles,
was at the head of 600 monks, when the Pope
recalled him, first to govern his own monastery of
San Paul fuori le mura at Rome, and afterwards
to send him as legate to Spain and Germany. It
was this Bernard who presided at the Diet of Forch-
heim, where the German princes deposed Henry IV.,
and replaced him by Rodolphe of Suabia, the inti
mate friend of Gregory. Bernard, Abbot of St
Victor, became the chief intermediary between
Gregory VII. and the insurgent Saxons, and was
able to confound the falsehoods and artifices by
which the imperialists hoped to trouble their alli
ance.4 Doubly a confessor, he endured prison and
1 " Qui principem adduxit. . . ." — Hug. Flav., 229.
2 ' ' Imposita ei legatione . . . dans litteras ad Sisenandum principem
pra?fata? provincia?." — Ibid., p. 230.
3 Ibid. — Regist., Append., ii. 15.
4 " Mendaciorum destructor non defessus, et sincera? veritatis testis
revere idoneus . . . quem pro incomparabili tantarum virtutum indus-
tria intimum familiarem necnon pra? ca?teris omnibus revere sibi dilec-
tissimum Domnus papa unice sibi pra?rogavit. " — Beetholdi, Annal.,
ann. 1078-79, ap. Peetz, pp. 313 and 324.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 41 7
exile for the faith.1 While he was in the imperial
dungeons, Pope Gregory VIL, writing to the monks
of Marseilles, spoke of him in these words : " For
love of the blessed Peter, your abbot has been obe
dient even unto captivity, and would have been so
to the death had it been needful. Very rare are
those good soldiers who serve God in the midst
of peace ; but still rarer are those who, for love of
their Lord, brave persecution, and resist His enemies
without trembling. Such a one is your father, who,
like a true friend of the prince of the apostles, has
always fought side by side with us, without for a
moment turning aside from the battle." 2
The companion of Bernard of St Victor in his Guitmond,
cf i • ¦ ¦ i -nt Cardinal
office as legate and in his captivity was the JNorman and Arch-
° . . bishop of
Guitmond, who had shown equal disinterestedness Aversa.
and boldness in presence of William the Conqueror,
and whom Gregory had named Cardinal and Arch
bishop of Aversa.3 The two legates were both im
prisoned by a partisan of Henry IV., in spite of the
promise given by that prince to the Pope at Canossa.
The venerable prisoners only obtained their liberty
through the energetic intervention of Abbot Hugh
1 " Ob instantissimum fidei calorem, bis confessor factus, propter
Dominum exilia, compedesque est perpessus." — Paul Berneied, ap.
Gretser, p. 142.
2 "Pro B. Petri am ore factus est obediens usque ad corporis captio-
nem, et paratus fuit, si oporteret, mori. . . . Bari sunt boni qui etiam
Deo in pace serviant : sed rarissimi, qui pro illius amore persecutiones non
timeant, vel qui se contra inimicos Dei indubitanter opponant. . . . Pra-
dictus pater vester, revera apostolorum principem diligens, in ejus acie
nobis adha?sit. . . ." — Book vi. ep. 15. Bernard died 1079.
3 Paul Berneied, Vit. S. Greg. VIL, ap. Gretser, vi. 151.
VOL. VI. 2 D

418 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
of Cluny; they returned, despoiled and. almost naked,
to the monastery of Hirschau.1 Richard, who, like
his brother Bernard, was a cardinal, replaced him
as Abbot of St Victor at Marseilles, and legate in
Spain. There, according to the wish of the Pope,
he succeeded in substituting the Roman liturgy
for the Mozarabic ritual. Faithful to Gregory's
maxim, that it is better to build up and preserve
than to create and enlarge,2 Richard afterwards
devoted himself to the restoration and reformation
of the principal Spanish monasteries.
In speaking of the conversions which did honour
to the feudal nobility of this epoch, we have al
ready pointed out several monks as the most faith
ful auxiliaries of Gregory VII. : for example, in
Belgium, the penitent knights who founded Afflig
hem ; and Arnold de Pamele, who became a monk
of St Medard, Bishop of Forssom, and Gregory's
legate in Flanders, and who, immediately after the
death of the Pope, hastened back to his monastery
to die. We must add to these glorious names that
of Thierry, Abbot of St Hubert, who went seven
times to Rome, and wTith whom Gregory passed
whole days alone,- talking over the affairs of the
Church and the sentiments of mutual affection
which united them.3
1 " Vacuietfermenuduli." — Beetholdi, ann. 1077, ap. Peetz, v. 298.
2 " Scitis enim decentius atque convenientius esse, destructa restruere
et ad gradum suum collapsa reducere, quam in dilatandis, vel noviter
a?dificandis operam dare. "¦ — Diploma of 1080 to Richard, for the reforma
tion of Montmajour and of Notre Dame de la Grasse.
3 " Pariter soli confidentes, arnica vicrssitudine divinis eloquiis inten-

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 419
In Italy, above all, the work of regeneration
undertaken by Hildebrand was, to tell the truth,
carried out by the monks alone. These champions
of the Catholic reaction came forth from the in
accessible and solitary monasteries of Camaldoli,
Vallombrosa, and Fonte-Avellana armed against
the simoniacs and Nicolaitans of Lombardy.1
The sons of St Romuald, the companions of St
Peter Damien, and of St John Gualbert, the three
great Italian reformers of the Monastic Orders in
the eleventh century, drew, from the unequalled
austerity of their life, the energy necessary for
triumphing over the corruptions which surrounded
them. Peter Damien, the faithful fellow-labourer
of Hildebrand, died a year before his friend's ac
cession to the papacy ; and John Gualbert followed
during the year in which Gregory VIL, whom he
had never seen,2 but whom nevertheless he loved
like a brother,3 having recognised in him a soul
worthy of his own, ascended the papal throne.
Gualbert had admitted into the new order he had
founded many pious laymen, who, without adopt
ing the monastic dress, lived in celibacy, devoted
themselves to the material interests of the con-
dentes" (in the chapel of St Laurence). — Hist. Andagin., in Ampliss.
Collect., vol. iv.
1 See Alzog, Hist, of the Church, vol. ii. p. 200, translation of Goschler
and Audley.
2 " Licet patrem vestrum corporeis oculis non viderimus, . . . multum
dileximus. " — Epist. ad monach. Vail umbrosoz, in Append. , Regest. , p. 2.
3 "Tantus inter utrumque deinceps firmatus est amor quantus inter
amicos carissiinos et uterinos solet esse germanos. " — Vit. S. Joann. Gualb.
a. 54, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 281.

420 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
gregation,1 and sowed the good seed in the midst
of secular life : beside this, he had led many
priests to leave their wives and live in com
munities.2 Dying, he left many disciples, both
clerks and monks, animated by his own spirit ;
and Gregory took care to encourage them to stand
against the quibbles of heretics and the machina
tions of the devil, by promising them all the moral
and material support he could give. Among this
elect troop were distinguished the blessed Andrew
of Vallombrosa, biographer of the martyr Arialdus;3
and St Peter Igneus, whom we have seen winning
his surname, and braving martyrdom by fire, in
opposing simony. This monk, sprung from one of
the most illustrious houses of Florence, began by
keeping the cows and asses of his monastery.4
Gregory made him a cardinal, Bishop of Albano,
and legate in Germany, at the most critical mo
ment of the struggle, in 1079, when it was needful
to pronounce decidedly between Henry and Ro
dolph, the two competitors for royalty,5 and when
the Pope was betrayed by the two bishops whom
he had associated with Peter in the legation.6
Monte Cassino, the cradle of monastic rule, the
most illustrious abbey of Italy and of the world,
1 Vit. S. J. Gualb., c. 21, Inc. cit.
2 Ibid., c. 31. 3 Ap. Boll., Act. SS., 27 Jim.
-* "Dili procurator asinorum, postea vaccarum fuit." — Vit. S. Joan.
Gualb., c. 15.
; He only died in 1089. " In causa S. Petri ferventissimus magnum
mcerorem catholicis reliquit. " — Bernold, ap. Peetz, v. 449.
0 These were, the Patriarch of Aquilea and the Archbishop of Passau.—
Berthold, ann. 1079, ap. Peetz, v. 318. Cf. Hug. Flavin., pp. 221, 222.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 421
could not be left out during the progress of the
great movement of Catholic regeneration begun by
Hildebrand. There dwelt in 1057 three monks
of very noble birth, bound to each other and to
Hildebrand by the tenderest friendship : these
were, — Frederic, brother of the Duke of Lorraine;
Didier, of the princes of Benevento ; and Alfano, of
the princes of Salerno. The first, Frederic, had
given up the dignity of Chancellor of the Roman
Church, on his return from Constantinople, to take
the vows of a monk at Monte Cassino, where he
became abbot previous to his being elected Pope
under the name of Stephen X. : it was he who,
according to common belief, created Hildebrand
Archdeacon of the Roman Church. The second,
Didier, succeeded Stephen as Abbot of Monte
Cassino, and afterwards became the successor of
Gregory VII. himself, as Pope, under the name of
Victor III. On the day after his election, Greg
ory, ill and exhausted by the crisis of the pre
ceding day,1 wrote to Didier, begging that prayers
might be made for him by all the monks, and that
Didier himself would come to him immediately.
Throughout his pontificate, the Pope always had
in him the most devoted of friends and ministers;
and considered him worthy to be one of the four
monks whom he pointed out as candidates for the
succession.
1 " In lecto jacens valde fatigatus satis dictare nequeo . . . et itaque
rogo ut suffraganeos fratres et filios, quos in Christo nutris, ad exoran-
dum pro me provoces." — Epist., i. 1.

422 ST GREGORY, MONK A1SD POPE.
The third of Gregory's lieutenants w7as Alfano,
chiefly remarkable for his zeal for study, whom
affection for Didier had drawn into the monastic
life. Alfano had left Salerno, where his family
reigned, disguised in the cowl of his friend,1
who brought him to Monte Cassino, where they
both became monks, to the great joy of the Abbot
Frederic. The destiny of Alfano was less bril
liant than that of his two friends : in fact, he
did not remain long in the cloister ; the Prince
of Salerno withdrew him from it to make him
archbishop of that city, which he governed ad
mirably for twenty-seven years, continuing mean
time to occupy himself ardently with literary and
theological labours, and with the study of music,
poetry, &c. He was the principal founder of
the celebrated school of medicine at Salerno ; but
he always remained a monk in his devotion to
rule and to the holy cause of the freedom of the
Church.2 We have seen in what poetic and passionate
tones Alfano celebrated the greatness of the Car
dinal Hildebrand; who, when he became Pope,
always found him one of his most steadfast aux
iliaries. It was with him, at Salerno, that Gregory,
obliged to fly from Rome, found an asylum, and
breathed his last sigh. Alfano died a few months
1 " Cnculla sua indutum noctu de civitate ducens." — Leo Ostiens.,
Chron. Cassin., iii. c. 7.
2 " Ferventissimum monachum acerriinumque ecclesiastica? libertati
propugnatorem."

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 423
later, and desired to be buried beside his friend,
the immortal exile.1
Monte Cassino gave Gregory yet other supporters : Auxiliaries
° ° ^ ^ furnished
first, Stephen, Cardinal of St Chrisogone, three ^Monte
times legate in France,2 who was so closely bound
in sympathy with Gregory, that St Peter Damien
wrote to both at the same time, calling them
" steadfast bucklers " of the Holy See : 3 Amatus,
a monk of Monte Cassino, afterwards Archbishop
of Bordeaux, and, as legate in France, comrade in
the glorious labours of Hugh of Die;4 Alberic,
cardinal-deacon, who, at the Council of Rome in
1079, confounded the heresiarch Berengarius, and
who wrote, beside many other- works, a treatise
against the Emperor Henry IV. in defence of the
free election of the popes ; 5 and lastly, Bremon of
Asti, one of the many monks who refuted Beren
garius, created Bishop of Segni by Gregory VIL,
and whom we shall find later at the head of the
defenders of the Holy See.6
1 Mabill., Annal, b. lxvi. c. 135. The authors of the Chronicle of
Monte Cassino are never tired of eulogising the learning of Alfano (Pro
log.): " Viro nostrorum temporum sapientissimo. . . . Vir in Scripturis
sacris eruditissimus. . . ." — Lib. iii. c. 35. Giesebeecht, De litt. stud.
ap. Italos, has collected valuable information about Alfano. Cf. Act. SS.
0. B., vol. ix. p. 590 ; and Ziegelbauer, pars ii. c. 3.
2 Under Nicholas II. , Alexander II. , and Gregory VII. See Mabill.
Annal, b. Ix. No. 85 ; b. lxi. c. 15, 62, 81 ; and b. lxii. c. 106.
, 3 " Inexpugnabilibus romana? ecclesia? clypeis Domno Suo Hildebrando
et dulcissimo patri Stephano, Petrus," &c. — B. ii. ep. vi.
4 Baluze, prozf. in vol. ii., Miscell.
5 He died in 1089. Pete. Diac, De viris illust. Cassin., c. 21, ap.
Murat., vi. Cf. Mabill., Ann., vol. v. p. 139 ; Ziegelbauer, Hist.
litt. 0. S. B., vol. ii. part iii. p. 93.
6 Writers are not agreed as to the period at which this monk took the

424 'ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
It is thus apparent that Monte Cassino was for
the Roman Church an inexhaustible nursery of
canonists, prelates, and missionaries.
Besides the illustrious monastery and the new
religious houses, Gregory found useful and gen
erous fellow-labourers in the old Italian abbeys,
such as Gepizonus, Abbot of St Boniface, and
Chaurus, Abbot of St Sabas, who were his legates
in Italy, and possessed his full confidence;1 Murus
Benedictus, the charitable Abbot of St Michael of
Chiusa, who had been expelled from his monastery
by the schismatic Bishop of Turin, and imprisoned
by the Emperor on account of his fidelity to Greg
ory ; Borrizonus, a Lombard monk, Bishop first of
Sutri, afterwards of Piacenza, who, after having
energetically served the Church by his writings
and eloquent sermons — after having endured, like
most of the Catholic champions of the time, prison
and exile for the cause of the Church — died, slain
by his people, and a martyr to his devotion to the
Church's liberties.2
habit at Monte Cassino. Cf. Mabill., Annal, b. xxv. u. 53 ; Petr.
Diac, Chron. Cossin., b. iv. c. 31. It is sad to have to disfigure this
enumeration by the name of an apostate, Theodinus, of a noble Frank
family, son of the Count of the country of Marses, a monk of Monte
Cassino, made cardinal by Nicholas II., and archdeacon by Gregory VII.,
and who, after the defeat of the Pope, went over to the party of the
emperor. — Benno, Apol. pro Hcnr. IV., c. 2 ; Giesebeecht, Op., i.
p. 45.
1 Regest. Greg. VIL, b. vi. ep. 40, 41, 48. Gepizonus was sent to
invest the prince of Dalmatia with the royal dignity.
E Bernold, Chron., in 1082 and 1089, ap. Peetz. His nose and ears
were cut before he was killed. He has left a narrative entitled Liber ad
amicum, an important document for the history of the time, ap. OEfele,

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 425
But among the orthodox Italian monks, none st Anseim
and Hugh
played a more important part than St Anselm of of Die.
Lucca. Gregory had been the master and friend
in his youth of this Tuscan noble,1 who at the
same time formed a most tender friendship for
Hugh, the Bishop-elect of Die, whom he had met
at Rome when he went, like Hugh, to be conse
crated there after his elevation to the episcopate.
The union of these two young prelates was so
intimate, and their life so inseparable, that Cen
sius, the zealous Prefect of Rome, called one the
day and the other the light, "Because," he said,
"as we never see the day without the light, so we
never see Hugh without Anselm." 2
King Henry IV. thought it his duty to protest
against the consecration of these two bishops,
illegally elected, he declared, before having received
investiture from his hands; and the imperialist car
dinals supported his claim. Gregory, making a dis
tinction between the authority of the Emperor in
Script, rer. Boic, vol. ii. There is also an excellent notice of this
work in Stentzel, Hist. des. emp. franc, ii. 67, 80. The importance
of the part played by Bonizo in the north of Italy is proved by the ex
hortations addressed by the schismatic Cardinal Benzo to Henry IV. to
engage him to punish the audacity of the orthodox bishop. — Panegyr. in
Henric Lmp., ap. Mencke, i. p. 971.
1 ' ' Indigena et nobilis prosapia?. " — Vit. S. Anselm a B. presbyt. ejus
discip. apomitent., e. 15, in Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix.
2 " Cum hoc tanto familiaritatis et dilectionis vinculo connexus est, et
ita sibi, licet divisa haberent hospitia, in Palatio Lateranensi individui
adha?rebant, ut unum videri sine altero, minim videretur his, qui eorum
noverant unanimitatem. Adeo ut urbis pra?fectus . . . alteram horum
diem, alteram vocavit lucem," &c— Hugo Flaviniac, p. 195, ap.
Labb.

426 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Italy and in the kingdom of Aries, where Die was
situated, would not yield with reference to Hugh,
whom he immediately consecrated,1 but consented
to defer the consecration of Anselm until he should
have received investiture. Meantime, at the very
moment when the Bishop-elect of Lucca was on
his way to fulfil this formality in the presence of
Henry IV., Gregory, in the council of 1075, gave
his first decree against investitures. Anselm
speedily returned fo receive his consecration from
the Pope ; but after a short time, feeling re
morse for having submitted to the shameful yoke
from which Gregory was trying to free the epis
copate, he desired to lay aside a dignity which
he thought dishonoured by his investiture,2 and
determined to become a monk. To this, however,
Gregory VII. would not consent ; in spite of An
selm 's eager resistance, he obliged him to resume
the burden of episcopacy, while permitting him to
wear the Benedictine dress, and to follow the cus
toms of Cluny.3 Obedience alone could console
the prelate for having quitted monastic life, which
he unceasingly regretted,4 scrupulously practis
ing at the same time its most austere observances
1 " In Lucensi tamen electo eis adquievit. ... In Diensi vero ad-
quiescere noluit." — Ibid., 196.
2 " Nam irritum prorsus restimavit, quidquid operatus est, quasi
auctoritate illius abominabilis investitura?." — Vil. S. Anselm, c. 3. We
think that in our account we have reconciled the, varying versions of
Anselm's penitentiary and of Hugh of Flavigny.
J " Vix relicto sibi habitu monastico. . . . Nam et illium substrahere
sibi dominus papa minabatur." — Ibid., c. 4, Donnizo, Vit. Mathild.
* "Dum vitam rememoravit monasticam, quam se crebro deflevit

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 427
in the midst of camps or at the court of the
Countess Matilda. When this great princess
placed herself entirely at the disposal of the
Pope, hoping that he would bid her embrace
conventual life,1 Gregory gave her Anselm as
guide and counsellor. It was he who directed the
Countess's spiritual and political life, and who
made her the most constant and active ally of the
Holy See. He exercised such influence over her,
that her vassals feared him more than they did the
princess herself. 2 Anselm had studied everything ;
he knew almost the whole of the Scriptures by
heart;3 and he served the Catholic cause as much
by his writings and sermons as by his indefatigable
activity and his constant presence in the camp of
Matilda.4 Like the holy pontiff whom he endea
voured to take in all things for his model,5 Anselm
had to suffer persecution and exile ; but he suc
ceeded with the support of Matilda, and in his
character of papal legate, in maintaining orthodoxy
amisisse, consolatus in eodem magistro est, quia obediens sibi usque ad
id factus est." — Vita, c. 26.
1 ' ' Quod totam se sua? tradidit dispositioni, sperans ab oneribus
mundi hujus tali obedientia explicari." — Vita, c. 12.
2 " Ilia potestatem exercebat, ille regebat. Ilia pra?ceptum et ille de
dit consilium." — Vit. S. Anselm., c. 18. " Milites domus illius, etsi ni
mium secul ares, . . . plus ipsum quam naturalem dominam metuentes. ''
—Ibid., c. 24.
3 "Omnem Sanctam Scripturam fere memoriter novit . . . multos li-
bellos propriis manibusconscripsit." — Ibid., c. 21. His defence of Greg
ory is to be found in the Antiq. Lectiones of Canisus, vol. vi.
4 "Cum hoste in campo."— Vit., c. 23.
5 "Ante omnia id studii semper habuit quatenus primum magistrum
suum papam Gregorium imitaretur in omnibus, adco ut discrepare ab
illo prorsus noluit." — Ibid., c. 26.

428 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
among the Catholics of the north of Italy, and in
procuring for them that spiritual help of which
they had been deprived by the defection of their
ordinary pastors.1 He succeeded also in re-estab
lishing the observance of the rule in the churches
and monasteries of Matilda's vast states,2 employ
ing the most energetic measures for this purpose ;
in his opinion it was better for the Church to have
no priests or monks than to have scandalous
ones.3 In Germany, where the struggle was to be
still longer and more bloody than in Italy, it was
not by legates and by foreign monks, whether
French or Italian, alone, that the Pope could con
tend against the evil. It was needful to find
among native monks a numerous and disciplined
army ; but nothing could be less probable than
the success of such an attempt. We have more
than once indicated the point to which simony
and disorder had invaded the German monasteries
during the first half of the eleventh century. The
minority of Henry IV. had brought to its depth
the abasement of the regular clergy. The un
worthy minister of the young king, Adalbert,
Bishop of Bremen, who sold all ecclesiastical and
secular dignities to the highest bidder, thought it
1 "Per omnem Longobardiam . . . concurrent catholici . . . abso-
lutionem accipiunt : ibi chrisma, ibi sacros ordines exquirunt." — C. 20.
2 " Per singulas ecclesias in omni supra dicta? domina? terra." — C 24.
3 "Malle se ut in Ecclesia nullus esset vel clericus vel monachus quam
irregularis et irreligiosus." — Ibid.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 429
necessary to act with prudence in respect to the
bishops and great lay vassals ; but he made his
prey of the monasteries, which he considered only
as royal domains, the abbots of which might be
treated as simple farmers. Filled with this idea,
the sovereign imposed no restraint on his exactions,
and he appropriated to himself two of the principal
German abbeys, after having given others to differ
ent princes and prelates of whom he wished to
make accomplices.1 The evil only increased when
Henry IV. began to govern for himself. The im
perial palace then became a sort of market where
the king publicly sold the abbatial dignity without
any other consideration than that of the price the
buyers might offer.2 Thus the prince's favourite,
Robert, surnamed the Money-changer,3 bought, for
a thousand livres, the illustrious Abbey of Reich-
enau,4 and offered a hundred livres of gold for the
Abbey of Fulda, the first in Germany, of which
the abbot was still living. This, however, made
no scandal, although Robert was himself a monk,
for it must be owned the monks of the German

1 The Archbishop of Bremen took for himself Lorsch and Corvey, gave
Malmedy and Cornelimiinster to the Archbishop of Cologne, Seligenstadt
to the Archbishop of Mayence, Isitaich to the Duke of Bavaria, Kemp-
ten to the Duke of Suabia.— Lambert., loc. cit.
2 " Dt abbatia? publice venales prostituantur in palatio, nee quisquam
tanti venales proponere queat, quin protinus emptorem inveniat . . .
nee qua?ratur ex abbatibus eligendis, quis dignius pra?esse, sed quis carius
abbatiam possit emere." — Id., ann. 1071, ap. Peetz., v. 184.
3 Nummularius.
* He did not, however, succeed in installing himself. The monks
shut their doors against him, and Pope Alexander excommunicated him.

430 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
communities had suffered from the contagion of
those vices which stained most of the churches.
In the front rank of the simoniacal clergy who in
fested the imperial court figured unworthy monks,
who openly begged for bishoprics or abbeys, pro
mising the king, as a contemporary historian says,
mountains of gold.1 In these sacrilegious sales
the avidity of the sellers did not exceed the ardent
covetousness of the buyers ; 2 it was wonderful to
see the riches displayed by men who had taken the
vow of poverty.3 This horrible scandal brought
upon the heads of the German monks such igno
miny, that the innocent were confounded with the
guilty.3 Henry -IV. himself was sometimes revolt
ed by the effrontery of these speculators, and took
advantage of it from time to time to bestow impor
tant abbeys without price upon the first monk
who presented himself, without paying any atten
tion to the electoral rights of the community, or to
those of the knights and vassals of the monasteries
who were also entitled to take part in the election
of the abbots to whom they were subject.4
1 "Hi pro abbatiis et episcopalibus aures principum importune obtun-
debant. ... In coemptionem exigui honoris aureos montes quotidie
promittebant secularesque emptores largitionis sua? immoderantia ex-
cludebant, nee tantum venditor audebat exposcere quantum emptor para-
tus erat exsolvere." — Lambert. Aschaffenb. , ann. 1071, ap. Pertz,
v. 186. See the passage of the same author already quoted.
2 "Mirabatur mundus unde tantus pecuniarum scateret fluvius. . . ."
— Ibid.
J " Totum sacri gregis quasi tabe quadam infecerant. . . . Ita ut omnes
similes existemaremur, nee esse in nobis putaretur qui faceret bonum,
non esse usque ad unura. " — Ibid.
4 See as to Lorsch and Fulda, Lambert., ann. 1075, ap. Pertz, v.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 431
Thus freedom of election was almost destroyed ;
and with it had perished all the virtues and all
the rules which it had secured. But we shall see
how, by an admirable exercise of His mercy, God
permitted a complete and glorious renovation of
the monastic body to arise out of the very bosom
of corruption. This renovation was accomplished
at the very moment when war broke out between
the Church and the empire ; so that the first fer
vour of the reformed institution came to the help
of the threatened Church. It was in great part conversion
of .A.rc]i-
the work of the holy and illustrious Hanno, Arch- bishop Hanno.
bishop of Cologne, who, notwithstanding the in
feriority of his birth, by the mere fact of his merit
alone, attained to the first place in the government
of the empire during the reign of Henry III. and
the minority of Henry IV.1
Hanno, however, had at first yielded to the
contagion of example, and, at the instigation of
Adalbert of Bremen, had tried to usurp the Abbey
of Malmedy, which from time immemorial had
been a dependency of Stavelot, and which was
saved only by the energetic resistance of the Lie'-
geois.2 But, on the other hand, he had founded
237. Cf. Trithemius, vol. i. p. 212, on the demoralisation of the
ancient and famous Abbey of Fulda : "In illo tempore vix monastico
nomine digni videbantur."
1 " Nulla majorum commendatione, erat quippe mediocri loco natus.''
— Lambert., ann. 1075.
2 See the interesting account of this struggle, entitled, Triumphus S.
Remacli, ap. Chapeauville, Gesta Epit. Leodens., vol. ii. Cf. Martene,
Ampliss. collectio, vol. i. p. 487 ; and Stentzel, i. 224.

432 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
and richly endowed the Abbey of Regberg, under the
impression produced upon his mind during a sleep
less night by the singing of matins at the convent
of St Martin at Cologne.1 At a time when his
mind was painfully disturbed by the corruption
of the German monks, he stopped, while travelling
to Rome, to perform his devotions at Frutieres 2 — a
Piedmontese monastery depending on Cluny, where
his former rival, the Empress Agnes of Poitou,
mother of Henry IV., had taken the veil, and was
endeavouring to expiate by her austerities the ex
cesses of her son.3 Hanno was so touched by the
fervour and regular life of the monks of Frutieres,
that he took several of them with him to place
them in the monasteries he had already founded in
Germany, at Siegberg and Saalfeld, whence the
unworthy monks had just been expelled.4 The
monks of Frutieres, transplanted to their new
dwellings, there gave an example of all monastic
virtues, and made many proselytes. Archbishop
Hanno, filled with joy and admiration at the

1 In 1066. Vit. S. Hannonis, i. 18-23, ap. Surium, die 4 Decemb.
This life, written by a monk of Siegberg, a contemporary of the arch
bishop, is full of valuable details.
2 " Cum . . . cerneret . . . monachos e vita communi ad rem famili-
arem curam omnem studiumque conversos, gravi ta?dio angebatur animus
ejus." — Lambert., ann. 1075 ; Pertz, v. 238.
3 See the fine account of her monastic penitence in Berthold, ann,
1077, ap. Peetz, v. 303. She died at Rome in 1077, after having com
pletely embraced the cause of Gregory, who presided at her funeral.
4 He had founded a third abbey of monks at Gratschaff, and two of
regular canons at St Mary ad gradus and at St George, in his metropo
litan city.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 433
sight, loaded the new-comers with tokens of re
spect ; he treated them as his lords, and wished to
be considered as their serf. In the midst of the
greatest affairs he often visited his protege's, whose
rule he strictly observed, and occupied himself,
with the minutest care, about the details of their
living and comfort.1 Led on by his example,
many German bishops and princes demanded
monks from Siegberg to re-establish the observ
ance of the rule in the monasteries of their states ;
others brought them from Cluny and from Gorze
in Lorraine.2 The austerities of these monks
soon procured them an immense popularity, and
their renown quickly spread through all Ger
many. The degenerate inhabitants of the old
monasteries, seeing themselves in danger of being
recalled to the strict observance of their rule,
deserted their cloisters in bands of thirty, forty,
or fifty at a time ; 3 and those who wished to
remain without conforming to the rule of the ultra-
montanists, as they said,4 were ignominiously ex-
1 " Honorabat et venerabatur ut dominos suos . . . ita subditus dicto-
que obtemperans, ut ad primum eorum imperium, quantumlibet gravibus
publica? seu privata? rei negotiis ampliatus, illico ex occupatis manibus
surgeret : et omne quod jussissent instar viii mancipii exequeretur.
Cibum summa industria confectos quotidie . . . inferebat, ipse appone-
bat . . . potum niiscebat," &c— Pertz, p. 239.
2 Ibid., 1071 and 1075, pp. 188 and 238.— Vit. S. Hannonis, c. 23.
3 "Magna et pra?clara de illis vulgi opinione jactarentnr. . . . Hsec
opinio principum ... ad populum derivatus tumor tantum terroris . . .
injecit, ut ad ingressum eorum alias XXX., alias XL., alias L. monachi
austerioris vita? metu scandalizati de monasteriis abscederent. " — Lam
bert., ibid., p. 188.
* "Principes . . . transalpinos monachos evocabant ; nostrates autem
VOL. VI. 2 E

434 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
pelled. In this way, during the five or six years
preceding the accession of Gregory VII. to the
pontifical throne, all the monasteries of the north
of Germany were reformed and peopled by a pure
and faithful race.1
A similar but yet more fruitful revolution took
place at the same time in the monasteries of
southern Germany, and especially in Suabia. This
revolution had for its chief centre the Black Forest
— that Sylva Hercynia so dreaded by the Romans,
which, pierced by roads and partly cleared by the
monks, had become, since the eighth century, a
vast Benedictine colony.2 The Piedmontese Abbey
of Frutieres, whence Archbishop Hanno of Cologne
had drawn his first reformers, shared with the great
Burgundian Abbey of Cluny the honour of having
contributed to this rapid regeneration. It was
a German Pope, Leo IX., himself a monk, and
the first upon whom the influence of Hildebrand
acted, who shed new life over the Suabian mon
asteries. He it was who, when travelling in Ger-

quicumque in illorum instituta ultro coneedere noluissent, de monasteriis
cum ignominia ejiciebant." — Lambert. Lambert, a monk of Hersfeld,
who has preserved for us this valuable information, went to spend four
teen weeks with the new monks of Saalfeld to learn their customs : in
spite of his orthodoxy, he cannot conceal a certain bitterness against
the new-comers.
1 ' ' Adeoque brevi convaluit felicis facti a?mulatio, ut pauca inter Gal-
liam monasteria videamus qua? non jam . . . jugum receperant. " — Lbid.
p. 238 ; Vit. S. Hannonis, I. c.
2 See the important collection entitled, Hist. Nigra; Silvoz ord. S.
Bened. Colonial, op. et stud. ; Martini Gerberti, Monast. S. Blazii in
cad. Silra abb. S. Q. R. I. P. S. Blazii, 1783. 2 vols., 4to.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 435
many about 1050, by his strong remonstrances
obliged his nephew, Count Adalbert of Calw, to Restoration
° ? . ' oftheAb-
re-establish the illustrious Abbey of Hirschau, bey of Hir-
¦' schau.
founded by one of his ancestors,1 famous in, the
ninth century for the cultivation of science and
the cares given to public instruction,2 but ruined
in the last fifty years by an unworthy descendant
of the founder.3 Twelve monks of Einsiedlen,
in Switzerland, came, in 1066, to repeople the
ancient abbey ; 4 and Count Adalbert, who had
only been persuaded to undertake the work of
reparation by the entreaties of his wife, the pious
Wilicza, a Polish princess,5 ended by assuming
the monk's robe with them.6 After this restora-
1 Erlafrid Count of Calw, in 830.
2 Trithemius, Ann. Hirsaug., vol. i. p. 12.
3 Ibid., pp. 132, 146. See, in Trithemius, 187, 189, the account
of this restoration. The holy Pope Leo IX., during a walk in the
neighbourhood of his nephew's castle, struck by the solitary beauty of
the site, expressed the regret he felt that he could not see there a mon
astery where the praises of God might be sung day and nigjit. The count
acknowledged that there had been one formerly, of which there still re
mained a half-ruined church, where the bones of St Aurelien, in whose
honour the monastery had been built, must have been buried. The Pope
visited this deserted church ; he found there an old priest who had known
the former monks, and who told him how the avarice of his nephew's
grandfather had ruined the abbey. Leo caused men to dig, and found]
tihe tomb of St Aurelien : then, on his return to the castle, he addressed
Count Adalbert solemnly and publicly, enjoining him to re-establish the
monastery under pain of damnation.
4 The restoration was seriously undertaken only nine years- after the
promise extorted by Leo IX. in 1059.
6 The daughter of the Duke of Poland!, the Countess Wilicza or Wil-
trude, did not let her husband have a moment's peace : " Ut quem blandi-
mentis et precibus emollire non poterat, saltern- importunitate superaret."
— Trithem. , pp. 205-213. Cf. 243 and 245. It was she who obtained!
also from her husband the territorial enfranchisement of the abbey.
6 Bernold, ann. 1099.

436 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
tion, the monastery of Hirschau not only regained
its former splendour, but greatly, surpassed it.
Under its illustrious and holy abbot William
— who introduced, with some modifications, the
customs of Cluny, and established a strict asso
ciation between the two abbeys 1— Hirschau rose
to the first rank among the great monastic estab
lishments of Europe, and became, for Germany,
what Monte Cassino was for Italy, and Cluny for
France.2 The latter house was the one which, in
all Christendom, had most nobles among its monks,
and most communities depending on it.3 Ninety
monasteries, founded or reformed by colonies of
monks sent out from Cluny, and all situated in the
south of Germany, formed around the great Suabi-
an abbey a magnificent and powerful congregation.
Twenty-three of these houses of God owed their
creation to Hirschau ; the seventy -four others pre
viously existing were regenerated by the salutary
influence of monks from thence.4 The holy abbot
William, author of most of these reforms and
creations, rebuilt at once the monastic edifices
and consciences ; 5 nor did he stop there, but
applied himself to establish a bond of union and
1 " Arctissimus nexus. "— Geebeet. , vol. i. p. 281.
2 Bucelin., German, topo-chrono-stemmatograph. , vol. i. p. 5.
3 Teithem., p. 225.
4 Bucelin., op. cit., p. 191, and Tbithem., Prolegom., p. 9 ; Chron.,
pp. 225-227, 266-281, and 294. Trithemius gives an interesting though
somewhat confused account of the heads of each colony.
6 " Reformats non solum a?dificia ... sed etiam domos . . . et con-
scientias monachorum."— Teithem., p. 227.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 437
of common activity between all these monas
teries : he upheld, with jealous solicitude and per
sistent severity, the power of the mother abbey
over her colonies ; 1 and in spite of continual emi
grations, he was able to keep always one hundred
and fifty monks about him,2 replacing by secular
converts the monks whom he sent out for the
conquest of foreign monasteries.
Not far from Hirschau, two other considerable
abbeys — those of Schaffhausen and St Blaise — dis
tinguished themselves by their admirable obedience
to the rule. The holy Pope Leo IX. came in
1052 to consecrate the high altar of each of them.3
Schaffhausen had been founded by Count Eber-
hard of Nellemburg, who had become a monk
there, and it had been placed in subjection to Hir
schau in 1080 by the son of its founder. The
origin of St Blaise went back to the eighth cen
tury ; but its true founder was Reginbert of Sel-
lenbeuven, one of the feudatories of Otho the
Great, who, having lost one of his hands in battle,
endowed the abbey with all his property in 945,
and himself entered it as a monk.4 At the period
of which we are speaking, towards 1060, St Blaise
was reformed by monks from Frutieres,5 with the
1 Teithem., p. 235. "Ibid., p. 227.
3 Gerbert., Hist. Nigr. Silv., vol. i. pp. 204 and 263.
4 Id. He died there in 962. — Geebeet., vol. i. p. 177 et seq.
5 " Disciplina monastica in monasterio S. Blasii ad usus et consue-
tudinem Fructuariensem est restituta,"— Gerbert., vol. i. p. 244. Cf.
p. 249.

