Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/523

 Popes and Emperors 443 way they might have the right to collect tolls, coin money, and perform other important governmental duties. When a prelate took office he was invested with all these various functions at once, both spiritual and governmental. To forbid the king to take part in the investiture was, con- sequently, to rob him not only of his feudal rights but also of his authority over many of his government officials, since bishops, and sometimes even abbots, were often counts in all but name. He therefore found it necessary to take care who got possession of the important church offices. Still another danger threatened the wealth and resources of The marriage the Church. During the tenth and eleventh centuries the rule Sirea^enrtlie of the Church prohibiting the clergy from marrying appears to p?^^'^.°^ ^^^ have been widely neglected in Italy, Germany, France, and England. To the stricter people of the time this appeared a terrible degradation of the clergy, who, they felt, should be unencumbered by family cares and should devote themselves wholly to the service of God. The question, too, had another side. It was obvious that the property of the Church would soon be dispersed if the clergy were allowed to marry, since they would wish to provide for their children. Just as the feudal lands had become hereditary, so the church lands would become hereditary unless the clergy were forced to remain unmarried. Besides the feudalizing of its property and the marriage of Buying and the clergy, there was a third great and constant source of church offices weakness and corruption in the Church, at this period, namely, the temptation to buy and sell church offices. Had the duties and responsibilities of the bishops, abbots, and priests always been heavy, and their income slight, there would have been litde tendency to bribe those who could bestow the offices. But the incomes of bishoprics and abbeys were usually considerable, and sometimes very great, while the duties attached to the office of bishop or abbot, however serious in the eyes of the right-minded, might easily be neglected by the unscrupulous.