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CHAPTER
III.
THE
JUBILEE OF 1450 AND THE LABOURS OF CARDINAL NICHOLAS OF CUSA IN THE CAUSE OF
REFORM IN GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS,
1451-1452.
The restoration
of peace to the Church, after so protracted a period of conflict and confusion,
was deemed by Nicholas V a fitting occasion for the proclamation of a Universal
Jubilee. A pilgrimage of the faithful of every country to the centre of
ecclesiastical unity seemed to be the most splendid and appropriate celebration
of the termination of the Schism and of the victory gained over the party of
the Council, while it was also well calculated to give fresh vigour to the
conservative element throughout Christendom.
The obstacles
presented by the war in Italy and the pestilence which followed, were not
sufficient to deter the Pope from his project, and, on the 19th January, 1449,
in presence of the assembled Cardinals, he solemnly imparted his benediction,
after which a French Archbishop read aloud the list of all the Jubilees ever
celebrated in the Church, and then proclaimed the new one. All who, during a
given time, should daily visit the four principal churches of Rome — St.
Peter's, St. Paul's, the Lateran Basilica, and Sta. Maria Maggiore — and
confess their sins with contrition, were to gain a plenary indulgence, that is
to say, remission of the temporal punishments due for those sins from whose
guilt and eternal punishment they had been absolved.t
Throughout the
whole of Christendom the Pope's proclamation was received with rejoicing, and
the joy was intensified by the fact that the discord which had for so long
weighed heavily on the hearts of all who loved the Church was at an end, and
that Nicholas V was universally acknowledged as the true Vicar of Christ. The
feelings of the faithful were eloquently expressed by Dr. Felix Hemmerlin, Provost of the Ursus Monastery at Soleure, who, at the conclusion of his work on the
approaching holy year, adopts the words of Simeon, and says: "Now dost
Thou dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word, in peace, because my
eyes have seen the glorious advent of salvation. Now I know in truth that this
is the desired time, this is the day of salvation : for the glorious days of
Thy Jubilee surpass all earthly beauty and salvation. O, the depth of the
riches, of the wisdom, and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are
His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways! O Lord, whose mercy is unbounded,
perfect Thy grace in us that, as Thou didst fulfil the expectation of Simeon,
and he did not see death until it had been granted to him to see Christ the
Lord, so we may not taste death until we have enjoyed the benefits of Thy
salutary and most happy year of Jubilee!"
The "golden
year" opened on the Christmas Day of 1449. The concourse was immense. Then
began a pilgrimage of the nations to the Eternal City, like that which had
taken place a century before. All the miseries of recent years, the bereavements
which war and plague had wrought, the manifest tokens of Divine wrath, were a
call to serious reflection and self-examination. Some deemed a pilgrimage to be
the best means of averting further chastisements and obtaining future benefits.
Others undertook it in order to show forth their gratitude for preservation
from dangers, and to implore a continuance of the favours they had enjoyed. All
hailed it as an opportunity of becoming partakers of the rich spiritual
treasures opened by the Church to those who should visit the tombs of the
Apostles.
The pilgrims
flocked from every country in Europe; there were Italians and "Ultramontanes", men and women, rich and poor, young
and old, healthy and sick. As Augustinus Dathus says in his history of Siena, "Countless
multitudes of Frenchmen, Germans, Spaniards, Portuguese, Greeks, Armenians,
Dalmatians, and Italians were to be seen hastening to Rome as to the refuge of
all the nations of the earth, full of devotion, and chanting hymns in their
different languages". The terrible calamities through which they had just
passed had touched the hearts of many, and turned them from earthly to heavenly
things, and awakened a spirit of devotion. Moreover, the personal affability of
the Pope may have induced many to undertake the long and difficult journey.
An eye-witness
likens the thronging multitudes of pilgrims to a flight of starlings or a swarm
of ants. The Pope did everything in his power to render their passage through
Italy easy and safe; in Rome itself he made the most extensive preparations,
and especially sought to secure an adequate supply of provisions. But the
pilgrims arrived in such overwhelming masses that all his efforts proved
insufficient. Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini estimates at forty thousand the number
of strangers who daily arrived in the city. Even allowing for considerable
exaggeration in this estimate, there can be no doubt that the crowds were
enormous. The chroniclers and historians of the period seem to be at a loss for
words to describe the concourse. Cristoforo a Soldo, chronicler of the city of
Brescia, says, “A greater crowd of Christians was never known to hasten to any
Jubilee; kings, dukes, marquesses, counts, and knights, in short, people of all
ranks in Christendom, daily arrived in such multitudes in Rome that there were
millions in the city. And this continued for the whole year, excepting in the
summer, on account of the plague, which carried off innumerable victims. But
almost as soon as it abated at the beginning of the cold season the influx
again commenced”.
One of the
special attractions of this Jubilee was the Canonization of St. Bernardine of
Siena, the most popular saint who had for centuries appeared in the Italian
Peninsula, and the founder of a religious order which had increased so rapidly
that it sent more than three thousand delegates to the General Chapter held at
this time in the convent of Araceli.
The process for
his canonization had been introduced in the time of Eugenius IV, at the
instance of the Sienese, of the inhabitants of Aquila, amongst whom St.
Bernardine had found his last resting-place, and of King Alfonso of Naples. St.
John Capistran, who afterwards became so celebrated
as a preacher, laboured most energetically in the matter, and the Pope
entrusted the examination into the life, death, and miracles of the holy man to
Cardinals Niccolò Acciapacci, Guillaume d'Estouteville, Alberto de Albertis,
and on his death to Pietro Barbo. These cardinals in
their turn employed two bishops, who, having made careful inquiries, presented
a detailed report, which was considered in Consistory; but the illness and
death of the Pope, at this point, brought the proceedings to a standstill. The
delay, however, was not of long duration, for immediately after his accession Nicholas
V took the matter in hand. On the 17th June he charged Cardinals Tagliacozzo, Guillaume d’ Estouteville,
and Pietro Barbo to examine St. Bernardine’s
miracles. The bishops, to whom they delegated the task, found more miracles
than had been mentioned in the first Process. On the death of the Cardinal Tagliacozzo, Bessarion was nominated in his stead, and
Angelo Capranica, Bishop of Rieti, was sent to
Aquila, Siena, and many cities in which St. Bernardine had laboured. The slow
and cautious procedure of Rome was little to the taste of the cities which
cherished the great preacher's memory and eagerly longed for his canonization.
Notwithstanding supplications and importunities from various quarters, Rome
refused to be unduly hurried, and it was not till the 26th February, 1450, that
sufficient progress had been made to enable the Pope to promise the Sienese
ambassadors that the canonization should take place at Whitsuntide. A
substitute for Cardinal Bessarion, who was about to proceed to Bologna, had been
appointed in the person of the Vice-Chancellor. There was, therefore, nothing
further to delay the ceremony, and the Pope, whose family subsequently
entertained a special devotion to St. Bernardine, had preparations made on a
magnificent scale.
St. Peter's was
beautifully decorated on Whit-Sunday, the 24th of May; a lofty throne was
erected in the middle of the church for the Pope, who was surrounded by all the
cardinals then in Rome, as well as by many bishops and archbishops. Every
detail of the rite of canonization was carried out with the greatest exactness,
solemnity, and splendour, the Pope himself pronouncing the panegyric. Two
hundred wax-lights burned in the church; the cost of the vestments worn by the
Pope and the cardinals, and of other things used on this occasion, was
estimated at seven thousand ducats, and was borne by the inhabitants of Siena
and Aquila.
