|
Whatever the degree of their individual sanctity, learning, or
political capacity, one idea, beyond all others, never ceased to
inspire the activities of the popes from the time of the Council of
Sutri onwards -- the idea so to purify the life of the members of the
Church, that through them God's perfection should shine forth and the
city of God be realised upon earth. That all Catholics should live the
life of the Gospel, the life of the counsels and the life of the
precepts, was the whole aim of the Church's institution; and all the
struggles waged by popes with the powers of this world were, in the
last analysis, designed for this end -- to remove the obstacles which
hindered the Church's mission of regenerating souls to God. Not that
princes, and their usurpations of spiritual jurisdiction and the like,
were the only obstacles. The hindrances presented by human weakness,
human wickedness and human folly in a myriad individual lives still
remained. Here was the very field of the Church's mission.
Finally the Church itself, considered as a means of regeneration,
called for continual examination: more especially since, in these last
two centuries, the Roman See had done so much to centralise
administration. When the eleventh-century popes assumed the new role
that made them the accredited initiators of every good work, they
assumed a new responsibility for the vast world they directed, and for
the good order of the machine through which they ruled. Their
consciousness of their new responsibility is seen in the series of
general councils which they begin to summon, one in every generation,
and which are concerned primarily with the exposition of a standard of
Catholic life, and with regulations designed to maintain that standard.
The early [ ] general councils were called, all of them, to define
special points of faith which had begun to be called in question. They
met in the lands where the disputes had arisen, and they were called at
the request of the contending parties. The period which saw this
institution develop was that time when the West -- and Rome along with
the West-passed through the frightful chaos of what it is convenient to
call the Barbarian Invasions. These over, and Rome at last able to
begin to organise her supremacy, a new type of general council appears,
whose chief concern is the practice of religion, and it is summoned at
Rome's initiative. There are six [ ] such councils in a hundred and
fifty years and the greatest of them all is the one summoned by
Innocent III in 1215 -- the Fourth Council of the Lateran. This was the
greatest gathering of the whole Middle Ages, and through it, better
perhaps than through any other event or institution, we can realise
that extraordinary unity of medieval civilisation, the quality that
made the medieval, for all the very real differences, really at home
anywhere in Christendom and which, without destroying social and
economic distinctions (and even their disadvantages), did so much
ultimately to neutralise them.
The council was called, by letters of April 4, 1213, to meet on
November I, 1215. All the bishops were invited, the heads of the new
centralised religious orders too (an innovation in procedure produced
by this new feature of religious life), Cistercians,
Premonstratensians, Hospitallers and Templars, temporal princes also
(another innovation), representatives of republics, even of the
innumerable tiny city-states. All the bishops were ordered to come,
three or four alone from each province excepted. Chapters, whether of
cathedrals or of collegiate churches, were to send delegates, and the
exempted bishops were to do the same. Two main problems were to occupy
the council’s attention, the question of the Holy Land and the question
of the reform of Catholic life. Meanwhile a general enquiry was
organised to provide particular matter for the discussions on reform.
The council actually opened on November 11, 1215, with four hundred and
twelve bishops present, eight hundred abbots and priors, and
representatives of all the States. The number of bishops from Germany
was very small. The war now raging between Otto IV and Frederick II,
and the remains of the schism which had in some sees placed both a
papal bishop and an imperial bishop, made it impossible for many
bishops to leave their churches.
There were three public sessions, the opening session on November 11,
the second on November 20, and the final session on November 30. Before
the first session, and between the other two, private meetings of one
kind and another were held, at which the preparatory discussions took
place which issued in the decrees ultimately promulgated at the final
session. At the second public session there was a discussion on the
claims of Frederick II to the empire as against the excommunicated
Otto, and the council supported Innocent's action. There was also,
apparently, a discussion on English affairs. The excommunication of the
barons in rebellion against John was confirmed, and the council also
assented to the pope's suspension of Cardinal Stephen Langton,
Archbishop of Canterbury, for his support of the rebels. At the final
session there was a stormy discussion on the subject of the partition
of the lands of Raymond VI of Toulouse, as to whether Simon de Montfort
should be confirmed in his possession. The pope, here, was opposed to
the council which would have recognised Simon. In the end, as has been
related, Innocent was able to arrange a compromise. Finally, in this
same session the seventy canons of the council [ ] were solemnly
promulgated.
