The dream of Dante was far from being fulfilled. No Augustus arose to bring in a golden age of universal peace. Inside the Germanic States the Emperor found but limited means of asserting his will. While his authority was regarded in general as a necessary bond of union, the princes were disposed to evade any particular applications of it that were not agreeable to their minds. Outside of Germany, after the days of Henry VII., the Emperor possessed only a shadow of power. As the modern era was approached, those romantic sentiments which had given support to imperialism greatly waned. The notion of universal rule lost its hold. Even the ceremony of investiture with the Roman imperiumthe coronation by the Pope - was dispensed with, Frederic III. (1452) being the last to receive this honored token at Rome. In the sixteenth century the head of the Holy Roman Empire had become very generally in men's thoughts, as well as in reality, simply the Emperor of Germany.

In France, the sovereigns who followed Philip the Fair showed less ability for advancing royal and national interests than had characterized his vigorous rule. Moreover, they began to be embarrassed, within the space of a generation, by enormous difficulties in the external relations of the realm. The claim which Ed

large a part in controversy down till the seventeenth century." (The Holy Roman Empire, chap. xiii.)

"Dante's arguments are not stranger than his omissions. No suspicion is breathed against Constantine's donation; no proof is adduced, for no doubt is felt, that the empire of Henry VII. is the legitimate continuation of that which had been swayed by Augustus and Justinian." (Bryce, chap. xv.)

1 Charles V. was crowned at Bologna.

ward III. of England put forth to the crown of France, and in pursuance of which he invaded the country in 1339, seemed at times, in the ensuing struggle of nearly one hundred and twenty years, on the point of being realized. Great defeats were suffered by the French forces, as in the battles of Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. Perhaps the acme of distress was reached in 1429, when the English soldiers were pressing the siege of Orleans with every prospect of success. The French troops were dispirited, the King in despair. Then it was that the weak was enabled to confound the mighty. A humble peasant girl, Joan of Arc, became the inspired heroine who retrieved the national fortunes. By 1453, the ambitious project which had been started by Edward III. was a thing of the past. English dominion in France comprised thereafter only the town of Calais and a narrow tract of adjacent territory. With this emancipation from foreign pressure, the power of the crown was increased. As early as 1439 a noteworthy blow was dealt to the remains of the feudal system in the realm by the ordinance of Charles VII. providing for a permanent military force. This was to be officered by the nominees of the King, and was expected to supersede very largely such private equipments as the nobles were accustomed to make. Under the crafty policy of Louis XI. (1461-1483) still further advance was made toward the extinction of feudalism and the concentration of sovereignty in the King.

English political history records two noteworthy developments in this period. The first of these was an advance toward parliamentary privilege, and constitutional limitations upon the monarchy. The wars with

Scotland, which began in the reign of the first Edward, and those with France from the time of Edward III. involved a financial drain which made it prudent for sovereigns to consult the national representatives, and to enlist their friendly co-operation. Hence Parliaments were called, and were conceded powers which came to be deemed of constitutional virtue. "During the long reign of Edward III.," says Hallam, "the efforts of Parliament in behalf of their country were rewarded with success in establishing upon a firm footing. three essential principles of our government: the illegality of raising money without consent; the necessity that the two houses should concur for any alterations in the law; and, lastly, the right of the commons to inquire into public abuses, and to impeach public counsellors."

The second development was in an opposite direction from the foregoing. This became manifest during the wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, which covered the space of a generation in the last half of the fifteenth century. In the course of the struggle many great nobles were attainted, and their confiscated estates added to the wealth and the consequent independence of the sovereign.1 With the accession of the Tudors (1485) the counter development went still further, and constitutional limitations upon the crown were thrown very largely into abeyance.

1 "If the Wars of the Roses," says Green, "failed in utterly destroying English freedom, they succeeded in arresting its progress for more than a hundred years. With them we enter upon an epoch of constitutional retrogression, in which the slow work of the age that went before it was rapidly undone." (Vol. ii. chap. i.)

CHAPTER II.

A

POPES AND COUNCILS.

GLANCE over the period reveals several eras in the fortunes of the papacy. First we have the spectacle of lofty pretension ending in signal failure, a pontiff who would tread on the necks of kings cast down himself into the dust. Then follows a long interval, in which the power that wrought this humiliation holds the papacy in a subservient relation to itself,the interval of seventy years (1305–1376) during which the Popes scarcely enter Rome, and are the subjects, or at best the allies, of the French monarchy. Close upon this follows a time of still deeper abasement of the papal dignity. A schism of nearly forty years' duration (1378-1417) gives occasion to the intervention of a superior tribunal, and important councils deal with Popes as with a subordinate factor in church government. The energy and shrewdness of the pontiffs who follow the schism serve in a measure to recover lost ground, but the gain is soon offset by the worldly ambition of the Popes, which leads them to absorb their energies in building up a principality in Italy, to the neglect of wider interests, and to a total disregard of the gathering storm which is about to shake the fabric of their power to its foundations. It will be our task now to consider these developments in order.

I. Boniface VIII. entered upon his pontificate with an ambition and a self-confidence in excess of his resources. He thought to rule as Innocent III. had ruled. But a century had wrought no inconsiderable change in the temper of princes and peoples. Europe after the crusades was not the same as Europe in the midst of the crusades. There was more alertness, more independence, a stronger current of purely secular enterprise. In pursuing any policy which looked toward national advantage, a prince could be more firm against papal demands, as being better assured of support within his realm. It happened, too, as Boniface became Pope, that strong hands were in possession of the sceptre. The German Emperor, it is true, was not formidable; but Edward I. of England was a prince of strong will and resolute courage, thoroughly indisposed to submit to any exterior authority; and the same was true of the French King, Philip the Fair, a man of peculiar inflexibility, in whom feeling and conscience. were, to all appearance, absolutely dormant before selfinterest.

The circumstances under which Boniface attained the papal dignity were not such as to command for him. the most hearty and unanimous welcome. His predecessor, Celestine V., after a pontificate of a few months, had taken the extraordinary step of a voluntary abdication. With this act, which some regarded as in any case of questionable validity, Boniface was more prominently associated than suited his reputation. Early testimony reinforces the inference which is suggested by the known character of Boniface, and informs us that he took a leading part in persuading his weak pre