Glimpses of Church History

10.Period 1400-1492 CE

 

Three Popes at one time

Pope Boniface IX was succeeded by Innocent VII (1404-06) and then by Gregory XII. The French had their own pope, Benedict XIII, at Avignon. In 1409, a Council held at Pisa declared both Gregory and Benedict heretics and elected a 70-year old Milan cardinal as Pope Alexander V. The other two refused to resign so that the church found itself with three popes, each of whom promptly excommunicated the others. Alexander was known to be a glutton and he kept 400 uniformed servants at his palace, all female. He was pope for 10 months only. The Pisa clique then chose a deacon called Cossa, promptly made him priest and had him crowned pope the next day with the name John XIII. He had a shocking reputation: killer, fornicator, simoniac, etc

 

The Council of Constance: John XIII indicted                                                                                                     

The German King Sigismund, emperor-in-waiting, supported John XIII and persuaded him to call a Council “to reduce the number of popes”. The venue chosen was Constance, a city in Southern Germany on the Swiss border. It was usual for large clerical meetings to be held near a lake or river for easy disposal of bodies. Over 500 were flung into Lake Constance  during the Council session. The population had swelled from 6000 to 10 times that number, among them large numbers of prostitutes for the clergy.

John XIII, 48, opened the Council in 1414. In attendance were 300 bishops, 300 theologians and the cardinals of different allegiances. John was outvoted 3 to 1, a long catalogue of charges was drawn up and he was asked to step down. He tried to flee by night but was brought back.

 

Council is above the Pope

The Council issued a declaration asserting its authority in no uncertain terms:

“The holy Council of Constance declares that it constitutes a General Council representing the Catholic Church and that it has immediate authority before Christ. All men of every rank and condition, including the Pope himself, are bound to obey it in matters of faith, the ending of the schism and the reformation of the church of God…”

It was solemnly agreed to hold a Council within 10 years and thereafter at regular intervals.

 

The Council first deposed Benedict XIII - he was already in flight. Next came John XIII. Charges against him were reduced from 54 to 5 (piracy, murder, rape, sodomy and incest). He was deposed in 1415 and sentenced to 3 years in jail. Gregory XII resigned the same year. He was 90. John Huss, a Czech reformer of unblemished character, was sentenced on a trumped-up charge and burnt as a heretic. To ensure that he would not be honoured as martyr, his ashes were scattered over the river Rhine.

 

Or is Pope above Council?

In 1417 a fresh pope, Martin V, was now elected. Two days later he was ordained priest and made bishop the day after. Martin lost no time in reversing the Council’s ruling, declaring that the pope had supreme authority above any other body. He dissolved the Council in 1418. He next re-instated his old friend, Cossa (John XIII) after his release from prison and made him bishop and cardinal. Martin died in 1431 - the year in which the French teenage heroine, Joan of Arc, was burnt as a witch. (She was made a saint in 1920.) 

Martin V

Rampant Corruption

Clerical corruption and misdeeds had risen to monumental proportions.

 - Papal hopefuls usually took their bankers to the conclave, in readiness to buy votes.

 - Cardinals usually owed their position to bribery and intrigue. They routinely promoted their ‘nephews’ (actually sons), etc.

 - Cardinals lived in huge palaces with hundreds of servants. Most clerics  had female ‘companions’.

 - The Curia drew up a tariff for appointees to every see, abbey or parish. Every bishop had to pay handsomely for the pallium

   (a decorative woollen band with trimmings), bringing in millions of gold florins to the papal coffers.

 - Payment was demanded to be dispensed from Lenten fasting and for indulgences. Many a couple were accused of  being

   blood related (to their surprise) and unable to marry unless of course they paid up.

 

The Council of Basel

In 1432, the Council of Basel met to stem the corruption. Here is part of the statement that was issued:

“From now on, all church appointments shall be made according to church rules. All simony shall cease. All priests shall put away their concubines within two months of this decree, else shall be removed from office - even if he is Bishop of Rome. The Curia, ie the Popes, shall not demand nor receive any fees for ecclesiastic office…”

 

The Council of Florence

The reigning Pope Eugene IV thought that Basel edicts were too severe. He dismissed the Council members as “vulgar fellows from the lowest dregs of the clergy, blaspheming rebels, jailbirds, men who deserve to be hunted back to the devil whence they came.”  

