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Home , Interdict, Penitential

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History of the Christian Church

VOLUME 4. History of Medieval , AD 590 to 1517

By Philip Schaff

CH408

Chapter 8: Church Discipline

History of the Christian Church Volume 4. History of Medieval Christianity, AD 590 to 1517

CH408 Table of Contents

Chapter 8. Church Discipline ...... 2 4.85. The Penitential Books ...... 2 4.86. Ecclesiastical Punishments. , Anathema, Interdict ...... 3 4.87. and ...... 5

Chapter 8. Church Discipline purely spiritual jurisdiction, but after the establishment of Christianity as the national 4.85. The Penitential Books religion, it began to affect also the civil and I. The Acts of Councils, the Capitularies of temporal condition of the subjects of Charlemagne and his successors, and the punishment. It obtained a powerful hold upon Penitential Books, especially that of Theodore the public mind from the universal belief of of Canterbury, and that of . See Migne’s the middle ages that the visible church, Patrol. Tom. 99, fol. 901–983. centering in the Roman papacy, was by divine II. FRIEDR. KUNSTMANN (R.C.): Die latein. appointment the dispenser of eternal Poenitentialbuecher der Angelsachsen. Mainz salvation, and that expulsion from her 1844. F. W. H. WASSERSCHLEBEN: communion, unless followed by repentance Bussordnungen der abendlaend. Kirche. Halle and restoration, meant eternal damnation. No 1851. STEITZ: Das roem. Buss-Sacrament. heresy or sect ever claimed this power. Frankf. 1854. FRANK (R.C.): Die Bussdisciplin der Kirche. Mainz 1867. PROBST (R.C.): Discipline was very obnoxious to the wild and Sacramente und Sacramentalien. Tuebingen independent spirit of the barbaric races. It 1872. HADDAN and STUBBS: Councils and was exercised by the through Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great synodical courts, which were held annually in Britain and Ireland, vol. Ill. Oxf. 1871. H. JOS. the dominions of Charlemagne for the SCHMITZ (R.C.): Die Bussbuecher und die promotion of good morals. Charlemagne Bussdisciplin der Kirche. Nach handschriftl. ordered the to visit their Quellen. Mainz 1883 (XVI. and 864 p.). Comp. once a year, and to inquire into cases of the review of this book by Wasserschleben in the “Theol. Literaturzeitung,” 1883, fol. 614 incest, patricide, fratricide, adultery, and sqq. other vices contrary to the laws of God. BINGHAM, Bk XIV. SMITH and CHEETHAM, II. 608 Similar directions were given by Synods in sqq. (Penitential Books). Herzog,2 III. 20 sqq. Spain and . The more extensive (Bussbuecher). WETZER and WELTE2 II. 209– were divided into several 222 (Beichtbuecher); II. 1561–1590 archdeaconries. (Bussdisciplin). The archdeacons represented the bishops, The discipline of the is based and, owing to this close connection, they on the power of the keys entrusted to the possessed a power and jurisdiction superior apostles and their successors, and includes to that of the priests. Seven members of the the excommunication and restoration of congregation were entrusted with a delinquent members. It was originally a supervision, and had to report to the