During these
days of festal solemnity crowds of pilgrims went up to the Convent of Araceli,
now transformed into a hospital, where eight hundred monks devoted themselves
to the service of the sick of their own and other lands. The sight was one well
calculated to awaken in the dullest soul some zeal for self-sacrifice and
prayer. The Spaniard, Didacus, who was afterwards
canonized, here distinguished himself by his heroic charity in tending the
sick.
Throughout all
Italy an outburst of joy and of devotion was elicited by the canonization of
St. Bernardine; churches sprang up under his invocation, preachers everywhere
praised his holy life; solemn functions in his honour took place even in the
smallest towns; those which took place in Perugia, Bologna, Ferrara, Aquila,
and Siena were particularly magnificent, and in the last-named city his
canonization was represented in a series of pictures.
While the Pope
remained in Rome he frequently took part in the solemnities of the Jubilee, and
was seen to walk barefoot to visit the stations. The Roman chronicler Paolo di
Benedetto di Cola dello Mastro has left us a description of the Jubilee, written with little literary skill,
but full of life and fidelity. “I recollect”, he says, “that even in the
beginning of the Christmas month a great many people came to Rome for the
Jubilee. The pilgrims had to visit the four principal churches, the Romans for
a whole month, the Italians for fourteen days, and the 'Ultramontanes'
for eight. Such a crowd of pilgrims came all at once to Rome that the mills and
bakeries were quite insufficient to provide bread for them. And the number of
pilgrims daily increased, wherefore the Pope ordered the handkerchief of St.
Veronica to be exposed every Sunday, and the heads of the Apostles, St. Peter
and St. Paul every Saturday; the other relics in all the Roman churches were
always exposed. The Pope solemnly gave his benediction at St. Peter's every
Sunday. As the unceasing influx of the faithful made the want of the most
necessary means of subsistence to be more and more pressing, the Pope granted a
plenary indulgence to each pilgrim on condition of contrite confession and of visits
to the churches on three days. This great concourse of pilgrims continued from
Christmas through the whole month of January, and then diminished so
considerably that the innkeepers were discontented, and everyone thought it was
at an end, when, in the middle of Lent, such a great multitude of pilgrims
again appeared, that in the fine weather all the vineyards were filled with
them, and they could not find sleeping-place elsewhere. In Holy Week the
throngs coming from St. Peter's, or going there, were so enormous that they
were crossing the bridge over the Tiber until the second and third hour of the
night. The crowd was here so great that the soldiers of St. Angelo, together
with other young men —I was often there myself,— had often to hasten to the spot
and separate the masses with sticks in order to prevent serious accidents. At
night many of the poor pilgrims were to be seen sleeping beneath the porticos,
while others wandered about in search of missing fathers, sons, or companions;
it was pitiful to see them. And this went on until the Feast of the Ascension,
when the multitude of pilgrims again diminished because the plague came to
Rome. Many people then died, especially many of these pilgrims; all the
hospitals and churches were full of the sick and dying, and they were to be
seen in the infected streets falling down like dogs. Of those who with great
difficulty, scorched with heat and covered with dust, departed from Rome, a
countless number fell a sacrifice to the terrible pestilence, and graves were
to be seen all along the roads even in Tuscany and Lombardy".
The chronicler,
as he pursues his narration, vainly endeavours to find language sufficiently
forcible to depict the horrors of the plague and the terror which had seized
upon him and all who were in Rome. The general panic surpassed any which had
been experienced on previous occasions. "The Court of Rome", writes
the envoy of the Teutonic Order, "is sadly scattered and put to flight; in
fact, there is no Court left. One man embarks for Catalonia, another for Spain,
everyone is looking for a place where he may take refuge. Cardinals, bishops,
abbots, monks, and all sorts of people, without exception, flee from Rome as
the apostles fled from our Lord on Good Friday. Our Holy Father also left Rome
on the 15th July, retreating from the pestilence, which, alas!—God have mercy!—
is so great and terrible that no one knows where to dwell and preserve himself.
His Holiness goes from one castle to another, with a little court and very few
attendants, trying if he can find a healthy place anywhere. He has now moved to
a castle called Fabriano, in which he spent some time
last year, and has, it is said, forbidden, under pain of excommunication, loss
of preferment and of Papal favour, that anyone who has been in Rome, whatever
his rank, should come within seven miles of him, save only the cardinals, a few
of whom, with four servants, have gone to the said castle and are living
there”.
Even in the
previous year the Pope had, on the outbreak of the plague, fled from Rome with
some few members of the Court and gone first to the neighbourhood of Rieti, and
then to the castle of Spoleto, whence he was driven by the malady. In August he
was at Fabriano, where the air seemed to be
particularly pure. No one was admitted within the city without necessity; the
aged Aurispa was the only one of the secretaries whom
the Pope retained about him; business was mostly suspended, so that there was
but little to be done; many members of the Court succumbed to the pestilence,
Poggio mockingly declared that the Pope wandered about after the manner of the
Scythians. The same thing happened when the plague revisited the Eternal City
in the summer months of 1451 and I452.
It has been
suggested that Nicholas V's extreme fear of death was due to an excessive love
of life, but another explanation seems more probable. In the year 1399, when
the plague was raging in Lucca and the physicians had forsaken the city, the
Pope's father was appointed physician by the remaining citizens. He accepted
the perilous post, but soon afterwards died, most likely stricken down by the
terrible malady in the exercise of his calling. May not this circumstance
account for the apprehensions of Nicholas, who was timid by nature, and at the
time in indifferent health? It must also be observed that at this period the
idea of contagion was gaining ground among the doctors. The black death and
subsequent epidemics had afforded but too ample opportunities for the study of
the subject, and the plague was much better understood than it had been.
Natural science had made considerable progress, and enlightened physicians in
the fifteenth century took little account of the influence of the stars, and
directed their chief attention to the laws of contagion. Isolation consequently
came to be regarded as the most essential of preventive measures, and it is
impossible to estimate the number of human lives that may have been thus
preserved during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, even though it was
very imperfectly carried out.
When the
pestilence ceased with the first cold of winter the Pope returned to Rome.
Pilgrims again began to pour in, their journeys being facilitated by the
peaceful condition of Italy. "So many people came to Rome", according
to an eye-witness, "that the city could not contain the strangers,
although every house became an inn. Pilgrims begged, for the love of God, to be
taken in on payment of a good price, but it was not possible. They had to spend
the nights out of doors. Many perished from cold; it was dreadful to see. Still
such multitudes thronged together that the city was actually famished. Every
Sunday numerous pilgrims left Rome, but by the following Saturday all the
houses were again fully occupied. If you wanted to go to St. Peter's it was impossible,
on account of the masses of men that filled the streets. St. Paul's, St. John
Lateran, and Sta. Maria Maggiore were filled with worshippers. All Rome was
filled, so that one could not go through the streets. When the Pope gave his
solemn blessing, all spaces in the neighbourhood of St. Peter's, even the
surrounding vineyards, from which the Loggia of the benediction could be seen,
were thick with pilgrims, but those who could not see him were more numerous
than those who could, and this continued until Christmas".
Among the
strangers of note who visited Rome during the Jubilee of 1450 we must give the
first place to an artist, the celebrated painter, Roger van der Weyden, or
Ruggiero da Bruggia, as the Italians call him. Many
of his works had already been purchased by Italian princes and patrons of art,
and were greatly esteemed. It was probably as he passed through Florence on his
way to Rome that this great master received from the Medici the commission to
paint the picture of the Madonna with the Holy Apostles, St. Peter and St.
