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047 - 16 Arnold of Brescia · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part two, Chapter sixteen of Short History of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter sixteen, Arnold of Brescia. The long
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  Speaker 1: quarrel between Henry the Fourth and the papacy gave rise
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  Speaker 1: to a new force in Italy which was now felt
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  Speaker 1: far and wide. The claims which the Pope made to
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  Speaker 1: supreme authority awakened the alarm of certain serious minds, who
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  Speaker 1: saw here an element of great danger to the spiritual
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  Speaker 1: interests of all Christendom. In addition to this, a desire
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  Speaker 1: for local independence was awakened. A process of violent disintegration
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  Speaker 1: went on, especially in the Italian cities. The people arose
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  Speaker 1: against the high claims of an ecclesiastical rule, and cities
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  Speaker 1: vied with each other in an attempt to cut loose
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  Speaker 1: from these restraints. That the clergy should hold such power
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  Speaker 1: not only in Rome but throughout Italy was considered a
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  Speaker 1: curse which must be done away with, and the sooner
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  Speaker 1: the better. It requires but little time for a great
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  Speaker 1: popular aspiration to find its incarnation. The strong desire of
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  Speaker 1: many thousands in Italy to reduce the prerogatives of the
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  Speaker 1: clergy and the papacy to the primitive status of voluntary
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  Speaker 1: poverty and purely spiritual life and government found its representative
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  Speaker 1: in Arnold of Brescia. Born about the end of the
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  Speaker 1: eleventh century. He had been taught in a good school.
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  Speaker 1: Though an Italian, he had gone to Paris and placed
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  Speaker 1: himself under the care of Abelard, whose spirit he had imbibed.
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  Speaker 1: He possessed rare gifts of eloquence and popular leadership. He
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  Speaker 1: returned to Italy, where he boldly proclaimed against the excesses
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  Speaker 1: of the priesthood and indirectly against the bold claim of
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  Speaker 1: the pope to secular authority. He was guarded in his
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  Speaker 1: express concerning the papacy, and entered no theological protest. But
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  Speaker 1: against the universal life of the clergy he proclaimed inveterate hostility.
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  Speaker 1: He held that the priests should renounce all holding of
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  Speaker 1: property and live on the free will offerings of the people.
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  Speaker 1: His fearless method and defiant exposure of the prevailing vices
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  Speaker 1: of the time rallied to his standard a multitude of adherents.
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  Speaker 1: Among them were many cultivated people and nobles, who saw
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  Speaker 1: in him a safe and pure leader. But when the
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  Speaker 1: awakening which he produced became alarming to the existing authorities.
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  Speaker 1: He was opposed by the Pope Innocent the Second, who
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  Speaker 1: banished him from Italy. He fled to France and then
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  Speaker 1: to Switzerland, and in both countries continued to preach the
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  Speaker 1: need of a universal reform and the return of the
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  Speaker 1: Church to its original simplicity. Arnold had accomplished a great
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  Speaker 1: work in Rome. The popular sentiment was in his favor,
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  Speaker 1: the needful reform which he had preached gathered strength during
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  Speaker 1: his absence, and the people whom he had influenced now
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  Speaker 1: revolted against the Pope. Arnold came back to Italy, went
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  Speaker 1: to Rome and stood at their head. He was not
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  Speaker 1: only the spiritual leader of the city, but in a
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  Speaker 1: certain sense also the political head in the eternal city.
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  Speaker 1: He was what Calvin was for centuries later in Geneva,
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  Speaker 1: the administrator of civil and ecclesiastical affairs. Arnold's eloquence was overwhelming.