The first canon is the famous profession of faith Firmiter, a statement
of Catholic belief directed primarily against the Albigenses and the
innumerable anti-sacerdotal sects of the day. It emphasises the
creation of all things, spiritual and corporal alike, by the one sole
God. The devils, too, are God's creation. That they are now evil is the
effect of their own perversity. The reality of the Incarnation of the
Only-begotten Son of God is affirmed once more, with a greater
precision as to its mode. The sanctions of the future life for present
conduct are explicitly set out. There is but a single Church for all
believers. Outside of it no one can besaved; within it Jesus Christ
Himself is priest and sacrifice, whose body and blood are truly
contained in the sacrament of the altar under the appearance of bread
and wine, the bread being transsubstantiated [ ] into the body and the
wine into the blood by the power of God; so that, to make perfect the
mystery of unity, we may receive of His where He has taken of ours. No
one can bring this sacrament into existence but the priests duly
ordained by that power of the Church which Jesus Christ gave to the
Apostles and their successors. Baptism, by whomsoever administered, if
it is rightly administered in the Church's form, is profitable to
salvation as much to little children as lo adults. Sins committed after
baptism can be made good by sincere penance. Not only virgins and those
who lead a life of continency, but the married also can attain eternal
happiness, by true faith and a good life.
Then follows a still more lengthy canon condemning the book of Joachim
of Flora against Peter Lombard. The pope, in this canon, takes the
unusual course of setting out Joachim's argument before proceeding to
declare -- in a form that is even more unusual -- " We, however, with
the approval of the Sacred Council, believe and confess with Peter
Lombard" -- what the true teaching is. Joachim's theory is condemned;
but the canon expressly declares that the condemnation is in no way to
be taken as a condemnation of his foundation at Flora, which is a model
of religious observance. Joachim, it is further noted, submitted all
his writings to the apostolic see to be amended as the pope thought
necessary, since, as he himself wrote, the Roman Church is the mother
and teacher of all the faithful. This second canon concludes with a
brief judgement on the pantheistic theories of Amaury de Bene, theories
it describes as not so much heretical as insane.
The council then turns to review the life of the Church, to denounce
the weakness and the wickedness of its members, and to provide
punishment for the obstinate. It begins with the clergy.
Clerics living in sin are to be suspended, and, if they ignore the
suspension, they are to be deposed. Bishops who allow such scandals to
continue -- and especially if they allow it for the sake of money or
some other advantage -- are also to lose their office for ever. Even
more severely are clerics to be punished for sins of this kind in
places where the discipline is such that they could, had they chosen,
have married. [ ] Drunkenness is another bad habit There are clerics,
and bishops among them, who sit up all night carousing; drinking
competitions are not unknown; the next day's Matins finds them absent
from choir. Other bishops hardly ever say Mass, and laugh at the idea
of assisting at it. When they do assist they do little more than gossip
with the laity and transact business. [ ] There is another type of
ecclesiastic who delights in hunting and fowling. This is forbidden, no
matter what his rank, and it is forbidden even to keep hunting dogs and
birds.
Canon 16 has a long list of things which the clerics must not do: civil
employments, trade (especially if it is dishonest), miming, acting,
frequenting taverns (absolutely forbidden save for the necessities of
travelling), dicing and even looking on at games of chance. Clerics are
to be soberly dressed. Their garments are to be of a moderate cut,
neither too long nor too short, and fastened up to the neck. Red and
green are colours definitely forbidden. Clerics are not to wear
embroidered gloves nor shoes. They are not allowed to gild their spurs,
bridles, saddles nor any part of the harness of their mounts. Nor are
their bridles or belts to be ornamented with gold or silver. Bishops
are to wear linen unless they are monks, in which case they are to keep
the habit of the order to which they belong. Clerics are not to have
any part in trials that involve the punishment of death, nor are they
to look on at executions. They are forbidden all military employment.
