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BOOK I
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THE GREAT SCHISM.
1378-1414.
CHAPTER VII.
ALEXANDER V.
1409-1410.
It is not often that, amidst the scanty records from
which mediaeval history has to be laboriously pieced together, we find anything
that brings before us the more intimate facts of mediaeval life. Someone,
however, of the Fathers assembled at Pisa luckily employed his spare time after
the election of Alexander V in drawing out an account of the Papal household—perhaps he thought that Alexander was inexperienced and might err through want
of knowledge, as he could not inherit the establishment of a predecessor, but
would have to form his own anew. It is worthwhile to turn from more lofty
matters, and consider the composition of a household at this time.
First amongst the officers of the household come the
Chamberlains, who are of three classes; some honorary; some prelates, generally
four, who are intimate with the Pope, read the Hours with him, and serve at
Mass; some domestics, generally two, who sleep in his chamber and wait upon
him. Of the prelates one has charge of the Pope’s private letters and receives
his instructions about the answers to be given; another has the care of the
Pope’s jewels; a third of the wardrobe; a fourth of the medicines and drugs.
The prelates discharge the duties of their office without salary except in
cases when they are poor. The domestic chamberlains have board for themselves
and two servants, and have an underling to sweep the rooms and do the dirty
work. Besides these, two Door-keepers have charge of the Audience Chamber,
where they generally sleep.
Next in importance is the Controller of the Household,
who receives the Pope’s orders about his meals and entertainments, issues
invitations, and orders the service of the banquet. Every night he receives the
keys of the palace when the gates are shut, and lays them on the table at the
Pope’s supper hour. Every night also he receives and examines the accounts of
all subordinate officials, which, after receiving his signature, are presented
weekly at the Treasury. He is generally responsible for the order and decorum
of the household, and has under him a clerk and one or two servants. The Pope’s
personal attendants are Squires of Honor, generally eight or ten in number, who
receive pay or allowances, and frequently hold some other office. For each
article consumed in the household there is a separate department. Two
ecclesiastics, each with two servants under him, hold office over the Bakery, and
provide bread and fruit, have the care of the table linen, knives, forks, and
salt-cellars, and have the duty of laying the table. In like manner two
ecclesiastics, each with two inferiors, discharge the office of Butler, provide
the wines, keep the cellar books, and take charge of the drinking-vessels. One
ecclesiastic is enough to have charge over the water, and the number of his
subordinates varies according to the difficulties of obtaining it; his office
extends to the care of wells and their cleansing. Another ecclesiastic, with
two inferiors, has charge of the candles and candlesticks and all that concerns
the lighting of the palace. Another officer has care of the beds and
tapestries; he has to arrange seats at consistories, and see to the proper covering
of the Pope’s chair at church and elsewhere. The Keeper of the Plate has the
arduous duty of seeing that the plates and dishes are kept clean and are not
stolen; every day after dinner the gates of the palace are kept closed until he
has counted the dishes and has certified that all are there. The Master of the
Kitchen supervises all the cooking arrangements; the Steward does the marketing
and hands over the produce to the Keeper of the Larder, who also receives all
presents of game and such like that are made to the Pope. The Master of the
Hall arranges the tables, places the guests in order, and sees that they are
properly served.
Besides these officers the Papal household contains a
Master of the Works to see after the repairs of the palace; a Confessor, whose
duty it is to regulate the services in the chapel and to vest the Pope; a Master
of the Palace, generally a Dominican Friar, who lectures on Theology and
proposes questions at the Pope’s bidding; an Almoner; and a Choir-master for
the chapel services. Cooks, door-keepers, physicians, registrars, messengers,
and grooms make up the remainder of the Pope’s retinue. We do not find in these
details any trace of undue luxury or extravagance. Many of these officials were
without salaries; and although the cost of the household must have been
considerable, yet it was not larger than any noble of the period would have
felt requisite.
The regulation of his household may have employed
Alexander V for some little time at Pisa; but he was soon reminded of his
political duties by the arrival of Louis of Anjou, whose claims on Naples he at
once sanctioned. Cossa saw that the vital matter for the new Pope was the
possession of the city of Rome; it was also the great question of Italian
politics. The overweening power of Ladislas awoke universal alarm, and the
political feebleness of Gregory XII had been the chief reason why Italy had so
readily abandoned him. The cause of the Council’s Pope meant opposition to
Neapolitan domination, and a strong party gathered round Alexander V.
Cossa strengthened his league with Florence and Siena
by the admission of Louis of Anjou, and the confederates proposed to march at
once against Ladislas, who had retired from Cortona to Naples, leaving Paolo
Orsini to guard the places which he had seized. In September, the allied army
under the command of the Florentine general, Malatesta dei Malatesti, marched
towards Rome. The prophecy of the Florentine ambassador to Ladislas that they
would overcome him with his own troops proved true. Paolo Orsini deserted from
Ladislas, and his defection opened the road into the States of the Church.
