The Ecclesiastical And Political History Of The Popes Of Rome Vol I

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THF

ECCLESIASmrAL AND POLITICAL
HISTORY

OF

THE POPES OF ROME

DURING THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

BY LEOPOLD EANKE,

PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN

BY SAEAH AUSTIN.

IN THREE VOLUMES,

VOL, I.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1840,

PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E, TAY
HI3t> WON COURT, PfcBET STKJ5ET,

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

THE reputation of the following work is so well
established throughout Europe, and its character
and merits have been so ably exhibited to the
English public*, that it would be more than super-
fluous to insist on them here.

It is therefore only needful that I should sa\
a few words on the version of it now ofifer^ tc
the public. The gravity and importance^ the
subject, the undiminished interest which it ex-
cites, and the conspicuous good faith and im-
partiality with which it has been considered and
treated by the author, seem to demand some
explanation of the views by which I have been
guided in the execution of my task. I undertook
it not without an earnest sense of the respon-
sibility of rendering into English a history of that
great divergence of religious opinions, which has so
long occupied the attention and inflamed the pas-
sions of Europe, and my anxiety to acquit myself of

See the articles in the Quarterly Review, NOB. ex. and exvi,
a2

iv TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

it faithfully was greatly increased by the bad faith
of a French translation which appeared in 1838.
It is impossible not to be struck with surprise
and mortification that, in this age of the world,
any man should be found so blinded by antipathy,
as not to perceive how much both catholics and
protestants have suffered by misrepresentation;
how much both have to gain by truth; how
much, therefore, both are interested in preserving
the integrity of a history, to which both may
appeal from prejudice and calumny.

Independently of the obligation to truth and
fairness which this consideration imposed upon
*H; French translator, he was bound by the
luties generally imperative on those who un-
dertake to convey to one nation the thoughts
which are embodied in the language of another.
" Every translator," says Goethe, "ought to re-
gard himself as a broker in the great intellectual
traffic of the world, and to consider it his business
to promote the barter of the produce of mind.
For whatever people may say of the inadequacy
of translation, it is and must ever be one of the
most important and dignified occupations in the
great commerce of the human race*."

* I give the whole passage for the German reader.

" Wer die deutsche Sprache verstcht und studiert, bcfindct sich
aiif dem Mnrkte wo alle Nationcn ihre Waaren anbietcn ; or
spiclt den Dolmctsclicr, indcm er sieh selbst bereichert.

"Und so 1st jeder Obersetzcr onzuschcn dasa er sich als

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. v

But besides these duties towards the public,
every translator is bound to fidelity by a duty
which he owes to his author ; for if there be any-
thing which may be truly called a man's own, it
is surely the sum of his opinions on a most
momentous and difficult subject, arrived at by
years of patient toil and mature reflection, weighed
with consummate impartiality, and enounced with
historical calmness.

Unfortunately, however, such is the tendency
to postpone the real and permanent interest which
all men have in truth and charity, and the most
sacred rights of individuals, to the pursuit of
some momentary and illusory party advantage,
that the French translation is not only full of
particular inaccuracies arising from ignorance or
carelessness, but is infected with the sectarian
spirit from which the original is so remarkably
and so laudably exempt.

Professor Ranke, not without reason, regards
his reputation for impartiality, and (what to such
a writer is far more important) the effect of his

Vermittler dieses aUgemein geistigen Handels bemiiht und den
Wechseltausch zu befordern sich zum Geschaft macht. Denn
was man auch von der Unzulanglichkeit des Obersetzens sagen
mag, so 1st und bleibt es doch ernes der -wichtigsten und wiirdig-
sten Geschafte in dexn allgexneinen Weltverkehr.

"Der Koran sagt, * Gott liat jedem Volke einen Propheten
gegeten in seiner eigenen Sprache/ So ist jeder Cbersetzer
ein Prophet in seinem Volke." — Goethe, Kunst und Alterthum.

vi TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE,

book on the public miiid, as seriously endangered
by the appearance of the French version.

Accordingly, when I announced to him my inten-
tion of translating his work, and my wish to attend
to any suggestions he might have to make, 1 re-
ceived an answer containing the following words.

" My book needs to be set right in the eyes
of all but German readers, after the unconscien-
tious treatment it has received at the hands of a
catholicising French translator. J look to England
to redress the wrong done to me in France*.11

1 have endeavoured to render the original with
scrupulous fidelity, at the risk of occasionally
sacrificing facility of expression to this paramount
object, and to my desire of counteracting (us fur
a« H tested with me to do so) the effect of this
great offence against the author and against truth.
The English reader will perhaps accept such a
guarantee as Professor Ranke's opinion may afford,
that I have not wholly failed in my purpose. In
a letter acknowledging the receipt of the sheets
(which have been regularly transmitted to him) he
expresses himself fully satisfied with the "care
and conscientiousness" of the translation!*

* " Flir das ausserdeutsche Publicum bcdarf cs ohnohln, uach
der gewisscnlosen Behandhmg dureh einon katholmrendea fran-
zosiscliou Cbersetz;er, ciner Rehabilitation ; eine cnglisclxc Frau
wird das UnrccM wicdcr gut machen das mir in Frankreich
begegnet 1st."

t ** Wo ioh immor attfschlage fmde ich Sorgfdt und Gcwis-
scnhaftigkeit, und filhlc mich hoclilich bcfricdigt."

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. vii

I have translated from the Second Edition,
which contains some additions, especially in the
third volume. The First Edition was published
at Berlin in 1835-6 ; the Second Edition of the
first volume, in 1838 ; the- Second Edition of the
third volume, not till the end of 1839, which caused
some delay in the completion of this translation.

The title does not appear to me to represent
accurately the subject of the book, which is not
so much a history of the popes, as a history of the
great struggle between Catholicism and protestant*
ism, between authority and innovation, in which
the popes were indeed actors, but generally rather
as the servants than the rulers of events.

The chief interest of the work lies in the solu-
tion it affords of the greatest problem of modern
history. It is impossible to contemplate the
rapid and apparently resistless progress of the
Reformation in its infancy, without wondering
what was the power which arrested and forced
back the torrent, and reconquered to the ancient
faith countries in which protestantism seemed
firmly established.

The ebb and flow of this mighty wave are traced
with singular vividness as well as accuracyvin the
following pages.

In them will also be seen how many of the
elements of protestantism lived and moved in the
bosom of the catholic church ; — and, on the other

viii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

hand, how many of the institutions, and how
much of the spirit, of the ancient church have
adhered to some forms of protestantism.

Nor is the connexion between the aspirations of
man after the beautiful, and those after the good
and the eternal, forgotten. In the 16th century,
as in the 14th, the Church appears as the inspirer
and the patron of Art.

We are likewise struck by several examples of
those great oscillations of the human mind, of
which each succeeding generation is the uncon-
scious witness, though each appears to regard
its own mental condition with an exclusiveness
and intolerance little befitting a creature so
changeful, and so dependent on circumstances for
his opinions, as man. A period of laxity in re-
ligion and morals is as invariably succeeded by
one of rigour and asceticism, as that again is sure
to engender an impatience of restraint, an inor-
dinate craving for indulgence, and a coldness, not
to say aversion, to the exercises of devotion.

It is not within the humble province of a trans-
lator to insist on the lessons of moderation to be
drawn from such views of the invariable laws
which govern the moral world. Those lessons
will best be learned by an attentive consideration
of the facts presented to our view in the following
work.

S.A.

London, April, 1840.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

A HE power of Rome in the early and middle
ages of the Christian Church is known to the
world, and modern times have beheld her resume
her sway with somewhat like the vigour of reno-
vated youth. After the decline of her influence in
the former half of the sixteenth century, she once
more rose to be the centre of the faith and the
opinions of the nations of Southern Europe, and
made bold, and not unfrequently successful, at-
tempts to bring those of the north again under
her dominion.

This period of the revived temporal power of
the church, her renovation and internal reform,
her progress and her decline, it is my purpose to
exhibit, at least in outline ; an undertaking which
I should not have ventured even to attempt, had
not opportunity presented to me some materials
and aids towards its accomplishment (however
defective that may be) hitherto unknown*

It is my first duty to indicate the general cha-

x AUTHOR'S PREFACE*

racter of these materials, and the sources whence
they are derived.

I had already, in a former work, given to the
public whatever our Berlin MSS. contain. But
Vienna is incalculably richer than Berlin in trea-
sures of this kind.

Besides the German, which is its chief and fun-
damental ingredient, Vienna possesses another Eu-
ropean element : manners and languages the most
various meet in every class, from the highest to
the lowest, and Italy especially has her living and
full representation, The various collections too
have a comprehensive character, which may be
ascribed to the policy of the state ; to its position
with regard to other countries; to its ancient alli-
ance with Spain, Belgium, and Lombardy, and its
intimate connexion, both from proximity and from
faith, with Rome. From the earliest times, the
taste for acquiring and possessing such records has
prevailed at Vienna. Hence even the original
and purely national collections of the imperial
library are of great value. In later times some
foreign collections have been added. From Mo-
deaa a number of volumes, similar to the Berlin
* Informazioni/ have been purchased of the house
of Eangone ; from Venice, the inestimable manu-
scripts of the Doge Marco Fosearini, and among
them his own labours preparatory to the con-

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xi

tinuation of his Italian Chronicles, of which not
a trace is anywhere else to be found. Prince
Eugene left a rich collection of historical and
political MSS., formed with the enlarged views
which might be expected from that accomplished
statesman. It is impossible to read through the
catalogues without emotions of pleasure and hope.
So many unexplored sources whence the deficien-
cies of most printed works on modern history may
be corrected and repaired 1 — a whole futurity of
study 1 And yet, at the distance of but a few steps,
Vienna offers still more valuable materials. The
imperial archives contain, as we might anticipate,
the most important and authentic documents il-
lustrative of German and of general history, and
peculiarly so of that of Italy. It is true that by
far the greater part of the Venetian archives are
restored, after long wanderings, to Venice; but 9,
considerable mass of papers belonging to the re-
public are still to be found in Vienna ; despatches,
original or copied; extracts from them, made
for the use of government, called rubricaries ; re-
ports, often the only copies in existence, and of
great value ; official registers of the government
functionaries; chronicles and journals. The de-
tails which will be found in this work concerning
Gregory XIII. and Sixtus V. are for the most part
drawn from the archives of Vienna. I cannot

xii AUTHOR'S PREFACE,

adequately express my sense of the boundless libe-
rality with which access to these treasures was
granted to me.

And here I ought to enumerate the many helps
towards the execution of my project which I have
received, both abroad and at home, %But I feel, I
know not whether with reason or not, some hesi-
tation in doing so, I should have to mention a
great many names, — some of them very eminent :
my gratitude would appear vaunting, and would
give to a work which has every reason to present
itself with a modest front, an air of ostentation
which might ill become it.

After Vienna, my attention was chiefly directed
to Venice and to Rome,

It was an almost universal custom among the
great houses of Venice to have a cabinet of manu-
scripts attached to their library. These of course
chiefly related to the affairs of the republic, and re-
presented the share which the particular family had
taken in public business : they were carefully pre-
served, as memorials of the history and importance
of the house, for the instruction of its younger mem-
bers. A few of these private collections are still
remaining, and were accessible to me ; but a far
greater number perished in the general ruin of the
year 1797, and subsequently. If more has been,
saved out of the wreck than might be imagined, the

AUTHOR'S PREFACE, xiii

world owes it chiefly to the librarians of St. Mark,
who exerted the utmost powers of their institution
to effect that object. The library of St. Mark con-
tains a valuable store of manuscripts which are
indispensable to the domestic history of the city or
republic, and important even to that of their rela-
tions with Europe. But too much must not , be
expected from it. It is almost a new acquisition,
casually formed of private collections, without com-
pleteness or uniform plan. It is not to be compared
with the treasures of the state archives in their pre-
sent condition and arrangement. In my inquiry
into the conspiracy of 1618, I have already de-
scribed the Venetian archives, and shall not repeat
what I there said. The documents most appro-
priate to my Roman objects were, the Reports of
the ambassadors on their return from Rome. I
should have been extremely glad however to be
able to have recourse to other collections, since
none are free from deficiencies, and these archives
have sustained many losses in the course of their
various wanderings. I collected, in all, forty-
eight Reports on Rome, — the earliest of them of
the year 1500 ; nineteen of the sixteenth, twenty-
one of the seventeenth century, forming an almost
unbroken series ; of the eighteenth century only
eight, but these too, very instructive and valuable.
In by far the greater number of cases, I saw and

xiv AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

used the originals. They contain a great many
interesting facts which were stated on personal ob-
servation, and have passed away with the lives of
the contemporaneous generation. These first gave
me the idea of a continuous narrative, and the
courage to attempt it.

In Rome alone, it is needless to say? could the
means of authenticating and of amplifying these
materials be found. But was it to be expected
that a foreigner and a heretic would there be al-
lowed free access to the public collections, — would
be enabled to reveal all the secrets of the papacy ?
It would not perhaps have been such bad policy as
it appears ; since no investigation can bring to light
anything worse than the assumptions of groundless
conjecture, or than those rumours which the world
now receives as true. I cannot boast however of
having enjoyed any such permission. I was
enabled to ascertain what were the treasures of
the Vatican, and to use a number of volumes; but
I was not so fortunate as to obtain the full liberty
of access which I desired.

Luckily however other collections were laid
open to me, from which extensive and authentic,
if not complete, information could be extracted.
In the palmy days of aristocracy — that is, in the
seventeenth century particularly, — the great fa-
milies who were at the head of public affairs all

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xv

over Europe, were in possession of a part of the
public documents. Nowhere was this so remark-
ably the case as in Rome. The kinsmen of the
reigning pope, who in every pontificate possessed
the supreme power, usually bequeathed as an heir-
loom to the princely houses which they founded,
a considerable quantity of state papers, accu-
mulated during their administration. They were
thought a part of the hereditary possessions of a
family. In the palace which they built, there were
two or three rooms, generally in the highest story,
appropriated to books and manuscripts, and en-
riched by the contributions of each succeeding
generation. The private collections of Rome are,
in a certain sense, the public ones ; and the di-
spersion of the archives of the state in the different
houses of the families successively at the head of
affairs, was sanctioned by common usage ; in the
same way as a part of the public revenues were
permitted to overflow into the hands of the papal
families; or as some private collections, such as
those of the Borghese or Doria palaces, far sur-
passed that of the Vatican gallery, in extent or
historical importance.

It thus happens that the manuscripts which are
preserved in the Barberini, Chigi, Altieri, Albani,
and Corsini palaces, are of incalculable value for
the ecclesiastical and political history of the popes

xvi AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

of Rome,— the Church and State over which they
presided. The state-archive office, which has not
been very long arranged, is peculiarly important,
as regards the middle ages, from its collection of
registers, which would amply reward an inquirer
into the history of that period for the labour of
research ; but so far as my knowledge extends, I
cannot say that it contains much calculated to
throw light on more modem times. Its value
shrinks into nothing, (unless I have been pur-
posely deceived,) before the splendour and the
riches of private collections. Each of these, of
course, embraces more especially the epoch in
which the pope of the particular house reigned;
but as the kinsmen of each retained a very emi-
nent position ; as all men are eager to enlarge
and complete a collection once begun, and as
ample facilities for doing so were afforded in Rome,
where a literary traffic in manuscripts had grown
up, there is not one which does not contain many
documents tending to throw great light on other
ages, both remote and proximate* By far the
richest (in consequence of some valuable bequests,)
is the Barberini; but the Corsini was, from its
very foundation, planned and arranged with the
greatest care and choice. I had the good fortune
to be allowed access (in some cases with unlimited
freedom,) to all these collections, as well as to others

AUTHOR'S PREFACE, xvii

of less importance. They afforded me an un-
hoped-for harvest of authentic materials apposite
to my purpose. Correspondences of the nun-
tiaturse, with the accompanying instructions, and
the reports which were brought back; lives of
several popes, written in great detail, and with all
the freedom of communications not intended to
meet the public eye ; lives of distinguished car-
dinals ; official and private journals ; explanations
of particular incidents and situations ; official
opinions and deliberations ; reports of the admi-
nistration of the provinces, their trade and manu-
factures ; statistical tables ; accounts of income
and expenditure ; by far the greater part of them
unknown, usually constructed by men who had
a thorough and practical knowledge of their sub-
ject, and of a credibility which, though it by no
means precludes the necessity for examination and
criticism, is equal to what is universally accorded
to the testimony of well-informed contemporaries.
Of these MSS., the oldest of which I made any
use, concerns the conspiracy of the Porcari against
Nicholas V. A few others related to the fifteenth
century ; from the commencement of the six-
teenth, they became at every step more numerous
and full; upon the whole course of the seventeenth,
they throw a light which is doubly precious from
the dearth of authentic information about Rome

b

xviii AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

relating to that period; while, from the be-
ginning of the eighteenth, again, their number
and value decrease. Both the state and court of
Rome had then lost much of their influence and
importance. I shall go through these Roman
MSS., as well as the Venetian, in detail, in the
Appendix, and shall quote whatever appears to me
Worthy of attention which I have not found a fit
opportunity of noticing in the body of the work.

For the very mass of the materials, both in
manuscript and in print, which lie before us, ren-
ders it necessary to impose strict limits on the
text.

An Italian, a catholic, would set about the task
in a totally different spirit from that in which the
present work is written. By the expression of
personal veneration, or it may be (in the present
state of opinion,) of personal hatred, he would
impart to his work a characteristic, and, I doubt
not, a more vivid and brilliant colouring ; and in
many passages he would be more circumstantial,
more ecclesiastical, or more local. In these re-
spects a protestant and a North German cannot
hope to vie with him. The position and the feel-
ings of such a writer with respect to the papacy
are less exposed to the influences which excite the
passions, and therefore while he is enabled to
maintain the indifferency so essential to an histo-

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xix

nan, he must, from the very outset of his work»
renounce that warmth of expression which springs
from partiality or antipathy, and which might
perhaps produce a considerable effect on Europe,
We are necessarily deficient in true sympathy with
purely ecclesiastical or canonical details. On the
other hand, our circumstances enable us to occupy
another point of view, which, if I mistake not,
is more favourable to historical truth and impar-
tiality*. For what is there that can now make
the history of the papal power interesting or im-
portant to us? Not its peculiar relation to us,
which can no longer affect us in any material
point ; nor the anxiety or dread which it can in-
spire. The times in which we had anything to
fear are over; we are conscious of our perfect
security. The papacy can inspire us with no other
interest than what arises from its historical deve-
lopment and its former influence.

The papal power was not so unchangeable as is
commonly supposed. If we recur to the principles
which are the conditions of its-existence, which it
cannot abandon without condemning itself to ruin,
we find that it has always been as profoundly af-

* No change has been produced in this respect by the events
which have occurred since the publication of the first edition
of this book. On reviewing it, the author has found no cause
to make other than slight additions and alterations, which do not
affect the main thread of the narrative.

b2

xx AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

fected by the vicissitudes which have befallen the
nations of Europe, as any other government. As
the fortunes of the world have varied, as one na-
tion or another has predominated, as the whole
fabric of society has been shaken, the papal power
hjas shared in the universal movement ; complete
metamorphoses have taken place in its maxims,
objects, and claims; and above all, its influence has
experienced the greatest variations. If we look
through the catalogue of all those names so often
repeated through the whole series of centuries,
from Pius L in the second, down to our contempo-
raries, Pius VIL and VIIL in the nineteenth, it
produces the impression of an unbroken stability ;
but we must not suffer ourselves to be misled by
this appearance, since in truth the popes of differ-
ent ages are distinguished from each other by dif-
ferences nearly as essential as the dynasties of a
kingdom. For us, who stand aloof, these trans-
formations are precisely the most interesting object
of attention. In them we trace a portion of the
history of the world, of the progress of the whole
human race ; not only in the periods of the un-
disputed supremacy of the catholic church, but
perhaps still more in those marked by the shock
of action and counteraction, — as in the times which
the following work is intended to embrace, — the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; in which we

AUTHOR S PREFACE. XXI

see the papacy threatened and shaken to its foun-
dations, yet maintaining and strengthening, and
even re-extending its power ; in which we see it
for a time advancing, conquering, but then again
checked, and tottering once more to its fall ; pe-
riods in which the mind of the western nations was
peculiarly busied with ecclesiastical questions ; and
that power which, deserted and attacked by the
one, was upheld and defended with fresh zeal by
the other, necessarily asserted a high and universal
importance.

This is the point of view which from our natural
position invites us to consider it; — a task I shall
now endeavour to fulfil.

It seems fitting that I should begin by recalling
to the memory of my readers the situation of the
papal power at the commencement of the sixteenth
century, and the course of events which had led to
that situation.

[An Index, which is wanting iu Ik original, has been added.]

CONTENTS.

VOL. I.

BOOK I. INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

Page,

EPOCHS OF THE PAPACY.
§ 1 . Christianity in the Roman empire 3

2. The papacy in connexion with the Frankish em-

pire . , . . 13

3. Relation of the popes to the German emperors. —

Internal growth and progress of the hierarchy . . 22

4. Contrasts between the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-

turies „„ 33

CHAPTER II.

THE CHURCH AND THE ECCLESIASTICAL STATES IN THE
BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

§ 1. Extension of the States of the Church 43

2. Intrusion of a secular spirit into the church i . *-^-»^---"5$-

3. Intellectual tendency of the age 61

4. Opposition to the papacy in Germany 74

CHAPTER III.

POLITICAL STATE OF EUROPE. — ITS CONNECTION WITH THE
REFORMATION.

Under Leo X. . . , . . . . 79

Under Adrian VI. 90

Under Clement VII. 98

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

BEGINNING OF THE REGENERATION OF CATHOLICISM .... 133
§ 1. Opinions current in Italy analogous with protest-
antism 135

CONTENTS.

Page.
§ 2. Attempt at internal reforms and at a reconciliation

with the protestants 147

3. New religious orders 172

4. Ignatius Loyola 181

5. First sitting of the Council of Trent 200

6. The inquisition 210

7. Progress of the institution of Jesuitism 219

Conclusion • ••••••• 237

BOOK III.

TlZE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

§ l. Paul III. 241

2. JuliusIIL 276

3. Marcellus II 284

4. Paul IV. 286

5. Remarks on the progress of protestantism during

this reign 316

6. Pius IV. 323

7. Later sittings of the Council of Trent 335

8- Pius V. 361

BOOK IV.

Si AT& AND COURT ; THE TIMES Off GREGORY XIII. AND
SlXTUS V.

Introduction 387

§ 1. Administration of the patrimony of the church , . 388

2. Finances 410

3- Gregory XIII 428

4. Sixtus V. 446

5. Extermination of banditti 455

6. Characteristics of the administration 460

7. Finances * 470

8. Public buildings, — Sixtus V. 479

9. General change in the intellectual tendency of the

age « 493

10. The curia 51 1

BOOK I.
INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.
EPOCHS OP THE PAPACY.

§ 1. CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

IF we survey the ancient world in its remoter ages,
we find it peopled with a number of independent
tribes. They dwelt around the Mediterranean Sea,
spreading from its coasts to the interior as far as
it was known ; severed by various divisions ; all
originally confined within narrow boundaries ; all
in states of peculiar character and institutions.
The independence which they enjoyed was not
merely political. Every country had given birth to
a religion of its own ; the ideas of God and di-
vine things were local; national deities of the most
dissimilar attributes divided the faith and homage
of the world ; the law which their worshipers ob-
served was indissolubly connected with the law of
the state. We may say that this strict union of
state and religion, this double independence, (only
slightly qualified by the relations of a common
origin) had the greatest share in the civilization of

B 2

4 CHRISTIANITY [jBOOK I.

antiquity : the boundaries to which each was con-
fined were narrow, but within these the vigorous
abundance of youth was left to develope itself ac-
cording to its own free impulses.

This aspect of things was totally changed by the
ascendency of Borne. We see all the self-governing
powers which filled the world, bend, one after an-
other, before her rising power, and vanish. The
earth was suddenly left void of independent nations.

In other times, states have been shaken to their
foundations because religion had lost her power over
them ; in those days, the subjugation of states
necessarily involved the fall of their religions.
Dragged in the train of political power, they con-
gregated in Rome; but what significancy could
they retain, torn from the soil to which they were
indigenous? The worship of Isis had perhaps a
meaning in Egypt ; it deified the powers of nature,
such as they appear in that country: in Rome it
was a senseless idolatry. The contact of the vari-
ous mythologies was necessarily followed by their
mutual hostility and destruction. No philosophical
theory could be discovered capable of reconciling
their contradictions.

But even had this been possible, it would no
longer have satisfied the wants of the world. With
whatever sympathy we may regard the fall of so
many independent states, we cannot deny that
a new life arose immediately out of their ruins. In-
dependence fell ; but with it fell the barriers of
narrow nationalities. Nations were conquered, but
by this very conquest they were united, incorpo-

CH, I.] IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 5

rated. As the empire was called the world, so its
inhabitants felt themselves a single connected race.
Mankind began to be conscious of the common
bonds which unite them.

At this stage of human affairs Jesus Christ was
born.

His life was humble and obscure ; his occupa-
tion, to heal the sick, to speak of God to a few
fishermen, who did not always understand him, in
hints and parables ; he had not where to lay his head :
but — at this point of our retrospect of the world,
let us pause to say it — earth has seen nothing more
innocent or more powerful, more sublime or more
holy, than his conversation, his life, and his death.
In all his discourse breathes the pure breath of
God : his words, according to the expression of
Peter, are the words of eternal life; the race of
man has no tradition which can come into the most
distant comparison with this.

If the national creeds had ever contained an ele-
ment of true religion, this was now entirely obli-
terated; they had, as we have said, no longer a
meaning ; in Him who united the divine and hu-
man natures, appeared, in contrast with them, the
eternal and universal relation of God to the world,
of man to God.

Christ was born in a nation which indeed re-
garded the monotheism it professed only as a
national worship, and held it mixed with an ex-
clusive and narrow ritual law ; but it had the im-
measurable merit of holding fast to that faith with
a constancy which nothing could shake. Now, for

6 CHRISTIANITY [BOOK I.

the first time, this doctrine received its fall signifi-
cancy. Christ annulled the law by fulfilling it:
the Son of Man proved himself the Lord also of the
Sabbath, according to his own expression ; he re-
vealed the eternal and essential import of forms
which a narrow intelligence had never understood.
Thus, amidst a people which had hitherto held
itself aloof from every other, arose, in all the force
of truth, a faith which invited all and received all
into its bosom. It proclaimed the Universal God,
who, as. St. Paul taught the Athenians, "had made
of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on
all the earth." For this sublime doctrine the mo-
ment had, as we have seen, arrived. A race of men
had arisen fitted to receive it. It lightened like
a sunbeam over the earth, says Eusebius*. And
in fact we see it in a short time spread from the
Euphrates to the Ebro, the Rhine and the Danube,
beyond all the wide frontiers of the empire.

Mild and innocent as it was, however, it could
not, in the nature of things, but encounter the
strongest opposition from the existing religions,
which were bound up with so many of the in-
terests of life. I will point out only one crisis of
this struggle, which appears to me peculiarly im-
portant.

The political spirit of the antique religions once
more rose to view in a new form. The sum of
all those independent powers which once filled
the world had been concentrated in the hands of

* Hist Eccl. n. 3.

CH. I.] IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 7

one ; there was but one power which, seemed
self-dependent; to this they all attached them-
selves ; they paid divine worship to the empe-
ror*. Temples were raised and altars dedicated
to him ; they swore hy his name, they celebrated
festivals in his honour ; his statues afforded sanc-
tuary. The worship paid to the genius of the em-
peror was perhaps the only one common to the
whole empire. All idolatries clung around this as
to a common prop.

This worship of the Caesar, and the doctrine of
Christ, had, in relation to the local religions, a cer-
tain similarity ; although there existed between
them the strongest conceivable contrast.

The emperor considered religion under its worldly
aspect — bound to earth and the goods of earth ; to
him be these surrendered, says Celsus, all that we
have comes from him. Christianity viewed it in
the fullness of the spirit and of superhuman truth.

The emperor united state and religion; Chris-
tianity emphatically distinguished that which is
God's from that which is Caesar's.

In sacrificing to the emperor, men avowed the
most abject servitude. Even in that union of reli-
gion and state, in which, according to the earlier
constitution, resided the most perfect independence,
lay, according to the present, the seal of subjection.
Christianity, in forbidding sacrifices to the emperor,

* Eckhel. Doctrina Numorum Veterum, P. ii. vol. viii. p. 456 ;
he quotes a passage of Tertullian, Apol. c. 28., from which it
appears that the worship of the Caesar was sometimes the most
fervent of any.

8 CHRISTIANITY [BOOK I.

accomplished the most glorious emancipation. It
reawakened in the nations the primeval and innate
religions consciousness (if it be true that such a
sentiment was antecedent to all idolatry), and set
it in hostility to this world-subjecting power, which,
not satisfied with earthly, sought to grasp also at
heavenly things. Hence man derived a spiritual
element in which he was once more independent,
free and personally unconquerable ; the earth ac-
quired freshness and new capacity for life ; it was
fertilized and prepared for new productions.

It was the contrast between the earthly and the
spiritual ; between servitude and freedom \ between
gradual decay and vigorous renovation.

This is not the place in which to describe the
long conflict between these principles. Ail the ele-
ments of life were drawn into the vortex, gradually
imbued with the spirit of Christianity, and borne
along with this grand current of the human mind.
The error of idolatry, says Chrysostom, has va-
nished of itself*. Paganism already appeared to
him a conquered city, whose walls were overthrown,
whose halls, theatres and public buildings were
consumed with fire, whose defenders were slain ;
a few old men and children lingered among the
ruins. Even these soon were found no more. A
change such as the world had never known had
begun.

The blood of the martyrs sprinkled the cata-
combs : on those spots where the Olympian gods

* Arfyo* fits rov /micaptov "BafivXav ical it,«Ta 'lovXtayov ical irpbs

CH. I.] IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 9

were worshiped, amidst the very pillars which
had supported their temples, arose shrines in me-
mory of those who had scorned their worship and
had resisted unto death. The religion which had
arisen in deserts and in prisons was embraced by
the world. Men saw with surprise a secular build-
ing erected by heathens, the Basilica, converted
into a Christian temple. The change was most re-
markable. The apsis of the Basilica contained an
Augusteum*, the images of those Csesars to whom
divine honours were paid. The very places which
they occupied received, as we still see in numerous
Basilicas, the figures of Christ and his apostles.
The statues of the rulers of the world, who had
been regarded as gods, vanished and gave place to
the likeness of the Son of Man — the Son of God.
Local deities faded and disappeared. On every
highway, on the steep summits of hills, in moun-
tain-gorges and valleys, on the housetops, and on
the tesselated floors, the cross was seen. The vic-
tory was complete and decisive. As we see on the
coins of Constantine the labarum with the mono-
gram of Christ above the conquered dragon, even
thus did the worship and the name of Christ stand
triumphant above prostrate heathenism.

Viewed even from this point, how full of infinite
import and infinite consequences was the Roman
empire ! In the age of its ascendant, it crushed the
independence, it overthrew the power, of nations ;
it annihilated that feeling of self-existence and self-

* I borrow this account from E. Q. Visconti, Museo Pio-Cle-
mentmo> vil p, 100. (Ed, 1807.)

10 CHRISTIANITY [BOOK I.

reliance, the very essence of which lay in division :
in the years of its decline, it beheld true religion
arise out of its bosom ; the purest form of a com-
mon consciousness, the consciousness of a com-
munity in the One true God; it nourished and
reared to maturity the power of this faith. The
race of man awoke to the sense of its nature and
destinies ; it had found its Keligion,

This religion now stamped upon the empire its
outward form for ever.

The sacerdotal offices of paganism were conferred
in the same manner as civil employments. In Ju-
daism one tribe was set apart for ecclesiastical au-
thority. It was the distinguishing feature of Chris-
tianity, that a peculiar class or profession, consisting
of members who entered it of their free choice,
consecrated by the laying on of hands, removed
from all worldly cares and occupations; devoted
themselves " to spiritual and godly things/' At
first the church was governed according to repub-
lican forms, but these disappeared in proportion as
the new faith attained the mastery. Gradually the
clergy separated themselves altogether from the

laity.

It appears to me that this was the result of a
certain internal necessity. The rise of Christianity
involved the liberation of religion from all political
elements. From this followed the growth of a ditf,
tinct ecclesiastical class with a peculiar constitu-
tion. In this separation of the church from the
state consists perhaps the greatest, the most per-
vading and influential peculiarity of all Christian

CH. I.] IN THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 11

times. The spiritual and secular powers may come
into near contact, may even stand in the closest
community ; but they can be thoroughly incorpo-
rated only at rare conjunctures and for a short
period. Their mutual relation, their position with
regard to each other, form, from this time forward,
one of the most important considerations in all
history.

The constitution of the ecclesiastical body was
necessarily formed upon the model of that of the
empire. The hierarchy of bishops, metropolitan
patriarchs, arose, corresponding to the graduated
ranks of the civil administration. Ere long the Ro-
man bishops assumed pre-eminency above all others.
The pretence that primates whose supremacy was
acknowledged by East and West existed in the first
centuries of the church, is, indeed, utterly ground-
less; but it is unquestionable that they soon ac-
quired a consideration which raised them above all
other ecclesiastical authorities. Many things con-
tributed to secure this to them.

If the importance of every provincial capital con-
ferred on its bishop a peculiar weight and dignity,
how much more must this have been the case in
the ancient capital of that vast empire to which
it had given its name^! Rome was one of the
most eminent apostolical seats; here the great-
est number of martyrs had perished; during the
persecutions, the bishops of Rome had displayed
extraordinary firmness and courage ; their succes-

* Casaubon, Exercitationes ad Annales Ecclesiasticos Baronii,
, 260.

12 CHRISTIANITY, &C. [BOOK I.

sion had often been rather to martyrdom and death,
than to office. But now, independent of these
considerations, the emperor found it expedient to
favour tlie rise of a great patriarchal authority. In
a law which became decisive for the supremacy of
Christianity, Theodosius the Great ordains, that all
nations who were subject to his grace, should re-
ceive the faith which had been delivered by St.
Peter to the Romans*. Valentinian III. forbade
the bishops, both in Gaul and in the other pro-
vinces, to depart from ancient usages without the
approbation of the venerable man, the pope of the
holy city. From this time the power of the Roman
bishops grew up under the protection of the empe-
ror himself. It is true that this political connexion
operated also as a check upon it. Had the impe-
rial power been vested in an individual, one supreme
ecclesiastical power might also have taken firm root ;
Imt to this the partition of the empire presented
an obstacle. It was impossible that the emperors
of the East, who so jealously asserted their ecclesi-
astical rights, should favour the extension of the
power of the patriarchs of the West within their
territories. The constitution of the church, in this
respect also, corresponded with the constitution of
the empire.

* Codex Theodoa. XVL 1,2. « Cunctos populos quos demen-
tias nostrsc rcgit teiuperamentum in tali volumus religionc versari,
quam dmmim Petrum apostolum Iradidisse Ilomanis rdigio usque
nime ab ipso insinuata dcclaiat." The edict of Valentinkn III.
is also mentioned by Planck, Gescliichte dcr christlidi-kirchllchen
QcsdlfichaftaverfaeBung, I. 642.

CH. I.] THE PRANKISH EMPIRE. 13

§ 2. THE PAPACY IN CONNEXION WITH THE
FRANKISH EMPIRE.

Scarcely was this great change accomplished, the
Christian religion planted, the church founded,
when new events disturbed the world. The Roman
empire, so long accustomed to conquest and domi-
nation, was now in its turn attacked hy its neigh-
bours, overrun, conquered.

Christianity itself was shaken in the general con-
vulsion. In the hour of their utmost peril the Ro-
mans once more remembered the Etrurian myste-
ries ; the Athenians believed that Achilles and Pallas
would save them ; the Carthaginians prayed to the
Genius Coelestis : but these were mere transient im-
pulses ; whilst the empire in the western provinces
crumbled into ruins, the edifice of the Roman
church remained solid and entire.

It was exposed, however, as was inevitable, to
various dangers and calamities, and experienced an
entire change of position. A heathen nation sub-
dued Britain. Arian kings conquered the greater
remaining part of the West. In Italy, the Lombards,
for a long time Arians, and always dangerous,
hostile neighbours, founded a mighty kingdom at
the very gates of Rome, But while the Roman
bishops, hemmed in on all sides, strove to become
masters at least in their ancient patriarchal diocese,
and displayed consummate prudence in the attempt,

14 TIIB PAPACY [BOOK I.

they were assailed by a new and yet greater cala-
mity. The Arabs, not only conquerors like the
Germans, but imbued to fanaticism with a dogma-
tical and haughty creed fundamentally opposed to
Christianity, poured themselves over the West as
well as the East ; after repeated attacks they con-
quered Africa ; one assault made them masters of
Spain ; Muza boasted that he would force his way
through the gates of the Pyrenees, across the Alps
into Italy, and cause the name of Mahommed to
be proclaimed in the Vatican,

In the beginning of the eighth century Roman
Christendom was in the most critical position.

While the Arabs began to rule over the whole coast
of the Mediterranean, and to cany on a war of ex-
termination against all unbelievers, Christendom
was divided against itself. Its two chiefs,, the em-
peror at Constantinople and the pope at "Rome, took
opposite sides in the iconoclastic dissensions, which
now raged with the most rancorous fury. The em-
peror often practised against the life of the pope.
Meanwhile the Lombards perceived how advantage-
ous this division was to them. Their king Astolplnis
took possession of provinces which had hitherto
acknowledged the emperor; he marched upon
Borne, and with furious threats, summoned that
city to pay him tribute, and to surrender*.

With these intestine divisions on the one side,

* Anastasius BibUothecarius : Vitse Pontificum. Vita Sto-
phani III. ed, Paris, p. 83. " Frcmens ut loo pestiferas nrinas
Remains dirigcro aondcsmcbat, assorens onmcs uno gladio jugu-
lari, nisi BUR sese subderent ditioni,"

CH. I.] AND THE FRANKISH EMPIRE. 15

and the decisive predominancy of a hostile and
mighty power on the other, nothing was to he anti-
cipated but the utter downfall and extinction of the
church, if it did not receive powerful and permanent
succour from some quarter.

Such succour was at hand. Christianity, in
accordance with its original destination, had long
found its way beyond the limits of the empire. It
had taken peculiar hold on the Germanic peoples ;
a Christian power had arisen in the midst of them,
towards which the pope had only to streteh out his
hands, in order to find willing allies against all
enemies, and energetic aid in all dangers.

Of all the Germanic nations, the Prankish alone,
from its first rise in the provinces of the Roman
empire, had become catholic. This conversion
had been very advantageous to it. In the catholic
subjects of their Arian enemies, the Burgundians
and Visigoths, the Franks found natural allies.
We read much of the miracles which are said to
have happened lo Clovis ; how St. Martin sent a
hind to show him the ford through the Vienne ;
how St. Hilary went before him in a pillar of fire :
we shall hardly err greatly if we presume that these
legends were but types of the succours which the
natives afforded to their fellow-believers, to whom,
as Gregory of Tours says, they wished success cc with
eager inclination."

This disposition to Catholicism, which was proved
from the very first by such mighty results, was
afterwards renovated and strengthened by a very
singular influence proceeding from another quarter.

1C) THE PAPACY [BOOK I.

Pope Gregory the Great happened to see some
Anglo-Saxons in the slave-market at Rome, who at-
tracted his attention and determined him to cause
the Gospel to be preached to the nation to which
they belonged Never did a pope resolve on an
undertaking more big with consequences.

Not only did the doctrine take root in Germanic
Britain, but with it a veneration for Rome and the
Holy See such as 110 other country had ever
evinced. The Anglo-Saxons began to make pil-
grimages to Rome ; they sent their youth thither ;
king Offa introduced the tax of the Peter's penny
wherewith to pay for the education of the clergy
and to aid the pilgrims. The nobles and men of
importance journeyed to Rome, that they might die
there and thence be received with greater accept-
ance among the saints in heaven. It was as if this
nation transferred to Home and the objects of
Christian worship the old German superstition, that
the gods were nearer to some favoured spots than
to others,

A much more important circumstance was, that
the English now communicated their owa devout
and catholic spirit to the continent and the
Prankish empire. The apostle of the Germans waft
an Anglo-Saxon. Boniface, filled as he was with
the reverence of his nation for St. Peter and his
successors, promised from the very beginning to
conform faithfully to all the decrees of the Sec of
Rome. This promise he most rigorously performed,
He imposed extraordinary obedience on the German
church which he founded. The bishops bound them-

CH. I.] AND THE FRANIOSH EMPIRE. 17

selves by an express vow to remain subject, unto
their life's end, to the Roman church, to St. Peter and
his successors. Nor did he persuade the Germans
alone to these acts of submission. The bishops of
Gaul had hitherto maintained a certain independ-
ence of Rome. Boniface, who on some occasions
presided in their synods, availed himself of the op-
portunity to bring this western portion of the
Prankish church into the same obedience. From
that time the Gallic archbishops received the"pallium
from Rome. The submissiveness to ecclesiastical
authority which had characterized the Anglo-Saxons
thus extended itself over the whole Frankish empire.
This empire was now become the central point
of all the Germanic tribes of the "West. It mat-
tered not that its royal house, the Merovingian
race, destroyed itself by the atrocious and murder-
ous acts of its members* Another line immediately
raised itself in their stead to the supreme power ;
all men full of energy, of potent will and matchless
vigour. While the surrounding kingdoms crum-
bled into ruins, and the world threatened to become
the spoil of the Moslem sword, this race it was, the
house of the Pepins of Heristall, afterwards called
the Carlovingian, that opposed the first and the
decisive resistance. It was this race also which
fostered the growing development of the religious
spirit : we early find it on good terms with Rome.
Boniface enjoyed the especial protection of Charles
Mart el and Pepin le Bref^.

* Bonifacii Epistola? ; ep. 12, ad Damelem episc, " Sine patro-
cinio principis Francorum nee populum regere nee presbyteros
VOL. I. C

18 THE PAPACY [BOOK I.

Let us now observe the position of the papal
power with respect to the rest of the world. On the
one side, the eastern empire, decaying, feehle, inca-
pahle of maintaining Christianity against Islamism,
or even of defending its own territory in Italy
against the Lombards, yet claiming supremacy even
in spiritual things : on the other, the Germanic
nations, robust, powerful, victorious over Islam;
attached, with all the freshness of youthful enthusi-
asm, to authority, to which they, as yet, had no
claim ; filled with unconditional, willing devoted-
ness.

Already Gregory II. felt what he had gained.
With the consciousness of his own importance, he
writes to the iconoclast emperor, Leo the Isaurian,
" All the nations of the west have their eyes turned
towards our humble person ; they regard us as a
god upon earth." His successors felt more and
more the necessity of separating themselves from a
power which imposed duties, while it afforded no
protection, although it inherited the name and the
empire of Koine ; while, on the contrary, they
contracted with the great captain* of the west,
the Frank princes, au alliance, which grew closer
from year to year, afforded great advantages to
both parties, and at length exercised a pervading
influence on the history of the world.

When Pcpin the younger, not contented with

vcl diaconos, monachos vel ancillas Doi dofendcrc possum, nco
ipsos paganorum ritus ct sacrilegia itlolorum in Gcnnania nine
mandate ct timorc prohibere valco."

CH. I.] AND THE PRANKISH EMPIRE. 19

the substance of kingly power, chose to possess
its name also, he felt that he stood in need of a
higher sanction. This the pope granted him. In
return, the new king undertook the defence of the
pope, " of the holy church and the republic of
God/' against the Lombards. To defend them did
not satisfy his zeal. He very soon compelled the
Lombards to surrender the exarchate, the Italian
territory which they had wrested from the eastern
empire. Justice would indeed have demanded that
it should be restored to the emperor, to whom it
had belonged. This was proposed to Pepin. He
replied, " that he had not gone to battle for the
sake of any man, but for the honour of St. Peter
alone and to obtain forgiveness for his sins'*"."
He caused the keys of the conquered cities to be
laid upon the altar of St. Peter's. This is the founda-
tion of the whole temporal dominion of the popes.
The alliance continued to acquire strength from
the lively reciprocity of good offices. At length
Charlemagne delivered the pope from the oppress-
ive and dangerous neighbourhood of the Lombard
princes. He himself manifested the most profound
submission ; he repaired to Rome ; kissing the steps
of St. Peter's he ascended the vestibule where the
pope awaited him ; he ratified the donations of
Pepin to the church. In return, the pope was his
unshaken friend ; the relations of the head of the
church to the Italian bishops facilitated Charle-

* * * Anastasius : aifirmans etiam sub juramento, quod per nullius
hominis favorem sese certamini ssepius dedisset, nisi pro amore
Petri et venia delictorum,"

c2

20 THE PAPACY [BOOK I.

magno's conquests over the Lombards, and his ac-
quisition of their territory.

This course of things soon led to still greater re-
sults.

In his own city, torn by contending factions, the
pope could no longer stand his ground without
foreign aid. Once again did Charlemagne repair to
Rome to defend him. The aged prince was now
crowned with fame and conquest. In a long series
of battles he had gradually subdued all his neigh-
bours, and had united nearly all the Romano-Ger-
manic Christian nations ; he had led them to victory
against their common enemies ; it was remarked
that he was possessor of all the seats of the
western emperors, in Italy, Gaul and Germany, and
heir of all their power*. These countries were, it
is true, become a totally different world ; but did
that affect the dignity of their ruler ? Pepin had
thus earned the kingly diadem, because to him who
has the power, the honour, of right, belongs. On
this occasion also the pope resolved on the 4M>urse
to be pursued. Penetrated with gratitude, and fully
conscious of his own need of a permanent defender,
he crowned Charlemagne on the Christmas-eve of

4 I so understand the Annalc& Laurcshamenses, ad annum
801 . " \IMUIU cst ct ipsi apostolico Lconi,— ut ipaum Carolum,
ri'gcm Frnncorum, Imporatorcm, nominarc dobuisaent, qui ipsam
Itomum tcncbat, ubi wcmpcr Cttsares sedere solxti erant, et rdi-
quaa s»edos, quas ipsc per Italian* sen Qalliam nee 11011 ct Garnife-
ilium lencbat (he probably means to say, - ipsi tcnebant ') : quia
Dens oiuuipoUms has omncs sedes in potestatem cjua concept,
Deo justum eis essc videbatur, ut ipsc cum Deo adjutorio — ipsum
nomcn Imbcrct/'

CII. I.] AND THE PRANKISH EMPIRE. 21

the year 800, with the crown of the western em-
pire.

This was the consummation of the whole series
of events which had occurred since the first irrup-
tion of the Germans into the Roman empire.

A Frankish prince filled the throne, and wielded
all the power, of the emperor of the West. Charle-
magne executed unquestioned acts of the highest
authority in the territories which had been sur-
rendered to St. Peter. His grandson, Lothaire,
nominated his own judges at Rome, and annulled
confiscations which the pope had imposed. It is
clear that the pope substantially belonged to the
Frankish empire ; and in this consisted the no-
velty of his situation. He severed himself from
the East, where his authority gradually ceased to be
acknowledged. The Greek emperors had long
since stripped him of his patriarchal diocese in
their dominions*. On the other hand, the western
churches (the Lombard, to which the institutions
of the Frankish had been transferred, not excepted)
paid him an obedience which he had never before
received. By permitting the establishment at
Rome of schools for Frieslanders, Saxons and
Franks, by which the very city was Germanised,

* Nicolas I. deplores the loss of the patriarchal power of the
papal chair *' per Epinim veterem Epirumque novam atque Illyri-
cum, Macedonian!, Thessaliam, Achaiam, Daciam ripensem, Da-
ciamque mediterranean!, Mocsiam, Dardaniam, Pravalim;" and
the lo&s of the patrimonial possessions in Calabria and Sicily. Pagi
(Criticain Annales Baronii, iii.p. 216.) compares this letter with
another by Adrian I. to Charlemagne, whence we learn that
these losses had been caused by the dispute with the iconoclasts.

22 RELATION OF THE POPES [BOOK I.

he laid the foundation of that union of German
and Roman elements, which has, from that period,
formed the characteristic of the West. In the
moment of his uttermost weakness and peril, his
power struck its roots into a fresh soil. When it
seemed nodding to its fall, it arose in renewed vi-
gour and acquired a stability which was destined to
endure for ages. The hierarchy which originated in
the Roman empire poured itself abroad over the
Germanic nations. Here it found a boundless field
for unwearied and successful activity.

§ 3. RELATION OF THE POPES TO THE GERMAN

EMPERORS INTERNAL GROWTH AND PROGRESS

OF THE HIERARCHY.

We shall pass over some centuries that we may
arrive at a nearer and more distinct view of the
events which they generated and matured.

The Frankish empire has crumbled into pieces ;
the German has arisen full of energy and might.

Never was the German name more potent and
illustrious in Europe than in the tenth and eleventh
centuries, under the Saxon and the early Salic
emperors. From the eastern frontiers, where the
kiug of Poland had been compelled to do personal
homage and to submit to a partition of his terri-
tory, and where the duke of Bohemia was con-
demned to imprisonment, we see Conrad II. march
westward to defend Burgundy against the preten-
sions of the French nobles. He defeated them in

CH. I.] TO THE GERMAN EMPBROES. 23

the plains of Champagne ; his Italian vassals
crossed Mount St. Bernard to his assistance ; he
caused himself to be crowned at Geneva, and held
his diet at Soleure. Immediately afterwards we
meet him in Lower Italy. < < On the frontiers of his
empire," says his historian Wippo, " in Capua and
Benevento, he settled all differences hy his word."
Not less powerful and glorious was the reign of
Henry III. At one time we find him on the
Scheldt and the Lys, victor over the counts of
Flanders \ at another, in Hungary, which he com-
pelled, at least for a time, to do him feudal ser-
vice ; on the other side the Raah, where his course
was checked by the elements alone. The king of
Denmark repaired to Merseburg to meet him ; one
of the most powerful princes of France, the count
of Tours, became his vassal ; Spanish histories re-
late, that he demanded from Ferdinand I. of Castile,
victorious and powerful as that monarch was, an
acknowledgment that he was liege lord of all the
sovereigns of Christendom*

If we inquire what was the basis upon which so
extensive a power, claiming supremacy over all
Europe, internally rested, we shall find that it con-
tained a very important ecclesiastical element.

With the Germans, conquest and conversion ad-
vanced together. The marches of the empire ex-
tended as the influence of the church extended,
across the Elbe, towards the Oder, down the Da-
nube ; monks and priests heralded the German in-
fluence in Bohemia and Hungary. Hence the spirit-
ual authorities everywhere acquired vast power. In

24 RELATION OP THE POPES [BOOK I.

Germany, bishops and abbots of the empire were
invested, not only within their possessions, but also
without them, with the rights and privileges of
counts or even of dukes, and church lands were no
longer described as situated in countships, but
countships in bishoprics. In Upper Italy almost
all the cities were governed by the viscounts of
their bishops.

It were a mistake to imagine that the aim of
these measures was to give real independence to
the spiritual power.

As the nomination to ecclesiastical offices be-
longed to the kings, (in recognition of which the
chapters sent back the ring and staff of their de-
ceased superiors to the king's court, whence these
badges of office were granted anew,) it was gene-
rally advantageous to the prince to confer temporal
authority on the man of his choice, upon whose at-
tachment and obedience he could rely. Henry IIL,
in defiance of his recalcitrant nobility, placed a
plebeian devoted to himself, on the chair of St.
Ambrose at Milan. To this measure ho was chiefly
indebted for the obedience which he afterwards re-
ceived from the north of Italy. The facts are
illustrative of each other, that, of all the emperors,
Henry III. was the most bountiful to the church,
while at the same time he insisted with the greatest
rigour on the right of nominating bishops*. Care
was also taken that the endowment abstracted no-
thing from the power of the state. The property of
* Examples of this strictness arc to be found in Planck : Go-
scliichte der chriad. kirchl. Gcaellschaft&vcrfassung, iii. 407.

CH, I.] TO THE GERMAN EMPERORS. 25

the church, was exempted neither from civil bur-
thens, nor even from feudal service ; we frequently
see bishops take the field at the head of their
vassals. What an advantage was it therefore to
be able to nominate bishops like the archbishop
of Bremen, who exercised supreme spiritual power
in the Scandinavian kingdoms, and over numerous
Wendish tribes !

If the ecclesiastical element was of such vast im-
portance in the institutes of the German empire,
it is self-evident how much depended on the relation
in which the emperor stood to the head of the whole
clerical body, the pope of Rome. This relation was
not less intimate than that which had existed be-
tween the papacy and the Roman emperors, or the
successors of Charlemagne. The political sub-
jection of the pope was unquestionable.

It is true that, before the empire had definitively
devolved on a German race, while it was yet in
feeble and vacillating hands, the popes had exer-
cised acts of supremacy over it. But as soon as
the energetic German princes had possessed them-
selves of this dignity, they were not less sovereign
lords of the papacy than the Carlovingians had been
before. With vigorous hand Otho the Great pro-
tected the pope whom he had placed on the throne^ ;
his sons followed his example; and the revival

* In Goldast. Constitutt. Imperiales I. p. 221. we find an in-
strument (with the Scholia of Dietiicli von Mem) transferring to
Otho and the German emperors the right of Charlemagne to
choose a successor to himself, and in future the popes of Home.
There is no doubt however of its being a fabrication.

26 RELATION OF THE POPES [BOOK X.

of the Roman factions, -who conferred or took
away, sold or alienated, the popedom as their family
interests dictated, rendered the necessity for a
higher intervention the more manifest. It is well
known how resolutely this was exercised by Henry
III, His synod at Sutri deposed the intrusive popes.
"From the time he had placed the patrician ring on
his finger and had received the imperial crown, he
selected at his good pleasure the successor to the
papal chair. Four German popes nominated by
him succeeded each other. When the highest
ecclesiastical dignity fell vacant, the delegates from
Koine who repaired to the imperial court' to hear a
successor appointed, appeared in no respect dif-
ferent from the envoys from other bishoprics.

In this state of things, it was for the interest of
the emperor himself that the papacy should inspire
respect and consideration. Henry III. promoted
the reforms which the popes his nominees under-
took ; the increase of their power excited no jea-
lousy in him* That Leo IX. in defiance of the
wishes of the king of France, held a synod at
Rhciins, appointed and removed French bishops,
and received the solemn declaration that the pope
was the sole primate of the universal church, could
be nowise displeasing to the emperor, so long as
ho himself ruled over the whole papacy. This
formed but a part of that pre-eminent authority
which he claimed over all Europe. HQ stood in
the same relation to the other powers of Christen-
dom through the pope, as to those of the North
through the archbishop of Bremen.

CH, I.] TO THE GERMAN EMPERORS. 27

But his position was attended with great danger.
The constitution of the ecclesiastical body in the
Germanic and Germanised states had assumed a
totally different character from that which it had
worn in the Roman. A large portion of political
power had been transferred to the clergy ; they had
princely rank and jurisdiction. As we have seen,
they were still dependent on the emperor, the
highest temporal authority ; but how if this author-
ity should once more fall into feeble hands, while
at the same time the head of the church, armed
with triple power, derived from his own dignity,
(the object of universal veneration) from the obe-
dience of his subordinates and from his influence
over other states, should seize the favouring mo-
ment, and place himself in opposition to the impe-
rial power ?

More than one inducement to such a course lay
in the very nature of the case. The church con-
tained within herself a peculiar principle, wholly at
variance with so great a temporal influence, and
this would of necessity manifest itself as soon as
she had acquired sufficient strength. And, as it
seems to me, it involved a contradiction, that the
pope should exercise a supreme and universal spi-
ritual power, and at the same time should be subject
to the emperor. It had been otherwise if Henry III.
had succeeded in raising himself to be the head of
entire Christendom, But as he failed, the pope
might have found himself, in the various turns of
political affairs, completely obstructed by his sub-
ordination to the emperor, in the free exercise of

28 RELATION OF THE POPEcJ [BOOK I.

that authority as common father of the faithful,
which his office conferred on him.

Under these circumstances, Gregory VII. ascend-
ed the papal chair. Gregory was a man of a daring,
exclusive and haughty spirit ; immoveable in his ad-
herence to logical consequences, and withal, equally
skilful and subtle in eluding just and well-grounded
opposition. He saw whither the course of things
tended. In all the trifling affairs of the day, he
discerned the vast contingent events with which the
future was pregnant ; he determined to emancipate
the papacy, From the moment he clearly saw his
object, without looking to the right or left, without
a moment's hesitation, he seized on the decisive
means of accomplishing it. The decree which he
caused to be passed at one of his councils, that in
future no ecclesiastical office could be granted by
a temporal sovereign, shook the constitution of the
empire to its very base. This, as we have re-
marked, rested on the connexion between tempo-
ral and spiritual institutions ; the link between
them was the investiture ; the stripping the empe-
ror of this ancient privilege was equivalent to a
revolution.

It is evident that Gregory would not have been
able even to entertain the project of such a change,
much less to effect it, had not the disorders of the
German empire, during the minority of Henry IV.
and the rebellion of the German nobles and princes
against that monarch, favoured the enterprise, In
the great vassals he found natural allies. They too
felt oppressed by the predominance of the imperial

CH. I.] TO THE GERMAN EMPERORS. 29

power 3 they too sought to shake off this yoke. la
a certain sense the pope was, like them, a magnate of
the empire. There was perfect accordance between
the pope's declaring Germany an elective empire, by
which the power of the princes must be immensely
increased, and the little opposition he had to en-
counter from them when he emancipated himself
from the empire. Even in the contest concerning
investiture their interests went hand in hand. The
pope was yet far from claiming the direct nomina-
tion of the bishops; he left the choice to the
chapters, over which the higher German nobility
exercised the greatest influence. In a word, the
pope had the aristocratic interests on his side.

But even with these allies, what long and bloody
struggles did it cost the popes to accomplish their
projects ! From Denmark to Apulia, says the eu-
logy on St. Anno, from Carlingen to Hungary,
has the empire turned its arms against its own en-
trails. The struggle between the spiritual and tem-
poral principles, which had formerly gone hand in
hand, divided Christendom. How often have the
popes been forced to retreat from their own capital
and to see the apostolic seat ascended by antipopes !

At length, however, their success was complete.

After long centuries of subjection, after other
centuries of an often doubtful struggle, the inde-
pendence of the Roman see, and of the principle on
which it rested, was at length attained. The po-
sition of the popes at this moment was indeed
most lofty and dignified. The clergy were com-
pletely in their hands. It is worthy of remark,

30 RELATION OP THE POPES [BOOK I.

that during this period the popes of the most re-
solute character, for example, Gregory VII., were
Benedictines. By the introduction of celibacy
they transformed the whole body of secular clergy
into a sort of monastic order. The universal
bishopric which they claimed had a sort of resem-
blance to the power of an abbot of Cluny, who was
the only abbot of his order. The popes desired to
be the only bishops of the church ; they interfered
without hesitation in the administration of every
diocese*; they compared their legates even to the
proconsuls of ancient Rome! While this order,
firmly compacted within, dispersed over all lands,
powerful by its possessions, and ruling every action
of life by its ministry, constituted a body obedient
to one head, political states were crumbling into
pieces. As early as the beginning of the twelfth
century Prior Gerohus ventured to say, " It will
come to pass that the golden pillars of the mon-
archy will be utterly shattered, and every great em-
pire will be divided into tetrarchies ; not till then
will the church be free and unfettered under the
protecting care of the great crowned priestf." But
little was wanting to the literal accomplishment of
this prediction. For which, in fact, was more pow-

* One of the main points, concerning which I will give a pas-
sage from a letter of Henry IV. to Gregory. (Mansi ConciL n.
collcctio, xx. 47 1 .) " Hectares sanctao ecclcsias, videl. archiepisco •
pos, cpiscopcs, prcsby tcros sicut servos pedibus tuis colcasti*" We
BOO the pope in this case had public opinion on his side. " In
quorum conculcationc tibi favorem ab ore vulgi conjparasti."

t SchrOckh quotes this passage, Kirchengoschichte, vol. xxvii.
p. 117.

CH. I.] TO THE GERMAN EMPERORS. 31

erful in England in the thirteenth century, Henry
III., or the twenty-four who for a time governed
the kingdom ? In Castile, the king or the Altos-
homes ? The imperial power seemed almost super-
fluous from the time that Frederic granted to the
princes of the empire the substantial attributes of
sovereignty, Italy, like Germany, was filled with
independent states. Almost the only comprehen-
sive, centralizing power was that possessed by the
pope. The mingled spiritual and temporal cha-
racter which life had assumed during that pe-
riod, the entire course of events, inevitably tended
to produce such a power, and to render him the
depository of it. When countries long lost, like
Spain, were at length rescued from Mahommedan-
ism ; when provinces yet unreclaimed, like Prussia,
were won from paganism and planted with Christian
people ; when even the capitals of the Greek faith
conformed to the Latin rite; when -hundreds of
thousands went forth to defend the banner of the
cross on the holy sepulchre, must not the sovereign
pontiff, who had a hand in all these undertakings,
who received the allegiance of all these subjugated
powers, enjoy immeasurable and pre-eminent con-
sideration ? Under his conduct, in his name, the
nations of the "West went forth as one people in
countless swarms to the conquest of the world.
We cannot wonder if he wielded an almost omni-
potent authority, when a king of England received
his kingdom from him as a fief; when a king of
Aragon transferred his to the Apostle Peter; when
Naples was actually given over by the pope to a

32 RELATION OF POPES TO EMPERORS. [BOOK I.

foreign house. Wonderful physiognomy of those
limes, which no one has yet placed before us in all
its completeness and truth !

Tt is the strangest combination of internal strife
and of brilliant external success, of independence
and obedience, of spiritual and temporal things.
What contrarieties in the character of Piety her-
self! One while she retreats into the rugged moun-
tain, or into the lonely forest, that she may devote
all her days to the holy and peaceful contemplation
of the divine glory. Waiting for death, she denies
herself every enjoyment that life offers. When she
abides among men, with what ardour does she strive
to give utterance to the ideas in which she lives and
moves, to clothe with life and form the mysteries
which dimly float before her eyes ! But in a mo-
ment we turn and behold her with altered "mien ;
her who invented the inquisition, who exercised
the terrible judgement of the sword upon those of
another faith, who prompted the leader of the
expedition against the Albigenses, when he said,
" We have spared neither age, nor sex, nor rank ;
we have smitten every one with the edge of the
sword."

Sometimes she appeared under both aspects at
the same moment.

At the sight of Jerusalem the crusaders alighted
from their horses, and uncovered their feet, that
they might approach the sacred walls like true pil-
grims ; in the hottest of the battle they thought
they received the visible aid of saints and angels.
Hardly had they scaled the walls, when they rushed

CH.l.] FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 33

forth to plunder and carnage ; onxthe site of Solo-
noon's Temple they slaughtered thousands of Sara-
cens ; they hurned the Jews in their synagogues ;
they sprinkled with hlood the holy threshold on
which they came to kneel in adoration. A contra-
diction which completed the picture of the religious
spirit of that age and of those nations.

§ 4. CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE FOURTEENTH AND
FIFTEENTH CENTURIES.

There are periods in the history of the world
which excite in us a peculiar and anxious curiosity
to search into the plans of the divine government,
to investigate the phases of the education of the
human race.

However defective he the civilization we have de-
lineated, it was necessary to the complete natu-
ralization of Christianity in the west. It was no
light thing to subdue the haughty spirits of the
north, the nations under the dominion of ancestral
superstitions, to the ideas of Christianity. It was
necessary that the religious element should pre-
dominate for a time, in order that it might gain
fast hold on the German mind. By this, at the
same time, was effected the intimate blending of the
Roman and Germanic elements. There is a com-
munity among the nations of modern times which
has always been regarded as the main basis of the
general civilization ; a community in church and
state, in manners, customs, and literature. In order

VOL. I. D

34 CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE [BOOK I.

to produce this, it was necessary that the western
nations should, for a time, form, as it were, a single
state, temporal and spiritual.

But this too was only one stage in the great pro-
gress of things. As soon as the change was ac-
complished, new consequences appeared.

The commencement of a new epoch was an-
nounced by the simultaneous and almost universal
rise of national languages. With slow but un-
broken course they forced their way into all the
various branches of intellectual activity ; the pecu-
liar idiom of the church receded before them step
by step. Universality gave place to a new and
nobler kind of individuality. Hitherto the eccle-
siastical element had overpowered all national pe-
culiarities. Under a new character and aspect, but
once more distinct, they now entered upon a new
career.

It seems as though all human designs and actions
were subject to the silent and often imperceptible,
but mighty and resistless march of events. The
previous state of the world had been favourable to
the papal domination ; that of the moment we are
considering was directly hostile to it. The nations
no longer stood in their former need of the impulse
given by the ecclesiastical power ; they arose in
opposition to it. They felt their own capacity for
independence.

It is worth while to recall to our recollection
the more important events in which this tendency
manifested itself.

It was, as is well known, the French who made

OEM.] FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 35

the first decisive stand against the pretensions of
the popes. The nation unanimously resisted the
bulls of excommunication issued by Boniface VIII.
In several hundred acts of adhesion, all the popu-
lar authorities expressed their assent to the mea-
sures of Philip the Fair.

The Germans followed. When the popes attacked
the empire with their old animosity, although it
had lost much of its former importance, the electors,
determined to secure it from foreign influence, as-
sembled on the banks of the Rhine, in the field
of Rense, to deliberate in their chairs of stone on
some common measure for the maintenance "of the
honour and dignity of the empire."

Their purpose was to establish its independence
against all aggressions of the popes, by a solemn
resolution. Shortly after, this was simultaneously
proclaimed, with all due forms, by the whole body
of potentates ; emperor, princes and electors. They
made a common stand against the principles of
papal policy*.

Nor did England long remain behind. Nowhere
had the popes enjoyed greater influence, nor dis-
posed more arbitrarily of benefices ; till at length,
when Edward III. would no longer pay the tribute
which his predecessors had engaged to pay, his
parliament united with him and promised to sup-
port him in his resistance. The king took mea-
sures to prevent any further encroachments of the
papal power.

Licet juris utriusque. Ohlenachlager : StaatsgescHchte des
rom. Kaiserthums in der ersten Halfte des 14ten Jahrhunderts.
No, 68,

D2

36 CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE [BOOK I.

"We see one nation after another awaken to a
consciousness of its own independence and unity.

The civil power will no longer acknowledge any
higher authority. The popes no longer find allies
in the middle classes ; their interference is reso-
lutely repelled hy princes and legislative bodies.

It happened at the same time that the papacy
itself fell into a weakness and confusion, which en-
ahled the civil power, hitherto only acting on the
defensive, to retaliate aggressions.

Schism hroke out. We must mark its conse-
quences. For a long time it rested with princes to
attach themselves, according to their political con-
venience, to this or that pope : the spiritual power
found within itself no means of putting an end to
the division ; the secular power alone could do
this. When a council assembled for this purpose
in Constance the members no longer voted, as for-
merly, by individuals, but by the four nations. Each
nation was allowed to hold preliminary meetings
to deliberate on the vote it was to give. They
deposed a pope by common consent : the newly
elected pontiff was compelled to sign with them,
severally, concordats, which were, at least by the
precedent they afforded, very important. During
the council of Basle and the new schism, some
states remained neutral ; and this second division
in the church could only be healed by the im-
mediate intervention of the princes*. Nothing
could possibly have a stronger tendency to increase

* Declaration of Pope Felix in Georgius, Vita Nicolai V.
p. 65.

CH.I.] FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 37

the preponderance of the secular power, and the
independence of individual states.

And now the pope was once more the object of
the highest reverence and of universal obedience.
The emperor still continued to lead his palfrey.
There were bishops, not only in Hungary but in
Germany, who subscribed themselves, " by the
grace of the apostolic see'*". In the north the
Peter's penny was regularly levied. At the jubilee
of the year 1450, countless pilgrims from all lands
sought the steps of the apostles. An eye witness
describes them as coming like swarms of bees or
flights of migratory birds.

Yet, spite of all these appearances, the old re-
lations no longer existed. In proof of this we
need only call to mind the fervent zeal which
characterized the early crusades, and compare it
with the lukewarmness with which, in the fif-
teenth century, every exhortation to a general
combined resistance to the Turks was received.
How much more urgent was it to defend their
own borders against a danger which was immi-
nent on every side, than to know that the holy
sepulchre was in Christian hands ! J5neas Sylvius
in the diet, and the Minorite Capistrano in the
market-places of cities, used all their eloquence,
and we are told much of the impression they made ;
but we do not find that anybody took up arms in
consequence. What efforts were made by the
popes ! One fitted oat a fleet ; another, Pius II.

* Constance, Sclrwerin, Fiinfkirclien. Schrockli, Kirchenge-
schiclate, vol. xxxiii. p. 60.

38 CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE [BOOK 1.

(the same -ffineas Sylvius) repaired, feeble and sick
as he was, to the port where the princes most im-
mediately menaced by the Turks — if no others —
were to meet. He insisted on being there, " that
he might, like Moses, raise his hands to God du-
ring the battle, as he alone had authority to do."
But neither exhortations, nor prayers, nor exam-
ples could move his contemporaries. The youthful
ardour of chivalrous Christianity was extinct ; it
was not in the power of any pope to rekindle it.

Other interests agitated the world. It was the
period at which the kingdoms of Europe acquired
compactness and solidity. The central power suc-
ceeded in subduing the factions which had threat-
ened the security of the throne, and in uniting all
classes of its subjects in fresh bonds of obedience.
The papacy, which aspired to govern all and to in-
terfere with all, soon came also to be regarded in
a political point of view. The pretensions of the
kings were infinitely higher than they had been
at any preceding period. It is common to re-
present the papal authority as nearly unlimited
up to the time of the reformation ; but the fact is,
that the civil governments had possessed themselves
of no small share of ecclesiastical rights and privi-
leges as early as the beginning of the sixteenth, or
even the latter part of the fifteenth century.

How greatly did the pragmatic sanction, which
for above half a century was regarded in France as
the palladium of the kingdom, abridge the exercise
of the papal prerogative ! It is true that Louis XL
was hurried by that spurious devotion to which he

CH.I.] FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 39

was the more addicted from his total want of true
religion, into concessions on this point; but his
successors returned without scruple to their ancient
law. When, therefore, Francis I. concluded his
concordat with Leo X,, it was maintained that the
court of Rome had regained its old ascendency by
that measure. And it is true that the pope reco-
vered the annates j but he was obliged to relinquish
many other sources of revenue, and above all, he
ceded to the king the right of nomination to the
bishoprics and other higher benefices. It is un-
deniable that the Gallican church lost its rights ;
but far less to the pope than to the king. The
principle for which Gregory VII. had set the world
in motion, Leo X. abandoned with little difficulty.
Things could not come to this pass in Germany.
The Basle decrees, on which, in France, the prag-
matic sanction had been formed*, in Germany,
where they had also been received, were extremely
modified by the Vienna concordat. But even this
modification was not obtained without sacrifices on
the part of the holy see. In Germany it was not
enough to come to an understanding with the head
of the empire ; it was also necessary to gain over

* We perceive the connexion from the following words of
jEneaa Sylvius : " Propter decretaBasiliensis concilii inter sedem
apostolicam et nationem vestram dissidium ccepit, cum vos ilia
prorsus tenenda diceretis, apostolica vero aedes omnia rejiceret.
Itaque fuit denique compositio facta — per quam aliqua ex decre-
tis concilii prsedicti recepta videntur, aliqua rejecta, -<En. Sylvii
Epistola ad Martinum Maierum contra murmur gravaininis Ger-
manics nationis, 1457." In Mailer's Reichstegstheatram unter
Friedrich III. Vorst. iii. p. 604.

40 CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE [BOOK I.

the several states. The archbishops of Mayence
and Treves acquired the right of nomination to the
vacant henefices, even during the months reserved
for the pope ; the elector of Brandenburg, the pri-
vilege of disposing of the three bishoprics in his
dominions ; even less considerable states, such as
Strasburg, Salzburg, and Metz, obtained conces-
sions*. Yet even these failed to allay the uni-
versal spirit of opposition. In the year 1487 the
whole empire successfully resisted a tithe which
the pope tried to imposef. In the year 1500 the
imperial government granted to the pope's legate
only a third of the product of the preachings
or indulgences ; the other two thirds it took and
appropriated to the Turkish war.

England, without any new concordat, without
pragmatic sanction, far outwent the concessions of
Constance. Henry VII. possessed the undisputed
right of nominating candidates to the episcopal
sees. He was not satisfied with bestowing all cle-
rical promotions, he also appropriated to himself
the half of the annates. When, in the early part
of the reign of Henry VIII. , Wolsey obtained the
dignity of legate in addition to his other offices, the
temporal and spiritual powers were, to a certain ex-
tent, united in his person; and before protestantism
was thought of by the English people, the property
of many monasteries had been violently confiscated.

Meanwhile the nations and kingdoms of the

* Schrockh's Kirchengeschichte, vol. xxxii. p. 173. Bichhora
Staats-«und Rcchts-gescliichte, vol. ill. § 472. n. c.
t Muller'a Rcichstheatrum, Vorst. vi. p. 130.

OH. I.] FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 41

south were not behindhand. The kings of Spain
had also the right of nomination to the bishops'
sees. The crown to which the Grand-masterships
of the religious orders were united, which had
established and still directed the Inquisition, en-
joyed a number of spiritual attributes and privi-
leges. Ferdinand the Catholic not unfrequentiy
opposed the papal functionaries. The Portuguese
ecclesiastical orders of knighthood of St. lago, Avis
and the order of Christ, on which the property
of the Templars had devolved, were, no less than
the Spanish, under the patronage of the crown*.
King Emanuel demanded of Leo X., not only the
third part of the Crudata, but also the tenth of the
ecclesiastical property, with the express right to
distribute it according to his good pleasure, and to
his opinion of the merits of the claimants.

In short, throughout all Christendom, in the
south as well as in the north, a general struggle
was made to curtail the rights of the pope. It was
more especially to a share of the ecclesiastical re-
venues and the nomination to ecclesiastical bene-
fices and offices, that the several governments laid
claim. The popes made no serious resistance.
They tried to preserve all they could ; on other
points they gave way. Lorenzo de' Medici, speak-
ing of Ferdinand king of Naples, and of a dispute
which he had with the see of Rome, says, " He will

* Instruttione piena delle cose di Portogallo al Coadjutor di
Bergamo : nuntio destinato in Portogallo. MS. of the Informa-
tion! politiche in the Royal Library at Berlin, torn. xii. Leo X.
granted this patronage of the ecclesiastical orders : contentan-
dosi il re di pagare grandissima composition di detto patronato.

42 CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE, &C. [BOOK I.

make no difficulty about promising ; as to the ful-
filment of his promises, he will experience the
indulgence at last which all popes have had for
all kings *." For this spirit of opposition had
found its way even into Italy. We are informed
by Lorenzo de3 Medici, that in this he followed the
example of greater potentates ; he obeyed the
pope's commands just so far as he had a mind, and
no furtherf.

It were an error to see in these facts only mani-
festations of a contemporaneous caprice and wilful-
ness. The ecclesiastical spirit had ceased to per-
vade and direct the whole existence of the nations
of Europe, as it had done in earlier times.

The development of national character and na-
tional institutions, the progress of civilization, now
exercised a mighty and conspicuous influence.
The relation between the spiritual and temporal
powers necessarily underwent a complete revolu-
tion ; nor was the change in the popes themselves
less remarkable.

* Lorenzo to Johannes de Lanfredinis, Fabroni Vita Laurentii
Medici, ii. p. 362.

t Antonius Gallus de rebus Genuensibus : Muratori Scriptt.
R. It. xxiii. p. 281. says of Lorenzo : "Regum majorumque prin-
cipum contumacem licentiam adversus Romanam ecclesiam seque-
batur de juribus pontificis, nisi quod ei videretur nihil permittens."

CHAPTER II.

THE CHURCH AND THE ECCLESIASTICAL STATES
IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CEN-
TURY,

§ 1. EXTENSION OF THE STATES OF THE CHURCH.

WHATEVER may be the opinion we form of the
popes of the earlier ages of the church, we must
admit that they had always great interests in view :
the guardianship of an oppressed religion, the con-
flict with paganism, the diffusion of Christianity
over the nations of the North, the foundation of
an independent hierarchical power. The ability to
conceive, to will and to accomplish some great
object, is among the qualities which confer the
greatest dignity on man ; and this it was that sus-
tained the popes in their lofty course. But these
tendencies had passed away with the times to which
they belonged. Schism was at an end; the at-
tempt to stir men to a general rising against the
Turks was evidently hopeless. It followed that
the head of the church pursued the interests of his
temporal sovereignty with greater ardour and
pertinacity than heretofore, and devoted all his
activity to their advancement.

For some time things had strongly tended this
way. " Formerly," said an orator in the council
of Basle, " I was of opinion that it would be well

44 EXTENSION OF THE [BOOK I.

to separate the temporal entirely from the spiritual
power; but I have learned that virtue "without
force is ludicrous — that the pope of Rome, without
the hereditary possessions of the Church, is only
the servant of kings and princes." This orator,
who had sufficient influence in the council to deter-
mine the election of pope Felix, does not think it
so much amiss that a pope should have sons to
take his part against tyrants*.

This matter was, at a later period, viewed in a
different light in Italy. It was thought in the re-
gular order of things that a pope should promote
and provide for his family ; people would have de-
spised one who did not. " Others," writes Lorenzo
de' Medici to Innocent VIII., " have not so long
deferred their endeavour to be popes, and have
troubled themselves little about the decorum and
modesty which your holiness has for so long a time
observed. Your holiness is now not only excused
in the sight of God and man, but men may perhaps
even censure this reserved demeanour, and ascribe
it to other motives. My zeal and duty render it a
matter of conscience with me to" remind your holi-
ness that no man is immortal \ that a pope is of
the importance which he chooses to give himself;
he cannot make his dignity hereditary; the honours
and the benefits he confers on those belonging to
him are all that he can call his ownf." Such

* Extract from this discourse in Schrockh, vol. xxxii. p. 90.

t A letter by Lorenzo, without date, but probably of the year
1489, since the fifth year of Innocent VIII. is mentioned in it.
Fabroni Vita Laurentii, ii. 390.

CH. II.] STATES OF THE CHURCH. 45

was the advice of him who was regarded as the
wisest man in Italy. It is true, he had an interest
in the matter, for his daughter was married to a
son of the pope. But he would never have ven-
tured to express himself so unreservedly, had not
these views been notoriously prevalent among the
higher classes.

Two facts here engage our attention, between
which there exists a profound but not obvious con-
nexion ; the governments of Europe were stripping
the pope of a portion of his privileges, while at the
same time the latter began to occupy himself ex-
clusively with worldly concerns. He felt himself,
above all, an Italian prince. It was not long since
the Florentines had defeated their neighbours, and
the Medici had established their power over both.
The power of the Sforzas in Milan., of the house of
Aragon in Naples, of the Venetians in Lombardy
had all been acquired and established within the
memory of man. Might not the pope reasonably
hope to found, in the domains which were regarded
as the hereditary property of the Church, but
which were actually governed by a number of in-
dependent rulers, a still mightier personal domina-
tion?

The first who with deliberate purpose and per-
manent effect acted upon this idea was Sixtus IV.
Alexander VI. pursued it with the utmost vigour
and with singular success. Julius II. gave it an
unexpected turn, which it retained.

Sixtus IV. (1471-1484) conceived the plan of
founding a principality for his nephew Girolamo

46 EXTENSION OF THE [BOOK I.

D

Eiario in the rich and beautiful plains of Romagna.
The other powers of Italy were already contending
for possession, or for ascendency, in these territo-
ries, and, if there was any question of right, the pope
had manifestly a better right than any other. But
he was not nearly their equal in force, or in the
resources of war. He was restrained by no scruple
from rendering his spiritual power (elevated by its
nature and purpose above all earthly interests)
subservient to his worldly views, or from debasing
it by a mixture with those temporary intrigues in
which his ambition had involved him. The Me-
dici being peculiarly in his way, he took part in the
Florentine troubles ; and, as is notorious, brought
upon himself the suspicion of being privy to the
conspiracy of the Pazzi, and to the assassination
which they perpetrated on the steps of the altar
of the cathedral ; the suspicion that he, the
father of the faithful, was an accomdfce of such
acts ! | 1

When the Venetians ceased to favour me schemes
of his nephew, as they had done for ^^considerable
time, the pope was not satisfied with deserting
them in a war into which he himself had driven
them ; he went so far as to excommunicate them
for persisting in it*. He acted with no less

* In 1829, the Commentarii di Marino Sanuto on the Fcrra-
rese war were printed at Venice ; p. 56, he touches on, the de-
fection of the pope. He refers to the speech of the Venetian
ambassador. " Tutti yedranno, aver noi comminciato qucsta
guerra di yolonlft del Papas egli per6 si raosse a rompcre la
lega,"

CH. II.] STATES OF THE CHURCH. 47

violence in Rome: he persecuted the opponents
of Eiario, the Colonnas, with savage ferocity : he
seized Marino from them ; he caused the protho-
notary Colonna to be attacked, arrested and exe-
cuted in his own house. The mother of Colonna
came to San Celso in Banchi, where the body lay —
she lifted the severed head by the hair and cried,
" Behold the head of my son ! Such is the faith
of the pope. He promised that if we would give
up Marino to him, he would set my son at liberty ;
he has Marino : and my son is in our hands — but
dead ! Behold, thus does the pope keep his
word** I"

So, much was necessary to enable Sixtus IV. to
obtain the victory over his enemies, at home and
abroad. He succeeded in making bis nephew lord
of Imola and Forli ; but it is certain that if his tem-
poi#l dignity was much augmented, his spiritual
suifered infinitely more. An attempt was made to
assemble a council against him.

Meanwhile Sixtus was destined soon to be far
Outdone. Alexander VI. ascended the papal throne
shortly after him (1492).

Alexander's great aim during the whole course
of his life had been to gratify to the utmost his love
of ease, his sensuality and his ambition. The pos-
session of the highest spiritual dignity seemed to
him the summit of felicity. Old as he was, he
seemed daily to grow younger under the influence
of this feeling. No importunate thought troubled

Alegretto Alegretti : diari Sanesi, p. 817.

48 EXTENSION OF THE [BOOK I,

his repose for a night. He only pondered on
•what could be of advantage to himself, how he
could advance his sons to dignity and power j no
other considerations ever seriously occupied his
mind*.

His political connexions, which have exercised
so great an influence on the affairs of the world,
were founded exclusively on this basis. The ques-
tion how a pope should marry, provide for, and
establish his children, affected the politics of all
Europe.

His son, Csesar Borgia, trod in the footsteps of
Kiario, He started from the same point ; indeed
his first exploit was to drive Kiario's widow out of
Forli and Imola. With daring recklessness he
pressed onwards ; what his predecessor had only
attempted, he achieved. The means by which
he accomplished his purposes may be described
in few words. The states of the Church had
hitherto been divided by the two parties, the
Guelfs and Ghibelines, the Colonna and Orsini
families. Alexander and his son, like the other
popes, like Sixtus IV., allied themselves at first
with the one party — the Orsini-Guelfic. By means
of this alliance they soon succeeded in subduing all
their enemies. They drove the Sforzas out of Pe~
saro,, the Malatestas out of Rimini, the Manfredi
out of Faenza. They took possession of these im-
portant well-fortified cities, and made them the seat
of a considerable power. Hardly, however, had they

* Kelazione di Polo Capello, 1500, (MS.)

CH. II.] STATES OP THE CHURCH. 49

reached this point, hardly had they crushed their
enemies, wheSn they turned their arms against their
friends. Herein lay the great difference hetween
the power of the Borgias and that of any of their
predecessors, who had never been able to shake off
the trammels of the party to which they had attach-
ed themselves. Caesar turned his arms against his
allies with very little hesitation. He entangled the
duke of Urbino, who had been one of his constant
supporters, as in a net, before the duke had the
slightest suspicion of his designs* The victim nar-
rowly escaped, — a persecuted fugitive in his own
territory*. Vitelli, Baglioni, the heads of the
Orsini, determined to show him that at least they
could offer some resistance. " It is well/' said he,
" to betray those who are masters of all treachery."
He enticed them into his snares with deliberate and
far-calculated cruelty, and put them to death with-
out pity. After he had thus extinguished both
parties he assumed their place, drew around him
the nobles of inferior rank and took them into his
pay. He ruled the countries he had conquered
with stern and terrible sway.

Alexander thus saw his warmest wishes fulfilled,
the barons of the land annihilated, and his house
about to found a great hereditary power in Italy.
But already he had begun to feel of what excesses hot

In the great MS. Chronicle of Sanuto many remarkable no-
tices concerning Cesare Borgia are found throughout the fourth
volume ; also some letters from him ; one to Venice, Dec. 1502 ;
one to the pope ; in the last he subscribes himself H V*08 S*» hu-
lissimus sennis et cLevotussima factura*
VOL. I. B

50 EXTENSION OF THE [BOOK I.

and unbridled passions are capable. Caesar would
share Ms power neither with kinsman nor favourite-
He had caused his brother, who stood in his way, to
be murdered and thrown into the Tibdr. His bro-
ther-in-law was attacked and stabbed on the steps
of the palace by his orders*. The wounded
man was nursed by his wife and sisters ; the sister
cooked his food, in order to secure him from poison,
and the pope set a guard before his house to pro-
tect his son-in-law from his son : precautions which
Csesar derided. He said, "What is not done by
noon, may be done by evening." When the prince
was recovering from his wounds, Caesar burst into
his chamber, drove out the wife and sister, called
an executioner, and ordered the unfortunate prince
to be strangled. He used Ms father as a means to
power ; otherwise he was utterly regardless of him.
He killed Peroto, Alexander's favourite, while
clinging to Ms patron and sheltered by the pon-
tifical mantle. The pope's face was sprinkled with
Ms blood.

There was a moment at which Rome and the
papal states were in Caesar's power. He was a man
of the greatest personal beauty ; so strong, that at a
bull-fight he deft the head of a bull with one stroke j

* Diario de Sebastiano di Branca de Telini, MS. Bibl. Barb.
N, 1103. enumerates the atrocities of Oesare in the following:
manner : II piimo, il fratello che si cMamava lo duca di Gandia,
lo fece buttar in fiume : fece ammazzare lo cognato che era figlio
del duca di Calabria, era lo pifc bello jovane che mai si vedesse in
Roma; ancorafece ammazzareVitellozzo ddla citt&dieastello et
era lo piu valentbuomo che fusse in qnel tempo. He calls the
Lord of Faenza lo pin bello figlio del znondo.

CH. II.] STATES OF THE CHURCH. 51

liberal, and not without traits of magnanimity,
but voluptuous and sanguinary. Rome trembled at
his name. Csesar wanted money and had enemies ;
every night murdered bodies were found in the
streets. Men lived in seclusion and silence ; there
was none who did not fear that his turn would come.
Those whom force could not reach were taken off
by poison*.

There was but one point on earth where such a
state of things was possible ; that, namely, at which
the plenitude of secular power was united to the
supreme spiritual jurisdiction. This point was oc-
cupied by Caesar. There is a perfection even in
depravity. Many of the sons and nephews of popes
attempted similar things, but none ever approached
Caesar's bad eminence : he was a virtuoso in crime.

"Was it not one of the primary and most essential
tendencies of Christianity to render such a power
impossible ? And now Christianity itself, and the
position of the head of the Christian church, were
made subservient to its establishment.

There wanted, indeed, no Luther to prove to the
world how diametrically opposed to all Christianity
were such principles and actions. At the very
time we are speaking of, the complaint arose that
the pope prepared the way for antichrist ; that he

To the various notices extant on this subject, I have added
something from Polo Capello. When any remarkable deaths
occurred, people immediately thought of poisonings by order of
the pope. Sanuto says of the death of the cardinal of Verona :
Si judica, sia stato atosicato per tuorli le faculta, perchfc avanti el
spirasse el papa mand6 guardie attorno la caxa.

E2

52 EXTENSION OF THE [BOOK I.

laboured for the coming of the kingdom, not of
heaven, but of Satan*.

We shall not follow into its details the hi-
story of Alexander. It is but too certain that
he once meditated taking off one of the richest of
the cardinals by poison : his intended victim how-
ever contrived by means of presents, promises,
and prayers, to gain over his head cook, and the dish
which had been prepared for the cardinal was
placed before the pope. He died of the poison he
had destined for anotherf. After his death, the
consequences which resulted from his schemes
were totally different from those he had contem-
plated.

Every papal family hoped to establish a lasting
sovereignty, but with the life of the pope the
power of his descendants invariably ended. They
relapsed into the obscurity from which they had
emerged. The calmness and indifference with which
the Venetians viewed the career of Caesar Borgia,
though in part attributable to other causes, was
mainly to be ascribed to this. They judged that
it was only a fire of straw, and that after Alexan-
der's death things would return of themselves to
their former posture J.

In this expectation, however, they were de-

* A loose sheet, MS. out of Sonuto's chronicle : See the
Appendix.

f Successo de la Morte di Papa Alessaudro. MS. Ibid.

t Pxmli Cronaca di Venezia MS. " Del rcsto poco stinaa-
YBXXO, conoscendo, ohe questo acquisto che all' hora faceva il
duca Yalentiaois sarebbe foco di paglia, che poco dura,'1

CH. II,] STATES OP THE CHURCH. 53

ceived. Alexander's successor evidently desired
that his character and conduct should stand in the
strongest contrast to those of the Borgias ; but to
that very cause he owed his power of carrying out
all their designs. He arrived at the goal they had
aimed at, hut by the opposite path. Pope Julius
II. enjoyed the inestimable advantage of finding an
occasion of satisfying the claims of his family in a
peaceful manner. He procured for them the pa-
trimony of Urbino. From that time he could give
himself up uninterruptedly to his own peculiar pas-
sion, war and conquest ; always, however, for the
advantage of the church, for the aggrandizement of
the holy see. Other popes had sought to gain
principalities for their sons and nephews : it was
the sole ambition of Julius to enlarge the states of
the church. He is therefore entitled to be consi-
dered their founder.

He found the whole territory in the utmost disor-
der. All the fugitives who had escaped from Caesar
were returned ; the Orsini and Colonna, the Vitelli
and Baglioni, Varani, Malatesta and Montefeltri ;
in every part of the country factions had revived ;
they fought in the very Borgo of Rome. Julius
has been compared to the Neptune of Virgil, rising
out of the waves with storm-allaying countenance,
and hushing their tumults*. He had the address
to rid himself even of Caesar Borgia, to get pos-
session of his castles and to seize upon his duke-

Tomaso Inghirami, in Fea, Notizie intorno Bafaele Sanzio
da Urbino, p. 57.

54 EXTENSION OF THE [BOOK I.

dom. He kept in check the less powerful barons,
by means which Caesar had prepared and facilitated ;
he was careful not to give them leaders, in cardinals
whose ambition might stir up their old insubordi-
nation*. The more powerful, who refused obe-
dience to him, he attacked without hesitation. His
accession to power sufficed to reduce that Baglione
who had once more taken possession of Perugia,
within the limits of lawful subjection ; Giovanni
Bentivoglio in his extreme old age was compelled
to abandon, without resistance, the splendid palace
he had erected at Bologna, bearing the inscription
wherein he had boasted too soon of his felicity.
These two powerful cities acknowledged the imme-
diate sovereignty of the holy see.

But Julius was yet far from the bourn he pro-
posed to himself. The Venetians possessed the
greater part of the coast of the papal states. They
were not at all disposed to make voluntary cession
of them., and in physical force they were far his
superiors. He could not conceal from himself that
if he attacked them he would excite a movement
in Europe, the end of which it would be difficult to
foresee. Should he risk it ?

Old as Julius was, worn by all the vicissitudes
of good and evil fortune which he had experienced
in the course of his long life, by the toils of war
and exile, enfeebled by intemperance and de-

* Machiavelli (Principe, c. xi.) is not alolie In remarking this.
Jovius, Vita Pompeji Colonnse, p. 140, relates, that the Boinan
barons under Julius U. complained ; principes urbis familias
solito purpurei galeri honore pertinaci pontificum livore privari.

