802 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
such statements. Statements of another kind can be ad duced to show that a class of priests had literary interests as wide as the age was familiar with. The schools that existed were for the training of the clergy. Synods assumed that clerics could read and prescribed that they should read their breviaries even while travelling on journeys. Peter of Blois urged them to read the Scriptures, which he called David's harp, a plough working up the fallow field of the heart, and which he compared to drink, medicine, balsam, and a weapon. He also warned priests against allowing themselves " to be enticed away by the puerilities of heathen literature and the inventions of philosophers." When the universities arose, a large opportunity was offered for culture and the students who attended them were clerics or men who were looking forward to holy orders. The synod of Cologne, 1260, prob ably struck the medium in regard to the culture of the clergy, when it declared that it did not demand eminent learning of clerics but that they know how to read and properly sing the church service.
The function of parish-preaching was not altogether neg lected. Bishops were enjoined by the Fourth Lateran to appoint men capable of preaching in all cathedral and con ventual churches. In the eleventh century there was scarcely a German parish in which there was not some preaching during the year, and subsequent to that time, sermons were delivered regularly.1 The sermons were sometimes in Latin and sometimes in German. Those which are preserved abound in stories and practical lessons and show more dependence upon the Fathers than upon the Scriptures. In England and other parts of Europe sermonizing was a less common practice. English priests were required to give expositions of the Creed, the Ten Commandments, the evan gelical precepts, the seven works of mercy, the seven car-
1 Hauck, IV. 40. Cruel, Deutsche Predigt, etc., expresses a less favor able judgment and estimates that one-half of the German clergy in the 13th century were uneducated and unable to preach. Coulton, p. 277, referring more especially to Italy, speaks " of the abyss of ignorance among the clergy at which we may well stagger."
§ 126. THE LOWER CLERGY. 803
dinal virtues, and the seven sacraments, and to cover these subjects once a quarter. Grosseteste called upon them to be diligent in visiting the sick night and day, to preach, and to carefully read the Scriptures that they might be able to give a reason for the hope that was in them.1 In the regions in fected with the Albigensian heresy, instruction was ordered given to children in the articles of the Catholic faith. The mendicant monks started out as preachers and supplied a popular demand. The ignorance of the priesthood at times called for inhibitions of preaching, as by the synod of Ox ford, 1281.
Not the least important among the priest's functions was the supervision of wills that the Church might come in for seemly remembrance. State laws in conflict with this custom were set aside. Abuses were recognized by synods, and the synod of Paris, 1212, ordered that laymen should not be com pelled to make provision in their wills for the payment of thirty mortuary masses. The priest's signature insured the validity of a will, and some synods made the failure to call in a priest to attest the last testament a ground of excom munication.2
Turning to the priest as a member of society, the Church, with unwavering emphasis, insisted upon his independence of the secular tribunal. In the seventh century, Heraclius had granted to the clergy, even in the case of criminal offences, the right of trial in ecclesiastical courts. The Isidorian fic tion fully stated this theory. These and other privileges led many to enter the minor clerical orders who had no intention of performing ecclesiastical functions. Council after council pronounced the priest's person inviolate and upon no other matter was Innocent III. more insistent.3 Violence offered to a priest was punished with the anathema, and civil au-
1 The Constitutions of Otho, 1237. Grosseteste, Letters, LIL, Luard'sed., p. 154 sqq.
2 So the synods of Cashel, 1171, Narbonne, 1127, Rouen, 1231, etc.
3 Ep., VI. 199, etc. Writing to the abp. of Pisa, he expressed amazement that the abp. should have declared a cleric, receiving injury from a layman, might submit his case to a lay tribunal. Ep., IX. 63.