The popes of Rome ; their ecclesiastical and political history during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

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THE

POPES OF ROME:

THEIR

ECCLESIASTICAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY

DUUING THE

ijttteent^ antr Sebenteenti) (S-mtmm,

BY LEOPOLD RANKE,

Professor in the University of Berlin.

TRANSLATED BY SARAH AUSTIN,

From the German.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1847.

LONDON :
BnAnBURY AND KVANS, PRINTKBS, WHITKTRIARS.

*!»■"

^.5 of|Mecl/a

•?A

RY

SEPl2Wi

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

The reputation of tlie following work is so well established
throughout Europe, and its character and merits have been
so ably exhibited to the English public/"' that it would be
more than superfluous to insist on them here.

It is therefore only needful that I should say a few
words on the version of it now offered to the public. The
gravity and importance of the subject, the undiminished
interest which it excites, and the conspicuous good faith
and impartiahty with which it has been considered and
treated by the author, seem to demand some explanation
of the views by which I have been guided in the execution
of my task. I undertook it not without an earnest sense
of the responsibility of rendering into English a history of
that great divergence of religious opinions, which has so
long occupied the attention and inflamed the passions of
Europe, and my anxiety to acquit myself of it faithfully
was greatly increased by the bad faith of a French transla-
tion which appeared in 1838. It is impossible not to be

* See the articles in the Quarterly Review, Nos. ex. and cxvi.

vi TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

struck with surprise and mortification that, in this age of
the world, any man should be found so bhnded by anti-
pathy as not to perceive how much both catholics and pro-
testants have suffered by misrepresentation ; how much
both have to gain by truth; how much, therefore, both are
interested in preserving the integrity of a history, to which
both may appeal from prejudice and calumny.

Independently of the obligation to truth and fairness
which this consideration imposed upon the French trans-
lator, he was bound by the duties generally imperative on
those who undertake to convey to one nation the thoughts
which are embodied in the language of another. " Every
translator," says Goethe, "ought to regard himself as a
broker in the great intellectual traffic of the world, and to
consider it his business to promote the barter of the pro-
duce of mind. For whatever people may say of the inade-
quacy of translation, it is, and must ever be, one of the
most important and dignified occupations in the great com-
merce of the human race." *

But besides these duties towards the public, every trans-
lator is bound to fidefity by a duty which he owes to his
author ; for if there be anything which may be truly
called a man's own, it is surely the sum of his opinions on

* I give the whole passage for the zum Geschäft macht. Denn was man

German reader, auch von der Unzulänghchkeit des

" Wer die deutsche Spi'ache versteht Ubersetzens sagen mag, so ist und bleibt

und studiert, befindet sich auf dem es doch eines der wichtigsten und wiir-

Markte wo alle Nationen ihre AVaaren digsten Geschäfte in dem allgemeinen

anbieten ; er spielt den Dolmetscher, Weltverkehr,
indem er sich selbst bereichert. " Der Koran sagt, * Gott hat jedem

" Und so ist jeder Übersetzer anzuse- Volke einen Propheten gegeben in seiner

lien dass er sich als Vermittler dieses eigenen Sj)rache.' So ist jeder Uber-

allgemein geistigen Handels bemüht und setzerein Prophet in seinem Volke." —

den WcclKseltausch zu befördern sich Goethe^ KimM und Altcrthum.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. y^

a most momentous and difficult subject, arrived at by years
of patient toil and mature reflection, weighed with consum-
mate impartiality, and enounced with historical calmness.

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

Professor Ranke, not without reason, regards his reputa-
tion for impartiality, and (what to such a writer is far more
important) the effect of his book on the public mind, as
seriously endangered by the appearance of the French
version.

Accordingly, when I announced to him my intention of
translating his work, and my wish to attend to any sug-
gestions he might have to make, I received an answer
containing the following words.

" My book needs to be set right in the eyes of all but
German readers, after the unconscientious treatment it has
received at the hands of a catholicising French translator.
I look to England to redress the wrong done to me in
France." ^'

* '' Für das ausserdeutsche Publicum Rehabilitation ; eine englische Frau wird

bedarf es ohnehin, nach der gewissen- das Unrecht wieder gut machen das mir

losen Behandlung durch einen katholizi- in Frankreich begegnet ist."
renden französischen Übersetzer, einer

yjji TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

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

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

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

The chief interest of the work lies in the solution it
affords of the greatest problem of modern history. It is
impossible to contemplate the rapid and apparently resist-
less progress of the Reformation in its infancy, without

* " Wo ich immer aufschlage finde ich Sorgfalt und Gewissenhaftigkeit, und fühle
mich höchlich befriedigt."

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. ix

wondering what was the power which arrested and
forced back the torrent, and reconquered to the ancient
faith countries in which protestantism seemed firmly
estabHshed.

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

In them will also be seen how many of the elements of
protestantism hved and moved in the bosom of the catholic
church ; — and, on the other hand, how many of the insti-
tutions, and how much of the spirit, of the ancient church
have adhered to some forms of protestantism.

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

We are likewise struck by several examples of those
great oscillations of the human mind, of which each suc-
ceeding generation is the unconscious witness, though each
appears to regard its own mental condition with an exclu-
siveness and intolerance little befitting a creature so
changeful, and so dependent on circumstances for his
opinions, as man. A period of laxity in religion and
morals is as invariably succeeded by one of rigour and
asceticism, as that again is sure to engender an impa-
tience of restraint, an inordinate craving for indulgence,
and a coldness, not to say aversion, to the exercises of
devotion.

X TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

It is not within the humble province of a translator

to insist on the lessons of moderation to be drawn from

such views of the invariable laws which govern the moral

world. Those lessons will best be learned by an attentive

consideration of the facts presented to our view in the

follow^ing work.

S.A.

London, April, 1840.

AUTHOirS PREFACE.

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

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

It is my first duty to indicate the general character of
these materials, and the sources whence they are derived.

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

Besides the German, which is its chief and fundamental
ingredient, Vienna possesses another European element :

xii AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

manners and languages the most various meet in every
class, from the highest to the lowest, and Italy especially
has her living and full representation. The various collec-
tions too have a comprehensive character, which may be
ascribed to the policy of the state ; to its position with
regard to other countries ; to its ancient alhance with
Spain, Belgium, and Lombardy, and its intimate connexion,
both from proximity and from faith, with Rome. From
the earliest times, the taste for acquiring and possessing
such records has prevailed at Vienna. Hence even the
original and purely national collections of the imperial
library are of great value. In later times some foreign
collections have been added. From Modena a number of
volumes, similar to the Berlin " Informazioni,'' have been
purchased of the house of Rangone ; from Venice, the
inestimable manuscripts of the Doge Marco Foscarini, and
among them his own labours preparatory to the continua-
tion of his Italian Chronicles, of which not a trace is any-
where else to be found. Prince Eugene left a rich collection
of historical and political MSS., formed with the enlarged
views which might be expected from that accompHshed
statesman. It is impossible to read through the catalogues
without emotions of pleasure and hope. So many unex-
plored sources whence the deficiencies of most printed
works on modern history may be corrected and repaired !
— a whole futurity of study ! And yet, at the distance of
but a few steps, Vienna offers still more valuable materials.
The imperial archives contain, as we might anticipate, the
most important and authentic documents illustrative of
German and of general history, and peculiarly so of that
of Italy. It is true that by far the greater part of the
Venetian archives are restored, after long wanderings, to

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. XÜi

Venice ; but a considerable mass of papers belonging to the
republic are still to be found in Vienna ; despatches, original
or copied ; extracts from them, made for the use of govern-
ment, called rubricaries ; reports, often the only copies in
existence, and of great value ; official registers of the
government functionaries ; chronicles and journals. The
details which will be found in this work concerning Gre-
gory XIII. and Sixtus V. are, for the most part, drawn
from the archives of Vienna. I cannot adequately express
my sense of the boundless liberality with which access to
these treasures was granted to me.

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

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

It was an almost universal custom among the great
houses of Venice to have a cabinet of manuscripts attached
to their library. These of course chiefly related to the
affairs of the repubhc, and represented the share which
the particular family had taken in public business : they
were carefully preserved, as memorials of the history and
importance of the house, for the instruction of its younger
members. A few of these private collections are still
remaining, and were accessible to me ; but a far greater
number perished in the general ruin of the year 1797,

^jy AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

and subsequently. If more has been saved out of the
wreck than miglit be miagined, the world owes it chiefly
to the librarians of St. Mark, who exerted the utmost
powers of their institution to effect that object. The
library of St. Mark contains a valuable store of manu-
scripts which are indispensable to the domestic history
of the city or republic, and important even to that of
their relations with Europe. But too much must not be
expected from it. It is almost a new acquisition, casually
formed of private collections, without completeness or
uniform plan. It is not to be compared with the trea-
sures of the state archives in their present condition and
arrangement. In my inquiry into the conspiracy of 1618,
I have already described the Venetian archives, and
shall not repeat what I there said. The documents most
appropriate to my Roman objects were, the Reports of
the ambassadors on their return from Rome. I should
have been extremely glad however to be able to have
recourse to other collections, since none are free from
deficiencies, and these archives have sustained many losses
in the course of their various w^anderings. I collected,
in all, forty-eight Reports on Rome, — the earliest of them
of the year 1500 ; nineteen of the sixteenth, twenty-one
of the seventeenth century, forming an almost unbroken
series ; of the eighteenth century only eight, but these,
too, very instructive and valuable. In by far the greater
number of cases, I saw and used the originals. They
contain a great many interesting facts which were stated
on personal observation, and have passed away with the
lives of the contemporaneous generation. These first
gave me the idea of a continuous narrative, and the
courage to attempt it.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. XV

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

Luckily however other collections were laid open to me,
from which extensive and authentic, if not complete,
information could be extracted. In the palmy days of
aristocracy — that is, in the seventeenth century particu-
larly— the great families who were at the head of public
affairs all over Europe, were in possession of a part of the
public documents. Nowhere was this so remarkably the
case as in Rome. The kinsmen of the reigning pope, who
in every pontificate possessed the supreme power, usually
bequeathed, as an heirloom to the princely houses which
they founded, a considerable quantity of state papers,
accumulated during their administration. They were
thought a part of the hereditary possessions of a family.
In the palace which they built, there were two or three
rooms, generally in the highest story, appropriated to
books and manuscripts, and enriched by the contributions
of each succeeding generation. The private collections
of Rome are, in a certain sense, the public ones ; and the

VOL. I. h

^y| AUTHORS PREFACE.

dispersion of the archives of the state in the different
houses of the famiUes successively at the head of affairs,
was sanctioned by common usage ; in the same way as a
part of the pubhc revenues were permitted to overflow
into the hands of the papal families ; or as some private
collections, such as those of the Borghese or Doria palaces,
far surpassed that of the Vatican gallery, in extent or
historical importance.

It thus happens that the manuscripts which are pre-
served in the Barberini, Chigi, Altieri, Albani, and Corsini
palaces, are of incalculable value for the ecclesiastical and
pohtical history of the popes of Rome, — the Church and
State over which they presided. The state-archive office,
which has not been very long arranged, is pecuharly
important, as regards the middle ages, from its collection
of registers, which would amply reward an inquirer into
the history of that period for the labour of research ; but
so far as my knowledge extends, I cannot say that it
contains much calculated to throw light on more modern
times. Its value shrinks into nothing, (unless I have
been purposely deceived,) before the splendour and the
riches of private collections. Each of these, of course,
embraces more especially the epoch in which the pope
of the particular house reigned ; but as the kinsmen of
each retained a very eminent position ; as all men are
eager to enlarge and complete a collection once begun,
and as ample facilities for doing so were afforded in Rome,
where a literary traffic in manuscripts had grown up,
there is not one which does not contain many documents
tending to throw great light on other ages, both remote
and proximate. By far the richest (in consequence of
some valuable bequests) is the Barberini ; but the Corsini

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. XVU

was, from its very foundation, planned and arranged with
the greatest care and choice. I had the good fortune to
be allowed access (in some cases with unlimited freedom)
to all these collections, as well as to others of less import-
ance. They afforded me an unhoped-for harvest of authentic
materials apposite to my purpose. Correspondences of
the nuntiaturae, with the accompanying instructions, and
the reports which were brought back ; lives of several
popes, written in great detail, and with all the freedom
of communications not intended to meet the public eye ;
lives of distinguished cardinals ; official and private jour-
nals ; explanations of particular incidents and situations ;
official opinions and deliberations ; reports of the adminis-
tration of the provinces, their trade and manufactures ;
statistical tables ; accounts of income and expenditure ;
by far the greater part of them unknown, usually con-
structed by men who had a thorough and practical know-
ledge of their subject, and of a credibility which, though
it by no means precludes the necessity for examination
and criticism, is equal to what is universally accorded to
the testimony of well-informed contemporaries.

Of these MSS., the oldest of which I made any use,
concerns the conspiracy of the Porcari against Nicholas V.
A few others related to the fifteenth century ; fi:om the
commencement of the sixteenth, they became at every
step more numerous and full ; upon the whole course of
the seventeenth they throw a light which is doubly
precious from the dearth of authentic information about
Rome relating to that period ; while, from the begin-
ning of the eighteenth, again, their number and value
decrease. Both the state and court of Rome had then
lost much of their influence and importance. I shall go

Ä2

xviii AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

through these Roman MSS., as well as the Venetian, in
detail, in the Appentlix, and shall quote whatever appears
to me worthy of attention which I have not found a fit
opportunity of noticing in the body of the work.

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

An Italian, a catholic, would set about the task in a
totally different spirit from that in which the present work
is written. By the expression of personal veneration, or
it may be (in the present state of opinion), of personal
hatred, he would impart to his work a characteristic, and,
I doubt not, a more vivid and brilliant colouring ; and in
many passages he would be more circumstantial, more
ecclesiastical or more local. In these respects a protestant
and a North German cannot hope to vie with him. The
position and the feelings of such a writer with respect to
the papacy are less exposed to the influences which excite
the passions, and therefore while he is enabled to maintain
the indifferency so essential to an historian, he must, from
the very outset of his work, renounce that warmth of
expression which springs from partiahty or antipathy, and
which might perhaps produce a considerable effect on
Europe. We are necessarily deficient in true sympathy
with purely ecclesiastical or canonical details. On the
other hand, our circumstances enable us to occupy another
point of view, which, if I mistake not, is more favourable
to historical truth and impartiality.^'" For what is there
that can now make the history of the papal power interest-

* No change has been produccfl in the author has fouml no cause to make

this respect by the events which have other tlian slight additions and ahera-

occurred since tlie pubhcation of the first tions, which do not affect tliemaiii tliread

edition of this boolv. On reviewhig it, of the narrative.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xix

ing or important to us '? Not its peculiar relation to us,
which can no longer affect us in any material point ; nor
the anxiety or dread which it can inspire. The times in
which we had anything to fear are over ; we are con-
scious of our perfect security. The papacy can inspire us
with no other interest than what arises from its historical
development and its former influence.

The papal power was not so unchangeable as is com-
monly supposed. If we recur to the principles which are
the conditions of its existence, which it cannot abandon
without condemning itself to ruin, we find that it has
always been as profoundly affected by the vicissitudes
which have befallen the nations of Europe, as any other
government. As the fortunes of the world have varied,
as one nation or another has predominated, as the whole
fabric of society has been shaken, the papal power has
shared in the universal movement ; complete metamor-
phoses have taken place in its maxims, objects, and claims;
and, above all, its influence has experienced the greatest
variations. If we look through the catalogue of all those
names so often repeated through the whole series of centu-
ries, from Pius I. in the second, down to our contemporaries,
Pius VII. and VIII. in the nineteenth, it produces the
impression of an unbroken stability ; but we must not suffer
ourselves to be misled by this appearance, since in truth
the popes of diff'erent ages are distinguished from each
other by differences nearly as essential as the dynasties of
a kingdom. For us, who stand aloof, these transforma-
tions are precisely the most interesting object of attention.
In them we trace a portion of the history of the world, of
the progress of the whole human race ; not only in the
periods of the undisputed supremacy of the catholic church,

XX AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

but perliaps still more in those marked by the shock of
action and counteraction — as in the times which the fol-
lowing work is intended to embrace — the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries ; in which we see the papacy threat-
ened and shaken to its foundations, yet maintaining and
strengthening, and even re-extending its power ; in which
we see it for a time advancing, conquering, but then again
checked, and tottering once more to its fall ; periods in
which the mind of the western nations was pecuharly
busied with ecclesiastical questions ; and that power w^hich,
deserted and attacked by the one, was upheld and defended
with fresh zeal by the other, necessarily asserted a high
and universal importance.

This is the point of view which from our natural posi-
tion invites us to consider it ; — a task I shall now endea-
vour to fulfil.

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

[An Index, which is wanting in the original, has been added.]

I

LIST

POPES AND EMPERORS

DURING THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

DATE.

POPES.

EMPERORS.

1493

Alexander VI.

Maximilian I.

1503

Pius III.

1503

Julius II.

1513

LeoX.

1520
1522

Charles V.

Adrian VI.

1523

Clement VII.

1534

Paul III.

1550

Julius III.

1555

Marcellus II.

1555

Paul IV.

1558

Ferdinand I.

1559

Pius IV.

1564
1566

Maximilian 11.

*Pius V.

1572

Gregory XIII.

1576

Rudolph II.

1585

Sixtus V.

1590

Urban VII.

1590

Gregory XIV.

1591

Innocent IX.

1592

Clement VIII.

1605

Leo XI.

1605

Paul V.

1612
1619
1621

Matthias.
Ferdinand II.

Gregory XV.

1623

Urban VIII.

1637
1644

Ferdinand III.

Innocent X.

1655

Alexander VII.

1658

Leopold I.

1667

Clement ix.

1670

Clement X.

1676

Innocent XI.

1689

Alexander VIII.

1691

Innocent XII.

1700

Clement XI.

CONTENTS OP VOLUME I.

-«»-

BOOK I.— INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

EPOCHS OF THE PAPACY.

PAGE

1. Christianity in the Roman Empire 1

2. The Papacy in connexion with the Frankish Empire . . . 8

3. Relation of the Popes to the German Emperors. — Internal Growth

and Progress of the Hierarchy 14

4. Contrasts between the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries . . 22

CHAPTER II.

THE CHURCH AND THE ECCLESIASTICAL STATES IN THE BEGINNING OF THE

SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

§ 1 . Extension of the States of the Church 29

2. Intrusion of a Secular Spirit into the Church . . . . . 38

3. Intellectual Tendency of the Age . . . . . .41

4. Opposition to the Papacy in Germany 50

CHAPTER III.

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

Under Leo X. . .54

Under Adrian VI. 62

Under Clement VII .67

^xiv CONTENTS.

BOOK II.

BEGINNING OF THE REGENERATION OF CATHOLICISM.

PAGE

§ 1. Opinions analogous with Protestantism current in Italy . . . 89

2. Attempt at internal Reforms and at a Reconciliation with the

Protestants 98

3. New Religious Orders 114

4. Ignatius Loyola ..... .... 120

5. First Sitting of the Council of Trent 134

6. The Inquisition 140

7. Progress of the Institution of Jesuitism 147

Conclusion 159

BOOK III.

THE POPES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Introduction 161

§ 1. Paul III 162

2. Julius III 185

3. Marcellus II 190

4. Paul IV 192

5. Remarks on the Progress of Protestantism during this Reign . . 212

6. Pius IV 217

7. Later Sittings of the Council of Trent 224

8. Pius V 242

BOOK IV.

STATE AND COURT ; THE TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V.

Introduction 260

§ 1. Administration of the Patrimony of the Church . . . . 261

2. Finances 276

3. Gregory XIII 289

4. Sixtus V 301

5. Extermination of Banditti ........ 307

6. Characteristics of the Administration . . . . . .310

7. Finances 317

8. Public Buildings.— Sixtus V 324

9. General Change in the Intellectual Tendency of the Age . . 333
10, The Curia 345

CONTENTS. XXV

BOOK V.

COUNTER-REFORMATION.

PAOB

First Period, 1563—1589 358

§ 1. State of Protestantism in the Year 1563 359

2. Resources possessed by the Papacy for active Contest . . 369

3. The First Jesuits' Colleges in Germany ....;. 373

4. Beginning of the Counter-Reformation in Germany . . . 382
6. Troubles in the Netherlands and in France . . . . . 395

6. Resistance of the Protestants in the Netherlands, France, and

Germany .......... 405

7. Contrasts exhibited in the rest of Europe . . . . . 412

8. Crisis in the Netherlands 422

9. Progress of the Counter- Reformation in Germany . ... 435

10. The League 459

11. Savoy and Switzerland . . . 467

12. Attempt upon England ........ 470

13. Assassination of Henry III 476

BOOK VI.

COUNTER-REFORMATION.

Introduction 481

§ 1 . Theory of the Connexion between Church and State . . . 482

2. Conflict of Opinions 490

3. Latter Times of Sixtus V 496

4. Urban VII., Gregory XIV., Innocent IX., and their Conclaves,

1590, 1591 509

5. Election and Character of Clement VIII 516

. . 523

. 537
545

. 554
573

. 581
585

. 604

6. Absolution of Henry IV.

7. Ferrara under Alfonso II. .

8. Conquest of Ferrara ....

9. Dissensions among the Jesuits

10. Political Situation of Clement VIII.

11. Election and First Proceedings of Paul V.

12. Disputes between Rome and Venice

13. Issue of the Affairs of the Jesuits

Conclusion ............ 607

I

THE

HISTORY OF THE POPES OF ROME.

BOOK L— INTRODUCTIOK

CHAPTER L

EPOCHS OF THE PAPACY.
§ 1. CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

If we survey the ancient world in its remoter ages, we
find it peopled with a number of independent tribes. They
dwelt around the Mediterranean Sea, spreading from its
coasts to the interior as far as it was known ; severed by
various divisions; all originally confined within narrow
boundaries ; all in states of peculiar character and institu-
tions. The independence which they enjoyed was not
merely political. Every country had given birth to a
religion of its own; the ideas of God and divine things
were local ; national deities of the most dissimilar attributes
divided the faith and homage of the world ; the law which
their worshippers observed was indissolubly connected with
the law of the state. We may say that this strict union of
state and religion, this double independence, (only slightly
qualified by the relations of a common origin,) had the
greatest share in the civilisation of antiquity : the bound-
aries to which each was confined were narrow, but within
these the vigorous abundance of youth was left to develop
itself according to its own free impulses.

This aspect of things was totally changed by the ascend-
ancy of Rome. We see all the self-governing powers which

VOL. I. B

2 CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. [Book I.

filled the world bend, one after another, before her rising
power, and vanish. The earth was suddenly left void of
independent nations.

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

But even had this been possible, it would no longer have
satisfied the wants of the world. With wdiatever sympathy
we may regard the fall of so many independent states, we
cannot deny that a new life arose immediately out of their
ruins. Independence fell; but w^ith it fell the barriers of
narrow nationalities. Nations were conquered, but by this
very conquest they were united, incorporated. As the
empire was called the world, so its inhabitants felt them-
selves a single connected race ; mankind began to be con-
scious of the common bonds which unite them.

At this stage of human affairs Jesus Christ was born.

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

If the national creeds had ever contained an element of
true religion, this was now entirely obliterated; they had,

Cmp. I.] CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 3

as we have said, no longer a meaning ; in Him who united
the divine and human natures, appeared, in contrast with
them, the eternal and universal relation of God to the world,
of man to God.

Christ was born in a nation which indeed regarded the
monotheism it professed only as a national worship, and
held it mixed with an exclusive and narrow ritual law ; but
it had the immeasurable merit of holding fast to that faith
with a constancy which nothing could shake. Now, for the
first time, this doctrine received its full significancy. Christ
annulled the law by fulfilling it : the Son of Man proved him-
self the Lord also of the Sabbath, according to his own expres-
sion ; he revealed the eternal and essential import of forms
which a narrow intelligence had never understood. Thus,
amidst a people which had hitherto held itself aloof from
every other, arose, in all the force of truth, a faith which in-
vited all and received all into its bosom. It proclaimed the
Universal God, who, as St. Paul taught the Athenians,
" had made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on
all the earth." For this sublime doctrine the moment had,
as we have seen, arrived. A race of men had arisen fitted
to receive it. It lightened like a sunbeam over the earth,
says Eusebius.*"" And in fact we see it in a short time
spread from the Euphrates to the Ebro, the Rhine and the
Danube, beyond all the w4de frontiers of the empire.

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

The political spirit of the antique religions once more
rose to view in a new form. The sum of all those inde-
pendent powers which once filled the world had been con-
centrated in the hands of one; there was but one power
which seemed self-dependent; to this they all attached
themselves; they paid divine worship to the emperor. f

* Hist. Eccl. II. 3. which it appears that the worship of the

-|- Eckhel. Doctrina Numorum Vete- Csesar was sometimes the most fervent of

rum, p. ii. vol. viii. p. 456 ; he quotes a any.

passage of TertuUian, Apol. c. 28, from

b2

4 CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. [Book I.

Temples were raised and altars dedicated to him; they
swore by his name, they celebrated festivals in his honour ;
his statues afforded sanctuary. The worship paid to the
genius of the emperor was perhaps the only one common
to the whole empire. All idolatries clung around this as to
a common prop.

This worship of the Ca'sar, and the doctrine of Christ,
had, in relation to the local religions, a certain similarity ;
although there existed between them the strongest con-
ceivable contrast.

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

The emperor imited state and religion ; Christianity
emphatically distinguished that which is God's from that
which is Caesar's.

In sacrificing to the emperor, men avowed the most
abject servitude. Even in that union of religion and state,
in which, according to the earlier constitution, resided the
most perfect independence, lay, according to the present,
the seal of subjection. Christianity, in forbidding sacrifices
to the emperor, accomplished the most glorious emancipa-
tion. It reawakened in the nations the primeval and
innate religious consciousness (if it be true that such a
sentiment was antecedent to all idolatry), and set it in
hostility to this world-subjecting power, which, not satis-
fied with earthl}^, sought to grasp also at heavenly things.
Hence man derived a spiritual element in which he was
once more independent, free and personally unconquerable ;
the earth acquired freshness and new capacity for life ; it
was fertilised and prepared for new productions.

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

This is not the place in which to describe the long con-
flict between these principles. All the elements of life
were drawn into the vortex, gradually imbued with the
sj)irit of Christianity, and borne along with this grand

Chap. I.] CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 5

current of the human mind. The error of idolatry, says
Chrysostom, has vanished of itself'"' Paganism already
appeared to him a conquered city, whose walls were over-
thrown, whose halls, theatres and public buildings were
consumed with fire, whose defenders were slain ; a few old
men and children lingered among the ruins. Even these
soon were found no more. A change such as the w^orld
had never known had begun.

The blood of the martyrs sprinkled the catacombs : on
those spots where the Olympian gods were worshipped,
amidst the very pillars which had supported their temples,
arose shrines in memory of those who had scorned their
worship and had resisted unto death. The religion which
had arisen in deserts and in prisons was embraced by the
w^orld. Men saw with surprise a secular building erected
by heathens, the Basilica, converted into a Christian temple.
The change was most remarkable. The apsis of the Basilica
contained an Augusteum,f the images of those Caesars to
whom divine honours were paid. The very places which
they occupied received, as we still see in numerous Basi-
licas, the figures of Christ and his apostles. The statues of
the rulers of the world, who had been regarded as gods,
vanished and gave place to the likeness of the Son of Man
— the Son of God. Local deities faded and disappeared.
On every highway, on the steep summits of hills, in moun-
tain-gorges and valleys, on the housetops, and on the tesse-
lated floors, the cross w^as seen. The victory was complete
and decisive. As we see on the coins of Constantino the
labarum with the monogram of Christ above the conquered
dragon, even thus did the worship and the name of Christ
stand triumphant above prostrate heathenism.

Viewed even from this point, how full of infinite import
and infinite consequences was the Roman empire I In the
age of its ascendant, it crushed the independence, it over-
threw the power, of nations ; it annihilated that feeling of
self-existence and self-reliance, the very essence of which
lay in division : in the years of its decline, it beheld true

* Aoyos els rhy iiaKapiov BaßvKav Kai Visconti, Museo rio-Clementino, vii. p.
Kara ^lovXiauov kcu ■iTphs"E\\r]i'as. 100. (Ed. 1807 )

+ I borrow this account from E. Q.

6 CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. [Book L

religion arise out of its bosom ; the purest fonn of a com-
mon consciousness, the consciousness of a community in
the One true God ; it nourished and reared to maturity
the power of this faith. The race of man awoke to the
sense of its nature and destinies ; it had found its rehgion.

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

The sacerdotal offices of paganism were conferred in the
same manner as civil employments. In Judaism one tribe
was set apart for ecclesiastical authority. It was the dis-
tinguishing feature of Christianity, that a peculiar class or
profession, consisting of members who entered it of their
free choice, consecrated by the laying on of hands, removed
from all worldly cares and occupations, devoted themselves
" to spiritual and godly things." At first the church was
governed according to republican forms, but these disap-
peared in proportion as the new faith attained the mastery.
Gradually the clergy separated themselves altogether from
the laity.

It appears to me that this was the result of a certain
internal necessity. The rise of Christianity involved the
liberation of religion from all political elements. From this
followed the growth of a distinct ecclesiastical class with a
peculiar constitution. In this separation of the church from
the state consists perhaps the greatest, the most peiTading
and influential peculiarity of all Christian times. The
spiritual and secular powers may come into near contact,
may even stand in the closest community ; but they can
be thoroughly incorporated only at rare conjunctures and
for short periods. Their mutual relation, their position
with regard to each other, form, henceforward, one of the
most important considerations in all history.

The constitution of the ecclesiastical body was neces-
sarily formed upon the model of that of the empire. The
hierarchy of bishops, metropolitan patriarchs, arose, cor-
responchng to the graduated ranks of the ci\'il administra-
tion. Ere long the Iloman bishops assumed pre-eminency
above all others. The pretence that primates whose
supremacy was acknowledged by East and West existed in
the first centuries of the Church, is, indeed, utterlv ground-

Chap. I.] CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 7

less ; but it is unquestionable that they soon acquired a
consideration which raised them above all other ecclesias-
tical authorities. Many things contributed to secure this
to them.

If the importance of every provincial capital conferred
on its bishop a corresponding weight and dignity, how
much more must this have been the case in the ancient
capital of that vast empire to which it had given its name!'"^
Rome was one of the most eminent apostolical seats ; here
the greatest number of martyrs had perished ; during the
persecutions, the bishops of Rome had displayed extraor-
dinary firmness and courage ; their succession had often
been rather to martyrdom and death, than to the dignity
of office. But now, independent of these considerations,
the emperor found it expedient to favour the rise of a
great patriarchal authority. In a law which became deci-
sive for the supremacy of Christianity, Theodosius the
Great ordains that all nations who were subject to his
grace, should receive the faith which had been delivered
by St. Peter to the Romans, f Yalentinian III. forbade
the bishops, both in Gaul and in the other provinces, to
depart from ancient usages without the approbation of the
venerable man, the pope of the holy city. From this time
the power of the Roman bishops grew up under the pro-
tection of the emperor himself It is true that this politi-
cal connexion operated also as a check upon it. Had the
imperial power been vested in an individual, one supreme
ecclesiastical power might also have taken firm root ; but
to this the partition of the empire presented an obstacle.
It was impossible that the emperors of the East, who so
jealously asserted their ecclesiastical rights, should favour
the extension of the power of the patriarchs of the West
within their territories. The constitution of the church,
in this respect also, corresponded with the constitution of
the empire.

* Casaubon, Exercitationes ad Annales tradidisse Romanis religio usque nunc

Ecclesiasticos Baronii, p. 260. ab ipso insinuata declarat," The edict

+ Codex Theodos. XVI. 1, 2. "Cunc- of Valentinian III. is also mentioned by

tos populos quos elementise nostrae regit Planck, Geschichte der christlich-kirch-

temperamentum in tali volumus religione lichen Gesellschaftsverfassung, I. 642.
versari, quam divinum Petrum apostolum

THE PAPACY IN CONNEXION [Book I.

§ 2. THE PAPACY IN CONNEXION WITH THE PRANKISH

EMPIRE.

Scarcely was this great change accompHshed, the
Christian rehgion planted, the church founded, when new
events disturbed the w^orld. The Roman empire, so long
accustomed to conquest and domination, was now in its
turn attacked by its neighbours, overrun, conquered.

Christianity itself was shaken in the general convulsion.
In the hour of their utmost peril the Romans once more
remembered the Etrurian mysteries ; the Athenians be-
lieved that Achilles and Pallas would save them ; the
Carthaginians prayed to the Genius Coelestis : but these
were mere transient impulses ; w^hilst the empire in the
western provinces crumbled into ruins, the edifice of the
Roman church remained solid and entire.

It was exposed, however, as was inevitable, to various
dangers and calamities, and experienced an entire change
of position. A heathen nation subdued Britain. Arian
kings conquered the greater remaining part of the West.
In Italy, the Lombards, for a long time Ariaiis, and always
dangerous, hostile neighbours, founded a mighty kingdom
at the very gates of Rome. But while the Roman bishops,
hemmed in on all sides, strove to become masters at least
in their ancient patriarchal diocese, and displayed consum-
mate prudence in the attempt, they were assailed by a new
and yet greater calamity. The Arabs, not only conquerors
like the Germans, but imbued to fanaticism with a dogma-
tical and haughty creed fundamentally opposed to Chris-
tianity, poured themselves over the West as well as the
East ; after repeated attacks they conquered Africa ; one
assault made them masters of Spain ; Muza boasted that
he would force his way through the gates of the Pyrenees,
across the Alps into Italy, and cause the name of Mahom-
med to be proclaimed in the Vatican.

In the beginning of the eighth century Roman Christ-
endom was in tlie most critical position.

While the Arabs began to rule over the whole coast of
the Mediterranean, and to carry on a war of extermination

Chap. I.j WITH THE PRANKISH EMPIRE. 9

against all unbelievers, Christendom was divided against
itself. Its two chiefs, the emperor at Constantinople and
the pope at Rome, took opposite sides in the iconoclastic
dissensions, which now raged with the most rancorous
fury. The emperor often practised against the life of the
pope. Meanwhile the Lombards perceived how advanta-
geous this division was to them. Their king Astolphus
took possession of provinces which had hitherto acknow-
ledged the emperor ; he marched upon Rome, and with
furious threats summoned that city to pay him tribute,
and to surrender.*'''

With these intestine divisions on the one side, and the
decisive predominancy of a hostile and mighty power on
the other, nothing was to be anticipated but the utter
downfall and extinction of the church, if it did not receive
powerful and permanent succour from some quarter.

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

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

This disposition to Catholicism, which was proved from

* Aiiastasius Bibliothecarius : Vitse Romanis dirigere non desinebat, asserens
Pontificum. Vita Stepliani III. cd. Paris, omnesuno gladio jugulari, nisi sute sese
p. 83. " Fremens ut leo p^stifcras minas subderent ditioni."

10 THE PAPACY IN CONNEXION [Book I.

the very first by such mighty results, was afterwards
renovated and strengthened by a very singular influence
proceeding from another quarter.

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

Not only did the doctrine take root in Germanic Britain,
but with it a veneration for Rome and the Holy See such as
no other country had ever evinced. The Anglo-Saxons
began to make pilgrimages to Rome ; they sent their youth
thither ; king OfFa introduced the tax of the Peter s penny,
wherewith to pay for the education of the clergy and to aid
the pilgrims. The nobles and men of importance journeyed
to Rome, that they might die there, and thence be received
with greater acceptance among the saints in heaven. It
was as if this nation transferred to Rome and the objects
of Christian worship, the old German superstition, that the
gods were nearer to some favoured spots than to others.

A much more important circumstance was, that the
English now communicated their own devout and catholic
spirit to the continent and the Prankish empire. The
apostle of the Germans was an Anglo-Saxon. Boniface,
filled as he was with the reverence of his nation for St.
Peter and his successors, promised from the very beginning
to conform faithfully to all the decrees of the See of Rome.
This promise he most rigorously performed. He imposed
extraordinary obedience on the German church which he
founded. The bishops bound themselves by an express
vow to remain subject, to the end of their lives, to the
Roman church, to St. Peter and his successors. Nor did he
persuade the Germans alone to these acts of submission.
The bishops of Gaul had hitherto maintained a certain
independence of Rome. Bonifiice, who on some occasions
presided in their synods, availed himself of the opportunity
to bring this western portion of the Prankish church into
the same obedience. Prom that time the Gallic arcli-
bislio|)s received the pallium from Rome. The submissive-

Chap. I.] WITH THE PRANKISH EMPIRE. H

ness to ecclesiastical authority which had characterised the
Anglo-Saxons thus extended itself over the whole Frankish
empire.

This empire was now become the central point of all the
Germanic tribes of the West. It mattered not that its
royal house, the Merovingian race, destroyed itself by the
atrocious and murderous acts of its members. Another
line immediately raised itself in their stead to the supreme
power ; all men full of energy, of potent will and matchless
vigour. While the surrounding kingdoms crumbled into
ruins, and the world threatened to become the spoil of the
Moslem sword, this race it was, the house of the Pepins of
Heristall, afterwards called the Carlovingian, that opposed
the first and the decisive resistance. It was this race, also,
which fostered the growing development of the religious
spirit : we early find it on good terms with Rome. Boni-
face enjoyed the especial protection of Charles Martel and
Pepin le Bref.'""

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

Already Gregory II. felt what he had gained. With the
consciousness of his own importance, he writes to the icono-
clast emperor, Leo the Isaurian, "All the nations of the
west have their eyes turned towards our humble person ;
they regard us as a god upon earth."^ His successors felt
more and more the necessity of separating themselves from
a power which imposed duties, while it afforded no protec-
tion, although it inherited the name and the empire of
Rome: while, on the contrary, they contracted with the

* Bonifacii Epistolse ; ep. 12, ad Da- cillas Dei defendere possum, nee ipsos

nielem episc. " Sine patrocinio principia paganorum ritus et sacrilegia idolorum in

Francorum nee populum regere nee pres- Germania sine illius mandate et timore

byteros vel diaconos, monachos vel an- prohibere valeo."

12 THE PAPACY IN CONNEXION [Book I-

great captains of the west, the Frank princes, an alUance
which grew closer from year to year, affbrded great advan-
tages to both parties, and at length exercised a pervading
influence on the history of the world.

When Pepin the younger, not contented with the sub-
stance of kingly power, chose to possess its name also, he
felt that he stood in need of a higher sanction. This the
pope granted him. In return, the new king undertook the
defence of the pope, '' of the holy church and the republic
of God,'' against the Lombards. To defend them did not
satisfy his zeal. He very soon compelled the Lombards to
surrender the exarchate, the Italian territory which they
had wrested from the eastern empire. Justice would
indeed have demanded that it should be restored to the
emperor, to whom it had belonged. This was proposed to
Pepin. He replied, "that he had not gone to battle for the
sake of any man, but for the honour of St. Peter alone, and
to obtain forgiveness for his sins." '''' He caused the keys of
the conquered cities to be laid upon the altar of St. Peter's.
This is the foundation of the whole temporal dominion of
the popes.

The aUiance continued to acquire strength from the
lively reciprocity of good offices. At length Charlemagne
delivered the pope from the oppressive and dangerous
neighbourhood of the Lombard princes. He himself
manifested the most profound submission ; he repaired
to Rome ; kissing the steps of St. Peter's he ascended the
vestibule where the pope awaited him ; he ratified the
donations of Pepin to the church. In return, the pope
w^as his unshaken friend ; the relations of the head of the
church to the Italian bishops facilitated Charlemagne's
conquests over the Lombards, and his acquisition of their
territory.

This course of things soon led to still greater results.

In his own city, torn by contending factions, the pope
could no longer stand his ground without foreign aid.
Once again did Charlemagne repair to Home to defend
him. The aged prince was now crowned with fame and

* ** AnastAsius : allinniiiis (.tinin sub vorcm sosc certaniini s.nepins dcdissct,
jurameiUo, (piod per nullius hominis fa- nisi pro amore Petri et venia delictorum."

Chap. L] WITH THE PRANKISH EMPIRE. |3

conquest. In a long series of battles he had gradually
subclued all his neighbours, and had united nearly all the
Romano-Germanic Christian nations ; he had led them to
victory against their common enemies ; it was remarked
that he was possessor of all the seats of the western
emperors, in Italy, Gaul and Germany, and heir of all
their power. "^^ These countries were, it is true, become a
totally different world ; but did that affect the dignity of
their ruler ? Pepin had thus earned the kingly diadem,
because to him who has the power, the honour, of right,
belongs. On this occasion also the pope resolved on the
course to be pursued. Penetrated with gratitude, and
fully conscious of his own need of a permanent defender,
he crowned Charlemagne on the Christmas-eve of the
year 800, with the crown of the western empire.

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

A Prankish prince filled the throne, and wielded all the
power of the emperor of the West. Charlemagne executed
unquestioned acts of the highest authority in the territories
which had been surrendered to St. Peter. His grandson,
Lothaire, nominated his own judges at Rome, and annulled
confiscations which the pope had imposed. It is clear that
the pope substantially belonged to the Prankish empire ;
and in this consisted the novelty of his situation. He
severed himself from the East, where his authority gradually
ceased to be acknowledged. The Greek emperors had
long since stripped him of his patriarchial diocese in their
dominions.! On the other hand, the western churches

* I so understand the Annales Laures- + Nicholas I. deplores the loss of the

hamenses, ad annum 801. "Visum est patriarchal power of the papal chair

et ipsi apostolico Leoni, — ut ipsum Caro- "per Epirum veterem Epirumque novam

lum, regem Francorum, Imperatorem, atque Illyricum, Macedonian!, Thessa-

nominare debuissent, qui ipsam Romam Ham, Achaiam, Daciam ripensem, Da-

tenebat, ubi semper Ctesares sedere soliti ciamque mediterraneam, Mcesiam, Dar-

erant, et reliquas sedes, quas ipse per daniam, Preevalim ; " and the loss of the

Itaiiara seu Galliam nee non et Germa- patrimonial possessions in Calabria and

niam tenebat (he probably means to say Sicily. Pagi (Critica in Annales Baronii,

'ipsi tenebant'): quia Deus omnipotens iii. p. 216) compares this letter with

has omnes sedes in potestatem ejus con- another by Adrian I. to Charlemagne,

cessit, Deo justum eis esse videbatur, ut whence we learn that these losses had

ipse cum Deo adjutorio — ipsum nomen been caused by the dispute with the

haberet." iconoclasts.

14 RELATION OF THE POPES [Book I.

(the Lombard, to which the institutions of the Frankish ^
had been transferred, not excepted) paid him an obedience
which he had never before received. By permitting the
estabhshment at Rome of schools for Frieslanders, Saxons
and Franks, by which the very city was Germanised, he
laid the foundation of that union of German and Roman
elements, which has, from that period, formed the charac-
teristic of the West. In the moment of his uttermost
weakness and peril, his power struck its roots into a fresh
soil. When it seemed nodding to its fall, it arose in
renewed vigour, and acquired a stability which was
destined to endure for ages. The hierarchy which origi-
nated in the Roman empire poured itself abroad over the
Germanic nations. Here it found a boundless field for
unwearied and successful activity.

§ 3. RELATION OF THE POPES TO THE GERMAN EMPERORS.—
INTERNAL GROWTH AND PROGRESS OF THE HIERARCHY.

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

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

Never was the German name more potent and illus-
trious in Europe than in the tenth and eleventh centuries,
under the Saxon and the early Salic emperors. From the
eastern frontiers, where the king of Poland had been com-
pelled to do personal homage and to submit to a partition
of his territory, and where the duke of Bohemia w^as con-
demned to imprisonment, we see Conrad II. march west-
ward to defend Burgundy against the pretensions of the
French nobles. He defeated them in the plains of Cham-
pagne ; his Italian vassals crossed Mount St. Bernard to
his assistance ; he caused himself to be crowned at Geneva,
and held his diet at Soleure. Immediately afterwards we
meet him in Lower Italy. "On the frontiers of his empire,"
says his historian Wippo, " in Capua and Benevento, he

Chap. I.] TO THE GERMAN EMPERORS. 15

settled all differences by his word.'^ Not less powerful
and glorious was the reign of Henry III. At one time
we find him on the Scheldt and the Lys, victor over the
counts of Flanders ; at another, in Hungary, which he
compelled, at least for a time, to do him feudal service ;
on the other side the Raab, where his course was checked
by the elements alone. The king of Denmark repaired to
Merseburg to meet him ; one of the most powerful princes
of France, the count of Tours, became his vassal ; Spanish
histories relate that he demanded from Ferdinand I. of
Castile, victorious and powerful as that monarch was, an
acknowledgment that he was liege lord of all the sove-
reigns of Christendom.

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

With the Germans, conquest and conversion advanced
together. The marches of the empire extended as the
influence of the church extended, across the Elbe, towards
the Oder, down the Danube ; monks and priests heralded
the German influence in Bohemia and Hungary. Hence
the spiritual authorities everywhere acquired vast power.
In Germany, bishops and abbots of the empire were
invested, not only within their possessions, but also without
them, with the rights and privileges of counts or even of
dukes, and church lands were no longer described as
situated in counties, but counties in bishoprics. In Upper
Italy almost all the cities were governed by the viscounts
of their bishops.

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

As the nomination to ecclesiastical offices belonged to
the kings (in recognition of which the chapters sent back
the ring and staff" of their deceased superiors to the king's
court, whence these badges of office were granted anew),
it was generally advantageous to the prince to confer
temporal authority on the man of his choice, upon whose
attachment and obedience he could rely. Henry III., in

Iß RELATION OF THE POPES [Book I.

defiance of his recalcitrant nobility, placed a plebeian
devoted to himself on the chair of St. Ambrose at Milan.
To this measure he was chiefly indebted for the obedience
which he afterwards received from the north of Italy.
The facts are illustrative of each other, that, of all the
emperors, Henry III. was the most bountiful to the church,
wdiile at the same time he insisted with the greatest
rigour on the right of nominating bishops.''' Care was
also taken that the endowment abstracted nothing from
the power of the state. The propcrt}^ of the church was
exempted neither from civil burdens, nor even from feudal
service ; we frequently see bishops take the field at the
head of their vassals. What an advantage was it there-
fore to be able to nominate bishops like the archbishop
of Bremen, who exercised supreme spiritual power in the
Scandinavian kingdoms, and over numerous Wendish
tribes !

If the ecclesiastical element was of such vast importance
in the institutions of the German empire, it is evident how
much depended on the relation in which the emperor stood
to the head of the whole clerical body, the pope of Rome.
This relation w^as not less intimate than that w^hich had
existed between the papacy and the Roman emperors, or
the successors of Charlemagne. The political subjection
of the pope was unquestionable.

It is true that, before the empire had definitively devolved
on a German race, while it was yet in feeble and vacillat-
ing hands, the popes had exercised acts of supremacy
over it. But as soon as the energetic German princes had
possessed themselves of this dignity, they w^ere not less
sovereign lords of the papacy than the Carlovingians had
been. With vigorous hand Otho the Great protected the
pope whom he had placed on the throne ; f his sons fol-
lowed his example ; and the revival of the Roman factions,
who conferred or took away, sold or alienated, the pope-

• Examples of this strictness are to be ring to Otho and the German emperoi'3

found in Planck : Geschichte der christl. the right of Charlemagne to choose a

kirchl. Gesellschaftsverfassung, iii. 407. successor to himself, and in future the

+ In Goldast. Constitutt. Imperiales, I. popes of Rome. There is no doubt, how«

p. 221. we find an instrument (with the ever, of its being a fabrication.
Scholia of Dietrich von Mein) transfer-

Chap. L] TO THE GERMAN EMPERORS. 17

dorn, as their family interests dictated, rendered the neces-
sity for a higher intervention the more manifest. It is
Avell known how resolutely this was exercised by Henry
III. His synod at Sutri deposed the intrusive popes.
From the time he had placed the patrician ring on his fin-
ger and had received the imperial crown, he selected at
his good pleasure the successor to the papal chair. Four
German popes nominated by him succeeded each other.
When the highest ecclesiastical dignity fell vacant, the de-
legates from Rome who repaired to the imperial court to
hear a successor appointed, appeared in no respect different
from the envoys from other bishoprics.

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

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

VOL. I. c

l^ RELATION OF THE POPES [Book I.

favouring moment, and place himself in opposition to the
imperial power 1

More than one inducement to such a course lay in the
very nature of the case. The church contained within
herself a peculiar principle, wholly at variance with so
great a temporal influence, and this would of necessity
manifest itself as soon as she had acquired sufficient
strength. And, as it seems to me, it involved a contradic-
tion, that the pope should exercise a supreme and univer-
sal spiritual power, and at the same time should be subject
to the emperor. It had been otherwise if Henry III. had
succeeded in raising himself to be the head of entire
Christendom ; but as he failed, the pope might have
found himself, in the various turns of political affairs, com-
pletely obstructed by his subordination to the emperor, in
the free exercise of that authority, as common father of
the faithful, which his office conferred on him.

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

It is evident that Gregory would not have been able
even to entertain the project of such a change, much less
to effect it, had not the disorders of the German empire,
during the minority of Henry lY. and the rebellion of the

Chap. I.] TO THE GERMAN EMPERORS. 19

German nobles and princes against that monarch, favoured
the enterprise. In the great vassals he found natural
allies. They too felt oppressed by the predominance of
the imperial power ; they too sought to shake off this
yoke. In a certain sense the pope was, like them, a
magnate of the empire. There was perfect accordance
between the pope's declaring Germany an elective empire,
by which the power of the princes must be immensely
increased, and the little opposition he had to encounter
from them when he emancipated himself from the empire.
Even in the contest concerning investiture their interests
went hand in hand. The pope was yet far from claiming
the direct nomination of the bishops ; he left the choice to
the chapters, over which the higher German nobility exer-
cised the greatest influence. In a word, the pope had the
aristocratic interests on his side.

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

At length, however, their success was complete.

After long centuries of subjection, after other centuries
of an often doubtful struggle, the independence of the
Roman see, and of the principle on which it rested, was at
length attained. The position of the popes at this moment
was indeed most lofty and dignified. The clergy were
completely in their hands. It is worthy of remark that
during this period the popes of the most resolute charac-
ter, for example Gregory VII., were Benedictines. By
the introduction of celibacy they transformed the whole
body of secular clergy into a sort of monastic order. The
universal bishopric which they claimed had a sort of
resemblance to the power of an abbot of Cluny, who was
the only abbot of his order. The popes desired to be the
only bishops of the church ; they interfered without hesi-

c 2

20 RELATION OF THE POPES [Book I.

tation in the adniinistration of every diocese ;'" they even
compared their legates to the proconsuls of ancient Rome !
While this order, firmly compacted within, dispersed over
all lands, powerful by its possessions, and ruhng every
action of life by its ministry, constituted a body obedient
to one head, pohtical states were crumbling into pieces.
As early as the beginning of the twelfth century Prior
Gerohus ventured to say, " It will come to pass that the
golden pillars of the monarchy will be utterly shattered,
and every great empire will be divided into tetrarchies ;
not till then will the church be free and unfettered under
the protecting care of the great crowned priest/'f But
little was wanting to the literal accomplishment of this
prediction. For which, in fact, was more powerfid in
England in the thirteenth century, Henry III., or the
twenty-four who for a time governed the kingdom ? In
Castile, the king or the Altoshomes '? The imperial power
seemed almost superfluous from the time that Frederic
granted to the princes of the empire the substantial attri-
butes of sovereignty. Italy, like Germany, was filled with
independent states. Almost the only comprehensive, cen-
tralising power, was that possessed by the pope. The
mingled spiritual and temporal character which life had
assumed during that period, and the entire course of
events, inevitably tended to produce such a power, and to
render him the depository of it. When countries long
lost, like Spain, were at length rescued from Mahomme-
danism ; when provinces yet unreclaimed, like Prussia,
were won from Paganism and planted \\dth Christian
people ; when even the capitals of the Greek faith con-
formed to the Latin rite ; when hundreds of thousands
went forth to defend the banner of the cross on the holy
sepulchre, must not the sovereign pontifl", who had a hand
in all these undertakings, who received the allegiance of
all these subjugated powers, enjoy immeasurable and pre-

* One of the main points, concerning casti," The pope in this case had public

which I will give a passage from a letter opinion on his side. " In quorum concul-

of Henry IV. to Gregory. (Mansi Concil. catione tibi favorem ab ore vulgi com-

n. collectio. XX. 471.) " Rectores sanctte pai*asti."

ecclcsife, videl. archiepiscopo.i, episcopos, f Schrockh quotes this passage, Kir-

presbyteros sicut servos pedibus tuis cal- chengeschichte, vol. xxvii. p. 117.

CHAP. 1.] TO THE GERMAN EMPERORS. 21

eminent consideration ? Under his conduct, in his name,
the nations of the West went forth as one people in count-
less swarms to the conquest of the world. We cannot
wonder if he wielded an almost omnipotent authority,
when a king of England received his kingdom from him
as a fief; when a king of Aragon transferred his to the
Apostle Peter ; when Naples was actually given over by
the pope to a foreign house. Wonderful physiognomy of
those times, which no one has yet placed before us in all
its completeness and truth !

It is the strangest combination of internal strife and of
brilliant external success, of independence and obedience,
of spiritual and temporal things. What contrarieties in the
character of Piety herself ! One while she retreats into the
rugged mountain, or into the lonely forest, that she may
devote all her days to the holy and peaceful contemplation
of the divine glory. Waiting for death, she denies herself
every enjoyment that life offers. When she abides among
men, with what ardour does she strive to give utterance
to the ideas in which she lives and moves, to clothe with
life and form the mysteries which dimly float before her
eyes 1 But in a moment we turn and behold her with
altered mien ; her who invented the inquisition, who exer-
cised the terrible judgment of the sword upon those of
another faith, who prompted the leader of the expedition
against the Albigenses, when he said, " We have spared
neither age, nor sex, nor rank ; we have smitten every one
with the edge of the sword.'^

Sometimes she appeared under both aspects at the same
moment.

At the sight of Jerusalem the crusaders alighted from
their horses, and uncovered their feet, that they might
approach the sacred walls like true pilgrims ; in the hottest
of the battle they thought they received the visible aid of
saints and angels. Hardly diad they scaled the walls, when
they rushed forth to plunder and carnage ; on the site of
Solomon's Temple they slaughtered thousands of Saracens ;
they burned the Jews in their synagogues ; they sprinkled
with blood the holy threshold on which they came to kneel
in adoration. A contradiction which completed the picture
of the religious spirit of that age and of those nations.

22 CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE [Book I.

§ 4. CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH

CENTURIES.

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

However defective be the civilisation we have delineated,
it was necessary to the complete naturalisation of Chris-
tianity in the west. It was no light thing to subdue the
haughty spirits of the north, the nations under the dominion
of ancestral superstitions, to the ideas of Christianity. It
w^as necessary that the religious element should predo-
minate for a time, in order that it might gain fast hold on
the German mind. By this, at the same time, was effected
the intimate blending of the Roman and Germanic elements.
There is a community among the nations of modern times
which has ahvays been regarded as the main basis of the
general civilisation ; a community in church and state, in
manners, customs, and literature. In order to produce this,
it was necessary that the western nations should, for a time,
form, as it were, a single state, temporal and spiritual.

But this too was only one stage in the great progress of
things. As soon as the change w^as accomplished, new
consequences appeared.

The commencement of a new epoch was announced by
the simultaneous and almost universal rise of national lan-
guages. With slow but unbroken course they forced their
v*^ay into all the various branches of intellectual activity ;
the pecuhar idiom of the church receded before them step
by step. Universality gave place to a new and nobler kind
of individuality. Hitherto the ecclesiastical element had
overpowered all national pecuharities : under a new cha-
racter and aspect, but once more distinct, they now entered
upon a new career.

It seems as though all human designs and actions w^ere
subject to the silent and often imperceptible, but mighty
and resistless march of events. The previous state of the
world had been favourable to the papal domination ; that
of the moment we are considering was directly hostile to

k

Chap. IJ FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. ^3

it. The nations no longer stood in their former need of
the impulse given by the ecclesiastical power ; they arose
in opposition to it. They felt their own capacity for inde-
pendence.

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

It was, as is well known, the French who made the first
decisive stand against the pretensions of the popes. The
nation unanimously resisted the bulls of excommunication
issued by Boniface VIII. In several hundred acts of adhe-
sion, all the popular authorities expressed their assent to
the measures of Philip the Fair.

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

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

Nor did England long remain behind. Nowhere had
the popes enjoyed greater influence, nor disposed more
arbitrarily of benefices ; till at length, when Edward III.
would no longer pay the tribute which his predecessors had
engaged to pay, his parliament united mth him and pro-
mised to support him in his resistance. The king took
measures to prevent any further encroachments of the papal
power.

We see one nation after another awaken to a conscious-
ness of its own independence and unity.

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

* Licet juris utrivisque. Ohlenschlä- thums in der ersten Hälfte des 14ten
ger : Staatsgeschichte des röm. Kaiser- .Jahrhunderts. No. 63.