CH. II.] STATES OF THE CHURCH. 55

bauchery, he yet knew not what fear or caution
meant. Age had not robbed him of the grand
characteristic of vigorous manhood — an indomi-
table spirit. He cared little for the princes of his
time ; he thought he towered above them all. He
hoped to gain in the tumult of an universal war ;
his only care was to be always provided with
money, so as to be able to seize the favourable
moment with all his might: he wanted, as a
Venetian aptly said, " to be lord and master of the
game of the world *. "

If we inquire what enabled him to assume so
commanding an attitude, we shall find that he
owed it mainly to the state of public opinion, which
permitted him to avow the designs he cherished ;
indeed not only to avow, but to boast of them.
The re-establishment of the states of the church
was at that time regarded by the world as a glorious
nay even a religious enterprise ; all the pope's mea-
sures had this sole object, all his thoughts were
animated by this idea, were, if I may use the ex-
pression, steeped in it.

He seized the most daring combinations ; he
risked all to obtain all ; he took the field himself

Sommario de la relation di Domenigo Trivixaii, MS. " II
papa vol esser il dominus et maistro del jocho del nrando."
There also exists a second relation by Polo Capdlo, of the date
of 1510, whence a few notes are inserted here. Francesco
Vettori : Sommario dell' istoria d' Italia, MS*, says of him :
Julio piU fortunato che prudente e piil animoso che forte, ma
ambitioso e desideroso di grandezze oltra a modo.

56 SECULAK SPIRIT [BOOK I.

and made his entry into Mirandola as conqueror
over the frozen ditches, through the breach. The
most decisive reverses could not move him to
yield, but seemed rather to call forth the resources
of his bold and inventive spirit,

He was successful. Not only did he wrest their
strongholds from the Venetians, but in the hot
struggle which this excited, he at length gained
possession of Parma, Piacenza and even Reggio,
and founded a power such as no pope had ever
attained to. He was master of all the beautiful
region between Piacenza and Terracina. He en-
deavoured everywhere to appear as a liberator ;
he treated his new subjects wisely and well, and
secured their attachmeut and fidelity. The rest of
the world saw, not without alarm, so many warlike
populations in allegiance to the pope. < ' Formerly,"
says Macchiavel, "no baron was so insignificant
as not to despise the papal power ; now, a king of
France stands in awe of it,"

§ 2. INTRUSION OF A SECULAR SPIBIT INTO THE
CHURCH.

It was obviously impossible that the entire in-
stitution of the church should not partake of the
character and inclination of its head ; that it should
not co-operate to give activity and effect to his de-
signs, or that it should not be reacted upon by
the very results to which it contributed.

CH. II.] IN THE CHURCH. 57

Not only the most exalted posts in the church, but
all, from the highest to the lowest, were regarded
as secular property. The pope nominated cardinals
from personal favour, or to please some prince, or,
not unfrequently, for direct payment in money.
Was it rational to expect that men so chosen could
fulfil their spiritual duties ? Sixtus IV. gave one
of the most important offices, the Penitentiaria,
(which involved a large portion of the power of
granting dispensations) to one of his nephews, at the
same time extending its privileges. He issued a
bull for the express purpose of enforcing them, in
which he calls all who should doubt of the justice
of such measures, a stiff-necked generation and
children of iniquity.* It followed of course that
the nephew regarded his office as a benefice, the
revenues of which he was at liberty to raise to the
highest possible pitch.

At this period the greater number of bishoprics
already conferred a large share of secular power ;
they were granted as sinecures, from family con-
siderations or court favour. The Roman Curia
sought only to extract the greatest possible profit
from the vacancies and appointments. Alexan-
der took double annates and levied double and
triple tithes. Almost everything, was put up to
sale j the taxes of the papal chancery rose from

Bull of the 9th of May, 1484. Quoniam nonnulii iniquita-
tis filii elationis et pertinaciee suas spiritu assumpto potestatem
xnajoris penitentiarii nostri — in dubium revocare — prsesumunt, —
decet nos adversus tales adhibere rexnedia, etc. Bullarium Ro-
manmn, ed. Cocquelines, iii. p. 187.

58 SEOUL AE SPIRIT [BOOK I.

day to day ; it was the duty of the director to re-
move causes of complaint, but he generally left
the revision to the very men who had fixed the
amount of the taxes*. Every mark of favour which
the office of the Dataria granted was paid for be-
forehand with a fixed sum. The disputes between
the potentates of Europe and the Curia generally
arose entirely out of these contributions, which the
court of Rome strove to increase, and every" coun-
try to reduce, as much as possible.

The nominees of such a system were, down to the
very lowest class, of necessity actuated by the same
motives. Men renounced their bishoprics indeed,
but retained the greater part of their revenues,
and sometimes even the collation to the depend-
ent benefices. Even the laws enacting that no
son of an ecclesiastic should inherit his father's
living, that no priest should bequeath his living
by will, were evaded. As every man, by dint of
money, could obtain as coadjutor whomsoever he
pleased, benefices became, in fact and practice,
hereditary. The natural result was, that the per-
formance of religious duties was in general com-
pletely neglected. In this brief statement I shall
confine myself to the remarks made by well-in-
tentioned prelates of the court of Rome itself.
" What a sight," exclaimed they, " for a Christian

* Refonnationes canceUaria apostolic® Sffll D1* Nri Pauli III,
1540. Ms. in the Barberini Library at Rome, Num. 2275.,
enumerates every abuse which bad crept in, since the time of
Sixttts and Alexander. The gravamina of the German nation
relate more particularly to these " new contrivances " and offices
of the Romish chancery. §* 14. §. 38,

CH. IX.] IN THE CHURCH. 59

who traverses the Christian world, is this desolation
of the church ! The shepherds have all deserted
their flocks, and have left them to hirelings*."

In all places inefficient and unfit men, without
examination, without election, were raised to the
administration of ecclesiastical affairs. As the pos-
sessors of livings were only intent on procuring sub-
stitutes at the lowest salaries, they found among
the mendicant friars men most suited to their pur-
poses. Under the title (unheard-of in this sense)
of suffragans, they had possession of bishoprics ;
under that of vicars, of benefices.

The mendicant orders already possessed extra-
ordinary privileges, which had been augmented by
Sixtus IV., himself a Franciscan. The right of
hearing confession, of administering the sacrament
of the Lord's supper, of giving extreme unction, of
burying in the ground, and even in the habit, of the
order, rights which conferred both consideration and
profit, he had granted to them in all their extent ;
and had threatened the parish priests who were re-
fractory and troubled the Orders, especially as to
successions, with loss of their benefices f*

* Consilium delectorum cardinalium et aliorum pnelatorum
de emendanda ecclesia Smo Dno Paulo HI. ipso jubente con-
scriptum, anno 1538 ; even at that time frequently printed ;
and important on this account, that it points out, in a manner to
leave no doubt, the root of the evil, so far as it lay in the ad-
ministration. In Rome, even long after it was printed, this
document was still incorporated in the collection of the manu-
scripts of the Curia.

t Amplissimse gratise et privilegia fratrum minorum conventu*
aliuxn ordinis S. Francisci, quee propterea Mare Magnum nun-
cupantur, 31 Aug. 1474. Bulkrium Rom. iii. 3, 139. A

60 SECULAR SPIRIT [BOOK I.

As the latter obtained the administration of
bishoprics and even of parishes, it is clear that
the influence they exercised was immense. All
the higher situations and more important digni-
ties, all the revenues, were in the hands of the
great families and their dependents, the favourites
at princely and papal courts ; the real manage-
ment of church affairs was in the hands of the
mendicant friars. In this the popes protected them.
The sale of indulgences, which at this time was
so amazingly extended, (Alexander VI. being the
first who officially declared that they delivered
souls out of purgatory) was conducted in part by
them. They too were sunk in utter worldhness.
What eager grasping for the higher posts I what
atrocious schemes for getting rid of opponents or
rivals at the time of election ! The former were
sent out of the way as preachers or as admini-
strators of a distant parish ; not only poison, but
the dagger or the sword were unscrupulously em-
ployed against the latter*. The comforts and pri-
vileges of religion were sold. The mendicant
monks, whose regular pay was very small, greedily
caught at any chance gains. " Alas !" exclaims

similar bull was published for the Dominicans. At the Lateran
council of 1512, this Mare Magnum occupied much attention ;
but privileges are more easily given than revoked ; at least such
was the case at that time.

* In a long report from Caraffa to Clement, which appears
only in a state of mutilation in Bromato's Life of Paul IV., it is
said in the manuscript of the monasteries : Si viene ad homicidi
non solo col veneno ma apertamente col coltello e con la spada,
per non dire con schiopetti*

CH. II.] IN THE CHURCH. 61

one of the prelates of that day, c * who are they that
make my eyes to be a fountain of tears ? Even those
set apart have fallen away. The vineyard of the
Lord is laid waste. If they went alone to destruc-
tion, it were an evil, but one that might be borne.
But as they are spread over all Christendom, like
veins through the body, their iniquity must bring
with it the ruin of the world."

§ 3. INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE,

If the book of history lay open to our view in its
authentic reality, if the fleeting forms of speech
stood before us in the durability of the works of
nature, how often should we discover in the former,
as in the latter, amidst the decay we mourn over,
the fresh and quick germ 1 how often behold life
springing out of death I

However we may deplore this contamination of
spiritual things with things of earth, this corruption
of the institutions of religion, yet, without these
evils the human mind could hardly have received
one of its most remarkable impulses, — an impulse
leading to vast and permanent results.

It cannot be denied, that however ingenious, va-
ried and profound are the productions of the mid-
dle ages, they are founded on a fantastic view of
the world, little answering to the realities of things.
Had the church subsisted in full and conscious
power, she would have exactly perpetuated this state

62 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK I.

of the human intellect. But in her present con-
dition she allowed the spirit of freedom to unfold
itself in a new manner and from a totally different
point.

In those ages, it was a narrow horizon which cir-
cumscribed the minds of men within impassable
limits : the revived acquaintance with antiquity was
the power that burst these bounds, that opened a
higher, more comprehensive and grander view.
Not that the middle ages had been altogether igno-
rant of the classical writers. The ardour with which
the Arabians, from whose intellectual labours so
much passed back into the south, collected and ap-
propriated the works of the ancients, did not fall
far short of the zeal with which the Italians of the
fifteenth century did the same ; and caliph Maimud
may be compared, in this respect, with Cosmo de'
Medici. But let us observe the difference. Un-
important as it may appear, it is in my opinion
decisive* The Arabians translated, at the same
time they often destroyed the original. As their
own peculiar ideas impregnated the whole of their
translations, they turned Aristotle, we might say,
into a system of theosophy ; they applied astrono-
my only to astrology, and astrology to medicine ;
and medicine they diverted to the development of
their own fantastic notions of the universe. The
Italians, on the other hand, read and learned.
From the Romans they advanced to the Greeks ;
the art of printing disseminated the original works
throughout the world in numberless copies* The

CH. II.] OF THE AGE. 63

genuine expelled the Arabian Aristotle. In the
unaltered writings of the ancients, men studied the
sciences ; geography directly out of Ptolemy, bo-
tany out of Dioscorides, the knowledge of medicine
out of Galen and Hippocrates. How could man-
kind be so rapidly emancipated from the imagina-
tions which hitherto had peopled the world, from
the prejudices which enslaved the mind ? It would
however be exaggeration to represent this as the
development of an original philosophical spirit ; to
talk of the discovery of new truths and the utter-
ance of great thoughts. Men sought only to un-
derstand the ancients ; they did not attempt to
surpass them. Their influence was less powerful
in stimulating to productive intellectual activity,
than in exciting to imitation.

This imitation was pregnant with the most im-
portant consequences to the civilization of the
world.

Men strove to rival the ancients in their own
tongues. Pope Leo X. was an especial promoter
of these labours* He read aloud to his own com-
pany the well-written introduction to the history
of Jovius5 and declared that since the time of Livy
nothing like it had been written. A lover of Latin
improvisation, we may imagine how captivated he
was with the talent of Vida, who could describe
such things as the game of chess in the stately mu-
sic of well-cadenced Latin hexameters. He invited
to his court a mathematician from Portugal cele-
brated for expounding his science in elegant Latin.
It was so that he wished to see jurisprudence and

64 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY LBOOK *'

theology taught : it was so that he would have had
the history of the church written.

But things could not remain stationary at this
point. To whatever perfection this direct imitation
of the ancients in their own languages was carried,
it could not embrace the whole field of intellectual
activity. It was essentially inadequate and unsa-
tisfactory, and was too commonly diffused for its de-
fects not to become obvious to many. A new idea
sprang up ; the imitation of the ancients in the mo-
ther tongue. Men felt themselves in the same re-
lation in which the Romans stood to the Greeks ;
they would no longer contend with them in detail,
they would emulate them in an entire body of lite-
rature. To this field they rushed with youthful
ardour.

Fortunately, just then a general taste arose for
the culture and improvement of language. The
merit of Bembo, who appeared exactly at the right
moment, consists less in his pure and polished
Latin, or in his attempts at Italian poetry, than in
those well-conceived and successful efforts to give
correctness and dignity to his mother tongue, and
to construct it after fixed rules, which excited the
peculiar admiration of Ariosto. To these rules his
experiments only served as examples.

If we take a cursory review of the works formed
on the antique pattern out of a material so skil-
fully prepared, so incomparable for flexibility and
harmony, the following considerations press them-
selves on our attention.

The most rigorous and servile copies were not the

CH. II.] OF THE AGE. 65

most successful. Tragedies like Rucceliai's Ros-
munda, which, as the editors say, was framed on the
model of the antique, didactic poems, like the
Bees of the same author (in which reference is made
from the beginning to Virgil, who is used in a
thousand ways in the course of the poem), had no
popularity and produced no permanent effect. Co-
medies were less fettered. Their nature demanded
that they should assume the colour and impression
of the present time ; but they were almost always
founded on a fable of antiquity, or on some comedy
of Plautus* i and even the talents of Bibbiena and
Macchiavelli have not been able to secure to their
comic works the unqualified admiration of later
ages. In other branches of poetry we find a sort
of conflict between the ancient and the modern
elements of which they are compounded : in San-
nazaro's Arcadia, for instance, how strangely do the
prolix, latinised periods of the prose, contrast with
the simplicity, earnestness and music of the verse 1

* Amongst much else that is remarkable, Marco Minio gives
an account to the Signory of one of the first representations
of a play in. Rome. He writes on the 13th of March, 1519.
" Finita dita festa," (he speaks of the carnival,) ' ' se and6 ad una
comedia che fece el reverendmo Cibo, dove & stato bellissima
cosa lo apparato tanto superbo che non si potria dire. La come-
dia fa questa che fa fenta una Ferrara, e in dita sala fu fata Fer-
rara precise come la e. Dicono che Monsignor Rev*0 Cibo
venendo per Ferrara e volendo una comedia li f u data questa come-
dia. E sta tratta parte de li suppositi di Plauto e dal Eunucho di
Terenzio molto bellissima." He means without doubt the Sup-
positi of Ariosto ; but we see, he does not mention the name of
the author, nor the title of the piece, only the sources whence it
was taken.

VOL. I. F

66 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK I,

It can be no matter of wonder if, spite of this
great advance, success was not complete. At least
a great example had been given, a great and most
pregnant experiment made ; but the genius of mo-
dern literature could not expand its wings with full
freedom while bound down by the rules of classical
composition. It was under the dominion of laws
essentially foreign and inappropriate to its nature.

And indeed how could anything great be achieved
by mere imitation? There is, doubtless, an in-
fluence exercised by models, by master works ; but
it is the influence of mind on mind. We are now
come to the unanimous conviction that the office
of beautiful types is to educate, to mould, to stimu-
late ; but that they ought not to enthral.

The most extraordinary creation necessarily
arose, when, a genius imbued with the spirit and the
tendencies of that age tried its powers in a work
departing both in matter and form from the stand-
ards of antiquity, and in which their more profound
and hidden influences were alone perceptible.

Such was the process which gave birth to the
peculiar character of the romantic epic. The poet
found prepared for his subject a Christian fable
of mingled religious and heroic interest ; the prin-
cipal figures, drawn in a few broad and strong
and general lines, were at his command; he had
ready for his use striking situations, though im-
perfectly developed ; the form of expression was
at hand, it came immediately from the common
language of the people. With this was blended
the common tendency of the age to ally itself with

CH. II.] OF THE AGE. 67

antiquity. Plastic, painting, humanising, it per-
vaded the whole. How different is the Rinaldo of
Bojardo — noble, modest, fall of joyous gallantry —
from the terrible son of Aimon, of the ancient ro-
mance ! How is the violent, the monstrous, the
gigantic, of the old representation subdued to the
comprehensible, the attractive, the captivating!
The old tales have something engaging and delight-
ful in their simplicity ; but how different is the plea-
sure of abandoning oneself to the harmony of Ari-
osto's stanzas, and hurrying on from scene to scene,
in the companionship of a frank and accomplished
mind ! The unlovely and the shapeless has moulded
itself into a distinct outline — into form and music "'
It has been the exclusive privilege of a few fa-
voured and golden ages of the world to conceive and
to express pure beauty of form. Such was the end
of the fifteenth, and the beginning of the sixteenth
century. How were it possible here to give the faint-
est outline of the entire devotion to art, of the fervid
love, the unwearied study of it which then existed?
We may confidently assert, that all that is most beau-
tiful in the architecture, sculpture, or painting of
modern art falls within this brief period. It was the
tendency of the times ; not in speculation and argu-
ment, but in practice and in application. In that,
men lived and moved. I may even assert, that the
fortress which the prince erected to ward off his
enemy, the note which the commentator inscribed

* I have endeavoured to woik out this subject in a separate
disquisition, which I have delivered in the Royal Academy of
Sciences,

68 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK I.

on the margin of his author, have somewhat of the
common character. The same spirit of severe
beauty lies at the hottom of every production of
that age.

At the same time we must not omit to notice,
that while poetry and art had seized upon the reli-
gious element, they had not left its character unaf-
fected by the alliance. The romantic epic, which
is founded on legends of the church, is generally
in complete opposition to its primitive spirit. Ari-
osto found it necessary to remove from his fable the
back-ground which contains its original meaning.

At an earlier period religion had as large a share
in all the works of the painter and the sculptor as
art. From the time that art was touched by the
breath of antiquity, she lost her profound attach-
ment to the types consecrated and adopted by
faith ; a change which may be distinctly traced from
year to year, even in the works of Raffaele. People
may censure it if they will ; but it seems not the less
true, that an admixture of the profane element was
necessary to the full development and bloom of art.

Was it not a most significant fact, that a pope
should himself conceive the project of pulling down
the ancient basilica of St. Peter, the metropolis of
Christendom, every spot of which was consecrated,
in which monuments of the piety of so many cen-
turies were collected, and of erecting in its stead a
temple on the model of those of antiquity ? It was
a purely artistical project. The two factions which
then divided the world of artists, so easily moved
to jealousy and contention, united to persuade Ju-

CH* II.] OF THE AGE. 69

lius II. to this undertaking. Michael Angelo wished
to have a worthy place for the tomb of the pope,
which he intended to execute with all the sub-
limity and grandeur that characterize his Moses.
Bramante was yet more urgent. He wanted to
put in execution the bold idea of raising a copy
of the Pantheon as vast as the original, on colossal
pillars. Many cardinals remonstrated, and it ap-
pears that the plan was generally unpopular. So
many personal recollections and affections cling to
every old church ; how much more then to this
chief temple of Christendom* ! But Julius II. was
not wont to give heed to opposition. Without
further hesitation he caused half of the old church
to be pulled down, and laid the foundation-stone of
the new one himself.

Thus, in the very centre of Christian worship
arose once more the forms in which the spirit of
the antique rites had found such an apt expression.
At San Pietro, in Montorio, on the spot which had
been sprinkled by the blood of the martyr, Bra-
mante built a chapel in the light and cheerful form
of a Peripteros.

If this involve a contradiction, it was identical

* Fea, Notizie intorno Rafaele, p. 41, gives the following
passage from the unprinted work of Panvinius, De rebus anti-
quis meinorabilibus et de preestantia basilicae S. Petri Apostolo-
rum Princifris, £c. " Qua in re, (i. e. the project of the new
building,) adversos pene habuit cunctorum ordinum homines et
prsesertim. cardinales ; non quod novam non cuperent basilicam
magnificentissimam extrui, sed quia antiquam toto terrarum orbe
venerabilem, tot sanctorum sepulcris augustissimam, tot celeber-
Jtimis in ea gestis insignem, funditus deleri ingemiscant."

70 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK I.

with that which displayed itself at the same period
in the whole condition and frame of society.

Men went to the Vatican, less to pray on the steps
of the Apostles, than to admire the master-pieces of
antique art, the Belvedere Apollo and the Laocoon,
in the pope's dwelling. The pope was indeed, then
as formerly, urged to set on foot a war against the
infidels (as I find for example in a Preface of Na-
vagero *) ; hut it was not the interests of Chris-
tianity that occupied the writer's thoughts ; his hope
was, that the pope would find the lost writings of
the Greeks, and perhaps even of the Romans.

In the midst of this full tide of study and of pro-
duction, of intellect and of art, Leo X. lived in
the enjoyment of the growing temporal power at-
tached to the highest spiritual dignity. His claim
to the honour of giving his name to this age has
been, disputed, and perhaps he owed it less to
merit than to fortune. He had grown up in the
elements which formed the world around him, and
he possessed sufficient freedom from prejudice and
susceptibility of mind to foster and to enjoy its
glories. If he had a peculiar delight in the Latin
writings of direct imitators, he could not withhold
his interest from the original works of his contempo-
raries. In his presence the first tragedy was acted,
and even, spite of the objections to a play imi-
tated from Plautus, the first comedy in the Italian
language. There is scarcely one of which he did
not witness the first representation. Ariosto was

* Naiigem Prefatio in Ciceronis Orationce, t, 1,

CH. II.] OF THE AGE. 71

one of the acquaintances of his youth. Machiavelli
wrote several things expressly for him. For him
Raffaele filled chambers, galleries, and chapels with
human beauty raised to ideal perfection and with
life in its purest expression. He had a passionate
love of music, which just then began to be culti-
vated throughout Italy in a more scientific manner.
The walls of the palace daily echoed with the
sounds of music ; the pope was heard to hum the
melodies that had delighted him. It may be that
this is a sort of intellectual sensuality ; if so, it is
at least the only sensuality becoming a human
being.

Leo X. was full of kindness and sympathy : he
rarely refused a request, or if he did, it was in the
gentlest manner, and only when it was impossible
to grant it. " He is a good man," says an obser-
ving ambassador to his court, "very bounteous,
and of a kindly nature ; if he were not under the in-
fluence of his kinsmen he would avoid all errors*."
"He is learned/3 says another, "and a lover of
learned men ; religious, but yet disposed to enjoy
lifef." He did not indeed always maintain the
decorum befitting a pope : sometimes, to the de-
spair of his master of the ceremonies, he quitted
Rome not only without a surplice, but even, as the
distressed functionary observes in his diary, "what
is the most vexatious, with boots on his feet." He

* Zorzi. " Per II papa, non voria ni guerra ni fatiche, ma quest!
soi lo intriga."

t Marco Minio : Relazione. " E docto e amador di docti, ben
religiose, ma vol viver." He calls him '* bona persona/*

72 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK I.

spent the autumn in rural pleasures ; he took the
diversion of hawking at Viterbo, of stag-hunting at
Corneto, and of fishing on the lake of Bolsena, after
which he passed some time at his favourite seat at
Malliana, where he was accompanied by men of
those light and supple talents which enliven every
passing hour, such as improvisatori. In the win-
ter he returned to the city, which was in the highest
state of prosperity. The number of inhabitants in-
creased a third in a few years : manufactures found
their profit — art, honour — every oue security. Ne-
ver was the court more lively, more agreeable, more
intellectual; no expenditure was too great to be
lavished on religious and secular festivals, on
amusements and theatres, on presents and marks
of favour. It was heard with pleasure that Giuliano
Medici, with his young wife, thought of making
Rome his residence. " Praised be God ! " Cardinal
Bibbiena writes to him ; "the only thing we want
is a court with ladies."

The debauchery of Alexander VI. must ever be
contemplated with loathing. Leo's gay and grace-
ful court was not in itself deserving of censure ;
yet it were impossible to deny that it was little an-
swerable to the character and position of the head
of the church. These incongruities were not ob-
vious during his lifetime; but when they after-
wards came to be compared and considered, they
could not fail to strike all men.

In such a state of things, genuine christian-
mindedness and faith were out of the question ;
there arose indeed a direct opposition to them.

CH. II.] OF THE AGE. 73

The schools of philosophy were divided as to
whether the soul was really immaterial and immor-
tal, but one, diffused through all mankind, or whe-
ther it was merely mortal. The most distinguished
philosopher of that day, Pietro Pornponazzo, de-
clared himself the champion of the latter opinion :
he compared himself to Prometheus, whose vitals
were preyed upon by a vulture for having stolen fire
from heaven ; but with all his painful toil, with all
his acuteness, he arrived at no other result than this,
" that when the legislator decreed that the soul was
immortal, he had done so without troubling him-
self about the truth*." It must not be supposed
that these opinions were confined to a few, or held in
secret ; Erasmus expresses his astonishment at the
blasphemies he heard. An attempt was made to
prove to him, a foreigner, out of Pliny, that there
was no difference between the souls of men and of
beasts f.

* Pomponazzo was earnestly attacked on this point, as appeals
in passages extracted from letters of the popes by Contelori and
elsewhere. Petrus de Mantua, it is there said, " asseruit, quod
anima rationalis secundum propria philosophise et mentem Ari-
stotelis sit seii videatur mortalis, contra determinationem con-
cilii Lateranensis : Papa mandat ut dictus Petrus revocet ; alias
contra ipsum procedatur, 13 Junii, 1518."

t Burigny : Life of Erasmus, I. 139. I will here also quote
the following passage from Paul Canensius in the Vita Pauli II.
" Pari quoque diligentia e medio Romanae curise nefandam nonnul-
lorum juvenum sectam scelestamque opinionem substulit, qui de-
pravatis moribus asserebant, nostram fidem orthodoxam potius
quibusdam sanctorum astutiis quam veris rerum testimonies sub-
sistere." The Triumph of Charlemagne, a poem by Ludovici,
breathes a spirit of thorough materialism, as we see from the
quotations by Daru in the 40th book of the Histoire de Venise.

74 OPPOSITION TO THE [BOOK I.

While the common people sank into an almost
pagan superstition, and looked for salvation to mere
ceremonial practices, the opinions of the upper
classes were of an anti-religious tendency.

How astonished was the youthful Luther when
he visited Italy! At the very moment that the
offering of the mass was finished, the priests
uttered words of blasphemy which denied its
efficacy. It was the tone of good society in
Rome to question the evidences of Christianity.
" No one passed " (says P. Ant. Bandino*) " for
an accomplished man, who did not entertain here-
tical opinions about Christianity ; at the court the
ordinances of the catholic church, and passages
of holy writ, were spoken of only in a jesting man-
ner; the mysteries of the faith were despised/5

We see how everything has its place in the chain
of events ; how one event, or one state of opinion,
calls forth another: the ecclesiastical claims of
princes excite the temporal claims of the pope ; the
•decay of religious institutions produces the deve-
lopment of a new tendency of the human mind ;
till at length the very grounds of belief are assailed
by public opinion.

§ 4. OPPOSITION TO THE PAPACT IN GERMANY.

The relation in which Germany stood to the state
and progress of opinion we have just been content

* In Caracciolo's Life, MS. of Paul IV. " In quel tempo non
pareva fosse galantuomo e buon cortegiano colui che de dogmi
delia chiesa non aveva qualche opinion erronea ed heretica."

CH. II.] PAPACY IN GERMANY. 75

plating, appears to me singularly worthy of notice.
She took part in it, but in a spirit and manner
entirely different.

While Italy had produced poets, like Boccaccio
and Petrarch, who excited in the nation a taste for
classical literature, in Germany the study of the
ancients originated in a religious brotherhood, the
Hieronymites ; a community bound together by a
life of laborious study and retirement from the
world. It was in the school of one of its members,
the profound and blameless mystic Thomas a Kem-
pis, that all those venerable men were formed, who
were attracted to Italy by the new light which broke
from ancient literature, and returned to diffiise it
over Germany*.

As the beginning differed, so likewise did the
progress.

In Italy men studied the works of the ancients
as a means to the acquisition of sciences ; in Ger-
many they used them as elementary books. There,
they sought the solution of the highest problems
that can engage the human mind, if not as inde-
pendent thinkers, yet under the guidance of the
ancients ; here, the best books were devoted to the
instruction of youth. In Italy men were cap-
tivated by the beauty of the form, and their first
essays were imitations of the ancients ; they suc-
ceeded, as we have shown, in creating a national

* Meiners has the merit of having been the first to bring to
light this genealogy from the Daventria Illustrata of Revius.
Laves of celebrated men belonging to the sera of the revival of let-
ters, ii. 308.

76 OPPOSITION TO THE [BOOK I

literature. In Germany these studies took a re-
ligious direction : the names of Reuchlin and Eras-
mus are well known. If we inquire wherein con-
sists the highest merit of the former, we shall find
that he was the first writer of a Hebrew grammar
a monument of which he hoped, as confidently as
the Italian poets did of their works, " that it would
be more durable than brass." As he opened the
way to the study of the Old Testament, Erasmus
devoted his attention to the New. He first printed
it in Greek ; his paraphrase and commentaries upon
it have had an effect far exceeding even his own
expectations.

Whilst, in Italy, the public mind was alien-
ated from the church, and even hostile to it, a
somewhat similar state of things prevailed in Ger-
many. There, that freedom of thought which can
never be wholly suppressed, found its way into
the world of letters, and in some cases amounted
to decided infidelity. A more profound theology,
springing from mysterious sources, though rejected
by the church, had never been eradicated ; this
formed part of the literary movement of Germany.
In this point of view I think it remarkable, that as
early as the year 1513, the Bohemian brethren
made advances to Erasmus, the turn of whose mind
and opinions was so totally different from their
own*. And thus on either side of the Alps the
progress of the age was in a direction hostile to the
ascendency of the church. On the one side, it was

* Fiiaslin : Kirchcn und Kctzergeschichtc, ii. 82.

CH. II.] PAPACY IN GERMANY. 77

connected with science and literature ; on the other,
it arose out of biblical learning and a more pro-
found theology. There, it was negative and unbe-
lieving ; here, positive and believing. There, it
sapped the very foundations of the church ; here,
it laboured to build it up anew. There, it was iro-
nical, sarcastic and obsequious to power ; here, it
was earnest and indignant, and girded itself up to
the most daring assault the church of Rome had
ever sustained.

It has been represented as matter of accident
that this was first directed against the abuses which
attended the sale of indulgences ; but as the alien-
ation of the most profoundly spiritual of all gifts
(which was involved in the system of indulgences,)
was the most striking symptom of the disease per-
vading the whole body — the intrusion of world-
liness into religious things — it ran most violently
counter to the ideas entertained by the profound
and spiritual German theologians. To a man like
Luther, whose religion was one of inward experi-
ence, who was filled with the ideas of sin and justi-
fication which had been propounded by German
theologians before his time, and confirmed in them
by the study of the Scriptures which he had drunk
in with a thirsting heart, nothing in the world could
be so shocking as the sale of indulgences. Forgive-
ness of sins to be had for money, must be the most
deeply offensive to him whose consciousness of the
eternal relation between God and man sprang from
this very point, and who had learned to understand
the Scriptures for himself.

78 OPPOSITION TO PAPACY IN GERMANY, [BOOK I.

He certainly began Ins opposition to the church
of Rome by denouncing this particular abuse ; but
the ill-founded and partial resistance which he ex-
perienced led him on step by step. He was not
long in discovering the connexion which existed
between this monstrous practice and the general
corruption of the church. His was not a nature to
quail before the last extremity; he attacked the
head of the church himself with dauntless intre-
pidity. From the midst of the most devoted ad-
herents and champions of papacy, the mendicant
friars, arose the boldest and most powerful assail-
ant it had ever encountered. Luther, with singu-
lar acuteness and perspicuitys held up to view the
principle from which the power originally based
upon it had so widely departed; he gave utter-
ance to an universal conviction ; his opposition,
which had not yet unfolded all those positive results
with which it was pregnant, was pleasing to unbe-
lievers, and yet, while it attracted them, satisfied
the earnestness of believers : hence his writings
produced an incalculable effect ; in a moment Ger-
many and the world were filled with them.

79

CHAPTER III.

POLITICAL STATE OF EUROPE: ITS CONNEXION
WITH THE REFORMATION,

THE worldly character which the papacy had
assumed, the ambition and aggrandisement of
the see of Rome, had produced two movements in
society. The one was religious ; already that fall-
ing away from the church had commenced which
was big with such boundless results. The other po-
litical ; the elements which had been brought into,
conflict were still in the most violent fermenta-
tion, out of which a new order of things was
destined to arise. These two movements, their
effects on each other, the contests which they ex-
cited, for centuries determined the history of the
papacy.

Never let a sovereign or a state imagine that
any good can befal them which they do not owe
to themselves, which they have not won by their
own exertions.

The Italian powers, by calling in the aid of
foreign nations to overcome each other > had them-
selves destroyed that independence which they

80 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [BOOK I.

had enjoyed during the fifteenth century, and
had held out their country as the common prize
of victory. This must in great measure be attri-
buted to the popes* They had unquestionably
attained to a power which the Roman see had
never before possessed; but they did not owe
it to their own exertions. They owed it to the
French, the Spaniards, the Germans, the Swiss.
But for his alliance with Louis XII. , Caesar Borgia
would hardly have been able to accomplish much.
Vast and magnificent as were the views of Ju-
lius II., heroic as were his acts, he must have suc-
cumbed but for the help of the Spaniards and the
Swiss. How could it be otherwise than that
those who had won the victory should endeavour
to profit by the ascendency which it gave them ?
Julius II. saw this clearly. His design was
to preserve a sort of balance among the other
powers, and to make use only of the least for-
midable, the Swiss, whom he might hope to
lead.

But it fell out otherwise. Two great powers
arose, who warred, if not for the sovereignty of the
world, yet for the supremacy in Europe ; each so
powerful, that the pope was far from being able to
cope with either. They fought out their battle on
Italian ground.

First appeared the French. Not long after the
accession of Leo X., they marched in greater force
than had ever crossed the Alps, to re-conquer
Milan. At their head, in the ardour of youthful
and chivalrous daring, was Francis I.

CH. III.] THE REFORMATION, UNDER LEO X. 81

Everything depended on the question whether
the Swiss could resist him or not. The battle of
Marignano was important because the Swiss were
completely defeated, and because, from the time
of that defeat, they never again exercised an
independent influence in Italy.

The first day the battle remained undecided,
and bonfires were even kindled in Rome in conse-
quence of the report of the success of the Swiss.
The earliest tidings of the result of the second day
and of the real issue of the battle, were received
by the ambassador from Venice, which was in
alliance with the king and had contributed not a
little to decide the fortune of the day. At a very
early hour in the morning he repaired to the
Vatican to communicate the intelligence to the
pope, who came half-dressed from his chamber to
give him audience. " Yesterday," said the am-
bassador, " your holiness gave me news which
was both bad and false; to day I bring you
in return news which is good and true. The
Swiss are beaten." He read letters which he had
just received from men known to the pope, and
which left no doubt on the subject*. Leo did not
conceal his profound alarm. "What then will
become of us, what will become even of you ?**
" We hope all good for both." " Mr. Ambassa-

* Summario de la relatione di Zorzi. " 1E cussi dismiaiato
venne fuori non compito di vestir. I/orator disse : Pater santo
eri YI° sant* mi dette ana cattiva nuova e falsa, io le daro ozi una
bona e vera, zoe Sguizari k rotti." The letters -were from Paa-
qualigo, Dandolo and others.

VOL. I. G

82 CONNEXION OP POLITICS WITH [flOOK I.

dor," replied the pope, " we must throw ourselves
into the king's arms, and cry Misericordia *."

The French did, in fact, acquire a decided pre-
ponderance in Italy by this battle. Had they
followed it up with vigour, neither Tuscany nor
the States of the Church, so easily stirred to re-
bellion, would have been able to make much resist-
ance, and the Spaniards would have found it difficult
to maintain themselves in Naples. " The king,"
said Francesco Vettori, " might become lord of
Italy/* How much at this crisis depended on Leo !

Lorenzo de' Medici said of his three sons, Ju-
lian, Peter, and John, that the first was good,
the second a fool, but that the third, John, was
prudent. This third was pope Leo X., and he
now proved himself equal to the difficult position
in which he was placed.

Contrary to the advice of the cardinals he pro-
ceeded to Bologna to confer with the king. Here
they agreed on the Concordat by which they
divided between them the rights of the Galilean
church. Leo was likewise compelled to give up
Parma and Piacenza ; but at length he succeeded
in allaying the storm, in prevailing on the king to
return, and in retaining undisturbed possession of
his territory t- How fortunate this was for him,

* " Domine orator, vederemo quel fara il re Christ1110 se met-
teremo inle so man dimandando misericordia. Lui, orator, disse :
pater saute, rostra santita non avr& mal Qlcuao."

f Zorzi. " Questo papa & savio c praticho di stato e si peasd
con li Buoi consultori di venir abocharsi a Bologna con vergogna
dilasede(ap.); xnolti cardinal! traiqual il cardinal Hadriano
lo disconsejava pur vi volse andar."

CH. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER LEO X. 83

appears from the consequences which immediately
ensued upon the mere approach of the French.
It is worthy of all remark, that Leo, after his allies
had been defeated, and he had been compelled to
cede a portion of his dominions, had still power to
keep possession of two provinces but just acquired,
accustomed to independence, and filled with a thou-
sand elements of insubordination.

He has always been reproached with his attack
on Urbino, a princely house,- with which his own
family had found refiige and hospitality in exile.
The cause was, that the duke, being • in his pay,
had proved faithless to him at the decisive mo-
ment. Leo said, if he did not chastise him for
it, there would not be a baron in the States of the
Church so impotent as not to set himself in
revolt against him. He had found the pontifi-
cate respected, and he would keep it so*. But
as the duke had, at least in secret, assistance
from the French, as he found allies throughout
the papal states, and even in the college of cardi-
nals, the struggle was a fearful one. It was not
easy to repulse so accomplished a soldier as the
duke ; the pope was sometimes seen to tremble at
the bad news he received and to lose all his self-
possession. It is said that a plot was laid to poison
him by means of the medicines administered for a

* Franc. Vettori (Sommario della storia <T Italia,) an intimate
friend of the Medici, gives this explanation. The defender of
Francesco Maria, Giov. Batt. Leoni (Vita di Francesco Maria),
relates facts which approach very nearly to this. P. 166.
et seq.

G2

grt4 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [BOOK I.

ilisease under which he was suffering*. The pope
succeeded in defending himself from this enemy,
hut we see with how much difficulty. The effect
of the defeat of his party by the French extended
to his capital and even to his palace.

Meanwhile the second great power had acquired
strength and consistency. Strange as it seemed
that one prince should rule in Vienna, Brussels,
Valladolid, Saragoza, and Naples, and even in an-
other continent, this vast concentration of power
had been effected by a chain of domestic events,
each link of which was so slight as scarcely to
attract the attention of the surrounding states. The
elevation of the house of Austria, which united so
many different countries under its sway, was one
of the greatest and most eventful changes that had
befallen Europe. At the moment that the nations
severed themselves from the point which had
hitherto formed their common centre, they were
attracted by political circumstances into a new
connexion, and incorporated into a new system.
The power of Austria immediately presented itself
as a counterpoise to the preponderancy of France.
The possession of the imperial dignity conferred
on Charles V. lawful claims on the sovereignty of
Lombardy at least. This state of Italian affairs
was not long in leading to war.

* Fea, in the Notizie intorno Kafaele, p. 35, has given, from
the Acts of the Consistory, the sentence against the three cardi-
nals, which expressly refers to their understanding with Fran-
cesco Maria,

CH. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER LEO X. 85

The popes, as we have already remarked, had
hoped by extending their territory to acquire ab-
solute independence. They now beheld themselves
hemmed in between two far superior powers. A
pope was not insignificant enough to be able to
remain neuter in the contest between them, nor
was he powerful enough to throw a decisive weight
into either scale ; he must seek safety in a discreet
use of events. Leo is reported to have said, that
when he had concluded a treaty with the one party,
he did not, on that account, cease to negotiate with
the other*.

This double policy was the natural consequence
of the situation in which he was placed. Leo, how-
ever, could hardly entertain any serious doubt to
which he ought to attach himself. Even had it
not been of infinite importance to him to recover
Parma and Piacenza ; had not the promise of Charles

V. (so entirely to his advantage), that he would
place an Italian at Milan, been sufficient to deter-
mine him, there was yet another reason, and, as it
appears to me, a thoroughly conclusive one. This
lay in the state of the church.

During the whole period we are treating of, the
princes desired nothing so much in all their dis-
putes and difficulties with the popes, as to excite a
spiritual opposition to them. Charles VIII. of
France had no more effective ally against Alexander

VI. than the Dominican, Geronimo Savonarola of

* Suriano. " Relations di 1533, dices! del Papa Leone, che
quando 1 aveva fatto lega con alcuno prima, soleva dir che
pero non si dovea restar de tratar cum lo altro principe opposto/*

86 CONNEXION OP POLITICS WITH [BOOK I.

Florence. When Louis XII. had given up all
hope of reconciliation with Julius II., he called a
council at Pisa ; a measure which, though attended
with slight success, caused great alarm at Rome.
Above all, when did a bolder and more successful
enemy to the papacy arise than Luther? The
mere appearance of such an actor on the world's
stage was too significant a fact not to invest him
with high political importance. In this light it
was viewed by Maximilian, who would not suffer
any violence to be done to the monk. He recom-
mended him specially to the elector of Saxony —
" One might have need of him some time or other:"
and from that time Luther's influence increased
from day to day. The pope had neither been able
to conciliate nor to terrify him, nor to get him into
his power. Let it not be imagined that Leo did
not appreciate the danger. How often did he try
to employ all the talents by which he was sur-
rounded on this arena ! But there was yet another
expedient. As, if he declared against the emperor,
he had to fear that this alarming opposition would
be protected and fostered, so, if he courted his al-
liance, he might hope for his aid in suppressing
religious innovation.

At the diet of Worms in the year 1521, where
the religious and political affairs of Europe were
discussed, Leo concluded a treaty with Charles V.
for the re-conquest of Milan. The outlawry which
was proclaimed against Luther bears the same date
as this treaty. Other motives might have con-
spired to prompt this act, but no one can persuade

CH. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER LEO X. 87

himself that it was not intimately connected with
the political alliance.

And the twofold consequences of this alliance
were not long in manifesting themselves.

Luther was seized on the Wartburg, and kept
concealed*. The Italians could not believe that
Charles had suffered him to escape, from a con-
scientious determination not to violate the safe
conduct he had granted. " As he saw/' say they,
" that the pope greatly feared Luther's doctrine, he
wished to hold him in check with that reinf ." Be
this as it may, Luther vanished for a moment from
the stage of the world ; he was to a certain extent
beyond the reach of the law, and the pope had at
all events caused decisive measures to be taken
against him.

Meanwhile the allied imperial and papal arms
were successful in Italy. One of the pope's nearest
relations, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, the son of his
father's brother, took the field in person and ac-
companied the victorious army into Milan. It was
asserted in Rome that the pope destined this duchy
for him. I find, however, no conclusive proof of
this, and I think that the emperor would hardly
have acceded to it so easily, But, even without

* Luther was thought to be dead ; there was a story, that he
had been murdered by the papal party. Pallavicini (Istoria del
concilio di Trento I, c. 28.) infers from the letters of Alexander,
that the nuncios had been in danger of their lives on this account.

f Vettori : " Carlo si excus6 di non poter procedere piii oltre
rispetto al salvocondotto, ma la verita fu che conoscendo che il
Papa temeva molto di questa doctrina di Luthero, lo voile tenere
con questo freno."

88 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [BOOK I.

this, the advantages to the Holy See were incalcu-
lable. Parma and Piacenza were reconquered ; the
French driven away ; the pope must of necessity
exercise great influence over the new ruler of Milan.
It was one of the most eventful crises in history.
A new current of political affairs had set in ; a great
ecclesiastical movement had begun. It was a mo-
ment in which the pope might flatter himself that
he would he able to direct the one and to control
the other. He was still young enough to hope to
turn it to its full account.

Strange, deceitful lot of man ! Leo was at his
villa Malliana when the news of the entry of his
troops into Milan was hrought to him. He gave
himself up to the feeling which is wont to accom-
pany the successful termination of an enterprise,
and contemplated with pleasure the festivities with
which his people were preparing to celebrate his
triumph. Up to a late hour in the night he went
backwards and forwards from the window to the
blazing hearth ; — it was in November * . Somewhat
exhausted, but full of joy and exultation, he re-
turned to Rome. The rejoicings for the victory-
were just ended, when he was attacked by a mortal
disease. " Pray for me," said he to his attendants ;
" I still make you all happy." He loved life, hut

* Copia di una lettera di Roma alii Sgri. Bolognesi a di 3
Dcbr. 1521, scritta per Bartholomeo Argilelli, in 32nd vol. of
Sanuto. The news reached the pope the 24th of November,
whilst saying the Benedicite. This also he particularly re-
garded as a good omen. He said : " Questa £ una buona nuova,
che havete portato." The Swiss immediately began to fire/«w de
ioie. The pope sent to beg them to be quiet, but in vain.

CH. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER LEO X. 89

his hour was come. He had not time to receive
the viaticum, nor extreme unction. So suddenly,
so early, so full of high hope, he diefi " as the
poppy fadeth*."

The Roman people could not forgive him for
dying without the sacraments, for spending so
much money, and for leaving debts. They ac-
companied his body to the grave with words of
reproach and indignity. "You glided in. like a
fox/' said they ; " you ruled like a lion, you have
died like a dog/' Posterity, however, has stamped
a century, and a great epoch in the advancement of
the human, race, with his namef „

We have called him fortunate. After he had
surmounted the first calamity which befel not only
him but other members of his house, his destiny
led him on from pleasure to pleasure, from success
to success. The adverse circumstances of his life
were precisely those which contributed the most to
his advancement. His life passed in a sort of intel-
lectual intoxication and in the unbroken fulfilment
of all his wishes. This was in part the result of his
kindly and bountiful nature, his quick and plastic
intellect, his ready acknowledgement of merit and

* People immediately talked of poison. Lettera di Hiero-
nymo Bon a suo barba a di 5 Dec. in Sanuto, " Non si sa certo
se 1 pontefice sia morta di veneno. Fo aperto. Maistro Fe-
rando judica sia state venenato; alcuno de li altri no; & di
questa opinione Mastro Severino, che lo vide aprire, dice che non
£ venenato/'

f Capitoli di una littera scritta a Roma 21 Dcbr. 1521. " Con-
cludo cue non e morta mai papa cum peggior fama dapoi e la
chiesa di Dio."

90 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [BOOK I.

gratitude for kindness. These qualities are the
fairest endowments of nature, the true gifts of for-
tune ; they can hardly be acquired, yet they affect
the whole enjoyment of life. His pleasures were
little interrupted by affairs of state. As he did
not concern himself with details, and only exer-
cised supervision over the whole, business was not
oppressive to him ; it only called into action the
highest faculties of his mind. It was, perhaps,
precisely because he did not devote every day and
hour to it, that he was able to deal with it in a
large and unfettered spirit; that} in all the per-
plexities of the moment, he could keep his eye
steadily fixed on the one guiding thought which
lighted the whole path on which he was about to
enter. He himself was ever at the helm and di-
rected the course of the vessel. In the last mo-
ments of his life all the currents of his policy
mingled in one full tide of triumph and prosperity.
It may be counted among his felicities that he died
then. Other times followed ; and it is difficult to
believe that he could have opposed a successful re-
sistance to their unpropitious influences. The
whole weight of them fell on his successors.

The conclave lasted long. " Sirs," said the
Cardinal de' Medici, who was alarmed at the return
of the enemies of his house to Urbino and Perugia,
and trembled for Florence itself; " Sirs, I see that
from among us, here assembled, no pope can be

CH.II1.] THE REFORMATION UNDER ADRIAN VI. 91

chosen. I have proposed to you three or four, but
you have rejected them all: those, on the other
hand, whom you propose, I cannot accept. We
must seek a pope among those who are not pre-
sent." The cardinals, assenting to his opinion,
asked him whom he had in his mind. " Take," said
he, " the cardinal of Tortosa, an aged, venerable
man, who is generally esteemed a saint*." This
was Adrian of Utrechtf, formerly professor in the
university of Lorraine, and teacher of Charles V.,
through whose personal attachment he had risen to
the office of governor of Spain, and to the dignity
of cardinal. Cardinal Cajetan, who did not be-
long to the Medicean party, rose to speak in praise
of the proposed pope. Who would have thought
that the cardinals, hitherto invariably accustomed
to consult their own personal interests in the elec-
tion of a pope, would agree to choose an absent
man, a Netherlander, known to very few, and
with whom none could hope to make terms for
their private advantage ? They suffered themselves

* Lettera di Roma a di 19 Zener. in Sanuto. " Medici dubi-
tando de li casi suoi, se la cosa fosse troppo ita in longo, deli-
berb mettere conclusione et havendo in ammo questo cle Dertu-
sense, per esser imperialissimo disse, etc."

f So he calls himself in a letter of the date of 1514, which
we find in Caspar Burmannus : Adrianus VI. sive analecta his-
torica de Adriano VI., p. 443. In original documents belonging
to his own country, he is called Master Aryan Florisse of
Utrecht. By modern writers he has occasionally been called
Boyens, because his father signed himself Floris Boyens ; but
that also means merely Bode win's son, and is no family name.
See Burmannus in the notes to Moringi Vita Adriani, p. 2.

92 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [BOOK I.

to be hurried into this step by the surprise of so
unlocked for a proposition. After it was taken,
they themselves did not rightly know how they
had been led into it. They were half dead with
fear, says one of our authorities. It was affirmed
that they had for a moment persuaded themselves
that he would not accept the office. Pasquin re-
presented the pope as a schoolmaster, and the car-
dinals as his scholars receiving chastisement at his
hands.

It was long since the election had fallen on a
man more worthy of his high and holy office.
Adrian was of a most spotless fame ; upright,
pious, industrious ; of such a gravity that nothing
more than a faint smile was ever seen upon his
lips, yet full of benevolent, pure intentions ; a
true minister of religion*. "What a contrast, when
he entered the city in which Leo had held his pro-
digal and magnificent court ! A letter is extant, in
which he says, that he would rather serve God in
his priory at Lonvaine than be popef. And in

* Literae ex Victoria! directivae ad Cardinalem de Flisco, in the
33rd volume of Sanuto, where he is described as follows : " Vir
est sui tenax, in concedendo parcissinms : in recipiendo nullus
aut rarissimus. In sacrificio cotidianus et inatutinus est. Quern
amet, aut si quern amet, nulli exploratum. ^Ira non agitur, jocis
non ducitur. Neque ob pontificatum visus est exultasse, quin
constat graviter ilium ad ejus famam nuntii ingemuisse." In
the collection of Burmannus there is an Itinerarium Adriani by
Ortiz, who accompanied the pope, and was intimately acquainted
with him. He asserts, p. 223, that he never remarked anything
in him worthy of blame ; that he was a mirror of every virtue.

t Florence Oem Wyngaerden : Vittoria, 15 Febr. 1522, in
Burmannus, p. 398.

CH. Ill,] THE REFORMATION UNDER ADRIAN VI. 93

fact he carried the life and habits of a professor
into the Vatican. It is a characteristic trait, which
we may be permitted to record, that he brought
with him an old woman-servant, who continued
to provide for the wants of his household as she
had been accustomed to do. He changed nothing
in his manner of living ; rose at earliest dawn,
said mass, and then proceeded in his accustomed
order to business and to study, which were only
interrupted by the simplest meal. It cannot be
said that he was a stranger to the taste or culture
of his age. He loved Flemish art, and valued eru-
dition the more for being tinctured with elegance.
Erasmus confesses that Adrian was his only de-
fender against the attacks of fanatical schoolmen*.
He, however, disapproved the almost pagan tastes
and pursuits which were then in fashion at Rome,
and of the race of poets he would hear nothing,

No man could more earnestly desire to heal the
distempers which he perceived in Christendom than
did Adrian VI. (He retained his own name.)

The progress of the Turkish arms, the fall of Bel-
grade and of Rhodes, made him peculiarly anxious
to bring about a peace between the Christian
powers. Although he had been the emperor's
preceptor he instantly took up a neutral position.
When the war broke out afresh, the imperial am-

* Erasmus says of him in one of his letters . " Licet scholasticis
disciplinis faveret, satis tamen sequus in bonas literas." Burm.
p. 15. Jovius relates with complacency how much the repu-
tation of a ** scriptor annalium valde elegans" had done for him
with Adrian, particularly as he was no poet.

94 CONNEXION OP POLITICS WITH [BOOK I.

bassador, who hoped to induce him to make a de-
cisive declaration in favour of his pupil, was ob-
liged to leave Rome without effecting his purpose*.
When the news of the conquest of Rhodes was read
to him, he remained with his eyes fixed on the
ground, uttered not a word, but sighed deeply f.
The danger of Hungary was imminent ; nor was he
without fear even for Italy and for Rome. His
efforts were all directed towards the bringing about,
if not a peace, yet at least a suspension of hostili-
ties for three years, in order meanwhile to prepare
a general expedition against the Turks.

Nor was he less resolved to anticipate the de-
mands of Germany. It was impossible to avow
more fully and distinctly than he did the abuses
which had crept into the church. "We know,"
said he, in the instructions to the Nuntio Chiere-
gato, whom he sent to the diet, e e that for a long time
many abominations have existed near the holy see ;
abuses of spiritual things, excess in the exercise of
authority ; everything has been turned to evil.
From the head the corruption has spread into the
members, from the pope to the prelates ; we have
all gone astray, there is none of us that hath done
well, no, not one."

He proceeded to promise all that befitted a good
pope; to promote the virtuous and the learned,

* Gradenigo, in his Relatione, names the viceroy of Naples.
Girolamo Negro, by whom we find some very interesting letters
concerning this period in the Lettere di principi, V. I., gays,
p. 109, of John Manuel : << Se parti mezo disperato."

t Negro, from the relation of the Venetian Secretary, p. 110.

CH. III.] THB REFORMATION UNDER ADRIAN VI. 95

to eradicate abuses, if not at once, yet by degrees :
in short, he gave hopes of that reformation of the
head and the members which had been so often de-
manded'1*.

But to reform the world is not so light a task.
The good intentions of an individual man, stand he
never so high, are wholly unequal to it. Abuse
strikes too deep a root ; it has grown with the
growth, it lives with the life, of the body to which
it clings.

The fall of Rhodes was far from moving the
French to make peace ; on the contrary, they saw
that this loss would famish fresh occupation to
the emperor, and hence conceived greater projects
against him. With the privity of the very cardinal
in whom Adrian reposed the greatest trust, they
established communications with Sicily, and made
an attempt on that island. The pope found him-
self constrained at length to make a treaty with the
emperor which was substantially directed against
France.

Nor was it any longer possible to satisfy the
Germans with what had been formerly called a re-
formation of the head and the members. And
even such an one, — how difficult, how impossible,
to achieve !

If the pope wished to suppress the revenues
hitherto enjoyed by the Curia, in which he detected
an appearance of simony, he could not do so with-

* " Instructio pro te Francisco Gheregato," &c. &c. ; amongst
other writers, in Bainaldus, vol. xi. p. 863.

96 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [BOOK I.

out violating the fairly acquired rights of those
whose offices depended on these revenues — offices
which they had generally purchased.

If he meditated a change in the dispensations
of marriage, and a repeal of certain existing pro-
hibitions, he was met by representations that
church discipline would thereby be injured and en-
feebled.

In order to check the monstrous abuse of in-
dulgences he was very desirous of introducing the
old penances ; but the Penitentiaria remarked to
him that he would thus incur the danger of losing
Italy while striving to secure Germany*.

At every step in short he saw himself beset by a
thousand difficulties.

These were aggravated by the circumstances of
his birth and nation. He found himself in a new
element, which he could not master, because he
was riot acquainted with it, and did riot understand
the secret springs of its existence. He had been
received with joy. People told each other that he
had five thousand vacant benefices to give away, and
every one was full of hope. Never however did a
pope show himself more cautious in the distribu-
tion of places. Adrian insisted on knowing for
whom he provided, to whom he committed offices.
He went to work with scrupulous conscientious-
ness f. He disappointed innumerable expecta-

* In the first book of the Historia del concilio Tridentino, by
P. Sarpi, ed. 1629, p. 23, there Is a good exposition of this state
of things, extracted from a diary of Chieregato.

t Ortiz. Itinerarium, c. 28, c. 39. particularly worthy of credit,

CH. III.] THE REFORMATION, UNDER ADRIAN VI. 97

tions. The first decree of his pontificate sup-
pressed the grants of reversions to spiritual digni-
ties, and even revoked those which had already
been granted. By publishing this 'decree in Rome,
he could not fail to draw upon himself a host of
the bitterest enmities. Hitherto a certain liberty
of speech and of writing had been enjoyed in the
court; this he would permit no longer. It was
thought intolerable, that he, who spent so little,
should lay on new taxes to recruit the exhausted
treasury, and to provide for the increasing wants
of the state. All his measures were unpopular*. He
felt this, and it re-acted upon him. He trusted the
Italians less than ever. The two Flemings whom
he invested with power, Enkefort and Hezius, the
one his datarius, the other his secretary, were con-
versant neither with business nor with the court.
It was impossible for him to exercise supervision
over them; and as he was constantly occupied
with study, and was not very accessible, the whole
conduct of affairs was procrastinating, slow, and
unskilful.

It thus happened that in circumstances of the
greatest general importance, nothing was effected.
"War broke out afresh in Upper Italy. In Ger-
many, Luther reappeared in fresh activity. In

as he says, "cum provisiones et alia hujusmodi testis oculatus in-
spexerim*"

* Lettere di Negro. Capitolo del Berni :

" E quando un segue il libero costume
Di sfogasri scriveado e di cantare
Lo minaccia di far buttare in fiume."
VOL. I. H

98 CONNEXION OP POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

Rome, which was moreover visited by the plague,
a universal discontent possessed the minds of men.

Adrian once said ; " Let a man be never so good,
how much depends on the times in which he is
born I " The whole feeling of his position is ex-
pressed in this painful exclamation. It was fitly
inscribed on his monument in the German church
at Rome.

It ought at least not to be ascribed solely to the
personal character of Adrian, if his times were so
barren in results. The papacy was assailed by
vast and resistless demands, which would have im-
posed a task of infinite difficulty on a man far
more expert in affairs, far more familiar with men
and with expedients, than he was.

Among all the cardinals there was none who ap-
peared more fitted to conduct the administration
of the papacy, more able to support, the burthen
it imposed, than Giulio de' Medici. Under Leo he
had had the management of the greater part of
public business, and indeed of all the details ; even
under Adrian he had preserved a certain influence*.
He did not suffer the highest dignity a second time
to escape him.

The new pope, who took the name of Clement
VII., most carefully avoided the errors and abuses
which had marked the reigns of his two predeces-
sors ; the uncertainty and prodigality, the indeco-

* Relatione di Marco Fopcari, 1526; it is there said of him
•with relation to those times : " Stava con grandissima reputation
e goTemava il papato et havia piu zeute a la eua audientia cha il
papa."

CH. III.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 99

rous habits and manners of Leo ; and the conflict
maintained by Adrian with the tastes and opinions
of his court. Every thing was conducted with
prudence, and his own conduct, at least, was
marked by blamelessness and moderation^. The
pontifical ceremonies were punctually and reve-
rently performed, audiences granted from morning
to evening with unwearied patience, science and
art encouraged in the career they had now entered
upon. Clement VII. was himself very well in-
formed. He could converse with the same techni-
cal knowledge on mechanics and hydraulics, as on
questions of philosophy and theology. He displayed
extraordinary acuteness on all subjects ; penetrated
to the very bottom of the most perplexing circum-
stances, and was singularly easy and adroit in dis-
course and argument. Under Leo he had showed
himself unsurpassed in prudent counsel and cau-
tious execution.

But it is the storm that proves the skill of the
pilot. He undertook the management of the pa-
pacy, even if we regard it merely as an Italian
principality, at a most critical moment.

The Spaniards had contributed more than any
other nation to the aggrandisement and defence of
the States of the Church. They had re-established
the Medici at Florence, while, on the other hand,
their alliance with the popes and with that family
had been instrumental to the rise of their own

* Vettori says, that for a hundred years, there had not been so
good a man pope : ** non superbo, non simoniaco, non avaro, non
libidinoso, sobrio nel yicto, parco nel vestire, religioso, devoto."

H 2

100 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE [sOOKl,

power in Italy. Alexander VL had opened their
way to Lower Italy ; Julius had introduced them
into the centre ; the attack on Milan, undertaken
in concert with Leo, had made them masters of
the north. Clement himself had contributed not a
little to their successes. There exists an instruc-
tion from him to one of his ambassadors at the
Spanish court, in which he enumerates the ser-
vices he has rendered to Charles V. and his house.
He asserts that it was mainly he who prevented
Francis I. from penetrating to Naples at his first
invasion ; it was at his persuasion that Leo threw
no impediments in the way of the election of
Charles V. to the imperial throne, and abolished
the ancient constitution, according to which no
king of Naples could be at the same time em-
peror ; spite of all the promises of the French,
he favoured Leo's alliance with Charles for the re-
conquest of Milan, and to bring about this, spared
neither the money of his native city and of his friends,
nor his own personal exertions : he caused the
election of Adrian VI. to the papacy, at a time
when that election seemed equivalent to throwing
it into the hands of the emperor*. I shall not in-
quire how nvuch of Leo's policy is to be ascribed to
the counsellor, and how much to the sovereign ;
but one thing is certain, that Cardinal de' Medici
was always on the side of the emperor. Even after
he was pope, he assisted the imperial troops with

* Jnstruttione al Card, reverend®10, di Farnese, die fu poi
Paulo III., quanclo and& legato all Imperatore Carlo V. doppo il
sacco di Roma, Appendix,

CH. III.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 101

money and provisions, and with grants of eccle-
siastical revenues. Once again they were indebted
for victory in part to his support.

So strictly was Clement allied to the court of
Spain; but, as it not seldom happens, great and ex-
traordinary evils arose out of this alliance.

The popes had caused the growth of the Spanish
power, but they had never directly intended this re-
sult. They had wrested Milan from Prance, but they
had not designed to give it to Spain, On the con-
trary, more than one war had been undertaken for
the express purpose of preventing Milan and Naples
from falling into the hands of the same power.*
That the Spaniards, so long masters of Lower Italy,
should now daily establish themselves more firmly
in Lombardy, that they should postpone the in-
vestiture of Sforza, was regarded at Rome with
impatience and disgust. Clement was also per-
sonally displeased. We see in the above-mentioned
instruction, that even as Cardinal, he often thought
he was not treated with the consideration he de-
served. Little account was taken of his opinion ;
and it was against his express advice that the
attack on Marseilles was undertaken in 1524. His
ministers, by their own confession, expected still
greater disrespect to the apostolic see. They ex-
perienced nothing from the Spaniards but over-
bearing insolence.t

* It is expressly said in that instruction, that the pope had
shown himself ready to acquiesce even in what was disagreeable
to him : " purchfe lo state di Milano restasse al Duca, al quale
effetto si erano fatte tutte le guerre d'ltalia "

t M, Giberto datario a Don Michele di Silva. Letters di
principi, I. 197, b.

102 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

How strongly had the course of past events, and
his own personal situation, appeared to bind Cle-
ment to the cause of Spain in the bonds both of
necessity and of inclination ! But now he found a
thousand reasons to curse the power he had helped
to establish ; to oppose the cause he had hitherto
favoured and fostered.

Of all political tasks the most difficult perhaps
is, to depart from a line on which we have hitherto
trodden ; to force back the current of consequences
which we ourselves have caused.

In the case of Clement this was doubly difficult.
The Italians were fully sensible that the decision now
taken would affect their fate for centuries. A strong
^ling of common interest had arisen throughout
He nation. I am persuaded that their vast literary
and artistical pre-eminence above all other coun-
tries was the main cause of this. The arrogance
and rapacity of the Spaniards, as well leaders as
common soldiers, were intolerable, and it was with
a mixture of scorn and rage that the Italians beheld
these half-barbarian strangers, masters in their
land. Things were still in such a posture that
it appeared possible to get rid of their oppressors ;
but they must not conceal from themselves, that if
they did not undertake the work of self-deliverance
with the whole strength of the nation— if they suc-
cumbed now — they were lost for ever.

I could have wished to be able to trace the whole
course of this period through all its intricate details,
—to exhibit the entire struggle of the excited
powers. But I can only touch on a few of the most
momentous points.

CH. Ill,] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII, 103

The first step, and one which appeared extremely
dexterous, was to endeavour to gain over the em-
peror's best general, who was known to be very
discontented. What further could be wanted, if,
as they hoped, they could detach from the emperor,
together with his general, the army, by means of
which he governed Italy ? There was no lack of
promises, — they extended even to a crown. But how
false was their reckoning! how utterly was their
prudence, with all its conscious astuteness, wrecked
on the rugged mass against which it struck ! This
general, Pescara, was indeed born in Italy, but of
Spanish blood ; he spoke only Spanish; he would
be a Spaniard and nothing else. He had no tincture
of Italian art or literature; he owed his whole
education to Spanish romances, which breathe no-
thing but loyalty and fidelity. He was by nature
adverse to a national Italian enterprise.* Scarcely
had the proposal been made to him, when he com-
municated it to his comrades and to the emperor.
He used it only as a means of discovering all the
views, and thwarting all the projects, of the
Italians.

All mutual confidence being now necessarily at

* Vettori bestows on him the most wretched eulogy in the
world. "Era superbo oltre modo, invidioso, ingrato, avaro, ve-
nenoso e crudele, senza religione, senza humanita, nato proprio
per distruggere I'ltalia." Even Morone once said to Guiccardini,
that there was not a more faithless, malicious man than Pescara,
(Hist, d'ltalia, xvi. 476.) and nevertheless made him the pro-
posal. I do not bring forward these opinions, as supposing
them to be true; they only show that Pescara had evinced
nothing but hostility and hatred towards the Italians.

104 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

an end, a mortal struggle with the emperor was
inevitable.

In the summer of 1526, we at length see the
Italians put forth their whole strength in the work.
The Milanese are already in arms against the
imperialists: a Venetian and a papal army are
marching to their assistance : they have the pro-
mise of aid from Switzerland : they are in alliance
with France and England. "This time," says
Giberto, the most confidential minister of Clement
VII,, " it is not a question of a petty vengeance,
a point of honour, or a single city. This war will
decide the deliverance or the eternal slavery of
Italy." He had no doubt of a successful issue.
" Posterity," says he, " will envy us the times in
which we lived, and our share in so great a felicity."
He hoped there would be no need of foreign aid.
" Ours alone," he adds, " will be the glory, and
the fruit will be so much the sweeter*."

With these thoughts and hopes Clement under-
took his war against Spain f- It was his most
daring and magnanimous, his most disastrous and
ruinous project.

The aflairs of the church and the state are
inextricably interwoven. The pope, however, ap-
peared to have entirely left out of account the
agitations of Germany ; in these the first re-action
manifested itself.

* G. M. Giberto al Vescovo di Veruli. Lettere di principi, I.
p. 192 a.

f Foscaxi also says : " Qucllo fa a presente di voler far Icga con
Francia, fa per ben suo e <T Italia* npn perchfe ama Frances!."

CH. III.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 105

At the moment when the troops of Clement
VII. marched into Upper Italy, the diet had met at
Spires in order to come to a definitive resolution con-
cerning the errors of the church. That the imperial
party, — that Ferdinand of Austria, who command-
ed in the emperor's place and who himself enter-
tained views on Milan, — should feel any great in-
terest in upholding the papal power on the one side
the Alps, while they were vehemently attacked by
that power on the other, would have been contrary
to the nature of things. Whatever had been the
former intentions or professions of the imperial
court*, all show of respect or amity was put an
end to by the open war which had broken out
between them. Never did the towns declare
themselves more freely ; never did the prints
press more urgently for redress of their grievances.
The proposition was made to burn the books
which contained the new ordinances, and to ac-
knowledge no rule but the holy scriptures. Al-
though there was some opposition, yet never was a
more independent decision taken. Ferdinand
signed a decree of the empire, in virtue of which
the states were at liberty to guide themselves in
matters of religion, as each could answer it to God
and the emperor — that is, to act according to his
own judgment : a decision in which no reference
whatever was made to the pope, and which may be
regarded as the beginning of the real Reformation,

* The instructions of the emperor, -which inspired the pro-
testants with some fear, are dated March, 1526, a time at which
the pope had not yet contracted an alliance with France.

106 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

the establishment of a new church in Germany,
This decree was immediately adopted in Saxony,
Hesse, and the neighbouring countries. The pro-
testant party thence gained an immense step — it
acquired a legal existence.

We may assert that this state of the public
mind of Germany was decisive for Italy also.
The Italians, as a body, were far from being
inspired by a universal enthusiasm for their great
enterprise, and even those who shared in this sen-
timent were by no means united. The pope, with
all his ability, with all his attachment to the cause
of Italy, was not the man to turn the current
oil-events — to subdue and enchain fortune. His
acuteness sometimes seemed injurious to him.
He seemed to be too conscious that he was the
weaker ; all possibilities, all dangers that could
befal, arose before him, embarrassed his judgment
and puzzled his will. Some men are endowed
with a quick and intuitive perception of the simple,
the practicable, or the expedient, in public affairs.
He possessed it not *. In the most critical moments
he was seen to doubt, to vacillate, and to consider
how he could save money.

As his allies did not keep their word with him,
the results he hoped for were far from being
attained; the imperialists still held out in Lom-

* Suriano Rel. di 1533, finds in him, " core frigidissimo ; el
quale fa, la Beatne. S. esser dotata di non vulgar timiditct, non
diro pusillanimity. II che pero parmi avere trovato commie-
meute in la natura fiorentina. Questa tinaiditll caus& che S, S&.
£ molto irresoluta."

CH.III,] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 107

bardy, when, in November, 1526, George Frunds-
berg crossed the Alps with a formidable troop of
Landsknechts, to put an end to this war. They
were all Lutherans, both he and his people. They
came to avenge the emperor on the pope, whose
breach of the alliance £hey had been taught to con-
sider as the cause of all mischief ; of the continual
wars which agitated Christendom, and of the success
of the Ottomans, who just then conquered Hun-
gary. " If I get to Rome/' said Frundsberg, " I
will hang the pope/'

With anxious glance we see the tempest gather-
ing in the horizon and gradually overspreading the
whole heavens. Rome, teeming with crime, yet not
less fertile in generous studies, in talent and in
knowledge ; adorned with works of art, such as the
world has never again produced — a treasure enno-
bled by the stamp of genius, and exercising a vital
and enduring influence on the world — Rome is
threatened with ruin.

As the masses of the imperialists collected, the
Italian bands dispersed before them* The only
army that still existed followed them from afar.
The emperor, who had long ceased to be able to
pay his troops, had not power, even if he had
inclination, to alter their course. They marched
under his banner, but they followed their own
tumultuous impulses. The pope still hoped, nego-
tiated, conceded, determined; but the sole expe-
dient that could save him — to satisfy the cupidity
of the army with as much money as they thought
they could venture to ask — he would not, or

108 CONNEXION OP POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

could not adopt. Would he then at least vigor-
ously endeavour to meet the enemy with such
arms as he had ? Four thousand men would have
sufficed to hold the passes of Tuscany, yet not
even an attempt was made to defend them. Rome
contained perhaps thirty thousand men capahle of
bearing arms ; manyof them had seen war; they went
about with swords at their sides, fought with one
another, and boasted of their high exploits. But to
resist an enemy who brought with him certain de-
struction, not more than five hundred men could ever
be collected without the gates of Home. The pope
and his forces were overthrown at the first assault.
On the 6th of May, J527, two hours before sunset,
the imperialists entered Rome. Their old leader
Frundsberg was no longer with them : a tumult
having arisen in which he could not command the
wonted obedience, he was struck with apoplexy
and left behind ill. Bourbon, who had led the army
so far, was killed at the moment the scaling ladders
were placed against the walls. Without a leader
to check their ferocity or their lust of plunder, the
blood-thirsty soldiers, hardened by long privation,
and rendered savage by their trade, poured like a
torrent over the city. Never did a richer booty
fall into the hands of a more terrible army : never
was there a more protracted and more ruinous pil-
lage *. The splendor of Rome fills the beginning

* Vettori : " La uccisione non fu molta, perchfe rari si uccidono
qudli che non si vogliono difendere, ma la prcda fu inestimabilc
in dajoari contaati, di gioie, d'oro e d'argento lavorato, di vo-
stiti, d* axazzi, paramenti di casa, meicantie d' ogni sorte e di

CH, III.] INFORMATION, XJNDER CLEMENT VII. 109

of the sixteenth century ; it marks an astonishing
period of developement of the human mind — with
this day it was extinguished for ever.

The pope, who had aspired to be the deliverer
of Italy, thus found himself besieged in the castle
of St. Angelo, and as it were a prisoner. The
preponderance of the Spanish power in Italy was
irrevocably established by this great defeat.

A fresh attack of the French, which promised
much at the beginning, entirely failed in the end.
They resigned themselves to abandon all their
claims to Italy.

Another event occurred of not less importance.
Before the conquest of Rome, when it was seen
that Bourbon was marching in the direction of that
city, the enemies of the Medici at Florence had
taken advantage of the confusion of the moment,
and had once more driven out the family of the pope.
Clement was more affected by the desertion of his
native city than even by the capture of Rome.
People remarked with surprise that after such
grievous injuries he renewed his alliance with the
imperialists. He did so, because he saw in the
assistance of the Spaniards the only means of
restoring Ms kindred and his party to Florence.
It appeared to him better to endure the despotism
of the emperor, than the insolence of the rebels.
The more the fortunes of the French declined, the

taglie." The pope was not to be blamed for the misfortune ; it
was owing to the inhabitants : he calls them, " superbi, avari,
homicidi, invidiosi, libidinosi e simulator! ;" such a population
could not sustain itself.

110 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

more lie tried to conciliate the Spaniards ; and when,
at length, the former were entirely routed, he con-
cluded with the latter the treaty of Barcelona. He
so completely altered his policy, that he now em-
ployed that very army which had devastated
Rome before his eyes, and had held himself so long
beleaguered and captive, as an instrument for re-
ducing his native city to its former subjection.

From that time Charles was more powerful in
Italy than any emperor had been for centuries.
The crown with which he was invested at Bologna
had once more its full significancy. He gradually
reduced Milan and Naples to obedience : in Tuscany
he gained direct and permanent influence by the
restoration of the Medici to Florence, while the re-
maining powers of Italy tendered their alliance,
or sought a reconciliation. With the combined
forces of Spain and of Germany he held Italy in
subjection from the Mediterranean to the Alps,
by the might of his victorious arms, and by right
of his imperial dignity.

Such was the course and such the issue of the
wars of Italy, From that time she has never
emancipated herself from foreign sway. Let us
now inquire how the religious dissensions, which
were so closely connected with the political trou-
bles, developed themselves.

"When the pope resigned himself to see the
Spaniards wielding the sovereign power all around
him, he hoped at least to find his authority in

CH. III.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. Ill

Germany restored by this mighty emperor, who
was represented to him as so true and devout a
catholic. This is expressly mentioned in an article
of the treaty of Barcelona, The emperor promised
to lend all his might to the reduction of the pro-
testants, and seemed earnestly bent upon accom-
plishing it. He returned a most ungracious answer
to the protestant delegates who came to him in Italy.
During his journey to Germany, in the year 1530,
certain members of the Curia, and especially the
legate who had been sent to accompany him, Car-
dinal Campeggi, conceived bold projects, perilous
in the highest degree to Germany.

A memorial presented by him to the emperor, at
the time of the diet of Augsburg, and containing an
exposition of these projects, is still extant. With
regret and repugnance, but as a tribute to truth, I
must say a few words on it.

Cardinal Campeggi did not content himself with
lamenting religious errors, he commented more
particularly on their political consequences. He
represented, that not only in the imperial cities was
the authority and dignity of the nobility lowered
by the reformation; not only could no prince,
ecclesiastical or even secular, any longer obtain
due obedience ; but the majesty of the emperor
himself was disregarded. The question was, how
the evil was to be met.

The secret of the means he proposed was not very
profound. Nothing was requisite, he thought, but
that the emperor should conclude a treaty with the
well-disposed princes : they should then proceed to

112 CONNEXION OP POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

work upon the recusants by promises or by threats.
If they remained stubborn, -what was to be done ?
The emperor had a right "to extirpate this poison-
ous plant with fire and sword *." The main thing
would be to confiscate their property, secular and
ecclesiastical, in Germany, as well as in Hungary
and Bohemia; for against heretics this is lawful
and right. If the mastery over them were once
obtained, holy inquisitors were to be appointed to
track out every remnant of them, and proceed
against them by the same means as were used
against the Moors in Spain. Besides this the uni-
versity of Wittenberg was to be excommunicated ;
all those who studied there were to be declared un-
worthy the favour of pope or emperor ; the books
of the heretics to be burnt ; the monks who had
quitted their convents to be sent back to them, and
not a single schismatic to be tolerated at any court.

But first a sweeping confiscation was necessary.
" Even if your majesty," says the legate, " con-
fines yourself to the leaders of the party, you may
extract from them a large sum of money, which is
at all events indispensable to carry on the war
against the Turks."

Such is the tone of this project j-; such are its

* " Se alcuni ve ne fossero, die dio nol voglia, li quali obstina-
tamente perseyerassero in questa diabolica via, quella (S. M.) po-
tr& mettere la mano al ferro et al foco* et radicltus extirpate
questa mala venenosa pianta."

t They ventured to caJl suck a mere sketch, an instruction.
" Instructio data Csesari a reverend"10. Cainpeggioin dieta Augu-
stana, 1530." I found it in a Roman library, in the hand-writing
of the time, and beyond all doubt authentic.

OH. III.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 113

principles. How does every word breathe of op-
pression, carnage and plunder 1 We cannot wonder
that Germany expected the worst from an empe-
ror arriving under such guidance, or that the pro-
testants took counsel among themselves, as to the
degree of resistance they might lawfully use.

Fortunately, however, the posture of affairs did
not justify any fear that such an enterprise would
be attempted.

The emperor, as Erasmus demonstrated at the
time, was far from being powerful enough to put it
in execution.

But had he possessed the power, he would hardly
have had the will.

He was by nature rather kind, considerate, and
thoughtful, than the contrary; and the nearer he con-
templated these heresies, the more did they strike
on a chord of his own spirit. Even the tenor of
his convocation of the diet runs, that he desired to
hear and to weigh the different opinions, and to try
to bring them all to one Christian truth. He was
far from any thought of violence.

But as there are some who are wont to doubt of
the purity of all human motives, we shall adduce
a reason to which even they can find no answer :
— it was not Charles's interest to use force.

Should he, the emperor, make himself an execu-
tor of papal decrees ? Should he take upon himself
the task of subjugating the enemies of the pope,—*
and not of this pope alone, but of all succeeding
ones ? precisely those enemies too, who were likely

VOL. I. I

1 14 CONNEXION OP POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

to cause them the most trouble ? He was far from
having sufficient confidence in the friendship of the
papal power to induce him to take such a course.

On the contrary, he had a natural, obvious in-
terest in the actual condition of things ; an interest
•which he needed only to improve, in order to attain
to a greater superiority than he even now possessed.

Whether justly or unjustly, I shall not discuss ;
it was universally admitted that nothing but an
ecclesiastical council would have power to remove
the enormous errors which had crept into the
church. The councils had maintained their popu-
larity precisely because the popes had shown a very
natural aversion to them; from that time every
fresh act of opposition raised their fame and credit.
In the year 1630, Charles determined to take ad-
vantage of this state of public opinion. He pro-
mised to convene a council within a certain short
space of time.

The princes, in their differences with the see of
Rome, had long wished for nothing so much as a
spiritual check on its domination; Charles was
therefore secure of the most powerful allies in a
council convened under such circumstances. It
was assembled at his instigation, held under his
influence, arid its decisions were to be carried into
execution by him. These would point in opposite
directions ; they would affect thepope no less than his
adversaries ; the old idea of a reformation of head
and members would be acted upon. What a pre-
ponderance must all these circumstances give to

CH. III.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 115

the temporal power, — above all, to that of the em-
peror himself ! This was then the prudent course ;
it was perhaps the inevitable one, but it was also
in conformity with Charles's highest interests.

Nothing, on the contrary, could be more calcu-
lated to excite the alarm of the pope and of his
court. I find, that at the first serious report of
a council, the price of all saleable offices in the
court fell considerably*. This is a strong proof of
the danger to the existing order of things which
such a measure was thought to threaten.

But Clement VII. had also personal causes for
apprehension ; he was conscious that he was not of
legitimate birth ; that he had not mounted to the
highest dignity by an unsullied path ; that he had
suffered himself to be determined by private in-
terests to employ the resources of the church in a
costly war against his country; all things for
which a pope might look to be called to a strict
account. Clement, says Soriano, avoided as much
as possible the very mention of a council.

Although he did not directly reject the proposal,
(which indeed for the honour of the holy see he
dared not do) it may be well imagined with what
heart he entertained it.

He yielded ; he resigned himself to what was
inevitable, but he immediately placed in the

* Lettera anonlma all* Arcivescovo Pimpinello (Lettere di
prineipi III. 5.) ; et Gli uffieii solo con la fama del concilio sono
inviliti tanto, che non se ne trovano danarL" I see that Pallavicini
also quotes this letter, III, 7, 1 ; I do not know how he comes to
ascribe it to Sanga,

i 2

116 CONNEXION OP POLITICS WITH TUB [BOOK I.

strongest light the objections ; he represented, in
the most lively manner, all the difficulties and
dangers attendant on a council, and pronounced
the results more than dubious*. He then pro-
ceeded to make conditions, requiring the co-opera-
tion of all other sovereigns and the preliminary sub-
jugation of the protestants; conditions which were
indeed quite in accordance with the papal system,
but totally irreconcileable with the existing state
of public opinion and of political relations. But
how could he be expected to co-operate in such a
work, at the time fixed by the emperor, not in
seeming alone, but with sincerity and firmness?
Charles often reproached him with causing all the
mischief that afterwards ensued, by these delays.
He, doubtless, still hoped to elude the necessity
which hovered over him.

But it held him fast in its iron grasp. In the
year 1533, Charles returned to Italy, full of what
he had seen and projected in Germany, and held
a conference with the pope at Bologna. There,
orally, and with increased earnestness, he pressed
Clement to summon the council which he had so
often demanded in writing. Their opinions were
thus brought into direct collision. The pope stood
fast to his conditions; the emperor represented
their impracticability; they could not come to
any agreement. In the briefs which are extant

* E. g. all5 imperatore : di man propria di Papa Clemente.
Lettere di Principi II, 197. " Al contrario nessun (remedio) & piu
periculoso e per partorir maggiori mail (del concilio) quandonon
conconono le debite circonstanze."

CH. HI.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT Til. 117

concerning this conference, we perceive a certain
variation, the pope inclining more to the em-
peror's opinion in the one than in the other. But
be that as it may, he was compelled to proceed to
a fresh proclamation*. He could not so entirely
blind himself, as to doubt that, at the return of the
emperor who was gone to Spain, he would no
longer be suffered to rest in mere words ; that the
storm which he feared, and with which a council
under such circumstances unquestionably menaced
the see of Rome, would burst upon his head.

It was a situation in which the possessor of
power, of whatsoever kind, might well be excused
for embracing any decision by which he might
ensure his own safety. The emperor's political
power was already overwhelming, and even if the
pope resigned himself to this superiority, he could
not but often feel to what he was reduced. He was
deeply offended that Charles had decided the old
differences of the church with Ferrara, in favour

* We find a good account of the transactions at Bologna in
one of the best chapters of Pallavicini, lib. iii. c. xii., drawn from.
the archives of the Vatican. This difference is there touched
upon, and is said to have been based on express negotiation.
In fact, in the letter addressed to the catholic states, by Rai-
naldus xx. 659, Hortleder i. xv*, we find repeated the condition
of a general co-operation ; the pope promises to render an
account of the issue of his exertions ; on the other hand, in the
list of points laid before the protestants for their consideration,
it is expressly said, article 7, " quod si forsan aliqui principes
velint tain pio negotio deesse, nihilomimis summus D". nr. proce-
det, cum aauiori parte consentiente." It seems, indeed, as if
Pallavicini had fe*hi« difference in his mind, although the
he gives refers to another point of variance.

118 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

of the latter ; he acquiesced publicly, but he com-
plained to his friends. How far more grievous was
it then, when this monarch, so far from lending
himself to that prompt suppression of the pro-
testants which Clement had hoped at his hands, set
up claims (on the plea of the errors and heresies
which troubled Christendom) to an ecclesiastical
authority such as had not been known for centu-
ries, without heeding to what extent he endan-
gered the dignity and influence of the holy see !
Could Clement endure to fall completely into his
hands, and to abandon himself to his good plea-
sure?

Before he quitted Bologna he took his resolution.
Francis -I. had frequently made overtures of a
political and matrimonial alliance with the pope,
which Clement had always declined. In the
straits to which he now found himself reduced, he
entertained them. We are expressly assured that
Clement's real motive for giving way to the king of
France, was the demand made for a council*. A
measure which this pontiff would probably never
again have projected for purely political objects,

* Soriano Relatione, 1535. " II papaandb a Bologna contra
sua voglia e quasi sforzato, come di buon logo ho inteso, e fa
assai di ci6 evidente segno, che S. Sa. consume di giorni cento
in tale viaggio, il quale potea far in sei di. Considerando dun-
que Clemente questi tali casi suoi, e per dire cosi la servitu nella
quale egli si trovava per la materia del concilio, la quale Ce~
sare non lasciava di stimolare, comincib a rendersi piu facile al
christianissimo* E quivi si trattk Tandata di Marsilia et insieme
la pratica del matrimonio, essendogia lanipote nobile et habile."
At an earlier period the pope would have alleged her birth
and her age, as a pretext for his evasions.

CH. III.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 119

(viz. to restore the balance of the two great powers,
and to treat them with equal favour) he was deter-
mined to attempt by a consideration of the dangers
with which the church was beset.

Shortly afterwards Clement held another con-
ference with Francis I. at Marseilles, where the
strictest alliance was agreed upon. Just as in the
Florentine troubles the pope had cemented his
friendship with the emperor by the marriage of his
nephew with the natural daughter of Charles, so he
now sealed this alliance which the critical state of
the church led him to contract with Francis I., by
betrothing his young niece, Catherine of Medici,
with the king's second son. Then, he had to fear
the French and their indirect influence on Florence ;
now, the emperor and his intentions with regard to
a council.

He no longer endeavoured to conceal his object.
A letter is extant from him to Ferdinand I., in
which he declares that his efforts to bring about a
co-operation of all the Christian princes in a coun-
cil had been unavailing; that king Francis I., to
whom he had spoken, held the present time to be
ill adapted for such an assemblage, and had refused
to entertain the proposal ; but that he (the pope)
still hoped to see the Christian princes more favour-
ably disposed another time*. I know not how
any doubt can be entertained as to the real views
of Clement VII. In his last rescript to the catho-
lic princes of Germany, he had repeated the condi-
tion of a general co-operation : his declaration of
* 20th of March, 1534. — Pallavicini, iii., xvi. 3.

120 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I*

his inability to bring about this union involves
therefore an unequivocal refusal to give any effect
to his professions1*. His alliance with France at
once inspired him with the courage, and afforded him
the pretext, for this refusal. I cannot persuade
myself that the council would ever have taken place
under his reign.

Nor was this the only result of that alliance.
Another unexpectedly arose, of vast and permanent
importance, especially to Germany. The combi-
nation to which it immediately gave birth, in con-
sequence of the intimate blending of ecclesiasti-
cal and temporal interests, was most extraordinary.
Francis I. was then on the best footing with the
protestants. By contracting so strict an alliance
with the pope, he now, to a certain extent, united
the protestants and the pope within the same sy-
stem. And here we perceive in what consisted the
political strength of the position which the pro-
testants had taken up. The emperor could not in-
tend to reduce them again to direct subjection to
the pope ; on the contrary, he made use of their
agitation as a means of holding him in check. On
the other hand, it gradually became manifest that
the pope did not wish to see them entirely at the
mercy of the emperor : the connexion of Clement
VII. with them was therefore not wholly uncon-
scious ; he hoped to profit by their opposition to
the emperor, as a means of furnishing that monarch

* Soriano. "La Serta. Vra. dunque in materia del concilio pu6
esser cextissima, che dal canto di Clemente fu fuggita con tutti
li jnez2i e con tutte le vie."

CH. III.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 121

with, fresh, occupation. It was remarked at the
time, that the king of France made the pope be-
lieve that the leading protestant princes were de-
pendent upon him, and held out hopes that he
would induce them to abandon the project of a
council*. But if we do not greatly mistake, his
connexion with them extended much farther.
Shortly after his conference with the pope, Francis I.
had an interview with the Landgrave Philip of
Hesse, the object of which was to restore the duke
of Wirtemberg, who had been driven out of his
states by the house of Austria. Francis having
consented to furnish, subsidies, Landgrave Philip
proceeded to the execution of the enterprise, which,
he accomplished with surprising rapidity. The
design certainly was that he should advance into
the hereditary states of Austriaf ; and it was uni-
versally suspected that the king intended to attack
Milan again from the side of GermanyJ. A still
farther view of the matter is disclosed to us by
Marino Giustiniano, at that time Venetian ambas-

* Sarpi : Historia del concilio Tridentino, lib. i. p. 68. Soriano
does not confirm all that Sarpi relates, but an important part of it.
This ambassador says : — " avendo fatto credere a Clemente, che
da S. M. Chma. dipendessero quelli Sri. principalissimi e capi
della fattione luterana — si che almeno si fuggisse il concilio."
This is all I have ventured to assert.

t In the instructions to his ambassadors in France, dated Au-
gust 1532, (Rommel Urkundenbuch 61.), he excuses himself for
" our not having proceeded to attack the king in his patrimo-
nial estates." (" dass wir nit fortzugen den Konigin seinen Erb-
landen anzugreifen.")

I Jovius, Historic suitemporis, lib. xxxiL p. 129, PaiutaStoria
Venez. p.

122 CONNEXION Off POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

sador in France. He expressly asserts that this
movement in Germany was concerted by Clement
and Francis at Marseilles ; he adds, that it would
certainly not have been foreign to their plan to
march their troops upon Italy, and that the pope
would have secretly co-operated*. It would be
somewhat rash to regard this assertion, however
confidently made, as an authentic fact; farther
proofs are required. But even if we do not attach
credit to it, the aspect of things is undoubtedly
most remarkable. Who could have imagined it ? At
the very moment that the pope and the protestants
pursued each other with irreconcileable hate, that

* Rdationedel darissimo M. Marino Giustinian el Kp. venuto
d' ambasciator al Christianissimo re di Francia del 1535 : (Archivio
Venez.) " Francesco fece la aboccamento di Marsilia con Clemente
nel qua! vedendo loro che Cesare stava fermo— conchittsero it
movimento delk armi in Germania, sotto preteste di voler metter
il duca di Virtenberg in casa : nd quale se Iddio non avesse
posto la inano con il mezzo di Cesare, il quale all' improvise e
con gran prestezza senza saputa del Xmo. con la restitution del
ducato di Virtenberg fece la pace, tutte quelle genti venivano in
Italia sotto il favor secreto di Clemente." More exact informa-
tion, I am of opinion, will at some future time be found on this
point. Soriano contains besides, the following : " Di tutti li desi-
derii (del re) s' accoxnmodo Clemente con parole tali, che lo face-
vano credere, S. S. esser disposta in tutto alle sue voglie, senza
peri far provisione alcuna in scrittura." That an Italian expedi-
tion was in question, cannot be denied. The pope asserted, that
he had declined such a proposal— "non avere bisogno di moto in
Italia," The king had told him, he ought to remain quiet,—" con
le mani accorte nelle maniche." Probably the French maintained
what the Italians denied; so that the ambassador in France is
more positive than the one at Rome. If, however, the pope said
that he had no need of a movement in Italy, it is easy to see how
litde the idea of a movement in Germany was thus exduded.

