the Ambrosian, which had been respected, and was undisturbed by Gregory the Great.

Church of

right of

marriage.

But the Church of Milan possessed likewise-or boasted that it possessed-an unbroken tradiMilan asserts tion from St. Ambrose himself. They cited boldly, publicly, and without any charge that they had falsified the text--the very words of St. Ambrose, authorising, if not the marriage of the clergy, the Greek usage, that priests married before their ordination should retain their wives." Heribert himself, the

• This was the sentence: "De monogamia sacerdotum quid loquar? quum una tantum permittitur copula et non repetita, et hæc lex est non iterare conjugium." This text now stands: "De castimoniâ autem quid loquar, quando una tantum nec repetita permittitur copula? Et in ipso ergo conjugio lex est non iterare conjugium."-S. Ambros, Oper. edit. St. Maur. ii. 66, Paris, 1686. Another passage was triumphantly cited in a public speech (Rer. Ital. Script. iv. p. 109): "Virtutum autem magister apostolus est . . . qui unius uxoris virum præcipit esse, non quod exortem excludat conjugii, nam

hoc supra

legem præcepti est, sed ut conjugali castimoniâ fruatur absolutionis sui gratiâ nulla enim culpa est conjugii, sed lex. Ideo apostolus legem posuit dicens; si quis sine crimine est, unius uxoris vir, tenetur ad legem sacerdotii supradicti (am?) qui autem iteraverit conjugium, culpam quidem non habet coinquinati, sed prærogativâ exuitur sacerdotis." In the editions this now stands: "Ut conjugali castimoniâ servet absolutionis sui gratiam." Instead of the words in italics, omitted:

creare apostolica invitetur auctoritate, habentem enim dixit filios non facientem, neque conjugium iterare." Then: "Ideo apostolus legem posuit dicens, si quis sine crimine est unius uxoris vir, tenetur ad legem sacerdotii suscipiendi," et seqq.

Sec

At the revival of letters there were great disputes about the falsification of the texts of the Fathers. Koster's Preface to Edit. Basil. 1555; Francis Junius, Præfat. ad Indic. Expurgat.; Rivet, Critica Sacra, iii. 6; Daillè on the other side, the Benedictine Editors and Puricelli, apud Muratori, R. It. Scrip.; and the Preface of Cardinal Montalto to the Roman edition. Sound and impartial criticism would, in my judgement, unquestionably maintain the older reading. Yet forgeries were clearly not all on one side. Galvaneo Fiamma quotes from an ancient chronicle of Dazio the account of a synod held at Constantinople (an apocryphal synod), in which Ambrose was present! in which one party asserted that married priests could not be saved. The supreme pontiff (Damasus !) submitted the question to S. Ambrose. He replied: "Perfectio vitæ non in castitate,

great Archbishop, was a married man; his wedlock had neither diminished his power nor barred his canonisation. In assertion of this privilege they dauntlessly defied all superior authority, and denied as to this, as to their other precious rights, all supremacy of the Pope. Nor was it a privilege of which they availed themselves sparingly. By the accounts of friends and foes, the practice of marriage was all but universal among the Lombard clergy. They were publicly, legally, married with ring and dowry, as were the laity of Milan; and this, which was elsewhere esteemed a vice, became in Milan, by their bold assertion of its lawfulness, a heresy."

66

sed in charitate consistit, secundum suam monasterio Sancti Dionysii, quæ illud Apostoli, si linguis hominum usque hodiè Uxeria dicitur.”—Galloquor et angelorum, etc. Ideo lex vaneus Fiamma, sub ann. 1040. concedit sacerdotes semel virginem! q "Cuncti enim cum publicis uxoriuxorem ducere, sed conjugium non bus sive scortis suam ignominiose iterare. Si autem mortuâ primâ ducebant vitam."-Vit. B. Arialdi, a uxore sacerdos aliam duxerit, sacer- B. Andreâ, Bolland, xxvii. Jun. In dotium amittat." Peter Azerid wrote the first sermon of Ariald, he says of thus at the beginning of the fourteenth the clergy: "Et ipsi, ut cernitis, sicut century: "Iis omnino benedicens B. laici palam uxores ducunt." He adds: Ambrosius, unâ uxore uti posse con- Stuprum quemadmodum scelesti laici cessit, quâ defunctâ, et ipsi vidui in sequuntur."-Ibid. He speaks of their æternum permaneant. Quæ consuetudo greater vigour as not labouring but duravit annis septuaginta usque ad living "ex dono Dei." tempora Alexandri Papæ, quem civitas Mediolanensis genuerat." In the older editions of Corio (mine is Venezia, 1554) is a passage which was struck out in the later editions: "Concesse loro (S. Ambrogio) che potessero havere moglie vergine, la quale morendo, restassero poi vedovi, si come chiaramente si legge nella prima di Timoteo."-p. 5, 6. Puricelli in Muratori, H. I. S. iv. 122.