24 CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE [Book I.

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

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

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

Yet, spite of all these appearances, the old relations no
longer existed. In proof of this we need only call to mind
the fervent zeal which characterised the early crusades,
and compare it with the lukewarmness with which in the
fifteenth century, every exhortation to a general combined

* Declaration of Pope Felix in Geor- Schröckh, Kii'fliengeschiclitCjVol. xxxiii.
gius Vita Nicolai V. p. ()5. p GO.

f ConstaiH'o, Schwerin, Fiiufk irchon.

Chap. I.] FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. £5

resistance to the Turks was received. How much more
urgent was it to defend their own borders against a danger
which was imminent on every side, than to know that the
holy sepulchre was in Christian hands ! iEneas Sylvius
in the diet, and the Minorite Capistrano in the market-
places of cities, used all their eloquence, and we are told
much of the impression they made ; but we do not find
that anybody took up arms in consequence. What efforts
were made by the popes ! One fitted out a fleet ;
another, Pius II. (the same ^neas Sylvius), repaired,
feeble and sick as he was, to the port where the princes
most immediately menaced by the Turks — if no others —
were to meet. He insisted on being there, " that he
might, like Moses, raise his hands to God during the
battle, as he alone had authority to do.^' But neither
exhortations, nor prayers, nor examples, could move his
contemporaries. The youthful ardour of chivalrous
Christianity was extinct ; it was not in the power of
any pope to rekindle it.

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

How greatly did the pragmatic sanction, which for
above half a century was regarded in France as the
palladium of the kingdom, abridge the exercise of the
papal prerogative ! It is true that Louis XI. was hurried
by that spurious devotion to which he was the more
addicted from his total want of true religion, into con-

26 CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE [Book I.

cessions on this point ; but his successors returned without
scruple to their ancient law. When, therefore, Francis I.
concluded his concordat with Leo X., it was maintained
that the court of Rome had regained its old ascendancy
by that measure. And it is true that the pope recovered
the annates ; but he was obhged to rehnquish many other
sources of revenue, and above all, he ceded to the king the
right of nomination to the bishoprics and other higher
benefices. It is undeniable that the Gallican church lost
its rights ; but far less to the pope than to the king. The
principle for which Gregory VII. had set the world in
motion, Leo X. abandoned with little difficulty.

Things could not come to this pass in Germany. The
Basle decrees, on which, in France, the pragmatic sanction
had been formed,'"' in Germany, where they had also been
received, were extremely modified by the Vienna concordat.
But even this modification w^as not obtained without sacri-
fices on the part of the holy see. Li Germany it was not
enough to come to an understanding wdth the head of the
empire ; it was also necessary to gain over the several states.
The archbishops of Mayence and Treves acquired the right
of nomination to the vacant benefices, even during the
months reserved for the pope ; the elector of Brandenburg,
the privilege of disposing of the three bishoprics in his
dominions ; even less considerable states, such as Strasburg,
Salsburg, and Metz, obtained concessions. f Yet even these
failed to allay the universal spirit of opposition. In the
year 1487 the whole empire successfully resisted a tithe
which the pope tried to impose.| In the year 1500 the
imperial government granted to the pope's legate only a
third of the product of the preachings or indulgences;
the other two thirds it took and appropriated to the Turkish
war.

* We perceive the connexion from Sylvii Epistola ad Martinum Maierum
the following words of ^neas Syhaiis : contra murmur gravaminis Germanicse
" Propter decreta Basiliensis concilii nationis, 1457. In Mailer's Reichstags-
inter sedem apostolicam et nationem theati'um unter Friedrich III. Vorst.
vestrara dissidium c«pit, cum vos ilia iii. p. 604.

prorsus tenenda diceretis, apostolica f Schröekh's Kirchengeschichte, vol.

vero scdes omnia rojicerct. Itaque fuit xxxii. p. 173. Eichhorn Staats-und

denique conipositio facta — per quam Rechts-geschichtc, vol. iii. Jj 472. n. c.

aliqua ex decretis concilii praedicti re- X Miiller's Reichstagsthcatrum, Vorst,

copta videntur, aliqua rcjccta." ^n. vi, p. 130.

Chap. I.] FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. 27

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

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

In short, throughout all Christendom, in the south as
well as in the north, a general struggle was made to cur-
tail the rights of the pope. It was more especially to a
share of the ecclesiastical revenues and the nomination to
ecclesiastical benefices and ofiices, that the several govern-
ments laid claim. The popes made no serious resistance.
They tried to preserve all they could ; on other points
they gave way. Lorenzo de' Medici, speaking of Ferdi-

* In struttione plena della cose di Por- Berlin, torn. xii. Leo X. granted this

togallo al Coadjutor dl Bergamo: nuntio patronage of the ecclesiastical orders:

destinato in Portogallo. MS. of the Infor- contentandosi il re di pagare grandissima

mationi politiche in the Royal Library at compositione di detto patronato.

28 CONTRASTS, &c. [Book I.

nand king of Naples, and of a dispute which he had with
the see of Rome, says, " He will make no difficulty about
promising ; as to the fulfilment of his promises, he will
experience the indulgence at last which all popes have had
for all kings."'" For this spirit of opposition had found
its way even into Italy. We are informed by Lorenzo de'
Medici, that in this he followed the example of greater
potentates ; he obeyed the pope's commands just so far
as he had a mind, and no further. f

It were an error to see in these facts only manifestations
of a contemporaneous caprice and T\dlfulness. The eccle-
siastical spirit had ceased to pervade and direct the whole
existence of the nations of Europe, as it had done in
earlier times.

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

* Lorenzo'to Johannes de Lanfredi- 281, says of Lorenzo: " Regura major-

nis. Fabroni Vita Laurent!! Med!ci, ii. unique principum contuniaceni licentiam

p. 362. adversus Romanam ecclesiam sequebatur

f Antonius Gallus dc rebus Genuen- de juribus pontifieis, nisi quod ei videre-

eibus : Muratori Scriptt. R. It. xxiii. p. tur nihil permittens."

CHAPTER IL

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

§ L EXTENSION OF THE STATES OF THE CHURCH.

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

For some time things had strongly tended this way.
" Formerly,'' said an orator in the council of Basle, " I was
of opinion that it would be well to separate the temporal
entirely from the spiritual power ; but I have learned that
virtue without force is ludicrous — that the pope of Rome,
without the hereditary possessions of the Church, is only
the servant of kings and princes." This orator, who had
sufficient influence in the council to determine the election
of Pope Felix, does not think it so much amiss that a pope
should have sons to take his part against tyrants.''^

This matter was, at a later period, viewed in a different

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

30 EXTENSION OF THE [Book I.

light in Italy. It was thought in the regular order of
things that a pope should promote and provide for his
family ; people would have despised one who did not.
" Others," writes Lorenzo de^ Medici to Innocent VIIL,
" have not so long deferred their endeavour to be popes,
and have troubled themselves little about the decorum and
modesty which your holiness has for so long a time observed.
Your holiness is now not only excused in the sight of God
and man, but men may perhaps even censure this reserved
demeanour, and ascribe it to other motives. My zeal and
duty render it a matter of conscience with me to remind
your holiness that no man is immortal ; that a pope is of
the importance which he chooses to give himself ; he can-
not make his dignity hereditary ; the honours and the
benefits he confers on those belonging to him are all that
he can call his own."''^ Such w^as the advice of him who
was regarded as the wisest man in Italy. It is true, he
had an interest in the matter, for his daughter was married
to a son of the pope. But he would never have ventured
to express himself so unreservedly, had not these views
been notoriously prevalent among the liigher classes.

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

The first who, with deliberate purpose and permanent

* A letter by Lorenzo, without date, fifth year of Innocent VIII, is mentioned
but probably of the year i4B9, since the in it. Fabroni Vita Laurentii, ii. 390.

Chap. IL] STATES OF THE CHURCH. 31

effect, acted upon this idea was Sixtus IV. Alexander
VI. pursued it with the utmost vigour and with singular
success. Julius IL gave it an unexpected turn, which it
retained.

Sixtus IV. (1471-1484) conceived the plan of founding
a principality for his nephew Girolamo Riario in the rich
and beautiful plains of Romagna. The other powers of
Italy were already contending for possession, or for ascen-
dancy, in these territories, and, if there was any question
of right, the pope had manifestly a better right than any
other. But he was not nearly their equal in force, or in
the resources of w^ar. He was restrained by no scruple
from rendering his spiritual power (elevated by its nature
and purpose above all earthly interests) subservient to his
worldly views, or from debasing it by a mixture with those
temporary intrigues in which his ambition had involved
him. The Medici being pecuharly in his way, he took part
in the Florentine troubles ; and, as is notorious, brought
upon himself the suspicion of being privy to the conspiracy
of the Pazzi, and to the assassination which they perpe-
trated on the steps of the altar of the cathedral ; the sus-
picion that he, the father of the faithful, was an accomplice
of such acts !

When the Venetians ceased to favour the schemes of
his nephew, as they had done for a considerable time, the
pope was not satisfied with deserting them in a war into
which he himself had driven them ; he went so far as to
excommunicate them for persisting in it.''^ He acted with
no less violence in Rome : he persecuted the opponents of
Riario, the Colonnas, with savage ferocity : he seized
Marino from them ; he caused the prothonotary Colonna
to be attacked, arrested, and executed in his own house.
The mother of Colonna came to San Celso in Banchi,
where the body lay — she lifted the severed head by the
hair, and cried, " Behold the head of my son ! Such
is the faith of the pope. He promised that if we would

* In 1829, the Commentarii|di Marino the speech of the Venetian ambassador.

Sanuto on the Ferrarese war were printed " Tutti vedranno, aver noi comminciato

at Venice ; p. 56, he touches on the questa guerra di volonta del Papa ; egli

defection of the pope. He refers to pero si mosse a rompere la lega."

32 EXTENSION OF THE [Book I.

give up Marino to him, he would set my son at hbert}^ ;
he has Marino : and my son is in our hands — but dead !
Behold, thus does the pope keep his word !" '"'

So much was necessary to enable Sixtus IV. to obtain
the victory over his enemies, at home and abroad, He
succeeded in making his nephew lord of Imola and Forh ;
but it is certain that if his temporal dignity was much
augmented, his spiritual suffered infinitely more. An
attempt w^as made to assemble a council against him.

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

Alexander's great aim during the whole course of his
life had been to gratify to the utmost his love of ease, his
sensuality and his ambition. The possession of the highest
spiritual dignity seemed to him the summit of felicity.
Old as he was, he seemed daily to grow younger under
the influence of this feeling. No importunate thought
troubled his repose for a night. He only pondered on
what could be of advantage to himself, how he could
advance his sons to dignity and power ; no other considera-
tions ever seriously occupied his mind.f

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

His son, Csesar Borgia, trod in the footsteps of Riario.
He started from the same point ; indeed his first exploit
was to drive Riario's widow out of Forli and Imola. With
daring recklessness he pressed onwards ; what his prede-
cessor had only attempted, he achieved. The means by
which he accomplished his purposes may be described in
few words. The states of the Church had hitherto been
divided by the two parties, the Guelfs and GhibeUnes, the
Colonna and Orsini families. Alexander and his son, like
the other popes, like Sixtus IV., allied themselves at first
wüth the one party — the Orsini-Guclfic. By means of this

* Alegi-etto Alegrettl : diari Sanesi, f Relazione di Polo Capello, 1500
p. 817. (See App. No. 2.) (MS). (See App. No. 3.)

Chap. IL] STATES OF THE CHURCH. 33^

alliance they soon succeeded in subduing all their enemies.
They drove the Sforzas out of Pesaro, the Malatestas out
of Rimini, the Manfredi out of Faenza. They took posses-
sion of these important well-fortified cities, and made them
the seat of a considerable power. Hardly, however, had
they reached this point, hardly had they crushed their
enemies, when they turned their arms against their friends.
Herein lay the great difference between the power of the
Borgias and that of any of their predecessors, who had
never been able to shake off the trammels of the party to
which they had attached themselves. Csesar turned his
arms against his allies with very little hesitation. He
entangled the duke of Urbino, who had been one of his
constant supporters, as in a net, before the duke had the
slightest suspicion of his designs. The victim narrowly
escaped, — a persecuted fugitive in his own territory. "^'^
ViteUi, Baglioni, the heads of the Orsini, determined to
show him that at least they could offer some resistance.
" It is well," said he, " to betray those who are masters of
all treachery." He enticed them into his snares with deli-
berate and far-calculated cruelty, and put them to death
without pity. After he had thus extinguished both parties
he assumed their place, drew around him the nobles of
Inferior rank, and took them into his pay. He ruled the
countries he had conquered with stern and terrible sway.

Alexander thus saw his warmest wishes fulfilled, the
barons of the land annihilated, and his house about to
found a great hereditary power in Italy. But already he
had begun to feel of what excesses hot and unbridled pas-
sions are capable. Csesar would share his power neither
with kinsman nor favourite. He had caused his brother,
who stood in his way, to be murdered and thrown into the
Tiber. His brother-in-law was attacked and stabbed on
the steps of the palace by his orders. f The wounded man

* In the great MS. Chronicle of Sanuto + Diario de Sebastian© di Branca de

many remarkable notices concerning Telini, MS. Bibl. Barb. N. 1103, enume-

Cesare Borgia are found throughout the rates the atrocities of Cesare in the fol-

fourth volume ; also some letters from lowing manner : " II primo, il fratello

him ; one to Venice, Dec. 1502 ; one to che si chiamava lo duca di Gandia, lo

the pope ; in the last he subscribes him- fece buttar in fiume : fece ammazzare

self " Vi'äe S''^ humilissimus servus et lo cognate che era figlio del duca di

devotissima factura." Calabria, era lo piü hello jo vane che mai

VOL. I. D

34 EXTENSION OF THE [Book I.

was nursed by his wife and sisters ; the sister cooked his
food, in order to secure him from poison, and the pope set
a guard before his house to protect his son-in-law from his
son : precautions which Caesar derided. He said, " What
is not done by noon, may be done by evening." When
the prince was recovering from his wounds, Caesar burst
into his chamber, drove out the wife and sister, called an
executioner, and ordered the unfortunate prince to be
strangled. He used his father as a means to power ; other-
wise he was utterly regardless of him. He killed Peroto,
Alexander's favourite, while clinging to his patron and
sheltered by the pontifical mantle. The pope's face was
sprinkled with his blood.

There was a moment at which Rome and the papal states
were in Caesar's power. He was a man of the greatest
personal beauty ; so strong, that at a bull-fight he cleft the
head of a bull with one stroke ; liberal, and not without
traits of magnanimity, but voluptuous and sanguinary.
Rome trembled at his name. Caesar wanted money and
had enemies ; every night murdered bodies were found in
the streets. Men lived in seclusion and silence ; there was
none who did not fear that his turn would come. Those
whom force could not reach were taken off by poison.'"'

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

Was it not one of the primary and most essential tenden-
cies of Christianity to render such a power impossible ?
And now Christianity itself, and the position of the head

»i vedesse in Roma ; ancora fece ammaz- Polo Capello. (See App No. 3.) When

zare Vitellozzo della citta di Castello et any remarkable deaths occurred, people

era lo piu valentluiomo che fusse in quel immediately thought of poisonings by

tempo." He calls the Lord of Faenza order of the pope. Sanuto says of the

"lo piu bello figho del mondo." (See death of the cardinal of Verona: Si judioa,

App. No. 9.) sia stato atosicato per tuorli le faculta,

* To the various notices extant on this perche avanti el spirasse el papa m:uidd

subject, I have added something from guardie attorno la ca.\a.

Chap. IL] STATES OF THE CHURCH. 35

of the Christian church, were made subservient to its
estabHshment.

There wanted, indeed, no Luther to prove to the world
how diametrically opposed to all Christianity were such
principles and actions. At the very time we are speaking
of, the complaint arose that the pope prepared the way for
antichrist ; that he laboured for the coming of the kingdom,
not of heaven, but of Satan.'"'"

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

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

In this expectation, however, they were deceived. Alex-
ander's successor evidently desired that his character and
conduct should stand in the strongest contrast to those of
the Borgias ; but to that very cause he owed his power
of carrying out all their designs. He arrived at the goal
they had aimed at, but by the opposite path. Pope Julius 11.
enjoyed the inestimable advantage of finding an occasion
of satisfying the claims of his family in a peaceful manner.

* A loose sheet, MS. out of Sanuto's " Del resto poco stimavano, conoscendo,

clironicle. che questo acquisto che all' hora faceva

t Successo de la Morte di Papa Ales- il duca Valentinois sarebbe foco di pagha,

sandro. MS. Ibid. (See App. No. 4.) che poco dura." -

X Priuli Ci^onaca di Venezia MS.

D 2

36 EXTENSION OF THE [Book I.

He procured for them the patrimony of Urbino. From
that time he could give himself up uninterruptedly to his
own pecuhar passion, war and conquest ; always, however,
for the advantage of the church, for the aggrandisement of
the holy see. Other popes had sought to gain principalities
for their sons and nephews : it was the sole ambition of
Julius to enlarge the states of the church. He is therefore
entitled to be considered their founder.

He found the whole territory in the utmost disorder. All
the fugitives who had escaped from Caesar were returned ;
the Orsini and Colonna, the Vitelli and Baglioni, Varani,
JVIalatesta and Montefeltri ; in every part of the country
factions had revived ; they fought in the very Borgo of
E.ome. Julius has been compared to the Neptune of
Virgil, rising out of the waves with storm-allaying coun-
tenance, and hushing their tumults.''' He had the address
to rid himself even of Csesar Borgia, to get possession of
his castles, and to seize upon his dukedom. He kept in
check the less powerful barons, by means which Csesar had
prepared and facilitated ; he was careful not to give them
leaders, in cardinals whose ambition might stir up their old
insubordination.! The more powerful, who refused obedi-
ence to him, he attacked without hesitation. His accession
to power sufficed to reduce that Baglione who had once
more taken possession of Perugia, within the limits of
lawful subjection ; Giovanni Bentivoglio in his extreme old
age was compelled to abandon, without resistance, the
splendid palace he had erected at Bologna, bearing the
inscription wherein he had boasted too soon of his felicity.
These two powerful cities acknowledged the immediate
jsovereignty of the holy see.

But Julius was yet far from the bourn he proposed to
himself The Venetians possessed the greater part of the
coast of the papal states. They were not at all disposed
to make voluntary cession of them, and in physical force
they were far his superiors. He could not conceal from

* Tomaso Inghirami, in Fea, Notizie the Roman barons under Julius II.

intorno Rafaele Sanzio da Urbino, p. 57. complained : principes urbis families

+ Machiavelli (Principe, c. xi.) is not solito purpurei galeri honore pertinaci

alone in remarking this. Jovius, Vita pontificum livore privari.
Pompeji Colonnse, p. 140, relates, that

Chap. IL] STATES OF THE CHURCH, ' ^7

himself that if he attacked them he would excite a move-
ment in Europe, the end of which it would be difficult to
foresee. Should he risk it ?

Old as Julius was, worn by all the vicissitudes of good
and evil fortune which he had experienced in the course of
his long life, by the toils of war and exile, enfeebled by
intemperance and debauchery, he yet knew not what fear
or caution meant. Age had not robbed him of the grand
characteristic of vigorous manhood— an indomitable spirit.
He cared little for the princes of his time ; he thought he
towered above them all. He hoped to gain in the tumult
of an universal war ; his only care was to be always pro-
vided with money, so as to be able to seize the favourable
moment with all his might : he wanted, as a Venetian
aptly said, " to be lord and master of the game of the
world.'^ """

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

He seized the most daring combinations ; he risked all
to obtain all ; he took the field himself and made his entry
into Mirandola as conqueror over the frozen ditches,
through the breach. The most decisive reverses could not
move him to yield, but seemed rather to call forth the
resources of his bold and inventive spirit.

He was successful. Not only did he wrest their strong-
holds from the Venetians, but in the hot struggle which
this excited, he at length gained possession of Parma,

* Sommario de la relation di Dome- inserted here. (App. No. 5.) Francesco

nigo Trivixan, MS. " II papa vol esser Vettori : Sommario dell' istoria d' Italia,

il dominus et maistro del joelio del MS., says of him : Julio piii fortunato

mundo." (App. No. 6.) There also che prudente e piu animoso che forte,

exists a second relation by Polo Capello, of maambitiosoc desidcroso di grandezze

the date of 1510, whence a few notes are oltra a modo. (App. No. 16.)

38 INTRUSION OF A SECULAR [Book 1.

Piacenza, and even Reggio, and founded a power such as
no pope had ever attamed to. He was master of all the
beautiful region between Piacenza and Terracina. He
endeavoured everyrs^here to appear as a liberator ; he
treated his new subjects wisely and well, and secured their
attachment and fidelity. The rest of the world saw, not
without alarm, so many warlike populations in allegiance
to the pope. " Formerly," says Macchiavel, " no baron
was so insignificant as not to despise the papal power ;
now, a king of France stands in awe of it."

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

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

Not only the most exalted posts in the church, but all,
from the highest to the lowest, were regarded as secular
property. The pope nominated cardinals from personal
favour, or to please some prince, or, not unfrequently, for
direct payment in money. Was it rational to expect that
men so chosen could fi-ilfil their spiritual duties 1 Sixtus
IV. gave one of the most important offices, the Peniten-
tiaria, (which involved a large portion ol the power of
granting dispensations) to one of his nephews, at the same
time extending its privileges. He issued a bull for the
express purpose of enforcing them, in which he calls all
who should doubt of the justice of such measures, a stiff--
necked generation and children of iniquit}^'"' It followed
of course that the nephew regarded his office as a benefice,
the revenues of which he was at liberty to raise to the
highest possible pitch.

At this period the greater number of bishoprics already

* Bull of the 9th of May 1484. in dubium revocare — preesumunt,— decet

Quoniam nonnulli iiiiquitatis filii ela- nos adversxis tales adhibere remedia, etc.

tionis et pcrtinaciaj suit spiritu assunipto 13ullariun\ Romanum, ed. Cocquelines,

potestatem majoris penitcntiarii nostri — iii. p. 187.

Chap. IL] SPIRIT INTO THE CHURCH. 39

conferred a large share of secular power ; they were
granted as sinecures, from family considerations or court
favour. The Roman Curia sought only to extract the
greatest possible profit from the vacancies and appoint-
ments. Alexander took double annates, and levied double
and triple tithes. Almost everything was put up to sale ;
the taxes of the papal chancery rose from day to day ; it
was the duty of the director to remove causes of complaint,
but he generally left the revision to the very men who had
fixed the amount of the taxes. "^ Every mark of favour
which the office of the Dataria granted was paid for before-
hand with a fixed sum. The disputes between the poten-
tates of Europe and the Curia generally arose entirely out
of these contributions, which the court of Rome strove
to increase, and every country to reduce, as much as
possible.

The nominees of such a system were, down to the very
lowest class, of necessity actuated by the same motives.
Men renounced their bishoprics indeed, but retained the
greater part of their revenues, and sometimes even the
collation to the dependent benefices. Even the laws
enacting that no son of an ecclesiastic should inherit his
father's living, that no priest should bequeath his living by
will, were evaded. As every man, by dint of money, could
obtain as coadjutor whomsoever he pleased, benefices
became, in fact and practice, hereditary. The natural
result was, that the performance of religious duties was in
general completely neglected. In this brief statement I
shall confine myself to the remarks made by well-inten-
tioned prelates of the court of Rome itself. " What a
sight,'^ exclaimed they, "for a Christian who traverses the
Christian world, is this desolation of the church ! The
shepherds have all deserted their flocks, and have left them
to hirelings." f

* Reformationes cancellariae aposto- f Consilium delectorum cardinalium

licse S'"' D'" N" Pauli III. 1540. MS. et aliorum praelatorum de emendanda

in the Barberini Library at Rome, Num. ecclesia S'"° I)"° Paulo III. ipso jubente

2275, enumerates every abuse which had conscriptum, anno 1538; even at that

crept in since the time of Sixtus and time frequently printed ; and important

Alexander. The grievances of the on this account, that it points out, in a

German nation relate more particularly manner to leave no doubt, the root of

to these " new contrivances " and offices the evil, so far as it lay in the admini-

of the Romish chancery. §. 14. § 38. stration. In Rome, even long after it

40 INTRUSION OF A SECULAR [Book T

In all places inefficient and unfit men, without examina-
tion, without election, were raised to the administration of
ecclesiastical affairs. As the possessors of Uvings were
only intent on procuring substitutes at the lowest salaries,
they found among the mendicant friars men most suited
to their purposes. Under the title (unheard-of in this
sense) of suffragans, they had possession of bishoprics ;
under that of ^dcars, of benefices.

The mendicant orders already possessed extraordinary
privileges, which had been augmented by Sixtus IV., him-
self a Franciscan. The right of hearing confession, of
administering the sacrament of the Lord's supper, of gi^^ng
extreme unction, of burying in the ground, and even in
the habit, of the order, — rights which conferred both con-
sideration and profit, he had granted to them in all their
extent ; and had threatened the parish priests who were
refractory and troubled the orders (especially as to succes-
sions) with loss of their benefices. ■^'''

As the latter obtained the administration of bishoprics,
and even of parishes, it is clear that the influence they
exercised was immense. All the higher situations and
more important dignities, all the revenues, were in the
hands of the great families, and their dependents, the
favourites at princely and papal courts ; the real manage-
ment of church affairs was in the hands of the mendicant
friars. In this the popes protected them. The sale of
indulgences, which at this time was so amazingly extended,
(Alexander VI. being the first who officially declared that
they delivered souls out of purgatory) was conducted in
part by them. They too were sunk in utter worldliness.
What eager grasping for the higher posts ! what atrocious
schemes for getting rid of opponents or rivals at the time
of election ! The former were sent out of the way as
preachers or as administrators of a distant parish ; not
only poison, but the dagger or the SAvord were unscrupu-

was printed, this document was still rium Rom. iii. 3, 139. A similar bull

incorporated in the collection of the was published for the Dominicans. At

manuscripts of the Curia. the Latei-an council of 1512, this Mare

* Amplissimre gratife et privilegia Magnum occupied much attention ; but

fratrum minorum convcntualium ordinis privileges are more easily given than

S. Francisci, qure propterca Mare Mag- revoked ; at least such was the case at

nuni nuncupantur, 31 Aug. 1474« Bulla- that time.

Chap. II.J SPIRIT INTO THE CHURCH. 4,\

lously employed against the latter. ■^^* The comforts and
privileges of religion were sold. The mendicant monks,
whose regular pay was very small, greedily caught at any
chance gains. "Alas ! " exclaims one of the prelates of
that day, " who are they that make my eyes to be a foun-
tain of tears ? Even those set apart have fallen away.
The vineyard of the Lord is laid waste. If they went
alone to destruction, it were an evil, yet one that might be
borne : but as they are spread over all Christendom, ' like
veins through the body, their iniquity must bring with it
the ruin of the world."

§ 3. INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE.

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

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

It cannot be denied, that, however ingenious, varied, and
profound are the productions of the middle ages, they are
founded on a fantastic view of the world, little answering
to the realities of things. Had the church subsisted in full
and conscious power, she would have perpetuated this
state of the human intellect. But in her present condition
she allowed the spirit of freedom to unfold itself in a new
manner and from a totally different point.

* In a long report from Caraffa to monasteries : Si vienc ad homicidi non

Clement, which appears only in a state solo col veneno ma apertamente col col-

of mutilation in Bromato's Life of Paul tello e con la spada, per non dire con

IV., it is said in the manuscript of the sehiopetti. (See App. No. 29.)

42 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. [Book I.

In those ages it was a narrow horizon which circum-
scribed the minds of men within impassable hmits : the
revived acquaintance with antiquity was the power that
burst these bounds, that opened a higher, more compre-
hensive, and grander \dew. Not that the middle ages had
been altogether ignorant of the classical writers. The
ardour with which the Arabians, from whose intellectual
labours so much passed back into southern Europe, col-
lected and appropriated the works of the ancients, did not
fall far short of the zeal with which the Italians of the
fifteenth century did the same ; and caliph Maimud may
be compared, in this respect, with Cosmo de^ Medici. But
let us observe the difference. Unimportant as it may
appear, it is in my opinion decisive. The Arabians trans-
lated, but at the same time they often destroyed the
original. As their own peculiar ideas impregnated the
whole of their translations, they turned Aristotle, we
might say, into a system of theosophy ; they applied astro-
nomy only to astrology, and astrology to medicine ; and
medicine they diverted to the development of their own
fantastic notions of the universe. The Italians, on the
other hand, read and learned. From the Romans they
advanced to the Greeks ; while the art of printing dis-
seminated the original works throughout the world in
numberless copies. The genuine, expelled the Arabian
Aristotle. Men studied the sciences in the original, unal-
tered writings of the ancients ; geography in Ptolemy,
botany in Dioscorides, the knowledge of medicine in Galen
and Hippocrates. How otherwise could mankind be
so rapidly emancipated from the imaginations which
hitherto had peopled the world, from the prejudices which
enslaved the mind ? It would however be exaggeration to
represent this as the development of an original philosophi-
cal spirit ; to talk of the discovery of new truths and the
utterance of great thoughts. Men sought only to under-
stand the ancients ; they did not attempt to surpass them.
Their influence was less powerful in stimulating to produc-
tive intellectual activity, than in exciting to imitation.

This imitation was pregnant with the most important
consequences to the civilisation of the world.

Chap. IL] INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 43

Men strove to rival the ancients in their own tongues.
Pope Leo X. was an especial promoter of these labours.
He read aloud to his own company the well-written intro-
duction to the history of Jovius, and declared that since
the time of Livy nothing like it had been written. A
lover of Latin improvisation, we may imagine how capti-
vated he was with the talent of Vida, who could describe
such things as the game of chess in the stately music of
well-cadenced Latin hexameters. He invited to his court
a mathematician from Portugal celebrated for expounding
his science in elegant Latin. It was so that he wished to
see jurisprudence and theology taught : it was so that he
would have had the history of the church written.

But things could not remain stationary at this point.
To whatever perfection this direct imitation of the ancients
in their own languages was carried, it could not embrace
the whole field of intellectual activity. It was essen-
tially inadequate and unsatisfactory, and was too com-
monly diffused for its defects not to become obvious to
many. A new idea sprang up ; the imitation of the
ancients in the mother tongue. Men felt themselves in the
same relation in which the Romans stood to the Greeks ;
they would no longer contend with them in detail, they
would emulate them in an entire body of literature. To
this field they rushed with youthful ardour.

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

If we take a cursory review of the works formed on the
antique pattern out of a material so skilfully adapted, so
incomparable for flexibility and harmony, the following
considerations press themselves on our attention.

The most rigorous and servile copies were not the most
successful. Tragedies like Ruccellai's Rosmunda, which.

41j^ intellectual tendency of the age. [Book L

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

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

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

• Amongst much else that is remark- preciso come la e. Dicono che Mon-
able, Marco Minio gives an account to signor Rev'"" Cibo venendo per Ferrara
the Signory of one of the first represen- e volendo una comedia li fu data (juesta
tations of a play in Rome. He ^\Tites comedia. E sta tratta parte de li Sup-
on tlic 13th of March, 1.519. (See App. positi di Plauto dal Eunucho di Terenzio
No, 8) " Finita dita festa," (he speaks molto bcllissima." He means without
of the carnival), " se ando ad una doubt the Suppositi of Ariosto ; but it is
comedia che fece el I'cvercnd'"" Cibo, to be observed that he does not mention
dove e stato bclli^sima cosa lo ap])arato the name of the author, nor the title of
tanto superbo che non si i)otria dire, the piece, only the sources whence it
La comedia fu questa che fu fenta una was taken.
Fcrrax'a, (; in dita sala fu fata Ferrara

CiiAP. IL] INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. ^5

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

Such was the process which gave birth to the peculiar
cliaracter of the romantic epic. The poet found a subject
already prepared for him in a Christian fable of mingled
religious and heroic interest ; the principal figures, drawn
in a few broad and strong and general lines, were at his
command ; he had ready for his use striking situations,
though imperfectly developed ; the form of expression was
at hand, it came immediately from the common language
of the people. With this was blended the common
tendency of the age to ally itself with antiquity, the human-
ising spirit of which moulded and coloured the whole of
existence. How different is the Rinaldo of Bojardo — noble,
modest, full of joyous gallantry — from the terrible son of
Aimon, of the ancient romance ! How is the violent, the
jnonstrous, the gigantic, of the old conception subdued to
the comprehensible, the attractive, the captivating ! The
old tales have something engaging and delightful in their
simplicity ; but how different is the pleasure of abandoning
oneself to the harmony of Ariosto's stanzas, and hurrying
on from scene to scene, in the companionship of a frank
and accomplished mind ! The lovely and the shapeless
has moulded itself into a distinct outline — into form and
music. ■^^""

It has been the exclusive privilege of a few favoured
and golden ages of the world to conceive and to express
pure beauty of form. Such was the end of the fifteenth,
and the beginning of the sixteenth century. How were it
possible here to give the faintest outline of the entire devo-
tion to art, of the fervid love, the unwearied study of it
which then existed 1 We may confidently assert that all
that is most beautiful in the architecture, sculpture, or
painting of modern art falls within this brief period. It

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

46 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. [Book L

was the tendency of the times; not in speculation and
argument, but in practice and in appKcation. In that,
men hved and moved. I may even assert, that the fortress
which the prince erected to ward off his enemy, the note
which the commentator inscribed on the margin of his
author, have somewhat of the common character. The
same spirit of severe beauty Hes at the bottom of every
production of that age.

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

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

Was it not a most significant fact, that a pope should
himself conceive the project of pulling do^n the ancient
basilica of St. Peter, the metropoHs of Christendom, every
spot of which was consecrated, in which monuments of the
piety of so many centuries were collected, and of erecting
in its stead a temple on the model of those of antiquity?
It was a purely artistical project. The two factions which
then divided the world of artists, so easily moved to jealousy
and contention, united to persuade Julius II. to this under-
taking. Michael Angelo wished to have a building worthy
to contain the tomb of the pope, which he intended to
execute with all the sublimity and grandeur that charac-
terize his Moses. Bramante was yet more urgent. He
wanted to put in execution the bold idea of raising a copy
of the Pantheon as vast as the original, on colossal pillars.
Many cardinals remonstrated, and it appears that the plan

Chap. II.] INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 47

was generally unpopular. So many personal recollections
and affections cling to every old church; how much more
then to this chief temple of Christendom ! ''' But Julius II.
was not wont to give heed to opposition. Without further
hesitation he caused half of the old church to be pulled
down, and laid the foundation-stone of the new one himself.

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

If this involve a contradiction, it was identical with that
which displayed itself at the same period in the whole con-
dition and frame of society.

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

In the midst of this full tide of study and of production,
of intellect and of art, Leo X. Hved in the enjoyment of the
growing temporal power attached to the highest spiritual
dignity. His claim to the honour of giving his name to
this age has been disputed, and perhaps he owed it less to
merit than to fortune. He had grown up in the elements
which formed the world around him, and he possessed
sufficient freedom from prejudice, and susceptibility of mind
to foster and to enjoy its glories. If he had a peculiar

* Fea, Notizie intorno Raffaelle, p. cuperent basilicara magnificentissimam

41, gives the following passage from the extrui, sed quia antiquam toto terrarura

unprinted work of Panvinius : De rebus orbe venerabilem, tot sanctorum sepul-

antiqüis memorabilibus et de prsestantia cris augustissimam, tot celeberrimis in

basilieae S. Petri Apostolorum Principis, ea gestis insignem, funditus deleri inge-

&e. " Qua in re (i. e. the project of the miscant."

new building), adversos pene habuit '\' Naugerii Prsefatio in Ciceronia

cunctorum ordinum homines et prse- Orationes, t. 1.
sertim eardinales ; non quod novam non

48 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. [Book I.

delight in the Latin writings of direct imitators, he could
not Avithhold his interest from the original works of his
contemporaries. In his presence the first tragedy was
acted, and even (spite of the objections to a play imitated
from Plautus) the first comedy in the Italian language.
There is scarcely one of Avliich he did not witness the first
representation. Ariosto was one of the acquaintances of
his youth. Macchiavelli wrote several things expressly for
him. For him Raff"aelle filled chambers, galleries, and
chapels with human beauty raised to ideal perfection and
with life in its purest expression. He had a passionate love
of music, which just then began to be cultivated throughout
Italy in a more scientific manner. The walls of the palace
daily echoed with the sounds of music ; the pope was heard
to hum the melodies that had dehghted him. It may be
that this is a sort of intellectual sensuality; if so, it is at
least the only sensuality becoming a human being.

Leo X. was full of kindness and sympathy : he rarely
refused a request, or if he did, it was in the gentlest manner,
and only when it was impossible to grant it. " He is a
good man,''' says an observing ambassador to his court,
" very bounteous, and of a kindly nature ; if he were
not under the influence of his kinsmen he would avoid all
errors." ■^''

" He is learned," says another, " and a lover of learned
men; religious, but yet disposed to enjoy life."t He did
not indeed always maintain the decorum befitting a pope :
sometimes, to the despair of his master of the ceremonies,
he quitted Rome not only without a surplice, but even, as
the distressed functionary observes in his diary, " what is
the most vexatious, with boots on his feet." He spent the
autumn in rural pleasures ; he took the diversion of hawking
at Yiterbo, of stag-hunting at Corneto, and of fishing on
the lake of Bolsena, after which he passed some time at his
favourite seat at Malliana, where he was accompanied by
men of those light and supple talents which enliven every
passing hour, such as improvisatori. In the winter he

* Zorzi " Per il papa, non voria ni docto e amador di docti ben religiose,

guerra ni fatiche, ma questi soi lo in- ma vol viver." He calls him " bona

triga." (See App. No. 7.) persona." (See App. No. 8.)

t Marco Minio : Relazione. " E

Chap. IL] INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 49

returned to the city, which was in the highest state of
prosperity. The number of inhabitants increased a third
in a few years: manufacturers found their profit — art,
honour — every one security. Never was the court more
Hvely, more agreeable, more intellectual ; no expenditure
was too great to be lavished on religious and secular festi-
vals, on amusements and theatres, on presents and marks
of favour. It was heard with pleasure that Giuliano Medici,
with his young wife, thought of making Rome his residence.
" Praised be God ! " Cardinal Bibbiena writes to him ; " the
only thing we want is a court with ladies.'^

The debauchery of Alexander VI. must ever be contem-
plated with loathing. Leo's gay and graceful court was
not in itself deserving of censure : yet it is impossible to
deny that it was little answerable to the character and
position of the head of the church. These incongruities
were not obvious during his lifetime ; but when they
afterwards came to be compared and considered, they could
not fail to strike all men.

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

The schools of philosophy were divided on the question
whether the soul was really immaterial and immortal, but
one spirit, diffused through all mankind, or whether it was
merely mortal. The most distinguished philosopher of that
day, Pietro Pomponazzo, declared himself the champion of
the latter opinion : he compared himself to Prometheus,
whose vitals were preyed upon by a vulture for having
stolen fire from heaven ; but with all his painful toil, with
all his acuteness, he arrived at no other result than this,
" that when the legislator decreed that the soul was
immortal, he had done so without troubling himself about
the truth." ■'" It must not be supposed that these opinions
were confined to a few, or held in secret ; Erasmus expresses

* Pomponazzo was earnestly atta,cked losopliiee et mentem Aristotelis sit seu

on this point, as appears in passages videatur mortalis, contx'a determina-

extracted from letters of the popes by tionem concilii Lateraiiensis : Papa

Contelori and elsewhere. Petrus de mandat ut dictus Petrus revoeet : alias

Mantua, it is there said, " asseruit, quod contra ipsura procedalur." 1 3 Junii,

aniraa rationalis secundum propria phi- 1518.

E

50 OPPOSITION TO THE PAPACY IN GERMANY. [Book I.

his astonishment at the blasphemies he heard. An attempt
was made to prove to liim, a foreigner, out of Phny, that
there was no difference between the souls of men and of
beasts.'"'

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

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

Thus every thing has its place in the chain of events ;
one event, or one state of opinion, calls forth another : the
ecclesiastical claims of princes excite the temporal claims
of the pope ; the decay of religious institutions produces
the development of a new tendency of the human mind ;
till at length the very grounds of belief are assailed by
public opinion.

§ 4. OPPOSITION TO THE PAPACY IN GERMANY.

The relation in which Germany stood to the state and
progress of opinion we have just been contemplating,
appears to me singularly worthy of notice. She took part
in it, but in a spirit and manner entirely different.

* Burigny : Life of Erasmus, I. 139. Charlemagne, a poem by Ludovici,
I will hei-e also quote the following ])as- breathes a spirit of thorough mate-
sage from Paul Canensius in the Vita rialism, as we see from the quota,tions
Pauli II. " Pari quoque diligentia c by Daini in the 40tli book of tlie His-
medio Roman se curiie nefandam nonnul- tuire de Venise.

lorum juvenum sfcctam scelestamquc -I' MS. of Paul IV. In Caraceiolo's

opinionem substulit, qui depravatis Life, " In quel tempo non pareva fosse

moribus asserebant, nostram fideni galantuomo e buon cortegiano colui ehe

orthodoxam potius quibusdam sancto- de dogmi della chiesa non aveva qualche

rum astutiis (juam veris rerum testi- opinion erronea ed heretioa." (See

moniis subsistere." The Triumph of Ajip. No. 9.)

Chap. II.] OPPOSITION TO THE PAPACY IN GERMANY. 5|

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

As the beginning differed, so likewise did the progress.

In Italy men studied the works of the ancients as a
means to the acquisition of sciences ; in Germany they
used them as elementary books. There, they sought the
solution of the highest problems that can engage the human
mind, if not as independent thinkers, yet under the guid-
ance of the ancients ; here, the best books were devoted to
the instruction of youth. In Italy men were captivated by
the beauty of form, and their first essays were imitations
of the ancients ; they succeeded, as we have shown, in
creating a national literature. In Germany these studies
took a religious direction : the names of Reuchlin and
Erasmus are well known. If we inquire wherein consists
the highest merit of the former, we shall find that he was
the first writer of a Hebrew grammar, a monument of
which he hoped, as confidently as the Italian poets did of
their works, " that it would be more durable than brass.''
As he opened the way to the study of the Old Testament,
Erasmus devoted his attention to the New. He first printed
it in Greek ; his paraphrase and commentaries upon it have
had an effect far exceeding even his own expectations.

Whilst, in Italy, the public mind was alienated from the
church, and even hostile to it, a somewhat similar state of
things prevailed in Germany. There, that freedom of
thought which can never be wholly suppressed, found its
way into the world of letters, and in some cases amounted

* Meiners has the merit of having of Revius. — Lives of Celebrated Men
been the first to bring to Hght this belonging to the iEra of the Revival of
genealogy from the Daventria lUustrata Letters, ii. 308.

E 2

52 OPPOSITION TO THE PAPACY IN GERMANY. [Book I.

to decided infidelity. A more profound religious system,
springing from mysterious sources, though rejected by the
church, had never been eradicated ; this formed part of the
literary movement of Germany. In this point of view I
think it remarkable, that as early as the year 1513, the
Bohemian brethren made advances to Erasmus, the turn of
whose mind and opinions was so totally different from their
own.'"' And thus on either side of the Alps the progress
of the age was in a direction hostile to the ascendancy of
the church. On the one side, it was connected with science
and literature ; on the other, it arose out of biblical learn-
ing and a more profound theology. There, it was negative
and unbelieving ; here, positive and belie\dng. There, it
sapped the very foundations of the church ; here, it laboured
to build it up anew. There, it was ironical, sarcastic, and
obsequious to power ; here, it was earnest and indignant,
and girded itself up to the most daring assault that the
church of Rome had ever sustained.

It has been represented as matter of accident that this
was first directed against the abuses which attended the
sale of indulgences ; but as the alienation of the most pro-
foundly spiritual of all gifts (which was involved in the
system of indulgences) was the most striking symptom of
the disease pervading the whole body — the intrusion of
worldliness into religious things — it ran most violently
counter to the ideas entertained by the earnest and spiritual
German theologians. To a man like Luther, whose reli-
gion was one of inward experience, who was filled vdih the
ideas of sin and justification which had been propounded
by German theologians before his time, and confirmed in
them by the study of the Scriptures which he had drunk
in with a thirsting heart, nothing could be so shocking as
the sale of indulgences. Forgiveness of sins to be had for
money, must be the most deeply offensive to him whose
consciousness of the eternal relation between God and man
sprang from this very point, and who had learned to under-
stand the Scriptures for himself

He certainly began his opposition to the church of Rome

* Fiisslin ; Kirchen und Ketzergesehiclito, ii. 82.

Chap. IL] OPPOSITION TO THE PAPACY IN GERMANY. 53

by denouncing this particular abuse ; but the ill-founded
and prejudiced resistance which he experienced led him on
step by step. He was not long in discovering the connexion
which existed between this monstrous practice and the
general corruption of the church. His was not a nature to
quail before the last extremity ; he attacked the head of
the church himself with dauntless intrepidity. From the
midst of the most devoted adlierents and champions of
papacy, the mendicant friars, arose the boldest and most
powerful assailant it had ever encountered. Luther, with
singular acuteness and perspicacity, held up to view the
principle from which the power originally based upon it
had so widely departed ; he gave utterance to an universal
conviction ; his opposition, which had not yet unfolded all
those positive results with which it was pregnant, was
pleasing to unbelievers, and yet, while it attracted them,
satisfied the earnestness of believers : hence his writings
produced an incalculable effect ; in a moment Germany
and the world were filled with them.

CHAPTEll III.

POLITICAL STATE OF EUROPE: ITS CONNEXION WITH THE

REFORMATION.

The worldly character which the papacy had assumed,
the ambition and aggrandisement of the see of Rome, had
produced two movements in society. The one w^as reli-
gious ; already that falling aAvay from the church had
commenced which was big with such boundless results :
the other political ; the elements which had been brought
into conflict were still in the most violent fermentation, out
of which a new order of things was destined to arise.
These two movements, their effects on each other, the con-
tests which they excited, for centuries determined the
history of the papacy.

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

The Italian powers, by calling in the aid of foreign
nations to overcome each other, had themselves destroyed
that independence, which they had enjoyed during the
fifteenth century, and had held out their country as the
common prize of victory. This must in great measure be
attributed to the popes. They had unquestionably attained
to a power which the Roman see had never before pos-
sessed ; but they did not owe it to their own exertions.
They owed it to the French, the Spaniards, the Germans,
the Swiss. But for his alliance with Louis XII., Ca3sar
Borgia would hardly have been able to accomplish much.
Vast and inagnificent as were the views of Julius IL, heroic
as were his acts, he must have succumbed but for the help
of the Spaniards and the Swiss. How could it be other-
wise than that those who had won the victory should
endeavour to profit by the ascendancy which it gave them ?
Julius IL saw this clearly. His design was to preserve a

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER LEO X. 55

sort of balance among the other powers, and to make use
only of the least formidable, the Swiss, whom he might
hope to lead.

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

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

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

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

* Summario de la relatione di Zorzi. cattiva nuova e falsa, io le daro ozi una

" E cussi dismisiato venne iuori non bona e vera, zoe Sguizari e i*ott7." The

compito di vestir. L'orator disse : letters were from Pasqualigo, Dandolo

Pater santo eri v"^* sant"* mi dette una and others. (App. No. 7.)

56 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Dook I.

" we must tlirow ourselves into the king s arms, and cry
Misericordia." *

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

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

Contrary to the advice of the cardinals he proceeded to
Bologna to confer with the king. Here they agreed on the
Concordat by which they divided between them the rights
of the Galhcan church. Leo was likewise compelled to give
up Parma and Piacenza ; but at length he succeeded in
allaying the storm, in prevailing on the king to return, and
in retaining undisturbed possession of his territory, f How
fortunate this was for him, appears from the consequences
Avhich immediately ensued upon the mere approach of the
French. It is worthy of all remark, that Leo, after his
allies had been defeated, and he had been compelled to
cede a portion of his dominions, had still power to keep
possession of two provinces but just acquired, accustomed
to independence, and filled with a thousand elements of
insubordination.

He has always been reproached with his attack on
IJrbino, a princely house, with which his own family had
found refuge and hospitality in exile. The cause was, that
the duke, being in his pay, had proved faithless to him at
the decisive moment. Leo said, if he did not chastise him

* " Dominc orator, vcdcrcmo quel fara praticho di stnto c si pcnso con li suoi

il re clirist'"" se niotturcmo in Ic so man consultori di vcnir abocharsi a Bologna

dimandando niiscricordia. Lui, orator, con vergogna di la scde (ap.) ; niolti

dissc : pater sante, vostra santitii non cardinali, tra i qual il cardinal iladriano,

avra mal alcuiio." lo disconscjava ; pur vi volse andar."

+ Zorzi. " Questo papa e savio e

Chap. 111.] THE REFORMATION UNDER LEO X. 57

for it, there would not be a baron in the States of the
Church so impotent as not to set himself in revolt against
him. He had found the pontificate respected, and he would
keep it so/'^ But as the duke had, at least in secret,
assistance from the French, as he found allies throughout
the papal states, and even in the college of cardinals, the
struggle was a fearful one. It was not easy to repulse so
accomphshed a soldier as the duke ; the pope was some-
times seen to tremble at the bad news he received, and to
lose all his self-possession. It is said that a plot was laid
to poison him by mxCans of the medicines administered for
a disease under which he was suffering. f The pope suc-
ceeded in defending himself from this enemy, but we see
with how much difficult}^ The effect of the defeat of his
party by the French extended to his capital and even to
his palace.

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

* Franc. Vcttori, (Somuiario dclla approach very nearly to this. l\ 166,

storia d'ltaUa,) an intimate friend of the ct seq.

Medici, gives this explanation. (See f Fea, in the Notizie intorno Rafaele,

App. No. 16.) The defender of Fran- p. 35, has given, from the Acts of the

cesco Maria, Giov. Batt. Leoni (Vita di Consistory, the sentence against the

Francesco Maria), relates facts which three cardinals, which expressly refers

58 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

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

This double policy was the natural consequence of the
situation in which he was placed. Leo, however, could
hardly entertain any serious doubt to which he ought to
attach himself. Even had it not been of infinite import-
ance to him to recover Parma and Piacenza ; had not
the promise of Charles V. (so entirely to his advantage),
that he would place an Italian at Milan, been sufficient to
determine him, there was yet another reason, and, as it
appears to me, a thoroughly conclusive one. This lay in
the state of the church.

During the whole period we are treating of, the princes
desired nothing so much in all their disputes and difficul-
ties with the popes, as to excite a spiritual opposition to
them. Charles VIIL of France had no more effective ally
against Alexander VL than the Dominican, Geronimo
►Savonarola of Florence. When Louis XIL had given up
all hope of reconciliation with Julius IL, he called a council
at Pisa ; a measure which, though attended with slight
success, caused great alarm at Home. Above all, when
did a bolder and more successful enemy to the papacy
arise than Luther ? The mere appearance of such an
actor on the world's stage was too signiiicant a fact not to
invest him with high political importance. In this light it
was viewed by Maximilian, who would not suffer any vio-
lence to be done to the monk. He recommended him
specially to the elector of Saxony — '' One might have need

to their understanding with PVancesco fatto lega con alcuno prima, soleva dir

Maria. ehe pc^o non si dovca rcstar dc tx'atar

* Suriano. Relatione di 1.533, " dicesi cum lo altro principe opposto." (See

del Papa Leone, che quando '1 avcva App. No. 20.)

Chap. III. | THE REFORMATION UNDER LEO X. 59

of him some time or other :" and from that time Luther's
influence increased from day to day. The pope had neither
been able to concihate nor to terrify him, nor to get him
into his power. Let it not be imagined that Leo did not
appreciate the danger. How often did he try to employ
all the talents by which he was surrounded on this arena !
But there was yet another expedient. As, if he declared
against the emperor, he had to fear that this alarming
opposition would be protected and fostered, so, if he courted
his alliance, he might hope for his aid in suppressing reli-
gious innovation.

At the diet of Worms in the year 1521, where the
religious and political affairs of Europe were discussed, Leo
concluded a treaty with Charles Y. for the re-conquest of
Milan. The outlawry which was proclaimed against Luther
bears the same date as this treaty. Other motives might
have conspired to prompt this act ; but no one can per-
suade himself that it was not intimately connected with the
political alliance.

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

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

Meanwhile the allied imperial and papal arms were
successful in Italy. One of the pope's nearest relations,
Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, the son of his father's brother,

* Luther was thought to be dead ; f Vettori : " Carlo si excuso di non

thei'e was a story, that he had been poter procedere piu oUre rispetto al

murdered by the papal party. Palla- salvocondotto, ma la verita fu che cono-

viciui (Istoria del concilio di Trento scendo che il Papa temeva molto di

I., c. 28.) infers from the letters of questa doctrina di Luthero, lo voile

Alexander, that the nuncios had been teuere con questo freno." (See App.

in danger of their lives on this account. No. 16.)

60 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

took the field in person and accompanied the victorious
army into Milan. It was asserted in Rome that the pope
destined this duchy for him. I find, however, no conclu-
sive proof of this design, and I think that the emperor
•would hardly have acceded to it so easily. But, even
Avithout this, the advantages to the Holy See were incal-
culable. Parma and Piacenza were reconquered ; the
French driven aw^ay ; the pope must of necessity exercise
great influence over the new ruler of Milan. It was one of
the most eventful crises in history. A new current of
political affairs had set in; a great ecclesiastical movement
had begun. It w^as a moment in which the pope might
flatter himself that he would be able to direct the one and
to control the other. He was still young enough to hope
to turn it to its full account.

Strange, deceitful lot of man ! Leo w^as at his Aalla Mal-
liana w4ien the news of the entry of his troops into Milan
was brought to him. He gave himself up to the feeling
which is wont to accompany the successful termination of an
enterprise, and contemplated with pleasure the festivities
with which his people were preparing to celebrate his
triumph. Up to a late hour in the night he went back-
Avards and forwards from the window to the blazing hearth ;
— it was in November.*'^" Somewhat exhausted, but full of
joy and exultation, he returned to Rome. The rejoicings
for the victory were just ended, wlien he was attacked by
a mortal disease. " Pray for me," said he to his attend-
ants ; " I still make you all happy." He loved life, but
his hour was come. He had not time to receive the
viaticum, nor extreme unction. So suddenly, so early, so
full of high hope, he died " as the poppy fadeth.^f

The Roman people could not forgive him for dying

* Copia di una Icttera di Roma alii f People immediately talked of poison.

Sgri. Bolognesi a di 3 Dcbr. 1.5*21, Lettera di Hieronymo Bon a suo bai'ba

scritta per Bartholonieo Argilelli, in a di .5 Dec. in Sanuto, " Non si sa certo

.*V2nd vol. of Sanuto. The news readied sc M pontcficc sia morta di vencno. Fo

the jiope the 24th of November, whilst aperto. Maistro I'erando judica sia

saying the Bencdicite. This also he state venenato ; alcuno de li altri no ;

particularly regarded as a good omen, c di qnesta o]>inionc Mastro Severino,

JIc said : " Questa c una buona nuova, che lo vi<le aprire, dice che non c vcne-

ohc havctc ]>ortato." The Swiss innne- nato."
d lately Ix'gan to f\vc fcn.i dc joic. The pope
ficnt to beg them to bo quict, but in vain.

Chap, III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER LEO X. 61

without the sacraments, for spending so much money, and
for leaving debts. They accompanied liis body to the
grave with words of reproach and indignity. " You glided
in hke a fox,'' said they ; " you ruled like a lion, you have
died like a dog.'' Posterity, however, has stamped a cen-
tury, and a great epoch in the advancement of the human
race, with his name.''''

We have called him fortunate. After he had surmount-
ed the first calamity which befel not only him but other
members of his house, his destiny led him on from pleasure
to pleasure, from success to success. The adverse circum-
stances of his life were precisely those which contributed
the most to his advancement. His life passed in a sort of
intellectual intoxication, and in the unbroken gratification
of all his wishes. This was in part the result of his kindly
and bountiful nature, his quick and plastic intellect, his
ready acknowledgment of merit and gratitude for kindness.
These qualities are the fairest endowments of nature, the
true gifts of fortune ; they can hardly be acquired, yet
they affect the whole enjoyment of life. His pleasures
were little interrupted by affairs of state. As he did not
concern himself with details, and only exercised supervision
over the whole, business was not oppressive to him ; it
only called into action the highest faculties of his mind.
It was, perhaps, precisely because he did not devote every
day and hovu^ to it, that he was able to deal with it in a
large and unfettered spirit ; that, in all the perplexities of
the moment, he could keep his eye steadily fixed on the
one guiding thought which lighted the whole path on
which he was about to enter. He himself was ever at the
helm, and directed the course of the vessel. In the last
moments of his life all the currents of his policy mingled
in one full tide of triumph and prosperity. It may be
counted among his felicities that he died then. Other
times followed ; and it is difficult to believe that he could
have opposed a successful resistance to their unpropitious
influences. The whole weight of them fell on his suc-
cessors.

