DEMORALIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 029 It was in vain that Gerson proved that the papal demand of first-fruits of preferments was simony. It was in vain that the councils of Constance and of Siena complained and protested, and that of Basle endeavored to frame reformatory regulations. Equally vain was the attempt of Charles VII. and the Emperor Albert II. in the Pragmatic Sanctions of 1438, against the pro- tests of Eugenius IV., to declare the annates and first-fruits to be simony. The papal system was too strong for its grasp to be thrown off, and up to the time of the Reformation simony con- tinued to be the all-pervading curse. * In addition to this source of infection from above there was an equally potent cause of demoralization from below in the immunity enjoyed by the clergy from secular jurisdiction. Not only were the people scandalized by seeing clerical homicides and criminals of all sorts set free after the mockery of a trial in the ecclesias- tical courts, but the impunity thus enjoyed drew into the ranks of the Church hosts of vile and worthless men, who sought in the tonsure security from justice.f Under such a sj^stem it is easy to conceive the character of the prelates and priests with which the Church was everywhere afflicted. be conceived more terrible than the account of it given about this time by Car- dinal Matthew of Krokow in his tract De Squaloribus Romanoz Curice (lb. II. 584-607).
- Gersoni Tract, de Symonia. — D'Argentre" I. n. 234. — Goldast. Constit. Imp.
I. 402. In La defloration de Vfiglise militante of Jean Boucher, in 1512, simony is described as the chief source of trouble — " Ceste sixte gloute et insatiable Du sanctuaire elle a fait ung estable, Et de mes loys coustume abhominable. Ha, ha, mauldicte et fausse symonie ! Tu ne cessas jamais de m'infester .... Pour ung conrtault on bailie ung benefice; Pour ung baiser ou aultre malefice Quelque champis aura ung evesche* ; Pour cent escus quelque meschant novice, Plein de luxure et de tout aultre vice, De dignitez sera tout empesche." (Bull, de la Soc. de l'Hist. du Prot. Francais, 1856, pp. 268-9). f Vaissette, £d. Privat, X. Pr. 242, 254.— See the author's " Studies in Church History," 2 Ed. pp. 210 sqq.
