measures; and, without convcking any council at Rome, he, with his single authority, not only annulled the acts of the council of Metz, but deposed the archbishops of Trèves and Cologne, and commanded Lothaire to receive his wife again. He had, to excuse him in adopting this bold and despotic conduct, upon one hand, public opinion, which was strongly pronounced against Lothaire and Waldrade; on the other hand, as far as we can judge at this distance of time, truth and justice against him were the rights of the bishops and councils, and all the ancient discipline of the church; but the text of the false decretals furnished him with a point of support against these last objections. Strong in the austerity of his conscience and the approbation of the people, he persisted in his resolution, and not content with avenging morality, called also to his aid the spirit of liberty. In 863, he wrote to Adventius, bishop of Metz: "Examine well whether these kings and princes, to whom you profess yourself subjected, are really kings and princes. Examine whether they govern well, first, themselves-next, their people: for he who is worth nothing for himself, how can he be good for another? Examine whether they reign according to justice; for, otherwise, they should be regarded as tyrants rather than as kings; and, in such case, we ought to resist and oppose, instead of submitting to them. Were we to submit to them, were we not to rise up against them, we should be obliged to encourage their vices." 1 Against such arms, the temporal princes, aided even by their own clergy, as Lothaire was upon this occasion, were too weak. Nicholas I. triumphed at the same time over Lothaire and over the clergy of Lorraine; both one and the other submitted to, whilst they expostulated against, his decision. Nearly at the same moment, a second matter presented it self which furnished him with the occasion of a second victory. Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, with whom I shall occupy you now in detail, by and bye, desired to reign almost as despotically in the Gallo-Frankish church, as Nicholas reigned in the church universal. One of his suffragans, Rothade, bishop of Soissons, had deprived a priest of his diocese of his rank, on account of misconduct; three years after this 1 Mansi. condemnation, under the pretext that it was unjust, and rather, as it appears, from ill-humour against Rothade, than from any other motive, Hincmar re-established the priest in his parish, against the will of his bishop, and excommunicated the latter for his disobedience. A dispute was thus established between the bishop of Soissons, and the archbishop of Reims. The bishop deposed in 862, by the council of Soissons, appealed from it to the pope; Hincmar, by means of stratagems and violence, eluded, for some time, the effects of their appeal, and even prevented its arrival at Rome; but Nicholas I. received it at last, and in 865, having called a council upon this subject, he said, in his opening discourse: "The bishops of Gaul, having convoked a general council, (which it is permitted to none to do,) without the order of the apostolic see, have there cited Rothade.... Even though the council had not been called, he ought not to have been deposed without our knowledge, for the sacred statutes and the canonical decrees have remitted to our decision the trials of bishops, together with all other important matters." This was to misunderstand and to brave all canonical rules, all the examples of the past, all the customs of the church. But upon this particular occasion, as upon the former, Nicholas had right and the public voice on his side; and he upheld justice and the popular opinion. He triumphed again; Rothade was re-established, and the national churches were conquered in the person of Hincmar, as the temporal sovereigns had been in the person of Lothaire. This double victory was not undisputed: more than once, in the course of the tenth century, resistance reappeared; and the successors of Nicholas I., among others, Adrian II., were not all of them so skilful or so fortunate in their enterprises as he had been. Nevertheless, on the whole, their power and the maxims which supported it, were making progress in external things, as well as in the minds of men; and it is from the reign of Nicholas I. that the sovereignty of the papacy really dates. I approach my limits. I have occupied you with the internal history of the Gallo-Frankish church, from the eighth to the tenth century, as regards its relation with the temporal 1 Mansi, t. xv., p. 686. sovereign. I have placed before you its external history, its relations with its foreign sovereign. And to this I confine my picture of the Carlovingian ecclesiastical society. It remains for us to study intellectual development in the same period. You have already seen what this was under Charlemagne, and up to the time of Louis le Debonnaire. The study of it, from the reign of Louis le Debonnaire to the accession of Hugh Capet, will be the obiect of our next meetings. TWENTY-EIGHTH LECTURE Of the intellectual condition of Frankish Gaul, from the death of Charlemagne to the accession of Hugh Capet-Sketch of the celebrated men of this period-The theological mind-The philosophical mind—Hinemar and John Erigena are respectively their representatives—Life of Hincmar-His activity and influence as archbishop of Reims-1. Concerning his relations with kings and popes-2. Concerning his administration in the interior of the Gallo-Frankish church and of his diocese -3. Concerning his disputes and theological works-Origin of the theology of the middle ages-Quarrel between Hincmar and the monk Gottschalk upon predestination-Numerous writings upon this subject— Councils of Kiersy, Valence, and Langres-Recapitulation. IN exhibiting the intellectual revival of Frankish Gaul under Charlemagne,' I affirmed that the movement which was then given to mind, did not cease under his successors. It is to the progress of this movement, in the ninth and tenth centuries, that I purpose to direct your attention to-day. When I arranged the table of the celebrated men of the times of Charlemagne,2 I included in it, you remember, those alike, whom he found, and those whom he formed, his contemporaries, properly so called, and their immediate disciples. I have treated in detail only of the first, confining myself, as regards the last, to the indications of their names and their works. The majority of these-for instance, the historians Thegan, Nithard the astronomer, the theologians Raban, Florus, Walfrid Strabo, Paschase Radbirt, Ratramne, and many other erudite and literary men, and poets, who were comprised in the last part of the table which I have placed before you, belong to the epoch whereupon we are now to be engaged; and in adding to this table that of the celebrated Works. Theological writings; 1. Theological writ- 1. A poem upon the 1. Works on mathematics; 2. On philosophy; 3. On theology; 4. Poems; 5. Letters. |