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 3 CH408: Volume 4, Chapter 8 a Grace Notes course inquisitorial court on the state of religion and named Eoda and other persons on the subject morals. Offences both ecclesiastical and civil of penance and the whole range of were punished at once with fines, fasting, ecclesiastical discipline. pilgrimages, scourging, imprisonment. The The genuine text has recently been brought to civil authorities aided the bishops in the light from early MSS. by the combined labors exercise of discipline. Public offences were of German and English scholarship. The visited with public penance; private offences introduction and the book itself are written in were confessed to the priest, who barbarous Latin. Traces of the Greek training immediately granted absolution on certain of Theodore may be seen in the references to conditions. St. Basil and to Greek practices. Next to The discipline of the in the Theodore’s collection there are Penitentials middle ages is laid down in the so-called under the name of the venerable Bede (d. “Penitential Books.” They regulate the order 735), and of Egbert, archbishop of York (d. of penitence, and prescribe specific 767). punishments for certain sins, as drunkenness, The earliest Frankish penitential is the work fornication, avarice, perjury, homicide, of Columban, the Irish missionary (d. 615). He heresy, idolatry. The material is mostly was a severe monastic disciplinarian and derived from the writings of the fathers, and gave prominence to corporal punishment from the synodical canons of Ancyra (314), among the penalties for offences. The Neocaesarea (314), Nicæa (325), Gangra Cummean Penitential is of Scotch-Irish origin, (362), and of the North African, Frankish, and and variously assigned to Columba of Iona Spanish councils down to the seventh (about 597), to Cumin, one of his disciples, or century. to Cummean, who died in Columban’s The common object of these Penitentials is to monastery at Bobbio (after 711). Haltigar, enforce practical duties and to extirpate the bishop of Cambray, in the ninth century ferocious and licentious passions of (about 829) published a “Roman Penitential,” heathenism. They present a very dark picture professedly derived from Roman archives, of the sins of the flesh. They kept alive the but in great part from Columban, and sense of a moral government of God, who Frankish sources. An earlier work which punishes every violation of his law, but they bears the name “Poenitentiale Romanum,” lowered the sense of guilt by fostering the from the first part of the eighth century, has a pernicious notion that sin may be expiated by more general character, but its precise origin mechanical exercises and by the payment of a is uncertain. The term “Roman” was used to sum of money. designate the quality of a class of Penitentials There were many such books, British, Irish, which enjoyed a more than local authority. Frankish, Spanish, and Roman. The best Rabanus Maurus (d. 855) prepared a “Liber known are the Anglo-Saxon penitentials of Poenitentitae” at the request of the the seventh and eighth centuries, especially archbishop Otgar of Mayence (841). Almost that of Theodore, every had its own book of the kind, (669–690). He was a Greek by birth, of Tarsus but the spirit and the material were in Cilicia, and reduced the disciplinary rules substantially the same. of the East and West to a system. He was not 4.86. Ecclesiastical Punishments. the direct author of the book which bears his Excommunication, Anathema, Interdict name, but it was drawn up under his direction, published during his life-time and FRIEDRICH KOBER (R.C.): Der Kirchenbann nach by his authority, and contains his decisions in den Grundsaetzen des canonischen Rechts dargestellt. Tuebingen 1857 (560 pages). By answer to various questions of a priest

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the same author: Die der gorgeous and impressive ceremonial of Kirchendiener. Tueb. 1862. worship, the bishop, surrounded by twelve HENRY C. LEA: Excommunication, in his Studies priests bearing flaming candles, solemnly in Church History (Philadelphia 1869), p. 223– recited the awful words which consigned the 475. evil-doer and all his generation to eternal The severest penalties of the church were torment with such fearful amplitude and reduplication of malediction, and as the excommunication, anathema, and interdict. sentence of perdition came to its climax, the They were fearful weapons in the hands of attending priests simultaneously cast their the hierarchy during the middle ages, when candles to the ground and trod them out, as a the church was believed to control salvation, symbol of the quenching of a human soul in the and when the civil power enforced her eternal night of hell. by the strong arm of the law. The “To this was added the expectation, amounting punishment ceases with repentance, which is almost to a certainty, that Heaven would not followed by absolution. The sentence of wait for the natural course of events to confirm absolution must proceed from the bishop the judgment thus pronounced, but that the who pronounced the sentence of maledictions would be as effective in this excommunication; but in articulo mortis world as in the next. Those whom spiritual terrors could not subdue thus were daunted by every priest can absolve on condition of the fearful stories of the judgment overtaking obedience in case of recovery. the hardened sinner who dared to despise the 1. EXCOMMUNICATION was the exclusion from dread anathema.” the sacraments, especially the communion. In 2. The ANATHEMA is generally used in the the dominions of Charlemagne it was same sense as excommunication or accompanied with civil disabilities, as separation from church communion and exclusion from secular tribunals, and even church privileges. But in a narrower sense, it with imprisonment and seizure of property. A means the “greater” excommunication, which bishop could excommunicate any one who excludes from all Christian intercourse and refused canonical obedience. But a bishop makes the offender an outlaw; while the could only be excommunicated by the , “minor” excommunication excludes only from and the pope by no power on earth. The the sacrament. Such a distinction was made sentence was often accompanied with awful by Gratian and Innocent III. The anathema curses upon the bodies and souls of the was pronounced with more solemn offender. The , as they towered above ceremonies. The Council of Nicæa, 335, ordinary bishops, surpassed them also in the anathematized the Arians, and the Council of art of cursing, and exercised it with shocking Trent, 1563, closed with three anathemas on profanity. all heretics. Thus Benedict VIII., who crowned Emperor 3. The INTERDICT extended over a whole town Henry II. (A.D. 1014), excommunicated some or diocese or district or country, and involved reckless vassals of William II., Count of the innocent with the guilty. It was a Provence, who sought to lay unhallowed suspension of religion in public exercise, hands upon the property of the monastery of including even the rites of marriage and St. Giles, and consigned them to Satan with burial; only baptism and extreme unction terrible imprecations, although he probably could be performed, and they only with thought he was only following St. Peter’s closed doors. It cast the gloom of a funeral example in condemning Ananias and over a country, and made people tremble in Sapphira, and Simon Magus.3 expectation of the last judgment. This “Hardened sinners” (says Lea) “might despise exceptional punishment began in a small way such imprecations, but their effect on believers in the fifth century. was necessarily unutterable, when, amid the

