THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 773
mortmain of alleged divine appointment. Dante's De monarcMa was burnt by John XXII. The evangelical text-book, the TheologiaGrermanica^hasheen putonthe Index. Erasmus' writings were put on the Index. Curses were hurled against a German emperor by Clement VI. which it would almost be sacrilege to repeat with the lips. Eckart was declared a heretic. Wyclif's bones were dug up and cast into the flames. Huss was burnt. Savonarola was burnt. And, from nameless graves in Spain and Germany rises the protest against the papacy as a divine institution.
Valla said again and again that the papacy was responsible for all the misfortunes of Italy, its worst enemy. To such a low plane was that institution brought that the Emperor Maximilian I. seriously considered having himself elected pope and combining in himself the two sovereignties of Church and state. That such a thought was possible is proof of the actual state of affairs. A most Catholic historian, Janssen (III. 77), says : " The court of Leo X., withits extravagant expenditure in cardplaying, theatres and all mannerofworldlyamusements, was still more flagrantly opposed to the position of chief overseer of the Church than the courts of the German ecclesiastical princes, notably Albrecht of Mainz. The iniquity of Rome exceeded that of the ecclesiastical princes of Germany." And was not the chief idea, which some of the aspirants after the highest office in Christendom had in mind, well embodied in the words with which Leo followed his election, " Let us enjoy the papacy " ? If the lives of these latter popes were unworthy, their treatment of the spiritual prerogatives was sacrilegious. Rome encouraged the Crusades but sent no Crusaders. In Rome everything was for sale. The forgiveness of sins itself was offered for money.
And, within papal circles, there was no movement towards reform. As well might men have looked for a burnt field to furnish food. It is not improbable that the very existence of the papacy was saved by the Reformation. This is the view to which Burckhardt chooses to give expression twice in the same work.i It discredited by its incumbents every high claim as-
1 Renaissance, I. 136, IL 185. Ticker, p. 13, speaks of " the incalculable advantage which accrued to the Catholic Church from the Reformation."
774 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
serted for it. And yet, with abounding self-confidence, in the last hours of the Middle Ages, it solemnly reafiirmedthe claim of supreme jurisdiction over the souls and bodies of men, the Church and the state. And after the Reformation had begun, Prierias, Master of the palace, declared the pope's superiority to the Scriptures in these words : " Whoever does not rest upon the doctrine of the Roman Church and the Roman pope as an infallible rule of faith, from which even the Holy Scriptures derive their authority, is a heretic." And to be a heretic meant to be an outlaw. Prierias was the man who spoke of Luther as " the brute with the deep eyes and strange fantasies."
Forces^f_aiiotheiJCihaimit^ In quiet path-
ways, the mystics walked with Godjind, though they did not repudiate the sacramental system, they called attention to the religion of the heart as the seat of religion. The JrnilMiim of Christ was written once, for all ages. The Church had found its proper definition as the body of the e^^o.t anrl that idea stood in direct antithesis to the theory the hierarchy worked upon. The preaching of the Waldeuaes had been condemned by the Fourth Lateran Council, but there was a growing popular demand for instruction as well as the spectacle of the mass, and the catechetical manuals laid stress upon the sermon. The Albigenses had been completely blotted out, but the principles of Lollardism and Hussitism continued to flow, though as little rills. The Inquisition was still doing its work, but in Germany schools for alljclass£S-Ql .children werfi_b£inj^ taught. The laity was asserting its rights in the domain of learning and culture. These influences were silently preparing the soil for the new teachings.
In the 15th century, a potent force stirred Europe as Europe had never been stirred by it before, — Commerce. The industrial change, then going on, deserves more than a passing reference as a factor preparing the mind for intellectual and religious innovation. This, at least, is true of the German people. Explorations and the extension of commerce have, in more periods than one, preceded a revival of missionary enterprise. But, of all the centuries, none is so like the 19th as the last century of the Middle Ages, — vital with humanistic