Paul, and the physicians, Saints Cosmas and Damian, which is now one of the
treasures of the Städel Gallery of
Frankfort-on-Maine. The influence of Italy is evident in this beautiful work,
and in others from the hand of the same master, especially in a charming
picture representing St. Luke taking the portrait of the Blessed Virgin while
she suckles the Divine Infant (formerly in the Boisserée Collection, and now in the Munich Pinakothek), and
again in the Middelburg Tryptick, now at Berlin. A
modern writer on art is probably correct in his idea that the journey of 1450,
although undertaken solely from motives of devotion, was an artistic revelation
to the Flemish painter, who, by a comparison with foreign schools, learned to
form a more correct estimate of his own talents and needs, and of those of his
country. From this time he gave up painting life-sized figures and violent
effects and gold back-grounds. He still chose striking and dramatic subjects,
but the surroundings of his figures are now real, and they stand forth from an
architectural perspective or a sunlit landscape full of graceful details. This
was an approach to the manner of his predecessor, Van Eyck, and, moreover, a
return to that of his own earlier days and to the mild harmonious tone most
congenial to the piety and artistic sense common to himself and his
fellow-countrymen. His best works were produced at this period, and he
initiated a school, which, as compared with that of Van Eyck, manifests marked progress.
It would be impossible to say how many of the other painters, artists, and
scholars, who went as pilgrims to the capital of Christendom in 1450, were
touched by the like influence.
Jakob von Sirk, Archbishop of Trèves, once the most ardent partisan
of the Council was amongst the princes of the Church who were seen at Rome in
the Jubilee year. He came, accompanied by a hundred and forty knights, to make
his peace with the Holy See. Cardinal Peter von Schaumburg, Bishop of Augsburg,
and the Bishops of Metz and Strasburg were also there, with other German
prelates. Many saintly personages, too, were pilgrims, as, for example, St.
Jacopo della Marca, St. Didacus,
and the celebrated St. John Capistran. It was,
moreover, at this time that Jacopo Ammannati Piccolomini, afterwards the famous
Cardinal, turned his steps to the Eternal City, where he subsequently entered
the service of Cardinal Capranica, the friend of all
learned men.
Numerous princes
made the pilgrimage in 1450; the Pope welcomed the Duke Albert of Austria, gave
him at Christmas a blessed sword, and granted him many spiritual favours in
token of his affection for the House of Austria. It is probable that many
Austrian nobles accompanied the Duke; the aged Count Frederick of Cilli was certainly in Rome this year. We must also mention
the Margravine Catherine of Baden, Landgrave Louis of Hesse, and Duke John of
Cleves, who visited the seven principal churches on foot, and was received with
great honour by the Pope, Johannes Dlugoss, “the
first Polish historian who wrote in the grand style” and Nicodemus de Pontremoli, the trusted Ambassador of the Duke of Milan.
This would seem
the fitting place to remark that the Jubilee year gave birth to a little
literature of its own, a portion of which has since been printed, while a good
deal more exists only in manuscript. We have the two editions of a treatise by
the Canonist, Giovanni d'Anagni, a man distinguished
by the love of God and of his neighbour. Jakob von Jüterbogk and the Dominican, Heinrich Kalteisen, dealt with the
subject of indulgences from the ecclesiastical point of view, and Johann von
Wesel wrote against them. St. Antoninus, Archbishop
of Florence, wrote concerning the pardon of the "golden year", at a
date later than 1450. Provost Felix Hemmerlin, of Soleure, in Switzerland, composed a dialogue between the
Jubilee year and the Cantor Felix, in which the former successfully answers all
doubts and prejudices regarding the validity of the Jubilee indulgence, and
explains the conditions on which it may be gained by sinners of every position
and degree. Hemmerlin's tone is grave and devout, and
the dialogue contains many interesting passages which throw a vivid light on
evils existing in the ecclesiastical life of Switzerland. He is unsparing in
his denunciation of the Beguines, of mendicant friars who hunt after benefices
and money, and of ecclesiastics neglectful of their duty. "Canons",
he says, "who are not present in choir and yet receive remuneration for
fulfilling this duty, are no better than thieves and robbers, and must, even if
they be prelates, make restitution of their revenues, or they will not be
partakers of the graces of the Jubilee year". Hemmerlin also speaks at length, and with great force, against concubinage.
A description of
Rome, written by Giovanni Rucellai, a Florentine
merchant, who made the pilgrimage in 1450, has lately been published, and is
full of interesting matter. Amongst other things, he speaks of the catacomb
beneath the church of St. Sebastian as always open, and constantly visited by
the pilgrims.
"Perhaps",
says the chronicle of Forli, "it may have been in order to moderate the
Pope's joy at the unwonted and extraordinary concourse of pilgrims, and to
preserve him from pride, that an event was fated to occur which caused him the
deepest sorrow". A very beautiful German lady of rank, who had undertaken
the pilgrimage to Rome, was, in the district of Verona, set upon and carried
away by soldiers. Sigismondo Malatesta of Rimini was generally looked upon as
the instigator of this crime, which caused great excitement in Italy, but
notwithstanding the careful inquiries at once set on foot by the Venetians, the
mystery was never cleared up. The disaster, was all the more distressing to the
Pope, inasmuch as it was calculated to deter many rich and distinguished
personages from setting forth on a journey which was already deemed in itself
most perilous.
Nicholas V was
yet more deeply affected by a terrible calamity in the Holy City itself. On the
19th December a greater crowd than ever had assembled in St. Peter's to
venerate the holy handkerchief and receive the Papal benediction. At about four
o'clock in the afternoon the Pope sent word that, in consequence of the
lateness of the hour, the benediction would not be given that day, and all the
people hurried home by the bridge of St. Angelo, which was encumbered with
shopkeepers' booths. On the bridge the crowd unfortunately came in contact with
some horses and mules, which had taken fright, and a block ensued. A great many
of the pilgrims were in a moment thrown down and trodden under foot by the
advancing masses, or else pushed into the Tiber. Meanwhile, the multitudes, who
filled all the streets leading from St. Peter's, pressed onward in utter
ignorance of what had taken place, and, but for the presence of mind of the
Castellan of St. Angelo, the catastrophe might have been yet more appalling in
its extent. He caused the bridge to be closed, and brave citizens held back the
advancing throng, but the fatal crush on the bridge continued for a whole hour.
Then the citizens began to carry the dead into the neighbouring Church of San.
Celso. “I myself carried twelve dead bodies” writes the chronicler, Paolo dello Mastro. More than a hundred
and seventy corpses were laid out in the church, and this number, of course,
does not include such as had fallen into the river. According to most of the
contemporary accounts the victims exceeded two hundred, and this estimate
cannot be far from the truth. Some horses and a mule also perished. People who
escaped with their lives had their clothes torn to pieces in the crowd.
"Some were to be seen", says an eye-witness, "running about in
their doublets, some in shirts, and others almost naked. In the terrible
confusion all had lost their companions, and the cries of those who sought
missing friends were mingled with the wailing of those who mourned for the
dead. As night came on, the most heartrending scenes were witnessed in the
Church of San. Celso, which was full of people up to 11 o'clock; one found a
father, another a mother, one a brother, and another a son among the dead. An
eye-witness says that men who had gone through the Turkish war had seen no more
ghastly sight”. “Truly”, writes the worthy Paolo dello Mastro, “it was misery to see the poor people with
candles in their hands looking through the rows of corpses, and as they
recognized their dear ones their sorrow and weeping were redoubled”. The dead
were for the most part Italians from the neighbourhood of Rome, chiefly strong
youths and women; there were but few old people or children among them, and
scarcely any persons of high rank. At midnight, by command of the Pope, a
hundred and twenty-eight were carried to the Campo Santo, near St. Peter's,
where they were left all the Sunday for identification. The rest of the bodies
were either brought to Sta. Maria della Minerva or
buried in San. Celso. Their garments were laid together in one part of the
church. "My father", says Paolo deilo Mastro, "was appointed to take charge of them : many
persons, who did not know if they had to mourn for one belonging to them,
hastened there, and were assured of their loss."
