LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
PRINCETON, N. J.
BX 955
.P35
1891 V
31 1
Pastor
, Ludwig, 1854-1928
The history
of the
popes ,
from
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Lose of
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HISTORY OF THE POPES
VOL. XXXI.
PASTOR'
THE HIST
S HISTORY
OF THE POPES
ORY OF THE POPES. Translated from
the German of Ludwig, Freiherr von Pastor. Edited, as to |
Vols I.-VI.
by the late Frederick Ignatius Antrobus, and,
as to Vols.
VII. -XXIV. by Ralph Francis Kerr, of the
London Oratory, and Vols. XXV
.-XXXII. by DoM Ernest
Graf, of Buckfast Abbey. In
32 Volumes.
Vols.
I. and II.
a.d. 1305-1458
Vols.
III. and IV.
a.d. 1458-1483
Vols.
V. and VI.
A.D. 1484-1513
Vols.
VII. and VIII.
A.D. 1513-1521
Vols.
IX. and X.
A.D. 1522-1534
Vols.
XI. and XII.
A.D. 1534-1549
Vols.
XIII. and XIV.
A.D. 1550-1559
Vols.
XV. and XVI.
A.D. 1559-1565
Vols.
XVII. and XVIII.
A.D. 1566-1572
Vols.
XIX. and XX.
A.D. 1572-1585
Vols.
XXI. and XXII.
A.D. 1585-1591
Vols.
XXIII. and XXIV.
A.D. 1592-1604
Vols.
XXV. and XXVI.
A.D. 1605-1621
Vols.
XXVII. to XXIX.
A.D. 1621-1644
Vols.
XXX. to XXXII.
A.D. 1644-1700
The original German text of the H
story of the Popes is published
by Herder &
Co., Freiburg (Baden
.
(^APR 18 1940 ^
^CALSt
HISTORY OF THE POPES
FROM THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES
DRAWN FROM THE SECRET ARCHIVES OF THE VATICAN AND OTHER
ORIGINAL SOURCES
FROM THE GERMAN OF THE LATE
LUDWIG, FREIHERR VON PASTOR
TRANSLATED BY
DOM ERNEST GRAF, O.S.B.
MONK OF BUCKFAST
VOLUME XXXI
ALEXANDER VII. (1655-1667). CLEMENT IX. (1667-1669).
CLEMENT X. (1670-1676)
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.
BROADW^AY HOUSE : 68-74 CARTER LANE, E.C.
1940
Imprimi potest
Sublaci, ex Proto-Coenobio Stae Scholasticae,
die 23 Julii 1939.
L. Emmanuel Caronti, O.S.B., Abbas Generalis.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS, LTD., HERTFORD.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXXI.
ALEXANDER VII., 1655-1667.
PAGES
Table of Contents ....... vii-xii
Alexander VII. and the Chigi — The Papal States . 1-36
The Return of Queen Christine of Sweden to the
Catholic Church and her Stay in Rome . . 37-77
Relations of Alexander VII. with France and Venice —
Defence Against the Turks and Dispute with Louis
XIV. — Last Years of the Pope . . . 78-123
Alexander VII. 's Activity Within the Church —
Reforms — Nominations of Cardinals — Religious
Conditions in Germany, Switzerland and Scandi-
navia— ^Missions ...... 124-170
Jansenist Troubles in France and the Low Countries 171-268
Alexander VII. — A Promoter of Science and Art . 269-313
CLEMENT IX., 1667-1669.
CLEMENT X., 1670-1676.
Election, Antecedents and Character of Clement IX —
The Rospigliosi — Patronage of Scholars and
Artists 314-337
Religious Activities of Clement IX — Jansenism and the
So-called Clementine Peace — Missions in the Far
East ........ 338-412
Clement IX. 's Efforts on Behalf of Peace Between
France and Spain and for the Defence Against the
Turks — The Loss of Crete — Death of the Pope . 413-430
Clement X. — His Election and Personality — The New
Pope and Cardinal Paluzzi-Altieri — Patronage of
Art 431-453
Support of Poland Against the Turks — Embassy of the
Tsar of Russia in Rome ..... 454-463
Clement X.'s Activity Within the Church — The
Jubilee of 1675 — Creations of Cardinals — Disputes
With Louis XIV. — Death of the Pope . . 464-508
Index of Names ....... 509-519
TABLE OF CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXXI.
Alexander VIL 1655-1667.
CHAPTER I.
ALEXANDER VII. AND THE CHIGI THE PAPAL STATES.
A.D.
PAGE
1654 Members of the Sacred College
Papabili ....
Chigi's candidature
I
2
4
1655 His election as Pope Alexander VH
9
Antecedents of Fabio Chigi
10
His early career
Nuncio and
12
15
Secretary of State
16
Chigi as Pope
The Papal Nephews
Reform of the Papal Court but
17
23
27
Abuse of justice
29
The plague in Rome
33
Generosity and courage of the Pope
35
CHAPTER H.
THE RETURN OF QUEEN CHRISTINE OF SWEDEN TO
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND HER STAY IN ROME.
1654 Abdication of Christine, Queen of Sweden
Her conversion to the Catholic Faith
Her character and career
Her flight from Sweden leads
To Innsbruck, where
Her Profession of faith takes place
Thence to Rome .
Her Solemn Entry
Subsequent difficulties
1656 Her journeys to France
And Sweden
Her return to Rome
Her later years
37
38
39
52
.53
54
57
58
61
65
69
70
71
Vll
Vlll
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
RELATIONS OF ALEXANDER VII. WITH FRANCE AND
VENICE DEFENCE AGAINST THE TURKS AND DISPUTE
WITH Louis xiv. — last years of the pope.
A.D.
1654 Papal relations with France ....
Mazarin's hostility to Alexander VI L met by the
Untiring patience of the Pope
Disaffection of the French Clergy
Peace of the Pyrenees concluded without
Papal participation
Peril from Islam ....
Papal aid given to Venice
The attitude of France .
1662 Crequi's anti-papal instructions
He carries them out
The policy of Louis XIV.
His advances to Spain and
Switzerland ....
His seizure of Avignon .
1664 The Treaty of Pisa
The battle on the Raab
Chigi goes as Cardinal Legate to France
The illness of the Pope .
1667 His last creation of Cardinals
Death of Alexander VII. on May 22nd
Appreciation of his Pontificate
PAGE
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
91
93
96
98
103
104
105
107
109
III
115
118
120
121
CHAPTER IV.
ALEXANDER VII.'S ACTIVITY WITHIN THE CHURCH
REFORMS NOMINATIONS OF CARDINALS — RELIGIOUS
CONDITIONS IN GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, AND
SCANDINAVIA MISSIONS.
His reforms and personal visitations
Canonizations
Creations of Cardinals .
Relations with Germany
Intrigues of the Fiirstenbergs
Notable Converts to the Church
The Pope and Propaganda
Missions in S.E. Europe
In Abyssinia
In Africa ....
India, China, and Tibet, and
South America
The question of the Chinese rites is
Settled by the decision of 1656
124
129
130
135
141
145
149
153
154
155
157
161
163
165
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
IX
CHAPTER V.
JANSENIST TROUBLES IN FRANCE AND THE LOW
COUNTRIES.
A.D. PAGE
Jansenist difficulties . . . . • .171
Controversy between Arnauld and de Liancourt . 172
And the Sorbonne ....... 176
Arnauld censured and . . . . . .181
His writings condemned . . . . .183
His rescuer — Pascal — . . . . . . 1 84
Makes brilliant defence of Jansenism . . .186
Against the Jesuits . . . . . .189
1657 His Provinciales declared worthy of reprobation . ig6
Further decrees against the heresy . . . .197
Its defence by the French Bishops . . . 200
Intervention of the King ..... 203
Protracted resistance of the Jansenists . . . 205
Its last champions, Pierre Nicole .... 206
Whose works are burnt by the public executioner, and 208
Nicolas Pavilion ....... 209
1660 The Assembly of 1660 ...... 217
Its measures are . . . . . . .218
Defied by the Jansenists . . . . .219
1 66 1 The evasions of Henri Arnauld . . . .223
Compromise attempted . . . . . .225
1664 Jansenist writings condemned and prohibited . 231
The Papal Formula ...... 233
Opposed and refused . . . . . .237
Proceedings against the Four Bishops . . .243
Probabilism ........ 246
Attack upon the Jesuits ..... 253
Jansenist revival at Louvain .... 262
1657 Its condemnation by Bull, enforced by . . . 264
Order of the King of Spain ..... 266
Further disputes . . . , . .267
CHAPTER VI.
ALEXANDER VII. A PROMOTER OF SCIENCE AND ART.
The Pope as Patron of Science and Art
His support of the Sapienza .
Establishment of State Archives
His patronage of Bernini and
Great architectural works
His Commissions to Pietro da Cortona
Immense work on St. Peters
Alexander VI I. 's care for other churches and
The City of Rome becomes
Roma moderna ....
269
272
275
278
279
283
286
305
307
312
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D.
1667
Clement IX.
Clement X.
1667-1669.
1670-1676.
chapter 1.
ELECTION, ANTECEDENTS AND CHARACTER OF CLEMENT
IX. — THE ROSPIGLIOSI PATRONAGE OF SCHOLARS AND
ARTISTS.
The Conclave ....
Papabili .....
Election of Cardinal Rospigliosi — Clement IX.
His literary gifts
His popularity ....
The " Papal Nephews "
The generosity of Clement IX. to others
His personal poverty and devotion
The Pope and Queen Christine
His patronage of art
The Bridge of S. Angelo and Bernini
The death of the aged Pope .
PAGE
314
316
319
320
322
325
327
328
329
331
333
337
CHAPTER II.
RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES OF CLEMENT IX. — JANSENISM
AND THE SO-CALLED CLEMENTINE PEACE MISSIONS IN
THE FAR EAST.
Canonizations by Clement IX.
Relations with Portugal .
Creation of Cardinals
Foreign interference repudiated
1669 Seven more Cardinals appointed
Among them Giovanni Bona .
The " Four Bishops " .
Congregation of Cardinals, appointed to deal with
Jansenism ....
Support of the heresy in Paris " salons
Nineteen Bishops write to the Pope
1668 A further circular issued by the " Four Bishops
Government action
Rome ready to compromise
Arnauld's ambiguities
Action at the Diocesan Synods
Apparent rc-in.statement of Jansenists
Their embarrassed position
Attempted forgery to secure their safety
Further investigations in Rome
Instructions to the Nuncio
Unproductive negotiations
338
341
345
347
348
349
350
351
353
355
357
358
365
370
375
377
382
383
380
390
393
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
XI
A.D.
1669
Brief to the " Four Bishops "
Opinions on the compromise and
Its consequences ....
Reorganization of Missions in the East .
Further controversy over the Chinese rites
PAGE
397
399
403
406
409
1668
1669
CHAPTER III.
CLEMENT IX. 'S EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF PEACE BETWEEN
FRANCE AND SPAIN AND FOR THE DEFENCE AGAINST
THE TURKS— THE LOSS OF CRETE DEATH OF THE
POPE.
Clement IX. 's attempts at mediation between . 413
France and Spain . . . . . . .414
Peace is signed . . . . . . .417
Assistance sent to Venice . . . . .419
Supplemented by French volunteers to Crete . 421
The fall of Candia ...... 427
Shock to Clement IX. accelerates .... 428
His death on December gth ..... 429
CHAPTER IV.
CLEMENT X.
NEW POPE
HIS ELECTION AND PERSONALITY THE
AND CARDINAL PALUZZI ALTIERI
PATRONAGE OF ART.
Election of Pope Clement X.
1669 Numerous candidates for the Papacy
Disensions, but result obtained at .
1670 Second scrutiny for Cardinal Altieri
The antecedents of Clement X.
His regularity of life despite age
Choice of Paluzzi-Albertoni as Cardinal
Distribution of offices
Encroachments of Paluzzi-Altieri
Efforts of Clement X. for the public good
Support of missions
Embellishment of Rome
431
433
436
437
438
1-Padrone
441
443
443
.
444
446
449
451
CHAPTER V.
SUPPORT OF POLAND AGAINST THE TURKS EMBASSY
OF THE TSAR OF RUSSIA IN ROME.
Papal support for Poland against the Turk
Alliance between Poland and Russia
1673 Polish victory at Chocim .....
Election of Sobieski as King of Poland
454
459
460
462
xu
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A.D.
167I
1672
1675
1673
1674
1676
CHAPTER VI.
CLEMENT X.'S ACTIVITY WITHIN THE CHURCH — THE
JUBILEE OF 1675 — CREATIONS OF CARDINALS —
DISPUTES WITH LOUIS XIV. — DEATH OF THE POPE.
Demands of secular princes
Canonizations and Beatifications, including
That of Pius V
The year of Jubilee ....
Creation of Cardinals ....
Unreasonable demands of the King of France
His ambassador's outrageous conduct
Six more Cardinals created, among them
Henry Howard, son of the Duke of Norfolk
Continued Jansenist propaganda in France
Intriques of Louis XIV. against Holland
Deceive the Pope, who ....
Protests and insists on certain withdrawals
Hope for the freedom of Dutch Catholics
War between France and Germany
Tension with Rome
Infringement of ambassadorial rights
Continued labour of the Pope for peace
His illness and ....
His death on July 22nd
PAGE
464
467
468
470
473
478
479
480
481
482
491
493
495
497
499
500
501
505
507
508
ALEXANDER VII. 1655-1667.
CHAPTER I.
Alexander VII. and the Chigi. The Papal States.
Shortly before the death of Innocent X. the Sacred College
had reached its full complement of seventy members ; but
on November 25th, 1654, it suffered the loss of Cardinal
Giovanni Battista Altieri. Of the remaining sixty-nine
Cardinals, sixty-two were in Rome at the time of the Pope's
death ; seven were absent. These were : Cueva, Sandoval,
Mazarin, Filomarino, Durazzo, Frederick of Hesse, and
Harrach, but the four last-named reached Rome in time
to take part in the conclave.^ Only two of the sixty-six
electors, viz. Carlo Medici and Aloisi Capponi, dated from
the reign of Paul V., whilst one half of the rest had been
created by Urban VIII. and the remainder by Innocent X.^
The grouping of the parties resembled that of the last
conclave.^ The Spanish-Imperial party, headed by the two
Medici and the Spanish Jesuit Lugo, comprised Colonna,
^ Cf. Dichiaratione delle ceremonie fatte dentro e fuori del conclave
(dedic. al ill. Emerico de Lauris), Rome, 1655, compiled by
Gius. Elmi.
2 See CiACONius, IV., 716 seq.
^ Cf. " *Discorso sopra il conclave, 1655 " in Miscell., 126,
P- 359 seqq., Vatican Library, according to which the " fattioni
Pamfiliana, Barberina e Spagnola ", with about twenty Cardinals
each, were equally strong, whereas the " Francese " comprised
six Cardinals. Cf. Pallavicino, I., 214 seq. ; L. Mussi, Alcune
meniorie di conclavi del sec, XVII., Assisi, 1915, 7.
VOL. XXXI. I B
2 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Cesi, Montalto, Trivulzio, Capponi, Brancaccio, Rossetti,
Gabrielli, Astalli, Maidalchini, Cibo, Aldobrandini, Odescalchi,
Vidman, Raggi, Harrach, and the Landgrave of Hesse. The
other two parties were almost equally strong ; viz.
Urban VIII. 's Cardinals led by Francesco Barberini, and those
created by Innocent X. The latter party, however, owing to
the circumstance that Innocent X. had not left an ecclesiastical
nephew, lacked a leader ; accordingly its members resolved
to keep together and to work exclusively for the election of the
best man, without allowing themselves to be influenced by any
outside pressure. According to the Spanish ambassador, this
party, in consequence of its political neutrality, was nick-
named the " flying squadron " — squadrone volante. The
French party, headed by Cardinal Rinaldo d'Este, though
small in number, nevertheless wielded great influence owing
to certain peculiar circumstances, for the recent marriage
of the Duke of Modena, the brother of Cardinal Este, to a
niece of Cardinal Barberini, had led to the establishment of
valuable relations with the Cardinals of Urban VIII., whilst
on the other hand, Antonio Barberini, who had gone over
to the French side, exercised great influence over a number
of Cardinals.
Mazarin, who desired in the first instance the elevation
of Sacchetti, had taken the precaution of linking together
Antonio Barberini and Este, whilst the former was dominated
by his conclavist Costa. Bichi, who had proved France's
most reliable champion at the last conclave, was instructed
to keep an eye on all three. ^
By all accounts the Sacred College was rich in outstanding
personalities. Giulio Sacchetti was looked upon as a most
likely candidate. He was a splendid man in every respect,
but his good relations with the Barberini and Mazarin had
earned him the enmity of the Medici and of Spain. Spain
had already excluded him in the conclave of 1G44, but he had
done his utmost to get this decision revoked. In 1655 no one
* See Petrucelli, III., 150 scqq. ; Waiirmund, Ausschliess-
ungsrecht, 139.
VARIOUS CANDIDATES. 3
could tell whether or no he had been successful in his efforts. ^
Franciotti, Brancaccio, Corrado and Albizzi seemed to
possess all the required qualities but they lacked the age
which at that time was considered essential. Yet the same
objection could be urged against the candidate who was
eventually elected. " If Cardinal Chigi were a few years
older," a contemporary remarked, " or if the desire to choose
the most deserving candidate were to prevail over human con-
siderations, he would certainly obtain the tiara." ^ Another
hindrance to Chigi's elevation was the circumstance that the
Government of Florence did not favour the election of a subject
of its territory, whilst yet another factor against his candida-
ture was his close friendship with Sacchetti, for a number of
people were anxious that the latter should not have any
influence with the future Pope.^
^ See EiSLER, 107. The " *Lettera scritta al Vicere di Napoli
da un suddito di S. M'^ Cattolica " intervened very warmly
for Sacchetti : "II card. Mattel, che gli fece oppositione nel
conclave passato, venuto al estremo della sua vita non potendo
darsi quiete, all' udito de molti esagerava al sue confessore :
O Padre, sento cruciarnii che ho escluso un angelo del papato."
(Collection of writings on the conclaves from the Library of
Cardinal Gentili, purchased by me in Rome, 1902.) Sigismondo
Caula reports, February 27, 1655, about Sacchetti : " *Gli
stessi cardinal! che li sono contrari, non possono di meno di
non dire che lui e meritevole." State Archives, Modena.
• See *Discorso sopra i cardinal! papabil! in Barb., 4695,
p. 219-224, Vatican Library. Cf. Denis, I., 322.
^ See *D!scorso sopra ! cardinal! papabili, which says : " Ma
finalmente e arrivato ove anelava di giungere il mio discorso,
cioe al card. Ghisi, in cui si vedono espresse al vivo tutte le
morali virtu e christiane, essendo molto difficile il discorrerne,
se in lui sia maggiore o la eminenza della dottrina o I'integrita
de' costumi o la santita della vita. Non vi e nel Sacro Collegio
chi non lo conoschi dignissimo del pontificato, perche dovrebbe
esser premio della virtu e perche in questo gran sogetto si
vedrebbono rinovate I'attioni de' maggiori pontefici che habbi
mai havuto la Santa Sede. Con tutto questo, non so quanto sii
lecito di sperare questa publica felicita merce alia fresca eta
4 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Chigi's candidature was first put forward, whilst Innocent X.
lay on his death-bed, by Azzolini and Gualtieri, who hkewise
persuaded Cardinal Barberini to give him his support. After
the Pope's death eleven of Innocent X.'s Cardinals agreed
to press Chigi's candidature. TJiey were, Giovanni Girolamo
Lomellini, Lorenzo Imperiali, Luigi Omodei, Ghiberto
Borromeo, Benedetto Odescalchi, Carlo Pio, Ottavio
Acquaviva, Pietro Ottoboni, Francesco Albizzi, Carlo
Gualtieri and Decio Azzolini. These were joined by Cristoforo
Vidman and Giovanni Stefano Donghi, the latter being one
of Urban VIII.'s Cardinals. The above-named, however,
agreed not to come forward at once with their candidate,
and, in general, to precipitate nothing. ^
The conclave opened in the forenoon on January 20th. ^
The first scrutiny revealed a complete disagreement among the
electors. When at the first accessus 22 votes were cast
bearing the word Nemini (for no one), it became evident that
the Spanish-Imperial party meant to exclude Sacchetti.
At this first scrutiny Carafa had a majority of votes, viz.
del niedesimo, se pero fresca eta puo chiamarsi quella che e
consumata nelli studii e nelle fatiche, che I'ha reso cosi gracile
e di cosi debile e delicata complessione, che non le pu6 promettere
longhezza di molti anni ; la poca inclinatione che alii lore sudditi
tengono i prencipi di Toscana, 11 quali tirano seco molti altri.
Non ponno far giovamento a questo cardinale, come non le
giova punto quell 'abbate Altoviti, il quale essendo cosi frequente
alle orecchie del naedesimo, ha palesato la grande amicitia che
passa fra il sudetto cardinal Ghisi e Sacchetti, et ha fatto germo-
gliare non poca gelosia nell'animo de' Toscani e de' Spagnoli,
che li sudetti due cardinali siano di un medesimo volerc, e che,
se fusse Papa I'uno, I'altro fusse per haver gran parte ncl domi-
nare." Barb. 4695, pp. 843-244^, Vatican Library.
* See Pallavicino, L, 217 seqq., 228.
* Cf. for what follows, Conclavi, II. , 499-607 ; Pallavicino,
I., 229-251 ; Petrucelli, III., 156 seqq. ; Wahrmund,
Aiisschliessungsrecht, 139 seq. : Eisler, iio seq. ; ibid., 85-6,
the enumeration of manuscript sources which, however, is not
complete.
CHIGI S CANDIDATURE. 5
21 ; he was followed by Sacchetti with 20 and Chigi with
18.^ By the evening of the first day these numbers had
dropped to 14, 15, and 12 respectively. On January 21st,
Carafa only received 13, Sacchetti 23, and Chigi 11 votes,
and the number of ballot papers marked " for nobody "
was 26 and rose to 27 on the following day, on which Sacchetti
only secured 7 votes, Carafa 10, and Chigi 15. After
February 4th, Sacchetti's prospects improved. On the 5th
he received 38 and after the 6th he was given, for some time,
a steady 33 votes, so that he was nicknamed the Trentatre.^
Though Chigi knew that Sacchetti alone could dispute him
the tiara, he nevertheless consistently voted for him as the
best and worthiest candidate.
When Cardinal Harrach arrived, the Spanish ambassador,
Terranueva, requested him to inform all the Cardinals of his
party that the King of Spain had decided to exclude Sacchetti,
but so far from allowing themselves to be discouraged by this
announcement, Sacchetti's supporters became only more
determined. Albizzi drew up a pamphlet in which he rejected
as inadmissible Spain's claim to the right of exclusion ;
this he did in an incisive, masterly and altogether conclusive
manner, and basing himself on numerous texts of canonists
and papal ordinances. He was answered by a staunch
supporter of Spain, probably Lugo, who maintained that one
could not vote in conscience for a Cardinal who was excluded
1 The numbers given in Conclavi {518 seqq.), which were followed
up to now, are partly erroneous ; inexact also are the diaries :
as the diffuse " *Diario " of Bastiano Casini, " scritto informa di
lettera a Zanobi Casini " {Barb. 4651), and the " *Diario fatto
da me Bastiano Casini negli 80 giorni del conclave per la creazionc
di Alessandro VIL " {ibid., Vatican Library). Even Pallavicino
{loc. cit) gives the figures very summarily. I found authentic
♦Original lists " in Barb. 4442 and 4443 ; besides these,
a short compilation in Barb. 2608, which served as a basis for my
data. According to Vat. 8414, p. 15b, in the first scrutiny Sacchetti
had 21 votes, Carafa 22, Chigi ig.
* Cf. the *Reports of Tommaso Suidoni of February 17 and
24, 1655, State Archives, Modena.
b HISTORY OF THE POPES.
by so great and pious a king.^ Even more than by these
lucubrations, Sacchetti's cause was seriously damaged,
though unconsciously, by the French ambassador, Hugues
de Lionne, who arrived on January 22nd, when he at once
wrote to the Sacred College a letter which amounted to a
satire on Innocent X., so much so that even Este con-
demned it.-
In view of the fact that Sacchetti's candidature was con-
sistently declined by twenty-three to twenty-five Cardinals,
the election was unduly delayed ^ and the drawbacks to so
many people being confined for so long a time within the
narrow space of the conclave, made themselves gradually
felt. Already at the beginning of February complaints
were heard of the bad air in the rooms * ; on February 10th
Trivulzio was obliged to leave the conclave ; others remained
though they felt unwell. Carafa died on the 14th. ^ But
the parties continued in their determined opposition to one
another. " We shall never succeed in making a Pope,"
Cesi remarked, " unless we can get Cardinal Trent aire and
Cardinal Nemini to agree. ^
^ Cf. L.^MMER, Ztir Kirchengesch., 28 ; Wahrmuxd, Beitrage,
9 seqq., 25 seq. ; Sagmijller, Papstwahlbullen, ig6 seq. ;
Grander ATH in Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, IX., 127 seqq. ;
EiSLER, 120 seqq., who, with regard to the paper : " Che le
corone hanno ius d'escludere i cardinali da pontificato," rightly
adopts the opinion of Sagmiiller, that Lugo i.s the author. Besides
the manuscripts cited by Eisler (126), in which the name of
Lugo appears on the title page, I can refer to two copies in the
Liechtenstein Archives, Vienna, where Lugo is likewise indicated
as the author.
* See Gerin, I., 52 seqq.
' See *Report of Marcantonio Ranucci of January 27, 1655,
State Archives, Bologna.
* See *Avviso of February 6, 1655, Pap. Seer. Arch.
'- *Report of Cardinal M. A. Colonna to Ferdinand III., dated
Rome, February 20, 1655, State Archives, Vienna. Cf. *Report
of Tommaso Suidoni of February 10, 1655, State Archives,
Modena.
* See Conclavi, II., 531. Cf. *Report of Ranucci of February 17,
CHIGI S CANDIDATURE.
Chigi had obtained eighteen votes at the first scrutiny and
in most of the succeeding ones he maintained himself at that
level. This did not suit his supporters, who as yet did not
want to come out into the open, but notwithstanding their
efforts to the contrary, Chigi continued to receive a consider-
able number of votes. ^ The latter's calm and circumspection
were truly admirable. For fear of appearing to aspire to the
tiara, he paid no visits to Cardinals, except to those who were
sick, but remained in his cell dividing his time between prayer
and study. He remained equally unperturbed when it was
rumoured that Mazarin would not hear of his elevation on
account of his attitude at the peace congress of Miinster.^
Besides Chigi, Mazarin also excluded Rapaccioli, whilst
Spada did all he could to induce the French to abide by this
policy. Sacchetti acted otherwise : he considered Chigi to
be the worthiest candidate of all, whilst he was also anxious
to spare France an even heavier defeat than the one she had
experienced at the conclave of 1644 in consequence of
Mazarin's action against Pamfili. Without saying a word to
Chigi, Sacchetti wrote a letter to Mazarin on February 13th,
1655, loc. cit. On February 19, a rumour spread in Rome, that
Carpegna had been elected. Cod. Vat. 8414, p. 15b, Vatican
Library.
^ See Pallavicino, I., 240 seq. According to the compilation
in *Barb. 2608 (Vatican Library), Chigi had the following votes : —
January 20 . . morning 18 evening 12
21 .
22 .
23 •
24 .
29 .
February' 4 .
2
6 .
17 •
27 .
March 30 .
April 5 .
2 See Pallavicino, L,
II
15
15
12
17
19
16
16
17
17
14
13
14
24
15
13
17
12
14
17
243-
8 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
in which he put before the leader of France's policy such
arguments as were calculated to make him change his mind.^
The answer could only arrive six weeks later : accordingly,
the conclave had to be protracted for so long. This put every-
one's patience to a trial all the more severe, as the discomfort
of living in the ill-ventilated rooms constantly increased. ^
At the beginning of March Spada had to leave the conclave
owing to sickness, and two other Cardinals followed him not
long after.^ Impatience grew daily. " The world waits,"
we read in a report of March 20th, " the Church prays,
business suffers, but the Gordian knot cannot be cut ; day
after day votes are cast, to-day for this person, to-morrow
for that, but no Peter is found to gather the votes of all." "*
People began to resign themselves to another month in the
conclave ^ when, on March 30th, ^lazarin's reply arrived.
It left the French Cardinals free to vote for Chigi if it was
impossible to get Sacchetti elected.*^ Thereupon action on
behalf of the latter could be resumed with every hope of
success. However, Barberini, who did not favour Chigi
^ Text of the letter in Eisler, 304 seq., but with wrong date :
17 instead of February 13. See Gerin, I., 55 ; cf. Conclavi, II.,
533-
^ See Conclavi, II., 559 seq. On INIarch 3, Tommaso Suidoni
writes : " *Hoggi finiscono 45 giorni che i sig. cardinali entrarono
in conclave e pure non ci e novita alcuna da potersi attaccare
per la creazione del nuovo Papa." And on March 10 : " *Ciascuno
e stracco, et questo si lungo indugio dispiace grandemente a
tutti " (State Archives, IModena). Cardinal A. Cibo writes on
April 17, 1655, to the Duke of Massa : " *Li patimenti del Con-
clave non sono stati pochi ; di freddo, di sonno, vigilie, fatiche
et inquictudini sono ben consumati in qiiesta santa elettione, e
Dio ci ha fatto gratia a liberarcene, essendo angusta la struttura
del conclave, et era non poco il fetore che cominciava a sentirsi."
State Archives, Massa.
' See *Reports of Cardinal M. A. Colonna of March 6 and 27,
1655, State Archives, Vienna.
* *Avviso of March 20, 1655, Pap. Sec. Arch.
* *Avviso of March 17, 1655, ibid.
* See Eisler, 305 seq.
CHIGI S ELECTION. 9
because of his having been created by Innocent X., was of
opinion that another attempt should be made on behalf
of Sacchetti. The latter, however, begged the Cardinals not
to consider him as a candidate, a fact which created a deep
impression. 1 When Medici had also agreed to this proposal,
Sacchetti, on the evening of April 6th, together with the
two Barberini and Este, as the heads of the parties, repaired
to Chigi's cell to inform him of his impending election. The
latter received the news with complete calm, his only remark
being that they should reconsider the matter once more.
It is easy to understand that the Cardinal was unable to
sleep that night ; he still hoped that the electors would change
their minds and took his election so little for granted that
he did not even consider what name to assume as Pope.
On the following morning (April 7th) he said his Mass quite
calml}', after which he repaired to the Sistine Chapel. Owing
to Carafa's death there were only sixty-five electors, of whom
twenty-five voted for Chigi at once and another thirty-nine
did so at the accessus. Chigi himself gave his vote to Sacchetti. ^
After a conclave of eighty days, the election was at last an
accomplished fact. In memory of his great countryman,
Alexander III., the new Pope assumed the name of
Alexander VII.
In Rome, where Chigi was known as an excellent Secretary
of State, ^ as well as in other Italian towns, the election
^ See Pallavicino, I., 246 seq. Cf. *Avviso of April 10, 1655,
Pap. Sec. Arch.
2 See Pallavicino, I., 248 seq. " *En menos de dos dias
que se introdujo la platica en el card. Ghisi ha quedado executada
su exaltacion." Letter of the Duke of Terranueva to
Ferdinand III., dat. Rome, April 7, 1655, State Archives, Vienna.
' Cf. * Report of the Florentine ambassador Gabriello Riccardi
of April 8, 1655, State Archives, Florence ; *Avviso of April 10,
1655, Papal Secret Archives ; *Report of M. A. Ranucci of
April 7, 1655, State Archives, Bologna ; *Report of Tommaso
Suidoni of April 7, 1655, State Archives, Modena. See also
♦Letter of Cardinal A. Cibo to the Duke of Massa (above, p. 8, n. i).
State Archives, Massa.
10 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
was hailed with joy, for the new Pope was known to be as
learned as he was pious. ^ At Siena joy was particularly great ^
for the Chigi family had occupied an honourable position
in that city since the twelfth century.^ Its coat-of-arms
shows six hills surmounted by a star, to which was added an
oak when Julius II. adopted the banker Agostino Chigi and
his brother Sigismondo on their settling in the Eternal City.^
Agostino Chigi, a friend of Raphael and Leo X., surnamed
" il Magnifico " by reason of his lavish patronage of artists
and scholars, has perpetuated his name by the Farnesina
and the magnificent chapels in S. Maria della Pace and
S. Maria del Popolo, but his character is not above reproach
and showed the bad side as well as the good one of the era
1 The obbedienza ambassador of Duke Charles of Mantua,
Francesco Nerli, characterizes Chigi in his Relatione della corte
di Roma as " soggetto non meno erudito nelle dottrine speculative
e legali che adorno di tutti gl' habiti virtuosi per arrivare al
primato di S. Chiesa ", State Archives, Mantua.
2 C/. Diario delle ceremonie e fesie fatte in Siena nella creazione
di Alessandro, VII., Siena, igoo. *Letter of thanks of
Alexander VII. to Siena for sending four envoys to congratulate
him, dat. June i6, 1655, in State Archives, Siena, Cassa della
Lupa. Concerning the town of Alessandria see Riv. stor. di
Alessandria, XVIII. (1909) ; concerning Perugia: Lettera d'un
Periigino con il racconto d. allegrezze fatte in Perugia, Perugia,
1655-
» See BuoNAFEDE, / Chigi Aiigusti, Vcnezia, 1660; Moroni,
XIII., 76 seqq. ; Novaes, X., 66 seqq. ; Cf. also Materiale inediio
neir archivio del principe Borghese per la storia genealogica della
famiglia Chigi, in Bollet. araldico storico genealogico, XL, August,
1912, 57-60 ; U. Fritelli, Altera genealogico della 7iobile famiglia
Chigi, Siena, 1922. See, moreover, *Notizie d. famiglia Chigi, in
Vat. 8769, Vatican Library. A " *Discorso sopra la genealogia
del presente pontifice Alessandro VII. et di tutta la casa Chigi e
loro piu pros.simi parenti ", in Cod. Cels., 13, p. 3 seq., Stockholm
Library.
* See Pasini Frassoni, Armorial des Rapes, Rome, 190,64 4.
Cf. TouRTUAL, 34 seq.
THE CHIGI FAMILY. II
of the high Renaissance.^ The fabulous wealth of the " prince
of Roman bankers " melted rapidly in consequence of the
extravagance and carelessness of his son and the line died out.
The wealth of the family of Sigismondo, who returned to
Siena, also diminished. Flavio Chigi was a descendant of
Sigismondo. A relative of Paul V. through his mother Agnese
Bulgarini, he sought to retrieve his situation by marrying
Laura Marsili, a wealthy widow. Eleven children sprang
from this union, viz. seven daughters, of whom four took
the veil at Siena, and four sons : Mario, Sigismondo, Fabio,
and Agostino.2 In the family palace at Ariccia there is a most
curious collection of portraits of all Flavio's ancestors, as
well as of his own family. In this collection we see Fabio,
who was born at Siena on February 13th, 1599, at different
ages, viz. as a child, as a 29-years-old referendary, as a
Bishop at 41, as a Cardinal at 53, and finally as Pope. In
1 See the present work. Vol. VIII, 117.
^ See *Ricordo de' figli che nascevano di me Flavio Chigi
\pb. October 28, 161 1] e di Laura Marsilii \n. 1566, oh. April 7,
1639] :
1 59 1 21 Agosto : Ortensia [with name in religion Alessandra,
oh. August 4, 1 61 8, at Siena].
1593 25 Giugno : Ersilia [with name in religion Lutgarda,
oh. July, 1612].
1594 22 Settembre : Mario \oh. 1667].
1596 13 Maggio : Gismondo \oh. October 21, 1647].
1597 4 Novembre : Agnese.
1598 [st. flor.] A di 13 [not 12, as Moroni and Novaes
state] di Febraro in Martedi a hore tredici nacquc un figlio, si
battezo il di detto, fu compare M. Francesco Vanni et hebbe nome
Fabio.
1600 ult. Aprile : Flaminia.
1602 6 Ottobre : Caterina.
1605 3 Dicembre : Augusto \oh. October 11, 1651].
1607 3 Gennaio : Caterina [with name in religion Marta,
oh. July 23, 1637, at Siena].
161 1 13 Aprile : Elena [with name in religion Flavia, oh.
October 25, 1678, at Siena].
Autograph note in Family Archives, Ariccia.
12 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
all these portraits the striking feature is the sallow complexion
of the narrow, finely chiselled face ; this paleness is further
enhanced by the darkness of the hair. This paleness hints
at delicate health, whilst the bright eyes and lofty forehead
betray considerable gifts of intellect.^ Even as a child Fabio
1 A magnificent bronze bust of Alexander VII. Ijy Bernini
was in the Chigi Library ; in 1924 it got into the ^■atican, as
also a marble bust of the school of Bernini, which had been kept
there. Another bust of the school of Bernini is in the possession of
Prince Chigi (c/. besides Fraschetti, 287 seq., 290, also Brixck-
MANN, Barockskitlpiiir, II., 249, where reference is also made to
the bust in the Palazzo Zondadari at Siena). Bronze busts of
Alexander VII. are also in the choir of S. INIaria di Monte Santo,
Rome, and in thp Vestibolo della Sala Capitolare of the Duomo
of Siena. A terracotta bust of Alexander VII. passed from the
possession of the Torlonia into the collection of L. PoUak, Rome.
The monumental marble statue of Alexander VII. in the right
transept of the Duomo of Siena was executed from Bernini's
design by his pupil, Antonio Raggi. It renders in excellent
manner the mild character of this Pope and his expression of
weariness, a consequence of his poor state of health ; see Benkard,
Bernini, 26, 41, ill. 45. Cf. Fraschetti, 285. There is a bronze
statue in the Sala Farnese of the Palazzo Comunale at Bologna
by Dorastante d' Osio, 1660. The bronze statue on a column
in the Piazza Nuova (Ariostea) at Ferrara was destroyed in
1796, and is only known from a sketch in the State Archives,
Rome. The bronze statue of the Pope presented to Ravenna
by Cardinal Cesare Rasponi and cast by Bandini in 1673, was
removed during the revolution of 1798 ; it was re-erected in
1 82 1, but in 1867 it was badly damaged by the anti-papal mob
and was then stowed away in a warehouse. lunally in 1885 it
came into the possession of Prince Mario Chigi, who caused
it to be erected in the vestibule of his palace in Rome in 1906.
When the Chigi palace was sold to the Itahan State in igiS
the statue was once more taken to Ravenna. Cf. Pasolini,
Ravenna, 215 ; Riv. stor., 1918, 265 ; Ricci in Felix Ravenna,
XXV. (1917) ; see also the article in the Koln. Volkszeitung,
October 9, 1892, " Ein verschollenes Denkmal," and Munoz, in
L'Arte, 1917. There is also a statue of Alexander \'II. at Fermo.
Of the portraits in oil of Alexander \TI., the one by G. B. GauUi
EDUCATION AND STUDIES. I3
underwent many illnesses and on one occasion his death
seemed so near that the candles for his funeral were bought.^
The precocious youth lost his father when only twelve years
old, after which his pious and solicitous mother took charge
of his education. The sincerely pious and serious boy gave
early proofs of a literary bent and began to write verses.
His memory was such that he could retain anything after one
reading or hearing. His studies were very thorough ; five
years were devoted to philosophy and the law at the University
of Siena. During this time the learned Celso Cittadini intro-
duced him to the study of archaeology,^ and he also studied
the history of art. The Chigi library in Rome (now embodied
in the Vaticana) preserves many extracts dating from that
(Baciccio) at the beginning of 1660, is no doubt the best. The
original, together with its companion piece, the bust of Mario
Chigi, was in the Messinger Gallery (Munich) which was sold by
auction in 191 8 ; see Voss, Malerei, 586 ; Venturi, in L'Arie,
XVI. (1913), 14 seqq. ; U. Ojetti, II ritratto italiano dal Caravaggio
al Tiepolo, Bergamo, 1928, p. 2, pi. i ; copies are in the Stockholm
Museum and in Prince Chigi's house. The latter possesses also
a picture which represents Fabio Chigi, afterwards Alexander VII.,
visiting the Queen-Mother of France at Cologne. Portraits
in oil of Alexander VII. are also in the sacristy of S. Carlo al
Corso at Rome, and in the papal palace of Castel Gandolfo.
The portrait by P. Mignard was engraved by Pitau (see MoiJY,
I., 37). The portrait by Cornelius Vischer in W. V. Seidlitz,
Histor. Portrdtwerk, I., Munich, 1886. A good specimen of the
engraving of Fr. de Poilly {cf. Miscell. di stor. ital., XV., 206)
is in the Corsini Library, Rome. Other engravings are given by
Drugulin, Allg. Portrdt-Katalog, Leipzig, i860 ; cf. also G. Lang,
Catalogo XVIII., 5. Among the medallions of the Pope the best is
that by Bernini ; see Voss, in Zeitschr.fiir Numismatik, XXVIII. ,
Berlin, 1910,23156^^. On the Hamerans, who since Alexander VII.
were in charge of the papal mint and did excellent work, see
NoACK, Deutschtum in Rotn (I., 140, 221). The firm of Hameran
in Via dei Coronari, 192.
^ Cf. for what follows Pallavicino, Vita, I., 27 seq.
^ Celso Cittadini distinguished himself also as a writer ; his
Opere (400 p., in 8°) ed. by Girolamo Gigli, Rome, 1721.
14 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
period.^ Fabio was anxious to liecome a priest but his prudent
mother urged him not to precipitate so weighty a decision.
He began by devoting four years to the study of theology
at Siena, his guides bemg St. Thomas, Gregory of \^alencia,
and especially Suarez. He brilliantly concluded his studies
in the autumn of 1626, and dedicated the theses he defended
on the occasion to the Jesuit General Muzio Vitelleschi.
After this the 3'outhful Doctor set out for Rome, where he
arrived on December 10th, 1626. Two more years were
devoted to private study and intercourse with men of letters
and scholars ; in particular he made friends with the Jesuits,
Famiano Strada and Sforza Pallavicino, the Dean of the Rota,
Clemente Merlini, and the poet Ciampoli. After his entry
into the prelature. Urban VIH. appointed him in January,
1629, referendary of the two highest judicial Colleges
[Refer endario delta Segnahira di Grazia and di Ginstizia).
A little later the Pope, who recognized his talents and valued
him as a poet also, named him Vice-Legate of Ferrara. During
his five years' term of office in that city he gave proof of
administrative talent also, especially during an outbreak of
the plague. Chigi's relations with Cacchetti, the Cardinal
Legate, had the intimate character of those of a son with a
father. In 1635 Turban VHL named him Bishop of Nardo
and sent him to Malta as Inquisitor and Apostolic Visitor.
There he happil}' settled a dispute in connection with the
election of the Grand Master. Before setting out for Malta
he received priest's orders. In a letter of that period he
wrote that to serve the Church was the greatest honour.
^ *Abbozzi e minute dal 1618 fine al 1624 in Siena di Fabio
Chigi, in Cod., A. I., 28, Chigi Library, Rome. Numerous manu-
scripts of the hbrary are enriched with Flavio Chigi's marginal
notes. It is from Flavio's *Chigiae familiae commentayii {Cod.,
A. I., i) that CuGNONi, the excellent librarian of the Chigiana,
to whom I am indebted for many data on the life of Alexander VII.,
published the Vita di Agostino il Magnifico in Arch. d. Sac. Rom.
II., 46 seqq. Cf. also P. Pollidorus, Vita F. Chisii in N. Raccolta
di opusc. scientif., IV., Venezia, 1758, 267 seq., and Piccolomi.m
in Bollet. Senese., XV. (1908), 99 seqq.
NUNCIO IN GERMANY. I5
He suffered much from the tropical chmate of the island but
he bore this " exile ", and attended to his diocese though
separated from it by so great a distance.^
Chigi's tried ability, his piety and learning, as well as the
recommendations of his friends in Rome, especially
Pallavicino's,^ singled him out as the right man for the post of
nuncio at Cologne to which Urban VIII. appointed him in
June, 1639. In August, Chigi arrived on the banks of the
Rhine where he was to spend the next thirteen years. The
transition from the African climate of Malta to that of
Germany affected his delicate health adversely, but for all
that he scrupulously carried out his duties. His simple ways,
his prudence and moderation in defending ecclesiastical
immunity, made him so popular that sympathy was universal
when, towards the end of 1642, he had to undergo a grave
operation for gravel. His prestige in Rome may be gauged
from the fact that as early as February, 1643, Cardinal
Barberini deemed him worthy of the purple.^ In the following
year Urban VIII. died. The new Pope, Innocent X., left the
nuncio at Cologne, though he was not personally acquainted
with him. Chigi had obtained a thorough knowledge of the
situation in Germany when his nomination as nuncio extra-
ordinary to the peace congress of Miinster set him a diplomatic
task than which none more arduous could be imagined. At
that assembly he boldly stood up for the strictest principles
of the Curia, for he loathed every form of dissimulation, but
when these were not in question he showed the utmost gentle-
ness towards non-Catholics. It was in keeping both with
his prudence and with his Christian feeling, when he showed
every kindness towards those who had fallen from high estate,
as Queen Marie de Medici at Cologne in 1641, the Duchess of
Longueville at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1650 and Mazarin in 1651.*
^ Cf. PiccoLOMiNi, loc. cit., 105 seq., 107 seq.
2 On Pallavicino's paternal interest in Chigi, cf. the letters in
Macchia 12 seqq., 16 seqq. *Letters of Pallavicino to Alexander
VII. also in Cod., C. III., 63, Chigi Library, Rome.
^ See Pallavicino's letter of February 28, 1643, in Macchia, 63.
* See Tourtual, 18 seq., 22 seq.
l6 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Chigi's conduct during the peace negotiations so completely
satisfied the Pope that he made him his Secretary of State
in 1G51 and a Cardinal in 1652.^ One of his strictest principles
was " to do much but to speak little ".^
Chigi's uncommon gifts sufficiently account for the fact
that the highest hopes were set on his pontificate. Even
numerous Protestants in France and Germany welcomed his
elevation.^ The favourable opinion of the new Pope, which
was universal, was confirmed by his initial measures. Inmiedi-
ately after his elevation he had a coffin made and placed
in his bedroom, so that on awakening he might be reminded
of the vanity of earthly things. A skull on his writing table,
carved by Bernini, served the same purpose.^ On the occasion
of his taking possession of the Lateran, on May 9th, 1655,
he forbade the erection of triumphal arches, a custom intro-
duced during the Renaissance.^ His servants were forbidden
to accept tips. Superfluous officials were dismissed.^ Donna
1 See XXX., p. 43. Cf. also Piccolomini, loc. cii., 117 seq.
F. Chigi's *Letter of thanks to Siena for the congratulations
on his nomination as a Cardinal, dated March 16, 1652, in State
Archives, Siena.
2 " Molto fare e poco dire" (Letter of Rovenius in Arch.
V. d. geschiedenis v. h. aartsb. Utrecht, XXXIII. [1908], 13). On a
supposed autobiography of Alexander VII., see Appendix No. 6.
3 See Pallavicino, I., 133, 270. On the favourable opinion
of Alexander VII. in Paris, cf. G. Hermant, Mem., ed. Gazier,
II., Paris, 1905, 661 seq.
* *Report of G. Riccardi of April 8. 1655 : " AI Bernini
ha ordinate che gli faccia fare una cassa da morto e che gliela
porti per tenerla in camera e che prima non gli dark audienza "
(State Archives, Florence) ; *Avviso of April 10, 1655, Pap.
Sec. Archives. In his Musae iuveniles, n. 66, he writes : " Mortalis
regimen vitae meditatio mortis." Cf. Novaes, X., 188. Prince
Rosso Scaletta has in his villa in Rome a picture of Alexander VII.
with the marble skull on his table.
* See Pallavicino, I., 268. On the Possesso. see Cancellieri,
256 seqq.
* See *Avvisi of June 19, July 14, and November 5, 1655,
Pap. Sec. Archives. Cf. Pallavicino, I., 265.
THE POPE S DAY. I7
Olimpia Maidalchini, Innocent X.'s sister-in-law, who had
played so disastrous a role in the Eternal City, was obliged to
leave Rome.^
Alexander VII. began his day with prayer and meditation,
after which he said his Mass and assisted at another. Heedless
of the warnings of his physician and of his confessor, the
Jesuit Giambattista Cancellotti, the Pope exceeded the
measure of his strength. Each day from six to seven hours
were devoted to audiences. On Sunday mornings there was a
general audience so as to enable the poor also to present
themselves before him. The Pope won hearts not only by
his kindliness and geniality, but likewise by his eloquence.
He spoke Italian with the beautiful accent of Siena, whilst
his Latin had a classic gracefulness about it. The more
important documents he read himself ; he also transacted a
good deal of business in person, whilst for some he gave
oral instructions to the Secretary of supplicas, Lelio
Piccolomini.2 His stays at Castel Gandolfo, which the busy
Pontiff allowed himself in spring and autumn, did not make
up for the exertions he underwent in Rome, all the more
so, as he was continually tortured by gravel and kidney
trouble. Fortunately he surrounded himself with excellent
assistants. The Dataria was given to Cardinal Corrado, an
eminent canonist, as diligent as he was pious ; Giulio
Rospigliosi, who had given proof of his disinterestedness
during his nunciature in Madrid and of his ability as Governor
of Rome during the conclave, was made Secretary of State ;
Natale, a brother to Cardinal Rondinini, a man endowed with
^ She died end of September, 1657, in San Martino ; see
CiAMPi, 185 seq., 189 seq. " *Povera mia Donna Olimpia e
pur morta senza nessuno de' suoi intorno," wrote Cardinal
Gualtieri to Nic. Aug. Caferri on October 5, 1657. Orig. in
Doria-Pamfili Archives, Rome.
2 See Pallavicino, I., 267, 280 ; Novaes, X., 190. To the
exhortations of his physician and his confessor to take more care
of himself, Alexander VII. replied, " che per zelo della sua carica
gli conveniva far d'avantaggio di quelle faceva." *Avviso of
November 25, 1655, Pap. Sec. Archives.
VOL. XXXI. c
10 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
poetic gifts, was made Secretary of Briefs ; the learned Mattia
Naldi was appointed personal physician to the Pope,^ whilst
Ranuccio Scotti remained Maggiordomo for the time being.^
As a proof of his love for Germany, Alexander VII. admitted
into the ranks of his private chamberlains the learned
Ferdinand of Fiirstenberg who, a poet himself, had published
a new edition of the Latin poems of the Cologne nuncio.^
Among the Cardinals, the Pope's chief advisers were Sacchetti,
Corrado, and Borromeo, the two Jesuits Oliva and Pallavicino
and the Oratorian Virgilio Spada.* A profound impression
1 See Pallavicino, I., 263 seq. On Corrado, see Gkrin, I.,
277 seq. ; on the Poemata postuma of Natale Rondinini :
Zeitschr. f. Gesch. Westfalens, LVL, 2 s., p. 41. After Rondinini's
death Francesco Nerli succeeded him in his post {ibid., 170).
On the Briefs of Alexander VII., see Wirz, XXVI. Numerous
♦documents which belong to the Pap. Seer. Archives passed
through Giulio Rospigliosi into the Rospigliosi Archives. Accord-
ing to the Indice dell' Arch. Rospigliosi fatto 1777, they contain
the Litterae ad princ. [Brevi] : of Pius V., Gregory XIII., Sixtus
v., during the whole of their pontificate ; those of Gregory XIV.
and Innocent IX., for the years 1591 and 1592 ; those of
Clement VIII. only for the year 1593 ; those of Paul V. for the
years 1605-1620 ; those of Gregory XV. only for the year 162 1 ;
all those of Urban VIII. (many vols, with corrections) ; those
of Innocent X. " Liit. ad princ, 1644-1655 " con altre lettere di
segret. d. stato ; those of Alexander VII. " Lettere e brevi, 1655-
1665 con lettere d. segret. d. stato, relazioni e istruzioni per Nuntii ".
" Cf. Cod., B. I., 12, Chigi Library, Rome : *Primo ruolo
della famiglia di N. Alessandro VII. nell' amministrazione
di Msgr. Rannuccio Scotti vesc. del Borgo Sandonnino,
Maggiordomo di S. S'^. After Scotti the post was held by Girol,
Farnese, Volunnio Bandinelli, Girol. Boncompagni, Giac. Fil.
Nini ; see Moroni, XLL, 267 seqq.
* The Poems known under the name Philomathi Miisae
iuveniles were published for the first time at Cologne, 1645,
by William, Ferdinand's brother ; the second edition, prepared
by Ferdinand himself, appeared at Antwerp in 1654 ; see Zeitsch.
fiir Gesch. Westfalens, LVL, 42.
* See *Avviso of February 19, 1656, Pap. Sec. Archives ;
NEPOTISM. 19
was created by the new Pope's determination to avoid every
form of nepotism. This resolve did not spring from a lack of
feeling, for whilst in far away Germany, Chigi ever cherished
the thought of his kindred,^ but now that he was Pope he was
anxious to repress any inordinate affection for them. In
vain Cardinals and ambassadors represented to him that
it was his duty to do something for his kinsfolk, who were
in a by no means flourishing condition. No Siena Chigi was
allowed to show himself in Rome.^ When the Florentine
envoy suggested that Mario Chigi should be summoned to
Rome, the Pope replied with a smile : " We have many other
things to think of besides our relatives, who are doing quite
well at Siena." The suggestion that Mario had great aptitude
in financial questions left the Pope equally cold, so that the
only explanation of the Pope's resistance the envoy could
think of was the influence of the Jesuits and the Cardinals
of the " flying squadron ".^ To one of his intimates Alexander
remarked that as Fabio Chigi he had had brothers and relations
but that as Pope he had no kinsfolk.
For centuries only a very few Popes, such as Adrian VI.,
Marcellus II., and Pius V., had shown such strictness. How-
ever, it was soon to be seen how extraordinarily difficult
it was to break completely with a custom which had only
become so firmly rooted because, in some respects, it was
commendable and natural enough. Disinterested friends
Sagredo in Berchet, II., 234, and the report of the Luccan
ambassador in Stiidi e docum., XII., 230. Cf. Gerin, I., 278 seq.
' Cf. PiccoLOMiNi, loc. cit., 115.
- Already, on April 8, 1655, G. Riccardi reported concerning
the Pope : " *Stamattina ha ordinate al Nini suo segretario
che scriva al suo fratello e nipote che se per il passato si sono
portati con modestia, da qui avanti procurino di farlo davantaggio
e non si movino ne mutino il loro posto." State Archives,
Florence.
' See *Report of June 5, 1655, ihid. When the ambassador
intervened again on behalf of the nephew, the Pope said decisively :
Pensaremo a loro, quando non havremo da fare altro, adesso
ci sono gran cose in aria." Report of August 14, 1655, ibid.
20 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
represented to the Pope that even the stringent decrees of
Trent allowed ecclesiastical superiors to assist their relatives,
not indeed as such, but as persons in need of help ; and that
the kinsfolk of a Pope should be suitably provided for.
Alexander was by no means blind to this fact, but he did not
consider it lawful to spend part of the secular, and still less
any fraction of the ecclesiastical revenues of his office on
his relatives. He rejected every compromise proposed to
him ; " Time," he said, " will show a solution." ^
Though during the pontificates of Urban VIII. and
Innocent X., some outstanding theologians, among them
Lugo and Pallavicino, had declared that the Pope might
bestow from 50,000 to 100,000 scudi a year on his relatives.^
Alexander VII., in the first years of his reign did not spend a
single soldo of the funds of the Apostolic Camera on his
kinsfolk ; all he did was to compensate them, by small gifts
from his private income, for the expenses they had had to
incur in consequence of his elevation to the papacy. Even
those of his kinsfolk, who, like Antonio Bichi, had rendered
valuable services to the Holy See, or who, like Giovanni
Bichi, were in close relationship with the Pope, were not
allowed to present themselves before him.^ This stern resolve,
apart from Alexander's own principles, was also inspired by
the damage which, as he knew from painful personal observa-
tion, had been done to the prestige of the Holy See by the
conduct of the Pamfili. On this subject he expressed himself
with great vigour.*
He was wont to tell his intimates that he would only
arrive at a decision with regard to his relatives after the
first year of his pontificate. Meanwhile he had come to the
conclusion that the complete detachment which he had
^ See Pallavicino, L, 272, 287 seqq. Cf. Dknis, I., 324 seqq.
(May, 1655).
2 Pallavicino, like Lugo, held stricter views on nepotism in the
last years of their lives ; see below, Clement IX., Chapt. I.
' See Pallavicino, I., 416 seq.
* Cf. the *Reports of G. Riccardi of April 17 and May 31,
1655, State Archives, Florence.
CONSULTATIONS. 21
hitherto observed, could not go on, though he continued to
reject the idea of making use of his nephews in the manage-
ment of the varied business of the Holy See. When in April,
1656, the Florentine envoy suggested such a course, he
replied : " Since we are determined to do everything ourselves,
we work all day long, with the result that we are quite
exhausted at night. Some help is desirable, but if we were to
summon our nephews, we should have to keep an eye on them
so that we should only have added to our work." ^ If in the
end Alexander VII. made up his mind to summon his nephews
to Rome, his action was determined by quite different and
very weighty considerations. As Pope, he thought, he would
be setting an even better example if he summoned his relatives,
but kept them within limits, than if he kept them at a distance ;
he likewise felt that it was not right that the relatives of the
Head of the Church should be simple citizens of Siena, since
he could not prevent the people of that city from paying
princely honours to his house ; moreover he feared lest
misunderstandings should arise between it and the Grand Duke
of Tuscany.^
Before taking a final decision the Pope sought the advice
of the Cardinals. In a consistory of April 24th, 1656, he called
upon them to tell him, either by word of mouth or in writing,
whether it seemed good to them that he should employ in the
service of the Church such of his relatives as were worthy
of the honour.^ In addition to the Cardinals, most of whom
replied in the affirmative, some theologians of mark, especially
Pallavicino, were likewise consulted.* The latter began
' See *Report of G. Riccardi, April i, 1656, ibid.
~ See Pallavicino, II., 5 seqq., 10 seqq.
' See Acta consist., in Lammer, Melet., 232 seq. ; Pallavicino,
II., II seq. Cf. Gerin, I., 266. An *opinion on the summoning
of the nephews to Rome in Cod. Bolognetti, 201, p. 131 seq. Pap.
Sec. Archives ; another, anonymous, in Fanfani, Mescolanze
letter arte, Firenze, 1879, 104 seq.
* " *Lettere, voti e scritture dei sig. cardinali e teologi circa
di chiamarsi da PP. Alessandro VII. a Roma i parenti piii
stretti e circa di potersi donare dal medesimo liberamente a loro
22 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
bv examining the arguments for and against the employment
of the nephews and ended by suggesting a middle course,
namely the publication of a Bull which would confine them
within clearly defined boundaries. A nephew should only
be raised to the cardinalate after due preparation, and after
somma determinata. Dell'anno 1656 " (Cod. Ottob. 1061, Vatican
Library-). " *Lettera e quesiti di propria mano d'Alessandro VII.
al Pallavicino circa il chiamare a Roma i parenti " [Cod. C. III.,
70, p. 143 s., Chigi Libran,-, Rome. " Cclebriamo," it says at the
beginning, " la messa gia piu giomi su questo argumento.'"
Ibid., p. 431 : " Ex veto P. Pallavicini : ac demum concludit
[Pallavicino] posse dare [the Pope] sponsal nepotis occasione
nuptiarum scutata 15.000." Ranke (III., 35) writes : "The
Rector of the Jesuit College, Oliva, made without doubt the
greatest impression, when he declared that the Pope would
commit a sin if he did not summon his nephews ; the foreign
ambassadors would never have as much confidence in a simple
^Minister as in a blood-relation of the Pope ; the Holy Father
would be ill-informed and would not be able to administer
his office so well." In proof of an assertion which by itself is
hardlv credible, Ranke refers to a manuscript of the Corsini
Library, Rome : Scritture politiche. The complete untrust-
worthiness of this anonymous source is incontestable. In Ottob
1 06 1 (Vatican Library), I found the *Voia of the Cardinals of
April and May, 1656, and also * Extracts from the Voti di teologi
e canonisti ; among them appears Pallavicino, but of Oliva there
is no vote. Neither is there such a vote of Oliva in the *Raccolta
di voti of Cod. C. III., 70, Chigi Library, Rome, from which
I give in Appendix Xr. 4 the vote of Pallavicino, given May 9,
1656, in which there is no trace of the opinions which Ranke
ascribes to Oliva. Al^o among the numerous * Letters of Oliva to
Alexander VII. in Cod. C. III., 63, Chigi Librar>-, there is no
trace of any such advice, hence it must be regarded as a fable.
On the basis of an untrustworthy anonymous assertion, Ranke
(III., 129) speaks of Oliva as leading the hfe of a glutton. On
the contrary', all trustworthy sources show that Oliva, so long
as his health permitted, was a strict ascetic and practised external
austerity to an almost exaggerated degree (Duhr, Gcsch., III.,
6 seqq. ; Hist. Jahrb., 1907, 372).
THE NEPHEWS ARE SENT FOR. 23
liis elevation he should be assigned clearly defined revenues.^
Alexander VII. decided, in substance, to follow these sugges-
tions. On May 2nd he published a Constitution forbidding
even his nephews to accept gifts from candidates for offices
and benefices ; the income from the sale of offices, which
until then had, for the most part, gone to the papal nephews,
was henceforth to flow in its entirety into the Apostolic
Camera ; lastl}^ the Monti vacabili, whose renewal and fresh
sale had been of considerable profit to the nephews, whilst
it had been a heavy burden on the public exchequer, was
commuted into a consolidated State rent, the rate of interest
being reduced from 10 per cent to 4 per cent.^ As a result of
this measure the nephews henceforth could only look for such
revenues as their offices yielded. When these barriers had been
set up Alexander VII., on May 12th, 1656, from Castel
Gandolfo, where he was spending a short holiday, sent for
three of his relatives in Siena. They reached Rome on
the 16th May, and met with a kindly reception, though
they were made to feel at once the strictness of the new
principles.^
Flavio, the son of Alexander's eldest brother, was sent
to the Jesuit novitiate, there to prepare for the priesthood.
Every request that he would hasten the elevation to the
cardinalate of the twenty-five years old youth, was con-
sistently rejected by the Pope during the whole of the second
year of his pontificate ; only after Flavio had adequately
prepared himself for his new position was he raised to the
Sacred College, on April 9th, 1657. Though he was now
granted the customary privileges of a Cardinal nephew and,
therefore, together with Rospigliosi, dealt with affairs of
' See text in Appendix Xr. 5, Chigi Library, Rome.
- Constitution Inter gravissimas , Bull., XVI., 156 seqq. Cf.
Pallavicino, II., 9, 18 ; Berchet, II., 235 seq.
* See Pallavicino, II., 19 seqq. ; Claretta, Crisiina di
Snezia, 68. Original text of the *Briefs " Abbatl Flavio, Mario
fratri, and adolescenti August.", in Epist., II., Pap. Sec. Archives.
24 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
State, he was nevertheless allowed no influence whatever. ^
The same also happened to Mario who had been made General
of the Church and entrusted with the superintendence of the
Borgo and the Annona, a duty for which he seemed especially
qualified in view of his earlier activities in Florence. ^ However,
now as before. Cardinals Sacchetti, Rospigliosi, Corrado, and
the Jesuits Pallavicino and Oliva, remained the Pope's chief
advisers,^ and for a time all the nuncios were retained in their
posts.*
In May, 1656, Agostino Chigi, a son of his deceased brother,
was appointed by Alexander VII. castellan of Castel S. Angelo,^
but anxious to be free from all foreign influence, the Pope
refused to consider the most tempting offers for Agostino's
marriage made to him by the Duke of Modena,^ by Mazarin,
and by the King of Spain. Nor would he consent to an aUiance
of his family with the Colonna ; in the end he decided to
marry the twenty-three years old Agostino to Maria Virginia
Borghese. Rome was amazed when the wedding (in July,
^ See Pallavicino, II., 23 seqq., 79 seq., 148 seq., 150 seq.
Cf. A. Correr and Sagredo in Berchet, Relaz., Roma, II., 198,
220, 236; *Avvertimenti dati in voce da P. Alessandro, VII.
al card. Chigi, recorded by the latter himself in Cod. Bolognetii,
201, p. 133 seq. Pap. Sec. Archives.
2 See Pallavicino, II., 7 ; Pagliucchi, II., 84. Mario was
also employed on business in the Papal States. Riccardi reports
of him on June 17, 1656 : " *II sig. Don Mario travaglia grande-
mente nelle congregationi di sanita e dello sgravio delle com-
munita dello Stato, si che dalla mattina alia sera e in congrega-
tione e in verita e smagrato, credo con lo stare a sedere." State
Archives, Florence.
^ Already on February 3, 1657, an *Avviso says that Palla-
vicino and Oliva are in such high esteem with the Pope that
everybody expects that both will soon receive the purple. Pap.
Sec. Archives.
^ See Biaudet, 59.
* See Pagliucchi, II., 84.
* See *Report of T. Suidoni, May 20, 1656, State Archives,
Modena.
PROVISION FOR THE NEPHEWS. 25
1658), contrary to precedent, was celebrated with the utmost
simphcity in the Pope's private chapel and in the presence of
only two Cardinals. The wedding feast, too, was held not in
the Vatican, but in Agostino's residence, and with complete
avoidance of all display.^
The Pope also sought the advice of the Cardinals on the
subject of the financial provision for his relatives, but they
only answered in general terms, leaving it to his own conscience
to decide how far he would go. He also privately consulted
two theologians whom he held in particular esteem, and two
canonists whose moderation commended them to him. Flavio
Chigi bought for Agostino the former Castello Farnese, now a
principality, for which he paid in part with his own money
and in part with a subsidy from the Pope ; the annual revenue
of the principality did not exceed 5,000 scudi. Agostino
received an additional gift of 15,000 gold scudi. ^ At a later
date, however, the Pope showed himself more liberal, for he
bestowed on Agostino, Ariccia and Campagnano, the Palazzo
Aldobrandini in the Piazza Colonna and a number of luoghi
di monti. Agostino's young son, Sigismondo Chigi, the most
talented member of the family, received a few commendas.^
^ See Pallavicino, II., 226 seq. Cf. *Avviso of July 17, 1658,
Pap. Sec. Archives. *Documents on the conclusion of the marriage
in the Family Archives, Ariccia.
2 See Pallavicino, II., 231 seqq. *Breve che conferma la
compra d. terra di Farnese, dat. January 16, 1662, in Family
Archives, Ariccia.
^ See Pallavicino, II., 232 ; Ricci, Ariccia, 276, 292 seq.
Ranke (III., 36, n. 2), reproduces a passage of a *Vita di
Alessandro VII., the source of which he does not indicate ;
I found the Vita in Cod. Barb. 4690, Vatican Library. Ranke
supposes the work to date from 1666, but in this he is mistaken,
for the author says that Alexander VII. had reigned nine years
by then. Ranke also denies that the figures which this Vita
gives of the nephews' income have any value, but in the Appendix
(III., 189*) he praises the Vita, which evidently was written by
a bitter enemy of Alexander VII. The inaccuracy of Ranke's
statement that the author is a well-informed, and on the whole
26 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Antonio Bichi, a more distant relative, obtained the purple,
whilst his brother was made commander of the papal galleys.
All this shows how the ageing Pope, once he had taken the first
step, yielded ever more and more ; in the sequel, to the grief
of his friend Pallavicino,^ he bestowed on his relatives more
than what was just,^ so that he was all the more severely
blamed as he had raised such high hopes for the complete
elimination of the evil. However, his nepotism always
remained within reasonable limits.^
Neither Cardinal Flavio nor Mario were allowed to meddle
with any business except that of their respective departments ;
well-disposed (towards Alexander VII.) contemporary, may be
gathered from his remark about the famous colonnade of St. Peter :
" *Procura [Alessandro VII.] gloria dai sassi mediante il colonnato
di S. Pietro dove spende un tesoro per fabbricare un redotto della
baronataglia piu infame et un pisciatoio al bisogno de' cani."
For the most part, as, e.g. with regard to the above-mentioned
indication of figures, the I'ita follows a forged document, namely
the Relatione di Roma del Pietro Basadonna of 1663 (now printed
in Berchet, II., 291), which Ranke (III., 187 seq.) also quotes
and which he (in spite of there being some doubt about it) regards
as authentic (III., Appendix, Nr. 134). That it is a forgery, see
Berchet, II., 259. Another document also which Ranke (III.,
Appendix, Nr. 132) and Chantelauze, in his monograph of
Cardinal Retz quote, namely the Report of Angelo Corraro,
which, in 1663, appeared in a French translation at Leiden,
is also a forgery, as has been proved by Gerin, in Rev. des quest,
hist., LIV. (1880), 570 seqq. The authentic text of Corraro's
report is in Berchet, II. , 197 seqq. According to Gerin (I., 258)
these reports are satires which mingle truth with falsehood and
evident calumnies ; they served the polemic aims of French
politics.
^ See Arch. stor. ital., App., VI., 398. Cf. above, p. 20, n. 2.
2 Raggi says that Alexander VII. gave to his relatives " fra
beni ecclesiastici, secolari e offitii vacabili quasi 4 millioni e
mezzo " ; see Neri in Riv. Europ., 1878, V., 685. Raggi, however,
is not a reliable witness, for he is very hostile to Alexander VII.,
who had many a quarrel with Genoa.
' See Macchia, 40.
THE PAPAL COURT. 27
the Bichis, too, had no influence whatever on current affairs.^
If the secular nephews failed to resist the temptation to
enrich themselves by unlawful means, there was no need for
Flavio to have recourse to such expedients, for he had been
granted such rich beneficies that he was in a position to
live in great style. His worldly tastes betrayed themselves
by his love of the pleasures of the table, the theatre and the
chase, 2 though he did not withhold his patronage from men
of learning. The handsome man, with his dark, curly hair,
soon won for himself a distinguished position in Roman
society.^
In the family palace at Ariccia, Flavio, in imitation of some
other great people, got together in 1679 a collection of
thirty-six portraits of the most beautiful women of Rome,
among them being Maria Mancini, Louis XIV. 's first flame.'*
How difficult it is for a Pope to satisfy the world was
proved by the complaints that Alexander VII. allowed his
nephews no influence '^ ; on the other hand, more equitable
judges acknowledged that a strict religious tone prevailed at
the papal court. An excellent impression was made by the
Chigis' modesty, and by the fact that, in marked contrast to
the period of Innocent X., the women of the family were kept
1 Cf. Basadgnna, in Berciiet, II., 267 ; Gerin, I., 272,
II., 52 seq.
^ See Du Tot [ = Corraro] in Ranke, III., 186,* and A. Neri,
Saggi siilla corrispondenza di Fernando Raggi agente genovese a
Roma, in Riv. Europ., February, 1878, V., 663 seq. Journalists
[cf. ScHEiBLE, Das Kloster, VI., Stuttgart, 1874, 39) and satirists
also attacked Chigi's moral conduct ; but Raggi himself says :
" La corte di Roma e maligna " {loc. cit., 674). An * Inventory
left by F. Chigi in Family Archives, Ariccia. Ibid. *Bolle e
brevi spettanti al cardinale Flavio e Sigismondo Chigi. Beautiful
marble busts of Cardinal Flavio and of Sigismondo Chigi, of the
school of Bernini, in Prince Chigi's possession, now in his residence
in the Farnesina, Rome.
' Cf. Basadonna, in Berchet, II., 265 ; Moroni, XIII. ,
87 seq. ; Gerin, L, 268.
* See Bollet. d'arte, 1917, 3 seq.
* See Basadonna, loc. cit., 265 ; cf. 269.
28 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
within very narrow boundaries ; if they wished to see the
Pope they had to stand in the street with the crowd. For the
rest, Mario's wife, Berenice della Ciaja — the exact antithesis
of Ohmpia Maidalchini — was in complete agreement with the
Pope's strictness.^ She devoted herself exclusively to her
domestic duties and to the practice of piety ; in fact, she
would have liked nothing better than to retire to Siena
for good. 2
Nepotism, to which Alexander VII. paid tribute in the
last years of his pontificate, threw its shadow also upon the
administration of justice in Rome, so much so that Mario
Chigi was accused of abusing his position to enrich himself.^
Such an example was bound to lead to evil results. Even the
hands of the supreme tribunal of the Rota were not clean.
One of its officials, who had been in its employ for twenty-
eight years, presented to the Pope a list of the abuses that had
crept into that body. Though at the beginning of his pontificate
Alexander VII. had forbidden the acceptance of gifts in
questions of privilege or justice,* the memorandum of the
aforesaid official reveals the fact that not only the lower
officials and the servants, but even the auditors themselves
1 See Basadonna, loc. cit., 236 seq. Cf. Gerin, I., 280 seq.
The Anglican Canon John Bargrave, who knew the Rome
of Alexander VII. from personal observation, nevertheless
disseminated the most scandalous stories in his book, Pope
Alexander VII. and the College of Cardinals (ed., J. C. Robertson,
London, 1867). From Geneva a veritable campaign of calumny
against the Holy See was set in motion ; Alexander VII. saw the
dangers of such a campaign. Already on September 4, 1655,
he issued a " *Cifra circolare a tutti i ministri " with orders that
the nuncios should take steps against the " gazzettanti's "
calumnies directed against the Roman court. Cod., C. III.,
76, Chigi Library, Rome.
^ See the evidence of Basadonna, in Berchet, II., 267.
* See Berchet, II, 266. How much Mario was hated in
Rome was seen after his death, November 14, 1667 ; see Neri,
Corrispondenza di F. Raggi, loc. cit., 666.
* See Pallavicino, I., 412.
ABUSES. 29
did not shrink from accepting presents.^ Is it any wonder
if similar abuses in the administration of justice and in the
government, were even more grievous in the provinces ?
In a memorial written shortly before his death in 1663,
Cardinal Spada remonstrated with the Pope against these
abuses. He paints in the strongest colours the evil of the
oppression of the poor who were exposed, without means of
defence, to the arbitrariness of the mighty ; the lowering
of justice when Cardinals, nobles, and palace officials inter-
vened on behalf of one of the parties ; the long delays,
sometimes of years, in settling affairs that could be disposed
of in a couple of days ; the victimization to which anyone
exposed himself who appealed from a lower to a higher
authority ; the callousness and harshness of the system of tax
collection which seemed to exist simply for the personal
enrichment of those who bought the right to gather the taxes
and to render odious the head of the State. ^
1 " *Disordini che occorrono nel supremo tribunale della Rota "
{Barb. n. 5404, Vatican Library) : " Con le male decisioni di
questo tribunale supremo si corrompe la giustitia a tutti gli
altri minori." Cf. Rangoni, n. 28 ; Ranke, III., 76.
- Sacchetti's memorandum of June 17, 1663, is often found in
manuscript, e.g. Vai. 7497, p. 15 seq., Vatican Library, Barb.
6337, p. 37 seq., ibid., in the Communal Library, Vicenza, and in
the State Library, Munich, ItaL, 86, p. 267 seq., and 93, p. 329 seq.
It is printed in Galeotti, Della sovranitd e governo temporale dei
Papi, 87, and already before in Arckenholtz, Mem., IV.,
App., XXXII., p. 395 seqq. Dollinger {Kirche iind Kirchen,
541) says with regard to the diminution of the population —
which emigrated to escape oppression — that Sacchetti exaggerates.
The text resembles so much the invectives of this period that a
falsification of the original text is not excluded. In those days
even the final text of Venetian reports was falsified (see above,
p. 25, n. 3 on Basadonna). Equally doubtful seems to be the
authenticity of the " * Relatione della corte di Roma del Marchese
Fr. Nerli ambasciatore d' ubidienza del Duca di IMantova alia
S'^ di Alessandro, VII.," in Barb. 5191, p. 99 seq., Vatican Library,
for the *Relatione of the same Nerli in Mantua Archives is much
shorter.
30 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
To do away completely with such deplorable conditions,
a longer reign would have been required, and still more
greater experience in the art of civil government, as well
as a stronger hand than Alexander VII. 's, especially in view
of his chronic illness. How greatly he had at heart the welfare
of his subjects was shown at the very outset of his pontificate,
when the Papal States were visited with bad harvests which
caused a dearth. Notwithstanding his financial straits the
Pope immediately devoted the sum of 300,000 scudi for
the purpose of assuring cheap bread for the poor, but his
very liberahty eventually led to the weight of the loaf having
to be reduced from 8 to 6 ounces. The Romans, who had
imagined that the golden age was about to return, could
blame neither the Pope, whose solicitude was obvious, nor his
nephews, since these had not yet arrived in the Eternal City ;
for all that they said that if Alexander had summoned his
relatives to Rome, he would not have been imposed upon by his
officials.! The Pope took no notice of this foolish talk and,
realizing that lack of provisions was a worse evil than dearth,
he did his utmost to provide Rome with corn. These efforts,
and other measures on behalf of the poor, did not fail to
impress the City, and these steps were followed by various
ordinances against the exactions of officials in the Papal
Statfes.2
In the very first year of his reign Alexander VII. set up a
Congregation of thirteen Cardinals, whose duty it was to
remedy the state of indebtedness in which many communes
' See Pallavicino, I., 313 seqq. Cf. *Rep()rt of Abbatc 'J'ini.
July 31, 1655, Gonzaga Archives, Mantua.
2 See Pallavicino, I., 316 seq. ; Benigni, Getreidepolitik,
57 seq. Ibid., on the useless attempts to drain the Pontine Marshes.
The survey of the Agro Romano under Alexander Vlf. (Dk Cupis,
f.e vicende, 268), and the ordering of the system of feudal titles
(Capogrossi Guarna, / titolari delle provincie nella seconda
uietd del sec, XVII., Roma, 1893, 5-6), deserve to be mentioned.
In 1661 the Jews were exempted from walking in the carnival
by paying a sum of money {Saggiatore, I., 129).
SOLICITUDE FOR THE PEOPLE. 3I
of the Papal States found themselves. ^ The Pope also entered
into an agreement with the Grand Duke of Tuscany, with a
view to dealing with the plague of brigandage on the Tuscan
frontier.^ His efforts to raise the woollen industry in the
Papal States by prohibiting the importation of wool, failed
in consequence of the indolence of the parties concerned,^
just as his attempt to drain the Pontine Marshes with the
aid of Dutch engineers also proved a failure.* Alexander VII. 's
conduct was above all praise when, notwithstanding every
precaution, the bubonic plague, after working the most
terrible havoc in Naples,^ also broke out in Rome in May,
^ See *Letter of the Abbate Tini of June 19, 1655, Gonzaga
Archives, Mantua ; *Reports of M. A. Ranucci of July 7 and
August 4, 1655, State Archives, Bologna. On the successful
efforts of Alexander VII. to compose the disputes about the
payment of arrears of taxes at Perugia, see " * Relatione del
governo spirituale, temporale e misto del S. Pontefice ", in
Barb. 5683, p. 415^, Vatican Library, where there is also a good
summary of all the public authorities of the time.
- See * Report of the Florentine ambassador of May 22, 1655,
State Archives, Florence.
^ Cf. De Cupis, La lana e la sua mdustria in Roma, Rome,
19-23. s.
^ RuHMANN, Pontinische Siimpfe, 135 ; Mededeelingen van
het Nederl. Hist. Institut, 1926, 193 seq. ; " *La concessione delle
paludi fatta a detto effetto al Nicolao Vanderpellen," by
Alexander VII., 1659, Cod., H. II., 43, Chigi Library, Rome.
^ Cf. De Renzi, Napoli neU'a, 1657 (s. 1. e. d.). Arch. star.
Xapol., XXL, 204 s. ; Rigillo, La pcsie del 1656 a Napoli,
Pistoia, 1907 ; Nicastro, Contrihiito alia storia della peste del
1656-57, Melfi, 1912 ; FuMi, La peste di Napoli nel 1656, Roma,
1S95 (according to the reports of the nuncio) ; P. Emanuele
D.\ N.\POLi, / Cappuccini nella peste napoletana dell' a, 1656,
pubbl. per Bonaventura da Sorrento, 2^ ediz., Sorrento, 1884.
Zuccarone (S. I.), " Lamento per la peste di Napoli nell'a, 1656."
Boncompagni Archives, Rome, M. 15. The papal letter to the
Archbishop of Naples to invite the Regulars to the service of the
plague-stricken in Bull., XVI., 200.
32 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
1656.^ The Pope was staying at his summer residence at
Castel Gandolfo when the first news of the peril threatening
^ CJ. for what follows, besides the detailed description of
Pallavicixo (II., 21 seqq., 84 seqq., 92 seqq., 98 seqq., 106 seqq.
143 seqq., 165 seqq. ; with the annotations by the hand of Card.
Fr. Barberini, in *Barh., LXXIIL, 56, Vat. Library) ; P. a Castro,
Pesiis Neapolitana, Romana et Genuensis annorum 1656 et 1657
Veronae, 1657 ; Hieron. Gastaldi, Tractatus de avertenda et
profligenda peste , Bononiae, 1648 (with illustrations) ; G. Balestra
DA LoRETO, GH accidenii piii gravi del mal contagioso osservati
nel lazzaretto all' I sola, Roma, 1657 '> Narducci, Notizia del
contagio di Roma negli anni 1656 e 1657, Roma, 1870. A passage
from the Diario of Gigli in Clementi, Carnevale, 460 ; Denis, I.,
327 ; ScHEiBLE, Alte Zeit, I., 938. See also Pfeiffer et
RuLAND, Pestilentia in minimis, 103, 109. Dengel, Palazzo
di Venezia, 121 ; D. Rapolla, Del card. G. B. de Lucca, Portici,
1899, 89 s. ; Mededeelingen van het Nederl. Hist. Institut., V.,
Roma, 1925, 159 seq. (here p. 163 seq., also on the new measures
taken when in 1663-4 ^he plague broke out in Amsterdam) ;
the numerous ordinances on this matter are in Editti., V., 61;
Pap. Sec. Archives; ibid., the *Avvisi of 1656. In Cod., 171,
Corsini Library, Rome : Memorie di Roma in tempo del mal,
contagioso, 1656. Cf. also *Barh. 4991, p. 3 seqq., 23 seqq., and
4236, p. 172 seqq., Vat. Library. *Statistics of deaths from
August 26, 1656, to February 10, 1657, in Ottob. 3264, p. 20 seqq.,
ibid. (Reports to the nuncio in Venice, August 26-30, 1656 :
ninety-three cases of death; August 30 to September 2, 1656 :
fifty-two cases of death.) Two *Letters of Pallavicino on the
measures taken against the plague in Cod., A. III., 53, p. 246
and 259, Chigi Library, Rome ; cf. also ibid., E. 62 and C. III.,
6, p. 280, 286. Some private letters belonging to this place are
in Lettere di Caseniinesi, published by A. Virgili (Nozze-Publica-
tion, Florence, 1893). Unpublished, a *Letter in Azzolini Archives,
Empoli Vecchio, now in the Royal Archives, Stockholm. On
the work of the Roman physician, Pietro Castello, which
appeared in Messina in 1656 : Flagello delta peste nel quale si
considerano le cose sospette di contagio e si propone il rimedio di
correggerle, see L. Huetter, in Corriere d' Italia of January 31,
1928.
THE PLAGUE. 33
the Eternal City reached him. He at once returned to Rome ^
in order to superintend in person the precautions taken for
the protection of the capital and the Papal States. In this
task he was assisted by his brother, Mario. A special health
Congregation, headed by Sacchetti, was set up ; the Pope's
physician was also made a member, as well as his brother,
Mario, who greatly distinguished himself during this trying
period.- Special commissaries were appointed to watch lest
the plague should spread from the Neapolitan territory,
whilst they were also to see that there was no lack of pro-
visions. Only eight of the city gates remained open and
these were carefully guarded. Special commissaries were
appointed to watch over the health of each of the fourteen
districts of the city. Every case of plague had to be notified
at once under pain of death. The Trastevere was for a time
completely shut off from the rest of the city. In order to
isolate the sick from those who were whole, a hospital for
the plague-stricken was established in the Isle of St. Bartholo-
mew. For those who were discharged from hospital as cured
a house near S. Pancrazio was used for quarantine, whilst
another near S. Eusebio ^ sheltered those who were shut out
1 See * Report of Riccardi, May 20, 1656, State Archives,
Florence.
- Cf. " *Relazione del contagio di Roma nel 1656, " in Cod.,
E. III., 62, Chigi Library, Rome. An inscription in the cathedral
of Frascati records the deliverance of the town from the plague
which was attributed to the intercession of ss. Sebastian and
Roch ; see the inscription in Cluzel, Frascati, Souvigny, 1901, 25.
^ Good illustrations of the hospitals in contemporary wood-
cuts by Giacomo Molinari. On three large woodcuts Louis
Roubier of Dijon showed in twenty-nine pictures all the episodes
of the plague. These sheets were published by Giov. Giac. de
Rossi under the title : Ordini diligenze e ripari fatti con universal
beneficio dalla paterna pieta di N. S. PP. Alessandro VII. et em.
ss. cardinali della S. Congregatione delta sanitd per liberare la
cittd di Roma dal contagio. They are also of interest because
they give us a picture of the Rome of that time. Three *accounts
of Benedetto Rita Protomedico, about the epidemic of
1656, in Ottob. 2485, p. 398 seqq., Vat. Library. Ibid., a pencil
VOL. x.xxi. D
34 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of their own homes because of cases of plague. The victims
of ordinary diseases were received in the hospital della
Consolazione. Those who died of the plague were buried near
St. Paul's, outside the Walls. For these burials the greatest
precautions were prescribed/ as well as for the religious
functions which had been instituted in order to appease
the anger of God.^ The Pope himself gave proof of great
courage ; he continued his public audiences and repeatedly
showed himself in the streets, sometimes in a sedan chair
and at other times on foot. From the height of S. Pietro in
Montorio he blessed those who had been discharged from
hospital, as they made their way to the quarantine near
S. Pancrazio. His alms also were more generous than at
other times. ^ He only laughed when told that a rumour
was circulating that at audiences he sheltered behind a glass
screen.* His imperturbability was still further admired when
the plague carried off several of his servants.
As a result of these stringent precautions the plague
did not assume the same proportions as at Naples, though
from the end of May, 1656, up to August, 1657, close on
15,000 out of Rome's 120,000 inhabitants fell victims to the
epidemic.^ Nevertheless, the order and tranquillity of the
sketch with the note of 1656 : " Habito con il quale vanno i
medici per Roma." Cf. also Cod., 34, D. 17, Corsini Library,
Rome.
^ Cf. Maes, Curiosttd Romane, III. (1885), 53. As a prayer for
the Dead, the so-called Ave Maria de' morti (Psalm De profundis)
was ordered, which has continued down to our own days. Cf.
*Avviso of November 25, 1656, Pap. Sec. Archives.
* See Orationi e devotioni efficacissmie contro la peste, Roma,
1656.
* See *Avvisi of 1656, Pap. Sec. Archives, and Riccardi's
♦Report of July 8, 1656, State Archives, Florence. Cf. Gerin,
I., 267.
* See Riccardi's *Rcport of July 22, 1636, ibid.
* SeeGASTALDi, 116. In 1655 the population of Rome numbered
122,978 ; in 1656, 120,596 ; in 1657, 100,019 ; in 1658, 104,965 ;
after that it rose gradually, so that in 1667 it stood at 110,489 ;
Rome's gratitude. 35
city were not disturbed during this heavy trial, nor was there
at any time a scarcity of provisions. In token of their gratitude
the Romans were anxious to erect a statue to the Pope
on the Capitol, but Alexander declined the honour with the
remark that he deemed himself sufficiently rewarded if his
image was engraved on the hearts of the Roman people. ^
Alexander deserves credit for his efforts to reduce the
public debt. 2 If the financial situation nevertheless con-
tinued unfavourable, and fresh debts could not be avoided,^
the cause lay, on the one hand, in the fact that Alexander VII.,
being by nature of a most generous disposition, left a free
see Cerasoli in Studi c docuni., XII., 179. After the census,
taken at Easter, 1656, by order of Alexander VII., the population
of the provinces of the Papal States was 1,685,934, not counting
children under three years of age ; with Rome included, it
amounted to 1,801,780 ; see Beloch, in Bullet, de I'lnstitut
internal, de Statistiqiie , III., Roma, 1888, 16 ; Corridore, La
populazione dello stato Romano, Roma, 1906, 14. According to the
Carte Strozziane (i Ser., II., 769, n. 22 seq.) the inhabitants
of Rome numbered in 1621 : 118,356; in 1663, 105,433 (not
counting the Jews) ; in 1672, 121,064. ^f- ^o^- XXX., p. 374.
In 1657 influenza broke out in Civitavecchia ; see A. Corradi,
L' influenza, Bologna, 1890.
^ See Pallavicino, I., 166 seq. ; Rodocanachi, Capitole,
131 ; Steinmann, Die statucn der Pdpste auf dent Kapitol, Rome,
1924, 17 seq. " Statuam optimus princeps exemplo ad hunc
diem inaudito erigi vetuit," saj^s the author of the *Orationi in
lode di Alessandro VII., in Cod., C. 2, 15, Bibl. Angelica, Rome.
But on March 21, 1658, the city put up the inscription :
Alexandra VII. P.M. cum statuam publice sibi decretam oh
remotam ab urbe pestilentiam honoris significatione contentus erigi
vetuisset [Cod., G. III., 78, Chigi Library, Rome). An inundation
of the Tiber, November 5, i66i, gave occasion to Alexander VII.
to take measures against this scourge, which occurred so fre-
quently ; see Buonaroti (1871), 23 seq. A second inundation
is mentioned in *Avviso of January 29, 1667, Papal Sec. Archives.
- Cf. on this, Coppi, Finanze, 16 seq. See also with regard
to Monti, the * Relatione, p. 459 seq., quoted above, p. 31, n. i.
^ Cf. Aiialecta iuris pontif., 1895, 248 seq.
36 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
hand to his ministers in money questions ^ and on the other
in the conditions of the time. The precautions against the
plague and the subsidies for the Emperor and the King of
Poland for their wars against the Turks and the Swedes
swallowed large sums.^ To this must be added the patronage
extended to art and learning, as well as some extraordinary
expenses which he could not help incurring as Head of the
Church. To this category belong the sums spent at the
very beginning of his pontificate on a worthy reception
of the Queen of Sweden, Christine, the convert daughter of
Gustavus Adolphus.
1 " S. S'^ non e punto economo et assai assuefatto a spendere
quel che egli haveva lasciando maneggiare dal maestro di casa
a sue mode, e adesso fa il simile con lasciare operare ai suoi,
ministri." Riccardi's report of November 20, 1655, State Archives,
Florence.
- Cf. Coppi, Finamc, 80 seq. On the money given to the
Emperor in 1656 and 1664 and for Poland, see below, Ch. V.
CHAPTER II.
The Return of Queen Christine of Sweden to the
Catholic Church and her Stay in Rome.
After Luther and Calvin, probably no man had inflicted such
grievous wounds on the Catholic Church as the King of
Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, a man equally remarkable as a
statesman and as a military leader. His intervention in the
epic struggle between the ancient Church and Protestantism
put a stop to the Catholic restoration and led to the settle-
ment on which the Peace of Westphalia put the seal. Hence
it is easy to understand that a real terror seized the Protestant
world when it became known that the Queen of Sweden,
Gustavus Adolphus's most gifted daughter and his successor
on the throne, a woman whose mind and extraordinary
attainments were the wonder of all Europe, had returned
to the old faith.
Christine's abdication and her hurried departure from
Sweden, by themselves alone, gave rise to the greatest dissatis-
faction in that country. Even Chancellor Oxenstjerna so far
forgot himself as to remark that the Queen must be mad.^
When her conversion became an accomplished fact, Protestant
bitterness vented itself by spreading vulgar rumours and biting
satires. No words seemed strong enough with which to brand
" the Queen's deliberate return to the darkness of the vain and
foolish superstition of the papists ". It was stated that
she had embraced the Catholic religion without real interior
conviction and merely for the sake of certain external advan-
tages ; in her craving for the natural beauty and the arts of
southern countries, she had arrived at the conclusion that
she could live nowhere else ; in view of her inadequate
income she had hoped to receive help from the Pope or from
some of the Catholic princes, and ever since foreign scholars
^ Gr.\uert, II., II n.
Z1
38 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
had inoculated her with atheistic principles she had been
indifferent to all religions and looked on them as purely
outward forms. ^ These dishonourable motives, which were
put forward not only by the Protestants but by the French
also,^ have long been accepted as historical facts. But all such
attempts at an explanation fade into thin air before a thorough
historical investigation, and there is not a shadow of proof
that Christine was a contemptible hypocrite. To-day no
serious scholar denies that the most momentous step in the
Queen's life was taken in consequence of a real conviction.^
A number of excellent and credible sources enable us to trace
the long and arduous path which the daughter of Gustavus
Adolphus had to traverse up to her reception into the Catholic
Church, and the motives which decided her to take it.*
^ Ibid., i6 seq., 95 seq.
- Pallavicino, I., 365.
' This has been particularly emphasized by M. Landau
[Beilage zur Allg. Zeitung, 1893, No. 296), Bildt (25-6), Navenne
(I., 205), and Bain (p. x). The latter observes, as against
Fryxell, that nothing is more certain than that Christine's
conversion was sincere. The best presentment of Christine's
motives is found in the dispassionate account of Grauert (II.,
59 seqq.) ; it shows that the assertion that the Queen had
embraced Catholicism without conviction is devoid of tangible
proof.
* The chief sources are the accounts of the two Jesuits who were
particularlv concerned in the conversion, viz. P. Malines (first
published by Arckenholtz, IV., 382 seqq., App. 27, and again
from a copy in the Parma State Archives in Arch. d. Soc. Rom.,
XXXII., where on p. 257, 4th line, " Guemes " must be read
instead of " Generale " ; another copy in the University Library,
Bologna) and P. Casati (in part in Ranke, III., 61 seq., 183* seq. ;
fully from the Modena State Archives, Vol. XXXII., App. 3).
To this must be added the two justifications of November and
December, 1655, in Arckenholtz, I., 511 seqq., II., 129, seqq.,
App. No. 70, and Pallavicino's interesting, documented account
(I, 240 seqq.). Among recent accounts the best is that of Grauert
(II., 18 seqq.). He corrects Ranke in many places (p. 32, 42,
44, 63, 435, 437, 438), and in particular he refutes the certainly
CHRISTINE S YOUTH. 39
Born at Stockholm on December 8th, 1626, of a mother,
Eleonore of Brandenburg, a Hohenzollern princess, aunt of
the Elector Frederick William, who was not only sickly
but also mentally abnormal, Christine had the further mis-
fortune to lose her famous father when she was only six years
old. Before setting out for Germany, Gustavus Adolphus
had given instructions that in order to prepare her for her
career as a ruler, his daughter should be given the same bodily
and mental training as if she were a prince. These ideas fitted
admirably with Christine's inclinations ; she hated skirts,
despised personal adornment, and displayed complete
incapacity for every form of womanly work. On the other
hand, she quickly learnt to master the most fiery horses
and to shoot a hare on the run. Her intellectual gifts were out
of the common ; she possessed great acumen of mind, a quick
erroneous and totally unsupported assertion of the Berlin
historian that " Christine had often confessed that she could
not accuse Protestantism of any error in matters of faith ".
Though Grauert has proved up to the hilt that this assertion
is based on a misinterpretation of a grammatical construction
by Arckenholtz — cf. on the point Schauerte, Christine von
Schweden, Freiburg, 1890, 93 — Ranke, in later editions, merely
struck out the word " often " quite arbitrarily inserted by him,
but for the rest repeated his presentment which, clever as it is,
betrays a certain embarrassment. Not a word about Christine's
careful study. Her leaning towards Catholicism he describes as
unaccountable ", her aversion for Protestantism he derives
from a feeling, the origin of which it is impossible to trace, but
which was heightened merely by circumstances. He looks for no
motives or proofs of a religious kind as an explanation of the
Queen's step ; according to him, self-will, a thousand circum-
stances, attraction by opposites, of which she had only a dim
perception, a woman's need of devotion to an infallible authority,
led to a decision which, in such an account, must of course
remain an enigma. F. W. Bain {Christina, London, 1890, xiii.,
seq.) also sides with Grauert against Ranke. Gejer (Gesch.
Swedens, III., 419) has nothing of importance to say on the
conversion, nor has Carlson, who continued his work (IV.,
i., seqq.) on the motives of the abdication.
40 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
grasp of things, an extraordinarily retentive memory and
a rare talent for languages. Filled with a passionate and
insatiable keenness for knowledge, she daily devoted twelve
hours to study. Small wonder that she became round-
shouldered and exceedingly nervous. When, at the age of
eighteen, she assumed the government of Sweden, the
" Swedish Minerva ", as she was called, was universally
looked upon as a miracle of learning. She spoke and wrote
fluent German, French, Dutch, Italian, Latin and Greek,
and had even a smattering of Hebrew and Arabic. Oxenstjerna
had initiated her into the principles of statecraft, whilst
excellent teachers had made her thoroughly acquainted with
ancient classic history, theology, jurisprudence, mathematics
and astronomy. Even on the throne, and notwithstanding
the weight of business of State, Christine continued her
studies and over them completely forgot the care of her
delicate health. There can have been but few women who cared
so little for their outward appearance. She wore quite ordinary
clothes, and only once a week at most did she comb her
beautiful hair ; only on Sunday did she devote half an hour
to her toilet ; on other days less than fifteen minutes was
deemed sufficient. Just as she was satisfied with from three
to four hours' sleep, so was she utterly indifferent to what
she ate ; she never drank anything but water. During
the icy cold nights of winter this truly Spartan woman
could be seen driving about for hours, and even attacks of
fever did not prevent her from assisting at the sittings of
the Senate. Negotiations with foreign ambassadors she
conducted in person ; at all times she displayed the utmost
self-confidence. Generals whose very name struck terror into
all hearts in Germany, trembled in silence before her.^ " Should
1 The credit of having disposed of mere scandalmongering
and of having drawn the first historically accurate picture of
the greatly admired but even more maligned Queen of Sweden,
belongs to W. H. Grauert, whose monograph (2 vols., 1833-
1842) is justly described by Srbik {Sitzungsbcyichte der Wiener
Akademie, Phil. -hist. Kl., CLXXVI., Abh. 4, p. 45) as " a
CHRISTINE S CHARACTER. 4I
war break out," a contemporary wrote, " this woman who is
not afraid of heat, cold, or want of sleep, would put herself
at the head of her troops." ^
monument of the most admirable diligence and scholarship ".
The first vol. of Grauert's work was in print when Ranke
{Papste, III., 52 seq.) published his short but, as always, clever ^^^<'
and vivid sketch for which he was the first to make use of Casati's /i o--7^Ln.efi^
letter. Grauert had already drawn attention to the falsification
of the Memoires of Chanut (Paris, 1674-5), from which Ranke
made considerable borrowings. A thorough critical examination /, Sj /<^ t^y<^
by Weibull, in Hist. Tidskrift, 1887, 49 seqq., 151 seqq., and ^vA /
1888, i^seqq., i-^j^^seqq., has finally destroyed the prestige of this ii/p^ht^ll
source. Another Swedish scholar. Baron v. Bildt, has done ^/^^e-t/^
valuable work in throwing light on the life of the Swedish Queen. jv^
He had the good fortune of discovering and decoding Christine's -fzc^i-^-i ■
intimate letters to Cardinal Azzolini and he has also drawn
upon many other new sources. In his Christine de Suede et le
Cardinal Azzolini (Paris, 1899), he gave a complete bibliography
up to 1666. His point of view is that of the modern man of the
world. He devotes very little space to the religious evolution.
In addition to new sources he also throws light on Christine by
studying her pathological characteristics, but in this he probably
goes too far. Buschbell {Rom. Quartalschr., XIV., 151) justly
observes : "It must be admitted that Christine was of a nervous
temperament which reacted in many ways on her disposition.
She was authoritarian, could be cruel, and was abundantly
conscious of her own importance. These features of her character
are, in our opinion, given too much prominence in Bildt's picture.
In fact, it cannot be said that he is excessively well disposed
towards Gustavus Adolphus' daughter. At times his judgment
seems to be based on the period, in that he ascribes to the Queen
the faults of her time." Among more recent writers, cf. Bain
(London, 1890), Claretta (Torino, 1892), Friis (Kopenhagen,
1896, German transl. by Klaiber, 1899), T.wlor, Christina
of Sweden, London, 1909 (the portrait in the book is not of
Christine but of her maid of honour, Sparre !), Masi, Donne di
storia di ronianzo, Bologna, 1903, 3 seqq., gives nothing new.
Chledowski's account (II., 289 seqq.) teems with mistakes.
^ See Manderscheid's letter in Arckenholtz, II., App. 95 seqq.
In the Papal Secret Archives, Miscell., I., 19, p. 259, the letter
42 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The thought of marriage must have been intolerable to
such an amazon. Only once, as a girl of seventeen, even she
paid toll to the universal law of nature, when she experienced
a tender sentiment for her cousin, Charles Gustavus of
Wittelsbach, Count Palatine of Zweibriicken-Kleeburg, but
all too soon she was forced to realize that she had bestowed
her affections on an unworthy object. After this cruel dis-
illusionment she declared she would rather die than marry.
She was wont to say that she would leave the world as she
had entered it, free. On the other hand, her masculine character
caused her to love to consort with men, especially with men
of learning, just as she despised intercourse with women.
The court of Stockholm increasingly became the rendezvous
for Europe's most famous scholars, for the highly accomplished
Queen was anxious to establish closer relations between the
North and the culturally more advanced countries of Central
and Southern Europe, from which it had been somewhat
cut off until then. To this end she shrank from no sacrifice
either of money or effort. Isaac Vossius, Gabriel Naude, and
Nicolas Heinsius were busy collecting in France, the Nether-
lands, and Italy manuscripts and rare books for her library.
She also acquired precious stones, coins, and antique statues.
Special messengers were dispatched to Rome for the purpose
of recovering Swedish documents and deeds which Archbishop
Olaus had at one time taken there. Philologists of the first
rank, such as Freinsheim, Gerhard Vossius, with whom she
read Plato in the original text, the famous critic Salmasius,
and the celebrated philosopher Descartes, were invited to
Stockholm where favours were showered upon them. She
likewise attracted artists and architects.^ Such was her thirst
for knowledge that even when business of State was most
overwhelming, she somehow managed to snatch a few hours
every day in order to converse in her library with the dead
who, as she wrote to Vossius in June, 1650, imparted life
is dated Innsbruck, January 3, 1655, whereas Arckenholtz
gives October 10, resp. December 10.
1 Grauert, I., 253, 266 seq., 372 seq, 400 seq.
Christine's religious evolution. 43
to her, whereas the Hving brought her death at every y^^
moment."^ ^■n^^e^ .
It was natural that in view of these extensive studies
and her learned associations, so active and acute a mind as
Christine's would also busy itself with the greatest problem of
the time, the religious question.
In the programme arranged by the Estates for Christine's
upbringing, it was laid down that she should be most accurately
taught the Lutheran faith, and carefully preserved from
every contagion of Calvinism and papistry.^ She was taught
religion by Dr. John Mathia, a man of gentle and noble
character, but no pedagogue. In addition to this Christine
was made to frequent, even as a child, the sermons of the
preachers. These discourses did not appeal to her, so much
so that, though she was religiously inclined by nature, she
conceived a repugnance for certain Lutheran dogmas which
seemed to her " unworthy of God " ? What she herself
relates concerning her scepticism throws much light on her
intellectual precocity : " That which most strengthened my
unbelief," so we read in a recently discovered fragment of her
autobiography, " was an incident which occurred in my sixth
or seventh year. When for the first time in my life I heard a
sermon on the Last Judgment, the preacher so terrified me
with his exaggerated description of that final cataclysm that
I felt as if all were lost. I imagined that heaven and earth
would crush me in their own ruin. I began to shed bitter tears
for I imagined the catastrophe would happen at once. After
the sermon I sent for my teacher and asked him : ' Father,
why have you never told me of that dreadful day ? What
will become of me then ? Will it all happen this coming night ? '
He smiled at my simplicity and said : ' You will go to
' " *Je ferois mon possible de desrober quelques heurcs pour
les passer dans mon cabinet en conversation des morts qui me
rendent la vie au lieu que les vivants me donnent a tout moment
la mort." Letter in Wieselgren, 65 seq.
- Arckenholtz, I., 33 ; Gr.'^uert, I., 78, II., 28.
' Arckenholtz, III., 209. On the authenticity of the passage, [y
cf. Grauert, II., 23, n. 62.
44 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Paradise, but for that you must obey your teachers, and pray
and study earnestly.'
" This answer gave rise to thoughts which I could not
put out of my mind and which were beyond my age and power
of understanding. In the following year I heard the same
sermon once more and again I felt shaken as I listened to the
description of judgment, though much less than on the first
occasion. This time I did not cry and when it was over I again
asked my teacher : ' When will the judgment come of which
everybody speaks ? ' He replied : ' It will come ! Don't
worry about it ; God alone knows the time, but we must
ever be prepared for it.'
" This answer did not satisfy me and I began to think
for myself, to question, and to distrust even my teacher,
though I felt great regard and affection for him. And when
in the third year, I heard a rechauffe of the same sermon,
I began to make fun of it and no longer believed anything.
I doubted the whole story and one day during lessons I said
to my teacher : ' Tell me the truth : is not all we are told
about rehgion just a myth, like the Last Judgment ? '
" Thereupon he began to scold me vehemently, saying
that it was an awful sin and crime merely to entertain such
thoughts and that if I dared to talk again in this strain,
he would have me whipped by my governess. This threat
made me angry and I told him : ' I promise you never again
to speak like this, but I will not submit to a whipping ;
if you do that you will regret it ! ' " ^
After this she hated the frequent and lengthy preachments
of the Lutheran clergy. The picture they drew of God seemed
to her a caricature. She felt that the way in which the
Supreme Being was made to speak was only for the purpose of
deceiving her, in order to get her to obey unconditionally.
Accordingly, as she grew up, she invented a religion of her
own. 2 Contemporary evidence confirms her lack of Lutheran
1 BiLDT, Christine, 12 seqq.
2 Autograph note, in Arckenholtz, III., 209 scq. ; cf. Graukrt,
II., 23, 30 seq.
CHRISTINE S RELIGIOUS EVOLUTION. 45
orthodoxy. In a well informed report of the year 1654 on
the court of Stockholm, written by an Italian, we read that
the Queen had held liberal views from an early age. She pro-
fessed Lutheranism solely because of her subjects, whilst of
outward religious practices, such as grace before and after
meals, the Lord's Supper, hearing sermons, she only observed
a minimum, sermons in particular wearied her, for the extreme
triviality of their content and their rude form, offended her
splendid intelligence as well as her refined taste, which she had
acquired by the study of the best literary products of the
various nations.^ ,'^^^^M..
Hand in hand with her scepticism there went a religious
toleration which was exceedingly rare in contemporary
Sweden. In this Christine was supported by her teacher,
Mathia, who cherished dreams of the reunion of all Christian
Confessions. The Queen took the liveliest interest in these
irenic aspirations, as she did, in fact, in all religious questions. ^
Whilst her acute intellect clearly discerned the errors
and contradictions of Lutheranism, she realized with some-
thing like a shock, as a result of her relations with Catholics,
such as the French ambassador Chanut and the philosopher
Descartes, who assuredly did not seek her conversion, that
the teaching of the Catholic Church differed completely
from the description given of it by the Lutheran preachers.^
She was also immensely impressed by a saying which she V'^^^v
came across in Cicero, to the effect that among so many
divergent opinions on religion only one could be right, though
all might be false.*
Christine felt a great need of a definite faith. In order to
^ Arckenholtz, II., App. 47, p. go.
- Grauert, II., 25 seq., 28 seq.
^ Besides Grauert, see Bildt, loc. cit., who rightly observes :
" Descartes et Chanut ne sont cependant pas les convertisseurs.
Bien loin de la. Chanut est meme contraire a une resolution qui
doit fatalemente entrainer la perte de la couronne et pourra
compromettre les interets de la France dans le Nord."
* Cicero, De nat. dear., i, 2, cf. Pall.wicino, I., 343, and
Grauert, II., 32 (against Ranke).
46 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
find it she studied the Bible, the Fathers of the Church —
Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Gregory, Cyprian, Lactantius,
Clement of Alexandria, Arnobius, Minutius Felix, Gregory
Nazianzen — the ancient and modern philosophers, and even
atheistic writers. What she read she eagerly discussed with
men of learning. ^ However, during this five years' search
for the true religion she examined everything exclusivel}''
in the light of human reason ; accordingly, she became
entangled in an even worse labyrinth of doubt until at last
she found herself on most insecure and shifting ground,
where everything positive seemed to dissolve and to vanish
before her eyes. Though she did not stray so far as to den}'
the existence and oneness of God, she nevertheless began to
doubt whether Providence concerned itself at all with the moral
actions of men and whether God demanded any definite form
of worship and a rigidly determined faith. After a minute
examination of all religions, she came to the conclusion
that none of them was the true one, and for a time she decided
to content herself with the outward practice of the religion
of her country and to satisfy her conscience by observing
the dictates of reason and morality. ^ However, in this she
could find no lasting peace ; her generous heart thirsted
for truth. In fervent prayer she implored God to enlighten
her. " Thou knowest," she exclaims in her autobiography,
" how often I have besought Thee for this grace in a language
unintelligible to common spirits, and how I promised to obey
Thee, should it cost my life and happiness." ^
It was then that Providence so dispo.sed things that she
at last found the right men to settle her doubts. In 1650
the Portuguese Jesuit Antonio Macedo arrived at Stockholm
in the capacity of chaplain to the Portuguese envoy, Pinto
Pereira. Pereira, who knew no Swedish, made use of his
secretary as interpreter in his negotiations with the Queen.
' See Arckenholtz, I., 311 ; ibid., II., App. 97 ; Gkaukrt,
n., 33-
^ Cf. Casati's *account (State Archives, INIodena) in App.
No. 3 ; Pallavicino, I., 343 ; Grauert, II., 34 scq.
3 Arckenholtz, III.. 210 n.
MACEDO AT STOCKHOLM. 47
When the secretary was taken ill, Macedo took his place.
The Queen quickly perceived that she could open her mind to
this sensible and reliable man, but she also realized that if
her purpose were discovered, she risked her crown, nay perhaps
her very life. It was necessary to proceed with the utmost
caution and circumspection. To keep the matter as secret
as possible, she discussed the question even during Pereira's
audiences. The latter could not help wondering at the lengthy
conversations occasioned by the simple questions and brief
reports of his interpreter ; however, he was all the more
ready to accept the latter's explanation that the Queen
introduced all sorts of questions of literature, as he hoped
to promote his diplomatic business by this means. In any
case, relations with Macedo were beset with many obstacles,
nor was there any prospect of their continuation, and Christine
deemed it equally dangerous to deal with so weighty a matter
by means of the post.^ She accordingly requested Macedo
to go to Rome in order to make known her attraction towards
the Catholic faith to the General of the Jesuits and to ask him
to send two Fathers to Stockholm ; these were to be Italians,
as they would be less easily recognized in Sweden.
When all was ready an unforeseen obstacle arose owing
to the envoy's refusal to allow Macedo to depart. However,
woman's cunning found a way out. Macedo was told to set
out secretly, whilst officially Christine took steps to have
him brought back by force. Of course, he successfully escaped
with a passport given him by the Queen. ^ When Macedo
reached Rome towards the end of the autumn of 1651,
neither the Jesuit General nor Francesco Piccolomini, to
whom Christine had addressed Macedo's credentials, were
living so that he was obliged to approach the German Assistant,
^ Cf. Maljnes' *report in Arch. Rom., XXXIII., 254.
- Pallavicino, I., 344 seq., who evidently had before him
Macedo's report and whose account agrees with that of MaUnes, L^^
loc. cit. If in Divi tutelares orbis christiani, Lisbon, 1687, 506,
Macedo claims the initiative fpr "himself, he is justified ; cf.
Grauert, II., 40.
48 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Goswin Nickel. The latter felt that in a matter of such
importance he could not act on his own initiative, hence
he took the Secretary of State, Chigi, into his confidence.
The difficult mission to Sweden' was entrusted to Fathers
Paolo Casati and Francesco de Malines. Both were sprung
from noble families, were able and learned, and spoke French,
Christine's favourite language. The circumstance that Casati
had been a professor of mathematics provided an excellent
pretext for his interviews with the Queen who, in the mean-
time, had also had several conversations with the Jesuit
Godfrey Francken, the chaplain of the Spanish ambassador
at Copenhagen.^
Casati and Malines took boat with the utmost secrecy on
December 12th, 1651, at Venice. ^ After a tiresome voyage,
during which they made some acquaintances which stood them
in good stead during their stay in Sweden, they at last arrived
at Stockholm on March 6th, 1652.^ They described themselves
as Italian noblemen, travelling for the purpose of studying
the country and its people. Christine's sharp mind guessed
at once that they were the men she had been waiting for
and she summoned them to court. After the first presentation
they went into the drawing-room and as Casati walked
immediately before the Queen, she whispered to him : " You
surely have a letter for me ? " He nodded without turning
round, on which the Queen added : " Don't mention it to
anyone." That very day Christine sent her confidential
chamberlain, John Holm, to fetch the letter, and the strangers
were bidden to an audience with her on the following morning.
1 Malines {Arch. Rom., XXXIII., 255) and Gualdo (17) speak
of some conversations with Francken, but as Grauert already
perceived (II., 43 seq.), they were of so little consequence that
Pallacino very properly does not mention them.
2 For what follows, cf. besides Malines' report {loc. cit., 254
seq.), especially that of Casati, loc. cit.
' The date according to Malines {loc. cit., 254) and *Casati,
loc. cit. In Pali.avicino, I., 347, 1651, must be understood in
stil. flor.
PREPARATIONS FOR CONVERSION. 4()
This interview lasted an hour. The Queen thanked them both
for coming, assured them that they had nothing to fear, but
recommended the utmost caution and secrecy. At the same
time she observed that if she could feel satisfied, their laborious
journey would not have been in vain. " By the end of April,"
the Queen herself declares in her manifesto, " I had definitely
made up my mind to become a Catholic." ^
From this moment the determination to change her religion
appears in intimate connection with her abdication, a step
which Christine had already announced in the summer of
1631, on the occasion of Macedo's mission to Rome.
Christine was fully alive to the risks she would run by
returning to the Catholic Church and the enmity she would
draw on herself by such a step both in Sweden and among
the Protestant Powers. Hence it was natural that she should
have been on the look-out for support. When at the beginning
of May, 1652, Casati had been dispatched, with the utmost
secrecy, to Rome, with a letter to the Jesuit General, ^ the
Queen took her French physician, Bourdelot, and the Spanish
ambassador, Pimentel, into her confidence. Bourdelot was
instructed to sound Paris on the possibility of her taking
up residence in France after her abdication, but he was not
to mention the change of religion. Pimentel represented
to the Queen that both the French Government and the
Emperor were hampered by numerous considerations for
Sweden ; he accordingly advised her to make use of the services
of Philip IV-jof Spaiftr To this Christine agreed. On May 13th,
1653, Malines left for Madrid for the purpose of obtaining
from the King of Spain a letter to Innocent X. in favour
of Christine. He was also the bearer of lejtters of the Queen
to the Pope, the Secretary of State, Chigi, the Cardinal
nephew, and the General of the Jesuits ^ ; in fact, with the
1 Arckenholtz, I., 512.
2 Cf. Casati's *report, loc. cit. Pallavicino, I., 348.
' Cf. MaUnes' report, loc. cit., 255 seq., which Pallavicino
evidently had before him (I., 348).
VOL. xx.xi. K
/ se
50 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
last named the Queen was in constant correspondence.^
Assumed names were used to veil the subject-matter of these
letters.
Pimentel, whose recall was about due, was requested
to give personal support to Malines at Madrid, but he was
not to travel in his company, for now that several persons were
initiated into the secret, the risk of discovery was so much
greater. As early as 1652 rumours about the Queen's conversion
were circulating at the court of Stockholm which also came
to the ears of some Italian musicians then staying there.-
1 Only part of Christine's correspondence with the Jesuit
General is preserved in the Archives of the Society because most
of the letters were destroyed soon after arrival in view of the
necessity of keeping the impending conversion secret. Both
parties made use of borrowed names and these were changed on
several occasions. Further information will be given by
Metzler, S.J., in a work on Christine's relations with the
pociety of Jesus, especially during the period before her con-
version.
* In a " *Memoria della conversione della Regina Christina
di Svetia " (Papal Sec. Arch., Miscell., I., 19, f. 256) we read :
" Si cominci6 a sentire che la Regina Christina di Svezia che
havesse pensiero d'esser cattolica da molte parti dal 1652 et
in particolare mediante un musico chiamato Tomasso, che
era stato al suo servizio e tornato entro nel servizio di S. Pietro.
Da questo hebbe Mons. Holstenio canonico e primo custode della
Biblioteca Vaticana molte notitie delle sue attioni, desiderosa
sempre di sentir delle grandezze e fabriche di Roma da quelli
che ivi capitavano et in particolare da detto musico, che minuta-
mente raccontava a detto Holstenio, che n'era desideroso di
sapere, per esser stato chiamato al suo servizio con haverli
mandata una medaglia col suo ritratto di valore di scudi sessanta,
restata in mano al signer cardinale Francesco Barberino come
suo herede. Non si manc6 dal suo padre Gustavo di provederla
di molti dotti e virtuosi Tedeschi, Hollandesi e Frances!, come
Ugone Grotio. — I predicant!, nel porgere le loro false dottrine,
s'accorgevano che sempre teneva libr! avanti e leggerli, e spinti
dal loro zelo volevano vedere chi autori fossero ; ma essa destra-
mente li porgeva poeti etc., benche n'haveva cattolici, e credo
trattati de' Santi."
ABDICATION. 51
After Casati's arrival in Rome, on June 9th of the following
year, a letter of his to Malines, which revealed the close
connection of the two men, was intercepted in Sweden, in
consequence of which Casati, who had meanwhile left Rome
and reached Hamburg, was not allowed to return to
Stockholm.^
Malines was held up by contrary winds, so that he only
reached Madrid on August 2nd, 1652, where he waited in
vain for the arrival of Pimentel, who had, indeed, embarked
but had been compelled by storms to return to Stockholm
where his Government now ordered him to remain. The Queen
welcomed this change of plan, for in Pimentel she had a
trusty counsellor and a man in whom she could confide.
In place of Pimentel she now dispatched to Madrid the
Dominican, John Baptist Guemes, who, by order of the
Spanish ambassador in Denmark, Count Rebolledo, set out
dressed as a secular priest. However, Guemes's arrival in the
Spanish capital was delayed until March, 1654.^
Through the Jesuit Manderscheid, Pimentel's chaplain,
Christine was in constant correspondence with Casati, Malines,
and their General. The General kept the Secretary of State,
Chigi, informed, but the latter only gave hints to Innocent X.,
partly because he feared the instability of the female character
and partly because he did not consider it advisable that
Christine should come to Rome where OUmpia Maidalchini
exercised so much influence. ^ Chigi's doubts as to the Swedish
Queen's constancy were without foundation, for the latter
pursued her aim with tinily virile determination. On June 6th
[16th], 1654, at the royal Castle of Upsala, she laid aside
the crown in favour of Charles Gustavus of Zweibriicken,
whilst reserving for herself an annual income of 200,000
thalers, her property and sovereignty ' and, in particular,
her royal authority over her suite.'* The whole country was
' Cf. Malines' report, loc. cit., 256.
'' Ibid., cf. Pallavicino, I., 949 seq.
' Pallavicino, I., 350 seq.
* Ibid., 383, Grauert, II., 124, 140.
52 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
deeply affected for the people were loath to see the (lc])arture
of the last descendant of the Wasas. Attempts were made
to delay her departure for as long as possible, but she herself
felt as if she were walking on hot bricks. Not another moment
would she tarry in a country in which " veneration for the
Pope was reckoned an unforgivable sin ".^ She was more
weary than ever of the government of her subjects. With
Virgil's tag on her lips : Viam fata invenient — fate will
show a way — she escaped from her native land in male attire,
traversed Denmark without being recognized, from whence
she passed in all haste through Hamburg, Miinster, and
Deventer, until she reached Antwerp at the beginning of
August, 1654, when she resumed female attire.-
Notwithstanding every precaution, the rumour of Christine's
impending reception into the Catholic Church had spread
wider and wider, whilst she herself still thought of keeping
her resolution secret. When on Christmas night, 1654, at
Brussels, she made profession of the Catholic faith in presence
of the Dominican Guemes, the act took place in the private
chapel of the Lieutenant, Archduke Leopold, before a small
number of trusted persons, among whom was Pimentel who had
returned from Spain as envoy extraordinary.^ In the sequel
also she carefully kept from the world all knowledge of her
conversion ; she only heard Mass and received Holy Com-
munion in secret, though she likewise carefully avoided
everything that might have been interpreted as a profession
of Protestantism. The consequence was that a rumour arose
that she had no faith at all, that in fact she was an atheist.
This notion received support from the free and often ill-
considered remarks with which she sought to disguise her
real belief.
A Christine's words in her letter to the Pope of November 5,
/i635, in Pallavicino, I., 361.
- Grauert, II., 7 seq. ; Wirz, XLVII.
^ See the Spanish original of J. B. Gukmes' *letter to his General
in which he prays to be allowed to remain the Queen's confessor
(Papal Sec. Arch., Miscell., I., 19). Cf. Malincs' report, loc. cit.,
258 ; Pallavicino, I., 353 ^eq. ; Grauert, II., 15.
CHRISTINE SETS OUT FOR ROME. 53
This secretiveness, though she now found herself in a
CathoHc country, was prompted by the fear that once her
conversion became generally known, Charles Gustavus might
be forced by the indignation of the people of Sweden, to
withhold her annual apanage. Accordingly, she sought to
obtain the immediate payment of a round sum by way of
indemnity, which she intended to invest in a place of safety.
She informed the King of Spain of this project and likewise
prayed him to inform Alexander VII., who had become Pope
in the meantime, of the fact of her conversion. ^ Christine's
strong leaning on Spain and her thoughtless utterances, extra-
ordinarily embittered the French. They revenged themselves
by the publication of calumnious pamphlets in which asper-
sions were cast on the Queen's morals, though these libels
were without the slightest foundation. ^
On July 1st, 1655, Malines presented to the new Pope a
letter of Christine. Philip IV. 's detailed letter arrived only
in the first days of September. Alexander VII. 's joy was all
the greater as he was one of the few persons who had been
initiated in the secret and could even justly claim to have
had some share in the event. Through the Jesuit General he
sent the Queen an autograph letter expressing his lively
satisfaction ; at the same time he explained that the dis-
tinguished convert could only be received in the Papal States
with all the honours due to her rank after she should
have made a public profession of faith. ^ Thereupon, on
September 22nd, Christine set out from Brussels, where
brilliant festivities had been given in her honour, for
Innsbruck, accompanied by a suite of 200 persons, among
them two Jesuits and the Dominican Guemes, via Louvain,
Cologne, Frankfort, Wiirzburg, and Augsburg. The Pope
dispatched to Innsbruck to meet the Queen the learned
Keeper of the Vatican Library, Luke Holstenius, a convert
1 Pall.wicixo, I., 354 seq. |\) I?
- Gr.\uert, II., 71 seq.
' Malines, loc. cit., 258 ; Pallavicixo, I., 356. Cf. al.so *Cifra
(to Holstenius) of November 13, 1655, in Barb. 6487, p. 58,
Vat. Lib., which renews the demand.
54 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
himself, who had corresponded with Christine. He was the
bearer of a flattering Brief and an invitation to Rome ; he
was likewise empowered to receive the Queen's profession of
faith. 1
Previous to Holstenius's arrival at Innsbruck, the archducal
court had no idea that the stay of the Queen in the capital
of the Tyrol would become the occasion of so great a solemnity
and one of such significance for the Catholic Church. In
accordance with the taste of the period a programme of purely
secular festivities had been drawn up in honour of the dis-
tinguished guest ; the religious function of her public reception
into the Church had now to be wedged into this pro-
gramme.^
On November 3rd, 1655, dressed in a plain robe of black
silk and wearing no other ornament except a diamond cross
on her breast, the Queen went from the royal palace to the
Hofkirche, escorted by the Archdukes Ferdinand, Karl, and
Sigismond. Kneeling before the altar she read " with clear,
easily audible accents and a joyful heart, slowly and distinctly,
in a loud and as it were manly voice ", the Tridentine profes-
sion of faith which Holstenius had handed to her. After she
had confirmed this profession of faith with an oath, her public
reception into the Catholic Church was carried out with the
customary ceremonies, amid the tense emotion of all present.
The Jesuit court preacher, Staudacher, preached in German
from the text : " Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline
thine ear, and forget thy people and thy father's house :
and the King shall greatly desire thy beauty ; for he is the
Lord thy God, and him they shall adore " (Ps. XLIV., 11 seq.).
1 Pallavicino, I., 357 ; Grauert, II., 79 seq. ; in Barb.
6487, Alexander VII. 's Brief to Holstenius, dated October 10,
1655, and p. 29 seqq., the *Istruzione for Holstenius drawn up
by G. Rospigliosi, Secretary of State. Lticae Holstenii
" *Ephemeris itineris Oenipontani, A°, 1655 " (beginning on
October 6 and ending on December 17), in Barb. 2226, Vat.
Lib. On Holstenius see our data, XXIX., 440 seq.
2 BussoN, Christine von Schiveden in Tirol, Innsbruck, 1S84,
29, 56 seq.
PUBLIC PROFESSION OF FAITH. 55
High Mass followed and the Te Deum was sung at the con-
clusion of the religious function. At the end of the banquet
pages gave a torch dance and a mythological play was per-
formed.^ An official account of the transaction at Innsbruck
was drawn up by Holstenius and taken by himself to Rome,
together with the profession of faith in which the Queen
herself had inserted her name, as well as the original text of
her abdication. These documents are preserved in the Papal
Secret Archives to this day.^ Christine now informed Charles
Gustavus of her conversion. To the Pope she addressed a
letter of homage, in Italian, which was read at a consistory
of November 15th, 1655. On that occasion Alexander described
the conversion and exhorted the Cardinals with grave words " «^
to see to it that the new convert was not shocked by their
conduct, for during his nunciature at Cologne he had learnt
with what sharp eyes the Northerners watched the Romans.^
^ Ibid., 50 seq. Cf. also the *letter to Guemes quoted above,
p. 52, n. 3, and Holstenius' full *report, dated Innsbruck,
1655, November 5, in Barb. 6487, p. 108 seq., Vat. Lib. The
" Facultas absolvendi reginam Christinam ", dated October 10,
1655, is in Bull., XVL, 74.
2 In A.C. Inf. I., 81, A.I. The bag in which the documents were
taken to Rome contains also the following items : (i) the original
Swedish text of Christine's renunciation to the crown, signed by
Brahe, Oxenstjierna, and the Senators, with some 300 seals,
together with an Italian translation ; (2) " Instrumentum
publicum actorum Oeniponte," by L. Holstenius, dat. November 3,
1655, original with seal ; (3) " Forma professionis fidei," etc.,
printed by Holstenius (the profession bears the Queen's autograph
signature : " Christina " ; then follow the names of all the
witnesses and finally : " L. Holstenius banc professionem
excepi et subscripsi "). Cf. also Holstenius' *letter on the abjura-
tion, dat. Innsbruck, November 5, 1655, in Barb., 6487, p. 108
(minute). Vat. Lib.
^ The allocution opens with the words : " lam quintum agi
annum ex quo pater luminum ac misericordiarum Deus Christi
filii sui sanguine redemptam ovem in remotis septentrionis
regionibus aberrantem respexit (Acta consist., Barb. 2924, Vat.
Lib. Cf. Pallavicino, L, 363 ; where there is also the text of
the Pope's letter (361 seq.).
56 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Meanwhile, after a stay of eight days, the Queen left
Innsbruck for Ferrara, journeying via Trent and Mantua.
Italy shared the joy of the whole Catholic world over her
conversion. Almost ev'erywhere she was received with so
much pomp that her journey resembled a triumphal progress.^
When, on November 21st, Christine entered the territory
of the Pontifical States, she was solemnly welcomed by two
Archbishops acting as papal nuncios, and by two other high
prelates. The cost of the rest of her journey and that of the
solemn receptions at Bologna, Rimini, Pesaro, Ancona,
Loreto, Macerata, Foligno, and Assisi, were met by the Pope.
Everything possible was done to honour the Queen : triumphal
arches, banquets, tournaments, fireworks, pompous addresses,
whilst ecclesiastical functions gave expression to the religious
significance of her action. ^ At Loreto, Christine offered
to the Mother of God a crown and sceptre of solid gold adorned
with many diamonds and rubies. From Assisi, where she
venerated the tomb of St. Francis, she set out for Caprarola
and Bracciano, where the lord of the manor, Paolo Giordano II.
1 Cf. besides Pallavicino, I., 368, Marchesi, II passagio d.
regina Cristina per U stati Veneti, in Atti del!' Accademia Udinese,
XL (1890-3).
^ Cf. Festini, I trionfi della magnificemia Pontificia celehrati
per lo passagio . . . della regina di Suezia, Roma, 1656 ; Relatione
dell' viaggio d. regina di Snezia per lo State eccl., Roma, 1656 ;
Berchet II., 186 ; Grottanelli 375^(7.; Gualdo, no sf^^. ;
GiORDANi Mem. patric, Bologna, 1839 ; Malagola, Cristina di
Suezia in Bologna, 1881 ; Ricci, Vitabarocca, Roma, 1912, 20 seqq. ;
Claretta, 363 seqq. ; Sommi-Picenardi, Di Cristina di Suezia,
Pisa, 1889 ; E. Gaddi, Cristina di Suezia in Fori), in Riv.,
d'ltalia, 1905 ; G. Bknaducci, La regina Cristina di Suezia in
Tolentino, ToL, 1895 (Nozze-Publ.). Begin., 1109, contains
" *Applausi poetici composti dagl' Accademici di Fano alia
regina Cristina di Suezia" (Vat. Lib.). A *Libro delle spese
fatte neir allogio d. regina di Suezia per lo stato eccl. in the
State Archives, Rome. See also Bull., XVI., 88. In his *report
of December 4, 1655. Ranucci, the ambassador, bears witness to
Alexander VII. 's satisfaction at the honours paid to Christine
at Bologna (State Archives, Bologna).
CHRISTINE IN ROME. 57
Orsini, who had previously exchanged poems and letters with
her, sumptuously entertained her for a whole day.^
Meanwhile at Rome preparations had been made for a
reception as magnificent as possible of the Northern Queen.-
On December 19th she was greeted in the name of the Pope ^
near the Villa Olgiati, 9 miles from Rome, by Cardinals
Gian Carlo de' Medici and Frederick of Hesse, who had come
out to meet her with a large suite. With them the Queen
entered a magnificent carriage designed by Bernini and
adorned with pictures and golden statues. It was seven
o'clock in the evening when, amid the glare of countless
torches, she drove through the Porta Pertusa into the Rome
of the Caesars and the Popes. ^ A great crowd, among them
many strangers, had flocked together, for the illustrious
guest had been anxiously awaited for weeks. ^ As Christine
drove into the Vatican through a side door, she laughingly
remarked : " This, then, is how one enters Rome incognito." ®
Though at other times Alexander VIL strictly insisted that
no woman should lodge in the Vatican, he nevertheless made
an exception on this occasion. Until her public entry Christine
was lodged near Torre de' Venti. The Pope had himself
1 BiLDT in Arch. Rom., XXIX., 8 seqq., 32.
- See the *report of Tommaso Suidoni, dat. November 13,
1655 (also that of December 6, 1655), State Archives, Moden?j
also *Avviso of December 18, 1655, Papal Sec. Arch. Riccardi's
*report of November 6, 1655, makes it clear that Alexander VII.
forbade OHmpiaMaidalchini to come to Rome during Christine's
stay there.
3 Bull., XVI.. 97.
* Ricci, Vita barocca, 11, who, like Clarktta (31) and Fras-
CHETTi (274), writes Porta Portese (in the Trastevere) instead of
Porta Pertusa.
■• *Avviso of November 27, 1655, Papal Sec. Arch. According
to an *Avviso of December 4, 1655 ('i"^), Olimpia also wished
to come to Rome, but the Pope prevented her.
* GuALDO, 189 seqq. Cf. the *report of the Bolognese envoy
Ranucci, dat. December 22, 1655, State Archives, Bologna ;
also the *r('p()rt of T. Suidoni, December 23, 1655, State Archives,
Modena.
58 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
superintended the decoration of the rooms with great attention
and all the delicate taste that distinguished him. That very
evening he received the Queen in a private audience lasting
half an hour, and on the following morning Christine visited
incognito the Vatican art treasures and the library, when
she astonished her guides by the extent of her information. ^
For the solemn entry, which was fixed for December 23rd,
a detailed ceremonial had been laid down, and every effort
was made with a view to bringing home to the spectators
as vividly as possible the triumph which the conversion
of the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus meant for the Catholic
Church. 2 The streets, houses, and churches, especially
St. Peter's, were adorned with costly tapestries towards which
the entire nobility had contributed. Since, according to
custom, the entry was to start from the Villa of Julius III.,
the interior gable of the Porta del Popolo had been decorated
with particular care. To this day the inscription drawn
up by Alexander VII. himself : F elici faustoque ornata ingressui
anno sal. 1655 — " adorned for the happy and prosperous
entry in the year 1655," and the six hills surmounted by a
star, viz. the arms of the Chigi, recall Christine's splendid
triumph.^ The Queen, escorted by Cardinals, was mounted
1 Pallavicino, I., 371 seqq. ; Fraschetti, 274.
2 Loose sheets entitled : Ingresso Solenne in Roma della iV/'''
di Regina di Suezia (Giov. Jac. de Rossi, 1655), with pictures of
the cortege, the Porta del Popolo, St. Peter's, and the illumina-
tion of Castel S. Angelo, were distributed.
» See, besides Gualdo, 193 seq. Pallavicino, I., 375 scq.,
and the reports quoted by Grauert, II., 87, the dispatch in
Claretta, 33 seqq., and Fraschetti, 274 ; the *Giornale of
Neri Corsino in Cod. 1206 of the Corsini Lib., Rome ; B. Lupardi,
Vera e distinta relatione della s. cavalcata fatta in Roma neW
ingresso della M^^ di Cristina, etc., Roma, 1656. The cost —
often greatly exaggerated — (c/. Grauert, loc. cit.), which had
to be met by the Apostolic Camera, amounted to 100,000 scudi ;
see the justification in Pallavicino, I., 366 seq. Cf. also Cod.
H. II., 40, of the Chigi Library, Rome. *Poem in Vat. 7487,
p. 93 seq. Vat. Lib. Barb. 233S, p. roi {ibid.), has a " *Epigramma
ENTRY INTO ROME. 59
on a magnificent white horse, but the Romans were somewhat
taken aback by her appearance. In her riding habit and with
her small stature and rickety figure, her mannish and
unbeautiful features, her aquiline nose and her hair cut short,
she presented a curious picture. But her proud, bold bearing
impressed the beholders. From those big, dark eyes of hers
flashed the genius and energy of her famous father. Everyone
agreed that she looked more like a man than a woman and this
impression was heightened by her resonant, strong voice.
At the Porta del Popolo she was greeted by the entire College
of Cardinals, after which she was escorted to St. Peter's
amid the blare of trumpets and the thunder of the guns
of Castel S. Angelo. On entering the magnificently adorned
and illuminated basilica, she prayed before the Blessed
Sacrament and the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, after
which she repaired to the Vatican where the Pope received
her in solemn consistory. Two days later he gave her the
Sacrament of Confirmation when he allowed her to take the
name of Alexandra. On the following day he invited her to
his table when the Jesuit Oliva made a short speech and
selections of religious music were performed.^ For a time
Christine took up residence in the Palazzo Farnese which
the Duke of Parma had put at her disposal. ^
de Christina Suecorum regina, cum Romam peteret ". View of
the Porta del Popolo in 1640 in Egger, Veduten, 69.
