§ 8. THE PAPAL OFFICE ASSAILED. 81
tentiary at Avignon, and later bishop of the Portuguese diocese of .SilYes. Hisj^ament over the Church3_ — de planctu ecclesice,^ — while exalting the pope to the skies, bewails the low spiritual estate into which the clergy and the Church had fallen. Christendoip. he argues, which is but one kingdom, can have but one head, the pope. Whoever does not accept him as the head TToes not accept Christ. And whosoever, ■^thpure and believing eye, sees the pope, sees Christ himself.^ Without communion with the pope there is no salvation. He wields both swords as Christ did, and in him the passage of Jer. 1:10 is fulfilled, "I have this day set thee over the nations and over the -kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." Unbelievers, also, Al varus asserts to be legally under the pope's jurisdiction, though they may not be so in fact, and the pope may proceed against them as God did against the Sodomites. Idolaters, Jews, and Saracens are alike amenable to the pope's authority and subject to his punishments. He rules, orders, disposes and judges all things as he pleases. His will is highest wisdom, and what he pleases to do has the force of law.^ Wherever the supreme pontiff is, there is the Roman Church, and he cannot be compelled to remain in Rome.* He is the source of all law and may decide what is the right. To doubt this means exclusion from life eternal.
As the yjcar of^ Christ, the pope is suprerne. over^tlie^statfi.. He confers the sword which the prince wields. As the body is subject to the soul, so princes are subject to the pope. Constantine's donation made the pope, in fact, monarch over the Occident. He transferred the empire to Charlemagne in trust. The emperor's oath is an oath of fealty and homage.
1 Dollinger, p. 433, places its composition in 1329, Riezler, 1331, Haller, between 1330-1332. Alvarus issued three editions, the third at Santiago, 1340.
2 Vere papa representnt Christum in terris, utqui videt cum oculo contemplativo etfideli videat et Chrishim, I. 13.
3 Apud eum est pro ratione voluntas, et quod ei placet legis habet vigorem, I. 45.
* Unum est consistorium et tribunal Christi et papce, I. 29. Ubicunque est papa, ibi est eccles. Bom. . . . Non cogitur stare Bomce, 1. 31,
82 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
The views of Augustinus Triumphus and Alvarus followed the papal assertion and practice of centuries, and the assent or argument of the Schoolmen. Marsiglius had the sanction of Scripture rationally interpreted, and his views were confirmed by the experiences of history. After the lapse of nearly 500 years, opinion in Christendom remains divided, and the most extravagant language of Triumphus and Alvarus is applauded, and Marsiglius, the exponent of modern liberty and of the historical sense of Scripture, continues to be treated as a heretic.
§ 0. The Financial Policy of the Avignon Popes.
The most notable feature of the Avignon period of the papacy, next to its subserviency to France, was the development of the papal financial system and the unscrupulous traffic which it plied in spiritual benefits and ecclesiastical offices. The theory Avasput into practice that every spiritual favor has itsjjrice in money. \t was John XXII. 's achievement to reduce the taxation of Christendom to a finely organized systeni.
The papal court had a proper claim for financial support on all parts of the Latin Church, for it ministered to all. This just claim gave way to a practice which made it seem as if Christendom existed to sustain the papal establishment in a state of luxury and ease. Avignon took on the aspect of an exchange whose cliief business was getting money, a vast bureau where privileges, labelled as of heavenly efficacy, were sold for gold. Its machinery for collecting moneys was more extensive and intricate than the machinery of any secular court of the age. To contemporaries, commercial transactions at the central seat of Christendom seemed much more at home than services of religious devotion.
The mind of John XXII. ran naturally to the counting-house and ledger system. ^ lie came from Cahors, the town noted for its brokers and bankers. Under his favor the seeds of com-
^ Haller says, p. 103, tlie characteristic of John's pontificate was finance, der Fisknlisnms. Tangl, \^. 40, compares his coniniercial instincts to the concern for high ideals which animated Gregory VII., Alexander III., and Innocent III. See vol. V, 1., pp. 787, .sqq.