THE TENTH CENTURY.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE TENTH CENTURY.

Success of the Nestorians in propagating the Gospel-Conversion of Norway, of the Poles, the Russians, the Hungarians, the Danes, the Swedes, and the Normans-Luxury of the clergy-History of the popes from Leo V. to Sylvester II.-Iniquitous distribution of preferments-Monastic institutions-Order of Clugni.

THE night of ignorance had now almost completely obscured the pure light of evangelical truth; and morality, not less than religion, appeared to be subverted. The system of the Gospel, however, increased in name at least, if not in substance. The Nestorians in Chaldea extended their spiritual conquests beyond Mount Imaus, and introduced the Christian religion into Tartary, properly so called, whose inhabitants had hitherto lived in their natural state of ignorance and ferocity, uncivilized and savage. The same successful missionaries spread, by degrees, the knowledge of the Gospel among that powerful nation of the Turks, or Tartars, which were distinguished by the name of Karit, and whose territory bordered on Kathay, or on the northern part of China. The laborious industry of this sect, and their zeal for the extension of the Christian faith, deserve the highest encomiums; but the historians of the Church have, in general, been more disposed to record the errors than the virtues of those who differed from the orthodox creed.

If we contemplate the western world we shall find the Gospel proceeding with more or less rapidity through the most rude and uncivilized nations. The dukes of Poland and Russia were induced to profess the Christain faith; the Hungarians also enrolled themselves among the believers in the Gospel; and the zeal of Adeldagus and Poppo produced similar effects in the countries of Denmark and Sweden. The celebrated arch-pirate, Rollo, son of the Norwegian count, being banished from his native land, had, in the preceding century, put himself at the head of a resolute band of Normans, and seized upon one of the maritime provinces of France, whence he infested the whole adjacent country with perpetual incursions and depredations. In the year 912, this valiant chief embraced, with his whole army, the Christian faith; but convenience, not conviction, must be confessed to have been his motive. Charles the Simple, who was equally destitute both of courage and ability to expel this warlike invader from his dominions, was obliged to have recourse to negotiation, and accordingly offered to assign over to him a considerable part of his territories, upon condition that he would consent to a peace, espouse his daughter Gisela, and embrace Christianity. These terms were accepted by Rollo without hesitation; and his army, conformably to this example, were soon induced to profess a religion of which they were in fact totally

: 197 ignorant. (Poulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, tom. i, p. 296; Daniel, Hist. de France, tom. ii, p. 587.)

Their conversion was, indeed, almost entirely nominal for a considerable time, and their conduct such as to excite complaints from the archbishop of Rheims to the pope, to whom he represented the Normans as violating their baptismal oath by sacrificing to idols, eating of meats which had been offered to their ancient divinities, and as cruelly destroying the Christian priests.

The luxury and ignorance of the clergy were equally conspicuous during the tenth century. Some opinion of the conduct of the Grecian patriarchs may be formed from that of Theophylact. This prelate, who sold every ecclesiastical benefice as soon as it became vacant, had in his stables above two thousand hunting horses, which he fed with pignuts, pistachios, dates, dried grapes, figs steeped in the most exquisite wines, to all which he added the richest perfumes. One Holy Thursday, as he was celebrating high mass, his groom brought him the joyful news that one of his favourite mares had foaled; upon which he threw down the liturgy, left the church, and ran in raptures to the stable whence, after having expressed his joy at this important event, he returned to the altar to finish the solemn service which had remained interrupted during his absence. (See Fleury, Hist. Ecclesi. livre lv, 97, edit. Bruxelle.)

The history of the Roman pontiffs, in this century, exhibits, with some instances of piety and ability, a series of disgusting and complicated crimes. The source of these disorders must be sought for principally in the calamities which afflicted the greater part of Europe, and particularly Italy, after the extinction of the race of Charlemagne. Upon the death of the pontiff Benedict IV., which happened in the year 903, Leo V. was raised to the pontificate; but this prelate enjoyed his elevation only forty days, and was dethroned and imprisoned by Christopher, one of his domestics.

The usurper was, however, in his turn, deprived of the pontifical dignity in the following year, by Sergius III., a Roman presbyter. This pontiff owed his elevation to the protection of Adalbert, a powerful Tuscan prince, whose influence over every affair transacted at Rome was unlimited; but the short period of his reign was only remarkable for the ambition and licentiousness of the prelate. The pontificates of Anastasius III. and Lando, who, after the death of Sergius, were successively raised to the papal chair, were too transient to be very fruitful in events.