CH. III.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 123

they waged a religious war which filled the world
with animosities, they were nevertheless bound to-
gether by common political interests. In the former
complexities of Italian affairs, nothing had been so
injurious to the pope as that equivocal, crafty policy
which he pursued : it now bore him still bitterer
fruits in his spiritual jurisdiction.

King Ferdinand, menaced in his hereditary pro-
vinces, hastened to conclude the peace of Kadan, in
which he abandoned Wirtemberg to its fate, while
he contracted a more intimate alliance with the
Landgrave, These were the most fortunate days in
the life of Philip of Hesse. The prowess and promp-
titude with which he had restored to his rights an
expelled German prince, rendered him one of the
most considerable chiefs of the empire. Nor was
this the only important result of his victory ; the
treaty of Kadan also contained an article of deep
and extensive influence on religious differences ; —
the supreme court (Kammergericht) was enjoined to
hear no more suits concerning confiscated church-
property.

I know not if any other single event contributed
so decidedly to establish the ascendency of the pro-
testant cause in Germany, as this Hessian enter-
prise. The injunction to the Kammergericht in-
volves a legal security for the new party which was
of immense importance. Nor was the effect long
in manifesting itself. The peace of Kadan may, I
think, be regarded as the second great epoch of the
rise of the protestant power in Germany. After
an interval of less rapid progress, it began anew

124 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

to spread with astonishing vigour. Wirtemherg,
which had just been conquered, was immediately re-
formed: the German provinces of Denmark, Pome-
rani a, the march of Brandenburg, the second line
of Saxony, one line of Brunswick, and the Pala-
tinate, soon followed. Within the space of a few
years the reformation of the church extended over
the whole of Lower Germany, and established itself
for ever in Upper Germany.

And an enterprise which led to such results,
which so incalculably advanced the new schism,
was undertaken with the privity, if not with the
approbation, of Clement VII I

The papacy was in a thoroughly false and unte-
nable position. Its worldly tendencies had caused a
degeneracy which gave rise to innumerable adversa-
ries and dissidents ; its adherence to this course, —
the continued mingling of temporal and spiritual
interests — brought about its utter downfall.

The schism of England under Henry VIII. was
mainly attributable to this cause.

It is well worthy of remark, that Henry VIII.,
spite of his declared hostility to Luther, and of his
strict alliance with the see of Borne, yet on the
first difference in affairs purely political, threatened
Rome with ecclesiastical innovations. This oc-
curred in the beginning of the year 1525*. Mat-
ters were indeed then made up ; the king made

* Wolsey had said in a threatening- letter, " che ogni provincia
doventara Lutherana;" an expression which we may well regard
as the first symptom of secession from Home on the part of the
English government. (8. Giberto ai nuntii^d'Inghilterra ; Let*
tere di principi, i. p. 147.)

CH. III.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 125

common cause with the pope against the emperor;
and when Clement, imprisoned in the castle of St.
Angelo was abandoned by all, Henry found means
to send him supplies. Hence Clement had perhaps
a greater personal attachment to him than to any
other prince*. But since that time the king's di-
vorce had been agitated. It cannot be denied that,
even in the year 1528, if the pope did not abso-
lutely promise him a favourable answer to his ap-
plication for a divorce, he at least allowed him
to think it possible, "as soon as ever the Germans
and the Spaniards were driven out of Italy f"«
The very contrary, as we know, ensued. The im-
perialists now first acquired a firm footing in that
country, and we have seen what a close alliance
Clement contracted with them; under these al-
tered circumstances he found it impossible to re-
alize a hope which, indeed, he had only slightly
glanced at £ Scarcely was the peace of Barcelona

* Contarini, Relatione di 1530, asserts this expressly. So-
riano, 1533, also says, — " Anglia, 3. Santitk ama etera conjunc-
tissimo prima." The king's desire to obtain a divorce, lie de-
clares -without any circumlocution, a " pazzia."

t From the despatches of Dr. Knight, at Orvieto, 1st and 9th
Jan. 1528. Herbert's Life of Henry VIII. p. 218.

J The whole situation of affairs is rendered intelligible in the
following passage of a letter by the papal secretary Sanga to
Campeggi, dated from Viterbo, 2 Sept. 1528, at the moment
the Neapolitan undertaking miscarried, (an event mentioned in
the letter,) and Campeggi was about going to England. — " Come
vostra Sign. Rev11"1, sa, tenendosi N. Signore obligatissimo come
fa a quel Serenmo. re, nessuna cosa e si grande della quale non
desideri compiacerli, ma bisogna ancora che sua Beatitudine ve-
dendo rimperatore vittorioso e sperando in questa vittoria non

126 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I.

concluded^ when lie summoned the suit to Borne.
The wife whom Henry wished to divorce was the
aunt of the emperor ; the marriage had been ex-
pressly declared valid by a former pope ; how then
could the decision be doubtful, when once the
affair had come, in the regular course of pro-
cedure, before the tribunals of the Curia, at that
time under the constant influence of the imperial
party ? Henry immediately entered on the course
which he had already contemplated. In essentials,
as regarded the dogmas of the church, he unques-
tionably was, and he continued, a catholic ; but
this affair, which in Rome was so openly mixed up
with political views, excited and exasperated his
hostility to the secular power of the papacy. He
retaliated every step that Rome set, unfavourable to
his wishes, by some measure hostile to the Curia;
made more and more open and formal renunciation
of his allegiance; and when at length in the year
1534, that court gave its definitive sentence, he
hesitated no longer, and declared the entire separa-
tion of his kingdom from the pope. So weak already
were the bonds which united the Roman see and the
several national churches, that it required only the
will of a sovereign to break them altogether.

These events filled the last year of the life of
Clement VII. They were rendered more bitter to

trovarlo alieno della pace, — non si precipiti a dare all' imperatore
causa di nuova rottuia, la quale leveria in perpetuo ogni speranza
di pace : oltre che al certo metteria 8. S&. a fuoco e a totale ecci«
dio tutto il suo stato. (Lettere di diversi autori. Venetia, 1556,
p, 390"

CH. Ill,] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 127

him by the consciousness that he was not wholly
guiltless of them, and that his misfortunes were la-
mentably connected with his personal qualities.
The course of things daily assumed a more perilous
aspect. Francis I. already menaced Italy with a
fresh invasion and affirmed that he had received
the pope's oral, though not written, approbation of
this design. The emperor would no longer be put
off with evasions, and pressed more and more ur-
gently for the convocation of a council. Domestic
troubles were added : after all the labour it had cost
him to reduce Florence to subjection, the pope was
condemned to see his two nephews fall out for the
sovereignty of that city and proceed to acts of the
most furious hostility : the bitter and anxious
thoughts which this caused him, the dread of
coming events, — sorrow and secret torment, says
Soriano, — brought him to the grave*.

We have called Leo fortunate ; Clement was per-
haps a better man, at all events more blameless,
more active, and even, in details, more acute ; but
in his whole course of life, active and passive, un-
fortunate. He was indeed the most ill-starred pope
that ever sat upon the throne. He encountered
the superiority of the hostile powers which pressed
upon him from all sides, with a vacillating policy

*_Soriano. — " L'imperatore non cessava di sollecitar 11 coneilio.
. — S. M. Christ™, dimando clie da S. Sa.li fussino osservate le pro-
messe essendo le condition! poste fra loro. Percio S. Sa. si pose
a grandissimo pensiero e fa questo dolore et afFanno che lo condusse
alia morte. II dolor fu accresciuto dalle pazzie del cardinal de
Medici, il quale allora piu che mai intendeva a rinuntiare il ca»
pello. jjer .la concurrenza alle cose di Fiorenza,"

128 CONNEXION OP POLITICS WITH THE [BOOK I*

contingent on the probabilities of the moment,
which wrought his entire downfall. He was doomed
to see the attempt to build up an independent tem-
poral power, to which his more celebrated prede-
cessors had devoted themselves, lead to the very
contrary results. He was obliged to endure that
those from whom he tried to wrest Italy altogether,
should establish their sovereignty in it for ever.

The great protestant schism unfolded itself with
resistless power before his eyes; whatever means he
used to stem the torrent served but to contribute to
its wider spread. He quitted the throne he had
occupied, infinitely sunk in reputation, without
either spiritual or temporal authority. Northern
Germany, which had ever been so important to the
papacy, by whose conversion in earlier times the
power of the popes in the West had mainly been
established, whose revolt against Henry IV. had af-
forded them such signal service in the complete or-
ganization of the hierarchy, had new risen against
them. Germany has the immortal merit of having
restored Christianity to a purer form than it had
worn since the first ages of the church ; of having
rediscovered true religion. This was the weapon
that made her unconquerable. Her convictions
forced a passage into the minds of all her neigh-
bours, Scandinavia had early adopted them. Con-
trary to the inclinations of the king, but under the
shelter of the measures he had adopted, they dif-
fused themselves over England. In Switzerland
they achieved, with few modifications, a secure
and enduring sway j in France they made great

CH. III.] REFORMATION, UNDER CLEMENT VII. 129

progress : in Italy, even in Spain, we find traces of
them under Clement. The mighty tide rolled on
nearer and nearer. There is a power in these opi-
nions which convinces and carries along all minds,
and the conflict of spiritual and temporal interests
in which the papacy had involved itself, appears to
have been exactly calculated to secure to them
complete ascendency.

BOOK II,

CHAPTER I.

BEGINNING OP THE REGENERATION OF
CATHOLICISM.

THOUGH public opinion is now more loudly and
systematically expressed, and more rapidly commu-
nicated than at any former period of the world, its
influence is not the growth of to-day. In every
age it has constituted an important element of the
social life of modern Europe. Who can say whence
it arises, or how it is formed ? We may regard it
as the especial product of that community of in-
terests and feelings which binds together socle-
ties; as the clearest expression of their inward
movements and revolutions. It derives its origin
and its nutriment from hidden sources, and, requi-
ring little support from reason or from evidence,
takes possession of the minds of men by involun-
tary conviction. Yet its apparent uniformity is in
fact confined to the most general outlines ; for in
the innumerable circles, wide and narrow, of which

134 PUBLIC OPINION.

human society is composed , it reappears under
forms the most various and peculiar. New obser-
vations and new experiments are constantly flow-
ing into it ; original minds are ever arising, which,
affected by its course, but not borne along by its
stream, re-act forcibly upon it ; and thus it is
in a state of incessant flux and metamorphosis.
It is sometimes more, sometimes less, in accord-
ance with truth and justice ; being rather a tend-
ency of social life and an impulse of the mo-
ment, than a fixed system. Frequently it merely
accompanies the event which it contributes to pro-
duce, and from which it derives its form and its
extension; occasionally however, when it en-
counters a stubborn will which it cannot subdue, it
breaks out into violent and unreasonable demands.
It must be acknowledged that it has generally a just
consciousness of its own defects and necessities; yet,
from its very nature, it can have no clear and steady
perception where lies the remedy, or what are the
means of applying it. Hence it happens that, in
the course of time, it so often veers completely
round. By its aid the papacy was established, by
its aid it was overthrown. At the period we are
considering it was thoroughly profane ; it after-
wards became completely spiritual. We have ob-
served how it inclined to protestantism throughout
Europe ; we shall now see, how, through a great
part of the continent, it took an opposite direction.
We shall begin by showing how rapidly the doc-
trines of the protestants made their way even in
Italy

135

§ 1. OPINIONS CURRENT IN ITALY ANALOGOUS
WITH PROTESTANTISM.

Literary associations exercised an incalculable
influence on the development of science and art in
Italy. They assembled, here around a prince, there
around a distinguished man of letters, or even an
opulent private person of literary tastes, and some-
times were composed of individuals meeting toge-
ther on free and equal terms. They were generally
most beneficial when they arose spontaneously and
without formal plan, out of the immediate exigen-
cies of the times. We follow their traces with
pleasure.

At the same moment that the spread of pro-
testantism agitated Germany, literary societies as-
suming a religious colour arose in Italy.

Under Leo X., the tone of good society had be-
come sceptical and anti-christian, but a re-action
now took place in the minds of some of the most in-
telligent men, — in those who partook of the refine-
ment of their age, without being corrupted by it-
It was natural that they should congregate toge-
ther. The human mind needs, or at least de-
lights in, the support of assent ; but this sympa-
thy is indispensable in religious opinions, which
are based on the profoundest community of senti-
ment.

Even in Leo's time we find mention of an ora-
tory of Divine Love, which a few distinguished

136 ANALOGIES WITH [BOOK II.

men of Rome had established for their common
edification. In the church of Sfl. Silvestro and
Ste. Dorotea, in the Trastevere, not far from the spot
where St. Peter was thought to have lived and to
have presided over the first meetings of Christians,
they assembled for divine worship, preaching and
spiritual exercises. They met to the number of
fifty 'or sixty. Contarini, Sadolet, Giberto, Ca-
raffa, all of whom afterwards became cardinals >
Gaetano da Thiene who was canonized, Lippo-
mano, a theological writer of great reputation and
influence, and some other celebrated men, were
amongst them. Giuliano Bathi, the priest of that
church, served as centre of the circle**

It might readily be inferred from the place of
these meetings that the tendency of them was far
from being contrary to protestantism ; they were
indeed prompted by a very kindred spirit. They
arose from the same strong desire to oppose some
resistance to the common degeneracy.

They were composed of men who subsequently

* I extract this notice from Caracciolo : Vita di Paolo IV. MS.
" Quei pochi huomini da bene ed eruditi prelati che erano in Roma
in qnel tempo di Leone X. vedendo la cittk di Roma e tutto il
resto d3 Italia, dove per la vicinanza alia sede apostolica doveva
piu fioriie 1'osservanza de'riti, essere cosi maltrattato ilculto di-
vino,— si unirono in un oratorio chiamato del divino amore circa
sessanta di loro, per fare quivi quasi in una torre ogni sforzo per
guardare le divine leggi." In the Vita Cajetani Thiensei, (AA. 88.
Aug. II.) c, i. 7-10. this is again repeated and enlarged upon by
Caracciolo, although in the latter place he only reckons fifty
members. The Historia clericorum regularium vulgo Theatino-
xum, by Josephus Silos, confirms it in many passages, printed in
the Commentarius praevius to the Vita Cajetani*

CH. I.] PROTESTANTISM IN ITALY. 137

exhibited great divergency of views ; at that time
indeed they concurred in one general tone of thought
and feeling, hut the distinct tendencies of their
minds soon began to show themselves.

A few years later, we meet again with a part of
this Roman society in Venice.

Rome had been sacked, Florence conquered;
Milan had constantly been the theatre of war. In
this universal ruin, Venice had remained untouched
by the foreigner or the soldier. She was regarded
by all as the city of refuge. Thither flocked the
dispersed literati of Rome, and the patriots of Flo-
rence, against whom the gates of their native city
were closed for ever. Among the latter particularly,
as we learn from the testimony of Nardi the histo-
rian, and of Bruccioli the translator of the Bible,
there arose a very strong spirit of devotion, in
which the influence of the doctrines of Savonarola
was still perceptible. Other fugitives, as for exam-
ple Reginald Pole, who had left England to escape
from the innovations of Henry VIII., shared in
these sentiments. They found a ready welcome
from their Venetian hosts.

At the house of Pietro Bembo in Padua, which
was open to all comers, the conversation fell chiefly
on philological subjects, such as Ciceronian Latin.
But the questions discussed at the house of the
learned and sagacious Gregorio Cortese, the abbot
of San Giorgio Maggiore at Venice, were of a
deeper nature. Bruccioli lays the scene of some
of his dialogues in the groves and thickets of San
Giorgio.

138 ANALOGUES WITH [BOOK II.

Not far from TVeviso, was a villa called Treville,
inhabited by Luigi Priuli*. He was a specimen of
the genuine accomplished Venetian, such as we
still occasionally meet, full of calm susceptibility
to true and noble sentiments and to disinterested
friendship. The society that assembled around
him was chiefly occupied with theological studies
and discourse. There was the Benedictine, Marco
of Padua, a man of the profoundest piety, probably
he from whom Pole declared he had imbibed spi-
ritual nutriment. There was also he who may be
esteemed the chief of all, Gaspar Contarini, of
whom Pole said, that he was ignorant of nothing
that the human mind could discover by its own re-
search, or that divine grace had revealed; and that
he crowned his knowledge with virtue.

If we inquire what was the faith which chiefly
inspired these men, we shall find that the main
article of it was that same doctrine of justification,
which, as preached by Luther, had given rise to
the whole protestant movement. Contarini wrote
a treatise upon it, of which Pole speaks in the
highest praise. " You have brought to light the
jewel/' says he, " which the church kept half con-
cealed." Pole himself was of opinion that scrip-
ture, taken in its profoundest context, preaches
nothing but this doctrine. He esteems his friend
happy, in that he had been the first to promulgate
" this holy, fruitful, indispensable truth"f- The

* Epi&tola Reginald! Poll eel. Quirini, torn. ii. Diatriba ad
epistolas Sclielhornii, clxxxiii.
f Epistolse Poli, torn. Hi. p. 57.

CH, I.] PROTESTANTISM IN ITALY. 139

circle of friends to whom he attached himself in-
cluded M. A. Flaminio, who lived for a time with
Pole, and whom Contarini wished to take with him
to Germany. We see in the following passage how
distinctly he taught this doctrine. " The gospel/*
says he, in one of his letters *, " is no other than the
blessed tidings, that the only begotten Son of God,
clad in our flesh, hath made satisfaction for us to
the justice of the Eternal Father. He who be-
lieves this, enters into the kingdom of God ; he
enjoys the universal pardon ; from a carnal, he
becomes a spiritual creature ; from a child of
wrath, a child of grace; he lives in a sweet peace
of conscience."

It is hardly possible to use language of more or-
thodox Lutheranism.

This belief spread, like a literary tendency or
opinion, over a great part of Italy f.

It is, however, remarkable how suddenly the
dispute concerning an opinion which had pre-
viously excited little attention, called forth the

* To Theodorina Sauli, 12 Feb,, 1542. Lettere Volgari (Rac-
colta del Manuzio) Vinegia, 1553, ii. 43.

f Amongst other documents, the letter of Sadolet to Contarini
(Epistola Sadoleti, lib. ix.p. 365.) concerning his " Commentary
on the Epistle to the Romans," is very remarkable. " In quibus
commentariis," says Sadolet, " mortis et crucis Christi myste-
rium totum aperire atque illustrare sum conatus." Still he had
not quite satisfied Contarini, with whose opinion also he did not
quite concur. He promises, meanwhile, in the new edition, to
enter upon a clear explanation of the "doctrines of original sin
and of grace : " de hoc ipso morbo naturae nostrse et de repara-
tione arbitrii nostri a Spiritu Sancto facta,"

140 ANALOGIES WITH [BOOK II.

activity of all minds and continued to occupy
them for a century. In the sixteenth century the
doctrine of justification gave rise to the greatest agi-
tations, divisions, and even revolutions. It seems,
indeed, that the tendency of all minds to husy
themselves with so transcendental a question, — a
question regarding the profoundest mysteries of the
immediate relation hetween God and man,— arose
in contrast to the worldliness which had insinuated
itself into the whole institution of the church and
had led to a complete oblivion of that relation.

Even in the gay and voluptuous Naples it was
agitated hy Juan Valdez, a Spaniard, secretary to
the viceroy. The writings of Valdez are unfortu-
nately entirely lost, hut we can gather very pre-
cise evidence of their nature and contents from the
objections of his opponents. About the year 1540,
a little book was published called, " Of the benefits
of the death of Christ," which, as a decree of the
inquisition expresses it, " treated in an insinua-
ting manner of justification, depreciated works and
meritorious acts, ascribed all merit to faith alone,
and, as this was the very point which was at that
time a stumbling-block to many prelates and monks,
obtained extraordinary circulation." Frequent re-
searches have been made as to the author of this
book. The decree in question distinctly points
him out. " It was," we learn, " a monk of San
Severino, a pupil of Valdez. Flaminio revised it"*.

* Schelhorn, Gerdesius, and others, have ascribed this book
to Aonius Palearius, -who says, in a discourse, " hoc anno Tusce

CH. I.] PROTESTANTISM IN ITALY. 141

The book is thus attributed to a scholar and a
friend of Valdez. It had incredible success, and
rendered the doctrine of justification, for a time,
popular in Italy. Valdez, however, was not exclu-
sively occupied with theological pursuits, as he
then filled an important civil post. He founded
no sect ; the book was the fruit of a liberal study
of Christianity. His friends dwelt with delight on
the days they had enjoyed with him at the Chiaja
and at Posilippo, in that exquisite region " where
nature rejoices in her splendor and smiles at her
own beauty." Valdez was gentle, agreeable, and
not without considerable reach of mind. " A por-
tion of his soul sufficed," says one of his friends,
" to animate his frail, attenuated body; the larger
part of his clear, untroubled intellect was ever
raised aloft in the contemplation of truth."

Valdez possessed an extraordinary influence over

scripsl Christ! morte quanta commoda allatasint humano generi."
The compendium of the inquisitors, "which I found in Caracciolo,
Vita di Paolo IV. MS., contains, on the other hand, the follow-
ing expressions : " Quel libro del beneficio di Christo, fu il suo au-
tore un monaco di San Severino in Napoli, discepolo del Valdes,
fu revisore di detto libro il Flaminio, fu stampato molte volte, ma
particolamente a Modena de mandate Moroni, inganni molti,
perche trattava della giustificatione con dolce xnodo maheretica-
mente." The passage from Palearius does not after all point out
the book so distinctly that some other may not as well be meant ;
Palearius also says that he was called to account for it in the very
same year ; while, on the contrary, the compendium expresses
itself so as to leave no doubt, and adds, " quel libro fu da molti
approbate solo in Verona, fu cotiosciuto e reprobate, dopo molti
anni fu posto noil' indice." For these reasons I hold the opinions
of the above-mentioned scholars to be erroneous.

142 ANALOGIES WITH [BOOK II.

the nobility and the learned men of Naples. The
women also took a lively share in speculations
which employed both the intellect and the reli-
gious affections.

Among them was Vittoria Colonna, who, after the
death of her husband, Pescara, devoted herself en-
tirely to study. Her poems, as well as her letters,
breathe intuitive moral sense, and unaffected piety.
How beautifully does she console a friend for the loss
of her brother, " whose serene spirit had entered
into eternal peace ; she ought not to lament, since
she could now converse with him ; his absences,
once so frequent, could no longer hinder her being
understood by him"*, Pole and Contarini were
among her most intimate friends. I am not dis-
posed to believe that she addicted herself to spirit-
ual exercises of a monastic sort ; at least, Aretino
writes to her with great naivet£, " that it was
certainly not her opinion that the muteness of the
tongue, or the casting down of the eyes, or the
coarse garment, availed any thing, but the pure
soul."

The house of Colonna generally, and more espe-
cially Vespasiano, Duke of Palliano, and his wife,
Giulia Gonzaga, — the same who was reputed the
most beautiful woman of Italy, — were favourable
to these religious opinions. One of Valdez's books
was dedicated to Giulia.

The new doctrine had likewise made its way

* Lettere Volgari, i. 92. Lettere di diversi autori, p. C04. A
veiy useful collection, particularly the first part.

CH. I.] PROTESTANTISM IN ITALY. 143

with extraordinary rapidity among the middle
classes. The decree of the inquisition which
reckons three thousand schoolmasters as adhe-
rents of it, seems like an exaggeration ; but sup-
posing the number to be smaller, how great must
have been its influence on youth and on the
mass of the people!

The acceptance which these opinions found in
Modena was scarcely less cordial. They were fa-
voured by the bishop himself, Morone, an intimate
friend of Pole and Contarini. The book, " Of the
benefits of the death of Christ," was printed and
distributed at his express command, and his chap-
lain, Don Girolamo da Modena, was the president of
an academy in which the same principles were
taught*. Writers have, from time to time, spoken
of the protestants of Italy, and we have already
mentioned several names which are to be found in
the lists of them. It is indisputable that some
articles of the faith which pervaded Germany had
taken root in the minds of these men ; that they
sought to establish their creed on the evidence of
scripture, and, in the article of justification, ap-
proached very near to the Lutheran doctrine. But
they cannot be said to have concurred in it on all
points ; the unity of the church, and the reverence
for the pope were too deeply imprinted on their
minds, and too many a catholic rite and usage was

* In Schelhoin's Amcenitatt. Literar. torn. xii. p. 564., we
find reprinted the Articnli contra Moronum, published by Ver-
gerio in 1558, 'where these accusations do not fail to appear. The
more exact notices I took from the compendium of the inquisi*
tors.

144 ANALOGIES WITH [BOOK II.

intimately bound up with the national character,
for them to be lightly and suddenly renounced.

Flaminio wrote an exposition of the Psalms, the
dogmatic contents of which have been approved by
many protestant writers ; but even to this he pre-
fixed a dedication in which he called the pope the
Watchman and Prince of all Holiness, the Vice-
gerent of God upon earth.

Giovan Battista Tolengo ascribes justification to
grace alone ; he even speaks of the utility of sin,
which is not far removed from the hurtfulness
of good works. He declaims vehemently against
confidence in fasts, frequent prayers, masses, and
confessions, and even against the priesthood itself,
the tonsure, and the mitre*. Nevertheless he died
quietly in his sixtieth year, in the same Benedic-
tine convent which had witnessed his vows in his
sixteenth f.

The sentiments of Bernardino Ochino were, for
a long time, nearly the same. If we believe his
own words, it was " a profound longing after the
heavenly paradise, to be obtained through divine
grace," which first led him to become a Francis-
can. His zeal was so sincere and intense that he
very soon passed on to the more severe discipline
of the capuchins. In the third, and again in the
fourth chapter of this order, he was elected its
general ; an office which he held with the greatest

* Ad Psalm. G7. f. 246. There is an extract from these ex-
planations to be met with in the " Italia Reformata " of Gerde-
sius, p. 257 — 261.

t Thuani Historise, ad a. 1559. i. 473,

CH. I .] PROTESTANTISM IN ITALY. 145

approbation. His life was one of the utmost auste-
rity. He always went on foot, slept upon his cloak,
and never drank wine ; he most earnestly incul-
cated the rule of poverty upon others also, as the
most efficacious means of attaining to the perfec-
tion of the Gospel ; yet he was gradually convinced
of the doctrine of justification through grace, and
adopted it with fervour. He preached it with the
utmost earnestness in the confessional and in the
pulpit. " I opened my heart to him," says Bem-
bo, " as I would do to Christ himself; it seemed
to me that I had never beheld a holier man."
Whole cities thronged to hear his preaching ; the
churches were too small to contain the numbers
that flocked to them ; the learned and the ignorant,
each sex and every age, went away edified. His
coarse clothing, his beard floating upon his breast,
his grey hair, his pale emaciated countenance and
the feebleness occasioned by his obstinate fasting,
gave him the aspect and expression of a saint*.

And thus opinions analogous to those of the
schismatics of Germany existed in the bosom of
Catholicism, though they never led their adherents
to overstep the pale of the church. The Italian inno-
vators did not engage in any direct conflict with the
priestly or monastic spirit and practices ; they were
far from attacking the supremacy of the pope. How
was it possible, for example, that Pole should not ad-
here to it, after fleeing from England that he might
not be compelled to pay homage to his king as

* Boverio : Annali di frati minor! Capuccini i, 375. Gratiani :
Vie de Commendone, p. 143.
VOL. I. L

146 ANALOGIES WITH [BOOK II.

head of the English church ? They thought, as
Ottonel Vida, a pupil of Vergerios, declares to his
master, that " in the Christian church each had his
office ; on the bishop devolved the care of the souls
in his diocese, whom he was bound to guard from
the snares of the world and the evil one; the
metropolitan was to watch vigilantly that the bi-
shops resided in their dioceses ; the metropolitans,
again, were subject to the pope, to whom was com-
mitted the universal direction of the church, which
it was his duty to govern with the aid of the Holy
Ghost. Every man should be watchful in his
vocation"*. The men of whom we are speaking
regarded a separation from the church as the
greatest possible evil. Isidoro Clario, who, by
the aid of protestant labours, corrected the Vul-
gate and wrote an introduction to it which was
subjected to an expurgation, warned the protest-
ants against such a project in a work written ex-
pressly with that view. " No corruption/7 says
he, " can be so great as to justify a defection from
the sacred union* Would it not be better that every
one should endeavour to reform what exists, than
to make uncertain and dangerous experiments in
constructing something new ? They would do well
to turn all their thoughts to the improvement of
the old institution and to the cure of its defects.57

Under these modifications, there were a great
number of adherents of the new doctrine in Italy.
Antonio dei Pagliaricci of Siena, who was even

* Ottonello, Vida Dot. al Vescovo Vergerio : Lettere Volgari,
i, 80.

Cfl. I.] PROTESTANTISM IN ITALY. 147

reputed the author of the book " Of the Benefits of
the Death of Christ;99 Carnesecchi of Florence, who
was mentioned as an adherent and propagator of
that book ; Giovan Battista Rotto of Bologna, who
enjoyed the protection of Morone, Pole, and Vit-
toria Colonna, and found means to give pecuniary
assistance to the poor and obscure among his fol-
lowers ; Fra Antonio of Volterra, and some distin-
guished man in almost every city of Italy, joined
themselves to their body*. The opinions which
agitated the country from one end to the other,
through all classes of society, were purely and
decidedly religious ; but moderated on the subject
of ecclesiastical reform by the influence which the
church of Rome was so well calculated to exercise
over the imaginations and affections of the Italian
people.

§ 2. ATTEMPT AT INTERNAL REFORMS AND AT A
RECONCILIATION WITH THE PROTESTANTS.

There is a saying ascribed to Pole, that a man
should be satisfied with his own inward convic-

* The extract from the Compendium of the Inquisitors is our
authority on this point. Bologna, it says, " fu. in molti pericoli,
perche vi furono heretic! principal! fra quali fu un Gio. Ba.
Rotto, il quale haveva amicizia et appoggio di persone potentis-
aime, come di Morone, Polo, Marchesa di Pescara, e racoglieva
danari a tutto suo potere, e gli compartiva tra gli heretici occulti
e poveri, che stavano in Bologna, abjurfc poi nelle mani del padre
Salmerone, (the Jesuit,) per ordine del legato di Bologna." (Com-
pend%fol. 9. c. 94.) In this manner they proceeded -with every
town.

L2

148 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [BOOK II.

Sj without troubling himself greatly whether
errors and abuses exist in the church*. Never-
theless, the first attempt at a reformation originated
with a party to which he himself belonged,

The most honourable act of Paul Illd's life was
perhaps the one which marked his accession to the
throne \ viz, the summoning into the college of car-
dinals several distinguished men, without regard to
anything but their merits. He began with Conta-
rini, the Venetian of whom we have already spoken,
and at his suggestion nominated the others. They
were men of unblemished manners, renowned for
their learning and piety, and acquainted with the
spiritual wants of different countries : — Caraffa> who
had resided for a long time in Spain and the Nether-
lands ; Sadolet, bishop of Carpentras, in France ;
Pole, a fugitive from England ; Giberto, who, after
having long taken part in the management of pub-
lic affairs, governed his bishopric of Verona with
exemplary discretion; Federigo Fregoso, archbishop
of Salerno : almost all of them, as we see, members
of the Oratory of Divine Love which we have al-
ready mentioned, and several of them holding reli-
gious opinions inclining to protestantism f .

These were the very cardinals who, by the pope's
command, drew up a scheme of church reform, It
was known to the protestants, who not only re-

* Passages from Atanagi in Mc Crie ; The Reformation in Italy,
p. 172, German translation,

f Vita Reginald! Poli, in the edition of his letters by Quirini,
torn. i. p. 12. Florebelli de vita Jacobi Sadoleti Commentarius
prefixed to the Epp. Sadoleti, coL 1590, vol. 3.

CH. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 149

jected, but ridiculed it ; they, indeed, had mean-
while got far beyond it. But it can hardly be denied
that it was a most significant fact for the catholic
church, that the evil was attacked in Rome itself;
that, in the immediate presence of a pope, and in
the introduction to a work addressed to him, they
should accuse popes, " of having frequently chosen
servants not with a view to learn from them what
their duty required, but in order to have those
things declared lawful towards which their desires
are turned ;" that this abuse of the highest power
was declared the chief source of corruption*.

Nor did the matter rest here. There are some
short essays of Gaspar Contarini extant, in which
he makes vehement war on abuses, more particu-
larly those which brought gains to the Curia. He
denounces the practice of compositions and the re-
ceipt of money in payment of spiritual favours, as
simony which might be esteemed a sort of heresy*
He had been blamed for censuring former popes :
6 ' How ?" exclaims he, c e shall we trouble ourselves so
much about the reputations of two or three popes,
and not rather try to restore what has been defaced,
and to secure a good name for ourselves ? It were
indeed too much to require us to defend all the acts
of all the popes ! " He attacks the abuse of dis-
pensations in an earnest and stringent manner. He

* This is the Consilium delectonim Cardinalium et alionim
prselatorum de Emendanda Ecclesia, already mentioned. It bears
the signatures of Contarini, Caraffa, Sadolet, Pole, Fregoso, Gi»
berto, Cortese, and Aleander.

150 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [BOOK II.

regards it as idolatrous to say (as was actually
maintained), that the pope had no rule for the
enactment or abolition of positive law but his own
will. It is worth while to hear him on this point.
" The law of Christ/' says he, " is a law of liberty,
and forbids a slavery so gross that the Lutherans
were perfectly justified in comparing it to the Ba-
bylonish captivity. But besides this, can that be
called a government, whose rule is the will of a man,
by nature prone to evil, and moved by innumerable
affections ? No ; all true dominion is a dominion of
reason. Its aim is to lead those who are subject
to it, by the just and appropriate means to its end
— happiness. The authority of the pope also is a
dominion of reason. God granted it to Saint Peter
and his successors, that they might lead the flock
confided to them to eternal blessedness. A pope
ought to know that those over whom he exercises
it are free men. He ought not to command, or for-
bid, or dispense, according to his own pleasure, but
according to the rule of reason, of the divine com-
mandments and of love ; a rule which refers every
thing to God and to the common good. For posi-
tive laws ought not to be arbitrary and capricious;
they ought to be adaptations of the laws of nature
and of God to circumstances; nor can they be
changed, except in conformity with those laws and
the imperious demands of things.33 " Let your holi-
ness be careful/' exclaims he to Paul III., " not
to depart from this rule. Give thyself not up to the
impotence of the will which chooses what is evil ;

CH. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS, 151

to the servitude which is the hondage of sin. Then
wilt thou be powerful and free ; then will the life of
the Christian republic be upheld in thee*/'

This, as we see, was an attempt to found a papacy
guided by pure reason. It was the more remark-
able, inasmuch as it proceeded from that same doc-
trine concerning justification and free will which
had served as basis of the protestant schism. This
is not a mere surmise, for Contarini expressly says
that he entertained those opinions. He goes on to
expound that man is prone to evil ; that this arises
from the impotence of the will, which, when it turns
to evil, is rather passive than active ; that through
the grace of Christ alone it is free. He acknow-
ledges, indeed, the authority of the pope, but he
requires that it should be exercised in the service
of God and the universal good.

Contarini laid his writings before the pope. On
a bright and beautiful day of November, 1538, he
accompanied Mm to Ostia. " On the road/7 he
writes to Pole, " this our good old man took me
beside him and conversed with me alone on the
reform of compositions. He said that he had the
little treatise which I wrote on this matter, and that
he had read it in his morning hours. I had given
up all hope ; but now he spoke to me in so Chris-
tian a manner, that I have conceived fresh hope

* G. Contarini Cardinalis ad Paulum III. P* M. de potestate
pontificis in compositionibus. Printed in Roccaberti, Blblio-
theca Pontificia Maxima, torn. xiii. I have in my possession a
Tractatus de compositionibus datarii Rev101 D. Gasparis Conta-
rini, 1536, which, as far as I can find, has been nowhere printed.

152 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [BOOK II.

that God will do some great thing, and not let the
gates of hell prevail against his Holy Spirit*/'

It is easy to understand, that a thorough reform
of abuses, interwoven with so many rights and
claims, with so many of the habits of daily life,
was the most difficult that could be undertaken ;
yet pope Paul seemed gradually to conceive an ear-
nest desire to attempt it.

He therefore appointed commissions for the
execution of reforms f in the Camera Apostolica,
the Ruota, Chancery, and Penitentiaria. He also
recalled Giberti to his court. He issued reformatory
bulls, and preparations were made for that general
council which pope Clement had so greatly dread-
ed and so constantly sought to avert, and which
Paul III., on private grounds, might have found
many reasons for avoiding. How then, men asked
themselves, if improvements really took place, if
the Roman court reformed itself, if the abuses in
administration were removed — how, if that very
dogma in which the whole of Luther's system of
faith originated, should become the principle of a
renewal of life and doctrine in the church — would
not a reconciliation be possible ? (For, it must be
observed, even the protestants severed themselves
slowly and reluctantly from the unity of the church.)

To many it seemed possible ; not a few founded
serious hopes on a religious conference.

* Gaspar G. Contarinus Reginalds 0. Polo. Ex ostiis Tiberi-
nis, xi. Nov. 1538. (Epp. Poli, ii. 142.)

t Acta consistorialia (Aug. 6. 1540.) in Rainalclus, Annales
Ecclesiastici, torn. xxi. p. 146.

CH. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 153

According to theory, the pope ought not to have
consented to this ; since its object was to decide, not
without the interference of the secular power, reli-
gious differences, of which he claimed the supreme
cognizance. And in fact he abstained from signi-
fying his approbation, though he suffered things
to go on, and even despatched legates to the council.

He proceeded with great caution ; choosing none
but moderate men, several of whom indeed subse-
quently fell under suspicion of protestantism, and
furnishing them with wise directions for the go-
vernment of their lives and their political conduct.
When, for example, he sent Morone, who was
still young, to Germany, in the year 1536, he neg-
lected not to enjoin him " to contract no debts,
to pay at the places of entertainment appointed
him, to dress himself neither luxuriously nor
meanly, to frequent the churches, but without the
least appearance of hypocrisy." He was to repre-
sent in his own person that Roman reformation of
wilich so much had been said ; and to that end he
was recommended to maintain a dignity tempered
by suavity and cheerfulness*.

In the year 1540 the bishop of Vienna advised
extreme measures. He proposed that the articles
of Luther's and Melancthon's doctrine which were
declared heretical should be laid before the inno-
vators, and that they should be peremptorily asked
whether they would consent to renounce them.
This advice, however, the pope, by his nuncio,

* Instructio pro causa fidei et concilii data episcopo Mutinae,
Oct. 24, 1536, MS.

154 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [BOOK II.

declined. " We fear," said he, " they would ra-
ther die than pronounce such a recantation." He
wished he could only see a hope of a reconcili-
ation. At the first gleam of it he would send a
formula containing no offensive matter, which had
already been drawn up by wise and venerable men
with that view. " Were it but come to that !" he
adds; "but scarcely can we expect it."*

Yet never did parties approximate more nearly
than at the conference of Ratisbon, in the year
1541. The state of politics was remarkably fa-
vourable. The emperor, who wanted to employ
the whole force of the empire against Turkey or
France, wished for nothing more ardently than a
complete and general reconciliation. He selected
Gropper and Julius Pflug, the most judicious and
temperate amongst the German divines, to attend
the conference. On the other hand, landgrave
Philip was once more on good terms with Austria,
by whose influence he hoped to obtain the chief
command in the war which was preparing : with
admiration and delight the emperor beheld him
ride into Ratisbon on his noble charger, powerful
and vigorous as himself. The pacific Bucer, the
gentle Melancthon, appeared on the protestant side.

How earnestly the pope desired a successful issue
of this meeting, is sufficiently shown by the choice

* Instxuctiones pro Rev010. D. Ep. Mutinensi Apostolico Nuncio
interfuturo conventui Germanorum Spirse, 12 Maji, 1540, cele-
brando. " Timendum est atque adeo certo sciendum, ista, qua
in his articulis pie et prudenter continentur, non solum fretos
salvo conductu ease eos recusatoros, verum etiam ubi mors press ens
immineret, illaxn potius prseelecturos."

CH. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 155

of the legate whom he sent : that very Gaspar Con-
tarini, whom we have seen so deeply imbued with
the new opinions which pervaded Italy, so act-
ively engaged in the project of universal reform.
He now appeared in a still more important posi-
tion ; occupying the centre between two creeds and
two parties which divided the world ; charged at
a most favourable crisis with the commission, and
actuated by the desire, to reconcile them ; a position
which renders it, if not necessary, yet allowable, to
take a nearer view of his personal character and
history.

Messer Gaspar Contarini, the eldest son of a
noble house of Venice which traded to the Levant,
had devoted himself with peculiar zeal to philoso-
phical studies. His manner of pursuing them is not
unworthy of note. He set apart three hours every
day for study, in the strict sense of the word:
never more nor less. He began every time with an
exact repetition of what he had read ; whatever he
undertook he persevered in to the end ; he did no-
thing in a desultory manner8*. He did not suffer
himself to be seduced by the subtleties of Aristo-
tle's commentators into similar subtleties ; he per-
ceived that none were more acute than those who
sought to deceive. He displayed remarkable talent,
and still more remarkable steadiness. He did
not aim at the ornaments of speech, but expressed
himself simply and appositely. The growth and
structure of his mind was marked by that regular

* Joannis Casae Vita Gasparis Contarini ; in Jo. Casse Moni-
mentis Latinis ed. Hal. 1708, p. 88.

156 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [BOOK II.

sequence which we see in the processes of nature.
As the tree is clothed each year with its circle of
hark, so did his mind acquire its regular portion of
compass and solidity.

At an early age he was elected member of the
pregadi, the senate of his native city, hut for some
time he ventured not to speak. He wished it, for
he had no want of matter to communicate, hut he
could not find courage. When at length he pre-
vailed upon himself to address the assembly, he
spoke neither gracefully, indeed, nor wittily, nor
with vehemence and animation, hut so simply and
profoundly, that he gained the highest respect and
consideration.

His lot was cast in the most stirring times. He
heheld his country's loss of territory and aided her
to regain it. On Charles V/s first arrival in Ger-
many, he was sent as ambassador to his court,
where he witnessed the beginning of the divisions in
the church. He arrived in Spain just as the ship
Vittoria returned from the first voyage round the
world*, and was, as far as I have been able to
find, the first to solve the problem why she arrived
a day later than her journal indicated. He aided
in bringing about a reconciliation between the pope,
(to whom he was sent after the conquest of Rome)
and the emperor. His little book on the Venetian
constitution, a very instructive and well-conceived
work, and the reports of his embassies, which are

* Beccatello, Vita del C. Contarini (Epp. Poll, Hi.), p. ciii. There
is likewise a separate edition, which, however, is only taken from,
the volume of letters, and contains the same number of pages.

CH. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 157

to be found here and there in manuscript, are clear
and striking proofs of his accurate, penetrating view
of the world, and of his intelligent patriotism*.

One Sunday of the year 15353 just as the great
council was assembled, and Contarini, who mean-
while had been advanced to the most important
offices, sat by the voting urn, the news arrived that
pope Paul, whom he did not know — with whom he
had no connexion — had appointed him cardinal.
All flocked round him, surprised, incredulous as he
was, to wish him joy, Aluise Moncenigo, who had
hitherto been his political opponent, exclaimed,
that the republic had lost her best citizenf .

This honourable promotion was not, however,
unattended with painful circumstances. Should he
leave his free paternal city which offered him her
highest dignities, or, at all events, afield of activity
in which he might labour on terms of perfect equal-
ity with the heads of the state, for the service of a
pope, often swayed by passion alone and subject
to no legal restraints ? Should he abandon the re-
public of his ancestors, where the manners suited his
own, in order to measure himself against others in
the luxury and splendour of the court of Rome ?
We are assured, that the consideration, that in such
critical times an example of the contempt of so

* The first is dated 1525, the other 1530. The first contains
very important information relating to the earlier times of Charles
V. I have found no trace of it either in Vienna or Venice. At
Rome I discovered a copy, but have never obtained sight of
another.

t Daniel Barbaro to Domenico Veniero ; Lettere Volgari, i. 73.

158 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [BOOK II.

exalted a dignity would have an injurious effect,
mainly determined him to accept it*.

He now directed all the zeal which he had hi-
therto displayed in the service of his country to the
affairs of the church generally. He was often op-
posed by the cardinals, who thought it strange, that
one just come among them, a Venetian, should
attempt to reform the court of Rome. Sometimes
even the pope was against him. On one occasion,
when he opposed the nomination of a cardinal,
" We know," said the pope, " how people navigate
these waters. The cardinals don't love that an-
other should equal them in dignity." " I do not
think," replied Contarini offended, " that the car-
dinal's hat is my highest honour."

He retained, even in Rome, his severe, simple
and industrious habits ; the elevation and the mild-
ness of his character.

Nature adorns the simplest plant with the flower
in which it breathes out, and by which it communi-
cates, its being ; and so in man, the disposition,
or character (i. e, the result of the combined
powers of his whole organization), determines his
conduct and manners, and even the expression of
his person and countenance.

In Contarini this character was mildness, in-
herent truth, pure morality ; above all, that deep
religious conviction which gives man happiness be-
cause it gives him light.

Endowed with such a character, temperate, al-
most sharing the views of the protestants on the

3asa, p. 102.

CH. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 159

weightiest point of doctrine, Contarini appeared in
Germany. By a regeneration of the doctrine of the
church emanating from this very point, and by the
removal of abuses, he hoped to heal the divisions
of Christendom.

Whether, however, they were not already too
wide,— whether the diverging opinions had not al-
ready struck too deep and strong root, — are ques-
tions upon which I should be loath to decide.

Another Venetian, Marino Giustiniano, who
quitted Germany shortly before this diet, and who
appears to have attentively observed the state of
things, represents it as very possible that this was
the case*. He, however, regards some conces-
sions as indispensable, and specifies the follow-
ing:— That the pope should no longer claim to be
considered Christ's vicegerent in temporal as well
as in spiritual things ; that in place of ignorant and
vicious bishops and priests, substitutes should be
appointed, irreproachable in their lives, and capable
of instructing the people, that neither the sale of
masses, nor plurality of livings, nor the abuse of
compositions should any longer be tolerated ; that
the transgression of the rules of fasting should be
visited, at most, with light punishments ; if, added
to these reforms, the communion in the two kinds
and the marriage of priests were conceded, the
Germans would, he thinks, immediately abjure
their schism, would pay obedience to the pope in spi-

* Relazione del Clarmo. M. Marino Glustinlan Kavr. (ritornato)
dallalegazione di Germania sotto Ferdinando, re di Romani. Bibl,
Corsini at Rome. No. 481.

160 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [BOOK II.

ritual things, would give up their opposition to the
mass and auricular confession, and acknowledge the
necessity of good works as a fruit of faith, — so far,
that is, as they proceed from faith. As the exist-
ence of abuses had given birth to schism, a removal
of them might put an end to it.

We ought also here to remember, that landgrave
Philip of Hesse, had declared the year before that
the temporal power of the bishops might be tole-
rated, provided means could be found to secure
the due administration of the spiritual power ; that
an agreement might be come to respecting the
mass, provided only the sacrament in both kinds
was conceded*. Joachim of Brandenburg declared
himself willing to acknowledge the pope's supre-
macy, doubtless under certain conditions.

Meanwhile, advances were made from the other
side also. The imperial ambassador repeatedly
said, that concessions must be made on both sides,
as far as was consistent with God's honour. Even
those who did not protest would have gladly seen
the spiritual power taken, throughout Germany,
from the bishops, who were become to all intents
princes, and vested in superintendents, and a ge-
neral change in the administration of church pro-

* Letter from the landgrave in Rommel's Urknndenbuche, p.
85. Compare the letter of the bishop of Limden in Seckendorf,
p. 299. Contarini al Cl. Farnese, 1541, 28 April (Epp. Poll III.
p. ccly.). The landgiave and the elector both insisted upon the
marriage of the clergy, and the administration of the sacrament,
in the two kinds ; the former raised the most difficulties with
regard to the primacy, the latter with regard to the doctrine, " de
missa quod sit sacrificium."

CH. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 16 1

perty agreed upon. People already began to talk
of indifferent things which might be either done or
omitted; even in the ecclesiastical electorates pray-
ers were put up by authority for the successful
issue of the work of reconciliation .

We will not dispute about the degree of the pos-
sibility or probability of this success ; it was, at
all events, extremely difficult ; but if there were
the slightest prospect of it, it was worth the at-
tempt. Thus much at least is clear, — that a strong
desire for it had again taken possession of the
minds of men, — that extraordinary hopes were at-
tached to it.

The doubt was, however, whether the pope, with-
out whom nothing could be done, was disposed to
abate any thing of the rigour of his demands. On
this point, a passage in his instructions to Con-
tarini is very remarkable.*

He did not invest that prelate with those unli-
mited powers which the emperor had desired. He
conjectured that demands might arise in Germany
which no legate, which not even the pope himself,
could venture to comply with without the advice
of other nations. He did not however decline all
negociation. " We must first see," says he,
" whether the protestants will agree with us on
certain principles ; e. g. on the supremacy of the
holy see, on the sacraments, and some other
points." If we inquire what these other points

* Instructio data Revmo. Cli. Contareno in Germaniam legato,
d. 28 mensis Januarii, 1541, In. many libraries in manuscript;
printed in Quirini ; Epp. Poll, III, eclxxxvL

M

162 1NTEHNAL REFORMS, AND [BOOK II »

were, we find that the pope does not express him-
self distinctly about them. He describes them as
"what is sanctioned both by the holy scripture
and by the perpetual usages of the church ; the
legate knows what they are/9 " On this basis/3
he adds, " an attempt may be made to come
to a mutual understanding on all disputed ques-
tions*."

There can be no doubt that this vague language
was used designedly. Paul III. probably wished
to try to what point Contarini could bring affairs,
and had no mind to bind himself beforehand to a
ratification of his proposals. He left the legate a
certain latitude. Without doubt it would have
cost Contarini fresh efforts to render acceptable to
the obstinate Curia concessions which, though
perhaps obtained with difficulty at Ratisbon, could
not possibly be satisfactory at Rome. But every
thing depended, in the first place, on a reconcilia-
tion and union of the assembled divines. The
mediating power was far too weak and vacillating ;
as yet it had hardly a name, nor could it hope to

* " Videndum imprimis est, an protestantes et ii qui ab ecclesiae
gremio defecerunt, in principiis nobiscum conveniant, cujusmodi
est hujus sari ct 3e sedis primatus, tanquam a Deo et Salvatore
nostro institnitus, sacrosanctse ecclesise sacramenta et alia quse-
dam, quse turn sacrarum litterarum autoritate, turn universalis
ecclesise perpetua observaticrae hactenus observata et comprobata
fuere et tibi nota esse bene scinms, quibus statim initio admissis
omnis super aliis controversies concordia tentaretur." It is neces-
sary in all this to keep constantly in view the position of the pope,
which was orthodox in the extreme, and from its very nature un-
yielding. This alone will enable us to perceive how much lay in
such a turn of afl&irs.

CH. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 163

obtain any valid influence until it could assume a
firm station.

On 'the 5th of April, 1541, the negociation
opened ; the basis of it being a project which had
been communicated to the emperor, and approved,
after some slight alterations, by Contarini. Even
here, at the very outset, the legate held it advi-
sable to depart a step from his instructions. The
pope had required, in the first place, the acknow-
ledgment of his supremacy. Contarini saw clearly
that the whole enterprise might be wrecked at its
very commencement on this obstacle, by which the
passions of the assembly were so likely to be aroused.
He therefore allowed the article on the supremacy
of the pope to be the last presented for discussion,
instead of the first. He thought it better to begin
with those in which he and his friends approximated
to the protestants, and which were also points of the
highest importance relating to the grounds of faith.
He took the principal part in the discussions upon
them. His secretary affirms, that nothing was de-
termined by the catholic divines, that even no spe-
cific alteration was attempted, until it had been
submitted to him*. Morone, bishop of Modena,
andTommaso da Modena, the master of the sacred
palace, who held the same opinion on the article
of justification, were his supporters f. A German
divine, Dr. Eck, the old opponent of Luther, threw
the greatest difficulties in the way; but by com-
pelling him to discuss it point by point, he too

* Beccatelli, Vita del Cardinal Contarini, p. cxvii.
t PaUavicini, iv,, sriv, p. 433, from Contarinfs letters.
M2

164 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [BOOK II.

was at length brought to a satisfactory explana-
tion. In a short time the whole assembly actually
came to an agreement (who would have ventured
to hope it?) on the four important articles, of the
nature of man, original sin, redemption, and even
justification. Contarini admitted the cardinal point
of the Lutheran doctrine, — that the justification of
man was accomplished by faith alone, without
merit ; he only added that this faith must be living,
and active. Melancthon declared that this was in
fact the protestant faith itself* ; Bucer boldly af-
firmed that in the articles agreed upon, everything
was included necessary to a pious, upright, and
holy life before God and towards manf ; equal satis-
faction was expressed on the other side. The bishop
of Aquila calls this conference holy; he doubts
not that it will bring about the reconciliation of
Christendom. Co ntarini's Mends, who sympathized
in his opinions, heard with joy what progress he
had made towards this end. " When I observed
this unanimity of opinion," writes Pole to him, " I
felt a delight such as no harmony of sounds could
have inspired me with ; not only because I see the
approach of peace and concord, but because these
articles are the foundation of the whole Christian

* Melanc&on to Cainerar, 10th May, (Epp. p. 360 :) " adsen-
tiimtur justificari homines fide et quidem in earn sententiain ut
nos docemus." Compare Planck. Gesch. d. protest. Lehrbegriffs,
iii., ii., 93.

t All the negociations and -writings for the reconciliation of
the religious parties, executed by his imperial majesty, A.D.
1541, by Martin Bucer, in Hortieder, Book I. chap. 87, page
280.

CH. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 165

faith. They appear, it is true, to treat of divers
things, of faith, works, and justification; upon the
latter, however — justification — all the rest are
grounded; and I wish you joy, and thank God,
that the divines of both parties have agreed upon
that. "We hope that He who hath begun so mer-
cifully will complete His work*/'

This, if I mistake not, was a most eventful crisis
for Germany, and indeed for the world. To the
former, the points which we have touched upon
included the project of altering the entire ecclesia-
stical constitution of the nation, and of giving it,
with relation to the pope, a freer and more inde-
pendent position, beyond the reach of his temporal
encroachments. The unity of the church, and with
it that of the nation, would have been preserved ;
but other far more extensive and lasting conse-
quences would have resulted . If the moderate party,
with which this attempt originated, and by which it
was conducted, had been able to maintain its supe-
riority in Rome and Italy, what an entirely different
aspect would the catholic world necessarily have
assumed !

So remarkable a result, however, could not be

* Polus Contareno. Capranicse, 17th May, 1541. Epp. Poll, L
iii. p. 25. The letters in Rainaldus, 1541, No. 11, 12, by this
bishop of Aquila, are also remarkable. It was thought that if
they could once come to a conclusion on the point of the Lord's
supper, every other difficulty would easily be got over. "Id unum
est quod omnibus spem maximam facit, assertio Csesaris se nullo
pacto nisi rebus bene compositis discessurum, atque etiam quod
omnia scitu consiliisque revmi. legati in colloquio a nostris theo-
logis tractantur et disputantur."

166 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [BOOK II.

attained without a vehement struggle. What was
determined upon in Ratisbon, had to be confirmed
on the one side by the approbation of the pope, on
the other, by the consent of Luther, to whom an
express embassy was sent. But many difficulties
already presented themselves. Luther could not
persuade himself that the doctrine of justification
had taken root among the catholics. He regarded,
and with justice, his old opponent as incorrigible,
and he knew Mm to have taken an active share in
these deliberations. Luther saw nothing in the ar-
ticles agreed upon but a patchwork combination of
both creeds ; and as he always imagined himself
involved in a combat between heaven and hell, he
thought that here too he detected the wiles and
works of Satan. He most urgently dissuaded his
master, the elector, from attending the diet in per-
goa^?"' He was the very man the devil was in search
of *." And it was true that much depended on
the presence and the consent of the elector.

Meanwhile, these articles had also arrived at
Rome where they excited extraordinary attention.
The declaration concerning justification, especially,
was regarded with great antipathy by cardinals
Caraffa and San Marcello, and it was with con-
siderable trouble that Priuli could make the mean-
ing of it clear to themf. The pope did not ex-
press himself so decidedly about it as Luther* Car-
dinal Farnese sent word to the legates, " his ho-

* Luther to John Frederick, in De Wette's collection, v. 353.
f I cannot pardon Quirini for not having given entire Priuli's
letter concerning these transactions, which he had in his hands.

CH;i.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 167

liness neither approves nor disapproves the con-
clusion you have come to. But all others who
have seen it are of opinion, that if the meaning
of it be in conformity with the catholic faith, the
words might be more clear and precise."

But however violent might be this theological op-
position, it was neither the only one nor perhaps the
most effective. Another arose from political causes.

A reconciliation, such as was intended, would
have given to Germany an unwonted unity, and to
the emperor, who might have turned this to ac-
count, an extraordinary accession of power*. As
head of the moderate party, he would of necessity
have acquired the highest consideration through-
out Europe, especially whenever a council was con-
vened. Against such a state of things all the usual
hostilities naturally arose.

Francis I. thought himself directly menaced, and
neglected no means of preventing the union. He
remonstrated vehemently against the concessions
which the legate had made at Ratisbonf. He com-

* There always existed an imperial party, which defended this
tendency. In this lies the whole secret, among other things, of
the negotiations of the archbishop of Lunden. He had repre-
sented to the emperor : " che se S. M. volesse tolerare che i Lu-
theran! stessero nelli loro errori, diaponeva a modo e voler suo di
tufcta la Gennania." Instruzione di Paolo III., a Montepulciano,
1539. At that time the emperor also wished for toleration.

t He spoke about it with the papal ambassadors at his court;
H C1. di Mantova al Cl. Contarini, in Quirini III., cdaocviii. ;
Loces 17 Maggio 1541 : " S. Ma. Chm*. diveniva ogni dl piu
ardente nelle cose della chiesa, le quail era risoluto di voler
difendere e sostenere con tutte le sforze sue e con la vita sua e
de'figliuoli, giurandomi che da questo si moveva principalmente a

168 INTERNAL KEFORMS, AND [BOOK II.

plained that " his conduct disheartened the good
and raised the hopes of the bad ; that out of obse-
quiousness to the wishes of the emperor he had let
things go so far that they were become irremediable.
The advice of other princes ought to have been
asked." He affected to think the pope and the
church in danger. He promised to defend them
with his life, — with all the resources of his kingdom.

And already other scruples besides the theolo-
gical ones we have mentioned had begun to strike
root in Rome. It was remarked, that at the open-
ing of the diet, when the emperor announced a
general council, he did not add, that the pope alone
had power to summon it. People thought they
perceived indications of his laying claim to this
right himself ; they even affected to detect a pas-
sage aiming that way in the old articles con-
cluded with Clement VII. at Barcelona. And did
not* the protestants constantly assert that it rested
with the emperor to convene a council ? How easily
might he be led to agree with them, where his in-
terest so obviously coincided with their doctrine* !
Here then lay the greatest danger of a rupture.

Germany too was astir. Giustiniano affirms that

far questo officio." Granvella had, on the other Land, different
instructions : "M'afFermb," says Contarini, in a letter to Farnesc,
ibid, cclv., "con giuramento, havere in mano lettere del Re
Christ1110., il quale scrive a questi principi protestanti, che non si
accordino in alcnn mo do, e che lui aveva voluto veder 1* opinioni
loro, le quaii non li spiacevano." According to this, Francis I.
would have hindered the reconciliation on both sides.

* Ardinghello, al nome del C1. Farnese al C1. Contarini, 29
Maggio, 1541.

CH. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 169

the power which the landgrave had acquired by
placing himself at the head of the protestant party,
inspired others with the thought of gaining a si-
milar influence by taking the lead of the catho-
lics. A member of this diet informs us that the
dukes of Bavaria were disinclined to all accommo-
dation. The elector of Mentz also was decidedly
hostile to it. He warned the pope, in a private
letter, against a national council, nay, against any
council held in Germany, where " too much must
be conceded*." Other documents addressed to the
pope are in existence, in which other German ca-
tholics lament over the progress which protestant-
ism is making at the diet, the concessions of Grop-
per and Pflug, and the absence of the catholic
princes from the conference f.

In short, there arose in Rome, France and Ger-
many, among the enemies of Charles V., among
those who were, either in truth or in seeming, the
most zealous catholics, a violent opposition to his
schemes of conciliation. In Home an unwonted
intimacy was observed between the pope and the
French ambassador ; it was said that Clement in-
tended to give his grand-niece, Vittoria Farnese, in
marriage to a Guise.

It was impossible that these agitations should not

* Literse Cardinalis Moguntini in Rainaldus, 1541, n. 27.

t Anonymous, also in Rainaldus, No. 25. From which, side
they came, is easy to see from the fact, that Eck is thus spoken
of : " Unus duntaxat peritrus theologus adhibitus est." They axe
full of insinuations against the emperor. " Nihil," it is there
said, " ordinabitur pro robore ecclesise, quia tzmetur illi (Caesari)
displicere."

170 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [BOOK II.

have a strong effect on the clergy. Eck, however,
remained in Bavaria. ' ' The enemies of the empe-
ror/' says Contarini's secretary, " in and out of
Germany, who feared his greatness, inasmuch as he
would have united all Germany, began to sow tares
among the clergy of the empire. Carnal envy broke
up this conference*." When such were the dif-
ficulties which attended the entire project, it is no
wonder if men could no longer agree on any single
article.

It^is an exaggeration to ascribe the blame of this
05cclusively, or even mainly, to the protestants. In
k short time the pope announced to the legate his
positive will, that he should, neither in his public
nor private capacity, approve any decision in which
the catholic belief was expressed otherwise than in
words which left no room for ambiguity. The for-
mula in which Contarini had thought to unite the
different opinions concerning the supremacy of the
pope and the authority of councils, was absolutely
rejected at Eomef. The legate was obliged to sub-
mit to make explanations which appeared incon-
sistent with his former professions.

That something might be effected, the emperor
wished at least that the formulae which had been
constructed should be adopted until further pro-

* Beccatelli Vita, p. cxix. *f Hora il diavolo, clie sempre alle
buone opere s'attrayersa, fece si che sparsa questa fama della
concordia che tra catholic! e protestanti si preparava, gli invidi
dell1 imperatore in Germania e fuori, che la sua grandezza teme-
vano, quando tutti gli Alemani fussero stati uniti, cominciavono
a seminare zizania tra quelli theologi collocutori."

t Ardiaghello a Contarini, Idem, p. ccxxiv.

CH. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 171

ceedings, in regard to those articles which had heen
agreed upon ; and that, in regard to the rest, each
side should consent to tolerate the differences of the
other. But neither Luther nor the pope could be
moved to acquiesce in this arrangement. The car-
dinal was instructed, that the sacred college had
Unanimously determined, on no condition to con-
sent to tolerance on such important articles.

After such high hopes, after so prosperous a
beginning, Contarini returned, having accomplished
nothing. He wished to accompany the emperor to
the Netherlands, but this was forbidden him. In
Italy he was condemned to hear the calumnies
which were disseminated from Rome over the whole
country, concerning the concessions which it was
pretended he had made to the protestants. He was
too high-minded not to feel all the bitterness of
a failure in such grand and comprehensive projects.
How noble, how liberal was the position which the
moderate catholic faith had assumed in his person !
But as it had not succeeded in accomplishing its de-
signs for the reformation and pacification of the
world, it became a question whether it could main-
tain its own existence.

It is a necessary condition of every great and im-
portant tendency of human opinion, that it should
be strong enough to establish its authority and
achieve its triumph. It must predominate or pe-
rish.

172

§ 3. NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS*

Meanwhile another tendency of the age had begun
to manifest itself, nearly akin in its origin to that
we have just described, but diverging more and
more widely from it as it advanced on its course.
This, too, had reform for its object, yet it was
directly opposed to protestantism.

"When Luther rejected the entire principle and
scheme of the priesthood, as it had hitherto existed,
a counter movement arose in Italy for the purpose
of restoring this principle to its original significancy,
and giving it new power in the church by enforcing
a more rigid adherence to it.

Both sides were conscious of the depravation of
ecclesiastical institutions.

But whilst in Germany men were contented with
nothing less than the dissolution of monastic bodies,
in Italy they sought to regenerate them; whilst
the clergy there emancipated themselves from many
of the bonds which they had hitherto borne, here,
the grand aim was to give to the body a stricter con-
stitution. On this side the Alps men struck into an
entirely new path ; on the other, they repeated an
experiment which had been tried from time to time
for centuries : for from earliest ages ecclesiastical
institutions had followed after the corruptions of the
world, and then again, not unfrequently, had re-
collected their origin and retraced their steps. Even
in their day the Carlovingians had found it ne-
cessary to enforce the rule of Chrodegang, which

CH. I.] NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 173

bound the clergy to comnraaity of life and to volun-
tary subordination. The simple rule of Benedict of
Nursia did not long suffice for the maintenance of
order even in the religious houses. During the
tenth and eleventh centuries the necessity of a
return to the purity and strictness of primitive
Christianity gave rise to numerous small and
secluded congregations with peculiar rules, after
the example of Cluny. This immediately re-acted
upon the secular clergy. The introduction of celi-
bacy had, as we have already remarked, nearly the
effect of subjecting the whole body to the rule of a
monastic order. Nevertheless, and in spite of the
great religious impulse which the crusades had
given to all the nations of Europe, — an impulse so
strong that nobles and knights gave to the pro-
fession of arms the forms of monastic rules —
all these institutions had fallen into utter decay,
when the mendicant orders arose. At their com-
mencement they unquestionably tended to bring
back the primitive simplicity and severity of the
church. But we have seen how even they gra-
dually became more worldly and licentious, — how
one of the most striking phases of the corruption of
the church was exhibited in them.

As early as from the year 1520, and thencefor-
ward with ever-increasing strength, the wider was
the spread of protestantism in Germany, the more
were those countries where it had not yet pene-
trated agitated by a feeling of the necessity of the
reformation of the hierarchical institutions. This

174 NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. [BOOK II.

manifested itself in the orders themselves,— some-
times in one, sometimes in another.

Spite of the extreme seclusion of the order of
Camaldoli, Paolo Giustiniani found it tainted with
the common corruption. In the year 1522 he
founded a new congregation of the same order,
called, from the mountain on which their chief
establishment was situated, Monte Corona*. Giu-
stiniani held three things essential to the attainment
of spiritual perfection, — solitude, vows, and the se-
paration of the monks into distinct cells. In one
of his letters he mentions with peculiar satisfac-
tion those little cells and oratories which we still
find perched on the tops of mountains a in the midst
of those sublime and enchanting wilds which invite
the soul at once to lofty aspirations and to deep re-
posef , The reforms introduced by these hermits
spread themselves over the whole world.

Among the Franciscans, perhaps the most pro-
foundly corrupted of all the orders, a new reform
was attempted, in addition to the many which had
already been tried. The capuchins aimed at re-
storing the regulations of the first founder; the mid-
night service, the prayer at certain appointed hours,

* The foundation may reasonably be dated from the drawing
up of the rules, after Masacio was ceded to the new congrega-
tion, in 1522. Basciano, the successor of Giiistiniani, was the
founder of Monte Corona. Helyot : Histoire des Ordres Monas-
tiques V. p. 271.

f Lettera del b* Giustiniano al Vescovo Teatino, in Bromato,
Storia di Paolo IV. lib. Hi. § 19*

CH. I.] NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 175

the discipline and the silence, — in short the whole
austere rule of life of the original institution. We
cannot avoid smiling at the importance they attached
to trifles ; but we must also acknowledge, that when
occasion demanded, for example during the plague
of 1528, they behaved with admirable courage.

Meanwhile little was effected by a reform of the
orders alone, since the secular clergy were so en-
tirely estranged from their vocation. If a reforma-
tion was really to be efficient, it must reach them
likewise.

Here again we encounter members of that Roman
oratory so often mentioned. Two of them, men,
as it appears, of characters in all other respects en-
tirely opposite, undertook to prepare the way for
this great change. The one, Gaetano da Thiene,
peaceful, retiring, mild, of few words, given to the
raptures of religious enthusiasm ; of whom it was
said, that he wished to reform the world, but with-
out having it known that he was in the world*:
the other, Gianpietro Caraffa, of whom we shall
have occasion to speak more at length, violent, tur-
bulent, a fierce zealot. But Caraffa had discovered,
as he confessed, that the more he had followed
after his desires, the more his heart had been op-
pressed ; that it could find rest only when it quitted

* Caracciolus : Vita S. Cajetani Thiensei, c. ix. 101. " In
conversations humilis, mansuetus, modestus, pauci sermonis,—
meminique me ilium ssepe vidisse inter precandum lacrymaxrtem."
He is very well described in the testimony of a pious society at
Vicenza, which is also to be found in the same author, c. i.
No. 12,

176 NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. [BOOK II.

itself for God, when it communed with, heavenly
things. They felt, therefore, in common, the want
of seclusion (a want which in the one was the
result of natural disposition, in the other, of unsa-
tisfied longings and aspirations,) and the inclination
to spiritual activity. Persuaded of the necessity
of a reform, they united themselves to an institu-
tion called the order of the Theatins, the objects
of which were contemplation, and at the same time
the reformation of the clergy*.

Gaetano belonged to the Protonari partedpanti ;
he gave up this benefice. Caraffa possessed the
bishopric of Chieti and the archbishopric of Brin-
disi ; he renounced them bothf. On the 14th of
September, 1524, they, and two intimate friends,
who had also been members of the Oratory,
solemnly took the three vows J ; — the vow of po-
verty, with the special addition, not only to pos-
sess nothing, but to avoid begging, and to await
the alms that might be brought to their house.
After a short residence in the town, they occupied
a small house on Monte Biccio, near the Vigna

* Caracciolus, c. 2, § 19, declares their intention : " clericis,
quos ingenti populorum exitio improbitas inscitiaque corrupis-
sent, clericos alios dehere suffici, quorum opera damnum quod illi
per pravum exemplum intulissent sanaretur."

t In a letter by the Pope's Datarius, 22d Sept. 1524 (Lettere
di Principi I. 135), we see, on good authority, that the pope re-
fused for a long tinie to accept the renunciation (non volendo
privare quelle chiese di cosi huon pas tore). He yielded at last
only to the reiterated and pressing entreaties of Caraffa.

t We find the documents relating to this subject in the Com-
nentarius previus. AA. SS. Aug. II. 249.

CH. I.] NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 177

Capisucchi, which was afterwards converted into
the Villa Medici. Here, though within the walls
of Rome, there reigned at that time a profound so-
litude ; here they passed their lives in the poverty
which they had prescribed to themselves, in spirit-
ual exercises and in a study of the gospels, the
plan of which was exactly laid down and repeated
every month. They afterwards went down into the
city to preach.

They did not call themselves monks, but regular
clergy. They were priests, with monks' vows.
Their aim was to establish a kind of seminary for
priests ; the charter of their foundation expressly
permitting them to admit the secular clergy. They
did not originally prescribe to themselves any pre-
cise form and colour of vestments, but left them to
be determined by the usages of the clergy of each
country. They likewise permitted the services of
the church to be performed everywhere according
to the customs of the country. They thus eman-
cipated themselves from many things which fet-
tered the monks ; expressly declaring that, neither
in habits of life, nor in the performance of di-
vine service, ought any usage whatsoever to be
binding on the conscience*. On the other hand,
they devoted themselves to the clerical duties of

* Rule of the Theatins in Bromato : Vita di Paolo IV. lib. ft.
$ 25. " Nessuna consuetudine, nessun modo di were, o rito che
sia, tanto di quelle cose, che spettano al culto divino, e in qua-
lunque modo faonosi in chiesa, quanto di quelle, che pel viver
commune in casa, o fuori da noi, si sogliono praticare, non per-
mettiamo in veruna maniera, che acquistino vigors di precetto."

VOL. I. N

178 NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. [BOOK II.

preaching, the administration of the sacraments,
and the care of the sick.

Then was seen again what had long fallen into
disuse in Italy ; priests appeared with the cap, the
cross and the clerical gown in the pulpit, shortly
after in the oratory, and frequently in the form of
missions, in the streets. Caraffa himself preached,
and poured forth that copious and vehement elo-
quence which distinguished him till his death. He
and his associates, most of them men of noble birth
who might have revelled in the enjoyments of life,
began to seek out the sick in their habitations and
in hospitals, and to administer the last consolations
to the dying.

This return to the performance of the clerical
duties was of vast importance. The order of Thea-
tins was not, indeed, properly a seminary of priests,
it was not sufficiently numerous for that ; but it
gradually grew into a seminary of bishops. It be-
came in time the order of priests peculiar to the
nobility j and as it had been carefully remarked
from the beginning, that the new members were of
noble extraction, at a later period, proofs of nobi-
lity were, in some places, requisite to admission.
It is clear, that the original plan of living on alms,
without begging, could be adhered to only under
such conditions.

The main thing however was, that the excellent
idea of uniting the duties and the sacred character
of the clergy with the vows of monks, found ac-
ceptance and imitation in other places.

Prom the year 1521, Upper Italy had been the

CH. 1.] NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 179

scene of perpetual war, attended by its usual train,
devastation, famine, and disease. Numbers of chil-
dren were left orphans and exposed to the utter
ruin of body and soul. Happily for mankind, pity
is never far from the dwellings of woe. A Vene-
tian senator, Girolamo Uriani, gathered together
the children who had come as fugitives and wan-
derers to Venice, and took them into his house.
He sought them out in the islands and in the city.
Disregarding the reproaches of his sister-in-law, he
sold the silver utensils and the most beautiful ta-
pestry of his house, in order to provide the children
with lodging and clothing, food and instruction.
He gradually devoted all his energies to this voca-
tion.

His success was great, especially in Bergamo.
The hospital which he founded there met with
such effectual support, that he took courage to make
similar experiments in other cities. By degrees,
hospitals of this kind were founded in Verona,
Brescia, Ferrara, Como, Milan, Pavia and Genoa.
At length he and a few friends of like inclinations
and opinions united themselves in a congregation
of regular clergy, after the model of the Theatins,
and bearing, the name of di Somasca, They de-
voted themselves chiefly to the education of the
poor. Their hospitals were all placed under one
constitution*.

* " Approbatio sotietatis tarn ecclesiastical-urn, quam secularinm
personarum, nuper Institute ad erigendum hospitalia pro subven-
tione pauperum oxphanorum et mulierum conyertitarum; "(which
last object had been joined with the first in gome places). BuU

N2

180 NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. [BOOK II.

If ever a city was destined to feel every misery
and horror attendant on war, it was Milan, so fre-
quently besieged and conquered by one or other of
the hostile parties. To mitigate these evils by works
of mercy and beneficence, to remove the barbarism
and depravity consequent on them by instruction,
preaching and example, was the aim of the three
founders of the order of Barnabites, — Zacc^aria,
Ferrari and Morigia. A Milanese chronicle re-
lates with what wonder these new priests were re-
garded in their homely dress and round cap, all
with downcast eyes, all in the bloom of youth.
They lived together in a house near St. Ambrose.
Countess Lodovica Torella, who sold her paternal
inheritance of Guastalla and applied the money to
good works, was the chief contributor to their sup-
port*.

The Barnabites, like the Theatins, had the form
of regular clergy.

But whatever these congregations might effect
within their sphere, they were disqualified from, or
inadequate to, any universal, thorough reform;
either, as in the case of the one last mentioned,
by the limited nature of their object, or, as in that
of the Theatins, by a paucity of means which lay
in the very nature of the institution. They are
remarkable, as affording by their voluntary origin

of Paul IIL, 5th June, 1540. Bullarium. Cocquelines, iv. 173. It
appears however by the bull of Pius V.» " Injunctum Nobis," 6th
Deo. 1568, that the members of this congregation first laid aside
their vows at that time.

* Chronicle of Burigazzo in Custode : Continuation by Verri :
Storia di Milano, iv. p. 88.

CH.I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 181

indications of a great tendency which contributed
incalculably to the renovation of Catholicism. But
to stem the mighty torrent of protestantism, far
other powers were required.

Such powers rose into existence, and, like those
we have been contemplating, grew into strength
and importance, though the manner and character
of their growth was as singular, as their birth was
unlooked for.

§ 4. IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

The Spanish chivalry was the only one in the
world which had retained some tincture of its reli-
gious spirit. The wars with the Moors, which were
hardly terminated in the peninsula, and still con-
tinued on the opposite coast of Africa; the pre-
sence of the subjugated Moriscoes, with whom the
intercourse of the Spaniards was one of incessant
religious animosity, and the adventurous expeditions
against the infidels of another hemisphere, — all con-
spired to keep alive this spirit. In books like the
Amadis de Gaul, full of simple, enthusiastic, loyal
bravery, this spirit was idealized. The potency of its
inspirations was never so strikingly manifested as in
the life of the singular man whose history we shall
briefly trace.

Don Ifiigo Lopez de Recalde*, the youngest son

* He is thus called in the judicial acts. Nothing can be in-
ferred against the genuineness of the name Recalde, from the fact
that it is not known how he came by it. Acta Sanctorum, 34
Julii. Commentarius praevius, p. 410.

182 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [BOOK II.

of the house of Loyola, was born in the castle of
that name, between Azpeitia and Azcoitia in Gui-
puscoa, of a race so noble that its head was always
invited to do homage by a special writ, — c c de parien-
tes majores ; " — and reared at the court of Ferdinand
the Catholic and in the suite of the duke of Najara.
He aspired after the reputation of knighthood ; —
splendid arms and noble steeds, the fame of valour,
the adventures of single combat and of love, were
not less attractive to him than to any of his youth-
ful compeers. But he was also strongly imbued
with the religious spirit. At the time we are speak-
ing of he had composed a romance of chivalry, the
hero of which was the first apostle*.

Probably, however, we should now only find his
name enrolled among the host of valiant Spanish
captains to whom Charles V. afforded so many op-
portunities of gaining distinction, had he not re-
ceived wounds in both legs at the defence of Pam-
pluna, against the French, in 1521. Being carried
to his own house, he caused the wounds to be twice
reopened. The intense pain which he bore with
unshrinking fortitude was borne in vain : the cure
was lamentably incomplete and he was maimed for
life. He was versed in romances of chivalry and
delighted in them, more especially in the Amadis.
During his long confinement he also read the life
of Christ and of some of the saints.

Romantic and visionary by nature, forced from a
career which appeared to promise him the most

*Maffei: Vitalgnatii.

CH. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 183

brilliant fortunes, compelled to a life of inaction,
and rendered irritable and sensitive by illness, he
fell into the most extraordinary state of mind con-
ceivable. Not only did he deem the actions of St.
Francis and St, Dominic, which now appeared before
him in all the brilliancy of spiritual glory, worthy
of imitation, but, while reading them, he felt him-
self endowed with courage and strength to imitate
them, — to emulate the self-denial and the austerities
of those holy men*. Frequently, indeed, these aspi-
rations faded before more worldly thoughts. With
the same vivacity of imagination he figured to him-
self how he would seek out the lady to whose ser-
vice he had devoted himself in his inmost heart, in
the city where she dwelt. " She was no countess/'
(he says), " no duchess 3 but one of yet higher de-
gree/3 With what tender and sprightly words he
would address her; how he would prove his de-
votedness ; what feats of arms he would perform
in her honour : — such were the fantasies which al-
ternately possessed his mind.

But the longer this state continued and the more
hopeless was his cure, the more did the spiritual
gain the ascendency over the earthly visions. Are
we guilty of injustice to him if we attribute this to

* The Acta antiquissima, a Ludovico Consalvo ex ore Sancti
excepta, AA. SS. LL. p. 634. give very authentic information on
this point. He once thought : " Quid, si ego hoc agerem, quod
fecit h. Franciscus, quid si hoc, quod b. Dominicus ?" And in
another place ; " De niuchas cosas vanas que se le ofreciau una
tenia:" namely, the honour which he thought to pay to his lady.
" Non era condesa ni duquesa mas era su estado mas alto que
ninguno destas." A singularly naif acknowledgment.

184 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [BOOK II.

his gradual conviction that he would never be wholly
restored, never again be fit for military service, or
for knightly exploits ?

Nor was the transition so abrupt, or the change
so absolute, as might be imagined. In his spiritual
exercises, whose origin may be dated from the same
time as the first rapturous meditations of his awa-
kened spirit, he figures to himself two camps, one
at Jerusalem, the other at Babylon — the one of
Christ, the other of Satan — the one altogether vir-
tuous, the other thoroughly wicked — arrayed for
combat. He represents Christ as a king who has
issued a command to all nations to overcome the
infidels. Whoever would follow him to battle, must
be nourished with like food and dad in like raiment
with Him; he must bear the same toils and the
same watchings ; according to this measure would
be his share in the victory and in the reward : that
every man would then confess before Christ, his
Holy Mother and the whole heavenly host, that he
had been a faithful follower of his Master, and had
been ready to share with Him in all adversities, and
to serve Him in true poverty of body and of spirit*.

These wild and fanciful reveries were perhaps the
means by which his transition from worldly to spi-
ritual knighthood was effected. For such was the
institution, the ideal of which was framed upon the
deeds and the authorities of saints, to which all his
desires were directed. He tore himself away from

* Exercitia spiritualia : Secunda Hebdomada. " Conteraplatio
regni Jesu Christi ex similitudine regis terreni subditos sues evo-
cantis ad bellum"; and other passages.

CH. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA, 185

his father's house and from his kindred, and went to
live on Mount Montserrat ; not impelled by remorse
for his sins, nor by strong and genuine religious
aspirations ; but, as he himself has told us, solely by
the desire to achieve deeds as great as those which
have rendered the saints so illustrious ; to undergo
penances as severe or severer than theirs, and to
serve God in Jerusalem. He hung up his lance
and shield before an image of the Holy Virgin, and
knelt or stood before it in prayer, with his pil-
grim's staff in his hand; — a vigil, different, indeed,
from that of knighthood, but yet expressly sug-
gested by Amadis*, in which the laws and customs
of chivalry are so accurately described. He gave
away the knightly dress and accoutrements which
he had worn on his journey, and clothed himself in
the coarse raiment of the hermits whose solitary
dwellings are hewn in these naked rocks. He made
a general confession, and fearing that if he pro-
ceeded directly to Barcelona, (whither his project of
going to Jerusalem would have led him) he would
be recognized in the streets, he repaired first to
Manresa, whence, after fresh penances, he was to
reach the port. But here new trials awaited him.
The mood of mind which he had indulged, rather
as a sport of the fancy, had obtained almost entire
mastery over him and began to manifest all its
serious and awful power. In the cell of a Domini-

* Acta antiquissima : " cum mentem rebus iis refertam haberet
quse ab Amadeo de Gaula conscriptse et ab ejus generis scripto-
ribus " (which, is a strange mistake of the compilers, for Amadis
is no author,) " nonnullee illi similes occurrebant."

186 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [BOOK II.

can convent he gave himself up to the severest pe-
nances. He rose at midnight to pray ; he passed
seven hours daily on his knees and scourged him-
self regularly thrice a day. Not only did he find
these ascetic practices so hard that he often doubted
whether he should be able to persevere in them all
his life, but, what was far more important, he dis-
covered that they did not tranquillize his spirit. On
Mount Montserrat he had devoted three days to
making a general confession of his whole past life ;
but he did not think this enough. In Manresa he
repeated it ; he added long-forgotten sins to the
catalogue, and searched the records of his memory
for the most venial trifle ; but the more he explored
the more painful were the doubts which assailed
him. He thought that he could obtain neither ac-
ceptance nor justification of God. He read in some
of the fathers that God had once been propitiated
and moved to compassion by total abstinence from
food. He therefore remained from Sunday to Sun-
day without eating. His confessor forbade him to
prolong his fast, and, as he esteemed no quality on
earth so highly as obedience, he immediately de-
sisted. At times indeed he felt as if his melancholy
was removed from him, and had fallen, as a heavy
garment falls from the shoulders, but his mental
torments presently returned. It seemed to him that
his whole life had been one uninterrupted succes-
sion of sins. Sometimes he was tempted to dash
himself out of the window*.

* Maffei, Ribadeneira, Orlandino and all the other historians
relate these temptations. The documents emanating from Igna-

OH. £.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA* 187

We are here involuntarily reminded of the state
of mental distress into which Luther, some years
before, was plunged by very similar doubts. The
high demands of religion could never be satisfied,
— a full and conscious reconcilement with God could
never be reached, on the ordinary road marked out
by the church, by a soul shaken to its innermost
depths by struggles with itself.

But these two remarkable men extricated them-
selves from this labyrinth by very different paths.
Luther arrived at the doctrine of the atonement
through Christ, wholly independent of works : this
afforded him the key to the scriptures, and became
the main prop of his whole system of faith.

It does not appear that Loyola examined the
scriptures, or that any particular dogma of religion
made an impression on his mind. As he lived only
in his own inward emotions, in thoughts which rose
spontaneously in his breast, he imagined that he felt
the alternate inspirations of the good and of the evil
spirit. At length he learned to distinguish their influ-
ences by this, — that the soul was gladdened and con-
soled by the one, wearied and troubled by the other*.

tius himself are, however, the most authentic: the following
passage taken from them describes the state in which he was : —
" Cum his cogitationibus agitaretur, tentabatur ssepe graviter mag-
no cum impetu, ut magno ex foramine quod in cellula erat sese
dejiceret. Nee aberat foramen ab eo loco ubi preces fundebat.
Sed cum videret esse peccatum se ipsum occidere, rursus clama-
bat : * Domine, non faciam quod te offendat/ "

* One of his most peculiar and most original perceptions, the
origin of which he himself carries back to the phantoms of his
imagination during illness. It became a certainty whilst he was

188 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [BOOK II.

One day he felt as if awakened from a dream. He
thought he had sensible ^proof that all his sufferings
were assaults of Satan. He determined from that
hour to hare done with his past life, never to tear
open these old wounds, never again to touch them.
It was not so much that his mind had found repose,
as that he had formed a determination ; rather indeed
an engagement entered into by the will, than a con-
viction to which the will is compelled to yield. It
needed not the aid or the influence of scripture ; it
rested on the feeling of an immediate intercourse
with the world of spirits.

This would never have satisfied Luther. Luther
would have no inspirations, no visions ; he held
them all without distinction to be mischievous ; he
would have only the simple, written, unquestionable
word of God. Loyola, on the contrary, lived in
fantasies and inward apparitions. He thought no
one so well understood Christianity as an old wo-
man, who, in the midst of his torments, told him
that Christ would yet appear to him. At first he
could obtain no such vision, but now he thought
that Christ or the Holy Virgin manifested them-
selves to his eyes of flesh. He stood fixed on the
steps of San Dominico, in Manresa, and wept
aloud; for he thought in that moment the my-
stery of the Holy Trinity was visibly revealed to

at Manresa. In the " Spiritual Exercises" it is greatly developed.
We there find explicit rales : " ad motus animze qnos diversi
excitant apiritus dicernendos, ut boni solum admittantur, et pcl-
lanturmali."

CH.I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 189

him*. The whole day he spoke of nothing else.
He was inexhaustible in similes. The mystery of
the creation was also suddenly made clear to him in
mystical symbols. In the Host, he beheld the God
and the Man. On one occasion, he repaired to a
remote church on the banks of the Lobregat, and
while he sat with his eyes intently fixed on the deep
stream which flowed at his feet, he was suddenly
elevated in rapturous intuition of the mystery of
faith. He arose a new man. For him there needed
no longer either evidence or scripture : had none
such existed, he would have met death unhesita-
tingly for that faith which before he believed, —
which now he sawf ,

If we have clearly traced the origin and develop-
ment of this most strange state of mind, of this chi-
valry of abstinence, this constancy of enthusiasm
and of romantic asceticism, it will be needless to fol-
low Inigo Loyola step by step in his further progress
through life. He accomplished his purpose of visit-
ing Jerusalem, in the hope of contributing to the
edification of believers, no less than to the conver-
sion of infidels. But how was he to effect the latter,
ignorant as he was, without associates, without au-
thority ? His project of remaining in the holy city
was defeated by the positive interdiction he re-

* En figura de tres teclas.

t Acta antiquissima : "his visis, liaud mediocriter turn confir-
matus est" (in the original, " y le dieron tanta confinnacione
siempre de la fe") " ut ssepe etiam id cogitarit, quod etsi nulla
scriptura mysteria ilia fidei doceret, tamen ipse ob ea ipsa quse
viderat, statueret sibi pro his esse moriendum,"

190 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [BOOK II.

ceived from the heads of the church at Jerusalem,
who held from the pope the express privilege of
granting permission to reside there. On his return to
Spain he encountered innumerable attacks. "When
he began to teach and to invite others to share with
him those spiritual exercises which he practised, he
fell under the suspicion of heresy. It would have
been the strangest sport of destiny, if Loyola, whose
society centuries afterwards terminated in ilium*
nati, had himself been connected with a sect of that
name*. And it cannot be denied that the illumi-
nati of that time (the alumbrados of Spain) , to whom
he was suspected of belonging, cherished opinions
which had a considerable resemblance with his fan-
tastic reveries. Rejecting the doctrine of sanctifi-
cation by works as heretofore held by all Christen-
dom, they, like him, gave themselves up to inward
ecstasies, and, like him, they beheld in immediate
and sensible revelation the profoundest mysteries
of religion ; especially, as they expressly declared,
that of the Trinity. Like Loyola and his followers,
they made general confession a condition of abso-
lution, and insisted above all things on inward
prayer. I cannot indeed affirm with confidence that
Loyola had no contact whatever with the professors
of these opinions, but neither can it be asserted
that he belonged to the sect. He was distinguished
from them mainly by this, — that while they believed
themselves to be emancipated from all control and

* Lainez and Borgia have also met with this reproach, Llorente,
Hist de nnqiiisition, 2t. S3. Melchior Cano calls them plainly
illuminati, the gnostics of the age,

CH. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 191

raised above all common duties by the command of
the spirit, he retained enough of the impressions
and habits of his former life to place at the very
head of the list of virtues, the soldier's virtue, obe-
dience. He constantly submitted his enthusiasm
and his inward convictions to the church and her
authorities.

Meanwhile the obstacles and the attacks which
beset his path had a decisive influence on his life.
In the condition in which he then was, without
learning or profound theological attainments, with-
out political support, his existence must have passed
away and left not a trace behind. His highest suc-
cess could have reached but to a few conversions
in his own country. But the necessity imposed on
him in Alcala and Salamanca, of studying theology
for four years, before he could be permitted to at-
tempt again to teach concerning certain difficult
dogmas, compelled him to enter upon a course which
gradually opened an unlooked-for field to his reli-
gious activity.

He repaired to Paris, then the most renowned
school in the world.

The studies of the university were peculiarly dif-
ficult to him* He was obliged to pass through the
class of grammar, which he had begun in Spain,
and that of philosophy, before he could be admitted
to the study of theology *. But in the midst of the

* According to the oldest chronicle of the Jesuits, Chronicon
Breve, AA. SS. LL. p. 525. Ignatius was at Paris from 1528 to

192 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [BOOK II.

inflexion of words, and the analysis of logical forms,
he was seized with the raptures of those profound
religious thoughts -which he was wont to connect
with them. There is something magnanimous in
his declaration that these were inspirations of the
evil spirit, who sought to seduce him from the right
way. He tried to dispel them by the most rigorous
discipline. But the new study, that of the actual
world, which opened upon him, did not for a mo-
ment deaden his spiritual dispositions, or even his
zeal in imparting them to others. It was indeed
here that he made the first conversions of lasting
influence and importance to the world.