This terrible
event inflicted a deep wound on the paternal heart of the Pope. He could not,
indeed, attribute any blame to himself, for he had done all that was possible
to maintain order in Rome, and had caused its narrow streets to be widened —
yet the tragedy took such hold upon him that he fell into a kind of melancholy.
In order to
guard against the possible recurrence of such an accident, Nicholas V had a row
of houses in front of the bridge cleared away, so as to form an open space
before the Church of San. Celso. In the following year two chapels, dedicated
to St. Mary Magdalen and the Holy Innocents, were erected at the entrance of
the bridge, and mass was daily offered for the souls of the victims. These
chapels remained until the time of Clement VII, who replaced them by the
statues of the Apostles, which now stand there.
The Pope's
rejoicing in the glories of the Jubilee year was marred by yet another
circumstance; the French ambassador demanded that a General Council should be
summoned to meet in France; Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, who was at the time in
Rome to obtain the Pope's permission for the coronation of Frederick III, soon
afterwards, in a solemn consistory, made request in the name of his King that
it should be held in Germany, inasmuch as Frederick did not mean to consent to
its meeting in any other country. This silenced the French and delivered Nicholas
V from a serious difficulty.
Immense sums of
money poured into Rome during the Jubilee Year, especially at its beginning and
at its close, when the concourse of pilgrims was greatest. A chronicler
mentions four classes as chiefly benefited: First, the money-changers;
secondly, the apothecaries; thirdly, the artists, who painted copies of the
holy handkerchief; and fourthly, the innkeepers, particularly those in the
large streets and in the neighbourhood of St. Peter's and of the Lateran.
On this occasion,
as in previous Jubilees, the pilgrims brought an immense number of offerings. Manetti, the Pope's biographer, says that an exceedingly
large quantity of silver and gold found its way into the treasury of the
Church, and Vespasiano da Bisticci tells us that Nicholas V was able to deposit a hundred thousand golden florins
in the bank of the Medici alone. From the Chronicle of Perugia we learn that
money was dear at this time, and could only with difficulty be obtained,
because "it all flowed into Rome for the Jubilee".
The Pope thus
became possessed of the resources necessary for his great schemes, the
promotion of art and learning; the poor also had a share of the wealth.
The moral effect
of the Jubilee, in its bearing on the Papacy, was even more important than its
material advantages.
The experience
of all Christian ages has shown that pilgrimages of clergy and laity to the
tombs of the Apostles at Rome are a most effectual means of elevating and
strengthening the Catholic life of nations, and of uniting them more closely to
the Holy See; and, moreover, that every movement of the kind is in many ways
fraught with blessings. The great pilgrimage to Rome, the perennial fountain of
truth, had a peculiar value in an age still suffering from the consequences of
the schism. Faith seemed to gain new life, and the world saw that the Vatican,
whose authority had been so violently assailed, was still the centre of
Christendom, and the Pope its common Head.
"It was
striking", says Augustinus Dathus,
"to see pilgrims come joyfully from all lands, most of them with bundles
on their backs, despising the comforts of their own country and fearing neither
heat nor cold, that they might gain the treasures of grace. The remembrance of
those days still rejoices my heart, for they made manifest the magnificence and
glory of the Christian religion. From the most distant places many journeyed to
Rome in the year 1450 to visit the Head of the Catholic Church and the tombs of
the Princes of the Apostles. Truly this Jubilee year is worthy to be remembered
throughout all ages".
The Jubilee was
the first great triumph of the ecclesiastical restoration, and it was the
Pope's desire that its renovating influence should be felt in every part of
Christendom. The idea was in itself a fresh evidence of the right understanding
and goodwill of Nicholas V, and in order to carry it into effect he decided to
send special Legates to the nations which had been most affected by the
troubles of the last decade. These Legates were to labour for the establishment
of a closer union with Rome, and for the removal of ecclesiastical abuses, and
to open the spiritual treasures of the Jubilee to the faithful who were unable
to visit the Eternal City. The Jubilee Indulgence was also extended by the Pope
to those countries for which no Legate was appointed. A visit to the Cathedral
of their Diocese, and an alms to be offered there, were generally the
conditions substituted for the pilgrimage, which to many was an impossibility.
“In all
countries and in every direction” as one of Cusa's biographers justly observes, "men had been for a long time sinning much
and grievously. It was fitting then that the reconciliation should be general.
The awakening of a sense of sin was to be for all classes — for clergy as well
as laity — for high and low, a solemn recall to duty, and a means of moral
restoration; and when hearts were thus changed, there was room to hope that the
reformation of ecclesiastical life, which had been so long desired and so
solemnly guaranteed, might at last become a reality."
In August, 1451,
the Pope sent Cardinal d'Estouteville to France, with
a special mission to undertake the reform of the Cathedral Chapters, and of the
Schools and Universities. The edicts issued by him on this occasion for the University
of Paris manifest the skill and zeal with which he fulfilled his trust.
D'Estouteville remained in France
until the end of 1452, without, however, accomplishing the principal end of his
mission, which was the restoration of peace with England; to his honour it must
be recorded, that he initiated the proceedings by which justice was done to the
memory of the Maid of Orleans.
Before the end
of December, 1450, Nicholas V had sent, as Legate to Germany, Cardinal Nicholas
of Cusa, a prelate renowned for learning and purity
of life, who had already done much to promote the general peace of the Church,
and the reconciliation of Germany with the Holy See. He was now commissioned to
publish the Indulgence of the Jubilee, and to labour for the pacification of
the kingdom, especially for the conclusion of the contest between the
Archbishop of Cologne and the Duke of Cleves, and for the reunion of the
Bohemians. The chief object of his mission, however, was to raise the tone of
ecclesiastical life and thoroughly to reform moral abuses in Germany, where the
Council of Basle had found so many partisans, and where the years of neutrality
had produced great confusion in the affairs of the Church, and allowed
religious indifferentism to assume serious proportions. The Pope granted the
most ample powers to the German Cardinal, and even authorized him to hold
Provincial Councils.
Little attention
has been paid to the remarkable fact, that Cusa's appointment encountered violent opposition from certain parties in Germany,
who, untaught by the events of the previous ten years, still adhered to the
un-Catholic principles of the Council of Basle. Although the assembly had given
convincing proofs of its absolute incapacity to correct ecclesiastical abuses,
there were still pedants who would accept reform only from a Council, and to
whom any measure of the kind, proceeding from the Pope, appeared utterly
obnoxious, even if carried out by so eminent and distinguished a man as Cusa. Others were anti-Roman to such a degree, that the
dignity enjoyed by the Legate as a member of the Sacred College created a
feeling of distrust in their minds. Yet all might have been proud to welcome
the zealous and sagacious Cardinal who came speaking their own tongue, and was
thoroughly acquainted with all the concerns and the needs of the Fatherland;
and, as time went on, it became evident that Cusa discharged the duties of his important office in the spirit of a genuine
reformer, and for the good of his country.
He looked on the
work of ecclesiastical reform as one "of purification and renovation, not
of ruin and destruction, and believed that man must not deform what is holy,
but rather be himself transformed thereby". And, therefore, first of all
and above all, he was a reformer in his own person. His life was a mirror of
every Christian and sacerdotal virtue. Justly persuaded that it is the duty of
those, who hold the chief places in the Church, to exercise the office of
preachers, he everywhere proclaimed the Word of God to both clergy and laity,
and his practice accorded with his preaching. His example was even more
powerful than his sermons. Detesting all vanity, he journeyed modestly on his
mule, accompanied only by a few Romans, and scarcely to be recognized, save by
the silver cross which the Pope had given him, and which was mounted on a staff
and carried before him. On arriving in any town his first visit was to the
church, where he fervently implored the blessing of heaven on the work he had
taken in hand. Many princes and rich men brought him splendid presents, but he
kept his hands pure from all gifts. Amongst his companions was the holy and
learned Carthusian, Dionysius van Leewis, a man
filled with the most ardent zeal for the renovation of monastic life.