^ Pallavicino, I., 378 ; Ranucci's *report of December 25,
1655, State Arch., Bologna. The *Avviso of January i, 1656
(Papal Sec. Arch.), gives the menu : first a hot dish, then a cold
one followed by persicata. A detailed account of the journey to
Rome and of the first days in Rome is found in " *Racconto
istorico del trionfo in Vaticano di Cristina Regina di Suezia ",
dedicated to Alexander VII. {Urh 1681, Vat. Lib.). On the
impression made by the Queen cf. besides Raggi's account in
Neri, Riv. Europea, 1878, V., 668, Suidoni's *letter of December
25, 1655, in which we read : " Questa gran signora ha assai del
virile. Piccola di statura, fiera e bizarrissima e non molto bella."
State Archives, Modena.
* Navenne, I., 187 seq. ; Rev. hist., LXXX\'I., 7 seq.
6n HISTORY OF THE POPES.
At her very first reception the majesty of the Vicar of
Christ so impressed the Queen that for a moment all her
self-possession left her.^ Alexander \'II., too, was deeply
moved when he beheld, humbly kneeling at his feet, the
daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, in whose name the Peace
of Westphalia, against which he had been obliged to protest
as nuncio, had been concluded. ^ In his subsequent interviews
with her, the cultured Pontiff was delighted with the wide
information, the acute intelligence, and the witty conversation
of the Queen. He recognized in her a pure and noble soul
who loved what was good precisely because it was good for,
as .she herself one day_a^sured_Panay'icino, she would not
-tkr^wrong action even if God did not see it. The Pope was
immensely pleased with the vigour with which Christine
affirmed her religious convictions ; he was thereby
strengthened in his hope that the example of this princess,
on whom, more than on any other, the eyes of the world were
centred just then, would lead to further conversions in the
North. As a matter of fact, the Count Palatine Karl August
of Sulzbach, as he himself attested, was led to take a similar
step by Christine's example.^
However, the brilliant qualities of the new convert were
bound to increase the anxiety of the Pope on account of
a number of defects and peculiarities which to some extent
1 Pallavicino's statement is confirmed by the *Avviso of
December 25, 1655, Papal Sec. Arch., and the Florentine report
ill Grottaxklli, 42.
- " *Con i suoi modi artifiziosi ct humili ha prcso tahiiento
laninio del Papa, che se ne e fatta padrona." Report of T.
Suidoni, December 25, 1655, State Arch., Modena.
* Pallavicino, I., 379 seqq., who is very well informed, since
lie often saw both the Pope and Christine. On the conversion
of the Count Palatine of Sulzbach, see Riezler, VII., 34 ;
Mentz, II., 206 ; KoLDE, Beiirdge ziir bayrisch. Kirchengesch.,
VI., 133. Cf. also the *Brief to Christian Augustus of October 6,
1657, J^pist., IV. -\'., Papal Sec. Arch. In 1660 Gustavus
Adolphus, of Baden, a godson of the King of Sweden, also hcM:ame
a Catholic (Wicrrn, Badischc Gcscli., 3,54).
HER STRANGE BEHAVIOUR. 6l
obscured tlie impression made by the Queen's magnanimous
act. He learnt with amazement that both in dress and
manners, this woman of genius rode roughshod over all
conventions and clung, even in Rome, to the freedom between
the sexes which obtained in the Germanic countries ; that,
in fact, in her conversation with young men she permitted
herself remarks and jests which, though clever, w^ere never-
theless unbecoming. But he was even more grieved by her
lack of outward devotion, for the Northern amazon relished
neither religious conversations nor the reading of pious books,
and she was remiss even in her attendance at church, still less
would she perform any bodily austerities ; as for leading a
strictly cloistered life, as Princess Maria, daughter of Charles
Emmanuel of Savoy, who died in Rome in 1656, had done,^
there never was question of it, though the ascetic on Peter's
Chair had probably hoped for something of the kind from
Christine. The pecuhar conduct of the Queen in religious
matters was in part due to her principle that in order to be
unalloyed, virtue must avoid every sham, and aim only at
the glory of God, not the applause of men. Alexander VII.,
nevertheless, drew her attention to the fact that she could not
neglect all outward practices of religion, though he did so
with the utmost caution. He presented her with pious books
and endeavoured to convince her that there was much merit
in showing one's devotion outwardly, provided it was done
for God's glory alone, hence it was more meritorious to say
one " Hail Mary " in public than a whole rosary in private.
The Queen was at first taken aback but ended by yielding
to these exhortations ; her attendance at Church became
more frequent and she no longer disguised her devotion
during Mass, whilst during Lent religious exercises took
the place of the conferences of the learned Academy founded
by her.2
* Tellucini, La traslazione delle sahne di dite Principesse di
Savoia dalla chiesa del SS. XII . Apostoli in Miscell. di stor. ital.
3 series, XIII. (1911).
'■' Pallavicixo, T., 3S4 seqq. ; cj. Arch. Rom., XXIX, 162.
62 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Of her other pecuharities/ which were due to her upbringing,
she was unable to rid herself. Northern rudeness and mannish
feeling were so ingrained in her that womanly reserve and
caution were unknown to her. The more we study her
character the more evident it becomes that she lacked none
of the elements that constituted the Renaissance's ideal
Y of woman — the virago. But those days were over, and since
the triumph of the Catholic reformation much importance
was attached in Rome even to outward decorum. That is
why the Queen's unheard of disregard of the conventions
gave so much offence. To this must be added yet another
circumstance. Filled as she was with a profound sense of her
royal dignity, she demanded from others the strictest com-
pliance with the ceremonial in her regard, whilst she herself,
in consequence of her extremely vivacious nature, was
incapable of maintaining the dignified bearing which, at
that time, was expected from crowned heads. Hence there
were frequent painful scenes. One day she offended a diplo-
matist, on another a Cardinal, for she knew no self-control.
Heedless of consequences, she gave free scope to her ironical
moods, and in the same spirit she exercised her mental
acumen at the expense of relics and legends reputed sacred
ever since the uncritical Middle Ages. When on the occasion
of a visit to the Gesu she was not, in her judgment, sufficiently
honoured as a Queen, a coolness ensued even towards the
Jesuits, though she owed them so much. Every representa-
tion on the subject of her free and easy manners and her
cavalier ways she met with the answer that people had to take
her as she was.^
1 The embassy reports often speak of the ' ' stravaganze della
Regina " ; cf. Riccardi's *letter of May 27, 1656, State Archives,
Florence.
- Pallavicino, I., 386 ; II., 37 seq. ; Claretta, 57 seqq.,
65 seqq. In an unfortunately undated *note of Pallavicino to
Alexander VII. a " disturbio " of the Queen with Cardinal
Ludovisi is referred to. Pallavicino reasoned with Christine for
an hour and a half : " nel principio la trovai si turbata, che ha
pianto dirottamente in mia presenza. L' ho lasciata assai serena."
Cod., C. III., 63, p. 31, Chigi Library.
CHRISTINE AND ROMAN SOCIETY. 63
Christine was anxious to enjoy with the utmost freedom
the new world into which she entered at Rome in her twenty-
ninth year, that is, not only the ecclesiastical functions ^
and the sights of the Eternal City, its churches, sanctuaries,
and convents, 2 or acquaintance with works of art as well as
with scholars, she was also eager to enjoy everything that this
unique centre of contemporary baroque civilization had to
offer, such as pompous receptions, plays, concerts, tournaments
and masquerades. Roman society, that is the nobility as well
as the higher clergy, did all they could to entertain and honour
the exalted guest. Christine's pride, which was great enough
as it was, could not but grow under the influence of the
adulation paid to her with Southern exaggeration. Wherever
she appeared she was greeted with inscriptions, speeches
and poems. The students of Propaganda were made to
address her in twenty-two different languages and the Jesuit
Athanasius Kircher, presented her with a miniature obelisk
bearing an inscription in her honour in twenty-three languages.
Similar honours were paid to her by the University.^
Many medals were likewise struck in her honour.^ Her
portrait and an inscription perpetuate her visit to the Capitol.^
During the carnival of 1656, interminable festivals were given
in her honour. In the courtyard of their palace near Quattro
1 " *Alla cappella della Candelara (Feb. 2, 1656) la Regina
intervenne a vedere tutta la funzione e stette fuori del cancelli in
una trabucca preparatavi a porta." Note of G. Pelachi in Vat.
8414, Vat. Library.
* Cf. the Pope's permission for the visit of churches and
convents in Bull., XVI., 105 seqq., 108.
* See Suidoni's *report of January 22, 1656, State Arch.,
Modena ; the *Avviso of January 25 and February 5 and 26,
1656, Papal Sec. Arch. ; Gualdo, 229 ; Grauert, II., 89 seq. ;
Claretta, 35. In Cod. Regina, 1463 ; * Christina Suecorum
reginae laudes sive concordia linguarum collegii de Prop, fide.
Vat. Lib. Cf. the *collection of poems, ibid. Cod. 2021.
* BiLDT, Les inedailles Roniaines de Christine de Suede, Rome,
1908.
* Grauert. II., 99 ; Borboxi, Delle statue, 325 seq.
64 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Fontanc the Barberini staged a masque, which was watched
by the Queen and Cardinals Retz, ImperiaH, Azzohni, and
Borromeo. At this entertainment, of which a painting by
Salvatore Rosa may be seen to this day in the aforesaid
palace, there were exhibitions of fights between Knights and
Amazons, impersonated by Roman nobles, which were the
talk of all Rome. In an opera entitled " Human Life ",
which was likewise given by the Barberini, most enchanting
scenes were staged and ballets filled the entr'actes. If the per-
formances given by Camillo Pamfili in his palace in the
Corso were not more brilliant, they were at least even more
flattering, for during one of them a poem on Christine's
abdication was recited, of which the Prince himself was the
author. At the palace of the French ambassador she witnessed
a performance of Corneille's " Heraclius ", and at the German
College she saw a dramatic representation of the sacrifice
of Isaac. ^ But all these entertainments did not distract her
from her scientific and artistic pursuits.
In the midst of this surfeit of amusements the Queen
found herself in the most painful financial embarrassment.
She had never been good at figures. Her finances were in the
same brilliant disorder as her domestic establishment. She
would no more hear of limiting her great liberality, or her
expensive collecting of books and works of art, than of
accepting financial assistance.^ But when, as a result of the
war between Poland and Sweden, her apanage was reduced
by one-half and further payments became doubtful, on the
advice of her anxious friends she induced Charles Gustavus
to transfer to her the claims which Sweden imagined she still
had on France from the time of the Thirty Years' War.
To get these claims honoured she was eventually compelled
to journey to France. It is certain that unpleasantness between
' Clhmexti, Carncvali', 451 scqq., 464 (copy of painting by
Salv. Rosa) ; Ademoi.lo, Teatri, 68 seqq. Cf. also A. Cametti,
Cristina di Suezia, I'arte musicale e gli spettacoli teatrali in Roma,
in Nuova Antologia of October 16, 191 1, 641 seqq.
2 Pallavicino, I., 380 seqq. ; II., 38 seqq. Bildt, Christine,
31. 35. 44- 46 seq.
JOURNEY TO FRANCE. 65
her and the Spanish party was a contributory cause of this
decision. The Spaniards were completely disappointed in their
hope that Christine would prove a pliant tool with which to
influence the Pope ; they also resented her relations with
the independent Cardinals of Innocent X., more particularly
her friendship with the accomplished Cardinal Azzolini and
her frequent interviews with the French ambassador, so
much so that they spread dishonourable rumours and
calumnies about her. To this was added the danger of the
plague. But the decisive factor in her departure from Rome,
as she herself, with a sense of profound humiliation, had to
confess to the Pope, was her financial embarrassment. Not-
withstanding a subsidy to the amount of 10,000 scudi from
Alexander VIT, she was compelled to pawn her jewels. On
July ISth, 1G56, with tears in her eyes, she left the Eternal
City which she had come to love so much.^
Paris received her with royal magnificence. Here her
acute mind applied itself to the study of political conditions
in France and endeavoured to sound the characters of Mazarin,
the widowed Queen Anne, and youthful Louis XIV. ^ The
real object of her journey, the settling of her financial situa-
tion, receded more and more into the background before
a pohtical project which had taken shape in her restless
mind either during the journey or perhaps even earlier.
The scheme was that the French minister, whose country was
still at war with Spain, should help her to win the crown of
Naples, she herself undertaking in return to adopt a French
prince as her successor. Mazarin pretended not to reject
lier proposal altogether, for it was at any rate calculated to
frighten Spain, but he put her off for the time being, whilst
in her optimism the Queen imagined that she could rely on
the Cardinal's vague promises. As the plague made it impos-
sible for her to return to Rome, she stayed for a time in
1 Grauert, II., 96 seq. ; Claretta, 74 seq. ; Bildt, 52 seq.
(instead of June 18 read July 18). The donativi to the amount
of 10,000 scudi entered in *Cod. H., II., 40, of Chigi Library.
* In Bildt, 55 seq., her masterly description of the political
situation (in a later letter to Azzolini).
VOL. XXXI. F
66 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
beautiful Pesaro, at the Governor's palace, where in her own
genial fashion she divided her time between worldly pleasures,
study, and pious exercises, but above all she pursued with
increasing nervousness her fantastic political schemes. Her
confidential agents, Monaldeschi and Santinelli, succeeded
in obtaining for her from Mazarin considerable sums on
account, the knowledge of which she kept even from Azzolini
and which she at once squandered on the Neapolitan scheme.
In view of the fact that the coldly calculating Mazarin refused
to commit himself definitely to her pet scheme, she decided in
the summer of 1657 to pay a second visit to the French court. ^
During this second stay in France the Queen allowed
herself to be betrayed into a deplorable mistake. Her chief
equerry, Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi, had shamefully abused
his mistress' trust by betraying her secrets to the Spaniards.
In virtue of her sovereign rights, Christine ordered in cold
blood the execution of the traitor. The sentence was carried
out on November 10th, 1657, at Fontainebleau.
Monaldeschi's guilt was as clearly established as was
the Queen's sovereign right to punish a traitor in her service ;
hence there can be no question of an assassination. But the
punishment implied an excessive stretch of her extra-territorial
rights and a lack of consideration for the hospitality of the
French court, which were bound to cast a heavy shadow on
the Queen,- and which sensibl}' injured her reputation.^
^ Pallavicino, II., 44 scqq. ; Grauert, II., 103 seq., 113 seq. ;
BiLDT, Christine, 62 seq. ; Grotanelli (2nd edit.), 159 ; Negri,
in Arch. Rom., XXXII., 112 seqq., 134 seq.
^ Cf. the thorough, calm account and discussion in Grauert,
II., 1 15-142. To the sources lused by Bildt (74 seqq.) have been
added letters of Azzolini and the Venetian ambassador Giustinian.
Cf. also Picenardi, Di Cristina di Suezia, Pisa, 1889, 10 seq. ;
Grotanelli, 68 seq. In Bildt's view Christine acted as a
neurasthenic, from fear of the consequences of Monaldeschi's
treason. He, too, says that the deed was " une affreuse tache
sur sa memoire ". See also Bain, 264 seqq., who adopts Leibnitz'
view with regard to the Queen's right.
' Claretta, 109 seqq.
SHE RETURNS TO ROME. 67
Alexander VII. received her coldly on her return to Rome
on May IGth, 1658. ^ In other respects also the Queen's
situation, especially her financial phght, became very difficult,
for the payments from Sweden had ceased altogether. Her
secretary, the convert Davison, whom she dispatched to
Sweden for the purpose of upholding her claims, was not
received by Charles Gustavus, a strict Lutheran. Perhaps
an even greater humiliation for Christine was the fact that,
in order to live, she was compelled to pawn her silver plate
and other valuables, and in the end even her coronation
mantle. But these measures did not remedy her impecunious-
ness because her maggiordomo , Francesco Maria Santinelli,
was an accomplished scoundrel who, by his intrigue with the
widowed Duchess of Ceri, implicated the Queen in unpleasant-
ness with the Pope. 2
Previous to this Alexander VII. had been greatly annoyed
when, on her return, Christine installed herself immediately
opposite the Quirinal, the papal residence, in Mazarin's
palace (now Palazzo Rospigliosi) in order to promote from
there, amid her entourage of Neapolitan emigrants, her
project with regard to Naples. The Pope was anxious to avoid
trouble with Spain, hence he forbade under pain of death
the enlistment of armed men, and for fear of disturbances,
or even a coup de main, he took various military precautions.
Christine indulged in heavy sarcasms on these measures but
ended by giving way before the Pope's stern determination.
She disbanded her bodyguard, ceased to favour Santinelli's
matrimonial plans and ended by dropping the Neapolitan
project which had cost her so much money. ^ Cardinal Azzolini
was instrumental in re-establishing good relations with
Alexander VII. This result was greatly helped by Christine's
eagerness for an anti-Turkish league and by her giving up her
lodgings in Mazarin's palace. In July, 1659, she went to live
^ Cf. the *notes of G. Pelachi in Vat. 8414, Vat. Lib. ; also
the *Avviso of May 25, 1658, Papal Sec. Arch.
- Pallavicino, II., 234 seq. ; Bildt, Christine, S;^ seqq., 86.
* Bildt, 88 seqq., 91.
68 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
in the Palazzo Riario (now Corsini), on the other side of the
Tiber, whither she now transferred her Hbrary together with
her collection cjf pictures and her furniture, wliich had licen
stored at Antwerp.'
It was a further merit of Azzolini that he inimasked
Santinelli and thereby brought about his fall. After that he
enjoyed the Queen's entire confidence and gained increasing
influence over her, an influence which proved exceedingly
wholesome. The Cardinal brought about a thorough purge of
the Queen's suite from all doubtful characters, put order
into her finances and moderated her eccentric nature.
However, even he failed to change completely her highly strung
character, but at any rate he succeeded in keeping within
bounds her faults and extravagances, in fact, he was the only
man from whom she would accept counsel and correction. -
The question whether the friendship between Azzolini and the
Queen bore an unlawful character must be answered in the
negative. In the many recently discovered letters of Christine
to Azzohni we only read of the gratitude, trust, and affection
of a much tried woman towards one who had become a dis-
interested adviser and a faithful friend — of anything else
there is not the shadow of proof.^
' *Avviso of July 12, 1659, Papal Sec. Arch. ; Cl.^retta,
137 seqq., 145 seqq. ; Bildt, 93 scqq. Also Bii.dt, Svenska Minnen,
100 seq.
- Bildt, Christine, 94, 96.
^ Cf. BuscHBELL in Rom. Ouayialschr., XIV. (1900), 151,
who like Daniels (Preuss. Jahrb., XCVH, 1899, 64), does not
approve the reserve which Bildt adopts on this question as a
sceptical man of the world and recalls the fact that Ranke,
whose knowledge of human nature was so profound, absolves
Christine. For the rest even the scurrilous pamphlet, entitled
Histoire des intrigues galantes de la Reine Christine, etc. (Amster-
dam, 1697), notwithstanding its hostility to Christine and
Azzolini, describes the rumours of an amorous intrigue as un-
founded. On this Histoire, cf. Grauert, II., \ III., and 366 seq. ;
on the Italian origin of the pamphlet, see Bildt in Riv. delle
Bibliot. e degli Archivi, 1895 ; E. Daniels, loc. cil., Go seq.
JOURNEY TO SWEDEN. 6g
Charles Gustavus' death obhged Christine, in July, 1660,^
to journey to Sweden where she demanded from the regenc}'
and the Diet not only a fresh confirmation of the terms of
her abdication, but Hkewise the recognition of her right to
the crown in the event of Charles Gustavus' son, then a
minor, dying without issue. However, there could be no
question of her ever again ascending the throne of Sweden
as a Catholic. She was soon to learn by experience how far
hatred for the Catholic religion could go in Sweden. The
regency denied her, notwithstanding her sovereign and royal
dignity, every freedom to practise her religion, though this
was granted in Sweden to foreign princes and ambassadors.
The first measure against her was to forbid her to have Mass
said with open doors at the royal castle, and her chaplain
was expelled from the country so that thereafter she was
obliged to attend Divine Service at the French Embassy.
When she subsequently retired to Norkoping, a private
property of hers, the ambassador put his chaplain at her
service, but the latter was also banished by the regency
though he had said Mass behind closed doors. Now that she
saw herself robbed of all religious help, Christine was seized
with mortal terror lest she should die suddenly without the
Sacraments of the Church. The thought became unbearable ;
accordingly she left Sweden for Hamburg in May, 1661.
There her banker, Isaac Texeira, a wealthy Portuguese Jew,
put order into her finances. During her stay the Queen did
her utmost to obtain the free exercise of their religion for
Catholics in Hamburg and Sweden, but all her efforts were
in vain. 2
On June 20th, 1662, she was back in Rome and presented
herself at once, in her travelling clothes, before Alexander VII.,
who received her very graciously. Owing to some time
^ See *Avviso of July 24, 1660 (Papal Sec. Arch.), which corrects
the inaccurate statements in Grauert, II., 156, and Bildt, 100.
- Gr.-\uert, II., 153 seq., 163 seq., lyj seq. ; Bildt, 100 seqq.,
104 seqq., 108 seqq. A laudatory * Brief to Christine for her efforts
on behalf of Catholics in the North, dated March 18, 1662, in
Epist.. VI.-\'III., Papal Sec. Arch.
70 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
having to elapse before the Palazzo Riario could be ready to
receive her, she occupied for six months the so-called Casino,
viz. the garden house in the beautiful park on the Janiculus,
from which one enjoys a wonderful view over the Eternal
City.^ To-day the spot is occupied by a monument to
Garibaldi.
The ne.xt four years Christine spent in Rome, until anxiety
for her apanage forced her to undertake a second journey to
Sweden [May, 1666].^ These Roman years were among the
happiest of her troubled life : the period of stress and storm
was over. She became acclimatized in Rome and ever more
and more identified with Roman Society.^ But her lively
spirit was still busy with a plan for helping Venice against
the Turks and she threw herself with immense zest into
amusements and festivities, especially the entertainments of
the Carnival,'* though the best of her energy was devoted
to her old favourite occupation, learning and art. A better
management of her finances enabled her once more to give
generous support to men of learning and to make consider-
able additions to her library and her collections of works of
art. The philologist, Ezechiel Spanheim, arranged her valuable
collection of coins, one of the most outstanding of the period,
\/ and in his gratitude for her patronage he dedicated to her his
celebrated work on numismatics, an amazing monument of
information.^ To her library, already rich in literary treasures,
she was constantly adding further valuable manuscripts and
rare books.^ It was there she received the celebrated
^ Grauert, II., i8i ; Claretta, 153 seqq. ; Bildt, hi seqq.
2 *Avviso of May 29, 1666, Papal Sec. Arch. ; Grauert, II.,
188 seq. ; Bildt, 254 seq.
3 Berchet, Roma, II., 286.
* Clementi, Carnevale, 471 seqq.
s Grauert, II., 182 ; Allg. Deutsche Biogr., XXXV., 52.
On the collection of coins see Bildt, Medailles, 20 seq., and
D. H. Gaebler in Corolla Numismatica, Oxford, 1906. Cf. Riv.
ital. di numismat., XX., 2, 336 seq.
« The Queen's library fell to her sole heir, Cardinal Azzolini,
whose nephew bought it for the Vaticana in 1689, with the
A PATRON OF LEARNING, 7I
astronomer Cassini, and the mathematician Vitale Giordani,
in whose researches she took as hvely an interest as in those of
Luke Holstenius, her adviser in all library matters.^ The work
of the mathematician and physician, Giovanni Alfonso
Borrelli, on the mechanics of animal motion, which became so
important for the development of physiology, was printed at
her expense.^ In accordance with the manners of the period,
she likewise dabbled enthusiastically in alchemy and
astrology.? Among the artists her preferences went to
exception of a part that went into the Papal Secret Archives and
another which went to Cardinal Ottoboni, but which was also
embodied in the Vatican Library under Benedict XIV. See
Arckenholtz, I., 270 seqq. ; Blume, III., 55 seqq. ; Dudik,
I., 123 seqq. ; Stevenson, Cod. graeci Suec, Romae, 1888 ;
Carini, 91 seqq. ; Arch. Rom., XVI., 505 seqq., XVII., 197 seqq. ;
Mel. d'arch., XVII., 285 seqq., XVIII. , 225 seqq., XIX., 85 seqq. ;
DoREZ in Reo. des biblioth., 11. (1892), 129 seqq. ; H. Wieselgren,
Drottning Kristinas Bibliotek, Stockholm, 1901 ; Bildt, Suenska
Minnenr^^i^ seq . ; Elton, Christina of Sweden and her hooks,
in Bibliographica, London, 1895. From H. Grotius' widow she
bought the latter's hbrary and MSS. ; see Hist.-polit. Blatter,
CLIV., 163.
^ TiRABOSCHi, VIII., 26 seq. ; A. Stern, Beitrdge ziir Literatur-
gesch. des 16 u. 17. Jahrh., in Raumer's Taschenbuch, 1893.
Cf. Masi, Cristina di Suezia e la sua corte, in Rassegna naz., CIX.
On the Avvertimenti di cavalcare (Pesaro, 1661), compiled by
Christine's scudiero e cavallerizio, Almerico Emilii, see the edition
Nozze, limited to 70 copies, by G. Vanzolini : La briglia d'oro
di A. Emilii, Forli, 1894. On Giordani, cf. Biogr. universelle,
XVII., 403.
2 J. Pagel, Gesch. der Medizin, I., Berlin, 1898, 245 ; cf.
241. 257-
' Bildt, Christine, 131, 388, and Svenska Minncn, 161 seqq.,
180. Mabillon dedicated to her his work on the Gallican liturgy ;
see Hist.-polit. Blatter, CVI. (1890), 165. On Marchese Massimi-
liano Palombara, who was known to Christine and who tried
to discover the " Philosopher's Stone " to produce gold, and on
his magic gate, now in the garden of the Piazza Vittorio
Emmanuele in Rome, see Nuova Antologia, XLIII. (1895),
527 seq., and the suppl. to Allg. Zeitung, 1895, ^lo- 141-
72 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Bernini.^ Such was her interest in classical antiquity that she
herself had excavations made near the tomb of Cecilia Metella.^
She owned a number of choice antique sculptures as, for
instance, besides the well-known group styled " S. Ildefonso ",
the statue of a walking Momus, probably modelled on a work
by Praxiteles, a remarkable copy of Polycles' athlete in the
act of tying the victor's wreath round his head, as well as
other valuable statues, busts and reliefs, now preserved at
Madrid.^ The library and the collection of statues were
rivalled by the Queen's picture gallery, the basis of which
was formed by works from the art gallery of Rudolph II.
Here one could admire works by Raphael, Titian, Correggio,
Paolo Veronese, Rubens, and other great masters.'*
Thus her palace on the Lungara constituted a real museum
of sculptures, pictures, and other works of art. The sittings
of the Academy founded by her in January, 1656,^ attracted
^ Grauert, II., 182, 210 ; Fraschetti, 276 ; on the Queen's
painters, cf. Bildt in Nineteenth Century, LVI. (1904), 990 seq.
* In the Azzolini Archives at Empoli Vecchio I saw an undated
/ *report on this undertaking ; the document was bought by the
Swedish Government in 1927 for the Royal Archives in
Stockholm.
* Cf. HiJBNER, Die antiken Bildiverke in Madrid, Berlin,
1862, and Deutsche Rundschau, 1897-8, III., 346 seq.
* Cf. O. Granberg, Kristinas Tafvelgaleri, Stockholm, 1896,
and La galerie des tableaux de la Reine Christine de Suede ayant
appartenu auparavant d I'Empereur Rodolphe II., plus tard aiix
Dues d'Orle'ans, Stockholm, 1897. Cf. Wurzbach in Ktinstchronik ,
1896-7, 490 ; Ancel in AIcl. d'archeol., XXV. (1905), 223 seqq. ;
Bildt, Svenska Minnen, 104 seq., and Queen Christina's Pictures
in Nineteenth Century, December, 1901 ; Bottiger, Svenska
Stalen Samling af vafda tapeten, Stockhohn, 1895.
* The statutes of the Academy in Claretta (366 seqq.), who
on p. 46 gives January 29, 1656, as the date of the foundation,
but the first session took place on January 24 ; see the *note
of G. Pelachi in Vat. 8414, Vat. Lib. Cf. also the *Avviso of
January 28, 1656, Papal Sec. Arch. A *report on subsequent
sessions in Ottob. 1744, from which we may quote the following
extracts : " Dominica 11 di Novembre, 1674, fu la prima Academia
THE POPE S VISIT. 73
the choicest minds in Rome, and in general scholars, artists,
and musicians were for ever frequenting the house of the
learned and art-loving princess. At her brilliant receptions
poetical and musical presentations alternated. In spite of
her oddities, all who called on her admired her extraordinary
memory, her quick intelligence, the frankness and assurance
of her answers and her stimulating and spirited conversation.
The Queen's relations with the accomplished Alexander VII.
ended by becoming once more excellent. When work on
her palace was completed the Pope paid her a first visit
on March 19th, 1663. He began by inspecting her splendid
picture gallery, after which he studied the magnificent gobelins
which had come from Stockholm. He admired these treasures
no less than the vast number of sculptures and other artistic
publica degli Academici reali nel Palazzo della Regiua " at which
Msg. Suarez, N. Maria Pallavicini, Ant. Cottone spoke. " Presenti
x8 cardinali e molti prelati e nobilta." — December 6, 1674^: the
followdng spoke : Angelo della Noce, Archbishop of Rossano,
P. Cattaneo (c/. Steinhuber, II., 16), P. Vieira. " Presenti 22
cardinali^^^^i 675, January 8. Speakers: Nic. Maria Pallavicini,
S.J., Lud. Casale " in difesa di Platone " and Stefano Pignatelli
" in difesa di Aristotele ". " Presenti 23 cardinali." — 1675,
February 5. Speakers : L. Casale, Franc. Cameli, and Giov.
Alf. Borelli, on the triremes of the ancients. " Presenti 14
cardinali." — 1675, February 25. Addresses on astrology : N. M.
Pallavicini, Fr. Cameli, Suarez, Archbishop of Rossano, P.
Cattaneo, G. A. Borelli, L. Casale, Cottone. " Conclusione del
P. Pallavicini." — 1675, November 18. Speakers : Stefano
Pignatelli, Alb. Gradini " in favore di Scevola ", the Archbishop
of Rossano against Scevola. " Presenti 14 cardinali." — 1675,
December 16. Speakers : Silv. Mauri, S.J., Avvocato G. B. de
Luca. " Presenti 12 cardinali " (Vat. Lib.). Ranke's mistake,
who placed the foundation of the Academy in 1680 (III., 67),
has already been corrected by E, Mbykr {OinJ^roitning Kristinas
literdra verksamket i/i Italien, in Samlaren Tidskrift, 1884,
Stockholm, 1885, 86). Meyer observes {ibid., 88) that Ranke
is likewise in error when he says that the Academy served a
political aim. On the Academy, cf. Z.\ccagnixi in Riv. Abruzzesc,
XIV. (1898), 7.
74 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
objects and concluded his visit, connoisseur as he himself
was, by inspecting the matchless library.^
The favour of so stern and unforgiving a Pope as
Alexander VII. in matters touching morality is the best proof
that there is no foundation whatever for the unfavourable
rumours which the jealousy of Christine's enemies caused
them to spread about her conduct. Like other personages
in exalted positions, she too did not escape the hateful gossip
of a scandalmongering age, all the more so as by her lack of
restraint, her inconsiderate frankness and rudeness, she
directly challenged public opinion. When one examines
carefully the libels written against her, it becomes apparent
that it is precisely those who strive their utmost to calumniate
her who can least furnish proof of her alleged immorality. -
Nor are we without positive testimony in her favour. In a
most reliable account of the condition of the Roman court
at that period it is expressly stated that those who seek to
incriminate the conduct of the Queen during her stay in Rome,
merely show that they know nothing about it, or they
purposely seek to blacken her character against their better
knowledge and the plain truth to which millions might bear
witness, nor could it be denied that the Queen had been
fervent and exemplary in the performance of her religious
duties. 3 For all that there were not wanting those who
dragged even her piety in the mire. If it had been previously
asserted that she had come over to the Church without anterior
conviction, the rumour was now spread that she had not kept
the Catholic faith.'* Proofs, however, there are none. If she
^ BiLDT, Svenska Minnen, 130. Chri.stine promptly returned
the Pope's visit ; cf. Avviso of March, 31, 1663, Papal Sec. Arch.
2 Grauert, II., 366.
* L'etat du Siege de Rome, Cologne, 1707, I., 193 scq.
* With a view to confuting the rumour spread by the Pro-
testants that she was thinking of returning to Lutheranism, the
Queen, on the occasion of her stay at Augsburg in August, 1660,
lodged at the Jesuit College there with her entire suite ; see
DuHR, III, 125. For all that similar rumours reappeared later on.
CHRISTINE S RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS. 75
adopted a sceptical attitude towards medieval legends and
relics, the spuriousness of which her acute mind was quick to
discern, or if her sincerity caused her to abhor all affected
piety, or sharply to criticize certain politicizing court con-
fessors, she merely used her good right. Such dispositions
are in no wise in contradiction with a sincerely religious
conviction, or with Catholic dogma.
Her want of outward devotion — she talked even during
Mass ^ — was due to the great vivaciousness of her character,
and when in later years she became more calm, she improved
in this respect also.^ Even the author of one of the most
venomous libels against Christine cannot deny that she often , [ia
heard Mass, regularly received the Sacraments, that she held
the Sacrament of Penance in particular esteem and strictly
insisted on her servants fulfilling their religious duties. ^
How deeply penetrated she was with the truth of the Catholic
faith is shown by her conduct in Sweden, her efforts to obtain
liberty for Catholics in Protestant countries to practise
their religion, and the assistance she gave to such as returned
to the ancient faith.* She was therefore fully justified when she
declared that the welfare of the Catholic religion lay nearest
her heart ; that if she had a thousand lives she would gladly
sacrifice them for it.^ She affirms with the utmost energy that
from the time she came to the use of reason she had given
no credence to the teachings of Luther and Calvin, and
^ In this way she gave offence not only in Rome but elsewhere
also ; see C. Sardi, Cristina di Suezia in Lucca nel 1658, Lucca,
1873-
- The Queen, Basadonna, the Venetian ambassador writes,
who came to Rome ignorant of Italian customs and but a recent
Catholic, is more orderly in her conduct since her return in 1662.
She studies much and only frequents intelligent people. When
she goes out she mostly visits the churches. Both the Pope and
the court hold her in esteem (Berchet, Roma, 286).
^ Hist, des intrigues gal., 288 seqq.
"» See above p. 69 and Grauert, II., 381 seq., 383 seq.
* Arckenholtz, III., 464.
76 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
that she subsequently embraced the CathoHc religion because
it appeared to her as the only true one ; to Lutheranism
she would never go back, even if she had the misfortune to
lose the Catholic faith. ^
In her highly original and characteristic autobiography,
which unfortunately only describes her youth, she condemns
in the strongest terms the apostasy of Gustavus I. from
the Church, and laments in moving words her inability to
ascertain whether her illustrious father was perhaps touched,
in the very last moment of his life, by a ray of divine grace. ^
This is an important testimony to her Catholic sentiments,
for these memoirs reveal " a seriousness, a sincerity, a free
and strong mind, that silence calumny ".^ It might be objected
that this autobiography was intended for publication and
that it often exaggerates.* But the same can assuredly not
be said of the " Thoughts and Reflections " (pensees) which
were found among her literary remains and which had been
written down solely for her friends. In these notes, which
are remarkable for their terseness and vigour of expression,
their psychological subtlety and depth of thought, she says
among other things : " God makes known His will by one
oracle alone, namely the Catholic and Roman Church, outside
which there is no salvation. To her decrees we are bound to
submit without question or hesitation. God has deigned to
communicate authority to the Pope and to the Church,
through so many miracles, so many Councils and other extra-
ordinary events, that no reasonable man can doubt the fulfil-
ment of His magnificent promise, namely that He would give
her power over hell until the end of time. He has willed
that the government of His Church should be a monarchical
one ; He has communicated His infallibility to the Pope,
not tothe Councils : the Pope is everything ; they are nothing
without him. How can a man be a Christian if he is not a
' Ibid., \y., 130, note.
- Ibid., I., 12 seq., 31.
* Ranke's opinion (III., 68).
* Grauert, II., 379.
SINCERITY OF HER FAITH. 77
Catholic ? And how can one be a Cathohc if one refuses to the
Pope the submission that is due to him ? " ^
' Christine's aphorisms, which she repeatedly revised, were
pubUshed by Arckenholtz (IV., 13 seqq.), though with many
alterations which greatly diminish the originality of the expression.
BiLDT [Pensees de Christine reine de Suede, Stockholm, 1907)
has published the original text together with an instructive preface,
thus adding to his work for the great Queen.
CHAPTER III.
Relations of Alexander VII. with France and Venice.
Defence against the Turks and Dispute with
Louis XIV. Last Years of the Pope.
France's leading statesman. Cardinal Mazarin, having
done his utmost to prevent the election of Cardinal Chigi,
was as embarrassed by the issue of the conclave as he had
been in 1644 by the elevation of Innocent X. He did his
best to hide his discomfiture from the public, but he lacked
sufficient magnanimity to establish good relations with
Alexander VII., though the new Pope held out the hand of
friendship from the very outset of his pontificate and chose
for his advisers men like Rospigliosi and Corrado, whose
appointment ought to have breathed confidence into the
French Government. ^ That the Pope was no partisan of the
^ Gerin, I., 62 seqq. In Ann., 45, I., 41, p. 84, of the Papal
Sec. Arch. I found Alexander VII. 's first autograph * letter
(April, 1655), to Louis XIV., which is missing in Gerin. " Pro-
vidence," we read, " has raised us to the pontificate. No one can
be nearer our heart than Your IVIajesty seeing that in you long-
standing merit is united to piety." " Si accrescono a Noi som-
mamente le speranze di vedere con la publica pace della christianita
segnalati i primi anni del suo regno e del Nostro pontificato e
rimosse da per tutto e particolarmente d'ltalia quell'armi che
I'hanno oppressa fin'hora. Ouesto e I'unico soggetto, al quale
chiama V. M. il bisogno della republica Christiana afiflitta e lacerata
per ogni lato dalle guerre et il danno, che ne deriva alia nostra
santa religione. E cio parimente spinge il zelo della carita Nostra
paterna, a procurare non solo per mezo de' ministri, ma con la
prontezza di portarci Noi medesimi, dovunque sia opportune,
il frutto di quell'opera, che per tanti anni da Noi imprecata nelle
negotiationi di Munster ci fece sperimentare frequentemente la
bonta e '1 zelo della M. V. grande anco nell'eta sua piii tenera
verso il publico bene." " W'e shall always have the welfare of
your kingdom at heart."
78
MAZARIN S HOSTILITY TO THE POPE. 79
Habsburgs, as was fairly commonly asserted, became evident
when he not only declined to receive the Constable Colonna
as imperial ambassador,^ but insisted on the acceptance,
as nuncio in Madrid, of Camillo Massimi, who had been refused
under Innocent X.^ Notwithstanding this and other
unpleasantnesses, both the German and the Spanish
Habsburgs, with true discernment of what was to their
advantage, took care to establish good relations with the
Holy See.^ Paris acted otherwise. The royal letter of con-
gratulations to the newly elected Pontiff was so worded as
to cause embarrassment to Mazarin's diplomatic agent,
Hugues de Lionne ; in fact, it was so lacking in respect that
it could not be presented. Lionne was not appointed
ambassador, and no ohhedienza embassy was dispatched.'*
None the less, in connection with the question of Cardinal
Retz, who had fled from France to Rome, an affair which
Mazarin had very much at heart, ^ Alexander gave proof of
the utmost good will, though this was necessarily limited
by the dispositions of Canon Law concerning the safeguarding
of ecclesiastical immunity. The Pope insisted on the observ-
ance of a legal procedure, whilst Mazarin strove to make
of the Holy See a docile instrument of his aversion for Retz,
his rival and enemy. Blinded as he was by the passion of
hatred, the Cardinal minister seems to have seriously imagined
that Retz exercised great influence over the Pope, whereas
in reality Alexander VH. treated the fugitive, whose restless-
ness he feared quite as much as his connection with the
Jansenists, with great severity. Retz was but rarely received
in audience, and notwithstanding his extensive learning, he
^ See jNI. A. Colonna's *report to the Emperor, dat. Rome, 1655,
February 6. State Archives, Vienna, and Pallavicino, I.,
256 seqq. Cf. Cod. E., VI., 205, p. 582 seqq. De sectione cadaveris
Alexandri VII., Chigi Library.
* Pallavicino, L, 306 seqq.
' Berchet, Relaz. Roma, II., 212 seqq., 249 seqq., 276. Ibid.
Spagna, II., 288 seqq.
* Gerin, L, 66 seq.
* Cf. XXX., p. 67 seqq.
80 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
was not invited to join any of the Congregations. ^ The Paris
nuncio, Bagno, adopted a no less concihatory attitude towards
Mazarin than the Pope, though the same cannot be said of
Lionne's beha\-ionr towards the hitter. On one occasion,
when Lionne presumed to reproach Alexander with partiality
towards Retz, the Pope replied with the countercharge that
Paris was being supplied with reports that were not true.
These words hit Lionne all the more painfully as he himself
keenly resented the unworthy role assigned to him by
Mazarin, as appears from the envoy's confidential letters
to his uncle. ^
With untiring patience Alexander VII. was for ever on
the look-out for new means with which to satisfy Mazarin
in the affair of Cardinal Retz. With the consent of the Sacred
College he declared his readiness to allow the archbishopric
of Paris to be administered, in the name of its lawful occupant,
by a Coadjutor Bishop, approved by the King. This was the
greatest concession which it was possible for the Holy See
to make. Lionne was triumphant, and even Mazarin was
satisfied, but the Galilean members of the French hierarchy,
in conjunction with the parliamentary opposition and the
intrigues of the Jansenists, defeated this peaceable arrange-
ment.^
Mazarin's anger now vented itself on the perfectly blameless
Pontiff whose exhortations to peace * he resented no less than
his neutrality and his intervention on behalf of peace with
Spain. He was determined to silence the moderating voice
of the Holy See. Accordingly he rejected the choice of Rome
as the seat of the congress. The affair Retz was an excellent
' Pallavicino, II., 62 ; Gerin, I., 68 seq., So seqq.
- Gerin, I., 85, 92 seq.
3 See the detailed, documented account in Gkrin, I., 95 ^^??-
« The first *warnings (to the Kings of France and Spain, to
Mazarin and Olivares) dat. September 11 (in Epist., I., Papal
Sec. Arch. ; cf. Ranucci's *report of September 25, 1655, State
Archives, Bologna), were repeated (to both Kings and the
Emperor) on August 12, 1656 [Epist., loc. cit.).
THE POPE AND THE FRENCH CLERGY. 01
pretext for intimidating the Pope. In March, 1656, Lionne
was recalled.^
Even before he had been informed of this step, the Pope
had exhorted the Assembly of the French Clergy in Paris,
by a Brief dated March 20th, 1656, to give to the King's
efforts on behalf of peace the support of their prayers. This
action Mazarin described as an interference with affairs of
State, against which he lodged a protest. The reply of the
Assembly of the Clergy was so offensive that the nuncio
refused to forward the document. All the accusations raised
in Paris at that time were as false as was the assertion that
Retz was the author of the Brief. In point of fact the latter,
realizing that it was impossible for him to remain in Rome,
was about to leave. When Retz' flight from Italy clearly
showed that there was not the slightest ground for suspicion, it
looked at one moment as if better relations were about to be
established between France and the Holy See.^ Alexander VII.
recalled Bagno. In the late autumn of 1656, Lelio Piccolomini,
the choice of whom Louis XIV. approved, was appointed
nuncio extraordinary, whilst Carlo Bonelli was accredited
to Madrid. Both were instructed to work for the conclusion
of peace. ^
Mazarin, who could not make up his mind to fill the
ambassadorial post in Rome, nevertheless maintained there
his secret agents, who did not shrink on occasion from rousing
1 Gerin, I., 103 seqq., 114, 138. Cf. Pallavicino, I., 379 seqq.
^ Pallavicino, II., 63 seqq. ; Gerin, I., 139 seq. Retz' excuses
to Alexander VII. for having left Rome in Annales de St. Louis,
IV., 373 seq., and X., 264. In 1662 Retz made his peace with
Louis XIV. ; see Gazier, Les dernieres annees dii card, de Retz,
Paris, 1875, 96 seqq. ; Chantelauze, Le card, de Retz et sa mission
dipL, Paris, 1879 ; Cochin in Mil. d'archeoL, XXVIII. (1908),
97 seqq-
3 See the *Briefs to the Kings of France and Spain and the
French and Spanish nobles, dat. i and 15 November, 1656,
Epist., I., Papal Sec. Arch. Cf. Pallavicino, II., 59 seq. ; G:6rin,
I., 154 seqq. Oil portrait of Piccolomini in the Palazzo Piccolomini
at Pienza.
VOL. XXXI. G
82 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
his resentment against Alexander \'II., even by false reports. ^
If at that time the Pope judged the French Cardinal Minister
rather more severely, he had the whole Catholic world with
him, for Mazarin's alliance with the usurper Cromwell,
the Lord Protector,^ who had expelled the lawful king and
persecuted the Catholics, was a grievous scandal. The Cardinal
also extended toleration to the Jansenists ^ and with a view
to preventing papal intervention in favour of peace, he sought
to strike terror into Rome by urging the Dukes of Parma
and Modena to attack the States of the Church.* Meanwhile,
he worked with cunning and tenacity for a peace with Spain
which he intended to be the brilliant consummation of his
career as a statesman.^
Until this time it had been customary for the Holy See,
as a Power raised above all national strivings and the mediator
between the various peoples, to send its representatives to
all peace congresses, in order to co-operate in the settlement
of the disputes of princes and peoples Royal absolutism,
to which Mazarin did homage as a fanatical defender of the
supremacy of the State, would not hear of this, hence
Alexander VII. was not invited to send a representative
to the Franco-Spanish peace negotiations and he was kept
in complete ignorance of their progress, though matters of
concern to him would have to be dealt with. On November 7th,
1659, without any participation on his part, the Peace of the
Pyrenees was concluded on the Isle of Pheasants, in Bidasoa,
which sealed the end of Spain as a great Power in the same
way as the Peace of Westphalia had done in the case of
^ Gerin, I., 155 seqq., on the reports of the Jesuit Duneau.
This degenerate religious shamefully abused the confidence of
unsuspecting Pallavicino and suggested to Mazarin to seize the
papers of the Paris nunciature. Ohva justly insisted on the
expulsion of this subject from the Order (Ghrin., II, 140).
* Brosch, VII., 353 seqq.
' See below, Ch. V.
* Gerin, I., 175.
5 Cf. L. SiMEONi, Francesco d'Este e la politica ital. del Mazzarino,
Bologna, 1922, 200 seq.
PEACE OF THE PYRENEES. 83
Germany. Tlie iiislruinent of peace stated that the contracting
parties were determined, by themselves alone, to restore
peace to Christendom — a clause which was generally inter-
preted as a rebuke to the Holy See.^ The Pope's exclusion
from a peace on behalf of which he had done so much, made
a deep impression and strengthened the Catholic Govern-
ments in their absolutist tendencies, for if Mazarin, who as a
Cardinal was surely bound to defend the Holy See, could thus
set the Pope on one side, why should others seek his advice
in political matters ? - To this must be added the circumstance
that if the Pope was mentioned in the peace treaty, it was
solely in order to proffer an accusation against him, for by
articles 99 and 100, France and Spain undertook to support
the pretensions of the Este to the salt mines of Comacchio,
and those of the Farnese to Castro. Charles Colbert was
dispatched to Rome for the purpose of pushing this affair,
but he accomplished nothing : x\lexander VH. explained
that Castro was the property of the Roman Camera and as
such it could not be alienated.^
Notwithstanding this slight discomfiture, Mazarin had
achieved the main purpose of his life : Germany and Spain
were broken and France was the first Power in Europe ;
everybody, including his bitterest enemies, bowed before
the man on whose head his own countrymen had at one time
set a price* However, the Cardinal was not long to enjoy
his triumph : his life was drawing to its end. Only as he lay
dying did the arrest of the French ambassador at Constanti-
nople bring home to him the magnitude of the peril with
^ See S.\GREDO in Berchet, II., 233.
- See in App., No. 5, the *Instruction for the Swiss nuncio
Baldeschi of the year 1665, Papal Sec. Arch.
^ Gerin, I., 191 seq. Colbert's Instruction in Hanotaux,
Recueil, Rome, I., 41 seqq. Louis' *reply, dat. May 16, 1661,
in Epist., VI.-VIII, Papal Sec. Arch.
* " La paix donne una reputation a I\I. le cardinal parmi ses
enemis meme au dela de ce qu'on peut s'imaginer," we read in
a Roman Avviso, in Denis, I., 333.
84 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
which Alexander VII. had dealt witli from the first days
of his pontificate— the peril threatening from the East.
In the letter in which he thanked the Doge for his con-
gratulations on his elevation, the Pope had promised to
help Venice in its struggle for the defence of Crete against
the attacks of the Turks/ but his exhortations to the Christian
Powers to come to the assistance of the Republic ^ met with
no response, for Venice itself seemed to show greater eagerness
for a fight with the Spaniards than with the Turks. ^
Alexander VII. himself viewed this with great displeasure,
hence he made his help dependent on the Signoria's renouncing
all such intrigues and preparing in good earnest for war
against the Turks. Though the answer was in the affirmative,
it was couched in very general terms ^ ; this explains how a
rumour obtained credence in December 1655, that Venice
was about to conclude a most unfavourable peace treaty
with the Turks. ^ Happily things did not go so far. But the
Pope was unable to send his galleys for the war as they were
needed for the protection of the coasts of the Pontifical States
against the English. In view of the fact that, for the time
being, the exhaustion of the papal exchequer made a money
contribution impossible, Alexander VII. suggested the
expedient of suppressing a few Venetian monasteries and
the confiscation of their property in order to finance the war
against the Turks. The Pope judged that such a measure
was all the more justifiable as it was to affect only the " Canons
of the Holy Ghost " and the " Padri Crociferi ", who had
caused a good deal of scandal by their irregular and luxurious
1 See the *Brief to the Doge, of April 24, 1665, in Epist., I.,
Papal Sec. Arch.
2 See the *Briefs to tlie Emperor and the Kings of France and
Spain, June 5, 1655 ; also to Genoa, Savoy, Tuscany, Mantua,
Parma, and Modena, June 12, 1655. Epist., I., loc. cit. Fresh
exhortations with *Briefs of December 11, 1655, ibid.
» Cf. Riccardi's *reports of July 17 and 31 and August 28,
1655, State Archives, Florence.
* Cf. Riccardi's *report of December 4, 1655, ibid.
'- Cf. Riccardi's *report of December 18, 1655, ibid.
HELP FOR VENICE. 85
lives. ^ However, the Canons of the H0I3/ Ghost were practically
independent of the Pope and were only subject to the Council
of Ten, hence the Signoria hesitated at first to sacrifice them,
but in the end necessity overcame every other consideration.
In April, 1656, both Orders were suppressed, their members
were guaranteed a modest pension and their property assigned
to the Republic for the Turkish war ; its sale yielded close on
a million ducats. ^
In addition to the threatening attitude of England, the
outbreak of the plague rendered it impossible to make use
of the papal galleys, hence the Pope saw to it that at least
the fleet of the Knights of Malta came to Venice's assistance,
and by promoting peace between France and Spain he sought
to win over these two Powers for the Turkish war.^
As the Signoria's cries for help became ever more pressing,
x-Mexander VII. judged the moment opportune for securing
for himself also some concession on the part of Venice. He
had expressed already to the ohhedienza embassy his wish
that the Jesuits, who had been banished from Venice ever
since the dispute with Paul V. in 1605,^ should be allowed
to return to the City of the Lagoons.^ Weighty reasons
decided him to make further assistance dependent on this
measure.^ The Jesuits had been banished for their submission
1 Pallavicino, I., 407 seqq.
2 Bull., XVI., 149, 152, 154. Cf. Valiero, Guerra di Candia,
Venezia, 1679, 340, 368 seq. ; Molmenti in Atti dei Lincei,
5 series, XXV. (1916-17), 227. After the suppression of the
crociferi Alexander VII. assigned their church to the Padri
ministri degli infermi ; see M. Armellini, Un tnonwnenio di
Belisario a Roma c la chiesa di S. Maria in Siiwdo (S. Maria in
Trivio), Roma, 1891, 7 seq.
^ Pallavicino, II., 57 seq.
* Cf. our data Vol. XXV., 172 seq.
* Berchet, Relaz., Roma, II., 189.
* For what follows, cf. Pallavicino, II., 124 seqq., and from
the Venetian point of view Valiero, 399 seqq. ; also Molmenti
in Atti dei Lincei, 5 series, XXV. (1916-17), 229 seq. The
* Instructions of the Secretary of State to the nuncio in Venice,
1656-8, in Ottob. 3262, 3264, 3265 , Vat. Lib. See also Pallavicino's
86 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
to the Pope, hence their continued exile was in reality a
standing insult to papal authority. Moreover, it was necessary
to react against Sarpi's dangerous tendencies which were still
operative in Venice, and the return of the Fathers was indis-
pensable for the formation of youth, seeing that a great
many Venetians were obliged, with the tacit consent of the
Signoria, to send their sons to the Society's educational
establishments in Rome, Bologna, Parma, and Gorizia.
The decisive negotiations were conducted in Rome by
the Venetian Cardinal Bragadino, and at Venice by the nuncio,
Carlo Carafa. They opened in July, 1656,^ and proved exceed-
ingly difficult. But the Pope remained firm ; his Briefs of
August 5th and December 23rd, 1656,^ left no room for doubt
on that point. The Senate's decisive discussion took place
on January 19th, 1657. After a violent debate, 116 votes
were cast in favour of the return of the Jesuits, fifty-three were
against it and there were nineteen abstentions, but this con-
cession was only made in the first instance for a period of three
years and without restitution of their property. The Pope
was infonned by special courier on January 25th ; the
measure was looked upon as a considerable success,^ and two
days later Alexander sent a cordial expression of thanks.*
Soon afterwards the papal galleys and 1 ,000 men were made
ready for Dalmatia and permission was given for the raising
of 150,000 scudi from Venetian Church property, for the
prosecution of the Turkish war.^ On February 27th, 1657,
♦letters to Alexander VIL in Cod., C, III., 63, p. 5, 10, 13, 18,
28, 33, of the Chigi Library, and ibid., C, III., p. 306, 310-12,
♦documents relative to this matter. Cf. Macchia, 67 seqq.
1 See the *Brief to Doge Valiero, dat. July 15, 1656, in Epist.,
II., Papal Sec. Arch.
"- Ibid.
' Pallavicino, II., 139 seqq.
* *Brief to the Doge and the Republic, dat. January 27, 1657,
and beginning with the words : " Ingenti eximioque gaudio,"
Epist., II., Papal Sec. Arch.
5 Bull., XVI., i5S. (■/. the *Brief of March 10, 1037, loc. cit. ;
Pallavicino, III., 1.4 1 scq.
INEFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN. 87
Giovanni Bichi, a relative of the Pope, was named commander
of the papal fleet. He put to sea on April 14th, and together
with the ships of the Knights of Malta, took part in the
battles of the Dardanelles, in which the intrepid but rash
Venetian admiral Mocenigo met his death (July 19th, 1657).
The Venetians now lost for a second time the islands of
Tenedos and Lemnos which they had reconquered the year
before. They laid the blame for their loss on Bichi, whom
they accused of having precipitately left the scene of action,
but the admiral succeeded in convincing the Pope that this
reproach was unjustified.^ After that repeated disputes
broke out with the Venetians whose exaggerated demands
Alexander was unable to meet.^ During the whole of 1658,
though the Pope had increased the number of his galleys,^
the war reduced itself to a few unimportant skirmishes in
the neighbourhood of the Dardanelles. An attack on the
fortress of Canea in Crete, for which the plan was ready,
had to be abandoned because of disputes between the Venetians
^ GuGLiELMOTTi, 167 scqcj. ; ZiNKEiSEN, IV., 943 seq. Bichi's
report was published in 1897 by Cugnoni in Bollet. Senese di stor.
patria. A *" Relazione del combattimento dell' armata Veneta
e Turchesca nel canale de' Dardanelli con morte del cap. gen.
Mocenigo," in MSS. Glaub., 38, n. 6, of the City Library, Franck-
fort. On Bichi's return, see the Avviso in Riv. Eitrop., 1878,
v., 282.
2 Cf. A. CoRRER in Berchet, II., 203 seqq. On the Venetians'
greed see Gerin, I., 266, who justly observes : " Eut-il donne
cent fois de plus, le pape n'aurait jamais satisfait I'avare Republi-
que." This, and the ecclesiastico-political disputes (see below,
p. 88, n. 2) explain how it was that the Venetian reports were
often most unjust towards Alexander VII. Against Correr
see the critical notes of Scarabelli in Arch. stor. ital., App. VI.,
393-
^ GuGLiELMOTTi, 223 seq., and Piccolomini, Corrispondenza
Fra la corte di Roma c V inquisitore di Malta durante la Guerra
di Candia, 1645-1669. Firenze, 1910, 23 seqq. According to the
*" Ristretto di quello si e speso per armamento di sette vasselli
di guerra Marzo 1658 " the expenses amounted to 108,433 scudi
[Cod., H., II., 40, Chigi Library).
88 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
and the captains of the papal galleys. ^ In 1659 the Pope
once again sent out his galleys, notwithstanding the fact that
the ecclesiastical policy of Venice gave him grounds for
complaint. 2 This time the operations were somewhat more
successful, though they yielded no major result. One of the
consequences of the Peace of the Pyrenees was the appearance
of a French auxiliary corps of 3,000 men, but owing to bad
leadership it achieved nothing in the campaign of 1660.^
In the autumn of that year the Pope allowed Venice to levy
100,000 scudi from Church property, and to impose a tenth.'*
In 1661 he was obliged to compose a dispute between the
Knights of Malta and the Venetians who could not agree
on the division of the Turkish galleys captured near the
isle of Tinos.^ Whilst these quarrels scandalized the whole
world, an almost complete armistice occurred in Levantine
and Cretan waters in consequence of the Turkish attack
being diverted against Hungary and Austria.
On May 22nd, 1660, a Turkish army defeated Prince
George Rakdczy of Transilvania, not far from Klausenburg.
In this struggle Rakdczy was mortally wounded. By the end
of August Grosswardein, the key to Hungary, had fallen
into the hands of the infidels.^ A great attack on the Danube
1 Valiero, 455, 465 seq. ; Zinkeisen, IV., 945 seq. Cf.
Ademoi.lo in Riv. Eiirop., 1878, V., 287, according to which the
expenditure amounted to 111,899 scudi.
* Pallavicino, II., 214 seq. ; Guglielmotti, 253 seq. C.
Carafa was nuncio in Venice up till September, 1658, his successor
being Altoviti ; *Rcgistro of his reports between 1658 and 1666
in the Altieri Archives, Rome (2 vols.). Cf. Barb. 5324, p. 225 scqq.,
Vat. Lib. Altoviti's *instructions for his successor (dat. 1666)
in Cod. Strozz., 891, State Archives, Florence.
' Zinkeisen, IV., 947 seq.
« Bull., XVI., 597, 600.
5 Valiero, 518-522 ; Zinkeisen, IV., 949.
• Zinkeisen, 887 seq. ; Pribram, Venez. Depeschen, I.,
446 seq. ; ibid., 118, 131, 136, 139, 143, 172, on the negotiations
for Rakoczy's return to the CathoHc Church. A great impression
was made by the conversion, in October, 1660, of Rakoczy's
widow ; cf. Pribram, I., 508.
DEATH OF MAZARIN. 89
region was to be expected for the following years. At the close
of 1660 the Emperor sent a special envoy to Rome, with
mission to expose the danger to Austria, should the Turks
advance further, and to ask for counter-measures.^ The
Pope was prepared to put himself at the head of a league.
He instructed all the nuncios to press the princes to help
in the struggle against the Turks, and he dispatched
appropriate Briefs to all the Catholic heads of States. To
the Emperor he promised help even if the plan for a league
did not materialize. 2 To raise the necessary money, tenths
were imposed upon the clergy of the whole of Italy, with the
exception of Venice.^
Shortly before Alexander VII. made these promises,
Cardinal Mazarin, who had so long guided France's policy,
died on March 9th, 1661.* Out of the immense wealth which
he had amassed he left the Pope 600,000 livres for the Turkish
war. In the place of Mazarin, twenty-two years old Louis XIV.,
a ruler filled with boundless ambition and insatiable lust of
glory, the finished type of an absolutist prince, now took the
reins of government in his own hands.
The decision whether or no the whole of the Christian
West could be mobilized for a joint defensive war against
Islam, lay in the hands of this youthful prince, whose pre-
ponderant power on the continent of Europe was at that
time unquestioned. However, the difficulties raised in Paris
1 Pribram, I., 525 seq., 535 seq., 542 seq., 544 seq., 550 seq.,
584-
^ Ibid., 580. The *Briefs to the Emperor, to the Kings of
France, Spain, and Poland, and to Venice, dat. February 2, 1661,
in Epist.. VI. -VIII., Papal Sec. Arch. Ibid, the *Briefs to the
Italian princes, February 8, 1661. Cf. *Acta consist, of February 21,
1661, Vat. Lib.
' March 24, 1661 ; Bull, XVI., 673.
* MiGNET, Mem. hist., 481. On the splendid funeral service
for Mazarin at SS. Vincenzo ed Anastasio, cf. *Avviso of April 30,
1 661, Papal Sec. Arch. In Card. Carlo Barberini's collection of
poems in Barb. 2075, p. 292 seqq : *niusarum lacrymae in funere
lulii card. Mazzarini.
90 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
against the payment of the 600,000 hvres left by Mazarin/
proved that no great hopes could be set on France. For the
negotiations concerning the league, France did not dispatch
an ambassador, as became a Power of her rank, but only a
very subordinate agent of the name of D'Aubeville, who
arrived in the Eternal City on June 12th, 1661. Ostensibly
D'Aubeville's mission was to promote the idea of a league,
but in reality he was instructed to thwart it.^ From the
first Alexander VII. saw through France's political game
which was secretly to rouse the Porte against Austria ;
accordingly he was not surprised when everything imaginable
was done from that quarter in order to prevent the opening
of the discussions. When they began at last D'Aubeville
obeyed the secret orders of his chief, Lionne, which were that
he should prevent a practical decision. In addition to this
he did everything in his power to raise controversial questions
and to intimidate the Pope : one day it was the affairs of
Comacchio and Castro, another the difficulties with Retz,
or the Jansenist troubles, that had to serve as a pretext,
in fact the French party already threatened with a national
council or " worse ".^
Faithful to his instructions, D'Aubeville maintained,
up to the last, the aggressive tone which he had adopted from
the beginning of his mission. He displayed a real ingenuity
in finding ever fresh matter for complaint against the Pope.
The Papal Maestro di Camera, Nini, was fully justified when
he said that this diplomatic agent was for ever working
against the Pope. Shortly before his departure in the spring of
1662 he still provoked an incident by claiming for himself
rights of immunity such as were not enjoyed even by ambas-
sadors.* He achieved his purpose all the more easily as the
' Gkrin, L, 225 seq.
• See the Instruction for D'Aubeville in Hanotaux, Rcciicil,
Rome, I., 61 seq. Cf. Gerin, I., 227, and Brosch, Gcsch. cms dcm
Leben dreier Grosswesire, Gotha, 1899, 91 seqq.
" See the French reports in Gkrin, I., 23 scqq., 240.
'' Ibid., 245, 252.
AID FOR THE EMPEROR. 9I
Emperor likewise hesitated between lust for war and love of
peace. 1 The negotiations about the league had dragged
on throughout the winter until it was too late for any action
that year. Even so Alexander VII. gave proof of his eagerness
to fight the Turks. He not only sent out his galleys to assist
Venice,- but in March, 1662, he granted to the Emperor also
a subsidy to the amount of 30,000 thalers, a considerable
sum in view of his financial straits.^ About this time
Louis XIV. at last appointed an ambassador to Rome in
the person of the Duke of Crequi. This was done in view of the
negotiations for an anti-Turkish league on which the Pope
had set his heart. When on June 11th, 1662, the Duke of
Crequi made his solemn entry into Rome, with a large suite
including 200 armed men, eleven years had gone by during
which no ambassador had represented the Most Christian
King in the capital of the Catholic world. The Pope gave
orders for every mark of honour to be bestowed on the
ambassador and wrote to thank Louis XIV. for Crequi's
appointment.*
France's aim in the dispatch of an ambassador to Rome
appears clearly from the latter's Instruction and its secret
appendix.^ Every line of that document reveals the apt
1 Pribram, I., 600, 608, 657. Kocher (I., 308 seq.), throws
light on the way in which Louis XIV. grievously embarrassed the
Emperor by a show of zeal for a war against the Turks.
- GuGLiELMOTTi, 279 seq.
^ Levinson, Nitniiaiurberichte , I., 575, 730.
■• See the *Brief of June 5, 1662, in Epist., VT.-VIIL, Papal
Sec. Arch.
5 Hanotaux, Rccueil, Rome, I., 98 seq. ; Gerin, I., 283 seqq.
Moiiy starts from the fundamental mistake that with the dispatch
of Crequi Louis XIV. sincerely sought to bring about an accord
entre la monarchie et le St. Siege (IL, 427), but feels compelled
to admit that qii'il n' avail pas ete hcureux dans le choix de son agent
[ibid., 422). Gerin's information, based on the Archives des
affaires etrangeres, Paris, is far more detailed than Moiiy's, hence
lie throws a fuller light on Louis's policy. Of permanent value,
were it only for its documents and other information, is the
Ilistoirc des desuiele's dc la cottr de France avec la coitr de Rome
92 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
pupil of Mazarin who had instilled into the youthful King
distrust and hatred for the Holy See, and for its occupant for
the time being. These sentiments were chiefly fostered in
Louis' entourage by Lionne, the head of foreign affairs, who
was himself filled with hatred and a desire for revenge on
account of the complete failure of his Roman mission.
" Since the Pope had complained of the absence of a
French ambassador," the Instruction stated, " the Duke had
been appointed in that capacity, but on no account must he
breathe a word of excuse or regret because of the prolonged
interruption of regular diplomatic relations ; all he was
to do was to observe that his mission had been delayed by
State interests." Crequi was likewise instructed to take, at the
very outset, a step which the Pope was bound to resent as an
insult ; it was this : as the first among all kings, Louis XIV.
pretended that Alexander VII. 's secular nephews should be
the first to visit the representative of France. In consequence
of this pretension the Chigis were unable to take part in
Crequi's reception. The new ambassador's authority to con-
clude an anti-Turkish league with the Pope and the Catholic
princes was a mere feint, because in reality Crequi was
instructed, as D'Aubeville had been before him, to prevent a
decisive step ; but he was also told to proceed with such
caution that no one should as much as suspect the existence
of such an intention. There is no doubt that the negotiations,
au sujet dc V affaire des Corses (1707), by Rkgnihr Desmarais,
Crequi's private secretary. Among the MS. collections of writings
and documents on the quarrel mention may be made of the
following : Aix, Bibl. Mejancs, Cod., 279-280 ; Campello
(near Spoleto), Campello Archives ; Florence, National Lib.,
Cod. Cappom ; Munich, Staatsbibl., Cod. ital., 808 ; Rome,
Chigi Lib., Cod. C, II, 43 ; Corsini Lib., Cod., 172 ; Boncompagni
Archives, Cod. F., 43 and 44 ; Vallicelliana, M., 14 and 44 ;
Vat. Lib. : Otiob. 24, 68, p. 181-345 ; Oitob. 1382 (collection
made by Ant. Baruchi), Otiob. 2497 ; Barb. 5640 (this rich
collection was made by Card. Carlo Barberini) ; Barb. 5635
contains " *Relazione scritta da Msgr. Cesare Rasponi di tutto
che b seguito tra Alessandro VII. ed. il re di Francia."
INSTRUCTIONS TO CREQUI. 93
in Rome, in connection with the league, were merely intended
to throw a veil over the intrigues in which Louis XIV. was
engaged in conjunction with the princes of the confederation
of the Rhine, against the Emperor, whom he desired to keep
in a state of constant alarm by means of the Turk.^
Not only was the Most Christian King a friend of the Turks,
he was likewise eager to continue Mazarin's anti-papal policy ;
Crequi was accordingly instructed to weary the Pope even
more than D'Aubeville had done, by supporting the claims
of the Farnese and the Este to Castro and Comacchio. Further-
more, he was to demand that only such men should be
appointed to the Paris nunciature as were acceptable to the
King, for His Majesty could not tolerate that the Pope should
keep at the court of Paris " a secret spy of his enemies and
those who envied him ". On the other hand he was to refuse
a promise of similar action in the appointment of French
ambassadors. " It is a fortunate thing," the Instruction states
in so many words, " that the Most Christian King is not in
need of the favour of the Holy See, whereas the Popes are
bound to rely on France, since she is the centre of gravity
of European policy." Only then should the Holy See be met
halfway if, through the nephew, Chigi, it allowed itself to be
entangled in the meshes of France's political net. In view
of such sentiments Louis XIV. himself felt that Crequi's
embassy would be of short duration ; accordingly no special
residence was hired for him but the Duke of Parma was asked
to put the Palazzo Farnese at his disposal.^
The Instruction once given, Louis XIV. insisted on its
execution, his only concession being the recall of the prohibi-
tion that Crequi was not to be the first to pay visit to the
secular nephews. The haughty Duke was compelled to comply
with this instruction and the nephews were courteous enough
not to show any resentment.^ If Crequi had been obliged to
^ Gerin, I., 284.
- Gerin, I., 286, n. 2.
* Ibid., 293, 296. Regnier Desmarais {Histoire, 10), says
that the order should either not have been given or not with-
drawn.
94 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
yield on this point, lie soon raised unusnnl demands in matters
of etiquette to which much importance was attached every-
where in those days, especially in Rome. At a solemn function
at the Lateran he refused to kneel before the Pope, though
requested to do so by the Master of Ceremonies, and when he
came for his audiences he demanded that he should be intro-
duced to the Pope at once, without his having to wait even
one moment in the antechamber.^
Even more alarming than all this were the demands
advanced by Crequi with regard to his diplomatic immunity,
viz. the so-called " liberty of quarters ", which he wanted to
extend beyond his palace, " as far as his eye could see." ^
Accordingly he announced that he could not tolerate that the
Corsican soldiers of the garrison should march past the Palazzo
Farnese. However, this could not be avoided since the
barracks of the Corsicans lay between S. Paolino and Trinita
de'Pellegrini,^ so that on their way to the Carceri Nuove in the
Via Giulia, the soldiers were obliged to march past at least
the back of the Palazzo Farnese. Crequi also protested against
some judicial proceedings in the neighbourhood of the Palazzo
Farnese, but it was pointed out to him that no Frenchman
lived in that house. The Pope, it was explained, could only
grant exemption from urban jurisdiction to the palaces of the
ambassadors, but not to all the houses of the neighbourhood,
if he wished to uphold law and order in his capital ; otherwise
all kinds of adventurers, even notorious criminals, would
be able to escape from the hand of justice. However obvious
this was, both the French Government and Crequi refused to
see it ; the whole thing, they declared, was simply a piece of
chicanery of the Governor of the City, Cardinal Imperiali.'*
Though Alexander VH. gave proof of the greatest patience
1 See E. Cappelli, L'amhasceria del Duca di Crequy alia corte
pontificia (according to documents in the State Archives, Florence),
Rocca San Casciano, 1897, 27, 67. Crequi also made special
claims in regard to Queen Christine (Bildt, 115).
* Cappelli, 28.
» See the plan in MoiJY, I. (1893), 205 scq.
* Gerin, L, 303 seqq.
THE AFFRAY OF AUGUST 20. 95
in his dealings with the French ambassador, the hitter's
treatment of the Pope was such that the Paris nuncio felt
constrained to point out that this was not the way to obtain
further papal concessions. To this Lionne, the head of the
foreign department, replied that none were expected ! ^
Great was the delight of that bitter enemy of Alexander VII.
when an incident occurred which he could exploit for his own
ends.
In consequence of the provocative behaviour of Crequi's
suite, there had been repeated conflicts with the Corsican
soldiers, and the resentment to which these had given rise
led to an explosion on August 20th, 1662. ^ On the evening
of that day, near Ponte Sisto, a Corsican soldier was insulted
and knocked to the ground by some of the men of Crequi's
suite. When news of the incident reached the nearby barracks
of the Corsicans, the soldiers became so infuriated by the insult
done to their comrade that, deaf to all the appeals of their
commanders, they surrounded the Palazzo Farnese and fired
at it from every side. The life of Crequi himself, who went to
the windows, was in danger ; his wife's carriage was attacked
by the infuriated soldiery on her return from church, and one
of her pages was killed. The terrified woman fled for safety
^ Ibid., 307.
2 Cf. the quite objective account of an onlooker which Cappelli
(31-3) published from a MS. of the Corsini Library, Rome.
Regnier Desmarais' account from the papal point of view
(12 seqq.) is confirmed by that of Rinuccini, the Florentine
ambassador {cf. Cappelli, 31). In his furious report to his king,
dated August 21, 1662 {Revue des quest, hist., X., 83 seq.), Crequi
exaggerates what really happened {cf. Cappelli, 36, also the
documents published by Lucciana in Bullet, de la Soc. des sciences
hist, de la Corse, VIII. (1888), and Mouy, I., 211 seq., 227, note).
Chantelauze's view that the attack on the Farnese palace
had been organized by the papal side is incompatible with
documentary evidence and has been strikingly refuted by Gerin
(!•» 333 seq.). Cappelli (p. 59 seqq.) also opposes Chantelauze
and emphatically asserts that the Pope had had nothing to do
with the attack. On the Corsicans, cf. A. Da Mosto, Milizie
dello Stalo Romano dal 1600 al 1697 in Mem. stor. milit., 1914.
96 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
to the palace of the patron of French interests, Cardinal Este,
on Monte Giordano. However, she was soon able to leave for
her own lodgings, for the Governor of the city, Imperiali,
and the commandant of the garrison, Mario Chigi, rushed so
strong a troop of armed men to the scene that the Corsicans
were forced to withdraw from the Palazzo Farnese and its
neighbourhood. The incident had undoubtedly been provoked
by the French, but the Corsicans had greatly overstepped
the limits of lawful defence and grossly violated the privileges
of an ambassador. This was at once realized by Alexander VII.
and he was prepared to give satisfaction to the King of
France. In accordance with the usual procedure of the Curia,
he set up not only a special commission for the punishment
of the culprits, but likewise a cardinalitial Congregation
for the purpose of studying the question of satisfaction.
Cardinal Sacchetti, France's candidate at the conclaves of
1644 and 1655, was appointed president of the Congregation
whose members included Cardinals Rospigliosi and Azzolini,
both well disposed towards France.^ Thus there was every
guarantee that the affair would be impartially and equitably
examined and settled to the satisfaction of the French Govern-
ment.
However, what Crequi wanted was not conciliation but
Alexander VII. 's humiliation, and for this end the incident
came most opportunely.- On August 21st he forbade the
French Cardinals to take part in the consistory in which
Cardinal Sacchetti made his report on the question of the
canonization of the Bishop of Geneva, Francis de Sales,
though in doing so he exceeded his powers.^ It was only with
great difficulty that Cardinal Flavio Chigi obtained an audience
^ Desmarais, 20 5^^.
= " Si dichiaro meco, Rinuccini report.s, che era desiderabile
un simile avvenimento in Roma per si moderare et porre freno
agli abusi radicati nel governo di Roma, che convien tarpare il
nepotismo et che i cardinali ritornino nel pristine lore credito et
autoritii " (Cappelli, 71).
' Desmarais, 17 ; Gerin, I., 312 ; on the consistory see
*Acta consist., Vat. Lib.
CREQUI S ATTITUDE. 97
from the Duke, on August 26th, for the purpose of offering
his excuses. Although this step, undertaken by the nephew
by order of the Pope, was equivalent to a handsome apology,
Crequi remained unsatisfied. Cardinal Chigi also expressed
his regrets to the Duchess into whose presence he had only been
reluctantly admitted. The transfer of the barracks of the
Corsicans to another part of the city, viz. to Capo le Case,
and even the offer to remove those troops altogether from
Rome failed to satisfy Crequi. ^ On August 21st, Mario Chigi
had made a start with the arrest of the culprits and informed
Crequi of his intention of punishing them in exemplary fashion.
When some of them nevertheless succeeded in escaping, a
pressing request was sent to Florence on August 26th for
the arrest and extradition of those who had fled thither.^
On August 29th a reward was promised for the arrest of the
culprits who were not even to benefit by the right of sanctuary,^
When the trial of the prisoners opened, troops were concen-
trated for the purpose of maintaining order.
In all this Crequi, who knew nothing of Roman ways,
saw only deliberate procrastination and ill will. He was
especially confirmed in his unwillingness to yield by
Alexander VII. 's particular enemy, Cardinal Este.* By the
latter's advice he pretended that his personal safety was
imperilled. Accordingly he concentrated a troop of nearly
1,000 armed men in the Farnese palace, in consequence of
which the situation became increasingly threatening. All
attempts at mediation by Queen Christine, the Venetian
ambassador, and the Cardinal of Arragon proved in vain.^
Notwithstanding all the Pope's guarantees and the measures
taken by him, Crequi persisted in his assertion that his person
1 Desmarais, 22 seq. ; Gerin, I., 311 seq., 315.
2 Gerin, I., 338, 339.
^ MotJY, I., 306 seqq. Text of the " Editto di tagha " in
Cappelli, 95.
* Mem. du card. d'Este, II., 113 seqq. Cf. Desmarais, 29.
On Este, see Gerin, II., 282.
5 Desmarais, 28 seq. ; Gerin, I., 315 seq. ; Bildt, Christine,
1 19 seqq.
\OL. XXXI. H
98 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
was in danger. By the advice of Este he left the Eternal City,
on the morning of September 1st, together with his wife and
Cardinal Este, to betake himself to Tuscan territory.^ He was
accompanied by only a few persons, himself thereby furnishing
proof that he was not personally threatened. ^ Although he had
not informed the Pope officially of his departure,
Alexander VII. gave orders to all the authorities to facilitate
Crequi's journey. From the frontier station of Radicofani
Crequi addressed a circular letter to his diplomatic colleagues
in which he stated his demands ; they were : Imperiali's
deposition from the cardinalate and the extradition of Mario
Chigi as the " author " of the " attempt " of which he had
been the victim, the execution in the Piazza Farnese of fifty
Corsicans and their officers (who had had no share in the affair),
the banishment of the remaining Corsicans and, lastly, the
dispatch to Paris of a Legate for the purpose of presenting
the Pope's excuses.^ It was doubtful whether Louis XIV.
would identify himself with these demands. In his reports
Crequi had done his best to rouse the young King who was
particularly sensitive in all questions of honour, but on the
other hand Pallavicino sought to calm him by a very skilful
letter,* whilst the Paris nuncio earnestly endeavoured to
calm excited minds by explaining the true state of affairs.
However, in Paris also there were those who worked against
the supporters of the Pope. The foreign minister secured a
decree ordering the Pope's representative to leave for Meaux
where, on the plea of protecting him, he was placed under a
1 Desmarais, 28 seq. ; Mouy, L, 307 seqq., 311 seq.
2 Card. Chigi drew attention to this in his letter of September 2,
1662, to Lionne : " Ou il croyait ou il ne croyait pas a la promesse
de securite qu'il avait re9ue du pape : s'il y croyait, quelle necessite
d'avoir un millier d'hommes au palais Farnese ? S'il n'y croyait
pas, comment cst-il sorti a la face de tout Ic peuple et des soldats
en plein jour avec une suite si peu nombreuse ? " (Mouy, I.,
314)-
3 Letter of September 6, 1662, in Desmarais, App. 7 seq. ;
Cappelli, 68.
* Macchia, 37.
LOUIS XIV. 'S ATTITUDE. 99
kind of police surveillance. ^ Meanwhile Lionne spread tlic
worst threats in Rome and everywhere. In Germany as well
as in Spain, the incident of August 20th was represented as a
carefully prepared attempt by the papal party against the
French ambassador.- In so doing Lionne acted against his
better knowledge for through impartial third parties, such
as Queen Christine, he knew quite well that the incident had
been occasioned by the men of Crequi's suite who, from the
first had acted in the most provocative manner. Information
from this quarter likewise made it clear to him that it was
not for the sake of his personal safety that Crequi had left
Rome. However, whilst the Queen's letters were carefully
shut up in the Paris archives, the replies to her were broadcast
in French and in Italian. These documents, which contained
the most violent accusations against Alexander VII., repre-
sented the Pope's relatives and Cardinal Imperiali as the
authors of the Corsicans' excesses.^ This was done even
though Cardinal Chigi, in a letter to Minister Lionne of
August 30th, and the Pope to the King by Briefs of August 28th
and September 2nd, had given an accurate account of what
had actually happened, had severely condemned the conduct
of the Corsicans and denied any intention of giving offence
to France. In his second Brief Alexander VII. expressed
his regret at Crequi's sudden departure, protested against
hostile machinations and made final appeal to the King's
prudence and justice. In view of the impossibility of refuting
these documents, though a rupture was desired, they remained
unanswered.*
In a consistory held on September 4th, 1662, Alexander VII.
laid these documents before the Cardinals and in a lengthy
address explained all that had happened after the awful
crime — imniane faciiius — of August 20th up to the moment
of Crequi's departure. He stressed the fact that it was his
intention to give Louis XIV. as great a satisfaction as possible
' Desmarais, 37 seq. ; Gerin, I., 322 seqq., 327 seq.
- Gerin, I, 329.
' Ibid., 331 seqq.
♦ Desmarais, 45 seq., 70, and App. 11 seq.
100 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
by punishing the culprits according to their deserts. He
ended by expressing the hope that the " goodness and justice "
of the King of France would cause him to appraise what had
happened otherwise than had been done by his representatives.^
But at this time others besides Lionne were busy at the
French court, rousing the susceptibility and pride of the
King. By every possible means it was impressed on the young
ruler that he should not believe the Pope when he denied his
own and his brother Mario's complicity. The publicist,
Vittorio Siri, submitted to the King a special memorial
on the Pope's breaches of international law for which, in
the interest of His Majesty's prestige, public and lasting
satisfaction must be exacted. ^ Nevertheless it looked for
one moment as if Paris hesitated to push things to extremes
when, on September 11th, news arrived that Crequi had been
obliged to leave Rome. This set Lionne going. ^ A whole
series of violent measures ensued with the aim of humiliating
and intimidating the Pope. A lieutenant of the royal guards
was dispatched to Meaux, where the nuncio was detained, to
communicate to him the order to leave the kingdom without
a moment's delay, and because it was feared that by publishing
the papal Briefs, Piccolomini might reveal the true state of
affairs, he was not even allowed to return to Paris for the
purpose of winding up the nunciature, on the contrary, he
was taken at once, as quickly as possible, and like a prisoner,
to the frontier of Savoy by way of Lyons. * " Even many
Frenchmen condemned this act of violence," the envoy
of Savoy wrote on September 12th, 1662. ^ Crequi did not seem
quite sure of the King, hence he continued to stir up the
monarch's feelings. Never, he explained, had occasion been
1 *Acia consist., Vat. Lib. Cf. Desmarais, App. 3 scq.
2 See the letter of the Florentine Resident in France, Marucelli,
of September i, 1662, in Cappelli, 70.
» See Marucelli's report of September 12, 1662, in Cappelli, 72.
CJ. Piccolomini's dispatch in Gerin, I., 349, note.
* See Piccolomini's report of September 14, 1662, in C.kkin,
L, 349, note, and the Florentine reports in Cappelli, 72.
5 Cappelli, 72.
LOUIS XIV. S ATTITUDE. lOI
more favourable to humble the Holy See ; Rome would only
be impressed by an imposing use of force. He accordingly
suggested to the King that to this end he himself should
be given the command of the troops which it was intended
to dispatch to Italy.^ Even before Crequi's letter was received
in Paris, D'Aubeville had been ordered to proceed to Parma
and Modena for the purpose of rousing the Farnese and the
Este against the Pope. The French ambassador at Madrid
had been instructed to take advantage of so favourable an
opportunity to obtain, in France's interest, the execution
of articles 99 and 100 of the Peace of the Pyrenees. ^
Whilst the populace of Paris was being stirred up by
a public manifestation in connection with the attempt on
Crequi ^ and by the publication of divers pamphlets,^ prepara-
tions were being made for depriving the Pope of Avignon.^
The French Government rejected every attempt at media-
tion on the part of Parma and the aunt of the King of France,
the Duchess-Regent of Savoy. If the Briefs of August 28th
and September 2nd had not been answered by the King,
a third Brief, dated September 12th, was not even accepted !
In it the Pope once more protested, in the strongest terms,
that neither he nor his advisers had had a hand in the attempt
of August 20th ; at the same time he deplored Crequi's
unjustifiable departure and protested against the expulsion
* Gerin, I., 350 seqq.
- Ibid., 351 seq. On articles 90 and 100, see above p. 83.
^ See Marucelli's report of September 15, 1662, in Cappelli.
•• In Flechier's Plainte de la France a Rome, wrongly ascribed
to Corneille, we find the following apostrophe to the Pope : —
Par un attentat et lache et criminel
Tu fais de ses faveurs ini mepris solennel.
On voit regner le crime avec la violence
Ou doit regner la paix avecque le silence.
On voit les assassins courir avec ardeur
Jusqu'au palais sacre de mon ambassadeur,
Porter de tous cotes leur fureur vagabonde
Et violer les droits les plus sacres du monde.
CEuvres de Corneille (ed. Hachette), X., app. 367.
* GiERiN, I., 354 seq. Cf. Cappelli, 91 seq.
102 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of the nuncio. 1 In view of that incident the Supreme Head
of the Church had every reason to protest to the Tuscan
ambassador that it was not he, but the King, who had infringed
the common law.^ Nevertheless Alexander VII. observed the
greatest moderation when, in a consistory of September 25th,
he protested against the treatment of his representative in
France.^ Cardinal Sforza Pallavicino, in a letter dated
September 18th, 1G62,'* and approved by the Pope, also sought
to exercise a moderating influence on the King.
To what length Alexander VII. carried his love of peace,
appears from the fact that in October he declared his readiness,
through his plenipotentiary Rasponi, to agree to a large
part of the French demands by consenting to fresh negotiations
concerning Castro and Comacchio, to sending Chigi to France
as Cardinal Legate for the purpose of making his excuses
to the King and to disbanding the Corsican troops.^ The
latter concession was all the more remarkable as the recently
concluded trial of the men involved in the attempt of
August 20th had clearly shown the utter baselessness of
Crequi's accusations ; not the slightest proof could be found
of the attack having been either prepared or ordered.® More-
over, those Corsicans who had gone too far in defending them-
selves, had been severely punished ; two of them had even
been executed. Heedless of these facts, Crequi insisted on
compliance with all his demands, some of which, such as
those concerning Castro and Comacchio, had nothing whatever
to do with the personal satisfaction claimed by the Duke.'
^ Desmarais, App. 6y seq. ; Gerin, I., 359 seq.
• Cappelli, 69.
^ See *Acta consist., Barb., loc. cit., ^'at. Lib. Cf. Desmarais,
App. 71 seq.
^ Macchia, 71 seq.
'•" Gerin, I., 365 seq.
' See MoiJY, I., 479, who justly emphasizes the groat importance
of this result.
' In spite of his admiration for Louis XI\'., Moiiy, as an old
diplomatist, severely condemns this conduct : instead of strictly
limiting itself to the satisfaction to which it was entitled, " le
FRANCE S OBSTINACY. IO3
In particular he insisted on the deposition of Cardinal Imperiali.
This the Pope could not concede though he yielded, to the
extent of removing Imperiali from Rome by appointing him
Legate of the Marches.^ When even this measure failed to
satisfy the French, Alexander VII. proposed that Imperiali
should repair to his native city of Genoa and from there go to
Paris for the purpose of justifying himself, should such
a course be agreeable to Louis XIV. This plan also was
rejected by Crequi : he demanded Imperiali's banishment. ^
In a consistory held on December 11th, ^ twenty-four out of the
thirty Cardinals present declared that it was impossible to
comply with this demand.* Thereupon Crequi broke off all
negotiations and took boat for Toulon on December 24th. ^
Meanwhile the French Government did everything in its
power to isolate the Pope. It sought the help of the clergy
of France, but only a few of its members, such as Cardinal
Grimaldi, Archbishop of Aix, Ondedei, Bishop of Frejus,
declared themselves in favour of Crequi. These two Italians
were joined by a Frenchman, Cardinal Retz, who now made
his peace with Lionne.^
Louis XIV. was particularly anxious to win over to his
side Philip IV. of Spain, for, since warlike measures against
the Pope had been decided upon, it was necessary to obtain
Spain's leave to march through Milan. The King of Spain
cabinet du Louvre . . . entame une suite de negociations
etrangeres a robject unique qu'il avait a poursuivre, mele
I'insignifiante question de Castro et Comacchio a ses demandes
legitimes, augmente par des reclamations inopportunes les
difficultes de I'affaire " (II., 423). A very complete collection of
the *documents on the affair of Castro and Ronciglione in Cod.,
II., 28-36, of the Chigi Library.
^ See *Acta consist, on the congregatio generalis, of November 3,
1662, Vat. Lib.
2 Gerin, I, 387 seq.
3 In *Ottob. 1061, p. 277 seq. (Vat. Lib.), we read November 11.
* See *Acta consist., lac. cit. ; Gerin, I., 387 seq.
^ He reached Fontainebleau on February 2, 1663, and was
very graciously received by Louis XIV. ; Gerin, I., 389 seqq.
* Gerin, I., 371 seqq.
104 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
had offered his mediation to the Pope,^ for he was by no
means completely on France's side, but by means of a threat
of war, Madrid was at last coerced into allowing the passage
through the Duchy, nor was Venice able to withstand a similar
threat in view of the pressure of the Turks. On the other
hand, Louis could get nothing from the Swiss whose help
Alexander VII. had invoked. The Swiss saw through
Louis XIV. 's hypocrisy when he assured the Catholic Cantons
that he was very far from wishing to attack the Holy See ;
that, on the contrary, he was prepared to shed his blood in
its defence — as if there could be a distinction between the
Holy See and its occupant !
From Genoa Louis XIV. extorted the banishment of Cardinal
Imperiali and his family, and from Florence the promise of
a passage for France's troops. ^ Thus nothing was left to
the Pope except a faint hope of assistance by the Emperor.
The latter's relations with France were strained and he
openly expressed his condemnation of Louis XIV. 's arrogant
attitude towards the Head of the Church. However, Leopold I.
was threatened by the Turks so that the only thing the
nuncio in Vienna was able to obtain was leave for the Pope
to enlist troops in the Empire and, though secretly, even in
the Hereditary States.^ The ecclesiastical Electors to whom
the Holy See likewise appealed, saw that right was on the
Pope's side, but they were afraid to go against their powerful
patron in Paris, hence their advice was to yield to force as
^ Alexander VII. accepted the offer and thanked Philip IV.
in a *Brief of November 15, 1662, Epist., VI. -VIII., Papal Sec.
Arch.
- Gerin, I., 390, who published in Rev. des quest, hist., X.
(1871), 129 seq., the above-mentioned letter of Louis XIV. to
the Swiss Catholics of February 27, 1663.
^ Levinson, Nuntiaturberichte , I., 573, 746, 748 seq., 750 seq.,
754. The * Brief to the Emperor appealing for help, like those
addressed to Philip IV. and the Swiss, is dated January 20,
1663 [Epist., VI. -VIII., Papal Sec. Arch.). In August, 1663,
a second appeal for help was made to V'ienna, but in vain
(Levinson, 758).
AVIGNON SEIZED. IO5
quickly as possible.^ Many persons in the Pope's entourage
expressed similar opinions.^
In point of fact, the means of defence which the weak
States of the Church disposed of were so out of propor-
tion with France's overwhelming military power that
Alexander VII. made a last attempt to negotiate, but the
effort failed owing to the French demand for the unconditional
cession of Castro.^ Whilst the negotiations were still in
progress, Louis XIV., basing his action on a resolution of
the Parliament of Aix, decreed the incorporation of Avignon
in the domains of the Kings of France as inalienable Provengal
crown property. The papal Vice-Legate was escorted over
the frontier by armed force, as had been done for the nuncio.*
The Pope's protest was universally regarded as full}^ justified,
but with wise moderation the Pontiff refrained from pro-
nouncing the penalty of excommunication, though such a step
would have been abundantly justified.^
The annexation of Avignon was but a prelude to further
acts of violence. A French army of over 20,000 seasoned
^ Mentz, II., 188, 191 seq.
- To this belongs the " *ConsigIio politico dato al P. Alessandro
VII. sopra la presa dello state d'Avignone " in Cod. 1776, of the
Bibl. Communale of Trent. On the other hand a " *Discorso
della guerra che si teme possa haver N.S. col Re di Francia fatto
dal Marchese Negrelli senatore di Roma " says that the Pope
would be able to defend himself successfully against the French,
that " natione superba et hoggidi vittoriosa per tutto " (Collection
of writings on the quarrel between Alexander VII. and Louis XIV.,
III., 3, p. 65 seq. Papal Sec. Arch.).
' See *Acta consist, of July 30 and August 13, 1663, Vat. Lib. ;
Gerin, I.,422. On Alexander's defensive measures seeP.CoLONNA,
Fr. Massimo e i suoi tempi, Roma, igii, 18 seqq.
* P. Charpenne, Hist, des riimions temporaires d' Avignon et
du comtat Venaissin d, la France, I., Paris, 1886, 14 seq., no seq. ;
Gerin, L, 441 seq. ; MoiJY, IL, 197 seqq., 200 seqq. Cf. the
*Collection of writings in Cod. C, III., 49, 50, 53, of the Chigi
Library.
* *Acta consist., August 13, 1663, Vat. Libr. Cf. Bull., XVIL.
175 seqq. ; MoiJY, IL, 204 seq., 206.
I06 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
soldiers was put on a war footing with a view to an ach-ance
against the States of the Church.^ The Pope who, on the
strength of false information, had disbanded his troops,
on hearing that the French had invaded Italy, commanded
that Rome should be put in a state of defence.^ However,
it would have been foolhardy to allow things to come to a
real fight. The Sacred College, with which the Pope main-
tained close contact during the entire conflict, counselled
him to yield. Thus was the defenceless Head of the Church
compelled to submit unconditionally to the harsh demands
of a potentate who styled himself the Most Christian King
whilst for lack of legitimate claims, he brought pressure to
bear on the Father of all Christians with his bayonets.
An inscription on the fagade of the Casa Scorzi at Pisa
recalls to this day that there, on February 12th, 1664, through
the mediation of the Grand Duke Ferdinand of Tuscany,
" peace " was signed between Alexander VII. and Louis XIV.
by the plenipotentiaries of the Pope and the King, Cesare
Rasponi and the Abbe Bourlemont. By the terms of the
treaty the Pope's brother, Mario, was compelled to publish
a declaration on the attempt of August 20th which injured
his honour, and to keep away from Rome until such time as
his son, Cardinal Flavio, should have presented his excuses,
as papal Legate to the King of France. Only when this was
done would Avignon be restored. The Chigi were forced to
offer humble apologies to Crequi and Cardinal Imperiali was
compelled to justify himself before Louis XIV. Castro was
to revert to the Duke of Parma in return for the payment
of the debts with which it was encumbered and the Duke
of Modena was to be given compensation for Comacchio.
The captain of the Roman police was to be banished, the
Corsicans were never again to be taken into the service of
the Holy See, whilst on the other hand the Avignon insurgents
and the unworthy Cardinal Maidalchini were to be granted an
amnesty. A pyramid was to be erected in front of the barracks
* Gerin, I., 460 seq.
2 *Acia consist., November 26, 1663, loc. cit. CJ. MoiJv, II.,
227 seq.
TREATY OF PISA. IO7
of the Corsicans, with an inscription stating that by reason
of their " crime " against Crequi, the Corsicans would be
for ever inehgible for the service of the Holy See.^
We may well ask ourselves whether a Gregory VII. or an
Alexander III. would have submitted to conditions so
humiliating. To do Alexander VII. justice it is necessary to
take into account the altered conditions. The religious unity
of Europe had been destroyed, whilst a large proportion of
Germany and Holland, England and the Scandinavian States
were bitterly hostile to the Papacy. All the Catholic Powers,
with the exception of France, were weakened, whilst the
Turkish menace prevented both Venice and the Emperor
from lending any help whatever. On the other hand, France's
youthful ruler, who disposed of a standing army which, for
that time, may be described as vast, as well as of immense
pecuniary resources, showed not only to the Holy See, but
to all the Powers, that he considered himself as the ruler of
Europe. By threatening war he compelled his father-in-
law, Philip IV. of Spain, to grant precedence to the French
ambassador. In like manner Charles II. of England was forced
to yield to the demand that when his ships met the French,
they were to fire the first salute. As for Italy, not only the
ruler of the States of the Church, but everyone who still called
a piece of ground his own, was terrorized by the domineering
attitude of Louis XIV. How everyone trembled at a frown
of the potentate of Versailles is shown by the fact that no one
dared to give hospitality to Cardinal Imperiali, and Venice
and Mantua as well ,as the Spanish Governor of Milan would
not even allow the Cardinal's brother to remain within
their respective territories. ^
On February 18th, 1G64, in a secret Bull, the Pope put on
record the fact that brute force alone and the necessity
of avoiding war in Italy, because of the peril threatening
from the Turks, had compelled him to agree to the humiliating
* Traite de Pise, Paris, 1664 ; Desmarais, App. 145. Ibid.
Alexander VTI.'.s Brief of April 26, 1664, on Mario Chigi's
declaration.
" Chaxticlauze, Card, de Retz, 103 ; Brosch, II., 432.
I08 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
conditions ^ which called forth the sneers of his enemies. ^
The brutality of Louis XIV. 's conduct can only be fully
realized when it is borne in mind that the incident of
August 20th was simply a skilfully chosen pretext to humiliate
the Holy See, for documentary evidence in the Paris Archives
shows that neither the King nor his advisers believed for one
moment the truth of their allegations against Alexander VII.
and his Government, that, on the contrary, they knew
perfectly well that the Pope could not be held responsible for
the attack on the palace of the ambassador.^
In order to attenuate the painful impression which France's
action towards the Supreme Head of the Church could not
fail to create in the Catholic world, Louis XIV. suddenly
manifested an unexpected willingness to join in a crusade
against the Turks. In the summer of 1G63 the Ottomans,
using Belgrade as their base, had launched an attack against
Hungary. So great was the peril that Vienna was being
fortified.^ Both Leopold I. and the Sultan were arming
feverishly. The Pope, whose resources had been exhausted by
the measures he had been obliged to take in defending himself
against Louis XIV. ,^ authorized the Viennese nuncio, Carafa,
* Daunou, Sur la puissance tcmporelle des Papcs, II.-, Paris,
1878, 172 seqq. MoiJY (II., 290 seqq.) could recently question the
authenticity of the Bull of protest only because he did not know
of Daunou 's book who found the document in the Papal Secret
Archives. Gerin (I., 496) also believes in the authenticity of the
Bull and observes (473) that even Louis XIV. admitted " qu'
Alexandre VII. n'y [the Treaty of Pisa] a consenti que ' le poignard
a la gorge ' et la buUe du 18 fevrier conticnt la verite absolue
en fait comme en droit ".
* Cf. *Le risate sopra la pace di Pisa (Dialogue between
Pasquino and Abbate Luigi) in Barb. 5684, p. i seqq. Vat. Lib.
See also *Discorso fatto in Parnasso (between Pasquino and
Marforio) in Ottob. 2332, p. i seqq., ibid. *More satires in Cod. 34
C, 20, of the Corsini Library.
' See the proof in the papers of the Archives of Foreign Affairs,
Paris, in Gerin, I., 471 seqq.
* Levinson, Nuntiaturberichte , I., 755.
* In the protest Bull (see above, n. i), Alexander \il. puts
BATTLE OF THE RAAB. lOQ
to alienate the gold and silver of the churches throughout
the Emperor's hereditary States, a measure which yielded
100,000 scudi. He also dispatched war material and a body
of armed men.^ To everybody's amazement Louis XIV.
detached 7,000 men from the troops with which he meant to
light the Pope to lend them to the Emperor, but for fear of
provoking the Turks he did this solely as a member of the
Federation of the Rhine ; moreover, he informed Constanti-
nople with the utmost secrecy that he had been coerced
into lending this assistance."^ On August 1st, 1664, the French
fought with their wonted bravery in the decisive battle on
the Raab, near the Cistercian monastery of St. Gothard.
However, this brilliant victory was quickly followed by the
peace of Vasvar (August 10th), simply because the Emperor
could not feel sure that the Empire would continue to help
liim, whilst he knew that he could rely even less on France's
assistance.^ He cannot be blamed for his action since
Louis XIV., so far from wishing to sever a long established
connection with the Porte, meditated very different plans.
his expenditure at roughly two millions. Fuller *data in Cod. H.,
II., 40, of the Chigi Library, Rome : " La spesa fatta dalli 20
agosto 1662 per la soldatesca di leva nel passato armamento e
pagata per essa a tutto settembre 1664, non compresa quella che
era solita tenersi, e importata scudi un millione e otto cento
diciotto mila nove cento cinquanta cinque. Non si comprende
nella suddetta spesa quello che le comunita di Bologna e Ferrara
pretendono sborsato per fieni et utensili che dice Ferrara importare
scudi 54,000." Bologna's expenditure was probably no less a
sum.
1 Bull., XVII., 229 ; Levinson, Nuntiaturberichte, I., 757,
759, 7G1, 766, 768, 771, 776. The magnificent chest presented
by Alexander VII. to the Emperor shows many allusions to the
Emperor Constantine which are likewise allusions to Leopold I.'s
war against the Turks. The chest is now in the collection of the
Imperial House of Austria ; see catalogue, p. 205 seq.
- Immich, Staatensystem, 51.
* ZiNKEisEN, IV., 929 seq. ; Erdmannsdorffer, I., 360 seq. ;
Mitteil. des Osterr. Instituts, X., 443 seq.; Mentz, L, hi ;
Rii:tzi.i:k, VII., 60 seq.
no HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Above all, by means of the Federation of the Rhine, he meant
to meddle with the internal affairs of Germany even more
than in the past. Already during the Turkish war, whilst
the valour of his soldiers caused him to appear as a champion
of Christendom, his officers were instructed to spy out
Leopold I.'s resources and the tactics of the imperial troops.^
Alexander saw through the French King's game though the
Abbe Bourlemont, on his return to the Eternal City, assured
him that the zeal of the King of France for the service and
welfare of religion was without parallel. ^
Firmly resolved to let bygones be bygones as much as
possible,^ the Pope did his best to carry out promptly and
loyally the treaty of Pisa. The attachment of Castro to the
Camera was revoked at once,* the declaration to be made by
Mario Chigi drawn up, the amnesty for Cardinal Maidalchini
and those who had taken part in the insurrection of Avignon
issued,^ and Flavio Chigi appointed Legate in France.^ Chigi's
credentials addressed to the French royal couple, were couched
in the friendliest terms,' for the Pope feared that an attempt
might be made to humble his representative still further
by receiving him badly. As a matter of fact, just then every-
thing was done on the French side to confirm the aged and
ailing Pontiff in this fear, and no occasion was missed of
showing disregard for him.^ However, the one thing that
must have grieved the Head of the Church more than any-
thing else was the circumstance that a pyramid had to be
1 RoussF.T, Louvois, L, 37 seqq. Cf. also the reports in Gerin,
I.. 476, 556.
=* Gerin, I., 491, 557.
=> Ibid.
* *Acta consist., February 18, 1664, Vat. Lib.
* Bull., XVII., 253-4 ; ibid., 262, for Cardinal Maidalchini's
absolution which was also extorted at Pisa.
« Nomination on March 24 and handing of the legatine cross
on April 28, 1664 {*Acta consist., Vat. Lib.). Gerin (I., 499),
must be corrected accordingly.
' *Epist., IX. -X, Papal Sec. Arch.
* Gerin, L, 468, 483 seqq., 497.
THE POPE S HUMILIATION. Ill
erected in his own capital for the purpose of perpetuating
his humihation. A curious hght is thrown on the mentahty
of the French by the fact that they saw to it that the inscrip-
tion was in the biggest letters possible and that by bribing
the papal architects, they persuaded them to make the
monument as solid as possible. ^ Not content with this,
Louis XIV. had medals struck in Paris to celebrate his
" victory " over a defenceless priest and a monument was
erected in the Place des Victoires.^ However, it was soon
seen that Louis's victory had been a Pyrrhic one. The King
had to pay a heavy price for the satisfaction of receiving
at the hands of a specially appointed Cardinal Legate, excuses
which the Pope had been prepared to offer from the beginning,
for the Legate insisted with grim determination on his being
accorded all the honours due to his position, so that his stay
in France singularly contributed to enhance the high idea
people had of the power of the Holy See.^
The Cardinal Legate left the Eternal City on April 23rd,
1664. He embarked at Civitavecchia for Marseilles and arrived
at Lyons on May 29th.* The Pope had spared no expense ^
1 Ibid., 493. The pyramid was only removed on May 31,
1668. Reproductions of it were widely distributed from France
{cf. Jung, La France et Rome, Paris, 1874, 180). Reproduction
of the 40 ft. high monument in Desmarais.
2 MoiJY (II., 424), justly stresses this.
^ Gerin, I., 482, note.
* The main sources for Chigi's legation are his *Registratio,
copy in Cod. E., II., 35, of the Chigi Lib., and the *Diario of
his companion, Baldini, ibid., E., II., 38, more fully in the Chigi's
private Archives at Ariccia. Cf. Gerin, L, 499 seqq. (departure
erroneously given as May 5) ; Mouy, II., 307 seqq., 310 seqq.,
and in La nouvelle Revue, LXXVIII.-LXXIX. (1892-3) ;
GuGLiELMOTxr, 291 ; RoDOCANACHi in Rev. d'hist. dipl., 1894 ;
Cl. Cochin, Une episode de la legation, etc., in Bullet, de la Soc.
d'hist. de Corbeille-Etampes, 191 1. A *poem addressed to Chigi
on the peace between Alexander VII. and Louis XIV. in Barb.
3885, p. 119 seqq.. Vat. Lib.
^ According to Cod. H., II., of the Chigi Library the " spesa
d. legatione di Francia " amounted to " scudi 200,000 in circa ".
112 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
to provide him with a numerous and brilHant suite. The
Legate's dignified bearing created a profound impression.
The enthusiasm with which the good Cathohc people of
France received him, was resented at court quite as much
as the Legate's great reserve. Accordingly, the Government
sought to ascertain his intentions by opening his corre-
spondence ! ^
When Chigi at last threw aside his reserve, he discovered
that he would only be allowed to make a solemn entry into
Paris in return for papal concessions in the politico-
ecclesiastical sphere. He declined such bargaining. In view of
the difficulties made on points of etiquette, he announced that
he would forgo a solemn entry into Paris and, in keeping
with the terms of the treaty of Pisa, confine himself to a visit
to the King. This firm attitude produced its effect ; the
French Government yielded all along the line.^ On July 3rd
Chigi had a most gracious private audience with the King at
Fontainebleau, and on July 29th, in accordance with the
treaty of Pisa, the solemn audience took place at which he
made excuses for the incidents of August 20th in the exact
terms agreed upon at Pisa.^ On August 9th the Legate made
Chigi's Maestro di casa, Giuseppe Sellori, according to his
" *Ristretto delle spese d. legatione " only disbursed 4,375
scudi (Private Archives of the Chigi at Ariccia).
' Gerin, I., 503 seqq.
* Ibid., 505 seqq.
' " Sire, Sa Saintete a ressenti avec una tres grande douleur
les malheureux accidents qui sent arrives, et les sujets de mecon-
tentement que Votre Majeste en a eus lui ont cause le plus sensible
deplaisir qu'EUe ffit capable de recevoir : je I'assure que ce n'a
jamais ete la pensee ni I'intention de Sa Saintete que Votre
Majeste fut offensee ni M. le due de Crequi, son ambassadeur. . . .
En mon particulier, j'atteste a Votre Majeste ... la joie que
j'ai de voir cette entree ouverte pour faire connaitre par les plus
soumises et sinceres actions de mon obeissance, quelle est la
veneration que j'ai, et toute ma maison aussi, pour le nom
glorieux de Votre Majeste . . . combien les accidents arrives
a Rome ont ete eloignes de nos sentiments, et avec quelle amertume
j'ai appris que moi et ma maison ayons ete en cela charges
THE LEGATE IN PARIS. II3
his solemn entry into Paris, although the Parhament of Paris
had raised some petty objections against his doing so.^ Cardinal
Imperiali, the injustice of whose condemnation was recognized
too late, was also graciously received, but for the time being
the Pope's new representative, nuncio Carlo Roberto de'
Vettori, was only received as nuncio extraordinary.^ The
restoration of Avignon took place in July.^
During Chigi's return journey to Rome, where he arrived
on October 9th,* the French Government was not sparing of
its attentions, but the Legate remained as silent and reserved
as before : the papal concessions which Louis XIV. had
expected were not granted.^ The Pope and his representative
did not allow themselves to be deceived by outward appear-
ances, all the more so as the conduct of the Duke of Crequi,
who since May 31st, 1664, was once more in Rome as ambas-
sador, made it only too evident that even now the French
Government had no desire to be on good terms with the Holy
See. Nevertheless, as soon as peace had been made with
Louis XIV., Madrid began to fear that in future Alexander VII.
d'imputations sinistres. ... Si nous avions eu la moindre part
dans I'attentat du 20 aout, nous nous estimerions indignes du
pardon que nous en aurions voulu at du demander a Votre
Majeste, la suppliant de croire que ces paroles et sentiments
sent exprimes par un coeur sincere, etc." Mouy, II., 345.
^ Gerin, I., 520 seqq., 527 seqq. ; Cappelli, 74 seqq., 98 seq.
Illustrated description in the loose sheet L'entree a Paris du
card. Chigi, legal en France, Paris, 1664. A medal in honour of
the entry is in the collection of medals of the palace at Ariccia.
2 Gerin, I., 530 seqq., 545. The *Brief to Louis XIV. on the
appointment of the nuncio, dated April 28, 1664, in Epist.,
IX.-X., Papal Sec. Arch.
' Gerin (L, 564 seq.) shows Louis's XIV. lack of loyalty in
this matter also.
* MotJY, II., 361 seqq. A *poem on the " amabilita del suo
genio e la soavita delle sue negotiation! " is in the Rospigliosi
Archives, Rome.
^ Cf. Pallavicino's letters to Alexander VII., in Macchia,
80, 82.
VOL. XXXI. I
114 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
would side witli France/ but events were to show that this
anxiety was quite unjust itied.
Crequi began at once to make impossible demands and
to pick quarrels with everybody, in fact that impossible
personage ended by quarrelling with his own suite.- His
recall by the King in March, 1665, came none too soon.
" He consorted almost exclusively with gamblers and Jews,"
a Frenchman wrote, " and thereby ruined both our friends
and his own reputation." ^
For a time the French embassy remained without an
occupant, business being transacted by the Abbe Bourlemont.
The Jansenist controversy, which now came once more into
the foreground, betrayed Louis XIV. 's determination to
impose his will on the Holy See even in ecclesiastical questions.*
But before all else he aimed at reducing the Pope to the
role of a willing tool of his unscrupulous policy, the object
of which was the acquisition of the whole of Spain's possessions
in the event of the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs. To
this policy the neutral, or more accurately, the impartial
attitude of Alexander VII. towards the great Catholic Powers
constituted an obstacle which it was necessary to remove.
This was to be the task of the new French ambassador in
Rome, the Duke of Chaulnes. Although from the political
standpoint the results of the treaty of Pisa proved, as time
went on, to be of no value to France,^ Chaulnes was expected
> Gerin, L, 533 seq., 547 ; Mouy, IL, 359 seqq.
'- Gerin, L, 538 seqq., 569, 575.
=> Ibid., 576. MoiJv, who judges Crequi with the utmost leniency,
concludes that he was quite unsuited for the post of Roman
ambassador (II., 419 seqq.), and that his conduct was but a
series of blunders (422).
' See below, ch. V.
■' MoiJY (II., 424 seq.) writes : " Le succes final obtenu avec
tant de peine, n'a servi en rien la France et sa politique : il a
offense personnellement le Souverain Pontile sans amener la
moindre concession utile, sans modifier en quoi ce soit
I'antagonisme gallican et ultramontain, sans meme agrandir le due
de Parme, qui n'a pu, comme il etait aise de le prevoir, rempHr
ses engagements pour Castro et qui a perdu definitivement ce
THE POPE S ILLNESS. II5
to continue the system of intimidation which Crequi had
adopted in his time. This was the burden of the Instruction
of the new ambassador when he was appointed in May, 1GG6.^
The Duke, who made his entry into Rome with unusual
pomp, on July 10th, ItiHG, faithfully carried out these
directions.
In the following month the Pope experienced several
violent attacks of his two ailments, gravel and kidney trouble.
It was only with the utmost difficulty that he was able to
receive Chaulnes. His condition only improved after a
stay at Castel Gandolfo in October. ^ His first care now was
to provide assistance for the Venetians in their struggle for
duche huit ans plus tard. Les seuls resultats pratiques ont done
ete : d'une part le voyage du legat qui a ete pour lui roccasion
d'une marche trioniphale a travers la France at d'une entree
magnifique a Paris, vt d 'autre part I'erection de cette pyramide
que si peu d'annees apres le roi consentait a laisser detruire . . .
En un mot, et pour de bien mediocres avantages, le St-Siege
fut a la fois opprinie, ce qui justifiait ses rancunes passees et ses
resistances futures, et inutilement attaque dans son amour-
propre. II sortait de la lutte avec I'espoir fonde de reprendre
bientot Castro, et de plus avec le droit de se plaindre des procedes
superbes du Fils aine de I'Eglise. Notre politique avait ete
constamment desagreable et irrespectueuse dans la forme et
debile dans le fond. C'etait I'inverse de ce qu'elle aurait du etre
et de ce qu'elle eut ete si Louis XIV. et M. de Lionne s'en tenant
avec fermete aux reparations necessaires, n'avaient pas surcharge
de negociations vaines une affaire ou leur bon droit, indeniable a
I'origine, a fini par s'obscurcir et fatiguer a la longue la France et
I'Europe." If Moiiy suggests that by prompt action against the
culprits, Alexander VII., " par quelques demarches gracieuses "
would easily (aisemcnt) have calmed Louis XIV. 's anger, that
optimistic view is refuted by the documentary evidence in Gerin.
If action against the Corsicans had been accelerated, Louis XIV.
and his advisers would have complained of the absence of the
usual judicial procedure.
1 Hanotaux, L, 158-225. Cf. P. Lesourd, L'ambassade de
France pres le St. Siege, Paris, 1924, 57, 73, 75, 90.
2 Gerin, II., 58 seqq., 134 seqq., 142 seqq. Cf. *Avviso of
November 27, 1666, Papal Sec. Arch.
Il6 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Crete, for after the failure of the Signoria's negotiations with
the Porte, both sides were arming for a decisive fight. ^ On
December 21st, 1666, the Pope appealed to the Cathohc
Princes, including Louis XIV., ^ and on February 3rd, 1667,
he granted to the Venetians a subsidy of 100,000 scudi.^
He likewise gave orders for the papal galleys to be ready to
put to sea in the spring.*
At this time Alexander VII. was already stricken with
mortal disease. One can only wonder at the will power which
enabled him, notwithstanding his delicate health, imperturb-
ably to continue his work for the space of twelve years
in a situation of the utmost difficulty, amid endless annoyances
on the part of France, and conscientiously to discharge the
duties of his ofifice despite his physical sufferings.
Alexander VII. had aged prematurely. During his nunciature
at Miinster he had lost all his teeth, ^ but he stuck to his
task by sheer tenacity and will-power. The French, who had
hoped for his early demise soon after his elevation, were
doomed to disappointment, though the Pope was constantly
tortured by disease of the bladder and the kidneys. ^ In his last
^ ZiNKEisEN, IV., 956.
2 The *Briefs to the Emperor, Louis XIV., Poland, Savoy,
Bavaria, and the ecclesiastical Electors, in Epist., XI.-XIIT.,
Papal Sec. Arch. Cf. Gerin, II., 105 seqq.
^ Bull., XVII., 481 seqq. Giacomo Quirini passes over in silence
this considerable subsidy in his prejudiced report, Berchet,
II., 322.
* GuGLiELMOTTi, 292. The total expenditure of the Apostolic
Camera for the papal galleys during the Turkish war, 1 655-1 667,
amounted to 1,626,939 scudi. Ademollo, in Riv. Europ., V.,
289.
^ NovAEs, X., 190.
" Gerin, I., 132. According to Riccardi's *report of July 3,
1655, Alexander VII. 's death was expected in November (State
Arch., Florence). By reason of his infirmities the Pope was unable
to carry the Blessed Sacrament at the procession of Corpus Christi,
as his predecessors had done. Bernini constructed a portable
chair on which the Pope, seemingly on his knees before the Host,
was carried (see Pallavicino, I., 269 ; Novaes, X., 184 seq. ;
THE POPE S ILLNESS. II7
years, when the attacks became increasingly frequent and
more dangerous, he saw himself obHged to curtail the recep-
tions of the ambassadors.^ Thereupon his enemies, with utter
disregard of the truth, represented the situation as if the Pope
shrank from work, and desired to indulge his learned tastes
and his love of quiet to the exclusion of all else.^ The fact is,
that even in the last years of his life he exerted himself to
the utmost in dealing with questions of government ; indeed
he frequently went beyond what his condition allowed, for
the last five months of his life were a long chain of grievous
bodily trials. At the Farnese palace his death was awaited
with impatience. It is with a feeling of indignation that one
reads the feeble, and at times indecent witticisms which fill
the letters written by the Duke of Chaulnes and his minions
to Louis XIV. and to Lionne.^ More than any other source of
information, they reveal the moral decadence of the representa-
tives of the roi soleil^
Moroni, IX., 47 ; Cancellieri, Nercato, 219). He speaks of his
infirmities even in his poems [Musae Juveniles, n. 45 and 56).
He consoles himself with the thought of St. Francis de Sales
[ibid., n. 45).
1 Gerin, II., 52 seq. A curious piece of medical *advice for
Alexander VII. 's complaint in Cod. E., VI., 205, p. 157 of the
Chigi Library. Ibid., p. 547 seqq., a " *Discorso sul mal di pietra
di Alessandro VII.," by Paolo Zacchia. Cf. also *Vat., 10, 412,
p. 85, Vat. Lib.
2 See Giacomo Quirini, in Berchet, II., 317 seqq., whose
account is adopted by Ranke (III., 37) and Brosch (L, 433),
regardless of the fact that it is from the pen of a prejudiced
partisan who is silent on the good done and who (on p. 320) goes
so far as to assert that Alexander VII. had squandered his treasure
on buildings, " non a riedificazione ma distruttione della citta
capo del mondo," quoting in proof the erection of the colonnade
of St. Peter's which rendered the Borgo for ever uninhabitable !
The same spirit characterizes the anonymous Vita di
Alessandro VII. (see above, p. 25, n. 3), where the same argu-
ment is used in an even more ludicrous fashion.
' G]feRlN, II., 113 seqq.
^ How greatlv the looseness of French manners at that time
Il8 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Even the French reports, biased as they are by hatred,
make it clear that up to the very end, in the measure in
which it was at all possible, the Pope faithfully fulfilled the
duties of his sacred office. On January 11th, 1667, though
confined to his bed, he received the Duke of Chaulnes, to
whom he complained of the bad treatment to which the Paris
nuncio had been subjected, as well as of various injuries
inflicted on the Church in France ; after which he spoke
of the Turkish war.^ On March 7th he made his last creation
of Cardinals ; his emaciated body, and especially the dullness
of his eyes, made it plain that the end could not be far off.^
Three days later his condition had become so much worse
that prayers before the Blessed Sacrament exposed were
ordered in all the churches. The Pope asked for Holy
Viaticum and made his last dispositions ; even Chaulnes
wondered at the calm and imperturbability with which he
faced death. One report compares him to a candle which
flares up for a last time before it goes out.^ Five or six times
a day he sent for the learned and devout Cistercian Giovanni
Bona, of whose services he was wont to avail himself besides
his ordinary confessor, the Jesuit, Giambattista Cancellati.
But these religious conversations did not make him forget
his official duties ; in fact, it was precisely during those
days that two important documents on the Jansenist con-
troversy were drawn up.* When his illness compelled him
to leave affairs on one side for a few days, Cardinal Chigi
was empowered to sign documents the dispatch of which
could not be deferred ; but as soon as there was any improve-
shocked Italian observers may be gathered from tlie description
of Seb. Locatelli, of Bologna : Voyage de France, 1664-1665,
ed. A. Vautier, Paris, 1905.
* Gerin, II., 116 seqq. On February i, 16G7, Alexander \TI.
had addressed a warning *Brief to Louis XI\'. on the injury
done to the Church, Epist., XI. -XIII., i'apal Sec. Arch.
- Gerin, II., 122. On the promotions, sec below, p. 130.
' Gerin, II., 151. Cf. Cardinal Sforza's *letter to Leopold F,
dated March 9, 1667, State Archi\ es, \'i(>nna.
* See below.
THE POPE S LAST DAYS. II9
mcnt, the Cardinal was made to give a detailed account
of whatever had been done.^
On March 16th, despite the opposition of his physician,
Alexander VII. held yet another consistory. ^ During the
ensuing weeks his condition grew steadily worse, but on
Easter Sunday, April 10th, gathering all his strength for
a supreme effort, he had himself carried to the balcony
of the Quirinal in order to bestow a solemn blessing upon
the people. This exertion brought about a grave relapse
in the course of the following night which gave rise to the
gravest anxiety.^ Though his body had shrunk to a mere
skeleton,* the Pope's mind remained remarkably fresh and
\igorous, as is proved by the farewell discourse which he
addressed to the thirty-six Cardinals gathered round his
deathbed, after he had received Holy Communion on
April 15th. 5 Though the voice of the stricken Pontiff was very
weak, his mind was as clear as ever. He began by expressing
his unshaken trust in God's mercy, after which he made
a survey of his pontificate. He had done his best, he said,
and had always had the best of intentions. He thought with
satisfaction of his solicitude for the divine service, the churches
and other buildings, and the help he had been able to give to
1 Gerin, II., 152. " *Chiuse i suoi giorni con rassegnatione
vera Christiana alia divina providenza " Carlo Barberoni wrote
on June i, 1667, to Leopold 1. (State Arch., Vienna). According
to the Florentine report in Grotanelli, 84, a physician was
summoned from Siena to attempt a last hour bladder operation.
* *Acta consist., loc. cit., Vat. Lib.
' Gerix, II., 154 seq. Cf. also the report of M. Jost, dated
.Vpril 0, 1667, in Zeitschr. fi'ir Schweizerischc Kischengesch, VIIL,
225, and Raggi's report in Neri, Corrisp. di F. Raggi, in Riv.
Enrop., 1878, v., 670 seq.
* See Neri, loc. cit., 675. Cf. also Card. Sforza's *letter of
July 17, 1667, to Leopold I., State Arch., Vienna.
5 See the account of Servantius, master of ceremonies, in Gerix,
IL, 155, and that of Lammer [Melet., 250 seq.), taken from a
MS. of the Library of S. Pietro in Vincoli, which is simply the
notes of the *Acta consist., Vat. Lib. Cf. also Neri, he. cit.,
671 seq.
120 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the Catholic Powers ; the conduct of his family likewise gave
him great satisfaction. He begged the Cardinals to forgive
the faults he had committed through human frailty and
recommended to them the Holy See and a good choice at the
forthcoming conclave ; let it be blameless as was that of 1655.
With grave words he warned the Cardinals not to sell them-
selves to the Princes, and in self-blame he lamented the fact
that at the last creation he had 3delded more than was just
to the latter's demands. He then gave them his blessing and
had the profession of faith read which he once again con-
firmed with an oath. On April 18th the Pope repeated the
substance of this address to Cardinals Orsini, Imperiali,
Pallavicino, Paluzzi and Rondinini, who had not been present
on the 18th.^ Towards the end of April another improvement
occurred, but it did not last. Despite his weakness and the
pain he was in, Alexander VH. gave a few minutes' audience
to the Spanish ambassador and after him to Cardinals
Vendome and Delfino. The next day he was worse, on the
19th he communicated once more and received Extreme
Unction. 2 As the evening Angelus was ringing on May 22nd,
he was released, though only 69 years old, from his pro-
longed sufferings which latterly had become acute. ^
1 Gerin, II., 158 seq. Cf. *Avviso of May 21, 1667, Papal
Sec. Arch. Ranke (III., 37 seq.) writes : " If his negotiations
failed, he laid the blame on the Cardinals' private interests. He
was still heard to speak of it in his delirium shortly before his
death." Against this we must note that the text of
Alexander VI I. 's allocution is not compatible with the assump-
tion of delirium. As regards the private interests of the Cardinals,
that is the venality of a number of members of the Sacred College,
Gerin has proved that Orsini, Azzolini and Maidalchini were
accessible to French money. On Spanish pensions for the Cardinals,
see the *note in the Archives of the Spanish Embassy in Rome,
I., 46.
2 Cf. the detailed accounts of Ferd. Raggi in Neri, loc. cit.,
675 seq., 679 seq., 681.
^ See *Avviso of May 28, 1667, loc. cit. Cf. the *lctter of Card.
Frederick of Hesse to Leopold I., dated May 22, 1667, who speaks
of the " heroichc virtu " of Alexander VII. (State Archives,
CHARACTER OF THE PONTIFICATE. 121
Alexander VII. was no longer among the living when news
reached Rome of Louis XIV. 's invasion of the Spanish Nether-
lands, a step that finally disposed of the plan of an anti-
Turkish league to which the Pope had clung ta-±he,last.
If the twelve years' pontificate of the Chigi t*ope had
failed to realize the high hopes set on the elevation of a man
so distinguished for learning, ability, and virtue,^ the fault
was not his. He had every quality to make a great Pope
but in his case also were to be verified the melancholy words
engraved on the tomb of Adrian IV. : " Oh ! how much
depends upon what epoch the life of even an excellent man
falls into ! " ^ More than anything else it was the relentless
enmity of Mazarin and Louis XIV. that made it impossible
for Alexander VII. to realize his lofty aims, and in the end
Vienna). Two " *Relationi della morte d'Alessandro VII. "
in Ottob. 3154, p. 322 seqq., 330 seqq., Vat. Lib., ibid., 338 seqq.
" *Relatione per la pompafunerale d'Alessandro VII.," by Giacomo
Fappalli and 352 seqq. " *Relazione della morte e del funerali di
P. Alessandro VII. con alcune iscrizioni, scritta da Giuseppe
Baldini." " Deposito di Papa Alessandro VII. eretto nella basilica
Vaticana, architettura del. cav. G. L. Bernini " (engraving by
Dorigny), Rome, ca. 1680. On the result of the autopsy Raggi
writes on May 22, 1655 : " Fu aperto il corpo di N. Signore. Non
vi si e trovata pietra alcuna ; ma bensi il reno manco pieno di
marcia bianca, non puzzolente, che ha cosi contaminata la punta
di un de' polmoni, e la milza ancora. Da cio si accendeva la febre.
II dolore che tanto lo martirizzava nasceva dal calare dell'urina,
dal reno infocato e guasto alia vescica. Dentro la vescica vi
erano tre grandole ; dentro pure si e trovato grasso impastato.
II suo male principio da una cascata, che fece a Castello Gandolfo,
che offese il fianco. Sempre diceva, che il suo male non era pietra,
e li medici, stimando il contrario, I'hanno medicato alia rovescia "
(Neri, loc. cit., 682).
^ Cf. Riccardi's *report of August 21, 1655, according to which
the disappointment was felt already at that time. State Archives,
Florence.
^ Soon after his election Alexander VII. lamented the fact that
his pontificate fell into so unfavourable a period ; see the report
of the Venetian obbedicnza embassy in Berchet, II., 184.
122 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
broke his strength. To this must be added the Pope's ill-
health, which accounts for his occasional slowness and lack of
decision. His achievements in the ecclesiastical sphere and
in the mission field are beyond dispute. It was not his fault
if an end was not put to the intrigues of the Jansenists.
Alexander VI I. 's piety, his hberality towards the poor,
his ever active solicitude for the city of Rome in time of want
and pestilence, could not be denied even by his bitterest
foes, though his initial severity towards his relatives, which
was excessive, and their subsequent promotion, throw an
unfavourable hght on his person and gave occasion for
the most severe as well as the most unjust condemnation.
But though on this point Alexander VII. also paid toll to
human weakness, his nephews never won any excessive
influence, on the contrary the Pope's chosen counsellors were
such distinguished Cardinals as Rospigliosi, Corrado and
Pallavicino, though he always reserved to himself the final
decision.^
Himself an accomplished man, a poet and a scholar,
Alexander VII. gave his powerful patronage to learning,
and more particularly to art. Accordingly this aspect of
his government, which was also emphasized at his obsequies
in St. Peter's on his magnificent catafalque, ^ must be described
' C/. Sagredo in Berchet, II., 234 set/. According to Basadonna
{ibid., 269), relations between Alexander VII. and Rospigliosi
became strained in course of time and even Palla\-icino saw
less of the Pope than at first (ibid., 217 seq.). How far this is
true remains to be ascertained because Basadonna is not an
unimpeachable witness.
- *Avviso of June 4, 16O7 : "11 gran mau.soleo eretto in mezzo
di detta basilica con 4 alte guglie alii cantoni di esso piene di
candelotti accesi, con molti medaglioni messi a oro rappresentanti
le fabriche di chiese, teatro e catedra fattc dal defunto Ponteficc,
et in mezzo vi era I'urna con sopra il triregno sustenuta da un
altissimo piedestallo, il quale alle 4 faccie rappresentava pure
posto a oro ITmmaculata Concettione di N. Signora, le 2 canoniza-
tioni di S. Tommaso de Villanova c Franc, de Sales, e la beatifica-
tiono del b, Pietro (i'Arl)ues Aragoncse, attorniati) da niolti
CHARACTER OF THE PONTIFICATE. I23
quite as much as his action within the Church if we are
to have a full-length portrait of the Pontiff.
anni, imprese, clogii e inscrittioni, in lode di S.S. " (Papal Sec.
Arch.). Cf. A. Favoriti, Ovatio in fiinere Alexandri VII., Romac,
1667. The Pope was buried " nell'arca commessa alia prima
cappella a mano sinistra " (Contarini, in Berchet, Roma, II.,
46). On Bernini's monument (sketch in L'Arte, IX. [1906],
204), cf. Benk.\rd, 31, 35, 41 ; Riv. stor., 1907, 373 ; Kiinsi-
geschichtl. Anzeigen, 1910, 27 ; Frey, Beitrcige, 99 ; Keyssler,
I., 770. *Satire against Alexander VII. by Ant. Magalotti in
Bibl. Nazionale, Florence, II., IV., 234. On the erection of the
monument between 1672 and 1678, see Fraschetti, 386. Of the
unveiling and the criticisms that followed at once an *Avviso of
April ZT,, 1678, says : E stato alia fine scoperto il deposito di
.\lessandro VII., la di cui statua, come era I'originale, che da una
parte appariva diferente dell'altra, e simile se si guardava in
faccia, ma in tutto dissimile, se si rimira in scurcio. La Carita
che e la la statua riguardevole, lo sta riguardando, ma riguard-
andosi di essere stata posta in quel posto ; la Penitenza, che e
la 23, si nasconde, vergognandosi di servir per gloria a chi non
I'ha mai conosciuta. Un bel ingegno otioso, de' quali a questa
citta non ne mancano, veduta detta statua orante e situata per
appunto in contro al quadro, dove il cav. Vanni dipinse la
caduta di Simone Mago, rintei^ogo, ma in latino, accioche pochi
intendessero : An adoraret Petrum aut Simonem " (Papal Sec.
.\rch.). Card. Pio, on May 28, 1678 (State Archives, Vienna),
wrote : " *DomenicaS. S'^. [Innocenzo XL] fu a vedere il deposito
d'Alessandro VII. e parendole tropp'ignuda la statua della Verita,
fece dire al S. card. Chigi che la facesse piu coprire, come seguira."
A severe criticism of the monument in Briggs, 38 seq.
CHAPTER IV.
Alexander VII. 's Activity within the Church — Reforms
—Nominations of Cardinals— Religious Conditions
IN Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia— Missions.
(1.)
Alexander VII. began his reign with wholesome reforms
within the Church, but in so doing he saw to it that no too
dark a shadow fell on the memory of his predecessor, for
during his stay in Germany he had noticed the bad impression
which resulted from an over-emphasis of the contrast between
the past and the present. ^
He made a beginning in July, 1655, with a purge of the
personnel of the Vatican. 2 He revived the Congregation
of the Visita and the functions in the papal chapel were
carried out more worthily.^ Since Rome should set a good
example to the rest of the world, a visitation of all the churches,
and hospitals of the Eternal City was ordered in January,
1 Pallavicino, I., 318, 320. To the Florentine envoy
Alexander VII. said that in view of the changes that had to be
made, it was necessary " salvare piu che sia possibile la reputa-
tione al morto (Innocent X.), portando questa similitudine :
Quando un pittore ha da rassettare in una facciata una pittura,
vi pone davanti una tela, perche non si veda, e accomodata la
leva ; cosi procureriamo di far Noi ", *report of April 17, 1655,
State Archives, Florence.
2 " *Questa mattina il papa ha fatto licenziarc molti del
personale, cioe bussolanti e camerieri extra muros, che per la
mala loro fama non erano degni di aver alcun officio in Palazzo."
Angelo Nardi to Giulio Fiorini, July 17, 1655. *The same to the
same on July 21, 1655 : " This policy is being continued," State
Archives, Modcna.
' Pallavicino, I., 318, 410. Cf. Novaes, X., 172 seq.
124
VISITATIONS IN ROME. 125
1656.^ The Pope took part in person in the visitation of the
four chief basihcas, the Lateran, St. Peter's, St. Mary Major
and St. Paul's, when he gave excellent short addresses in
Latin. 2 Great strictness was shown. ^ In order to obtain
God's blessing the Pope increased his alms to the poor and to
charitable institutions for the duration of the visitation.*
One excellent result was the prohibition of services at night,
with the exception of those of the sodalities of men, and
the ancient and traditional solemnities of Christmas night,
Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. A reform of Church
music was likewise undertaken.^ Later ordinances dealt
with the reform of regulars, one of them being a prohibition
of the use of carriages.** Further results of the visitation were
decrees for the good administration of Church property
the order of the liturgical services in the principal basilicas,'
and the reform of convents of nuns. The ordinances of
Urban VIIL and Innocent X. concerning the support of the
destitute sick in Rome were renewed.^ " The Pope," Sagredo
^ Bull., XVI., io6, 109, 113 seqq., 125, 127 seq., 130, 138.
2 Besides Pallavicino, I., 411, see the *Avvisi of January 28,
February 5 and March 4, 1656, Papal Sec. Arch. The *Acta
visit, has. S. Petri, in Barb. 2624, the *allocutions of the Pope,
ibid. 2009, Vat. Lib. A complete collection of all *Acta visit,
apost. sub Alexandra VII. in Arm., VII., 42, 46-73, Papal Sec.
Arch.
* Cf. *Avviso of May 15, 1656, Papal Sec. Arch.
* Cf. *Avviso of January 28, 1656, ibid.
^ See the prohibition of " musicae indecentes " of April 23,
1657, Bull., XVI., 275. Cf. the *Editto d. S. Visita apost. sopra
le musiche " of July 30, 1665, Editti, V., 7, p. loi. Papal Sec.
Arch., ibid., 107 seq. " *Concorsi di musici per la cappella
Pontificia," beginning on November 23, 1668.
6 See *Avviso of 1658 (no date), tbid. Alexander VII. himself
composed the Collect for the feast of St. Francis ; see Baumer,
Brevier, 511, who there speaks of the enrichment of the calendar
by Alexander VII.
' See the *report of Alata Tini of June 19, 1655, Gonzaga
Archives, Mantua.
