after times introduced in the churches was the case; the martyrdom of St. throughout the whole of Spain, al-Hermenegild having produced the effect though it appears that the said practice of the conversion of the Goths. had long before prevailed in the church Recared ascended the throne when of Tarragona. It follows from this the greatest part of Spain were Arians. statement, that the divisions or assigna-The church wanted her proper pastors, tions used in the Roman church were and a great many episcopal chairs were never adopted in Spain. held by heretics. The poor, the widows,

The manners of some bishops and and the orphans, were utterly desolated, ministers of the church were in a certain and no Catholic bishop could help them, measure affected by their intercourse the property of the church being pilwith the barbarians; and in consequence laged and confiscated. of that, a great many abuses crept into In 586, Recared renounced the errors the church. It is a common observation of Arius, and embraced the true faith, that special remedies are never adopted getting for himself and his successors unless there are some ascertained dis- the well-deserved surname of Catholic. orders calling for them accordingly, In due gratitude to God for that blessand from the tenor of the regulations ing, he reinstated the churches in the enacted in the councils of that period, possession of the property confiscated we may infer that simony and dilapida- by his father, and moreover erected and tion were very common among the liberally endowed several monasteries. ministers of the church. The council of This proved the happiest period of Tarragona prohibited the bishops to the Spanish church. The constant peace dispose of beyond the third part of the enjoyed during his reign, and his pious revenues of their parishes, and enjoined munificence, filled the church with joy the clergy to refrain from all sort of and wealth. She not only got copious dealings. The second council of Braga oblations with the restoration of her forbade the ministers of the church to property, but even new honours and receive anything for the administration privileges. The bishops were ever since of sacraments; the abuses in this sub- considered as the most exalted personject having been so gross, that many ages in the kingdom, and were allowed poor people, to avoid extortions, had the prerogatives enjoyed by the noblenot their children baptized. And, finally, men or grandees. with the same view, to prevent dilapida- Notwithstanding all this favour, the tion, the bishops were forbidden to dis- church in Spain was far from being rich. pose in any way of the ecclesiastical It was enacted by the canon laws, that property but in cases of extreme emer-two councils should be held yearly in gency, and with the intervention of every province, and the fathers in the priests and deacons. By virtue of this third council of Toledo, in due regard to and similar regulations, the church of the poverty of the bishops, thought it Spain kept her property, in order to advisable to exonerate them from that have it properly distributed; and the duty, limiting their attendance to the beauty of the primitive church was, as council to once a year. far as possible, renewed in Spain.

CHAPTER IV.

The church in Spain had a right to the inheritances of her bondmen till the third remove, whenever they happened to die without lawful heirs. The slaves

of the church, and those of her minis

Of the Income of the Spanish Church, from Recared down to the Irruption ters, were exempted from serving in of the Saracens. public works; and the free-born clergy, Since the announcement of the gos- from 633, in addition to the abovepel, experience has confirmed the truth mentioned privilege, were exempted that the blood of the martyrs was the from real and personal taxes. If the most effectual means for the propaga-ministers of the Spanish church were tion of Christianity. In Spain, too, this possessed of no property at the time of

their promotion to holy orders, their crown to be extremely liberal to the inheritances lawfully belonged to the church. church otherwise, they were inherited by their relations. If an ecclesiastical minister got any property as a gift from his friends, and had not disposed of it in his lifetime, that property belonged to the church.

Her property was therefore greatly increased by that liberality and by private oblations, while at the same time the regulations enacted for the adminis tration of it, kept it free from being dissipated. No conveyance of it was lawful, unless recommended by some

namely, the support of the necessitous.