Loyola had two companions who shared his rooms
in the college of St. Barbara. The one, Peter
Faber, a Savoyard, had grown up amid his father's
flocks, and under the roof of heaven had solemnly
devoted himself to God and to study : the conver-
sion of such a man was not difficult. He repeated
the course of philosophy with Ignatius (the name
which Inigo bore among foreigners), who in return,
communicated to him his ascetical principles. Ig-
natius taught his young friend to combat his faults
prudently, — not all at once, but one after another,
since there was ever some one virtue which he had
more especially lo aspire after : he exhorted him
to frequent confession and participation in the

1535 : " Ibi vero non sine magnis molestiis et persecutioniLus
primo grammatics de integro turn philosophise ac demuxn theolo-
gico studio sedulam operam navavit."

CH. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA, 193

Lord's supper. They formed the closest intimacy.
Ignatius divided the alms which he received in con-
siderable abundance from Spain and Flanders, with
Faber.

He had a more difficult task with his other
friend, Francesco Xavier of Pamplona in Navarre,
whose only ambition it was to add the name of a
man illustrious for learning to the names of an-
cestors renowned for their military exploits, which
graced a pedigree of five hundred years. He
was handsome, rich, foil of talent, and had already
been well received at court. Ignatius did not neg-
lect to pay him the respect to which he laid claim,
and to contrive that others should pay it also.
He procured him a considerable audience for his
first lectures. After these proofs of personal
friendship, his example and the imposing seve-
rity of his manners failed not of their natural
effect. He induced Xavier, as he had his other
companion, to perform spiritual exercises under
his guidance. He shewed them no indulgence,
compelling them to fast three days and three nights
at a time; nor during the severest winter, while
carriages were crossing the frozen Seine, did he
allow Faber to relax from this severity of discipline.
He , gained complete ascendency over both of
them, and made them sharers in his own thoughts
and feelings.^

How remarkable was that cell of St. Barbara

* Orlandinus, who Has also "written a life of Faber, which I have
not seen, is likewise in his great work Historiae Societatis Jesu,
pars i. p. 17, more circumstantial on this point than Kibadeneira.
VOL, I. O

194 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [BOOK II.

which contained within its narrow walls three such
men I which witnessed plans inspired hy their
wild enthusiasm, and enterprises projected, leading
they themselves knew not whither I

We will mark the more striking points in the
farther development of this alliance. After three
other Spaniards, Salmeron, Lainez and Bobadilla,
to all of whom Ignatius had rendered himself ne-
cessary hy counsel or assistance, had joined them,
they repaired one day to the church of Montmartre.
Faber, who was already in holy orders, said mass.
They took the vow of chastity ; they swore, after the
conclusion of their studies, to pass their lives in Jeru-
salem, in absolute poverty, devoted to the care of
the Christians, or to the conversion of the Saracens \
and if they should find it impossible to reach the
holy city, or to abide in it, to offer their labours to
the pope for any place to which he might see fit to
send them, without remuneration or condition.
Each took this oath and received the host from
the hands of Faber, who afterwards communicated
himself. They then partook of a repast near the
fountain of St, Denys.

A compact worthy of young men of wild and
extravagant imagination ; impossible of fulfilment,
founded on the ideas which Ignatius had originally
embraced, and departing from them only so far as
on a calculation of possibilities, they despaired of
carrying those ideas into effect.

At the beginning of the year 1537, we find
them with three other companions in Venice, about
to set out on their pilgrimage, We have already

CH. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 195

followed Loyola through many changes. We saw
him pass from a temporal to a spiritual chivalry ;
we beheld him beset by the gravest temptations,
struggling out of them by means of a fantastic
asceticism, and becoming a theologian and the
founder of a sect. Now at length his opinions
took their final and permanent character. The
war which just then broke out between Venice and
the Turks hindered his departure and rendered
still more remote the prospect of his pilgrimage ;
in Venice however he found an institution which
first opened his eyes to his true vocation.

For a time Loyola attached himself closely to Ca-
raffa ; he even took up his abode in the convent of
the Theatins which had been established in Venice.
He served in the hospitals which Caraffa super-
intended, and in which he exercised his novices.
It is true that the severe exactions and lofty aspira-
tions of Ignatius were not entirely satisfied by the
Theatin institute ; and that the representations he
addressed to Caraffa concerning certain changes
which ought to be introduced, are said to have
created a division between them*. But even this
shews how deep an impression it had made upon
him. Here he beheld an order of priests devoting
themselves with zeal and strictness to the perform-
ance of the true clerical duties. If, as appeared
more and more clear, he was destined to remain
on this side the sea and to employ his activity in

* Sacchinus, " cujus sit autoritatis quod in b. Cajetani Thie-
nsei vita de beato Ignatio traditur," before Orlandintis, thoroughly
investigates the nature of the connection between these tvio re-
markable men,

02

196 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [BOOK H.

the regions of western Christendom, he readily per-
ceived that this was the only career he could em-
brace with a prospect of success.

He therefore, together with all his companions,
was ordained priest. In Vicenza, after passing
forty days in prayer, he and three others began to
preach. At the same day and hour they appeared
in different streets, mounted upon stones, waving
their hats, and calling aloud to repentance. Their
appearance was strange ; squalid in their dress,
wan and haggard with fasting and penance ; — their
language an unintelligible mixture of Spanish and
Italian. In this neighbourhood they remained till
the expiration of the year they had determined to
stay there. They then proceeded to Rome.

Before they separated to take the different ways
they had resolved upon, they drew up certain rules,
in order that, even at a distance, they might ob-
serve some uniformity of life. They asked each
other what they should reply to any inquiries as
to their profession. They pleased themselves with
the thought of making war on Satan, like soldiers,
and in compliance with the old military tastes and
fancies of Ignatius, determined to call themselves
the Company of Jesus ; just as a company 01
soldiers bears the name of its captain*.

* Ribadeneira, Vita brevior, c. 12., remarks, that Ignatius had
chosen this, " ne de suo nomine dicer etur." Nigroni explains the
word societas, " quasi dicas cohort em aut centuriam quse ad pug-
nam cum hostibus spiritualibus conserendam conscripta sit."
'* Postquam nos vitamque nostram Christo Dno. nostro et ejus vero
ac legitimo vicario internis obtuleramus,"— in the Deliberatio Pri-
morum Patrum, AA. SS, L.L. p 463.

CH. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 197

Their situation at Eome was not an easy or
agreeable one; Ignatius thought he saw every door
closed agairist them, and they were compelled to
be once more absolved from the charge of heresy.
But here, too, the austerity of their lives, their
zeal in preaching and teaching, their attendance
on the sick, attracted numerous followers ; and so
many manifested a readiness to join them, that
they were justified in meditating a formal organi-
zation of their company.

They had already bound themselves by two
vows. They now took the third, that of obedi-
ence; and as Ignatius had ever held obedience
to be one of the highest of virtues, they strove to
excel all the other monastic orders in that. It was
no small thing that they resolved to elect their
general for life; but this did not satisfy them.
They added the extraordinary obligation to do
whatsoever the then pope should command; to
go into every country whither he chose to send
them, among Turks, heathens or heretics, instantly,
without discussion, condition, or reward.

What a contrast to the tendency hitherto mani-
fested by that age ! While the pope experienced
opposition or desertion from every side, while he
had nothing to expect but a lingering and progress-
ive decline, a society of men was formed, volun-
teers, full of zeal and enthusiasm, with the express
purpose of devoting themselves exclusively to his
service.

It was impossible for him to hesitate about sanc-
tioning their establishment: at first, in the year

198 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [BOOK II

1 540, he did this under some limitations ; after-
wards, in 1543, unconditionally.

Meanwhile the company took the final step. Six
of its oldest members met together to choose
the president, who, according to the first project
submitted to the pope, should allot ranks and
offices at his good pleasure, should frame the con-
stitution with the help of the members, and in all
other things should have absolute command. In
him should Christ be honoured as present* They
unanimously chose Ignatius, who, as Salmeron ex-
pressed it in his letter of election, had begotten
them all in Christ, and had nourished them with
the milk of his word^. The society had now ac-
quired its form. It was a company of cMerici
regolari, and though differing in many respects from
the other societies of that kind, it was based, like
them, on a combination of clerical and monastic
duties*

If the Theatins had disregarded many of the
less important obligations of religion, the Jesuits
went still fartherf in that course.

Not only did they entirely reject the monastic
habit ; they emancipated themselves from the
common devotional exercises which consume the

* Suffiragium Salmeronis.

•j* It Is in this they place the difference between themselves
and tib.e Theatins, Didacus Payba Andradius : Orthodoxarum Ex-
plicatt. lib. i. fcl 44 ; " Illi (Theatini), sacrarum seternarumque
rerum meditationi psalmodiseque potissimum vacant: isti vero
(Jesuitae), cum divinorum mysteriorum assidua contemplatione,
docendee plebis, evangelii amplificandi, sacramenta administrandi,
atcpie-reliqua omnia apostolica munera, conjungunt."

CH. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 199

greater part of the time in convents, and from the
obligation to sing in the quire.

Having dismissed these less necessary occupa-
tions, they devoted their whole time and all their
powers to essential duties ; not, like the Barna-
bites, to one in particular (though they made a
great point of attendance on the sick, as an effect-
ual means of obtaining a good name) ; nor under
any restrictive conditions, like the Theatins ; but
with every effort of which they were capable, to the
most weighty.

And in the first place, they devoted themselves
to preaching. Before they parted in Vicenza they
had promised each other to preach mainly for the
common people, and to strive rather after impressive
and touching discourse, than after choice phrases.
And to this they adhered.

Secondly, to confession : — for with this are imme-
diately connected the guidance and government of
consciences. The spiritual exercises through which
they themselves were united with Ignatius afforded
them great assistance.

Lastly, to the education of youth. They had de-
sired to bind themselves to this occupation by an
express clause in their vows ; but though that did
not take place, they enjoined it most strongly in
their rule. Their most ardent wish was to gain over
the rising generation. In short they threw aside
all that was of secondary moment, and devoted
themselves entirely to the indispensable, influential
duties and practices of their calling.

Thus, out of the visionary schemes of Ignatius,

200 FIEST SITTING OF THE [BOOK II.

arose an institution of singularly practical tend-
ency ; out of the conversions wrought hy his asceti-
cism, an institution framed with all the just and ac-
curate calculation of worldly prudence.

He saw all his expectations far surpassed. He
had now the unlimited direction of a society to
which he communicated the greater part of his own
intuitions; which modeled its religious convic-
tions by study, on those to which he had heen led
by accident and hy genius \ which, indeed, did not
execute his projects with regard to Jerusalem,
(projects by which nothing was to be attained),
but went forth in other directions on the most re-
mote and the most adventurous missions, and above
all, took upon itself that care of souls which he
had constantly enjoined, to an extent that he could
never have anticipated or guessed ; and which,
lastly, paid him an obedience uniting that of the
soldier and of the monk.

Before we consider more nearly the influence
which the Company of Jesus very soon exercised,
we must examine one of the causes which had the
strongest effect on its condition.

§ 5. FIRST SITTING OF THE COUNCIL OF TEENT.

We have seen what were the interests involved
in the demand for a council on the part of the em-
peror, and in the denial of it on that of the pope.
In one respect however, and in one only, a new
council might 'be desirable to the pope. It was

CH. I.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 201

necessary to the zealous inculcation and promul-
gation of the doctrines of Catholicism, that the
doubts which had arisen in the hosom of the church
herself on several points, should he put to rest. A
council alone could do this with absolute authority.
The only remaining consideration for the pope,
therefore, was, that it should be convened at a fa-
vourable time and held under his own influence.

That eventful moment in which the two religious
parties had approximated, more nearly than at any
former period, to an agreement on a moderate creed
lying between the extremes, was therefore the de-
cisive one for this object. The pope, as we have said,
thought he perceived that the emperor intended to
claim a right to summon a council. At this junc-
ture, assured on all sides of the attachment of
the catholic sovereigns, he lost no time in antici-
pating him.

In the midst of the movements we have briefly
described, he definitively resolved to take steps to-
wards an oecumenical council, and to put an end
to all delay*. He immediately communicated his
intention to Contarini and through him to the
emperor ; negotiations were seriously opened ; at
length the letters of convocation were sent out, and

* Ardinghello al 01. Contarini, 15 Giugno, 1541, in Quirini,
III., ccxlvi : " Considerate che nfc la concordia a Christian! £
successa e la tolerantia," (which had been proposed at Ratisbon,
but rejected by the consistory of the cardinals); " feiUecitissima, e
damnosa, e la guerra difficile e pericolosa: — pare a S.S., che si
ricorra al rimedio del concilio. . . . Adunque— S. Beatitudine ha
determinate di levar via la prorogatione della suspensione del con-
cilio, e di dichiararlo e congregarlo quanto piu presto si potra."

202 FIRST SITTING OF THE [BOOK II.

in the following year we find his legates already in
Trent *.

New obstacles, however, arose ; the number of
the bishops who appeared was too inconsiderable,
the times too warlike, and the circumstances not
entirely propitious : it was not till December 1545,
that the council was actually opened. The old
procrastinator had at length found the wished for
moment.

For when could one more favourable occur than
that in which the emperor had completely broken
with both the chiefs of the protestant party, and
was preparing to make war upon them ? As he
needed the assistance of the pope, he could not
substantiate the claims which otherwise he ap-
peared disposed to found upon a council. He
would be entirely occupied by war ; and it was
impossible to foresee the extent of the embarrass-
ments in which the power of the protestants might
involve him : he would therefore be little able to
press for the reform with which he had threatened
the papal chair. In another way too the pope had
the means of thwarting his intentions. The em-
peror demanded that the council should begin with
reform ; the papal legates carried the resolution
that reform and the dogmas of the church should be
discussed simultaneously! ; while, in fact, dogmas
alone were first brought under consideration.

* They arrived on the 22nd November, 1542.

f An expedient brought forward by Thorn. Campeggi,, Palla-
vicini, vi. vii. 5. A bull concerning reform had indeed been
projected from the beginning, but was never published. Bulla

CH. I.] COUNCIL OP TRENT. 203

While the pope found means to avert whatever
might have been injurious to him, he seized on
whatever was favourable. The firm establishment
of the disputed doctrines was, as we have observed,
extremely important to him, and this depended upon
the question, whether either of the views inclining
to the protestant system could consist with the
maintenance of the integrity of the catholic faith.

Contarini was no more, but Pole was present,
and there were not wanting in the assemblage
other warm advocates of these opinions. The
question was, whether they could give those opi-
nions weight.

First, (for the proceedings were very systematic)
they spoke of revelation itself, — the source from
which all knowledge regarding it must necessarily
be drawn. Here, even at the very threshold, some
voices were raised in favour of opinions leaning to
protestantism. Bishop Nachianti of Chiozza, for
example, would hear of nothing but scripture ; he
asserted that in the gospel every thing was written
that was necessary to salvation. But he had an
immense majority against him. The resolution
was passed, that the unwritten traditions received
from the mouth of Christ and handed down to the
latest ages under the guardianship of the Holy
Ghost, were to be accepted with the same venera-
tion as the holy scriptures. In regard to these, no
reference was made to the original text. The vul-
gate was recognized as the authentic translation ;

Reformationis Pauli Papae III., concepts* non vulgata : primum
edidit H. N. Clausen. Havn. 1829.

204 FIRST SITTING OF THE [BOOK II.

only it was determined that for the future it should
be most carefully printed*.

After the basis had thus been settled, (by which
it was said, not without reason, that half the busi-
ness was accomplished) the council proceeded to
the decisive article of justification and the doc-
trines connected with it. To this much-disputed
question the main interest was attached.

For in fact there were not a few in the council
whose views on this point coincided with those of
the protestants. The archbishop of Siena, the
bishop of Cava, Giulio Contarini, bishop of Bel-
luno, and with them five divines, attributed justifi-
cation solely and wholly to the merits of Christ, and
to faith. Charity and hope they declared to be the
attendants or handmaidens, — works, the proofs of
faith, but nothing more ; they held that the sole
ground of justification was faith.

How could it be imagined that, at a moment in
which pope and emperor attacked the protestants
with force of arms, the fundamental doctrine whence
their whole existence and all their characteristics
as a sect were derived, should triumph, in a council
held under the auspices of the emperor and the pope?
In vain did Pole warn the assembly not to reject
an opinion solely because it was held by Luther.
Far too much personal bitterness was connected
with it. The bishop of Cava and a Greek monk

* Cone. Tridentini Sessio IV : " in publicis lectionibus, dis-
putationibus, prsedicationibus et expositionibus, pro authentica
habeatur." It should be printed, with amendments, posthac, not
exactly,as Pallavicinisays: "quantosipotessepiutosto:" VI. 15,2

CH. I.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 205

broke out into personal violence. The council
could not even proceed to serious debate on the
announcement of an opinion so unquestionably
protestant. The discussions related only — and
this was important enough — to the mediatory opi-
nions as expounded by Gaspar Contarini and his
friends.

Seripando, the general of the Augustine order,
brought them forward, but not without the express
reservation that it was not the doctrines of Luther
that he defended, but on the contrary, those of
Luther's most celebrated antagonists, Pflug and
Gropper. He admitted a twofold righteousness*, —
the one dwelling in us, inherent, through which
from children of sin we become children of God ;
itself too a grace and unmerited ; active in works,
visible in virtues, but not of itself able to conduct
us into the glory of God ; the other, the right-
eousness and the merit of Christ attributed or
imputed to us ; able to compensate for all defects,
perfect, sufficient to salvation. So had Contarini
taught. " If the question is," says he, " on which of
these kinds of righteousness we should rely, — that
inherent in us, or that imputed in Christ, — a pious
man will reply, that we can trust to the latter
alone. Our righteousness is only inchoate, in-
complete, full of defects: the righteousness of
Christ, on the other hand, true, perfect, thoroughly
and alone pleasing in the eyes of God ; for its

* Farere Dato ; a 13 di Giuglio, 1544. Extracted from Pallavi-
cini. viii. ad. 4.

206 FIRST SITTING OF THE [BOOK II,

sake alone can we trust to be justified before

Even with this modification, however, though it
left, as we see, the substance of the protestant doc-
trine untouched, and might be approved by its
adherents, this opinion experienced vehement op-
position.

Caraffa, who had already opposed it when it was
discussed in Ratisbon, had now a seat among the
cardinals to whom the presidency over the council
of Trent was confided. He expounded to the as-
sembly his own views of justification, and warmly
combated all opinions of the kind above-men-
tionedf.

Already, in this early stage of their existence as
a body, the Jesuits appeared as his allies. Sal-
meron and Lainez had obtained the valuable pri-
vilege of successively offering their opinions. They
were learned, energetic, in the prime of life, and

* Oontarini Tractate de Justificatione. The Venetian Edition
of 1589 fell into my hands at first, and is not the one the reader
should refer to : this passage will be sought in vain. In the year
1571 the Sorbonne had approved of the treatise as it stood; in
the Paris Edition of the same year, it Is entire and without mutila-
tion ; in 1589 on the contrary, the General Inquisitor of Venice,
Fra Marco Medici, would not allow this to happen again; he did
not content himself with omitting the offending passages ; they
were so altered as to take the colour of the received dogmas. It
is truly astonishing to peruse the collation in Quirini, Epp. Poli,
III. cxiii. It is necessary to recall to mind these instances of
unjustifiable violence, in order to explain so bitter a hatred as
that cherished by Paolo SarpL

t Bromato ; Vita di Paolo IV., torn. ii. p, 131.

CH. I.] COUNCIL OF TRjfNT. 207

full of zeal. Admonished by Ignatius never to
commit themselves to an opinion which made the
least approach to an innovation^, they opposed
Seripando's doctrine with all their might. Lainez
presented himself in the arena with a complete
treatise rather than a reply. He had the greater
part of the divines on his side.

These disputants admitted the distinction be-
tween the two kinds of righteousness; but they
maintained that the imputed righteousness was
merged in the inherent, or that the merits of Christ
were immediately ascribed and communicated to
men by faith : that we ought unquestionably to rely
on the righteousness of Christ,, not because it com-
pleted our own, but because it produced it. Upon
this point everything turned. According to the
doctrine of Contarini and Seripando, no merit
could subsist in works.

It was the old doctrine of the schoolmen, that
the soul, clothed with grace, merited eternal iifef.
The archbishop of Bitonto, one of the most learned
and eloquent of these fathers, distinguished a " pre-
liminary justification, dependent on the merits of
Christ, by which the sinner is delivered from a state
of reprobation ; and a subsequent justification, the
reward of our own righteousness, dependent on the
grace imparted to and inherent in us." " In this
sense/' said the bishop of Tano, " faith is only the
gate leading to justification : but we must not stand
still there, we must traverse the whole way/'

* Orlandinus, VI. p. 127.

f Chemnitius ; Examen Concilii Tridentini, I. 355.

208 FIRST SITTING OF THE [BOOK IT.

Near as these opinions seem to approximate,
they are in fact diametrically opposed.

The Lutheran scheme requires inward regenera-
tion, points out the way to salvation, and maintains
that good works must follow; but it holds, that the
divine mercy ascribes them to the merits of Christ
alone*

The council of Trent on the contrary, also ad-
mits the merits of Christ, but ascribes justification
to them only so far as they produce regeneration and
therewith good works, upon which, at last, all de-
pends. " The sinner," according to its expression*,
"is justified, inasmuch as the love of God is im-
planted in his heart, and dwells there, through the
merit of the most Sacred Passion, and by the power
of the Holy Ghost: thus become the friend of
God, a man advances from virtue to virtue, and
is renewed day by day. Whilst he observes the
commands of God and of the church, by the help
of faith and through good works, he grows in the
righteousness attained through the mercy of Christ,
and is justified more and more."

The protestant doctrine was thus entirely exclu-
ded from Catholicism; all mediation was definitively
rejected. This took place just as the emperor had
obtained the victory in Germany, as the Lutherans
were submitting on every side, and as he prepared to
subdue those who still resisted. The champions of
the intermediate opinions, such as cardinal Pole and
the archbishop of Siena, had already, as might be
expected, quitted the council tinder different pre-

* Sessio VI., c. vii. x.

Ctt, I.] COUNCIL OP TRENT. 209

texts*. Instead of moderating and guiding the
faith of others, they had to fear that their own
would be the object of attack and reprobation.

But the most important difficulty was thus over-
come. As justification goes on within the heart
of man in a perpetual development, it cannot
dispense with the sacraments, by which it either
begins, or when begun, is continued, or when lost,
is regainedf. There was then no difficulty in re-
taining them all seven, as they had heretofore been
received, or in referring them all to the author of
our faith ; since the institutes of the church of Christ
are communicated to us not by scripture alone, but
by tradition f. Now these sacraments embrace, as
is well known, the whole of life, and every step of
its progress ; they lie at the foundation of the hier-
archy, which thus presides over and regulates every
moment of our days. Inasmuch as they do not
only indicate but impart grace, they fulfil the
mystical relation of man to God.

Tradition was received because the Holy Ghost
dwells perpetually in the church ; the vulgate, be-
cause the church of Borne has been kept free from

* It was at least a singular tiling, that they should both have been
prevented from going to Trent by the accident of an extraor-
dinary illness. Polo ai Cu. Monte e Cervini, 15th September,
1546. Epp. T. IV. 189. These opinions were very injurious
to Pole. Mendoza al Emperador Carlos, 13th July, 1547. "Lo
Cardinal de Inglaterra lo haze danno le que se a dicho de la
justificacion."

f Sessio VII., Prooemium.

$ Sarpi gives the discussions on this point : Historia del Con-
cilio Tridentino, p. 241. (Edition of 16290 PaHavicini's account
is very insufficient.

VQJL, I. P

210 THE INQUISITION. [BOOK II.

all error by the special grace of God : it coincides
then with this indwelling of the divine element in
man, that the justifying principle should also have
place in him ; that the grace involved in the visible
sacrament should be imparted to him step by step,
and should embrace his life and his death.

The visible church is likewise the true church,
which some have called the invisible. No religious
existence can be recognized out of her pale.

§ 6. THE INQUISITION.

Meantime measures had already been taken for
the promulgation of the doctrines thus established
by the council, and for the suppression of those of
an opposite tendency.

We must here revert once more to the times of
the conference of Eatisbon. Seeing that no con-
clusion was come to with the German protestants,
that in Italy disputes were rife concerning the sa-
crament, and doubts as to purgatory and other
points important to the Roman ritual, the pope one
day asked cardinal Caraffa what remedy he could
suggest for the evil. The cardinal replied, that a
searching inquisition was the only one, Juan
Alvarez de Toledo, cardinal of Burgos, was of the
same opinion.

The andentDominican inquisition had long fallen
to decay. It was left to the monastic orders to
choose the inquisitors, and it not unfrequently hap-
pened that members of them shared the very
opinions which it was the object of the institution

OH. IP] THE INQUISITION, 211

to suppress. In Spain, the primitive form had
been so far departed from, that a supreme tribunal
for that country had been established. Caraifa and
Burgos, both old Dominicans, both men actuated by
a stern and gloomy justice, zealots for pure Catho-
licism, austere in their lives, inflexible in their
opinions, advised the pope to erect at Rome an uni-
versal supreme tribunal of the inquisition, (after
the model of that of Spain) on which aU others
should depend. " As it was in Rome," says Caraffa,
"that St. Peter overcame the first heresiarchs, so
must the followers of Peter subdue all the heresies
of the world in Rome*." The Jesuits account it
as a glory of their order, that their founder Loyola
supported this proposition by an express memorial*
On the 21st of July, 1542, the bull was published.

It appointed six cardinals, among whom Caraffa
and Toledo were the first, as commissaries of the
holy see, general and universal inquisitors in affairs
of faith on either side the Alps. It conferred
on them the right of delegating similar powers to
ecclesiastics wherever they thought fit, the sole
right of deciding on appeals against their acts,
and of proceeding without the intervention of the
regular ecclesiastical courts. Every individual with-
out exception, without regard to any rank or dig-
nity whatsoever, was declared subject to their juris-
diction ; they had power to imprison the suspected^
and to punish the guilty with death and confisca-
tion of goods. One only limitation was imposed

* Bromato : Vita di Paolo IV., Mb, -ril. § 3.
P2

212 THE INQUISITION. [BOOKlI.

on them. They had full power to punish, but the
pope reserved to himself the right of pardoning
heretics whom they convicted. They were thus to
contrive and to execute every thing that could tend
to suppress the errors that had broken out in the
Christian community, and to pluck them up by the
very roots*.

Caraffa lost not a moment in putting this bull
into execution. He was not rich, but he would
have thought it a loss to wait for money from the
apostolic treasury- He immediately hired a house,
and at his own expense fitted up the rooms for the
officers and prisons for the accused ; the latter he
furnished with strong bolts and locks, with dun-
geons, chains and bonds, and all the terrible appa-
ratus of his office. He then nominated commissa-
ries-general for the several countries. The first, as
far as I can discover, for Rome, was his own chap-
lain, Teofilo di Tropea, of whose severity cardinals
— for instance Pole — had soon to complain.

" The following rules," says the manuscript life of
Caraffa, "were drawn up by the cardinal as the most
just and fitf."

" 1°. — In affairs of faith there must not be a
moment's delay, but on the slightest suspicion

* "Licet ab initio." Deputatio nonmiJlorum S. R. E. Cardina-
lium Generalium Inquisitorum taareticK pravitatis. 21 Julii, 1542.
Cocgudines IV. 1,211.

t Caracciolo : Vita di Paolo IV., MS. c. 8. '* Haveva egli
queste infrascritte regole tenute da lui come assiomi verissimi s
la prima, che in materia di fede non bisogna aspettar pimto, ma
subito che vi £ qualche sospetto o indioio di peste heretica, far
ogni sforzo e violepza per estirparla," etc,

CH. I.] THE INQUISITION. 213

proceedings must be taken with the utmost
diligence.
" 2°. — No regard must be paid to any potentate

or prelate, whatever be his power or dignity.
" 3°. — On the contrary, the greatest severity
must be shown towards those who seek to
shelter themselves under the protection of a
ruler : only where confession is made are le-
niency and fatherly compassion to be shown.
« 4°. — To heretics, and especially Calvinists, no

toleration must be granted."
It is all, as we see, severity — inflexible, remorse-
less severity — till confession was obtained. Fearful
at all times, — but more especially fearful at a mo-
ment when opinions were not yet fully developed,
when many were seeking to unite the profounder
doctrines of Christianity with the establishments of
the existing church. The weaker gave way and
submitted ; the stronger-minded, on the contrary,
now first openly and resolutely embraced the oppo-
site opinions, and sought to withdraw themselves
from violence.

One of the first of these was Bernardino Ochino.
For some time people had affected to remark
that he fulfilled his conventual duties with less di-
ligence than formerly ; in the year 1542 his preach-
ing also perplexed people. He maintained with the
greatest distinctness the doctrine that faith alone
justifies. " He who hath made thee without thy
aid," exclaimed he in the words of St. Augus-
tine, "will he not save thee without thy aid?"
His exposition of the doctrine of purgatory did not

214 THE INQUISITION. [BOOK II.

appear perfectly orthodox. The nuncio at Venice
had already interdicted his use of the pulpit for some
days ; hereupon he was cited to appear at Home,
and had already reached Bologna and Florence,
when (probably from fear of the inquisition which
was just established) he determined to flee.

The historian of his order* relates, how having
reached Mount St, Bernard, he halted, and retraced
in his mind all the honours that had been paid him
in his beautiful country; the countless numbers
who received him with eagerness, heard him with
breathless attention, and accompanied him home
with admiring satisfaction. We may imagine the
bitterness of such recollections, for an orator loses
more than any other man in losing his country ;
yet he quitted it, though so advanced in age. He
gave the seal of his order, which he had worn till
now, to his companion, and went to Geneva,
Nevertheless his convictions were as yet not firm ;
he feU into extraordinary perplexity of mind.

About the same time Peter Martyr Vermigli left
Italy. " I tore myself," says he, " from all these
falsehoods and dissimulations, and saved my life
from imminent danger." Many of the scholars whom
he had taught in Lucca afterwards followed himf.

Celio Secundo Curione suffered the danger to

* Boverio, Annali, I. 438.

f A letter of Peter Martyr to the community he had left, in
which he expresses his repentance for having at times veiled the
truth; Schlosser, Leben Bezas und Peter Martyrs, p. 400.
Gerdesius and M'Grie have collected a good many detached no-
tices in the works already cited.

CH,I/} THE INQUISITION. 215

approach him more nearly. He waited till the
bargello came to seek for him, when, being large and
athletic, he cut his way through the sbirri with
a knife he had about him, threw himself on his
horse, rode off, and took the road to Switzerland.

There had already been commotions in Modena ;
they were now revived. People accused each other.
Filippo Valentini escaped to Trent, and Castelvetri
found it expedient, for a time at least, to seek
safety in Germany.

Persecution and terror broke out on every side
in Italy. The mutual hatred of factions came in
aid of the inquisitors. Often did a man who had
long vainly sought an opportunity of avenging him-
self on his adversary, resort to the accusation of
heresy as a means of gratifying his revenge. The
bigoted monks had now arms in their hands, which
they could turn against that band of intelligent and
accomplished men who had been led by their lite-
rary pursuits to a religious turn of mind, and could
condemn them to everlasting silence. These two
parties regarded each other with the bitterest hate.
4 c It is hardly possible/' exclaims Antonio dei Pa-
gliarici, " for a man to be a Christian and to die in
his bed*."

The academy of Modena was not the only one
that broke up. Those of Naples, established by

* Aonii Palearii Opera, ed. Wetsten. 1696, p. 91. II CL di Ra-
venna al Cl. Contarini, Epp. Poll, III. 208, already urges this :
" Sendo quella citta (Ravenna) partialissima, ne vi rimanendo
huorao alcuno non contaminate di questa macchia delle fattioni,
si van volontieri dove 1* occasion s'oflerisce carricando T un Taltro
da ininaici."

216 THE INQUlSITit)N. [BOOK II,

the Seggi, originally only' intended for studies,
from which, according to the spirit of the age, they
came to embrace theological disputations, "were
closed by the viceroy^. Every branch of literature
was subjected to the most rigorous supervision.
In the year 1543, Caraffa ordered that in future, no
book, of what coutents soever, whether old or new,
should be printed without the permission of the in-
quisition ; that booksellers should send to it cata-
logues of all their articles, and should sell nothing
more without its permission. The officers of the
customs received an order to deliver no packages
of manuscript or printed books to their address,
without first laying them before the inquisition f.
Thus gradually arose the index of prohibited books.
The first examples of the kind were given in Lou-
vaine and Paris. In Italy, Giovanni della Casa,
who lived on terms of the strictest intimacy with
the house of Carafia, printed the first catalogue,
containing about seventy books, at Venice. More
elaborate and complete ones appeared in 1552 at
Florence, and 1554 at Milan; the first, in the
form afterwards employed, was published at Rome
in 1559. It contained writings of cardinals, and
the poems of Casa himself. Not only printers and
booksellers were subjected to these laws ; even on
private persons it was imposed as a duty of con-
science to give information of the existence of for-
bidden books, and to contribute to their annihil-
ation. These rules were executed with inconcei-

Giaxmone : Storia di Napoli., XXXII. c. v.
Bromato,, VII. 9.

CH. I.] THE INQUISITION. 217

vable severity. Though thousands of the book,
" On the Benefits of the Death of Christ/5 were
dispersed, it has utterly disappeared, and is no-
where to be found. Whole piles of seized copies
were burnt in Rome.

In all these regulations and measures the clergy
availed themselves of the help of the secular arm*.
The popes found the advantage of possessing a ter-
ritory of their own of considerable extent : here
they could set an example and exhibit a pattern.
In Milan and Naples the governments could offer
no opposition, particularly as they had intended to
introduce the Spanish inquisition, though in Naples
the confiscation of goods was prohibited. In Tus-
cany the inquisition was accessible to the influ-
ence of the civil power through the legate, whom
Duke Cosmo had found means to gain over ; but
the fraternities which it founded gave great offence:
in Siena and Pisa it acted very oppressively against
the universities* In the Venetian states the inqui-
sitor was, it is true, not wholly emancipated from
civil control; from April, 1547, three Venetian
noUU had a seat in his tribunal in the capital ; in
the provinces, the rettore of each town, who occa-

* Other members of the laity seconded their endeavours. " Fu
rimediato," says the Compendium of the Inquisitors, " opportu-
namente dal S. Officio in Roma con porre in ogni citt£ valenti e
zelanti inquisitori, servendosi anche talhora de secolari zelanti, e
dotti per ajuto della fede, come, verM gratia, del Godescalco in
Como, del conte Albano in Bergamo, delMutio in Milano. Questa
risolutione di servirsi de' secolari fu presa, perche non soli mol-
tissimi vescovi, vicarii, frati e preti, ma anco molti delT istessa
Inquisitione erano heretici,"

218 THE INQUISITION. [BOOK II.

sionally consulted doctors in difficult cases (espe-
cially when the accusation affected eminent per-
sons) claimed a share in the investigation with the
council of ten : notwithstanding this, however, the
ordinances of Rome were on all material points
executed.

And thus all the life and motion of varying opi-
nions in Italy were forcibly stifled and annihilated.
Almost the whole Franciscan order was compelled
to retract* The greater part of the followers of
Valdez submitted to make recantation. In Ve-
nice a certain liberty was allowed to the foreigners,
mostly Germans, who resided there for purposes of
trade or of study ; but the natives were forced to
abjure their opinions, and their meetings were inter-
rupted. Many fled ; every town of Germany and of
Switzerland afforded refuge to the fugitives ; while
those who would not submit and could not escape,
fell victims to this terrific persecution. In Venice
they were sent from the lagoons out to sea in two
boats, between which a plank was laid and the con-
demned placed upon it ; at the same moment the
rowers pulled different ways — the plank fell into the
water — once more did the miserable sufferers call
upon the name of Christ, and then sank to rise no
more. In Rome autos da f6 were solemnly held in
front of the church of Santa Maria alia Minerva*
Many fled from place to place with their wives and
children ; we trace their footsteps for awhile, then
they disappear ; probably they had fallen into the
toils of the merciless hunters. Others sought safety
in silence and obscurity.

CTH. I.] PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. 219

The duchess of Ferrara, who, if the salic law
had not existed, would have heen heiress of France,
found no protection from her birth and exalted
rank. Her husband was her accuser. " She sees
no one," says Marot, " to whom she can complain;
the mountains are between her and her friends ; she
mingles her wine with tears/'

$ 7. PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION OF JESUITISM,

In this state of things, when opponents were
removed by force, when the dogmas of the church
were established anew in the spirit of the age, and
the ecclesiastical power enforced their observance
with resistless weapons, arose, in strictest alliance
with that power, the order of the Jesuits.

Not in Rome alone, but throughout Italy, it had
the most extraordinary success. Originally des-
tined for the common people, it now found en-
trance among the higher classes. In Parma it was
protected by the Farnesi*. Princesses submitted
themselves to the spiritual exercises. In Venice
Lainez gave an exposition of the Gospel of St. John
expressly for the nobles, and in 1542, with the aid

* Orlandinus expresses himself strangely. " Et civitas," he says,
II* p. 78, " et privati, quibus fuisse dicitur aliqua cum Romano
Poatifice necessitudo, supplices ad eum literas pro Fabro retinendo
dederunt." Just as if it were not known, that Paul III. had a son.
The inquisition was indeed afterwards introduced into Parma,
inconsequence of the hostility shown towards the priests inclined
to the doctrines of the Jesuits.

220 PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. [BOOK II.

of one of the Lippomano family, he succeeded in
laying the foundations of a Jesuits' college. In
Montepulciano, Francesco Strada had such an in-
fluence over some of the most eminent men of the
town, that he induced them to go ahout the streets
with him begging. Strada knocked at the door,
the others received the alms. In Faenza, though
it had been the scene of Ochino's labours, the Je-
suits succeeded in acquiring great influence, in al-
laying feuds of centuries standing, and in found-
ing societies for the support of the poor. I quote
these few examples only by way of illustration : on
every side they arose, gained followers, organized
schools, and established themselves on a firm

footing.

But as Ignatius was a Spaniard, imbued with, and
actuated by, the ideas of his nation, as his most in-
telligent disciples had readily followed in the track
he marked out, his society, which was inspired
by the same spirit, made still greater progress in
the peninsula than in Italy. In Barcelona he
made a very distinguished convert in the viceroy
Francesco Borgia, duke of Gandia; in Valencia
one church could not contain the hearers of Araoz,
and a pulpit was erected for him in the open air.
In Alcala followers of consideration soon congre-
gated around Francesco Villanova, spite of the dis-
advantages of sickness, mean extraction, and ex-
treme ignorance under which he laboured. From
this place and from Salamanca, where, in 1548, they
began their labours in a small miserable house, the
Jesuits principally issued forth and overspread the

dH. I.] PROGRESS OF JESUITISM, 221

whole of Spain*. Nor was their reception less
cordial in Portugal. The king suffered only one of
the two first who were sent to him at his request,
to proceed to the East Indies. This was that
Xavier who won there the fame of an apostle and a
saint : the other, Simon Roderic, the king kept near
his person. At both courts the Jesuits obtained ex-
traordinary popularity. They effected a thorough
reform in that of Portugal. In the court of Madrid
they almost immediately became the confessors of
grandees of the highest rank, of the president of the
council of Castile, and of the cardinal of Toledo.

In the year 1540 Ignatius had sent a few young
men to study at Paris; from thence his society
diffused itself over the Netherlands. Faber had a
most decided success in Louvaine ; eighteen young
men who had already taken the degree of master
or bachelor, offered to leave home, university, and
country, to accompany him to Portugal. The fol-
lowers of Loyola were already seen in Germany,
and, among the first, Peter Canisius, on his twen-
ty-third birthday, entered that order to which he
afterwards rendered such important services.

This rapid success had of necessity the strongest
influence on the development of the constitution.
The form it assumed was as follows : —

In the class of the first associates, the professed
members, Ignatius admitted but few. He found
that the number of men thoroughly educated, and
at the same time good and pious, was very small.

* Ribadeneira; Vita Jgnatii, c, XV. n. 244; c. XXXVIII. n.
285.

222 PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. [BOOK II.

In the first project which he submitted to the pope
he expresses the intention of founding colleges at
several universities for the education of young men,
an unexpected number of whom attached themselves
to him, as we have already observed. They formed
the professed members, as contradistinguished
from the class of scholars*. But a difficulty soon
arose. As the professed had bound themselves by a
fourth and special oath to a life of continual travel-
ing in the service of the pope, it w$s a contradiction
to assign to them as many colleges as were now
required, — establishments which could only thrive
by their constant presence. Ignatius soon found it
necessary to establish a third class between these
two ; spiritual coadjutors, who were at the same
time priests, versed in science and learning, and ex-
pressly devoted to the education of youth. This was
one of the most important institutions of the Jesuits,
and, as far as I have been able to discover, pecu-
liar to them. It contributed more than any other
to the singular success of the society. They could
establish themselves in anyplace, become residents,
gain influence, and put themselves at the head of
instruction. Like the scholars, they took only
three vows ; and, be it observed, these were simple,
not solemn:— that is to say, though any attempt to
quit the society would have been followed by ex-

* Paulilll. Facultas coadjutores admittendi, d. 5 Junii, 1546 :
" ita tit ad vota servanda pro eo tempore quo tu> fill prseposite, et
qui pro tempore fuerint ejusdem societatis prsepositi, eis in minis-
terio ispirituali vel temporal! utendum judicaveritis, et non ultra
Corpus Inetitutorum, I. p. 15,

CH. I.] PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. 223

communication, the society had the right, in certain
cases strictly defined, to absolve them of their
vows.

One only thing was now requisite. It would
have disturbed the studies and occupations to which
these classes were destined, had they been com-
pelled to devote themselves to providing for their
own subsistence. The professed, in their houses,
lived on alms; the coadjutors and scholars were
spared this, as the colleges were permitted to have
revenues in common. For the administration of
these revenues, so far as it did not devolve on the
professed (who were excluded from any participa-
tion in the enjoyment of them), and for the care of
all external affairs, Ignatius likewise appointed two
secular coadjutors, who indeed were equally bound
by the three simple vows, but who were forced to
content themselves with the conviction that they
were serving God by aiding in the support of a
society which watched over the salvation of souls,
and were to aspire to no higher reward* These
arrangements were not only well calculated in
themselves, but at the same time founded a hier-
archy which, by its different gradations, had a
peculiar power of subjugating the minds of

men*.

If we attentively consider the laws which were
gradually given to this society, we shall find that
one of the main objects which lay at the bottom
of them all was, the complete separation of its

* The basis of the society consisted of Novices, Guests, and
Indiflferents; from these rose the different dasses.

S24 PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. [BOOS It.

members from all the ordinary relations of life,
Love of kindred was denounced as a carnal affec-
tion*. He who renounced his possessions in order
to enter the society was not to give them to his re-
lations, but to distribute them amongst the poor I*
He who had once entered could neither receive nor
write a letter that was not read by a superior. The
society would have the whole man ; it would bind
every inclination in its fetters.

It would share even his secrets. A general con-
fession was the preliminary to his entrance. He
must enumerate all his faults, nay, even all his vir-
tues. A father confessor was appointed him by
his superiors ; the superior reserved to himself the
power of granting absolution in cases which it was
expedient for him to know|. This was insisted on
as a means of enabling him to obtain a perfect
knowledge of those under him, and to use them at
his discretion.

For, in this society, obedience usurped the place
of every relation or affection, of every impulse or
motive, that could stimulate man to activity;
obedience for its own sake, without any regard

* Summarium conatitutionum, § 8. in the Corpus Institu-
torum Societatis Jesu. Antverpise, 1709. Tom. I. In Orlan-
dinus, III. 66, Faber is praised, because once, having arrived after
many years of absence in his native town in Savoy, he resisted
his inclination to make any stay, and continued his journey.

t Examen generate, c. IV. § 2.

t Rules, contained separately in the Summarium constitu-
tionum, § 32, § 41, the Examen generate, § 35, § 36, and Con-
stitutionum Fauli III., c. 1, n. 11 : " Dli casus reservabuntur,"
it is said .in the last passage, " quos ab eo (superiore) cognosce
necessarium yidebitur, aut valde conveniens."

CH. I.] PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. 225

whatever to its object or consequences*. No man
was permitted to aspire after any rank or station
above that which he held ; if it happened that the
secular coadjutor could not read and write, he was
not to learn without permission. With the most
absolute abnegation of ail right of private judgment,
he who entered this society mast suffer himself to
be ruled by his superiors in blind submissiveness,
like some inanimate thing ; like the staff which is
turned to any purpose at the will of him who holds
it. He was to behold in his superiors the repre-
sentatives of divine Providencef.

What a power was that now vested in the ge-
neral! — the power of wielding this implicit obe-
dience wholly, irresponsibly, and for life. Accord-
ing to the project of 1543, all the members of the

* The Letter of Ignatius, " Fratribus Societatis Jesu qui
sunt in Lusitania." j. KaL Ap. 1553. § 3.

t Constitutiones VI. 1. " Et sibi quisque persuadeat, quod
qui sub obedientia vivunt, se ferri ac regi a divina providentia
per superiores suos sinere debent, perinde ac cadaver essent."—
Here is also given the other Constitution VI. 5, according to
•which it would appear that even a sin might be ordained. (e Vi-
sum est nobis in Domino, . » . nullas constitutiones, declarationes
vel ordinem ullum vivendi posse obligationem ad peceatum mor-
tale vel veniale inducere, nisi superior ea in nomine Domini Jesu.
Christi vel in virtute obedientia jubeat." We scarcely know-
how to trust our eyes, in reading this. And it is in fact pos-
sible to extract another meaning besides that suggested on the
first perusal. " Obligatio ad peceatum mortale vel veniale/* would
rather mean the obligation connected with a constitution ; so that
whosoever should violate it, would, in one way or the other, be
guilty of a sin. Still it must be acknowledged that the Consti-
tution ought to be more explicit. We could blame no one, who
bona fide should suppose f ' ea" to refer to " peceatum .mortale
vel veniale," and not to " constitutiones."

VOL. I. Q

226 PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. [BOOK II.

order who happened to be at the same place with
the general were to he called into council even on
trifling affairs. The project of 1550, which was
confirmed by Julius III., frees him from this obli-
gation, whenever he himself deems it inexpedient
to comply with it*. It was only necessary to hold
a council for any change in the constitution, or for
the dissolution of existing houses and colleges.
In all other matters, all power that can conduce
to the good government of the society was com-
mitted to him. He had assistants in the several
provinces, who however meddled in no affairs but
those which he entrusted to them. He appointed
the presidents of provinces, colleges, and houses at
his pleasure ; he admitted and dismissed, dispensed
and punished ; he had a sort of papal power on a
small scalef. The only danger was, that the ge-
neral in the possession of so vast a power, should
himself depart from the principles of the order.
To guard against this he was subjected to certain
restraints. It was not perhaps of so much import-
ance as it appeared to Ignatius, that the society or
its deputies had the power of deciding on certain
external things, such as meals, clothing, hours of
sleep, and all the details of daily life} ; but it was
unquestionably something that the possessor of the
supreme power was deprived of a freedom enjoyed

* c* AdjutuB,quatenuBipseoppoxtauiiim judicabit* fratrum suorum
cottrilio, per se ipsum ordinandi et jubendi quse ad Dei gloriam
pertinere videbuntur, jus totum habeat;" says Julii III. Confir*
xaatio Institufi

Constitutiones IX., III.

Schedula Ignatii, AA. SS. Commentatio prsevia, n. 872,

CH. I.] PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. 227

by the meanest individual. The assistants, who
were not nominated by him, also exercised a con-
stant supervision over his conduct. There was an
officer specially appointed to warn or reprove him,
called the admonitor; and in case of any gross
faults, the assistants were empowered to summon
the general congregation, which was then authorized
to pronounce sentence of deposition on their chief.

This leads us to another consideration.

If, without suffering ourselves to be dazzled by
the hyperbolical expressions in which the Jesuits
have represented this power, we examine what was
practicable, consistently with the extension which
the society rapidly attained to, the following will
appear to be the result.

The supreme direction of the whole was vested
in the general, and especially the superintendence
of the superiors, whose consciences ought tolie open
to him, whose duties he was to assign. These, on
the other hand, exercised a* similar power in their
own department, and frequently with more severity
than the general*. The superiors and the general
held each other in some degree in check. The ge-
neral was likewise to be acquainted with the person
and character of all subordinates, of all members of
the society whatsoever ; although, as is evident, he
could interfere only in urgent cases, yet he retained
the supreme supervision. On the other hand, a
certain number of the professed exercised a super-
vision over him.

* Mariana, Discurso de las enfermedadas de la Compania de
Jesus, c, XL

Q2

228 PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. [BOOK II.

There have been other religious orders, which,
forming a world within the world, severed their
members from all other ties, made them wholly their
own, and generated in them a new principle of life
and action. Such were among the ends which the
institution of the Jesuits also was calculated to ac-
complish. But it is remarkable, that on the one
side, it not only encourages but requires the deve-
lopment of individual minds, while on the other, it
takes them completely captive, and makes them
its own. Hence all relations between the members
merged in those of subordination and mutual su-
pervision. They thus formed a strict, exclusive,
and complete union endowed with nerve and energy.
Forthis reason they contributed so much to strength-
en the monarchical power ; they submitted them-
selves to it absolutely, unless its possessors fell off
from the very principle on which it rests.

It is quite in accordance with the spirit of this
society that no member of it could be invested
with any ecclesiastical dignity. He would have
had duties to fulfil, he would have been involved in
circumstances, over which he could have had no
supervision or control. In the early days of the
society, at least, this rule was most rigidly ad-
hered to. Jay would not, and was not permitted
to accept the bishopric of Trieste ; and when Fer-
dinand L, who offered it to him, renounced his
wish in consequence of a letter from Ignatius, the
latter caused solemn mass to be performed, and
Te Deum to be sung*.

* Extract from the Liber memorials of Ludovicus Gonsalvus;

CH. I.] PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. 229

Another important point is, that as the society
generally raised itself above the more ascetical and
onerous practices of religion, so individuals were
warned not to carry their devout exercises to ex-
cess. They were exhorted not to weaken their
bodies with fasts, vigils, and scourgings; not to
abstract too much time from the service of their
neighbour for such purposes ; to observe modera-
tion even in labour ; to use not only the spur, but
the curb ; not to encumber themselves with so
many weapons that they could not wield them ; not
to oppress themselves with work till the energy of
their minds should be crushed by the burden*.

It is clear that it was the design and the prin-
ciple of the society to possess its members as its
exclusive property, yet at the same time to give
them the utmost vigour of character consistent
with strict adherence to that principle.

In fact, such a character was indispensable to
the difficult functions which the Jesuits took upon
themselves. These were, as we saw, preaching, in-
struction, and confession. To the two latter they
devoted themselves with singular zeal.

Instruction had till then been in the hands of
those men of letters, who, after having long ad-
dicted themselves to profane studies, fell into
speculations on religious subjects, not wholly

" quod, desistente rege, S. Ignatius indixerit missas, et, ' Te, Deum ,
laudamus/ in gratiarum actionem." Commentarius prsevius, in
AA. SS. Julii VIL, n. 412.

* Constitutiones, V.3, 1. Epistola Ignatii ad Fratres qui sunt
in Hispania. Corpus Institutorum, II. 540.

230 PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. [BOOK II.

agreeable to the court of Rome, and ended by
adopting opinions utterly reprobated by it. The
Jesuits made it their business to expel them from
their post, and to occupy it in their stead. They
began on a more systematic plan than had hither-
to been pursued. They divided the schools
into classes, which they taught, from the first ru-
diments up to the highest branches of learning, in
the same spirit. They paid great attention also to
the moral education, and formed men of good con-
duct and manners ; they were patronized by the
civil authorities ; and, lastly, they taught gratis.
When a city or a prince had founded a Jesuits' col-
lege, private persons needed no longer to be at
any expense for the education of their sons. They
were expressly forbidden to ask or to receive pay
or alms ; their instruction was as gratuitous as their
sermons and their masses ; there was no box for the
receipt of gifts even in their churches. Men being
what they are, this could not fail to make the Je-
suits extremely popular, especially as they taught
with no less success than zeal. " This was not
only a help to the poor," says Orlandini*, " but a
solace to the rich." He remarks how enormous
was their success. "We see," says he, "many
robed in the purple of a cardinal* who were but
lately seated on the benches of our schools ; others

* Orlondimis, lib. vi. 70. A comparison might be made with
the conventual schools of the protestants, in which also the devo-
tional tendency completely predominated. Vide Sturm, in Ruh*
kopf> Geachichte des Schulwesens, p. 378. The points of differ-
ence would be those to consider.

CH. I.] PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. 231

have attained to posts in the government of cities
and of states ; we have trained up bishops and their
councils ; even other religious communities have
been filled from our schools." They had the acute-
ness to detect, and the skill to appropriate, all re-
markable talents. They constituted themselves a
class of teachers, who, dispersed over all catholic
lands, first gave to education that religious colour
which it has ever since retained, preserved a strict
unity in discipline, method, and doctrine, and thus
obtained an incalculable influence over the minds
of men.

But how greatly was this influence strength-
ened by the address with which they got possession
of the confessional and of the direction of con-
sciences ! No age of the world was more susceptible
of such influence, — none indeed more in need of
it. The Jesuits are exhorted by their rules to give
absolution in such sort and manner as to follow
one uniform method; to practise themselves in
cases of conscience, to accustom themselves to a
brief way of questioning, and to hold the examples
of the saints, their works, and other aids, ready
against every kind of sin* : — rules which, as is evi-
dent, are admirably calculated for the necessities
of man.

The extraordinary success, however, which at-
tended their labours, and which involved a real
diffusion of their own manner of thinking, rested
on another essential point.

The little book of spiritual exercises which Ig-
* Eegula Sacerdotum, § 8. 10, 11.

232 PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. [BOOK II.

natius worked out in the most singular manner*,
though he did not draw the first outline of it, — the
book with which he attracted his first, and after-
wards his later disciples, — with which he attached
his followers generally, — is a most remarkable pro-
duction. Its operation was progressive and power-
ful ; the more so, perhaps, because it was recom-
mended to be used only occasionally, in moments
of inward perplexity and agitation — of the cravings
and wants of the troubled heart.

It is not a book of doctrine; it is a guide to self-ob-
servation. "The longing of the soul," says Ignatius,
' ' cannot be appeased by much knowledge, but by the
sense and relish of inward things "f. To direct this
is the task he proposes to himself. The guardian
of souls indicates the subjects of reflection ; the
disciple has only to follow them out. He is to
direct his mind to them before going to sleep,
and at first waking ; he must drive away aU other
thoughts with effort ; windows and doors must be
closed; kneeling, or extended on the earth, he
must carry -through the work of self-examination.

He begins by being conscious of his sins. He
reflects how, for one single crime, the angels were
cast down into hell ; but for him, although guilty
of so much greater transgressions, the saints offer

* From all that has been written on both sides of the ques-
tion, it is very clear that Ignatius had in view a similar work by
Garcia de Cisneroa. All that is most peculiar and characteiistic
appears however to have oiiginated with himself. Comm* prsev.,
n, 64,

t " Non enim abundantia scientise, sed sensus et gustus rerum
interior desiderium animse replere solet."

CH. I.] PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. 233

up their intercessions; the firmament and the
stars, the animals and plants of the earth, serve
him. In order that he may be delivered from sin,
and may not fall into eternal damnation, he calls
on Christ crucified, he hears his answers : — a dia-
logue as of a friend with his friend, as of a servant
with his lord.

His principal endeavour is next to exhort to the
study of sacred history. " I see," he says, " how
the three persons of the Godhead look down upon
the whole earth, filled with men who are doomed to
perdition ; they determine that the second person
shall take upon himself the human nature for their
redemption. I look over the whole circuit of the
world, and I discern in one corner of it the hut of
the Virgin Mary, from which salvation proceeds. "

He advances from step to step of the sacred his-
tory ; he brings before himself the events in all
their peculiarities, according to the categories of
sense ; the greatest latitude is given to the religious
fancy, emancipated from the restraints of language.
The reader imagines he touches the garments, he
kisses the footsteps, of the divine personages. In
this exaltation of the fancy, in the feeling, how
great is the beatitude of a soul that is filled with
divine graces and virtues, he returns to the con-
sideration of his own state. If he has his condition
still to choose, he chooses it now, according to the
wants of his heart ; having the one aim before his
eyes — to be consecrated to God's glory; believing
that he stands in the presence of God and all Ms
saints*

234 PROGRESS OF JESUITISM, [BOOK II,

If he is no longer free to choose, he reflects on
his manner of Irving, his conversation, the ordering
of his household, his needful expenditure, what he
has to give to the poor ; all in the same frame of
mind as he would wish to reflect upon them in the
hour of death; having nothing in view save what
tends to God's honour and his own salvation.

Thirty days are devoted to these exercises;
during which reflections on the sacred history, on
his own most intimate state, prayers, resolutions,
alternate one with another. The soul is kept in a
state of constant excitement and activity, occupied
with itself. Lastly, in representing to himself the
providence of God, " who in all his creatures works
for the good of man/* the contemplator believes he
once more stands hefore the face of the Lord and of
his saints. He implores the Divine Being to enable
him to give himself up to his love and service ; he
offers up his liberty, memory, judgment, will. Thus
is the bond of love concluded with him. " Love
consists in the community of all capacities and of
all possessions." As a recompence for his self-
devotion, God imparts to the soul His grace.

It is sufficient for the present purpose to have
given a slight idea of this extraordinary book. In
its general course, as well as in particular passages
and their connexion, there is something persuasive,
which sets the thoughts in motion, but which en-
closes and binds them within a narrow circle. It is
adapted with consummate skill to its end, — medi-
tation under the sway of fancy ; and its success is
the more unfailing because it rests on the author's

CH. I.] PROGRESS OF JESUITISM, 235

own experiences. Ignatius gradually embodied in
this work the most animated crises of his awakening
and of his spiritual progress, from their first com-
mencement till the year 1548, when he received
the sanction of the pope. It has been said that
Jesuitism turned to account the experiences of the
protestants, and this may he true in particular in-
stances ; as a whole, however, they stand in the
sharpest contrast. Ignatius here opposed to the
discursive, demonstrative, searching methods of
the protestants, which were by their very nature
polemical, a totally different one ; short, intuitive,
and leading to ecstatic contemplation ; built upon
the imagination, exciting to instant resolution.

And thus did that fantastic element from which
he drew his earliest inspirations become an instru-
ment of extraordinary force and importance. Com-
bining the habits of a soldier, he succeeded, with
the fervour of a religious fancy, in enrolling a spi-
ritual standing army, picked man by man, trained
individually for his objects, and commanded by
himself, in the name and service of the pope. He
lived to see it spread over every nation of the
earth.

When Ignatius died, his company numbered
thirteen provinces, exclusive of the Roman*. A
glance will suffice to show where the nerve of it lay.
The larger half of these provinces, seven, belonged
to the western peninsula and its colonies. In Cas-

* In. the year 1556. Sacciimis, Historia societatis Jesu,
p. 2. rive Lamms, from the beginning.

236 PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. [BOOK II.

Jile there were ten colleges, in Aragon five, in
Vadalusia also five. Portugal surpassed even this ;
.here were houses for both professed members and
for novices, and the Portuguese colonies were al-
most entirely under their rule. In Brazil there were
twenty-eight members of the order; in the East
Indies, from Goa to Japan, a hundred were em-
ployed in the functions allotted to them. An at-
tempt was made from thence to establish them-
selves in Ethiopia, and a provincial was sent
thither in the confident hope of a successful result.
All these provinces of Spanish and Portuguese lan-
guage and manners were united under one commis-
sary-general, Francisco Borgia.

Here, as we have said, where the first idea of
the society arose, its influence had become most
extensive and powerful. But it was not much less
so in Italy. There were three provinces of the
Italian tongue : — the Roman, which was under the
immediate control of the general, with houses for
professed and novices ; the collegium Romanum ;
and the collegium Germanicum, (established, on
the advice of cardinal Morone, expressly for Ger-
mans, but which never had much success) ; to this
province Naples also belonged, and Sicily (where
the Jesuits were first introduced by the viceroy,
Delia Vega) , with four colleges completed and two
begun*. Messina and Palermo had rivalled each
other in zeal to found colleges, and the others were
offsets from these. The two other proper Italian

* Ribadeneira: Vita Ignatii, n. 293.

CH.I.] PROGRESS OP JESUITISM. 237

provinces comprehended all the north of Italy, and
contained ten colleges.

Their success had not been so hrilliant in other
countries ; they had to encounter protestantism, or
a strong inclination towards it. France contained
but one college regularly constituted. Germany
was divided into two provinces, which were how-
ever only in their infancy. The upper was to in-
clude Vienna, Prague, Ingolstadt, &c., but its con-
dition was in every way very precarious. The
lower was to comprise the Netherlands, but Philip
II. had given it no legal existence there*

A success so early and so rapid gave the society
promise of the power to which it was destined to
attain. Its mighty influence in the truly catholic
lands, — the two peninsulas, — was of the utmost im-
portance.

CONCLUSION*

We see that, while, on the one hand, the move-
ment with which protestantism agitated the minds
of men advanced on every side with rapid strides,
on the other, a new tendency had in like manner
arisen in the bosom of Catholicism, — in Rome, —
around the presence and person of the pope.

This, no less than the former, sprang from the
corruptions and the worldliness which had de-
formed the church, or rather, from the wants that
they had generated in the minds of men.

At the beginning these two tendencies approxi-
mated. There was a moment iu which Germany

238 PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. [BOOK II.

had not thoroughly resolved on the complete down-
fall of the hierarchy; a moment in which Italy was
inclined to adopt rational modifications of it. This
moment passed away.

While the protestants, resting on scripture, re-
curred with ever-increasing boldness to the primi-
tive forms of the Christian religion, their opponents
determined to hold fast to the ecclesiastical insti-
tutions which had been consolidated in the course
of the century, to renew them merely, and to infuse
into them fresh spirit, earnestness, and strictness.

On the one hand, arose Calvinism, far more
anti-catholic than Lutheranism ; on the other,
everything which could recal an idea of protest-
antism was rejected with deliberate hostility, and
the most direct opposition was declared.

Thus do two neighbouring and kindred springs
arise on the mountain top ; but soon their waters
form different channels down its rocky sides, the
streams diverge, and flow on in opposite directions
for ever.

BOOK III.

THE POPES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

INTRODUCTION.

THE most striking characteristic of the sixteenth
century is its fertility in religious systems. The
various and conflicting opinions which then arose
and overspread Europe, form, even at the present
hour, the moral atmosphere in which we live and
move.

If we seek to assign more accurately the point of
history at which the separation between Catholicism
and protestantism of which we have just spoken,
became complete, we shall find that it did not
coincide with the first appearance of the reformers ;
for divergences of opinion did not immediately be-
come inveterate, and during a long time hopes might
be entertained of some compromise between the
conflicting doctrines. It was not till the year 1552
that it became manifest that all attempts at conci-
liation had utterly failed, and the three great forms
of Christianity in the west were severed for ever.
Lutheranism became stricter, more ascetical, more

VOL. I. R

242 INTRODUCTION, [BOOK III.

exclusive. Calvinism seceded from it in the most
important articles, though Calvin himself had pre-
viously passed for a Lutheran. Directly opposed
to both, Catholicism assumed its modern form.
Thus hostilely arrayed, each of the three theological
systems strove to establish itself on the position
which it had taken up, thence to supplant its rivals,
and to subject the world to its own sway.

It might appear that Catholicism, which aimed
at nothing but the renovation of an existing insti-
tution, would have found it more easy than the
antagonist sects to make its way, and to obtain
the ascendency ; but its advantages were not great ;
it was circumscribed, no less than its competitors,
by various interests, tastes and passions; by world-
ly~mindedness, profane learning, and declining reli-
gious convictions ; it was little more than a princi-
ple of fermentation, of which it might still be ques-
tioned, whether it would eventually pervade and
overpower the elements in the midst of which it
was generated, or be overpowered by them.

The first obstacle it had to encounter arose from
the popes themselves, — their personal character,
and their policy.

We have remarked how a temper of mind the
very reverse of spiritual had taken root in the heads
of the church, had provoked opposition, and had
given an incalculable impetus to protestantism.

The question was, whether the strict ecclesi-
astical spirit which had sprung up in the bosom of
the church herself, would overmaster and transmute
this temper, or not, and tp what degree ? It ap-

§ i.] PAUL in. 243

pears to me, that the conflict between these two
principles, — between the ideas, the actions, and the
policy which had hitherto prevailed and had be-
come habitual, and the necessity of effecting a
thorough internal reform, constitute the prominent
interest in the history of the next popes.

§ 1. PAUL in.

It is a common error of the present day to ascribe
far too much to the designs and the influence of
eminent persons, of rulers, and of governments ; their
memory not unfrequently has to expiate the sins of
the mass, while sometimes they have credit for
measures which emanated in fact from the sponta-
neous impulse of the mass.

The catholic movement which we contemplated
in the last book began under Paul III., but it would
be a mistake to regard him as its author. He dis-
tinctly saw its importance to the see of Home, and
he not only allowed it free course, but promoted
it in many ways ; we may confidently assert, how-
ever, that he could have no sincere or cordial sym-
pathy with so religious and ascetical a spirit.

Alexander Farnese, for that was the name of
Paul III., was as much a man of the world as any
of his predecessors. His education was completed
within the fifteenth century, for he was born in the
year 1468. He studied under Pomppnius Laetus
at Rome, and in the gardens of Lorenzo de* Medici
at Florence \ he thus became thoroughly imbued

R2

244 PAUL in. [BOOK in.

with the elegant literature and the taste for art
which characterised that epoch; nor was he a
stranger to its morals. His mother once found it
necessary to allow him to remain a prisoner in the
castle of St. Angelo. In a moment when the vigi-
lance of his guards was withdrawn by the pro-
cession of Corpus Christ! day, he found means to
let himself down from the castle by a rope, and to
escape. He acknowledged an illegitimate son and
daughter. Spite of these excesses — for in those
days such things caused little scandal, — he was
made cardinal at a very early age. During his
cardinalate he laid the foundation of the most
beautiful of all the "Roman palaces — that of the
Farnesi. At Bolsena, where his hereditary estates
were situated, he fitted up a villa which Pope Leo
found so attractive as to tempt him to pay the car-
dinal several visits there. Nor were his desires
bounded by this brilliant and magnificent life ; he
cherished other projects and loftier ambitions.
From the very beginning of his career he fixed his
eye on the supreme dignity. It is characteristic of
him that he sought to reach it by maintaining a
strict neutrality. The French and imperial fac-
tions divided Italy, Borne, and the college of car-
dinals : Farnese conducted himself with such deli-
berate caution, with such happy prudence, that no
one could have said to which of the two he most
inclined. Even so early in his career as at the
death of Leo, and again at that of Adrian, he was
near being elected. He was exasperated against
the memory of Clement VIL, whom he regarded as

§ i.] PAUL in. 245

Ijaving robbed him of twelve years of the papacy,
which would otherwise have been his. At length, in.
October 1 534, in the fortieth year of his cardinalate,
and the sixty-seventh of his life, he attained the end
of all his aspirations, and was elected pope*.

He had now to feel the full weight of the great
conflicting interests which divided the world ; the
animosity of the two parties between which he
occupied so important a station ; the necessity of
making head against the protestants, and the secret
connection with them, into which he was inevitably
drawn by their political position ; the desire to di-
minish the preponderance of Spain, and the danger
attending every attempt to do so, which naturally
arose out of the situation of his Italian principal-
ity; the urgent need of a reform, and the annoying
restraints which that reform seemed to threaten to
impose on the papal power.

The manner in which his character developed it-
self in the midst of all these irreconcileable demands
is well worthy of notice,

Paul III. was of an easy, magnificent, liberal na-
ture. Seldom has a pope been so beloved in Rome
as he was. There was a grandeur in the way in
which he nominated men of distinguished merit to
the dignity of cardinal, without even their know-
ledge, nobly contrasting with the petty personal con-
siderations which usually determine appointments.
Nor did he only nominate them; — he allowed
them an unwonted liberty. He endured contradic-

* Onuphrius Panvinius : Vita Pauli III,

246 PAUL in. [BOOK n

tioa in the consistory, and encouraged the cardina
to fearless discussion*.

But while he granted freedom to others, while 1
conceded to every one all the advantages attach*
to his situation, he would not suffer one of his o^
prerogatives to he invaded, or to fall into neglec
The emperor once remonstrated with him on havii
promoted two of his grandsons to the cardinalate
too early an age ; he replied, that he would do :
his predecessors had done, — that there were exan
pies of infants in the cradle being made cardinal
He showed a partiality for his own kindred unusu
even in a popef, and a determination to raise thei

* In the year 1538, Marco Antonio Contarini wrote a repc
of the state of the pope's court to the Venetian senate. Unfc
tunately I have not found this work either in the Venetian £
chives or elsewhere. There is a short extract from it in a M
in my possession, on the war then carrying on against the Turl
bearing the title, "Tre Lihri delli Commentari della Guen
1537, — 8> — 9." It is from this source I have taken the above n
tices. " Bisse del stato della corte, che molti anni inanzi li pr
lati non erano stati in quella riforma di vita ch* eran allora, e c]
li cardinal! havevano libert& maggiore di dire i'opinion loro
consistorio ch'avesser avuto gia mai da gran tempo, e che di c
il pontefice non solamente non si doleva, ma se n* era studiatissim
onde per questa ragione si poteva sperare di giorno in gion
maggior riforma* Consider6 che tra cardinal! vi erano tali u
mini celeberrimi che per opinione commune il mondo non n' avi
altretanti."

t Soriano, 1535 : "E Romano di sangue et & d* animo mol

gagliardo : stima assai I'ingiurie che gli si fanno, et & inc]

natissimo a far grandi i suoi." Varchi (Istorie Florentine, p. 636
relates of Paul's first secretary, Messer Ambrogio, that he was ' '
man who could do all that he willed, and who willed all that 1
could do/' Amongst many other presents, he once received sixi
silver washing-basins, with their ewers. " How rlnf»<; fr rnn

§ i.] PAUL in. 247

to princely rank, as other pontiffs had done before
him.

It cannot, however, be affirmed that, like Alex-
ander VI., he sacrificed everything else to this ob-
ject ; he was most anxiously bent on re-establishing
peace between France and Spain, on putting down
the protestants, ifiaking war against the Turks, and
reforming the church : but his heart was also much
set on elevating his own house.

The variety and importance of objects, both
public and private, which he pursued, forced him
upon an extremely cautious, watchful, temporizing,
policy ; everything depended on the favourable mo-
ment, the fortunate combination of circumstances ;
these he was compelled to mature by slow degrees,
and, when the critical moment arrived, to seize
them with the utmost promptitude, to hold them
with the most determined grasp.

Ambassadors found it difficult to negociate with
him. They were astonished, that though he never
exhibited a trace of want of courage, they could
rarely bring him to a decision. While he sought to
entangle others, to win from them a word that would
not be withdrawn, or a promise that could not be
revoked, he was never betrayed into an expression
that could bind himself. This was observed in
lesser things ; he showed a constant disinclination
to refuse or to promise anything ; he chose to keep
his hands free to the last minute. How much more
then in occasions of difficulty ! Sometimes he turn-
about," said somebody, " that, *with so many washing-basins, he

248 PAUL in. [BOOK m,

self suggested means of escaping from or obviating
the evil, but if others tried to seize upon them,
he instantly retracted ; he chose to remain always
master of every transaction in which he was con-
cerned*.

He was, as we have said, of the same classical
school which had produced some of his most emi-
nent predecessors, and made it a rule to express
himself in no other than the most choice and elegant
Latin or Italian ; he weighed every word with the
double consideration both of matter and form, and
uttered them in a soft vaice and with the slowest
deliberation.

It was often difficult for a man to ascertain how
he stood with him. Sometimes people thought it
safer to conclude the contrary from what he said.
Yet this conclusion would not always have been
just. Those who were more immediately about

* In the Lettres et Memoires d'Estat, par Guill. Ribier, Paris,
1 6G6, — are to be found a crowd of documents relating to his ne-
gotiations and their character, from 1537 to 1540, and from
1547 to 1549, in the despatches of the French ambassadors. Mat-
teo Dandolo describes them in a straightforward manner in the Re-
latione di Roma, 1551, d. 20 Junii, in Senativ-aMS. inmypos-
session. " II negotiare con P. Paolo fu giudicato ad ogn'un
difficile, perche era tardissimo nel parlare, perche non voleva mai
proferire parola che non fusse elegante et exquisita, cosi nella
volgare come nella latina e greca, che di tutte tre ne faceva pro-
fessione (Greek, I should think, he could not often have used in
his negotiations) e mi aveva scoperto di quel poco che io ne inten-
deva* E perche era vecchissimo, parlava bassissimo et era longhis-
simo ne volea negar cosa che se gli addimandasse ; ma ne anche
(volea) che Fuomo che negotiava seco potesse esser securo di havere
havuto da S, Sa. il si pin che il no, perche lei voleva starsi sem-
pre in 1* avantaggio di poter negare e concedeie : per il che
sempre si risolveva tardissimamente, quando volea negare/'

§ i.] PAUL in. 249

him, remarked that when he was most sanguine of
the success of any undertaking, he said nothing
about it, and avoided all contact with the persons
or things connected with it*. So much was clear
to all — that he never relinquished a project he had
once entertained; he hoped to accomplish whatever
he had undertaken, if not presently, yet at some
future time, under altered circumstances and by
other means.

Such a character of mind, such a tendency to
far-sighted calculation, to consider things on every
side and to ponder on them in secret, was not in-
consistent with a disposition to take into account
heavenly as well as earthly influences. The in-
fluence of the stars on the results of human actions
was at that time little doubted. Paul III. appointed
no important sitting of the consistory, undertook
no journey, without observing the constellations,
and choosing the day which appeared to him re-
commended by their aspect f. A treaty with France
was delayed because there was no conformity be-
tween the nativity of the pope and that of the king.
It seems that Paul felt himself placed in the midst
of a thousand conflicting influences, not only of
this lower world, but of the supernal : it was his
endeavour to have due regard to both, to avert

* Observations of the cardinal Carpi and Margareta : " cne son
los/* says Mendoza, " que mas platica tienen de su condicion."

t Mendoza : " Es venido la cose, a que ay muy pocos carde-
nales, que concierten negocios, aunque sea para comprar una
carga de lena, sino es o por medio de algun astrologo o hechi-
zero." We find the most unquestionable particulars relating to
the pope.

250 PAUL ni. [BOOK in.

their hostility, to improve their favour, and to steer
his course adroitly amongst the rocks which threat-
ened destruction on every side.

We will examine what were the means he em-
ployed, whether they were successful, whether he
really raised himself above the contending powers
that agitated the world, or whether he was involved
in their struggles.

In the first years of his reign he succeeded in con-
cluding an alliance with Charles V. and the Vene-
tians, against the Turks. He urged the Venetians
to this measure with great eagerness; for hopes
were now, as at other times, entertained of extend-
ing the frontiers of Christendom to Constantinople.

But the war which had broken out anew between
Francis I. and Charles was a formidable obstacle to
this enterprise. The pope spared no efforts to
bring about a reconciliation. The meeting of the
two sovereigns at Nice, to which he also was a party,
was entirely his work, and the Venetian ambassa-
dor who was present cannot find words in which to
eulogise the zeal and patience which he displayed
through the whole affair. It was only with extraor-
dinary labour, and not till the last moment, when
he had threatened to go away, that he succeeded in
negociating a truce*, He brought about a good
understanding between the two princes, which soon
appeared to ripen into a kind of intimacy.

Whilst the pope was thus actively employed in

* Relatione del Clmo. M, Niccolo Tiepolo del Convento di Niz-
za. Informal*. Politicly VL (Library at Berlin.) There is like-
•wise an old impression.

§ I.] PAUL III. 251

public business, he did not neglect his own con-
cerns. It was remarked that he always interwove
the one with the other, and advanced both simulta-
neously. The Turkish war thus afforded him an
opportunity of confiscating Camerino. It had just
been united to Urbino ; the last of the house of Va-
rano, the heiress of Camerino, having married
Guidobaldo IL who in the year 1538 came into pos-
session of the government of Urbino*, But the
pope pronounced that Camerino could not be inhe-
rited by a woman. The Venetians were bound in
justice to support the duke, whose ancestors had
always lived under tjieir protection and served in
their armies ; they did indeed intercede in the
most urgent and spirited manner in his behalf, but
they hesitated to do more, lest it should involve
them in a war. They feared that the pope would
call in the aid of the emperor or of France, cau-
tiously considering that if he gained over the em-
peror, that sovereign would have so much the less
force to bring against the Turks, while, if France
were triumphant, the peace of Italy would be en-
dangered and their position would be still more
unfavourable and unsupported f. They therefore
left the duke to his fate, and he was forced to eva-
cuate Camerino, which the pope conferred on his
grandson Ottavio.

The house of Farnese was already rising into
power and magnificence. The congress at Nice
was extremely advantageous to Paul. At the very

* Adrian! Istorie, 58, H.

•f The deliberations are given in the above-quoted Commentary
on the Turkish War, which thus possesses a peculiar interest.

252 PATTL in. [BOOK in.

time it was sitting, his son, Pietro Luigi, obtained
Novara and its territory from the emperor, who, at
the same time, determined to inarry his natural
daughter Margaret, after the death of Alessandro
de* Medici, to Ottavio Farnese. We may give foil
credit to the pope's assertion, that, notwithstanding
these marks of favour, he did not unconditionally
join the imperial party. He wished, on the con-
trary, to form an equally close connection with
Francis I., who, on his side, showed himself well
inclined to this alliance, and promised him the
hand of the duke of Vendome, a prince of the
Wood, for his granddaughter Vittoria*. This con-
nection with the two most powerful houses in the
world was a source of great happiness to Paul; he
was so sensible of the honour which it conferred,
that he spoke of it in the consistory. The attitude
of a peace-maker, a mediator, which he occupied be-
tween these two powers, also flattered his ambition
as head of the church.

These circumstances did not however lead to
such favourable results as they had promised. No
advantages whatever had been gained over the Ot-
toman power; on the contrary, Venice was obliged
to accede to a disadvantageous peace. Francis I.
recalled the promise which he had made at Nice,

* Grignan, Ambassadeur du Roi de France & Rome, au Con-
netable. Ribier I., p. 251 : " Monseigneur, sariite Saintete a un
merveilleus dear du mariage de Vendosxne: car il s'en est en-
tferement d&larg 3t moy, disant que pour estre sanifece unique et
tant aim6e de luy, il ne d&irait apres le Men de la ChrestientS
autre chose plus que voir sadite niece xnariee en France, dont
ledit Seigneur (Le Ro£) luy avait tenu propos & Nice, et apres
VOUB, Monseigneur, luy en ariez parleV'

§ i.] PAUL in. 253

and although the pope never relinquished the
hope of eventually forming a connection with the
house of Valois, the negociation advanced very tar-
dily. The good understanding which the pope esta-
blished between the emperor and the king, seemed
for a time to become more and more perfect, so
much so as at one time almost to excite the jealousy
of the pope, and to draw from him complaints that
he, who was the author of it, was neglected* ; yet
it presently broke off, and war began anew. The
pope then elevated his views to higher objects.

He had formerly declared among his friends, and
had even given the emperor to understand, that
Milan belonged to the French, and ought of right to
be restored to themf .

He gradually ceased to express this opinion, We
find, on the contrary, from cardinal Carpi, who was
more in his confidence than any other of the sacred
college, that he made a proposition to Charles V.
the aim of which was quite of an opposite kind J.
" The emperor," says this document, " should
not aspire to be count, or duke, or prince; — he
must be emperor alone. He ought not to have
numerous provinces, but great vassals. His for-

* Grignan, 7 Mars, 1539. Ribier L, 406. Le Cardinal de
Boulogne an Roi, 20 Avril, 1539. Ibid. p. 445. The pope said
to him, " qu'il estoit fort estonne*, ven la peiae et travail qu 'il avait
pris pour vous appointer, vous et TEmpereur, que vous le lais-
siez ainsi arri&re."

f M. A. Contarini also confirms this in his Narrative,
t Discurso del Rmo. Cle. di Carpi, del 1543, (perhaps though
even a year earlier,) a Carlo V. Cesare, Del modo del dominare.
Bibl. Corsini, n. 443.

254 PAUL in. [BOOK in.

tunes have declined from the time he took posses-
sion of Milan, It would be unadvisable for him to
give it back to Francis I., whose rapacity it would
only serve to stimulate ; but neither on the other
hand ought he to retain it*. The suspicion that
he sought to gain possession of foreign countries
was the sole cause of his having enemies. If he
destroyed this suspicion, if he surrendered Milan
into the possession of a duke of its own, Francis I.
would find no more adherents ; while he, on the con-
trary, the emperor, would have Germany and Italy
on his side, would carry his standard into the re-
motest regions, and would associate his name (such
is the expression) with immortality. "

If then the emperor was neither to surrender
Milan to the French, nor to retain possession of it
himself, to whom should he cede it? The pope
thought it a good solution of the problem, to give it
to his grandson, the son-in-law of the emperor, —
a scheme he had already hinted at on former oc-
casions. At a fresh meeting which he had with
the emperor in the year 1543 at Busseto, he for-
mally proposed it. Very serious negociations were
carried on to that effect and the pope cherished the
liveliest hopes of success. The governor of Milan,
the raarchese di Vasto, whom he had gained over,

* ee Se la M. V. dello State di Milano le usasse cortesia, non
tanto si spegnerebbe quanto si accenderebbe la sete sua ; si che
e meglio di armarsi di quel Ducato contra di lui. — V. M. ha da
esser certa, che, non per affettioae die altri abbia a queeto Re,
ma per iuteresse particolare, e la Geraania e T Italia, sinche da
tal sospetto non saranno liberate, sono per sostentare ad ogni lor
potere la potentia. di Francia."

§ i.] PAUL in. 255

being of a somewhat credulous and ostentatious
temper, one day presented himself with a well-pre-
pared speech, as ahout to conduct Margaret, his
future sovereign lady, to Milan. According to the
information I have been able to collect, it appears
that the negociation was broken off in consequence
of some exorbitant demands of the pope*. It is
however hard to believe that the emperor could be
induced by any considerations, to yield up to
foreign influence a territory so important from its
size and situation.

For even without this accession of power, the
position which the house of Farnese had reached
was full of danger to him. Of the Italian provinces
which Charles governed, or over which he had in-
fluence, there was not one in which the existing
government had not been founded by force, or at
least which did not stand in need of the support of
force. On all sides, in Milan, as well as in Naples,

* Pallavicini has directly denied these transactions. From
what Muratori alleges also, (Annali d'ltalia, x. 11. 51.) there
is perhaps room for doubt. He relies oa historians who at all
events could have written on hearsay only. But a letter from
Girolamo Guicciardini to Cosmo Medici, Cremona, 26 Giug-
no, 1543, in the Archivio Mediceo at Florence, is decisive,
Granvella has himself spoken of it. '* S. Ma. mostrava non esser
aliena, quando per la parte del papa fussino adempiute le larghe
offerte eran state proferte dal duca di Castro sin a Genova." I do
not know, what these offers might have been, but they were too
strong for the pope. According to Gosselini, secretary to Fer-
rante Gonzaga, the emperor feared on his departure, " che in vol-
gendo egli le spalle (i Farnesi) non pensassero ad occuparlo :"
(Vita di Don Ferrando, p. iv.) An unprinted Neapolitan Life of
Vasto, which is to be found in the Chigi Library at Rome, con-
tains very circumstantial and amusing details on this subject.

256 PAUL in* [BOOK in.

Florence, Genoa, and Siena, there were malcon-
tents belonging to defeated parties ; Rome and Ve-
nice were full of emigrants. The Farnesi were not
restrained by their near connection with the empe-
ror from allying themselves with these parties,
which, though subdued, were still formidable from
the consideration of their chiefs, their wealth and
followers. At the head of the conquerors stood
the emperor; the conquered sought refuge with
the pope. Innumerable secret ties bound them to
each other ; they were always visibly or invisibly
connected with France, and were constantly en-
gaged in new plots and enterprizes. Sometimes
these related to Siena, sometimes to Genoa, some-
times to Lucca, The pope made incessant attempts
to obtain a footing in Florence, but in the young
duke Cosmo he encountered precisely the man
fitted to withstand him. Cosmo expresses himself
on this subject with undisguised confidence in his
own powers. " The pope," says he, "who has
been successful in so many undertakings, has
now no more eager wish than to accomplish some-
thing in Florence, and to alienate this city from
the emperor ; but this wish will lead him into the

pit*."

In a certain view, the emperor and the pope still
stood opposed to each other as chiefs of rival factions.
Though the emperor had married his daughter to

* A Letter of Cosmo, found in the Archivio Mediceo : — like-
wise written in tlie year 1537. " Al papa non e restate altra
voglia in questo mondo se non disporre di questo stato e leyarlo
clalla divotione dell* imperatore," Sac.

§ i.] PAUL in. 257

one of the pope's family, he had done so only that
he might hold him in check, in order, as he himself
says, to maintain the existing state of things in
Italy. The pope, on the other hand, sought to turn
his alliance with the emperor to his own advantage.
He wished to make both the protection of the em*
peror, and the assistance of that sovereign's enemies,
subservient to the exaltation of his family. The
parties of Guelf and Ghibelline still subsisted in
fact, though not in name, the latter still adhering to
the emperor, the former to the pope.

Spite of all these appearances, in the year 1545,
we find the two leaders again on a footing of amity.
Margaret was pregnant; and the prospect of shortly
numbering a descendent of the emperor in his own
family, turned the current of Farnese's feelings once
more in favour of Charles V. Cardinal Alessandro
Farnese, charged by Paul with one of the most im-
portant missions he had ever sent, repaired to the
emperor's court at Worms, The cardinal once
more succeeded in appeasing the displeasure of the
emperor. He sought to justify himself and his
brothers from some of the charges that had been
brought against them, craved pardon with regard to
others, and promised that in future they would all
be obedient servants and sons of his majesty. The
emperor replied, that on those conditions he would
treat them as his own children.

They then proceeded to the discussion of weighty
matters. They consulted as to the war against the
protestants, and agreed that the council should be
immediately convened. In case the emperor should

VOL. i. s

258 PAUL in. [BOOK in.

determine to take up arms against the protestants,
the pope bound himself to support him with all his
power and with all his resources, nay " to sell his
crown, if necessary*.'*

The council was in fact opened in that same year ;
a circumstance of which we here find the first sa-
tisfactory explanation.

In the year 1546 war too broke out. The pope
and the emperor united to destroy the league of
Smalcalde, which was not much less injurious to
the temporal power of the latter, than to the spi-
ritual authority of the former. The pope furnished
money and troops.

The design of the emperor was, to unite the ter-
ror of arms with the persuasiveness of negociation.
While he chastised the disobedience of the pro-
testants, the council was to allay religious dif-
ferences, and, above all, to introduce such reforms
as might render it in some sort possible for them
to submit.

The war advanced with unexpected success. At
first, the situation of Charles might have been
esteemed desperate, but in the most perilous cir-

* Granvella himself affords us authentic information as to the
mission : Dispactio di Monsignor di Cortona al Duca di Fiorenza,
Vonnatia, 29 Maggio, 1545: (Granvella) " Mi concluse in som-
ma ch'el cardinale eravenuto per giustificaxsid'alcune calum-
nie, e supplica S. M. ohe quando non potesse interaznente discol-
pare 1'attioni passate diN10. Signore sue e di sua casa, ella si
degnasse rimetterle e non ne tener conto. — Expose di piu, in
caso che 3. M. si risolvesse di sbattere per via d* arme, perche per
giustitia non si vedeva quasi modo alcuno, li Luterani, S» BeatiU
tudine concorrerik con ogni somma di denari*"

$ !•] PAUL III. 259

cumstances he maintained his firmness. In the au-
tumn of 1 546 he saw the whole of upper Germany
in his hands ; cities and princes rivalled each other
in the eagerness with which they tendered their al-
legiance. The moment seemed arrived in which
the protestant party in Germany might he crushed,
and the whole north be restored to Catholicism.

In this crisis what was the conduct of the pope ?

He recalled his troops from the imperial army,
and removed the council, now on the point of ful-
filling its end and exercising its pacificatory power,
from Trent, where it had met at the request of the
Germans, to Bologna, the second city of his own
states. The pretext for this change was, that some
contagious disease had hroken out at Trent.

His motives were not doubtful. The political
tendencies of the papacy were once more in conflict
with the ecclesiastical. That the whole of Germany
should be conquered by, and really subject to the
emperor, could never be agreeable to him. His
deep and subtle calculations had led him to expect
a far different result. He had, perhaps, believed
that the emperor would succeed in some things ad-
vantageous to the catholic church ; but at the same
time, as he himself acknowledges*, he had no
doubt that he should see him encounter innumer-
able difficulties, and fall into perplexities, which

* Charles, <?. de Guise, au Roy, 31 Oct., 1547, (Ribier ii.
p. 75.) ; after an audience of the pope, in which Paul explains the
motives which had led him to take part in the Genr.an war : " Aus&i
& dire franchement qu'il estoit bien xnieux de 1'empescher (1'em-
pereur) en un lieu, dont il pensait, qu* aisement il ne riendrait &
bout,"

82

260 PAUL in. [BOOK in.

would leave Mm, the pope, more complete liberty to
pursue his own aims. But fortune mocked at his
schemes. He had now to fear— and France called
his attention to the fact— that this overwhelming
power would re-act upon Italy, and would soon
manifest itself but too clearly to him, both in spi-
ritual and temporal affairs. But, independent of
this, his anxieties concerning the council were in-
creased. It had long oppressed him*, and he had
already considered of means of dissolving it ; but
now some of the prelates of the imperial party,
made more and more daring by victory, ventured
on measures of remarkable audacity. The Spanish
bishops brought forward certain articles, under the
name of censura, the collective tendency of which
was to diminish the consideration of the pope. The
reformation, always so much dreaded at Rome,
seemed as if it could no longer be delayed.

It sounds strangely, but nothing is more true : —
at the moment when the whole of northern Ger-
many trembled at the impending restoration of the
papal power, the pope felt himself an ally of the
protestants. He betrayed his joy at the progress
of elector John Frederic against duke Maurice,
and desired nothing more earnestly than that the
former might be able to hold out against the em-
peror. He sent a message to Francis L, who was
already trying to unite all the world in a league
against Charles, "to support those who were not

* Du Mortier, au Roy, 26 Avril 1547 : " Je vous asseure, Sire,
que pendant il estoit & Trente, c'estoit une charge qui le pressoit
fort."

$i.] PAUL m. 261

yet beaten*." It seemed to him once more pro-
bable that the emperor would encounter obstacles,
and would have business on his hands, for a long
time to come. " He thinks so," says the French
minister, " because he wishes it."

But he deceived himself as before. The fortune
of the emperor baffled all his calculations. Charles
was victorious at Miihlberg, and led away captive
the two chiefs of the protestant party. He was
now free to direct his attention more closely than
ever to Italy.