8 Bull., XVI., 268, 270, 317, 341 ; cf. 581.
126 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
reports in Kidl, "rigorously insists on a worthy celebration
of the ecclesiastical functions, especially on the observance of
silence in the chapel, of which he himself gives the best
example. He has also been most careful in the choice of his
entourage and only persons distinguished both by birth and
virtue are employed in his service." The ceremonial was
strictly adhered to ; thus everybody had to kneel during the
audiences, with the exception of the Cardinals and the ambas-
sadors.^ The Pope saw with great displeasure some of the
worldly-minded Cardinals taking part in the amusements of
the Carnival, hence the Jesuit Zucchi was but the interpreter
of the Pontiff's feelings when, in a Lenten sermon preached in
the presence of the Pope, he sternly rebuked the wearers of
the purple. The preacher described the traditional amuse-
ments of the carnival as relics of paganism. " Only Jerome
of Narni," we read in a contemporary report, " were he still
alive, would have dared to do this, but Zucchi resembles the
Capuchin by the holiness of his life and by his frankness." -
The visitation of Rome was extended to the suburbican
dioceses ^ and all the Bishops of Italy and the adjacent
isles were urged to hold synods.^ On April 8th, 1656, Alexander
exhorted the German, French and Spanish Bishops to follow
Rome's example by holding visitations and synods of their
dioceses.^ In 1657 a similar exhortation was addressed to
Poland.* The reform of the Orders engaged the Pope's atten-
tion from the first year of his pontificate. Before all else he
was anxious to remove abuses contrary to common life in
monasteries. On April lOtli, 1666, he ordered a visitation of
^ Berchht, II., 243. The Oratorian .Mariano Soccino, in his
*programme of reform drawn up in 1670 (Library of SS. Ouaranti,
Rome ; cf. below, in Innocent XL), relates that when on the
occasion of a papal cappcUa, silence was broken in proximity
to the Pope, Alexander \T1. said in a loud and solemn tone ;
" Domus mea domus orationis."
- Neri, Corrisp. di Ferd. Raggi, in Riv. linrop., 187S, \ ., 668.
3 See *Cod. N., III., 66 of Bibl. Casanat.
« Bull., XVI., 168.
s *Epist., II., Papal Sec. Arch. « Bull, X\I., 313.
, REFORMS. 1 127
the Cistercians.' 'Die reform of the Orders was tlie ])arti("ular
concern of the canonist Prospero Fagnani, who enjoyed great
infinence with Alexander VII. ^ One wholesome measure was
the limitation of marriage dispensations and the abolition of the
cession of benefices by resignation, an abuse by which abbeys
and even bishoprics had become hereditary in particular
families. 3 The entry on office of nuncios, their expenses and the
ceremonial to be observed, were accurately determined.^
The Constitution of June 16th, 1659, iixing the conditions
for admission into the prelature, was destined to become
important for the working of ecclesiastical as well as secular
administration. The conditions required in future were :
legitimate birth from respectable parents, irreproachable
moral conduct, twenty-five years of age, five years' study
of the law at a University, the doctorate of both laws, two
years' practice at an ecclesiastical tribunal, an annual income
of 1,500 Roman scudi and, lastly, an examination by the
Segnatura delta Giustizia. These ordinances made entry
into the prelature difficult ; only one who fulfilled these
conditions could aspire to becoming a referendary of the
Segnatura and was qualified for all the higher offices, including
the cardinalate.^ Ecclesiastical and civil charges could be
exercised alternately, thus the Governor of a town or province
1 Ibid., XVII., 441.
- Basadonna, in Berchet, II., 273. Ranke (III., 37), even
in his last edition, calls him Fugnano. Fagnani was a well-known
scholar who died in 1678 at the age of So ; cf. Moroni, Indice,
III., 99 ; HuRTER, Nomenclator, IV., 253 seq.
' Sagredo, in Berchet, II., 248 ; Gerin, I., 278. For the
" solenni funzioni di abiura " of the followers of the adventurer
and alchemist Borri, 1661, in Rome and Milan, see
Magnocavallo, in Arch. stor. Lornb., 3 series, XXIX. (1902).
Borri had fled to Innsbruck and fought the papacy. The Curia
did its utmost to obtain his extradition ; see Levinson, Nuntia-
turberichte, I., 656, 658 seq., 663, 665 seq., 685 seq., 748. Cf. also
Krones, 568.
* BiAUDET, 59, 63, 312 seq., 314 ; Rom. Qtiartalschr., V., 161 seq.
* Moroni, LV., 144 seq. ; Phillips, VI., 307 ; Bangen, 52 ;
HiNSCHius, I., 388. According to the *dissertations in Cod. N. II.,
128 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of the Papal States might become a Vice-Legate, or a nuncio
and eventually a Cardinal, and the road to the purple was
hkewise open to the prelates of the Rota and the various
Congregations.
An event of universal importance was the publication
in 1664 of a new Index. In this edition the division into
three classes hitherto followed was dropped and the alpha-
betical order strictly adhered to. An Appendix gives the
decrees of the Index pubhshed after 1601. ^ In the sphere of
the Liturgy mention must be made of a decree concerning
the Cistercian Breviary. ^
Twenty-nine years had gone by since the last canonization,
for LTrban VIII. had laid down much more exacting conditions
for such an honour. Alexander VII. was able to carry out
one beatification, that of the Grand Inquisitor Peter de
Arbues [oh. 1485] ^ and two canonizations. On November 7th,
1658, he canonized Thomas of Villanova, Bishop of Valencia
[oh. 1555],* celebrated for his apostolic charity, and on April
19th, 1665, amid great pomp, Francis de Sales [oh. 1622],^
50, of the Chigi Library (which is perhaps meant by Ranke, III.,
70), Alexander VII. subsequently lowered the age to 21, and the
annual income to 1,000 scudi.
1 Bull., XVII., 234 ; Reusch., II., 29 seq. ; Hilgers, 14.
Barb. 3146-7 contains " *Acta s. congreg. Indicis libror. prohib.,
1 654-1 69 1, Carolo card. Barberini collecta " (with original
remarks by the latter). Vat. Library. On the Bull of June 23,
1665, condemning Gallican opinions, see Reusch, II., 552 seq.
On Alexander VII. 's attitude towards the Jews, see Archiv
fur kath. Kirchenrecht, LIII. (1885), 66 seq. ; on his relations
with the Greeks : GoRi, Archivio, V., 33 seq.
- Zisterzienserchronili , 191 7.
3 Bull., XVII., 154.
* Ibid., XVI., 396. Cf. the *notes for September 12 and
November i, 1658, in the Epist., III.-V., Papal Sec. Arch.
'- Bull., XVII., 431 [ibid., XVI, 744, the beatification of
December 18, 1661). Cf. the *notes on consist, seer, of September
14, 1662, Epist., VI. -VIII., Papal Sec. Arch. ; also the *Avvisi
of March 14 and April 18 and 25, 1665, and Epist., XI. -XIII.,
CANONIZATIONS. I29
a man who by his own hfe and the Order founded by him,
played so important a role in the period of the Catholic
Restoration and who by his writings exercises a lasting
influence upon the Catholic world. ^ The Pope cherished a
particular veneration for this great man of whom the Queen
of France had given him a relic in 1642.^ In December, 1661,
Alexander VII. renewed the decrees of his predecessors
Sixtus IV., Pius v., Paul V. and Gregory XV., in favour of
the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother
of Our Lord.^ The Constitution called forth great joy,
more especially in Spain where the genius of Murillo had
exalted this mystery by his magnificent, world-famed
pictures.*
Even the most exacting critic is bound to admit that
Alexander VII. only summoned men of blameless character
ibid. Ibid., I., *Brief of November 15, 1665, to Count Buquoy,
who had prayed for the canonization of Francis de Sales. On
the interests of the French court, see Gerin, I., 572 seq. Cf. also
MoiJY, II., 413 seqq.
1 Cf. our data XXIII., 413.
* This relic is preserved to this day in the chapel of the palace at
Ariccia.
3 On the Bull and its significance, see Novaes, X., 147 seq.,
and DuBosc de Pesquidoux, L'Immaculee Conception, Hist, d'un
dogme, I., Paris, 1898, 447 seqq. By a *Brief of December 28,
1661, the Bull was also sent to Louis XIV. [Epist., VI.-VIII.,
Papal Sec. Arch.). One of Suner's paintings is connected with the
Bull ; cf. Rothes, Die Unbefieckle Enipfdngnis in dev bildenden
Kunst, in Lit. Suppl. of Koln. Volkszeitung, 1904, No. 49. On
an ordinance of 1665 in favour of the dogma c/. Jungnitz, Seb. v.
Rostock, Erzbischof von Breslau, Breslau, 1891, 183.
* JusTi, Murillo, Leipzig, 1904, 49 seq. ; Graus, Conceptio
immaculata in alten Darstellungen, Graz, 1905 ; Rothes, loc.
cit. ; A. Mayer, Gesch. der span. Malerei, Leipzig, 1922, 339 seq.
PhiUp IV. had requested Innocent X. to define the dogma of the
Immaculate Conception ; see his letter in App. to Cartas de la
ven. Sor. Maria de Agreda y del Rey Felipe IV., p.p. F. Silvela,
I., Madrid, 1885.
VOL. XXXI. K
130 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
into the Supreme Senate of the Church.^ The only fault
his contemporaries could find with him in this respect was his
predilection for the Sienese, but it was precisely with these
that the Pope was best acquainted.
At the first creation, on April 9th, 1657, besides the nephew,
Flavio Chigi, nine Cardinals were named, though only live
were published ; they were Camillo Melzi, a friend of Chigi
from the days of his nunciature in Vienna, Giulio Rospigliosi,
who became Secretary of State, Count Niccolo Guido Bagno,
Girolamo Buonvisi and Francesco Paolucci. Buonvisi had
also been long known to the Pope who had made him his
Maestro di Camera. Bagno had been nuncio in Paris during
the pontificate of Innocent X. Both he and Paolucci, Secretary
of the Congregation of the Council and Immunity during a
period of thirty years, were already in the seventies.
On April 29th, 1657, two of the Cardinals reserved in
petto were proclaimed : they were the Sienese Scipione
d'Elce, successively nuncio in Venice and Vienna, a splendid
man, as was the Maggiordomo, Girolamo Farnese, to whom
Rome owed the Scuole delle Maestre Pie. Another two of
those reserved in petto, viz. the papal nephew, Antonio Bichi
of Siena and the Jesuit, Francesco Sforza Pallavicino, who had
been on intimate terms with the Pope for years, were published
V on November 10th, 1657.
At the creation of April 29th, 1658, in view of the circum-
stance that up to that date no demand for the red hat had come
in from any of the Catholic Princes, the Pope had assured the
purple, by reservation in petto, to three most deserving
prelates, 2 publication of whose names took place on April 5th,
' CiACONius, IV., 727 scqq., whose data agree with Contelorius'
*notes in the Papal Sec. Arch., XI., 49. The data on the nomina-
tion in Cardella, VII., 122 seqq. and Xovaes, X., 128 scqq.,
136 seqq., 142 seqq., 152 seqq., 186 seqq., are confused. Cf. also
Gerin, I., 484 seq., II., 46 seqq. Sagredo's opinion on the excellent
cardinalitial nominations of Alexander VII. deserve attention,
as that writer is not, on the whole, an admirer of that Pope ;
see Berchet, II., 254.
" Pallavicino, II., 207.
NEW CARDINALS. I3I
1()()0. They were the Sienese \'()himni(i Bandiiielh, an old
friend of the Pope's, liis Mai^^'^iordomo, Odoardo VecchiarelU
and Jacopo F"ranzoni. Among the rest of those appointed on
April 5th, lOGO, the elevation of the Archbishop of Ratisbon,
Franz Wilhelm von W'artenberg, a trusty collaborator of the
Pope at the peace congress of Miinster, was due to the recom-
mendation of the Emperor ^ and that of the Polish nuncio,
Pietro Vidoni, to the prayer of the King of Poland.- Pasquale
d'Aragona's nomination had been desired by the King of
Spain and that of Francesco Maria Mancini by the King of
France.^ In addition to these the purple was bestowed on
the Venetian Gregorio Barbarigo, who was also well known
to the Pope from the time spent by both at Miinster, whither
the former had accompanied the Venetian envoy, Contarini.
In 1G57 the Pope had named Barbarigo to the see of Bergamo,
where the latter, as subsequently at Padua, worked in the
spirit of Charles Borromeo and also extended his patronage
to men of learning. At a later period Barbarigo was twice
on the verge of being elected Pope but his humility caused
him to decline that dignity. He was beatified by
Clement XIII. in l/Gl.^
1 See *Brief to Leopold L, dated April 5, 1660, Epist., IIL-V.
Papal Sec. Arch.
■^ Cf. Archiv fi'ir osierr. Gesch., XCV., 10.
^ Gerix, L, 192.
^ Barbarigo, whom Alexander YM. described as an angel of
goodness (Berchet, IL, 256), has not yet been the object of a
monograph in keeping with modern requirements. On him, cf.
RiCHiNius, De vita beati Greg. B., Romae, 1761 : Ughelli, IV.,
510 ss. ; AuDisio, // B. Greg. B., Venezia, 1859 ; Scritti inediti del
B. Greg. B., p. p. Uccelli, Parma, 1877 ; M. Mamachi, Capi
trascelti della vita inedita del b. Greg. B., Padova, 1883 ; Lettera
del b. Greg. B. ad A. Contarini net 1649, Venezia, 1887 ; G. Alessi,
]'ita delb. Greg. B., Padova, 1897 ; Poletto, in Bessarione, 1901 ;
A. Coi, Visile paslorali del b. Greg. B. card, vescovo di Padova alia
sua diocesi, Padova, 1908. See also [L. Todesca e S. Serena],
11 Scminario di Padova, Padova, 191 1. A *]'ita del b. Greg. B.
scripta pro causa eins canonizationis in Cod. L, 19, of the Bibl.
132 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
When Alexander VII. realized that his strength was waning,
he deemed it his duty to make sure of the election of a worthy
successor by creating a large number of Cardinals. This he
did on January 14th, 1664. Six out of the twelve men chosen
were reserved in petto. Of the new Cardinals, four were
Romans, namely Carlo Bonelli, nuncio in Madrid, Angelo
Celsi, a noted jurist, Paolo Savelli and Gianniccolo Conti ;
two were Sienese, viz. Celio Piccolomini, nuncio in Paris,
and Jacope Nini, the Pope's maggiordomo. To these were
added the Archbishops of Bologna and Milan, Girolamo
Boncampagni and Alfonso Litta. Carlo Carafa had held the
post of nuncio in Switzerland, at Venice and at Vienna.
Paluzzo Paluzzi had rendered loyal service to the Holy See
over a period of forty years, but his frankness of speech
had made him many enemies. Cesare Rasponi had at one
time been auditor to the Pope and Neri Corsini had adminis-
tered the Camera Apostolic a. It was only on February 15th,
1666, after the lapse of more than two years, that those out
of the above-named twelve who had been reserved in petto,
were proclaimed, four others being created at the same time,
though they too were reserved in petto until March 7th, 1667 ;
they were Giulio Spinola, who had been very successful
as nuncio at Naples and Vienna, Roberto de' Vettori, nuncio
in Savoy, Vitaliano Visconti, nuncio in Madrid, and Innico
Carracciolo, Archbishop of Naples. To these must be added the
following created on March 7th, 1667, when Alexander VII.
made his last nomination : Giovanni Dellino, Patriarch of
Aquileia, together with three candidates named by three
Magliab., Florence. Another *Biografia in Cod. XXIV., 74, of the
Bibl. Comun. of Lodi. A *Ristretto delle gloriose azioni del b. Greg.
B. in Cod. F., 39, of the Boncompagni Archives, Rome. A *survey
of the Cardinals written after 1686 says of Gregorio Barbarigo :
" E tutto zelo, tutto picta, tutto amorc, totalmente impcgnato
nell'orazione, neU'elemosine at in ogni altro pio esercitio della
sua cura pastorale. Fa grandi astinenze . . . Mangia in refettorio
con la propria servitu, predica di continue e non lascia mai
d'insegnare la dottrina Christiana, di fare missioni e d'assistenza a
moribondi," Liechtenstein Archives, Vienna.
CARDINALS IN PETTO. I33
Catholic Powers, viz. the Emperor, France and Spain ;
they were Guidobald Count Thun, Archbishop of Salzburg,
Louis Vendome and Luigi Guglielmo Moncada d'Aragona,
at one time Viceroy of Sicily.^
If Alexander VII. had such frequent recourse to reserva-
tion in petto, the fact was due both to the lack of adequate
provision for those designated and to the pretensions of the
Catholic Powers to the elevation of so-called Crown Cardinals. ^
Thus Poland considered that she had been overlooked at the
last nomination in March, 1667, and accordingly lodged a
vehement protest in Rome.^ The intensity of the resentment
appears from the proposal made at the time that all the
Catholic Powers should combine with a view to compelling
the Pope, with a threat of schism, to take their wishes into
account in the nomination of Cardinals.* Meanwhile, the claims
of the Powers had been considered, hence the proposal had
no further sequel.
Conduct such as this gave particular pain to Alexander VII.
When in 1655 King Charles Gustavus attacked the tottering
Polish kingdom, already so hard pressed by the Russians
and the Cossacks, the Pope, clearly realizing the peril, ^ at
^ Cf. CiAcoNius, IV., 764 seq. ; Boglino, 63 seq. G. Spinola
distinguished himself during the epidemic of 1656 ; see N. Capece
Galeota, Cenni storici dei Nunzii apost. di Napoli, Napoli, 1877.
The tomb of Neri Cossini {ob. 1678) is in S. Maria del Carmine,
Florence, with a relief from the School of Algardi.
- Pallavicino, II., 207.
' See *Doglianze del Re di Polonia sopra I'ultima promotione
d'Alessandro VII., in Barb. 5570, Vat. Lib. " *Letter of the King
of Poland to Alexander VII., the College of Cardinals and Card.
Chigi," dated Warsaw, April 5, 1667, in Campello Archives.
Spoleto. Ibid. " *Considerationi sopra la nomina della corona di
Polonia nella promozione del 7 Marzo 1667 mandate al referen-
dario Monsin li 8 Aprile, 1667."
* " *Sopra la nomina de' cardinali delle corone," Cod. VIII. ,
G. 29, p. 150^ seqq., Liechtenstein Arch., Vienna.
* Cf. Riccardi's *reports of Augii.st 28 and September 25,
1655, State Archives, Florence.
134 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
once did everything in his power to prevent the destruction
of that ancient bulwark of Cathohcism in Eastern Europe.
He himself contributed a sum of 30,000 scudi and authorized
the ahenation of Church treasure up to the sum of 100,000
thalers.^ It was the Pope and his nuncios Vidoni and Carafa
who induced the Emperor to lend military aid to Poland,
thereby saving that kingdom. ^ All during these troubles
the diocese of Ermland, which was immediately subject to the
Holy See, was in danger of falling into the hands of the
Calvinist Elector of Brandenburg : the latter's troops only
withdrew in 1663.^
The question of filling the vacant Portuguese sees, which
had already greatly preoccupied his predecessor, was likewise
a source of anxiety for Alexander VH.* Though he exerted
all his diplomatic skill and mental acumen, he failed to undo
this Gordian knot.^
1 Theiner, Mon. Pol., III., 508 seq. ; Pallavicino, I., 325 seq.,
388 seqq. ; Bull. XVI., 103, 347 ; Levinson, in the dissertation
(p. 57) quoted in the following note.
2 Levinson, Die Nuntiaturberichte dcs P. ]'ido>ii iiber chn
ersten nordischen Krieg cuts den Jahren, 1655-1658 (Archiv fi'ir
osterr. Gesch., XCV., 7 seqq., 32 seqq., 119), who justly extols the
statesmanship of the nuncio. On Vidoni, see also Zeitschr. dev
Hist. Gesellsch. f. Posen, 1915. The instructions of the Secretary
of State of April i, 1656, on the negotiations with the Protestant
Elector of Brandenburg in Levinson, loc. cii. On the Austro-
Polish Alliance of December i, 1658, cf. Pribram, Lisola, 31 seq.
' Cf. Hiltebrandt, in Ouellen u. Forsch., XIV'., 365 seq.
* See XXX., 74 seqq.
■"• Pallavicino, I., 329, II., 240 seq. *Documcnts on this ques-
tion in Cod. R. I., 4, and C. II., 27, of tlie Chigi Library. Cf. Fea,
Nullita delle amministrazioni capitolari abusive, Roma, 1815,
54 seqq., 56 seqq. A *Bricf of Fcl:)ruary 17, 1663. to the " Inquisi-
tores regni Lusitaniae ", says : " .\u(li\imus OduarduTii iiiicnidain
Hebraeum Lusit., qui nunc Loiidini commoratur ct olini in isto
s. Inquisit. tribunali punitus j)ublice fuit, magnam pecuiiiam
ct ingentes maritimarum et terrcstrium copiarum apparatus
Ilaebr. sumptibus comparaturum esse, turpibus conditionibus :
THE POPE AND GERMANY. I35
During his thirteen years as nuncio in the Rhineland,
Alexander VII. had become thoroughly acquainted with the
situation in Germany ; now that he was Pope, he took a
lively interest in everything that happened in that country.
Thus he gave pecuniary assistance to the city of Aix-la
Chapelle after the great lire of 1656 ^ ; but his chief anxiety
was to preserve the Catholic religion from further injury
within the boundaries of the Empire.
When the Emperor Ferdinand II. died unexpectedly on
April 2nd, 1657, leaving the question of the succession
unsettled, the Pope, on June 30th, and again on October 6th,
begged all the Catholic Electors to safeguard the interests
of religion at the election of a new ruler. ^ The exhortation
was all the more opportune as the Elector Palatine demanded
the election of a Protestant Emperor.^ The condition of
Germany, bleeding as she still was from a thousand wounds,
and torn by domestic dissensions,* rnay be gauged from the
attempts of foreign countries to meddle in this purely internal
question. Sweden, Mazarin and Cromwell were at one in their
determination that no member of the House of Habsburg
1. ut Hebraeis locus tutus et commodus assignetur erigendae
publicae Synagogae, ad quam ex universe orbe liceat convenire ;
2. ludaizantibus sive delatis sive reis generalis venia concedatur ;
3. in processibus defensivis publicentur nomina testium." These
will, no doubt, not be accepted since these offences against God
would do the realm far more damage than a war, as is the case in
those places where the sects have penetrated. If an ear is lent to
such suggestions, you must offer determined resistance. Epist.,
VI.-VIII., Papal Sec. Arch.
^ Cf. Zeitschr. dcs Aachener Geschichtsvereins (1885), 42. From a
♦Brief of May 12, 1657, to the council of " Rapps villa " we learn
that the Pope had given a sum of money for the restoration of the
church there. Epist., III., Papal Sec. Arch.
- See the Briefs to the Electors quoted by Levinson in Archiv
fiir osterr. Gesch., LXXIII., 168.
' GuxTER, in Hist. Jahrb., XXXVII., 379.
♦ See the Discorso published by A. O. Mevek in Ouellen u.
Forsch., IX., 155 scq.
136 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
should ascend the imperial throne.^ A tense diplomatic
struggle began. France, during the short time when the
candidature of Louis XIV. was contemplated, ^ was prepared to
spend three millions and dispatched her best diplomatists,
Grammont and Lionne, to the electoral Diet which met at
Frankfort.
At first Alexander VII. felt disinclined to take part in the
electoral campaign. Without pronouncing in favour of any
particular candidate, he contented himself with recommending
the choice of a man who would be powerful enough to uphold
the Catholic religion. In the interest both of the Church
and of Germany, he sought to hasten the election. ^ After
the elevation of the youthful Bavarian Elector Ferdinand
Mary, advocated by France, and even more insistently by
Sweden * had failed,^ the Pope worked with the utmost energy
for the election of Leopold of Habsburg who gave the necessary
guarantee that, as King of Hungary, he would defend the
Empire against the Turks, whilst his personal quahties made
it equally certain that he would uphold the Catholic religion.^
Neither protests nor cajolings on the part of France could
induce the Pope to relax his efforts on behalf of the Habsburg
candidate. Besides the Palatine, Leopold's election was
particularly opposed by the Electors of Cologne and Mayence.
The latter had shown open hostility to the Pope's representa-
tive, the Cologne nuncio, Sanfelice, from the moment of his
arrival at Frankfort.'
During the electoral Diet, which lasted nearly a year,
1 Mentz, I., 72 ; Michael, in Hist. Zeitschr.. CXVIII.,
501 seq.
2 Preuss, in Hist. Vierteljahrsschr., VII. (1904), 488 scq.
" See Venez. Depeschen, I., 22 ; Pallavicino, II., 189.
■* Save, Keysarvalet i Francfort, Stockholm, 1869.
'- RiEZLER, VII., 25 seq.
* Cf. Walewski, Leopold I. iind die heilige Ligue, II., 222 ;
Pribram, in Archiv. osterr. Gesch., LXXIII.. 167 seq. ; Levinson,
Nuntiaturberichte , I., 558 seq.
' Mim. de Grammont, II., 132.
CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE. I37
Sanfelice was taken seriously ill in consequence of the extra-
ordinary exertions and emotions he underwent,^ but he had
the satisfaction of seeing the unanimous election of Leopold
as Emperor on July 18th, 1658. In a letter to the Pope the new
ruler gratefully acknowledged the Holy See's large share in
bringing about this event.^
Four weeks after the election of the Emperor, on
August 14th, 1658, as a result of the action of the Elector
of Mayence and John Philip von Schonborn, Archchancellor
of the Empire, the Federation of the Rhine was formed,
an alliance which France promptly sought to exploit, at the
expense of Germany, on behalf of her policy of expansion.
The three ecclesiastical Electors, the Bishop of Miinster and
the Count Palatine of Neuburg, together with the Duke of
Brunswick, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and the Swedes,
bound themselves to uphold the Peace of Westphalia, and
to this end to support one another, " irrespectively of the
difference of religion." The Federation was in direct opposition
to the House of Habsburg, uniting as it did, Catholic, Lutheran
and Calvinist princes. The Cologne nuncio, Sanfelice, was
fully justified when he saw in this alliance an injury to the
interests of the Church, since by its terms the Catholic princes
undertook to lend armed assistance to the Swedes in their
defence of two dioceses which had been secularized for their
benefit. Treves and Miinster were impressed by Sanfelice 's
representations, but the Elector of Mayence was as little
touched as when, in opposition to Innocent X. and nuncio
1 The " *Diario deU'elezione dell' Imp. Leopoldo I. da G. ^NI.
Sanfelice," in Cod. Strozz., 1079 (State Arch., Florence), was
published by F. Sanfelice, Napoli, 171 7. On Sanfelice 's activi-
ties, cf. Pallavicino, II., 191, and Pribram, loc. cit., 168 seq.
See also the *notes in Barb. 61 12, p. 320 seqq., 335 scqq., 353 seq..
Vat. Library.
- Pallavicino, II., 191. Cf. Levinson, Niintiaiuybcrichtc ,
I., 639. The * congratulatory Brief of August 3, 1658, to Leopold I.
in Epist., III.-V., Papal Sec. Arch. The Declaratio on the imperial
election of August 2, in Bull. XVI., 359.
138 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Chigi, he had given his approval to the Peace of WestphaHa.^
The independent position with regard to Rome, which the high
German prelates arrogated to themselves as princes of Empire,
showed itself in other ways also. At the very beginning
of the pontificate of Alexander VII., the Cologne nuncio
was obliged to rebuke a German Bishop for assisting at a
Calvinist sermon ; the weak man had hoped thereby to win
over the enemies of the Church. ^
Although quinquennial faculties similar to those held by
the nuncios had been granted by Urban VIII. in 1G40 to the
Archbishop of Cologne, and by Innocent X. in 1653 to
the Archbishop of Mayence, disputes with the Pope's repre-
sentatives were not thereby avoided. ^ More than anything
else it was the nuncio's claim to a wide jurisdiction that
annoyed the German clergy ; hence, at the instigation of the
ecclesiastical Electors, Ferdinand IV. had been obliged
to swear in his electoral capitulations that he would insist
on the removal of the abuses arising out of that circumstance.
A similar clause was permanently inserted in the electoral
capitulations.*
A number of other causes also frequently gave occasion
for friction ; nor is this to be wondered at, for in matters
of Church policy the Archbishops of Mayence and Cologne
were often very badly advised. The Archbishop of Mayence,
Johann Philipp von Schonborn, who at the beginning of
1658, took some steps with a view to better relations with
the Holy See,^ was under the influence of Johann Christian
von Boineburg, a man remarkable both as a statesman and as
a scholar. Now, though Boineburg had embraced Cathohcism
' Wagner, Hist. Leopoldi, I., 47; Mentz, II., 174. Cf. Hist,
polit. Blatter, CLXIV., 531, which justly observe that there were
encroachments on both sides.
2 Pallavicino, II., 390.
» Mentz, II., 171 seq. ; Mergenthkim. 1., 30 scq., 39, IT, n^^-
< Sartori, T, 215 .^cq. ; Mentz, IT, 173.
* Mentz, IT, 176.
FURSTENBERG. I39
with fullest conviction/ he nevertheless retained some very
peculiar notions. This is shown by his correspondence with
the Protestant jurist Conring : " Let the Romans hate us,
so long as they fear us," he wrote to the latter on January
23rd, 1659. A year later, on December 13th, 1660, he wrote that
a German Bible, according to Ulenberg's translation, had been
printed at Mayence by order of the Elector, without Rome's
permission, but " of what use could such a permission be in
matters of this kind ? " ^
Much worse were the sentiments entertained by the intimate
adviser of the Elector of Cologne, Henry of Bavaria, the artful
Dean of Cologne cathedral, Francis Egon von Fiirstenberg.^
Fiirstenberg was the chief promoter of the Rhine Federation ;
he sought his own advantage by maintaining a close associa-
tion with the French Government to which he owed his eleva-
tion to the See of Metz in 1658, and to the See of Strassburg
in 1663. Just as the boundless ambition of this man led him
to betray his country, so did he betray the interests of the
Church. Wherever he could do so, he agitated against the
Church in secret. His intrigues did not escape the Cologne
nuncio who reported as early as February, 1660, that the aim
of Fiirstenberg was to put an end to the Holy See's influence
on religious conditions in Germany, and above all to render it
impossible for Rome to make its authority felt when there
was question in that country of filling episcopal sees.* In
view of the fact that it was not the Elector, a pious but
weak man, but Fiirstenberg, who collated to benefices and
often bestow^ed them on unworthy candidates, Rome decreed
that in future the nuncio was to be consulted on all such
occasions. This measure irritated the Elector who now agreed
to Fiirstenberg's plan to convene a German national council
* Vol. XXX., p. 138, also ScHROHE, /. Ch. Boynchiirg, Knv-
inaimer Oberhofmarschall (1927).
- Mexzel, VIIT., 332.
' Cf. Allg. Deutsche Biogr., \"II., 297 seqq.
* Mentz, II., 176; cf. Levixsox, Xtniiicititrbcnrhte, I., 700,
716 seq.
140 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
for the purpose of fighting " Rome's encroachments ". This
assembly would then make common cause with the French
Galileans. However, he could get no support from the Emperor,
for the latter saw through the intrigue ; on the other hand,
the Archbishop of Mayence appears to have been not unfavour-
able, though he, as well as Louis XIV., realized how difficult
it would be to bring together so many diverse characters and
interests. In March, 1661, documents of a compromising
nature about this scheme came into the hands of the Cologne
nuncio, Marco Gallio, who at once forwarded them to Rome.^
Not long after the nuncio in Vienna, Carlo Carafa,^ and a little
later, the nuncio at Cologne became acquainted with yet
another document according to which the Archbishop of
Mayence, acting in agreement with the Archbishops of
Cologne and Treves, and the Kings of France and Spain,
had laid before the Pope a proposal for a union with the
Protestants. The union was to be brought about at a synod
consisting of twenty-four persons chosen from both com-
munions, and by means of the following concessions : Mass
in German, Communion under both kinds, the marriage of
priests and abolition of auricular confession.
It is highly probable that these revelations were purposely
allowed to come to the knowledge of the nuncios with a view to
exercising pressure on the Holy See in the ecclesiastico-
political sphere. But not only was this object not attained,
on the contrary, Rome met these threats with impurturbable
calm.^ How little Rome thought of granting concessions
of this kind was experienced by the Archbishop of Mayence
^ IMextz, II., 178 5^^., 183 seq., cf. also Guhrauer, Schriften
von Leibnitz, II., 341.
^ Notice of his mission in a *Brief to the Archbp. of Salzburg,
dated August 24, 1658, in which Carafa is described as " praesul
summa pietate, prudentia et generis claritudine praestans ".
Konsistorialarchiv, Salzburg.
" Gruber, Commerciiim epistolare Leibnitii, 411 seq.
Guhrauer, loc. cit., I., 3 seq. ; Mentz, II., 217 ; Hiltebrandt,
Reunionsverhandlungen, 32 seq. ; Veit, in Katholik, 191 7, II.,
170 seq.
furstenberg's intrigues. 141
in the course of some negotiations with the city of Frankfort,
on the subject of the return of its Protestant citizens to the
Cathohc Church. To the opportunist Archbishop's request
that the chahce should be conceded to the laity, the Secretary
of State, Chigi, replied firmly that the Pope had not been
surprised at John Philip entertaining such notions, seeing that
he had always looked for, and suggested, ways and means
to satisfy both parties. However, this had always been
held to be an impractical notion and one impossible of realiza-
tion. As for the request for Communion under both kinds,
similar demands had been made to several Popes at different
times, but after mature examination of the reasons advanced
in its support, it had always been deemed inopportune to
yield on this point since those who sincerely embrace Catholic
truth and return to the bosom of Holy Church from a desire
to save their souls, have no need of such a privilege ; if, on
the other hand, they lack these dispositions, such a means of
grace would be superfluous, in fact, it would be wrong to grant
it. The nuncio was instructed, in the event of the subject being
broached again, to do his best so as to avoid giving a definite
answer. H people were bent on appealing to the Pope, he
may let them do so, but on no account must he encourage
them.^
The Roman authorities were fully informed concerning
Furstenberg's intrigues, hence it was with increasing anxiety
that they awaited the Diet of Ratisbon which was opened
on January 20th, 1663, by the Archbishop of Salzburg,
Guidobald von Thun acting as imperial commissary. ^ Through
this prince of the Church it had become known that in the
preceding year the Elector of Cologne had advocated not only a
German national council, but likewise the appointment of a
German patriarch and some kind of a replica of French
Gallicanism.^ Accordingly the Curia sought to guide the
Electors of Cologne and Mayence into the path of moderation
^ Mentz, II., 210, 213 seq. ; Hiltebrandt, 33.
- Mentz, II., 186 ; I.evinson, I., 734, 745 seq., 'j^z.
^ LEvaxsox, L, 763.
142 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
by conferring favours on them, and even to win them over
altogether. The attempt succeeded. In the dispute between
Alexander VII. and Louis XIV. the ecclesiastical Electors
supported the Pope who, as a matter of fact, obviously had
right on his side, but they did not dare to offer serious opposi-
tion to their powerful French ally.^ In view of recent rumours
of an alarming nature concerning hostile action of the German
clergy against Rome, the Curia formally declared that the
Concordats were to remain in full vigour, hence discussion
at the Diet would be superfluous ; in fact, that assembly
terminated without anything having been attempted against
the Pope.
William von Fiirstenberg was an even worse character
than his brother, Francis Egon. It was chiefly due to the
latter 's intrigues that almost every year produced a fresh
conflict, though things ne\-er went so far as a complete
rupture.- It is not likely that the two Electors on the Rhine
ever intended to push things to extremes, for in the domestic
administration of their dioceses both displayed a most success-
ful reforming activity wholly in the spirit of Alexander VII.
The diocesan synod held by Maximilian Henry in 1662,
yielded lasting results.^ John Philip von Schonborn too was
not without merit. He estabhshed the office of a Vicar-General
and thereby reorganized ecclesiastical administration ; he
endeavoured to raise the pastoral clergy which during the
Thirty Years' ^^'ar had sunk to a low level, by ordering
\isitations and supporting the eft'orts of Bartholomew
Holzhauser ; lastly he issued salutary ordinances concerning
ecclesiastical functions and purity of morals, and promoted
religious instruction.'*
1 Mentz, II., 188 ; cj. Levinsox, I., 764, 767, 769.
2 Mentz, II., 189, 193 seq. ; on William of Furstenberg, cf.
Levixson, I., 767, 769, 771.
» Allg. Deutsche Biogr., XXL, 54.
< Besides Mentz, II., 218 seq., 228 seq., cf. the excellent work of
Veit : Kirchl. Heformbeslrebiingen im ehemal. Erzstift Mainz
under Erzbischof Joh. Phil. v. Schunhoru, 1647 bis 1673, Freiburg,
1910.
THE BISHOPS OF PADERBORN AND MUNSTER. I43
Whilst the two Fiirst en bergs of the Swabiaa family of
that name cansed the Pojic so mnch annoyance on the Rhine,
the activities in Westphaha of another Fiirstenberg sprung
from a noble Westphalian family, gave him all the more
satisfaction. Ferdinand von Fiirstenberg, who had been
Alexander VII. 's particular protege ever since the latter's
nunciature in Cologne, became Bishop of Paderborn in 1661.
As a priest he had led a blameless life and as a Bishop he made
provision, in exemplary fashion, for the education and discipline
of clergy and people, erected numerous churches and monas-
teries and successfully applied himself to the pursuit of
learning, especially the study of the history of Paderborn.^
In the neighbouring diocese of Miinster, Christoph Bernard
von Galen had displayed similar activities since 1650. With
the same energy with which this distinguished man wielded
the sword in defence of his princely rights, he successfully
strove to reform the clergy and people of his diocese, so sadly
ravaged by the Thirty Years' War, to restore the churches
and to preserve the unity of the faith. He paid special attention
to the instruction of youth, a task for which he chiefly made
use of the services of the Jesuits. In this way he became the
reformer of his diocese to which he assured for good its strong
Catholic character. -
* Cf. Bessex, Gesch. des Bistums Paderborn II. (1820), 231 seq. ;
Ehrhard, Gesch. Mimsiers (1S37), 548 seq. ; Allg. Deutsche
Biogr., VI., 702 seq. ; Richter, F. v. Fiirstenberg, in Zeitschr.
fiir vaierl. Gesch [of Westphalia], LVI., 33 seq. The " *Relati()
episcopalis Ferdinandi a F'iirstenberg episc. Paderbornensis ad
Alexandrum VII. ", dated 1666, Id. Febr., in Cod. 130, of the
Theodorianische Bibl., Paderborn.
- Karl Tijkixg, Gesch. des Stiftes Miinster iinter Chr. B. v.
Galen, Miinster, 1865 ; HiJsixG, Chr. Bernard, ein hath. Re/or-
rnator des 17. Jahrh., Paderborn, 1887 ; Zeitschr. fiir vaterl. Gesch.
[Westphalia], XL\'., no seq. ; J. Mixx, Die Lebensbeschreibiing
des Fiirstbischofs Chr. B. v. Galen (Diss.), Hildesheine, IQ07 ;
Kerckerixck, Alt-Westfalen, Miinster, 1913, XIX. seq. ;
ScHMiDLix, in Rom. QuartaJschr., 1927, 379, 395 seq., and in the
periodical, Westfalen, 192S.
144 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The movement of conversion of outstanding personalities
to the ancient Church, which had begun under Innocent X.,
after the Thirty Years' War, continued under Alexander VII.,
though the change of religion often entailed the greatest
hardships. For the support of the converts the Cologne nuncio,
the Archbishop of Cosenza, reopened in that city an establish-
ment founded under Paul V., but which had been destroyed
during the war.^ Even in princely circles destitution was often
the lot of those who returned to the ancient Church in obedience
to their convictions ; thus Duke Alexander Henry of
Schleswig-Holstein found himself repeatedly compelled to
beg the Pope for financial help as his conversion had cost
him his inheritance. ^ At the Pope's request the Emperor
gave assistance to Duke Christian of Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
who had returned to the Church in 1663, as well as to Duke
John Frederick of Brunswick-Liineburg, who was hard pressed
by his Protestant relations because of his conversion ^ ;
it was only in 1665 when, on the death of Duke Christian
Louis of Celle, he became ruler of Kalenberg-Gottingen
and the principality of Grubenhagen, that the estabhshment
of Catholic services in Hanover had to be granted to him after
the Peace of Westphalia, on account of his sovereign rights.*
John Frederick chose for his almoner his chaplain Valerio
Maccioni, a native of San Marino who, in April, 1667, was
1 Seethe *letter of the Archbishop of Cosenza, dated Innsbruck,
October 13, 1659, in Nimziat. di Colonia, 31, p. 180 seq.. Papal
Sec. Arch.
* Levinson, Nuntiaturberichte, I., 645, 649, 673. Cf. the
♦Brief to Alexander Henry, dated February 16, 1658, Episi.,
III.-V., Papal Sec. Arch.
» Levinson, loc. cit., 781, 782. The " Facultas absolvendi
ducem Christianum Mckleburgensem " in Bull. XVII., 187.
On the Pope's intercession with the Emperor on behalf of the
two convert Dukes, see " *Lettere del segretario di stato di
P. Alessandro VII. all' abbate Franc. Ant. Galli internuntio
appresso la M. dell' Imperatore Leopoldo I. ", in Bibl. della
Societa di storia patria, Naples.
* Spittler, Gesch. Hannovers, II., 280 seq.
CONVERTS. 145
appointed by Propaganda and by the Pope Vicar Apostolic
of the ducal territories of Kalenberg, Gottingen and Gruben-
hagen. The Vicariate Apostolic of the North was created
at a later date ; Maccioni was placed at its head, laboured
unsparingly for the preservation and spread of the Catholic
faith.i
Among the princely converts of that period, mention
must be made of the Count and Countess Palatine of Sulzbach,^
the Countess Palatine Louise Hollandine, second daughter of
the " Winter King ", Count Ernest William of Bentheim
Steinfurth and his nephew, Arnold Maurice William, the
Margrave Gustav Adolf of Baden and John Henry von
Schwarzenbach of Lusatia.^
No less numerous were the converts from the ranks of
the scholars, among them such outstanding men as the learned
Hamburg historian, Peter Lambeck, the poet von Grimmels-
hausen, the Orientalist, John Michael Wansleben, the Provost
of Berlin, Andrew Fromm, the Calvinist preacher Volusius,
the anatomist Nicholas Steno, and the brothers Adrian
and Peter Walemburch, the former of whom became Vicar-
General of Cologne, and the latter auxiliary Bishop of
Mayence.^ Both became successful controversialists and
assisted the Elector of Mayence, Schonborn, in his efforts to
bring the Protestants back to the old faith. With him they
were instrumental in the conversion of Count Hohenlohe.
In 1670 Schonborn won over to the ancient Church the Count
^ KocHER, II., 33 5^^., 375 seq., and especially Metzler
35 seqq.
* See above, p. 60.
^ Rass, VII., 137 seq., 327 seq., XL, 456 seq. ; Allg. Deutsche
Biogr., X., 186, LIL, 102 ; Mentz, II., 209 ; Freib. Kirchenlexikon,
III.'', 1045, 1058 ; Katholik, 1917, II., 170.
* Rass, VII. , 156 seq., 271 seq., 290 seq., VIIL, 139, 796, IX.,
696 seq. ; Allg. Deutsche Biogr., XVIL, 533, XXXVI. , 57 seq.,
XL., 728 seq., XLL, 159 seq. For G. A. Volusius, see Hist.-polit.
Blatter, CXVL, 543 ; Falk, in Korrespondenzbl. des deutschen
Geschichtsvereins , XXVII. , 54 ; for Steno, see Metzler, in
Hist.-polit. Blatter, CXLVIII. (191 1), fasc. 2.
VOL. .XXXI. L
146 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of Hanau, but on this occasion he realized that the conversion
of a Prince by no means opened possibilities of spreading
the old faith among his subjects, for Brandenburg and Hessen
prevented the erection of Catholic churches in Hanau. ^
Besides Schonborn, the learned Landgrave, Ernest of Hessen-
Rheinfels, also displa37ed the greatest zeal for the conversion
of Protestants.^
' During Alexander VI I. 's pontificate Roman diplomacy
made prolonged efforts to bring about the conversion of
John George II., Elector of Saxony. At one time the plan,
which would have meant a great triumph for the Catholic
cause, seemed likely to succeed. Its eventual failure was largely
due to the indecision of the Emperor Leopold and the inter-
vention of the " Protector of the Protestants in Germany ",
Charles Gustavus of Sweden, who threatened to rally all
the followers of Luther for a holy war.^
The Emperor, though his conduct was that of a sincere
Catholic, occasioned great annoyance to the Pope by the
obstinacy with which he insisted on the nomination of Arch-
duke Sigismond of Tyrol to the see of Trent. Alexander VII.
refused to confirm the nomination because a further increase
of the power of the House of Habsburg in the ecclesiastico-
political sphere would give reason to fear even more violent
conflicts between Church and State than those that had pre-
viously occurred in that country.* The growth of State
1 Mentz, II., 203 seq., 210 seq., 215 seq.
* Ibid., 205 seq. *Briefs of October 13, 1655, recommended
Ernest of Hesse (see XXX., p. 137) to the Archbishops of
Mayence, Cologne and Treves [Epist., I., Papal Sec. Arch.).
Alexander VII. sent the Landgrave a contribution for a church ;
see *Brief of July 7, 1657, Epist., III., ibid.
* AuERBACH, La dipl. franQ. et la cour de Saxe, Paris, 1888,
74 seqq. ; Hassel, in N. Archiv fiir sacks. Gesch., XI. ; Venez
Depeschen, I., 39, 48, 232 ; Levinson, Nuntiaburberichte, I.,
559 seq., 582 seq., 615 seq., 625, 627, 681, 778, 784 seq., 789,
795 seq., 802 seq., 804.
* Levinson, I., 562, 666 seq., 671, 690, 695 seq., 699 seq.,
703 seq., 707 seq., 726, 744, 752, 756, 767.
INSTRUCTION FOR THE SWISS NUNCIO. I47
absolutism in ecclesiastical matters may likewise be seen in the
application of the placet in the States of the Emperor, not-
withstanding the Pope's protests. The negotiations concerning
the newly created diocese of Leitmeritz [in 1655] also revealed
alarming symptoms of the development of Caesaro-papalism
in Austria. In Bavaria, too, the Church was kept under a
rigid tutelage. As time went on it became increasingly evident
in all the Catholic States of Germany that the assistance of
the secular power in the work of the Catholic restoration was
not without its drawbacks. In course of time the State
interfered more and more in purely Catholic affairs.^
Rome paid close attention to Switzerland where the
Protestants outnumbered the Catholics. For all that, in
1656 the Villmerger war ended in favour of the Catholics,^
but the latter did not remain united ; accordingly, Baldeschi
the Swiss nuncio, was directed in 1665 to see to the preserva-
tion of concord among the Catholic Cantons. He was warned
not to underestimate the intelligence of the Swiss, as had been
done by a nuncio of the period of Urban VIII., whose three
years of ofhce had been quite barren. " It is a mistake,"
the Instruction goes on to say, " to look on the Swiss as a rude
and unskilled people, for though they specialized in the arts
of war, they were also clever diplomatists who knew quite
well how to exploit to their own advantage their relations
with those two mutual rivals, France and Spain." What is said
concerning relations with Protestants likewise deserves atten-
tion : " Those Popes," we read, " who with excessive zeal
forbade, under pain of excommunication, all relations with
heretics, never intended to include those who work for their
conversion." Accordingly, the nuncio was instructed to
abstain from political negotiations with the Protestant
Cantons but, on the other hand, not to scruple prudently
to enter into friendly relations with individual Protestants ;
by this means the way could be prepared for their conversion,
^ Hergenrother, III.s, 744 seq. For Leitmeritz, see J. E.
ScHLENZ, Gesch. der Grimdung des Bislums Leitmeritz, Warnsdorf,
1912.
^ HiJRBiN, II., 394 seq.
148 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
.-for thus it would be possible to remove their prejudices
and to show them the true face of the Catholic Church.
As for the Catholic Cantons, the nuncio should bring home to
them that the Holy See only aimed at what was best for them,
hence he should also promote the Catholic reform in Switzer-
land.i
Whereas in Sweden the most stringent laws against the
exercise of Catholic worship remained in full force. King
Christian III. of Denmark showed himself more tolerant
and allowed the imperial ambassador to have Catholic services
in his house. 2 In some provinces of Holland Catholics had to
undergo severe persecution. This was particularly the case
in Friesland where the adherents of the ancient faith were not
even permitted to bury their dead with head uncovered,
on the plea that this would give offence,^ but in other Provinces
the position of Catholics was fairly tolerable.*
As a youth Alexander VII. had longed for a missionary's
life ; hence, as head of the Church, he took a lively interest
in the Church's world apostolate.^ His pontificate constitutes
' See in App. 5 the *Instruction for F. Baldeschi, 1665, Papal
Sec. Arch.
2 Levinson, Nuntiaturherichte, I., 694, 727.
' Hubert, 263 ; cf. 268.
* Ar chief voor de geschiedenis van het aartsbisdom Utrecht,
XVIII., 173 seq., 205 ; cj. Hubert, 352. A *Brief of July 3,
1 66 1, expresses thanks to Louis XIV. for having secured permis-
sion for a public church for the Catholics of Amsterdam (Epist.,
VI. -VIII., Papal Sec. Arch.). The papal confirmation of the decree
of Propaganda on the di-spute between the secular and regular
clergy in Holland, dated September 20, 1656, in Bull. XVI.,
231. Cf. *Relaiio seu descriptio status religionis catholicae in
Hollayidia etc. quam Romae collegit et exhibuit Alexandra VII. ei
cardinalibus congregationis de Prop. Fide J. de la Torre Kal.
Septembris anno 1656, Utrecht, 1883.
* In what follows Professor Schmidlin has assisted me from his
rich store of information, for which I wish to thank him here also.
149
a turning-point in the Church's missionary activity, especially
as regards the centralistic tendency in favour of Propaganda,
whose powers and financial consolidation received considerable
increase during his reign. ^ By the advice of the Cardinals of
Propaganda, Alexander VII. decreed in 1660, with a view
to removing abuses in the Papal Colleges,^ that the pupils of
these establishments, even when they were dismissed or,
with Propaganda's leave, entered an Order, remained bound
for life by their oath to serve the Holy See in the mission
field and, if in Europe, were to report annually to Propaganda,
and every other year if outside Europe.^ In 1665 he empowered
the Congregation to acquire several houses for the Urban
College of Propaganda, and in 1666 he granted a number of
Indulgences to the College Sodality of Our Lady.* In 1660
he assigned to Propaganda the house of the Ruthenians near
SS. Sergius and Bacchus as well as the property of the Maronite
College at Ravenna when this was sold.^ In the same year
1 Cf. KiLGER, in Zeitschr. fiir Missionswissensch, 1922, 15 seq.,
129 seq. ; Schmidlin, ibid., 1923, 58 seq. ; also the decrees of
Propaganda of 1656 forbidding missionaries under pain of excom-
munication to publish books without leave of the Congrega-
tion (7ms pontif., P. II., no) of 1659, on subsidies for the
missionaries {ibid., 117) and of 1665, that missionaries must not
be released by Prefects before they receive information from
the Congregation and their successors' arrival {ibid., 132 and 135
for the Prefect). In 1658 the Pope let it be known that in future
doubts were to be discussed not by Propaganda but by the
Holy Office {ibid., 114).
2 Cf. the interesting *Memoriale presentato alia S. Congregazione
de Prop. Fide alii 8 Settembre , 1658, circa i disordini delli collegii
pontificii. Propaganda Arch., Rome, 362, p. 31 seqq.
3 Ins pontif., I., 318 seq. On April 8, 1661, Propaganda issued
some explanations and answers on this papal decision {ibid.,
P. II., 121 seqq.).
* Ibid., I., 358 seqq., 367 seqq. Cf. Propaganda's decree on two
weekly Masses to be said by the students for deceased missionaries,
1658 {ibid., 114), and forbidding the letting of adjoining houses
to women of evil life, 1665 {ibid., P. II., 132).
* Ibid., I., 318, 360 seqq.
150 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
he gave orders that the Cardinals Protectors of the German
College in Rome should hold their meetings in the hall of
Propaganda, in presence of the Secretary of that Congrega-
tion.^ With regard to the Missionary College of St. Paul
of the Discalced Carmelites in Rome, he decreed in 1655
that though it remained subject in all things to the Roman
Provincial, it should be dependent on Propaganda with regard
to the administration, and that the pupils were to bind them-
selves by oath to work in the mission field. A decree of 1662
transferred the College of S. Maria della Vittoria to S. Pancrazio
outside the Walls. ^
Another undertaking, the foundation and approval of which
also date from the pontificate of Alexander VII., viz. the
Seminary of the Missions in Paris, was to acquire even greater
importance for Catholic missionary action. Already under
Innocent X. the idea had been mooted of giving to the missions
in the Far East Bishops of their own. After that Pope's death
the General Assembly of the French Clergy of 1655, promoted
the plan by means of a petition to Pope Alexander.^ Two
years later some French clerics headed by Pallu and at the
instigation of the Duchess of Aiguillon, begged the Pope at
least to appoint Vicars Apostolic with episcopal powers for
China and Tongking where the prospects of Christianity
seemed particularly bright. They declared themselves prepared
to defray all expenses and that Portugal would surely grant
a free passage ; if she did not, the missionaries could travel
via Persia and the kingdom of the Great Mogul.'* The Pope,
to whom the keenness of these priests recalled his own youthful
' Ibid., ^25 seqq. C/. Steinhuber, II., 6 set/., 11.
- lus pontif., I., 287 seqq., 328 seqq. Cf. Kilger, Zeitschr. fiir
Missionswissensch, 1915, 214 seq., where further sources are
quoted.
3 On April 13, 1665, Bishop Godeau of Vence was entrusted
with the drafting of the memorial which was read and approved
on May 9 ; cf. Launay, I., 21, according to the protocols of the
Assemblies Generales, IV., 375. See XXX., p. 192.
* Launay, I., 25 seqq., according to the seminary Archives
and the " Expositio corum quae Romae gcsta sunt. ", by Pallu.
MISSIONARY BISHOPS. I5I
missionary enthusiasm, promised them his support and
charged Cardinals RospigHosi, Spada, Albizzi and Azzohni
with the examination of the matter. ^ However, notwith-
standing Pallu's pressure and the Cardinals' promises, no
decision was taken until Pierre de la Motte Lambert, after
repeated and determined efforts, secured an interview with
Alberici, the Secretary of Propaganda, at which he obtained
what he wanted.- The four Cardinals having sent in a favour-
able report, Propaganda, on May 13th, 1658, proposed Pallu
and de la Motte Lambert as Vicars Apostolic, whereupon the
Pope nominated them on August 17th. Whilst presenting the
rochet to Pallu, he strongly exhorted him to endure patiently
the trials that awaited him in the mission field. ^ By Briefs
of September 9th, 1659, Alexander confirmed their nomina-
tion, as well as the delimitation of their respective spheres
of work ; at the same time he empowered either of the two
Vicars to assume the administration of the other's territory
at his death and to raise to the priesthood candidates who were
ignorant of Latin.* At Pallu's request Cotolendi was soon
after appointed Bishop of Nanking.^ From Propaganda the
new Bishops received instructions full of profound wisdom ;
these counselled the closest possible adaptation to Eastern
conditions, to take the overland route through Asia, so as to
avoid Portugal, to appoint a Procurator in Rome and to
^ Ibid., 29 seq.
* Ibid., 33.
^ Ibid., 34, according to Acta S. Congreg., 1657, P- 202, Pallu
was consecrated by Card. Antonio Barberini at St. Peter's,
Lambert in Paris, by the Archbishop of Tours (Launay, I.,
40 seq.).
* lusponiif., I., 3135^^., and Launay, I., ^iseqq. It was enough
if the candidates were able to read and to explain the Canon of
the Mass and the ritual of the Sacraments and they were free to
say other prayers instead of the Breviary. This faculty was
confirmed anew in Alexander VII. 's Brief of 1665 (7ms pontif.,
I-. 355 -s^^-i and Bull, patron. Portiig., II., 109). Cf. Gams, Series,
122 seqq., and Jann, 217 seqq.
* Launay, I., 45 seq.
152 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
erect a Seminary in Paris in order to assure a constant supply
of secular missionary priests. ^ The foundation of such an
institution for the training of missionaries had already been
approved by Propaganda in 1658, at the request of Pallu,
Lambert and Laval ^ ; thus before their departure in 1660
the new Vicars Apostolic were able, with the help of generous
benefactors, to authorize its foundation : it was opened in
1663. The Carmelite Bishop Bernard of Babylon had bought
a suitable house ^ ; the undertaking was officially approved
by royal letters patent in 1663, and on August 3rd, 1664,
the Pope's nephew, Flavio Chigi, in his capacity as Legate
in France, granted it ecclesiastical and papal recognition.*
In this same year, as well as in the following, a papal Brief
to both Vicars regulated the succession in the event of the
death of either. It was necessary to make such dispositions
in view of the fact that Cotolendi was no longer living.^
Thus arose a new creation which was destined not only
to lay the foundation to the preponderant role played by
France in the modern apostolate to the heathens, and to give
a powerful impulse to the missions in the Far East, but
to be of paramount importance in other respects also, in as
much as, for the first time, a missionary hierarchy was created,
Portugal's missionary monopoly was broken, secular priests
were admitted into the missionary general staff and the training
of a native clergy inaugurated.^ Germany's more active
participation in the work of the missions, especially through
^ 7ms pontif., P. II., 115 seqq., and Collect. Propag., I., 42 seq.,
also Launay, I., 46 seqq., and Pieper in Zeitschr. /. Missions-
wissensch, 1922, 34 seq.
" Launay, I., 39 seq.
' Ibid., 51 seqq., 75 seqq.
* Ibid., 81 seqq. Cf. Letourneau, La mission de J. J. Olier
et les fondations des grandes seminaires en France, Paris, 1906,
228, 363 seq.
* Ins pontif., I., 340 seq., 353 seqq. ; Bull, patron. Poring.,
II., 103 seqq. Cf. Jann, 221 seq.
' Launay, I., 36 seqq. ; Kilger, Zeitschr. /. Missionswiss.,
1922, 27 seq.
MISSIONS IN S.E. EUROPE. 153
the Jesuits, owing to the abolition or at least the limitation
of the claims of Portugal, also dates from the pontificate of
Alexander VII. ^
A number of important decisions concerning individual
mission fields fall into the reign of Alexander. An ordinance
for Holland of the year 1655 decreed that the offerings of the
faithful to the missionaries must be applied to the best
advantage of the missions. Propaganda's decisions in the
disputes between the Dutch secular clergy and the missionaries
were confirmed in 1656.- Other decisions concerned the faithful
of South-Eastern Europe. In 1655 the boundaries between
the archdiocese of Ochrida and the diocese of Prisrend, in
Serbia, were more clearly defined ^ ; in 1659 the pupils of the
Greek College in Rome received permission to adopt the Latin
manner of observing the fast ; in 1660 a decree of Propaganda
was confirmed whereby priests belonging to religious Orders
were placed under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of
Sofia and the Bishop of Bosnia : in 1665 certain juridical
acts by the Ruthenian Metropolitan Gabriel of Kiew were
ratified by a sanatio in radice ; in 1666 the Carmelite Bishop
Joseph Mary of Hierapolis was charged to make a visitation
of the iEgean Isles together with Zakynth and Corfu.'*
With regard to the Near East, Alexander VII. approved
in 1655, the privileges of the Franciscans of the Holy Land
and in 1659 the consecration of the Archbishop of Aleppo
^ HuoNDER, Deutsche Jesuitenmissiondre des 17 u. 18 Jahrh.
(1899), 77 seqq. Ibid., 21, the circular of the General, Oliva,
of November 29, 1664.
^ Ins pontif., I., 285 seqq., 297 seqq. The Vicar Apostolic of the
Netherlands, De la Torre, was in exile at this time [Freib.
Kirchenlex. X-, 373). Cf. the decree of Propaganda of 1663 on
alms for the missions, lus pontif., P. II., 128 seqq.
' lus pontif., I., 284.
* Ibid., 284 seq., 309 seq., 323 seqq., 357 seq., 369 seqq. In 1667
he assigned the convent of the Conventuals at Targovist to the
custody of the Observants of Walachia {ibid., 273). In 1666
Propaganda confirmed the decree forbidding the ordinaries of
Bulgaria to employ the Franciscans {ibid., P. II., 136 seq.).
154 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
by the Patriarch of the Maronites. In 1660 he suppressed
the Maronite College of Ravenna and assigned its property
to Propaganda for the benefit of Maronite pupils. ^ In 1662
the Armenian Catholicos James, accompanied by twenty-five
Bishops, set out for Rome. Whilst still on the way, he made
a profession of the Catholic faith at Constantinople, in presence
of the Latin Archbishop' ; this document, as well as a protesta-
tion of obedience to the Holy See by the Armenian nation,
was taken to the Eternal City by the Dominican Piscop
who had been on a mission to Persia. ^ The Patriarch of Lesser
Armenia, who had made a profession of the Catholic faith at
Rome in 1660, subsequently relapsed into schism. ^ In 1656
the Jesuits opened missions in Antura and the Capuchins at
Tiflis and in Georgia in 1666.'*
A Maronite having reported on the favourable dispositions
of the King of Abyssinia, Propaganda in 1666 dispatched
Andrade to that country as Vicar Apostolic, but he and his
missionaries met with so much opposition that he achieved
nothing.^
The Dominican Mission in East Africa was also meeting
^ Ibid., I., 286 seq., 308 seq., 360 seqq., decisions and answers of
Propaganda in 1650 on the liturg^^ at Aleppo, ibid., P. II., 112 seq.
and in 1654 on the formula of profession and the questions of
the Syrian Franciscans, ibid., 130 seq. Three letters of " Giov.
Pietro Patriarcha d'Antiochia de' Maroniti " (Papal Sec. Arch.)
in P. Wenzel, Letire di prelati delle chiese orientali, Roma, 1889,
3 seq.
^ Cerri, Estat present de I'eglise Romaine, 170; Hergen-
ROTHER-KlRSCH, III., 574.
' Though he was entertained at the College and given mone}-
for his journey ; see Cerri, i68.
■• ScHMiDLiN, Missionsgesch., 221 seq. ; Rocco da Cesinale,
III., 334 seqq., solutions of doubts by Propaganda in 1656 about
the Georgians in lus pontif., P. II.. 135 ; on the invalidity of the
marriage of Nestorian priests after ordination, ibid., 118.
^ Cerri, 218 seqq. According to the Maronite's report the
king allowed the exercise of the Catholic religion and there were
30,000 Catholics in one province of Egypt [ibid.). Cf.
Lemmens, 181.
AFRICAN MISSIONS. 155
with but small success just then.^ In 1648 and 1654 Vincent
de Paul sent his Lazarists to Madagascar but the mission
had to be given up in 1676, after it had cost the Society
twenty-seven of its members in the space of twenty-five years.
A band of Recollects who were dispatched to the island in
1660, fell into the hands of corsairs. ^ On the other hand,
Italian Capuchins worked successfully in Congo ; they were
reinforced by si.xteen new recruits in 1654 and again in 1666 ;
they also laboured most fruitfully in Angola and Matamba,
with Loanda as their base.^ By order of Propaganda, Spanish
Capuchins laboured zealously on the coast of Guinea. In
^1657 and 1664 some Fathers were sent to Sierra Leone where
they built churches and baptized the King, three princes
and a vast number of people. They likewise laboured in
Overo and Benin whither they had gone in 1655 at the request
of the King, but they were unable to maintain themselves
in Ardea-Nigritia and in Whida, where they had gone in
1659 and 1666 respectively, though they had been well
received and prospects had been good at first.*
In India the Jesuits continued to labour zealously and
with some success in the various territories of Madura,^
^ According to the Jesuit Barreto's visitation reports of 1667 ;
see Records of South-Eastern Africa, by Thiel, III., 436 seqq. ;
KiLGER in Zeitschr. f. Missionswiss., 1917, 104.
2 CosTE, XIV., 359 seqq. ; Maynard, III., 104 seqq. ;
ScHMiDLiN, Missionsgesch., 232, n. 2. The Prefect Etienne is
said to have threatened a chieftain with France's hostihty and
deprivation of his wives if he refused to become a Christian ;
cf. PioLET, Les miss. cath. frang., IV., 422 seqq.
3 Cerri, 238 seq. ; Schmidlin, 373. Decision of 1660 by
Propaganda on slavery in Congo, in lus. pontif., P. II., 120.
* Schmidlin, 372 seq. ; Cerri, 223 seqq. ; Rocco Dacesinale,
III., 514 seq. In 1655 P. Seraftn baptized the emperor of the
Sapis (Rocco, 507).
^ Conversions and Baptisms obtained by them in Tiruchira-
palli in 1656-g amounted to 2,347, ^^ 1659-1662 ca. 18,000, in
Madura, 1659-1662, 870, in Candclm, 1656-9, 1,192, and in 1662-5,
584, in Palur, 1656-9, 1,400, 1660-2, 950, in Sattiamangalam
1656-9, 1,639, in Tanjaur, 1656-9 2,268, in 1666, 401, where on
156 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
but the missions on the south-west and south-east coast
succumbed under the conquests of the Dutch ^ and those
in the Kingdom of the Mogul under the persecutions of
Orengsib.2 At the end of 1659 Alexander VII. sent to the
Christians of St. Thomas of Malabar, as Apostolic Commissary
and Administrator of Angamale, the Carmelite Bishop Joseph
of St. Mary, with extensive faculties.^ A papal Brief of January
18th, 1658, shows that abuses had crept into the Church of
India and the Mission in Goa. As a result of complaints by
the faithful against their pastors, the Brief confirms the decrees
-of Propaganda and instructs the parish priests not to subject
anyone to forced labour, to deal with due moderation with
those who fail to attend church or instructions, to instruct the
people with meekness, to receive the nobles also in the
Seminary, to admit all to the schools, irrespective of their
origin, not to exclude the neophytes from the Orders or the
secular priests from the cure of souls, not to meddle with
worldly affairs, to preach several times a year in the language
of the country, to appoint native priests as confessors, to
abolish confession through an interpreter or by reading a list
of sins, to admit the natives to Holy Communion and to take
Holy Viaticum to the sick, to baptize no one who had not
the other hand 10,000 Christians perished in 1662 from war and
want ; see Mullbauer, 213 seqq.
1 They conquered Negapatam in 1658, Cranganor in 1662.
Cochin in 1663, which led to the destruction of the Jesuit establish-
ments there. In like manner the capture of Meliapur by the
King of Golkonda caused the suppression of the houses of the
Jesuits, Franciscans and Dominicans.
- Since 1658 [ibid., 285 seq.). The Theatines' missionary
attempts also came to an end with the death of P. Toma and
P. Lubello, 1662-3 [ibid., 355).
' Among others that of erecting a Chapter, to settle the
succession in the archdiaconate, to commit the administration
of Angamale to one or two priests in the capacity of Vicar's
Apostolic ; see lus. pontif., I., 314 seqq. P. Joseph had been
raised to the episcopate in Cochin in 1657, i" T-dbi he returned
thither from Rome and held visitations up to 1663 ; in 1665
he was back in Rome ; Mullbauer, 305 seqq.
MISSIONS IN INDIA. 157
first renounced idolatry, to bring about the conversion of the
pagans not by violence or torture, but by instruction and good
example, not to ask for anything from their parishioners,
to bury the poor gratuitously, not to sanction pagan sacrifices
and to see to it that the Regulars preserved the religious
spirit.^ However, there exists a memorandum of the year
1666, that is, from the last period of Alexander VII., in
which Manfroni, Secretary of Propaganda, expatiates on the
means of reforming the missions in East India. This document
reveals the sad state to which they were reduced, the ignorance
and immorality of the people, the incapacity of both secular
and regular clergy, as well as their slackness and corruption.
The cause of the decay, so we read, was the lack of Bishops ;
hence it was imperative to dispatch thither, without touching
Portuguese harbours, Vicars Apostolic and fresh missionaries
full of zeal, the latter being chosen especially from the Paris
Seminary but also from the various Orders, whilst those who
indulged in quarrels and gave scandal by their lives must be
recalled.^
Whilst the conquests of the Dutch put an abrupt end
to Catholic missionary undertakings both in Malacca and
Ceylon [after 1658],^ they were all the more full of promise
^ 7ms. pontif., I., 304 seqq. ; Bull, patron. Portug., II., 92 seq. ;
as a decree of Propaganda in lus. pontif., P. II., iii seq., supple-
mented on July 22, ibid., 113. Also Jann, 301 seqq., and Mull-
BAUER, 255, n. I. In 1659 the Pope also approved the decrees
of the Definitorium and those of the General Chapter for the
East Indian Franciscan Province of St. Thomas, and decided
that the Commissaries General could not defer the Provincial
Chapters ; lus. pontif., I., 306 seqq., 310 seqq.
^ " *Considerationes et media pro reparatione missionum in
Indiis orientalibus." Propaganda Archives, Scritture antiche,
230 seq., 80 seqq. Cf. Kilger in Zeitschr. f. Missionswiss., 1922,
29 seq.
^ In 1665 Propaganda sanctioned the ordination of all refugees
without dimissorial letters {lus. pontif., P. II., 131 seq.). In
Ceylon the Dutch ostracized Catholicism, expelled the missionaries
and killed a number of Christians (Schmidlin, 386 seq. ;
Lemmens, 107).
158 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
in the Annamite kingdoms, and this in spite of violent persecu-
tions. According to Jesuit reports there were in Tonkin,
about 1659, some 300,000 Christians remarkable for every
virtue, and each year saw the conversion of from 8,000 to
10,000 persons.^ However, in 1658, six missionaries were
banished by the King, and in 1663 two of their number who
had remained behind followed them into exile. ^ In 1663 a
persecution also broke out at the court of Cochin China ;
from there it spread to the whole country and led to the banish-
ment of the missionaries.^ In view of the numerous conversions,
with which the small band of apostolic labourers was unable
to cope, Alexander VII., in 1659, appointed as Vicars Apostolic,
with very extensive faculties, two members of the Paris
Seminary, viz. Bishop Francois Pallu of Heliopolis for Tonking
and Pierre de la Motte Lambert, Bishop of Bertyus, for Cochin
China.* Both Bishops, accompanied by four missionary
priests, journeyed between 1662-1664, by way of Aleppo and
South India, to Siam, settling in the royal city of Juthia
where they made a number of conversions, whilst Chevreuil
was sent to Cochin China and Deydier to Tonking. ^
^ C/. Pachtler, Das Christenium in Tonkin imd Cochinchina
(1861), 116 seqq. (based on P. Tissanier's account ; for the latter's
journey, ibid., 69 seqq.). The above numbers are confirmed by
P. Machault in his Relation of 1658 [ibid., 189) and by Portuguese
sources {ibid., 151), whereas Launay (I., 91) only gives 100,000
and ScHWAGER endeavours to account for the divergence by
apostasies {Zeitschr. f. Missionswiss., 1913. I47)- There were
8 Jesuits, 30 Catechists and 300 churches {ibid.).
2 Pachtler, loc. cit., 119 seqq. (according to Tissanier),
151 seqq. ; there also on the increase of conversions (even of
Mandarius) during the persecution as well as on the martyrdom
and the constancy of many, but also on many apostasies.
' Ibid., 166 seqq. for the martyrs, as in the Province of Tscham
and among the Japanese Christians of Faifo. In 1658 there were
20,000 Christians in Cochin China ; see Jann, 208.
* lus. pontif., I., 313 seqq., 430 seqq., 353 seqq. {cf. Vol. XXX.,
p. 193) ; also Jann, 217 seqq., and Launay, I., 128 seqq.
5 Launay, I., 62 seqq., 86 seqq., 115 seqq. Deydier gave the
Exercises to the Catechists, founded a seminary, brought back
CHINA AND TIBET. 159
An even richer harvest seemed to await Christianity in
China, A somewhat too optimistic French memorandum of
1658 explained to the Pope that the Empire of the Middle
had opened its doors wide to the Gospel, and that all obstacles
had been cleared from its path ; that the Emperor of the new
Tartar dynasty, like a new Constantine, granted the utmost
freedom to the preachers of the faith, allowed people to be
baptized, churches to be built, and tolerated the open pro-
fession of Christianity ; that, in fact, in token of his good will,
he had erected a magnificent church in Peking, his capital,
and that the Mandarins who opposed Christianity had been
removed, and a people hitherto so hostile to foreigners, now
tolerated the Europeans.^ As a matter of fact, according to
the Jesuits' reckoning, the Christians numbered 257,000 in
1664, and 264,000 in 1669.2 jhe church of Nantang in Peking
had been rebuilt and the young Tartar Emperor Shungti
was on intimate terms with the Jesuit Schall of Cologne,
in fact, in 1657 he even put him at the head of the mathematical
and astronomical department, at the same time bestowing on
him high titles of honour. However, in 1665, Schall fell a victim
to a fresh persecution.^ It was amid these circumstances
many Christians and baptized 3,000 (up to 1667). According to
the Catechists the Christians only numbered 30,000-35,000 — -
many of whom did not practise — and there were 70 churches and
300 oratories [ibid., j-^i seq.). A decree of Propaganda on the
practice of saying Mass with the head covered, see Ins. pontif.,
P. II., 128, and one of 1665 for Siam in reply to questions, ibid.,
133 seq.
^ Launay, I., 27.
* According to Intorcetta ; but according to the catalogue
of Gama only 110,000 {cf. Thomas, Hist, de la Mission de Pekin,
I., 398 seq.). On the quality, constancy and piety of the Christians
and the state of the mission at court, cf. Martin, Brevis relatio de
numero et qualitate christianorimi apnd Sinas, Roma, 1654 ; also
ScHMiDLiN, 273.
' Ibid., especially on the basis of Schall's Relatio de initio et
progressu Soc. lesu in regno Sinarum, Vienna, 1665. Cf. Bier-
baum's detailed account, p. 115 seqq.
l6o HISTORY OF THE POPES.
that Alexander VII., in 1659, issued certain ordinances
by which the south-western provinces of Jiinnan, Kweitchau,
Hukuang, Sutchuen, Kuangsi and Laos were assigned to
Pallu, Vicar ApostoHc of Tonking, the south-eastern provinces
of Tchekiang, Fokien, Kuangtong, Kiangsi and Hainan
were allotted to the Vicar Apostolic of Cochin China, and in
the following year, the northern provinces of Kiangnan
Tcheli, Shansi, Shensi, Honan, Shantung, Corea and Tartary
to Cotolendi, Vicar Apostolic of Nanking. However, none
of these Vicars, nor any of their priests, succeeded in setting
foot on Chinese territory during the lifetime of the Pope.^
From the remaining Far-Eastern mission fields only
desultory reports reached Rome. In 1661 the Jesuits Gruber
and Dorville entered and traversed Tibet on their journey from
China to Europe. The King of Katmandu gave them a friendly
reception and invited them to return ; he even held out to
lem the prospect of their being allowed to preach freely.^
In Japan, by an ordinance of 1666, anyone suspected of
being a Christian was made to trample the crucifix and the
image of Mary under foot, and entrance into the empire was
forbidden to the messengers of the faith under pain of death. ^
In the Molluccas, with the exception of Solor and Timor,
where the Portuguese and the Catholics were able to maintain
1 Cf. the papal Briefs in lus. pontif., I., 313 seqq., T,^oseqq., 354
seqq., besides Launay, I., j-^seq., and Jann, nx'] seqq. Atfirst Pallu
and Lambert had to divide between themselves the widowed
vicariate of Nanking ; later on Alexander VII., authorized them
to consecrate a successor from among their European missionaries
although they had requested Rome to appoint a special vicar
to replace Cotolendi, for which post they had in view the native
Dominican Lopez because he would be able to penetrate into
China {ihid., 221 seq). On the controversy over the rites see
below p. 163 seqq. Further decisions of Propaganda in 1665 on
ordinations. Mass, marriage, etc., in lus. pontij., P. II., 131,
133 seq.
* ScHMiDLiN, 390 ; Jann, 383 seq. ; Huonder, 187 ;
C. Wessels, Early Jesuit Travellers in Central Asia, 1603-1721,
La Haye, 1924, 164 seqq.
' Schmidlin, 295 ; Freib. Kirchenlex., Wl.^, 1256.
SOUTH AMERICA. l6l
themselves and to beat off the Dutch attacks,^ the missions
had been destroyed in the struggle with the Calvinist Dutch.
As against this, in the Philippine Islands, Jesuits, Franciscans,
Dominicans and Augustinians continued to keep the Christian
natives true to the faith and to uproot almost completely the
last remnants of paganism. ^ For the benefit of the Augustinian
missionaries Alexander VII. confirmed the decree of Propa-
ganda, forbidding them to stop on their journey from Europe
to the Philippines, either in Mexico or elsewhere, beyond the
time required either by the journey itself or the necessity of
obtaining provisions.^
In Spanish-Portuguese America the religious continued
to apply themselves with ardour to their missionary labours,
though these were greatly hindered and frustrated by laxity
and discord both in their own ranks and in those of the clergy
and the people.* In Brazil the Jesuit Vieira, the defender of
the freedom of the Indians, distinguished himself,^ as did the
French Capuchins who, in 1659, founded some Reductions
near Rio de Janeiro.^
Other religious besides the Jesuits laboured in Paraguay,
' There were battles in 1660 in Solor and in 1656 and 1665
ill Timor ; in 1660 three Dominicans were captured by the
Dutch whilst journeying from Goa to Solor ; see Biermann,
in Zeitschr. f. Missionswiss., 1923, 36 seq., 41. After the conquest
of Ternate by the Dutch the Franciscans were forced to abandon
their mission there (Lemmen, 119).
2 ScHMiDLiN, 395, together with the chronicle of the province ;
Lemmens, 121.
' lus. pontif., I., 321 seq., at the request of the Procurator
of the Order.
* ScHMiDLiN, 399 seq.
^ In 1665 he obtained from Lisbon an alleviation of the lot of
the Indians, a limitation of slavery and the transfer to the
Jesuits of the native villages of Maranhao, but in 1661 he was
attacked by the Portuguese, together with some other Fathers,
ill-treated and taken to Portugal. Cf. Schmidlin, loc. cit. ; Carel,
Vieira, Paris, 1878.
* Schmidlin, loc. cit., Rocco da Cesinale, III., 703 seqq.
VOL. XXXI. M
l62 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Peru, Chile and New Granada. In 1659, the Jesuits restored
the mission of the Llanos and in 1666 they founded seven new
Indian Reductions.^ In 1656, under the leadership of Juan
de Mendoza, the Franciscans advanced from the Orinoco as
far as the Palanques, whom they baptized together with their
caciques. 2 Capuchins from Aragon laboured among the Caribs
of Piritu,^ and their Andalusian brothers in religion among the
Llanos of Caracas.*
Towards the end of the pontificate of Alexander VII.
the first French Jesuits appeared in Guienne ^ ; Franciscans
and Jesuits continued to labour in Mexico, but the rising
of the Apalaches in 1657 ruined eight flourishing Franciscan
stations in Florida.^ At the request of Spain, Alexander VII.
commissioned the Archbishop of San Domingo in 1663
to detach the island of Trinidad from the far too distant
diocese of Portorico and to attach it to the archdiocese of
Santa Fe.' Otherwise, in so far as South America and Mexico
were concerned, the Pope only intervened in some domestic
^ AsTRAiN, VI., 646 seqq. ; Schmidlin, 405 ; in 1666 P. Suarez
de Figueroa was martyred in the mission of Mauna of Quito.
- Six at first and 14 in 1660 ; cf. Civezza, V., 233 seqq. ;
Schmidlin, 405.
3 Rocco DA Cesinale, III., 715 seqq. ; Schmidlin, 405 seq. ;
Froylar de Rionegro, Relaciones, ed. 1918, and Silvestre's
Vita for Carabantes. There were 5 missionaries in 1657, ^2 in
1663. In a letter of homage to the Pope, 5 convert caciques
informed him, in 1666, that the Capuchins had baptized more
than 10,000 persons and that they had penetrated as far as
Cumana, Caracas, Guarapiche, Guarachara, Aragua and Amama ;
cf. Cerri, 274 seqq.
* Over 30,000 Christians under Rodrigo of Granada in 1666 ;
cf. Rucco da Cesinale, III., 730 seqq.
* According to P. Grillct's letter in 1668 ; cf. Streit, Bihl.
Missionum, II., n. 2015.
« Cf. Shea, 73 seqq. ; Cath. Encyclop., X., 385 ; Schmidlin,
412. In New Galicia the Franciscans founded Labradones
in 1659.
' lus. pontif., I., 338 seqq.
THE CHINESE RITES. 163
questions of the religious Orders, either to give a ruhng or a
decision.^
On the continent of North America, Alexander VII., in
1658, erected Canada into an Apostolic Vicariate, the Paris
missionary, Frangois Laval, being appointed first Vicar
Apostolic.'^ In 1660 he reported to Rome that for the work of
the conversion of the Indians he had the assistance especially
of the Jesuits who deemed no people so barbarous as not to_S£.ek
to convert it.^
(3.)
Under Innocent X. a decree had been published on the
so-called Chinese rites, particularly the lawfulness of the
worship of ancestors, which on the whole, it condemned.
By its very tenor, the decree was only to remain in force
until further instructions ^ and the Cathedral Chapter of
1 In 1663 he ordained that once elected the Dominican
Provincials could exercise their functions but that within two
years they must forward the acts of the election to the General
for approval or annulment by him {lus. pontif., I., 335 seq.) ;
in 1666, that the Dominican Priors were to be elected not by the
parish priests but by the Provincials {ibid., 352 seq.). He approved
the conditions required for the degree of Master in the Province
of Lima of the Mercedarians, the decree of the Congregation of
Regulars that the visiting commissaries of the Franciscans
of Guatemala were to be taken from the neighbouring Provinces
and the constitution of their General Chapters, by the terms
of which offices were to be alternately held by Creoles and
Cachapines. He also confirmed their Definitorium on the
alternation between natives and Spaniards in the seven Provinces
of Peru and in that of Yucatan, and the decree of the Dominican
General attaching the College of Angelopolis to the convent of
Mexico {ibid., 342 seqq.).
- Cerri, 278 ; RocHEMONTEix, II., 189 seqq. ; Schmidlin, 412.
^ " Relatio missionis Canadiensis " ; cf. Rochemonteix,
II., 343 seqq. ; GossELiN, Biographie, I., 247 seqq. ; Schmidlin,
413, n. I.
* " donee Sanctitas sua vel Sedes Apostolica ahud ordinaverit."
164 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Manila was commissioned by the Holy See to observe ^
the manner in which the Jesuits preached the Gospel in
China and how far they were in conformity with other Orders
in this respect.
Before deciding on counter measures the Jesuits were
anxious to know the real situation in their own camp. In
1650 the Visitor, Francis Furtado ordered an inquiry in
every Jesuit mission in China ; the investigation showed
that an identical policy was pursued everywhere. ^ In 1651
Martin Martini of Trent and the Pole, Michael Boym, were
sent as delegates to Rome. After a delay of many months
in the Philippines, Martini was taken by the Dutch to Java,
which he was only able to leave, with the Dutch fleet, on
February 1st, 1653. On August 31st he landed at Bergen,
in Norway. On reaching Amsterdam he superintended the
printing of his Chinese atlas which, together with a book on
Chinese chronology, he had completed on the voyage.^ By
then it was high time for him to put in an appearance in Rome
where, according to what Christoph Schorrer, who acted
as Vicar-General of the Society for Goswin Nickel, wrote to
him on June 27th, 1655,^ steps had been taken to have
the decree of Propaganda of the year 1645 confirmed anew,
before the arrival of the representatives of the Jesuits, a
measure which would render his mission useless. Propaganda
granted the delay demanded by Schorrer, and Martini also
arrived in Rome in September, 1655, when he was authorized
to furnish proof of his assertion that the decision of 1645
was based on manifestly erroneous data.^ At the end of five
months of discussion by the Inquisition, a new decree was
issued by Propaganda on March 23rd, 1656,^ and ratified by
1 Of June I, 1649 (BiERMANN, 85 seq.).
- *Castner, c. 2.
' Account of the journey in M. Martinius, De hello Tartarico
historia -, Antverpiae, 1654, 9 ^^1-' ^59' ^^5 ^^?- O" Martini's
Atlas, cj. Etudes, CXXXL, 216 seqq.
* Tran.slation of the letter [Pray], I., 113.
'•' Ibid., 113 seq.
* Collectanea, I., 36-9, n. 126.
THE CHINESE RITES. 165
Alexander VII. Martini had limited his demands to four
points of the decree of 1645. The first of these concerned
the observance of the commandments of the Church by the
Chinese Christians. Already Paul III.^ had limited the law of
fasting for the natives of both Indies to the eve of Christmas
and Easter and the Fridays of Lent, but he insisted on their
refraining from servile work on all Sundays and on twelve
holidays. Morales proposed to extend Paul III.'s ordinance to
China and the Congregation pronounced in that sense. How-
ever, the Jesuits were of opinion that, at least for the time
being, the observance of all the commandments of the Church
was not possible in China. Annual Confession and Communion
and Sunday Mass could not be demanded owing to the lack of
priests, whilst the Sunday rest could not be observed by the
common people on account of their pagan employers, nor
by the officials because their duty required their attendance
at the courts and tribunals. The daily food of the abstemious
Chinese was so scanty and unsatisfying that the ordinary
labourer could not fast on that account and the officials were
equally unable to do so by reason of the sittings of the courts
which lasted six hours at a time.^ Martini accordingly asked
whether it was necessary to propound these commandments
to the converts immediately after their baptism as binding
under grave sin. The Congregation answered that they
should be proclaimed as grave obligations, whilst at the
same time the converts should be told why they were excused
from observing them. If it was the Pope's good pleasure he
might grant to the missionaries power to dispense ^ ; and in
effect, such faculties were at once granted to the Jesuits for a
period of twelve years.*
A second difficulty was in connection with the administra-
tion of the Sacraments to women. Extreme Unction implies
an anointing, as does the Sacrament of Baptism. Now in
^ Brief of June i, 1537, text, ibid., 30 seq. note.
2 Furtado on December 10, 1636, to Vitelleschi, General of
the Order [Pray], I., 37.
' Collectanea, I., 38.
* September 5, 1656, Ins. pontij., I., 290.
l66 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
China it was impossible to touch a woman, were it ever so
lightly, without creating a tremendous scandal. On the advice
of Morales the Congregation had decreed that the danger of
scandal should be eliminated by exercising caution and by
instruction, but that the unctions could not be omitted.
However, the Jesuits thought that it was hardly possible
to comply with this decision ; hence Martini asked whether
certain ceremonies could not be omitted in the Baptism
of adult women, whether they might not be content with
giving Extreme Unction to such women as asked for it them-
selves, and whether it would not be better to forgo altogether
the administration of this Sacrament if, by so doing, they
would create a danger for the whole Christian community.
The Congregation pronounced in Martini's sense. ^
Thus on the representations of the Jesuits, Morales' first
two questions received an answer that differed substantially
from that given eleven years earlier. On the other hand for
the liext five questions the decision of 1645 remained in
force ; they concerned the imposition of a 30 per cent interest ^
and contributions to public collections which were also applied
to religious purposes.^ The seventh point concerned the cult
of Chim-Hoam (Cheng-Hwangshen), the patron of walled
cities, to whom the Mandarins were obliged to do homage on
entering office and after that twice in each month.'* On this
point also the former decision was upheld ; consequently
this cult could not be justified by the practice of hiding a
cross amid flowers and inwardly directing one's homage to the
Crucified. On these five points Martini had not even made a
fresh demand, at least not in his last memorial.
However, all these points were of secondary importance.
The main question is touched in Martini's third and fourth
demands, which refer to the worship of Confucius and the
ancestors. In his eighth objection Morales had spoken of a
solemn and another less solemn act of homage which were
* Collectanea, loc. ctt.
2 n. 3-5, ibid., 32.
' n. 6, ibid., 32.
♦ BiERMANN, 195.
THE CHINESE RITES. 167
performed by the higher officials twice a year in Confucius'
temple, and after that on not a few occasions during the year.
Martini does not allude to this cult, for the Jesuits did not allow
it to Christian officials.^ Hence the prohibition of 1645 was
not affected by the decision of 1656. On the other hand,
Martini asked whether they might tolerate the act of homage
to Confucius which scholars performed on receiving their
degree. No pagan priest was present at that ceremony ;
only the scholars met for the purpose of acknowledging
Confucius as their Master by the performance of purely
civil ceremonies, which from the very nature of their institu-
tion were intended as a purely civil homage. " All those who
are about to receive a degree enter together into the room of
Confucius where the chancellor, the doctors and the examiners
await them. There is no sacrifice of any kind but, in accordance
with Chinese custom, all perform before Confucius' monogram
those ceremonies and inclinations which all pupils make
before their ordinary, living teachers. When they have thus
acknowledged the philosopher Confucius as their Master,
they receive their degree from the chancellors, after which
they withdraw. Moreover, this room of Confucius is not a
temple properly so called, for it is only open to the students."
In the light of these explanations the Congregation allowed
the ceremonies. 2
Martini's fourth question relates to the cult of ancestors,
but even in the formulation of the demand a distinction is
drawn between the cult of ancestors as practised by the
educated and by the common people, and it is conceded that
superstition enters into the latter. Martini asked whether
^ Furtado, answer of February 8, 1640, to Morales' 12 questions
[Pray], I, 68. " As regards the more solemn ceremonies in the
hall of Confucius, with a view to avoiding all danger or even the
appearance of superstition, we have always observed what our
Fathers had likewise observed from the beginning, that is, we
have absolutely forbidden them to the Christians and even to
be present at them." A. de Govea to Navarete, October 3,
1669, ibid., 216 seq.
* Collectanea, I., 38.
l68 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the ceremonies, as interpreted by the learned, could be per-
mitted to the Christians, on condition that every super-
stitious element was eliminated ; furthermore, whether the
Christians could carry out these ceremonies, if approved,
jointly with their pagan relatives, that is whether they might
be present whilst their pagan relatives practised superstitious
rites, provided there was no scandal and they themselves
gave no sign of approval.
There follows a description of the customs observed in
the worship of ancestors. The Chinese do not ascribe divine
attributes to the spirits of the dead and do not request their
help. They pay a threefold homage to them. First of all,
whenever a death occurs, they invariably erect in the house
where the deceased lies, and in front of the bier, an altar
on which they place the image, or the monogram of the dead
man, amid fragrant herbs, flowers and candles. The mourners
fall on their knees, three or four times, before the picture or
the monogram of the deceased, touching the ground with their
forehead. They also present candles and perfumes which are
burnt on the altar before the image or the monogram.
Another form of homage takes place twice a year. Though
all persons of the wealthy classes do not possess a temple
of their own, they have at least a special room with the pictures
or monograms of their ancestors. In this room all the relatives
assemble twice a year and the wealthier ones offer meat, wine,
candles and perfumes. Those less well off and unable to set
apart such rooms for their ancestors, have at least tablets
bearing the monograms of their ancestors which they keep
in a special place, or even on the altar where they also place
pictures of " saints ". They do not venerate these pictures
or tablets, nor do they sacrifice to them ; they are put on the
altar because there is no other place for them. The above-
mentioned ceremonies are only carried out if there is an
ancestors' hall, otherwise they are omitted.
The third kind of cult refers to the graves of the dead
on the hill-tops, outside the towns. At least once a year,
about the beginning of May, the relatives visit the grave,
clean it of weeds, lament, make their genuflections and
THE CHINESE RITES. 169
place cooked food and wine on it : a meal concludes the
ceremony.^
The Congregation approved all this ; as a matter of fact
it had permitted already in 1645 the customs observed in
the mortuary chamber whenever a death occurred,^ so that
in the description of the rites in question it was possible to
reproduce textually, at least in substance, the earlier decree.
It was not to be expected that the decision of 1656 would
put an end to the disputes. The Jesuits had reason to be
satisfied with the decree and since Martini's demands had met
with a favourable answer, the ritual questions not expressly
decided by the Congregation could not give rise to any serious
difficulties. But it was too much to hope that the new decree
would dispose of the objections of the opponents, for they
could retort that they had not been heard before the decision,
just as the Jesuits had not been heard before that of 1645 ^ ;
consequently the Jesuits did not insist on the ordinance
being communicated to them in due legal form for this
would only have served to irritate the advocates of another
opinion.* Moreover, though the Jesuits were allowed to act
on the decision of 1656, it was by no means forbidden to go
by that of 1645 ; both decrees presupposed that the reports
sent to the Congregation were based on facts, but the Con-
gregation had not decided what was the truth in the practice
of these rites, hence according as either the one or the other
report to the Congregation was judged to conform to facts,
the one or the other decree could be followed. The Dominicans
ended by deciding that Martini's account of the rites was
erroneous, so that it was not lawful to take advantage of the
concessions of the Congregation.^ But though opinion on the
interpretation of the rites continued to differ, after the decision
of 1656 the Jesuit view increasingly gained ground. Fifty years
^ Ibid., 38 seq.
- Cf. decrees of 1645, n. 12, n. 34.
' Cf. the opinions of Jesuits in Biermann, 95, n. 45.
* Ibid.
* Ibid., loi.
170 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
later, when the controversy was once more submitted for
final judgment by Rome, the Jesuits were able to affirm that
in practice the members of other Orders adopted the Society's
view, including even those of their number who fought the
Jesuits by means of pamphlets and disputations.^
1 " Ultimo loco animadvertere oportet, istos 111. Dominos
Adversaries nihil habuisse, quod opponerent iis, quae deducta
fuerant in primo Memoriali n. 59 etc. ad probandum omnes
ferme missionarios Chinae cuiuslibet Ordinis in facto sequi
praxim Societatis, etiam illos, qui eandem praxim scribendo aut
disputando improbant ; et quod plus est, nihil omnino respondisse
ad facta quaedam particularia, quae referebantur de iisdem
Illmis DD. Cononensi (Maigrot) et Rosaliensi (Lyonne), ut in
primo Summario sub n. 2 lit. T pag. 33, et n. 5 lit. HH et JJ,
ac praesertim quod D. Cononensis sacramentum Confirmationis
impertitus fuisset neophytis Societatis, quos coram S. Sede
tanquam indubitatos idolorum cultores accusat, quodque ritum
funebrem Tiao, idolatria pariter imbutum, secundum plurium
ex adversariis sententiam per se ipsum praestiterit ante feretrum
ac tabellam mandarini gentilis defuncti." Another letter of
Maigrot shows " dictum Illmum Dominum non vere credere
defunctorum animas frui oblatis secundum doctrinam Sinicam,
cum in eo scripto ex libris Sinicis probet oppositum, aliaque ibi
habeat, ex quibus mitius interpretanda sunt, quae in suo libello
tantopere exaggerat. Noel-Castner, Memoriale ac Summarium
novissimorum testimoniorum Sinensium . . . Clementi Papa? XI
oblatum (Romae) 27 Aug. 1704, 23 n. 79."
CHAPTER V.
Jansenist Troubles in France and the Low Countries.
(1.)
In order to put an end to doubts and distortions, Innocent X.,
in a Brief of September 29th, 1C54, had explained his con-
demnation of the famous five Jansenist propositions in the
sense that his decision was meant to hit opinions expressed
in the August inus of Jansenius. But when shortly after the
Pope's death, Mazarin, on January 15th, 1655, placed this
Brief before fifteen Bishops assembled in Paris, they were
not wholly satisfied with it, on the ground that in that docu-
ment the Pope issued a simple statement, not a decision in
virtue of his supreme authority.^ The assembly nevertheless
gave it as its opinion that the effect would be a favourable
one, provided the papal decree was signed throughout France.
It is true that Parliament raised objections on the ground that
the new Brief enjoined the acceptance of a decree of the
Inquisition of April 23rd, 1654, against Jansenist writings,
whereas the Inquisition was not acknowledged in France.
However, the King countered this objection by himself
prohibiting all Jansenist publications in virtue of his own
sovereign authority. The fifteen prelates addressed a circular to
all the Bishops of France urging them to put their signatures to
the Constitution condemning the five propositions, the Brief of
September 29th, 1654, as well as to a formula which expressly
ascribed the five propositions to Jansenius and declared
that St. Augustine had nothing to do with them. This is the
first appearance of the first draft of the formula round which
the whole Jansenist conflict was to develop thereafter.
The fifteen Bishops lacked sufficient prestige to induce all
their colleagues to take a unanimous step. Thus for the
^ Gerberon, II., 248 seqq.
171
172 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
moment a general calm prevailed in France, but it was a calm
such as that which, in the winter time, precedes the fall of an
avalanche in the snow-covered mountains : in the midst
of a great silence a small quantity of snow is suddenly set in
motion when, with irresistible force, mass is piled upon mass
with appalling effect. It was a trifling matter that caused the
tension, so long repressed on the Jansenist side, to snap at
last.
One of the most valuable recruits to the new teaching was
the Marquis de Liancourt who, notwithstanding his leaning
towards " the disciples of St. Augustine ", nevertheless
remained in touch with the Sulpicians, to whose founder
and superior he had given a written promise that he would
submit to the forthcoming papal judgment. ^ At first it
looked as if he would be as good as his word.^ However, his
relations with Port-Royal became increasingly intimate.
His niece was being educated there from her second year,
and he himself gave hospitality to the Jansenist Bourseys
by whom he had been won over to the new teaching. ^ Now
it so happened that when Liancourt went to confession to the
Sulpician Picote, the latter requested his penitent to give
him time to consider whether he could give him absolution.
In his embarrassment the Marquis appealed to Vincent dc
Paul. Vincent discussed the affair with Picote's superior,
Brettonvilliers, as well as with Olier himself, and as both
defended Picote, he submitted the case to some Doctors of
the Sorbonne who pronounced in favour of a refusal of
absolution, though when consulted a second time, they declared
that the Marquis could not be publicly refused Communion.'*
Liancourt did not keep this affair quiet, so that it created
no small stir, especially among the Jansenists. The Marquis
was a highly respected man, of irreproachable conduct.
1 Rapin, I., 92 seq., 526 seq.
- Ibid., II., 126 seq.
=» Ibid., 236 ; Faillon, II., 403, 483 seq.
* Tronson's report (3rd Superior of St. Sulpice) and Liancourt
himself on the matter in App. to Rapin, II., 512-18. On Picote,
ibid., 509-512.
LIANCOURT S CASE OF CONSCIENCE. 173
If he was refused absolution, although he accepted the con-
demnation of the five propositions, many others would be
threatened with a like fate. Thus what was at first Liancourt's
purely personal concern developed into a question of principle
and Antoine Arnauld took up his pen in defence of the
Marquis.
However, his opuscule is a very feeble production. ^ He
writes as if there were question of a formal excommunication
and attacks his opponents on this assumption. Two state-
ments in Arnauld's outburst deserve attention. The one
contains an unqualified assurance ^ that everybody was agreed
that the five propositions were heretical, though Port-Royal
was anything but unanimous on this point. ^ The other asserts
that all Catholics had a right to the Sacraments of the Church
and that so long as they remained children of God they could
not be denied the bread of God's children.* There would be
nothing remarkable in the statement were it not that it came
from the same pen which wrote the book against frequent
Communion.
Arnauld's book bears the date of February 24th, 1655.
Refutations appeared promptly.^ Arnauld replied on July 10th
in another somewhat lengthy publication.^ Only out of
regard for a great personage,' he says at the beginning,
did he take up his pen anew, and he did so with the utmost
reluctance. He then discusses, with many a violent outburst
and accusation, the affair of the Marquis of Liancourt ;
in the second part he seeks to prove his own submission to the
papal decision. His proof is chiefly based on the customary
distinction with which the Jansenists endeavoured to render
1 Premiere lettre a line personne de condition (CEuvres, XIX.,
311 seqq.).
- Ibid., X., 315.
' Rapin, II., 248 seq.
* CEuvres, XIX., 312.
^ Titles, ibid. 337 ; Rapin, II., 247.
* Seconde lettre a un Due et Pair de France {CEuvres, XIX.,
338 seqq.) ; Rapin, II., 297-307.
' The Duke de Luynes ?
174 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
papal judgments ineffective : he condemned the five proposi-
tions, he declared, but defended the teaching of Augustine,
for there was question not of Jansenius, but of Augustine.^
Notwithstanding this definite assurance, Arnauld not only
refuses to drop the Bishop of Ypres, but by means of a clever
distinction, contrives to give the impression that he accepts
the papal decision without forswearing Jansenius. When the
Church gives a decision on points of faith, he writes, she can,
of course, demand internal assent, but the fact whether
Jansenius taught this or that is not a part of the deposit
of the faith, which can only contain what is taught by Scripture
or Tradition ^ : hence in the case of a decision by the Church
on a question of fact, it is enough to observe a respectful
silence.^ Thus, according to Arnauld, the magisterium of the
Church may declare infallibly whether or no a proposition is
in conformity with her dogmas, but when it describes the
teaching of this or that man as heretical, its judgment on such
a point of fact is not infallible, hence it can never infallibly
put the faithful on their guard against the teaching of any
particular man, and condemn it without the possibility of
error. It goes without saying that such a distinction makes it
impossible for the magisterium of the Church to fulfil its
purpose, yet for all its singularity, the distinction was destined
to acquire enormous importance. Lastly Arnauld discusses
in detail the teaching of St. Augustine who, according to him,
asserts in a hundred places that the grace required to keep
the commandments was not given to all.* Thus in the person
of the Prince of the Apostles the Gospel shows us a just man
who lacked the grace without which we are helpless, on an
^ CEuvres, XIX, 443 seqq.
^ Ibid., 445 seq.
' Ibid., 456. BouLENGER [Le grand siecle, Paris, 191 1, 285)
writes : " Sans doute ces subtilites anraient fort irrite I'auteur
des Provinciales, si elles eussent etc du fait des Jesuites : n'etait-il
pas absurde de reconnaitre au pape la faculte de determiner
une doctrine et de lui refuser cclle de decider si cette doctrine
ctait ou non d'accord avec celle d'un livre qulcconquc ? "
* CEuvres, XIX., 472 seqq.
ARNAULD ON ST. PETER S DENIAL. I75
occasion of which it is impossible to say that he did
not sin.^
This distorted sentence about St. Peter's denial was to
prove particularly fatal to Arnauld, though for the moment
the new publication of the pope of Jansenism considerably
raised the morale of his followers. ^ Under the cloak of a
" respectful silence " they might stick to Jansenius and his
book, and if the fall of the Prince of the Apostles could be
ascribed to the lack of grace, that statement amounted to a
denial of sufficient grace. In point of fact this fundamental
tenet of Jansenius had, by that time, become so ingrained
in the conscience of many that they no longer accused them-
selves in confession of having sinned so many times, but that
grace had failed them on so many occasions.' In view of the
Jansenists' lack of straightforwardness, of which Arnauld's
publication furnished a fresh proof, it is not surprising that
just then, that is after 1654, Filleau's book on the alleged
conspiracy of Bourgfontaine should have created a sensation,
for there it was asserted that, as a matter of fact, the new
sect did not take its teaching seriously, but that under cover
of fine speeches it aimed at nothing less than the destruction
of Christianity itself.*
The joy of Arnauld's friends over his new book was paralleled
by the excitement in the opposite camp. The dispute had
suddenly entered a new phase. There was no longer question
of the doctrine of grace but of the Church's infallibility,
of what she could decide unerringly, and whether the Pope
was justified in claiming the right to pronounce in certain
^ Ibid., 572 seq. The text of St. Augustine {Scrmo 124 de temp.)
to which Arnauld appeals is from an apocryphal homily which
was already described as spurious in the Louvain edition {Aligne.
Pair. Lat., XXXIX., 1899; cf. Arnauld, (Eiivres, XXV., 33).
* " Rien enfin ne retablit mieux les affaires du party que cette
lettre, on peut dire memo que tout ce qui se fit d'avantageux et
de favorable dans la suite a la cabale ne fut qu'un effet du fracas
qu'elle fit dans le monde." Kapin, II., 307.
' Faillon, II., 453 ; Arnauld, (Envres, XVI., xxxi.
* See our data, XXIX., 73 seq.
176 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
matters. For a time Rome did nothing ; it was even said that
Alexander VII. had at lirst blamed the priests of St. Sulpice.^
However, a commission was appointed to examine Arnauld's
book. The latter deemed it expedient to protest his obedience
to the Holy See in a most submissive letter. ^ The influence
of Rancati, who had been pushed aside by Innocent X.,
but whom Alexander VII. had reinstated, is said to have
prevented decisive measures.^
But if, for the time being, everything was quiet in Rome,
excitement was all the greater in France, both at court
and among the Bishops and the scholars. A few small works
against the new book by the Jesuits Annat, Crasset and
Deschamps had already appeared, but Arnauld's answer to
them was not printed.* Meanwhile a much more dangerous
adversary appeared on the scene, viz. the Sorbonne.
On November 4th, 1655, the Syndic Guyart announced that
some persons in high position had protested against Arnauld's
new book, whereupon six members of the Faculty were
instructed to examine the work. Saint-Amour and some
others tried to offer resistance and when Guyart obtained
a decision of the royal council against them, they and sixty-
two Doctors appealed to Parliament against an alleged
abuse of ecclesiastical authority. On the basis of some ancient
parliamentary decisions, according to which only two Doctors
of each of the Mendicant Orders were entitled to vote,^ the
Advocate General, Talon, favoured the appellants, but out of
consideration for the court the appeal was eventually rejected.^
Meanwhile in an anonymous publication,' Arnauld had
appealed to another tribunal, namely to the general public
and to the great mass of the unlearned. His only crime,
he angrily declared, was that he did not extend the regard
1 Rapin, II., 308.
'^ August 27, 1655, ibid.
' Ihid.
* Only published in 1702 by Quesncl (CEuvrcs, XIX., 565 seqq.).
5 See XXX., p. 240.
* (Eiivres, XIX., xliv.
" Considerations {ibid., XIX., 602 seqq.).
ARNAULD AND THE SORBONNE. I77
he felt for the papal decision to the explanation with which
the Jesuit Annat had enriched it.^ After a few sallies against
the Jesuits he proceeds in the same tone against his own
colleagues, that is the six Sorbonnists who had been charged
with the examination of the affair. Very different is the tone
of two other contemporary writings which also bear his
name " and in which he humbly prays the Sorbonne to be good
enough to point out to him what was offensive in his letters,
so that he might plead guilty to possible errors, or offer an
explanation in self-defence. A letter of the same period,
to his sister Angelique,^ proves that he did not want to be
shown where he was wrong, in fact, he did not desire even
as much as an inquiry. He roundly describes the affair as the
cause of God ; he was being persecuted because in his teaching
on grace he did not make God subservient to man. On
December 1st, Arnauld's letters to the Sorbonne were publicly
read at a meeting of that body and the six commissaries
reported on the result of their inquiry. Arnauld, they stated,
had erred on a point of fact as well as on a point of doctrine.
With regard to the question of fact he denied that the five
propositions were Jansenius', and as to the other, namely
that in presence of a papal decision on a question of fact
it was enough to observe an attitude of respectful silence
the commission qualifies it as " rash, scandalous, offensive
towards the Pope as well as the French clergy and calculated
to revive the condemned teaching of Jansenius ". Their
judgment was even severer on the so-called question of right,
that is on Arnauld's doctrinal error. His thesis that St. Peter's
fall was due to a lack of grace, the six commissaries roundly
describe as heretical.* Towards Arnauld's person, at the
request of Bishop Lescot of Chartres, the Sorbonne proceeded
with mildness. He was asked to give an undertaking that he
' Ibid., 607.
* November 24-30, 1655, ibid., 626 seqq.
3 Of November 5, 1655 {ibid., I., 82).
^ Rapin, II., 316, Rapin's account is chronologically inaccurate
here.
VOL. XXXI. N
178 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
would submit to the Sorbonne and requested to appear before
that body, not to dispute, but to present his views. ^
The Jansenists had no thought of submitting. Arnauld
forwarded two more letters to the Sorbonne, in which he
deals not very clearly with the question whether the five
propositions were to be found in Jansenius. As for his view
on St. Peter's fall, he declares that it was derived from the
purest theological sources and quite free from error. Explana-
tions such as these could lead nowhere ; hence Arnauld's
friends had recourse to other means. After the letters had
been read at the Sorbonne on December 7th and 10th, at the
moment when the six commissioners were about to proceed
with their report, the Jansenists raised such a din that it
was impossible to go on with the reading. Thereupon the
Bishops present secured a royal ordinance forbidding members,
under severe penalties, to speak out of their turn or to interrupt
a speaker. However, if no one might be interrupted, that
circumstance provided the Jansenists with a splendid means
to delay a decision indefinitely. As a matter of fact, the
Jansenist Brousse, in order to demonstrate, the uncertainty
of human knowledge, gave a veritable lecture on astronomy,
so that he took up two whole sessions with his discourse
and even then he was not yet at the end. 2 This was too much
even for the most long-suffering. At the next meeting an
incident occurred for which there was no precedent in the
history of the Sorbonne. The chancellor, Seguicr, came to
the meeting in solemn procession, escorted by halberdiers,
and explained that he had been commissioned by the King
to see to the preservation of the traditional order. However,
nothing daunted, Brousse began again, expatiating this time
on the difference between a lie and a delusion. The chancellor
summoned him to keep to the subject under discussion,
whereupon Brousse started an argument to show that the five
propositions could not be found in Jansenius. Again and
again the chancellor recalled him to the point in question.
1 Arnauld to De Barcos (CEuvres, I., 83).
2 Rapix, if., 338.
OBSTRUCTION IN THE SORBONNE. I79
Bioussc then coniplaiiuMl that I here was no freedom of speech.
At last lie ended witli the statement that it was an offence
against the Pope to hold that he was infalhble in his jndgments
on points of fact.^
The presence of the chancellor prevented the remaining
speakers in support of Arnauld ^ from drawing out their
speeches indehnitely. They pointed out that no one had been
able to find the five propositions in Jansenius ; that in point
of fact not one of them was his ; that the Pope had issued no
definition on the point, nor could he define anything infallibly
on the subject. Manessier added that the Roman consultors
had not been commissioned to inquire what Jansenius had
to do with the propositions.^ On the other hand, the majority
of the assembly considered that these questions had been
decided by the pronouncements of the Pope and the Bishops :
hence they declined to enter into a fresh discussion of the
subject. Bishop de la Barde of Saint-Brieuc, Bishop Godeau
of Vence, Bourgeois and Rousse, cure of St. Roch in Paris,
made vain attempts to bring about a compromise between
utterly irreconcilable opinions. However, Bishops Vialart
of Chalons and Choiseul of Comminges, who arrived in Paris
at the beginning of January 1656, seem to have succeeded
in inducing Arnauld to write a letter to the Faculty,'* in which
he expressed regret for having given utterance to a doubt
on the presence of the five points in the writings of Jansenius ;
but for the rest, he withdrew nothing. Vialart 's proposal ^
that they should be satisfied with this explanation met with
as little favour as a similar one by Choiseul.
On January 14th, 1656, after more than twenty sessions,
the Faculty proceeded to vote : 124 Doctors of the Sorbonne
declared Arnauld's doubts about questions of fact rash,
1 Protocol of the sitting in Rapix, II., 528 seqq.
2 Bourgeois' votum in Arnauld GLuvres XX., 428 seqq. ;
Balan's, ibid., 447 seqq. ; Manessier's, ibid., 476 seqq. ; Perrault's,
ibid., 480 seqq. Cf., ibid., XIX., Ivii seqq.
^ Ibid., 476.
* January 10, 1656 (CEnvres, XIX., 664).
^ Ibid., XX., 494.
l80 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
scandalous, etc. ; scvcnty-onc Doctors exculpated him, whilst
liltcen remained nciitral.^ If from the 121 opponents of
Arnauld we deduct the seven Bishops and forty members of
the Mendicant Orders, the two parties almost balanced
each other.
The first part of the discussions, viz. those on the question
of fact, was thus disposed of ; it was now necessary to proceed
to deal with the second, viz. the question of right. Arnauld
sought to protect himself by means of a pamphlet addressed
to the Sorbonne,^ in which he tried to cloak his views with the
teaching of the Dominicans, and in a small work destined for
a larger circle,^ he gave further explanations of his ideas on
the fall of St. Peter. He sent the former work to the Sorbonne
together with a covering letter,'* but despite the efforts
of his friend Bourgeois, the Faculty refused to have it read.
On January 17th, 1656, the discussion opened at once on the
basis of Arnauld's former work and in order to put a stop
to all attempts at obstruction, it was decided at the outset
that when it came to stating opinions, no one should be allowed
to speak for more than half an hour. However, this decision
was not at first strictly enforced until, on January 22nd, 1656,
Bourgeois took two whole hours to expound his views and he
had not finished when the sitting terminated. Thereupon,
on the 24th, the chancellor presented himself once more in
the assembly. Bourgeois, who on this occasion also was
unwilling to stop, had the humiliation of being several times
angrily interrupted by the chancellor, with the result that he
was only able to read one-half of the 112 closely written
quarto sheets of his memorandum. After a certain Heron,
hitherto a supporter of Arnauld, had dropped him in the
1 CEuvrcs, XIX., xlviii. Cf. two letters of St. Amour of
January 14, 1656, in Rapin, II., 532 seqq. That Jansenius held
the opinions expressed in the five propositions, has often been
proved; cf. Yvks de la Bri^re in h'cchcrches, VI. (191^').
270-301.
2 Apologeticus alter (Qiuvres, XIX., 668 scqq.).
3 Proposiiiones theologicae duae {ibid., 705 seqq.).
'• January 16, 16G5 {ibid., 666).
ARNAULD CENSURED. lOI
matter under discussion, sixty of Arnauld's partisans, on the
latter's advice, left the assembly on the plea that there was
no freedom of speech ; at the same time they protested in
advance against the decision which could be expected from
the Sorbonne.^ Matters now moved rapidly towards a
decision. After six further sittings, on January 31st, 1656,
the text of the censure was drawn up and the assertion that
the fall of the Prince of the Apostles was due to a lack of
grace was qualified as heretical. A period of grace was
granted to the author of the statement until February
15th ; if by then he had not subscribed to the censure, he
would be excluded from the Sorbonne and his name struck
off the list of its Doctors. Thereafter no one was to be admitted
to any office, or public function, at the Sorbonne unless he
had first signed the censure. ^ The decision had been arrived
at by 127 votes against those of 9 Jansenists present, whilst
31 who were absent protested that it was null and void.^
Arnauld acted in like manner, "* on the plea that he could not
acknowledge an assembly at which theologians were not free
to expound their views, or their motives for holding them.
Although he had been struck off the list of Doctors, he now
styled himself " Doctor " with special emphasis and insisted
on being described thus by his friends.
Thus judgment was given in Paris and Rome threatened
to confirm it. Arnauld did his utmost to forestall the blow.
In a new work on St. Thomas' genuine teaching on sufficient
and efficient grace, -^ he endeavoured to show that it was
impossible to condemn him without condemning St. Thomas,
thereby destroying the whole of the Saint's theological
edifice. The desire to win over Roman circles appears plainly
1 Rapin, II., 348 seqq., with Aubineau's notes. Text of the
protest in Arnauld, Giuvres, XX., 394 seqq.
2 Text of the decree, ibid., XX., 345 seqq.
' February i, 1656, ibid., 397 ; further objection " of very
many doctors " on February 15, ibid., 398. Cf. Arnauld's
letter of January 30, 1656, ibid., I., 100.
* February 26, 1656, ibid., XIX., 719 seqq.
^ Ibid., XX., 39 seqq.
l82 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
in the new work. All of a sudden Arnauld condescended to
make admissions which put his teaching in a quite new
light. 1 He sent his opuscule to Cardinal Francesco Barberini
and to Rancati who just then were being influenced in a
Jansenist sense by Cosimo Brunetti of Siena.- In a covering
letter ^ Arnauld describes himself once more as a follower of
St. Thomas from whom he only differed in some trifling
details. Rancati 's reply was courteous but cold,^ nor did the
Dominican Cardinal Maculano allow himself to be won over
by Arnauld's extravagant praise of the Dominicans and their
teaching.'^ A further work also addressed to Rancati ^ yielded
no better result.
Arnauld had acted as he had done with all the more
assurance as under Alexander VII. the French nuncio had
scarcely taken any steps to have the Constitution of Innocent
X. carried into effect, and Rome had made no comment on
Arnauld's second work on the affair Liancourt which the
Doctor had forwarded to the authorities there. Accordingly
the French Jansenists boasted that they enjoyed the favour
of the new Pope. In this they were mistaken. Alexander
expressed his satisfaction on hearing of the Sorbonne's attitude
towards Arnauld and of the conduct of the chancellor. The
nuncio had not been able to do anything because of the great
^ Thus he now expressly admits that the fall of the ju.st who
lacks efficacious grace cannot be ascribed to God ; that the cause
of that want was for the most part due to the neglect of praver
{ibid., 66) ; one may not simply assert that a commandment
is impossible for a just man or a sinner (73). H he said that Peter,
in denying our Lord, had lacked the grace without which we are
helpless, he did not mean habitual grace which, according to
St. Thomas, represents " grace sufficient to enable a man to
avoid sin " (76).
■' Ibid., XIX., Ixv. si'(j(j.
^ March 31, 1656, ibid., 1., 107 sajq.
* Ibid., 116.
'■" Ibid., 1 17 .s(Y/.
^ Dissertatio thcologica quadripartiia, ibid., XX., 159 seqcj.
Letter to Rancati, June i, 1656, ibid., I., 129 .'icqq.
ARNAULD CENSURED. 183
difficulty he experienced in obtaining an audience even with
Mazarin who showed the utmost favour to the worst Jansenist
of all, the Archbishop of Sens.^ The silence of the Index was
due solely to the fact that it was not its practice to issue a
special decree for a single book ; but it would not be long
before something was done.^ In point of fact on August 3rd,
1656, the Congregation of the Index published a declaration
prohibiting Arnauld's two letters to Liancourt, his five
memorials to the Sorbonne and his letter to a certain Doctor
Holden on St. Thomas's teaching on grace. ^
With what sentiments Arnauld received this condemnation
appears from a letter to his brother, the Bishop of Angers.
In France, he wrote, they did not attach much importance to
these censures of the Index ; besides, for those who know
how these things are done, there is nothing more pitiable
than these decrees ^ ; for the moment he did not know what
to do except to lament before God the enormities that were
being committed against His sacred truth. ^
1 " pessimus Jansenistarum." Later, on August 22, 1664,
Annat *wrote to Fabri that Gondrin was not himself a Jansenist,
but that he favoured them in every way ; he welcomed them all
into his diocese. Excerpta ex codice S. Officii, Acta in Galliis in
causa Janseniana, 1663-5, f- 5i4> these extracts from the other-
wise inaccessible Archives of the Roman Inquisition were left
by Schill and were most kindly put at my disposal by the Chapter
of Freiburg, for which I wish to express my thanks in this
place also.
- DuNEAU to Mazarin, July 27, 1656, in Gerin, I., 151,
n. 3.
^ The Jansenists sought to cover themselves with the authority
of St. Thomas and the Thomists, so that the difference between
the latter's teaching and that of the Jansenists was a burning
question at that time. The Dominican Nicolai of Paris and the
Jesuit Annat in particular showed this difference which Holden
had contested (Rapin, II., 321 scq.). Cf. [Patouillet], I.,
291-308.
* Letter of September 30, 1656, CEuvrcs, I., 148.
5 Letter to Desmares, ibid., 125.
184 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
(2.)
With Arnauld's condemnation the Jansenist party seemed
to have been finally crushed. The Church and scholars, the
Pope, the Bishops and the world's first University had united
in condemning it. The charter of foundation of the new
teaching, Jansenius' Aiigustiniis, was torn up, the apologies
of its mouthpiece and oracle, together with a dozen other
writings, stood in the catalogue of forbidden books. A cartoon
in a comic almanac which enjoyed an enormous sale, brought
home to the common people what it was all about. This
picture was commented upon in every workshop and in
every home, amid general laughter.^ In his latest writings
Arnauld had vainly turned and twisted in order to avoid the
impending blow ; vainly had Port-Royal groaned and raised
its hands to heaven. The blow had fallen and it looked as if
only two alternatives remained to the Jansenists, viz. either
to submit loyally or to leave the Church openly.
They took neither course, yet a few weeks after Arnauld's
condemnation their prestige was greater than ever and they
were able to deal their best hated enemy blows of which the
effects were to be felt for centuries. If they had nothing
more to hope for from the halls of the Vatican and the
Sorbonne, they still had the influential salons of aristocratic
ladies and gentlemen, in fact the cultivated world in general.
If they achieved nothing with the heavy artillery of scholarly
arguments, they knew that an opponent could be got rid of
with the sharp stiletto of pointed irony and ridicule. This
was no task for the somewhat crude Arnauld ; but the work
was done with incomparable skill by another man who
appeared on the scene at the right moment to rescue Arnauld
— that man was Blaise Pascal. ^
^ Rapin, II., 191-6.
^ A. Maire, Bibliographie generate des oeuvres de Blaise Pascal
5 vols., Paris, 1925-7 ; V. Giraud, Pascal. I'homme, I'oeuvre,
I'influence ', Paris, 1905 ; F. Strowski, Pascal et son temps,
Paris, 1907 ; Id., B. Pascal. CEuvres completes avec tine biographic,
I. (Biographic), Paris, 1923 ; H. Petitot, Pascal, sa vie religieuse
PASCAL. 185
Pascal was a man of genius in more than one sphere. Born
at Clermont Ferrand in 1623 he died at the early age of 39.
From his eighteenth year his life was one long struggle with
illness, but whatever he took up during the brief span of his
life, he advanced and improved, with the sole exception of
theology. As a youth he invented a calculating machine.
In one sleepless night and whilst tortured by toothache,
during the latter years of his life, he solved a mathematical
problem which until then had baffled human ingenuity, viz.
that of the cycloid, and he also threw further light on the
theory of probabilities. In physics he demonstrated the
weight of the air and formulated the laws of the equilibrium
of liquids. In addition to all this he has his place among
writers on the philosophy of religion and he is one of the
creators of modern French.
Pascal first took up a more serious attitude to life in a
Jansenist sense in 1646 and after an interval of worldliness
definitely so in 1645. Henceforth we see him as a keen
Jansenist.^ As such he cherished a strong aversion for the
Jesuits, a feeling which, as a matter of fact, had been called
et son Apologic da christianisme, Paris, 191 1 ; W. Clark, Pascal
and the Port-Royalists, Edinburgh, 1902 ; W. Kreiten, in
Stimmen ans Maria-Laach, XLII-XLV ; K. Bornhausen,
Pascal, Bale, 1920 ; Id., Die Ethik Pascals, Giessen, 1907 ;
A. KosTER, Die Ethik Pascals, Tubingen, 1907 ; Les pensees dc
Pascal, disposees suivant I'ordre du cahier autographe par
G. MicHAUT, Fribourg (Suisse), 1896.
^ According to E. Jovy (Pascal inedit II. : Les veri tables
derniers .sentiments dc Pascal, Vitry-le-Fran^ois, 1910), Pascal
renounced, before his death, the Jansenist teaching on grace,
though not his dislike for the casuists {cf. J. Chevalier, Pascal
[1922], 37 seqq. The following agree with Jov}^ : H. F. Stewart
{Les lettres provinciates, Manchester, 1920), Monbrun (Bullet,
de litt. eccl., Toulouse, 191 1, 153 seqq., 201 seqq. ; 1920, 147 seqq.),
Lahorgue (ibid., 1920, 59 seqq.), Yves de la Briere (Etudes,
CXXIX [1911], 641 seq.), A. Valensinn (ibid., 5 juin, 1923, 517).
Against Jovy : Aug. Gazier (Les derniers jours de Blaise Pascal,
Paris, 1911), H. Petitot (Rev. des sciences pJiil. et thcoL, IV
[1910], 723 seqq.).
l86 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
forth before this by an encounter with them in the scientific
sphere. One very surprising trait in Pascal's character, one
that brings out even more markedly the opposition between
him and Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuit ascetics, was his
susceptibility to extraordinary emotional impressions which
he took without question for the voice of God. As a scientist,
Pascal was hampered by his Jansenist piety which led him
gradually to despise secular knowledge and involved him in
a controversy which, whilst it brought his name to the
knowledge of the whole world, was from the point of view of
scholarship, the feeblest part of his achievement.^
In December, 1655, as Arnauld's condemnation by the
Sorbonne drew ever nearer, Port-Royal hit on the expedient
of representing the whole affair as a discussion about a mere
nothing and a question of mere words. If this were done in
a striking, witty fashion, they would have most of the
laughter on their side and the condemnation with which they
were threatened, might be staved off ; in any case it would
be rendered harmless. Arnauld wrote a pamphlet in this
sense but it failed to please his friends ; accordingly he
appealed to Pascal and pressed him to try his liand at it.
Pascal's essay met with hearty approval. It appeared in
print on January 23rd, 1656. It consisted of only eight
quarto pages bearing the title : A letter to a person in the
provinces from a friend.'^ It was the first of the Lettres
Provinciates which immediately created an enormous sensation.
1 Cf. W. Kreiten, Die Provinzialhriefe Pascals, in Stimmen
aus Maria-Laach, XLIV. (1893), 24 seqq., 161 seqq., 295 seqq.,
456 seqq., 337 seqq. ; XLV., 25 seqq. ; Mavxard, Les Provinciates
et leiir refutation, Paris, 1851 ; A. Brou, Les Jesuites de la legende,
L, Paris, 1907, 305-9, 343-430 ; Karl Weiss, P. Antonio de
Escobar y Mcndoza als Moralthcologe in Pascals Beteiichtung und
ini Lichte der Wahrheit, Klagenfurt, 1908. Rectification of twelve
assertions in letters 1-3, 17-18 ; [Dumas], L, 169-184 ; examina-
tion of all the letters in Rapix, Mem., II., ^^^ seqq., 394 seqq.,
431 seqq., 454 seqq.
- " Lettre cscrite a un Provincial par un de ses amis sur le
sujet dcs disputes presentes de la Sorbonne." Later, under the
FIRST PROVINCIALES. 187
In accordance with their agreement, Pascal had thrown
ridicule upon the whole affair. " At this moment," he writes,
" the most learned body in the kingdom is engaged in a
lengthy discussion as to whether or not the five propositions
are to be found in Jansenius' book. How ridiculous ! Do I
need the Doctors of Sorbonne to ascertain such a thing ?
Have I not Jansenius' book and can I not read it for myself ?
And is it so weighty a question whether or no Arnauld is
' rash ' ? Does it affect my conscience ? " These thoughts
are thrown off at the very beginning of the letter, in a language
unheard until then ; the whole thing is so bright and arresting,
is developed in short, simple sentences, so cleverly turned
and so pungently humorous, that the laughter-loving Parisians
were bound to be highly diverted, with the result that they
would overlook the fact that Pascal was completely beside
the point. The question was not whether the five propositions
stood textually in Jansenius' book. Arnauld had been
unwilling to discover them in order to shield both Jansenius
and his book from a papal condemnation. But when the
Pope declared that he had condemned propositions put up
by Jansenius, was it not " rashness ", and even worse than
rashness, to tell the Head of the Church that Rome was
unable to read or to discern the true meaning of a book ?
Thus Arnauld's denials touched on a question of principle.
The same is true of the second part of his letter in which he
states that Peter denied our Lord because he lacked the
necessary grace. Here he touches on the question of man's
free will, that is on a basic question of morality, so that the
affair is by no means laughable. All the same Pascal succeeds
in making a discovery on the strength of which he pours
ridicule on the Sorbonne. If the will is to perform an act
freely, nothing must come between it and its act that might
hinder its action, that is, as the expression was, the will
must have not only a remote but a proximate capacity or
pseudon\-ni of " Louis de Montaltc ". In the seventh letter
Pascal uses ii circumlocution for " provincial " and at the end
he writes, " l"n de nies amis de la campagne."
100 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
ability to act. As to what constitutes this " proximate
capacity "} was a matter on which the various schools
disagreed. Pascal now imagines himself as going from a
Jansenist to a Dominican, from a Dominican to a Jesuit,
in order to obtain from each of them an explanation of what
was meant by " proximate capacity ". He then plays off
the various answers against each other, thereby creating the
impression that the theologians did not know their own
minds and that they condemned Amauld for a meaningless
expression. It goes without saying that Pascal makes his
theologians give answers such as no real theologian would
ever give. But his consultation of them is so entertainingly
described that it reads like a farce, with the result that perhaps
not one reader in a thousand who laughed at the theologians
and their " proximate capacity ", was really aware that he
was laughing at an attempt to explain one of the profoundest
and weightiest questions of philosophy, human life and
Christianity, the question, that is, of the freedom of the
human will and the relations between nature and the super-
natural. In his second letter Pascal indulges in the same sort
of banter when treating of the sufficient grace of the
Dominicans which, according to him, is called sufficient
though it suffices for nothing.- His real aim was to persuade
the Dominicans of Paris that if they wished to be logical
they should side with the Jansenists.
In the meantime Arnauld had been condemned by the
Sorbonne ; accordingly the third letter pours some fairly
clever ridicule on this condemnation. " What grave objections
have not been raised against the opinions of the Jansenists !
Yet now that an attempt is made to substantiate these
objections, and a Jansenist publication is examined for the
purpose, three whole lines, neither more nor less, are found
to be deserving of blame ! Yet what is said in these three
lines was taken textually, and according to Arnauld, also in
^ " pouvoir prochain."
^ H. Petitot, Pascal et la grace suffisantc, in Revue Thomiste.
xviir.. 577-589.
PASCAL ON THE JESUITS. 189
their sense, from Clirysostom and Angustine ! It would seem
that an opinion becomes a heresy as soon as Arnauld enunciates
it ! "
The first and second letter had singled out the Dominicans
for ridicule ; the third had meted out similar treatment to the
Doctors of the Sorbonne ; the turn of the Jesuits and their
teaching on " efficacious " grace came in the fourth. " There
is no sin without a previous illumination by grace as to its
sinfulness " Pascal pretends to have been told at an imaginary
Jesuit College, and from this equivocal sentence, ^ he draws
the conclusion that the less a man thinks of God, the less he
sins ; after that he proceeds to make fun of the wonderful
things that followed from such a conclusion. In that way
he also breaks a lance on behalf of the monstrous Jansenist
doctrine that even the most complete involuntary ignorance
did not exculpate from sin because such ignorance was a
consequence of the sin of Adam and to that extent culpable.
By this initial bout with the Jesuits, Pascal prepared the
way for the witty irony to which the Provinciales owe their
celebrity, and the attacks on the Jesuits and their moral
teaching which he represents as the acme of hypocrisy and
corruption. 2
The Jesuits had had but a very small share in the Roman
condemnation of the five propositions and, as far as we
know, none whatever in the Paris proceedings against Arnauld.
However, the Jansenists had made up their minds to consider
the Society of Jesus as their chief enemy, who must be
destroyed at all costs. Whether in good or in bad faith, they
saw the hand of their principal opponents in every measure
taken against Port-Royal. Moreover, with regard to the
dogmatic question which was the real subject of discussion,
the Jansenists could furnish no new convincing proofs, and
after the first provincial letters, very little could be achieved
with the weapon of wit and ridicule. Hence it was a most
effective stroke on their part when they carried the affair
^ Rectification by Kreiten in Stimmen aits Maria-Laach,
XLIV, 181.
* Lettres prov., lettres 5-16.
[go HISTORY OF THE POPES.
into the sphere of moral theolos^'v, where the very multiphcity
of particular solutions, often on very delicate points, offered
unlimited scope both for justifiable criticism and for distortion.
Pascal's attitude towards the Jesuits was a foregone
conclusion ; of an impartial appreciation there can be no
question. Of their voluminous works on moral theology all
he knew was a short summary, compiled to serve as a manual
by the Spaniard Escobar, then still living (he died in 1669),
and even to the study of this manual Pascal only devoted a
few days.^ He has practically taken no notice of an extensive
work in seven volumes in which Escobar treats in detail of
all questions of moral theology, although two volumes were
already in print.- Consequently Pascal was restricted to the
material supplied by his henchmen, and out of this he selected
anything that might help to render the Jesuits ridiculous or
contemptible,^ or as a student who has recently made a
careful study of Escobar puts it : " they (Pascal and his
assistants) searched their works (the Jesuits') and when they
came across an opinion which seemed piquant and paradoxical
and for that reason calculated to create a stir, whether it
was true or false, they dragged it before the public at large
and, what was still worse, described it not as the opinion of
this or that Jesuit, but as the teaching of ' the Jesuits ', that
is as the teaching of the whole Order. Also, since they strung
together a series of opinions extending over the whole range
of morals, the ignorant and credulous mob were led to imagine
1 Kreiten, loc. cit., XLIV, 178 ; Weiss, Escobar, 53. Character
sketch of Escobar by Reichmann in Stmiwcn aus Mana-Laach,
LXXVI (1909), 527 seqq.
2 He only quotes him once {Lcttrc 13, p. 206) [Weiss, 54, 107].
He had heard of the book at the end of May, 1656 {Lettre 8, p. 121).
^ As is shown by G. Lanson {Revue d'hist. litter, de la France,
\'II. [1900], 168-195) the kernel of the Provinciales is taken
from the Thdologie morale des Jesuites * (1664) ; of. especially
the table on p. 190. This material was subsequently supple-
mented from the works on moral theology of Diana (Lyons,
1646), Caramuel (Louvain, 1643, Frankfurt, 1652), Lessius
(Lyons, 1653), Lansox, 191.
PASCAL ON THE JESUITS. I9I
that the Jesuits really had a morality of their own which
was the acme of irresponsibility and wickedness." ^ The
conclusion that the Jesuits were just hypocrites was inevitable.
Pascal encourages it ; he represents the Society of Jesus as a
band of criminals. True, he grants that the Society includes
stern ascetics as well as lax moralists, but this was only for
the purpose of masking the laxity of one man by the strict-
ness of another, and playing them off against one another
according as circumstances demanded.^ Pascal fails to explain
how it was that the good elements of the Order did not see
the misgovernment of the Society and that they did not turn
their back upon it. Nor does he examine whether certain
exaggerated opinions were held by individual Jesuits, or
^ Weiss, loc. cit., 46. The notable jurist Joseph Kohler
[ob., 1919), professor at the University of Berlin, is of the same
opinion : " Pascal's Lettres a un provincial," he writes, " are
the very condensation of all the objections then raised against
the great moralists and exponents of the natural law. The
expert sees at a glance how miserable and petty these attacks
were. It is natural enough that in so elaborate an examination
of thousands and thousands of decisions, there should occur
some errors and deviations and that a few scholastic aberrations
should have crept into so huge a crop of casus conscientiae. But
these are a mere trifle by comparison with the immense mass
of moral and juridical considerations which are here piled up
and which are seen to extraordinary advantage when set by the
side of the miserable moral catechism of Kant and the degrading
hedonism of the moderns. A comparison between them gives
the impression as if one stood before the mighty emporium of
a great merchant instead of the shop of a good provincial trades-
man " {Archiv. fiir Rechts- und Wirtschaftsphilosophie, X. [1916
seq.], 238. After quoting a few particulars (on mental reservation,
etc.) Kohler concludes (240) : " This may suffice. These moralists
tower above their uncomprehending adversaries." Linsemann,
the future Bishop of Rottenburg, writes : "As against his
(Pascal's) morbidly ascetical flight from the world, the teaching
of the Jesuits was the active, current, intelligible morality, the
free and progressive conception of the world." (Tiib. Ouartalschr.,
LIV. [1872], 535).
- Lettre 5, p. 52 seqq.
192 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
whether they were presented in snch wise that the wliole
Order can be held responsible for them. Pascal observes
indeed that every book by a Jesuit is examined b}' members
of the Order previous to its publication ^ ; but the fact that
an opinion is tolerated does not make it the teaching of the
Order, and in many cases it merely shows that the censor
was careless. It was soon shown that at times Pascal misquotes
or misunderstands texts,- and often enough an opinion at
which he scoffs is quite blameless.^ But with the generality
of readers these circumstances could not attenuate the effect
of the caricature drawn by Pascal by means of mutilated
quotations and unjustifiable generalizations. Escobar's name
became synonymous with that of a sanctimonious hypocrite.'*
It was Pascal who popularized horror for what is called
" probabilism ", and who laid the foundation of the accusation
that according to the Jesuits the end justifies the means. ^
Just as a century earlier Luther had produced so tremendous
an effect by unceremoniously dragging in the mud Popes and
Cardinals and, generally, everything that until then had
been held in the highest regard, so something like it, though
^ Lettre q, p. 125.
