Histoire du Pape Gregoire VII, et de son siècle, d'aprés les monuments originaux. Par J. Voigt, profess. a l'universitè de Hall. Traduite de l'Allemand, par M. l'Abbé Jager. Paris, 1838. 2 vols. 8vo. History of Pope Gregory VII, and of his age, from original documents. By J. Voigt, Prof. at the University of Hall. Translated from the German by the Abbé Jager. Paris, 1838. 2 vols. 8vo.

HE age of Pope Gregory VII, was one

THE

of peculiar interest, crowded with great and important events. It was an age of transition. After the civil convulsions which followed the subjugation of Europe by the northmen in the fifth century, society, as if exhausted by over exertion, seems to have settled down into a species of lethargy in the tenth century, allowed by all to have been the darkest and most dreary of all the period called the middle ages. The eleventh century presents us the picture of society again struggling into form. To attain this form, it was necessary again to pass through the storm of revolution. Commotions in society are sometimes as necessary for its moral health, as storms are in nature for the purification of the atmosphere. Whoever will take the trouble to compare the tenth with the twelfth century, must be Convinced that during the intervening peVOL. II.-No. 3.

riod "a great man has passed,” and that his passage has been marked by great events. That great man was Hildebrand, afterwards Gregory VII; and the great events are those which Mr. Voigt so graphically describes in his history. This embraces the period of thirty-nine years, from the birth of the emperor Henry IV, in 1046, to the death of Gregory in 1085.

Mr. Voigt could not have chosen a more interesting or important subject, and few could have done it greater justice. His history is not confined to Gregory; along with him he portrays the various remarkable personages who flourished at the same time, and with most of whom Gregory was thrown into frequent contact. Among these, the chief is Henry IV, of Germany, the exact antithesis of Gregory in all things,-infamous for every thing for which he was famous. He and all the others appear before us like finished tableaux from a master hand, their features and form so clearly marked, that they remain fixed in the memory, and will ever after be recognized as old acquaintances. Great men often appear in groupes, like the stars in heaven; and, among the great cotemporaries of Gregory, we may mention St. Peter Damian, St. Anselm, bishop of Lucca, and Desiderius, abbot of Monte Cassino, in Italy; St. Hugh of Cluni, and Cardinal Hugh de Die, in France; Lanfranc,

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archbishop of Canterbury, and William the Conqueror, in England; and Anno of Cologne, Rodolph, duke of Suabia, and Otto of Nordheim, in Germany. In the south of Italy, the famous Chevalier Robert Guiscard is seen extending the Roman power almost as much as William the Conqueror does in England; and the attentive reader will not fail to remark a great similarity in the characters and fortunes of these two fierce, but chivalrous Norman chieftains. He will also detect in the life, position in relation to Henry IV, splendid designs, varied fortunes, and remarkable death of the great Anno, archbishop of Cologne, many traits common to him with the great Cardinal Wolsey of England; though, if the comparison be strictly carried out, the palm will, perhaps, be awarded to Anno. Had Henry IV listened to his counsels, and not been guided too much by the ambitious Adalbert, bishop of Bremen, and others, the history of the eleventh century would have been very different. If the reader be fond of drawing parallels, he may find many things in the life, character and varied adventures of the great Otto of Nordheim, to remind him of that pink of medieval chivalry, Richard Cœur de Lion. Finally, in the excellent Empress Agnes, the mother of Henry IV, he will discover the most estimable traits of character; and in the famous Matilda of Tuscany, the particular friend of Gregory, he will find all the qualities which constitute a great and good princess. She combined in a remarkable degree the coolness, firmness, and zeal of Gregory with the warlike talents and impetuous bravery* of Otto of Nordheim.

All the characters reappear under the pen of Mr. Voigt, fresh, and, as it were, instinct with life; and it requires but little exertion of fancy, to behold them again acting over

and by posterity, than this great pontiff. That he was a great man with transcendent genius, and that he did great things all readily admit: and Napoleon, an excellent judge of human greatness, showed his discrimination when he said: "if I were not Napoleon, I would wish to be Gregory VII!"

