280 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
ATTO (Episcopus Vercellensis, d. 960) : Depressuris ecclesiasticis ; Epistolce,
and other books, in Migne, Tom. CXXXV. JAFFE : Regesta, pp. 307-325. Other sources relating more to the political history of the tenth century
are indicated by Giesebrecht, I. 817, 820, 836.
LITERATURE.
BARONIUS : Annales ad ann. 900-963.
V. E. LOSCHER: Historic des rom. Hurenregiments. Leipzig, 1707. (2nd
ed. with another title, 1725.) CONST ANTIN HOFLER (E. C.) : Die deutschen Pdpste. Eegensburg, 1839,
2 vols. E. DUMMLER : Auxilius und Vulgarius. Quellen undForschungenzur Ge-
schichte des Papstthums im An/ang des zehnten Jahrhunderts. Leipz.
1866. The writings of Auxilius and Vulgarius are in Migne's Patrol,
Tom. CXXIX. C. Jos. VON HEFELE (Bishop of Rottenburg) : Die Pdpste und Kaiser in
den trilbsten Zeiten der Kirche, in his "Beitrage zur Kirchengesch,"
etc., vol. I. 227-278. Also his Contiliengeschichte, IV. 571-660
(2d ed.). MILMAN : Lai. Chr. Bk. 5, chs. 11-14. GIESEBRECHT : Gesch. der
deutschen Kaiserzeil, I. 343 sqq. GFRORER : III. 3, 1133-1275.
BAXMANN : II. 58-125. GREGOROVIUS, Vol. III. VON BEUMONT,
Vol. II.
The tenth century is the darkest of the dark ages, a century of ignorance and superstition, anarchy and crime in church and state. The first half of the eleventh century was little better. The dissolution of the world seemed to be nigh at hand. Serious men looked forward to the terrible day of judgment at the close of the first millennium of the Christian era, neglected their secular business, and inscribed donations of estates and other gifts to the church with the significant phrase " appropinquante mundi termino."
The demoralization began in the state, reached the church, and culminated in the papacy. The reorganization of society took the same course. No church or sect in Christendom ever sank so low as the Latin church in the tenth century. The papacy, like the old Roman god Janus, has two faces, one Christian, one antichristian, one friendly and benevolent, one fiendish and malignant. In this period, it shows almost exclusively the
I 63. DEGRADATION OF THE PAPACY IN TENTH CENTURY. 281
antichristian face. It is an unpleasant task for the historian to expose these shocking corruptions ; but it is necessary for the understanding of the reformation that followed. The truth must be told, with its wholesome lessons of humiliation and encour agement. No system of doctrine or government can save the church from decline and decay. Human nature is capable of Satanic wickedness. Antichrist steals into the very temple of God, and often wears the priestly robes. But God is never absent from history, and His overruling wisdom always at last brings good out of evil. Even in this midnight darkness the stars were shining in the firmament ; and even then, as in the days of Elijah the prophet, there were thousands who had not bowed their knees to Baal. Some convents resisted the tide of corrup tion, and were quiet retreats for nobles and kings disgusted with the vanities of the world, and anxious to prepare themselves for the day of account. Nilus, Romuald, and the monks of Cluny raised their mighty voice against wickedness in high places. Synods likewise deplored the immorality of the clergy and laity, and made efforts to restore discipline. The chaotic confusion of the tenth century, like the migration of nations in the fifth, proved to be only the throe and anguish of a new birth. It was followed first by the restoration of the empire under Otho the Great, and then by the reform of the papacy under Hildebrand.
THE POLITICAL DISORDER.
In the semi-barbarous state of society during the middle ages, a strong central power was needed in church and state to keep order. Charlemagne was in advance of his times, and his structure rested on no solid foundation. His successors had neither his talents nor his energy, and sank almost as low as the Merovingians in incapacity and debauchery. The popular con tempt in which they were held was expressed in such epithets as "the Bald/7 "the Fat," "the Stammerer/' "the Simple," "the Lazy/' "the Child." Under their misrule the foundations of