Franche Comté and modern Burgundy. The first Kings of Burgundy having been overcome by the Franks, their dynasty ended with Gondemar in 534. That part of Helvetia from Neuchâtel to the river Reuss, then became a province subject to the Franks, under the name of Petite Bourgogne. The Kings of the second dynasty, which lasted 144 years, were concerned in many of the ensuing religious foundations. Its first King, Rudolph (888), was descended in the female line from Charlemagne; after him came Rudolph II. (911); Conrad (the Pacifique), (937); Rudolph III. (le Fainéant), (1032), and at his death the kingdom was re-united to the Empire of Germany.

In connection with what we have here stated, and the extinction of the second Burgundian dynasty, a few historical facts force themselves on our notice. After the death of Charlemagne, Charles-le-Chauve (Karl der Kahle) joined with his half-brother, Louis-le-Germanique (Ludwig der Deutsche), against his other half-brother, the Emperor Lothaire. By the issue of the battle in 841 of Fontenay (in Auxerrois), and the treaty of Verdun, which then ensued, the latter found himself compelled to acquiesce with them in the partition of the Empire, between the two branches of their family. In this division of Charlemagne's Empire, Charles-le-Chauve obtained Neustria and Aquitaine, or the territory lying between the Ocean and the four rivers Rhone, Saône, Moselle, and Scheldt, which afterwards more or less constituted the kingdom of France. Louis-le-Germanique received all Germany; whilst Lothaire, retaining the Imperial dignity, acquired Italy, Provence, and the whole country between the Rhine and the above-named rivers. This last tract of country was designated by the name of Lorraine, of which, however, the subsequently so-called Lorraine formed only the smallest part. In 869-70 Charles the Bald, after the death of Lothaire, King of Lorraine, formed the idea of appropriating that portion of his brother's dominions, but rather than effect this forcibly, he came to an understanding with Louis-leGermanique, that an additional partition of that part of Lothaire's territory should be made between them. That

was the partition effected in 870, which will be found so often alluded to in the following historical notices of many of the religious foundations of Lorraine.

Apart from its position, and chief mission at the outset in enlightening barbarism, the enormous importance of Cluni in the world of politics, and social regeneration during its earliest existence, cannot be over estimated. To that end the ramification of its dependent monasteries or affiliations throughout Europe vastly contributed, extending as it did over France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and England to the number of 2,000. This influence, especially politically, it is now in these democratic days of social progress, almost impossible to appreciate or even to understand; nevertheless, whether in the public or private life of the Middle Ages, it made itself felt, spreading like a net over the whole of Christendom, and could not be ignored as a factor in most worldly transactions, from the governing heads of states to the subordinate ranks of mankind in general. To understand, however, the thorough working of Cluni's feudal hierarchy in every part

2 At one time we see (St.) Hugh, Abbot of Cluni (1044), the permanent legate of the Holy See in Gaul, assisting as principal colleague to Pope Leo IX. at the great National Council of Rheims in 1049; keeping at one and the same time on terms of amity with Pope Gregory VII. and the Emperor of Germany, and reconciling one of them with the King of Hungary; chosen as arbitrator between the two Counts of Galicia and Portugal, for the succession to the kingdom of Castile; introducing into Spain the Roman for the Mozarabic ritual; and, lastly, building at Cluni a church the most vast in Christendom. Peter the Venerable, another of its abbots (1122), is seen corresponding with Popes Innocent II. and Eugene III., with Roger, first King of Sicily, with John Comines, Emperor of Constantinople, with the Patriarch and King of Jerusalem, with Louis le Jeune, the King of Norway, and the Empress Matilda, mother of Henry II. of England. Cluni received within its walls, at one and the same time, a vast assemblage of princes and prelates, Saint Louis, King of France, Robert, Emperor of Constantinople, the sons of the Kings of Castile and Aragon. It was an abbot of Cluni, Androin de la Roche, who figured as mediator, taking part in drawing up the celebrated treaty of Brétigny, so disastrous to the French after their defeat at Poitiers in 1356. Finally it was at Cluni that Casimir II., King of Poland, became a professed monk, during his minority and the anarchy of his kingdom; and equally another Prince of the Blood Royal, to whom we shall allude hereafter.

of Europe, and its results, is a study in itself, and does not, more than generally speaking, much concern this inquiry. The records long dispersed, and apparently lost in many cases, but now concentrated in the National Library of France, illustrating this great Benedictine congregation, have of late greatly tended to establish these facts. The great and laborious undertaking of Alexander Bruel3 to furnish them to the world, has been a chief source; others have contributed to that end also, increasing our knowledge of, no less than our interest in, the Benedictine offshoots of the parent-house, but the valuable and unique Catalogue of M. Léopold Delisle, above all others, points to the very documents themselves, of which we are in search, and to which we have access in the National Collection of its manuscripts. An additional (as observed), and quite unknown source, has also unexpectedly been discovered in the Library of the Palais Bourbon, forming an entirely new feature in Cluniac researches.

But these particular Visitations, or many of them, commend themselves, perhaps, to our notice in another way. They regard religious foundations indigenous to that very country, which afterwards became the chief centre and focus of the Reformation. Indeed, it may not be too much to assume that their moral decadence, in the 14th and 15th centuries," in which all historians agree, became the forerunner of, or contributed much to that event, and that one and all tended to promote it. They were exactly those very houses, or formed part of them, from amongst whose communities in due time sprang the Reformers of after years. The part of

Recueil des Chartes de l'abbaye de Cluny, par Auguste Bernard; revisé et publié, par Alexandre Bruel.

Inventaire des Manuscrits de la Bibliothêque Nationale, Fonds de Cluni; par Léopold Delisle, membre de l'Institut, etc.