* Capitoli di una littera scrllta a non e morta mai papa cum peggior fama
Roma 21 Dcbr. 1521. " Concludo che dapoi e la chiesa di Dio."

G2 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

The conclave lasted long. " Sirs," said the Cardinal de'
Medici, who was alarmed at the return of the enemies of
his house to Urbino and Perugia, and trembled for Flo-
rence itself ; " Sirs, I see that from among us, here assem-
bled, no pope can be chosen. I have proposed to you
three or four, but you have rejected them all : those, on
the other hand, whom you propose, I cannot accept. We
must seek a pope among those who are not present." The
cardinals, assenting to his opinion, asked him whom he
had in his mind. " Take," said he, " the cardinal of Tor-
tosa, an aged, venerable man, who is generally esteemed
a saint." '" This was Adrian of Utrecht,t formerly pro-
fessor in the university of Louvain, and teacher of
Charles V., through whose personal attachment he had
risen to the office of governor of Spain, and to the dignity
of cardinal. Cardinal Cajetan, ^vlio did not l)clong to the
Medicean party, rose to speak in praise of the proposed
pope. Who would have thought that the cardinals, hith-
erto invariably accustomed to consult their own personal
interests in the election of a pope, would agree to choose
an absent man, a Netherlander, known to very few, and
with whom none could hope to make terms for their pri-
vate advantage ? They suffered themselves to be hurried
into this step by the surprise of so unlooked for a proposi-
tion. After it was taken, they themselves did not rightly
know how they had been led to it. They were half dead
with fear, says one of our authorities. It wms affirmed
that they had for a moment persuaded themselves that he
Avould not accept the office. Pasquin represented the pope
as a schoolmaster, and the cardinals as his scholars receiv-
ing chastisement at his hands.

It was long since the election had fallen on a man more
Avorthy of his high and holy office. Adrian Avas of a most

* Lettera di Roma a di 1 9 Zener. in original documents belonging to his own

Sanuto. " Medici dubitando de li casi country, he is called Master Aryan

suoi, se la cosa fosse troppo ita in longo, Florisse of Uti'ccht. By modern writers

deliV)er6 mettere conclusione et havendo he has occasionally been called Boyens,

in animo questo c'^' Dcrtusense, per esser because his father signed himself Floris

inipenalissimo disse, etc." Boyens ; but that moans merely Bode-

t So he calls himself in a letter of the win's son, and is no family name. See

date of 1.^)14, which we find in Ca.spar Burmannus in the notes to Moringi Vita

Bunnannus : Adriamis VI. sive analecta Adriani, p. 2.
historica de Adrian«) VI., p. 44.'?. In

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER ADRIAN VI. 63

spotless fame ; upright, pious, industrious ; of such a
gravity that nothing more than a faint smile was ever seen
upon his lips, yet full of benevolent, pure intentions ; a
true minister of religion." What a contrast, when he
entered the city in which Leo had held his prodigal and
magnificent court ! A letter is extant, in which he says,
that he would rather serve God in his priory at Louvain
than be pope.f And in fact he carried the life and habits
of a professor into the Vatican. It is a characteristic
trait, which we may be permitted to record, that he
brought with him an old woman-servant, who continued to
provide for the wants of his household, as she had been
accustomed to do. He changed nothing in his manner of
living ; rose at earliest dawn, said mass, and then pro-
ceeded in his accustomed order to business and to study,
which were only interrupted by the simplest meal. It
cannot be said that he was a stranger to the taste or cul-
ture of his age. He loved Flemish art, and valued erudi-
tion the more for being tinctured with elegance. Erasmus
confesses that Adrian was his only defender against the
attacks of fanatical schoolmen. J He, however, disapproved
the almost pagan tastes and pursuits which were then in
fashion at Rome, and of the race of poets he would hear
nothing.

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

The progress of the Turkish arms, the fall of Belgrade
and of Rhodes, made him peculiarly anxious to bring about

* Literoe ex Victorial directivse ad asserts, p. 223, that he never remarked

Cardinalem de Flisco, in the 33x'd Volume anything in him worthy of blame ; that

of Sanuto, where he is described as fol- he was a mirror of every virtue,

lows : " Vir est sui tenax, in concedendo -f* Florence Gem Wy ngaerden : Vit -

parcissimus : in recipiendo nullus aut toria, 15 Febr. 1522, in Burmannus, p.

rarissimus. In sacrilicio cotidiauus et 398.

matutinus est. Q,uem amet, aut si quern J Erasmus says of him in one of his

amet, nulli exploratum. Ira non agitur, letters : " Licet scholasticis disciplinis

jocis non ducitiu'. Neque ob pontifica- faveret, satis tamen sequus in bonas

tum visus est exultasse, quin constat literas." Burm. p. 15. Jovius relates

graviter ilium ad ejus famam nuntii with complacency how much the repu-

ingemuisse." In the collection of Bur- tation of a " scriptor annalium valde

mannus there is an Itinerarium Adriani elegans" had done for him with Adrian,

by Ortiz, who accompanied the pope, and particularly as he was no poet,
was intimately acquainted with him. lie

04 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

a peace between the Christian powers. Altliough he had
1)een tlie emperor's preceptor, he instantly took up a neutral
position. When the war broke out afresh, the imperial
ambassador, who hoped to induce him to make a decisive
declaration in favour of his pupil, was obliged to leave
Rome without effecting his purpose.'"* When the news of
the conquest of Rhodes was read to him, he remained with
his eyes fixed on the ground, uttered not a word, but sighed
dee})ly.t The danger of Hungary Avas imminent ; nor was
he witliout fear even for Italy and for Rome. His efforts
w^ere all directed towards the bringing about, if not a peace,
yet at least a suspension of hostilities for three 3"ears, in
order meanwhile to prepare a general expedition against
the Turks.

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

He proceeded to promise all that befitted a good pope ;
to promote the virtuous a.nd the learned, to eradicate abuses,
if not at once, yet by degrees : in short, he gave hopes of
that reformation of the head and the members which had
been so often demanded. f

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

* Gradenigo, in his Relatione, names f Negro, from the relation of the

the viceroy of Naples, Girolamo Negro, Venetian Secretary, p. 110.
by whom we find some very interesting 4^ " Instructio pro te Francisco Chiere-

letters concerning this period in the gato," &c. &c. ; amongst other writers,

Lettere di priiicijü, vol. 1., says, j). 109, of in Rainaldus, vol. xi. p. ',,G',i.
John Manuel : "Separti mezodisptn-ato."

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER ADRIAN VI. 65

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

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

If the pope wished to suppress the revenues hitherto
enjoyed by the Curia, in which he detected an appearance
of simony, he could not do so without violating the fairly
acquired rights of those whose offices depended on these
revenues — offices which they had generally purchased.

If he meditated a change in the dispensations of mar-
riage, and a repeal of certain existing prohibitions, he was
met by representations that church discipline would thereby
be injured and enfeebled.

In order to check the monstrous abuse of indulgences,
he was very desirous of introducing the old penances ; but
the Penitentiaria remarked to him that he would thus incur
the danger of losing Italy while striving to secure Ger-
many.'"'^

At every step, in short, he saw himself beset by a thou-
sand difficulties.

These were aggravated by the circumstances of his birth
and nation. He found himself in a new element, which he
could not master, because he was not acquainted with it,
and did not understand the secret springs of its existence.
He had been received with joy. People told each other
that he had five thousand vacant benefices to give away,
and every one was full of hope. Never, however, did a
pope show himself more cautious in the distribution of

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

VOL. I. F

66 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book 1.

places. Adrian insisted on knowing for whom he provided,
to whom he committed offices. He went to work with
scrupulous conscientiousness.'" He disappointed innumer-
able expectations. The first decree of his pontificate sup-
pressed the grants of reversions to spiritual dignities, and
even revoked those which had already been granted. By
publishing this decree in Rome, he could not fail to draw
upon himself a host of the bitterest enmities. Hitherto a
certain liberty of speech and of writing had been enjoyed
in the court ; this he would permit no longer. It was
thought intolerable, that he, who spent so httle, should lay
on new taxes to recruit the exhausted treasury, and to
provide for the increasing wants of the state. All his mea-
sures were unpopular. f He felt this, and it re-acted upon
him. He trusted the Italians less than ever. The two
Flemings whom he invested with power, Enkefort and
Hezius, the one his datarius, the other his secretary, were
conversant neither with business nor with the court. It
was impossible for him to exercise supervision over them ;
and as he was constantly occupied with study, and was not
very accessible, the whole conduct of affairs was procras-
tinating, slow, and unskilfiil.

It thus happened that in circumstances of the greatest
general importance, nothing was effected. War broke out
afresh in Upper Italy. In Germany, Luther reappeared in
fresh activity. In Rome, which was moreover visited by the
plague, a universal discontent possessed the minds of men.

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

It ought at least not to be ascribed solely to the personal
character of Adrian, if his times were so barren in results.
The papacy was assailed by vast and resistless demands,
which would have imposed a task of infinite difficulty on a

* Ortiz. Itcnerarium, c. 28, c. 3.0, pai'- + Lettere di Negro. Capitolo del Berni:

tioularly vvorthy of credit, as he says, « E quando un segue il libero costume
"cum provisiones et alia hujusmodi testis Di sfogarsi scrivendo e di cantare,

oculatus iuspcxerini." Lo minaccia di far buttare in fiurae."

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER CLEMENT VII. 67

man far more expert in affairs, far more familiar with men
and with expedients, than he was.

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

The new pope, who took the name of Clement VII.,
most carefully avoided the errors and abuses which had
marked the reigns of his two predecessors ; the uncertainty
and prodigality, the indecorous habits and manners of Leo ;
and the conflict maintained by Adrian with the tastes and
opinions of his court. Every thing was conducted with
prudence, and his own conduct, at least, was marked by
blamelessness and moderation. f The pontifical ceremo-
nies were punctually and reverently performed, audiences
granted from morning to evening with unwearied patience,
science and art encouraged in the career they had now
entered upon. Clement VII. was himself very well
informed. He could converse with the same technical
knowledge on mechanics and hydraulics as on questions of
philosophy and theology. He displayed extraordinary
acuteness on all subjects ; penetrated to the very bottom
of the most perplexing circumstances, and was singularly
easy and adroit in discourse and argument. Under Leo
he had showed himself unsurpassed in prudent counsel and
cautious execution.

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

The Spaniards had contributed more than any other

* Relatione di Marco Foscari, 1526; f Vettori says, that for a hundred years

it is there said of him with relation to there had not been so good a man pope :

those times : " Stava con grandissima re- " non superbo, non simoniaco, non avaro,

putation e governava il papato et havia non libidinoso, sobrio nel victo, parco

piu zente a la sua audientia cha il papa." nel vestire, religioso, devoto." (App^

(App. No. 17.) No. 16.)

F 2

68 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

nation to the aggrandizement and defence of the States of
the Church. They had re-estabhshed the Medici at
Florence, while, on the other hand, their aUiance with the
popes and with that family had been instrumental to the
rise of their own power in Italy. Alexander VI. had
opened their way to Lower Italy ; Juhus had introduced
them into the centre ; the attack on Milan, undertaken in
concert with Leo, had made them masters of the north.
Clement himself had contributed not a little to their suc-
cesses. There exists an instruction from him to one of his
ambassadors at the Spanish court, in which he enumerates
the services he has rendered to Charles V. and his house.
He asserts that it was mainly he who prevented Francis I.
from penetrating to Naples at his first invasion ; it was at
his persuasion that Leo threw no impediments in the way
of the election of Charles V. to the imperial throne, and
abohshed the ancient constitution, according to which no
king of Naples could be at the same time emperor ; spite
of all the promises of the French, he favoured Leo's alliance
with Charles for the reconquest of Milan, and to bring
about this, spared neither the money of his native city and
of his friends, nor his own personal exertions : he caused
the election of Adrian VI. to the papacy, at a time when
that election seemed equivalent to throwing it into the
hands of the emperor."^' I shall not inquire how much of
Leo's policy is to be ascribed to the counsellor, and how
much to the sovereign ; but one thing is certain, that
Cardinal de' Medici was always on the side of the emperor.
Even after he was pope, he assisted the imperial troops
with money and provisions, and with grants of ecclesias-
4:ical revenue. Once again they were indebted for victory
in part to his support.

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

The popes had caused the growth of the Spanish power,
but they had never directly intended this result. They
had wrested Milan from France, but they had not designed

* Instruttione al Card, reverend"»', di ando legato all' Imperatore Carlo V.
Famese, che fu poi Paulo III., quando doppo il sacco di Roma. App. No. 15.)

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER CLEMENT VII. 09

to give it to Spain. On the contrary, more than one war
had been undertaken for the express purpose of preventing
Milan and Naples from falling into the hands of the same
power. ''^' That the Spaniards, so long masters of Lower
Italy, should now daily establish themselves more firmly in
Lombardy, that they should postpone the investiture of
Sforza, was regarded at Rome with impatience and disgust.
Clement was also personally displeased. We see in the
above-mentioned instruction, that even as Cardinal, he often
thought he was not treated with the consideration he
deserved. Little account was taken of his opinion ; and
it was against his express advice that the attack on Mar-
seilles was undertaken in 1524. His ministers, by their
own confession, expected still greater disrespect to the
apostolic see. They experienced nothing from the Spa-
niards but overbearing insolence. f

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

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

In the case of Clement this was doubly difficult. The
Itahans were fiiUy sensible that the decision now taken
would affect their fate for centuries. A strong feeling of
common interest had arisen throughout the nation. I am
persuaded that their vast literary and artistical pre-emi-
nence above all other countries was the main cause of this
union. The arrogance and rapacity of the Spaniards, as
well leaders as common soldiers, were intolerable ; and it
was with a mixture of scorn and rage that the Italians
beheld these half-barbarian strangers masters in their land.

* It is expressly said in that instruc- si erano fatte tutte le guerre d'ltalia."

tion, that the pope had shown himself (See App. and vol. iii. p. 33.)
ready to acquiesce even in what was dis- f M. Giberto datario a Don Michele

agreeable to him : "purche lo stato di di Silva. Lettere di Principi, i 1.97 b.
Milano restasse al Duca, al quale efFeto

70 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

Things were still in such a posture that it appeared pos-
sible to get rid of their oppressors ; but they must not
conceal from themselves, that if they did not undertake
the work of self-deliverance with the whole strength of the
nation — if they succumbed now — they were lost for ever.

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

The first step, and one which appeared extremely dex-
terous, was to endeavour to gain over the emperor s best
general, who was known to be very discontented. What
further could be wanted, if, as they hoped, they could
detach from the emperor, together with his general, the
army, by means of which he governed Italy 1 There was
no lack of promises, — they extended even to a crown.
But how false was their reckoning ! how utterly was their
prudence, with all its conscious astuteness, wrecked on the
rugged mass against which it struck ! This general,
Pescara, was indeed born in Italy, but of Spanish blood ;
he spoke only Spanish ; he would be a Spaniard and
nothing else. He had no tincture of Italian art or litera-
ture ; he owed his whole education to Spanish romances,
which breathe nothing but loyalty and fidelity. He was
by nature adverse to a national Italian enterprise.''^' Scarcely
had the proposal been made to him, when he communicated
it to his comrades and to the emperor. He used it only
as a means of discovering all the views, and thwarting all
the projects, of the Italians.

All mutual confidence being now necessarily at an end,
a mortal struggle with the emperor was inevitable.

In the summer of 1526, we at length see the Itahans
put forth their whole strength in the work. The Milanese
are already in arms against the imperialists : a Venetian

* Vettori loads him with opprobrious faithless, malicious man than Pescara,

epithets. "Era superbo oltre modo, (Hist. d'IüiUa, xvi. 476) and nevertheless

invidioso, ingrato, avaro, venenoso e made him the proposal. I do not bring

crudele, senza religione, senza humanitä, forwai'd these opinions, as supposing

nato proprio per distruggere I'ltalia." them to be true ; they only show that

(App. No. 16.) Even Morone once said Pescara had evinced nothing but hos-

to (jiuiccardun, that there was not a more tility and hatred towards the Italians.

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER CLEMENT VII. 71

and a papal army are marching to their assistance : they
have the promise of aid from Switzerland : they are in
alliance with France and England. " This time/' says
Giberto, the most confidential minister of Clement VII., "it
is not a question of a petty vengeance, a point of honour,
or a single city. This war will decide the deliverance
or the eternal slavery of Italy.'' He had no doubt of a
successful issue. " Posterity," says he, " will envy us the
times in which we lived, and our share in so great a feli-
city." He hoped there would be no need of foreign aid.
" Ours alone," he adds, " will be the glory, and the fruit
will be so much the sweeter."''^*

With these thoughts and hopes Clement undertook his
war against Spain, f It was his most daring and magnani-
mous, his most disastrous and ruinous project.

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

At the moment when the troops of Clement VII.
marched into Upper Italy, the diet had met at Spires, in
order to come to a definitive resolution concerning the
errors of the church. That the imperial party, — that Fer-
dinand of Austria, who commanded in the emperor's place,
and who himself entertained views on Milan, — should feel
any great interest in upholding the papal power on the
one side the Alps, while they were vehemently attacked
by that power on the other, would have been contrary to
the nature of things. Whatever had been the former inten-
tions or professions of the imperial court,;|: all show of
respect or amity was put an end to by the open war which
had broken out between them. Never did the towns declare
themselves more freely ; never did the princes press more
urgently for redress of their grievances. The proposition
was made to burn the books which contained the new

* G. M. Giberto al Vescovo di Veruli. J The instructions of the emperor,

Lettere di Principi, i. p. 192 a. which inspired the protestants with some

t Foscari also says : " Quello fa a pre- fear, are dated March, 1526, a time at

sente di voler far lega con Francia, fa per which the pope had not yet contracted an

ben Buo e d'ltalia, non perche ama Fran- alUance with France,
cesi." (App. No. 17.)

72 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

ordinances, and to acknowledge no rule but the holy scrip-
tures. Although there was some opposition, yet never was
a more independent decision taken. Ferdinand signed a
decree of the empire, in virtue of which the states were at
liberty to guide themselves in matters of rehgion, as each
could answer it to God and the emperor — that is, to act
according to his own judgment : a decision in which no
reference whatever was made to the pope, and which may
be regarded as the beginning of the real Reformation, the
establishment of a new church in Germany. This decree
was immediately adopted in Saxony, Hesse, and the neigh-
bouring countries. The protestant party thence gained an
immense step ; it acquired a legal existence.

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

As his alhes did not keep their word with him, the
results he hoped for were far from being attained ; the
imperialists still held out in Lombardy, when, in Novem-
ber, 1526, George Frundsberg crossed the Alps with a
formidable troop of Landsknechts, to put an end to this
war. They were all Lutherans, both he and his people.
They came to avenge the emperor on the pope, whose

• Suriano Ilcl. di 1533, finds in him, parmi avere trovato comunemente in la

« core frigidissinio ; el quale fa la Beat'"^. natura fiorentina. Questa timiditä causa

S. esser doiata di non vulgar timidita, clie S. Sä. e molto irresoluta." (App.

uon diro pusillauimita. 11 che pero No. 20.)

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER CLEMENT VII. 73

breach of the aUiance they had been taught to consider as
the cause of all mischief; of the continual wars which
agitated Christendom, and of the success of the Ottomans,
who had just then conquered Hungary. " If I get to
Rome," said Frundsberg, " I will hang the pope."

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

As the masses of the imperialists collected, the Italian
bands dispersed before them. The only army that still
existed followed them from afar. The emperor, who had
long ceased to be able to pay his troops, had not the power,
even if he had the incKnation, to alter their course. They
marched under his banner, but they followed their own
tumultuous impulses. The pope still hoped, negotiated,
conceded, determined ; but the sole expedient that could
save him — ^to satisfy the cupidity of the army with as much
money as they thought they could venture to ask — he
would not, or could not adopt. Would he then at least
vigorously endeavour to meet the enemy with such arms
as he had ? Four thousand men would have sufliced to
hold the passes of Tuscany, yet not even an attempt was
made to defend them. Rome contained perhaps thirty
thousand men capable of bearing arms, many of whom had
seen war ; they went about with swords at their sides,
fought with one another, and boasted of their high exploits.
But to resist an enemy who brought with him certain
destruction, not more than five hundred men could ever be
collected without the gates of Rome. The pope and his
forces were overthrown at the first assault. On the 6th of
May, 1527, two hours before sunset, the imperialists entered
Rome. Their old leader Frundsberg was no longer with
them : a tumult having arisen in which he could not com-
mand the wonted obedience, he was struck with apoplexy
and left behind ill. Bourbon, who had led the army so

74 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

far, was killed at the moment the scaUng ladders were
placed against the walls. Without a leader to check their
ferocity or their lust of plunder, the blood-thirsty soldiers,
hardened by long privation, and rendered savage by their
trade, poured like a torrent over the city. Never did a
richer booty fall into the hands of a more terrible army :
never was there a more protracted and more ruinous pil-
lage.*'" The splendour of Rome fills the beginning of the
sixteenth century ; it marks an astonishing period of deve-
lopment of the human mind — with this day it was extin-
guished for ever.

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

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

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

* Vettori : ** La uccisione non fu molta, not to be blamed for the misfortune ; it

perch6 rari si uccidono quelli chi non si was owing to the inhabitants : he calls

voj^liono difendcre, nia la preda fu incsti- thcni, " supevbi, avari, hoinicidi, invi-

mabilc in danari contanti, di gioie, d'oro diosi, libidinosi c sinudatori :" such a po-

c d' argento lavorato, di vestiti, d' pulatit)n could not sustain itself. (App.

arazzi, j)aramcnti di casa, nicrcantie d' No. lb".)
ogni Sorte c di taglie." The pope was

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER CLEMENT VII. 75

former were entirely routed, he concluded with the latter
the treaty of Barcelona. He so completely altered his
policy, that he now employed that very army which had
devastated Rome before his eyes, and had held himself so
long beleaguered and captive, as an instrument for reducing
his native city to its former subjection.

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

Such was the course, and such the issue, of the wars of
Italy. From that time she has never emancipated her-
self from foreign sway. Let us now inquire into the pro-
gress of the rehgious dissensions, which were so closely
connected with the political troubles.

When the pope resigned himself to see the Spaniards
wielding the sovereign power all around him, he hoped at
least to find his authority in Germany restored by this
mighty emperor, who was represented to him as so true
and devout a catholic. This is expressly mentioned in an
article of the treaty of Barcelona. The emperor promised
to lend all his might to the reduction of the protestants,
and seemed earnestly bent upon accomplishing it. He
returned a most ungracious answer to the protestant dele-
gates who came to him in Italy. During his journey to
Germany, in the year 1530, certain members of the Curia,
and especially the legate who had been sent to accompany
him. Cardinal Campeggi, conceived bold projects, perilous
in the highest degree to Germany.

A memorial presented by him to the emperor, at the
time of the diet of Augsburg, and containing an exposition

76 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

of these projects, is still extant. With regret and repug-
nance, but as a tribute to truth, I must say a few words
on it.

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

The secret of the means he proposed was not very pro-
found. Nothing was requisite, he thought, but that the
emperor should conclude a treaty with the well-affected
princes : they should then proceed to work upon the recu-
sants by promises or by threats. If they remained stubborn,
what was to be done 1 The emperor had a right " to
extirpate this poisonous plant with fire and sword."'"" The
main thing would be to confiscate their property, secular
and ecclesiastical, in Germany, as well as in Hungary and
Bohemia ; for against heretics this is lawful and right. If
the mastery over them were once obtained, holy inquisitors
were to be appointed to track out every remnant of them,
and proceed against them by the same means as were used
against the Moors in Spain. Besides this the university of
Wittenberg was to be excommunicated ; all those who
studied there were to be declared unworthy the favour of
pope or emperor ; the books of the heretics to be burnt ;
the monks who had quitted their convents to be sent back
to them, and not a single schismatic to be tolerated at any
court.

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

• " Se aleuni ve ne fossero, che Dio (S.M.) poti*ä mettere la mano al ferro et
nol voglia, li quali obstinatameiite perse- al foco, et radicitus extirpare (juesta mala
voi'asscro in questa diabolica via, quella venenosa pianta."

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER CLEMENT VII. 77

Such is the tone of this project;'" such are its principles.
How does every word breathe of oppression, carnage, and
plunder ! We cannot wonder that Germany expected the
worst from an emperor arriving under such guidance, or
that the protestants took counsel among themselves, as to
the degree of resistance they might lawfully use.

Fortunately, however, the posture of affairs did not
justify any fear that such an enterprise would be attempted.
The emperor, as Erasmus demonstrated at the time, was
far from being powerful enough to put it in execution.

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

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

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

Should he, the emperor, make himself an executor of
papal decrees '? Should he take upon himself the task of
subjugating the enemies of the pope, — and not of this
pope alone, but of all succeeding ones '? those very enemies,
too, who were likely to cause them the most- trouble '? He
was far from having sufficient confidence in the friendship
of the papal power to induce him to take such a course.

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

Whether justly or unjustly, I shall not discuss ; it was
universally admitted that nothing but an ecclesiastical
council would have power to remove the enormous errors

* They venttired to call such a mere man library, in the handwriting of the

sketch an instruction. " Instructio data time, and beyond all doubt authentic.

' Csesari areverend™°. Campeggio in dieta (App. No. 19.)
Augustana, 1530." I found it in a Ro-

78 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

which had crept into the church. The councils had main-
tained their popularity precisely because the popes had
shown a very natural aversion to them ; from that time
every fresh act of opposition raised their fame and credit.
In the year 1530, Charles determined to take advantage of
this state of public opinion. He promised to convene a
council within a certain short space of time.

The princes, in their differences with the see of Rome,
had long wished for nothing so much as a spiritual check
on its domination ; Charles was therefore secure of the
most powerful allies in a council convened under such
circumstances. It was assembled at his instigation, held
under his influence, and its decisions were to be carried into
execution by him. These would point in opposite direc-
tions ; they would affect the pope no less than his adver-
saries ; the old idea of a reformation of head and members
would be acted upon. What a preponderance must all
these circumstances give to the temporal power, — above
all, to that of the emperor himself! This, then, was the
prudent course ; it was perhaps the inevitable one, but it
was also in conformity with Charles's highest interests.

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

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

Although he did not directly reject the proposal (which

* Lcttora anonima all' Arcivescovo danari." I see that Pallavicini also quotes

rimi)enollo (Lettere di Principi, iii, .5.): this letter, lii. 7. 1. ; 1 do not know how

" Gli ufficii solo con la fama del concilio he comes to ascribe it to Sanga.
sono inviliti tanto, che non se nc trovano

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER CLEMENT VII. 79

indeed for the honour of the holy see he dared not do), it
may be well imagined with what heart he entertained it.

He yielded ; he resigned himself to what was inevitable,
but he immediately placed in the strongest light the objec-
tions ; he represented, in the most lively manner, all the
difficulties and dangers attendant on a council, and pro-
nounced the results more than dubious.''^ He then proceeded
to make conditions, requiring the co-operation of all other
sovereigns and the preliminary subjugation of the pro-
testants ; conditions which were indeed quite in accordance
with the papal system, but totally irreconcileable with the
existing state of public opinion and of political relations.
But how could he be expected to co-operate in such a
work, at the time fixed by the emperor, not in seeming
alone, but with sincerity and firmness ? Charles often
reproached him with causing all the mischief that after-
wards ensued, by these delays. He, doubtless, still hoped
to elude the necessity which hovered over him.

But it held him fast in its iron grasp. In the year 1533,
Charles returned to Italy, full of what he had seen and
projected in Germany, and held a conference with the pope
at Bologna. There, orally, and with increased earnestness,
he pressed Clement to summon the council which he had
so often demanded in writing. Their opinions were thus
brought into direct collision. The pope stood fast to his
conditions ; the emperor represented their impracticability ;
they could not come to any agreement. In the letters
which are extant concerning this conference, we perceive a
certain variation, the pope inclining more to the emperor's
opinion in the one than in the other. But be that as it
may, he was compelled to proceed to a fresh proclamation.f

* E. g. air imperatore : di man propria negociation. In fact, in the letter ad-

di Papa demente. Lettere di Principi, dressed to the catholic states, by Rai-

ii. 197. " Al contrario nessun (reme- naldus, xx. 659, Hortleder, i. xv., we

dio) e piu periculoso e per partorir mag- find repeated the condition of a general

giori mali (del concilio) quando non con- co-operation ; the pope promises to ren-

corrono le debite circonstanze " der an account of the issue of his exer-

f We find a good accomit of the trans- tions ; on the other hand, in the list of

actions at Bologna in one of the best points laid before the protestants for their

chapters of Pallavicini, lib. iii., c. 12, consideration, it is expressly said, article

drawn from the archives of the Vatican. 7, " quod si forsan aliqui principes velint

This difference is there touched upon, tarn pio negotio deesse, nihilominus sum-

and is said to have been based on express mus D^ n"". procedet, cum saniori parte

80 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

He could not so entirely blind himself, as to doubt that, at
the return of the emperor, who was gone to Spain, he
would no longer be suffered to rest in mere words ; that
the storm which he feared, and with which a council under
such circumstances unquestionably menaced the see of
Rome, would burst upon his head.

It was a situation in which the possessor of power, of
w^hatsoever kind, might well be excused for embracing any
decision by which he might ensure his own safety. The
emperor's political power was already overwhelming, and
even if the pope resigned himself to this superiority, he
could not but often feel to what he was reduced. He was
deeply offended that Charles had decided the old differences
of the church with Ferrara, in favour of the latter ; he
acquiesced publicly, but he complained to his friends. How
much more grievous was it then, w^hen this monarch, so far
from lending himself to that prompt suppression of the
protestants which Clement had hoped at his hands, set up
claims (on the plea of the errors and heresies which trou-
bled Christendom) to an ecclesiastical authority such as had
not been known for centuries, without heeding to what
extent he endangered the dignity and influence of the holy
see ! Could Clement endure to fall completely into his
hands, and to abandon himself to his good pleasure ?

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

consentiente." It seems, indeed, as if per dire cosi la servitu nella quale egli si

Pallavicini had this difference in his trovava per la materia del coneilio, la

mind, although the account he gives re- quale Cesare non laseiava di stimolare,

fers to another point of variance. comincio a rendersi piu facile al christian-

* Soriano, Relatione, 1536. " II papa issimo. E qui vi si tratto I'andata di

ando a Bologna contra sua voglia e quasi Marsilia et insieme la pratica del matri-

sforzato, come di buon logo ho inteso, e monio, essendo gia la nipote nobile et

fu assai di cio evidente segno, che S. Sa. habile." At an earlier period the pope

consumo di giorni cento in tale viaggio, would have alleged her birth and her age,

il quale potea far in sei di. Considerando as a pretext for his evasions. (App.

dunque demente qucsti tali casi suoi, e No. 2.)

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER CLEMENT VII. gX

have projected for purely political objects, (viz., to restore
the balance of the two great powers, and to treat them
with equal favour,) he was determined to attempt by a
consideration of the dangers with which the church was
beset.

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

He no longer endeavoured to conceal his object. A let-
ter is extant from him to Ferdinand L, in which he declares
that his efforts to bring about a co-operation of all the
Christian princes in a council had been unavailing ; that
King Francis L, to whom he had spoken, held the present
time to be ill adapted for such an assemblage, and had
refused to entertain the proposal ; but that he (the pope)
still hoped to see the Christian princes more favourably dis-
posed another time.'"' I know not how any doubt can be
entertained as to the real views of Clement VII. In his
last rescript to the Catholic princes of Germany, he had
repeated the condition of a general co-operation : his
declaration of his inability to bring about this union
involves therefore an unequivocal refusal to give any effect
to his professions, f His alliance with France at once
inspired him with the courage, and afforded him the pre-
text, for this refusal. I cannot persuade myself that the
council would ever have taken place under his reign.

Nor was this the only result of that alliance. Another
unexpectedly arose, of vast and permanent importance,
especially to Germany. The combination to which it

* 20'!' of March 1534. — Pallavicini, iii., materia del concilio puo esser certissima,
xvi. 3. che dal canto di demente fu fuggita con

f Soriano. " La Ser*». V"^"*. dunque in tntti li mezzi e contuttele vie."

VOL. I. a

32 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

immediately gave birth, in consequence of the intimate
blending of ecclesiastical and temporal interests, was most
extraordinary. Francis I. was then on the best footing
with the protestants. By contracting so strict an alliance
with the pope, he now, to a certain extent, united the pro-
testants and the pope within the same system. And here
we perceive in what consisted the pohtical strength of the
position w^iich the protestants had taken up. The emperor
could not intend to reduce them again to direct subjection
to the pope ; on the contrary, he made use of their agita-
tion as a means of holding him in check. On the other
hand, it gradually became manifest that the pope did not
wish to see them entirely at the mercy of the emperor :
the connexion of Clement VII. with them was therefore
not wholly unconscious ; he hoped to profit by their oppo-
sition to the emperor, as a means of fiirnishing that
monarch with fresh occupation. It w^as remarked at the
time, that the king of France made the pope beheve that
the leading protestant princes were dependent upon him,
and held out hopes that he w^ould induce them to abandon
the project of a council.''" But if w^e do not greatly mis-
take, his connexion with them extended much farther.
Shortly after his conference wdth the pope Francis I. had
an interview with the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, the
object of which was to restore the duke of Wirtemberg,
who had been driven out of his states by the house of
Austria. Francis having consented to furnish subsidies,
Landgrave Phihp proceeded to the execution of the enter-
prise, which he accomplished with surprising rapidity.
The design certainly was that he should advance into the
hereditary states of Austria ; f and it was universally sus-
pected that the king intended to attack Milan again from
the side of Germany. J A still farther view of the matter

* Sai'pi : Ilistoria del concilio Triden- dors in France, dated August 1532,
tine, lib. i. p. 68. Soriano does not con- (Rommel, Urkundenbuch, 61.), he ex-
firm all that Sarpi relates, but an import- cuses himself for " our not having pro-
ant part of it. This ambassador says: — eeeded to attack the king in his patrimo-
« A vendo fatto credere a demente, che da nial estates,'- (" dass wir nit furtzugen den
S. M. Ch'"\ dipendessero quelli S". prin- König in seinen Erblanden anzugreifen"),
cipalissimi e caj)! della fattione luterana X Jovius, Historian sui temporis, lib.
— si che almeno si fuggisse il concilio." xxxii. p. 129. Paiiita, Storia Venez.
This is all I have ventured to assert. p. 381).

fin the instructions to his ambassa-

Chap. IIL] THE REFORMATION UNDER CLEMENT VII. §3

is disclosed to us by Marino Giustiniano, at that time
Venetian ambassador in France. He expressly asserts that
this movement in Germany was concerted by Clement and
Francis at Marseilles ; he adds, that it would certainly not
have been foreign to their plan to march their troops upon
Italy, and that the pope would have secretly co-operated.'"*
It would be somewhat rash to regard this assertion, how-
ever confidently made, as an authentic fact ; farther proofs
are required. But even if we do not attach credit to it,
the aspect of things is undoubtedly most remarkable.
Who could have imagined it 1 At the very moment that
the pope and the protestants pursued each other with irre-
concileable hate, that they waged a religious war which
filled the world with animosities, they were nevertheless
bound together by common political interests. In the for-
mer complexities of Italian affairs, nothing had been so
injurious to the pope as that equivocal, crafty policy which
he pursued ; it now bore him still bitterer fruits in his
spiritual jurisdiction.

King Ferdinand, menaced in his hereditary provinces,
hastened to conclude the peace of Kadan, in which he
abandoned Wirtemberg to its fate, while he contracted a
more intimate alliance with the Landgrave. These were
the most fortunate days in the life of Philip of Hesse. The
prowess and promptitude with which he had restored to
his rights an expelled German prince, rendered him one of
the most considerable chiefs of the empire. Nor was this

* Relatione del clarissimo M. Marino siderii (del re) s' accommodo demente

Giustinian el K*". venuto d' ambasciator al con parole tali, che lo facevano credere,

christianissimo re di Francia del 1535: S. S. esser disposta in tutto alle sue voglie,

(Archivio Venez.) " Francesco fece senza pero far provisione alcuna in scrit-

I'aboccamento di Marsilia con demente tura." That an Italian expedition was in

nel qual vedendo loro che Cesare stava question, cannot be denied. The pope

fermo — conchmsero il movimento delle asserted, that he had declined such a pro-

armi in Germania, sotto preteste di voler posal — " non avere bisogno di moto in

metter il duca di Virtenberg in casa : nel Itaha." The king had told him he ought

quale se Iddio non avesse posto la mano to remain quiet, — " con le mani accorte

con il mezzo di Cesare, il quale all' im- nelle maniche." Probably the French

pi'oviso e con gran prestezza senza saputa maintained what the Italians denied; so

del X'"<'. con la restitution del ducato di that the ambassador in France is more

Virtenberg fece la pace, tutte quelle genti positive than the one at Rome. If, how-

venivano in Italia sotto il favor secrete di ever, the pope said that he had no need

demente." More exact information, I of a movement in Italy, it is easy to see

am of opinion, will at some future time how little the idea of a movement in

be found on this point. Soriano contains Germany was thus excluded,
besides, the following: " Di tutti li de-

G 2

^.{. CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book T.

the only important result of liis victory ; the treaty of
Kadan also contained an article of deep and extensive
influence on religious differences; — the supreme court
(Kammergericht) was enjoined to hear no more suits con-
cerning confiscated church-property.

I know not if any other single event contributed so
decidedly to establish the ascendancy of the protestant
cause in Germany, as this Hessian enterprise. The injunc-
tion to the Kammergericht involved a legal security for the
new party, which was of immense importance. Nor was
the effect long in manifesting itself The peace of Kadan
may, I think, be regarded as the second great epoch of the
rise of the protestant power in Germany. After an interval
of less rapid progress, it now once more began to spread
with astonishing vigour. Wirtemberg, which had just been
conquered, was immediately reformed : the German pro-
vinces of Denmark, Pomerania, the march of Brandenburg,
the second line of Saxony, one line of Brunswick, and the
Palatinate soon followed. Within the space of a few ^^ears
the reformation of the church extended over the whole of
Lower Germany, and established itself for ever in Upper
Germany.

And an enterprise which led to such results, w^hich so
incalculably advanced the new schism, was undertaken with
tlie privity, if not with the approbation of Clement VII. 1

The papacy was in a tlioroughly false and untenable
position. Its worldly tendencies had caused a degeneracy
which gave rise to innumerable adversaries and dissidents ;
its adherence to this course — the continued mingling of
temporal and spiritual interests — brought about its utter
downfal.

The schism of England under Henry VIII. was mainl}^
attributable to this cause.

It is well worthy of remark, that Henry VIII., spite of
liis declared hostility to Luther, and of his strict alliance
with the see of Rome, yet on the first difference in aff^airs
piu-ely political, threatened Rome with ecclesiastical inno-
vations. This occurred in the beginning of the year 1525.'"

* Wolsey had said in a threatening; Lntherana ; " an expression whieli we
letter, " che ogni provincia doveiitaru may well regard as the first symptom of

Chap. III.] THE REFORMATION UNDER CLEMENT VII. 85

Matters were indeed then made up ; the king made com-
mon cause with the pope against the emperor ; and when
Clement, imprisoned in the castle of St. Angelo, was aban-
doned by all, Henry found means to send him supplies.
Hence Clement had perhaps a greater personal attachment
to him than to any other prince.'"' But since that time the
king's divorce had been agitated. It cannot be denied that,
even in the year 1528, if the pope did not absolutely pro-
mise him a favourable answer to his application for a divorce,
he at least allowed him to think it possible, '' as soon as
ever the Germans and the Spaniards were driven out of
Italy."t 1^1^-0 very contrary, as we know, ensued. The
imperialists now first acquired a firm footing in that country,
and we have seen what a close alliance Clement contracted
with them ; under these altered circumstances he found it
impossible to realise a hope which, indeed, he had only
slightly glanced at. J Scarcely was the peace of Barcelona
concluded, when he evoked the suit to Rome. The wife
whom Henry wished to divorce was the aunt of the emperor ;
the marriage had been expressly declared valid by a former
pope ; how then could the decision be doubtful, when once
the affair had come, in the regular course of procedure,
before the tribunals of the Curia, at that time undei* the
constant influence of the imperial party 1 Henry imme-
diately entered on the course which he had already con-
templated. In essentials, as regarded the dogmas of the
church, he unquestionably was, and he remained, a catholic ;

secession from Rome on the part of the 2 Sept. 1523, at the moment the Neapo-

EngVish government. (S. Giberto ai litan undertaking miscarried (an event

nuntii d'Inghilterra : Lettere di Prin- mentioned in the letter), and Campeggi

cipi, i. p. 147.) was about going to England. — " Come

* Contarini, Relatione di 1530, asserts vostra Sign. Rev'"^ sa, tenendosi N.

this expressly. (App, No. 18.) Soriano, Signore obligatissirao come fa a quel

15.33, also says — " Anglia, S. Santita Seren'"°. re, nessuna cosa e si grande

uma et era conjunctissimo prima." The della quale non desideri compiacerli, ma

king's desire to obtain a divorce, he bisogna ancora che sua Beatitudine ve-

declares without any circumlocution, a dendo I'imperatore vittorioso e sperando

" pazzia." (App. No. 20.) in questa vittoria non trovarlo alieno

+ From the despatches of Dr. Knight, della pace, — non si precipiti a dare all*

at Orvieto, 1st and 9th Jan. 1528. Her- imperatore causa di nuova rottura, la

bert's Life of Henry VIII. p. 218. quale leveria in perpetuo ogni speranza

X The whole situation of affairs is di pace : oltre che al certo metteria S.

rendered intelligible in the following Sä. a fuoco e a totale eccidio tutto il suo

passage of a letter by the papal secretary state." (Lettere di diversi autori. Ve-

Sanga to Campeggi, dated from Viterbo, netia, 155b', p. 39.)

8ß CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH [Book I.

but tliis affair, which in Rome was so openly mixed up
with pohtical views, excited and exasperated his hostihty
to the secular power of the papacy. He retahated every
step that Rome took, unfavourable to his wishes, by some
measure hostile to the Curia ; made more and more open
and formal renunciation of his allegiance ; and when at
length in the year 1534, that court gave its definitive sen-
tence, he hesitated no longer, and declared the entire sepa-
ration of his kingdom from the pope. So w^eak already
were the bonds which united the Roman see and the
several national churches, that it required only the will of
a sovereign to break them altogether.

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

We have called Leo fortunate ; Clement w^as perhaps a
better man, — at all events more blameless, more active,
and even, in details, more acute ; but in his whole course
of life, active and passive, unfortunate. He was indeed the
most ill-starred pope that ever sat upon the throne. He

* Soriano. — " L' imperatore non ccs- dolore et aftainio che lo condussc alia

sava di soUecitar il concilio. — S. M. morte. 11 dolor fu accrcsciuto dalle

Christ"'», diniando che da S. S*. li fus- pazzic del cardinal de Medici, il quale

sino osservate lo proniesse essendo le allora piu che niai intendeva a rinuntiare

conditioni poste Ira loro. Percio S. S''. il capello per la concurrcnza alle cose di

si pose a grandissimo pensicro e fu questo Fiorcnza."

Chap. 111.] THE REFORMATION UNDER CLEMENT VII. §7

encountered the superiority of the hostile powers which
pressed upon him from all sides, with a vacillating policy
contingent on the probabilities of the moment, which
wrought his entire downfall. He was doomed to see the
attempt to build up an independent temporal power, to
which his more celebrated predecessors had devoted them-
selves, lead to the very contrary results. He was obliged
to endure that those from whom he tried to wrest Italy alto-
gether, should establish their sovereignty in it for ever.

The great protestant schism unfolded itself with resist-
less power before his eyes ; whatever means he used to
stem the torrent, served but to contribute to its wider
spread. He quitted the throne he had occupied, infinitely
sunk in reputation, without either spiritual or temporal
authority. Northern Germany, which had ever been so
important to the papacy, by whose conversion in earlier
times the power of the popes in the West had mainly been
established, whose revolt against Henry IV. had afforded
them such signal service in the complete organisation of the
hierarchy, had now risen against them. Germany has the
immortal merit of having restored Christianity to a purer
form than it had worn since the first ages of the church ;
of having rediscovered true religion. This was the weapon
that made her unconquerable. Her convictions forced a
passage into the minds of all her neighbours. Scandinavia
had early adopted them. Contrary to the inclinations of
the king, but under the shelter of the measures he had
adopted, they diffused themselves over England. In
Switzerland they achieved, with few modifications, a secure
and enduring sway ; in France they made great progress :
in Italy, even in Spain, we find traces of them during the
reign of Clement. The mighty tide rolled on nearer and
nearer. There is a power in these opinions which con-
vinces and carries along all minds ; and the conflict of
spiritual and temporal interests in which the papacy had
involved itself, appears to have been exactly calculated to
secure to them complete ascendancy.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

BEGINNING OF THE REGENERATION OF CATHOLICISM.

Though public opinion is now more loudly and system-
atically expressed, and more rapidly communicated, than
at any former period of the world, its influence is not the
growth of to-day. In every age it has constituted an
important element of the social life of modern Europe.
Who can say whence it arises, or how it is formed 1 We
may regard it as the especial product of that community of
interests and feelings which binds together societies ; as the
clearest expression of their inward movements and revo-
lutions. It derives its origin and its nutriment from hidden
sources, and, requiring little support from reason or from
evidence, takes possession of the minds of men by involun-
tary conviction. Yet its apparent uniformity is in fact
confined to the most general outhnes ; for in the innu-
merable circles, wide and narrow, of which human society
is composed, it reappears under forms the most various and
peculiar. New observations and new experiments are con-
stantly flowing into it ; original minds are ever arising,
which, affected by its course, but not borne along by its
stream, re-act forcibly upon it ; and thus it is in a state of
incessant flux and metamorphosis. It is sometimes more,
sometimes less, in accordance with truth and justice; being
rather a tendency of social life and an impulse of the
moment, than a fixed system. Frc(iucntly it merely
accompanies the event which it contributes to produce, and
from which it derives its form and its extension ; occasion-
ally, however, when it encounters a stubborn will which it

CiiAi«. I.] OPINIONS ANALOGOUS WITH PROTESTANTISM, &c. §9

cannot subdue, it breaks out into violent and unreasonable
demands. It must be acknowledged that it has generally
a just consciousness of its own defects and necessities ; yet,
from its very nature, it can have no clear and steady per-
ception where lies the remedy, or what are the means
of applying it. Hence it happens that, in the course of
time, it so often veers completely round. By its aid the
papacy w^as established, by its aid it was overthrown. At
the period we are considering it was thoroughly profane ;
it afterwards became completely spiritual. We have
observed how it inclined to protestantism throughout
Europe ; we shall now see how, through a great part of
the continent, it took an opposite direction.

We shall begin by showing how rapidly the doctrines of
the protestants made their way even in Italy.

§ 1. OPINIONS ANALOGOUS WITH PROTESTANTISM CURRENT

IN ITALY.

Literary associations exercised an incalculable influence
on the development of science and art in Italy. They
assembled, here around a prince, there around a distin-
guished man of letters, or even an opulent private person
of literary tastes, and sometimes were composed of indi-
viduals meeting together on free and equal terms. They
were generally most beneficial when they arose sponta-
neously and without formal plan, out of the immediate
exigencies of the times. We follow their traces with
pleasure.

At the same moment that the spread of protestantism
agitated Germany, literary societies assuming a religious
colour arose in Italy.

Under Leo X. the tone of good society had become
sceptical and antichristian, but a reaction now took place
in the minds of some of the most intelligent men, — in
those who partook of the refinement of their age, without
being corrupted by it. It was natural that they should
congregate together. The human mind needs, or at least
delights in, the support of assent ; but this sympathy is

90 OPINIONS ANALOGOUS WITH [Book II.

indispensable in religious opinions, which are based on the
profoundest community of sentiment.

Even in Leo's time we find mention of an oratory of
Divine Love, w^liich a few distinguished men of Rome had
established for their common edification. In the church of
S". Silvestro and S^. Dorotea, in the Trastevere, not far
from the spot where St. Peter was thought to have lived
and to have presided over the first meetings of Christians,
they assembled for divine worship, preaching, and spiritual
exercises. They met to the number of fifty or sixty.
Contarini, Sadolet, Giberto, Caraffa, all of wdiom afterwards
became cardinals, Gaetano da Thiene who w^as canonised,
Lippomano, a theological writer of great reputation and
influence, and some other celebrated men, were amongst
them. Giuliano Bathi, the priest of that church, served as
centre of the circle. ''"^

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

They were composed of men who subsequently exhibited
great divergency of views ; at that time indeed they con-
curred in one general tone of thought and feeling, but the
different tendencies of their minds soon began to show
themselves.

A few years later we meet with a part of tliis Roman
society in Venice.

Rome had been sacked, Florence conquered ; Milan had
constantly been the theatre of ^\aY. In this universal ruin,
Venice had remained untouched by the foreigner or the

* I extract this notice from Carac- dare lo divine leggi." (App. No. 29.)

ciolo : Vita di Paolo IV. MS. « Quei In tlie Vita Cajetani Thien^ei, (A A. SS.

pochi huomini da bene ed eruditi prelati Aug. II.) c. i. 7-10, this is again

che erano in Roma in quel tempo di repeated and enlarged upon by Carac-

Leone X. vedendo la citta di Roma e ciolo, although in the latter place he

tutto il resto d'ltalia, dove per la vici- only reckons fifty members. The

nanza alia sede apostolica doveva piu Historia clericorum regularium vulgo

fiorire I'osscrvanza do' riti, esscre cosi Tlicatinoruni, by Josephus Silo.s, con-

nialtrattato il culto divino, — si unirono firms it in many passages, printed in

in un oratorio chiamato del divino amore the Commcntarius prsevius to tlic Vita

circa scssajita di loro, per fare (juivi Cajetani.
quasi in una tone ogni sforzo per guar-

Chap. I.] PROTESTANTISM CURRENT IN ITALY. 9I

soldier. She was regarded by all as the city of refuge.
Thither flocked the dispersed literati of Rome and the
patriots of Florence, against whom the gates of their native
city were closed for ever. Among the latter particularly,
as we learn from the testimony of Nardi the historian, and
of Bruccioli the translator of the Bible, there arose a very
strong spirit of devotion, in which the influence of the doc-
trines of Savonarola was still perceptible. Other fugitives,
as for example, Reginald Pole, who had left England to
escape from the innovations of Henry VIIL, shared in
these sentiments. They found a ready welcome from their
Venetian hosts.

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

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

If we inquire what was the faith which chiefly inspired
these men, we shall find that the main article of it was that
same doctrine of justification, which, as preached by Luther,
had given rise to the whole protestant movement. Conta-

* Epistolse Reginald! Poll ed. Quirini, torn, ii. Diatriba ad epistolas Schel-
hornii, clxxxiii.

no OPINIONS ANALOGOUS WITH [Book II.

riiii wrote a treatise upon it, of which Pole speaks in the
highest praise. " You have brought to hght the jewel,"
says he, "which the church kept half concealed.'' Pole
himself was of opinion that scripture, taken in its pro-
foundest connexion, preaches nothing but this doctrine.
He esteems his friend happy, in that he had been the first
to promulgate '' this holy, fruitful, indispensable truth." '"*
The circle of friends to whom he attached himself included
M. A. Flaminio, who Kved for a time with Pole, and whom
Contarini wished to take with him to Germany. The
following passage shows how distinctly he taught tliis
doctrine. " The gospel," says he, in one of his letters,t
" is no other than the blessed tidings that the only-begotten
Son of God, clad in our flesh, hath made satisfaction for us
to the justice of the Eternal Father. He who behoves
this, enters into the kingdom of God ; he enjoys the
universal pardon ; from a carnal, he becomes a spiritual
creature ; from a child of wrath, a child of grace ; he lives
in a sweet peace of conscience."

It is hardly possible to use language of more orthodox
Lutheranism.

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

It is, however, remp^rkable how suddenly the dispute
concerning an opinion which had previously excited little
attention, called forth the activity of all minds, and con-
tinued to occupy them for a century. In the sixteenth
century the doctrine of justification gave rise to the greatest
agitations, divisions, and even revolutions. It seems,
indeed, that the tendency of all minds to busy themselves
with so transcendental a question, — a question regarding
the profoundest mysteries of the immediate relation between

* Epistoloe PoH, torn. iii. \>. 57. crucis Christi mysterium totum aperire

t To Tlicodoriiia Sauli, 12 Feb. 1542. atqvie illustrai'e sum conatus." Still he

Lettcre Volgari (Raccolta del Manuzio) had not quite satisfied Contarini, with

Vinegia, 1553, ii. 43. whose opinion also he did not quite

X Amono;st other documents, the letter concur. He promises, meanwhile, in

of Sadolet to Contarini (EpistolaSadoleti, the new edition, to enter upon a clear

Jib. ix. p. 3(!5), concerning his " Com- explanation of the doctrines of original

mentary on the Epistle to the Romans," sin and of grace : *' de hoc ipso morbo

is very remarkable. "In quibus com- naturte nostrte ct dc rej)arationc arbitrii

nicntariis," says Sadolet, " mortis et iiostri a Spiritu Sancto facta."

Chap. T.] PROTESTANTISM CURRENT IN ITALY. 95

God and man, — arose in contrast to the worldliness whicli
had insinuated itself into the whole institution of the church,
and had led to a complete oblivion of that relation.

Even in the gay and voluptuous Naples, it was agitated
by Juan Valdez, a Spaniard, secretary to the viceroy. The
writings of Valdez are unfortunately entirely lost, but we
can gather very precise evidence of their nature and con-
tents from the objections of his opponents. About the
year 1540, a little book was published, called " Of the
Benefits of the Death of Christ," which, as a decree of the
Inquisition expresses it, " treated in an insinuating manner
of justification, depreciated works and meritorious acts,
ascribed all merit to faith alone, and, as this was the very
point which was at that time a stumbling-block to many
prelates and monks, obtained extraordinary circulation.''
Frequent researches have been made as to the author of
this book. The decree in question distinctly points him
out. " It was," we learn, " a monk of San Severino, a
pupil of Valdez. Flaminio revised it." ''' The book is thus
attributed to a scholar and a friend of Valdez. It had
incredible success, and rendered the doctrine of justification,
for a time, popular in Italy. Valdez, however, was not
exclusively occupied with theological pursuits, as he then
filled an important civil post. He founded no sect ; the
book was the fruit of a liberal study of Christianity. His
friends dwelt with delight on the days they had enjoyed
with him at the Chiaja and at Posilippo, in that exquisite
region " wehere Nature rejoices in her splendour, and smiles

* Schelliorn, Gerdesius, and others, della giustificatione con dolce modo ma

have ascribed this book to Aoniiis hereticamente." The passage from

Palearius, who says, in a discourse, Palearius does not after all point out the

" hoc anno Tusce scripsi Christi morte book so distinctly that some other may

quanta commoda allata sint hvimano net as well be meant ; Palearius also

generi." The compendium of the inqui- says that he was called to account for it

sitors, which I found in Caracciolo, Vita in the very same year ; while, on the

di Paolo IV. MS., (App. No. 29), con- contrary, the compendium expresses

tains, on the other hand, the following itself so as to leave no doubt, and adds,

expressions : " Quel libro del beneficio " quel libro fu da molti approbate solo

di Christo, fu il suo autore un monaco in Verona, fu conosciuto e reprobate,

di San Severino in Napoli, discepolo del dope molti anni fu posto nell' indice."

Valdes, fu revisore di detto libro il For these reasons I hold the opinions

Flaminio, fu stampato molte volte, ma of the above-mentioned scholars to be

particolamente a Modena de mandate erroneous.
Moroni, inganno molti, perche trattaA^a

94 OPINIONS ANALOGOUS WITH [Book IT.

at her own beauty." Valdez was gentle, agreeable, and
not without considerable reach of mind. " A portion of
his soul sufficed," says one of his friends, " to animate his
frail, attenuated body ; the larger part of his clear,
untroubled intellect was ever raised aloft in the contem-
plation of truth."

Valdez possessed an extraordinary influence over the
nobility and the learned men of Naples. The women also
took a lively share in speculations which furnished occupa-
tion both to the intellect and the religious affections.

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

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

The new doctrine had likewise made its w^ay with extra-
ordinary rapidity among the middle classes. The decree
of the Inquisition, which reckons three thousand school-
masters as adherents of it, seems like an exaggeration ;
but supposing the number to be smaller, how great must
have been its influence on youth and on the mass of the
people !

* Lettere Volgari, i. 92. Lottere di diversi autori, p. G04. A very iisoful
collection, particularly the first part.