438 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
aid of the Empress Agnes ; afterwards it was asso
ciated with Hirschau, and finally affiliated to
Cluny after a visit paid to it by the holy Abbot
Hugh.1 Scarcely had these great houses been called to a
new life when they became, with other monasteries,
the chief support of .the Catholic cause in Germany 2
— all the more powerful that, by a strange phe
nomenon, the very success of the schism of the
simoniacal and married priests, and the seduction
they exercised over certain Catholics, produced a
prodigious reactionary movement. On all sides the
ancient monasteries awoke and revived, and new
communities were formed and populated, thanks to
the number of orthodox priests who then sought
refuge, and over whom a faithful nobility watched
sword in hand.3 Thus, at the very time when the
few bishops who remained in communion with
the Church of Rome were driven from their sees,4
and when the schismatics thought themselves
sure of victory, they had in truth gained noth
ing ! The monasteries were there, standing like
i Geebert., vol. i. p. 244. 2 Ibid., p. 259.
3 " Persecutio quoque huic bono cooperata est. Nam dum a civitati-
bus meliores clerici . . . pellerentur, in silvis ac suburbanis agellis co-
habitantes, ubi eos, quibus Deus inspiravit, fideles ac potentes quidam
tutati sunt, ea cceperunt conversationis norma degere quam Christo . . .
maxime complacitam agnovissent. Sicque in clero et in monachatu
apostolica? vita?, qua? prima in desertis ac sylvosis locis reviruit, paula-
tim etiam antiqua et suburbana coenobia revisit, ejectis inde malis
colonis, et in melius commutatis," &c — Reicheesp., de Stat. Ecclesiai,
c. 16.
4 Beenold, Chr., ami. 1087, ap. Pertz, v. p; 439.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 439
cities of refuge, like fortresses of unconquerable
resistance. St Blaise, Schaffhausen, and, above
all, Hirschau,1 defended by the Dukes of Suabia
and Thuringen, opened their doors to all those
Catholics, clerical or lay, who repulsed schism and
shrank from complicity with the enemies of the
Church.2 Thither came in crowds the Catholic
nobles, counts and barons, feudal lords and knights,
abandoning their fiefs and castles, to renew their
strength at the well-springs of faith and virtue.3 A
certain number afterwards returned to the world,
and there with new zeal served the cause of God,
the Church, and the monks. But others in such
numbers embraced monastic life, that everywhere
-it was necessary to enlarge the monastic buildings
in order to receive them.4 Mingling with the ser-
" Maxime quotidie multitudo hominum ad S. abbatem Willelmum
in Hirsaugiam confluxit, ad serviendum Deo viventi, ut pra? copia civi-
um Hirsaugia urbs qua?dam populosa magis videretur esse quam coeno-
bium." — Teithem., Chron. Hirsaug.,v. 279.
2 " Omnes pene religiosi, sive clerici, sive laici, in aliqua' monasterio-
rum latibula declinavere, ne devastationem sancta? Ecclesia? cernerent,
cui in nullo adminiculari possent. . . . Tria monasteria cum suis cellulis
regularibus disciplinis instituta egregie pollebant. . . . Ad qua? mira-
bilis multitudo nobilium ac prudentium virorum hac tempestate in
brevi confugit, et depositis armis. . . ." — Lbid.
3 ' ' Multi viri boni Deum timentes, comites, barones, milites, nobiles
et ignobiles, clerici et laici, divites et mediocres, qui animas suas a coni-
munione schismaticorum immaculatas custodire volebant, relictis castellis,
domibus et ecclesiis suis, ad monasterium Hirsaugiense, quasi ad eivi-
tatem quamdam refugii venerant, quorum plures mutato habitu monachi
facti sunt, et plures in habitu pristino Deo et monachis S. Congrega-
tionis, usque ad mortem servierunt." — Teithem., Chron. Hirsaug., ann.
1085, p. 279.
4 Bernold, 1083, already quoted, vol. i. p. 499. See many exam
ples in Gerbert., Hist. Nigr. Silv., vol. i. pp. 238-239, 324-325.

440 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
vants of the monastery, they devoted themselves
to the lowest offices, doing the work of bakers,
swineherds, and carpenters. Following this ex
ample, many laymen of all ranks renounced their
possessions and their liberty, to share the life in
common of the monasteries, the rules of which
they practised rigorously, though without adopt
ing the monkish habit, under the direction of
uncontaminated priests and monks.1 Women
felt the same irresistible impulse, and hurried
in crowds to offer themselves in the character
of servants to do the daily work prescribed by
the monks.2 Daughters of labourers rivalled
the widows and maidens of noble race in their
passionate desire to renounce the world and mar
riage, and to submit to the yoke of the religious
orders. Whole villages embraced the life of the
cloister.3 To all these simple and generous
1 "In regno Teutonicorum communis vita multis in locis floruit, non
solum in clericis et monachis . . . verum etiam in laicis se et sua ad
eamdem vitam devotissime offerentibus, qui etsi habitu nee clerici nee
monachi videbantur, nequaquam tamen eis dispares in meritis fuisse
creduntur. Se enim servos eorumdem pro Domino fecerunt. . . . Se
et sua ad congregationes tarn clericorum quam monachorum regulariter
viventium devotissime contulerunt, ut sub eorum obedientia communi-
ter vivere et eis servire mererentur." — Bernold, ann. 1091, ap. Peetz,
v. 453.
2 " Non solum virorum sed et feminarum innumerabilis multitudo . . .
eisque more ancillarum quotidiani servitii pensum devotissime persol-
verent."— Ibid.
3 " In ipsis quoque villis filia? rusticorum innumera? conjugio et sa?-
culo abrenuntiare. " — Ibid.
" In Alemannia potissimum . . . multa? villa? ex integro se religioni
contradiderunt, seque iuvicem sanctitate morum pra?venire incessabiliter
studuerunt. " — Ibid.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 441
Christians the orthodox Suabian monasteries ap
peared, says a contemporary, like invincible asy
lums of peace, like perfumed meadows, where the
inhabitants might intoxicate themselves with the
sweet odours of a contemplative life.1
The great Abbot William of Hirschau regulated
as much as possible the impetuous impulse which
led laymen thus to abdicate, for love of the
heavenly life, their condition of free men and to
make themselves slaves to the monks. In con
junction with the Abbot of St Blaise, William
formed these lay affiliations into a permanent in
stitution, and was the first in Germany to join to
his congregation companies of neophytes without
any clerical character, under the title of lay
brothers,2 agreeably to the institution recently
established by St John Gualbert in the order of
Vallombrosa. To these lay brothers were assigned
special functions nearly connected with ordinary
secular life, in order to leave the monks more
leisure for the exercises of piety. Freed from the
1 "Spiritualia gymnasia monachorum Hirsaug. et Schafhausens.
quorum utrumque perfectis pollebat cceuobitis, quasi pratum odoriferum
plenum undique areolis aromatum : ac cuncti advenientes theoreticam
vitam diligentes jugum Domini suave, et onus ejus leve portare cupien-
tes, utroque loco invenerunt inexpugnabile asylum." — Passio S. Tier-
nonis episcop., ap. Geetsee, vi. 462, and Canisus, Led. antiq., vol. iii.
2 "Qui ex libera et in genua conditione ad fratrum obsequium sese
dimittant solo vita? ccelestis intuitu."- — Udal. , Ep. prmf. consuet. Clu
niac. ad Guill " Illuc nonnulli pro amore Christi con venerunt hujus
fervoris hujusque hurailitatis, ut eis non tarn libeat haberi pro monachis
quam pro servis monachorum ultra se obtulerunt ad ministerium pistrini, '
coquina?,'' kc— Bulla Urbani ap. II., Gekbebt. , i. 325. Cf. Teithem.,
ann. 1070, p. 228.

442 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
obligations of the choir, of silence, and other duties
of cloistral life, the lay brothers gave themselves
up specially to mechanical arts ; x they were the
tailors, curriers, shoemakers, smiths, carpenters,
and masons of the abbeys. These were the unpaid
workmen who constructed the immense monastic
buildings of Hirschau, who ornamented them with
beautiful works of art, and assisted William to
build many other monasteries. They wore the
monastic dress, but let their beards grow, which
procured them from the people the name of bar-
bati. Other laymen attached to the congregation
of Hirschau, in imitation of Cluny, bore the name
of oblati, and lived outside the monasteries. They
were employed in building, in clearing forests, in
serving the sick poor in hospitals, and in making
distant journeys.2 William allowed them to re
tain their secular dress, so that they might more
easily mingle with the world.3
1 " Ex his erant omnium artium mecanicarum peritissimi operatores,
qui omnes totius ccenobii structuras suis manibus summa diligentia con-
summaverunt. Erant enim fabri lignarii, et ferrarii, catomi quoque et
muratores optimi . . . vestiarii, coriarii, calcearii et quidquid artifici-
bus ad usum claustralium requiritur, non mercenarii, non servitores con-
ducti, sed conversi vel monachi barbati fuisse omnes memorantur . . .
quorum laboribus adjutus tot monasteria fundavit." — Teithem., ann.
1070. Cf. ann. 1083 : " Magistfi in omni scientia architectura? peritissi
mi." — See the special rule given them by St William, in his Life by
Heymon, c. 23 ; ap. Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix.
2 ' ' Quorum officium erat pro structuris . . . ligna et lapides addu-
cere, caleem decoquere, aquam et avenam de fluvio portare caementum
pro muratorlbus facere."— Teithem., I. c.
3 " Manere in pristino habitu permisit, quorum ministerio, in multis
uti rationabiliter consuevit, in his maxime, qua? in medio secularium,
quo barbatos mittere vel monachos non licebat, peragendi videbantur. "
—Teithem., p. 229.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 443
To the Abbey of Hirschau alone belonged fifty
oblati and sixty barbati ; there were one hundred.
and fifty monks, properly so called, who gave
themselves up specially to prayer, study, the tran
scription of books, and the celebration of divine
service. The monastic historian cannot sufficiently
praise the order, peace, union, and happiness which,
under the illustrious and saintly abbot, reigned
throughout the immense Hirsaugian community.1
Later, William obtained a solemn confirmation
of his institution by a bull of Pope Urban II. ;
Odo, Prior of Cluny, and Legate of Gregory VIL
in Suabia, had already appreciated the utility of
this new branch of the monastic tree.2
While these things were passing in the south
west of Germany, and near the sources of the
Danube, the same spirit was triumphant in the
region which bounded the empire on the side of
Hungary, between the Danube and the Noric Alps.
Agreeably to the decrees of the Council of Rome,
convoked by Hildebrand in 1063, the canons who,
while following the rule of St Augustine, lived,
like the Benedictines, in monasteries, and were
governed by abbots, were reformed by the illustrious
Altmann, Bishop of Passau, one of the most ardent
partisans of pontifical authority and monastic
obedience in Germany. He succeeded, not without
1 Teithem., p. 230.
2 Bernold, ann. 1091, ap. Pertz, v. 433. We may see how rig
orously this Pope treated a layman who had broken his vow.— Ibid.,
p. 1092.

444 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
great difficulty, in expelling the debauched and
corrupted canons, in replacing them by exemplary
monks, and in thus regenerating the abbeys of his
order, which abounded in Upper Austria, such as
Kremsmunster, St Polten, and St Florian. Hav
ing thus purged his field, the good husbandman,
as his biographer calls him, obtained an abundant
harvest of new virtues. Moreover, he founded, on
the confines of the empire, the famous Abbey of
Gottweih ; and, in his episcopal city, the abbey of
St Nicholas, the monks of which, by their zeal for
the cause of the Church, brought upon themselves
public punishment at the hands of the partisans of
King Henry IV.1
The writings of the time show us that the
monks of various reformed monasteries, and
especially the lay brothers or Oblates,2 were sent
from canton to canton, from diocese to diocese,
1 " Pestilentes quosque, et corruptos, et abominabiles factos in studiis
suis, de Sanctis locis undique proturbat : providens vice illorum religiosos
tam pra?latos quam discipulos. Inde jam reflorere religio ; inde suave
redolens redire sanctitatis opinio ; inde reverentia exhiberi servis Christi.
Hoc tam felici ausu solliciti cultoris, iunovata sunt novalia ccenobiorum,
et seges fecundior surrexit. . . . Hinc jam domus S. Floriani fructifi-
cavit suavitatem odoris, et flores ejus fructus honoris et honestatis, '' &c.
¦ — Vit. S. Altmanni, ap. Gretser, vi. p. 451. See another life of Alt
mann, mentioned above, Augsburg, 1619, pp. 68-71, for curious details
of the bitter resistance offered by the former monks, to the reformation.
These illustrious houses escaped the confiscation of Joseph II., and still
exist in a flourishing and regular state.
2 It is to these noble converts that we must apply the curious passage
of Lambert of Aschaffenburg, where he shows laymen seated beside the
papal legates at the diet of Tribur, 1067, where the. fall of Henry IV.
was brought about : " Laici nonnulli qui magnis opibus relictis ultro se
ad privatani tenuemque vitam propter Deum contulerant, missi a Fiomano
pontifice, ut palam omnibus per Gallias contestarentur justis de causis
excomnmnieatuni esse regem Heinricum," &e. — Ap. Pertz, v. 252.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 445
charged with the most important missions by their
direct superiors, or by the legates of the Pope, to
the great displeasure of the imperialist bishops,
who thus saw their influence over the minds of
the people neutralised.1 Thus monks travelled
over the whole empire, circulating writings in
favour of the Church, preaching resistance to
schism, and warming the zeal and piety of good
Catholics. The imperialists quickly comprehended
the strength which orthodoxy would gain from
this revival of fervour ; and the generous neo
phytes who peopled the Suabian abbeys became
objects of virulent attack by the apologists of
the schism, who neglected nothing to destroy
the great popularity the monks had gained.2
The invectives invented by the pagan writers
of degenerate Rome,3 revived by the hatred of
1 "Authores schismatum, qui dudum facta sunt in Ecclesia, pariter
et in republica, extant pra?cipue quidam qui dicuntur monachi de Hir-
saugia . . . qui enim debuerant se continere intra solitudines monas-
teriorum egressi sunt ultra terminos et constitutiones Patrum, usurpantes
sibi contra divinam ordinationem disponere, imo destruere regnum et
sacerdotium, qui mittunt circumquaque angelos verbi sui, pra?dicantes
apud se suosque sectatores esse tantum Ecclesiam Dei et justitiam Dei et
sancta sacerdotia Dei. " — Walteami Haumburo. episcop. , Apolog. pro
Henric.JV., lib. ii. c. 37, ap. Goldast, p. 158. "Monachi . . . longe
degeneraverunt ab ilia, quam professi sunt, B. Benedicti paternitate,
qui docent regia? potestati, immo divina? ordinationi resistendum esse.
. . . Nunc omnia recte pervertuntur et monachi quoque terminos Pat
rum transgrediuntur, et absque licentia proprii episcopi ingrediuntur,
immo invadunt parochias alterius episcopi. . . ." — Ibid., chapter 41.
(Abbot. Laurish. libellus supplex ad Henricum IV. contra Hildebrandi-
nos monaclios de Hirsaugia ; apud Goldast., Apol, p. 233.)
1 "Nam quoniam laudis sunt percupidi popularis . . . quos quia
vulgaris circumfert aura favoris. . . -" — Ibid., -p. 235.
3 The verses of Rutilius Numatianus against the monks are well
known — " Semiviri, turpes, molles,"&c.

446 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
the courtier-bishops and of Henry IV. himself, were
once more launched against them. The reformed
monks were spoken of as vagabonds, missionaries
of disorder, and innovators hostile to the empire.
The coarsest abuse was mingled with puerile or
absurd reproaches. The few monks who remained
faithful to the imperial cause, after lamenting that
they could not be allowed to follow peaceably
what they called legal tradition and national
usages,1 tried to ridicule the large tonsures, the
wide sleeves, and great cowls which St William
had introduced into his abbeys. The ill-combed
beards of the nobles and peasants who were to
be found, without distinction, among the converts
at Hirschau, were held up to public derision.2
The imperialist bishops did not disdain to repeat
these insults ; one of them, Walter of Naumburg,
after having declared that it was the monks of
Hirschau who had upset the empire, went so far
in his official apology for the emperor as to com
pare them to those husks thrown to the swine
which the prodigal son in his poverty had desired.3
1 " Ex toto spretis legalibus atque veternis consuetudinibus. . . . Ut
mos teutonicus jubet." — Laurish. libell. suppl, pp. 235, 236. This curi
ous lamentation dates from 1111, but the facts to which it refers evidently
date from the reformation of Hirschau under Abbot Guillaume. See
the complaints of Burkard, the historian of the degenerate St Gall, de
Casib. S. Galli, c. 7, ap. Goldast., Rer. Alemann. script., p. 73.
2 Waltram., 1 c, cap. 41 and 42.
3 ' ' Mysterium iniquitatis nunc operatur per quosdam, qui dicuntur
monachi, confundentes Ecclesiam pariter et rempublicam perverso dog-
mate suo, qui adversantur et extollunt se adversus regiam potestatem et
adversus apostolicam sedem " (that is, against the anti-pope Guibert) .

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 44V
These attacks were not without results ; often
hard words were followed by harder treatment.
When, in 1074, the citizens of Cologne, in agree
ment with King Henry, rose against Archbishop
Hanno, they plundered, and threatened with death,
the monks of St Pantaleon — to punish them, as
they said, for the fault of the archbishop who had
expelled the old and unruly monks in order to intro
duce others who would submit to severe discipline.1
The Abbey of Hirschau deserved, indeed, the
first place in the hatred of the schismatics as well
as in the confidence and affection of Catholics ; for
during fifty years it never ceased to be the centre
of orthodox resistance, and the impregnable asylum
of the defenders and martyrs of the cause of the
Roman Church. It was thither that King Ro
dolph, elected by the Catholics at Forchheim to
replace Henry IV., came immediately after his
election, to purify and strengthen himself during
the festival of Pentecost in 1077 ; thither fled, after
their release from prison, the French legates sent
by Gregory to that assembly, the two monks Ber
nard and Guitmond, who, returning from their mis
sion, robbed of all things, nearly naked, laboured
unceasingly, during a year spent among their

" Novimus domesticam institutionem ejusmodi monachorum, quam vere
possumus assimilare siliquis porcorum, de quibus non potuit ille saturari
quem dicit Evangelium," &c— Waltram., 1. v., p. 170. " Qui non ab
apostolica sede quidem abstinuerunt, sed mnlta contra eam gesserunt,
scripserunt et docuerunt." — Lbid., p. 177.
1 Stentzel, Geschichte der frdnkischen Kaiser, vol. i. p. 318.

448 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
hosts, to draw closer the bonds of monastic order
and of study between Hirschau and Cluny ; there,
too, were received, as sons of the house, the sev
enty monks of the Abbey of Hersungen, violently
driven from their own cloister by Wecilon, the
schismatic Bishop of Mayence, on account of their
attachment to the pontifical decrees.1
It is easy, then, to understand why Gregory
VII. thought it right to secure to Hirschau the
widest possible exemption,2 and why Henry IV.
honoured the holy house with a special hatred.3
But he persecuted it with his threats in vain ;
the monks, says their annalist, sustained by their
prayers, braved the sword of the tyrant, and de
spised the menaces of offended pride : 4 the emperor
never succeeded in destroying, nor even in trou
bling, this home of Catholic activity ; 5 though,
1 Trithemius, pp. 235, 268.
2 See the text of the Bull of Exemption in Trithem., Chron., p. 243,
ad ann. 1085. Cf. Hetmo, Vit. B. Wilhelm. Hirsh., c. 4, in Act. SS.
0. B., vol. ix. Gregory extended the exemption to Schaffhausen when
Wilhelm had taken in hand the government of that abbey. — Regest.,
lib. vii. ep. 24. King Henry IV. had previously enfranchised Hirschau
from all temporal subjection at the request of the founder by a charter
of 1075, anterior to his rupture -with Gregory.
3 Teithem., 301-304. " De monachis Hirsaugiensibus . . . sa?pius
coram amicis suis publicam fecit querelam, et . . . supremum illorum
ccenobio iteratis vicibus comminabatur excidium." — Ibid.
4 "Nee latuerunt mina? schismatici regis innocentem Hirsaugiani
co?tus congregation em, qua? orationibus pugnavit contra ferrum, et spem
suam habens in adjutorio Altissimi, hominis inflati comminationis forti
animo contempsit." — Teithem., I. u.
6 The Bishop of Strasburg, one of Henry's most zealous partisans,
was already on his way, at the head of an armed troop, to attack Hir
schau, when he died suddenly, without having time to put off his armour.
"Vivensin infernum descendit,''says Heymo, in Vit. S. Wilhelm., c. 26.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 449
throughout the whole contest, he and his partisans
never ceased to point out, to the anger of the
schismatics, the audacity of these Hildebrandines,
to borrow the epithet which they applied to the
monks of Hirschau and all those attached to their
cause.1 We cannot finish this review without making
special mention of some of the men who, in the dif
ferent reformed communities, showed themselves the
most energetic defenders of the pontifical throne.
Such was the learned Bernard, first master of the
schools at Constance and Uldesheim, and afterwards
monk at Hirschau,2 and who, not content with
bravely defending with his pen the papal decrees,
composed several works against the schismatics
equally vigorous and popular ; 3 such were the
famous historian Bernold, a monk of St Blaise,4 and
1 " Decani et conventualium abbatia? Laurishamensis libellus supplex
ad Henricum IV. imperat, contra Hildebrandinos monachos de Hirsaugia,
Ecclesia? et imperii perturbatores, et pacis publica? hostes" (Ital), ap.
Goldast., Apol. pro. Henr. IV., p. 233 ; and Freher, Script, rer. Ger
man, vol. i. Struve, in his preface to the book of Bishop Waltram against
Gregory VII. (ap. Freher, p. 240), proves that this invective applies to
all monasteries founded or reformed by St Wilhelm of Hirschau.
" Waltram., Apol, p. 89, ap. Goldast.
3 Bernard died at Corvas in 1088. "Vir eruditissimus, in causa S.
Petri ferventissimus,'' says Bernold, Chron., ann. 1088, ap. Pertz, v.
448. Cf. eumdem ann. 1091, ap. Pertz, p. 451. One of his writings,
in which he disputes the validity of the sacraments administered by
schismatics, was published by Ussermann, Prodromus Germanice sacra,
vol. ii. p. 188, with the answer of his disciple Bernold, and the attempted
refutation by Bishop Waltram of Naumberg in Book II. of his Apology,
ap. Goldast., p. 89.
4 See, on the life and writings of this monk, who was long confounded
with the annalist Berthold (the continuer of Hermann Contractus), the
details given by Ussermann, op. cit., x. xy. ; and Stentzel, Geschichte
VOL. VI. 2 F

450 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Adalbert, a monk of Constance, who, united by a
common zeal and common labours, desired to be
buried under the same stone in the cloister of the
Abbey of Schaffenhausen ; such also was Gebhard,
brother of the Duke of Lahringen, a monk of Hir
schau, whence he was drawn by the legate Odo,1 to
occupy the diocese of Constance, and to become, in
his turn, legate in Germany after Odo's elevation
to the papacy under the name of Urban II.
Above all these valiant soldiers of the Church
towers the learned Abbot William of Hirschau,
who for twenty-two 2 years was the soul of mon
astic regeneration in Germany.3 This great prel
ate gave up his whole life to satisfying his three
dominant passions — that of solacing the poor with
the most tender charity and scrupulous solicitude,4
that of reforming degenerate monasteries,5 and
that of maintaining orthodoxy and ecclesiastical
rule inflexible in face of the imperialist schism.6
der frank. Kaiser, vol. ii. p. 100. Baronius characterises him as veritatis
studiosissimus, ad ann. 1100.
1 Trithemius, p. 266, ann. 1085.
2 From 1069 to 1091.
3 " Ipse namque est qui ordinem nostrum omnibus Theutonici regni
provinciis misere collapsum reformare studuit." — Trithem., in vet.
Chron., ap. Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 270. Compare Heymo, Vit. S.
Guill, c. 21.
4 His life, written by his disciple Heymo, is full of touching traits of
this kind. — See cc. 2 and 90.
5 " Ante omnia in illo studium monastica? districtionis pra?valuit, in
quo totus adeo efferbuit ac si nunquam aliquid studii habuerit. "  Ber
nold., ann. 1091, ap. Peetz, v. 451; Trithem., ibid.
6 "In causa S. Petri ferventissimus." — Bernold., I. c. " Zelo ani
marum a?stuabat, salubri consilio quosque ad imitatem Ecclesia? tenen-
dam servandamque animabat." — Heymo, Vit. S. Wilhelm., c. 5.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 451
William had the power of winning souls, and,
at once by his cordial and pious simplicity and
by his great prudence, he exercised an unrivalled
influence, not only over his monks and the Mon
astic Order generally, but also over those bishops,
clergy, and laymen who remained faithful to the
Church.1 In spite of his manifold occupations, the
venerable abbot cultivated zealously all the arts
and sciences, particularly astronomy, music, and
architecture ; 2 but neither these studies, nor the
serious cares arising from the daily warfare amidst
which he lived, ever made him neglect prayer and
the private duties of religion. Thus one of the
disciples of the holy man wrote to him : " Your
life serves us as an example ; your admirable
deeds, your pious lamentations, your blessed tears,
suffice to waken in our hearts the desire of an
eternal home." 3 When he died, six months after
Gregory, William particularly recommended his
monks to persevere till death in their unvarying
devotion to the Roman Church.4
- In order to complete the work of monastic re
generation, William was diligent to seek every-
1 Heymo, Vit., c. 21.
3 Heymo, iv. 619 ; Bernold., I c.
3 " Sufficit vita tua, o beatissime Wilhelme, omnibus nostris in exem-
plum. Provocant nos ad desiderium ccelestis patria? sanctissimi gemitus
tui et beatissima? lacryma? tua? omnesque splendidissimi actus tui."—-
Aymon, de Qualit. codest. patrice, lib. iiv. prolog., ap. Martene, in Add.
et Corr. Ann. Bened., vol. vi.
' 4 " Obsecrans et contestans'ut in unitate Ecclesia? et subjectione sedis
Apostolica? quomodo sibi ab eo traditum fuerat, usque ad mortem invio-
labiliter permanerent. " — Heymo, I. e. p. 736.

452 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
where such rules and peculiar observances as might
be of use in the reform of his brethren. " These
are," he says, in his preface to the Usages which he
bequeathed to his congregation, " the living stones
of which I would build up my spiritual edifice." 1
It was with this view that he charged the German
monk Udalric to edit, under the title of Customs
of Cluny,2 the complete collection of practices and
rules observed in the monastery. This collection,
diffused through all Christian countries, contains
many rules relative to the government of souls,
and is, as it were, the code of the vigorous spiritual
education of Cluny — that code in which he who
was the Prior Hildebrand before he became Pope
Gregory, found a source of strength continually
renewed. Udalric, the monk above referred to, was a
noble Bavarian of high rank,3 who had been
brought up at the imperial court, honoured by
the esteem of Henry III., attached to the service
of the Empress Agnes, and endowed, while still
young, with all the benefices and dignities re
served for clerks of high birth. On his return
from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem it had been
his desire to found a monastery on his patri-
1 "Statuiut . . . quos vivos lapides ad spiritualis structura? fabri-
cam conferrem.''-
2 Consuetudines Cluniacenses, in the Spicileg. of D'Achery, vol. i.
p. 641, ed. in fol.
3 "Illustri prosapia Bavarorum (ortus) . . . pater illius inter regni
prapotentes divitiis, fama, gloria, et potentia eminebat."— Vit. S. Udal
ric, ap. Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 782,

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 453
monial estate ; but the ill-will of the simoniacal
bishops of the country having prevented this,1 he
resolved that since he might not give his pos
sessions to God, he would give himself, and for
that purpose went to Cluny, where he became a
monk. After some time the holy abbot Hugh
sent him to Germany with a colony from Cluny,
which he established at Brisgau, not without
opposition on the part of both clergy and
people. Udalric thus became a bond of union
between the two great provinces most devoted
to the Church — Burgundy and Suabia, — and at
the same time an intermediary between the two
holy abbots Hugh and William, whose rival he
showed himself in charity to the poor and auster
ity of manners. Finally, after a life full of vir
tues and of trials, Udalric died in a cell in the
Black Forest,2 blind, but causing to be repeated to
him, as a last exhortation during his agony, those
words of the Apostle which so well sum up the
history of the eleventh century — Sancti per fidem
vicerunt regna.3
1 " Statu temporis, necnon episcoporum irreligiositate, qui tunc eccle
sia? pra?erant impediente." — Vit. S. Udalr., ibid., c. 11.
2 In 1093.
, 3 Heb. xi. 33. See Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix. p. 804. William of
Hirschau was also the intimate friend of Bishop Wolphelm, Abbot
of Braumwailer, near Cologne : " Ex illustri prosapia ortus . . . magna
inter duos istos reverendissimos viros . . . familiaritas pari fuit sancti
tate comparata, qua? usque ad mortem utriusque inviolata permansit."
—Trithem., Chron. Hirsaug., ad ann. 1091 ; and Vit. S. WolpMm. in
Act. SS. 0. B., vol. v. p. 675. Wolphelm wrote against Berengarius, as
so many other monks had done — Lanfranc, Guitmond, Durand, &c. He

454 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
With such men and such institutions from which
to recruit the army of the Church, Gregory had
reason to believe that the moment was come for
declaring war against the corruption of the clergy
and the despotism of the laity ; he marched, there
fore, upon the enemy, gave him battle, and gained
the day.
had always supported the pontifical party in Germany, and was in his
turn protected by St Gregory VII. against Hidulph, Archbishop of Co
logne. Wolphelm died April 22, 1091.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 455

HOUSES DEPENDENT ON ST BLAISE AND
HIKSCHAU.
Daughters of St Blaise.
1. Erlach, on the Lake of Bienne, founded in 1089.
. 2. Ochsenhausen, in Suabia, founded 1093, by Conrad of Wol-
fartswende. 3. Waiblingen, at the confluence of the Danube and Iller, founded
1093, by Counts Hartmarni and Otto of Kirchberg ; consecrated in
1099 by trie legate Gebhard of Constance.
4. Gottweih, on the Danube, in Austria, founded 1093, by Bishop
Altmann of Passau.
5. Alpirspach, founded in 1095, by Count Meric of Sultz, and
two other nobles, also confirmed by the Legate Gebhard.
Daughters of Hirschau, founded by the Abbot St William.
1. Ursungen, 1073, endowed by Sigefroy, Archbishop of Mayence.
2. St George of the Black Forest, founded in 1083 by Hetzel,
seigneur of Wald.
3. Reichenbach,1082, founded by Berno, Baron of Siegberg,
who became a monk there.
4. Luckesheim, 1087, founded by Count Wolmar, who died a monk.
5. Zwicfalten, 1089, founded by Counts Guitold and Konon of
Achelm or Watheim, transferred to Wielfelingen.
6. St Peter, in monte Silv. Nigr., near Teck, 1093, founded by
Berthold, Duke of Lahringen.
7. Petershausen, near Constance, 1085, founded by Gebhard of
Constance, restored.
8. Laven, in Carinthia . . .
9. St Peter at Erfurt.
10. Camberg, in 1079, founded by Count Burkhard of Rothenburg.
We may mention here some important foundations contemporary
with St Gregory VII., or produced by his influence, but anterior to
the rise of the Cistercian order : —
In Flanders : Altenburg (1084), by St Arnold de Pamele, bishop.

456 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
In France: Nogent, near Coucy (1077); Anchin, near Cambray
(1079)— and Eibemont, near Laon (1083), both founded by Anselm,
Count of Eibemont ; St Jean des Vignes, at Soissons, by Hugh,
Lord of Chateau -Thierry (1076). This illustrious community
existed till the eighteenth century without need of reformation. —
(See Hist. Litt, i. p. 24.) At present it is used as a military store
by the Engineers, who have destroyed the church and cloister, and
only preserved, in a mutilated condition, the magnificent facade and
the two towers. Mauriac, in Limousin, founded by Archambaud,
Viscount of Comborn (1080); La Saulve Majeure, in, the diocese of
Bordeaux, by St Gerard (1080); Andernes, in Ponthieu (1084);
Cazal-Benoit, founded by the Lord of Issoudun (1094) ; Mayniac, in
Limousin, founded by Archambaud III., Viscount of Comborn, to
expiate the murder of twelve monks of Tulle (1085).
In Italy : Sasso-Vivo, in Umbria (1085). It was the mother-house
of twenty abbeys and seventy-two priories, before it was ruined by
the Commendam.
In Germany : Admont (1076), in Styria, founded by Gebhard,
Archbishop of Salzburg, the friend of Gregory VII. — the monas
tery served as a refuge for Thiemon, the successor of Gebhard;
Lambach, in Austria, by Count Eckbert of Lambach, one of the
victims of Henry IV., and by his son Adalberon, Bishop of Wurz-
borg (1080), who took refuge there after having been deposed by
the tyrant ; Scheuern, in Bavaria, by the house of Willelspach
(1077) ; Mblk, on the Danube, where monks replaced the canons in
1089, and which was afterwards celebrated for its library and for its
magnificence ; Bemharstbriinn (1085), in Thuringia, by the Land
grave Louis, to serve as a burial-place for his race, and to expiate
his sins (see Hist, de Ste Elisabeth) ; Bursfeld, by Duke Henry and
his wife Gertrude, destined, like Cazal-Benoit, which was founded
in the same year, to become, in the fifteenth century, the head
quarters of a celebrated reform, which embraced one hundred and
fourteen monasteries; finally, Laach, near Andernach, founded
by the Count Palatine Henry, and finished by his son Sigefroy
of Brabant. The church of this last abbey, though given up (in
1833) by its proprietor to the most profane uses, still offers a per
fect model of Eoman architecture ; the situation is delightful, on
the shore of a lake whence the monastery derives its name. Gott
weih, Admont, and Molk still exist, thanks to the premature death
of Joseph II. ; and Scheuern, which a king of Bavaria had destroyed,
was re-established by his son.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 457

CHAPTER IV.

PONTIFICATE OF ST GREGORY VII. — CONDEMNATION
OF INVESTITURES.1
Hopes of the Catholics at the accession of Gregory VII. — Hatred and
calumny against him existing through seven centuries. — Justice done
him by modern historians. —Gregory VII. wounded and made pris
oner by the imperialists. —Henry IV. , excommunicated and deposed,
obtains absolution at Canossa. — Gregory VII. obliged to depose the
king a second time. — Triple mission fulfilled by St Gregory VII.—
He is, like his Master, insulted and betrayed. — High idea which
Gregory entertained of the sacerdotal dignity. — No Pope less an in
novator. — Gregory VIL invented neither the celibacy of the clergy
nor the appointment of bishops by the spiritual power. — Grave conse
quences of investiture in Germany. — The French clergy more inde
pendent than those beyond the Rhine. — The defence of the essential
distinction between the two powers and the two jurisdictions an
eternal honour to the papacy. — Gregory VII. combats the false idea
that the institution of bishops has the same source as feudal subjec
tion. — Gregory VII. dreamed, not of a theocracy, bnt of the alliance
of the two powers.
When the news of Hildebrand's accession to the Hopes of
supreme dignity had crossed the Alps, a monk 2 u0s atthe'
wrote to him from the depths of Lorraine : "It of Gregory

is that you may serve as an example to His people
that God has seated you upon that throne from
1 From 1049 to 1073. Hildebrand had been prime minister to the Popes
St Leo IX., Victor II., Stephen IX., Nicholas II., and Alexander II.
He governed the Church as Pope from 1073 to 1083.
2 William, Abbot of St Arnoul at Metz.

VII.

