and St. Margaret, the hands of St. Bartholomew and St.
Thomas, a slip of the rod of Aaron, and one of the water-pots of the
marriage at Cana in Galilee.

[Sidenote: Influence derived from these orders.] The papal government
quickly found the prodigious advantage arising from the institution of
these mendicant orders. Vowed to poverty, living on alms, hosts of
friars, begging and barefoot, pervaded all Europe, coming in contact,
under the most favourable circumstances, with the lowest grades of
society. They lived and moved among the populace, and yet were held
sacred. The accusations of dissipation and luxury so forcibly urged
against the regular clergy were altogether inapplicable to these
rope-bound, starving fanatics. Through them the Italian government had
possession of the ear of Europe. The pomp of worship in an unknown
tongue, the gorgeous solemnities of the Church, were far more than
compensated by the preaching of these missionaries, who held forth in
the vernacular wherever an audience could be had. Among the early ones,
some had been accustomed to a wandering life. Brother Pacificus, a
disciple of St. Francis, had been a celebrated Trouvere. In truth, they
not only warded off the present pressing danger, but through them the
Church retained her hold on the labouring classes for several subsequent
centuries. The pope might truly boast that the Poor Men of the Church
were more than a match for the Poor Men of Lyons. Their influence began
to diminish only when they abandoned their essential principles, joined
in the common race for plunder, and became immensely rich.

[Sidenote: Introduction of auricular confession.] Not only did Innocent
III. thus provide himself with an ecclesiastical militia suited to meet
the obviously impending insurrection, he increased his power greatly but
insidiously by the formal introduction of auricular confession. It was
by the fourth Lateran Council that the necessity of auricular confession
was first formally established. Its aim was that no heretic should
escape, and that the absent priest should be paramount even in the
domestic circle. In none but a most degraded and superstitious society
can such an infamous institution be tolerated. It invades the sacred
privacy of life--makes a man's wife, children, and servants his spies
and accusers. When any religious system stands in need of such a social
immorality, we may be sure that it is irrecoverably diseased, and
hastening to its