State of Europe at the Time of Charles Martel.
CHARLES MARTEL, who undertook to strip the clergy, found himself in a most happy situation. He was both feared and beloved by the soldiery; whose interest he promoted, having the pretence of the war against the Saracens. He was hated indeed by the clergy, but he had no need of their assistance. The pope, to whom he was necessary, stretched out his arms to him. Every one knows the famous embassy he received from Gregory III. These two powers were strictly united, because they supported each other: the pope stood in need of the Franks to assist him against the Lombards and the Greeks; the Franks had occasion for the pope, to serve for a barrier against the Greeks, and to embarrass the Lombards. It was impossible therefore for the enterprize of Charles Martel to miscarry.
S. Eucherius, bishop of Orleans, had a vision which frightened all the princes of that time. I shall produce on this occasion the letter written by the bishops assembled at Rheims to Lewis king of Germany, who had invaded the territories of Charles the Bald: because it will give us an insight into the situation of things in those times, and the temper of the people. They say, “That S. Eucherius having been snatched up into heaven, saw Charles Martel tormented in the bottom of hell by order of the saints, who are to sit with Christ at the last judgment; that he had been condemned to this punishment before his time, for having stript the church of her possessions, and thereby charged himself with the sins of all those who founded these livings; that king Pepin held a council upon this occasion, and had ordered all the church-lands he could recover to be restored; that as he could get back only a part of them, because of his disputes with Vaifre, duke of Aquitaine, he issued out letters called precaria for the remainder, and made a law that the laity should pay a tenth part of the church lands they possessed, and twelve deniers for each house; that Charlemaign did not give the church lands away; on the contrary, that he published a capitulary, by which he engaged both for himself and for his successors never to make any such grant; that all they say is committed to writing, and that a great many of them heard the whole related by Lewis the Debonnaire, the father of those two kings.”
King Pepin’s regulation, mentioned by the bishops, was made in the council held at Leptines. The church found this advantage in it, that such as had received those lands, held them no longer but in a precarious manner; and moreover that she received the tythe or tenth part and twelve deniers for every house that had belonged to her. But this was only a palliative, which did not remove the disorder.
Nay it met with opposition, and Pepin was obliged to make another capitulary, in which he enjoins those who held any of those benefices to pay this tythe and duty, and even to keep up the houses belonging to the bishopric or monastery, under the penalty of forfeiting those possessions. Charlemaign renewed the regulation of Pepin.
That part of the same letter which says, that Charlemaign promised both for himself and for his successors, never to divide again the church-lands among the soldiery, is agreeable to the capitulary of this prince, given at Aix la Chapelle, in the year 803, with a view of removing the apprehensions of the clergy upon this subject. But the donations already made were still in force. The bishops very justly add, that Lewis the Debonnaire followed the example of Charlemaign, and did not give away the churchlands to the soldiery.
And yet the old abuses were carried to such a pitch, that the laity under the children of Lewis the Debonnaire preferred ecclesiastics to benefices, or turned them out of their livings, without the consent of the bishops. The benefices were divided amongst the next heirs, and when they were held in an indecent manner, the bishops had no other remedy left than to remove the relics.
By the capitulary of Compiegne, it is enacted, that the king’s commissary shall have a right to visit every monastery, together with the bishop, by the consent and in presence of the person who holds it; and this shews that the abuse was general.
Not that there were laws wanting for the restitution of the church lands. The pope having reprimanded the bishops for their neglect in regard to the re-establishment of the monasteries, they wrote to Charles the Bald that they were not affected with this reproach, because they were not culpable; and they reminded him of what had been promised, resolved, and decreed in so many national assemblies. Accordingly they quoted nine.
Still they went on disputing; till the Normans came and made them all agree.