After the death of Lando, in the year 914, Albert, marquis or count of Tuscany, obtained the pontificate for John X., archbishop of Ravenna, in compliance with the solicitation of Theodora, his motherin-law, whose lewdness is recorded to have been the principle which interested her in this promotion. John X., though in other respects a scandalous example of iniquity and licentiousness, acquired a certain degree of reputation by his glorious campaign against the Saracens, whom he expelled from their settlements upon the banks of the Garigliano. He did not, however, long enjoy his elevation; the enmity of Marozia, daughter of Theodora, and wife of Albert, proved fatal to him. That intriguing woman having espoused Wido, or Guy, marquis of Tuscany, after the death of her first consort, engaged him to

seize the wanton pontiff, who was her mother's lover, and to put him to death in the prison where he lay confined. The unfortunate and licentious John was succeeded by Leo VI., who presided but seven months in the apostolic chair, which was filled after him by Stephen VII. The death of the latter, which happened in the year 931, presented to the ambition of Marozia an object worthy of its grasp; and accordingly she raised to the papal dignity John XI., who was the fruit of her lawless amours with one of the pretended successors of St. Peter, Sergius III., whose adulterous commerce with that infamous woman gave an infallible guide to the Roman Church.

John XI., who was placed at the head of the Church by the credit and influence of his mother, was precipitated from this summit of spiritual grandeur, A. D. 933, by Alberic, his half-brother, who had conceived the utmost aversion against him. Upon the death of Wido, the splendid offers of the infamous Marozia had allured Hugo, king of Italy, to accept her hand. But the unfortunate monarch did not long enjoy the promised honour of being made the master of Rome. Alberic, his son-in-law, stimulated by an affront which he had received from him, excited the Romans to revolt, and expelled from the city not only the offending king, but his mother Marozia and her son, the reigning pontiff, all of whom he confined in prison, where John ended his days in the year 936. The four pontiffs, who in their turns succeeded and filled the papal chair till the year 956, were Leo VII., Stephen VIII., Marianus II., and Agapet, whose characters were greatly superior to those of their immediate predecessors, and whose government, at least, was not attended with those tumults and revolutions which had so frequently shaken the pontifical throne, and banished from Rome the inestimable blessings of peace. Upon the death of Agapet, which happened in the year 956, Alberic II., who to the dignity of Roman consul joined a degree of authority and opulence which nothing could resist, raised to the pontificate his son Octavian, who was yet in the early bloom of youth, and destitute of every quality requisite to discharge the duties of that important office. This unworthy pontiff took the name of John XII., and thus introduced the custom, which has since been adopted by all his successors in the see of Rome, of assuming a new appellation upon their accession to the pontificate.

The fate of John XII. was as unhappy as his promotion had been scandalous. Unable to bear the oppressive yoke of Berenger II., king of Italy, he sent ambassadors, in the year 960, to Otho the Great, entreating him to march into Italy, at the head of a powerful army, to deliver the Church and the people from the tyranny with which they were oppressed. To these entreaties the perplexed pontiff added a solemn promise that if the German monarch came to his assistance he would array him with the purple, and the other ensigns of sovereignty, and proclaim him emperor of the Romans. Otho received the embassy with pleasure, marched into Italy at the head of a large body of troops, and was accordingly saluted by John with the promised title. pontiff, however, soon perceiving that he had acted with too much precipitation, repented of the step he had taken; and, though he had so solemnly sworn allegiance to the emperor as his lawful sovereign, violated his oath, and joined Adelbert, the son of Berenger, against Otho.

The

This revolt was not left unpunished. The emperor returned to Rome in the year 964, called a council, before which he accused and convicted the pontiff of the most atrocious crimes; and after having ignominiously degraded him from his office, appointed Leo VIII. to fill his place. Upon Otho's departure from Rome, John returned to that city, and in a council, which he assembled in the year 964, condemned the pontiff whom the emperor had elected. He soon after died in consequence of a violent blow on the temples, inflicted by the hand of a gentleman whose wife he had seduced. After his death the Romans chose Benedict V. bishop of Rome, in opposition to Leo; but the emperor annulled this election, restored Leo to the papal chair, and carried Benedict to Hamburg, where he died in exile.