They are not to act as surgeons. They are not to bless ordeals. This
last prohibition, since it removed the one thing that gave the ordeal
its value, was the beginning of the end of that superstitious usage.
That such abuses as those, for whose correction these laws are made,
may not arise in the future, the council proceeds to legislate in the
matter of clerical appointments.
Sees are not to be left vacant. If the chapter concerned does not elect
within three months, the right (and duty) of providing the new bishop
passes to the metropolitan. [ ] If the chapter follow the method of
election, a simple majority suffices. [ ] The unlawful interference of
the secular power is provided against by a canon which decrees that
whoever accepts election in such circumstances not only is not elected,
but loses all right to be elected, to any post at all in the future.
Those who elect him are also to lose both office and income for three
years, and to lose all electoral rights [ ] The bishop, or abbot it may
be, once elected, it falls to the metropolitan, or diocesan bishop, to
confirm the election. He is to examine if the election has been made in
due form and to examine if the elect be suitable. Should he confirm the
choice of an unsuitable person -- especially one lacking in the
requisite learning, or of evil life, or who is under the canonical age
-- the confirmation is invalid, and he loses all rights in the matter
of the next election, and is himself suspended until the pope absolves
him. [ ]
It is, once more, strictly forbidden to confer on the same person more
than one benefice with cure of souls. The pope notes that the
legislation of the previous council (the Third Lateran of 1179) about
this scandal has had scarcely any effect, such is the impudence and
greed of mankind. For the future, acceptance of the second office
entails loss of the first. Whoever attempts to retain the first loses
also the second. The patron of the first benefice is to make a new
appointment, immediately its holder has accepted a second. The bishop's
diligence in the observance of these salutary laws is not to be left to
his own unaided conscience. At the annual provincial council there is
to be an enquiry into all nominations to benefices since the bishops
last met. Bishops who have made unsuitable appointments are to be
admonished. If, after a second admonition, they have done nothing, they
are to lose all rights of patronage, and the council is to appoint an
official to exercise the right in their place. If the negligent bishop
is the metropolitan himself, he is to be denounced to the Holy See. The
disability laid on such bishops no one but the pope can remove. A last
rule about appointments is that no cleric shall be given a canonry in a
church where his father is already a canon -- whether the cleric be
born in wedlock or no. All such appointments are null, and those who
make such appointments are suspended.
The new papal centralisation would protect the Church against unworthy
clergy. It aims at protecting the clergy against rapacious prelates.
Bishops are warned that they must not rob the clergy serving those
churches which are in the gift of the bishops. The pope has heard of
unfortunate priests who receive only one-sixteenth of the revenue due
to them, the episcopal patron retaining the rest. Nor are bishops to
make visitations an excuse for bleeding their clergy. The canon of 1179
is re-enacted, and bishops who have offended are now required, not only
to make restitution to the full, but to give in charity a sum equal to
that they have had to restore. Metropolitans who neglect complaints of
this kind made against their suffragans are to be severely punished.
Bishops, in canon 10, are reminded of their duty to preach, and when
the bishop is not equal to the task, when for example the diocese is
too extensive. he is to choose suitable priests to assist him. In all
cathedral and collegiate churches he is to establish priests to act as
his coadjutors in the work of preaching and hearing confessions. It is
the bishop who is responsible for the education of the future clergy.
The decree of the council of 1179. that in each cathedral, and in all
the greater churches, there should be established a master to teach
grammar, and in the metropolitan church a lecturer in theology, had in
many churches the present council states, been entirely ignored. Whence
it is now re-enacted, with this difference that a lectureship in
theology is ordered to be founded in every cathedral. The bishop,
furthermore. is specially warned to see that the clergy are trained in
the administration of the sacraments. Better few good priests, so canon
27, than many bad ones. Churches are not to be used as depots in which
the clergy may store their property. I hey are to be kept scrupulously
clean, and the Holy Eucharist -- the chrism also -- is to be kept under
lock and key.
