Gregory and the Crusades obedience of his subjects by his virtues, rather than his vices, and to show to the Church that deference she expects from one who professes her faith. "It is at the prayer of the august Empress, your mother," continues the Pontiff, "but, above all, at the advice of Beatrice and Matilda, that we write to you." With the view of firing the monarch with religious enthusiasm, and of withdrawing him for a time from the temptations of his Court, Gregory suggested to him the idea of the occupation of Jerusalem by a Christian army. He furnished him with details of the barbarities inflicted upon pilgrims to Palestine, and assured him that troops were ready to march to save the holy places from desecration. "I tell you," wrote the Pontiff, " that the Christians beyond the sea, persecuted by the heathen, and oppressed by miseries, have sent to me, humbly praying me to do the best I can to succour them, and to prevent amongst them the entire ruin of the Christian religion. "I am prostrated with sadness, because of that, and am ready to die. I am ready to expose my life for them, rather than they should not be succoured. "It is for this reason I work to exhort all Christians, and persuade them to give their lives for the brethren, and to show as clear as day of what the children of God are capable in defending the law of Christ. "Already the Italians and those beyond the mountains, inspired by Heaven as I believe, have received my exhortations in good earnest. Already more than fifty thousand faithful are preparing for that enterprise and under my command to march forward against the enemies of God and to penetrate as far as the sepulchre of our Lord. What excites me most powerfully is that the Church of Constantinople separated from us, the Armenians also, and the greater part of the Eastern Church, while waiting for the faith of the Apostle Peter to decide between the diverse creeds, are on our side. "Our fathers often visited these countries for the triumph of the Catholic faith. We should, however unworthily, follow in their footsteps, and it is our duty to act as they acted and to march to the defence of the same religion. "But so great an enterprise is worthy of serious counsels and powerful aid, and it is to you, after God, that I will confide the defence of the Roman Church in order that you may guard it as a holy mother and preserve its honour. Let me know as soon as possible what you think of this prospect, and may the inspiration of heaven aid you in your decision." 1 But Henry was far too self-indulgent to grasp the importance of a movement which, had he been in command, would have opened up the East to Germany for exploration and commerce and cemented his own authority by closer relations with the heads of European Courts. He had both the courage and ability for the task, and it was one of the many mistakes of his life that, giving himself up to personal gratification, he let this opportunity of having his name enrolled among the heroes of chivalry slip by unheeded. Years later, when Gregory had passed away and Henry's sun was setting in ignominy and disgrace, the glory of the victory fell to one of his own knights. Though the Pontiff was, as Cardinal Newman has remarked, "engaged in one of the severest conflicts which Pope has ever sustained, not only against the secular power, but against bad Bishops and priests, yet at a time when his very life was not his own, and present responsibilities so urged him that one would fancy he had no time for other thought, Gregory was able to turn his mind to the consideration of a contingent danger in the almost fabulous East." "There was one," continues the Cardinal, "the divinely-appointed Shepherd of the poor of Christ, the anxious Steward of His Church, who, from his high and ancient watch-tower in the fulness of apostolic charity, surveyed narrowly what was going on thousands of 1Renée Amédée. Clerical Celibacy miles from him, and with prophetic eye looked into the future age; and scarcely had that enemy who was in the event so heavily to smite the Christian world, shown himself, when he gave warning of the danger, and prepared himself, with measures for averting it."1 Gregory, whose vigour seemed to be inexhaustible, was most assiduous in the performance of the many and various duties pertaining to his high office. In the space of two years he had convoked no less than seven Councils, in each of which he attacked in no sparing measure the abuses of the day. There was one reform which, on his accession to the papal throne, Gregory had sternly intended to carry into effect. That was the suppression of the heresy of the Nicholaites, a name given to those who advocated marriage among the clergy. The reasons for clerical celibacy are both obvious and logical for, as St Paul remarks, "He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord how he may please the Lord. But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife." 2 "Now," remarks a Catholic Bishop, "the Church will have no divided hearts among her Bishops and priests, and will therefore accept the ministrations of those only who take a vow of celibacy." The work of the priesthood is essentially that of a missionary, and the unmarried cleric can, as a Protestant prelate justly observes," be expeditiously and readily removed from place to place. He has no interests but those of the Church and the Church's Head; has no temptation in heaping up riches, and none to form worldly schemes and seek worldly interests for the advancement of his family." In a Council held at Rome in the same year (1074), it was determined that "(1) no clerk should take a wife; (2) that Holy Orders should be conferred on such only as would profess perpetual celibacy; and (3) that no married man should offer up Mass." Historical Sketches. J. H. Newman, vol. 1. 21 Cor. vii. 32. Same reference in Catholic and Protestant versions. This might at first sight appear to be rather a harsh procedure, and one that would bear heavily upon those priests and their wives who had entered into matrimonial alliances. But the laws passed by preceding Pontiffs had already forbidden what was now condemned, and the hardships brought upon those who had broken the rule were those of their own seeking. Lay Investiture CHAPTER VI "The passionate will, the pride, the wrath, And failed me in my mad career."—The Golden Legend. IN Lent of the following year (1075), Gregory convoked a Council, at which the vexed question of investitures was again brought forward and discussed. The custom had gradually been assumed by European rulers of giving investiture by the ring and crosier which constituted the insignia of the Bishop's sacred office. This ceremony, as historians remind us, implied, and often was in fact, the delivery of the authority of the Church into the hands of the Civil power.1 The transference of these symbols to the King on the death of a prelate, enabled him to confer them upon any person whom he should choose, with or without reference to the Pontiff, the visible Head of the Church. It was this encroachment upon ecclesiastical rights which Gregory wished to check. The practice, besides opening the way to simony and many other abuses of the time, also favoured the placing in benefices and abbeys relatives and partizans who were totally unfit for their office. The blow thus aimed against lay investitures "struck at the root," says the historian, "of their personal importance, since ecclesiastical preferments were usually bestowed as appanages on the younger sons of illustrious houses."2 "Under cover of this usurpation, the lands of a church were let for the benefit of the Crown, to "The Sovereign," says Hume, "had in reality the sole power of appointing prelates." 2 Historical Pictures of the Middle Ages. |