1518.

cessor.

1515.

ready to receive the submission of the cardinals who had summoned the schismatic council, and to become reconciled to the monarch who had striven to overthrow Julius, his predeThe death of Louis brought the young and ambitious. Francis I. to the throne. The pope sought to advance the fortunes of his relatives by a matrimonial alliance with the royal family of France. At the same time, however, in order to strengthen his own position, he joined a European league whose real aim was to thwart the ambitious schemes of the French king. To win the support of Henry VIII. he raised Wolsey to the cardinalate. The triumph of Francis at Marignano obliged Leo to agree to a treaty with him, even at the expense of those cities on the north of the Romagna which the valor of Julius had won. But the pope succeeded in obtaining from him the abandonment of the Pragmatic Sanction, for whose repeal preceding popes had vainly striven. This seemed to be a great victory for the papacy. In reality, however, although the Gallican Church was robbed of its liberties, the pope gained only the annats-the first year's income of the great benefices-while the power of nominating to these places fell to the king. Moreover, the coercion that was required to bring the parliament to register the new concordat, and the indignation it awakened throughout France, proved that it indicated no change in the sentiments of the nation. Leo, though at peace with Francis, did not hesitate to negotiate with his enemies. One of his sayings was: "When you have made a league with any prince, you ought not on that account to cease from treating with his adversary." The European monarchs were not much disturbed by his genial duplicity; but he who watched to gain something from every change in the political situation saw his own international importance rapidly dwindling, and himself obliged to accede to arrangements made with little consideration of his interests. The Council of the Lateran having, according to the papal declaration, done all that was necessary for the welfare of Christendom, was dissolved in 1517" on the very verge of the greatest outbreak which had ever threatened the organization of the Church."

CHAPTER IV.

REFORMERS BEFORE THE REFORMATION:

LEARNING.

THE REVIVAL OF

Fall of scholasticism.

William of Oc

c. 1347.

BEFORE the end of the fourteenth century the scholastic movement had well nigh spent its force. It was undermined by the reappearance of Nominalism, and especially by the teaching of one of the most acute of all the schoolmen, William of Occam, and by his disciples. Occam taught that common nouns, the names of classes, are like the signs of algebra. cam, c. 1280 They are a convenient mode of designating individuals, which alone exist. The general notion and its name are both representative fictions; and this double source of inexactitude shuts out the possibility of metaphysical or theological science. The truths of religion are directly revealed by God in the Bible and to the Church. So far from being capable of demonstration, they may stand in direct contradiction to the logical conclusions of what we call science. Thus the foundation of scholasticism, which aimed to verify the creed by philosophy, was cut away. Still more was done by Occam for the future in his attacks upon the claim of papal infallibility, and the doctrine of the power of the pope over kings and in temporal affairs. He was the champion of the Franciscan order, to which he belonged, in the contest in behalf of the rule of poverty, which was waged against the pontiffs. He was the animating spirit of a group of men—one of whom was Marsilius of Padua who were protected at Munich, and stood by Louis of Bavaria in his conflict with the Avignonese popes. Occam asserted that even a general council might err; that faith might depart save from the souls of a few devout women; that the hierarchical system might be given up, if the good of the Church required it; that a king has all the powers of an ecclesiastical person, except such as spring from ordination, and that if an emergency requires it, the emperor could appoint or depose the pope.

Doctrines of

Occam.

In his old age there was a partial reconciliation between Occam and Clement VI.; but it is not known that he retracted even this last proposition, which the pope required as the condition of granting him absolution. Occam's influence was felt by Wyclif, and affected strongly the Gallican leaders in the reforming councils. It extended still later. His principles, and those of his disciples, were the maxims on which the resistance of

His influence.

Protestant princes to the authority of Rome was, to a considerable extent, based. Luther was a student of Occam, praises him as the most ingenious of the schoolmen, and derived from him his conception of the Lord's Supper-a conception suggested by Occam as a reasonable view, yet as one that furnishes an instance of the possible inconsistency of faith and reason. Notwithstanding the revolutionary influence that went forth from Occam, he was a conscientious and orthodox believer in the dogmas of the Church. His whole method of discussion is scholastic, and, in theology, he added a third school, that of the Occamists, to the previously existing parties, the Thomists and the Scotists. He was honored by his pu pils with the titles of "Most Learned," "Invincible Doctor," etc.

Thomas Bradwardine, for a short time before his death Archbishop of Canterbury, was an able mathematician, as well as phiBradwardine, losopher. His main work was in defence of the position 1290-1349. that all human holiness is exclusively the fruit of divine grace. As the correlate of this view he asserted predestination. He was styled "Doctor Profundus." Wyclif is among those who held Bradwardine in high honor.

Biel, d. 1495.

In the last half of the fifteenth century the logical ideas of Occam were inculcated by Gabriel Biel, who was not "the last of the schoolmen," as he has often been called, but was the last of the very remarkable men who adhered to the scholastic method. As regards the papal power, he adhered to the position taken by the Councils of Constance and of Basel.

Insurgent movements.