At the time the Eastern Empire was increasingly under attack from the Ottoman Turks and Eugene was urged to make a strong call for Christian unity. He summoned an assembly in 1438, the Council of Florence.

This Council is remembered for its self-righteous statement damning all non-Catholics:

“No one outside the Catholic Church, neither pagans nor Jews not heretics, can participate in eternal life, but will go into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are brought into the Catholic Church before their death.”

 

[Centuries later, the Vatican Council II (1962-65) was forced to retract this arrogant statement and acknowledge the integrity of other religions.] Meanwhile, many of the Basel cardinals, furious with Pope Eugene, appointed a rival pope, Felix V, in 1439. Eugene died in 1447 and was succeeded by Nicholas V (left). 

Nicholas was a scholar and is credited with setting up the Vatican Library. He also planned a grandiose re-building of the centre of Rome but got bogged down by growing power of the Turks.

In 1453, the Turks had conquered Constantinople (today’s Istanbul), bringing to an end the Byzantine Empire. Nicholas sent 29 galleys to help the Christians but it was too late. The Moorish Muslims still controlled Spain.

It was also about this time that the Portuguese began their overseas explorations.

Here was the top Christian religious leader, the ‘Vicar of Christ’, openly authorising the subjugation of non-Christian peoples by force and the expropriation of their lands.

 

Sixtus IV

 Sixtus became pope in 1471. He  promptly made 9 of his relatives cardinals, including three sons. His favourite son, Peter Riario, became Bishop of Treviso, Archbishop of Seville, Valencia and Florence, and Patriarch of Constantinople. Riario died from a life of dissipation at the age of 28. It was Sixtus who built the elegant Sistine Chapel named after him, today’s venue for papal elections. He also devised novel ways of collecting money. He was the first pope to license brothels, bringing him 30,000 ducats a year. Following other popes, he taxed priests who kept mistresses. The sale of indulgences was common but Sixtus first sold them for the dead, in order to reduce their torments in an imaginary half-way house between heaven & hell! This ingenious idea enriched the papal treasury immensely.

.                                                                                                                       Victim under torture

TABLE OF POPES (203-212)   203) Innocent VII    1404-06   204) Gregory XII     1406-15      #  Benedict XIII   1394-1423      #   Alexander V   1409-10      #   John XXIII     1410-15   205) Martin V         1417-31   206) Eugene IV      1431-47      #   Felix V          1439-49   207) Nicholas V      1447-55   208) Calistus III    1455-58   209) Pius II           1458-64   210) Paul II           1464-71   211) Sixtus IV        1471-84         212) Innocent VIII  1484-92          ( #  indicates anti-popes )

In 1478, Sixtus authorised the Spanish Inquisition. In Andalusia alone, 2000 heretics were burnt. In 1483, he appointed the Dominican friar, Thomas of Torquemada as Grand Inquisitor. He was confessor to Queen Isabella and lived a holy life (in a palace with 250 servants). As ruthless Inquisitor for 15 years, he presided over the trials and tortures of over 100,000 victims, 10,000 of whom were burnt).   Pope Sixtus is also known for initiating  the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The next pope, Innocent VIII, had fathered several children and didn’t even bother to deny the fact. Asa pope he was weak and ineffectual. His edict banishing Jews from Spain, created a massive exodus. In January 1492 he learnt that Ferdinand and Isabella had expelled the Muslims from Granada, ending their 700 year occupation. He had been in poor health for many years and in his last weeks had to be nourished on woman’s milk. He died on 25 July 1492, a week before Columbus set sail to the West.

 

REFERENCES

1  Vicars of Christ, Peter de Rosa (Corgi 1994)

2  Popes through the Ages, J Brusher (New Advent 1996)

3  Chronicles of the Popes,  P  Maxwell-Stuart (Thomas & Hudson, 1997)