458 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
whence all the lights of intelligence flow over the
world, and to which all things converge as the rays
of a circle to their centre. Be sure that the more you
please the good, the more odious you will be to the
wicked, and that to be hated by the sons of ini
quity is not the least of the marks of excellence.
Now then, 0 most powerful of men, arm yourself
with the sword to which the Lord has promised
victory ! You see how the Amalekites, the Midi-
anites, and so many other plagues, conspire against
the armies of Israel. To vanquish and extermi
nate such terrible enemies, what care, what zeal,
what prudence, must you needs employ ! But let
no fear, no threat, cause you to retard the holy
combat. . . . You hold the highest place ; all
eyes are turned towards you ; all Catholics hope,
and are led by your past life to expect those great
things to which the sovereign dignity ought to
inspire one who, in an inferior post, has already
fought so gloriously." 1
Hatred and We know how Gregory answered this expecta-
agamst st tion : we know how, to speak the language of his
Gregory
vh. during first biographer, "he endured perfidy and tempta-
seven cen- . .
turies. tion, perils, insults, captivity, and exile for the
love of God ; and how, by the grace of that same
" Illius nunc cathedra? fecit esse sessorem a qua per orbem terrarum
omnia virtutum lumina diffunduntur, et ad quam, velutin circulo linea?,
ad illud medium quod centrum geometrici vocant, universa convergent.
. . . At ineptus ego . . . cum tu fervore mirabili maj oramoliaris, quam
.nostra suspicetur infirmitas ; et aquilino more omnia inferiora transvoli-
tans, in ipsius solis ardorem tuos infigere coneris obtutus. " — Mabill.,
Analeet., p. 456.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 459
God, and by the aid of the apostles — kings, tyrants,
dukes, princes, all the jailers of human souls, all
the ravenous wolves, all the ministers of Anti
christ, the archbishops, the bishops, and the other
prevaricating priests, were vanquished by this
invincible athlete." x
At the same time, the hatred of the wicked with
which the Lorraine monk, above quoted, threatened
Hildebrand, completely fulfilled that prophecy, and
the powers of heresy, ignorance, and servility emu
lated each other for seven centuries in attacks upon
his good fame. The Pope was described by his
contemporaries as a firebrand of hell,2 denounced
by pensioned bishops as a parricide, a leper, and
a magician.3 Later, at the period of the Renais-
1 " Inimicorum fraudes, tentationes, pericula, detractiones, irrisiones,
captiones, custodias, propter nomen Domini . . . qualiter Domini juva-
mine et sustentatione, Apostolorumque comitante suffragio, reges, tyran-
nos, duces, principes, animarumque hominum captivatores, voratores,
insuper lupos, Antichristi videlicet ministros, archiepiscopos, et reliquos
ecclesiasticos pervasores fortissimus athleta Dei superavit." — Paul Bebn-
eibd., apud Gretsek, vol. vi. p. 137.
3 This insult dates from his lifetime, " Impii, quia Spiritum sanctum
blasphemaverunt . . . infernalem titionem vocaverunt." — Paul Bern
eied. , vol. iii. They played upon the German etymology of the word
Hildebrand, altered on purpose. Brand means a firebrand or a sword ;
Helle, hell. By restoring the ordinary orthography, or changing it in
another way, we get, as the etymologic translation, brand of love, sword
of love, sword of a hero. Cf. Gketseb, vol. vi. p. 125.
3 "Sacrilegus, adulter, perjurus, homicida,
Insuper et parricida,
Leprosus in corpore et anima,
Magus, sarabaita.
Ergo ista falsa cuculla,
Facta est diaboli medulla."
t— Benzonis,' episc. Albiensis, panegyricus rhythmicus in Hewric III.
imperat., ap. Mencken., Script, rer. Germ., vol. i..p. 1065. . '

460 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
sance, the tribe of scholars of the record office
and the ante-chamber, who then swarmed, spoke
of the great Pontiff as a viper, as Heliogabalus,
as Trimalcion.1 And less than a century ago,
in this very France where we write, courtly
bishops contended in zeal with legists and officers
of the king, some to bury the enterprises of the
Pontiff in eternal forgetfulness,2 others to muti
late his worship, and to outrage the very altars
where the Church had placed him.3 Naturally,
1 " Nemo unus Hilleprando fuit vafrior et versutior dolisque ac frau-
dibus consutis viperinior. . . . Heliogabalum, id est Proserpina? furci-
f erum inscripserunt. . . . Hie est quondam Babylonis illius Trimalcio.
. . ." — Mei.oh. Goldast., in Dedic. apolog. pro imp. Henric. IV. Franco-
cozsare, augusto, pio, felice, inclito, patre patriot : Hanovia?, 1611, pp. 5,
6, and 7. In another work by the same author, Replicatio pro Imperio
adversus Gretserum, Gregory VII. is described as " homo necromanticus,
veneficus, blasphemus, adulter, sodomita, p. 132.
2 When, in 1728, Pope Benedict XIII. rendered the worship of Gre
gory VII. obligatory, causing the service in his honour to be inserted in
the Roman breviary, many judgments and injunctions were issued in
France, so as, says Mgr. d'Hallencourt, Bishop of Verdun, to bury in
eternal forgetfulness this enterprise of Pope Gregory VIL; and Mgr. Bos-
suet, Bishop of Troyes, the unworthy nephew of the immortal Bishop of
Meaux, did not shrink from defining as follows, in an injunction bearing
date Sept. 30, 1729, the acts of St Gregory — " actions which should have
remained in eternal oblivion, and which can only dishonour their authors."
What would have been the astonishment of the courtly prelates of the
time of Louis XIV. if they had been able to guess how the name of the
great man whom they proposed to bury in forgetfulness would, in less
than a century after their servile demonstrations, be proclaimed by his
tory ! We are sorry to say that even in 1828, when the Roman breviary
was published at Paris, a prelate, afterwards ennobled by misfortune
and by courage, thought it right, in imitation of what had been done in
Austria under Joseph II. , to order the erasure from this breviary of the
word iniqui, applied to the Emperor Henry IV. and his supporters. We
refer the curious to vol. ii. of Institutions liturgiques, by Dom Gr/lsR"
anqeb, for a complete account of this strange episode.
3 See the curious sentence of the Parliament of Paris, given in 1729,
midway between the orgies of the regency and the reign of Madame de

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 461
our illustrious philosophers have not failed to
improve upon the calumnies of the courtiers ; for
Voltaire, Gregory VII. was a fool} and for Con-
dorcet, a knave.2
But these times are past ; and whatever may Justice
happen, they will not return. After a long night, modern
the day of justice has arisen.3 Even beyond the
Church, generous and learned voices have disputed
with each other the honour of rendering homage
to the virtue of Gregory VII., vindicating his
memory from the outrages of twenty generations
of blind accusers.4 That glory, so pure and so
Pompadour. This sentence we have read in its first form, upon a loose
sheet, bearing the arms of France ; it is entitled, ' Sentence of the Court of
Parliament for the suppression of a printed sheet commencing with these
words : The 25th May, feast of Gregory VII. , Pope and Confessor, July
20, 1729, at Paris, at the house of Pierre Simon, Printer to the Parlia
ment, at the end of the Rue de la Harpe, at the Hercules : ' ' This day
the King's men have entered, and Maitre Pierre Gilbert des Voisins,
advocate of our lord the King, having right to speak, said," ' &c.
1 The Church counts him a saint, and the sages count him a fool. —
Volt. , Essai sur les mxurs.
2 " Our priests tried to celebrate in the chapel of Versailles the office
of Hildebrand, of whom the popes have made a saint under the name of
Gregory. The King (Louis XV.), seeing this name in the list of services
in Ms chapel, caused it to be crossed out by the advice of his counsel. It
is said that a commission on this subject has been named to examine the
services of the religious communities, and see that they do not hold the
feast of Hildebrand or any other knave." — Letter from Condorcet to
Turgot, May 12, 1772, quoted in the work of M. Genin, entitled, Ou
Vflglise ou d'fitat, p. 20.
3 In France, Abbe Rohrbacher, in his Histoire Universelle ds Vltglise,
and M. Jager, in his Cours d'histoire ecclesiastique, have vigorously rep
resented the truth, and, we may venture to say, have refuted Bossuet
and Fleury. Among foreigners, Johan Muller and Professor Gaab of
Tubingen, in the eighteenth century, were the first Protestants who did
justice to Gregory VII. Their glimpses into historical truth have since
been more fully developed.
4 To judge of the real progress of historic truth in the short space of

462 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
perfect, is already partially re-established among us;
but it is still far from having reached the full splen
dour which the justice of the future has in store.
It is not a part of our plan to give a detailed
account of the pontificate of Gregory VII. It is
enough to have shown the nature of the struggle
a quarter of a century, we must read the History of Gregory VII. pub
lished in 1846 by Professor Voigt, of the University of Konigsberg, and
that of Mr Bowden, one of the most distinguished writers of the new
Anglican school. In the first of these works, the vindication of the
Pontiff is as complete as we could expect from learning without faith ;
in the second, in spite of the extraordinary contradictions of a school
which wishes to prove to itself that the truth has ¦ never quitted the
Anglican defection, we may remark not only a profound feeling of the
dignity of the Church and the greatness of her divine mission, but,
moreover, the most significant acknowledgments of the brilliant ser
vices rendered by Gregory to the faithful in all countries. Among the
other foreign writers who have recently treated the period of Gregory
VII. I may quote Stentzel, who, in part of his History of the House of
Franconia (Leipsie, 1827), vol. i. pp. 280-524, describes the pontificate
of the great Pope. This writer unfortunately does not always remem
ber the sentiments of honesty, honour, and morality, which inspired
him at the beginning of his book. A single instance will suffice to
show this want of loyalty ; the author (p. 373) reproaches Gregory for
having more than once written the following phrase, ' ' Accursed be
he who has not made his sword drink blood ! " But the writer takes
care not to tell the reader that to this often-quoted text of the prophet
Jeremiah (c. 48) Gregory VII. never fails to add this interpretation : "Hoc
est, sicut ipsi bene intelligitis, qui verbum pra?dicationis » carnalium
hominum retinet increpatione. " This addition is found exactly repeated
five times in the Regest., b. ii. ep. 51 and 66 ; iii. 3 ; iv. 1 and 2. The
text is only used once without the addition (Gretser, i. ep. 9). Leo, in
his Manual of Middle Age History (Halle, 1830), and Luden, in his
History of the German People (Gotha, 1834, vols. viii. and ix.), seem to
me, among all their compatriots, those who have best understood the
intentions and character of Gregory VII. As to the work entitled, Das
Zeitalter Hildebrand, fiir und gegen ihn, aus zeitgleichen Quellen, by
Georg. Cassander (Darmstadt, 1842), it is only a pamphlet, the title of
which lies audaciously, and of which the manifest object is to oppose
the new tendency of historic science in Germany to the advantage of
the Protestant passions raised by the resistance of the Archbishops of
Cologne and Posen.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 465
which fell to his lot, to have defined the object at
which he aimed, to have pointed out the enemies
he encountered, and to have enumerated the auxil
iaries who at his call issued from their cloisters.
In order to make manifest, as far as our weakness
permits, the genius of the great champion of the
Church and the Monastic Orders, it still remains
for us to show the most remarkable results of his
influence, and to prove the purpose with which he
acted in the exercise of his redoubtable authority.
But before doing this, it may be useful to recall
the dates of the chief events of the period on which
we have entered.
Hildebrand was elected in i073, at the moment
when the insurrection of the people of Saxony and
Thuringia seriously threatened the authority of
Henry IV. In the course of the following year,
the prince reconciled himself with the insurgents
by accepting the conditions they imposed.1 About
the same time, Henry received several legates2
charged by the Pope to urge upon him the refor
mation of his life,3 of his government, and of the
German clergy. The king promised to reform,
and to help Gregory to extirpate simony ; but in
1075, war broke out once more between the Saxons
and Henry, and the latter, this time victorious over
1 Stentzel, i. 313.
2 The Empress Agnes, Henry's mother, consented to take part in this
pontifical embassy to her son ; the bishops of Ostia, Palestrina, and Como
were joined with her. — Bonizo, Lib. ad amic, p. 811.
3 "Pro corrigendis moribus regis."— Berthold, 1064.

464 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
his enemies, succeeded in reducing them to absolute
submission. From that moment he ceased to tem
porise with the Holy See. All the royal councillors,
even those who were excommunicated, were re
called, and the disorders of the Church were in
creased by scandalous promotions in the episcopate.
Gregory During the festival of Christmas, in this same
wounded year, 1075, Gregory VIL, seized at the altar by an
prisoner by imperialist noble named Cencius, was wounded,
the impe- r . . .
riaiists. and dragged to prison, but almost immediately
delivered by the Roman people.1 This was, on the
part of Henry IV., a violation of all the promises
made to the Pope. Gregory, after useless remon
strances, was obliged, as his predecessor Alexander
II. had been, to cite Henry to appear before the
Holy See to answer for the crimes of which he was
accused. But the king, instead, of obeying this
summons, called together a council at Worms (Jan.
28, 1076), where the deposition of the Pontiff was
pronounced. This sentence having been notified in full synod
to the Pope and clergy of Rome, Gregory, at the
same sitting, decided to excommunicate the king
and to pronounce the sentence of his deposition,
which was the consequence of the excommunica
tion (Feb. 1076).
1 For details of this curious episode, see Padl Bernried, cc. 45 to 67 ;
and Berthold, ann. 1076. M. Villemain has published an exact and
eloquent narrative of it in the Revue des Deux Mondes. This is the only
fragment yet known to the public of the future history of Gregory VII.
by that eminent writer.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 465
At this news, the German princes assembled at
Tribur (Oct. 1076), and declared that they would
elect another king if Henry did not obtain absolu
tion before the time appointed. The royal author
ity was suspended in the meantime ; 1 and a new
assembly, convoked at Augsburg for the day of
the Purification in the following year, presided
over by the Pope, was called upon to pronounce
definitely on the accusations brought against the
king. Henry accepted these conditions ; but going
unexpectedly into Italy, he hurried at once to
meet the Pope at Canossa (Jan. 28, 1077), and
there begged and obtained absolution,2 promising
to submit to the judgment of the princes and of
the sovereign pontiff, to dismiss the simoniacal
bishops, and to avoid all violence for the future.
Scarcely was he absolved, however, when he al
lowed himself to be led away by the persuasions
of the Lombard bishops, again broke his word,
caused the two papal legates (Anselm of Lucca
and Gerard of Ostia) to be imprisoned, and re
sumed the full exercise of royal authority in Italy
as well as in Germany. The princes of the
country, filled with indignation, then elected as
king Eodolph Duke of Suabia. This took place
at the Diet of Forchheim (April 7, 1077).
During three years of sanguinary rivalry between
1 Lambert, ann. 1076.
2 " Solam ei communionem reddidi, non in regno, a quo enim in Ro
manorum synodo deposueram instauravi,'' says Gregory VIL, in the
second sentence pronounced against Henry.— Coram, Cone, xii. 638.
VOL. VI. 2 G

466 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Henry and Rodolph, the Pope steadily refused to
take any decisive part, and constantly advised the
Gregory two parties to cease hostility. But in 1080 (March
excommu- 7), after having vainly waited for Henry to repair his
Hem-y iv. innumerable misdeeds, Gregory yielded to the re
time, peated entreaties of the Saxons, and for the second
time excommunicated, and definitely deposed, Henry
IV., Rodolph being substituted for him as king.
Henry replied by again causing the sentence of
deposition to be pronounced against Gregory at
the Synod of Mayence (May 31, 1080), and by
electing as anti-pope Guibert of Ravenna, at the
Synod of Bruges (June 25, 1080). Rodolph having
fallen, sword in hand, the Catholics chose another
king, Hermann of Luxemburg ; and about the same
time, Robert Guiscard, Duke of the Normans in
Apulia, declared himself the ally and vassal of the
Holy See. Between 1081 and 1084, Henry IV,
having allied himself to the schismatic Emperor
of Constantinople, invaded Italy, attacked Rome
several times, succeeded in entering it, and caused
himself to be crowned there by the anti-pope (March
31, 1084), while Gregory was shut up in the
Castle of St Angelo. Robert Guiscard, faithful to
his oath, hurried to defend the Pope, burned and
pillaged Rome in his turn, and forced the emperor
to return to Germany. Gregory VII. then retired
to Monte Cassino, and from thence to Salerno,
where he died, May 25, 1085.
According to the custom of the times, Gregory,

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 467
in the Lent of each year, assembled, either at Rome
or in the environs, a council, at which the decrees
necessary for the good government of the Church
were promulgated. The pontiff observed this cus
tom until the attacks of Henry IV. upon Rome
rendered it impossible, and himself presided at ten
of these assemblies in succession.1 In the first
(1074), he renewed the old canons against simoni
acal and married clergy, condemned the latter to
choose between their wives and their benefices,
imposed a vow of perpetual celibacy on those who
offered themselves for the priesthood, and ordered
the people to renounce those priests who should dis
obey these canons.2 In the second assembly (1075),
Gregory, for the first time, condemned investitures.
In the third (1076), he excommunicated and de
posed King Henry, also for the first time. In the
fourth (1078), he excommunicated Cardinal Hugh
le Blanc, the Archbishops of Milan and Ravenna,
and many other schismatic chiefs, declared ordina
tion by excommunicated prelates to be null, and
released all those who had sworn fidelity to them
from their oaths. At the same time, Gregory
thought it his duty to soften the rigours of excom
munication as regarded the relations and servants
1 See the canons promulgated in these councils, ed. Mansi, Labbe,
or Coletti, c. xiii.
2 " Statuimusut popnlus nullo modo officia eorum recipiat, ut qui pro
amore Dei et officii dignitate non corriguntur, verecundia sa?culi, objur-
gatione populi resipiscant." — Greg., Epist. ad Otton., Constant., ap.
Coletti, xii. 550. Of aU Gregory's decrees, this was the one which
raised most opposition.

468 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
of the condemned. In the fifth (Nov. 28, 1078), he
renewed the sentences already pronounced against
simoniacal and married priests, and against investi
tures, and, among other measures, desired all bishops
to establish classes for secular instruction in their
cathedrals.1 The five last councils held by Gregory
were not unimportant, though of less interest than
these : 2 in them the Pope received the recantation
of the heresiarch Berengarius ; formally condemned
all the pleas put forward in defence of the marriage
of priests, on the supposed authority of ancient
doctors ; renewed his attacks upon the Catholics
who, in spite of excommunication, gave or received
the investiture of a church ; a second time deposed3
1 "Et omnes episcopi artes litterarum in suis ecclesiis doceri faciant."
— Coletti, xii. 620.
2 Most of the decrees given by the councils presided over at Rome by
the Pope were promulgated, in the provincial councils, in France, Spain,
and England, by Gregory's legates, in the first rank of whom we have
already pointed out Hugh of Die and Amatus of Bordeaux. We
may here mention the twenty-seven articles known under the name of
Didatus papai — articles to which the enemies of Gregory have attached
great importance, thinking that they find in them the essence of his doc
trines and his conduct. But even admitting the authenticity of this
document, which rests upon very insufficient evidence, it is of nrach
less interest than the letters and decrees incontestably due to Gregory
VII. It is generally known that Baronius is almost the only defender
of the Church who believes the Dictatus papce authentic. Bellarmine
and Labbe say nothing about it, and in his Critique on Baronius, ad
ann. 1077, Pagi, whose perfect devotion to the Holy See cannot be
doubted, shows the error of Baronius, giving it as his own opinion
that these famous twenty-seven articles had been invented by some post
humous adversary of St Gregory. It is certain that there is no mention
made of them by any of those hostile contemporaries, who would certainly
not have failed to attack the Dictatus papa; if it had existed in their time.
In our opinion, this collection is only a compilation, without order, with
out method, and without authority.
3 Bernold, ann. 1804, ap. Pertz, 441.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 469
the King of Germany; and finally, fulminated, also
for the second time, at Salerno, his anathema against
the anti-pope Guibert and all his supporters.1
In comparing the acts of Gregory with those of
his predecessors, we remark, at the first glance, two
facts which are new and of immense importance :
the deposition of a king and the condemnation of
investitures. We shall see, further on, what were
the nature and origin of the right of deposition.
Let us try first to explain here the necessity and
legitimacy of. the proscription of investitures.2 It
is necessary, first, to remark that, during the twelve
years of his pontificate, Gregory had no occasion
to change any of the sentiments which had ani
mated him during the twenty -five years he had
spent at the head of the papal councils. Accord
ing to the invariable and unanimous evidence of
Catholic historians, the great Pope had always de
sired three things : to render the celibacy of priests
inviolable, to extirpate simony,3 and to free the
Church from the yoke of the laity.4 This triple
1 (1081.)
'- Here is Noel Alexander's definition of investiture : " Investitura est
consensus ab imperatore vel rege adhibitus selectioni facta? alicujus ad
episcopatum vel abbatiam, et concessio bonorum ecclesiasticorum solemni
quodam ritu facta. "—Hist, eccles., vol. vi., in sa?c. xi. dissert, iv.
3 " Ipse autem qui multum tempus ad obtinendam libertatem Ecclesia?
privatus laboraverat, jam ad sacerdotalem dignitatem provectus, a coepto
desistere indignum putans tam ob hoc quam pro simonia extirpanda ac
incontinentia clericorum reprimenda, plurimum desudabat. " — Otto Fri-
sing, book vi. c. 34.
4 " Noluit sane ut ecclesiasticus ordo manibus laicorum subjaceret,
sed eisdem et morum sanctitate et ordinis dignitate pra?emineret. " —
Bernold, ann. 1085.

470 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Triple task regeneration, the object of all his anxieties and
undertaken ° , ... , , . ,
by st Gre- efforts as monk, as cardinal, and as legate, was
gory VII. ' °
also the invariable purpose of his acts as Pope.
But it is important to understand and clearly
show that it was not only the independence of
the Church which, in the eleventh century, ran
the risk of shipwreck on the triple rock just
spoken of — it was also, and above all, the
salvation of men. Gregory, chief pastor of the
souls bought by the blood of Christ, might not
suffer their number to be diminished, the holiness
of the sacraments and the priesthood to be sacri
ficed to human interests, the health-giving torrent
of grace to be thus poisoned at its source by pro
fane novelties. The liberty he claimed for the
Church was that of opening to men the gates of
Paradise. Such, we dare to affirm, was the highest
ambition of the pontiff. He has been too much
regarded, even by those who wished to defend him,
as a political genius, a historic and social personage :
what he wished to be — the pastor of souls, the
minister absolutely responsible for the salvation of
Christendom, — this has been too much forgotten.
Enough attention was not paid to his words,
when he preached to kings and prelates the su
preme duty of gaining souls.1 Now, the Catho-
1 To King Henry he said : " Videntes ordinem Christiana? religionis
multis jam labefactum temporibus, et principales ac proprias lucran-
darum animarum causas diu prolapsas et suadente diabolo conculcatas. ''
— Lib. iii. epist. 10. To Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg : " Quis enim
cui spiritualia lucra cordi sunt . . . non libentissime amplectatur vo-

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 471
lie Church having alone both the right and the
secret of gaining these souls, it was first of all neces
sary that she should be free : for without liberty
there is no strength ; without liberty, right is a
fruitless abstraction. It was necessary, then, to free
the Church, in the person of her heads and her
ministers, from all lay influence ; it was necessary,
at any price, to hinder the spiritual power from
being subjected to human will, the divine and
perpetual institution from being linked to the
ephemeral destinies of political power ; it was
necessary to wrest the storehouse of the doctrines,
morals, and conscience of Christian people, from
avaricious, impure, and servile hands ; it was
necessary to prevent bishops from sinking to the
level of creatures and courtiers of princes ; it was
necessary to place out of all danger the right of
jurisdiction, and to maintain the inviolability of
its character; finally, it was necessary to prove
the sovereign independence of the Church, to up
root the heretical belief in the right of temporal
intervention in the empire of conscience, and to
confirm the principle that a priest who violates the
laws of God out of regard for earthly authority is,
in a manner, an apostate.1 This is what Gregory
wished ; this is what he accomplished; and this is
luntatem divitias terrenas animarum saluti postponentem ? " — Lib. ii.
epist. 77.
1 " Quid enim alind est sacerdotem ad imperium mnndana? potestatis
legem Dei infrangere, ni fidem ejus negare ? "—Epist. , i. 23 (to the
Bishop of Carthage).

472 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
why the apostles and accomplices of error great and
small, from Voltaire to Fleury,1 have agreed to re-
Gregory proach him : for he had this admirable point of
VII. in- A
suited and resemblance to Him whose vicar he was on earth,
betrayed like Christ, that none among the saints was ever more bitterly
insulted by the wicked, or more basely betrayed by
the weakness of some even of the faithful.
To St Gregory VIL, the winning of souls was
the end, and the independence of the Church the
means, but a means indispensable and supreme.
The triple scourge which we have so often men
tioned, had enthroned, as it were, in the bosom
of the priesthood three capital sins : avarice, by
means of simony ; luxury, by the marriage of
priests ; and pride, in its most dangerous form,
by the practice of investiture. Gregory, as we
have said repeatedly, was a monk ; and after, as
well as before, his accession to the papacy, his as
sistants in the defence of the Church were, almost
without exception, drawn from the monastic
orders. To the horrible flood of sin, committed
even in the sanctuary, the pontiff opposed the
1 Voltaire, as we have seen above, ranked Gregory among mad
men. This is how Fleury valued the great Pope : " I think I see a weak
old man, who, feeling himself despised by children, and not being able to
leave his bed to punish them, hurls at them whatever he finds under
his hand to satisfy his impotent anger, and, raising his voice, heaps upon
them all the imprecations he can think of." — Lectures on Eccles. Hist.,
from a.d. 600 to 1000. I think that Bossuet would not have approved
this language, which is at least strange in the mouth of a priest. The
world has not forgotten the words of the Bishop of Meaux to Cardinal
d'Estrees on the subject of the Gallicanism of bishops, as opposed to the
Gallicanism of magistrates.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 473
three monastic virtues — poverty, chastity, and
obedience ; he was thus armed against simony
by that voluntary poverty, that renunciation of
all personal property, which so many thousand
Christians, priests and knights, nobles and serfs,
practised in the cloister : to the marriage of the
clergy he could oppose the absolute and perpetual
celibacy of the monks ; to the pride of the em
peror, the vow of obedience to a purely spiritual
superior — a vow which had been pronounced by
so many bishops who had left their monasteries
to govern the Church. Himself trained in the
precepts of the three virtues which formed the
basis of the rule of St Benedict, Hildebrand had
learned in the cloister to place at the service of the
holy and supreme freedom of salvation an ener
getic character, a powerful eloquence, an inexhaus
tible charity, a life altogether in accordance with
his doctrine,1 and a courage unsurpassed in his
tory. To combat the two plagues of simony and
incontinence, Gregory VII. had only to continue,
after his accession to the papacy, the work which
his predecessors had begun, and which he himself
had directed under their reigns. The simonia
cal and married priests had been formally and
repeatedly condemned by St Leo IX., Stephen
X., Victor II., Nicholas IL, and Alexander II.
1 " Forma gregis factus, quod verbo docuit, exemplo demonstravit ; ac
fortis per omnia athleta, murum se pro domo dominiponere non timuit."
— Otto Frising, vi. 34.

474 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Gregory only confirmed these previous decrees, and
imparted to their execution the sovereign energy
which characterised him. But they had left al
most intact the question of investitures : a single
attempt had been made, under Leo IX., at the
Council of Reims, to restore the old freedom of
episcopal elections, and it had been without result.
Gregory, then, found everything left for him to
do in the very direction in which he had long
since seen the real difficulty of the reform and
enfranchisement of the Church to lie. The lofty
intelligence of the pontiff had at once understood
that it was impossible to cure radically two of the
plagues of the Church without touching the third.
Because their crime had been rebuked who, in the
powerful words of the Pope, " wished to buy the
Church like a vile slave in order to prostitute her to
the demon;"1 because the indignation, of the faithful
had been invoked upon " the insensate priests who
dared to touch at the same time the body of an im
pure woman and the body of Christ,"2 — was it safe
to count upon any effectual guarantee for the purity
and liberty of the Church while the popes received
the symbolic investiture from imperial hands, and
seemed to recognise in a lay power the source of

1 " Quasi vilem ancillam pra?sumpsit emere, sponsam videlicet Christi
diabolo prostituere." — Greg., Epist., i. 15 (against Godefroy, intruding
Bishop of Milan).
2 " Attendentes qua? insania quodve scelus est uno eodemque tempore
corpus meretricis et corpus attrectare Christi." — Epist., vi. 11 (to the
Count of Flanders).

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 475
their strength and jurisdiction 1 Such a state of
affairs was absolutely incompatible with the high
idea which Gregory VII. entertained of the sacer- Gregory's,
. . high idea
dotal dignity — placing as he did above the power of 0I tfcesa.
kings that of a mere exorcist, saying that the latter dignity-
"is constituted spiritual emperor against the de
mons." 1 It was for this reason that, after having
put in motion under the pontificate of his prede
cessors all the prohibitive power of the papal
authority against simony and the marriage of
priests, Gregory, as soon as he himself mounted
the throne, determined that it was absolutely
necessary to destroy lay investitures. This he
accomplished at the Council of Rome (1075) by
the following decree : " If any one, for the future,
accept a bishopric or abbey from the hands of a
layman, he shall not be counted in any way among
the bishops or abbots. . . . We withhold from
him the grace of St Peter and the entrance to the
Church until he shall have renounced the see which
he has usurped through the double crime of ambi
tion and disobedience, which constitutes idolatry.
We command that the same shall apply to all
inferior and ecclesiastical dignities. Moreover, if
any emperor, duke, marquis, count, or other secular
person whatever, has the presumption to give inves
titure of a bishopric or other ecclesiastical dignity,
1 " Major potestas exorcistae coneeditur, cum spiritualis imperator ad
abjiciendos da?mones constituitur, quam alicui laicorum causa secularis
dominationis tribui possit."— Greg., Epist., viii. 21 (to Hermann, Bishop
of Metz).

476 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
let him not be ignorant that the same condemna
tion will fall upon him." 1
It was then only that St Gregory VII. thought
he had fulfilled the mission from above which im
posed upon him the dutyof bringingback theChurch
of God to her ancient honour, and preserving her
free, chaste, and Catholic.2 "These decrees," says
a contemporary monk, " fell upon the Church like
dew from heaven, and, thanks to the holy pontiff,
that splendour of true ecclesiastical election, so long
1 There are three decrees which formally condemn investitures. The
first, given at the Council of Rome, 1075, says : "Si quis deinceps epis-
copatum vel abbatiam de manu alicujus laica? persona? susceperit, nulla-
tenus inter episcopos vel abbates habeatur. . . . Insuper ei gratiam B.
Petri et introitum Ecclesia? interdicinms, quoadusque locum quem sub
crimine tam ambitionis quam inobedientia?, quod est scelus idololatria?,
cepit, deseruerit, similiter de inferioribus ecclesiasticis dignitatibus con-
stituimus. Item, si quis imperatorum, ducum, marchionum, comitum,
vel quilibet seeularium potestatum aut personarum investiturara episco-
patus vel alicujus ecclesiastica? dignitatis dare pra?sumpserit, ejusdem
sententia? vinculo se astrictum noverit." — Hugo Flaviniac. , ap. Labb.,
Bibl: nov. MS., vol. i. p. 196, and Cone, vol. xii. p. 578.
In the second (1079) , which condemns investitures, we read : ' ' Quoniam
investituras ecclesiarum contra statuta S. S. Patrum a laicis personis in
multis partibus cognovimus fieri, et ex eo plurimas perturbationes in
ecclesia oriri, ex quibus Christiana religio conculcatur : decernimus ut
nullus clericorum investituram episcopatus vel abbatia? vel ecclesia?, de
manu imperatoris, vel regis, vel alicujus laica? persona?, viri vel femina?,
snscipiat. Quod si pra?sumpserit," &c. — Berthold., Annates, ann. 1078,
ap. Pertz, 314. Cf. Ibid., p. 308. Leo of Ostia, librarian of Monte
Cassino, present at the Council, thus sums up the decree: "In hoc
synodo institutum est ut qui a laico investituram ecclesia? acciperet,
anathemate uterque plecteretur, et qui scilicet daret, et qui acciperet." —
Chron. Cassin., c. 24. Finally, the third decree, given by the Council
of 1080, pronounced the sentence of excommunication against any
emperor, king, prince, Sob., who should give investiture.
2 "Utsancta Ecclesia sponsa Dei, Dominaet mater nostra, adpropriam
rediens decus, libera et casta et catholica permaneret." — Append, epist.
15, ad omnes fideles, and ap. Hug. Flavin., p. 231. This is the last,
and perhaps the finest, of all the letters of Gregory VII.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 477
veiled by clouds, was seen to reappear."1 But was
this an innovation 1 and can we regard as well
founded the reproaches of those who, after de
claiming against the furious ambition of Gregory,
describe him as a reckless innovator ? A short no Pope
examination and a little reflection would havenovator
mi l • i • • ¦ -i *nan ^re_
sufficed to prove that in his immense enterprise the gory vn.
sovereign pontiff carefully avoided following the
inspirations of his own genius to the neglect of old
traditions. His only object, indeed, was to re
establish the ancient Catholic law, misunderstood
until the moment when he took up the govern
ment of the Church.2 What he wished to accom
plish was a restoration, not a revolution, nor was
any thought further from his mind than that of
innovation. Let us look at his own words in
a letter written to the monks of Vallombrosa
during the first year of his reign : " Pray to
Almighty God to give me strength to bear the in
supportable burden of my new authority, and to
bring back Holy Church to the footing of the
ancient religion."3 "We do not search for argu
ments in our own mind," he writes in the fol
lowing year to the Archbishop of Cologne ; " but
1 " Ha?e sunt beatissimi papa? synodalia decreta . . . ccelo rorante
stillata," &c— Htjg. Flavin., p. 208.
8 This is the testimony borne in more or less express terms to Gregory
VII. by aU contemporary writers of any consequence — among others, by
the biographer of St Anselm of Lucca : " Idem reverendissimus papa, per
quem restawrari cceperunt omnia jura canonica, usque ad ipsum prorsus
pene abolita."— Act. SS. 0. B., vol. ix.; and Gretser, vol. vi. p. 472.
3 "Sanctam Ecclesiam in statum antiqua? religionis reducere." —
Append, ad Epist., No. 2.

478 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
in obedience to the duties of our office we bring
to light laws sanctioned by the ancient fathers,
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."1 He
wished for regeneration without innovation. "These
are not," he wrote to the Bishop of Mayence, " our
own decrees that we propose to you, though we
should have a right to do so, if need were ; we are
but renewing the statutes of the holy fathers."2 And
elsewhere, in a letter to King Henry IV., he adds :
" We establish nothing new, nothing of our own
invention, but we wish to return to the ancient
and only road of discipline which the saints have
trodden." 3
And, in fact, no one could deny that the
Church had always rebuked simony since St
Peter's combat with the heresiarch who has left
his name to this plague-spot. On the subject of
the celibacy of priests, more or less accepted
opinions had been spread abroad ; but whatever
may have been the tolerance of the primitive
Church in this matter, no one was ignorant that
since the time of Nicholas I. in the ninth century,
1 " Pra?cepta ha?c non de nostro sensu exsculpimus, sed de antiquorum
patrum sanctiones Spiritu sancto pra?dicante prolatas officii nostri neces
sitate in medium propalamus. " — Epist. , ii. 67.
2 Epist., ii. 68.
3 " Nihil novi . . . statuentes, sed primam et nnieam ecclesiastica?
regulam et tritam sanctorum viam, relicto errore, repetendam et sectan-
dam esse censuimus." — Epist. iii., Epist. x. Cf. Epist. v., ad Aquilienses.
Andatthe Council of 1078, Gregorysays again: "Sanctorum patrum sequen-
tes vestigia . . . sanctorum pra?decessorum nostrorum statuta tenentes,
eos qui excommunicati fidelitate aut sacramento constricti sunt apostolica
auctoritate, a sacramento absolvimus et ne sibi fidelitatem- obscurent
omnibus modis prohibemus." — Coletti, Cone., vol. xii. p. 625.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 479
innumerable decrees, emanating from popes and
councils, had renewed, in the strictest terms, the in
terdiction of marriage to ecclesiastics of all orders.1
Gregory, going still further back, appealed to the
authority of his two predecessors, St Leo and St
Gregory the Great.2 But the evil had reached its
height since the establishment of these insufficient
prohibitions ; and, as we have seen above, the
property of churches confided to married pastors
became gradually the patrimony of their children,
the dowry of their daughters.3 If such a state of
things had been prolonged in the midst of a social
1 The Anglican Bowden has faithfully summed up all the texts
emanating from religious authority on this point. — Vol. i. p. 192, of his
Hist, of Greg. VII.
2 Epist. ad Otton. Constant., ap. Bolland., Vit. S. Greg. VIL, c. 4.
Gregory might also have invoked the decrees of the first councils held
after the enfranchisement of the Church : for example, those of Elvira,
held 306 ; of Neoca?saria andof Encyra, 314 ; and of Carthage, 390. In these
councils it was ordered that Christians who were married before being
called to the condition of ecclesiastics, should live in continence from the
day of their admission to holy orders. The Council in Trullo, of 692,
relaxed this prohibition in favour of the Greek Church ; and this was un
doubtedly one of the first sources of the schism and of the degradation
into which this Church has since fallen. However, the Greek Church,
while admitting married men to the priesthood, expressly forbids persons
already in orders to marry. Cf. for the whole of the question, Fleury,
Thpmassin, &c. ; and see also the curious controversy, De ceelibatu sacer-
dotum, which arose in 1079, between the priest Alboin and the historian
Bernald of St Blaise, or Bernold Constance, published by Gretser, vol. vi.,
and by Hssermann, Prodromus Gems. Sacr., vol. ii. p. 239.
3 "The Church has opposed an invincible resistance to all attempts to
make her abandon this point of her discipline ; in her wisdom she has
perceived that she would lose her ministry, once debased by such a
concession. The Church has stood firm agamst all obstacles, against
custom triumphant in many places, against nature, against men. She
has repulsed all, she has conquered, she will maintain her victory. She
would destroy herself the day she yielded this post of triumph."— De
Pradt, Du Jesuitisms ancien et moderne, 1825.

480 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
organisation, where the principle of hereditary suc
cession was all-powerful, an earthly territorial suc
cession would have superseded the spiritual gene
ration of the children of God, and the Church
would have been confounded with lay society.
st Gregory Blind and ignorant hatred has reproached Gre-
invented . .iii- i -i ¦ •
neither the gory, as a crime inspired by his personal ambition,
priests nor with having invented the celibacy of the clergy in
the promo- & j oj
msho°fs or(Ier to raise for himself an army of creatures
spiritual devoted to his will alone. If it were true that the
power. p0ntiff had himself conceived and created for the
Catholic priest this magnificent distinction, it would
have been, most certainly, the greatest of his glo
ries; for he would have created, for the Church,
that post of triumph whence no power and no
danger have been able to drive her — he would have
discovered the human secret of the purity and
perpetuity of the Church. But the son of the
Tuscan carpenter has not an exclusive right to a
glory which belongs, to the whole papacy; what
does belong to Gregory — and it is enough — is that
of having understood that it was needful thoroughly
to root out the corruption which was lowering the
secular clergy to the level of the crowd, subjecting
it to the same less elevated affections and the same
weaknesses ; it is that of having perceived that the
family, springing from the marriage or concubinage
of the clergy, being the strongest tie which could at
tach the spiritual man to earth, it was necessary to
break this tie in order to restore to the ministers of

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 481
truth their power and their independence in pres
ence of secular authority ; it is, finally, that he
stamped the work of liberation, throughout the
extent of Christendom,1 with an energy so great
as to insure the final victory of the honour and
rights of the Church. In what relates to investi
tures, their prohibition by Gregory was new in
form, but for the simple reason that the evil itself
was of comparatively recent origin. It literally
expressed, however, the spirit of the canons of the
General Councils of Nice and Constantinople, which
imperatively forbade the intervention of laymen in
the preferment of bishops.2 These canons could
not mention investitures which did not exist at the
time of their promulgation ; but no one can doubt
1 "Scilicet quod pra?decessores ejus in Italia prohibuerunt, hoc ipse in
aliis ecclesia? catholica? prohibere studiosius attemptavit." — Berthold.
Constant., Ann., ann. 1073, ap. Pertz, vol. v. p. 276. "Hoc ipse in
tota Ecclesia catholica prohibere studuit."- — Bernold, S. Blasii Chron.;
Ibid., p. 430.
2 At the second Council of Nica?a (seventh general, in 787), it was said :
" Omnis electio episcopi, presbyteri, vel diaconi, a principibus facta, irrita
maneat secundum regulam qua? dicit : Si quis, secularibus potestatibus
usus, ecclesiam per ipsos obtinuerit, deponatur et segregetur, omnesque
qui illi communicant." At the fourth Council of Constantinople (eighth
general, 870), it was decreed that: "Neminem laicorum principum et
potentum semet inserere electioni vel provectioni patriarcha? vel metro-
polita? aut cujuslibet episcopi, ne inordinata hinc et incongrua fiat con-
fusio vel contentio, pra?sertim cum nullam in talibus potestatem quem-
quam potestativorum laicorum habere conveniat, sed potius silere, et
attendere usquequo regulariter a collegio ecclesia? suscipiat finem electio
futuripontificis . . . quisquis secularium principum . . . adversus . . .
electionem . . . agere tentaverit, anathema sit. ..." Words quoted by
Hug. Flavin., and reported by Labbe, Concil, vol. xii. p. 558, ed. Coletti.
We might have quoted a number of analogous canons— among others, the
twelfth of the fourth Council of Constantinople, which forbids princes to
be even present at ecclesiastical meetings : "Neque enim fas estut sa?cu-
lares prmcipes rerum qua? Dei sacerdotibus contingunt, spectatores fiant. "
VOL. VI. 2 H

482 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
that the Church must have freely provided for the
choice of bishops and abbots many centuries before
the establishment of these same investitures.
After the conquest of the Roman empire by the
Germanic nations, and in consequence of the alli
ance between barbarous royalties and the Church,
the latter, whose liberties and property were ante
rior to all the political institutions of Europe, had
felt no disquiet in seeing the establishment of a
custom which kings only used to regulate the feu
dal and territorial position of bishops. But it must
have been otherwise when investiture had become
the essential and dominant condition of preferment
to the episcopate — when it went on to absorb and
supersede the right of election — when, finally, it
appeared as the seizure by the temporal power of
Grave con- the government of the Church. The extreme con
sequences ~ . ..
ofinvesti- sequences ot royal investiture, too easily accepted
ture, espe
cially in in England, were not admitted into France,1 and
Germany. °
seem not to have been so in Spain ; but they
reigned triumphant in the north of Italy and in
Germany. Thus the reaction against this immense
abuse was first and chiefly directed by Gregory
VII. against the royal power in Germany, which,
gifted by the papacy twro centuries previously
with an exclusive right to the imperial dignity,
was dominant at once in Germany and in Italy.2
1 Noel Alexander has collected curious examples of the influence exer
cised by kings over episcopal elections in both countries. — Vide Hist.
eccles. , sa?c. xi. and xii. ; Dissert. , iv.
2 We must note here the curious distinction which Gregory himself

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 483
We must add that, in Germany, the papacy, with
regard to the royal power, found itself in a special
position which singularly increased the dangerous
consequences of investiture. In most Christian
countries, the Church had been established by her
own efforts, and had taken root, in spite of the
temporal power of the pagan emperors, before
the birth of Christian royalties founded on the
ruins of the Roman empire. Thus, in Gaul, the
Frankish kings, far from being the founders or first
benefactors of the Church, had found her in the
position of an established and recognised power
— had treated with her, and thought themselves
happy to obtain her sanction for their authority.
In Germany, on the contrary, at least east of the
Rhine, the Church owed her political existence in
pointed out between investitures such as were exercised in Italy and
such as were exercised in other countries — in the kingdom of Aries,
for instance, which was equally dependent on the empire. We see
in Hugues de Flavigny that the first decree published against in
vestiture was given by the Pope on the occasion of the double
election of St Anselm to the see of Lucca, and of the famous
Hugh, afterwards Archbishop of Lyon, to the see of Die, in Dauphiny.
The two bishops-elect were waiting at Rome for their consecration when
the envoys of King Henry arrived : ' ' Rogantes ne, contra morem prmdeces-
sorum suorum, dominus papa eos consecrare vellet qui episcopatus electi
onem solam, non autem donum per regiam accepissent electionem." The
Pope asked the opinion of the cardinals, who replied that this was the
custom of the Church. But Gregory acted differently with regard to the
two bishops ; he consented to defer the consecration of the Italian until
after the investiture ex regis dono, but he refused to put off the conse
cration of the Dauphinois bishop : " Cum auctoritas eis (cardinalibus)
nulla ad hoc suffragaretur, in Bucensi tamen electa eis adquievit . . . in
Diensi vero adquiescere noluit." Gregory consecrated this bishop im
mediately, and then convoked the council where the first decree against
investiture was rendered. — Hug. Flavin., ap. Labbe, vol. i. p. 196.