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  Speaker 1: The multitudes gathered about him with increasing enthusiasm. He forgot
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  Speaker 1: his religious standpoint, and, inspired by the remembrance of the
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  Speaker 1: Grandeur of old Rome, he became a political reformer. Rome
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  Speaker 1: should stand free, independent of the Pope and Emperor, ruled
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  Speaker 1: by no single man. But by the and people, then
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  Speaker 1: the old greatness would be restored. The citizens revolted against
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  Speaker 1: the rule of the pope, established a senate, drove the
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  Speaker 1: pope out of Rome, passed laws requiring the pope to
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  Speaker 1: live on voluntary offerings and throw off his temporal authority,
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  Speaker 1: and invited the German emperor to come down to Italy
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  Speaker 1: and re establish the old imperial rule on the banks
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  Speaker 1: of the Tiber. Lucius the second led an army against
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  Speaker 1: the Romans, but was killed during the siege of the
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  Speaker 1: city by a paving stone. Eugenius the Third, who succeeded him,
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  Speaker 1: fled to France and placed himself under the guidance of
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  Speaker 1: Bernard of Clervaux. Eugenius was brought back to Rome by Roger,
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  Speaker 1: king of the Normans, but he was helpless. Arnold was
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  Speaker 1: still supreme and the Romans were devoted to him. A
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  Speaker 1: young Englishman who commenced life as a beggar, turned his
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  Speaker 1: attention and to the priesthood, advanced through all subordinate stages
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  Speaker 1: until he became Bishop of Albanot, and on the death
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  Speaker 1: of Eugenius the Third succeeded to the papacy, as Hadrian
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  Speaker 1: the fourth eleven fifty four, he hit upon a novel
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  Speaker 1: method of opposing the revered Arnold. He prohibited all public
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  Speaker 1: worship in Rome. This one act produced a powerful impression,
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  Speaker 1: and the people could not say that it was not
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  Speaker 1: within his province and a purely ecclesiastical deed. The Pope
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  Speaker 1: was now in the ascendant. Arnold was compelled to flee
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  Speaker 1: from Rome a second time, and was afterwards seized by
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  Speaker 1: the Emperor of Germany, Frederic Barbarossa, who gave him up
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  Speaker 1: to his enemies in Rome. No mercy was now shown him.
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  Speaker 1: He was hanged in Rome, the scene of his greatest triumphs,
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  Speaker 1: in eleven fifty five. To give additional indignity to his memory.
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  Speaker 1: His body was affe afterwards burned and his ashes cast
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  Speaker 1: into the Tiber. During all the latter part of Arnold's career,
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  Speaker 1: the most powerful enemy he had to contend with was
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  Speaker 1: Bernard of Clervaux. The latter not only opposed his doctrines
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  Speaker 1: and the general drift of his teachings in political matters,
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  Speaker 1: but shaped the policy of the papacy. He was the
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  Speaker 1: real adviser of the popes, who one after another had
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  Speaker 1: to contend with Arnold, and because of his weight with
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  Speaker 1: the Catholic masses probably did more than all of the
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  Speaker 1: popes to undermine the influence of Arnould. To study the
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  Speaker 1: career of Arnold and its unhappy end, one would conclude
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  Speaker 1: that it was simply a revolutionary episode in the turbulent
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  Speaker 1: age in which he lived. But we must take a
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  Speaker 1: broader view. He greatly weakened the confidence of the people
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  Speaker 1: in the strength of the papacy. He proved that it
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  Speaker 1: was possible for one man, endowed with energy, to overthrow
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  Speaker 1: for at least a time, the temporal sovereignty of the popes,
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  Speaker 1: introduce a new political life in Rome itself, and mask
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  Speaker 1: the people to support his views. His most bitter enemies
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  Speaker 1: could not find any flaw in his moral character. His
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  Speaker 1: purity of life was in perfect harmony with the gospel
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  Speaker 1: which he preached. His powerful worth and the temporary changes
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  Speaker 1: which he wrought were the great forces which continued to
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  Speaker 1: work long after his martyrdom. In every later effort for reform,
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  Speaker 1: and even in the Reformation in Germany and other countries,
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  Speaker 1: the name of Arnold of Brescia, was a mighty factor
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  Speaker 1: in aiding towards the breaking of the old bonds. Even
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  Speaker 1: in these latest times, it has its historical value for
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  Speaker 1: in the struggle of the Protestantism of New Italy, for
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  Speaker 1: mastery of the thought of the people. That name is
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  Speaker 1: a comfort to all who are endeavoring to bring in
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  Speaker 1: the new and nat better day, from the Alps down
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  Speaker 1: to Sicily end of Chapter sixteen.