p" Hic Archiepiscopus habuit uxorem nobilem mulierem: quæ donavit dotem

"Nec vos

Vitium quippe in hæresin vertitur, cum perversi dogmatis assertione firmatur." See the furious invective of Damiani "contra clericos intemperantes," c. vii. terreat-(he is urging the pellices, as he calls them, to break off their connexions)-quod forte, non dicam fidei, sed perfidiæ vos annulus subarrhavit ; quod rata et monimenta dotalia notarius quasi matrimonii jure conscripsit : quod juramentum ad confirmandam quodammodo conjugii copulam utrin

Still there were many of the austerer clergy in Milan, as in other parts of Italy, who looked with what they esteemed righteous indignation at this licentious and sensual privilege. Three persons bound themselves in a holy league of enmity against the married clergy: of these Anselm of Badagio was one; the second, Ariald, a man of humble birth, and therefore more able to speak to the hearts of the rude populace; the third, Landulph, a noble, remarkable for his eloquence. Landulph and Ariald began to preach in Milan to the populace of the city, and to the peasantry, the unlawfulness and licentiousness of a married clergy. Each party strove to implicate the other with the name of an odious heresy ; the monastics branded the assertors of clerical marriage with the old name proverbial for sensuality, Nicolaitans: the Lombard Clergy affected to treat their adversaries as Paterines or Manicheans. This was no unmeaning phrase. During the rule of Heribert, one of those strange sects, with many old Gnostic opinions, had appeared at Monteforte. A certain Gerard was at their head their doctrines contained much of mystic Gnosticism. They identified the Saviour with the soul of man born into a corruptible state. The Holy Ghost was apparently the divine Intelligence (Nous) revealing itself to man. They were severe ascetics, condemned all union of the sexes, and said that if men would abstain from corruption, they would generate like bees, without conjunction. They denied the absolving power of the priesthood; that they ascribed to an unseen

que processit. Ignorantes quia pro uniuscujusque fugaci voluptate concubitus mille annorum negotiantur incendium."-Ibid. c. iii.

The Council of Pavia, under Benedict VIII. (A.C. 1021), with the

approbation of the emperor, Henry II., had passed an ordinance to enforce the celibacy of the clergy.

Rodulphus Glaber, iv. 2; Landulph, Sen.

influence which visited God's people. Their great tenet was, that it was right to die in torments, so to purify the soul; they rejoiced therefore in martyrdom: if not so happy as to meet it before the approach of death, they were released by one of their own people. Heribert gratified their passion for martyrdom; he burned all, except a few, who shrunk from death, on an immense. pyre in Milan." The married clergy taunted their opponents with the name and tenets of this hated sect; they even lodged a formal accusation against them before the archbishop. Guido attempted to silence both parties by gentle admonitions, but without effect; at length the conflict broke out.

During a great festival, for the translation of the reliques of the martyr Nazarius, a priest was maddened by the unmeasured invectives of Ariald against his married brethren. Ariald had driven the singers and all the clergy out of the choir of the church; he caused a paper to be written, which bound all the clergy under an oath to maintain their chastity; he endeavoured to compel all ecclesiastics to sign this paper. The priest broke out into a violent harangue, and struck Ariald. This was the signal for a general tumult; the adherents of Ariald rushed through the streets, the bells rang, the populace gathered from all quarters. The populace are usually on the side of those who make the most austere show of religion; they were jealous of the wealth of the clergy: many of them, like the plebeians of Rome, were burthened with heavy debts, severely exacted no doubt by the clergy. The higher ecclesiastics were

æs purissime exigebatur, quosque foris et intus dura paupertas agebat," etc.

"Horum disseminatis verbis pes--Landulph, vi. 9. tilenter, subito multi quibus alienum

mostly patrician in birth, and habits, and faction. Everywhere they were insulted, assaulted, beaten, their houses plundered; and they were forced by a summary process of divorce to abandon their wives. The nobles were overawed and dared not interpose. Nor were the clergy of the city alone exposed to this popular persecution. The preachers roved through the country and stirred up the peasantry against the priests and their concubines,-they would give them no more respectful name.

Dec. 9, 1057.

Ariald and Landulph went to Rome, to obtain the sanction of the Pope, Stephen IX., for their proceedings. The Cardinal Dionysius, a Milanese by birth, attempted a cautious and timid opposition; he did not venture, except slightly and incidentally, to enter on the grave question of the marriage of the clergy; but remonstrated against the violence of their adversaries, the stirring up the rabble with clubs, and spears, and swords, against the holy anointed priesthood. A Legation was appointed by Pope Stephen, consisting of Ariald, Anselm of Lucca, and Hildebrand. This first mission had no effect in allaying the strife; the dissension was growing fast into a civil war.a Guido at length took courage, and assembling a synod at Novara, or rather at Fontaneto, in the territory of Novara, asserted his full archiepiscopal authority, and excommunicated the turbulent Ariald, Landulph, and their partisans; they treated the excom

A.D. 1058.

"Postea vero summo cum dedecore mulierum divortium sine lege, sine jure, sine Episcopo, non Deum, sed pecuniam illorum amantes, gladiis et fustibus feriebant."-Ibid.

This first legation is distinctly

asserted by Landulph; it is barely possible that it may be another version of the later one.

bUt quodammodo Ecclesia Mediolanensis suis jussibus obtemperaret."