At the second Lateran Council (1139), Innocent II. declared to the bishops that he was the absolute master of Christendom. "Ye know," he said, "that Rome is the capital of the world, that ye hold your dignities of the Roman pontiff as a vassal holds his fiefs of his sovereign, and that ye cannot retain them without his assent." Under Eugenius III., the papal absolutism grew weaker, and the cardinals are once said to have addressed to the pope this astounding protest : "Thou must know that it is by us thou hast been raised to the supreme dignity. We are the hinges (cardines) upon which the universal Church rests and moves. It is through us that from a private person thou hast become the father of all Christians. It is, then, no longer to thyself but rather to us that thou belongest henceforth. Thou must not sacrifice to private and recent friendships the traditional affections of the papacy. Perforce thou must consult before everything the general interest of Christendom, and must con sider it an obligation of thine office to respect the opinions of the highest dignitaries of the court of Rome." Under Alexander III., however, the papacy became more powerful than ever. The recently created royalties sought from the papacy the conservation of their titles and the benediction of their crowns, and placed themselves voluntarily in its vassalage. The practice of the nomination of bishops by the Curia and of papal recom mendation to prebends and benefices of every kind grew daily more general, and the number of appeals to Rome and exemptions granted to abbeys and even to simple churches increased con tinually. The third Lateran Council (I179) was a triumph for the leader of the Church. At that council wise and urgent meas ures were taken against the abuses that discredited the priest hood, but the principle of appeals and exemptions and the ques tion of the increasing abuse of the power wielded by the Roman legates remained untouched. The treatise on canon law known as the Decreturn Gratiani, which was compiled towards the mid dle of the 12th century, propagated doctrines in favour of the power of the Holy See, established the superiority of the popes over the councils, and gave legal force to their decretals.
It was by its constant reliance on monachism that the papacy of the 12th century had attained this result, and the popes of that period were especially fortunate in having for their champion the monk St. Bernard, whose admirable qualities enabled him to dominate public opinion. St. Bernard completed the reformation, combated heresy, and by his immense moral ascendancy gained victories by which Rome benefited. As instances of his more direct services, he put an end to the schism of 1130 and attached Italy and the world to the side of Innocent II.
appeals to Rome, while others complained of the exactions of the legates, or, like John of Salisbury, animadverted upon the excessive powers of the bureaucracy at the Lateran. In the councils strange speeches were heard from the mouths of laymen, who were beginning to carry to extreme lengths the spirit of independence with regard to Rome. When a question arose at Toulouse in 1160 as to the best means of settling the papal schism, this audacious statement was made before the kings of France and England : "That the best course was to side with neither of the two popes; that the apostolic see had been ever a burden to the princes ; that advantage must be taken of the schism to throw off the yoke; and that, while awaiting the death of one of the competitors, the authority of the bishops was sufficient in France and England alike for the government of the churches." The ecclesiastics themselves, however, were the first to denounce the abuses at Rome. In common with all enlightened opinion, St. Bernard complained bitterly of the excessive multiplication of exemptions, of the exaggerated extension of appeals to Rome, of the luxury of the Roman court, of the venality of the cardinals, and of the injury done to the traditional hierarchy by the very extent of the papal power, which was calculated to turn the strongest head. In St. Bernard's treatise De consideratione, addressed to Pope Eugenius III., the papacy receives as many reprimands and attacks as it does marks of affection and friendly counsel. "I do not find," he said, "that St. Peter ever appeared in public loaded with gold and jewels, clad in silk, mounted on a white mule, surrounded by soldiers and followed by a brilliant retinue. In the glitter that environs thee, rather wouldst thou be taken for the successor of Constantine than for the successor of Peter." Rome, however, had greater dangers to cope with than the indignant reproofs of her friends the monks, and the opposition of the bishops, who were displeased at the spectacle of their authority waning day by day. It was at this period that the Catholic edifice of the middle ages began to be shaken by the boldness of philosophical speculation as applied to theological studies and also by the growth of heresy. Hitherto more tolerant of heresy than the local authorities, the papacy now felt compelled to take defensive measures against it, and especially against Albigensianism, which had made great strides in the south of France since the middle of the 12th century. Innocent II., Eugenius III. and Alexander III. excommunicated the sectaries of Languedoc and their abettors, Alexander even sending armed missions to hunt them down and punish them. But the preaching of the papal legates, even when supported by military demon strations, had no effect ; and the Albigensian question, together with other questions vital for the future of the papacy, remained unsettled and more formidable than ever when Innocent III. was elected.