Nicholas of Cusa, who left Rome on the last day of the year 1450, began
his arduous labours, in February 1451, by holding a Provincial Synod at
Salzburg. We have unfortunately, but scanty details regarding this assembly ;
it is, however, evident that a renewal and strengthening of communion with Rome
and a restoration of the relaxed discipline of religious houses were, together
with the proclamation of the Jubilee Indulgence, its principal objects. The
Cardinal thoroughly understood the root of the malady with which the Church in
Germany was afflicted. A real change for the better could only be accomplished
by a strengthening of the slackened bonds which bound Northern and Southern
Germany to Pope Nicholas V, whose general recognition was but of recent date,
and by a thorough reform of the relaxed religious orders. The decrees of the
Synod over which Cusa presided are framed with these
purposes. “Every Sunday henceforth”, it was ordained, "all priests are at
Holy Mass to use a prayer for the Pope, the Bishop of the Diocese, and the Church".
By this rule, not only each bishop, but each individual priest, was obliged
weekly to renew his solemn profession of communion with the Pope, and the
consciousness of ecclesiastical unity was thus rendered more vivid. The decree
was, within a month, to be published in every Diocese of the Province of
Salzburg, and thenceforth to be binding on all priests. An indulgence of fifty
days was granted for its exact observance.
It is hardly
necessary to dwell on the great importance of this opening act of Cusa's career as Legate in Germany. It bound the clergy of
this vast ecclesiastical province by the closest ties to the Holy See, and
formed a powerful check against any schismatical movement. The need which existed in Southern Germany for measures of this character
was amply proved by the opposition of the Brixen Chapter, when the Pope appointed Cusa bishop of that
Diocese.
The subject of
monastic reform, which next engaged the attention of the Synod of Salzburg, was
equally urgent. The spring-time of monastic institutions was past. In many
convents the spirit of strict observance and the cultivation of learning had
sunk very low. At Salzburg the cardinal had only time to sketch out the plan of
his future work in this field, for he was anxious to proceed on his journey so
as to meet the King of the Romans at Vienna. Frederick III granted him the
official investiture of the See of Brixen, with all
the customary formalities, and confirmed, by a special diploma, his episcopal
privileges and immunities in the beginning of March, at Wiener-Neustadt.
On the 3rd March Cusa issued a circular letter from Vienna to all
Benedictine abbots and abbesses of the province of Salzburg, informing them,
that, in virtue of the Papal commission, he had appointed Martin, abbot of the
Scotch Foundation in Vienna; Lorenz, abbot of Maria-Zell; and Stephan, prior of
Melk, apostolic visitors of their order. Having God before their eyes, and
without regard to any other consideration, they were carefully and exactly to
investigate and report upon the condition of the convents. In the event of
resistance they were to invoke the aid of the secular arm, and to apprise the
Legate, so that he might take all proper proceedings. They were, above all
things, to insist on the strict observance of the three essential vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience. Dispensations accorded in former visitations
were, without exception, revoked as contrary to the rule. A plenary indulgence,
on condition of the performance of an ap- pointed penance, was to be granted to
those religious who, by their lives, showed themselves worthy of it The
document concludes by exhorting all concerned to receive the visitors with
honour, and unreservedly to make known everything to them. All, without
distinction of rank, were to be regarded as excommunicate, and their
monasteries as under an interdict, in cases of disobedience, after the lapse of
the three days following the service of the monition, required by the canons.
The apostolic visitors at once set about their difficult, and in many cases
thankless, task. Stephan von Spangberg, the Prior of
Melk, being shortly promoted to a bishopric, was replaced by Johann Slitpacher, a monk from the same house, and King Frederick
III granted letters of safe-conduct to the visitors, each of whom was
accompanied by a chaplain and a servant. Abbot Martin generally made the
opening address; Abbot Lorenz questioned the religious individually, examined
churches, abbeys, cells, farm buildings, etc., and drew up the instrument of
reform; and Slitpacher acquainted the monastic
chapter with its several clauses.
The Archduchy of
Austria, Styria, Carinthia, the Province of Salzburg, and a part of Bavaria
were visited, and about fifty houses of both sexes reformed.
Much about the
same time the Cardinal turned his attention to the reform of the Canons Regular
of St. Augustine, entrusting the visitation of their houses to Provost Nicholas
of St. Dorothy's, in Vienna, Peter zu Ror, and Wolfgang Reschpeck.
The negotiations
with the Chapter of Brixen in regard to Cusa's appointment having been, by the mediation of
Archbishop Frederick of Salzburg, brought to a satisfactory conclusion, the
Legate proceeded by way of Munich, Freising,
Ratisbon, and Nuremberg to Bamberg, where he held a Diocesan Synod in the
Cathedral. His labours were directed in the first place to the reform of the
religious orders. A deplorable contest prevailed at this time in the Diocese of
Bamberg between the Mendicant Friars and the Secular Cleisgy,
and, with the full consent of the Synod, he decided to bring the discord to an
end by the publication of a canon of the Lateran Council of 1215. Everyone,
whether exempt or non-exempt, who failed to worship in his parish church on
Sundays and festivals, was to be deprived of communion and refused admission to
the church. And, on the other hand, inasmuch as Mendicant Friars, lawfully
admitted by the Bishop to the cure of souls, could give valid absolution, even
in cases reserved to the Pope, similar punishments were to be inflicted on
those who disputed their powers. Furthermore, the Bishop of Bamberg was
required to publish in the principal places in his diocese, on the first Sunday
in Lent, for the information of the people, the names of the Friars entrusted
with the cure of souls, and a list of the cases reserved to the Bishop or the
Pope. All controversy on the subject was to be discontinued, and any
differences were to be referred to the decision of competent judges.
Regulations for
the reform of houses and various ordinances concerning processions,
confraternities, and the Jews, were also promulgated by the Bamberg Synod, and
the Salzburg decree, prescribing the prayer for the Pope and for the Bishop of
the Diocese at mass, was reiterated.
In the latter
part of the month of May, Nicholas of Cusa, together
with four abbots, presided at the fourteenth Provincial Chapter of the
Benedictines, which was held in the convent of St. Stephen at Würzburg. On this
occasion he commanded that the rule of St. Benedict should be observed in all
its original strictness, approved the Bursfeld reform, and strongly recommended it to all the abbots. This Chapter was very
numerously attended; seventy abbots from the Dioceses of Mayence,
Bamberg, Wurzburg, Halberstadt, Hildesheim, Eichstadt, Spire, Constance, Strasburg, and Augsburg were
present, and amongst them Abbot Johann Hagen, the worthy founder of the
celebrated congregation of Bursfeld. The Cardinal
himself celebrated solemn High Mass, and each abbot individually came up to the
altar and bound himself by vow to carry out the reform within the space of a
year. To ensure the success of the good work, the disused custom of annual
Provincial Chapters was re-established, and Abbot Hagen was appointed visitor,
together with the Abbot of St. Stephen at Würzburg. Thus was the good seed
widely sown by the Cardinal Legate, for the seventy abbots bore back to their
several houses the impulse received at Wüzburg; no
mere passing emotion, such as is wont to touch the heart for a moment, and then
leave it unchanged, but a steadfast, earnest purpose of reform. It is possible,
indeed, that, through human weakness, or on account of insurmountable
obstacles, some of the abbots may have failed to fulfil their promise within
the appointed time, but there can be no doubt that the Wurzburg Synod brought
forth excellent fruit.
