XIII. CHAP. these regulations were admitted as the general rules of ecclesiastical discipline in France, and its decision has been distinguished by the name of the pragmatic sanction. Notwithstanding the attempts of succeeding pontiffs to abrogate these canons as impious and heretical, they were firmly adhered to by the French clergy and people, as highly conducive to the welfare and repose of the kingdom. Nor had the sovereigns of France been less attached to a system which freed them in a great measure from the influence of the Romish see, submitted the nomination of benefices to the approbation of the king, prohibited the payment of annates and other exorbitant claims of the Roman court, and abolished the scandalous custom of selling ecclesiastical dignities, which was practised not only as they became vacant, but during the life of the possessor as a reversionary inHence, notwithstanding the authority of the advocates of the Romish see, who have asserted or insinuated that these canons were abrogated by succeeding monarchs, and in particular by Louis XI. and Louis XII. the claims of the French clergy under the pragmatic sanction were still considered as in full terest. A. D. 1515. A. Pont. III, A. Et. 40. XIII. A.D. 1515. A. Ft. 40. A. Pont. III. full force.(a) In agitating this important CHAP. question, the object of Francis was not only to obtain a formal concession of the jurisdiction exercised by the monarchs of France in the ecclesiastical affairs of the kingdom, but to transfer to the crown some of those privileges which had been claimed and exercised by the French clergy, and to vest in the king a right to those presentations to ecclesiastical benefices which had heretofore been claimed by the Roman see. On the other hand, Leo was not less desirous to accomplish an object which had frustrated the efforts of his predecessors, and to abolish a code of laws which had been so long regarded as the opprobrium of (a) In the rebellious efforts of Louis XI. to seize upon the crown of France during the life of his father, he had assured Pius II. that when he had obtained possession of the kingdom, he would abolish the pragmatic sanction. When that event occurred, the pope did not forget to remind him of his promise, in consequence of which that crafty prince issued a decree for its abrogation, which he sent to the parliament of Paris for its approbation; but at the same time he secretly directed his attorney general to oppose it, and prevent its being registered; which that officer accordingly did; and the legate, whom the pope had dispatched to France on this subject, returned without having effected the object of his mission. S. S. Concilia, Labbei et Cossartii, lom. xii. p. 1432. XIII. CHAP. of the church; and although the pretensions of the king went beyond the claims of the pragmatic sanction, yet, as the destruction of that system would overturn the independence of the French clergy, and as the rights of the sovereign were to be exercised under the express sanction of the holy see, and not in direct opposition to its authority, as had theretofore been done, the pontiff willingly listened to the representations made to him by the king on this head and the discussion was soon terminated to their mutual satisfaction. It was in consequence agreed that the pragmatic sanction should be abolished in express terms, both by the pope and the king, but that its chief provisions and immunities should be revived and extended by a contemporary act, which should invest the king with greater power in the ecclesiastical concerns of the kingdom, than he had before enjoyed. Hence arose the celebrated Concordat, by which the nomination to all ecclesiastical benefices within the French dominions was expressly granted to the king, with a reservation of the annates to the Roman see; besides which, the right of deciding all controversies respecting the affairs of the church, excepting in some particular instances, was conceded to the judicature of A. D. 1515. A. Pont. III A. Et. 40. XIII. of the sovereign without appeal.(a) Both the CHAP. king and the pope have been accused, on this occasion, of having mutually bought and sold the rights of the church, and betrayed the interests of that religion which it was their duty to have protected. That their conduct excited the warmest indignation of the French clergy appears by the bold appeal of the university of Paris, in which the proceedings of the council of Basil in opposition to Eugenius IV. are openly defended, the rights of the gallican church courageously asserted, and the character of Leo X. impeached with great freedom.(b) Even the laity were jealous of the authority which the king had thus unexpectedly obtained; conceiving that by this union (a) Hist. S. Lateran. Concil. p. 184. S.'S. Concilia Labei et Cossártii, tom. xiv. p. 288. Dumont, Corps Diplomat. iv. par. i. p. 226. · By art. xxix of this Concordat, the clergy are prohibited from keeping concubines, under the penalty of forfeiture of their ecclesiastical revenues for three months, and loss of their benefices, if they persevered. The laity are also exhorted to continence; and it is very gravely and very truly observed-" Nimis reprehensibilis 66 est, qui uxorem habet, et ad aliam uxorem, seu mu"lierem accedit; qui verò solutus est, si continere nolit, 66 juxta Apostoli consilium, uxorem ducat." (b) v. App. No. CXXXIII. A. D. 1515. A. Et. 40. A. Pout. III. XIII. CHAP. union of the spiritual and temporal power in his own person, he would find it an easy task to eradicate the few remaining germs of liberty which had escaped the destructive vigilance of Louis XI. and which, under the milder government of his successors, had begun to put forth no unpromising shoots.(a). A. D. 1515. A. Et. 40. A. Pont. III. After (a) The Parisians, who hated the Concordat, attributed it to the pope, the duchess of Angoulême mother of Francis I. and the chancellor du Prat. The following lines are said to have been affixed in different parts of the city : Prato, Leo, Mulier, frendens Leo rodit utrumque; Such was the tumult, that a leader only seemed want. ing to induce the people to revolt, and the streets of Paris resounded with seditious ballads, "Concilium Cleri fle-quicquid habes sera rifle," &c. v. Seckendorf. Comment. de Lutheranismo. lib. i. p. 32. The Abbe Mably, in his Observations sur l'histoire de France, (v. Fabr. in not. Leon X. 44.) considers the authority thus obtained, as a powerful engine of oppression in the hands of the sovereign. "Ce fut pour s' attacher "plus etroitement le Clergè, que Francois fit avec Leon X. "le Concordat, et soutint avec tant d' opiniatretè un traitè ❝ qui |