- See p. 193. When in 1660, on the occasion of the " formulary "
for Port-Royal, Pascal wrote against his Jansenist friends, the
latter raised against his punctiliousness in quoting the same
objections as the Jesuits on the occasion of the Provinciales.
P. Bliard in Etudes, CXXXVII (1913), 394 seqq.
3 Thus in the very first instance by which he tries to show up
the Jesuits' laxity in regard to the law of fasting, sound reason
is on Escobar's side against Pascal (Rhichmann, 524), nor can
any fault be found with the text of his first quotation from a
Jesuit writer {Lettre 4, p. 38), the not altogether irreproachable
Bauny (c/. Weiss, 73). Hase {Kirchetigesch.^" [1877], 537)
speaks indeed of the Jesuits' " comfortable piety " and their
" immoral morality of the confcsional ", but grants all the same
that they stand " for the interests of the world " and even " those
of sound reason ".
* LiTTRE, at the word " Escobarder ".
* M. Reichmann, Der Zweck heiligt die Mittel, Freiburg, 1903,
83 seqq.
PASCAL ON THE JESUITS. I93
on a smaller scale, was now being repeated. An inquisitive
mob's appetite for scandalous stories was regaled with alleged
revelations ; religious who until then had been looked up to
as the protagonists of Catholic restoration, were suddenly
pilloried as hypocrites and destroyers of morality. This
impression was further heightened by the skilfully devised
comical figure of the cunning, stupid, gawky Jesuit who,
when questioned by Pascal during his imaginary interviews,
unfolds the secrets of his moral teaching whilst his naive
complacency blinds him to the fact that Pascal is merely
making a fool of him.
With the tenth letter the bantering tone comes to an end.
The reason is that the Jesuits had not stood Pascal's attacks
in silence.^ Though Nouet, the chief author of the rephes,
lags far behind his adversary as regards smartness and elegance
of style, he nevertheless convicted him of a whole series of
distortions and misrepresentations. This demonstration
created an impression and after the King's confessor, Annat,
had likewise thrown himself into the fray,^ the phrase became
current in Paris : " he lies like a Jansenist ".^ The insolent
aggressor was now reduced to the defensive and his letters
were no longer addressed to a friend in the provinces but to
the Jesuits, the two last to Annat. Without even mentioning
the errors of which the Jesuits had convicted him, the clever
talker begins all of a sudden to defend, with a wearisome
display of learning, both his previous assertions as well as
the moderation with which he had stated them, and in order
to prove that no credence could be given to the Jesuits, he
goes so far as to assert that they taught that calumny was
^ Responses aux lettres provinciales puhliees par le secretaire du
Port-Royal contre les PP. de la Compagnie de Jesus stir le sujet
de la Morale des dits Peres, Liege, 1657 (collected writings). Cf.
SoMMERVOGEL, V., 1814 seq.
^ La bonne foy des Jansenistes en la citation des autheitrs reconnue
dans les lettres que le secretaire de Port-Royal a fait courir depuis
Pasques, Paris, 1656, 1657. Cf. Sommervogel, I., 404 ;
E. Riviere, Corrections et additions, IL, Toulouse, 1Q12, 13.
' Rapin, II. , 410.
VOL. XXXI • o
194 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
lawful. 1 Port-Royal felt particularly hit by some appendices
to Nouet's letters in which the latter, passing to the offensive
against the Jansenists, put together various things that could
not but be distasteful to them. As a result in the sixteenth
letter, the man who had hitherto attacked with so much
boldness, feels compelled to leave alone the moral theology
of his opponents for the sake of his own defence. Thus he
meets the accusation, that his friends did not believe in
the Eucharist, with a long-winded and detailed defence,
characterized by some curious arguments.
But he was compelled to climb down even lower. Annat
had drily told him that, because of his views on grace, he was
nothing but a heretic, just as Port-Royal was in heresy.
The accusation was a dangerous one, hence the ardent front
line warrior against the alleged duplicity of the Jesuits now
denies all connexion with Port-Royal : he professes to hold
the Dominican view on grace thuugh in his first letters he had
poured ridicule on that teaching ; he adheres to the condemna-
tion of the five propositions and, when faced with the papal
pronouncements, has recourse to Arnauld's wretched
distinction between fact and right, ^ and whereas previously
he had described the Jesuits as little short of a band of
miscreants, he all of a sudden speaks of them as " sons of
the same Church ".^
This sounds like a longing for peace ; as a matter of fact
Pascal gave further expression to this sentiment. In sixteen
1 Letire 15.
^ SicARD {L'ancien clerge de France, I., Paris, 1905, 472),
writes : " On souffre de voir Pascal nier qu'il soit de Port-
Royal, les Jansenistes les plus eminents s'enfermer dans les
miserables subterfuges du fait et du droit, du silence respectueux,
repondre par des restrictions secretes aux restrictions mcntales
qu'ils reprochaient aux Jesuites. Au fond il manque aux plus
recommandables de ces hommes I'esprit de soumission a I'Eglise
qui s'etait prononcee, et une vertu bien chretienne, I'humilite."
^ Notwithstanding the difference in the appreciation of
Jansenius nous n'en serons pas nioins evfants dc la mnne I'.glise
{Lettre 18, p. 321).
RESULT OF THE LETTERS. I95
letters he had been the aggressor, yet at the beginning of the
seventeenth he complains of the combativeness of his
opponents, and whereas in reality it was Port-Royal that
flooded the world with literature, the eighteenth and last
letter concludes on a note of admiration for the fact that out
of love for peace, the Jansenists had borne every accusation
in silence.^ He accordingly calls upon the opponents to
leave the Church in peace ; all would be well then ; only in
the event of the Jesuits attempting once more to disturb
the peace would the " children of peace " defend themselves.
It can hardly be said that the Provincial letters end with a
triumphant fanfare. But it was a good thing, even for Pascal's
reputation as a writer, that he stopped. The last letters are
very far from possessing the charm of the first and for the
modern reader they are distinctly wearisome. He who at
the beginning had shown himself a past m'aster in the use
of the finely sharpened weapon of ridicule, displays but little
powers of persuasion when, in the concluding letters, he
endeavours to give expression to burning indignation. Viewed
objectively, the result of the Provinciales was anything but a
triumph for Pascal, for what could be the impression on
serious minds if the letters were indeed universally extolled
as a masterpiece of style but were likewise shown up as "a
masterpiece of calumny " ? ^ On February 9th, 1657, the
Parliament of Provence decreed that the sixteen letters
published up to that date, should be burnt by the executioner
as a defamatory and pernicious work. After examination by
a commission headed by four Bishops, the Council of State,
under the presidency of the King, condemned the Latin
translation to a like fate on September 25th, 1660. In Spain
the Inquisition had condemned the Provincial Letters as
heretical and defamatory of the Society of Jesus. ^ Worse
1 According to the Jausenist Gazier (I., 206) Pascal put an
end to the controversy from a motive of Christian charity.
" " Chcf-d'ceuvre de la calomnie bien ecrite,' Gerin, L, 146).
* [P.\touilli:t], IL, 498 scqq. ; [Dumas], III., Recueil, 116 seq.
According to Gazier (L, 104) the effect of the condemnation
196 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
still, by a decree of September 6th, 1G57, the Roman
Inquisition condemned the Provinciales not only as a whole,
but each of them singly, ^ thereby declaring every single
letter to be worthy of reprobation. When information of
this step reached him, Pascal sought to ward off the blow
by making his own a saying of St. Bernard : "I appeal to
Thy tribunal, Lord Jesus ! " ^ Now it is quite true that
Bernard of Clairveaux had uttered these words, but only
when some people opposed to him a surreptitious Roman
dispensation : hence the saying cannot cover Pascal. After
the defeat of Jansenism, in addition to these condemnations,
Pascal was to know an experience far more bitter than
anything he could have foreseen. He himself may have
imagined that he had taken up his pen in defence of the
Church, but heresy and infidelity made use of the Provincial
Letters as weapons with which to attack the Church and her
moral teaching, and this even when, long after the papal
condemnations, no one thought of defending the objectionable
propositions. On the other hand, despite certain individual
aberrations, and in the teeth of every opposition, the Jesuit
views ended by gaining a preponderant place in the moral
theology of the Church.^ To this result Pascal had himself
contributed when, with his Provincial Letters, he secured a
temporary triumph for a morality tainted with Jansenism,
of 1660 was that Pascal's name does not appear in the necrology
of Port-Royal and that the Provinciales could not be printed in
France previous to the Revolution. Grasse's Tresor (V., 145),
however, shows Paris editions of 1741, 1754, 1766.
1 Reusch, II., 484.
- " Tuum, Domine lesu, tribunal appello " (S. Bern. Epist.,
[., II. 7, ni Pat. Led., CLXXXII., 74). Drexel in Bull, de Hit.
cedes., 1915, 474. Arnauld also, Bernardi exoiiplo, appeals to the
tribunal of Christ [CEiivres, I., 196).
* " With the high honour bestowed by the Cliurch on Alphonsus
Liguori, the pupil and spiritual heir of the Jesuits, the Order
which, if it did not invent probabilism and the doctrine of attrition,
at least developed it, secured the most brilliant and most cffecti\e
of its triumphs" (Dollinger-Reusch, ]., v.).
THE ASSEMBLY OF THE CLERGY OF 1656. I97
for by that very means he demonstrated the fact that such
teaching could not possibly be carried into effect in practical
life and in the cure of souls.
(3.)
For a time the enormous success of the " little letters "
did much to revive the spirits of the Jansenists, whilst an
alleged miraculous cure at Port-Royal followed, it was said,
by eighty further miracles, also contributed to that result.
The subject of the first of these cures was Pascal's niece ;
accordingly her uncle felt more fully convinced than ever
that heaven itself approved his attacks against the Jesuits.^
However, neither miracles nor Provincial Letters were able
to ward off from the Jansenists new and seemingly destructive
blows. The Assembly of the clergy had met in Paris in October,
1655. The presence of forty Bishops and twenty-seven other
deputies invested it with such solemnity that it could almost
be considered as a national council. At the sessions of
September 1st and 2nd, 165G, the Assembly made a profession
of submission to Innocent X.'s decree of September 29th,
1654, which expressly stated that the condemnation of the
five propositions was meant to hit Jansenius. The Assembly
likewise renewed the decisions of the three previous Assemblies,
and those Bishops who were unwilling to carry out the
ordinances contained in the letter of the last Assembly of
the clergy were threatened with exclusion from all meetings,
both general and particular, of the French clergy. ^ The
Assembly took another important step when it drew up a
new formula, the signing of which implied the condemnation
1 Kreiten, loc. cit., XLIV., 546 seqq. ; Hallier to Rondinini,
Paris, May 11, 1656, in Annales de St. Louis, X. (1905). 261.
It is an error to maintain that Pascal's seal referred to the
occurrence (Gazier, I., 109).
- [Dumas], I., 185 seqq., 197 seqq. ; Gerberon, II., 309 ;
BouRLON, 55 seqq.
igS HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of the five propositions in the sense specified by the French
Bishops on March 28th, 1654, and by the Pope on September
29th following. The Pope was informed by letter of these
decisions.^
Alexander VII. was in no hurry to yield to the many people
who pressed him to publish a new Bull against Jansenism.
So long as the party laboriously endeavoured to prove that
the live propositions had not been taught by their master,
he was unwilling, by a definition in the opposite sense, to
drive them to fresh subterfuges and to a denial of papal
infallibility. But he hesitated no longer when the French
Bishops sent Hallier to Rome as their representative for he
did not wish the Bull, which had been ready for a long time,
to be looked upon as the work of that determined opponent
of the Jansenists. Accordingly the Pope put his signature
to the Bull about mid-October, but for the time being it
was only posted up in the customary places for about two
hours and this at a time when, presumably, no one would
read it. After that the Pope had it presented in Paris by the
new nuncio Piccolomini.^ In his Bull Alexander VII. expressly
states that the five propositions were taken from Jansenius'
book and condemned in Jansenius' sense. The Augustinus of
1 In D'Argentre, III., 2, 280 ; [Dumas], III., Recueil, 122 seq.
2 Pallavicino, Alessandro, VII., ii., 147 seq. On April 27,
1656, a letter to Bagno from Rome stated, " Da molto tempo
in qua la S.S^a con pensiero di promulgare una bolla con-
firmatoria di quella di Innocenzo X. intorno alia cinque pro-
posizioni e di gia n'e stesa la minuta, ma andava differendone
la publicazione per attendere di farla opportunamcnte " [Nunziat.
di Francia, iii, Papal Sec. Arch.). A letter of August 7 repeats
that some zelanti demanded the Bull ; Bagno should say whether
it would not be better to wait for Hallier's arrival in Rome and
whether it should not rather be published after the dissolution
of the Assembly of the Clergy {ibid.). According to the *letters
of August 20, 1657, ^" ^^^ nuncio {ibid., iit A.) tlic king's
confessor, Annat, strongly urged the publication of the l.ull,
" poiche con essa si sarebbe totalmente abbattuta la dannata
dottrina e rintuzzato I'ardirc dei suoi seguaci."
FRESH DECREE OF ALEXANDER VII. IQQ
the Bishop of Ypres is once more prohibited by the document/
whilst the Jansenists are described as " disturbers of the
pubUc peace " and " sons of iniquity ". The Pope draws
attention to the fact that, as Cardinal Chigi, he had personally
taken part in the discussions on the five propositions and
that the inquiry had been conducted with the greatest possible
care. In the spring of 1656 nuncio Bagno prayed for his
recall ^ ; a letter of October 16th, 1656, informed him that
the Sienese Celio Piccolomini, Archbishop of Caesarea, would
replace him as nuncio extraordinary.^ Piccolomini found
opinion favourable to publication of the Bull ; Mazarin desired
it and several Bishops told him that it could not have come
more opportunely,* whilst the King and the Queen-Mother
promised to promote its execution.^ The Assembly of the
clergy received it with applause and it was resolved to convene
all the Bishops then in Paris so as to add solemnity to its
reception.^ The Sorbonne also submitted to it.''
However, all this only meant that the papal decisions were
received with docility in so far as they concerned the sphere
1 October i6, 1655, in [Dumas], I., 130 seqq. ; Bull., XVI.,
243-
2 *Bagno on March 17 and April 7, 1656, Niinziat. di Francia,
III, loc. cif.
3 Ibid. ; Gerin, I., 154, n. 2.
* *Piccoloinini on March 9, 1657, Numiat. di Francia, no A.,
loc. cii. On March 16, 1657, Joisel wrote to Rondinini that it
had met with an enthusiastic reception [Annales de St. Louis,
X. [1905], 322).
* " *Non poteva in dette MM*^^ desiderar maggiore e mighore
disposizione. . . . Mi offersero la loro assistenza, a le Regina mi
disse di piu, ch'era gran tempo, che haveva desiderata questa
confermazione, conoscendo il beneficio che da essa resultera "
(Piccolomini, March 13, 1657, Nunziat. di Francia, loc. cit.).
" *Gratissime risposte [at the audience of March 26], e parti-
colarmente nella Regina trovai ogni desiderabile prontezza,
havendomi S. M. replicato piu volte che a tutto si sarebbe date
buon ordine " (Piccolomini, March 30, 1657, ibid.).
« *Piccolomini on March 15, 1657, ibid.
^ Gerberon, II., 343 seq.
200 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of faith, but as soon as the Pope attempted to intervene in
any other way, GaUican susceptibihties were at once roused
in most alarming fashion. Thus the affair of the Bishops
whose pastoral letters had caused so much scandal on the
occasion of the condemnation of the live propositions under
Innocent X., was still pending.^ By now only three were
left, for there was no longer any complaint against Bishop
Henri Arnauld.^ Authorization to hold a formal inquiry into
the conduct of the three remaining Bishops, viz. those of
Sens, Comminges and Beauvais, was once more given by
Alexander VII. to the same seven prelates ^ who had already
receiv'ed it from Innocent X. A symptom of Rome's profound
displeasure was the fact that the nuncio informed the Vicars-
General of the three Bishops, not the prelates themselves,
of the Jubilee Indulgence granted on the occasion of the
elevation of the new Pope, and that his action was approved
by Rome."*
However, the Assembly of the clergy refused to approve
such treatment of French Bishops. On May 31st, 1656, it
was resolved to present a memorial to the King which was
not likely to give much satisfaction in Rome. The colleagues
of the three Bishops, the document states, desired nothing
so much as an inquiry ; for all that, the Assembly prayed
the King not to suffer steps to be taken which would prejudice
the privileges of the realm and the liberties of the Galilean
* See Vol. XXX., p. 289 seqq.
* Cochin, 157 seqq.
^ The Bishops of Aries, Toulou.se, Annccy, Macon, Rcnncs,
Amiens and Soissons (Brief of May 24, 1635, Bull., XVI., 3].
According to Joisel (to Rondinini, April 20, 1636), tho matter
had no sequel because the Galileans objected to some expressions
in the formula of recantation that had been forwarded to them
[Annales de St. Louis, X. [1905], 260). IbuL, 262, a letter of the
three Bishops, dated June 12, 1656, in which they assure the
Pope of their submission and beg for protection from the vexations
of the nuncio.
' Bagno on March 3, 1656 ; to *Bagno, .\pril 17. 163'!. Xinirial.
di Francia, iii, loc. cit.
DEFENCE OF THE REBEL BISHOPS. 201
Church. The King was the Bishop without, as Constantine
styled himself ; he was the guardian of the liberties of the
Gallican Church ; these simply stood for the ancient Canon
Law which was more faithfully observed in France than
anywhere else. This title of " Patron " was more glorious
for the king than any other ; Louis XIV., the Bishops felt
convinced, would not suffer himself to be robbed of such a
name. De Marca protested against this memorial in a letter
to Mazarin. He drew the Cardinal's attention to the fact
that the principles on which it rested brushed aside the
later General Councils of the Lateran and Lyons ; that it
was bound to destroy the Pope's prestige and to lead to schism ;
for 550 years the Church of France had had no experience of
the application of such principles. At the same time De
Marca, artful courtier as he was, observed that here was a
chance for Mazarin to represent himself in Rome as the
indispensable champion of the rights of the Pope.^ It would
seem that Piccolomini, when at a later date he had become
nuncio, was not far wrong when he refused to trust De Marca
unreservedly. 2
The Cardinal did not deem it expedient to take advantage
of De Marca's hint. Though on previous occasions he had
adopted a friendly attitude towards the Pope,^ at present he
was angry against Rome on account of Cardinal Retz,^ and
he secretly protected the Jansenists. He ordered the Bishops
to subscribe to their letter to the King and he induced them
to present a further memorial to himself in which the three
Bishops were praised for the high regard in which they held
the Pope, their concord with other Bishops and their readiness
to give the sovereign Pontiff every reasonable satisfaction.
It was with good reason that Alexander VII. complained that
1 Gerix, 1., 147-150.
2 He fears " che non sia uu ingegno assai versatile e da voltarsi
da quella banda dove trovara da fare piii la sua fort una.'"
Piccolomini, March 23, 1657, ^itnziat. di Francia, no .\., loc. cit.
3 Vol. XXX, pp. 286, 207.
' P.\LLAVICINO, IT., 71.
202 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
a Cardinal of the Roman Church assured three rebelhous
Bishops of his protection. One of the three, Choiseul of
Comminges, expressed his hope to Mazarin that through the
mediation of the minister the King would settle the affair.^
Thanks to the efforts of De Marca and the Bishops of
Limoges, Rennes, Montauban and Rodez, at least the Arch-
bishop of Sens was prevailed upon to make a recantation. ^
This step caused a commotion among the supporters of the
Jansenists. They let Mazarin know that if he allowed things
to develop further in this direction, he would draw down upon
himself the hatred and enmity of the party. However,
Bishop Auvry of Coutances, a friend of the Cardinal, calmed
them by pointing out that if they had been able to hold
their own for so long, they owed it to Mazarin, for his protection
alone had saved them from the wrath of their enemies.^
In the first days of May, 1657, after it had lasted a year
and seven months, the Assembly of the clergy came at length
to an end. Shortly before it had exhibited some Gallican
tendencies even in the dogmatic sphere. The Bishop of
Montauban took pleasure in expounding various assertions
which were unfavourable to the Holy See and there was a
danger of his securing the signatures of other Bishops for
his proposals. Through the Bishops of Narbonne, Aries,
Aire and Toulouse, the nuncio induced the Assembly to put
off a decision and in the end he obtained from Mazarin a
prohibition to proceed with the matter.* The doctrine of the
immediate divine origin of episcopal jurisdiction, which had
caused so much stir already at the Council of Trent, ^ came
up once more for discussion when the Bishop of Montauban
interpreted it in the sense that though the Pope enjoyed a
certain precedence, he did not possess an absolute right to
give orders in any diocese without the consent of its Bishop.*^
^ Gkrin, I., 150 seq.
- Gerberon, IL, 300.
3 Gerin, I., 151.
' *Piccolomini, March 23 and .\\)\'\\ 7, i'>37, ihul.
' See our data, Vol. XV., p. 271.
" *Piccolomini, March 22 and 30, 1657, loc. cit.
THE KING INTERVENES. 203
With a view to investing the new anti-Jansenist Bull with
the prestige of the highest legal court in France, the Assembly
of the clergy demanded its registration with Parliament.
The court assented to the proposal but in view of the Jansenist
and Gallican sentiments of many members of Parliament, its
execution met with numerous obstacles. A first royal ordinance
for registration dated May 4th, 1657, ^ was withdrawn by the
Government itself, at the request of the nuncio, on the plea
that it was necessary to await the orders of the King who had
joined his army.^ After his return the Government felt strong
enough to enforce its will, but even now much reflexion was
required before an unexceptionable text of the royal ordinance
concerning registration was drawn up, for the jealousy of
Parliament would not have tolerated any expression which
would have been too favourable to the Pope or the Bishops.^
On December 19th, 1657, the King repaired to the house of
Parliament with a splendid cortege composed of a regiment
of the Guards, his Swiss and his body-guard. There, in the
presence of the Duke of Anjou, Prince Conti and all the
notables then in Paris, he gave orders for the registration of
the Bull of Alexander VIL for, he declared, he was resolved
to do away with the teaching of Jansenius as constituting a
danger for the State and an insult to religion. Registration
followed, but not before Gallicanism had secured a fresh
triumph with the speech of the young Advocate-General
Talon. In this speech, which was a really splendid rhetorical
effort. Parliament was indeed urged to receive the Bull but
it was done in a manner amounting to an insult to the Holy
See. Talon spoke of gaps in the papal decrees ; however, he
added as if to reassure his hearers, the presence and majesty
of the King makes up for everything. He even had a few
1 Drawn up by De Marca, text in Rapin, IT., 484 seq.
- On May 22, 1657, Chancellor Seguier assured Mazaria that
registration by Parliament was not only quite unnecessary but
even dangerous for Church and State, as it would only encourage
the encroachments of Parliament. Gerin, I., 152 seq.
* R.\pix, II., 494 seq.
204 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
words in praise of the majesty of the ApostoHc See, but
according to him its roots were in the greatness of pagan
Rome. It was necessary to give effect to the Bull, he finally
added, but not by means of a kind of Inquisition, for what
religion demands is conviction, not measures of violence.
The anointing of a King, he said, was more sacred than a
priest's and constituted the monarch a judge in religious
disputes.^ The nuncio's protests against this lowering of the
dignity of the Holy See Talon only met with a few equivocal
explanations. In the end an attempt was made to cover up
the whole affair by the King himself writing a letter of homage
to the Pope.^ It is easy to .see why Alexander VII. was in no
great hurry to reply. ^
In these circumstances there was no need whate\'er for the
Jansenists to consider their cause as lost. If the ministers had
not prevented the inquiry into the conduct of the three
Bishops, Bagno wrote on September 7th, 1656, if they had
kept their promises to the clergy, carried out the King's
orders, punished the transgressors who were still holding
their meetings, especially at Port-Royal, there would be no
longer any mention of Jansenism.^ But no energetic measures
were taken. Both Bagno and Piccolomini repeatedly urged
the " destruction of the nest of Port-Royal " ,'" but the steps
taken were hardly seriously meant. Again and again Rome
pressed for decisive measures against the three Bishops, but
always in vain.^ Representations on the subject of the
^ Ibid., 4q6 seqq.
- Text, ibid., 502 seq.
3 It came on March 18, 1658 [Epist. Alex., VII a. III-V,
n. 76, Papal Sec. Arch.).
'' " ♦Non sarebbe forsi alcuno che piii ne parlassc "
(September i, 1656, Nunziat. di Francia, III., loc. cit.).
^ *Bagno on February 18, 1656, *Piccolomini on February 5,
1657 ; "^to Bagno, August 7, 1656 ; *to Piccolomini, September 17,
1657, Nunziat. di Francia, III., Ill A., * " L'unico repiego sarebbe
levare affatto cotesto nido del Jansenismo " (to Piccolomini,
October i, 1657, ibid.).
" Ibid., pa.^si)n.
JANSENIST RESISTANCE. 205
Jansenists, the nuncio wrote in June, 165(1, would be as
useless now as previously, though he had repeatedly spoken
on the subject to the King and Queen as well as to Mazarin
and the Ministers. The fact was that the party was very
powerful, enjoyed the favour both of the court and of many
Bishops, even of such as had given their signature. It was
rumoured that the Jansenists had been driven from Port-
Royal, but this was far from being so ; it was boldly asserted
that Rome had eulogized the two letters of Arnauld which
had been the object of the Sorbonne's condemnation. ^
The party's chief means of defence was the press. " Daily,"
Bagno wrote on February 18th, 1656, " new pamphlets and
broadsheets are published,^ and a year later his successor
complains of the huge quantity of printed matter published
against the Pope.^ Protests against the second formula,
which had to be signed by order of the Assembly of the
clergy, provided ample matter for polemical writings. In
view of the fact that this formula demanded acceptation of
the Brief of September 29th, 1654, which was itself based on
a prohibition of Jansenist books by the Index under date of
^ " *Saranno inutili le istanze che andaro facendo per reprimere
I'audacia de' Jansenisti, come sono fatte sin ad bora, non ostante
che piu volte io n'habbia parlato al Re, alia Regina et a Mazzarino
et ad altri ministri, perche il partite de' preditti e grande, potente
e favorite dalla corte e da molti vescovi di quelli ancora che
sottoscrissero." Bagno, June 30, 1656, ibid.
^ Ibid., III.
^ Piccolomini, February 16, 1657 : "Mi fa star so.speso [in
the publication of the Bull] prime le tante stampe che vedo
uscir fueri centre Tautorita della S.S. et il sentire che alcuni
vescevi dell' Assemblea tenghine mane alia publicatione di tali
libri " {ibid., in A.). Rapin {Mem., II., 460) speaks of a
" prodigieux nombre d'ecrits de France et de Flandre " against
the formulary. On June 16, 1657, the nuncio was instructed by
the Pope and the Secretary of State, " che in avvenire con egni
applicatiene e diligenza maggiore procuri qualsiasi scrittura e
stampa che esca in quel regno concernente il Jansenisme "
(Vezzani to Cardinal Chigi in Annales de St. Louis, X. [1905],
192).
206 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
April 23rd, 1654, the most gruesome tales were circulated to
the effect that it was intended to introduce that tribunal in
France.^ Consequently after its acceptance of Alexander's
Bull, the Assembly of the clergy drew up a third formula -
in which there was no mention of the Brief they objected to,
that document being replaced by the latest papal pronounce-
ment of October 16th, 1656. But even so, there was no lack
of disputed points. The formula, it was said, obliged under
pain of heresy ; but to deny the fact that Jansenius had
taught the five propositions could not be a heresy. And
what right had the Assembly of the clergy to lay on the
Bishops the obligation of signing -anything ? ^
It was to be expected that, more than any one else, Arnauld
would not allow his pen to rust. When in the first days of
May a royal ordinance was communicated to Parliament,
commanding it to register the Bull, he submitted in quick
succession three memorials,* in which he once again evokes
the terrifying spectre of the Inquisition and the threat to
the Gallican liberties. The very title of a fourth memorial ^
identifies mere registration with the establishment of an
Inquisition worse even than the Roman or the Spanish one.
However, these writings were for the benefit of Parliament.
For the purpose of a wider influence on the cultivated classes
it was essential to produce a parallel to the Provincial Letters.
The right man for this work was found when, in addition to
Arnauld and Pascal, Pierre Nicole appeared on the scene as
the last of the leading champions of Jansenius. Nicole
also was a lawyer's son, born at Chartres in 1625. He read
theology at the Sorbonne but never became a priest. In
1645 he became one of the " gentlemen of Port-Royal " and
he defended Jansenism in a vast number of publications which
all testify to immense erudition ; they appeared under a
' Rapin, II., 460.
- Text, ibid., 463.
* Ibid., 449, 462 scq.
* (Euvres, XXI., 61 seqq.
* Ibid., 82 seqq.
PIERRE NICOLE. 207
variety of pseudonyms.^ After 1654 Nicole became Arnauld's
companion and complement. Whereas Arnauld was only
happy when fighting, Nicole's was a gentler nature, peaceable
and accommodating. This trait led him to turn his back on
polemics and made him a much admired exponent of moral
teaching.^
In 1656, writing imder the pseudonym of Franciscus
Profuturus, Nicole fought the Assembly of the clergy. In
the following year he sought to copy Pascal in an effort to
rob Alexander VII, 's Bull of its effectiveness. This he did
under the pseudonym of Paulus Irenaeus, writing in classical
Latin and with occasional flashes of magnificent argumentative
power. ^ According to Nicole there is no Jansenist heresy,
"it is not the flame of heresy or schism that flares up, but a
few evil-minded persons seek to blind the eyes, especially
those of the rulers of the Church, with the smoke of malice
and hatred, to the end that they might gratify their desires
in the dark." His friends only defended the Thomistic doctrine
of grace ; all their differences turned round the question as
to how Jansenius was to be understood. It was an unprofitable
dispute which could be settled by agreement in half an hour —
were it not for the Jesuits. However, he grants that the first
of the five propositions " contains in its true and strict sense
not one but many heresies ", hence it must be interpreted in
an unnatural sense in Jansenius.* After many arguments with
Jesuit writers and lengthy historical explanations, he at last
comes to his main theme in the fifth section, where he tries
to show that, owing to Jesuit intrigues, " Rome did not
notice that the quarrel was about nothing at all." Under
^ Attention must be drawn to his Latin translation, with
notes, of the Provinciales, under the name of Wendrock.
^ Essais de morale, 13 vols, 1671. Jansenism often reveals
itself in them. Cf. [Patouillet], IL, 68-91, 344-353. Also
Bremoxd, IV., 419 seqq.
' " Causa lanseniana sive fictitia haeresis sex disquisitionibus
theologice historice explicata explosa," Paris, 1657 ; reprint
in Saint-Amour, Journal, Rccueil, f. 1S7 seqq.
^ Ibid., 196.
208 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Innocent X. the Jesuits had successfully jnevented a thorough
examination of the five propositions, whilst Alexander VII.
knew nothing about the matter in dispute, for which his
blind trust in the Jesuits was to blame. ^ On the basis of
this premiss Nicole then proceeds to demolish Alexander
VII. 's declaration that Innocent X. had condemned the five
propositions as understood by Jansenius. Alexander VII. 's
statement was correct, Nicole writes, for Innocent X. had
really intended to condemn the five propositions in Jansenius'
sense and had believed that they expressed Jansenius' mind,
but though Alexander VII. testified to what had been his
predecessor's intention, he by no means proved that the
latter's view was based on fact : accordingly the question
as to what Jansenius really taught remained undecided as
before.^
The dissertations of " Paulus Irenaeus " were printed
together with the Latin translation of the Provincial Letters
and with it they were burnt by the public executioner.^
For the rest they are not on the same level as Pascal's work,
and even the Jansenists must have deemed it too risky to
come to grips, after Nicole's manner, with Alexander VII.
and perhaps even with the formula.
For the moment the party knew not what to do. Their
oracle, Arnauld, went on with his gibes at the expense of
country parish priests who, he declared, would be no wiser
after attesting, by their signature, the presence of the five
propositions in a book which they have never read,^ and he
scoffed at the prohibition of his works by the Index. This
measure, in his opinion, was the work of the Jesuits.^ How-
ever, the only advice he could give was silence and absolute
trust in God." After the publication of the formula of 1G57
^ Ibid., 243.
^ Ibid., 244.
=* Cf. the documents in [Dumas], III., Recueil, 116 seq.
*■ Letter of September 20, 1656 {CEuvres, I., 147).
* Letter of September 30, 1656, ibid., 149.
" Letter of September 20, 1656, ibid., 145.
NICOLAS PAVILION. 2O9
he repeats the same counsel ^ but warns against expressions
of excessive wilHngness to yield to Rome, for by this means
they would only increase the presumption of the party
which dominated the Pope. If there was one thing which
could still stem the torrent it was the Romans' fear of
opposition and loss of prestige. On no account must they
give their signature to the Bull.
Despite his exhortations to patience Arnauld now took a
step which at least prepared the way for success. In the
person of Bishop Nicolas Pavilion of Alet - he succeeded in
dragging into the controversy a man of no great intellectual
eminence, yet one destined to play a leading role. With
Pavilion a new, strongly marked personality joined a move-
ment whose strength and weakness it was that it had to depend
for its vitality on the genius or talents of its leaders.
Bishop Pavilion's episcopal see was an insignificant little
town of the Pyrenees, but his personal prestige was very
great because he was looked upon as a Saint, in fact another
Charles Borromeo.^ It is characteristic of the period that he
should have enjoyed such a reputation, though it is true that
he had always been an exemplary priest. When in 1637 the
see of Alet was offered to him, he had only reached his fortieth
year, but Vincent de Paul told him that he was bound in
conscience not to decline the offer. ^ As a Bishop, Pavilion
did all he could for his flock ; thus on one occasion he did
not hesitate to walk many miles through the snow by night
in order to rescue from death some poor women accused of
witchcraft.^ All that concerned divine worship and the priestly
ministry was regulated by him, down to the smallest detail,
^ To Salesse on April 7, 1657, ibid., 164.
2 [Le Fevre de Saint-Marc et de la Chassagne], Vie de
M. Pavilion, cveque d'Alet, Saint-Miel (Chartres), 1733 ; £t.
Dejean, Un pre'lai independavt an dix-septieme siecle : Nicolas
Pavilion, Paris, 1909 ; A. Dubruel in Recherches VII. (1917).
52 ss. ; Rapin, Mem., III., 64-7.
' Dubruel, 53 seqq.
' Ibid.. 57.
•■' Ibid., 58.
VOL. XXXI. P
210 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
but it must be admitted that his ordinances bear the stamp
of a certain narrowness and pettiness. In their internal
arrangements, the churches were almost all of one pattern,
like the churches of the Capuchins. He laid down at what
moments of the service the faithful were to stand or to kneel,
and on one occasion Prince Conti was called to order by the
sexton for failing to comply with these regulations. All
parish priests were obliged to teach at the same hour the
same points of religious doctrine as laid down by the Bishop.^
Public penance was imposed for public transgressions ; thus
a certain mayor was condemned to fast one day each week
for a period of seven weeks, in addition to reciting special
prayers for having taken part in a dance. ^ No wonder that
even Le Camus, Bishop of Grenoble, who looked on Pavilion
as a Saint on earth and who was enraptured by his humility,
was nevertheless of opinion that his methods were dry and
but little calculated to make goodness attractive and that
his church discipline had about it a roughness which recalled
the Spanish councils of the era of the Goths.^ Nor was this
all. After Arnauld's book on Communion had become one
of Pavilion's favourite books of spiritual reading,* his own
spirituality and his guidance of souls turned not only to
strictness but even to unjustifiable rigour. Thus when at
one place in his diocese some timber rafters were unable to
attend church regularly, he demanded that they should give
up their work, and when they refused, he forbade them the
Sacraments.^ Missions to the people were suppressed on the
ground that they only made a passing impression ; absolution
in confession was nearly always deferred for all penitents,
and confession to priests other than one's own parish priest
was made exceedingly difficult. Things came to such a pass
that in parishes of six hundred communicants only some
two or three hundred received the Eucharist even at Easter,
1 Ibid., 62.
2 Ibid., 60.
' Ibid., 54.
* Ibid., 73 ; cf. 271 seq.
* DUBRUEL, 60.
NICOLAS PAVILLON. 211
and there were pe(>i)Ic between twenty and thirty years of
age who had not yet made their first Communion, ^ whilst
the request for ordination to the priesthood on the part of
his seminarists was visited with a refusal of absohition.^
Pavilion's conception of his episcopal dignity hardly squared
with Canon Law. His idea was that the priests subject to
him should be no more than his tools, blindly carrying out
whatever he commanded, and he practically denied to the
Pope any right of direct interference in his diocese. When
the majority of the Canons of St. Paul, against his will,
submitted to Alexander VI I. 's formula, he excommunicated
them.^ In 1668 Clement IX. condemned Pavilion's Ritual
because it advocated Arnauld's ideas on the administration
of the Sacraments, but the Bishop continued to use it.*
In other respects also the prelate stuck with downright
obstinacy to any opinion or resolution he had once formed,
defending it to the utmost even against the all-powerful
Louis XIV.
This, then, was the man to whom Arnauld turned in his
embarrassment, though only a short while before the Jansenist
leader had insisted on the wrongfulness of contradicting one's
convictions by any public statement, or of having recourse to
equivocations when the lawful authorities demanded an
explanation on questions of faith. ^ For all that, Arnauld now
most respectfully submitted three questions to the Bishop
of Alet, viz. whether one was bound to give up an opinion
held till then and to believe that the five propositions were
to be found in Jansenius, and that they had been condemned
in the sense in which he understood them ; whether it was
lawful to subscribe to the Bull and the formula in token, not
indeed of assent, but merely of respect ; whether, on the
' 1 Ibid., 64.
2 Ibid., 75.
» Ibid., 58 ; cf. [Varet], L, 188 seq.
*■ DuBRUEL, 65 seqq. MS. instructions of Pavilion are couched
in even stricter language than those of the Ritual {ibid., 70 seq.).
Cf. [Patouillet], IIL, 498 seqq.
* To Salesse, April 7, 1637 [CEuvrcs, I., 164).
212 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
contrary, one might not respectfully assume that the Pope
had been badly informed in this affair. ^
In view of Pavilion's turn of mind, Arnauld felt sure of a
favourable answer, but for once he had made a miscalculation
with his artful questions. Pavilion replied that not only may
one sign the Bull, but one should do so, even if it cou'd not
be done without giving up a view hitherto held, for the Pope's
judgment must be preferred to one's personal opinion ; in
the present case the question of fact and that of right were
indissolubly connected. ^
Arnauld had not expected such an answer. He countered
it with his customary arguments.^ Surrender of one's
convictions could only be demanded by one invested with
infallibilit\% but on a question of fact neither Pope nor Council
were infallible.^ Alexander VII. had merely stated that his
predecessor had intended to condemn the meaning of
Jansenius, which was quite true, but Innocent X. had not
examined the facts. ^ Now it was well known how things
were done in the Assembly of the clergy : three or four
Bishops, inspired by Annat, arrange everything according to
their good pleasure whilst the rest let things run their course,
either out of complacency towards the court, or from selfish-
ness, ignorance, blind devotion to the Jesuits, opportunist
considerations and so forth. ^ Against the background of
such miseries the writer's figure shone, of course, with all
the more resplendent lustre, for such was his firmness, at
any rate, that he would never condescend to prevaricate
against truth by signing the formula, though such again was
his huinility that at the end of the pamphlet he begged the
Bishop for better guidance."
^ CEuvres, XXL, i scqcj.
- Ibid., 14.
^ Reflexions [ibid., 18 seqq.). Cf. Rapin, II., 464 seq.
* Reflexions, 23.
^ Ibid., 35.
* Ibid., 34.
' Ibid., 44.
JANSENISM IN EXTREMIS. 213
The deep impression these arguments made on Pavilion
was only to bear fruit at a later period. For the moment
peace reigned in France, except for the diocese of Beauvais,
where the quarrel occasioned by the Constitution of Innocent
X. continued to rage. The Chapter of Beauvais, which
enjoyed numerous immunities from episcopal authority,
published a number of anti-Jansenist ordinances for the
benefit of its own subjects. Thereupon a minority of the
Chapter, which favoured Jansenism, appealed to Parliament
from the decision of the majority, and again to the royal
council ; thus the dispute dragged on for years. Moreover,
Bishop Nicolas Choart de Buzanval, who subsequently became
a column of Jansenism, would not hear of the formula.^ In
the other dioceses the signing of the formula met with no
objection, so much so that the Jansenist cause seemed
desperate. It seemed as if the fate of the sect would be sealed
for good and all if one could but win over its leader. Several
attempts were made to this end immediately after Arnauld's
condemnation. Armed with letters of recommendation from
Bishop Henri Arnauld, the Genovefan Fronteau offered his
services as a mediator to the Assembly of the clergy, but
Antoine Arnauld very soon disavowed him.^ In the following
year, 1657, a certain Doctor De la Haye negotiated with the
nuncio whilst Dean Deslions of Senlis did so with the members
of the Sorbonne.^ From Rome Rancati made several attempts,
in a roundabout way, to pass letters to Arnauld in which he
invited him to recant.^ All was in vain. To De la Haye
1 Gerberon, II., 162 (a.d. 1653), 304 (a.d. 1656), 322 scqq.
(.^.D. 1657), 388 seqq (a.d. 1658), 410 seqq. (a.d. 1659).
- Cochin, 335 seqq. ; (337 seqq. on the action of " Crcvaus "
and Rancati) .
^ Arnauld on August 20 and December 21, 1657 {CEuvres,
1: 175. 178).
* " Crevaus " to Henri Arnauld, June 23, 1659, ibid., 189 ;
Rancati to De la ]\Iirande, October 29, 1661, ibid., 280. Seguenot
forwards the letter to Henri Arnauld, ibid., 285, who sends it
on to D'Andilly to whom Antoine Arnauld replies on
December 29, 1661, and March 21, 1662, ibid., 288, 296.
214 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Arnauld protested his readiness to do all that lay in him ^ :
that he would rather lose a thousand lives than rebel against
the Roman Church and that on the question of fact he would
never contradict a Bull. He even went so far as to maintain
before Rancati that he had never openly taught Jansenism
and had never taxed the papal Bulls with error ; that on
the contrary, in so far as the question of fact was concerned,
he had shown the utmost respect for them."^
At the same time Arnauld identified himself with a
conception of the five condemned propositions which seemed
to lean on the Dominican teaching on grace. This circumstance
raised Rancati's hopes ; he urged Arnauld ^ to write to the
Pope directly, protesting his devotion to his person. This,
too, proved a vain hope. Arnauld deprecated Rancati's
mediation and declined to write to the Pope on the ground
that he was unwilling to feign.'* For a like reason he also
rejected the idea of a reconciliation with the Sorbonne.^
It was necessary to persevere in the defence of Jansenism,
he wrote to a friend of the party ^ ; for their position was
impregnable and they must not allow themselves to be
frightened by the authorities arrayed against them.
(4.)
However unfavourable the position of the Jansenists may
have been at the end of 1657, nothing was done against them
in the course of the next few years. Schemes were drawn up
for the purpose of rendering Port-Royal harmless and the
1 Ibid., 176.
^ " Ego quanto religiosior, qui nee Jansenium aperte dcfcndi,
ncc errorem facti Pontificiis Constitutionibus imputavi, deniquc
iis semper vcncrationem praestiti, etiam in facto, quae nulla
maior a catholicis theologis exigitur."
' " Crevaus " to Henri Arnauld on November 24, 1659,
ibid., 198.
* To Henri Arnauld on January 26, 1660, ibid., 200 scq.
* To Deslions, January 27, 1661, ibid., 225-230.
* To Hermant, February, 1661, ibid., 231.
THE BISHOP OF MIREPOIX. 215
nuncio pressed for their execution/ but nothing was done.
Mazarin was wholly taken up with the preliminaries of the
Peace of the Pyrenees and had no time for religious questions, ^
the court was far from the capital, the Archbishop of Paris
was in exile and De Marca was employed by the King in the
demarcation of frontiers.^ Almost the only thing the King
did was to send the Archbishop of Embrun to the general
Assembly of the Oratorians, for the purpose of demanding
the signature to the formula which, as a matter of fact,
that assembly gave.* When on the occasion of the registration
of the Bull of Alexander VII. at Bordeaux, the Attorney-
General, Du Sault, behaved in an offensive manner to the
Archbishop, the King also intervened on behalf of the latter,
but in the end nothing happened.^
Among the hierarchy, the Bishop of Mirepoix earned the
praise of the nuncio and the Pope by his zeal against the
Jansenists. In his Brief the Pope lamented the fact that not
all the Bishops deserved similar praise.^ In view of the
divergent attitude of the Bishops, even the signature of the
formula could not lead to unity in the Church of France,
for each Bishop published it in his own way.' Meanwhile
the Jansenists took advantage of the relative tranquillity
which they enjoyed in 1658 and 1659 to influence public
opinion once more in their favour by means of a spate of
big and small books. ^ It was only after the Peace of the
Pyrenees that their position seemed to worsen seriously.
The reins of government were gradually slipping from the
* Rapin, III., ID, 12 seqq.
2 Ibid., 20, 56 seqq.
^ Ibid., 5cS. A laudatory papal * Brief of November 17, 1657,
to De Marca for former services against Jansenism in Alexandri
VII. Epist., III.-V., n. 25, Papal Sec. Arch.
* Rapin, III., 20.
'" Ibid., 50-56.
« *Brief of October 6, 1657, in Alexandri VII. Epist., III.-V.,
n. 14, loc. cit.
^ Rapin, I II., 14, 59.
* Ibid., 20.
2l6 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
hands of the one time all-powerful minister whilst the Queen-
Mother was only too glad to efface herself behind her youthful
son who, with absolute faith in himself and in the full
consciousness of his power, was ready to enter upon the
career of an autocrat. Louis XIV. 's hatred for Jansenism
was due, in the first instance, to his upbringing by his pious
mother, but likewise to the fact that he saw in religious
disputes a danger to the State. After assuring the Pope of
his zeal, through his ambassador in Rome, and having
personally intervened in the registration of the latest Bull
against the Jansenists, he deemed it a point of honour to
carry the struggle thus begun to a victorious conclusion.
Thus it looked as if the most brilliant prince of the period
was about to exert all his might in dealing the innovators a
blow from which there would be no recovery. In reality,
however, the cause of the Jansenists was far from being so
desperate as it looked. In dealing with a religious sect, the
only role of the Government could be that of supporting the
measures of the Holy See and giving them effect. However,
as Bossuet observed at a later date,^ no sooner had the King
seized the' reins of Government, than a policy of humbling
Rome and asserting his authority against her was adopted,
largely under Colbert's influence, and the royal council
followed a similar line of conduct. In the mind of Louis XIV.
the Pope was to be no more than the right arm of the King
of France, a tool that would exercise its spiritual powers at
the bidding of the King and in accordance with the royal
will. Thus, as a result of the King's obstinacy, in the struggle
against Jansenism papal action was constantly thwarted ;
Gallicanism proved Jansenism's strongest ally - and what
was built up by Louis the ruler was pulled down by Louis
the Galilean. Moreover none of the three ministers, Lionne,
Le Tellier and Colbert, were well disposed towards Rome and
they were advised by Jansenists,^ whilst amid the sumptuous
1 In Gkrin, I., 220.
2 " Le immanita della chiesa gallicana compagne deU'ercsia."
Thus Alexander VII., in 1664, ibid., IT., 6.
^ Rapin, hi., 193.
THE ASSEMBLY OF 1660. 217
amusements of a magnificent court Louis' zeal for religion
cooled very quickly ; at the close of his long reign the sect
was stronger than it had ever been.
However, about the middle of 1660 it looked as if the
young King were about to take seriously his coronation oath
of safeguarding the religion of the realm. In May, 1660, the
Assembly of the clergy met at Pontoise, from whence it
transferred its sittings to Paris in September. It had as yet
done nothing worth while against Jansenism when the King
himself put an end to the equivocal situation.^ On the
morning of December 13th the presidents of the Assembly
were summoned to the Louvre where they found the King
and the ministers in Mazarin's room. After the ministers
had withdrawn, Louis XIV. made a speech in which he
declared that honour and conscience no less than the welfare
of the State demanded that he should uproot Jansenism.
He relied on the zeal of the Assembly and the proved ability
of the Cardinal. After that Mazarin also spoke for over an
hour. The new teaching, he said, had been condemned by
two Popes and by the Bishops ; effect must be given to
that judgment, and since mildness yielded no result it
would be necessary to apply severity.-
Thereupon, on December 17th, the first president. Arch-
bishop Harlay of Rouen, convened an extraordinary meeting
at which twelve commissaries were appointed to study the
matter. These deliberations took up six sessions and the
result of their investigation was explained to the Assembly
of the clergy in five further sessions.^ The final deliberation
took place on February 1st. It was decided that the formula
of the last General Assembly should be signed by the Bishops
and that they should have it signed by everybody, down to
the school teachers and the nuns. They were to report on
the matter to the Assembly of the clergy or to the agents of
1 Rapin, til, 83 ; Gerberon, II., 475 seqq. ; Ste.-Beuve,
IV., 109 seqq. ; Bourlon, 74 seqq.
= Rapin, III., 84 seq.
3 [DuM.\s], I., 228.
2l8 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the clergy within a period of two months ; should they fail
to do so they would forfeit their active and passive voice
at the assemblies of the clergy and incur other penalties as
well. The King was requested not to allow any appeal on
account of abuse, to suppress schools and associations in
which Jansenism was taught, not to allow anyone to enjoy
a benefice without previous signature of the formula and to
prohibit and suppress all Jansenist writings.^ The signatures of
forty-five Bishops and those of another eighteen deputies were
calculated to give weight to this manifesto. On April 13th
the King approved the formula and in a circular letter to
the Bishops, urged its acceptance ; on May 2nd it was
submitted to the Sorbonne together with a royal letter of
recommendation ; that body also accepted it unconditionally. ^
In other ways also the King had given proof of his zeal, for
already after the first three months he had asked for a report
on the state of the anti- Jansenist negotiations and pressed
for their early termination.^
However powerful these measures may have appeared,
they suffered from a flaw which even the King with all his
might could not remedy : whence did the Assembly of the
clergy derive authority to give orders to the Bishops ? It
was possible to invoke earlier measures of this kind by those
Assemblies but these did not constitute an unimpeachable
right. It might be urged that the Pope, by his silence, had
approved the decision of the Bishops, but to make quite sure
papal authorization in due form would have been required.
' Ibid., 229 ; Rapin, III., 129 seq.
2 [Dumas], I., 230 seqq.
' Rapin, III., 89. On May 16, 1661, Alexander VII., wrote
to the French clergy : *" lanseni.smo exstirpando incumbatis ;
sed huius mali viv^acitas nunquam penitus extinguctur, ni.si
contra contumace.s " the penalties prescribed by Innocent X. and
by ourselves, are applied {Alexandri VII. Epist., n. 39, loc. cit.).
On the same dav a * Brief to the king : if he persevered in his zeal
and, in accordance with the desire of the Bishops, suppressed
the Jansenist conventicles, it would be possible to hope for a
complete extirpation of the heresy. Papal Sec. Arch.
ORDINANCE OF RETZ' VICARS CAPITULAR. 219
Rome was annoyed that no such authorization had been
asked for and Alexander VII. was already then thinking of
drawing up a formula himself.^
The consequences of this juridical uncertainty showed them-
selves soon enough. On June 8th, 1661, the representatives
of banished Cardinal Retz published an ordinance, ^ drawn
up by Jansenists,^ which trimmed the formula in their sense.
For the papal decision, whether or no the five propositions
were found in Jansenius, nothing more was asked than " the
full and sincere respect which is due to such Constitutions ".
The ordinance created a great sensation. The Assembly of
the clergy protested to the King on June 26th. That body
was charged to examine it and on the basis of their report
a royal decree ordered the Vicars-General to withdraw it.
But this step by no means disposed of the matter. The
parish priests of Paris who had already signed, declared on
July 29th, before a notary, that they had been greatly edified
by the ordinance of the Vicars-General and on its part Port-
Royal did not fail to support the latter's action by means of
a number of writings. To put an end to the confusion both
the nuncio and the Vicars-General appealed to Rome. There
the authorities were greatly embarrassed as to how
they might deliver judgment without hurting Galilean
susceptibilities. The Pope's hesitation caused bad blood in
Paris. If Alexander VII. did not speak, Lionne wrote, the
King would be compelled to convoke a national council for
the purpose of seeking a remedy which Rome was unwilling
to supply.* At last a Brief came from Rome dated August
1st, 1661,^ in which the Vicars-General were repudiated in
1 Gerin, I., 239, n. 2.
- Reproduction in Arnauld, Giuvres, XXII., 607 seqq. Cf.
[DuM.\s], I., 232-9; Rapin, III., 105 seqq., iii seqq., 118 seq.,
123 seq. ; *Barb. 1048, f. 275-8, Vat. Lib.
' Arnauld, loc. cit., 607 note.
'^ Gerix, L, 239 seq.
'^ In [Dumas], I., 235 seqq. ; III., Rcc. 136. A *Brief of August 9,
1 661, to Card. Retz instructed him : " post acceptum hoc Breve
intra mensem unum ambos a vicariatus officio removcas et
220 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
very severe terms. However, even so it required a lengthy
correspondence with the nuncio before the Vicars-General
recanted on October 31st, after which they ordered the
formula to be subscribed to without qualification. The
situation of the Jansenists became now increasingly precarious.
They were indeed able to stave off the dissolution of Port-
Royal, the heart and centre of the party, a measure devised
by Queen Anne. The royal decree ordering the expulsion of
the hermits was badly carried out,i but many who had been
considered as the pillars of the party gave their signature,
though with some curious reservations, in fact they even
defended in writing the lawfulness of their conduct : among
them were Sainte-Beuve who had lost his professor's post
because of Arnauld, the cure Duhamel and the Oratorian
Seguenot.2 Bourzeys, up till then one of the sect's most
prolific writers, submitted loyally, and in a pastoral letter
of June 18th, 1661, Archbishop Gondrin of Sens made known,
in the very terms of the formula, his condemnation of the
five propositions.^
In these circumstances it is easy to understand the
reappearance of the equivocations which had been so strong
a feature of Jansenism. In the formula the signatory was
made to say that he condemned " with heart and lips "
Jansenius' five propositions as they stood in his Augiistinus.
On the other hand, printed works explained that one might
sign and at the same time maintain that the five propositions
were not in Jansenius, for it was in the nature of things that
an internal assent could only be asked for the question of
right, whilst for the question of fact only such respect and
alios idoneos sufficia.s ' {Alexandn VII. Epist., W.-Wll., n. 73,
Papal Sec. Arch.). On the same day a *Brief to the king (ibid.,
n. 74) refers him to the nuncio who will pray him to hasten the
extirpation of Jansenism.
^ Rapin, III., 97 seqq.
- Cf. Arnauld 's work : De la signature da Formulaire (CEuvres,
XXI., 259 seqq.).
' [Dumas], I., 239 seq.
SUBSCRIPTION WITHOUT INTERNAL ASSENT. 221
submission could be exacted as excluded open contradiction.^
Others pretended that many Bishops had given their subjects
to understand that in respect of the question of fact they
demanded no more than an external assent ; hence one
could sign in their sense without any internal acceptation
of the fact.- Sainte-Beuve explained that by the signature
one merely acknowledged the fact as probable, indeed it
was not without external probability seeing that the Pope
and the Bishops testified to it ^ ; the propositions were in
fact to be found in Jansenius, even though in another sense ;
hence this also might be subscribed.^ Seguenot was of opinion
that the subscription was not a statement of belief but solely
of the fact that one would offer no opposition.^
This was too much even for Arnauld. In his rejoinder he
tore these excuses to shreds and boldly proclaimed the thesis
that one who did not believe the fact could not sign the
formula ; otherwise it would be said of him : " Thou hast
lied, not to men, but to God ! " ^ Anyone who after a careful
study of AugMstinus felt convinced otherwise than what the
papal decision claimed, could not sign the formula, since the
Pope was not infallible when pronouncing in questions of
fact.^ For all that, even Arnauld knew a way out of the
impasse so as to enable a man to give his signature without
accepting the fact : if Bishops who were anxious not to
tyrannize over consciences, would publicly declare that
signature did not of necessity imply an internal act of faith
in the question of fact, it would not be dishonourable to
' Arnauld, loc. cit., 298, 300, 315. It is characteristic of the
bitterness of contemporary Jansenists that their denunciations
led to the suppression, in 1660, of the Society of the Blessed
Sacrament which had done so much good (Prunel, La renaissance
catholique en France an XVIP siecle, Paris, 19^1. 174)-
- Arnauld, loc. cit., 281, 296 seq., 316.
^ Ibid., 280, 288. Cf. Cochin, 161 seq.
* Arnauld, loc. cit., 283.
'- Ibid., 295.
" Ibid., 264-276.
• Ibid., 292 seq.
222 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
give it. Faith as regards right, respect in regard to fact —
that was all the signature implied ^ ; only by making this
distinction could peace be restored to the Church. However
much the Jesuits may combat it, it will surely prevail in the
end ; until then the Jansenists must remain steadfast, ready
to suffer all things, even martyrdom itself.^
Arnauld's own internal attitude to these events is even
more clearly revealed in his letters of the period. He attaches
no value to the prestige of the Pope and the Bishops. The
Pope has pronounced in the affair of the Jansenists by blindly
relying " on seven or eight friars whose ability may be gauged
by their printed memorandums ".^ " A priest can never
admit that he is in error so long as his conscience bears
witness to his Catholic sentiments." ^ " I do not know
whether so patent an oppression of the Church by those
in authority does not ask for more than impotent tears." ^
He prefers the opinion of his friends to that of the Bishops
because the former " understand these matters, seeing that
they have carefully studied them, and they sufficiently fear
God to stop them from acting against their conscience ".
" I attest before God that at this moment I know not one
Bishop possessed of these two qualities." ^ In an opuscule
on " The heresy and schism which were bound to arise
within the Church of France as a result of the compulsory
signature of the formula ",' he explains that not the Jansenists
but the Bishops were heretics, seeing that they forced people
to sign the formula without admitting the distinction between
right and fact, for it was a heresy to demand for a fact, sucli
as Jansenism, such faith as is only due to divine testimony. ^
^ Ibid., 318. In like manner in the letter of May 27, 1661, to
Hermant at Beauvais (CEiivres, I., 247).
- Ibid., 319, 326.
^ To Duhamel on May 3, i66i {CEuvres, I., 242).
* To Deslions on January 27, 1661, {■bid., 227.
'' To Hermant on April 24, 1661, ibid., 239.
" To Duhamel on May 3, 1661, ibid., 240 seqq.
' (Eiivres, XXL, 251 seqq.
8 Ibid., 25S.
HENRI ARNAULD. 223
The strangest position of all among the Jansenists was
that of Pascal who had fallen out with his friends on account
of the formula. In contradiction to his Provinciales, he
now rejected the distinction between fact and right. He
granted that the Popes had condemned Jansenius' interpreta-
tion, but maintained that his own sense was covered by the
Dominican conception of grace, and that it was the teaching
of the Church. Consequently when he gave his decision the
Pope erred in a matter of faith. Hence the formula could
not be signed except with the reservation that one excepted
the sense of Jansenism when doing so.^ It is impossible to
see what Pascal meant by these words.
(5.)
Antoine Arnauld's brother Henri, Bishop of Angers, did
not even publish the formula. He sought to justify his
conduct in a letter to the King dated July 6th, 1601. In
substance his letter contains nothing but the usual distinction
between fact and right, but Port-Royal praised it to the
sky, especially as it was hoped that Henri's example would
lead other Bishops to act in like manner. As a matter of
fact Pavilion had written a similar letter to the King on
June 22nd, but a friend had kept it back. Three months
went by before Bishop Godeau, who had signed the formula,
also wrote to the King on October 15th, but for the purpose
of combating that document. In a letter of justification
to his nephew, the Secretary of State, Lionne, dated October
21st, 1661, Henri Arnauld ascribed the silence of his brother
Bishops to cowardice and fear of Annat, the King's confessor.^
^ [Dumas], I., 250-252.
2 Cochin, 163-178. The writings of Henri Arnauld pass for
works of his brother Antoine and for that reason were admitted
among the latter's (Euvres, XXII., 610 seqq., 614 seqq. ; cf. XXI.,
p. xliii. : " Tous les catalogues du temps font M. Arnauld
auteur de ces lettres." Cochin speaks differently (167).
224 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Shortly afterwards he also wrote to the Pope, adding a
lengthy dissertation on the difference between fact and
right, of course all to no purpose. In Rome Cardinal Albizzi
made fun of the Gallican theologian who tried to teach Rome
in such matters whilst to Henri's keen disgust Alexander
VII. did not even do him the honour of answering his letter.^
According to what De Marca told the Bishop of Angers
on the occasion of a meeting of the two men. Government
circles were expecting a papal command ordering all Bishops
to sign the formula. However, nothing came from Rome
and the Government had to be content with the publication
of the Brief to the Vicars-General. ^ This gave Henri Arnauld
a welcome opportunity to make another appeal to Louis
XIV. ^ When in answer to his objections it was pointed out
to him both in a royal letter and by the nuncio Piccolomini,*
that the Brief was also an answer to Henri's distinction
between fact and right, the Bishop wrote once more both
to the King and to Piccolomini.^ The object of his letters
appears from the fact that, like his previous communication,
they were promptly thrown to the public by means of the
printing press. ^ A papal confirmation of the formula, the
letter to the nuncio said, would be something so unheard
of that one could only believe it on the Pope's own statement ;
equivocal assertions were inadequate to cover the obvious
encroachments of the Assembly of the clergy.' In the letter
to Louis XIV. he betrays, among other sentiments, his
resentment against the Pope. Can the King, so we read,
the guardian of Gallican liberties, tolerate that the Pope
should not even condescend to write to his brethren, the
Bishops, but that, on the contrary, he should refer them,
' Cochin, 179 seqq.
- On May i, 1662, ihid., 1S2.
= Letter of July 24, 1662, ibid., 183.
■» August 28 and 29, 1662, ibid., 376, 377.
•'■ September 17, 1662, ibid., 187.
« Ibid., 164, n. I, 183, n. 2, 187, n. 3.
" Ibid.. 188.
EFFORTS FOR A COMPROMISE. 225
through the nuncio, to decisions which bear no relation to
their questions ? ^
For the moment nothing was clone against Henri Arnauld
who had been joined by Choart de Buzenval, Bishop of
Beauvais.^ For about a year the signature of the formula
was no longer demanded.^ The dispute over the Corsican
Guards * turned the King's attention in another direction,
moreover towards the end of 1662 an attempt was made
to bring about a religious peace by means of a compromise.
The President of the Parliament of Toulouse, Miramont,
was on terms of friendship with the Jesuit Ferrier, professor
of theology in that city, as well as with Bishop Choiseul of
Comminges who happened to be staying at Toulouse and
who had dealings with the Jansenists. Accordingly, about
the middle of 1662, conferences took place at Miramont's
country house between Ferrier and Choiseul on ways and
means to put a stop to the disputes without the signature
of the formula. Choiseul reported on the first discussion to
Jansenist friends of his ^ and Ferrier to the King's confessor,
x'\nnat, whereupon the monarch transferred the negotiations
to Paris. Between January 25th and February 18th, 1663,
live sittings were held at which, besides Choiseul and Ferrier,
the Jansenists De Lalane and Girard, also took part.^ As
^ Ibid., 190.
2 Ibid., 186.
^ [Dumas], 267.
* See above, p. 95 seqq.
^ August, 1662 : " Recit de ce qui s'est passe dans raccommode-
ment de 1663," in Arnauld, (Euvres, XXL, 550. Arnauld's
answer is the memorial of September 2, 1662, ibid., 631 seqq. First
Projet d' accommodcinoit , sent from Toulouse on October 20, 1662,
ibid., 640 seqq. Three memorials by Arnauld, ibid., 643 seqq. ;
memorial of January 13, 1663, ibid., 677 seqq.
^ [Dumas], I., 273 seq. ; Rapin, III., 219 ; Gerberon, III.,
58 ; Recit., loc. cit., 549 seqq. ; Ferrier.* *Narratio eorum quae
Parisiis gesta sunt cum doctoribus I ansenianis sub initium anni
1663, in Excerpia ex codice s. Officii continente Acta in Galliis
in causa lansenii annis 1663-1665, f. 1 15 seqq. (Remains of Schill).
VOL. XXXL Q
226 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
was to be foreseen, no result was arrived at. It is nevertheless
worth noting that on January 23rd the Jansenists summed
up their views on the five propositions of Jansenius in five
articles.^ This document, signed by all the Jansenist leaders,
is important as a manifesto of the party. Despite his failure
Choiseul refused to give up hope. He succeeded in persuading
the Jansenists to accept three Bishops as mediators, viz.
himself, Perefixe, then Bishop of Rodez and subsequently
Archbishop of Paris, and the future Cardinal D'Estrees,
then Bishop of Laon. These three prelates drew up another
five articles in opposition to the five propositions. However,
when for an equivocal final sentence in a covering letter of
explanation, a simple assurance of their submission to the Holy
See, even in respect of the question of fact, was substituted,
the Jansenists refused to sign.^
The negotiations were thus at an end. " They have had
no other result," Annat wrote, " except to demonstrate
the obstinacy of the sect to those who were not yet sufficiently
convinced of it ; it is likewise all I had hoped for." ^ The
Jansenists did as if they were prepared to agree to anything,
^ DuPLEssis- D'Argentre, III., 2, f. 306 ; Ghrberox, III.,
47 ; [Dumas], I., 279-285.
2 [Dumas], I., 274. The question of this " subiicimus "
divided the Jansenists. A letter of Le Nain, dated March 16,
1603 (Arnauld, Q£uvres, I., 309), takes Arnauld severely to task
for his intractability. Arnauld, however, refused to yield :
Letter to Lalane, dated March 17, 1663, ibid., 311 ; to Hermant,
March 18 and 20, ibid., XXL, 597, 599. Arnauld's Memoire sur la
proposition du Subiicimus, ibid., 686 seqq. A proposal to promise
the Pope, like the Doctors of Lou vain, in general terms, a religiosa
observantia for the Constitutions, was declined by him (to
Hermant, March 28 and 31, 1663, ibid., 601 seqq. ; to Singlin on
April 7, 1663, ibid., 611).
^ " *Elles [the conferences] ont fuii et n'ont eu autre effet que
de faire connaitre a ceux qui n'en etaient pas assez persuades
I'opiniatrete de cette secte. C'est aussi tout ce que je m'en etais
promis contre I'esperance de M. de Cominges." Annat to the
French Assistant of the General of the Jesuits, March 2, 1633,
Excerpt a, f. 10, loc. cit.
EFFORTS FOR A COMPROMISE. 227
so long ;is Junsi'iiius was sale. Tlicir \-ie\vs, they affirmed,
differed in no way from those of the Dominicans and these
the Pope could surely have had no intention to condemn.
However, when Ferrier offered to test this agreement in
presence of three Bishops, they replied that they felt so
sure of it that their conscience did not allow them to bow
to any authority on this point, be it that of the Bishops or
the Pope, a council or the whole Church. Even now Choiseul
refused to give up hope. He proposed the dispatch to the
Pope of a respectful letter condemning the five propositions,
adding that if His Holiness wanted anything else, they would
be ready to comply with his demands. The letter was actually
written ; the five articles drawn up on January 23rd were
added as a profession of faith in respect of the five pro-
positions.^
Arnauld had taken no part in the negotiations, though
it was he who guided the steps of his followers and not
infrequently opposed the sharpest resistance to their prayers
that he would be more accommodating. ^ Even his brothers,
Bishop Henri of Angers and Robert d'Andilly, at times
remonstrated with him and resisted him,^ but in the end
he invariably prevailed for it was thought that nothing could
be concluded or broken off without him. It had been agreed
that the deliberations would be conducted in secret, but the
Jansenists threw them to the public together with some
bitter attacks on their opponents, whereupon Ferrier
1 [Dumas], I., 277 seqq.
2 Arnauld to Choiseul, February 22 and 28, 1663, CEiivves, I.,
303, 306 ; to Singlin, March 21, ibid., 307 ; Choiseul to Henri
Arnauld, March 20, 1663, asking him to induce his brother to
change his mind, ibid., 320. At Beauvais also his friends were of
different minds ; ibid., XXL, 592, 594, 596.
^ Henri to Choiseul and Antoine Arnauld on March 29, 1663,
Arnauld, loc. cit., I., 324 ; D'Andilly on April 10, 1663, ibid.,
349 seqq. ; Antoine to Hermant and Le Nain on April i, 1663,
ibid., XXL, 609, I., 327 ; to D'Andilly on April 5, ibid., 335 seqq.,
on May 6, ibid., 356-371 ; to Henri on April 6. ibid., 342 seqq.
220 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
published a rejoindi-r ; in tliis way the dispute and the
mutual recriminations dragged on their course.'
In spite of everything, the Jansenists' promise to submit
to the Pope's further demands, seemed to have jxived the
way for a real advance and to have opened a prospect of
peace. Ferrier wrote to Rome that it was of the utmost
importance that the Pope should receive their submission
with fatherly kindness and at the same time insist on their
subscribing to the two Constitutions in token of their
obedience, and if it were possible to enforce the formula
of the Assembly of the clergy by papal authority also ; if
this were done great satisfaction would be given to the whole
clergy of France.^ Annat wrote in the same strain. ^ Should
the Pope prescribe a new formula, he wrote, the Jansenists
would triumph and say that even the Pope was not satislied
with the previous one. Choiseul wrote to the Pope and
to one of the Cardinals, in splendid Latin, exalting the
success achieved, which filled all right-minded people with
incredible joy.*
In Rome a very sober view was taken of these negotiations,
which were represented as so great a success. An extra-
ordinary meeting of six Cardinals took place on July 21st,
lGti3 ^ ; its advice was that the five articles of the Jansenists
should not be answered at all as they were characterized by
so much hair-splitting that they would lead to endless disputes.
1 [Dumas], I., 269 .'^eq. ; Arnauld, Refutation dc la faiissc
relation dii P. Ferrier, in Oiuvres, XXII., 250 seqq. For a judgment
on the dispute and the question whether Arnauld did not hesitate
at times, see [Dumas], I., 286-318 ; but cj. 270 : to do no more
than to explain the cour.se of the discussions, " il faudrait un
vohime considerable."
- *To Fabri on June 1.5, 1663, lixccrpta, f. 78.
» Ihid.
* *June 22, 1663, ibid., i. Sz, loi. *In hkc manner D'Estrees
to Card. Rospigliosi, June 23, 1663, ibid., f. 103.
'■> *Excerpta, f. 131 seqq. ; Rapin, III., 237 seqq. The six
cardinals were : Ginetti, Corrado, Borromeo, Albizzi, Rospigliosi,
Bagno.
BRIEF OF JULY 29, 1663. 229
Nor should the Pope reply to Choiseul, whose attitude towards
Innocent X.'s Bull had not been satisfactory, though he
might address a Brief to the whole French episcopate in
praise of the zeal they had hitherto shown and to exhort
them to continue and to apply even sharper measures, nay
even to have recourse to the secular arm. The question of a
formula should be dropped for it was impossible to confirm
the earlier one of the Assembly of the clergy, seeing that it
had been drawn up without proper authority, whilst a new
one would hurt the feelings of the Bishops and provide their
opponents with an opportunity for recrimination.^ Only
one of the Consultors was of opinion that the Bishops'
formula might be considered as the execution of the papal
Constitutions. On July 29th a Brief was drafted in the
sense of the Congregation - whilst Rospigliosi replied to
Choiseul and D'Estrees.^
Ferrier wrote "* that the Brief had been put on one side,
firstly, because the King, on whose intervention great hopes
were set, was travelling ; secondly, because Choiseul, who
had great influence with the Jansenists, was deeply hurt
because his efforts had not received the papal eulogy for
which he had hoped ; and lastly, because the Brief was
silent on the subject of the formula. As a result of this silence
the seven or eight Bishops who had not yet subscribed,
would only publish the papal Constitutions in their dioceses
and demand no signature even if the Assembly of the clergy
should order it anew, with the result that it would not be
possible to distinguish between Jansenists and non-Jansenists.
For the time being, then, the Brief would not be promulgated
* " *Considcrando che non si puo approvare il fatto dall'-
Assemblea, mentre s'arroga rautorita ch'a lei non compete,
ne puo farsene un nuovo senza dar taccia ai vescovi, pretesto ai
lore contrarii d'haver preteso di mettere un vincolo che qui non
sia stato approvato." Excerpta, loc. cit.
"' Ibid.. 183.
3 *Ibid.. 189.
' *To Fabri, August 25, 1663, ibid., 199 seq.
230 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
until information should come from Rome whether it would
be possible to obtain another. ^
Choiseul, who in the meantime had written to Rome in
most eulogistic terms of the Jansenists' declaration of
obedience, 2 was summoned into the King's presence in
September, when he was told to see to it that his friends kept
their promises.^ As the reward of three days' efforts, Choiseul
obtained a declaration from Girard and Lalane which was,
however, judged inadequate by the royal council. ^ When
on October 2nd, the Bishops then staying in Paris, met for
an extraordinary conference, for the purpose of receiving
the Brief, they too qualified the Declaration of Girard and
Lalane as equivocal and hypocritical.^ For the rest the
assembly resolved that the Brief as well as the circular
should be fonvarded to all the Bishops, and since in these
documents the Pope urged the Bishops to take the most
appropriate means for the execution of the papal Constitutions,
the assembly was of opinion that the most suitable means
was for everyone to sign the formulas of 1656 and 1661.
The King's co-operation should also be invited ; this was
granted by an ordinance of October 10th. ^
A fresh violent controversy now broke out, in which the
Jansenists spared neither the Pope nor the Bishops and
^ " *C'est une chose si necessaire que sans cela il }' a danger
que la publication du bref ne fas.se plus de mal que de bien." Ibid.
2 *Lettcr of July 14, 1663, to Barberini [ibid., 214). " *Cette
soumission a desarme tout le monde, reuni tous las esprits at
le Roi a cte ravi de voir etc." On September 7, 1663, Choiseul
*begs the Pope to write to the French Jansenists in the same strain
as to the University of Louvain (ibid.).
^ [Dumas], I., 323.
* Ibid.
s " *Mirifica nostrum omnium quotquot adcramus in his verbis
reprehendcndis extitit consensio. Visa sunt enim subdola,
simulatum chmitaxat obscquium prae se fcrentia, mcnte vcrsipelli
et callida concinnata." Letter of the Assembly to the Pope,
October 2, 1663, Excerpta, f. 255.
" [Dumas], I., 330.
LOUIS XIV. AND JANSENISM. 23I
least of all the Jesuits who, in their opinion, were to blame
for everything.^ It now became clear how they understood
their latest assurance of submission to and regard for the
Holy See. Fresh light was thrown on the sincerity of the
sect by the attempt of the Jansenists to read into one vague
expression of the most recent papal document an approval
by the Pope of their five articles.^ Notwithstanding every
obstacle on the part of the ecclesiastical and the secular
power, the Jansenists continued to gain ground by underhand
methods ; " they manage to get their men appointed directors
of Seminaries," Ferrier wrote,^ " they found boarding schools
for girls, as for instance at Toulouse," and Annat had informa-
tion that the sect was spreading in the dioceses of Toulouse
and Rheims.^
(6.)
However, judging from appearances, the situation of the
Jansenists had taken a bad turn in 1664. On January 4th,
in the presence of the King, the Council of State severely
condemned and prohibited two Jansenist works, one of
which was Saint-Amour's diary of the Roman discussions
about the five propositions. '^ On April 29th Louis XIV.
^ Ibid., 330 seqq., Arnauld, Les desseins des Jesuites, in
CEiivres, XII., 172 seqq.
" The Bishops, the Brief declares, had brought it about " ut
muti, iique caeterorum nomine primarii ... ad saniorem
doctrinam inducti, ea qua par est, ut credimus, animi demissione
sese paratissimos exhibuerint " to obey the Pope. From this
Arnauld and others concluded that the five articles had been
declared sana doctrina. [Dumas], I., 353 seqq.
* *To Fabri, September 21, 1663, Excerpta, f. 243. " *Le
Jansenisme a des suites qui ne sont pas moins dangereuses que
leurs dogmes," Ferrier writes {ibid.). For Fabri see Rapin
III., 237.
■' *To Fabri, February i, 1664, Excerpta, f. 374.
" [Dumas], II., i. Saint-Amour's paper was also put on the
Index on March 28, 1664. *Excerpta, f. 464 seq.
232 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
attended a meeting of Parliament for the purpose of having
a solemn edict against the Jansenist registered. ^ By the
terms of this document anyone refusing to sign the formula
was to forfeit his benefice, and in future no one was to obtain
a benefice, a degree or position at the Universities, to take
the vows of religion, or to carry out some conventual charge,
without previously subscribing to that document. The
motives by which the ordinance was justified, adduce strong
charges against the good faith of the innovators. They had
begun by defending the orthodoxy of the five propositions ;
later on they represented them as malicious and arbitrary,
inventions of their opponents. Their declarations of
submission to the Holy See were insincere for they were
given the lie by their speeches and writings ; they sought
for ever to shelter behind St. Augustine and St. Thomas,
and like the heresiarchs of former times, they spread their
teaching in secret.^
However, notwithstanding this determined language of
the mightiest King in Europe, the fundamental mistake
made when the formula was first published, became ever
more evident. The praise bestowed upon the Bishops in
the latest Brief might be interpreted as a tacit approval of
their formula, but that document lacked express confirmation
by the only competent authority. The Government was
fully aware of this circumstance. During the discussion
by the royal council of the King's declaration of April 29th,
it was decided to admit nothing into its text that would be
a criticism of the recalcitrant Bishops, precisely because the
Pope had not enforced the formula and the Assembly of the
clergy had exceeded its authority.^ Hence Annat, the King's
confessor, was for ever pressing for a papal formula in all
his letters. When after the settlement of the dispute in
connexion with the Corsican Guards * a Cardinal Legate
1 [Dumas], II., 5 f. Printed, ihid., III., Rcc. 156-168.
2 Ibid., II., 6 seqq.
^ *Annat to Fabri, April 11, 1664, Excerf^ta, t. 3S1.
■' Cf. above, p. 08 seqq.
A PAPAL FORMULA. 233
was expected in France, it was hoped that he would be the
bearer of a Brief in which the Pope would state that if the
formula was not alluded to in the Papal Briefs, such silence
must not be construed as disapproval.^ Rome did not at
once fall in with this proposal. The Legate was instructed
to inform the King that the Pope had authorized the Bishops
to employ such means as seemed best to them and that
Rome did not deem it necessary to invest the Legate with
additional powers.- Paris, however, maintained its previous
demands. Even previous to this Annat had observed to a
Bishop that if a formula came from the Pope, people would
stone the Jansenists if they refused to subscribe,^ and a
little later the royal confessor wrote that Bishops who had
hitherto been recalcitrant, now openly declared that if the
Pope prescribed either the old formula or a new one, they
would not refuse their signature ; until now papal decrees
had always been received with the utmost respect in France
and this excellent disposition still continued, but nothing
would be accomplished without a formula, for they had to
deal with people who were prepared to sign anything, so
long as they saved their Jansenius.'*
1 *Annat to Fabri, February 23, 1664, Exccrpta, f. 381.
2 " *Che maggior autorita non ha stimato che fusse necessario
di concedere a Lei [the I^egate] in questo affare. Ibid., f. 400.
^ *" Cela fera que tout le monde leur jettera des pierres s'ils
ne se soumettent. Mais il est absolument necessaire que Sa
Saintete temoigne que ce n'est pas qu'il y ait eu raison de refuser
la signature de I'autre, ni qu'il soit necessaire, que ceux qui ont
signe I'autre, signent encore celui-ci." Annat to Fabri, March 6,
1664, ibid., f. 380.
* " *Nous avons a faire a des fourbes qui eludent tous les
autres moyens. lis signeront tout ce que vous voudrez pourvu
que vous ne parliez point de Jansenius, c'est a dire pourvu que
vous mettiez sa doctrine a couvert . . ." (to Fabri, March 28,
1664, ^bid., f. 461). " *Avec cela on ne doute point ici que le
Jansenisme no soit anncanti et sans cela qu'il ne se retablisse
au mepris du S. Siege et de ceux qui Font cheque jusqu'a pre.sent "
(to Fabri, April 4, 1664, ibid., f. 462).
234 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The Jansenist objections to the formula did not cease
even when the new Archbishop of Paris, Hardouin de Perefixe,
explained in a pastoral letter dated June 7th, 1664, that
for the question of fact the Church demanded indeed an act
of faith, but only an act of " human and ecclesiastical faith ".^
According to Catholic teaching the Church is infallible
not only when she pronounces that this or that truth is
revealed by God, but also in all such definitions as are
necessary to enable her to fulfil her charge as an unerring
teacher as, for instance, when she declares that this or that
version of the Bible is authentic, that this or that book is
heretical. Catholics are bound to give an adhesion of faith
to such definitions precisely because the Church's inerrancy
is an article of faith and because the Church defines in virtue
of her infallibility. But inasmuch as there is question here
of things not immediately revealed by God, the act of faith
by which such decisions are accepted is called an act of
" ecclesiastical faith ".^ Perefixe only threw oil on the flame
with his explanation and all he achieved was to let loose
another spate of publications.^
This endless confusion induced the King to request the
Pope, through his Roman ambassador, the Duke of Crequi,
either to confirm the Bishops' formula by papal authority
or to draw up an entirely new one.** The Holy Office in
Rome was of opinion that the King's request removed the
chief obstacle which had hitherto prevented the dispatch
of a new formula, as such a step would have given offence
to the Bishops, whilst approval of the old one, which had
been enforced without authority, would have injured the
prestige of the Holy See.^ Three Briefs, dated December
16th, 1664, were dispatched to the nuncio in Paris, one for
himself and the Archbishops of Paris and Auch, another for
1 [Dumas], II., 8.
2 On the distinction ])ct\vecn " fides divina " and " ecclosi-
astica ", cf. Chk. Pksch. Praclect. dngiii., VIII., n. 23').
3 [DUMASJ. II., 9.
■' *Annat to Fabri, Noxrniber 14, 1O64, lixcevpta, 1. 3H^
'^ Ibid., f. 537.
A PAPAL FORMULA. 235
the King, and a third for the Bishops.^ However, Paris
was not entirely satisfied with the papal prescriptions
concerning the subscription to a new formula, and on January
24th, 1665, the Paris nuncio sent in a memorial in which he
suggested three alterations : Rome should issue, not a simple
Brief, but a Constitution to be registered by the various
Parliaments ; a time limit of three months should be fixed
for signing ; as to the penalties for recalcitrant Bishops, only
a general reference to Canon Law should be made ^ ; the
last demand was in consequence of the Bishops' complaint
that, by the terms of the Brief, a simple refusal to sign
entailed deposition without summons and process.^ Alexander
VII. complied with all these requests with his Constitution
of February 15th, 1665.* The Bishops held two meetings ;
they thanked the Pope and decided to carry out the Bull.
Arnauld was soon ready with three memorials, two for the
Bishops and a third for the magistrates.^ To the latter he
pointed out that the Bull forbade any modifications of its
dispositions, thereby assuming papal infallibility ; hence it
could not be received.^ However, this terrifying prospect
1 *Ibid., ^jSseqq. The Brief to the King in Epist. Alexandri VII.,
a. IX-X., n. 135, Papal Sec. Arch.
'^ *Excerpta, f. 594.
3 *Ibid.
* Text in Bull. XVII., 335, and [Dumas], III., Rec, 171 seq.
[cf. II., 28 seq.). Here the formulary is as follows : " Ego N.
Constitutioni Apostolicae Innocentii X. datae die 31 Mali 1653 et
Constitutioni Alexandri VII. datae 16. Octobris 1656 SS. Ponti-
ficum me subiicio et quinque propositiones ex Cornelii lanscnii
libro, cui nomen Augustinus, excerptas et in sensu ab eodem
auctore intento, prout illas per dictas Constitutiones Sedes
Apostolica damnavit, sincere animo reiicio ac damno, et ita iuro,
sic me Deus adiiivct et haoc sancta Dei evangelia." The *covering
letter to the King, dated February i8, 1665, expresses the hope
that " your ro^-al arm will put an end to this affair." {Epist.
Alexandri VII., a. JX-X., n. 172 f., 217, Papal Sec. Arch.
* iEuvres, XXII., 572 seqq.
« Ibid., 579-583-
236 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
did not alarm the Kin.t,' and on April 29th, IGG."), he had the
Bull registered in Parliament.^
But the Constitution was not accepted without strong
Gallican protests. The alterations in the original Brief were
insisted upon because of a wish to dispute the Pope's right
to ordain anything in France by simple, non-registered
decrees and to judge Bishops without trial.- In the parlia-
mentary sitting in connexion with the Constitution, Talon
once again seasoned an otherwise pointless discourse with
numerous sallies against the papal power and the Monks. ^
Nuncio Roberti had had the Constitution printed and
published. Thereupon the Attorney-General protested at
once ; the nuncio, he claimed, could not promulgate such
documents in France ; the Bull could not be published
without a royal declaration which alone gave it force of
law. Offence was even taken at the title which Roberti
had had printed at the head of the Constitution.* On May
Gth the printing of the Bull was forbidden by a judicial
act and the printer fined, but as Roberti had already posted
the printed copies, a second decree of June 23rd forbade the
Archbishops and Bishops to receive papal Bulls except by
order of the King.^
If anyone thought that a papal formula would meet with
unanimous submission, he was promptly undeceived. As
early as August 2oth, 1664, Bishop Pavilion of Alet had
written to the King on the subject of the formula ® and
excommunicated those priests of his diocese who had signed
1 [Dumas], Rcc, 172-186.
- Gerix, it., 6.
' Ibid., n. 7, " *]\I. Talon parlc dc tout autre chose que (hi
sujet dc la declaration ct [donne] toujours quelque coup dc dent
a I'autorite du Pape." .\nnat to Fabri, May i, 1665. lixccrpta,
f. 654.
* Ad christianissimum FrcDicoviDii regem ct Galliaruui regna.
•• G^RIN, TI.. 7 scq.
* Ant. :\rnauld's letter of coni^jratulations, Ai^naum), CEiivrt's,
I., 504.
OPPOSITION TO THE FORMULA. 237
it.' On June 1st, Kici."), he iniblished a pastoral letter- in
which he pubhshed the formula, but all he asked from its
signatories was credence in the question of right and respectful
submission in the question of fact.^ On June 23rd the Bishop
of Beauvais gave his adhesion to Pavilion, in fact, he copied
the latter's pastoral letter word for word, with the exception
of the introduction and conclusion. On July 8th Henri
Arnauld of Angers followed at least Pavilion's main line of
thought. As early as February the former had praised the
Bishop of Alet's clearsightedness in connexion with the
expected Bull, and represented both the Pope and the King
as the victims of the Jesuits.* Pavilion's admirer, Caulet
of Pamiers,^ also reproduced the letter of his model in a
pastoral letter of July 31st, that is, at the very time when
the Council of State had forbidden the clergy of the recalcitrant
prelates to obey the orders of their Bishops in respect of the
formula. The decree of the Council of State of July 31st,
in addition to the names of the Bishops of Alet, Angers and
Beauvais, contains a fourth, namely that of the Bishop of
Noyon ; but the latter promptly withdrew his pastoral
letter of May 28th.'' Oddly enough the leader of the
recalcitrant Bishops was none too strong in his convictions ;
he sent his Vicar-General to the nuncio with instructions,
the gist of which was that he only wanted to save his
1 *Annat to Fabri, November 14, 1664, Excerpta, f. 519.
- Text in Arnauld, loc. cit., XXIV., 537 seqq.
^ " Soumission de foi vers le droit, et do respect et de cliscipUne
vers les faits."
■* To Buzenval frum Beauvais, February 6, 1665, in Cochin,
319 seqq.
'" For him cf. the writings of G. Doublet : Un prelat janseniste,
F. de Caulet, reformateur des chapitres de Foix et de Pamiers,
Paris, 1895 ; Un diocese pyreneen sons Louis XIV., Toulouse,
1896 ; Les Protestants a Pamiers, ibid., 1895 ; Le convent des
Dames Salonques, ibid., 1896 ; F. de Caulet . . . cl la vie ecclesiastique
dans un diocese ariegeois sous Louis XI]'., Foix, 1896 ; also
Bertraxd, III., 19-61.
^ Cochin, 199.
238 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
reputation ; otherwise he would ,t,4adly liave obeyed the
Pope.^
Apart from the four Bishops, the papal ordinances met
with no opposition on the whole. Port Royal alone offered
the most obstinate resistance. Already in 16G1 the nuns
had objected to the decree of the Vicars-General of Paris,
although that document differentiated, in a wholly Jansenist
sense, between the questions of fact and of right. We get
a glimpse of the state of mind of those theologizing nuns
just then in a letter of Pascal's sister Jacqueline.- In the
ordinance of the Vicars-General she sees no more than a clever
trick to get out of confessing the truth ^ ; she defies the
Bishops, the Pope, the impending excommunication '* ; in
her opinion the condemnation of Jansenius implies the
condemnation of the grace of Christ ^ ; accordingly she is
prepared to endure persecution and death itself for him.*'
However, the.se were only fine phrases. These obstinate
1 Nunciature report of July 28, 1665 [Dumas], II., 37 seqq.,
" que tout CO qu'il a fait, n'estoit que pour conserver sa reputa-
tion : qu'il auroit volontiers obei a Sa Saintete, mais qu'il avoit
cru estre oblige de ne point changer sa conduite pour qui ce soit
du Royaume." *Exccrpta, f. 721 : " per con.servare la sua
reputatione."
- In Cousin, 319-32S. Cf. Arnauld, GLuvrcs, XXIII., 319 ;
[Dumas], II., 60, 62.
^ " J'admire la subilite de I'esprit que je vous avoue qu'il
n'y a rien de micux fait que le mandement, " etc. Cousin, 323.
* " Puisque les eveques out des courages de filles, les filles
doivent avoir des courages d'eveques " (324 s.). Depreciation of
Papal Bulls, ibid., 325. " Mais peut-etre on nous retranchera de
I'Eglise ? Mais qui ne sait que personne n'en peut etre retranche
malgre soi ? " (321).
* It seeks to avoid the appearance, " que nous condamnons
la doctrine dc Jansenius qui est clairement condamnee dans la
dcrniere bullc " ; or " que nous condamnons ou la grace de
Jesus-Christ ou cclui cjui I'a si divinement expliquec " {ibid.,
324-7)-
" Ibid., 320 seqq.
THE NUNS OF PORT ROYAL. 239
women, who would not l)e taught by cither Archbishop or
Pope, bowed in all humility and gave their signature as
soon as ever the " great " Arnauld had decided they should
do so.^ However, Rome rejected as inadequate the document
thus signed, and when the Vicars-General submitted a fresh
one, Port Royal-des-Champs only signed a formula couched
in general terms. ^
A three years' pause now ensued until the new Archbishop
of Paris, Hardouin de Perefixe, by order of the King, began
a visitation of the convent. The nuns, however, had been
adequately prepared by their Jansenist advisers ; they were
resolved to carry things to extremes. Their attitude towards
the Archbishop can only be described as outrageous ; even
some defamatory pamphlets against his person were published.^
Accordingly, on August 21st, 1664, the Archbishop laid an
interdict on both convents of Port Royal. For the rest, from
the point of view of morals, no fault could be found with the
nuns ; they were as pure as angels and as proud as the devil,
the Archbishop was wont to say.^ As a result of the King's
intervention the interdict had some further consequences.
On August 26th, 1664, the Archbishop arrived accompanied
by secular officials and some armed men. From the carriages
which had followed him there alighted some sisters of St.
Francis de Sales' Order of the Visitation, to whom were
assigned the post of superior and the chief offices at Port
Royal ; the ringleaders among the Jansenist sisters, above
all the members of the Arnauld family, were removed and
distributed among various convents. The Archbishop and
the new Superioress did their utmost to win back the
remaining Jansenist nuns, but they only succeeded with ten
or twelve ; the rest defied all their efforts, even when the
papal Constitution of February 15th, 1665, was laid before
1 Ibid., 228.
^ Text in Arnauld, GLuvres, XXIII., 329 seq. ; cf. Rapin,
III., 264.
* Rapin, III., 256 seq.
* Arnauld, Apologie pour Ics reUgieuses de Port Royal,
I., ch. 13, GLuvres, XXIII., 250 seq.
240 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
(hem. The Pope, the rebeUious nuns objected, had no nioie
power than the Archbishop.^ Rome, they said, was ruled
by pontics, selfishness, intrigues, and the Jesuits ; the Pope
had no knowledge of Jansenius' book ; whilst it was being
examined in his presence he slept ; the doctrine of the Pope's
infallibility was idolatry ; it did not matter if they were
deprived of the Sacraments, etc.^ In July, 1065, the sisters
who had been removed to other convents, were allowed to
gather once more at Port Royal-des-Champs where they
were kept under observation, but even so they successfully
eluded the vigilance of their guardians.^ Their friends,
among them Pavilion,^ did not fail, by means of smuggled
letters, to exalt these disobedient women as heroines of
virtue and to strengthen them in their rebellion. Arnauld
wrote three voluminous apologies of the nuns ^ which led to
another lengthy controversy. Meanwhile, the Visitation nun
whom Perefixe had appointed superioress at Port Royal
in Paris, returned to her own convent together with all her
sisters. The nuns of Port Royal in the city, who had given
their signatures, remained together and were given an
Abbess chosen from among themselves, but the thirty-five
nuns of Port Royal in the country continued in their
insubordination.^
Notwithstanding the Archbishop's strong opposition,
Jansenism grew steadily in Paris. A celebrated preacher
of the period, the Jesuit De Lingendes, publicly deplored
in the pulpit the coldness with which people listened to
the preaching of the ordinary truths of Catholicism. But
" were I to preach novelties, as is done to-day, people would
run after me ; I should have followers and create a stir,
for we have lived to see ladies giving up their jewels and
1 Rapin, III., 263-275.
2 Ibid., 299 seq.
^ Ibid., 303 seq.
* Ibid.
5 (Envres, XXIII., 165-828. Appreciation of his arguments
in [Dumas], II., 46 seqq.
" Rapix, III., 415 seq.
DELAYS. 241
others sacrificing everything, even their shirt, for the new
opinions ".^ In KUU) nuncio Roberti reported to Rome ^
that the clergy daily showed a more pronounced leaning
towards Jansenism. It was high time for the ecclesiastical
and the secular power to take joint action against the four
Bishops, but when Queen Anne died in 1666 the chief opponent
of the Jansenists also disappeared.^ The Jansenist ministers
paralysed the King's zeal and Gallicanism rendered the
co-operation of the two powers impossible.
In March, 1666, the King charged the Archbishops of Paris,
Rouen, and Toulouse and the Bishop of St. Malo to review
the situation.* They ended by recommending the execution
of the papal proposals but expressed a wish that the Pope
should appoint more than one commissary to judge the four
prelates.^ It goes without saying that the Jansenists made
capital out of these protracted negotiations and through
their friends at court did all they could to delay still further
the appointment of judges of the four Bishops.^ In point
of fact a year after publication of the four pastoral letters
of 1665, all that had been done was the dispatch, by the
King, of four gentlemen to threaten the disobedient prelates
with the nomination of commissaries.''
About this time, however, it looked as if the King were
about to carry out his threat, though in a manner that
could not possibly satisfy Rome. He demanded that the
Pope should appoint no less than twelve Bishops as judges.
This demand rested on ancient and antiquated legal
dispositions of the primitive Church according to which the
1 Ibid., 417.
2 *On May 5, Excerpta, 1666 seq., f. 39.
' Rapin, III., 374 ; cf. 354 seq. : " ce royaume qu'on peut
dire qu'elle a sauve du malheur qui le mena^ait par I'heresie
de Jansenius."
* *Roberti on ^March 22 and 26, 1666, Excerpta, f. 67, 69.
* *The same, April 27, 1666, ibid., f. 69.
* *Annat to Fabri, April 9, 1666 ; tbid., f. 26 ; *Robcrti on
March 26, 1666, ibid., f. 69.
' *Roberti on June 29, 1666, ibid., f. 43.
VOL. XXXI. R
242 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Metropolitan, should a Bishop have offended, had to appoint
twelve Bishops to act as his judges. Now the Pope was
more than a Metropolitan, hence he was bound to resent the
attempt to tie his hands with Galilean Canon Law. Worse
still, the twelve would have pronounced sentence by an
usurped j udicial authority. According to the Roman conception
their only task was to establish the fact of the obstinate
insubordination of the four Bishops and, if their disobedience
continued, to inflict the penalty determined by the Pope.
On the other hand in Louis XIV. 's opinion the twelve were
to examine whether Pavilion, and those who shared his
sentiments, had done well when they refused to obey the
Pope : in other words the twelve were to act as a supreme
tribunal to judge between the Pope and the four. To this
was added the difficulty of bringing together twelve reliable
Bishops ; even Lionne confessed to the nuncio that this was
no small task.^ If the examination of the affairs of Pavilion
was entrusted to a commission of Bishops, the nuncio pointed
out, the Jansenists would object to this or that one of their
number and demand a provincial council or a papal pronounce-
ment on the obligation of adhering by faith to facts that
were not part of revelation ; in this way the proceedings
would be dragged out indefinitely and in the meantime the
sect would gather strength. ^ A judicial college of so many
heads would by itself alone render an early decision difficult.
Moreover, a pronouncement whether Pavilion was right or
wrong would be a judgment in a matter of faith, on the
question, that is, of the extent of papal infallibility.^ To
^ " *Che haveva durato gran fatiga a trovare dodeci." Roberti
on October 8, 1666, ibid., f. 96. On the number 12 of the judges
cf. Vacandard in Diet, de thiol, cath., IV., 500, 508 seq.
2 *lbid.
* " Que les decisions dcs opinions de foi appartiennent au
pape seul, et si Sa Saintete donnait des juges, il ne so pourrait
qu'ils n'entrassent en partage de cette autorite reservee au
pape." The four, that is, would defend their distinction between
right and fact and the 12 would then give their opinion. Albizzi
to Chauhics, in Gerin, II., 100.
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE FOUR. 243
pronounce judgment on such a point was the Pope's province,
not the Bishops', quite apart from the fact that the Pope
himself sought to avoid a decision in so dehcate a matter.^
Thus on the one hand it was quite impossible for Alexander
VII. to agree to the French proposals, whilst on the other
hand the King was determined to have his will at all costs.
In these circumstances the negotiations were bound to drag
on indefinitely. In November, 1666, the French ambassador
in Rome prayed the Pope - to issue two Constitutions, one
to command the four Bishops to retract and to subscribe to
the formula, and the other to charge the twelve commissaries
with the conduct of the process. On the other hand the
Roman Inquisition decided to appoint no more than two or
three judges, whose sole duty it would be to carry out the
papal sentence.^ The debates of three further sittings * led
to the decision to put on the Index of prohibited books the
pastoral letters of the four Bishops together with various
writings in their favour : this was done on January 18th,
1668. On January 4th the French ambassador was informed
that the Pope insisted on his proposal to communicate his
decision to the four Bishops through the Archbishop of
Paris or, perhaps, to entrust the task to three Bishops.^
^ *" Cette cour etait dans de grandes alarmes que les dits
juges ne voulussent entrer dans les matieres du droit at du fait,
ce que S. S. meme eviterait de decider ; mais tout s'est assure
en specifiant et ordonnant les signatures." Chaulnes to Lionne,
April 26, 1667, Gerin, II., loi, n. 2.
2 *November 28, 1667, Excerpia, 1666 seq., f. 117 ; cf. f. 116.
^ *Sitting of December 4, 1666, ibid., f. 123. There were present
Cardinals Ginetti, Borromeo, Albizzi, Chigi, Rospigliosi, and the
assessor Marescotti. At the sitting of January 3, 1667, Cardinals
Rasponi and Celsi were also present (ibid., 210). A *memoranduni,
at first intended for the ambassador but eventually dispatched
as his Instruction to the nuncio {ibid., f. 149-157). A *dissertation
by Pallavicino on infallibility in facts, ibid., f. 169-172.
•• *January 3, 5, 13, 1667, ibid., f. 210, 226, 227.
* *Ibid., f. 212.
244 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
On March 20th, by order of the Inquisition/ the assessor
Marescotti discussed the matter with the ambassador, and
Cardinal Albizzi did so on the 28th. ^ The appointment of
twelve commissaries, the assessor was charged to explain, ^
was an unusual procedure and a useless one, for in that case
the Jansenists would demand a provincial council ; it was
dangerous because of the waste of time and because a door
would be opened to Jansenist intrigues. Albizzi explained *
that the Pope could not appoint real judges because he had
already judged the matter himself and because there was
question of a dogma of the faith. When the ambassador
admitted that the only task of the commissaries would be
to decide the question of the obstinacy of the four, Albizzi
expressed his satisfaction that Chaulnes and himself were
in agreement ; commissaries would, no doubt, be appointed
by the Pope, only not as many as might be wished for. Many
people felt uncertain, the ambassador continued, whether
they were bound to hold as an article of faith that the five
propositions had been condemned in Jansenius' sense and
whether a distinction may be drawn between right and fact ;
why then had not the Pope defined this matter ? Albizzi
replied that the Pope was anxious not to give the Jansenists
a pretext for more publications, hence he had contented
himself with prohibiting the four pastorals. In that case
Chaulnes observed, he should have issued a Brief ordering
the four Bishops to withdraw their pastoral letters. A Brief
merely ordering the withdrawal could easily be obtained
from the Pope, Albizzi replied ; all that they wished to avoid
was an order for an express withdrawal because they were
anxious to glide lightly over certain tickHsh theological
questions.^ Chaulnes finally expressed a few wishes in regard
^ *Sitting of March 5, 1667, ibid., f. 267 ; of March 26, ibid.,
f. 300.
2 *Report of the assessor, ibid., f. 280 ; Albizzi's, ibid., f. 319.
' *Instruction for him, ibid., f. 280.
* *Ibid., f. 319.
* " Non darebbe S. S.'^ breve, che i vescovi revocassero i man-
dati, per nou impegnarsi nclla questione, so possa farsi articolo
BRIEFS AGAINST THE FOUR. 245
to certain clauses of the Brief. Albizzi now worked on two
Briefs,^ the text of which was settled by the Inquisition at
the sitting of April ISth.^ The day after they were laid
before the ambassador with a request to keep the matter
secret because the Jansenists, as their writings showed, had
very able spies at the Curia. Though already mortally
stricken, Alexander VII. had taken an active interest in the
Briefs even in his last days.^
The next day the Briefs, dated April 22nd, came into the
hands of the ambassador in their final shape. In the first,
which was to remain in force for a year, the Archbishops of
Toulouse and Bourges, the Bishops of Lavaur, Lombez,
Lodeve, Saint-Malo, Soissons, Mende and Dol were called
upon to summon their four recalcitrant colleagues to with-
draw their pastorals within a period of two months ; if
they failed to do so they were to proceed against them in
virtue of the apostolic authority. The second Brief charged
the nine Bishops to order the four recalcitrants to subscribe to
the formula under pain of suspension and interdict.* Three
years had gone by before these Briefs were drawn up, and
all that time the four Bishops had continued without molesta-
tion in their insubordination, thereby greatly strengthening
their position. Alexander VII. touched on the reason of
this delay when he told the ambassador, on December 3rd,
1666, that he regretted that the King's measures against the
heresy were so inadequate and that it seemed strange that
Louis would not admit it.^ On the other hand the Pope and
the Cardinals had had to put up with almost incredible conduct
di fede cio che depende da fatto non revelato, e se questo del qual
si tratta, sia tale 6 no." Ibid.
1 *Ibid., f. 350.
2 *Ibid., f. 357.
' Gerin, II., 165.
* Bull., XVII., 509, 510. The subscription must be given,
' pure, simpUciter, absque ulla omnino protestatione, exceptione
vel declaratione."
' Gerin, II., 94.
246 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
on the part of the French ambassador. ^ Louis XIV. always
imagined he knew better than the Roman Law experts how
to deal with the Jansenist problem and he had instructed
his ambassador to treat the Romans with haughty contempt.
If they only wished to punish the four prelates for their
disobedience, without trying them for heresy, Chaulnes
observed with heavy humour, the four would henceforth
be able to style themselves not only Bishops by the grace of
God, but likewise Jansenists by favour of the Pope. On
another occasion, when spoken to on the subject, the
ambassador replied that he had forgotten all about it, the
affair was dragging on so long ! Louis XIV. repeatedly
threatened to drop the whole thing if Rome refused to comply
with his will. He did not come before the Pope as a suppliant,
he declared, on the contrary, the Pope should be grateful
to him for giving effect to his Bulls ; the Pope should have
yielded to the King's representations, for he was surely
better acquainted with the situation in France than were
the Italians or an imprudent nuncio.
In Paris Lionne adopted a similar tone towards the nuncio,
in fact the King went so far as to forbid him even to discuss
the affair of the four Bishops with the nuncio. It is an unheard
of thing, Roberti observed, that a prince should be prevented
to treat with another prince through his ambassador ; they
would not dare to behave like this even towards the Republic
of San Marino. 2
At the time of the Pope's death the two Briefs had not
yet produced any effect.
(7.)
During the last years of his life Alexander VII. had been
obliged to take notice of a contest in which Pascal had
powerfully intervened with his Provinciales, the contest,
that is, with certain aberrations in the sphere of the
^ Ibid., 93 seqq.
2 Ibid., 98 seq.
PROBABILISM. 247
Church's teaching on morals. The dispute had broken out
before Pascal's time and it outlived him. That a collision
was inevitable, and that the Jesuits would have to bear
the brunt of the attack, has its cause in the historical develop-
ment of the Order and in its zeal precisely for all questions
of moral theology.
The ardour with which the Jesuits applied themselves to
the development of moral theology derives in direct line
from their founder. The clearness of judgment which
distinguished Ignatius of Loyola, the need he felt of accurately
accounting to himself for his personal conduct, naturally
led the keen ascetic to clarify for his own benefit, in the first
instance, the leading principles of moral theology's sister
science, that of ascetic theology. One need only compare
the book of his Exercises, or his letter on obedience, with
such a work as, for instance, the Imitation of Christ, to realize
the advance he thereby brought about in the development
of ascetics. Thomas a Kempis' masterpiece reveals indeed
the deepest realization of that which constitutes the essence
of the interior life, and its teaching is made up of the very
marrow of the principles of asceticism, but as regards its
style the booklet proceeds in an easy, conversational tone ;
nowhere is there a definition, a searching exposition or
motivation of ideas. All this is found in Ignatius, and he
thereby laid the foundation for a fuller application of theology
to ascetics and his disciples followed in his footsteps. Numerous
and voluminous expositions of the science of ascetics have
been compiled by them,^ and the Jesuits' guiding principles
for a truly Christian life must be looked for, in the first
instance, in those writings.
From ascetics to moral theology it was only one short
step A new scientific exploration of this field commended
itself particularly to the Jesuits, because of the stress laid
1 The whole field of ascetics is treated especially in the works
of Alvarez de Paz, 1608 (3 folio vols.) ; Alphonsus Rod-
riguez, 1609 (3 quarto vols.) ; De Puente, 161 2 ; Crombecius,
1613 ; Saint-Jure, 1634 ; Le Gaudier, 1643, etc.
248 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
by them on frequent Communion and, in connexion with it,
on frequent confession. Moreover the medieval manuals were
not abreast of the greatly altered conditions of the 16th
century and in other respects also they were quite inadequate.
The medieval Siimmas of Sylvester Prierias, Angelo de
Chiavasio, and others, were collections of cases of conscience
in alphabetical order, but for their solution they relied, for
the most part, on particular decisions of Canon Law which
it was impossible merely to generalize, and there were no
clear principles which alone could make possible a uniform
treatment of particular cases. ^ Even before the Jesuits, the
theologians of the 16th century had opened new paths in
this field and the new Order eagerly took up their heritage.
The principles by which particular cases of conscience must
be solved were further clarified by the Jesuit theologians
and applied to the social and economic conditions of the
time. Hence the final elaboration of moral theology is largely
their work ; when at a later date St. Alphonsus Liguori
frequently describes the Jesuits as " the Masters of the science
of morals ", he had this fact before his eyes.^
But as in all other sciences, the advance of moral theology
did not come about without exaggerations in the criticism
of what was old, nor without individual errors and mistakes.^
The new orientation in the science of morals no more escaped
the opposition which, from isolated mistakes, forges for itself
a convenient weapon, than any other movement which could
be described in any way as new.
Misunderstandings on the part of the uninitiated were easy.
In every one of these particular decisions, the question was
to determine the exact boundaries of what was and what was
not, lawful. However, the point was not to give the advice
1 Albert Schmitt, Zuv Gesch. des Probabilismus (1904), 7 seqq.
2 Jansen-Henze, Der hi. Alfons von Liguori unci die Gesellschaft
Jesu, Freiburg, 1920, 11 seqq.
3 Cf. below, on the moral propositions condemned under
Alexander VII. On this Dom. Viva, Damnatae theses ab Alexandra
VII., Innocentw XI. et Alexandro VIII. ad theologicam trutinam
revocatae, Padua, 1708.
PROBABILISM. 249
to go in every instance to the uttermost limit of the permissible
and to be satisfied with the absolute minimum in moral
questions ; the sermons and ascetical writings of the Jesuits
prove the exact opposite. The aim of moral theology is to
advise the confessor in his perplexities, for if a penitent makes
up his mind to do no more than his strict duty, the confessor
must know the limits of an obhgation, lest he impose an
obligation where there is none. For all that there were those
whose feelings were hurt by the use of the dissecting knife
of logic in the sensitive sphere of conscience. Moreover,
again and again Canon Law repeats the adage that when in
doubt we must choose the safer course. Even well disposed
persons may have been puzzled when they saw this axiom
limited to jurisprudence and practical doubt.
In effect the principles by which the Jesuits, like all moral
theologians of the first part of the 17th century, decided
doubtful cases of conscience, were provided by what is called
" probabi'lism ".^ This term by no means implies that it is
lawful to act on a judgment of the conscience which is purely
" probable ", the word being taken in the sense of " doubtful ".
No one called in question that before acting one must be
morally certain of the lawfulness of the act. But experience
shows that there exists an immense number of cases in which
it is doubtful whether this or that detail falls, or does not fall,
under any law. Probabilism was to provide a means for
arriving at a practically safe judgment in such cases, not-
withstanding any theoretical doubts. If it is probable, that
is if there are good and reasonable grounds for thinking
that this or that detail does not come under the law, or in
other words when the existence of the law is doubtful in a
given instance, the probabilists allow us to go by the principle
that a doubtful law creates no obligation since in this instance
it must be considered as not promulgated, and whenever it
^ De Blic, in Diet, apolog., III., 302-339 ; Vermeersch,
ibid., 339-362 ; Astrain, IV., 119-171 ; A. Schmitt, loc. cit. ;
Degert in Bullet, de litterat. cedes., V. (1913), 401 seqq. ;
Dollixger-Reusch, I., 3 seqq.
250 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
cannot be shown that a thing is forbidden, it must
considered lawful.
However, probabilism may not be followed when there is
question not of what is lawful or unlawful, but of the rights
of a third party, or when there is an obligation to reaUze
by the most certain means a definite purpose. Thus one may
not argue : "I have probably paid my debts, hence I have
no further obligation in the matter ; a judge must decide
between various parties in accordance with the greatest
probability ; a physician must apply the best possible remedy :
where the vahdity of a Sacrament is concerned, the minister
must follow the safest opinion, etc.^
However, this limitation of probabilism to its own proper
sphere was the result of a gradual process of clarification,
for though we find traces of probabilistic views in the works
of some of the Fathers of the Church and in the writers of
the Middle Ages,^ their precise definition was the work of
the 16th and 17th centuries. It was initiated by the great
Dominican theologians of Salamanca, more particularly by
the school of the real founder of this modern theology, Francis
of Vitoria.^ Its essential principle was first clearly worked
out in the works of the Dominican Bartholomew of Medina.
Up till the middle of the 17th century practically all
theologians professed probabilism, and what the great
theologians had set down in their bulky Latin tomes was
made accessible to confessors and to the pastoral clergy in
general by means of small manuals in the vernacular. Thus
in the country of Pascal such a Guide of Parish Priests, by
1 This is the conception of ProV)abilism generally held by
Catholics. Dollinger would have it that it is nothing but " the
art of transforming grave sins into venial ones, or even into
blameless actions " (Akad. Vortrdge, I., Nordlingen, i888, 397).
In like manner Harnack {Dogmengesch., IIV. [1897], 671), who
considers strict tutiorism as " alone moral " whereas probabilism
is " the divorce of morals from morality, of religion from religion "
[Grundriss], Freiburg and Leipzig, 1893, 350).
^ De Blic, 304.
' Ibid., 315 scqq.
PROBABILISM. 25 1
the Benedictine Milhard, saw a vast number of editions
between the years 159G and 1631, and the Cardinal Archbishop
of Bordeaux, De Sourdis, commanded all his priests to procure
the book. An abridged manual of the science of casuistry
by the secular priest Bertin Bertaud, a probabilistic work
like that of Milhard, was reprinted twelve times between
1637 and 1639, and after that it had a further twenty-five
impressions. 1 Escobar's more voluminous work had reached
its 37th edition in the original Spanish when its author
provided a Latin version by which he made it possible for
Pascal to pour ridicule on it.^ Among the Jesuits the most
valuable contribution to the full development of the system
came from the greatest of their theologians, Francis Suarez
{ob. 1617) ^ ; on the other hand among the first opponents
of probabilism were the Jesuits Comitoli and Rebello.* As
typical representatives of excessive mildness in moral decisions
two non-Jesuits are usually mentioned, viz. the Theatine
Diana and the Cistercian Caramuel.^
On the whole the probabilist casuistry shows a humane
tendency, an attempt not to make the path to heaven narrower
than it need be, an understanding of man as he is and of
the difficulties with which he has to contend in this life.
The more immediate orientation towards the perfection of
Christian life is left to the ascetics, but precisely by exactly
circumscribing the sphere of strict duty, probabilism makes
room for magnanimity and charity which aim at something
higher than the mere fulfilment of duty. The moral teaching
of the opponents of the Jesuits, the Jansenists, stood in
sharpest possible contrast to these tendencies. According
to Jansenism, inculpable ignorance never excuses from sin ;
any action which cannot be reconciled with the law, even
though the agent is unaware of the fact, is imputed to him
as sin because ignorance is the consequence of original sin,
^ Degert, 403 seq.
2 Weiss, 76.
' SCHMITT, 119-129.
* De Blic, 318 ; Dollinger-Reusch, 31 scq.
* Ibid., 30. I
252 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
hence it does not exculpate.^ Such premisses leave, of course,
no room for probabilism since according to them, however
much a man may be convinced of the lawfulness of an action,
it will always be sinful if it is not in material agreement
with the law. Accordingly probabilism roused Jansenius to
indignation ^ ; in his view, in any doubt about the lawfulness
or otherwise of a given action, there can be but one rule,
namely to choose the safest course. In his opinion it is no
mere counsel but a strict obligation, always to follow the
opinion which excludes every infringement of the law, were
it a purely material transgression. The soil of such opinions
became the seed plot of rigorism which took, as it were, a
tangible and bodily form in Pascal's life and teaching. The
Christian life, according to Pascal, demands that the soul
should be wholly detached from all love of the world ; the
soul must part even with what the heart holds dearest ; in
fact it must be made to die to itself so that it may turn to
God and chng to Him alone. ^ Such views, which no longer
distinguish between strict Christian duty and higher perfection,
help us to understand how it was that Pascal could only
read with indignation the casuists' discussions on what was
generally lawful. In reality, however, the exorbitant demands
of the Jansenists are no longer human, for apart from a few
exceptions, they consign the whole of mankind to everlasting
damnation ; they are unchristian because for no one had
Christ sterner words than for those who laid intolerable
burdens on men's shoulders ; and even in the sphere of a
higher perfection, they rob the fairest flowers of virtues of
their lustre and fragrance ; instead of being the spontaneous
service of a loving heart, the highest ethical aspirations
become a dull service of the pipe-clay type. It is one of
Jansenism's many contradictions that it exalts the love of
God as the one and only virtue, whereas in reality it exalts
* Atigustinus, torn., 2, 1. 2, c. 2, p. 117.
^ Ibid., lib. prooem., c. 8, 28.
^ Lettrcs provinciates, lettre 5, p. 56.
JESUIT TEACHING ATTACKED. 253
fear and trembling as the most important thing in the life
of its adherents.!
Thus two ethical conceptions faced each other and between
them compromise was impossible and a shock inevitable.
However, the first blow came not from the Jansenists but
from the Calvinists who, in the first instance, attacked not
the Jesuits, but the Catholic Church. In 1631 their champion
Dumoulin published a catalogue of objectionable propositions
extracted by him from the works of Catholic theologians. ^
Ten years later, on the occasion of a dispute between the
University of Paris and the Jesuits of that city, the same
^ The passages in Kreiten in Stimmen aus Maria-Laach,
XLV. (1893), 171. A. M. [Olinier] says of Pascal : " La moindre
contradiction le met hors de lui ; esprit purement geometrique,
il ne salt rien de la complexite de la nature humaine. Dans les
Petites Lettres deja ce defaut se fait jour, quand il a la pretention
d'appliquer a I'humanite entiere les regies d'une morale austere
qu'a peine quelques hommes sur des millions pourraient pleine-
ment pratiquer." {Rev. crit., LVI. [1903], 52.) Of Jansenist
morality in general the Franciscan F. Bonal {Le chretien dii
temps, 1655) writes : According to the Jansenists " il n'y a rien
de vertueux, s'il n'est pas heroique, rien de chretien, s'il n'est
miraculeux, rien de tolerable, s'il n'est inimitable. Cela tient
plus de la roideur du stoique on du faste du phariseen que de la
mansuetude du chretien " ..." a force de herisser le christianisme
et d'en faire une religion epineuse, effroyable et inaccessible,
feront, peut-etre avec quelque petit nombre d'austeres suffisants,
beaucoup d'infirmes desesperes et plus encore de libertins im-
penitents." In like manner Clement XI. judges severely the
pretended moral strictness of the Jansenists : " Caritatem nuUi
impensius laudant, nulli impudentius violant ; divinae gratiae
veritatem praedicant, quam catholicus nullus negat, sed damnatis
erroribus faventes spiritui gratiae contumeliam faciunt. Quod
vero nos de pusillorum scandalo sollicitos plurimum excruciat,
illud est, quod, dum plerique eorum haec faciunt vel consentiunt
facientibus, adhuc specioso quodam ementitae severitatis amictu
se contegentes, rigidioris doctrinae gloriam captare non cessant."
Bull Pastoralis of August 28, 1718, Bull XXL, 811.
* De Meyer, 514.
254 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
idea was once more taken up.^ In 1618, to the great disgust
of the University, the Jesuits were given back their College
in Paris. Thereupon the professors sought to render the
tiresome rivals harmless in the teaching sphere by means
of an ordinance which practically debarred the pupils of
the Jesuits from all academic degrees. The dispute on this
point broke out afresh in 1642 when the Jesuits demanded
for their professors and pupils the same rights as those
enjoyed by the other colleges. In order to deal them a blow,
the speaker of the University, Godfrey Hermant, first drew
the attention of wider circles to the moral teaching of the
Jesuits. In his opinion that teaching was ^ " the chief
stumbhng block, a snare for the credulity of the people, a
sweet poison ruining souls by flattering them, a deceptive
charm hiding the strictness of divine justice ; in one word,
one of the most evident causes of the decadence of the last
century." The Rector of the University of Paris, Saint-
Amour, even addressed a memorial to Urban VIII. against
the Jesuits' " innovations in dogma and morals ".^ In the
same year Arnauld also took the field. After the manner
of Dumoulin he too drew up a list of Jesuit theses which, so
he alleged, offend against Christian moral teaching in general,
against the ten commandments, the teaching on the
Sacraments, the Church, and the hierarchy.^ These writings
seem to have achieved their purpose ; at any rate the Jesuits
succumbed in their fight with the University. In view of
the fact that all the champions among the Paris Doctors,
Hermant, Saint-Amour, Arnauld, were also leading Jansenists,
their writings may be considered as an offensive on the part
of the sect. After it had succeeded, the Jansenists remained
silent on the subject of Jesuit moral teaching. Feeling
against the Jesuits ran very high just then, not because of
^ Ibid., 374 seqq.
2 Ibid., 378.
* Ibid., 378 seq.
* La theologie morale des Jisiiites, Extraict fidellement de leurs
livres, Paris, 1643, 1644 (CEiwrcs, XXIX., i seqq.). On the sources
for Arnauld 's writing cf. De Meyer, 510-549.
JESUIT TEACHING ATTACKED. 255
their moral teaching, but because they were accused of
having exported large quantities of wheat to Spain, thereby
causing a famine. ^ Hermant's writings may have influenced
the passions even of the common people, but Arnauld's
learned work achieved practically nothing at all ; in fact
it was publicly burnt by order of the Parliament of Bordeaux. ^
A revulsion only took place when Arnauld's incriminations
were recast by Pascal in the entertaining mould of his
Provincial Letters. These Letters roused the clergy to
indignation. The seventh Provincial Letter had hardly
been published when the parish priests of Paris demanded
the condemnation either of the incriminated moral theses
or that of the Provincial Letters. An inquiry was however
impossible owing to Paris being without an Archbishop at
the time. Thereupon the parish priests of Rouen decided
to take action. They summarized the Provincial Letters in
thirty-eight propositions and then invited their colleagues
of Paris to join them in their efforts to obtain their condemna-
tion.^ From Paris the invitation was extended to the parochial
clergy of other towns,* and a request was made to the Assembly
of the clergy, which happened to be sitting at the time, to
take steps against the incriminated propositions, and even
more so against probabilism which was the cause of all the
mischief. The Assembly of the clergy refused to comply
with the request and contented itself with ordering a reprint
and the diffusion of St. Charles Borromeo's " Instruction "
for the guidance of confessors.^
Thus the attack on probabilism was apparently repulsed,
^ Ibid., 380 ; Annates de la Societe des soi-disans Jesuites,
IV., 884 seqq., V., i., seqq.
- As containing " des faussetes et des impostures " (De Meyer,
391).
3 Arnauld, OEuvres, XXX., xiii.
* [Minard], Divers ecrits des cures de Paris, Rouen, Nevers,
Amiens, Evreux et Lisieux contre la morale des Jesuites (1762) ;
Annates de la Societe des soi-disans Jesuites, IV., 843 seqq.;
reprinted in the tendentious pamphlets of Recalde.
* Degert, 406 seqq.
256 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
when the Jesuits, through a serious indiscretion, themselves
put weapons into the hands of their adversaries. One of their
number, Georges Pirot, a learned canonist, wrote a very
clumsy defence of the casuists in which he harked back to
such topics as Pascal had rendered ridiculous, in an endeavour
to justify them, although he had the whole current of
established opinion against him. The Superior of the Province
of Paris refused his imprimatur , but the General granted
it at the instigation of the French Assistant, a friend of
Pirot's. Even so the Provincial hesitated to allow the book
to go to press as the ablest Paris Jesuits were against it,
but he ended by giving way. The book appeared towards
the end of 1657 when it let loose a fresh storm against the
Jesuits and their teaching, for it was naturally felt that the
Jesuits really held the opinions which Pascal had attacked.^
For a whole year a fresh mass of pamphlets appeared, whilst
the parish priests of Paris, Rouen, and many other dioceses
renewed their protests. Once a start had been made by
the Bishops of Tulle and Orleans, not a month went by
between September, 1658, and the following May, without
the publication of one or more episcopal condemnations of
Pirot. 2 Many Bishops condemned probabilism together with
other theses ; a number of them described it as the source of
all evil.^ On August 21st, 1659, the episcopal condemnations
were supplemented by one of the Roman Inquisition."*
Pirot's condemnation by about twenty prelates might
have bee n neutralized by the silence of the remaining hundred
Bishops of France when, seven years later, there was published
at Lyons a French edition of a Spanish work which fanned
the smouldering fire into fresh flame. In 1654 a Spanish
Domin ican published at Coimbra a book against the moral
teaching of the Jesuits. He was attacked in his turn, in
1657, by the Jesuit Mateo de Moya writing under the nom
1 Rapin, III., 14-16.
2 Degert, 409 seqq. ; Sommervogel, VI., 857-863.
' Degert, 411.
* Reusch, 486.
AMADEUS GUIMENIUS. 257
de plume of Amadeus Guimenius, who endeavoured to show
that the incriminated propositions were either not taught by
the Jesuits, or not by them alone, but that, on the contrary,
they were advocated in particular by the Dominicans.
Unfortunately he also sought to excuse or justify much that
was not worth justifying. ^
On February 3rd, 1665, the Sorbonne censured de Moya
in the severest terms, describing him as a deadly enemy
of the peace of the Church and an apologist of every kind
of crime and abomination. ^ The censure grants that here
and there de Moya expressly repudiates the propositions
quoted by him, but as against that it is said that, for him
any opinion is probable if it is held by teachers of repute ;
in this way all the propositions of his book are declared
probable ; accordingly the Faculty condemned them all, for
they wished to hit not alone Moya, but all the advocates of
a degenerate moral teaching.^
The Sorbonne's action was to have an even more important
sequel. The Faculty had taken the liberty to repudiate likewise
a proposition in de Moya's book and in one by the Carmelite
Vernant, concerning papal infallibility. This the Pope could
not suffer in silence. As he told the French ambassador,^
such teaching aimed at reducing him to being no more than
the Bishop of Rome, and if pontifical infallibility was of no
value, the papal decrees against Jansenism lost all their
authority. Accordingly Alexander VII. protested at once
to Louis XIV., and when his representations remained
unheeded he published a Bull, on June 16th, 1665, on the
two censures passed on Vernant and Guimenius. The Bull
declares the condemnation by the Sorbonne null and void
^ AsTRAiN, VI., 150; Degert, 411 scqq. ] Reusch, 497;
DupiN, III., 178-345; D'Argentre, III., 106-114; III., 2,
352 seqq. ; Sommervogel, V., 1349-1355.
* DupiN, 274.
^ " Afin que du meme coup de censure elle ne punit pas un
ecrivain seulement, mais aussi tous les auteurs trompeurs quels
qu'ils sclent. " Dupin, 277.
* Bourlemont to the King, June 16, 1665, in Gerin, II., ii.
VOL. XXXI. s
258 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
and reserves to the Holy See the further examination of the
affair. Among the propositions on which the Sorbonne is
said to have passed a " presumptions " censure, mention is
made of " such as are concerned with the standard of moral
actions ".^ Pascal was therefore not mistaken when he saw
in the Bull a papal confirmation of probabilism.^ The Pope's
decision furnished Parliament with a pretext for complicating
the situation still further. After a venomous speech by the
Attorney-General Talon, on July 29th, it prohibited the
Bull ; no one was to be permitted to defend the censured
propositions and this decision was to be promulgated in all
houses of theological studies. The Sorbonne was invited
to go on with its censures as occasion served. ^ The Assembly
of the clergy would have had all the more cause for protesting
against a parliamentary decision in ecclesiastical matters, as
Talon, on December 12th, had expressly claimed for secular
rulers the right to pronounce in matters of faith and Church
discipline. Against this claim the Bishops protested to the
1 " Censura praesumptuosa notantur [by the Sorbonne] aliquae
propositiones eaeque praesertim, quae ad . . . actionum moraliuin
regulam pertinent, et aliae, quae et gravissimorum scriptorum
auctoritate et perpetuo catholicorum usu nituntur," Bull
XVII., 369.
2 " Rcmarques sur la bulle centre les censure {(Eiivres, X.,
743) : puisqu'il appuye en particulier le principe de la probabilite
qui est cette regie des mceurs dont il est parle dans la bulle."
Cf. Degert, 413. For the rest Arnauld's work is based on a gross
distortion. From the passage in the Bull quoted in the preceding
note, Arnauld concludes (X., 741) : " Le Pape n'a pas craint
d'approuver . . . toutes ces propositions censurees . . . Ainsi . . .
si I'on dit que c'est une erreur et une impiete de soutcnir qu'il
soit permis de tuer en secret un homme qui medit de nous, on
est temeraire, scandaleux et presomptueux." Arnauld's opening
remarks are : " La nouvelle bulle ... est peut-etre la chose la
plus monstrueuse et la plus etonnante que Ton ait jamais su dans
rfiglise catholique ..."
3 Degert, 414. The parliamentary decree was only a pro-
visional one and was only passed by 14 against 11 votes ; Gerin,
II., 15 seqq.
CONDEMNATIONS BY ROME. 259
King, not altogether unsuccessfully, but they did nothing
to uphold the papal Bull.^ The King, through his ambassador,
had sought to induce the Pope to withdraw the Bull.^
Alexander VII., naturally enough, would not hear of this ;
judgment on Guimenius, which he had reserved to himself,
was pronounced when the Index forbade his book.^
The Roman Congregation had long since -paid a great deal
of attention to all works on moral theology, but their criticism
differed fundamentally from that of the Jansenists. No
fault was found with probabilism and a few mistaken solutions
were not deemed a reason for a wholsesale condemnation of
the whole of casuist literature. Thus the year 1603 saw the
condemnation of a small casuistical book by the Jesuit
Emanuel Sa, which gave solutions in alphabetical order of
cases of conscience, without lengthy explanations. The
Congregation ordered a revision of a number of passages,
but in its improved form the book was allowed to be reprinted
nearly thirty times in as many years. ^ Other books fared
in like manner. Bauny's book, so violently attacked by
Pascal in 1656, had already been condemned, and that
unreservedly, in 1640 ; in the same way some objectionable
statements in the work of the Jesuit Amico — another victim
of Pascal — had been dealt with by the Inquisition in 1654.^
Consequently, if their only concern was the purity of moral
teaching, Arnauld and Pascal might well have left the care
of it to the Roman Congregations.
Alexander VII. 's zeal against the exaggerations of moral
theologians yielded in no way to that of his predecessors.
On the occasion of the Dominican General Chapter in 1656,
the Pope informed the Fathers of his weariness of the mass
of new opinions with which men diluted the teaching of the
Gospel and played with the human conscience, to the detriment
* Ibid., 17 seqq.
2 Ibid., 36 seqq.
' April 10, 1666 ; see Reusch, 500.
* Reusch, II., 312.
^ Ibid., 316.
26o HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of the soul. For that reason he desired the Dominican
theologians to compile a work which, basing itself on the
teaching of St. Thomas, would oppose a barrier to the
prevailing licence of manners and opinions.^ The Pope's
wish was destined to have far-reaching consequences : the
whole Order of Friars Preachers forsook probabilism in favour
of probabiliorism ; since that time no Dominican has advocated
the probabilist system. ^ This was carrying obedience too
far because Alexander VII. personally inclined towards
probabilism ^ and in the above-mentioned Bull he had spoken
approvingly of it.^ It is said that he had had in mind a special
Constitution in which he would have laid down the principles
by which cases of conscience were to be solved ; however,
on the advice of Cardinal Pallavicino, he contented himself
with the condemnation, on September 24th, 1665, and March
18th, 1666, of a number of propositions which went too far.
Some of these forty-five condemned propositions fringe on
some of the theses attacked by Pascal ^ others are important
for the dehmitation of probabilism ^ ; the greater part of
the remaining ones refer to the duties of priests, the administra-
tion of the Sacrament of Penance, the recitation of the
Breviary and the celebration of Mass. In the introduction
the decree speaks in severe terms of the ever-growing
" arbitrariness of extravagant minds ". Opinions contrary
to the strictness of Christian discipline and the salvation of
souls were being rescued from oblivion or formulated anew,
in opposition to the simplicity of the Gospel and the teaching
of the Fathers ; if this new way of thinking were adopted
by the faithful as a safe rule, terrible injury would be done
to the Christian life.
1 Vine. Baron, O. P. in Astrain, VI., 146 ; De Blic, 330 :
Dollinger-Reusch, I., 38.
" Mandonnet, in Diet, de iheoL, VI., 919.
* Texillus (in De Blic, 330) speaks of it as a well-known
fact [notorium).
* See p. 258, n. i.
* n. I, 17 seq.
* n. 26, 27.
JESUIT VIEWS. 261
For the rest, previously to this the authorities of the Society
of Jesus had spoken in similar terms. As early as 1617 their
General, Vitelleschi, had protested against the excessive
liberalism of some Jesuits and warned them to stand by such
opinions as were safest and were maintained by the best
theologians. 1 In 1651 Vitelleschi's second successor,
Piccolomini, received complaints against men who inclined
towards excessively liberal views and who promoted new
opinions or revived obsolete ones.^ At the next election of a
General one of the requisite quahties demanded of a candidate
was that he should have the strength to restrain his subjects
from lax opinions.^ The German General, Goswin Nickel,
repeated these warnings in 1654 and again on May 12th,
1657. In the latter document there are unmistakable allusions
to the Provincial Letters. " No accusation," we read, " was
put forward with such an air of triumph by the Jansenists
and other opponents as that we teach lax moral principles.
Hence let no pretext be given to those who are on the lookout
for a pretext ! Our theologians are reproached with attaching
too much weight to subtleties and paying inadequate attention
to piety ; they are said to have drifted far from the well-
known strictness of the first Jesuits ; to have widened the
path of sin and the decline of morals by representing as
probable and lawful much that at one time was thought
unlawful, more especially in questions concerning the duel,
the fifth commandment, calumny, usury, and simony. Many
conscientious persons were afraid of putting themselves under
the guidance of the Jesuits because they preferred wholesome
strictness to perilous mildness " *
The success of the Provincial Letters sufficiently shows
by itself alone that the severity of the Jansenist principles,
excessive though it was, operated in favour of the party.
^ Dollinger-Reusch, I., 32.
* Instit. Soc. lesu., II., Pragae, 1705, 226.
^ " [Ne] laxi adeo sint in opinando circa res morales, cum
harum disciplinarum dedecore, conscientiae at externorum
offensione " (in Astrain, VI., 145).
* Ibid., 146.
262 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Despite Alexander VII. 's personal views, his pontificate
marks the opening of a long-drawn fight against probabilism.
In France, from Pascal's time onwards, public opinion turned
against it and the papal decrees were interpreted not merely
as a condemnation of exaggerations, but as a repudiation of
the moral system that had prevailed until then, and after
Alexander VII., the powerful Dominican Order also opposed
it. It was only with St. Alphonsus Liguori that ideas became
gradually clarified.
(8.)
Archbishop Boonen of Malines who, in consequence of his
preventions in favour of the Jansenists, had created so
many difficulties under Innocent X., died on June 30th,
1655, a few weeks before the elevation of Alexander VII.
His opponent, the internuncio Andrea Mangelli, survived
him but a short time, for he too died on October 31st of that
year.^ The University of Louvain soon took up its old game
under the new Pope also. On xA.ugust 23rd, 1656, the professor
of theology, VanWerm, arranged for a defence of some theses
on grace which were, to say the least, equivocal.^ Alexander
VII. saw himself obhged to complain to the new Governor
of the Netherlands, John of Austria, that, in contravention
of the prohibition of the Holy See, the condemned Jansenist
propositions were still being defended and that to this end
the sense of the condemnation was being distorted.^ Mangclli's
1 Nunciature report of December 18, 1655, "*Excerptaex codice
s. Officii, cuius inscriptio : Acta in Belgio circa Constitutionem
damnantcm quinque propositioncs Tansenii a. 1653-1656 "
(Schill's remain.s).
2 Ibid.
» On December 23, 1656, in Eleurv, LXII., 326. Already in
his *letter of thanks, dated August 21, 1655, for the Faculty's
congratulations on his elevation, Alexander VII. inserts a warning
" ut Apost. Sedis decreta rcvcrenter accipiant ". Epist., a., I,
Papal Sec. Arch.
