Page:The Mediaeval Mind Vol 2.djvu/47

35 was on the German side to dispute even the sacerdotal principle of papal authority. It is hard to judge otherwise of Freidank, the very German composer or collector of trenchant sayings in the early thirteenth century. Many of these sneer at Rome and the Pope, and some of them strike the gist of the matter: "Sunde nieman mac vergeben wan Got alein" ("God alone can forgive sins"). This is the direct statement; he gives its scornful converse: "Could the Pope absolve me from my oaths and duties, I'd let other sureties go and fasten to him alone." Such words mean denial of the Church's authority to forgive, and the Pope's to grant absolution from oaths of allegiance. Freidank is very near rejecting the principles of the ecclesiastical system. Walther, Freidank's contemporary, is more picturesque: "King Constantine, he gave so much—as I will tell you—to the Chair of Rome: spear, cross, and crown. At once the angels cried: 'Alas! Alas! Alas! Christendom before stood crowned with righteousness. Now is poison fallen on her, and her honey turned to gall sad for the world henceforth!' To-day the princes all live in honour; only their highest languishes so works the priest's election. Be that denounced to thee, sweet God! The priests would upset laymen's rights: true is the angels' prophecy."

On Constantine's apocryphal gift, symbolized by the emblems of Christ's passion, rested the secular authority of the popes, which Walther laments with the angels. "The Chair of Rome was first set up by Sorcerer Gerbert! [Queer history this, but we see what he means.] He destroyed his own soul only; but this one would bring down Christendom with him to perdition. When will all tongues call Heaven to arms, and ask God how long He will sleep? They bring to nought His work, distort His Word. His steward steals His treasure; His judge robs here and murders there; His shepherd has become a wolf among His sheep." The clergy point their fingers heavenward while they travel fast to hell. How laughs the Pope at us, when at home with his Italians, at the way he empties our German pockets into