The Spanish monarchs were always very liberal to the church. Sisebut peremptory emergency, and if any part founded the temple of St. Leocadia at of it was conveyed by the bishop without Toledo: Chindasvint erected the famous the agreement of the clergy, the conmonasteries of Compluto and St. Roman: tract was null and void. Nobody, Recesvint founded the church of St. besides, could come to the ecclesiastical John de Baño, near Dueñas: and Ervi- property by any prescription of time. gius and Egica were proclaimed as Under these regulations it was, of benefactors to the church by the fathers course, extremely difficult that the proin the 13th and 14th Toledan councils.perty of the church should be dilapi The notions concerning the inability dated; and the church must have of the monks to keep possession of their become very wealthy in the course property were unknown in those times, of some years, since her property was and the rule of St. Fructuosus, enjoining so carefully kept for its natural object, those who embraced the monastic profession previously to dispose of all their The strictest economy was also enproperty, was not in practice. The forced in the distribution of the ecclesi monks, therefore, keeping their own astical revenues. Though the right of appropriations, consecrated them, to- the clergy to be fed out of the ecclesiasgether with their persons, to the service tical patrimony was constantly acknowof God, under this form: Sic me trado ledged, the Spanish canon law took alad regulam. They disposed of their ways particular care that the ministers own property without restraint during of the church should not become burtheir lifetime, and upon their deaths densome to the people, in pursuance of bequeathed it to their monasteries. the apostolical precept. The Spanish The crown of Spain was not here- bishops knew very well that the princiditary, and the bishops had a consider-pal destination of the ecclesiastical able influence in cases of election. They revenue was the support of the poor. had not only a vote as the other noble-In their behalf the Spanish canon law men, but moreover the right to pro-approved the enactments of the councils nounce the election lawful, and to an- Agatensis and the 4th Carthaginensis, noint the newly-elected king. They enjoining the clergy to employ themprotected, with their ecclesiastical cen-selves in some honest dealings to insures, the persons of the kings and the crease the means of their livelihood, royal family; and they dethroned them having in view a double object, namely, with the same, and authorised the con- to keep them from idleness, and to refiscation of their property, and that of duce the expenses of their support in their relatives, not unfrequently anoint- favour of the poor. ing in their stead the very same persons The justice of the Spanish canon law who had been accessory to the killing was justly appreciated by the whole of their lawful sovereigns, as it appears church, and the disuse of its practice is from the records of the 4th and 12th the only reason why that system of disToletan councils. This extraordinary cipline appears now to be rather strange. influence, and the dependance of the It must be, however, acknowledged that princes upon the authority of the bishops even in the time of the Goths, some and abbots, encouraged the kings and among the clergy paid but little atten all those who had any claim to the tion to those holy regulations. King

Egica was compelled to lay before the fathers, in the 16th Toledan council, a catalogue of abuses, that they might be

reformed.

cessively governed by Witiza and Roderich, monsters of iniquity, and their example soon banished virtue from the country, and encouraged crime, irreligion, and cruelty.

The entrance of the Moors into Spain was signalized by the pillaging of cities

The bishops in Spain, by virtue of a custom introduced there, received the The justice of God, though merciful third part of the canonical assigna towards the Spaniards, took however tions, that, namely, which was des- due vengeance upon the country, choostined for the repairings and muniments ing the Saracens as ministers of his of the church, under the injunction, wrath: they inundated the country however, to apply it to its proper uses; as an impetuous torrent, and nothing which duty was often disregarded by escaped their fury, but the ridge of some of them. They even usurped mountains running from Galicia to Nathe part which was to be applied for varra: where the fastnesses offered a the necessary maintenance of divine shelter to the fugitives to protect themworship, and left the property of the selves against the general ruin. church to their relations, appointing them to abbeycies and curacies, even if they were laymen. The clergy and and churches, and by the massacring abbots, after their example, dilapidated of those who dared to resist their victhe property of the church; and these torious arms. Those who could not abuses were so scandalous, that some withstand their impetuosity retired to ecclesiastical ministers were impudent the recesses of mountains, carrying enough to employ the ornaments and with themselves the relics and sacred sacred vases in domestic uses. ornaments, more esteemed by them The regulations above-described, than their own chattels, which they having proved insufficient to prevent abandoned to the rapacity of the conthese abuses, the kings at last took querors. upon themselves the protection of the canon laws: they accordingly pronounced void and unlawful all sales of ecclesiastical property made by the bishops without the intervention of the clergy, and further enacted that upon the consecration of a bishop, he should be bound to make, in presence of five honest men, an accurate inventory of all the property belonging to the church, that any part of it which might have been dilapidated, should be recovered by his successor; by which means some stop was put to the said abuses.