By his enemies he has been represented as an ambitious man, who aimed at universal dominion, both civil and ecclesiastical, reckless of the means for attaining his object. Many Catholics have thought that he pushed the claims of his see too far. The Church has erected altars to his memory, as to one of the most devoted champions of her liberty and rights, and one of the greatest promoters of stainless purity among her clergy. It is a singular stroke of Divine Providence, that perhaps the best apology for the course thus pursued by the Church, comes to us from a Protestant pen, and from that Germany too, with which Gregory sustained so long and arduous a struggle. Mr. Voigt has defended him, not, as he had been attacked, by mere declamation, but by the evidence of facts drawn from cotemporary writers, such as Lambert, Paul Bernried, Domnizo, Berthold of Constance, Leo Ostiensis, Herrman, Fiorentini, Aventin, Cardinal Arago, and others. He has thoroughly sifted the testimony of these authors, and presented the facts in a chronological order, but yet woven into a narrative almost as interesting as any work of fiction. Though a Protestant, yet he is so just and moderate, and withal so accurate, that the severe critic, Abbé Jager, who translated his work into French, found little of importance to correct, and less to add to the narrative; and besides a remarkably well written, well reasoned, and highly wrought introductory essay of one hundred pages, his notes are chiefly valuable, as ex

Gregory VII being the great master spirit and actor, whose influence is felt by them all. Few men, perhaps, have been more differently judged by their cotemporaries,

*See Voigt, (vol. ii, p. 436), for a curious instance of her skill in arms, when, at the head of her troops, she surprized and defeated Henry's army in Lombardy.

had only referred to it. The manner of Mr. Voigt is very similar to that of the great English historian, Lingard, embracing many facts and little theory; while his style, though less terse and condensed, is perhaps more lively, and his narrative more detailed and interesting.

It is not our purpose to write a lengthy

review of Mr. Voigt's work, which we hope soon to see in an English dress. We wish merely to direct attention to the new light which so unexceptionable a witness has shed upon the character and actions of a man than whom few have been less known, or more misrepresented. Gregory had to sustain a two-fold relation to the world; the one spiritual to the Church, of which he was the visible head, the other temporal, to civil society, in the framework of which he was an important part. Our object is to show, from the facts which Mr. Voigt alleges and proves, that in both these capacities his influence was highly beneficial, while his motives were of the purest and most exalted nature. His great idea was, to purify the Church, and through its agency to reform and civilize society; and his acts were just such as the condition of the times required for the attainment of these two great objects. The chief fault of those who have censured him has been that they have judged his conduct, not by the circumstances of his own time and the jurisprudence which obtained then, but by the maxims and ideas of the present day, than which nothing could be more unjust.

I. Our blessed Redeemer foretold (Matt. xviii) that scandals should come; and even under his own eyes, and in the college of apostles, taught immediately by himself, a most grievous scandal was given by that traitorous disciple who sold his Divine Master. It was not to be expected that the members of the Church, even the ministers of its altars, should be all of them stainless. It was not promised that the gates of hell should not rage against the Church, but that they should not prevail (Matt. xvi). The storm was to howl fiercely around the ship of the Church, while pursuing her voyage over the stormy ocean of life, but in the hour of her greatest peril, when every thing would threaten shipwreck, and the timid would exclaim: "Lord, save us, or we perish," Jesus would arise from his apparent slumber, extend his hand over the boiling waves, command the winds and the sea, and suddenly there should come a great calm (St. Matt. viii, 25, 26). This miracle has been renewed in all the great emergen

cies of the Church. she cannot be conquered." Persecution had tried her, and she came out fresher and brighter than ever. Heresy had assailed her on all sides, and yet she had gained the victory. At the period of which we are speaking, a flood of immorality broke in upon her, penetrating even within the sacred chancel of her sanctuary, and from this new and most terrible ordeal she was destined likewise to come out unharmed and unsullied. Perhaps the preservation of the Church, under such circumstances, is a greater miracle of God's providence, than any other recorded in her annals.

"She may be attacked,

Gregory VII was the chief instrument employed by Divine Providence for the correction of the crying moral evils of his age. His vast mind immediately perceived the source from which this torrent of disorders flowed; and he directed all his efforts for nearly thirty-six years, towards drying it up. The Church had unworthy ministers and had to weep over many immoralities, even at the foot of her altars, because she had been enslaved by the princes of the earth, her canons contemned, her liberties crushed, and her very sanctuaries sacrile{giously invaded by those who were clothed with the civil power. The right of investitures, claimed chiefly by the emperors of Germany, was the principal cause of all the evils of the Church. The emperors having richly endowed the bishopricks and abbeys, claimed the right of nominating to them, and of investing the subject thus nominated with the insignia of his office. The new incumbent took an oath of fealty, which required among other things that he should join the standard of his sovereign with his armed retainers, whenever called on to do so. In the appointment to bishopricks, more regard was often had to birth, and military talents, than to the virtues and learning required by the canons. What was still worse, these preferments were often purchased by money, and the most unworthy men were thus thrust into the holy places. Under the wicked and dissolute Henry IV, simony and consequent immorality became the order of the day in Germany and northern Italy, where his power