484 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
the first place to the victorious sword of the Carlo-
vingians, and later, to that of the Othos, who had
cleared a way for the authority of bishops and the
zeal of monks, and had enriched with vast domains
the dioceses and principal abbeys of the country,
These territories, freed from all subordination to
other lords than the king himself, formed the
domain of the prelates, and were destined, in the
opinion of the givers, not only to contribute to the
general defence, and the other necessities of the
State, as was done by the great secular fiefs, but
also to transform their holders into instruments of
the royal power, at once surer and more docile
than the great hereditary lords of the laity.1
At the same time, it is true that St Boniface,
the apostle of Germany, legate of the Holy See,
had, by a direct and special bond, subjected the
new churches to that of Rome ; but the guarantee
of independence of the temporal power, which was
based on such a subordination to a distant and
spiritual power, had been doubly neutralised, — on
one hand, by the disorders from which the Holy
See had suffered in the tenth century, and yet more,
by the preponderating influence of German royalty;
on the other hand, by the ever-increasing political
influence which the bishops exercised among the
1 "Carolus magnus pro contundenda gentium illarum ferocia, omnes
pene terras ecclesiis contulerat, consiliosissime perpendens, nolle sacri
ordinis homines tam facile quam laicos fidelitatem domini rejicere. Pra?-
terea si laici rebellarent, illos posse excommunicationis auctoritate et
potentia? severitate compescere." — Guill. Malmbsb., de Gestis reg.
Angl, vol. v. p. 93, ed. Savile.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 485
princes of the empire. These bishops were more
princes than prelates.1 The more their power and
their riches increased, the closer were the bonds of
their dependence drawn ; for it was precisely the
considerable aggrandisement of their temporal
position, and of the wealth with which they were
endowed, that were the cause, and in a manner
justification, of the demands of royalty upon them
— demands unknown in other Christian kingdoms,
and, above all, in France, though the custom of
investiture with ring and crosier had prevailed
there also under the Merovingians. The acts of
the councils of the second race show us, that
when, in 858, Louis the German invaded the
states of Charles the Bald, and wished to exact
an oath of allegiance from the French bishops,
these prelates, assembled in council at Quiercy,
strongly protested against this demand, not only
in the name of the rights of their king, Charles,
but also in virtue of their own. " The churches
which God has given to our charge," they said,
" are not so far royal benefices and properties
1 Historians almost always designate them prineipes ; and thence the
habitual titles of prince-bishop, prince-abbot, and princely abbeys, in the
Holy Roman Empire. It is sufficient to look at the effigies of the seven
teen electors, sculptured in the fourteenth century, on the celebrated
fountain (schone Briinn) in the market-place at Nuremburg, and to notice
the three archbishops clothed in steel under their copes, and with banners
in their hands, to understand that in Germany the bishop was, above
all, a prince, a potentate, a member of the body politic and military.
Hence they derived a force and a temporal power which did not exist
elsewhere ; but hence also sprang the germ of a weakness, fraught with
most deplorable consequences, in the temporal order.

that of
Germany.

486 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
that a king can take them away or bestow them
as seems good to him. . . . And we, bishops
consecrated to the Lord, are not men of such a
class that we must submit ourselves, like seculars,.
by a tie of vassalage to such or such a one, or take
an oath forbidden to' us by authority of the Gospel,
The French the Holy See, and the canons."1 In her worst
clergy more
independ- days, the Church of France has always preserved
cnt ti.ifl.-D. gleams of this ancient independence ; while the
German prelates, placed in a dependent position,
have hardly ever known how to defend the com
mon interests and rights of their Church, nor to
keep themselves free from the character of creatures
and dependants, which dated, for them, from the
very origin of the German Church.
Such then, it seems to us, was, in the eleventh
century, the general character of the history of the
Church beyond the Rhine, with some glorious
exceptions which have still to be pointed out.
Under Gregory VIL, investiture was incontest-
1 " Ecclesia? . . . non talia sunt beneficia et hujusmodi regis proprier.
tas, ut pro libitu suo inconsulte illas possit dare vel tollere . . . et nos,
episcopi, Domino consecrati, non sumus hujusmodi homines ut sicut
homines sa?cnlares in vassalatico debeamus nos cuilibet commendare,
aut jurationis sacramentum, quod nos evangelica, apostolica atque can-
onica auctoritas vetat, debeamus quoquo modo facere." — Coletti, Cone,
vol. x. p. 102. This long remonstrance, addressed to King Louis by the
bishops of the provinces of Rheims and Rouen, is one of the finest monu
ments of the immortal pontificate of Nicholas I. Dollinger thinks that
the refusal of the bishops to yield to the demand of the oath was occa
sioned by its being required of them after their consecration : he thinks
that before being consecrated the prelates used not to refuse the oath of
homage ; and in support of this assertion he quotes the oath taken by
Hincmar to Charles the Bald in 870.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 487
ably a seal of the dependence of the Church of
Germany, and a flagrant proof of its absorption
by the political power. Investiture did not only
prove the invasion of the domain of spiritual autho
rity by lay power ; it also implied an undeniable
usurpation of ecclesiastical property. And, in fact,
the estates which constituted the territorial endow
ment of bishoprics and other benefices were not
composed only of fiefs or royal rights (such as those
of coining money, holding markets, taking tolls,
&c), which the Church held simply from the royal
bounty; they comprehended also many free or
allodial lands, given in perpetual possession by
their proprietors to different churches, and over
which the emperor could claim no right whatever.1
And yet, in the solemn act of investiture, as it
was conferred by princes in the time of Gregory
VIL, there was no difference made between these
different kinds of property, any more than between
the wholly spiritual nature of episcopal authority
and the temporal relation of the bishops, as princes,
to the heads of the empire. The extent of the
lands and riches which their subordination' to the
emperor assured to the dignitaries of the Church,
made all these momentous considerations vanish
from their eyes. It was a bargain in which the two
parties agreed to sacrifice the spiritual to the tem-
1 The true nature of Church property at this epoch, as well as the true
import of investiture, seem to us to have been explained with equal
clearness and conciseness by Dollinger, Lehrbuch der K. Gesch., vol.
ii. sects. 74 and 87, pp. 7-14, 160-162, ed. of 1838.

488 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
poral. The clergy of the metropolitan see of
Hamburg said, even in the twelfth century, in
speaking of investiture, " It is an evil and a dis
grace ; but the most excellent emperors have re
deemed it by the abundant riches which the Church
has received from the crown. Thus provided for and
honoured, she should no longer think herself dishon
oured by such a subjection, nor blush to bow before
one man that she may the better rule all others." x
An eternal It is to the eternal honour of the medieval pa-
honour to . .
the papacy pacy that it refused to sanction so mean a calcula-
to have de
fended the tion. But there was a yet more fatal usurpation,
separate J ±
of the two wnicn sPrang directly from investiture — that of
ando? the the right of election, which, as we have seen, had
^tion™" been gradually extinguished in favour of that of
designation, exercised by the sovereign in the
eleventh century. The King of Germany alone,
with the more or less explicit assent of the bishops
and temporal princes, nominated to all vacant
bishoprics. The investiture to fiefs and landed
property attached to the dioceses, which at first
the sovereigns only accorded to clerks canonically
elected, had thus become the sine qud non of the
choice. The right of designating the bishop to
the suffragans of the Church had ended by so ab-
1 " Neque impera tores dignissimi levitate usi sunt, ut episcoporum
domini vocarentur, sed compensaverunt noxam hanc amplissimis regni
divitiis, quibus Ecclesia copiosius aucta, decentius honestata, jam non
vile reputet se ad modicum cessisse subjectioni, nee erubescat uni incli-
nari per quem possit in multos dominari." — Helmoldi, Chron. Slav., b.
i. u. 69, ap. Leibnitz, Script. Brunsw., i. 594. The same passage clearly
proves that bishops ought not to consent to receive investiture from
dukes, princes, nor any person whatever, except the emperor.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 48 &
sorbing the right of choosing him, that in the eyes
of the greater number the two rights appeared
inseparable. The ceremony of consecration was
indeed judged necessary to confer the episcopal
character ; but the elect knew very well, and so
did all the world, that he was only a real bishop
from the moment he received from the royal hands
the crosier and ring. Thus, then, by investiture,
which always preceded consecration, the king or
the emperor, in his own opinion, as well as that of
the people, conferred upon the man of his choice
the whole bishopric, not only with all its domains;
but with all the authority and all the prerogatives
which belonged to it.1 No doubt the choice made by
some princes sincerely devoted to good was often
irreproachable — sometimes even of great use to the
Church : but the order established by God for the
government of His Church was none the less re
versed ; and the essential distinction of the two
powers, the two jurisdictions, was gradually dis
appearing, to give place to a detestable confusion.
1 See, in Noel Alexander, Eccles. Hist., dissert, iv. sa?c. xi. p. 725,
a great number of examples of this exclusive omnipotence of the emperors
in the choice of bishops. We will only quote here one of these examples,
which shows how the chapter of Magdeburg expressed itself after the
death of its archbishop : " Rex ... ad nos misit ut electio a nobis non
fiat ; sed tantum consensus unanimis." — Dithmar de Mersebourg, vol.
vi. p. 74. This is exactly the reproach addressed by St Anselm of Lucca to
anti-Pope Guibert : ' 'Rex tuus sine intermissione vendit episcopatus, edieta
proponens ut nuUus habeatur episcopus qui a clero electus, vel a populo
fuerit expetitus, nisi pra?cesserit honor regius, quasi ipse sit hujus ostii
ostiarius, de quo Veritas dixit : Huic ostiarius aperit. ..." And further
on : " . . . Accingimur respondere his qui dicunt, regali potestati Christi
Ecclesiam subjacere, ut ei pro suo libito vel prece, vel pretio, vel gratis,
liceat pastores imponere." — S. Anselm, episc, Luc, contra Guibert, suo
defens. Greg. VIL, b. i. and ii., in Bib. Max. Pair., vol. xviii.

490 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Finally, the almost total assimilation of bishops
and abbots with the great lay vassals reached the
highest point of confusion and of scandal by the
establishment of symbolic forms for investiture,
such as were practised by the emperors of the
house of Franconia. It is well known that the
ring indicated the spiritual marriage of the bishop
with his Church, and the' crosier his purely spir
itual authority over the flock of the faithful.1
How, then, could the Church endure to see the
august tokens of the divine mission of her pontiffs
conferred by the hand of a layman, of whatever
dignity? How could she admit the existence of any
connection whatever between these mystic symbols
and the wholly temporal obligations of the bishop
st Gregory towards his temporal suzerain ? How could she fail
combats . . .
the false to judge it necessary, even indispensable, to extir-
tutiorfi Pa*e fr°m ^he mind of the people the opinion, so
hld'the' radically false, that the apostolic institution of
as'theirisin bishops sprang from the same source as their feudal
jection!ul> subjection, and that the spiritual marriage of the
prelate with his Church was imposed, sanctioned,
and guaranteed by the temporal authority alone \
We may therefore easily understand the words of
sorrowful indignation which such a sacrilegious con
fusion wrung from Gregory VII. in the last days of
his life : " What ! among all the nations of the earth,
the national law secures to the poorest and most un-
1 ' ' Nonne accepisti annulum, et Ecclesiam tuam.vel ut sponsam dili-
geres, baculum quoque, ut eam a luporum incursione defenderes ?" — Epist.
Moguntim.ce eccles. ad Sigefrid. ; Udalr. Bab., cod. epist., ii. 134, ap.
Eccard. , ,Cqrp. hist. med. cev. , vol. ii.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 49 1
fortunate woman the right of choosing, at her will,
a lawful husband ; and the holy Church, the bride
of God, and our mother, bending under the yoke of
impious passions and execrable customs, has not
the right to remain united to her Divine husband,
according to her own desires and the law of God 1
And the sons of this Church must be condemned,
like children born of adultery and branded with
infamy, to acknowledge heretics and usurpers as
their fathers ! " 1 Must not this generous indig
nation have inspired in Gregory VII. the ardent
desire to re-establish the liberty of election in ac
cordance with the ancient canons and the doctrine
of the holy Fathers 'i 2
It was in the following terms that he expressed
his resolution to the clergy and people of the patri
archate of Aquilaea, during the interval between the
first and second sentences of condemnation pro
nounced by him against investitures : "There is an
ancient and well-known law, sanctioned not by men,
but by Christ our Lord and Saviour in the fulness
of His wisdom, which says, 'He that entereth in by
the door is the shepherd of the sheep ; but he that
1 "In omnibus enim terris licet etiam pauperculis mulieribus sua?
patria? lege, suaque voluntate virum accipere legitime ; sancta? vero Ec
clesia?, qua? est sponsa Dei et mater nostra, non licet secundum impiorum
votum et detestabilem consuetudinem, divina lege, propriaque voluntate
suo sponso legaliter in terris adha?rere. Non enim pati debemus ut filii
sancta? Ecclesia? ha?reticis, adulteris et invasoribus, quasi patribus subji-
ciantur, atque ab eis velut adulterina infamia notentnr." — Epist. Ap
pend., ii. 15 ; and ap. Hug. Flavin., p. 230.
2 "Reparando in Ecclesia in canonicas electiones juxta pristinas can-
onum sententias."— Gekhot Reicheksp., and Hug. Flav., ap. Labbe,
p. 196.

492 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
entereth by any other way is a thief and a robber.' J
For this reason, that which has long been neglected
on account of sin — that which has been, and still
is, corrupted by a detestable custom — we wish now
to restore and to renew, for the honour of God and
the salvation of Christendom, so that in every
church the bishop charged to govern the people
of God, ordained according to the Word of truth,
may be neither thief nor robber, but worthy of the
name and office of a shepherd. Such is our will,
such our strong desire, and such shall be, by the
mercy of God, as long as we live, the object of our
unwearied efforts. For the rest, we do not wish
either to hinder that which belongs to the service
of the King or to interfere with the fidelity due to
him.2 We endeavour, therefore, to establish nothing
new or of our own invention ; we wish only that
which the safety of all requires — namely, that in the
ordination of bishops, according to the unanimous
feeling of the holy Fathers, the authority of the Gos
pel and the canons should be, above all, observed."3
Then in this case, again, the innovation was entire
ly on the side of the adversaries of the Church.
It was united also with a new enormity, which
we have already pointed out — that of the absorp
tion of the sovereign pontificate by the imperial
power. From the time of Otho I. to that of Henry
1 John, x.
2 " Coeterum quod ad servitium et debitam fidelitatem regis pertinet,
•nequaquam contradicere aut impedire volumus."
3 ". . . Non secundum arbitrium nostrum, sed per viam etdoctrinam
orthodoxorum Patrum incedere cupimus."— Epist., v. 5.

3T GREGORY, MONK AND POPE, 493
III., through a quarter of a century, Hildebrand
had struggled against this excessive degradation
and danger : first, by persuading Leo IX-, named
Pope by the emperor, to get his nomination ratified
by the Roman Church ; then by the decree of 105.9,
which gave the right of election to the cardinals, and
annulled, with a trifling reservation, the imperial
intervention ; finally, by his own election, made
without the consent of the German sovereign, and
nevertheless confirmed by him. The glorious pon
tificate of Gregory set a seal on this gradual en
franchisement ; and after him there was no longer
any question of imperial confirmation. But this
victory would have been sterile and incomplete —
the Church would have but half escaped from her
servitude — if the episcopate had remained under
the yoke which the papacy had just shaken off.
It was needful, then, to enfranchise the episcopal
body, acting strictly in accordance with the ancient
and inviolable rights of the Church ; this was the
necessary and immediate consequence of the eman
cipation of the papacy. Gregory VII. understood
this : having delivered the one, he resolved to break
the chains of the other ; and by the formal con
demnation of investitures, he began the work of
liberation and salvation, which, after fifty years of
struggle- and of danger, was to be accomplished by
the concordat of Worms.
Without doubt, such a struggle might have been,
if not saved, at least much shortened and modi
fied ; but this would have required the opponent to

¦ '494 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
be a prince guided by Christian sentiments, ready to
submit himself to the empire of faith, of virtue, and
st Gregory of reason. Gregory was, most certainly, a long way
desired not -' ^
a theo- from feeling anv systematic hostility towards the im-
cracy, but " J J J
the close perial power, or from seeking, as he has been so often
shrrituard an<^ so childishly reproached with having done, to
powers, establish a sort of theocracy. His dream always
was the close alliance of the temporal with the
spiritual power, that they might work together for
the good of humanity ; which would not exclude
the necessary subordination of the former to the
latter in matters of conscience. But, as he wrote,
immediately after his accession, to Duke Rodolph of
Suabia, the chief of the German Catholics, " It was
necessary that this alliance should be both open and
pure ; for just as the human body is guided by the
physical light of its two eyes, so the two great powers
of the Church and the empire, united by sincere re
ligion, become the two eyes by which the spiritual
light guides and enlightens the body of the Church."1
To correspond worthily with this great idea, and
to make it the basis of a reform indispensable to
the Church and to Christian society, needed a great
man, a truly Christian king, such as Charlemagne,
1 " Illud nobis videbantur consulere, per quod et status Imperii glo-
riosius regitur, et sancta? Ecclesia? vigor solidatur, videlicet ut sacerdo
tium et imperium in unitate concordia? conjungantur . . . sed concor-
diam istam nihil fictum, nihil nisi purum decet habere. . . . Nam sicut
duobus oculis humanum corpus temporali lumine regitur, ita his duabus
dignitatibus in pura religione concordantibus corpus Ecclesia? spirituali
lumine regi et illuminari probatur." — REG.,ii. epist. 19 (to Rodolph
Duke of Suabia, ann. 1073).

•ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 495
always filled with profound respect for spiritual
power, or, better still, such as Alfred the Great,
from whom history has transmitted to us these
admirable words : " In the Church I am not king,
but a simple citizen of the kingdom of Christ ; and
in this kingdom my duty is, not to rule the priests
by my laws, but to submit myself humbly to the laws
of Christ, as promulgated by His priests."1 Assur
edly, if such had been the case, if Charlemagne or
Alfred the Great had been the one to meet Greg
ory VIL, it can hardly be realised to what great
ness such an alliance would have raised Christen
dom. But God did not will that it should be so,
and perhaps we should bless Him for it ; for had
the battle been less arduous, less sanguinary, per
haps the victory would have been less evident and
less complete. Who can say, too, whether some
equivocal compromise, whence mischief would have
arisen later with an energy the greater for being
the longer repressed, might not have obstructed the
necessary decrees, and prevented the existence of
those immortal examples which have pledged the
Church to follow a path whence she could not swerve
without — inadmissible hypothesis — disavowing her
own acts ? It is because this was the view they took
1 " Quod nunc raro invenitur in terris, illam maximam regis credidit
esse dignitatem, nullam in ecclesiis Christi habere potestatem. Ilia, in-
quit, regnantis dignitas, si se in regno Christi qua? est Ecclesia, non
regem, sed civem cognoscat, si non in sacerdotes legibus dominetur, sed
Christi legibus, quas promulga verunt sacerdotes, humilitersubjiciatur."
— Ailred. Rievallens., ap. Natal. Alexand., hist. Eccles., sa?c. ix. c.
9 ; vol. vi. p. 206.

496 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
that some of the most eminent contemporaries of
Gregory VII. maintained that warfare, even the
most serious, was not the greatest danger for the
Church militant. " That heavenly mother," said a
bishop of the eleventh century, who died a martyr
under the sword of the imperialists, " is not made,
any more than her children are, for servitude. It is
when she is most oppressed that she is nearest to
deliverance ; it is when men seek to crush her that
they add to her strength and greatness. No man
may become the fellow- citizen of Abel in the king
dom of heaven, unless he has suffered in this world
from the malice of Cain. When the children of
Jerusalem are in chains, they are captives but not
slaves; they weep sitting by the waters of their place
of exile, but they hang their harps on the willows
by the banks, refusing to sing in a strange land, and
ever sighing for their country far away."1 Unfor
tunately, Gregory, instead of having the support of
a Charlemagne or an Alfred the Great, had to con
tend with a Henry IV. — that is to say, with a man
undoubtedly possessed of courage and talent, but
without bridle, without restraint, at once hasty
and perfidious, accustomed to shrink from no ex-
1 "Mater Ecclesia? qua? sursum est, nee servit cum filiis suis, turn
maxime liberatur, cum premitur, turn maxime crescit cum minuitur.
Nemo enim, ccelestis regni Abel concivis esse merebitur nisi, qui in pra?-
senti Cain malitia ad puerum limaverit. . . . Quod si filii Jerusalem ali-
quahdo captivi detinentur, tamen non serviunt ; quod et si super flumina
quidem sedentes flentes irriguas non delectantur, hi salicibus suspendunt
organa et non cantant canticum in terra aliena, sed ad Jerusalem sus-
pirant." — Bonizo, lib. ad amic, p. 794.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 497
tremity, to use cunning and violence by turns, and
who, according to the words of a contemporary,
" had no sooner ascended the throne of his ances
tors than he laboured with all his might to place
the Church under his heel, to be trodden under
foot, like a vile slave, by his accomplices."1
. With such an adversary, all compromise was im- impossible
possible. In vain Gregory exhausted, during seven with a
prince such
years, all means of conciliation — he was compelled as Henry
to renounce all hope of this ; and he then resolved,
feeling that God had endowed him with a soul
inaccessible to the weaknesses or deceptions of
this world,2 to go on steadily in the path of
justice and goodness.
Gregory VIL, as every historian deserving of the
name now confesses, proved himself worthy of the
noblest mission given to man since the days of St
Peter. If it had been otherwise, if this immortal
pontiff had not comprehended the full meaning of
his task, if he had not consecrated all his genius
and all the power of his Church to it, he would
have sunk to the rank of the pontifex maximus
of pagan Rome ; Germany, under such a prince as
Henry IV., would have offered to the world the
same hideous spectacle as England under Henry
1 "Sic nimirum ille maj orum ascendens currum, omnem Ecclesiam cal-
caneo supponere, calcandamque pra?bere vilem ut ancillam pro viribus
conabatur." — Paul Bernried, ap. Gretser, vol. vi. p. 142.
2 "Sed Romani pontificis constantia et invictus adversus avaritiam
animus omnia excludebat argunienta humana? fallacia?." — Lamb., ann.
1075, apud Pertz, v. 222.
VOL. VI. 2 I

498 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE,
VIII. Then would have been seen, in the former
as in the latter country, bishops transformed into
creatures of the tyrant, the Catholic nobility deci
mated by executions or dishonoured by complicity
in sacrilege, the monasteries given up as a prey to
greedy courtiers; all the glory and all the fruit
fulness acquired by the Church of the middle ages
would have been as if they had never existed ;
Christian society would have fallen back into the
degradation of paganism ; the world would have
lost its light ; the whole Church, fashioned to the
pleasure of usurping laymen, would have sunk
into that nothingness which the pride of impiety
considers appropriate to her, and in which, among
all schismatic nations, that phantom of association
without independence which they dare to call a
Church,1 lies buried in an ignoble sleep.
1 Let us hear on this subject the Anglican Bowden, whom the experi
ence of religious revolutions has enlightened : "The system which the
emperors of Germany wished to found," he says, "would have reduced
the Church to the position of the organ and creature of secular power ;
and if it could have been consolidated, it would have bent this Church
under the yoke of a degradation at once more cruel and more lasting
than all the follies and all the vices of her pastors." — Vol. i. p. 116.
In another place the same writer adds : "The Church under pagan
tyrants, who could only persecute her, would have had much less to suffer
than under the yoke of so-called Christian monarchs, whose cause was
identified with that of simony, impurity, and resistance to all interior
reform, and whose power would have drawn, from the perfection of the
feudal system, a solidity and a duration unknown to the tyrannies of
which she had formerly been the victim. But the high counsels of
heaven did not permit so dreadful a triumph."
We must acknowledge that neither Eleury, nor even the illustrious Bos
suet, always fearing lest a resemblance should be found between Henry
IV. and their great King Louis XIV., has understood as clearly as
Bowden, an Englishman and a Protestant, the true nature of the great
conflict of the eleventh century.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 499

CHAPTEE V.
HOW AND WHY ST GREGORY VII. DEPOSED
HENRY IV.
In his struggle against the despotism of Henry III. , Gregory VII. was sup-
ported by the public law of the middle ages. — The royal power, accord
ing to the councils, was conditional and limited. — Definition of the
divine right of kings. — Hincmar of Rheims professes the same doctrines.
— The power of deposing kings confided to the Pope. — The two powers,
though distinct, had the same origin. — The right of deposing incapa
ble or criminal kings belonged even to bishops. ^The legitimacy of
the right of deposition acknowledged by all princes. — The irresponsi
bility of royal power unknown in the eleventh century.— Hereditary
kings as well as elected emperors were deposed. — No contemporary
protests against these repressive measures. — Fine saying of Gregory
VII. — He is the protector of the small nations of the West. — The
reign of despotism put off for several centuries by his contest with
Henry IV. — The prevaricating bishops all belonged to the party of
the king. — Medieval opinion as to the right of deposition. — Henry
IV. deposed by the German nobles. — Last efforts of the confederates
to obtain justice. — No relation at first between the cause of Gregory
VII. and that of the German insurgents. — Moderation one of the traits
of his character. — Gregory ardently desires concord between the
priesthood and the empire. — The pride of Henry IV. draws him on to
the last extremities. — Gregory accounts for his conduct to the con
federate princes and people. — Nothing disturbs Gregory's calmness
and gentleness. — His unconquerable resolution and firmness.
The triumphant resistance of Gregory not only
saved the Church, but also political liberty in
Christendom, by repressing and chastising, through
an altogether unprecedented exercise of authority,

500 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
the detestable tyranny which threatened at the
same time society and the Church. It is import
ant here to prove, that in resisting the despotism of
Henry IV, in employing against him the univer
sally recognised supremacy of the papacy over all
crowns and all powers, and in exercising his right
of deposition, Gregory VII. depended for support
at once on the traditions of the Church, the public
law of Europe, and the unanimous consent of the
medieval nations.
in com- Neither in the great social contest then begun,
royal des- nor in questions relative to the internal disci-
potism, Gregory pfine of the Church, did Gregory VII. have re-
depended r ° j
nmnhiawof course *° any doctrine or proclaim any system of
agesmiddle his own. On the contrary, he simply applied with
strict equity, with extreme forbearance and cour
age, the law which contemporary princes firmly
believed to be founded on reason and on religious
and national traditions.
If there is one fact which is brought out more
prominently than another by the study of medieval
institutions, it is the essentially limited and con
ditional nature of power during the Catholic cen
turies. All the hereditary royalties of that period
were tempered by the more or less frequent and
direct intervention of the elective principle in all
questions of contested minorities and successions.
In general, the natural successor of a dead king was
no more than the first candidate for the throne, and
his authority was only recognised after it had been

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 501
approved and ratified by the chiefs of the ecclesi
astical and military orders in the ceremony of
consecration.1 Moreover, the modern idea of absolute power,
unconditional and inalienable, was absolutely un
known to the Christian society of the middle ages.
No emperor or king ever attained that supremacy
without having sworn to the Church and people
that he would fulfil certain conditions and defend
certain rights. The election of Philip I., King of
the French, contemporary of Gregory VIL, is an
example of this. At his consecration at Rheims,-
in 1059, in the lifetime of his father Henry, he
began by swearing, before God and the saints,
to preserve to the churches their canonical priv
ileges, to render full justice to their claims, and
to defend them as best he could with God's help,,
while at the same time promising to govern the
nations confided to his care according to the laws
and to equity;2 after which, the Archbishop' of
1 On this point we must refer to the excellent remarks of M. Guizot on
the manner in which the elective and the hereditary principles were com
bined in the French monarchy. — Essai sur V Histoire de France, Es. iv.
c. 3.
2 See the text of this oath, which it may be well to make known to
those who believe in unconditional monarchies in the past : ' ' Ego Phi-
lippus, Deo propitiante, mox futurus rex Francorum, in die ordinationis
mea? promitto, coram Deo et Sanctis ejus, quod ttnicuique vestrum et
ecclesiis , vobis commissis, canonicum privilegium, et debitam legem,
atque justitiam conservabo, et defensionem, adjuvante Domino, quan
tum potero exhibebo, sicut rex in suo regno unicuique episcopo et eccle
sia? sibi commissa? per rectum exhibere debet : populo quoque vobis cre-
dito me dispensationem legum in suo jure consistentem nostra auctori
tate concessurum." — Labbe, Condi, vol. xii. p. 55, ed. Coletti and
Duchesn., Scriptor., vol. iv. p.. 162. ; ,

502 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Rheims elected him king,1 the legates of the Pope
being called upon to vote, but merely as a com
pliment, and not because the consent of the sove
reign pontiff was thought necessary ; after which,
the twenty-four bishops and twenty -nine abbots
present at the ceremony, the Duke of Aquitaine,
the deputies of the Duke of Burgundy, the Counts
of Flanders and Anjou, eleven other Counts, the
Viscount de Limoges, gave their suffrages in suc
cession ; and finally, the knights and the people,
small and great, who all cried three times, "We
approve it, we desire it ; so be it." 2
Royal There was, then, a reciprocal engagement be-
powerwas, _
according tween the sovereign on one part, the Church and
to tDG
conditional tne People on the other. The first obligation of
ited.lim" kings was to profess the Catholic faith and to
serve the Church ; failing in this, they themselves
destroyed their title and annulled the engage
ments made with them. Such was the unanimous
belief of the middle ages.3
From the fact that the royal power was thus
limited and conditional, it resulted, naturally, that
a king might and could be stopped, controlled,
1 ' ' Tunc, annuente patre ipsius Henrico, elegit eum in regem. " — Labbe,
Condi, I. c
2 "Post, milites et populi, tam majores quam minores, uno ore con*
sentientes, laudaverunt, ter proclamantes : Laudamus, volumus, fiat." —
Ibid. 3 Hofler, die Deutsche Pabste, vol. ii. 303 ; Gosselin, du Pouvoir des
popes au moyen dge, chap. iii. art. 2. This last work contains the most
precise demonstration of the laws above stated, which the learned
director of St Sulpice has drawn not only from history, but from the
constitutions of all Christian countries.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 503
and restrained in the exercise of his authority,
arid; in case of need, deprived of the power which
he had abused. On this point also all the medi
eval world was agreed. From the seventh cen
tury the laws of the Visigoths, as set forth in
the famous code drawn up by the fathers of the
Council of Toledo in which we find one of the
noblest monuments of the genius of the conquer
ing German race, purified and interpreted by the
wisdom of the Church,1 recognised as a well-
established principle the responsibility of kings
and possible transference of the supreme power.
It is thus that the sixty-two bishops assembled
at the fourth Council of Toledo, in 633, less than
thirty years after the death of St Gregory the
Great, proclaimed the laws that regulated Christian
royalty : " The king is thus named (rex), because
he governs rightly (redd): if he acts with justice,
he possesses lawfully the title of king ; if not, he
loses it miserably. Our fathers, therefore, said with
reason, Thou shalt be Icing if thou dost well ; but
if thou dost ill, thou shalt be so no longer." 2
1 The Forum judicum, of which the first part (De electione prindpum)
was the practical code of Spanish medieval royalty. This collection,
finally arranged at the sixteenth Council of Toledo in 693, and translated
into Spanish in the thirteenth century, continued in full force until
the accession of the house of Austria and the establishment of modern
despotism. M. Guizot has published, in the Revue Francaise of 1828,
vol. vi. p. 202, some useful and profound reflections on the admirable
code of the Forum judicum. We refer the reader to the dissertation of
D. Manuel de Lardizabal, which precedes the fine Latin-Spanish edition
of Fuero Juzgo, given by the Madrid Academy in 1815.
2 We give M. Guizot's translation of the text, which is as follows :

504 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Amid the many stipulations intended to secure
the legitimate authority of kings and the inviola
bility of their persons, the same council puts oti.
record the following warning : " In all that refers
to the reigning king, as well as to future kings, we
promulgate, in the fear of God, this sentence : If
any one among them, despising the canons and
the laws, and urged into crime by pride, by the
arrogance of royalty, or by greed, shall exercise
his authority over his people with cruelty, may he
be smitten by our Lord Christ with His anathema,
may he suffer separation from God and condemna
tion by the people." x
Two centuries later, in 829, the Council of Paris,
assembled by the command of Louis le Debonnaire,
made, in the name of the Church of France,2 a
"Sicut sacerdos a sacrificando, ita et rex a moderamine pie regendo
vocatur. Non autem pie regit qui non misericorditer corrigit ; recte
igitur faciendo regis nomen benigne tenetur, peccando vero miseriter
amittitur ; unde et apud veteres tale erat proverbium : Rex ejus eris si
recta fads, si autem non facis, non eris." — Forum judic, tit. i., de elect.
princ, sect. 1.
1 "Sane tam de pra?senti quam de futuris regibus hanc sententiam
cum Dei timore promulgamus, ut si quis ex eis contra reverentiam can-
onum vel legum venerit superba dominatione, et faustu (sic) regio in
flagitiis et facinore pravitatis sive cupiditatis et avaritia? stimulis crude-
lissimam potestatem exercuerit in populis, anathematis sententia a Christo
Domino condemnetur et habeat a Deo separationem atque judicium
populi, quia pra?sumpserit prava agere et in perniciem regnum conver-
tere." — De electione principum, c. iii., ex concil. Tolet., iv. Chapter iv.,
which marks the distinction between the functions and the person of the
king, is not less important. It has been remarked that the words atque
judicium populi have been cut out in the first Spanish version, published
in 1241 by order of St Ferdinand. Madame de Stael has said truly,
" Liberty is old ; it is despotism which is new."
2 At this Council there were present the Bishops of. Rheims, Tours,

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 505
solemn and detailed declaration 1 of the rights and
duties of royalty. This Act, at its commencement,
is almost a textual repetition Of the great principle
enunciated by the Fathers of Toledo : " The king
is thus called on account of the rectitude of his
conduct : if he governs with justice, piety, and
mercy, he is worthy to be called king ; if he fails
in these qualities, he is not a king, but a tyrant." 2
Further on, the Fathers of Paris repeat the Definition
same sentence, quoting it from St Isidore, metro- divine
politan of Seville, who presided at the fourth kings.
Council of Toledo. They then add the following
magnificent definition of the divine right of royalty,
so strangely confounded by modern theologians and
publicists with the principle of heredity : " Let no
king say to himself that his kingdom comes to
him from his ancestors, but let him believe hum-

Sens, and Rouen. Three other councils, called at the same time, brought
together the other bishops at Mayence, Lyons, Toulouse ; but their de
crees have not reached us. Let us read the mandate to these councils,
in the preamble of the Council of Paris : " Ut, Domino inspirante, dili-
genter studerent (patres), qua?rere et investigare de causis ad religionem
Christianam eorumque imperatorum curam pertinentibus, quid a princi-
pibus et reliquo populo, yel ita ut divina auctoritas docet aut aliter ten-'
eretur, vel quid inde ex parte aut ex toto dimissum sit ut non teneretur.
Deinde quid in ipsorum, quid pastores populi constituti sunt, conversa-
tione et actibus inveniri potest, quod divina? regula? atque auctoritati non
concordaret," &c.
1 Read the chapters or canons entitled, " Quid sit rex, quid esse,
quidve carere debeat . . . quid sit proprium ministerium regis," &c.
2 " Rex a rec.te. agendo vocatur. Si enim pie et juste et misericorditer
regit, merito rex appellator ; si his caruerit, non rex, sed tyrannus est. " — -
Labbe, Condi, ed. Coletti, vol. ix. p. 747. Instead of regit, we read
agit, in the text of the same council given by Baluze, ap. Capital., vol.
i. 1146.