A great many Christians, however, attracted, either by the comforts of their own homes, or by that powerful feeling which attaches men to their native places, chose rather to remain among the barbarians: others ventured to fortify themselves in strong towns, though they were at last compelled to surrender under divers treaties.

Count Don Julian compromised to surrender his country, on condition that the Moors should allow the Spaniards the use of Christian worship, and the privilege of their being judged by national magistrates, together with the free possession of their property, binding themselves on their side to pay a Of the Ecclesiastical Income of the moderate tribute. The Saracens, indeed, Church of Spain, during her cap-kept faithfully to the terms of that tivity under the Saracens.

CHAPTER V.

agreement throughout a certain period, Nothing has a more effectual influence and in the surrendered cities the Chrisover human actions than example, tians, of course, kept possession of their and more particularly when it comes churches and their ecclesiastical profrom the throne: the morals of the perty. Seven parishes were granted to people are usually, therefore, in perfect them at Toledo, and at Cordoba they not consonance with those of their princes. only kept in their possession their former Spain had the misfortune of being suc-churches, but they were allowed to build

new ones: and, generally speaking, in ecclesiastical revenues were adminis most cities where they were on rather tered according to the regulations of the good terms with their conquerors, their canon laws, and the bishops who sutemples and ecclesiastical property were perintended their distribution, after paying out of them the ordinary taxes, applied the remains for the support of the clergy, the poor, and the repairings and muniments of the church.

secured to them.

Those cities, on the contrary, which resisted the Moors, did not get so advantageous conditions. Merida, upon its surrender, was compelled to surren- Hospitality was exercised in the der to the conqueror the whole pro- Christian churches, under the Moors; perty of its dead and wounded, and and at Toledo, Siguenza, Alcalá, Zarathat of its church and clergy: the im-goza, and other cities, this virtue was munities and privileges granted to the particularly practised, as St. Eulogius Christians, were, on the other hand, asserts. The bishops were bound to more or less advantageous, according to use it toward the strangers and pilthe personal feelings and natural dispo-grims, and it is probable that all exsition of the local Moorish governors. penses incurred in their support came We may assert, that, upon an average, out of the ecclesiastical revenues, during the people in towns who surrendered that period. In fine, the discipline only under terms of agreement, paid only the suffered those little alterations which tenth part of their fruits, while the fifth were unavoidable under the sway of was extorted in towns forcibly con- those princes who merely tolerated quered. Christianity to satiate their rapacity. The Spaniards adhered faithfully to The truly apostolical charity of the purity of their religion throughout bishops, encouraged the faith of the the horrors of their bondage. Their Christians, and rendered them amiable ministers kept their stations in the to their own oppressors. Ministers poschurch, and were supported out of her sessed of such virtue, could not but adrevenues. Her property chiefly con-minister properly the revenues of the sisted in chattels and voluntary ob-church. Those of Malaga and Sliberi had lations. The charity of the faithful nevertheless the misfortune to place in increased amid those calamitous circum- their episcopal chairs one Samuel, and stances, and their contributions must one Hostegeris his nephew; both of have been considerable, since they pro- whom proved a disgrace to their holy duced enough not only for the support character. The latter particularly used of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in a rather to employ the ecclesiastical property for respectable condition, but even for the profane purposes, and instead of receiverection of monasteries. ing the pious oblations of the faithful Cordoba was the centre of Christian-as a voluntary contribution, used to exity under the Moors, and the faithful tort them by violent means, under the were visited there with many hardships authority of the Moors; his impiety and persecutions. The Moors were no having been such, that he caused several longer faithful to the conditions of their ministers of the church to be publicly former treaties: they began to usurp flogged through the streets of Cordoba, the ecclesiastical property, and even to because they opposed his tyrannical expose to sale the ecclesiastical offices: exactions. they began to extort from the Christians a monthly contribution besides the ordinary taxes, and not unfrequently they were so rapacious as to take from their hands the oblations presented upon the altar.