From Würzburg
the Cardinal-Legate, riding on a mule, proceeded through Thuringia to Erfurt,
which, on account of its numerous churches, chapels, and convents, was called
Little Rome. Of the eleven religious houses in this city, three only were
reformed, and in one of these, the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter, Cusa took up his abode. St. Peter's was at the time one of
the most important monasteries of the Bursfeld congregation, and subsequently became its chief centref On the very day after his arrival (30th May), the Legate began to preach.
Hartung Kammermeister, in his Annals, gives the
following description of his labours as a preacher, and of his sojourn at
Erfurt: "On the Saturday after Cantate (4th Sunday after Easter),
anno Dom. 1451, Nicholas of Cusa, the Cardinal sent
by Pope Nicholas, came to Erfurt, when the Council decided that its chief man,
Count Henry of Glichen, with some of
its servants, friends, and
citizens, should ride to meet him and receive him. They had also arranged that
the monks from the monastery, and also the university, with the students, in
procession, should await his arrival at the outer gate towards Tabirstete, there receive him and escort him to the toll
bridge. On the aforesaid bridge the Canons of both Chapters met him, and the
Cardinal dismounted from his horse and followed them on foot, in procession, to
the Church of Our Lady, and both there and at St. Severin there was grand music
in the choir and on the organ. Afterwards the Cardinal again mounted his horse
and rode to the Petersberg, where the Canons met him
with their relics, and he got off his horse at the steps, and gave the kiss of
peace, and followed them on foot, in procession, to the monastery, and those
who had ridden forth to meet him followed him on their horses, and afterwards
everyone rode home again.
"Now at
midday of Vocem jucunditatis (5th Sunday after Easter), the same Cardinal made a good and beautiful sermon
from the pulpit of St. Peter's, where a great multitude came together, and he
informed the people why and in what manner our Holy Father the Pope had sent
him, and he did the same in presence of all. Again on the Day of the Ascension
of our Lord, the Cardinal preached from the stone pulpit at the Kaffate, and a great crowd came, for the people heard him
gladly.
"Furthermore,
on Exaudi Sunday the Cardinal preached
from the pulpit of St. Peter's, and very many came from the country into the
town, wishing to hear his discourse, and the throng was so great that some men
were crushed and many fainted, and it was supposed that more than two thousand
persons were present".
Nicholas of Cusa also visited all the religious houses of Erfurt, and
appointed a special commission, with ample powers of reform. Among its members
was the excellent Provost of the Augustinians, Johannes Busch, whose labours
Have been brought to light by recent researches. Cusa's solicitude also extended to many Benedictine monasteries in Thuringia, and not
being able to visit them all personally, he deputed Abbot Christian of St.
Peter to act as his substitute, and the Abbot, in his turn, sought the aid of
Provost Busch.
In the beginning
of June the Cardinal went to Magdeburg, where monastic reform as well as
renovation of life among clergy and laity were making the happiest progress
under the auspices of the admirable Archbishop Frederick. It is worthy of note
that Cusa deviated from the direct road to Magdeburg,
in order to pass through Halle and make acquaintance with Johannes Busch, the
principal promoter of monastic reform in Northern Germany, with whom he desired
to confer regarding the great work in hand. He entered Magdeburg on Whit-Sunday
(June 13) in the morning, and remained there until the twenty-eighth of June,
devoting the first week of his stay to preaching and the visitation of
religious houses, and the second to holding a Provincial Synod. "This same
Cardinal", to quote the Municipal Chronicle of Magdeburg, "granted to
all people in our Lord of Magdeburg's Cathedral, in that year of graces, or
golden year, the same Indulgences that were granted in Rome in the fiftieth
year. The Canons had caused a new pulpit to be made, and when he wished to
preach, the pulpit was ornamented with golden hangings. Many came to the
sermon. There, on the Sunday after Corpus Christi, the Cardinal went with our
Lord of Magdeburg in the procession, which every year is wont to be made with
the Holy Sacrament, and the Cardinal himself bore it. It never before had been
heard that a Cardinal from Rome had gone in procession here. Two Counts of
Anhalt accompanied the Cardinal, and the canopy over the Sacrament was borne by
the two Counts and other distinguished persons. Our Lord of Magdeburg bore the
Holy Cross, and the Abbot of Berge and the Provost of Our Lady's Church also
carried relics. At this time so many people came to Magdeburg that all the
streets were thronged. In the afternoon, when it is customary every year to
show the relics, the Cardinal and our Lord of Magdeburg went up the aisle and
stood beside the priest who showed them, as long as this was going on. Then the
Cardinal gave the Benediction to the people".
The Provincial
Synod, in which the Bishops of Brandenburg and Merseburg, as well as the
zealous Archbishop Frederick, took part, was held by the Cardinal in the choir
of the magnificent Cathedral of Magdeburg. The Jubilee Indulgence and the
reform of the religious orders were the principal subjects which occupied its
attention, and Cusa appointed for the several towns
and monasteries special confessors, who were empowered to absolve from all sins
and ecclesiastical censures, even in cases reserved to the Bishops or to the
Pope. The measures resolved upon for the reform of the monasteries were
stringent. On the 25th June he issued a Bull, requiring, under pain of
deprivation of all privileges and of the right of electing superiors, that,
within the space of a year, all religious houses in the whole ecclesiastical
province should be reformed, and charging all Bishops to publish these decisions
as soon as possible, and to aid in their execution. Special attention was next
devoted to the reform of the Augustinians, and, in this respect, the Magdeburg
Synod was the counterpart to that of Wurzburg, which dealt in like manner with
the Benedictines. The excellent Provost Busch was honoured as he deserved to
be. The Cardinal declared that Pope Nicholas V had, in his solicitude for the
Order of St. Augustine, given him a commission to visit all its convents within
the limits of his Legation. Being unable to accomplish this in person, he
intended to nominate deputies, who, in their character of visitors and Legates
of the Holy See, were to enjoy all the dignities and rights of an Apostolic
Legate, and whose commands were in all particulars to be obeyed by the houses.
Provost Johann Busch was appointed in the first place as visitor by Cusa, and with him was associated Provost Doctor Paulus Busse, and all Augustinian convents of the province of
Magdeburg, and of the dioceses of Halberstadt,
Hildesheim, and Verdun, its suffragans, were to be subject to their
jurisdiction. Cusa charged the visitors to begin with
the superior of each house, and to go through all its members to the very
lowest, and then to give an accurate account in writing of the result of their
inquiries. "They were to correct everything found to be at variance with
the rule of the Order and the Hildesheim Statutes, approved by Pope Martin V at
the Council of Constance. In case of grave transgressions, and towards
incorrigible offenders, they were to use strong measures, and even to invoke
the aid of the secular arm for the eradication of crimes and scandals".
Finally, all houses that accepted the reform were to participate in the benefit
of the Indulgence. Both the visitors were fully empowered to give absolution in
reserved cases and from ecclesiastical censures, and to grant dispensations for
all irregularities. They were, moreover, authorized to remove the interdict,
and in cases where they were worthy, to confirm provosts and priors who had
obtained their prelacies by simony, and to set them free from the obligation of
restitution in regard to revenues which they had unjustly enjoyed. Any convent
refusing to admit the visitors incurred interdict, and its inmates fell under
the greater excommunication, both of which censures were reserved to the
Cardinal Legate and the Apostolic See. By the grant of these powers the work of
reformation, which had hitherto depended only on the goodwill of the religious
houses and the efforts of the bishops, received Papal authorization.
