be distinguished by some encroachment on the rights of princes, or the
privileges of national churches. But, in general, the pontiffs of that
age had neither leisure nor capacity to perfect the great system of
temporal supremacy, and looked rather to a vile profit from the sale of
episcopal confirmations, or of exemptions to monasteries. The corruption
of the head extended naturally to all other members of the Church. All
writers concur in stigmatizing the dissoluteness and neglect of decency
that prevailed among the clergy. Though several codes of ecclesiastical
discipline had been compiled by particular prelates, yet neither these
nor the ancient canons were much regarded. The bishops, indeed, who were
to enforce them, had most occasion to dread their severity. They were
obtruded upon their sees, as the supreme pontiffs were upon that of
Rome, by force or corruption. A child of five years old was made
Archbishop of Rheims. The see of Narbonne was purchased for another at
the age of ten" ("Europe during the Middle Ages," p. 353, ed. 1869).
John X. made pope at the solicitation of his mistress Theodora, the
mother-in-law of the sovereign, and murdered at the instance of
Theodora's daughter, Marozia; John XI., illegitimate son of the same
Marozia, and of the celibate pontiff, Sergius III.; Boniface VII.
expelled, banished, returning and murdering the reigning pope: what
avails it to chronicle these monsters? Below the popes, a clergy as
vicious as their rulers, squandering money, plundered from the people in
dissoluteness and luxury. And the people, what of them?

As late as A.D. 1430 the houses of the peasantry were "constructed of
stones put together without mortar; the roofs were of turf--a stiffened
bull's-hide served for a door. The food consisted of coarse vegetable
products, such as peas, and even the bark of trees. In some places they
were unacquainted with bread. Cabins of reeds plastered with mud, houses
of wattled stakes, chimneyless peat fires, from which there was scarcely