Chap, I.] PROTESTANTISM CURRENT IN ITALY. 95

The acceptance which these opinions found in Modena
was scarcely less cordial. They were favoured by the
bishop himself, Morone, an intimate friend of Pole and
Contarini. The book, " Of the Benefits of the Death of
Christ," was printed and distributed at his express com-
mand, and his chaplain, Don Girolamo de Modena, was the
president of an academy in which the same principles were
taught.''" Writers have, from time to time, spoken of the
protestants of Italy, and we have already mentioned several
names which are to be found in the lists of them. It is
indisputable that some articles of the faith which pervaded
Germany had taken root in the minds of these men ; that
they sought to establish their creed on the evidence of
scripture, and, in the article of justification, approached
very near to the Lutheran doctrine. But they cannot be
said to have concurred in it on all points ; the unity of the
church, and the reverence for the pope, were too deeply
imprinted on their minds, and too many a catholic rite and
usage was intimately bound up with the national character,
for them to be lightl}^ and suddenly renounced.

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

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

The sentiments of Bernardino Ochino were, for a long

* Schelhorn's Amoenitatt. Literar.tom. 't' Ad Psalm. 67. f. 246. There is an

xii. p. 564, we find reprinted the Articuli extract from these explanations to be

contra Moronum, published by Vergerio met with in the " ItaUa Reformata " of

in 1558, where these accusations do not Gerdesius, pp. 257 — 261.

fail to appear. The more exact notices J Thuani Historise, ad a. 1559, i.

I took from the compendium of the 473.
inquisitors.

96 OPINIONS ANALOGOUS WITH [Book II.

time, nearly the same. If we believe his own words, it
was "a profound longing after the heavenly paradise, to
be obtained through divine grace," which first led him to
become a Franciscan. His zeal was so sincere and intense
that he very soon passed on to the more severe discipline
of the Capuchins. In the third, and again in the fourth
chapter of this order, he was elected its general ; an office
which he held with the greatest approbation. His life was
one of the greatest austerity. He always went on foot,
slept upon his cloak, and never drank wine ; he most
earnestly inculcated the rule of poverty upon others also,
as the most efficacious means of attaining to the perfection
of the Gospel ; yet he was gradually convinced of the doc-
trine of justification through grace, and adopted it vdih
fervour. He preached it with the utmost earnestness in the
confessional and in the pulpit. " I opened my heart to
him," says Bembo, " as I would do to Christ himself; it
seemed to me that I had never beheld a hoher man."
Whole cities thronged to hear his preaching ; the churches
were too small to contain the numbers that flocked to them ;
the learned and the ignorant, each sex and every age, went
away edified. His coarse clothing, his beard floating upon
his breast, his grey hair, his pale emaciated countenance,
and the feebleness occasioned by his obstinate fasting, gave
him the aspect and expression of a saint.'"'

And thus opinions analogous to those of the schismatics
of Germany existed in the bosom of cathohcism, though
they never led their adherents to overstep the pale of the
church. The Italian innovators did not engage in any
direct conflict with the priestly or monastic spirit and
practices ; they were far from attacking the supremacy of
the pope. How was it possible, for example, that Pole
should not adhere to it, after fleeing from England that he
might not be compelled to pay homage to his king as head
of the Enghsh church ? They thought, as Ottonel Vida,
a pupil of Vergerio, declares to his master, that " in the
christian church each had his office ; on the l)isliop
devolved the care of the souls in his diocese, whom he was

* Boverio : AnnaKi di frati niiiiori Capuccini, i. 375. Gi'atiani : Vie de
Commendone, j). 143.

Chap. I.] PROTESTANTISM CURRENT IN ITALY. 97

bound to guard from the snares of the world and the evil
one ; the metropolitan was to watch vigilantly that the
bishops resided in their dioceses ; the metropolitans, again,
were subject to the pope, to whom was committed the uni-
versal direction of the church, which it was his duty to
govern with the aid of the Holy Ghost. Every man
should be watchful in his vocation." "'' The men of whom
we are speaking regarded a separation from the church as
the greatest possible evil. Isidoro Clario, who, by the aid
of Protestant labours, corrected the Vulgate, and wrote an
introduction to it which was subjected to an expurgation,
warned the protestants against such a project in a work
written expressly with that view. " No corruption," says
he, " can be so great as to justify a defection from the
sacred union. Would it not be better that every one should
endeavour to reform what exists, than to make uncertain
and dangerous experiments in constructing something
new ? They would do well to turn all their thoughts to
the improvement of the old institution and to the cure of
its defects."

Under these modifications, there were a great number
of adherents of the new doctrine in Italy. Antonio dei
Pagliaricci of Siena, who was even reputed the author of
the book " Of the Be7iefits of the Death of Christ;" Car-
nesecchi of Florence, who was mentioned as an adherent
and propagator of that book ; Giovan Battista Rotto of
Bologna, who enjoyed the protection of Morone, Pole, and
Vittoria Colonna, and found means to give pecuniary assist-
ance to the poor and obscure among his followers ; Fra
Antonio of Volterra, and some distinguished man in almost
every city of Italy, joined themselves to their body, f
The opinions which agitated the country from one end to
the other, through all classes of society, were purely and

■* Ottonello, "Vida Dot, al Vescovo Morone, Polo, Marchesa di Pescara, e

Vergerio : Lettere Volgari, i. 80. recoglieva danari a tutto suo potere, e

f The extract from the Compendium gli compartiva ti-a gii heretic! occulti e

of the Inquisitors is our authority on poveri, che stavano in Bologna, abjuro

this point. Bologna, it says, " fu in poi nelle mani del padi'e Salmerone

molti pericoli, perche vi fm'ono heretici (the Jesuit), per ordine del legato di

principali, fra quali fu un Gio. B'\ Bologna," (Compend. fol. 9, c. 94.)

Rotto, il quale haveva aniieizia et ap- In this manner they proceeded with

poggio di persone potentissime, come di every town,

VOL. I. H

98 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [Book II.

decidedly religious ; but moderated on the subject of eccle-
siastical reform by the influence which the church of Rome
was so well calculated to exercise over the imaginations
and aff'ections of the Italian people.

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

There is a saying ascribed to Pole, that a man should
be satisfied with his own inward convictions, without trou-
bling himself greatly whether errors and abuses exist in
the church."'' Nevertheless, the first attempt at a reform-
ation originated with a party to which he himself belonged.

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

These were the very cardinals who, by the pope's com-
mand, drew up a scheme of church reform. It was known
to the protestants, who not only rejected, but ridiculed it ;
they, indeed, had meanwhile got far beyond it. But it can

• Passages from Atanagi in M<=Crie ; of his letters by Quirini, torn, i, p. 12.

The Reformation in Italy, p. 1 72, Ger- Florebelli de vita Jacobi Sadoleti Com-

nian translation. mentarius, prefixed to the Epp. Sadoleti,

t Vita Reginaldi Poli, in the edition col. 1590, vol. 3.

Chap. L] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 99

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

Nor did the matter rest here. There are some short
essays of Gaspar Contarini extant, in which he makes vehe-
ment war on abuses, more particularly those which brought
gains to the Curia. He denounces the practice of composi-
tions and the receipt of money in payment of spiritual
favours, as simony which might be esteemed a sort of
heresy. He had been blamed for censuring former popes :
" How V^ exclaims he, " shall we trouble ourselves so much
about the reputations of two or three popes, and not rather
try to restore what has been defaced, and to secure a good
name for ourselves ? It were indeed too much to require
us to defend all the acts of all the popes ! " He attacks the
abuse of dispensations in an earnest and stringent manner.
He regards it as idolatrous to say (as was actually main-
tained), that the pope had no rule for the enactment or
abolition of positive law but his own will. It is worth
while to hear him on this point. " The law of Christ,"
says he, " is a law of liberty, and forbids a slavery so gross
that the Lutherans were perfectly justified in comparing it
to the Babylonish captivity. But besides this, can that be
called a government, whose rule is the will of a man, by
nature prone to evil, and moved by innumerable affec-
tions ? No ; all true dominion is a dominion of reason.
Its aim is to lead those who are subject to it, by the just
and appropriate means, to its end — happiness. The autho-
rity of the pope also is a dominion of reason. God granted
it to Saint Peter and his successors, that they might lead
the flock confided to them to eternal blessedness. A pope

* This is the Consilium delectorum It bears the signatures of Cantarini, Ca-
Cardinalium et aUorum praelatorum de rafFa, Sadolet, Pole, Fregoso, Giberto,
Eraendanda Ecclesia, already mentioned, Cortese, and Aleander.

h2

100 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [Book IL

ought to know that those over whom he exercises it are
free men. He ought not to command, or forbid, or dis-
pense, according to his own pleasure, but according to the
rule of reason, of the divine commandments, and of love ;
a rule which refers every thing to God and to the common
good. For positive laws ought not to be arbitrary and
capricious : they ought to be adaptations of the laws of
nature and of God to circumstances ; nor can they be
changed, except in conformity with those laws and with
the imperious demands of things." " Let your holiness be
careful," exclaims he to Paul III., " not to depart from this
rule. Give thyself not up to the impotence of the Avill
which chooses what is evil ; to the servitude which is the
bondage of sin. Then wilt thou be powerful and free ;
then will the life of the christian republic be upheld in
thee."-"

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

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

♦ G. Contarini Cardinalis ad Paulum have in my po,^e^ji9rt a Tractatus de

III. P.M. dc potostato pontificis in com- cora})ositionibus aMiaH|' Rev"". D. Gas-

positionibus Printed in Roccaberti, Bib- paris Cqiitarini, 1536, wliich, as far as I

liotheca Pontitieia Maxima, tottt. xiii. I can tiad, Itbs^ibeeu nowhere printed.

Chap. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 10]

have conceived fresh hope that God will do some great
thing, and not let the gates of hell prevail against his Holy
Spirit/^ ^''•

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

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

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

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

He proceeded with great caution ; choosing none but
moderate men, several of whom indeed subsequently fell
under suspicion of protestantism, and furnishing them with
wise directions for the government of their lives and their

* Gaspar C. Contarinus Reginaldo C. + Acta consistorialia (Aug. 6, 1540) in
Polo, Ex ostiisTiberinis, xi. Nov. 1538. Rainaldus, Annales Ecclesiastici, torn.
(Epp. Poll, ii. 142.) xxi. p. 146.

102 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [Book II.

political conduct. When, for example, he sent Morone,
who was still young, to Germany, in the year 1536, he
neglected not to enjoin him " to contract no debts, to pay
at the places of entertainment appointed him, to dress
himself neither luxuriously nor meanly, to frequent the
churches, but ^vithout the least appearance of hypocrisy,"
He was to represent in his own person that Roman refor-
mation of which so much had been said ; and to that end
he was recommended to maintain a dignity tempered by
suavity and cheerfulness.'"''

In the year 1540 the bishop of Vienna advised extreme
measures. He proposed that the articles of Luther's and
Melancthon's doctrine, which were declared heretical, should
be laid before the innovators, and that they should be
peremptorily asked whether they would consent to renounce
them. This advice, however, the pope, by his nuncio,
declined. " We fear," said he, " they would rather die
than pronounce such a recantation." He wished he could
only see a hope of a reconciliation. At the first gleam of
it he would send a formula containing no offensive matter,
which had already been drawn up by wise and venerable
men with that view. " Were it but come to that ! " he
adds ; " but scarcely can we expect it." f

Yet never did parties approximate more nearly than at
the conference of Ratisbon, in the year 1541. The state
of politics was remarkably favourable. The emperor, who
wanted to employ the whole force of the empire against
Turkey or France, wished for nothing more ardently than
a complete and general reconciliation. He selected Gropper
and Juhus Pflug, the most judicious and temperate amongst
the German divines, to attend the conference. On the
other hand, landgrave Philip was once more on good terms
with Austria, by whose influence he hoped to obtain the
chief command in the war which was preparing : with

* Instructio pro causa fidei et concilii adeo certo sciendum, ista, quae in hisarti-

data episcopo Mutinae. Oct. 24, 1536, culis pie et prudentcr continentur, non

MS. (App. No. 22.) solum fretos salvo conductu esse eos rc-

t Instructioncs pro Rev'"". D. Ep. cusaturos, verum etiam ubi mors praesens

Mutinensi Apostolico Nuncio interfuturo immineret, illam potius praeelecturos."

convcntui Germanoruni, Spir», 12 Maij, (App. No. 25.)
1540, celebrando. " Timcndum estatque

Chap. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 103

admiration and delight the emperor beheld him ride into
Ratisbon on his noble charger, powerful and vigorous as
himself. The pacific Bucer, the gentle Melancthon,
appeared on the protestant side.

How earnestly the pope desired a successful issue of this
meeting, is sufficiently shown by the choice of the legate
whom he sent : that very Gaspar Contarini, whom we have
seen so deeply imbued with the new opinions which per-
vaded Italy, so actively engaged in the project of universal
reform. He now appeared in a still more important posi-
tion ; occupying the centre between two creeds and two
parties which divided the world ; charged at a most favour-
able crisis with the commission, and actuated by the
desire, to reconcile them ; a position which renders it, if
not necessary, yet allowable, to take a nearer view of his
personal character and history.

Messer Gaspar Contarini, the eldest son of a noble house
of Venice which traded to the Levant, had devoted himself
with peculiar zeal to philosophical studies. His manner of
pursuing them is not unworthy of note. He set apart
three hours every day for study, in the strict sense of the
word : never more nor less. He began every time with an
exact repetition of what he had read ; whatever he under-
took he persevered in to the end ; he did nothing in a
desultory manner.* He did not suffer himself to be seduced
by the subtleties of Aristotle's commentators into similar
subtleties ; he perceived that none were more acute than
those who sought to deceive. He displayed remarkable
talent, and still more remarkable steadiness. He did not
aim at the ornaments of speech, but expressed himself
simply and appositely. The growth and structure of his
mind were marked by that regular sequence which we see
in the processes of nature. As the tree is clothed each
year with its circle of bark, so did his mind acquire its
regular portion of compass and solidity.

At an early age he was elected member of the Pregadi,
the senate of his native city, but for some time he ventured
not to speak. He wished it, for he had no want of matter

* Joannis Casse Vita Gasparis Contarini: in Jo. Casee Monimenta Latina, ed.
Hal. 170B, p. 88.

101 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND Book IT. J

to communicate, but he could not find courage. When at
length he prevailed upon himself to address the assembly,
he spoke neither gracefully, indeed, nor wittily, nor with
vehemence and animation, but so simply and profoundly,
that he gained the highest respect and consideration.

His lot was cast in the most stirring times. He beheld
his country's loss of territory, and aided her to regain it.
On Charles V.'s first arrival in Germany, he was sent as
ambassador to his court, where he witnessed the beginning
of the divisions in the church. He arrived in Spain just as
the ship Vittoria returned from the first voyage round the
world, ''^ and was, as far as I have been able to find, the first
to solve the problem why she arrived a day later than her
journal indicated. He aided in bringing about a reconcilia-
tion between the pope (to whom he was sent after the con-
quest of Rome) and the emperor. His little book on the
Venetian constitution, a very instructive and well-conceived
work, and the reports of his embassies, which still exist in
manuscript, are clear and striking proofs of his accurate,
})enetrating view of the world, and of his intelligent
patriotism.!

One Sunday of the year 1535, just as the great council
was assembled, and Contariiii, who meanwhile had been
advanced to the most important offices, sat by the voting-
urn, the news arrived that pope Paul, whom he did
not know — with whom he had no connexion — had
appointed him cardinal. All flocked round him, surprised,
incredulous as he was, to wish him joy. Aluise Mocenigo,
who had hitherto been his political opponent, exclaimed,
that the republic had lost her best citizen.;];

This honourable promotion was not, however, unattended
with painful circumstances. Should he leave his free
paternal city, which oflered him her highest dignities, or,
at all events, a field of activity in which he might labour

• Beccatello, Vita del C. Contariiii information relating to the earlier times

(Epp, Poli, iii.), p. ciii. There is likewise of Charles V. T have found no trace of

a separate edition, which, however, is it either in Vienna or Venice. At Rome

»)nly tulscii from the volume of lettei's, I discovered a copy, hut have never

and coiitainK (he same number of paj^es. obtained sij^ht of another. (App. No. 18.)

f The first is dated l.^J."), the other 'X Daniel Harbaro to Domenico Veni-

].'i'M). The first contains ver} important ero; Lettere Volgari, i. 73.

Ciup. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 105

on terms of perfect equality with the heads of the state,
for the service of a pope, often swayed by mere passion,
and subject to no legal restraints ? Should he abandon
the republic of his ancestors, where the manners suited his
own, in order to measure himself against others in the
luxury and splendour of the court of Rome ? We are
assured, that the consideration, that in such critical times
an example of the contempt of so exalted a dignity
would have an injurious effect, mainly determined him to
accept it/'^

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

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

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

In Contarini this character was mildness, innate truth,
pure morality ; above all, that deep religious conviction
which gives man happiness because it gives him light.

Endowed with such a character, temperate, almost
sharing the views of the protestants on the weightiest
point of doctrine, Contarini appeared in Germany. By a
regeneration of the doctrine of the church emanating from
this very point, and by the removal of abuses, he hoped to
heal the divisions of Christendom.

* Casa, p. 102.

106 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [Book II.

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

Another Venetian, Marino Giustiniano, who quitted
Germany shortly before this diet, and who appears to have
attentively observed the state of things, represents it as
very possible that this was the case.''' He, how^ever, regards
some concessions as indispensable, and specifies the follow-
ing : — That the pope should no longer claim to be considered
Christ's vicegerent in temporal as well as in spiritual things :
that in place of ignorant and vicious bishops and priests,
substitutes should be appointed, irreproachable in their
lives, and capable of instructing the people ; that neither
the sale of masses, nor plurality of livings, nor the abuse of
compositions, should any longer be tolerated ; that the
transgression of the rules of fasting should be \dsited, at
most, with light punishments; if, added to these reforms,
the communion in the two kinds, and the marriage of
priests were conceded, the Germans would, he thinks,
immediately abjure their schism, would pay obedience to
the pope in spiritual things, would give up their opposition
to the mass and auricular confession, and acknowledge the
necessity of good works as a fruit of faith, — so far, that is,
as they proceed from faith. As the existence of abuses
had given birth to schism, a removal of them might put an
end to it.

We ought also here to remember, that landgrave Philip
of Hesse had declared the year before, that the temporal
power of the bishops might be tolerated, provided means
could be found to secure the due administration of the
spiritual power; that an agreement might be come to
respecting the mass, provided only the sacrament in both
kinds was conceded, f Joachim of Brandenburgh declared

* Relazione del Clai""«. M. Marino Farnese, 1541, 28 April, (Epp. Poll, iii.

Giustinian KaV, (ritornato) dalla lega- p. cclv.) The landgi-ave and the elector

zione di Germania sotto Ferdinando, re both insisted upon the marriage of the

di Romani. Bibl. Corsini at Rome. No. clergy, and the administration of the

481. sacrament, in the two kinds ; the former

t Letter from the landgrave in Rom- raised the most difficulties with regard

mel's Urkundonbuch, p. 85. Compare to the primacy, the latter with regard to

the letter of the bishop of Lunden in the doctrine, " de missa quod sit sacrifi-

Seckendorf, p. 29.0. Contarini al C. cium."

Chap. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 107

himself willing to acknowledge the pope^s supremacy,
doubtless under certain conditions.

Meanwhile, advances were made from the other side
also. The imperial ambassador repeatedly said, that con-
cessions must be made on both sides, as far as was consistent
with God's honour. Even those who did not protest would
have gladly seen the spiritual power taken, throughout
Germany, from the bishops (who were become to all intents
princes) and vested in superintendents, and a general
change in the administration of church property agreed
upon. People already began to talk of indifferent things
which might be either done or omitted ; even in the eccle-
siastical electorates prayers were put up by authority for
the successful issue of the work of reconciliation.

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

The doubt was, however, whether the pope, without
whom nothing could be done, was disposed to abate any-
thing of the rigour of his demands. On this point a pas-
sage in his instructions to Contarini is very remarkable.*"'

He did not invest that prelate with the unlimited powers
which the emperor had desired. He conjectured that
demands might arise in Germany which no legate, with
which not even the pope himself, could venture to comply,
without the advice of other nations. He did not however
decline all negotiation. " We must first see,'' says he,
"whether the protestants will agree with us on certain
principles ; e. g. on the supremacy of the holy see, on the
sacraments, and some other points.'' If we inquire what
these other points were, we find that the pope does not
express himself distinctly about them. He describes them
as " what is sanctioned both by the holy scripture and by
the perpetual usages of the church ; the legate knows what

* Instructio data Rev'^^. Cli. Contareno script; printed in Quirini; Epp. Poli, iii,
in Germaniam legato, d. 28 mensis Janu- cclxxxvi.
arii, 1541. In many libraries in manu-

b

108 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [Book II.

they are." " On this basis," he adds, " an attempt may be
made to come to a mutual understanding on all disputed
questions." '"

There can be no doubt that this vague language was
used designedly. Paul III. probably wished to try to what
point Contarini could bring affairs, and had no mind to
bind himself beforehand to a ratification of his proposals.
He left the legate a certain latitude. Without doubt it
would have cost Contarini fresh efforts to render accept-
able to the obstinate Curia concessions which, though per-
haps obtained with difficulty at Ratisbon, could not possibly
be satisfactory at Rome. But everything depended, in the
first place, on a reconciliation and union of the assembled
divines. The mediating power was far too weak and vacil-
lating ; as yet it had hardly a name, nor could it hope to
obtain any valid influence until it could assume a firm
station.

On the 5th of April, 1541, the negotiation opened ; the
basis of it being a project which had been communicated
to the emperor, and approved, after some slight alterations,
by Contarini. Even here, at the very outset, the legate
held it advisable to depart a step from his instructions.
The pope had required, in the first place, the acknowledg-
ment of his supremacy. Contarini saw clearly that the
whole enterprise might be wrecked, at its very commence-
ment, on this obstacle, by which the passions of the assem-
bly were so likely to be aroused. He therefore allowed
the article on the supremacy of the pope to be the last
presented for discussion, instead of the first. He thought
it better to begin with those in which he and his friends
approximated to the protestants, and which were also
points of the highest importance as to the grounds of faith.
He took the principal part in the discussions upon them.

* " Videndum imprimis est, an protes- nota esse bene scimus, quibus statim

tantes et ii qui ab ecclesice gi'emio defe- initio admissis oninis super aliis contro-

cerunt, in principiis nobiscum conveniant, versus concordia tentaretur." It is ne-

cujusniodi est hujus sanctse sedis prima- cessary in all this to keep constantly in

tus, tanquam a Deo et Salvatore nostro view the position of the pope, which was

institutus, sacrosanctre ecclesiye sacra- orthodox in the extreme, and from its

menta et alia qusedam, qua) turn sacra- very nature unyielding. This alone will

rumlitterarumautoritate, tum universalis enable us to perceive how much lay in

ccclesije perpetua observatione, hactenus such a turn of aftairs.
observatA et comprobata fuere ct tibi

Chap. T.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 109

His secretary affirms that nothing was determined bj the
cathohc divines, that even no specific alteration was
attempted, until it had been submitted to him.*'^ Morone,
bishop of Modena, and Tommaso da Modena, the master
of the sacred palace, who held the same opinion on the
article of justification, were his supporters.! A German
divine. Dr. Eck, the old opponent of Luther, threw the
greatest difficulties in the way ; but by compelling him to
discuss it point by point, he too was at length brought to
a satisfactory explanation. In a short time the whole
assembly actually came to an agreement (who would have
ventured to hope if?) on the four important articles, of the
nature of man, original sin, redemption, and even justifica-
tiom Contarini admitted the cardinal point of the Lutheran
doctrine, — that the justification of man was wrought by
faith alone, without merit ; he only added that this faith
must be living and active. Melancthon declared that this
was in fact the protestant faith itself ; J Bucer boldly
affirmed that in the articles agreed upon everything was
included, necessary to a pious, upright, and holy life before
God and towards man ; ^ equal satisfaction was expressed
on the other side. The bishop of Aquila calls this confer-
ence holy ; he doubts not that it will bring about the
reconciliation of Christendom. Contarini's friends, who
sympathised in his opinions, heard with joy what progress
he had made towards this end. " When I observed this
unanimity of opinion," writes Pole to him, " I felt a delight
such as no harmony of sounds could have inspired me
with ; not only because I see the approach of peace and
concord, but because these articles are the foundation of
the whole Christian faith. They appear, it is true, to treat of
divers things, of faith, works, and justification ; upon the
latter, however, — justification — all the rest are grounded ;
and I wish you joy, and thank God, that the divines
of both parties have agreed upon that. We hope that

* Beccatelli, Vita del Cardinal Conta- tiam ut nos docemus." Compare Planck,

rini, p. cxvii. Gesch. d. protest. Lehrbegriffs, iii.,ii., 98.

f Pallavicini, iv., xiv., p. 433, from § All the negotiations and writings for

Contarini's letters. the reconciliation of the religious parties,

X Melancthon to Camerar, 10»^* May, executed by his imperial majesty, a.d.

(Epp. p. 360:) " adsentiuntur justificari 1541, by Martin Bucer, in Hortleder

homines fide et quidem in earn senten- book i. chap. 37, page 280.

110 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [Book II.

He who hath begun so mercifully, will complete His
work." '"

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

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

* Polus Contareno. Caprauicee, l?"* quod omnibus spem maximam facit,

May, 1.^41. Epp. Poli, i. iii. p, 25. The assertio Csesaris se nullo pacto nisi rebus

letters in Rainaldus, 1541, No. 11, 12, by bene compositis discessurum, atque etiara

this bishop of Aquila, are also rennarkablc, quod omnia scitu consiliisque rev™', legati

It was thought that if they could once in colloquio a nostris theologis tractantur

come to a conclusion on the point of the et disputantur,"

Lord's supper, every other difficulty t Luther to John Frederick, in De

would easily be got over. « Id unum est Wette's collection, v. 353.

Chap. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. Ill

Meanwhile, these articles had also arrived at Rome,
where they excited extraordinary attention. The declara-
tion concerning justification, especially, was regarded with
great antipathy by cardinals CarafFa and San Marcello,
and it was with considerable trouble that Priuli could make
the meaning of it clear to them.'" The pope did not express
himself so decidedly about it as Luther. Cardinal Farnese
sent word to the legates, " his holiness neither approves
nor disapproves the conclusion you have come to. But all
others who have seen it are of opinion, that if the meaning
of it be in conformity with the catholic faith, the words
might be more clear and precise."

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

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

Francis I. thought himself directly menaced, and
neglected no means of preventing the union. He remon-
strated vehemently against the concessions which the
legate had made at Ratisbon. J He complained that " his

• I cannot pardon Quirini for not hav- cclxxviii.: Loces, 17 Maggio 1541: " S.

ing given entire Priuli's letter concerning Ma Ch'"^ diveniva ogni di piu ardente

these transactions, which he had in his nelle cose della chiesa, le quali era riso-

hands, luto di voler difendere e sostenere con

+ There always existed an imperial tutte le sforze sue e con la vita sua e

party, which defended this tendency. In de' fighuoh, giurandomi che da questo

this lies the whole secret, among other si moveva principalmente a far questo

things, of the negotiations of the arch- officio." Granvella had, on the other

bishop of Lunden. He had represented hand, different instructions: "M'afifer-

to the emperor: "che se S.M. volesse m6," says Contarini, in a letter to Far-

tolerare che i Lutherani stessero nelli nese, ibid, cclv., " con gim^amento, havere

loro errori, disponeva a modo e voler suo in mano lettere del Re Christ"^"., il quale

di tutta la Germania." Instruzione di scrive a questi principi protestanti, che

Paolo III., a Montepulciano, 1539. (App. non si accordino in alcunmodo, e che lui

No. 24.) At that time the emperor also aveva voluto veder 1' opinioni loro, le

wished for toleration. quali non li spiacevano." According to

t He spoke about it with the papal this, Francis I. would have hindered the

ambassadors at his court ; II C^ di Man- reconciUation on both sides,
tova al C^ Contarini, in Quirini, iii..

112 INTERNAL REFORMS, AND [Book II.

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

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

Germany too was astir. Giustiniano affirms that the
power which the landgrave had acquired by placing him-
self at the head of the protestant party, inspired others
with the thought of gaining a similar influence by taking
the lead of the catholics. A member of this diet informs
us that the dukes of Bavaria were disinchned to all accom-
modation. The elector of Mayence also was decidedly
hostile to it. He warned the pope, in a private letter,
against a national council, nay, against any council held in
Germany, where "too much must be conceded."! Other
documents addressed to the pope are in existence, in which
other German catholics lament over the progress which
protestantism is making at the diet, the concessions of
Gropper and Pflug, and the absence of the catholic princes
from the conference.^

* Ardinghello, al notue del C. Farnese spolcen of : " Unus duntaxat poritus theo-

al C. Contarini, 29 Magf^io, 1541. logus adhibitus est." They are full of in-

f Litertc Cardinalis Moguntini in Rai- sinuations against the emperor. " Nihil,"

naldus, 1541, n. 27. it is there said, " ordinnMtnr pro robore

X Anonymous, r.lso in Rainaldns, No. ecdesiie, quia tinietur i!li (Ci>?savi) dis-

2/), From which side they came, is easy plicere."
to see from the lact, th:it I'^ek is thus

Chap. I.] RECONCILIATION WITH PROTESTANTS. 113

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

It was impossible that these agitations should not have
a strong effect on the clergy. Eck, however, remained in
Bavaria. " The enemies of the emperor," says Contarini's
secretary, " in and out of Germany, who feared his great-
ness, inasmuch as he would have united all Germany, began
to sow tares among the clergy of the empire. Carnal envy
broke up this conference." *" When such were the diffi-
culties which attended the entire project, it is no wonder
if men could no longer agree on any single article.

It is an exaggeration to ascribe the blame of this exclu-
sively, or even mainly, to the protestants. In a short time
the pope announced to the legate his positive will, that he
should, neither in his public nor private capacity, approve
any decision in which the Catholic belief was expressed
otherwise than in words which left no room for ambiguity.
The formula in which Contarini had thought to unite the
different opinions concerning the supremacy of the pope and
the authority of councils, was absolutely rejected at Rome.f
The legate was obliged to submit to make explanations
which appeared inconsistent with his former professions.

That something might be effected, the emperor wished
at least that the formulse which had been constructed
should be adopted until further proceedings, in regard to
those articles which had been agreed upon ; and that, in
regard to the rest, each side should consent to tolerate the
differences of the other. But neither Luther nor the pope
could be moved to acquiesce in this arrangement. The

* Beccatelli Vita, p. cxix. " Hora il sua grandezza temevano, quando tutti

diavolo, che sempre alle buone opere gli Alemani fussero stati uniti, cornincia-

s'attraversa, fece si che sparsa questa vono a seminare zizania tra quelli theo-

fama della concordia che tra catholici e logi collocutori."

Protestant! si preparava, gli invidi dell' f Ardinghello a Contarini. Idem, p.

imperatore in Germania e fuori, che la ccxxiv,

VOL. I. I

114 NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. [Book II

cardinal was instructed that the sacred college had unani
mously determined, on no condition to consent to tolerance I
on such important articles. I

After such high hopes, after so prosperous a beginning,
Contarini returned, having accomplished nothing. He
Avished to accompany the emperor to the Netherlands, but|
this was forbidden him. On his arrival in Italy he was
condemned to hear the calumnies which were disseminated,
from Rome over the whole countr}^ concerning the conces-
sions wdiich it was pretended he had made to the protest-!
ants. He was too high-minded not to feel all the bitterness
of a failure in such grand and comprehensive projects.
How noble, how liberal was the position which the mode-
rate catholic faith had assumed in his person ! But as it
had not succeeded in accomplishing its designs for the
reformation and pacification of the world, it became a
question whether it could maintain its own existence.

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

§ 3. NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

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

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

Both sides w^ere conscious of the depravation of ecclesi-
astical institutions.

But whilst in Germany men were contented with nothing
less than the dissolution of monastic bodies, in Italy they

Chap. I.] NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. ]|5

sought to regenerate them ; whilst the clergy in the formei*
country emancipated themselves from many of the bonds
which they had hitherto borne, in the latter, the grand
aim was to give to the body a stricter constitution. On
this side the Alps men struck into an entirely new path ;
on the other, they repeated an experiment which had been
tried from time to time for centuries : for from the earliest
ages ecclesiastical institutions had followed after the corrup-
tions of the world, and then again, not unfrequently, had
recollected their origin, and retraced their steps. Even in
their day the Carlovingians had found it necessary to
enforce the rule of Chrodegang, which bound the clergy to
community of life and to voluntary subordination. The
simple rule of Benedict of Nursia did not long suffice for the
maintenance of order even in the religious houses. During
the tenth and eleventh centuries the necessity of a return
to the purity and strictness of primitive Christianity gave
rise to numerous small and secluded congregations with
peculiar rules, after the example of Cluny. This imme-
diately re-acted upon the secular clergy. The introduction
of celibacy had, as we have already remarked, nearly the
effect of subjecting the whole body to the rule of a monas-
tic order. Nevertheless, and in spite of the great religious
impulse which the Crusades had given to all the nations of
Europe, — an impulse so strong that nobles and knights gave
to the profession of arms the forms of monastic rules, — all
these institutions had fallen into utter decay, w^hen the
mendicant orders arose. At their commencement they
unquestionably tended to bring back the primitive simpli-
city and severity of the church. But we have seen how
even they gradually became more worldly and licentious,
— how one of the most striking phases of the corruption of
the church was exhibited in them.

As early as from the year 1520, the wider the spread
of protestantism in Germany, the stronger was the feeling
of the necessity of a reform in the hierarchical institutions
in those countries where it had not yet penetrated. This
feeling, which was continually gaining ground, manifested
itself in the orders themselves, — sometimes in one, some-
times in another.

I 2

IIQ NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. [Book II

Spite of the extreme seclusion of the order of Camaldoh,
Paolo Giustiniani found it tainted with the common cor-
ruption. In the year 1522 he founded a new congregation
of the same order, called, from the mountain on which
their chief establishment was situated, Monte Corona.'"
Giustiniani held three things essential to the attainment of
spiritual peifection ; — solitude, vows, and the separation
of the monks into distinct cells. In one of his letters he
mentions with peculiar satisfaction the little cells and ora-
tories which we still find perched on the tops of mountains,
in the midst of those sublime and enchanting wilds which
invite the soul at once to lofty aspiration and to deep
repose. t The reforms introduced by these hermits spread
themselves over the whole world.

Among the the Franciscans, perhaps the most profoundly
corruiited of all the orders, a new reform was attempted,
in addition to the many which had already been tried.
The Capuchins aimed at restoring the regulations of the
first founder ; the midnight service, the prayer at certain
appointed hours, the discipline and the silence, — in short
the whole austere rule of life of the original institution. We
cannot avoid smiling at the importance they attached to
trifles ; but we must also acknowledge, that when occasion
demanded, for example during the plague of 1528, the}^
behaved with admirable courage.

Meanwhile little was effected by a reform of the orders
alone, since the secular clergy were so entirely estranged
from their vocation. If a reformation was really to be effi-
cient, it must reach them likewise.

Here again we encounter members of that Roman
Oratory so often mentioned. Tw^o of them, men, as it
appears, of characters in all other respects entirely oppo-
site, undertook to prepare the way for this great change.
The one, Gaetano da Thiene, peaceful, retiring, mild, of
few words, inclined to the raptures of religious enthusiasm ;
of whom it was said, that he wished to reform the world,

* The foundation may reasonably be Monte Corona. Ilclyot : Histoire des

dated irom the drawing up of the rules, Ordres Moiiasticjues, v. p. 271.

after Masacio was ceded to the new con- f Lettera del b. Giustiniano al Vescovo

gregation, in 15'2'2. Basciano, the sue- Teatino, in Bromato, Storia di Paolo IV.

cessor of Giustiniani, was the founder of lib. iii. § 1.0.

Chap. I] NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 117

but without having it known that he was in the world :""" the
other, Gianpietro CarafFa, of whom we shall have occasion
to speak m©re at length, violent, turbulent, a fierce zealot.
But Caraffa had discovered, as he confessed, that the more
he had followed after his desires, the more his heart had
been oppressed ; that it could find rest only when it quitted
itself for God, when it communed with heavenly things.
They felt, therefore, in common, the want of seclusion (a
want which in the one was the result of natural disposi-
tion, in the other, of unsatisfied longings and aspirations),
and the inclination to spiritual activity. Persuaded of the
necessity of a reform, they united themselves to an institu-
tion called the order of the Theatins, the objects of which
were contemplation, and at the same time the reformation
of the clergy.f

Gaetano belonged to the Protonari partecipanti ; he gave
up his benefice. CaraflPa possessed the bishopric of Chieti
and the archbishopric of Brindisi ; he renounced them
both. J On the 14th of September, 1524, they, and two
intimate friends, who had also been members of the Ora-
tory, solemnly took the three vows ; ^ — the vow of poverty,
with the special addition, not only to possess nothing, but
to avoid begging, and to await the alms that might be
brought to their house. After a short residence in the
town, they occupied a small house on Monte K-iccio near
the Yigna Capisucchi, which was afterwards converted into
the Villa Medici. Here, though within the walls of Home,
there reigned at that time a profound solitude ; here they
passed their lives in the poverty which they had prescribed
to themselves, in spiritual exercises, and in a study of the
gospels, the plan of which was exactly laid down and

* Caracciolus: Vita S. Cajetani Thie- pravum exemplum intulissent sanare-

riöei, c. ix., 101. "In conversatioue tur."

humilis, mansuetus, moclestus, pauci ser- J In a letter by the Pope's Datarius,

monis, — memiiiique me iilura ssepe vidisse 22d Sept. 1524 (Lettere di Principi, i.

inter precandura lacrymantem." He is 135), we see, on good authority, that the

very well described in the testimony of a pope refused for a long time to accept the

pious society at Vicenza, which is also to renunciation (non volendo privare quelle

be found m the same author, c. i. No. 12. chiese di cosi buon pastore). He yielded

+ Caracciolus, c. 2, § 19, declares their at last only to the reiterated and pressing

intention : " clericis, quos ingenti popu- entreaties of Caraffa.

lorum exitio improbitas inscitiaque cor- § We find the documents relating to

rupissent, clericos alios debero suffici, tiiis subject in the Common tarius prie«-

quorum opera damnum quod illi per vius. AA. SS. Aug. II. 24.9.

118 NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. [Book IL

repeated every month. They afterwards went down into
the city to preach.

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

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

This return to the performance of the clerical duties was
of vast importance. The order of Theatins was not, indeed,
properly a seminary of priests, — it was not sufficiently
numerous for that ; but it gradually grew into a seminary
of bishops. It became in time the order of priests peculiar
to the nobility ; and as it had been carefully remarked from
the beginning, that the new members were of noble extrac-

* Rule of the Theatins in Bromato: qualunquc modo fannosi in cliicsa, qnanto

Vita di Paolo IV. lib. iii. § 25. " Nes- di quelle, che pel vi ver commune in casa,

suna consuetudinc, nessun modo di o iuori da noi, si sogliono praticare, nou

vivere, o rito che sia, tanto di quelle pcnnettiamo in veruna maniera, che

cose, che spettano al culto divhio, e in ac<iuisthio vigore di prccetto."

Chap. I.] NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 119

tion, at a later period, proofs of nobility were, in some
places, requisite to admission. It is clear, that the original
plan of living on alms, without begging, could be adhered
to only under such conditions.

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

From the year 1521, Upper Italy had been the scene of
perpetual war, attended by its usual train, devastation,
famine, and disease. Numbers of children were left orphans
and exposed to the utter ruin of body and soul. Happily
for mankind, pity is never far from the dwellings of woe.
A Venetian senator, Girolamo Uriani, gathered together
the children who had come as fugitives and wanderers to
Venice, and took them into his house. He sought them
out in the islands and in the city. Disregarding the
reproaches of his sister-in-law, he sold the silver utensils
and the most beautiful tapestry of his house, in order to
provide the destitute children with lodging and clothing,
food and instruction. He gradually devoted all his energies
to this vocation.

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

If ever a city was destined to feel every misery and
horror attendant on war, it was Milan, so frequently

* " Approbatio societatis tam ecclesi- some places.) Bull of Paul III., 5th Juno

asticarum, quam seculiarium personarum, 1540. Bullarium. Cocquelines, iv, 173.

nuper institutae ad erigendum hospitalia It appears, however, by the bull of Pius

pro subventione pauperum orphanorum V., " Injunctum Nobis," 6th Dec. 1568,

et mulierum convertitarum : " (which last that the members of this congregation

object had been joined with the first in first laid aside their vows at that time.

11

]20 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [Book II.

besieged and conquered by one or other of the hos-tile
parties. To mitigate these evils by works of mercy and
beneficence, to remove the barbarism and depravity conse-
quent on them by instruction, preaching, and example, was
the aim of the three founders of the order of Barnabites, —
Zaccaria, Ferrari, and Morigia. A Milanese chronicle
relates with what wonder these new priests were regarded
in their homely dress and round cap, all with downcast
eyes, all in the bloom of youth. They lived together in a
house near St. Ambrose. Countess Lodovica Torella, who
sold her paternal inheritance of Guastalla and applied the
money to good works, was the chief contributor to their
support.'''

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

But whatever these congregations might effect within
their sphere, they were disqualified from, or inadequate to,
any universal thorough reform ; either, as in the case of the
one last mentioned, by the limited nature of their object,
or, as in that of the Theatins, by a paucity of means which
lay in the very nature of the institution. They are
remarkable, as affording by their voluntary origin indica-
tions of a great tendency which contributed incalculably to
the renovation of Catholicism. But to stem the mighty
torrent of protestantism, far other powers were required.

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

§ 4. IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

The Spanish chivalry was the only one in the world
which had retained some tincture of its religious spirit.
The wars with the Moors, which were hardly terminated in
the peninsula, and still continued on the opposite coast of
Africa ; the presence of the subjugated Moriscoes, with

* Chronicle of Biu-igazzo in Custode ; Continuation by VexTi: Storia di Alilano,
iv. p. 88.

Chap. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 121

whom the intercourse of the Spaniards was one of incessant
rehgious animosity, and the adventurous expeditions against
the infidels of another hemisphere, — all conspired to keep
alive this spirit. In books like the Amadis de Gaul, full of
simple, enthusiastic, loyal bravery, this spirit was idealised.
The potency of its inspirations was never so strikingly
manifested as in the life of the singular man whose history
we shall briefly trace.

Don Inigo Lopez de Recalde,* the youngest son of the
house of Loyola, was born in the castle of that name,
between Azpeitia and Azcoitia in Guipuscoa, of a race so
noble that its head was always invited to do homage by a
special writ, — " de parientes majores ;'' — and reared at
the court of Ferdinand the Catholic, and in the suite of the
duke of Najara. He aspired after the reputation of
knighthood ; — splendid arms and noble steeds, the fame
of valour, the adventures of single combat and of love,
were not less attractive to him than to any of his youthful
compeers. But he was also strongly imbued with the
religious spirit. At the time we are speaking of he had
composed a romance of chivalry, the hero of which was the
first apostle.f

Probably, however, we should now only find his name
enrolled among the host of valiant Spanish captains to
whom Charles V. afibrded so many opportunities of gaining
distinction, had he not received wounds in both legs at the
defence of Pampluna, against the French, in 152L He
was carried to his own house, where the wounds were
twice re-opened. The intense pain which he bore with
unshrinking fortitude was borne in vain : the cure was
lamentably incomplete, and he was maimed for life. He
was versed in romances of chivalry, and delighted in them,
more especially in the Amadis. During his long confine-
ment he also read the life of Christ and of some of the
saints.

Romantic and visionary by nature, forced from a career

* He is thus called in the judicial came by it. Acta Sanctorum, 34 Julii.

acts. Nothing can be inferred against Commentarius prsevius, p. 410.

the genuineness of the name Recalde, f Maffei : Vita Ignatii.
from the fact that it is not known how he

222 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [Book IL

wliicli appeared to promise him the most brilhant fortunes,
compelled to a life of inaction, and rendered irritable and
sensitive by illness, he fell into the most extraordinary
state of mind conceivable. Not only did he deem the
actions of St. Francis and St. Dominic, which now appeared
before him in all tlie Inilliancy of spiritual glory, worthy of
imitation, but, while I'eadiiig them he felt himself endowed
with coiu'age and strength to imitate them, — to emulate
the self-denial and the austerities of those holy men.'^'''
Frequently, indeed, these aspu-ations folded befoi-c more
worldly thoughts. With the same vivacity of imagination,
he figured to himself how he would seek out the lady to
whose service he had devoted himself in his inmost heart,
in the city where she dwelt. " She was no countess," (he
saj'S,) "no duchess, but one of yet higher degiee." With
what tender and ardent woi'ds he would address her ; how
he would pvoYQ his devotedness ; what feats of arms he
would perform in her honour : — such were the fantasies
which alternately possessed his mind.

But the longer this state continued and the more hope-
less was his cure, the more did the spiritual gain the
ascendancy over the earthly visions. Are we guilty of
injustice to him if we attribute this to his gradual convic-
tion that he would never be wholly restored ; never again
be fit for military service, or for knightly exploits ?

Nor was the transition so abrupt, or the change so abso-
lute, as might be imagined. In his spiritual exercises,
whose origin may be dated from the same time as the first
rapturous meditations of his awakened spirit, he figures to
himself two camps, one at Jerusalem, the other at Babylon
— the one of Christ, the other of Satan — the one altogether
virtuous, the other thoroughly wicked — arrayed for com-
bat. He represents Christ as a king who has issued a
command to all nations to subdue the infidels. Whoever

* The Acta antiquissima, a Ludovico place ; " De muchas cosas vanas que sc

Consalvo ex ore Sancti excepta, AA. le ofrecian una tenia : " namely, the

SS. LL. p. 631, gives very authentic honour which he thought to pay to his

information on this point. He once lady. " Non era condesa ni du(iuesa

thought : " Quid, si ego hoc agercm, mas era su estado mas alto que ninguno

quod fecit b. Franciscus, (|uid si hoc, dostas." A singularly naif ackuowledg-

quod b. Douiiuicus 1 " And iu another mcut.

Chap. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 123

would follow liim to battle, must be nourished with like
food, and clad in like raiment, with Him ; he must bear
the same toils and the same watchings ; according to this
measure would be his share in the victory and in the
reward : that every man would then confess before Christ,
his Holy Mother, and the whole heavenly host, that he had
been a faithful follower of his Master, and had been ready
to share with Him in all adversities, and to serve Him in
true poverty of body and of spirit/''

These wild and fanciful reveries were perhaps the means
by which his transition from worldly to spiritual knight-
hood was effected. For such was the institution, the ideal
of which was framed upon the deeds and the authorities
of saints, to which all his desires were directed. He tore
himself away from his father's house and from his kindred,
and went to live on Mount Montserrat ; not impelled by
remorse for his sins, nor by strong and genuine religious
aspirations ; but, as he himself has told us, solely by the
desire to achieve deeds as great as those which have ren-
dered the saints so illustrious ; to undergo penances as
severe or severer than theirs, and to serve God in Jerusalem.
He hung up his lance and shield before an image of the
Holy Virgin, and knelt or stood before it in prayer, with
his pilgrim's staff in his hand ; — a vigil, different, indeed,
from that of knighthood, but yet expressly suggested by
Amadis,f in which the laws and customs of chivalry are
so accurately described. He gave away the knightly dress
and accoutrements which he had worn on his journey, and
clothed himself in the coarse raiment of the hermits whose
solitary dwellings are hewn in those naked rocks. He
made a general confession ; and fearing that if he pro-
ceeded directly to Barcelona, (whither his project of going
to Jerusalem would have led him) he would be recognised
in the streets, he repaired first to Manresa, whence, after
fresh penances, he was to reach the port. But here new

* Exercitia spiritualia : Secunda Heb- rebus iis refertam haberet quae ab

domada. " Contemplatio regni Jesu Amadeo de Gaula conseriptse et ab ejus

Christi ex similitudine regis terreni sub- generis scriptoribus " (which is a strange

ditos suos evocantis ad bellum ; " and mistake of the compilers, for Amadis is

other passages. no author), " nounullse illi similes occur-

t Acta autiquissima : " cum mentcm rebant."

124 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [Book 11'

trials awaited him. The mood of mind which he had
indulged, rather as a sport of the fancy, had obtained
almost entire mastery over him and began to manifest all
its serious and awful power. In the cell of a Dominican
convent he gave himself up to the severest penances. He
rose at midnight to pray ; he passed seven hours daily on
his knees and scourged himself regularly thrice a day.
Not only did he find these ascetic practices so hard that
he often doubted whether he should be able to persevere in
them all his life, but, what was far more important, he dis-
covered that they did not tranquillize his spirit. On
Mount Montserrat he had devoted three days to making a
general confession of his whole past life ; but he did not
think this enough. In Manresa he repeated it ; he added
long-forgotten sins to the catalogue, and searched the
I'ecords of his memory for the most venial trifle ; but the
more he explored, the more painful were the doubts which
assailed him. He thought that he could obtain neither
acceptance nor justification of God. He read in some of
the fathers that God had once been propitiated and moved
to compassion by total abstinence from food. He therefore
remained from Sunday to Sunday without eating. His
confessor forbade him to prolong his fast, and, as he
esteemed no quality on earth so highly as obedience, he
immediately desisted. At times indeed he felt as if his
melancholy was removed from him, and had fiillen, as a
heavy garment falls from the shoulders ; but his mental
torments presently returned. It seemed to him that his
whole life had been one uninterrupted succession of sins.
Sometimes he was tempted to dash himself out of the
window."^'

We are here involuntarily reminded of the state of
mental distress into which Luther, some years before, was
l)lunged by very similar doubts. The high demands of

* Maff'ei, Ribatleneira, Orlandino and magno cum imjiotu, ut magno ex fora-

all the other historians relate these mine quod in eelhda erat sese dejiceret.

temptations. The documents emanating Nee aberat foramen ab eo loco ubi pre-

from Ignatius himself are, however, the ces fundebat. Sed cum videret esse

most authentic : the following passage pecoatum so ipsum occidere, rursus

taken fn tni them describes the suite in clamabat : ' Dominc, non faciam quod

which he was: — «Cum his cogitationi- to oflbudiit.'"
bus agitaretur, tentabatur soopc gravitcr

Chap I] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 125

religion could never be satisfied, — a full and conscious
reconcilement with God could never be reached, on the
ordinary road marked out by the church, by a soul shaken
to its innermost depths by struggles with itself.

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

It does not appear that Loyola examined the scriptures,
or that any particular dogma of religion made an impres-
sion on his mind. As he lived only in his own inward
emotions, in thoughts which rose spontaneously in his
breast, he imagined that he felt the alternate inspirations
of the good and of the evil spirit. At length he learned
to distinguish their influences by this, — that the soul was
gladdened and consoled by the one, wearied and troubled
by the other. ''^ One day he felt as if awakened from a
dream. He thought he had sensible proof that all his
sufferings were assaults of Satan. He determined from
that hour to have done with his past life, never to tear
open these old wounds, never again to touch them. It was
not so much that his mind had found repose, as that he
had formed a determination ; rather indeed an engagement
entered into by the will, than a conviction to which the
will is compelled to yield. It needed not the aid or the
influence of scripture ; it rested on the feeling of an imme-
diate intercourse with the world of spirits.

This would never have satisfied Luther. Luther would
have no inspirations, no visions ; he held them all without
distinction to be mischievous ; he would have only the
simple, written, unquestionable word of God. Loyola, on
the contrary, lived in fantasies and inward apparitions.
He thought no one so well understood Christianity as an

* One of his most peculiar and most it is greatly developed. We there find

original perceptions, the origin of which explicit rules : " ad motus animse quos

he himself carries back to the phantoms diversi excitant spiritus discernendos, ut

of his imagination during illness. It boni solum admittantur, et pellantur

became a certainty whilst he was at mali."
Manresa. In the « Spiritual Exercises "

12G IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [Book IL

old woman, wlio, in tlic midst of liis torments, told him
that Christ would yet appear to him. At first he could
obtain no such vision, but now he thought that Christ or
the Holy Virgin manifested themselves to his eyes of flesh.
He stood fixed on the steps of San Dominico, in Manresa,
and wept aloud ; for he th(jught in that moment the mys-
tery of the Holy Trinity was \asibly revealed to him.*"'
The whole day he spoke of nothing else. He was inex-
haustible in figures and similes. The m3^stery of the
creation was also suddenly made clear to him in mystical
symbols. In the Host, he beheld the God and the Man.
On one occasion, he repaired to a remote church on the
banks of the Lobregat, and while he sat with his eyes
intently fixed on the deep stream which flowed at liis feet,
he was suddenly elevated in rapturous intuition of the
mystery of faith. He arose a new man. For him there
needed no longer either evidence or scripture : had none
such existed, he would have met death unhesitatingly for
that faith which before he believed, — which now he saw.f

If we have clearly traced the origin and development of
this most strange state of mind, of this chivalry of absti-
nence, this constancy of enthusiasm and of romantic
ascetism, it will be needless to follow Inigo Loyola step by
step in his further progress through life. He accomplished
his purpose of visiting Jerusalem, in the hope of contribut-
ing to the edification of believers, no less than to the con-
version of infidels. But how was he to effect the latter,
ignorant as he was, without associates, without authority ?
His project of remaining in the holy city was defeated by
the positive interdiction he received from the heads of the
church at Jerusalem, who held from the Pope the express
privilege of granting permission to reside there. On his
return to Spain he encountered innumerable attacks.
When he began to teach and to invite others to share with
him those spiritual exercises which he practised, he fell
under the suspicion of heresy. It would have been the

• En figui'a do tres teclas. etiam id cogitarit, quod etsi nulla scrip-

+ Acta antiquissima : " his visis, hand tura mysteria ilia fidci docerct, tarnen

mediocritei* turn confimiatus est " (in ipse ob ea ipsa qua) viderat, statueret sibi

the original, " y le dieron tanta confir- pro his esse nioriendum."
niacionc sienipre dc la i'v ") " ut sa;pe

Chap. L] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 127

strangest sport of destiny, if Loyola, whose society cen-
turies afterwards terminated in illuminati, had himself been
connected with a sect of that name.''^ And it cannot be
denied that the illuminati of that time (the alumbrados of
Spain), to whom he was suspected of belonging, cherished
opinions which had a considerable resemblance with his
fantastic reveries. Eejecting the doctrine of sanctification
by works as heretofore held by all Christendom, they, like
him, gave themselves up to inward ecstasies, and, like him,
they beheld in immediate and sensible revelation the pro-
foundest mysteries of religion ; especially, as they expressly
declared, that of the Trinity. Like Loyola and his fol-
lowers, they made general confession a condition of absolu-
tion, and insisted above all things on inward prayer. I
cannot indeed affirm with confidence that Loyola had no
contact whatever with the professors of these opinions, but
neither can it be asserted that he belonged to the sect.
He was distinguished from them mainly by this, — that
while they believed themselves to be emancipated from all
control and raised above all common duties by the com-
mand of the spirit, he retained enough of the impressions
and habiis of his former life, to place at the very head of
the list of virtues, the soldier's virtue, obedience. He
constantly submitted his enthusiasm and his inward con-
victions to the church and her authorities.

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

* Lainez and Borgia have also met them plainly illuminati, the gnostics of
with this reproach. Llorente, Hist, de the age.
rinquisition,iii. 83. Melchior Cano calls

|2§ IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [Book H.

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

The studies of the university were pecuHarly difficult to
him. He was obliged to pass through the class of gram-
mar, which he had begun in Spain, and that of philosophy,
before he could be admitted to the study of theology.'"'
But in the midst of the inflexion of words, and the analysis
of logical forms, he was seized with the raptures of those
profound religious thoughts which he was wont to connect
with them. There is something magnanimous in his
declaration that these were inspirations of the evil spirit,
who sought to seduce him from the right way. He tried
to dispel them by the most rigorous discipline. But the
new study, that of the actual world, Avhich opened upon
him, did not for a moment deaden his spiritual dispositions,
or even his zeal in imparting them to others. It was
indeed here that he made the first conversions of lasting
influence and importance to the world.

Loyola had two companions who shared his rooms in the
college of St. Barbara. The one, Peter Faber, a Savoyard,
had grown up amid his father's flocks, and under the roof
of heaven had solemnly devoted himself to God and to
study : the conversion of such a man was not difficult.
He repeated the course of philosophy with Ignatius (the
name which Iiiigo bore among foreigners), who in return
communicated to him his ascetical principles. Ignatius
taught his young friend to combat his faults prudentl}^, —
not all at once, but one after another, since there was ever
some one virtue which he had more especially to aspire
after : he exhorted him to frequent confession and partici-
pation in the Lord's supper. They formed the closest
intimacy. Ignatius divided the alms which he received in
considerable abundance from Spain and Flanders, with
Faber.