One of the most constantly recurring complaints of the sectaries is
that the clergy are too fond of money. The council, in a series of
canons, labours to protect from this all too human vice the sacred
things of God committed to the clergy's stewardship. Bishops are
forbidden to receive offerings of money from those they absolve from
excommunication. They are not allowed to receive fees on the occasion
of consecrations, blessings of abbots and ordinations. Convents of
women are ordered for the future to abstain from demanding a premium,
under the plea of the convent's poverty, from girls who wish to become
nuns. Nuns received under such an arrangement are to be transferred to
other convents, as are also the nuns responsible for the arrangement.
The same is to apply to communities of men. Bishops are not to take
advantage of a parish priest's death to tax the church beyond what the
law allows, nor to enforce the payment of such taxes by laying an
interdict on the church. For moneys thus obtained double restitution is
to be made. With regard to the fees customary at funerals and
marriages, while the clergy often ask too much, the laity as often
offer nothing. The Sacraments are to be given absolutely without
charge. On the other hand, the custom of the laity making a free
offering is to be encouraged.
The 62nd canon regulates the use of relics, and hopes to check the
trade in spurious relics by ordering that no new relics are to be
exposed for veneration without the Holy See's authentication of them.
Collectors of alms, again, are not always genuine nor truthful. The
canon gives a specimen of the letters of credence that should, and for
the future must, guarantee them not to be frauds. The dress of such
collectors is regulated, and they are to live religious lives. Bishops
are warned not to grant extravagant indulgences.
A last class of abuses are those where the laity are the sinners. Lay
patrons are warned against farming out benefices at a starvation rate,
and reminded that lay alienation of church property is null and void.
Lay patrons, and the official lay defenders of the Church, are warned
against abusing their office to their own personal profit. Offences of
this kind entail serious legal disqualifications that continue for four
generations. Clergy are not to be taxed without a license from the
pope. Those who levy such taxes without his permission are
excommunicated, and all their acts are legally null. Should their
successors not repeal such taxes within a month of assuming office, and
give satisfaction for the wrong done, they fall under the same
penalties. Another canon deals with evasions of tithe and canon 54
recalls that tithes have precedence of all other taxes and must be paid
first.
Seven canons are taken up with the religious orders. To avoid grave
confusion in the Church it is now forbidden to establish any new
orders. Those who wish to be monks or nuns are to choose an existing
approved rule. Founders of new houses are to do likewise. No abbot is
to rule more than one monastery. Abbots are forbidden to exercise
certain episcopal rights, to judge marriage cases, for example, to
grant indulgences or to allot public penances. Monks must respect the
rights of parishes in the matter of funerals, and the privileged
monasteries' power of giving burial within the monastery to such laymen
as are oblates of the house is given very strict definition: an oblate
is one who lives in the monastic habit, or who, during his life, has
made over his property to the monastery; a mere annual subscription is
no qualification enough. No monk is to stand security for a debt
without the abbot's permission. Monks to whom land that is
tithe-bearing has been given are not exempt from payment of tithes.
The most important canon of all, so far as monks are concerned, is the
twelfth, which, incidentally, marks the high water mark of Citeaux's
influence in the Church of the Middle Ages. In every ecclesiastical
province, it is now enacted, there shall be held every three years a
common chapter of abbots, and of priors in those orders which do not
have abbots, where so far this has not been the custom. All are to
attend. The chapter, to begin with, will invite two Cistercian abbots
of the neighbourhood to lend the assistance of their experience of the
procedure at general chapters. The Cistercian abbots will choose two of
the chapter and these four will preside. The object of the chapter is a
thorough review Of the state of monastic life throughout the province.
It has power to decide where reforms are needed. The chapter must
appoint visitors for all the religious houses of the province, of women
as well as of men, empowered to correct, as representatives of the Holy
See, whatever calls for correction, and to denounce evil-doers to the
local bishop. The bishops are to watch over the ordinary life of the
monasteries so that the visitation will always find everything in good
order. They are to be the monasteries' protectors, defending the monks
especially from lay tyranny and usurpation.