The pope's behaviour had, as we may imagine,
profoundly irritated Charles. He saw through it
completely, " The intention of his holiness from
the beginning has been/' writes he to his ambassa-
dor, " to entangle us in this undertaking, and then
to desert usf*"

The withdrawal of the pope's troops was not very
important. Ill-paid, and therefore disorderly and

*Le mfane, au m&ne: Ribier, i. 637. S. S. — " a entendu que,
le due de Sase se trouve fort, dont elle a tel contentement
comme celuy qui estime le commun ennemy estre par ces moyens
retenud'ex&uter ses entreprises, et connoist-on bien qui'il&e-
roit utile sous-main d'entretenir ceux qui luy insistent, disant,
que vous ne s^auriez faire dSpense plus utile."

t Copia de la Carta que S. M. scrivio a Don Diego de Mendc^a,
a 1 1 de Hebrero, 1547, aos : " Quanta mas yva el dicho (prospero
suceso) adelante, mas nos confirmavamos en creher que fuese
verdad lo que antes se havia savido de la intention y indinacion
de S.S. y lo que se dezia (ea) que su fin havia eido por emba-
ra^ar nos en lo que estavamos y dexamos en eUo con sus fines,
desinos y platicas, pero que, aunque pesasse a S. S. y a otros,
esperavamos con la ayuda de N. S*, aunque sin la de 8. S >
guiar esta impxesa a buen camino."

262 PAUL m. [BOOK in.

ill-disciplined, they had never been worth much.
But the transfer of the council was of the greatest
moment. It is strange how, in this instance also,
the discord between the papacy and the empire,
originating in the political position of the former,
came in aid of the protestants. Means were now
forthcoming to compel them to submit to the coun-
cil ; but as there was a rupture in the council itself
(for the imperial bishops remained in Trent) ; as it
was thus incapacitated from passing any decree
universally binding, nobody could be constrained
to give in his adhesion.

The emperor was compelled to see the most essen-
tial part of his plan wrecked by the desertion of his
ally. He not only continually urged the re-esta-
blishment of the council at Trent, but declared
"that he would go to Rome, and hold a council
there himself."

Paul III. lost no time in determining the part he
had to take. " The emperor is mighty," said he,
"but we too are not wholly powerless or friend-
less." The long-promised alliance with France was
now brought about by the betrothal of Orazio Far-
nese with the natural daughter of Henry IL No
means were left untried to gain over the Venetians
immediately to a general league. All the exiles of
the several states were in motion. Precisely at the
opportune moment, troubles broke out in Naples ;
a Neapolitan deputy appeared to solicit the protec-
tion of the pope for his vassals in that state, and
there were cardinals who advised him to grant it.

§ i.] PAUL in. 263

The Italian factions were once more confronted.
Their attitude was the more decidedly hostile, since
their respective leaders were now at open variance.
On the one side, were the governors of Milan and
Naples, the Medici in Florence, the Dorias in Genoa.
Don Diego Mendoza, the imperial envoy in Rome,
may be regarded as forming the centre of this party,
which had still a great Ghibelline following, all over
the country. On the other, were the pope and the
Farnesi, the emigrants and the mal-contents, a
newly-formed Orsini party, and the adherents of
France. With the former, was that part of the
council remaining in Trent ; with the latter, the
part which had gone to Bologna.

The hatred which these parties cherished against
each other suddenly broke out in an act of violence.

The pope had taken advantage of his intimacy
with the emperor, to grant Parma and Piacenza, as
if they were a fief of the holy see, to his son, Pier-
Luigi. The times were over when he could take a
step like that, with the audacious recklessness of an
Alexander or a Leo ; he therefore restored Came-
rino andNepi, as an indemnification to the church.
Reckoning the expense caused by the guarding
those frontier towns, the interest of this, which his
son would pay, and the revenues of the places given
up in compensation, he endeavoured to prove that
the treasury of the church suffered no injury ; but
it was only while talking to each of the cardinals
separately that he was able to persuade them, nor
even so, was he successful with them all. Some

264 PAUL ni. [BOOK in.

loudly remonstrated; others designedly neglected to
attend the consistory before which the affair was
brought. Caraffa was seen to pay a solemn visit to
the seven churches on that day*. The emperor
too was unfavourable to the project ; if the duchy
was to be transferred at all, he would have wished
that it should pass into the hands of his son-in-law
Ottavio, to whom Camerino likewise belongedf .
He suffered the transfer to take place, because the
friendship of the pope was just then necessary to
him, but he never liked it : he knew Pier-Luigi far
too well. The pope's son just then held in his hand
all the threads of the secret ties of the Italian op-
position. It was universally believed that he was
privy to the conspiracy of Fiesco in Genoa] tbat he
had helped the powerful chief of the Florentine
exiles, Pietro Strozzi, at his utmost need, to escape
across the Po, after his unsuccessful attack on Milan,
and that he was the sole instrument of his preserv-
ation. It was suspected that he himself had de-
signs upon Milan J.

One day the pope, who still believed the stars to be
propitious, and flattered himself that he had power
to charm to rest all the storms that bad threatened

* Bromato : Vita di Paolo IV., ii. 222.

f The negociatioas In the matter are evident from the Letter
of Mendoza, dated 29th November, 1547. The pope says, " he
had invested Pietro Lnigi, hecause the cardinals had preferred
it :" and, " haviendo de vivir tampocoa como mostrava su indis-
posicion."

J Gosselini: Vita di Ferr. Gonzaga, p. 20. Segni : Storie
Florentine, p. 292.

§ i.] PAUL in. 265

him, appeared unusually cheerful at the audience.
He recounted the felicities of his life, and compared
himself in this respect with the emperor Tiberius.
On that very day, his son, the possessor of all his
acquisitions, the heir of his prosperity, was fallen
upon by the conspirators at Piacenza and assassin-
ated.*

The Ghibellines of Piacenza, offended and irri-
tated by the tyranny of the duke, who was one of
the most despotic rulers of the age, and whose go-
vernment was peculiarly oppressive to the nobility,
were the perpetrators of the deed; but we have no
reason to question the existence of grounds for thebe-
lief then universally entertained, that Ferrante Gon-
zaga, the governor of Milan,had a hand in the affairf.
Gonzaga's biographer, then his confidential private
secretary, affirms that the design was only to take
Farnese prisoner, and not to kill hiinj. I find in
some manuscripts still more intelligible hints that
the emperor himself was privy to this atrocious de-
sign ; but I hesitate to give credit to this without
further evidence. At all events the imperial troops
hastened to take possession of Piacenza, and to as-

* Mendoca, al Emperador, 18 Sept., 1547 : " Ga&to la mayor
parte del tiempo (on that day) en contar BUS felicidades y com*
pararse a Tiberio imperador."

f "Compertum habemus Ferdinanduxn esse autorem," said the
pope in the consistory : Extrait du Consistoire term par N. S.
Pere, in a Despatch from Morvillier, Venise, 7 Sept, 1547 : Hi-
bier, ii. 61.

J Gosselini, p. 45 : " Ne rimperatore n§ D. Fernando, come di
natma magnanimi, consentirono mai alia morte del duca Pier
Luigi Farnese, anzi fecero ogni opera di salvarlo, comandando in
speciality a conghirati che vivo il tenessero."

266 PAUL in. [BOOK in.

sert the claim of the empire to that city. This was
in some sort a retaliation on the pope for his deser-
tion in the war of Smalcalde.

The state of things which now arose is without a
parallel.

Some affected to know that cardinal Alessandro
Farnese had said, that he could extricate himself
from his difficulties only by the death of certain of
the imperial ministers ; that he could not get rid
of them hy force, and must have recourse to strata-
gem. While they, in consequence of this warning,
sought to protect themselves from poison, two or
three Corsicanbravoes, who were arrested at Milan,
were induced to make confession, I know not whe-
ther true or false, that they were hired by the pope's
party to assassinate Ferrante Gonzaga. At all
events, Gonzaga was exasperated afresh. He must,
he said, protect his own life as he could ; nothing
remained to him but to remove out of the way two
or three of his enemies by his own hand or that
of another*. Mendoza is of opinion that there
was a design at that time to murder all the Span-
iards in Borne ; that the people were to be secretly
incited to this ; and the deed, wHen done, to be ex-
cused on the ground of their blind and uncontrolable

fury.

A reconciliation was not to bethought of. There
had been a desire to employ the emperor's daugh-
ter as mediatrix. But she had never liked the

* Mendoga al Emp. : " Don Hernando procurara de asegurar su
vida come mejor pudiere, hcchando a parte dos o tres di estos o
por su mano o por mono de otros*"

§ i.] PAUL in. 267

Farnese family; she despised her youthful hus-
band, and betrayed his bad qualities without the
least reserve to the ambassadors: she said, she had
rather cut off her child's head, than ask her father
any thing that could displease him.

Mendoza's correspondence with his court lies
before me. It would not be easy to find any thing
approaching to these letters for deep-rooted hate,
which both endeavoured to conceal, and which each
perceived in the other. There is in them a feeling
of haughty superiority saturated with bitterness ; of
contempt, yet ever on its guard ; of distrust, such
as men feel towards a notorious criminal.

If the pope sought refuge and succour in this pos-
ture of things, he could find it in France alone.
In fact we find him sometimes discussing the rela-
tion of the Roman see to France, for hours, in
the presence of the French ambassador and cardi-
nals Guise and Farnese. He said he had read in
old books, and had heard from others when he was
cardinal, and since he was pope he had found from
experience, that the holy see was always power-
ful and prosperous when in alliance with France,
and on the contrary, fell into adversity as soon as
this was broken off; that he could not forgive
Leo X. nor his own predecessor Clement — he could
not forgive himself — for ever having shewed favour
to the emperor ; that now, at all events, he was re-
solved to unite himself for ever with France. He
hoped to live long enough to leave the papal chair
devotedly attached to the king of France; he
would endeavour to make him the greatest prince

268 PAUL in. [BOOK in.

in the world, and his own house should connect
itself with him by indissoluble ties*.

His design was to conclude with France, Switzer-
land and Venice, an alliance, which though at first
only defensive, was, by his own confession, to open
the door to an offensivef alliance. The French
calculated that their friends united would secure to
them as large a territory in Italy, as that possessed
by the emperor, and the whole Orsini party was ready
once more to devote property and life to the king.
The Farnesi thought that in the Milanese territory
they could at least reckon on Cremona and Pavia;
while the Neapolitan emigrants promised to bring
15,000 men into the field, and immediately to de-
liver up Aversa and Naples. The pope entered
with eagerness into all these projects. He commu-
nicated to the French ambassador the first intelli-
gence of a design upon Genoa. He would have
made no objection to a treaty with the Grand Sig-
nior or the dey of Algiers for the sake of getting
possession of Naples. Edward VI. had just ascend-
ed the throne of England, and the government of
that country was decidedly protestant, nevertheless
the pope advised Henry II. to make peace with

* Guise, au Roy, 31 Oct., 1547: Ribier, ii. 75.

t Guise, au "Roy, 11 Nov., 1547 : Ribier, ii. 81 : " Sire, il semble
au pape a ce qufl m* a dit qu'il doit commencer a vous faire de-
claration de son amitie* par vous presenter luy et toute sa maison :
et pour ce qu*ils n'auraient puissance devous faire service ny vous
aider a offenser, si vous premierement vous ne les aidez & def en-
tire, il luy a semble devoir commencer par la ligne defensive, la-
quelle il dit estre la vraye porte de Inoffensive." The whole of the
correspondence which follows, belongs to this place,

§ i.] PAUL in. 269

England, " in order," as he says, "to be able to
carry into effect otlier views for the good of Christ-
endom *."

Thus violent was the pope's hostility to the em-
peror, thus intimate his connexion with the Rench,
thus vast were the views in which he indulged : and
yet he never completed his treaty; he never took
the final step.

The Venetians were amazed. " The pope/' said
they, " is attacked in his dignity, injured in his
nearest connexions, robbed of the fairest possession
of his house ; he ought to catch at every alliance,
on any terms : and yet after so many injuries and
insults he still hesitates and wavers."

Generally speaking, offences drive men to extreme
resolutions ; there are however some who deliberate
even when they are most deeply offended; not because
the feeling of revenge is less strong in them than in
others, but because the consciousness of the superi-
ority of the offending party is still stronger than their
vengeance: the prudence which contemplates future
and contingent events, preponderates in them over
every other sentiment ; great misfortunes do not
exasperate them, but render them spiritless, feeble
and irresolute.

* Francois de Rohan, auRoy, 24 F£vrier, 1548 : Ribier,ii. 117:
" S.S. m'a command^ de vous faire entendre et conseiller de sa
part, de regarder les moyens que vous pouvez tenir, pour vous
mettre en pals pour quelque temps avee les Anglais, afin que
n'estant en tant d'endroits empesch£ vous puissiez plus facilement
ex£cuter vos de$seins et entreprises pour le bien public de la
ChrestienteY*

270 PAUL in. [BOOK in.

The emperor was too powerful to have any seri-
ous cause to fear the Fames! ; he went on his way
without taking further heed of them. He solemnly
protested against the sittings of the council in Bo-
logna, and declared beforehand all the acts which
might be passed there null and void. In the year
1548 he published the Interim in Germany* Not-
withstanding the pope thought it intolerable that
the emperor should prescribe a standard of faith,
notwithstanding his bitter complaints that the pro*
perty of the church should be left in the hands of its
present possessors, (besides which cardinal Farnese
said that he could point out seven or eight heresies
in this document,)* the emperor was not discon-
certed.

Nor did he tarn one hair's breadth from ^ his
course in the affair of Piacenza. The pope de-
manded the immediate restitution of that city ;
the emperor maintained that it belonged of right
to the empire. The pope appealed to the treaty
of 1521, in which it was guaranteed to the Ro-
man see ; the emperor insisted on the word, investi-
ture, by which the empire had asserted its sovereign
rights ; the pope replied, that in this case the
word was not used in the strict feudal sense ; the
emperor made no farther rejoinder; he only de-

* " Hazer intender a V.M. como en el Interim ay 7 o 8 heregias :"
" Mendo^a, 10 Juni, 1548. Amongst the Lettere del Commen-
datore Annibal Caro scritte al nome del C1. Farnese, which are
otherwise written with great caution, we find however, i. 65, a
letter to the cardinal Sfondrato, relating to the Interim, in which
it is said, " the emperor has scandalized all Christendom ; he
might have undertaken something hetter."

§1.] PAUL III. 271

clared that his conscience did not permit him to
give up Piacenza*.

The pope would gladly have flown to arms, con-
cluded a treaty with France and set his party in
motion ; (and indeed the intrigues of his adherents
were perceived in Naples, Genoa, Siena, Piacenza,
and even in Orbitello) ; — gladly would he have re-
venged himself by any unexpected blow: but on
the other hand, the superior power of the emperor
was extremely formidable to him, and above all,
the influence of that monarch in spiritual affairs.
Paul took care that a council should be called which
should declare itself entirely hostile to Charles,
and should even proceed to depose him. Mendoza
asserts that the attempted assassination of Ferrante
Gonzaga by the Corsicans had inspired him with
terror.

Be this as it may, it is certain that he restrained
himself and concealed his rage. The Farnesi were
indeed not sorry that the emperor took possession
of Siena ; they hoped he would cede it to them, as a
compensation for their losses, and indulged in the
most extravagant propositions regarding it. "If
the emperor consents to this," said they to Men-
doza, " the pope must transfer the council back
again to Trent, and must not only conduct matters
there according to the wishes of the emperor, (for

* Lettere del Cardinal Farnese scritte al Vescovo di Fano, Nuntio
all* Imperatore Carlo : InfomationlPolitiche, xlx. : and certain In-
structions of the pope's and Farnese's, Ib. xil. ; — throw light upon
these negociations, I can only touch upon the most important
points.

272 PAUL in. [BOOK in.

example, solemnly recognize his right to Burgundy,)
but proclaim Charles V, his successor to the papal
chair. " For," added they, " Germany has a cold
climate, Italy a warm one, and warm countries are
the most salutary for the gout which the emperor
suffers from*." I will not maintain that they were
in earnest, for the old pope lived in the firm belief
that the emperor would die before him, but it is
clear on what dubious paths, how widely departing
from the common order of things, their policy had
ventured.

Their movements, their negociations with the
emperor, did not escape the French. We have a
letter of the constable Montmorency, breathing
the greatest indignation, in which he talks undis-
guisedly of " hypocrisies, lies, and wicked actions,
which were practised in Borne against the king of
Francef."

Lastly, with a view to do something, and to get
possession of at least one firm point in these strug-
gles, the pope determined, since the right to Piacen-
za was contested, not as regarded his family alone,
but the church itself, to restore that duchy imme-
diately to the holy see. It was the first time that
he did any thing to prejudice the interests of his

* The cardinal Qambara made this proposal to Mendoza, at a
secret meeting in a church. He said at least, " que havia scripto
al papa algo desto y DO lo havia tornado mal."

t Le Connestable, au Roy, 1 Sept., 1548: (Ribier, iu 155.) :
" Le pape avec ses ministres vous ont jusques-icy us£ de toutes
dissimulations, lesquelles ils ont depuis quelque temps voulu cou-
Yiir de pur mensonge, pour en former une vraye meschancet£f
puisqu'il faut qne je 1'appelle ainsi."

§ i.] PAUL ni. 273

grandsons. He had no doubt that they would
readily acquiesce, for he Imagined that he had abso-
lute authority over them, and had always dwelt with
approbation and pleasure on their unalterable obe-
dience. But he had hitherto invariably been the
defender of their obvious interests, whereas he now
desired to effect a measure which ran counter to
these*. At first they sought to work upon him by
indirect means. They caused it to be represented
to him that the day which he had fixed for the con-
sistory was unlucky, being St. Roque's day ; that
the exchange for Camerino, which he meant to give
them back instead of Piacenza, would be extremely
disadvantageous to the church ; they retorted upon
him the arguments which he had formerly used
but they could only retard, not prevent, the execu-
tion of his design ; Camillo Orsino, the governor
of Parma, was at length instructed by Paul III. to
hold that city in the name of the church, and to
deliver it up to no one soever. Upon this declara-
tion, which left no doubt remaining, the Farnesi
contained themselves no longer ; on no considera-
tion would they suffer themselves to be despoiled of
a principality which placed them on a level with
the independent princes of Italy. Ottavio made an
attempt to get Parma into his hands, by force or
fraud, in spite of the pope. This, Camillo had
sufficient address and decision to defeat. But what
must have been the feelings of Paul III. when he
learned it I It was reserved for him. in his old age,

*Dandolo also asserts Ms positive determination: "S. S. era
al tutto volta a restituir Parma alia chiesa."
VOL. I, T

274 PAUL in. [BOOK m,

to see his grandsons, whom he had loved with such
partial affection, for whose sake he had drawn upon
himself the reproaches of the world, now, at the close
of his life, rise up in rehellion against him. Nor
did the failure of his enterprise deter Ottavio from
his purpose. He wrote plainly to the pope, that if
Parma was not amicably restored to him he would
make peace with Ferrante Gonzaga, and endeavour
to regain possession of it with the aid of the impe-
rial arms ; and, in fact, his negociations with this
mortal enemy of his house were already so far ad-
vanced, that a courier had gone to the emperor with
definite proposals*. The pope loudly complained
that he was betrayed by his own family, that their
schemes could lead to nothing but his death. He was
most deeply wounded by a report which was raised
that he was privy to Ottavio's undertakings, and had
a share in them very much at variance with his pro-
fessions. He told cardinal Este that never in his
whole life had any thing given him so much pain, —
not even the death of Pier-Luigi, — not even the in-
vesting of Piacenza; but that he would not leave
the world in doubt as to his real sentiments f „ His
only comfort was the conviction that at least car-
dinal Alessandro Farnese was innocent and devoted
to him. By degrees he discovered that he too, in
whom he reposed entire confidence, to whose

* Gosselini, Vita di Ferr. Gonzaga, p. 65.

t Hippolyt, Cardinal de Ferrare, an Roy, 22 Oct , 1549 ; Bi-
bier, ii. 248 : " S, S. m' a asseurg n'aToir en sa vie en chose,
dent elle ait teat receu d'emray, pour 1'opinion qu' die craint,
qu'on veuille prendre que cecy ait est£ de son cousentemeat,"

§ I.] PAUL III. 275

hands he had committed all the affairs of his go-
vernment, was but too much implicated in what
was going on. This discovery broke his heart. On
the day of All Souls, (2nd of Nov., 1549,) in the
bitterness of his grief, he communicated it to the
Venetian ambassador. On the following day he
went to his vineyard on Monte Cavallo, hoping to
find some relief from troubled thoughts ; but
change of place brought him no repose. He sent for
cardinal Alessandro ; one word led to another, till
the pope fell into so violent a rage, that he snatch-
ed his nephew's cap out of his hand and threw it
on the ground*. The court already entertained
suspicions that a change was at hand, and it was
universally believed that the pope would remove the
cardinal from the administration. But the event
turned out otherwise. This violent agitation, at
.he advanced age of eighty-three, proved fatal to
Paul himself. He fell ill immediately, and, after a
ew days, (on the 10th of Nov., 1549,) expired.—
Thepeople crowded to kiss his foot. Hewas as much
>eloved as his grandsons were hated ; and the cir-

* Dandolo : " II Rev™. Parnese si risolse di non voler che
asa sua restasse priva di Roma e se ne messe alia forte. — S. S.
ccortasi di questa contraoperatione del Rev040. Farnese me la
oznunico il di de' morti, in gran parte con grandissima amaritu-
ine et il dl dietro la mattina per tempo se ne ando alia sua vigna
i Monte Cavallo per cercar transtullo, dove si incoleru per tal
msa con esso Revmo. Farnese.— Gli fu trovato tutto 1'interiore
ettiasimo, d* haver a viver ancor qualche anno, se non che nel
are tregoccie di sangue agghiaciato, (which is indeed an error)
iudicati dal moto della colera."

T2

276 JULIUS in. [BOOK in.

cumstances of his death, caused by those who had
been the objects of his greatest kindness and soli-
citude, excited universal pity.

Paul IDE. was a man fall of talent, intelligence,
and penetrating sagacity ; the station he occupied
was the highest that human ambition could aspire
to : — but how feeble and insignificant appears the
most powerful of mortals when opposed to the re-
sistless course of events !

His most soaring flights of imagination are
bounded by the span of time which is present to his
view ; his loftiest aspirations are checked and over-
mastered by the struggles of the moment, which
press upon him with all the weight of eternity. —
Above all, he is trammelled by those private rela-
tions which give him constant occupation, which fill
his days, sometimes perhaps with satisfaction, but
more frequently with disappointment and sorrow,
and wear him out with anxiety and care. He dies ;
while the eternal destinies of the world advance to
their accomplishment.

2. JULIUS ni.

During the conclave, five or six cardinals were
once standing round the altar of the chapel, dis-
coursing of the difficulty there was in finding a
pope. " Choose me," said cardinal Monte, " and
the day after I will make you my companions and
favourites out of the whole college of cardinals." —

§ ii.] JULIUS in. 277

" Shall we really elect him ?" said another, Sfon-
drato, when they had separated*.

As Monte was reckoned turbulent and irascible,
he had but little hope, and no one would have ven-
tured the smallest bet on his chance. Neverthe-
less, it fell out, that he was elected, on the 7th of
February, 1550. In memory of Julius II., whose
chamberlain he had been, he took the name of Ju-
lius III.

There was an expression of joy on every face in
the imperial court when this election, to which duke
Cosmo had mainly contributed, was made known.
The occupation of the Roman chair by a pope on
whose devotion to his interests he could calculate
was one step to that pinnacle of prosperity and
power on which the emperor then stood. Public af-
fairs now seemed likely to take another course- The
emperor still earnestly desired that the council
should be re-assembled in Trent ; he still hoped to
force the protestants to attend it and to submit
themselves to his authority. The pope willingly
assented to this proposition. Although he pointed
out tbe difficulties inherent in the affair, he was
extremely anxious that this caution might not be
mistaken for a subterfuge -, he was unwearied in his
protestations that this was not the case, that he
had acted all his life long without dissimulation,
and would continue so to act ; in fact, he fixed the

* Dandolo, Relatione, 3551 :" Questo Revmo. Di Monte ae ben
subito in consideratione di ogn' uno, ma all* incontro ogn' uno
parlava tanto della sua colera e subitezza che ne passb mai che di
pochissima scoxomessa."

278 JULIUS in, [BOOK in.

renewal of the council of Trent for the spring of
1551, -with a declaration that he bound himself by
no agreements or conditions*.

But the favourable dispositions of the pope were
far from being all that was required.

Ottavio Farnese had recovered Parma by a de-
cree of the cardinals in conclave. This had not
been opposed by the emperor ; for a time negotia-
tions had been carried on between them, and
hopes were entertained of the restoration of a good
understanding. The emperor, however, would not
consent to evacuate Piacenza also, and kept pos-
session even of the places which Gonzaga had oc-
cupied in the territory of Parma ; so that Ottavio
was compelled constantly to maintain a warlike
attitude f.

No real confidence could possibly subsist be-
tween two persons who had inflicted so many inju-
ries on each other. It is true that the death of
Paul III. had deprived his grandsons of a powerful
support; but it had also freed them from an irksome
constraint. They were no longer obliged to pay any
regard to the interests of the state, or to those of
the church ; they were free to take their own mea-
sures with exclusive regard to their own advantage.
We find Ottavio constantly filled with the bitterest
hate. He complains, that his enemies are seeking

* Lettere del Nunzio Pighino, 12 e 15 Ag., 1550 : Infc Polit.
xix.

t Gosselinl, Vita di Ferr. Gonzaga, and the justification of
Gonzaara, In the third book, from the accusation, that he had been
the cause of the war, explain authentically this turn of things.

§ ii.] JULIUS in. 279

to wrest Parma from him, and even to get rid of
him, but he adds, — " they shall succeed neither in
the one nor the other *."

In this disposition of mind, he turned to Henry
II. ; who gladly listened to his proposals.

Italy and Germany were filled with malcontents.
What the emperor had already done, — what it was
expected that he would do, — his religious and his
political position, — all had raised up innumerable
enemies.- Henry II. determined to adopt the anti-
Austrian policy of his father. He abandoned the
war with England, concluded a treaty with Ot-
tavio, took the garrison of Parma into his pay,
and shortly after marched French troops into Mi-
randola. The French flag soon floated in the heart
of Italy.

In this new complication of things, Julius IIL
adhered steadily to the emperor. He thought it
insufferable, — " that a wretched worm, Ottavio Far-
nese, should set himself up against both an empe-
ror and a pope." " Our will is," he writes to his
nuntio, " to embark in the same boat with his ma-
jesty, and to commit ourselves to the same for-
tunes ; we leave it to him, who has the wisdom
and the power, to determine our coursef." The
emperor declared himself in favour of immediate and

* Lettere delli Signori Farnesiani per lo negotio di Parma :
Informatt. Pol. xix. The above is from a letter of Ottavio to
Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, Parma, 24tli March, 1551.

f Julius Papa III. Mann propria. Instruttione per voi Mon-
signor d'Imola con I'lmperatore. I/Ultimo di Marzo : Informatt.
Polit. xii. He also gives the motive of this close union ; " Non

280 JULIUS in. [BOOK in.

forcible measures for getting rid of the French and
their adherents. The united papal and imperial
troops soon took the field, an important fortress
in. the Parmeggiano fell into their hands, they laid
waste the whole country and completely surround-
ed Mirandola.

These petty hostilities however were wholly insuf-
ficient to check the movement which had indeed ori-
ginated here, but had since agitated all Europe. On
even' frontier where the territories of France and of
the empire met, by land and by sea, war had broken
out. The German protestants, when at length
they allied themselves with the French, threw
into the scale a very different weight from that of the
Italians. There followed the most determined attack
that Charles had ever sustained. The French ap-
peared on theRhine and the elector Maurice inTyrol.
The veteran conqueror, — who had posted himself
on the mountain region between Italy and Germany,
in order to hold both in allegiance, — saw himself sud-
denly perilled, conquered, and well-nigh captive.

This immediately re-acted on the affairs of Italy.
" Never could we have believed," said the pope,
" that God would so visit us*." He was compelled
to accede to a truce with his enemies, in April,

1552.

There are sometimes strokes of ill fortune, which
are not wholly unwelcome to a man. They put an

per affetto alcuno liumano, ma perche vedemo la causa nostra
esse con S. Ma. Cesarea in tutti 11 affari e massimamente in
quello della rdigione."
* Al 01. Crcscentao, 13th April, 1552.

§ u.] JULIUS in. 281

end to a course of action, -which had already begun
to be at variance with his inclinations ; and afford a
lawful ground, or an obvious excuse, for the determ-
ination to desist from it.

It almost appears as if the reverse that had
befallen the pope, was of this nature. He had be-
held with repugnance his states filled with troops
and his treasury emptied, and he thought he had
sometimes reason to complain of the imperial mi-
nisters*. The council too was become a cause of
great anxiety to him* From the time the German
deputies, to whom a reformation had been pro-
mised, appeared, the proceedings took a bolder
character; as early as January, 1552, the pope
complained that attempts were made to strip him
of his authority ; that the intention of the Span-
ish bishops was, on the one side to reduce the
chapters to a state of servile dependence, on the
other, to deprive the holy see of the collation to all
benefices ; but that he would not endure, under
the plea of abuses, to be robbed of what was no
abuse, but an essential attribute of his powerf. It
could not therefore be entirely displeasing to him
that the attack of the protestauts broke up the
council ; he hastened to decree its suspension, and

* Lettera del Papa a Mendoza, 26th Dec., 1551 : (Inff. Polit.
six.) : " Without pride be it said, we stand not in need of coun-
sel; vfQ could even offer it to others: assistance indeed *we
might require."

f Al 01. Crescentio, 16th Germ. 1552. He exclaims ; " Non
sara vero, non comportarcmo mai, prima lassaremo ruinare il
mondo."

282 JULIUS m. [BOOK in.

was thus freed from innumerable demands and al-
tercations.

From that time Julius III. never again seriously
embarked in a political career. The inhabitants of
Siena complained indeed that, though half their
countryman on his mother's side, lie had assisted
duke Cosmo to effect their subjugation ; but a
subsequent judicial enquiry proved the falsehood
of this charge. It was rather Cosmo who had
grounds for complaint, since the pope took no mea-
sures to prevent the Florentine emigrants, the bit-
terest enemies of this his ally, from assembling
and arming in his states.

The stranger still visits the Villa di Papa Giulio
at the entrance of the Porta delPopolo. With all the
memorials of those days around him, he ascends
the spacious staircase to the gallery whence he
overlooks Rome in its full extent from Monte
Mario, and all the windings of the Tiber. The
cjffistruction of this palace, the laying out of this
garden, were the occupation and the delight of Ju-
lius III. He drew the plan himself, but it was never
completed; the architects were incessantly employed
in the execution of the schemes and caprices to which
everyday gave birth*. Here the pope passed his days
in oblivion of the world. He had done a good deal

* Vasari. Boissard describes their extent and their magni-
ficence at that time : "Occupat fere omnes colles qui ab urbe ad
pontem Milvium protenduntur ," and gives some of the inscrip-
tions: e. g., " Honeste voluptarier cunctis fas honestis esto ;"
and, particularly : " De hinc proximo in templo Deo ac divo An-
drese gratias agunto (by this I understand the visitors,) vitamque
et salutem Julio III. Pontcl. Maximo Balduino ejus fratri et

§ ii.] JULIUS in. 283

for the advancement of his kinsmen. Duke Cosmo
gave them Monte Sansovino, the place whence
they sprang ; the emperor, Novara ; he himself
bestowed upon them the dignities of the ecclesias-
tical states and Camerino. He had a favourite whom
he had adopted when a child in Parma, where he
happened to see him seized and held by an ape, and
was so pleased by the courage and high spirit dis-
played by the boy in that perilous situation, that he
brought him up and showed him great affection.
Unfortunately the action which had attracted the
pope's attention remained his only merit ; never-
theless Julius had kept his promises to him, and
had made him a cardinal. The pope wished that
his favourite and his relations should be well pro-
vided for and should enjoy consideration, but he
had no mind to get into dangerous perplexities on
their account. The easy, pleasant life of his villa
was, as we have said, best suited to his character
and tastes. He gave entertainments which he sea-
soned with conversation full of racy and proverbial
expressions, sometimes of a sort to call up blushes
on the cheeks of his guests. In the great affairs of
the church and the state he took no more share than
was absolutely inevitable.

eorum families universse plurimam et seternam precantor/* Ju-
lius died on the 23rd of March, 1555.

284 [BOOK in.

§ 3. MABCELLXTS II.

It was impossible that these affairs could prosper
much under such a head. The divisions between
the two great catholic powers daily assumed a
more threatening aspect; the German protestants
had arisen with fresh vigour from their defeat of
the year 1 547, and had assumed a firmer front than
ever. The catholic reformation, so often desired
and attempted, was not to be thought of; the pro-
spects of the church of Rome were, it was impossible
to disguise, extremely doubtful and dark.

But if, as we have seen, a most austere spirit had
been awakened in her own bosom, a spirit that
viewed with sincere and intense reprobation the lives
and conduct of so many popes, must not this at
length affect the choice of a new pontiff? Much de-
pended on the personal character of the head of
the church ; and for that very reason this supreme
dignity was elective, in order that a man who repre-
sented the predominant spirit of the church might
be placed at the head of affairs.

The first time that the stricter religious party
obtained an influence in the election of a pope was
after the death of Julius HI. Julius had often felt
the constraint imposed on his undignified demean-
our by tLe presence of cardinal Marcello Cervini.
Upon him the choice fell, on the 1 1th of April,
1555. He took the name of Marcellus II. •

His whole life had been active and irreproach-
able ; the reformation of the church, about which
others talked, he had exhibited in his own person.

§ III.] MAKCELLUS II. 285

The highest hopes were conceived of him. " I
had prayed," says a contemporary, " that a pope
might come who might raise those fair words,
church, council, reform, from the contempt into
which they had fallen ; and now I held my hopes
fulfilled; by this election my wishes seemed to me
become facts, possessions*.33

" The opinion," says another, " that men had
of the goodness and the matchless wisdom of Mar-
cellus, inspired the world with hope. Now, if ever,
it seemed possible for the church to extinguish
heretical opinions, to put an end to abuses and
corrupt living, to regain her health and her
unity f."

The commencement of the reign of Marcellus en-
tirely fulfilled these anticipations. He would not
suffer his relations to come to Rome; he introduced
numerous reductions in the expenditure of his
court ; he is said to have left a memoir, composed
by himself, on the improvements to be introduced
in the institutes of the church ; he immediately en-
deavoured to restore divine service to its due so-
lemnity ; all his thoughts were turned to a council
and to reform f. In a political point of view, he
took a neutral position, with which the emperor
was satisfied. " Nevertheless, " say his contem-
poraries, "the world was not worthy of him:" — they

* Seripando, al Vescovo dl Fiesole : Lettere di Principi, iii. 1 62.
t Lettere di Principi, Iii. 141. The editor himself speaks here.
J Petri Polidori De Vita Marcellill. Commentarius, 1744, p.
119.

286 PAUL iv. [BOOK m.

apply to him the words of Virgil, concerning another
Marcellus, —

" Ostendent tends hunc tantum fata."

On the 22nd day of his pontificate he died.

We cannot speak of the effects produced by so
short an administration ; hut this beginning, this
election even, show the spirit which had gained
the ascendency, and which it retained in the next
conclave.

The most austere of all the cardinals, Giovanni
Pietro Caraffa, quitted that assembly, invested with
the dignity of pope, on the 23rd of May, 1555.

§ 4. PAUL iv.

We have made frequent mention of this pope.
He is the same who founded the order of the thea-
tins, who re-established the inquisition, and who
so essentially contributed to the confirmation of the
old dogmas at Trent. It was not only a member,
but the very chief and founder of that party which
aimed at the restoration of Catholicism in all its
strictness, who now mounted the papal chair. Paul
IV. had already attained the age of seventy-nine,
but his deep set eyes still gleamed with all the fire
of youth ; he was extremely tall and thin, he walked
quickly, and appeared to be all nerve. His daily life
was subject to no rule or order ; he often slept by

§ iv.] PAUL iv. 287

day, and passed the night in study, — and woe to the
servant who entered his room until he rang his bell.
In every thing he followed the impulses of the mo-
ment*; but these impulses sprang from a character
formed by a long life and become a second na-
ture. He seemed conscious of no other duty, no
other business, than the restoration of the ancient
faith in all its primitive might and authority.

From time to time characters like that of Paul
re-appear on the theatre of the world. Their con-
ceptions of the world and of life are formed from
a single point of view; their individual bent of mind
is so strong that their opinions are absolutely go-
verned by it ; they are unwearied and eloquent
speakers, and have always a certain earnestness
and freshness of conversation, in which they pour
out an incessant stream of those sentiments which
seem to rule them by a sort of fatality. It is
obvious that the influence of such men must be
enormous when they attain to a position where
their actions depend solely and absolutely on their
opinions, and where power is combined with will.

"What might not be expected from Paul IV., who
had never known what it was to make a conces-
sion or a compromise, who had always acted on

* Relatione di M. Bernardo Navagero (che fu poi Cardinale),
alia Serma. Repca. di Venetia tornando di Homa Ambasciatore
appresso del Pontefice Paolo IV., 1558 : in many Italian libra-
ries, also in the Information! Politicise at Berlin: " La comples-
sione di questo pontefice £ colerica adusta : ha una incredibil
gravity e grandezza in tutte le sue azioni et yeramente pare nato
al signoreggiare,"

PAUL IV- IBQQ1S. III.

his opinions with the utmost vehemence, now
that he had reached the summit of power*? He
was astonished at his own elevation, as he had
never conciliated a cardinal by a single concession,
and had never abstained from displaying the ut-
most severity. He thought himself chosen, not
by the cardinals, but by God himself, by whom he
was called for the execution of his purposesf.

" We promise and swear,'3 says he, in the bull
which he issued on entering on his office, " truly
to endeavour that the reform of the universal
church and of the Roman court be effected." He
marked the day of his coronation by the publica-
tion of edicts respecting monasteries and religious
orders. He immediately dispatched two monks
from Monte Cassino to Spain, to restore the mo-
nastic discipline which had fallen into decay in
that country. He established a congregation for
universal reform, consisting of three classes ; each

* It is easy to imagine that Lis character wis not such as to en-
sure universal approbation. Aretino's Capitolo al Re di Francia,
thus describes him :

" Coraifa ipocrita infingardo
Che tien per coscienza spirituale
Quando si mette del pepe in sul cardo."

t Relatione del Clmo. M. Aluise Mocenigo K. ritornato dalla
CortediRoma, 1560: (Arch. Venez.) : "Ftt eletto pontefice con-
tra il parer e credere di ogn' uno e forse anco di se stesso, come
S. S. propria mi disse poco inanzi moriase, che non area mai
compiaciuto ad alcuno e che se un cardinale gli avea domaudato
qualche gratia gli avea sempre riposto alia riversa, nd mai com-
piaciutolo, onde disse : io non so come mi haVbianp eletto papa
e conclude che Iddio faccia li pontefici,"

§ iv.] PAUL iv. 289

composed of eight cardinals, fifteen prelates, and
fifty learned divines. The articles which were to
form the subject of deliberation, regarding the no-
mination to offices, were submitted to the universi-
ties. The earnestness of purpose with which Paul
entered on the work of reform is evident*. It ap-
peared as if the ecclesiastical spirit, the influence
of which had for a long time been confined to
the lower ranks of the church, had now taken
possession of the papacy also, and would preside
with undivided sovereignty in the councils of Paul
IV.

The only remaining question was, what position
he would take up with relation to the great move-
ments which agitated the world.

It is not easy to alter the main directions which
a power has taken, and which have gradually be-
come a part of its very being.

From the very nature of things, it must ever have
been the pope's desire to rid himself of the predo-
minant power of Spain, and the moment had now
arrived in which this seemed practicable. The war
which we have seen arise out of the troubles with
the Farnesi was the most disastrous that Charles V.
had ever carried on : he was embarrassed in the
Netherlands; Germany had deserted him; Italy
was no longer true ; he could not even trust in
the fidelity of the houses of Este and Gonzaga ; he
himself was sick and weary of life. I know not

* Bromato, Vita di Paolo IV., lib. ix. § ii. § xvu, (ii. 224, 289.)
VOL. I. U

290 PAUL iv. [BOOK in.

whether any pope who did not actually belong to
the imperial party, would have withstood the tempt-
ations presented by all these circumstances*

To Paul IV. they were peculiarly strong. He
had beheld Italy in the freedom of the fifteenth
century, (he was born in 1476,) and his whole
soul hung on the remembrance of her glories. He
was wont to compare the Italy of that age to a well-
tuned instrument, of which Naples, Milan, the
States of the Church, and Venice were the four
strings; and to curse the memory of Alfonso and
Louis the Moor, " wretched and lost souls/' as
he called them, " whose divisions had disturbed
this harmony*." He had never learned to endure
with patience the dominion which the Spaniards
had subsequently acquired. The house of Caraffa,
of which he was sprung, belonged to the French
party, and, on numberless occasions, had taken
arms against the Castilians and the Catalans ; in
1528 it had again attached itself to the French, and
during the troubles of 1547, it was Giovan Pietro
Caraffa who advised Paul III. to take possession of
Naples.

But this party hate was not all. Caraffa had
always maintained that Charles V. favoured the
protestants out of jealousy of the pope, and as-
cribed the success of that party to the emperor

* " Infelici quelle anime di Alfonso (T Aragona e Ludovico duca
di Milano, che furono li primi che guastarono cosi nobil instru-
mento <T Italia," Navagero,

§IV/J PAUL IV. 291

himself*. Charles knew Caraffa well. He once
expelled him from the council formed for the admi-
nistration of Naples; he never allowed him to
have tranquil possession of his ecclesiastical offices
in Naples, and had moreover sometimes seriously
remonstrated against Caraffa's declamations in the
consistory. It may easily be imagined that these
things excited PauFs bitterest animosity. As Nea-
politan and as Italian, as catholic and as pope,
he hated the emperor. Excepting his zeal for re-
formation, this hate was his only passion.

Immediately after entering upon the pontificate,
he remitted some of the taxes of the Roman people,
caused importations of corn ; and it was not with-
out some self-complacency that he saw a statue
erected to him for these acts, while, surrounded by
a splendid court of Neapolitan nobles, he received
the homage of the ambassadors who flocked from
every country. Yet even at this very moment he
fell into a thousand disputes with the emperor.
It was reported that Charles had complained to the
cardinals of his party, of the choice that had been
made ; his adherents held suspicious meetings, and
even cut out some vessels which had formerly been
taken from them by the French from the port of Ci-
vita Vecchiaf . The pope was soon inflamed with

*MemorialedatoaAnnibaleRucellai, Sept. 1555 : (Informatt,
Pol,, torn, xxiv.) : " Chiamava liberamente la M* S. Cesarea, fau-
tore di heretic! e di scisxuatici."

f Inetruttioni e Lettere di Monsignor della Casa a noxne del
Cl. Caraflfa, dove si contiene il principle della rottura della guerra

292 PAUL iv. [BOOK in*

rage. He arrested his vassals and the cardinals who
were inclined to the imperial party ; or they fled,
and he confiscated their property. But this did
not satisfy him. He entered with little hesitation
into that alliance with France which Paul III. had
never been able to resolve on concluding. The
emperor's plan was, he said, to destroy him by a sort
of fever of the mind, but he would decide on open
fight ; with the king's help he would free this poor
Italy from the tyranny of Spain ; he hoped still to
see two French princes on the thrones of Milan
and Naples. He sat for hours over the black,
thick, volcanic wine of Naples, called mangia-
guerra, which was his ordinary drink*, and poured
forth torrents of vehement eloquence against these
schismatics and heretics, these accursed of God, the
spawn of Jews and Moors, the dregs of the earth,
and whatever other abusive epithets he could find
to bestow on the Spaniards f. But he comforted

fra Papa Paolo IV. e T Lnperatore Cailo V., 1555. Also in the
Informatt. Polit., xxiv.

* Navagero : " I/ ordine suo e senapre di mangiare due volte il
giorno : vuol esser servito molto delicataiaente, e nel principle
del pontificate 25 piatti non bastavano : beve molto pift di quello
che mangia : il vino £ potente e gagliardo, negro e tanto spesso
che si potria quasi tagliare, dimandasi mangiaguerra, che si con-
duce del regno di Napoli : dopo paste sempre beve malvagia, che
i suoi chiamano lavarsi i denti. Stava a mangiare in pubblico come
gli altri pontefici sino all* ultima indispositione, che fu riputata
niortale, quando perdette 1' appetite : consumava qualche volta
trehore di tempo dal scdere al levarsi da mensa, eatrando in varii
ragionamenti, secondo T occasione, et usando molte volte in quel
impeto a dir molte cose secicte e d' importanza."
t Navagero : M Mai parlava di S. M* e della natione Spagno-

§ iv.] PAUL iv, 293

himself with the saying, " Thou shalt walk upon
serpents, thou shalt tread upon lions and dragons."
The time was now come, he said, when the emperor
Charles and his son were to receive the chastise-
ment due to their sins : he, the pope5 would inflict
it ; he would deliver Italy from them. If people
would not listen to him, if they would not assist
him, at least posterity would be forced to confess
that an old Italian on the brink of the grave, who
should rather have sought rest and preparation for
death, had conceived these lofty designs.

It is not necessary to go into the details of the
negotiations which he carried on under the influ-
ence of these thoughts. When the French, spite
of an understanding they had entered into with
him, concluded a truce with Spain*, he despatched
to France his nephew Carlo Caraffa, who succeeded
in gaining over to his own interests the several

la, che non gli chiamasse eretici, scismatici e makdetti da Dio,
seme di Giudei e di Mori, feccia del mondo, deplorando la mise-
ria d* Italia, che fosse astretta a servire gente cosi abjetta e cosi
vile." The despatches of the French ambassadors are full of these
outbursts. For instance, de Lansac and d'Avancon in Ribier, ii<
610—618.

* The account of the incipient incredulity of Caraffa, which
appears in Navagero, is very characteristic : " Domandando io
al poiitefice et al Cl. CaraiFa, se havevano avviso alcuno delle
tregue [of Vaucelles], si guardarono V un T altro ridendo, quasi
volessero dire, si conie mi disse anche apertamente il pontefice,
che questa speranza di tregue era assai debole in lui, e nondi-
meno venne T avviso il giorno seguente, il quale si come console
tutta Roma cos! diede tanto travaglio e tanta molestia al papa,
et al cardinale che non lo poterono dissimulare. Diceva il papa
che queste tregue sarebbero la ruina del mondo/'

294 PAUL iv. [BOOK m.

parties that were contending for power, — the
Montmorencies and the Guises, the king's wife and
mistress, — and in bringing about a fresh outbreak of
hostilities*. In Italy he acquired an energetic ally
in the duke of Ferrara. Nothing less than a total
revolution of Italy was contemplated. Florentine
and Neapolitan exiles filled the curia, and their
restoration to their country seemed at hand. The
pope's fiscal issued a formal act of accusation
against emperor Charles and king Philip, in which
be threatened to excommunicate those princes, and
to free their subjects from their oath of allegiance.
In Florence, people always asserted that they held
proofs that the destruction of the house of Medici
was also determined onf. Everything assumed a
warlike aspect ; and the circumstances which seemed
hitherto to have combined to form the character-
istics of this century were once more thrown into
uncertainty and confusion.

"What a totally different turn did this pontificate
take from that which had been anticipated 1 At-
tempts at reform were compelled to give place to
preparations for war, which led to results the very
opposite of those intended.

The world beheld him who, as cardinal, had
been the most zealous in his denunciations of ne-
potism, even to his own peril, now abandon him-
self to this abuse. He raised to the rank of cardi-
nal his nephew Carlo Caraffa, who had revelled in

* Rabutm, M£moires : Collect. Univers., vol. xxzviii. 358.
Particularly Villars, M&aoires, Ib., vol. xxxv. 277.
t Gussoni, Rel1"5 di Toscana.

§ iv.] PAUL iv. 295

the wild and licentious life of a soldier*, and of
whom Paul himself said, " that his arm was dyed
in blood to the elbow." Carlo had found means to
cajole the feeble old man ; he had contrived to be
found by him kneeling before the crucifix in appa-
rent remorse and contritionf. The grand bond of
union between them, however, was a common hate.
Carlo Caraffa, who had served the emperor in Ger-
many, complained that he had received nothing
but slights in return ; that a prisoner for whom he
expected to receive a large ransom had been taken
from him ; that he had been prevented from taking
possession of a priory of the order of Malta, to
which he was nominated : — injuries which filled him
with rage and vengeance. These passions were
accepted by the pope as compensations for every
virtue* He was inexhaustible in his praises;
never, he affirmed, had the see of Rome had a
more efficient servant : he committed to him the
chief conduct, not only of secular, but of spiritual,
affairs, and was well pleased that he should be re-
garded as the author of the favours dispensed by
the court.

For a long time the pope did not bestow a single
gracious look upon his other nephews, nor was
it till they adopted the anti-Spanish feelings of
their uncle that he regarded them with compla-
cency J. The conduct which he now pursued could

* Babon, in Ribier, ii. 746. Villars, p. 255. t Bromato.

t Extractus Processes Cardinalis Carafe : " Similiter dux Pal-
liani deponit, quod donee be declarant contra imperiales, papa
eum nunquam vidit grato vultu et bono oculo."

296 PAUL iv. [BOOK in,

never "have been anticipated. He said that the
castles of the Colonnas, those inveterate rebels
against God and the church, had frequently been
taken from them, but had never been kept ; but
that he would now entrust them to vassals who
would know how to defend them. He divided
them among his nephews, to the elder of whom he
gave the title of duke of Palliano, to the younger,
that of marquis of Montebello. When he dis-
closed these his intentions to the cardinals, they
cast down their eyes and were silent. The Caraf-
fas now gave the reins to their aspiring hopes ; ac-
cording to them, the daughters of their house were
to be married, if not into the family of the king of
France, at any rate into that of the duke of Fer-
rara, while the sons were at least to gain posses-
sion of Siena. When some one jested concerning
the jewelled barett of a child of the house, " This
is no time to talk of caps, but of crowns," replied
their mother*.

In fact, everything depended on the issue of the
war which now broke out, but which certainly as-
sumed no favourable aspect from the very first.

After the above-mentioned act of the fiscal, the
duke of Alva had advanced from the Neapolitan
territory into that of Rome. He was accompanied
by the Roman vassals, who aroused all those with
whom they had had an understanding. Nettuno
drove away the pope's garrison, and recalled the
troops of the Colonnas. Alva invested Frosinoiie,

* Bromato, ix. 16. ; ii. 286 : literally, " Non esaer quel tempo
da uarlar di berette, ma di corone."

§ iv.] PAUL iv. 297

Anagni, Tivoli on the mountains, Ostia on the sea ;
thus inclosing Rome on both sides.

At first the pope trusted entirely to his Romans,
whom he reviewed in person. An army consisting
of three hundred and forty columns armed with
arquebuses, two hundred and fifty with pikes, each
nine men deep, of a most warlike appearance, under
noble leaders, parched from Campafiore past fort
St. Angelo, which saluted them, to the Piazza di
San Pietro, where he stood with his nephews at
the window, arid, as the caporioni and standard-
bearers passed gave them his blessing*. They
made a very gallant show, but they were not the
men by whom the city was to be defended. The
Spaniards having approached near the walls, a false
alarm, a small troop of horsemen, sufficed to throw
them all into such confusion that not a man re-
mained by his standard. The pope was constrained
to look around for other help, Pietro Strozzi at
length brought him the troops that had served be-
fore Siena, and with their aid he succeeded in re-
conquering Tivoli and Ostia, and in averting the im-
minent danger. But what a war was this !

It seems as if, at certain critical periods, the
conduct of men were influenced by motives utterly
repugnant to the principles which usually deter-
mine their actions.

At first Alva might have conquered Rome with-
out much difficulty, but his uncle cardinal Gia-

* Diario di Cola Calleine Romano del rione di Trastevere dall'
anno 1521 sino all* anno 1562, MS.

298 PAUL iv. [BOOK in.

como reminded him of the bad end to which all
had come who had a share in Bourbon's conquest.
Alva, like a good catholic, conducted the war with
the greatest scrupulousness; while he fought against
the pope, he did not cease to reverence him. He
sought to wrest the sword out of his hand, but he
had no desire to figure in the list of the conquerors
of Rome. His troops murmured, and said that it
was a vapour, a smoke, against which they were
led into the field ; that it annoyed them without
their being able to grasp it, or to disperse it at its
first rise.

And who were those who defended the pope
against such good catholics ?

The most efficient among them were Germans,
all of whom were protestants. They mocked at the
images of saints in the roads and churches, laughed
at the mass, disregarded the fasts, and committed a
hundred acts for which the pope would have punish-
ed every one of them, under other circumstances,
with death*. I even find that Carlo CarafFa once
formed an intimacy with the great protestant leader,
margrave Albert of Brandenburg.

It was impossible for contradictions to be more
complete and striking. On the one side, the strict

* Navagero : " Fu riputata la piti eeercitata gente la Tedcsca
(SSOOfanti,) [other MSS. however give different numbers,] epifc
atta alia guerra, ma era in tutto luterana. La Guascona era
tanto insolente, tanto contro 1' onor delle donne et in torre la
robba,— gli offesi maledicevano publicamente chi era causa di
questi disordini."

§ iv.j PAUL iv. 299

catholic spirit, by which the leader at least was
thoroughly inspired, and which placed him at a di-
stance of ages from the times of Bourbon's ruthless
and audacious invasion of the holy city. On the
other, the secular tendencies of the papacy, by
which Paul IV., however loudly he condemned them,
was hurried along. These contrarieties cause the
strange anoipaly, that those who believe in his au-
thority attack, while those who deny it, defend him ;
that the former, even in their hostile assaults, pre-
serve their allegiance ; and the latter, while serving
under his banner, manifest hostility and contempt
for his character and station as head of the church.

The war did not begin in earnest till the French
allied force, consisting of ten thousand foot and a
less numerous but noble body of horse, crossed the
Alps. The French would rather have tried their
strength against Milan, which they believed to be
less strongly defended ; but they were obliged to fol-
low the impulse which the Caraffas gave them to-
wards Naples. The latter had no doubt of finding
innumerable followers in their own country • they
reckoned on the assistance of the exiles, and on the
insurrection of their party, if not throughout the
kingdom, yet in the Abruzzi, around Aquila and
Montorio, where their ancestors, both on the pa-
ternal and maternal side, had always possessed
great influence.

It was evident that affairs must, in one way or
another, come to a crisis.

The hostility of the papal power to the predo-

300 PAUL iv. [BOOK in,

minancy of Spain had been too often excited not
at last to burst forth.

The pope and his family were resolved upon ex-
treme measures. Carafla had not only sought
help from the protestants, but had proposed to Su-
leiman I. to desist from his campaign in Hungary,
in order that he might turn all his force against
the two Sicilies*. He invoked the succour of infidels
against the catholic Mug.

In April, 1557, the Roman troops crossed the
Neapolitan frontier. They celebrated Holy Thurs-
day by the conquest and ruthless pillage of Compli,
which was full of treasure, not only belonging to
the place, but also that had been conveyed there
for safety. Guise next crossed the Tronto and be-
sieged Civitella.

He, however, found the kingdom in a good
state of preparation. Alva well knew that there
would be no insurrection against him, so long as he
was the most powerful in the country. In a parlia-
ment of the barons he had obtained a considerable
grant ; queen Bona of Poland, of the ancient family
of Arragon, abitter enemy of the French, who shortly
before had arrived with great treasure in her duchy
of Bari, gave him half a million of scudi; he confis-
cated the ecclesiastical revenues which should have

« His confessions inBiomato, Vitadi Paolo IV., vol. ii. p. 369.
Bromato also contains good accounts of the 'war. He look them,
•which he does not conceal, in many cases, word for -word from 8
detailed MS. account of this war by Nores, frequently to b«
found in Italian libraries.

$ IV.] PAUL IV. 301

gone to Rome, and even appropriated to his uses
the gold and silver utensils of the churches and
the bells of Benevento*. He then proceeded to
fortify, as well as he could, all the frontier towns of
the Neapolitan territory, and all those of the Ro-
man of which he still maintained possession; he
collected a splendid army, composed in the old
manner, of Germans, Spaniards, and Italians ; he
had also formed Neapolitan centuries under the
conduct of the nobles. Civitella was gallantly de-
fended by count Santafiore, who had incited the
inhabitants to active co-operation, and even to
repel an assault.

While the kingdom remained thus firmly com-
pacted, and nothing was perceived but devotion to
Philip II. , violent differences broke out among the
assailants, — between French and Italians, — between
Guise and Montebello. Guise complained that
the pope did not adhere to the contract made with
them, and withheld the succour he had promised.
When the duke of Alva with his army made his
appearance in the Abruzzi in the middlq of May,
Guise deemed it best to raise the siege and to re-
treat across the Tronto. The war was again trans-
ferred to the Roman territory ; — a war in which
the belligerent parties advanced, retreated, in-

* Giannone, Istoriadi Napoli, lib. xxxiii. c. i. Not only Gossel-
lini, Mambrino Roseo also, Delle Historic del Mondo, lib. TO.,
whose account of this war is circumstantial and derived from good
authorities, ascribes to Ferrante Gonzaga a great share in the
well-planned measures taken by Alba. This is confirmed by other
writers.

302 PAUL IV. [BOOK III.

vested cities and then abandoned them, and in
•which not one serious battle was fought.

Marc Antonio Colonna threatened Pafliano,
which the pope had wrested from him; upon which
Giulio Orsino made preparations to relieve it with
provisions and troops. Three thousand Swiss un-
der the command of a colonel from Unterwalden
had just arrived in Rome. The pope had received
them with joy, decorated their chiefs with chains
of gold and orders of knighthood, and proclaimed
them the legion of angels sent by God to his aid.
These troops and a few companies of Italian horse
and foot were led by Giulio Orsino. M. A. Co-
lonna posted himself in his way, and an engage-
ment followed in the spirit of the Italian wars of
1491— 1531:— papal and imperial troops;— a Co-
lonna and anOrsino:— whilethe Swiss were opposed,
as they had so often been before, by the German
lanzknechts, under their colonels Caspar von
Feltz and Hans Walther. Once more did the old
antagonists fight for a cause in which neither had
an interest, yet they fought with not the less obsti-
nate bravery*. At length Hans Walther, who, as
the Spaniards relate, had the stature and the
strength of a giant, threw himself into the middle of
a Swiss company ; with a pistol in one hand and a
drawn sword in the other, he rushed upon the
standard-bearer, whom he laid dead at bis feet by a
shot in the side and a violent cut on the head at

* He particular circumstances of this engagement I take
fora Cabrera, Don Felipe Seguado, lib. Hi. p. 139.

§ IV.] PAUL IV. 303

the same minute, upon which the whole troop bore
down upon him ; hut his lanzknechts had already
come up to his defence. The Swiss were totally
routed ; their banners, upon which was inscribed,
in large letters, " Defenders of the Faith and of
the Holy See," were trodden in the dust ; and
their colonel led hack only two out of his eleven
captains to Rome. While this little war was car-
rying on here, the great armies were encamped
over against each other on the frontier of the Ne-
therlands. The battle of St. Quintin, in which
the Spaniards gained the most decisive victory,
followed. The only wonder in France was that
they did not march straight on Paris, which they
might have conquered*.

" I hope," wrote Henry II., on this occasion, to
Guise, " that the pope will do as much for me in
my need, as I did for himf." So little could
Paul now reckon on the assistance of the French,
that they, on the contrary, needed succour from
him. Guise declared, " that no chains would be
strong enough to keep him any longer in Italy {,"
and hastened back with his troops to his distressed
prince.

The inevitable consequence was, that the Span-
iards and the followers of Colonna once more
marched against Rome. The Romans once more
beheld conquest and pillage impending over them ;

* Monluc, M£moires, p. 116.
t Le Roy It Mons. de Guise, in Ribier, ii. p. 750.
J Lettera delDuca di Palliano al Cl. Caraffa, Informatt. Polit.
nil.

304 PAUL iv. [BOOK in.

and their situation was the more desperate, as they
had nearly as much to fear from their defenders as
from their enemies. For many nights they kept
lights in all their windows and streets, and it is
said that a troop of Spanish marauders, who ad-
vanced as far as the gates, were frightened back
by this appearance ; the chief motive for which,
however, was, to be prepared against the outrages
of the papal soldiers. Nothing was to be heard
but murmurs; — people wished the pope dead a
thousand times, and demanded that the Spanish
army should be admitted by a formal capitulation.

To such a pitch did Paul IV. suffer things to
advance. It was not till his enterprise had been
thoroughly wrecked, his allies beaten, his states al-
most entirely occupied by the enemy, and his ca-
pital a second time threatened, that he consented
to treat for peace.

This the Spaniards concluded in the same spirit
in which they had carried on the war. They gave
up all the castles and cities of the church, and even
promised the Caraffas compensation for Palliano,
which they had lost*. Alva came to Rome ; with
the deepest veneration he kissed the foot of the
vanquished and inveterate foe of his nation and
his king. He said he had never feared the face of
man as he feared that of the pope.

Nevertheless, however advantageous to the papal
power this peace may appear, it was fatal to all its

* Palliano became the subject of a secret treaty concluded be-
tween Alva and cardinal Caraffa, — a treaty unknown not only
to the public, but to the pope himself. Bromato, ii. 385,

$ IVi] PAUL IV. 305

projects and all its enterprises. There was an end
to all attempts to shake off the Spanish yoke ; nor,
indeed, has such a project (in the sense in which
it had hitherto been understood) been entertained
from that time. In Milan and Naples, the domi-
nion of the Spaniards had proved too solid to be
shaken. Their allies were stronger than ever.
Duke Cosmo, whom his enemies had thought to
drive out of Florence, had not only maintained
possession of that city, but had annexed Siena to
it, and now wielded a considerable independent
power ; the Farnesi were won over to the cause of
Philip II. by the restitution of Piacenza ; Marc An-
tonio Colonna had made himself a great name and
had regained the station formerly occupied by his
family. Nothing was left to the pope but to ac-
quiesce in this state of things ; — to this even Paul
must yield: — how hardly, we may well imagine.
Somebody once called Philip II. his friend, " Yes/'
said he, " my friend, who besieged me, who sought
my very soul." In public, he compared him to the
prodigal -son in the gospel, but in the circle of his
intimate friends, he expressed his admiration of
those popes alone who had meditated raising kings
of France to the imperial throne*. His mind was
unchanged, but he was bound down by circum-

* L'Evesque cTAngoulesme au Roy, 11 Juin, 1558. Ribier, ii.
745. The pope had said, " Que vous, Sire, n'estiez pas pourde*-
ge"ne"rer de vos pre*decesseurs, qui avoient toujours e^te" conserva-
tcurs et d£fenseurs de ce saint siege ; comme au contraire, que le
roy Philippe tenoit de race de le vouloir miner et confondre en-
tierement."

VOL. I. X

306 PAUL iv. [BOOK in.

stances ; he could no longer hope, still less un-
dertake anything; his very complaints must be
secret.

It is, however, utterly vain to straggle against
the consequences of an event which is accomplished.
After some time a reaction took place even in Paul
IV., which it is of the greatest importance to con-
sider, hoth with reference to his government, and
to the general transformation wrought in the nature
of the papal power and station.

The nepotism of Paul was not founded on the
selfishness or the family partialities of preceding
popes; he favoured his nephews because they sup-
ported his designs against Spain; he regarded
them as his natural allies in the struggle. This
being at an end, his nephews were useless to him.

An eminent station, especially if it be not a
strictly legitimate one, requires the support of suc-
cess to make it stable. Cardinal Caraffa, prompted
mainly by the interest of his house, for which he
wished to settle the compensation for Palliano, al-
ready mentioned, undertook an embassy to king
Philip. From the time he returned without having
effected anything material, the pope visibly became
colder and colder towards him ; and the cardinal
soon found that it no longer rested with him to de-
termine who should be about his uncle, or to exclude
from the palace all but his own devoted friends.
Unfavourable rumours too came to the ears of the
pope, and served to revive the disagreeable impres-
sions of former days. The cardinal once fell sick,
and the pope paying him an unexpected visit, found

§ IV.] PAUL IV. 307

two men of the worst reputation with him. cc Old
people are mistrustful," said he, " and I perceived
things there which opened a wide field for my sus-
picions." We see that nothing was wanted hut an
occasion to excite a storm in his mind, and such
an one was afforded by an incident otherwise insig-
nificant. On new year's night, 1559, a tumult
arose in the streets, in which the young cardinal
Monte, whom we have already mentioned as the
favourite of Julius III., drew his sword. The pope
heard this early in the morning, and was profoundly
vexed that his nephew said not a word to him
about it ; after waiting a few days, he at length
expressed his displeasure. The court, ever greedy
of change, seized upon this symptom of disgrace
with avidity. The Florentine ambassador, who had
received a thousand affronts from the Caraffas, now
forced his way to the presence of the pope, and broke
out into the bitterest complaints. The marchesa
della Valle, a kinswoman, one of those who had
never been allowed free access to him, found means
to get a paper placed in his breviary, on which
some of his nephews' misdeeds were recorded ; and
in which it was intimated that if his holiness wished
for further explanations, he would be pleased to
subscribe his name to it. Paul signed, and there
was no want of explanations.

In this frame of mind, already filled with disgust
and indignation, the pope repaired to the meeting
of the inquisition on the 9th of January. He spoke
of that nocturnal broil, rebuked cardinal Monte in
violent terms* threatened him with punishment,

308 PAUL iv. [BOOK in.

and thundered out again and again, " Reform,
reform !" The cardinals, generally so silent, had
now gained courage to speak : — cc Holy father/' in-
terrupted cardinal Pacheco, " we must begin the
reform among ourselves." The pope made no reply.
The words struck him to the heart ; they turned
to certainty the convictions which had been fer-
menting and acquiring form and consistency in his
mind. He left the affair of Monte unfinished, re-
turned to his sitting-room in the utmost exaspera-
tion, and absorbed in the thoughts cf his nephews.
After giving immediate directions that no further
order given by cardinal Caraifa should be executed,
he sent to demand his papers ; cardinal Vitellozzo
Vitelli, who had the reputation of being privy to all
the Caraffas' secrets, was compelled to swear that he
would reveal everything he knew ; Camillo Orsino
was summoned for the same purpose from his coun-
try-house : the rigid party, who had long seen with
indignation the proceedings of the nephews, now
raised its voice \ the old Theatine, Don Gieremia,
who was regarded as a saint, passed hours in the
papal apartments, and the pope learned things he
had never dreamt of, which excited his horror and
detestation. His agitation was extreme ; he could
neither eat nor sleep, and for ten days was ill of a
fever. An event now occurred, for ever memorable ;
— a pope, by a sort of self-violence, emancipated
himself from all partiality to his kindred. At
length he was resolved. On the 27th of January he
summoned a consistory, described with passionate
agitation the bad lives of his nephews, and called God

§ IV.] PAUL IV, 309

and man to witness, that he had known nothing of
it, — that he had been constantly deceived. He dis-
missed them from their posts, and banished them
with their families to remote places. The mother
of the nephews, seventy years old, bent with infir-
mity and personally blameless, threw herself at his
feet as he was going into the palace ; he passed her
with harsh words. At the same time the young mar-
chesa Montebello came from Naples ; she found
her palace closed ; no inn would receive her ; in the
rainy night she drove from door to door, till at
length an innkeeper, living in a remote spot which
no order had reached, gave her shelter.

Vainly did cardinal Caraffa offer to go to prison
and to render an account of his conduct. The
Swiss guard received orders to turn back from the
palace not only himself, but all who had been in his
service. The pope made only one exception. He
kept about him, as assistant in his devotional ex-
ercises, the son of Montorio, whom he loved, and
whom he had made cardinal in his eighteenth year;
But never did the young man venture to mention
those who were banished from the court, much less
to make any intercession for them ; he dared not
hold up any intercourse even with his father. The
ruin that had fallen upon his house affected him only
the more deeply ; the grief that he was not allowed
to express in words imprinted itself on his counte-
nance and whole person*.

* In Pallavicini, but above all, in Bromato, we find satisfac-
tory disclosures on this head. In the Berlin Information!, theie
is also, vol. viii., a " Diario d* alcune attioni piu notabili nel Pon-

310 PAUL iv. [BOOKIU.

Would it not be thought that events like these
must necessarily react on the mind of the pope ?
Yet he was as if nothing had happened. Hardly
had he, with vehement and indignant eloquence,
pronounced sentence in the consistory, while most
of the cardinals were still transfixed with amaze-
ment and fear, when he appeared to feel nothing,
and passed immediately to other business.

The foreign ambassadors were astonished at his
demeanor. "In the midst of such sudden and com-
plete changes," says one, IC surrounded by new
ministers and servants, he maintains a firm, un-
bending, unconcerned attitude ; he feels no pity ;
he appears to retain no memory whatever of his
kindred."

He now gave himself up to an entirely different
passion ; a change in his character and views which
led to the most important results. The hatred of
the Spaniards, and the idea of becoming the libera-
tor of Italy, had hurried even Paul IV. into political
schemes ; had led him to endow his nephews with
the lands of the church, to raise a soldier to the
administration even of spiritual affairs, and had
plunged him into hostilities and bloodshed. Events
had forced him to renounce this idea, to suppress
this hatred ; they had also gradually opened his eyes
to the disgraceful conduct of his relations, on whom,
after a violent inward struggle, he had done inex-

tificato di Paolo IV., 1' anno 1558, sino alia sua morte," (begin-
ning from the 10th September, 1558,) unknown to both of these
two writers. It is compiled by an eye-witness of the events it
narrates, and has afforded me information entirely new.

§ IV.] PAUL IV. 311

orable justice : from the hour he had shaken them
off for ever, he returned to his old plans of reform,
and began to reign as was at first expected of him.
With the same passion with which he had hitherto
carried on hostilities and Avar, he now set about the
reform of the state, and still more that of the church.

The secular affairs, from the highest to the
lowest, were entrusted to new hands. The actual
podest&s and governors were dismissed from their
places, and sometimes in a most extraordinary
manner. In Perugia the new governor made his
appearance at night ; without waiting for daylight
he summoned the Anziani, produced his creden-
tials, and commanded them instantly to take pri-
soner their former governor, who was present.

Paul IV. was the first pope, from time immemorial,
who had governed without nepotism. The places
of his nephews were occupied by cardinal Carpi and
cardinal Camillo Orsino, who had possessed so
much influence under Paul III. The whole cha-
racter and conduct of the government was altered,
together with the persons who administered it. Con-
siderable sums were saved and taxes consequently
remitted ; a chest was fixed in a public place into
which every man could throw a statement of
grievances, and of which the pope alone kept the
key ; the governor made a daily report, and public
business generally was conducted with greater care
and wisdom, and without the old abuses.

Even in the midst of the troubles which agitated
the earlier part of his reign, the pope had never
lost sight of the reform of the church ; he now

312 PAUL iv. [BOOK in.

devoted himself to it with more ardent zeal and a
freer heart. He introduced a more rigid discipline
into the churches ; forbade all begging, even the
collection of alms for masses by the clergy; and re-
moved all indecorous and disgusting pictures. A
medal of him. was struck, on the reverse of which
was represented Christ purifying the temple and
driving out the money-changers. He drove the in-
truding monks out of the city and the state, and
compelled the court to keep the regular fasts, and
to solemnize Easter by receiving the Lord's Supper.
The cardinals were even compelled to preach occa-
sionally. Paul himself preached. He tried to abolish
many abuses which were sources of profit ; for ex-
ample, he would hear nothing of marriage dispensa-
tions, or of the revenue they brought to the treasury.
Numerous places, which had hitherto been in-
variably sold, even the chiericati di Camera*, he
would no longer allow to be given on any other
ground than that of merit; much more was he deter-
mined by worth of character and by the sentiments
befitting an ecclesiastic, in the bestowment of spi-
ritual offices. Those compromises, hitherto cus-
tomary, according to which one man performed the
duties of a benefice, while another enjoyed the
greater share of its emoluments, he would no
longer tolerate. He likewise cherished the project
of restoring to the bishops many of the rights of

* Caracciolo, Vita di Paolo IV., MS., makes particular men-
tion of them. The pope said : " Che simili officii d' amministra-
tione e di giuatitia couveniva ohe si dassero a persone che li faces-
sero, enonyenderli a chi avesse occasion di voleme cavare il suo
danaro."

§ IV.] PAUL IV. 313

which theyhadbeen deprived, and strongly censured
the rapacity with which everything productive of
power or profit had been drawn to Rome5*.

Nor was he content to take up a negative posi-
tion,— to remain a mere destroyer and abolisher of
abuses; he sought to surround divine worship with
greater pomp ; the decorations of the Sixtine chapel
and the solemn representation of the Holy Sepulchre
are to be ascribed to himf. The ideal of the ser-
vice of the catholic church of later times, full of
dignity, devotion, and magnificence, constantly
floated before his eyes.

He boasted .that he suffered not a day to pass
without the publication of an ordinance tending to
the restoration of the church to its original purity.
In many of his decrees we discover the funda-
mental outlines of the regulations to which the
council of Trent soon afterwards gave its sanc-
tion J.

As might be expected, he displayed, in his pre-
sent course, as he had done in the former, all the
inflexibility with which he was endowed by na-
ture. He favoured, above all other institutions,

* Bromato, ii. 483.

t Mocenigo, Relatione di 1560 : " Nelli officii divini poi e
nelle cei*emonie procedeva questo pontefice con tanta gravita e
devotione che veramente pareva degnissimo vicario de Gesu
Christo. Nelle cose poi della religione si prendeva tanto pen-
siero et usava tanta diligentia che maggior non si poteva deside-
rare."

I Mocenigo : " Papa Paolo IV. andava continuamente facendo
qualche nova determinatione e nforma, e sempre diceva prepa-
rare altre, acci6 che restasse manco occasione e menor necessita
di far concilio."

314 PAUL iv, [EOK in.

the inquisition, which indeed he had himself p
established. He often let the days pass by which
were set apart for the segnatura and the consistory ;
but he never missed the meetings of the congre-
gation of the inquisition, which took place every
Thursday. He wished its powers to be exercised
in the severest manner, subjected offences of new
classes to its jurisdiction, and conferred upon it the
inhuman right of employing torture for the disco-
very of accomplices : he allowed of no respect of
persons ; the noblest barons were dragged before
this tribunal; and cardinals, like Morone and Fo~
scherari, who had formerly been employed to exa-
mine the contents of remarkable books, such as
Loyola's " Spiritual Exercises/3 he now caused to
be thrown into prison, because some doubts had
arisen of the soundness of their faith. He esta-
blished the festival of San Domenico in honour of
the great inquisitor.

Religious severity and zeal for the restoration of
the church thus became the predominant charac-
teristics of the papacy.

Paul IV, seemed almost to have forgotten that
he had ever cherished any other views ; the me-
mory of the past seemed obliterated from his mind.
He lived and moved in his reforms and his inquisi-
tion ; made laws, imprisoned, excommunicated,
and held autos da fe. When at length a sickness,
such as would have occasioned the death of a
younger man, laid him prostrate, he called together
the cardinals, once more commended his soul to
their prayers,— the holy see and the inquisition,

$ IV,] PAUL IV. 315

to their care ; once more he endeavoured to collect
his strength and to rise, but in vain, — he sank
hack and expired (18th August, 1559).

Herein, at least, are such resolute, passionate
men happier than those of feebler character ; —
they are, indeed, blinded by the violence of their
feelings and prejudices, but the same qualities ren-
der them inflexible, callous, and invincible.

The people, however, did not forget so quickly
as the pope what they had suffered under him.
They could not forgive him the war he had
brought upon Borne ; nor was the dismissal of his
nephews sufficient to satisfy the hatred of the mul-
titude. At his death some assembled around the
capitol and resolved, that as he had deserved ill of
the city and of the world, they would destroy his
monuments. Others plundered the buildings of
the inquisition, set fire to them, and maltreated the
servants of the sacred office. They also tried to
burn the Dominican convent della Minerva. The
Colonnas, Orsini, Cesarini, Massimi, all mortally
offended by Paul IV., took part in these tumults.
The statues which had been erected to the pope
were torn from their pedestals, broken, and the
heads, surmounted with the triple crown, dragged
through the streets*.

* Mocenigo : " Viddi il popolo correr in furia verso la casa di
Ripetta deputata per le cose dell' inquisitione, metter a sacco
tutta la robba ch' era dentro, si di vittualie come d* altra robba,
che la maggior parte era del Revmo. Gl. Alessandrino soxnnxo
inquisitore, trattar male con bastonate e ferite tuttd i ministri
delT inquisitione, levar le scritture gettandole a refuso per la

316 PROGRESS OP PROTESTANTISM [BOOK III,

Happy had it been for the papacy, however,
had this been the only reaction against the projects
and the deeds of Paul IV.

§ 5. REMARKS ON THE PROGRESS OP PROTESTANTISM
DURING THIS REIGN.

We have seen how the breach between the pa-
pacy and the imperial or Spanish power contri-
buted, perhaps more than any other external cause,
to the establishment of protestantism in Germany.
Nevertheless, another error had not been avoided,
which now produced still vaster and more compre-
hensive results.

We may date its commencement from the recall
of the papal troops from the imperial army and the
transfer of the council to Bologna. The importance
of these measures soon appeared. Nothing was so
potent an obstacle to the subjugation of the pro-
testants as the conduct of Paul III. at that mo-
ment.

But it was not till after the death of that pope that
the wide-spreading and permanent consequences
of his measures were seen. The connexion with
Prance, into which he led his nephews, gave rise
to a universal war, — a war wherein not only the
German protestants won that immortal victory

strada, e finalmente poner foco in qnclla caaa. I frati di S. Do-
menico erano in tant' odio a quel popolo cho in ogni modo vole-
van, abbruciar il monastero della Minerva." He then asserts,
that the nobles were most to blame in the affair. Similar tu-
mults had likewise taken place in Perugia.

§ V.] DURING THE REIGN OF PAUL IV. 317

which freed them for ever from the bonds of coun-
cil, emperor, or pope, but in which the immediate
contact with the German soldiers who fought on
both sides, and the universal disorder which ren-
dered impossible any vigilant precautions, power-
fully favoured the progress of the new opinions in
France and the Netherlands.

Paul IV. ascended the papal throne. He ought
to have taken a clear view of the present course of
events, and to have made it his first and most urgent
care to restore peace. Instead of this, he plunged
with all the blindness of passion into the strife ;
and thus it was the destiny of this most furious
zealot to contribute more perhaps than any of his
predecessors to the spread of that protestantism
which he hated, abhorred, and persecuted.

Let us only call to mind his influence on En-
gland. The first victory of the new opinions in
that country was far from being complete ; there
needed only a retrocession on the part of the so-
vereign, there needed only a catholic queen, to de-
termine the parliament to place the church once
more in subjection to the pope. It was, however,
necessary for the latter to proceed with modera-
tion, for he could not make the events which had
recently been occasioned by religious innovations, a
ground of war. This, Julius III. clearly perceived.
The first papal legate immediately remarked*,

* Lettere di Mr. Henrico, Nov., 1553 : In a MS., entitled
" Lettere e Negotiati di Polo," which contains a great deal of
matter important to this history. See Pallavicini on this transac-
tion, xiii. {). 411,

318 PROGRESS OP PROTESTANTISM [BOOK III.

how powerful were the interests created by the
confiscation of church property. Julius formed the
magnanimous determination not to insist on its
restitution. In fact the legate was not allowed to
set foot in England till he had given satisfactory
assurances on this head. They formed the basis of
all his subsequent influence*, and were the causes
of his eminent success. This legate was Reginald
Pole, with whom we are already acquainted ; — of all
living men the most peculiarly fitted for the task of
re-establishing Catholicism in England; elevated
above all suspicion of sordid or impure views ; in-
telligent, moderate, entitled by his native birth and
high rank to the consideration of queen, nobility,
and people. The undertaking prospered beyond
all expectation. The accession of Paul IV. was
marked by the arrival of English ambassadors, who
assured him of the obedience of that country.

Paul, therefore, had not to win, he had only to
preserve, the allegiance of England. Let us examine
what were the measures he adopted for that pur-
pose.

He proclaimed the restitution of the lands of the
church to be an indispensable duty, the neglect of
which would draw upon the culprit the penalty of
eternal damnation. He also tried to re-establish
the collection of the Peter's pencef. But, inde-

* He did not hesitate to acknowledge the right of the actual
possessors. Litterse Dispensatorise C1!s. Poll. Concilia M. Briton-
nise,iv. 112.

t These ideas wholly occupied his mind and influenced his
actions. He published his bull Hescissio Alienationum (Bui-

§ V.] DURING THE REIGN OF PAUL IV. 319

pendently of these ill-advised acts, could anything
be worse adapted to the accomplishment of the
reduction of the nation to his authority, than his
passionate hostility to Philip II. of Spain, who was
also king of England ? Englishmen were engaged
in the battle of St. Quintin, — that battle which had
such disastrous consequences for Italy. Lastly, he
persecuted cardinal Pole, whom he could not en-
dure; stripped him of the rank and dignity of a
legate, which no one had ever employed more to
the advantage of the holy see, and appointed in his
place an unskilful monk, bent with years, but vio-
lent in his prejudices *. Had it been Paul's object
to obstruct the work of restoration, he could not
have chosen more effectual means. It was, there-
fore, no wonder that after the early and unexpected
death of the queen and of the legate, the antago-
nist tendencies broke forth with fresh violence. The
persecutions which Pole condemned, but which his
bigoted opponents approved and encouraged, con-
tributed not a little to this result.

The question was then submitted to the pope.
It required the more mature deliberation, since it
unquestionably included Scotland. In that country
two religious parties were engaged in fierce feuds
with each other ; and the final decision of things in
England must determine the fate of Scotland also.
It was, therefore, a fact of great importance to the
catholic cause, that Elizabeth, at the beginning of

larium, iv. 4, 319.), in which he annulled, without exception, all
alienations of the old ecclesiastical possessions.
* Godwin's Annales Anglise, etc., p. 456.

320 PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM [BOOK lit.

her reign, by no means showed herself decidedly
protestant*; as a proof of which she had caused her
accession to be notified to the pope. Negotiations
were actually set on foot for a marriage between
her and Philip II., which at that time appeared very
probable.

It might have been imagined that nothing could
be more desirable to the pope than this event. But
prudence and moderation were not in Paul's nature.
He gave a repulsive, contemptuous answer to Eli-
zabeth's ambassador, "In the first place," said
he, " she must submit all her claims to our deci-

sion."

It must not be believed that the dignity and im-
portance of the apostolic see formed his sole motive
to this arrogant language. He had others. The
French wished, from national jealousy, to prevent
this marriage, and they found means to employ the
pious Theatines to represent to the aged pope that
Elizabeth was still a protestant at heart, and that
such an alliance could end in nothing goodf , The
Guises had the strongest interest in this intrigue.
If Elizabeth's claims to the crown were rejected by
the holy see, their sister's daughter, Mary Stuart,
dauphiness of France and queen of Scotland, was
next heiress to the throne of England, and the
Guises might hope to rule the three kingdoms in
her name. And, in fact, that princess assumed the
arms of England, subscribed her edicts with the

* Nares also, in his Memoirs of Burleigli, ii- p. 43, deems her
religious principles " at first liable to some doubts."
t Private narrative of Thuanus,

§ V/J DURING THE REIGN OF PAUL IV. 321

year of her reign over England and Ireland, and set
on foot warlike preparations in the ports of Scot-
land*.

Even if Elizabeth's own inclinations had not led
her to embrace the opinions of the protestants, she
would have been compelled by circumstances to
throw herself into the arms of that party. She did
so in the most determined manner, and succeeded
in assembling a parliament with a protestant ma-
jority f, by which all the changes constituting the
essential character of the English church were in
a few months effected.

Scotland necessarily felt the influence of this
turn of affairs. The progress of the catholic
French party was opposed by a national protestant
one, with which Elizabeth hastened to ally herself;
what is more strange, the Spanish ambassador ex-
horted her to this measure J. The treaty of Berwick,
which she concluded with the Scottish opposition,
threw the preponderancy into their scale. Even
before Mary Stuart set foot in her kingdom, she was
not only compelled to renounce her title to the
throne of England, but to ratify the acts of a par-
liament assembled in a protestant spirit ; — acts, by
one of which the performance of the mass was pro-
hibited under pain of death.

Thus it was, in great measure, a reaction

* In Forbes's Transactions, p. 402, there is a Responsio ad
Petitiones D. Glasion et Episc. Aquilani, by Cecil, -which dis-
plays all these motives in the most lively manner.

t Neal, History of the Puritans, i. 126 : " The court took
such measures about elections as seldom fail of success."

J Camden, Rerum Anglicarum Annales, p. 37.
VOL. I, Y

322 PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM. [BOOK III.

against the French claims backed by the pope,
which for ever secured the triumph of protestant-
ism in Great Britain.

Not that the inward impulses of those inclined
to the new opinions depended in any degree on
these political movements ; they had a far deeper
source ; but the crises which produced the out-
break, progress, and termination of the struggle,
generally coincided precisely with the political
changes.

A measure of Paul's had, on one occasion, great
influence over Germany. His old antipathy to the
house of Austria had led him to oppose the trans-
fer of the imperial crown, which compelled Ferdi-
nand I. to cultivate the friendship of theprotestant
allies more sedulously than heretofore. From that
time there was an union of the moderate princes
of both sides, who put themselves at the head of all
Germany, and under whose influence the ecclesi-
astical foundations of Lower Germany were trans-
ferred into the hands of protestant administrations.

It seemed as if the papacy was destined to expe-
rience no reverse which it had not contributed, in
some way or other, to bring about by its interfer-
ence in political affairs.

If at this moment we survey the world from the
heights of Rome, how enormous were the losses
which the catholic confession had sustained! Scan-
dinavia and Britain totally severed; Germany almost
entirely protestant ; Poland and Hungary in a state
of violent fermentation ; Geneva, a focus of heresy,
as important to the west and to the nations of

§ VI.] PIUS IV.

323

Roman descent, as Wittenberg to the east, and to
those of Germanic race ; even in France and the
Netherlands, a party rallying round the banner of
protestantism.

One hope only remained to the catholic faith.
In Spain and Italy the first movements of dissent
had been stifled and suppressed, and a strict eccle-
siastical spirit of restoration had arisen. However
injurious in other respects was the policy of Paul
IV., it had, at least, given power and weight to
this spirit in the court and the palace. The ques-
tion was, whether it could permanently maintain
itself there, and whether it would then have power
once more to pervade and to unite the catholic world.

§ 6. PIUS iv.

It is related, that once at a dinner of cardinals
Alessandro Farnese gave a garland to a boy who
was entertaining them with improvisation to the
lyre, and told him to offer it to the one among
them who should be pope hereafter. The boy,
Silvio Antoniano, afterwards a distinguished man
and himself a cardinal, immediately went up to
Giovan-Angelo Medici, and, reciting his praises,
gave him the wreath. This Medici was Paul's
successor, Pius IV.*.

His birth was mean. His father Bernardino

* Nicius Erythrseus relates this anecdote in the article upon
Antoniano, Rnacotheca, p. 37. Mazzuchelli also repeats it.
The election took place on the 26th of Dec., 1559.

Y2

324 PIUS IT. [BOOK m.

had settled originally at Milan, and had acquired a
small estate there by farming the taxes*. The
sons, however, were obliged to subsist as they
could ; the one, Giangiacomo, who took up the
profession of arms, at first entered the service of a
nobleman ; the other, of whom we are about to
speak, Gianangelo, devoted himself to study, but
in very narrow circumstances- Their fortune had
the following origin : Giangiacomo, bold and un-
scrupulous by nature, hired himself to the men
at the head of the government of Milan, to dispatch
one of their opponents of the Visconti family, called
Monsignorino. Scarcely, however, was the murder
perpetrated, when those who had plotted it, wished
to get rid of their tool as well as of their victim, and
sent the young man to a castle called Mus on the
lake of Como, with a letter to the castellan, de-
siring him to put to death the bearer. Giangiacomo
conceiving some suspicion, opened the letter, saw
what awaited him, and instantly took his resolu-
tion.

He chose a few trusty companions, gained en-
trance to the castle by means of the letter, and suc-
ceeded in getting possession of it. From that time
he assumed the character of an independent prince.
He harassed the Milanese, Swiss, and Venetians
incessantly from this strong fortress ; at last he
took the white cross and entered the imperial ser-

* Hieronymo Soranzo, Relatione di Roma : " Bernardino,
padre della B. S., fu stimata persona di somma bontfc e di gran
industria, ancora che fusse nato in povero e basso stato : nondi-
meno venuto habitar a Mflano si diede a pigliar datii in affitto/*

§ vi.] PIUS iv. 325

vice. He was created marchese di Marignano,
served as commander of the artillery in the war
against the Lutherans, and led the imperial army
before Siena *. His prudence was equal to his
boldness j he was successful in all his enterprises,
and wholly without pity* Many were the peasants
seeking to convey provisions into Siena, whom he
killed with a blow of his iron st$ff : there was not
a tree far or near on which he had not caused some
to be hanged ; it was reckoned that he had put to
death five thousand men. He conquered Siena,
and founded a considerable house.

The rise of Giangiacomo had been accompanied
by that of his brother Gianangelo- He took the
degree of doctor, and acquired reputation as a
jurist; he then bought a place at Rome, where he
speedily gained the confidence of Paul III., and,
when his brother the marchese married an Orsina,
(the sister of PierLuigi Farnese's wife,) he was made
a cardinal t- From that time, we find him charged
with the administration of papal cities, the conduct

* Ripamonte, Historise Urbis Mediolani. Natalia Comes
Hist.

t Soranzo : " Nato 1499, si dottor6 1525, vivendo in studio
cosi strettamente che il Pasqua suo medico, che stava con lui a
dozena, 1* accommodb un gran tempo del suo servitore e di
qualche altra cosa necessaria. Del 1527 comprb un protonota-*
riato. Servendo il Cl. Farnese [Ripamonte himself makes men-
tion of his good understanding with Paul III J colla piu assidua
diligenza, s'ando mettendo in anzi : ebbe diversi impieghi, dove
acquisto nome di persona Integra e giusta e di natura officiosa."
The marriage of the marquis followed, " con promessa di far lui
cardinale."

326 PIUS iv. [BOOK in.

of political negotiations, and more than once with
the commissariat of papal armies.

He was clever, discreet, and good-natured.
Paul IV., however, could not endure him, and once
made a violent attack upon him in the consistory,
on which account Medici thought it most expedient
to leave Rome. He lived sometimes at the baths
of Pisa, and sometimes in Milan, which he adorned
with numerous buildings ; he beguiled his exile
by literary occupations, and by a splendid bene-
ficence which procured for him the name of the
Father of the Poor. Perhaps the complete con-
trast which he afforded to Paul IV. contributed
mainly to his election. This contrast was unusually
striking.

Paul IV., a high-born Neapolitan of the anti-
Austrian faction, a zealot, a monk, and an inqui-
sitor: Pius IV., a Milanese adventurer, through
his brother, and through some other German rela-
tions, closely connected with the house of Austria,
a jurist, of a free and worldly disposition. Paul IV.
had held himself at an unapproachable distance;
in the commonest business he would display his
state and dignity : Pius was all good-humour and
condescension. Every day he was seen in the
streets on horseback or on foot almost without at-
tendants ; he talked freely and affably with everyone.

The Venetian despatches bring us perfectly ac-
quainted with him*. The ambassadors find him

* Ragguagli dell* Ambasciatore Veneto da Roma, 1561. By
Marco Antonio Amulio (Mula)., Infonnatt. Polit. xxxvii,

$ vi.] PIUS iv. 327

writing and transacting business in a large, cool
room; he rises and walks up and down with them ;
— or he is going to the Belvedere ; he sits down
without laying the stick out of his hand, instantly
listens to their communications, and then proceeds
on his way in their company. But if he treated
them with confidence and familiarity, he chose to be
treated with politeness and respect in return. The
clever expedients which the Venetians sometimes
propose to him, amuse him, and draw from him
smiles and praises ; while, in spite of his fidelity to
the Austrian cause, he is annoyed by the inflexible,
domineering manners of the Spanish envoy, Parga.
He dislikes details, which soon tire him, but so long
as people keep to what is general and important,
they always find him in good humour and easy to
deal with. Then he pours forth a thousand cordial
protestations, — how he hates bad men with all his
heart, — is by nature a lover of justice, — would in-
fringe no man's liberty, — would show kindness and
friendliness to all ; — especially, however, intends to
labour with all his might for the church. He hoped
in God he might accomplish some good.

