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Frederick Barbarossa, the greatest of the German emperors, held the stirrup of Hadrian IV., and humbled himself before Alexander III. Innocent III. compared the authority of popes, in contrast with that of kings, to the sun in relation to the moon. He excommunicated Philip Augustus of France, John of England, and other monarchs.
The territories of Rome were, however, small. The lawful revenues of the popes were insufficient to gratify their extravagance and pomp. But money, nevertheless, they must have. In order to raise it, they resorted to extortion and corruption. They imposed taxes on Christendom, direct and indirect.
And for popes, that supply the place of Christ, if they should endeavor to imitate His life, to wit His poverty, labor, doctrine, cross, and contempt of life, or should they consider what the name pope, that is father, or holiness, imports, who would live more disconsolate than themselves? or who would purchase that chair with all his substance? or defend it, so purchased, with swords, poisons, and all force imaginable? so great a profit would the access of wisdom deprive him of wisdom did I say? nay, the least corn of that salt which Christ speaks of: so much wealth, so much honor, so much riches, so many victories, so many offices, so many dispensations, so much tribute, so many pardons; such horses, such mules, such guards, and so much pleasure would it lose them.
Such, in brief outline, was the progress of the mighty fabric and its internal decoration which the great popes of Avignon raised to be their dwelling-place, their fortress, and the ecclesiastical center of Christendom.
To the debauchees, the poisoners, the atheists, who had worn the tiara during the generation which preceded the Reformation, had succeeded Popes who, in religious fervour and severe sanctity of manners, might bear a comparison with Cyprian or Ambrose.
The universities of the world all had their charters from the Popes at this time, and were all ruled by ecclesiastics, and most of the students and practically all of the professors down to the end of the sixteenth century belonged to the clerical order.
During the eternal wars of Guelphs and Ghibelines and the long exile of the popes at Avignon, most of the towns and fortresses of the Romagna had been usurped by petty tyrants, who for the most part hard received from the Empire the investiture of their new possessions; but ever since German influence had retired beyond the Alps, and the popes had again made Rome the centre of the Christian world, all the small princes, robbed of their original protector, had rallied round the papal see, and received at the hands of the pope a new investiture, and now they paid annual dues, for which they received the particular title of duke, count, or lord, and the general name of Vicar of the Church.
"It is true," Alexander the Eighth allowed, "that the lustre of the Church hath of late been obfuscated by the prevalence of heresy." "It isn't the heretics," Borgia insisted. "It is the degeneracy of the Popes. A shabby lot! You, Alexander, are about the best of them; but the least Cardinal about my Court would have thought himself bigger than you." Alexander's spirit rose.
Many Catholics dream of canonising Philip II. for the cold cruelty with which he exterminated heretics, but such a king had really no Catholicism but his own; he was heir to the German Cæsarism, that eternal hammer of the Popes.
The English like wrangling politicians God in his mercy has chosen Napoleon to be his representative on earth Grew more angry as his anger was less regarded Had neither learned nor forgotten anything I have made sovereigns, but have not wished to be one myself I do not live I merely exist Ideologues Immortality is the recollection one leaves Kings feel they are born general: whatever else they cannot do Kiss the feet of Popes provided their hands are tied Let women mind their knitting Malice delights to blacken the characters of prominent men Manufacturers of phrases More glorious to merit a sceptre than to possess one Most celebrated people lose on a close view Necessary to let men and things take their course Nothing is changed in France: there is only one Frenchman more Put some gold lace on the coats of my virtuous republicans Religion is useful to the Government Rights of misfortune are always sacred Something so seductive in popular enthusiasm Strike their imaginations by absurdities than by rational ideas Submit to events, that he might appear to command them Tendency to sell the skin of the bear before killing him That consolation which is always left to the discontented The boudoir was often stronger than the cabinet The wish and the reality were to him one and the same thing Those who are free from common prejudices acquire others To leave behind him no traces of his existence Treaties of peace no less disastrous than the wars Treaty, according to custom, was called perpetual Trifles honoured with too much attention Were made friends of lest they should become enemies When a man has so much money he cannot have got it honestly Would enact the more in proportion as we yield Yield to illusion when the truth was not satisfactory
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