He had a more difficult task with his other friend,
Francesco Xavier of Pamplona in Navarre, whose only

* According to the oldest clirf^iiicle of nis molestiis et pcrsecutionibus prima

the Jesuits, Chronicon Breve, A A. SS. gi-anmmtiea! de intogro turn philosoj^hite

LL p. 525, Ignatius was at I'aris from ac dcmum thcologico studio sedulam

\52H to L535 : " Ibi vero non sine mag- operam navavit "

Chap. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 129

ambition it was to add the name of a man illustrious
for learning, to the names of ancestors renowned for their
mihtary exploits, which graced a pedigree of five hundred
years. He was handsome, rich, full of talent, and had
already been well received at court. Ignatius did not
neglect to pay him the respect to which he laid claim, and
to contrive that others should pay it also. He procured
him a considerable audience for his first lectures. After
these proofs of personal friendship, his example and the
imposing severity of his manners failed not of their natural
effect. He induced Xavier, as he had his other companion,
to perform spiritual exercises under his guidance. He
showed them no indulgence, compelling them to fast three
days and three nights at a time ; nor during the severest
winter, while carriages were crossing the frozen Seine, did
he allow Faber to relax from this severity of discipline.
He gained complete ascendancy over both of them, and
made them sharers in his own thoughts and feelings.'''

How remarkable was that cell of St. Barbara which con-
tained within its narrow walls three such men ! which wit-
nessed plans inspired by their wild enthusiasm, and enter-
prises projected, leading they themselves knew not whither!

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

* Orlandinus, who has also written a Societatis Jesu, pars i. p. 17, more cir-
life of Faber, which I have not seen, is cumstantial on this point than Ribads-
likewise, in his great work Historiee neira.

VOL. L K

]30 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [Book II.

cated himself. They then partook of a repast near the
fountain of St. Denys.

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

At the beginning of the year 1537, we find them with
three other companions in Venice, about to set out on their
pilgrimage. We have already followed Loyola through
many changes. We saw him pass from a temporal to a
spiritual chivalry ; we beheld him beset by the gravest
temptations, struggling out of them by means of a fantastic
asceticism, and becoming a theologian and the founder of a
sect. Now at length his opinions took their final and per-
manent character. The war which just then broke out
between Venice and the Turks hindered his departure, and
rendered still more remote the prospect of his pilgrimage ;
in Venice however he found an institution which first opened
his eyes to his true vocation.

For a time Loyola attached himself closely to Caraffa ;
he even took up his abode in the convent of the Theatins
which had been established in Venice. He served in the
hospitals which Caraflfa superintended, and in which he
exercised his novices. It is true that the severe exactions
and lofty aspirations of Ignatius were not entirely satisfied
by the Theatin institute ; and that the representations he
addressed to Caraffa, concerning certain changes which
ought to be introduced, are said to have created a division
between them.*"' But even this shows how deep an impres-
sion it had made upon him. Here he beheld an order of
priests devoting themselves with zeal and strictness to the
performance of the true clerical duties. If, as appeared
more and more clear, he was destined to remain on this
6ide the sea and to employ his activity in the regions of
western Christendom, he readily perceived that this was the
only career he could embrace with a prospect of success.

* Sacchinus, " cujus sit autoritatis dinus, thoroughly investigates the nature
quod in b, Cajetani Thienoei vita de of the connection between these two
bcato Iguatio traditur," before Orlan- remarkable men.

Chap. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 132

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

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

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

They had already bound themselves by two vows. They
now took the third, that of obedience ; and as Ignatius had
ever held obedience to be one of the highest virtues, they
strove to excel all the other monastic orders in that. It
was no small thing that they resolved to elect their general

* Ribadeneira, Vita brevior, c. 12, conscripta sit." "Postquam nos vitam-

remarks, that Ignatius had chosen this, que nostram Christo D"°. nostro et ejus

" ne de suo nomine diceretur." Nigroni vero ac legitimo vicario internis obtule-

explains the word soeietas, " quasi dicas ramus," — in the DeUberatio Primorum

cohortem aut centuriam quae ad pugnara Patrum, A A. SS. LL. p. 463.
cum hostibus spirituahbus conserendam

K 2

132 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. [Book II.

for life ; but tliis did not satisfy them. They added the
extraordinary obligation to do whatsoever the then pope
should command ; to go into every country whither he
chose to send them, among Turks, heathens, or heretics,
instantly, without discussion, condition, or reward.

What a contrast to the tendency hitherto manifested by
that age ! While the pope experienced opposition or deser-
tion from every side, while he had nothing to expect
but a lingering and progressive decline, a society of men
was formed, volunteers, full of zeal and enthusiasm, with
the express purpose of devoting themselves exclusively to
his service.

It was impossible for him to hesitate about sanctioning
their establishment : at first, in the year 1540, he did this
under some limitations ; afterwards, in 1543, uncondi-
tionally.

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

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

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

* Suffragium Salmeronis. simum vacant : isti vero (Jesuitae), cum

t It is in this they place the difference divinorum mysteriorum assidua contem-

between themselves and the Theatins, platione, docendse plebis, evangelii am-

Didacus Payba Andradius : Orthodox- plificandi, sacramenta administrandi,

arum ExpHcatt, lib. i. fol. 44 ; " Uli atque reliqua omnia apostolica munera,

(Theatini), sacrarimi reternanimque conjungiuit."
rerum meditationi psalmodiseque potis-

Chap. I.] IGNATIUS LOYOLA. 133

exercises which consume the greater part of the time in
convents, and from the obhgation to sing in the quire.

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

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

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

Lastly, to the education of youth. They had desired
to bind themselves to this occupation by an express clause
in their vows ; but though they abandoned that design,
they enjoined it most strongly in their rule. Their most
ardent wish was to gain over the rising generation. In
short they threw aside all that was of secondary moment,
and devoted themselves entirely to the indispensable,
influential duties and practices of their calling.

Thus, out of the visionary schemes of Ignatius, arose an
institution of singularly practical tendency ; out of the
conversions wrought by his asceticism, an institution
framed with all the just and accurate calculation of
worldly prudence.

He saw all his expectations far surpassed. He had
now the unlimited direction of a society to which he com-
municated the greater part of his own intuitions ; which
modelled its religious convictions by study, on those to
which he had been led by accident and by genius ; which,
indeed, did not execute his projects with regard to
Jerusalem (projects by which nothing was to be attained),

X34 FIRST SITTING OF [Book II.

but went forth in other directions on the most remote and
the most adventurous missions, and above all, took upon
itself that care of souls which he had constantly enjoined,
to an extent that he could never have anticipated or
guessed ; and, lastly, which paid him an obedience uniting
that of the soldier and of the monk.

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

§ 5. FIRST SITTING OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.

We have seen what were the interests involved in the
demand for a council on the part of the emperor, and in
the denial of it on that of the pope. In one respect, how-
ever, and in one only, a new council might be desirable to
the pope. It was necessary to the zealous inculcation and
promulgation of the doctrines of Catholicism, that the
doubts which had arisen on several points in the bosom of
the church herself should be put to rest. A council alone
could do this with absolute authority. The only remain-
ing consideration for the pope, therefore, was, that it
should be convened at a favourable time, and held under
his own influence.

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

In the midst of the movements we have briefly described,
he definitively resolved to take steps towards an oicume-
nical council, and to put an end to all delay. ■^^* He imme-

* Ardinghello al CI. Contarini, 15 (which had been proposed at Ratisbon,

Giugiio, 1541, in Quiriui, iii., ccxlvi : bnt rejected by the consistory of the

" Considerate che ne la concordia a cardinals), " e illecitissinia, e danuiosa,

Chriatiaui ö succcssa e la tolerantia," e la guci'ra difficile c pericolosa : — pare

Chap. I.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. I35

diately communicated his intention to Contarini, and
through him to the emperor ; negotiations were seriously
opened ; at length the letters of convocation were sent
out, and in the following year we find his legates already
in Trent.*""

New obstacles, however, arose ; the number of the
bishops who appeared was too inconsiderable, the times
too warlike, and the circumstances not entirely propitious :
it was not till December, 1545, that the council was
actually opened. The old procrastinator had at length
found the wished-for moment.

For when could a more favourable one occur than that
in which the emperor had completely broken with both
the chiefs of the protestant party, and was preparing to
make war upon them ? As he needed the assistance of
the pope, he could not substantiate the claims which other-
wise he appeared disposed to found upon a council. He
would be entirely occupied by war ; and it was impossible
to foresee the extent of the embarrassments in which the
power of the protestants might involve him : he would
therefore be little able to press for the reform with which
he had threatened the papal chair. In another way too
the pope had the means of thwarting his intentions. The
emperor demanded that the council should begin with
reform ; the papal legates carried the resolution that
reform and the dogmas of the church should be discussed
simultaneously ; f while, in fact, dogmas alone were first
brought under consideration.

While the pope found means to avert whatever might
have been injurious to him, he seized on whatever was
favourable. The firm establishment of the disputed
doctrines was, as we have observed, extremely important
to him ; and this depended upon the question, whether
either of the views inclining to the protestant system

a S.S., che si ricorra al rimedio del f An expedient brought forward by

concilio. . . . Adunque — S. Beatitudine Thorn. Campeggi, Pallavicini, vi. vii. 5.

ha determinato di levar via la proroga- A bull concerning reform had indeed

tione della suspensione del concilio, e di been projected from the beginning, but

dichiararlo e congregarlo quanto piu was never published. Bulla Reforma-

presto si potra." tionis Pauli Papse III., copcepta, non

* They arrived on the 22nd Novem- vulgata : primum edidit H. iN. Clausen,

ber, 1542. Havn. 1829.

136 FIRST SITTING OF [Book II.

could consist with the maintenance of the integrity of the
cathohc faith.

Contarini was no more, but Pole was present, and there
w^ere not wanting in the assemblage other warm advocates
of these opinions. The question was, whether they could
give those opinions weight.

First (for the proceedings were very systematic), they
spoke of revelation itself, — the source from which all
knowledge regarding it must necessarily be drawn. Here,
even at the very threshold, some voices were raised in
favour of opinions leaning to protestantism. Bishop
Nachianti of Chiozza, for example, would hear of nothing
but scripture ; he asserted that everything was written
in the gospel that w^as necessary to salvation. But he
had an immense majority against him. The resolution
Avas passed, that the unwritten traditions received from
the mouth of Christ, and handed down to the latest ages
under the guardianship of the Holy Ghost, w^ere to be
accepted with the same veneration as the holy scriptures.
In regard to these, no reference was made to the original
text. The vulgate was recognised as the authentic trans-
lation ; only it was determined that for the future it should
be most carefully printed.'"

After the basis had thus been settled, (by which it was
said, not without reason, that half the business was accom-
plished,) the council proceeded to the decisive article of
justification and the doctrines connected with it. To this
much-disputed question the main interest was attached.

For in fact there were not a few in the council whose
view^s on this point coincided with those of the protestants.
The archbishop of Siena, the bishop of Cava, Giulio, Con-
tarini, bishop of Belluno, and with them five divines,
attributed justification solely and wholly to the merits of
Christ, and to faith. Charity and hope they declared to
be the attendants or handmaidens, — works, the proofs of
faith, but nothing more ; they held that the sole ground
of justification was faith.

• Cone. Tridentiiii, sessio IV. : " in printed, with amendments, posthac, not

publicis Icetionibus, disputationibus, exactly, as Pallavicini says : " quanto si

praedicationibus et expositionibus, pro potesse piu tosto : " vi. 15.2.
authentica habeattu*." It should be

Chap. I.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 137

How could it be imagined that, at a moment in which
pope and emperor attacked the protestants with force of
arms, the fundamental doctrine whence their whole ex-
istence and all their characteristics as a sect were derived,
should triumph, in a council held under the auspices of
the emperor and the pope 1 In vain did Pole warn the
assembly not to reject an opinion solely because it was
held by Luther. Far too much personal bitterness was
connected with it. The bishop of Cava and a Greek monk
broke out into personal violence. The council could not
even proceed to serious debate on the announcement of an
opinion so unquestionably protestant. The discussions
related only — and this was important enough — to the
intermediate opinions, as expounded by Caspar Contarini
and his friends.

Seripando, the general of the Augustine order, brought
them forward, but not without the express reservation that
it was not the doctrines of Luther that he defended, but,
on the contrary, those of Luther's most celebrated anta-
gonists, Pflug and Gropper. He admitted a twofold
righteousness,''' — the one dwelling in us, inherent, through
which from children of sin we become children of God ;
itself too a grace and unmerited ; active in works, visible
in virtues, but not of itself able to conduct us into the
glory of God ; the other, the righteousness and the merit
of Christ attributed or imputed to us ; able to atone for
all defects, perfect, sufficient to salvation. So had Con-
tarini taught. " If the question is,'' says he, " on which
of these kinds of righteousness we should rely, — that
inherent in us, or that imputed in Christ, — a pious man
will reply, that we can trust to the latter alone. Our
righteousness is only inchoate, incomplete, full of defects :
the righteousness of Christ, on the other hand, true, per-
fect, thoroughly and alone pleasing in the eyes of God ;
for its sake alone can we trust to be justified before
God."t

* Parere Dato : a 1 3 di Giuglio, fell into my hands at first, and is not the

1544. Extracted from Pallavicini, viii. one the reader should refer to : this

xi. 4. passage will be sought in vain. In the

f Contarini, Tractatus de Justifica- year 1571 the Sorbonne had approved

tione. The Venetian edition of 1589 of the treatise as it stood ; in the Paris

138 FIRST SITTING OF [Book II.

Even with this modification, however, this opinion
experienced vehement opposition : indeed it left, as we
see, the substance of the protestant doctrine untouched,
and might be approved by its adherents.

Caraffa, who had already opposed it when it was dis-
cussed in Ratisbon, had now a seat among the cardinals
to w^hom the presidency over the council of Trent was
confided. He expounded to the assembly his own views
of justification, and warmly combated all opinions of the
kind above mentioned.*"'

Already, in this early stage of their existence as a body,
the Jesuits appeared as his allies. Salmeron and Lainez
had obtained the valuable privilege of successively offering
their opinions. They were learned, energetic, in the prime
of life, and full of zeal. Admonished by Ignatius never to
commit themselves to an opinion which made the least
approach to an innovation, f they opposed Seripando's
doctrine with all their might. Lainez presented himself
in the arena with a complete treatise rather than a reply,
lie had the greater part of the divines on his side.

The disputants admitted the distinction between the
two kinds of righteousness ; but they maintained that the
imputed righteousness was merged in the inherent, or that
the merits of Christ were immediately ascribed and com-
municated to men by faith : that we ought unquestionably
to rely on the righteousness of Christ, not because it com-
pleted our own, but because it produced it. Upon this
point everything turned. According to the doctrine of
Contarini and Seripando, no merit could subsist in works.

It was the old doctrine of the schoolmen, that the soul,
clothed with grace, merited eternal life. | The archbishop
of Bitonto, one of the most learned and eloquent of these
fathers, distinguished a " preliminary justification, depen-

cdition of the same year, it is entire and is necessary to recall to mind these

without mutilation ; in 1589, on the instances of unjustifiable violence, in

contrary, the Genei*al Inquisitor of order to explain so bitter a hatred as

Venice, Era Marco Medici, would not that cherished by Paolo Sarpi.

allow this to happen again ; he did not * Bromato : Vita di Paolo IV., torn.

content himself with omitting the offend- ii. p. 131.

ing passages ; they were so altered as to + Orlandinus, vi. p. ] 27.

take the colour of the received dogmas. X Chemnitius : lixameu Concilii Ti'i-

It is truly astonishing to peruse the col- dentiui, i. 355.

lation in Quiriui, Epp. Poli, iii. cxiii. It

Chap. I.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. ]39

dent on the merits of Christ, by which the sinner is
dehvered from a state of reprobation ; and a subsequent
justification, the reward of our own righteousness, depen-
dent on the grace imparted to and inherent in us/^ " In
this sense,'^ said the bishop of Tano, " faith is only the gate
leading to justification : but we must not stand still there,
we must traverse the whole way."

Closely as these opinions seem to approximate, they are
in fact diametrically opposed.

The Lutheran scheme requires inward regeneration,
points out the way to salvation, and maintains that good
works must follow ; but it holds that the divine mercy
ascribes them to the merits of Christ alone.

The council of Trent, on the contrary, also admits the
merits of Christ, but ascribes justification to them, only so
far as they produce regeneration and therewith good
works, upon which, at last, all depends. "The sinner,''
according to its expression,'"" "is justified, inasmuch as the
love of God is implanted in his heart, and dwells there,
through the merit of the most Sacred Passion, and by the
power of the Holy Ghost : thus become the friend of God,
a man advances from virtue to virtue, and is renewed
day by day. Whilst he observes the commands of God
and of the church, by the help of faith and through good
works, he grows in the righteousness attained through the
mercy of Christ, and is justified more and more.''

The Protestant doctrine was thus entirely excluded
from Catholicism ; all mediation was definitively rejected.
This took place just as the emperor had obtained the
victory in Germany, as the Lutherans were submitting on
every side, and as he prepared to subdue those who still
resisted. The champions of the intermediate opinions,
such as cardinal Pole and the archbishop of Siena, had
already, as might be expected, quitted the council under
different pretexts, f Instead of moderating and guiding

* Sessio VI., c. vii. X. 1546. Epp. Tom. iv. 189. These opi-

■f It was at least a singular thing, nions were very injurious to Pole,

that they should both have been pre- Mendoza al Emperador Carlos, 13th

vented from going to Trent by the acci- July, 1547. " Lo Cardinal de Ingla-

dent of an extraordinary illness. Polo terra lo haze danuo le que se a dicho de

ai C'. Monte e Cervini, 15th September, la justificacion."

]4,0 THE INQUISITION. [Book II.

the faith of others, they had to fear that their own would
be the object of attack and reprobation.

But the most important difficulty was thus overcome.
As justification goes on within the heart of man in a per-
petual development, it cannot dispense wdth the sacraments,
by wdiich it either begins, or w^hen begun, is continued, or
when lost, is regained.'"* There was then no difficulty in
retaining them all seven, as they had heretofore been
received, or in referring them all to the author of our
faith ; since the institutes of the church of Christ are com-
municated to us not by scripture alone, but by tradition. f
Now these sacraments embrace, as is w^ell known, the w^hole
of life, and every step of its progress; they lie at the
foundation of the hierarchy, w^hich thus presides over and
regulates every moment of our days. Inasmuch as they
not only indicate but impart grace, they fulfil the mystical
relation of man to God.

Tradition was received, because the Holy Ghost dw^ells
perpetually in the church ; the vulgate, because the church
of Rome has been kept free from all error by the special
grace of God : it coincides then wdth this indw^elling of the
divine element in man, that the justifying principle should
also have place in him ; that the grace involved in the
visible sacrament should be imparted to him step by step,
and should embrace his life and his death.

The visible church is hkewise the true church, which
some have called the invisible. No religious existence can
be recognized out of her pale.

§ 6. THE INQUISITION.

Meantime measures had ah-eady been taken for the pro-
mulgation of the doctrines thus established by the council,
and for the suppression of those of an opposite tendenc}^

We must here revert once more to the times of the con-
ference of Ratisbon. Seeing that no conclusion w^as come

* Scssio yil.. Prooomium. p. 241. (Edition of 16JJ).) Pallavicini's

t Sarpi gives the discussions on this account is very insuflicient.
point : lliatoria del Concilio Tridenthio,

Chap. L] THE INQUISITION. ]^4,X

to with the German protestaiits, that in Italy disputes were
rife concerning the sacrament, and doubts as to purgatoiy
and other points important to the Roman ritual, the pope
one day asked cardinal CaraiFa what remedy he could sug-
gest for the evil. The cardinal replied, that a searching
inquisition was the only one. Juan Alvarez de Toledo,
cardinal of Burgos, was of the same opinion.

The ancient Dominican inquisition had long fallen to
decay. It was left to the monastic orders to choose the
inquisitors, and it not unfrequently happened that members
of them shared the very opinions which it was the object
of the institution to suppress. In Spain, the primitive form
had been so far departed from, that a supreme tribunal for
that country had been established. Caraffa and Burgos,
both old Dominicans, both men actuated by a stern and
gloomy justice, zealots for pure Catholicism, austere in their
lives, inflexible in their opinions, advised the pope to erect
at Rome an universal supreme tribunal of the inquisition,
(after the model of that of Spain,) on which all others should
depend. " As it was in Rome," says Carafi'a, " that St.
Peter overcame the first heresiarchs, so must the followers
of Peter subdue all the heresies of the world in Rome."'"'
The Jesuits account it a glory of their order, that their
founder Loyola supported this proposition by an express
memorial. On the 21st of July, 1542, the bull was
published.

It appointed six cardinals, among whom Caraffa and
Toledo were the first, as commissaries of the holy see,
general and universal inquisitors in affairs of faith on either
side the Alps. It conferred on them the right of delegat-
ing similar powers to ecclesiastics wherever they thought
fit ; also the sole right of deciding on appeals against their
acts, and of proceeding without the intervention of the
regular ecclesiastical courts. Every individual without ex-
ception, without regard to any rank or dignity whatsoever,
was declared subject to their jurisdiction ; they had power
to imprison the suspected, and to punish the guilty with
death and confiscation of goods. One only limitation was

* Bromato, Vita di Paolo IV., lib. vii. § 3.

J42 THE INQUISITION. [Book IT.

imposed on them. They had full power to punish, but the
pope reserved to himself the right of pardoning heretics
whom they convicted. They were thus to contrive and to
execute whatever could tend to suppress the errors that
had broken out in the christian community, and to pluck
them up by the very roots.'"

CarafFa lost not a moment in putting this bull into exe-
cution. He was not rich, but he would have thought it a
loss to wait for money from the apostolic treasury. He
immediately hired a house at his own expense, fitted up
rooms for the officers and prisons for the accused ; the
latter he furnished with strong bolts and locks, with dun-
geons, chains, and bonds, and all the terrible apparatus of
his office. He then nominated commissaries-general for
the several countries. The first, as far as I can discover,
for Rome, was his own chaplain, Teofilo di Tropea, of whose
severity cardinals — for instance Pole — had soon to complain.

" The following rules," says the manuscript life of Caraffa,
" were drawn up by the cardinal as the most just and fit.^f

" 1**. — In affairs of faith there must not be a moment's
delay, but, on the slightest suspicion, proceedings
must be taken with the utmost diligence.

" 2^. — No regard must be paid to any potentate or pre-
late, whatever be his power or dignity.

" 3°. — On the contrary, the greatest severity must be
shown towards those who seek to shelter themselves
under the protection of a ruler : only when confes-
sion is made, are leniency and flitherly compassion
to be shown.

" 4°. — To heretics, and especially Calvinists, no toleration
must be granted."

It is all, as we see, severity — inflexible, remorseless
severity — till confession was obtained. Fearful at all times ;
— but more especially fearful at a moment when opinions

* " Licet ab initio." Deputatio non- regole tenute da lui come assiomi verissi-

niillorumS.R.E. Cardinalium Generalium mi: la prima, che in materia di fede non

Inquisitorum hcereticoc pravitatis, 21 bisogna aspettar punto, ma subito die vi

Julii, 1542. Cocquelines, iv. 1,211. e qualche sospetto o indicio di pcste hcre-

t Caracciolo: Vita di Paolo IV., MS., tica, far ogni sforzo c violenza per cstir-

c. 8. " Haveva egli queste infrascrittc parla," etc. (App. No. 29.)

Chap. I.J THE INQUISITION. 143

were not yet fully developed, when many were seeking to
unite the profounder doctrines of Christianity with the
establishments of the existing church. The weaker gave
way and submitted ; the stronger-minded, on the contrary,
now first openly and resolutely embraced the opposite
opinions, and sought to withdraw themselves from violence.

One of the first of these was Bernardino Ochino. For
some time people had affected to remark that he fulfilled
his conventual duties with less dihgence than formerly ; in
the year 1542 his preaching also perplexed people. He
maintained with the greatest distinctness the doctrine that
faith alone justifies. " He who hath made thee without thy
aid," exclaimed he in the words of St. Augustine, " will he
not save thee without thy aid 1 '^ His exposition of the
doctrine of purgatory did not appear perfectly orthodox.
The nuncio at Venice had already interdicted his use of
the pulpit for some days ; hereupon he was cited to appear
at Rome, and had already reached Bologna and Florence,
when (probably from fear of the inquisition which was just
established) he determined to flee.

The historian of his order "^ relates how, having reached
Mount St. Bernard, he halted, and retraced in his mind all
the honours that had been paid him in his beautiful
country ; the countless numbers who received him with
eagerness, heard him with breathless attention, and accom-
panied him home with admiring satisfaction. We may
imagine the bitterness of such recollections, for an orator
loses more than any other man in losing his country ; yet
he quitted it, though at so advanced an age. He gave the
seal of his order, which he had worn till now, to his com-
panion, and went to Geneva. Nevertheless his convictions
were, as yet, not firm ; he fell into extraordinary perplexity
of mind.

About the same time Peter Martyr Vermigli left Italy.
" I tore myself," says he, " from all these falsehoods and
dissimulations, and saved my life from imminent danger."
Many of the scholars whom he had taught in Lucca after-
wards followed him.f

* Boverio, Annali, i. 438. munity he had left, in which he expresses

f A letter of Peter Martyr to the com- his repentance for having at times veiled

]44 THE INQUISITION. [Book TI.

Celio Secundo Curione suffered the danger to approach
him more nearly. He waited till the bargello came to seek
for him, when, being large and athletic, he cut his way
through the sbirri with a knife he had about him, threw
himself on his horse, rode off, and took the road to
Switzerland.

There had already been commotions in Modena ; they
were now revived. People denounced each other. Filippo
Valentini escaped to Trent, and Castelvctri found it expe-
dient, for a time at least, to seek safety in Germany.

Persecution and terror broke out on every side in Italy.
The mutual hatred of factions came in aid of the inquisitors.
Often did a man who had long vainly sought an oppor-
tunity of avenging himself on his adversary, resort to the
accusation of heresy as a means of gratifying his revenge.
The bigoted monks had now arms in their hands, which
they could turn against that band of intelligent and accom-
plished men who had been led by their literary pursuits to
a religious turn of mind, and could condemn them to ever-
lasting silence. These two parties regarded each other
with the bitterest hate. " It is hardly possible," exclaims
Antonio dei Pagliarici, " for a man to be a christian and
to die in his bed."*'"

The academy of Modena was not the only one that broke
up. Those of Naples, established by the Seggi, originally
only intended for studies, from which, according to the
spirit of the age, they came to embrace theological dispu-
tations, were closed by the viceroy. f Every branch of
literature was subjected to the most rigorous supervision.
In the year 1543, Caraffa ordered that in future no book,
of what contents soever, whether old or new, should be
printed without the permission of the inquisition ; that
booksellers should send to it catalogues of all their articles,
and should sell nothing more without its permission. The
officers of the customs received an order to deliver no pack-

tlie truth; Schlosser, Leben Boza's und urges this: "Sonde quellaeittä (Ravenna)

Peter Martyr's, p. 400. Gerdesius and j)artialissima, ne vi rimanendo huomo

M'Crie have collected a good many de- alcuno non contaminato di questa, mac-

tachcd notices in the works already cited, chia delle fattioni, si van volontiere dove

* Aonii Palearii Opera, ed. Wets^ten. I'occasion s'offerisce carricando I'un I'al-

IG.OG, p. 91. II CI. di Ravenna al CI. tro da inimici."

Contarini, Epj). Poli, iii. 208, already f Giannone: Storia di NapoH, xxxii.c. v.

Chap. 1.] THE INQUISITION. 145

ages of manuscript or printed books to their address without
first laying them before the inquisition.''^ Thus gradually
arose the index of prohibited books. The first examples
of the kind were given in Louvain and Paris. In Italy,
Giovanni della Casa, who lived on terms of the strictest
intimacy with the house of Caraffa, printed the first cata-
logue, containing about seventy books, at Venice. More
elaborate and complete ones appeared in 1552 at Florence,
and in 1554 at Milan ; the first in the form afterwards
employed, was pubhshed at Rome in 1559. It contained
writings of cardinals, and the poems of Casa himself Not
only printers and booksellers were subjected to these laws ;
even on private persons it was imposed as a duty of con-
science to o;ive information of the existence of forbidden
books, and to contribute to their annihilation. These rules
were executed with inconceivable severity. Though thou-
sands of the book, " On the Benefits of the Death of Christ,"
were dispersed, it has utterly disappeared, and is nowhere
to be found. Whole piles of seized copies were burnt in
Rome.

In all these regulations and measures the clergy availed
themselves of the help of the secular arm.f The popes
found the advantage of possessing a territory of their own
of considerable extent : here they could set an example
and exhibit a pattern. In Milan and Naples the govern-
ments could offer no opposition, particularly as they had
intended to introduce the Spanish inquisition ; though in
Naples the confiscation of goods was prohibited. In Tus-
cany the inquisition was accessible to the influence of the
civil power, through the legate, whom Duke Cosmo had
found means to gain over ; but the fraternities which it
founded gave great offence : in Siena and Pisa it acted very
oppressively against the universities. In the Venetian
states the inquisitor was, it is true, not wholly emancipated

* Bromato, vii. 9, come, verbi gi'atia, del Godescalco in

f Other members of the laity seconded Como, del conte Albano in Bergamo, del

their endeavours. " Fu rimediato," says Mutio in Milano. Questa risolutione di

the Compendium of the Inquisitors, " op- servirsi de' secolari fu presa, perche non

portunamente nal S. Officio in Roma con soli moltissimi vescovi, vicarii, frati e

porre in ogni citta valenti e zelanti inqui- preti, ma anco molti dell' istessa Inquisi-

sitori, servendosi anche talhora de seco- tione erano heretici."
lari zelanti, e dotti per ajuto della fede,

YOL. I. L

X4G THE INQUISITION. [Book II.

from civil control ; from April 1547, three Venetian 7iobili
had a seat in his tribunal in the capital ; in the provinces,
the rettore of each town, who occasionally consulted doctors
in difficult cases (especially when the accusation affected
eminent persons) claimed a share in the investigation with
the council of ten : notwithstanding this, however, the
ordinances of Rome were, on all material points, executed.

And thus all the life and movement of varying opinions
were forcibly stifled and annihilated in Italy. Almost the
whole Franciscan order was compelled to retract. The
greater part of the followers of Valdez submitted to make
recantation. In Venice a certain liberty was allowed to
the foreigners, mostly Germans, who resided there for
purposes of trade or of study ; but the natives were forced
to abjure their opinions, and their meetings were inter-
rupted. Many fled ; every town of Germany and of
Switzerland afforded refuge to the fugitives ; while those
who would not submit, and could not escape, fell victims to
this terrific persecution. In Venice they were sent from
the lagoons out to sea in two boats, between which a plank
was laid and the condemned placed upon it ; at the same
moment the rowers pulled different ways — the plank fell
into the water — once more did the miserable sufferers call
upon the name of Christ, and then sank to rise no more.
In Rome autos da fe were solemnly held in front of the
church of Santa Maria alia Minerva. Many fled from place
to place with their wives and children ; we trace their foot-
steps for awhile, then they disappear ; probably they had
fallen into the toils of the merciless hunters. Others
sought safety in silence and obscurity.

The Duchess of Ferrara, who, if the salic law had not
existed, would have been heiress of France, found no pro-
tection from her birth and exalted rank. Her husband
was her accuser. " She sees no one,'' says Marot, " to
whom she can complain ; the mountains are between her
and her friends ; she mingles her wine with tears."

Chap. I.] PROGRESS OF JESUITISM. 247

§ 7. PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION OF JESUITISM.

In this state of things, when opponents were removed
by force, when the dogmas of the church were estabhshed
anew in the spirit of the age, and the ecclesiastical power
enforced their observance with resistless weapons, arose,
in strictest alliance with that power, the order of the
Jesuits.

Not in Rome alone, but throughout Italy, it had the
most extraordinary success. Originally destined for the
common people, it now found entrance among the higher
classes. In Parma it was protected by the Farnesi.''^
Princesses submitted themselves to the spiritual exercises.
In Venice Lainez gave an exposition of the Gospel of
St. John expressly for the nobles, and in 1542, with the aid
of one of the Lippomano family, he succeeded in laying
the foundations of a Jesuits' college. In Montepulciano,
Francesco Strada had such an influence over some of
the most eminent men of the town, that he induced them
to go about the streets with him begging. Strada knocked
at the door, the others received the alms. In Faenza,
though it had been the scene of 0 chine's labours, the
Jesuits succeeded in acquiring great influence, in allaying
feuds of centuries' standing, and in founding societies for
the support of the poor. I quote these few examples only
by way of illustration : on every side they arose, gained
followers, organised schools, and established themselves on
a firm footing.

But as Ignatius was a Spaniard, imbued with, and
actuated by, the ideas of his nation, as his most intelligent
disciples had readily followed in the track he marked out,
his society, which was inspired by the same spirit, made
still greater progress in the peninsula than in Italy. In

* Orlandinus expresses himself it were not known that Paul III. had a

strangely: " Et civitas," he says, ii. p. son. The inquisition was indeed after-

78, "■ et privati, quibus fuisse dicitur wards introduced into Parma, in conse-

aliqua cum Romano Pontifice neces- quence of the hostility shown towards the

situdo, supplices ad eum literas pro priests inclined to the doctrines of the

Fabro retinendo dederunt," Just as if Jesuits.

L 2

148 PROGRESS OF TUE [Book II.

Barcelona he made a very distinguished convert in the
viceroy Francesco Borgia, duke of Gandia ; in Valencia
one church could not contain the hearers of Araoz, and a
pulpit was erected for him in the open air. In Alcala
followers of consideration soon congregated around Fran-
cesco Villanova, spite of the disadvantages of sickness,
mean extraction, and extreme ignorance under which he
laboured. From this place and from Salamanca, where,
in 1548, they began their labours in a small miserable
house, the Jesuits principally issued forth and overspread
the whole of Spain.''" Nor was their reception less cordial
in Portugal. The king suffered only one of the two first
who were sent to him at his request, to proceed to the
East Indies. This was that Xavier who won there the
fame of an apostle and a saint : the other, Simon Roderic,
the king kept near his person. At both courts the Jesuits
obtained extraordinary popularity. They effected a
thorough reform in that of Portugal. In the court of
Madrid they almost immediately became the confessors
of grandees of the highest rank, of the president of the
council of Castile, and of the cardinal of Toledo.

In the year 1540 Ignatius had sent a few young men
to study at Paris ; from thence his society diffused itself
over the Netherlands. Faber had the most decided
success in Louvain ; eighteen young men who had already
taken the degree of master or bachelor, offered to leave
home, university, and country, to accompany him to
Portugal. The followers of Loyola were already seen in
Germany, and, among the first, Peter Canisius, on his
twenty-third birthday, entered that order to which he
afterwards rendered such important services.

This rapid success had of necessity the strongest in-
fluence on the development of the constitution. The form
it assumed was as follows : —

In the class of the first associates, the professed mem-
bers, Ignatius admitted but few. He found that the number
of men thoroughly educated, and at the same time good
and pious, was very small. In the first project which he

♦ Ribadoncira : Vita Tgnatii, c. xv. n. 244. c. xxxviii. n. 2^5.

Chap. I.J INSTITUTION OF JESUITISM. 149

submitted to the pope he expresses the intention of founding
colleges at several universities for the education of young
men ; an unexpected number of whom attached themselves
to him, as we have already observed. They formed the
professed members, as contradistinguished from the class
of scholars.""* But a difficulty soon arose. As the pro-
fessed had bound themselves by a fourth and special oath
to a life of continual travelling in the service of the pope,
it was a contradiction to assign to them as many colleges
as were now required, — establishments which could only
thrive by their constant presence. Ignatius soon found
it necessary to establish a third class between these two ;
spiritual coadjutors, who were at the same time priests,
versed in science and learning, and expressly devoted to
the education of youth. This was one of the most import-
ant institutions of the Jesuits, and, as far as I have been
able to discover, peculiar to them. It contributed more
than any other to the singular success of the society.
They could establish themselves in any place, become
residents, gain influence, and put themselves at the head
of instruction. Like the scholars, they took only three
vows ; and, be it observed, these were simple, not solemn : —
that is to say, though any attempt to quit the society
would have been followed by excommunication, the society
had the right, in certain cases strictly defined, to absolve
them of their vows.

One thing alone was now requisite. It would have dis-
turbed the studies and occupations to which these classes
were destined, had they been compelled to devote them-
selves to providing for their own subsistence. The pro-
fessed, in their houses, lived on alms ; the coadjutors and
scholars were spared this, as the colleges were permitted to
have revenues in common. For the administration of these
revenues, so far as it did not devolve on the professed (who
were excluded from any participation in the enjoyment of
them), and for the care of all external affairs, Ignatius like-
wise appointed two secular coadjutors, who indeed were

* Pauli III. Facultas coadjutores ad- ejusdem societatisprsepositi, eis in minis-

mittendi, d. 5 Junii, 1546: "ita utad vota teiio spirituali vel temporali utendum

servanda pro eo tempore quo tu, fili judicaveritis, et non ultra astringantur."

praeposite, et qui pro tempore fuerint Corpus Institutorum, i. p. 1 5

150 PROGRESS OF THE [Book IL

equally bound by the three simple vows, but who were
forced to content themselves \vith the con\dction that they
were serving God by aiding in the support of a society
which w^atched over the salvation of souls ; they were to
aspire to no higher reward. These arrangements w^ere not
only well calculated in themselves, but at the same time
founded a hierarchy which, by its different gradations, had
a peculiar power of subjugating the minds of men/'*
^ If we attentively consider the laws w^hich were gradually
given to this society, we shall find that one of the main
objects which lay at the bottom of them all was, the com-
plete separation of its members from all the ordinary rela-
tions of life. Love of kindred w^as denounced as carnal
affection, f He who renounced his possessions in order to
enter the society, was not to give them to his relations, but
to distribute them amongst the poor.j; He who had once
entered could neither receive nor write a letter that was not
read by a superior. The society ^vould have the whole
man ; it would bind every inclination in its fetters.

It would share even his secrets. A general confession
was the preliminary to his entrance. He must enumerate
all his faults, nay, even all his virtues. A father confessor
was appointed him by his superiors ; the superior reserved
to himself the power of granting absolution in cases which
it was expedient for him to kno^v.§ This was insisted on
as a means of enabling him to obtain a perfect know^ledge
of those under him, and to use them at his discretion.

For, in this society, obedience usurped the place of every
relation or affection, of every impulse or motive, that could
stimulate man to activity ; obedience for its own sake,
without any regard w^hatever to its object or consequences. ||
No man w^as permitted to aspire after any rank or station

* The basis of the society consisted of § Rules, contained separately in the

Novices, Guests, and Indifferents; from Sunimarium eonstirnnonum, § 32, § 41,

these rose the different classes. the Examen generale, § 35, § 36, and

+ Sunimarium constitutionum, § 8, in Constitutionum Pauli III., c. 1, n. II :

the Corpus Institutoi'um Societatis Jesu. " Uli casus rescrvabuntur,'" it is said in

Antvcrpiie, 170.0, torn, i. In Orlandhiis, the last passage, "quos ab eo (superiore)

iii. 66, Faber is praised, because once, cognosci nccessarium vidcbitur, aut valde

having arrived, after many years of ab- conveniens."

sencc, in his native town in Savoy, he || The letter of Ignatius, " Fratribus

resisted his inclination to make any stay, Societatis Jesu qui sunt in Lusitania."

and continued his journey. j. Kal Ap. 1553, § 3.

X Examen generale, c. IV. § 2.

Chap. 1.] INSTITUTION OF JESUITISM. 151

above that which he held; if it happened that the secular
coadjutor could not read or write, he was not to learn with-
out permission. With the most absolute abnegation of all
right of private judgment, he Avho entered this society
must suffer himself to be ruled b}^ his superiors, in blind
submissiveness, like some inanimate thing ; like the staff
which is turned to any purpose at the will of him who holds
it. He was to behold in his superiors the representatives
of divine Providence. '""

What a power was that now vested in the general ! —
the power of wielding this implicit obedience wholly, irre-
sponsibly, and for life. According to the project of 1543,
all the members of the order who happened to be at the
same place with the general, were to be called into council
even on trifling affairs. The project of 1550, which was
confirmed by Julius III., frees him from this obligation,
wdienever he himself deems it inexpedient to comply with
it.f It was necessary to hold a council only for some
change in the constitution, or for the dissolution of existing
houses and colleges. In all other matters, all power that
could conduce to the good government of the society was
committed to him. He had assistants in the several pro-
vinces, who however meddled in no affairs but those which he
entrusted to them. He appointed the presidents of pro-
vinces, colleges, and houses at his pleasure ; he admitted
and dismissed, dispensed and punished ; he had a sort of
papal power on a small scale.;j: The only danger was, that

* Constitutiones, vi. 1 . " Et sibi ligatio ad peccatum mortale vel veniale,"

quisque persuadeat, quod qui sub obedi- would rather mean the obligation cou-

entia vivunt, se ferri ac regi a divina nected with a constitution ; so that who-

providentia per superiores suos sinere soever should violate it, would, in one way

debent, perinde ac cadaver essent." Here or the other, be guilty of a sin. Stiil it

is also given the other Constitution, vi, must be acknowledged that the Constitu-

5, according to which it would appear tion ought to be more explicit. We

that even a sin might be ordained. " Vi- could blame no one, who bona fide should

sum est nobis in Domino, . . . nullas suppose "ea" to refer to "peccatum

constitutiones, declarationes vel ordinem mortale vel veniale," and not to " con-

ullum vivendi posse obligationem ad pec- stitutiones."

catum mortale vel veniale inducere, nisi f " Adjutus, quatenus ipse opportu-

superior ea in nomine Domini Jesu num judicabit, fratrum suorum consilio,

Christi vel in virtute obedientise jubeat." per se ipsum ordinandi et jubendi qu^e

We scarcely know how to trust our eyes, ad Dei gloriam pertinere videbuntur, jus

in reading this. And it is in fact pos- totum habeat:" says Julii III. Confir-

sible to extract another meaning besides matio Instituti.
that suggested on the first perusal. " Ob- % Constitutiones, ix. o.

152 PROGRESS OF THE [Book U,

the general, in the possession of so vast a power, should
himself depart from the principles of the order. To guard
against this he \Yas subjected to certain restraints. It was
not perhaps of so much importance as it appeared to Igna-
tius, that the society or its deputies had the power of decid-
ing on certain external things, such as meals, clothing, hours
of sleep, and all the details of daily life ;''^ but it was un-
questionably something, that the possessor of the supreme
power was deprived of a freedom enjoyed by the meanest
individual. The assistants, who were not nominated by him,
also exercised a constant supervision over his conduct.
There was an officer specially appointed to warn or reprove
him, called the admonitor ; and in case of any gross fault,
the assistants w^ere empowered to summon the general con-
gregation, which was then authorised to pronounce sentence
of deposition on their chief

This leads us to another consideration.

If, without suffering ourselves to be dazzled by the hy-
perbolical expressions in which the Jesuits have represented
this power, we examine what was practicable, consistently
with the extension w^hich the society rapidly attained to,
the following will appear to be the result.

The supreme direction of the whole was vested in the
general, and especially the superintendence of the superiors,
whose consciences were to lie open to him, whose duties he
was to assign. These, on the other hand, exercised a similar
power in their own department, and frequently with more
severity than the general. f The superiors and the general
held each other in some degree in check. The general was
likewise to be acquainted with the person and character of
all subordinates, of all members of the society whatsoever ;
although, as is evident, he could interfere only in urgent
cases, yet he retained the supreme supervision. On the
other hand, a certain number of the professed exercised a
supervision over him.

There have been other religious orders, which, forming
a world within the world, severed their members from all
other ties, made them wholly their own, and generated in

* Schcdula Ignatii, A A. SS. Com- f Mariana, Di&curso de las cnfermc-
mcntatio pricvia, n. 872. dadns dc la Compania dc Jesus, c. xi.

Chap. I.] INSTITUTION OF JESUITISM. ^53

them a new principle of life and action. Such were among
the ends which the institution of the Jesuits also was cal-
culated to accomplish. But it is remarkable, that, on the
one side, it not only encouraged but required the develop-
ment of individual minds, while on the other, it took them
completely captive, and made them its own. Hence all
relations between the members merged in those of subor-
dination and mutual supervision. They thus formed a
strict, exclusive, and complete union, endowed with nerve
and energy. For this reason they contributed so much to
strengthen the monarchical power ; they submitted them-
selves to it absolutely, unless its possessors fell off from the
very principle on which it rests.

It is quite in accordance with the spirit of this society
that no member of it could be invested with any ecclesias-
tical dignity. He would have had duties to fulfil, he would
have been involved in circumstances, over which he could
have had no supervision or control. In the early days of
the society, at least, this rule was most rigidly adhered to.
Jay would not, and was not permitted to accept the
bishopric of Trieste ; and when Ferdinand I., who offered
it to him, renounced his wish in consequence of a letter
from Ignatius, the latter caused solemn mass to be per-
formed, and Te Deum to be sung.'"

Another important point is, that as the society generally
raised itself above the more ascetical and onerous prac-
tices of religion, so individuals were warned not to carry
their devout exercises to excess. They were exhorted not
to weaken their bodies with fasts, vigils, and scourgings ;
not to abstract too much time from the service of their
neighbour for such purposes ; to observe moderation even
in labour ; to use not only the spur, but the curb ; not to
encumber themselves with so many weapons that they
could not wield them ; not to oppress themselves with
work till the energy of their minds should be crushed by
the burden, t

* Extract from the Liber memorialis actionem." Commentarius praevius, in
of Ludovicus Gonsalvus; "quod, desis- AA. SS. Julii vn., n. 412.
tente rege, S. Ignatius indixerit missas, f Constitutiones, v, 3, 1. Epistola
et, ' Te Deum laudamus,' in gratiarum Ignatii ad Fratres qui sunt in Hispania.

Corpus Institutorum, ii. 540.

154 PROGRESS OF THE [Book II.

It is clear that it was the design and the principle of
the society to possess its members as its exclusive pro-
perty, yet at the same time to give them the utmost
vigour of character consistent with strict adherence to that
principle.

In fact, that vigour was indispensable to the difficult
functions which the Jesuits took upon themselves. These
were, as we saw, preaching, instruction, and confession. To
the two latter they devoted themselves with singular zeal.

Instruction had till then been in the hands of those men
of letters, who, after having long addicted themselves to
profane studies, fell into speculations on religious subjects,
not wholly agreeable to the court of Home, and ended by
adopting opinions utterly reprobated by it. The Jesuits
made it their business to expel them from their post, and
to occupy it in their stead. They began on a more sys-
tematic plan than had hitherto been pursued. They
divided the schools into classes, which they taught, from
the first rudiments up to the highest branches of learning,
in the same spirit. They paid great attention also to the
moral education, and formed men of good conduct and
manners ; they were patronised by the civil authorities ;
and, lastly, they taught gratis. When a city or a prince
had founded a Jesuits' college, private persons needed no
longer to be at any expense for the education of their
sons. They were expressly forbidden to ask or to receive
pay or alms ; their instruction was as gratuitous as their
sermons and their masses ; there was not even a box for
the receipt of alms in their churches. Men being what they
are, this could not fail to make the Jesuits extremely
popular, especially as they taught with no less success
than zeal. " This was not only a help to the poor," says
Orlandini, *"'■ " but a solace to the rich." He remarks how
enormous was their success. " We see," says he, '' many
robed in the purple of a cardinal, who were but lately
seated on the benches of our schools ; others have attained

• Orlandinus, lib. vi. 70. A conipa- dominated. Vide Sturm, in Rulikopf,

nson mir^lit be made with the conventual Geschichte des Schulwesens, p. 378.

schoolH of the protestants, in which also The points of difference would be those

the devotional tendency completely pre- to consider.

Chap. L] INSTITUTION OF JESUITISM. I55

to posts in the government of cities and of states; we
have trained up bishops and their councils ; even other
rehgious communities have been filled from our schools.'^
They had the acuteness to detect, and the skill to appro-
priate, all men of remarkable talents. They constituted
themselves a class of teachers, who, dispersed over all
catholic lands, first gave to education that rehgious colour
which it has ever since retained, preserved a strict unity
in discipline, method, and doctrine, and thus obtained an
incalculable influence over the minds of men.

But how greatly was this influence strengthened by the
address with which they got possession of the confessional
and of the direction of consciences ! No age of the world
was more susceptible of such influence, — none indeed more
in need of it. The Jesuits were exhorted by their rules
to give absolution in such sort and manner as to follow one
uniform method ; to practise themselves in cases of con-
science, to accustom themselves to a brief way of question-
ing, and to hold the examples of the saints, their works,
and other aids, ready against every kind of sin : ''' — rules
which, as is evident, are admirably calculated for the
necessities of man.

The extraordinary success, however, which attended
their labours, and which involved a real diffusion of their
ow^n manner of thinking, rested on another essential point.

The little book of spiritual exercises which Ignatius
worked out in the most singular manner, f though he did
not draw the first outline of it, — the book with which he
attracted his first, and afterwards his later disciples, —
with which he attached his followers generally, — is a most
remarkable production. Its operation was progressive and
powerful ; the more so, perhaps, because it was recom-
mended to be used only occasionally, in moments of inward
perplexity and agitation — under the pressure of the
cravings and wants of the troubled heart.

It is not a book of doctrine ; it is a guide to self-observ-

* Regula Sacerdotum, §§ 8, 10, 11. work by Garcia de Cisneros. All that

f From all that has been written on is most peculiar and characteristic ap-

both sides of the question, it is very pears, however, to have originated with

clear that Ignatius had in view a similar himself. Comm. preev., n. 0'4.

l^Q PROGRESS OF THE [Book II.

ation. " The longing of the soul/' says Ignatius, " cannot
be appeased by much knowledge, but by the sense and
relish of in\Yard things."*'' To direct this, is the task he
proposes to himself The guardian of souls indicates the
subjects of reflection ; the disciple has only to follow them
out. He is to direct his mind to them before going to
sleep, and at first waking ; he must drive away all other
thoughts with effort ; windows and doors must be closed ;
kneeling, or extended on the earth, he must carry through
the work of self-examination.

He begins by being conscious of his sins. He reflects how,
for one single crime, the angels were cast down into hell ;
but for him, although guilty of so much greater transgres-
sions, the saints offer up their intercessions ; the firmament
and the stars, the animals and plants of the earth, serve
him. In order that he may be delivered from sin, and
may not fall into eternal damnation, he calls on Christ
crucified, he hears his answers : — a dialogue as of a friend
with his friend, as of a servant with his lord.

His principal endeavour is next to exhort to the study of
sacred history. " I see," he says, " how the three persons
of the Godhead look down upon the whole earth, filled with
men who are doomed to perdition ; they determine that
the second person shall take upon himself the human nature
for their redemption. I look over the whole circuit of the
world, and I discern in one corner of it the hut of the
Virgin Mary, from which salvation proceeds."

He advances from step to step of the sacred history ; he
brings before himself the events in aU their peculiarities,
according to the categories of sense ; the greatest latitude
is given to the religious fancy, emancipated from the
restraints of language. The reader imagines he touches
the garments, he kisses the footsteps, of the divine person-
ages. In this exaltation of the fancy, in the feeling, how
great is the beatitude of a soul that is filled with divine
graces and virtues, he returns to the consideration of his
own state. If he has his condition still to choose, he
chooses it now, according to the wants of his heart ;

* " Non eniiii abundantia scientiiv?, scd sensus et gustus verum interiur desi-
deriuni aninus ivplere bolet."

Chip. I.] INSTITUTION OF JESUITISM. X57

having the one aim before his eyes — to be consecrated to
God's glory ; beHeving that he stands in the presence of
God and all his saints.

If he is no longer free to choose, he reflects on his manner
of living, his conversation, the ordering of his household,
his needful expenditure, what he has to give to the poor ;
all in the same frame of mind as he would wish to enjoy
when reflecting upon them in the hour of death ; having
nothing in view save what tends to God's honour and his
own salvation.

Thirty days are devoted to these exercises ; during
which reflections on the sacred history, on his own most
intimate state, prayers, and resolutions, alternate one with
another. The soul is kept in a state of constant excite-
ment and activity, occupied with itself Lastly, in repre-
senting to himself the providence of God, " who in all his
creatures works for the good of man," the contemplator
believes he once more stands before the face of the Lord
and of his saints. He implores the Divine Being to enable
him to give himself up to his love and service ; he ofiers
up his liberty, memory, judgment, will. Thus is the bond
of love concluded with him. " Love consists in the com-
munity of all capacities and of all possessions." As a
recompense for his self-devotion, Gods imparts to his soul
his grace.

It is sufficient for the present purpose to have given a
slight idea of this extraordinary book. In its general
course, as well as in particular passages and their connexion,
there is something persuasive, which, while it sets the
thoughts in motion, incloses and binds them within a
narrow circle. It is adapted with consummate skill to its
end, — meditation under the sway of fancy ; and its success
is the more unfailing because it rests on the author's own
experiences. Ignatius gradually embodied in this work the
most animated crises of his awakening and of his spiritual
progress, from their first commencement till the year 1548,
when he received the sanction of the pope. It has been
said that Jesuitism turned to account the experiences of
the protestants, and this may be true in particular instances ;
as a whole, however, they stand in the sharpest contrast.

258 PROGRESS OF THE [Book II.

Ignatius opposed to the discursive, demonstrative, searching
methods of the protestants, which were by their very nature
polemical, a totally different one ; short, intuitive, and
leading to ecstatic contemplation ; built upon the imagina-
tion, exciting to instant resolution.

And thus did that imaginative element from which he
drew his earhest inspirations, become an instrument of
extraordinary force and importance. Combining the habits
of a soldier with the fervour of a rehgious fancy, he
succeeded in enrolhng a spiritual standing army, picked
man by man, trained individually for his objects, and
commanded by himself, in the name and service of the
pope. He lived to see it spread over every nation of the
earth.

When Ignatius died, his company numbered thirteen
provinces, exclusive of the Roman.*"* A glance will suffice
to show where the nerve of it lay. The larger half of
these provinces, seven, belonged to the western peninsula
and its colonies. In Castile there were ten colleges, in
Aragon five, in Andalusia also five. Portugal surpassed
even this ; there were houses for both professed members
and for novices, and the Portuguese colonies were almost
entirely under their rule. In Brazil there were twenty-
eight members of the oi^der ; in the East Indies, from Coa
to Japan, a hundred were employed in the functions
allotted to them. An attempt was made from thence to
establish themselves in Ethiopia, and a provincial was sent
thither in the confident hope of a successful result. All
these provinces of Spanish and Portuguese language and
manners were united under one commissary-general,
Francisco Borgia.

Here, as we have said, where the first idea of the society
arose, its influence had become most extensive and powerful.
But it was not much less so in Italy. There were three
provinces of the Italian tongue : — the Roman, which was
under the immediate control of the general, with houses for
professed and novices ; the collegium Romanum ; and the
collegium Germanicum (established, on the advice of

* In the year 1556. Sacchinus, Ilistoria societatis Jesu, p. ii., sive Lainius,
from the beginning.

Chap. L] INSTITUTION OF JESUITISM. -[59

cardinal Morone, expressly for Germans, but which never
had much success) ; to this province Naples also belonged,
and Sicily (where the Jesuits were first introduced by the
viceroy, Delia Vega), with four colleges completed and two
begun.'"' Messina and Palermo had rivalled each other in
zeal to found colleges, and the others were offsets from
these. The two other proper Italian provinces compre-
hended all the north of Italy, and contained ten colleges.

Their success had not been so brilliant in other countries ;
they had to encounter protestantism, or a strong inclination
towards it. France contained but one college regularly
constituted. Germany was divided into two provinces,
which were however only in their infancy. The upper
was to include Vienna, Prague, Ingolstadt, &c., but its con-
dition was in every way very precarious. The lower was
to comprise the Netherlands, but Philip IL had given it no
legal existence there.

A success so early and so rapid gave the society promise
of the power to which it was destined to attain. Its
mighty influence in the truly catholic countries, — the two
peninsulas, — was of the utmost importance.

CONCLUSION.

We see that while, on the one hand, the movement with
which protestantism agitated the minds of men advanced
on every side with rapid strides, on the other, a new ten-
dency had likewise arisen in the bosom of Catholicism, — in
Rome, — around the presence and person of the pope.

This, no less than the former, sprang from the cor-
ruptions and the worldliness which had deformed the
church ; or rather, from the wants that they had generated
in the minds of men.

At the beginning these two tendencies approximated.
There w^as a moment in which Germany had not thoroughly
resolved on the complete downfall of the hierarchy ; a
moment in which Italy was inclined to adopt rational
modifications of it. This moment passed away.

* Ribadeneira : Vita Ignatii, n. 293.

]60 CONCLUSION. [Book II.

While the protestants, resting on scripture, recurred
with ever-increasing boldness to the primitive forms of the
Christian religion, their opponents determined to hold fast
to the ecclesiastical institutions which had been consoli-
dated in the course of the century, to renew them merely,
and to infuse into them fresh spirit, earnestness, and
strictness.