These descriptions bring him before us in all the
truth and vividness of life; a portly old man, yet still
active enough to repair before sunrise to his coun-
try-house with a gay countenance and cheerful eye ;
deriving his chief pleasures from conversation, the
table, and convivial diversion; when recovered from
a sickness which had been considered dangerous,
he mounted his horse immediately, rode to a house
where he had lived when cardinal, stepped vigo-

328 PIUS iv. [BOOK in.

rously tip and down the stairs, — " No, no," said
he, " we are not going to die yet."

But was such a pope, of so jovial and worldly a
temper, formed to govern the church in the critical
situation in which it was then placed ? Was there
not reason to fear that he would deviate from the
course so lately entered upon by his predecessor ?
I will not undertake to deny that his nature inclined
him to totally different measures, yet no change
did in fact take place.

He was, in his heart, no friend to the inquisition;
he blamed the monkish severity of its proceedings,
and seldom, or never visited the congregation, — but
he ventured not to attack them ; he declared that
he knew nothing about the matter, — that he was
no theologian ; he left it in possession of all the
power it had acquired under Paul IV.*.

He made a fearful example of the nephews of
that pope. The excesses committed by the duke
of Palliano, even after his fall, (among other atroci-
ties, the murder of his wife in a fit of jealousy,)
gave the enemies of the Caraffas, who thirsted for
vengeance, an easy advantage. A criminal process
was instituted against them, during which they
were accused of the most revolting crimes, rob-
beries, forgeries, murders, combined with the most

* Soranzo : " Se bene si conobbe, non esser di sua aatisfa-
tione II modo che tengono gl' inquisitor! di procedere per 1' ordina-
rio con tanto rigoie contia gl' inquisiti, e che si lascia intendere
che pft li piaceria che usasseio termini da cortege gentiluomo
che da frate severe, non di meno non ardisce o non vuolc mai op-
poner&i ai giudicii loro."

§ vi.] PIUS iv. 329

arbitrary exercise of power, and a system of con-
stant deception practised upon the aged Paul. "We
are in possession of their defence, which is not
without a semblance of justification^. But their
accusers prevailed. After the pope had caused the
documents to be read to him in the consistory one
day, from early morning till late in the evening,
he passed sentence of death upon them, viz. the
cardinal, the duke of Pallkno, and two of their
nearest relations, count AliiFe and Leonardo di
Cardine. Montebello and some others had es-
caped. The cardinal perhaps expected banish-
ment, but certainly not death. His sentence was
announced to him in the morning before he was up,
and, when no doubt was left him, he hid his face
in the bed-clothes ; then, raising himself up, he
clasped his hands and uttered those words which
are so often the last expression of despair from the
lips of an Italian, — " Bene, pazienza." He was
not permitted to have his usual confessor. He
had, as may be imagined, much to say to the one
they sent him, and his confession lasted rather
long. " Monsignore," said the officer of police,
" you must have done, we have other business in
hand."

* Detailed accounts of these events, principally taken from
Nores, are to be found in Bromato. In the Informatt. we like-
wise find the letters of Mula, e. g. 19th of July, 1560; the Ex-
tractus Processes Cardinalis Caraffse ; and El sucesso de la muerte
de los Carafas, con la declaracion y el modo que murieron. La
Morte de CL Caraffa, (Library at Venice, vi. n. 39,) is the MS.
which Bromato had before him, in addition to that of Nores.

330 PIUS iv. [BOOK in.

Thus perished the kinsmen of Paul IV. They
were the last who aimed at independent princi-
palities on the ground of consanguinity with the
pontiff, and who brought about great and general
movements for the sake of their own political pro-
jects. Since Sixtus IV., we have seen Geronimo
Riario, Cesare Borgia, Lorenzo Medici, Pier-Luigi
Farnese; — the Caraffas close the list. In later
times, nepotism showed itself again, but in a totally
different form. That in which it had hitherto ap-
peared was extinct,

It was manifestly impossible that after so terrible
an execution, Pius IV. could entertain a thought of
conferring on his own family a power like that
which he had visited so inexorably on the Caraffas.
Besides, his lively, active temper inclined him to
keep the reins of government in his own hands ;
he decided no important business without hearing
and weighing the whole matter himself; he was
reproached rather with relying too little than too
much on foreign aid. It is also to be remembered
that one of his nephews, whom he might have
wished to promote, Federigo Borromeo, died young,
The other, Carlo Borromeo, was no man for
worldly aggrandisement. He would never have
accepted it. Efe regarded the position in which he
stood with relation to the pope, and the connex-
ion in which it placed him with the most import-
ant affairs, not as conferring on him a right to any
advantage or to any indulgence, but as imposing
a duty to which he was bound to devote his utmost

§vi.] PIUS iv. 331

care. This he did with equal modesty and per-
severance \ he was unwearied in giving audience ;
he attended with the greatest solicitude to the admi-
nistration of the state, to which end he called around
him a collegium of eight doctors, (out of which grew
the important institution of the consulta^ and after
hearing their opinions, he delivered his own to the
pope. His life was such that we cannot wonder if
after death he was revered as a saint ; even at
the time we are speaking of his whole conduct was
equally noble and blameless. " So far as is known,"
says Geronimo Soranzo, " he is pure from all spot or
stain ; he lives so religiously and sets so good an ex-
ample, that he leaves even the best men nothing to
desire. It is his greatest praise that, in the prime
of his life, nephew of a pope, and in the full enjoy-
ment of his favour, in a court where every kind of
pleasure is at his disposal, he lives so exemplary
a life." His recreation was to assemble a few
learned men about him in an evening. The con-
versation began with profane literature, but from
Epictetus and the Stoics, whom Borromeo, then
young, did not despise, it soon turned upon theo-
logical questions, which even in his leisure hours
were uppermost in his mind*. If any fault could be
found with him, it was for no deficiency of purity of
intention, or of industry, but in some degree, of ta-
lent; while his servants complained that they were
obliged to forgo those rich proofs of favour which in

* Viz., the Noctes Vatican®, mentioned by Glussianus, Vita
Carol! Borromei, i. iv. 22.

332 PIUS iv. [BOOK in.

former times had been showered upon all who fol-
lowed in the train of nepotism.

Thus did the qualities of the nephew supply
whatever defects severer judges might find in the
uncle. At all events, things went on in the same
track ; spiritual and temporal affairs were con-
ducted with zeal and with regard to the interests
of the church, and the work of reform advanced.
The pope publicly admonished the bishops to reside
in their dioceses, and some were seen immediately
to kiss his foot and take their leave. When once
the prevalent ideas of an age have gained the
upper hand, their force is irresistible. The ten-
dency towards severity of ecclesiastical manners
and opinions had become omnipotent in Rome, and
not even the pope could deviate from it.

But if the somewhat worldly character of this
pontiff had not sufficient influence to check the re-
vival of a strictly religious spirit, we may remark
that, on the other hand, it contributed in an incal-
culable degree to the healing of the divisions which
had arisen in the catholic world.

Paul IV. imagined that it was the vocation of a
pope to rule over emperors and kings, — an idea
which plunged him into continual wars and animo-
sities. Pius saw this error the more clearly, inas-
much as it was committed by an immediate prede-
cessor, with whom too he felt that he stood in com-
plete contrast. " It was thus we lost England,"
exclaimed he, " which we might have retained still,
if cardinal Pole had been better supported; it was

§ vi.] PIUS iv. 333

thus also that Scotland has been wrested from us ;
and that during the war which sentiments like these
excited, the German doctrines have penetrated into
France.'3

He, on the contrary, desired peace above all
things. Even a war with the protestants he dis-
liked ; when the ambassador from Savoy solicited
him to support an attack on Geneva, he repeatedly
interrupted him, exclaiming, cc What sort of times
are these, then, for making such a proposition ? I
want nothing so much as peace *."

He wished to stand well with everybody. He
dispensed his ecclesiastical favours readily, and
when he was forced to refuse anything, did it
with address and modesty. He did not hesitate to
avow his persuasion that the power of the pope
could no longer sustain itself unsupported by the
authority of temporal sovereigns.

The latter part of the reign of Paul IV. was dis-
tinguished by the universal demand once more
made by the catholic world for a council. It is
certain that Pius IV. would have found the greatest
difficultyin evading this demand. He could no longer
urge the pretext of war as his predecessors had done,
for all Europe was at length at peace. It was even
imperatively required by his own interests, for the

* Mula, 14 Feb., 1561. Pius begged him to say: "Che
liavemo animo di stare in pace, e che non sapemo niente di questi
pensieri del duca di Savoia, e ci meravigliamo che vada cercando
queste cose : non e tempo da fare T impresa di Ginevra n& da far
generali. Scrivete che siamo constant! in questa opinione di star
in pace,"

334 PIUS iv. [BOOK in.

French threatened to convene a national council
which might easily have led to a schism. In
truth however it appears to me that, independ-
ently of these considerations, his own wishes
leaned most strongly that way. We have only to
listen to his own expressions : " We wish for a
council," says he; "we certainly desire that it
should be held, and that it should be -universal. If
we were averse to it, we might amuse the world for
years with difficulties, but, on the contrary, we
seek to remove all such. It shall reform what
wants to be reformed, even in our own person and
in our own affairs. If we have any thought m
our minds but that of serving God, may God's
chastisement light upon us." It often appeared
to him that he was not duly supported by the
princes in an undertaking of such magnitude and
importance. One morning the Venetian ambas-
sador found him in bed, lame of the gout, and full
of these thoughts. " We have good intentions,"
said he, " but we are alone." " I was struck with
pity," says the ambassador, " at seeing him in
bed,' and hearing Mm say, 'We are alone, to sup-
port so great a burthen.' "

He, however, commenced operations. On the
1 8th of January, 1 562, a sufficient number of bishops
and delegates were collected in Trent to render it
possible a third time to begin the twice-interrupted
council. The pope took the most lively interest hi
its proceedings. "Certainly," says Girolamo Spran-
zo, who on other points is no partisan of Pius's,
" bis holiness has shown all the zeal in this matter

§ VII.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 335

which could be expected from so exalted a shepherd.
He has neglected nothing that could conduce to so
holy and so necessary a work."

§ 7, LATER SITTINGS OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.

The state of the world was entirely altered since
the first convocation of this council. The pope
had now no longer to fear that a powerful em-
peror would make use of it as an instrument to
obtain dominion over the see of Rome. Ferdinand
I. was totally without influence in Italy. Neither
was there any further need for anxiety as to serious
errors on essential points of the catholic faith5*.
It was now, though not yet perfectly developed,
dominant over the greater part of the catholic
world, in the form given to it at the first sittings of
the council. The project of reuniting the protest-
ants to the church could no longer be seriously
entertained ; in Germany they had taken up a po-
sition too strong to be attacked ; in the north the
spirit of their church had infused itself even into
the government ; in England the same process
had already begun. While the pope declared that

*This was the opinion of Ferdinand I. Litterse ad Le-
gatos, 12 Aug., 1562, in Le Plat, Monum. ad Hist. Cone. Tri-
dentini, v. p. 452 : " Quid enim attinet — disquireie de his dog-
matibus, de quibus apud omnes non solum principes verum etiam
privates homines catholicos nulla nunc penitus existit discepta-
tio?."

336 LATER SITTINGS OP THE [BOOK III.

the new council was merely a continuation of the
former ones, and at last silenced those who op-
posed the measure, he himself abandoned all hope
that the event would prove this assertion to be
true. For how could it be expected that the
free protestants would join in a council by whose
former decrees the most important articles of
their faith had been condemned* ? Hence the in-
fluence of the council was at the very outset limited
to the extremely narrowed circle of catholic nations,
Its efforts were thus confined principally to the
following points : — to settle the differences which
had arisen between the catholic powers and the
head of the church ; distinctly to settle the rule
of faith on some still uncertain points ; and, above
all, to complete the internal reform which was
already begun, and to lay down rules of discipline
possessing universal authority.

Bat even this attempt was full of difficulty, and
the most violent disputes soon arose amongst the
assembled fathers.

The Spaniards proposed the question, whether
the residence of bishops in their dioceses was by
divine command, or merely human appointment.
Thi^, indeed, might seem an idle discussion, as, by

* The principal ground urged in the protest of the reformers :
Causse cur Electores Principes aliique Augustanse confession! ad*
juncti status recusent adire concilium : Le Flat, iv. p. 57. They
remark, in the first declaration, upon the important words:
" Omni suspensione sublata." They recall the condemnation
passed upon their doctrines at an earlier period, and diffusely en-
large upon the fact;, " cpce mala sub ea confinnatione lateant."

§ VII.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 337

all, residence was considered indispensable. But
the Spaniards maintained, that the episcopal author-
ity was not a mere emanation from the papal, as
was asserted at Rome, but that its origin rested im-
mediately on divine appointment. This assertion
struck at the very root of the whole ecclesiastical
system. The independence of the inferior authori-
ties of the church, which the popes had so carefully
laboured to keep down, must have been restored
by the development of this principle.

In the midst of the most violent disputes on this
subject, the imperial ambassadors arrived. The ar-
ticles which they proposed are highly remarkable ;
one is thus expressed : " It were to be wished that
the pope should humble himself according to the
example of Christ, and submit to a reform affecting
his own person, his dominions, and his curia. The
council must reform the nomination of cardinals as
well as the conclave." Ferdinand used to say, " As
the cardinals are not good, how can they choose a
good pope?" He wished to see the plan of the
council of Constance, which had never been carried
into execution, adopted as the basis of the reforms
he contemplated. The resolutions were to be pre-
pared by deputations from the different countries.
But besides this, he demanded the cup at the sa-
crament, permission for the priests to marry, dis-
pensation from fasting for some of his subjects, the
erection of schools for the poor, the purification
of the breviary, legends, and postils, more intel-
ligible catechisms, church music adapted to Ger-

VOL. i. z

338 LATER SITTINGS OF THE [BOOK III.

man words, and a reformation of the convents,
for this reason, among others, " that their great
riches should not be applied to such infamous pur-
poses*." These were indeed most important de-
mands, and such as would necessarily lead to a
fundamental change in the constitution of the
church. The emperor pressed for their discussion
in repeated letters.

At length the cardinal of Lorraine appeared, ac-
companied by the French prelates. He seconded
the German propositions. He demanded especially,
that the cup should be granted to the laity, the sacra-
ments administered in the language of the people,
preaching and instruction introduced at the mass,
and permission given to sing the psalms in French in
fall congregation : — all, things from which the most
important results were hoped in France. ' ' We are
quite certain," says the king, " that the granting
the cup to the laity will calm many troubled con-
sciences, and restore to the church whole provinces
which have seceded from it ; in short, it would be

* Pallavicini almost entirely overlooks these demands, xvii,
1, 6. They are inconvenient to him, nor have they, in feet, ever
been made known under their proper form. They are presented
to us in three extracts. The first is to be found in P. Saipi, lib.
vi. p, 325, and, likewise, with no variation, except that it is in
Latin, in Rainaldi and Goldast. The second is contained in
Baitholomseus de Martyrihus, and is somewhat more detailed,
Schelhorn has taken the third from the papers of Staphylus.
They do not perfectly agree. I am inclined to think the origi-
nal is to be found at Vienna ; it must be a remarkable docu-
ment. I have abided by the extract in Schelhorn. Le Hat
gives them all, as well as the answer.

§VII.] COUNCIL OP TRENT. 339

one of the best means of allaying the disturbances
which agitate our dominions5*." But not content
with this, the French again revived the decrees of
the council of Basle, and openly asserted that the au-
thority of a council was superior to that of the pope.

The Spaniards were however by no means pre-
pared to concur in the demands of the Germans and
the French ; they most vehemently condemned the
granting the cup to the laity and the marriage of the
priests, so that no concession could be obtained
from the council on these points ; nothing was car-
ried, but that the expediency of granting the per-
mission should be referred to the pope. But there
were points on which the three nations jointly op-
posed the claims of the curia. They thought it in-
tolerable that the legates should possess the sole
right of bringing forward propositions : but that
these very legates should also apply for the pope's
approbation of every decision before they would
agree to it, appeared to them an insult to the dig-
nity of a council. " In this manner of proceeding,"
said the emperor, ct there would be in fact two
councils, one at Trent, the other, and the true one,
at Rome."

If, in this state of opinions, questions had been
carried by the votes of nations, what strange and
astonishing decrees would have emanated from this
council !

As, however, this was not the case, the three na-
tions united were still in a minority. The Italians

* M^moire bailie & Mr. le 01. de Lorraine, quand il est parti
pour aller au concile ; Le Plat, iv. 562.

340 LATER SITTINGS OF THE [BOOK III.

were far more numerous, and, as usual, defended
the opinions of the curia, on which most of them
were dependent, without much regard to principle
or conscience. Hence arose the bitterest mutual
animosity.

The French jested ahout the Holy Ghost being
brought to Trent in a knapsack. The Italians
talked of Spanish eruptions and French diseases by
which all the faithful were visited in turn. When
the bishop of Cadiz said, that there had been re-
nowned bishops, aye, and fathers of the church,
whom no pope had appointed, the Italians broke
forth in a general outcry, insisted on his depar-
ture, and talked of anathema and heresy. The
Spaniards retaliated the anathema on them*. Some-
times mobs assembled, shouting, Spain! — Italy 1
Blood flowed in the streets and on the ground con-
secrated to peace.

"Was it surprising, that for ten months no sitting
could be held ? that the first legate dissuaded the
pope from going to Bologna, representing to him
what would be said if, even by his presence, the
council could not be brought to any proper termi-
nation, and had to be dissolved f ? But a disso-
lution, a suspension, or even only a translation,
which had often been thought of, would have been
extremely dangerous. At Rome, nothing but mis-

* PaJlavicini, xv. v. 5. Paleotto, Acta : " Alii preelati inge-
minabant, clamantes, * Exeat, exeat ; ' et alii, ' Anathema sit/
ad qpios Grranatensis conversus respondit, * Anathema vos estis.' "
Mendhain, Memoirs of the Council of Trent, p. 251.

t Lettere del Cle di Mantua, Legato al Concilio di Trento,
scritta al Papa Pio IV., li 15 (Jen., 1563 : '? Quando si avesse da

§ VII.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 341

chief was anticipated ; a council was thought too
strong a remedy for the enfeebled constitution of
the church, and ruin was predicted for it and for
Italy from the measure. " A few days before my
departure, in the beginning of the year 1563," says
Girolamo Soranzo, " Cardinal Carpi, the deacon
of the college, a man of great judgment, said to me
in his last illness, that he had prayed to God mer-
cifully to grant him death, and not to let him live
to see the downfall and interment of Rome. All
the other distinguished cardinals incessantly lament
their ill fortune, and clearly see there is no help for
them, unless from the especial protection of God's
holy hand*." Pius IV. dreaded to see all the evils
which any of his predecessors had ever anticipated
from a council, poured out on his own head.

It is a sublime idea, that in seasons of difficulty,
and especially during great errors in the church,
there exists an assembly of her chief shepherds
able to remedy the evil. " Let such an assembly,"
says Augustin, " consult together without arro-
gance or envy, in holy humility, in catholic peace;
and, after acquiring greater experience, let it open

dissolversi questo concilio — per causa d" altii e non nostra, — mi
piaceria pitL che Via Beatitudine fosse restataa Roma."

* ' ' Li Cardinal! di maggior autoriffc deploravano con tutti a
tutte 1* ore laloro miseria, la quale stimano tanto maggiore che
vedono e conoscono assai chiaro, non esservi rimedio cdcuno se
non quello che piacesse dare al Sr Dio con la sua santissima
mano. — Certo non si pu6 se non temere/1 adds Soranzo himself,
" Ser1"0 Principe, che la povera Italia afflitta per altre cause
habbi ancor a sentire afflittione per questo particolarmente: lo
vedono e lo conoscono tutti i savj."

342 LATER SITTINGS OF THE [BOOK III.

that which was closed, and bring to light that
which was hidden." But even in the earliest
times this ideal was far from heing realised ; it
would, indeed, have required a purity of intention,
and an independence of all foreign influences, which
does not appear to be granted to man. How far less
attainable was it now, when the church was involved
in a thousand contradictory relations with the

state !

That, in spite of their imperfections, the councils
continued to enjoy great consideration, and were
often urgently demanded, principally arose from
the necessity of imposing some restraint on the
power of the popes. The present state of afiairs
seemed, however, to prove the truth of what they
had always asserted,— that in times of great per-
plexity a convocation tended much rather to in-
crease, than to remove the difficulties. The whole
of Italy shared the fears of the curia. " Either/3
said they, " the council will be continued, or it will
be dissolved ; in the former case, especially should
the pope die in the mean time, the ultramontane
party will manage the conclave according to their
own views, and to the prejudice of Italy ; they will
impose so many restrictions on the reigning pope as
to leave him little more than mere bishop of Home ;
under the name of a reform, they will destroy all
appointments and ruin the whole curia, If, on
the other hand, it should be dissolved without any
good results, even the faithful would take great
offence at it, and the wavering be placed in the
utmost danger of being utterly lost."

§ VII.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 343

If we consider the state of things, we shall see
the total impossibility of producing any change in
the prevailing sentiments of the council itself. In
direct opposition to the legates, who were guided
by the pope, and to the Italians, who were depend-
ent on him, stood the prelates of the other nations,
who in their turn sided each with the ambassador
of his own sovereign. Thus no reconciliation, no
expedient for mediation, was practicable. Even in
February, 1563., the position of affairs seemed
desperate. Universal discord prevailed ; each
party obstinately adhered to its own opinions.

But on a more careful examination of the pre-
cise state of things, a possibility of escaping from
this labyrinth appeared.

In Trent, opinions only met and fought ; — their
sources were at Rome and at the courts of the se-
veral princes. In order to remove the difficulty, it
was necessary to go to the fountain-head. Pius IV.
had already said that the papacy could no longer
support itself without an alliance with other powers ;
nowwas the moment to put this maxim into practice.
He at one time entertained the project of receiving
the demands of the different courts himself, and
granting them without the intervention of the
council, but this would have been a half measure
only. The essential point was, to put an end to
the council in concert with the other great powers,
without whose cooperation this object could not be
accomplished.

Paul IV. resolved to make the attempt, in which

344 LATER SITTINGS OF THE [BOOK III,

he was seconded by Morone, the most able and
statesmanlike of his cardinals.

The most important person to gain was the em-
peror Ferdinand, with whom, as we have already
said, the French had allied themselves, and who
enjoyed no little consideration from his nephew

Philip II.

Morone, who had been lately elected president
of the council, hut quickly felt convinced that no-
thing was to be accomplished at Trent, went in
April, 1563, unaccompanied by a single other pre-
late, to visit the emperor at Inspruck j he found
him annoyed, discontented, and offended, con-
vinced that no serious reform would be tolerated at
Rome, and determined, in the first place, to pro-
cure the freedom of the council*.

In order to pacify the offended sovereign, the
legate needed remarkable address, of the kind we
should how call diplomatic f-

Ferdinand was incensed because his articles of
reformation had been placed at the end, and, in-
deed, had not yet been really brought under consi-

* To this place belongs also the Relatione in scr. fatta dul Co-
mendone ai SlJ Legati del Concilio sopra le cose ritratte dall'
Impeiatore, 19 Febr,, 1563 : " Pare che pensino trovar modo c
forma di haver pifc partcet autoritk nel presentc concilio per sta-
bfliie in esso tutte le loro petition! giuntamente con li Francesi."

t The most important document I have met with, relating to
the transactions at Trent, is Morone's Narrative of his Legation ;
it is short, but conclusive. Neither Sarpi or Palkvicini contain,
any notice of it. Relatione sonamaria del CL Morone sopra la
Legatione sua. Alticri Library at Rome. vii. f. 3.

§ VII.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 345

deration. The legate contrived to persuade him
that it had been thought hazardous, for reasons by
no means to be despised, to discuss them with all
the formalities ; but that, nevertheless, the most
important points had already been considered, and
even determined on. The emperor complained,
furthermore, that the council was directed from
Rome, and that the conduct of the legates was de-
termined by instructions sent from thence. Morone
remarked, on the other hand, what was not to be
denied, that the ambassadors from royal courts
brought instructions from home, and were con-
stantly furnished with fresh suggestions.

In fact, Morone, who had long enjoyed the confi-
dence of the house of Austria, got over this most
delicate matter very successfully ; he softened the
unfavourable personal impressions which the em-
peror had received, and devoted himself entirely to
bring about a mutual agreement on those points of
dispute which had caused the greatest divisions at
Trent. It was not his intention to give way in es-
sentials, nor to suffer the power of the pope to be
weakened ; "The matter was," to use his own words,
" to hit upon such decisions as might satisfy the
emperor, without trenching on the authority of the
pope or the legates *."

The first of these points was, the exclusive initia-

* " Fu necessario trovare temperamento tale, che paresse all*
imperatore di essere in alcuno modo satisfatto, et insieme non si
pregiudicasse all' autorita del papa n£ de' legati, ma restasse il
concilio nel suo possesso."

346 LATER SITTINGS OF THE [BOOK 111.

tive of the legates, which, it was always maintained,
was completely at variance with the freedom of a
council. Morone remarked, that it was not the
interest of princes to grant the initiative to all pre-
lates,— a truth of which it could not he very diffi-
cult for him to convince the emperor. It was easy
to see that the hishops in possession of this right
would very soon hring forward propositions in a
spirit hostile to the existing claims and rights of
the state. It was therefore manifest what disorders
must arise out of such a concession. Nevertheless
they desired in some degree to meet the wishes
of the princes, and the expedient they adopted
is remarkahle. Morone promised to hring forward
everything that the ambassadors might submit to
him for this purpose ; adding that if he did not do
this, they should have the right of proposing any
measures themselves : — an endeavour at concilia-
tion manifesting the spirit which gradually began to
prevail in the council. The legates admit a case
in which they would renounce the exclusive initia-
tive, hut not so much in favour of the fathers of the
council, as in that of the ambassadors*. Hence it

* Summarium eomm quse dicuntur Acta inter Caesaream Ma-
jestatem et Illustrissimum Cardinalem Moronum, in the Acts
of Torellus j also, in Salig, Geschichte des tridentinischen Conci-
liums, iii. A. 292 ; — this is expressed in the following manner :
"Maj. S. sibi reservavit, vel per medium dictorum legatorum, vel
si ipsi in hoc gravarentur, per se ipsum vel per ministros suos, pro-
poni curare :" — I acknowledge that I should not readily have in-
ferred from these words such a negotiation as Morone states,
although, in fact, it is implied in them.

§ VII.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 347

follows, that it was the princes alone who acquired
a portion of the rights hitherto exclusively enjoyed
by the pope*

A second point was the demand, that the depu-
tations which prepared the decrees should be al-
lowed to assemble according to their several na-
tions. Morone observed, that, in fact and practice,
they had always done so ; but that, since the em-
peror wished it, the rule should now be established
and strictly adhered to.

The third point of difference was then discussed,
— reform. Ferdinand at last consented that the
expression — reformation of the head — should be
avoided ; as well as the old question debated in the
Sorbonne, — whether the authority of the council was
superior to that of the pope, or not : in considera-
tion of which, Morone, on his side, promised a
thorough reform in all branches. The project of
this which was drawn up, included even the con-
clave.

Having dismissed these main questions, they
were soon agreed on the secondary ones. The
emperor withdrew many of his demands, and in-
structed his ambassadors above all things to keep
on good terms with the papal legates. After this
successful arrangement of affairs, Morone re-crossed
the Alps. " As soon,3' says he, " as the favour-
able decision of the emperor, and the union of
the ambassadors with the papal legates, was fully
believed, the council began to change its aspect,
and to be much more easy to treat with."

To this, other circumstances contributed.

348 LATER SITTINGS OP THE [BOOK III.

The Spaniards and French had quarrelled about
the right of precedence of the representatives of
their several kings, and from that time were much
less inclined to co-operate. Separate negotiations
were therefore set on foot with each.

Philip II. was, by the nature of his position, in
most urgent need of a good understanding with
the holy see. His power in Spain was mainly
founded on religious interests, and his first care
must be to keep these in his hands. Of this the
Koman court was well aware, and the nuncio
from Madrid often said, that a peaceful termina-
tion of the council was no less desirable to the
king than to the pope. The Spanish prelates had
already stirred the matter of the burthens on eccle-
siastical property, which, in their country, formed
a considerable part of the revenues of the state ;
the king took alarm at this, and begged the pope
to prohibit such offensive discussions*. How then
could he entertain a thought of procuring for his
prelates the privilege of moving questions, when
he was occupied, on the contrary, in keeping them
within bounds? Pius complained of the violent
opposition which he always had to encounter from
the Spaniards, and the king promised to take mea-
sures to reduce them to obedience. In short, the
pope and the king came to the conviction that
their interests were the same, and entered into
further negotiations. The pope threw himself en-
tirely into the arms of the king, while the king so-
lemnly promised the pope to come to his aid in
* Paolo Tiepolo, Dispaccio di Spagna, 4th Dec., 1562.

§ VII.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 349

every difficulty with all the power and resources of
his kingdom.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the French grew
more favourable to the pope. The Guises, who
had so great an influence both on the government
at home and on the council, imparted to their po-
licy in both places a character and tendency the
most strongly and increasingly catholic. It was
entirely owing to the compliances of the cardinal
de Guise, that, after ten months' delay, after eight
several adjournments, a session was at length held.

But there was also a talk of an alliance of the
strictest kind. Guise proposed a congress of the
most powerful catholic princes, the pope, the em-
peror, and the kings of France and Spain*.

In order to discuss this more fully he went him-
self to Rome : and the pope cannot find words to
express his admiration " of his Christian zeal for
the service of God and the public tranquillity, not
only in the affairs of the council, but in others
which regard the universal wealf."

It appears that the proposed congress was very
agreeable to the pope, and that he sent ambassa-
dors to the emperor and king to arrange prelimina-
ries.

Not in Trent, therefore, but at the several
courts, and by political negotiations, were the im-

* Instruttione data a Mons. Carlo Visconti, mandate da Papa
Pio IV. al Re catt,, per le cose del Concilio di Trento, (ultimo
Ottobre, 1563) : Barberini Library, 3007.

t " II beneficio universale : " Lettera di Papa Pio IV., 20 Otto-
bre, 1563.

350 LATER SITTINGS OP THE [BOOK III.

portant dissensions appeased, and the great obsta-
cles to a successful termination of the council re-
moved,

Morone, who had contributed the most to this
result, had also found the art of conciliating the
prelates personally; he gave them all the considera-
tion, the applause, the favour, they desired*. He
afforded a signal proof what a man of sense and ad-
dress, who understands the situation of affairs, and
proposes to himself an object compatible with it,
can effect, even in circumstances of the greatest
difficulty. To him, if to any man, is the catholic
church indebted for the happy issue of the council.
The way was now smoothed, and, as he himself
says, there remained only to enter upon the diffi-
culties inherent in the matter. The old disputed
question of the necessity of residence and the divine
right of bishops, was still pending. For a long
time the Spaniards were immoveable in their doc-
trines, which, even so late as July, 1563, they de-
clared to be as infallible as the Ten Command-
ments ; the archbishop of Granada wished to see
all books prohibited, in which the contrary opinions
were maintained f; nevertheless, when the decree
was drawn up, they consented to the suppression
of their principle, while a form was adopted which

* I have not yet seen the Life of Ayala, by Villanueva, in
which; as I find, there must be some notice of this matter. In
the mean while the assertion of Morone is quite sufficient : " I
prelati," he says, " accarezzati e stiraati e lodati e gratiati si fe-
cero piU trattabili."

f Scrittuiandfc Lettere e Memorie del Nuncio Visconti, ii, J.74.

§ VII.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 351

still left it possible for them to defend it at any fu-
ture time ; an ambiguity which Lainez thought
particularly worthy of praise*.

The same course was pursued as to the other
point in debate, — the initiative, — proponentibus le-
gatis. The pope declared that every individual
should be free to ask and to say, what he had a
right, according to the ancient councils, to say or
to ask; only he must carefully avoid using the
word, to propose^. An evasion was thus disco-
vered which satisfied the Spaniards, while the pope
had in fact conceded nothing.

After the obstacles created by political interests
and views had been withdrawn, the council sought
not so much to decide, as by adroit mediation to
get rid of, the questions which had given occasion
to bitterness and anger.

In this temper of the assembly the less important
and doubtful points were more easily disposed of,
and never did business advance more rapidly. The
weighty dogmas of the ordination of the clergy, the
sacrament of marriage, indulgences, purgatory, the
worship of saints, and by far the most considerable
reformatory ordinances which the council had ever
drawn up, fall within the three last sessions in the
latter half of the year 1563.

The congregations on both sides were composed
of different nations. The project of reform was

* " Ejus verba in utramque partem pie satis posse exponi : "
Paleotto in Mendham's Memoirs of the Council of Trent, p. 262.
f Pallavicini, xxiii. 6, 5,

352 LATER SITTINGS OF THE [BOOK III.

discussed in five separate assemblies ; one French,
which met at the house of cardinal de Guise ; one
Spanish, at that of the Archbishop of Granada; and
three Italian *.

On most questions they easily came to an agree-
ment: the only two real difficulties that presented
themselves were, as to the exemption of chapters,
and the plurality of livings, in which private in-
terests once more played an important part.

The former of these questions especially affected
Spain; where the chapters had already lost some-
what of the extraordinary privileges they had for-
merly possessed. While they wished to regain
them, the king aimed at curtailing them still more ;
as he appointed the bishops, he was himself inter-
ested in the extension of the episcopal power. The
pope, on the contrary, was for the chapters ; since
the unconditional subjection of them to the bishops
would have tended not a little to diminish his in-
fluence over the church of Spain.

These two great powers were, therefore, once
more brought into collision on this point, and it
was a question which would gain the majority.
The king, too, was extremely strong in the council;
his ambassador had had power to send away a de-
legate who was appointed by the chapters to watch
over their privileges ; he had so many ecclesiasti-

* The best accounts of this subject, taken from authentic let-
ters, are to be found, where they would not be looked for, in
Baini, Vita di Palestrina, L 199. The Diary of Servantio, made
use of by Mendham, (p, 304,) touches on the affair.

$ VII.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 353

cal favours to dispense, that no man liked to risk a
rupture with him; in consequence of which, when it
came to the voting orally, the result was unfavour-
able to the chapters. The expedient which the
papal legates next devised, is worth notice. They
determined this time that the votes should be given
in writing : the oral declarations, delivered in the
presence of so many adherents of the king, were
overruled by the influence of Spain ; but this was
not the case with the written ones, which passed
immediately into the hands of the legates. By this
means, therefore, they succeeded in obtaining a
considerable majority in favour of the papal party
and the chapters ; supported by which, they then,
with Guise's mediation, entered into fresh nego-
tiations with the Spanish prelates, who, at length,
acquiesced in a far smaller extension of their au-
thority than they had aspired to*.

Still more important to the curia was the second
article, concerning the plurality of benefices. A re-
form of the institution of cardinals had long been
talked of, and there were many who thought they
discovered the origin of all evil in its degeneracy.
One of the most prominent abuses was, the num-
ber of benefices which they held, and the reformers

* Sarpi, viiL 816, does not render this affair quite intelligible.
The authentic explanation hy Morone, is very acceptable : " L' ar-
ticolo dellc cause e dell* essenzioni de' canonici fu vinto secondo
la domanda degli oltramontani ; poi faccndosi contra V uso che li
padri tutti dcssero voti in iscrittu, furono mutate molte sentcntie
e fu vinto il contrario. Si vcnne al fin alia concordia chc si vcde
nei decrcti, e lu inezzano Lorena, che gia era tomato da Roma,
tutto addctto al scrvitio di S. Bcatitudine ct alia fine del concilio/'
VOL. I. 2 A

354 LATER SITTINGS OP THE [BOOK III.

intended to check this by the most rigorous laws. It
is easy to understand how sensitive the curia must
have heen on the subject of every innovation which
had such an object in view ; it feared and shunned
even a serious discussion on the subject. The ex-
pedient adopted by Morone in this matter also, is
very singular. He mixed up the reform of the car-
dinals with the articles concerning the bishops.
" Few," says he himself, " perceived the import-
ance of the affair, and in this way all rocks and
quicksands were avoided."

The pope having thus happily accomplished the
maintenance of the court of Rome in the form and
state it had hitherto held, evinced a readiness to
let drop the subject of the reformation of princes
which had been projected; in this he yielded to the
representations of the emperor*.

The whole of the proceedings were in fact like
those of an amicable congress. While the ques-
tions of subordinate interest were reduced to uni-
versal decrees by the divines, the courts negotiated
concerning the more important. Messengers were
incessantly flying in every direction, and one con-
cession was requited by another.

The pope's strongest wish was to bring things to
a speedy termination. For a time the Spaniards
hesitated to agree to this ; the reform was not yet sa-
tisfactory to them, and the royal envoy once even

* The fact, that a thorough reform of the curia, the cardinals,
and the conclave, did not take place, is closely connected with die
neglect of the reformation of the sovereigns. Extracts from
the correspondence of the legates, in Pallavicini, xxiii. 7, 4.

§ VII.] COUNCIL OP TRENT. 355

made a show of protesting; but, as the pope declared
himself disposed, in case of urgency, to summon a
new synod*1; as the strongest objections existed to
protract the proceedings till a vacancy of the holy
see might occur, whilst the council was still sitting;
lastly, as every body was tired and wanted to go
home, — even they at length gave way.

The spirit of the opposition was essentially sub-
dued ; indeed, in its later stages, the council mani-
fested the greatest submissiveness. It conde-
scended to ask of the pope a confirmation of its
decrees ; and expressly declared that all canons of
reform, whatever might be the words in which they
were expressed, were conceived on the full under-
standing that the dignity of the holy see would be
untouched by themf. How far was the council of
Trent from reviving the claims of Constance or of
Basle to a superiority over the papal authority !
The proclamations, with which the sittings were
closed, (drawn up by cardinal Guise,) contained a
distinct and particular recognition of the ecclesi-
astical supremacy of the pope.

Such was the successful issue of the council,
which, so urgently demanded, so long deferred, twice
dissolved, shaken by so many political storms, and,
even at its third convocation, beset with dangers,
ended in the universal agreement of the catholic
world. It is no wonder, that at the last meeting of
the prelates on the 4th of Dec., 1563, they were

* Pallavicini, xxiv. 8, 5.
•f Sessio xxv. c. xxi.

356 LATER SITTINGS OF THE [BOOK III.

full of emotion and gladness. Even opponents
wished each other joy ; tears were seen in many of
those aged eyes.

But if all the pliancy and dexterous policy which
we have observed, had been needed to arrive at this
result, we may be led to inquire, whether the effi-
ciency of the council had not been thus necessarily
impaired.

The council of Trent, if not the most important
of all, is unquestionably the most important of any
that have been held in the later ages of the
church.

Its significancy ,is compressed into two grand

crises.

In the first, which we touched upon in a former
place, daring the war of Smalcalde, the creed of
Borne, after many vacillations, severed itself for
ever from the protestant doctrines. The entire
system of dogmatic Catholicism, such as it is still
professed, arose out of the doctrine of justification
as then expounded.

In the second, which we have just considered,
after Morone's conferences with the emperor in the
summer and autumn of the year 15C3, the hierarchy
was organised anew; theoretically, by the decrees
concerning the consecration of the clergy, practi-
cally, by the canons of reform.

These reforms are to this hour of the highest im-
portance.

The faithful were again subjected to severe and
uncompromising church discipline, and, in pressing
cases, to the sword of excommunication. Semina-

$ VII.] COUNCIL OP TRENT. 357

ries were founded, in which the young clergy were
carefully educated in austere habits, and in the fear
of God. The parishes were regulated anew, strict
rales laid down for the administration of the sacra-
ment and for preaching, and the co-operation of
the regular clergy governed by fixed laws. The du-
ties of their office, especially the supervision of the
clergy, were strongly impressed upon the bishops,
according to the several degrees of their conse-
cration. They also solemnly bound themselves
by a peculiar profession of faith (which they sub-
scribed, and to which they swore), to observe the
decrees of the council of Trent, and to render en-
tire obedience to the pope. A measure, the conse-
quences of which were most important. -

The object which was certainly contemplated by
the first movers of a general council of the church,
L e. the limitation of the power of the pope, was,
however, not attained by it. On the contrary, that
power emerged from the struggle extended and en-
hanced. As the pontiff held the exclusive right
of interpreting the decrees of Trent, it always rested
with him to prescribe the rule of faith and of life.
The whole direction of the restored discipline was
concentrated in Rome.

The catholic church saw and admitted the dimi-
nished extent of her dominion ; she ceased to take
any notice of Greece and the east, and thrust pro-
testantism from her with countless anathemas.

Primitive Catholicism included an clement of
protestantism in its bosom ; this was now for ever
expelled. But the more the power of the church

358 PIUS iv. [BOOK in.

of Rome was circumscribed, the more was it con-
centrated and collected against all assaults.

It was, as we have seen, only by the consent and
assistance of the leading catholic sovereigns that so
much was effected : and in this union of Catholicism
with royalty lies one of the main conditions of its
subsequent development, which has an analogy with
the tendency of protestantism to combine sovereign
with episcopal rights. This gradually arose among
catholics. It is easy to see that it involves a pos-
sibility of fresh division ; but of that there was no
immediate fear. In one province after another the
resolutions of the council were promptly accepted.

The claims of Pius IV. to a distinguished place
in history, rest upon the part he took in this event.
He was the first pope who consciously and de-
signedly renounced the tendency of the hierarchy
to set itself in opposition to the civil power.

Having attained this grand result, Pius undoubt-
edly thought he had completed the task allotted
him. It is remarkable, that his mind relaxed from
its tension as soon as the council was closed. Men
thought they observed that he neglected divine ser-
vice, indulged too much in the pleasures of the table,
and delighted in a splendid court, sumptuous feasts
and magnificent buildings* The zealous remarked
a difference between him and his predecessor, which
they loudly lamented

* Paolo Tiepolo : " Doppo clie questo (il concilio) liebbc fine, li-
berate da una grande sollecitudine fattosi feimo e gagliardo ncll*

§ vii.] PIUS iv. 359

Nevertheless, no great reaction was likely to en-
sue. A tendency had unfolded itself in Catholicism,
which could never again he repressed or restrained.

When once a spirit is aroused, it is impossible to
prescribe the path it shall follow. Any, even the
most trifling deviation from its laws, on the part of
those who are regarded as its representatives, ex-
cites the most extraordinary symptoms of agitation
in the public mind. Thus the spirit of rigid Catho-
licism which had arisen, instantly became perilous
even to Pius IV. himself.

There lived in Rome a certain Benedetto Accolti,
catholic to enthusiasm, always speaking of a mys-
tery which God had entrusted to him, and which he
would reveal; as a proof that he spoke truth, he
offered to walk unhurt through a burning pile on
the Piazza Navona in the presence of the assem-
bled people. His mystery was this : he imagined he
had a foreknowledge that a union would soon take
place between the Greek and Roman churches; that
this united catholic church would reduce the Turks
and all heretics to subjection ; that the pope would
be a holy man, would attain to a universal monar-
chy, and would bring back the reign of perfect
justice on earth. He was filled to fanaticism with
these notions.

He found, however, that Pius IV., whose worldly
character and habits were infinitely removed from

autorita sua, incominci5 pm liberamente ad operare conformc alia
sua inclinatione e pensieri : onde facilmente si conobbe in lui auimo
piu. tosto da principe, che attendesse solamente al fatto suo, che di
ponteliee, che avesse rispetto al bencficio e salute degli altri."
The same remark is made by Panvinius.

360 PIUS iv. [BOOK in.

his ideal, was not suited to so sublime an under-
taking. Benedetto Accolti thought he was appoint-
ed by God to rid Christendom of so unprofitable a

chief.

He laid a plan to assassinate the pope, and suc-
ceeded in finding an associate to whom he promised
recompense from God, and from the future holy so-
vereign pontiff. One day they set out on their
enterprise. They saw the pope approaching in the
midst of a procession, easily accessible, tranquil,
without suspicion, and without defence. Accolti,
instead of rushing upon him, began to tremble and
to change colour. The pomp and circumstance
that surround a pope could not fail to make a
strong impression on so fanatical a catholic. The
pope passed by.

Others however had observed Accolti. Antonio
Canossa, the companion whom he had seduced to
join him, was not a man of stubborn resolution ;
one while, he suffered himself to be persuaded to
make a fresh attempt to execute their design, at
another, he felt tempted to denounce himself and
his associate in crime. They did not preserve entire
secrecy, and at length were arrested and condemned
to death*.

We sec what spirits were in motion in these
excited times. Much as Pius had done for the re-

*I take these facts, which I have nowhere else found, from »i
MS. in the Corsini Library at Home, No. G74, with the title:
Antonio Canos&a : Quiet-to e il fcommano dclla inia depositlone
per la qual causa io moro, qtiale si degneru V. S. mandare alJU
mici Su. padre e rnadre."— Pius died the Dth of Dec. 1563.

§ mi.] PIUS v. 361

construction of the church, there were yet many
to whom it seemed quite insufficient, and who che-
rished far other projects.

§ 8. PIUS v.

The adherents of the rigid party in the church
now gained a great and unexpected advantage in
the election of a pope who was entirely one of them-
selves. This pope was Pius V.

I will not repeat the more or less doubtful ac-
counts of his election given in the hook on the
conclaves and in some of the historians of the
time. We have a letter by Carlo Borromeo, who
was known to have the greatest influence on their
choice, which gives us sufficient information on the
subject. " I resolved," says he, <e to attend to no-
thing so much as religion and faith; and as I was
acquainted with the piety, purity of life, and devout
spirit of the cardinal of Alessandria — afterwards
Pius V., — I thought that the republic of Christ
would be most fitly administered by him, and used
my utmost exertions in his favour**" From a man
of such a profoundly spiritual temper as Carlo Bor-
romeo no other motives could possibly be expected.
Philip II. , gained over by his ambassador to the
interest of the same cardinal, expressly thanked
Borromeo for the share he had had in this election f.

* Clis. Borromeus, Henrico GIL Infant! Portugalliae, Romse, d.
26Febn, 1566, Glusslani Vita C. Borromei, p. 62. Compare Ri-
pamonti, Historia Urbis Mcdiolani, lib. xii. p. 814.

t I find this in a Dispaccio di Sorauzo, Ambre in Spagna: " Non

362 PIUS v. [BOOK m.

The new pope was precisely the man who was
thought to be wanted. The adherents of Paul IV.,
who had hitherto remained quiet, thought them-
selves happy. We still possess letters from some of
them: — "To Home, to Rome/' writes one of them,
" come with confidence, and without delay , but
with all modesty ; God has raised up to us another
Paul IV.3'

Michele Ghislieri, now Pius V., born of humble
parentage at Bosco near Alessandria, in the year
1504, entered a Dominican convent when he was
only fourteen. There he gave himself up, body and
soul, to the monastic poverty and piety which his
order enjoined. He did not retain so much of the
alms he received as to buy himself a cloak ; the
best preservative against the effect of summer heat
he said was to eat little; and although confessor
to the governor of Milan, he always travelled on
foot, with his wallet on his back. If he taught, he did
it with zeal and precision ; if he had to administer
the affairs of a convent as prior, he was severe and
frugal, and extricated more than one religious house
from debt. His moral growth and training were
accomplished in the years in which the conflict
between the established creed and the pro test ant

essendo conoseiutc le qualita di S. Sat> da questo Scrmo re, mcntre
era in cardinalato, II detto cormneiidator (Luigi Ilequcbens, Comm.
maggior) sempre lo laudo molto, predicando questo soggetto es&cr
degno del pontificate, con il clie S. M. si mossc a dargli ordine
che con ogni suo potcre li ciesse favoie." The story which Olt-
rocchi relates in the remarks on Giussano, p. 219, thus falls to the
ground. The election took place on the 8th Jan., 156G,

§ viii.] PIUS v. 363

innovations extended even to Italy. He took part
in favour of the strictest form of the ancient faith,
in thirty disputations which he held in 1543 at
Parma, most of which related to the authority of
the pope, and were opposed to the new opinions.
He very soon received an appointment as inquisitor,
and had to exercise his office in places of pecu-
liar danger; in Como and Bergamo ^, where the
intercourse with Germans and Swiss could not be
avoided, and in the Valteline, which belonged to
the Orisons. In this situation, he displayed the
pertinacity and the courage of a zealot. Some-
times he was received on his entrance to Como with
showers of stones ; often he was obliged to conceal
himself by night in a peasant's hut, and to escape
like a criminal, in order to save his life : but no per-
sonal danger could turn him from his purpose. The
Conte della Trinitd, threatened to have him thrown
into a well ; he replied, that it must be as God
pleased. In this way he was implicated in the
struggle of intellectual and political powers which
then agitated Italy. As the side which he had taken
was the victorious one, he shared in its elevation
and success. He became commissary of the in-
quisition in Rome. Paul IV. very soon remarked
that he was an eminent servant of God, and worthy

* Paolo Tiepolo, Relazione di Roma in Tempo di Pio IV. et V. :
"In Bergamo lifu levato perforza dalle prigioni delmonastero di
S. Domenico, dove allora si solevano mettere i rei, un principale
heretico, nominate Giorgio Mondaga [another name for the list
of Italian protestants], con gran pericolo suo e de' frati. Nella
medesima citta poi travaglio assai per formare il processo contra
il vescovo allora di Bergamo/*

364 PIUS v. [BOOK in

of higher honours ; he nominated him bishop of
Nepi, as a means of effectually preventing his
returning to the seclusion of a cloister*; and, in
1557, cardinal. Even in this new and high dignity,
Ghislieri preserved all his austerity, poverty and
humility'; he told his household, that they must
imagine they lived in a convent. He was exclu-
sively devoted to the practices of piety, and to the
business of the inquisition.

In a man of this character, Borroineo, Philip II.
and the whole strict party thought they beheld the
saviour of the church. The citizens of Home were
not so well satisfied. " They shall lament for me
so much the more, when I am dead," said Pius V.
when he heard it.

Even when pope, he lived in all the austerity of
his monastic life, fasted with the utmost rigour and
punctuality, would wear no finer garments than be-
fore f, frequently said mass and heard it every day ;
yet so careful was he lest his spiritual exercises
should distract him from public business, that he
arose at an extremely early hour in the morning and
took no siesta. If we were inclined to doubt the
depth of his religious earnestness, we may accept as
a proof of it, his declaration that he found the papacy
unfavourable to his advance in piety; that it did not

* Catena, Vita di Pio V., whence TVC have tafccn the greater
number of our accounts, contains this also. Pius V. himself re-
lated it to the Venetian ambassadors, as they, viz. Mich. Suriano
and Paolo Tiepolo, (2 Oct. 1568.) inform us.

f Catena. Tiepolo: "N6 mai ha lasciato la camieia di lasea. clic
come fiate incomincio di poitare. Fa Ic oiationi devotissima-
mente et alcune volte colic lacrime."

§ viii.] PIUS v. 365

contribute to enable him. to work out the salvation
of his soul, or to attain to the glories of paradise ;
he thought that, without prayer, this burthen would
be too heavy for him to bear. The happiness of a
fervent devotion which often moved him to tears,
and from which he arose with the persuasion that
he was heard — this happiness, the only one of which
he had ever been susceptible, was granted him to
the end of his life. The people were excited to en-
thusiasm when they saw him walking in processions,
barefoot and bareheaded, with the genuine expres-
sion of unaffected piety in his countenance, and
with his long snow-white beard falling on his breast ;
they thought there had never been so pious a pope,
— they told each other how his very look had con-
verted heretics. Pius was kind too, and affable ; his
intercourse with his old servants was of the most
confidential kind. How beautiful was his greeting
to that same Conte clella Trinitk, who had threatened
his life, and who was now sent as ambassador to his
court ! " See," said he, £< when he recognised him,
cc how God preserves the innocent ; " this was the
only way in which he ever made the count feel that
he recollected his enmity. He had ever been most
charitable and bounteous ; he kept a list of the poor
of Rome, whom he regularly assisted according to
their station and their wants.

Men of this character are habitually humble,
meek and childlike ; but when irritated and wounded,
their anger is violent, and their resentment implac-
able. They regard their peculiar form of faith as a
duty of the highest order, the nonfulfilment of which

366 PIUS v. LBOOK m<

exasperates them. Pius V. had the most thorough
conviction that he had never deviated from the
right path ; the fact that this path had conducted
him to the papacy, filled him with a confidence
which raised him completely ahove all idea of
doubt or compromise.

He adhered with intense obstinacy to his opinions,
which the strongest arguments would not induce
him to change. He was easily irritated by contra-
diction, became red in the face, and used the most
violent expressions*. As he understood little of
the affairs of the world and of the state, and suffered
himself to be affected in various ways by subor-
dinate and accidental circumstances, it was ex-
ceedingly difficult to deal with him.

In his'personal relations, he did not indeed allow
himself to be determined by first impressions ; but
when once he had made up his mind that a man was
good or bad, nothing could change his opinionf .
He was, however, more ready to believe that people
grew worse than better ; most men were objects of
suspicion to him.

It was remarked, that he never commuted a sen-
tence for a more lenient one ; on the contrary, he
generally wished them more severe.

* Informationc di Pio V. (Ambrosian Library at Milan, F. D.
181:) " La Sa. S naturalmcate £ gioviale e piacevole, se ben per
accidente pare di altra dispositione, e di qui viene die volonticri
onestamente ragiona con Mr. Cisillo suo maestro di casa, il quale
coix le sue piacevolezzes essendo liuomo destro et accorto, dilctta
S. Beatitudine, e semprc profitta a se stesso et altri."

f Informatione di Pio V. : "fi piu difficultoso di lasciar la cattiva
impressions che la buona, e massimamente di quelle persone che
non ha in pratica,"

§ viii.] PIUS v. 367

It was not enough in his estimation that the in-
quisition punished crimes of recent date, he caused
inquiry to be made into those of ten or twenty
years' standing. If a place was distinguished for
the small numher of its convictions, he thought it
needed purging ; he attributed its exemption from
punishments to the negligence of the authorities.

Let us only see with what rigour he urged the
maintenance of church discipline. " We forbid,"
says he in one of his bulls, " every physician who
may be called to the bedside of a patient, to visit
him for more than three days, unless he receives an
attestation that the sick man has made fresh con-
fession of his sins*." Another allots the punish-
ments for the desecration of the sabbath and for
blasphemy. In the case of wealthy offenders, fines
were imposed. " But a poor man who cannot pay,
shall, for the first offence, stand the whole of one
day before the church-door with his hands tied be-
hind his back ; for the second, he shall be flogged
through the town; and for the third, his tongue shall
be pierced and he shall be sent to the galleys."

Such is the general tenor of his ordinances ; his
attendants were continually obliged to repeat to
him, that he had to deal, not with angels but with
menf.

* Supra gregem dominicum : Bull. iv. iL p. 281.

t In the Informationl Politiche, xii., there is, for instance, an
" Epistola a N. S. Pio V., nella quale si esorta S. S. tolerare gli
Ebrei et le corteggiaue," by a certain Bertano ; which expatiates on
this subject. The Caporioni begged the pope to show them at
least the smallest degree of tolerance. The pope answered, " he
had rather quit Rome than wink at such things."

368 PIUS v, [BOOK in.

The urgent necessity which now existed for
avoiding any measures offensive to the temporal po-
tentates of Europe, did not restrain him in these
courses: the bull In Ccend Domini, which the
princes had always complained of, he not only re-
issued, but enhanced its severity by new provisions
of his own, in which he evinced a general purpose
of refusing to governments the right of imposing

new taxes.

It may be concluded, of course, that a reaction
followed upon such violent encroachments. It was
not only that the demands which a man of such
sternness and austerity conceives himself entitled to
make upon mankind, can never be satisfied ; but
in this case they provoked deliberate resistance and
gave rise to countless misunderstandings. Devout
and bigoted as Philip II. was, even he was once
forced to remind the pope that he had better not
try what a king, pushed to the last extremity, was
capable of doing.

This, the pope, on his side, felt most profoundly.
He was often unhappy in his lofty station. He said
he was weary of life ; that as he had acted without
regard to persons, he had made enemies ; and that
since he had been pope he had experienced nothing
but disgusts and persecutions.

Be this as it may, and although Pius V., like
other men, was doomed to find that supreme power
did not bring him full content and satisfaction, it
is certain that his deportment and mode of thinking-
exercised an incalculable influence on his contem-
poraries, and on the general development of the

§ viii.] PI as v. 369

church of which he was the head. After so many
circumstances had concurred to excite and to foster
a religious spirit, after so many resolutions and
measures had been taken to exalt it to universal
dominion, a pope like this was needed, not only to
proclaim it to the world, hut also to reduce it to
practice : his zeal and his example combined pro-
duced the most powerful effect.

The reformation of the court, so often promised,
was now set on foot, if not in the form which had
been proposed, yet in fact and reality. The ex-
penses of the papal household were immensely
reduced. Pius V. needed little for his own wants,
and often said, <c he who would govern^, must begin
with himself?3 He provided liberally for his ser-
vants, who had been faithful to him through his
whole life, not, he believed, from any hope of re-
ward, but from attachment alone ; but he held his
dependents generally within stricter bounds than any
pope before him had ever done. He gave his nephew
Bonelli, whom he created cardinal only because he
was told that this was essential to a more intimate
connexion with the temporal powers, a moderate
establishment; but on one occasion when Bonelli's
father came to Rome, he compelled him to quit
the city the same night, nay the same hour : he
would never raise his other relations above a middle
station, and if one among them was detected in any
offence, even in a lie, he never forgave him, but
drove him without mercy from his presence. How
far was such a state of things from that system of
nepotism which for centuries had constituted so

VOL, i. 2s

370 PITTS v. [BOOK m.

large a portion of papal history ! By one of his most
severe and earnest bulls Pius forbade any future in-
feudation of church, property under any title or pre-
text whatsoever ; he uttered sentence of excommu-
nication against those who should even so much as
advise it, and he made all the cardinals subscribe
this edict*.

He proceeded strenuously in the removal of abuses;
granted few dispensations, and yet fewer composi-
tions, and often limited the indulgences granted by
his predecessors. He charged his auditor-general to
proceed without delay against all archbishops or
bishops who did not reside in their dioceses, and to
report to him, in order that he might immediately
dismiss the disobedientf. He commanded all parish
priests, under heavy penalties, to remain in their
parishes and to see that God's service was duly
performed; he recalled whatever dispensations they
might have received on this matter J. Nor were his
efforts to restore the order and discipline of the cloi-
ster less strenuous. On the one side he confirmed to
the convents their exemption from taxes and other
burthens, for instance the quartering of troops, — for
he would not suffer their tranquillity to be inter-
rupted ; but at the same time he forbade monks to
hear confession without the permission and exami-
nation of the bishop, and ordained that every new
bishop should have power to repeat the examina-

* Profcibitio alienandi et infetidandi civitatcs et loca S. R. B. ;
Admouet DOS : 1567, 29 Mart.

t Cum AEas, 1566, 10 Junii. Bull. iv. ii. 303.
Cupientes, 1568, 8 Julii. Bull, iv, iii. 24,

§ viii.] PIUS v, 371

tion^. He commanded the strictest seclusion, as
well of monks as of nans. This was not -universally
commended. It was alleged that he imposed upon
people severer rules than they had engaged to abide
by ; some fell into despondency, others fled from
the cloisterf.

All these things he first carried into effect in
Rome and the states of the church. He bound the
secular as well as the spiritual authorities to the
maintenance of his spiritual ordinances $, while he
himself watched over a severe and impartial ad-
ministration of justice $ ; he not only earnestly ad-
monished magistrates to that end, but every last
Wednesday of the month held a public session
with the cardinals, at which all persons whatever
might state any complaints they had to make of the
ordinary tribunals.

Independently of this, he was unwearied in giving
audience. From early morning he remained seated
in his chair, and everybody was admitted to his
presence. In effect this zeal and activity produced

* Romani, 1571, 6 Aug. Bull. iv. iii. 177.

f Tiepolo: " Spesse volte nel dar rimedio a qualche disordine
incorre in un* altro maggiore, procedendo massimamente per via
degli estremi."

t Bull. iv. iii. 284.

§ Informatione delle qualita di Pio V., e delle cose che da quelle
dependono (Berlin Library) : *' Nel conferire le gratie non si cura
delle circonstanze, secondo che alle volte sarebbe necessario per
qualsivoglia rispetto considerable, ne a requisition d' alcuno la
giustitia si ha punto alterata, ancora che sia senza dar scandalo e
con esempio d'altri pontefici potesse fare." Soriano is of opinion
that he never granted any favour without adding to it an admoni*
tion : "il che mi parse proprio il stilo de* confessori, che fanno una
gran riprensione al penitente, quango sono per assolverlo."

372 PIUS v. [BOOK m.

a total reform of the manners of Rome. "At
Borne," says Paolo Tiepolo, " things now go on in
a wholly different way from that we have heen ac-
customed to. Men are become much better, or at
least they appear to be so."

The same results took place more or less all over
Italy. Church discipline was universally rendered
more strict by the publication of the decrees of the
council, and a degree of obedience was paid to the
pope which it was long since any of his predecessors
had obtained.

Duke Cosmo of Florence scrupled not to deliver
up to him those who were condemned by the inqui-
sition. Carnesecchi, one of the literati who had
taken part in the first movement towards protest-
antism in Italy, had hitherto escaped unharmed ;
but now neither his personal respectability, nor
the reputation of his family, nor the relation in
which he stood to the reigning house, had power to
afford him protection ; he was delivered up in fet-
ters to the Roman inquisition, and condemned to
perish in the flames*. Cosmo was entirely devoted
to the pope. He supported him in all his under-
takings, and admitted all his spiritual claims without
hesitation. In return, the pope was induced to con-
fer on him the title and the crown of grand duke
of Tuscany. The right of the see of Rome to make
such a grant was in the highest degree question-
able, and Cosmo's immoralities rendered it justly
offensive; but the devotion he manifested to the
holy see, the strict ecclesiastical rules which he in-

* 1567. Cantini, Vita di Cosimo, p. 458.

§ viii.] PIUS v. 373

troduced into his dominions, were, in the eyes of
the pope, merits which covered all his defects.

The old antagonists of the Medici, the Farnesi,
rivalled them in the same course. Ottavio Farnese
deemed it an honour to execute the commands of
the pope at the first hint.

The terms on which Pius stood with the Vene-
tians were not quite so good. They were neither
so hostile to the Turks, nor so indulgent to monas-
tic bodies, nor so obsequious to the inquisition, as
he desired. He took care however not to quarrel
with them. He pronounced that the republic was
founded on the faith ; that she had ever remained
true to the catholic church ; that she alone had been
exempted from the incursions of barbarians ; that
the honour of Italy rested on her : — he declared that
he loved Venice. The Venetians, on their side, con-
ceded more to him than they had done to any other
pope. They delivered up the unfortunate Guido
Zanetti of Fano, who had fallen under suspicion
of heterodoxy and had fled to Padua : — an act un-
known before in Venice. The clergy of the city, who
for a long time had troubled themselves little about
the rules of the church, were brought into tolerable
order. Besides this, the churches of Verona were
placed under the most admirable discipline by G.
MatteoGiberti. His example was quoted as affording
a perfect pattern of the life of a true bishop*5; his

plans and regulations served as models throughout

*

* Petri Francisci Zini, Boni pastoris exemplum ac specimen
singular e ex Jo. Matthseo Giberto Episcopo expressum atque
propositum. Written in 1556, and originally intended for En-
gland. Opera Giberti, p. 252,

374 PIUS v. [BOOK in.

the catholic world, and many of them were adopted
by the council of Trent. Carlo Borromeo caused a
portrait of him to be painted, and kept it before his
eyes, that he might be constantly reminded of his
life and conversation.

But a still stronger influence was exercised by
Carlo Borromeo himself. Possessed of various
dignities and appointments, (among others that of
grand penitentiary,) chief of the cardinals nomin-
ated by his uncle, he might have occupied the
most brilliant position in Rome ; but he renounced
all, he declined all, to devote himself to the duties
of his archbishopric of Milan. He devoted himself
to them with singular energy, nay, with passion.
He constantly travelled about his diocese in every
direction, nor was there a village in it which he had
not visited two or three times ; the loftiest moun-
tain, the most secluded valley, did not escape his
notice. He was generally preceded by a visitator,
whose report he received ; but he proceeded to exa-
mine into everything with his own eyes, he ad-
judged the punishment of offences, and confirmed
all improvements and reforms*. He led his clergy
to adopt similar proceedings ; six provincial coun-
cils were held under his presidency. But he was also
unwearied in the performance of his own peculiar
functions as a minister of the church. He preached
and said mass, passed whole days in administering
the Lord's supper, ordaining priests, receiving the
profession of nuns, and consecrating altars. The

* Glussianus, De Vita et rebus gestaa S. Carol! Borromsei
Medial, p. 112 : very detailed on the "ritus visitationis," and
all such things.

§ vin.j PIUS v. 375

ceremony of the consecration of an altar lasted
eight hours ; it is calculated that he consecrated
three hundred. It must be admitted that many of
his measures were of a wholly external character,
being directed more particularly to the restoration
of buildings, harmonizing of the ritual, exhibition
and adoration of the host, &c. The main point is
the rigid discipline in which he held his clergy, and
in which their flocks were again held by them. He
perfectly understood the means of winning accept-
ance and obedience to his ordinances. In the Swiss
districts he visited the places of the most ancient
and venerable sanctity, distributed gifts among the
people, and invited the men of higher station to his
table. On the other hand, he knew how to meet
disobedience with effective measures. The coun-
try people in Valcamonica waited in the roads to
receive his blessing as he passed, but, as they had
not paid their tithes for some time, he drove through
them without moving his hand or looking at them.
The people were terrified, and consented to pay all
their arrears*. Yet he occasionally found more
stubborn and bitter resistance. The members of
the order of the Umiliati, who had entered it only
that they might enjoy its wealth in dissolute livingf,
were so incensed at his attempts to reform them that

* Ripamonte, Historia Urbis Mediolani, in Grssvius, ii. i.p. 864,
Ripamonte has besides dedicated the whole of the Second Part
of his History, lib. xL xvii,, to St. Charles Borromeus.

t They had in all 94 houses, each of which could have main-
tained a hundred men ; but so little numerous were the members
of their society, that but two fell to each house. The Order was

376 PIUSV. [BOOK in.

they conspired agairfst his life. While he was pray-
ing in his chapel, a shot was fired at him. Nothing
however was more useful to him than this attack.
The people deemed his escape a miracle, and from
that moment regarded him with the utmost venera-
tion. Since his zeal was as pure, as free from all
alloy of earthly motives, as it was steady and per-
severing; since, even in the hour of danger, amid all
the horrors of the plague, he showed an unwearied
solicitude for the temporal and eternal safety of those
committed to his care and government, his influence
increased from day to day, and Milan assumed a to-
tally different aspect. " How can I sufficiently praise
thee, fairest of cities!" exclaims Gabrielle Paleotto,
towards the end of Borromeo's administration ; (f I
admire thy sanctity and thy piety, I behold in thee a
new Jerusalem.5' — Whatever was the worldliness of
the Milanese nobility, exclamations so enthusiastic
could not be uttered without some reason, and the
duke of Savoy solemnly congratulated the archbi-
shop on the results of his labours. The latter now
sought to establish his regulations on a secure and
permanent basis. A congregation was instituted
whose business it was to watch over the uniformity
of the ritual ; a peculiar order of regular clergy called
Oblati devoted themselves by vow to the service of
the archbishop and his church ; the Barnabites re-
ceived new rules, and from that time have made
it their duty to assist the bishops in the cure of

dissolved, and the endowments of Borromeo, as -well as the Je-
suits, then benefited by their possessions.

§ viii.] PIUS v. 377

souls, at first at Milan, and afterwards wherever in-
troduced *. These arrangements were imitated on a
small scale by the Romans. A collegium Helveticum
was also founded in Milan for the restoration of Ca-
tholicism in Switzerland, like the collegium Ger-
manicum in Rome, which we have mentioned as
having the same object in view for Germany, The
dignity and influence of the pope could only be
heightened and confirmed by these measures. Bor-
romeo, who never received a papal brief without
uncovering his head, implanted the same reveren-
tial sentiments in his church.

Meanwhile Pius V. had also acquired unwonted
influence in Naples. In the very first days of his
pontificate he had sent for Tommaso Orfino da Fa-
ligno, and charged him with a reformatory visitation
of the Roman churches. After this was completed,
he nominated Orfino bishop of Strongoli, and sent
him for the same purpose to Naples, Amid great
concourse of this devout people, Orfino accomplish-
ed his visitation in the capital, and throughout a
considerable part of the kingdom.

In Naples as well as in Milan, the pope had, it
is true, frequent disputes with the royal authorities.
The king complained of the bull In Cosnd Domini, —
the pope would hear nothing of the Exequatur Re-
gium; the one thought that the spiritual authorities
did too much, the other, that the royal functionaries
did too little ; there were incessant provocations be-
tween the viceroys and the archbishops. The court of

* Ripamonte, 857. To the first founders he gives the names
of Beccaria, Ferraria, and Morigia : Giussano* p. 442, makes use
of the customary names.

378 PIUS v. [BOOK in.

Madrid was, as we have said, often thoroughly dis-
contented, and the king's confessor loudly com-
plained. Yet there was no open rupture. Each
sovereign invariably laid the chief blame on the of-
ficers and advisers of the other ; they themselves
personally maintained a friendly intercourse. Once
when Philip was ill, Pius V. raised his hands to
Heaven and prayed that God would deliver him
from his sickness : the aged man prayed God to
take some years from his own life, and add them to
that of the king, on whom so much more depended
than on himself.

Spain too was governed entirely in the spirit of
ecclesiastical regeneration. The king had doubted
for a moment whether he should immediately recog-
nise the decrees of the council of Trent, or not; at
all events he would fain have limited the right of
the papal power to make concessions at variance
with those decrees ; but the religious character of
his monarchy forbade every attempt of this kind ;
he saw that he must avoid even the semblance of a
serious difference with the holy see, if he wished to
remain secure of the obedience which was paid to
himself. The decrees of the council were univer-
sally promulgated and its regulations introduced.
The strictly dogmatic tendency was predominant
here also. Carranga, archbishop of Toledo, was the
highest ecclesiastic of the land ; he was formerly
member of the council of Trent, and the man who,
after Pole, had done more than any other for the
restoration of Catholicism in England under Queen
Mary ; yet spite of all these claims to reverence, he
could not escape the inquisition. " I have/' says

§ viii.] PIUS v. 379

he, "had no other object than the suppression of
heresy, and in this God has shown favour to me. I
have myself converted many who had erred from
the faith; I have caused the bodies of some leaders
of heresy to be dug up and burned ; catholics and
protestants have called me the chief defender of the
faith." But these unquestionable proofs of Catho-
licism availed him nothing against the inquisition.
Sixteen articles were found in his works, in which he
appeared to lean to the doctrines of the protestants,
mainly with regard to justification. After being
imprisoned for a long time in Spain and tormented
with the tedious forms of procedure, he was carried
to Rome ; it appeared a great favour to snatch him
out of the grasp of his personal enemies, yet even
in Rome he could not escape sentence of death*.

If this was the fate of so exalted a personage, if this
the termination of so doubtful a case, it may be ima-
gined how little the inquisition could be disposed to
tolerate undeniable deviations from the faith, on the
part of persons of inferior station, such as here and
there occurred in Spain. All the relentless severity
with which the traces of Jewish or Mahommedan
opinions had been persecuted, was now directed
against the protestants. One auto dafe followed
hard upon another, till every germ of heresy was at
length crushed. After the year 1 570 we find scarcely
any but foreigners brought before the tribunals of
the inquisition on a charge of protestantismf .

* Llorente has devoted to this event, three long chapters of his
History of the Inquisition. Histoire de 1' Inquisition, iii . 1 83 — 3 1 5 .

t M'Crie, History of the progress and suppression of the
Reformation in Spain, p. 336.

380 nus v, [BOOK m.

In Spain, the government did not favour the
Jesuits. They were said to be for the most part
Jewish Christians, not of pure Spanish blood; and
were believed to cherish projects of future ven-
geance for all that their persecuted race had suffered.
In Portugal, on the contrary, the members of this
order attained but too soon to unlimited power;
they governed the kingdom in the name of king
Sebastian. As they also enjoyed the greatest credit
in Rome under Pius V., they used their authority in
that country in accordance with the views of the
curia. Pius V. thus ruled both peninsulas with
more absolute sway than any one of his predeces-
sors for a long time before ; the ordinances of the
council of Trent had everywhere gained a living
power; all the bishops swore to the Professio Fidel,
in which is embodied the substance of the dogmatic
rules of the council, and pope Pius published the
Roman catechism, in which these are still more
fully developed. He abolished all breviaries which
had not been expressly issued by the see of Rome,
or which had been introduced within the last two
centuries, and published a new one composed after
the usages of the most ancient of the principal
churches of Rome, expressing his wish that it
might be universally adopted*. He also published
a new missal, " after the pattern and the ritual of
the holy fathers f," for universal use: the semi-

* " Remotis iis qiue aliena et incerta essent." — Quomam No*bis :
9 Julii, 1568.

f "Collatis omnibus cum vetustissimis nostrsc Vatlcanae biblio-
thecsc aliisque undique conquisitis emendatis atque incorruptis
codieibus/'

§ viii.] PIUS v. 381

naries for clergy filled ; the religious houses were
efficiently reformed ; the inquisition watched with
relentless severity over the unity and inviolability
of the faith.

A strict union was consequently brought about
among all these countries and states. To this the
situation of France infinitely contributed; for, torn
with civil wars, she either renounced her old ho-
stility to Spain, or was unable to display it with
vigour and effect. The French troubles were also
followed by another consequence. The events of a
period always give birth to certain general political
convictions, which then practically govern the world.
The catholic monarchs thought they perceived that
changes in the religion of a country were preg-
nant with destruction to its political institutions.
If Pius IV. had said that the church could not
subsist without the support of kings, kings were
now persuaded that a union with the church was
indispensable to their safety. This doctrine Pius V.
incessantly preached to them ; and in fact he lived
to see southern Christendom united with him in one
common undertaking.

The Ottoman power was still making rapid
strides : it ruled the Mediterranean ; its attacks on
Malta and on Cyprus showed how seriously it con-
templated the conquest of these yet unconquered
islands ; it threatened Italy from the side of Hun-
gary and Greece. Pius V. succeeded in at length
arousing the catholic princes to a sense of the im-
minence of this danger; the attack on Cyprus
suggested to him the idea of a league, which he

382 PIUS v. [BOOK HI.

proposed to the Venetians on the one side, and to the
Spaniards on the other. "When I received per-
mission to'treat with him on this matter," says the
Venetian ambassador, "and communicated the same
to him, he raised his hands to Heaven and thanked
God ; he promised to devote to it his whole mind
and all his powers*. It cost him endless trouhle to
remove the difficulties which opposed the union of
the two maritime powers ; he associated with them
the other powers of Italy, and though at first he had
neither money, nor ships, nor arms, he found means
to add some papal galleys to the fleet. He had a
share in the choice of the commander, Don John of
Austria, whose ambition and devotion he contrived
to inflame at the same time. The result was the
hattle of Lepanto, — the most triumphant for the
Christian arms that had ever heen fought. So en-
tirely was the pope absorbed in this enterprise, that
on the day of the battle he thought he beheld the
victory in a sort of trance. The successful issue of
it filled him with the loftiest self-reliance, and the
most daring projects. He hoped to crush the Ot-
tomans in a few years.

But it was not only in enterprises so unquestiona-
bly glorious that he employed his mediation. His re-
ligion was of so exclusive and domineering a charac-
ter, that he bore the bitterest hatred to all Christians

* Soriano : " Havuta la risolutione— andai subito alia audienza,
benche era di notte et I' hora incommoda ct S. S&. travagliata per
li accident! seguiti quel giorno per la coronatione del duca di
Fiorenza ed 11 protesto dell* ambasciatore Cesareo [against it] : e
qommunicata la comraissione die hayeya, 3. Sa, si aUegro tutta."

§ viii.] PIUS v. 383

who differed from himself. What a contradiction
— that the religion of meekness and humility should
persecute genuine piety ! — a contradiction, however,
of which Pius V., bred in the inquisition, grown old
in its notions, was utterly unconscious. While he
strove with unwearied zeal to extirpate all remains
of dissent which were to be found in catholic coun-
tries, he persecuted with yet more furious wrath the
avowed protestants who were either emancipated
from his authority, or still engaged in the struggle.
Not only did he aid the French catholics with a small
military force, he gave to their leader count Santa-
fiore the unheard of injunction, " to take no Hugue-
not prisoner, but instantly to kill every one that fell
into his hands *."

When the Netherlands revolted, Philip II. at first
hesitated as to the way in which he should treat
the provinces ; the pope advised an armed inter-
vention. The reason he alleged was, that those
whose negotiations were not enforced by arms, must
consent to receive laws, while those who had arms
in their hands imposed them. He approved Alva's
bloody measures, and sent him the consecrated hat
and sword in token of his approbation. It cannot
be proved that he was privy to the preparations for
the massacre of St. Bartholomew, but he did things
which leave no doubt that he, as well as his succes-
sor, would have sanctioned them.

How strange an union of singleness of purpose,
magnanimity, austerity, and profound religious feel-

* Catena, Vita di Pio V., p. 85 : " Pio si dolse del Conte che
non havesse il comandamento di lui osservato d* ammazzar subito
qualunque heretico gli fosse venuto alle mani,"

384 PI us v. |_BOOK in.

ing, with sour bigotry, relentless hatred, and bloody
persecution !

In this spirit lived and died Pius V.* When he
felt the approach of death, he once more visited
the seven churches, to bid farewell, as he said, to
those sacred places; three times he kissed the
lowest steps of the Scala Santa. He had at one
Time promised not only to expend the whole trea-
sures of the church, not excepting the chalices and
crucifixes, on an expedition against England, but
even to appear in person at the head of the army.
On his way, some of the banished catholics of En-
gland presented themselves before him ; he said,
" he wished that he could pour forth his blood for
them." He spoke of the league as an affair of the
highest moment ; he had left everything in pre-
paration which could ensure its success ; the last
money that he issued was destined to this purposef.
The phantoms of these enterprises haunted him
at his last moments. He had no doubt of their
eventual success. " God," he said, " will, of the
stones, raise up the man necessary for this great

work."

If his loss was more felt than he himself had
anticipated, yet a unity was established, a power
was called into existence, which must of necessity
be applied to the maintenance of the principles
which he had recognised and adopted.

* He died on the 1st of May, 1572.

t Iiaformatione dell' infermita di Pio V.: " Havendo in sua stanza
in una cassettina 13m. sc. per donare e fare elemosine di sua mono,
due giorni avanti sua morte fece cliiamare il depositario della ca-
mera e levarli, dicendo die sarieno boni per la lega."

BOOK IV.

STATE AND COURT; THE TIMES OF GREGORY XIIL
AND SIXTUS V.

INTRODUCTION.

Vv ITH new and collected strength Catholicism
now advanced to the conflict with the protestant
world.

If we institute a general comparison between
these two great parties, we shall find that catholic-
ism enjoyed an incalculable advantage, in possess-
ing a common centre, — a leader, who directed all its
movements. The pope was not only able to unite
the strength of the other catholic powers for one
common effort, but he had a territory of his own
sufficiently powerful to contribute materially to its
success.

We have now to consider the States of the Church
under a new aspect.

This dominion had arisen out of the attempts of
the popes to raise their families to sovereign power,
or to procure for themselves a supremacy over
temporal rulers, particularly those of Italy, They
had attained neither object, in the degree they had

2c2

388 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [BOOK IV.

desired, and it had now become for ever impossi-
ble to renew these attempts. A special law forbad
the alienation of church property. The Spaniards
were now far too powerful in Italy for the papal
government to contend with. On the other hand,
the state was become auxiliary to the church, and
the financial resources which the former afforded,
were of the highest importance to the general de-
velopment of the papal power.

Before we proceed further, it becomes necessary
to investigate more closely the administration of
the popes, in the form which it gradually assumed
in the course of the 16th century.

§ 1. ADMINISTRATION OF THE PATRIMONY OF THE
CHURCH.

A well-situated, rich and splendid province had
fallen to the share of the popes.

The writers of the 16th century can scarcely find
words to celebrate its fertility; — the fair plains
around Bologna, and through all Romagna, — the
loveliness combined with fertility along the skirts
of the Apennines. c c We travelled," say the Venetian
ambassadors in 1522, " from Macerata to Tolentino,
through the most beautiful country; hills and valleys
were covered with corn ; for thirty miles nothing else
was to be seen ; we could find hardly a foot of uncul-
tivated land; it appeared to us impossible to gather
in such a quantity of grain, much more to find con-
sumers for it," Romagna yearly produced 40,000

$ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 389

stara of corn more than was necessary for its own
consumption : its produce was in great request, and
after the hilly region about Urbino, Tuscany, and
Bologna had been supplied, 35,000 stara were some-
times exported by sea: whilst, on the eastern coast,
Venice was supplied from Romagna and the March*,
on the western, Genoa, and sometimes even Naples,
were provided with corn from the country round Vi-
terbo, and the patrimony of St, Peter .

In one of his bulls of the year 1566, Pius V.
boasts, as a proof of the divine favour, that whereas
Rome in former times could not exist without fo-
reign corn, she had now not only abundance for her
own consumption, but had often been able to sup-
ply her neighbours and strangers, by land and by
seaf. In the year 1589, the export of corn from the
States of the Church was valued at 500,000 scudi
a year J. The several districts were likewise famed
for their peculiar productions : Perugia for its hemp,

* Badoer, Relations, 1591. The friendship of Romagna for
Venice was founded on the view, " quanto importa la vicinit& di
questa citta, per ben vendere per 1* ordinario le loro biade,
vini, frutti, guadi et altre cose, riportandone all' incontro boni
danari."

f Jurisdictio consulum artis agriculturse urbis: — 9 Sept. 1566:
Bullar. Cocquel. iv. ii. 314.

t Giovanni Gritti, Relatione, 1589: "La Romagna e la Marca
sola si mette che alcune volte abbia mandate fuori 60m. rubbia di
grano e pin di 30m. di menudi. II paese di Roma e lo stato di la
dell* Alpi quasi ogni anno somministra il viver al paese di Genova
et altri luoghi circonvicini : onde dell' uscita di grani e di biade
dello Stato Ecclesiastico si tien per cosa certa che ogn* anno entri
in esso valsente di 500m. sc. almeno : ne all* incontro ha bisogno
di cose di fuori se non di poco momento et in poca stima, che
sono specierie e cose da vestirsi di nobili e persone principal!."

390 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [BOOK IV.

Faenza for its flax, Viterbo for both*; Cesena for its
wine, which was exported, Rimini for oil; Bologna
for woad, San Lorenzo for manna ; the produce of
the vineyards of Montefiascone was celebrated all
over the world ; the Campagna at that time pro-
duced a breed of horses little inferior to those of
Naples 3 towards Nettuno and Terracina there was
excellent hunting, especially of the wild boar; there
were lakes abounding in fish ; there were salt and
alum works, and quarries of marble; in short every-
thing which could contribute to the enjoyment of
life was there produced in profusion.

Nor was this territory less favourably situated for
commerce with the whole world. Ancona had a
thriving trade. " It is a beautiful spot," say these
same ambassadors of 1522, "full of merchants,
chiefly Greeks and Turks : we were assured that
some of them in former years had transacted busi-
ness to the amount of 500,000 ducats/' In the year
1549, we find there were two hundred Greek fami-
lies, all merchants, settled there, and possessing a
church of their own. The harbour was full of ca-
ravels from the Levant. There were, besides, Ar-
menians and Turks, Florentines, people from Lucca
and Venice, Jews from the east and the west. The
wares which were here exposed for sale consisted of
silks, wool, leather, lead from Flanders, and cloth.
Luxury increased, the rent of houses rose, the fees
to physicians and teachers were higher than at any
preceding timef .

* Voyage de Montaigne, ii. 488.

7 Saracini, Notizie istoriche della Citta d* Ancona : Roma,
1675 ; p, 362.

§ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 391

But the inhabitants of the States of the Church
were still more celebrated for their courage, than
for the activity and talents for business of their
merchants* We sometimes find them described ac-
cording to the various characteristics they displayed:
— the Perugians were reckoned sturdy in service ;
the inhabitants of Romagna, brave but improvident;
those of Spoleto, fertile in stratagems of war; the
Bolognese high-spirited, but difficult to keep under
discipline ; the inhabitants of the March, addicted
to plunder: the Faentini excelled in steadiness
under attack, and in the pursuit of a retreating
enemy; the men of Forli, in difficult manoeuvres ;
those of Fermo in the management of the lance*.
" The whole population/' says one of our Venetian
authorities, "is skilled in warfare, and of a fierce
nature ; as soon as they leave their homes, these
men are fit for every deed of war, whether in a siege
or a field of battle. They bear with ease the toils
and hardships of a campaign f." The Venetians
drew their best troops from the March and from
Romagna, which rendered the friendship of the
duke of Urbino so important to the republic ; we
always find officers in their service drawn from this
district. It was said, however, that here were to be
found captains for all the princes of the world ; that
from hence went forth that company of St. George
with which Alberigo of Barbiano had exterminated

* Landi, Qusestiones Forcianae: Neapoli, 1536: a book full of ex-
cellent and remarkable accounts of the state of Italy at that time.

f Soriano, 1570: "Quanto a soldati, & commune opinione, che
nello stato della chiesa siano i migliori di tutto il resto d* Italia,
anzi d' Europa."

392 ADMINISTRATION OP THE [BOOK IV,

the foreign mercenaries, and revived the fame of Ita-
lian arms. They were still the same race and stock
of men "who had once contributed so much to the
establishment of the Roman empire*. In later times
they have not maintained their claim to this high
reputation; yet the last great captain who led them
beyond the frontiers of their own country, gave
them the unquestioned preference over all his Ita-
lian, and even a large portion of his French .troops.

All these rich districts and this brave population
were now subject to the peaceful, spiritual power of
the pope. It remains to trace minutely the nature
of the government which developed itself under the
sovereign pontiffs*

This consisted, as in the Italian states generally,
in the more or less strict limitation of the inde-
pendence, which, in the course of the century, the
municipalities had almost everywhere acquired.

Even during the 1 5th century, the priors of Vi-
terbo, seated on their stone seats before the door of
the town-hall, received the oath of the podest& sent
to them by the pope or his represent ativef.

In 1463, the city of Fano, before putting itself
under the immediate power of the Roman pontiff,
made its own terms. It stipulated not only that it
should remain an immediate subject for ever, but

* Lorenzo Pxiuli* Relatione, 1586 : " Lo stato pieno di viveri
perdarne anco a popoli vicini, pieno di huomini bellicosi :" — he
mentions the families of Genga, Carpagna, and Malatesta.*—
"Pareno tutti. questi popoli nati et aUevati nella militia. £
molto presto si xnetteria insiemc molto buona gente toccando il
tamburo/'

t Fdiciano Bussi, letoria di Viterbo, p. 59.

§ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 393

also* that it should enjoy the right to name its own
podest& without the necessity of his appointment
being confirmed ; freedom from all new taxes for
twenty years, the advantages accruing from the sale
of salt, and many other privileges*.

Even so despotic a ruler as Caesar Borgia was
compelled to bestow privileges upon the towns which
constituted his principality : he surrendered to the
town of Sinigaglia, revenues which had, till then,
belonged to the sovereignf .

How much more imperative was the demand for
such concessions on Julius II., whose ambition it
was to appear in the character of a liberator ! Of
his own accord he reminded the Perugians that he
had spent the bloom of his youth within their walls.
When he drove Baglione oxit of Perugia, he was sa-
tisfied to bring back the exiles, to restore their power
to the peaceful magistracy, the priori) and to be-
stow higher salaries on the professors of the univer-
sity: he made no inroad on the old liberties of the
town. For a long time afterwards Sinigaglia paid no
more than 2000 ducats a year in recognition of his
sovereignty; and even under Clement VII., I find a
calculation of how many troops they could bring
into the field, as if they were a 'completely free
community J.

Bologna felt the yoke as little, and in all times
preserved not only the forms, but many important
attributes of ifmnicipal independence : it possessed

* Amiani, Memorie istoriche della Citt& di Fano, t. ii. p. 4.
t Siena, Storia di Sinigaglia, App. n. vi.
I Suriano, Relatione di Fiorenza, 1533.

394 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [BOOK IV.

complete control over the administration of its fi-
nances, had troops of its own, and paid a salary to
the pope's legate.

During the Venetian war, Julius II. brought the
towns of Roraagna under his sway ; but he an-
nexed none of them to his dominions without en-
tering into certain conditions, and granting new and
settled privileges. In later times they always re-
ferred to the capitulations which they then made
with him. They designated the political relation in
which they stood to him under the title of " Eccle-
siastical Freedom *."

As a whole, the state which was thus formed bore
a considerable resemblance to the Venetian. In the
one as well as in the other, the powers of government
had hitherto been in the hands of the communes,
which had for the most part conquered and ruled
over other smaller communities. Under the Vene-
tians, these self-governing municipalities, without
losing their independence on all points, had sub-
jected themselves, under accurately defined con-
ditions, to the power of the nobili of Venice. In
the Ecclesiastical States, they were subject to the
sovereignty of the curia; for in Rome the governing
body was the court, whereas in Venice it was the
aristocracy. It is true the dignity of the prelacy
during the first half of this century was not an
indispensable qualification for the most important
offices; we find lay vice-legates in Perugia; in
Romagna it appears to have been almost the rule

* Rainaldus mentions it, but very briefly. Concerning Ravenna,
see Hieronymi Rubei Historiarum Bavennatum, lib. viiu p. 660.

§ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 395

that a lay president should be at the head of the
administration.

In some instances laymen acquired the greatest
power and influence, as for instance Jacopo Sal-
viati, under Clement VII. ; but even they belonged
to the curia. They were dependents of the pope,
and therefore members of that corporation. But
at that time the towns did not like secular go-
vernors ; they petitioned to have prelates, thinking
it more honourable to obey the higher clergy. Com-
pared with a German principality and its regularly
organized government by estates, the Italian appears
at first sight almost lawless; but in reality there was
even in the latter government, a remarkable distri-
bution of powers and privileges. Thus the nobles
of a city acted as a check on the administrative
body, the citizens on the nobles, the subject on
the governing communes, and the peasantry on the
towns. It is remarkable that in Italy the idea of
establishing provincial authorities seems hardly ever
to have occurred. In the States of the Church it is
true some provincial assemblies were held, and were
even dignified with the highly significant name of
parliaments ; but it must have been contrary to the
manners of the country and to the Italian character
to bring such an institution to maturity, since these
meetings never enjoyed any lasting influence.

But if the municipal constitution had fully deve-
loped itself, as was possible, and even appeared pro-
bable, it would, by limiting the powers of government
on the one side, and the positive rights, the great
power of the communes, and the number of indivi-

396 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [BOOK IT.

dual privileges on the other, have exhibited the
principle of stability in its most striking form, — a
constitution based on distinct and well-defined au-
thorities and on mutual checks.

In the Venetian states considerable approaches to
such a constitution were made ; in the States of the
Church, far less.

This may be traced to the original difference in the
forms of government. In Venice it was an heredi-
tary, self-governing corporation, which looked upon
the supreme power as their patrimony. The Roman
curia was, on the contrary, a flux body, into which
every new conclave infused new elements ; the
countrymen of the successive popes always got a
large portion of the public business into their hands.
In Venice the election to every office was vested
in the corporation itself; in Rome it depended upon
the favour of the sovereign pontiff. In the former,
the rulers were held in check by severe laws, and
vigilant inspection. In the latter, they were re-
strained less by fear of punishment than by hope of
promotion (which depended chiefly on favour and af-
fection) , and enjoyed comparative freedom of action.

The papal government had likewise from its earli-
est beginning secured to itself a more independent
position.

