170 Inftitution of the Jubilee. [CENT. 13. that therefore the wine, which was the blood only, must be fuperfluous*. This practice however did not become general at once; and in many places the laity, to prevent the fhedding of the wine, fucked it through quills, which were annexed to the chalices for that purpose. Communion in one kind only was afterwards established by the council of Conftance+. About the conclufion of this century, Boniface VIII. added to the public rites of the church, the famous jubilee, which is ftill celebrated at Rome, at a ftated period, with the utmost profufion of pomp and magnificence. In 1299, a rumour was fpread among the inhabitants of that city, that all fuch as vifited, within the limits of the following year, the church of St. Peter fhould obtain the remiffion of all their fins, and that this privilege was to be annexed to the performance of the fame fervice, once every hundred years. This opinion, fo well calculated to gratify the avarice of the pontiff, was not difregarded by him. Boniface affected to investigate the bufinefs: he commanded ftrict inquiry to be made concerning the author, and the foundation of the report; and the willing pope was foon fo fuccessful, that he was affured, by many teftimonies worthy of credit, that, from the re moteft See this admirably expofed in Swift's Tale of a Tub. † Priestley's Hift. of Corruptions, vol. ii. p. 54. Thefe teflimonies worthy of credit have never been produced by the Romish writers, unless we rank in that class, that of an CENT. 13.] Jubilee every twenty-fifth Year. 171 moteft antiquity, this important privilege of remiffion and indulgence was to be obtained by these fervices. No fooner had the pontiff received this information, than he issued an epistolary mandate, addreffed to all Chriftians, in which he enacted it as a folemn law of the church, that those who, every hundredth or jubilee year, confeffed their fins, and vifited, with fentiments of contrition and repentance, the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome, fhould obtain the entire remiffion of their various offences. The fucceffors of Boniface were not fatisfied with adding a multitude of new rites and inventions, by way of ornaments, to this fuperftitious inftitution; but, finding by experience, that it added to the luftre, and augmented the revenues of the Roman Church, they rendered its return more frequent, and fixed its celebration to every five-and-twentieth year*. old man, who had completed his 107th year, and who, being brought before Boniface VIII. declared (if we may believe the Abbé Fleury) that his father, who was a common labourer, had affifted at the celebration of a jubilee, an hundred years before that time. See Fleury, Hift. Ecclef. * The various writers, who have treated of the inftitution of the Roman jubilee, are enumerated by Jo. Albert. Fabricius, in his Bibliogr. Antiquar. p. 316. СНАР. CHA P. III. CONCERNING THE SECTS WHICH EXISTED IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. Catharifts-Waldenfes—Petrobrufians-Perfecution of He retics-Inquifition-Crufade against the Albigenfes. FRO ROM the contemporary historians of this period, no accounts of new fects during this century have been tranfmitted to us. The Neftorians and Jacobites, who were fettled in the remoter regions of the eaft, and equalled the Greeks in their averfion to the rites and jurifdiction of the Latin Church, were frequently folicited, by the miniftry of Francifcan and Dominican miffionaries fent among them by the popes, to receive the Roman yoke. In the year 1246, Innocent IV. used his utmost efforts to bring both these fects under his dominion; and in the year 1278, terms of accommodation were propofed by Nicholas IV. to the Neftorians, and particularly to that branch of the fect which refided in the northern parts of Afia. The leading men, both among the Neftorians and Jacobites, appeared to pay fome attention to the proposals which were made to them, and were by no means averfe to a reconciliation with the Church of Rome; but the profpect of peace CENT. 13.] Catharifts, Petrobrufians, &c. 173 peace foon vanished, and a variety of caufes concurred to prolong the rupture. During the whole course of this century, the Roman pontiffs carried on a moft violent persecution against those whom they branded with the denomination of beretics. The fects of the Catharifts, Waldenfes, and Petrobrufians, or Albigenfes, however, daily increased, fpread imperceptibly throughout all Europe, affembled numerous congregations in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany, and formed by degrees fo powerful a party, as rendered them formidable to the Roman pontiffs, and menaced the papal jurifdiction with a fatal revolution. To the ancient fects new factions were added, which differed indeed in various instances, yet were all unanimous in one opinion: "That the "public and established religion was a motley "fyftem of errors and fuperftition; and that the "dominion which the popes had ufurped over "Christians, and the authority they exercised in re ligious matters, were unlawful and tyrannical." Such were the notions propagated by the sectaries, who refuted the fuperftitions and impoftures of the times by arguments deduced from fcripture, and whofe declamations against the power,. the opulence, and the vices of the popes and clergy, were extremely agreeable to many princes and civil magiftrates, who felt uneafy under the ufurpations of the facred order. The pontiffs therefore confidered themselves as obliged to have recourfe to new and 174 Perfecution of thefe Sectaries. [CENT. 13. and extraordinary methods of defeating enemies, who, both by their number and their rank, were every way calculated to alarm their fears. The number of thefe diffenters from the Church of Rome was no where greater than in Narbonne Gaul, and the countries adjacent, where they were received and protected, in a fingular manner, by Raymond VI. earl of Touloufe, and other perfons of the highest diftinction; and where the bishops, either through humanity or indolence, were fo negligent and remifs in the profecution of heretics, that the latter, laying afide their fears, formed fettlements, and multiplied incredibly. Innocent III. was foon informed of all thefe proceedings; and about the commencement of this century fent legates extraordinary into the fouthern provinces of France to atone for the negligence of the bishops, and to extirpate herefy, in all its forms and modifications, without being at all fcrupulous in ufing fuch methods as might be necessary to effect this falutary purpose. The perfons charged with this commiffion were Rainier, a Ciftertian monk, and Pierre de Caftelnau, archdeacon of Maguelonne, who afterwards be * That part of France which antiently comprehended the provinces of Savoy, Dauphiné, Provence, and Languedoc. +As early as the year 1 198, Innocent prohibited all communion with the Waldenfes and Albigenfes; confifcated their goods, difinherited their children, denied them the rites of burial, and gave their accufers one third of their effects. Hift. des Papes. came |