II.

was Pope Hilarius, the four general Councils of Nice CHAP. Ephesus Constantinople and Calcedon were confirmed. And yet the Popes were in much more liberty, and received more respect from the new invaders the Goths (who were Christians though Arians) than the Emperors did; for about this time and by means of the Goths and Vandals the western empire grew so totally suppressed, that for above three hundred years (which was to the time of Charlemain) there was not so much as the name of an Emperor of the West heard of; Italy and the Popes living for the most part under the protection of the Kings of the Goths, who exercised their power as much over one as the other. So in the fourth schism between Symmachus the First and Laurentius the Anti-Pope, (which was after the year five hundred,) Theodoric King of Italy keeping his court at Ravenna called a council, Council of by whose advice he commanded Symmachus to be acknowledged Pope, and the other to discontinue all pretence.

Ravenna.

election of

Popes un

the decree

Nicholas II.

This manner of questioning, receiving, and re- Form of jecting Popes, makes it seasonable again to make some reflection upon the unprescribed unsettled and settled till unobserved course or manner of the election of of Pope Popes; of which antiquity is either silent or doth A. D. 1060. not pretend that there was any constant rule observed therein which we cannot reasonably suppose could possibly be omitted, if our Saviour had ever intended that the Bishop of Rome should be the sole monarch of the Church, and that religion should so much and so absolutely depend upon his pleasure and determination: for then he would have prescribed some such order for his election, that it should at all times be manifest who is and who was truly

II.

CHAP. Bishop of Rome: and if it were confessed that all the texts of Scripture, which from all antiquity are agreed to be spoken to and of all the Apostles, are in truth only to be applied to the person of St. Peter, it would confer no more right upon his successors, than the breathing of the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues upon all the Apostles have derived the same illumination upon all the successors of the Apostles. Though Rome was for some time the seat of the empire and so the place to which men were obliged to resort upon several occasions, yet the place and city itself never appeared to be chosen by God with any peculiar privilege or title for his worship; but on the contrary hath borne the deep marks of his displeasure in being exposed to more affronts, more sackings and devastations than any other great city in Europe hath been. And therefore, that after the glory of the empire is departed from it, it should still retain a power to give to all the empires and kingdoms of the world a supreme magistrate to whom they are bound to submit and obey in all those things which concern the salvation of their souls and their hopes in the next world, is so very irrational, that less than the most clear evidence that it is the will of God it shall be so can never convince mankind that they ought to consent thereunto. From the time that the manner of elections was taken notice of, sometimes the Pope was chosen by the clergy and people of Rome, and sometimes by the clergy alone: and when there were scandalous elections made upon which schisms ensued, sometimes the Emperor, sometimes the Kings of Italy, and sometimes the Exarch, regulated those consentions, and settled such a Pope as they thought fit; sometimes appointing them to

choose

II.

choose such a man, and sometimes that none should CHAP. be admitted to be Pope until, upon notice given to the Emperor, his election should be confirmed or approved by him. Nor was there any form prescribed or accustomed for those elections till the year one thousand and sixty, when Pope Nicholas the Second (whose own election might well have been questioned, he being chosen upon a schism when Benedict the Tenth pretended to be Pope and continued so nine months, and then waved the contest and returned to his bishopric of Velitri) made a decree that from thenceforth the election of the Pope should be only in the Cardinals; the Cardinals themselves Cardinals. not being looked upon with any reverence, or in any degree above other prelates, till the time of Leo the Ninth; who had been made Pope by Harry the Fourth, and was attended and acknowledged as Pope in his journey throughout Germany; (though afterwards he appeared in Rome as a private person till he was formally elected, which was quickly done;) and therefore this decree of Nicholas would have found opposition enough if the world had looked upon the Pope as the universal Bishop of Christ. And Nicholas was no sooner dead, and Alexander the Second chosen in his place by the Cardinals, but the Bishops of Lombardy took exception to the election, and called a council in Milan and declared the elec- Council of tion to be void; and chose Honorius the Second to be Pope, who was acknowledged by the Emperor, and so there was a new schism. And when Cardinal Hildebrand, who was the next successor, under the Hildebrand name of Gregory the Seventh, was chosen by the college of Cardinals, he would not assume the Pontificate, till he had first sent to the Emperor for his

Milan.

Greg. VII.

appro

CHAP. approbation; and till the Emperor had sent his amII. bassadors to Rome and approved his election; which

Irregular

course of

tions from

decree of

Pope Honorius III.

1227.

he had no sooner obtained than he threatened his benefactor, and soon after excommunicated him which let in that deluge of blood into Germany that was not assuaged in that age.

From this time or shortly after new schisms arose Papal elec- upon this course and method of elections, according Pope Greg, to the humour of the Emperor and other Kings and VII. till the Princes; who, unsatisfied that men should be put upon them for Popes by such a small number, received and acknowledged him for Pope whom they liked best and who they thought would live towards them with the most dependance: and so when two or three Popes were chosen together by several Cardinals, (as there were three Anti-Popes at several places when Paschal the Second was created,) they all created Cardinals; and these Cardinals, when he whom they acknowledged died, chose a successor according to their several factions. Thus after the death of Gelasius the Second who fled out of Rome upon the coming of the Emperor Harry the Fifth thither, (who made the Archbishop of Bragha Pope and died in France,) the five Cardinals who were with Gelasius when he died chose the Archbishop of Vienne Pope, called Calixtus the Second; and he found means to obtain the approbation and consent of those Cardinals who were absent, and likewise to reconcile himself to the Emperor: upon which Gregory the Anti-Pope, though he had absolved the Emperor and made Cardinals, was forced to fly out of Rome; and being afterwards taken prisoner was put into a monastery by Calixtus, where he died about the year one thousand one hundred and twenty. This course of election con

II.

tinued with several pernicious schisms until the time CHAP. of Honorius the Third, who died about the year one thousand two hundred twenty-seven, and ordered that from thenceforth the Cardinals should be always shut up in the conclave till the election should be made.

elections of

nals, but not out of

body exclu

Though the elections were still made by the Car-Subsequent dinals, yet all persons in orders were capable of being the Cardichosen Popes; and very frequently persons were chosen who were not of the body of the electors. their own So after the death of Nicholas the Fourth, who died sively. in the year one thousand two hundred ninety-two, after a vacancy of seven and twenty months, Pedro de Moron a hermit was chosen and took the name of Celestine the Fifth; and he after six months, for pure Celestine V. want of wit and inability to govern, resigned the chair; upon which Cardinal Caietan was chosen and took the name of Boniface the Eighth.

how elect

After his death and the short reign of Benedict Clement V. the Eleventh, which lasted but nine months, suc-ed. ceeded that infamous election of the Archbishop of Bourdeaux; when after a vacancy of thirteen months the faction between the Italians and the French was so strong and equal in the conclave, that after a long contention they found no other expedient to agree upon than that either faction should nominate three, and the contrary faction should have forty days to choose one out of those who should be Pope. The Italians nominated three, whereof the Archbishop of Bourdeaux was one, who was a person so unacceptable for many contests he had with Philip King of France, that they thought it impossible for the French faction to make choice of him. The Archbishop was then in France, and the King having no