On the one hand, arose Calvinism, far more anti-catholic
than Lutheranism ; on the other, everything which could
recal an idea of protestantism was rejected with deliberate
hostility, and the most direct opposition was declared.

Thus do two neighbouring and kindred springs arise on
the mountain top ; but soon their waters form different
channels down its rocky sides, the streams diverge, and
flow on in opposite directions for ever.

BOOK III.

THE POPES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH

CENTURY.

INTRODUCTION.

The most striking characteristic of the sixteenth century
is its fertihtj in rehgious systems. The various and con-
flicting opinions which then arose and overspread Europe,
form, even at the present hour, the moral atmosphere in
which we hve and move.

If we seek to assign more accurately the point of history
at which the separation between Catholicism and protes-
tantism, of which we have just spoken, became complete,
we shall find that it did not coincide with the first appear-
ance of the reformers ; for divergences of opinion did not
immediately become inveterate, and during a long time
hopes might be entertained of some compromise between
the conflicting doctrines. It was not till the year 1552
that it became manifest that all attempts at conciliation
had utterly failed, and the three great forms of Christianity
in the west were severed for ever. Lutheranism became
stricter, more ascetical, more exclusive. Calvinism seceded
from it in the most important articles, though Calvin
himself had previously passed for a Lutheran. Directly
opposed to both, Catholicism assumed its modern form.
Thus hostilely arrayed, each of the three theological sys-
tems strove to establish itself on the position which it had
taken up, thence to supplant its rivals, and to subject the
world to its own sway.

It might appear that Catholicism, which aimed at nothing
but the renovation of an existing institution, would have
found it more easy than the antagonist sects to make its
way, and to obtain the ascendancy ; but its advantages

VOL. I. M

162 PAUL III. iBooK III.

were not great ; it was circumscribed, no less than its
competitors, by various interests, tastes, and passions ; by
worldly-mindedness, profane learning, and declining reli-
gious convictions ; it was little more than a principle of
fermentation, of which it might still be questioned, whether
it would eventually pervade and overpower the elements
in the midst of which it was generated, or be overpowered
by them.

The first obstacle it had to encounter arose from the popes
themselves, — their personal character, and their pohcy.

We have remarked how a temper of mind the very
reverse of spiritual had taken root in the heads of the
church, had provoked opposition, and had given a mighty
impetus to protestantism.

The question was, whether the strict ecclesiastical spirit
which had sprung up in the bosom of the church herself,
would overmaster and transmute this temper, or not ; and
to what degree 1 It appears to me, that the conflict
between these two principles, — between the ideas, the
actions, and the policy which had hitherto prevailed and
had become habitual, and the necessity of effecting a tho-
rough internal reform, constitute the prominent interest in
the history of the next popes.

§ I. PAUL III.

It is a common error of the present day to ascribe far
too much to the designs and the influence of eminent per-
sons, of rulers, and of governments ; their memory not
unfrequently has to expiate the sins of the mass, while
sometimes they have credit for measures which emanated
in fact from the spontaneous impulse of the mass.

The catholic movement which we contemplated in the
last book began under Paul III., but it would be a mistake
to regard him as its author. He distinctly saw its import-
ance to the see of Rome, and he not only allowed it free
course, but promoted it in many ways ; we may confidently ,
assert, however, that he could have no sincere or cordial I
sympathy with so religious and ascetical a spirit.

§ I.] PAUL III. 163

Alexander Farnese, for that was the name of Paul III.,
was as much a man of the world as any of his predecessors.
His education was completed within the fifteenth century,
for he was born in the year 1468. He studied under Pom-
ponius Lsetus at Rome, and in the gardens of Lorenzo de'
Medici at Florence; he thus became thoroughly imbued
with the elegant literature and the taste for art which cha-
racterised that epoch ; nor was he a stranger to its morals.
His mother once found it necessary to allow him to remain
a prisoner in the castle of St. Angelo. In a moment when
the vigilance of his guards was withdrawn by the procession
of Corpus Christi day, he found means to let himself down
from the castle by a rope, and to escape. He acknowledged
an illegitimate son and daughter. Spite of these excesses
— for in those days such things caused little scandal, — he
was made cardinal at a very early age. During his car-
dinalate he laid the foundation of the most beautiful of all
the Roman palaces — that of the Farnesi. At Bolsena,
where his hereditary estates were situated, he fitted up a
villa which Pope Leo found so attractive as to tempt him
to pay the cardinal several visits there. Nor were his
desires bounded by this brilliant and magnificent life ; he
cherished other projects and loftier ambitions. From the
very beginning of his career he fixed his eye on the
supreme dignity. It is characteristic of him that he sought
to reach it by maintaining a strict neutrality. The French
and imperial factions divided Italy, Rome, and the college
of cardinals: Farnese conducted himself with such deli-
berate caution, with such happy prudence, that no one
could have said to which of the two he most inclined.
Even so early in his career as at the death of Leo, and
again at that of Adrian, he was near being elected. He
was exasperated against the memory of Clement VII., whom
he regarded as having robbed him of twelve years of the
papacy, which would otherwise have been his. At length,
in October 1534, in the fortieth year of his cardinalate, and
the sixty-seventh of his life, he attained the end of all his
aspirations, and was elected pope.''^

* Onuphrius Panvinius : Vita Pauli III.
M 2

1(]4 PAUL III. [Book III.

He had now to feel the full weight of the great conflict-
ing interests which divided the world ; the animosity of the
two parties between which he occupied so important a
station ; the necessity of making head against the protes-
tants, and the secret connection ^\dth them into which he
was inevitably drawn by their political position ; the desire
to diminish the preponderance of Spain, and the danger
attending every attempt to do so, which naturally arose out
of the situation of his Italian principality ; the urgent need
of a reform, and the annoying restraints which that reform
seemed to threaten to impose on the papal power.

The manner in which his character developed itself in
the midst of all these irreconcileable demands is well worthy
of notice.

Paul III. was of an easy, magnificent, liberal nature.
Seldom has a pope been so beloved in Rome as he was.
There was a grandeur in the way in which he nominated
men of distinguished merit to the dignity of cardinal, with-
out even their knowledge, nobly contrasting with the petty
personal considerations which usually determine appoint-
ments. Nor did he only nominate them ; — he allowed
them an unwonted liberty. He endured contradiction in
the consistory, and encouraged the cardinals to fearless
discussion.*"*

But while he granted freedom to others, while he con-
ceded to every man all the advantages attached to his
situation, he would not suffer one of his own prerogatives
to be invaded, or to fall into neglect. The emperor once
remonstrated with him on having promoted two of his
grandsons to the cardinalate at too early an age ; he replied,

* In the year 1538, Marco Antonio non erano stati in quella riforma di vita

Contarini wi'ote a report of the state of ch' eran allora, e che H cardinah have-

the pope's court to the Venetian senate, vano Hberta maggiore di dire I'opinion

Unfortunately I have not found this work loro in consistorio ch'avesser aATito gia

either in the Venetian archives or else- mai da gran tempo, e che di cio il pon-

whei'e. There is a short extract from it tefice non solamente non si doleva, ma

in a MS. in my possession, on the war se n'era studiatissimo, onde per questa

then carrying on against the Turks, ragione si poteva sperare di giorno in

bearing the title, " Tre Libri delli Com- giorno maggior riforma. Considero che

mentari della Guerra, 1537 — 8 — 9." It tra cardinali vi erano tali uomini cele-

is from this source I have taken the berrimi che per opinione commmie il

above notices. " Disse del stato della mondo non n" a^Tia altretanti."
corte, che molt! anni inanzi li prelati

§ I] PAUL III. 165

that he would do as his predecessors had done, — that there
were examples of infants in the cradle being made cardinals.
He showed a partiality for his own kindred unusual even in
a pope,'"' and a determination to raise them to princely rank,
as other pontiffs had done before him.

It cannot, however, be affirmed that, like Alexander VI.,
he sacrificed everything to this object ; he was most
anxiously bent on re-establishing peace between France and
Spain, on putting down the protestants, making war against
the Turks, and reforming the church : but his heart was
also much set on elevating his own house.

The variety and importance of objects, both public and
private, which he pursued, forced him upon an extremely
cautious, watchful, temporising policy ; everything depended
on the favourable moment, the fortunate combination of
circumstances ; these he was compelled to mature by slow
degrees, and, when the critical moment arrived, to seize
them with the utmost promptitude, and to hold them with
the most determined grasp.

Ambassadors found it difficult to negotiate with him.
They were astonished, that though he never exhibited a
trace of want of courage, they could rarely bring him to a
decision. While he sought to entangle others, to win from
them a word that would not be withdrawn, or a promise
that could not be revoked, he was never betrayed into an
expression that could bind himself This was observed in
lesser things ; he showed a constant disinclination either to
refuse or to promise anything ; he chose to keep his hands
free to the last minute. How much more then in occasions
of difficulty ! Sometimes he himself suggested means of
escaping from, or obviating the evil, but if others tried to
seize upon them, he instantly retracted ; he chose to remain
always master of every transaction in which he was con-
cerned.f

* Soriano, 1536 : " E Romano di willed, and who willed all that he could

sangue et e d' animo molto gagliardo : do." Amongst many other presents, he

...... stima assai Tingiurie che gli once received sixty silver washing-basins,

si fanno, et e inclinatissimo a far grandi with their ewers. ** How does it come

i suoi." (App. No. 21.) Varchi (Istorie about," said somebody, "that, with so

Fiorentiue, p. 636,) relates of Paul's first many washing-basins, he cannot keep

secretary, Messer Ambrogio, that he his hands clean ? "

was « a man who could do all that he f In the Lettres et Memoirs d'Estat,

166 PAUL III. [Book III.

He was, as we have said, of the same classical school
which had produced some of his most eminent predecessors,
and made it a rule to express himself in the most choice
and elegant Latin or Italian ; he weighed every word with
the double consideration both of matter and form, and
uttered them in a soft voice and with the slowest
deliberation.

It was often difficult for a man to ascertain how he stood
with him. Sometimes people thought it safer to conclude
the contrary from what he said. Yet this conclusion
would not always have been just. Those who were more
immediately about him, remarked that when he was most
sanguine of the success of any undertaking, he said nothing
about it, and avoided all contact with the persons or things
connected with it.*"' So much was clear to all — that he
never relinquished a project he had once entertained ; he
hoped to accomplish whatever he had undertaken, if not
presently, yet at some future time, under altered circum-
stances, and by other means.

Such a character of mind, such a tendency to far-sighted
calculation, to consider things on every side and to ponder
on them in secret, was not inconsistent with a disposition
to take into account heavenly as well as earthly influences.
The influence of the stars on the results of human actions
was at that time little doubted. Paul III. appointed no
important sitting of the consistory, undertook no journey,
without observing the constellations, and choosing the day
which appeared to him recommended by their aspect. f A

par Guill. Ribier, Paris, 1666, — are to used in his negotiations) e mi aveva

be found a crowd of documents relating scoperto di quel poco che io ne inten-

to his negotiations and their character, deva. E perche era vecchissimo, par-

from 1537 to 1540, and from 1547 to lava bassissimo et era longhissimo, ne

1549, in the despatches of the French volea negar cosa che se gli addiman-

ambassadors. Matteo Dandolo describes dasso ; ma ne anche (volea) che Tuorao

thorn in a straightforward manner in the che negotiava seco potesse esser secure

Relatione di Roma, 1551, d. 20 Junii, in di havere havuto da S. S". il si piu che

Senatu, — a MS. in my possession. (App. il no, perche lei voleva starsi sempre in 1'

No. 27.) " II negotiare con P. Paolo fu avantaggio di poter negare e concedere :

giudicato ad ogn'un difficile, perche era per il che sempre si risolveva tardissi-

tardissimo nel parlare, perche non voleva maraente, quando volea negax'e."

mai proferire parola che non fusse ele- * Obsei'vations of the cai'dinal Carpi

gante et exfiuisita, cosi nella volgare and Mai'gai'eta : " che son los," says

come nella latina e greca, che di tutte Mendoza, " que mas platica tienen de su

ti-e ne faceva professione (Greek, I condicion."

should think, he could not often have f Mendoza : " Es venido la cosa a

§ I.] PAUL III. 167

treaty with France was delayed because there was no con-
formity between the nativity of the pope and that of the
king. It seems that Paul felt himself placed in the midst
of a thousand conflicting influences, not only of this lower
world, but of the supernal : it was his endeavour to have
due regard to both, to avert their hostility, to improve their
favour, and to steer his course adroitly amongst the rocks
which threatened destruction on every side.

We will examine what were the means he employed,
whether they were successful, whether he really raised
himself above the contending powers that agitated the
world, or whether he was involved in their struggles.

In the first years of his reign he succeeded in concluding
an alliance with Charles V. and the Venetians against the
Turks. He urged the Venetians to this measure with
great eagerness ; for hopes were now, as at other times,
entertained of extending the frontiers of Christendom to
Constantinople.

But the war which had broken out anew between
Francis I. and Charles was a formidable obstacle to this
enterprise. The pope spared no efforts to bring about a
reconciliation. The meeting of the two sovereigns at Nice,
to which he also was a party, was entirely his work, and
the Venetian ambassador who was present cannot find
words in which to eulogise the zeal and patience which he
displayed through the whole affair. It was only with
extraordinary labour, and not till the last moment, when he
had threatened to go away, that he succeeded in nego-
tiating a truce.'"' He brought about a good understanding
between the two princes, which soon appeared to ripen into
a kind of intimacy.

Whilst the pope was thus actively employed in public
business, he did not neglect his own concerns. It was
remarked that he always interwove the one with the other,
and advanced both simultaneously. The Turkish war thus
afforded him an opportunity of confiscating Camerino. It

que ay muy pocos cardenales, que con- We find the most unquestionable parti-

cierten negocios, aunque sea para com- culars relating to the pope,
prar una carga de lefia, sino es o por * Relatione del Cl™°. M. Niccolo

medio de algun astrologo o hechizero." Tiepolo del Convent© di Nizza. Infor-

Ißy PAUL III. [Book III.

had just been united to Urbino ; the last of the house of
Varano, the heiress of Camerino, having married Guido-
baldo IL who in the year 1538 came into possession of the
government of Urbino. '''^ But the pope pronounced that
Camerino could not be inherited by a woman. The Vene-
tians were bound in justice to support the duke, wiiose
ancestors had always lived under their protection and served
in their armies ; they did indeed intercede in the most urgent
and spirited manner in his behalf, but they hesitated to do
more, lest it should involve them in a war. They feared
that the pope would call in the aid of the emperor or of
France, cautiously considering that if he gained over the
emperor, that sovereign would have so much the less force
to bring against the Turks, while, if France were trium-
phant, the peace of Italy would be endangered, and their
position would be still more unfavourable and unsupported.!
They therefore left the duke to his fate, and he was forced
to evacuate Camerino, which the pope conferred on his
grandson Ottavio.

The house of Farnese was already rising into power
and magnificence. The congress at Nice was extremely
advantageous to Paul. At the very time it was sitting
his son, Pietro Luigi, obtained Novara and its territory
from the emperor, who, at the same time, determined to
marry his natural daughter Margaret, after the death
of Alessandro de' Medici, to Ottavio Farnese. We may
give full credit to the pope's assertion, that notwith-
standing these marks of favour, he did not absolutely join
the imperial party. He wished, on the contrary, to form
an equally close connection with Francis I., who, on his
side, showed himself well inclined to this alliance, and
promised him the hand of the duke of Vendome, a prince
of the blood, for his granddaughter Vittoria.| This

matt. Politiche, vi. (Librai*y at Berlin.) tete a un merveilleus desir du mariage

There is likewise an old impression, de Vendosme : car il s' en est entiere-

* Adriani Istorie, 58. H. ment declare k moy, disant que pour

f The deUberations are given in the estre sa nit^ce unique et taut aimee de

above-quoted Commentary on the Turli- luy, il ne desirait apres le bien de la

ish War, which thus possesses a peculiar Chrestiente autre chose plus que voir

inti'rcst. sadite nit^ce mai'iee en France, dont ledit

X (Jrignan, Ambassadeur du Roi de Seigneur (Le Roi) luy avait tenu propos

France a Rome, au Connctable. Ribier, a Nice, et apres vous, Mouseigueur, luy

i. p. 251 : " Monseigneur, sadite Sain- en aviez parle."

§ I.] PAUL III. 169

connection with the two most powerful houses in the
world was a source of great happiness to Paul ; he was
so sensible of the honour which it conferred, that he spoke
of it in the consistory. The attitude of a peace-maker, a
mediator, which he occupied between these two powers,
also flattered his ambition as head of the church.

These circumstances did not however lead to such
favourable results as they had promised. No advantages
whatever had been gained over the Ottoman power ; on
the contrary, Yenice was obliged to accede to a disadvan-
tageous peace. Francis I. recalled the promise which he
had made at Nice, and although the pope never relin-
quished the hope of eventually forming a connection with
the house of Valois, the negotiation advanced very tardily.
The good understanding which the pope established
between the emperor and the king, seemed for a time to
become more and more perfect ; so much so as at one
time almost to excite the jealousy of the pope, and to
draw from him complaints that he, who was the author
of it, was neglected ;'" yet it presently broke off, and war
began anew. The pope then raised his views to higher
objects.

He had formerly declared among his friends, and had
even given the emperor to understand, that Milan
belonged to the French, and ought of right to be restored
to them.f

He gradually ceased to express this opinion. We find,
on the contrary, from cardinal Carpi, who was more in his
confidence than any other of the sacred college, that he
made a proposition to Charles V., the aim of which was
quite of an opposite kind.| " The emperor," says this
document, " should not aspire to be count, or duke, or
prince ; — he must be solely emperor. He ought not to
have numerous provinces, but great vassals. His fortunes

* Grignan, 7 Mars, 1539. Ribier, i. + M. A. Contarini also confirms this

406. Le Cardinal de Boulogne au Roi, in his Narrative.

20 Avril, 1539. Ibid. p. 445. The pope J Discurso del R™°. CK di Carpi,

said to him, "qu'il estoit fort estonne, del 1543 (perhaps though even a year

veu la peine et travail qu'il avait pris earlier), a Carlo V. Cesare, Del modo

pour vous appointer, vous et TEmpereur, del dorainare, Bibl. Corsini, n. 443.
que vous le laissiez ainsi arriere,"

170 P^UL III. [Book III.

have declined from the time he took possession of Milan.
It would be unadvisable for him to give it back to Francis
I., whose rapacity it would only serve to stimulate ; but
neither on the other hand ought he to retain it.*"' The
suspicion that he sought to gain possession of foreign
countries, was the sole cause of his having enemies. If he
put an end to this suspicion, if he surrendered Milan into
the possession of a duke of its own, Francis I. would find
no more adherents : while he, on the contrary, the
emperor, would have Germany and Italy on his side,
would carry his standard into the remotest regions, and
would associate his name (such is the expression) with
immortality.

If then the emperor was neither to surrender Milan to
the French, nor to retain possession of it himself, to whom
was he to cede it '? The pope thought it a good solution
of the problem, to give it to his grandson, the son-in-law
of the emperor, — a scheme he had already hinted at on
former occasions. At a fresh meeting which he had with
the emperor in the year 1543 at Busseto, he formally
proposed it. Very serious negotiations were carried on to
that effect, and the pope cherished the hveliest hopes of
success. The governor of Milan, the marchese di Vasto,
whom he had gained over, being of a somewhat credulous
and ostentatious temper, one day presented himself Tvdth a
well-prepared speech, as about to conduct Margaret, his
future sovereign lady, to Milan. According to the infor-
mation I have been able to collect, it appears that the
negotiation was broken off in consequence of some exor-
bitant demands of the pope.f It is however hard to

* " Se la M. V. dello Stato di Milano there is perhaps room for doubt. He

le usasse cortesia, non tanto si spegne- reUes on historians who at all events

rebbe quanto si accenderebbe la sete could have written on hearsay only. But

sua ; si che e meglio di armarsi di quel a letter from Girolamo Guiceiardini to

Ducato contra di lui. — V. M. ha da esser Cosmo Medici, Cremona, 26 Giugno,

certa, che, non per affettione che altri 1543, in the Archivio Mediceo at Flo-

abbia a questo Re, ma per Interesse par- rence, is decisive. Granvolla has him-

ticolare, e la Germania e 1' Italia, sinche self spoken of it. "S. M". mostrava non

da tal sospetto non saranno liberate, sono esser aliena, quando per la parte del

per sostentare ad ogni lor potcre la po- papa fussino adenipiute le larghe ofterte

tentia di Francia." cran state proferte dal duca di Castro

+ Pallavicini has dü'cctly denied these sin a Geneva." I do not know what

transactions. From what Muratori these oifers might have been, but they

alleges also (AnnaU d'ltalia, x. 11. 51), were too strong for the pope. Accord-

§ L] PAUL III. 171

believe that the emperor could be induced by any consi-
derations, to yield up to foreign influence a territory so
important from its size and situation.

For even without this accession of power, the position
which the house of Farnese had reached was full of danger
to him. Of the Italian provinces which Charles governed,
or over which he had influence, there was not one in
which the existing government had not been founded by
force, or at least which did not stand in need of the
support of force. On all sides, in Milan, as well as in
Naples, Florence, Genoa, and Siena, there were malcon-
tents belonging to defeated parties ; Rome and Venice
were full of emigrants. The Farnesi were not restrained
by their near connection with the emperor from allying
themselves with these parties, which, though subdued,
were still formidable from the consideration enjoyed by
their chiefs, from their wealth and followers. At the
head of the conquerors stood the emperor ; the conquered
sought refuge with the pope. Innumerable secret ties
bound them to each other ; they were always visibly or
invisibly connected with France, and were constantly
engaged in new plots and enterprises. Sometimes these
related to Siena, sometimes to G-enoa, sometimes to Lucca.
The pope made incessant attempts to obtain a footing in
Florence, but in the young duke Cosmo he encountered
precisely the man fitted to withstand him. Cosmo
expresses himself on this subject with undisguised con-
fidence in his own powers. " The pope,^^ says he, " who
has been successfiil in so many undertakings, has now
no more eager wish than to accomplish something in
Florence, and to alienate this city from the emperor ; but
this wish will lead him into the pit."'"

In a certain view, the emperor and the pope still stood
opposed to each other as chiefs of rival factions. Though

ing to Gosselini, secretary to Ferrante stantial and amusing details on this

Gonzaga, the emperor feared on his subject.

departure, " che in volgendo egU le * A Letter of Cosmo, formd in the

spalle (i Farnesi) non pensassero ad Archivio Mediceo : — hliewise written in

occuparlo :" (Vita di Don Ferrando, p. the year 1537. " Al papa non e restate

iv.) An unprinted Neapolitan Life of altra voglia in questo mondo se non

Vasto, which is to be found in the Chigi disporre di questo stato e levarlo dalla

Library at Rome, contains very circum- divotione dell' imperatore," &c.

172 PAUL III. [Book III.

the emperor had married his daughter to one of the pope's
family, he had done so only that he might iiold him in
check, in order, as he himself says, to maintain the
existing state of things in Italy. The pope, on the other
hand, sought to turn his alliance with the emperor to his
own advantage. He wished to make both the protection
of the emperor, and the assistance of that sovereign's
enemies, subservient to the exaltation of his family. The
parties of Guelf and Ghibelline still subsisted in fact,
though not in name ; the latter still adhering to the
emperor, the former to the pope.

Spite of all these appearances, in the year 1545 we find
the two leaders again on a footing of amity. Margaret
was pregnant ; and the prospect of shortly numbering a
descendant of the emperor in his own family, turned the
current of Farnese's feelings once more in favour of
Charles V. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, charged by Paul
with one of the most important missions he had ever sent,
repaired to the emperor's court at Worms. The cardinal
once more succeeded in appeasing the displeasure of the
emperor. He sought to justify himself and his brothers
from some of the charges that had been brought against
them, craved pardon with regard to others, and promised
that in future they would all be obedient servants and sons
of his majesty. The emperor replied, that on those condi-
tions he would treat them as his own children.

They then proceeded to the discussion of weighty
matters. They consulted as to the war against the pro-
testants, and agreed that the council should be immediately
convened. In case the emperor should determine to take
up arms against the protcstants, the pope bound himself to
support him with all his power and with all his resources ;
nay, " to sell his crown, if necessary." ^'

The council was in fact opened in that same year ; a

* Granvella himself affords us authen- pare V attioni passate di N""". Signore

tic information as to the mission : Dis- sue e di sua casa, ella si degnasse rimet-

paccio di Monsi^nor di Cortona al Duca terle e non ne teuer conto. — Expose di

di Fiorcnza, Vorniatia,29 Maggio, 1545 : piu, in caso che S. M. si risolvesse di

(Granvella) " Mi concluse in somma ch' sbattere per via d' arme, perche per

el cardinale era venuto ])er giustificarsi giustitia non si vedeva quasi modo

d' alcunt! eahuuuie, e supplica S. M. che alcuno, h Luterani, S. Beatitudine con-

quando non potcsse interamente discol- correra con ogni somma di denari,"

§ I.] PAUL III. 173

circumstance of which we here find the first satisfactory
explanation.

In the year 1546 war too broke out. The pope and the
emperor united to destroy the league of Smalcalde, which
was not much less injurious to the temporal power of the
latter than to the spiritual authority of the former. The
pope furnished money and troops.

The design of the emperor was, to unite the terror of
arms with the persuasiveness of negotiation. While he
chastised the disobedience of the protestants, the council
was to allay religious differences, and, above all, to introduce
such reforms as might render it in some sort possible for
them to submit.

The war advanced with unexpected success. At first,
the situation of Charles might have been esteemed desperate,
but in the most perilous circumstances he maintained his
firmness. In the autumn of 1546 he saw the whole of
Upper Germany in his hands ; cities and princes rivalled
each other in the eagerness with which they tendered their
allegiance. The moment seemed to have arrived in which
the Protestant party in Germany might be crushed, and
the whole north be restored to Catholicism.

In this crisis what was the conduct of the pope ?

He recalled his troops from the imperial army, and
removed the council, now on the point of fulfilling its end
and exercising its pacificatory power, from Trent, where it
had met at the request of the Germans, to Bologna, the
second city of his own states. The pretext for this change
was, that some contagious disease had broken out at Trent.

His motives were not doubtful. The political tendencies
of the papacy were once more in conflict with the ecclesi-
astical. That the whole of Germany should be conquered
by, and really subject to, the emperor, could never be
agreeable to him. His deep and subtle calculations had led
him to expect a far different result. He had, perhaps,
believed that the emperor would succeed in some things
advantageous to the catholic church ; but at the same time,
as he himself acknowledges,'''' he had no doubt that he

* Charles, C^ de Guise, au Roy, 31 audience of the pope, in which Paul
Oct. 1547, (Ribier, ii. p. 75) ; after an explains the motives which had led him

X74 PAUL III. [Book III.

should see him encounter innumerable difficulties, and fall
into perplexities which would leave him, the pope, more
complete liberty to pursue his own aims. But fortune
mocked at his schemes. He had now to fear — and France
called his attention to the fact — that this overwhelming
power would re-act upon Italy, and would soon manifest
itself but too clearly to him, both in spiritual and temporal
affairs. But, independent of this, his anxieties concerning
the council were increased. It had long oppressed him,'"
and he had already considered of means of dissolving it ;
but now some of the prelates of the imperial party, made
more and more daring by victory, ventured on measures of
remarkable audacity. The Spanish bishops brought forward
certain articles, under the name of censurce, the collective
tendency of which was to diminish the consideration of the
pope. The reformation, always so much dreaded at Rome,
seemed as if it could no longer be delayed.

It sounds strangely, but nothing is more true : — at the
moment when the whole of northern Germany trembled at
the impending restoration of the papal power, the pope felt
himself an ally of the protestants. He betrayed his joy at
the progress of elector John Frederic against duke Maurice,
and desired nothing more earnestly than that the former
might be able to hold out against the emperor. He sent a
message to Francis I., who was already trying to unite all
the world in a league against Charles, " to support those
who were not yet beaten.'^ f It seemed to him once more
probable that the emperor would encounter obstacles, and
would have business on his hands for a long time to come.
"He thinks so," says the French minister, "because he
wishes it.'^

But he deceived himself as before. The fortune of the

to take part in the German war : — S. S. "a entendu que le due de Saxe

" Aussi ä dire franchement qu'il estoit se trouve fort, dont eile a tel contente-

bien mieux de Tempescher (I'erapereur) ment comme celuy qui estime le com-

en un lieu, dont il pensait, qu' aisement mun ennemy esti'e par ces moyens

il ne viendrait k bout." retenu d'executer ses entreprises, et

* Du Mortier, au Roy, 26 Avril 1547: connoist on bien qu'il seroit utile sous-
" Je vous asseure, Sire, que pendant il main d'entretenir ceux qui luy resistent,
estoit j\ Trcnte, c'estoit une charge qui disant, que vous ne sjauriez faire de-
le pressoit fort." pense plus utile."

f Le m^mo, au meme : Ribicr, i. 637.

§ I] PAUL III. 175

emperor baffled all his calculations. Charles was victorious
at Mühlberg, and led away captive the two chiefs of the
Protestant party. He was now free to direct his attention
more closely than ever to Italy.

The pope's behaviour had, as we may imagine, profoundly
irritated Charles. He saw through it completely. " The
intention of his holiness from the beginning has been,''
writes he to his ambassador, " to entangle us in this under-
taking, and then to desert us." ''''

The withdrawal of the pope's troops was not very import-
ant. Ill-paid, and therefore disorderly and ill-disciphned,
they had never been worth much. But the transfer of the
council was of the greatest moment. It is strange how, in
this instance also, the discord between the papacy and the
empire, originating in the political position of the former,
came in aid of the protestants. Means were now forth-
coming to compel them to submit to the council; but as
there was a rupture in the council itself (for the imperial
bishops remained in Trent), as it was thus incapacitated
from passing any decree universally binding, nobody could
be constrained to give in his adhesion.

The emperor was compelled to see the most essential
part of his plan vn:-ecked by the desertion of his ally. He
not only continually urged the re-establishment of the
council at Trent, but declared "that he would go to Rome,
and hold a council there himself"

Paul III. lost no time in determining the part he had to
take. " The emperor is mighty," said he, " but we too are
not wholly powerless or friendless." The long-promised
alliance with France was now brought about by the betrothal
of Orazio Farnese with the natural daughter of Henry II.
No means were left untried to gain over the Venetians
immediately to a general league. All the exiles of the
several states were in motion. Precisely at the opportune

* Copia de la Carta que S. M. scrivio que se dezia (es) que su fin havia sido

a Don Diego de Mendo9a, a 1 1 de He- por embaraqar nos en lo que estavamos

brero, 1547, aös : " Quanto mas yva el y dexarnos en ello con sus fines, desinos

dicho (prosper© sueeso) adelante, mas y platicas, pero que, aunque pesasse a

nos confirmavamos en creher que fuese S. S. y a otros, esperavamos con la ayuda

verdad lo que antes se havia savido de de N. S., aunque sin la de S. S., guiar

la intention y inclinacion de S. S, y lo esta irapresa a buen Camino."

176 VAUL III. [Book III.

moment, troubles broke out in Naples; a Neapolitan deputy
appeared to solicit the protection of the pope for his vassals
in that state, and there were cardinals who advised him to
grant it.

The ItaHan factions were once more confronted. Their
attitude was the more decidedly hostile, since their respect-
ive leaders were noAV at open variance. On the one side,
were the governors of Milan and Naples, the Medici in
Florence, the Dorias in Genoa. Don Diego Mendoza, the
imperial envoy in Rome, may be regarded as forming the
centre of this party, which had still a great Ghibelline
following all over the country. On the other, were the
pope and the Farnesi, the emigrants and the malcontents,
a newly-formed Orsini party, and the adherents of France.
With the former, was that part of the Council which
remained in Trent; with the latter, the part which had
gone to Bologna.

The hatred which these parties cherished against each
other, suddenly broke out in an act of violence.

The pope had taken advantage of his intimacy with the
emperor to grant Parma and Piacenza, as if they were a
fief of the holy see, to his son Pier-Luigi. The times
were over when he could take a step like that, vdth. the
audacious recklessness of an Alexander or a Leo; he there-
fore restored Camerino and Nepi, as an indemnification to
the church. Reckoning the expense caused by the guard-
ing those frontier towns, the interest of this, which his son
would pay, and the revenues of the places given up in
compensation, he endeavoured to prove that the treasury
of the church suff'ered no injury; but it was only while
talking to each of the cardinals separately that he was able
to persuade them, nor even so, was he successfiil with
them all. Some loudly remonstrated; others designedly
neglected to attend the consistory before which the affair
was brought. Caraffa was seen to pay a solemn visit to
the seven churches on that day.*" The emperor too was
unfavourable to the project; if the duchy was to be trans-
ferred at all, he would have wished that it should pass into
the hands of his son-in-law Ottavio, to whom Camerino

* Bromato : Vita di Paoio IV., ii. 222.

§ I.] PAUL III. 177

likewise belonged."^' He suffered the transfer to take
place, because the friendship of the pope was just then
necessary to him, but he never liked it: he knew Pier-
Luigi far too well. The pope's son just then held in his
hand all the threads of the secret ties which united the
Italian opposition. It was universally believed that he
was privy to the conspiracy of Fiesco in Genoa ; that he
had helped the powerful chief of the Florentine exiles,
Pietro Strozzi, at his utmost need, to escape across the Po,
after his unsuccessful attack on Milan, and that he was the
sole instrument of his preservation. It was suspected that
he himself had designs upon Milan, f

One day the pope, who still believed the stars to be
propitious, and flattered himself that he had power to
charm to rest all the storms that had threatened him,
appeared unusually cheerful at the audience. He recounted
the felicities of his life, and compared himself in this
respect with the emperor Tiberius. On that very day, his
son, the possessor of all his acquisitions, the heir of his
prosperity, was fallen upon by the conspirators at Piacenza
and assassinated.;):

The Ghibellines of Piacenza, offended and irritated by
the tyranny of the duke, who was one of the most des-
potic rulers of the age, and whose government was pecu-
liarly oppressive to the nobility, were the perpetrators of
the deed ; but we have no reason to question the existence
of grounds for the belief then universally entertained, that
Ferrante Gonzaga, the governor of Milan, had a hand in
the affair. § Gonzaga's biographer, then his confidential
private secretary, affirms that the design was only to take
Farnese a prisoner, and not to kill him. || I find in some

* The negociations in the matter are § "Compertum habemus Ferdinandum
evident from the Letter of Mendoza, esse autorem," said the pope in the con-
dated 29th November 1547. The pope sistory : Extrait du Consistoire tenu par
says, " he had invested Pietro Luigi, N. S. Pere, in a Despatch from Mor-
because the cardinals had preferred it : " villier, Venise, 7 Sept. 1547: Ribier,
and, "haviendo de vivir tampoco, como ii. 61.
mostrava su indisposicion." || Gosselini, p. 45 : " Ne I'imperatore

+ Gossehni : Vita di Ferr. Gonzaga, ne D. Fernando, come di natura magna-

p. 20. Segni : Storie Fiorentine, p. 292. nimi, consentirono mai alia morte del

t Mendoza, al Emperador, 18 Sept. duca Pier Luigi Farnese, anzi fecero

1547: " Gasto la mayor parte del tiempo ogni opera di salvarlo, comandando in

(on that day) en contar sus felicidades y specialita ai congiurati che vivo il tenes-

compararse a Tiberio imperador." sero."

VOL. L K

][78 PAUL III. [Book III.

manuscripts still more intelligible hints that the emperor
himself was privy to this atrocious act ; but I hesitate to
give credit to this without further evidence. At all events
the imperial troops hastened to take possession of Piacenza,
and to assert the claim of the empire to that city. This
was in some sort a retaliation on the pope for his desertion
in the war of Smalcalde.

The state of things which now arose is without a
parallel.

Some affected to know that cardinal Alessandro Farnese
had said, that he could extricate himself from his difficulties
only by the death of certain of the imperial ministers ;
that he could not get rid of them by force, and must have
recourse to stratagem. While they, in consequence of this
warning, sought to protect themselves from poison, two or
three Corsican bravoes, who were arrested at Milan, were
induced to make confession, I know not whether true or
false, that they were hired by the pope's party to assas-
sinate Ferrante Gonzaga. At all events, Gonzaga was
exasperated afresh. He must, he said, protect his own
life as he could ; nothing remained to him but to remove
out of the way two or three of his enemies by his own
hand or that of another.''" Mendoza is of opinion that
there was a design at that time to murder all the Spaniards
in Rome ; that the people were to be secretly incited to
this ; and that the deed, when done, was to be excused
on the ground of their blind and uncontrolable fury.

A reconciliation was not to be thought of. There had
been a desire to employ the emperor's daughter as medi-
atrix. But she had never liked the Farnese family ; she
despised her youthful husband, and betrayed his bad qua-
lities without the least reserve to the ambassadors : she
said, she had rather cut off her child's head, than ask her
father anything that could displease him.

Mendoza's correspondence with his court lies before me.
It would not be easy to find anything approaching to
these letters for deep-rooted hate, which both endeavoured
to conceal, and which each perceived in the other. There

* Mendoza al Emp. : " Don Hernando jorpudiere, hechandoa parte dos o tresdi
procurara do asegunir su vida come me- estos o por su mano o por mano de otros."

§ I.] PAUL III. 179

is in them a feeling of haughty superiority saturated with
bitterness ; of contempt, yet ever on its guard ; of distrust,
such as men feel towards a notorious criminal.

In this posture of things, the only country where the
pope could hope to find refuge and succour, was Fra^nce,
In fact we find him sometimes discussing the relation of
the Roman see to France, for hours, in the presence of the
French ambassador and cardinals Guise and Farnese. He
said he had read in old books, and had heard from others
when he was cardinal, and since he was pope he had found
from experience, that the holy see was always powerful
and prosperous when in alliance with France, and on the
contrary, fell into adversity as soon as this was broken off ;
that he could not forgive Leo X. nor his own predecessor
Clement — he could not forgive himself — for having ever
showed favour to the emperor ; that now, at all events,
he was resolved to unite himself for ever with France. He
hoped to live long enough to leave the papal chair devotedly
attached to the king of France ; he would endeavour to
make him the greatest prince in the world, and his own
house should connect itself with him by indissoluble
ties.''^

His design was to conclude with France, Switzerland,
and Venice, an alliance, which, though at first only defen-
sive, was, by his own confession, to open the door to an
offensive t alliance. The French calculated that their
friends, if united, would secure to them as large a territory
in Italy as that possessed by the emperor ; and the whole
Orsini party was ready once more to devote property and
life to the king. The Farnesi thought that in the Milanese
territory they could at least reckon on Cremona and Pavia ;
while the Neapolitan emigrants promised to bring 15,000
men into the field, and immediately to deliver up Aversa
and Naples. The pope entered with eagerness into all

* Guise, au Roy, 31 Oct. 1547 : Ri- vous faire service ny vous aider ä offeii-

bier, ii. 75. ser, si vous premierement vous ne les

i* Guise, au Roy, 11 Nov. 1547 : aidez ä defendre, il luy a semble devoir

Ribier, ii. 81 : " Sire, il semble au pape commencer par la ligne defensive,

ä ce qu'il m'a dit qu'il doit commencer ä laquelle il dit estre la vraye porte de

vous faire declaration de son amitie par I'offensive." The whole of the corres-

vous presenter luy et toute sa maison : pondence Avhich follows, belongs to this

et pour ce qu'ils n'auraient puissance de place.

N 2

180 PAUL TIT. [Book III.

these projects. He communicated to the French ambas-
sador the first intelligence of a design upon Genoa. He
would have made no objection to a treaty with the Grand
Signier or the dey of Algiers, for the sake of getting pos-
session of Naples. Edward VI. had just ascended the
throne of England, and the government of that country
Avas decidedly protestant ; nevertheless the pope advised
Henry H. to make peace with England, " in order,^^ as he
says, "to be able to carry into effect other views for the
good of Christendom." '"'

Thus violent was the pope's hostility to the emperor,
thus intimate his connexion with the French, thus vast
were the views in which he indulged ; and yet he never
completed his treaty ; he never took the final step.

The Venetians were amazed. " The pope," said they,
"is attacked in his dignity, injured in his nearest connexions,
robbed of the fairest possession of his house ; he ought to
catch at every alliance, on any terms : and yet after so
many injuries and insults he still hesitates and wavers."

Generally speaking, offences drive men to extreme reso-
lutions ; there are however some who deliberate even when
they are most deeply offended ; not because the feehng of
revenge is less strong in them than in others, but because
the consciousness of the superiority of the offending party
is still stronger than their desire of vengeance : the pru-
dence which contemplates future and contingent events,
preponderates in them over every other sentiment ; great
misfortunes do not exasperate them, but render them
spiritless, feeble, and irresolute.

The emperor was too powerful to have any serious cause
to fear the Farnesi ; he went on his way without taking
further heed of them. He solemnly protested against the
sittings of the council in Bologna, and declared beforehand
all the acts which might be passed there, null and void.
In the year 1548 he pubhshed the Interim in Germany.

* Francois de Rohan, au Roy, 24 avec les Anglais, afin que n'estant en

Fevricr 1548 : Ribier, ii. 117: " S. S. tant d'endroits enipesch6 vous puissiez

ni'a commands de vous faire entendre et plus facilement executer vos desseins et

consciller dc sa part, de regarder les entreprises pour le bien public de la

moyens que vous poiivcz tenir, pour Chrestiente."
vous niettre en paix pour quelque temps

§ I.] PAUL III. 181

Notwithstanding the pope thought it intolerable that the
emperor should prescribe a standard of faith, notwithstand-
ing his bitter complaints that the property of the church
should be left in the hands of its present possessors, (besides
which Cardinal Farnese said that he could point out seven
or eight heresies in this document "'%) the emperor was not
disconcerted.

Nor did he turn one hair's breadth from his course in
the affair of Piacenza. The pope demanded the immediate
restitution of that city ; the emperor maintained that it
belonged of right to the empire. The pope appealed to
the treaty of 1521, in which it was guaranteed to the
Roman see ; the emperor insisted on the word investiture,
by which the empire had asserted its sovereign rights ; the
pope replied, that in this case the word was not used in
the strict feudal sense ; the emperor made no further
rejoinder ; he only declared that his conscience did not
permit him to give up Piacenza. f

The pope would gladly have flown to arms, concluded a
treaty with France, and set his party in motion ; (and
indeed the intrigues of his adherents were felt in Naples,
Genoa, Siena, Piacenza, and even in Orbit ello) ; — gladly
would he have revenged himself by any unexpected blow :
but on the other hand, the superior power of the emperor
was extremely formidable to him, and above all, the influ-
ence of that monarch in spiritual affairs. Paul took care
that a council should be called which should declare itself
entirely hostile to Charles, and should even proceed to
depose him. Mendoza asserts that the attempted assassi-
nation of Ferrante Gonzaga by the Corsicans had inspired
him with terror.

Be this as it may, it is certain that he restrained himself

* " Hazer intender a V. M. como en dom ; he might have undertaken some-
el Interim ay 7 o 8 heregias : " " Men- thing better."

doqa, 10 Juni 1548." Amongst the f Lettere del Cardinal Farnese scritte

Lettere del Commendatore Annibal Caro al Veseovo di Fano, Nuntio all' Impe-

scritte al nome del C^. Farnese, which ratore Carlo : Informationi Politiche,

are otherwise written with great caution, xix. : and certain Instructions of the

we find however, i. 65, a letter to the pope's and Farnese's, lb. xii. : — throw

cardinal Sfondrato, relating to the light upon these negotiations. I can

Interim, in which it is said, " the only touch upon the most important

emperor has scandalized all Christen- points.

1§2 PAUL III. [Book III.

and concealed his rage. The Farnesi were indeed not
sorry that the emperor took possession of Siena ; they hoped
he would cede it to them as a compensation for their
losses, and indulged in the most extravagant propositions
regarding it. " If the emperor consents to this," said they
to Mendoza, " the pope must transfer the council back
again to Trent, and must not only conduct matters there
according to the wishes of the emperor, (for example,
solemnly recognise his right to Burgundy,) but proclaim
Charles V. his successor to the papal chair. " For/^ added
they, " Germany has a cold climate, Italy a warm one, and
warm countries are the most salutary for the gout, which
the emperor suffers from."'"* I will not maintain that they
were in earnest, for the old pope lived in the firm belief
that the emperor would die before him ; but it is clear on
what dubious paths, how widely departing from the com-
mon order of things, their policy had ventured.

Their movements, their negotiations with the emperor,
did not escape the French. We have a letter of the con-
stable Montmorency, breathing the greatest indignation, in
which he talks undisguisedly of " hypocrisies, lies, and
wicked actions, which were practised in Rome against the
king of France."f

Lastly, with a view to do something, and to get posses-
sion of at least one firm point in these struggles, the pope
determined, since the right to Piacenza was contested, not
as regarded his family alone, but the church itself, to
restore that duchy immediately to the holy see. It was
the first time that he did anything to prejudice the
interests of his grandsons. He had no doubt that they
would readily acquiesce, for he imagined that he had
absolutely authority over them, and had always dwelt
with approbation and pleasure on their constant obedience.
But he had hitherto invariably been the defender of their

* The cardinal Ganibara made this avec ses ministres vous ont jiisques-icy

pi'oposal to Mendoza, at a secret meet- use de toutes dissimulations, lesquelles

in<T in a church. He said at least, " que ils ont depuis quelque temps voulu

havia scripto al papa algo desto y no lo couvrir de pur mcnsonge, pour en

havia tornado mal." former une vrayc meschancete, puisc^u'il

t Le Connestable, au Roy, 1 Sept. taut que jc Tappellc ainsi."
1548: (RibicT, ii. 155.): " Lc pape

§ I] PAUL III. 18S

obvious interests, whereas he now desired to effect a
measure which ran counter to these/'' At first they
sought to work upon him by indirect means. They
caused it to be represented to him that the day which he
had fixed for the consistory was unlucky, being St.
Roque's day ; that the exchange for Camerino, which he
meant to give them back instead of Piacenza, would be
extremely disadvantageous to the church ; they retorted
upon him the arguments which he had formerly used ;
but they could only retard, not prevent, the execution of
his design : Camillo Orsino, the governor of Parma, was
at length instructed by Paul III. to hold that city in the
name of the church, and to deliver it up to no one soever.
Upon this declaration, which left no doubt remaining, the
Farnesi contained themselves no longer ; on no consider-
ation would they suffer themselves to be despoiled of
a principahty which placed them on a level with the inde-
pendent princes of Italy. Ottavio made an attempt to
get Parma into his hands, by force or fraud, in spite of
the pope. This Camillo had sufficient address and deci-
sion to defeat. But what must have been the feelings of
Paul III. when he learned it ! It was reserved for him in
his old age to see his grandsons, whom he had loved with
such partial affection, for whose sake he had drawn upon
himself the reproaches of the world, now, at the close of
his life, rise up in rebellion against him. Nor did the
failure of his enterprise deter Ottavio from his purpose.
He wrote plainly to the pope, that if Parma was not
amicably restored to him, he would make peace with
Ferrante Gonzaga, and endeavour to regain possession of
it with the aid of the imperial arms ; and, in fact, his
negotiations with this mortal enemy of his house were
already so far advanced, that a courier had gone to the
emperor with definite proposals, f The pope loudly com-
plained that he was betrayed by his own family, that their
schemes could lead to nothing but his death. He was
most deeply wounded by a report which was raised, that

* Dandolo also asserts his positive deter- f Gosselini, Vita di Ferr, Gonzaga,
mination : " S. S. era al tutto volta a resti- p. 65.
tuir Parma alia cliiesa." (App. No. 27.)

|84< PAUL III. [Book III.

he was privy to Ottavio's undertakings, and had a share
in them very much at variance with his professions. He
told cardinal Este that never in his whole life had any-
thing given him so much pain, — not even the death of
Pier-Luigi, — not even the investing of Piacenza ; but that
he would not leave the world in doubt as to his real
sentiments.""' His only comfort was the conviction that
at least cardinal Alessandro Farnese was innocent and
devoted to him. By degrees he discovered that he too,
in whom he reposed entire confidence, to whose hands he
had committed all the affairs of his government, was but
too much implicated in what was going on. This dis-
covery broke his heart. On the day of All Souls (2nd of
Nov. 1549), in the bitterness of his grief, he communicated
it to the Venetian ambassador. On the following day he
went to his vineyard on Monte Cavallo, hoping to find
some relief from troubled thoughts ; but change of place
brought him no repose. He sent for cardinal Alessandro;
one word led to another, till the pope fell into so violent
a rage, that he snatched his nephew's cap out of his hand
and threw it on the ground. f The court already enter-
tained suspicions that a change was at hand, and it was
universally beheved that the pope would remove the
cardinal from the administration. But the event turned
out otherwise. This violent agitation, at the advanced
age of eighty-three, proved fatal to Paul himself He fell
ill immediately, and, after a few days (on the 10th of
Nov. 1549), expired. — The people crowded to kiss his foot.
He was as much beloved as his grandsons were hated ;
and the circumstances of his death, caused by those w^ho
liad been the objects of his greatest kindness and sohcitude,
excited universal pity.

♦ Hippolyt, Cardinal de Feri*are, au nico il di de' morti, in gran parte con

Roy, 22 Oct. 1549 ; Ribier, ii. 248 : grandissima amaritudine, et il di dietro

*' S. S. m' a asseure' n'avoii* en sa vie eu la mattina per tempo se ne ando alia sua

chose, dont eile ait tant receu d'ennuy, vigna di Monte Cavallo per cercar tran-

pour I'opinion qu' eile eraint, qu'on stullo, dove si incolerö per tal causa con

veuille prendre que cecy ait est^ de son esso Rev""". Farnese. — Gli fu trovato

eonsentement." tutto Tinteriore nettissimo, d' haver a

f Dandolo : " II Rev'"'». Farnese si viver ancor qualehe anno, se non che

risolse di non voler che casa sua restasse nel core trc goccie di sangue agghiaciato,

priva di Roma e se ne messe alia forte, (which is indeed an error) giudicati dal

— S, S. accortasi di questa contraopera- moto della colera." (App. No. 27.)
tione del Rev'"". Farnese me la comu-

§ IL] JULIUS III. 185

Paul III. was a man full of talent, intelligence, and
penetrating sagacity ; the station he occupied was the
highest that human ambition could aspire to : — but how
feeble and insignificant appears the most powerful of
mortals when opposed to the resistless course of events !

His most soaring flights of imagination are bounded by
the span of time which is present to his view ; his loftiest
aspirations are checked and over-mastered by the struggles
of the moment, which press upon him with all the weight
of eternity. — Above all, he is trammelled by those private
relations which give him constant occupation ; which fill
his days, sometimes perhaps with satisfaction, but more
frequently with disappointment and sorrow, and wear him
out with anxiety and care. He dies ; while the eternal
destinies of the world advance to their accomplishment.

§ 2. JULIUS m.

DuEiNG the conclave, five or six cardinals were standing
round the altar of the chapel, discoursing of the difficulty
there was in finding a pope. " Choose me,^' said Cardinal
Monte, " and the day after I will make you my companions
and favourites out of the whole college of cardinals.". —
" Shall we really elect him V said another, Sfondrato, when
they had separated.'"*

As Monte was reckoned turbulent and irascible, he had
but little hope, and no one would have ventured the smallest
bet on his chance. Nevertheless, it fell out that he was
elected, on the 7th of February, 1550. In memory of
Julius II., whose chamberlain he had been, he took the
name of Julius III.

There was an expression of joy on every face in the
imperial court when this election, to which duke Cosmo
had mainly contributed, was made known. The occupa-
tion of the Roman chair by a pope on whose devotion to
his interests he could calculate, was one step to that pinnacle
of prosperity and power on which the emperor then stood.

* Dandolo, Relatione, 1551 : " Questo ogn' uno parlava tanto della sua colera e
Rev™". Di Monte se ben subito in con- subitezza che ne passo mai che di pochis-
sideratione di ogn' uno, ma all' incontro sima scommessa." (App. No. 27.)

186 JULIUS III. [Book III.

Public affairs now seemed likely to take another course.
The emperor still earnestly desired that the council should
be re-assembled in Trent ; he still hoped to force the pro-
testants to attend it and to submit themselves to his autho-
rity. The pope willingly assented to this proposition.
Although he pointed out the difficulties inherent in the
affair, he was extremely anxious that this caution might
not be mistaken for a subterfuge ; he was unwearied in his
protestations that this was not the case, that he had acted
all his life long without dissimulation, and would continue
so to act ; in fact, he fixed the renewal of the council of
Trent for the spring of 1551, with a declaration that he
bound himself by no agreements or conditions.'"

But the favourable disposition of the pope were far from
being all that was required.

Ottavio Farnese had recovered Parma by a decree of
the cardinals in conclave. This had not been opposed by
the emperor ; for a time negotiations had been carried on
between them, and hopes were entertained of the restora-
tion of a good understanding. The emperor, however, would
not consent to evacuate Piacenza also, and kept possession
even of the places which Gonzaga had occupied in the ter-
ritory of Parma ; so that Ottavio was compelled constantly
to maintain a warlike attitude, f

No real confidence could possibly subsist between two
persons who had inflicted so many injuries on each other.
It is true that the death of Paul III. had deprived his
grandsons of a powerful support ; but it had also freed
them from an irksome constraint. They were no longer
obliged to pay any regard to the interests of the state, or
to those of the church ; they were free to take their own
measures with exclusive regard to their own advantage.
We find Ottavio constantly filled with the bitterest hate.
He complains, that his enemies are seeking to wrest Parma
from him, and even to get rid of him, but he adds, — " they
shall succeed neither in the one nor the other." J

• Lettere del Nunzio Pighino, 12 e had been the cause of the war, explain

15 Ag., 1550 : Inff. Polit. xix. authentically this tui'n of things.

t Gosselini, Vita di Ferr. Gonzaga, t Lcttcre dclli Signori Farncsiani por

and the justifiration of Gon/aga, in the lo ncgotio di Parma: Informatt. Pol.

third book, from the accubation tliat he xix. The above is from a letter of

§ ii.j JULIUS III. 187

In this disposition of mind, he turned to Henry IL ;
who gladly listened to his proposals.

Italy and Germany were filled with malcontents. What
the emperor had already done, — what it was expected
that he would do, — his religious and his political position, —
all had raised up innumerable enemies. Henry II. deter-
mined to adopt the anti- Austrian policy of his father. He
abandoned the war with England, concluded a treaty with
Ottavio, took the garrison of Parma into his pay, and
shortly after marched French troops into Mirandola. The
French flag soon floated in the heart of Italy.

In this new complication of things, Julius III. adhered
steadily to the emperor. He thought it insufferable, —
" that a wretched worm, Ottavio Farnese, should set him-
self up against both an emperor and a pope.^^ " Our will
is," he writes to his nuncio, " to embark in the same boat
with his majesty, and to commit ourselves to the same
fortunes ; we leave it to him, who has the wisdom and the
power, to determine our course."''^ The emperor declared
himself in favour of immediate and forcible measures for
getting rid of the French and their adherents. The
united papal and imperial troops soon took the field, an
important fortress in the Parmeggiano fell into their hands,
they laid waste the whole country and completely sur-
rounded Mirandola.

These petty hostilities however were wholly insufficient
to check the movement which had indeed originated here,
but had since agitated all Europe. On every frontier
were the territories of France and of the empire met, by
land and by sea, war had broken out. The German
protestants, when at length they allied themselves with
the French, threw int© the scale a very diff'erent weight
from that of the Italians. There followed the most
determined attack that Charles had ever sustained. The
French appeared on the Rhine, and the elector Maurice

Ottavio to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, motive of this close union : " Non per

Parma, 24th March, 1551. affetto alcimo humano, ma perche ve-

* Julius Papa III. Manu propria, demo la causa nostra esse con S. Mä.

Instruttioue per voi Monsignor d'Imola Cesarea in tutti H affari e massimamente

eon I'Imperatore. L'ultimo di Marzo : in quello della rehgionc."
Ini'ormatt. PoHt. xii. He also gives the

188 JULIUS III. [Book III.

in Tyrol. The veteran conqueror, — who had posted him-
self on the mountain region between Italy and Germany,
in order to hold both in allegiance, — saw himself suddenly
perilled, conquered, and well-nigh captive.

This immediately re-acted on the affairs of Italy.
" Never could we have believed," said the pope, "that
God would so visit us."*"' He was compelled to accede to
a truce with his enemies, in April, 1552.

There are sometimes strokes of ill fortune which are
not wholly unwelcome to a man. They put an end to a
course of action which had already begun to be at variance
with his inclinations; and afford a lawful ground, or an
obvious excuse, for the determination to desist from it.

