The clergy had reason to repent the
protection they had granted to the children of Louis the Debonnaire.
This prince, as I have already observed, had never given any of the
church-lands by precepts to the laity;
[150]
but it was not long before
Lotharius in Italy, and Pepin in Aquitaine, quitted Charlemagne's plan,
and resumed that of Charles Martel. The clergy had recourse to the
Emperor against his children, but they themselves had weakened the
authority to which they appealed. In Aquitaine some condescension was
shown, but none in Italy.
The civil wars with which the life of Louis the Debonnaire had been
embroiled were the seed of those which followed his death. The three
brothers, Lotharius, Louis, and Charles, endeavoured each to bring over
the nobility to their party and to make them their tools. To such as
were willing therefore to follow them they granted church-lands by
precepts; so that to gain the nobility, they sacrificed the clergy.
We find in the Capitularies
[151]
that those princes were obliged to
yield to the importunity of demands, and that what they would not often
have freely granted was extorted from them: we find that the clergy
thought themselves more oppressed by the nobility than by the kings, It
appears that Charles the Bald
[152]
became the greatest enemy of the
patrimony of the clergy, whether he was most incensed against them for
having degraded his father on their account, or whether he was the most
timorous. Be that as it may, we meet with continual quarrels in the
Capitularies,
[153]
between the clergy who demanded their estates, and
the nobility who refused or deferred to restore them; and the kings
acting as mediators.
The situation of affairs at that time is a spectacle really
deserving of pity. While Louis the Debonnaire made immense donations out
of his demesnes to the clergy, his children distributed the church-lands
among the laity. The same prince with one hand founded new abbeys and
despoiled old ones. The clergy had no fixed state; one moment they were
plundered, another they received satisfaction; but the crown was
continually losing.
Toward the close of the reign of Charles the Bald, and from that
time forward, there was an end of the disputes of the clergy and laity
concerning the restitution of church-lands. The bishops indeed breathed
out still a few sighs in their remonstrances to Charles the Bald, which
we find in the Capitulary of the year 856, and in the letter they wrote
to Louis, King of Germany, in the year 858,
[154]
but they proposed
things, and challenged promises, so often eluded, that we plainly see
they had no longer any hopes of obtaining their desire.
All that could be expected then was to repair in general the
injuries done both to church and state.
[155]
The kings engaged not to
deprive the nobility of their freemen, and not to give away any more
church-lands by precepts,
[156]
so that the interests of the clergy and
nobility seemed then to be united.
The dreadful depredations of the Normans, as I have already
observed, contributed greatly to put an end to those quarrels.
The authority of our kings diminishing every day, both for the
reasons already given and those which I shall mention hereafter, they
imagined they had no better resource left, than to resign themselves
into the hands of the clergy. But the ecclesiastics had weakened the
power of the kings, and these had diminished the influence of the
ecclesiastics. In vain did Charles the Bald and his successors call in
the church to support the state, and to prevent its ruin; in vain did
they make use of the. respect which the commonalty had for that
body,
[157]
to maintain that which they should also have for their
prince;
[158]
in vain did they endeavour to give an authority to their
laws by that of the canons; in vain did they join the ecclesiastic with
the civil punishments;
[159]
in vain to counterbalance the authority of
the count did they give to each bishop the title of their commissary in
the several provinces;
[160]
it was impossible to repair the mischief
they had done; and a terrible misfortune, which I shall presently
mention, proved the ruin of the monarchy.