JANSENISM AT LOUVAIN. 263
successor, internuncio Girolamo de' Vecchi of Siena, Abbot
of S. Maria di Monte Reale, experienced great difficulty in
getting an unequivocal recognition of the Bull of Innocent
X. ; the University sought to save itself by declaring that
it hoped for a new Bull from Alexander VII. which would
give a fuller explanation of the definition of his predecessor.^
A new Bull of Alexander VII. appeared as a matter of fact,
but it was only the well-known decree deciding that the five
propositions were really Jansenius' and that they were
condemned as understood by him. Fresh difficulties arose
at once at Louvain. On April 7th, 1657, the new Bull was read
to the University and unanimously accepted by all the
Faculties, and it was decided to promulgate it solemnly.^
This seemed unequivocal enough, yet intrigues began
immediately. On the plea of making quite sure that at
Louvain nothing was taught in opposition to the papal
definition, and with a view to removing every suspicion,
the theological Faculty, on its part, resolved to present to the
Pope a statement of its constant teaching in regard to the
five propositions and to declare that it would never deviate
from it, and especially that it would not swerve from its
censure of Lessius of the years 1588 and 1613, unless the
Church or the Pope should decide otherwise ; that the aim
of this step was the desire to make sure, by a judgment of
the Holy See, that the University taught the true doctrine.
Internuncio De' Vecchi was not greatly edified by this
exuberant submissiveness. When Sinnich and Pontan, who
were both suspected of Jansenism, brought him the text
of the declaration on April 12th, he observed that either
the Faculty felt hit by the new Bull, in which case the
declaration was a proof of disobedience, or it did not feel
hit, and in that case the declaration was superfluous ; it
^ Rapin, III., 30. *Brief of November 9, 1655, conferring on
De' Vecchi full powers for a judicial procedure and, in fact, the
powers of a nuncio, in the Extracta e codice s. Inquisiiionis con-
tinente Acta, a. 1657, f- 5^9 (Schill remain.s).
2 What follows is based on a report of De' Vecchi, ibid., after
f. -{79.
264 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
should, accordingly, be struck out of the acts whilst thej^
themselves submitted in all simplicity. Thereupon the
Faculty cancelled the declaration but informed the internuncio
that this had been done because the Pope's representative
had reassured the Faculty by guaranteeing that its teaching
would not be touched and that any attack in this respect
would find an opponent in him. However, the purpose of
this information was really too obvious. De' Vecchi received
orders from Rome to inform the Faculty, in presence of a
notary and witnesses, that he had not in any way attested
that the Louvain Doctors agreed with the Bull. The Pope's
will was perfectly clear, hence his decision must be accepted
without reservation or explanation.
De' Vecchi put off the execution of this order until after
the solemn promulgation of the Bull by the University
because, as he explained, in this affair of the Jansenists
the whole country modelled itself on Louvain, hence it was
best not to clash with the promulgation. ^ Only on June
29th did he carry out the Pope's command. ^ The whole
University submitted and only the inner theological Faculty,
consisting of Van Werm, Pontan, Sinnich, Van Vianen and
Laurent, who was absent, refused to withdraw the declaration,
but they were overruled by the remaining divines. ^ The
Rector wrote * that the latest papal definition had met with
unanimous and unconditional submission, and on July 13th
the theological Faculty also announced its assent to the
decision of the rest of the University.^
For all that De' Vecchi did not feci reassured. Past
experience led him to think that the submission of the Faculty
was one of words rather than deeds.® He was obliged to
have the Bull printed a second time for the benefit of the
1 *Letter of June 23, 1657, ^^^^•
2 *De' Vecchi to the University, June 29, 1657, ^b^^-- ^- 488.
3 *Id., July 7, 1657, ibid.
* *Of July I, 1657, ibid.
5 *Ibid., f. 502.
« " *Piu tosto di parole chc di fatti." De' Vecchi, July 21.
1657, ibid.
DOUBTFUL SUBMISSION OF THE UNIVERSITY. 265
Vicariate of Malines because the first impression had been
maliciously tampered with.^ On his part the Rector of
Louvain begged for some copies, on the plea that the
University was too poor to have it printed ; as a matter of
fact the printing cost no more than two scudi whereas the
" poor " University had spent a hundred thousand scudi on
the spread of Jansenism ! The same Rector had described
his opponents as traitors because they corresponded with
the internuncio. 2 The truth was, as De' Vecchi wrote, that
every one of the Jansenistically inclined superiors only
received the Bull with the utmost reluctance.^ Van Werm,
whose theses gave the internuncio occasion for legal
proceedings against him, is described by De' Vecchi as so
hardened in his opinions as to be quite incorrigible, and as
a man who had recourse to the most extravagant expedients
in order to deny that the five propositions stood in Jansenius'
book.* Two delegates who had been sent to Rome to promote
the cause of the University rendered themselves so suspect
in the Eternal City that they were subjected to a domiciliary
visit. ^ Nothing of a nature to incriminate them personally
was discovered, on the other hand a great many letters of
the University were found which clearly established its
Jansenist sentiments.
Like his predecessor MangelH,^ De' Vecchi considered the
1 " *Mentre la prima volta vi havevano usato malitia."
De' Vecchi, June 23, 1657, ibid., f. 431.
2 *Letter of July 7, 1657, ibid.
3 *Non vi e state alcun Superiore adherente al Jansenismo che
non mi sia bisognato tirarlo come la serpente airincanto ad una
piena notificatione et accettatione della bolla." De' Vecchi, June
23, 1657, ibid., f. 431.
* He is " cosi allucinato che sia incorrigibile quanto al intelletto,
e che al piu si possa sperare d'obligarlo col timore a tenere in se
i suoi erroi ". The texts of Jansenius in question he explains,
" sciocchissimamente con sensi diversi dal genuine." Letter of
July 28, 1657, ibid.
* *Report of June 17, 1657, 'ibid., f. 79 scqq. Cf. Rapin, HI., 31.
* Cf. Vol. XXX., p. 333 seqq.
266 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
so-called inner theological Faculty of the Universit}^ as the
chief seat of the evil. This body had become the real parent
of Jansenism because it completed itself by co-optation,
hence always with Jansenists ; accordingly, in his opinion,
this particular Faculty should be utterly done away with.^
Meanwhile the internuncio summoned it to receive the Bull
as the University had done ^ and he likewise asked Rome
to authorize him to regulate the procedure by which the
College kept up its full complement.^ Thereupon a Brief
was sent to the Governor, Archduke John, requesting him
not to admit anyone to a vacant post at the University who
did not profess the orthodox teaching.'*
On January 28th, 1658, the Archduke, by express order
of the King of Spain, addressed a circular to the Bishops ^
to the effect that it was the King's will, as well as his own,
that the papal Bulls concerning the five propositions should
be unequivocally observed and that no one should presume
to call in question the declarations issued regarding them.
The Bishops were to punish any infringement of these decrees
and to report to him from time to time on the subject ; the
help of the secular arm would not fail them.
Meanwhile a fresh dispute had arisen between the secular
and the ecclesiastical authority. On September 6th, IG")?, the
Roman Inquisition condemned a number of Jansenist books
and the Archbishop of MaHnes had the decree promulgated
without asking for the placet of the civil authority. There-
1 " *Tutto il male sta nel coUegio della stretta facolta theologica,
era consistente in sei persona, che bisogneria estirparlo funditus."
June 23 and July 7, 1657, ibid., f. 431.
2 *Letter to Rome, dated July 14, 1657, '^^^•
3 *July 21, ibid.
* *Brief of August 25, 1657, ibid., f. 520. A similar *Brief was
sent to the Archduke on October 13, 1657 : " Let him see to it
that sound professors are appointed at Louvain and that
' janseniani a gradibus et honoribus arceantur '." Epist.,
Alexandri VII., a. III.-V., Papal Sec. Arch.
^ *Excerpta e codice s. Inquisitionis continentc Acta a. 1658
(Schill remains), f. 398.
ENCROACHMENTS BY THE COUNCIL OF BRABANT. 267
upon the Council of Brabant declared the promulgation
null and void/ whilst the Roman Inquisition did the same
for the nullity decree of the Council of Brabant. ^ When
the internuncio brought the affair to the notice of Archduke
John, the latter replied that he must report the matter to
Madrid,^ which was also the conclusion arrived at by a
commission consisting of two Spanish gentlemen, of President
Hovyne and of the Archbishop of Malines, which had studied
the question.'* However, De' Vecchi had the decree of the
Inquisition affixed on the Chancellery of Brabant and
two churches even before the arrival of the King's answer.^
The Council of Brabant accordingly resolved to e.xpostulate
with the internuncio and to report to the Archduke ^ and
at the same time to inform the latter that they were determined
to issue a fresh nullity decree.' However, previously to this
the Governor had forbidden the Council to act in this matter
without him ^ and on July 6th he repeated his prohibition
of any further step, as it was necessary to wait for the King's
decision.^ This came towards the end of the year : it was to
the effect that the decree of the Index prohibiting Jansenist
writings, which had led to the outbreak of the dispute, was
to be promulgated at once.^^
It goes without saying that Rome had not remained silent
in the face of these encroachments by the Council. In a letter
1 *Edict of November 23, 1657, ibid., f. 383.
2 *On March 14, 1658, ibid., f. 389.
^ *De' Vecchi, April 13, 1658, ibid.
* *Id., on May 11, 1658, tbid.
* *On May 13, 1658, id., on May 17, ibid.
« *Ibid., f. 443.
' *May 22, 1658, ibid.
« *De' Vecchi, May 18, 1658, ibid.
9 Ibid., f. 445.
1" *Letter of the Madrid nuncio, November 13, 1658, ibid.,
472. Ibid., 500 scq., two memorials by Rubeis and Laurea showing
that in Belgium the Placet could not be extended to dogmatic
questions.
268 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
to the Archduke ^ the Pope gave expression to his grief at
the Council's recalcitrance against Rome's prohibition of
heretical books. Papal Constitutions and the definitions of
General Councils, the letter said, were not subject to the
placet of the State. Let the Archduke cancel the Council's
prohibition and have it removed from the registers so that
no trace may remain of it : meanwhile the Pope would take
no further steps in the matter.
1 *March 30, 1658, Epist. Alexandri VII., a. III.-V., n. 84.
A * Brief of August 7, 1660, once more expresses the hope that the
University would submit to the measures against the Jansenist
errors, ihid., a. VI. -VIII., Papal Sec. Arch.
CHAPTER VI.
Alexander VII.— A Promoter of Science and Art.
As a young man Fabio Chigi had essayed the poet's craft ^
and a special love of literature accompanied him through
his maturer years. As Ferdinand of Fiirstenberg, subsequently
Bishop of Paderborn, reported in the year 1657, he was in
the habit even as Pope and during the hottest hours of the
day to forgo the customary siesta of the Italians. He invited
instead, as it were in rotation, some of his poetically endowed
friends such as Natale Rondinini, Alessandro Pollini, Agostino
Favoriti and Fiirstenberg himself, and during the midday
meal and afterwards he would discourse with them and
Sforza Pallavicino for a couple of hours on literary and
scientific topics.^ Thus on one occasion, during this time of
recreation, he discussed for a whole hour some verses of
Ovid with Favoriti, Magalotti and the learned Cistercian
Ughelli, and he never appeared more cheerful as when, over
these humanistic and philological trifles, he seemed able to
forget his disputes with Louis XIV. ^ On another occasion,
^ Of him we have Philoniathi Musae inveniles, ed. by Wilhelm
von Fiirstenberg, Cologne, 1645, by Ferdinand von Fiirstenberg
at Antwerp, 1654, ^^d at Amsterdam, 1660 ; edition de luxe,
Paris, 1656 (RiCHTER in Zeitschr. fiir vaterldnd. Gesch. und Alter-
tumskunde Westfalens, LVI, 42). Cf. in Chigi Arch., Rome, the
codex Scritti di vari soggetii with autographs of Alexander VII.,
a poem Iter Aquisgrano Romani, 1651, a Discorso sopra I'erario
del Papa, sketches for consistorial and other addresses, and a dis-
sertation : Che cosa sia piu riguardevole net cavaliere, il valor 0
la prudenza.
2 Ferd. von Fiirstenberg to Francis van der Veken, June 23.
1657, i'^ RiCHTER, loc. cit., 43.
* Ferd. Raggi in Neri, in Riv. Europ., 1878, V., 662.
269
270 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
when conversing with the learned Athanasius Kircher, he
put to him a question of an archaeological kind which prompted
the latter to write a formal dissertation for the Pope's benefit.^
Writing of his stay in Rome between 1652-61, Ferdinand of
Fiirstenberg says that he still cherished the most delightful
memories of that golden age when " under the government
of Alexander VII., the sciences and the fine arts reached
their highest efflorescence and men of learning vied with
one another in exalting, in their writings, the Pope's
munificence ".^ Cardinal Chigi also had an Academy in his
" Vigna ".3
In point of fact Alexander VII. only felt really happy
among scholars and humanists and he favoured them in
every way. Among the letters of Janus Nicius Erj'thraeus
there are many addressed to " his beloved friend " Tirreno,
who was no other than Fabio Chigi ■* ; it was this " beloved
friend " who made possible the publication of Erythraeus'
Pinacotheca.^ During the time of his nunciature in Cologne,
Chigi extended his patronage in a particular manner to the
Jesuit Van der Veken, a professor of theology in that city
and the author of a learned theological work.^ He kept up a
1 " *ii p_ Atanasio Kircher fra otto giorni trasmettera a piedi
di V. S. un intiero opuscule sopra i dubbii da lei mossigli intorno
alle figure de' numeri. Serviranno i foglii del padre per materia
de' quegli innocenti et cruditi trattenimenti che a. V. B^e sono
il divertimento della Villa et ad ogni altro sovrano anche pontifice
sarebbero paruti occupationi stentate e soggetti da porsi tra le
cure piu gravi." Oliva to Alexander VII., April 20, 1662, Chig. C.
HI.. 63.
2 Autobiography, in Richter, lac. cit., 44.
' Accademia delli sfaccendati ; its secretary, about 1655, was
Benedetto de Rubeis, a former internuncio at Vienna (information
supplied by Canon Luigi Delbello, from the Archives at Monte-
giorgio [Ascoli].
* L. Cerboni, Un imianista nel sccento : Giano Nicio Eritreo,
Citta di Castello, 1907, 2 ; cf. 36 seq., 77 seq., 105.
* Ibid., 75.
* HuRTER, N omenclator , III., 49. Van der Veken 's *Epistolae
Latinae ad Alexandruni VII., 1642-1663, 2 vols., Bibl. Chigi,
A PATRON OF SCHOLARS. 27I
correspondence with Veken and eventually called him to
Rome. He likewise gave proof of his gratitude to his teacher,
the celebrated canonist Clement Merlin to whom he set up
a monument at St. Mary Major. ^ If he thus honoured the
exponents of scholastic theology and Canon Law, his stay
in the North had likewise convinced him that the new age
could not afford to neglect the study of Church history and
archaeology. During his nunciature at Cologne Fabio Chigi
corresponded with the archaeologist and historican Erycius
Puteanus (Hendrick van Putte).^ At this time too he gave
assistance to the Bollandists, encouraged them by letter to
continue their great" work and as Pope inquired about its
progress. At his invitation Henschcn and Papebroch came
to Rome in December 1660, when Alexander VII. furthered
their labours in every way.^ Thus, notwithstanding his
predilection for humanism, the Pope had realized that the
important element in the writing of history is not the rhetorical
effect but the presentment of truth. Hence he encouraged
writers who were no humanists but research workers. On
January 15th, 1661, the learned Greek Leo Allatius was able
to announce to a friend that he had been named guardian
of the Vatican Library.'* The author of the voluminous
history of the Italian dioceses,^ the Cistercian Ughelli {ob.
1670), was one of the more intimate friends of the Pope to
whom he was permitted to dedicate his sixth volume. Ughelli
would have been raised to the episcopate had not the modest
scholar declined the honour. The Jesuit Athanasius Kircher,
a. II., 32 seq. Ibid., F., IV., 98-99. Van der Veken's *Ephemerides
sanctorum, 1643-1659, with dedication to Alexander VII.
^ Posse, Sacchi, 128 seq. A poem of Alexander VII. to Merlins
in Musae iuveniles, n. 4.
2 Five *letters of Chigi to Puteanus, 1643 and 1644, in Barb.
2575, Vat. Lib.
^ Acta Sanctorum, February, Vol. I., in the dedication to
Alexander VII. ; see Pelster in Stimmen der Zeit., Ic (1920), 536.
^ *Cod. Barb., XLV., 18, p. 275, Vat. Lib.
^ Italia sacra, Rome, 1644-1662 ; Freib. Kirchenlex, XIP.,
183 seq.
272 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
who was held in great repute in his time and who attempted
to decipher the hieroglyphs of the Roman obelisks, received
from the Pope financial help to enable him to publish the
result of his studies which, however, could not then yield a
useful result. For the costly printing of Kircher's Egyptian
Oedipus, Hebrew, Chaldaic, Arabic, Coptic and Samaritan
type had to be specially cast.^ Alexander VII. likewise took
an interest in the rising natural and technical sciences. The
famous astronomer Cassini was summoned to Rome as the
Pope desired to have his opinion on various questions,^ and
a Dutch expert was asked for his advice on the oft-attempted
draining of the Pontine Marshes. ^ His friend, Sforza Pallavicino,
the historian of the Council of Trent and an acknowledged
master of the Italian tongue, he honoured by calling him
into the Church's Supreme Senate.*
How greatly he had at heart the advance of knowledge
Alexander showed by his solicitude for the Roman University,
the so-called Sapienza, the building of which was completed
by him. For over a century and a half work on a worthy
seat for the Roman University had been in progress, but the
execution of the plan advanced only by very slow degrees.
1 Kircher's Autobiography, translated by N. Seng, Fulda,
1901, ch. 7. Appreciation of Kircher in Duhr, Gesch., III.,
592 seqq. ; Noack, Deittschtum, I., 189 seq.
2 Renazzi, III., 139. An unfriendly attitude on the part of
the Pope towards astronomy might be deducted from a remark
of F. X. Kraus ; following H. Reusch, (Bonner Theol. Litcra-
turblatt, 1870, 813 ; cf. 1867, 752 seqq., he notes in his Synchron-
istische Tabellen zur Kirchengeschichte (Treves, 1894, 142) for
the year 1664 : " Alexander VII. condemned the Copernican
system as false in a Bull." However there exists no formal
Bull against Copernicus. All that Alexander VII. did was to
confirm by a Bull the previous decrees of the Index, hence also
that against Copernicus, but this confirmation gave the decrees
of the Index no higher authority than that which they enjoyed
as decrees of the Index. Cf. Hist.-polit. Blatter, CIL, 345.
' See p. 31.
* See p. 130.
THE SAPIENZA. 273
Alexander VII. may well claim that he was the first to take
energetic steps in this matter and to have carried the work
to its consummation. He assigned to the Rector, Emmanuele
Vizzani, the sum of 10,000 scudi to defray current expenditure
on the new structure.^ The existing building was promptly
completed and a new wing added ^ ; the only thing still
lacking was a suitable room for the accommodation of the
students between lectures. For this purpose Alexander VII.
provided a large hall and he also remedied the want of a
large library. In the small town of Urbania the Minor Clerics
Regular had inherited from the last Duke of Urbino a collection
of books which they could not use. After indemnifying the
town and the community the Pope had the books transported
to Rome by Faustus Naironus, thus providing professors and
students with a library which he further enriched by the
addition, in particular, of the valuable books collected by
the Benedictine Abbot Constantine Gaetano for the use of the
Benedictine hostel.^ A bronze bust of the Pope by Guidi in
^ Chirografo of April 7, 1659, in Renazzi, III., 254.
* Ibid., 153, Archigymnasii Ronianae Sapientiae ab Alexandra
VII. P. M. perfecti, lustrati, consecrati postridie idus novemhres
descriptio, Romae, 1661 ; Keyssler, II., 17, 32 ; Moroni,
LXXXV., 41 seqq. ; Ameyden, De pietate Romana, 108 seq. ;
L'Universite de Rome, Rome, 1927. Various ^documents :
Sapienza e sua fabrica, in Chigi Library, H., III., 62 ; also p. 15 ;
ceremonial for Alexander VII. 's visit on November 7, 1660 ;
pp. 16-18 : number of professors from 1539-1658 (highest number
in 1549 is 40, lowest in 1552, 19) ; p. 25, 36, 40 ; list of professors
1 658-1 660 ; p. 43 : plans for reform, p. 57 ; " Alia lettura delle
controversie dogmatiche concorrono P. Macedo, Osservante,
P. Bonaventura Bontempi min. convent., P. Peri min. convent " ;
p. 64 : " Concorrenti per la catedra di matematica " ; p. 144 :
Fabrica e diversi conti, p. 175 : " Costruzione della nuova chiesa
per Alessandro VII " ; p. 186 : " Giardino a S. Pietro Montorio."
* Renazzi, III., 156 (c/. 135) ; Lettere di M. Ginstiniani,
Roma, 1675, 134 seq. Bull for erection of the library and the
appointment of the librarian and two keepers in Carafa,
De gymnasia Ramano, Romae, 1751, 600-607 ; Narducci,
Catalagiis Bibliothecae Alexandrinae, Romae, 1872, 36-41.
VOL. XXXI. T
274 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
this so-called Biblioteca Alessandrina, together with an
appropriate inscription, ^ perpetuated the memory of this
fresh service to knowledge which Alexander VII. further
enhanced by the restoration of a botanical garden which had
been laid out in the 16th century but had become a complete
wilderness with the lapse of time.^ The internal development
of the University was ensured b}' the foundation of six new
chairs ; four of which were devoted to the law. In all
probability they must be considered as a renewal of an older
foundation. A fifth chair was devoted to controversial
theology and a sixth to the teaching of Church history ;
the latter was an entirely new creation of far-seeing
Alexander VII.^ On September 29th, 1659, the Pope inspected
everything and on November 16th, 1660, the University church
of St. Yves, the work of Borromini,'* was solemnly consecrated
by Lorenzo Gavotti, Bishop of Savona. On the following
day the Pope personally inaugurated the new University.
Of the professors who delivered speeches on this occasion,
two bear well known names, viz. the professors of Syrian
and Arabic Abraham Ecchelensis and Ludivico Maracci.^
Besides the Libreria Alessandrina another and much
more important collection was taken to Rome in 1657 and
incorporated in the Vatican a by order of Alexander VII.,
namely the library of the Dukes of Urbino whose heirs in
law the Popes now were. At all events, treasures of this kind
were far safer in Rome and more readily accessible to scholars.
The library was valued at 7,400 scudi but the Pope paid the
city of Urbino the sum of 10,000 scudi by way of compensa-
tion.^
In those days it was not very difficult to collect valuable
1 Renazzi, III.. 255. 2 Ibid., 158.
' Ibid., 159 ; cf. 179 seq.
* See below, p. 307.
* Renazzi, III., 166 seq.
* A. Valenti, Sul irasferimefito della Biblioteca ducale di
Urbino a Roma, Urbino, 1878 (Defence of the Pope against the
criticism of Riv. Europ., of October i, 1877) ; F. Raffaelli,
La tsuparziale e veritiera istoria della utiione della Bibl. diicale
LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES. 275
manuscripts ; their owners no longer attached the same
importance to their possession since the same text could
be had in printed books, and much more legibly. Alexander
VII., who could appreciate the value of this heritage of
bygone days, was a keen collector of manuscripts. As a young
man, in his native Siena, he had examined all the literary
remains of the Sienese Popes Pius II. and III., and what
was most valuable he had added to his own library.^ His
travels in France and Germany enabled him to acquire many
more such treasures ; to them were added manuscripts from
Itahan monasteries ; in this way the Biblioteca Chigi, one
of Rome's most valuable libraries, was built up.^
Alexander VII. rendered yet another important service to
the historical studies of future ages. Until his time it had
been taken for granted that on relinquishing office the
Secretary of State kept as his own property the reports of j
the nuncios^and other official documents, leaving them to
his family by will. During his term of office as Secretary
of State, Alexander VII. had collected documents of this
kind for the Holy See, and as Pope he established special
archives for them, viz. the " Archives of the Secretariate
of State " ; he also created special archives for the Acts
of the Roman Congregations, which until then had been
preserved by the secretaries at their private lodgings.^
d'Urbino alia Vaticana di Roma, Fermo, 1877 ; Fraschetti in
Fanfulle della Donienica of May 29, 1907 ; cf. on the library
Giornale stor. di letteratura ital, XLIX., 467 ; Stornajoli,
Codices Urbinatenses graeci, Romae, 1895.
^ CuGNONi in Accademia dei Lincei, Memorie della classe di
scienze morali, etc., VIII. (1882 seq.), 319-686 seq.
- J. GiORGi, ibid., Rendiconti, XXVII. (April 21, 1918),
151 seqq. ; Mabillon, Iter Italicum, 91 ; Gachard, La biblio-
theque des princes Chigi a Rome, in Compte rendu des seances de
la Commission Royale d'hist., 3 series, X., Bruxelles, 1869, 219
seqq. ; A. Munoz in the periodical //Mayzowo, January 28, 191 7.
' G. jMarini, Memorie istoriche, 31 ; Laemmer, Alon. Vatic,
451 ; Taja, 483 ; Nouaes, X., 174 seq. Cf. the draft of an
inscription (in I. B. Pitra, Analecta novissima, I., Paris, 1885,
276 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The example of the occupant of the ApostoUc See as a
patron of scholarship could not fail to have a beneficial and
encouraging effect on the pursuit of knowledge in the Eternal
City. It became now the fashion for Roman prelates to
take up collecting ancient manuscripts.^ Ughelli's Italia
sacra was written prior to a work of the same kind by the
French Maurists, viz. Gallia Christiana, and if France can
claim the honour of having created the first literary periodical
with Le Journal dcs Savants, Rome could soon boast a similar
organ with the Giornale de' Letterati,^ the first of its kind
on the Apennine Peninsula. The famous Kircher Museum
also dates from the reign of Alexander VII. Alfonso Donnino,
a native of Tuscany but living in Rome in the capacity of
" Secretary of the Roman People ", had got together a
collection of curious and rare objects of every kind which
he left to the Roman College. Athanasius Kircher was
appointed guardian of the collection which, in the sequel,
was still further enriched until its dissolution in 1913, when
its contents were distributed to other museums.^
158) : " Alexander VII. Pont. Max. sacri scrinii Palatini de
gravissimis rei christianae negotiis epistolas, mandata, responsa,
aliaque scripturarum monumenta quotquot reperiri potuerunt
novo hoc tabulario recondi et ad sedis apostolicae usum
posteritatisque memoriam adservari voluit, an. Chr. 1656
Pont. II." But the following inscription was eventually
put up : " Alexander VII. P. M. | Variarum congregationum |
de rebus ecclesiasticis | archiva | incertis antea locis dispersa |
ad maiorem Sedis Ap. | securitatem dignitatemque | in
Vaticanum | cubiculis, armariis foculisque | notis ad earn rem
ex.structis | adunanda transtulit | a.d. 1658, A. P., IV."
^ Ora che il genio del papa e fatto pubblico, tutti i prclati
fanno alle pugna per buscar manoscritti (Lorenzo Magalotti in
GiORGi, loc. cit., XXVII., 152).
^ Since 1663. Renazzi, III., 151.
^ E. RiNALDi, La fondazione del Collegia Romano, Roma,
1914, 121 ; Ph. BoNANNi, Mtisaeum Kircherianiim s. musaeum
a. P. Ath. Kirchero iani pridem incoeptum, miper restitutum,
Romae, 1709 ; Mau, Kaialog der Bibliothek des Deutschen Instituts,
I, 1250; Kunstchronik, XXV. (1914), 411.
POEMS ADDRESSED TO THE POPE. 277
The natural consequence of the Pope's patronage was that
he was sung by the poets and a number of poems and scientific
works were dedicated to him.^
^ Among the poets who may be mentioned here the out-
standing one is Jakob Balde who in 1663 dedicated to the Pope
his Urania victrix. Among the scientific works dedicated to
Alexander VII. are the ist vol. of February of the Bollandists
and the 6th vol. of Ughelli's Italia sacra. The following also
are of some interest : Fam. Nardini, Roma antica, Roma, 1666,
and Rossi, Teatro di Roma ; also Musarum plausus Alexandro
VII. P. M. reniintiato (by Pollini), Romae, 1656 ; B. Virgilio,
Rime per la felice dimora di Alexandro VII. in Castel Gandolfo,
Roma, 1662 ; Ascanius de Silvestris, *Romuleus sol s. de
Alexandro VII. P. M. carmen [Cod., D. III., 34, Bibl. Chigi) ;
TiBALDUTius Solindrius Romanus, *Alexandro VII. carmina
(ibid., D. II., 30) ; Lod. Tingoli, *Per clemenza insigne del glorioso
Pontefice Alessandro VII. Ode {ibid., D III., 33) ; Sigisbertus
Pleniplanus, De solis actione. L'oro nascente, idillio musicale
del fabro imperfecto al Pp. Alessandro VII. et alia Reina di
Suetia {Reg. 2021, p. 156, Vat. Lib.). A volume of Latin poems
to Alexander VII. is also found in the Costaguti Archives Rome.
DoM. JovACCi, *Notizie di Castel Gandolfo, di Albano, delta
Riccia, di Genzano e di Nemi, dedicate ad Alessandro VII. (edited
by the Ottoboniana, in Cancellieri, Tarantismo, 100). A *poem
by Reyer, Votum Alexandri VII. for peace, which must proceed
from Rome, against Louis XIV., 1660
Da, Pater omnipotens, ut sancta Ecclesia mater,
Praevaleat,
Extollat generosa caput Stygioque tyranno
in Vat. 6910, p. 339, Vat. Lib. {cf. Orbaan, Bescheiden, I.,
57) ; Anniano Silvestro (Carmelite), *Breve relazione dell'
imperio Turchesco di Levante, 1664 (for Alexander VI I.) ,
Cod. G. IV., 103, Bibl. Chigi ; Octavi Worst (Capuchin)
* Apologia sacra of the primacy and infallibility of the Pope (to
Alexander VII.), Cod. Barb., XX., 7, Vat. Lib., and Bibl. delta
fraternita di S. Maria at Arezzo, Cod. 270 ; Laurentius Pizzatus
DE PoNTiREMOLO, *Totius urbis et orbis in niultis rudis reformatio
propter boniim publicum ad Alexandrum VII., 1659 {Reg., 1507)
and (in Italian), 1925 ; Cod. Barb. XXXIL, 262, and LIX., 20,
Vat. Lib.
278 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
(2.)
Alexander VII. 's pontificate, fruitful and important as it
was for literature, was incomparably more so for the arts.
Immediately after his elevation he made up his mind to
take up once more in good earnest the Pope's traditional
patronage of the arts. This aim he was destined to realize
all the more brilUantly as a great number of artists were
available, among them Bernini who had enjoyed his favour
whilst Alexander was only a Cardinal and whom he appreciated
even more than Urban VIII. had done. The sun had not
yet set on the day of Alexander VII. 's election, so Baldinucci
relates, when he sent for the master and with expressions
of the utmost goodwill requested his co-operation in the
vast plans he meditated, more especially for St. Peters'.^
Thus there opened before Bernini, then nearing his sixtieth
year, a new and most fruitful period of work to which belong
several of his most brilliant creations.
As early as 1626 Fabio Chigi had interested himself in the
restoration of the magnificent chapel erected by Antonio
Chigi, one of his ancestors, in S. Maria del Popolo.^ When
he became a Cardinal in 1652, and took up permanent residence
in Rome, he had the work taken up anew by Bernini. ^ and
what he had begun as a Cardinal he completed as Pope.
He came repeatedly to see how the work progressed ^ and
1 Baldinucci, edit. Riegl, 168.
* CuGNONi, in Arch. d. Soc. Rom., IV., 58 seqq. ; L. Ozzola,
ibid., XXL, 22 seq. A *letter to Fabio Chigi, dated November 8,
1625, says of the chapel del Popolo that " e veramente un poco
mal tenuta da questi padri, poiche la polvere che non si e in
piccola quantita, non lassa godere le bellissime pitture che vi
sono ". Chig. A. III., 64, Vat. Lib.
' CuGNONi, loc. cit., 72 seq.
* *Avviso of March 4, 1656 : on Sunday the Pope held a visita-
tion of St. Mary Major and went to S. Maria del Popolo, " che
S. Beatitudine fa tuttavia restaurare et abellire a proprie spese "
(Papal Sec. Arch.). An *Avviso of February 10. 1657 (ibid.),
speaks of a papal visit on Thursday and another of March 3 of
S. MARIA DEL POPOLO. 279
as a result of his insistence on speed, everything was completed
by the middle of 1657.^ The chapel was finished off with a
balustrade, the marble floor was repaired, the lunettes were
adorned with the paintings of the Sienese Raffaele Vanni ^
and the pyramid-shaped sepulchral monuments of Agostino
and Sigismondo Chigi were restored.^ The chief ornament,
however, consisted of two new magnificent works of sculpture
for the execution of which Alexander VII. had at first thought
of giving scope to the rivalry between Bernini and Algardi ■* ;
in the end, however, he decided to give the whole commission
to Bernini. By way of contrast to Lorenzetto's " Jonas
and Elias ", Bernini created the figures of two other prophets
of Christ's resurrection, viz. Habacuc, with an Angel at his
side, " rising inspired as from a dream," and Daniel, an
admirable youth behind whom is seen a lion ; kneeling with
hands folded and expectant eyes raised to heaven, he invokes
the help of God.^
After restoring the Chigi chapel, Alexander VII. did the
the same year mentions a visit on Wednesday to S. Maria del
Popolo. It adds that the new building "si va perfettionando ;
che a spese della S.S. si va con celerita terminando ".
^ See besides the letter of Francesco Gualengo of July 31,
1659, referred to by Fraschetti (280, n. i) the *Avviso of
September 7, 1657 (Papal Sec. Arch.) : the church " e fatta
bellissima di ornamento e doi organi che fanno una bellissima
vista ".
2 *Order for the payment of 300 scudi for Raffaele Vanni
" per haver fatto diverse pitture nella chiesa del Popolo " in
Cod. H. II., 40, Bibl. Chigi, Rome.
^ Gnoli shows in Arch. stor. deW arte, II. (1889), 322 seqq.,
that the monuments were only restored and slightly altered in
1652, but not newly erected, a fact overlooked by Bohn (39).
Payments for two bronze chandeliers given by Alexander VII.,
by Bertolotti, Art., Bolognesi, 196.
^ See Alexander VII. 's *autograph letter to L. Holstenius in
Cod. C. III., 62, of the Chigi Library about an inscription which
it was proposed to put up in the chapel.
•^ See the excellent appreciation of these statues by Benkard
(27 seq. ; reproductions 46 and 47) ; see also Reymond, 124 seq.
28o HISTORY OF THE POPES.
same for the whole church.^ Bernini adapted the quattrocento
structure to the taste of his period and gave it that character
of joyous freedom which distinguishes it even at this day.^
Typical children of the inexhaustible fancy of the master
are the many figures of angels on the arches and vaults of
the central aisle, at the entrance to the chancel and on the
organ where the Chigi coat of arms proclaims the name of
the man who ordered the restoration.^ These stucco
decorations ^ as well as the magnificent statues of angels
by the side of the two altars of the transept, were executed
to the design of Bernini by his pupils, among whom the
Lombard Antonio Raggi distinguished himself by his great
technical skill and a nice sense of the intentions of the master.^
Raggi also carved a marble statue of Alexander VII. for
the Cathedral of Siena, the Pope's native city, after a design
by Bernini. Siena likewise possessed the family chapel of the
Chigi, constructed of purest marble and richly adorned with
gold and lapis lazuli. Alexander VII. put up within its
walls two impressive marble statues, viz. of St. Jerome and
St. Magdalen, both Bernini's own work."^
1 Alveri, Roma, II., ii; Forcella, I., 387; Colanbuoni,
S. Maria del Popolo, 182. In March 1658, Alexander inspected
the work in company with Bernini ; Fraschetti, 283, n. i.
* BoHN, 89 ; cf. also Reymond's appreciation.
3 He also put up the Chigi arms on the apex of the central
gable of the fa9ade. On the alteration of the fa9ade, see
Reymond, 122 scq.
* Ferrari, Lo stucco ncW arte italiana barocca, 97 seqq.
* TiTi, 389, 390 seq. ; Dvorak in Der Palazzo di Venezia, 71.
Reproductions of the Angels on the altars of the transept in
Ricci, Baukiinst, 85 ; ibid., 95, the organ loft with the coat of
arms of Alexander VII. (1658) ; tbid., 84, the high altar, also
designed by Bernini.
« Fraschetti, 285 seq., where there is a good illustration of
the statue of Alexander VII. Cf. Reymond, 126 seq. ; Bexkard
29 seq., illustr. 48 and 49. Alexander VII. gave the precious altar
furniture for the chapel founded in 1661. These objects called
forth universal admiration at the Mostra d'artc of Siena, 1904.
They are Roman work, finest polished rock crystal, very rich
BERNINI. 281
However, Bernini was employed by his exalted patron not
only as a sculptor, but likewise as an architect. In that
capacity also he gave proof of his greatness, especially in his
churches, for which he created a new ornamental style, such
as suited the altered character of the time.^ Besides the arsenal
at Civitavecchia ^ and the beautiful water reservoir of the
Acqua Acetosa,^ he enlarged the Quirinal * and the hospital
of S. Spirito.^ In 1665,^ by command of Cardinal Flavio
Chigi, he completed in such splendid fashion the monumental
Chigi Palace [now Odescalchi], opposite SS. Apostoli, the
erection of which had been begun by Carlo Maderna, that
with its fagade he may be said to have fixed the canon of
the palace style for the ensuing period.'
By order of Alexander VII., Bernini added to the papal
summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, the facade and the
gallery from which one has a view of the sea.^ In 1661 the
work in gold with intaglios of email translucide recalling the best
work of the Cinquecento [cf. L. v. Burkel in Allg. Zeitung, 1904,
suppl. 131). At the above-mentioned exhibition one also admired
the Golden Rose bestowed on the Duomo of Siena by Alexander
VII. NovAES (X., Alessandro VII., n. 79 seqq.) recounts all that
the Pope did for the churches of Siena.
1 Reymond, 127 seq.
2 Thieme, III., 465.
^ According to an inscription of 1661 {cf. Fraschetti, 299),
but not completed then for in an *Avviso of March 11, 1662
(Papal Sec. Arch.), we read that on Monday the Pope inspected
the " nuova fabrica " at " Acqua acetosa che S. S'^ fa fare ".
The inscriptions are mostly somewhat antedated.
* 1656 ; see Fraschetti, 299.
* Inscription of 1664 ; Fraschetti, 297 seq.
* Ibid., 298 ; HiJBNER, II., 407.
^ Opinion of Bohn (90). Cf. Fraschetti, 298 seq. ; Briggs,
36 seq. ; Reymond, 140. After Cardinal Flavio's death the palace
was let in 1694 ^^d in 1745 it became the property of the
Odescalchi ; see Ashby in Papers of the British School at Rome,
VIII. and IX.
^ Alexander \'ll.'s inscription of 1660 on the fa9ade of the
palace in Guidi, Colli Albani, 61. Cf. also Gurlitt, 416 ;
282 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Pope instructed Bernini to erect a church in honour of
St. Thomas of Villanova, not far from the palace,^ for which
the artist chose the form of a Greek cross. Besides this building
of extraordinarily harmonious proportions both within and
without,- and which Alexander VII. consecrated in person
in Ma}^ 1661, ^ Bernini erected between 1664-1665 at Ariccia,
the church S. Maria Miracolosa opposite the Chigi Palace.^
This edifice is a plain rotunda preceded by an arcaded porch
flanked on either side by porticos. Like the exterior, the
interior of the church is quite plain, only the entablature
supporting the dome is charmingly enhvened by a wreath of
angels holding garlands in their hands. ^
Bernini furnished yet another proof of the richness of his
imagination when Alexander VII. commissioned him to erect
the small obelisk found in the garden of the convent of
S. Maria sopra Minerva in 1665. The Chigi library still has in
its possession the seven sketches drawn by Bernini for the
purpose : some of them are so bold that it would hardly
Fraschetti, 292 ; Cancellieri, Tarantismo, 115 seqq., 177 seq.
Fea (Vanetd di notizie sopra Castel Gandolfo, Roma, 1820,
37 seq.) gives the Descrizione dell' acqua e scandaglio della spesa che
si stima anderebbe a condurla in Castel Gandolfo, from Bibl. Chigi,
H. II., 42. The Chigi arms are also seen on the garden gate.
1 Inscription of 1661 in Guidi, loo. cit., 63.
* Reymond (134) has particular praise for the cupola.
ScHRADER [Campagna, 175) describes the high altar, by Pietro
da Cortona, as a masterpiece ; reproduction in Ricci, 87.
' See * A wise of May 21, 1661, Papal Sec. Arch.
* GuiDO, 84 seq. ; illustration of cupola in Ricci, 72 ; an
*Avviso of May 16, 1665 [loc. cit.), states that on Sunday the
Pope said the first Mass at Ariccia.
* GuRLiTT, 414 ; BoHN, 91 ; Reymoxd, 134 5c^. ; Tomassetti,
II., 245 seq., and especially the rare work by E. Lucidi : Mem.
star, del municipio Ariccia, Roma, 1796, where on p. 336 seqq.
there are the fullest details on the erection of the church, and
p. 295 seq. on the Pope's solicitude for Ariccia. Ibid., 452, the
deed of the purchase, in 1661, of the palace of the SavelU by
Mario, Flavio and Agostino Chigi.
PIETRO DA CORTONA. 283
have been possible to carry them out.^ Prompted by an
illustration in the Hypnerotomachia PoUphili of the Dominican
Francesco Colonna, published at Venice in 1499, Alexander VII.
finally decided that an elephant should carry the obelisk
on his back. 2 The monument was begun in April 1666, and
completed in February of the following year ^ ; it was
Bernini's last work for Alexander VII.
Besides Bernini, the Chigi Pope also gave a great many
commissions to that other great exponent of baroque art in
Rome, Pietro da Cortona. In 1655 he charged this highly
gifted artist with the direction of the frescoes with which
it was intended to decorate the gallery of the Ouirinal palace.
In 1656, Cortona executed several pictures for the Pope,
who created him a knight.'* This honour was Cortona's reward
for the splendid way in which he had carried out another
commission of the Pope. As at S. Maria del Popolo, the
question was the restoration of a building of Sixtus IV.,
S. Maria della Pace, that is the church in which Agostini Chigi
had founded the chapel which became famous by reason of
Raphaels' " Sibyls ". Alexander VII. had had it repaired
and decorated already in 1627.^ As the many Chigi emblems
show even at this day, a complete restoration of the interior
of the church was now undertaken and a new floor laid down.®
^ See reproductions in Fraschetti, 300 seq. ; Gnoli, Disegni
del Bernini per I'obelisco della Minerva, in Arch. stor. deW arte,
1888 ; Keyssler, I., 724.
* The copy of the Hypenerotomachia in the Chigi Library
shows many marginal notes by Alexander VII. Bernini's model
of the elephant with the obelisk is in the Galleria Barberina in
Rome. Cf. Giehlow, Hieroglyphenkimst, in Jahr. der k.k.
Sammhmgen, XXXII. (1915), 15.
' See Cervini's diary in Fraschetti, 306. Cf. the *Avviso of
March, 1667, loc. cit.
* See PoLLAK in Thieme, VII., 492, and Kunstchrontk, new
series, XXIII. (1911-12), 565 seq.
* CuGNOXi, in Arch. Rom., IV., 57 seq., 60 seq., 72 seq. ; cf.
MuNUZ, Cortona, 12.
* Cf. C. Fea, Promemoria per la chiesa di S. Maria della Pace,
284 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Like most of the other chapels, the Chigi chapel was given a
marble balustrade and the niches received statues of the
Sienese Saints, Catherine and Bernardine, the latter by
Ercole Ferrata and the former by Cosimo Fancelli. These two
artists shared between them the execution of the piitti on
either side of the chapel. The bronze relief on the altar repre-
senting Christ being taken down from the cross is by Cosimo
Fancelh.i For the wide spaces of the cupola above the chapels,
where one already beheld Peruzzi's celebrated " Mary in the
temple ", the Pope ordered large paintings, among them a
crowded picture by Carlo Maratta representing Mary's visit
to Elizabeth. 2 The Pope, who inspected the work twice in
1657,^ was even more pleased with Pietro da Cortona's
masterpiece in front of the plain, but shghtly modified fagade ^
of S. Maria della Pace, where he erected on the ground floor
a semi-circular portico formed by eight coupled Tuscan
columns, " a charming motif, the value of which is further
enhanced by the supreme dehcacy of its execution." The
upper storey of the facade is also designed with equal simplicity
and beauty.^ It is matter for surprise that the master should
Roma, 17, 9 seq. The expenditure between 1 656-1 661 amounted
to 51,583 scudi {ihid., 12). Cf. *Avviso of December 23, 1656
{loc. cit.) : Yesterday the Pope came into Pace " a dare una vista
a quella nuova fabrica che si va terminando a spesa della S.S."
1 TiTi, 414 ; Thieme, XI., 242, 465.
2 Fea, loc. cit., 9; Bellori, III. (Pisa, 1821), 147; Voss,
Barock malerei, 602. C. Maratta painted a " Visitation of Mary "
and a " Flight to Egypt " for the Chigi chapel in the Duomo of
Siena; see Bellori, III., 149; ibid., for further commissions
for Maretta.
' See *Avviso of September i and November 10, 1657, Papal
Sec. Arch.
* The entrance door, with the arms of Sistus IV. and the
inscription : " Templum pacis Virgini dedicatum per Sixtum
PP. IV.," was given another cornice. The arms of Sixtus on
the gable of the facade was also retained.
5 GuRLiTT, 376 ; Brinckmann, Platz und Monument, 78 ;
MuscHixi, in L'Artc, 1921, 192 seq.
PIETRO DA CORTONA. 285
have succeeded in the short time between 165G and 1658/
in carrying through this important architectural undertaking
whilst at the same time he also laid out the piazza in front of
it.^ Here also he revealed all his skill, for the problem was not
merely to widen the piazza but to give it a harmonious appear-
ance. The task was a difficult one because two streets termi-
nated to the right and the left of the church, and houses of the
most varied styles rose near by. Pietro da Cortona regulated
the two sides of the piazza by means of a double-storied row of
pilasters bearing on the side facing the Anima the medallion
portrait of Sixtus IV., and on the other that of Alexander VII. ^
" The piazza gives the impression of a quadrilateral ; only
by degrees does the eye notice the splendidly calculated
relations between the church, the walls of the piazza and the
piazza itself." * The great importance the Pope attached to
these creations appears from the fact that he threatened
the severest penalties for any alteration.^
All these undertakings sink into the background by
comparison with the stupendous work at St. Peter's which.
^ The two inscriptions are correctly given by Fea, id.
CiACONius, IV., 724, wrongly gives the date of 1657 instead of
1658. The inscription : " Alexandro VII. quod votis," etc.,
which Fea places within is now outside, facing the Anima ; the
second : " Virgin! pacis," etc., is within, above the entrance.
According to the *Avviso of October 4, 1659, on the Pope's visit,
operations on S. Maria della Pace were " quasi finita " (Papal
Sec. Arch.). Cf. Forcella, V., 506 ; Martinelli, Roma ricercata
(1660), 73 ; BoNANNi, Niimistnata (1699), 644.
2 Cf. the Chirografo of July 4, 1657, on the purchase of houses
in Fea, 36 seq., and Schmidlin, 463.
' The inscriptions beneath the medalhons, the best of which,
so far as I know, has not yet been published, are as follows :
for Sixtus IV. : " Erit opus institiae pax et cultus institiae
silentium securitas usque in sempiterum " ; for Alexander VII. :
" Orietur in diebus nostris iustitia et abundantia pacis, donee
auferatur luna."
* Brinxkmann, loc. cit., 78 seq.
^ See the text of the prohibition in Fe.\, 22.
286 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
under Alexander VII., became once more the centre of artistic
activity. The reorganization by the Chigi Pope of the Con-
gregation of the Fabbrica di San Pietro was but a symptom
of the new spirit.^ One of his first measures was to order,
^ In Cod. H. II. seq., cf. the Bibl. Chigi, there is a note on the
subject in the Pope's own hand :
Nota dell'opere da farsi dalla ven. fabrica in S. Pietro con H suoi
assegnamenti e della sua entrata et uscita.
Opere ordinate e disegnate di fare dalla reverenda
fabrica.
Altare di metallo per la cattedra circa a scudi cento-
mila . . . . . . . . sc. 100,000
Candelieri e croci di nietallo circa a sc. dodicimila . sc. 12,000
II residue delle colonne di cottanello ordinatesi qui
a sc. tremila . . . . . . . sc. 3.000
II pavimento del portico circa a sc. dodicimila . sc. 12,000
Somma in tutto la spesa . . sc. 127,000
Assegnamenti della reverenda fabrica per le dicontro
opere.
Li depositari della reverenda fabrica hanno in mano
circa a sc. quarantamila . . . . . sc. 40,000
Al signor Francesco Nunez Sanchez per rimesse di
Portogallo sc. quattromila cinquecento . . sc. 4,500
Monti diversi da vendersi sc. ventimila . . . sc. 20,000
Cruciata di Spagna debitrice per I'anno 1656 di sc.
ventimila . . . . . . . sc. 20,000
Cruciata di Portugallo debitrice come sopra di sc.
settantamila . . . . . . . sc. 70,000
Debitor! diversi, che si esigeranno circa a sc.
dodicimila . . . . . • • sc. 12,000
Sommano tutti detti assegnamenti sc. 166,500
Somma la spesa di contro. sc. 127,000
Sopravanzo dell'assegnamenti. sc. 39,500
Nota dell'entrata che ha di presente la reverenda
fabrica
Cruciata di Spagna I'anno sc. ventimila . . . sc. 20,000
Delta per S. Giovanni Laterano sc. mille cinquecento sc. 1,500
Bernini's work at st. peter's. 287
in August, 1G55, the laying down of the marble floor of the
basilica ; Bernini furnished the plan for the work. At the same
time he gave orders that no vendors should trade in the
portico, which he commanded to be shut at night. ^ Bernini
was likewise commissioned to lay down the floor of the
benediction loggia and to restore its ceiling. This period also
saw the completion, in his studio, of the bas-relief begun
under Urban VIII., now placed over the main entrance,^
representing Christ in the act of appointing St. Peter His
Vicar and the shepherd of His flock, with the words : " Feed
my sheep." Bernini's brother, Luigi, furnished the stucco
decorations of the chapel of the choir and that of the Blessed
Cruciata di Portugallo sc. sedicimila . . . sc. 16,000
Tribunale di Napoli avanti il contagio sc. dodicimila sc. 12,000
Gabelle di Napoli avanti il contagio sc. novemila . sc. g.ooo
Incamerationi di Roma e Stato Eccles. sc. ottomila in
circa. . . . . . . . . sc. 8,000
Frutti di diversi Monti sc. mille . . . . sc. 1,000
Somma I'entrata I'anno sc. 67,500
Somma I'esito I'anno sc. 41,417
Sopravanza I'entrata all'esito sc. 26,083
Ma e da avvertire, che I'entrate di Napoli che prima erano
sc. 21™, come sopra, Dio sa per ravvenire quello renderanno.
Et che I'entrate di Spagna e Portugallo alle volte tardano
gl'anni a riscuotersi.
Nota dell'esito, che ha di presente la reverenda
fabrica.
Per li frutti de' suoi Monti passivi paga I'anno sc.
sedicimila ventisette . . . . . sc. 16,027
In manuali, musaici, cartoni, indorature, calce, puzzo-
lana, pietra et altro circa a sc. ventiquattro mila
Provisionati sc. mille centosettanta
Elemosine sc. ducentoventi ....
Somma la spesa I'anno sc. 41,417
* Fraschetti, 324.
^ Ibid., 324 seq.
sc.
24,000
sc.
1,170
sc.
220
2(3(3 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Sacrament in the basilica of St. Peter. ^ Bernini's magnificent
monument of Alexander VII. in St. Peter's, which the Pope
had planned for himself already in September 1655, was only
completed under Innocent XI. ^ The Pope also thought of
building a new sacristy,^ but it was not granted to him to
carry the plan into effect. On the other hand, he lived to see
the wonderful structure in which it was intended to preserve
the chair — cathedra — of St. Peter.*
The internal decoration of the basilica of the Prince of the
Apostles, on which he bestowed many valuable gifts, ^ went
hand in hand with other important works. The entrance to
the Vatican built by Ferabosco under Paul V.,'' was to be
1 Ibid., 213.
2 " *I1 Pontefice meditando continuamente la brevita della
vita humana, oltre la scritta cassa fattasi fare per riporvi il suo
cadavero, intendesi che hora faccia fare il disegno della sua
sepoltura componendo egli medesimo Finscrittione, che in essa
dovia farsi " [Avviso of September 18, 1655, Avvisi 102, Papal
Sec. Arch.). Cf. Gregorovius, Grabmdler, 56 ; Reymond, 159
seq. ; Berteaux, Rome, 149, 151 ; R. Cecchetelli in Riv.
d'ltalia, 1915, I., 546 ; Jahrb. der preuss. Knnstsamml., XLIX.,
36. Severe critique in Brinckmann, Barockskidptur, II. , 252.
^ Cf. " *Osservazioni del. card. Castello sul progetto della
nuova sagrestia [di S. Pietro] nel disegno del cav. Morelli fatti
per commissione di Alessandro VII.," Cod. M. VIII., LXVL,
Bibl. Chigi.
^ See p. 299.
5 The precious damask hangings of red silk with gold fringes
which Alexander VII. gave to the basilica to cover the marble
pilasters are in use to this day on great festivals. Another
splendid work of art is the Missal richly adorned with miniatures,
and bearing as its title page the portrait of Alexander VII. (1663).
It was returned to Rome under Louis XVIII. and is now kept
in the treasury of the Sistine Chapel [cf. Annuaire caih. pontifical,
1909). Three paliotti with precious embroideries given by
Alexander VII., " anno nono," as the inscription says, to the
basihca of St. Mary Major, are still among the treasures of that
Church.
« See XXVI., 426.
WORK AT ST. Peter's. 289
remodelled, the papal palace and St. Peter's were to be
joined, and a piazza was to be laid out in front of the basilica
which would worthily express the significance of the world's
greatest shrine. The difficulty of this task, which was great
enough in itself, was further enhanced by the fact that in
consequence of the centuries' old and anything but uniform
architectural story of the Vatican and the basilica of St. Peter,
many contradictions and defects had to be removed, or at
least minimized, if unity was to arise out of so mighty a
complexity.^
The old piazza of St. Peter's, where the faithful received
the blessing of every Pope at his election and at Easter, was
out of proportion with the importance of the basilica to which
pilgrims flocked in crowds from every part of the world ^ :
above all, it was far too small. Already under Innocent X.,
Papirio Bartoli and Carlo Rainaldi had drawn up plans for a
new arrangement,^ but remarkable as these were, they were
inadequate. A happy solution was only found when
Alexander VII. put the matter in the hands of Bernini who
succeeded in creating a wonderful unity out of the monumental
piazza before St. Peter's, the entrance to the Vatican and the
rooms connecting them.
Baldinucci relates that Bernini once remarked that an
architect did not show what he could do when, unhampered
by any obstacle, he was able to realize the harmonious concep-
tions of his imaginations ; only then did he do so when he
was compelled to deal with what was imperfect or bad and
yet, despite every hindrance, succeeded in creating a thing of
beauty.* This was realized by the master in wonderful
fashion, in the first instance, in the radical alteration of the
staircase connecting the oldest part of the Vatican with the
porch of St. Peters'. By overcoming great technical and
practical difficulties, he replaced the dark, narrow and
irregular ascent to the Sala Regia and the Sistine chapel
^ Voss, Bernini as architect, 2 seq.
- Brinckmann, Platz tind Monument, 66.
' Voss, loc. cit., seq ; Hempel, C. Rainaldi, 24 seq.
* Baldinucci, edit. Riegl, 240.
VOL. XXXI. U
290 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
by a commodious, admirably lighted staircase whose imposing
beauty and decoration are deservedly famous.^ His skilful
hand turned the defects of the old staircase into new beauties.
To quote Baldinucci, it was by a stroke of real genius that
he succeeded in this, the most difficult of all the works under-
taken by him, " by means of splendid perspectives of steps,
columns, architraves, pediments and vaults, in bringing the
wide entrance and the narrow exit into a harmony pleasing
to the eye." ^
The great staircase, which was given the name of Scala
Regia, was begun in 1663 and by June, 1665, the main part
of the work was complete ; in the following year it received
the beautiful stucco decoration of the barrel vaulting. ^ At
the entrance an armorial shield held by two trumpet-blowing
genii, proclaims the glory of Alexander VII., its builder.^
In front of the staircase was a bright and lofty space where,
in a niche on the right hand side, it was intended to put up
on a high pedestal Bernini's colossal equestrian statue of
Constantine the Great. Though executed under Alexander
VII. this statue of the founder of St. Peter's was only unveiled
in 1670.^ To this " violently agitated equestrian figure of the
most dramatic impressiveness ", was to correspond a statue
of Charlemagne on the opposite side, at the end of the portico
of St. Peter's.
There is profound historic significance in the circumstance
that in the vestibule of St. Peter's the two first great protectors
of the universal Church, the one the founder of the eastern,
1 Cf. besides Panofsky, Die Scala Regia im Vatikan, in
Jahrb. der preuss. Kunstsamml, XL. (1919), 241 seq., and Voss,
Bernini als Architekt, 6 seq. On the controversy between them
on the subject of expedients for perspective see Frey, Barock
architektiir , 10.
^ Baldinucci, edit. Riegl, 176 seq.
* Fraschetti, 318.
* Ferrari, Lo stucco neU'arte ital. tav., 80.
* Fraschetti, 318, 320 ; Benkard, 41 ; Cecchelli, 23.
Cf. Dvorak, Gesch. der ital. Kimst, Munchen, 1928, 208. A
♦satire on the statue in Barb. 4331, Vat. Lib.
THE PIAZZA OF ST. PETER's. 29I
the other the creator of the western Roman Empire, should
stand on guard before the tomb of the Gahlean fisherman.
Witli the famous colonnade of the piazza of St. Peter's,
also executed by order of Alexander VII., Bernini created an
even greater masterpiece than the Scala Regia. When the
idea of a forecourt for St. Peter's first came up for discussion
by the Congregation of the Fabbrica, at the beginning of
1656, Cardinal PaUotto raised several difficulties. There was
reason to fear, he explained, that the digging of the founda-
tions would cause noxious evaporations, spreading disease,
as had happened more than once in Rome ; moreover, the
work would prove exceedingly costly since a number of
valuable houses would have to be demolished, and lastly,
in view of the unfavourable economic situation, so heavy an
expenditure might prove a pretext for an attack by foreigners.^
Against this it was argued with good reason that the work
would precisely relieve the adverse situation, since it would
provide employment for a large number of men.^ This view
was shared by Alexander VII. and, of course, that settled the
controversy. In conformity with the Pope's orders the
Congregation of the Fabbrica resolved, on July 13th, 1656,
to entrust the arrangement of the piazza of St. Peter's to
the experienced hands of Bernini.-^ Work was to begin on the
left side ; accordingly, on August 19th, 1656, the Congregation
ordered the demolition of all the houses starting from the
Palazzo del Priorato as far as the Campo Canto. It would
seem * that at that time Bernini's project still conformed to a
1 Fraschetti, 314. 2 See Chigi *MS.
^ Fraschetti, 314.
* Fraschetti, 315, whose data are substantially supple-
mented by an Avviso of August 19, 1656, " *Si e resoluto mettersi
di breve mano al gettito delle case contigue alia Penitentiaria
nella piazza della Basilica Vaticana, cominciando dal Palazzo
del Priorato sine a Campo Santo, per poi ambedoi le parti di
essa piazza edificare con loggie coperte, appartamenti et altre
commodita per li canonici, Penitentieri e tutto il corpo del
Capitolo di S. Pietro con ogni magnificenza." {Avvisi 103, Papal
Sec. Arch.
292 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
drawing preserved to this day, according to which, behind a
two-storied portico, a palace corresponding to the Vatican,
was to be erected on the left, for the purpose of housing the
Canons and penitentiaries.^ The work of demolition began
in September." A letter in the Pope's own hand, of December,
1656, ordered the purchase of more houses, all of which were
to be demolished.^ At a sitting of the Congregation on
March 17th, 1657, at which seven Cardinals were present,
Bernini submitted his whole plan,* the fruit of prolonged
study and a great number of sketches. It was approved and
Bernini's fees were likewise settled.^ In June 1657, it was
announced that the necessary funds were ready and that the
work would begin the following week.® This proceeded with
^ The drawings in the possession of the architect Busiri-Vici
and first published by him in La Piazza di S. Pietro in Vaticano
nei secoli III., XIV. e XVIII., Roma, 1893, and subsequently
by Fraschetti, 309, and Riegl, Baldinucci, 174, are not even
considered as copies after Bernini by Voss {Bernini, 22, n. 2) ;
he is exclusively for Bernini's authentic sketches in the Chigi
Library.
2 " *Si e cominciato a cavar su la piazza di S. Pietro vicino
alii Tedeschi [Campo Santo] per veder se terra il fondamento "
{Avviso of September 29, 1656, loc. cit.). Ibid., an *Avviso of
September 8, 1656 : "II disegno de' portici da far a S. Pietro
si e intorbidato, perche il disegno non era del Bernini, al quale
si crede habbi fatto far de' mali offittii."
^ " *N.S. ha spedito chirografo per la compra e dcmolitione di
molte case sopra la piazza di S. Pietro da fabricar\-i attorno il
disegnato teatro " [Avviso of December 23, 1656, loc. cit.).
* *Cod. H. II., 22, Bibl. Chigi.
'^ Decree of the Congregation dated August 17, 1657, in
F^RASCHETTI, 3 I 5.
" *Avviso of June 7, 1656 : " Delia prossima settimana ha
ordinate il Papa doversi principiare la magnifica fabrica del
gia desegnato teatro sopra la piazza di S. Pietro, trovandosi per
tale effetto all'ordine il contante necessario, come anche quello
per I'accennato gettito delle case contiguc alia chiesa della
Rotonda per farvi isola in maggior decoro di quel tcmpio,"
Papal Sec. Arch. V. Prinzivalli, in the periodical Catholicon,
THE COLONNADE. 293
such speed ^ that already on August 28th the Pope was able
to lay the foundation-stone of the colonnade. ^ The medals
which were buried in the ground on the occasion bore the
legend : Fundamenta ejus in montihus Sanctis : the foundations
thereof are in the holy mountains. (Ps. LXXXVI. [LXXXVIL],
1). The design on their face shows Bernini's plan for the
forecourt which included a third portico destined to close
the magnificent circle of the colonnade in front, at a spot
where the approaching spectator beholds the whole over-
whelming grandeur of the basilica of St. Peter's and its dome.^
In November, 1657, Alexander VII. inspected Bernini's
model.* In the ensuing years the Pope followed the work
with the intensest interest and inspected it several times, first
in September, 1659,^ and again in September® and December,
I. (1899), 6 seqq., gives some unpublished " *Scrittnre suUa con-
troversia d'appalto dei lavori per i portici di S. Pietro fra il cav.
Bernini e gli appaltori " which register in the form of a diary the
differences that arose day by day and give valuations of the work
of excavations and the construction of the foundations of the
gigantic portico.
^ *Avviso of August 18, 1657, ^^^- '^^^■
* Besides the note of Giuseppe Cervini in Fraschetti, 315,
see the *Avvisi of August 31, 1657 (Tuesday) [August 28]
" ando [the Pope] a S. Pietro e getto la prima pietra nelli fonda-
menti con alcune medaglie d'oro, e poi entro in chiesa e disse la
messa bassa nel choro de' canonici " ; and of September i, 1657
(" *Tuesday the Pope inspected the new construction in ' Pace '
and laid the foundation-stone for the teatro "), Avvisi 105, Papal
Sec. Arch. Mignanti is mistaken when he says (II., in) that
the laying of the foundation-stone took place on the feast of the
Assumption, 1660.
* Reproduction of the medal in Fraschetti, 306.
* Avissi, p. 9, loc. cit.
* See Franc. Gualengo's account in Fraschetti, 315.
* *Avviso of September 11, 1660 : " Venerdi il Papa visito in
S. Pietro la nuova fabrica di quel gran teatro, come anco dove
si fabricano le statue da mettersi all'altare della cathedra di
S. Pietro a capo di detta basilica, che sono di gran meraviglia,
opera inventatadal celebre et famoso architetto sig. cav. Bernini,"
Papal Sec. Arch.
294 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
1660.^ Although work was pushed on with the utmost ardour,
the gigantic task could not be completed as quickly as the
Pope wished, but that it would be a magnificent thing was
clear even then.^ When he inspected the work in June, 1661,
Alexander VII. distributed gifts of money to the workmen.^
In August he again went to see for himself the progress of the
work on the foundations, which had now begun on the right
hand side also.* In the first days of October he was there
again. ^ These visits were repeated in March, June and
September, 1662.« By the middle of November, 1662, he
saw half the colonnade finished,' but it was only in November,
1 *Avviso of December i8, i66o : " Venerdi il Papa visito
la nuova fabrica di quel gran teatro attorno la piazza, che riesce
di gran bellezza, tirandosi avanti con celerita." Ibid.
2 See Card. D'Elce's letter of September ii, 1659, in Ozzola,
13, and the *Avviso of February 26, 1661. On Sunday the Pope
inspected at St. Peter's the " fabrica di quel teatro intorno
aquella piazza che riesce di tutta bellezza ". Engravings of the
piazza were soon in circulation ; on September 6, 1659, two such
were sent to the Inquisitor of Malta ; see Piccolomini, Corrisp.
ira la corte di Roma e I'Inquisitore di Malta, Firenze, 1910, 36.
^ Friday the Pope inspected the " fabrica del nuovo teatro e
fece regalare quel operarii di buona somma di danari, tirandosi
avanti con ogni sollecitudine." loc. cit.
* *Avviso oi August 20, 1661 : On Tuesday the Pope examined
the " nuovi fundamenti di quel teatro comminciati dall' altra
parte " {loc. cit.). On the pagan sepulchres which were brought
to light during the process of digging the foundations see Grisar,
Gesch. Roms, I., 219 seq.
5 *Avviso of October 8, 1661 : On Friday the Pope inspected
the " nuovo teatro " at St. Peter's, loc. cit.
« *Avvisi of March 11, 1662 (on Friday the Pope visited the
" fabrica del teatro " of St. Peter's) ; of June 24, 1662 (on
Monday the Pope inspected the work on the " nuovo teatro "
and went into Bernini's house to see the statues he was making
for him) ; of September 9, 1662 (on Monday the Pope inspected
at St. Peter's, " nella fonderia le statue grandi di bronzo che vi
si perfettionano da porre attorno la cathedra). Ibid.
"> *Avviso of November 18, 1662 : On Monday the Pope
inspected " quel teatro, la mcta del quale e gia compita. Ibid.
THE COLONNADE. 295
1665, that the end of the huge undertaking came within
sight, though even a year later it was not quite completed.^
April, 1666, saw the demoHtion of the last houses near the
colonnade. 2 At the beginning of 1667 work was begun on
the magnificent sloping flight of steps in place of those of
Paul v., and the rising corridors which join the colonnade
to St. Peter's. At the same time the foundations were laid
for the second monumental fountain corresponding to that
of Carlo Maderna.3 About the middle of March 1667, the
corridors were approaching completion.* Meanwhile, a whole
band of sculptors, under Bernini's direction, was at work on the
statues of Saints, five metres high and 96 in number, with which
it was intended to crown the balustrade of the colonnade.^
The arrangement of the piazza of St. Peter's is Bernini's
greatest architectural work.^ With his colonnade he has
produced a piazza which " by reason of the grandeur of its
conception, its spaciousness and finely calculated exploitation
of perspective, was equal to the highest demands ".' A more
1 *Avviso of October 9, 1666 : On Wednesday the Pope
inspected the work on the " teatro che si va terminando ". Ibid.
2 *Avviso of April 17, 1666 : " Essendo hormai perfettionato
il teatro di S. Pietro, si demoliscono li palazzi e case, che restono
fra mezzo di esso." Ibid.
* *Avviso of January 22, 1667 : In front of St. Peter's, " si
e dato principio a fare la nuova scalinata, et al braccio che
unisce il teatro col portico, com'anco al fondamento della fontana,
simile all'altra di qua e di la della guglia." Ibid.
* *Avviso of March 19, 1667 : " Si termina il braccio, che
unisce il teatro col portico di S. Pietro, col dimolirsi il palazzo
del Priorato et altri, per fare la poca parte di mezzo, che manca
per terminarlo." Ibid.
^ According to Sandrart Bernini himself made the models for
22 statues. Considerations of style lead to the conclusion that
a number of statues were at least sketched by Bernini, Voss,
Bernini, 25.
* Th. Hoffmann, Eutstehungsgeschichte des St. Peter in Rom
(1928), 294 seq.
' Weisbach, Stadtbaukunst in Terza Roma, in Preuss. Jahr-
bUchern, CLVII. (1914), 83.
296 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
beautiful and worthy forecourt for a church of world-wide
importance it is hard to imagine. Bernini gave it the form of an
ellipse to which is joined a quadrilateral widening out in the
direction of the basilica. This quadrilateral is framed by
rectilinear, closed-in corridors leading to the portico of St.
Peter's, and on the right hand side form the entrance to the
Vatican. Their oblique shape widens the space and the inclina-
tion given to them and to their entablature by Bernini, softens
the impression of excessive breadth of the facade of the basilica,
pushes it back, as it were, and so makes it appear loftier.
The colonnade is linked to the corridors : it consists of
two imposing porticos, open and semi-circular and formed
by four rows of Doric columns which thicken outwardly.
These 284 travertine columns, 15 feet high, are divided
into groups by 88 pilasters bearing a plain, strong
entablature and the attica above it with its statues. The
colonnade forms three corridors, of which the middle one is
vaulted and wade enough to allow the simultaneous passage
of two carriages. Their practical purpose, that of sheltering
the pilgrims to the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles from
the heat of the sun and the rain, had already been present
in the mind of Nicholas V. when he planned three approaches
to St. Peter's.^ A plan in Bernini's own hand now in the
British Museum, states this practical purpose in some
explanatory notes ^ ; it is likewise pointed out in an inscription
which Alexander VII. put up at the eastern entrance to the
central corridor.^
Besides the practical purpose, which was particularly
realized at the great procession of Corpus Christi,* Alexander
VII. and Bernini had also an aesthetic one. When the Pope
asked the master how it would be possible to increase the effect
of height of St. Peter's, which was inadequate by comparison
with its breadth, Bernini suggested the addition of wings of
lesser height which would cause the fagade to seem loftier
1 See our data, II., 173 seq. - Voss, Bernini, 23 seq.
^ " In umbraculum diei ab aestu, in securitatem a turbine et
a pluvia " (Bonanni, 158; Martinelli, II, 112).
* Pallavicino, II., 181 seq.
THE PIAZZA DESCRIBED. 297
than it is. He explained his idea by means of a comparison :
the wings of the colonnade would add to the impression of
height of the facade because they would be in the same relation
to it as the arms are to the trunk. ^ As a matter of fact, the
wings of the colonnade stretch out, as it were, two gigantic
arms towards the approaching pilgrims, as if to invite them
to worship God at the tomb of the first Pope. Two inscriptions
put up by Alexander VII. express this thought in words taken
from the psalms and the prophets : Venite, procidamus ante
Dominwn in templo sancfo ejus et nomen Domini invocemus
[Come, let us prostrate ourselves before the Lord in His
holy temple and let us call upon the name of the Lord], says
the first inscription, whilst the other is thus worded : Venite,
ascendamns in montem Domini, adoremus in templo sancto
ejus [Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, let us
worship in His holy temple]. ^
The merits of the incomparable portico which St. Peter's
owes to Alexander VII. are thus extolled by one of Bernini's
contemporaries : " The beautiful panorama of the piazza
makes a most satisfying impression, as would not be the case
if, in keeping with the sketches of some architects, the fore-
court were rectangular, thereby constituting a peristyle,
as Vitruvius would say. In the present arrangement the
inward curves of the colonnade form, as it were, niches
adorned with fountains. If, standing in one of these curves,
and slightly in front of the great middle line, one looks in the
direction of Monte Aureo, the effect is amazing. The obelisk
rises in front of the spectator and on either side of it the two
1 Chantelou, Tagcbuch iiber die Reise des Cavalierc Bernini
nach Frankreich, edit, by Rose, Munich, 1919, 36, 49 ; also
Panofsky in Jahrb. der preuss. Kunstsamml., XL., 269, and Voss,
ibid., XLIV, 20. Cf. also Frey, Barockarchitektur, 105.
2 Martinelli, II., 112. In a MS. of the Bibl. Chigi (H. II., 22)
we read : " Essendo la chiesa di S. Pietro quasi matrice di tutte
le altre doveva haver un portico che per I'appunto dimostrasse
di ricevere a braccia aperte maternamente i cattolici per con-
fermarli nella credenza, I'heretici per riunirli alia Chiesa, e gl'in-
fedeli per illuminarli alia vera fcde."
298 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
roaring fountains throw shimmering masses of water towards
the sky. Their mighty sound, as they fall back, together
with the green of the gardens which is glimpsed between the
columns, thrills the spectator and brings home to him the
wonder of this spacious and magnificent panorama. And
though each particular feature is magnificent, all of them
are but the setting of the supreme, mighty temple." ^
With good reason a modern scholar describes the arrange-
ment of the piazza of St. Peter's as Alexander VII. 's just
claim to undying fame. Whereas until then the basilica of
the Prince of the Apostles had been hidden away and hemmed
in, with only a small piazza crushed by the great mass of the
church, it was now given sufficient space to make it stand
out as the chief shrine of the Catholic world, not only in the
eyes of art lovers, but also in those of pilgrims. ^ Bernini's
forecourt, an architectural masterpiece of supreme stateliness
and immense simplicity, is able to stand comparison with the
highest achievements of antiquity, such as, for instance,
those of Palmyra. 2 We see here a triumph of spirit over matter
no less admirable in its way than Michelangelo's dome.^
1 Carlo Fontana, // tempio Vaticano, Roma, 1694, 1^3 ^^?-'
228, transl. by Brinckmann, Platz unci Monument, 72 seq.
A Latin poem on the piazza of St. Peter's in honour of Alexander
VII., in FoRCELLA, I., 95.
* EscHER, 27. Cicognara has said that for a just distribution
of Bernini's triumph among his three great works for St. Peter's,
viz. the baldacchino, the chair and the colonnade, one must
bear in mind that by the first and second he won the applause
of his contemporaries and by the last the admiration of posterity
{Storia delta scultura, VI., 143). Briggs {Barockarchitektur, 35)
and Reymond (115 seq.) concur in this opinion.
^ Brinckmann, loc. cit., 66. In his Stadtbaukunst (Berhn,
1920, 57), Brinckmann speaks of the Piazza of St. Peter's as the
most important architectural square of the world, and else-
where (p. 103), he says that this square, though it is not even
completed, would always remain the most important event in
urban architecture.
* Opinion of Rose {Spdtbarock, 88). The gigantic dimensions
are not easily realized. Briggs {loc. cit.) gives the following
THE CATHEDRA IN ST. PETER S. 299
Both are unparalleled in the world ; they show forth the soul
of the universal Church, her unique greatness, her sublime
beauty, her admirable harmony and her unity.
At the same time as the colonnade there came into being
another and no less stupendous work which forms, as it were,
" the coping stone, crowning the architectural lay-out of the
entire complex of the basihca." ^ This was the placing of the
Chair of the Prince of the Apostles in the choir of St. Peter's,
which had not possessed until then any distinctive adornment.
A sepulchre of a Pope in the choir of the church, between the
two that were already there, would have been out of place ;
only a personal memorial of the Prince of Apostles could
have occupied this place of honour in the basilica dedicated
to St. Peter. In view of the fact that his tomb was beneath
the dome, Alexander VII. enriched the choir of the church
with another most venerable relic of St. Peter, his episcopal
chair. This greatly venerated relic was originally a perfectly
plain oak chair ; in the ninth century its front and back had
been decorated with antique ivory tablets, and by adding
rings through which staves could be passed, it was altered
into a sedia gestatoria. In this state it had already occupied
a place of honour in old St. Peter's, where it stood in Pope
Damasus's baptistry. We know from unimpeachable evidence
that already in the third century this Cathedra Petri was looked
upon as the token and symbol of apostolic succession and
authoritative teaching, and that it was the object of a special
measurements : from the portico of the basihca to the west side
of the ellipse 240 m., principal axis of the eUipse, 190 m., total
area 34,000 sq. m. (Brinckmann, Platz und Monument, 67).
1 The chronological sequel already stressed by Baldinucci
(edit. RiEGL, 178 seq.) is supplemented by H. Voss. " The widening
of the space before the entrance of the basilica," he Avrites [Jahrh,
der preuss. Kiinsisamml., XLIII., 26 seq.), " but more particularly
the enormous lengthening and emphasizing of the great axis of
the whole, created the unavoidable necessity of fixing as forcibly
as possible the focal point in which the gathered rhythmic energies
discharge themselves. This was the real architectural task of the
Cattedra di S. Pietro."
300 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
feast observed on February 22nd. In the course of the Middle
Ages we find particular reference to the cathedra in the accounts
of papal enthronizations and in liturgical books. It was the
object of similar veneration in Christian antiquity and for a
long time it used to be solemnly carried, on February 22nd
of each year, to the high altar of St. Peter's where the Pope
sat in it.i Urban VIII. had placed it in the new baptistry ^
and had it decorated,^ and Innocent X. had it enclosed in a
new bronze reliquary.^ In March 1657, Alexander VII.
decided to place it in the apse of the choir, between the
monuments of Paul III. and Urban VIII. ^ The erection
of the structure which was to enshrine it was entrusted by
the Pope to Bernini ; the Pontiff also provided the necessary
funds.® The master's fee was at first fixed at 150 scudi a
month ; later on it was raised to 200.'
Bernini sketched a small model from which his pupils
executed a larger one.^ Alexander VII. 's keen interest in
the work appears from the fact that he inspected it repeatedly,
1 De Ross {Bull. d. arch, crist. V. [1867], 33 seq.), who examined
the relic in 1867, shows that the oak chair goes back into the
remotest time whilst the decorations belong to a later period.
Cf. Kraus, Roma sotterranea ^, Freiburg, 1879, 568 seq. ; Cabrol-
Leclercq, Diet, d'archeol. et de Litiirgie, III., i, 40-47 ; Freib.
Kirchenlex, 11.^, 262.
" Baglione, Vite, 179, 379.
3 See orders for payment in Fr.\schetti, 331.
* Ibid.
^ A letter of March 16, 1657, says : " Dove sono le due sepulture
di Paolo III. et Urbano VIII. in mezzo vi si porra la Catedra "
{Avvisi 105, Papal Sec. Arch.). Ibid., an *Avviso of March 17,
1657 • " D'ordine della S. di N. S. e .stata levata dalla capella
del battesimo, dove da molto tempo in qua si trovava posta,
nella basilica Vaticana, la cathedra dell'apostolo S. Pietro,
e trasportata con ornamento piu decente nella tribuna in faccia
I'altare de' SS. Apostoli." On the Cathedra, 1657, see Kunst-
geschiehtl. Mitteilimgen, 1906, 96.
* See p. 301, n. 8.
' Bernini received 8,000 scudi in all ; Fkaschetti, 332.
8 Ibid.
THE CATHEDRA IN ST. PETER S. 30I
viz. in September 1658/ in September ^ and October ^
1659, and again in September 1660,* and towards the end of
September 1661.^ In June 1662 and 1663, he repaired to
Bernini's studio for the purpose of inspecting the statues of the
four Doctors of the Church who were to support the Cathedra.^
In view of the admiration which Bernini's model called
forth, particularly from the Pope, no great importance was
attached to the cost. In view of the fact that more bronze
was required than even for the baldacchino of the cupola,
viz. 191,383 pounds,' the cost amounted to 100,000 scudi.^
The casting was directed by Giovanni Artusi da Piscina ^
and was only completed in 1665. Carlo Mattel superintended
the gilding.i"' The Pope went several times to the foundry
^ See Fr. Gualengo's letter of September 18, 1658, ibid., 333.
2 See the letter of Fr. Gualengo of September 13, 1659, in
OzzoLA, 10.
^ See *Avviso of October 4, 1659 ; on Monday the Pope
inspected the "sontuoso altare che si fa fabricate al capo d'essa
(chiesa) per coUocarvi la Cathedra d'esso glorioso apostolo, et
doppo dati gl'Drdini necessarii per la continuatione della fabrica
del gran teatro attorno la piazza della medesima resto a
desinare in quel palazzo."
* See *Avviso of September 11, 1660 : On Friday the Pope
inspected at St. Peter's the " nuova fabrica di quel gran teatro,
come anco dove si fabricano le statue da mettersi all 'altare della
Cathedra di S. Pietro a capo di detta basilica che sono di gran
meraviglia, opera inventata dal celebre et famoso architetto il
cav. Bernini." Ibid.
5 See Muzzarelli's letter of October 7, 1661, in Fraschetti, 333.
* See the *Avviso of June 24, 1662 : On Monday the Pope
inspected the work on the " nuovo teatro " and went into
Bernini's house to see the statues on which he was at work.
The same information is contained in an *Avviso of June 9, 1663,
on a visit on Tuesday, loc. cit.
' Fraschetti, 333.
* Fraschetti (333) gives 82,000, Cod., Chigi H. 140, p. 136.
100,000 scudi.
9 Ibid.. 332.
" Ibid., 333.
302 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
and subsequently to St. Peter's, in order to inspect the
work.^
On January 18th, 1666, feast of St. Peter's Chair,^ the
venerable episcopal chair was carried by the Canons of
St. Peter's into the choir of the basilica where it was enclosed
in Bernini's structure.^
The voices that condemned this colossal reliquary of the
cathedra Petri as sharply as they had condemned the baldac-
chino under the dome,'* have been silenced long ago. The
most recent critique has done full justice to this achievement
and acknowledged that Bernini carried out his task in a way
than which none more magnificent and imposing could have
been imagined.^ Only his third sketch satisfied him ^ ; it
^ See the *Avviso of September 9, 1662 (On Monday the Pope
inspected in St. Peter's " due statue di bronzo delle quattro che
S. B. fa fare con spesa grandissima, rappresentanti H quattro
dottori di s. Chiesa, con altri ornamenti dell'altare, che si fara
in quella tribuna, ove si esporra la Cathedra ") . On September 22,
1663 (On Monday the Pope inspected at St. Peter's the " Cathedra
di S. Pietro in Antiochia e statue di bronzo, che si vanno
indorando"), loc. cit.
2 Cf. our data. Vol. XIV., 242.
* The ceremony took place not in 1665, as stated by Benkard
(30), but a year later ; see *Avviso of January 23, 1667, loc. cit.
* BuRCKHARDT, Cicerone, 228, 469 seq., who styles it " the
Master's coarsest work, a mere decoration and improvisation,"
an opinion which Benkard (41) condemns as " Protestant
prejudice ". In like manner Gurlitt (417) : " Bernini's worst
work." RiEGL, in his edition of Baldinucci also .speaks in
depreciating terms (p. 179).
* Yoss in J ahrb. dcr preiiss. Kiinstsamml., XLIIL, 26. Mufioz
describes the Cattedra di S. Pietro as "la piu bella dccorazione
absidale che un tempio cristiano abbia avuto mai " {Roma
harocca, 355). See also Bohn, 88 seq., and Benkard, 30 seq.,
with whose excellent appreciations I associate myself.
* The first sketch in a drawing at Windsor (Voss in Archiv.
fiir Kunstgeschichte, II., fasc. 2-4), the second in Metz, Imitations
of Ancient and Modern Drawings, both side by side in Jahrb. dcr
preuss. Kunstsamml., XLIIL, 27. Bernini's bozzetto for the
Chair in the collection of Prince Chigi, cf. Fraschetti, 331.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT. 303
alone gave prominence to the precious relic and caught the
eye of the worshipper from the moment he entered by the
great door, allowed for the baldacchino of the dome and
the two monuments of Popes in the choir, and adapted itself
not only to the gigantic proportions but, in the measure in
which this was possible, to the given architectural setting.^
Thus a work arose which belongs to " the most highly
imaginative and supra-terrestrial achievements of Western
art.".2
The base of the gigantic, multi-coloured masterpiece,
constructed of precious marbles and adorned with the arms
of Alexander VII., leans against the wall of the choir and
from there soars freely upwards. White-spotted black marble
forms the first storey of the base, and brilliant red and yellow-
flaked jasper the second. Above this, surrounded by clouds
of pale gold, is seen floating the magnificent chair ^ of dark
bronze adorned with resplendent gold ornamentation, within
which the precious relic is preserved. Two magnificent
figures of angels stand on either side, whilst above the back
of the chair, which bears a relief of the scene when Christ
said to Peter : " Feed my lambs," ^ two winged genii appear
in the air bearing the tiara and Peter's keys. The chair is
surrounded by the gigantic figures of four Fathers of the
Church, each statue being over five metres in height : they
are those of two Latins, viz. Augustine and Gregory, and two
Greeks, Athanasius and Chrysostom, just as at the Pope's
Mass the Gospel is heard in Latin and Greek. " Only the heads
^ Voss, loc. cit., 27 seq.
* Benkard, 31. Cf. Reymond's opinion (120 seq.).
' Reymond says of the chair : " D'un tres beau dessin archi-
tectural, elle est malgre ses dimensions colossales, traitee comme
un delicieux bijou d'orfevrerie ; elle est charmante par ses formes
courbes, par le gras bas-relief qui orne le dossier, par cette grille
du siege faite pour laisser entrevoir la relique qu'elle recouvre, par
toutes ses ciselures qui la decorent."
* For an appreciation of this bas-relief, which Fraschetti
describes as brutto (334), see Benkard, 33.
304 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
and hands of the figures show the natural colour of bronze,
the drapery and mitres being resplendent with gold." ^
These figures, distinguished by great dignity and gravity,^
do not give the impression of carrying or supporting the chair
which must be imagined as floating in the air. In order to
create an illusion that " here a supernatural element enters
into a space created by the hand of man, doing away with
its laws of weight and gravitation ", Bernini calmly preserves
the given architectural disposition of the choir apse ; in
this way the dark cathedra stands out even more strongly
against its white background and heightens the impression
that the Apostle's chair is floating in space. ^
The luminous clouds round the chair, from which golden
rays break forth on either side, are intimately linked to the
second main element of the structure, with what has been
called the " miracle in the heights ". There, in the midst
of the luminous effect which is further heightened by means
of a sheet of coloured glass, the Holy Ghost is seen in the form
of a dove, as the mediator between heaven and earth,
surrounded by bands of exulting Angels. From this spot,
where " by a stroke of genius, the window of the choir is
drawn into the composition ", a flood of unearthly light
spreads in a downward direction unto Peter's chair.'*
^ Benkard, ibid.
2 It is incomprehensible that Riegl {Baldinucci, 179) and
later on Fraschetti (333 seq.) should say that the Fathers of
the Church " are in an extremely agitated state ". Let anyone
study the reproduction of " St. Augustine " in Benkard, ill. 53.
The hozzetto of St. Gregory the Great is in the possession of
L. Pollakin Rome ; see Brinckmann, Barock Bozzctii italicnischer
Bildhauer, Frankfurt, 1923, 100.
^ Benkard, 33.
* BoHN, 88. Cf. Baldinucci, edit. Riegl, 240. " Jamais
I'hymne de la lumiere n'a ete chante avec une telle ivresse "
(Reymond, 120). los. Mariae Suaresii, *Racematio circa
cathedram S. Petri apost. principis S" D" N" Alexandra VII.
P. M., in Cod. Barb., XXXVIII., 69. Vat. Lib., Honorati
Fabii, *Extemporanea gratulatio de collocatione cathedrae s. Petri
in throno gloriae per Alexandrum VII., in Cod. D. VII., no.
SOLICITUDE FOR OTHER CHURCHES. 305
Like Raphael's Disputa, Bernini's chair can only be fully
understood if viewed in the full light of the Catholic faith. ^
A mystical enchantment issues from this " ecstasy of light
and gold " of baroque art ^ ; the full effect is particularly
felt in the play of sunlight at the time of the evening
" Angelus " ^ ; when seen lit up by electricity, the impression
is one that can never be forgotten. Bernini's colossal creation
proclaims in its own way the same message as that of the
gigantic letters of the luminous inscription of the dome ;
the message of the papacy's charter of foundation : ' Thou art
Peter, the undying shepherd and Teacher of the Church into
whose hands the Son of God has entrusted the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, the Rock on which Christ built his Church.'
Here, as there, a profession of loyalty to the pastoral and
teaching authority of Peter and his successors, founded by
Christ upon an unshakeable rock which throughout the
vicissitudes of all the centuries no storm can shake, no power,
not even that of the Gates of Hell, can overcome.
To have opened the way for the final completion of St. Peter's
and its adornment would, by itself alone, have shed sufBcient
lustre upon any pontificate. However, with all his solicitude
for this centre of the whole Catholic world, Alexander VH.
did not overlook the other churches of the Eternal City.
Almost all over Rome we find traces of his zeal for restoration
and embellishment. His predecessor had begun work on the
restoration of the ancient church of the Lateran.^ In 1663,
Alexander VH. reconditioned the mosaics of the apse. Already
in 1660 he had had the antique bronze doors of S. Adriano
transferred to the Lateran, after enlarging them.^ Provision
Bibl. Chigi ; O. Falconerius, De Petri cathedra ab Alexandra VII.
in Vaticanae basilicae apside collocata, Romae, 1666.
^ Benkard (32 seq.) first drew attention to this. Cf. Dvorak,
Gesch. der ital. Kunst., Miinchen, 1928, 209 seq.
- ESCHER, 28.
* Th. Hofmann, Entstehungsgesch. des St. Peter in Rom.,
Zittau, 1928, 287.
* See Vol. XXX., 387.
* Ortolaxi, S. Giov. in Laierano, 36, 46 ; Crescimbene,
VOL. XXXI. X
306 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
had been made there for the addition of four small chapels
to the outer lateral aisles ; the greater part of the plan was
carried out during Alexander VII. 's pontificate. ^ At this
time also, several churches in honour of the Mother of God
were built in Rome, with the active co-operation of the Pope.
S. Maria in Campitelli was rebuilt from its foundations.
After the plague had abated in Rome in 1656,^ the Senate
resolved, in the name of the Roman people, to erect a new
church for the picture of S. Maria in Portico, in the Rione
di Ripa, and for this it craved the Pope's permission on
November 29th. Alexander VII. personally inspected the
site and finding it unsuitable gave orders for alterations to
S. Maria in Campitelli in the Piazza Capizucchi, which would
make of it a new church. On January 23rd, 1660, he deposited
the sum of 15,000 scudi in the bank of Pietro and Filippo
Neri ; on March 7th the demolition of houses was begun for
the purpose of obtaining the required space for the new
structure, and on September 29th, the first stone was laid.
Work proceeded round the old church which was allowed
to stand for a time : " Nothing may be undertaken in honour
of the Mother of God unless it be something great," Alexander
VII. one day observed in connexion with the preparations
for the new church which was only completed under
Clement X.^
Staio della chiese Lateranense, Roma, 1723, 68, 92, 116, 143, 147 ;
Letarouilly, 477 ; Lauer, 334 ; Keyssler, I., 686 ;
FoRCELLA, I., 245, VIII., 65 ; Brief of December 18, 1657, in
Bull., XVI., 332 ; *Brief of May 10, 1660, in Cod. Vat. 9313, f.
414, Vat. Lib. On the bronze doors, see Lanciani, Wanderings
through Ancient Rome (1924), 2 121 ; Hulsen, Forum, no.
^ Hempel, Borromini, 108.
^ See p. 33 seq.
' Hempel, Rainaldi, 36 seqq. ; Gurlitt, 394 ; Pascoli,
I., 308 ; FoRCELLA, IX., 93. Cf. the Senate's decision of May 13,
1658 : " Li conservatori e priori furono ai piedi di S. B.
e gli portarono i disegni e pianta della chiesa da farsi in Santa
Maria in Campitelli, e li disegni e piante per la ristaurazione
delle mura di Roma incominciate gia a ristaurarsi, come anche
STREETS AND SQUARES. 307
Two other churches, S. Maria di Monte Santo and S. Maria
de'Miracoh, were hkewise to constitute a further embelhshment
of the Piazza del Popolo. In the north of Rome the Monte
Pincio has its base so near to the Tiber as to allow of only a
narrow entrance into the Eternal City. The Porta del Popolo
stands there, together with an adjoining piazza of the same
name ; three rectilinear streets also meet here in a sharp
angle. The two churches within these angles were to serve as
two lateral pilasters of a majestic gateway into the city of the
Popes. The work was entrusted to Carlo Rainaldi, who was
eventually succeeded by Bernini ; however, S. Maria di
Monte Santo was only completed in 1675 and S. Maria
de'Miracoli in 1679. ^ By order of the Pope another church of
our Lady, that of S. Maria in Via Lata, was given a new
fagade between 1658-1662 by Bonomini ; this church had
received a porch in 1661.^ Alexander VIL is likewise entitled
to the honour of having completed the church of the Roman
University, dedicated to St. Yves, Bonomini's most daring and
original work. November 13th, 1660, saw the consecration
of this sacred edifice resplendent with gold and rich colouring
and flooded with streams of light. On the following day,
after the consecration of the altar, Alexander VII. came to
celebrate Mass. The retable of the altar, the work of Pietro
da Cortona, represents St. Yves, the holy lawyer, Leo the
Great, the holy theologian, Pantaleon, the holy physician,
together with other Saints connected with learning. The
inscription put up in the church : Initiiim sapientiae timor
Domini [the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom]
and the legend of the medal struck for the occasion : Omnis
dello state nel quale si trova la sepultura di Caio Cestio " {Cod.
Chig. G. III., 78, p. 224&.
^ Hempel, Rainaldi, 47 seqq. ; Letarouilly, 518. For a letter
of Rainaldi to the future Cardinal Gastaldi on the building and
on the medal of Alexander VII. which was placed in the founda-
tions of S. ]\Iaria di Monte Santo, see Giov. Incisa della
RoccHETTA in II Messagero of April g, 1926.
2 Thieme, VII., 495 ; FoRCELLA, VIII., 403 ; Munoz, Cortona,
12 ; EscHER, 29.
308 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
sapientia a Domino [all wisdom is from the Lord], secured
the name of " Sapienza " for the University.^ The Pope made
himself particularly popular with the people of Rome when
he completed the Church of S. Andrea della Valle, the fagade
of which was finished as a result of his co-operation.'^ The
restorations in the Pantheon were confined to the east side
of the pronaos where two columns were erected.^ In a number
of other Roman churches the arms of the Chigi Pope attest
that they owe some improvement or other to his liberality ;
thus the seven hills surmounted by a star are seen in S. Giovanni
in Fonte and in the church of the Crociferi.
The restoration and completion of the churches went hand
in hand with the widening and laying out of the piazzas in
front of, and the streets leading up to, them. Thus the piazza
^ Cf. Opere del cav. Borrmnini : La chiesa e fabrica della
Sapienza di Roma con le vedute in prospettiva, piania, etc.,
Roma, 1720 ; N. Ratti, Notizie della chiesa interna dell' Archi-
ginnasio Romano, Roma, 1833 ; Pollak, in Jahrb. der Wiener
Zentralkommission, 191 1. The church, which had been
secularized in 1870, was restored to its original purpose by
Professor Fedele, minister for pubHc worship in Mussolini's
Cabinet, on the proposal of Gilberto Martire and P. Giovanni
Genocchi. On this occasion the periodical Italia sacra published
a special number with valuable contributions by A. Muiioz,
Alessandro Canezza and Paolo Romano {cf. Corriere d'ltalia,
of January 21, March 5 and 21, 1926). The *ceremonial for
Alexander VII. 's visit, arranged on November 7, 1660, is in
Cod. H. III., 62, p. 15, of the Bibl. Chigi, where (p. 158) there are
also the accounts for the Fabrica della Sapienza.
* Hempel, Rainaldi, 54 ; A. Boni, S. Andre della Valle, Roma,
1907 ; MoscHiNi in L' Arte, 1921, 194 ; Pallavicino, I., 281.
^ Fraschetti, 299. Memorial on the embellishment of the
Pantheon by Cipriano Cipriani in the accounts of the transactions
of the Kgl. sacks. Gesellsch. der Wissensch. Leipzig, Phil.-hist. Kl.,
XXXVII. (1885), 124 seqq. Del Pantheon il maestro (Bernini)
era ammiratore appassionato e ne studi6 la cupola per le sue
chiese di Sant'Andrea e di Ariccia, e diceva che la Basilica di
San Pietro ha cento difetti e la Rotonda neppur uno (Mu5Joz,
Bernini, 27).
STREETS AND SQUARES. 309
before S. Maria della Pace was widened and embellished by
Alexander VI I. ^ Inscriptions show that the same was done
for the Chiesa Nuova and the Chiesa di Monte Giordano as
well as for S. Carlo ai Catinari.^ In 1659 the Pope ordered the
Jesuits to buy the Salviati palace and to demolish as much of
it as was required for the purpose of giving a more symmetrical
appearance to the piazza in front of the Roman College.^
In like manner a few streets of the city were improved by
order of the Pope. Thus the Corso was levelled and widened
here and there ; the street leading from S. Marco to the
Gesu, and the street which started at the Porta Portese, were
widened in the same way.* The Pope also interested himself
in the restoration and embellishment of the fountains which
provided Rome with water, viz. the fountains in the Piazza
Colonna, on the Capitol/ in Trastevere, in the Piazza Navona,
the Fontana delle Tartarughe.^ In 1667 the fountain of the
Vatican was transferred to the hospital of S. Spirito.' To
1 See p. 283. *Motu proprio ' di Alessandro VII. suU'allarga-
mento delle piazza e vie di Roma date del Nostro Palazzo Apost.
di Monte Cavallo," Cod. Chig. H. III., 57, p. 159 seq. Ibid.,
N. III., 80, p. 3, a *description of the embellishment of Rome.
* OzzoLA, 36 seq. ; Escher, 29.
' E. RiNALDi, Fondazione, 122. A *letter of Pallavicino to
the Pope, dated December 8, 1660, probably refers to this :
he prays for an audience for " il P. Giattino col modello della
facciata della piazza e di quanto occorre, accioche la S. V. possa
ben giudicare, in qual modo debba riuscir meglio I'ingresso della
porta maggiore dello stesso collegio, avanti che si ponga mano
all'opera ".
* OzzoLA, 37 seq.
* Ibid., 34 seq.
* Orders for payments of 1659 and 1660, ibid., 35. Cf. Fea,
Storia delle acque, Roma, 1832, 32, 46, 148, 327, 330 ; Guidi,
Le fontane barocche di Roma, Zurigo, 19 17, 47 ; Falda, Foniane
di Roma, 32. On the Fontana delle Tartarughe we read the old
inscription : " Alexander VII. a. IVo. restauravit ornavitque."
On Bernini's fountain in the Piazza Navona, see XXX., p. 403.
seqq. ; Kimstchronik, XIX. (1907), 179.
" OzzoLA, 32.
310 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
this must be added repairs to the bridges of S. Angelo and
Ouattro Capi, the Pyramid of Cestius and the walls of Rome.^
The solicitude which Alexander VII. lavished on Rome's
great basilicas, St. Peter's, the Lateran, the Pantheon, he
also extended to the great palaces. The Vatican was connected
with St. Peter's by means of a magnificent staircase, the Scala
Regia ; Bernini also further adorned the Scala Ducale.^
The Quirinal, which had already been embellished with the
frescoes of Pietro da Cortona,^ was enlarged by the addition
of a new wing for the purpose of accommodating the papal
household.* A new mint was also built, ^ the University
secured a worthier seat,® the lateral fagade of the palace of
Propaganda was given its definite form in 1662 ' and the
facade at the back of the hospital of S. Spirito, facing the
Lungara, was completed in 1664.^
Thus nearly all the more important institutions of Rome
benefited by Alexander VII. 's munificent liberality, and if he
employed the architects he also gave work to the painters.
A whole band of the latter was engaged in the decoration of
the great gallery of the Quirinal, the Pope's favourite
residence.^ Pietro de Cortona was in charge of the execution
^ OzzoLA, 36. Cf. the inscription : " Urbis moenia a porta
Pinciana ad Flaminiam usque restaurata a-s., 1661, ibid., Cf. also
above, p. 306, n. 3.
* Fraschetti, 324 ; Letarouilly-Simil, II., 22 ; Escher,
28 ; Moroni, IX., 153 ; Reymond, 142 seq. ; Taja, 196 ;
Ferrari, Stucco, 81.
' See above, p. 283.
* Novaes, X. : Alessandro, VII., n. 77 ; Fraschetti, 297.
^ Ciaconius, IV., 726.
* See above, p. 272 seq.
' Hempel, Borromini, 160 seqq. ; Gurlitt, Barock, 362 ;
Weisbach, 29. In the Archives of Propaganda {Fabrica, 1663,
p. 354, 1659-1660) payment to " Gius. Paglia Domenicano
aintante architetto della fabrica del Collegio Urbano de prop,
fide."
8 Fraschetti, 297; Forcella, VI., 441.
* The question arose at this time whether it would not be better
for the Pope to reside at the Vatican ; cf. " Scritture contrarie
PAINTERS EMPLOYED. 3II
of the frescoes which represented scenes from the Old and New
Testament,^ but there was hardly a painter in Rome who was
not given a share in this work, and besides the Italians Pier
Francesco Mola, Giro Ferri, Lazzaro Baldi, Guglielmo Cortese
(Borgognone), Carlo Maratta, Giovanni Francesco Bolognese,
the names of some foreigners likewise appear, such as those
of Gaspard Poussin and the two brothers, John Paul and
Aegidius Schor of Innsbruck. ^
All over Rome one encounters the arms of the Chigi Pope,
or some inscription perpetuating his work.^ His example
prompted more than one Cardinal to contribute to the
del card. Sf. Pallavicino e del M. Luca Olstenio, sulla questione
nata a tempo di Alessandro VII., se al Pontefice piu convenga
di abitare a San Pietro che in qualsivoglia altro luogo della citta."
Roma, 1776. Cf. Forcella, I., 112.
1 MuNOZ [Pietro da Cortona, 16) says of him : " Tra il Bernini
animatore di masse poderose e il Borromini cesellatore di fini
gioielli, Pietro da Cortona e I'artista che seppe equilibrare in
opera perfette le due opposte tendenze dell'architettura barocca."
* The frescoes of 1660 are for the most part hidden since 1870.
Cf. Pascoli, Vite, I., 138, 150 ; Bellori, Vite, III., 148 ;
NoACK, Deiiisches Lehen in Rom, 11 ; On the two Schors cf. also
OzzoLA in Corriere d'ltalia of March 31, igo8 ; Benedetti,
Palazzi Reali, I. (1911), 52 seq. Salv. Rosa also painted in the
Quirinal for Alexander VII. ; see Ozzola, Vita ed opere di S. Rosa
(1908), 133 seq. Sacchi also did some work for the Pope ; see
Posse, Sacchi, in. On Salv. Rosa's dwelling in Rome : Nem
in A^ Antologia, May i, 1909, and Perrone Di martino, *AIemor.
in Biblioteca Hertziana ; on his landscapes, Woermann, I., 200.
' A number of such reminders of the Chigi Pope in Ozzola,
in Arch. Rom., XXXI., i seqq. Cf. *Cod. I., VI., 205, pp. 269-
505, Bibl. Chigi. Outside Rome also we encounter traces of
Alexander VII. 's restoring activity, as at Orvieto (inscription in
Piccolomini-Adami, Guida, 236), at the " Rocca " of Nettuno
and that of Civita Castellana (arms of the Pope), on the bridge of
S. Gennaro (Tomasetti, II., 297). On the Torre Alessandrina
at Fiumicino, 1662, see Guglielmotti, Fortificazioni, 495 ;
on the hospital at Civitavecchia, id., Squadra, 40. There is an
inscription of Alexander VII. on the arsenal there.
312 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
embellishment of Rome,^ in fact so many new palaces and
churches arose by degrees that the custom of describing
Rome of the baroque period as " new " or " modern " Rome,
gradually established itself.^ Alexander VII. ordered a
model of his capital to be made in wood,^ to enable him to see
^ The Cappella S. Giovanni in Glee restored in 1658 by Card.
Franc. Paolucci (Hempel, loc. cit., 182), the Cappella Spada in
S. Girolamo della Carita 1660 {ibid.). In S. Isidore the chapel of
the Immaculate Conception was decorated by Lopez de Silva,
Knight of St. James, with the co-operation of Bernini, see
Fraschetti, 300. To this period belongs the foundation of the
French Academy in Rome, 1666 ; cf. Moroni, I., 557 ; Franchi-
Verney, L'Acad. de France a Rome, 1666-1903, Turin, 1903 ;
Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1872 ; Lapauze, Hist, de I'Acad. de
France a Rome, Paris, 1924 ; id.. La premiere liste des pension-
naires de I'Acad. de France a Rome (1668), et le premier logis de
I'Acad., in Bullet, de I'art ancien et moderne, 1912, 53.
^ Chledowski, II., 275 ; G. J. Rossi, II nuovo tcatro delle
fabriche et edifici in prospettiva di Roma moderna, Roma, 1665.
Descriptions of contemporary Rome : Nic. de Bralion
(Oratorian), Les curiosites de I'une et de V autre Rome (with many
details on the Catacombs), Paris, 1655 ; a French description of
1662 ; PicoT, Bibl. von Rothschild, III., 228 ; Alveri, Roma
(1664), 39 (Piazza del Popolo), 108 (Bridge S. Angelo) ; T. Ashbv,
Lievin Cruyl e le sue vedute di Roma, 1664-1670, in Atti delta
Pont. Accad. Rom. di archeol., Mem. 3, series I., Roma, 1923-4 ;
Christ, von Eisslingen, Breviarium itineris Italiae, Norimberg,
1664 ; Cornelius Poelenburg {ob. 1667), sketches in the
Ufifizi, Florence. On Rome in 1667 cf. Arch, des miss, scientifiques,
2 series, IV., 95.
^ " II Papa ha tutta Roma di legname in camera distintissima
e curiosissima, come quelle che non ha maggior sfera che di
abellire la citta " (F. Raggi, quoted in Riv. Europ., 1878, V.,
676). The Chigi Library in Rome (H. II., 22, p. 223) still preserves
a *note in Alexander VII. 's own hand on his plans for the
beautifying of Rome : " La fontana di piazza Colonna metter
in quella di S. Marco — La fontana qui di Monte Cavallo in
piazza S. Apost. — La guglia di Campo Marzo rizzarla qui a
Monte Cavallo. — I cavalli portarli di qua c di la al portone di
acqua disegnato con tagliar il canto di qucllo luuro. — Rifinire
ROMA MODERNA. 313
what should be done for the further embelHshmcnt of the
metropolis. Following the example of Sixtus V., Clement VIII.
and even more so Paul V., Urban VIII. and Innocent X.
created Rome such as it existed up till 1870. With Alexander
VII. this incomparable line of patrons of the arts reached an
apex which likewise marks a kind of finale.
Porta Pia e che in faccia sia I'acqua predetta. — Portare la mostra
della fontana di Trevi in piazza Colonna. — A. S. Pietro gli (i)
scalini alia chiesa et al (2) teatro ; la (3) fontana a sue luogo ;
(4) I'altra fontana di nuovo ; il passo per le (5) carozze alia fine
dei due bracci ; le (6) guide a tutta la piazza, buttare (7) a terra
il priorato." To this is added this observation : " i . La portione
di dentro retta, quella di fuori circolare. — Bastano di travertino
e con meno ripulitura. — 3. Nel trasportarla accrescerla nel
piu largo giro. — 4. Se la tazza di Campo Vaticano e buona ;
si no, di travertino. — 5. Farci il disegno puntuale di questi
passi di carozze. — 6. Per le guide che sorti di lastroni e de' loro
profili. — 7. Far la stima e disegno di cio che resta senza questo
appoggio." For Alexander VII. 's building activity see also
Brosch, I., 470 ; cf. 426.
CLEMENT IX. a.d. 1667-1669.
CLEMENT X. a.d. 1670-1676.
CHAPTER I.
Election, Antecedents and Character of Clement IX —
The Rospigliosi — Patronage of Scholars and Artists.
At the moment of Alexander VII.'s death the Sacred College
numbered the legal maximum of seventy members, but during
the interregnum the learned Jesuit Pallavicino and Cardinal
BandinelH died on the same day, June 5th. ^ Four Cardinals
were absent, so that there were sixty-four electors in all.^
The period of the interregnum produced a number of satires
1 From his deathbed Pallavicino, whilst fully acknowledging
all that Flavio Chigi and Barberini had accomplished, earnestly
warned the Cardinals to make provision against the excessive
nepotism of the new Pope. In particular he desired " che per
avvenire non si dessero piij alii parenti delli Papi titoli di Principi,
Duchi etc. che tutto il denaro che si cavava dallo Stato, dalla
Dataria, dalla vendita degli officii e da altri diritti della Sede
Apostolica, s'impiegasse unicamente in benefizio delle aninie et
in isgravamento delli popoli, etc." {Archivio siorico italiano,
App. VI., 398 seq.). Taught by experience, he said, Card. De
Lugo had adopted stricter views on nepotism in the last years
of his life and had left him a paper on the subject with the
request that he should make it known. The Pope could not
spend more than 50,000 scudi on his relatives. Cf. also Sir,v.
Maurus, Relatione della movie del sig. card. Pallavicino, MS. in
the possession of the Society of Jesus.
2 CiACONius, IV., 779.
CARDINALS OF THE CONCLAVE. 315
on Alexander VII. and the forthcoming conclave,^ but no
troublesome incident of any kind occurred. ^
A glance at the Sacred College reveals a number of splendid
men. Even enemies of the Curia ^ acknowledged Borromeo's
knowledge of theology and Ottoboni's of Canon Law, the
^ MS. copies of such satires are widely spread. I note : Cortona,
Bibl. Comm., Cod. 323 ; Florence, Bibl. naz. CI. VII., n. 369
and 370, and State Archives (see Carte Strozz., I., 2, 389) ; Gubbio,
Bibl. L. Benveduti ; Rome, Boncompagni Archives, Cod. C,
15 and 16 ; Vat. Lib., Barb., 3870. *I1 conclave delle donne
nella periculosa infermita di P. Alessandro VII. sequita il mese di
Agosto, 1665," Barb., 4709 is filthy. Pasquinades of this kind
are mentioned by Guvox de Merville, Voyage d'ltalie, La Haye,
1729 (Germ, transl., Frankfurt, 1736).
2 See *Avviso of June 18, 1667, Papal Sec. Arch.
' See the passage in Relazione della corte di Roma fatta alia
Maestd del Re Christ, dal s. DucA di Scione, ambasciatore della
sudetta Maestd alia S'"' di N. S. Clemente IX., tradotta dal Francese,
1669 in Lammer, Zur Kirckengesch, 55. Lammer describes this
account which was widely diffused in print both in Italian and
in French as well as in MS. (Munich, Cod. linl. 310 ; Vienna,
Staatsbibliothek, 5814, p. 177 seqq. ; Brescia, Bibl. Queriniana
B. IIL, 20) more accurately than Ranke (III., No. 137) who
observes : "I doubt if this work is from the pen of a French
diplomatist unless it be the Due de Chaulnes ; in any case it is
from a not uninformed contemporary. Some of the material is
textually taken from Grimani." The " Duca di Chaulnes " is
designated as the author in Barb. 5259, p. 530, a MS. known to
Ranke but not quoted by him. The Relatione della corte di Roma
durante il pontificato di Clemente IX., 1676, referred to by
Ranke (IIL, No. 138) and much used by him (in MS. also in
Paris [see Marsand, L, 603] and in Barb. 6154, p. 11 seq.. Vat.
Lib., [partially] printed in Tesori della corte di Roma, Bruxelles,
1672) is not as Ranke and after him Ademollo {Riv.
Europ., 1878, v., 291) and many others thought, from the
Venetian ambassador, for the latter's account, the original of
Avhich is in the State Archives of Venice and in print in Berchet,
II. , 349 seqq., reads quite differently. I made no u.se of what
Pseudo-Grimani says in praise of Clement IX. because I am
unwilling to follow a report which presents itself under a false
3l6 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
shrewdness of Imperiali, the comprehensive erudition of
Altieri and Azzolini and the prudence and skill of Rospigliosi.
Barbarigo ^ combined hohness of life with learning. Carpegna,
too, was universally beloved by reason of his blameless hfe
and his gentle nature, though he was reproached with partisan-
ship for the Medici. 2 Palotto had given proof not only in
Rome, but in Germany and at Ferrara, of ability, energy and
piety. He had a great reputation for his knowledge of statecraft
but the various Governments were not favourably disposed
towards him because of the unyielding vigour with which
he defended the Church's liberty. Brancaccio was widel}^
read in Church history and Canon Law, but it was thought
that the Spaniards would object to a Neapolitan and that
they had not yet forgotten his encounter with the Viceroy of
Naples in connexion with ecclesatisical jurisdiction.
Many more were thus mentioned, all fit candidates for the
papacy by reason of their excellent qualities ; on the other
hand, there were also serious objections to most of them.
Albizzi's skill in dealing with ecclesiastical and political
questions was not contested, but his violence prejudiced
the princes against him, more especially the Chigi, towards
whom he had used language of unusual freedom. The princes,
and the majority of the Cardinals, would have liked the aged
Spada as Pope. His many years' governorship of Rome
was not forgotten, but the circumstance that he came from
Lucca was against him and though he had been named by
Innocent X., he was thought to be too partial to the Barbcrini.
D'Elce had distinguished himself in every office he had
held, especially in his German nunciature ; calm, modest,
pious, of blameless conduct and learned as he was, he had
the unconditional support of Alexander VH.'s Cardinals ;
name. Moreover I had at my disposal contemporary sources
of undoubted authenticity.
. ^ See p. 131.
^ These and the following character sketches are based on the
" *Relatione sopra 15 cardinali papabiH a S. A. elettore duca di
Baviera " in Barb. 4504, p. 16 seqq., Papal Sec. Arch.
THE PAPABILI. 317
however, the Medici did not want a Sienese. Farnese was also
held in high esteem. He had carried out the various offices
entrusted to him with universal approval, but it was thought
that the princes would not care to have a Pope possessed of
so much business abihty. Rospighosi was popular at the
Curia and with most of the Cardinals. He was on good terms
both with the Spaniards and the French, but his chances were
prejudiced by the fact that he was born a subject of the
Medici and that he had a great many relatives. No one
doubted Buonvisi's knowledge and ability as a ruler, but
he was thought too young. " Rospighosi and Buonvisi,"
Cardinal Harrach wrote to the Emperor Leopold I., on the
eve of the conclave, " encounter the least opposition among
all the papabili, but it is felt that the former has too many
nephews and is too delicate ; however, people think he may
live another two or three years and it is precisely this circum-
stance, more than anything else, that will contribute to his
election." ^
The Sacred College was divided into two great parties,
viz. the 24 Cardinals of Alexander VH., headed by Flavio
Chigi, and Urban VHI.'s 16, led by Antonio Barberini.^
Between them, under the leadership of Azzolini and Imperiali,
stood the ten Cardinals of the Squadrone volante and those of
French and Spanish sympathies : these parties were of almost
equal strength. The imperial Cardinals, Harrach and Hessen,
sided with the Spaniards whose leader, Sforza, was, however,
most unpopular with his own party. Harrach wrote to
Leopold L that the Spanish fraction was small and for the
time being unable to do more than prevent the election
of an enemy of the Habsburgs.^ The Cardinals with
French sympathies, namely Este, Antonio Barberini, Orsini,
1 Letter of June 2 and 16, 1667, State Arch., Vienna.
* See Conclavi, III., 72. The number of Chigi's followers is
here given as 34, an obvious misprint but one that Wahrmund
(144) and EiSLER (154) unhesitatingly followed.
* Wahrmund, 144, 275-276.
3l8 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Grimaldi, Retz, Maidalchini and Mancini were very closely
united.^
On June 2nd, 1667, sixty-one Cardinals entered the
conclave ; later on this number rose to sixty-four.- The
conclave had not been prepared at the Ouirinal, as many
would have wished, but at the Vatican, and it was more
spacious than on previous occasions.^ The very first dis-
cussions showed that only three candidates were seriously
in question : Farnese, D'Elce and Rospigliosi.
Farnese was declined by the Squadrone volante and the
prospects of D'Elce, for whom Chigi worked with all his
might, were nipped in the bud by an excess of zeal on the
part of a conclavist.* Thus there remained only Rospigliosi,
but his supporters only put forward his candidature with the
utmost caution. At the first scrutiny on June 3rd, he received
two votes ; on the morning of the 7th he had eleven, but on
the evening of the same day he had only seven ; on the 8th
his votes fell as low as four ; on the 9th they rose again to
eight ; on the 10th he had five ; on the 12th he had four and
on the 17th only two. On the 19th he rose to seven only to sink
back to five votes. On the morning of June 20th he had no
more than five votes, but in the evening of the same day 61
out of the 64 Cardinals pronounced in his favour.^ This result
was by no means solely due to Louis XIV. 's effective support,
as was subsequently claimed by the French whose chief
candidate had been D'Elce, whilst Rospigliosi only came in
the second place. ^ The Spaniards, who were unaware of
^ The above-named are expressly described as horbonici in
a *note of Alexander VII. from the beginning of 1667 for the
eventuality of a conclave. Family Archives at Ariccia.
^ *Diario nella sede vacante 1667, Barb. 4436 (Vat. Library),
with a plan of the conclave.
' Conclavi, III., 40, 66. •• Ibid., 80 seqq.
* See the *lists in Barb. 4436, p. 46 seq., Vat. Lib.
* Hanotaux, Instructions, 222 ; cf. Gerin, II., 181 seq., who
exhaustively and impartially exposes the utter falsehood of the
French reports, but even he was not able to ascertain accurately
how far Rospigliosi went to meet the French in 1661.
ELECTION OF CLEMENT IX. 319
France's support of Rospigliosi, favoured him because of the
excellent impression he had made during his nunciature in
Madrid.^ The " flying squadron " saw in the pious and able
Cardinal the right man to guide the Church. Flavio Chigi
was the main obstacle but he ended by dropping his opposition.
The last and decisive negotiations were conducted by Cardinal
Azzolini who belonged to the Squadrone volante,^ hence it
was an exorbitant boast on the part of the French ambassador
when he wrote to Paris that Rospigliosi's election was
exclusively due to the favour of Louis XIV., so much so that
the King " appointed no more autocratically the head of the
merchants' guild of Paris than he had named the Pope on the
present occasion ".^
Giulio Rospigliosi, who took the name of Clement IX.,
sprang from an old and honourable family originating from
Lombardy but which had settled at Pistoia, in Tuscany.*
He was born in that city on January 28th, 1600.^ As a youth
of seventeen he came to Rome to pursue his studies at the
Jesuit College, where the celebrated historian Famiano Strada,
was one of his teachers. He subsequently studied at the
University of Pisa where he obtained the doctorate of
philosophy and theology, and from 1623 to 1625 he taught
philosophy there. He was a poet as well as a scholar. On
1 See XXX., p. 87.
2 Conclavi, III., 84 seqq., 93 ; cf. Wahrmund, 144 seq. ; *Diario
nella sede vacanie, 1667, loc. cit.
* Gerin, II., 192.
* Fabronius, Vita dementis IX. in Vitae ital., II., Pisis, 1778.
Also Ameyden, Famiglie Romane, II., 174 ; G. Beani, Clemente
IX. Notizie storiche. Prate, 1893. For Clement IX. 's arms, see
Pasini Frassoni, Armorial, 45.
^ See the extract of the Baptismal Register in Beani, 133.
Cf. *Compendio della vita di Clemente IX. S. P. fatto da Ant.
Mattioli archivista dell' ecc* casa Rospigliosi 1744, Rospigliosi
Archives N. 50, where we read : " *Ebbe il nome di Giulio a
contemplazione di altro sue antenato di simil nome, stato eccellente
nell' armi." The data that follow are taken from this Compendio.
See also G. Canevazzi, Papa Clemente IX. poeta, Modena, 1900,
48 seq., 57 seqq.
320 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
April 25th, 1C32, he became a referendary of both Segnaturas
and Secretary to the Congregation of Rites ; on December 24th,
1636, he was made a Canon of St. Mary Major ; an honorary
citizen of Rome on April 28th, 1637 ; a Domestic Prelate and
Secretary for Briefs to Princes on April 29th, 1641 ; on
January 4th, 1643, Canonist and Consultor to the Peniten-
tiaria,^ and on July 14th, 1644, nuncio in Spain with the title
of Archbishop of Tarsus. He had been in Spain on a previous
occasion in the suite of the Cardinal Legate Francesco
Barberini.2
Besides his other excellent qualities. Urban VIII. and his
nephews had attached special value to Rospigliosi's gifts as a
poet, in fact it may be said that it was his line literary
formation which opened to him the highly polished Barberini
circle. Rospigliosi expounded his lofty conception of poetry
in a dissertation on Bracciolini's poem on the election of
Urban VIII. In 1629 he wrote some poems on the wedding
on Taddeo Barberini and Anna Colonna ^ ; he also composed a
sonnet in honour of the famous singer, Leonora Baroni, who
had been the object of Milton's homage.'* For the inauguration
of the Barberini theatre in 1634, he wrote his first melodrama,
" Sant' Alessio," which was set to music by Stefano Landi.
The mise-en-sceiie, of which Barberini had taken charge and the
delightful music, made of the representation of this touching
^ A Brief of July 27, 1643, appointed Rospigliosi " sigillatore
della Penitenziaria e vicario della basilica di S. Maria Maggiore " ;
cf. * Compendia, loc. cit.
2 Rospigliosi's *nunciature reports in Nunziat. di Spagna, 89,
90, 91, A. 92, A. 93, 94, 96, 97, 98, 99, 99 A., 100, loi, 102, 104,
346, 347, 348, etc. ; his *Lettere famigliari of the period of his
nunciature 1 644-1 653 in Rospigliosi Archives, T. 4 and 5 ; ibid.,
T. 1-3 his *Lettere famigliari from Rome, 1630-1643. Ademollo
(Teatri 84) wTongly places the nomination as nuncio in the year
1646, BiLDT {Conclave, I.) in 1663.
^ Ademollo, loc. cit., 78 seqq., 86 seqq. ; Canevazzi, loc. cit.,
57 seq., 59 seqq.
* Ademollo, La Leonora di Milton e di Clemente IX..
Milano.
SACRED DRAMAS. 321
legend an event in the artistic life of Rome.^ Rospigliosi's
other musical dramas — Santa Teodora, San Bonifazio,
Chi soffre speri, Sani' Etistachio — were equally successful.
The very titles of these and other melodramas show the
influence of the Spanish " Comedias de Santos " on the author
who successfully kept free from the prevailing mannerisms
of the period. These Spanish models were Rospigliosi's
standard not only in his sacred dramas, but likewise in his
profane ones. In them faith and virtue triumph over unbelief
and vice, hence the author was acclaimed by reason of his
good influence on the stage in Rome. In some pieces, such
as, for instance, Dal male, il bene, the scene of which is laid
at Madrid, the influence of Calderon is unmistakable.^ During
his nunciature in Madrid, Rospigliosi wrote the drama,
La comica del cielo, which was repeatedly performed during
the carnival of 1668, in the home of the Rospigliosi, the
palazzo Ludovisi [to-day Fiano] in the Corso, when it earned
great applause. Bernini was responsible for the scenery,
Antonio Maria Abbatini for the music. The piece represents
the conversion of a fair Spaniard, Baltesara ; it betrays
reminiscences from Tasso's Gerusaleuime liberata, but the plot
is based on a Spanish model. ^
Rospighosi successfully conducted the Spanish nunciature
for a period of nine years.* His disinterestedness was proved
^ Ademollo, Teatri, 7 seqq. ; Canevazzi, 65 seqq. ; Fraschetti,
261 seq.
- Ademollo, loc. cit., 20 seq., 65 seq., 81 seq. ; Beani, 139,
173 seqq. ; J. Sanesi, Poesie musicali di G. Rospigliosi (Nozze-
Publ.), Pistoia, 1894 ; Canevazzi, 77 seqq., 86, 96 seqq., 103 seqq.,
123 seqq., 136. Cf. Alaleona, P. Clemente IX. poeta in Bullet,
de Soc. filologica Roniana, 1905 ; Salza, Dramnii inediti di G.
Rospigliosi in Riv. music., XIV. (1907) ; Fraschetti, 270 seq.
Part of Clement IX. 's private library, consisting mostly of printed,
beautifully bound works, among them many musical ones, is
preserved in the Rospigliosi palace in Rome. Cf. our data,
Vol. XXVIII, 352, XXIX, 506 ; Baumgartner, VI., 509 seq. ;
Library at Naples, XIII., E. 7, E. 25.
* Ademollo, Teatri, 99 seqq. ; Canevazzi, 145 seqq.
* Not eleven, as given by Novaes (X., 199) and others.
VOL. XXXI. Y
322 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
by the fact that he returned poor from that " Prelates'
India " as Pallavicino described it.^ He did not obtain the
purple which he so fully deserved, because under Innocent X.
he shared the disgrace of his friends, the Barberini. At the"
death of that Pope the College of Cardinals made him Governor
of Rome ; in this difficult post he gave splendid proofs of his
ability. Alexander VII. greatly valued Rospigliosi's merit as
well as his literary talents. He made him Secretary of State.
On April 9th, 1657, he was named Cardinal priest of S. Sisto,^
to Pistoia's great satisfaction.^
As Secretary of State, Rospigliosi won the good opinion
of everyone by reason of his blameless life, his modesty,
kindliness and apphcation to duty.* He nevertheless tem-
porarily forfeited the Pope's confidence for having entered into
a correspondence with the French court with a view to assuring
for himself France's support in the event of a conclave.
However, he promptly dropped the French and thus main-
tained himself in his position.^ The issue of the conclave,
brought it about that for the second time a Secretary of
State became Pope : a circumstance that greatly enhanced
the prestige of that office.^
According to the consistorial acts, Rospigliosi took the
name of Clement because he wished to encourage the hopes
inspired by his election.' His conception of mildness is
sufficiently revealed by the legend of one of his medals :
^ Pallavicino, I., 264. C/. the report from Lucca in Studi e
docum, XXII., 232, and the *Vita dementis, IX., in Ottob., 2481,
p. 440, Vat. Lib.
2 Cf. Alexander VII. 's *Bricf to Pistoia in Beani, 159.
^ Ademollo, Teatri, 84.
* P. Basadoxna in Berciiet, II., 269.
* Gerin, L, 274 seqq.
' Richard in Rev. d'hist. eccles., XI., 737.
' " *Confirmandae spei de se conceptae nomen sibi Clementis
IX. impo.suit " [Acta consist., Barb. 2931, Vat. Lib. Hence it is
an error to say that he took the name because he was born under
Clement VIII., as Terlinden (47) does.
POPULARITY OF THE NEW POPE. 323
Aliis non sibi Clemens : " kind to others, not to self." ^
Another and characteristic proof of the excellent reputation
Rospigliosi enjoyed in Rome is the circumstance that naughty
Pasquino greeted him with an ode, an exceptional treatment
of which none of his predecessors could boast. He praised
Rospighosi's justice and prophesied that his reign would
bring back the golden age for the Christian peoples. ^
Unfortunately, the 67 years' old Pontiff was frail and sickly,^
a fact which is confirmed by his excellent portrait by Maratta.*
For this reason he preferred to live in the salubrious Quirinal
rather than at the Vatican.^ Doubts had been expressed
during the conclave as to whether Rospigliosi would be
equal to the exertions of the liturgical functions ; but during
the first year of his pontificate his health was so robust in
this respect that he put healthier and stronger Popes in the
shade. ^ The coronation was celebrated on June 26th, 1667,
and on July 3rd the Pope took possession of the Lateran.'
Until this time every new pontificate had meant a more or
less considerable change of officials. Clement IX. would not
hear of such a thing. Apart from a few higher posts, he retained
most of the officials of his predecessor.^ Emilio Altieri became
1 On Clement IX. 's medals see Beani, 189 seq.
2 Havra il mondo di pace ancor tesoro | Godra 11 popol di
Cristo un seed d'oro (Chledowski, II., 271). The Cardinal of
Hesse and John Emmerix bestow great praise on the new Pope in
their *reports to Leopold I., dated June 20, 1667 (State Archives,
Vienna). See also the *Avviso of June 25, 1667, Papal Sec. Arch.
* " Essendo gracile di corpo e di complessione delicata, tanto
che le accidentali sue indisposizioni di calcolo e di hernia acquosa
I'hanno qualche volta indebolito e sconvolto." A. Grimani in
Berchet, II., 328.
« See p. 331.
* BiLDT, Un banchetto al Qiiirinale nel seicento, Roma, 1901, 10.
* See the report of the envoys of Lucca in Studi e docuni, XXI I.,
232 seq.
' Caxcellieri, Possessi, 275 seqq.
* Report of the envoys of Lucca, loc. cit., 234. The Florentine
Archbishop, Franc. Nerli, was retained as Secretary of Briefs to
Princes ; *Episi., I., Papal Sec. Arch. G. F. Nini also continued
324 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Maestro di Camera, the Jesuit Ambrogio Spinola, his confessor,
Pietro Ottoboni was made Datarius ^ and Decio Azzohni
was appointed Secretary of State ; the two last named
belonged to the " flying squadron ". Their influence was
great in other ways also, inasmuch as they were considered
to have been really responsible for the election. ^ Azzolini
was soon joined by a Cardinal nephew in the person of Jacopo
Rospighosi who was raised to the purple on December 12th,
1667. This son of the Pope's brother was acting as internuncio
at Brussels at the time of the conclave. On his return he
remained under the direction of Azzolini although himself
experienced in diplomacy and 38 years of age.^ The real
management of State business the Pope reserved to himself.^
The revenues assigned to the nephew were modest, and with
regard to his other relatives also, the Pope followed the
warning given by Cardinal Pallavicino shortly before his
death. ^ He broke with the custom of providing for the
nephews at the expense of the State, thereby dealing nepotism
a sensible blow.^ " The Pope thinks of everybody, except his
own family," wrote the Duke of Chaulnes, who saw his hope
of influencing the Pope through his nephews go up in smoke.'
In this ticklish matter, Clement IX. acted with a tact only
equalled by his caution. His relatives in Pistoia, where the
election of a fellow citizen had been hailed with enthusiasm,^
for a time as maggiordomo, in 1669, he was succeeded by
B. Rocci ; see Moroni, XLI., 268.
^ *Avviso of June 25, 1667, Papal Sec. Arch. ; Moroni, XIX.,
138, XLI., 135 ; QuiRiNi in Berchet, II., 332. The " *Ruolo
di famiglia di Clemente IX.," dated November i, 1667, in
Cod. J. II., 48, Chigi Library.
" Report of the envoys of Lucca, loc. cit., XXII. , 233.
' QuiRiNi in Berchet, II., 331 ; Richard in Rev. d'hist.
eccUs., XL, 737.
* Report of the envoy of Lucca, loc. cit., 235.
* See p. 314, n. i.
* Brosch, I., 435 ; Chledowski, II., 272.
' Gerin, II. , 277.
8 Ademollo, Teatri, 98 seq., 227 seqq. ; Beani, 49 seqq.
THE NEPHEWS. 325
were allowed to come to Rome at the beginning of July 1667/
only for the lifetime of the Pope. They were refused the
customary title of " Don ". Though they were given adminis-
trative posts — Clement IX. 's brother, Camillo, was named
General of the Church in September 1667, and his son,
Tommaso, castellan of Castel S. Angelo ^ — they nevertheless
had to be content with the revenues of these offices. And
since the Pope insisted that his relatives should live in a
becoming style, it was impossible for them to pile up wealth
or to lay the foundation of a new family of nephews at the
price of an increase of the public debt.^ If the Rospigliosi,
who occupied the Ludovisi palace in the Corso,* ended by
entering into the circle of the great families of Rome, it was
solely because Camillo's son, Giambattista, the commander
of the papal guards, married a wealthy Pallavicino of Genoa.
Even this alhance was only reluctantly sanctioned by the
Pope, for his original intention had been that after his death
the Rospighosi should go back to Pistoia.^
Though Clement IX. yielded on this point, he rigorously
insisted on his relatives refraining from meddling with affairs
that were not of their competence. The Rospigliosi fully
complied with the Pope's lofty intentions. Camillo Rospigliosi
lived very quietly and after the death of Lucrezia Cellese,
his wife, he devoted himself mainly to piety and works of
charity ; the only thing he occasionally complained of was
that his brother, whom he had always assisted in former
days, made him far too small an allowance.^ Only in 1669
did he receive a considerable gift from the Pope, but this was
taken from the Pope's private property.'^
A contemporary describes Camillo's character as that of
^ *Avviso of July 9, 1667, Papal Sec. Arch.
- *Avviso of September 3, 1667, Papal Sec. Arch.
' Report of the envoy of Lucca, loc. cit., 233 ; Quirini in
Berchet, II., 331 seq. ; Brosch, loc. cit.
* *Avviso of October i, 1667, loc. cit.
* Report of the envoy of Lucca, loc. cit. • Ibid., 236.
' *Donazione di Clemente IX. al suo fratello Camillo di tutta
la sua porzione patrimoniale paterna e matcrna, dat. Roma,
326 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
an old world gentleman. Though he was no good at compli-
ments, he nevertheless treated everyone with great courtesy.
For the rest the Pope had restricted his official powers by
transferring the office of the Governor of the Borgo to the
Governor of Rome, with a view to eliminating complications
such as those that had crept in during the last pontificate. ^
Of Camillo's many sons mention has already been made of
Cardinal Jacopo and of Tommaso and Giambattista. Vincenzo,
the next in age after the Cardinal, received the command of
the papal galleys ; Felice, who was an ecclesiastic, was only
given two abbeys in the Kingdom of Naples which did not
yield more than a 1,000 scudi.^
All the Rospigliosi were remarkable for their modest, meek
and reserved nature. Their conduct towards the aristocracy
is hkewise described as most considerate.^ When Tommaso
Rospigliosi was carried off by a fever in the summer of 1669,^
at the early age of 28, a statue was put up in his honour in
the palace of the Conservators in recognition of the services
he had rendered to the city.^
Monte Cavallo 1669 gennaio 7 ; Avith Chirografo for the " fidei-
commisso Rospigliosi di Pistoia," Rospigliosi Archives, Rome.
^ Report of Lucca envoy, loc. cit. The " Constitutio super
reformatione iurisdictionis tribunalis Burgi ", dated Cal.,
September, 1667, in Bandi, V., 46, Papal Sec. Arch., printed in
Bull., XVII., 547 seqq.
2 QuiRiNi in Berchet, II., 332. Vincenzo's portrait by Fred.
Voigt, in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, reproduced by Terlinden, 240.
' Report of Lucca envoys, loc. cit., 235. Cf. Quirixi in
Berchet, IL, 331 seq.
* See the *reports of the Cardinal of Hesse to Leopold I.,
dated Rome, August 3 and 10, 1669, State Archives, Vienna.
Cf. *Avviso of August 10, 1669, which says that the Pope called
upon the sick man incognito. Papal Sec. Arch.
^ According to the *Avviso of August 17, 1669 (ibid.), the
Senate decreed the statue chiefly by reason of the interest which
Tommaso had taken in the silk and woollen industry. The
inscription of the statue, which exists to this day, is in Forcella,
I., 64. T. Rospigliosi was buried at St. Mary Major ; .see *Avviso
of August 10, 1669, loc. cit.
THE POPE S LIBERALITY. 327
Clement IX. 's popularity with the Roman people could
not have been greater. He quickly won all hearts by an
heroic decision, one by which he earned the encomiums of the
Venetian ambassador, when he lowered the duty on flour,
though a heavy loss of revenue was bound to be the conse-
quence. As Alexander VII. had already thought of this step,
Clement IX. saw to it that in the ordinance to this effect the
late Pope's name, not his own, should be mentioned.^ The
encouragement given by the Pope to agriculture and the wool
and silk industry, his solicitude for the proper administration
of justice and the fact that he admitted into his presence
even the humblest plaintiff, were felt as a very great blessing.