It almost appears as if the reverse that had befallen
the pope was of this nature. He had beheld with repug-
nance his states filled with troops and his treasury emptied,
and he thought he had sometimes reason to complain of
the imperial ministers, f The council too was become a
cause of great anxiety to him. From the time the German
deputies, to whom a reformation had been promised,
appeared, the proceedings took a bolder character ; as
early as January, 1552, the pope complained that attempts
were made to strip him of his authority ; that the inten-
tion of the Spanish bishops was, on the one side, to reduce
the chapters to a state of servile dependence — on the other,
to deprive the holy see of the collation to all benefices ;
but that he would not endure, under the plea of abuses, to
be robbed of what was no abuse, but an essential attribute
of his power. J It could not therefore be entirely dis-
pleasing to him that the attack of the protestants broke
up the council ; he hastened to decree its suspension,
and was thus freed from innumerable demands and
altercations.

From that time Julius III. never again seriously em-
barked in a political career. The inhabitants of Siena

* Al CI. Crescentio, 13th April, others: assistance indeed we might re-

1 552. quire."

t Lettera del Papa a Mendoza, 26th X Al CI. Crescentio, 16th Genn. 1552.

Dec. 1551 : (Inff. Polit. xix.) : "With- He exclaims: " Non sara vero, non

out pride be it said, we stand not in need comportaromo niai, prima lassarcmo

of counsel ; wc could even öfter it to ruinare il mondo."

§ IT.] JULIUS III. 189

complained indeed that, though half their countryman on
his mother's side, he had assisted duke Cosmo to effect
their subjugation ; but a subsequent judicial enquiry
proved the falsehood of this charge. It was rather Cosmo
who had grounds for complaint ; since the pope took no
measures to prevent the Florentine emigrants, the bitterest
enemies of this his ally, from assembling and arming in
his states.

The stranger still visits the Villa di Papa Giulio at the
entrance of the Porta del Popolo. With all the memorials
of those days around him, he ascends the spacious - stair-
case to the gallery whence he overlooks Rome in its full
extent from Monte Mario, and all the windings of the
Tiber. The construction of this palace, the laying out of
this garden, were the occupation and the delight of Julius
III. He drew the plan himself, but it was never completed ;
the architects were incessantly employed in the execution
of the schemes and caprices to which every day gave birth.*"''
Here the pope passed his days in oblivion of the world.
He had done a good deal for the advancement of his kins-
men. Duke Cosmo gave them Monte Sansovino, the place
whence they sprang ; the emperor, Novara ; he himself
bestowed upon them the dignities of the ecclesiastical states
and Camerino. He had a favourite whom he had adopted
when a child in Parma, where he happened to see him
seized and held by an ape, and was so pleased by the
courage and high spirit displayed by the boy in that
perilous situation, that he brought him up and showed
him great affection. Unfortunately the action which had
attracted the pope's attention remained his only merit ;
nevertheless Julius had kept his promises to him, and had
made him a cardinal. The pope wished that his favourite
and his relations should be well provided for and should
enjoy consideration, but he had no mind to get into

* Vasari. Boissard describes their divo Andrese gratias agunto (by this I

extent and their magnificence at that understand the visitors,) vitamque et

time : " Occupat fere omnes colles qui salutem Julio III. Pont*^'. Maximo,

ab urbe ad pontem Milvium protendun- Balduino ejus fratri, et eorum familise

tur ; " and gives some of the inscrip- universse plurimam et seternam pre-

tions : e. g., " Honeste voluptarier cunc- cantor." Julius died on the 23rd of

tis fas honestis esto ;" and, particularly: March, 1555.
" De hinc proximo in teraplo Deo ac

2 90 MARCELLUS 11 [Book HI.

dangerous perplexities on their account. The easy,
pleasant life of his villa was, as we have said, best suited
to his character and tastes. He gave entertainments,
which he seasoned with conversation full of racy and
proverbial expressions, sometimes of a sort to call up
blushes on the cheeks of his guests. In the great affairs
of the church and the state he took no more share than
was absolutely inevitable.

§ 3. MARCELLUS H.

It was impossible that those affairs could prosper much
under such a head. The divisions between the two great
catholic powers daily assumed a more threatening aspect ;
the German protestants had arisen with fresh vigour from
their defeat of the year 1547, and had assumed a firmer
front than ever. The catholic reformation, so often desired
and attempted, was not to be thought of ; the prospects of
the church of Rome were, it was impossible to disguise,
extremely doubtful and dark.

But if, as we have seen, a most austere spirit had been
awakened in her own bosom, a spirit that viewed with
sincere and intense reprobation the lives and conduct of so
many popes, must not this at length affect the choice of a
new pontiff ? Much depended on the personal character
of the head of the church, and for that very reason this
supreme dignity was elective, in order that a man who
represented the predominant spirit of the church might be
placed at the head of affairs.

The first time that the stricter religious party obtained
an influence in the election of a pope, was after the death
of Julius III. Julius had often felt the constraint imposed
on his undignified demeanour by the presence of cardinal
Marcello Cervini. Upon him the choice fell, on the 11th
of April, 1555. He took the name of Marcellus IL

His whole life had been active and irreproachable ; the
reformation of the church, about which others talked, he
had exhibited in his own person. The highest hopes were
conceived of him. " I had prayed," says a contemporary,

§ III. J MARCELLUS II. 19]

" that a pope might arise who might raise those fair words,
church, council, reform, from the contempt into which
they had fallen ; and now I held my hopes fulfilled ; by
this election my wishes seemed to me become facts,
possessions." '"

" The opinion," says another, " that men had of the
goodness and the matchless wisdom of Marcellus, inspired
the world Avith hope. Now, if ever, it seemed possible for
the church to extinguish heretical opinions, to put an end
to abuses and corrupt living, to regain her health and her
unity, "t

The commencement of the reign of Marcellus entirely
fulfilled these anticipations. He would not suffer his rela-
tions to come to Rome ; he introduced numerous reductions
in the expenditure of his court ; he is said to have left a
memoir, composed by himself, on the improvements to be
introduced in the institutes of the church ; he immediately
endeavoured to restore divine service to its due solemnity ;
all his thoughts were turned to a council and to reform. J
In a political point of view, he took a neutral position,
with which the emperor was satisfied. " Nevertheless,"
say his contemporaries, "the world was not worthy of
him : " — they apply to him the words of Virgil, concerning
another Marcellus, —

" Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata."

On the 22nd day of his pontificate he died.

We cannot speak of results produced by so short an
administration ; but this beginning, this election even, show
the spirit which had gained the ascendancy, and which it
retained in the next conclave.

The most austere of all the cardinals, Giovanni Pietro
Caraffa, quitted that assembly invested with the dignity of
pope, on the 23rd of May, 1555.

* Seripando, al Vescovo di Fiesole : X Petri Polidori de Vita Marcelli IT.

Lettere di Principi, iii. 162. Commentarius, 1744, p. 119. (App. No,

f Lettere di Priucipi, iii. 141. The 28.)
editor himself speaks here.

192 PAUL TV. [Book ITT.

§ 4. PAUL IV.

We have made frequent mention of this pope. He is
the same who founded the order of the Theatins, who
re-estabhshed the inquisition, and who so essentially con-
tributed to the confirmation of the old dogmas at Trent.
It was not only a member, but the very chief and founder
of that party which aimed at the restoration of Catholicism
in all its strictness, who now mounted the papal chair.
Paul ly. had already attained the age of seventy-nine, but
his deep-set eyes still gleamed A\äth all the fire of youth ;
he was extremely tall and thin, he walked quickly, and
appeared to be all sinew. His daily hfe was subject to no
rule or order ; he often slept by day, and passed the night
in study, — and woe to the servant who entered his room
until he rang his bell. In everything he followed the
impulses of the moment ;""' but these impulses sprang from
a character formed by a long life and become a second
nature. He seemed conscious of no other duty, no other
business, than the restoration of the ancient faith in all its
primitive might and authority.

From time to time characters hke that of Paul re-appear
on the theatre of the world. Their conceptions of the
world and of life are formed from a single point of view ;
their individual bent of mind is so strong that their opinions
are absolutely governed by it ; they are unwearied and
eloquent speakers, and have always a certain earnestness
and freshness of conversation, in which they pour out an
incessant stream of those sentiments which seem to rule
them by a sort of fatality. It is obvious that the influence
of such men must be enormous, when they attain to a
position where their actions depend solely and absolutely
on their opinions, and where power is combined with will.

* Relatione di M. Bernardo Navagero "La complessione di questo pontefice ^

(che fu poi Cardinale), alia Ser™». Rep^". colerica adusta : ha una incredibil gra-

di Vcnetia tornando di Roma Ambas- vith e grandezza in tutte le sue azioni et

ciatore appresso del Pontofice Paolo IV., veramente pare nato al signoreggiare."

1.5.58 : in many Italian libraries, also in (App. No. 30.)
the Informationi Politiche at Berlin :

§ IV.] PAUL IV. ]93

What might not be expected from Paul IV., who had
never known what it was to make a concession or a com-
promise, who had always acted on his opinions with the
utmost vehemence, now that he had reached the summit
of power 1 ''^ He was astonished at his own elevation, as
he had never conciliated a cardinal by a single concession,
and had never abstained from displaying the utmost
severity. He thought himself chosen, not by the cardinals,
but by God himself, by whom he was called for the execu-
tion of his purposes. t

" We promise and swear,^^ says he, in the bull which he
issued on entering on his office, " truly to endeavour that
the reform of the universal church and of the Roman
court be effected.^^ He marked the day of his coronation
by the publication of edicts respecting monasteries and
religious orders. He immediately dispatched two monks
from Monte Cassino to Spain, to restore the monastic disci-
pline which had fallen into decay in that country. He
established a congregation for universal reform, consisting
of three classes ; each composed of eight cardinals, fifteen
prelates, and fifty learned divines. The articles which
were to form the subject of deliberation, regarding the
nomination to offices, were submitted to the universities.
The earnestness of purpose with which Paul entered on
the work of reform is evident. J It appeared as if the
ecclesiastical spirit, the influence of which had for a long
time been confined to the lower ranks of the church, had
now taken possession of the papacy also, and would preside
with undivided sovereignty in the councils of Paul IV.

The only remaining question was, what position he
would occupy with relation to the great movements which
agitated the world.

* It is easy to imagine that his cha- Uno e forse anco di se stesso, come S. S.

racter was not such as to insure univer- propria mi disse poco inanzi morisse,

sal approbation. Aretino's Capitolo al che non avea mai compiaciuto ad alcuno

Re di Francia, thus describes him : e che se un cardinale gli avea domandato

*' Caraffa ipocrita infingardo, qualche gratia gh avea sempre riposto

Che tien per coscienza spirituale alia riversa, no mai compiaeiutolo, onde

Quaudo si mette del pepe in sul cardo." disse : io non so come mi habbiano eletto

•f Relatione del Cl'"°. M. Aluise Moce- papa e concludo che Iddio faccia li pon-

nigo K. ritornato dalla Corte di Roma, tefici." (App. No. 31.)

1560 : (Arch. Venez.) : " Fu eletto pon- % Bromato, Vita di Paolo IV., lib. ix.

tefice contra il parer e credere di ogn' § ii. § xvii. (ii. 224, 289.)

VOL. I. O

194 PAUL IV. [Book III

It is not easy to alter the main directions which a power
has taken, and which have gradually become a part of its
very being.

From the very nature of things, it must ever have been
the pope's desire to free himself from the overwhelming
power of Spain, and the moment had now arrived in w^hich
this seemed practicable. The war w^hich we have seen
arise out of the troubles with the Farnesi w^as the most
disastrous that Charles V. had ever carried on : he was
embarrassed in the Netherlands ; Germany had deserted
him ; Italy was no longer true ; he could not even trust
in the fidelity of the houses of Este and Gonzaga ; he
himself was sick and weary of life. I know not whether
any pope who did not actually belong to the imperial
party would have withstood the temptations presented by
all these circumstances.

To Paul IV. they were peculiarly strong. He had
beheld Italy in the freedom of the fifteenth century, (he
w^as born in 1476,) and his whole soul hung on the
remembrance of her glories. He was wont to compare
the Italy of that age to a well-tuned instrument, of which
Naples, Milan, the States of the Church, and Venice were
the four strings ; and to curse the memory of Alfonso and
Louis the Moor, "wretched and lost souls," as he called
them, " whose divisions had disturbed this harmony." '"'
He had never learned to endure with patience the domi-
nion which the Spaniards had subsequently acquired.
The house of Caraffa, of which he was sprung, belonged
to the French party, and, on numberless occasions, had
taken arms against the Castihans and the Catalans; in
1528 it had again attached itself to the French, and
during the troubles of 1547, it was Giovan Pietro Caraffa
who advised Paul III. to take possession of Naples.

But this party hate was not all. Caraffa had always
maintained that Charles V. favoured the protestants out of
jealousy of the pope, and ascribed the success of that party
to the emperor himself f Charles knew Caraffa well. He

♦"Infelici quelle aiiime di Alfonso nobil instruraento d'ItÄÜa." Navagero.
d'Aragona e Ludovico duca di Miiano, (App. No. 30.)
clie furono li prinii che guastarouo cosi f Memoriale dato a Aiinibale Ruccellai,

§ IV.] PAUL IV. 195

once expelled him from the council formed for the admini-
stration of Naples; he never allowed him to have tran-
quil possession of his ecclesiastical offices in Naples, and
had moreover sometimes seriously remonstrated against
CarafFa's declamations in the consistory. It may easily be
imagined that these things excited Paul's bitterest animo-
sity. As Neapolitan and as Italian, as catholic and as
pope, he hated the emperor. Excepting his zeal for reform,
this hate was his only passion.

Immediately after entering upon the pontificate, he
remitted some of the taxes of the Roman people, and
caused importations of corn ; and it was not without some
self-complacency that he saw a statue erected to him for
these acts, while, surrounded by a splendid court of Neapo-
litan nobles, he received the homage of the ambassadors
who flocked from every country. Yet even at this very
moment he fell into a thousand disputes with the emperor.
It was reported that Charles had complained to the cardinals
of his party, of the choice that had been made ; his adhe-
rents held suspicious meetings, and even cut out some
vessels, which had formerly been taken from them by the
French, from the port of Civita Yecchia.''" The pope was
soon inflamed with rage. He arrested his vassals and the
cardinals who were inclined to the imperial party ; or they
fled, and he confiscated their property. But this did not
satisfy him. He entered with little hesitation into that
alliance with France which Paul III. had never been able
to resolve on concluding. The emperor's plan was, he
said, to destroy him by a sort of fever of the mind, but he
would decide on open fight ; with the king's help he would
free this poor Italy from the tyranny of Spain ; he hoped
still to see two French princes on the thrones of Milan and
Naples. He sat for hours over the black, thick, volcanic
wine of Naples, called mangiaguerra, which was his ordi-
nary drink t, and poured forth torrents of vehement

Sept. 1555 (Informatt. Pol., torn, xxiv.) : guerra fra Papa Paolo IV. e 1' Impera-

" Chiamava liberamente la M^ S. Cesarea tore Carlo V., 1 555. Also in the Infor-

fautore di heretic! e di scismatici." matt. Polit., xxiv.

* Instruttioni e Lettere di Monsignor -j" Navagero : " L' ordine suo e sempre

della Casa a nome del CI. Caraffa, dove di man giare due volte il giorno ; vuol esser

si eontiene il principio della rottura della servito molto delicatamente, e nel pria-

0 2

196 PAUL IV. [Book III.

eloquence against these schismatics and heretics, these
accursed of God, the spawn of Jews and Moors, the dregs
of the earth, and whatever other abusive epithets he could
find to bestow on the Spaniards.'" But he comforted
himself with the saying, " Thou shalt walk upon serpents,
thou shalt tread upon lions and dragons." The time was
now come, he said, when the emperor Charles and his son
were to receive the chastisement due to their sins : he, the
pope, would inflict it; he would deliver Italy from them.
If people would not listen to him, if they would not assist
him, at least posterity would be forced to confess that an
old Italian on the brink of the grave, who should rather
have sought rest and preparation for death, had conceived
these lofty designs.

It is not necessary to go into the details of the nego-
tiations which he carried on under the influence of these
thoughts. When the French, spite of an understanding
they had entered into with him, concluded a truce with
Spain, f he dispatched to France his nephew Carlo Caraffa,
who succeeded in gaining over to his own interests the
several parties that were contending for power, — the
Montmorencies and the Guises, — the king's wife and mis-
tress,— and in bringing about a fresh outbreak of hostili-
ties.! In Italy he acquired an energetic ally in the duke

cipio del pontificato 25 piatti non basta- abjetta e cosi vile." The despatches of

vano: beve molto piu di quello che man- the French ambassadors are full of these

gia : il vino e potente e gagliardo, negro outbursts. For instance, de Lansac and

e tanto spesso che si potria quasi tagliare, d'Avanqon, in Ribiera, ii. 610 — 618.

dimandasi mangiaguerra, che si conduce f The account of the incipient incredu-

del regno di Napoli : dopo pasto sempre hty of Caraffa, which appears in Nava-

bevemalvagia,che i suoichiamanolavarsi gero, is very characteristic: " Doman-

i denti. Stava a mangiare in pubblico dando io al pontcfice et al CI. Caraffa, se

come gli alti'i pontefici sino all' ultmia havevano avviso alcuno delle tregue [of

indispositione, che fu riputata mortale, Vaucelles], si guardarono 1' un 1' altro

quando perdctte 1' appetite : consumava ridendo, quasi volessero dire, si come mi

qualche volta tre hore di tempo dal sed- disso anche apertamente il pontefice, che

ei'e al levarsi da mensa, entrando in varii questa speranza di tregue ev& assai debole

ragionamenti, secondo 1' occasione, et in lui, e nondimeno venne V avviso il

usando molte volte in quel impeto a dir giorno seguente, il quale si come console

molte cose secrete e d' importanza." tutta Roma cosi diede tanto travaglio e

(App. No. 30.) tanta molestia al papa et al cardinale che

* Navagero : " Mai parlava di S. M" e non lo poterono dissimulare. Diceva il

della natione Spagnola, che non gli chia- papa che queste tregue sarebbero la ruina

masse eretici, scismatici e maladetti da del mondo."

Dio, seme di Giudei e di Mori, feccia del "t Rabutin, M^raoires: Collect. Uni-

mondo, deplorando la miseria d' Italia, vers., vol. xxxviii. 358. Particularly

che fosse astretta a servire gente cosi Villars, Mcmoires, Ib., vol. xxxv. 277.

§ IV] PAUL IV. 197

of Ferrara. Notliing less than a total revolution of Italy
was contemplated. Florentine and Neapolitan exiles filled
the curia, and their restoration to their country seemed at
hand. The pope^s fiscal issued a formal act of accusation
against emperor Charles and king Philip, in which he
threatened to excommunicate those princes and to free
their subjects from their oath of allegiance. In Florence,
people always asserted that they were in possession of
proofs that the destruction of the house of Medici was
also determined on.'"' Everything assumed a warlike aspect ;
and the circumstances which seemed hitherto to have com-
bined to form the characteristics of this century were once
more thrown into uncertainty and confusion.

What a totally different turn did this pontificate take
from that which had been anticipated ! Attempts at
reform were compelled to give place to preparations for
war, which led to results the very opposite of those
intended.

The world beheld him who, as cardinal, had been the
most zealous in his denunciations of nepotism, even to his
own peril, now abandon himself to this abuse. He raised
to the rank of cardinal his nephew Carlo Caraffa, who had
revelled in the wild and licentious life of a soldier, f and of
whom Paul himself said, " that his arm was dyed in blood
to the elbow." Carlo had found means to cajole the feeble
old man ; he had contrived to be found by him kneeling
before the crucifix in apparent remorse and contrition. J
The grand bond of union between them, however, was a
common hate. Carlo Caraffa, who had served the emperor
in Germany, complained that he had received nothing but
slights in return ; that a prisoner for whom he expected to
receive a large ransom had been taken from him ; that he
had been prevented from taking possession of a priory of
the order of Malta, to which he was nominated : — injuries
which filled him with rage and vengeance. These passions
were accepted by the pope as compensations for every
virtue. He was inexhaustible in his praises ; never, he
affirmed, had the see of Rome had a more efficient servant :

* Gussoni, Rel"« di Toscana.

t Babon, in Ribier, ii. 715. Villars, p. 255.

198 PAUL IV. [Book III.

he committed to him the chief conduct, not only of secular,
but of spiritual affairs, and was well pleased that he
should be regarded as the author of the favours dispensed
by the court.

For a long time the pope did not bestow a single gracious
look upon his other nephews, nor was it till they adopted
the anti-Spanish feelings of their uncle that he regarded
them with complacency.'"* The conduct which he now
pursued could never have been anticipated. He said that
the castles of the Colonnas, those inveterate rebels against
God and the church, had frequently been taken from them,
but had never been kept ; but that he would now entrust
them to vassals who would know how to defend them. He
divided them among his nephews, to the elder of whom he
gave the title of duke of Palliano, to the younger that of
marquis of Montebello. When he disclosed these his inten-
tions to the cardinals, they cast down their eyes and were
silent. The Caraffas now gave the reins to their aspiring
hopes ; according to them, the daughters of their house
were to be married, if not into the family of the king of
France, at any rate into that of the duke of Ferrara,
while the sons were at least to gain possession of Siena.
When some one jested concerning the jewelled barett of a
child of the house, " This is no time to talk of caps, but of
crowns," replied their mother, f

In fact, everything depended on the issue of the war
which now broke out, but which certainly assumed no
favourable aspect from the very first.

After the above-mentioned act of the fiscal, the duke of
Alva had advanced from the Neapolitan territory into that
of Rome. He was accompanied by the Roman vassals,
who aroused all those with whom they had had an under-
standing. Nettuno drove away the pope's garrison, and
recalled the troops of the Colonnas. Alva invested Fro-
sinone, Anagni, Tivoli on the mountains, Ostia on the sea ;
thus inclosing Rome on both sides.

At first the pope trusted entirely to his Romans, whom

* Extractus proccssuR Cardinalis Ca- ales, papa eum miiiquamvidit gi'ato vultii
raffte: "Similiter dux Palliani deponit, et bono ocvdo." (App. No. 34.)
quod donee sc declaravit contra imperi- f Bromato, ix. lü; ii. 286: literally

§ IV.] PAUL IV. 199

he reviewed in person. An army consisting of three
hundred and forty columns armed with arquebuses, two
hundred and fifty with pikes, each nine men deep, of a
most warhke appearance, under noble leaders, marched
from Campafiore past fort St. Angelo, which saluted them,
to the Piazza di San Pietro, where he stood with his
nephews at the window, and as the caporioni and standard-
bearers passed gave them his blessing.''' They made a
very gallant show, but they were not the men by whom
the city was to be defended. The Spaniards having
approached near the walls, a false alarm, a small troop of
horsemen, sufficed to throw them all into such confusion
that not a man remained by his standard. The pope was
constrained to look around for other help. Pietro Strozzi
at length brought him the troops that had served before
Siena, and with their aid he succeeded in re-conquering
Tivoli and Ostia, and in averting the imminent danger.
But what a war was this !

It seems as if, at certain critical periods, the conduct of
men was influenced by motives utterly repugnant to the
principles which usually determine their actions.

At first Alva might have conquered Rome without much
difficulty, but his uncle cardinal Giacomo reminded him of
the bad end to which all had come who had a share in
Bourbon's conquest. Alva, like a good catholic, conducted
the war with the greatest scrupulousness ; while he fought
against the pope, he did not cease to reverence him. He
sought to wrest the sword out of his hand, but he had no
desire to figure in the list of the conquerors of Rome. His
troops murmured, and said that it was a vapour, a smoke,
against which they were led into the field ; that it annoyed
them without their being able to grasp it, or to disperse it
as soon as it arose.

And who were those who defended the pope against
such good catholics 'i

The most efficient among them were Germans, all of
whom were protestants. They mocked at the images of

" Non esser quel tempo di parlar di be- rione di Trastevere dall' anno 1521 sino
rette, ma di corone." all' anno 1562. MS. (App. No. 9.)

* Diario di Cola Calleine Romano del

200 PAUL IV. [Book III.

saints in the roads and churches, laughed at the mass, dis-
regarded the fasts, and committed a hundred acts for
which the pope would have punished every one of them,
under other circumstances, with death.'"' I even find that
Carlo CarafFa formed an intimacy with the great protestant
leader, margrave Albert of Brandenburg.

It was impossible for contradictions to be more complete
and striking. On the one side, the strict catholic spirit, by
which the leader at least was thoroughly inspired, and
which placed him at a distance of ages from the times of
Bourbon's ruthless and audacious invasion of the holy city.
On the other, the secular tendencies of the papacy, by
which Paul IV., however loudly he condemned them, was
hurried along. These contrarieties cause the strange
anomaly, that those who believe in his authority attack,
while those who deny it, defend him ; that the former,
even in their hostile assaults, preserve their allegiance ;
and the latter, while serving under his banner, manifest
hostility and contempt for his character and station as head
of the church.

The war did not begin in earnest till the French allied
force, consisting of ten thousand foot and a less numerous
but noble body of horse, crossed the Alps. The French
would rather have tried their strength against Milan, which
they believed to be less strongly defended ; but they were
obliged to follow the impulse which the Caraffas gave them
towards Naples. The latter had no doubt of finding
innumei^ble followers in their own country ; they reckoned
on the assistance of the exiles, and on the insurrection of
their party, if not throughout the kingdom, yet in the
Abinizzi, around Aquila and Montorio, where their ances-
tors, both on the paternal and maternal side, had always
possessed great influence.

It was evident that affairs must, in one way or another,
come to a crisis. I

The hostility of the papal power to the predominancy of

* Nava{i;cro: " Fu ripwtata la pili escr- insolente, tanto contro 1' onor delle donne

citata gento la Tedesca (3.')Ü0 fanti,) et in ton'c la robba, — jjli offesi nialedice-

[otlier MSS. however, give different vano publieamente chi era causa diquesti

numbers, 1 e piii atta alia guerra, ma era diäordini." (App. No. 30.)
in tutto luteruiia. La Guascuua era tajito

§ IV.] PAUL IV. 201

Spain had been too often excited not at last to burst
forth.

The pope and his family were resolved upon extreme
measures. Caraffa had not only sought help from the
protestants, but had proposed to Suleiman I. to desist from
his campaign in Hungary, in order that he might turn all
his force against the Two Sicilies.'''" He invoked the succour
of infidels against the catholic king.

In April 1557, the Roman troops crossed the Neapolitan
frontier. They celebrated Holy Thursday by the conquest
and ruthless pillage of Compli, which was full of treasure,
not only belonging to the place, but also that had been
conveyed there for safety. Guise next crossed the Tronto
and besieged Civitella.

He, however, found the kingdom in a good state of
preparation. Alva well knew that there would be no
insurrection against him, so long as he was the most
powerful in the country. In a parliament of the barons he
had obtained a considerable grant ; queen Bona of Poland,
of the ancient family of Arragon, a bitter enemy of the
French, who shortly before had arrived with great treasure
in her duchy of Bari, gave him half a million of scudi ; he
confiscated the ecclesiastical revenues which should have
gone to Rome, and even appropriated to his uses the gold
and silver utensils of the churches and the bells of Bene-
vento.f He then proceeded to fortify, as well as he could,
all the frontier towns of the Neapolitan territory, and all
those of the Roman of which he still maintained possession ;
he collected a splendid army, composed in the old manner,
of Germans, Spaniards, and Italians ; he had also formed
Neapolitan centuries under the conduct of the nobles.
Civitella was gallantly defended by count Santafiore, who
had incited the inhabitants to active co-operation, and even
to repel an assault.

* His confessions in Bromato, Vita di xxxiii. c. i. Besides Gossellini, Mam-
Paolo IV., vol ii., p. 369. Bromato also brino Roseo, Delle Historie del Mondo,
contains good accounts of the war. He lib. vii., whose account of this war is
took them, which he does not conceal, in circumstantial, and derived from good
many cases, word for word from a de- authorities, ascribes to Ferrante Gonzaga
tailed MS. account of this war by Nores, a great share in the well-planned mea-
frequently to be found in Italian lib- sures taken by Alba. This is confirmed
raries. by other writers.

t Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, lib.

202 P^UL IV. [Book IV.

While the kingdom remained thus firmly compacted,
and nothing was perceived but devotion to Philip II.,
violent differences broke out among the assailants, — between
French and Italians, — between Guise and Montebello.
Guise complained that the pope did not adhere to the con-
tract made with them, and withheld the succour he had
promised. When the duke of Alva with his army made
his appearance in the Abruzzi in the middle of May, Guise
deemed it best to raise the siege and to retreat across the
Tronto. The war was again transferred to the Roman
territory ; — a war in which the belligerent parties advanced,
retreated, invested cities and then abandoned them, and in
which not one serious battle was fought.

Marc Antonio Colonna threatened Palliano, which the
pope had wrested from him ; upon which Giulio Orsino
made preparations to relieve it with provisions and troops.
Three thousand Swiss under the command of a colonel
from Unterwaiden had just arrived in Rome. The pope
had received them with joy, decorated their chiefs with
chains of gold and orders of knighthood, and proclaimed
them the legion of angels sent by God to his aid. These
troops and a few companies of Italian horse and foot were
led by Giulio Orsino. M. A. Colonna posted himself in his
way, and an engagement followed in the spirit of the Italian
wars of 1491-1531 : — papal and imperial troops; — a
Colonna and an Orsino : — while the Swiss were opposed,
as they had so often been before, by the German lanz-
knechts, under their colonels Caspar von Feltz and Hans
Walther. Once more did the old antagonists fight for a
cause in which neither had an interest, yet they fought
with not the less obstinate bravery. "^^^ At length Hans
Walther, who, as the Spaniards relate, had the stature and
the strength of a giant, threw himself into the middle of a
Swiss company ; with a pistol in one hand and a drawn
sword in the other, he rushed upon the standard-bearer,
whom he laid dead at his feet by a shot in the side and a
violent cut on the head at the same minute ; upon this the
whole troop bore down upon him, but his lanzknechts had
already come up to his defence. The Swiss were totally

* The parti(Milar circumstances of this engagement I t«ke from Cabrera, Don
Fehpc Segiuido, hb. iii. p. 1 ',i9.

§ IV.] PAUL IV. 203

routed ; tlieir banners, upon which was inscribed, in large
letters, " Defenders of the Faith and of the Holy See,''
were trodden in the dust ; and their colonel led back only
two out of his eleven captains to Rome. While this little
war was carrying on here, the great armies were encamped
over against each other on the frontier of the Netherlands.
The battle of St. Quintin, in which the Spaniards gained
the most decisive victory, followed. The only wonder in
France was that they did not march straight on Paris,
which they might have conquered.*"'

" I hope,'' wrote Henry IL, on this occasion, to Guise,
" that the pope will do as much for me in my need, as I
did for him."t So little could Paul now reckon on the
assistance of the French, that they, on the contrary, needed
succour from him. Guise declared, " that no chains would
be strong enough to keep him any longer in Italy,";]; and
hastened back with his troops to his distressed prince.

The inevitable consequence was, that the Spaniards and
the followers of Colonna once more marched against Rome.
The Romans once more beheld conquest and pillage impend-
ing over them ; and their situation was the more desperate,
as they had nearly as much to fear from their defenders as
from their enemies. For many nights they kept lights in
all their windows and streets ; and it is said that a troop
of Spanish marauders, who advanced as far as the gates,
were frightened back by this appearance ; the chief motive
for which, however, was, to be prepared against the out-
rages of the papal soldiers. Nothing was to be heard but
murmurs ; — people wished the pope dead a thousand times,
and demanded that the Spanish army should be admitted
by a formal capitulation.

To such a pitch did Paul IV. suffer things to advance.
It was not till his enterprise had been thoroughly wrecked,
his allies beaten, his states almost entirely occupied by the
enemy, and his capital a second time threatened, that he
consented to treat for peace.

This the Spaniards concluded in the same spirit in which

* Monluck, Memoires, p. 116. t Lettera del Duca di Palliano al CI.

t Le Roy ä Mons. de Guise, in Ribier, Caraffa, Informatt. Polit. xxii.
ii. p. 750.

204 VWL IV. [Book III

they had carried on the war. They gave up all the castles
and cities of the church, and even promised the CarafFas
compensation for Palliano, which they had lost."^^' Alva
came to Rome ; with the deepest veneration he kissed the
foot of the vanquished and inveterate foe of his nation and
his king. He said he had never feared the face of man as
he feared that of the pope.

Nevertheless, however advantageous to the papal power
this peace may appear, it was fatal to all its projects and
all its enterprises. There was an end to all attempts to
shake off the Spanish yoke ; nor, indeed, has such a pro-
ject (in the sense in which it had hitherto been understood)
been entertained from that time. In Milan and Naples,
the dominion of the Spaniards had proved too solid to be
shaken. Their allies were stronger than ever. Duke
Cosmo, whom his enemies had thought to drive out of
Florence, had not only maintained possession of that city,
but had annexed Siena to it, and now melded a consider-
able independent power ; the Farnesi were won over to
the cause of Phihp II. by the restitution of Piacenza ;
Marc Antonio Colonna had made himself a great name
and had regained the station formerly occupied by his
family. Nothing was left to the pope but to acquiesce in
this state of things ; — to this even Paul must yield : — how
hardly, we may well imagine. Somebody once called
Philip II. his friend, "Yes,'' said he, "my friend, who
besieged me, who sought my very soul.'' In public, he
compared him to the prodigal son in the gospel, but in the
circle of his intimate friends, he expressed his admiration
of those popes alone who had meditated raising kings of
France to the imperial throne, f His mind was unchanged,
but he was bound down by circumstances ; he could no
longer hope, still less undertake anything ; his very com-
plaints must be secret.

* Palliano became the subject of a se- had said, " Que vous, Sire, n'estiez pas

cret treaty concluded between Alva and pour degenerer de vos predecesseurs, qui

cardinal Car affa, — a treaty unknown not avoicnt toujours este conservateui's et

only to the public, but to the pope him- dcfenseui's de ce saint siege; conmie au

self. Broniato, ii. ,'585. contraire, que le roy riiilippc tenoit de

t L'Kvos(|iu^ d'Angoulosmc au Roy, 1 1 race de Ic vouloii* ruiuer etconfoudi'e cn-

Juin, 1558. llibier, ii. 745. The pope ticremeut."

§ IV.] PAUL IV. 205

It is, however, utterly vain to struggle against the conse-
quences of an event which is accomphshed. After some
time a reaction took place even in Paul IV., which it is of
the greatest importance to consider, both with reference to
his government, and to the general transformation wrought
in the nature of the papal power and station.

The nepotism of Paul was not founded on the selfishness
or the family partialities of preceding popes ; he favoured
his nephews because they supported his designs against
Spain ; he regarded them as his natural allies in the
struggle. This being at an end, his nephews were useless
to him.

An eminent station, especially if it be not a strictly
legitimate one, requires the support of success to make it
stable. Cardinal Caraffa, prompted mainly by the interest
of his house, for which he wished to settle the compensa-
tion for Palliano already mentioned, undertook an embassy
to king Philip. From the time he returned without
having effected anything material, the pope visibly became
colder and colder towards him ; and the cardinal soon
found that it no longer rested with him to determine
who should be about his uncle, or to exclude from the
palace all but his own devoted friends. Unfavourable
rumours too came to the ears of the pope, and served to
revive the disagreeable impressions of former days. The
cardinal once fell sick, and the pope paying him an unex-
pected visit, found two men of the worst reputation with
him. " Old people are mistrustful," said he, " and I per-
ceived things there which opened a wide field for my
suspicions." We see that nothing was wanted but an
occasion to excite a storm in his mind, and such an one
was afforded by an incident otherwise insignificant. On
new year's night, 1559, a tumult arose in the streets, in
which the young cardinal Monte, whom we have already
mentioned as the favourite of Julius III., drew his sword.
The pope heard this early in the morning, and was pro-
foundly vexed that his nephew said not a word to him
about it; after waiting a few days, he at length expressed
his displeasure. The court, ever greedy of change, seized
upon this symptom of disgrace with avidity. The Floren-

206 PAUL IV. [Book ITT.

tine ambassador, who had received a thousand affronts
from the Caraffas, now forced his way to the presence of
the pope, and broke out into the bitterest complaints. The
marchesa della Valle, a kinswoman, one of those who had
never been allowed free access to him, found means to get
a paper placed in his breviary, on which some of his
nephews' misdeeds were recorded; and in which it was
intimated that if his holiness wished for further explana-
tions, he would be pleased to subscribe his name to it.
Paul signed, and there was no want of explanations.

In this frame of mind, already filled with disgust and
indignation, the pope repaired to the meeting of the inqui-
sition on the 9th of January. He spoke of that nocturnal
broil, rebuked cardinal Monte in violent terms, threatened
him with punishment, and thundered out again and again,
" Reform, reform ! " The cardinals, generally so silent,
had noAV gained courage to speak: — " Holy father," inter-
rupted cardinal Pacheco, "we must begin the reform
among ourselves." The pope made no reply. The words
struck him to the heart; they turned to certainty the
convictions which had been fermenting and acquiring form
and consistency in his mind. He left the affair of Monte
unfinished, returned to his sitting-room in the utmost
exasperation, and absorbed in the thoughts of his nephews.
After giving immediate directions that no further order
given by Cardinal Caraff*a should be executed, he sent to
demand his papers; cardinal Vitellozzo Vitelli, who had the
reputation of being privy to all the secrets of the Caraffas,
was compelled to swear that he would reveal everything he
knew; Camillo Orsino was summoned for the same purpose
from his country-house: the rigid party, who had long
seen with indignation the proceedings of the nephews, now
raised its voice ; the old Theatine, Don Gieremia, who
was regarded as a saint, passed hours in the papal apart-
ments, and the pope learned things he had never dreamt
of, which excited his horror and detestation. His agitation
was extreme ; he could neither eat nor sleep, and for ten
days was ill of a fever. An event now occurred, for ever
memorable; — a pope, by a sort of self-violence, emanci-
pated himself fi'om all partiality to his kindred. At length

§ IV] PAUL IV. 207

he was resolved. On the 27th of January he summoned a
consistory, described with passionate agitation the bad hves
of his nephews, and called God and man to witness, that
he had known nothing of it, — that he had been constantly
deceived. He dismissed them from their posts, and
banished them with their famihes to remote places. The
mother of the nephews, seventy years old, bent with infir-
mity, and personally blameless, threw herself at his feet,
as he was going into the palace ; he passed her with harsh
words. At the same time the young marchesa Montebello
came from Naples ; she found her palace closed ; no inn
would receive her ; in the rainy night she drove from door
to door, till at length an innkeeper, hving in a remote spot
which no order had reached, gave her shelter.

Vainly did cardinal Caraffa offer to go to prison and to
render an account of his conduct. The Swiss guard
received orders to turn back from the palace not only
himself, but all who had been in his service. The pope
made only one exception. He kept about him, as assistant
in his devotional exercises, the son of Montorio, whom he
loved, and whom he had made cardinal in his eighteenth
year. But never did the young man venture to mention
those who were banished from the court, much less to
make any intercession for them ; he dared not hold any
intercourse even with his father. The ruin that had fallen
upon his house affected him only the more deeply ; the
grief that he was not allowed to express in words imprinted
itself on his countenance and whole person. ''^

Would it not be thought that events like these must
necessarily react on the mind of the pope ? Yet he was
as if nothing had happened. Hardly had he, with vehe-
ment and indignant eloquence, pronounced sentence in the
consistory, while most of the cardinals were still transfixed
with amazement and fear, when he appeared to feel nothing,
and passed immediately to other business.

* In Pallavicini, but above all, in sua morte," (beginning from the 1 0th Sep-

Bromato, we find satisfactory disclosures tember, 1558,) unknown to both of these

on this head. In the Bei'lin Informa- two writers. It is compiled by an eye-

tioni, there is also, vol. viii,, a " Diario witness of the events it narrates, and has

d' alcune attioni piu notabili nel Pontifi- afforded me information entirely new.
cato di Paolo IV., 1' anno 1558, sino aila

208 PAUL IV. [Book III,

The foreign ambassadors were astonished at his demeanor.
" In the midst of such sudden and complete changes,"
says one, " surrounded by new ministers and servants, he
maintains a firm, unbending, unconcerned attitude ; he
feels no pity ; he appears to retain no memory whatever
of his kindred."

He now gave himself up to an entirely different passion ;
a change in his character and views which led to the most
important results. The hatred of the Spaniards, and the
idea of becoming the hberator of Italy, had hurried even
Paul IV. into political schemes ; had led him to endow his
nephews with the lands of the church, to raise a soldier to
the administration of spiritual affairs, and had plunged
him into hostilities and bloodshed. Events had forced him
to renounce this idea, to suppress this hatred ; they had
also gradually opened his eyes to the disgraceful conduct
of his relations, on whom, after a violent inward struggle,
he had done inexorable justice : from the hour he had
shaken them off for ever, he returned to his old plans of
reform, and began to reign as was at first expected of him.
With the same passion with which he had hitherto carried
on hostilities and war, he now set about the reform of the
state, and still more that of the church.

The secular affairs, from the highest to the lowest, were
entrusted to new hands. The actual podestas and governors
were dismissed from their places, and sometimes in a most
extraordinary manner. In Perugia the new governor made
his appearance at night ; without waiting for daylight he
summoned the Anziani, produced his credentials, and com-
manded them instantly to take prisoner their former
governor, who was present.

Paul IV. was the first pope, from time immemorial,
who had governed without nepotism. The places of his
nephews were occupied by cardinal Carpi and cardinal
Camillo Orsino, who had possessed so much influence under
Paul III. The whole character and conduct of the govern-
ment was altered, together with the persons who admi-
nistered it. Considerable sums were saved, and taxes
consc(picntly remitted ; a chest was fixed in a public place
into which every man could throw a statement of griev-

§ IV.3 PAUL IV. 209

ances, and of which the pope alone kept the key ; the
governor made a daily report, and public business generally
was conducted with greater care and prudence, and without
the old abuses.

Even in the midst of the troubles which agitated the
earlier part of his reign, the pope had never lost sight of
the reform of the church ; he now devoted himself to
it with more ardent zeal and a freer heart. He intro-
duced a more rigid discipline into the churches ; forbade
all begging, even the collection of alms for masses by the
clergy ; and removed all indecorous and disgusting pic-
tures. A medal of him was struck, on the reverse of
which was represented Christ purifying the temple and
driving out the money-changers. He drove the intruding
monks out of the city and the state, and compelled the
court to keep the regular fasts, and to solemnise Easter
by receiving the Lord's Supper. The cardinals were even
compelled to preach occasionally. Paul himself preached.
He tried to abolish many abuses which were sources of
profit ; for example, he would hear nothing of marriage
dispensations, or of the revenue they brought to the
treasury.

Numerous places, which had hitherto been invariably
sold, even the chiericati di Camera,''^ he would no longer
allow to be given on any other ground than that of merit ;
much more was he determined by worth of character and
by the sentiments befitting an ecclesiastic, in the bestow-
ment of spiritual offices. Those compromises, hitherto
customary, by which one man performed the duties of a
benefice, while another enjoyed the greater share of its
emoluments, he would no longer tolerate. He likewise
cherished the project of restoring to the bishops many of
the rights of which they had been deprived, and strongly
censured the rapacity with which everything productive of
power or profit had been drawn to Rome.f

Nor was he content to take up a negative position, — to

* Caracciolo, Vita di Paolo IV., MS., dassero a persone che li facessero, e non

makes particular mention of them. The venderU a chi avesse occasion di volerne

pope said : "Che simili officii d' ammini- cavare il suo danaro."
stratione e di giustitia conveniva che si f Bromato, ii. 483.

VOL. L P

210 PAUL IV. [Book III.

remain a mere destroyer and abolisher of abuses ; he sought
to surround divine worship with greater pomp; the deco-
rations of the Sixtine chapel and the solemn representation
of the Holy Sepulchre are to be ascribed to him.'"' The
ideal of the service of the catholic church of later times,
full of dignity, devotion, and magnificence, constantly
floated before his eyes.

He boasted that he suflfered not a day to pass without
the publication of an ordinance tending to the restoration
of the church to its original purity. In many of his decrees
we discover the fundamental outlines of the regulations to
which the council of Trent soon afterwards gave its
sanction.!

As might be expected, he displayed, in his present course,
as he had done in the former, all the inflexibility with
which he was endowed by nature. He favoured, above all
other institutions, the inquisition, which indeed he had him-
self re-established. He often let the days pass by which
were set apart for the segnatura and the consistory ; but
he never missed the meetings of the congregation of the
inquisition, which took place every Thursday. He wished
its powers to be exercised in the severest manner, subjected
offences of new classes to its jurisdiction, and conferred
upon it the inhuman right of employing torture for the dis-
covery of accomplices : he allowed of no respect of per-
sons ; the noblest barons were dragged before this tribunal ;
and cardinals, like Morone and Foscherari, who had for-
merly been employed to examine the contents of remark-
able books, such as Loyola's " Spiritual Exercises," he now
caused to be thrown into prison, because some doubts had
arisen of the soundness of their faith. He established the
festival of San Domenico in honour of the great inquisitor.

Religious severity, and zeal for the restoration of the
church, thus became the predominant characteristics of the
papacy.

* Mocenigo, Relatione di 1560: " Nelli maggior non si poteva desiderare." (App.

officii di villi poi c ncUc ceremonie proce- No. '.M.)

deva questo pontefice con tanta gravita e f Mocenigo: " Papa Paolo IV. andava

devotionc che veramente pareva degnis- continuamentefacendoqualchenovadeter-

simo vicario de Gesu Christo. Nelle minatione e riforma, e sempre diceva pre-

cose poi della rcligione si prendeva tanto parare altre, accio che restasse raanco oc-

pensiero et usava tanta diligentia che casione e menor necessitä di far concilio."

§ IV.] PAUL IV. 211

Paul IV. seemed almost to have forgotten that he had
ever cherished any other views ; the memory of the past
seemed obliterated from his mind. He lived and moved in
his reforms and his inquisition ; made laws, imprisoned,
excommunicated, and held autos da fe. When at length a
sickness, such as would have occasioned the death of a
younger man, laid him prostrate, he called together the
cardinals, once more commended his soul to their prayers,
— the holy see and the inquisition, to their care ; once more
he endeavoured to collect his strength and to rise, but in
vain, — he sank back and expired (18th August, 1559).

Herein, at least, are such resolute, passionate men happier
than those of feebler character ; — they are, indeed, blinded
by the violence of their feelings and prejudices, but the
same qualities render them inflexible, callous, and invincible.

The people, however, did not forget so quickly as the
pope what they had suffered under him. They could not
forgive him the war he had brought upon Rome ; nor was
the dismissal of his nephews sufficient to satisfy the hatred
of the multitude. At his death some assembled around the
capitol and resolved, that as he had deserved ill of the city
and of the world, they would destroy his monuments.
Others plundered the buildings of the inquisition, set fire to
them, and maltreated the servants of the sacred office.
They also tried to burn the Dominican convent deUa
Minerva. The Colonnas, Orsini, Cesarini, Massimi, all mor-
tally offended by Paul IV., took part in these tumults. The
statues which had been erected to the pope were torn from
their pedestals, broken, and the heads, surmounted with
the triple crown, dragged through the streets.''^

Happy had it been for the papacy, however, had this
been the only reaction against the projects and the deeds
of Paul IV.

* Mocenigo: " Viddi il popolo correr refuse per la strada, e finalmente poner
in furia verso la casa di Ripetta depu- foco in quella casa. I frati di S, Dome-
tata per le cose dell' inquisitione, metter nico erano in tant' odio a quel popolo che
a sacco tutta la robba clV era dentro, si in ogni modo volevan abbniciar il mo-
di vittualie come d' altra robba, che la nastero della Minerva." He then asserts,
maggior parte era del Rev""". CI. Ales- that the nobles were most to blame in
sandrino sommo inquisitore, trattar male the affair. Similar tumults had likewise
con bastonate e ferite tutti i ministri delP taken place in Perugia,
inquisitione, levar le scritture gettandolea

p2

212 PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM [Book III.

§ 5. REMARKS ON THE PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM DURING

THIS REIGN.

We have seen how the breach between the papacy and
the imperial or Spanish power contributed, (perhaps more
than any other external cause,) to the establishment of
protestantism in Germany. Nevertheless, another error
had not been avoided, w^hich now produced still vaster and
more comprehensive results.

Ve may date its commencement from the recall of the
papal troops from the imperial army, and the transfer of
the council to Bologna. The importance of these measures
soon appeared. Nothing was so potent an obstacle to the
subjugation of the protestants as the conduct of Paul III.
at that moment.

But it was not till after the death of that pope that the
wide-spreading and permanent consequences of his mea-
sures were seen. The connexion with France, into which
he led his nephews, gave rise to a universal war, — a war
wherein not only the German protestants won that im-
mortal victory which freed them for ever from the bonds of
council, emperor, or pope, but in which the immediate con-
tact with the German soldiers who fought on both sides,
and the universal disorder which rendered impossible any
vigilant precautions, powerfully favoured the progress of
the new opinions in France and the Netherlands.

Paul IV. ascended the papal throne. He ought to have
taken a clear view of the present course of events, and to
have made it his first and most urgent care to restore
peace. Instead of this, he plunged with all the blindness
of passion into the strife ; and thus it was the destiny of
this most furious zealot to contribute more perhaps than
any of his predecessors to the spread of that protestantism
which he hated, abhorred, and persecuted.

Let us only call to mind his influence on England. The
first victory of the new opinions in that country was far
from being complete ; there needed only a retrocession on
the part of the sovereign, there needed only a catholic

§ v.] DURING THE REIGN OF PAUL IV. 213

queen, to determine the parliament to place the church
once more in subjection to the pope. It was, however,
necessary for the latter to proceed mth moderation, for he
could not make the events which had recently been occa-
sioned by religious innovations a ground of war. This,
Julius III. clearly perceived. The first papal legate imme-
diately remarked '''' how powerful were the interests created
by the confiscation of church property. Julius formed the
magnanimous determination not to insist on its restitution.
In fact the legate was not allowed to set foot in England
till he had given satisfactory assurances on this head.
They formed the basis of all his subsequent influence,! ^^^
were the causes of his eminent success. This legate was
Reginald Pole, with whom we are already acquainted ; — of
all living men the most peculiarly fitted for the task of re-
establishing Catholicism in England ; elevated above all
suspicion of sordid or impure views ; intelligent, moderate,
entitled by his native birth and high rank to the considera-
tion of queen, nobility, and people. The undertaking
prospered beyond all expectation. The accesssion of
Paul IV. was marked by the arrival of English ambassadors,
who assured him of the obedience of that country.

Paul, therefore, had not to win, he had only to preserve
the allegiance of England. Let us examine what were the
measures he adopted for that purpose.

He proclaimed the restitution of the lands of the church
to be an indispensable duty, the neglect of which would
draw upon the culprit the penalty of eternal damnation.
He also tried to re-establish the collection of the Peter's
pence. J But, independently of these ill-advised acts, could
anything be worse adapted to the accomplishment of the
reduction of the nation to his authority, than his passionate
hostility to Philip II. of Spain, who was also Idng of Eng-
land ? Englishmen were engaged in the battle of St.

* Letteredi Mr. Henrico, Nov., 1553: terre Dispensatorise ۥ'*. Poli. Concilia

in a MS., entitled " Lettere e Negotiati M. Britanniie, iv,, 112.

di Polo," which contains a great deal of 4^ These ideas wholly occupied his mind

matter important to this history. See and influenced his actions. He published

Pallavicini on this transaction, xiii. 9. his bull Rescissio Alienationum (Bulla-

411. riuni iv. 4, 319), in which he annulled,

+ He did not hesitate to acknowledge without exception, all alienations of the

the right of the actual possessors. Lit- old ecclesiastical possessions.

214 PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM [Book III.

Quintin, — that battle which had such disastrous conse-
quences for Italy. Lastly, he persecuted cardinal Pole,
whom he could not endure ; stripped him of the rank and
dignity of a legate, which no one had ever employed more
to the advantage of the holy see, and appointed in his
place an unskilful monk, bent with years, but violent in his
prejudices.'"" Had it been Paulis object to obstruct the
work of restoration, he could not have chosen more effec-
tual means. It was, therefore, no wonder, that after the
early and unexpected death of the queen and of the legate,
the antagonist tendencies broke forth with fresh \aolence.
The persecutions which Pole condemned, but which his
bigoted opponents approved and encouraged, contributed
not a little to this result.

The question was then submitted to the pope. It
required the more mature deliberation, since it unquestion-
ably included Scotland. In that country two religious
parties were engaged in fierce feuds with each other ; and
the final decision of things in England must determine the
fate of Scotland also. It was, therefore, a fact of great
importance to the cathoUc cause, that Elizabeth, at the
beginning of her reign, by no means showed herself
decidedly protestant ; f as a proof of which, she had caused
her accession to be notified to the pope. Negotiations
were actually set on foot for a marriage between her and
Philip IL, which at that time appeared very probable.

It might have been imagined that nothing could be more
desirable to the pope than this event. But prudence and
moderation were not in Paul's nature. He gave a repul-
sive, contemptuous answer to Elizabeth's ambassador : "In
the first place," said he, " she must submit all her claims
to our decision.''

It must not be believed that the dignity and importance
of the apostolic see formed his sole motive to this arrogant
language. He had others. The French wished, from
national jealousy, to prevent this marriage, and they found
means to employ the pious Theatines to represent to the

* Godwin's Annales Anglice, etc., p. leigh, ii. p. 43, deems her religious prin-
456. ciples " at first liable to some doubts."

f Nares, also, in his Memoirs of Bur-

§ v.] DURING THE REIGN OF PAUL IV. 215

aged pope that Elizabeth was still a protestant at heart,
and that such an alliance could end in nothing good.'"" The
Guises had the strongest interests in this intrigue. If
Elizabeth's claims to the crown were rejected by the holy
see, their sister's daughter, Mary Stuart, dauphiness of
France and queen of Scotland, was next heiress to the
throne of England, and the Guises might hope to rule the
three kingdoms in her name. And, in fact, that princess
assumed the arms of England, subscribed her edicts with
the year of her reign over England and Ireland, and set on
foot warlike preparations in the ports of Scotland, f

Even if Elizabeth's own inclinations had not led her to
embrace the opinions of the protestants, she would have
been compelled by circumstances to throw herself into the
arms of that party. She did so in the most determined
manner ; and succeeded in assembling a parliament with a
protestant majority. J by which all the changes constituting
the essential character of the Enghsh church were in a few
months effected.

Scotland necessarily felt the influence of this turn of
affairs. The progress of the catholic French party was
opposed by a national protestant one, with which Elizabeth
hastened to ally herself ; what is more strange, the Spanish
ambassador exhorted her to this measure. § The treaty of
Berwick, which she concluded with the Scottish opposition,
threw the preponderancy into their scale. Even before
Mary Stuart set foot in her kingdom, she was not only
compelled to renounce her title to the throne of England,
but to ratify the acts of a parliament assembled in a pro-
testant spirit ; — acts, by one of which, the performance of
the mass was prohibited under pain of death.

Thus it was, in great measure, a reaction against the
French claims backed by the pope, which for ever secured
the triumph of protestantism in Great Britain.

Not that the inward impulses of those inclined to the

* Private narrative of Thuanus, J Neal, History of the Puritans, i.

f In Forbes's Transactions, p. 402, 126: "The court took such measures

there is a Responsio ad Petitiones D. about elections as seldom fail of suc-

Glasion et Episc. Aquilani, by Cecil, cess."

which displays all these motives in the § Camden, Rerum Anghcarum An-

most lively manner. nales, p. 37.

216 PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM, &c. [Book III.

new opinions depended in any degi*ee on these political
movements ; they had a far deeper source ; but the crisis
which produced the outbreak, progress, and termination of
the struggle, generally coincided precisely with the pohtical
changes.

A measure of Paul's had, on one occasion, great influ-
ence over Germany. His old antipathy to the house of
Austria had led him to oppose the transfer of the imperial
crown, which compelled Ferdinand I. to cultivate the
friendship of the protestant allies more sedulously than
heretofore. From that time there was an union of the
moderate princes of both sides, who put themselves at the
head of all Grermany, and under whose influences the eccle-
siastical foundations of Lower Germany were transferred
into the hands of protestant administrations.

It seemed as if the papacy was destined to experience
no reverse, which it had not contributed, in some way or
other, to bring about by its interference in political affairs.

If at this moment we survey the world from the heights
of Rome, how enormous were the losses which the catholic
confession had sustained ! Scandinavia and Britain totally
severed ; Germany almost entirely protestant ; Poland and
Hungary in a state of violent fermentation ; Geneva, a
focus of heresy, as important to the west and to the nations
of Roman descent, as Wittenberg to the east, and to those
of Germanic race ; even in France and the Netherlands, a
party rallying round the banner of protestantism.

One hope only remained to the catholic faith. In Spain
and Italy the first movements of dissent had been stifled
and suppressed, and a strict ecclesiastical spirit of resto-
ration had arisen. However injurious in other respects
was the pohcy of Paul IV., it had at least given power and
weight to this spirit in the court and the palace. The
question was, whether it could permanently maintain itself
there, and whether it would then have power once more to
pervade and to unite the catholic world.