A remarkable result presents itself in this point
of view, from a comparison of the grants of the Ro-
man and Venetian states : this is apparent, among
other instances, in the case of Faenza, which had
surrendered itself to the Venetian state a few years
before its subjection to Rome, and had made capita

$ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 397

lations with both powers*. Both times it had, for
example, stipulated that no new tax should be levied
without the consent of the majority of the council
of Faenza : the Venetians had granted this without
hesitation ; but the pope added the reservation, "in
as far as it may not appear advisable to do otherwise,
for important and prudent reasons." I will not en-
large on this subject, as the same difference prevails
throughout ; it is sufficient that I point out one other
proof of it. The Venetians had granted without
hesitation, that all criminal judgments should be
pronounced by the podestk and his court : the pope
also granted the same privilege generally, but esta-
blished one exception : "In cases of high treason, or
crimes of a class calculated to cause popular irrita-
tion, the authority of the governor shall step in."
It is evident that the papal government reserved to
itself, from the very beginning, a much more active
share of the sovereign power than the Venetian f .

It cannot be denied that on the other hand this
burthen was rendered very easy to the pope.

In those times, the middle classes, consisting of
the substantial citizens, the merchants and artisans
of the subject cities, were peaceable and obedient ;
while the patricians, the nobles, who held in their

* Historie di Faenza, fatica di Giulio Cesare Tonduzzi, Faenza,
1675, contain, p. 569, the capitulations concluded with the Vene-
tians, 1501, and confirmed by Julius II. in 1510.

h What means it used, Paul III. shows, when he says (1547) :
" Ceux qui viennent nouvellement au papat viennent pauvres,
obliges de promesses, et la dgpense qu'ils font pour s'asseurer
dans les terres de l'<%lise monte plus que le profit des premieres
s." Le Cardinal de Guise au Roy de France, in Ribier, ii. 77.

398 ADMINISTRATION OP THE [BOOK IV.

hands the municipal authority, were in a state of
perpetual agitation and tumult. They carried on
no trade ; they cared little for agricultural pursuits ;
they were not devoted to intellectual improvement,
or to the science of arms ; their own feuds and ani-
mosities exclusively occupied their thoughts. The
old factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines still
existed ; they had been kept alive by the late wars,
during which victory fluctuated between the two
parties : the families which belonged to either fac-
tion were well known. In Faenza, Ravenna, Forti,
the Ghibellines were the strongest ; in Rimini, the
Guelphs: nevertheless the weaker party still main-
tained itself in each of these towns ; in Cesena and
Imola the parties were nearly equal. In the midst
of apparent peace a secret warfare was carried on;
every man was occupied in keeping down his oppo-
nent of the other faction, and thrusting him into the
background*. The chiefs had at their beck adhe-
rents in the lowest class ; fierce, determined men,
•wild and wandering bravoes, who, of their own ac-
cord, sought out those whom they knew to be in fear
of enemies, or to have injuries to avenge : they were
always ready to commit murder for gold.

The only effect of these universal feuds was, that
as each party distrusted the other, and would not

* Rdatione della Romagna (BibL Alt.): "Li nobili haano
eeguito di molte persone, delle quali alcune volte si vagliono ne
consegli per conseguire qualche carica o per se o per altri, per
potere sincere o per iinpedire all' altri qualche richiesta : ne giu-
dicii per provaie et alcune volte per testificare nelle inimicitle per
fare vendette, ingiurie: alcuni ancora a Ravenna, Imola e Faenza
uaavano di contrabandare grano."

§ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 399

permit power to be lodged in its enemy's hands,
the cities were less firm and vigilant in maintain-
ing their privileges.

When the president or the legate came into the
province, it was not asked whether he intended to
observe their municipal rights ; the only question
was, which party he would favour ; and when this
was declared, the joy of the one party and the dejec-
tion of the other can hardly be described. The legate
was obliged to act with great caution. The most
influential men sought his intimacy, endeavoured to
be agreeable to him, professed an intense zeal for
the interests of the state, and acceded to all mea-
sures undertaken for the promotion of them ; but
they often did all this only with a view to insinuate
themselves into his favour and confidence, so as more
effectually to injure and persecute the party which
they hated*.

The barons in the country were in a somewhat
different position. They were generally po or, but so
prodigal and ambitious that they kept open house ;
and without exception their expenditure went beyond
their means. They had always dependents in the
towns, whom they frequently employed in the most
unlawful acts ; but their chief care was to main-
tain a good understanding with their peasantry, who
always occupied the greater part of the soil, al-
though they had no other wealth. In the southern

* Relatione di Monsre Revmo Giov. P. Ghisilieri, al P. Gregorio
XIIL, tornando egli dal presidentato di Romagna. We see from
Tonduzzi (Historic di Faenza, p. 673,) that Ghisilieri came into
tte province in 1578.

400 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [BOOK IV.

provinces, illustrious birtli and gentle blood were
held in great reverence, but distinction of ranks
was not nearly so strongly marked as in the north,
nor did it prevent the closest personal intimacy:
the peasantry lived with the barons almost on the
footing of brotherly subordination, and it was diffi-
cult to say whether the tenants were more willing
to render obedience and service, or the barons sup-
port and assistance ; there was something patriarchal
in their connexion*. One reason for this, among
others, was, that the barons sought above all things
to avoid giving their vassals cause to appeal to the
government. They were determined never to recog-
nise the feudal sovereignty claimed by the holy see.
The vassals imagined that the claim asserted by the
pope's legate, of deciding not alone upon the appeal
but upon the original proceeding, was not so much
a right, as the consequence of an unlucky political
conjuncture which would speedily pass away.

Here and there were to be found, particularly in
Romagna, independent communities of peasants*}-.
They were large clans, deriving their descent from
a common stock ; lords in their own villages, all
armed, well skilled in the use of the arquebus, ge-
nerally half savage: they may be compared with the

* Relatione della Romagna: "Essendosi aggiustati gli uni all'
humore degli altri."

t The peasants had often shaken off the dominion of the towns
in the same manner. Ghisilieri : " Scossi da quel giogo e recati
quasi corpo diverso da quelle citt&, [e. g. Forll, Cesena] si gover-
nano con certe loro leggi separate sotto il governo d' un protet-
tore eletto da loro medesimi, li quali hanno amplissima autoritk di
far le resolution! necessarie per li casi occorrenti alii contadini."

§ I.] PATRIMONY OP THE CHURCH. 401

free Greek or Sclavonian communities, which main-
tained their independence under the Venetians, or
reconquered it, when lost, from the Turks ; such, for
example, as were fbund in Candia, the Morea and
Dalmatia. In the States of the Church, they sided
with the different factions : the Cavinas, Scardocci
and Solaroli were Ghibellines ; the Manbelli,
Cerroni and Serras were Guelphs. The Serras had
in their country a hill, which served as an asylum
for those who had committed any crime. The most
powerful of all were the Cerroni, who also stretched
over the frontier into the Florentine territory. This
clan had split into two branches — Binaldi and Ra-
vagli, — who, in spite of their affinity, were in a state
of constant feud. They were in a kind of heredi-
tary connexion not only with the chief families of
the cities, but also with jurists, who supported one
or the other faction in their litigations. In the
whole of Romagna there was no family so powerful
that it could not have been easily harmed by these
peasants. The Venetians always had a military
commander among them, in order to be sure of their
assistance in case of war.

Had all thifi population been united, it would have
been difficult for the Roman prelates to assert their
authority ; but their divisions strengthened the go-
vernment. In the report of a president of Romagna
to Pope Gregory XIII., I find these words : " The
business of governing is difficult where the people
hold well together ; when divided, they are easily
mastered*."

* Ghisilieri : " Siccome il popolo disunite facilmente si domina,
cos) difficilmente si regge quando & troppo unite/*
VOL. I. 2 D

402 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [BOOK IV.

A party also formed itself in these provinces,
favourable to the government; it consisted of the
peaceable part of the population, who wished for
quiet; that middle class which was not infected with
the rage of faction. In Fano they entered into an
association, called the 'holy union*; compelledthere-
to, as the original record of this institution states,
" because the whole city was full of robbery and
murder, and not only those who took part in the
feuds were insecure, but also those who desired no-
thing but to eat their bread in the sweat of their
brow." They bound themselves by an oath in the
church, as brothers for life and death, to maintain the
peace of the city and to exterminate those who dis-
turbed it*. The government favoured them, and
allowed them to carry arms, and we meet with them
throughout Romagna under the name of the ' paci-
fic!*. They gradually formed a kind of plebeian ma-
gistracy. The government had also adherents among
the peasants ; the Manbelli joined the court of the
legate, they captured banditti, and guarded the
frontiers, — services -which gave them no small
influence f« The jealousy of neighbours, the hos-
tility between the country villages and the cities,

* It resembles the Hermandad. Amiani, Memorie di Fano, ii.
146, contains their formula, grounded on the sentence : " Beati
pacificl, quia filii Dei vocabuntur." Hence may have arisen their
name in other towns.

t According to the Relatione della Romagna, they likewise gave
themselves the name of Huomini da Schieto, after the place of
their abode: — "huomini/' it says, " che si fanno molto rigiiar-
dare ; sono Guelfi : la corte di Romagna si e valuta dell' opera
loro molto utilmente, massime in havere in mano banditi et in ov-
yiare alle fraud! che si fanno in estrarre bestiaxni dalle montagne,'1

$ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 403

and various other internal evils, came to the as-
sistance of the government.

And thus, instead of that respect for law, that
quiet and stability, which this institution appeared
calculated to produce, we find restless strife of fac-
tions, interference of the government whenever these
were in a state of dissension, opposition of the mu-
nicipal bodies whenever they were united ; — might
instead of right, — might opposed to right ; — every
individual trying how far he could carry his de-
fiance to law.

Even under Leo X., the Florentines, who had the
management of affairs chiefly in their hands, exer-
cised the rights of the curia in a most oppressive
manner. Deputations from the cities repaired ond
after the other to Rome, seeking redress of their
grievances. Ravenna declared it would rather vo-
luntarily surrender to the Turks than endure the
continuance of such a government*. Very often,
during the vacancies of the holy see, the ancient
nobles returned to power, and were with difficulty
driven back from it by the new pope. On the other
hand, the cities dreaded being again alienated from
the papal crown.

Sometimes a cardinal, or a dependent of the
pope, or a neighbouring prince, offered a sum of
money to the papal treasury for the right of govern -

* Marino Zorzi, Relatione di 1517 : "Leterredi Romagna tsin
gran combustione e desordine : li vien fatta poca justitia : e lui
orator ha visto tal x man di oratori al cardinal di Medici, che ne-
gotia le facende lamentandosi di mail portamenti fanno quelli
rettori loro."

2D 2

404 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [BOOK IV.

ing one of these towns. Hence the towns had agents
and delegates at Rome whose business it was to learn
every plan of this sort as soon as formed, and to
defeat its execution. In this they generally suc-
ceeded ; hut it sometimes happened that they were
obliged to use force against the papal authorities, and
even against the pope's troops. In nearly all the hi-
stories of these places is to be found some instance
of lawless violence. In Faenza, on one occasion, in
the summer of 1521, the Swiss guards of Leo and
the citizens engaged in a regular battle in the very
streets: the Swiss succeeded in rallying in the piaz-
za, but finding all outlets from it barricaded by the
citizens, they were glad, when one was opened to
them, to be suffered to depart without injury. For
many years afterwards this day was celebrated in
Faenza with religious solemnities and rejoicings*.

On the 25th Nov., 1528, the inhabitants of Jesi,
a town of comparatively small importance, had the
courage to attack the palace of their vice-governor,
who had demanded certain marks of honour which
they refused to pay him ; the citizens and the pea-
sants united, and took into pay a hundred Albanians
who happened to be in the neighbourhood. The vice-
governor and his suite took to flight. " My native
city/' says the chronicler of this town, otherwise a
most devout catholic, "which now saw itself restored
to its original freedom, determined to celebrate the
anniversary of this day at the public expense f ."

* Tonchizzi, Historie di Faenza, p. 609.
t Baldasfeini.Memorie istoriche dell' antichissima Citt& di Jesi;
Jesi, 1744, p. 256.

§ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 405

From such acts of violence nothing could arise,
as may be imagined, but new excesses, new punish-
ments, and a still further limitation of their privi-
leges. The government seized on the pretext afford-
ed by such incidents for annihilating the privileges
of towns which still possessed important remains of
their former freedom, and for reducing them to com-
plete subjection. Ancona and Perugia are remark-
able examples of this result.

Ancona merely paid the pope a small yearly tribute
in recognition of his sovereignty ; the inadequacy of
which appeared the more striking in proportion as
the town increased. The court estimated the revenue
of Ancona at 50,000 scudi, and thought it intolerable
that the nobles there should share so large a sum
amongst themselves. As the city not only refused
to pay new taxes, but took forcible possession of a
castle to which it laid claim, it came to an open rup-
ture with Rome. The mode in which the govern-
ments of that day enforced their claims is worthy
of remark ; — the papal officers drove away the cat-
tle from the March of Ancona, as a means of levying
the amount of the new tax ; a measure which went
under the name of reprisals.

This did not satisfy Clement VIT. He only waited
for a favourable opportunity to make himself com-
pletely master of Ancona; this opportunity he em-
ployed a stratagem to create.

He caused a fort to be built in that city ; alleging
that the Turks, after their successes in Egypt and
Rhodes, and throughout the Mediterranean, would
without doubt shortly attack Italy, and that there

406 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [BOOK IV.

would be great danger in leaving Ancona, where so
many Turkish merchant ships .always lay, without
defence. He sent Antonio Sangallo to construct the
fort ; the works proceeded most rapidly, and very
shortly a small garrison took possession of it. This
was the very moment the pope waited for : affairs
being thus far advanced, in September, 1532, the go-
vernor of the March, monsignore Bernardino della
Barba, a priest, but of a warlike character, appeared
in the district of Ancona at the head of a formidable
army which the jealousy of the neighbouring cities
had assembled; took one of the gates of the city,
marched into the piazza, and drew up his troops in
front of the palace; the Anziani, but lately chosen
by lot, dwelt here, perfectly unsuspecting, and sur-
rounded with the badges of the supreme power.
Monsignore della Barba entered with his military
followers, and declared without much preamble, that
" the pope desired to have the absolute government
of Ancona in his own hands/' They could oppose
no resistance. The young nobles brought in from
the country in all haste a few bands of devoted re-
tainers. But what could be done, since the papal
troops were prepared against all chances by the new
fortress ? The elder nobles would not subject their
city to the risk of pillage and destruction ; they
yielded to what was inevitable.

The Anziani left the palace : in a short time ap-
peared the new papal legate, Benedetto delli Accolti,
who had promised the apostolical treasury 20,000
scudi a year as government dues from Ancona.

A complete revolution was effected. All arms

§ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 407

were commanded to be delivered up, and sixty-four
of the principal nobles were exiled : new lists of
names for the magistracies were made ; some of the
offices under government were distributed among
the inhabitants of the country, and persons who
were not noble. Justice was no longer admini-
stered according to the old statutes.

Woe to him who offered any opposition to these
orders I Some leading men brought on themselves
a suspicion of being engaged in a conspiracy:
they were immediately seized, sentenced and be-
headed ; the following day a carpet was spread in the
market-place, the bodies laid upon it, and a burning
torch placed near each ; thus they remained the
whole day.

Paul III, indeed subsequently granted the inhabi-
tants of Ancona some alleviation of their yoke, bu t
this act of favour implied no diminution of his ab-
solute power ; he was little inclined to restore their
ancient liberties*; on the contrary, he made use of
this same Bernardino della Barba as an instrument
for depriving another of his cities of its privileges.

The pope had raised the price of salt by one half*
The Perugians considered themselves justified by
their privileges in resisting this impost. The pope
having excommunicated them, the citizens assem-
bled in the churches, and elected a body of magi-
strates called the 'twenty-five defenders'. They
laid the keys of their gates at the foot of a cru-

* Saracinelli, Notizie istoriche ddla Citta d* Ancona ; Roma,
1675, iL xl, p* 335.

408 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [BOOK IV.

cifix in the market-place. Both parties armed
themselves.

The revolt of so important a city against the pa-
pal authority excited a general agitation, and would
have produced serious consequences, had there
been war in any other part of Italy ; but, as all was
tranquil, no state could render it the assistance on
which it had reckoned. For although Perugia was
not without power, yet it was not nearly strong
enough to enable it to resist the army of ten thou-
sand Italians and three thousand Spaniards, brought
against it by Pier-Luigi Farnese. The govern-
ment of the twenty-five too displayed more arbitra-
riness and violence, than prudence or care for the
protection of the city ; they were not even prepared
with money to pay the troops which a member of
the house of Baglione brought to their assistance ;
their only ally, Ascanio Colonna, who also resisted
the payment of this same impost, contented himself
with driving off the cattle from the territory of the
church ; he could not resolve to render them any
more serious assistance.

This city therefore, after a short interval of free-
dom, was compelled again to surrender to the pope
on the 3rd of June, 1540. Habited in long mourning
garments, with halters round their necks, the dele-
gates appeared in the portico of St. Peter's and
implored pardon at the feet of the pope. This he
granted, but their freedom was gone; he stripped
them of all their privileges.

Bernardino della Barba was sent to Perugia, to
deal with that city in the same manner as with An*-

§ 1.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 409

cona. No man was allowed to possess arms ; the
chains which had been thrown across the streets
were removed, the houses of the twenty-five, who
had escaped in time, were razed to the ground,
a fortress was erected on the spot where the Bagli-
oni had lived, and the citizens were compelled to
pay the cost of its erection : a magistrate was placed
over them, whose name suffices to show the purpose
of his appointment ; — he was called the c conser-
vator of ecclesiastical obedience'. A later pope re-
stored to him the title of prior, but without any of
his ancient powers*.

Ascanio Colonna was likewise driven from all his
strongholds by the same army.

The papal authority in the States of the Church
was incalculably augmented by these repeated and
successful blows : neither the towns nor the barons
ventured any longer to offer resistance ; one after
another, the free communities submitted, and the
pope was able to dispose of all the resources of the
country for the attainment of his own objects.

We will now inquire what were these objects,
and what the mode of accomplishing them.

* Mariotti, Memorie istoriche ciyili ed ecclesiastiche della
Citta di Perugia e suo contado ; Perugia, 1806; — relates these
events in detail, and on authentic information; i. p. 113 — 160.
He also mentions them again ; e. g. vol. iii. p. 634.

410 FINANCES, [BOOK iv.

§ 2. FINANCES.

It is however necessary first to examine into the
system of the papal finances, a system which is
important, not only in reference to the country in
which it originated, but on account of the example
it afforded to all Europe.

It is remarkahle that the system of exchanges pre-
vailing in the middle ages, chiefly owed its form to
the nature of the papal revenues, which were drawn
from every country and remitted from all parts to
the curia ; and it is not less remarkable that the
system of national debt which at this moment pre-
vails, and exercises so powerful an influence on the
dealings of men, should have first grown up in the
Papal States.

However just were the complaints of the extor-
tions which prevailed in Rome during the 15th cen-
tury, it is certain that but little of the money raised
found its way into the coffers of the pope. Pius II.
commanded the obedience of all Europe, notwith-
standing which he was at one time so greatly in want
of money, that he was compelled to limit himself
and his establishment to one meal a day ; he was
forced to borrow the 200,000 ducats requisite for the
Turkish war which he meditated. Those petty ex-
pedients to which many popes resorted, such as re-
quiring from a prince, a bishop, or a grand master
who had some cause pending in the court, a pre-
sent of a golden cup filled with ducats, of rich furs,
or the like, only show the miserable state of the

$ II.] FINANCES. 411

treasury*. The money certainly reached the court
in considerable sums, although not in those enor-
mous masses which people have imagined ; but when
there, it passed into a thousand hands, and was ab-
sorbed by those offices which had long been venal.
These offices were chiefly paid by means of fees, and
little restraint was imposed on the exactions of the
officials. The papal treasury received nothing more
than the price of the office, when it became vacant.
The pope was driven to extraordinary expedients
whenever he undertook any costly enterprise; hence
jubilees and indulgences were a most valuable re-
source. The docility of the faithful then afforded
a clear revenue. Another means very naturally sug-
gested itself, whenever he wanted to raise an un-
usually large sum, viz. the creation and sale of new
offices, — a strange sort of loan, the interest of which
the church paid by increasing its own imposts.
This custom had long obtained footing. According
to an authentic register in the Chigi palace, there
existed in the year 1471 nearly 650 saleable offices,
the incomes of which amounted to about 100,000
scudif. These were chiefly procurators, registrars,

* Voigt, Voices from Rome concerning the Papal Court in the
Fifteenth Century, given in the Historisches Taschenbuch of F.von
Raumer, 1833, contains a crowd of notices on this subject. Who-
ever has at hand the book, Silesia vor und seit dem Jahre 1740,
will find in it a satire of the 15th century, by no means ill done,
on this monstrous custom of present giving : " Passio domini pa-
pse secundum marcam auri et argenti."

f Gli ufficii piu antichi : MS. Bibliotheca Chigi, N. ii. 50.
There are 651 places and 98,340 sc. " fin alia creatione di Sisto
IV." So little truth is there in what Onuphrius Panvinius says,
that Sixtus IV. was the first who sold them : p. 348.

412 FINANCES, [BOOK iv.

abbreviators, correctors, notaries, clerks, even mes-
sengers and doorkeepers, whose increasing numbers
continually raised the costs of a bull or a brief.
This was indeed the very purpose for which they
were appointed, for their duties amounted to little
or nothing*

We can easily conceive that the succeeding popes,
deeply implicated as they were in the politics of Eu-
rope, seized with avidity upon so easy an expedient
for filling their coffers. Sixtus IV. adopted the plan
proposed by his prothonotary Sinolfo, and esta-
blished at once whole colleges, the places in which
were sold for two or three hundred ducats each.
These bore the most singular titles; for instance the
* college of a hundred janissaries', who were nomi-
nated for 100,000 ducats, and whose salaries were
charged upon the profits arising from the bulls and
annates*. The places of notary, prothonotary, and
procurator to the camera, — indeed all offices what-
soever,— were sold by Sixtus IV., who carried this
system to such an extent as to have been accounted
its author, and it certainly was not completely adopt-
ed till his time. "Innocent VIII., whose embarrass-
ments forced him to pawn even the papal tiara,
founded a new college of twenty-six secretaries, for
60,000 scudi, with a complement of other officers.
Alexander VI. created eighty writers of briefs, each

* There were also Stradiotes and Mamelukes, who were how-
ever suppressed at a later period. *' Adstipulatores, sine quibus
nullse possent confici tabulae :'* Onuphrius Panvmius. According
to the register, (Ufficii Antichi,) this creation seems to have
brought in only 40,000 ducats.

§ II.] FINANCES, 413

of whom paid 750 scudi for his appointment; and
Julius II. added, upon the same terms, one hundred
writers of archives.

But the sources from which these hundreds of
placemen drew their incomes were not inexhausti-
ble. We have already seen that nearly all the Chris-
tian states had attempted, and in most instances
successfully, to limit the interference of the papal
power, and this too at a time when the popes had
been involved in unusual expenses by their great
undertakings. It was therefore most fortunate for
them that they became masters of a territory from
which, though their government was at first a mild
one, they drew considerable revenues ; and it cannot
surprise us that these were administered in precisely
the same manner as were the ecclesiastical funds.

Julius II. in addition to the assignment made
upon the annates, also quartered the above-men-
tioned writers of archives upon the dogana and the
public chest. He established a college, consisting
of a hundred and forty-one presidents of the an-
nona, all of whom were paid by the state. He ap-
plied the surplus land-revenue -in making loans.
The quality of this pope which most excited the
admiration of other princes was, his power of
raising as much money as he wished ; and indeed
this was in a great degree the basis of his policy.

The necessities of Leo X. were much more urgent
than those of Julius, as the former was not less in-
volved in wars, while he was far more prodigal, and
more dependent upon the political support of his fa-
mily. " It was as impossible for the pope," says

414 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

Francesco Vittori of him, "ever to keep 1000 du-
cats together, as for a stone to fly into the air of
itself." He has been accused of squandering the
incomes of three popes ; that of his predecessor—
from whom he inherited a large treasure— his own,
and his successor's, to whom he bequeathed a mass
of debts. Leo was not satisfied with selling the
existing offices, he raised a large sum by nominating
additional cardinals; and having once entered on the
course of creating new offices for the mere purpose
of selling them, he proceeded in it with daring per-
tinacity. Above 1200 were created by him alone*.
The characteristic of all these 'portionarii', ' scudi-
eri', and 'cavalieri di S. Pietro', or whatever other
titles they bore, is that they p aid a sum down on
their nomination, and received the interest of it for
life under these titles ; their offices had no other
meaning than the enjoyment of this interest, in-
creased by some other small privileges ; they were
in fact nothing more than a kind of life annuity.
The sale of these produced to Leo the sum of 900,000
scudi. The interest, which was high, as it yearly
amounted to an eighth of the capitalf, was partly
produced by a slight augmentation of church dues ;

* Sommario di la Relation di M. Minio, 1520 : " non ha con-
tanti, perchfe e libeial, non sa tenir danari : poi li Fiorentini,
(che) si fanno e sono soi parenti, non li lassa mai aver un soldo :
e diti Fiorentini e in gran odio in corte, perciS in ogni cosa £
Fiorentini."

•f The 612 portionarii di ripa — aggiunti al Collegio dei Presi-
dent!—paid 286,200, and received 38,810 ducats a year: the 400
cavalieri diS. Pietto paid 400,000, and received in return 50,G10
ducats a year.

§11.] FINANCES. 415

but it chiefly flowed from the treasuries of the con-
quered provinces; that is, from the surplus of the
municipal administrations paid into the coffers of
the state, from the produce of the alum works, the
sale of salt, and the dogana of Rome. Leo increased
the number of offices to 2150, the yearly salaries
of which were reckoned to amount to 320,000 scudi,
and were a burden upon both church and state.

However censurable this prodigality, Leo was
doubtless encouraged in it by finding that it pro-
duced, for the time, advantageous rather than mis-
chievous effects. It was partly owing to this system
of finance that Rome, at the period in question,
rose to such an unexampled height of prosperity,
since there was no place in the world where capital
could be invested to so much advantage. The
multitude of new offices, the vacancies, and conse-
quent re-appointments, kept up a continual stir in
the curia, and held out to all the prospect of easy
advancement.

Another consequence was, that there was no ne-
cessity for burdening the public with new taxes ; it is
indisputable that the States of the Church compared
with other provinces, and Rome with other cities,
in Italy, were charged with the smallest amount of
taxation. The Romans had already been told that
whilst other cities furnished to their princes heavy
loans and vexatious taxes, their master, the pope,
on the contrary, made his subjects rich. A secre-
tary of Clement VII., who shortly afterwards wrote
an account of the conclave in which that pope was
elected, expresses his astonishment that the Roman
people were not more devoted to the holy see, since

416 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

they suffered so little from taxation. " From Terra-
cina to Piacenza," he exclaims, "the church pos-
sesses a large and fair portion of Italy ; her dominion
stretches out far and wide : nevertheless all these
fertile lands and rich cities, which under any other
government would be taxed for the maintenance of
large armies, pay scarcely enough to the Roman
pontiff to cover the expenses of their own admini-
stration*."

It was evident, however, that this could only last
as long as there remained a surplus in the public
treasury. Leo had not yet succeeded in funding all
his loans. Aluise Gaddi had advanced to him
32,000 ducats; Bernardo Bini 200,000. Salviati,
Ridolfi, all his servants and dependents, had done
their utmost to raise money for him ; they founded
their hopes of future compensation and gratitude,
upon his generosity and his youth. They were
utterly ruined by his early death.

Leo left his dominions in a state of exhaustion
which his successor was not long in feeling.

The universal hatred which attached itself to the
unfortunate Adrian, was chiefly owing to the mea-
sure he adopted of imposing a direct tax to relieve
the extreme poverty to which he found himself re-

* Vianesius Albergatus, Commentarii Rerum sui temporis (no-
thing in fact but the description of the conclave) : f * opulentissimi
populi et ditissimae urbes, quse si alterius ditionis essent, suis
vectigalibus vel magnos excrcitus alere possent, Romano pontinci
vix tantum tributum pendunt, quantum in praetorum magistratu-
umque expensam sufficere queat." In the Narrative by Zorzi,
1517, the revenue drawn from Perugia, Spoleto, the March and
Romagua, is reckoned, after a calculation by Francesco Armellino,

§11.] FINANCES. 417

duced: — a hearth tax of half a ducat was imposed*;
which was the more unpopular inasmuch as the Ro-
mans were little accustomed to such exactions.

Nor could Clement VII. avoid levying new taxes :
murmurs were raised against cardinal Armellino,
who was regarded as the suggestor of these imposts,
which were of an indirect kind; the augmentation
of the duties levied at the gates on articles of food,
caused peculiar discontent, hut the people were
obliged to bear itf . Indeed, affairs were. come to
such a pass, that far stronger measures were imperi-
ously demanded.

Hitherto, loans had been raised under the form of
saleable offices; the financial transactions of Cle-
ment VII. seem first to have approximated to ge-
nuine loans, at the important crisis when, in 1526,
he took arms against Charles V.

On the former plan, the capital sunk in the pur-
chase of the office was lost upon the death of the
party, unless the family recovered it from the papal
treasury. Now however Clement raised a capital
of 200,000 ducats, which though not yielding so
high a rate of interest as the places, still paid a con-
to amount to 120,000 ducats. The half of this fell to the papal
treasury. " Di quel somma la xnita e per terra per pagar i legati
et altri officii, e altra xnita ha il papa." Unfortunately there is no
small number of mistakes in the copy of the Narrative in Sanuto.

* Hieronymo Negro a Marc- Antonio Micheli, 7 April, 1523 :
Lettere di Principi, i. p. 114.

t Foscari, Relatione, 1526: "E qualche munnuration in Roma
etiam per causa del cardinal Armellin, qua! truova nuove inven-
tion per trovar danari in Roma, e fa metter nove angarie, e fino
chi porta tordi a Roma et altre cose di manzar paga tanto : la
qual angaria importa da due. 2500."

VOL. I. 2 E

418 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

siderable one, viz. ten per cent., which, moreover,
went to the heirs. This is a ' monte non vacabile',
the c monte della fede'. The interest was charged
upon the dogana; and the monte was rendered
more secure by giving a share in the management
of the dogana to the creditors- It appears, how-
ever, "that the old form was not wholly abandoned;
the montists constituted a college ; a few under-
takers of the loan paid the whole amount into the
treasury, and then disposed of the shares among the
members of the college.

May it not be said, that the state creditors, in so
far as they had claims upon the public revenue and
on the produce of the labour of the community, ac-
quired a sort of share in the government ? At any
rate so the matter appeared to be understood in
Rome, and no capitalist would lend his money
without the form of such participation.

This however was, as will appear, the commence-
ment of the most extensive financial operations.

Paul III. proceeded in them with moderation.
He contented himself with reducing the interest of
the ' monte Clementine'; and as he succeeded in
making new assignments of it, he raised the capi-
tal by one half. He did not establish any new
monte, but the creation of six hundred new offices
amply indemnified him for this forbearance. The
measures by which he rendered himself remarkable
in the financial history of the papal dominions, were
of a different character.

We have already seen what excitement was pro-
duced by his increase of the salt duty ; this he con-

$ II.] FINANCES. 419

sequently abandoned, but instead of it, he intro-
duced the direct tax of the 'sussidio', with the most
solemn promise that it should not be permanent.
This is the same tax, which, under different names,
was at that time levied in so many of the southern
states ; in Spain it was called the c servicio', in Na-
ples, the ' donativo', and in Milan, the ' mensuale'.
In the States of the Church it was originally intro-
ducedfor three years, and fixed at the sum of 300,000
scudi. The contribution of each province was sent
to Rome; the provincial parliaments met to appor-
tion the contingents of the various cities, which
were again subdivided between the several cities
and the rural population of their dependencies. It
included everybody; the ball expressly ordered that
all the lay subjects of the Roman church, even those
enjoying exemptions and privileges, marquises, ba-
rons, feudal tenants and official persons not except-
ed, should be rated to this contribution*.

The ' sussidio' however was not paid without ve-
hement complaints, particularly when it was per-
ceived that it was extended from one period of three
years to another ; indeed it was never abolished,
but was always imperfectly collected f. The in-
habitants of Bologna, which had been assessed at
30,000 scudi, were prudent enough to buy their
exemption for ever, by paying a large sum down ;

* Bullar. In the year 1537, he declares to the French ambas-
sador, "la de'bilite' du revenu de Fe'glise [and consequently of the
state], dont ellen'avait point maintenant 40m. escus de rente par
an de quoi elle puisse faire estat." Ribier, i. 69.

t Bull ; Decens esse censemus : 5 Sept., 1543; Bull, Cocq, iv,
i. 225,

420 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

Parma and Piacenza were alienated from the holy
see, and paid no more ; Fano affords an example of
what occurred in other towns. Under the pretext
of being rated too high, this town refused for some
time to pay its contingent, and Paul III. on one oc-
casion was induced to remit the payment of the
instalments due, but on condition that the amount
should be applied to the repair of the fortifica-
tions; a third of the contribution was afterwards
remitted for the same purpose. Nevertheless, the de-
scendants of these same men continued to complain
that they were assessed too highly; the rural districts
incessantly murmured at the contingent they were
obliged by the town to contribute ; they endeavoured
to free themselves from the dominion of the town
council, and, as that body asserted its sovereignty,
they would gladly have placed themselves under the
protection of the duke of Urbino. It would lead us
too far from our subject, were we to follow out the
conflict of these petty interests. It is sufficient for
our purpose to see how it came to pass that not
above one half of the 'sussidio' actually found its
way into the treasury*. In 1 560, the whole produce
of this tax was estimated at 165,000 scudi.

Be this as it may, this pope had greatly raised

* Bull of Paul IV. : Cupientes Indemnitati ; 15 April, 1559 :
Bullar. Cocq. iv. i. 358; "Exactio, causantibus diversis excep-
tionibus libertatibus et immunitatibus a solutioue ipsius subsidii
diversis coinmimitatibus et umversitatibus et particularibus per-
sonis nee non civitatibus terrls oppidis et locis Nostri Status Eccle-
siastic! concessis, et factis diversarum portionum ejusdem subsidii
donationibus seu remissionibus, vix ad dimidium summse treceq-
torum millium scutorum hujusmodi ascendit/'

§ II.] FINANCES. 421

the revenues of the Ecclesiastical States; under Ju-
lius II., these were estimated at 350,000, under Leo
at 420,000, under Clement VIL, in the year 1526,
at 500,000 scudi. Immediately after the death of
Paul III., we learn from an authentic report which
the Venetian minister Dandolo procured from the
treasury, that they amounted to 706,473 scudi.

Nevertheless his successors did not find them-
selves much the richer. In one of his instructions,
Julius III. complains that his predecessor had com-
pletely alienated the revenue, (doubtless with the
exception of the c sussidio ', which could not be
alienated, as it was nominally granted only for three
years,) and besides this, had left behind him a float-
ing debt of 500,000 scudi *.

In spite of this state of things, however, Julius III.
entered into a war with the French and the Farnesi,
and thus plunged the country into the greatest em-
barrassments. Although the imperialists paid him,
for those times at least, a considerable subsidy, his
letters contain the bitterest complaints. " He had
expected to raise 100,000 scudi in Ancona, — of this
he had not received 100,000 bajocchi; instead of
120,000 scudi from Bologna, he had only received
50,000. The promises of the Genoese and Luc-
chese money-changers were recalled almost as soon
as made ; whoever possessed a carline, held it back,
and would not speculate with itf."

The pope was compelled to resort to more ener-

* Instruttione per voi Monsignore d* Imola, ultimo di Marzo,
1551 : Information! Polit., vol. xii.
t II Papa, a Giovamb. di Monte, 2 April, 1553,

422 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

getic measures, if he wished to keep his army on
foot ; he therefore determined to establish a new
monte, and this he did on a plan which was almost
invariably imitated in later times. He laid a new
tax of two carlines upon every rubbio of flour; this
produced, after all charges of collection, the sum of
30,000 scudi, which was assigned to pay the inter-
est of a capital forthwith raised : this was the origin
of the g monte della farina'. We must observe how
nearly similar this is to the earlier financial opera-
tions: in exactly the same manner as, at a former
period, new ecclesiastical offices were created, and
the salaries assigned upon the revenues of the curia
(revenues which it was the object of the measure to
increase), for the sole purpose of raising the sum
required for immediate use, by the sale of these
places; so the income of the state was now aug-
mented by means of a new impost, which only
served to pay the interest of a large capital, that
could not otherwise have been obtained.

All succeeding popes followed in the same track;
sometimes these ' monti' were ' non vacabili', like
that of Clement; at other times they were 'vacabili 5,
that is, the obligation to pay interest ceased on the
death of the creditor; the interest was, in this case,
higher, and the collegiate character given to the
montists approached more nearly to that of holders
of saleable offices. Paul IV. established the € monte
novennale dej frati ', on an impost levied upon the
regular monastic orders ; Pius IV. laid a tax of a
quatrino upon every pound of meat, with which
he founded the * monte Pio non vacabile', which pro-

§ II.] FINANCES. 423

duced about 170,000 scudL Pius V. added another
quatrino upon every pound of meat, and upon this
established the ' monte lega'.

By keeping the development of this system in view,
we acquire a more distinct and precise idea of the
character of the Ecclesiastical States. What were
the necessities which compelled the popes to resort
to this extraordinary mode of raising loans, which
burthened their territory with such an immediate
weight of taxation? We answer, chiefly the neces-
sities of Catholicism. As the time for giving effect
to the purely political views of the papacy was past,
there remained only the ecclesiastical which could be
pursued with any prospect of success. The support
of catholic powers in their contests with protestants
and their enterprises against the Turks, was now
almost invariably the proximate cause of new finan-
cial operations. The monte of Pius V. was called the
cmonte lega', because the money produced by it was
intended for the Turkish war, which that pope un-
dertook, in conjunction with Spain and Venice. We
shall find this to be the case more and more. Every
commotion in Europe affected the States of the
Church in this manner. On almost every occasion,
Rome was obliged to contribute to the defence of
ecclesiastical interests by some new burthen on her
own subjects. Hence the possession of a state, and
the command of its resources, was so important to
the ecclesiastical position of the popes.

But they did not rest satisfied with the funds
produced by the monti; they continued the old
practice of creating new offices, or 'cavalierate',
with peculiar privileges ; whether it was that the

424 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

salaries were, as before, covered by new taxes, or
that the then remarkable diminution in the value
of money caused larger sums to flow into the trea-
sury*.

Hence it happened that the revenue of the popes,
with the exception of a short falling off under
Paul IV., in consequence of the war he was engaged
in, was constantly on the increase* Even under
Paul it rose again to 700,000 scudi, and under Pius
it was reckoned at 898,482 scudi. Paolo Tiepolo
expresses his astonishment, in 1576, after an absence
of nine years, at finding the revenue increased by
the sum of 200,000 scudi, and amounting in the
whole to 1,100,000 scudi. It is a curious fact, but
an inevitable consequence of the system, that the
popes did not in reality receive more money. The
alienations increased in proportion to the taxes. It
was reckoned that under Julius III., the sum of
54,000 scudi, under Paul IV., 45,960, and under
Pius IV., who hesitated at nothing, the sum of
182,550 scudi, was alienated from the public re-
venue. Pius IV. raised the number of saleable
offices to three thousand five hundred, exclusive, of
course, of the monti, which were not reckoned
among the officesf. Under this pope the total amount
of the alienated funds rose to 450,000 scudi, and
was constantly on the increase, so that in the year
1576, it amounted to 530,000 scudi. Thus, what-

* Thus, about the year ] 580, many 'luoghidimonte' stood at
100, instead of 130: the interest of the 'vacabUi' was reduced from
14 to 9, which effected a great saving on the whole.

t lista degli Ufficii della Corte Romana, 1560 : Chigi Library,
No. ii. 50. Many other separate lists of different years.

§ II.] FINANCES. 425

ever was the increase in the revenue, these aliena-
tions swallowed up nearly one half of it5*.

The accounts of the papal revenues in these times
present a remarkable aspect. At every article, af-
ter the sums have been specified which the farmers
of the revenue had contracted to pay (the con-
tracts with whom were usually made for a period
of nine years) , it is also stated how much was alien-
ated. The dogana of Rome, for example, yielded
in 1576 and the following years, the large sum of
133,000 scudi, of which however 111,170 were as-
signed, and, after other deductions, the treasury ac-
tually received only 13,000 scudi. Some taxes upon
corn, meat and wine were completely lost to the state,
and were wholly absorbed by the payment of the
monti. From many provincial chests, called trea-
suries, which also had to meet the exigencies of the
provinces, — for example, from the March and from
Camerino — the papal treasury received not a single
bajocco, and yet the sussidio was often applied to
the same purpose. Such large sums were secured
upon the alum works of Tolfa, which had formerly
always been reckoned upon as a source of revenue,
that there was actually a deficit of 2000 scudi f.

The pope's personal expenses and those of his
establishment were chiefly charged upon the data-

* Tiepolo reckons that, besides 100,000 scudi for sendees,
270,000 were spent on fortifications and legations ; the pope had
thus 200,000 still left free. He calculates that, under the pretext
of the necessities of the Turkish "war, the popes had received
1,800,000 scudi, and as yet, had only applied 340,000 to that use.

t E. G. Entrata della Reverenda Camera Apostolica sotto il
Pontificate di N. S. Gregorio XIIL, fatta ncll' Anno 1576, MS.
Gothana, No. 219.

426 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

ria, which possessed two distinct sources of income.
The one ecclesiastical, produced by compositions or
fixed fines, on payment of which the datario per-
mitted various canonical irregularities, on the trans-
lation from one benefice to another. Paul IV. had
greatly diminished this source of profit by the strict-
ness of his measures, but it gradually increased again.
The other was rather of a temporal nature ; it arose
from the vacancies, and consequent new appoint-
ments to the 'cavalierate', saleable offices, and places
in the 'monti vacabili'; and it increased in propor-
tion to the number of these appointments*. Both
together however did not amount in 1 570 to more
than sufficient to cover the daily expenses of the
pope's household.

This course of things completely altered the po-
sition of the Roman State, which, from having been
celebrated as the least burthened among the Italian
states, now suffered as much or more from taxation
than any other f, and the inhabitants complained
loudly. Little remained of their former municipal in-
dependence. The administration gradually became
more uniform. The powers of government were, in
earlier times, frequently delivered over to some fa-
vourite cardinal or prelate, who turned them to his

* According to Mocenigo, 1560, the dataria, at an earlier pe-
riod, produced between 10,000 and 14,000 ducats monthly.
Under Paul IV., it fell to between 3000 and 4000.

f Paolo Tiepolo, Relatione di Roma in tempo di Pio IV. e Pio
V., at that time says, " I/ impositione allo Stato Ecclesiastico &
gravezza quasi insopportabile per essere per diversi altri conti

molto aggravate ; d1 alienare prfr entrate della chiese, non

yi & piil ordine, perche quasi tutte T entrate ,certe si trovano gia
alienate e sopra 1* incerto non si troyaria chi desse danari."

§ II.] FINANCES. 427

own profit. The countrymen of the popes — for ex-
ample, the Florentines under the Medici, the Nea-
politans under Paul IV., and the Milanese under
Pius IV. — then always enjoyed the best places; this
system was abolished by Pius V. These favourites
had never themselves carried on the government
committed to their charge, but had always left it to
the direction of a doctor of laws *. Pius V. appoint-
ed this doctor himself, and applied to the treasury
the money which before had gone to enrich the
favourites. Everything was conducted with more
order and decorum. In former days a militia had
been established in the country* and 16,000 men
enrolled ; Pius IV. had maintained a corps of light
cavalry ; Pius V. abolished both the one and the
other; he disbanded the cavalry, the militia was suf-
fered to fall into disuse. His whole armed force did
not amount to 500 men, of whom 350, chiefly Swiss,
were in Rome. Had it not been for the necessity
of protecting the sea coasts from the inroads of the
Turks, the use of arms would almost have been
forgotten. This warlike population seemed inclined
to devote itself exclusively to the arts of peace.
The popes wished to rule their land like a large do-
main, the rents of which should, in part, be applied
to their household expenses, but the chief portion
should go to meet the exigencies of the church.

We shall see the great difficulties they encoun-
tered in their attempts to realize this project.

* Tiepolo, ibid. : "Qualche governo o legatione rispondeva sino
a tre, quatro o forse sette mila e piu scudi T anno. E quasi tutti
allegramente ricevendo il denaro si scaricavano del peso del go-
verno col mettere un dottore in luogo loro."

428 GREGORY XIII. [BOOK IV.

§ 3. THE TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V,

GREGORY XIII.

Gregory XIII. , Ugo Buoncompagno of Bologna,
who had risen in life as a jurist, and in the civil
service, was of a cheerful, jovial nature ; he had a
son, born indeed before he was invested with spiri-
tual dignities, but out of wedlock, and although he
afterwards led a more regular life, he was at no
time scrupulous ; on the contrary, he rather mani-
fested his disapprobation of a certain kind of au-
sterity. He appeared to follow the example of
Pius IV., whose ministers he instantly restored to
their places, rather than that of his immediate pre-
decessor*.

But in this pope we see the potent influence of
public opinion. A century earlier he would have
governed, at most, like an Innocent VIII. Now,
on the contrary, even a man of his character could
not emancipate himself from the severe ecclesiasti-
cal spirit of the age.

There was a party at court who made it their
chief business to uphold and to defend this spirit.
It consisted of Jesuits, Theatins, and their adher-
ents. We find the names of monsignori Frumento
and Corniglia, the intrepid preacher Francesco To-
ledo, and the datarius Contarelli. Their power over
the pope was the more absolute from their union.

* People expected he would rule differently from his predeces-
sors : Cf Mitiori quadam hommumque captui accommodation ra-
tione." Commentarii de rebus Gregorii XIII. (MS. Bibl. Alb.)

§ III.] GREGORY XIII. 429

They represented to him that the respect which
Pius V. enjoyed, mainly arose from his personal
character and conduct ; all the letters which they
read aloud to him dwelt on the memory of the
holy life of the departed, on the fame of his reforms
and his virtues. They suppressed or avoided every
contrary expression. They thus tinged the ambi-
tion of Gregory XIII. with a thoroughly spiritual
colour*.

His most ardent desire was to promote his son,
and to elevate him to princely rank. But at the
very first favour that he showed him, the nominat-
ing him castellan of St. Angelo and gonfaloniere
of the church, Gregory's friends alarmed his con-
science; and, during the jubilee of 1 575, they would
not tolerate Giacomo's presence in Rome. It was not
till this was over that they consented to his return,
and then only because the vexation of the aspiring
young man impaired his health. Gregory then dis-
posed of him in marriage, and prevailed on the re-
public of Venice to create him one of its nobilif, and

* Relatione della corte di Roma a tempo di Gregorio XIII.,
(Bibl, Corsini, 714.) 20 Febr., 1574, is very instructive on this
point. The author says of the disposition of the pope, " Non
£ stato scrupoloso ne dissolute mai e le son dispiaciute le cose
mal fatte."

f On this occasion they had the difficult task of describing his
birth. It has been praised as an evidence of Venetian address, that he
was designated as " Signer Giacomo Boncompagno, closely con-
nected with His Holiness ;" but it was, in fact, an evasion of
cardinal Como's. When the matter was under discussion, the
ambassador asked the minister, whether Giacomo should be called

430 GREGORY XIII. [BOOK IV.

the king of Spain to appointhim generalof bishommes
d'armes. Nevertheless he did not relax the vigilant
restraint in which he kept him. Having attempted
to liherate one of his university friends from custody,
the pope sent him again into exile, and threatened
to deprive him of all his offices ; he was only de-
terred from this severity by the prayers of Giaco-
mo's young wife, who fell at his feet and implored
his pardon. The time for any more ambitious
hopes was long past*. It was not till the close of
the pope's life that his son obtained influence over
him, and even then it was by no means absolute in
important affairs of state f . When any one craved
his intercession, he shrugged his shoulders.

If this was the case with his son, how much less
could any other relations hope for irregular favours,
or a share in the supreme power ! Gregory raised
two of his nephews to the cardinalate,— this was no
more than Pius V. had done ; when a third, pre-

the son of His Holiness. " S, B&* IUmfl prontamente dopo avere
scusato con molte parole il fatto di S. S*, che prima che havesse
alcuno ordine ecclesiastico, generassequestofiglivolo, disse: *che
si potrebbenominarlo per il Sr Jacomo Boncompagno Bolognese,
strettamente congiunto con Sua Santitk/ " Dispaccio, Paolo Tie-
polo, 3 Marzo, 1574.

* Antonio Tiepolo, Dispacci, Agosto Sett., 1576. In the year
1583, (29th of March,) it is said in one of these despatches: " II
Sr Giacome non si lascia intromettere in cose di stato."

f It is only at this latter period that the opinion of him is
true, which has taken such firm root, and which, for instance, I
find, even in the Memoirs of Richelieu : "Prince doux et b6ain,
fat meilleiir homme que bon pape/' We shall see in how limited
a degree this is true.

§ III.] GREGORY XIII. 431

suming on their success, came to solicit promo-
tion, his uncle refused him an audience and ordered
him to quit Rome within two days. The pope's
brother had also set out for Rome that he might
enjoy the sight of the prosperity which had befallen
his house ; he had already reached Orvieto, when he
was met by a messenger of the court who desired
him to return. The old man's eyes filled with
tears, and he could not resist advancing a little
further on his way towards Rome; but there a
second prohibition met him, and he returned to
Bologna*.

In short, this pope cannot be reproached with
having encouraged nepotism, or favoured his kin-
dred at the expense of the laws and the public.
When a newly appointed cardinal once said to him,
that he should ever be grateful to the family and the
nephews of his holiness, he struck the arms of the
chair on which he was sitting with his hands, and
exclaimed, "Be grateful to God and to the holy see."

So thoroughly was he already imbued with the
religious spirit. He endeavoured not only to equal,
but to surpass, Pius V., in devout demeanor f.

* The good man complained that the election of his brother
to the papal chair was of more injury than advantage to himself,
since it obliged him to greater expenses than could be covered by
the allowance granted by Gregory.

f Seconda Belazione dell' Ambasciatore di Roma Clmo M.
Paolo Tiepolo, Cavre, 3 Maggio, 1576: " Nellareligionehatolto
non solo d' imitar, ma ancora d'avanzar PioV.: dice per Pordina-
rio almeno tre volte messa alia settimana. Ha avuto particolar
pura delle chiese, facendole non solo con fabriche et altri modi

432 GREGORY XIII. [BOOK IV.

During the first years of his pontificate he read mass
thrice every week, and he never failed to do so on
Sundays. His life and conversation were not only
blameless, hut edifying.

Never did pope perform certain duties of his of-
fice with more fidelity than Gregory. He kept a
list of men of every country who were likely to ac-
quit themselves well as bishops, showed himself
well informed of the characters and qualifications
of every one who was proposed to him, and exhi-
bited the greatest caution in the appointments to
these important offices.

Above all, he laboured to encourage a strictly ec-
clesiastical course of instruction. He contributed
to the increase of Jesuits' colleges with extraor-
dinary liberality. He made considerable presents
to the establishment of the professed members in
Rome, bought houses, inclosed streets, and allotted
revenues, for the purpose of giving to the whole
college the form in which we still see it. It was
calculated to contain twenty lecture rooms, and
three hundred and sixty cells for students, It was
called the Seminary of all Nations ; and, at its first
opening, to show that it was intended to embrace
the whole world, twenty-five speeches were spoken
in as many languages, each followed by a Latin in-
terpretation*. The 'collegium Germanicum', which
was founded earlier, was in danger of total extinction

ornar, ma ancora colla assisteatia e frequentia di preti accrescer
nel culto divino."
* Dispaccio, Donate, 13 Gem,, 1582.

$ III.] GREGORY XIII, 433

from want of funds : the pope not only gave the
Palazzo Sant' Apollinare, and the revenues of San
Stefano on Monte Celio, but also granted it ten
thousand scudi from the apostolic treasury, Gre-
gory may be regarded as the real founder of this
institution, which yearly furnished Germany with
a number of champions of Catholicism. He also
founded an English college at Rome, and provided
funds for its maintenance. He contributed to the
colleges at Vienna and Gratz out of his private purse,
and there was perhaps not a single Jesuits' school
in the world which had not cause to boast in one
way or other of his liberality. By the advice of the
bishop of Sitia, he also founded a Greek college, in
which boys of from thirteen to sixteen were received,
not only from countries which were under Christian
rule, such as Corf ti and Candia, but also from Con-
stantinople, Morea, and Salonichi ; they had Greek
teachers, they were dressed in the caftan and the
Venetian barett, and were made to retain all their
Greek customs, and to keep always before their
minds that they were destined to return to their
native land. They were allowed" to retain not only
their language, but their rite, and were instructed
in the faith according to the rules of the council
by which the Greek and Latin churches were
united*.

Another proof of Gregory's comprehensive care
for the whole catholic world, was, his reform of the

* Dispaccio, Antonio Tiepolo, 16 Marzo, 1577: " accio che
fatto maggioxi possano affettionatanaente e con la yeritdb zmparata
dar a vedere ai suoi Greci la vera via,"

VOL. I. 2 P

434 GREGORY XIII. [BOOK IV.

calendar. This measure had been desired by the
council of Trent; and the removal of the high festi-
vals of the church from the connexion in which they
had been placed to the seasons of the year by decrees
of councils, rendered it indispensable. All catholic
nations took part in this reform. Luigi Lilio, a Ca-
labrese, who had few other claims to distinction,
acquired immortal fame by discovering the easiest
method of remedying the inconvenience. His plan
was communicated to all universities — among them,
to Salamanca and Alcala— and opinions upon it
were collected from all quarters. It was then sub-
jected to the scrutiny of a commission appointed in
Rome, whose most learned and laborious member
was a German, Clavius * ; and by this body the final
decision was given. The learned cardinal Sirleto had
the greatest influence on the whole proceeding. Itwas
conducted with a sort of mystery ; the new calen-
dar was shown to no one, not even to the ambas-
sadors, until it had been approved by the several
courts f. Gregory then solemnly proclaimed it,
dwelling on this reform as a proof of the immea-
surable grace of God to his church J.

But the exertions of this pope were not all of so
pacific a nature. It made him unhappy, that the
Venetians concluded a peace, and afterwards Phi-

* Erythrseus, " in qiribus Christophorus Clavius principem
locum obtinebat."

f Dispaccio, Donate, 20 Dec., 1581 ; 2 Giugno, 1582. He
praises the cardinal as a '* huomo veramente di grande littera-

tura."

{ Bull of the 13th of Feb., 1582. § 12, Bullar, Cocq. iv,4. 10.

§ III.] GREGORY XIII. 435

lip II. a truce, with the Turks. Had it depended
on him, the league which won the battle of Le-
panto would never have been dissolved. The trou-
bles in the Netherlands and in France, and the con-
flict of parties in Germany, furnished a bound-
less field to his activity. He was unwearied in
devising projects against the protestants. The re-
bellions which queen Elizabeth had to contend with
in Ireland were almost always abetted by Rome;
and indeed the pope did not conceal that he wished
to bring about a general combination against Eng-
land. Year after year his nuncios endeavoured
to negotiate this matter with Philip II. and the
Guises. It would be an interesting labour to col-
lect and arrange all these negociations and pro-
jects, which were often unknown to those whose
ruin they were designed to accomplish, and which
at length led to the grand enterprise of the armada.
Gregory conducted and urged them with the most
ardent zeal. The French league, which was so
perilous to Henry III. and IV., had its origin in the
connection of this pontiff with the Guises.

Although it must be admitted that Gregory XIII.
did not burden the state with his kinsmen, yet the
vast and costly enterprises in which he engaged
were a far more formidable charge on the public re-
venues. Even Stukeley's expedition which termi-
nated so disastrously in Africa, insignificant as it
was, cost him a considerable sum. He once sent
Charles IX. 400,000 ducats, raised by a direct tax,
levied on the cities of the Roman States ; and he
afforded frequent subsidies to the emperor and to

2 F2

436 GREGORY XIII. [BOOK IV.

the grand master of Malta, But his pacific under-
takings also required a large outlay. It was calcu-
lated that the maintenance of young men during
their studies cost him two millions*. What then
must he have expended on the twenty-two Jesuits'
colleges which owed their existence to him ?

Hence he frequently found himself involved in
financial difficulties, with a revenue which, though
constantly increasing, never yielded a disposable
surplus.

Shortly after his accession to the throne, the
Venetians made an attempt to induce him to grant
them a loan. With increasing attention Gregory
listened to the detailed proposals of the ambassa-
dor, but when at length he perceived what he was
aiming at, he exclaimed, " What do you ask, sir
ambassador ? The congregation meets every day
to devise means of raising money, and never hits
upon a practicable expedient f."

The financial administration of Gregory XIII.
was now a matter of paramount importance. The
alienations and the imposition of fresh taxes were
already become subjects of censure ; the question-
able, nay, the ruinous nature of such a system, was
thoroughly perceived. Gregory charged the congre-

* Calculation of Baronius. Possevinus, in Giacconius Vltse
Pontificum, *iv. 37. Lorenzo Priuli calculates that he spent
200,000 scudi yearly on " opere pie." The extracts from the
narratives of the Cardinal di Como and Musotti, given by Cocque-
lines at the end of the Annals of Maffei, are the most circum-
stantial and worthy of belief on this point.

t Dispaccio, 14 Marzo, 1573* It is a" Congregatione depu-
tata sopra la provisione di danari,"

§111.] GREGORY XIII. 437

gation with the business of raising money for him,
but it was to be neither by spiritual grants, nor
by new taxes, nor by the sale of ecclesiastical re-
venues.

What means then remained ? The expedients
resorted to were very remarkable, — and not less so
the results which they produced.

Gregory, who undeviatingly followed an absolute
idea of right, thought he had discovered that the
sovereign of the papal dominions possessed many
prerogatives which he needed only to put in force,
in order to obtain new pecuniary resources*. He was
not at all inclined to respect privileges which stood
in his way. Among other things, he abolished,
without the least scruple, the right possessed by the
Venetians of exporting wheat from the March and
Eavenna, under certain advantageous conditions.
He said it was fair that foreigners should pay as
much duty as natives f. As they made some resist-
ance, he caused their warehouses at Ravenna to be
broken open, the contents of them to be sold by
auction, and the owners to be imprisoned. This in-
cident alone, however, does not prove much; it only
shows the mode in which he intended to proceed.
A far more important thing was, that he thought
he discovered a number of abuses amongst the no-
bles of his dominions, the reform of which might
be turned to the account of the treasury. His se-

* MaiFei : Annali di Gregorio XIII., i. p. 104. He reckons,
that the States of the Church yielded a clear income of 160,000
scudi only.

t Dispaccio, Antonio Tiepolo, 12 April, 1577.

438 GREGORY XIII. [BOOK IV.

cretary of the treasury, Rudolfo Buonfigliuolo,
suggested a scheme for a vast extension and
renewal of feudal claims which were almost for-
gotten. He alleged that a great portion of the
castles and estates of the barons of the papal do-
minions had escheated to the pope, some by the
failure of the lineal heirs, others by the non-pay-
ment of the rent due to the government*. No-
thing could be more acceptable than such a sugges-
tion to the pope, who had already acquired some
such estates by purchase or escheat, and he imme-
diately proceeded to act upon it. In the moun-
tains of Romagna he wrested Castelnuovo from the
Isei of Cesena, and Corcana from the Sassatelli of
Imola. LoEzano, situated on its beautiful hill, and
Savignano in the plain, were confiscated from the
Rangoni of Modena. Alberto Pio voluntarily
ceded Bertinoro, to avoid the suit with which the
treasury threatened him ; but not satisfied with this,
it stripped him also of Verucchio and other places.
From this time he came on every festival of
St. Peter to offer the arrears of rent due; but they
were never accepted. These instances occurred in
Romagna alone; but the other provinces were
treated in the same manner. The papal court laid
claim not only to estates of which the feudal ser-
vices had not been rendered; there were some

* Dispaccio, A. Tiepolo, 12 Germ., 1579 : " II commissario
della camera attende con molta diligentia a ritrovare e riyedere
scritture per ricuperare quanto dalli pontefici passati si £ stato
obligate o dato in pegno ad alcuno, e vedendo che S. Sa gli as-
sentisse volontieri, non la sparagna o porta rispetto ad alcuno/'

§ HI.] GREGORY XIII. 439

which had originally only been mortgaged to the
barons, — an origin of their tenure which had long
fallen into oblivion ; the estate had passed from
father to son as if held in fee, and had been
greatly improved : it was now the pleasure of the
pope and his fiscal commissaries to redeem the
mortgages. In this way they took possession of
the Castle of Sitiano, by paying down the 14,000
scudi for which it had been mortgaged, — a sum far
below its actual value.

The pope congratulated himself greatly on these
proceedings. He thought he had established a
fresh claim to the favour of heaven when he had
succeeded in raising the revenues of the church, if
only by ten scudi, provided it were done without
new taxes. He calculated with satisfaction that in
a short time an addition of 100,000 scudi would be
made, by legal means, to the revenue of his states.
What increased resources would this give for expe-
ditions against heretics and infidels ! At court his
measures were generally approved. " This pope is
called ' the Watchful/ (the signification of the
name Gregory)" says the cardinal of Como ; "he
will watch and recover his own*."

In the country, however, which was under the
influence of the aristocracy, these measures made a
very different impression,

* Dispaccio, 21 Ott., 1581 : " Sono molti anni che la chiesa
non ha havuto pontefice di questo nome Gxegorio, che secundo
la sua etimologia Greca vuol dire • vigilante : ' questo che 6 Gre-
gorio £ vigilante, vuol vigilare e ricuperare il suo, e li par di far
Tin gran servitio, quando ricupera alcuna cosa, benchfe minima."

440 GREGORY XIII. [BOOK IV.

Many great families found themselves suddenly
driven out of an estate to which they believed them-
selves to have an indisputable legal title. Others
were threatened with a similar fate. Old papers
were daily searched through in Rome, and daily
new claims grounded upon them. In a short time
no man thought himself secure, and many deter-
mined rather to defend their property with arms
than to deliver it up to the fiscal commissary. One
of these feudatories told the pope to his face, —
" What 's lost is lost ; but one has at least a kind
of pleasure in making a good defence/*

In consequence of the influence of the nobles on
the peasantry, and on the * nobili' of the neighbour-
ing towns, this violent expedient for raising money
occasioned a ferment throughout the country.

This was heightened by other ill-concerted mea-
sures by which the pope occasioned very grievous
losses to certain cities. For example, he raised the
duties of the port of Ancona, with the notion that
the increase would fall upon the foreign merchants,
and not upon the country. He thus inflicted a
blow on that city from which it never recovered :
trade suddenly withdrew itself, and the removal of
the increased duties, and even the restoration of
their old privileges to the Bagusans, proved but
feeble remedies for the injury they had sustained.

The event brought about by this policy was most
unexpected and peculiar.

Obedience to authority rests, in every country,
but especially in one of so peaceful a character, on
voluntary subordination. The elements of com-

§ III.] GREGORY XIII. 441

motion were here not removed nor suppressed ;
they were only concealed by the domination of the
government, so that when subordination gave way
on one point, these elements all burst forth and
appeared in full conflict. The country seemed sud-
denly to wake to the recollection, how warlike, how
skilful in arms, how independent in its parties, it
had been for centuries ; it began to scorn this go-
vernment of priests and doctors, and to relapse
into a state more congenial to its nature.

Not that people directly opposed the govern-
ment, or revolted against it; but the old feuds
revived on every side.

The whole of Romagna was already divided into
factions. In Ravenna there were the Rasponi and the
Leonardi, in Rimini the Ricciardelli and the Tignoli,
in Cesena the Venturelli and the Bottini, in Forli the
Numai and the Sirugli, in Imola the Vicini and
the Sassatelli, arrayed against each other ; the for-
mer of all these were still Ghibellines, the latter
Guelfs; and even after interests had entirely changed,
the names came into use afresh. The parties often
possessed themselves of different quarters and
different churches ; they were distinguished by
little badges, such as, that the Guelfs wore the
feather on the right side of the hat, the Ghibel-
lines on the left*. The feud spread into the small-
est villages ; not a man would have spared the life
of his own brother if he declared himself for the

* The Relatione di Romagna points out the differences " nel
tagliar del pane, nel cingersi, in portare il pennaechio, fiocco o
fiore al capello o all' orecchio."

442 GREGORY XIII. [BOOK IV.

opposite faction. There were instances of men
putting their wives to death that they might many
into families belonging to their party. The Paci-
fic! had lost all their influence, the more com-
pletely, because unfit people had been admitted into
the fraternity from favour. The factions took jus-
tice into their own hands, and often pronounced
those guiltless who had been condemned by the
papal tribunals. They broke open prisons to li-
berate their friends, or to take vengeance on their
enemies, whose heads were often seen the following
day stuck up around the fountains*.

The sovereign power was now so weak, that in the
March, the Campagna, and all the provinces, the
troops of outlawed bandits grew into small armies.
They scoured the country under the conduct of
Alfonso Piccolomini, Roberto Malatesta, and other
young men of the most illustrious families. Picco-
lomini took the town-house at Monte Abboddo,
hunted out all his antagonists, and had them put
to death before the eyes of their wives and mo-
thers ; nine of the name of Gabuzio shared this
fate, while Piccolomini's followers danced in the
market-place. He marched through the country as
its sovereign, nor did even the ague arrest his course ;
on the day of the fever fit he caused himself to be
carried in a litter at the head of his troops. He sent
word to the inhabitants of Corneto that they had
better make haste to finish their harvest, for that

* In the MS. Sixtus V. Pontifex M., (Altieri library at Borne,)
there is the most debuted description of this state of aflain, An
extract from it is in the Appendix, No. 52.

§ III.] GREGORY XIII. 443

he was coming to burn all the crops of his enemy,
Latino Orsino. In his own person he affected a sort
of honour : thus, on one occasion, when he took
away the letters with which a courier was charged,
he did not touch the man's money : but the rapacity
and lust of plunder of his troops knew no bounds.
Delegates were now sent from the towns in every
direction to Rome, to implore succour*. The pope
increased his forces, andconferred on cardinal Sforza
larger powers than any man had possessed since the
time of cardinal Albornoz ; he had authority to pro-
ceed not only without regard to any special privileges,
but unrestrained by any rule of law; nay, even with-
out any trial whatsoever ; — manu regid^. Giacomo
Buoncompagno took the field, and together they
succeeded in dispersing these bands of brigands and
clearing the country, but as soon as they retired from
a spot the old disorders arose again in their rear.

One circumstance especially contributed to render
these evils irremediable.

Gregory XIII., who is often represented as good-
natured to excess, had nevertheless formed the
highest and most rigorous estimate of his rights,

* Dispacci, Donate, del 1582, passim.

f Brief for Sforza, given in the Dispacci : " Omnimodam fa-
cultatem, potestatem, auctoritatem, et arbitrium, contra quoscun-
que bannitos, facinorosos, receptatores, fautores, complices et se-
quaces, etc., nee non contra communitates, universitates et civi-
tates, terras et castra, et alios cujuscunque dignitatis vel praeemi-
nentise, barones, duces, et quavis autoritate fungentes, et extraju-
dicialiter et juris ordine non servato, etiam sine processu et scrip-
turis, et manu regia illosque omnes et singulos puniendi tarn in
rebus in bonis quam in personis."

444 GREGORY XIII. [BOOK IV.

not only as temporal prince, but as pontiff*. He
showed no favour to the emperor or to the king of
Spain, nor did he pay the least regard to his neigh-
bours. He was involved in a thousand disputes
•with Venice, (as for instance concerning the affair of
Aquileja, the visitation of their churches, and other
points) ; the ambassadors could not describe his vio-
lence at the least mention of these matters, or what
intense bitterness he displayed. The same was the
case with Tuscany and Naples ; Ferrara found no
favour; Parma had shortly before lost considerable
sums in legal disputes with him. All these neigh-
bouringpowers saw the pope involved in such annoy-
ing perplexities with pleasure ; they scrupled not to
give asylum to the bandits, who, on the first op-
portunity, returned to the Ecclesiastical States. In
vain did the pope entreat them to desist; they pro-
fessed to think it extraordinary that, after totally
disregarding the interests or the complaints of all
others, Rome set up claims to the services and the
respect of every one f .

* P. Tiepolo makes this remark as early as 1576 ; " Quanto
piu cerca d'acquistarsi nome di giusto, tanto piu lo perde di gra-
tioso, perclie concede moltomeno gratie extraordinarie di quel
che ha fatto altro pontefice di mold anni in qua : — la qual cosa,
aggiunta al mancamento cti & in lui di certi offici grati et accetti
per la difficult^ massimamente naturale che hanel parlar e per le
pochissime parole che in ciascuna occasione usa, fa ch* egli in
gran parte manca di quella gratia appresso le persone."

f Dispaccio, Donate, 10 Sett., 1581 : e* E una cosa grande
che con non dar mai satisfatione nissuna si pretende d* avere da
altri in quello che tocca alia libert& dello stato suo correntemente
ogni sorte d' ossequio."

§ III.] GREGORY XIII. 445

Gregory thus found it impossible ever to reduce
the outlaws to submission. No taxes were paid,
and the sussidio could not be collected. Univer-
sal discontent overspread the land ; even cardinals
suggested the question, whether it would not be
better to attach themselves to some other state.

In this posture of things the execution of the
measures proposed by the secretary of the treasury
was out of the question. In December, 1581, the
Venetian ambassador distinctly announced, that the
pope had put a stop to all proceedings in matters
of confiscation.

He was compelled to permit Piccolomini to come
to Rome and to present a petition to him*. He
shuddered as he read the long catalogue of mur-
ders which he was required to pardon, and laid it
on the table ; but he was told that one of three
things was inevitable ; — either he must expect his
son Giacomo to fall a victim to the vengeance of
Piccolomini, or he must resolve to put Piccolomini
to death, or to grant him free pardon. The father
confessors of St. John Lateran. declared that, though
they dared not violate the secrecy of the confes-
sional, they were permitted to say thus much, —
that if something was not done, a great calamity
would ensue. Another reason was, that Piccolo-
mini was openly protected by the grand duke of
Tuscany, and then inhabited the palace of the
Medici.

* Donate, 9 April, 1583 : " II sparagnar la spesa e Tassicu-
rar il Signer Giacomo, che lo desiderava, et 11 fuggir I'occasione
di disgustarsi cgni dl piu per questo con Fiorenza si come ogni
di avveniva, ha fatto venir S. S^ in questa risolutione/**

446 SIXTUS v. [BOOK iv.

At last the pope consented, — though with a heart
wounded to the core, — and signed the brief of ab-
solution.

But even by this concession he did not restore
tranquillity to the country. His own capital was
full of bandits, and things were in so desperate a
condition that the city magistracy of the c conser-
vatori' was obliged to interpose to secure obedience
to the pope's police. A certain Marianazzo re-
fused the pardon offered him ; he said that the life
of a bandit was more advantageous to him, and af-
forded him greater security*.

The aged pope, feeble and weary of life, cast his
eyes to Heaven, and cried, " Thou wilt arise, O
Lord, and wilt have mercy upon Zion ! "

§ 4. SIXTUS v.

It sometimes appears as if tumult and disorder
possessed some secret power of producing the man
capable of ruling the storm.

While, throughout the world, hereditary monar-
chies or aristocracies transmitted power from gene-
ration to generation, the spiritual sovereignty was
distinguished by being attainable from the lowest
ranks of society. It was from the humblest station
that a pope now arose, endowed with all the qualities
requisite to crush the disturbances that prevailed.

* " Che il viver fuoruscito li torni p.iu a conto e di maggior
slcurt&." Gregory reigned from the 13th of May, 1572, to the
10th of April, 1585.

$ iv.] SIXTHS v. 447

At the time of the first successful progress of
the Ottoman arms in Illyria and Dalxnatia, many
of the inhabitants of those provinces fled into Italy.
Groups of them were seen sitting on the sea-shore
and raising their hands to Heaven. Among such fu-
gitives, the ancestor of Sixtus V., Zanetto Peretti, a
Sclavonian by birth, probably passed over into Italy.

But, as is often the fate of exiles, neither he nor
his posterity, who had settled in Montalto, could
boast of any remarkable good fortune in the coun-
try of their adoption. Peretto Peretti, the father
of Sixtus V., was obliged to quit that city on ac-
count of debt ; and it was not till his marriage, that
he was enabled to hire a garden at Grotto a Mare,
near Fermo. It was a remarkable spot : the ruins
of a temple of the Etrurian Juno Cuprsea stood
amidst the trees and shrubs of the garden, which,
as Fermo enjoys a milder climate than any other
part of the March, abounded in the finest fruits of
the south. Here a son was born to Peretti, on the
18th of December, 1521. Shortly before this event
he dreamt, that while he was deploring the various
distresses of his life, he was consoled by an assu-
rance, pronounced by a divine voice, that he should
have a son who should raise his house to pros-
perity. He clung to this hope with all the ardour
of a visionary nature exalted by poverty, and strong-
ly inclined to the regions of mystery. He called the
boy's name Felix. *

* Tempesti, Storia della Vita e Geste di Sisto V., 1754,— has
searched in the Archives of Montalto for the origin of his hero.

448 SIXTUS v. [BOOK iv*

The indigent circumstances of the family may be
gathered from many little incidents of the child's life,
such as his falling into the pond at which his aunt
was washing, his watching the fruit, and even tend-
ing the swine. He learned the alphabet out of the
hornbooks which other children, whose way to
school lay across the field in which he was sitting,
left lying by him ; his father could not spare
the five bajocchi a month which the neighbouring
schoolmaster demanded. Fortunately there was
one member of the family in the church, Fra Sal-
vatore, a Franciscan, who at last suffered himself
to be prevailed upon to pay the money for his
schooling. The young Felix then went to school
with the other boys : he carried with him a piece of
bread, and at noon sat down and ate it by the side
of a spring of water, at which he quenched his
thirst. Spite of this extreme poverty, the hopes of
the father had communicated themselves to the
son. "When, in his twelfth year he entered the

The Vita Sixti V,, i])sius manu emendata, is also authentic* MS.
in the Altieri Library at Rome. Sixtus was born, "cum pater
Ludovici Vecchii Firmani hortum excoleret, mater Dianse nurui
ejus perhonestse matronse domesticis ministeriis operam daret."
This same Diana lived to see, when far advanced in age, the
pontificate of Sixtus : " Anus senio confecta Romam deferri
voluit, cupida venerari eum in summo rerum humanarum fastigio
positum, quern olitoris sui filium paupere victu domi suse natum
aluerat." Likewise : f ' pavisse puerum pecus et Picentes memo-
rant et ipse adeo non diffitetur ut etiam prse se ferat." In the
Ambrosiana R. 124, there is,F.Radice dell' Origine di Sisto V.,
an Information, dated Rome, 4th of May, 1585, which however
tells but little.

§ iv.] SIXTUS v. 449

Franciscan order, (for the decree of the council of
Trent prohibiting such early vows was not yet in
existence;) he retained the name of Felix. Fra Sal-
vatore kept him under very severe discipline, uni-
ing as he did the authority of an uncle and of a
father ; he however sent him to school. Felix
often passed his evenings fasting, and studying by
the light of a lantern in the cross ways, or, if that
went out, by the lamp burning before the host in
the church. We find no record of any marked in-
dication of an innate spirit of devotion, or of a turn
for profound scientific speculation ; we learn only
that he made rapid progress both at the school at
Fermo, and at the schools and universities of Ferra-
ra and Bologna, where he carried off the academic
honours with great credit. He distinguished himself
especially by his dialectical talent, and attained to a
consummate and truly monkish dexterity in hand-
ling subtle theological questions. At the general
convocation of the Franciscans in the year 1 549,
which opened with literary trials of skill, he held a
disputation against one Antonio Persico of Calabria,
a disciple of Thelesius, who at that time had ac-
quired a high reputation in Perugia*. The quick-
ness and presence of mind which he displayed

* Sixtus V. Pontifex Maximus: MS. in the Altieri Library :
"Eximia Persicus apud omnes late fama Perusise philosophiam ex
Telesii placitis cum publice doceret, novitate doctrinse tum primum
nascentis nativum ingenii lumen mirifice illustrabat. Montaltus
ex universa theologia excerptas positiones cardinal! Carpensi in-
scriptas tanta cum ingenii laude defendit ut omnibus admirationi
fuerit."

VOL. I. 2 G

450 SIXTUS v. [BOOK iv.

on this occasion first secured him notice and respect ;
the patron of the order, cardinal Pio of Carpi, from
that time warmly espoused his interests.

His high fortune, however, is to be ascribed to
another accident.

In the year 1552, he preached during Lent in the
church of the Santi Apostoli in Rome with the
greatest success. His style was esteemed ani-
mated, copious, fluent, not overlaid with ornament,
well arranged; his utterance was distinct and agree-
able. One day when he was preaching to a large con-
gregation in that church, he paused, as is the custom
in Italy, in the middle of his sermon ; after he had
rested, he read th© petitions which usually consist of
prayers and intercessions, when his eye suddenly
lighted upon one which had been found sealed in the
pulpit and contained something of a very different
nature. All the leading principles of Peretti's ser-
mons, especially those regarding the doctrine of
predestination, were therein described, and opposite
to each was written in large characters, " Thou
liest." Peretti could not entirely conceal his asto-
nishment ; he hastened to conclude his discourse,
and as soon as he reached his home, sent the
paper to the inquisition*. In a very short time he

* Narrative contained in the same MS. : " Jam priorem oratio-
nis partem oxegerat, cum oblatum libellum resigrmt, ac tacitus, ut
populo summam exponat, legere incipit Quotquot ad earn diem
catholic® fidei dogmata Montaltus pro concione affirmarat, ordine
collecta continebat singulisque id tantum addebat, Hteria grandi-
oribus, 'Mentiris/ Complicatum diligenter libeltom, scd ita ut
consternationis manifestos xrmltis csset, ad pectus dimittit, ora-
tionemque breyi prsecisione paucis absolvit,"

§ iv.j SIXTUS v. 451

beheld the grand inquisitor, Michele Ghislieri, enter
his room. Peretti had now to undergo the most
rigorous examination. He often related afterwards
with what dread the sight of this man, with his
stern brow, his deep-set eyes and his hard features,
inspired him. But he collected himself, answered
well, and afforded no hold for suspicion or censure.
When Ghislieri saw that the friar was not only
innocent, but was so extensively versed, and so
firmly fixed, in the catholic doctrines, he instantly
became another man, embraced him with tears, and
from that time was his second patron.

Fra Felice Peretti from that moment attached
himself most decidedly to the strict party which
just then gained the ascendency in the church. He
kept up a close intimacy with Ignazio, Felino, and
Filippo Neri, all three of whom obtained the title
of saints. The resistance he experienced in his at-
tempts to reform his order, and his expulsion from
Venice by the brethren, served only to increase his
reputation among the partisans of the opinions
which were then rising into power. He was intro-
duqed to Paul IV. and often consulted in difficult
cases ; he laboured as theologian in the congrega-
tion for the council of Trent ; as consultor to the
inquisition, he took a large share in the trial and
condemnation of cardinal Carranza; nor was he
repelled by the labour of searching out all the pas-
sages in the writings of protestants, which Carran-
za had introduced into his. He won the entire con-
fidence of Pius V. That pope nominated him vi~
car-general of the Franciscans, expressly for the

452 SIXTUS v. [BOOK iv.

purpose of giving him authority to reform his or-
der ; an undertaking which Peretti carried through
most strenuously. He displaced the commissaries-
general, whohad of late possessed the highest power ;
restored the old constitution, according to which
this supremacy resided in the provincials, and
made the most rigorous visitations. Pius saw his
expectations not only fulfilled, but surpassed; he
looked upon the partiality he felt for Peretti as a
sort of divine inspiration, and disregarding the ca-
lumnies which were industriously circulated con-
cerning him, he appointed him hishop of St. Agatha,
and, in the year 1570, cardinal.

The hishopric of Fermo was also conferred on
him. Kohed in the purple of the church, Peretti
returned to his native place, where he had once
watched the fruit and tended the cattle ; yet the
predictions of his father and his own hopes were
still not completely fulfilled.

Accounts have been a thousand times repeated
of the artifices employed by cardinal Montalto (so
he was now called) in order to obtain the tiara ; of
his affectation of humility ; of his crawling about,
bent double, coughing and leaning on a stick ; but
those who are acquainted with history and with
mankind will want no evidence to lead them to
suspect that there is little truth in these stories.
This was not the way in which the highest dignities
were to be won.

Montalto lived a secluded, quiet, frugal, and in-
dustrious life. His pleasure was to plant trees and
vines in his vineyard near Santa Maria Maggiore,

§ iv.] SIXTUS v* 453

(which strangers still go to visit) and to do what
he could for the welfare of his native town. His
more serious hours were devoted to the works of
St. Ambrose, of which, in. 1580, he published an
edition. This, whatever evidence it may afford of
his industry, shews his disposition to make the
meaning of his author bend to his own views. Nor
does it appear that, in other respects, he exhibited
that meek and inoffensive character which has been
ascribed to him. We have an account of him even
as early as 1574, which describes him as learned
and prudent, but also as cunning and malignant*.

* A Discourse, Sopra i soggetti papabili, written in the time of
Gregory XIII., says of Montalto : " La natura sua, tenuta terri-
bile, imperiosa et arrogante, non li puo punto conciliare la gratia/*
We see, he was the same when cardinal, as he afterwards showed
himself when pope. Gregory XIII. often said to those about him :
" caverent magnum ilium cinerarium." Farnese saw him be-
tween the two Dominicans Trani and Justinian, who also indulged
in hopes of the papacy for themselves. The author of * Sixtus V.
P. M.' makes him say : " Nse Picenum hoc jumentum magnifice
olim exiliet, si duos illos, quos hinc atque illinc male fert, carbonis
saccos excusserit." He adds, that it was on account of this pro-
spect, that Vittoria Accorambuona married the nephew of Sixtus.
The Grand Duke Francis of Tuscany had a great share in the
election of PerettL In a despatch of the Florentine ambassador,
Alberti, May llth, 1585, (Roma, Filza, n. 36.) it is said: "Via.
Altezza sia sola quella che come conviene goda il frutto dell* opera
che ella ha fatta (he speaks of this election) per avere questo pon-
tefice amico e non altro se ne faccia bello." In another Florentine
despatch, it is said: "II papa replica che il gran duca aveva molte
ragioni di desiderargli bene, perche egli era come quel agricoltore
che pianta un frutto che ha poi caro insieme di vederlo crescere
et andare avanti lungo tempo, aggiungendoli che egli era stato
queUo che dopo il Signer Iddio aveva condotta quest* opera, che
a lui solo ne aveva ad aver oblige, e che lo conosceva, se ben di

454 SIXTUS v* [BOOK iv.

Yet he showed extraordinary self control. When
his nephew, the husband of Vittoria Accorambuona,
was murdered, he was the first to entreat the pope
to let the investigation drop. The intrigues of the
conclave of 1585 having caused him to be put in
nomination, this quality, which commanded uni-
versal admiration, probably conduced more than
any other to ensure his election. It was also noted,
as it is expressly said in the genuine narrative of
the transaction, that he was of a comparatively vi-
gorous time of life, sixty-four, and of a robust and
healthy constitution. Every body admitted that
the actual state of affairs demanded above all things
a man of unimpaired energies of mind and body.

Fra Felice thus saw himself at the term of all his
wishes. It must have been with a lofty feeling of
satisfaction that he contemplated this fulfilment of
a noble and legitimate ambition. All those cir-
cumstances in which he had ever imagined he dis-
cerned indications of his high destiny, were now
present to his mind. He chose as his motto,
" From my mother's womb, thou, O God, hast
been my defender.5'

From this time forth he believed himself to be
favoured by God in all his undertakings. Imme-
diately on ascending the throne he declared his de-
termination of exterminating the banditti and public
malefactors* He said that if he had not power

queste cose non poteva parlar con ogn' uno." We see that a
very different transaction took place behind the scenes, of which
we know little or nothing. The election took place the 24th of
April, 1585.

§ V-] BANDITTI. 455

enough of himself, God would assuredly send le-
gions of angels to his assistance*. He instantly
proceeded to the execution of this arduous work
with deliberate and inflexible resolution.

§ 5. EXTERMINATION OP BANDITTI,

Sixtus V. regarded with aversion the memory of
Gregory, and determined not to adhere to his mea-
sures. He disbanded the greater part of the troops
which he found, and diminished the number of the
sbirri by one half. On the other hand, he resolved
on a relentless punishment of the criminals who
fell into the hands of justice.

There had long been a prohibition against carry-
ing short arms, especially a particular kind of fire-
lock* Notwithstanding this, four young men of
Cora, near kinsmen, were seized with such arms
about them. The following was the day of the co-
ronation, and so joyful an event furnished their
friends with an occasion for begging a pardon
for them. " So long as I live,35 replied Sixtus,

* Dispaccio, Priuli, 11 Maggio, 1585 : Speech of the Pope in
the Consistory : " Disse di due cose che lo travagliavano, la ma-
teria della giustitia e della abondantia, alle quali voleva attender
con ogni cura, sperando in Dio che quarido li mancassero li ajuti
proprii e forastieri, li manderk tante legioni di angeli per punir li
malfattori e ribaldi, et esortd li cardinali di non usar le loro
franchigie nel dar ricapito a tristi, detestando il poco pensier del
suo predecessor."

456 EXTERMINATION [BOOK IV.

" every criminal must die*/' On the same day all
four were hanged on one gallows, near the bridge
of StAngelo.

Ayoung Trasteverine was condemned to death for
having resisted the sbirri who wanted to take away
his ass. All present were full of compassion, as
the boy was led weeping to the place where he was
to suffer death for so small an offence; they
pleaded his youth to the pope. " I will add a few
years of my life to his," said he 5 and commanded
that the execution should proceed.

These first acts of Sixtus struck terror into all,
and imparted an extraordinary force to the orders
which he now issued. Barons and communes were
warned to clear their castles and towns of banditti,
and were sentenced to make compensation for any
damage committed by banditti within their terri-
tories respectively f-

It had been the custom to set a price on the
head of a bandit ; Sixtus ordered that this money
should no longer be paid by the treasury, but by
the kinsmen of the bandit, or, if they were too
poor, by the commune in which he was born. This,
it is obvious, was an endeavour to enlist the in-
terests of the nobles, the communes and the kindred
on tlie side of justice, in favour of which he even
tried to engage the interest of the banditti them-
selves. He promised any one of them who would
deliver up a comrade, alive or dead, not only his

* " Se vivo, facinorosis moriendum ease."

t Bull. t. iv. p. iv. p. 137. Baado, in Tempesti, L is. 14.

§ V.] OF BANDITTI. 457

own free pardon, but the pardon of some of his
friends, whom he might name, and also a sum of
money.

After these orders had been carried into effect,
and some examples had been given of their ri-
gorous execution, the pursuit of the banditti shortly
assumed another form. It was fortunate that at the
very beginning it was successfully directed against
certain captains of bands. The pope could not rest,
because the priest Guercino, who called himself the
king of the Campagna, and who had once com-
manded the subjects of the bishop of Viterbo not
to obey their lord, continued his old practices and
had just committed fresh acts of pillage. " Sixtus
prayed," says Galesinus, " that God would deliver
the States of the Church from this robber;33 on the
following morning intelligence was received of the
capture of Guercino. His head encircled with a
gilded crown was stuck up on Mount St. Angelo ;
the man who brought it received the reward of two
thousand scudi, and the people applauded the ex-
cellent administration of justice by his holiness.

Nevertheless another captain called Delia Fara,
had the audacity one night to knock up the watch-
men of the Porta Salara, tell them his name, and
desire them to greet the pope and the governor
from him. Upon this Sixtus commanded his kins-
men, under pain of death, to find him and deliver
him up. Before a month was over, Fara's head
was brought to Rome.

Sometimes the means employed against the ban-
ditti exceeded the bounds of justice. Thirty of them

458 EXTERMINATION [BOOK IV,

had assembled on a height in the territory of Urbi-
no, when the duke caused some rnules laden with
provisions to be driven in that neighbourhood, pre-
suming that they would not fail to plunder them.
His expectations were not disappointed, and the pro-
visions being poisoned, the robbers all died. "At
the news of this/' says a historian of Sixtus V.,
" the pope was much pleased *."

In Rome a father and son were led to death,
though they persisted in declaring their innocence.
The mother placed herself in the way, imploring
only a short delay to enable her to prove the inno-
cence of her husband and son. The senator re-
fused it. "Since you thirst for blood/' cried she, "I
will glut you with it ;" and she threw herself from
the window of the capitol. Meanwhile the two un-
happy sufferers came to the place of execution:
each entreated to die first; the father could not
endure to see the death of the son, nor the son
that of the father ; the people called aloud for mercy,
while the savage executioner murmured at the use-
less delay.

Nor was there any respect of persons. Count
Giovanni Pepoli, a descendant of one of the first
houses of Bologna, but who had been accessary to
many of the excesses of the banditti, was strangled
in prison, and all his landed property, as well as
his money, confiscated by the treasury.

Not a day passed without an execution ; in every

* Memorie del Ponteficato di Sixto V. : " Ragguagliato Sisto
ne prese gran coatento."

§ V.] OF BANDITTI. 459

part of the country, in wood and field, the traveller
encountered stakes upon which were placed the heads
of bandits. The pope reserved his commendations
for those of his legates and governors who satisfied
him on this point, and sent him in a large tribute
of heads. His justice had something barbaric and
oriental in it. Those robbers whom its arm could
not reach, fell by the hand of their own comrades.
The pope's promises had sown disunion among the
banditti ; no one trusted his fellow ; they murdered
each other*.

And thus not a year passed in which the disor-
ders which had prevailed in the Ecclesiastical States
were not crushed when they openly burst forth,
even 4f not stifled at their birth. In the year 1586
news was received that the last brigand leaders,
Montebrandano and Arara, were killed. Nothing
gave the pope greater pleasure than when ambassa-
dors from foreign courts observed on their arrival,
that they had found security and tranquillity in
their whole passage through his States f-

* Disp., Priuli, as early as the 29th of June, 1585 : " Li
fuorusciti s'ammazzano Tun Taltro per la provision del novo
breve."

f Vita Sixti V., i. m. em. : " Ea quies et tranquillitas ut in
urbe vasta, in hoc conventu nationum, in tanta peregrinorum ad-
venarumque colluvie, ubi tot nobilium superbse eminent opes,
nemo tarn tenuis, tarn abjectse fortunse sit, qui se nunc sentiat cu-
jusquam injurise obnoxium." According to Gualterius, Vita
Sixti V., the latter applied this sentence : '* Fugit impius nemine
persequente."

460 CHARACTERISTICS [BOOK IV.

§ 6. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADMINI-
STRATION.

As however the abuses which Sixtus V. warred
against had another origin, besides the mere want
of a vigilant police, his success in this struggle was
connected with other measures of his government.

Sixtus V. is sometimes regarded as the sole
founder of the laws and ordinances of the Roman
States, and institutions which existed long before
his time are ascribed to him : he is lauded as an
unequalled master of finance, a perfectly unpre-
judiced /statesman, a restorer of antiquity. He had
a character which stamps itself on the memories of
men, and which gained credence for fabulous, ro-
mantic stories.

But if all is not true that is related of him, it
is at least unquestionable that his government was
very remarkable.

It stood in a singular relation to that of Gregory.
Gregory was, in his general measures, severe, deci-
sive, partial ; but he was indulgent to individual
cases of disobedience. By setting interests in ar-
ray against himself on the one hand, while, on the
other, he permitted an unparalleled impunity to
certain actions, he gave rise to that ruinous state
of things which he lived to witness. Sixtus, on the
contrary, was inexorable in individual cases j lie
adhered to his laws with a rigour that amounted to

§ VI,] OP THE ADMINISTRATION. 461

cruelty, while, in the framing of general rules, we
find him mild, yielding and placable. Under Gre-
gory, obedience had met with no reward, and in-
subordination with no punishment. Under Sixtus,
those who resisted had every thing to fear ; while
those who strove to please him might confidently
expect proofs of his favour. Nothing could better
promote his views.

