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
The papal legate, Cardinal Henry of Albano, in his Encyclical letter of
1188 to the prelates of Germany, is equally emphatic though less
eloquent. The triumph of the Prince of Darkness is to be expected in
view of the depravity of the clergy--their luxury, their gluttony, their
disregard of the fasts, their holding of pluralities, their hunting,
hawking, and gambling, their trading and their quarrels, and, chief of
all, their incontinence, whence the wrath of God is provoked to the
highest degree and the worst scandals are created between the clergy and
the people. Peter Cantor, about the same time, describes the Church as
filled to the mouth with the filth of temporalities, of avarice, and of
negligence, so that in these points it far surpasses the laity; and he
points out that nothing is more damaging to the Church than to see
laymen superior, as a class, to the clergy. Gilbert of Gemblours tells
the same tale. The prelates for the most part enter the Church not by
election, but by the use of money and the favor of princes; they enter,
not to feed, but to be fed; not to minister, but to be ministered to;
not to sow, but to reap; not to labor, but to rest; not to guard the
sheep from the wolves, but, fiercer than wolves, themselves to tear the
sheep. St. Hildegarda, in her prophecies, espouses the cause of the
people against the clergy. "The prelates are ravishers of the churches;
their avarice consumes all that it can acquire. With their oppressions
they make us paupers and contaminate us and themselves.... Is it fitting
that wearers of the tonsure should have greater store of soldiers and
arms than we? Is it becoming that a clerk should be a soldier and a
soldier a clerk?... God did not command that one son should have both
coat and cloak and that the other should go naked, but ordered the cloak
to be given to one and the coat to the other. Let the laity then have
the cloak on account of the cares of the world, and let the clergy have
the coat that they may not lack that which is necessary."[42]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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