The labours of
the Provincial Synod of Magdeburg were not yet at an end; a long list of
resolutions for the reform of ecclesiastical affairs was drawn up; regulations
were made regarding the carrying of the Blessed Sacrament, the office in choir,
and the Jews, and finally a severe edict against concubinage was published. The
decree requiring prayers for the Pope and for the Bishop of the Diocese to be
said during Holy Mass, issued for the Province of Salzburg at the beginning of Cusa's Legation, was now enacted at Magdeburg, and is a
fresh example of the great Cardinal's care for the promotion of ecclesiastical
unity.
A cheering token
of the revival of piety in Northern Germany appears in the zeal, with which the
Bishop and the secular authorities promulgated and carried out the decisions of
the Magdeburg Synod. The visitors of the religious houses spared no trouble in
the accomplishment of their difficult task, and the fact that they devoted
nearly seven weeks to Erfurt bears witness to the thoroughness of their labours
in the cause of monastic reform. The convents of St. Thomas at Leipzig and St.
John at Halberstadt were also visited and reformed
this year.
To this period
belongs the Cardinal's well-known prohibition of the veneration of bleeding
Hosts, a matter regarding which the result of recent investigations is by no
means unanimous. From Halberstadt, whence this order
was issued, the Cardinal went to Wolfenbüttel and Brunswick, and then turned
his steps towards Hildesheim. In this town he at once deposed the Abbot of St.
Michael's, who had obtained his dignity by means of symony and was averse to the reform, putting in his place a monk from Bursfeld, and thus ensuring the strict observance of the
rule. Here, as elsewhere, Cusa made the religious
instruction of the people his care. An interesting memorial of his solicitude
is preserved in the Hildesheim Museum in the form of a wooden tablet, bearing
the paternoster and the ten commandments, which he caused to be hung up in St.
Lambert's, the parish church of Neustadt, as an aid to catechetical
instruction.
The Cardinal
left Hildesheim about the 20th July, probably spent some days in the ancient
and celebrated convent of Corbie, and then remained in Minden uninterruptedly
from the 30th July until the 9th August, labouring with great zeal at the
arrangement of ecclesiastical affairs. His activity is shown by the list of
rules by which he sought to amend the deplorable condition of the diocese. The
convents of the city of Minden were subjected to a searching visitation,
especially the Benedictine Abbey of St Simon, where discipline had become very
relaxed. Here, as in other places, he preached and said Mass in the Cathedral.
He also inquired minutely into the condition of the Secular Clergy and the
laity, and published ordinances for the better celebration of Divine Service
and a severe edict against concubinage among the clergy. As this edict did not
at once produce the desired effect, he caused a decree to be affixed to the church
doors, threatening any beneficed ecclesiastic, who took back his concubine or
kept her elsewhere, with the loss of his income and exclusion from public
worship. Should the priest of any church permit an ecclesiastic, reasonably
suspected of this sin, to enter his church or take part in the worship of God,
the whole city of Minden was to incur an interdict which could only be removed
by the Cardinal himself, or by the Apostolic See. The erection of new
confraternities or congregations was prohibited, lest the laity should be
encouraged to trust in a fallacious piety, consisting solely in externals and
nominal membership in many brotherhoods.
While Nicholas
of Cusa was thus labouring in Northern Germany to
reform the Church from within, the celebrated Minorite, St. John Capistran, was energetically prosecuting the same work in
the southern and eastern parts of the kingdom. King Frederick III had, through
the intervention of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, induced the Pope to send this
great preacher to Germany, charged with the double duty of reforming his own
order, and of combating the religious indifference, the sensuality and the
spirit of insubordination, which had long prevailed among the people.
The Papal
mandate, desiring St. John Capistran to proceed to
the north, found him at Venice, where he was preaching the Lent.
He immediately
started on his journey to Wiener-Neustadt, passing through Carinthia and
Styria, where the mountaineers welcomed him with the greatest enthusiasm.
"Wherever he arrived", says Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini in his History
of Frederick III "priests and people met him with the holy relics,
received him as ambassador of the Pope and preacher of truth, as a great
prophet and messenger from heaven. The people flocked down from the mountains
as if St. Peter or St. Paul, or some other of the Apostles were passing by,
desiring to touch even the hem of his garment, and bearing their sick, many of
whom are said to have returned healed. He was about sixty-five years old, small
of stature, thin, withered and worn, mere skin and bone, but always cheerful,
powerful in intellect, unwearied in work, very learned and eloquent. He
preached every day, treating of high and important matters to the joy and
delight of learned and unlearned; to all he gave satisfaction, and persuaded
them as he would. From twenty to thirty thousand people came every day to his
sermons, and although they did not understand what he said, listened to him
with more attention than to the interpreter, for it was his custom first to
pronounce his whole discourse in Latin, and afterwards he let the interpreter
repeat it. It was long before he could reach Vienna, and when at the prayer of
the Viennese he at last came to their city, they thronged to him in such crowds
that the streets were too narrow to hold them. Men and women pressed one upon
another, and when they saw him they shed tears of joy, raised up their hands to
heaven and praised him, and those who could come near him kissed his garments,
and greeted him as a messenger from heaven. He took up his abode with the
Minorites, his brethren in religion, and was supported at the expense of the
city. The rule of life which, together with his brethren, he observed was the
following: he slept in his habit, rose at daybreak, and after much prayer said
holy Mass. He then preached publicly to the people in Latin, from a high
platform erected for him near the Carmelite Church on the Square, because
elsewhere there was not room. A few hours later, when the interpreter also had
finished, he returned to his convent, and after spending some time in prayer,
went to visit the sick, laying hands on some, and touching others with the
biretta of St. Bernardine, and the blood which had flowed from his nose after
death. These visits occupied a long time, inasmuch as the sick were seldom
fewer than five hundred, and the Saint prayed devoutly for them all. Towards
evening he took food, gave audiences, said vespers, and returned to the sick
and engaged in devotional exercises with them until after night had set in.
After more prayer he at last allowed his body some repose, but his sleep was
very short, for he stole from it time for the study of Holy Scripture. Thus did
this man lead on earth what may be called a heavenly life, spotless, blameless,
and sinless; I boldly say sinless although people were not wanting who accused
him of vain ambition".
Preaching
penance wherever he went, St. John Capistran proceeded from Vienna through a great part of Germany. At Ratisbon, Augsburg,
Nuremberg, Weimar, Jena, Leipzig, Dresden, Halle, Magdeburg, Erfurt, Breslau
and many other places, he was unwearied in proclaiming the Word of God, and won
thousands to a better life. In Moravia he battled with the Hussite heresy and
reconciled many to the Church, but the hostility of Podiebrad closed Bohemia to
him. The Cardinal of Cracow and King Casimir invited him to Poland, where he
continued his labours.
His own order
derived great benefits from his untiring energy. He knew how to arouse the zeal
of the German Princes and cities. In most of the places where he preached he
either founded a new convent, or obtained for his Observantines possession of one which required reform. It was his special care to fill these
houses with learned novices who had been won, by his preaching, from among the
undergraduates and students in the university towns. He strove earnestly in his
innumerable discourses to awaken among the people a spirit of true penance and
moral reformation. Success crowned his efforts, and in many places men and
women brought their dice, cards, false hair, paint, and such like to the public
market place and there burned them. "In the year 1454", says an
Augsburg chronicle, "Brother John Capistran, of
the bare-footed Order, preached here in the church of our Lady, after Mass in
the morning about the sixth hour, from the pulpit which had been erected for
him, and he did this for eight days together. The men all had to sit on one
side and the women on the other, and after dinner, towards evening, he touched
all sick people in the court with the Relic of St. Bernardine. Many tresses of
false hair and a pile of gambling tables and cards were burnt in the market
place".
In many places
St. John's preaching produced effects which, though supported by ample
testimony, appear almost incredible. In Leipzig, for example, after he had
preached on death with a skull in his hand, nearly a hundred and twenty
students sought admission into different Religious Orders, about half the
number being clothed by the preacher himself with the habit of St Francis.