From his first accession to power, he suffered all
the misunderstandings which had arisen between
his predecessor and his neighbours, out of ecclesia-
stical claims, to drop. He declared that a pope
ought to uphold and to fortify the privileges which
are enjoyed by princes, and, in accordance with this
declaration, he restored to the Milanese their place
in the rota, which Gregory XIII. had tried to take
from them; he also evinced the highest satisfaction
when the Venetians at length brought to light a char-
ter which decisively established their claims in the
affair of Aquileja : he was resolved to remove the ob-
jectionable clause in the bull, In Ccend Domini, and
completely abolished the congregation concerning
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, whence the greater part of
the disputes with other powers had arisen*. There is

* Lorenzo Friuli: Relatione, 1586: "E pontefice che non
cosi leggiermente abbraccia le querele con principi, anzi per fiig-
girle ha levata la congregations della giurisdittione ecclesiastica :"
(in another place, he says, principally with reference to Spain :)
" e stima di potere per questa via concluder con maggior facilitate
cose e di sopportare con manco indegnitfc quelle che saranno
trattate secretamente da lui solo."

462 CHARACTERISTICS [BOOK IV.

certainly something magnanimous in the voluntary
cession of contested rights ; and in the case in ques-
tion this proceeding was attended with the most
fortunate results to Sixtus. The king of Spain
sent an autograph letter to the pope, in which he in-
formed him that he had commanded his ministers in
Milan and Naples to pay no less implicit obedience
to the papal ordinances than to his own. Sixtus
was moved to tears, "that the greatest monarch in
the world should," as he expressed it, "so honour a
poor monk." Tuscany declared herself devoted,
Venice satisfied, and hoth these neighbours now
adopted a new line of policy. Banditti who had
taken refuge on the frontiers were delivered up
to the pope from all quarters ; Venice forbade their
return into the States of the Church, and refused
her vessels for conveying exiles to the coasts. The
pope was transported at this ; he said, " he would
think of the republic another time ; he would suffer
himself to be flayed alive for her," (that was his ex-
pression) "he would shed his blood for her." Hence
it was, that he subdued the banditti ; they found
refuge and succour nowhere.

In his own country, he was far from enforcing
those severe measures which Gregory had proposed
for the advantage of the revenue. After chasti-
sing the offending feudatories, he sought rather to
conciliate and attach the other barons* He united
the two great families of Orsini and Colonna by
marriages, both with his own house and with each
other. Gregory had stripped the Colonnas of their

$ VI.] OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 463

castles ; Sixtus regulated their household expendi-
ture and advanced them sums of money *. He
gave one of his great-nieces in marriage to the
constable M. A. Colonna, and another to duke
Virginio Orsini, bestowing on each an equal dower
and very similar marks of favour ; he also settled
their quarrels for precedence, by making it depend
on the seniority of the head of either house. Don-
na Camilla, the pope's sister, now occupied an au-
gust position, — surrounded by her children, by
sons-in-law of such high and venerable nobility,
and by grand-daughters married to the princes of
Rome.

Sixtus also delighted in dispensing privileges.
To the March especially he proved himself a kind
and bountiful fellow-countryman. He restored to
the Anconitani some of their ancient rights ; esta-
blished a supreme court of justice for the whole
province in Macerata ; granted fresh privileges to
the college of advocates of that province ; raised
Fermo to an archbishopric, and Tolentino to a bi-
shopric; and elevated the village of Montalto, in
which his forefathers had first settled, by an ex-
press bull, into a city and a bishopric; " for/'
said he, "it gave to our race its fortunate ori-
gin." Even when cardinal, he had founded a
learned school there; now, as pope, he endowed
the Montalto college at the university of Bologna,
for fifty students from the March, of whom Montalto

* Dispaccio degli Ambasciatori estraordinarii, 19 Ott., 25
Nov., 1585,

464 CHARACTERISTICS [BOOK rv.

had a right to present eight, and the little Grotto
a Mare, two*.

He determined also to raise Loreto to the rank of
a city. Fontana set before him the difficulties in
the way of this measure. " Don't trouble yourself,
Fontana," said he ; " it cost me more to resolve
upon it, than it will to execute it." A portion of
the land was bought from the inhabitants of Reca-
na ; valleys were filled up, hills levelled, and roads
laid out ; the communes of the March were encou-
raged to build houses ; cardinal Gallo placed new
civic authorities in the holy chapel. The pope
thus satisfied at once his patriotism and his devo-
tion to the Holy Virgin. The cities of the other
provinces were likewise the objects of his attention
and solicitude. He made arrangements to prevent
the increase of their debts, and limited their aliena-
tions and securities ; he instituted an accurate in-
quiry into their whole financial condition, and it is
to be ascribed to the provisions of which he was
the author, that the communes gradually recovered
their prosperity f.

* He included even the neighbouring villages as part of Mont-
alto. Vita Sixti V'1 ipsius manu emendata, ** Porculam Patrig-
norum et Mintenorum, quia Montalto haud ferme longius ab-
sunt quam ad teli jactum et crebris affinitatibus inter se et com-
merciis rerum omnium et agrorum quadam communitate conjun-
guntur, haud secus quam patrise partem Sixtus fovit semper
atque dilexit, omniaque iis in commune est elargitus, quo paula*
tim velut in unam coalescerent civitatem,"

t Gualterius, "Ad ipsorum (universitatum) statum cognos-
cendum, corrigendum, cohstitueudum, quinque cameras apostolicse
clericos misit, " The advantages of these regulations may be ob-

§ VI.] OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 465

He encouraged agriculture generally. He un-
dertook the work of draining the Chiana of Orvieto
and the Pontine marshes, the latter of which he
visited himself: the river Sisto (a canal cut through
the marshes), which was the best attempt at
drainage before the time of Pius VI., owed its
origin to him,

He showed no less disposition to foster manufac-
tures. A certain Pietro of Valencia, a Roman ci-
tizen, had proposed to introduce a manufactory of
silk. The peremptory order with which Sixtus at-
tempted to support him is very characteristic of
that pope. He commanded that mulberry trees
should be planted throughout his whole dominions,
in every garden and vineyard, in every field and
wood, in every hill and valley ; wherever corn did
not grow, he fixed the number of five for every rub-
bio of land, and threatened the commune with the
imposition of considerable fines in case of neglect*.
He tried likewise to encourage the woollen manu-
facture ; " in order/' says he, " that the poor may

served in the Memorie also : " Con le quali provision! si diede
principio a rihaversi le communita dello stato ecclesiastico ; le
quali poi de tutto ritornarono in piedi ; con quanto Tistesso prove-
dimento perfezionb Clemente VIII."

* Cum sicut accepimus: 28 Maji, 1586; Bull. Cocq., iv. 4,
218. Gualteritis, " Bombicinam sericam lanificiam vitream-
que artes in urbem vel induxit vel amplificavit, Ut vero serica
ars frequentior esset, mororum arborum seminaria et plantaria
per universam ecclesiasticam ditionem fieri prsecepit, ob eamque
rem Maino cuidam Hebreo ex bombicibus bis in anno fructum et
sericam amplificaturum sedulo pollicenti ac recipient! maxima
privilegia impertivit."

VOL. I. 2 H

466 IMPORTANT CHANGES [BOOK IV.

be able to earn something." He granted the first
who undertook a manufactory an advance from the
treasury, in return for which he was to deliver in
a certain number of pieces of cloth.

We should do injustice to the predecessors of
Sixtus V., if we attributed such intentions exclu-
sively to him; Pius V. and Gregory XIII. also en-
couraged agriculture and manufactures. What
distinguished Sixtus was, not so much that he
took an entirely new course, as that he pursued
with greater rapidity and energy the course which
had already been traced out. Hence it happened
that he made such an impression on the minds and
memories of men.

The assertion that he founded the congregations
of cardinals must also be qualified. The seven most
important, — those of the inquisition, the index,
the affairs of the council, of the bishops, of the reli-
gious orders, the 'segnatura' and 'consulta', he found
already in existence. Nor were the political affairs
left wholly unprovided for in these, for the two last
mentioned had cognizance of judicial and admini-
strative business. Sixtus now determined to add
eight new congregations to those already existing,
of which only two however were to be employed on
the affairs of the church, — the one, on the founding
of new bishoprics, the other, on the direction and
the renovation of ecclesiastical usages*; the re-
maining six were destined for separate departments

* Congregation de sacri riti e cerimonie ecclesiastiche, delle
provision! consistoriali : a questa voile appartenesse la cognitione
delle cause dell' erettione di nave cattedrali.

§ VI.] IN THE ADMINISTRATION. 467

of administration; for the annona, the inspection of
roads, the abolition of oppressive taxes, the building
of ships of war, the printing-office in the Vatican, and
the university of Horned We see how unsystematic-
ally the pope proceeded in these arrangements, how
completely he placed partial and transient interests
on a level with general and permanent ones ; ne-
vertheless they were very successful, and with slight
alterations subsisted for centuries.

He established a high standard for the qualities
befitting the office of cardinal generally. They were
all to be " distinguished men, their morals unim-
peachable, their words oracles, their expressions a
rule of life and thought to others ; the salt of the
earth, the light set upon a candlestickf." It must
not be thought however that his nominations were
always strictly conscientious. In the case of Gallo,
whom he raised to that dignity, he had nothing
better to plead, than that he was his servant,
towards whom he had many reasons for attach-
ment, and who had once given him a very hospi-
table reception when he was on a journey J. But

* Sopra alia grascia et annona — sopra alia fabbrica armamen-
to e mantinimento delle galere — sopra gli aggravi del popolo —
sopra le strade, acque, ponti e confini — sopra alia stamperia Va-
ticana (to the first superintendent of the ecclesiastical press he
gave apartments in the Vatican, and 20,000 sc. for ten years) —
sopra T universita dello studio Romano.

f Bulla: Postquam verus ille ; 3 Dec., 1586, Bullar. M. iv.
Iv. 279.

t Although Sixtus would endure no other remonstrance, he
did not escape that of a sermon. The Jesuit Francis Toledo,
in a discourse preached before him, said, "it is sinful to requite

468 IMPORTANT CHANGES [BOOK IV.

even in this department of his government he laid
down a rule which, if not invariably followed, was
ever after kept in view. He fixed the number of
cardinals at seventy ; " as Moses," says he, " chose
seventy elders out of all the people to take counsel
with him."

It has also been not unfrequent to ascribe theover-
throw of nepotism to Sixtus, but on more accurate
examination, this praise will be found to be unme-
rited. The favours and privileges bestowed on the
papal families had already, as we have seen, fallen
into insignificance, under PiusIV., PiusV., and Gre-
gory XIII. If any one of these pontiffs deserves
more especial commendation, it is PiusV., who ex-
pressly forbade the alienation of church property ;
this early form of nepotism was, as we have said,
abolished before the time of Sixtus V. But another
form had sprung up tinder the popes of the follow-
ing century. There were always two favourite ne-
phews or kinsmen, the one of whom, raised to the
rank of cardinal, gained possession of the higher ad-
ministration of ecclesiastical and political affairs ;
the other, in a secular station, splendidly married
and endowed with landed property and * luoghi di
monte,' founded a 'majorat,' and became the head
and stock of a princely house. If we inquire when
this form was introduced, we shall find that its
growth was gradual, but that it first acquired con-
private services by a public appointment." "Non perche," he
continues, "uno sia buon coppiere o scalco, gli sicommette senza
nota d' imprudenza o un vescovato o un cardinalato." Gallo bad
formerly beei* head-cook, (Memorie della Vita di Sisto V.)

§ VI.] IN THE ADMINISTRATION. 469

sistency under Sixtus V. Cardinal Montalto, whom
the pope loved so tenderly that towards him he mo-
derated his natural violence of temper, had a place
in the 'consulta', and a share at least in the admini-
stration of foreign affairs; while his "brother Michele
was made a marquis and founded a wealthy house.

If, however, we were to conclude from this that
Sixtus introduced a system of government by nepo-
tism, we should totally mistake. The marquis had
no influence whatever, the cardinal none of import-
ance ; * to allow them any would have heen at va-
riance with the pope's ways of thinking. His favours
and partialities had something single-hearted and
confiding about them, and they secured him public
and private good will; but he never for a moment re-
signed the helm to any other hand ; he always ruled.
Though he seemed to regard the congregations with
the highest favour, though he even pressed them
for their free and unconstrained opinions, yet he
was impatient and irritated whenever any one used
this permissionf. He obstinately persisted in the
execution of his own will. " Scarcely any one,"
says Giovanni Gritti, " has a voice in his councils,
— far less in his decisions J." Whatever were his

* Bentivoglio, Memorie, p. 90 : " Non aveva quasi alcuna par-
tecipatione nel governo."

t Gualterius, " Tametsi congregationibus aliisque negotia
mandaret, ilia tamen ipse cognoscere atque conficere consuevit.
Diligentia incredibilis sciendi cognoscendique omnia quae a recto-
ribus urbis provmciarum populorum omnium, a ceteris magistrati-
bus sedis apostolicae agebantur."

t Gritti, Relatione, " Non ci fe chi abbi con lui veto decisive,
ma quasi ue anche consultiyo."

470 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

personal or provincial partialities, his government
was thoroughly impressed with an energetic, rigor-
ous, autocratic character.

This character was no where more strikingly dis-
played than in the financial department, which we
shall now consider.

§ 7. FINANCES.

The house of Chigi at Rome possesses a most
interesting document, — a small memorandum hook
of pope Sixtus V., in his own handwriting, kept
while he was a monk5*. Every important event of
his life, every place where he preached during Lent,
the commissions which he received and executed,
the hooks which he possessed, how they were bound,
whether singly or together, and all the items of
his small monkish expenditure, are carefully noted
down : for example, we read there how his brother
in law Baptista bought twelve sheep for him ; how
he, the monk, paid first twelve, and afterwards two
florins and twenty bolognins, so that they became
his property, the brother in law keeping them, as
was the custom in Montalto, and receiving half the
profits ; and so on. We discover how sparing he
was of his small savings, how carefully he kept an
account of them, and how in the end the sum in-
creased to several hundred florins. These details

* Memorie autografe di Papa Sisto V.

§ VII.] FINANCES, 471

are interesting, as exhibiting traces of the same eco-
nomical mind which was shortly afterwards applied
to the government of the Papal States. Economy
is a quality for which he praises himself in every
bull which affords an opportunity, and in many in-
scriptions ; and in truth no pope either before or
after him administered the revenues of his states
with equal success.

On his ascending the throne, he found an ex-
hausted exchequer, and bitterly does he complain
of pope Gregory, who had spent a large portion of
the revenues of his predecessor as well as of his
successor*: he had so bad an opinion of him, that
he once ordered masses to be said for his soul, in
consequence of a dream, that he had- seen him suf-
fering punishment in the other world.

The revenues were already anticipated until the
October following ; it was therefore the more im-
portant for him to fill his treasury, and he suc-
ceeded beyond his expectations : at the end of one
year of his reign, in April 1586, he had already
treasured up a million of scudi in gold ; in Novem-
ber 1587, another ; and in April 1588, a third mil-
lion. This makes above four millions and a half of
scudi in silver. As soon as he had got together
one million, he deposited it in the castle of St. An-

* Vita e Success! del Cardinal di Santaseverina. MS. Bibl. Alb.:
ft Mentre gli parlavo del collegio de neofiti e di quel degli Armeni,
che havevano bisogno di soccorso, mi rispose con qualche altera-
tione, che in castello non vi erano danari e clie non vi era entrata,
cne il papa passato havea mangiato il pontificate di Pio V. e suo,
dolendosi acremente dello stato nel quale haveva trovato la sede
apostolica.'*

472 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

gelo, consecrating it as an offering, as he expresses
it, to the Holy Virgin, the Mother of God, and to the
holy apostles Peter and Paul. "He saw," as he says
in his bull, "not only the waves on which the bark
of St, Peter was now occasionally tossed, hut the
storms whichlowered in thedistance; implacable was
the hatred of the heretics ; while the powerful Turk,
Assur, the scourge of God's wrath, threatened the
faithful : he was taught by the God in whom he
trusted, that the father of the family should watch
by night; he followed the example of the patriarchs
in the Old Testament, by whom a large sum of mo-
ney was always kept in the temple of the Lord." He
expressly determined the occasions on which it was
allowable to touch this treasure j they were as fol-
lows : a war undertaken for the recovery of the
Holy Land, or a general campaign against the Turks ;
a famine or a pestilence ; the imminent danger of
losing a province of catholic Christendom ; the in-
vasion of the States of the Church, or the chance
of recovering a city which had belonged to the Ro-
man see. He bound down his successors, as they
feared the anger of the Almighty and of the holy
apostles Peter and Paul, to confine themselves
within these limits*.

We will leave unquestioned for the present the
wisdom of these regulations, and will inquire into
the means which Sixtus applied to collect a trea-
sure so astonishing for those times.

It could not arise out of the net revenue; for Six-

* Ad Olavum ; 21 Apr., UBS : Coc^. iv. iv. 206.

§ VII.] FINANCES, 473

tus himself had often said, that the net income of the
papal see was not more than 200,000 scudi a year*.
Nor can it be ascribed exactly to his savings,
although they were considerable (he limited the
expenses of his table to six paoli a day, abolished
many useless places about his court, and decreased
the number of his troops); for we have not only
the testimony of the Venetian Delfino, that all this
did not lessen the expenditure of the camera by
more than 150,000 scudi, but Sixtus himself rec-
koned the saving to the exchequer which he effect-
ed, at only 146,000 scudi f. Thus, according to
his own declaration, with all his economy, the net
income was only increased by 350,000 scudi; — a
sum scarcely sufficient for the buildings which he
carried on, much less for the amassing of so vast
a treasure.

We have before considered the singular financial
system which had been established in the Roman
States ; — the increase of the imposts and taxes with-
out any increase of the clear revenue, the multipli-
city of loans through the sale of offices and monti,
the increasing burdens of the state to meet the ne-
cessities of the church. It is obvious what enor-
mous abuses were involved in this system; and when

* Dispaccio, Gritti; 7 Giugno, 1586. The pope finds fault with
Henry III., because with a revenue of fourteen millions he saved
nothing. " Con addur Tesempio di se medesimo nel govenio del
pontificate, che dice non haver di netto piu di 200,000 scudi all*
anno, battuti li interessi de' pontefici passati e le spese che con-
vien fare."

t Dispaccio, Badoer; 2 Giugno, 1589.

474 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

we consider the praise so lavishly bestowed upon
Sixtus V., we are led to conclude that he found
means to remove the evil. What then must he
our astonishment to discover that he followed the
same system, in the most reckless manner, and even
fixed this system on such a basis, that it was beyond
the reach of future control or remedy 1

One of his chief sources of gain was the sale of
offices. In the first place he raised the price of
many which were already venal. We may take as
an example the office of the treasurer of the came-
ra, which had till now been sold for 15,000 scudi ;
he first sold it to one of the Giustiniani for 50,000
sc., and on making him a cardinal, he sold it to
a Pepoli for 72,000 sc. : having invested him also
with the purple, he applied full one half of the in-
come of this office, viz. 5,000 sc., to a monte,
and sold it, diminished by that amount, again for
50,000 golden sc. Secondly, he rendered offices
venal which previously had always been given away;
as for instance, the places of notaries, of fiscals,
those of commissary general, of solicitor to the ca-
mera, and advocate of the poor; he often sold them
for considerable sums,— that of the commissary ge-
neral for 20,000 sc., and of notaries for 30,000
sc. Lastly, he created a number of new offices,
and often important ones ; such as, offices of trea-
surer of the dataria, of prefect of the prisons, of
twenty-four referendaries, two hundred cavalieri,
notaries in the principal places of the state, &c. —
all of which he sold,

By these means he doubtless collected very large

§ Til,] FINANCES. 475

sums ; the sale of offices produced 608,510 golden
scudi, and 401,805 silver scudi; — altogether about
one million and a half of silver scudi *. But, if the
saleable offices were before a vexation to the people,
in consequence of their bringing with them, as we
have mentioned, a participation in the rights of go-
vernment, under the plea of a loan, — rights which
were most rigorously enforced against those upon
whom the taxes were levied, while the duties of the
office were utterly neglected, — how much was this
evil now increased ! An office, as we have before re-
marked, was thus regarded as a possession conferring
certain rights, and not as a duty imposing labour.

Sixtus also increased the number of the monti to
an extraordinary degree ; he established three monti
non vacabili and eight monti vacabili more than any
of his predecessors.

We have already seen that the monti were always
assigned for payment upon new imposts, and Six-
tus could devise no other expedient, .although he
was very reluctant to employ this. The first time
he spoke in the consistory of cardinals, of investing
a fund for the use of the church, cardinal Farnese
replied, that his grandfather, Paul III., had thought
of that scheme; but had foreseen that it could not
be done without an increase of taxation, and had
abandoned it for that reason. Sixtus answered
him sharply; the insinuation that a former pope
could have been wiser than himself, put him in a
rage. " The cause of that was/' he replied, " that

* Calculation of the Finances of Rome under Clement VIII.,
in a detailed MS. (Bibl. Barberina, at Rome).

476 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

under Paul III., there were certain extravagant
spendthrifts, who, thanks be to God, in our time do
not exist." Farnese blushed, and held his tongue*,
but the result was as he had said. In the year 1 587,
Sixtus V., no longer restrained by these considera-
tions, loaded with new taxes the most toilsome oc-
cupation, namely that of towing boats up the Tiber
with buffaloes and horses,— and the most necessary
articles of life, such as wood for burning, and the
wine of Foglietta, which was sold by retail,— and
instantly applied the proceeds to the foundation of
'monti'. He debased the coin; and as this gave rise
to a small money-changing trade at all corners of
the streets, he turned even that to account, by sell-
ing permission to carry on the trade f- Much as
he favoured the March of Ancona, he loaded its
commerce with a new duty of two per cent upon
all imports. He compelled the just-reviving in-
dustry of the country to minister indirectly to his
advantage f. His great adviser in these matters

* Memorie del pontificate di Sisto V. : " Mutatosi per tanto nel
Tolto mentre Farnese parlava, irato piti tosto che grave gli ris-
pose : *Non e maraviglia, Monsignore, che a tempo di vostro avo
non si potesse mettere in opera il disegno di far tesoro per la
chiesa con 1'entrate e proven* ordinarii, perche vi erano di molti
e grandi scialaquatori (a word ne was very fond of using) i quali
non sono Dio gratia a tempi nostri*: notando amaramente la mol-
titudine di figli e figlie e nepoti d'ogni sorte di questo pontefice.
Airossl alquanto a quel dire Faroese e tacque."

f In exchange for an old Giulio, besides ten bajocchi of Six-
tus's coinage, a premium of from four to six quatrini was given.

t A good example of Ms administration. Le stesse Memorie :
M Ordino non si vendesse seta o sciolta o tessuta in drappi nfc lana
o panni se non approbati da oflBiciali creati a tal effetto, n6 si es-

§ VII.] FINANCES. 477

was a Portuguese Jew, who had fled from Portugal
from fear of the inquisition, by name Lopez ; he had
gained the confidence of the datarius, of the Sig-
nora Camilla, and eventually of the pope himself,
who entrusted to him these and similar operations.
After the answer with which he had silenced Far-
nese, no cardinal again ventured to contradict him.
When the above-mentioned tax upon wine was
under discussion, Albano of Bergamo said, "I
approve whatever pleases your holiness, but my
approbation would be stronger if this tax displeased
you."

Thus did Sixtus render available so many new
sources ofjncome, that he could take up, and pay
interest upon, a loan of 2,424,725 scudi.

We must however confess that this financial
system is somewhat incomprehensible.

New and very oppressive burdens were heaped
upon the country by these taxes, and by the mul-
tiplicity of offices, the salaries of which were paid by
fees which could not but impede the course of justice
and of administration ; the taxes fell upon trade,
both wholesale and retail, and greatly injured its
activity. And to what, after all, was the product
of so much suffering applied ?

If we put together what the monti and the offices
produced on the whole, we find it will amount to

traessero senza licenza degli stessi : Inventione utile contro alle
fraudi, ma molto pifr in pr6 della camera, perche pagandosi i
segni e le licenze se n'imborsava gran danaro dal pontefice."— • •
This could not be very beneficial to industry.

478 FINANCES. [BOOK iv.

about the sum which was deposited in the castle of
St. Angelo ; viz, four millions and a half of scudi,
or hut little more. With the amount of his savings,
Sixtus could have carried into effect all the under-
takings which have rendered him famous.

That a government should accumulate and save
whatever it can spare, is intelligible enough ; nor
it is less so that it should borrow money to help
itself out of present difficulties ; but that it should
raise loans and impose burdens, for the mere sake
of shutting up in a strong castle a treasure against
any future exigency, is indeed most extraordinary.
Yet, this it is, which has always excited the admi-
ration of the world in Sixtus V.

It is true that the measures of Gregory XIII.
were somewhat odious and tyrannical, and re-acted
very unfavourably on the state; nevertheless, I
think that if he had rendered it possible for the
papal treasury to do without new taxes and loans
for the future, the effect would have been most ad-
vantageous, and the States of the Church would
perhaps have received a more beneficial impulse.
But Gregory, particularly in his latter years, was
wanting in energy to carry out his views.

It was precisely this all-accomplishing energy
which distinguished Sixtus : his accumulations of
money by means of loans, sale of offices and new
taxes, heaped burden upon burden ; and we shall
have occasion to observe the consequences; but
his success blinded the world, and gave, for the
moment, new importance to the papacy.

§ VIII.] PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 479

Placed in the midst of states which were gene-
rally distressed for money, the popes, by the pos-
session of wealth, acquired confidence in themselves
and extraordinary influence over others.

In fact this principle of administration was an es-
sential part of the catholic system of those times.
While it placed all the financial strength of the
state in the hands of the head of the church, it
made him, for the first time, completely the organ
of ecclesiastical power. For to what other purpose
could this money be applied, but to the defence and
diffusion of the catholic faith?

Sixtus V. was entirely absorbed in enterprises
which had that object, and which sometimes were
directed against the east and the Turks, but oftener
against the west and the protestants. Between the
two systems, the catholic and the protestant, a war
broke out, in which the popes took the greatest in-
terest and share.

"We shall consider this in the next book: but will
now direct our attention to Rome, which once more
regained her influence over the whole world.

$ 8. PUBLIC BUILDINGS* — SIXTUS V,

For the third time, Rome assumed the aspect of
capital of the world.

Our minds are familiar with the grandeur and
magnificence of ancient Rome, which the remains of

480 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. [BOOK IV.

art and the records of history have been explored to
bring before us ; nor did her glories in the middle
ages deserve less attentive research. This second
Rome was august with the majesty of her basilicas,
the religious services of her grottoes and catacombs,
the patriarchal temples of the popes, (in which the
relics of the earliest Christianity were preserved,)
the still splendid imperial palace which belonged
to the German kings, and the fortified castles raised
by independent clans, as if in defiance of the nume-
rous powers by which they were surrounded.

During the absence of the popes in Avignon, this
Rome of the middle ages had sunk into equal decay
with that ancient Rome which had so long lain in
ruins.

When Eugenius IV. returned to Rome in the year
1443, it was become a city of herdsmen; its inhabit-
ants were not distinguishable from the peasants of
the neighbouring country. The Mils had long been
abandoned, and the only part inhabited was the
plain along the windings of the Tiber ; there was
no pavement in the narrow streets, and these were
rendered yet darker by the balconies and buttresses
which propped one house against another ; the cat-
tle wandered about as in a village. From San Sii-
vestro to the Porta del Popolo, all was garden and
marsh, the haunt of flocks of wild ducks. The very
memory of antiquity seemed almost effaced: the
capital was become the Goats' Hill, the Forum Ro-
manum the Cows' Field;— the strangest legends
were associated with the few remaining monuments.

§ VIII.] PtffiLtC BUILDINGS. 481

The church of St. Peter was in danger of falling
down.

When at length Nicholas regained the obedience
of all Christendom, he conceived the idea of em-
ploying the wealth he had acquired by the con-
course of pilgrims to the jubilee, in adorning Rome
with such buildings as that all should instantly
perceive and acknowledge that this was indeed the
capital of the world. This, however, was not a
work to be accomplished by one man. Succeed-
ing popes laboured at it for centuries.

I shall not repeat the details of their labours,
which are to be found in their several biographies.
The most remarkable, both from their consequences
and their contrast, were the epochs of Julius II.
and Sixtus V.

Under Julius II., the lower city, which had re-
treated to the banks of the Tiber, was completely
restored. After Sixtus IV. had established a better
communication between the two banks, by that solid
simple bridge of travertine which still bears his name,
people began to build on both sides with the greatest
activity. On the southern side, Julius did not rest
satisfied with the project of the church of St. Peter,
which arose majestically under his direction; he also
restored the palace of the Vatican. In the hollow
between the old building and the country house of
Innocent VEIL, the Belvedere, he erected the Log-
gie, a work of consummate beauty of conception.
Not far from hence, his cousins, the Riari, and his
treasurer, Agostino Chigi, rivalled each other in the

VOL. i. 2 i

482 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. [BOOK IV,

beauty of the houses they constructed ; that of
Chigi, the Farnesina, admirahle for the perfection
of its plan, and decorated hy the matchless hand of
Raffaelle, is unquestionably the superior. On the
northern side of the river, posterity is indebted to
Julius II. for the completion of the Cancelleria, with
its cortile, executed in those pure and harmonious
proportions, which render it the most beautiful
court in existence. His cardinals and barons
emulated his example : Farnese's palace has ac-
quired the reputation of the most perfect in Rome,
from its vast and magnificent entrance ; Francesco
de Rio boasted that his would stand till tortoises
crawled over the face of the earth; while the Medici
filled their abode with every treasure of literature
and of art, and the Orsini adorned theirs at Cam-
pofiore, within and without, with statues and pic-
tures*. Foreigners do not always devote all the
attention they deserve to the remains around Cam-
pofiore and the Piazza Farnese, belonging to this
splendid period, which so boldly entered the lists
with antiquity. It was a period of emulation, ge-
nius, fertility, universal prosperity. As the popu-
lation increased, buildings arose on the Campo
Marzo and around the mausoleum of Augustus.
Under Leo, they continued to increase; Julius hav-
ing already constructed the Lungara on the south

* Opusculum de Mirabilibus novae et veteris Urbis Romse,
editum a Francisco Albertino, IS 15; especially the second part,
De nov& urbe*

§ VIII.] PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 483

side, opposite to the Strada Giulia on the north.
The inscription is yet visible in which the Conser-
vatori boast, that he had laid down and opened new
streets, " suitable to the majesty of his newly ac-
quired sovereignty."

The population was again reduced by pestilence
and by conquest; and the city again injured, during
the troubles under Paul IV, ; it was not till a later
period that it began once more to revive, and that
the number of its inhabitants increased, together
with the renewed obedience of the catholic world,

Pius IV. had conceived the project of building
again on the deserted hills. He founded the palace
of the Conservator! on the Monte Capitolino; on the
Viminale, Michael Angelo constructed, by his order,
the church of Sta Maria degli Angeli, out of the
ruins of the baths of Dioclesian; the Porta Pia on
the Quirinale still bears his mark*, Gregory XIII.
also added to this quarter.

These were however but vain labours, so long as
the hills were without water.

It is the distinguishing glory of Sixtus V., that
he resolved to emulate the ancient Caesars, and to
supply the city with water by means of colossal
aqueducts, " He did it," as he said, " in order that
these hills, which, even in early Christian times,
were graced with basilicas, distinguished for the

* Luigi Contarini, Antichitk di Roma, p. 76, praises above all
the exertions of Pius IV, : ** S' egli viveva ancora 4 aam, Roma
sarebbe cT edificii im altra Roma/*

2i2

484 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. [BOOK IV*

salubrity of the air, the pleasantness of the situa-
tion, and the beauty of the views, might be once
more inhabited. We have, therefore/3 adds he,
" suffered ourselves to be deterred by no difficulty
or expense. " In fact, he told the architects from
the very beginning, that he would have a work
which might compete with the magnificence of im-
perial Rome, For a distance of two and twenty miles
from the Agro Colonna, in despite of all obsta-
cles, he conducted the Acqua Martia, partly under-
ground, partly on lofty arches, to Rome. At length,
the pope had the lively satisfaction of seeing a
stream of this water flow into his own vineyard ; he
carried it onward to Santa Susanna on the Quiri-
nale, calling it, after his own name, Acqua Felice ;
and it was with no slight self-complacency that he
erected a statue of Moses striking the rock*. This
aqueduct was a work of the greatest utility, not only
to that district but to the whole city. The Acqua
Felice gives 20,537 cubic metres of water in twen-
ty-four hours, and feeds twenty-seven fountains.

The buildings on the heights now proceeded with
great activity, which Sixtus stimulated by the in-
ducement of peculiar privileges. He levelled the
ground around Trinit& de' Monti, and laid the
foundations of the flight of steps to the Piazza di

* Tasso has written " Stanze all' Acqua Felice di Roma/'
(Rime, ii. 311,) describing how the water first flows on in a dark
course, and then joyfully emerges into the light of the sun, to be-
hold Rome such as Augustus beheld it.

$VIII.] PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 485

Spagna, which forms the shortest communication
between that height and the lower city *. Here he
laid out Via Felice and Borgo Felice, and opened
the ways which still lead in all directions to Santa
Maria Maggiore ; intending to connect all the ba-
silicas with that church by spacious streets. The
poets assert that Rome nearly doubled her size, and
sought again her old abodes.

Nor were these constructions on the heights the
only works by which Sixtus V. was distinguished
from his predecessors. He entertained designs
which were directly contrary to those of the earlier
popes.

Under Leo X., the ruins of ancient Rome were
regarded with a kind of religious veneration ; in
them the divine spark of the antique spirit was re-
cognised with a sort of rapture. That pope listened
to the recommendation to preserve " those things,
which are all that remain of the ancient mother of
the glory and the greatness of Italy f,"

* Gualterius : " Ut viam a frequentioribus urbis locis per Pin-
cram collem ad Exquilias commode strueret, Pincium ipsum col-
lem ante Sanctissimee Trinitatis templum humiliorem fecit et car-
pentis rhedisque pervium reddidit scalasque ad templum illud ab
utroque portss latere commodas perpulcrasque admodum extruxit,
e quibus jucundissiirms in totam urbem prospectus est."

f Extract from the well-known Letter from Castiglione to Leo
X. Lettere di Castiglione; Padova, 1796, p. 149. I can find no-
thing in this letter of a project for a systematic excavation of the
ancient city. It appears to me evident that it is the preface to a
description of Rome, with a plan, to both of which reference is
continually made in it. It is highly probable that the works of
EafFaelle himself were to be introduced with this preface; this
appears to me the more probable from the coincidence of several

486 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. [BOOK IV.

The spirit in which this recommendation was made
or received was distant as pole from pole from that
which actuated Sixtus V. The Franciscan had no
sense which could apprehend the beauty of the re-
mains of antiquity. The Septizonium of Severus,
a most remarkable work, which had survived the
storms of so many centuries, found no favour in
his eyes. He utterly demolished it, and transported
some of its pillars to St. Peter's*. He was as rash
and reckless in destroying, as he was zealous in
building, arid it was universally feared that he would
observe no moderation in either. Let us listen
to what the cardinal of Santa Severina relates ; it
would be incredible, if we had it not from an eye-
witness. "As people saw," says he, "that this pope
was fully bent on the destruction of the antiquities of
Rome, a number of Roman nobles came to me one

expressions in the well-known epigram on Rafiaelle's death, with
others in this letter, e. g. " vedendo quasi il cadavere di quella
nobilpatria cosi miseramente lacexato"; — " urbis lacerum ferro
igni annisque cadaver ad vitam revocas." This, it is true, be-
tokens a restoration, but only in imagination and description.
This opinion does not run counter to the views hitherto set
forth ; on the contrary, it serves only to determine them more ac-
curately. We may infer that the work which occupied the end of
Raflaefle's life was tolerably far advanced, as a dedication of it was
already written in his name. What a name to add to the number
of astyagraphers ! The papers and plans may have fallen into the
hands of Fulvius, who, in all probability, took a considerable
part in the researches.

* Gualterins ; " Praecipue Seven Septizonii, quod incredibili
Romanorum dolore demoliendum curavit, columnis maxmoribus-
que usus eat, passimque per urbem caveee videbantur unde lapides
omnis generis effodiebantur."

§ VIII.] PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 487

day, and entreated me to do all in my power to dis-
suade his holiness from so extravagant a thought."
They addressed themselves to that cardinal who
was then unquestionably esteemed the greatest
zealot. Cardinal Colonna supported their petition.
The pope answered that he would clear away the
ugly antiquities, but would restore the others which
stood in need of restoration. Will it be believed,
which he thought ugly ? The tomb of Cxcilia Me-
tella, even then the only considerable vestige of re-
publican times, an admirable, sublime monument,
he had doomed to utter demolition. What may he
not have destroyed !

He could hardly bring himself to endure the Lao-
coon and the Apollo Belvedere in the Vatican; nor
would he even suffer the statues with which the citi-
zens of ancient Rome had adorned the capitol to re-
main there; he declared that he would pull down the
capitol if they were not removed. They were, Jupi-
ter Tonans between Apollo and Minerva, of which
the two former were in fact removed ; the Minerva
alone was suffered to remain, but under the cha-
racter which Sixtus chose to impose upon her, viz.
that of Christian Rome. He took away her spear,
and substituted for it an enormous cross*.

In the same spirit, he restored the pillars of Tra-
jan and Antonine ; from the former he caused the
urn to be taken away, which was said to contain
the ashes of the emperor ; this he dedicated to the

* Passage from the "Vita Sixti V., ipsius manu emendata,"
printed in Bunsen's Description of Rome, i. p. 702.

488 PUBLIC BUILDINGS* [BOOK IV,

/

apostle Peter, and, the other to the apostle Paul •
and from that time the statues of the two apostles
have stood opposite to each other on this airy height,
overtopping the houses. Sixtus imagined that he
thus gave a triumph to the Christian faith over pa-
ganism*.

His intense anxiety concerning the erection of
the obelisk in the front of St. Peter's, was caused
by his wish to see the monuments of impiety sub-
jected to the cross, on the very spot where once
the Christians suffered the death of the cross f-
There was grandeur in the project ; but his exe-
cution of it was highly characteristic, — a mixture
of violence, greatness, pomp, and fanaticism. He
threatened the architect, Domenico Fontana, who
had worked his way up under his eye from a ma-
son's boy, with punishment, if this scheme mis-
carried, or if the obelisk sustained any damage, It
was a work of the utmost difficulty, — to raise it
from its base near the sacristy of the old church
of St. Peter, to remove it entire, and to fix it on a
new site.

All engaged in it seemed inspired with the feeling
that they were undertaking a work which would be
renowned through all ages. The workmen, nine

* So at least thinks, amongst others, J. P. Maffei, Historiarum
ab excessu Gregorii XIII., lib. i. p. 5.

t VitaSixtiV., I.M. E.: " Ut ubi grassatum olim suppliciisin
Christianos et passim fix& cruces, in quas innoxia natio sublata
teterrimis cruciatibus necaretur, ibi supposita cruci et in crucis
versa honorem cultumque ipsa impietatis monumenta cerneren-
tur."

§ VTII.] PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 489

hundred in number, began by hearing mass, con-
fessing, and receiving the communion. They then
entered the space which had been marked out for
the scene of their labours by a fence or railing*
The master placed himself on an elevated seat.
The obelisk was covered with matting and boards,
bound round it with strong iron hoops ; thirty-five
windlasses were to set in motion the monstrous ma-
chine, which was to raise it up with strong ropes ;
each windlass was worked by two horses and ten
men. At length a trumpet gave the signal. The very
first turn took excellent effect; the obelisk was
heaved from the base on which it had rested for fif-
teen hundred years ; at the twelfth, it was raised
two palms and three quarters, and remained steady;
the master saw the huge mass, weighing, with its
casings, above a million of Roman pounds, in his
power. It was carefully noted, that this took place
on the 30th of April, 1586, about the twentieth
hour (about three in the afternoon). A signal was
fired from fort St. Angelo, all the bells in the city
rang, and the workmen carried their master in tri-
umph around the inclosure, with incessant shouts
and acclamations.

Seven days afterwards the obelisk was let down
in the same skilful manner, upon rollers, on which
it was then conveyed to its new destination. It
was not till after the termination of the hot months,
that they ventured to proceed to its re-erection.

The pope chose for this undertaking the 10th of
September, a "Wednesday, which he had always
found to be a fortunate day, and the last before the

490 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. [BOOK IV.

feast of the Elevation of the Cross, to which the
obelisk was to be dedicated. On this occasion, as
before, the workmen began by recommending them-
selves to God ; they fell on their knees as soon as
they entered the inclosure. Fontana had not omit-
ted to profit by the suggestions contained in a de-
scription by Ammiamis Marcellinus, of the last
raising of an obelisk, and had likewise provided
the power of one hundred and forty horses. It was
esteemed a peculiar good fortune, that the sky was
covered on that day. Everything went well : the
obelisk was moved by three great efforts, and an
hour before sunset it sank upon its pedestal on
the backs of the four bronze lions which appear to
support it. The exultation of the people was inde-
scribable, and the satisfaction of the pope complete;
for the work which so many of his predecessors
had desired to execute, which so many writers had
recommended, he had now accomplished. He re-
marked in his diary, that he had succeeded in the
greatest and most difficult enterprise which the mind
of man. could imagine. He caused medals, com-
memorating it, to be struck ; received congratula-
tory poems in every language, and sent formal an-
nouncements of it to all potentates*.

* TheDispacci of Gritti, from 3—10 Maggio, 12 Luglio, 1 1 Ot-
tobre, speak of this undertaking. The "Vita Sixti V. ipsiusmanu
emendata," well describes the effect : "Tenuitque universes civitatis
oculos novse et post 1500 amplius annos relate rei speetaculo, cum
aut sedibus suis avulsam tolleret molem, uno tempore et duodenis
vectibus impulsam et quinis tricenis ergatis quas equibini homines
deni agebant in sublime elatam, aut cum suspensam inde sensim
deponeret extenderetque humi junctis trabibus atque ex his in-

§VIII.] PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 491

He affixed a strange inscription, boasting that he
had wrested this monument from the emperors
Augustus and Tiberius, and consecrated it to the
Holy Cross, in sign of which he caused a cross to
be placed upon it, in which was inclosed a sup-
posed piece of the wood of the true cross,

This transaction is a complete expression of his
character and tone of thought. Even the monu-
ments of paganism were compelled to minister to
the glorification of the cross.

He devoted himself with his whole soul to his
projects of building : to the shepherd boy, brought
up in the midst of fields and gardens, the city had
peculiar attractions; he would never hear of a vil-
leggiatura, and replied to every proposal of the kind,
that " his recreation and delight was to see abund-
ance of roofs."

He kept thousands of hands constantly employed;
nor did any difficulty deter him from an under-
taking.

The cupola of St. Peter's was still wanting, and
the builders required ten years for its completion.
Sixtus was willing to furnish money for this pur-
pose, but on condition that he might feast his eyes
on the perfect work. He set six hundred men
to work, and allowed no intermission, day or

genti composita traha quse jacentenx exciperet, aut cum suppo-
sltis cylindris (sunt hse lignese columnee teretes et volubiles) qua-
ternis ergatis protracta panlatim per editum et ad altitudinem
basis cui imponenda erat excitatum aggerem atque undique egre-
gie munitum incederet, denique cum iterum erectalibrataque suis
reposita sedttras est."

492 PUBLIC BUILDINGS, [BOOK IV.

night : in two and twenty months it was finished ;
the leaden covering to the roof was the only part
that he did not live to see.

But even in works of this kind, he set no bounds
to his headstrong and impetuous will. He demo-
lished without remorse those remains of the papal
Patriarchium, near the Lateran, which were by no
means inconsiderable or mean, and were, more-
over, singularly interesting — antiquities connected
with the dignity which he himself enjoyed, — in order
to erect in their place his palace of the Lateran,
which was not at all wanted, and which excites a
very equivocal interest, solely as being one of the
first specimens of the uniform regularity of modern
architecture.

So entirely were the relations changed in which
the existing generation stood to antiquity. A pre-
ceding age had emulated the ancients, and so did
that which we are now contemplating; but the for-
mer had sought to rival them in grace and beauty
of form ; the present, to equal or surpass them in
massive construction. Formerly, any trace of the
antique spirit was reverenced in the smallest re-
mains; now, it seemed to be the object to obliterate
these traces. The men of this age followed one
exclusive and omnipotent idea, and recognised no
other. It was the same which had gained dominion
in the church ; the same which had made the state
the organ of the church. This idea, which charac-
terized modern Catholicism, now pervaded every vein
of the social body, and flowed in the most various
directions.

IX.] INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE, 493

§ 9. GENERAL CHANGE IN THE INTELLECTUAL
TENDENCY OF THE AGE.

It would be a mistake to imagine that the influence
of the spirit we have just contemplated was confined
to the pope. In every department of mind, in every
portion of society, we discern, at the termination of
this century, a tendency directly opposed to that
which marked its commencement.

One of the strongest indications of this change is,
that the study of the ancients, which in the former
period had been the source and spring of all know-
ledge, had now fallen into complete neglect. It is
true that another Aldus Manutius appeared at
Rome, and that he was professor of eloquence; but
neither his Greek nor his Latin could win admirers.
At the hours of his lectures he was seen pacing up
and down before the portal of the university, with
one or two hearers, from whom alone he found any
sympathy in his pursuits. What vast progress did
the study of the Greek language and literature make
in the beginning of the century! — and at the con-
elusion of it, Italy did not possess a single Hellenist
of note.

It is not my intention to represent this change
entirely as a symptom of decline : in a certain
sense, it is connected with the inevitable progress
of scientific discovery.

494 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK IV.

For though all science had formerly been drawn
directly from the ancients, this was now no longer
possible. On the one hand, the materials had enor-
mously accumulated. What a totally different
knowledge of natural history, for instance, was
acquired by Ulisse Aldrovandi, during the labours
of a long life and extensive travel, from that which
any ancient could possess! He collected a museum
which he endeavoured to render complete ; where-
ever the natural object was wanting, he filled its
place with a drawing, and attached to every spe-
cimen an elaborate description. The field of geo-
graphy had also received an extension far beyond
the widest imaginations of the ancient world.

On the other hand, a deep and searching spirit
of investigation had arisen. The mathematicians
sought at first only to fill up the chasms left by the
ancients. (Commandino, for example, thought he
discovered that Archimedes must have either read
or written something concerning the centre of gra-
vity, which, consequently, must have been lost ; and
this idea caused him to investigate the subject it-
self.) But this very process led to far more exten-
sive results; those who began their inquiries under
the conduct of the ancients, emancipated themselves
from their authority; discoveries were made beyond
the limits which they had prescribed, and these again
opened a way to further researches.

The study of nature especially was pursued with
equal ardour and independence of mind. There was
a momentary vacillation between an acquiescence

§ IX.] OP THE AGE. 495

in the mystery in which nature veils all her works,
and a courageous, searching investigation of pheno-
mena. But the latter, the scientific tendency, was
soon victorious. An attempt was already made to
divide the vegetable world according to a rational
system ; whilst Padua boasted a professor who was
called the Columbus of the human body. Inqui-
ries were more and more extended and active, and
science was no longer limited to the regions ex-
plored by antiquity.

It followed, — if I mistake not, by necessary con-
sequence,— that as the antique was no longer stu-
died with the same veneration and confidence with
reference to matter, it could no longer have the same
influence with reference to form, which it had hi-
therto exercised.

Works of erudition began to be valued mainly in
proportion to the accumulation of materials. In
the beginning of the century, Cortesius had given
to the world the essential part of the scholastic
philosophy, inapplicable as that was to the wants
of the age, in a well-written classical work, full of
talent and wit ; now, Natale Conte manufactured
a tedious uninviting quarto out of that antique ma-
terial, the fit handling of which would have called
forth all the resources of genius and imagination, —
mythology. The same author likewise wrote a hi-
story; yet though the sentences with which his book
is adorned are almost all taken immediately from
the ancients, and the passages from which they
are extracted are cited, he makes no approach to a
lively and characteristic representation of antiquity.

496 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK IV.

It seemed enough for his cotemporaries to heap toge-
ther masses of facts. It may safely be affirmed, that a
work like the Annals of Baronius, so utterly devoid
of all attempt at form, written in Latin, hut without
a trace of elegance even in the detached phrases,
was a thing that could not have entered the minds
of men in the beginning of the century.

Whilst the track of the ancients was thus de-
serted, not only in scientific inquiries, but still
more in form and expression, changes took place in
the vital condition of the nation, which exercised an
incalculable influence on all literary and artistical
pursuits.

Republican, independent Italy, on whose pecu-
liar circumstances the earlier development of the
genius of her sons depended, fell for ever. The
freedom and simplicity of the intellectual common-
wealth utterly vanished. It is worthy of note, that
titles were then introduced : as early as the year
1520 some persons remarked with disgust that
every man wanted to be called 'sir5; a degeneracy
of taste which was ascribed to Spanish influence.
About the year 1 550 ponderous epithets of honour
already encumbered and oppressed the simple ad-
dress by speech and letter hitherto in use. Towards
the end of the century the titles of * duca ' and
'marchese* became prevalent; everybody wanted
them ; everybody would be 'excellency'. It is easy
to say that this love of trivialities has no great sig-
nificancy; but its influence is still felt, long after
the state of things which occasions it is obsolete;
how much more when it was new ! In every other

§ IX.] OF THE AGE. 497

respect, also, society became stricter, stiffer, more ex-
clusive: the gay ease of earlier manners, the simple
frankness of mutual intercourse, were gone for ever.

Be the cause what it may, — whether it be a change
founded in the nature of the human mind, — thus
much is manifest, that all productions, even towards
the middle of the century, are pervaded by a new
spirit; that society, in its living and positive forms,
had new wants.

Of all the phenomena which mark this change,
perhaps, the most striking is the recast of Bojardo's
Orlando Innamorato, by Berni. It is the same
work, and yet a totally different one. All the
charm, all the freshness of the original poem, are
obliterated. On a deeper observation, we find
that the author has everywhere substituted the
universal for the individual ; the sort of conven-
tional decorum required by Italian society, then
and now, for the unconstrained, careless expres-
sion of a lovely and living nature*. He exactly
hit the public taste ; his poem was received with
incredible approbation, and the parasitic work, thus
remodelled, has entirely superseded the original.
How rapidly too had this transformation become
complete ! Not fifty years had elapsed since the
publication of the first edition.

We may follow this altered key-note, these in-
dications of a new spirit, through most of the pro-
ductions of that time.

* I have attempted to carry this out more in detail in the
before-mentioned Academical Treatise.

VOL, I, 2 K

498 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK IV.

It is not entirely want of talent which renders
the great poems of Alamanni and Bernardo Tasso
uninteresting and tedious (the latter especially).
Their very conception is cold. In conformity
with the tastes and demands of a public which,
though assuredly not very virtuous, was become
sedate and decorous, they selected irreproachable he-
roes. Bernardo chose Amadis, of whom Torquato
Tasso says, " Dante would have retracted the un-
favourable judgment he expresses concerning the
romances of chivalry, if he had known the Amadis
of Gaul or of Greece ; so full are their characters
of nobleness and constancy." Alamanni took for
his subject Giron le Courtoys, the mirror of all
knightly virtues. His avowed object was to shosp-
youth by this example, how to endure hunger and
watchings, cold and heat ; how to bear arms, to
show justice and mercy to all, and to forgive ene-
mies. As they proceeded in the manner of Berni
with this moral and didactic aim, and designedly
stripped their fables of the poetical groundwork
they possessed, it followed that their works were
feeble, dry, and diffuse.

It appeared, so to speak, as if the nation had used
up the stock of poetical conceptions and images
which had sprung out of her past history, out of
the ideas of the middle ages ; as if she no longer
possessed even the power of understanding them.
She sought something new. But neither would cre-
ative genius arise, nor did society furnish any fresh
and unwrought material. Up to the middle of the
century,Italian prose, though, in accordance with its

§ IX.] , OF THE AGE, 499

nature, didactic, was yet spirited, warm, pliant, and
graceful. Gradually prose too became stiff and cold.

Art shared the fate of poetry. She lost the inspi-
ration which had suggested her religious subjects,
and, soon after, that which had animated her profane
works. Some traces of it remained in the Venetian
school alone; Raffaelle's scholars,withone exception,
were wholly degenerate. While they endeavoured to
imitate him, they lost themselves in artificial beauty,
theatrical attitudes, affected graces; and their works
bear sufficient evidence of the total want of warmth
or sense of beauty in the soul which conceived them.
The scholars of Michael Angelo did no better. Art
had lost all comprehension of her object ; she had
discarded the ideas which she had formerly taxed
all her powers to clothe with form ; she retained
nothing but the externals of method.

In this state of things, when antiquity was de-
serted,— when it had ceased to furnish form to art,
or to prescribe limits to science, — when, at the same
time, the old national poetry and the religious mode
of conception were scorned and rejected by literature
and by art, — the resuscitation of the church began.
It gained possession of men's minds, with their will
or against it; it introduced an entire alteration
in the whole domain and condition of art and of
literature.

The influence of the church on science was,
however, if I mistake not, completely different
from that which she exercised over art.

Philosophy, and indeed science generally, passed
through another very remarkable phase. After the

2 K2

500 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK IV,

restoration of the genuine Aristotle, men began (as it
happened in other branches, and with other writers
of antiquity,) to emancipate themselves even from
his authority in philosophy, and to advance to a
free investigation of the highest problems that can
engage the human mind. From the very nature of
things, the church could not encourage this freedom
of thought. She herself hastened to establish first
principles, in a manner that left no room for doubt.
Ikfct if the followers of Aristotle had frequently pro-
fessed opinions at variance with the church and
with revealed religion, something of the same kind
was also to be feared from his opponents. They
were resolved, as one of them expressed it, to
compare the dogmas of former teachers with the
original handwriting of God — with the world
and the nature of things; an undertaking the
consequences of which could not be foreseen or
estimated, which must inevitably lead either to
discoveries or to errors of very insidious tenden-
cy, and which therefore the church took care to
thwart. Although Thelesius did not in fact ex-
tend his speculations above the sphere of physics,
he was compelled to remain all his life in his small
native town; Campanella lived a fugitive, and suf-
fered torture ; the deepest thinker of all, Giordano
Bruno, a true philosopher, after many persecutions
and long wanderings, was at length accused before
the inquisition, " not only," as the legal record
declares, " as a heretic, but a heresiarch, who had
written things unseemly concerning religion *;" he
In a Venetian MS. in the Archives at Vienna, under the hea4

§ IX.] OF THE AGE. 501

was imprisoned, sent to Rome, and condemned
to perish in the flames.

After such examples, who could have courage for
free inquiry ? Of all the innovators which this cen-
tury produced, there was but one, Francesco Patrizi,
who found favour at Rome. He too attacked Ari-
stotle, though only on the ground that the doctrines
of that philosopher were contrary to the church and
to Christianity. He endeavoured to trace a genuine
philosophical tradition (as opposed to the Aristo-
telic opinions,) from the pretended Hermes Tris-

"Roma, Espositioni, 1592, 28 Sett.," is the original copy of a
protocol concerning the delivering up of Giordano Bruno. The
vicar of the patriarch, the father inquisitor, and the assistant of the
inquisition, Tommaso Morosini, appeared before the college. The
vicar asserted : " Li giorni passati esser stato ritenuto e tuttavia ri-
trovarsi nelle prigioni di questo citta deputate al servicio del santo
ufficio Giordano Bruno da Nola, imputato non solo di heretico,
ma anche di heresiarca, havendo composto diversi libri, nei quali,
laudando assai la regina d' Inghilterra et altri principi heretici,
scriveva alcune cose concernenti il particular delta religione che
non convenivano sebene egli parlava filosoficamente, e che costui
era apostata, essendo stato primo frate domenicano, che era vis-
suto molt* anni in Ginevra et Inghilterra, e che in Napoli et altri
luoghi era stato inquisito della medesima imputatione : e che'es-
sendosi saputa a Roma la prigionia di costui, loillmo Santa Seve-
rina supremo inquisitore haveva scritto e dato ordine che fusse
inviato a Roma con prima sicura occasione :" he further de-
clared that such an opportunity now offered itself. They received
no immediate answer. After dinner, the father inquisitor again
appeared, and was very urgent, as the vessel was just on the point
of departure. But the Savj answered : " che essendo la cosa di mo-
mento e consideratione e le occupation! di questo stato molte e
gravi non si haveva per alhora potuto fare risolutione," Accord-
ingly the vessel sailed without the prisoner. I have not been able
to discover whether he was eventually given up in consequence of
fresh negotiations*

502 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK IV.

megistus, in whom he thought he found a clearer
exposition of the Trinity than even in the Mosaical
writings, down through all succeeding ages : this
he sought to renovate, to restore, and to substitute
for the Aristotelic philosophy. In all the dedica-
tions of his works, he insists on this project of
his, and on the utility, the necessity, of its execu-
tion. He was a man of a singular turn of mind; not
without critical power, but power displayed only in
what he rejects, not in what he accepts. He was
called to Rome, and maintained himself in high
favour there, by those peculiarities in his opinions
which were acceptable to the church, and by the
tendency of his labours ; not certainly by their
influence, which was extremely small.

Researches in physics and natural history were
at that time almost inextricably interwoven with
speculations in philosophy. The whole system of
previous and existing ideas was called in question.
In fact, the Italians of that epoch manifested a grand
tendency towards searching investigation, intrepid
pursuit of truth, noble aspirations, and high prophe-
tic visions of discovery. Who shall say whither this
tendency would have led ? But the church marked
out a line which they were not to overstep ; — woe
to him who ventured to pass it.

But if, as it is impossible to doubt, the restora-
tion of Catholicism acted repressively on science, it
had a contrary effect on art and poetry. They stood
in need of a prolific material, of a living subject, and
they found it once more in the church.

The example of Torquato Tasso is a striking

§ IX.] OF THE AGE. 503

proof of the power which the regeneration of reli-
gion had acquired over the minds of men. His
father had selected a morally faultless hero ; Tor-
quato went a step further. Another poet of that
time had chosen the crusades for his subject,
" because it is better to handle a true argument in
a Christian manner, than to seek a little Christian
renown in a fictitious one." Torquato Tasso did
the same. He took his hero not from fable, but
from history, — a Christian hero. Godfrey is more
than JEneas, he is like a saint, sated with the
world and with its transitory glory. A poem ex-
clusively devoted to the delineation of such a cha-
racter would have been a very dry and insipid work,
but Tasso instantly seized on the sentimental and
enthusiastic part of religion, which harmonizes per-
fectly with the fairy world whose many-coloured
threads he interwove in the web of his story. The
poem is occasionally somewhat tedious, and the ex-
pression is not always thoroughly worked out ; yet
it is a poem full of fancy and of feeling, of national
spirit and truth of character, by which Tasso has
enchained the love and the admiration of his coun-
trymen to this hour.

Yet what a contrast to Ariosto ! Poetry had for-
merly fallen away from the church; religion, rising in
new youth and vigour from her languor and weakness,
now once more subjugated poetry to her empire.

At Bologna, not far from Ferrara, where Tasso
composed his poem, arose, soon after, the school of
the Caracci, whose rise marks a general change in
the state of painting.

504 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK IV.

If we inquire what were the causes of this change,
we are referred to the anatomical studies of the Bo-
lognese academy, their eclectic imitation, and their
learned style of art. And undoubtedly the zeal with
which they laboured, in their manner, to approach
the appearances of nature, is a great merit. But
what were the tasks which they proposed to them-
selves, and what the spirit in which they addressed
themselves to their accomplishment, seem to me a
consideration of at least equal importance.

Ludovico Caracci employed himself much in em-
bodying the ideal of Christ ; in some instances, as
in his picture of the calling of Matthew, he is suc-
cessful in producing a representation of the mild and
serious man, full of truth and fervour, of benignity
and majesty, which has so often served as a model
to succeeding painters. It is true he imitates elder
masters, but the manner in which he does this is
characteristic of his turn of mind. He evidently has
Raffaelle's Transfiguration before his eyes; but even
while he appropriates it, he makes Christ raise his
hand towards Moses, as if in act to teach. The mas-
terpiece of Agostino Caracci is unquestionably his
St. Jerome. The aged saint is represented in the arms
of death, motionless ; his last breath is a fervent
aspiration after the host, which the ministering
priest is bringing him, Annibal's Ecce Homo, of the
Borghese palace, with its deep shadows, its delicate
transparent skin, and its flowing tears, is Ludovico's
ideal, but elevated to a higher pitch of sublimity.
There is admirable grandeur and freshness of con-
ception, even in the rigidity of death, in the Piet&,

$ IX.] OF THE AGE. 505

a work in which the tremendous and tragical event
is conceived and expressed with a new feeling. In
the lunettes at the Doria palace, the landscape is
inspired with life by the simple expression of the
human incidents of the sacred history.

We perceive that although these masters did not
reject profane subjects, they devoted themselves
with great zeal to sacred ones. It is not there-
fore so much their outward and technical merits
which entitle them to the rank they hold among
artists ; the grand point will ever be, that they, like
their great predecessors, were filled and animated
by their subject; that the religious scenes which
they bring before our senses, had once more some
significancy to their own minds.

The same tendency distinguishes their pupils.
Domenichino worked out the ideal of St. Jerome, of
which Agostino Caracci was the author, with such
felicitous industry, that he perhaps surpassed his
master in variety of grouping and perfection of ex-
pression. His head of St. Nilus appears to me
admirable, from its blended expression of suffering
and reflection ; his prophetesses are full of youth,
innocence, and profound meditation, His favourite
study was, to place the joys of heaven in contrast
with the sufferings of earth, the most striking ex-
ample of which is in the Madonna del Rosario, — the
Divine Mother, full of grace, contrasted with a fee-
ble and miserable mortal.

Occasionally Guido Reni too seizes this con-
trast, though perhaps only in the more obvious
form of the Virgin glowing in immortal beauty, op-

506 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK IV.

posed to some monkish saint, worn and attenuated
with ascetic practices. Guido has freedom and
originality of conception. How magnificent is his
Judith, taken in the very feeling of the deed she has
accomplished, and of the gratitude she owes to
Heaven for the aid she has received I Who does
not immediately recognise his ecstatic Madonnas,
almost dissolved in rapture ? Even his saints are
distinguished by that expression of sentimental re-
verie which was the peculiar ideal of his creation.

But we have not yet described all the character-
istics of the dominant tendency of the age ; it has an-
other and a less attractive side. The conceptions of
these painters are sometimes fantastic and incongru-
ous. For example, we find a St. John ceremoniously
kissing the foot of the infant Jesus, introduced into
the beautiful group of the Holy Family ; or the apo-
stles coming apparently to condole with the Virgin,
and preparing to wipe away their tears. How often
too is the horrible delineated, without the least
attempt to soften its repulsive aspect I In the St.
Agnes of Domenichino, we see the blood start from
beneath the sword, Guido conceived the murder of
the Innocents in its naked atrocity and terror ; the
women have all their mouths open, screaming, while
the savage soldiers are in the act of butchering the
defenceless infants.

In the age we are now contemplating, art is once
more become religious, as she was in earlier times,
but her inspirations are of a widely different charac-
ter. Elder art was simple, true, direct; in this age,
she had something forced and fantastic.

§ IX.] OF THE AGE. 507

No one will refuse admiration to the talents of
Guercino; but what a St. John is that in the Sci-
arra gallery, with large nervous arms, colossal bare
knees, and an expression of gloomy inspiration,
which leaves the spectator in doubt whether it be
of a heavenly or an earthly nature ! His St. Thomas
lays his hand with so rude a touch on the wounds
in the side of Christ, that we shrink back with a
feeling of pain. Guercino represents Peter Mar-
tyr precisely at the moment in which the sword
enters his head. There is a picture by this artist of
St. Bernard investing a duke of Aquitaine with the
cowl, while a monk by his side is labouring at the
conversion of one of the duke's squires : we thus
find ourselves consigned to a premeditated scene of
devotion, from which there is no escape.

We shall not here go into the inquiry how far
the bounds of art were overpassed by this treat-
ment of subjects, — sometimes fantastically ideal,
sometimes hard and unnatural; it is sufficient if
we remark, that the church obtained entire domi-
nion over restored painting* She infused new life
into art by the breath of poetry and by the princi-
ples of a positive religion ; but she imparted to it at
the same time an ecclesiastical, sacerdotal, and dog-
matical character.

This she effected with still greater ease in archi-
tecture, which was her more immediate handmaid.
I do not know if any one has traced the progress of
modern architecture, from the imitation of the an-
tique, to the canon invented by Barozzi for the con-
struction of churches, which has been adhered to

508 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY [BOOK IV.

ever since in Borne, and throughout the catholic
world. The lightness and genial freedom which
marked the beginning of the century were trans-
muted, in this, as in the sister arts, into solemnity,
and pomp, and religious magnificence.

With regard to one art alone, it was long doubt-
ful whether it would lend itself entirely to the pur-
poses of the church or not.

In the middle of the sixteenth century, music had
lost herself in the most intricate artificiality. The
reputation of a composer rested entirely on arbi-
trary and difficult tricks, while the meaning of the
words was wholly disregarded : there are a great
number of masses of that period, which were little
else than variations on themes of some well known
profane airs; the human voice was treated as a
mers instrument*. No wonder if the council of
Trent was scandalized at the performance of such
music in the churches. In consequence of its dis-
cussions, Pius IV. nominated a commission to ad-
vise upon the question, whether music was to be
permitted in the churches, or not. The decision
was very doubtful. The church required distinct-
ness of the words, and adaptation of the musical ex-
pression to them. The musicians affirmed that this
was not to be attained according to the laws of their
art. Carlo Borromeo was in the commission, and
a severe judgment was rendered very probable by
the strict opinions of this great ecclesiastic.

* Giuseppe Barai, Memorie storico-critiche della Vita e delle
Opens di Giovanni Rer-Luigi di Palestrina, Boma, 1828, commur
nicates the information of which I have made use.

§ IX.] OP THE AGE. 509

Happily for art, the right man appeared at the
critical moment.

Among the composers at that time in Rome was
Pier-Luigi Pales trina. The rigour of Paul IV. had
driven him out of the papal chapel because he was
married; from that time he had lived, secluded
and forgotten, in a miserable hut among the vine-
yards of Monte Celio. His was a spirit that adver-
sity could not crush. Even in this solitude he de-
voted himself to his art with an enthusiasm which
ensured to the creative power within him, freedom
and originality of production. Here he wrote the
' Improperie ', which still yearly solemnize Good
Friday in the Sistine chapeL Never, probably, had
a composer a more exquisite appreciation of the pro-
found sentiment of his text, of its symbolical mean-
ing, its applicability to religion, its capacity for
moving the soul.

If ever a man was competent to make the expe-
riment, whether the method he had adopted could
be applied to the more extended and complicated
work of a mass, it was Palestrina ; the commission
intrusted it to him. He felt completely that it was
an experiment on which depended the life or death
of the grand music of the mass. He applied himself
to his task with conscious tension of all his powers ;
on his manuscript were found the words, "Domine,
illumina oculos meos ! "

He did not immediately succeed ; the two first
attempts failed ; but at length, in a fortunate mo-
ment, he completed that mass, known under the
name of the mass of Pope Marcellus, which sur-

510 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE* [fi. IV.

passed all expectation. Though full of simple
melody, it may be compared in variety with any
preceding masses. Choruses separate, and re-unite;
the meaning of the words is expressed with unri-
valled force and accuracy; the Kyrie is submission;
the Agnus, humility ; the Credo, majesty. Pope
Pius IV., before whom it was performed, was en-
raptured, and compared it to the heavenly melo-
dies which the apostle John heard in his ecstatic

trance.

By this one great example the question was now
for ever set at rest. A path was opened, in fol-
lowing which the most beautiful works, the most
touching, even to those who are not of the church,
were produced. Who can hear them without enthu-
siasm ? It is as if nature acquired tone and utter-
ance j as if the elements spoke, and the voice of uni-
versal life broke forth in the spontaneous harmony
of adoration ; now undulating, like the waves of
the sea— now mounting in songs of triumph to

Heaven.

This art, which had perhaps been more com-
pletely alienated from the spirit and service of the
church than any other, now became the most
strongly attached to it. Nothing could be more im-
portant to Catholicism. Even in its dogmas, it had,
if we mistake not, caught somewhat of that spirit
of enthusiastic reverie which pervades the most im-
pressive penitential and devotional books. Spiritual
sentimentality and rapture were the favourite themes
of poetry and painting. Music, which speaks a
language more direct, more impressive, more irre-

§ X.] THE CURIA. 511

sistible, more adapted to ideal expression, than any
other expositor or any other art, became the in-
terpreter of these emotions, and thus subjugated
all minds to her empire.

§ 10. THE CURIA.

While all the elements of social life and of intel-
lectual activity were thus penetrated and trans-
formed by the ecclesiastical spirit, the court of
Rome, which was the centre where all these ele-
ments met, was itself greatly changed.

Even under Paul IV. , this change was perceptible ;
the example of Pius V. had an immense influence
in accelerating its progress ; and under Gregory
XIII. , it displayed itself in all its strength, and be-
came obvious to every mind. " It has contributed
infinitely to the advantage of the church," says
Paolo Tiepolo, in the year 1576, "that several
popes in succession have been men of irreproach-
able lives ; hence all others are become better, or
have at least assumed the appearance of being so.
Cardinals and prelates attend mass punctually ;
their households are studious to avoid anything
that can give scandal ; the whole city has put off its
old recklessness, and is become much more chris-
tian-like in life and manners than formerly. It may
be affirmed, that Rome, in matters of religion, is not
far from that degree of perfection which human na-
ture can attain to,"

512 THE CURIA. [BOOK iv.

"We are not, however, to imagine that this court
was composed of puritanical hypocrites. On the
contrary, it consisted of distinguished men, hut of
men, who had adopted sincerely and energetically
the strict and orthodox opinions and sentiments
described by Tiepolo.

If we bring before our view the court as it was in
the time of Sixtus V., we shall find among the cardi-
nals not a few who had taken a leading part in politi-
cal aifairs: GalliodiComo,who had conducted the go-
vernment as prime minister under two pontificates,
endowed with the talent of ruling by suppleness,
and who now distinguished himself chiefly by the
application of his great revenues to ecclesiastical en-
dowments: Rusticucci, powerful even under PiusV.,
and not without great influence under Sixtus; a man
of great industry, full of acuteness of mind and kind-
ness of heart, but doubtless rendered the more cir-
cumspect and blameless in his manners by his hopes
of the pontificate : Salviati, who had acquired a high
reputation by his successful administration of the
government of Bologna; irreproachable, simple, and
not only serious, but severe in his life : Santorio,
cardinal of Santa Severina, the man of the inquisi-
tion, long possessed of great and leading influence
in all spiritual affairs ; obstinate in his opinions,
rigorous towards his servants, harsh and hard
even to his kindred, much more so to others, in-
accessible to all: contrasted with him,, Madruzzi,
always in the secret of the policy of the house
of Austria, (both the Spanish and the German
lines,) who was called the Cato of the college j a

§ X.] 1 THE CURIA. 513

name however applicable only to his learning and
spotless virtue, not to any censorious arrogance,
for he was modesty itself. Sirleto was still living ;
of all the cardinals of his time unquestionably the
most profoundly versed in science and in languages,
— a living library, as Mureto calls him ; yet who
did not disdain, when he quitted his books, to call
about him the poor boys who ,were carrying their
fagots of wood to market, to instruct them in
the mysteries of the faith, and then to buy their
wood of them ; a man of a most kindly and com-
passionate temper*.

The example of Carlo Borromeo had a great in-
fluence, and his memory was gradually exalted to
the glories of canonization. Federigo Borromeo
was by nature irritable and violent, but, taking his
uncle as a model, he led a devout life, and did not
allow the mortifications which he frequently expe-
rienced to impair his self-control. But he who pre-
sented the most faithful copy of the holy bishop of
Milan, was Agostino Valiere, — a man of a nature
as pure and noble as his erudition was rare ; one
who implicitly followed the dictates of his own
conscience, and now, in his extreme old age, ap-
peared the living type of a bishop of the primitive
church.

The example of the cardinals was followed by the

* Ciaconius, Vitse Paparum III., p. 978. This also contains
Sirleto's epitaph, in which he is described as " eruditorum
pauperumque patronus," In Cardella, Memorie storiche de' Car-
dinali, we only find the notices contained in Ciaconius put into
Italian.

VOL. I. 2 L

514 THE CUBIA. [BOOK iv.

rest of the prelates, who were their associates in the
congregation, and their destined successors in the

college.

Among the members of the supreme court, the
c auditor! di rota*, two were peculiarly eminent, of
entirely opposite characters : Mantica, who lived
only amidst books and records, who served the
forum and the schools by his juristical works, and
whose language was plain and abrupt ; and Arigone,
who gave his time to the world, the court, and bu-
siness, rather than to books, and was remarkable for
judgment and for pliancy of character j both how-
ever equally anxious to maintain a high reputation
for purity and sanctity of life. Among the bishops
about the court, the most remarkable were those
who had exercised their talents as nuncios : Torres,
who had taken a great share in the formation of
the league of Pius V. against the Turks ; Mala-
spina, who had watched over the interests of the
catholic church in Germany and the north ; Bolo-
gnetti, to whom the arduous visitation of the Ve-
netian churches was committed : all indebted for
their advancement to their talents for business, and
their zeal for the faith.

Men of learning held a distinguished rank in the
court : Bellarmine, professor, grammarian, and the
greatest controversialist of the catholic qhurch, who
left behind him the reputation of an apostolic life ;
another Jesuit, Maffei, the author of the history
of the Portuguese conquests in India, especially as
they affected .the diffusion of Christianity in the
south and east, and also of a life of Loyola, written

§ X.] THE CUKIA. 515

with deliberate diffiiseness and laboured elegance*.
Sometimes there were also foreigners, as for example
the German Clavius, who united profound science
with innocence of life, and enjoyed universal respect ;
or Muret, a Frenchman, the best Latin scholar of his
time, who, after having passed a great portion of
his life in writing a commentary on the Pandects in
an original and classical style, — a work in which he
showed equal wit and eloquence, — became a priest
in his old age, devoted himself to theological stu-
dies, and said mass daily ; or the Spanish canonist
Azpilcueta, whose ' responsa' were regarded as ora-
cles both at the court of Rome and throughout the
whole catholic world, and who at the very time when
Pope Gregory XIII, was often seen to stop before
his door for hours talking to him, disdained not to
perform the lowest offices in the hospitals.

Among these remarkable personages, Filippo
Neri, founder of the congregation of the Oratory,
an eminent confessor and guardian of souls, ac-
quired a profound and extensive influence. He was
good-humoured, jocose, strict in essentials, indul-
gent in trifles; he never commanded, — he advised,
or, perhaps, requested ; he did not dissertate, he
conversed ; he possessed the acuteness necessary
to distinguish the peculiar merit of every character.
His Oratory grew out of visits which were paid to
him by young men who regarded themselves as
his disciples, and wished to live in his society*

* Vita J. P. Maffeji, Serassio Auctore. In the edition of Maf-
fei's Works; Berg. 1747.

2L2

516 THE CURIA. [BOOK iv.

The most celebrated among them is the annalist of
the church, Caesar Baronius ; Filippo Neri perceived
his talents, and persuaded him to give lectures on
ecclesiastical history in the Oratory, Though, at
first, he had no great inclination for this task *,
Baronius prosecuted it for thirty years, and when he
was created cardinal, he constantly rose before day-
light to labour at it. He regularly ate with all his
household at one table, and suffered nothing but
humility and piety to be seen around him. In the
college, as well as in the oratory, his most intimate
friend and associate was Tarugi, who had acquired
great credit as a preacher and confessor, and was no
less remarkable than Baronius for a blameless and
godly life ; they were happy in a friendship which
ended only with their lives, and were buried side
by side. A third disciple of San Filippo was Silvio
Antoniano, who was indeed rather conspicuous for
his love of liberal literature and of poetical compo-
sition ; when, at a later period, a pope employed
him to compose his briefs, he did it with unusual
literary perfection. His manners were most gentle,
modest, and affable ; his whole character, kindness
and piety.

All who rose to eminence in this court, whether
in politics, administration, poetry, art, or learning,
were imbued with the same spirit.

What a contrast to the curia in the beginning of
the century, when the cardinals lived at open va-
riance with the popes, when the popes girded on

* GaUomus, Vita PML Nerii; Mog., 1602; p. 163.

§ X.] THE CURIA. 517

the sword, and kept at a distance from their court
and from, their daily life whatever could recall their
Christian duty and vocation ! The cardinals now
lived in a conventual quiet and decorum. The
thing -which mainly contributed to prevent cardinal
Tosco's election to the papacy, which he was at one
time very near obtaining, was, that he had a hahit
of using two or three Lombard proverbs which
shocked the ears of the Romans. So exclusive, so
sensitive, was public opinion.

But we must not conceal that, as in literature
and art, so also in opinions and manners, another,
and to our feelings, a less agreeable side of the pic-
ture, manifested itself. Miracles, which had not
been seen for a long time, began again. At San
Silvestro an image of the Virgin began to speak,
which made so universal an impression on the
people, that the barren region around the church
was soon covered with houses. In Rione de' Monti
a miraculous image appeared in a hayrick, and the
country people of those parts thought this so visi-
ble a mark of the favour of Heaven, that they took
up arms to resist the attempt to remove it; we
find similar appearances in Narni, Todi, San Seve-
rino, and gradually spreading from the States of the
^Church over the whole catholic world. The popes
too resumed the practice of canonization, which
they had long discontinued. Few confessors had
the wisdom, and discretion of Filippo Neri ; empty
and unprofitable works of sanctity were encouraged,
and the representation of divine things was mixed
•with fantastic superstition.

518 THE CURIA, [BOOK iv.

Happy would it be could we cherish the convic-
tion that this was accompanied in the minds of
the many, with an entire obedience to the precepts
of religion.

But the very nature and constitution of the court
of Rome rendered it impossible that the most eager
worldly competition should not be as active there
as exertions in the cause of religion.

The curia was not merely an ecclesiastical insti-
tution ; it had to rule a state, and, indirectly, to
govern a great part of the world. In proportion as
a man shared in the exercise of this power, he ac-
quired consideration, fortune, influence, and all that
excites the cupidity, or stimulates the exertions of
men. Human nature could not be so utterly
changed, as that the members of the court of Rome
should aim at the acquisition of the great prizes of
social and political life, by spiritual means alone.
The struggle for them here was in general the same
as in other courts, only it was carried on with cer-
tain peculiarities of manner, generated by the na-
ture and character of the arena.

Rome had at that time the most fluctuating po-
pulation of any city in the world. Under LeoX,,
it had risen to more than 80,000 souls ; while under
Paul IV., whose inexorable severity put everybody
to flight, it sank to 45,000 ; immediately after his
death, it rose again in two or three years to 70,000 ;
and in the reign of Sixtus V., to upwards of 100,000.
The most remarkable thing was, that so great a
number of residents were unconnected with the
place or the population ; it was rather a long sojourn

§ X.] THE CURIA. 519

than a permanent citizenship. It might be com-
pared to a fair or a diet, — an assemblage of people
without stability or fixedness, without connecting
ties of blood. Numbers repaired to Rome because
they could find no road to preferment in their own
country; one was driven thither by wounded pride,
another by boundless ambition; while many thought
they enjoyed more liberty there than elsewhere.
Every man sought to rise in his own way.

But all these heterogeneous elements had not
grown into one body; the races and countries were
still so numerous and so distinct, that the peculia-,
rities of national and provincial character were very
discernible. The attentive, docile Lombard was
easily distinguished from the Genoese, who thought
he could accomplish everything by means of his
money; or from the Venetian, interested in the dis-
covery of other men's secrets. There was the frugal,
loquacious Florentine; theRomagnese, who followed
his own interest with inflexible perseverance and
instinctive sagacity; the exacting and ceremonious
Neapolitan. The men of the north were remarked
for their simplicity and their taste for good living ;
even Clavius, the learned German, provoked the
jests of his friends by his two plentiful breakfasts :
the French held themselves apart, and relinquished
their national customs with more difficulty than
any others ; while the Spaniard, wrapped in his
sottana and his cloak, full of pretensions and am-
bitious schemes, looked down on all the rest with
contempt.

There was nothing which the obscurest indivi-

520 THE CUKIA. [BOOK iv,

dual of the throng might not aspire to. It was re-
membered with pleasure that John XXIII., when
asked why he went to Rome, replied " that he
meant to be pope ;"— and he was pope. Pius V.
and Sixtus V., too, had risen from the lowest sta-
tion to the highest earthly dignity. Every man
deemed himself capable of everything, and hoped
for everything.

It was a common remark at that time, and it is
perfectly true, that the prelacy and the curia had
somewhat of a republican character. The resem-
blance consisted in this ;— that all might pretend to
all ; that every day saw examples of men of mean
extraction rising to the highest offices. But this
republic was most strangely constituted ; opposed
to the rights of the many, was the absolute power
of one, on whose will every favour, every advance-
ment depended. And who was this one ? It was
he who, by a combination on which it was absolutely
impossible to calculate, came out of the elective
contest victorious. Hitherto of little importance,
he suddenly came into possession of the fulness of
power. He was the less tempted to deny his per-
sonal character or circumstances, since he had the
persuasion that he was chosen to bear the highest
dignity by the operation of the Holy Spirit. He
generally began his reign by a thorough and radical
change. All the legates, all the governors of pro-
vinces, were changed. In the capital there were
places which fell, as matter of course, to the nepotes
for the time being. If nepotism, as in the times
we have just been considering, was kept in check,

§ X.] THE CURIA. 521

yet every pope favoured his old friends and de-
pendents ; it was natural that he should not bear
to be robbed of the society of those he had been
accustomed to live with ; the secretary who had so
long served the cardinal Montalto, must of course
be the most agreeable to pope Sixtus; it was natural
that a pope should make those who shared his opi-
nions, share also in his advancement. The acces-
sion of a new pope therefore caused a sort of revo-
lution in all prospects and all expectations ; in the
road to power, and in ecclesiastical, as well as tem-
poral, dignities.

"It is," saysCommendone, " as if the royal palace
in a city were transplanted, and all the streets and
ways leading to it, altered. How many houses must
be pulled down, how often must the road be cut
through a palace, while new lanes and alleys begin
to be inhabited and frequented!" This comparison
not unaptly describes the violence of the changes,
and the instability of all establishments at that time.

Hence necessarily arose a circumstance of the
most singular kind.

As it frequently happened that the popes came to
the throne at so much more advanced an age than
other sovereigns; as afresh change might take place
at any moment, and power pass into other hands,
people lived as it were in a perpetual game of
chance; like that, the state of things was reducible
to no calculation, and like that, it kept hope conti-
nually alive.

The promotion which every one anxiously desired,
depended chiefly on personal favour ; while the ex-

522 THE CURIA. [BOOK iv.

raordinary instability of all personal influence,
compelled calculating ambition to assume a cor-
responding form, and to pursue most unusual
paths.

Among the MS* collections at Berlin are a great
number of 'directions for conduct at this court*.
The various ways in which each man seeks bis ad-
vancement and fortune, are a curious subject of ob-
servation. Human nature is susceptible of endless
modifications ; the more complex and difficult the
relations in which it stands, the more unexpected
are the forms which it assumes.

The same path was not open to all. He who
possessed nothing, was compelled to adapt himself
to the service of others. Literary men still lived in
the houses of princes and cardinals as a sort of re-
tainers. Those who were obliged to undertake such
a situation, tried by every possible means to win
the favour of their lord, to acquire some merit in
his eyes, to insinuate themselves into his secrets,
and to become indispensable to him. They submitted
to every indignity, they endured injustice in silence;
— for who could tell how soon the papacy might fall
into new hands ; how soon the star of their patron
might be in the ascendent, and shed its lustre on

* E. g. lustruttione al signer cardinalc do' Medici, del modo
come si deve governare nolla corte di Roma,— Ayvertimenti air
illmo cardinal Montalto, sopra il modo col quale si possa e debba
ben governare come cardinale e nepote del Papa : Inform, acii.
— Ayvertimenti politic! et utilissimi per la corte di Roma; — se-
venty-eight maxims of very dubious morality : Inform, xxv. The
most important : " Discorso over ritratto della corte di Roma di
Mr IIP0 Commendone: Oodd. Rang*, at Vienna; xviii.

§ X.] THE CURIA. 523

his dependents ? Fortune ebbs and flows ; persons
remain the same.

The aspirations of others perhaps were directed to
some little employment, which, by dint of zeal and
activity, might open the way to higher prospects. It
was however a critical thing there, as in every
other age and country, to be obliged to consider
interest first, and honour after.

Those who had a competence were much more
favourably situated. They derived a secure monthly
income from the monti, in which they had shares ;
they bought a place, in virtue of which they im-
mediately entered the prelacy, and not only gained
an independent existence, but a field for the bril-
liant display of their talents. " He who hath, to.
him shall be given." In this court it was doubly
advantageous to possess something, because this
possession reverted to the camera, so that the pope
himself had an interest in its increase.

In such a situation as this, there was not the same
necessity for absolute and servile attachment to a
great man ; indeed, so open a partisanship, if not
seconded by fortune, was likely to be injurious. The
most important point was, to be watchful to offend
nobody. This caution was intensely felt and carefully
observed, in even the slightest and most superficial
intercourses of life. Great care was taken, for ex-
ample, not to pay any man more honour than he
was exactly entitled to ; equality of demeanor to-
wards different persons would be inequality, and was
likely to produce an evil impression. Even of the
absent, nothing but good was to be said ; not only

524 THE CUEIA. [BOOK iv.

because words once uttered are no longer in our
power, and fly we know not whither, but also be-
cause very few love an acute observer. It is pru-
dent to make but a moderate use or display of
knowledge, and to abstain carefully from rendering
it tedious to any one. It is expedient never to carry
bad news ; — a part of the unpleasant impression re-
coils on the bearer : but, on the other hand, there
is a difficulty to be shunned, viz. to observe so strict
a silence as to render the motive evident.

Nor was the aspirant in any degree exempted
from these observances by promotion, — not even to
the rank of cardinal, which only imposed upon him
a necessity for greater caution in his own sphere.
For how could he dare to betray, that he thought
one of the sacred college less worthy than another
of the tiara ? There was none so obscure or insig-
nificant upon whom the choice might not fall.

A cardinal had above all to cultivate the favour
of the reigning pope. Upon this depended fortune
and dignity, universal 'respect and obsequiousness.
He must however cultivate it with increased cau-
tion. He was to observe profound silence concern-
ing the personal interests of the pope; to spare
no pains to penetrate to the bottom of them, and
secretly to govern his conduct accordingly. The
kinsmen of his holiness might occasionally be men-
tioned, their fidelity and their talents might be ap-
plauded,— this was generally a welcome topic.
The secrets of the papal house were to be got at by
means of monks, who, under the pretext of religion,
penetrate further than could be imagined. The

§ X.] THE CURIA. 525

influence and the rapid changes of personal rela-
tions, rendered it peculiarly imperative on ambas-
sadors to exercise the most vigilant attention to all
that passed. The diplomatic envoy, like a good
pilot, observes from which quarter the wind blows ;
he spares no money to get good intelligence, and will
esteem all his expenditure repaid by a single piece
of information which may show him the seasonable
moment for his negotiation. If he had a request to
make to the pope, he endeavoured imperceptibly to
interweave other interests of the holy see with the
point he wanted to carry. Above all, he endea-
voured to gain influence over some nephew or kins-
man, and to persuade him that he could expect
from no other court so much wealth and permanent
greatness, as from that which he represented. He
also tried to secure the good- will of the cardinals. He
would promise the papacy to none; but flattered all
with hopes. He would be devoted to none; but
would occasionally do a favour, even to the most
hostilely disposed. He was like the falconer who
shows the piece of meat to the hawk, but gives it
him only gradually and sparingly.

Such was the life, and such the policy of the court
of Rome; of its cardinals, ambassadors, prelates,
princes, ostensible and secret possessors of power ;
full of ceremony, of which Rome was the classic
soil, of reverential observance, of submissiveness ;
but profoundly selfish, absorbed in the desire to at-
tain, to achieve, to acquire.

Strange that the struggle for what all desire —
power, honour, riches, pleasure, which elsewhere

526 THE CURIA. [BOOK iv.

engender animosity and feuds, here assumes the
attitude of studious desire to serve ; how one man
flatters in others the passions of which he is himself
in a certain degree conscious, in order to arrive at
the gratification of his own ; how abstinence is full
of desire j how passion glides warily to its object.

We saw the dignity, the seriousness, the religion,
which prevailed in the court; we now likewise see
its worldly side, — ambition, avarice, dissimulation,
and cunning.

If it were our intention to pronounce an eulo-
gium on the court of Rome, we should bring to
view only the former of the two elements which
composed it ; if we wished to attack it, only the
latter. But as soon as we rise to a clear and un-
prejudiced view of the whole subject, we come to
the perception of both ; we see, indeed, that both
are inevitable, from the nature of man, and the situ-
ation of things.

The spirit and opinions which had been awakened
throughout the world, and which we have been con-
sidering, rendered the demand for decorum, blame-
lessness, and piety more pressing than before; this
state of the public mind coincided with the principle
of the court whose position, with regard to the rest
of the world, is founded upon those qualities. It ne-
cessarily follows, that those men rise to eminenceand
power whose characters are the most in conformity
with this demand ; public opinion would not alone
belie but destroy itself, did it not produce this effect.
But that it should happen, that the goods of fortune
should be immediately connected with spiritual

§ X.] THE CURIA. 527

qualities, is one of the most enormous allurements
ever held forth by the spirit of this world.

We cannot doubt of the sincerity of the prevalent
turn of thought, as our observant and acute inform-
ants not unfrequently represent it to us. But how
many monks conformed to it in appearance for the
sake of clutching fortune by simulated rigours 1 In
avast many others, the worldly tendencies are to be
descried, struggling, in the obscurity of half deve-
loped motives, with the spiritual.

It was with the curia as with literature and art.
There had been a general defection from the church,
a general leaning towards sentiments approxima-
ting to paganism. The principle of the church
was re-awakened by the general tenor of public
opinion ; it moved the powers of life as with a new
breath, and gave a fresh colour to existence. What
a difference between Ariosto and Tasso, Giulio Ro-
mano and Guercino, Pomponazzo and Patrizi ! A
vast epoch lies between them; yet they have some-
thing in common, and the chain of art descends
from the earlier to the latter. The curia too pre-
served its ancient forms, and much of its ancient
character. But this did not prevent it from being
ruled by a new spirit. What it could not com-
pletely transform, and absorb into itself, it at least
impelled with resistless force.

In contemplating the blending of the 'different
elements, I have been reminded of a natural scene
which may perhaps serve as an illustration and
type of this state of things.

At Terni, the Nera winds between wood and

528 THE CURIA. [BOOK iv.

meadow, in a tranquil, even stream, through, the
distant valley. From the other side, the Velino,
pent in between rocks, rushes on headlong, and at
length falls in magnificent cascades, foaming and
tinged with a thousand hues, from its heights : it
reaches the Nera, and immediately communicates
to it its own impetuosity. Brawling and foaming,
the mingled waters roll on with rapid and hurrying
coarse.

Thus did the newly awakened spirit of the ca-
tholic church give a fresh impulse to all the organs
of literature and art, — nay to life itself. We behold
the curia at once devout and restless, ecclesiastical
and warlike; on the one side, full of dignity, pomp,
and ceremony ; on the other, unmatched in calcu-
lating prudence, in insatiable love of domination.
Its piety and its ambition, both resting on the idea
of an exclusive orthodoxy, coincide. Thus consti-
tuted, it once more makes an effort to subdue the
world.

END OF VOL, I.

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