506 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
bly and sincerely that he holds it from God — from
that God who said by His prophet Jeremiah to the
children of Israel : ' Thus shall ye say unto your
masters ; I have made the earth, the man and the
beast that are upon the ground, by my great power
and by my outstretched arm, and have given it
unto whom it seemed meet unto me ' — (Jer. xxvii.)
Those who believe that their kingdom came to
them from their ancestors rather than from God,
are those whom the Lord reproved by the mouth
of His prophet, saying, ' They have set up kings,
but not by me : they have made princes, and I knew
it not' — (Hosea viii.) Now, to be unknown of
God is to be reproved by Him ; thus whosoever
has temporal authority over other men ought to
understand that it is confided to him by God and
not by man. Some reign by the grace of God,
others by His permission. Those who reign with
piety, justice, and mercy, reign, without doubt, by
tbe grace of God : others do not reign by His
grace, but by His permission only ; and it is of
them that the Lord has said by the prophet Hosea,
' / gave thee a king in my anger.' It is of them
Job speaks when he says, ' It is God who makes
the hypocrite reign on account of the sins of the
people.' " x
1 ' ' Nemo regum a progenitoribus regnum sibi administrari, sed a Deo
veraciter et humiliter credere debet dari, qui dicit, et . . . multi nam-
que munera divino, multi etiam Dei permissu regnant. Qui pie et juste
et misericorditer regnant, sine dubio per Deum regnant ; qui vero secus,
non ejus munere, sed permissu tantum regnant." — Condi. Paris, lib. ii.
c. 5, ap. Coletti, ix. 753.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 507
Following the example of the Council of Paris,
the Councils of Aix-la-Chapelle, held 836, after
the re-establishment of Louis le Debonnaire on
the imperial throne, and of Mayence, 888, at the
time of the final separation of the French and
German monarchies,1 both proclaimed, at the be
ginning of their Acts, the doctrine of St Isidore,
of the Fathers of Toledo, and of the Council of
Paris, upon the change of royalty into tyranny.2
At the same epoch the great Pope St Nicholas I.,3
showing himself entirely in accord with these
principles, wrote to Bishop Adventitius of Metz : 4
" What you tell me of your submission to kings
and princes, according to the words of the apostle,
' Sive Rege tanquam pracellenti,' pleases me much ;
see, however, that these kings and princes whose
authority you thus acknowledge are really kings
and princes. See first of all if they govern them-
1 " Statuimus ut annuntietur glorioso regi nostro Domino Arnulpho,
quid sit rex, quidve vocari debeat : Rex a recte regendo vocatur : si
enim pie et juste," &c. — See Can. ii., ap. Coletti, vol. x. p. 582.
2 " Ut quid rex dictus sit, Isidorus in libro Sententiarum dicit: Rex
a regendo vocatur ; si enim pie," &c. — Ap. Coletti, vol. ix. p. 830.
3 Nicholas I. filled the papal throne from 858 to 867, and was placed
in the Roman martyrology by Urban VIII.
4 " Verum tamen videte utrum reges isti et principes quibus vos sub*
jectos esse dicistis, veraciter reges et principes sunt. Videte si primum
se bene regunt, deinde subditum populum, nam qui sibi nequam est, cui
alii bonus erit ? Videte si jure principantur : alioqui potius tyranni
credendi sunt quam reges habendi ; quibus magis resistere et ex adverso
ascendere, quam subdi debemus. Alioquin si talibus subditi, et non
pra?lati fuerimus, necesse est eorum vitiis faveamus. Ergo regi, quasi
pra?cellenti, virtutibus scilicet, et non vitiis, subditi estote, sed sicut
apostolus ait, propter Deum et non contra Deum." — Regest. Nicol. I.,
. Ep. iv., ap. Coletti, vol. ix. p. 1506.

508 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
selves well, then if they govern their people well.
See if they rule in virtue of the law, for otherwise
they must be held tyrants rather than kings, and
your duty would be to resist and oppose them
rather than to obey them."
Hincmar By a curious coincidence, Hincmar, Archbishop
of Rheims j? -p>
professes 0f Rheims, an illustrious contemporary ol rope
the same _, ,
doctrine. Nicholas, sometimes opposed to the Holy bee, and
whom many writers, one copying the other, quote
as the first author of the pretended Gallican liber
ties, wrote to King Louis III. in these words : "It
is not you who have elected me to be the bead of
the Church, but I and my colleagues, with other
faithful servants of God and of your ancestors,
who have elected you to govern the kingdom on
condition that you keep those laws which you
are bound to obey." *
In England the same doctrine existed ; the
famous laws called the laws of Edward the Con
fessor, promulgated anew by William the Con
queror, declared that " the king, vicar of the great-

1 " . . . Pontifices reges ordinare possunt, reges autem pontifices conse-
crare non possunt. Et pontificibus dixit Deus : ' Qui vos audit, me audit,
et qui vos spernit, id est contemnit et despicit, me contemnit. Et qui con-
temnunt me, erunt ignobiles.' Non ergo debueratis itainverecunde quali-
cumque pontifici scribere, vestra? ditioni commissuni. Quia sicut dixit
Dominus apostolis suis quorum minimus sum merito, successor autem
officio ' non vos me elegistis, sed ego elegi vos,' ita et ego juxta modu*
lum meum humili corde ac voce dicere possum, non vos me elegistis in
pra?latione ecclesia?, sed ego cum collegis meis, et ca?teris Dei ac pro-
genitorum vestrorum fidelibus, vos elegi ad regimen regni, sub coNDr.
tione debitas leges servandi." — Hincmar, Epist., ad Ludov. III., Opera,
vol. ii. p. 198.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 509
est king, is endued with supreme power, in order
that he may respect and venerate above all the
Holy Church of God, and govern the earthly king
dom and people of the Lord, to protect them
against wicked men, to extirpate and annihilate
evil-doers ; if he does not do this, he ought to be
deprived even of the very title of king." *
Thus the axiom which summed up this prin
ciple with most canonical brevity, " Thou shalt be
king if thou dost well ; if thou dost ill thou shalt
be so no longer " 2— an axiom which the Fathers
at Toledo quoted as old in the seventh century —
retained all its force in the eleventh, and was con
stantly appealed to in Catholic writings against
the imperialists.
For the rest, written proofs are superfluous, for
facts speak louder than laws. In those times, as
the Count le Maistre has well said, "Thanks to
the Roman Church, the great European charter
was proclaimed, not on mere paper, nor by the
1 " Rex autem, qui vicarius summi regis est, ad hoc est constitutus ut
regnum terrenum, et populum domini, et super omnia sanctam veneretur
ecclesiam ejus, et regat, et ab injuriosis defendat, et maleficos ab ea
evellat et destruat et penitus disperdat. Quod nisi fecerit, nee nomen
regis in eo constabit verum, testante papa Joanne, nomen regis perdit." —
Art. 17, alias 15, ap. Wilkins, Leges Anglo- Saxonicat, vol. i. ; Canciani,
Leges barbar. M. 1'Abbe Gosselin, quoting this passage, points out the
audacious mutilation committed by an erudite Gallican of the eighteenth
century, the lawyer Houard, who, reproducing textually, as he affirms,
the laws of St Edward, in his Troite des coutumes anglo-normandes, has
simply cut out the last phrase of the passage quoted above.
2 " Recte igitur faciendo nomen regis tenetur, alioquin amittitur ; unde
est hoc vetus elogium : Rex eris, si recte fads; si non fads, non eris." —
Berthold, ann. .1077, ap. Pertz, v. 297.

510 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
voice of common criers, but in all the hearts of
Europe, then entirely Catholic."
The necessity and lawfulness of restraining the
abuses of royal power, once admitted, it became
necessary to decide by whom this restraining
authority should be exercised, and to what hands
should be confided the redoubtable mission of
judging and punishing kings.
The men of the time, nobles and bishops, at
once feudatories of royalty and representatives of
the body of the people, were fully resolved in no
way to relinquish such a prerogative; and they
evidently believed that they had the right, in case
of need, to take the initiative and exercise unre
servedly this extreme power. Thus the French
nobles and prelates twice overthrew the dynasty
which governed them, which was also done by the
German princes, who deposed Henry and elected
Power of Rodolph of Suabia, without the Pope's consent.1
kmgsSyieid- But a just and salutary instinct as to the necessary
Pope. existence of some principle of authority in this
world, seems to have early revealed to them that
this restraining force, to be efficacious and respected,
ought to be exercised with as much prudence and
charity as energy and courage, and that these con
ditions could not be found united anywhere to the
same degree as in the head of the universal Church.
Kings were more interested than any one in the uni-
1 This appears from a passage of the Canon Paul Bernried (chap.
xcvii.), which we quote at length a little further on.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 5ll
versal acceptance of such an opinion : for it carried
their cause before the most august and impartial
tribunal which could exist in the world : it placed
their interests in the hands which could always
best unite justice with indulgence, and Christian
liberty with respect for human greatness. The
Popes accepted this mission, but they had not
sought it. It fell into their hands in virtue of
the needs of society, as well as of the incom
parable majesty of the power which they derived
from God Himself. It had been yielded to them,
as it were, by the unanimous suffrage of Chris
tendom, which by degrees, from the eighth to
the eleventh century, formed itself into a great
European law. This law is clearly expressed
in the following words, addressed to the head
of the Church by a French monk half a cen
tury before Gregory VII.'s accession to the pon
tificate : " We know, reverend Father, that thou
hast been made vicar of the universal Church in
place of the Blessed Peter, so as to raise up those
who are unjustly oppressed, and to restrain, by the
authority of St Peter, those who . raise their heads
more highly than they ought to do." 1
It was thus acknowledged then, by the whole
world, that temporal sovereignty was amenable to
1 Letter of Albert, Abbot of Mesmin, to John XIX.: "Novimus te,
Pater Reverende, constitutum in terris vicarium universalis Ecclesia?
vice B. Petri apostoli, ut sustentes eos qui injuste opprimuntur, et op-
primas eos auctoritate B. Petri qui se nimium erigunt." — Ap. Mabill.,
i., b. liii. c. 57.

512 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
the Church, and that at the same time the vicar of
that God to whom kings would have to give ac
count of their actions in the other world, ought to
be their judge in this.1 It did not result from this,
as prejudiced and superficial judges have affirmed,
that the great principle of the distinction and rel
ative independence of the two powers, spiritual and
temporal, was despised and misunderstood. This
principle, which has so often been brought for*
Ward as a weapon against the Church, but which
she has always been able to turn against her
adversaries, was then admitted and recognised
by the doctors and pontiffs most devoted to the
freedom of the Church. St Gregory VII. had
himself proclaimed it in the letter already quoted,,
where he declares that the priesthood and the im
perial authority are the two eyes by which the
spiritual light should rule and illuminate the body
of the Church.2 Two centuries earlier, in .881, the

i We may admit or reject the law, but it is impossible to deny the
fact of the general opinion. This fact is established in the most indis
putable manner in the profound and solid work of M. I'Abbe" Gosselin, du
Pouvoir du popes aumoyen dge. The evidence of this learned writer is the
more valuable, because he combats the principles of the Ultramontane
doctors, and is inclined, in our opinion, to exaggerate the disorders of
the middle ages. According to us, he shows unanswerably that the right
of deposition, as it was exercised by popes from the eleventh to the
thirteenth century, was founded on the public and human law of
Catholic Europe ; but this public and human law could not, we think,
exclude the divine and indirect right with which the Church is invested
in virtue of her nature and institution, as Cardinal Bellarmine and Count
le Maistre have taught and explained — a right in which the doctors and
the faithful of the middle ages certainly believed.
•t. , b. i. ep. 19.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 513
Fathers of the Council of Rheims, under the guid
ance of the famous Hincmar, to whose proud words
we called attention a little while back, had pro
tested in magnificent language against all confusion
of the two powers. This was proscribed, because
with it would have come back that confusion be
tween the priesthood and the empire which existed
among the pagans before its destruction by Christ,
for the salvation of souls and the succouring of
human frailty. " Our Lord Jesus Christ alone,"
they said, " was able to be at once true king and
true priest ; but since He ascended into heaven, no
king has dared to usurp the pontifical, no pontiff
the royal power. In Him existed together, by the
fact of His glorious birth, the kingdom and the
priesthood : but He remembered human weakness ;
He provided, with generous care, for the safety of
His people ; He would have salvation worked out
by a salutary humility — not imperilled afresh by
human pride : and this is why, modifying the state
of things which existed among the pagans before
His incarnation, where the same man was emperor
and sovereign pontiff, He has tempered and separ
ated the dignities and functions of the two powers
in such a manner that Christian kings should not
be able to do without pontiffs, if they would gain
eternal life ; and that, on the other hand, the pon
tiffs should be obliged to use the royal laws in the
course of temporal affairs, in such a way as to pre
serve the spiritual life from the encroachments of
vol. vi. . 2 K

514 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
the flesh— that he who fights for God should not
entirely avoid all secular burdens, and at the same
time he who has to bear these burdens should not
appear to preside over the things of God."1
It is evident, then, that no one claimed that all
temporal rulers should receive their jurisdiction
. from the Church, nor that the Church should in
terpose directly in secular affairs. But this dis
tinction, though incontestable and uncontested,
could not, in the midst of a society exclusively
Christian and Catholic, have the same range or
the same urgency as at the present day. Because
the two powers were distinct, and in several points
independent of each other, it did not follow, in
the eyes of any Christian, that they were equal.
On the contrary, the superiority of the spiritual
power in dignity, plenitude, and extent was uni
versally acknowledged. The French bishops as
sembled at the Council of Rheims in 881, after the
declaration we have just quoted as to the distinc
tion of the two powers, continued in these words :
'•' The dignity of the pontiffs is the more superior
to that of the kings, that these kings are conse
crated by the pontiffs, while the pontiffs cannot be
so by kings ; and the responsibility of the pontiffs
1 ' ' Solus enim dominus noster J. C. vere fieri potuit rex et sacerdos.
Post incarnationem vero et resurrectionem et ascensionem ejus in ccelum,
nee rex pontificis dignitatem, nee pontifex regiam potestatem sibi usur
pare pra?sumpsit. . . ." — Concil, ap: S. Macram, ann. 881, ap. Labbe,
Condi, ed. Coletti, vol. ix. p. 510. This text is enlarged upon by
Hincmar, President of the council in admonit. pro Carolomanno rege.,
Oper., ed. Sirmond, vol. ii. p. 216.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 515
is the heavier, that they have to render account
for the actions of kings, as well as of other men,
at the judgment of God."1
These expressions, already sanctioned by the
French bishops at the Council of Paris in 829, 2
and by the German bishops at that of Aix-la-
Chapelle in 830, were almost the same as those
used in the fifth century by Pope St Gelasius to
the Emperor Anastasius.3 About the same time,
in 833, Pope Gregory IV, in a letter of reprimand
addressed to the bishops of France, and drawn up
by the holy abbot Wala, cousin to Charlemagne,
expressed himself thus : " You ought not to be
ignorant that the government of souls which be
longs to the pontiffs, is above that of temporal
matters, which belongs to the emperors." i And
the Pope quoted St Gregory Nazianzen, who,
preaching before the emperors of Constantinople,
said to them : " If you have received the liberty
of the Word, you must admit without difficulty
that the law of Christ has placed you in subjection
to our sacerdotal authority and to our tribunals, and
that He has given us a power and a sovereignty far
1 " Tanto eis dignitas pontificum major quam regum, quia reges in
culmen regium sacrantur a pontificibus, pontifices autem a. regibus
eonsecrari non possunt : et tanto gravius pondus est sacerdotum quam
regum, quanto etiam pro ipsis regibus hominum in divino reddituri sunt
examine rationem. " — Ap. Labbe, I. c.
2 Concil. Paris, vi. lib. i. c. iii., ap. Coletti, ix. 711.
3 Epist. 10.
4 " Neque ignorare debueratis, majus esse regnum animarum, quod est
pontificale, quam temporale, quod est imperiale." — Epist. Greg., iv.,
No. 3, ap. Coletti, Conc.,ix. p. 685.

516 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE;
more perfect than yours ; else would you be forced
to hold that the spirit should be subordinated to
the flesh, heaven to earth, and God to man." 1
Gregory VIL, then, said nothing which should
have seemed strange or new when, in his famous
letter to the Bishop of Metz, after having re
minded him that, in the very words of St Ambrose,
gold is not more superior to lead than the priesthood
to royalty, he added : " Your fraternity must re
member that a simple exorcist is endowed with a
greater power than is given to any layman what
soever invested with secular dominion ; for this
exorcist is constituted a spiritual emperor, to bring
about the expulsion of demons." 2
The two Besides, we must not forget that in the eyes of
powers, though the men of that age the two powers, though dis-
distinct, ° _ r ' &
had the tinct in their object, their limits, and, above all, in
same •*
origm. their exercise, had one origin and one sanction — the
1 " Suscipitisne libertatem verbi ? Libenter accipitis quod lex Christi
sacerdotali vos nostra? subjicit potestati, atque istis tribunalibus subdit ?
Dedit enim et vobis potestatem, dedit principatum, multo perfectiorem
principatibus vestris. Aut numquid justum vobis videtur si cedat spir-
itus carni, si a terre.nis ccelestia superantur, si divinis pra?ferantur
humaua." — S. Greg. Naz., dejerem. diet. ibid.
2 " . . . Et B. Ambrosius ... in suis scriptis ostendit quod aurum
non tam pretiosius sit plumbo quam regia potestate sit altior dignitas
sacerdotali. . . . Major potestas exorcista? conceditur, cum spiritualis
imperator ad adjiciendos da?mones constituitur, quam alicui laicorum
causa sa?cularis dominationis tribui possit." — Regest., lib. viii. ep. 21.
Are not these the same principles as those which Innocent III. insisted
upon in his discourse to the ambassadors of Philip of Suabia ? — " Princi-
pibus datur potestas in terris, sacerdotibus autem potestas tribuitur in
coelis ; illis solummodo super corpora, istis etiam super animas. Unde
quanto dignior est anima corpore, tanto dignius est sacerdotium quam sit
regnum." — Epist. i., ed. Baluze, vol. i. p. 547. Boniface VIII. held
the same language in his bull Unam Sanctam.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 517
Divine institution. The Church and society formed
but one and the same body, governed by two dif
ferent forces,1 of which one was, by its nature,
essentially inferior to the other.
It is thus that the subordination of all Chris
tians, not excepting crowned heads, to the pon
tifical authority, led, in certain extreme cases, to
the subordination of the Crown itself. Nobody,
indeed, being able to deny to the Church the right
of directing consciences in temporal matters, of
determining the nature of sin, of defining the
limits of good and evil, it was concluded that
to her should belong the right of settling those
questions of conscience which were connected
with the government of society.2 To provoke the
Church, as did in succession nearly all the nations
of Christendom — to exercise the functions of arbi
trator between subjects and kings — and to employ
against the crimes or abuses of sovereignty that
1 Such is clearly the sense of the declaration of the Council of Paris in
829: " Prineipaliter itaque totius sancta? Dei Ecclesia? corpus in duas
eximias personas, in sacerdotalem. videlicet et regalem, sicut a Sanctis
patribus traditum accepimus, divisum esse novimus . . . cum ha?c quippe
ita se habeant, primum de sacerdotali, post de regali persona dicendum
statuimus."— Lib. i. c. 3 ; Coletti, vol. ix. p. 710.
2 Innocent III. and Boniface VIII., the two popes who have best de
fined the extent of the pontifical power, held the same language. Inno
cent III. : " Non enim intendimus judicare de feudo . . . seddecernere
de peccato cujus ad nos pertinet sine dubitatione censura, quam in
quemlibet exercere possumus et debemus. "—Epist. ad reg. et episc. Frandce
in Decret., lib. ii. tit. i., and Epist., vol. vi. p. 163. Boniface VIII.:
" Dicimus quod in nullo volumus usurpare jurisdictionem regis. . . .
Non potest negare rex, seu quicumque alter fidelis, quin sit nobis sub-
jectus, ratione peccati. "— Hist, du diff. entre Boniface VIII. et Philippe
le Bel. Preuves, p. 77.

518 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
penal system which entered into every medi
eval constitution, — was to extend the authority of
that Church beyond the bounds indispensable to
its existence, but was not, as has been said, to
bridge a gulf : it was believed then that the pas
toral authority to which the right had been given,
according to the apostle, to judge angels, to bind
and loose in heaven, must have the right to judge,
as a last resort, in terrestrial causes ; 1 and no one
was surprised to find that the Church, which had
received from God full power to procure the sal
vation of souls, should also have that of saving
society and repressing the excesses of those by
whom it was disturbed. It is possible that this
faith, peculiar to the times of which we are speak
ing, might be difficult to reconcile with the vital
principle of the distinction of the two powers : but
logic is not always infallible nor always benefi
cent ; and if we have here a political or theolog
ical inconsequence, it may well be affirmed that
there never was one more happy and more legiti
mate. Never has there been found a system more
justly and naturally applicable to a society where
religion had gained a universal and uncontested
ascendancy ; and never, certainly, has one been
imagined better calculated at once to maintain
and control the sovereign authority.
1 " Si enim ccelestia et spiritualia sedes B. Petri solvit et judicat,
quanto magis terrena et secularia, juxta illud Apostoli : Nescitis, inquit,
quoniam angelos judicabimus, quanto magis secularia?" — (1 Cor. vi. 3)
Paul. Bernried., c. 97.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 519
In fact, the right to depose and supersede incap- The right
..-,,. to depose
able or criminal kings, after having subiected them incapable
° o j or criminal
to public penance, was exercised by the bishops as Jong|dbeVeu
well as by popes,- and even before popes. We find t0 bish°P8-
a memorable example of this in the life of Wamba,
King of the Spanish Visigoths. This prince was
obliged by the Spanish bishops to retain the mon
astic habit which he had adopted during a severe
illness; and after his deposition, the Fathers of
the twelfth Council of Toledo, in 681, released his
subjects from their oath of allegiance.1
We find also the French bishops, with the Arch
bishop of Rheims at their head, sanctioning and pro
claiming, in spite of the Pope, the deposition of the
Emperor Louis le D^bonnaire, at the Council of Com-
piegne,2 in 833 ; and though this unjust sentence was
1 " Considentibus episcopis, atque senioribus palatii universis, et ideo
soluta manus populi, ab omni vinculo juramenti, qua? pra?dicto viro
Wamba?, dum regnum adhuc teneret, alligata permansit, hunc solum
serenissimum Erwigium principem obsequenda grato servitii famulatu
sequatur et libera ; quem et divinum judicium in regno pra?elegit, et
decessor princeps successorem sibi instituit, et quod super est, quem
totius populi amabilitas exquisivit." — Can. I., ap. Coletti, Cone, vol.
vii. pp. 143-234.
8 The preamble to the acts of the Council of Compiegne is expressed
thus : " Quia idem princeps ministerium sibi commissum negligenter
tractaverit, &c, et ab eo divino justoque judicio subito imperialis sit sub-
tracta potestas . . . ; quia potestateprivatus erat terrena, juxta divinum con
cilium et ecclesiasticam auctoritatem." — Coletti, Concil, vol. ix. p. 803.
The principal promoters of this sentence, after Archbishop Ebbo of
Rheims, were the celebrated Agobard, Archbishop of Lyon ; the Arch
bishops of Vienna and of Narbonne ; the Bishops of Amiens, Troyes,
Auxerre, &c. It is very striking that it should have been the bishops
of Prance who inaugurated what it has been agreed to consider as the
most condemnable excess of Ultramontanism. As to Pope Gregory IV.,
who had crossed the Alps with the hope of re-establishing peace between
Louis le Debonnaire and his sons, seeing that his efforts were useless, he

520 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
annulled, and though it excited general indigna
tion throughout Christendom, it is not said in any
contemporary monument that the right, in virtue
of which the bishops acted, was ever contested.1
As to the exercise of an analogous power by the
popes, Fleury himself allows that two hundred
years before Gregory VIL, the sovereign pontiffs
had begun to decide upon the rights of monarchs.2
We do not know, indeed, why the historian limits
himself to this period of two centuries ; for, as early
as 752, it is well known that Pope Zacharias had
been called upon by the Franks to give judgment
upon the question of the expulsion of the Mero
vingian race.3 As to the imperial dignity, which
was then the highest form of temporal authority,
and constituted a sort of special fief of the Holy

returned to Rome, as the author of the life of Louis says, " cum maximo
mcerore " (c. 48).
1 There is no mention, either in historians of Louis's party or in the
records of the councils which revoked the sentence of Compiegne, of any
reproaches as to usurpation of power being addressed to the authors of the
emperor's deposition. The bishops were reproached, not with having
encroached upon the independence of the crown, but with having falsely
accused and condemned an innocent man : " Damnatum et absentem (?) et
inauditum neque confitentem, neque convictum . . . arma deponere co-
gunt." — (Vit. Ludov. Pii, c. 49, ap. D. Bouquet, vol. vi.) Louis ac
cused Archbishop Ebbo at the Council of Metz : " Quod eum falso fuerat
criminatus, et iisdem falsis criminibus appetitum e regno defecerat, ar-
misque ablatis, nee confessum, nee convictum, contra regulas ecclesias-
ticas ab ecclesia? aditu eliminaverat. " — Chron. Camerac, vol. i. c. 41.
And it was for these reasons and no others that Archbishop Ebbo was
deposed at Thionville in 835 : " Quoniam imperatorem falso criminatum
et injuste ab imperiali sede depositum publica? pcenitentia? subdidit." —
Hincm., Adv. Gothescalc, c. 36.
- Fleury, Discours sur Vhistoire ecclesiastique, from 600 to 1100, No. 18.
3 See the numerous proofs of this fact in Gosselin, p. 484 et seq.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 521
See, it could only be conferred by the Pope, and
after the prince had taken a solemn oath to devote
himself to the defence of the Church.1
By accepting the imperial crown from the hands
of Leo III., Charlemagne had, in the eyes of all
Western Europe, ratified the universal supremacy
of the Roman pontiff.2 His successors, Louis le
Debonnaire and Lothaire, acknowledged after him
that the imperial dignity was derived only from
papal consecration ; 3 and the Emperor Louis II. ,
writing to Basil, the Macedonian emperor of the
East, to justify his ancestors for having assumed
the imperial title, founds their right exclusively
on the fact of the imperial power being conferred
on them by the judgment of the Church and the
unction by the sovereign Pontiff.4
Otho the Great — who delivered the papacy from
1 See the formula of this oath in the Sacramentary of St Gregory, pub
lished by Muratori, Liturgia romana vetus, vol. ii. p. 455. The illus
trious editor shows that this Sacramentary dates from the first year of
the ninth century. Cenni, Sigonius, and others, think that Charlemagne
himself took this oath. Such is not the opinion of l'Abbe" Gosselin. In
his excellent History of Germany, G. Phillips shows that this oath is not
the ordinary oath of vassalage, but a special one of devotion to the person
of the Pope and to the Church. — Deutsche Geschichte, vol. ii. p. 263.
2 This very just remark is made by the Anglican Bowden, p. 41.
3 Phillips, Deutsche Geschichte, cc. 9, 48, vol. ii. p. 273.
4 "Jam ab avo nostro non usurpante, ut perhibes, sed Dei nutu et
Ecclesia? judicio summique pontificis per impositionem et unctionem
manus (sic) obtinuit. . . . Matron omnium Ecclesiam Dei defendendam
atque sublimandam suscepimus, ex qua et regnandi et postmodum im-
perandi auctoritatem prosapia? nostra? seminarium sumpsit. Nam Fran
corum principes, primo reges, deinde vero imperatores dicti sunt, et
dumtaxat, qui a romano pontifice ad hoc oleo sancto perfusi sunt." —
Epist. apolog. Ludov. Lmp. ad Basil imp., ap. Baron., Annal, ann.
871, Nos. 56-59.

522 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
the dangers which threatened it in Italy, and re
covered the imperial dignity for the royal family
of Germany, in whose hands it has remained ever
since — before being consecrated emperor, and even
before entering Rome, had been obliged to swear
fidelity to the Roman Church and to the Pope,
whose fate was in his hands.1 The Emperor St
Henry had sworn the same oath to Pope Bene
dict VIII. ; 2 and, curiously enough, the Emperor
Henry III., father of Gregory VII.'s great ad
versary, though reputed absolute master of the
destinies of the papacy, invoked the pontifical
authority against the King of Castile, who had
arrogated to himself the title of emperor ; and
the judge and arbiter of the controversy was Hib-
debrand, then legate of Pope Victor II. at the
Council of Tours.3 After all this, can we be sur
prised that nations should attribute to the author
ity which thus conferred the supreme dignity in
temporal affairs, the right to withdraw it in cer
tain cases from its possessors \
But we must add that the right of deposition
was derived from a yet more certain source — that
is to say, from the power of excommunication exer
cised from the earliest times by the Church — a
punishment which, once pronounced, involved the
breaking off of all relations with the faithful, and,
with still greater reason, the loss of all dignity and
1 See the text of this sermon in Pertz, Mon. hist. Germ., leges., vol.
ri. p. 29.
'' Ditmar. MERSEB.,b. vii., ap. Leibnitz, Script, rer. Brunswic, i.iOO.
3 Labbe and Coletti, Cone, vol. xii. p. 7.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 523
authority : unless the guilty person succeeded in
obtaining absolution during the year which fol
lowed the promulgation of the sentence. This
was the universal and acknowledged law of the
middle ages a — a law recognised and accepted by
all temporal authorities, as well as by the spiritual
power, and adopted by the unanimous consent of
nations, and especially by the German race.2
There was no exception in favour of kings. On
the contrary, we may say that it was against them,
in case of obstinate resistance to the judgments of
the Church, that repressive laws and decrees were
specially directed. How, indeed, in the midst of
a society entirely penetrated by Catholicism, would
it have been possible to imagine the maintenance of
supreme authority in the hands of a man excluded,
by his own will, from the sacraments of the Church?
Was it not to be expected that the excommunicated
impenitent, after having betrayed God, would also
betray the fidelity he had sworn to his people ? 3
Henry IV., even when he procured from his
1 We do not think the existence of this right can be seriously dis
puted after the double proof of it given with equal moderation and
learning by M. Gosselin, director of St Sulpice (du Pouvoir des popes au
moyen Age), and by the Abbe Jager, professor at the Sorbonne (cf. Lntro-
dudion to the Hist of Greg. VLL, by Voigt). It is enough for us to
recall the canon of the Council of Verceil, in 755, placed by Charlemagne
in the- Capitularies (Baluze, vol. i. p. 1071), and according to which, the
excommunicated person who did not give satisfaction to the Church was
condemned to exile. We refer the reader to the work of M. Gosselin for
the numerous and unanswerable proofs which he had collected.
2 See the very precise text of Paul Bernried, Bonizo, and Hugo de
Flavigny on this subject.
3 Fenelon, Dissertation de auctoritate summi pontificis, c. 39, p. 335.
M. Gosselin has quoted and commented on it.

524 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
bishops a sentence of deposition against Gregory
VII.,1 acknowledged that he himself might be de
posed if he abandoned the faith.2 The monarch's
defenders contented themselves, says Fleury, with
declaring that a sovereign could not be excom
municated,3 — a pretension absurd in itself, which
was assailed by Gregory in his famous letters to
Hermann, Bishop of Metz,4 and which besides
was, as a matter of fact, contradicted by numer
ous examples from the time when St Ambrose
gave sentence against the Great Theodosius,5 to
that of the recent excommunication by Gregory
V. of Robert King of the French. Apart from
these facts, however, the right of excommunication
and of eventual deposition was proved in the cele
brated charters granted by Gregory the Great,6
1 At the Assembly of Worms, January 24, 1076.
2 " Me quoque qui licet indignus inter christos ad regnum suum unctus,
tetigisti, quem sanctorum patrum traditio soli Deo judicandum docuit,
necpro aliquo crimine nisi a fide, quod absit, exorbitaverim, deponendum
asseruit." — Cod. Udalr. Babenb., No. 163, ap. Eocard., vol. ii.
3 Fleury, Discours sur I'Eglise, from 600 to 1100, No. 18.
4 Regest. Greg. VIL, ap. Labbe, Concil., b. iv. ep. 2, and viii. ep. 21.
6 See the long list of examples quoted by Berthold, Ann., ad ann.
1077, ap. Pertz, 297. Cf. Bonizo, Lib. ad amicum, pp. 814, 815, ap.
CEfele. The latter's quotations are not always exact.
6 Here is the text of the privileges of Autun : "Si quis vero regum, sa
cerdotum, judicum, personarumque sa?cularium hanc constitutionis nostra?
paginam agnoscens, contra eam venire tentaverit, potestatis honorisque sui
dignitate careat, reumque se divino judicio existere de perpetrata iniqui-
tate cognoscat. Et nisi vel ea qua? ab illo mala ablata sunt, restituerit, vel
digna poenitentia illicite acta defleverit, a sacratissimo corpore ac sanguine
Dei et Domini nostri redemptoris Jesu Christi alienus fiat, atque in a?terno
examine districta? ultioni subjaceat." — (Sancti Gregorii magni, Opera
regist. epist., lib. xiii. ep. 8, ed. Bened., 1705, vol. ii. p. 1223.
Privileges of St Medard : "Si quis autem regum, antistitum, judicum
vel quarumcumque secularium personarum, hujus apostolica? auctorita-

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 525
who, while granting certain privileges to the
Hospice of Autun and the monastery of St Me-
dard of Soissons, declared all laymen, even sov
ereigns, who should violate these privileges, de
prived of their dignity. Gregory VII. more than
once took care to shelter himself under the im
posing authority of the most illustrious of his
predecessors.1 The lawfulness of the sentence pronounced by The law-
Gregory VII. against Henry IV. was acknowledged the right
by the unanimous voice of the princes and prelates tion a°-
¦*¦ •*• knowleged
assembled at Tribur in October 1076, who ratified ?ven ty
7 the princes
it in the most solemn manner, declaring that, in ^d to"
Henry IV.
tis et nostra? pra?ceptionis decreta violaverit, aut contradixerit, aut negli-
genter duxerit, vel fratres inquietaverit, vel conturbaverit, vel aliter
ordinaverit, cujuscumque dignitatis vel sublimitatis sit, honore suo
privetur, et ut catholica? fidei depravator, vel sancta? Ecclesia? destructor,
a consortio christianitatis, et corpore ac sanguine D. N. J. C. sequestre-
tur, et omnium maledictionum anathemate, quibus infideles et ha?retici
ab initio sa?culi usque in pra?sens damnati sunt, cum Juda traditore Do
mini in inferno inferiori damnetur, nisi digna poenitentia pra?fatorum
sanctorum sibi propitiaverit clementiam et fratrum communem recon-
ciliaverit concordiam." — Epist. append., No. 4, ubi supra, p. 1287.
According to Fleury (i. 62, No. 22), and according to others, this clause
has been interpolated. Dom Denis de Ste Marthe, editor of the
works of St Gregory, proves its authenticity from all the MSS. of France
and Italy. Mabillon, De re diplomat., b. ii., also rejects the idea of
interpolation. 1 Lib. iv. epist. 2 and 22, and lib. vii. epist. 21, to Hermann of Metz,
where he enumerates the different precedents on which he acts. This is
how Gregory's principal biographer expresses himself on this subject :
" Nemo autem romanorum pontifices reges deponere posse, denegabit,
quicumque decreta sanctissimi papa? Gregorii non prescribenda judicabit.
Ipse enim vir apostolicus, cui Spiritus sanctus in aurem decernenda
dictavit in apostolica sede constitutus, irrefragabiliter decrevit, reges a
suis dignitatibus cadere, et participatione dominici corporis et sanguinis
carere, si pra?sumerent sedis apostolica? jussa contemnere." — Paul,
Bernried., c. 97.

526 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
conformity with the laws of the Germanic em
pire, the king must be irrevocably deprived and
stripped of his crown if he did not obtain absolu
tion before the term fixed in the sentence of ex
communication (February 13, 1076). 1
The most devoted partisans of Henry IV., even
the bishops who took part in the sentence of
deposition pronounced in the name of the emperor
against Gregory, at Worms, declared to the mon
arch that they could only remain faithful to him
on condition of his obtaining the required absolu
tion.2 Henry feigned to yield to the advice given
1 ' ' Ultramontani principes . . . legem suam nolebant destruere, quia
perscriptum est, ut si quis ante annum et diem ab excommunicatione
non fuerit solutus, omni careat dignitatis honore." — Bonizo, Lib. ad
amicum, p. 815.
Nothing can be more decided on this question than the testimony
of Lambert of Aschaffenburg, whose impartiality and moderation all
acknowledge. He proves clearly that Henry IV. shared the general
conviction of the absolute necessity for obtaining absolution within the
prescribed time, and that this was his reason for hurrying to Canossa to
seek absolution for the past: "Rex etiam certo sciens, omnem suam
in eo verti salutem si ante anniversarium diem excommunicatione absolve-
retur . . . quia nisi ante eam diem anathemate absolveretur, decretum
noverat principum sententia ut . . . regnum sine ullo deinceps remedio
amisisset." — Lambert, ann. 1076-77, ap. Pertz, vol. v. pp. 254-256. The
ambassadors of Henry IV., in order to persuade Gregory to absolve their
prince without the presence of his accusers, represented that, — " Si ante
hanc diem excommunicatione non absolvatur, deinceps juxta palotinas
leges, indignus regio honore habeatur.''— Ibid., p. 258. Paul Bernried
says also that Henry and his accomplices were in haste to obtain absolu
tion, — " Quia, juxta legem teutcmicorum, se prcediis et beneficiis privandos
esse non dubitabant, si sub excommunicatione integrum annum permaner-
ent." — De Gest. Greg. VIL, c. 85.
2 " Plures illorum quos in apostolica depositione desipuisse diximus.
... Hi ergo absolutione qua?sita et obtenta, consilium dederunt regi
ut, sicut ipsi erant absoluti, ita et ipse studeret absolvi vinculis anathe
matis. Adjicientes quia, si annus clauderetur antequam absolveretur,

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 527
him ; biit it was really in obedience to the most
subtle policy x that he secretly crossed the Alps in
mid-winter, and, to the great surprise of all, and
against the will of Gregory,2 made his appearance
at Canossa in order to humble himself before the
Vicar of Jesus Christ,3 and to obtain absolution
before any act of accusation against him had
been read, and before the expiration of the fatal
year. Thanks to the indulgence of Gregory, and to the
intervention of the Countess Matilda, the prince's
manoeuvre succeeded. By the help of some out
ward show of repentance and of penance, and on
the simple promise that he would appear before
the diet of German nobles, to be judged, whenever
Gregory should require it, and that he would sub
mit to the sentence of the assembly presided over
by the Pope, Henry obtained that absolution the
urgent need of which he understood too well not to
desire it ardently. Thus the famous absolution of
omni eorum servitio privaretur et amplius pro rege non haberetur, quia in
ejus communione vel servitio certi erant de imminenti anima? periculo. "
— Hug. Flavin., Chron. Virdun., p. 216.
1 " Inito tam occulto quam astuto consilio," says one of the king's
apologists. — Vit. Henr., ap. Urstisium, Script., p. 382. Cf. Stentzel,
vol. i. p. 1103.
2 Gregory objected that he neither could nor ought to absolve the
prince except in the presence of his accusers.
3 January 28, 1077. On the subject of the Communion offered by
Gregory, and refused by Henry, we can only refer to the note by Dol
linger in his Manual of Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. sect. 86, p. 145.
This historian thinks he has reason to infer, from a careful study of
contemporary authors, that the Pope did offer the Communion to Henry
as a token of his absolution, and that the king received it. Bonizo's
account (p. 816) seems to agree with this opinion.