The council also legislated for two of the sacraments. Canon 21 is the
once famous law Omnis utriusque sexus that every Catholic, under pain
of being debarred from church while alive and being denied Christian
burial when dead, should, at least once a year, confess his sins to his
parish priest, and, if only at Easter, receive the Holy Eucharist. The
canon concludes with a warning to confessors about the spirit in which
they should receive confessions, and of the obligation not to reveal
what is confessed to them. Offenders against this last prescription are
to be thrust into a severe monastery, there to do penance for the rest
of their life. Related to this canon is the one which follows,
reminding physicians that it is their duty to see that their patients
remedy the ills of the soul no less than those of the body, and
forbidding them to recommend, as a remedy for sickness, practices in
themselves sinful. Three canons concern the sacrament of matrimony.
Clandestine marriages are severely condemned and the clergy forbidden
to assist at them. Clergy who are negligent in this matter are to be
suspended for three years. The impediments of consanguinity and
affinity are notably restricted: henceforward they invalidate marriage
only as far as the fourth degree.
The relations between Jews and Christians are also before the council’s
mind. Christians are to be protected by the State against the rapacity
of Jewish moneylenders. Jews -- and Saracens too-are to wear a special
dress so that no Christian shall come to marry them in ignorance of
what they are. During Passiontide Jews are to keep indoors; there have
been only too many riots caused by their mockery of the Christians'
lamentations on Good Friday. No Jews or pagans are to be elected or
appointed to a public office; it is contrary to the sense of things
that those who blaspheme Christ shall hold authority over Christ's
followers.
It is perhaps the canonist that, in Innocent III, is the source of all
his policy. In the General Council summoned by him Canon Law and
procedure receive very notable attention. Seven canons deal with
procedure in trials of one kind or another. Other canons regulate
excommunications, rights of appeal, and the rules for the trial of
clerics, the rights of chapters to correct their own members, and the
rules for resignation of benefices. The clergy are forbidden to extend
their jurisdiction by encroaching on that of the civil courts. But the
most elaborate of this series is the third canon which details the
policy to be followed in the pursuit of heretics. [ ]
The laws were made. How could the council secure that the would be
observed, that the bishops, once retired into the distant sees, would
put into practice what they had accepted? The sixth canon is an attempt
to provide the means. It lays down that the bishops of each
ecclesiastical province are to meet annually, for the correction of
abuses -- clerical abuses particularly -- and for the express purpose
of maintaining the discipline which this council establishes. Official
investigators are to be appointed for each diocese, who shall report to
the provincial council whatever they have found needing correction and
uncorrected. Negligent bishops are to be suspended from office and from
income, and the decisions of the provincial council are to be published
in every see through the annual diocesan synod.
The new canon lawyers had soon begun to collect and classify the
decisions now pouring out from the popes, on all kinds o f questions,
in reply to appeals from bishops everywhere. There were 4,000 such from
Alexander III, more than 5,000 from Innocent III -- all set out in
professional legal form, relating the case to principles, law that was
living. Innocent III and Honorius III each sponsored a collection of
his own decretals. By the time of Gregory IX there were too many
collections. They overlapped. The law could not, always, be known with
certainty. This pope then commissioned a Catalan Dominican -- St.
Raymund of Penaforte -- to reduce the vast mass to a coherent code. In
1234 the code was ready -- the Five Books of the Decretals, 1963 capita
in all, destined to be the basis of the Canon Law down to 1918. This
code of 1234 was henceforward the only law, and it was universal, to be
taught in all universities, to be administered in every bishop's court.
Boniface VIII was to supplement it in 1295, and John XXII in 1317. But
the main work was done in 1234, and with every year that passed it
deepened the effect of the papacy as ruler of the whole church. (cf.
CIMETIER, Les Sources du droit ecclesiastique, Paris, 1930; VILLIEN,
art. Decretales in D.T.C.)
|
|
