Topograp. Hiber. Distinc. tertia cap. 14.

[4] De vita Malachiae Episcopi, cap. viii.

[5] Bouquet's Receuil, &c. t. 15. P. 690.

VII.

It was most likely on occasion of this embassy, that John of
Salisbury,--although he mentions other visits paid by him to
Adrian,--held the interesting conversation with the English pope, which
he reports at length, in his Polycraticus. [1] In that work, he says, he
well remembers how, during a sojourn at the papal court in Beneventum,
he was treated on the most familiar footing by his Holiness; whose
habit it was to gather round him a few select friends, with whom he
would freely discuss a variety of topics; and how, among others, he
once asked John to state candidly what he knew of the people's
opinion, touching the Roman Church and her head. Whereupon, the envoy
of Henry, using the liberty of the spirit, told without disguise, all
that he had heard in various parts on the subject. For example: that
the Roman Church, the mother of all others, showed herself according
to many not so much a mother as a step-mother to her daughters. That
scribes and pharisees sat in her, who loaded other mens' shoulders
with burdens, which they would not touch even with their fingers. That
these said scribes and pharisees played the tyrant over the clergy,
and bore no palpable resemblance to such shepherds as tread the true
path of life; but that they heaped up rich furniture, ornamented their
tables with gold and silver plate, distracted the Church with
controversies and by setting the pastors and the people by the ears.
That they, in no manner, commiserated the sorrows of the unfortunate;
but made merry over the plunder of churches, and administered justice,
not according to the truth, but the price. Then, that other people
said the Roman Pontiff himself was a tyrant; and that, while the
churches, which their ancestors had built, were falling to ruin, and
the altars stood desolate, he appeared abroad arrayed in gold and
purple. But that the divine wrath would eventually overtake such
priests as lived in pride and luxury, and levied taxes on the
provinces like men, who meant to equal the wealth of Croesus: "for the
Lord had said, that as they measured out to others, so would he
measure out to them: and the Ancient of Days could not lie." Upon
hearing this, and much more to the same effect, the pope asked John of
Salisbury what he himself thought? Who replied, that the question very
much perple