indeed, proceeded so far as to awaken the conscience even of the Pope himself, who subsequently ratified this Article.

The popes had usurped the power of translating from see to see, without consulting the inclination of the prelates affected by the change. These forcible translations were prohibited by the committee; but it does not appear that Martin V. consented even to so slight an encroachment upon his despotism. It had also been a custom, probably established by Innocent III., for the Popes to reserve to the Holy See the power of giving absolution for certain offences (called reserved cases), which were thought to be placed above episcopal cognizance. The pretext for this innovation was, to invest those crimes with additional terrors, and to repel men from their commission by the difficulty of obtaining absolution. The common effect was this; that many, unable or indisposed to undertake so long a pilgrimage, disregarded entirely both confession and penance; while others, whose easier circumstances permitted the journey, poured forth their penitential gold with great profusion into the apostolical coffers. This subject was for some time debated in the committee; but it was at length unanimously decided, that the established usage should remain.

As those, here mentioned, composed the most important restrictions, which it was designed to impose upon the Pope's authority, so the

meditated reform of his cardinals and his court The Court of Rome, would have introduced changes still less considerable. Four resolutions were passed respecting the number of the sacred college, and the qualifications necessary for admission; as also, that every new nomination should receive the approbation of the majority of the college. Others were enacted for the better administration of the apostolical chancery and chamber, respecting protonotaries and participants; the auditors, or judges della rota (the parliament of the Pope); scriptors of the penitentiary; abbreviators of Bulls; clerks of the chamber; correctors of the apostolical letters; auditores contradictariorum, and auditors of the chamber; acoluthes, subdeacons, chaplains, referendaries, penitentiaries, and registrars-not for the abolition of any of those offices*, or of others which might have been added to the list, but only for their more judicious regulation. Thus we observe, that it did not then enter into the views of any party to diminish the state and dignity of the see, nor to curtail any of the consequence which it might derive from those circumstances; but that the Reformers of those days would have been well satisfied in that matter, had the Pope consented to part with the most obvious and superficial abuses.

The Secular Clergy.

The resolutions of the committee respecting the secular clergy, while they proclaimed the general corruption, were more especially levelled against two crimes, the same which, from the days of Gregory VII., had been the constant mark for the shafts of Reform-simony and concubinage. The enactments which were made, particularly against the former of these offences, were reasonable and salutary. But there could be little prospect of their execution, so long as the court of Rome was left in possession of so much pomp and splendour, without any fixed and sufficient Junds for its support. Even had it been possible by a single act of the

The only office, as far as we can observe, which the reformers abolished, was the Auditorship of the Chamber of Avignon,' which, since the return of the Pope's to Rome, had become an obvious sinecure.

council, at once to extirpate simony from the Church, Rome was the hotbed where it would of necessity have sprung up again, and thence spread its pestiferous branches over the whole surface of Christendom. Other ecclesiastical abuses were likewise assailed. It had frequently happened*, to the great scandal of the people, that bishops held sees, and incumbents parishes, without having taken priest's orders. The College of Reform had already regulated, that the pope should grant no dispensation to bishops, on this point, for longer than one year: it extended the same limit to the inferior clergy. Another, and very important task it also undertook,-to draw the limits which were hereafter to divide civil from ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and to specify the causes which appertained to either. The want of some definite arrangement on this subject had, for some time, disturbed the course of justice, and led to perpetual broils between the clergy and the laity. Nevertheless, as it was through that very indistinctness, that the former had been enabled to push their claims so far, it might be uncertain whether its removal, though finally advantageous to both parties, would be very popular among them. Several useful regulations were likewise devised for the purification of the various religious bodies, and especially of the Mendicants. It seems, indeed, to have been generally admitted by the leading reformers, that in the universal degeneracy of the Church, the most conspicuous instances of profligacy and profaneness were exhibited by the monastic establishments.

Such are the outlines of the project† by which the reformers of Constance proposed to restrain the abuses of papacy, and to restore, correct, and consolidate the Catholic Church. And here we should again remark, that the authors of that project were themselves zealous, and even bigoted churchmen. Respecting the divine authority, the power, the infallibility + of the Church, they professed opinions as lofty, as the loftiest notions of their adversaries. Still the space which divided the two parties was broad and clear, and it was included in one question-In what does this infallible Church consist? In what is it fully and faithfully represented? Does a council-general, without the Pope, possess the mighty attributes in question? Or a council-general with the Pope? or the Pope without a council-general? The last opinion, the extreme of high papacy, had not perhaps very many advocates; at least the second was that on which the Italians took their stand, as being the more tenable; the first was the rallying principle of the reformers, who may be designated the low papists. It cannot be too carefully impressed, that the mighty struggles at Constance respected, in as far as principles were concerned, not the character of the Church, on which all were agreed, but the extent to which the Pope possessed the attributes of the Church. And this distinction being rightly understood, we shall find no difficulty in accounting-when we shall arrive at that subject-for the seeming inconsistency, with which the council of Constance deposed a legitimate Pope with one hand, while it consigned the heretics, Huss and Jerome, to barbarous execution with the other.

