enormously enriched by princes and barons, and they owned, with the
other clergy, half the lands of Europe, and more than half its
silver and gold. The monks fattened on all the luxuries which then
were known; they neglected the rules of their order and lived in
idleness,--spending their time in the chase, or in taverns and
brothels. Hardly a great scholar or theologian had arisen among
them since the Patristic age, with the exception of a few schoolmen
like Anselm and Peter Lombard. Saint Bernard had not yet appeared
to reform the Benedictines, nor Dominic and Saint Francis to found
new orders. Gluttony and idleness were perhaps the characteristic
vices of the great body of the monks, who numbered over one hundred
thousand. Hunting and hawking were the most innocent of their
amusements. They have been accused of drinking toasts in honor of
the Devil, and celebrating Mass in a state of intoxication. "Not
one in a thousand," says Hallam, "could address to one another a
common letter of salutation." They were a walking libel on
everything sacred. Read the account of their banquets in the
annals which have come down to us of the tenth and eleventh
centuries, when convents were so numerous and rich. If Dugdale is
to be credited, their gluttony exceeded that of any previous or
succeeding age. Their cupidity, their drunken revels, their
infamous haunts, their disgusting coarseness, their hypocrisy,
ignorance, selfishness, and superstition were notorious. Yet the
monks were not worse than the secular clergy, high and low.
Bishoprics and all benefices were bought and sold; "canons were
trodden under foot; ancient traditions were turned out of doors;
old customs were laid aside;" boys were made archbishops; ludicrous
stories were recited in the churches; the most disgraceful crimes
were pardoned for money. Desolation, according to Cardinal
Baronius, was seen in the temples of the Lord. As Petrarch said of