Fifty young men were won for his Order in Vienna, and a hundred and thirty in
Cracow, and many of these were students. The Pope showed his esteem for this
marvellous preacher by bestowing on him special faculties and granting
indulgences to all who should attend his sermons. He was popularly known as the
"holy man" or "ghostly father".
Meanwhile the
zealous Nicholas of Cusa had in the brief space of
six months traversed the most important districts of his native land, leaving
everywhere traces of his presence in beneficent regufations which encouraged the good and were a terror to the evil. He now turned his
steps to the spot whence monastic reform in Northern Germany had, in the first
instance, proceeded, and where many of the happy days of his youth had been
spent. Amid general rejoicings he entered Deventer on the 12th August, and took
up his abode with his beloved brethren in religion. It was his delight to share
the common life of those virtuous religious; he ate with them, though occupying
a special seat in conformity with his dignity, and observed the monastic rule
in every particular. In the afternoon, when the brethren were assembled in
choir, he delighted them with an edifying discourse. While here the Cardinal
also visited Windesheim, where he first delivered a
striking sermon, and then proceeded to the church, solemnly celebrated
Pontifical High Mass, and imparted to all present the Indulgences of the
Jubilee. Cusa spent more than two months in the Low
Countries, visiting Deventer, Zwolle, Utrecht, Haarlem, Leyden, Arnheim, Nymwegen, Ruremonde, Mastricht, Ltege, Brussels, and most other places of importance. His
attention was everywhere devoted not only to monastic reform, but also to that
of the people. Van Heilo, his contemporary and
assistant, writes: "He not only everywhere admonished and punished
ecclesiastics, and required them to amend, but also in his sermons instructed
the other members of Christian society in all things necessary, so that many,
of high as well as of low estate, laity as well as clergy, were greatly moved
in spirit by his words".
Cusa then passed through Luxembourg to
enjoy, at his own beautiful home, and among his own people, a short period of
well-earned repose. It is related that when his sister Clara came to welcome
him at Treves, at the end of October, in festal array, he would not receive her
until she had resumed her simple ordinary dress.
A foundation,
whose origin dates from the Cardinal's sojourn with his family, still keeps
alive the memory of his charity and of his affection for his home. He entered
into an agreement with his brother John, the parish priest of Bernkastel, and his sister Clara for the establishment at
Cues of a hospital where, in honour of the thirty-three years of our Lord's
life, thirty-three poor people were to be provided for. The means required for
the foundation were to be derived from the property of the family and from the
Cardinal's revenues. "Perhaps", says one of Cusa's biographers, "this was the noblest of the fruits brought forth by the
Church's summons to penance and satisfaction. The offering of this Christian
family at Cues, with the preacher of the Jubilee in its midst, is in the
genuine spirit of Christianity, and has been richly blessed by God".
The conclusion
of Cusa's labours in Germany is marked by the great
Provincial Councils of Mayence and Cologne, which
brought the blessings of reform within the immediate reach of his own home.
The Provincial
Council of Mayence was opened in the middle of
November, 1451, and lasted for several weeks. The resolutions which it framed
may be summed up as follows:—The edict of the Council of Basle regarding the
holding of Provincial and Diocesan Synods was adopted. In these Synods the
treatise of St. Thomas Aquinas, on "the Articles of Faith and the Holy
Sacraments" was to be explained to those entrusted with the cure of souls
and to be recommended as a useful handbook. A decree was passed dealing with
the usurious practices of the Jews, and another regarding concubinage amongst the
clergy, who were to be made subject to the penal laws passed at Basle. The
holding of markets on Sundays and festivals and the abuse of Indulgences were
forbidden, as also the erection of fresh confraternities to the prejudice of
the public worship in the parish churches. The sentence of interdict was
limited by a very wise resolution. In order to keep up respect for the most
Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. It was to be exposed only on the festival of
Corpus Christi and during its octave. Other decrees had reference to abuses in
nomination to posts in cathedrals and collegiate churches, and others again
prescribed monastic reforms.
An
important mission now removed Cusa for a time from
the scene of his labour. Bulls from Rome commanded him in August, 1451 to
proceed to England, and also to visit the territories of the Duke of Burgundy,
and there, as well as in the adjacent countries, to endeavour to establish that
peace which the ever-increasing danger of Turkish invasion rendered so
necessary to Christendom. In one of these Bulls, Nicholas V expresses his
confidence that Cusa will, by the exercise of that
circumspection and prudence which God has bestowed on him, bring about the much
desired peace and become worthy to receive the palm of glory by which God
rewards peacemakers. But national animosity was too powerful, and a truce was
the utmost that could be obtained. Having returned to Germany he resumed his
work by summoning a Provincial Synod to meet at Cologne. This assembly sat from
the 24th February until the 8th March. Its decisions were substantially the
same with those of the Synod of Mayence, and Cusa joined to their publication the following beautiful
words, "By the influence of Divine love and the power of the Apostolic
Spirit, which, according to the testimony of St. Jerome, never forsakes the
chair of St. Peter, and at the present time devotes itself with special
solicitude to feeding the flock of Christ, it has come to pass that our Holy
Father, Pope Nicholas V, has cast his eyes on this great province of Cologne,
and has sent us, although the least of all the Cardinals of the Sacred College,
here, to see how you, brethren, his beloved sons, advance in the way of the
Lord. Let us, therefore, thank God, who has collected us together for the promotion
of holiness, and in order that by mutual consultation things may take a better
direction. And as you are here assembled, most worthy Archbishop Dietrich,
together with the honourable chapter and the representatives of the Suffragans,
the worthy Abbots, Provosts, Deans, Canons, and other religious learned Priests
and Masters in great number, it appears to me that the moment has come when
from deliberate, ample, and common consultation a
profitable result may ensue. For the sake of a better understanding, I think it
well to premise that by these resolutions we do not in any way prejudice any
apostolic ordinances published by ourselves or other Legates, nor repeal any
provincial or diocesan decrees and laudable customs whatever they may be (in so
far as they shall not be amended or limited by the decisions we are now about
to publish) nor allow the authority of the Holy See or its Legate, or of the
Metropolitan and his Suffragans, or any rights, liberties, privileges, and
immunities to be in any way impaired. We shall study to maintain the proved
right of each one. Moreover, for the sake of carrying some measure of reform
into the affairs of the Church, until God grants us more fitting time for more
careful consultation, we, Nicholas, Cardinal and Legate, etc., in virtue of our
ample power presiding over this Holy Provincial Council, according to the
express consent of the worthy Lord and Father in Christ, Lord Dietrich,
Archbishop of Cologne, presiding conjointly with us, of his reverend Chapter
and his Suffragans, and the unanimous approval of the whole Synod conclude and
ordain as follows," etc.
The work done by
Cardinal Cusa as Legate in Germany and the Low
Countries may be looked upon as the most glorious of his well-spent life, and
all honour is due to the Holy See for the selection of an instrument so
well-fitted to accomplish a task of rare difficulty. Truly to use the words of
Abbot Trithemius, "Nicholas of Cusa appeared in
Germany as an angel of light and peace, amidst darkness and confusion, restored
the unity of the Church, strengthened the authority of her Supreme Head, and
sowed a precious seed of new life. Some of this, on account of the
hardheartedness of men, has not grown up, some has brought forth blossoms which
from sloth and negligence have quickly disappeared, but a good part has borne
fruit in which we still rejoice. Cusa was a man of
faith and of love, an apostle of devotion and knowledge. His mind embraced all
provinces of human knowledge, but all his knowledge was from God, and its sole
object was the glory of God and the edification and amendment of men".
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