this bull exceeded those of any previous jubilee, reaching as high as six hundred thousand. The pope had instructed Annibal Cecano, his legate, to collect the offerings which this crowd of deluded beings should deposit upon the tomb of St. Peter, the objective point of their pilgrimage. But the cardinal legate, partaking of the pope's rapacity and greed, determined to profit by the opportunity and fill his own private coffers. He commenced business on his own account by selling indulgences to the pilgrims which permitted them to reap all the spiritual benefits to be derived from their pilgrimage after a shorter sojourn in the city than would otherwise have been necessary. The inhabitants, who, partaking of the general greed, had converted their houses into hotels for the accommodation of the pilgrims, and who had lost money as landlords in proportion as the prelate gained by the sales of his indulgences, bitterly opposed his traffic, attacked his palace several times, and killed some of his people.

But the traffic in dispensations and indulgences did not cease, nor even relax, so great was the faith of the pilgrims At the end of the year Cecano left Rome for Avignon followed by fifty wagons strongly guarded, and loaded with gold and silver, the pope's share of the spoils. Clement himself had not been idle all this time. He sold indulgences and dispensations to kings, princes, and lords who did not care to visit Rome. Altogether the jubilee of 1350 brought incaleulable wealth to the papal court.

The sect called the Flagellants, who had been persecuted and almost exterminated by pope Alexander IV., reappeared during this period of fanaticism. These devotees, whose religious duties consisted in flagellating themselves in public while perfectly nude, penetrated even to Avignon: and party of them performed their penance in the presence of the cardinals and the pontiff. Two of the female penitents appeared so beautiful to the holy Father in their nudity that he caused them to be carried off and confined in his palace for his own use. Their fellow-penitents became furious at this outrage, and demanded, at the door of the papal palace,

that the prisoners be set at liberty. In response to their entreaties, this merciful Father ordered his guards to charge and massacre them, and fulminated a terrible anathema against the entire sect, and enjoined his bishops to hand them over to the inquisitors wherever caught, and to punish them with fire if they refused to abjure. While endeavoring to exterminate the Flagellants, he was fostering and defending the mendicant monks, whose depravity excited general indignation. Those monks had multiplied to such an alarming extent that they were a curse to Europe. They had despoiled the dying during the pestilence, and pillaged their houses, and had been guilty of the most shameless debaucheries with prostitutes during the general calamity. But they were the chief defenders of the papal power, and they were numerous as an army.

When these pestiferous wretches were accused before this infallible agent of the Almighty, he replied to the accusers as

follows:

"Let us not judge these poor monks too severely because they have appropriated to themselves some money whilst attending on those who were afflicted with the pestilence.

I, who am infallible, declare them to be absolved from all the sins they have committed; and I even authorize them to retain the nuns who inhabit their convents, that they may multiply and increase the population decimated by the late scourge.

As the year 1352 drew to a close Clement lay sick with a fever. The physician pronouncing his malady incurable, his faith in his own infallibility appeared to fade, and he published a bull containing the following avowal :

"If, since we have been elevated to the papacy, we have advanced in our writings or language propositions contrary to religion or morals, we revoke them and submit them to the correction of our successor."

On the next day, in reply to this bull, the following letter was circulated in Avignon:

"Beelzebub, Prince of Darkness, to Pope Clement, his Vicar: Your mother, Pride, salutes you; your sisters,

Knavery, Avarice, and Shamelessness, and your brothers, Incest, Robbery, and Murder, thank you for having caused them to prosper. Given from the centre of Hell amid the acclamations of a troop of demons, and in the presence of two hundred damned popes, who wait your presence with impatience."

Clement died on the sixth of December, 1352, and his remains were deposited in the abbey of Chaise-Dieu, where he had been a monk.

According to the historians of the times, the court of Avignon, under this last pontificate, was the receptacle of every vice and the most terrible depravity. Petrarch has left us the following description of it:

"Who would not by turns smile with pity or feel indignation in seeing these decrepid cardinals and prelates, with their white hair and their ample togas, beneath which are concealed an impudence, and lasciviousness which nothing equals? These libidinous dotards are so forgetful of age and the priesthood as to fear neither dishonor nor opprobrium; they consume their last days in every kind of excess of libertinage. These unworthy priests think to arrest time, which drags them along, and believe themselves young in their old age, because their shamelessness and intemperance urge them on to saturnalia which are repugnant to youth. Thus Satan himself with his infernal laugh, presides over their debauches, and places himself between the virgin objects of their nauseous amours and these old cacochymes, who become irritated at constantly finding their strength less than their lubricity."

INNOCENT VI.

STEPHEN AUBERT was born near the small city of Pompadour in France. Apart from his ecclesiastical career his life presents nothing of interest. He was appointed Professor and Doctor of civil law at Toulouse, and afterwards became one of the principal magistrates of that city. In 1337 he was raised to the bishopric of Noyon. He was soon after made cardinal bishop of Ostia and grand penitentiary by Clement VI This pontiff died on the sixth of December, 1352; and six days after, the conclave of cardinals assembled in the pontifical palace to proceed to the election of a new pope. The venerable John de Birelle, the general of the Chartreux, was first proposed; but he was almost unanimously rejected, the cardinals declaring that they would not have an humble, chaste, and rigidly moral man govern the Church. They then took the precaution of adopting decrees which should fortify them against an unwise choice and counterpoise the power of a good pope. After having thus well guaranteed themselves against the encroachments of papal authority, they fixed their choice for next pope on Stephen Aubert. He was subjected to the usual proof, and, after the customary ceremony of consecration, was enthroned by the name of Innocent VI. The day after his election he proceeded to perjure himself by repealing the rules published by the cardinals, and which he himself had solemnly sworn to observe.

To render full justice to Innocent it must be said that at the beginning of his reign he seemingly sought to correct some of the scandalous privileges and abuses of the cardinals and clergy. His efforts were chiefly directed against the

apostolic toleration of prostitutes at the court of Rome and the system of taxation which John XXII. had established for incest, murder, parricide, and all kinds of crime.

After what has been related of the popes, the reader will see the propriety of making particular mention of, and giving particular credit for, any manifestation of morality that may appear in the life of any of their number. But his worthy actions were not such as to glorify him, neither were they of long duration. He soon became a persecuting fanatic, and startled Christendom by his severity. He pursued heretics with the most frightful punishments. The Fratricelli were especial objects of his insane cruelty. One of their number, John of Chatillon, whose punishment afforded a spectacle to the pontifical court, defied the rage of his executioners, and, amidst the torments of the flames, cried out to the people: "Christians, my brethren, I declare in the presence of God, who judges us, that you are the dupes of the knavery of the pope; in the name of my salvation, I affirm that John XXII., Benedict XII., Clement VI., and Innocent VI. are all the enemies of God-simoniacs, forgers, robbers, murderers, and heretics." Some of the old chroniclers cite as a proof of the pontiff's goodness of heart that he did not cause the fire of the stake to be extinguished, to recommence torturing the palpitating members of the heretic.

About this time Charles IV. was crowned emperor of Germany. He at once sent to Innocent for permission to come and receive the crown of gold in the church of St. Peter, which was granted him under very humiliating conditions. The emperor first entered Milan with naked feet, and received the iron crown from the metropolitan of that city; he then went to Rome, with the princess Anne, his wife, in the dress of a pilgrim. On the day of his arrival he was solemnly crowned emperor by Peter Bertrandi, cardinal bishop of Ostia. He left Rome immediately after having given his imperial pledge to remain but one day in the imperial city. Of this act of humiliation and subserviency, the indignant Petrarch wrote to him as follows: "Where will you conceal