A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume ILea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume I
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- History
Gall was the
temporal ruler of the Cantons of St. Gall and Appenzel, until the latter
threw off the yoke after a long and devastating war. The historian of
the abbey chronicles with pride the martial virtues of successive
abbots, and in speaking of Ulric III., who died in 1117, he remarks
that, worn out with many battles, he at last passed away in peace. All
this was in some sort a necessity of the incongruous union of feudal
noble and Christian prelate, and though more marked in Germany than
elsewhere, it was to be seen everywhere. In 1224 the Bishops of
Coutances, Avranches, and Lisieux withdrew from the army of Louis VIII.
at Tours, under an agreement that the king should make legal
investigation to determine whether the bishops of Normandy were bound to
serve personally in the royal armies; if this was found to be the case,
they were to return and pay the amercement for deserting him. The
decision apparently went against them, for in 1272 we find them serving
personally under Philippe le Hardi. This indisposition to fight the
battles of others was not often shown when the cause was their own.
Geroch of Reichersperg inveighs bitterly against the warlike prelates
who provoke unjust wars, attacking the peaceful and delighting in the
slaughter which they cause and witness, giving no quarter, taking no
prisoners, sparing neither clergy nor laity, and spending the revenues
of the Church on soldiers, to the deprivation of the poor. Such a
prelate was Lupold, Bishop of Worms, whose recklessness provoked his
brother to say, "My lord bishop, you scandalize us laymen greatly by
your example. Before you were a bishop you feared God a little, but now
you care nothing for him," to which Bishop Lupold flippantly retorted
that when they both should be in hell he would exchange seats if his
brother desired. During the wars between the emperors Philip and Otho
IV. he personally led his troops in support of Philip, and when his
soldiers hesitated about sacking churches, he would tell them that it
was enough if they left the bones of the dead. The story is well known
of Richard of England, and Philippe of Dreux, the warlike Bishop of
Beauvais, who had shown himself equally skilful and ruthless in the
predatory warfare of the age, and who, when at last captured by Earl
John, complained to Celestin III. of his imprisonment as a violation of
ecclesiastical privileges. When Celestin, reproving him for his martial
propensities, interceded for his release, King Richard sent to the pope
the coat of mail in which the prelate had been captured, with the
inquiry made to Jacob by his sons, "Know, whether it be thy son's coat?"
to which the good pontiff responded by abandoning the appeal. A
different result, not long afterwards, attended a similar experience of
Theodore, Marquis of Montferrat, when he defeated and captured Aymon,
Bishop of Vercelli. It happened that Cardinal Tagliaferro, papal legate
to Aragon, was tarrying at Geneva, and, hearing of the sacrilege, wrote
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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