528 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Canossa, far from being, as has so often been as
serted, a humiliation imposed by the pontiff, was,
on the contrary, a kindness, a favour, implored
with eagerness and obtained by address, and for
which Henry, in presence of his mother, feigned the
warmest gratitude, and a desire to render himself
worthy of it by docile acceptance of all its stipula
tions ! x It was only at a later period, after hav
ing fully profited by that stroke of policy, that the
king protested against the pontifical jurisdiction,
furious at the election of Rodolph by the German
princes,2 and yielding to the evil counsels of the
bishops and nobles of Germany,3 who threatened
to put his son in his place ; " because," they said,
"he had humbled his pride before the Pope."4
Theory of We may judge from these facts how little the
able nature modern theory of the inalienable nature of royal
power un- power was then known or believed in even by the
1 " Satis in facie devotus et obediens apparebat papa?, nam ab omnium
episcoporum se consortio sequestrabat, reputans eos excommunicates,
noctibus eorum nefariis acquiescens consiliis . . . maxime metuens
pra?sentiam matris sua? religiosissima? imperatricis. " — Bonizo, 816. This
author gives the most precise and little-known details as to the conduct -
of Henry IV. during the crisis of Canossa.
2 Bonizo, 1 c. Henry, simulata humilitate, begged the Pope to ex
communicate Rodolph. Gregory promised to do so if that prince did not
give a satisfactory account of his conduct. The King would agree to no
delay. 3 Gregory formally accuses the Lombard bishops, whom he thus de
scribes : "Cum illi, qui in Ecclesia Dei columna? esse debuerunt, non
modo in compage corporis Christi nullum locum teneant, sed pertinaciter
impugnatores, et quantum ad se destructores existant. " — Epist. ad Ger-
ma,n., ap. Hug. Flavin., p. 217.
4 "Una omnium voluntas, una sententia erat, ut abdicato patre, qui
ultro regni fascibus se indignum effecisset, filium ejus . . . regem sibi
facerent." — Lambert, ann. 1077, ap. Pertz, 261.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 529
bitterest enemies of the Holy See. Henry IV. known
J . J in the
perfectly understood that by his submission he eleventh
i. » J century.
should disarm his most formidable enemies and
strike a terrible blow at the confederates.
It must be allowed, however, that towards the
end of the reign of Gregory VII. certain prelates,
servilely devoted to the debauched prince who jus
tified their own misdemeanours, invented, for the
benefit of their cause, a doctrine which tended to
liberate from all responsibility and all restraint
the kings whose crimes were most patent and
whose vices were most shameful.1 But this doc
trine, which a contemporary declares to be un
heard of, and incompatible with the laws of the
time,2 was greeted with mingled surprise and hor
ror by Catholics ; and we cannot quote, from the
tenth century to the fourteenth, a single doctor
known and esteemed in the Church who would
have dared to admit it ; while the contrary doc
trine, that of the conditional and limited nature of
royal power, and of the responsibility of sovereigns
1 " Tunc vero, qua? ha?resis et seminarium erat clericorum, pertinaces
nonnulli passim concionati sunt, in reges quanquam ha?reticos et cunctis
flagitiorum facinorumque reatibus exoletos, sanguinarios, nefandissimos,
necnon omnifariam profanos et sacrilegos, nee ipsius Papa? nee alicujus
magistratuum judicium et sententiam cadere non debere." — Bertold.,
ann. 1077, ap. Pertz, 296. The principal teachers of this new theory
were Waltram, Bishop of Naumberg, and the scholar Wenrich, who
wrote against Gregory in the name of Bishop Thierry of Verdun. See
MartSne, Thesaur. anecd., vol. i. p. 220.
2 "Plurima, regibus inaudita hadenus, in synagogis suis fabulosis in-
eptiarum et nugarum proferebant privilegia, jus publicum ignorantes."
— Lbid. VOL. VI. 2 L

530 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
to the- vicar of Christ, was professed and defended
by the most eminent doctors of the Church, and
accepted by the sovereigns of the different nations
until the seventeenth century.1
Other apologists of the excommunicated king
employed against the Catholics an argument drawn
from the oath of fealty which the vassals of the
empire, ecclesiastics as well as seculars, had sworn
to him. But the religious party found no difficulty
in refuting this. St Gebhard, Archbishop of Salz
burg, the most eminent prelate of the Catholic
party in Germany, spoke thus : —
" Real treason towards a prince consists in sus
taining and encouraging him in enterprises which
lead to dishonour and ruin. To help him in his
crimes under pretext of fidelity, to complete the
work of cruelty and falsehood, is to fail both in
faith and duty : by this means we should be com
pelled to disobey the Pope, and hold commun
ion with the excommunicated ; and in order not
to break faith with the prince, must fall into the
old dilemma of pagan persecutors — If you would
1 Among the doctors we may quote Gratian, St Bernard, Geffroy
of Vend6me, Hugh of St Victor, St Thomas of Canterbury, John of
Salisbury, Henry of Suza, St Thomas Aquinas, Innocent III., Boniface
VIII., St Pius V., Sixtus V., Cardinals Bellarmine and Duperron, and
the great Leibnitz. Among princes : Lothair 1., Charles the Bald, Louis
the German, Otho the Great, the Emperor St Henry, St Edward
Confessor, William the Conqueror, Henry II. of England, St Louis, the
Emperors Frederic II. , Otho IX., Louis of Bavaria, and finally, Charles
V. in his Capitulations. The documents relating to these personages
are all given, with comments, in the valuable work, already quoted,
by M. Gosselin, &c.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 531
be CcBsar's friend, sacrifice to the gods ; if not,
give yourself up to execution : and thus would
break our faith to the King of kings, and transform
ourselves into apostates and infidels towards God.
We have never pledged our faith to anything
which was incompatible with the duties of our
order. What ! " added the prelate, addressing him
self specially to the bishops, — "-you speak of the
promise which binds you to the prince, and you
forget that you have sworn faith and obedience to
the blessed Peter and his successors ! Do you put
a higher value upon the oath sworn in the bed
chamber of the king, or in his court amidst the
tumult of the palace, than of that which you took
before the holy altar, on the relics of the martyrs,
and in presence of Christ and of His Church I"1
Thus spoke the orthodox bishops ; and if laymen
expressed themselves in different terms, it was at
least in the same spirit : " Yes," said the ambassa
dors of the insurgent Saxons to Henry IV. in 1073,
" we have taken an oath of allegiance to you ; but
on condition that you should reign for the edifica
tion and not for the destruction of the Church — on
condition that you should follow justice, the law,
and the customs of our fathers, and that you should
maintain inviolable to each one his rank, to each
his dignity, to each the protection of the laws.
But if you begin by violating these conditions, then
1 We only sum up here the beautiful letter of St Gebhard to the Bishop
Cf Metz on this question.— Ap. Gretser, vol. vi. pp. 441-445.

532 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
we are no longer bound by our oath, and can law
fully wage war with you, as with a barbarous enemy,
the oppressor of the Christian name; and while a
spark of life remains within us, we will contend
against you for the Church of God, for the Chris
tian faith, and for our freedom ! " ]
It is, further, essential to remark, that the just
and lawful right of excommunication, as well as
that of deposition which proceeded from it, were
applicable not solely to the empire, which was an
elective dignity, attached, as has been said, by a
Hereditary special tie to the Holy See. The language used
wei! as by St Gregory VII. regarding Philip, King of the
cigclcQ. 6XH"
perors French, although the latter was the head of a her-
could be °
deposed. editary and independent kingdom, will prove this.
The very year of his accession, Gregory, indignant
at the odious conduct of Philip, whose perverse
cupidity and tyrannical violence were beyond all
restraint,2 and who treated the Church not as a
1 "Sacramento se ei fidem dixisse; sed si ad a?dificationem, non ad
destructionem Ecclesia? Dei, rex esse vellet, si juste, si legitime, si more
majorum rebus moderaretur, si suum cuique ordinem, suam dignitatem,
suas leges tutas inviolatasque manere pateretur. Sin ista prior ipse
temerasset, se jam sacramenti hujus religione non teneri, sed quasi cum
barbaro hoste et Christiani nominis oppressore justum deinceps bellum
gesturos, et quoad ultimi vitalis caloris scintilla superesset, pro Ecclesia
Dei, pro fide Christiana, pro libertate etiam sua dimicaturos. Vehemenr
ter regem permovit ha?c legatio." — Lambert, ann. 1073, ap. Pertz, v.
197. It seems to us that these admirable words, so carefully omitted by
most modern historians, ought vehementer permovere two classes of the
willingly blind — those who think they can found the doctrines of the
inalienability of power and monarchic absolutism on the tradition of
catholic nations, and those who assert that the principles of political
liberty and dignity have only had their birth in the eighteenth century.
a "Inter ceteros nostri hujus temporis principes, qui Ecclesiam Dei

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 533
mother, but as a servant, wrote in these terms to
the Bishop of Chalons : —
" If Philip will not amend, let him be certain
that we will not suffer him to oppress the Church
of God much longer, and that by the authority
of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul we will
chastise his obstinate disobedience with the sever
est canonical discipline. One of two things ; either
the king shall entirely renounce the shameful traffic
of heretical simony, and allow that only priests
worthy of our confidence should be chosen as
bishops1 — or the French, struck by a general ana
thema, shall cease to obey a prince who, unless he
abandon the course he is now following, will end
by apostasy from Christian faith."2
The following year Gregory VII. addressed to all
the bishops of France an eloquent utterance of his
indignation on the subject of the pillage to which
merchants and pilgrims were subject, and, condemn
ing other vices of the time, attributed their origin
perversa cupiditate venumdando dissipaverunt, et matrem suam, cui
ex dominico pra?cepto honorem et reverentiam debuerant, ancillari sub-
jectione penitus conculcarunt, Philippum regem Francorum gallicanas
ecclesias infantum oppressisse certa ratione didicimus, ut ad summum
tam detestandi facinoris cumulum pervenisse videatur. " — Regest, Greg.
VIL, lib. i. epist. 35.
1 " . . . Nam aut rex ipse repudiate turpi simoniaca? ha?resis merci-
monio, idoneas ad sacrum regimen personas promoveri permittet ; aut
Franci pro certo, nisi fidem christianam abjicere maluerint, generalis ana
thematis mucrone percussi, illi ulterius obtemperare recusabunt. " — Ibid.
a ' ' Rex vester, qui non rex sed tyrannus dicendus est . . . suscepto
regni gubernaculo miser et infelix inutiliter gerens ... ad omnia qua?
dici et agi nefas est, operum et studiorum suorum exemplis incitavit. " —
Ep., lib. ii. p. 5.

534 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
to Philip of France — "a wretched and useless
prince, to whom the name of king should no longer
be given, since he was a tyrant who gave his sup
port to all sorts of crime, encouraging evil-doers by
his example."
The Pope then reproaches the bishops with hav
ing made themselves the king's accomplices by the
weakness of their opposition, and begs them to
work upon the fears of Philip by threatening him
with a general interdict. " And if," adds Gregory,
" this chastisement does not bring him to repent
ance, we would have every one know that, with
God's help, we will use all means to deliver the
realm of France from such a king."1 The Pontiff,
at the same time, charged William of Poitiers,
Duke of Aquitaine, to come to an understanding
with some of the chief nobles of the kingdom, in
order to exhort the royal offender, and bring him
to acknowledge his iniquities and change his life..
If they should not succeed, the Pope pledged him
self solemnly to excommunicate Philip of France,
and all who should continue to recognise him as
king, in the approaching Council at Rome. " We
declare," added the holy father, "that we will
confirm this excommunication on the altar of St
Peter, for we have too long concealed, out of re
gard for the lord king, the injuries done to the
Church ; but now let him know that his perversity
1 " Nulli clam aut dubium esse yolumus, quin modis omnibus regnum
Francia? de ejus oceupatione, adjuvante Deo, tentemus eripere." — Ep.,
lib. ii. p. 5.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 535
has become so scandalous, that even if he possessed
the enormous power used by the pagan emperors
against the holy martyrs, no fear of him should
induce us to leave his guilt unpunished."1
There is nothing in the writings of the time to No contem-
show that these public assertions of a supreme and prSs
controlling authority produced the smallest remon- Sre-
stranee from the subjects of the kingdom, either measures.
clerical or lay. Philip probably succeeded, by
promises and pretences of reform, in turning aside
the storm which threatened him ; but having fallen
back, during the next pontificate, into still more
shameful misconduct, the Holy See, at the Council
of Clermont, finally launched against him the sen
tence of excommunication ; and the king, like
Henry IV. at Canossa, had to obtain absolution
from the Pope before the expiration of the year, in
order to escape the deposition which awaited every
sovereign who refused to humble himself.
William the Conqueror has been much applauded
for refusing the oath of fidelity demanded of him
by Gregory VII. ; and Bossuet has not hesitated
to stigmatise with the title of "shameless en-
croacher " 2 the illustrious Pontiff, who, neverthe-
1 "Pra?cipue monemus quatenus ex illis (episcopis) et nobilioribus
Francia? melioribus quibusdam adhibitis, iniquitates suas sibi notificetur.
... A corpore et communione S. Ecclesia? ipsum et quicumque sibi re-
galein honorem vel obedientiam exhibuerit, sine dubio sequestrabimus.
... Si tanta? valetudinis tanta?que fortitudinis esset, quantam pagani
imperatores Sanctis martyribus intulerunt, nos timore aliquo tot et tan-
tas iniquitates nullo modo impunitas dimitteremus." — Lib. ii. ep. 18.
2 Inverecundum petitorem, says the Bishop of Meaux, in his Defense de
la declaration, b. i. sect. i. c. 12,

536 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
less, did but require from the victor of Hastings a
homage which all the emperors of the West were
bound to render to the Holy See. The great
bishop should have remembered that William,
before undertaking the conquest of England, had
thought fit to consult the Holy See as to the right
which he supposed himself to have to the throne
of Great Britain, and that it was owing to the
mediation of Hildebrand, then a cardinal, that
Alexander II. consented to recognise the legitimacy
of his claim.1 A Norman chronicle adds to this,
that the Bastard of Normandy had sworn that if he
succeeded he would hold his kingdom from God and
the holy father as His vicar, and from no one else.
Gregory was, then, perfectly authorised to claim
the execution of a promise made, and to exercise a
sort of supremacy over a State, the head of which,
by his own will, had appealed to the Holy See to
sanction his title. William, moreover, in no way
contested the right of the Pope to the general su
premacy of which we have just spoken ; he simply
denied that he himself had made any promise.2
1 M. Jager, in his Course of Eccles. Hist., Universite cath., vol. xix. p.
426, has brought to light an important passage on this subject : "And
afterwards the Duke assembled his council and sent notable messengers
and good clerks to the Pope to show his right, and how Harold was per
jured ; wherefore he required leave to conquer his right, submitting, if
God should give him grace to succeed, to hold the throne of England from
God, and from the holy father as His vicar, and from no others." — D.
Bouquet, vol. xviii. p. 227. This chronicle is, however, only a transla
tion made in the thirteenth century of the Roman du Rou, a poem written
in the preceding century by Robert Wace, which expresses itself in nearly
the same manner. — Vol. ii. p. 141, ed. Pluquet.
2 The letter in which William grants the tribute but refuses fidelity
(fidelitatem)—th&t is, the oath of fidelity and homage— to the Pope, is

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 537
Gregory did not insist : but he refused, in his turn,
the arrears of tribute which William offered in
compensation; "for," he said to his legate, with Fine saying
just and Christian pride, " I will not accept money Vn.regory
without submission." x
There were, besides, other States over which the He becomes
papacy could and did exercise, not only the right tor of the
of control belonging to its spiritual supremacy, nations of
but also a direct and special suzerainty, in virtue
of ancient traditions or express donations made by
the formal vow of the interested parties. These
were either isolated and feeble countries, or king
doms scarcely delivered from the pagan yoke, or
newly entered, for other reasons, into the great
Christian family. Let us instance, for example, in
the first place, the new State formed by Norman
warriors in the Two Sicilies. History teaches us
that the glorious founder of this little kingdom,
found among the letters of Lanfranc, No. 7, in D'Achery's edition. The
learned Benedictine adds on this subject: "Ex nno sequitur alterum,
nempe ex tributo persoluto, subsequi fidelitatem necesse erat. ... Si
quidem nihil aliud intellexere prisci reges per ilium denarium annuatim
persolvendum, quam tributarium vel feudatarium, libera atque Christiana
voluntate, S. Petro ejusque successoribus regnum consecrare." — P. 347.
And William ends his letter thus : " Orate pro nobis . . . quia anteces-
sores vestros dileximus et vos pra? omnibus sincere diligere et obedienter
audire desideramus. "
1 " Nam pecunias sine honore tributas quanti preeii habeam, tu ipse
optime potuisti dudum perpendere." — Ep. vii. to the legate Hugh, who
remained in England under pretext of collecting the tribute. Gregory
had always much liked William, and, during the first years of his pon
tificate, had called this prince the only true son of the Church among
kings (ep. i. 31) — the only one he could love (ep. i. 69) — because he alone
loved justice (ep. iv. 17). In spite of the ingratitude just quoted, and of
other wrongs to the Church, Gregory would not quarrel with the Con
queror ; and in a last letter to the legate Hugh, he explains the reasons
for his long-suffering (ep. ix. 5).

538 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Robert Guiscard, set forth its origin and conditions
of existence, in his reply to the ambassadors of
Henry IV., wTho offered him, in that prince's name,
the title of king if he would agree to hold it from
the empire, as follows : " I have delivered this land
from the power of the Greeks, with great effusion
of blood, great poverty, and great misery ; ... to
restrain the pride of the Saracens, I have endured
beyond seas hunger and many tribulations ; and,
that I might obtain the help of God, that my su
perior, St Peter, and my lord, St Paul, to whom all
the kingdoms of the wTorld are subject, might pray
God for me, I have chosen to submit myself to
their vicar, the Pope, with all the land I have con
quered — desiring to receive it back from the hand
of the Pope, so that, through the power of God,
I may protect myself from the malice of the Sara
cens, and may vanquish the pride of the Greeks,
who had subjected all Sicily. . . . Now that Al
mighty God, having given me glory in victory,
has subdued under me a land once dominated
by an oppressor, I have become greater than any
other among my people ; and as it is fitting for
me to be the subject of that God whose grace has
made me victorious, it is from Him that I ac
knowledge myself to hold that land which you say
you are willing to give me." 1 We may mention
1 The adroit Norman adds : " But since the hand of my lord the king
is just and liberal, let him give me something that belongs to him, over
and above that which I possess, and I will do homage to him, always sav
ing my fidelity to the Church."— L'Tstoire de U Normans, vii. 27, ed.
Ghampe-llion, p. 215.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 539
also Corsica,1 Sardinia,2 Dalmatia,3 Spain,4 Pro
vence,5 Hungary,6 Servia,7 Russia,8 and Poland,9
among the countries over which Gregory VII.
claimed and exercised a temporal and direct su
premacy, which, we may fearlessly affirm, was a
true benefit to these little countries.
Far from wishing to wound their dignity or their
independence, it was, on the contrary, to protect
and assert both, that Gregory stretched the sword
of his authority over those small nations continu
ally threatened either by their powerful neigh
bours or by the German emperors, who, for the
most part, claimed a general supremacy over all
crowns. It is true that, to punish Boleslas the
Cruel for having cut to pieces St Stanislas, Bishop
of Cracow, who had resisted him, Gregory de
throned the tyrant, and deprived Poland of the
title10 of kingdom ; but was not this sentence,
against which no one rebelled, and which rid Po
land of a monster, founded on the very conditions
of the royal dignity, in a country whose sovereigns
1 Ep. v. 2, 3.
5 Ep. i. 29, 41, and ep. viii. 10. See the excellent refutation of Bossuet's
accusations on this point by M. Rohrbacher, Hist. univ. de TEglise, i.
65, xix. 247.
3 Ep. vii. 4. 4 Ep. iv. 28.
6 Ep. v. 12. — Juramentnm Bertramni eomitis.
6 Ep. ii. 13, 63, 70. 7 Ep. v. 12. 8 Ep. ii. 74.
9 Our assertion has been admitted in different degrees by Protestants
(Leo, Handbuch, p. 118 ; Bowden, vol. i. p. 336 ; and above all, Luden„
ix. 563). It will be confirmed by what we shall say later about the foun
dation and enfranchisement of the kingdom of Portugal in .the time of St
Bernard. 10 Baronius, ann, 1079,

540 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
had formerly solicited and obtained the title of
king from the Holy See ? On the other hand, the
Pope protected the rising sovereignty of Russia,
which was then Catholic, against the encroach
ment of the Poles ; 1 and he granted to the son of
Demetrius, King of the Russians, with the latter's
express consent, the right of holding his kingdom
from the Holy See as a gift of St Peter.2 Hav
ing conferred the title of king on another Deme
trius, Duke of the Slavs of Croatia and Dalmatia,
Gregory watched over that new nationality with
jealous care ; and he thus addresses, in a letter, one
of the nobles of the country, who, after having
sworn fidelity to St Peter, had nevertheless taken
up arms against the new king : " We warn your
lordship, and command you, in the name of the
blessed Peter, no longer to dare to make war on
your sovereign ; for be assured, whatever you at
tempt against him, you attempt against the Apos
tolic See. If you have any complaint to make
against your king, it is from us you should de
mand judgment — it is from us you should expect
justice — rather than take arms against him in con
tempt of the Holy See. If you do not repent of
your temerity, if you attempt to contravene our
order, know, and hold for certain, that we will
draw against you the sword of the blessed Peter,
1 Ep. ii. 73.
2 Ep. ii. 74. Translated by Fleury in the following terms : " Gregory
VII. extended his pretensions even over the Russians."— Cf. Rohr-,
bacher, Hist. univ. de VEglise, vol. xiv. p. 199.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 541
and that we will punish you and your adherents,
if you do not at once show yourself penitent." *¦
Again, if Gregory VII. interfered with the suc
cession to the throne of Hungary, it was to prevent
that kingdom, whose founder, St Stephen, had re
ceived from Rome the crown and title of Apostolic,
from becoming, by the fault of one of its claimants,
a fief of the realm of Germany. " You know," the
Pope wrote to the Hungarian sovereign, " that the
kingdom of Hungary, like many others, ought to be
free, and dependent on no other sovereignty except
that of the holy and universal Roman Church, her
mother, whose subjects are treated, not as serfs,
but as sons." And elsewhere : " This most noble
kingdom ought to flourish in peace, and maintain
its own sovereignty, that its king may not degen
erate into a kinglet. But by despising the noble
patronage of St Peter, on which, as you know, the
country depends, King Solomon has reduced him
self to the necessity of submitting to the German
king, and become nothing more than a kinglet/

¦ » 2

1 " Quod si te tua? temeritatis non pcenituerit, sed contra mandatum
nostrum contumaciter ire tentaveris, scias indubitanter quia gladium B.
Petri in audaciam tuam evaginabimus et eodem pertinaciam tuam . . .
nisi resipiscas, mulctabimus. " — Ep. vii. 4.
2 "Notum tibi esse credimus, regnum Hungaria? sicut et alia nobilis-
sima regna in proprioe libertatis statu debere esse, et nulli regi alterius
regni subjici, nisi sancta? et universali matri Romana? ecclesia?, qua? sub-
jectos non habet ut servos, sed ut filios suscipit uni versos. " — Ep. ii. 63.
And elsewhere : "Ut fiat in pace nobilissimum regnum Hungaria?, quod
hactenus per se principaliter viguit, ut rex ibi non regulus fiat. Verum
ubi contempto nobili dominio B. Petri . . . rex subdidit se Teutonico
regi, et reguli nomen obtinuit." — Ep. ii. 70.

542 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Thus the proud and jealous independence of the
Hungarian people, so carefully preserved through
so many ages, had for its first defender against the
power of Germany no other than the Pope St Gre
gory VII. !
We conclude, then, from all which has gone be
fore, that in the political direction of Christian
society, as well as in the government of the Church,
Gregory VII. was no innovator, added nothing to
the doctrines of his predecessors, and contented
himself with being the first to apply rigorously a
rule which was deeply rooted in the convictions
of all Christian nations. But this is not all ; good
faith obliges us to acknowledge that in acting upon
this rule, Gregory, as he wrote to the faithful in
Germany, firmly believed himself to be fulfilling a
duty imposed by both human and divine law.
We may remark, however, that the ancient right
which Gregory VII. has been blamed for exercising,
had never, in the middle ages, been contested by
any but those who suffered from it.1 And when
has the world accepted as competent judges of the
lawfulness of a decision those whom it condemned 1
In the middle ages, no one doubted that the Church
had the right to punish; but sometimes the punish-
1 " . . . Propter qua? (scelera) cum excommunicari, non solum usque
ad dignam satiufactionem, sed ab omni honore regni, absque spe recuper-
ationis, debere destitui, divinarum et humanarum legum testatur auctori
tas omnibus episcopis, dudbus, comitibus, ceterisquefidelibus in regno Teu-
tonicorum christianam fidem defendentibus." — Ap. Paul Bernried, De.
Vit. S. Greg. VIL, o. 78.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 543
ment itself was resisted. In modern times, on the
contrary, it is allowed that the punishment may be
merited, but the right of applying it has been con
tested as an excess of pretension. The result is,
that the right and the fact being both admitted
and approved, by judges different indeed, but in
harmony on a point where their impartiality cannot
be suspected, thus constitute between them a judg
ment beyond appeal.1
There is another point of view which deserves
in the highest degree the sympathetic attention of
lovers of the truth. Beyond the questions of divine
right and of Catholic tradition, we are bound to
acknowledge that the principles and conduct of St
Gregory have rendered the most signal service to
the political constitution of Christian Europe, and
to the maintenance of those liberties which then
secured society against despotism. Medieval Chris
tianity had a just horror of the monstrous ab
sorption of all social forces in a single power,
without limit and without control ; its beliefs, its
traditions, and its customs, all agreed in inspiring
1 The Count le Maistre well says : " Princes suffering from the Pope's
anathema contested its justice only, and were quite ready to use it against
their enemies, which they could not do without acknowledging the real
existence of the power. . . . The authority of popes over kings was con
tested only by those whom it pressed upon. . . . In general, every innovator
finds the Church infallible until she condemns him. " — Count le Maistre,
du Pope, b. ii. c. 10, and iv. c. 6. The great writer has not consulted
contemporary authorities for the struggle of the medieval popes : it is
evident that he has contented himself with works at second-hand — Maim-
bourg, Muratori, &c. But even through this veil he has perceived the
truth with all the clear-sightedness of genius.

544 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
an invincible repulsion against unlimited and un
conditional monarchy, such as pagan Rome had en
dured under the emperors, and such as still existed,
in all its ignominy, among the Greeks at Constantin
ople. Thanks to the support afforded by the papacy,
Gregory Christendom long escaped this odious yoke. Gre-
his struggle gory, by beginning the glorious and pregnant strug-
!ty,'lhad £le known under the name of the War of Inves
tor honour ° J
forteTe^ titures, or the War of the Priesthood against the
thereign of Empire, had the honour of retarding for several
despotism. centur}es ^e a(Jvent of absolute power in Europe,
and the victory of pagan traditions, which since
that time have made of the European nations a col
lection of passive crowds and busy officials ; of the
law and its interpreters mere instruments of des
potism; of the court of sovereigns an antechamber;
of royalty an idol ; and of the Church a handmaid.1
Superficial writers have seen in the efforts of
Gregory a reaction against the feudal system : this,
however, shows great ignorance both of the nature
of that system and of the mind of the Pontiff.
Monarchical power, then as always, tended to ag
grandise itself to an indefinite extent ; the principle
of the medieval social constitution was to temper
royal authority by that of the nobles and bishops.
The latter class often formed the majority in the
political assemblies of the empire and other Chris-,
tian kingdoms ; the hereditary descent of the great
1 "A people of servants" (ein Bedientenvolk), says Gfrbrer, speaking
of the situation of the Germans after the Thirty Years' War, which put
a seal upon the state of servitude inaugurated by the Reformation.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 545
fiefs guaranteed the independence of the lay feuda
tories ; but the prelates would have been only the
servile instruments of monarchic ambition and des
potism, if kings, using and abusing simony and in
vestiture, had become absolute masters of ecclesias
tical dignities, and had been able to choose as they
pleased, among the obscure and unworthy clerks who
filled their palaces, docile creatures of their own to
place in the quality of bishops or abbots at the head
of the government of States and in the great nation
al councils.1 Social equilibrium would thus neces
sarily have been destroyed ; it could be maintained
only by the purity of ecclesiastical election, which,
in its turn, could only be secured by the energetic
resistance and independence of the Roman pontifi
cate.2 We see then, finally, that it was the papacy
on which depended the maintenance of the social
constitution of the middle ages ; 3 and this explains
why, in their struggle with the emperors, the popes
could always count on the support of all the great
lay vassals who were not allied to the reigning
dynasty by ties of blood or by the immediate origin.
of their fortune.
1 Leo, Lehrbuch der Geschichte des Mittelalters ; Halle, 1830 ; pp. 145,
146 passim.
2 Leo, p. 119. The writer adds : " The popes were the bulwark of
political liberty in the middle ages, and their influence in temporal mat
ters was only annulled when they seemed to ignore the secret of their
power. "
3 "The authority of the popes," says Count le Maistre (du Pape, b.
ii. c. 9), "was the power chosen and instituted in the middle ages to
balance temporal sovereignty and render it supportable to men."
VOL. VI. 2 M

546 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
This support did not fail Gregory VIL; and
on his side he never failed those brave men who
perceived the advantage of finding, in the highest
authority of the Christian world, an effectual help
against the encroachments of imperial power. This
is the secret of the alliance which for so long
attached, more or less closely, to the cause of the
papacy,1 not only all the princes of Saxony or
Lower Germany, but also those of the south, —
such as Rodolph, Duke of Suabia ; Welf, Duke
of Bavaria ; the powerful house of Zohringen ; the
Counts of Steffeln, of Stiihlingen, of Toggenburg,
and many others.
All these laymen fought with energy and perse
verance under the banners of the Church against
Henry IV. ; while the great majority of the Ger
man bishops, who owed their sees to simony, held
by the Emperor and supported him with all their
might. The princes and nobles of Germany, be
side the indignation which they must have felt
as Christians at sight of the triumph of simony
and the terrible scandals of their king's private
life, had also to reproach him with most serious
inroads upon the rights and liberties guaran
teed by the constitution of the empire, and on the
dignity and independence of each member of the
great German race.

1 " Cum universi fere ab eo (Henrico) Germania? seculares princi
pes defecissent."— Onuph. Panwin, Vit. Greg. VIL, apud Gretser,
p. 109.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 547
Surrounded by his false bishops, and by those The Pre-
e i I'll iit varicating
men of low birth whom he had raised to the bishops aii
belonged to
highest honour, Henry meditated the destruction the king's
of the nobility,1 which then, with the clergy, com
posed the real and legal power of the nation. The
means he employed were, confiscation of the greatest
fiefs of the empire, impositions levied at the im
perial caprice, arbitrary imprisonments, oppressions,
and violence of all kinds.2 His avowed object, says
an old German chronicle, was " to leave alive in
his kingdom no other lord but himself, so that he
might be the sole master of all."3 To attain this,
he was forced to build fortresses, not, as the princes
declared at the Diet of Tribus in 1076, for the pro
tection of the empire against the pagans, but to
destroy all security in the country, to bow the
heads of free men under the yoke of the hardest
servitude.4 The blood of innumerable innocent
persons flowed by his orders, with no other reason,
as St Gebhard, Archbishop of Salzburg5 declared,
1 "Replicabant . . . quod remotis a familiaritate sua prineipibus, in-
fimos homines et nullis majoribus ortos summis honoribus extulisset, et
cum eis noctes perinde ac dies in deliberationibus insumens, ultimum, si
possit, nobilitati exterminium machinaretur."— Lamb. Schafnab., ann.
1076, ap. Pertz, vol. v. p. 252.
8 These complaints, often repeated, may be found, in detail, in Lamb.
of Aschaffenburg and Bruno.
3 " Ut solus omnium dominus esset, nullum in regno suo dominum
vivere vellet. "—Chron. Macdeb., apud Meibom., Script, rer. Germ., vol.
ii. p. 304.
4 " Non quibus vis et impetus barbarorum arceatur, sed quibus patria?
tranquillitas eripiatur et liberis servicibus durissima? servitutis jugum
imponatur." 5 At the interview of Kauffungen in February 1081.

548 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
than "to make serfs of those whose fathers had
been free men."1
In such circumstances, the heads of the nobility
and the Church, founding their action on the laws
of their country and age, thought themselves fully
authorised in deposing the prince guilty of such
attacks upon the accepted constitution of society.
We may find some aid in understanding their
motives, in the works of a contemporary historian
of the struggle, who, after quoting the example of
the French and of King Childeric III., continues
thus : " Free men had chosen Henry for king,
on condition that he should justly judge and
wisely govern those .who had elected him. But
this compact the prince continually violated and
treated with contempt, oppressing his subjects,
and forcing as many Christians as he could to
violate the laws of religion. For these reasons,
and without the aid of the pontifical sentence, the
German princes might, in all justice, have refused .
to recognise him as king, since he had broken the
agreement accepted by him as the condition of his
election. Now, this compact having been torn in
twain, is it not evident that Henry had ceased to be
king, he whose entire aim it had been not to govern
his subjects, but to plunge them into error ? Is it
not certain that every vassal is bound by his oath of
1 " Cognatos sive milites nostras in nostris finibus innocentes occidit,
cum nulla fuisset ei causa bellorum, nisi quod servos habere volebat
filios hominum liberorum."— Bruno, de bello Saxon., ap. Pertz, vol. v.
p. 382.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 549
fidelity to his lord, just as long as the lord on his
side accomplishes the duty he owes to his vassal?
If the lord fails in his duty, has not the vassal a
right to consider himself freed from all obligation
of vassalage ? Certainly he has a thousandfold this
right, for no one can accuse him of infidelity or
perjury if he has fulfilled his promise by fighting
for his lord as long as the latter was faithful to his
engagements towards his vassal."1 After this,
let the reader turn his attention to the following
speech, which, according to another contemporary
historian, was addressed to the Assembly which
decided on the great rising of 1075, by Duke
Otho of Mordheim, one of the principal leaders of
the insurrection : " Perhaps, because you are Chris
tians, you fear to violate your oaths made to King
Henry. Your fear is no doubt just; but your oaths,
to be binding, must have been made to a true
monarch. While Henry was king, and did the
duty of a king, I served him faithfully; but since
he has ceased to be king, it is no longer to him
1 " Liberi homines eo pacto sibi proposuerunt in regem, et electores
suos juste judicare et regali Providentia gubernare satageret : quod pac
tum ille pra?varicari et contemnere non cessavit : videlicet, quoslibet in-
noxios tyrannica crudelitate opprimendo, et omnes quos potuit Christiana?
religioni repugnare constringendo. Ergo et absque sedis apostolicce
judicio, principes cum pro rege merito refutare possent, cum pactum
adimplere contempserit, quod iis pro electione sua promiserat. Quo non
adimpleto, nee rex esse poterat. Nam rex nullatenus esse potest, qui sub-
ditos suos non regere, sed in errorem mittere studuerit ... si ergo
dominus militi debitum reddere contemnit, numquid non libere miles
eum pro domino deinceps recusat habere ? Liberrime, inquam ; nee
quilibet hujusmodi militem intidelitatis vel perjurii merito accusabit." —
Paul. Bernried., de Gest. Greg. VIL, c. 97, ap. Gretser, pp. 153, 154.