Immediately after his election he had a confessional put up
in St. Peter's in which he himself heard confessions. ^
Clement IX. was by nature extraordinarily inclined to kindli-
ness— concediamo was his favourite saying ^ — and his liberality
knew no bounds. On the other hand, for his own person he
was parsimonious : he would not allow more than 15 baiocchi
a day to be spent on his table. ^ Within a short time he spent
the sum of 600,000 scudi on necessitous persons of every
description.^ Daily thirteen poor persons were fed at the
Vatican, the Pope himself waiting upon them.^ In November
1667, Clement IX. visited the sick in the hospital of the
Lateran, questioned them on their illness, distributed generous
alms and gave orders that they should be well looked after.
In January 1668, he visited the hospital della Consolazione ;
on Maundy Thursday he entertained 400 poor pilgrims and on
Holy Saturday he heard confessions in St. Peter's for three
and a half hours. In September, and again in December,
1 OuiRixi in Berchet, II., 329 ; *Avviso of July 2, 1667,
Papal Sec. Arch. ; Novaes, X., 202.
2 Benigni, 58 seq. ; Novaes, X., 223. Cf. " *Compendio della
vita di Clemente IX," Rospigliosi Archives.
' Rapin, Mem., III., 396.
^ BiLDT, Un banchetto, 9.
5 QuiRiNi in Berchet, II., 328 seq., 333.
* *Avviso of July 30, 1667, Papal Sec. Archives.
328 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
he repeated his visit to the hospital of the Lateran.^ Despite
his age and infirmities he went up the Scala Santa on his
knees in Advent 1668.^ Although in 1669 the physicians
forbade him to take part in church functions, because of his
gravel, he nevertheless assisted at the function of Palm
Sunday, which fatigued him greatly.^ Only a short time before
his death he visited the seven principal churches of Rome.'*
That so cultivated a Pope should have shown favour to
scholars, artists and musicians, is not surprising. Thus he
gave his patronage to the learned Jesuit Kircher, the archaeo-
logist Giovanni Ciampini, the historian of literature Leone
Allacci, the astronomer Cassini, and the anatomist Blaise
Benginus.^ By his orders Giovanni Bona and Michelangelo
Ricci founded an Academy for the study of Church history.^
Of great consequence for the literary and artistic life of
Rome was the return, on November 22nd, 1668, of the highly
cultivated Queen Christina, after an absence of two and a half
years in Sweden. Clement IX. had been on friendly terms
with her whilst still a Cardinal and the Queen had furthered
his election through Azzolini and by influencing Louis XIV.'
1 See the *Avviso ol November 12, 1667, January 8, September
29 and December 22, 1668 ; ibid., and the French reports in
Gerin, II., 229.
2 *Avviso of December 22, 1668, loc. cit.
^ Report of the Cardinal of Hesse to Leopold I., dated April 20,
1669, State Archives, Vienna.
* *Avviso of November 2, 1669, loc. cit.
* Beani, Clemente IX., no seqq.
« Ibid., 108.
' Information on this point (Grauicrt, II., 213, and e.specially
BiLDT, Christine et le card. Azzolini, 195 seq., 208 seq., 219 seq.) is
confirmed by an autograph letter of Clement IX. to Christine,
dated June 22, 1667, in which the Pope thanks her for her co-
operation in the same terms as the Kings of France and Spain
and assures her of his special affection as " eletta dal S. Dio
a si grande et straordinaria maniera di suo servitio, e che con
tanta virtu c costanza, dopo haver .sacrificati i suoi regni alia vera
fede di Christo, mostra anche con tante fatiche e disastrosi viaggi
al sua prontezza a sacrificargli la vita c fa risplendere la gloriosa
THE POPE AND QUEEN CHRISTINE. 329
The Pope wished to show his gratitude for this as well as for
the interest Christine had taken in Catholicism in the North. ^
Accordingly, he did all he could in order to surround her return
to Rome with the utmost splendour, and as soon as she arrived
he received her in an audience which lasted three hours and a
quarter.^ Later on also, he paid her much honour. At the
beginning of December, he called on her in her palace on the
Lungara and remained a whole hour. The Queen received the
Pope on her knees at the foot of the staircase.^ On
December 9th, 1668, he gave a brilliant banquet in her honour
at the Quirinal. This entertainment has been perpetuated
by an engraving and an aquarelle by Pierre Sevin, a member
of the French Academy of painting in Rome, founded by
Louis XIV. in 1666.* The ceremonial of the feast was arranged
beforehand, down to the smallest detail. The Pope's table
stood on a dais surmounted by a baldacchino : in close
proximity, on a lower dais, was the Queen's table. The Queen
went into the room first and shortly afterwards the Pope
came in by the opposite door. After they had greeted each
e degna perseveranza nella sua somma pieta ". On September 3,
1667, Clement IX., in answer to her letter informing him of
her arrival on August 10, wrote that he had anxiously awaited
her from the beginning of his pontificate as her presence was a
comfort to him {Lettere di propria mano, Arm., 45, t. 41, p. 102,
104, Papal Sec. Arch., printed from a copy in Bullet, stor. Pistoiese,
I. [1899], 153 seqq.). In the Lettere, p. 140^, *Letter of October 28,
1668 : Joy over her speedy arrival.
1 C/. p. 69.
* Grauert, II., 216. Cf. *Avviso of November 24, 1668 (Papal
Sec. Arch.), and *report of the Cardinal of Hesse to Leopold I.,
dated November 24, 1668 (State Archives, Vienna), who says of
Christine : " Es scheinet woll das Ihro die Raisz nichts geschadet,
weillen sie faister zuriickgekommen als abgereist."
* *Avviso of December 8, 1668, loc. cit.
* See H. Lapauze, La premiere liste authentique des pension-
naires de I'Academie de France a Rome 1668 et le premier logis
de I'Academie, in Le Bulletin de I'art ancien et moderne, 10 fevrier
1912, 46-98 ; 17 fevrier 191 2, 53-6. " Da documenti dell'Archivio
della parrocchia di S. Spirito, con lista dei pensionati 1665-1671."
330 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
other, the Maggiordomo was about to hand the Pope his
napkin when the Queen herself presented it to him. Instru-
mental and vocal music enhanced the feast. Clement IX.,
who never touched wine, drank the Queen's health in red
lemonade. The dinner ended with dessert prepared alia
francese, that is sweet pastry ; so-called trionfi, representing
for the most part religious subjects, were put on the table in
silver baskets and vases. The meal over, another chair was
placed near the Pope's table for the Queen, when they entered
into a short conversation, for up till then they had sat so far
apart that the master of ceremonies, Faber, who stood between
them, had to act as intermediary for their mutual courtesies.
At the end the two sovereigns withdrew in the same order
as they had come in. The Queen had been met by the nephew,
Giambattista Rospigliosi and officers of the Swiss Guard,
with a numerous escort, and she was conducted back to her
palace in the same way.^ On other occasions also, such as
the New Year, Christine was the object of particular attentions
on the part of the Pope,^ and in 1669, evidently at the
instigation of the Secretary of State, Azzolini, the Pope
granted her an annual pension of 12,000 scudi.^ The Queen
called on the Pope almost every month * ; the latter was
one of the few people who knew of her aspirations to the crown
of Poland.'' Christine showed her gratitude by bestowing a
diamond cross on Clement IX. 's sister, and by intervening
with De Witt, a former member of the Dutch Council, with a
view to restraining the calumnies that were being spread in
Holland about the first personages of the Curia. ^
Conversation between Clement IX. and the gifted Queen
1 BiLDT, Un banchetto. To the sources there mentioned must
be added an *Avviso of December 15, 1668, Papal Sec. Arch.
2 *Avviso of January 5, 1669, ibid.
' BiLDT, Christine et le card. Azzolini, 199, n. 2.
* Cf. the *Avvisi of May 18, June 8, August 10 and September
28, 1669, loc. cit.
* Grauert, II., 218 ; BiLUT, Christine, 441 ; Andre, in
Rev. hist., 1908.
* Grauert, II., 229, 242.
A PATRON OF THE ARTS. 33 1
was not confined to ecclesiastical and political questions,
the most important of which was the warding off of Turkish
aggression, on the contrary, it very much included literary,
musical and artistic topics. On the occasion of his visit to
the palace on the Lungara, the Pope made a minute inspection
of the Queen's famous picture gallery. ^
Like Clement IX., ^ his brother Camillo also took a lively
interest in art. Up to this time an exhibition of the works of
living artists was held every year on the feast of St. Joseph
in the porch of the Pantheon, under the auspices of a Guild of
artists, the so-called Virtuosi al Pantheon, founded under
Paul III.^ It was an innovation when Camillo Rospigliosi,
on August 29th, 1669, organized an exhibition of pictures
by old masters, for which Queen Christine's gallery was
particularly drawn upon. On this occasion, Sal vat ore Rosa
managed to get his picture " Saul and the witch of Endor ",
now in the Louvre, exhibited by the side of Raphael and
Titian. The admiration it called forth is deserved, for it is
a most effective composition despite its peculiarities.*
Whilst still a Cardinal, Clement IX. had had a great deal
to do with the painter Carlo Maratta, a pupil of Andrea
Sacchi. As Pope he saw him repeatedly and gave him divers
proofs of goodwill. Maratta was commissioned to paint the
Pope's portrait. The Pope sat for him in the convent of
S. Sabina whither he was wont to withdraw during the
carnival. During one of these sittings the Pope was taken with
' *Avviso of December 8, 1668, loc. cit.
" An *Avviso of November 12, 1667 [ibid), announces the
Pope's visit to the " chiesa di S. Maria in Portico, fabricata in
adempimento del vote, che fecero I'anno 1656 la f. m. di P.
Alessandro VII. e il popolo Romano per la liberatione dalla
peste, e diede una vista al sontuoso ornamento fatto attorno
alia miracolosa imagine con architettura del S. Giov. Ant. de
Rossi ".
^ See our data, Vol. XII., 600.
•• Cesareo, Poesie e lettere di S. Rosa, II., Napoli, 1892, 129 seq. ;
L. OzzoLA, Vita e opeve di S. Rosa, Strassburg, 1908, 148 seq. ;
Chledowski, II., 438. Cf. above, p. 310, n. 9.
332 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
one of the sudden fainting fits to which he was subject. The
biographer of the artist praises the tact with which his hero
dealt with this dehcate situation.^ Maratta's protrait of
Clement IX., now owned by the Pallavicini in Rome, ranks
among the classical portraits of Popes. The portrait, for which
Maratta drew inspiration from Valasquez' " Innocent X.",
is a half length one and shows the Pope seated in a chair
lined with carmine velvet and wearing a red cap ; a cape
of the same colour forms a striking contrast to the white
cassock. The Pontiff holds a book in one hand, the other
rests on the chair. On the small table in front of the Pope
is a bell and a scroll bearing the words : Per Carlo Maratta.
The contemporaries admired the realism of the portrait
which betrays the fatigue of age, though without allowing the
beholder to forget the majesty and intelligence of the model.
The pale, furrowed, nervous face with the pointed nose, grey
beard and the bright, big, vivacious eyes, is superbly rendered.^
On the other hand, Clement IX. looks much younger in the
no less splendid portrait by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, surnamed
Baciccia, which is seen in the Accademia di S. Luca, in Rome.^
Of all Rome's artists Bernini, an architect as well as a
sculptor of genius, was held in highest esteem by Clement IX.
Whilst the days of Pietro da Cortona and those of Borromini
were drawing to a close,* the master who had served so many
1 Bellori, III., 155 seqq.
* Excellent reproduction in Venturi, Tesori d'arte inediti di
Roma, Roma, 1896. Copies in the Eremitage, Petrograd (lusxi,
Velasquez, II., 188), in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, Pistoia (Beani,
196), and in that of Rome, where there is also a marble bust of
Clement IX. and of Card. Rospigliosi and a portrait of the Pope's
sister. In the garden house there is a good bronze bust of
Clement IX. A very characteristic pastel of the head of
Clement IX., attributed to Maratta, is in the Palais des Arts,
Lyons (P. Marcell, Les Miisdes de France, 1912, no. i, p. 17).
* Reproduction in Ricci, Gesch. der Kunst in Norditalicn,
303 {cf. 305). A small but excellent copy is in the Palazzo
Rospigliosi, Rome. Cf. Thieme, XIII., 277.
^ Borromini died on August 28, 1667, Pietro da Cortona on
BERNINI AND THE BRIDGE S. ANGELO. 333
Popes was still at the height of his powers. Immediately
after his election Clement IX. entrusted to him both the
completion of the left wing of the colonnade of St. Peter's
and the embellishment of the bridge of St. Angelo. Clement
VII. had put up on the bridge the statues of the Princes of
the Apostles, SS. Peter and Paul.^ For the reception of
Charles V. by Paul III. in 1536, Raffael da Montelupo had
adorned the bridge with fourteen terracotta figures. ^ It was
now decided to replace these by ten, more than life-size,
marble statues of angels holding the instruments of the
Passion. It was impossible to conceive a more appropriate
decoration than this Via Cntcis for the monumental bridge
which all pilgrims to the shrine of the Prince of the Apostles
must cross. It was the christening of a monument of pagan
antiquity similar to that of the imperial columns and the
obelisks by Sixtus V.
Sixty-seven years old Bernini set to work with youthful
ardour. He personally executed two statues, viz. the angel
with the crown of thorns and the one with the inscription
of the cross. ^ However, the Pope was unwilling to see these
magnificent works exposed to the injuries of the elements,
hence copies by the hand of Paolo Naldini and Giulio Cartari
were substituted for them on the bridge and the originals
eventually found a place in the choir of S. Andrea delle
Fratte.^ The remaining giant marble statues were executed
from Bernini's designs by Cosimo Fanceili, Antonio Raggi,
Domenico Guidi, Ercole Ferrata, Antonio Giorgetti and other
pupils of the Master. Even severe critics of these angels
in fluttering draperies, grant that, viewed as a whole, and
mainly as part of the decorative scheme of a bridge, they
produce an excellent effect in the bright sunshine of the
Maj' 16, 1669. For Borromini, cf. Bollet. d. Svizz. ital., IX.,
105 seq.
1 See our data, Vol. X., 358.
^ For the decoration of Rome at that time, see Vol. XL, 242.
' Baldinucci, edit. Riegl, 274.
* Reproductions in Fraschetti, 366, 367, and Ricci, Roma
barocca, 373.
334 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
South. The softness which characterizes in particular Bernini's
female figures is so strongly marked here that the lines produce
something akin to the sensations called forth by music. ^
The Master seems to have had a hand in the carving of the
slim figure of the angel with the cross, the work of his son
Paolo. ^
In July, 1668, the Pope examined the statues in Bernini's
studio where the equestrian statue of Constantine, ordered
by Alexander VII., was nearing completion. ^ On January
12th, 1669, that imposing monument was transferred to St.
Peter's where it was destined to adorn the portico.* In 1675
Giotto's mosaic of the Navicella, after many translations
and yet another restoration, was finally placed on the inner
wall of the porch above the main entrance.^
In September 1669, the Pope inspected six of Bernini's
ten statues of angels placed on marble pedestals on either
side of the bridge of S. Angelo.^ On this occasion the bridge
1 Bergner, Barockes Rom., loi ; Ricci, loc. cit., 372.
2 Fraschetti, 370 seq.
3 On Sunday, so we read in an *Avviso of July 28, 1668,
the Pope inspected the " ornamento, che fa fare alii capi e sponde
del Ponte S. Angelo di travertini bianchi tramezzati con finestre
ferrate, e sopra a piedestalli principali otto angeli grandi, che
terranno in mano li misterii della Passione, fatti dal cav. Bernino
et altri principali scultori, et al ritorno visito I'altra chiesa di
detta Santa delle monache Domenicane, et prima fu neH'officina
del cav. Bernino a vedere la statua, che questo ha fatto del Gran
Costantino imperatore da porsi incontro al portico di detta
basilica ". Papal Sec. Arch.
* " *Dalla casa del S. cav. Bernino famoso scultore e stata
portata nel Palazzo Vaticano la statua di marmo a cavallo
deH'imperatore Constantino magno, ch'egli ha fatto d'ordine di
Papa Alcssandro VII. da collocarsi a pie della scala Regia di rim-
petto al portico della basilica." Avviso of January 12, 1669,
loc. cit.
* G. Cascioli, La Navicella cli Giotto a S. Pietro in Vaticano,
Roma, 1916, 20 seqq.
« See besides the data from the Diario of Cervini in
Fraschetti, 368, the * Avviso of September 21, 1669 : On Monday
THE BRIDGE OF S. ANGELO. 335
was given a marble parapet the openings of which are closed
by a bronze grating. In his great modesty Clement IX.
would not perpetuate the memory of what he had done for
the bridge by means of either inscription or coat of arms ;
he would allow only quotations from the psalms to be carved
on the pedestal of the statues.^ It was Clement X. who put
up the arms of his predecessor and a short inscription ^ on
the two statues facing the Borgo.
Clement IX. also gave instructions for the completion of
the College of the Barnabites ^ and he put up an iron grating
for the protection of the porch of the Pantheon.* At S.
Sabina he saw to the decoration of the chapel which had
been at one time St. Dominic's cell.* To this day an inscription
on the Palazzo del Banco di Santo Spirito recalls the fact
that the Rospigliosi Pope transferred the Mint to this building
in 1667.6
the Pope inspected the marble angels on the Ponte di Castello,
" che si vanno erigendo sine al numero di lo, d'altezza circa
15 palmi ciascuno, tenenti li misterii della Passione, fatti per
ordine di S. S'^ d'altretanti scultori per ornamento del medesimo
ponte." Papal Sec. Arch.
^ The inscriptions (not previously published) which Clement X.
put up {*Avviso of March 12, 1672, Papal Sec. Arch.), are as
follows for the five pairs of statues beginning from the town
side : " Tronus meus in columna — Flagellis paratus sum — In
aerumna mea dum configitur spina - — Respic[e] faciem [Christi]
tui — Super vestem meam miserunt sortem — Aspiciant ad me
quern crucifixerunt — Regnavit a ligno Deus — Cuius principatus
super humerum eius — Potaverunt me aceto — Vulnerasti cor
meum."
- FoRCELLA, XIII., 55.
^ *Ordinance of February 18, 1668, based on a Chirografo
of August 14, 1667, in Editti, V., 15, Papal Sec. Arch.
^ On Sunday the Pope inspected the " portico di S. Maria del
Panteon ornato di cancellate di ferro intrecciate con I'armi di
S. S*^". *Avviso of March 30, 1669, Papal Sec. Arch.
* FoRCELLA, VII., 314 ; Berthier, 5. Sabine, Rome, 1912,
53 ; GuiDi, Borromini, 105, who does not admit Borromini's
collaboration. * Forcella, XIII., 184.
336 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Bernini was likewise employed on various commissions for
Pistoia, the Pope's native city. He adorned the tomb of
Clement IX. 's parents with their busts and designed the
magnificent altar of St. Ignatius which was presented to the
Jesuit church there, together with a picture by Pietro da
Cortona.i The Villa di Spicchio, erected for the Rospigliosi
at Lamporecchio, near Pistoia, is based on plans by Bernini. ^
Recently a terracotta model of a fountain by Bernini was
found at Florence. This was to be a gift of Clement IX.
to his native city ; the model shows dolphins holding a shell,
a pair of Tritons blow into horn-shaped shells and the centre
is occupied by the arms of the donor. ^
For Rome the Pope conceived yet another vast plan
which shows how much artists might have expected, had a
longer reign been granted to Clement IX. In August 1669,
Bernini was commissioned to reconstruct the ruinous tribuna
of St. Mary Major where Clement IX. wished to have his
last resting place. A sketch * in the Archives of the basilica
shows on what imposing hnes the reconstruction had been
conceived : in fact it was planned as a counterpart of the
Sistine and Pauline chapels. The foundation stone was laid
in September and work started at once. To meet the cost
the Pope put aside the sum of 150,000 scudi ^ ; it was,
1 Beani, 9, 57, 133 seq. ; Gurlitt, Barockstil, 417. The
*deed of donation of four columns of verd-antique from the Villa
Giulia for the altar of St. Ignatius at Pistoia, in Rospigliosi
Archives, Rome.
2 Fraschetti, 374 ; Gurlitt, loc. cit., 434.
3 Kunschronik , XVIII. (1906-7, No. 8, p. 114. A mutilated
fountain related to this sketch is in the Palazzo Antemoro,
Via della Panetteria, Rome. An *Editto sopra mantenere nette
le fontane fabricate nella piazza de' Barberini a capo le case,
dated August 14, 1668, in Editti, V., 51, Papal Sec. Arch.
* Reproduction in Fraschetti, 381.
* Together with the reports in Fraschetti, 379 seq. Cf. also the
*Avviso of September 7, 1669 : " Si e dato principio a far li
fundamenti della fabrica, che fa fare S. S'^ alia basilica di S. Maria
Maggiore d'una nuova et magnifica tribuna, che sara ornata
PLANS FOR ST. MARY MAJOR. 337
however, reckoned that this amount would be inadequate.
Both the Venetian and the imperial ambassadors were of
opinion that the building would require 400,000 scudi.^ The
Rospighosi made objections for they feared that in the event
of the Pope's death the onerous duty of completing the
work would be laid on them. The Chapter of St. Mary Major
also opposed the plan because it was intended to transfer
the old trihuna of Sixtus III. to another place, a proceeding
that would have endangered the precious mosaics. ^ The
pictorial decoration of the new trihuna was to be carried out
by Carlo Maratta.^ Clement IX. stuck to his plan in spite
of all opposition. In November 1669, he gave orders for a
large model in wood,* and only his death, not long after,
brought the undertaking to a standstill.
tutta di pietre pretiose et lavorate con portico al di fuori sostenuto
da colonne correspondente alle due sontuose cappelle collaterali
de' Pontefici Sisto V. et Paolo V." Papal Sec. Arch.
^ Berchet, II., 329, and the *report of the Cardinal of Hesse
to Leopold I., dated Rome, August 31, 1669, State Archives,
Vienna.
^ Fraschetti, 381. Illustration of the exterior of the old apse
of St. Mary Major previous to Clement X.'s restoration, in Bollet.
d'arte, 1915, 144.
' Bellori, Vite dei pitiori, III., Pisa, 1821, 159.
■» Fraschetti, 381 seq. Hence the statement in Arch. Rom.,
VIII., 520, that in September, 1669, Rainaldi took Bernini's
place, cannot be accurate.
VOL. XXXI.
CHAPTER II.
Religious Activities of Clement IX. — Jansenism and
THE so-called CLEMENTINE PeACE — MISSIONS IN THE
Far East.
By order of Clement IX. the visitation of all the Roman
churches ordered by Alexander VII. was concluded in the
first year of his pontificate.^ In like manner, in pursuance
of an ordinance of his predecessor, he granted to the city of
Rome and the Papal States the Office and Mass in honour of
Mary's Immaculate Conception. -
On April 15th, 1668, he beatified Blessed Rose of Lima
{obiit 1617) in the sumptuously adorned basilica of St. Peter.^
In view of the fact that Rose had been a Dominican tertiar}^,
the Dominicans organized splendid celebrations of their own
at the Minerva, whilst the Spaniards did so at S. Giacomo,
owing to her having been a Spanish subject.^ April 2Sth,
1669, witnessed the canonization of Peter of Alcantara and
Mary Magdalen de'Pazzi,'* for which preparations had been
in progress since December 1668.^ The Pope drew attention
1 Bull., XVII., 572.
" Ibid., 583.
^ *Avvisi of May 19 and June 16, 1668, ibid. Cf. also *Avviso
of September i, 1668, ibid. An inscription on Rose's canonization
is seen in S. Sabina ; see Forcella, VII., 313. Decrees on her
cultus in America in Streit, I., 515 seq. Cf. Bull., XVIII., 68,
70, 73, 232.
* Acta canonizat. S. Petri de Alcantara et S. Mariae Magd. de
Pazzis, Romac, 1669; Novaes, X., 213 seq. Bulls of May 11,
1670, Bull, XVIII., I seq., ii seq. Cf. the *Brief to Leopold I.
of May 29, 1669, Epist., II. -III., Papal Sec. Arch.
* *Avviso of December 15, 1668, loc. cit.
THE CONGREGATION OF INDULGENCES. 339
to the significance of these canonizations in an address at
the consistory.^ For the function itself St. Peter's was adorned
not only with the pictures of the new Saints and thousands
of lights, but likewise with Raphael's tapestries.^
16G8 saw the reorganization of the Congregation of
Regulars.^ Clement VIII. had provisionally created a special
Congregation to deal with questions concerning Indulgences.
By a Bull of July 6th, 1669, Clement IX. erected a permanent
Congregation whose duty it was to examine and grant
Indulgences, to pronounce on the authenticity of relics and
to suppress any abuses that might creep in in this particular
sphere.* This measure marked the conclusion of the system
of permanent Congregations first introduced by Si.xtus V.
At this time Rome had a living Saint within its walls in
the person of a simple Franciscan Friar, Carlo da Sezze.
Born in 1613, Carlo spent his youth as a shepherd in the
Campagna. At the age of twenty-two he donned the habit
of St. Francis ; in 1640 he was sent to the convent near
S. Pietro in Montorio and still later to that of S. Francesco
a Ripa. Though without higher education, he nevertheless
wrote a series of devotional books which ranked among
the most popular works of edification of the 17th century.
Many persons both from the lower and the upper classes
chose him for their spiritual guide ; Clement IX. also held
him in high esteem and repeatedly sent for him. In many
ways Carlo da Sezze recalls Philip Neri ; like Philip he
cherished a special devotion to the Catacombs of St. Sebastian.
When this true image of the Poverello of Assisi, by reason
of his simplicity and purity, died on January 6th, 1670, in
the convent of S. Francesco a Ripa, the great veneration in
which the people had held him, showed itself in moving
1 *Acta consist., April 5, 1669, Papal Sec. Arch.
- *Avviso of May 4, 1669, loc. cit.
=» Bull, XVII., 654 seq.
*■ Ibid., 805 ; Moroni, XVI., 216 seqq. ; Bangen, 247 seq. ;
Anal, iiiris pontif., 1855, 2270 ; Phillips VI., 659, Hinschius,
I., 473 seq.
340 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
fashion.^ For a whole generation numerous complaints from
secular princes had been reaching Rome concerning abuses
in connection with the immunity of churches. On Juh^ 5th,
1668, Clement IX. announced his intention of dealing with
this matter. 2 A special Congregation was charged to examine
whether, and to what extent, it was possible to alter the
dispositions of Gregory XIV. 's Bull on the immunity of
churches.^ Cardinals Brancaccio, Gualtieri, Spinola and,
though less regularly, Borromeo, took part in the meetings
of the Congregation ; the Secretary was Giacomo Altoviti,
Patriarch of Antioch, and Rocci, Archbishop of Damascus,
was likewise called in. At the first session of the Congregation,
on September 6th, 1668, it was resolved that Spinola and
Rocci, both of whom had been nuncios at Naples, should
submit the observations they had made whilst they were in
that city, for it was chiefly with the Spanish authorities that
conflicts had arisen. Two further sessions were held on July
12th and October 2nd, 1669, but at this time Clement IX.
^ Ant. Maria Da Vicenza, Vita del b. Carlo da Sezze, Venezia,
i88i, 242 seq., 256, 261 seq. The earthly remains of Carlo were
first buried in the chapel of St. Antony, now dedicated to
St. Hyacintha, but in 171 1 they found a new resting place near a
pillar in the centre of the church. On November 4, 1881, on the
occasion of the impending beatification, the grave was opened
when some of the bones were found, whereas all else had crumbled
into dust. The heart, however, and the reliquary containing it,
which had been walled up in the former cell of St. Francis,
turned into a chapel, was found incorrupt though shrivelled up.
The primitive funeral inscription is in F'orcella, IV., 417.
2 What follows is based on a MS. from the remains of Cardinal
Gentili, which I acquired in Rome in 1902 : " *Atti della Con-
gregazione particolare deputata dalla santa memoria di
Clemente IX. e confermata da N. S. Clemente X. sopra le doglianze
de' principi secolari contro I'osservanza della bolla di Gregorio XIV.
in materia dell'immunita, liberta e giurisdizione ccclesiastica
1668-71." The collection with its many documents is the work
of Giac. Altoviti.
» See our data, Vol. XXII., 394.
SECULAR ENCROACHMENTS. 34I
died. That very year, 1669, the Pope had had to complain
of grievous injury done to ecclesiastical immunity by the
civil authorities in the kingdom of Naples. ^ An eruption of
Etna in April 1669, provided the Pope with an occasion to
warn the authorities to cease from provoking the divine
anger by their ever recurring violations of the rights of the
Church. 2 The warning remained unheeded. In the summer
encroachments of such gravity took place at Milan and
Naples that the infliction of ecclesiastical penalties was
considered in Rome.^ In the course of the year the Pope
saw himself compelled to repeat his protest against the
continued infringement of the Church's rights in those
territories * and things went on in this strain until his death. ^
Affairs in Portugal also caused Clement IX. much anxiety.
On November 23rd, 1667, Alfonso VI., a man of no ability,
had been deposed and his place taken by his brother Pedro II.
On February 13th, 1668, peace was at length concluded with
Spain ; this ended a 26 years' war between these two Powers
and secured for the ruler of Portugal recognition as legitimate
King. This made it possible at long last for the Holy See to
put order into the rehgious situation of that country.^ It
was high time because, as a result of the vacancy of many
1 See the *Cifre al Nuntio di Spagna, April 9 and 16, 1669,
Nunziat. di Spagna, 139, Papal Sec. Arch.
- Cifra al Nuntio di Spagna, April 30, i66g, ibid.
' " *Qui si conosce la necessita di venire aH'uso delle armi date
da Die alia Chiesa per la necessaria difesa de' suoi diritti." Cifra
al Nuntio di Spagna of July 6, 1669, ibid. Cf. the *Cifra of July 20,
1669, ibid.
* Cf. in App. II the *Cifra al Nuntio di Spagna of August 31,
1669, ibid. Further complaints of encroachments in Naples and
Milan in the *Cifre of September 14, 15, 17 and 28, and October 26,
1669, ibid.
» *Cifra of November 9, 1669, tbid.
« On Clement IX. 's efforts for peace and the filling of the
Sees, see the *Cifre al Nuntio di Spagna of June 24, August 29,
September 27 and October 4, 1667, Nunziat. di Spagna, 136,
loc. cit.
342 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Sees, a situation of so much danger had developed, that
there was reason to fear a schism.^
The Portuguese revolution and the peace with Spain were
a heavy blow for Louis XIV. who, through Mary Frances
of Savoy, Alfonso VI. 's wife, had kept Portugal harnessed
to his political chariot ; so he promptly conceived the plan
of marrying Mary Frances to Pedro II., without recourse to
the Pope for the necessary dispensations.^ By Louis' advice
the Queen appealed not to Rome but to the Cathedral Chapter
of Lisbon for a declaration of nullity of her marriage on the
ground of non-consummation. On April 28th, 1668, a
favourable sentence was issued in this sense, but this did
not remove the impediment of " public honest3^ " which
forbids marriage with a brother's wife and from which the
Pope alone has power to dispense. However, Louis XIV.
was determined on keeping the Holy See out of the affair.
The Queen's uncle. Cardinal Vendome, who had been sent
to France as papal legate for the Baptism of the Dauphin,
was weak enough to exceed his powers by granting the
dispensation. Thereupon the wedding took place. However,
it was not long before the Queen began to experience scruples
as to the validity of the dispensation ; accordingly she sent
her confessor to Rome, but Louis XIV. put every imaginable
obstacle in the lattcr's way with a view to preventing his
departure. The King of France would not allow the Pope
to take cognizance of the judgment of Lisbon ; in fact he
threatened to contest, on Galilean principles, the Pope's right
to deal with the matrimonial affairs of princes should Clement
IX. refuse to submit to his will.^
But Clement IX. was not to be browbeaten. He insisted
on all the documents being submitted for examination
^ Cf. Cesar d'Estrees's memorial in Annates de St. Louis, X.
(1905), 360 seq. See also P. Coquelle, Hist, dii Portugal et de
la maison de Bragance, Paris, 1889.
* Gerin, II., 251 seqq. Schafer's accoimt in Gesch. Portugals,
IV., 630, 634 seq., v., 160 seq., is in part erroneous.
' Gerin, IT., 295.
MARRIAGE OF THE QUEEN OF PORTUGAL. 343
by a Congregation of Cardinals including Rospigliosi,
Ottoboni and Azzolini and the celebrated Canonist Fagnani.
Subsequently Bona and Brancati were added to them by
the Inquisition. The Congregation decided that Vendome
had exceeded his powers. The examination of the validity
of the first marriage was most carefully conducted, all legal
forms being observed ; the conclusion was that it had been
invalid. The Pope confirmed the verdict, dispensed from the
impediment of public honesty in the plenitude of his apostolic
authority and ratified the new marriage.^
The conclusion of peace with Spain and the settlement of
this matrimonial tangle made it possible for Rome to accept
a Portuguese ambassador. Francisco de Sousa, Count del
Prado, was nominated but he only reached his post after
the Pope's death. ^
Though it was not granted to Clement IX. to effect a final
settlement of Portuguese difficulties, he had at least the
satisfaction of learning that the Patriarch Jacob of Greater
Armenia had recanted his errors.^ Archbishop Perefixe de
Beaumont of Paris, who had suppressed various holy days
by his own authority, also submitted to the judgment of the
Holy See which insisted on the withdrawal of the Archbishop's
1 *Avviso of January 5, 1669, State Archives, Vienna ; Gerin,
II., 296 seqq., who has demonstrated Clement IX. 's perfectly
correct attitude in this affair. This disposes of Voltaire's
calumny (Le siecle de Louis XIV., c. 10). When Ademollo
(Indipendenza Portoghese, 79) asserts that Clement IX. had
legitimized the Queen's " passione adultera ", the fact need not
surprise us in so uncritical a writer. Unfortunately a German
historian, Schafer [Gesch. Portiigals, V., 160), has also taken
it on himself to affirm that " the See of Rome abandoned its
wonted strictness in these matters when it approved and confirmed
the dissolution of the marriage and the surprising nuptials with a
lightheartedness unheard of in history.
2 Below, ch. VI.
* Cf. the *Brief to Patriarch Jacob, dated August 6, 1667,
Epist., I., Papal Sec Arch. ; Ciaconius, IV., 779 ; Novaes,
X., 207.
344 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
ordinance. 1 In 1667 Clement IX. erected a special Apostolic
Vicariate for North Germany the first titular of which was
Valerio Maccioni.^ In Upper Germany the Pope divided the
Capuchin Province into two,^ and in Bavaria he had the joy
of witnessing the restoration of the monasteries which had
remained secularized under MaximiHan I. A special Congrega-
tion had been created to deal with this matter.*
When Clement IX. bestowed the red hat on his nephew,
Jacopo Rospighosi, on December 12th, 1667, he at the same
time admitted to the Sacred College, out of gratitude to his
predecessor, the latter's relative Sigismondo Chigi and the
brother of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold de' Medici.
In spite of his youth, Sigismondo Chigi, who had been carefully
trained by Alexander VII., showed himself worthy of the
purple.^ Leopold de' Medici, a warm friend of art and learning,
became the most outstanding figure among the Medici
Cardinals. At Florence he was at the head of the Accademia
del Cimento which busied itself mainly with physical research.
By contributing hitherto unpublished material, he inspired
and promoted the first edition of the collected works of
Galileo published at Bologna in 1656 ; he also furthered the
work of the Accademia della Crusca, viz. the preparation of
the third edition of the dictionary and the publication of
1 *Brief.s to the Archbishop of Paris, dated July lo and
December 8, i668, Epist., IT. -III., loc. cit. Cf. Gerin, II., 291,
375 seq.
2 Mejer, II., 251, 258 seq. ; F. W. Woker, Gesch. der Kath.
Kirche und Gemeinde in Hannover und Celle, Paderborn, 1889,
29 ; for Maccioni, ibid., 21 seq.
^ Mentz, II., 223.
* Rietzler, VIII., 547 seq. ; H. Rabel, Die Restitution der
chemaligen Benediktiner Adelsabtei Weissenohe im Zusammenhang
mit der W iedererrichtung der iibrigen oberpfdlzischen Kloster
(1669), Miinchen, 1904 (Diss.).
* Grimani, in Berchet, II., 351 ; Ciaconius, IV., 787 ;
Cardella, VII., 189 seq. Cf. *Compendioso raggaglio di tiitti i
cardinali viventi nel pontificato di Clemente X.. Barb. 4704,
Vat. Lib.
CREATION OF CARDINALS. 345
texts from the golden age of the Itahan language. Leopold
gave proof of the greatest keenness as well as discrimination
in collecting works of art ; a vast number of pictures, antique
statues, coins, gems, inscriptions, sketches were brought
together by him. Part of these treasures went into the Uffizi
Gallery at his death in 1675, the rest at a later date ; the
collection of artists' portraits owes its origin to Leopold.
All visitors to this gallery, unique of its kind, will ever
remember Foggini's marble statue of the Cardinal with his
motto : Semper rectus, semper idem (Always straight, always
the same). At Rome the Cardinal restored his titular church
of SS. Cosmas and Damian.^
At the very first creation of Cardinals, France and Spain
claimed a right to the appointment of so-called crown
Cardinals, but the Pope would not hear of such a pretension.-
Despite every kind of pressure ^ he only met the wishes of
these two great Powers on August 5th, 1669, in order to
secure their help for the Turkish war. Spain's candidate,
Louis Emanuel Portocarrero * was reserved in petto for the
1 Besides Ciaconius, IV., 786, and Cardella, VII., 1S8 seq.,
cf. A. Fabroni, Elogi d'alcuni ill. Toscani, I., Pisa, 1784 ; G.
PiERACCiNi, La stirpe de' Medici di Cafaggiolo, II., 103 ; Conti,
Firenze, 27 seqq., 30 seqq., and especially Reumont, Gesch.
Toskanas, II., 435, 445, 557 seqq., 603. Reumont (560) shows
that the dissolution of the Accademia del Cimento, to which
Leopold's elevation to the cardinalate gave the last blow, was
not due, as has been maintained, to the Holy See's fear of
physical research. Gaulli's bust of the Cardinal {ca. 1675) is
in the Uffizi ; cf. Riv. d'arte, 1909, 337.
2 Gerin, II., 233 seq., 291. In the *Cifre al Nuntio di Spagna
of February 8 and 15, 1667, stress is laid on the Pope's absolute
freedom in the nomination of Cardinals ; Ntinziat. di Spagna,
136, Papal Sec. Arch.
3 Gerin, II., 363 seqq.
'' Ciaconius, IV., 789 ; Cardella, VII., 193 seq. Portocarrero
{ob., 1709) became Archbishop of Toledo where, so we read in a
*report of ca. 1686, on the College of Cardinals, " al presente vive
tutto applicato alia buona custodia della sua gregge. £ generosis-
simo, pio, galante, cortese, affabile, officioso, di buon'indole e
34^ HISTORY OF THE POPES.
time being, but France's candidate, Emanuel de la Tour,
Duke of Albret, known as Cardinal Bouillon, was proclaimed
at once. The celebrated poet Jean de Lafontaine sang the
merits of the new Cardinal whose uncle. Marshal Turenne,
had recently returned to the bosom of Holy Church.^ But
Paris was not yet satisfied ; on the contrary, the candidature
of Cesar d'Estrees was now urged with the utmost insistence,
though the latter was as unsuitable a candidate for the
purple as was Bouillon. In the case of the latter the Pope
had been obliged to yield in view of the war against the
Turks, but this time he resolutely declined to carry out an
impossible promotion. ^
Clement was no less firm with the court of Vienna. Whilst
France worked for the candidature of the Duke of Albret
and in consequence thereof, Spain urged the admission of
the Jesuit Nithard into the Sacred College, the Cardinal of
Hesse suggested to Vienna that the Emperor should likewise
demand a Cardinal.^ Thereupon the Abbot of Fulda, Margrave
di miti costumi, dilettandosi di conversar con dame, nelle quali
ha speso eccedentemente e niente meno che nelle publiche
elemosine che diffusamente faceva " (Liechtenstein Archives,
Vienna, A, f. 3). Cf. Grimani, in Berchet, II., 355.
1 F. Reyssie, Le card, de Bouillon, 1647-1715, Paris, 1899,
39 seq. On Turenne's conversion, see Floquet, Vie de Bossuet,
III., 196 seq., 263 seq.
2 See Clement IX. 's *letter to Louis XIV. of September 24,
1669, Arm., 45, t. 41, p. 152b, Papal Sec. Arch. ; Gerin, II.,
368 seq. On the motives of Bouillon's elevation we read in the
*Cifra al Nuntio di Spagna of August 5, 1669 : " Non solo N. S.
ha havuto riguardo ad impedir la pace de' Venetiani col Turco
nella promotione del card, di Buglione, ma ha sperato che impeg-
nandosi il Re Christianissimo nella difesa di Candia, anco per
I'avvenire sarebbe ci6 di gran sicurezza alia conservatione della
pace fra le due corone." Numiat. di Spagna, 136, loc. cit.
^ Sec the *letter of the Cardinal of Hesse to Leopold I. of
January 19, 1669, State Archives, Vienna. At a later date the
Spanish Government desired to accredit Fr. Nithard as its ambas-
sador in Rome, a proposal which Clement IX. rejected on the
ground that a religious could not be an ambassador ; see *Cifre
IMPERIAL DEMANDS. 347
Bernard Gustave of Baden-Durlach was proposed for that
honour/ but the efforts made on his behalf were in vain.
The nuncio in Vienna, Pignatelli, made it plain to the Emperor
why it was necessary to postpone the nomination of an
imperial Cardinal. It was an act of sheer favour on the
part of the Pope if he had taken into consideration the wishes
of France and Spain ; he had only done so for the sake of
Christendom, because the help of those countries was necessary
for the war against the Turks ; it was hoped that this act
of grace would spur on Louis XIV. to more intense military
action on behalf of Crete for there was danger of Venice
making peace with the Turks, thereby exposing both Italy
and the Emperor's own territories to Turkish aggression.
As for the act of grace towards Spain, the Pope had found
himself compelled to satisfy that Power in the same way as
France. The Pope was under obligation, in this his first
creation, to safeguard the independence of the Church and
to act, not in the Princes' interest, but in his own. What he
had done was a pure act of grace and for the reasons stated
he could not do the same for the Emperor ; also there would
be no point in what he had done and France would feel
under no obligation.-
Leopold I. described these motives of policy and statecraft
as subtleties which were not understood in Germany and he
maintained his contention that the Pope could have shown
him equal favour. The minister Lobkowitz used far more
violent language for he spoke in the most insulting terms to
the nuncio and swore that if the Pope refused to nominate
the Emperor's candidate, the monarch would certainly join
hands with the heretics. Moreover, the nuncio reported,
al Nuntio di Spagna of July 6 and 20, 1669, 823-835, Hist.-
polit. Blatter, XCVIII., 139 seq., CLIV., 465 seqq.
^ Aychiv jiir Osterr. Gesch., XX., 293 seq. ; Rubsam, Kard.
Bernh. Gustav von Baden, Fulda, 1924.
- Levinson, Nmitiatnrberichie , I., 817, 824 seq. Cf. an ♦auto-
graph letter of Clement IX. to Leopold I., dated September 7,
1669, with which Levinson was not acquainted, Arm., 45, t. 41,
p. 151^, Papal Sec. Arch.
34^ HISTORY OF THE POPES.
they were thinking of expelling himself and of breaking off
relations with the Holy See. It was a remarkable thing, the
nuncio wrote, that Lobkowitz and Auersperg, otherwise
deadly enemies, should be at one on this point. ^ It soon
became evident that Auersperg was the author of these
threats for that man of boundless ambition was striving with
might and main to secure the red hat for himself, nor was
he ashamed formally to court France's intervention on his
behalf. In the sequel, the situation became still more acute.
The Council of ministers decided to forbid the nuncio to
present himself at the Hofburg and to expel him from the
hereditary States. If this step was not carried into effect
it was mainly because of the need of papal assistance in
view of the threatened attack of the Turks. In the end the
nuncio succeeded in bringing about a calmer state of mind
in Vienna and in getting some appreciation of the Pope's
point of view in the matter. ^ As for Auersperg, fate soon
overtook him : when the imperial Resident with the Holy
See, Freiherr von Plittersdorff arrived unexpectedly in
Vienna on November 5th, 1669, to expose Auersperg's secret
connexion with France, the latter was banished from court. ^
At a third promotion, November 29th, 1669, shortly before
his death, Clement IX. proclaimed Portocarrero and raised
seven splendid men to the Senate of the Church,^ all of whom
had rendered valuable service to the Holy See. After thirty
years' work in the Rota the jurist Carlo Cerri had become
Dean of that tribunal.'' The Genoese Lazzaro Pallavicino,
^ Levinson, I., 817 seq.
* Ibid., 602 seq., 818 seq., 830. Cf. Clement IX. 's *autograph
letters to the Emperor and Empress, dated October 17, i66g,
to calm them because of Bouillon's elevation (Papal Sec. Arch.,
loc. cit., pp. 155-6^).
^ Archiv fur Osierr. Gesch., XX., 299 seq.
* Grimani, in Berchet, II., 355 seq. ; Ciaconius, IV., 790
seqq. ; Cardella, VII., 197 seqq.
* After a stormy youth and after havinj^ been married, Cerri
had embraced the ecclesiastical state under Urban \'III. " *£ di
bello aspetto," says the report in the Liechenstein .\rchives,
THE POPE S LAST CREATION. 349
Dean of the Clerics of the Camera, had administered the
Annona in difiicult times. The highly cultivated Florentine
Francesco Nerli, Archbishop of his native city, where he
had held four synods, had been Secretary for Briefs to Princes
first under Innocent X., then under Alexander VII., and
lastly under Clement IX. ^ Niccolo Acciajoli, a man of many
parts, was also a Florentine ; he won universal appreciation
as Auditor of the Camera.- Buonaccorso Buonaccorsi, a
native of the Marches, was treasurer of the Camera and had
accompanied Cardinal Chigi during his legation to France.
The Roman Egidio Altieri occupied since 1667 the post of
Maestro di Camera to the Pope whom he was himself to
succeed.
It may be said that the most outstanding personality
among all those named on November 29th, 1669 was the
Cistercian Giovanni Bona, a native of Mandovi, who had
been General of the reformed branch of his Order in Italy
from 1651 to 1654. Alexander VII. called him to Rome,
charged him once more with the government of his Order
and employed him in various Congregations, especially the
Index and the Inquisition. Clement IX. named him a
Consultor of the new Congregation of Indulgences and Relics.
Equally remarkable as a religious and as a scholar. Bona
enriched ascetical, mystical and moral literature, Church
Vienna, quoted above, p. 345, n. 4, " gioviale, loquace, magna-
nimo et amorevole," quickly moved to anger but easily appeased.
^ Cf. *Epist. Innocentii X., *Epist. Alexandri VII., Papal
Sec. Arch.
2 The author of the above-named *report in the Liechenstein
Archives defends AcciajoH against the unfair accusations of his
enemies : " lo I'ho sempre conosciuto per soggetto dignissimo,
facile, spedito, giusto, applicato, indefesso, caritati\'o e pietoso,
di costumi incorregibili, di pensieri vasti e di giustitia immacolata.
Ha sufficiente scienza, di gran talenti, di maggior capacita et
abilissimo a qualunque gran commando. £ dotato di somma
prudenza, di uguale acutezza d'ingegno, di gran maturita ne'
consigli e nel risolvere. £ libero di linguaggio et ingenuo di
cuore."
350 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
history and above all liturgical scholarship, with solid works.
His Guide to the spiritual exercises was translated into French
and Polish. The learned Cistercian even tried his hand at
poetry. Among his many still unpublished works, his Hortus
coelestium deliciarnni has recently been made accessible in an
excellent edition. ^ Such was the depth of Bona's piety and
humility that there has been question of his canonization. ^
(2.)
Thanks to Louis XIV. 's Gallicanism, during the reign of
Alexander VII. the four Bishops of Alet, Pamiers, Angers
and Beauvais, had been able to refuse with impunity, for
three whole years, their subscription of the papal formula.
The execution of the two Briefs which were at length issued
against them, became once more problematic in consequence
of the Pope's death. However, after Clement IX. 's elevation,
the French Government seemed determined to deal with the
matter in good earnest. Its ambassador in Rome, Chaulnes,
asked for confirmation of the Briefs against the four Bishops,
which was granted by Clement. ^ Nor did the new Pope
make any difficulty when a request came from Paris for an
^ Hortus caelestium deliciariim ... a D. Ioanne Box a e
Monte regali b. Mariae apud Vicitm congreg. S. Bernardi ord.
Cisterc. abbate, ed. M. Vattasso (Roma, 191 8), who, on p. xxv seqq.,
gives an excellent though brief biography of Bona based on MS.
documents. Cf. the biographies by Bertolotti (Asti, 1677),
A. Ighina (Mondovi, 1874), and G. B. Ressia (Mondovi, 1910) ;
I. BoNAE, Epistolas, Taurini, 1755, Lucae, 1759 ; Civ. Cait.,
1910, II., 568-572 ; Brief of Pius X. of April 25, 1910, which
describes Bona's ^vritings as opportune for those days : " cum
praesertim haeresis ianseniana per Ecclesiae ordines late serperet
et quacumque virus iniccisset suum, omnem rehgionis fervorem
extingucret."
- F. ToxELLi, in Riv. stor. Dcnedett., V. (1910), 253 seqq., 321
seqq.
» *Brief of August 23, 1667, in Excerpta, 1666, f. 384 (Schill
THE FOUR REBEL BISHOPS TO THE POPE. 35 1
alteration in the clause of the Briefs forbidding the four
Bishops to decline some of their judges.^ That this concession
provided the accused with the means of delaying the
proceedings indefinitely did not escape the Pope.- A new
Congregation of Cardinals was created for the purpose of
dealing with the Jansenist question.^ When the Briefs were
at last dispatched on December 23rd, 1667, events had
occurred which rendered their execution impossible. The
Jansenists considered Clement IX. an opponent of Alexander
VII. ^ ; accordingly the four Bishops felt that now was the
time to justify their previous conduct to the new Pope.^
At bottom their self-complacent apology is nothing but a
series of strictures on the Holy See. The disputes that began
with Innocent X., they said, would have been forgotten by
now had the right means been employed.^ The demand
that they should acknowledge, by subscribing to the formula,
the fact also, was a false step since all theologians agreed
that when judging of facts the Church was not infallible.
Such a demand could only breed perjury, trouble of conscience,
and the persecution of upright men.'^ With regard to doctrine,
they had failed to discover anyone whom they could justl}^
accuse of error ^ ; in other words, according to the four
1 *Fresh drafting of Briefs, December 23, 1667, ibid., f. 396.
On the clause " recusatione at recursu remotis ", see Gerin,
II., 244, n. ; Rapin, III., 425.
- Marescotti, *Relazione (1668), Bibl. Casanat., Rome,
X., vi., 34, f. 154 seqq.
3 Composed of Cardinals Ginetti, Ottoboni, Borromeo, Albizzi,
Chigi, Piccolomini, Rasponi, Rospigliosi, Azzolini, Celsi. *Excerpta,
f. 422, loc. cit.
* [Varet], I., 114.
5 Letter of August 28, 1667, in [Varet], I., 391-8. As a
matter of fact, Caulet and Pavilion only subscribed to it at the
end of September and the other two prelates in October :
see Dubruel, 222.
^ [Varet], I., 1 14.
' Ibid., 395.
* Ibid., 394.
352 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
there was no Jansenism at all in France. Among the remaining
Bishops there were many who held the same views as they
did with regard to facts. As for the Roman Index, the four
treat it in most high-handed fashion : they write as if they
had never heard of the prohibition of their pastorals by that
Congregation, but merely of a suspicion, and even that only
as a vague rumour.^ The authors of this letter to the Pope
sent it to the King, whose attention they drew to the fact
that the judicial proceedings which it was intended to take
against them could not be reconciled with the Galilean
liberties.^ The Roman Inquisition decided to leave the letter
unanswered.^
The four were not altogether wrong when they spoke of
sympathizers among the clergy. With regard to the Bishops'
formula of the Assembly of the Clergy, Annat had observed
that the difficulty lay not in the signature but in getting
a sincere signature.* Rome was aware of this, hence when a
request was made for a Brief against the recalcitrant Bishops,
the papal officials observed that it would be useless as there
were too many people who felt like them.^ For the time
being these sympathizers remained in the background ; but
they were at hand, and the party felt stronger for their
presence. At this very time it received a fresh increase of
strength owing to the fact that an influential personality
had recently put itself at its disposal.
It is a strange fact that the story of a party which, in the
first instance, catered only for the most cultivated persons,
* Ibid., 397.
2 Ibid., 66-8.
^ *On March 8, 1666, Excerpta, f. 440. Same decision for the
♦letter of the nineteen, of April 12, 1668, ibid., f. 472.
* " *Nous ne sommes pas en peine de faire souscrire le formu-
laire, il y en a peu qui le refusent. Toute peine est d'obtenir d'eux
qu'ils le fassent sincercmcnt. Car ils se ferment une conscience
je ne sais quelle, que pour souscrire il n'est point necessaire de
changer de sentiment." Annat to Fabri, August 22, 1664,
Excerpta, 1663, f. 514.
* Gerin, II., 245.
THE DUCHESS OF LONGUEVILLE. 353
which spread through clandestine channels and by means of
clever subtleties and readily fought its opponents with
poisoned weapons, should be to a large extent the work of
women's hands. The focal point of the whole movement
was a convent of nuns ; the new teaching was expounded
and advocated in the salons of aristocratic ladies.^ One of the
principal manifestos of the sect, Arnauld's book on Communion,
was connected with a dispute between two ladies of noble
lineage.^ Angelique Arnauld cannot be separated from Saint-
Cyran, by the side of Pascal we see his sister Jacqueline, and
even of the unbending Pavilion it was said that he too bowed
respectfully to the pronouncement of Mothers Angelique and
Agnes Arnauld.^
Since 1657 or thereabout, one of the mainstays of the
party was a princess of the royal blood, viz. Anne Genevieve
de Bourbon, Duchess of Longueville and sister to the Princes
Conde and Conti. After playing a great role during the
disturbances of the Fronde, which had earned her a kind of
banishment from court, she devoted herself at Rouen to a
pious hfe in a Jansenistic sense,^ hence it was not long before
she became for the party what she had previously been for
the Fronde. Of the subtleties of the doctrine of grace she
probably understood but little, but for her mastery in the
art of intrigue and for her wonderful gift of captivating
everybody by her conversation, Jansenism offered a new and
promising field. It was said that her burning zeal did more
for the party than all the writings that issued from Port-
Royal.* Stimulated by the Duchess, other court ladies took
up the defence of the Jansenists after the Queen's death ;
once more the salons resounded with sighs over the persecution
of the saintly nuns of Port-Royal and the no less saintly four
Bishops, nor was there any lack of blame of the Archbishop
and the Jesuits.^ As a princess of the blood the Duchess
1 Cf. our data, XXIX., 135.
^ Rapin, III.. 78.
3 Ibid., 423 seqq., 445 seqq. ; [Varet], I., 69 seq.
* Rapin, III., 429.
^ Ibid., 430 seq.
VOL. XXXI. A a
354 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
could take it on herself to write to Clement IX. in order to
plead with him on behalf of the nuns of Port-Royal, and to
enlighten him, in view of her superior knowledge, on the
situation in France.^ She likewise appealed to Cardinal
Azzolini,"^ and when internuncio Rospigliosi passed through
the French capital on his way from Brussels to Rome, she
saw to it that a memorial drawn up by Arnauld was presented
to him.^ Over the Sorbonne too she exercised considerable
influence. The fact that, except for a quite insignificant
number, the Doctors from the Mendicant Orders were excluded
from the sittings, so that the anti-papal party enjoyed a
preponderance in that body, is ascribed to the efforts of the
Duchess' friends. It was the Doctors of the Duchess' party
who suggested to the King that the doctrine of papal infallibility
constituted a danger for the State since it gave the Pope
the right to depose Kings.*
At Rouen the Duchess had won over to Jansenism the
majority of the parochial clergy and more than one Bishop. ^
She now continued her efforts. « It was said ' that among
those who had come under her influence were the nineteen
Bishops who, at the instigation of Archbishop Gondrin of
Sens and Bishop Vialart of Chalons, had appealed to the
Pope on behalf of their four colleagues.^
The letter of the nineteen ^ was an event of far-reaching
1 [Varet], I., 72-85. • 2 Ihid., 86-9-
3 July 31, 1667, ihid., 90-5.
* Bargellini, in Cauchie, Rev. d'hist. eccles., 1903. 5i-
^ Rapin, IIL, 430 seq.
« Ibid., 431.
^ Ibid., 432, 439. In Paris the nineteen were described as
" les champions de la duchesse de Longueville et les nouveaux
Jansenistes de sa fa9on ". Ibid., 440.
« December i, 1667, in [Varet], I., 388-391 ; cf. 40 seqq.
9 They were : the Archbishop of Sens and the Bishops of
Chalons, Boulogne, Meaux, Angouleme, La Rochelle, Com-
minges, Couserans, Saint-Pons, Lodeve. Vence, Mirepoix, Agen.
Saintes, Rennes, Soissons, Amiens, Tulle. Troyes. [Varet]
I., 43-
NINETEEN BISHOPS WRITE TO THE POPE. 355
significance. Their number, however, was not large and the
signatures of the relatively few Bishops had only been obtained
with difficulty as a result of a circular trip by Papin.^ Even
with regard to its contents the letter was not remarkable.
After an assurance that the French Bishops would not lag
behind anyone in their respect for the Holy See, there follows
a eulogy of the virtues of the four recalcitrants coupled
with a complete misrepresentation of the real matter at issue.
They complain that infallibility was claimed for decisions on
facts " such as occur da}^ by day ".^ The truth was that
no one had ever made such a claim ; infallibility was only
claimed for so-called dogmatic facts, that is for such as are
inseparably bound up with a definition of a dogma of the
faith. ^ But whatever may have been the contents of the
letter it was, at any rate, an ominous symptom of the state
of mind of the clergy that nineteen Bishops should rise against
Rome ; moreover they had good reason to assert in their
letter that the principles held by Pavilion and his three
adherents were also held by not a few Bishops, some of them
distinguished ones. This statement was repeated by three
of the signatories of the letter in another communication to
Rome in which they roundly told one of the Cardinals that
the Pope allowed himself to be influenced by party tricks,
in opposition to the canons and the rights of Bishops ; let
the Pope at last be enlightened on the true state of things
for, without a doubt, he had been carefully kept in the dark
up to now by the intrigues of certain persons.*
1 Cf. ibid., 95-114, 119.
- " Decretis, quibus quotidiana nee revelata divinitus facta
deciduntur." Ibid., 389.
' DUBRUEL, 228.
* *The Bishops of Chalons, Angouleme and Rennes, on March
I, 1668, Excerpta, i. 448 : " S. Pontificis maiestatem adversus
canones, adversus omnium episcoporum iura improvide nonnulli
ob privatas forsan utilitates in partes trahere moUuntur." They
urge that the Pope be informed of the true state of things which
" quorundam hominum artibus semper apud vos studiose, ut
patet, hactenus dissimulatum et tectum."
356 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Propaganda was also made in favour of these accusations
among wider circles by giving publicity at least to the
substance of the letter of the nineteen. The same end was
even better served by a circular addressed in the name of
the four to the whole French hierarchy and reproduced by
the press. ^ This document declared before the public, in as
many words, that Pavilion and those who thought like him,
would never submit to a papal sentence. ^ The true core of
the dispute, whether, that is, the Pope can decide what is
heresy and who is a heretic, the document passed over in
silence ; instead the papal judicial procedure against the
four is attacked with a great show of historical learning.
" There is question," it says at the very beginning, " not of
the oppression of our persons but of the distortion of the
most sacred laws of justice, of an injury to the first principles
of natural equity, of the deepest degradation of our common
dignity " ^ The document treats the Pope as if he were the
enemy of the episcopate, against whom it is necessary to
be on the defensive. It raises the question whether the
episcopate was not doomed if it was unconditionally subjected
to the will of him who is the head of all Bishops ; it hints
that such an act would amount to a claim for the Pope not
only of infallibility but of impeccabihty.* What Bishop, we
read, could feel secure in his church if powerful enemies
could bring about his deposition merely by accusing him of
insufficient regard for the Pope ? ^ If so disastrous a policy
were to get a footing within the Church, there would scarcely
be a truth which could not be suppressed, not an error that
might not be introduced under the influence of powerful
^ Dated April 25, 1668, but only published in June ; r/.
[Varet], II., 19-55. Arnauld is the author both of this letter
and of the others which the four addressed to the Pope and the
King ; ibid., 149. Cf. Arnauld, (Eitvres, XXIV., 549 seqq., 148.
- " On nous doit faire un commandement, auquel on sait bicn
que nous n'obeirons jeuiiais." [Varf.t], II., 38.
3 Ibid., 19-
^ Ibid., 38.
'- Ibid., 39.
CIRCULAR OF THE FOUR TO THE FRENCH BISHOPS. 357
personalities.^ For the Holy See and its precedence the letter
still has an occasional word of recognition - ; but by way of
compensation it attacks all the more fiercely its advisers,
especially the religious, who know how to surprise the Pope
and extort from him decrees against the Bishops.^ These
people delight in teaching by their deeds what the Roman
theologians expound in their books, namely that the Pope
is sovereign and absolute Lord of the Church whereas the
Bishops are merely his lieutenants to whom he listens or
does not listen according to his good pleasure.* The circular
is particularly severe on the prohibition, by the Index, of
the pastoral letters of the four ^ ; " it is well known how
things are done in the Congregation of the Index, where
four or five religious decide whatever is done by it. Is it a
thing to be borne that such people should pretend to act as
absolute judges of the ordinances issued by Bishops for the
government of their dioceses ? " Moderation and silence
would be out of place in the face of such injustice for they
would only encourage further encroachments ; that was why
the four Bishops now appealed to their colleagues.^
It was after much hesitation, and relying on the King,
that Rome had decided to take action against the four
Bishops, a step for which there were not many precedents in
recent Church history.' After the letter of the nineteen, and
even more so after the wholly revolutionary circular of the
four, it was impossible not to realize that rigid insistence on
the letter of the Briefs would lead for decades to a schism of
the most dangerous kind.
Consequently feeling in Rome was favourable to a
compromise ; it was no less so in France. The King, indeed,
was angry with the four for having dared to oppose his will,
1 Ibid., 42.
2 Ibid., 44.
3 Ibid., 35, 40, 45.
* Ibid., 47.
'" Ibid., 47-50.
* Ibid., 50.
' Rapin, III., 394, 423.
358 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
but his three ministers secretly favoured the Jansenists ;
moreover, by reason of their GalHcanism, the}- were against
an increase of Rome's prestige as a result of a trial of strength
with the four Bishops : lastly they could not but be extremely
anxious that the internal tranquillity of the realm should
not be troubled b}'' religious strife.^ Out of regard for the
King, the ministers made a great show of interest in the
papal commission. When the Archbishop of Sens remarked
to Le Tellier that if the King took action against the four,
he would have to do so against forty others, as well as against
himself, he was told that after the four they would deal with
the forty, beginning with the Archbishop of Sens.^ When
the nineteen wrote a letter to the King in defence of Pavilion
and his three adherents,^ they were not allowed to present
it * ; a decree of Parliament ^ forbade its publication by means
of the printing press and condemned the " unlawful meetings ",
at which it had been drawn up together with the ideas which
it advocated. In like manner the Council of State ^ suppressed
the circular of the four to their fellow Bishops. On the other
hand, the attack on their right of free assembly roused the
Bishops to the utmost, with the result that both the King
^ Lionne and Le Tellier were influenced by personal motives
also (Rapin, III., 445 seq.). Le Telher was under the influence
of his son, the future Archbishop of Rheims, who had just
brilliantly terminated his studies {ibid., 450). Cf. the nuncio's
♦report of January 30, 1665 (Papal Sec. Arch., Nunziat. di
Francia, 126) : Lionne and Colbert did not wish the Sorbonne
to act as it did (against papal infallibility), " ma il petulantissimo
abbate Tellier e capo di tutta questa cabala cd il padre che crede
che .suo figlio sappia piii di san Thomaso," supports the Sorbonne
in the Council of State. Cf. ibid., * April 16 : Young Le Tellier
will soon get a bishopric and will be " molto peggiore " than his
friend Gondrin.
" Rapin, 440 ; *Bargellini on June 19, 1668, Excerpta, 1668,
f. 149.
=» [VaretJ, I., 44-5 1-
* Ibid.
* March 19, 1668, ibid., 134 seq.
" July 4, 1668, ibid., 57 seq.
ATTITUDE OF THE GOVERNMENT. 359
and high officials received a number of protests, some of
which were made pubHc, thus increasing the ferment.^
Gondrin of Sens repeatedly told Le Tellier that if it came to
the condemnation of the four, he would allow his head to be
chopped off rather than have anything to do with those who
would pronounce the sentence. ^
For the rest, despite the measures against the four and the
nineteen, the Government was not more friendly disposed
towards Rome than usually. The Jansenists had had the
New Testament translated into French,^ a piece of work
which increased the party's prestige almost more than anything
else.* Pavilion had published a Ritual for his diocese in
which the administration of Penance was treated in close
conformity with Arnauld's ideas. ^ Rome put both books
on the Index, ^ but in France the nuncio did not dare to
publish the decree against the Ritual. He had already printed
the papal condemnation of the so-called Neiv Testament of
Mons when a royal prohibition stopped him from dispatching
the printed copies.' The Jansenists could describe the
condemnation of the above mentioned translation as null
and void with complete impunity, whilst in the following
year Pavilion's Ritual was pubHcly eulogized by 29 Bishops.^
^ [Varet], I., 140 seqq., II., 105 ; Bargellini to Rospigliosi,
August 30, 1668, Nunziat. di Francia, 137, Papal Sec. Arch.
2 [Varet], I., 156.
' Ibid., 226-250.
* Rapin, III., 391.
* [Patouillet], III., 498 seqq., IV., 45 seqq.
* April 9 and 20, 1668, ibid. The Archbishop of Paris, who had
many imitators, had censured the translation on November 18,
1667, and on April 20, 1668 ; see Rapin, III., 397. Ibid., the
motives of the censure ; prohibition of the translation by the
royal council, November 22, 1667, ibid., 399. Clement IX. 's
Brief in [Dumas], III., Rec, 210. Cf. Reusch, Index, II., 669.
' Gerix, II., 246, 291, 374.
* [Varet], II., 498 seq. Pavilion thought of publicly defending
his Ritual in a pastoral letter {ibid., 460-498). He upheld the
book ; his letters of 1678 on it in E. Jovv, Les archives du card.
Alderano Cybo a Massa, in Bullet, du Bibliophile , 1919, 51.
360 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
About this time Marescotti, a very able man, had been
chosen in Rome for the post of nuncio in Paris, but Lionne,
in view of his peace plans, succeeded in getting him replaced
by Niccolo Bargellini, a personality of no weight who, by
reason of his naivety and timidity, was no match for the
astute French diplomatists.^ Bargelhni entered on office in
April 1668.2
The new nuncio's first task should have been, in pursuance
of the papal Briefs, to initiate proceedings against the
four recalcitrant Bishops. As a matter of fact, when the
Archbishop of Toulouse arrived shortly after Whitsunday, to
act as chairman of the college of judges,^ Bargellini did his
best to fan the latter's none too great eagerness for the
business.* The Bishops of Lodeve and Soissons, who had
begged to be excused, were replaced by two other judges ^
and the King was induced to utter a few threats against the
four * ; but the Government was not very much in earnest
for it was anxious not to provoke an agitation in the country. "^
1 Cauchie, who lays stress on Bargellini's good qualities,
nevertheless speaks of his " Incommensurable naivete " and his
" tendance a grossir les difficultes " {Rev. d'hist. eccUs., 1902,
975)-
2 Gerix, II., 244 seq. ; Rapin, 446.
' [Varet], I., 299.
^ Ibid., 295-8.
* Ibid., 14, II., 106. The Bishop of Lodeve was replaced by
that of Glandeve, and after that by that of Seez, whilst the
Bishop of Soissons was replaced by that of Evreux. * Bargellini
to Rospigliosi, August 3, 1668, Nunziat. di Francia, 137, Papal
Sec. Arch.
* *The King " subito mando a chiamarc I'arcidiacono di
Tolose e due altri vescovi de' commissarii . . . e ordin6 che si
procedesse con ogni rigore e sollicitudine contro li quattro vescovi "
(Bargellini, June 8, 1668, ibid. Cifre). On June 12 the nuncio
*\\Tites that the Bishops were furious over the King's action ;
the latter, according to Bargellini's *dispatchcs of June 15 and
19, remained firm (Papal Sec. Arch.).
' [Bargellini] II Giansenismo estinto, in Dupin, III., 188 :
BARGELLINI ON THE FRENCH SITUATION. 361
Soon there was question only of a peaceful settlement of the
disputes and Bargellini allowed himself to be won over to
this view though outwardly he continued to show great
keenness for the judicial commission.
A few weeks after his arrival in Paris ^ Bargellini reported
that in view of the wide diffusion of Jansenism in so extensive
a realm, a great revolution seemed inevitable. He laments
the fact that during the dispute with Alexander VII. the
Jansenists obtained the suppression of the Conseil de Conscience
consisting of the King's confessor, the Archbishop of Paris
and other staunch supporters of the Holy See. As a result
of this measure the nomination of Bishops got into the hands
of the ministers and those of aristocratic ladies. At the same
time the Jansenists succeeded in obtaining a restriction of
the right of voting of the members of religious Orders at
the meetings of the Sorbonne ; thus the way lay open for
unorthodox theses and books. The party was getting more
and more formidable owing to the patronage of two ladies,
the one the Duchess of Longueville, an adept in every intrigue,
and the other the Princess Conti whose excessive eagerness ^
" II vero desiderio di S. M'^ fu che non si venisse alia condanna-
tione dei quattro vescovi, per non far nascer disturbi nel regno."
Ranke (Franzos. Gesch., III. 2, 225), who made use of Bargellini's
report from a MS. in the British Museum, overlooked the fact
that it has long been in print. An anonymous *report (Bibl.
Casanatense, Rome, X., vi., 24, f. 33) says : " The commission
took such a long time in coming together che si vedea chiara-
mente che non si facea da dovero, scoprendosi ogni di tra li
ministri ed altri personaggi piii qualeficati della corte una gran
propensione verso i quattro vescovi et una plausibile approbazione
di tutte le scritture che davano fuori in loro difesa."
^ *May 15, 1668 ; Nunziat. di Francia, 137, p. 246 seq., Papal
Sec. Arch.
* " Per troppa sua bonta." Cf. Rapin, III., 77 : " Cette
princesse etoit janseniste de meilleure foy que tous les autres,
puisqu'elle donna toutes ses pierreries, qu'on estimoit pres de
deux cent mille ecus, aux pauvres, qui passa pour une des plus
belles actions de ce siecle en ce genre."
362 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
had caused her to fall into the snares of the Jansenists. In
addition to this, Prince Conti had done his best to influence
the King in favour of the sectaries. Among the ministers,
Le TelHer was under the influence of Roquette, Bishop of
Autun and a friend of the Jansenists, Colbert was on terms
of close friendship with the Jansenist Bourzeys, whilst
Lionne's confidant was Le Camus, also an adherent of the
party. ^ " The evil was further increased by those whose office
made them the defenders of the Holy See, namely the Bishops.
Notwithstanding every pressure on the King and the ministers,
nothing is done against Jansenist writings, or it is done so
lukewarmly as only to lead to further insubordination. Their
pointed sayings are admired and their writings are allowed
to circulate. The King seems, indeed, well disposed, but he
is surrounded by people in sympathy with Jansenism. More-
over it is not so easy for the nuncio to see the King as it was
only ten years ago, on the contrary, he has ' to blow the
trumpet ' if he wants an audience and when he obtains
one, he finds the monarch in a prejudiced mood." Meetings
were being held in Cardinal Retz's house at which the Bishop
of Autun and the Abbe Le Tellier, the son of the minister,
were present : at those meetings the possibility of a
compromise in the affair of the four Bishops was discussed.
The Pope caused an answer to be sent to these complaints,
together with an expression of his profound grief. The nuncio
was told to make the King ^ and the ministers ^ see that the
new sect constituted a danger, not alone for religion, but for
the State as well ; in view of his present power and greatness.
^ Even Queen Anne said " que les trois ministres avoient
chacun leur janseniste : Le Tellier avoit Coquelin, Colbert
I'abbe du Bourzeys, de Lionne Gaudon, tous trois, a ce qu'on
disoit, favorablcs au party." Rapin, III., 193. For Colbert and
Bourzeys, ibid., 138 ; for Colbert's support of Jansenius, ibid.,
137-
- *To Bargellini, June 16, 1G68, Nunziat. di Franc ia, 137,
Cifre al Nuntio, Papal Sec. Arch.
* *To Bargellini, July 9, 1668, ibid.
VARIOUS NEGOTIATIONS. 363
the King should stifle the hydra before it becomes invincible ^ ;
extreme watchfulness was particularly necessary when there
was question of filling episcopal sees.^
Meanwhile in June 1668, the frankly rebellious letter of
the four Bishops, dated April 25th, 1668, had come to the
knowledge of the public. In consequence of pressure on
the part of Bargellini, Annat had represented to the King
that that document aimed a blow not only at the Holy See,
but at the secular power as well, and that it embodied false
doctrines.^ Louis XIV. appeared to be aware of this.* How-
ever, when the letter reached Rome ^ it was realized there
that judicial action against the four would lead nowhere
and that it was necessary to give fresh instructions to the
nuncio.
On July 13th, the Congregation charged to deal with
Jansenism decided that the nuncio should insist on the
execution of the Briefs against the four, but if they were
prepared to subscribe without subterfuge, the Congregation
would not oblige them to make any further recantation.^
1 " *Per hora che S. M*-^ e si gloriosa e potente, puo e deve
estinguere quest' Hidra prima ch'ella cresca e segno d'essere
insuperabile " ; June 16, 1668, ibid.
2 " *Se veramente S. M*^^ preme in estinguere il veleno di
questa setta, e necessario somma vigilanza neU'elettione di
soggetti per le chiese " ; July 12, 1668, ibid.
' *Bargellini, June 19 and 29, 1668, ibid.
* *Id., on June 12 and 15, 1668, ibid.
^ Forwarded by the nuncio *on June 12, 1668, ibid.
« " *Omnes dixerunt : quod Nuntius instet pro executione
Brevis. Secreto vero moneatur, quodsi episcopi velint subscribere
pure et simpliciter, mens S. Congregationis est, ut non compellan-
tur episcopi ad aliam retractationem. Nuntius procuret evitare
epistolam omnium episcoporum, quod vero ad epistolam scriben-
dam per quattuor, non exigat, sed mittentur Nuntio formulae,
quibus uti debent, quando scribent SS. Pontifici. Sed non com-
municet, nisi opportune et quando subscriptio fuerit secuta pure
et simpliciter " (Biblioteca Angelica, Roma, S. 3, i, p. 139,
from a MS. of the Holy Office " Jansenio et formulario "). The
364 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
A letter in this sense was sent to Bargellini the very next
day, but it was also stated, with the utmost clearness,
that a recantation would not be insisted upon, on condition
that the signature was given " without clauses, simply,
sincerely and clearly ", that it contained no reservations,
interpretations or additions of any kind and such as might
be suspected of equivocation or connected with pastoral
letters, for in that case the affair would not be ended ; on the
contrary it would lead to more grievous evils and to a greater
lowering of the prestige of the Holy See.^ For the present
Rome would not hear of the four writing to the Pope ; if
they did the letter must be short so that nothing unseemly
could creep into it.^ As Lionne, in particular, insisted on
their writing, the Secretary of State explained on August
27th, 1668,^ that all that mattered was a sincere subscription
of the formula ^ ; it was necessary to avoid whatever might
diminish the value of the signature.^
commission consisted of Cardinals Ginetti, Brancaccio, Ottoboiii,
Borromeo, Albizzi, Chigi, Piccolomini, Rasponi, Rospigliosi,
Azzolini, Celsi and the assessor Casanale {ibid.).
^ " *Se i quattro vescovi vedendo inevitabile la loro condcm-
natione offerissero di sottoscrivere il formulario, e mcnte di N. S.,
che V. S. accetti e faccia che sottoscrivano subito. . . . Avverti
pero sopra tutto che la sottoscrizione sia piira," etc. " In caso
dunqiie che effectivamente la sottoscrizione sia libera e tale quale
si desidera, conviene non accadene (?) per la raggione detta di
sopra, che V.S. insist! nella retrattatione." Rospigliosi, July 14,
1668, Nunziat. di Francia, Cifre al Nuntio, 137, Papal Sec. Arch.
* *Rospigliosi to Bargellini, July 20, 1668, ibid. In a *report
we read that a letter of this kind was not wanted " per dubbio
che in dette lettere non fossero per parlare cosi circospettamente,
che non dassero occasione di dubbitare della sincerita, che si
desiderava nella loro sottoscrizione ". Bibl. Casanat., X. vi.,
24. f. 34.
* * Rospigliosi, loc. cit.
* " Purita di sottoscrizione del formulario."
* " Che possa destruggere il frutto della sottoscrizione."
ROME READY FOR A COMPROMISE. 365
Thus, with ah its distrust of the four Bishops, Rome was
not unwilling to forgo judicial action and to consent to a
friendty settlement. But at the very time when the Roman
Congregation made known its readiness for gentler measures,
detailed negotiations for a compromise had been concluded
in France, in fact they had begun before Bargellini's arrival
in Paris, only these negotiations were based on very different
premisses from the Roman ones which included, as the very
first condition of peace, the sincere and unreserved subscription
of the formula.
The intermediary of the compromise was Bishop Vialart
of Chalons. After Louis XIV. had rejected the letter of the
nineteen Bishops, Vialart, as the senior among them, had
made personal representations to the King who referred him
to Le Tellier. It was not difficult to convince the minister
that the whole fault of the Bishop consisted exclusively in an
indiscretion, namely that of having published, by means of
the press, what others said in unpublished writings.
Accordingly, Le Tellier was not averse to a peaceful settlement
of the dispute, but he insisted that, since the King had gone
so far with the matter, it was the business of the four Bishops
to show him an honourable way out of the impasse.^ To
find such an escape was now Vialart's affair. He took counsel,
in particular, with Archbishop Gondrin of Sens, who was more
intimate with Le Tellier. Gondrin was informed by the
latter that they must begin by giving satisfaction to the Pope ;
after that the King would calm down of his own accord.^
As soon as Bargellini arrived. Archbishop Gondrin
represented to him what honour would accrue to the Pope
and to the nuncio himself if they restored peace to the French
Church. Bargellini was easily persuaded.^ Gondrin now
entered into further negotiations, a preliminary condition of
which was that both in Rome and in Paris everything should
be kept absolutely secret from the Jesuits, hence also from
* [Varet], I., 216 seq.
2 Ibid., 218.
^ IbuL, 218-222.
366 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the Archbishop of Paris. ^ Gondrin acted shrewdl\- when he
laid down this condition, but the nuncio committed an
imprudence in accepting it for Annat, the King's confessor,
was better informed on all that concerned Jansenism than
almost anyone and he would have been Bargellini's best
adviser. Like Gondrin, Vialart also worked on the nuncio both
by personal influence and through the Bishop of Laon, the
future Cardinal D'Estrees, for he knew that Bargellini had
been directed b\' Rome to seek counsel from the latter.^
Just as these conversations with the nuncio were kept
most secret, so was the nuncio kept in ignorance of some other
negotiations, the object of which was to induce the leader of
the four. Bishop Pavilion, and through him his three adherents,
to yield, at least, to some extent. Vialart of Chalons wrote
on the subject to Choiseul of Comminges,^ who on June 23rd,
1668, went to confer with Pavilion, together with Caulet of
Pamiers. Choiseul explained to the Bishop of Alet that there
could be no question of a recantation or a revision of the
pastoral letters being made a condition of peace ; it would
suffice if they subscribed anew to the papal formula, though
they might first make a secret declaration qualifying the
meaning of their signature. This had been done at Sens and
in many other dioceses. Afterwards they could address a
letter to the Pope which need contain nothing disagreeable
to the Bishops, but only some general assurances of respect
and submission.
1 Ibid., I., 222 ; [Dumas], II., 186 ; Rapin, III., 454, 475.
* Bargellini to Rospigliosi, August 21, 1668 : " Notwithstanding
my close relations with Annat ne esse ne alcuno della Congre-
gatione [S.J.] e consapevole del segreto " ; and *on September 7,
1668 : " Passando questo affare con somma segretezza tra il
Re, li ministri, li vescovi scelti per mezzani et me, non devo
participarlo a M. arcivescovo di Tolosa nh al P. Annat " [Nunziat.
di Francia, loc. cit.). As the nuncio *wrote on September 4,
1668, Annat still exhorted to " ardore " ; besides the subscrip-
tion " qualche atto di penitenza publica " was necessary {ibid.).
2 [Varet], I., 223, 224.
' May 26, 1668, in [Varet], 65-9.
NEGOTIATIONS FOR A SETTLEMENT. 367
Pavilion could not understand what purpose would be
served by a subscription which merely confirmed what was
already in the pastoral letters. He suspected a trap to force
him to further concessions. That the reverse might be the
case, that it was intended to deceive not him but the Pope,
by public declarations of submission and secret reservations,
does not seem to have entered his mind at all. Consequently
his reply was cautious : besides Caulet of Pamiers, who
happened to be present, it was necessary for him to have the
views of his two other adherents, the Bishops of Angers and
Beauvais ; he made his consent subject to the condition that
the four Bishops should be allowed to insert what they liked
in the preliminary declaration before the subscription as well
as in the letter to the Pope, and that the Doctors who had
been dismissed from the Sorbonne and the nuns of Port-Royal
should be included in the peace. ^ Caulet and the two other
Bishops approved the decision of their leader. Pavilion. ^
It was not so easy to win over Arnauld and the Doctors ;
they too feared a deception, though not a deception of the
Pope, in which they were expected to co-operate.^ Arnauld
suggested a theological disputation before the King for which
Pavilion should come to Paris,* but Louis XIV. would not
hear of it.^
When no further objections were to be looked for either
from the four Bishops or from Arnauld, the point was to
persuade the nuncio to support the compromise. This task
was undertaken by the King's minister, Lionne, after con-
sultation with Gondrin. It was not long before weak Bargellini
was left without an answer to the arguments of the minister.
Bargellini's reports to Rome at that period are very puzzling.
About the middle of July he writes to the Secretary of State ®
^ Relation de ce qui d'est passe entre MM. les eveques d'Alet,
de Pamiers et de Commenge," ibid., 64-78.
2 Ibid., 86.
8 Ibid., 88.
* Ibid., 115, 128 seq.
* Pavilion's letter of July 16, 1668, ibid., 135 seqq.
* " Fu scritto dal Nuntio a Roma, che se S. S. si contentasse
368 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
that if the Pope were to content himself with the submission
of the four Bishops and their sincere subscription, Lionne
gave some hope of his being able to induce them to take such*
a step ; that this concession had already been obtained from
the four, Lionne had not yet told him. Bargellini also passes
on the remark of the minister that it was unnecessary to
insist on a formal recantation since the declaration of
submission completely disposed of the question of the pastoral
letters. For the rest it is in vain that one looks in Bargellini's
dispatches in cypher for information on his conversations
with Lionne. They are in the main a repetition of the previous
lamentations over French conditions. He also lays particular
stress ^ on the fact that no one raised a hand in the defence
of the Holy See except the Jesuits ; that though these wrote
well, they did so in an exaggerated, passionate style ; moreover
their exceptional position had the disadvantage of making
the whole thing look like a party struggle between Jansenists
and Jesuits.^ So far the other Orders had not written one
page on behalf of the Pope's prerogatives and they but rarely
spoke of them as they should ; yet it would be only right if
all the Orders united in a courageous defence of religion,
both by the spoken and the written word. Since a decree of
September 25th, 1663, had excluded the Doctors of the
Mendicant Orders from the Sorbonne, anti-Roman publica-
tions had become more numerous ; they were being distributed
gratis throughout France ; the Jansenists had a fund for
the purposes of propaganda for this party and the censors
deH'obedienza de i quattro vescovi, con la sincera sottoscrizione
del Formulario, Mens, de Lionne havea gli date sopra questo
punto qualche speranza di i^oterlo ottenere da loro." In Dupin.
III., 190.
1 *July 20, 1668, loc. cit. (Cifre), partly in Cauchie, Rev. d'hist.
ecclc's., 1902, 979.
^ " *Questi scrivevano bene, ma con qualche ardore eccessivo,
ed io, chc ho bisogno delle loro penne, non posso dir loro, [non]
vorrei che la causa della S. Sede si facesse (come da molto tempo
in qua lumno cominciato a dire) di due partiti tra Jansenisti e
Gesuiti, perche le cose s'inasprircbbero maggiormcnte," loc. cit.
BARGELLINl's SUGGESTIONS. 369
favoured them at the expense of their opponents. A new
feature of Bargelhni's dispatches is the circumstance that
he appears to have derived a hope for a happy issue of his
mission from his conversations with the minister. He now
makes suggestions in Rome as to how the situation might
be improved. With regard to the reUgious, he is of opinion
that the Secretary of State should get in touch with their
Generals so as to bring about a change. If all the Orders
were to unite, the affair would be considered as one concerning
everybody and not merely the Jesuits; then the Jansenists
and their friends would take alarm ; if the Orders had shown
some courage before this, the Sorbonne would not have been
betrayed into heretical propositions on papal infallibility ;
if that body changed its attitude, the Orders too would find
themselves in a very different position. It is true, he goes on
to say, that at the time of Alexander VII., when religion
was in peril in France, action on behalf of the Pope was
impeded. Nor were the friends of the Holy See adequately
rewarded, for in Brittany at least the disposal of benefices
had not been restricted by the concordat.
Eight days after this report ^ Bargellini is full of hope for a
happy issue of the affair as the King was determined to make
an end of it. He promises to carry out faithfully the instructions
received from Rome, except that it seemed to him that it
would be better for the prestige of the Holy See if the " sincere
subscription " of the four Bishops and their letter to the Pope
were to come only after the summons by the papal com-
mission.
Though little can be gathered from Bargelhni's cyphered
reports concerning the compromise, he had been won over
for it and the great thing was to get the ship into port as
quickly as possible. Nearly all the Bishops of the papal
commission had come together ^ and though attempts were
made, under a variety of pretexts, to induce its chairman,
the Archbishop of Toulouse, to put off the negotiations, the
1 *July 27, 1668, ibid.
■ [Varet], II., 146.
VOL. XXXI. Bb
370 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
opening of the proceedings could not long be delayed.
Accordingly Le Tellier proposed to draw up at once in Paris
the document by which, as had been agreed upon, the four
Bishops were to inform the Pope that they had subscribed to
the formula.^ But this was contrary to the agreement with
Pavilion who had made it an express condition that no one,
apart from the four, should have anything to do with the
tenor of that declaration of obedience. ^ However, apart from
all else, Arnauld was at hand in Paris, Arnauld who, in point
of fact, was the author of Pavilion's latest writings, ^ and it
needed a skilled pen to draw up a document capable of being
interpreted in two different senses. On the one hand it was
intended to convince the Pope that the four Bishops had
subscribed without additions or reservations, whilst on the
other hand the four did not really wish to give such an
assurance. It is characteristic of the Jansenists' state of
mind and their attitude towards the Holy See, that all the
time this unworthy double-dealing was in progress, they
multiplied their protestations of their truthfulness and
"Christian sincerity".'* These Gallicians came pretty near
looking upon the Pope as an enemy ; to deceive him
seemed to them almost a meritorious act.
It was only after lengthy discussions and with due regard
to the wishes of the three ministers, that the document
was at last drawn up and submitted to the King.^ In it
Arnauld has produced one of his masterpieces : from first
to last it is a tissue of ambiguities ^ and, for the initiated,
nothing less than a downright mockery of the Pope.
1 Ibid., 145.
2 Cf. above, p. 367.
3 [Varet], II., 149.
* As the Jansenist Varet puts it (II., 147) : nothing was to be
in the letter" ni qui put ou offen.ser le Pape, on blesser la deli-
catesse de conscience des IV. eveques . . . ni qu'ils eussent fait
rien d' indigne de la sinceritc chrcticnne [!]."
5 Ibid., 150. Text of the letter in [Dumas], HI., Rcc, 187.
* This is the opinion of Cochin, who is friendly to the
Jansenists (215) : " On est force de reconnaitre que la lettre au
DRAFT OF THE LETTER TO THE POPE. 371
Not a word is said as to what took place when the latest
signature was given, nor about the fact that the preliminary
declaration robbed it of all value. All it says, with ambiguous
phraseology, is that the four Bishops had acted after the
example of " the French Bishops " or, for the words can also
be thus construed, " after the example of some French
Bishops " with whose sentiments they were in full agreement.^
It goes without saying that the four who but a short while
ago, had spoken of Rome in the most bitter terms, now
overflow with assurances of their regard for the Holy See.
pape . . . montre une ambiguite extreme, une sincerite presque
insuffisante. Toutes les questions en jeu y sent laissees dans
une ombre si dense, que le regard le plus habitue aux subtilites
theologiques ne saurait voir si les eveques retractaient ou non
leur doctrine. Henri Arnauld trouvait fort heureuse cette obscurite
voulue."
^ " Nam cum in exequenda . . . Constitutione Gallicani
episcopi, nobiscum sensibus coniunctissimi, eam disciplinae
formam amplexi sunt, quam Sanctitati V. acceptiorem fuisse
intelleximus, Nos. . . ." Thus the original dispatched to Rome,
the nuncio's register [Dumas], III., 186 seqq., the *copy of the
letter in Cod. 60 of the Bibl. of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, f.
375 seq., Bargellini's *letter to Rome, dated November 16, 1668
(see below). The Jansenist printed texts run thus: ' multi
gall, episcopi nobiscum licet sensibus coniunctissimi " ([Varet],
II., 155), which made it possible to refer the passage to Gondrin
and his friends, whose example the four had imitated. However,
" multi " occurred only in the first draft and was cancelled at
the instance of the nuncio {cf. [Duma], III., 164 seqq.). Though
he had not seen the words " multi " and " licet ", Bargellini,
in his letter of November 16, 1668, gives expression to his concern
that the four might refer them to " quelli vescovi della Francia
che si dice habbino fatto processo verbale ". But he continues,
" la risposta per la S. Sede e prontissima perche le sudette parole
non si possono mai intendere se non per quello che hanno fatto
publicamente i vescovi dell'assemblea del clero descritta nel libro
intitolato : ' Relations des deliberations du clerge de France '
a carte 83, dove consta che tutti segnarono senza alcuna restrit-
tione, anche quelli che si dice habbino fatto alcuni particolari
nascostamente." Papal Sec. Arch.
372 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
In conforming to the example of " others ", or " the others ",
they had attested before the whole Church their love of
ecclesiastical unity, the motive of this attestation being
the honour of the Apostolic See and the regard in which they
held it. The conclusion of the document is a string of protesta-
tions of attachment to the Pope, though a skilful turn in the
phrasing makes it clear that they are only meant in a Galilean
sense and so were of doubtful value. Even the date of the
letter, September Ist,^ was bound to embarrass Rome since
the document supposes that the new subscription had already
taken place whereas on September 1st none of the synods
at which the subscription was given, had as yet been held.
Meanwhile, Bargellini had information that Rome was
satisfied with the compromise,^ on the supposition, of course,
that the four would sign without reservation. Gondrin now
submitted to him the text of the letter to the Pope. After
he too had asked for a few alterations,^ both he and Gondrin
thought that they could indulge the hope that the four would
subscribe and that the Pope would also be satisfied * ; in fact
the nuncio went so far as to sign the draft in the name of the
Pope, an act of rashness which seemed hardly credible, so
that it appeared like a miracle to the Jansenists themselves.^
Even Arnauld felt he could assure Gondrin that Pavilion
would not refuse to assent to the letter to the Pope since it
contained nothing contrary to " truth and sincerity ".^
However, if Arnauld really thought that Pavilion would
comply without protest, he was mistaken. The Bishops of
Angers and Beauvais subscribed at once without difficulty.
They even forwarded, either spontaneously or by request —
1 [Dumas], III., i8o. The copy dispatched to Rome bears the
date of September i, whilst the nuncio's register ascribes it to
15 and Rospighosi's report to September 26.
2 RospiGLiosi, in [Dumas], II., 1S8 {fol., H. III.) ; Bargellini,
in DupiN, III., 192.
' *Bargenini to Rospighosi, October 12, 1668, Nunziat. di
Francia, 137, Papal Sec. Arch.
* [Varet], II., 152.
* Ibid., 161 seq. * Ibid., 153 seq.
EFFORTS TO PERSUADE PAVILLON. 373
with a view to future possibilities — a blank sheet of paper
bearing their signature, on which it was possible to write
anything in their name.^ However, when De Saint-Laurens
was dispatched to Pavilion, on August 12th, 1668, he realized
that the headstrong Saint of Alet could be tiresome for other
people besides his opponents, for whereas the Paris
diplomatists had taken immense trouble so as not to touch
upon certain topics in the letter, or at least to ghde hghtly
over them, Pavilion insisted that the document should tell
the Pope to his face that the four upheld their pastorals which
had been put on the Index of forbidden books. In that case
there was no need to write and the whole compromise might
as well be torn up. But Pavilion was not to be moved. It
was of no use for Gondrin to explain, in a covering letter,^
that the compromise guaranteed freedom for the " so-called "
Jansenists whilst it also dealt a heavy blow to the Jesuits,
and that with the great Arnauld's consent, Gondrin had
pledged his word that Pavilion would subscribe. That
inflexible man persisted in his demand and, as he had done
previously, Caulet of Pamiers stood by him.
Embarrassment was great in Paris. A Bishop in the
Pyrenees, a man of no consequence whatever, had suddenly
become the Pope of France and a decisive factor in a weighty
affair. For a whole month Pavilion held up his friends, and
that at a time when the papal commission should have begun
its judicial proceedings so that repeated requests for a delay
had had to be made to the Archbishop of Toulouse. ^ Letter
1 Ihid., 170, 173.
- August 12, 1668, ibid., 163-167.
^ Ibid., 168, 172, 229. Cf. Bargellini's *reports to Rome
{Nunziat. di Francia, 137, Papal Sec. Arch.) : August 17, 1668 :
" After taking counsel with Annat and the Archbishop of Toulouse,
I have granted a delay of 2 weeks " ; on August 30 : " The
fortnight is over and I made no reply to a demand for a fresh
delay " ; on September 4 : " We must wait another 10 days
for the return of the courier"; September 11 : "The King
is only willing to wait till Saturday at the most " ; September 17 :
" Another full fortnight's delav is being asked for."
374 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
upon letter was dispatched to Alet ^ ; when the first negotiator
came back without having achieved anything, a second and
a third were dispatched. ^ Twice Choiseul and Caulet journe^-ed
to the httle town in the Pyrenees ^ : for a time all seemed in
vain, but Pavilion ended by yielding and signing.
The signed document arrived in Paris on September 14th.
Gondrin at once passed on the good news to the nuncio
and the document was soon in Bargellini's hands * who,
after he had had an audience with the King, described the
affair of the four as ended and more than ended. ^ The com-
mission of Bishops for the trial of the four now no longer
served any purpose ; it was accordingly dissolved on the
nuncio's own proposal,^ though he appears to have felt some
scruple at the last moment. He forwarded to Rome not the
original letter of the four but a copy, so that the Pope should
feel more free to reject it.' In other ways also the weak man
began to suspect that he had allowed himself to be led astray.
On one occasion, during a discussion with Gondrin and Vialart,
he seized a knife and cut the letter from top to bottom ^ ;
^ Arnauld, on August 22, 1668, in [Varet], II., 175 (incomplete
also in Arnauld, QLuvres, I., 621) ; Gondrin, on August 25 and
September 3, 1668, in [Varet], II., 181, 225 ; Buzenval, on
September i, 1668, ibid., 216 ; the Canons of Beauvais on August
13, 1668, ibid., 220.
^ Ibid., 194 seq., 230, 236.
* Ibid., 186, 230.
* Ibid., 245, 250 ; [Dumas], II., 173 scq.
^ [Varet], II., 255.
* Ibid., 252, 255, 256. On August 26, 1668, *Gc)ndrin had
written to him that the Bishops of Angers and Beauvais were
" prets d'executer les choses que je lui [to the nuncio] ai promises ",
and that he hoped the others were similarly disposed [Excerpta,
1668, f. 412). On August 31, 1668, *ViaIart informed him that
Caulet was of the same opinion as the other two and that what
he had wTitten to him on August 22 " ne me laisse aucun doute
qu'il n'execute ce qu'il faut ", and that he hoped for the same
from Pavilion [ibid., 416, Schill remains).
' [VaretJ, II., 258 seq.
* Ibid., 259 seq.
THE FORMULA SIGNED IN THE FOUR DIOCESES. 375
however, his disquietude vanished under the influence of
the soothing assurances of his friends.^
There now followed the synods of the four Bishops at
which they had the formula of Alexander VII. subscribed to
by their clergy. ^ The Bishops of Angers and Beauvais took
the precaution, in order to avoid creating a stir, of calling
together only a small number of their clergy, and that outside
their episcopal cities. Buzenval of Beauvais held his synod
on September 14th, at his country seat of Bresle ; Henri
Arnauld held his on the following day at Saumur, at the
house of the Oratorians ; he only convened sixty clerics,
all men on whom he could rely.^ On September 18th, Pavilion
of Alet and Caulet of Pamiers acted in like manner in their
episcopal cities. The preliminary declaration qualifying the
sense of the subscription was the same, word for word, at
all the four synods ■* ; like the letter to the Pope it had been
drafted by a skilled hand in Paris and forwarded to the four
Bishops.^
The declaration consists of three parts ; it condemns the
five propositions, upholds the teaching of St. Augustine and
St. Thomas, that is, the doctrine of efficacious grace, but as
regards the question of fact, the only obhgation it acknowledges
is that of respectful regard. Henri of Angers added a clause
to the declaration, to the effect that the absent secular and
regular clergy were to sign the document within a period of
two months. This ordinance, however, was not carried
into effect.^ Buzenval of Beauvais, who had issued a similar
ordinance, submitted the formula as well as the declaration
of the year before, to the rest of the clergy at his next synod
held in July 1669, but he did not insist on their being
subscribed to.' As a matter of fact it was hardly possible to
1 Ibid., 263-6.
- [Dumas], II., 187 seqq.
3 [Varet], II., 184.
*■ [Dumas], II., 190, 196.
* [Varet], II., 163. Pavilion contributed at least one sentence
of his own [Dumas], II., 197.
^ Ibid., 200. ' Ibid.
37^ HISTORY OF THE POPES.
obtain a general subscription to the formula and the
declaration since the latter was to remain secret and was
in fact rigorously kept so.^ Even in 1680, Henri Arnauld did
not dare to make it public.^
The synod of Pamiers had a sequel four days later. On
September 22nd nine Canons called on the Vicar-General and
explained that their Bishop had stated at his synod that,
after a fresh examination in Rome, his pastoral had not
been censured in any way, nay, that more than forty Bishops
and the best brains in the realm had recast it in a new form in
which it had to be subscribed to. The preliminary declaration
that had been read to them contained the distinction between
right and fact ; to their repeated requests that the document
should be handed to them in writing, the Bishop had drily
replied that he would see whether that was necessary. Except
for the first subscriptions, all the others were on loose sheets
which consequently could be used in confirmation of anything.
For all that the nine Canons had not refused to subscribe,
as the Bishop had told them tliat both the Pope and the King
would be greatly pleased if the four Bishops subscribed once
more, and ordered their clergy to do the same. Subsequently
their conscience began to trouble them because the subscription
was against the Pope's will ; for this reason they made their
present declaration, which they insisted on being inserted in
the minutes.^
The September synod of the Bishop of Angers also received
a complement of another kind. In view of the altered situation,
Antoine Arnauld expressed a desire to sign the formula,
though not in Paris, whose Archbishop, Pcrefixe, did not hold
the Jansenist view on the distinction of right and fact. This
difficulty did not exist with his brother, the Bi.shop of Angers,
but instead there was the circumstance that he himself did
not belong to the diocese of Angers. However, a way out of
the difficulty was found. Arnauld was given a benefice which
1 [Varet], II., 277 ; Cochin, 218 seq.
* Cochin, 223.
' [Dumas], IT., 202-7.
REVULSION IN FAVOUR OF ARNAULD. 377
existed only on paper, having been invented specially for
the benefit of Arnauld ; as incumbent of this benefice the
great Arnauld subscribed to the September synod of Saumur
although he had not been at Saumur at all in the month of
September.! ^t that synod, for reasons which it is impossible
to account for, Bishop Henri had made all the parish priests
of Angers sign their names on two copies of his declaration. ^
Antoine Arnauld's name was inserted in one of these as
appears from two copies.^
Arnauld's whole destiny seemed now, all of a sudden, to
take a new turn. The days were over when he was forced to
flee from one hiding place to another. On October 13th,
nuncio Bargelhni received him in audience. Arnauld protested
that he had signed the formula at Angers through a repre-
sentative, and Bargellini exhorted him to devote his " golden
pen " in future to the service of the Church.'* There followed
his presentation to the King who urged him to let bygones be
bygones.* The most distinguished people now vied with one
another in paying homage, in his retreat at the house of the
Duchess of Longueville, to a man whom they had previously
shunned.^
As a matter of fact everything seemed to point to the
dawn of a new era, though the attempt to secure Arnauld's
readmission as a Doctor of the Sorbonne proved a failure '
and his reception by Bargellini let loose a storm of indignation
against the nuncio.^ But the Jansenist Canons of Beauvais
recovered their honours and dignities, and the nuns of Port-
Royal-des-Champs were once more admitted to the Sacraments
in February 1669, though they were compelled to surrender
two-thirds of the income of both houses to their sisters of the
1 Ihid., II., 220 seq. ; Cochin, 219-222.
* [Dumas], II., 199.
' Cochin, 219.
* [Varet], II., 297 seqq.
^ Ibid., 314.
* Rapin, III, 478 seq.
' [Varet], 414 seq. ; Cauchie, in Rev. d'hist. eccles., 1903, 50.
8 Cauchie, ibid., 94.
37^ HISTORY OF THE POPES.
convent of Port-Royal in Paris who had submitted before
them.i The nuncio received letters of thanks from the four
Bishops, 2 and for a time so man}^ callers came to congratulate
him that he took alarm. In view of the fact that the Generals
of the Cassinese Congregation, the French Benedictines and
the Bernardines, the Provincials of the Dominicans, Friars
Minor, the Augustinians, the Caked and Discalced Carmehtes,
came to pay him their compliments, he began to fear that
Jansenism had perhaps struck deeper roots in the Orders than
was generally believed.^
On their part, the men who had negotiated the peace
reported to Rome in the same strain as that of the four
Bishops' letter to the Pope. These reports pass over in
profound silence the one all-important point, whilst thev
indulge in rhetorical assurances of the obedience of the four
prelates who, they write, had done all that could be asked of
them. Vialart of Chalons wrote that the affair had been
settled to the greater honour of the Holy See ; as soon as the
four Bishops had realized in what way they might satisfy the
Pope, they had shown the utmost readiness to yield, and had
complied, with the greatest sincerity, with every measure that
made for peace ; and the same was to be said of the theologians. "*
^ [Varet], IL, 416 seq. Ordinance of Archbishop Perefixe
of Paris in favour of the nuns of Port-Royal-des-Champs, ibid.,
418 ; [Dumas], II., 267 seqq. Cf. *Bargellini to Rospigliosi,
November 23, 1668, Nunziat. di Francia, 137, Papal Sec. Arch.
*Lodato Dio," the nuncio writes at the end of February, 1669
{ibid.), that the nuns have subscribed without reservation —
thus is " eradicata questa radice del Janscnismo a gloria del
felicissimo pontificato di N. S."
- Buzcnval in September 1668, in [Dumas], II., 208 ; *joint
letter of Pavilion and Caulet, dated September 10, 1668, Excerpta,
1668, f. 436 ; Henri Arnauld, on September 12, 1668, ibid.,
f- 437-
' Cauchie, loc. cit., 1902, 890.
' " *Eo tandem perducta res est, ut ex omnium sententia
atque consensu cum summo Apost. Sedis honore transigcretur . . .
Simul ac illis episcopis oblata est ratio, qua Sanctitati V. fierct
.satis, nihil fuerit ipsis ad amplectenda sincerissimc pacis consilia
CONFERENCE IN ROME. 379
Gondrin of Sens, too, protested that everybody had submitted
to the Pope, so that it could be truly said : " The earth was
quiet before the face of Your Holiness ! " ^ D'Estrees of
Laon's language was more sober, but at bottom it was equally
ambiguous.^
The assurances of the nuncio were calculated to inspire
greater confidence in Rome than these rhetorical phrases ;
his reports led to the conclusion that the four had been
sincere when they subscribed to their letter to the Pope,'^ and
flexibilius aut promptius {Excerpta, 1668, f. 456). The letter bears
no date. Another *letter of Vialart (undated) to a Cardinal,
ibid., 465.
1 " *Paruere enim sine cunctatione et alacri animo, ut primum
mentem Sanctitatis V. propositumque acceperunt, eosque
sponte secuti sunt, quotquot erant iisdem difficultatibus implicati
theologi, ut vere dicendum sit, terram sihiisse in conspectu
Sanctitatis Vestrae " (i Mach., i, 3), Excerpta, 1668, f. 448.
In like manner, *Gondrin to Rospigliosi, September 17, 1668
{ibid., f. 450) : The four " se sont portes avec joie a faire tout ce
qui leur a ete possible pour satisfaire Sa Saintete et pour luirendre
I'obeissance qu'ils lui doivent . . . ils ont agi en cette occasion
avec les sentiments de religion et de soumission ".
^ *Letter of September 22, 1668, to the Pope, ibid., f. 467,
and in [Dumas], II., 212 seqq., III. Rec, 189 seq., and to Card.
Rospigliosi, Excerpta, 1668, f. 476, and [Dumas], II., 214. Cf.
[Varet], II., 511 seqq.
' Thus *on August 14, 1668 : Yesterday a courier informed
the mediating Bishops that all the four had subscribed " senza
riserva alcuna " ; *on August 28 : From Gondrin's letter I
gather that two Bishops have subscribed " sinceramente " ;
*on September 4 : Gondrin and Vialart report that Pavilion
" s'e indotto a sottoscrivere con ogni sincerita " ; *on September
21 : when fresh difficulties arose " io risposi che per esser sinceris-
sima la sottoscrizione de' quattro vescovi era necessario fosse
senza mandamenti o processi verbali " ; *on the same day :
the Bishop of Laon has repeatedly assured me of the sincerity of
the four and " che il nome e il libro di Jansenio restara aboHto
affatto ". Nimziat. di Francia, 137 (Cifre del Bargellini), Papal
Sec. Arch.
380 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
that Bargellini was able to guarantee to Lionne that their
subscription of the formula had likewise been given without
any reservations.^ But all these smooth words did not
completely satisfy Rome. One reason for this reserve was the
circumstance that the nuncio had only forwarded a copv of
the letter of the four, and no document was forthcoming that
might have served as an unequivocal proof that the four had
subscribed. Together with these letters of courtesy there
had also come a curious dispatch from Lionne to Cardinal
Rospigliosi, which stated that the minister could not believe
that Bargellini had overstepped his instructions, but if that
was nevertheless the case there was no going back now,
since the position of the four Bishops was the same as that of
thirty or forty others ; it would not be possible to take action
against so many and the judges would unanimously pronounce
in their favour. Moreover, the nuncio had agreed to the
discharge of the judicial commission ; it would be all but
impossible to convene it again ; as it was three or four of the
commissaries had hesitated whether or no to accept the office
of a judge ; they would certainly refuse to do so now. For
the rest, it may be said that Bargellini simply had to consent
to the discharge of the commission when things had gone so
far. Lionne also made two further submissions, viz. whether
it would not be a good thing if the Pope answered the letter
of the four, for they might interpret his silence as a sign of
displeasure and, secondly, whether it would not be best to
' " *Circa il particolare de' quattro vescovi nel principio del
discorso dissi a M. de Lionne che si desiderava la retrattatione
formale de' mandamcnti, ma conoscendo dalla risposta di S. S.
che era impossibile ottenerla, mi restrinsi che sottoscrivessero e
giurassero il formolario e lo faccssero giurare e sottoscrivere al
lore clero, ma sopra tutto che le sottoscrittioni fossero pure,
semplici, sincere, schiette ; che per non perder tempo di mandate
a Roma la lettera, che li quattro vescovi devono scrivere a N. S.,
S. E. facesse sottoscriverli pcrche in tanto la havessimo concertata
assieine di sodisfattione commune e mandata quando fosse
ridotta al segno che conviene." Bargellini, August 3, 1668,
loc. cit.
LIONNE TO ROSPIGLIOSI. 381
keep the whole affair a profound secret and not to publish the
letter of the four, lest there should be another outbreak of
controversy.^
Lionne also laid these arguments before the French
ambassador in Rome,^ and from what Albizzi told the minister,^
these decided the further course of the affair in Rome. Even
if Bargellini had exceeded his instructions — and Lionne
hinted at it clearly enough — it was impossible to recall the
concessions made by him in Paris in the Pope's name.
The bearer of the declaration of submission of the
1 " *Gran negotio et maggior di quelle che se possa immaginare
per la conseguenza si e concluso " ; What Piccolomini and
Roberti failed to accomplish has been brought about by
Bargellini 's " patienza " and " dolcezza " with the only " capaci "
mezzani. " L'anima del negotio e stata il segreto che si e guardato
. . . lo son securo che Ms. Nuntio ha troppa prudenza et essatezza
per havere deviato un sol punto dalli suoi ordini et instruttioni ;
pur quando havesse trascorso in qualche cosa, il partito che ha
pigliato fin qua volontariamente, si trova hoggi essere di mera
necessita per molte raggioni, delle quali ne addurro solo due
brevemente. ..." The nuncio had to consent to the dissolution
of the commission when the " vescovi mezzani " asked " se i
quattro vescovi havendo compito tutto quello che paresse
desiderate da loro per parte di S. Bn^ havessero anco da temere
che si potesse ripensar di nuovo al far loro il processo." However,
on dismissing the commission, the King would tell them that they
would be recalled if their services were required. He submits :
I. " se parera alia Santita sua con li termini che stimera piii
proprii respondere alia lettera dei quattro vescovi . . . ; 2.
se li parera di tenere segretissimo tutto quello che si e trattato
et aggiustato per non dare occasione " to fresh controversial
wTitings. It would be best to say in general terms " che Ms.
Nuntio ha aggiustato I'affare a sodisfattione di S. Santita ".
Lionne to Rospigliosi, Excerpta, 1668, f. 457.
- Gerin, II. , 305.
^ *Bargellini to Rospigliosi, October 20, 1668, Nunziat. di
Francia, 137, Papal Sec. Arch. ; E. De Jean, Un prelat inde-
pendant, 224, n. ; Dubruel, in Bullet, de litterat. eccles., 1918,
387 ; Rapin, III., 467.
382 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
four arrived in the Eternal City on September 25th. The
cardinahtial Congregation for Jansenism met for dehberation
on the very next day. The letter of the four, they decided,
was so worded that the Holy See could accept and acknowledge
it without loss of prestige. If the original was in the nuncio's
hands, he should forward it ; if not, let him ask Lionne to
return it and explain to him that if he himself had dispatched
only a copy to Rome, it was solely that the Holy See might
have a freer hand. Let him also forward the original of the
letters of the four to himself as they would " clearly show the
regard of those Bishops for the Holy See and their submission
to the orders of the Pope ". Moreover, it was the nuncio's
business to use his ingenuity with a view to securing proof
of the subscription of the four, so that the fact may be
established for all time. Until such a document was
in their hands it would not be proper for the Pope
to reply to the letters of Gondrin and Vialart. But the
nuncio should assure these two Bishops of the Pope's
goodwill and explain the reason of the delay of the reply.
Lastly, Bargellini must keep the secret which Lionne desired.^
^ *Quod scribatur Xuntio : Excepisse laeta fronte S. D. N.
gratiasque Deo retulisse nunciuni de subscriptione formularii
executioni demandata per episcopos etc., lectamque fuisse
copiam epistolae, qua praedicti quatuor episcopi scripserunt
Sanctitati Suae, indicatumque fuisse, eanderti ita fuisse conceptam,
ut cum dignitate Sedis Ap. possit recipi, illique responsum dari.
Varum quia ex epistola Xuntii Ap. non bene percipitur, utrum
originale sit apud se vel restituerit, censuere EE. PP., ut eidem
Nuntio scribatur, quod quatenus sit penes se, transmittat quam
primum, si minus, dicat D"o de Lionne, qualiter ipse, ne S. Sedem
induceret in aliquam necessitatem et ad cautelam, misisse [sic /]
copiam et repudiasse originale, verum quia pro comperto habet . . .
velit idem D. de Lionne, ut denuo tradatur ipsi Nuntio, in quo
industriam suam adhibeat, ut id faciat cum proprii ministerii
honore. Idem Nuntius mittat originales epistolas eidem scriptas
per quatuor episcopos, cum ex earum tenore clare patcat eorundem
episcoporum observantia crga S. Sedem atque resignata obedientia
erga mandata S. D. N. Pariter resolutum fuit, ut idem Nuntius
EMBARRASSMENT OF THE JANSENISTS. 383
A letter to this effect was then dispatched to the
nuncio.^
Besides these instructions to the nuncio, it was also necessary
to answer the letters which had been received. Consequently,
on September 28th, the Pope issued a Brief in which he took
care, for the moment, to acknowledge not the letter of the
four, but LouisXIV.'s covering letter. He expressed his
satisfaction at the " obedience and submission " of the four
who had " subscribed to the formula, sincerely and without
reservation ". If there was anything more to do in the affair,
the Pope prayed the King to step in and complete the work.^
This Brief reached Paris on October 8th ; two days later
everybody knew of it,^ to the annoyance of the Jansenists,
for the Pope's words could only confirm the great public —
which knew nothing of the secret declarations — in its opinion
dextre et apposite curet habere actum authenticum subscriptionis
formularii, ut de eo in futurum constare valeat. Et quia non
videtur convenire, quod S. S. respondeat archiepiscopo Senonensi
et episcopo Chalon., qui scripsere. . . . Sanctitati S. atque
Eminentissimo Rospigliosi antequam constet de subscriptione
per actum authenticum, Nuntius sumpta occasione illos certiores
faciat non mode animi et propensae in eos voluntatis Sanctitatis
S., verum etiam de causa dilationis. . . . Retz also should be
thanked. Tandem quia D. de Lionne summa et singulari sollici-
tudine petiit ab eodem Nuntio, ut omnia gesta hucusque pro
felici exitu huiusmodi negotii alto silentio involverentur, idque
fuisse caute praestitum in Galliis, ut optimum consihum solerti
atque amanti animo datum cum utilitate et beneficio religionis
catholicae coniungatur, et dempta ansa iurgiorum tandem
novisque rumoribus et dissensionibus, quae oriri ex malitia
hominum possent, scdentur atque comprimantur. Bibl. Angelica,
S. 3, I, from the MS. of the Holy Office, entitled " Jansenio et
formulario ", Session of September 26, 1668, p. 320.
^ *September 28, 1668, Nimziat. di Francia, 137, f. 61, Papal
Sec. Arch.
^ [Dumas], II., 217. " Tanta sane cum laetitia cognovimus in
simplici ac pura subscriptione formularii quatuor illorum epis-
coporum obedientiam et obsequium." Ihid., III., Rec, 191 seq.
* Ihid., II., 220.
384 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
that they had submitted sincerely and without subterfuge.
They were even more annoyed by a decree of the Royal
Council of October 23rd, 1668. That document stated ^ that
the Pope had been completely satisfied with the " submission "
of the four to the Constitutions of Innocent X. and
Alexander VII. and with their personal subscription, as also
with their demand of the subscription from their subjects and
with their letter to the Pope assuring him of their obedience
to the said Constitutions ; all this had induced the Pope to
forget the past. In pursuance of the Pope's exhortation to
use the royal authority in dealing with the disputes " connected
with the condemnation of Jansenius's book ", the King now
commanded the observance of the said Constitutions and
forbade the two parties to use the expressions " heretics,
Jansenists " as well as the publication of books on the con-
troversy or of offensive remarks about those who had signed
the formula. For the Jansenists it was too much that the
King's ordinance should speak of the " obedience " of the
Bishops. When the Bishops promulgated papal Constitutions,
such an action, according to them, was merely a token of
approval, not of submission. They were also hurt by the
suggestion that there was anything that the Pope could forget
and that there should be question of the " condemnation "
of Jansenius' book.^ For the rest there is reason to suspect
that the ministers, who really favoured Jansenism, chose
these expressions in order to cover up their share in the
deception practised by the four.^ Moreover, the ordinance
was issued before the Pope's declaration of his satisfaction
with the " obedience " of the four : it was evidently intended
to drive him further along the road of concessions. ^
If it was to achieve its real purpose it was necessary for
^ Ibid., 224 seq.
* [Varet], II., 324 seqq.
^ Gerin, II., 306.
* To the nuncio Lionnc explained that he could not delay
any further as otherwise pamphlets against the agreement would
have been published. *Excerpta, 1668, f. 976. *Report of the
nuncio on the subject, dated October 26, 1668, ibid., f. 974.
lionne's forgery. 385
the Government to produce unimpeachable evidence of the
submission of the four, such as Rome demanded. This was
seemingly an impossible task, for how was Pavilion to be
induced to furnish such proof ? However, Lionne was a
resourceful man ; he produced an attestation by Pavilion
without a fresh demand of Pavilion : "I have handed the
four attestations to the nuncio," he wrote to the King, " for
by good fortune we found some blank sheets bearing the
signatures of the four Bishops." ^ In other words, he simply
wrote the required attestation on the blank sheets and
dispatched them to Rome ^ where, as Rospigliosi wrote to
Bargellini, together with the four declarations, information
was likewise received that they were not sincere.^ None the
less with his latest move Lionne had beaten the Pope for,
though people in Rome might well distrust the Saint of Alet
and his followers, would it be wise to admit publicly that they
suspected some trick behind the signatures of four Catholic
Bishops ? In the end Rome had to be content with the
* " J'ai . . . fourni les quatre certificats au Nonce, s'etant
trouve ici heureusement des blancs signes des quatre eveques."
Arch, des affaires etrangeres, Paris {France, t. 416, f. 122), in
Dejean, 225 n. ; Dubruel, in Bulletin de litt. eccles., 1918,
338.
2 The four certificates are in *Excerpta, f. 835 (Alet), 836
(Angers), 838 (Ponniers), 840 (Beauvais) ; also in *Cod. Vat.
7405, f. 24, Vat. Lib. Pavilion's attestation is as follows : " Nous
Nicolas eveque d'Aleth certifions a tous qu'il appartiendra que
nous avons assemble notre synode dans notre eglise cathedrale
aujourd'hui [!] mardi 18 sept. 1668 et que dans iceluy nous avons
signe et fait signer sincerement par les ecclesiastiques de notre
diocese le formulaire de 'foi contenu dans la Constitution de
N. S. P. le Pape Alexandre VII. d'heureuse memoire conforme-
ment a la lettre que nous en avons ecrit a N. S. P. le Pape."
The attestation of the Bishop of Beauvais in [Dumas], II., 231.
3 " *Che I'atto di sottoscrittione non e stato fedele e sincere,
ma con circostanze di gravissimo peso e di pessime conseguenze."
Letter of November 6, 1668, Nunziat. di Francia, 137, Papal
Sec. Arch.
VOL. XXXI. cc
386 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
subscription of the four and to take its sincerity for granted.
" The Pope only judges of external actions," Cardinal
Rospighosi observed at a later date.^
Although Arnauld and other exponents of the strict
morality were for ever talking about " Christian uprightness ",
they nevertheless approved of the trick which Lionne was
playing on the Pope with his blank sheets ; the onlv condition
they insisted upon was that the conclusion of the four attesta-
tions should state that the subscription had taken place in
conformity with the letter of the four.^
Lionne was far less free from preoccupation than the
Jansenists. If the four only subscribed " in conformity " with
their letter, they had not subscribed unconditionally ; such
phrases might well raise suspicions in Rome. And what
would happen if in some future Roman document reference
should be made to a subscription by the four of which they
themselves were in complete ignorance ? It was necessary
for him to take his precautions. In a letter to Cardinal
Rospighosi, dated October 12th, he explained that the clause
had been necessary, for it represented the only way out and
the only bond between the two parties ; a subscription
without reservation was more than impossible. He then
expressed a wish that no one should be allowed to see the
four attestations, and that in his Brief the Pope should only
speak of a "sincere ", but not of an " unconditional " sub-
scription. The fact was that in the person of the Bishop of
Alet they had to deal with a wrong-headed man ; if they
adopted another course than the one suggested by him,
they would fall from the frying-pan into the fire and undo
in a moment what it had cost so much effort to build up.
^ " Le cardinal Rospigliosi mc repeta . . . cjuc le Pape ne
jugeait que des actes extericurs " ; Bourlcmont, on January 20,
1669, in Cochin, 230.
* " Nos Messieurs ne sent point effaries du certificat, pourvu
qu'il soil relatif a la Lcttre. Mais ils imaginent un tour qu'ils
vous diront demain qui ne rend pas la chose plus difficile. Enfin
cette affaire ne rompra la paix de leur cote." The Duchess of
Longueville to Gondrin [Varet], II., 292 seq.
LIONNE ON THE FOUR ATTESTATIONS. 387
In that case even the King's authority would not stop Pavilion
from publishing his letter to the Pope, with its glosses, and
from letting loose a flood of manifestos for the purpose of
informing the world, in his own peculiar fashion, of the course
of events. For the same reason the letter to the King should
not be made public either ; above all the forthcoming Brief
to the four must on no account allude to the four attestations.
At the beginning of his letter, Lionne lightly touches on, or
rather disguises, the story of the origin of the four attestations.
They had only been secured with the utmost difficulty, he
writes. So as not to jeopardize the prestige of the Pope in
an affair where success was uncertain, he had advised the
nuncio not to deal personally with the Bishops who were
acting as mediators ; hence he had taken the matter into his
own hands and thrown into the scales not only arguments,
but the weight also of the King's name, a step that had
perhaps not been useless.^ In a second letter of the same
^ " *La clausola di detto atto autentico relativa alia lettera
scritta a S. Santita ci ha date finalmente il mode da uscire del
passo et e state il solo legame die vi poteva essere per conciliare
con soddisfattione ambe le parti ; poiche sicome era imprattica-
bile anzi impossibilissimo di cavarlo assolutamente libero [of
clauses] per le considerationi che V. E. comprendera molto
bene, cosi habbiamo havuto M. Nuntio et io ogni ragione di
credere che mentre S. Santita si era degnata di explicarsi che
havrebbe havuto la bonta di ricevere delta lettera e di rispondervi
favorevolmente, non poteva non esserli anco grata detta clausola
remissiva alia medesima lettera . . . Havendo noi da fare con
un cervello della tempra del vescovo d'Alet, se in questi due
punti ch'io tocco se ne usasse costi altrimente che secondo il
mio in ci6 debole parere, caderessimo senza dubbio come si
dice dalla padella nella brace, si rovinarebbe in un istante tutto
quello che habbiamo edificato con tanta fatiga . . . e non facesse
[Pavilion] manifest! a diluvio per instruire il mondo a suo modo
di come siano passate le cose etc. The Brief to the Bishops need
only explain, sicome la Santita Sua e restata sodisfatta e della
lettera loro e dclle prove effettivc e asseverante che hanno dato
della loro ubbidicnza alle Constitutioni, non nominando specifica-
mente gli atti authcntici delle sottoscrizioni per restarc piu
388 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
date Lionne complains of the Jesuits who accused him of
having deceived both the nuncio and the Pope.^
It was, of course, impossible in the long run, to throw a
veil over what had happened at the synods of the four.
Anonj-mous letters reached Rome from Pamiers, Alet and
Paris, furnishing proof of the insincerity of the four.^
Bargellini began to realize that his confidence had
been abused and he complained bitterly to Lionne on
September 24th and 25th. ^ The minister replied that if the
preliminary declaration was a secret one, the Church need not
judge of what was a secret ; forty other Bishops would have
acted in exactly the same way, in fact he had dropped a hint
to that effect before the event. This was emphatically denied
by Bargellini ; he had never heard a word of a preliminary
declaration or of anything else that might have altered the
sincerity of the subscription ; in proof he submitted a copy
of his letter of June 1st to Rome, and reminded Lionne how
often he had repeated that the subscription must be sincere.
Lionne replied that it had to come to this, and that Rome
had only one alternative, viz. either to leave things as they
were or to take proceedings against forty other Bishops.*
che si puote nei termini generali, which would cover the Pope's
authority, schivando con applicata industria i termini che
potessero anche da lontano dar occasione a credere ad altri
che habbino fatto piu di quelle che veramente hanno fatto per
la lore ubbidienza alia S. Sede " {Excerpta, i668, f. 86i). Cf.
Dejean, 225 n.
1 *Excerpta, 166S, f. 862.
2 *Excerpta, 1668, f. 740 5^^., 742, 748. The letter of Alet
is dated September 18, 1668.
' *Bargellini to Rospigliosi on September 25, 1668, Nitnziat.
di Francia, 137, f. 339, Papal Sec. Arch. ; see App. 7.
* Loc. cit. According to Varet (IT, 143 seq., 258, 281 seq.)
Bargellini had been willing that the four " fissent signer de
nouveau sur des Proces-vcrbaux." That this is inaccurate is
proved by this passage and by the whole context. Bargellini
was no diplomatist, but neither was he a traitor. Cf. [Dumas],
IIL, 149-192.
INFORMATION SOUGHT FROM BARGELLINI. 389
Even Annat, with whom Bargelhni had been in consultation
up till the beginning of the month, though without letting
him into the secret/ expressed the hope that in his goodness
the Pope would content himself with the submission of the
four without inquiring into their secret declarations. ^
By October 8th, Bargellini's letter had been decoded in
Rome and the Congregation for Jansenism met for a session.
The main result of the dehberation was to the effect that the
nuncio should be instructed to ascertain tactfully and with
the utmost secrecy, whether a protocol had been drawn up
on the conduct of the synods and what it contained, in
particular whether there was anything in it against the
sincerity of the subscription. At the same time the nuncio
should be warned to be more circumspect in his speech ;
he must not speak so openly of what he wrote to Rome, for in
this way he would restrict the Pope's freedom of action.^
^ *Bargellini to Rospigliosi, September 7, 1668 (see above,
p. 368).
2 *Bargellini to Rospigliosi {Cifra), September 25, 1668, loc. cit.
' Ottoboni was of opinion that the nuncio should not trouble
at all about the proces-verhal of the Synods ; on the other hand
Borromeo wished him to find out whether the subscription was
qualified in any way ; Albizzi said that the nuncio should forward
a copy of the proces-verbal. Omnes tandem dixerunt, scribatur
Nuntio, quod curet habere actum subscriptionis factae per
quatuor episcopos formulario et quod subscriptio sit sincera
et libera, advertendo quod ista verba " sincera et libera " nihil
aliud significant, quam quod episcopi non possint apponere
restrictionem aliquam, non vero quod teneantur expresse dicere
" sincere et libere subscribo". Curet idem Nuntius, ut pateat, quibus
opus est, quod ipse non certioraverit S. D. N. de processibus ver-
balibus factis seu faciendis per dictos quatuor episcopos occasione
dictae subscriptionis, imo dicat Domino de Lionne, ipsum non
scripsisse inhaerendo suis consiUis et suasionibus. Curet etiam,
sed singular! solertia ct impenetrabili silentio scire, quid actum
fuit in synodis celebratis per quatuor episcopos occasione sub-
scriptionis formularii, ct utrum super actis synodalibus formatus
fuerit processus verbalis, quid in illis contineatur et utrum aliquid
390 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
In pursuance of these instructions three letters, under date
of October 11th, were dispatched to the nuncio. ^ The first ^
explains that it was not enough that some sort of document
should attest that the subscription of the four was sincere.
Bargellini must endeavour to get hold of the authentic
document with the subscription ; only when it was proved
that the signature of the four stood under the papal formula
without reservation of any kind, could they feel sure of the
four Bishop's sincerit}'. Let the nuncio exert himself to this
end and declare that he had thought it best not to write to
Rome concerning a preliminary declaration which may
possibly exist. This had been Lionne's advice and, as a matter
of fact, nothing beyond their sincere subscription had been
demanded of the four ; since credible witnesses attested that
this had been given, the Pope must assume that a preliminary
declaration either does not exist or that it contains nothing
against the sincerity of the subscription. On the other hand,
the nuncio must point out to Lionne that he would have to
inform the Pope if anything affecting the sincerity of the
subscription came to light. The second letter ^ charges him
to search, in the greatest secrecy, for the preliminary
declaration on the subscription of the four and to ascertain
insertum sit, quod repugnet sinceritati et liberfati purae sub-
scriptionis. Et cum aliis notatum fuerit, quod dictus Nuntius
facile pandit, quod de iis quae ad eius aures perveniunt, certiorem
reddit SSum et inde videtur indecora et praeiudiciahs tolerantia,
quae aliter honeste praetermitti possit et sperni, omnes EE. PP.
dixerunt, ut scriberetur Nuntio, qualiter in posterum, ut vigens
necessitas non consulat in contrarium, tacrat et dissimulet
scripsisse ad Urbem, ut turn ipse quam s. Congregatio libere
possint deliberare iuxta normam verac prudentiae et ut praesens
temporum conditio tulerit. Quod vero ad notulam transmissam
per Nuntium atque cxaratam de consilio P. Annat S. J., omnes
dixerunt, nihil pro nunc respondendum, scd laudandam pietatcm
dicti Patris. Bibl. Angelica, S. 3, i, p. 360.
' See App. 8, Papal Sec. Arch.
2 *Nunziat. di Francia, 137, f. 64, ibid.
3 Ibid., f. 65.
LETTERS TO THE NUNCIO. 39I
two things in particular : first, whether that declaration
was embodied in the synodal acts, thereby acquiring public
validity, in which case it would not be possible to remain
silent on the matter, and, secondly, whether it contained
anything against the sincerity of the subscription. The third
letter ^ states that it would be a good thing if the nuncio
would draw the minister's attention to a few particulars,
namely that he had thought it best not to mention the
declaration of the four about their subscriptions because the
Pope had only decided to act as he had done at the urgent
request of the King and because he relied on the authority
and the zeal of His Majesty and the minister himself ;
accordingly His Holiness had judged it best, with regard to
the sincerity of the subscription, to rely on the word of the
King and the minister and to refrain from further inquiries.
In acting in this way the Pope took it for granted that in so
important a matter, which equally trenched on the interests
and the piety of His Majesty and the Pope's authority, His
Holiness had no reason to fear a deception seeing that every-
body trusted in the loyalty and the faith of the King and the
minister, so that His Majesty's honour was at stake, of which
no one would ever be able to say that it had failed His
Holiness.
It was impossible to speak more clearly to an all-powerful
King. During the ensuing week, Bargellini comforted himself
as best he could for his bad luck. On October 19th he speaks
of his satisfaction at the submission of the four ; even the
Jesuits were coming round to the view that the prelates had
done their duty. If they had failed to do so, so much the
worse for them, for in that case their duplicity would be
exposed before the whole world. ^ A few weeks later the nuncio
was worried by the fear that the four might relapse, when
they might try to escape from the shame of perjury by pointing
to the conduct of some other French Bishops. However, he
calmed himself with the thought that one passage in their
' *Ibid., 137 seq., 66.
- *To Rospigliosi on October 19, 1668, ibid., f. 368.
392 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
letter to the Pope to which they might appeal, obviously
referred only to the Bishops of the Assembly of the Clergy,
who had all subscribed without a preliminary declaration.^
Rome was less credulous. If the nuncio, the Cardinal
Secretary of State wrote, ^ succeeded in obtaining from the
Bishops who had acted as mediators, or from the four
themselves, a written assurance such as that which they had
so often given by word of mouth, namely that their sub-
scription was unaccompanied by any restricting clause, they
would have obtained all that they could wish for. But
Bargellini's steps in this direction must not give rise to the
suspicion that in Rome they believed in the existence of such
declarations. If he failed to get the required attestation,
he was to go on as before, unless proof of the existence of
such declarations was actually forthcoming.
Meanwhile, it became increasingly evident that there was
good reason for throwing a veil over the proceedings at the
synods of the four. On October 30th, 1668, Bargellini passes
on information concerning the synods which he had obtained
from the Jesuits.^ He adds that he cannot guarantee the
accuracy of the report but, as a matter of fact, the report
was quite correct. On November 1st an Amsterdam newspaper
published the information that the four had only subscribed
in the spirit of their pastorals and that the Pope had agreed
to this.* A few days later the Secretary of State, Cardinal
^ *To the same, November i6, i668, ibid., f. 400.
2 *October 30, 1668, ibid., i. 69 seq. For the words in the
letter of the four Bishops : " Episcopi Gallicani nobiscum
sensibus coniuncti.ssimi " and the controversy they raised because
the Janscnists, in their printed copies, inserted " multi " before
" episcopi ". Cf. [Dumas], III., 164 seqq. " Multi " stood in the
first draft but was removed at the instance of the nuncio. It is
also missing in the letter of November 16, quoted in the preceding
note and in the copy of the letter in Cod. 60 of the Library of
S. Pietro, in VincoH, Rome, f. 37 seqq.
^ *Excerpta, 1668, f. 1,000.
■» [Varet], II., 378.
DOUBTS ABOUT THE FOUR. 393
Rospigliosi/ wrote that he had received the original of the
letter of the four together with the authentic acts concerning
their subscription, but added that he had been informed that
the document about the subscription was not truthful and
sincere. So far the Pope had not made up his mind whether
or not to believe the information ; the nuncio must try and
find out what the truth is. The true facts were gradually
coming to light. On November 27th the nuncio forwarded
the protest of the nine Canons of Pamiers against Caulet's
action at his Synod. ^ On the same day Clement IX. felt so
sure of his ground that he sternly requested the French
ambassador for further information ; in his embarrassment
the latter answered that he had no instructions.^ Thereupon
the Pope asked Paris for further light ; this Lionne supphed
after his own fashion. Through Archbishop Harlay of Rouen
he persuaded Vialart to attest once more the complete
sincerity of the four Bishops. Inalongletter of December 5th, ^
the minister informed Rome of Vialart's attestation, which
also bore Arnauld's signature. The latter's name on this
document, Bargellini wrote at the same time, had more
weight than if all four had signed together, for these
would not dare to contradict in any way a man whose writings
had been the main support of their activities.^
Vialart's declaration reduces itself merely to one more
ambiguity. The four Bishops, he began, had acted in perfectly
good faith. They had condemned the five propositions with
absolute sincerity, without exception or reservation. " With
regard to the relation of these propositions to Jansenius'
1 *To Bargellini on November 6, 1668, Nunziat. di Fvancia,
loc. cit.. Papal Sec. Arch.
- *Excerpta, 1668, f. 1,039. Cf. above, p. 376.
3 Gerin, II., 306.
* *Excerpta, 1668, f. 1072 ; [Varet], II., 402. Cf. Vialart's
attestation of December 15, 1674, of the declaration in Arnauld,
Fantome dii J ansenisme , chap. 19 (CEuvres, XXV., 127);
[Varet], II., 403.
^ Bargellini on December 4, 1668, in Cauchie, Rev. d'hist.
eccles., 1903, 51.
394 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
book, they had exhibited, and had had exhibited to the Holy
See, all the regard and all the submission due to it according
to the teaching of theologians," etc.^ To give further weight
to these explanations Lionne instructed the French ambassador
in Rome to represent to the Pope, on December 14th, that if
he rejected the letter of the four and insisted on their trial,
he would have between seventy and eighty Bishops against
him, and the rest would make common cause with them,
were it only because action was being taken against a
colleague ; the affair might even lead to a national council. ^
In a previous letter to Rome, Harlay had described it as a
kind of miracle that the Jansenists were allowing themselves
to be persuaded to make greater concessions than ever before. ^
It was a thorny problem for the cardinalitial Congregation
to decide on a course of action. The Pope had to insist on
the four Bishops declaring the live propositions to be heretical
in Jansenius' sense ; on this point, as Cardinal Rospigliosi
expressly stated at a later date, Clement IX. would not yield
in the slightest degree. But was it certain, in view of the
latest reports from France, that the four maintained Jansenius'
orthodoxy ? A number of seemingly straightforward
attestations stood in the way of such a supposition, for they
appeared to establish be^'ond a doubt that the prelates had
subscribed to Alexander VII. 's formula with complete sincerity.
