contribution for the maintenance of religion and the support of the poor. They were generally paid
to the bishop, as the administrator of all ecclesiastical goods. Many nobles had their own domestic
chaplains who depended on their lords, and were often employed in degrading offices, as waiting
at table and attending to horses and hounds.
- Morals. The priests were expected to excel in virtue as well as in education, and to
commend their profession by an exemplary life. Upon the whole they were superior to their flock,
but not unfrequently they disgraced their profession by scandalous immorality. According to ancient
discipline every priest at his ordination was connected with a particular church except missionaries
to heathen lands. But many priests defied the laws, and led an irregular wandering life as clerical
tramps. They were forbidden to wear the sword, but many a bishop lost his life on the battle field
and even some popes engaged in warfare. Drunkenness and licentiousness were common vices.
Gregory of Tours mentions a bishop named Cautinus who, when intoxicated, had to be carried by
four men from the table. Boniface gives a very unfavorable but partizan account of the French and
German clergymen who acted independently of Rome. The acts of Synods are full of censures and
punishments of clerical sins and vices. They legislated against fornication, intemperance, avarice,
the habits of hunting, of visiting horse-races and theatres, and enjoined even corporal punishments.^328
Clerical immorality reached the lowest depth in the tenth and eleventh centuries, when
Rome was a sink of iniquity, and the popes themselves set the worst example. But a new reform
began with the Hildebrandian popes.
- Canonical Life. Chrodegang, bishop of Metz (a.d. 760), reformed the clergy by introducing,
or reviving, after the example of St. Augustin, the "canonical" or semi-monastic life. The bishop
and lower clergymen lived in the same house, near the cathedral, ate at the same table, prayed and
studied together, like a family of monks, only differing from them in dress and the right of holding
property or receiving fees for official services. Such an establishment was called Chapter,^329 and
the members of it were called Canons.^330
The example was imitated in other places. Charlemagne made the canonical life obligatory
on all bishops as far as possible. Many chapters were liberally endowed. But during the civil
commotions of the Carolingians the canonical life degenerated or was broken up.
- Celibacy. In the East the lower clergy were always allowed to marry, and only a second
marriage is forbidden. In the West celibacy was the prescribed rule, but most clergymen lived either
with lawful wives or with concubines. In Milan all the priests and deacons were married in the
middle of the eleventh century, but to the disgust of the severe moralists of the time.^331 Hadrian II.
was married before he became pope, and had a daughter, who was murdered by her husband,
(^328) It seems incredible that there should have been an occasion for legislation against clergymen keeping houses of
prostitution; and yet the Quinisexta or Trullan Synod of 692 enacted the canon: "He who keeps a brothel, if a clergyman, shall
be deposed and excommunicated; if a layman, excommunicated." Hefele III. 341.
(^329) Capitulum, from the chapter of the Bible or of the monastic rules which were read in common every day. The name
was applied both to the clerical brotherhood and to their habitation (chapter-house). The plural, Capitula or Capitularia designates
codes of law ecclesiastical or civil, digested under chapters. See Martene, De Antiqu. Eccl. Ritibus, 1, IV. c. VI. § 4, and Haddan
In Smith and Cheetham, I. 347.
(^330) Canonici, either because they were bound by canons, or enrolled on the lists of ecclesiastical officers. They occupied
an intermediate position between the secular clergy and the monks. See Du Cange, and Smith and Cheetham, sub Canonici.
(^331) Hefele IV. 794.