We have observed, that at the Fortieth Session eighteen articles, which

* Lenfant, Hist. Conc. Const., liv. vii., s. 46.

66

The above account is founded on four authentic documents published by M. Von der Hardt, from the MSS. of the library of Vienna, and recognized by Lenfant as containing all the resolutions of the committee of reform.'-Hist. Conc. Constan., liv. vii., s. xxvii. See Von der Hardt, tom.i., partes x. xi. xii. Collegii Reformatorum Constant. statuta, sive Geminum Reformatorii Constant. Protocollum, &c. &c.

It is only necessary to refer to the writings of leading reformers, Gerson, Pierre d'Ailli, &c., and the acts of the councils both of Constance and Basle.

The Reformation eluded by Martin V.

were the heads of the resolutions of the committee, were submitted, by the approbation of the council, to the future Pope, and that Martin V. was elected a few days afterwards. Again, on the very day following his coronation, the nations assembled and pressed the observance of his obligation. The Pope appears to have promised with great facility; but at the same time he appointed six cardinals to co-operate with the deputies of the nations in revising their former labours. Divisions presently arose; the cardinals were indefatigable in creating difficulties; so that the patience of the Germans being once more wearied, they addressed (about the end of 1417) a fresh memorial to the new committee. The subjects urged on this occasion principally regarded reservations, appointment to benefices, expectative graces, and other papal usurpations, and abuses of the Church patronage. Very soon afterwards, the French remonstrated with equal warmth against the procrastinations of the committee, and even presented a petition to Sigismond, in which they exhorted him to employ his powerful influence with the Pope. But Sigismond had not forgotten their late opposition, nor was he unmindful of the fatal wound, which they had inflicted on the cause. He dismissed their deputies without honour; and while he bade them reflect, how steadily they had thwarted his wish to accomplish the reformation before the Pope should be elected, he recommended them, now that they had obtained their Pope, to apply to him for their reform. At the same time, the Spaniards raised a clamour against simony and other abuses, and went so far as to throw out some menaces against the Pontiff himself; indeed some of them were suspected of still harbouring a secret attachment towards their perverse compatriot, the Pope of Paniscola. Martin was somewhat moved by this show of unanimity; and thinking to gain better terms by dividing his adversaries, he contrived to open a separate negotiation with each nation, on the plea that he could thus more intimately consult their several interests. The scheme succeeded; and as all parties were wearied alike with dispute and delay, matters were now hurried to a conclusion. On the 21st of March, 1418, the Pope, no longer disguising his eagerness to dissolve the council, held the 43d session, and published his own articles of reformation; and they should be recorded for their very insignificance. The first revoked (with a large field for exceptions) such exemptions as had been granted during the schism; the second commanded a fresh examination of such unions of benefices as had taken place during the same period. The third prohibited the appropriation of the revenues of vacant benefices to the apostolical chamber. The fourth was a general edict against simony. The fifth respected papal dispensations to hold benefices without being in orders. The sixth forbade the imposition of tenths and other taxes on ecclesiastics, unless for some great advantage to the Church, and with the consent of the cardinals and local prelates. The seventh regulated the dress of ecclesiastics, according to the modesty of the antient laws; and the last, and the most shameless of all, declared that, by the above articles, and by the concordats granted to the nations, the Pope had satisfied the demands of the Committee of reform, as expressed in the fortieth session of the council, and discharged his own obligations.

The Concordats were as delusive as the articles*; and Martin, con

That granted to the Germans contained twelve articles, which are enumerated by Semler, Secul. xv., cap. ii., p. 38. Since they did not go to the effectual removal of any grand abuse, it is unnecessary to cite them here.

Dissolution of the
Council.

scious of this, had not yet made them public; but continued to press the immediate dissolution of the council. It was in vain objected, that many matters of great importance still remained unsettled: it was replied, that the patrimony of the Holy See was in the hands of depredators; that Rome itself was exposed to the scourges of famine and pestilence, of foreign and intestine war; that it was the paramount duty of him, whom the whole world now acknowledged as the successor of St. Peter, to place himself on the throne of the apostle. Accordingly, on the 22d of April, the council assembled for the fortyfifth and last session; and the Bull which released the fathers from their unsuccessful labours, showered upon them and their domestics a profusion of indulgences, as if to complete, by an additional mockery, the insult with which their hopes had been destroyed*. On the 2d of May the concordats were published; and that which was granted to the French was immediately rejected by them, as contrary to the liberties of the Gallican Church. But the object of Martin was already accomplished; the Council of Constance had ceased to exist; and in defiance of the urgent remonstrances of the emperor, the pontiff turned his footsteps towards Italy. He turned towards the soil, where papacy was national and indigenous, and where, amidst all the turbulence of contending cities and factions, the spiritual despotism of the Vicar of Christ had never yet been contested.