Even though the four might not hold it as a dogma of the faith
that Jansenius was a heretic, they nevertheless appeared to
give an internal assent to the definition relative to that
matter, and could they not be satisfied with that ? Neither
* [Dumas], II., 239 seqq.
" Gerin, II., 308.
* " *En effet, jamais le parti des Janseniste.s, n'etait venu
jusque la que c'etait une espece de miracle de les avoir menes
aussi avant, etc." (December 5, 1668, Excerpta, 1668, f. 1063).
The declaration agreed with previous utterances of the four
and even with those of the nineteen ([Varet], II., 406 seq.).
On December 10, 1668, *Gondrin also gave his adhesion to Vialart's
attestation {Excerpta, 1668, f. 1079 seq.).
DISCUSSIONS IN ROME. 395
the infallibility of the Pope in dogmatic facts, nor papal
infallibility itself, had been defined as dogmas of the faith.
When, therefore, after reception of Vialart's attestation,
the question was put to the Congregation of Cardinals on
December 23rd, 1668, whether the four had done their duty,
Ginetti and Ottoboni answered in the affirmative. Ottoboni
thus substantiated his answer : the sincerity of the
subscription was vouched for by a public document, whereas
the opposite rested solely on rumours and unreliable writings.
Borromeo was of the same opinion ; he added that he had
maintained from the beginning that with regard to facts the
Pope could not command internal acts. These views were
sharply opposed by Albizzi ; persistent rumours about a
notorious fact, he contended, together with the testimony
of the Canons of Pamiers, proved that the subscription was
only given with reservations ; were the Pope to overlook
this fact, and were he, in his reply, to tell the four that they
had complied with the command of the Holy See, it would be
all up with religion and France and papal infallibility ;
Vialart's declaration was only an attestation of the views of
other people, whilst Harlay put his own construction on it.
Accordingly, Albizzi's advice was that the Pope should
promulgate once more, by means of a new Constitution, the
previous judgments of Innocent X. and Alexander VII., the
prohibition of the pastorals of the four and other attacks
against the Papal Constitutions. Chigi was of opinion that
they should try to get hold of the protocols of the Synods and
the subscriptions ; in any case the Brief in answer to the
letter of the four, should emphasize the fact that they had
subscribed without addition or reservation. Rasponi agreed
that the Brief must put it beyond a doubt that the Pope felt
certain of the sincerity of the subscription. Rospigliosi
counselled that they should go by the declaration of Vialart
and Arnauld and Harlay's covering letter ; if the four
Bishops had acted as those documents stated, they had fully
complied with the papal command and more could not be
asked of a Catliolic Bishop ; by comparison with such ample
assurances the pastorals, etc., did not count. Azzolini was of
396 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
opinion that an answer must be given to the four, and that
at an early date, but it must be a cautious one. Celsi still had
his misgivings ; if, he said, there was no doubt about the
sincerity of the four, he would side with his colleagues, but
an attestation of the subscription was not the subscription
itself, hence they must insist on the Bishops furnishing proof
of their signature. Ottoboni and Borromeo objected to this,
but Celsi stuck to his opinion though his objections could not
alter the final decision ; it was unanimously decided, with the
sole exception of Albizzi and Celsi, that a reply should be sent.^
When the Brief to the four, after undergoing many
alterations and improvements, ^ was submitted to the
Congregation, Albizzi renewed his objections. The four,
he said, assert in their synods that after a thorough examina-
tion of their pastorals, Clement IX. had approved these
documents and set aside the Constitutions of his predecessors.
From various accounts and from the newspapers of Paris,
Amsterdam and Brussels, it appeared that they had spread
this report throughout Europe. In view of this circumstance
it seemed to him that it was not enough for the honour and
reputation of the Pope and the prestige of the Church, that
they should content themselves with merely answering the
letter of the four Bishops. If this answer was dispatched
to the nuncio, God alone knew whether, in order to hide the
fact that he had been deceived, the latter would not make
difficulties to hand it to the four, thereby delaying a matter
that ought to be disposed of as soon as possible. If they sent
it direct to the four, they would either deny ever having
received it, or they would wrap it up in glosses, or misinterpret
it, as they had misinterpreted the Pope's intentions. The
real remedy was the Constitution advocated by himself ;
it would comfort the Catholics and prevent lies. In conclusion
Albizzi observed : " I beg of you to read the whole of this
^ See App. 8. As early as November i, 1668, Albizzi had laid
before the Pope " alcune scritture e lettere " concerning the
insincerity of the Bishops. Anonymous *report, Bibl. Casanat.,
X., vi., 24, f. 35.
2 Two *drafts ibicl., f. S30 and 856 ; cf. 898.
DISCUSSIONS IN ROME. 397
memorandum of mine to the Pope ; I shall then feel
happy in the thought that I have done my duty, incumbent
on me as a Cardinal of Holy Church. And I feel that His
Holiness may in a sense, depend on me more than on all the
rest, seeing that the whole of the Jansenist business has passed
through my hands, from the beginning to its present develop-
ment, and I cannot suffer that an attempt should be made to
persuade the world that this heresy had been destroyed,
seeing that in spite of its seeming destruction it appears
more vigorous than ever." Like Albizzi, Celsi also was against
the dispatch of a papal message to the four ; so was
Piccolomini, who had not been present at the sitting.^
However, their opposition was powerless.
Thus the long desired Brief to the four Bishops came
finally to be written ^ ; on February 2nd, 1669, it was in the
King's hands. In it Clement IX. refrains from too severe
expressions concerning the past ; he does not even mention
Jansenius by name, thus avoiding a discussion of the distinction
between fact and right. On the other hand, the four Gallicans
are clearly reminded of the obedience they owe to the Pope
and that the fatherly benevolence which the Holy See once
more bestowed on them, was based on the supposition that
their subscription was sincere.^ In other words : if the
subscription was not meant seriously, the four would not be
able to appeal to the Brief. There is only one passing allusion
to the rumours about the Bishops' dishonest game, whilst
it is emphatically stated that Clement IX. had never consented
to any exception to or restriction of, the Constitutions of his
predecessors.^ As for the future, the Pope expresses the hope
1 App. 9.
- January 19, 1669, in [Dumas], III., Rec, 189.
^ In their letter to Rome we read of the four " cum ingenti
obsequii nobis et huic S. Sedi per vos debiti testificatione significa-
batis vos iuxta praescriptum Literarum Apostolicarum sincere
subscripsisse et subscribi fecisse Formulario ".
* " Dictorum praedecessorum Nostrorum constitutionibus
firmissime inhaerentes nullam circa illud [negotium] cxceptionem
aut restrictionem admissuri unquam fuissemus," ibid.
39^ HISTORY OF THE POPES.
that the four would persevere in their sincere submission.
These same thoughts are even more forcibly expressed, if
possible, in the covering letter to Vialart and Gondrin ^ as
well as in subsequent communications of the Pope to
Louis XIV. and of Rospighosi to Lionne.^
A letter to the nuncio ^ enumerates the motives which
inclined the Pope to leniency : they are Vialart's attestation,
signed by Arnauld and confirmed by Gondrin, the authentic
guarantee by the four of the sincerity of their subscription,
the assurance given by Lionne to the nuncio and the testimony
of the Archbishop of Rouen and others. All this constituted
a proof which, in the Pope's opinion, far outweighed all
accounts to the contrary in certain news sheets and private
reports concerning the contents of the protocols of the synods.
Hence the Pope could, and even had to allow himself to be
persuaded, by the King's word, and by so many weighty
attestations, of the true and full submission and the sincere
subscription of the four Bishops. Let the nuncio famiharize
himself with the text of the Brief and be guided by it ; but
he need not give it further pubhcity if by so doing fresh
occasion would be given to restless spirits. But whenever
necessary let him stress the fact that the reason of the pardon
of the four was their complete submission. Only if real
duphcity showed itself and lies were spread, to the detriment
of the full obedience of which the four had made profession,
should the nuncio publish the Brief together with an account
of the facts. But on this point he must first come to an under-
standing with Lionne.*
^ [Dumas], II., 246.
2 Of February 26 and March 5, 1669, in Gerin, II., 310. By
" sincera e totale obbedienza " the four had deserved the Pope's
mildness, says Rospigliosi.
^ *Cf. January 20, 1669, Nimziat. di Francia, 137, f. 94,
Papal Sec. Arch., see App. 10.
* A *letter of the same date explains to the nuncio why the
words " di fede " were not added to the word " formulario "
in the Brief. To do so might have led to fresh chicaneries on
right and fact {ibid., f. 97). On January 20, 16C9, *Rospigliosi
OPINIONS ON THE COMPROMISE. 399
The Brief was hailed in France with the most exuberant
praise and extolled as a masterpiece. A letter of thanks of
the King to Clement IX. and Cardinal Rospigliosi ^ was
followed by the eulogies of the Archbishop of Rouen ^ and
the Bishop of Chalons.^ Lionne had a letter written to Rome
which stated that the Brief was the most beautiful of all the
documents that had emanated from the Holy See for more
than a century * and that the least word in it was a master-
piece.^ Bargellini wrote that copies were being made of the
Brief which was meeting with universal approval ; everybody
desired to see it in print. ^ Clement IX. took advantage of
his letter in answer to that of the King to stress once more
the fact that his Brief was exclusively based on the supposition
of the sincere submission of the four, and that he hoped that
in future the King would lend the Pope the support of his
royal authority should there be a revival of the old troubles.'
Besides all this praise, expressions of anxiety were likewise
heard. An anonymous publication ^ was forwarded to Rome
which enumerated ten evil consequences of the compromise.
All that had been done up till then with regard to the
distinction between right and fact had been thrown to the
also writes that the Pope refused to take notice of a pamphlet
on the insincerity of the four, the author of which was said to be
Albizzi. But the more publications of this kind appear, the
greater the duty of the four, of the mediators, of Lionne and the
king, to stress the " sincerita " of the subscription on the basis
of which the Pope had declared himself satisfied. Cifre al
Bargellini, Nitnziat. di Francia, 137, Papal Sec. Arch.
1 *Of February 7 and 8, 1669, Excerpta, 1669, f. 25.
- *To Card. Rospigliosi, February 15, 1669, tbid., f. 34.
' *To the Pope, ibid., f. 91.
■* To Bourlemont, February 8, 1669, in Gerin, XL, 309.
* To Rospigliosi, February 8, 1669, ibid., 310.
® *To Rospigliosi, April 5 and 10, Nunziat. di Francia, 137,
Papal Sec. Arch.
' *Brief of February 26, 1669, Excerpta, 1669, f. 42 ; Gerin,
II., 310.
* * Excerpta, 1668, f. 1045.
400 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
sneers of the Calvinists ; people said that the authorities of
the Church trimmed their sails according to the wind, that
infallibilit}' in dogmatic facts was being jettisoned, etc. The
Bishop of Evreux ^ prayed the Pope to enlighten the faithful
on what had happened, and to give some hint as to what
the\' were to think and to do in so obscure a matter, lest
some ill-disposed persons should delude the incautious with
a deceptive peace. The Bishop of Lombez informed the
Pope that it was generally beheved that the mediating
Bishops had given an inaccurate account of what had taken
place at the synods of the four. He was unwilling to accuse
anyone, but the benevolence shown to the returning prodigal
should not injure his elder brother who had never left his
father's house. But now for the space of about four months
the men whose submission and readmission the Pope had
desired, conducted themselves as if the judge had pronounced
them innocent and victorious against false brethren who had
been convicted of calumny.^ Bishop Abelly of Rodez also
asked for further information on the peace ; it was rumoured,
he wrote, that the Pope had approved the conduct of the
four, and abrogated the Constitutions of his predecessors, the
mere thought of which would be wrong. Accordingly he
prayed for a fresh confirmation of the previous Constitutions.^
The three Bishops received laudatory Briefs,* and were
^ *February i8, i66g : " Quid actum sit in hac causa et quid
deinceps sentiendum et agendum ad sedandos animos in tarn
obscura ac turbulenta materia, ne subdola pace decipiant incautos
maligni quidam homunciones." Excerpta, f. 164.
- " *Alitcr credi actum esse a quatuor episcopis in synodis,
quam a mediatoribus significatum fuerat ; [this is certain] notorie-
tate publica. Ita bene sit minori filio . . . revertcnti, ut nihil
adversi contingat maiori, qui nunquam a patre discessit . . .
A quatuor circiter mensibus sic gesserunt sc, quos subditos et
reconciliatos vult S. T., quasi sint probati a iudice innocentes et
victores adversus falsos fratres de calumniae crimine convictos."
Ibid., f. 165 (no date).
3 *lbid., f. 166 (no date).
* *May 21, 1669, ibid., f. 174 seq. Cf. the *report in Bibl.
Casant., X., vi., 24, f. 40.
THE CLEMENTINE PEACE 40I
referred to the nuncio who was charged to explain ^ that the
Jansenist controversies had been decided by Innocent X.
and Alexander VII. from whose Constitutions Clement IX.
could not and would not deviate. ^ The four had furnished
proof of complete submission, accordingly the Pope had
assured them of his goodwill in a Brief, though he would
not allow that document to be published, for the Brief did
not touch on the Jansenist question as a whole, which had
been ended and unalterably decided ; it was merely a special
token of goodwill towards the four Bishops.^ The Pope would
see to it that the Constitutions were observed, but since they
were sufficiently clear he did not deem it necessary to issue
a fresh ordinance. As a matter of fact Rome did uphold these
Constitutions and refused to yield to Lionne's pressing
demands that subscription to Alexander VI I. 's formula should
no longer be enforced.^
The Jansenists did not consider their readmission as a
favour. The author of a communication to Rome ^ complained
that they were more arrogant than ever ; according to the
reports spread by them in Holland and Flanders and by
means of the newspapers, the four had only subscribed in
the sense of their pastorals ; the Pope had realized that his
predecessors had made a mistake with their Constitutions,
and that the so-called Jansenists were right. To describe
the whole business they coined the phrase " The Clementine
Peace ", as if there were question of a treaty between them
and the Pope, as between two powers of equal standing.
A medal was even struck for this peace, with the legend :
^ *Excerpta, 1668, f. 176 seq.
* " *Dalle quali S.S'^ non ha volute ne potuto recedere nella
causa particolare dei quattro vescovi."
* " *Come quelle non tocca la causa publica delle controversie
de' Jansenisti gia terminata e definita inalterabilmente, ma sole
un atto particolare di benignita di S. Bn^ verso i quattre
vescovi."
* Gerin, II., 311.
* *Excerpta, 1668, f. 1045.
VOL. XXXI. Dd
402 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
" Grace and Peace from God," and " In memor\- of the
restoration of concord within the Church ".^
Clement IX. felt greatly hurt both by these rumours, which
put him in opposition to his predecessors before all Europe,
and by the medal which made of him the restorer of peace
and concord. He protested that he had done nothing of the
kind ; all he had done was to receive again Bishops who had
not as 5-et subscribed the formula. At first he had been
unwilling to receive their letter, although it was full of
protestations of submission and sincerity, because he had
been informed that they only signed with certain reservations.
But when he received from themselves fresh assurances of
their loyalty, and testimonies from other Bishops, their
friends, he had written to them, but in a way that showed
that he had not only no intention of prejudicing in any way
the Constitutions of Innocent X. and Alexander VII., but
that, on the contrary, he would uphold them even at the
cost of his life, for the honour of the Holy See and its
infallibihty as well as for his own honour ; had he done
that with which he was credited he would be unworthy
to live.^
After the lapse of a few months Clement IX. was probably
in a better position to realize how the Jansenists understood
sincerity ; but to publish now a supplementary Constitution,
and thereby to raise fresh trouble in France, seemed hardlv
^ Gratia et pax a Deo-Ob restitutam Ecclesiae concordiam
([Dumas] II., 248 seqq. ; [Varet] II., 424 seqq. ; Rapin, III.,
498 seqq.). Reproduction of the medal in Arnauld, CEuvres,
XXII., 192. For the inscription in the publications of the
Academie des Inscriptions see Dupin, III., 209 ; [Patouillet]
III., 220. On May 27, 1669, *Rospigliosi protested to Bargcllini
against the " scandalosa medagha " which put the king on a
footingof equality with the Pope. " Quel chiamar poi, ' concordia '
I'obedienza dei quattro vescovi non h conforme ne al vero ne
al dovere alia S. Sede, onde non dovrebbe parlarne in altro mode
che di obedienza " (Cifre al Bargellini, loc. ciL).
- Bonfils to Lionne, June 4, 1669, in Gerin, II., 312 seq.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE COMPROMISE. 403
advisable.^ The obligation to subscribe to the formula of
Alexander VII. continued to bind all newly appointed clerics,
and there could be no doubt as to the sense in which Rome
demanded this subscription. Thus there seemed to be a
justifiable hope that the Jansenist ideas would die a natural
death.
When a fuller light was at length thrown on the way in
which the so-called Clementine Peace had come about, the
displeasure of the Holy See revealed itself in the fate of the
men who had negotiated it. After the conclusion of peace
Barbellini vainly strove to call into being another rehgious
enterprise, viz. an institution for the assistance of convert
Protestant preachers. ^ He was recalled in August 1671,
was Vice-Legate at Avignon for a few years, and subsequently
lived another twenty-five years without either office or
dignities.^ The Jansenists themselves, as well as the French
diplomatists, felt nothing but contempt for the weak man.^
As early as December 1668, Albizzi had roundly described
him as a very silly man.^
At the Sorbonne the " Clementine Peace " brought about
^ Rapin, III., 502. Bossuet writes : " Comme pourtant la
chose etait a un point qu'on ne pouvait pas pousser a toute
rigueur la signature du Formulaire sans causer de grands desordes
et sans faire un schisme, I'Eglise a fait selon sa prudence d'accom-
moder cette affaire et de supporter par charite et condescendance
les scrupules que de saints eveques et des pretres, d'ailleurs
attaches a I'Eglise, ont eus sur le fait. Voila ce que je crois pouvoir
etablir par des raisons invincibles." To Marshal De Bellefonds,
September 30, 1677, in Corresp., ed Ch. Urbain et E. Levesque,
II., Paris, 1909, 51.
^ AvG. et Claude CocniN, Le gyand dessein du Nonce Bargellini
et de I'abbe Desisles contre les reformes (1668) ; Annuaire-Biilletin
de la Soc. de I'hist. de France, 191 3. Cf. * Bargellini 's letter to
Rospigliosi, February 26, 1669, Cifre del Bargellini, loc. cit.
5 [Dumas] II., 270 ; Rapin, III., 503.
* [Varet] I., 219 ; Gerin, II., 452 seq.
^ " Tres grand coillon " (to Lionne, December 18, 1668, in
Cauchie, 1902, 975).
404 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
a revulsion of feeling, which had been until then, definitely
Gallican. After the Brief of January 19th, 1669, extraordinary
manifestations in honour of the Pope were organized.^ But
there were others for whom the turn of things was less pleasing :
" If no Jesuit hangs himself it will be a great miracle," wrote
Le Tellier's son on hearing of the conclusion of the compromise.^
As a matter of fact, the Jesuits became for a time objects
of ridicule at court, until the preaching of Bourdaloue in
particular restored their prestige.^
As soon as the contents of the papal Brief became known,
the King's confessor, Annat, wrote to the monarch, protesting
his own and his brethren's complete submission to the Pope.^
A papal command to their General, which Lionne had obtained
through the nuncio, ordered the Jesuits to leave controversy
alone. ^
Soon after the peace, the influence of the Duchess of
Longueville also came to an end. The King viewed the
meetings in the house of the old conspiratress with suspicion,
and when the nuncio drew his attention to the political
danger of these conventicles, Louis XIV. was easily persuaded ;
the Duchess was told to retire to her country seat.^
^ Ibid., 1903, 47.
2 Rapin, III., 471.
* Ibid., 497 seq., 506.
* Ibid., 471.
^ Anonymous *report in Bibl. Casanat. X., vi., 24, f. 41.
On April 2, 1669, *Rospigliosi writes to Bargellini that the Jesuit
Maimbourg must not publish his book, all the more so as people
were excited by reason of a letter attributed to the Jesuit Fabri,
on the subject of the subscription of the four (Nunziat. di Francia,
Papal Sec. Arch.). Fabri 's letter had been burnt on March 26,
1669, by order of Parliament (Sommervogel, III., 516).
*Rospigliosi does not wish Bargellini to meddle with the matter
(to Bargellini, April 30, 1669, loc. cit.).
* Nunciature reports of May 3 and 17, and October 22, 1669,
in Cauchie, loc. cit., 1903, 51 seqq. *Bargellini was of opinion
that the former Fronde simply masked itself behind Jansenism,
that the Cabale received money from Holland and England [Cifre
ARNAULD AND THE SORBONNE. 405
Despite the atmosphere of peace, Arnauld failed to get
himself readmitted into the Sorbonne. The King would not
allow him to enter there except by the ordinary door, namely
by signing the formula like everybody else, and by submitting
to the condemnation of his book. Bargellini deemed it a
point of honour for the Holy See that the door of the Sorbonne
should not be opened to him by some exceptional measure,
and that the nuns of Port-Royal should not recover possession
of their convent in Paris. ^ The Archbishop of Paris pressed
Arnauld to recant, but he rephed that there was no need
for him to do so since he had written nothing against the
Holy See,2 and Rome instructed Bargelhni ^ not to insist on
a recantation as the danger of insistence appeared greater
than any advantage to be hoped for from it, or from Arnauld's
future writings. After the peace, and acting in accordance
with the exhortations of the nuncio,* Arnauld had in fact
dedicated his pen to the defence of the Catholic faith against
the Calvinists. The year 1669 saw the publication of the
first volume of a great work, the scope of which was to
demonstrate that the Catholic belief in the real presence of
al Bargellini, November 16, 1668, and January 23, 1669, loc. cit.).
On March 3, 1669, *he wrote that the Cabale now met under
pretext of the sermons of the Jansenist Desmares [cf. *Bargenini,
on May 24, 1669, and *Rospigliosi, on October 22, 1669, ibid.).
As Bargellini *wrote on May 17, 1669 (ibid.), when dealing with
the King and the court, he made use for choice of the word
" cabale " to designate the Jansenists, " per sepelire affatto
quello [nome] de' Jansenisti. . . . Questo nome [cabala] opera
meraviglie, perche ferisce il cuore del Re." Rome also sensed
danger in the fact that there was question of translating Choiseul
from Comminges to Tournai ; there he would be able to do even
more for Jansenism as he enjoyed an irreproachable reputation.
However, the King stuck to his decision (*RospigHosi, on Septem-
ber 24 and November 19, 1669, ibid.).
1 *Bargellini to Rospigliosi, May 17, 1669, Nunziat. di Francia,
137, f. 628, Papal Sec. Arch.
2 *Bargellini, October 16, 1668, ibid.
' *Rospigliosi, on March 23, 1669, ibid., f. 116.
* See above, p. 377.
406 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Christ in the Eucharist was the behef of the whole of Christian
antiquity. The first three volumes are by Nicole and Arnauld
jointly and Renaudot added two more.^ Of the first volume
Bossuet was able to sav that " it was in perfect conformitv
with the Catholic faith ".- Nevertheless Arnauld had not
wholly overcome his resentment against Romc,^ but Bargcllini
was directed to take no notice of it.* Clement IX. refrained
from touching on the submission of the four Bishops in the
consistory in view of Lionne's wish that the matter should
be discussed as little as possible.^ Somewhat later, however,
Lionne expressed the opinion that one could now speak
without any risk, since the Brief was better known in France
than in Rome ^ ; but the Pope decided that it was too late
for mention in the consistory or in any other way ; the less
said about the affair, the better."
(3.)
The new organization of the missions, which had begun
especially under Alexander VIL, was carried a stage further
^ Pevpetxiite dc la Joi calholiqiie toiichant l' Eucharistie dcfendue
contre le ministre Claude. The first germ of the book was a disserta-
tion by Nicole, destined to serve as an introduction to a translation
of the Office of the Blessed Sacrament. After an attack by the
Protestant preacher Claude, Nicole published in 1664 the so-called
small Perpetuite, which, as a result of further attacks by
Claude, grew into the large work (Degert, in Bull, de littcrat.
eccles., Toulouse, 1924, 314).
* F. MouRRET, L'ancien regime, 305.
3 Livre, 7.
•• *Rospigliosi, April 2, i66(), loc. cit., f. 120.
* *Rospigliosi to Bargellini, March 25, 1669, Nunziat. di
Francia, 137 (Cifrc al BargelHni), Papal Sec. Arch.
« *Bargcllini to Rospigliosi, May 10, 1669, Cifra del Bargellini,
loc. cit.
' *RospigUosi to Bargellini, June 4, 1669, Nimziat. di Francia,
137, f. 137, loc. cit. For the literature on the Clementine Peace,
see Cauchie, in Rev. d'hist et de lit. rel., III. (1898), 481-501.
RIGHTS OF VICARS APOSTOLIC IN THE EAST. 407
under Clement IX. by means of a great number of ordinances
in favour of the Vicars Apostolic in the Far East. One Brief
in particular, which was promulgated shortly before the
death of Clement IX., is of special importance. Jacques
Bourges, the companion of the Vicar Apostolic Lambert,
had come to Rome from Siam in the lifetime of Alexander VII.
He suggested that all missionaries should be placed under
the Vicars Apostolic, that a common seminary for native
priests, with rules approved by Rome, should be established,
and lastly, that a solution should be found for the difficulties
of the missionaries with regard to Church teaching and
discipline. He also desired the establishment, in the proximity
of the mission fields, of a place of refuge for the heralds of
the faith, and especially that the missions should remain in
close touch with the Pope, Propaganda, the Seminary in
Paris, and that one of the great European Powers .should
take them under its special protection.^
Bourges' representations were successful. A Brief of
September 13th, 1GG9,- subjected the missionaries, in a
large measure, to the authority of the Vicars Apostolic ;
they were ordered to submit their faculties to the latter,
and were forbidden to use them without their consent. They
might be compelled to undertake pastoral work and in their
parochial duties they were subject to the Vicars Apostolic
who were empowered to divide parishes, to call for the services
of members of other Orders, and to settle any disputes that
might arise between the religious. They were entitled to hold
visitations, to issue decisions on the observance of holy days
and on ecclesiastical customs and to publish papal documents
and concessions. Vows of obedience made by Catechists to
religious were not to tie the hands of the Vicars.^
' Ivilian Stumpf Missionis Sinicae " *Succincta Chronologica
relatio et historia Missionis Sinicae, in Europam missa mense
oct. 1710, ad a. 1665, Bavarian Reichsarchiv, Jes. in genere,
fasc. 14, Nr. 281.
2 lus pontif, I., 399.
* The decree contains the answer to questions addressed to
Propaganda by Pallu and Lambert, to which the Congregation
408 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Alexander VII. 's pontificate was likewise marked by
certain occurrences which led to disputes destined to outlast
the Hfetime of Clement IX. and Clement X. During the
minority of the Emperor Kanghi of China, the regency
succeeded in getting the Christian religion condemned and all
missionaries banished. On March 20th, 16C6, more than
twenty of these reached Canton where they were confined in
the house of the Jesuits. Most of the prisoners were Jesuits
but there were also among them three Dominicans and the
Franciscan Antonio a S. Maria. The Jesuits took advantage
of their enforced leisure to discuss important missionary
problems and they invited the other captive missionaries to
join in their deliberations. At first they only discussed certain
less difficult matters, as for instance whether in China they
might say Mass with the head covered, whether the Chinese
who fasted from superstitious motives should be compelled
to give up these fasts before Baptism or whether it was
enough to substitute another motive, how the form of Baptism
should be rendered in Chinese, and so forth. The deliberations
were concluded after forty days when the Dominican Sarpetri
brought up the question of the worship of Confucius and that
of ancestors, a subject that had been avoided until then.
It was not without danger to submit this question to fresh
discussion, in fact the danger was greater than they imagined,
for the result of Sarpetri's proposal was that the chief opponent
of the Chinese rites now took the field. This was none other
than the Dominican Domingo Fernandez Navarrete who had
gone to the Philippines in 1649 with Morales and who ranks
next to the latter as an opponent of the rites. Sarpetri himself
sided with the Jesuits on the question of the Chinese rites
and his proposals seemed at first to work in favour of the
Fathers. The two other Dominicans and Antonio a S. Maria
protested indeed, when the meeting passed a resolution on
the rites in the sense of the Jesuits, but the aforesaid
had replied on March 22, i66g {Collectanea S. Congreg. de Prop.
Fide, n. 178 ; cf. n. 174, 180, 182). On the opposition to the decree,
see ScHMiDLiN, 378.
THE CHINESE RITES : NAVARRETE. 409
Franciscan and Navarrete agreed that the question should
be decided by a majority of votes ; the decision went, of
course, in favour of the Jesuits.^ The document in which
this decision, together with forty-one other points, was set
down, bore the signature of all the members of the meeting.
However, this did not chnch the matter. Antonio a S.
Maria withdrew his signature and both he and the Dominican
Felipe Leonardo wrote to the General of the Jesuits to whom
the resolutions were forwarded, stating their disagreement on
three points. Navarrete sought to prevent the inclusion of
the decision on the rites among the rest and asked for a delay
in the dispatch of the minutes until he should have had time
to explain his difficulties.^
A controversy was started. Navarrete's arguments were
combatted by the Jesuits Le Favre and Brancati, whose
views were also defended by Sarpetri in several publications.
The Jesuits Jacques de Faure and Intorcetta also took up
their pens.^ Brancati's arguments are said to have impressed
Navarrete ; at any rate on September 29th, 1669, a written
agreement was arrived at with the Vice-Provincial of the
Jesuits, Antonio de Govea, by the terms of which the
Dominicans undertook to adopt, on the whole, the same line
of conduct as the Jesuits in the question of the rites.*
However, it was not long before Navarrete regretted his
concessions ; he does not breathe a word about them in his
subsequent writings.^ On December 9th, 1669, he escaped
^ With regard to the worship of Confucius and the ancestors, it
was resolved to go by the decisions of Alexander VIZ., " quia
fundantur in valde probabili opinione, cui nulla contraria evidentia
opponi potest. Qua posita probabilitate non est occludenda
ianua salutis innumerabilibus Sinis, qui arcerentur a Christiana
religione, si prohiberentur ea facere, quae licite ac bona fide
facere possunt, et non sine gravissimis incommodis praetermittere
cogerentur " (Biermann, 119, n. 23).
2 Biermann, 121.
^ Ibid., 121 seq., and *Castner, c. 2.
* Biermann, 122.
* Ibid., 124 ; cf. 123, n. 34.
410 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
from the Canton prison without taking leave of his companions,
for the guards had been withdrawn long ago, but the prisoners
remained together even without coercion because escape
might have had unpleasant consequences for the others.
In their prisons they were able freely to receive the visits
of the Christians and, with proper precautions, it was possible
for them, in some measure, to exercise their ministry even
outside. Navarrete appealed to Rome : he submitted no
less than 119 doubts in connection with Chinese conditions.
Two consultors answered the queries in Navarrete's sense,
but Propaganda confirmed them neither during Navarrete's
sixteen months' stay in Rome nor at any time after his General
had called him to Madrid in 1674 to act there as Procurator
for the Philippines.
What he had failed to obtain in Rome Navarrete hoped
to secure with the publication of a three volume work on
China, the second volume of which was to bring the disputes
on the Chinese mission to the notice of the world and to
prove the Jesuits wrong. ^ This work also did not lead to
any action by the Roman authorities, whilst in Spain the
second volume was sequestrated by the Inquisition even
before its completion. In 1677 Navarrete went to the West
Indies as Archbishop of those parts and from that time
onwards he had nothing more to do with the disputes in China.
The few copies of his second volume that were saved became
a weapon for the Jansenists and all other enemies of the
Jesuits, one they made much use of against the hated Order,
for in his work Navarrete does not spare the Fathers of the
Society. Whilst in China he had jotted down various incautious
remarks made in the course of conlidcntial conversations
as soon as they had been uttered, and things of this kind
he afterwards exploited against them.^ Navarrete failc^d to
induce the Roman Congregation to alter their attitude in
^ Vol. I. : Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos y rcligiosos
dc la nionarchia de China, Madrid, 1676 ; Vol. II. : Controversias
antiguas y modernas dc la mision de China, ibid., 1679. Cf.
BlERMANN, XIX., 127.
* Ibid., 127 seq.
FELIPE PARDO AND THE CHINESE RITES. 4II
regard to the question of Chinese rites under Clement X.
His colleague, Juan Polanco, had been equally unsuccessful
in this respect under Clement IX. In 1661 Polanco was
chosen by the Chapter of the Chinese Dominican Province
as its representative at the forthcoming General Chapter in
Rome. In consequence of a report drawn up by him, the
Dominican Provincial Felipe Pardo had given orders for a
new examination, at Manila, of the question of the rites on
the basis of the books of the Chinese. He went so far as to
dispatch a few Christians of Manila to China so that they might
judge for themselves of the nature of the sacrifices to Confucius,^
although both in Martini's report ^ and in the decree of 1656,^
there is no mention whatever of sacrifices to Confucius. The
inquiry led to the conclusion that Martini's data did not
agree with facts and that one could not go by the concessions
of the decree of the Congregation of 1656. Polanco took the
minutes to Rome. He obtained a decree confirming the decree
of the Congregation of 1645,* but the document secured by
him expressly takes it for granted that the decree of 1656
was likewise valid. Both ordinances were to be observed
according to circumstances.
Among Clement IX. 's ordinances in connection with the
missions special mention must be made of a stringent
prohibition forbidding all missionaries to indulge in trade. ^
^ Ihid., loi.
- See above, p. 164 seqq.
^ See above, p. 164 seqq.
* Decree of November 13, 1669, Collectanea 64, n. 189 :
" Decretum S. C. de Prop. Fide datum sub (die) 12 septembris
1645 [XXX., 203] secundum tunc exposita in dubiis, esse in suo
robore, neque per decretum S. C. S. Off. latum sub die 23 martii
1656 [above, 164 seq.^ fuisse circumscriptum, sed omnino,
secundum quaesita, circumstantias et omnia in dictis dubiis
expressa, esse servandum, ut iacet ; (piemadmodum servandum
declaravit decretum S. C. S. Off. latum ut supra, die 23 martii
1656 iuxta quaesita, circumstantias et omnia in eis expressa."
* Bull. XVII., 798 seqq. ; lus pontif., I., 390 seqq., 402 seqq.
A first prohibition for missionaries to indulge in commerce was
412 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The Pope also appealed to the Shah of Persia to extend his
protection to the Catholics ^ ; he also wrote to the King of
Siam for the same purpose.^
published by Pius IV. on October 4, 1563. The Brief provides
the Portuguese Government with a handle against clerics infringing
the royal trade monopoly with India bj^ abolishing their exemp-
tion from secular courts [privilegium fori). When Urban VIII.
allowed missionaries to journey to India by other routes than
through Portugal, and thus removed a Portuguese privilege
(Constitution of February 22, 1633, lus pontif., I., 143), he
renewed the prohibition to trade as unseemly for clerics, thus
indirectly safeguarding the Portuguese trade monopoly.
Clement IX. 's Bull of June 17, 1669, is the first papal document
to deal exclusively with the prohibition to trade for the clergy
of the whole world. It is so exhaustive that nothing now remains
to be added to the subsequent decrees of Benedict XIV., 1741,
and Clement XIII., 1759. Cf. Th. Grentrup, in Zeitschr. f.
Missionszvissensch., XV. (1925), 257 seqq. However, missionaries
are not forbidden " to trade in order to maintain themselves if
there are no other means of supporting their personal existence ".
But apart from this extremity, it is laid down that " the needs of
the mission or any advantage for the spread of the faith are not a
sufficient motive for allowing the missionaries to indulge in
commerce " {ibid., 268).
1 *Regi Persarum, dated May 19 and October 13, 1668, and
February 13, 1669, Epist., II. -III., Papal Sec. Arcli.
* *Regi Siam, dated August 24, 1669, ibid.
CHAPTER III.
Clement IX. 's Efforts on Behalf of Peace Between
France and Spain and for the Defence Against
THE Turks — The Loss of Crete — Death of the Pope.
The war for the possession of the isle of Crete, the Venetians'
last bulwark in the eastern Mediterranean, which had begun
in 1645 and had continued with varying fortune, had entered
a decisive phase at the time of the elevation of Clement IX.
By degrees the Turks had obtained possession of the whole
island ; only the capital, Candia (to-day Megalo Kastro),
situate on the north coast and reckoned one of the strongest
fortresses in the world, had remained in the hands of the
Venetians. The whole of Christian Europe as well as the
Mohammedan world watched a struggle in which the war
between the cross and the crescent was concentrated, so
that the siege had assumed an importance similar to that of
Ptolemais during the crusades or that of Sebastopol in the
19th century. An attack in May 1667, by the Grand Vizier,
Ahmed Kopriilii, the son of Mohammed Kopriilii, with a
force of 70,000 men, on the fortress whose seven principal
bastions and extensive secondary and outer works were
defended by more than 400 cannon, had only yielded small
results. However, the Turks had no thought of raising the
siege which went on throughout the winter, though with
diminished violence.^
Fully aware of the peril that threatened Christendom from
the Crescent, Clement IX. did all he could to ward it off,
from the first day of his pontificate. In his anxiety to help
Venice on a large scale, he examined at once how an end
could be put to the war which Louis XIV. had started in
May 1667, by invading the Spanish Netherlands. On
June 21st, 1667, he addressed an autograph letter to the
French King in which he urgently begged him to enter into
^ Cf. Hammer, III., 6i8 seqq. ; Zinkeisen, IV., 971 seqq.
414 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
peace negotiations with Spain, seeing that the Turks threatened
not only Crete but Dalmatia also. The Pope offered to act
as mediator with Spain. ^ On June 21st, he wrote in a similar
strain to the Queen-Regent of Spain, Maria Anna, who ruled
during the minority of Charles IL^ On June 22nd he appealed
also to the Emperor Leopold IL for the restoration of peace. ^
The Paris nunciature was vacant * ; accordingly, on
June 23rd, the Pope ordered his nephew, Jacopo Rospigliosi,
internuncio at Brussels, to repair to Paris for the purpose
of working there in favour of the acceptance of the Pope's
mediation with a view to an armistice.^ In the consistory of
July 18th, at which Clement IX. made a moving appeal for
the Cardinals' support in the execution of his arduous duties,
he was able to announce that the Queen of Spain had accepted
his mediation.** Louis XIV. likewise agreed though he declined
1 Gerin, II., 206 seqq., 314, n. i.
2 See *Lettere scritte dalla S'^ di Clemente IX. di propria
mano, in Arm., 45, t. 41, p. 99, Papal Sec. Arch. On June 21,
he writes : " *Haveremmo desiderate, che estinte o sospese le
agitationi, che da si gran tempo tengono in armi cotesti regni,
si fusse a Noi aperto Tadito di poter con intera sodisfattione di
V. M. sgravar la Nostra conscienza col proveder alia necessita
di tante anime in estremo bisognose di chi le guidi e conservi
all'ovile di Christo. Onde tanto piu sente il cuor Nostro con
amarezza, che in vece di goder la quiete da Noi bramata in cotesti
regni, insorghino hora in Fiandra nuove cagioni d'inquietudini
et di turbolenze." He prays her to work with him for peace.
3 *Arm., 45, t. 41, p. 92, Papal Sec. Arch.
"■ M. A. Vibu acted as charge d'affaires ; see Terlinden, 52.
* See the *Brief to Louis XIV. of June 23, 1667, EpisL, I.,
Papal Sec. Arch. Ibid, the *Brief to the Queen-Mother of Spain,
dated July 7, 1667. Cf. Compendia della vita di Clemente IX.,
in Terlinden, 52. Also the *report of John Emmerix to
Leopold I., dated Rome, June 23, 1667, State Archives, Vienna.
* See *Acta consist.. Barb. 2931, Vat. Lib. Of the Cardinals'
co-operation, Clement IX. said : " Nunquam navis regitur solo
nauclero ; Ubi multa consiha, ibi multa salus [Prov., XI., 14)."
Cf. also the *Brief to Leopold I., dated July 16, 1667, Epist., I.,
loc. cit.
EFFORTS IN PARIS. 415
Rome as the place of negotiations and suggested a neutral
city, such as Miinster had been on a former occasion. Spain
could not accept Louis' conditions/ consequently on
October 4th, Clement IX. made another appeal to the King,
at the same time drawing his attention to the fact that the
Turks threatened not only the Venetians in Crete but the
kingdom of Poland also.^ For the seat of the negotiations
he now proposed either Cologne or Liege ^ and on October 21st
he named as his mediator the nuncio in Cologne, Agostino
Franciotti, who had at one time been Vice-Legate at
Avigon.^
If Louis XIV. consented to peace negotiations, it was with
the arriere-pensee of inducing the Spaniards to lay down
their arms, when he would be in a position completely to
crush the defenceless.'' When the Spanish Government
declined both Liege and Cologne, as too near to Paris and too
far from Madrid, and demanded that the Congress should be
held at Rome, Louis XIV. replied that in the Eternal City
^ Terlinden, 55.
* Gerin, II., 314, n. I.
^ *Cifra al Nuntio di Spagna, October 5, 1667, Niinziat. di
Spagna, 136, Papal Sec. Arch.
■» Bull., XVII., 582. Cf. *Cifra al Nuntio di Spagna, of October
25, 1667 [loc. cit.), praising the " capacita et prudenza " hitherto
displayed by Franciotti in his various offices. In the *Brief of
October 25, 1667, to Louis XIV., we read : " Pacificationi
filiorum instantes, ut prompta persona sit futuro congressui
nomine Nostro, fr. August, archiep. Trapezuntis in tractu
Rhenano Nunt., qui audito Elect, loci praesto erit, cum pacis
tractatui tempus hybernum favet in tarn necess. opus curam
collaturus. Absque mora plenipotentiaries illuc allegare veHs,
quo pax revocari et rei Christ, ab immani hoste graviter divexatae
et pericula maiora pertimescenti subveniri queat " {EpisL, I.,
loc. cit.). Cf. ibid., the *Brief to Leopold I., dated October 29,
1667. For Franciotti, see Reumont, in Zeitschr. des Aachener
Geschichtsvereins, 1883. Cf. Gerin, II., 222. The *Registro di
lettere tanto in piano quanto in cifra del card. AzzoUni on the
peace negotiations, in Cod. X., A. i, of the Bibl. Altieri, Rome.
* Quirini, in Berchet, II., 334.
4l6 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the Spaniards would be able to negotiate by themselves
alone. ^
Whilst the King of France was delaying the congress,^
his ambassador in Venice, the unscrupulous Sieur de Gremon-
ville, won over the Emperor's ambitious and vain minister,
Auerspach, with a promise of support for the latter's
aspirations to the cardinalate.^ By the advice of this disloyal
servant Leopold I., on January 19th, 1668, agreed to the
project of an eventual division of the Spanish heritage,
by the terms of which Spain, the West Indies, Milan and
Sardinia were to fall to the Emperor whilst France should
have the Netherlands, Burgundy, Naples and Sicily.* On
the following day Louis XIV. informed the Pope — out of
fihal reverence, as he put it — of his intention to invade the
Franche-Comte an act which would render Spain amenable
to peace, in accordance with the wishes of His Holiness. ^
On the very day on which his troops began this predatory
attack on a widow and her child, the King of France could still
write to Clement IX. of his great longing for the restoration
of peace. ^
Meanwhile the Pope had made a fresh attempt to put an
end to the conflict by deciding, on January 14th, 1668, to
send out three extraordinary nuncios. Pietro Bargellini,
Archbishop of Thebes, was to go to Paris, Federigo Borromeo,
Patriarch of Alexandria, to Madrid, and Galeazzo Marescotti,
Archbishop of Corinth, to Vienna.' BargelHni reached Paris
1 Gerin, II., 222 seq.
^ Clement IX. had urged as speedy a meeting as possible ;
see *Cifra al Nuntio di Spagna, of August 30, 1667, loc.
cit.
' See above, p. 348.
* Klopp, Stuart, I., 212 seq. ; Redlich, 188 ; F. Scheichl,
J . B. V. Gremonville, Berlin, 1922.
'" Gerin, 224.
* Terlinden, 59.
' Marescotti was also to be the bearer of the " fascie " for the
new-born Archduke ; see *Compendio della vita di Clemente IX.,
Rospigliosi Archives, Rome. On January 16, 1668, Card. Vendome
END OF THE FRANCO-SPANISH WAR. 417
on April 9th ; he found Louis XIV. completely changed.
Out of consideration for the Pope, he informed the nuncio,
he had consented to an armistice. On April 16th the King
wrote in the same strain to Clement IX. ^ In reality, Louis XIV.
shrank from the danger which lurked in the triple alliance
concluded between Holland, England, and Sweden. ^ Pursuant
to a proposal made on his own initiative by Castel Rodrigo,
the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, the free city of
Aix-la-Chapelle was chosen as the place of negotiation, and
the decision communicated to nuncio Marescotti.^ France
and Spain also secretly agreed on the terms of peace at Saint-
Germain, so that the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle sank to the
level of a mere formality. On May 2nd peace was signed ;
it abandoned to the Ki^^ of France his conquests in the
Netherlands, but in return he gave up the Franche-Comte ;
in the introductory part of the treaty honourable mention
is made of the mediation of Clement IX. and his nephew,
Rospigliosi.'* The Pope's satisfaction at the peace grew
still further when on May 31st, the French ambassador,
the Duke of Chaulnes, ordered the demolition in Rome of
the pjn-amid whose inscription, ever since the treaty of Pisa,
had so offensively proclaimed the triumph of Louis XIV.
was named legate in France, to act as godfather for the Pope at
the baptism of the Dauphin ; see *Acta consist., loc. cii., Vat.
Lib. Bargellini was ordinary nuncio ; see the * Brief to Louis XIV.,
February 11, 1668, Epist., I., loc. cit.
^ The *Brief was read at the consistory of April 30, 1668.
see Acta consist., loc. cit. Cf. Terlinden, 61 seq. ; Levinson,
Nuntiaturberichte, I., 811.
^ Klopp, Stuart, I., 219 seq., 223. Cf. Mentz, I., 144.
^ Terlinden, 59. Cf. Gerin, II., 223. The *Cifra al Nuntio di
Spagna of July 31, 1668, complains that Castel Rodrigo had
shown but little " attentione " to the Holy See and the Pope
in the " mediatione della pace " [Nunziat. di Spagna, 136, Papal
Sec. Arch.)
^ Terlinden, 63 seqq. Cf. Mentz, I., 143. The articles of the
peace treaty were read at the consistory of ]May 14, 1668 ; see
Acta consist., loc. cit.
VOL. XXXI. Ee
4l8 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
over the Pope.^ This was the answer to the concessions
recently granted by Clement IX. in the sphere of ecclesiastical
pohcy.- In June Chaulnes gave a great display of fireworks,
arranged by Bernini, in which the Pope was extolled as a
prince of peace. ^ The Pope's satisfaction at the termination
of the war was all the keener as he now hoped for effective
help from the Christian princes, more especially from the
hitherto indifferent King of France,* for hard pressed Crete. ^
He himself had already done all that lay in his power.
In July, 1667, Venice received a present of 30,000 scudi
from the Pope, as well as permission to raise troops in the
pontifical States, and the Pontiff doubled the number of
troops destined for Dalmatia. In October troops and war
material were dispatched to the City of the Lagoons.^ In
November he gave the Republic leave to raise a tenth from all
Church property within its territory.'' Although the Republic
^ See XXX., p. io6. CJ. *the report of the Card, of Hesse to
Leopold I., May 26, 1668, State Arch., Vienna. Cf. Gerin, IL,
230 seq. On the other hand, when the pyramid A\as demolished
Chaulnes demanded the removal of an inscription from the
column erected in memory of Henry IV. 's absolution, though it
contained nothing offensive {cf. our data, XXIII., 134 ; see
Lanciani, Pagan Rome, 37. Benedict XIV. restored the column
in 1745 and dedicated it " Deiparae Virgini ".
2 See the indult of nomination for the Abbeys in the dioceses
of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, dated IMarch 23, 1668, in Bull., XVII.,
636, and ibid.,6j4'/ seq., the concession of the right of nomination
for the diocese of Arras and the new possessions in Belgium,
dated April 9, 1668. Cf. Gkrin, II., 225.
' Gerin, II., 227.
* Terlinden, 66 seqq.
^ *Brief to Louis XI\'., of May 7, 166S, in answer to the
King's communication " de pace iam ccrta ct paene perfecta "
{Epist., I.), and an autograph *letter of the same day, in Ann.,
45, t. 41, p. 109, Papal Sec. Arch.
* ZiNKEisEN, IV., 926; Terlinden, 76; Gerin, II., 311
seq.
' Bull., XVII., 60 seq.
HELP FOR VENICE. 419
showed itself anything but grateful, and even provoked a con-
flict on the frontier of Ferrara/ Clement IX. continued in his
readiness to help all through the following year. The papal
fleet was overhauled and placed under the command of
Vincenzo Rospigliosi, and 20,000 scudi were put at the disposal
of the Republic for the equipment of one regiment. ^ Not
content with all this, the Pope was incessantly urging the
Christian Powers to go to the assistance of Venice. After the
termination of the war between France and Spain he hoped
that his exhortations would fall on better soil.^ With a view
to diverting the Turks from Crete and occupying them
elsewhere, he sought to influence Russia through Poland,*
and the Shah of Persia by directly writing to him.^
Towards the end of May 1668, the papal galleys, under
Vincenzo Rospigliosi, put to sea in order to effect their junction
with the Venetian fleet commanded by Francesco Morosini.*^
Soon after Abbot Airoldi was sent as special agent to obtain
help for Crete from the Italian and German princes.' In a
^ Gerix, II., 318 seq. ; Terlinden, 77. For Venice's egoistical
policy in the question of the League, see Levinson, Nuntia-
turberichle, I., 580 seq. The Elector Schonborn severely blames
the ingratitude with which Venice rewarded the Pope's efforts
(Mentz, II., 196).
" GuGLiELMOTTi, Squadva, 312 seq. ; Terlinden, 85.
3 On May i, 1668, *Briefs were dispatched to the Cardinal of
Aragon, to the Dukes of Lorraine and Savoy and to the Emperor
(to the latter also on May 12), and on May ig to the Grand Master
of the Knights of St. John. Epist., I., Papal Sec. Arch.
* See *Brief of February 11, 1668, ibid.
5 See *Briefs of INIay 19 and June 9, 1668, to " Rex Persarum ",
ibid.
* *Avviso of May 30, 1668, Papal Sec. Arch. Cf. Guglielmotti,
315 seq. ; Bigge, Guerra, 32 seqq. ; Rospigliosi's reports in the
periodical II Muratori, Roma, 1892, 123 seq., 181 seq. ; II.,
167 seqq.
'' See the *Briefs to Card. Harrach and numerous German
Bishops and princes, dated June 2, 1668, Epist., I., loc. cit.
On the subject of aiding Venice, Clement IX. had already dis-
patched *Briefs to Genoa, January 21, 1668, to Cardinal Thun
420 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
consistory of July i»th, the Pope gave an account of what
had been achieved so far, basing his remarks on the reports
of Airoldi and the nuncios.^ Unfortunately results did not
correspond to the straits in which the Venetians found them-
selves when, in the spring of 16C8, the Turks began an attack
on the two bastions facing the sea.-
The Government of Madrid had promised 50,000 scudi and
the dispatch of its galleys based on Naples and Sicily, and
possibly those of Catalonia, but it put off the execution of
its promise until the autumn. The same happened with the
twelve companies promised by Genoa. Tuscany sent four
hundred foot soldiers. The Duke of Savoy contributed two
regiments, and he allowed Guiron Francois de Ville, a marshal
in the service of Savoy, to assume supreme command of the
Venetian auxiliaries destined for Crete. The Governments
of Parma, Modena, and Lucca promised to furnish war material.^
Cardinals Barberini and Rospigliosi contributed considerable
sums from their private means."* The Emperor, to whom the
Pope ^ and nuncio Pignatelli made the most pressing repre-
sentations, promised an auxihary corps of 3,000 men but,
as always happened at Vienna, their equipment proceeded
exceedingly slowly.^ From the German Protestant princes
nothing could be obtained for the common cause of Christen-
dom ; among the Catholic ones, the Dukes of Brunswick
and Liineburg, whose zeal the Pope had encouraged by
granting them various favours, distinguished themselves
specially, for they gave 3,300 of their best troops ; these,
under the command of an experienced captain, Count Josias
von Waldeck, were to maintain the reputation of German
and the Duke of Bavaria on May 3, to the Grand Master of the
Teutonic Knights on March 3, 1668, ibid.
^ *Acta consist., loc. cit., Vat. Lib.
- BiGGE, 44 seqq.
* ZiNKEiSEN, IV., 967 ; Terlinden, 84 seqq.
^ Grimani, in Berchet, II., 352, 353.
^ *Brief of March 31, 1668, Epist.. I., loc. cit.
* Levinson, Nuntiaturberichte, I., 812.
ASSISTANCE BY LOUIS XIV. 42I
valour in the distant island. The ecclesiastical Princes of
Cologne, Paderborn, Treves, and Salzburg provided gunpowder.
The Teutonic Knights furnished a hundred men. The
negotiations with the Duke of Bavaria proved sadly
disappointing. In like manner also the vast promises of
Duke Charles of Lorraine, on which great hopes had been
built in Rome, came almost to nothing in consequence of
various untoward circumstances.^
In view of this situation Clement IX. deemed it a
considerable success when Louis XIV. at last began to
abandon his equivocal attitude. This was partly due to
consideration for public opinion ; zeal for the crusade,
fanned as it was by preachers such as the youthful Bossuet,
began once more to glow in the hearts of the chivalrous
French. To this must be added the efforts of nuncio Bargellini,
though the latter greatly overestimated his influence. ^
In July, 1668, Louis XIV. authorized the Duke De La
Feuillade to go to the assistance of the hard-pressed island
with a body of volunteers, an act which Clement IX. promptly
rewarded with important ecclesiastical privileges.^ These
troops, however, were not to take the field under the banner
of France but under that of the Knights of Malta because the
King of France was unwilling to break openly with the Porte.
The corps of volunteers, six hundred strong, which embarked
in the last days of September and arrived in Crete at the
1 Cf. besides *Acta consist, for July 18, 1668 [loc. cit.), and
Grimani, in Berchet, II., 352 ; Zinkeisen, IV., 964 seq. ;
Terlinden, 92 seqq. An article in Allg. Zeitung, suppl. 152 :
Braunschweigische Tvuppen im Dienste der Repiiblik Venedig,
is based on a contemporary diary. A capitulation between Bavaria
and Venice was only concluded on March 13, 1669 (Rietzler,
VII., 64).
2 Gerin, II., 317 seq. ; cf. 192 seqq. for Bargellini's character.
3 " lus nominandi ad eccl. Tornacensem," August 27, 1668,
in Bull., XVII., 702 ; ibid., 704, for Abbeys in the territory severed
from Belgium. Cf. the very warm autograph *lettcr of thanks to
Louis XIV., dated August 26, 1668, Arm., 45, t. 41, p. 1.15b,
Papal Sec. Arch.
422 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
beginning of November, considerably raised the spirits of
the beleagured garrison, but by reason of its foolhardiness it
accomphshed very httle. At the beginning of 16G9, 200 men
returned home ; the rest were either disabled or killed.^
At that time the entire garrison of the fortress numbered no
more than 7,000 men, hence energetic support was necessary
if a catastrophe was to be prevented.
No one proclaimed this peril more incessantly or more
loudly than the Pope. Even before the departure of De la
Feuillade's expedition, he had made special efforts and called
upon God's help. On August 18th, 1668, Venice was authorized
to ahenate Church property in aid of the Turkish war,- and,
subsequently, to raise a million ducats from suppressed
monasteries.^ In a consistory of September 17th the Pope
discussed the critical position of Crete and the peril which
would threaten Poland in the event of the abdication
of King Casimir ; he ended by exhorting all to pray.* He
had the Blessed Sacrament exposed in all the churches of
Rome and distributed generous alms. A plenary Indulgence
was proclaimed for all who would take part in a penitential
procession from the church of S. Stanislaus to that of S. Mark.
Clement IX. personally took part in the function. In the
first days of October he visited St. Mary Major and S. Maria
della Vittoria where, as in the other churches, the Blessed
Sacrament was again exposed.^ About mid-October, Vincenzo
1 Gerin, II., 322 ; ZiNKEisEN, IV., 985 seq. ; Terlixdex,
97 seq., 128 seq.
2 Bull., XVII., 701.
3 Ibid., 739 seq., 748 seq., 781. C/. Grimani, in Berchet, II.,
351-
* *Acia consist., loc. cit. For Poland, whose throne John
Casimir had renounced on September 16, 1668, see Chledowski,
II., 331 seq. In a special covering letter of the *Brief of July 21,
1668, the Pope had deprecated such a step {Arm., 45, t. 41, p. 1386,
loc. cii.).
^ *Avvisi of September 15 and 29, and October 6, 1668, Papal
Sec. Arch. The Indulgences in Bull., XVII., 727, 729. Indulgence
and prayers were renewed in the following year. The Pope himself
GROWING PERIL. 423
Rospigliosi was back in Rome. He gave an account of the
naval campaign to the Pope at Castel Gandolfo where Clement
was making a short stay.^ The enterprise had been prematurely
broken off owing to the pretensions of the Knights of Malta
and the result was not in proportion to the effort spent on it,
but Rospigliosi could at least point to the fact that his presence
had prevented the Turkish fleet, for a long time, from landing
fresh troops, and to that extent he had been of use to the
Venetians.^
Since reports concerning participation in the Turkish War
by France sounded favourable, Clement IX. had recourse to
every imaginable means to induce Spain also to take part in it.
But Madrid was afraid, not without cause, of an attack by
France. It was with great difficulty that the Pope obtained
from Louis XIV. a promise guaranteeing Spain from such an
eventuahty for the duration of the Holy War. He ended by
obtaining it, as well as a French auxiliary corps of 6,600 men
and a fleet of 42 sailing ships and 18 galleys — an important
contribution for those days.^ In return, despite grave
misgivings, he was forced to admit the Duke D'Albret into
the College of Cardinals.'*
On February 4th, 1669, Clement IX. who, in November,
1668, had given 30,000 scudi for the defence of Ragusa which
was also threatened by the Turks, ^ granted a jubilee for
France by means of which no less a sum than 100,000 scudi
was raised. As the sums provided by Louis XIV. were equal
visited the principal basilicas at this time, to pray for the safety
of Candia ; see *Avvisi of July 21 and 27, and August 3 and 10,
1669, loc. cit.
^ *Avviso of October 20, 1668, loc. cit.
- BiGGE, Gnerra, 43.
^ Terlinden, 136 seqq., 142 seqq., 144 seqq., 149, 165 seqq.
Spain's promises were not fulfilled ; see, ibid., 179 seqq.
* See above, p. 346. In his autograph *letter to Louis XIV.,
dated August 5, 1669, the Pope stresses the fact that he had had
many grave misgivings with regard to D'Albret's elevation.
Arm., 45, t. 41, p. 149, Papal Sec. Arch.
^ Bull. XVII., 763 ; Terlixden, 158, 160 seq.
424 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
to the needs of the mihtary expedition, it was decided to
spend the money on a great international hospital in Crete. ^
Both the Pope and Bargellini, his nuncio, urged the speeding
up of France's armaments,- for the siege of the fortress of
Candia, after an almost complete standstill during a rainv
winter, had been resumed in the spring of 1669 bv Ahmed
Kopriilii with an immense force of men and material. The
situation had become so critical that at the beginning of
April a rumour was current in Rome that the fortress had
capitulated.^ In these circumstances one could justly ask
oneself whether the last minute help of Louis XIV. would
arrive in time to avert a supreme disaster. In March, 1669,
Vincenzo Rospigliosi was named commander-in-chief of all
the forces, both French and Venetian. The whole expedition
was to be carried out in the name and under the banner of
the Pope, because Louis XIV. was unwilling even now to
break off diplomatic relations with the Porte.*
At the beginning of May 1669, Clement IX. informed
Frangois de Vendome, Duke of Beaufort, and the Count of
Vivonne, that he had made them papal admirals ; at the
same time he also sent them a magnificent scarlet banner
adorned with the image of the Crucified and the inspiring
inscription : Dissipentur omnes inimici ejus : let all his
enemies be scattered.^
On May 18th the seven papal galleys sailed from
Civitavecchia to Messina from whence they put to sea for
^ *Avviso of November 3, 1668, Papal Sec. Arch.
* See the *autograph letter of Clement IX. to Louis XIV.,
March 22, 1669, in which the Pope states that he would also call
upon the other Christian princes though the King of France was
powerful enough to deliver Crete without foreign help (Arm.,
45, t. 41, p. 145, loc. cit.). Ibid., an autograph *letter to the Queen
of Spain, dated March 25, 1669, begging her help for Crete.
■■' Terlinden, 187 seq., 194 ; Bigge, 64.
^ Gerin, II., 326 ; Terlinden, 171 seq.
* Mem. du voyage de M. le Marquis de Ville, p.p. D'Alquie,
Amsterdam, 1671, 293. Cf. Zinkeisen, IV., 987 ; Terlinden,
177 seqq.
LAST STRUGGLE FOR CANDIA. 425
Crete. On June 15th, together with the ships of the Knights
of Malta, they were joined by the thirteen galleys of Count
de Vivonne, who had set out from Toulon on May 21st. The
eighteen galleys and seventeen troopships under the Duke of
Beaufort only sailed on June 6th from the same harbour but,
owing to a favourable wind, they made a speedy passage and
effected their junction with the Venetian fleet under Taddeo
Morosini near the island of Cerigo. On the evening of June
19th both squadrons dropped anchor in the harbour of
Candia. To avoid the fire of the Turks, the troops were
disembarked in the dead of night on June 20th. ^ The fortress
was by then in a terrible condition. Part of it was no more
than a heap of ruins, and it was with difficulty that one
could get a firm foothold on a terrain covered with wreckage
and ploughed up by mines. " The aspect presented by this
city was appalling," a French officer wrote, " streets strewn
with cannon balls of every calibre, splinters of bombs and
grenades ; not a church or building whose walls were not
riddled with shot and almost turned into ruins ; all the
houses mere pitiful holes. Everywhere a horrible stench,
and wherever one looked, one only saw corpses or wounded
and crippled men." ^
On June 25th the French carried out with reckless bravery
a sortie in which the Duke of Beaufort met a hero's death. ^
^ GuGLiELMOTTi, 327 seq. ; BiGGE, 60 seqq., 71 seqq. ; Terlin-
DEN, 197, 204 seq. ; G. Bruzzo, Francesco Morosini nella guerra di
Candia e nella conquista della Morea, Forli, 1890.
2 Daru, Hist, de Venise, IV., 6i6 ; Zinkeisen, IV., 991.
' By the Pope's order {*Avviso of August 17, 1669, Papal Sec.
Arch.), the funeral service for Beaufort in Araceli was celebrated
with special solemnity. An *Avviso of September 28, i66g
{ibid.), gives the following details : " il sontuosissimo mausoleo
desegnato [dal S. cav. Bernino], circondato da circa 50 gran torcieri
d'argento, eretto nel mezzo dclla chiesa tutta apparata di lugubre,
et illuminata al di sopra di torcie, rappresentante uno scoglio
coperto di tutte le sorti di armi, con sopra una piramide tutta
historiata di varie battaglie et in cima la statua del defonto in
piedi con la spada alia destra e le scudo con la croce alia sinistra.
426 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The attempt failed and led to disputes between the French
and the Venetians.^ A similar fate attended nearly every
effort for the relief of Candia. On June 29th six ships brought
the Bavarian auxiliaries, all of them in a state of prostration
owing to the fact that during the crossing, in spite of the
great heat, they had been pressed together " like herrings
in a barrel ". Still more deplorable was the fate of the corps
levied by Duke Alessandro Pico della Mirandola with the
help of a papal subsidy of 30,000 scudi ^ ; when it arrived on
August 25th, sickness had reduced it from 1,500 to 600 men.^
On July 3rd the French, Papal, and Maltese galleys arrived.
At a joint war council it was decided to carry out a bombard-
ment of the Turkish siege works in front of the bastion of
S. Andrea from the fifty-eight ships which disposed of over
1,100 guns ; as soon as a sufficient effect should be produced,
a sortie was to drive the enemy from his advanced positions.
However, the bombardment had but little effect because the
Turks had entrenched themselves from the side of the sea also,
and their artillery was able to reply to the ships' fire from
sheltered positions. The sortie which had been planned also
failed.'* The failure of both these enterprises led to fresh
disputes between the French and the Venetians. So great was
the disagreement that on August 20th the French re-embarked
their troops with the exception of 300 men. Modest, gentle
Rospigliosi was not the man to prevent such a step.'' On
August 24th, the Turks made a general assault ; it was beaten
back, mainly through the bravery of the German auxiliaries.
Nevertheless the fortress was no longer tenable, for the
garrison was being decimated not only by the projectiles of
the Turks, but by the heat of the climate also. Pico della
il tutto posto a ore ct chiari e scuri con varie inscrittioni ct elogii
allc quattro faccie dalle base e piramide in sua lode, sicome
roratione funebre, che fece il P. Adami Giesuita.
^ BiGGE, 64 seqq. ; Terlinden, 220 scqq.
* See *Miscell. di Clemente XL, t. 123, p. 226. Papal Sec. Arch.
3 Valiero, 737, 739 ; ZiNKEisEN, IV., 994.
* BiGGE, 37 seqq.
'" Ibid., 88 ; Terlinden, 225 seqq., 229 scqq., 275.
FALL OF CANDIA. 427
Mirandola's six hundred men could not make up for these
losses. The fortifications were pulverized, so that they looked
like mole hills, and the withdrawal of the French had pro-
duced general discouragement. Accordingly on August 28th,
Morosini decided to open negotiations for the surrender of the
place. In order not to witness the fall of Candia, Rospigliosi,
together with the Maltese and the Savoyards, followed the
example of the French. Besides the Venetians only the men
from Brunswick and Bavaria held out till the last. A capitula-
tion under honourable conditions was signed on September
6th. ^ The fortress fell after a defence of unparalleled obstinacy ;
the garrison had beaten off forty-five assaults and made
ninety-six sorties. The Venetians exploded more than 1,100
mines, and the besiegers three times that number. About
30,000 Christians and more than 100,000 Turks found their
grave in the blood-soaked soil of the ancient isle.^ The long
struggle, " Venice's Iliad," as Byron calls it, was at an end.
In the opinion of military experts the main cause of the disaster
is to be looked for in the fact that the Christians did not take
sufficient advantage of their superiority at sea.^
The retreat of the French troops was an all the more
grievous blow for Clement IX. as Louis XIV., in response to
the Pope's repeated exhortations, and in contrast with the
inactivity of Spain, had shown some willingness to give further
assistance.^ It is a wonderful spectacle to see the Pope, who
^ BiGGE, 91 seqq. ; Terlinden, 239, 283 seqq. ; Zinkeisen,
IV., 994 ; Riezler, VIL, 65.
"^ Hammer, III., 635. That in those days irony stopped at
nothing is shown by the fact that pasquinades were composed
even on the fall of Candia ; see *Codicilli della citta di Candia,
in CI. VII., Cod., CCXI. of the Library of St. Mark, Venice ;
on the other hand, there is a *poem in the Venetian dialect
(by Cesare Tebaldi) in honour of Clement IX., because of what
he had done for the war against the Turks in Candia, 166S,
in Cod. Oiiob. 2481, p. 444, Vat. Lib.
^ BiGGE, 103 scq.
' Terlinden, 241 seqq., 244. Urgent request for further help
in Clement IX. 's autograph *letters to Louis XIV., dated October
I and 8, 1669, in Arm., 45, t. 41, p. 1536-1546, Papal Sec. Arch.
428 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
heard of the fall of Candia about mid-October, not only not
losing heart, but at once making plans for the creation of a
league of defence. To this end he created a special Congregation
with Rospigliosi as president and consisting of Cardinals
Azzolini, Ottoboni, Barberini, Spinola, Chigi, Borromeo, and
Imperiali.^ But on hearing of the fall of Candia, and that the
Venetians had concluded an armistice, Louis XIV. 's attitude
changed and he put a stop to all his armaments. On December
5th, in spite of the efforts of the Paris nuncio to prevent it, he
received in solemn audience a representative of the Sultan ^ !
Clement IX. did not live to hear of this incident. On
October 25th he visited the seven principal churches, over-
taxing his strength in doing so. During the following night
he had a slight stroke.^ Even before he was completely
recovered he resumed his duties ; on November 1st, All
Saints' Da}^ he again visited the seven churches * ; on the
16th he gave orders for the setting up of the above-mentioned
Congregation ^ ; on the 29th, from his sick bed, he made a
Clement IX. contributed 30,000 scudi in September, 1669, towards
the equipment of Marshal De Bellefonds ; see *Compendio
della vita di Clemente IX., Rospigliosi Archives, Rome ;
*Miscell. di Clemente XL, t. 123, p. 226, Papal Sec. Arch.
1 Gerin, it., 388 ; Terlinden, 286, 293 seqq. It was thought
in Rome that one of the consequences of the fall of Candia would
be that Sicily would now be threatened : " Questo pericolo
si sarebbe evitato con soli tre mila huomini e forse anco mono,
she di Napoli si fossero nel Agosto mandati in Candia." A defen-
cive league was imperative (*Cifra to the Spanish nuncio, Novem-
ber 9, 1669, Nunziat. di Spagna, 136, Papal Sec. Arch. " *La
pace di Venetia col Turco fa che gia tutta Europa aspetti I'armi
di esso in Ungheria o in Sicilia. L'unica via per divertirvele e
una diversione, che si faccia col mezzo de' Cosacchi " [ibid.,
November 23, 1669).
- Terlinden, 297 seqq.
3 Gerin, II., 388 seq. ; Terlinden, 304 ; Bildt, Conclave,
1 1 seq. Clement IX. had already suffered a similar attack during
Vespers on January 5, 1669 ; see *Vat. 8414, p. 646, Vat. Lib.
■» *Avviso of November 2, 1669, Papal Sec. Arch.
'•' *Avviso of November 16, 1669, tbid.
DEATH OF THE POPE. 429
creation of Cardinals/ but his strength was spent. On
December 2nd he received the Last Sacraments and on the 9th,
when just short of seventy, he breathed forth his noble soul after
an agony of thirty hours. ^ It was generally felt that grief for
the loss of Candia had carried him prematurely to the grave. ^
The Pope died in the Ouirinal. His body was taken to
St. Peter's where it was provisionally laid to rest next to
Alexander VII.'* Vast numbers of people flocked thither,
eager to honour the body as that of a Saint. ^
Clement IX. wished to rest in front of the Confessio of
^ *Report of the Card, of Hesse, Rome, November 30, i66g.
State Archives, Vienna. Cf. above, p. 348.
2 Gerin, II., 390. Cf. *Avviso of December 14, 1669 : The
Pope " sendo stato da un mese e mezzo travagliato da varii
accidenti e dolori di pietre et calcoh con febre e debolezza grande,
ricevuti con gran divotione e rassegnatione 11 sacramenti, rese
lunedi mattina 3 hore avanti giorno lo spirito [70 years old] ;
sin all'ultimo dal S. card. Rospigliosi e da molti prelati e religiosi,
com'anco negl'ultimi giorni della sua infermita assistito dalla
regina di Suetia e da sig. cardinal! " Papal Sec. Arch. See also
Relatione della infennitd e morte di Clemente IX., Roma, 1669.
* Grimani, in Berchet, II., 353 ; Gerin, II., 387 ; Bern-
hardy, Venezia e il Turco, Firenze, 1902, 59; Bildt, Conclave, 16.
* *Avviso of December 14, 1669, lac. cit.
* In 1675 the veneration was still so great that there was danger
of the coffin being forcibly opened for the purpose of securing
relics. Accordingly, the body was secretly removed, on April 26,
1675, to an unknown place (Cartari, *Meniorie, Piccolomini
Archives, Orvieto). The bones were only taken to St. Mary
Major in 1680 ; see the *Ricognizione del cadavere di Clemente IX.,
dated Februaiy 9, 1680, according to which the bearded corpse
was still clearly recognizable. The tomb was closed under the
direction of the architect Matthias de Rubeis, and provided with
the following inscription in letters of gold : " Clemens IX. P.M.
Liberianae basilicae olim canonicus et vicarius hie iacens eius
praesidium quae ianua coeli est, et fidelium preces implorat.
Obiit die IX. Dec. A.S., 1669, aetatis 69°, vixit in pout, annos 2,
menses 5 et dies 19." Note in Rospigliosi Arch., Rome, T. 26,
pp. 322 and 727.
430 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
S. Mary Major and only the words : Hie iacent ossa dementis
IX. (Here rest the bones of Clement IX.), were to mark the
spot. As a token of gratitude, his successor put up a beautiful
monument in his honour near the entrance to the basihca,
but in compliance with the wishes of the deceased, he contented
himself with a short inscription extolling the Pontiff's zeal
for the faith, his liberality and his labours for the defence of
Christendom. The chief merits of his short pontificate — two
years and five months — are thus well summed up.
His unfailing solicitude for the poor and the sick as well as
his deep pietv, had won for the Pope the veneration of the
people of Rome.^ Inspired though he was by the best intentions
as a ruler, Clement IX. was not favoured by good fortune.
The peace with the Jansenists did not put an end to the
dissensions. The many sacrifices which he made for the war
against the Turks, for the Venetians, for Louis XIV., were
rewarded with ingratitude ; and in the end all his efforts to
save Candia proved in vain.
Nevertheless, the self-sacrificing zeal with which Clement
IX., faithful to the traditions of the Holy See and though
bent by age and sickness, sought to protect Christendom
from the aggression of Islam, constitutes the supreme glory
of his pontificate. He undoubtedly ranks among the best
Popes, and for that reason, and as a happy omen, his name
was chosen by more than one of his successors.
1 See the *Avvisi of December 14 and 21, 1669 (Papal Sec.
Arch.). In the latter the catafalque erected for the obsequies is
thus described : II gran mausolco eretto iu mezzo in forma di
tempio, sostenuto da colonnc, tutto illuminato di candclotti,
et in mezzo I'urna con sopra il triregno sostenuto da un altissimo
picdestallo con 4 eloggi alle sue faccie in lode di S. S., il \° posto
dalla Chiesa cattolica per la pace fatta tra li principi christiani
con haverli infiammati alia guerra contro I'inimico commune, il
2° dal popolo Romano per haver eccitate [?J nuove arti a pubhca
utilita, il 3° dalle vedove et orfani piangenti il lore padrone et
tutore, et il 4° dal popolo dello Stato ecclesiastico per haver
sollevata I'annona et diminuite le gabelle, e ultimamente fece
I'oratione funebre il S. Agost. Favoriti.
CHAPTER IV.
Clement X : His Election and Personality — The New
Pope and Cardinal Paluzzi — Altieri — Patronage
OF Art.
There exists a surprising wealth of reliable sources for the
conclave whose task it was to give a successor to Clement IX.
Numerous reports of ambassadors, and accurate lists of the
votes, make it possible to follow the electoral proceedings in
every detail, even though they were drawn out over a period
of more than four months. To this must be added a very
peculiar source, namely the correspondence between Cardinal
Azzolini and Queen Christine of Sweden. Whilst through his
confidant, Zetina, Azzolini kept that clever woman fully
informed on all that went on in the conclave, Christine
informed her friend of the situation in the city of Rome and
acted as intermediary between the ambassadors of France and
Spain. Christine's keenness was astonishing ; she frequently
wrote as many as three letters a day, often ver}^ long ones,
and all in her own hand.^
Of the seventy members of the Sacred College, sixty-live
^ French accounts in Gerin, II., 391 seqq., Italian ones in
Petrucelli, III., 224 seqq., the imperial ones, incompletely,
in Wahrmund, 276 seqq., the Venetian ones with numerous
other documents, especially the correspondence of Card. Azzolini
and Queen Christine in the exceedingly interesting -s^ork of
Baron De Bildt : Christine de Suede et le conclave de Clement X.,
Paris, 1906 (hereafter quoted as Bildt, Conclave). See also
De Bildt, The Conclave of Clement X. [Proceedings of the British
Academy) [Oxford, 1906], and G. Sardi, II card. G. B. Spada e il
conclave del 1670, Lucca, 1920, who utilized the Spada family
archives at Lucca and supplements De Bildt in many places.
Sardi (157 seqq.) justly stresses the fact that the conclavists were
not always well informed and that their reports cannot stand
comparison with the accounts of the party leaders. *Scrutiny
lists in Barb. 4440, Vat. Lib. and in the Consistorial Archives of
43^ HISTORY OF THE POPES.
took part in the election, though not all of these were present
in Rome when the conclave opened at the Vatican on December
20th, 1669. At the first scrutiny, on December 21st, only
fifty-six Cardinals were present ^ ; the rest arrived gradually.
The grouping of the parties was almost the same as in 1667.
The French faction was made up of seven Cardinals, viz.
Antonio Barberini, Orsini, Retz, Maidalchini, Mancini, and
Bouillon, Renauld d'Este being their leader. The Spanish
party was captained by Leopoldo de'Medici ; it included,
besides himself, six members, viz. Sforza, Raggi, Acquaviva,
Pio, Visconti, and the Cardinal of Hesse. Francesco Barberini
led the older Cardinals of Urban VIII. 's time, and Flavio
Chigi the twenty-four of Alexander VII. The Squadrone
volavite numbered twelve members, but its leader, Azzolini,
who stood for the independence of individual Cardinals against
the wishes of the Powers, could only feel sure of Ottoboni,
Imperiali, Gualtieri, Omodei, and Borromeo. The eight
Cardinals of the late Pope grouped themselves round the
Cardinal nephew, Giulio Rospigliosi. Thus none of the parties
commanded the necessary two-thirds' majority of forty-four
votes ; but Chigi alone, with his followers, was powerful
enough to exclude any candidate.^
Since there was no outstanding personality in the Sacred
College, the number of papabili was very considerable ;
contemporary reports mention twenty-one,^ including Ginetti,
the Vatican, C. 2943 (see Bilut, 269). Cf. also the *Avvisi in
the Papal Sec. Arch., t. 115, and another collection of Avvisi
which I discovered in the Archives at Campello, near Spoleto.
Plan of the conclave, by G. B. Falda, in Vat. Lib. List of con-
clavists, Bull., XVIIL, 30 seqq.
^ " Praesentes in conclavi 58, aegroti absentes a scrutinio 2 "
{Barb. 4440, he. cit.). De Bildt (269) must be corrected accord-
ingly. For the dates of the arrival of individual Cardinals, the
* Avvisi in the Papal Sec. Arch, are the best source of information.
GuARNACCi's statement (L, 7) that 69 Cardinals took part in the
conclave is wrong.
* Bildt, Conclave, 29 seqq., 48.
' Conclavi, III., 123 seqq.
PARTIES IN THE CONCLAVE. 433
Carpegna, Gabrielli, Facchinetti, and Brancaccio from among
the old Cardinals and Odescalchi and Spada from among those
of Innocent X. D'Elce, Celsi, Buonvisi, and Vidoni, who had
been created by Alexander VII., and Nerli, Bona, and Alteri
who had been named by Clement IX., could also entertain
hopes, but all of them, as well as such exemplary Princes of
the Church as Spada, Odescalchi, and Bona, had to reckon
with strong opposition so that it was extremely doubtful
whether any one of them would obtain the tiara. ^
Pietro Vidoni, a former Polish nuncio, seemed to have the
best prospects. He was a very able, energetic man, still in
the full vigour of his years and acceptable both to the French
and the Spaniards. A close friend of the members of the
Squadrone volanie, he was the candidate of Azzolini and
Christine, but in him, too, the proverb was to be verified :
" Who goes into the conclave as Pope comes out a Cardinal."
Yet Vidoni's friends observed the utmost caution, in keeping
with Azzolini's principle that secrecy and silence are decisive
factors in a conclave pratica ! ^ Queen Christine, too,
endeavoured at first to divert attention from Vidoni as much
as possible ; when she visited the locale of the conclave
previous to its closure, she remarked on coming to Vidoni's
cell : " Another who is not papahile.'" ^ The decisive factor
in the failure of Vidoni's candidature, besides the unwilHngness
of Medici, was the determined opposition of Chigi who did all
in his power to bring about the defeat of Azzolini's candidate.^
1 BiLDT, 51 scqq.
• " Arcanum taciturnitatis est anima conclavis in negotio
alicuius capitis." Cf. Candidatus papalis dignitatis eiusdemque
promotor probe instructiis, hoc est em. card. Azzolini aphorismi
politici, 1670, printed at the beginning of J. F. Mayer's work :
Comynentariiis de electione Romani pontificis, Lipsiae, i6gi.
To Azzolini are also ascribed : *Regole eruditissime esemplari,
necessarie per ogni cardinale per il conclave (copy bought by
me at Rome in 1902). Another *copy with the title : " Aforismi
politici del cardinale Azzolino per il conclave del 1667 " (Archives
at Campello, Miscell).
3 BiLDT, 2S. " Sardi, Spada, 109.
VOL. XXXI. Ff
434 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Soon after the opening of the conclave it became apparent
that the Cardinals were split into two camps. On the one side
stood Chigi with his followers, reinforced by the Spaniards,
and on the other the parties of Barberini, Azzolini and
Rospigliosi.^ The winter of that year was a very severe one
and the cold was keenly felt in the badly heated cells,^ but
no decisive step could be taken before the eagerly awaited
arrival of the French. ^ On January, 16th, 1670, Retz and
Bouillon together with the French ambassador, the Duke of
Chaulnes, reached Rome at last. They observed at first
complete neutrahty,* but when Chigi began to work with
increasing ardour for the elevation of D'Elce, Chaulnes made
use of his powers and on February 10th pronounced his
exclusion by France. After that Medici and Chigi dropped
D'Elce's candidature.^ A veritable confusion now ensued as
there was no chance of any one of the prospective candidates
succeeding.^ Towards Buonvisi, whom Chigi put forward
^ BiLDT, 77 seqq.
2 *Report of the Card, of Hesse to Leopold I., Januar\- 1 1, 1670,
State Arch., Vienna. One great inconvenience was the circum-
stance that owing to faulty chimneys the rooms were filled with
smoke, especially when there was a tramontana ; see *the Avvisi
of December 25, 1669, and January 8, 1670, in the Campello
Archives.
' " *Pare a tutti ogn'ora un anno, che vengano i cardinali
Frances! " {Avviso of January 8, 1670, Campello Archives).
* " *Galli nihil suam intentionem declarant et videntur captare
tempus rei bene gerendae, affectibus tum in unum aliquem
inclinantibus," Card, of Hesse to Leopold L, on February S,
1670, he. cit.
^ BiLDT, iig seqq., 123 seqq.
* In a *letter of February 22, 1670, the Card, of Hesse discusses
the prospects of the various candidates : of the Chigi party Litta
alone remains acceptable but even he has had frictions with the
Spaniards at Milan. The Barberini candidates — Francesco
Barberini, Ginetti, Brancaccio, and Facchinetti — have but
slender prospects. The two papabili of the Pamfili party are Spada
and Odescalchi. Spada is unpopular with the French by reason
of an incident during his governorship. The papabili of the
STRUGGLE OF THE PARTIES. 435
on Marcli 5th, (Alanines remained passive and the affair
f ailed. 1
Meanwhile Azzolini and the men of the Squadron, as well
as Queen Christine, were untiring in their efforts on behalf of
Vidoni. The French, too, did their best for Vidoni's election
but met with the utmost resistance on the part of the
Spaniards whose ambassador, Marchese Astorga, hinted that
the Queen Regent had excluded Vidoni. ^ Odescalchi's
candidature fared no better, despite keen support by Spain
and Chigi. Although most worthy of the tiara in every respect,
and though without an enemy in the Sacred College, it was
enough to bring about the failure of his candidature that the
French ambassador declared that no Cardinal could be elected
who was not in some way under obligation to the King of
France. Odescalchi's chances were likewise greatly damaged
by the too impetuous support of his candidature by the
followers of Chigi in particular. An attempt to bring about
the elevation of the Neapolitan Brancaccio was thwarted by
the exclusion pronounced on April 11th by Astorga, the
Spanish ambassador.^ April 19th, 1670, saw the long awaited
arrival of Cardinal Portocarrero and the day after that of an
extraordinary courier of the Spanish Government who
Rospigliosi party are Altieri, Nerli, Bonapede (Buonaccorsi ?)
" In primum [Alterium] non videntur consensuri neque Bar-
berinus, qui post obitum Urbani huius cardinalis fratrem a
pontificatu reiecit, neque Pamphiliani ob privatas simultates
tempore Innocentii X., neque Chisiani, propterea quod Alex-
ander VII. eum bonum senem e proceribus Romanis et suae
familiae ultimum in promotionibus praeterivit." State Archives,
Vienna.
1 BiLDT, Conclave, 144 seqq.
^ Ibid., 105 seqq., 120 seqq., 131 seq., 137 seqq., 159 seqq.
^ Ibid., 164 seqq., 175, 192 seqq. On the tempestuous inter-
vention of the followers of Chigi on behalf of Odescalchi the
Card, of Hesse wrote as follows to Leopold I., March 22, 1670 :
" *Haec cursatio velut praematura, sincere an malitiose facta,
mihi sane magnopere displicuit " (State Archives, Vienna).
Cf. the report of March 29, 1670, in Wahrmund, 278.
436 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
announced that the Queen Regent excluded neither Vidoni
nor any other Cardinal ; however this disavowal of Astorga
could not longer alter the situation. ^ Chigi now broke with the
Spaniards and sought the help of the French. At this time,
thanks to the skilful intervention of Grimani, the Venetian
ambassador, the ambassadors of France and Spain agreed on
the election of one of Clement IX. 's Cardinals. On this
occasion Chigi obtained a promise from Chaulnes that
Vidoni would be excluded. The only remaining question
now was which of the Cardinals of the Rospigliosi party
should be elected. In a secret meeting on April 28th,
Chigi, Chaulnes, and Rospighosi fixed on Emilio Altieri to
whom even Barberini could not object. Thus dawned
April 29th.
At the first scrutiny, out of 56 votes only three went to
Altieri. 2 Thereupon Rospigliosi revealed to the members of
the Squadrone volante that Chigi, Medici, and Barberini had
fixed on this candidate. Azzolini, completely surprised,
sought in vain to obtain at least a delay. An unexpected
difficulty arose from the fact that Altieri, with tears in his
eyes, earnestly besought the electors not to think of him as
he was both too old and unworthy of such a position. They
told him that it was not possible to comply with his request
and he was led with gentle violence to the Sistine Chapel
where the second scrutiny was immediately held.^ They had
' BiLDT, 212 seqq., 220.
2 Vatasso, Hortus caelest. deliciarmn a D. I. Bona, Roma,
1918. XLVII., note.
» " *Subito si ando in cella del medesimo Altieri, che comin-
ciando a piangere disse assolutamente che non voleva esser Papa,
e chiamati i cardinali Paluzzi e Gabrielli 11 preg6, che come parenti
dovessero far desistere gli altri cardinali daU'esaltarlo. Quanto
piu il cardinale Altieri ricusava con dir di esser troppo vccchio e
non meritevole di tal carica, tanto maggiormente da' cardinali
veniva prcgato in mode tale, che tutti quclli ch'erano present!,
tanto cardinali quanto conclavisti, cominciarono a piangere.
Duro il contrasto gran tempo, finalmente piii sforzato che vinto
fu portato su le braccia di Medici, Chigi et altri in cappella senza
ELECTION OF ALTIERI. 437
not even waited for the arrival of the Cardinals who lived in
the cit}^ on account of sickness.^ The scrutiny yielded 21
votes and 35 accessiis ; thus out of 59 electors 56 were for
Altieri.2 The hour was three o'clock in the afternoon. But it
took a whole hour before the elected Pontiff gave his consent.
In memory of Clement IX., his benefactor, he took the name
of Clement X. Among the first to congratulate him was
Queen Christine.^
The extraordinary duration of the conclave, which called
forth lively complaints both in Rome and abroad together
with a spate of caustic comments,* was due not least to the
unblushing interference of the secular power of which the
Cardinal of Hesse complained in his report to the Emperor
Leopold with a bitterness that was fully justified.'^ In the
pranzarsi " {Avviso of April 30, 1670, Campello Archives).
Cf. * Avviso of May 3, 1670, Papal Sec. Arch ; the *report of the
Card, of Hesse to Leopold I., dated April 29, 1670, State Archives,
Vienna, and *Diario del conclave, 1670, in Barb. 4672, p. 262^,
Vat. Lib.
* D'Elce had died on April 12, 1670 ; Grimaldi, Moncada, and
Aragona were absent ; Ant. Barberini, Orsini, Ludovisi, Ginetti,
Acquaviva, Caracciolo, and Buonaccorsi were staying in the city
owing to illness ; see Bildt, 222.
* Barb. 4440, Vat. Lib.
* Bildt, 222-3.
* Part of the pasquinades composed during the conclave of
Clement X. have been printed ; see G. Leti, L'ambasciata di
Roniolo a' Romani, Bruxelles, 1671, and Li segreti di stato dei
principi deU'Europa, Bologna, 1671. Among MSS. cf. : Florence,
Bibl. Nazionale, CI. VII., n. 886 ; Rome : Bibl. Corsini, Cod.
45 F., 34589 ; Vat. Lib., Barb. 4482, 4492, 4504, p. 198 seqq.,
5039-
^ " *Quorsum tandem hacc evadent, nemo facile dixerit ;
utcumque fiet, deplorandum sane est, in hoc sacrosanctum
pontificiae electionis negotium, quod cardinalium dumtaxat esse
deberet, laicos sic intromitti, idque ad mera politices trutinam
remitti, prorsus ut verendum sit, ne Deus tantam contra Christos
suos iniuriam severe vindicet. *Report of April 5, 1670, State
Archives, \'ienna.
438 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
end, however, the decision was not due to the representatives
of the Great Powers. When Astorga, the Spanish ambassador,
asserted that the new Pope owed his elevation to the Spaniards,
he was no less wrong than Chaulnes, the French ambassador,
who pretended that Louis XIV. alone had brought about the
election. The real victor was Chigi : on that very day, April
29th, Chigi's relative, Cardinal Paluzzi, was proclaimed
Cardinal nephew of the octogenarian Pontiff. ^
Emilio Altieri was sprung from an ancient Roman patrician
family ^ and had had an excellent father. A contemporary
depicts old Lorenzo Altieri as a man of fiery spirit and imposing
aspect, but also of the greatest modesty, as his ver}- looks
show. He was likewise distinguished for the purity of his
morals and his great piety.^ From Lorenzo's union with
Vittoria Delfino, a sister of Gentile Delfino, Bishop of
Camerino,^ sprang several sons, viz. Giambattista, who
became a Cardinal in 1643,^ Girolamo, representative of the
Knights of Malta in Rome, Marzio, a Knight of the Order of
St. James, Francesco, an officer who fought in Germany
during the Thirty Years' War and in the war of Castro {obiii
1 Diario del conclave, Barb. 4672, p. 2686, Vat. Lib. ; Bildt,
Conclave, 223-5. Of Azzolini, who stood for the Cardinals'
independence of the Powers, Bildt, writes (p. 2) : " Azzolini a
perdu la bataille, mais ce sera toujours pour lui un titrc d'honneur,
d 'avoir indique la voie a suivre et prepare I'avenement dans la
curie Romaine d'une politique exclusivement devouee aux
interets de I'Eglise."
* BoNANNi, II., 722 ; Amayden, Famiglie Romane, ed. Bcrtini,
I., 41 seq. For the family arms, see Pasini Frassoni, 45.
' Carlo Cartari {*Memorie), who had known Lorenzo
Altieri quite well, writes : " Visse egli fino aU'eta molto senile,
ma con spirit) vigorosi, maestoso nel portamento, accompagnato
pero da una modestia singolare che fino negli occhi gli lampeggiava,
di altrettanto bella canitie nell'esterno ricoperto quanto di una
candidezza di costumi, e di una rara pieta a meraviglia dotato,
fortunato anchc ne' figli." Piccolomini Archives, Orvieto.
* Ughelli, I., 567.
s See our data, XXIX., 164.
ANTECEDENTS OF CLEMENT X. 439
1644), and, lastly, Emilio, born on July 13th, 1590, in Rome
where he studied first at the Roman College and afterwards
at the University.^ After obtaining his doctorate in juris-
prudence (October 17th, 1611) he worked for a time with
Giovan Battista Pamfili, the future Innocent X., then an
auditor of the Rota. Although Emilio made a great name
for himself as an advocate, ^ he nevertheless embraced the
ecclesiastical state, as his brother Giambattista and other
members of his family had done.^ In 1623 he acted as assessor
to Giambattista Lancellotti during the latter's nunciature in
Poland.* On his return he became Bishop of Camerino, in
1627, in succession to his brother Giambattista. He did much
useful work in his diocese, held a synod in 1630 and established
the Oratorians at Montecchio.^ He enjoyed Urban VIII. 's
confidence in a high degree. The Pontiff made him Governor
of Loreto and twice, though only for a short time. Governor
of the Marches. He also entrusted to him the task of ensuring
Ravenna against floods, a task which Altieri carried out
successfully by the erection of powerful dykes. The war of
Castro prevented him from entering on the duties of an
Apostohc Visitor of the whole of the Papal States.^ Innocent
X. also was at first well disposed towards Altieri and in 1644
he sent him as nuncio to Naples. During the rising against
1 For what follows cf. the authentic data in C. Cartari,
*Memorie, loc. cit.
" V. Argenti {Alteria Sydera, Macerata, 1625) calls Emilio
" advocatus peregregius ".
^ " *Secondando 11 genio che alia vita clericale lo persuadeva,
a questa si applico," says C. Cartari {loc. cit.), " da gli esempii di
Mario Altieri, zio paterno [author of De censuris ecclesiasticis],
deir accennato Gentile Delfino, zio materno, e del descritto
G. B. Altieri suo fratello." According to Cartari he was ordained
priest about 1623.
* See our data, XXVII., 141, n. 4.
5 Ughelli, I., 570, who speaks of " Constitutiones synodales a
S. D. N. Clemente X. a^ 1630 tunc eccl. Camerin. moderante in
comitiis synodalibus editae ". They were printed in 1672.
" Cartari, *Memorie.
440 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the Spanish domination there Altieri's position became
extremely difficult ^ ; however, he succeeded in maintaining
himself in it until 1632 when he, too, did not escape Innocent
X.'s displeasure ; he accordingly withdrew into his diocese.
During this period he suffered a grievous loss by the death of
his brother Giambattista in 1654. The latter's position in the
Sacred College was such an outstanding one that the prospect
of the tiara was repeatedly held out to him.^ During the
conclave of 1655, Emilio Altieri was commissioned by the
College of Cardinals to work for the restoration of peace in
Upper Italy. After that Clement VII. recalled him to Rome,
named him Secretary of the Congregation of Bishops and
Regulars in 1657, and subsequently a Consultor of the
Inquisition, but the purple which he had earned long ago
was not bestowed on him. In 1657 Clement IX. made him
his Maestro di Camera and at last, on November 29th, 1669,
raised him to the cardinalate. He had not received the red
hat and the ceremony of the opening and closing of the mouth
had not been carried out for him when, almost an octogenarian,
he entered the conclave from which he issued as Pope.
Clement X. was of middle height and imposing appearance,
but gentle and engaging in his dealings with others.^ " Every-
body agrees," wrote Antonio Grimani, the Venetian
ambassador, " that his disposition is like that of an Angel ;
he has a humble heart, is sincere, kind, liberal, and most
indulgent ; his face betrays the pain he feels when he is
obliged to refuse a favour. Up to the present his elevation
to the supreme dignity brought with it no change in his
simple living, or in the ordering of his household." Grimani
singles out for praise the sparing use Clement X. made of
1 Cf. XXX., p. 82 seq.
2 For 1644, see Mencik, 50 ; for 1648, Berchet, IL, 80, and
ibid., 151, for 1651. The Capuchin Seb. Mele da Bitonto, in his
*Pensieri sul Pontificato (dedication dated October z, 1649),
prophesied the tiara to Altieri. (I saw the original MS. in 1906
in the shop of the Roman antiquary Luzzietti.)
' " *Fu di -statura mediocre, d'aspetto maestoso, di matiira
piacevole " (Cartari, Memorie).
THE POPE S DAY. 44I
the Church's money, of which he was wont to say he was
only the administrator who would one day have to give an
account to an all-knowing judge. ^ This serious disposition
was allied to sincere piety ; despite his great age Clement X.
repeatedly made the tiring pilgrimage to the seven principal
churches of Rome.^
Though the Pope was blessed with a strong constitution,
it was only too evident that he felt the weight of his years.
However, there was nothing to point to his early death ; on
the contrary, his condition was such that people prophesied
him many years, especially as his forbears had been extra-
ordinarily long-hved.^
The Pope led a very regular life, but one that differed
from that of most people. At all seasons he rose two or three
hours before dawn, dressed unaided, said his Mass and
performed his private devotions ; after that he often gave
audience as early as five o'clock in the morning. The result
of his early rising was that after taking his principal meal
two hours before the evening Angelus, he was compelled to go
to bed at sunset. When in his later years representations
were made to him on his early rising, even in the cold of
winter, he observed that he had always done so, and since it
served him well he had no intention of giving it up.^
The eighty-years'-old Pontiff needed help to enable him to
bear the burden of office, consequently, immediately after his
election, he chose for this duty Cardinal Paluzzi degli Albertoni
^ Grimani, in Berchet, II., 356.
2 Cf. the *Avvisi of May 2 and November 14, 1671, Papal Sec.
Arch.
^ Grimani, in Berchet, II., 356 ; Gerin, II., 408 seq. The
Pope's sister Virginia, a Dominican nun in the convent della
Maddalena, near the Quirinal, where she lived a holy life, died
on February 21, 1673, aged 71 (Cartari, *Memorie ; *Avviso
of February 25, 1673, Papal Sec. Arch.).
* See *Cartari, loc. cit., who quotes the testimony of
Clement X.'s physician. Cf. the *Relatione del conte di Lucerna,
Vat. Lib., and Gerin, II., 408 seq.
442 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
whose nephew, Caspar, had married Laura Caterina Altieri,
a niece of Clement IX. and the sole heiress of the Altieri ^ — a
woman as beautiful as she was modest. The Pope bestowed
the name of Altieri on both the Cardinal and the niece. ^
Caspar was made Ceneral of the Church and castellan of
Castel S. Angelo ; Angelo, his father, who had taken part in
the campaign against Crete, was appointed inspector of the
galleys.^ Caspar, on whom depended the continuation of the
family, received the Pope's private estate and the Palazzo
Altieri, but like Angelo, he had to be satisfied with his post,
1 In the * Relatione del conte di Lucerna, loc. cit., Laura is
described as beautiful, lively, affable, and modest.
2 It was reproached to Clement X. that with the unexpected
elevation of Paluzzi to the position of Cardinale Padrone and the
latter's adoption, he had excluded Card. Gabrielli, " suo naturale
nipote." A contemporary offers the following explanation:
" *I1 vero motivo politico di questa novita e nato da cio che non
avendo il fratello del Pontefice lasciato che una figlia herede delle
sue facolta a condizione che chi volesse sposarla per conseguire
la sua eredita, dovesse prendere insieme il cognome di casa
Altieri, e non essendosi trovato alcuno nella nobilta Romana
che abbia voluto accettare questa heredita con si fatto peso, la
sola casa Paluzzi ... si accommodo a questa fortuna. Onde
sebene il cardinale Paluzzi non appartenesse nulla al Pontefice
in quanto alia sua propria persona, gli apparteneva pero,
molto in vitru di quella del marchese (ora principe) suo nipote
che avendo sposato la nipote di S. B"^, ha sposato insieme tutte le
ragioni di casa Altieri. Con qualche ragione adunque ha il papa
antcposto Paluzzi a Gabrielli." For the rest Clement X. had
compensated Gabrielli for his exclusion from the " ministerio "
by various favours, so that " se non contento, puo rimaner
sodisfatto della presente fortuna". Thus the author of " *Xuovo
governo di Roma sotto il pontificato di P. Clemente X. con
aggiustamento seguito tra li due cardinali nipoti di S. S'^ Altieri e
Gabrielli ", Barb. 5435, Vat. Lib. Cf. also *Avviso of May 3,
1670, State Archives, Vienna, and the *Relatione del conte di
Lucerna, loc. cit.
^ *Avviso of May 10, 1670, Papal Sec. Arch. ; Guglielmotti,
365 seqq. ; Calissk, Sioria di Civitavecchia, 469.
DISTRIBUTION OF OFFICES. 443
and though the Pope was fond of him, he was not permitted
to meddle with other matters.^
The distribution by Clement X. of offices at court was in
keeping with his generous disposition. An excellent and
learned Roman, Camillo Massimo, became Maestro di Camera ;
on his elevation to the cardinalate he was followed by another
Roman, Alessandro Crescenzi, who is described as a strict,
truly apostolic man. Bernardino Rocci, an able man and
a Roman also, was appointed Maggiordomo.^ The Pope
retained the confessor he had had before his elevation. As
this office had been held b}^ Jesuits under Alexander VH. and
Clement IX., many people concluded that the new Pope was
not well disposed towards the Society of Jesus. However,
such an assumption was groundless, for Clement X. was well
acquainted with the merits of the Order and showed his
esteem for it by deeds. ^
The C ardinale-padrone , Paluzzi-Altieri, to whom had been
allotted the second place at the Roman court, and to whom
were assigned all the honours and dignities of a Cardinal
nephew,* soon became the real manager of affairs, so much so
that the Secretary of State, Federigo Borromeo, who was
succeeded by Francesco Nerli in 1673, had to take the second
place ; a similar fate befell the learned Caspar Carpegna
who had been nominated datarius.^
Paluzzo Paluzzi degli Albertoni, now Altieri, was sprung
from an old Roman family whose family chapel may still be seen
^ * Relatione del conte di Lucerna, loc. cit.
- Moroni, XLL, 135, 268. Crescenzi and Rocci became
Cardinals in 1675 ; they were succeeded by Antonio Pignatelli
and Orazio Mattei. For Crescenzi, see Grimani, in Berchet,
II., 357, and above, Ch. III.
' *Nuovo governo di Roma, Barb. 5435, Vat. Lib.
■» *Avviso of May 3, 1670, Papal Sec. Arch. ; Cardella, VII.,
1 68 seq.
* *Relatione del conte di Lucerna, loc. cit. John Walter Sluse
of Liege became Secretary of Briefs (eulogy of him in ^Slocenigo's
*letter of October 7, 1673, Vat. Lib. ; Gerin, II., 511) ; Mario
Spinola was made Secretary of the Brevia ad principes.
444 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
at the church of Araceli. Alexander VII. made him a Cardinal.^
He owed his rise to Cardinal Flavio Chigi ^ who accordingly
secured the greatest possible influence. ^ Born in 1623,
Paluzzi Altieri was in the full vigour of his years, though his
dark hair had begun to turn grey.'* People admired him for
the fact that he paid a daily visit to his aged mother when he
never failed to beg her blessing. Of blameless hfe, extremely
talented, extraordinarily hard working, possessed of much
skill and great experience in dealing with affairs, he soon
became indispensable to the aged Pontiff.^ As the memory
of the octogenarian often failed him, he frequently promised
the same favours to several people, thereby creating confusion.
^ See p. 132.
- Fl. Chigi had made him an auditor of the Camera ; he also
intervened effectively in his elevation to the cardinalate. During
the conclave he had obtained an assurance from Altieri that he
would make him his nipote adottivo ; see * Relatione del conte di
Lucerna, loc. cit.
' *Avviso of May 31, 1670, State Archives, Vienna.
* Relatione del conte di Lucerna, loc. cit.
^ Impartial pictures of the Cardinal are drawn by A. Grimani,
in Berchet, II., 358, the *Relatione del conte di Lucerna {loc. cit.),
and the author of the * Report on the Cardinals, ca. 1686, Liechten-
stein Archives, Vienna, A., f. 3. Chaulnes and Bonfils also spoke
of him very favourablv at first ; see Gerin, 409 (but cf. 483, on the
causes of the Frenchmen's change of opinion). On the other hand,
P. Mocenigo (in Berchet, II., 382) paints him in the darkest
colours. Brosch (I., 437 seq.) has accepted this caricature,
although it is clear that Mocenigo, who had had some very
violent quarrels with the Cardinal, writes ah irato and does not
shrink from obvious falsehoods, as, for instance (p. 382), that
Clement had never acted as nuncio, or (p. 3S6) that he hardly ever
saw Laura Altieri. Cf., on the other hand, the *Relatione del
conte di Lucerna {loc. cit.). For the rest, Ranke (III., App.
No. 144) has already expressly observed that Mocenigo's remarks
about Card. Altieri " are the aftereffects of personal misunder-
standings ", and that he .speaks in a like strain of all other pcr-
.sonalities and treats of other matters " in liis irritated fashion ".
Cf. also Gerin, II., 471.
CARDINAL PALUZZI-ALTIERI. 445
To prevent this Paluzzi Altieri allowed only a few persons to
obtain private audiences, and he took care to ascertain their
wishes beforehand.^ Worse still was the fact that the Cardinal
did his best to prevent the aged Pope from being upset by
disagreeable reports.^
At first Clement X. refused to lend a hand in the enrichment
of the Altieri family,^ thereby giving rise to many complaints
on their part.* For a time Cardinal Paluzzi- Altieri disguised
his desire to acquire wealth ^ ; but he nevertheless eagerly
sought his own advantage, as did the other nephews, only
he did it less blatantly. For the rest, his position provided
him with the opportunity of enriching himself as it were
automatically.^ As the Pope grew older and his weakness
increased, he became less strict with regard to the enrichment
of his nephews who received numerous proofs of his goodwill.'
The Cardinal made provision for his family by marrying his
nieces into aristocratic houses, such as the Colonna and the
1 *Avviso forwarded to Leopold L by the Card, of Hesse on
May 10, 1670, State Arch., Vienna.
- Grimani, in Berchet, IL, 358.
* *Avviso of July 5, 1670 : " mostrandosi il Papa gia qualche
tempo inesorabile in certe cose, massimamente quando e eccitato
da qualcheduno. Onde e certo che il cardinale nipote non ha
quella authorita che molti pensano, singolarmente nelle cose dove
il Papa tiene qualche scrupolo di conscienza, come sarebbe a
dire di slargar la mano a pro de' parenti. Egli liberamente dice
e torna a dire che i Paluzzi non gli sono niente, e che se hora
gli fusse intiero, non li dichiarerebbe per tal piii. E che in tutti i
casi vuole salvare I'anima sua e non perderla per arrichirli ;
haver esso vissuto 80 anni intatto di tali peccati, non volere hora
per pochi mesi di pontificato dcviare dal dovuto sentiero " (Papal
Sec. Arch.).
■• *Relatione del conte di Lucerna, loc. cit.
* GriiMaxi, in Berchet, IL, 358.
* Thus the *Relatione del conte di Lucerna, loc. cit. Cf. also
*Nuovo governo di Roma, Barb. 5435, Papal Sec. Arch.
' " *Index brevium et bullarum dementis X. ad favorem
Alteriorum." Cod., L, G. 13, Altieri Archives, Rome.
44^ HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Orsini.i He succeeded in winning the Pope's confidence from
the first b^' coming to the rescue in several pubHc calamities,
as, for instance, in December, 1670, on the occasion of a great
fire, and again during an inundation of the Tiber. ^
These acts of generosity impressed Clement X. all the more
as he was extraordinarily sohcitous for the welfare of his
subjects, though he was unable to lighten the burden of
taxation,^ the great liberality of Clement IX. having emptied
the treasur}'. Prolonged discussions took place with a view
to discovering means of restricting all superfluous expenditure
both in the palace and in the State. Clement X. refused to
undertake a fresh reduction of the Monti, because such a
step would have caused loss to very many famihes, and to
1 See the * Report in the Liechtenstein Archives referred to
above, p. 444, n. 5. The Pope himself celebrated the nuptials
of Ludovica Altieri with the Duke of Gravina, April g, 1671,
as well as those of Tarquinia Altieri with the Duke of Anticoli,
June 14, 1676 ; see Cartari, *Memorie, Piccolomini Archives,
Orvieto, and Ademollo, II matrimonio di siior Maria Pidcheria,
al secolo Livia Cesar ini : Memorie particolari, Roma, 1883,
22 seqq., 28 seqq. According to the *Avviso of September 30,
1673 (Vat. Lib.), the latter marriage had already been arranged
at that date.
- Cartari, * Memorie, loc. cit. The latter reports that in 1676
the Tiber rose on several occasions and threatened the Strada
Flaminia near Ponte Molle : " e talmente ad essa strada erasi 11
liume avvicinato che poteva dubitarsi in breve tempo di vederlo
giunto. Stimatosi pertanto necessario il rimedio, fu eletta persona
forestiera e prattica nelle operazioni delle acque, che nel mese
d'aprile diede principle con passonate e con lo scavo deha sponda
opposta, ma dagli architetti di Roma si stima infruttuosa I'opera-
zione, o sia per dispiacere di non essere stati essi impiegati, o
sia, come gli stessi dicono, assai diverso essere I'operare nelle
lagune che nel Tevere." In a letter of Februar}' 17, 1674 (Vat.
Lib.), to A. Contarini, P. Mocenigo speaks of a project of making
the Tiber navigable as far as Perugia.
' An *Avviso of January 3, 1671, speaks of the suppression of
the " gabella del quattrino " of the " artisti " in Rome. Papal
Sec. Arch.
SOLICITUDE FOR PUBLIC WELFARE. 447
the pious foundations.^ But he economized wherever possible.
All revenues that used to flow into the Pope's private purse
were deposited in the Monti di Pieta in order that they might
serve the public good.^ Clement's efforts in promoting agri-
culture and in provisioning Rome with grain were universally
recognized.^
The understanding way in which the Pope was wont to
proceed is shown by the foundation by him of a public bank
of payments for the purpose of protecting the small tradesman
from the abuses of the so-called system of credit. This measure
was occasioned by the bad habit of butchers and fishmongers
of unduly putting off paying the wholesale dealers, hence it
applied at first only to those two trades, but in the end it
was extended to all provision merchants. The vendor was
paid at once from this bank whilst the latter, equipped as it
was with special powers to that effect, recovered from the
debtors the money it had paid out.* The prohibition of
dangerous knives,^ and of games of chance,^ was also a
1 " *E perche vedevasi per esperienza che (per la cattiva
qualita de' tempi) le spese della Camera sopravanzavano alia
rendite della medesima, dopo diverse congregazioni tenutesi per
questo affare, non havendo 11 Pontefice volute indursi alia redut-
tione de' luoghi de monti, ben considerando il danno che a tante
famiglie et in particolare a' luoghi pii ne resultarebbe, si era
resolute di resecare le spese che in qualche parte paravane
suparflue, e percio dicevasi che si scamarabbe il numero dalla
galere pentificie, che si riformarebbe la seldatesca di Rema, a si
andava tuttavia pensando ad altre riforma, anzi il cardinale
Altieri con melta generosita si esibi pronto a rilasciare in utile
dalla stessa Camera la previsione che coma a cardinale soprain-
tandente dalle State acclesiastico annualmente si pagava (Cartari
*Memoyic, loc. cit.),"
* Sea *Relationa del cente di Lucerna, loc. cit.
* Benigni, 59. Cf. De Cupis, 276 seq.
* RoDOCANACHi, Les corporations ouvrieres a Rome dfpuis
la chute de I' Empire Romain, Paris, 1894 ; Gottlob, in Hist.
Jahrb., XVI., 132.
* Mentioned by Cartari, *Meinorie, loc. cit.
* *Avviso ef October 10, 1671, Papal Sec. Arch.
44^ HISTORY OF THE POPES.
wholesome measure. The Jews were forbidden to make
deposits in the Monte di Pieta and great strictness was shown
in making them wear their badges. ^ Several ordinances
were also issued with a view to stemming the devastation
of forests in the Pontifical States. ^ In 1674 a subsidy was
granted for repairs to the canals in Valdichiana ^ and like
his predecessor, Clement X. sought to promote the wool
and silk industry.'* A number of measures bear witness to
the Pope's humanity ; thus he made provision for the bodily
and spiritual welfare of labourers in the Campagna who had
fallen ill,^ for the burial of persons who died in the hospitals
of Rome ^ and for the spiritual ministration to the sick whilst
they were being treated in these institutions. '^ In 1675 he
gave orders for the liberation of some aged galley slaves in
the papal fleet. ^
1 *Cartari, loc. cit.
- Ibid.
^ *Chirografo of December 5, 1674, Arm., 52, t. 30, p. 151,
Papal Sec. Arch. ; cf. *Cartari, loc. cit.
* Grimani, in Berchet, II., 366. Permission for the nobility to
take up trade in Bull., XVIII., 229. The population of Rome,
which in 1667 amounted to 110,489, and to 115,480 in 1670,
rose to 127,907 under Clement X. ; see Stiidi e docntn., XII., 180.
* *Edict of June 20, 1672, in Bandi, V., 9, p. i. Papal Sec.
Arch., and that of June 5, 1675, in De Cupis, 279 scq.
* *Decretnm of August 8, 1675, Bandi, V., 9, p. 21, loc. cit.
' *Decretimi of February 10, 1676, ibid., p. 25.
* To the Treasurer General, July 3, 1675 : *Compatendo Noi
la vecchiaia et indisposition i respett. dclli infrascritti schiavi
delle Nostre galere, ancorche Turchi, per li quali si sono ridotti
inabili al servitio, habbiamo risoluto di dargli liberta." We
order the liberation of Ali di Mustafa di Bona (65 years old),
Giuseppe di Maumetto di Natolio (aged 59), Saino dAsanne di
Corone (70), and Musa di Alemana di Salenichi (58 years old)
" schiavi tutti nella galera padrona, dandogli la commodita
di potersene andare alle loro case per mare e per terra, come a
loro pill piacera, senza che paghino cosa alcuna alia Nostra
Camera ". We order that measures be taken to this end and these
we hereby confirm. Ann., 52, t. 30, p. 234, Papal Sec. Arch.
THE POPE S LIBERALITY. 449
Notwithstanding the adverse condition of the finances
Clement X. was generous in the distribution of alms. Like
Clement IX. he daily entertained thirteen poor persons at
the Vatican. He annually distributed 39,000 scudi in secret
and in addition to this he did his utmost in supporting
hospices, colleges, and necessitous convents in Rome. Alms
were regularly sent to the Jesuits of Constantinople and
Chios, and the Colleges of Cologne, Braunsberg, Vienna, and
Prague. Through the Spanish nuncio the Pope annually
sent the sum of 400 scudi to the missionaries in Japan, and
through the nuncio in Savoy he supported the missionaries
in the Alpine districts where the faith was in danger. The
sums spent in alms in the year 1672 amounted to 125,946
scudi. ^
Although Clement IX. had declined a monument for
himself,^ Clement X. had one put up to his benefactor at
S. Maria Maggiore, to a design by Carlo Rainaldi. It is almost
the exact counterpart, even as regards the coloured marble,
of Sixtus V.'s monument of Nicholas IV. which faces it.
The seated figure of the deceased, whose hand is raised in
blessing, is by Domenico Guidi, whilst the figures of Faith
and Charity that flank it, are the work of Cosimo Fancelli
and Ercole Ferrata.^
^ See the *Register of receipts and expenses of the Apostolic
Camera for 1672, in Liechtenstein Archives, Vienna, A., f. 3,
J^- 3336- ^f- MiscelL, I., of the Altieri Library, Rome. The Pope
also supported colleges in Italy. Cartari gives the following
inscription from Sant Angelo in Vado : *Clementi X. P. O. M. |
cuius paterna liberalitate | Collegium hoc Barberinum | auctum
fuit praediis Valentinjanis | ac annua perpetua pensione | • • •
1674.
^ See above, p. 430.
' Cartari, *Memorie, loc. cit. Cf. Escher, 104 ; Hempel,
82. Reproduction in Jozzi, Storia di S. Maria Maggiore, Roma,
1904, tav. 21. According to Cartari {loc. cit.), the monument
was originally " nella sinistra parte della tribuna ", where that of
Nicholas IV. also stood ; subsequently both were moved to the
right and the left of the main entrance of the nave.
VOL. XXXI.
Gg
450 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Clement IX. 's vast plan for the reconstruction of the
tribuna of St. Mary Major was dropped by his successor as
too costly ; in this way the exceedingly risky transfer of the
precious mosaics was avoided. Two pieces which had already
been removed were put back again. After the ruinous tribuna
had been made sufficiently safe the Pope, in 1673, instructed
Carlo Rainaldi, who had replaced the aged Bernini as official
architect, to give to the outside a very plain facing with
travertine, to adorn it with statues on top, on the balustrade,
and to construct before the outer wall of the apse of the
basilica a great flight of steps. As a result of this work the
slope of the hill received its present shape. ^
Just as Clement X. hved to see the unveiling of Bernini's
statue of Constantine near the Scala Regia,^ so was it granted
to him to see the completion of the decorations of the bridge
of S. Angelo by the addition of four more marble statues
carved from the design of Bernini. ^ Here the Pope honoured
the memory of Clement IX. by putting up an inscription
to him together with his arms. In the same way, when the
magnificent doorway leading from the left arm of the colonnade
into the portico of St. Peter's and the statues on top of the
colonnade were completed during his reign, he put up, not
his own arms, but those of Alexander VII. and Clement IX. ^
The Altieri arms only appear on the floor of the portico
which Clement X. paved with various kinds of marble.^
Giotto's mosaic known as the " Navicella " (Peter's Barque),
which had been removed from old St. Peter's under Paul V.,
was assembled once more by order of Clement X., at the
* See above, p. 337. Fraschetti, 382 seqq. Cf. *Cartari.
" Rainaldi's work," writes Briggs [Barockarchitektur , Berlin,
1914, 21), " displays no extravagance ; everything is in its place
and in full harmony both with the papal chapel and its surround-
ings. It is an excellent example of the best baroque." Cf. Hempel,
60 seqq.
* See *Cartari's data, loc. cit.
' Ibid. Cf. *Avviso of March 12, 1672, Papal Sec. Arch.
* *Cartari, loc. cit.
* Fraschetti, 395.
A SECOND FOUNTAIN IN FRONT OF ST. PETER S. 45 1
instigation of Cardinal Barberini, after a copy made under
Urban VIII. ^ ; it was then put up in the lunette above the
central door of the basilica.- For the chapel of the Blessed
Sacrament he had a precious tabernacle made by Bernini,
in 1674, in the shape of a rotunda for which Bramante's
tempictto in S. Pietro in Montorio served as a model. Its
material is gilt bronze adorned with lapis lazuli ; the figures
of the Apostles form a circle around it and the whole is
crowned b}^ the hgure of Christ with the cross. On either
side are seen two kneeling Angels in bronze, on magnificent
marble pedestals bearing the arms of the Altieri.'*
The Piazza of St. Peter's received a wonderful embellishment
under Clement X. Paul V. had had erected there, by Maderna,
on the Vatican side, a magnificent fountain throwing up
water to a height of fourteen metres. Clement X. resolved
to put up a corresponding one on the other side. To this
end it was necessary to begin by moving Paul V.'s huge
fountain to its present position. It was then discovered that
the Acqua Paolina could not provide sufficient water for
both fountains, so that it became necessary to enlarge the
aqueduct from the lake of Bracciano. The Pope died whilst
this work was in progress."*
The decoration of the family chapel of the Altieri in S.
Maria sopra Minerva was a work of filial piety on the part
of the Pope. To this day the visitor sees there the slabs over
the tombs of Altieri Corraducci, who died in 1431 at the age
of 110 years, and of Angelo Altieri, Bishop of Sutri, who
lived to be ninety. Two of the Pope's brothers, Cardinal
^ This copy is now over the entrance of the Capucliiu church,
Rome, to which it was presented by Urban VIII.
- See *Cartari.
' TiTi, II ; Fraschetti, 394 seq. (with App.). The Pope's
inspection of the tabernacle is reported by the *Avvisi of July 7
and September 13, 1674, Papal Sec. Arch. In the Lateran basilica
Clement X. had steps erected to the tabernacle containing
the heads of the Princes of the Apostles ; see Crescimbeni,
Stato della chiesa Lateran. Roma, 1723, 92.
* *Cartari, loc. cit. Fraschetti, 396.
452 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Giambattista and Marzio, as well as his father, Lorenzo, are
buried there. Clement X. had the chapel sumptuously adorned
with decorative work, marbles and paintings, after a design
by Cardinal Massimo. For the graves of his father and his
brother Giambattista, Cosimo Fancelli executed marble busts.
The new high altar was adorned with a picture by Carlo
Maratta representing St. Peter presenting to the Mother of
God the five Saints canonized by Clement X. The paintings
on the soffits are by Baciccia.^ The total cost came to 12,000
scudi." On August 12th, 1672, Clement X. inspected the
splendidly embellished chapel.^ On the other hand the Pope
deliberately never set foot within the family palace, one of
the most magnificent and spacious palaces of Rome,* which
1 TiTi, 158 seq. ; Berthier, L'eglise de la Minerve, Rome, 1910,
200 seq. Cf. FoRCELLA, I., 416, 420, 502 ; Beleori, III.,
139 seq.
'^ * Car tar i.
* *Avviso of August 13, 1672, Papal Sec. Arch.
* GuRLiTT, Barockstil, 433. On account of the uncertain state
of Clement X.'s health. Card. Altieri pushed the construction as
much as possible ; see the *report of the Card, of Hesse to
Leopold I., dated April 2, 1672, State Archives, Vienna, and the
*letter of P. Mocenigo to Alvise Contarini, dated June 3, 1673,
in which he says that work went on day and night : " E finita,
la scala maestra che riesce molto lucida et e tanto magnifica
maestra e bella, che Roma non ne ha un altra che I'appareggi.
Si perfectionara presto la prima facciata del palazzo." Cf. a
*letter of the same, dated November 4, 1673 : "II palazzo sara
capace per cinque corti, che tanto ne fanno quei signori, com-
preso quella del sig. cardinale." See also Cartari, *Mcmorie,
and Ademollo, // matriinonio di siior Maria Pidcheria, 17-19.
The above-quoted report of the Card, of Hesse describes the
Pope's library (see Ranke, III., App. 196 ; cf. Blume, III.,
176 seqq.), but does not mention the famous staircase (see Gurlitt,
loc. cit.). According to Cartari the cost amounted to 300,000
scudi. Carlo Maratta decorated the ceiling of the principal room
with a fresco (see Bellori, 160 seqq.). *Accounts of the paintings
in the palace, in Bibl. Altieri, MiscclL, I.
THE POPE S DETACHMENT. 453
Giovanni Antonio de' Rossi erected by command of Cardinal
Paluzzi Altieri near the church of the Gesu.^
^ " *E pero degno di riflessione che in sei anni di fabrica mai
il Ponteficc habbia havuto curiosita di vederla." This was all the
more remarkable, Cartari observes [*Memorie, loc. ciL), as every
year, during the Carnival, he attended the Forty Hours' prayers
at the Gesii. The construction of a new street near Chiesa Nuova,
served to embellish Rome ; see *Chirografo al Tesariere of
November 9, 1673, Arm., 52, t. 30, p. 32, Papal Sec. Arch., and
FoRCELLA, XIIL, 90. Ibid., 151, an inscription on restoration
work in Castel S. Angelo ; Calissf., 474, inscription on the restora-
tion of the harbour of Civitavecchia.
CHAPTER V.
Support of Poland against the Turks — Embassy of the
Tsar of Russia in Rome.
As a young man Clement X. had spent a considerable
time in Poland as assessor to nuncio Lancelloti, and in
this way he had come to know from personal observation
the extraordinarily comphcated situation of that country
both in the religious and the pohtical sphere. Little could
he suspect at that time how much anxiety Poland would
give him as Pope ; but he fully realized even then the
importance of this eastern bulwark of Cathohcism and Western
civilization against Islam. When he became Pope he referred
to the danger threatening from the common foe of Christendom
in his very first consistory, on May 16th, 1670.i
Conditions in Poland had become deplorable. Difficult
days had dawned for the kingdom, when after the abdication
of John Casimir (September 1668) at a stormy Diet, Michael
Wisnowiecki, said to be a prince of the House of the Yagellons,
was elected King, contrary to all expectation and against the
will of the Senate. Michael was young, sickly, and obstinate,
and listened to the advice of only a few persons, chief among
them being the Grand-Chancellor of Lithuania, Pac, and the
Vice-Chancellor of the Crown Olszowski ; on the other hand,
he kept at a distance most of the nobles, more especially the
Grand Marshal Sobieski whom his victories over the Cossacks
and the Tartars had made exceedingly famous. When,
therefore, in July 1672, the thirty-eight-years-old Turkish
Sultan Mohammed V. advanced against Poland with an army
of 100,000 men, he found the Kingdom in the greatest
confusion. The fortress of Kamieniec, the key to southern
Poland, fell on August 30th. This meant th<^ loss of the
* [A. Bartolim], Alciini atti concistoricili del/a S'" di
Clemenle X., Roma (Nozze-Puhl.), 13.
454
ANXIETY FOR POLAND. 455
whole of Podolia ; soon the Turks, reinforced by Cossacks
and Tartars, appeared under the walls of Lemberg where
Sobieski's bravery alone stopped their advance.^
When the news of the fall of Kamieniec arrived in Rome
in mid-October, it caused a general panic. Clement X., who
previous to the Turkish aggression had vainly sought to
induce the Emperor to lend help to Poland,^ convened a
special Congregation by whose advice he took steps with a
view to meeting the grievous peril in the East.^ He began
by proclaiming a universal Jubilee, the Indulgences of which
were promulgated during the same month of October. In
November, despite his great age, the Pope personally joined
in the procession from S. Maria sopra Minerva to the Polish
national church of St. Stanislaus.'* On October 20th he wrote
to the Emperor that the peril in the East preoccupied him
day and night. ^
Previously to this Clement X. had exhorted the Poles to
put an end to their internal divisions.^ To promote such a
consummation it was resolved, in the last days of October
1673, to dispatch the nuncio of Cologne, Francesco Buonvisi,
to Warsaw. A considerable subsidy towards the cost of the
war was not forgotten.' At the end of October Briefs were
1 Hammer, II., 66i ; Zinkeisen, V., 70 seqq. Cf. *Relazione
della presa di Cameniz fatta da' Turchi, da Stefano Gradi per
relatione di Mathia Gondola testimonio oculato. Barb. 2594,
Papal Sec. Arch.
^ Theiner, Mon. Pol., III., 590 ; Tscharykow, 25 ; Levinson,
Nuntiaturberichte, II., 93 seq., 112 seq.
' *Cartari, loc. cit.
■» *Avvisi of October 22 and 29, November 12, 1672, Papal
Sec. Arch.
* *Brief of October 20, 1672, Epist., II. -III., Papal Sec. Arch.
Ibid., a similar Brief to the Queen-Regent of Spain, on October 20,
1672.
* Theixer, loc. cit., 604.
' T. Trenta, Memorie per servire alia storia politica del card.
Fr. Buonvisi, I., Lucca, 1818, 68 seqq. ; *Acta consist., for Novem-
ber 14, 1672, Papal Sec. Arch. ; Theiner, loc. cit., 608. Cf.
(5erin, it., 521.
456 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
dispatched to all the Catholic Princes pressing them to assist
Poland in the struggle against the hereditary enemy.^ The
Emperor's attention in particular was drawn to the fact that
Poland's danger constituted a threat to Austria.^ Sweden's
co-operation, by reason of its political significance and its
geographical situation, seemed particularly important ;
accordingly Clement X. resolved to address a Brief even to
the Protestant ruler of that Kingdom, Charles XI.^ This
step was probably suggested to the Pope by Queen Christine,
who frequently saw the Pontiff.* Christine joined to the Brief
1 The letters mentioned in the Brief to the King of Poland,
dated October 15, 1672 (Theiner, III., 605), to the Catholic
Princes, viz. the Emperor and the ecclesiastical and secular
princes of Germany, dated October 29, 1672, in *Epist., II. -III.,
loc. cit. A Brief of February 5, 1673 {ibid.), commended John
Philip von Schonborn for the support he had given to Poland.
2 *Brief of October 29, 1672, loc. cit.
' Text in Theiner, loc. cit., 607-8.
* Visits of Christine are recorded in the Avvisi of March 7,
October 10, November 28, 1671, January 20 (thanks for " gran
cereo "), May 21, October i and 29, December 31, 1672, June 17,
August 12, 1673, January 20, July 21, 1674, May 18, June 8,
September 21, 1675, January 4, May 2, 1676, Papal Sec. Arch.
Christine's life under Clement X., her participation in religious
and secular festivities, especially in the theatre and the Carnival,
is well described by Grauert (II., 229 seqq.). Cf. also Ademollo,
Teatri, 129 seqq. ; Clementi, 500 seqq. There is no proof for
Chledowski's statement (II., 338) that Christine conducted a
secret campaign against Clement X. Christine's greatest rival
in Roman society was Mazarin's niece, Maria Mancini, Louis XIV. 's
youthful flame, whose beauty is attested by the portraits of
Mignard and Netscher in the Colonna gallery. She came to Rome
in 1 661 as the wife of the Grand-Constable Lorenzo Onofrio
Colonna, where she broke through the seclusion which still
restricted the womenfolk of the great houses. She lived in great
style in the palazzo Colonna, where she gathered around her both
the ladies of Rome and those from abroad. On May 29, 1672,
Madame la Connetable, as she was called, fled from the jealousy
of her husband to France, together with her sister Hortense,
APPEAL TO CHARLES XL OF SWEDEN. 457
a very skilfully worded letter to Charles XL ; she also
recommended the matter in most pressing terms through
her agent, Marchese del Monte. The latter was to represent
to the King of Sweden that once they had subjugated Poland,
the Turks would greatly endanger the Swedish possessions of
Pomerania and Livonia, dominate the Baltic and attack
Sweden itself. Foreseeing that the staunchly Protestant court
of Stockholm would object to a correspondence with the Pope,
the Queen drew her agent's attention to precedents of similar
relations with Rome on the part of non-Catholic Princes,
nay, even on the part of the Sultan. However, all her arguments
failed to impress Charles XL In his letter to Christine, the
King paid indeed homage to the Pope's zeal and to her own,
but gave only vague promises and declared in so many words
that he could not deal directly with the Pope.^
In Rome, from which a first subsidy had been sent to Poland
in November 1672, ^ the development of the situation in that
country was being watched with ever growing anxiety. The
shameful peace which brainless King Michael had concluded
with the Turks on September 18th, 1672, was disapproved,
not only by the Pope, but likewise by a very large section of the
Polish people. Excitement rose to such a pitch that the
Kingdom split into two parties, facing each other like two
hostile armies.
Thus the situation was extremely critical when Buonvisi,
the extraordinary nuncio, who had previously besought both
the Rhenish Electors and Vienna to go to the help of Poland,
Duchesse de ]\Iazarin. Cf. for this adventurous woman, who was
the first to introduce in Rome the freer manners of France,
Reumont, IIL, 2, 805 seq. ; L. Perey, Une princesse romaine
au XVIIP siecle, Paris, 1894 ; Arch. Rom., XX., 95 seqq. ;
Chledowski, IL, 341 seqq.
* Arckenholtz, II. , 159 seqq. ; IIL, 438 seqq. The return to
Rome of Marchese del Monte with a present of Charles XL
for Christine is noted in the *Avviso of May 27, 1673, Papal
Sec. Arch.
2 See *Cam. div., IIL, State .Archives, Rome.
458 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
arrived at Warsaw on January 27th, 1673. ^ He did all that
it was in his power to do to prevent the outbreak of civil war,
by exhorting both parties to moderation : this he did with a
zeal only equalled by his frankness. He showed with much
eloquence that internal strife was the Turk's best ally and that
unless concord was restored, all the Pope's efforts against the
external foe would be barren of result. When the ground was
at last ready for a reconciliation, the arrival of a French envoy
suddenly put everything in jeopardy ; however, in the end
Buonvisi succeeded in winning over to his views the head of the
malcontents, Sobieski, and in effecting a reconciliation with
the King.2 In April 1673, Clement X. put 10,000 florins at
Buonvisi's disposal for the Turkish war.^ Such was the
Pope's satisfaction with the latter's work that on July 15th,
1673, he appointed him ordinary nuncio to Poland in place of
Ranucci.* After the rejection by the Diet of the peace with the
Turks, Buonvisi seconded with the utmost zeal the organiza-
tion of resistance to the dangerous foe. It was high time for a
Turkish army was on the march.
Whilst in Rome impending events were being watched with
trembling ^ envoys of the Tsar of Russia and the Shah of
Persia arrived in the Eternal City. Two Dominicans were
1 Trenta, I., 71 seqq., 81 seqq. Cf. " *Diario del viaggio di
Mens. Buonvisi da Colonia verso Polonia," in Cod. R., II., 53,
Chigi Library-.
2 Trenta, I., g8 seqq., 305 seqq. Buonvisi's reports arc here
published in part. Cf. also Zaluski, Epist. hist, famil. Tom. I .
Continens acta regum Michaelis et Iannis III., Bninsbevgae,
1709 ; Fraknoi, Ungarns Befreiung, 12 seq.
^ See the nunciature reports in Tscharykow, 72.
* Trenta, I., 132 seqq. ; Theiner, III., 620 ; Karttunen,
Nonciat. Apost., 234. For the position of Ranucci and Buonvisi,
see P. Mocenigo's *letter to A. Contarini, dated August 26, 1673,
Vat. Lib.
* August, 1673 : *Cartari, loc. cit. He writes in April, 1673 :
" Per qualche sospetto di legni Turcheschi furono mandati soldati
a cavallo alia marina e rinforzati li presidii nci luoghi vicini al
mare."
ALLIANCE OF POLAND AND RUSSIA. 459
the bearers of the answer of the ruler of Persia to Clement's
exhortation to take part in the Turkish war.^ The answer was
in the negative. ^
The activity of the Russian envoy in Rome has only been
brought to light in recent times, as the result of extensive
research.^ Russia's friendly relations with the Turks were
broken off when Sultan Mohammed IV. accepted the sub-
mission of Doroschenko, the hetman of Little Russia. Tsar
Alexis Mikhailowic now felt himself threatened. In 1667,
by the armistice of Andrussow, he put an end to the thirteen
5'ears' war with Poland, and entered into an alliance with his
former enemy, by the terms of which Russia and Poland bound
themselves to help each other in the event of a Turkish
aggression. Such a case arose when, on July 11th, 1672, the
Sultan crossed the Danube with 100,000 men, and made
himself master of the fortress of Kamieniec in Podolia. There-
upon the Tsar conceived the plan of a league of all the Princes
of Europe against the common enemy. He sent three
ambassadors to the West, viz. Ukrainzeff to Stockholm,
Copenhagen, and the Hague, Vinius to Paris, London, and
Madrid, Paul Menzies von Pitfodels to Berlin, Dresden,
Vienna, and Rome.'* Menzies was a Scottish Catholic who
had been compelled to leave his country because of his faith
and who had taken service, first with Poland and in 1621 with
Russia. He left Moscow on October 20th, 1672, was given fair
words at the secular courts and arrived in Rome on
August 18th, 1673. The Pope received him in audience on
August 28th, ^ when he presented the letter of his sovereign. **
^ They were received in audience on Sunday ; *Avviso of
September 9, 1673, Papal Sec. Arch. Cf. *Cartari, loc. cit.
2 *Barb. 6337, p. 55, Vat. Lib.
' N. TcHARYKow (Ministre-Resident de Russie pres le Saint-
Siege), Une ambassade rttsse a Rome art XVIP siecle : Paul
Menzies de Pitfodels (Extrait du Cosmos catholicus), loor.
■• TSCHARYKOW, 3. * Ibid., 14.
