Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/523

Rh P P E D M 503 dicy of e chief iropean &amp;gt;wers. suspending the pope. Thereupon Eugenius summoned another council at Ferrara, which was afterwards removed to Florence. The council of Basel, as a last resource, arrogated to itself the papal functions, and then proceeded to elect Amadeus, duke of Savoy, pope, with the title of FELIX V. In this extreme measure it failed, however, to carry with it the more influential European powers. Germany, after an ineffectual endeavour to mediate be tween the rival popes, assumed, in the first instance, an attitude of strict neutrality, but was ultimately won over by the crafty vEneas Sylvius (afterwards Pius II.) to conclude the notable Concordat of Vienna (1448). By this mercenary arrangement the newly-elected emperor, Frederick III., altogether renounced whatever advantages had, down to that time, been gained by the labours of the council of Basel, receiving in return from Nicholas V. certain concessions with respect to all episcopal elections in his own hereditary dominions, together with a hundred of the most valuable benefices, the visitatorial rights in relation to the monasteries, and a tenth of the monastic revenues. The policy adopted by France was of an alto gether different character. She preferred to adjust her ecclesiastical liberties on the basis defined and sanctioned by the royal authority at the congress of Bourges. The Pragmatic Sanction there enacted was registered by the parliament of Paris, 13th July 1439, thus becoming part of the statute law of France. In this celebrated mani festo the spirit of Gerson and the university of Paris spoke again ; but, while its twenty-three provisions rendered it peculiarly obnoxious to the Roman see, the manner in which it set aside all royal nominations made it no less distasteful to the monarchy. Louis XI., feigning to yield to the pressure put upon him from Rome, abolished it, but it was re-enacted by Louis XII. Eventually, in the year 1516, amid the full flow of the advantages which he had gained by the victory of Marignano, Francis I. permitted the Pragmatic Sanction to be superseded by the Concordat of Bologna, a disastrous compromise of principles, wherein, while some important concessions were made to Leo X., the crown interference with the admin istration of the church was more effectually established than ever, and the independence of the Gallican clergy reduced to a shadow. The concordat made no mention of the councils of Constance, Basel, and Bourges, or of their fundamental conception of the superiority of a general council over the pope ; and it left the opportunity open for the reintroduction of annates. On the other hand, the monarchical authority achieved a signal triumph and, although the parliament of Paris loudly protested, and even ventured to set aside some of the royal nominations sub sequently made, its voice was silenced by a peremptory decree issued in the year 1527. To return to the council of Basel. Although supported at first by the electors of Germany, it was, in the sequel, completely circumvented by the machinations of the able but unscrupulous J^neas Sylvius ; and Pope Eugenius, at his death, seemed almost to have regained the allegiance of Christendom. Under NICHOLAS V. (1447-55), the work of reunion was brought to a completion. The council of Basel dissolved itself; and Felix V., laying aside his empty title and dignity, retired into Savoy, and was shortly after promoted to the rank of cardinal by Nicholas himself. The popedom was not destined ever again to witness the phenomenon of a rival pontiff ; and no council since the council of Basel has ever ventured to assert its authority as superior to that of the Roman chair. At the council of Florence that theory had been definitely contravened (1439) by the enunciation of the fol lowing canon, in which the counter theory first received a complete and distinct exposition: &quot;We define the holy apostolic see and the Roman pontiff to have primacy over the whole earth, and the Roman pontiff to be himself the successor of the blessed Peter, chief of the apostles, and the true vicar of Christ, and to exist as head of the whole church and father and teacher of all Christians ; and that to him, in the blessed Peter, our Lord Jesus Christ has com mitted full power of feeding, governing, and directing the universal church, even as is [also] l contained both in the acts of the oecumenical councils and in the sacred canons.&quot; Thus re-established and confirmed in his own theory of The curia his office and its functions, the Roman pontiff regained and the somewhat of his former hold on the estimation of Europe. PP&amp;lt;lom There was also at the same time discernible a marked j^ improvement, so far as regarded external decorum, in the century, associations of the curia ; and, until the ascendency of the Borgias, the names of NICHOLAS V. (1447-55), Pius II. (1458-64), and SIXTHS IV. (1471-84) redeemed the reputation of the Roman see, if not for sanctity, at least for learning. The last-named pontiff, however, lies under the imputation of having been the first to institute trials for witchcraft, an example which spread, in later times&amp;gt; far wider than the boundaries of Roman Catholicism itself. In the latter half of the 15th century the popedom retires altogether into the background of European history. The pretensions of the pontiff were not, indeed, in any way retracted or modified, but his actual policy was no longer commensurate with these, and the former weapons of the interdict and the anathema had fallen into disuse. The popes became little more than territorial princes, their politi cal and ecclesiastical influence being exerted mainly with reference to the material interests of the States of the Church. It was one of the most baneful results of these changed external relations that each more ambitious pontiff the Farnesi, the Borgias, the Delia Roveres, and the Medici aspired to found an hereditary sovereignty or principality in connexion with his own family, and the most valuable possessions of the church were successively alienated. By the next pontiff the holders of such pro perty would be not unjustly regarded as usurpers, and it would be the first aim of himself and his party to eject them from the lands and revenues thus acquired. In this manner deadly feuds were generated, which became heredi tary in the different families, and proved an unfailing source of sanguinary feuds and bitter animosities. With the tacit surrender of the theory of the supremacy of general councils, the Holy Roman Empire itself came also virtually to an end ; and Germany, broken up into a The number of independent principalities, often involved in P a P al internecine strife, presented a striking contrast to the advances which France and Spain were making in the direction of consolidation and order. The papacy found a direct apparent advantage in fomenting this disunion, and in no country were the exactions of its emissaries more shameless or extortionate. Eventually, however, both these phases of its policy proved eminently detrimental to the Roman interests. For, while the unscrupulousness of its agents did much to foster a strong aversion to the tenets which they inculcated, and thus paved the way for the reception of Lutheran doctrines, the isolation to which 1 Kad Si/ Tpoirov Kal ev TO?S irpa.KTiKo is rcov oiKOv/j.fviKcav (rut 6S&amp;lt;av Kal tv TO?S Upois Kdvoffi SiaAa/j.pdi eTa.i. For a long time these words were correctly rendered in the Latin, &quot;quern ad modum et in gestis cecumenicorum conciliorum et in sacris canonibus continetur,&quot; and the passage is invariably thus quoted by the loth and early 16th century theologians. In the Koman edition of Abraham Cretensis, however, the obvious meaning of the Greek, viz., that the prerogatives of the pope are to be determined and exercised according to the canons of the ancient councils, is done away with by the change of et to etiam ; and the sense of the passage (which thus becomes merely a confir matory reference) is, that the prerogatives enumerated belonged to the pope, and were also recognized in the ancient councils.