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contending diligences to Marseilles, Toulon, Nismes; voituriers persecuting travellers along the streets to hire a caleche to Vaucluse. What is there that is not changed? Mount Ventoux and the Rhone. The mountain lifts still his 8,000 feet of heavy rock, and there is the same quick hurrying sound of rushing water below the walls of Avignon, as when Clement VI. and the Countess of Turenne might have looked from their new palace, and seen the Durance coming down from Piedmont to meet and swell the Rhone.

The episode of Avignon is a strange chapter in church history, and full of consequences'. The bad character which St. Bernard gives the Romans of the twelfth century, seems, in spite of Petrarch's anger and Gibbon's sneer, to be well borne out by their actual conduct to the popes. Paschal II. was stoned on Holy Thursday, and escaped with some difficulty. Gelasius II. was imprisoned and savagely treated by the baron Frangipani. Lucius II. was killed by a stone in front of the capitol, and Lucius III. met with rudeness and violence. It was not, therefore, very surprising that the supreme pontiffs, who in rescuing Rome from the Byzantine thrall had so recently conferred an incalculable blessing upon its inhabitants, should prefer Anagni,

' In this historical account of Avignon, much use has been made of Gibbon's 69th chapter, but more of the English abridgment of De Sade's Memoires pour la vie de Petrarque, a valuable but stiff and frigid compilation.-See Campbell's Pref. to Life of Petrarch.

Perugia, and Viterbo, to the Eternal City itself; and it is a curious illustration of the inherent vitality (one might almost rise to higher words) of the papacy, that while the successors of St. Peter were thus despised, brow-beaten, ridiculed, assaulted, and even murdered in Rome, the allegiance and reverence of distant nations seem never to have been shaken. But the popes lingered long in Italy, and it was not till the election of Clement V, in 1309, that the Holy See was removed from Italy. The papal court, after touching at several towns of Poitou and Gascony, whither the cardinals were summoned, fixed itself at Avignon, which thus became the head of the Christian world in the West. The second Avignon pope was John XXII. He was a man of great ability, and equal constancy. He devoted the eighteen years of his pontificate to four grand objects, but succeeded in none of them. His crusade failed; he was equally unsuccesful in his attempt to depose Lewis of Bavaria, who created a shadowy and short-lived antipope; and he failed in accomplishing the ruin of the Ghibelines in Italy. His fourth object was the patronage of a doctrine, whose history, considering it was backed by the authority of a pope, and that in the fourteenth century, is somewhat curious. The pope publicly preached, and very earnestly propagated the doctrine, that the saints would not enjoy the Beatific Vision till after the resurrection and the judgment; but would "wait for judgment under the Altar and protection of the

humanity of Jesus Christ," or, as it is more fully stated in his discourses, "the souls of the faithful, in their intermediate state, see not, nor will they see, the Divine Essence, or God face to face, till the day of the general resurrection; and none are or will be admitted till that day to the Beatific Vision, but will only see the Human Nature of Christ." Petrarch seems to have gone along with pope John in this matter, for he says, "Beatitude is a state to which nothing can be added; it is conformable to nature, that the spirit should be always in motion, till there remains nothing for it to desire. How then can the dead enjoy the Vision of God, in which consists the blessedness of man, while they are desiring with ardor the reunion of their bodies?" However, violent opposition was raised to this doctrine. Pope John was inflexible. He threw into prison a Dominican who ventured to deny it; and cited Durand de St. Portain, a famous theologian, before him, as of questionable orthodoxy. Philip VI. of France convened a council at Vincennes, by which the pope's doctrine was condemned, it is said, unanimously. On his death-bed, John seems to have modified his doctrine somewhat, in a speech made to the cardinals at Avignon. He asserted that, "the unembodied souls of the righteous beheld the Divine Essence, as far as their separate state and condition would admit, and that he submitted to the judgment of the Church whatever he had said, preached, or written on the subject, that he might not be deemed

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a heretic after his decease." Certainly there are passages in St. Bernard's Sermons for All Saints' Day, which seem to teach the same doctrine in like words. But, probably, the authority of Durandus and the council of Vincennes must be regarded as fatal to the doctrine. We may confess with Petrarch, in his letter to cardinal Colonna, "Permit me to speak freely of a pope of whom you were fond, though not of his errors. His doctrine concerning the Vision of God, however probable at the bottom, was condemned by the greatest number, and those of the best judgment, and lies buried with its author."

The third Avignon pope was Benedict XII., and Petrarch has so aspersed him in every way, that it is impossible to get at his real character. He seems to have done several good things, and the speech he made to the cardinals who elected him, "Your choice has fallen upon an ass," does not appear to be so fully exhibited in his actions as Petrarch would have us believe. But Clement VI., the fourth Avignon pope, was a very different character. Gay, gallant, luxurious, magnificent, and devoted to female society, there has seldom been a court so brilliant and licentious as the court of Avignon under Clement VI. It was even headed by a lady, Cicily de Commenges, the famous Viscountess of Turenne. Clement was not a favorite with Petrarch, because he finished the palace at Avignon, and did not retranslate the Holy See to Rome. Petrarch's

description of Clement's court at Avignon, a bishop's court, is very shocking indeed.

"All that they say of Assyrian and Egyptian Babylon, of the four Labyrinths, of the Avernian and Tartarean lakes, are nothing in comparison with this hell. We have here a Nimrod, powerful on the earth, and a mighty hunter before the Lord, who attempts to scale heaven with raising his superb towers; a Semiramis with her quiver; a Cambyses more extravagant than the Cambyses of old. All that is vile and execrable is assembled in this place. There is no clue to lead you out of this labyrinth, neither that of Dædalus nor Ariadne: the only means of escaping is by the influence of gold; for to say all in one word, even Jesus Christ is here bought with gold.

"In this place reign the successors of poor fishermen, who have forgotten their origin. Instead of those little boats in which they gained their living on the lake of Genesareth, they inhabit superb palaces. They have likewise their parchments, to which are hung pieces of lead; and these they use as nets to catch the innocent and unwary, whom they fleece and burn to satisfy their gluttony. To the most simple repasts have succeeded the most sumptuous feasts; and where the Apostles went on foot, covered only with sandals, are now seen insolent satraps mounted on horses ornamented with gold, and champing golden bits. Poor old fishermen ! For whom have you labored? For whom have you

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