Nicholas Clemanges: Fall of the Church
3. After the great increase of worldly goods, the virtues of our ancestors being quite neglected, boundless avarice and blind ambition invaded the hearts of the churchmen. As a result, they were carried away by the glory of their position and the extent of their power and soon gave way to the degrading effects of luxury. Three most exacting and troublesome masters had now to be satisfied. `Luxury' demanded sundry gratifications, wine, sleep, banquets, music, debasing sports, courtesans and the like. `Display' required fine houses, castles, towers, palaces, rich and varied furniture, expensive clothes, horses, servants and the pomp of luxury. Lastly is `Avarice' which carefully brought together vast treasures to supply the demands of the above mentioned vices or, if these were otherwise provided for, to
gratify the eye by the vain contemplation of the coins themselves. So insatiable are these lords, and so imperious in their demands, that the Golden Age of Saturn, which we hear of in stories, should it now return, would hardly suffice to meet the demands. Since it is impossible, however rich the bishop and ample his revenue, to satisfy these rapacious harpies with that alone, he must cast about for other sources of income.
9. For carrying on these exactions and gathering the gains into the Camera, or Charybdis, as we may better call it, the popes appoint their `collectors' in every province, those, namely, whom they know to be most skillful in extracting money, owing to peculiar energy, diligence or harshness of temper, those in short who will neither spare nor except but would squeeze gold from a stone. To these the popes grant, moreover, the power of anathematizing anyone, even prelates, and of expelling from the communion of the faithful, everyone who does not, within a fixed period, satisfy their demands for money. What ills these collectors have caused, and the extent to which poor churches and people have been oppressed, are questions best omitted, as we could never hope to do the matter justice. From this source come the laments of the unhappy ministers of the church, which reach our ears, as they faint under the unsupportable yoke, yea, perish of hunger. Hence come suspensions from divine service, interdicts from entering a church, and anathemas, a thousandfold intensified in severity. Such things were resorted to in the rarest instances by the fathers, and then only for the most horrible of crimes; for by these penalties, a man is separated from the companionship of the faithful and turned over to Satan. But nowadays, these inflictions are so fallen in esteem, that they are used for the lightest offence, often for no offence at all, so they no longer bring terror, but are objects of contempt. To the same cause, is to be ascribed the ruin of numerous churches and monasteries and the leveling with the ground, in so many places, of sacred edifices, while the money which used to go for their restoration, is exhausted in paying these taxes. But it even happens, as some well know, that holy relics in not a few churches, crosses, chalices, feretories and other precious articles go to make up this tribute.
Who does not know how many abbots and other prelates, when they come to die, are, if they prove obnoxious to the papal camera on account of their poverty, refused a dignified funeral and even denied burial, except, perchance, in some field or garden or profane spot, where they are secretly disposed of. Priests, as we all can see, are forced by reason of their scanty means of support, to desert their parishes and their benefices and, in their hunger, seek their bread where they may, performing profane services for laymen. Some rich and hitherto prosperous churches have, indeed, been able to support this burden, but all are now exhausted and can no longer bear to be cheated of their revenue.