The ecclesiastical discipline did not suffer, however, any material innovation during that calamitous period. The

Tranquillity was restored gradually to the Spanish church, after the persecution of the Almohades. In proportion as the limits of the Mohammedan empire were reduced, the immunities of the Christians increased. The Moors were constantly kept in awe by the victories of the Christian princes, and the protection of the latter proved very ad

882

vantageous to the faithful under the sity of granting the church some fixed African yoke.

CHAPTER VI.

Of the Landed Property and jurisdictional Rights of the Church of Spain, after the Expulsion of the Saracens. The valour of the warriors who gloriously reconquered Spain, found a rampart in the recesses of her mountains, and the piety of the faithful found a shelter in the same.

means to meet her expenses and to provide for the magnificence of divine. worship. Many of the Christian princes, as a mark of their gratitude to the God

of hosts for his assistance in their battles, consecrated to his service not only uninhabited territories, but even populous towns. Don Alphonse V. endowed the churches in the kingdom of Leon with a great many appropriations. Others allowed the churches a The churches in the mountains were complete jurisdiction over their tenants, not contaminated with the Moham- and exempted them from royal taxes; medan worship, and they kept posses- and others, finally, were so extravagantsion of that property which they en- ly liberal, that they prohibited the injoyed before the irruption of the Sara-habitants of some towns to buy or sell cens. The clergy and bishops who their own commodities, until the escaped persecution were supported out monasteries had disposed of theirs. of them, in the parishes of Galicia and Asturias.

Some prelates, forgetful of the duties of their holy profession, made an imBut the Arabian empire in Spain be- proper use of the authority which they gan to encounter severe checks from derived from those privileges. A great the very first years of their settlement. many exchanging the martial coat for The Christians coming soon out of their the ecclesiastical gown, carried into the narrow retreats, began to carry their sanctuary the habits of military license; conquests over the open country, under and the history of Compostela records the the victorious banners of their brave case of an unworthy bishop who on his monarchs, who always protected the death-bed ordered his agent to take away religious worship. Don Alphonso, the from a widow, his tenant, a single cow, Catholic, expelled the Moors from Ga- the only support of her poor family. In the licia, Asturias, and Biscay, rebuilding records, also, of the cortes of Valladolid, the destroyed churches, and appointing in 1351, there are some passages indiprelates and rectors of unimpeached cating a great many extortions suffered integrity. by the people by similar abuses.

They at last brought discredit on the clergy, and on this account Don Alphonse the Wise attempted to deprive the ecclesiastics of the rights of civil jurisdiction granted to them by his predecessore, but the interference of Pope Nicholas III. prevented this measure from being carried into execution.,

The towns from which the Moors were expelled were usually abandoned and uninhabited; and the kings, with a view to replace the population, granted several territories and appropriations to the soldiers who so valiantly and zealously assisted them in their conquests. These seignors got an almost absolute domain in those towns, and their Jesus Christ, it is true, never granted tenants were held in a sort of vassalage. The churches at that time got likewise many of those domains, and the ecclesiastical revenues were therefore greatly augmented, as we shall see in the following chapters.

Since the population in those newly reconquered towns was very thin, the voluntary oblations of the faithful were insufficient for the support of the ecclesiastical ministers, and hence the neces

to his apostles any sort of jurisdiction in temporal matters, but there is no prohibition why ecclesiastical ministers should not exercise it in cases of any special concessions granted to them by secular princes. The Roman emperors favoured the ecclesiastics with this sort of grants, and the conduct of many holy bishops, in this respect, proved that the favour of the princes was not ill placed.

This privilege of civil jurisdiction