Stoics and Saints - College of Stoic Philosophers

272 JOHN WYCLIF.
of his power. The work of Philip did not end with the
outrage. ~^He was strong enough to compel
the removal
of the Papal Court from Rome to Avignon in France, where
the Popes became mere puppets of the French kings. For
seventy years they remained in exile Papal
writers call
it the seventy years Captivity then on the restoration to
Koine in 1376, the Papist schism arose. The French and
Italian parties set up their Popes against each other, and
from 1378 to the Council of Constance, where in 1417
the scandal was put down with a high hand by the assembled
prelates of Christendom, there were Popes and Antipopes
fighting and cursing each other with the in tensest fury,
amid universal sorrow arid shame, i* This captivity and
schism were naturally attended by a frightful corruption
fv)
of ecclesiastical society. It is a dark subject, but we must
glance at it in order that we may fairly grasp
the features
of the age and understand the forces which \vere working
for
Pieform.
No one who has not looked closely into the history of
the times can imagine the horrible corruption
covered by the splendid mantle of the Papal
that was
Church. The
policy of Hildebrand had at last triumphed, clerical, celibacy
was the law, and society was reaping the inevitable fruit.
As a political measure celibacy was in a sense a grand
success, ^t gave the rulers of the Church an able, dis
ciplined, and devoted militia, to fight its battles and to
spread its net in every country
in the whole course of its history
in Christendom.^<N"ever
has the world seen such
a force at the absolute disposal of one will as the celibate
priesthood
of the Eoman Church in the service of its head.
The hierarchy gained its end triumphantly, and^society,
though it reaped some high advantages for instance the
priesthood was kept from becoming a caste paid on the
whole a fearful price for them.