Orvieto, Montefiascone, Viterbo, and other places opened their gates, and the
allied army appeared before Rome on October 1. But Ladislas had taken measures
to keep down the Romans; many citizens opposed to his interests had been
exiled, and the Neapolitan faction was strong in the city. The allies gained
possession of the Vatican, and the Castle of S. Angelo hoisted the flag of
Alexander V; but Rome itself, where the Count of Troja was in command, offered
a vigorous resistance. On October 10, the allies found themselves forced to
quit the Leonine city and take up their position at Monte Rotondo. Louis of
Anjou and Cossa returned to Pisa, leaving the siege in the hands of Malatesta.
After a conference with the Pope Louis went off hurriedly to Provence to raise
more money. The fortune of Ladislas was still in the ascendant, and if he had
boldly marched to Rome with reinforcements he might have maintained his hold
upon the city.
On December 28, Malatesta advanced with a portion of
his army to S. Lorenzo outside the walls; his men advanced to the gate calling
to the people, “Men of Rome, how is it that you do not cry: The Church and the
People?”. At the same time Paolo Orsini advanced again into the Leonine city.
Attacked on both sides, the Count of Troja determined to cut off his assailants
when thus divided. On December 29, he fell upon Paolo Orsini, but was defeated
at the Porta Septimiana. Malatesta had been plotting with a party inside the
walls in favor of Alexander; at the first failure of the Neapolitans they rose
against them with cries of “Viva lo Popolo e la Chiesa”. On January 1, 1410,
Paolo Orsini entered the city by the Ponte dei Judei, and was hailed by the
people, who were glad to free themselves from the Neapolitan rule, and asserted
their liberties by electing their own magistrates. On January 5, the Capitol
also surrendered; but the strong towers by the gates still held out for
Ladislas, and were only taken after a regular siege. The tower by the Porta
Maggiore fell on February 15; and the capture of the Ponte Molle, on May 1,
destroyed the last remnant of the Neapolitan domination.
Meanwhile Alexander V stayed for some time at Pisa,
where, on November 1, 1409, he issued a summons to Ladislas to appear and
answer all the charges made against him of faithlessness to his duty as a
vassal of the Church. Driven to leave Pisa by the outbreak of a pestilence he
retired to Prato, and thence to Pistoia. On the news of the capture of Rome the
Florentines at once sent an embassy begging the Pope to hasten to Rome, and so
assure the wavering allegiance of the neighboring cities in the States of the
Church. The Sienese also offered their city as a residence for the Pope on his
way. But Alexander V was entirely in the hands of Cossa, who ruled Pope and
Cardinals alike. The Florentines and Sienese seem to have been afraid of the
growing power of Cossa, and wished to see the Pope emancipated from his hands.
But their efforts were useless. Alexander answered that he would go to Rome
when things were more settled; meanwhile, Cossa would go there in his stead,
and he himself would reside at Bologna for the present. Cossa succeeded in
making himself the most important man in Rome, and kept the Pope in his power
by settling the Curia at Bologna, whither Alexander went on January 12, 1410,
and took up his abode in the Palace of the Anziani. On February 12, came an
embassy from the Romans, headed by the Count of Tagliacozzo, bringing the keys
and banner of the city to the Pope, and praying him to take up his residence in
Rome. The Florentines added their entreaties to those of the Romans; but the
influence of Cossa, and perhaps the Pope’s own sense of growing physical weakness,
kept him still at Bologna. He received from the Roman envoys the symbols
of his dominion over Rome, and confirmed the liberties of the city in a charter
granted on March 1. But he was never to take possession of Rome itself; at the
end of April he sickened, and it was clear that his end Death was near.
On his death-bed he told the Cardinals the touching
story of the poverty of his early life, and laid before them the results of his
mature wisdom. It was the usual lesson which life always teaches the old, and
which the young never learn save by experience — the lesson, “Seek peace and
ensue it”. He addressed his Cardinals on the text, “Peace I leave with you, my
peace I give unto you”; he declared his belief in the canonicity of the Council
of Pisa, and in his own position as Pope; he besought them by pacific measures
to bring about the unity of the Church. The Cardinals wept at the touching
words of the dying Pope, but their conduct shows that they did not look forward
to gain peace save by the sword. On May 3, Alexander V died, and was buried in
the Church of S. Francesco at Bologna, the church of the Order to which he owed
so much, and which he loved so well.