From this gloomy picture of depravity and vice we turn with some degree of pleasure, to consider those pontiffs who governed the see of Rome from Leo VIII., who died A. D. 965, to Gerbert, or Silvester II., who was raised to the pontificate toward the conclusion of this century. Their pontificates were indeed unadorned by the display of profound erudition, or of any splendid qualities; but the conduct of most of them was decent, and their administration respectable. John XIII., who was elevated to the papal chair in the year 965, by the authority of Otho the Great, was expelled from Rome in the beginning of his administration; but the year following, upon the emperor's return to Italy, he was restored to his dignity, in the calm possession of which he ended his days, A. D. 972. His successor, Benedict VI., was not so happy: cast into prison by Crecentius, son of the famous Theodora, in consequence of the hatred which the Romans had conceived both against his person and government, he was loaded with every species of ignominy, and was strangled, in the year 974, in the apartment where he lay confined. Unfortunately for him, Otho the Great, whose power and severity kept the Romans in awe, died in the year 973, and with him expired that order and discipline which he had restored in Rome by salutary laws, executed with impartiality and vigour. face of affairs was indeed entirely changed by that event; licentiousness and disorder, seditions and assassinations, resumed their former sway, and diffused their horrors through that miserable city. After the death of Benedict, the papal chair was filled by Franco, who assumed the name of Boniface VII. This prelate, who is strongly suspected of having by his insinuations occasioned the murder of his predecessor, did not long enjoy his dignity. One month had scarcely elapsed after his promotion, before he was deposed from his office and expelled from the city. He was succeeded by Donus II., who is known by no other circumstance than his name. Upon his death, which happened in the year 975, Benedict VII. was created pontiff; and, during the space of nine years, ruled the Church without much opposition, and ended his days in peace. This singular prosperity was, without doubt, principally owing to the opulence and credit of the family to which he belonged; for he was nearly related to the celebrated Alberic, whose power, or rather despotism, had been unlimited in Rome.

The

His successor, John XIV., who from the bishopric of Pavia was raised to the pontificate, derived no support from his birth, which was obscure, nor did he continue to enjoy the protection of Otho III., to whom he owed his promotion. Hence the calamities which disturbed

his government, and the misery that concluded his transitory grandeur for Boniface VII., who had usurped the papal throne in the year 974. and in a little time after had been banished Rome, returned from Con stantinople, whither he had fled for refuge; and, by employing the money he had obtained by the sale of several costly ornaments which he had fraudulently carried from Rome, in largesses to the populace, he obtained such authority as enabled him to seize and imprison the unfortunate pontiff, and afterward to put him to death. By these means Boniface resumed the government of the Church; but his reign was also transitory, for he died about six months after his restoration.* He was succeeded by John XV., whom some writers call John XVI., alleging that another John ruled the Church during the space of four months, whom they consequently call John XV. Whatever opinion may be formed on this subject, it is only necessary to observe that he possessed the papal dignity from the year 985 to 996, that his administration was as happy as the troubled state of the Roman affairs would permit, and that the tranquillity he enjoyed was not so much owing to his wisdom and prudence, as to his noble and illustrious ancestors, and to his being by birth a Roman. Thus much is also certain, that his successor, Gregory V., who was a German, and who was elected pontiff by the order of Otho III. in the year 996, experienced very different treatment; and was expelled from Rome by Crescens, the Roman Consul, who conferred his dignity upon John XVI., formerly known by the name of Philagathus. But this revolution was not permanent in its effects. Otho III. alarmed by the disturbances at Rome, marched into Italy, in 998, at the head of a powerful army, and casting into prison the new pontiff, whom the soldiers, in the first moment of their fury, had barbarously maimed and abused, reinstated Gregory in his former honours, and placed him again at the head of the Church. Upon the death of this latter pontiff, which happened soon after his restoration, the same emperor raised to the papal dignity his preceptor and friend, the famous and learned Gerbert, or Silvester II.. whose promotion was attended with the universal approbation of the Roman people.

Of the manners of this age it is difficult to form a competent idea. They were a compound of the most inconsistent qualities of superstition and licentiousness, of chivalry and devotion. The priests and the ladies divided the empire of the world; but they divided it, not as rivals, but as allies. The profitable share fell into the lap of the Church, while the female sex received the no less grateful tribute of adulation and respect. The accession of power and dignity which the superior orders of ecclesiastics received at this period baffles all computation. Many of the bishops and abbots obtained a complete immunity from the jurisdiction of the counts and other magistrates, as well as from all taxes, services, and imposts whatever. The ambition of others aspired at no less than the highest temporal dignities, and received the titles and honours of dukes, marquises, and counts of the empire. The views and motives were various which induced the sovereigns of Europe to comply with these presumptuous claims. The spiritual rulers were the happiest agents which tyranny could employ for the subjection of the people. In many cases these agents were the sons or brothers of the *Fleury says eleven months.