In relating the history of the papacy we have noticed certain religious movements antagonistic to the medieval type of Christianity. The earlier of these had for their aim the overthrow of the exclusive domination of the priesthood, deeply infected as it was with worldliness and immorality. Prominent among the sects which arose were the Albigenses, whose doctrines were tinged with heresies somewhat akin to the ancient Manichæism, but whose lives were characterized by self-denying devotion and zeal for moral purity. The same general movement produced the Waldenses, a party not tainted with Manichæan doctrine, who denied the exclusive right of the clergy to teach the gospel, and who, wherever they went, kindled among the people a desire to read the Bible. The influence of the Spiritual Franciscans, and of the bands of praying men and women called Beghards and Béguines, tended in the same direction. Areformatory movement of a different kind was initiated by the Gallican theologians whom we had occasion to describe in con

nection with the reforming councils. They aimed to substitute for the papal conception of the hierarchy the idea that ecclesiasticai authority resides in the universal Church.

Radical reformers.

But besides the sectaries, whose existence testified to a profound dissatisfaction with the medieval order of things, and a deep craving, mingled though it was with ignorance and superstition, for a simpler type of Christianity, and the conservative theologians whose only aim was to reform the administration of the Church and the morals of the clergy, there were individuals who are appropriately called radical reformers-men who in essential points anticipated the Protestant movement. Although their efforts to bring in a more enlightened doctrine and a purer life were to a large extent ineffectual, they prepared the way for more successful efforts when the time for reform should fully come. The most remarkable of all these reformers before the Reformation was

Wyclif, 1324-1384.

John Wyclif. He was born in the year 1324. He early won distinction at Oxford, and, after holding several honorable positions at the university, became doctor of theology. While he was warden of Canterbury Hall he was the leader of the secular clergy in their defence-which finally proved unsuccessful-against the aggressions of the aspiring mendicant orders. In his writings he repeatedly attacked the practices of the monks, as well as the doctrine of the excellence of poverty, which lay at the foundation of their societies. He stood forth in the character of a champion of civil and kingly authority against papal encroachments. By this attitude he not only commended himself to parliament as a valuable supporter of its policy, but also gained the respect and friendship of the king's advisers, the great nobles, such as John of Gaunt, who shielded him from the attacks of the hierarchy. Thus Wyclif was not harmed although he boldly taught that a papal decree has no validity except so far as it is founded on the Scriptures, and that the exercise of the power to bind and loose has no effect save when it is conformed to the judgment of Christ. He urged that the clergy be forbidden to interfere with civil affairs and temporal authority. Despite the efforts of the churchmen, his ethical doctrine, that the right to hold property and to rule is forfeited by a disobedience to the will of God, did not excite much alarm. He asserted it, to be sure, simply as a speculative principle. But when he attacked the doctrine of transubstantiation, maintaining that the bread and wine remain unchanged, although the body and blood of Christ are really present, he lost the cordial support of many who had hitherto looked upon him with favor. His teach.

ing was condemned and suppressed at the university, but he was allowed to end his days, undisturbed, in his parish of Lutterworth. Wyclif's attacks upon the spiritual domination of the priesthood were not limited to that main support of sacerdotal power, the miracle of transubstantiation. He asserted that in the primitive Church there were but two sorts of clergy, and was opposed to the existence of the multiplied ranks of the priesthood-popes, cardinals, patriarchs, monks, canons, etc. He spoke against the necessity of auricular confession, and doubted the scriptural warrant for the rites of confirmation and extreme unction. He advocated also a simpler form of Church worship. The incompetence of the clergy and their neglect of their parishes led him to send forth preachers who were to go from place to place to labor wherever there was need. The greatest service which he did the English people was his translation of the Bible, and his open defence of their right to read the Scriptures in their own tongue. It was Wyclif's relation to the politics of his day that enabled him to attack the mediæval and papal Church in almost every feature which distinguished it from Protestantism, and yet to live out his days. His death did not seem at once to destroy the power of the movement which he inaugurated. But the bold petition of the Lollards, as his followers were called, to parliament for the reform of the Church, aroused the hierarchy to take vigorous measures for their repression. It was not, however, until the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V., when the relations of the kings to the clergy were changed, that the persecution of them began. The Lollard party gradually fell to pieces, and the principles of its founder gained but few adherents except among the poor and obscure classes, whose aspirations after social and industrial equality they seemed to countenance. Wyclif's translation of the Bible was his most permanent work for the English people. His philosophical and doctrinal teachings had an influence, indirect, perhaps, yet important, upon the religious history of Bohemia.

Bohemian reformers.

A movement had already begun in Bohemia, under the leadership of Conrad of Waldhausen, who had been called from Austria by the Emperor Charles IV. to assist in the reform of the clergy. What Conrad's fiery zeal did for the German population the mystical preaching of Militz did for the Slaves. They attacked the vices of the clergy as well as of the people. Neither of them was to be turned aside by the enmity of the priesthood, nor even by threats of persecution. The ideas which they had proclaimed were set forth more systematically in