550 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
that I owe allegiance. I have therefore taken up
arms and drawn my sword, not against the king,
but against the robber of my freedom; not against
my country, but for my country, and for that free
dom which no man worthy of the name ought to
give up but with his life : I exhort you, therefore,
to do as I have done. To arms, then ! secure for
your children the inheritance you received from
your fathers, and do not suffer strangers to bring
you and your posterity into servitude."1
Medieval Such was the political creed of the Christians
opinion as
to the law of the middle ages. They thought they had the
of deposi- ° J & J
tion. right to depose an unworthy sovereign and to elect
another in his place ; but, like the French nobles
at the accession of the Carlovingians, they felt the
need of having their work ratified, and consecrat
ed by the spiritual chief of all Christians. The
anathema which had already fallen upon Henry on
account of his many offences against the Church,
had been one of the principal motives of their
insurrection, and must have inclined the Pontiff
to their side. They resolved to make common
cause with him, and appealed to him as the
supreme judge of Christendom.2 It was, then,
1 " Fortasse quia christiani estis, sacramenta regi facta violare timetis.
Optime, sed regi. Dum mihi rex erat et ea qua? regis sunt, faciebat,
fidelitatem . , . servavi : postquam vero rex esse desivit, qui fidem ser-
vare deberem, non fuit. Igitur non contra regem, sed contra injustum
mea? libertatis ereptorem, non contra patriam sed pro patria et libertate
mea?, quam nemo bonus nisi cum anima amittit . . . capio . . . Igitur
expergis. . . "—Bruno, de bello Saxonico, c. 24, ap. Pertz, vol. v. p. 337.
This is clearly shown in the following passage from another contem
porary author : " Illi etenim propter insolentiam suam et anathema,

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 551
the German princes themselves who called upon
the Pope to decide the destinies of Germany, and
who, according to the expression of a Protestant
missionary of our own days, placed the first crown
of the world in his hands.1
At the same time, they had claimed the right
of deposing their sovereign on account of his un-
worthiness, even before they were authorised or
encouraged by the Holy See. In 1066, when
Hildebrand was only archdeacon, and the Church
of Rome was taking no part whatever in the
affairs of Germany, the Archbishops of Cologne
and Mayence, acting with the principal nobles
of the empire, assembled a diet at Tribur, and
declared to the king that he must choose between
his own downfall and the exile of his minister,
Adalbert of Bremen.2 In 1073, at the Conference
Henricum regem et dominum abrogaverunt . . . deereverant enim apud
se, ut accersito humiliter sancto Papa Gregorio in civitatem Augustam,
etiam ipsum in commune totius regni consilium ante judieem universes
Aristianitatis advocarent, desiderantes, ut auctoritate apostolica, aut
emendatum eumdem et absolutum recuperarent, aut, ipso juste repro
bate, alium in Christum eligerent. " — Vit. S. Anselmi, ep. Lucens, auct. B.
coa?taneo, c. 14, ap. Gretser, vol. vi. p. 472, and Act. SS. 0. B.,vol. ix.
1 Luden, b. xix. c. 58, vol. ix. p. 102. It is difficult to understand why
this author adds that they at the same time renounced their ancient right
of election ; for every one knows that shortly after, and in spite of the
Pope, they elected Rodolph, Duke of Suabia, king. Eichhorn (deutsche
Stoats und Rechtsgeschichte, § 231) says more correctly that it was then
only that Germany became in reality an elective kingdom.
2 "Non ultra laturi injuriam videbantur principes regni. Archi
episcopi . . . cum ceteris quibus cura erat reipublica? dum generalis
coUoquii omnibus indixere regni principibus, in Triburiam convenientes
. . . regi denuntiarent, aut regno ei sedendum esse, aut familiaritate et
amicitia Bremensis archiepiscopi defungendum. . . . Statuta die tristis
in regem omnium vultus, tristis erat sentential, ut aut regno se abdicaret

552 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
of Gerstungen, when Gregory VIL, then newly
elected, was on the best terms with Henry IV., the
twenty - four plenipotentiaries chosen from the
princes of both parties to examine the grievances
of the Saxons, agreed on the following points :
First, that the Saxons were to blame only for
having too long submitted to an odious tyranny ;
secondly, that it was necessary to remove a de
testable sovereign and to replace him " by another
more fit for the office."1 And, in fact, Rodolph of
Suabia would have been immediately chosen king
if he had not obstinately refused an election which
was not the work of a general assembly convoked
for that purpose.2
Henry iv. Four years later, after the vicissitudes of a san-
is deposed
by the guinary war, and after the first excommunication
German ° J '
nobles. ha(i Deen pronounced against Henry, the German
nobles, paying no heed to the absolution which the
aut archiep. Bremensem a consiliis suis atque a regni consortio amo-
veret." — Lamb. Schaff., ann. 1066, ap. Pertz, v. 172. Possessing
such authorities, what can we think of the daring falsifications of those
who, for two centuries, have repeated — some that the popes^invented the
right of deposition, and others that the Catholic ages were epochs of
political abasement and monarchical despotism ? The truth is, that
despotism is a modern invention.
1 " Obstupuerunt principes qui a rege venerant, et suae immanitate
scelerum tinniebant aures omnium, nee eos, quod pro^libertate sua, pro
liberis, pro conjugibus arma sumpsissent, sed quod intolerabiles contu-
melias muliebri patientia tam diu supportassent culpandos censebant,
Cumque toto triduo consilia contulissent, et quid lucro opus esset com
muni sollicitudine perquirerent, hcec postremo cunctis sententia convenit,
ut, reprobato rege, alium qui gubernando regno idoneus esset." — Lam
bert., ann. 1073, p. 203.
2 "Rodulfum . . . absque dilatione eligerent, nisi ille pertinaciter
resistendo juraret se nunquam in hoc consensurum nisi a cunctis prin
cipibus, conventu habito, sine nota perjurii, integra existimatione sua,
id facere posse decerneretur. " — Ibid.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 553
prince had obtained at Canossa, assembled at the
Diet of Forchheim and proclaimed his deposition,
appointing, in spite of his protestations, and with
out allowing him an hour for reflection, the same
Rodolph as Henry's successor.1 Now it is certain
that, far from having procured this election, Gre
gory, on the contrary, though his own legates were
present and presided, found fault with it as too
precipitate ; and that he assented to it only after
having vainly tried all means of conciliation to
wards Henry IV. Nevertheless, during the three
years which intervened before the newly-elected
king was recognised by the Pope, Rodolph never
ceased to be considered as the only legitimate king
by all the German Catholics.2 Moreover, the great
assembly in which the election took place, was care
ful to require from the new king himself an acknow
ledgment of the conditional and purely elective
character of his authority. He was obliged, in
fact, to pledge himself not only never to inter
fere with the disposal of ecclesiastical dignities,3
but also formally to renounce for his son any
i " Frustra renitentem, frustraque vel unius hora? inducias petentem."
— Paul. Bernried.
2 "Hunc igitur Rudolphum tam legitime electum. . . . Electus est
autem ab archiepiscopis, episcopis, ducibus, comitibus, majoribus atque
niinoribus, in conventu apud Ferchheim (15 mart. 1077) . . . cum nullis
hujusmodi promotio displicuerit, nisi Mis tantum, qui sub legitimo prin-
cipe, simoniaca? ha?resi, aliisque criminibus abrenuntiaturos fore non du-
bitabant."— Paul. Bernried., Vit. S. Gregor., c. 96.
" Electus dux Rudolphus in regem ad defendendam catholica? Eccle
sia? unitatem. "— Vit. S. Anselm. Luc. a discip. ejus, p. 472, ap. Gret
ser. " Hac electione . . . communi totius populi suffragio et laudamento
. . . sic peraeta."— Berthold., ann. 1077, ap. Pertz, 293.
3 "Anteposito sane firmissimo pacto, ne unquamsibi idem Rudolphus

554 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
right whatever to succeed to the throne except
by election.1 Thus, when St Gregory VII. is rep
resented as the inventor of the principle which
authorises the deposition of unworthy sovereigns,
numberless facts are disregarded which prove that
the theory and practice of this right were anterior
to his pontificate, and quite independent of his in
fluence. And those who venture to reproach him
with having fomented civil war in Germany by
his high-handed decisions and ideas, do so in for
getfulness of the fact that this war was raging
before his accession ; and that tbe Saxons2 and
Thuringians, two proud and warlike races, who
formed one of the most distinct nationalities of
the empire, had, in 1081, under the guidance of
their princes and bishops, risen against the in
tolerable tyranny of Henry IV.,3 not to force
him to submit to the Holy See, but simply to
in ecclesiasticis dignitatibus ordinandis ullam potestatem vindicaret." —
Gerhohi Reicherspergensis, de Statu ecclcsiw, u. 15.
1 "Qui utique regnum non ut proprium, sed pro dispositione sibi cre-
ditum reputans, omne ha?reditarium jus in eo repudiavit, et vel filio suo
se hoc adoptaturum fore abnegavit ; justissime in arbitrio principum esse
decernens, ut postmortem ejus libere, non magis filium ejus quam alium
eligerent, nisi quem ad id culminis a?tate et morum gravitate dignum in-
venissent!" — Paul. Bernried., I. c.
2 We must remark that the name of Saxony was not then applied merely
to the small present kingdom of that name, but to all Lower Germany,
all the vast country watered by the Elbe and Weser, which stretched
from the mountains of Bohemia and Thuringia to the North Sea, and
which in the old division of the empire formed the circles of Upper and
Lower Saxony. This country, in the eleventh centmy, comprehended the
dioceses of Paderborn, Halberstadt, Hildesheim, Werden, Magdeburg,
Zeitson, Naumburg, Merseburg, Meissen, Havelburg, and Branden
burg. 8 Bruno, de bell. Saxon., ed. Pertz, p. 335.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 555
defend and regain their rights, their provincial
liberties, and the ancient customs of their country.
Those valiant sons of Witikind, whose ancestors
Charlemagne had hardly been able to subdue ;
those intrepid Saxons, each of whom carried three
swords to the field of battle (to replace that which
might be broken in fight),1— had not patiently
resigned themselves to endure the excesses and
usurpations of Henry.2 Deceived, insulted, out
raged daily in their property, their ancient habits,
their personal security; the honour of their wives
and daughters abandoned to the mercy of an un
bridled soldiery; exasperated, above all, by the per
juries and inexcusable bad faith of their sovereign,3
— they preferred, says a contemporary monk, to die
gloriously for their country and their families, rather
than to prolong a life more dreadful than a thou
sand deaths.4 In 1073, they sent an embassy to the Last efforts
-.. ,. i-f-ii • °f ^ne con"
king, appealing to him, for the last time, to grant federates
them the protection of assured laws ; to restore to justice.
1 Lehmann, Speierisch. Chronik., p. 384: "Nam ipsi hostes tantos
ictus gladiorum se fatebantur nunquam audisse." — Ann. Saxon.
2 For details, see Bruno, Hist. bell. Saxon., ap. Freher, Script.
rer Germ., vol. i. p. 182.
3 " Rupto fcedere, contemptis omnibus si quibus se obligaverat jusju-
randi vinculis." — Lamb. Schafnab., ann. 1074. This reproach is con
stantly repeated by all the narrators.
4 "Satius judicantes pro patria, pro liberis, pro conjugibus honesta
morte perfungi, quam inter tantas tribulationes omni morte tristiorem
vitam agere." — Lamb., ann. 1076. Compare the expression pro patria
with the same expressions employed above, and it will be seen what
should be thought of the good faith of certain writers of our days, who,
understanding no other patriotism than a devotion to the centralisation
and despotism of the State, have affirmed that the idea, and even the
name, of " country" (patria), were unknown in the middle ages.

556 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
them the rights enjoyed by their fathers;1 to
destroy the fortresses built on all the mountains
of their country in order to keep them under sub
jection;2 to give back their confiscated possessions;
and finally, to dismiss, together with the wretches
who were his ministers, the troop of mistresses
whom he audaciously paraded before all eyes.3 "If
you do this," said the confederates, " we will serve
you with all our hearts, as we have done up to
this time, and as it becomes free men, born in a
free country, to serve their king ; but if otherwise,
we must remember that we are Christians, and will
not pollute ourselves by remaining in communion
with a man who is a traitor to the Christian faith
by his crimes. And if any attempt is made to
subdue us by force, we will remember that we have
weapons, and can fight."4
On Henry's refusal, the indignant Saxons swore
to defend to their latest breath their laws, their
freedom, and their country ; 5 and resumed their
1 " Leges redde tuis ablataque patria jura."
— Carmen de bell. Saxonico, ap. Goldast., p. 21.
2 " In castella qua? ad eversionem Saxonia? per singulos montes col-
lesque extruxerat, dirui juberet." — Lambert, ann. 1073, ap. Pertz, v. 196.
3 " Ut vilissimos homines quorum consilio seque remque publicam
pra?cipitem dedisset, de palatio ejiceret . . . ut abdicate grege concubin-
arum quibus contra scita canonum attrito frontis rubore incubabat, re-
ginam, . . . conjugali loco haberet." — Ibid.
* "Si ita faceret, se promptissimo animo ei sicut hactenus servituros,
eo tamen modo, quo ingenuos homines atque in libero animo natos regi
servire oporteret ; sin autem, christianos se esse, nee velle hominis qui
fidem christianam capitalibus flagitiis prodidisset, communione maculari.
Quod si arniis cogere instituisset, sibi quoque nee arma deesse, nee mili-
taris rei peritiam." — Ibid.
6 ' ' Singillatim juraverunt. . . . Episcopi ut quantum salvo ordine

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 557
arms, undiscouraged by all the vicissitudes of a
contest in which they met with more defeats than
successes. The peasants, armed with the tools of
their agricultural work, their axes and spades,
ranged themselves under the banners of the
prelates and nobles : and, as we are told by
one of Henry's apologists, counts might be
seen marching on the enemy, followed by shep
herds and ploughmen, who left their villages
in crowds ; and knights hurrying to the com
bat side by side with the bakers, butchers, and
smiths of Goslar,1 eager to share in the struggle
suo possent, totis viribus ecclesiarum suarum necnon et totius Saxonia?
libertatem contra omnes homines defenderent. Laici vero, ut quamdiu
viverent libertatem suam non amitterent, terramque suam nullam dein
ceps violenter pra?dari permitterent." — Bruno, I c, p. 338. "Respon-
derunt . . . sacramento se obstrictos esse, ut, quamdiu sibi vitalis
caloris ultima scintilla supervivat, pro libertate, pro legibus, pro patria
suaindefessidimicent." — Lambert, ann. 1074, I. c, p. 208.
1 " Goslaria currant pariter juvenesque senesque,
Sutores,' fabri, pistores, carnificesque
Militibus comites ibant in bella ruentes. . . .
Indiscreta ruunt e cunctis agmina villis,
Rusticns abjecto quivis discedit aratro. . . .
Pastores pecorum custodes atque domorum. . . .
Omnis conditio bellum cupit, omnis et ordo,
Maxima pars pedes ivit. . . .
Tales militibus comites in bella ruebant . . .
Omnes agricola?, fractis agrestibus armis,
Arma parant belli, durisque ligonibus enses
Conflant ancipites, curvis e falcibus hastis
Spicula pra?figunt, pars aptat scuta sinistris
Levia, pars ferro galeas imitatur equestres,
Pars triplici philtro ; fustes ad pra?lia quernos
Millia multa parant, plumbo, ferroqiie gravabant :
Mille modis acies ad bellum armantur agrestes."
—Carmen de bello Saxon., ap. Goldast, Apologia pro Henrico IV., pp.
25, 29, 33.

558 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
against the oppressor of Germany, who, followed by
Bohemian and other mercenaries, employed hounds
to discover the retreats of the insurgents, whom he
tracked as if they were wild beasts.1 The nobles
neglected nothing to nourish the sacred fire in the
hearts of the people.
¦ " Brave Saxons," they said, " yield not your
necks to the yoke of servitude ; let not your free
fatherland be reduced to the level of a tributary
State. Do not despair of God's mercy. We are
ready to fight to the death for you and yours.
Break the yoke of tyranny, and raise to heaven
those heads which, God willing, no tyrant shall
ever teach to bow. Pay no unjust tribute, and
guard the liberty of that inheritance which your
fathers have bequeathed to you." 2
This warlike league of all classes of a nation
against so powerful an enemy, has excited the
admiration of many German Protestant writers;
in the modern history of their country they have
found nothing comparable to the national move
ment of the eleventh century against imperial
tyranny, except the great struggle of which Ger
many was the theatre when she rose to shake off
1 " Vis et odora canum nonnullis commoda rerum
Monstrat, in obscuris penitus defossa cavernis."
— Carm. de bello Saxon. , ap. Goldast, &c.
2 ' ' Nolite, optimi Saxones, nolite servitutis juga recipere ; nolite
hereditatem vestram tributariam facere. . . . Ecce nos . . . pro vobis
et vestris pugnaturi quamdiu vivimus. Erigite ergo cervicem, jugo ser
vitutis excusso, liberam ; nunquam post hac servitute premendam, ad-
juvante Deo. Retiuete manus a tributis solvendis . . ."— Bruno, De
bello Sax., cc. 84, 85.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 559
the odious yoke of Napoleon I.1 However that
may be, those who desire to judge fairly the events
of the reign of Henry IV. must collect the details
given by the historians of the time, and particu
larly by the monks Lambert of Aschaffenburg and
Bruno of Merseburg. We do not envy the man
who can read unmoved the narratives of these
chroniclers. Soaring over them with as much
grandeur as in the annals of free Greece or of
the Roman republic, we see the grandest and
most noble things that man can admire and serve,
after God — freedom, justice, and the fatherland.
From each page of these histories exhales like
a perfume the breath of faith, independence, and
honour — of true patriotism, of masculine vigour —
of heroic devotion which embalms the memory,
refreshes the imagination, renews the failing, ener
vated hearts, and inflames them with an inextin
guishable sympathy for the good cause.
Impartial writers will not fail to point attention no alliance
to the fact, that in plunging into the perils of war tween the
. cause of the
the Saxons acted under the influence of profound re- Pope and
that of the
ligious convictions ; steadfast Catholics, they blamed German
o ' ' •> insurgents.
Henry above all for his crimes against the law of
God and the liberties of the Church. In the middle
ages no enterprise whatever could be imagined in
which religion did not occupy a foremost place.
At the same time, there was during the first years
of the struggle no union between the cause of the
1 Voigt, passim, but particularly ii. 443-449.

560 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
insurgents and that of the Roman Pontiff. It was
only when the belligerents perceived that Gregory's
opinion of the chief whose yoke became daily more
overwhelming, resembled their own, that they con
jured the Pope to help them in their distress.1
And they must have applied to him with the more
confidence, because the Pope was not only for
them, as for the rest of the faithful, the supreme
protector of the oppressed, but because also, ac
cording to ancient national tradition, Charlemagne
had placed their liberties under the special care of
the See of St Peter.2 Thus they had for their
watchword and battle - cry during the war the
name of the Prince of the Apostles ; it was with
that name on their lips that they attacked the
enemy or fell under the swords of the tyrant's
mercenaries.3 Before we venture to blame Gregory for opening
his heart to the cries of distress which reached him
from Saxony ; before we accuse him of the crime
1 " Ut vel per se vel per nuntium genti pene perdita? consolator ades-
set, suppliciter oraverunt."— Bruno, ap. Ficher, p. 210.
2 "Magnus imperator Saxoniam obtulit B. Petro, cujus eam devicit
adjutorio : et posuit signum devotionis et libertatis, sicut ipsi Saxones
habent scriptum, et prudentes illorum satis sciunt." — Epist. Greg., viii.
23. This assertion of the Pope is confirmed by the diploma of Charle
magne on the church of Bremen, ann. 788, ap. Baluz., Capitul, vol. i.
p. 245.
3 " . . . Dicens : Sancte Petre, quod nomen Saxones pro symbolo
tenebant omnes in ore." — Bruno, de bello Saxon., c. 97, ap. Pertz.
Read the history of an encounter between a Saxon and an imperialist.
The latter gives a great sword-thrust to the Saxon, who had challenged
him with the battle-cry (St Peter), saying, ironically, " Hoc tibi tuus
Petrus mittit pro munere ; " to which the other, splitting open his head,
replies, "Et hoc habes ex parte tui Henrici tyranni insanientis. " — Ibid.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 561
of having (outside of the ecclesiastical question) sup
ported against Henry's tyranny the nations who
implored his assistance, — we must have courage
enough to disavow all those sympathies which, ever
since history has been written, have excited men to
generous indignation, and in place of them must
adopt the servile theories of the Lower Empire or
of Gallican absolutism. The part which Gregory
VII. took in the struggle was characterised by that
prudence and moderation which his love of justice
always dictated. He had begun by exhorting the
insurgent princes and prelates, and also the king,
mutually to lay down their arms, on the strength
of his engagement to judge their cause without re
spect of persons, without prej udice x or partiality,
his conviction being that it was his mission to
defend the rights of each, and to maintain peace
among all.2 When, however, deaf to his voice, the
two parties decided on leaving the question to the
arbitration of battle, Gregory again interposed in
the following year, and in the exercise of the same
right by which he had summoned Henry to spare the
Saxons when at first defeated,3 enjoined upon the
latter the duty of respecting, in his abasement and
1 " Neminem vestrum dubitare volumus, quin super hac re veritate
discussa, quidquid a?quum videbitur, providenti Deo decernere et stabili
pactione studeamus efficere : et quamcumque partem injurias et concul-
cata? justitia?violentiam pati cognoverimus, illi procul dubio omnitimore
et respectu personalis gratia? posthabito, favorem et apostolica? auctori-
tatispra?sidiaconferemus."— Epist., i. 39, ad Wecelin. archiep., &c.
2 " Officii nostri est omnibus sua jura defendere ac inter- eos componere
pacem."— Epist., ii. 70, ad G. . . . Hungaria? ducem.
3 Epist., iii. 7. ' ...
VOL. VI. 2 N

562 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
defeat, their humbled oppressor ; a for, remembering
the inveterate persistence of prejudice and false-
Moderation hood, it is well to insist on the fact, that no trait
teristic in the character of Gregory was more marked than
trait of ° J
Gregory those of gentleness and moderation.2 This is fully
proved by the testimony of all authors worthy of
belief, as well as by the conscientious study of
the Pontiff's own writings and acts.3 Inflexible in
those resolutions which duty dictated, he avoided
with scrupulous care even the least appearance of
precipitation or violence in the execution of his
projects ; 4 the most sincere humanity and the most
patient forbearance were allied in his heart to an
indomitable courage.5 He himself practised the
i Epist., iv. 12 and 24, ad Germanos.
2 " Papa mitissimus," says Hugo de Flavigny, speaking of Gregory
VII. (p. 230), and the gentle and wise Mabillon holds the same opinion :
"Ad commiserationem et indulgentiam propensior erat : quod forte non
facile sibi persuadere plerique patientur, quos ejus facta in Henricum
IV. in contrariam abduxere sententiam. At quisquis ejus epistolas et
acta illius temporis attente perlegerit, haud a?gre id quod dico intelliget."
— Annal Bened., vol. v. b. 65, No. 55. In support of Mabillon's judg
ment we may quote the following epistles: i. 10 ; iii. 10 ; iv. 3, 12; v.
13, 17 ; vi. 4 ; ix. 3, 5.
3 Mabillon's opinion of Gregory's mildness is that of most of the im
partial medieval writers, and of the serious historians of modern times.
Pope Nicholas, whose first minister Hildebrand was, described him thus
in his official diplomas, "Humilis Hildebrandus." — Mansi, Cone, xix.
4 " Quam vero non pra?ceps, aut levis, imo vero modestus in danda in
eum excommunicationis sententia," &c. — Gerhoh. Reichersperg., De
statu Ecclesia!, o. 13.
5 " Quia vero subjectorum offendicula aliquoties prudenter dissimu-
landa, aliquoties autem . . . toleranda sunt. . . . Dominus Apostoli-
cus prudens dissimulator et tolerator, multorum episcoporum et presby-
terorum. . . . Ha?reticas pravitates . . . in tempus opportunum dijudi-
canda multum sollicitus distulerat." — Berthold., ann. 1078, ap. Pertz
v. 309.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 563
precepts which he gave to the Bishop of Prague in
reproving him for having abused the right of ex
communication. " Nothing," he wrote, " is more
dangerous than to excommunicate a man who is
not canonically guilty, and who has not been regu
larly sentenced ; for, as St Gregory the Great has
said, ' he who binds the innocent, degrades with his
own hands his power of binding and of loosing.'
Therefore we admonish thee never to brandish the
sword of anathema rashly or without deliberation,
but, on the contrary, to examine the cause of every
accused person with scrupulous care." 1
Far from himself abusing the power of excom
munication, as he has often been accused of doing,
he took pains to soften, as much as possible, the
terrible consequences of this penalty, by authoris
ing the wives, children, and servants of excommuni
cated persons, and all who could help them, to hold
communication with them.2 In the same spirit he
enjoined Hugh, Bishop of Die, his principal legate
in France, to endeavour to win back William the
Conqueror to God and St Peter by gentleness and
persuasion rather than by the sternness of jus-
1 " . . . Cum tuos absque canonica culpa et legali judicio excommu-
nicas, quod tibi maxime periculosum est, quoniam, sicut B. Gregorius
dicit, qui insontes ligat, sibi ipsi potestatem ligandi atque solvendi cor-
rumpit. Unde te admonemus, ut anathematis gladium nunquam subito
neque temere in aliquem vibrare pra?sumas, sed culpam uniuscujusque
diligenti prius examinatione discutias."— Ep., ii. 6, ann. 1074.
2 " Si quis excommunicato non pro sustentatione superbia?, sed hu-
manitatis causa aliquid dare voluerit, fieri non prohibemus. "—Coletti,
Cone, vol. xii. p. 616 ; Annal. Saxon., ann. 1078.

564 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
tice.1 The same spirit appears in his recommenda
tion to the monks of Monte Cassino not to forget, in
their daily prayers for the Church and her Head, to
intercede for the enemies of the Church, and, above
all, for Prince Giordano of Capua, who had pro
faned and despoiled their sanctuary : " that God
might give the spoiler a penitent heart, and that'
he might be converted and obtain mercy in this
world, and in the next eternal life." 2
Thus, in his repressive measures against the
Emperor Henry and the schismatics, the Pontiff
moves only by slow degrees, never yielding to pro
vocation or to the empire of circumstances. In
the early part of his pontificate there were men
zealous for good who reproached him with too
great mildness.3 And in fact, at the time of his

1 " Videtur enim nobis multo melius atque facilius lenitatis dulcedine
ac rationis ostensione quam austeritate vel rigore justitia? ilium Deo
luerari, et ad perpetuum B. Petri amorem posse provocari." — Ep., ix. 8.
2 " . . . Volumus atque rogamus caritatem vestram, ut nostri memo-
res, pro nobis preces fundatis ad Dominum, pro statu quoque sancti
Romana? Ecclesia? Rectori rerum quotidie suplicetis, necnon tam pro
amieis, quam etiam pro inimicis dilectionis affectu omnipotentem Domi
num deprecari sedulo memineritis, et studetis, necnon et pro illo, qui tam
sanctissimum locum toto mundo famoso violavit, preces effundite, ut
Deus det illi cor pcsnitens, et sic eum ad se convertat, ut in hac vita et
futura mereatur gratiam Dei obtinere." — Letter unprinted till recently,
and published by Tosti, Storia del monte Cassino, vol. i. p. 428. We
may quote also, in proof of Gregory's charitable disposition, the account
given by Hugh de Flavigny of the compassion shown by the Pope to
a monk of Jarenton, assassinated on the journey from Rome to Salerno
in 1084. This monk had always been remarkable for his opposition to
the pontifical cause ; but when Gregory saw the bleeding corpse of the
victim, and the grief of his abbot, he took off his own cope to lay over
the body, and himself sung the mass for the dead. — Hug. Flavin., 230.
3 " Alii nimium mites esse dicunt." — Ep., ii. 77.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 565
election, he at once indicated the possible condi
tions of union between the future emperor and
himself,1 acknowledging the full importance of st Gregory
harmonious action between the priesthood and the dentiy de-
. sired har-
empire,2 while declaring that he would resist even mony be-
x ° tween the
to blood, rather than risk the destruction of both priesthood and the
by consenting to iniquity.3 At the same time, he emPire-
wrote to Henry in the most affectionate terms, con
gratulating him on his first efforts against simony :
" If God permitted me to show you my soul," he
said, "you would certainly see with what sincere
affection I am devoted to you. . . . Nor is it only
to you, whom God has placed at the summit of
all greatness, and who can do so much for the
salvation or perdition of souls, but also to the
lowest of Christians, that I owe, and that I will
give, with God's help, the evidences of a holy love.
. . . And as perhaps no mortal could succeed in
making you believe completely in the sincerity of
this love, I trust to the Holy Spirit, who can do
all things, to prove to you, in His own way, the
good which I wish you, and how much I love you;
I ask Him also to turn your heart so to mine that
i See Ep., i. 9, addressed to Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine, Henry's par
tisan and friend.
2 "Sicut duobus oculis humanum corpus temporali lumine regitur,
ita his duabus dignitatibus in pura religione concordantibus corpus
Ecclesia? spirituali lumine regi et illuminari probatur."— Ep., i. 19, to
Rodolph, Duke of Suabia.
3 " Tutius nobis est defendendo veritatem pro sui ipsius salute adus-
que sanguinem nostrum sibi resistere, quam ad explendam ejus volun-
tatem iniquitati consentiendo secum, quod absit, ad interitum ruere."^
Ep., i. 11, to the Countesses Beatrix and Matilda.

566 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
the wicked may be confounded and the good en
couraged. For the eyes of both good men and bad
are constantly on the watch about us, contending
who shall have us on his side." 1
Henry, on the other hand, recognised without
difficulty the election of Gregory VIL, and wrote
to him with every evidence of an obedience and
devotion to which the papacy had for a long time
been little accustomed.2
At a later period, when the princes assembled
at Gerstungen had taken the resolution of de
throning the oppressor of the Saxons and electing
another king, Gregory interposed, making every
endeavour to pacify them, and to persuade them
to give up all violent action.3 Henry fully
felt the value of this mediation, and showed his
desire to render himself worthy of it by seeking
absolution humbly at Nuremberg from the papal
legates for all his simoniacal acts, and pledging

1 "Si Deus modo aliquo sua? pietatis concederet ut mens mea tibi
haberet. . . . Spiritui sancto qui omnia potest committo ut menti tua?
suo more indicet quid tibi cupiam, &c. . . . Ha?c enim duo desideria
circa nos duos, licet diverso modo, incessanter invigilant, et secundum
voluntatem eorum a quo prodeunt, decertant." — Ep., ii. 31, December
1074. 2 " Dulcedinis et obedientia? plena nobis verba misisse, et talia qualia
neque ipsuni neque antecessores suos recordamur Romanis Pontificibus
misisse."— .Ep., i. 25, ad Herlembaldum, Sept. 1073. This no doubt refers
to the very humble letter from Henry found between the 29th and 30th in
book i. of the Ep. of Greg. VIL, and quoted by Hug. Flavin., p. 209.—
Natalis Alexander, Dissert, ii. It is only in a letter to Matilda, written
September 1075 (iii. 5), that the Pope begins to express some suspicions
as to the king's duplicity.
3 Letter of December 20, 1073.— Ep., i. 29.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 567
himself in their presence to leave the Church
henceforward at full liberty.1 Very soon, how
ever, intoxicated by his first victories over the
Saxons, the prince forgot his promises and his
duties : by continuing his connection with his ex
communicated advisers, he exposed himself, accord
ing to common law, to the same penalty ; aud by
conferring the most important sees of Germany
and Italy 2 on simoniacal and unworthy priests, he
trampled under foot the pontifical decrees. Gre
gory employed all means to recall the prince to
a better way; now by conciliatory and paternal
letters — now by envoys charged to remonstrate
with him in secret3 — and finally, by the threat
of excommunication. As a last effort of paternal
indulgence, the Pope even offered to modify the
decree just pronounced against investitures, if the
imperial envoys could assure him that this modifi
cation would leave intact the honour of God and
the salvation of souls.4
Finally, before taking action against the king

1 " Promisit in manibus eorum. . . . Dei Ecclesiam, secundum cano-
nicam institutionem per consilium Papa? ordinandam componendamque
dimittere." — Paul Bernried. Cf. Lambert, ann. 1074; Domnizo, &c.
2 Among others, Bamberg, which he gave to his odious favourite the
monk Robert, called the Treasurer ; also Milan, Fermo, and Spoleto, at
the very gates of Rome.
3 Epist. I. Greg. , ad regiones Theutonicas, ap. Bruno, c. 72 ; Pertz,
v. 355.
4 " Qui si aliqna ratione demonstrare vel adstruere possent, in quo
salvo a?terni regis honore et animarum nostrarum promulgatam sancto
rum patrum possemus temperare sententiam, eorum consiliis condescen-
deremus."— -E^.,iii. 10, of 8th Jan. 1076.

568 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
Henry's with that rigour which was justified by the law
pride leads
him into 0f the Church, and called for by the complaints
XilG MOST
extemf- °^ *ke oppressed Saxons, Gregory cited Henry, as
Hes- . Alexander II. had already done, to appear at Rome
to defend himself. Henry, misled by a fatal
pride,1 and feeling himself sure of the majority of
an episcopate corrupted by simony,2 replied to.
this summons by a crime unheard of in the records
of Christendom, — by deposing, in a council of
twenty-six bishops, the Pope, the father and
judge of all Christendom, against whom not a
shadow of canonical reproach existed. The depo
sition of Henry IV. by Gregory has been the sub
ject of unceasing discussion; but few remember
that Henry himself began by deposing Gregory in
the Assembly at Worms3 — a ludicrous sentence,
equally without pretext and without antecedent,4
which was notified to him in language which no one
had ever before addressed to the Vicar of Christ.5

1 " Indigne ferens se a quoquam reprehendi aut corripi." — Ep. Greg.,
ad. Theut., ap. Bruno, c. 72 ; Hug. Flav., p. 213.
2 "Non prius destitit donee omnes pene Episcopos Italia? et Theu-
tonicarum partium, quodquod potuit circa Christi fidem naufragare fecit."
— Hus, Flav., p. 213.
3 January 24, 1076. Gregory's sentence against Henry was only given
February 22, after the news of what had passed at Worms was received.
4 At the Council of Sutri, Gregory VI., the only legitimate Pope, had
abdicated voluntarily when he saw that he was suspected, though wrong
ly, of simony. — Bonizo, Liber ad amicum, ap. OSpele, ii. p. 801.
5 Henricus. . . . Hildebrando jam non Apostolico sed falso monacho
. . . tu ergo hoc anathemate et omnium episcoporum nostrorum judicio
et nostro, descende, tibi dicimus : descende, descende." — Ap. Bruno,
de bello Saxon., cc. 66, 67. Another version is thus expressed : " Hil
debrando, pseudomonacho . . . descende, descende, per sa?cula, dam-

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 569
Here are some fragments of this strange docu
ment :—
" To Hildebrand, no longer a Pope, but a false
monk — I, Henry, king by the merciful ordination
of God, deprive thee of the right of being Pope
which thou seemest to possess, and command thee
to descend from the See of that city, the pontificate
of which belongs to me by the grace of God and
the oath of the Romans, for thou art condemned
by the anathema and judgment of all our bishops,
and by ours ; come down, therefore, and abandon
the Apostolic See, which we take from thee. Let
another ascend the throne of Peter, and teach true
doctrine. I, Henry, king by the grace of God, with
all our bishops — I say to thee, Come down ! come
down ! "
It was only in answer to this odious and un
heard-of act that Gregory, yielding to the unani
mous exhortations of a hundred and ten bishops
assembled in council at Rome,1 and in presence of
the Empress Agnes, Henry's own mother, gave the
first sentence of excommunication against the em
peror, freed his subjects from their oaths of fidelity,
nande."— Cf. St Gebhard, Archb. Salisb., epist. ad Herim., ap. Gret
ser, vi. 445 ; Hug. Flavin., p. 213.
1 ' ' Dixit synodus tibi sancta :
Tu pater es patrum : blasphemum contere pravum
Est nostrum quippe jussis parere tuisque,
Pro Christo mortem patienter gliscimus omnes.
Judicium confer, gladium trahe, percute fortem ;
Omnibus excelso dignum clamantibus esse
Privari regno Regem."
— Domnizo, Vit. Mathild., ap. Labbe, ann. 1076.

570 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
and took from him the government of Germany
and Italy.1 Even this sentence was only to be de
finitive if the prince should refuse to seek absolu
tion before the expiration of the year. When the
German princes assembled at Tribur to proceed on
their side to the deposition of Henry, Gregory again
interceded with them to calm their exasperation
against the tyrant, whose heart he hoped might be
touched by repentance. "As it is neither pride -
nor greed," he wrote to them, " which has moved
us against Henry IV., but zeal for the discipline of
the Church, we implore you in our Lord Jesus, and
as our beloved brethren, to receive him with kind
ness if, with all his heart, he turn from his evil
ways. Display towards him, not only that justice
which might cut short his reign, but also that
mercy which covers many sins. Remember the
frailty of man which is common to us all; do
not forget the noble and pious memory of his
father and mother ; pour the oil of pity on his
wounds." 2
Elsewhere, giving an account of his conduct to
1 ' ' Henrico Regi, qui contra tuam Ecclesiam inaudita superbia insur-
rexit, totius regni Teutonicorum et Italia? gubernacula contradico et
omnes christianos a vinculo juramenti quod sibi fecerint vel facient,
absolvo, et ut nullus ei sicut regi serviat, interdico." — Coletti, Concil,
xii. 2 Ep. iv. 3. " Coepiscopis, ducibus, comitibus, universis quoque
fidem christianam defendentibus in regno Teutonico habitantibus. " —
Liiden argues, with good reason, that this letter must have been con
sidered by the princes as a direct interposition in favour of the king,
whom they had in their power, and to whom it did the greatest service.
— History of the German People, ix. 95.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 571
the princes and people of Germany, he says : "If Gregory
• ^11- gives
the king would accept our decrees, and reform his an account
° r ofhisac-
life, we take God to witness the iov which his sal- tion9 10 the
J J princes and
vation and his glory would inspire in us, and the Jfe°^n°f
goodwill with which we should open to him the
doors of Holy Church as to one who, appointed
prince of the people and master of the fairest of
kingdoms, ought to be the defender of justice and
of the peace of Catholics. ... If, by the inspira
tion of God, he will repent, whatever may have been
his attempts against us, he shall find us always
ready to receive him into the holy communion." 1
After the absolution of Canossa, Gregory adopted
the line of conduct best fitted to recall Henry per
manently to the path of order and justice. While
he acknowledged the insurgent nations as sharers
in his perils, and allies in the struggle of right
against wrong, he did not approve the precipitate
election of Rodolph of Suabia to the throne of
which Henry IV. had been declared by the princes
to be unworthy ; and although, at the Diet of
Forchheim, where the election was made, the in
dependence of the Church and the freedom of
episcopal elections had been formally granted, he
preserved for three years a strict neutrality be-
1 "Deum testem invocavimus et invocamus, quantum nos de ejus
salute et honore gauderemus, et cum quanta caritate eum in gremium S.
Ecclesia? amplecteremur . . . qui si Deo imperante voluerit resipiscere,
quidquid contra nos moliatur, semper tamen nos ad recipiendum . . .
paratos inveniet." This fine letter, given by Paul Bernried, c. 78, and
by Bruno, o. 72, is wanting in the Regestum of the Epistles of Gregory
VII. in the collection of the Councils.

