§ 9. FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE AVIGNON POPES. 85
In setting aside the vested rights of chapters and other electors, the pope often joined hands with kings and princes. In the Avignon period a ijggular election by a chapter was the exceptionT^ Tlie OKroiiicles of England and France teem with usurped cases of papal apjDointment. In 1322 the pope reserved to himself all the appointments in episcopal, cathedral, and abbey churches, and of all priors in the sees of Aquileja, Ravenna, Milan, Genoa, and Pisa.^ In 1329 he made such reservation for the German dioceses of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, and in 1339 for Cologne.^ There was no living in Latin Christendom which was safe from the pope's hands. There were not places enough to satisfy all the favorites of the papal household and the applicants pressed upon the pope's attention by kings and princes. The spiritual and administrative qualities of the appointees were not too closely scrutinized. Frenchmen were appointed to sees in England, Germany, Denmark, and other countries, who were utterly unfamiliar with the languages of those countries. Marsiglius complains of these " monstrosities " and, among other unfit appointments, mentions the French bishops of Winchester and Lund, neither of whom knew English or Danish. The archbishop of Lund, after plundering his diocese, returned to Southern France.
To_lha_su^reme_ri^hi_QLa^^ added the suj-
preme right to tax the clergy and all ecclesiastical property. The supreme right to exercise authority over kings, the supreme right to set aside canonical rules, the supreme right to make appointments in the Church, the supreme right to tax Church property^ these were, in their order, the rights asserted by the pojges^of^the_Middle_Ags^. The scandal growing out
of this period commonly ran de apostol. potestatis plenitudine reservamus. See John's bull of July 30, 1322, Lux, p. G2 sq. Eogare, monere, precipere are the words generally used by pope Innocent III,, 1198-1216, see Hinschius, II. 114 sq. Alexander III. used the expression ipsiim cominendamus rogantes etrogando mandantes and others like it. Hinschius, III. 116, dates insistence on reservations as a right from the time of Lucius III., 1181-1185.
1 Haller, p. 107.
2 Lux, p. 61 sq. This author, pp. 59-106, gives 57 documents not before published, containing reservations by John XXII. and his successors.
^ Kirsch : Kollektorien, p. xxv sq.
86 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
of this unlimited right of taxation called forth the most vigorous complaints from clergy and laity, and was in large part the cause which led to the summoning of the three great Reformatory councils of the fifteenth century. ^
Popes had acted upon this theory of jurisdiction over the property of the Church long before John XXII. They levied taxes for crusades in the Orient, or to free Italy from rebels for the papal state. They gave their sanction to princes and kings to levy taxes upon the Church for secular purposes, especially for wars.^ In the bull Clericis laicos, Boniface did not mean to call in question the propriety of the Church's contributing to the necessities of the state. What he demanded was that he himself should be recognized as arbiter in such matters, and it was this demand which gave offence to the French king and to France itself. The question was much discussed whether the pope may commit simony. Thomas Aquinas gave an affirmative answer. Alvarus Pelagius ^ thought differently, and declared that the pope is exempt from the laws and canons which treat of simony. Augustinus Triumphus took the same ground.^ The pope is not bound by laws. He is above laws. Simony is not possible to him.
In estimating the necessities of the papal court, which justified the imposition of customs, the Avignon popes were no longer their own masters. They were the creatures of the camera and the hungry horde of officials and sycophants
1 See Hergenrother-Kirsch, II. 762. K. Miiller: Kirchengesch. , II. 45. Kirsch : Finanzverioaltiing, p. 70. Pastor, in the 1st ed. of his Hist, of the Popes, I. 03, said das unheilvolle System der Annaten, lieservationen und Expektanzen hat seit Johann XXII. znr Aushildung gelangt.
'^ The course of Clement V., in allowing grants to Philip the Fair, Charles of Valois, and other princes, was followed by John. In 1310 he granted to the king of France a tenth and annates for four years, in 1320 a tenth for two years, and in 1333 a tenth for six years. The English king, in 1317, was given a share of the tenth appointed by the Council of Vienne for a crusade and at the same time one-half of the annates. Again, in the years 1319, 1322, 1.330, a tenth was accorded to the same sovereign. See Haller, p. 110 sq.
8 De planctu eccles., II. 14, papa legibtis loquentibus de simonia et canonibus solutus est.
* V. 3, certum est, sumninm pontificem canonicam simoniam a jure positivo prohibitam non posse rummittere, quia ipse est snpra jus et eum jura positiva non ligant.