The First Millennial PART I. Faith. The First Scholastic. It would be a grave omission, in attempting to write the history of any great movement, if we did not carefully depict the moral and intellectual conditions of the period that gave it birth. True as it is of any phase of merely intellectual development, it becomes a paramount necessity, when a moral and religious philosophy is presented, that we should accurately describe the influences of the century in which it originated. Only in this light can we give to such a philosophy a just and proper consideration. The eleventh century found the Church of Christ sunken to the level of an ambitious despotism, unable to cope with the surrounding moral degradation that everywhere abounded. The countries of Europe presented to the student of history a vast scene of rapine and plunder, usurpation and anarchy. Into this conflict and carnage there entered with lofty assertions the pretended vicar of Christ—a usurped office already disgraced by infamy and lust. No pages of court history reveal more revolting scenes than we find in the history of those pontiffs that affected to exalt themselves above the majesty of kings. Chapter XII., After a shocking but nevertheless truthful account of the disgraceful condition of the Papal court in the tenth century, Dr. Draper writes: Volume I., "John XIII. was strangled in prison; Boniface VII. imprisoned Benedict VII., and killed him by starvation; John XIV. was secretly put to death in the dungeons of the Castle of St. Angelo, and the corpse of Boniface was dragged by the popu lace through the streets. In Rome the sentiment of reverence for the supreme pontiff, nay even of respect, had become extinct. Throughout Europe the clergy were so shocked at the state of things that, in their indignation, they began to look with favor on the intention of the Emperor Otho to take from the Italians the privilege of appointing the successor of St. Peter, and to limit it to his own family. But his kinsman, Gregory V., whom he placed on the pontifical throne, was soon compelled by the Romans to fly: his excommunications and religious thunders were turned by them into derision; they were too well acquainted with the true nature of those terrors; they were living behind the scenes. "A terrible punishment awaited the anti-pope, John XVI. Otho returned into Italy, seized him, put out his eyes, cut off his nose and tongue, and sent him through the streets mounted on an ass, with his face toward the tail, and with a wine-bladder on his head. "It seemed impossible that things could be worse; yet Rome had still to see Benedict IX., A.D. 1033, a boy of less than twelve years, raised to the Apostolic throne. Of this pontiff, one of his successors, Victor III., declared that his life was shameful; so foul, so execrable, that he shuddered to describe it. He ruled like a captain of banditti rather than as a prelate. At last the people, unable any longer to bear his lasciviousness, homicides and abominations, rose against him. In despair of maintaining his position, he put up the Papacy at auction, It was bought by, a presbyter named John, who became Gregory VI., A.D. 1045. "More than a thousand years had elapsed since the birth of our Saviour, and such was the condition of Rome. Well may the historian shut the annals of those times in disgust; well may the heart of the Christian sink within him at such a catalogue of hideous crimes. Well may he ask: 'Were these the representatives of God upon earth-these, who have truly reached that goal beyond which the last effort of human wickedness cannot pass?" " Urban II., a French Pope, instituted the first of the Crusades; thereby adding much to the power of the Papacy. But this so-called Holy War is sullied by such a record as the following: "But in the capture by the Cru Draper, Volume II., Chapter I., Page 23. saders, the brains of young children were dashed against the wall; infants were thrown over the battlements; every woman that could be seized was violated; men were roasted by fires; some were ripped open to see if they had swallowed gold; the Jews were driven into their synagogue and there burnt; a massacre of nearly 70,000 persons took place, and the Pope's legate was seen partaking in the triumph." Had we need of further evidence of the condition of Ecclesiasticism in the century that produced Anselm, we might recall that then was first established the dogma of Transub |