. The age of Hildebrand. the middle ages. Thusthe stately palace-dome decreed by Hildebrandcollapsed and sank. Benedict XI., the immediatesuccessor of Boniface, occupied the chair for only afew months, and was succeeded by Clement V. in1305, who was committed to carry out the policy ofFrance, and with that view fixed his seat at Avignon,where he and six succeeding popes resided for thesixty-eight years following. The papal court wasthe vassal of France. Its dissoluteness, luxury, pride^and rapacity were the talk of Europe, and its sub-servience to the political aims of the French crownalienate
. The age of Hildebrand. the middle ages. Thusthe stately palace-dome decreed by Hildebrandcollapsed and sank. Benedict XI., the immediatesuccessor of Boniface, occupied the chair for only afew months, and was succeeded by Clement V. in1305, who was committed to carry out the policy ofFrance, and with that view fixed his seat at Avignon,where he and six succeeding popes resided for thesixty-eight years following. The papal court wasthe vassal of France. Its dissoluteness, luxury, pride^and rapacity were the talk of Europe, and its sub-servience to the political aims of the French crownalienated from it the sympathy of England and Ger-many. It is not strange that Roman Catholic histor-ians should have given to this period the name ofthe Babylonish captivity. of the sun over against it paints a cloud at even or at morn, I beheldthen the whole of heaven suffused.—Paradiso, xxvii., 22-30. vSeealso Inferno, xix., 13 ff.; xxvii., 70-85, 96-111; Purgatorio,XX., 86 ff. ; xxxii., 150; Paradiso, xii., 90; xvii., CHAPTER XXXIX. CONCLUSION. E have been following the history of atheory, and the outcome of the historyis a stupendous failure. Around thedeath-couch of Boniface VIII. the statelyedifice of Hildebrand lies in ruins. Forthe larger part of the next century the Roman Church,its throne removed from its ancient seat of empire,plays the part of a vassal to the power against whichit has so often thundered its interdicts. We have seen that the idea of the Holy RomanEmpire survived with more or less potency long afterthe reality had vanished; but the idea had taken ona new dress. There was still an empire; its centrewas still at Rome; its spirit was the spirit of imperialabsolutism; its aim was to grasp the world. But theEmperor wore the tiara instead of the crown; thestate counsellors were cardinals; the praetors, arch-bishops ; the lictors, monks. The Hildebrandian idealwas as truly that of universal dominion as was theideal of the Antonines. The Pope was Pope not onl
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