* Ibid., 4, Facsimile of the Russian text ; Latin translation
in A. Theiner : Monuments hist, relatifs aux regnes d' A lexis
Mikhailovitch, Theodore III. et Pierre le Grand, Roma, 1859.
460 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
In his answer the Pope expressed his joy at the step the Tsar
had taken : he himself, he said, had never failed to give both
warning and support against the Turkish peril, and for the
future also he would not cease to exhort the Christian princes.^
Meanwhile the situation in the East had undergone further
changes. John Sobieski, with the help not only of the Pope,
but that also of a subsidy of 20,000 florins contributed by the
noble Cardinal Odescalchi,- had raised an army of 50,000 men.
This remarkable man, who was not unworthy of the surname
of the " Lion of the North ", would not await the enemy in
his own country, but boldly went forth to meet him. Fortune
favoured him. On November 11th, 1673, St. Martin's day, he
fell upon the camp of the Turks, which was too widely spread,
near the fortress of Chocim on the Dnjestr, and in a murderous
battle destro\'ed nearly the whole of the Turkish army.^
King Michael died at Lemberg the day before this victory, at
the early age of 35, the victim of a malignant disease."*
Clement X. was informed of Sobieski's victory on
December 15th, 1673 ^ ; he celebrated it with a High Mass at
St. Peter's.*^ At the end of April 1674, he received from the
hands of Sobieski's envoy the great banner of green silk taken
from the Turks at Chocim ; he ordered it to be hung up in
St. Peter's, as a token of Christendom's triumph.' With a view
' TSCHARYKOW, 1 8.
2 Trenta, I., 315.
^ H.\MMER, III. (1840), 665 seq. ; Cover, Hist, de J . Sobieski,
Paris, 1767, 221 scq.
* Trenta, I., 134 seqq. The *Avviso of March 10, 1674 (Papal
Sec. Arch.) describes the funeral service for Michael at St.
Stanislaus', Rome.
* *Letter of P. Mocenigo to A. Contarini of December 16,
1673, loc. cit.
* *Avviso of December 23, 1673, loc. cit. A similar service was
held at St. Stanislaus' ; see *Avviso of January 13, 1674, loc cit.
' *Avviso of April 28, 1674, ^''^- ^'^^•> ''.nd P. Mocenigo's letter
of April 28, 1674, loc. cit. Sobieski's letter of November 20, 1673,
announcing the victory and the dispatch of the banner in Theiner,
Alon. Pol., III., 622. Cf. also Trenta, I., 136. Cartari {*Mcniorie,
ELECTION OF A POLISH KING. 461
to giving effective help towards the Turkish war, the Pope
decided to impose three tenths on the ItaUan clergy.^ Unfortun-
ately, the fruits of the victory could not be gathered, as all
minds in Poland were busy with the question of the election of
a King.2 This question was one of the utmost interest for the
neighbouring States — Austria, Brandenburg, Sweden, Russia,
and even for France. There were no less than sixteen candi-
dates. The Holy See's first concern, as at the time of the
interregnum of 1668 and 1660, was that no heretic or schis-
matic should obtain the crown of the Yagellons, and that the
Cathohc character of the Pohsh State should remain unim-
paired. Moreover, in view of the Turkish threat, it was
imperative that the new King should be a good soldier ;
all else was of minor importance for the Holy See. Accord-
ingly, in January and April 1674, the Pope exhorted the
ecclesiastical and secular Estates of Poland, though only in
general terms, to proceed without delay to the election of a
prince who was both a good Catholic and a man of spirit.^
On his part, Buonvisi took a similar line of conduct in regard
to the requests of the man}/ candidates for the throne at the
Diet of Convocation, which opened at Warsaw on
January 15th.'* At his reception by the electoral Diet, on
May 5th, he recommended no particular candidate, but con-
tented himself with exhorting its members to select a sincere
Cathohc ; if this was done he assured Poland of the Pope's
continued goodwill and support.-^ The nuncio had been not
a little embarrassed by a letter from Nerh, the papal Secretary
loc. cit.) says that the banner could be seen hanging " sotto la
loggia di mezzo nella parte interiore della chiesa ". A medal was
struck in its honour; see Bonanni, II., 731.
^ *P. Mocenigo's letters to A. Contarini, March 17 and April 14,
1674, ^0^- '^^^■
- Trenta, I., 137 seqq., 143 scqq. ; Hirsch, Hist. Zeitschr.,
LXXXVII., 224 seq.
* Theiner, Mon. Pol, III., 623 seqq., 626 seqq. Cf. *Acta
consist, for February 19, 1674, Papal Sec. Arch.
* Trenta, I., 140.
* Thf.ixer, III., G26 seq.
462 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of State, dated February 3rd, which, in view of the confusion
which prevailed at the electoral Diet, put forward the candi-
dature of the papal nephew, Caspar Altieri. However, Rome
promptly dropped the plan as soon as the nuncio explained,
with complete frankness, the impossibility of such a candi-
dature.^
Buonvisi exerted himself to the utmost, with a view to
preventing either the Calvinist Elector of Brandenburg or one
of his sons from securing the crown of Poland. He spared
neither exhortations to the Bishops nor promises of subsidies
for the Turkish war, nor even the threat that in the event of a
Protestant being elected, the Pope would break off diplomatic
relations. For all that, in view of the uncertainty of the
Pohsh character, he felt none too sure of success, ^ hence it was
a great relief for him when at last, through the unexpected
election of Sobieski on May 20th, 1674, the danger of a non-
Catholic King was eliminated.^ Clement X. had a Te Deitm
sung in thanksgiving in the chapel of the Ouirinal * ; but the
hope expressed in his letter of congratulations ^ that
the illustrious hero of so many battles would prosecute the
Turkish war with energy, was not to be immediately realized,
owing to a lack of the necessary forces ; in fact in the summer
of 1674, Sobieski was even compelled to withdraw his troops
from the Ukraine in order to cover Lemberg against a fresh
attack by the Turks. On August 24th a battle was fought near
this last bulwark of the Empire, which ended in an unexpected
victorv for Sobieski.^ Two months earlier Clement X. had
1 Trenta, I., 147 seqq., 322 seqq.
^ HiLTEBRANDT, in Qiiellcn iind Forschungen, XL, 334 seq.
^ Trenta, I., 326-331 ; Theiner, Monuments, 84 seqq. ;
HiRSCH, loc. cit., 249 seq.
* *Avviso of June 23, 1674, Papal Sec. Arch. ; cf. *the report
of the Card, of Hesse to Leopold L, June 23, 1674, State Archives,
Vienna.
* Trenta, L, 342.
* Coyer, loc. cit., 288 seq. ; Zinkeisen, V., 77. Buonvisi was
transferred to Vienna at this time ; see Trenta, L, 163 seqq.,
HELP FOR SOBIESKI. 463
dispatched a further subsidy to Poland. ^ As the war con-
tinued he sanctioned, in May, 1676, the imposition of a
tax on the Pohsh clergy, ^ but he did not hve to see the issue
of the struggle.
Francesco Martellio was appointed in his place on September 15,
1675 ; see Theiner, Mon. Pol., III., 635.
^ Cf. Cam. div., III., State Archives, Rome.
2 Thkiner, Mon. Pol, TIL, 638.
CHAPTER VI.
Clement X.'s Activity within the Church — The Jubilee
OF 1675— Creations of Cardinals — Disputes with
Louis XIV — Death of the Pope.
Among the many encroachments in the sphere of papal
authority which Louis XIV. permitted himself, was an
ordinance of the Council of State of March 1669, by which
the French Crown arrogated to itself the right to pronounce
in pureh' ecclesiastical controversies between the Bishops and
the Regulars. The protests against this innovation, which the
Holy See caused to be made through the nuncio, remained
unheeded by the King of France.^ The affair was not yet
settled at the time of Clement X.'s death. This was done by
his successor in his celebrated Constitution of June 21st, 1670,
which laid down rules, in force even at this day, about
preaching and the administration of the Sacrament of Penance
by Regulars. Before they can be allowed to preach publicly
in a church belonging to their Order, Regulars must present
themselves to the Ordinary of the place and obtain his blessing :
outside the churches of their Order, in addition to the authoriza-
tion of their Superior, Regulars must have the express
permission of the Ordinary concerned before they may
enter the pulpit, but no Bishop may issue a general prohibition
forbidding Regulars to preach in their churches. Regulars
receive from their own Superior, both jurisdiction and
approval for the administration of the Sacrament of Penance
in respect of their own brethren and all persons, even seculars,
in the service of the monastery or who have food and lodging
there, that is quite independently of the Bishops. But for
other persons a religious must not only be approved by his
' Ghrin, II., 380 seq.
464
DIFFICULTIES WITH SPAIN. 465
Superior, but likewise by the Bishop in whose diocese he is to
hear confessions. Difficulties about the privileges of Regulars
must be submitted, not to the metropolitan, but to the Pope.^
Whilst these ordinances were put in practice by all countries,
a parliamentary decree of September 12th, 1672, forbade their
application in France. ^
The Pope had hkewise to deal with the protests of the
secular princes, more especially with those of the Spanish
Government, against Gregory XIV. 's decrees regulating the
right of asylum. Clement X. had become accurately acquainted
with these questions during the pontificate of his predecessor,
both as Bishop of Camerino and as Secretary of the Congrega-
tion of Bishops and Regulars. He ordered the continuation of
the deliberations on the subject by the special Congregation
set up by Clement IX. for the purpose.^ However, the
suggestions made by it at the end of 1671, with a view to a
settlement of the disputes with the Spanish authorities at
Milan and Naples, were not approved. At Milan the preten-
sions of the Duke of Osuna grew steadily, and Cardinal
Litta had to protest against injuries to his dignity,* and at
Naples also there was a recrudescence of disputes.^ At Milan
^ Bull., XVIII., 55 seqq. Cf. Did. de theol., III., 95 seqq.
2 Gerin, II., 477.
3 Sittings took place on September 24 and December 17, 1670,
February 13, March 19, April 8, 19, and 30, July 9, October 5,
November 6 and 18, December 3, 7, and 27, 1671. On December
28, 1 67 1, Card. Altieri informed the Pope of the outcome of the
deliberations. The Pontiff decided to lay certain proposals before
the Spanish Government through nuncio Marescotti. Thus end
the " *Atti della congregatione particolare deputata dalla s. m.
di Clemente IX. e confermata da N. S. Clemente X. sopra le
doglianze de' principi secolari contro I'osservanza della bolla di
Gregorio XIV. in materia della immunita, liberta e giurisdizione
ecclesiastica, 1668 al 1671 ". MS. in my possession.
* *Cifre al Nuntio di Spagna, January 16, April 23, July 2,
August 13, November 5, 1672, Nimziat. di Spagna, 139, Papal
Sec. Arch.
^ *Cifre al Nuntio di Spagna, December 3, 1672, ibid.
VOL. XXXI. Hh
466 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the situation had become intolerable ; complaints about it
mark the entire pontificate of Clement X.^ This circumstance
by itself alone shows how unfair it was to represent the Pope
as unduly partial to the Spaniards. ^ Madrid was anything but
satisfied with Clement X. ; on the contrary, complaints were
heard that no favours could be got from Rome. According to
Mocenigo the Spanish Government was particularly irritated
by the refusal of the permission, urgently demanded on more
than one occasion, of raising a tenth from the clergy in
America. In the secular sphere also numerous conflicts arose
between Madrid and Rome. Thus the Viceroys of Naples
alleged that escaped bandits found a refuge in the Papal
States. On the occasion of a rising at Messina the Spaniards
complained that out of consideration for France, the Pope
did not lend a hand in the suppression of the rebellion.^
On the other hand, Rome was very dissatisfied with Spain's
attitude on the Turkish question.*
With no secular Power was Clement X. on better terms than
with the Emperor, whose deep piety was much appreciated
in Rome. It was, however, impossible to overlook Leopold's
lack of energy and consequent dependence on his ministers,
as well as Vienna's habitual dilatoriness. The result was that
even a nuncio of Albrizzi's energy failed to obtain satisfaction
in cases of manifest interference by the Government in
ecclesiastical affairs.^ The German clergy also had their
grievances, especially in respect of the way in which the
Concordat was carried out ; the three ecclesiastical Electors
complained of these infringements to the Pope in 1673 in a
1 *Cifre al Nuntio di Spagna, February ii, April 22, 1673,
February 10, September 8 and 22, 1674, March 9, 1675, ibid.
Cf. also *the Brief to King Charles of Spain, January 5, 1676,
Epist., IV. -V., Papal Sec. Arch.
^ This opinion is strongly held by the anonymous author of
" *Xuovo governo di Roma sotto P. Clemente X.", Barb. LIX., 57.
^ Mocenigo, in Berchet, II., 390.
* See above, p. 423. ^
^ Levinson, Nuntiatiirberichte , II., 47 seq.
CANONIZATIONS. 467
special memorial.^ The Curia was not wholly satisfied with the
attitude of the Electors during the war in Holland, were it
only because it considered the defence of Poland against the
Turkish aggression as very much more important.^ In Portugal
orderly conditions were at last replacing a long-drawn con-
fusion. A Portuguese ambassador was once more appointed,
and he arrived in Rome during the lifetime of Clement IX.
He was Francisco de Sousa, Count of vSousa, who did homage
to the new Pope on May 22nd, 1670.^ Thereupon the Lisbon
nunciature also received a new occupant. Francesco Ravizza
was appointed to the post on August 12th, 1670 ; he was also
the bearer of the Bulls of confirmation of the Bishops and other
prelates whose names had been submitted by the Regent.
Peace was thus initiated, but even so there was no lack of
difficulties in the sphere of ecclesiastical policy.*
With a view to the observance of discipline in the Italian
convents of nuns Clement X. tightened the regulations con-
cerning the enclosure.^ These were carried through in Rome
by Carpegna, the splendid Cardinal Vicar. ^
Clement X. undertook a number of beatifications and
canonizations.'' On April 12th, 1671, after the prescribed
^ Gaertner, Corp. iur. eccl., II., 322.
2 Mentz, II., 199.
* *Acta consist.. Vat. Lib. The Pope's *address in Epist. ad
princ, I., p. 16, ibid. Cf. also Ademollo, Indipendenza Portoghese,
80 seq.
* ScHAFER, v., 162. Cf. Ademollo, loc. cit., 82.
^ Bull. XVIII., 606 seq.
® Cartari, *Meinorie, loc. cit. On Gaspare Carpegna and his
reforming activities there are many *documents in the Archives
of the Roman Vicariate. Cf. De Santi, Ouarant' hove (1919),
312 seqq. Carpegna (see Moroni, X., loi) owned a rich library
and a valuable collection of coins ; see Monterchi, Scelta di
medaglioni piii rari nella biblioteca del card. G. Carpegna, Roma,
1679 (Lat. Amstelodami, 1685).
' " Decoro suo e la gloria de' santi " he had engraved on one
of his medals ; cf. E. Arisio, Memorie sulla vita di Clemente X.,
Roma, 1863, 27.
468 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
preliminaries had been carried out,^ the canonization took
place in St. Peter's of Cajetan of Tiena, the founder of the
Theatines ; Francis Borgia, General of the Jesuits ; Phihp
Benizi, a reformer of the Servites ; Louis Beltram, a relative
of St. Vincent Ferrer ; and of Rose of Lima.^ In the person
of the latter South America was given its first Saint.
On May 5th, 1672, St. Peter's witnessed the reading of the
Brief of beatification of Pius V.,^ after which his picture was
unveiled above the altar of the Chair and the Te Deum sung.
The basilica was richly adorned with hangings made under
Alexander VII. and Clement IX. The picture of Pius V., seen
in the act of beholding in a vision the battle of Lepanto, was
by Lazzaro Baldi, whilst the music for the occasion was directed
by the famous conductor Onorato Benevoli.*
In 1675, there were further beatifications ; in April
that of John of the Cross ; in July that of Francis Solano ;
in November that of the Martyrs of Gorkum.^ By a Brief of
January 22nd, 1671, Clement X. approved the cult of Ludovica
^ Acta consist, for March 3 and 16, 1671, Papal Sec. Arch.
2 *Avviso of April 18, 1671, Papal Sec. Arch. ; Novaes, X.,
234 seqq. ; Bull. XVIII., 187 seqq., 215 seqq. Ibid., i seqq., 11 seqq.
the decrees for the canonization of Peter of Alcantara and Mary
Magdalen de' Pazzi (these were not published by Clement X.).
3 April 27, Bull. XVIII., 304. See *Avviso of May 7, 1672,
loc. cit. The *Avviso of May 28, 1672, says : " Nella basilica di
S. Maria Maggiore nella gran cappella del Pontefice Sisto V. sotto
11 bellissimo deposito e statua di marmo del beato Papa Pio V.,
che li fece fare il detto Pontefice Sisto, si e fatta una piccola
cappella sotterranea, nel cui altare vi si e posta la cassa di piombo
con il suo santo corpo per celebrarsi in avvenire la mcssa."
'' Cartari, *Memorie, loc. cit.
'^ *Avvisi of April 27, July 6, November 30, 1675, loc. cit.
Cf. Bull. XVIII., 526, 528, 600; *Cartari, loc. cit.; Novaes,
X., 252 seq. Cf. Mkuefels, Les Martyrs de Gorcom, Paris, 1908,
182. Novaes, X., 249 seqq., on the canonization by simple decree
of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusians, ibid., 244 seqq., and 247
seqq., on his work on behalf of other Beati. C. also Forcella,
VI., 366.
SOLICITUDE FOR CONVERTS TO THE FAITH. 469
Albertoni {obiit 1533) whose tomb in S. Francesco a Ripa was
adorned by Cardinal Paluzzo Altieri with the Beata's statue of
a profound reUgious inspiration. ^
A decree of July 30th, 1672, laid down detailed directions
concerning the removal of relics from the Catacombs, which
were to be exposed to public veneration only after examination
by the Cardinal Vicar. Severe penalties were laid down against
those who gave new names to relics, or who demanded mone}'
for the execution of documents of authentication. ^
Already in the days of Clement VIII. a small house had been
founded opposite S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini for the reception
of such converts to the Cathohc faith as became destitute in
consequence of their conversion. Prompted by the splendid
Oratorian Mariano Soccino, Clement X. acquired a palace in
the Ripetta to house the institution which was also suitably
endowed by him. At a later date the establishment was
transferred to the neighbourhood of the church of S. Maria
delle Grazie, not far from the Porta Angelica.^
Clement IX. had sought to obtain the extradition of the
adventurer Francesco Borri, a physician and alchemist who
was also accused of heresy * ; this his successor secured at
length. In August 1670, the wretched man was confined in
1 Fraschetti, 396 seqq. At Rome I saw in private hands an
" *Istoria della b. Ludovica Albertoni descritta da P. F. F.
Gennaro de Malta d'Hero Napolet. Min. Ref., dedicata al cardinale
Paluzzi Altieri 1671 ". In print, but extremely scarce (the only
copy in Rome is in the library of the convent of Tor de' Specchi),
is the Vita della b. Lud. Albertoni scritta da Fr. Giov. Paolo . . .
predicatore dei Min. Rif. e procuvatore nella causa della sua
canonizzazione , Roma, 1672.
* NovAES, X., 246 seqq.
» Bull. XVIII., 545 seqq. ; Moroni, L., 15 seq. ; Novaes, X.,
254 seqq. The foundation of the capital for the new house of
converts, especially those of German nationality, was the property
of Card. Rasponi who, on the advice of the Card, of Hesse,
left it by will for this purpose ; see the report of the Card, of
Hesse to Leopold I., December 7, 1675, State Archives, Vienna.
* See above, p. 127, n. 3.
470 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the dungeon of the Roman Inquisition. ^ His trial was con-
cluded two years later ; he abjured his errors in the Minerva
and was condemned to imprisonment for life.'^
It was a particular satisfaction to Clement X. that he was
able to celebrate the jubilee of 1675. On Christmas Eve 1674,
he opened the Holy Door. Queen Christine and other
princesses, as well as some German princes, were present at
the function.^ On this occasion the Romans saw for the first
time the rich tabernacle in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament,
executed after the designs of Bernini and said to have cost
40,000 scudi.^ The Pope likewise bestowed on the church of
the Prince of the Apostles a magnificent carpet which is used
to this day on solemn occasions.
In consequence of the troubled situation the number
of pilgrims was somewhat lessened, but even so it was con-
siderable ; thus, the German national hospice of the Anima
took care of over 10,000,^ and the celebrated Archcon-
fraternity of Trinita de' Pellegrini provided for 280,496
strangers.^ Laura Caterina Altieri contributed largely to the
necessary funds, as did the treasurer Giovanni Francesco
1 *Avviso of August i6, 1670, Papal Sec. Arch. Cf. Fr.
CoLONNA, Fr. Massimo (191 1), 30; Levinson, Nuntiaturherichte,
II., 7 seq., 89 seq.
- *Avviso of October i, 1672, loc. cit. When the Duke D'Estrees
fell sick Borri was allowed to treat him ; see a letter of P. Moce-
nigo, July 6, 1675, in Gerin, II., 609. Card. Nerli also received
medical treatment at the hands of Borri ; cf. *letter of ]\Iocenigo,
dated July 20, 1675, Vat. Lib. This happened repeatedly at a
subsequent period ; see Ademollo, in Fanfulla della Domenica,
1880, No. 24 ; id., 11 inatrimonio di siior Maria Pulcheria, 167 ;
Fr. Colonna, Fr. Massimo, 43 seq. ; ibid., 44, for Borri's death
(1695)-
' *Avviso of December 29, 1674, loc. cit. Cf. ]\Iaxxi, 211 seqq.
* Cartari, *Memorie, loc. cit. Cf. F. M. Phaebeus, De origine
et progrcssu solemnitatis anni iubilaei, Romae, 1675.
* ScHMiDLiN, 465. An *Avviso of March 23, 1675 (Papal Sec.
Arch.), announces the arrival of Prince Charles Ernest of Hesse
for the jubilee.
' Manni, 214. Cf. *Avviso of April 6, 1675, loc. cit.
THE JUBILEE OF 1675. 47I
Giannetti, who entertained more than 2,000 pilgrims at his
own expense.^ Queen Christine also made generous contribu-
tions and in Holy Week she washed the feet of thirteen women
pilgrims in the building of the Archconfraternity.^ On
September 18th, Clement X. repaired to Trinita de' Pellegrini
to wash the feet of twelve pilgrims.^ An inscription in the
entrance hall, near his bust by Bernini, recalls the memory of
the rich alms which the Pope bestowed on the institution. *
If in the course of the jubilee year the Pope was only able to
bless the people on seven different occasions, and to visit the
seven churches only five times/ the explanation was the bad
state of his health. The eighty-five-years-old man was tortured
by gout and catarrh. For all that during the octave of the
feast of the Rosary he took part in the function at S. Maria
sopra Minerva, when he himself led the recitation of the
Rosary, to the great edification of the vast congregation.'*
Gladly would he have done more. " At this time," he
observed to one of the prelates, " when we should like to be
an eagle, our state of health impedes us more than ever." '
Among the Cardinals, Francesco Barberini's piety was
particularly remarked.^
In the processions of the Confraternities, many of which
came from outside Rome, one saw, as on former occasions, a
^ *Cartari, he. cit. ; Manni, 214.
- " *Si trattenne tre here, lavo li piedi a tredici pellegrine, a
ciascuna delle quali dono un doblone da sei scudi, e di piu fece
dare un testone a ciascuno pellegrine che giungeranno al numero
di 1700 ; dono alia confraternita 200 doble e vi lascio la biancaria
della quale si era servita calcolando che 11 donative ascendesse a
mille e dugente scudi compreso quelle de' pellegrini " (Cartari,
loc. cit.).
3 Ibid.
'» FORCELLA, VIL, 215.
^ *Avvisi of 1675, Papal Sec. Arch. CJ. Cartari, loc. cit.
* *Avviso of October 19, 1675, loc. cit.
' *Cartari, loc. cit.
8 Ihid.
472 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
number of symbolical representations.^ The Spaniards'
traditional celebration of the Resurrection in their national
church in the Piazza Navona, at which Queen Christine was
also present, is said to have been particularly splendid. ^
Various churches in Rome were restored and embellished during
the jubilee year,^ and that of Gesu e Maria in the Corso was
consecrated on January 28th.* In the course of the restoration
of the high altar in the Pantheon a metal casket was found
containing the bones of Saints which Boniface IV. had placed
in it on the occasion of the consecration of the church in 606.^
Advantage was also taken of the jubilee year to revoke the
permission granted in 1671 by Cardinal Altieri to hold bull-
fights in the Colosseum. A large cross was erected within the
immense structure in which, as was generally believed, many
Martyrs had suffered. Clement X. also put up frescoes
representing the martyrdom of some of the heroes of the faith. ^
One of the most responsible duties of the Head of the
Church is the choice of new Cardinals. At that period selection
was rendered extraordinarily difficult owing to the jealousies
of the secular Powers and their struggle to secure so strong a
representation in the Sacred College that to grant it would
have been tantamount to abdicating. The young King of
1 *Avvisi of April 13 and 20, 1675, loc. cit. Cf. *Cartari,
loc. cit.
2 *Avviso of April 27, 1675, loc. cit. Cf. *Cartari, loc. cit.
' *Cartari, loc. cit. For Rainaldi's altar in S. Lorenzo in Lucina,
see Hempel, Rainaldi, 76 seq. When S. Giuliano de' Belgi was
restored the statue of the Patron Saint was put up on the fa9ade ;
see reproduction in Catholicon, I. (1899).
* Hempel, 68 seqq.
^ *Avviso of March 9, 1675, Papal Sec. Arch. Cf. the *note by
Bartol. Nappini in Vat. 9200, p. 255, Vat. Lib. Rome received
several new churches under Clement X. The *Avviso of Septem-
ber 27, 1670 {loc. cit.), says : On Sunday Cardinal Barberini
consecrated " la nuova chiesa che fcce fabricate da' fondamenti
della Santissima Incarnatione del Verbo Divino delle Carmelitane
scalze di S. Maria Maddalena de Pazzi."
" CoLAGROSSi, L'anfiteatro Flavio, Firenze, 1913, 214 seqq.
NEW CARDINALS. 473
France especially sought to increase his influence in Rome,
through Cardinals wholly devoted to his person ; to this end
he very skilfully managed to get his efforts seconded by letters
of recommendation from the friendly rulers of Poland and
Portugal.
The election of Clement X. was hardly over before the
French renewed their pressing demands for the red hat for
Cesar d'Estrees, Bishop of Laon, whilst the Emperor Leopold
promoted the candidature of the Margrave Bernard Gustavus
of Baden-Durlach, Prince Abbot of Fulda.^
x'Vll the courts, especially that of Paris, were exceedingly
annoyed when Clement X., in his first creation of Cardinals,
on December 20th, 1670, only considered the three men who
had rendered substantial services to the Holy See. These were
the Secretary of State, Federigo Borromeo, a Milanese who
had been nuncio in Madrid under Clement IX. ; the Maestro di
Camera, Camillo Massimo, who had also been nuncio in
Madrid ; and the Dataruis, Caspar Carpegna.^
The Powers, above all France, did not relax their efforts
because of this initial failure ; on the contrary they redoubled
them. On Lionne's advice, Louis XIV. dispatched Cesar
d'Estrees to Rome as envoy extraordinary, so as to enable
him to forward his elevation in person.^ The pressure of
France was such that the Pope was at last compelled to yield.
All Europe was amazed at the success that had hitherto marked
the young King's undertakings, and appeared as it were
spellbound by the conviction of his irresistible might. A
^ Gerin, II., 412 seqq., 414 seqq. ; Levinson, Nuniiaturbenchte ,
II., 107, 109 seq.
" GuARNACCi, I., II seqq. ; Cardella, VII., 203 seqq. A con-
temporary describes F. Borromeo as " *di natura nobile, generoso,
disinvolto, di maniera dolce e magnanima. Sarebbe buon Papa
et e uno de' confidenti di S. S'^ ". Of Massimo he says : " *Soggetto
di gran meriti e di molta modestia e cortesia, habile per esser
Papa, amico delle virtu, amato da' Romani, stimato nella corte "
(Compendioso ragguaglio di tutti i cardinali viventi nel pontificate
di Clemente X., Barb. 4704, Vat. Lib.).
^ Gerin, II., 439 seqq.
474 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
letter in code from the papal Secretary of State to the
Spanish nuncio, dated August 1st, 1671, shows that this
state of mind prevailed even in the highest circles in Rome.^
D'Estrees was promised that the Pope would admit him into
the Sacred College, together with the Abbot of Fulda, at the
next creation ; but already France was demanding that
Poland should also be given satisfaction by the elevation of
Pierre de Bonsy, Archbishop of Toulouse. ^ The Cabinet of
Madrid, on its part, also forcibly insisted on its claims being
met at the next promotion. Weary of so much pressure, the
Pope named D'Estrees and the Abbot of Fulda Cardinals
in petto at a consistory of August 24th, 1671. ^ D'Estrees's
arrogance now became intolerable. He let a fortnight go by
before presenting himself at the Ouirinal ; and when he did so
at last, it was, as he himself writes, not to express his thanks,
but in order to give the Pope an opportunit\- to explain him-
self on the subject of the promotion. As Clement X., in view of
the negotiations with Spain, was obliged to put off the pubHca-
tion of D'Estrees's nomination, the latter had the effrontery to
express to the Pope his astonishment that more consideration
should have been shown to weak Spain than to a prince who
disposed of an army of 200,000 men and a powerful fleet ! ■*
^ " *Le fortune della Francia, le forze unite, gli eserciti pronti,
gli acquisti'fatti hanno cagionato lo spavento in tutta Europa,
e vorrebbono gli Spagnoli che solo il Papa resistesse alle permis-
sioni divine, opponendcsi alia felicita di quella nazione, unica-
mente capace hora di soccorrere alia depressa christianita.
Solea dire Clemente IX. che il maggior servitio, il quale potesse
farsi alia monarchia di Spagna, era di obligarsi la Francia per
haver in essa un capitale di gratitudine, di cui potesse usarsi in
benefitio della monarchia medesima." Xiimiat. di Spagna,
139, pp. 136-14, Papal Sec. Arch.
2 Gerin, II., 439.
' GuARNACCi, I., 25 seqq. ; Cardella, \'II., 208 seqq. Cf.
A. RtJBSAM, Kard. Bernhard Gustav, Markgraf von Baden-Dnrlach,
Fiirsiabt von Fulda, 1671-7, Fulda, 1923. As a Benedictine,
Margrave Gustav Adolf took the name of Bernhard Gustav.
* Gerin, II., 444 seqq.
FURTHER NOMINATIONS. 475
Discussions on the cardinalitial promotions with the
Cabinets of Paris, Madrid, and Vienna, continued throughout
the autumn and winter. In consequence of the furious mutual
jealousy of these Powers it was exceedingly difficult, in fact
it was almost impossible, to find a solution that would satisfy
everybody. Threats, in part quite brutal ones, were not
wanting on the part of both Spanish ^ and French Govern-
ments.^
In a consistory of February 22nd, 1672, Clement X., who
had already guaranteed D'Estrees's elevation by a Brief of
September 21st, 1671,^ announced the following decision :
of the two reserved in petto on August 24th, 1671, the Prince
Abbot of Fulda was proclaimed, whilst the other continued
in petto ; at the same time the following were raised to the
cardinalate and published at once : Pierre de Bonsy, Arch-
bishop of Toulouse, the Dominican Vincenzo Maria Orsini ;
a third Cardinal was reserved in petto^ It was an open secret
that the latter was none other than the Jesuit Eberhard
Nidhard, a native of Miihlviertel,^ who, as confessor to the
Queen of Spain, became Inquisitor-General and first minister
in 1666, and in 1671, was named Archbishop of Edessa to
enable him to become Spanish ambassador in Rome.*' This
appointment was intended as a compensation for the fact that
Nidhard had been obliged to yield to his opponents in Spain.
Nidhard had been the Emperor's candidate for the cardinalate
^ *Cifre al Nuntio di Spagna, August 29, September 12, 1671,
Nunziat. di Spagna, 139, Papal Sec. Arch.
- Gerin, II., 446 seqq.
» Ibid., 448.
* *Acta consist.. Papal Sec. Arch. ; Guarnacci, I., 30 seqq. ;
Cardella, VII., 211 seqq. Cf. the *Briefs to Bonsy and the Prince
Abbot of Fulda, February 21 and 28, 1672, Epist., II. -III.,
Papal Sec. Arch. Ibid., the *Brief to Orsini of March i, 1672,
pressing him to accept the cardinalate.
* For E. N'idhard, see Sotwel, 441 seqq. ; Cretineau-Joly,
IV3, 108 seqq. ; Hist.-polit. Blatter, XCVIII. (1887), 139-154.
* *Cifre al Nuntio di Spagna of November 7 and 21, 1671,
Nunziat. di Spagna, 139, Papal Sec. Arch.
47^ HISTORY OF THE POPES.
already in 1669 ; at the present moment his pubHcation was
still dependent on the issue of the negotiations with the
Spanish Cabinet.
Although Clement X. had considered all the great Catholic
Powers, none of them were wholly satisfied. Spain's bitter
complaints were particularly unjustified, since each branch
of the House of Habsburg had been given a Cardinal. ^
When the Duke D'Estrees, Cesar's brother, came to Rome as
Louis XIV's ambassador, Francesco Nerli took up the post
of nuncio in Paris. ^ On May 16th, Cardinals D'Estrees and
Nidhard, until then reserved in petto, were proclaimed ; the
former was ordered to remain in Rome as French Crown
Cardinal.^
It grieved Clement X., who cherished grateful memories
of his predecessor, that he had been compelled to give pre-
cedence to the candidates of the Powers over Felice
Rospigliosi. He now made good that omission by raising the
latter to the purple on January 16th, 1773. * On June 12th,
of the same year, there took place, to the surprise even of the
majority of the Sacred College,^ the creation of five new
Cardinals, one of whom was reserved in petto.^ They were all
1 See the justification of the promotion in the *Cifre al Nuntio
di Spagna, 139, of February 24 and April 23, 1672 {loc. cit.).
In the first we read : " E stranissimo . . . che gli Spagnuoh
si figurino di poter dar legge e per confini alia independente liberta
del Papa nelle promozioni."
- Gerin, II., 460 seq.
^ *Acta consist., Papal Sec. Arch. ; Gerin, II., 465. In a
*Brief of May 16, 1672, Clement X. announces the nomination
of D'Estrees to the Kings of France and Portugal, and that of
Nidhard to the Queen-Regent of Spain. Epist., II. -III., Papal
Sec. Arch.
* See P. Moccnigo's letter to A. Contarini, January 26, 1673,
Vat. Lib. ; Guarnacci, I., 46 ; Cardella, VII., 219.
* See *P. Mocenigo's letter to A. Contarini, June 17, 1673,
loc. cit.
" General notices on the career of the nominees in Guarnacci,
I., 49 seqq. ; Cardella, VII., 220 seqq. (the creation is here
erroneously assigned to June 13).
MORE NOMINATIONS. 477
Italians and men of such outstanding merit that the choice
met with general approval.^ Francesco Nerli, nuncio at
Warsaw [1670-71] and in Paris [1672-73], had become
Secretary of State on the death of Federigo Borromeo ^
Conscientious and of angelic innocence, as a contemporary
writes, he was feared by reason of his strictness.^ The Genoese
Girolamo Gastaldi had earned a great reputation as
Alexander VII. 's General Commissary at the time of the
plague in Rome,* and he retained it as Clement X.'s treasurer.
His name is known to all pilgrims to Rome through the two
circular churches at the entrance to the Corso which he built
at his own expense,'' a fact which inscriptions on the gables
proclaim to posterity.'' The memory of Girolamo Casanata
is kept equally fresh in the Eternal City by the magnificent
library in the Dominican convent of S. Maria sopra Minerva,
which bears his name. Its beginnings go back to Cardinal
Torquemada and Giovanni Maria Castellani, Gregory XV. 's
physician. A marble statue of Cardinal Casanata by Le Gros
still adorns the great hall of the library, erected by Carlo
Fontana. Casanata attached to his foundation a yearly
income for the purchase of books, a theological school and two
^ See *P. IMocenigo's letter to A. Contarini, June 17, 1673,
loc. cit. Mocenigo mentions the illumination of the palace of
St. Mark, of which he says that it surpassed anything hitherto
attempted in this line.
2 F. Borromeo died on February 19, 1673, at the early age of
56, whereupon Altieri took over the Secretariate of State also
{*Avviso of February 25, 1673, Papal Sec. Arch. ; *letters of
P. Mocenigo to A. Contarini, February 16, 18, 25, 1673, Vat.
Lib.) until Nerli's return from France, (see Cartari, *Memorie.
loc. cit.). Nerli's gratitude appears in the unmeasured praise of
Clement X. in an inscription of 1677, in S. Basilio (see Forcella,
XII., 120).
* Cf. *Scrittura politica sopra il conclave con la descrittione
di tutti i cardinali " of 16S6, Liechtenstein Archives, Vienna,
A., f. 3.
* On the plague, cf. p. 34.
^ Cf. above, p. 307.
* Fraschetti, 399 seqq.
478 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
chairs for public lectures on the Summa of St. Thomas
Aquinas. 1 He was one of Clement X.'s old friends, and had
rendered him great services at the time of his disgrace under
Clement IX. ^ Pietro Basadonna was named out of considera-
tion for the Repubhc of St. Mark. He was a scholarly man and
had represented his native city in Rome under i\lexander VII.
The fifth of the new Cardinals, Federigo Baldeschi Colonna,
was reserved in petto, and only proclaimed on December 17th,
1674.3 He was related to the Pope, had acted as nuncio in
Switzerland from 1665 to 1668, and distinguished himself as
Secretary of Propaganda and Assessor of the Inquisition.
Though France had been adequatel}' considered in the
previous creations, Louis XIV. raised further pretensions.
He wanted the Pope to name a Frenchman, Forbin-Janson,
Bishop of Marseilles, as Pohsh Crown-Cardinal, and a German,
Wilhekn von Fiirstenberg, as French Crown-Cardinal ! ^
The Duke D'Estrees, supported by his brother the Cardinal,
supported this scheme with the utmost eagerness. The
Pope was being incessantly asked for extraordinary audiences,
on the plea that urgent dispatches from the French Govern-
ment required an immediate reply. This happened, for
instance, on May 21st, 1675, when D'Estrees spoke with great
violence of his dispute with Cardinal Altieri, and stressed the
vast military resources of his King. He particularly pointed to
the French fleet sent to the support of Messina, which had
risen against the Spanish ^ ; the fleet happened to lie at anchor
at Civitavecchia. The Pope referred the ambassador to the
mediator chosen by himself for the settlement of the dispute,
and added : " For a long time you have been speaking, not of
1 Mon. ord. Praed. hist., XIII., 335 ; Blume, III., 126 seqq. ;
Berthier, L'dglise de la Minerve, 401 seqq. M. D'Angelo,
II card. Girolamo Casanaia, 1620-1700, Roma, 1923.
2 Sec the *Scrittura politica, quoted above, p. 477, n. 3.
' *Acta consist.. Papal Sec. Arch.
* Gerin, II., 558 seqq., 561 seqq.
^ Ibid., 583. On the rising at Messina, see F. Guardone,
Storia delta rivoliizione di Messina coniro la Spagna (1671-1680),
Palermo, igo6.
CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR. 479
the affairs of your King, but of your own ; we know that this
is not his Majesty's intention, and we shall inform him
accordingly." The ambassador now besought the Pope to
refrain from doing so, after which he turned the conversation
to Forbin's nomination, when he once more poured forth the
most violent accusations against Cardinal Altieri. Clement X.,
anxious to put an end to this painful altercation, rang his bell,
an act which the ambassador sought to prevent by seizing the
Pope's hand. Meanwhile the Coppiere had entered the room.
D'Estrees told him in a superior tone that he had further
information to submit to the Pope. There now ensued a scene
almost unparalleled in the history of diplomacy. D'Estrees
accused the Pope of having broken his word in connection
with the nomination of Cardinals. Clement X. wished to put
an end to the audience but D'Estrees refused to go, and repeated
his previous accusations in even more violent terms ; as the
Pope, after ringing his bell three times, was about to rise,
D'Estrees laid his hands on the chest of the eighty-five-year-
old man and forced him back into his chair. The incensed
Pontiff exclaimed " You are excommunicated ! " and put an
end to the audience.^
^ See an authentic account of the audience in the report in
cypher, dispatched to the French nuncio, Spada, by Altieri,
on May 22, 1675, for submission to Louis XIV., printed by Gerin,
II., 585, n. 3. The Card, of Hesse's *report to Leopold I., dated
May 25, 1675, agrees in substance with this account. The final
scene is thus described by the Cardinal of Hesse : " ObUgo
[D'Estrees] il Papa non solo a sonar la terza volta il campanello,
ma a muoversi dalla sedia, al che I'ambasciatore s'oppose con altro
atto piu irreverente del primo, anzi inimaginabile, havendo
alzate, stese e portate le sue mani verso la S'^ Sua per impedir-
gHelo, et all'hora N. S. con senso di savio biasimo dell'atto mede-
simo gli dissc ch'cgli era scommunicato per la violenza, che usava
alia persona della S'^ Sua. Questo e il racconto historico del
successo, le cui particolarita parrebbero incredibili, se cosi pre-
cisamente, si come le ho descritte, non mi fussero state riferite
dalla viva voce di X. S." jNIocenigo's account of the audience in
his *letter of June i, 1675 [loc. cit.), to A. Contarini is based on
rumours.
480 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
This incident, which caused an enormous sensation all over
Rome, by no means intimidated the aged Pontiff ; on the
contrary, Clement X. accepted the challenge and hastened
the projected nomination of Cardinals, at which France's
candidates were passed over. A consistory was held on
May 27th, 1675, at which six Cardinals were created. They were
four Romans, viz. Galeazzo Marescotti, Alessandro Crescenzi,
Bernardino Rocci, and Fabrizio Spada ; furthermore, the
Neapolitan Mario Alberizzi, and an Enghshman, viz. Phihp
Thomas Howard.^
Galeazzo Marescotti, assessor of the Inquisition under
Alexander VIL, nuncio in Poland from 1668-1670, and in
Spain from 1670 to 1675, was distinguished for many excellent
quahties, especially for his great devotion to the Holy See,
so that a contemporary could say of him that he had a heart of
bronze for the defence of the papacy.^
Fabrizio Spada had filled the nunciature of Turin from
1672-74, and that of Paris from 1674-75. He was learned and
liberal and his piety was such that there were those who
reproached him with eccentricity.^ Great also was the piety
of the Somaschan Alessandro Crescenzi, first nuncio in Turin
from 1646-1652, and after that. Bishop of Bitonto, where he
practically gave all he possessed to the poor. Clement X. made
him his Maestro di Camera.* Bernardino Rocci held the
^ On the nominees, cf. Guarnacci, I., 71 seqq. ; Cardella,
230 seqq. ; Gerin, II., 595 seqq.
^ Cf. *Scritiura politica, quoted on p. 477, n. 3. Marescotti's
papers were unfortunately scattered. The largest portion went into
the Corvisieri Library, Rome, which was sold by auction in 1901
(see Biblioteca Corvisieri, II., 31 seqq., 413 seqq., 425 seqq., 453
seqq.). A MS. dealing with the Polish nunciature at Hiersemann's
(Leipzig), Catalogue 477 (1920), No. 67. P'or Marescotti's Polish
nunciature cf. also Ciampi, L, 55 seqq., 317 seqq. There is a marble
bust of the Cardinal in the Palazzo Ruspoli, Rome. Cf. Litta, 43.
' " *Dotto, arguto, generoso, caritativo et officioso . . .
assai propenso alia divotione, in che tal volta ha usato qualche
semplicita per li modi improprii, che prattica di spirituale,"
Scrittura politica, loc. cit.
* Cf. above, 443.
MORE CARDINALS. 481
nunciature of Naples from 1661 to 1668 ; he was Maggiordomo
to Clement IX. and Clement X.^
Mario Alberizzi had been secretary to two Congregations
under Alexander VII., viz. to Propaganda and to the Con-
gregations of Bishops and Regulars. From 1671 to 1675 he was
nuncio with the Emperor. ^ In addition to great piety he was
distinguished for wide learning : his select library he left to
Propaganda.
Philip Thomas Howard, a son of Henry, Duke of Norfolk,
and accordingly described as Cardinal Norfolk, had entered
the Dominican Order at an early age. He had sacrificed the
whole of his patrimony for the spiritual needs of his country-
men in Flanders. In 1662 he returned to England to act as
chaplain to Catherine of Portugal, Charles II. 's Queen, and as
Vicar Apostolic he spent himself in the service of his persecuted
fellow Catholics until he, too, was banished from the country
in 1674.3
Not only Cardinal D'Estrees but all the other Cardinals of
French sympathies refused to call on the new Cardinals, and
avoided all intercourse with them . Such was theDuc D 'Estrees's
excitement and annoyance that he was taken seriously ill.
Clement X. returned good for evil by giving proof of sincere
concern for the Duke. It took D'Estrees eight months to
recover ; during that time business was transacted by his
brother, the Cardinal.* Louis XIV. refused to accept the
^ See above, p. 443.
'^ Levinson, Nmitiaturberichte, II., 498 seqq.
' TouRON, Hist, des hommes illustres de I'ordre de St. Dominique,
Paris, 1743-49, v., 698 seqq., and the monograph by Palmer,
London, 1869. In a *Brief of March 27, 1674, Clement X.
eulogized Norfolk's " heroica pietas " in the midst of persecution ;
Epist., IV. -V., Papal Sec. Arch. Ihid., the *Brief of Howard's
nomination, dated June 4, 1675, and another of July 30, to the
Queen of England. Howard's letters, published by Bede Jarret,
O.P., in Publications of the Cath. Record Society, XXV. (1925),
1-92.
* G^RIN, II., 608 seq.
VOL. XXXI. ij
482 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
letters of the new Cardinals ; on the other hand he did not
refuse papal Briefs for, he affirmed, his opposition was not
aimed at the Pope, but at Altieri.^
(2.)
France, that permanent theatre of the sectarian intrigues of
which she had become a second home, continued to be a source
of fear and anxiety for the Holy See.
As soon as the conclusion of the so-called Clementine
Peace ^ was assured, the general pubhc seemed, for a time at
least, to lose all interest in the Jansenists. The papal reply
to the four Bishops, which was to set the seal upon the whole
affair, was indeed anxiously awaited, but the very day before
its arrival in Paris, February 1st, 1669, Bargellini wrote that
a most extraordinary quiet prevailed with regard to the
Jansenist question, as if Jansenius had never existed.^ Two
years later the Venetian ambassador in Paris, Giovanni
Morosini, was of opinion that the Jansenists were of no
practical consequence.* The fact was that the able pens
which had drawn so much attention to the sect, were no
longer allowed publicly to advocate its principles for Louis
had forbidden all publications for or against it.'^
But the apparent calm was deceptive. The very concessions
made by Clement IX. helped to strengthen attachment to the
sect ; even in Italy and in Rome itself, a doubt arose whether
1 See P. Mocenigo's *letter to A. Contarini, dated August 24,
1675, loc. cit.
2 See above, p. 401 seqq.
8 " *Qui si desidera e si aspetta con passionc particolarc la
risolutione circa Ic materia janseniste, intorno alle quali si vive
con tal quiete, che e cosa incredibile, a segno che pare non sia
mai stato nel mondo Jansenio." To Rospigliosi, February i,
1669, Niinziat. di Francia, 137, f. 491. Papal Sec. Arch.
« " quasi che totale dcpressione do' Gianscnisti 0 altri religionari
in Francia" (Barozzi-Berchet, Francia, III., 218).
" Gerin, II., 30G.
RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN FRANCE. 483
Alexander VII. had not gone too far in condemning Jansenism.^
Foscarini, who succeeded Morosini in 1678, ^ speaks of the
" old cockle " to the uprooting of which Louis XIV. still
had to apply himself in order to maintain the internal tran-
quillity of the realm. As a matter of fact the author of an
account of the situation of the French Church at that time ^
does not draw a brilliant picture of religious conditions. The
King, so we read, is being told that not a day passes without
the Pope making some attack on the royal authority ;
Jansenism has simply been a phantom of the Jesuit mind ;
even if it had been different at first, and if it were not wholly
suppressed, it would die a natural death in time provided no
one was allowed to talk about it. Now it was precisely this
silence which enabled Jansenism to live and to wax stronger
from day to day. The King was well disposed on the whole, but
his ministers took care he did not see everything. According
to this account the first of these ministers, Colbert, had at
first not been altogether in sympathy with the innovations of
the sect, but from the moment he took the General of the
Oratorians (Sainte-Marthe) for his confessor and adviser in
^ " *L'apparenza di queste ragioni haveva talmente operate
neiranimo del popolo, che non solo in Francia e in Fiandra, ma
in Italia at in Roma medesima pareva, che troppo si fusse avanzato
Alessandro e troppo si pretendesse dal successore in volerlo
sustinere." Relatione del succeduto nella causa di Giansenio,
of March i, 1693, probably by Bargellini, Vat. 7405, f. 16 s.
- Barozzi-Berchet, II., 388.
* *Bibl. Casanatense, Rome, X., VI., 24, f. 179-189 ; drawn
up during Pomponne's ministry, 1672-79. The conclusion states
that the Monks of St. Germain-des-Pres (Maurists) had spent
more than 10,000 scudi in the last six years on a new edition of
St. Augustine. The publication was begun in 1669. " Non
dubitamus," it says, " quod facient de operibus doctoris huius,
quod alii de Novo Testamento falsificato pro sustinendis erroribus
suis." On the story of the Maurist edition of St. Augustine, cf.
Kakula, in Siiznngsberichie der Wienerakademie , CXXI. s.,
CXXVII. s. ; Ingold, Paris, 1903, and Stimmen aus Maria-
Laach, LXVIIL, 320 seqq.
484 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
spiritual matters/ he favours them, for it is well known how
much that Superior of the Oratorians is implicated in these
errors and how ill disposed he is towards the Holy See. The
minister has little love for the Jesuits and persecutes the Order
in every way, as must be expected from a Jansenist. The
second Minister (Le Tellier), for the sake of his sons, supports
the sect as much as possible. The third (Louvois) is the son
of the second. Everybody knows how he lives, but of his
faith and religion nothing is known. His zeal, not in defending
but in persecuting the Holy See, is sufficiently shown forth
by the affair of the Knights of St. Lazarus, which he initiated,
prosecuted, and concluded without leave from Rome, though
there was question of Church property.^ The last of the
ministers (Pomponne) belongs to Arnauld's family. He has
openly stated that the religious were the ruin of the State
and the realm ; accordingly many people suspect him of
secretly favouring the new sect, but up to the present there
are not many outward signs of this being so.^ The greater
part of the nobility and the officials are for the Church ; so
are the princes of the royal house, though not the Duchess of
Longueville.
Previous to Jansenius' condemnation, scarcely four, or
perhaps half a dozen of the Bishops were in his favour, but
that number has since risen because of their disHke of the
Holy See. The keenest among them arc the Bishops of Sens,
Tournai, Beauvais, Auxerre, Chalons, Angers, Agen, Nevers,
Alet, and Pamiers. All these display such zeal either in regard
to the administration of the Sacraments or the privileges of the
religious Orders that there is no end to the scandals in their
dioceses.
Of the Orders, the Congregation of St. Genevieve, the
Oratorians, and the Benedictines of St. Maurus are almost
wholly caught in the meshes of these errors ; the Cistercians
1 Colbert was under his guidance for a time. Batterei,,
AUm., IV., 19.
^ Gerin, II., 490.
3 MoRosiNi, in Barozzi-Berchkt, III., 212.
RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN FRANCE. 485
only partly, and only a few among the Dominicans. The other
Orders are not affected, in particular the Franciscans and the
Carmelites, especially the discalced ones.
With the exception of Port-Royal, almost all the convents
are sound in the faith. Some of them were indeed grievously
affected at one time, but the nuns now realize that they had
been misled, with the result that they have lost all confidence
in the sect. But they had conceived such disregard for the
Holy See that the Pope had become an object of terror for
them. There are many Jansenists in the Sorbonne, but they
constitute only a minority.
The common people are scarcely aware of the conflict, but
they are not unaffected by the new teaching concerning the
reception of the Sacraments, which has decreased at Sens
especially.
The genuine Jansenists remain unchanged ; of the
Clementine Peace they say : " Without moving a finger, we
went to bed last night as heretics, and as without the Church—
this morning we rose as Catholics." The Peace provides them
with an occasion for scoffing at the Pope. Though the papal
Brief is favourable to them, it was not made public as a result
of their pressure on the nuncio ; for they feared lest it should
seem that they had altered their opinions.
In a Hst of the Doctors of the Sorbonne, created between
1650 and 1673,^ 356 are described as Catholics, 193 as
Jansenists, 36 are said to be fervent Catholics, and 60 keen
Jansenists. The list also gives some information on the
results of the Clementine Peace. Among the Jansenists, some
are described as " supporters of the Jansenist Peace " ; these
are the men who, previous to the peace, opposed Jansenist
opinions, but who subsequently, either from fear or from
motives of prudence and personal advantage, had adopted,
wholly or partially, a different line of conduct in the last
Assemblies.^ In like manner, after 1650, twenty-eight of the
• Bibl. Casanat., X., VI., 24, f. 200-21S.
^ " *Qui quidem a die dictae pacis ab ipsa veritate, quam antea
contra lansenistas defenderant, vel si opus fuisset etiam strenue
486 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Catholic Doctors are described as " political and accom-
modating Catholics " ; they are the men who, since the
Clementine Peace and the beginning of the rule of the new
Archbishop of Paris [Harlay de Champvallon since 1671]
adopt many Jansenist views for political considerations, or
try to strike a middle course, or demand silence when judgment
must be given on some Jansenist publication. In many ways,
these do more harm than the Jansenists themselves.^
The Jansenists themselves, on their part, had renounced
neither the pen nor the printing press, their chief weapons
up till then. After " peace " had become the watchword in
the religious sphere they could no longer think of furthering
their cause by means of writings in Arnauld's manner, but
there remained other and wide fields of activity for their men
propugnassent, iam vel ex metu aut pusillanimitate seu nimia
prudentia carnis, non spiritus, vel ex propriae utilitatis aut
honoris commode aliquatenus aut etiam in totum deflexerant in
postremis comitiis."
^ " *catholici politici at molliors, in ceteris omnibus bene
sentientes, verum plus quam par sit, quandoque politici at
molliores, quique a die praetensae pacis ecclesiae at D^ Arch.
Parisiensis moderni ad sedem Paris, promotione ita politice se
gassarunt at adhuc se gerunt ut vel lansanistarum sententiam
saquantur in pluribus, val madias quasdam vias ineuntes, aut
silentium postulantas, ubi occasio est val necessitas statuendi
aliquid contra iansenianas theses, libros, conciones, iam non modo
inutiles religioni at sanae doctrinae contra iansenianum virus
nondum cmortuum facti sint in facultate, sad saepe fiant ipsis
lansenistis quodam modo nocantiorcs." The list describes as keen
Jansenists the following Bishops : Le Tellier of Rhaims, Choiseul
of Tournai, Marmiasse of Conserans, Colbert of Auxerre, Le
Sauvage of Lavaur, Tonnarre of Noyon, Hocquincourt of Verdun,
Barillon of Lu9on. The following are just Jansenists : De La
Borda of St. Brieuc and Bertier of Montauban ; political Jan-
senists : Guron Rechigna of Commingas and Etienne Le Camus
of Grenoble ; political Catholics : Bourbon of Soissons and
Bossuet of Condom. Harlay of Paris is said to be a fosterer of
Jansenism ; De la Motte Houdancourt of Auch and Lomanic de
Brienne of Coutances are described as excellent Catholics.
JANSENIST WRITINGS. 487
of letters. They had begun early to advocate their views by
means of publications of a seemingly purely devotional
character. Previous to the " Clementine Peace ", Le Maitre
de Sacy had published some of his Jansenistically coloured
translations of the Bible. ^ The work advanced gradually ;
when completed it became, for the French Jansenists, some-
thing like Luther's Bible for the German Lutherans. There
followed French translations of the liturgical books, the Missal
and the Breviary, or at least parts of them.^ All these books
were condemned by the French Bishops and even by the
Pope himself. These liturgical adaptations were followed by a
number of ascetical and devotional works, all of which
advocated, in an underhand way, the Jansenist view on grace.
Nicole's work of moral theology in particular, obtained a wide
circle of readers ; begun in 1671, it eventually grew into
thirteen volumes.^ The prolific Maurist writer, Gerberon,
besides ascetical literature, devoted himself especially to the
study of history ; his account of the Jansenist controversy
and its development is wholly in keeping with the spirit of the
party."
The Government indulged in no delusions about the
situation. The means by which the Jansenists had won the
so-called peace were such that at the death of the Pope, there
^ " Nouveau Testament de Mens."
2 The Missal was translated by Voisin in 1660 ([Patouillet],
III., 199), the Breviary by Le Tourneux in 1687 {ibid., I., 199) ;
Heures de Port-Royal, translated b}^ Le Maitre {ibid., II., 177) ;
L'annee chretienne ou les messes des dimanches, etc., by Le Tourneux
{ob., 1686), etc.
^ On their Jansenistic tone see [Patouillet], II., 68-91 ;
on their influence up till the 19th century see Seche, I., 235 seq.,
244, 251. Nicole published the writings of Hamon, the physician
of Port Royal, ob., 1687 ([Patouillet], IV., 157 seqq.).
* Htstoire genevale du Jansenisme, Amsterdam, 1700 ; Histoire
abregee du Jansenisme, Cologne, 1698 ; Memorial historique de
ce qui s'est passe depuis l'annee 1647 jusqu' a Van 1653 (1676) ;
Traites historiques sur la grace et la predestination par I' Abbe de
St. Jiilien (1699).
488 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
was every reason to fear for its continuance. Even during the
conclave, the French Government instructed its ambassador
in Rome to lose no time in strongly representing to the new
Pope that he could not rely on its support were he to follow the
advice of Albizzi or the Jesuits, by laying hands on his pre-
decessor's work of peace ; the ambassador, on the contrary,
was to renew the efforts made with Clement IX. with a view to
obtaining the ehmination of Alexander's formula, so that
subscription to it would be no longer required.^ On March 7th,
1670, the King empowered his representative to demand a
formal promise that no innovation would take place. ^ Accord-
ingly the ambassador represented to the new Pope that though
the formula had been a salutary remedy, now that the wound
was healed, the plaster could only do harm. To this the
Pope replied that he was not so sure that the wound
was properly healed ; the Secretary of State, Altieri, felt
even less convinced than the Pope.^ However, during
Clement X.'s reign no steps were taken against the French
Jansenists.
If the religious situation in France was unsatisfactory, it
was no better in the sect's birthplace. The Jansenist Ritual
of Alet, though condemned by Rome, was in everybody's
hands in Flanders ; the Mons translation of the New
Testament, though tainted with Jansenism, was openly sold.
Jansenius' Angustimis was read without scruple, and a book
against the honour paid to the Blessed Virgin, from the pen
of an attorney of Cologne of the name of Widenfeldt, was
obstinately defended. To this must be added other errors
on the subject of the veneration of the Saints and their images,
and the administration of the Sacrament of Penance. There
were those who taught that Bishops received their powers
immediately from Christ ; hence they argued that the
Pope could not curtail them. Dishke of the Mendicant Orders
^ Louis XIV. and Lionne to Chaulnes on January 3 and 17,
1670, in Gerin, II., 411.
^ Ibid., 411 seq.
* Ibid., 412.
LOUIS XIV. 'S ATTITUDE. 489
also grew because of the esteem in which these held both
Scholasticism and the Pope's authority.^
The Pope had likewise had to complain of the Governor of
Flanders, owing to the attempt of the latter to interfere with
the free communication of the Pontiff with his subjects, as
happened, for instance, when Rome protested against the
unbecoming inscription on the grave of Jansenius.^
(3.)
Thus the dangerous religious movements in Flanders and
France were only seemingly dead. France in particular
might at any moment become a danger to the peace of Europe
in the sphere of religion ; in the political sphere, France's
ruler was already such a danger, especially by reason of his
attitude towards the Turkish wars. Whilst Rome was con-
cerned with the defence of Christendom and its civilization
against the peril of Islam, the King of France, exclusively
intent on his private interests, dispatched an envoy to
Constantinople at the beginning of 1670, in the person of the
Marquis de Nointel, with mission to re-establish the good
^ Disordini ccclesiastici in Fiandra 1675, in LAmmer, Melet.,
397-
* " *A. V. S. incarica S. B. di rappresentare con fortezza di
cuore e di lingua la non mai usata temerita del governatore di
Fiandra, arrivato a pretendere che il Papa non possa scrivere a chi
gli pare e intorno a materie, che sono intieramente del servitio
di Die e della religion cattolica, sicome succede nel fatto d'Ipri
in ordine alia lapide, la quale e stata posta con iscrizione impropria
sopra '1 sepolcro di Cornelio Jansenio ; e faccia Ella ben conside-
rare a S. M. ed al Conseglio I'ingiustitia e '1 mancamento di rispetto
che si prattica verso S. S'^, a cui si vuol torre quella liberta che
ne pure a nemici h prohibita ; e protesti che, ove non si dia pro-
porzionato rimedio a si grandi disordini, sara S. B. posta nella
necessita di cambiare il tenore delle sue paterne inclinationi
e provedere al decoro delle sue pontificie determinazioni etc."
To the Spanish nuncio, September 19, 1672, Nunziat. di Spagna,
139. f- 56, Papal Sec. Arch.
490 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
relations which had suffered from the participation of France
in the defence of Crete. Nointel met with no small obstacles.
When he laid stress on the power of his sovereign, the Grand
Vizier told him that the French " emperor " was of course
a mighty monarch, but his sword was still new. When Nointel
spoke of an ancient and sincere friendship, the Grand Vizier
observed that though " the French are indeed our friends, it
is strange that we should always find them at the side of our
enemies ".^ Louis XIV., so sensitive where his " honour "
was concerned, especially in his dealings with the Popes, put
up with these remarks and continued to negotiate with the
infidels, a fact which caused anxiety in Rome.^ He was making
vast military preparations at this time. For a time no one
knew against whom he was arming, but eventually it was seen
that he was planning a crushing blow against the Dutch
Republic, where the idea of a coalition in opposition to his
preponderance had struck deep roots and jdelded its first
fruits in the Triple Alliance. At this time Leibnitz sought to
direct the ambition of the King of France towards Egypt ;
by an attack on that country France would have averted the
Turkish peril, and would have been rewarded with the
supremacy in the Mediterranean and the East, which England
obtained at a later date. However, Louis' minister, Pomponne,
replied that since the days of Louis IX. crusades were no
longer fashionable.^ Versailles' only anxiety was its nearest
frontier.
1 ZiNKEisEN, v., 20. Cf. Vandal, L'odyssee d'ltn ambassadeur.
Les voyages du Marquis de Nointel, 2^ edit., Paris, igoo. In 1673
Nointel obtained the renewal of the capitulations which were of
the utmost importance for French trade and a measure of recogni-
tion of France's protectorate of the Latin Christians in the East.
2 Gerin, II., 521.
' See the works of Leibniz, edit, by O. Klopp, ist series, II.,
Hanover, 1864, 3-159, 177-426 ; Guhrauer, Kurmaim in der
Epoche von 1672, I., Hamburg, 1839, 37, 213 seqq., II., 351 ;
Platzhoff, Ludwig, XIV., 30 ; Leibnitii de expediiione Aegyptiaca
Ludovico Franciae regi proponenda scripta, ed. O. Klopp, Hanover,
1864.
ATTACK ON HOLLAND. 49I
Whilst Clement X. strove to stem the Turkish advance by
means of an alliance between the Emperor and Poland/
Louis XIV. continued his preparations for his attack on
Holland. He began by detaching England from the Triple
Alliance by the treaty of Dover, and subsequently Sweden
also ; he then won over to his side the Elector of Cologne and
the Prince Bishop of Liege, Maximihan Henry, a Bavarian
Prince, together with the warlike Prince-Bishop of Miinster,
Bernard von Galen, who had long been on bad terms with the
Dutch. Thus little Holland could be attacked from every
side with overwhelming forces. The military operations were
so rapid and so brilliant that the last hour of the Dutch
Republic seemed at hand. French cavalry was scouting within
a few miles from Amsterdam. ^
The rapid success of France called forth a general panic in
Europe. In Rome opinion on the situation was divided.
Clement X. had watched the outbreak of war with anxiety.^
His greatest fear was that the storm of war might also break
over Catholic districts,* with the consequence of a war
between France and Spain. ^ Many politicians, even in Rome,
lamented the Dutch losses as if they were themselves hit by
them ^ ; but ecclesiastical circles felt differently. For more than
a hundred years the Catholic subjects of the Dutch Republic
had seen their most sacred rights curtailed ; they had suffered,
^ Cf. above, p. 454 seq.
2 Block, V., 309 seqq.
^ See the *Briefs to the Archbishops of Mayence, Cologne,
and Treves, dated March 20, 1672, Epist., U.-III., Papal
Sec. Arch.
^ *Brief to Galen, Prince-Bishop of Miinster, April 30, 1672,
ibid.
5 *Brief to the Queen-Regent of Spain, April 18, 1672, and to
Louis XIV., May 13, 1672, ibid. Cf. Buonvisi's letter and the Brief
to Cologne in Brom, Archivalia, IIL, 553 seq.
* " *Utcunque fiet, Gallis aegerrimum est videre etiam Romae
Italos quam plurimos Batavis saltern animis aspirantes et illorum
ruinas quasi suas existimantes." The Cardinal of Hesse to
Leopold L, dated Rome, July 16, 1672, State Archives, Vienna.
492 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
and were still undergoing, every kind of oppression.^ Again
and again the Hague Cabinet had made common cause with
the Church's bitterest enemies, and every anti-papal scribe
was sure of an asylum in the Low Countries. Accordingly they
could but rejoice if the Most Christian King was about to
overthrow this bulwark of Calvinism and, according to his
loud and solemn assurances, to exploit his victory for the good
of the Catholic religion. ^ This optimistic feeling was
strengthened in Rome when it was learnt that in all the towns
taken by the French the principal churches were being handed
over the the Catholics by order of Louis XIV. ; that the
Bishops of Miinster and Cologne had restored to its original
purpose the property of the Church of which it had been
robbed by the Dutch ; that the altars had been set up again
in the magnificent cathedral of Utrecht, and that solemn
Catholic services were once more being held.^ This explains
how it came about that a number of preachers in Rome
extolled France's victories in Holland as the work of God.
Even the aged Clement X. seriously believed for a time that the
aggression against Holland had for its object the furtherance
of the Catholic religion. Hence he rejoiced sincerely in ever}'
fresh victory of Louis XIV.* An envoy of Louis went so far as
to request the Pope to order processions of intercession for the
triumph of the French arms and to warn the Catholic Princes
not to disturb, by envy or jealousy, an undertaking of such
importance for the Church.-'' The Paris nuncio suggested that
1 Cf. our data, Vol. XXV., 120 seq., XXIX., 268 seq.
2 Wagner, Hist. Leopoldi I., Vol. I., 377 ; Klopp, Stuart, I.,
306.
^ *Cifre del Nunzio di Parigi, June 21 and August 12, 1672,
Nunziat. di Francia, 148, Papal Sec. Arch., and the reports in
Brom, in Archief voor de geschiedenis van het aartsbisdom Utrecht,
XX., 393 seqq.
* *Letter of the Card, of Hesse to Leopold I., Rome, July 16,
1672, loc. cit. Ranke {Franzos. Gesch., III. [1855], 371), is quite
wrong when he asserts that the Pope, Avho took up government in
1670 " undoubtedly " sided with the anti-French party in Europe.
^ Wagner, loc. cit., 277.
LOUIS XIV. DECEIVES THE POPE. 493
the Pope should thank the King of France.^ Consequently,
laudatory Briefs were addressed not only to the Prince-Bishop
of Miinster, but to the French General Marquis d'Estrees,
also, urging them at the same time to persevere in an under-
taking so favourable to the Catholic cause. ^
How strong the Curia's confidence in France was at the
beginning of August, 1672, appears from certain instructions
of the Secretariate of State to the Spanish nuncio. If the Most
Christian King, the nuncio was told on August 13th, over-
throws the Dutch heretics. His Holiness can only give thanks
to God ; just as, on the other hand, he can but lament the
fact that the Dutchmen's ally, the Governor of the Flemish
Netherlands, Count Monterey, should crush the convents
of the poor Mendicants by heavy taxation. It would assuredly'
be far better if the Christian Princes were to unite in a joint
attack on the Turks ; but experience had shown how difficult
it was to form a coalition. Hence they could only pray that
God would bless Louis XIV. 's efforts for the liberation of the
Dutch Catholics, and to confine the conflagration of war within
the territory of the heretics.^
When in September the imperial troops, reinforced by
14,000 Brandenburgers, marched from Bohemia to the Rhine,
Rome was not a little displeased. Leopold I.'s abandonment of
neutrality was ascribed to Spanish influence, and regret
was expressed that the Emperor's troops were not used for the
protection of Poland, which would also make for the safety of
Hungary. Spain was warned to see to the protection of its
valuable Italian possessions against Turkish attack ; the
nuncio was told to emphasize that this would be impossible if
' *Cifra of June 21, 1672 {decif., July 14), Papal Sec. Arch.
= *To Louis XIV., on May 3 and July 12, 1672, April 26, July 26,
and August 22, 1673, Brevia, Papal Sec. Arch. Cf. the *report
of the Card, of Hesse to Leopold L, Rome, August 24, 1672,
State Archives, Vienna. On September 7, 1672, the same *reports
that he had failed to obtain a similar Brief for Leopold's efforts
for catholicizing Hungary ; ibid.
' *Cifra of August 13, 1672.
494 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
they helped the Dutch. ^ The Pope's displeasure grew still
further as a result of the grievous encroachments by Spain in
the ecclesiastical sphere, both in the Netherlands and at
Naples and Milan. ^ The Paris Cabinet was much shrewder
than that of Madrid, for during the first year of the war, the
former avoided every ecclesiastical conflict with the Pope.^
The important thing was to disguise the true aims of the
Dutch adventure and to deceive the Pope on the subject.
When it appeared that this aim had been sufficiently realized,
there was no longer any need to consider the Pontiff. At the
end of 1672, Louis XIV., without previous understanding with
the Holy See, published an edict by which he assumed the
government of the Order of St. Lazarus and of that of Our
Lady of Mount Carmel, whilst he also suppressed a number of
other ecclesiastical Institutions with a view to using their
revenues to defray the enormous cost of the war. A beginning
had been made with the execution of the measures before
news of it reached the public ; as for the Pope, he was
requested simply to sanction them.* Nor were these the only
trespasses on the Church's sphere. In 1673 Louis XIV. began
to extend the right to seize the revenues of bishoprics during
vacancy, and to appoint to vacant benefices (the so-called
regale), to those ecclesiastical provinces where it had not
hitherto obtained.'^ Extraordinary resentment was caused in
1 *Cifra al Nuntio di Spagna, November 19, 1672, Niuiziat.
di Spagna, 139, p. 54 seqq., Papal Sec. Arch.
2 Ibid. A *warning Brief to Monterey, Governor of the Spanish
Netherlands, dated July 16, 1672, in Epist., II. -III., loc. cit.
Ibid., *a similar Brief to " Marchese de Astorga, Prorex Neapol ",
of November i, 1673, Epist., IV. -V., loc. cit. A fresh attempt
against the rights of the Church at Naples compelled Clement X.
to raise his voice in protest in *Briefs to the Queen-Regent of
Spain, to Astorga, and to the nuncio at Naples, September 10,
1673, ibid.
=• Gkrin, II., 479.
* Ibid., 490 seq.
^ For the dispute over the regale, see the next Vol., Innocent
XI.
PROTESTS AND ANXIETIES. 495
Rome 1 by an edict published in March 1673, at the instiga-
tion of Colbert, which in the harmless guise of a fiscal measure,
namely the surveillance of money sent to Rome, gravely
interfered with the liberty of the Church. The Pope insisted
on the withdrawal, or at least the suspension of this decree
together with that dealing with the above mentioned Orders.
On April 22nd, 1673, he complained to the King himself, but
previously to this the Paris nuncio, Nerli, had been informed
in the most emphatic terms that the Government had no
intention to withdraw the ordinances.^ It was whilst these
incidents were in progress that the Cabinet of Madrid accused
Clement X. of pursuing a Francophile policy ! Rome was
amply justified in replying that the Holy See took no sides in
the warlike complications ; that its attitude was prompted
exclusively by the interests of religion, and that in the
widest sense. ^ For this reason Clement X.'s first care at this
time was the defence of Poland, that ancient outpost of the
Church in the east of Europe. " If Poland succumbs," the
Secretary of State wrote on March 11th, 1673, Hungary and
Germany are likewise lost, and Italy herself is threatened with
enslavement.^ The Curia accordingly disapproved of the
Emperor's and Spain's intention to lend armed assistance to
Holland, as this would have made it impossible for them to
go to the help of Poland.^
* Cf. P. Mocenigo's *Ietter to A. Contarini, April 24, 1673,
Barb. 6449, Vat. Lib.
2 Gerin, II., 494 seqq. Cf. App. 13. Altieri's *letter to Nerli,
July II, 1673. Nerli's successor, F. Spada, was directed by his
♦Instruction, dated January 2, 1674, to protest energetically
against the edict {Xiinziat. di Francia, 432, p. 164 seqq., Papal
Sec. Arch.). F. Spada, who reached Paris on February 15, 1674,
at once brought up the subject at his audience with Louis XIV. ;
" fu risposto che e un affare meramente politico " [ibid., *Giornale
di Msgr. F. Spada).
* *Cifre al Nuntio di Spagna, January' 28 and February 25,
1673, Niinziat. di Spagna, 139, Papal Sec. Arch.
* *Cifra of IMarch 11, 1673, ibid.
^ Ibid. ; Levixson, Nuntiaturberichte , II., 627 seq.
40 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Clement X. was unwilling to fall out with Louis XIV.,
because of the latter's ecclesiastical encroachments, for the
King had promised that in the peace negotiations with
Holland he would insist on the Dutch Cathohcs being granted
the free exercise of their religion. In this way Rome hoped to
secure some compensation for the Church's losses in England.^
Accordingly the Pope's Brief to Louis XIV., dated April 26th,
1673, besides renewed protests against the March edict also
contained warm praise for the repression, by the King's
efforts, of the Huguenots and the Jansenists, and his defence
of the oppressed Catholics of Holland. ^ As a matter of fact,
the King of France did his best in the sequel to confirm the
Curia in its belief that his attack on Holland was made
chiefly for the advantage of the Cathohc religion. From
Brussels the nuncio reported that Louis XIV. had condemned
seven Englishmen to be burnt at the stake and three other
men to be shot because of sacrileges committed by them in
some churches. It was further announced that by order of the
King Cardinal Bouillon had reconsecrated several churches
which had been profaned b}' the Calvinists, and that money
had been set apart for the celebration of religious services.^
^ *Letter of P. Mocenigo to A. Contarini, Rome, April 29,
1673, Vat. Lib.
* " Strenue orthodoxae religionis tuendae et propagandae zelo
succensus tuo non tantum in regno eiusdem in incrementum totus
incubuisti, compressis scilicet eis qui a via veritatis aberrabant
et ad debitam Constitutionibus Apostolicis obedientiam authori-
tate tua reductis, scd fines quoque ditionum tuarum egressus
extulisti fidei vexillum, quo gementes sub potestate iniquae
dominationis Christi-fideles in pristinam divini cultus exercendi
libertatem vindicares." Brief of April 26, 1673, Epist., IL-III.,
Papal Sec. Arch.
* " *Per avvisi di Brusselles come era qui male intcso il poco
rispetto portato alle chiese daU'esercito Francese nel passare per
li Stati catholici della Fiandra, cosi ha molto edificato la pieta
dello stcsso Re dimostrata nel condennare al fuoco sette Inglesi
et altri tre alle moschettate in pena deirindcgnita e sacrilegi
commessi in alcune chiese nello Stato del Re catholico in Fiandra,
HOPES SET ON LOUIS XIV. 497
A deep impression was likewise created in Rome by the news
that the Vicar ApostoHc, John Neerkassel, had been able to
appear openly as a Catholic Bishop, and to celebrate the feast
of Corpus Christi with great pomp as in Catholic times, and
that on that occasion four French officers had carried the
canopy over the Blessed Sacrament. At the same time it was
learnt that the Jesuits had opened a school at Zwolle and that
they were about to do the same in some of the other conquered
towns. ^ When news came of the fall of Maastricht the French
in Rome had endless stories to tell of the piety of their King,
who, they said, had at once given orders for the restoration to
the Catholics of all their churches and of their property.-
Clement seized the opportunity, on July 26th, 1673, to con-
gratulate the King on this success, and to thank him in the
warmest terms for all he had done for the Catholics.^
However, notwithstanding Rome's great joy at this favour-
able turn of events, the war was deplored, especially in view
of the Turkish peril, and in July, 1673, the nuncios were
instructed to work for the conclusion of peace. '^ Similar instruc-
tions were also issued to them in August, and the hope was
expressed that the peace about to be concluded would procure
for the Dutch Catholics lasting religious freedom.^
per la rebenedizione delle quali ha mandate 11 s. card, di Buglione
con ornamenti e con buona somma di contante da lasciarsi per
il buon culto e per la commodita di quel luoghi sacri non senza
merito della religiosita deiranimo della M. sua." Letter of
P. IMocenigo to A. Contarini, July i, 1673, loc. cit.
^ Brom, Archivalia, III., 387 seqq., 408 scqq.
^ *Letter of P. Mocenigo to A. Contarini, July 22, 1673, loc. cit.
D'Estrees promptly informed the Pope of the taking of Maastricht.
" *In questa occasione hanno procurato i Francesi far spiccare la
pieta della M. S. publicando il benefitio che ha fatto alia religione
col levare tutti i tempii agl'eretici e coH'obbligarli a la restitutione
dei beni che erano anticamente della Chiesa."
^ Appendix 14, *Brief of July 26, 1673, Papal Sec. Arch.
Renewed thanks in * Brief of August 22, 1673, ihid.
* *P. Mocenigo's letter to A. Contarini, Jul}^ 29, 1673, loc. cit.
'" *The same to the same, August 12, 1673, ibid.
VOL. XXXI. Kk
49^ HISTORY OF THE POPES.
After Rome's fears of the outbreak of war between France
and Spain had been reahzed/ Clement X. promptly agreed to
the Emperor's suggestion that he should act as a mediator for
peace. 2 His nuncios in Paris, Madrid, and Vienna, worked
indefatigably in this sense, but met with the greatest difficulties.
Because the Holy See stood above both parties it did too little
for the one and too much for the other ! The Elector of
Cologne, who sided with Louis XIV., described nuncio
Buonvisi as a supporter of Austria, because the latter spoke
very frankly ; Vienna, on the other hand, accused nuncio
Mario Alberizzi of partiaHty towards France, and the nuncio
in Madrid was the object of similar reproaches.^ The publica-
tion of Alberizzi's reports during his nunciature has shown the
untcnability of these accusations. The only object of the
Vienna nuncio's efforts to prevent a rupture between Leopold L
and France was to make sure that the Emperor's troops would
be available for the defence of Poland against the Turks.
Both he and the Pope could only watch the march of events
with sorrow, for whilst Poland, and consequently Hungary too,
was threatened by the hereditary enemy of Christendom, the
danger of the three Christian rulers of Austria, France, and
Spain tearing each other was steadily drawing nearer, and
this with the assistance of Protestant States, and even in their
defence. Consequently all the Holy See's efforts were for
peace * ; however, though a peace congress promoted b\'
Sweden was held at Cologne, no result was arrived at. On
August 28th, 1673, the Emperor and Spain concluded a treaty
with the object of forcing France back into her frontiers of
1660, and on August 30th Holland also became a partner to
this pact. The effects of this new anti-French coalition, which
soon received further reinforcements, were promptly felt in
the field also. The Dutch were able to breathe again, more
> Id., ibid.
- *P. Mocenigo to A. Contarini, November iS, 1673, ibid. ;
Levinson, IL, 157, 159.
' These instances are given in the *Cifra al Nuntio di Spagna
of March 11, 1673, he. cit.
* Lkvixson, II., 18 scq., 22 seq., 30 scq., 37 scq., 46 $eq.
PAPAL EFFORTS FOR PACIFICATION. 499
especially as the Anglo-French alliance came to an end in
1G74.1
In January, 1674, the Cologne nuncio had reported that
Holland declined a papal peace mediation ^ ; however,
undeterred by this disappointment, the papal diplomatists
continued their task. By April all the Catholic Powers had
accepted the Pope's mediation in principle,^ but the conflict
spread further when the German Empire declared war against
France on May 24th, 1G74, and the Elector Frederick WiUiam
of Brandenburg, on July 1st, entered once more into an
offensive league with the Emperor, Spain, and Holland against
France.
The Catholic districts did not remain untouched by the
\'icissitudes of the war. This happened already at the end of
1673, when the Dutch and their allies invaded the territories
of the Archbishop of Cologne and the Prince-Bishop of
Miinster, and the former was forced to flee.^ In the following
year the Governor of the Low Countries, Monterey, garrisoned
^ Immich, Staatc}}svsteiu, 78 seq.
- Letter of O. Pallavicino of January 14, 1674, in Brom,
Archivalia, I., 796. In his utterances Pallavicino had endeavoured
to avoid " di far apparire che la guerra di Olanda non e di
religione " ; he said that the Pope's Briefs gave no ground for
such a view ! (see his letter of July 31, 1673, in Block, Verslag van
onderzockingen naar Archivalia in Italic helangrijk voor de geschie-
denis van Nederland, La Haye, 1901, 41). In the spring of 1676
Pallavicino made a trip to Holland, of which he left a description
(ed. by Brom, in Bijdragen en Mededeclingen van het Hist. Genoot-
schap van Utrecht, XXXII. , 64 seqq.). Of the religious conditions,
httle is said here, seeing that these were the business of the
nunciature of Brussels. On the whole peace reigned, Pallavicino
wrote, but he feared that the Catholic religion would always
remain " serva, e la differenza sara solo nell'esser trattata piii
o meno duramente ".
' *Cifra al Nuntio di Spagna, May 19, 1674, Nunziat. di Spagna,
139, loc. cit. Cf. Levinson, Niintiaturherichte, II., 167 seq.
* Letter of P. Mocenigo to A. Contarini, November 18, 1673,
loc. cit.
500 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Catholic towns with Dutch troops, when the Protestant soldiery
committed such sacrileges that the Pope saw himself compelled
to make representations in Madrid and Vienna. ^ Clement X.
was greatly hurt by a report from Brussels to the effect that
the French commander in the conquered territories had
forbidden all relations with the internuncio in Brussels.'^
To this was added information that Conde's troops behaved
no better in the Catholic churches of Flanders than the
Protestant Dutch. ^ These reports, which subsequently became
even worse,'' gradually caused the Pope to realize that he had
been deceived when he had been assured that the only motive
of the French aggression against Holland was the welfare of
the Catholic religion. Clement X. no longer hesitated to
condemn the undertaking,^ all the more so as Louis XIV. 's
attitude betrayed an intention to reject the Pope's peace
mediation. To this end advantage was to be taken of a
dispute which broke out in Rome in the autumn of 1674,
between the French ambassador, D'Estrees, and Cardinal
Altieri.
The extra-territoriality enjoyed by ambassadors in Rome
had led to grave abuses, not only in consequence of the right
of asylum, but that also of exemption from customs' duties on
imported goods allowed to representatives of foreign States.
The French envoy, D'Estrees, who was for ever in financial
■difficulties, took advantage of his privileges in truly cynical
fashion, to the loss of the ApostoHc Camera.^ In order to stop
this abuse Cardinal Altieri issued a stringent edict on
1 *Letter of P. Mocenigo to A. Contarini, May 26, 1674, ^^^^■
* " *Dice [the nuncio of Brussels] che da' capi Frances! in
Tornay, convocatosi un consiglio, si hanno concluso di prohibire
ai sudditi dalle nuove conquiste il riconoscere I'autorita dell'Inter-
nuntio." P. Mocenigo to A. Contarini, March 2, 1674,
loc. cit.
3 P. Mocenigo to A. Contarini, June 9, 1674, ibid.
* *Letter of P. Mocenigo to A. Contarini, ibid.
'•> Wagner, Hist. Leopoldi I., Vol. I., 277.
« G6RIN, II., 539 seqq.
GRIEVANCES OF FOUR DIPLOMATISTS. 50I
September 11th, 1G74, imposing a duty of 3 per cent on all
incoming goods. ^ D'Estrees protested that this was an infringe-
ment of his " rights ". It was an easy task for him to win
over to his view the representative of the Emperor, the
Cardinal of Hesse, who had already occasioned a number of
disagreeable situations for the Pope and his Government, ^ and
not long after he also persuaded the Spanish Cardinal Nidhard
and the Venetian envoy Mocenigo to side with him.^ The
four diplomatists resolved to present their grievances to the
Pope in a collective audience. When Cardinal Alticri refused
to grant their request, as something unusual and unprece-
dented, they determined to make a joint remonstrance at
least with the Cardinal, but the latter informed them that he
too could only receive them one at a time. Though the envoys
tried to create an impression that they would compel the
nephew to receive them collectively, they were refused an
audience ; Cardinal Altieri even went so far as to put the
Ouirinal in a state of defence, as if he feared a formal
1 For what follows, cf. the *documents in Barh. 5306 and 5640,
pp. 309-444 (Vat. Lib.). This last collection is the work of Card.
Carlo Barberini. Mocenigo's account in Berchet, II., 399 seqq.,
is tinged with one-sided Venetian partiality as are the envoy's
*letters in Barh. 6449. Gerin's account (II., 539 seqq., 568 seqq.,
613) is based on French reports. Wholly hostile to Altieri is the
" *Narrazione de' disturbi accaduti 1674 fra i quattro ambascia-
tori di Francia, Spagna, Venezia e dellTmpero con il cardinale
Paluzzi-Altieri ", which is often found in MS. (ex. gr. Urb.,
1693, p. 36 5e^^. ; Cod. Bolognetti, 57 a.nd 76). See also Levinson,
Nimtiaturberichte , II., 174 seqq. The quarrel of the ambassadors
plays a great role in the *Cifre scritte dall' em. Altieri ai Nunzii
(li Vienna, Madrid, etc., 1674-75 {Cod. 26, E. 3 of the Altieri
Archives, Rome).
- Cf. Levinson, Nuntiaiurberichtc , II., 92, 108 scq., 112, 130.
* This was all the more remarkable as, according to a report
of the Card, of Hesse to Leopold I. (November 11, 1673, State
Archives, Vienna), Hesse and Nidhard had decided, in view of the
war between Spain and France, to confine their relations with
the French ambassador, within the strictest limits of bare courtesy.
502 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
assault. Thereupon, public opinion, which resented the abuse
of the exemption from customs dues and had until then
supported Altieri, turned against the Cardinal. Almost ever\-
day saw the publication of some fresh criticism of his govern-
ment.^ All knowledge of the incident had at hrst been kept
from the Pope ; it was bound to be particularly painful to
him as he was just preparing to offer his mediation for peace. ^
But though they continued to press for a collective audience,
the envoys were only received singly. When they declared that
they could no longer treat with the Cardinal nephew until he
should have given them satisfaction, Clement X. told them
that he was prepared to hear them at any hour of the dav or
night. ^ D'Estrees began to hope that he would succeed in
overthrowing Altieri and replacing him b}- Rospigliosi. The
nuncio in Vienna, Albcrizzi, fearing lest the Pope should yield
unreservedly, urged him to offer a firm resistance to the
envoy.* The Cardinal of Hesse, in his own impetuous way
defended the envoys' rights with even greater vehemence than
D'Estrees himself, so much so that even gentle Clement X.
found his conduct unbearable, and suggested that he should
leave Rome.^ The four envoys insisted with the utmost
obstinacy that they must be given satisfaction. Discussions
went on in this sense and in that, until a solution was found at
last. The stringent edict of September 1 1th, 1674, was revoked,
^ Thus *P. Mocenigo to A. Contarini, on December 29, 1674
(loc. cit.). These AVTitings include those discussed by Rankk
(App. 145), though he does not state where they are to be found,
and the foUowing *satires : (i) La republica Christiana {Cod. 33,
A. 14, of Bibl. Corsini) ; (2) Discorso saiirico sopra le simonie delta
Daiaria {Cod. B., IV., 19, p. 79 seqq., of Bibl. Ouoriniana,
Brescia) .
^ Cf. the *Briefs to the Emperor and the Queen-Regent of
Spain, December 8, 1674, and to Louis XI\'., January 3, 1675,
Epist., IV.-VII., Papal Sec. Arch.
' Gerin, II., 550.
* See the characteristic letter of November 21, 1674, i" Lkvin-
soN, II., 173 scq.
•' Ibid., =,6.
ALTIERI AND QUEEN CHRISTINE. 503
on condition that a milder one of June 28th of that year should
remain in force ; moreover, Cardinal Altieri was made to call
on Nidhard and the Cardinal of Hesse to make his excuses.^
As the Venetian envoy contented himself with this retreat,^
D'Estrees' plan for the overthrow of the nephew was thwar-
ted ; however, he and the Cardinal of Hesse had succeeded in
humbling Altieri and in creating many fresh enemies for him.^
Altieri had also fallen out with Queen Christine. Already at
the opening of the Holy Door at Christmas 1674, and again
at the blessing of the Agnus Dei, Christine had taken offence
because she thought she had been slighted. An open quarrel
broke out at Easter 1675, when the Queen desired to offer
her good wishes to the Pope and Altieri rejected her demand
for an audience.* Deeply hurt in her royal dignity, the daughter
of Gustavus Adolphus was loud in her complaints, and even
went so far as to utter threats. Cardinal Azzolini, and finally
Clement X. himself, endeavoured to calm her, and promised
to obtain a written apology. When the Queen insisted on a
personal visit of Altieri, the Cardinal made his excuses in so
low a tone that Christine's suite could scarcely hear a word.
The Queen answered in a ver}' loud voice and an insulting tone
that she would forget the offence and inform the Pope on the
following day of all that had happened. This she did in fact.
Hesse, who was for ever plotting against Altieri, reported with
^ *Agreement of July 11, 1675, Barb. 5307, p. 7 scqq.,
Vat. Lib. Cf. Gerin, II., 569 seqq. It is generally said that
Card. Colonna had brought about the agreement, but in his
♦letter of July 20, 1675 {loc. cit.), P. Mocenigo states that
it was done " per opera del P. Generale de' Min. osserv. di
S. Francesco ".
- See *Mocenigo's letter of July 27, 1673, loc. cit.
^ Altieri made many enemies for himself from the first, as soon
as his influence with the Pope became apparent ; see the report
of the Card, of Hesse of May 10, 1670. State Archives, Vienna.
On May 30, 1671, the latter *reports a dispute between Altieri
and the Spanish ambassador {ibid.).
* For what follows, cf. the *report of the Card, of Hesse to
Leopold I., dated May 11, 1675, loc. cit.
504 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
great satisfaction to the Emperor on the courage of the woman
and the humihation of the Cardinal nephew.^
Clement X. did not allow the persistent conflict between
Cardinal Alticri and the French to interfere with his work for
peace, 2 on the contrary, he continued it with undiminished
ardour though all he earned was sneers from Cardinal D'Estrees
and annoyance from Louis XIV. The King suggested as the
place of the congress first Breda and then Nymeguen, both of
them towns with a predominantly Calvinist population, in
which a representative of the Pope could only appear with
difficulty.^ This insistence was very properly interpreted as a
proof that France did not want the impartial mediation of the
Pope* As Clement X. continued to hope for a change for the
better, he put off the nomination of a papal representative to
the peace congress ; in April, 1675, the nuncios of Vienna,
' " *Obstupuit Roma tantum videns in femina animum et
tantani in cardinali abiectionem," says the Card, of Hesse in his
above-mentioned report. After that it is not surprising that
Christine's attempts to get Cardinal Azzolini into the Secretariate
of State failed in consequence of Altieri's opposition (*Lcttcr of
Mocenigo of July 20, 1675, loc. cit.).
2 " *Dissidium quoque inter regem Galium et cardiualem
dc Alteriis perennat." In spite of various, most favourable offers
to the French, which were put before the King through Cardinal
Bonsy " tamen ad omnia respondisse dicitur nullam cardinaH
de Alteriis redeundi in gratiam fore viam, nisi sequestri et media-
tore suo in urbe legato regiorum consiliorum maxime conscio ".
Those in the know think " regem nempe hoc toto pontificatii
iram demonstraturum, ut Alterianas quas appellant creaturas.
ad summum gradum aspirantes metu offendendi regis ab earum
promotore alienas reddat." For all that Card. Altieri seeks by
every means to recover the favour of the French King " nee
tamen proficit hactenus ". Report of the Card, of Hesse to
Leopold I., September 7, 1673, State Archives, Vienna. The same
report says : An old man of Padua, aged 104, was presented to
the Pope yesterday " ubi de \'ita et vivendi ratione ultro citroque
dictis, tandem senex donatus a sene dimissus est ".
* Gerin, II., 637 seqq.
* Levinson, Nitntiaturberichte, II., 181.
FRESH EFFORTS FOR PEACE. 505
Paris, and Madrid were instructed to urge the choice of another
seat for the congress.^ By way of a solution of the problem the
Spanish ambassador suggested that the papal plenipotentiary
should betake himself to some Catholic locality in the neigh-
bourhood of Nymeguen.2
The Pope busied himself day and night with his mediation
for a peace from which he hoped to derive some advantages
for the Catholic rehgion. At the beginning of October 1675,
he resolved to dispatch special nuncios for this purpose to
Paris, Vienna, and Madrid. Pompeo Varese, Archbishop of
Adrianople, was to be accredited to Louis XIV. ; Luigi
Bevilacqua, Patriarch of Alexandria, to Vienna, and Peter,
Archbishop of Nicomedia, to Madrid.^ In view of the circum-
stance that the Spanish nuncio, Fabrizio Spada, had been
raised to the cardinalate, Varese was to take his place as
ordinary nuncio on completion of his peace mission. How-
ever, Louis XIV. demanded that further candidates for the
nunciature should be submitted. The Pope refused to comply
with this demand, whereupon Louis declared that he would
only discuss the question with Varese. As a matter of fact,
he did so when Varese arrived in Paris in the spring of 1676.*
Though the seat of the peace congress was not yet fixed, the
^ *Cifra al Nuntio di Spagna, April 20, 1675, Nimziat. di Spagna,
139, Papal Sec. Arch. C/., 2bid., the *Cifra of June 15, 1675 ;
also the *Brief to Louis XIV., June 27, 1675, Epist., IV. -VII.,
f. 269, Papal Sec. Arch.
"^ Cf. P. Mocenigo's *letter to A. Contarini, ]May iS, 1675, loc.
cit.
' *Briefs to Louis XIV., the Emperor and the Queen-Regent
of Spain, October 5, 1675, Epist., IV. -VII., loc. cit. The " *Instrut-
tione per li Nuntii straordinarii spediti alle corti per procurar la
pace ", Cod. 381 of the Library of S. Croce, in Gerusalemme,
Rome. Some passages are given by Lammer, Ziir Kirchengesch.,
30-
* Gerin, II., 640 seqq. Varese's Instruction [cf. Lammek,
loc. cit., 32) refutes Morosini's assertion, adopted by Ranke
(III., in), of a " naturale partialita del cardinale Altieri per la
corona cattolica ".
506 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Pope, on October 5th, 1675, named his plenipotentiary in the
person of Fabio Guinigi, Archbishop of Ravenna. ^ When his
Instruction was drawn up, it became necessary to decide to
what extent the Pope's representative at the congress might
enter into relations with those who had fallen away from the
Church. At the congress of Miinster, Cardinal Chigi, the future
Alexander XII., had strictly adhered on this point to the
ancient discipline of the Church,^ with the consequence that
his influence on its deliberations had been inadequate. At the
congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, under Clement IX., the Cologne
nuncio, Franciotti, was allowed to depart somewhat from the
rigid attitude of Chigi. Franciotti's successor, Buonvisi,
received instructions from Clement X. in October 1671, to the
effect that he should establish humane relations with non-
Catholics and not refuse on principle to have speech, in private,
with Protestant envoys. Courtesy, the hall-mark of a culti-
vated man, was not incompatible with the character of a papal
envoy who could display it with excellent results, especially
in dealing with such persons as respond more readily to gentle
treatment than to the strong impulses of conscience and
reason. 3 To Guinigi a middle course was recommended.
He was instructed to make a difference in his relations between
Catholics and heretics for it would be unreasonable to treat
the sworn enemies of the Church as brethren. On the other
hand, he must avoid all pettiness by which he would offend
the Protestants, irritate the Catholics, and hinder the real
purpose of the congress. In particular cases prudence must
regulate his zeal ; for the sake of the peace of Europe one
could make concessions which, without so powerful a motive.
^ Brief of October 5, 1675, to Louis XI\'., loc. cil., f. 335.
- Cf. Vol. XXX., p. 97 secj.
^ Trenta, I., 294. Here also Buonvisi's account of the invita-
tion to a banquet given by him, with Altieri's leave, to the envoys
of Denmark and the Rhine Palatinate, a step that made a
{^reat impression and even induced the Elector of Brandenburg
to drink the Pope's licalth at a banquet given by the
town.
DEATH OF THE POPE. 507
might give scandal.^ On February 15th, ItiVG, Clement X.
assured the Emperor that day and night his thoughts were
occupied with the peace negotiations.- On June 19th, he
adjured the Emperor,^ and on the following day the King of
France,* to consent to an armistice as a prehminary of peace.
On July 15th, he recommended his plenipotentiary for the
peace congress, Fabrizio Guinigi, to the German princes.^
By the time these various letters were dispatched, death had
laid its hand on the eighty-six-year-old Pontiff.
With truly amazing energy, Clement X. had stuck to his
task all this time and endeavoured to fulfil the duties of his
office to the best of his ability. Though from the very beginning
of his pontificate he suffered much from gout, and the state
of his health was subject to frequent changes, his condition
gave no real cause for anxiety.^ In the jubilee year of 1675,
his activity, in view of his age, was still amazing.'^ His entourage
only became anxious in 1676, when symptoms of dropsy
showed themselves.^ The Pope, nevertheless, continued to
give audiences up till mid- July ^ ; but then he was seized with
a malignant fever, which the physicians failed to diagnose :
this precipitated the end. On July 22nd the Cardinals were
^ HiLTEBRANDT, in Oiiellen tt. Forsch., XV., 366 seq., who
overlooked the fact that Lammer {Zur Kirchengesch., 31 seq.)
had already printed a passage of the Instructions and analysed
the whole document.
- " *Imperatori," on February 15, 1676.
^ *Epist., IV. -V., Papal Sec. Arch.
■• Gerin, II., 641.
5 *Epist., IV. -V., loc. cit.
* Cf. the ^reports of the Card, of Hesse, especially those of
September 20, 1670, and May 20, 1673, State Archives, Vienna,
and the very accurate *reports of P. Moenigo to A. Contarini,
August 24, 1675, loc. cit.
' Cf. above, p. 471 ; also Gerix, II., 595, and P. Mocenigo's
*report of August 24, 1675, loc. cit.
* Gerin, II., 643.
^ As late as Wednesday, says the *Avviso of July 17, 1676,
Papal Sec. Arch.
5"o8 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
summoned to his death-bed ; Ouet'n Christine was also present.
Clement X. received the consolations of religion with £?rcat
devotion and died in the afternoon of the same day.^
1 See the *report of Card. Carlo Pic to Leopold I., dated Rome,
July 22, 1676, State Archives, Vienna, and *Avviso of July 25,
1676, Papal Sec. Arch. Cf. also the *Avviso of August 7, 1676,
on the burial " vicino la cappella del SS. Sacramento ". Contari
{*Memorie, loc. cit.) accurately designates the " deposito sopra
la porta nel pilastro chc e di rimpetto al nobile sepolcro dclla ■
contessa Matilde ".
INDEX OF NAMES IN VOL. XXXI.
Abbatini, Antonio Maria, 321.
Abelly (Bishop of Rodez), 400.
Acciajoli, Cardinal Niccolo, 349.
Acquaviva, Cardinal Ottavio,
4> 432, 437 "•
Adrian VI., Pope, 19.
Aiguillon, Duchess of, 150.
Airoldi (abbot), 419 seq.
Alberizzi, Cardinal Mario, 151,
480, 498, 502.
Albizzi, Cardinal, 3, 4, 151,
224, 244 seq., 316, 364 n.,
381 seqq., 389 n., 395 seqq.,
403, 466, 488.
Aldobrandini, Cardinal, 2.
Alexander III., Pope, 107.
Alexander VII., Pope, passim
1-313, 314 seqq., 318, 322,
327, 331 n., 334, 338, 344,
349 seq., 361, 369, 375.
385 n., 394, 401 seqq., 403,
406-409 n., 429, 432 seqq.,
468, 477 seq., 480 seq.,
483, 488.
Alexander Henry (Duke of
Schleswig-Holstein) , 144.
Alexis Mikhailowic (Tsar), 459.
Alfonso VI. (King of Portugal),
341 seqq.
Algardi, 279.
Allaci, L., 32S.
Allatius, Leo, 271.
Alphonsus Liguori, Saint,
196 n., 248, 262.
Altieri, Cardinal Aegidio, 349,
Altieri, Angelo (Bishop of
Sutri), 436 seqq., 451
Altieri, Cardinal Emilio (after-
wards Pope Clement X.),
433. 435 n-. 43^.
Altieri, Cardinal Giovanni
Battista. 316, 323. 433,
438, 452.
Altieri, Caspar (formerly
Paluzzi), 442, 462, 469.
Altieri, Girolamo, 438.
Altieri, Laura Caterina, 442.
Altieri, Lorenzo, 438, 452.
Altieri, Marzio, 438, 452.
Altieri, Cardinal Paluzzi-
Altieri, 443, 445 seq., 453,
465 n., 472, 478, 481 seq.,
488, 500 seqq.-=)0^.
Altoviti, Giacomo, 340.
Amadeus Guimeneus, see
Mateo de Moya.
Amico, S.J., 259.
Andilly, Robert d', 227 seq.
Angelo de Chiavasio, 24S.
Annat, S.J., 176 seqq., 183,
193 seqq.-2i2, 223 seqq.,
352 seqq.
Anne (Queen of France), 65,
220, 241, 362 n.
Antonio a S. Maria (Franciscan) ,
408 seq.
Aragona, Cardinal Luigi
Guglielmo Moncada d',
133-
Aragona, Cardinal Pasquale d',
131-
Arnauld, Mere Agnes, 353.
Arnauld, Mere Angelique, 171
seq., 353 seqq.
Arnauld, Antoine, 173 seqq.-
268, 353 seq., 359, 366 seq.-
406, 486 seqq.
Arnauld, Bishop Henri of
Angers, 183, 200, 223 seqq.-
268, 350, 371. 376.
Artusi, Giovanni da Piscina,
301.
Astalli, Cardinal, 2.
Astorga, Marchese, 435, 43 S.
Aubeville, d', 90 seqq., loi.
Auersperg, 34S.
509
510
INDEX OF NAMES.
Augustine, St., 174 seq., 189.
Auvry (Bishop of Coutances),
202.
Azzolini, Cardinal Decio, 4, 41,
64, 65 seq., 96, 120 n., 151,
31b seq., 319, 324, 330, 342,
354, 364 n , 428, 431 seqq.,
433 seqq.-^OT,.
Baciccia, 432.
Bagno, Cardinal Niccolo Guido,
81, 130, 198 n., 199,
204 seqq.
Balde, Jakob, 277 n.
Baldeschi, 147.
Baldi, Lazzaro, 311, 468.
Baldinucci, 289 seqq.
Baltesara, 321.
Bandini, 12.
Barbarigo, Cardinal Gregorio,
131, 316.
Barberini, Cardinal Antonio,
2 seqq., 15 n., 317, 428,
432, 434 seq., 437 n.
Barberini, Cardinal Francesco,
2 seq., 15, 50 n., 182, 320,
420, 432, 451, 471, 472 n.
Barberini, Taddeo, 320.
Bargellini, Cardinal Niccolo,
360 seq., 363 seqq., 366
seqq., 369-37?, 379 seqq.,
381-406.
Bargellini, Pietro (Archbishop
of Thebes), 416, 424, 482
seqq.
Barillon (Bishop of Lu9on),
486 n.
Baroni, Leonore, 320.
Bartoli, Popario, 289.
Basadonna, Cardinal Pietro,
478.
Bauny, S.J., 259.
Beauvais, Bishop of, 350.
Bellefonds, Marshal of, 403 n.,
407 n.
Benedict XIV., Pope, 412 n.,
418 n.
Benevoli, Onoratio, 468.
Benginus, Blai.se, 328.
Bentheim, Arnold Maurice
William of Bentheim-
Steinfurth, 145.
Bentheim, Count Ernest
William of Bentheim-
Steinfurth, 145.
Berenice della Ciaja, 28.
Bernard, St., 196.
Bernard of Babylon (Bishop),
152.
Bernard of Galen (Bishop),
491.
Bernard Gustav of Baden-
Durlach (Margrave, Abbot
of Fulda), 347.
Bernini, 13, 16, 72, 278-310,
321, 332 seqq.-ii^, 418,
450 seqq., 470 seqq.
Bertaud, Bertin, 251.
Bertier (Bishop of Montaubon),
468 n.
Bevilacqua, Luigi (Patriarch of
Alexandria), 505.
Bichi, Cardinal Antonio, 20,
26, 130.
Bichi, Giovanni, 20, 87.
Bitonto, Scb. Mele da, 440 n.
Bona, Cardinal Giovanni, iiS,
328, 343, 349, 433-
Boncompagni, Cardinal Giro-
lamo, 132.
Bonelli, Carlo, 81, 132.
Boniface IV., Pope, 472.
Bonsy, Cardinal Pierre de, 475.
Boonen (Archbishop of
Malines, 262.
Borghese, Maria Virginia, 24.
Borrelli, Giovanni Alfonso, 71.
Borri, Francesco, 469 n.
Borromeo, Fcderigo (Patriarch
of Alexandria), 416, 443,
473. 477-
Borromeo, Cardinal Ghiberto,
4, 8, 64, 315, 340, 362 n.,
389 n.. 395 seq., 428, 432.
Borromini, 274, 332.
Bossuet (Bishop of Condom),
216, 403, 406, 486 n.
Bouillon, Cardinal, 346, 432,
434 seq., 496.
Bourbon, Anne Genevieve, 353.
Bourdelot (physician), 49.
INDEX OF NAMES.
511
Bourgeois, 179 5^^.
Bourges, Jacques, 407.
Bourlemont, Abbe, 106, no,
114.
Bourseys, 172, 220, 362 n.
Boym, Michael (S.J.), 164.
Bragadino, Cardinal, <S6.
Bramante, 431.
Brancaccio, Cardinal, 2, 3 seq.,
316, 340, 364 n., 432,
434 n.
Brancati (S.J.), 343, 409.
Brandenburg, Elector of, 134,
134 n., 146, 506.
Brettonvilliers, 172.
Brousse, 178 seq.
Brunetti, Cosinio, 182.
Bruno, St. 408 n.
Bulgarini, Agnese, 11.
Buonaccorsi, Buonaccorso, 349,
437 n.
Buonvisi, Francesco, 435, 437
seqq., 461, 306.
Buonvisi, Cardinal Girolamo,
130. 317-433 seqq.
Buzenval, Bishop Nicholas
Choart de, 213, 223, 373.
Cajetan of Tiena, St., 468.
Cancellotti, Giambattista
(S.J.), 17, 118.
Capponi, Aloisi, Cardinal, i, 2.
Carafa, Cardinal, 4, 6. 86, 132,
134, 140.
Caramuel (Cistercian), 231.
Carlo da Sezze, 339.
Carpegna, Cardinal, 316, 432,
443, 467, 473.
Carracciolo, Cardinal liligo,
132, 437 n.
Cartari, Giulio, 333.
Casanale, Carlo, 364 n.
Casanata, Cardinal Girolamo,
477-
Casati, Paolo (S.J.), 48, 49
seqq., 31.
Casimir (King of Poland), see
John Casimir.
Cassini (astronomer), 71, 272,
328.
Castellani, Giovanni Maria,
477-
Catherine of Portugal, 481.
Caula, Sigismondo, 3 n.
Caulet (Bishop of Pamiers), 237,
330 seqq., 366 seqq., 393
seqq., 406.
Cellese, Lucrezia, 323.
Celsi, Cardinal Angelo, 132,
364 n., -^Ci^seqq., 433.
Cerri, Carlo, 348.
Cesi, Cardinal, i, 6.
Chanut (French Ambassador),
45-
Charles II. (King of England),
107, 481.
Charles V., Pope, 333.
Charles XI. (King of Sweden),
456 seqq.
Charles (Duke of Lorraine), 421.
Charles Gustav of Wittelsbach
(Count Palatine), 41.
Charles Gustavus of Zwei-
briicken (King of Sweden),
51. 53. 55, 64, 67, 69,
133. 146.
Chaulnes, Duke of, 114 seqq.,
117 seq., 244, 324, 330,
417 seq., 434 seq.
Chevreuil, 138.
Chigi, Agostino, 10, 23, 23,
279, 282 n.
Chigi, Antonio, 10, 178.
Chigi, Cardinal Fabio (after-
wards Alexander VII.,
Pope), 3, 49, 78, 269
passim.
Chigi, Cardinal Flavio, 23, 23-
7, 96 seqq., 102, 106, lio-
113, 118, 130, 141, 152
seq., 281, 282, 317 seq.,
319, 362 n., 393, 428, 432,
438, 444, 300.
Chigi, Mario, 11, 18, 24, 26,
28, 33, 96 seqq. -100, no,
282 n.
Chigi, Sigismondo, 10 5^^., 23,
279, 344-
Choiseul (Bishop of Com-
minges), 179, 202, 225,
227 seq., 366, 4S6.
;i2
INDEX OF NAMES.
Christian III. (King of Den-
mark), 148.
Christian of Schleswig Mecklen-
burg, 144.
Christine of Sweden, 37 seqq.-
11, 94 n-. 97. 99, 328 seqq.-
431, 456, 470, 472, 503,
508.
Chrysostom, St., 189.
Ciampani, Giovanni, 328.
Ciampoli, 14.
Cibo, Cardinal, 2.
Cittadini, Celso, 13.
Clement VII., Pope, 440.
Clement VIII., Pope, 313, 339.
Clement IX., Pope, 314 passim
to 431, 433, 440, 446. 449.
465, 467, 468, 474 n.,
478, 488.
Clement X., Pope, 314, 335,
337 n., passim 431-508.
Clement XIII., Pope, 131,
412 n.
Colbert, Charles, 83, 216, 362,
483. 495-
Colbert of Auxerre, 486.
Colonna, Anne, 320.
Colonna, Cardinal, i.
Colonna, Francesco, 283.
Colonna, Constable, 70, 79,
456 n.
Colonna, Cardinal Federigo
Baldeschi, 478.
Comitoli (S.J.), 251.
Confucius, 166 seq., 408 seq.
Conring, 139.
Contarini, 131.
Conti, Cardinal Giovanni, 132.
Conti, Prince, 203, 210, 362.
Conti, Princess, 361.
Coquelin, 362.
Corrado, Cardinal, 3, 17, 18,
24, 78, 122.
Corraduci, Altieri, 451.
Corsini, Cardinal Neri, 132.
Cortese, G., 311.
Cortona, see Pietro da Cortona,
283 seq.
Costa, 2.
Cotolendi, Bishop, 151, 152, 160.
Cottone, A., 73 n.
Crasset (S.J.), 176.
Crequi, Duke of, 91 scqq.-
107, 112 n. seq., 115, 234.
Crescenzi, Cardinal Alessandro,
443, 480.
Cromwell, Oliver, 82.
Cueva, Cardinal, i.
Damasus, Pope, 299.
Davison, 61.
Delfinio, Cardinal, 120, 132.
Descartes, 42, 45.
Deschamps (S.J.), 176.
Deslions (Dean of Senlis), 213.
Deydier, 158.
Diana, Theatine, 251.
Donghi, Cardinal Giovanni
Stefano, 4.
Doroschenko, 459.
Dorville (S.J.), 160.
Duhamel, Cure, 220.
Dumoulin, 253 seq.
Duneau (S.J.), 82 n.
Durazzo, Cardinal, i.
Du Sault, 215.
EccHELENSis, Abraham, 274.
Elce, Cardinal Scipione, 130,
318 seq., 433 seq.
Elconore of Brandenburg, 39.
Emmerix, John, 323 n.
Erythraeus, Janus Nicius, 270.
Escobar, 190 seq., 251.
Este (Duke of JNIodena), 2.
Este, Cardinal Rainoldi d', 2
seqq., 96, 97, 317, 432.
Estrees, Cardinal Cesar d', 226,
346, 366, 473, 476, 478
seq., 481, 500 seqq., 504.
Estrees, Duke d', 476, 478 seqq.,
481.
Estrees, Marquis d', 493.
Evreux, Bishop of, 400.
Faber, 330.
Facchinetti, Cardinal, 433 seq.
Fagnani, Prospero, 127.
Fancelli. Cosimo, 284, 333, 449,
452.
Farnese, Cardinal Girolamo,
130. 31S.
INDEX OF NAMES.
51:
Faure, De (S.J.), 409.
Favorite, Agostino, 269.
Fedele, Professor, 308 n.
Felipe Leonardo (O.P.), 409.
Ferabosco, 288.
Ferdinand II. (Emperor), 135.
Ferdinand IV. (Elector), 138.
Ferdinand (Grand Duke of
Tuscany), 106.
Ferdinand Mary (Elector of
Bavaria), 136.
Ferdinand of Fiirstenberg, 18.
Ferrata, Ercole, 284, 333, 449.
Ferri, Giro, 311.
Ferrier (S.J.), 225, 227 seqq.
Feuilladc, Duke de La, 421 seq.
Filleau, 175.
Filomarino, Cardinal, i.
Foggini, 345.
Forbin-Janson (Bishop of Mar-
seilles), 478 seq.
Foscarini, 483.
Francesco de Malines, 48, 50,
53-
Franciotti, Gardinal Agostino,
3- 41.5. 506.
Francis Borgia, St., 468.
Francis de Sales, Saint, 96,
128.
Francis of Solano, Bl., 468.
Francis of Vitoria, 250.
Francken, Godfrey, 48.
Franz Wilhelm von Warten-
berg. Cardinal, 131.
Frederick of Hesse, Card., 157.
Frederick William, Elector of
Brandenburg, 39, 499.
Freinsheim, 42.
Fromm, Andrew, 145.
Fulda, Abbot of, see Bernard
Gustav.
Fiirstenberg, Bp. Ferdinand
von, 143, 269.
Fiirstenberg, Francis Egon von,
139. 141 seq.
Fiirstenberg, William von, 142,
478.
Furtado, Francis (S.J.), 164.
Gabriel of Kiew (Metropolitan
of Ruthenia), 153.
VOL. XXXI.
Gabrielli, Card., 2, 432, 442 n.
Gaetano, Abbot Constantine,
273-
Galen, Bernard von, 143.
Galileo, 344.
Gallio, Marco, 140.
Gastalli, Card. Girolamo, 477.
Gaudon, 362 n.
Gaulli, G. B., 332.
Gavotti, Lorenzo, 274.
Genocchi, G., 308 n.
Gerberon (O.S.B.), 487.
Gianetti, Giovanni Francesco,
471.
Ginetti, Card., 364 n., 395,
432, 434 n-. 437 n.
Giordani, Vitale, 71.
Giorgetti, Antonio, 333.
Giovanni, Francesco Bolognese,
311-
Girard, 225, 230 seq.
Godeau, Bp., 179, 223.
Gondini (Abp. of Sens), 183 n.,
220, 354, 358 seqq.-^d,^.
Gorkum, Martyrs of, 468.
Govea, Antonio (S.J.), 409.
Gregory VTL, Pope, 107.
Gregory XIV., Pope, 340, 465.
Gregory XV., Pope, 129, 477.
Gremonville, Sieur de, 416.
Grimaldi, Card., 103, 318, 437 n.
Grimani, Antonio, 440.
Grimmelshausen, 145.
Grotius, 50 n.
Gruber (S.J.), 160.
Gualtieri, Card., 4, 340, 432.
Guemes, John Baptist (O.P.),
51. 52.
Guidi, 373, 333, 449.
Guimeneus, Amadeus, see Moya.
Guinigi, Fabio (Abp. of
Ravenna), 506 seq.
Gustav Adolph (Margrave of
Baden), 145, 473 seqq.
Gustavus Adolphus (King of
Sweden), 37 seqq., 39.
Guyart, Syndic, 176.
Hallier, Bp.. 198.
Hameran, 13 n.
Hamon, Dr., 487 n.
l1
514
INDEX OF NAMES.
Harlay de Champvallon (Abp.
of Paris), 486 n.
Harlay de Perefixe (Abp. of
Paris), see Perefixe.
Harlay (Abp. of Rouen), 217,
393, 395 seqq., 399 seqq.
Harrach, Card., i, 2, 5 seq.,
317-
Haye, Dr. de la, 213.
Heinsius, Nicholas, 42.
Henri (Bp. of Angers), 375.
Henry (Elector of Bavaria), 139.
Henry IV. (King of France),
418 n.
Henschen, 271.
Hermant, Godfrey, 254 seqq.
Heron, 180.
Hesse, Landgrave of. Card., 2,
146, 317, 323 n., 346, 432,
437, 469 n., 479 n., 501,
503-
Hessen-Rlieinfels, Ernest of,
146.
Hocquincourt (Bp. of Verdun),
486 n.
Hohenlohe, Count, 145.
Holden, Dr., 183.
Holm, John, 48.
Holstenius, Msgr., 50 n., 54, 71.
Holzhauser, Bartholomew, 142.
Hortense (Duchess de Maz-
zarin), 456 n.
Houdancourt, De la Motte
(Bp. of Auch), 486 n.
Hovyne, President, 267.
Howard, Card. Philip Thomas,
480 seq.
Ignatius of Loyola, St., 247.
Imperiali, Card. Lorenzo, 4, 64,
94 seqq., 103, 113, 120,
317, 428, 432.
Innocent X, Pope, i, 2 seqq.,
15, 17, 20, 49, 51, 78, 125,
137 seq., 144, 150, 163,
176, 182, 197, 200, 208,
212 seq., 229 seq., 263,
289, 300, 313. 316, 322,
349, 351, 395. 401 ^(^(l-.
433, 439-
Innocent XI., Pope, 288.
Intorcetta (S.J.), 409.
Jacob (Patriarch of Greater
Armenia), 343.
James (Armenian Catholicos),
154-
Jansenius, 171 seqq.-268 ; 350-
406 ; 482 5^^.-489.
Jerome of Narni, 126.
John of Austria, 262, 265 seq.
John Casimir (King of Poland),
422, 454 seq.
John of the Cross, St., 468.
John Frederick of Brunswick-
Liineburg, 144.
John George 11. (Elector of
Saxony), 146.
Joisel, 199 n., 200 n.
Joseph Mary of Hierapolis,
Bp.. 153-
Joseph of St. Mary, 156.
Juan de Mendoza (O.F.M.),
162.
Julius II., Pope, 10.
Kanghi (Emperor of China),
408.
Kircher, Athanasius (S.J.), 63,
270 seq., 276, 328.
Kopriilu, Grand Vizier Ahmed,
413. 424-
Kopriilii, Mohammed, 413.
La Borde (Bp. de St. Brieuc),
179, 486 n.
Lafontaine, 346.
Lalane, de, 225, 230 seq.
Lambeck, Peter, 145.
Lambert, Pierre de la Motte
(Vicar Apostolic), 151 seq.-
158, 407.
Lancellotti, Giambattista, 439,
454-
La Tour, Emanuel de, see
Bouillon.
Laurens, 264.
Laval, Fran9ois, 152, 163.
Le Camus (I3p. of Grenoble),
210, 364, 486 n.
Le l-'avre (S.J.), 409.
Leibnitz, 490.
INDEX OF NAMES.
515
Le Maitre de Sacy, 487.
Leopold I. (Emperor), 52, 104,
108, no, 136 seqq., 146,
317. 347. 416, 437. 466.
473. 479 n.. 493, 498,
501 n.
Leo X., Pope, 10.
Le Sauvage (Bp. of Lavaur),
486 n.
Lescot (Bp. of Chartres), 177.
Lessius, 263.
Le Tellier, 216, 358 seqq., 367,
484, 486 n.
Le Tellier, Abbe, 362 seq., 404.
Le Tourneux, 487 n.
Liancourt, Marquis de, 172 seqq.
Lingendes, de (S.J.), 240.
Lionne, Hugues de, 6, 79,
80 seqq., 90, 92 seqq.,
98 n., 99, 115 n., 117, 136,
216, 219, 223, 242 seq.,
246, 360, 362 n., 364,
366-406, 473.
Litta, Card. Alfonso, 132, 434 n.,
465-
Lobkowitz, 347 seq.
Lombez, Bp. of, 400.
Lomellini, Card. Giovanni
Girolamo, 4.
Lomenie de Birenne (Bp. of
Coutances), 486 n.
Longueville, Duchesse de, 15,
353 seq., 361, 377, 404,
484.
Lopez (O.P.), 160 n.
Lorenzetto, 279.
Louis Beltram, St., 468.
Louis XIV (King of France),
65, 89 seqq., 103 seqq.-io^,
no seqq.-izi, 136 seqq.,
140, 201, 211, 216 seqq.,
224 seqq.-268, 318, 328,
242, 347. 350, 363 seq.,
380 seqq.-yj8, 406, 413 seq.,
416, 417, 423 seqq.-428,
473, 478, 483, 490 seq.,
493. 494 seq., 498, 504.
Louis XVIII (King of France),
288.
Louise Hollandine (Countess
Palatine), 143.
Louis of Celle, 144.
Louvois, 484.
Ludovica Albertoni, Bl., 468.
Ludovisi, Card., 437 n.
Lugo, Card. (S.J.), i, 15, 20,
314 n.
Maccioni, Valerio, 144, 145,
344-
Macedo, Antonio (S.J.), 46, 49.
Maculano, Card. (O.F.M.). 182,
Maderna, Carlo, 281, 451.
Magalotti, 269.
Maidalchini, Card., 2, 106,
no, 120 n., 318, 432.
Maidalchini, Donna Olympia,
17, 28, 51.
Mancini, Card. Francesco Maria,
131, 318, 432.
Mancini, Maria, 27, 456 n.
Manderscheid (S.J.), 51.
Manessier, 179.
Manfroni, 157.
Mangelli, Andrea, 262 seq., 265.
Mantua, Duke Charles, 10 n.
Maracci, Ludovico, 274.
Maratta, Carlo, 284, 311, 323,
331. 337. 452.
Marca, De, 201, 214 seq.,
224.
Marcellus II., Pope, 19.
Marescotti, Card. Galeazzo. 224,
360, 416 seqq., 465 n.,
480.
Maria- Anna (Queen Regent of
Spain), 414.
Maria (Princess of Savoy), 61.
Marmiesse of Conserans, 486 n.
Marsili, Laura, 11.
Martello, France?co, 463.
Martini, Martin (S.J.), 164 seqq.-
169, 411.
Martire, G. 308 n.
Mary Frances of Savoy, 342.
Mary Magdalen di Pazzi, St.,
338, 468 n.
Massimo, Camillo, Card., 79,
443, 452, 473.
Mathia, Dr. John, 43 seqq., 45.
Mattei, Card., 3 n.
Mattel, Carlo, 301.
5i6
INDEX OF NAMES.
Maximilian, Henry, 142, 344,
491.
IMazarin, Card., i, 2, 7 seqq.,
15. 65, 78 seqq., 81 seqq.,
89, 121, 135, 171 seq., 182,
igg, 2or.
Medici, Card., i seqq., 57.
Medici, Carlo, Elector, i.
Medici (family), 316 seqq.,
433 seqq-
Medici, Card. Leopoldo,
344 seq., 432 seq.
Medici, Marie de (Queen), 15.
Melzi, Card. Camillo, 130.
Menzies, Paul von Pitfodels,
457-
Merlin, Clement, 271.
Michelangelo, 298.
Milhard (O.S.B.), 251.
Milton, John, 320.
Miramont, President, 225.
Mirandola, Alessandro Pico de
la, 426 seq.
Mocenigo (Admiral), 87.
Modena (Duke of Este), 2.
Mohammed IV. (Sultan), 459,
466, 501.
Mohammed V, Sultan, 454 seq.
Mola, Pier Francesco, 311.
Monaldeschi, Gian Rainaldo,
66.
Moncada, Card. Luigi Gug.
Moncada d'Aragona, 133.
Montalto, Card., 2.
Monte, Marchese del, 457.
Monterey, Count, 493, 499.
Morales (S.J.), 165 seq., 408.
Morosini, Francesco, 419,
482 seq.
Morosini, Taddco, 425 seq.
Moya,Mateo de (S.J)., 256 seqq.-
258.
Murillo, 129.
Mussolini, 308 n.
Naironus, Faustus, 273.
Naldi, Dr. Mattia, 18.
Naldini, Paolo, 333.
Naude, Gabriel, 42.
Navarette, Domingo Fernan-
dez, 408 seqq.
Neerkassel, John (Vicar Apos-
tolic), 497.
Nerli, Card. Francesco, 10 n.,
18 n., 323 n., 349. 433,
443 n., 476, 477, 495.
Nicholas IV., Pope, 449.
Nickel, Godwin (S.J.), 48, 164,
261.
Nicolai (O.P.), 183 n.
Nicole, Pierre, 206 seq., 406
487.
Nini, Card. (G.F.), 90, 132, 324.
Nithard, Eberhard (Abp. of
Edessa), 346, 475 seq., 501,
503-
Nointel, Marquis de, 489 seq.
Norfolk, Cardinal, 480, 481.
Norfolk, Henry, Duke of, 481.
Nouet (S.J.), 193 seqq.
Odescalchi, Card., 2, 4, 281 n.,
433. 460.
Olanus, Archbishop of, 40.
Olier, 172.
Oliva, Card. (S.J.), 18, 22 n.,
24, 59.
Olivares, 80 n.
Olszowski (Vice Chancellor of
Poland), 454 seq.
Omodei, Card. Luigi, 4, 432.
Ondedei (Bp. of Frejus), 103.
Orsini, Card., 120 n., 317, 432,
437".
Orsini (family), 441.
Orsini, Card. Vincenzo Maria,
(O.P.), 475
Osuna, Duke of, 465 n.
Ottoboni, Card. Pietro, 4, 315,
324, 342, 364 n., 395 seq.,
428, 432, 434 n. seq.
Oxenstjerna( Chancellor), 37, 40.
Pac (Grand-Chancellor of
Lithuania), 454.
Pallavicino, Card. Lazarro, 348.
Pallavicino, O., 499 n.
Pallavicino, Card. Sforza 14,
' 15, 18, 20, 21, 24, 26,
60, 73 n., 82 n., 98, 102,
120-2, 130, 260, 269, 272,
314. 322, 324.
INDEX OF NAMES.
517
Pallu, Fran9ois (Vicar Apo-
stolic), 1^0 seqq., 152, 158,
160, 407 n.
Palombara, Massimiliano, 71 n.
Paluzzi, Angelo, 442, 451.
Paluzzi, Card, degli Albertoni,
-Altieri, 120, 132, 438, 441,
443. 445 seq., 453, 469.
Paluzzi, Card. Caspar, 442.
Pamfili, Card., 7, 64, 439.
Paolucci, Card., 130
Pardo, Felipe (O.P.), 411
Pascal, Blaise, 184 seqq. -262,
353 seqq.
Pascal, Jacqueline, 238 seq.,
353-
Pasquino, 323.
Paul III., Pope, 165, 300, 333.
Paul v.. Pope, I, II, 129, 144,
288, 295, 313, 451.
Paulus Irenaeus, see Nicole,
Pierre.
Pavilion, Bp. Nicolas of Alet,
209 seqq., 236 seqq., 240,
350 seqq., 353 seqq.-^o6.
Pedro II. of Portugal, 341.
Perefixe, Hardouin de (Abp. of
Paris), 225, 234, 239 seq.,
343, 376 seq.
Pereira, Pinto, 46.
Peruzzi, 284.
Peter of Alcantara, St., 338,
468 n.
Peter de Arbues, St., 128.
Peter (Abp. of Nicomedia),
505-
Philip Benizi, St., 468 seq.
Philip IV. of Spain, 49, 53, 103,
107.
Philip Neri, St., 339.
Piccolomini, Card. Celio, 132,
199.
Piccolomini, Francesco, 47, 261.
Piccolomini, Lelio, 17, 81, 100,
198, 201 seqq., 244, 264 n.,
381 n.
Picote, 172.
Pietro da Cortona, 283 seqq.,
310. 332, 336.
Pignatelli, Mario, 347, 420.
Pio, Card. Carlo, 4, 432.
Pirot, George, 256.
Piscop (O.P.), 154.
Pitfodels, Paul Menzies von,
459-
Pius v.. Pope, ig, 129, 468.
Plittersdorff, Freiherr von, 348.
Polanco, Juan (O.P.), 411.
Pollini, Alessandro, 269
Pomponne, 484, 490.
Pontan, 263 seq.
Portocarrero, Card. Louis
Emmanuel, 345, 348,
435 seq.
Poussin, Caspar, 311.
Prieras, Sylvester, 248.
Profuturus, Franciscus, see
Nicole, Pierre.
Puteanus, Erycius (Hendrik
van Putte), 271.
Raffael da Montelupo, 333.
Raggi, Antonio, 280, 333.
Raggi, Card., 2, 432.
Rainaldi, Carlo, 289, 307,
449 seq., 472 n.
Rakoczy, Prince Ceorge, 88.
Rancati, 176, 182, 213 seq.
Raphael, 10, 305.
Rasponi, Card. Cesare, 12,
102, 106, 132, 346 n.,
466 n.
Ravizza, Francesco, 467.
Rebello (S.J.), x.
Rebolledo, Ct., 51.
Rechigne, Bp. Guron de, 486.
Renaudot, 406.
Retz, Card., 64, 79, 90, 103,
201, 219, 318, 362, 432,
434 seqq.
Ricci, Michelangelo, 328.
Riquette (Bp. of Autun), 362.
Roberti, 236, 241, 246, 381 n.
Rocci, Card. Bernardino, 443,
482.
Rocci, Abp. of Damascus,
340-
Roche, 179.
Rondinini, Card., 17, 120.
Rondinini, Natale, 17, 269.
Rosa, Salvatore, 331.
Rose of Lima, St., 338, 468.
5i8
INDEX OF NAMES.
Rospigliosi, Camillo, 325, 331.
Rospigliosi, Card. Felice, 326,
476.
Rospigliosi, Giambattista, 325
seq., 330.
Rospigliosi, Card. Giulio, after-
wards Pope Clement IX,
17, 18 n., 24, 78, 96, 122,
130, 151, 229, 316,
317 seqq.-^ig passim.
Rospigliosi, Card. Jacobo, 324,
326, 343, 344. 354,
364 n. seq., 386, 398, 406,
414, 417, 420, 428, 432
seqq.
Rospigliosi, Tommaso, 325 seq.
Rospigliosi, Vincenzo, 326, 419,
423 seqq.
Rossi, Giovanni Antonio de',
452.
Rubeis, Benedetto de, 270 n.
Rubeis, Matthias de, 420 n.
Sa, Emmanuel (S.J.), 259.
Sacchi, A., 331.
Sachetti, Card., 2, 3 seqq., 18,
23, 33. 96.
Sacy, see Le Maitre de Sacy.
Sagredo, 125.
Saint-Amour, 176, 231, 25^.
Saint-Cyxan, 353.
Saint-Laurens, De, 373.
Sainte-Beuve, 220 seqq.
Sainte-Marthe, 483.
Salmasius, 42.
Sanchez, Francesco Nunez,
286 n.
Sandoval, Card., i seq.
Sanfelice, Nuncio, 136 seq.
Santinelli, Francesco Maria, 66,
67 seq.
Sarpetri (Dominican), 408.
Sarpi, 86.
Savelli, Card. Paolo, 132, 282 n.
Savoy, Duchess Regent of, loi.
Scaletta, Prince Rosso, 16.
Schall (S.J.), 159.
Schonborn, John Philip (Elector
of Mayence), 137 seq., 141,
145, 456 n.
Schor, Aegidius, 311.
Schor, John Paul, 311.
Schorrer, Christopher (S.J.),
164.
Schwarzenbach, John Henry
of, 145.
Seguenot (Orat.), 220 seqq.
Seguier, Chancellor, 176, 203 n.
Sevin, Pierre, 329 n.
Sforza, Card., 317, 332.
Shungti (Emperor of Tartary),
159.
Sigismond of Tyrol, 146.
Sinnich, 263 seq.
Siri, Vittorio, 100.
Sixtus III., Pope, 337.
Sixtus IV., Pope, 129, 285 313.
Sixtus v., Pope, 333, 449.
Sobieski, John, 454 seq., 458,
460 seq., 462.
Soccino, Mariano, 126 n., 469.
Sourdis, De, 251.
Sousa, Francisco de, 343, 467.
Spada, Card., 7, 8 seq., 18, 29,
151, 316, 431 n., 433 seqq.
Spada, Card. Fabrizzio, 495 n.,
505-
Spanheim, Ezekiel, 70.
Spinola, Ambrogio, 324.
Spinola, Card. Giulio, 132, 340,
428.
Staudacher (S.J.), 54.
Steno, N., 145.
Strada, Famiano (S.J.), 14, 319.
Suarez de Figuera (S.J.), 162 n.
Suarez, Francis (S.J.), 73 n.,
251-
Sulzbach (Ct. Palatine), 60,
M5-
Talon (Advocate General), 176,
203 seq., 236 seqq.-z^S.
Terranueva (Ambassador), 5.
Texeira, Isaac, 69.
Thomas Aquinas, St., 478.
Thomas a Kempis, 247.
Thomas of Villanueva, St.,
128, 282.
Thun, Card. Guidobaldi, 133,
141.
Tonnerre (Bp. of Noyon), 486 n.
Torquemada, Card., 477.
INDEX OF NAMES.
519
Tour, Emmanuel de La (Duke
d'Albret), 346, 422.
Trivulzio, Card., 2, 6 seq.
Turenne, Marshal, 346.
Tuscany, Grand Duke of, 31.
Ughelli (Ord. Cist.), 269, 271.
Ukraintzeff, 459.
Urban VIII., Pope, i, 2, 14,
15, 20, 125, 138, 287, 300,
313, 317. 320, 412 n., 439,
451-
Urbino, Duke of, 273 seq.
Valiero, Doge, 86 n.
Varese, Abbot Pompeo, 505.
Van der Veken (S.J.), 270 n.,
276 seq.
Van Vianen, 264.
Van Werm, 262 seq.
Vanni, Rafaele, 279.
Vecchi, Girolamo de', 263 seqq.
Vecchiarelli, Card. Odoardo,
131-
Vendome, Fran9ois de (Duke of
Beaufort), 424 seqq.
Vendome, Card. Louis, 120, 133,
342.
Vettori, Card. Carlo Roberto
de', 113, 132.
Vialart (Bp. of Chalons), 179,
354. 365 seqq.-4o6.
Vidman, Card. Cristoforo, 2, 4.
Vidoni, Card. Pietro, 131, 134,
433-
Vieira (S.J.), 161.
Ville, Guiron Frangois de, 420.
Vincent de Paul, St., 155, 172,
209.
Vincent Ferrer, St., 468.
Vinius, 459.
Visconti, Card. Vitaliano, 132,
432.
Vitelleschi,Muzio(S.J.),i4, 261.
Vivonne, Count of, 424 seq.
Vizzani, E., 273.
Voisin, 487 n. _
Volusius, 145.
Vossius, Gerard, 42.
Vossius, Isaac, 42.
Waldeck, Count Josias von,
420.
Walemburch, Adrian and Peter,
145-
Wansleben, John Michael, 145.
Widenfeldt. 488.
Wisnowiecki, Michael, 454 seq.,
457-
Witt, De, 330.
Yagellons, House of, 454,
461.
Zetina, 431.
Zucchi (S.J.), 126.
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