5 About that time even, at the Diet of Nuremberg in 1522, Pope Adrian VI. was unable to deny but that many flagrant abuses had crept into the Roman Catholic Church, but gave his opinion, that the remedy for it must be slow and gradual, fearful lest in endeavouring to heal every grievance at one time, the whole fabric might be in danger of collapse, and these sentiments were shared by all good Catholics.

6

Europe embraced by them was the eventual cradle of those seceders from the Church of Rome, who played such prominent and well known parts in the history of the Church. It was the chief locality (speaking generally) whence sprang, or was made celebrated, first of all, by Zwingli, Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, and others.' Bâle, Berne, Zürich, Schaffhausen, Saint-Gall, and Geneva, became centres of Protestantism. Many other matters contributed towards the crisis in those days, and not the least was the "sale" of Indulgences. But the religious rupture in that part of Europe, more than any other, which was thus brought about by the state of the

6 Luther, the learned Augustinian monk of Wittenberg, without having heard of Zwingli, preached nearly the same doctrines with him, and, as is well known, they were embraced by many of the Sovereign Princes of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and England, with a large proportion of their subjects. As these called themselves Lutheran, so the Swiss Church styled itself the Evangelical Reformed.

7 Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss reformer, was chiefly concerned in the re-establishment of the Christian faith at Zürich in 1519. Those of his contemporaries who contributed thereto, were Berthold Haller, with Lupulus and Nicholas Manuel at Berne; at Bâle, Oecolampade; in the Grisons, Henry Spreiter at Sainte-Antonie; Jean Comander, at Coire; Blasius, at Malans; on the banks of the lake of Geneva and at Neuchâtel, Guillaume Farel; and at Bienne, Thomas Wittenbach; together with a multitude of others who worked with the same success. Following the example of Zürich and Berne, Schaffhausen, Bâle, and Saint-Gall adopted the Reformation, abolished Mass, the adoration of Saints, and suppressed religious houses; the laity received the cup at the Eucharist equally with the bread; and priests were permitted to marry. If at this time the clergy and authorities carried their zeal for the cause too far, the lower orders went much further by profaning the images of long adored Saints, outraging crucifixes, and railing at all who adhered to their old religion.

8 It was in 1518, says Ruchat (Abrégé de l'Histoire ecclésiastique du Pays de Vaud), that Bernardin Samson arrived in Switzerland with commission to sell Papal Indulgences. Some he sold in the Pays de Vaud, and one (which Ruchat saw) was a parchment document, or patent, signed by this man, who was nothing but a cordelier (rope-maker). The same was purchased by a gentleman named Arnay for 500 ducats. These fearful abuses and abominable traffic in indulgences had already opened the eyes of many people in Germany. They began to have the same effect in Switzerland. The demoralization of the clergy at that time is evident to anyone who cares to go through the twenty-three heads of indictment framed by the people of Lausanne against their clergy in 1533. They have been transcribed by Ruchat in the Preface

clergy, between the years 1519 to 1527-the schism, in fact, which thus led to the Reformation-is very lucidly given in the subjoined note, and its causes distinctly set forth. From the very nature of the subject we give them untranslated."

The Visitation-reports about to be given seem to call for a further observation. Although the following houses visited, in no way comprised all Cluni's German affiliations, the number of mixed-communities appears much in excess of what we should have considered warranted, or even obligatory, and this in itself was an incentive to vice.

to his "History of the Reformation" in Switzerland. The Bishop of Montfaucon was selected as a flagrant instance of demoralization. It was Zwingli, at that time a secular ecclesiastic, and had ministerial charge of Notre-Dame-des-Ermites, who publicly inveighed against this traffic for the remission of sins, and his Bishop, who held the See of Constance, was unable to disapprove of or even to notice it. Monnard, Histoire de la Nation Suisse, p. 139.)

(Cf.

"La Suisse comptait alors [in the first part of the 16th century], beaucoup de savants; surtout parmi les ecclésiastiques. Il y avait aussi de bonnes écoles dans les villes. Mais le peuple de la campagne, plongé dans la plus profonde ignorance, ne savait ni lire ni écrire. Il arrivait de là que la plus grande partie des paysans n'avait presque aucunc connaissance de la religion, surtout dans les lieux où les pasteurs négligeaient de leur donner une instruction vraiment chrétienne. Ce fut la source de beaucoup de maux. Mais c'était un plus grand malheur encore, quand les ecclésiastiques aimaient mieux s'asservir le peuple par ignorance, que de l'éclairer pour le rendre meilleur ; quand, plus attachés aux plaisirs de la terre qu' aux biens célestes, au lieu de détourner leurs ouailles de vice, ils leur donnaient impudemment l'example de l'avarice, de la débauche, de l'ivrogneric, de la fureur du jeu.

"Malheureusement ce scandale n'était que trop commun. Toutes les personnes d'un esprit sain et d'un cœur droit en étaient révoltés. Mais ce qui provoquait le comble de l'indignation, c'était l'impunité des ecclésiastiques, et laudace qu'ils portaient au sein de la corruption. Ici le nonce du pape renvoyait absons un moine qui avait eu un commerce illicite avec une religieuse; là l'abbé de Cappel (Ulrich Trinkler), faisait d'un convent de femmes son sérail; à Berne les dominicains, recourant à la fraude la plus vile par le plus vil intérèt, se jouaient de la crédulité par des apparitions et par des miracles; un pauvre malheureux, nommé Ietzer, en perdit presque la raison." The writer adds: "Can one be astonished that all honest and properly-minded people, whether among the laity or the clergy, murmured at and deplored a state of such fearful demoralization" (Histoire de la Nation Suisse par Zschokke, traduit par Monnard, 1832.)