796 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
duties are frequently dwelt upon by English, German, and French synods. The large dioceses employed a plurality of them. As early as the eleventh century, the see of Treves had five, Cologne six, and Halberstadt thirty.1 After the Norman Conquest, the English dioceses adopted the system. Lincoln included the archdeaconries of Lincoln, Leicester, Stow, Buckingham, Huntingdon, Northampton, Oxford, and Bedford. Archdeacons were often appointed at an early age, and it became the custom for them to go abroad to pursue the study of canon law before entering upon the duties of their office. They were inclined to allow themselves more liberties than other ecclesiastics, and John of Salisbury pro pounded the question whether an archdeacon could be saved. Among the better known of the English archdeacons were Thomas a Becket, Walter Map, archdeacon of Oxford, and Peter of Blois, archdeacon of London. Peter complained to Innocent III. that he received no financial support from the 120 churches of London.
A hard struggle was carried on to remove the hand of the secular power from church funds. Synods, local and oecu menical, threatened severest penalties upon any interfer ence of this kind. In 1209, Otto IV. renounced the old right of spoliation — jus spolii or jus exuviarum, — whereby the secular prince might seize the revenues of vacant sees and livings, and appropriate them to himself. The Church was exempted by Innocent III. from all civil taxation at the hands of laymen, except as it was sanctioned by pope or bishop, and lay patrons were enjoined against withholding or seizing for their own use church livings to which they had the right of appointment.2 The goods, laid aside by clerics from their livings, were the property of the Church,3 and in case a priest died intestate, it was, in some parts, the privi lege of the bishop to administer his estate. Priests were
1 Hauck, IV. 10 sqq. Metz, Toul, Mainz, etc., also employed a number of archdeacons.
2 Third Lat., can. 19, Fourth Lat., can. 46. This principle was recognized by Frederick II., 1220. Also Narbonne, 1127, can. 12 ; Toulouse, 1229, can. 20 sq., etc. & Third Lat., can. 15.
§ 125. BISHOPS. 797
exempt from personal taxation. For prescribed taxes, free gifts so called, were substituted. Peter of Blois commended the piety of certain princes who declined to levy taxes upon churches and other ecclesiastical institutions, even for neces sary expenditures, such as the repair of city walls ; but met them, if not from their own resources, from booty taken from enemies.1
Besides the usual income accruing from landed endow ments and tithes, the bishop had other sources of revenue. He might at pleasure levy taxes for the spiritual needs of his see,2 and appropriate the first year's income of newly appointed priests. Other additions, from the eleventh cen tury on, came in the way of fees and collections for indul gences and gifts at the dedication of churches and altars, and the benediction of cemeteries. Abselard speaks of the throngs which assembled on such festal occasions, and the large offerings which were, in part, payments for the relax ation of penances.3
As for the pastoral fidelity and morals of the bishops, there was much ground for complaint, and there are also records of exemplary prelates. As a whole, the prelates were a militant class. No pope of this age wore armor as did John XII., and, at a later time, Julius II., though there were few if any pontiffs, who did not encourage war under the name of religion. Bishops and abbots were often among the bravest warriors and led their troops into the thickest of the fight both on European soil and under Syrian suns. Monks and priests wore armor and went into battle. When the pope asked for the release of the fighting bishop of Beauvais, whom Richard Coaur de Lion had seized, Richard sent him the bishop's coat of mail clotted with blood and the words taken from the story of Joseph, " We found this. Is it not thy son's coat?" Archbishop Christian of Mainz (d. 1183) is said to have felled, with his own hand, nine antag onists in the Lombard war, and to have struck out the teeth
., 112, 121. 2 Subsidium charitativum. Third Lateran,
3 Ethica, 25, Migne, 178. 672 sq.