The one thing which Alexander V did in the matters of
the Church was to issue a Bull in favor of the Friars, who had hailed with joy
his elevation to the Papacy, and lost no time in besieging him with their
requests. The Mendicant Orders had been growing in importance and power since
the days of Francis and Dominic. The Papacy, grateful for their aid, had
constantly increased their privileges at the expense of the old machinery of
the ecclesiastical system. The Friars, supported by the Papal authority,
infringed the rights of parish priests, and were exempt from any Episcopal
supervision. They preached, heard confessions, administered the sacraments,
performed funerals wherever they chose, and threatened entirely to supersede
the old parochial system. Naturally men preferred to confess to a wandering
Friar whom they had never seen before and hoped never to see again, rather than
to their parish priest whose rebukes and admonitions might follow them at times
when the spirit of contrition was not so strong within them. It was natural
that bishops and clergy should fight for their very existence against the
usurping Friars. A truce was made by Boniface VIII in 1300, on the conditions
that the Friars were not to preach in parish churches without the consent of
the parish priest; that bishops were to have a veto over the individual Friars
who were to hear confessions within their dioceses; and that the Friars were to
hand over to the parish church a quarter of all the funeral and other dues and
offerings which came to them from the district. The Universities also saw
themselves invaded by the Friars, who by their learning and energy rose to
eminence, possessed themselves of theological chairs, and promulgated their own
doctrines. In the University of Paris, the conflict against the Mendicants was
vigorously carried on in the middle of the thirteenth century by Guillaume de
Saint Amour, who not only protested against their exceptional privileges, but
attacked their rule of life. An able-bodied man, he asserted, who can work for
his livelihood commits nothing less than sacrilege if he lives on the alms of
the poor; for S. Paul says, “if a man will not work, neither let him eat”. If
it be urged that it is a counsel of perfection to live like Christ, it ought to
be remembered that Christ’s example teaches us to do good works, not to beg; if
any man wishes to be perfect, let him work or enter a monastery. Thomas Aquinas
and Bonaventura took up the defence of the Mendicants; and, with the help of
the Papacy, the Friars maintained their position, though they were regarded
with aversion and suspicion by the University. In 1321, a doctor of the
Sorbonne, Jean de Poilly, was summoned before Pope John XXII for having taught
that those who confessed to Friars were bound to confess the same sins again to
their own parish priest, and no Pope had the power to absolve them from this
duty. His opinions were condemned, and he was compelled to retract them. In
Oxford the controversy was renewed later by Richard Fitz Ralph, Archbishop of
Armagh, who went to Avignon to answer for his opinions to Innocent IV, but no
judgment was given against him. In both Universities the opposition to the
Friars was manfully maintained in spite of the Papal censures.
In January, 1409, the Sorbonne was strong enough to
carry the war into the enemies’ quarters, and a Franciscan, Jean de Gorel, was
compelled to retract his assertion that Friars, as being of the institution of
the primitive Church, had a more essential right to preach and hear confessions
than had parish priests, who were of a later origin. On the accession of
Alexander V the Mendicants judged that their hour of triumph was come. They
hastened to procure from him a Bull, “Regnans in Ecclesia”, dated from Pisa,
October 12, 1409, in which the Pope condemned the chief propositions of the
Doctors of the University, and affirmed most emphatically the condemnation
issued by John XXII. The Friars themselves seem to have been afraid to use this
Bull when they had obtained it. Rumors of its existence reached Paris, and
messengers were sent to enquire if rumor spoke truly; the Cardinals denied that
it had been issued with their counsel or consent, but the messengers saw the
Bull and its leaden seal. The University at once proceeded to vigorous
measures; they expelled all the Mendicants, and prohibited them from preaching
in Paris till they had produced the original Bull and had renounced it. Gerson
raised his powerful voice against it, and the Government entirely sided
with the University. The Dominicans and the Carmelites judged submission to be
the wisest course. On March 1, 1410, the University went in solemn procession
to the Church of S. Martin des Champs, where one of the Dominicans preached a
sermon in which he declared that the Bull had been obtained without the consent
of his Order, nor did they approve of it, but were content with their former privileges.
The Franciscans refused to submit, and proclamation was made in front of their
doors by a herald, prohibiting the clergy in the king’s name, from allowing
them to preach, hear confessions, or administer the sacraments. Alexander’s
successor found it wise to revoke the Bull, and put an end to this fruitless
conflict with the University.
From his conduct in this matter we may judge the
character of Alexander V. Owing everything to his Order, he was ready to
befriend it in any way, and at once complied with the requests which its
advocates preferred, without any consideration of their wisdom or expediency.
His weakness was that he knew too little of the world, and was too ready to
gain praise by unreasoning liberality and munificence. He used to say of
himself that he had been rich as a Bishop, poor as a Cardinal, but as Pope a
beggar. He was generally under the rule of the Cardinals; only in granting this
Bull to his beloved Order did he venture to act without their advice, and then
he foolishly endeavored to act secretly, because he had not the courage to face
and overcome opposition. In his brief pontificate he had not time to show what
he might have become. Some were won by his simple character to regard him as a
saint. Others were misled, by the extravagance which his known liberality
encouraged in his household, to mistake him for a luxurious sybarite. It would
seem that both of these judgments were equally removed from the truth.
Alexander V, like many men who rise to eminence from a humble origin, owed his
good fortune to his negative qualities, and was conscious to himself that he
enjoyed a reputation beyond his deserts. Cossa rightly judged that, when
elevated to the Papacy, Philargi would of his own nature cling to one whose
strength of character he recognized, and would be the best of tools, for he
would wish to submit to a stronger mind as a means of concealing his own
incompetence. So entirely dependent on Cossa does he show himself by coming to
Bologna, that on his death, the story rapidly spread that he had been poisoned
by Cossa, who wished to have the new election in a place where his power was
supreme.
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