572 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
tween the two kings.1 "We have not pledged
ourselves," he wrote to the Germans, " either to
one or other of the kings, to lend them an unjust
support ; for we would rather die, if need were,
than suffer ourselves to be drawn by our own in
clination to do what would trouble the Church of
God. We are well aware that we are ordained and
placed in the Apostolic See, not to seek there our own
profit, but that of Jesus Christ, and to pursue our
way through a thousand labours, following the foot
steps of our fathers, to the eternal rest of the future."
This extreme moderation offended the Saxons
and all those who had shaken off Henry's yoke.
Not understanding the motives which led the
Pope to hope, in spite of all, that Henry's conduct
would be affected by the absolution of Canossa, they
suspected the Pontiff of a base connivance with their
tyrant, and wrote to him the most indignant ap
peals, complaining that he had abandoned them,
and was temporising with the common enemy at
the price of their blood, and imploring him, in the
name of Christ, to recall his courage, and to strike
the wolves which devoured the flock of believers.
Exasperated by the Pope's delays, and having re
called to him in the most urgent terms both the
trials which they had endured in consequence of
their obedience to the first apostolic sentence, and
the deplorable effects of the uncertainty in which
he was leaving Germany as to the legitimacy of
1 Greg., Epist., iv. 24.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 573
the two kings, they addressed to Gregory a last
letter in the following words : " If all that we have
suffered for you does not move you to concern
yourself for our liberation ; if we are not worthy
in your eyes of any favour, — at least do us that
justice which you ought not to refuse even to
enemies. You would bind us to neutrality ; why
do you not impose it also on those who have
disobeyed all your decrees, who communicate with
those whom you have excommunicated, who, with
all their might, serve him whom you have deposed,
and furnish him with the forces which he uses
to oppress us ? All the evils we suffer come from
those whom you are able and bound to control.
Why, then, does your much-boasted courage, which,
according to the words of the apostle, should be
always ready to chastise all disobedience, fail now
to administer chastisement ? If we, poor sheep,
commit any fault, the apostolic severity is instantly
displayed against us ; but when it is the wolves who
tear to pieces the flock of God, then we hear of
nothing but patience, forbearance, and resignation
to endure evil in a spirit of meekness. Now we
implore you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, whe
ther it be that the fear of this sinner, whose glory
is only of the earth, has paralysed you — or whether
it be that the caresses and fine words of those about
you have seduced you, — return to yourself, take
courage, think of the honour and the fear of God ;
and if you will not save us for our sakes, save your

574 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
own credit at least'; for if you permit sinners to
rage against us much longer, it may be feared that
before the great Judge our ruin will leave you
without plea or excuse." 1
Thus spoke the Saxon Catholics to the fiery
Gregory VII. ; and after a rapid review of the posi
tion, we should be almost tempted to join in their
reproaches, if this long-suffering, this forbearance
on the part of the glorious Pontiff, did not seem to
have been permitted by God in order to confound
the bad faith of his future calumniators.
Nothing As for Gregory, nothing shook the calm and
Gregor/s moderation of his soul; to the remonstrances
calm and . . . .
miidtem- and injurious suspicions of the partisans of the
Church of Germany, he replied : " Do not doubt
me, my dearest brothers ; do not think that I
shall ever, knowingly, favour the party which is
in the wrong ; I would rather die for your salva
tion than gain all the glory of the world by your
destruction. If, by false letters or false reports,
you are told the contrary, do not believe it. I fear
God, and every day I suffer for love of Him ; but
1 "Si . . . nihil a vobis gratia? meruimus, quare saltern justitia, qua?
nee inimicis deneganda est, nobis denegatur ? . . . Igitur vestra ilia
famosa strenuitas, qua? juxta Apostolum semper in promptu habuit ul-
cisci omnem inobedientiam, quare istam non ulciscitur ? ... Si quando
misera? nos oves in aliquo excessimus, confestim sine mora in nos Apos
tolica? auctoritatis vindicta processit. Nunc autem cum ad lupos perven-
tum est, qui apertis morsibus, &c. . . . Rogamus ergo vos, ut sive vos
terror viri peccatoris . . . exorbitare fecit, sive familiarium personarum
mollita persuasio delinivit, ut redeatis ad cor, ut memor sitis honestatis
et timoris Domini, et si non nobis propter nos parcitis, saltern vestra?
innocentia? in.tanti sanguinis effusione provideatis." — Bruno, c. 115.

per.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 575
I have little fear of the pride or seductions of the
world, awaiting with certainty the consolations of
that God whose mercy exceeds our hopes and our
merits." 1 And in another place : " I hear that
some of you distrust me, and accuse me of worldly
inconstancy in the midst of my dangers. . . .
The Italians,2 on the other hand, reproach me with
too great sternness towards Henry. For me, my
conscience tells me that I have always acted to
wards the one party and towards the other accord
ing to justice and equity. Be certain that, through
the guidance of God, no man, either by love or fear,
or any other human passion, has ever been able, or
will ever be able, to turn me from the straight path
of justice." 3
But when the time for patience was over, the
measure of Henry's crimes full, and his bad faith
indisputably proved ; when it was seen that the
king had swept away — to use the words of a con
temporary — like spiders' webs all the conditions
which the forbearance of the Pontiff had imposed
upon him at Canossa,4 — with what vigour and ma
jesty did Gregory, launching against Henry his
1 " De me nullo modp dubitetis . . . omnipotens et misericors Deus
qui ultra spem, ultra meritum miseretur. "— Epist. vi. 1, ad Germanos.
2 "Quotquot Latini sunt."— Epist. vii. 3, ad Germanos. In the text
of this letter given by Hugh of Flavigny, it is Quotquot laid sunt.
3 " Sciatis indubitanter quoniam, Deo gubernante, nemo hominum,
sive amore, sive timore, aut per aliquam cupiditatem, potuit me unquam,
aut amodo poterit seducere a recta semita justitia?. " — Ibid.
4 " Conditiones omnes et universa Ecclesiasticarum legum vincula qui
bus ille cum apostolica auctoritate in salutem obstrinxerat, contemptim
tanquam aranearum telas djrupit. "—Lambert, Schafn., ann. 107.

576 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
second and final sentence, proclaim Rodolph as
king ! 1 Let us recall here, that all lovers of cour
age and justice may profit by them, the Pontiff's im
mortal words : " Blessed Peter, prince of the Apos
tles, and thou, Paul, teacher of nations, deign, I
implore you, to bend your ears to me, and hear me
in your clemency ; you who are the disciples and
lovers of the truth, help me to make known this
truth, and to dissipate that error which you hate,
so that my brethren may understand me better,
and may know that it is owing to your support,
after that of the Lord and of His mother Mary,
always a virgin, that I resist the wicked, and
am able to bring you * help in all your calam
ities." 2 Then, after having given an account of
his whole life, his struggles, the first repentance of
Henry, followed by new crimes, he ends thus : " For
these reasons, trusting in the justice and mercy of
God, and of His most pious mother Mary, always
a virgin, and armed with your authority, I ex
communicate the before-named Henry, called king ;
I bind him with the bonds of anathema ; in the
name of Almighty God, and in your names, I de
prive him once more of the kingdoms of Germany
i At Council of Rome, March 7, 1080.
* " Vous prefer secours en vos calamites." This is possibly a mis
print. Perhaps the passage should read, "bring, them help in their
calamities. " — Translator.
2 "BeatePetre, princeps Apostolorum, et tu, Paule, doctor gentium,
dignamini, qua?so, &c. . . . quia veritatis estis discipuli et amatores,
adjuvare ut veritatem vobis dicam. . . ."—Cone. Roman., ann. 1080,
ap. Labbe, Cone, vol. xii. p. 637, ed. Coletti.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 577
and Italy ; I take from him all power and all royal
dignity, I forbid all Christians to obey him as
king, and I release from their oath all who have
sworn, or who shall in future swear, fidelity to
him as his subjects.1 ... Act therefore, I conjure
you, most holy fathers and princes, in such a man
ner that the world may understand and know that,
as you can bind and loose in heaven, you can also on
earth give and take away, according to our deserts,
empires, kingdoms, duchies, marquisates, counties,
and all human possessions. You have often taken.
patriarchates, primacies, archbishoprics, and bishop
rics from the unworthy to give them to religious
men ; and if you thus weigh spiritual things, what
must be your power in secular ones ! If the angels,
placed higher than the proudest princes, are to be
judged by you, how will it be with those who are
only their slaves 1 Let, then, the kings and all the
princes of this age learn what you are, and how
great is your power, and let them fear to despise
the commands of your Church ; exercise your
justice against King Henry so promptly that all
may see that his fall comes not by chance, but by
your power. . . . And may it please God that
his confusion lead him to penitence, so that his
soul may be saved in the day of the Lord ! " 2
1 "Iterum regnum Teutonicorum, et Italia? ex parte omnipotentis Dei
et vestra interdicens ei, omnem potestatem et dignitatem illi regiam
tollo. . . "—Concil. Rom., ann. 1080, ap. Labbe.
2 "Agite nunc, qua?so, patres et principes sanctissimi, ut omnis mun-
dus inteUigat et cognoscat quia, &c. . . . Addiscant nunc reges et omnes
VOL. VI. 2 0

578 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
No' human consideration dictated to Gregory
this final judgment ; for the affairs of his partisans
in Germany were then in an almost desperate condi
tion ; x and soon afterwards Rodolph, that king of
blessed memory,2 died, like another Maccabeus,3 in
the arms of victory,4 saying, " Living or dying, I
accept gladly what God wills." 5
After this catastrophe events followed each other
fast. Guibert, Archbishop of Ravenna, was elected
Pope by the imperialist prelates of Germany and
Lombardy. Henry IV., victorious, then passed
sa?culi principes, quanti vos estis, quid potestis, et timeant parvipendere
jussionem Ecclesia? vestra?. . . . Confundatur utinam ad poenitentiam,
ut spiritus sit salvus in die Domini !" — Concil Rom., ann. 1080, ap.
Labbe. 1 This is acknowledged by Stentzel, Henry's ardent apologist, vol.
i. p. 459.
2 " Beata? memoria? regis." — Greg., Epist. ix. 3.
3 " Pater patria?, servantissimusjustitia?, indefessus propugnator sancta?
Ecclesia? ... in servitio B. Petri occumbere promeruit." — Bernold.
Constant., ad ann. 1080. Voigt compares his death to that of Epam-
inondas at Mantinea, p. 567.
4 October 15th, on the banks of the Elster.
5 " Nunc la?tus patior sive vivens, sive moriens, quidquid voluerit
Deus."— Ann. Sax., ap. Eccard, i. 557. He had had his right hand cut
off in the battle. The princes of his party were so touched by his cour
age, and the care he took of the wounded while paying no attention to his
own wound, that they swore to him that if God would spare his life, they
would never take any other king, even though he should lose both his
hands. The imperialist version relates the facts differently; it says
that Rodolph, after the loss of his hand, expressed himself thus : " Jur-
avi domino meo Henrico non nocere, sed jussio Apostolici petitioque
principum me fecit juramenti transgressorem." — Chron. Ursperg., ann.
1080. Cf. Helmold., Hist. Slav., i. 29. But the Chron. Magdeb., ap.
Meibom., Script., vol. ii. p. 316, denies absolutely the authenticity of
this story, and says : " Tantum abesse pcenitentia ductum fuisse Rudol-
phum, ut potius id unice doluerit, sibi ereptam occasionem vindicandi
injurias tam Ecclesia? illatas, quam imperii ordinibus," &c. In any case
the hero could not have invoked the jussio apostolica, since he had been
proclaimed king three years before he was recognised as such by Gregory.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 579
into Italy, where the Countess Matilda alone dared
to resist him. Gregory was three times besieged
in Rome, shut up in the Castle of St Angelo, be
trayed by the cowardice and avarice of the Romans;1
his annual councils were deserted by most of the
bishops; and the anti-Pope and Henry crowned
each other in St Peter's. But it was when Gre- invincible
gorv had reached the depths of adversitv, in the and nrm-
. t . , nessof Pope
midst of this desertion and danger, that the noble- Gregory
ness and purity of his soul assumed a character
still more sublime ; it was then that he appeared
even greater than when, at Canossa, the son of em
perors was seen kneeling humbly at his feet. In
vain Henry, victor and master of Rome, offered
peace to the Pontiff on the sole condition of being
crowned by him ; Gregory, without soldiers, with
out treasure, reduced to the Castle of St Angelo as
his last refuge, demanded in his turn from the king,
as an imperative condition, that repentance which
the pride of the schismatics refused.2 Not a shadow
of fear or of regret now interferes to obscure the
brightness of that noble mind ; we find no longer
any trace of that hesitation or want of decision for
which he had been so much blamed, and which had
been inspired by generosity, at a time when his

1 Bonizo, p. 812, furnishes the most interesting information as to the
numerous abuses then prevailing in the administration of St Peter, the
suppression of which by Gregory VII. had made all those who profited
by them devoted partisans of the anti-Pope Guibert.
2 Stentzel, vol. i. pp. 483, 484. He sees in this heroic constancy
nothing but stupid obstinacy.

580 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
enemy was subdued and despoiled ! From the.
moment when that enemy triumphed, a calm and
indomitable firmness animated all the Pontiff's
words and actions ; in the midst of a prolonged and
terrible crisis he continued, as before, his correspon
dence with the princes and bishops of all Christian
countries ; he watched over all the interests of the
universal Church, and only spoke of himself to pro
mise the faithful that he would not betray their
cause or that of Christ.1 " We know," he wrote,
" that our brethren are wearied by the length of
the struggle ; but there is nothing nobler than to
fight long for the liberty of Holy Church. Let
others submit to a miserable and diabolical serf
dom, let others seek to subject the unfortunate to
the rule of the demon ; Christians are called upon
to deliver from this rule the unfortunates who are
placed under it." 2 And in another place : " Up
to this time few of us have resisted the wicked to
the shedding of blood, and very few have died for
Christ. Think, my beloved, think how many every
day expose their lives for profane masters for the
sake of vile wages. But we, what sufferings do
we encounter, what work are we doing for the
Supreme King, who promises us eternal glory %
1 See all Book ix, of Gregory's Epistles, especially Epistles ii., iii., xi.,
and xxi.
2 " Certant namque miseri scilicet membra diaboli, ut ejusdem misera
servitute opprimantur. Certant contra membra Christi, ut eosdem
miseros, ad Christianam libertatem reducant." — Ep. ix. 3, to the Bishop
of Passau and Abbot of Hirschau.

ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE. 581
What shame and what mockery would be yours, if,
while these men face death for a miserable reward,1
you are seen flying from that persecution which
would purchase for you the treasure of celestial
blessedness I . . . Keep, then, your eyes always
fixed upon the banner of your leader, who is the
eternal King ; and to overcome the old enemy,
learn not only how to brave persecution and death,
but even to seek them for the love of God and the
defence of your religion." 2
Never losing sight of the purely spiritual char
acter of the contest which exposed him to such
dangers, and regarding the winning of souls as
the highest victory, Gregory at once exhorted the
faithful to immovable firmness in resistance, and
recommended to them an active care for the salva
tion of their adversaries. " We all wish with one
accord," he said, "that God may be glorified in
us, and that He may deign to admit us, with our
brethren, even with those who persecute us, to
eternal life.3 . . . Multiply, therefore, your alms
and your prayers ; and seek by all possible means
to prevail with your Redeemer that your enemies,
whom, by His precept, you are bound to love,
i "Pro viii alga."
2 "Pensate, carissimi, pensate quot quotidie milites sa?culares pro
dominis suis viii mercede inducti morti se tradunt. Et nos quid pro
summo Rege et sempiterna gloria patimur aut agimus, quale dedecus,
&c. . . . Studeamus persecutiones ab eo immissas, et mortem pro justi-
tia non solum vos devjtare, sed etiam pro amore Dei et Christiana? reli
gionis defensione appetere." — Ep. ix. 21.
3 Ibid.

582 ST GREGORY, MONK AND POPE.
may return to the standard of Holy Church, that
bride for whom He deigned to die ; for again I
say it, we seek the destruction of no man, but the
salvation of all in Christ." J
Memorable and blessed words, truly worthy of
the pen of a Pope and the heart of a saint, and
which fill up the measure of that ineffable joy
which rushes over every Catholic soul at the
sight of courage so heroic crowned by charity
so invincible !
1 ' ' Jam danda? sunt frequentissima? orationes et largissima? danda?
eleemosyna? ... ad gremium sancta? Ecclesia? redeant, sua?que sponsa?
pro qua mori dignatus est. . . . Nullius enim hominis perditionem qua?-
rimus, sed omnium salutem in Christo desideramus. " — Ep. ix. 3.

APPENDIX.

The Eolls op the Dead.— (Page 117.)
Extract from Ch. Lenormand, Eeport to the Academy of
Inscriptions, August 17, 1849 (Moniteur of March 17,
1850).
M. Leopold Delisle sent a memoir, On paleographic re
mains concerning the custom of praying for the dead, inserted
in the Bibliotheque de I'Ecole de Chartes. He has judged in a
new manner, even after the Benedictines, these rolls, or rather
these volumes, which in the fervour of medieval
institutions, the religious communities transmitted to each
other. Let us imagine the pious exercises of a monastery
momentarily interrupted : a messenger is come ; whence ?
and what does he bring ? He is an envoy from Cluny
or Marmoutier; at the top of the roll which he carries
is the name of the famous monk or illustrious benefac
tor whom the community has recently inscribed on its
diptychs, and in whose favour she begs the brotherly aid of
¦prayers. The roll, in spite of its enormous length of fifty or
sixty feet, is already almost full, for the messenger has visited
more than 200 churches, and everywhere the learned and
skilful of the place have responded to the request by writing
on the roll either verses in honour of the dead, or a petition
for reciprocal prayers for those of their own brethren whose
death they have to make known. So good an example must

584 APPENDIX.
be followed ; hence new recommendations, and especially
new verses, sometimes even the attempts of scholars, versus
pueriles, given up to that indulgent publicity which takes
account of good intentions and of the promise of the future,
hut among which may be discovered, by an eye as sagacious
as that of M. Delisle, precious gems ; for instance, a piece of
fourteen Latin verses, written by Heloise at the monastery of
Argenteuil, in honour of the B. Vital of Savigny, whose
funeral roll now figures among the most remarkable monu
ments of our national archives.

" Being gentlemen, they could not sign their names" —
(Pages 160 to 180.)
Certain writers of the last century, and of the present one,
have desired to make their readers believe (and their object
may easily be guessed) that the medieval monks only in
structed in their abbeys children destined to the religious life,
and that the noble classes were proud of remaining without
any literary culture. His Eminence Cardinal Pitra, in his
excellent History of St Leger, has proved the falsity of this
view. He there makes it evident — 1. That under the Frank
ish King Clotaire IL, St Chlodulphe, who afterwards became
Bishop of Metz, had been brought up with St Leger at the
school for the great vassals, and, '• as belonged to his rank,
and according to the custom of the sons of nobles, he is sent
to school and instructed in liberal studies, ut par erat et ut
NOBILIUM PILIIS FIERI SOLET, scholis traditur et LIBEEALIBUS
litteeis docendus exhibetur." — ( Vit. S. Leodeg., c. 3, Act. SS.
0. B.) 2. That St Landebert, from his infancy, a prima fere
cetate, had been under the care of learned men and historians
ad viros sapientes et storicos. — {Vit. S. Landb., c. 2, ibid., sect.
ii.) 3. That St "Wandrille {Vit., c. 2, ibid), in the character
of a noble, had received the noble education — that in which

APPENDIX. 585
military history and ancient literature were taught, and
which was imbued with Christian principles, as well as
with those of profane learning, militaribus gestis de antiquis
disciplinis, QUIPPE UT nobilissimus, nobiliter educatus, et
crescentibus sanctce vitce moribus cunctisque mundanarum
rerum disciplinis imbutus, &c.
These facts, moreover, are proved by every page of medie
val history; and in our days, the strongest evidences of them
have been accumulated. But as the absurd formula, " Being
a gentleman, he did not know how to sign his name," is often
repeated, even in histories meant for young people, we beg
leave to do justice upon it here, first by pointing out the
texts quoted by Mabillon, Ziegelbauer, and their contempo
raries, and then by appealing, as to the facts, to the opinion
of the most competent modern writers.
A passage of Eckhard of St Gall, brought to light by Dom
Pitra, shows that there were in the monasteries two kinds
of schools — one for children intended for the cloister {oblati),
the other where the sons of nobles and princes came to study,
exteriorem in qua magnatum nobiliumque liberi fingebantur.
— (Brouwer, Antiquit. Fuldens., p. 36.) Here is Eckhard's
text, which shows very clearly the distinction that existed
between the clerks sent by the bishops and the young nobles
intended to return to the world: "After a short time they
are sent to the cloister school with the B. Notker, and the
other children who follow the monastic rule, traduntur post
breve tempus schol^; claustri cum B. Notkero et cum cceteris
monachici habitus pueris. Exteriores vero, id est canonicce,
Isoni cum Salomone et ejus comparibus." — {Vit. S. Notkeri,
c. 7.)The nutriii, among whom were the sons of dukes, counts,
and seigneurs, had a free choice between a knightly career
in the world and the fife of a monk in the cloister. Men of
the highest merit were to be found in both. Thus we have
no reason to be astonished with M. Charles de Kemusat that
the historians of the twelfth century relate how the young
nobles left their paternal castles in crowds to go and live in

586 APPENDIX.
huts built of branches on the banks of the Arjusson, whither
Abelard had transported his school (see Coueson, Hist, des
peuples bretons, vol. ii. p. 555). No one will suppose, sure
ly, that these young nobles gathered round a philosophic
theologian were men without literary culture. Knowing,
however, how tenacious some historical falsehoods are in
France, M. Leopold Delisle, the learned director of the
National Library, has thought it necessary to publish a dis
sertation to prove that it is absolutely false that the feudal
nobility " ever systematically repelled the very elements of-
instruction." The author commences by examining some important
works, composed at this period, on the education of the
nobles. What do these works say ? That " the children of
nobles have need of acquiring extensive information, and
that they should be familiarised with literature from their
youth " (Vincent de Beauvais) : that the sons of nobles
ought to have three masters, — one to teach the, mysteries
of religion ; one " skilled in science, and especially in the
science of grammar, that he may teach how to speak Latin,
to read, to hear, and to understand, which is very expedient
for the sons of kings and great lords ; " the third, of noble
race, and an experienced knight, " that he may teach them
how to behave themselves and to converse among great and
small, princes and prelates, knights, monks, and ordinary
people" (Gilles de Komme).
Certainly this is a programme which might be accepted,
in our own days, by the most rigid pedagogue.
But do facts agree with theories ? M. Delisle has no
doubt of it. " The list would be very long," he says, " of the
barons and nobles who in the middle ages cultivated, with
more or less brilliancy, history, jurisprudence, and poetry.
The multitude of remarkable persons of those times — states
men, warriors, ministers — who were drawn from the ranks
of the nobility, is by itself enough to settle the question."
However, as large crosses take the place of signatures in
deeds of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it has been con-

APPENDIX. 587
eluded that the nobles could not write. This is a great error,
easily refuted by the following fact : The custom of placing a
signature upon deeds, missives, &c, did not exist during
most of the middle ages ; thus not one of St Louis's nu
merous letters is signed, and yet it is quite certain that he
knew how to write !
The good lord of Joinville, Seneschal of Champagne, wrote
very well, as is proved by a curious document discovered
by M. Chazuad, keeper of the archives of the Department
of the Allier.
Bertrand du Guesclin, who has been represented as the
most illiterate of knights ; Talbot, Lahire, Dunois, and
many others, — did not in any way deserve the reputation for
ignorance which they have gained. The custom of signing
deeds is comparatively modern. Sovereigns only began
to practise it in the time of Charles V. ; and Philippe de
Meaeres complains bitterly of it, saying that a sovereign
" ought to address autograph letters only to his relations, to
the Pope, and to foreign potentates." It seems, then, that
whatever may have been said or written, we must acknow
ledge the falsity of the famous formula, " He declared that
he did not know how to write, as he was a gentleman." In
the fifteenth century, in Bretagne, the notaires-passe, who,
it would seem, must have known how to write, were all of
gentle birth, and it was the same in Dauphin^ (La Eoque,
TraiU de la noblesse, c. cxlviii., edition of 1710).
M Delisle unhesitatingly concludes, as M. de la Borderie
and M. A. de Courson had previously done, " that the nobles
in the middle ages knew how to write, and that, the learned
section of the clergy not included, they were not more
ignorant than the members of other classes of society"
(La Boedeeie, Melanges d'histoire et d'arcMologie, i. 60).

588 APPENDIX.
Condition of Medieval Peasants. — (Page 259.)
"We cannot resist the pleasure of reproducing the follow
ing letter, from an author whose writings 1 have received the
unanimous suffrages of the most competent judges, and who
has studied more deeply than any other person the con
dition of the peasantry in the middle ages : "Apart from
some isolated facts, we have vainly sought traces in Nor
mandy of that antagonism which, according to modern
writers, reigned between different classes of medieval society.
The relations of the lords with their vassals were not marked
by that violent and arbitrary character which has often been
described. The peasants were very early enfranchised : serf
age disappeared from the country in the eleventh century ;
from that epoch there still exist many dues and some
personal services, but the greater number are attached to
the occupation of the land. In all cases the obligations,
both real and personal, are clearly defined by charters and
customs. The peasant pays them without repugnance ; he
knows that they are the price of the land which feeds his
family ; he knows also that he can depend upon the aid
and protection of his lord. No doubt his work is hard,
his fatigues incessant, and his food coarse. But he has
no anxieties for the future; modest in his wishes, he is
ignorant of the pain of deception and despair. In a word,
medieval feudalism (which we distinguish from modern
feudalism) did not, in Normandy at least, produce upon the
peasants those disastrous effects which are imputed to it,
with more passion than justice. "We own that grave abuses
were introduced ; we own, also, that for centuries our fields
were the theatre of devastating wars. But must we throw
the responsibilities of these misfortunes on feudalism alone 1
Do not let us forget that this rigime gave to our fathers
long years of calm and prosperity : in spite of the growth
of material wellbeing, are our labourers and artisans really
more happy than the labourers of the age of St Louis ? "
1 Leopold Delisle, Etudes sur la condition de la classe agricole en Nor-
mandie au moyen dge, p. xxxvi. 1851.

appendix. 589

Investitures,' feom Geegoey VIL to Calixtus II. —
(See Volumes vi. and vii. passim.)
Charter very valuable for the history of investitures in mon
asteries, given by Mabillon, de Re diplomatica, lib. vi.
No. 165, under the title of Notitia de libertate baculi
pastoralis in ccenobio S. Michaelis ad Momsa. It is dated
1117, recapitulates former disputes, describes the con
cession by Count Eaynauld of the right of investi
ture which his ancestors had usurped, and settles the
precaution necessary to prevent the renewing of such
pretensions ; doubly interesting in reference to the age
of Gregory VII. and that of the approaching triumph
under Pascal II.
In nomine sanctse Trinitatis et individuse unitatis. De-
ducente nos omnium honorum Ductore Spiritu sancto,
exultationem nostram fratribus nostris in hanc ecclesiam
nobis successuris, insinuemus, ut et ipsi scilicet habeant
unde nobiscum exultent; et sibi caveant, ne reducto con-
suetudinis illicitae jugo, seipsos pariter et fratres sibi suc-
cessuros, unde nos exultemus, contristent. Igitur in hac
ecclesia, sicut et in ceteris, in quibus secularis dignitas
suam exercere nititur potestatem, mos antiquus obtinuerat,
ut quoties abbas moreretur, alter in loco illius, nisi baculum
de manu advocati ecclesiae susciperet, nullatenus substi-
tueretur. Hsec illicita consuetudo inoleverat, ut quidam
abbas, nomine Sigifeidus, quamvis ceteris quos memoria
nostra sibi revocare potuit religiosior, tamen de manu
feminae, vidilicet venerabilis comitissae Sophle, suscepisset.
Qui tandem ad se reversus, et melius sacrorum canonum insti-
tutionibus informatus, Eomam posnitentia ductus petiit, bacu
lum beatee memoriae Geegoeio septimo, qui et Hildebeannus,
crimen suum confitens, reddidit. Quem tamen, cogente vix
eodem Apostolico, quia ejusdem viri religio ad notitiam ejus
pervenerat, iterum recepit; et sic abbas laudabilis vitse

590 APPENDIX.
usque in finem perseveravit. Sed venerabilis prsedicta
comitissa audiens se contemptam, se despectam, vehementer
super hoc gratulabatur : hac deinceps in dilectione viri
religiosi plurimum pro tali contemptu caritatis vinculis
astringebatur. Sed et ipsa hoc exemplo se peccasse cog-
noscens, Eoman perrexit, atque eidem Apostolico reatum
suum confitens, absoluta repatriavit. Ista autem membris
corporis exuta, ingens altercatio inter comitem Theodoeicum,
prcedictce Sophice folium, et monacos exoritur: dum hie scili
cet juxta consuetudinem dignitatis prsedecessorum suorum
abbatem substituere nitebatur; monachi autem sacrorum
canonum decretis, quibus jam per praedictum abbatem edocti
fuerant, obviare reverebantur. Sed utrarumque partium
mediatoribus hanc litem sedare cupientibus visum est, ut
baculus super altare a comite Theodorico poneretur; et
abbas ejus conductu ad eum suscipiendum adduceretur:
satis in hoc decepti, ut quasi sic suam comes non amitteret
dignitatem, nee monachi suam viderentur violare religionem.'
Cum sacri canones manum rarius nominent, quando catho-
licis prohibent accedere ad ecclesias per secularem potesta
tem : et frequentius (sicut in sequentibus videbitur) praeci-
piant eorum omnino vitare in conduct u. dignitatem. Tali
ergo deceptus errore abbas Oenatus, necnon abbas Ulricus,
baculum uterque super altare advocati conductu suscepit :
et hsec illicita, nee memorise digna conditio in hac sancti
Michaeli s ecclesia usque ad electionem domini abbatis Lau-
zonis perseveravit. Igitur praedicto abbate Uleico carnis
claustra egresso, quidam fratrum spiritu ferventes, atque
sacrorum canonum studiosi scrutatores, hujus miserandae
conditionis pestem diu in ecclesia lactatam, diu nutritam,
diu roboratam, vehementer ingeinuerunt ; atque assumpto
fidei clypeo, adversus earn pro posse suo decertare seipsos et
universam Ecclesiam excitaverunt, sic scilicet, ut priusquam
advocatus accurreret, abbatem sibi Lauzonem nomine praefi-
_ cerent, et ad altare absque ullo laicali conductu ad baculum
suscipiendum deducerent, et soli sine seculari dignitate in
sede collocarent. Sed his ita gestis, aures universorum, qui

APPENDIX. 591
antiquse consuetudinis ecclesiae et advocatorum notitiam
habuerant, quasi re inaudita concutiuntur, corda omnium in
stuporem vertuntur. Monachi hoc prsesumpsisse ausi, nimia
insipientia et etiam insolentia notantur. Comes etiam Eay-
NALDUS, praedicti eomitis Theodoeici filius, tunc temporis
ecclesiae advocatus, hoc audito furore commotus, cum prin
cipibus regionis ad ecclesiam venit, qui monachos dignitatem
suam injuste sibi subtraxisse satis indignando conquereba-
tur. Quod nisi celeriter corrigeretur, sic scilicet ut abbas
de se egrederetur, multis assertionibus affirmabat quod
ecclesiam oppressionibus quibus posset, persequeretur. Sed
tamen eo virorum prudentium consilio mitigato, dies deter-
minatur, in quo jus suum antiquum omnibus convenienti-
bus recitaret, et injuriam quam a monachis perpessus fuerat,
revelaret. Interim ab utraque parte consilium requiritur
episeoporum. Die determinato fit conventus abbatum, mon
achorum, clericorum, laicorum. Ees utriusque partis in
judicio ponitur ; sed monachi nihil superbe, nihil insolenter,
sed religiose, sed prudenter fecisse quod fecerant, inveniun-
tur. Auctoritas enim sacrorum canonum in medio deducitur,
quse sub anathemate prohibet, ne quis per secularem digni
tatem curam pastoralem aggrediatur. Sic enim in canone
Apostolorum reperitur : " Si quis secularibus potestatibus
usus Ecclesiam Domini per ipsas obtineat, deponatur, et ab-
jiciatur, omnesque qui illi communicant. Item ex Antioch,
eno coneilio : Si quis per saecularem dignitatem Ecclesiam
Domini obtinuerit, abjiciatur, et ipse, et ordinator ejus; et
modis omnibus a communione separentur, et sint sub ana
themate, sicut Simon Magus a Petro. Item ex synodo a
ccxl Patribus habita sub Nicolao primo pontifice : Quisquis
secularium principum aut potentum, aut alterius laicse dig
nitatis adversus communem et consonantem atque canoni-
cam electionem Ecclesiastici ordinis agere temptaverit, ana
thema sit, donee obediat atque consentiat, quod Ecclesia de
electione et ordinatione proprii pastoris se velle monstravit."
His atque plurimis aliis testimoniis, quae prolixitas adhibere
prohibuit, atque virorum religiosorum consiliis comes Eay-

592 APPENDIX.
naldus non tantum monachorum, sed et suum periculum
discens, si quod jus circa pastoralem curam retentaret, indig-
nationem tandem flexit : et quoniam non malitiose, sed pro
sua religione monachos decertasse cognovit jus illud anti
quum quod a progenitoribus suis retinere quaerebat, inspir-
ante sibi Spiritu sancto guirpivit. Erunt forte qui judicent,
nos ista supervacue retulisse. Sed noverint, nos qui laborem
certaminis sustinuimus, circa fratres in hanc ecclesiam nobis
successuros piam sollicitudinem suscepisse, et eorum utilitati
dilectionis studio deservisse : ut in his percipiant, quanta
servitute hoc ccenobium olim depressum fuerit, cum quoties
abbas moreretur, non solum comites, sed et comitissae capi-
tulum ingrediebantur, ut eorum potestate alter subrogaretur.
Sit igitur deinceps cautela fratrum religiosorum, ut quoties
abbas eligendus fuerit sine seculari pompa, sine conventu
omnino laicorum, clericorum, soli capitulum habeant, soli
patrem sibi cum timore Dei eligant ; electum soli ad altare
ad suscipiendum baculum deductum constituant, constituto
obedientiam promittant. His expletis, abbas ad publicum
exeat, et fidelitates suas juxta consuetudinem, a quibus debet,
suscipiat, quod si comes in villa fuerit, vel cum advenerit,
duo de fratribus vel tres ad eum pergant, ut quem soli ab
batem constituerint, ei nominent, omnino nihil aliud dicen-
tes : Ilium dominum nobis constituimus abbatem, precamur
sicut advocatum ecclesiae, ut eum diligatis et consilium ei
detis, et in necessitatibus suis subveniatis. Si autem obliti
suse religionis aliter egerint, unde jugum antiquitatis exse-
crandce super se vel super posteros revocent; vinculis ana
thematis sacrorum conciliorum, quse ut Evangelia sunt
venerauda, se astrictos non ignorent : fratrum autem liber
tatem ecclesise retinentium sit gloria in secula seculorum.
Here follow the date of the year only, and the signatures
of the witnesses, ecclesiastics and laymen.

APPENDIX. 593

Part taken by the People and the Laity generally in
the Election of the Popes from Sylvester II. to
Calixtus IL— (See pp. 338, 339.)
M. Eaynouard {Hist, du droit municipal, vol. i. pp. 161-
163) has collected important authorities to prove the part
taken by the people and other laymen in the election of
popes, even after the decree of Nicholas II. as to the cardi
nals. This series extends from Fabian (230) to Calixtus II.
(1119). Here follow these authorities from the time of
Gerbert in 999 :—
99.9. Sylvester II. — Defunctus est papa urbis RomEe, statimque
omnis popnlus Romanus sibi dari adclamat Gerbertum. Assumptus
itaque deurbe Ravenna ordinatus est pontifex in urbe Roma.— (Aimoin,
de-.Gest. Franc, b. v. c. xlvi.)
1044. Gregory VI. — Cum consensu totius Romani populi ejectus
est a sede Benedictus, et loco ejus subrogatus est. . . . Gregorius. —
(Labbe, Goncil, vol. ix. col. 943.)
1046. Clement II. — Unanimi consensu omnium. — (Labbe, Concil.,
vol. ix. col. 944.)
1048. Damasitjs II. — Omnium suffragiis est electus. — (Labbe, Gon
cil, vol. ix. col. 946.)
1048. Leon IX. — Electione cleri et populi ecclesiae Tullensis ordi
natus est episcopus. — (Chronic. TulL, sive sancti Richardi, Dacherii,
Spicil., vol. ii. p. 349.)
" Romam vado, ibique si clerus et populus sua sponte me elegerit,
faciam quod rogatis."
Dicit electionem cleri et populi canonicali auctoritate aliorum dispo-
sitionem prteire. . . .
Nisi fiat electio ejus communi omnium laude . . . nihil sibi tutius
fore credidit quam populari electione . . . assentiri.
Clerus et populus concordi voto, &c. — (Act. SS., 19th April, vol. ii.
pp. 653, 658, 659.)
A clero et populo Bruno in summum pontincem eligitur.— (Labbe,
Concil., vol. ix. col. 947.)
1055. Victor II. — Consensu cleri ac populi pontifex. —(Labbe, Con
cil., vol. ix. col. 1077.)
1061. Alexander IL— Cardinales, totius cleri et populi Romani
consensu. . . . — (Marlot, Metrop. Remens. hist, vol. ii. p. 119.)
VOL. VI. 2 p

594 APPENDIX.
1073. Gregory VII. — Voto communi clericorum ac laicorum, diu
renitens . . . electus. — (Act. SS., 18th March, vol. ii. p. 649.)
Omnium cardinalium consensu et suscriptione totiusque populi et
cleri approbatione, in pontincem electus est invitus. — (Labbe, Concil,
vol. x. col. 2 ; Vit. Gregorii pap. VII.)
Obierat ipso anno papa Alexander . . . et substitutus erat unanimi
electione cleri et populi GTegorius VII. — (Chronic. Virdun., Hugon.
Flaviniaci ; Labbe, Nov. Biblioth. Manuscr., vol. i. p. 297.)
1086. Victor III. — Cum Cencio Romanorum consule consilio habito
. . . episcopi et cardinales una cum clero et populo . . . itaque uni-
versi pariter uno consensu et animo ilium cupientes invitum et reni-
tentem attrahunt . . . ibique juxta morem Ecclesise eligentes, Victoris
ei nomen imponunt. — (Act. SS., 16th September, vol. v. p. 429.)
1088. Urban II. — Comuni totius cleri ac populi consensu electus
est pontifex. — (Labbe, Concil., vol. x. col. 420.)
1099. Pascal II. — Ecclesia quse erat in urbe pastorem sibi dari
expetiit. Ob hoc patres cardinales, episcopi, diaconi, primoresque urbis, primis-
crinii et scribse regionarii in ecclesia S. dementis conveniunt. . . .
Ecce tibi in pastorem sibi elegit dari populus urbis, te elegit clerus,
te collaudant patres. — (Act. SS., May, vol. iv. pars i. p. 202.)
1118. Gelasius II. — A clero, senatu populoque Romano, et congre-
gatis omnibus quos Pandulphus hujus temporis enumerat cardinalibus,
pari voto ac desiderio invitus ac renitens, Spiritus sancti gratia medi-
ante, electus est pontifex. — (Labbe, Concil, vol. x. col. 812 and 813.)
His biographer says : " Romani de senatoribus ac consulibus . . .
prseter familiam nostram." — (Act. SS., May, vol. iv. pars 2, p. 10.)
1119. Calixtus II. — Unanimi consensu totius cleri ac populi Romani
. . . electus est pontifex.— (Labbe, Concil., vol. x. col. 815 ; Vit. Calisti,
p. 11.)
His contemporary biographer saj's he was elected by the cardinals
who had come to France with Gelasius II., but that he waited until
" per prasfectum et consules, per clerum atque populum una voce ac
litteris electionem ipsam canonice vereque firmarent." — (Act. SS., May,
vol. iv. pars ii. p. 14.)

END OF THE SIXTH VOLUME.

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