We should here observe that, while very lofty language was employed at Constance on both sides respecting the principle on which the government of the Church rested; while some maintained that it was a pure monarchy, others that it was a monarchy tempered by a mixture of the aristocratical and even republican character; other disputes were less publicly, though not less passionately, agitated between

those parties, respecting much more vulgar con- Disputes on Annates. siderations. The reader cannot fail to have re

marked, that of the concessions made by Martin, those which were not absolutely nugatory regarded the temporalities of the Church, and the power of the Pope to levy contributions upon the clergy. The reforming prelates had pressed these from the beginning among other grievances; but it proved at last, that the subject, on which those pecuniary discussions had chiefly turned, was entirely unnoticed in the Pope's decree. The exaction of Annates, or the first year's income of vacant benefices, seems to have

.

As this memorable Bull happens to be short, it will be well to record it. We Martin, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, ad perpetuam rei memoriam, by the requisition of the holy council, do hereby dismiss and declare it terminated, giving to every one liberty to return home. Besides, by the authority of God the omnipotent, and of his blessed apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, and by our own, we accord to all the members of the council plenary absolution from all their sins, "semel in vita;" so that each among them may obtain this absolution in form, within two months after the gift shall be made known to him. We also give them the same privilege in articulo mortis; and we extend it to servants as well as their masters, on condition that, after the day of notification, both the one and the other shall fast every Friday during one year, for the absolution for life, and another year for the absolution in articulo mortis; unless there be some legitimate hinderance, in which case they shall perform other pious works. And after the second year, they shall be held to fast every Friday during life, or to do other works of piety, on pain of incurring the indignation of the omnipotent God, and of his blessed apostles St. Peter and St. Paul. Such were the consolations which were offered to the most enlightened body which had ever yet assembled in the name of the Church, in return for their disappointed expectations, by the <ery man whom they had raised to power, and whose first use of it was to betray them, They demanded a substantial reform, and he paid the debt in indulgences.

been that, among all the resources of the apostolical chancery, which was most profitable to the receivers, and most unpopular among all other ecclesiastics. The claim was of a very modern date; it could not be traced higher than Clement V.; and it scarcely assumed the shape of a right till the pontificate of Boniface IX. The French nation' urged the abolition of this tax with especial zeal from the very opening of the council; and the ambassador of Charles VI, was instructed at all events to carry this measure. The fathers, in a general assembly, even passed a resolution to that effect; but the cardinals still exclaimed and remonstrated, and protested; and, as their last resource, they ventured to appeal from the council to the future. Pope. The French replied to this appeal with much spirit and reason*; and had the reformation preceded the election, there can be no doubt that the imposition would have been removed. But the cardinals finally prevailed, and the odious exaction, under some slight and indefinite restrictions, was re-established.

But though the reforming party, which really constituted the great majority of the Council, was finally defrauded of all the substance of its project, and dismissed with a very thin veil to cover its defeat, yet the recollection of one great triumph might supply substantial ground of consolation. The superiority of a General Council to the Pope was unequivocally decreed at Constance. The prelates of Pisa had done little more than overthrow two claimants to the See, neither of whom was universally acknowledged, or rightfully established. But the legitimacy of John XXIII. was never questioned even by his bitterest enemies; and Martin, whose succession to the dignity was only legal through the legality of the previous deposition and of the power exercised by the deposing Council, was the least qualified of all men to discredit either the act or the authority; so that, whatsoever struggles and protestations may afterwards have been made by individual Popes, the general principle was immutably established in the Churcht. The fathers of Constance also carried home with them another source of comfort and hope. In the thirty-ninth session, held on the 9th of October, 1417, it was enacted, as a perpetual law of the Church, that general councils should be held on every tenth year from the termination of the preceding; in such places as the Pope, with the consent of the Council sitting, should appoint. But in the first instance, as the actual exigencies of the Church did not seem to allow even that short interval, another Council was to be assembled in five years from the dissolution of that of Constance, and a third in seven years after the second. In obedience to this constitution, Martin V. twice attempted to collect an obsequious assembly in Italy; but his summons were disregarded by the foreign prelates, to whom neither Pavia nor Sienna offered any prospect of independence. The scanty synods were hastily dissolved, and the only act which is recorded of the latter was to grant as ample indulgences to those, who should contribute gold for the extinction of the Bohemian heretics, as to those, who

Decree for the decennial meeting of General Councils.

The substance of the paper is given by the Continuator of Fleury, 1. civ., s. lxxiv. Some curious particulars of the dispute between the French and the Cardinals on the subject of Annates may be found in Von der Hardt, tom.i., pars xiii.

It is well known that Transalpine divines dispute the principle even to this moment; but they have no ground to stand upon. If they admit the legitimacy of the Council of Constance, they must receive that decision; if not, they impugn the succession of their Popes ever since that Council-for they all flow uninterruptedly from Martin V. No sophistry can liberate them from this dilemma.