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St. Augustin justly reproved Auxilius, a knees to pray. All should be dressed in brother bishop, who abused his power by mourning. The whole period of the interdict excommunicating a whole family for the should be observed as a continued fast and offence of the head, and Pope Leo the Great humiliation. forbade to enforce the penalty on any who The popes employed this fearful weapon was not a partner in the crime. But the against disobedient kings, and sacrificed the bishops and popes of the middle ages, from spiritual comforts of whole nations to their the eleventh to the thirteenth century, hierarchical ambition. Gregory VII. laid the thought otherwise, and resorted repeatedly province of Gnesen under the interdict, to this extreme remedy of enforcing because King Bolislaw II. had murdered obedience. They had some basis for it in the bishop Stanislaus of Cracow with his own custom of the barbarians to hold the family or hand. Alexander II. applied it to Scotland tribe responsible for crimes committed by (1180), because the king refused a papal individual members. bishop and expelled him from the country. The first conspicuous examples of inflicting Innocent III. suspended it over France (1200), the Interdict occurred in France. Bishop because king Philip Augustus had cast off his Leudovald of Bayeux, after consulting with lawful wife and lived with a concubine. The his brother bishops, closed in 586 all the same pope inflicted this punishment upon churches of Rouen and deprived the people of England (March 23, 1208), hoping to bring the consolations of religion until the King John (Lackland) to terms. The English murderer of Pretextatus, Bishop of Rouen, interdict lasted over six years during which who was slain at the by a hireling of the all religious rites were forbidden except savage queen Fredegunda, should be baptism, confession, and the viaticum. discovered. Hincmar of Laon inflicted the Interdicts were only possible in the middle interdict on his diocese (869), but Hincmar of ages when the church had unlimited power. Rheims disapproved of it and removed it. Their frequency and the impossibility of full The synod of Limoges (Limoisin), in 1031, execution diminished their power until they enforced the Peace of God by the interdict in fell into contempt and were swept out of these words which were read in the church: existence as the nations of Europe outgrew “We excommunicate all those noblemen the discipline of priestcraft and awoke to a (milites) in the bishopric of Limoges who sense of manhood. disobey the exhortations of their bishop to hold the Peace. Let them and their helpers be 4.87. Penance and Indulgence accursed, and let their weapons and horses be NATH. MARSHALL ( of Windsor and accursed! Let their lot be with Cain, Dathan, translator of Cyprian, d. 1729): The Penitential and Abiram! And as now the lights are Discipline of the Primitive Church for the first 400 years after Christ, together with its extinguished, so their joy in the presence of declension from the fifth century downward to angels shall be destroyed, unless they repent its present state. London 1714. A new ed. in and make satisfaction before dying.” The the “Lib. of Anglo-Cath. Theol.” Oxford 1844. Synod ordered that public worship be closed, Eus. AMORT: De Origine, Progressu, Valore ac the altars laid bare, crosses and ornaments Fructu Indulgentiarum. AUG. Vindel. 1735 fol. removed, marriages forbidden; only MURATORI: De Redemtione Peccatorum et de clergymen, beggars, strangers and children Indulgentiarum Origine, in Tom. V. of his under two years could be buried, and only the Antiquitates Italicae Medii Aevi. Mediol. 1741. dying receive the communion; no clergyman JOH. B. HIRSCHER (R.C.): Die Lehre vom Ablass. or layman should be shaved till the nobles Tuebingen, 5th ed. 1844. submit. A signal in the church on the third hour of the day should call all to fall on their

