Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/194

 UK> 185 UK>

eniUDies dmuHaneouBly. Before he bad decided to to be feared that Qod Himself would cut off the rottea bind himself in one way or the other, Louis XII died limbs and destroy them with fire and sword. That and the yoimg and anient Francis I succeeded him. very year this prophetic warning was verified. The Onoe more Leo sought delay. He supported the salutary reforms of the Lateran Council found no prac- League against France, but until the last moment tical acceptance. Pluralism, conunendatory bene- hoped for an arrangement with Francis. But the lat- fices. and the granting of ecclesiastical dignities to ter shortly after his descent upon Italy, won the great children remained customary. Leo himself did not victory cf Marignano^ I3~14 September, 1515, and the scruple to set aside repeatedly the decrees of the ooun- pope now made up his mind to throw himself into the eil. The Roman Curia, then much despised and arms of the Most Christian King and beg for mercy, against which so many inveighed with violence, re- He was obliged to alter his policy completely and to mained as worldly as ever. The pope was either un- abandoQ to the French lung Parma and Piacenza, willing or not in a position to regulate the imworthy which had been retmited with Milan. An interview and immoral conduct of many of the Roman courtiers. with King Francis at Bologna resulted in the French The political situation absorbed his attention and was Concordat (I5I6), that brou^t with it such important largely responsible for the premature close of the ocmseauenoes f(Nr the Church. The Pragmatic Sano- coimcil.

tion of Bourges (1438), deeply inimical to the papacy, In March, 1516, Emperor Maximilian crossed the was revoked, but the pope paid a hig^ price for tms Alps to make war on the French and Venetians. ooncession, when he grantee! to the king the right of Ilie pope followed his iisual course of shifting and nomination to all the sees, abbejrs, and priories of dissimulation. At first, when events seemed favour- France. Through this and other concessions, e. g. able for the French, he supported Francis. But his that pertaining to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the former double-dealing had left Francis in such ill- r^yal mfluence over the French Church was assured, humour that he now adhered to aii antipapal policy, Great discontent resulted in France among the clergy whereupon Leo adopted an unfriendly attitude to- and in the parliaments. The abolition of the Prag- wards the king. Their relations were further strained matic Sanction, drawn up in compliance with the de- apropos of the Duchy of Urbino. During the French erees of the Council of Basle, affected the adherents invasion the Duke of Urbino had withheld the assist- of the conciliar system of church government. The ance which he was in duty bound to render the pope, abolition of free ecclesiastical elections affected griev- who now exiled him and gave the title to his nephew, ously the interests of many and opposition to the Con- Lorenzo dc' Medici. The French king was highly dis- oordat was maintained for centuries. The advantage pleased with the papal policy, and when Francis I and to the Church and the pope of such a great sacrifice Maximilian formed the alliance of Cambrai in 1517 was that France, hitherto schismatical in attitude, and agreed on a partition of Upper and Central Italy, now stood firmly bound to the Holy See, which thus Pope Leo found nimself in a disagreeable position. In turned aside the danger of complete estrangement, part by reason of his constant vacillation he had However, the way in which the French crown abused drifted into a dangerous isolation, added to which the its ocmtrol over the Church led at a later period to great Duke of Urbino reconquered his duchy; to crown evOs. all other calamities came a conspiracy of cardinals Ifoanwhile the Lateran Coimcil, continued by Leo against the pope's life. The ringleader, Cardinal Pe- after his elevation to the papacy, was nearing its close, trucci, was a young worldly ecclesiastic who thought having issued numerous and very timely decrees, e. g. only of money and pleasure. He and the other cardi- t against the false philosophical teachings of the Pa- nals who had brought about Leo's election, made after- duan professor, Pietro Pomponazzi, who denied the wards such numerous and insistent demands that the immortality of the soul. The encroachments of pagan pope could not yield to them. Other causes for dis- Humanism on the spiritual life were met by the simul- content were found in the imfortunate war with Ur- taneous rise of a new order of philosophical and theo- bino and in the abolition of the election capitulations kmcal studies. In the ninth session was promulgated and the excessi vc privileges of the cardinals. Petrucci a BuH that treated exhaustively of reforms in the bore personal ill-will towards the *'\mgrateful pope". Curia and the Church. Abbeys and benefices were who had removed his brother from the government of henceforth to be bestowed only on persons of merit Siena. He tried to have the pope poisoned by a and according to canon law. Provisions of benefices physician, but suspicion was aroused and the plot was and ronsistorial proceedings were regulated; ecclesi- oetrayed through a letter. The investigation impli- astical depositions and transfers made more difficult; catcd Cardinals Sauli, Riario, Soderini^ and Castellesi; commendatory benefices were forbidden; and unions thcv had been guilty at least of listening to Petrucci. and reservations of benefices, also dispensations for and. perhaps ha^ desired his success, though their full obtaining them, were restricted. Measures were also complicity was not actually proved. Petrucci was taken for reforming the curial administration and the executed and the others punished by fines; Riario paid lives of cardinals, clerics, and the faithful. The reli- the enormous sum of 150,000 ducats.

Sous instruction of children was declared a duty. The affair throws a lurid li^ht on the degree of cor- lasphemers and incontinent, negligent, or simoniac ruption in the highest ecclesiastical circles. Uncon- ecdesiastics were to be severely punished. Church cemed by the scandal he was giving. Leo took ad- revenues were no longer to be turned to secular uses, vantage of the proceeding to create thirty-one new The immunities of the clergy must be respected, and cardinals, thereoy obtaimng an entirely submissive all kinds of superstition abolished. The eleventh see- college and also money to carry on the unlucky war with aion dealt with the cure of souls, particularly with Urbino. Not a few of these cardinals were chosen on preaching. These measures, unhappily, were not thor- account of the large sums they advanced. But this oughly enforced, and therefore the much-needed gen- wholesale appointment also brought several virtuous uine reform was not realized. Towards the close and distinguished men into the Sacred College, and it of the council (1517) the noble and highly cultured was further important because it definitively estab- layman, Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, dcliv- lished the superiority of the pope over the cardinals. ered a remarkable speech on the necessity of a reform The war with Urbino, encouraged by Francis I and of morals; his accoimt of the moral condition of the Maximitianfor the purpose of increasing Leo's diflScul- clergy is saddening, and reveals the many and great ties, was finally brought to a close, after having cost difficulties that stood in the way of a genuine reU)rm. enormous sums and emptied the papal treasury. Lor- He concluded with the wamine that if Leo X left such enzo de' Medici remained in possession of the duchy offences longer unpunished and refused to apply heal- (1517). Faithful to the ancient tradition of the Holy ing remedies to tneee wounds of the Church, it was See, from the ver}' beginning of his reign, Leo zealously