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G. E. STEITZ: Das roemische Buss-Sacrament, remission of past sins, but not of subsequent nach seinem bibl. Grunde und seiner gesch. sins, and frees from eternal damnation, but Entwicklung. Frankf a. M. 1854 (210 pages). not from temporal punishment, which VAL. GROENE (R.C.): Der Ablass, seine Geschichte culminates in death or in purgatory. Penance und Bedeutung in der Heilsoekonomie. is described as a “laborious kind of baptism,” Regensb. 1863. and is declared by the to be DOMIN. PALMIERI (R.C.): Tractat. de Poenit. necessary to salvation for those who have Romae 1879. fallen after baptism, as baptism is necessary GEORGE MEAD: Art. Penitence, in Smith and Cheetham II. 1586–1608. WILDT, (R.C.): Ablass, for those who have not yet been regenerated. in Wetzer and Welte2 I. 94–111; Beichte and The and priestly, Beichtsiegel, II. 221–261. MEJER in Herzog2 I. absolution includes three elements: 90–92. For extracts from sources comp. contrition of the heart, confession by the GIESELER II. 105 sqq.; 193 sqq.; 515 sqq. (Am. mouth, satisfaction by good works. On these ed.) conditions the priest grants absolution, not For the authoritative teaching of the Roman simply by a declaratory but by a judicial act. church on the see The good works required are especially Conc. Trident. Sess. XIV. held 1551. fasting and almsgiving. Pilgrimages to The word repentance or penitence is an Jerusalem, Rome, Tours, Compostella, and insufficient rendering for the corresponding other sacred places were likewise favorite Greek metanoia, which means a radical satisfactions. Peter Damiani recommended change of mind or conversion from a sinful to voluntary self-flagellation as a means to a godly life, and includes, negatively, a turning propitiate God. These pious exercises covered away from sin in godly sorrow (repentance in in the popular mind the whole idea of the narrower sense) and, positively, a turning penance. Piety was measured by the quantity to Christ by faith with a determination to of good works rather than by quality of follow him. The call to repent in this sense character. was the beginning of the preaching both of Another medieval institution must here be John the Baptist, and of Jesus Christ.2 mentioned which is closely connected with In the Latin church the idea of repentance penance. The church in the West, in her zeal was externalized and identified with certain to prevent violence and bloodshed, rightly outward acts of self-abasement or self- favored the custom of the barbarians to punishment for the expiation of sin. The substitute pecuniary compensation for public penance before the church went out of punishment of an offence, but wrongly use during the seventh or eighth century, applied this custom to the sphere of religion. except for very gross offences, and was Thus money, might be substituted for fasting replaced by private penance and confession. and other satisfactions, and was clothed with The Lateran Council of 1215 under Pope an atoning efficacy. This custom seems to Innocent III. made it obligatory upon every have proceeded from the church of England, Catholic Christian to confess to his and soon spread over the continent. It priest at least once a year. degenerated into a regular traffic, and Penance, including auricular confession and became a rich source for the increase of priestly absolution, was raised to the dignity ecclesiastical and monastic property. of a sacrament for sins committed after Here is the origin of the so called, baptism. The theory on which it rests was that is the remission of venial sins by the prepared by the fathers (Tertullian and payment of money and on condition of Cyprian), completed by the schoolmen, and contrition and prayer. The practice was sanctioned by the Roman church. It is justified by the scholastic theory that the supposed that baptism secures perfect

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 7 CH408: Volume 4, Chapter 8 a Grace Notes course works of supererogation of the saints the Tax-Tables of the Roman Chancery and constitute a treasury of extra-merit and extra- Penitentiary, considered, in reply to the reward which is under the control of the Charge of Venality, London (Longmans) 1872, pope. Hence indulgence assumed the special and, on the Protestant side, by Dr. Richard meaning of papal dispensation or remission Gibbings (Prof. of Ch. Hist. in the University of of sin from the treasury of the overflowing Dublin), The Taxes of the Apostolic merits of saints, and this power was extended Penitentiary; or, the Prices of Sins in the even to the benefit of the dead in purgatory. Church of Rome, Dublin 1872. Gibbings Indulgences may be granted by bishops and reprints the Taxae Sacrae Poenitentiariae archbishops in their dioceses, and by the Romanae from the Roman ed. of 1510 and the pope to all Catholics. The former dealt with it Parisian ed. of 1520, which cover 21 pages in in retail, the latter in wholesale. The first Latin, but the greater part of the book (164 instances of papal indulgence occur in the pages) is an historical introduction and ninth century under Paschalis I. and John VIII. polemical discussion. who granted it to those who had fallen in war for the defence of the church. Gregory VI. in 1046 promised it to all who sent contributions for the repair of the churches in Rome. Urban II., at the council of Clermont (1095), offered to the crusaders “by the authority of the princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul,” plenary indulgence as a reward for a journey to the Holy Land. The same offer was repeated in every crusade against the Mohammedans and heretics. The popes found it a convenient means for promoting their power and filling their treasury. Thus the granting of indulgences became a periodical institution. Its abuses culminated in the profane and shameful traffic of Tetzel under Leo X. for the benefit of St. Peter’s church, but were overruled in the Providence of God for the Reformation and a return to the biblical idea of repentance. Note. The charge is frequently made against the papal court in the middle ages that it had a regulated scale of prices for indulgences, and this is based on the Tax Tables of the Roman Chancery published from time to time. Roman Catholic writers (as Lingard, Wiseman) say that the taxes are merely fees for the expedition of business and the payment of , but cannot deny the shameful avarice of some popes. The subject is fully discussed by Dr. T. L. Green (R.C.), Indulgences, Sacramental Absolutions, and