§ VI.] PIUS IV. 217

§ 6. PIUS IV.

It is related, that once at a dinner of cardinals, Ales-
sandro Farnese gave a garland to a boy who was entertain-
ing them with improvisation to the lyre, and told him to
present it to the one among them who should be pope
hereafter. The boy, Silvio Antoniano, afterwards a dis-
tinguished man, and himself a cardinal, immediately went
up to Giovan-Angelo Medici, and, reciting his praises, gave
him the wreath. This Medici was Paul's successor, Pius

His birth was mean. His father Bernardino had settled
originally at Milan, and had acquired a small estate there
by farming the taxes, f The sons, however, were obliged
to subsist as they could ; the one, Giangiacomo, who took
up the profession of arms, at first entered the service of a
nobleman ; the other, of whom we are about to speak,
Gianangelo, devoted himself to study, but in very narrow
circumstances. Their fortune had the following origin :
Giangiacomo, bold and unscrupulous by nature, hired him-
self to the men at the head of the government of Milan, to
dispatch one of their opponents of the Visconti family,
called Monsignorino. Scarcely, however, was the murder
perpetrated, when those who had plotted it, wished to get
rid of their tool as well as of their victim, and sent the
young man to a castle called Mus on the lake of Como,
with a letter to the castellan, desiring him to put to death
the bearer. Giangiacomo conceiving some suspicion, opened
the letter, saw what awaited him, and instantly took his
resolution.

He collected a few trusty companions, gained entrance
to the castle by means of the letter, and succeeded in
getting possession of it. From that time he assumed the

* Nicius Erytliraeus relates this anec- Roma: " Bernardino, padre della B.S.,
dote in the article upon Antoniano, Pina- fu stimata persona di somma bonta e di
cotheca, p. 37. Mazzuchelli also repeats gran industria, ancora ehe fusse nato in
it. The election took place on the 26th povero e basso stato: nondimeno venuto
of December, 1559. habitar a Milano si diede a pigliar datii

* Hieronyrao Soranzo, Relatione di in affitto." (App. No. 35.)

218 PIUS IV. [Book III.

character of an independent prince. He harassed the
Milanese, Swiss, and Venetians incessantly from this strong-
fortress ; at last he took the white cross and entered the
imperial service. He was created marchese di Marignano,
served as commander of the artillery in the war against
the Lutherans, and led the imperial army before Siena.'"'
His prudence was equal to his boldness ; he was successful
in all liis enterprises, and wholly without pity. Many were
the peasants seeking to convey provisions into Siena, whom
he killed with a blow of his iron staff : there was not a
tree far or near on which he had not caused some to be
hanged ; it was reckoned that he had put to death five
thousand men. He conquered Siena, and founded a con-
siderable house.

The rise of Giangiacomo had been accompanied by that
of his brother Gianangelo. He took the degree of doctor,
and acquired reputation as a jurist ; he then bought a place
at Rome, where he speedily gained the confidence of Paul
in., and, when his brother the marchese married an
Orsina, (the sister of Pier Luigi Farnese's wife,) he was
made a cardinal.f From that time, we find him charged
with the administration of papal cities, the conduct of poH-
tical negotiations, and more than once with the commissa-
riat of papal armies.

He was clever, discreet, and good-natured. Paul IV.,
however, could not endure him, and once made a violent
attack upon him in the consistory, on which account
Medici thought it most expedient to leave Eome. He
lived sometimes at the baths of Pisa, and sometimes in
Milan, which he adorned with numerous buildings ; he
beguiled his exile by literary occupations, and by a
splendid beneficence which procured for him the name of
the Father of the Poor. Perhaps the complete contrast

* Ripamonte, Historia Urbis Medio- nese [Ripamonte himself makes mentiou

lani. Natalis Comes Hist. of his good understanding with Paul

t Soranzo : "Nato 1490, si dottoro III.] eolla piu assidua diligenza, s'andö

1525, vivcndo in studio cosi strettamentc mettendo in anzi: ebbe diversi impieghi,

che il Pasqua suo medico, che stava con dove acquisto nome di persona intcgra c

lui a dozcna, I' acconnuodo un gran giusta o di natura officiosa." The mai*-

tempo del suo scrvitore e di (lualehe riage of the marquis followed, " con pi'o-

altra cosa necessaria. Del 1 527 compro messa di far lui cardinale."
un protonotaiiato. Servendo il CI. Far-

§ VI.] PIUS IV. 219

which he afforded to Paul IV. contributed mainly to his
election. This contrast was unusually striking.

Paul IV. was a high-born Neapolitan of the anti- Austrian
faction, a zealot, a monk, and an inquisitor: Pius IV., a
Milanese adventurer, through his brother, and through
some other German relations, closely connected with the
house of Austria, a jurist, of a free and worldly disposition.
Paul IV. had held himself at an unapproachable distance ;
in the commonest business he would display his state and
dignity : Pius was all good humour and condescension.
Every day he was seen in the streets on horseback or on
foot almost without attendants ; he talked freely and
affably with every one.

The Venetian despatches bring us perfectly acquainted
with him."'^ The ambassadors find him writing and trans-
acting business in a large, cool room ; he rises and walks
up and down with them ; — or he is going to the Belvedere ;
he sits down without laying the stick out of his hand,
instantly listens to their communications, and then proceeds
on his way in their company. But if he treated them with
confidence and familiarity, he chose to be treated with
politeness and respect in return. The clever expedients
which the Venetians sometimes propose to him, amuse
him, and draw from him smiles and praises; while, in spite
of his fidelity to the Austrian cause, he is annoyed by the
inflexible, domineering manners of the Spanish envoy,
Parga. He dislikes details, which soon tire him, but so
long as people keep to what is general and important,
they always find him in good humour, and easy to deal
with. Then he pours forth a thousand cordial protesta-
tions,— how he hates bad men with all his heart, — is by
nature a lover of justice, — would infringe no man's liberty,
— would show kindness and friendliness to all ; — especially,
however, intends to labour with all his might for the church.
He hoped in God he might accomplish some good.

These descriptions bring him before us in all the truth
and vividness of life; a portly old man, yet still active
enough to repair before sunrise to his country-house with

* Ragguagli dell' Ambasciatore Veneto Amulio (Mula), Inforraatt. Polit. xxxvii.
da Roma, 1561. By Marco Antonio (App. No. 33.)

220 PIUS IV. [Book III.

a gay countenance and cheerful eye ; deriving his chief
pleasures from conversation, the table, and convivial diver-
sion ; when recovered from a sickness which had been
considered dangerous, he mounted his horse immediately,
rode to a house where he had lived when cardinal, stepped
vigorously up and down the stairs, — " No, no,^' said he, " we
are not going to die yet.^^

But was such a pope of so jovial and worldly a temper,
formed to govern the church in the critical situation in
which it was then placed ? Was there not reason to fear
that he would deviate from the course so lately entered
upon by his predecessor '? I will not undertake to deny
that his nature inclined him to totally different measures ;
yet no change did in fact take place.

He was, in his heart, no friend to the inquisition; he
blamed the monkish severity of its proceedings, and seldom
or never visited the congregation, — but he ventured not to
attack them ; he declared that he knew nothing about the
matter, — that he was no theologian ; he left it in posses-
sion of all the power it had acquired under Paul IV. '^''

He made a fearful example of the nephews of that pope.
The excesses committed by the duke of Palliano, even
after his fall, (among other atrocities the murder of his
wife in a fit of jealousy) gave the enemies of the Caraffas,
who thirsted for vengeance, an easy advantage. A
criminal process was instituted against them, during
which they were accused of the most revolting crimes,
robberies, forgeries, murders, combined with the most
arbitrary exercise of power, and a system of constant
deception practised upon the aged Paul. We are in
possession of their defence, which is not A\ithout a sem-
blance of justification, f But their accusers prevailed.

* Soranzo : " Se bene si conobbe, non found in Bi'omato. In the Informatt. we
essci' di sua satisfatione il modo che ten- hkewise find the letters of Mula, e.g.,
gono gl' inquisitori di procedcrc per Tor- 19th of July, \oG0; the Extractus Proces-
dinariocon tantorigoreeoutragrinquisiti, sus Cardinails CarafFoc; and El succcsso
e che si lascia intendere che piu li piaccria de la muerte dc los Carafas, con la dccla-
che usassero teinnini da cortcse gentilu- raciou y cl modo que nuirioron. La
omo che da frate sevcro, non di meno non Mortc de Cl. Carafta, (Library at Venice,
ardiscc o non vuole mai opponersi aigiu- vi. n. ',^9,) is the IMS. which Bromato had
dicii loro." before him, in addition to that of Nores.

* Detailed accounts of these events, (App Nos. 33, 34.)
principally taken from Noi*es, are to be

§ VI.] PIUS IV. 221

After the pope had caused the documents to be read to
him in the consistory one day, from early morning till late
in the evening, he passed sentence of death upon them,
viz., the cardinal, the duke of PaUiano, and two of their
nearest relations, count AlifFe and Leonardo di Gardine.
Montebello and some others had escaped. The cardinal
perhaps expected banishment, but certainly not death.
His sentence was announced to him in the morning before
he was up, and when no doubt was left him, he hid his face
in the bed-clothes ; then, raising himself up, he clasped
his hands and uttered those words which are so often the
last expression of despair from the lips of an Italian, —
" Bene, pazienza." He was not permitted to have his
usual confessor. He had, as may be imagined, much to
say to the one they sent him, and his confession lasted
rather long. " Monsignore,^^ said the officer of police,
" you must have done, we have other business in hand."

Thus perished the kinsmen of Paul IV. They were the
last who aimed at independent principalities on the ground
of consanguinity with the pontiff, and who brought about
great and general movements for the sake of their own
political projects. Since Sixtus IV., we have seen Gero-
nimo Riario, Gesare Borgia, Lorenzo Medici, Pier-Luigi
Farnese ; — the Garaffas close the list. In later times,
nepotism showed itself again, but in a totally different
form. That in which it had hitherto appeared was extinct.

It was manifestly impossible that after so terrible an
execution, Pius IV. could entertain a thought of conferring
on his own family a power like that which he had visited
so inexorably on the Garaffas. Besides, his Hvely, active
temper inchned him to keep the reins of government in
his own hands; he decided no important business without
hearing and weighing the whole matter himself; he was
reproached rather with relying too httle than too much on
foreign aid. It is also to be remembered that one of his
nephews, whom he might have wished to promote, Federigo
Borromeo, died young. The other, Garlo Borromeo, was
no man for worldly aggrandisement. He would never have
accepted it. He regarded the position in which he stood
with relation to the pope, and the connexion in which it

222 PIUS IV. [Book III.

placed him with the most important affairs, not as con-
ferring on him a right to any advantage or to any indul-
gence, but as imposing a duty to which he was bound to
devote his utmost care. This he did with equal modesty
and perseverance ; he was unwearied in giving audience ;
he attended with the greatest solicitude to the administration
of the state, to Avhich end he called around him a collegium
of eight doctors, (out of which grew the important institu-
tion of the consulta,) and after hearing their opinions, he
delivered his own to the pope. His life was such that we
cannot wonder if after death he was revered as a saint ;
even at the time we are speaking of, his whole conduct was
equally noble and blameless. " So far as is known,'^ says
Geronimo Soranzo, " he is pure from all spot or stain ; he
lives so religiously and sets so good an example, that he
leaves even the best men nothing to desire. It is his
greatest praise that, in the prime of his hfe, nephew of a
pope, and in the full enjoyment of his favour, in a court
where every kind of pleasure is at his disposal, he lives so
exemplary a life." His recreation was to assemble a few
learned men about him in an evening. The conversation
began with profane literature, but from Epictetus and the
Stoics, whom Borromeo, then young, did not despise, it
soon turned upon theological questions, which even in his
leisure hours were uppermost in his mind.'"' If any fault
could be found with him, it was for no deficiency of purity
of intention, or of industry, but in some degree, of talent ;
while his servants complained that they were obliged to
forego those rich proofs of favour which in former times
had been showered upon all who followed in the train of
nepotism.

Thus did the qualities of the nephew supply whatever
defects severer judges might find in the uncle. At all
events, things went on in the same track ; spiritual and
temporal affairs were conducted ^\^th zeal and with regard
to the interests of the church, and the work of reform
advanced. The pope publicly admonished the bishops to
reside in their dioceses, and some were seen immediately

• Viz., the Noctes Vaticanse, mentioued by Glussianus, Vita Caroli Borromei,
i. iv. 22.

§ VI.] PIUS IV. 223

to kiss his foot and take their leave. When once the pre-
valent ideas of an age have gained the upper hand, their
force is irresistible. The tendency towards severity of
ecclesiastical manners and opinions had become omnipotent
in Eome, and not even the pope could deviate from it.

But if the somewhat worldly character of this pontiff
had not sufficient influence to check the revival of a strictly
religious spirit, we may remark that, on the other hand, it
contributed in an incalculable degree to the healing of the
divisions which had arisen in the catholic world.

Paul IV. imagined that it was the vocation of a pope to
rule over emperors and kings, — an idea which plunged him
into continual wars and animosities. Pius saw this error
the more clearly, inasmuch as it was committed by an
immediate predecessor, with whom too he felt that he
stood in complete contrast. " It was thus we lost Eng-
land,^' exclaimed he, " which we might have retained still,
if cardinal Pole had been better supported ; it was thus
also that Scotland has been wrested from us ; and that
during the war which sentiments like these excited, the
German doctrines have penetrated into France.^^

He, on the contrary, desired peace above all things.
Even a war with the protestants he disliked ; when the
ambassador from Savoy solicited him to support an attack
on Geneva, he repeatedly interrupted him, exclaiming,
" What sort of times are these, then, for making such a
proposition ? I want nothing so much as peace.^^*"'

He wished to stand well with everybody. He dispensed
his ecclesiastical favours readily, and when he was forced
to refuse anything, did it with address and modesty. He
did not hesitate to avow his persuasion that the power of
the pope could no longer sustain itself unsupported by the
authority of temporal sovereigns.

The latter part of the reign of Paul IV. was distinguished
by the universal demand once more made by the catholic
world for a council. It is certain that Pius IV. would have

* Mula, 14th Feb. 1561. Pius begged cose: non e tempo da fare V impresa di

him to say: " Che havemo animo di stare Ginevra ne da far generali. Scrivete

in pace, e che non sapemo niente di che siamo constant! in questa opinione di

questi pensieri del duca di Savoia, e ci star in pace."
meravigliamo che vada cercando queste

224 LATER SITTINGS OF [Book III.

found the greatest difficulty in evading this demand. He
could no longer urge the pretext of war as his predecessors
had done, for all Europe was at length at peace. It was
even imperatively required by his own interests, for the
French threatened to convene a national council which
might easily have led to a schism. In truth however it
appears to me that, independently of these considerations,
his own wishes leaned most strongly that way. We have
only to listen to his own expressions : " We wish for a
council,'^ says he ; "we certainly desire that it should be
held, and that it should be universal. If we were averse
to it, we might amuse the world for years with difficulties,
but, on the contrary, we seek to remove all such. It shall
reform what wants to be reformed, even in our own per-
son and in our own affairs. If we have any thought in our
minds but that of serving God, may God's chastisement
light upon us." It often appeared to him that he was not
duly supported by the princes in an undertaking of such
magnitude and importance. One morning the Venetian
ambassador found him in bed, lame of the gout, and full of
these thoughts. "We have good intentions," said he, "but
we are alone." " I was struck with pity," says the ambas-
sador, " at seeing him in bed, and hearing him say, ' We
are alone, to support so great a burthen.' "

He, however, commenced operations. On the 18th of
January, 1562, a sufficient number of bishops and delegates
were collected in Trent to render it possible a third time
to begin the twice-interrupted council. The pope took the
most lively interest in its proceedings. " Certainly," says
Girolamo Soranzo, who on other points is no partisan of
Pius, " his holiness has shown all the zeal in this matter
which could be expected from so exalted a shepherd. He
has neglected nothing that could conduce to so holy and so
necessary a work."

§ 7. LATER SITTINGS OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.

The state of the world was entirely altered since the
first convocation of this council. The pope had now no
longer to fear that a powerful emperor Avould make use of

§ VII.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 225

it as an instrument to obtain dominion over the see of
Rome. Ferdinand I. was totally without influence in Italy.
Neither was there any further need for anxiety as to serious
errors on essential points of the catholic faith. ''^' It was
now, though not yet perfectly developed, dominant over
the greater part of the catholic world, in the form given
to it at the first sittings of the council. The project of
reuniting the protestants to the church could no longer be
seriously entertained ; in Germany they had taken up a
position too strong to be attacked ; in the north the spirit
of their church had infused itself even into the government ;
in England the same process had already begun. While
the pope declared that the new council was merely a con-
tinuation of the former ones, and at last silenced those who
opposed the measure, he himself abandoned all hope that
the event would prove this assertion to be true. For how
could it be expected that the free protestants would join in
a council by whose former decrees the most important
articles of their faith had been condemned '? f Hence the
influence of the council was at the very outset limited to
the extremely narrowed circle of catholic nations. Its
efforts were thus confined principally to the following
points : — to arrange the differences which had arisen
between the catholic powers and the head of the church ;
distinctly to settle the rule of faith on some still uncertain
points ; and, above all, to complete the internal reform
which was already begun, and to lay down rules of
discipline possessing universal authority.

But even this attempt was full of difficulty, and the
most violent disputes soon arose amongst the assembled
fathers.

The Spaniards proposed the question, whether the resi-

* This was the opinion of Ferdinand Electores Principes aliique Augustanse

I. Litterae ad Legates, 12 Aug. 1562, in confessioni adjuncti status recusent adire

Le Plat, Monura. ad Hist. Cone. Triden- concilium: Le Plat, iv. p. 57. They re -

tini, V. p. 452 : " Quid enim attinet — dis- mark, in the first declaration, upon the

quirere de his dogmatibus, de quibus important words : " Omni suspensione

apud omnes non solum principes verum sublata." They recal the condemnation

etiam privates homines catholicos nulla passed upon their doctrines at an earlier

nunc penitus existit disceptatio ? " period, and diffusely enlarge upon the

t The principal ground urged in the fact : " quse mala sub ea confirmation©

protest of the reformers : Causae cur lateant."

VOL. L Q

226 LATER SITTINGS OF [Book III.

dence of bishops in their dioceses was by divine command,
or merely human appointment. This, indeed, might seem
an idle discussion, as, by all, residence was considered
indispensable. But the Spaniards maintained that the
episcopal authority was not a mere emanation from the
papal, as was asserted at Rome, but that its origin rested
immediately on divine appointment. This assertion struck
at the very root of the whole ecclesiastical system. The
independence of the inferior authorities of the church,
wliich the popes had so carefully laboured to keep down,
must have been restored by the development of this
principle.

In the midst of the most violent disputes on this sub-
ject, the imperial ambassadors arrived. The articles
which they proposed are highly remarkable ; one is thus
expressed : " It were to be wished that the pope should
humble himself according to the example of Christ, and
submit to a reform affecting his own person, his dominions,
and his curia. The council must reform the nomination
of cardinals as well as the conclave." Ferdinand used to
say, " Since the cardinals are not good, how can they choose
a good pope V He wished to see the plan of the council
of Constance, which had never been carried into execution,
adopted as the basis of the reforms he contemplated. The
resolutions were to be prepared by deputations from the
different countries. But besides this, he demanded the
cup at the sacrament, permission for priests to marry,
dispensation from fasting for some of his subjects, the
erection of schools for the poor, the purification of the
breviary, legends, and postils, more intelligible catechism,
church music adapted to German words, and a reformation
of the convents, for this reason, among others, " that their
great riches should not be applied to such infamous pur-
poses."'"' These were indeed most important demands,

* Pallavicini almost entirely overlooks no valuation, except that it is in Latin, in
these demands, xvii., 1 , 6. They arc in- Rainaldi and Goldast. The second is con-
convenient to him, nor have they, in fact, tained in Bartholoma^us de Martyribus,
ever been made known under their pro- and is somewhat more detailed. Schel-
per form. They arc presented to us in horn has taken the third from the papers of
three extracts. The first is to be foimd in Staphylus. They do not perfectly agree.
P. Sarpi, lib. vi. p. 325, and, like\\ise, with I am inclined to think the original is to be

§ VIT.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 227

and such as would necessarily lead to a fundamental
change in the constitution of the church. The emperor
pressed for their discussion in repeated letters.

At length the cardinal of Lorraine appeared, accompanied
by the French prelates. He seconded the German pro-
positions. He demanded especially, that the cup should
be granted to the laity, the sacraments administered in the
language of the people, preaching and instruction intro-
duced at the mass, and permission given to sing the psalms
in French in full congregation : — all things from which
the most important results were hoped in France. " We
are quite certain," says the king, " that the granting the
cup to the laity will calm many troubled consciences, and
restore to the church whole provinces which have seceded
from it ; in short it would be one of the best means of
allaying the disturbances which agitate our dominions.""^^*
But not content with this, the French again revived the
decrees of the council of Basle, and openly asserted that
the authority of a council was superior to that of the pope.

The Spaniards were, however, by no means prepared to
concur in the demands of the Germans and the French ;
they most vehemently condemned the granting the cup to
the laity, and the marriage of priests, so that no concession
could be obtained from the council on these points ;
nothing was carried, but that the expediency of granting
the permission should be referred to the pope. But there
were points on which the three nations jointly opposed
the claims of the curia. They thought it intolerable that
the legates should possess the sole right of bringing for-
ward propositions : but that these very legates should also
apply for the pope's approbation of every decision before
they would agree to it, appeared to them an insult to the
dignity of a council. " In this manner of proceeding,"
said the emperor, " there would be in fact two councils,
one at Trent, the other, and the true one, at Rome."

If, in this state of opinions, questions had been carried

found at Vienna; it must be a remark- * Memoire bailie a M. le CI. de Lor-

able document. I have abided by the raine, quand il est parti pour aller au

extract in Schelhorn. Le Plat gives concile: Le Plat, iv. 562.
them all as well as the answer.

Q 2

22S LATER SITTINGS OF [Book III.

by the votes of nations, what strange and astonishing
decrees would have emanated from this council !

As, however, this was not the case, the three nations
united were still in a minority. The Italians were far
more numerous, and, as usual, defended the opinions of
the curia, on which most of them were dependent, without
much regard to principle or conscience. Hence arose the
bitterest mutual animosity.

The French jested about the Holy Ghost being brought
to Trent in a knapsack. The Italians talked of Spanish
eruptions and French diseases, by which all the faithful
were visited in turn. When the bishop of Cadiz said, that
there had been renowned bishops, ay, and fathers of the
church, whom no pope had appointed, the Italians broke
forth in a general outcry, insisted on his departure, and
talked of anathema and heresy. The Spaniards retaliated
the anathema on them.'"" Sometimes mobs assembled,
shouting Spain ! — Italy ! Blood flowed in the streets and
on the ground consecrated to peace.

Was it surprising, that for ten months no sitting could
be held ? that the first legate dissuaded the pope from
going to Bologna, representing to him what would be said
if, even by his presence, the council could not be brought
to any proper termination, and had to be dissolved ? f
But a dissolution, a suspension, or even only a translation,
which had often been thought of, would have been
extremely dangerous. At Rome, nothing but mischief
was anticipated ; a council was thought too strong a
remedy for the enfeebled constitution of the church, and
ruin was predicted for it and for Italy from the measure.
" A few days before my departure, in the beginning of
the year 1563," says Girolamo Soranzo, "Cardinal Carpi,
the deacon of the college, a man of great judgment, said
to me, in his last illness, that he had prayed to God mer-

* Pallavicini, xv. v. 5. Paleotto, Acta: Concilio di Trento, scritta al Papa Pio

" Alii prjTclati ingeminabant, clamantcs, TV., li. 15 Gen. 1563: " Quando si avesse

* Exeat, exeat;' et alii, * Anathema sit,' da dissolversi questo concilio — per causa
ad quoa Granatensis conversus respondit, d' altri e non nostra, — mi piaceria piu

* Anathema vos estis.' " Mendham, Me- che V" Beatitudine fusse restata a
moirs of the Council of Trent, p. 251. Roma."

t Lettere del C'*^ di Mantua, Legato al

§ VIL] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. £29

cifully to grant him death, and not to let him Hve to see
the downfall and interment of Rome. All the other dis-
tinguished cardinals incessantly lament their ill fortune,
and clearly see there is no help for them unless from
the especial protection of God's holy hand.^'"^^' Pius IV.
dreaded to see all the evils which any of his predecessors had
ever anticipated from a council, poured out on his own head.

It is a sublime idea, that, in seasons of difficulty, and
especially during great errors in the church, there exists
an assembly of her chief shepherds able to remedy the
evil. " Let such an assembly,^' says Augustin, " consult
together without arrogance or envy, in holy humility, in
catholic peace ; and, after acquiring greater experience, let
it open that which was closed, and bring to light that
which was hidden." But even in the earliest times this
ideal was far from being realised ; it would, indeed, have
required a purity of intention, and an independence of all
foreign influences, which do not appear to be granted to
man. How far less attainable was it now, when the church
was involved in a thousand contradictory relations with the
state !

If, in spite of their imperfections, the councils continued
to enjoy great consideration, and were often urgently
demanded, this principally arose from the necessity of
imposing some restraint on the power of the popes. The
present state of affairs seemed, however, to prove the truth
of what they had always asserted, — that in times of great
perplexity a convocation tended much rather to increase
than to remove the difficulties. The whole of Italy shared
the fears of the curia. " Either," said they, " the council
will be continued, or it will be dissolved ; in the former
case, — especially should the pope die in the mean time, —
the ultramontane party will manage the conclave according
to their own views, and to the prejudice of Italy ; they
will impose so many restrictions on the reigning pope as to

* " Li Cardinali di maggior autorita temere," adds Soranzo himself, " Ser™"

deploravano con tutti a tutte Tore la loro Principe, che la povera Itaha afflitta per

miseria, la quale stiraano tanto maggiore altre cause habbi ancor a sentire afflit-

che vedono e conoscono assai chiaro, non tione per questo particolarmente : lo ve-

esservi rimedio alcuno se non quello che done e lo conoscono tutti i savj." (App.

piacesse dare al S' Dio con la sua santis- No. 35.)
siraa mano. — Certo non si puo se non

230 LATER SITTINGS OF [Book III.

leave him little more than mere bishop of Home ; under
the name of a reform they will destroy all appointments
and ruin the whole curia. If, on the other hand, it should
be dissolved without any good results, even the faithful
would take great offence at it, and the Avavering be placed
in the utmost danger of being utterly lost."

If we consider the state of things we shall see the total
impossibility of producing any change in the prevailing
sentiments of the council itself In direct opposition to
the legates, who were guided by the pope, and to the
Italians, who were dependent on him, stood the prelates of
the other nations, who in their turn sided each with the
ambassador of his own sovereign. Thus no reconciliation,
no expedient for mediation, was practicable. Even in
February, 1563, the position of affairs seemed desperate.
Universal discord prevailed ; each party obstinately
adhered to its own opinions.

But on a more careful examination of the precise state
of things, a possibility of escaping from this labyrinth
appeared.

In Trent, opinions only met and fought ; their sources
were at Rome and at the courts of the several princes.
In order to remove the difficulty it was necessary to go to
the fountain-head. Pius IV. had already said that the
papacy could no longer support itself mthout an alhance
with other powers ; now was the moment to put this
maxim into practice. He at one time entertained the
project of receiving the demands of the different courts
himself, and granting them without the intervention of the
council ; but this would have been a half measure only.
The essential point was to put an end to the council in
concert with the other great powers, A\atliout whose co-
operation this object could not be accomplished.

Paul IV. resolved to make the attempt, in which he was
seconded by Morone, the most able and statesmanlike of
his cardinals.

The most important person to gain was the emperor
Ferdinand, with whom, as we have already said, the French
had allied themselves, and who enjoyed no little considera-
tion from his nephew Philip II.

§ VII] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 231

Morone, who had been lately elected president of the
council, but quickly felt convinced that nothing was to be
accomplished at Trent, went in April, 1563, unaccompanied
by a single other prelate, to visit the emperor at Inspruck ;
he found him annoyed, discontented, and offended ; con-
vinced that no serious reform would be tolerated at Rome,
and determined, in the first place, to procure the freedom
of the council.''^

In order to pacify the offended sovereign, the legate
needed remarkable address, of the kind we should now call
diplomatic!

Ferdinand was incensed because his articles of reforma-
tion had been placed at the end, and, indeed, had not yet
been really brought under consideration. The legate con-
trived to persuade him that it had been thought hazardous,
for reasons by no means to be despised, to discuss them
with all the formalities ; but that, nevertheless, the most
important points had already been considered, and even
determined on. The emperor complained, furthermore,
that the council was directed from Rome, and that the
conduct of the legates was determined by instructions sent
from thence. To which Morone replied, that the ambas-
sadors from royal courts brought instructions from home,
and were constantly furnished with fresh suggestions ; an
assertion which was not to be denied.

In fact, Morone, who had long enjoyed the confidence of
the house of Austria, got over this most delicate matter
very successfully ; he softened the unfavourable personal
impressions which the emperor had received, and devoted
himself entirely to bring about a mutual agreement on
those points of dispute which had caused the greatest divi-
sions at Trent. It was not his intention to give way in
essentials, nor to suffer the power of the pope to be weak-

* To this place belongs also the Rela- -j- The most important document I

tione in scr. fatta dal Comendone ai S" have met with, relating to the transac-

Legati del Concilio sopra le cose ritratte tions at Trent, is Morone's Narrative of

dair imperatore, 19 Febr. 1563: "Pare his Legation; it is short but conclusive,

che pensino trovar modo e forma di Neither Sarpi nor Pallavicini contain

haver piu parte et autoritä nel presente any notice of it. Relatione sommaria

conciho per stabilire in esso tutte le loro del CI. Morone sopra la Legatione sua.

petitioni giuntamente con li Francesi." Altieri Library at Rome, vii. f. 3. (App.

(App. No. 38.) No. 39.)

232 LATER SITTINGS OF [Book III.

ened ; " the matter was," to use his own words, " to hit
upon such decisions as might satisfy the emperor without
trenching on the authority of the pope or the legates." '""

The first of these points was, the exclusive initiative of
the legates, which, it was always maintained, was completely
at variance with the freedom of a council. Morone
remarked, that it was not the interest of princes to grant
the initiative to all prelates, — a truth of which it could not
be very difficult for him to convince the emperor. It was
easy to see, that the bishops in possession of this right
would very soon bring forward propositions in a spirit
hostile to the existing claims and rights of the state. It
was, therefore, manifest what disorders must arise out of
such a concession. Nevertheless they desired in some
degree to meet the wishes of the princes ; and the expe-
dient they adopted is remarkable. Morone promised to
bring forward everything that the ambassadors might
submit to him for this purpose ; adding that if he did not
do this, they should have the right of proposing any mea-
sures themselves : — an endeavour at conciliation manifesting
the spirit which gradually began to prevail in the council.
The legates admit a case in which they would renounce the
exclusive initiative, but not so much in favour of the fathers
of the council as in that of the ambassadors, f Hence it
follows, that it was the princes alone who acquired a portion
of the rights hitherto exclusively enjoyed by the pope.

A second point was the demand that the deputations
which prepared the decrees should be allowed to assemble
according to their several nations. Morone observed, that,
in fact and practice, they had always done so ; but that,
since the emperor wished it, the rule should now be
estabhshed and strictly adhered to.

* "Funecessariotrovaretemperamento chichte des tridentinischen Conciliums,

tale, che paresse all' imperatore di essere iii, A. 292; — this is expressed in the fol-

in alcuno inodo satisfatto, et insieme non si lowing niannex* : " Maj . S. sibi reservavit,

ju'cgiudicasse all' autorita del pa])a ne de' vel per medium dietorum legatorum, vel

legati, ma restassc il coiicilio ncl suo pos- si ipsi in hoc gravarcntur, per se ipsum

sesso." vel per ministros suos, proponi curare :"

f Summarium eonmi quse dicuntur — I acknowledge that 1 should not readily

Acta inter Coesaream Majestatera et have inferred from these words such a

lUustrissinumi Cardinalem Moronum, in negotiation as Morone states, although,

the Acts of TorcUus ; also, in Salig, Ges- in fact, it is implied in them.

§ VIT.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 238

The third point of difference was then discussed, — reform.
Ferdinand at last consented that the expression, — reforma-
tion of the head, — should be avoided, as well as the old
question debated in the Sorbonne, — whether the authority
of the council was superior to that of the pope, or not : in
consideration of which, Morone, on his side, promised a
thorough reform in all branches. The project of this,
which was drawn up, included even thej3onclave.

Having dismissed these main questions, they were soon
agreed on the secondary ones. The emperor withdrew
many of his demands, and instructed his ambassadors above
all things to keep on good terms with the papal legates.
After this successful arrangement of affairs, Morone re-
crossed the Alps. " As soon,^^ says he, " as the favourable
decision of the emperor, and the union of the ambassadors
with the papal legates, were fully believed, the council
began to change its aspect, and to be much more easy to
treat with."

To this other circumstances contributed.

The Spaniards and French had quarrelled about the
right of precedence of the representatives of their several
kings, and from that time were much less inclined to co-
operate. Separate negotiations were therefore set on foot
with each.

Philip II. was, by the nature of his position, in most
urgent need of a good understanding with the holy see.
His power in Spain was mainly founded on religious
interests, and his first care must be to keep these in his
hands. Of this the Roman court was well aware, and the
nuncio from Madrid often said that a peaceful termination
of the council was no less desirable to the king than to the
pope. The Spanish prelates had already stirred the matter
of the burthens on ecclesiastical property, which, in their
country, formed a considerable part of the revenues of the
state ; the king took alarm at this, and begged the pope to
prohibit such offensive discussions."' How then could he
entertain a thought of procuring for his prelates the privi-
lege of moving questions, when he was occupied, on the
contrary, in keeping them within bounds ? Pius complained

* Paolo Tiepolo, Dispaccio di Spagna, 4th Dec. 1562.

234 LATER SITTINGS OF [Book III.

of the violent opposition which he always had to encounter
from the Spaniards, and the king promised to take mea-
sures to reduce them to obedience. In short, the pope and
the king came to the conviction that their interests were
the same, and entered into further negotiations. The pope
threw himself entirely into the arms of the king, while the
king solemnly promised the pope to come to his aid in
every difficulty with all the power and resources of his
Idngdom.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the French grew more
favourable to the pope. The Guises, who had so great an
influence both on the government at home and on the
council, imparted to their policy in both places a character
and tendency the most strongly and increasingly catholic.
It was entirely owing to the compliances of the cardinal de
Guise, that, after ten months' delay, after eight several
adjournments, a session was at length held.

But there was also a talk of an alliance of the strictest
kind. Guise proposed a congress of the most powerful
cathohc princes, the pope, the emperor, and the kings of
France and Spain.'"*

In order to discuss tliis more fully he went himself to
Rome : and the pope cannot find words to express his
admiration " of his Christian zeal for the service of God
and the public tranquillity, not only in the affairs of the
council, but in others which regard the general weal.'^f

It appears that the proposed congress was very agree-
able to the pope, and that he sent ambassadors to the em-
peror and king to arrange preliminaries.

Not in Trent, therefore, but at the several courts, and
by political negotiations, were the important dissensions
appeased, and the great obstacles to a successful termina-
tion of the council removed.

Morone, who had contributed the most to this result,
had also found the art of concihating the prelates per-
sonally ; he gave them all the consideration, the applause,

* Instnittione data a Mens. Carlo Barberini Library, 3007. (Appendix

Visconti, mandate da Papa Pio IV. No. 37.)

al Re catt., per le cose del Concilio f "11 bencficio universale:" Lcttera

di Treuto (ultimo Ottobre, 1563) : di Papa Pio IV., 20 Ottobro, 1563.

§ VII.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 235

the favour they desired.*'^" He afforded a signal proof what
a man of sense and address, who understands the situation
of affairs, and proposes to himself an object compatible with
it, can effect, even in circumstances of the greatest difficulty.
To him, if to any man, is the catholic church indebted for
the happy issue of the council. The way was now smoothed,
and, as he himself says, there remained only to enter upon
the difficulties inherent in the matter. The old disputed
question of the necessity of residence, and the divine right
of bishops, was still pending. For a long time the Spaniards
were immovable in their doctrines, which, even so late as
July, 1563, they declared to be as infaUible as the Ten
Commandments ; the archbishop of Granada wished to see
all books prohibited in which the contrary opinions were
maintained ; f nevertheless, when the decree was drawn
up, they consented to the suppression of their principle,
while a form was adopted which still left it possible for
them to defend it at any future time ; an ambiguity which
Lainez thought particularly worthy of praise.J

The same course was pursued as to the other point in
debate, — the imiidiiiY G,—^proponentibus legatis. The pope
declared that every individual should be free to ask and to
say, what he had a right, according to the ancient councils,
to say or to ask ; only he must carefully avoid using the
word, to propose.^ An evasion was thus contrived which
satisfied the Spaniards, while the pope had in fact conceded
nothing.

After the obstacles created by pohtical interests and
views had been withdrawn, the council sought not so much
to decide, as by adroit mediation to get rid of, the ques-
tions which had given occasion to bitterness and anger.

In this temper of the assembly, the less important and
doubtful points were more easily disposed of, and never did
business advance more rapidly. The weighty dogmas of

* I have not yet seen the Life of Ayala, + Scrittura nelle Lettere e Memorie
by Villanueva, in which, as I find, there del Nuncio Visconti, ii. 174.
must be some notice of this matter. In % " Ejus verba in utramque partem
the mean while the assertion of Morone pie satis posse exponi :" Paleotto in Mend-
is quite sufficient : " I prelati," he says, ham's Memou's of the Council of Trent,
" accarezzati e stimati e lodati e gratiati p. 262.
si fecero piu trattabili." § Pallavicini, xxiii. 6. 5.

236 LATER SITTINGS OF [Book III.

the ordination of the clergy, the sacrament of marriage,
indulgences, purgatory, the worship of saints, and by far
the most considerable reformatory ordinances which the
council had ever draT\^l up, fall within the three last ses-
sions in the latter half of the year 1563.

The congregations on both sides were composed of dif-
ferent nations. The project of reform was discussed in five
separate assemblies, one French, which met at the house ot
cardinal de Guise ; one Spanish, at that of the archbishop
of Granada; and three Itahan.'"'

On most questions they easily came to an agreement :
the only two real difficulties that presented themselves
were, as to the exemption of chapters, and the plurality of
livings, in which private interests once more played an
important part.

The former of these questions especially affected Spain ;
where the chapters had already lost somewhat of the ex-
traordinary pri^^leges they had formerly possessed. While
they washed to regain them, the king aimed at curtailing
them still more : as he appointed the bishops, he was him-
self interested in the extension of the episcopal power.
The pope, on the contrary, was for the chapters ; since
their absolute subjection to the bishops would have tended
not a little to diminish his influence over the church of
Spain.

These two great powers were, therefore, once more
brought into colhsion on this point, and it was a question,
which would gain the majority. The king, too, was ex-
tremely strong in the council ; his ambassador had had
power to send away a delegate who was appointed by the
chapters to watch over their privileges ; he had so many
ecclesiastical favours to dispense, that no man liked to risk
a rupture with him ; in consequence of wliicli, when it came
to the voting orally, the result was unfiivourable to the
chapters. The expedient which the papal legates next
devised, is worth notice. They determined this time that
the votes should be given in writing; since the oral decla-

♦ Tlie best accounts of this subject, for, in Baini, Vita di Palcstrina, i. ]99.
taken from anthontic letters, are to be The Diary of Sorvantio, made use of by
found, wliere they would not be looked Mendham, (p. 304), touches on the affair.

§ VII.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 237

rations, delivered in the presence of so many adherents of
the king, were overruled by the influence of Spain ; but
this vras not the case with the written ones, which passed
immediately into the hands of the legates. By this 'means,
therefore, they succeeded in obtaining a considerable ma-
jority in favour of the papal party and the chapters; sup-
ported by which, they then, with Guise's mediation, entered
into fresh negotiations with the Spanish prelates, who at
length acquiesced in a far smaller extension of their autho-
rity than they had aspired to.*

Still more important to the curia was the second article,
concerning the plurality of benefices. A reform of the
institution of cardinals had long been talked of, and there
were many who thought they discovered the origin of all
evil in its degeneracy. One of the most prominent abuses
was the number of benefices which they held, and the
reformers intended to check this by the most rigorous laws.
It is easy to understand how sensitive the curia must have
been on the subject of every innovation which had such an
object in view ; it feared and shunned even a serious dis-
cussion on the subject. The expedient adopted by Morone
in this matter also, is very singular. He mixed up the
reform of the cardinals with the articles concerning the
bishops. " Few,'' says he himself, " perceived the import-
ance of the affair, and in this way all rocks and quicksands
were avoided."

The pope having thus happily accomplished the main-
tenance of the court of Rome in the form and state it had
hitherto held, evinced a readiness to let drop the subject
of the reformation of princes which had been projected ;
in this he yielded to the representations of the emperor, f

The whole of the proceedings were in fact like those of

* Sarpi, viii. 816, does not render this gia era tornato da Roma, tutto addetto

affair quite intelligible. The authentic al servitio di S. Beatitudine et alia fine

explanation by Morone, is very accept- del concilio." (App. No. 39.)

able : " L'articolo delle cause e dell' + The fact, that a thorough reform of

essenzioni de' canonici fu vinto secondo the curia, the cardinals, and the conclave,

la domanda degli oltramontani : poi did not take place, is closely connected

facendosi contra I'uso che U padri tutti with the neglect of the reformation of

dessero voti in iscritto, furono mutate the sovereigns. Extracts from the cor-

molte sententie e fu vinto il contrario, respondence of the legates, in Pallavicini,

Si venne al fin alia concordia che si vede xxiii, 7, 4.
nei decreti, e fu mezzano Lorena, che

238 LATER SITTINGS OF [Book III.

an amicable congress. While the questions of subordinate
interest were reduced to universal decrees by the divines,
the courts negotiated concerning the more important.
Messengers were incessantly flying in every direction, and
one concession was requited by another.

The pope's strongest wish was to bring things to a speedy
termination. For a time the Spaniards hesitated to agree
to this ; the reform was not yet satisfactory to them, and
the royal envoy once even made a show of protesting ;
but, as the pope declared himself disposed, in case of
urgency, to summon a new synod f' as the strongest
objections existed to protracting the proceedings till a
vacancy of the holy see might occur, whilst the council
was still sitting ; lastly, as every body was tired and
wanted to go home, — even they at length gave way.

The spirit of the opposition was essentially subdued ;
indeed, in its later stages, the council manifested the
greatest submissiveness. It condescended to ask of the
pope a confirmation of its decrees ; and expressly declared
that all canons of reform, whatever might be the words in
which they were expressed, were conceived on the full
understanding that the dignity of the holy see would be
untouched by them.f How far was the council of Trent
from reviving the claims of Constance or of Basle to a
superiority over the papal authority ! The proclamations,
with which the sittings were closed (drawn up by cardinal
Guise), contained a distinct and particular recognition of
the ecclesiastical supremacy of the pope.

Such was the successful issue of the council, which, so
urgently demanded, so long deferred, twice dissolved,
shaken by so many political storms, and, even at its third
convocation, beset with dangers, ended in the universal
agreement of the catholic world. It is no wonder, that at
the last meeting of the prelates on the 4th of Dec, 1563,
they were full of emotion and gladness. Even opponents
wished each other joy ; tears were seen in many of those
aged eyes.

But if all the supple and dexterous policy which we
have observed, had been needed to arrive at this result, we

♦ Pallavicini, xxiv. 8, 5. f Sessio xxv. c. xxi.

§ VII.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 239

may be led to inquire, whether the efficiency of the council
had not been thus necessarily impaired 1

The council of Trent, if not the most important of all,
is unquestionably the most important of any that have
been held in the later ages of the church.

Its importance is compressed into two grand crises.

In the first, which we touched upon in a former place,
during the war of Smalcalde, the creed of Rome, after
many vacillations, severed itself for ever from the Pro-
testant doctrines. The entire system of dogmatic catholic-
ism, such as it is still professed, arose out of the doctrine
of justification as then expounded.

In the second, which we have just considered, after
Morone's conferences with the emperor in the summer and
autumn of the year 1563, the hierarchy was organised
anew ; theoretically, by the decrees concerning the conse-
cration of the clergy, practically, by the canons of reform.

These reforms are to this hour of the highest importance.

The faithful were again subjected to severe and uncom-
promising church discipline, and, in pressing cases, to the
sword of excommunication. Seminaries were founded, in
which the young clergy were carefully educated in austere
habits, and in the fear of God. The parishes were regu-
lated anew, strict rules laid down for the administration of
the sacrament and for preaching, and the co-operation of
the regular clergy governed by fixed laws. The duties of
their office, especially the supervision of the clergy, were
strongly impressed upon the bishops according to the
several degrees of their consecration. They also solemnly
bound themselves by a peculiar profession of faith (which
they subscribed, and to which they swore), to observe the
decrees of the council of Trent, and to render entire obe-
dience to the pope. A measure, the consequences of which
were most important.

The object, which was certainly contemplated by the
first movers of a general council of the church, i.e., the
limitation of the power of the pope, was, however, not
attained by it. On the contrary, that power emerged
fi:'om the struggle extended and enhanced. As the pontiff
held the exclusive right of interpreting the decrees of

240 PIUS IV. [Book III.

Trent, it always rested with him to prescribe the nile of
faith and of Hfe. The whole direction of the restored
discipline was concentrated in Rome.

The catholic church saw and admitted the diminished
extent of her dominion ; she ceased to take any notice of
Greece and the east, and thrust protestantism from her
with countless anathemas.

Primitive Catholicism included an element of protest-
antism in its bosom ; this was now for ever expelled. But
the more the power of the church of Rome was circum-
scribed, the more was it concentrated and collected against
all assaults.

It was, as we have seen, only by the consent and assist-
ance of the leading catholic sovereigns that so much was
effected : and in this union of Catholicism with royalty lies
one of the main conditions of its subsequent development,
which has an analogy with the tendency of protestantism
to combine sovereign with episcopal rights. This gradually
arose among catholics. It is easy to see that it involves a
possibility of fresh division ; but of that there was no
immediate fear. In one province after another the resolu-
tions of the council were promptly accepted.

The claims of Pius IV. to a distinguished place in
history, rest upon the part he took in this event. He
was the first pope who consciously and designedly
renounced the tendency of the hierarchy to set itself in
opposition to the civil power.

Having attained this grand result, Pius undoubtedly
thought he had completed the task allotted him. It is
remarkable, that his mind relaxed from its tension as soon
as the council was closed. Men thought they observed
that he neglected divine service, indulged too much in the
pleasures of the table, and delighted in a splendid court,
sumptuous feasts, and magnificent buildings. The zealous
remarked a difference between him and his predecessor,
which they loudly lamented.'"'

* Paolo Tiepolo : " Doppo che questo grande soUecitudine fattosi fcrmo e ga-
(il concilio) hobho fine, libcrato da una gliardo nell' autorita sua, incomincio piu

§ VII.] PIUS IV. 241

Nevertheless, no great reaction was likely to ensue. A
tendency had unfolded itself in Catholicism vy^hich could
never again be repressed or overcome.

When once a spirit is aroused, it is impossible to
prescribe the path it shall follow. Any, even the most
trifling deviation from its laws, on the part of those who
are regarded as its representatives, excites the most extra-
ordinary symptoms of agitation in the public mind. Thus
the spirit of rigid Catholicism which had arisen, instantly
became perilous, even to Pius IV. himself

There lived in Rome a certain Benedetto Accolti,
cathohc to enthusiasm, always speaking of a mystery
which God had entrusted to him, and which he would
reveal ; as a proof that he spoke truth, he offered to walk
unhurt through a burning pile on the Piazza Navona in the
presence of the assembled people. His mystery was this :
he imagined he had a foreknowledge that a union would
soon take place between the Greek and Roman churches ;
that this united catholic church would reduce the Turks
and all heretics to subjection; that the pope would be a
holy man, would attain to a universal monarchy, and would
bring back the reign of perfect justice on earth. He was
filled to fanaticism with these notions.

He found, however, that Pius IV., whose worldly charac-
ter and habits were infinitely removed from his ideal, was
not suited to so sublime an undertaking. Benedetto
Accolti thought he was appointed by God to rid Christen-
dom of so unprofitable a chief

He formed a plan to assassinate the pope, and succeeded
in finding an associate to whom he promised recompense
from God, and from the future holy sovereign pontiff. One
day they set out on their enterprise. They saw the pope
approaching in the midst of a procession, easily accessible,
tranquil, without suspicion, and without defence. Accolti,
instead of rushing upon him, began to tremble and to change
colour. The pomp and circumstance that surround a pope

liberamente ad operare conforme alia sua suo, che di pontefice, che avesse rispctto

inclinatione e pensieri : onde facilmente al beneficio e salute degli altri." (App.

si conobbe in lui animo piu tosto da prin- No. 4 1 .) The same remark is made by

cipe, che attendesse solamente al fatto Panvinius.

VOL. I. K

242 PIUS V. [Book HI.

could not fail to make a strong impression on so fanatical
a catholic. The pope passed by.

Others, however, had observed Accolti. Antonio Ca-
nossa, the companion whom he had seduced to join him,
was not a man of stubborn resolution ; one while, he suffered
himself to be persuaded to make a fresh attempt to execute
their design, at another, he felt tempted to denounce himself
and his associate in crime. They did not preserve entire
secrecy, and at length were arrested and condemned to
death. ''^

We see what spirits were in motion in these excited
times. Much as Pius had done for the reconstruction of
the church, there were yet many to whom it seemed quite
insufficient, and who cherished far other projects.

§ 8. PIUS V.

After the death of Pius IV., which occurred on the
9th of Dec, 1565, the adherents of the rigid party in
the church gained a great and unexpected advantage in
the election of a pope who was entirely one of themselves.
This pope was Pius V.

I will not repeat the more or less doubtful accounts of
his election given in the book on the conclaves and in
some of the historians of the time. We have a letter by
Carlo Borromeo, who was known to have the greatest
influence on their choice, which gives us sufficient infor-
mation on the subject. " I resolved,'^ says he, " to attend
to nothing so much as religion and faith ; and as I was
acquainted with the piety, purity of life, and devout spirit
of the cardinal of Alessandria — afterwards Pius V., — I
thought that the republic of Christ would be most fitly
administered by him, and used my utmost exertions in
his favour." f From a man of such a profoundly spiritual
temper as Carlo Borromeo no other motives could possibly
be expected. Phihp IL, gained over by his ambassador

• I take these facts, which I have qual causa io moro, quale si degnerä V. S.

nowhere else found, from a MS. in the niandare alii miei S". padre e madre."

Corsini Library at Rome, No. 674, with (App. No. 40.)

the title : Antonio Canossa : Questo e il f Clis. Borromeus, Henrico Cli. Infanti

Rommario della mia depositione per la Portugallice, Romte, d. 26 Febr. 1566,

§ VIII.] PIUS V. 243

to the interest of the same cardinal, expressly thanked
Borromeo for the share he had had in this election. ^'^ The
new pope was precisely the man who was thought to be
wanted. The adherents of Paul IV., who had hitherto
remained quiet, thought themselves happy. Some of their
letters are still extant : — " To Rome, to Rome,'^ writes one
of them, "come with confidence, and without delay, but
with all modesty ; God has raised up to us another
Paul IV.^^

Michele Ghislieri, now Pius V., born of humble parent-
age at Bosco near Alessandria, in the year 1504, entered
a Dominican convent when he was only fourteen. There
he gave himself up, body and soul, to the monastic poverty
and piety which his order enjoined. He did not retain so
much of the alms he received as to buy himself a cloak ;
the best preservative against the effect of summer heat,
he said, was to eat little ; and although confessor to the
governor of Milan, he always travelled on foot, with his
wallet on his back. If he taught, he did it with zeal and
precision ; if he had to administer the affairs of a convent
as prior, he was severe and frugal, and extricated more
than one religious house from debt. His moral growth
and training were accomplished in the years in which the
conflict between the established creed and the protestant
innovations extended even to Italy. He took part in
favour of the strictest form of the ancient faith, in thirty
disputations which he held in 1543 at Parma, most of
which related to the authority of the pope, and were
opposed to the new opinions. He very soon received an
appointment as inquisitor, and had to exercise his ofiice in
places of peculiar danger ; in Como and Bergamo, f where

Glussiani Vita C. Borromei, p. 62. Com- trocchi relates in the Remarks on Guis-

pare Ripamonti, Historia Urbis Medio- sano, p. 219, thus falls to the ground,

lani, lib. xii. p. 814. The election took place on the 8th Jan.,

* I find this in a Dispaccio di Soranzo, 1566.
Amb''^ in Spagna : " Non essendo conos- + Paolo Tiepolo, Relazione di Roma

ciute le qualita di S. Sk., da questo Ser*"" in Tempo di Pio IV. et V. : "In Ber-

re, mentre era in cardinalato, il detto gamo h fu levato per forza dalle prigioni

commendator (Luigi Requesens, Comm. del monastero di S. Domenico, dove allora

maggior) sempre lo laudo molto, predi- si solevano mettere i rei, un principale

cando questo soggetto esser degno del heretico, nominato Giorgio Mondaga

pontificato, con il che S. M. si mosse a [another name for the list of Itahan pro-

dargli ordine che con ogni suo potere li testants], con gran pericolo suo e de'

desse favore." The story which 01- frati. Nella medesima cittä poi tra-

r2

244 ^lUS V. [Book ITT.

the intercoiTrsc with Germans and Swiss could not be
avoided, and in the Valtchne, which belonged to the
Grisons. In this situation, he displayed the pertinacity
and the courage of a zealot. Sometimes he was received
on his entrance to Como with showers of stones ; often he
was obliged to conceal himself by night in a peasant's hut,
and to escape like a criminal, in order to save his hfe : bTit
no personal danger could turn him from his purpose. The
Conte della Trinitä threatened to have him thro^vTi into a
well ; he replied that it must be as God pleased. In this
way he was implicated in the struggle of intellectual and
political powers which then agitated Italy. As the side
which he had taken was the victorious one, he shared in
its elevation and success. He became commissary of the
inquisition in Rome. Paul IV. very soon remarked that
he was an eminent servant of God, and worthy of higher
honours ; he nominated him bishop of Nepi, as a means
of effectually preventing his returning to the seclusion of
a cloister ;'" and, in 1557, cardinal. Even in this new and
high dignity, Ghislieri preserved all his austerity, poverty
and humility ; he told his household, that they must
imagine they lived in a convent. He was exclusively
devoted to the practices of piety, and to the business of
the inquisition.

In a man of this character, Borromeo, Philip II. and the
whole strict party thought they beheld the saviour of the
church. The citizens of Rome were not so well satisfied.
" They shall lament for me so much the more, when I am
dead," said Pius V. when he heard it.

Even when pope, he lived in all the austerity of his
monastic life, fasted with the utmost rigour and punctuality,
would wear no finer garments than before, f frequently
said mass and heard it every day; yet so careftil was he
lest his spiritual exercises should distract him from public

vaglio assai per formare il processo con- Paolo Tiepolo (2 Oct. 1568), iuform us.

tra il vescovo allora di Bergamo." (App. (App. No. 41, 42.)

No. 41.) t Catena. Tiepolo : " Nij mai ha las-

* Catena, Vita di Pio V., whence we ciato la camisia di rassa, che conic frate

have taken tlie greater number of our incomincio di portare. Fa le orationi

accounts, contains this also. Pius V. devotissimamcnte et alcune volte colle

himself related it to the Venetian ambas- lacrime."
sudors, as they, viz., Mich. Suriano and

§ viii.j PIUS V. 245

business, that he arose at an extremely early hour in the
morning and took no siesta. If we were inclined to
doubt the depth of his rehgious earnestness, we may accept
as a proof of it, his declaration that he found the papacy
unfavourable to his advance in piety ; that it did not con-
tribute to enable him to work out the salvation of his soul,
or to attain to the glories of paradise ; he thought that,
without prayer, this burthen would be too heavy for him
to bear. The happiness of a fervent devotion which often
moved him to tears, and from which he arose with the
persuasion that he was heard — this happiness, the only
one of which he had ever been susceptible, was granted
him to the end of his life. The people were excited to
enthusiasm when they saw him walking in processions,
barefoot and bareheaded, with the genuine expression of
unaffected piety in his countenance, and with his long-
snow-white beard falhng on his breast ; they thought
there had never been so pious a pope — they repeated to
each other how his very look had converted heretics. Pius
was kind too, and affable ; his intercourse with his old
servants was of the most confidential kind. How beautiful
was his greeting to that same Conte della Trinita, who had
threatened his life, and who was now sent as ambassador
to his court ! " See," said he, " when he recognised him,
how God preserves the innocent ; '^ this was the only
way in which he ever made the count feel that he recol-
lected his enmity. He had ever been most charitable
and bounteous ; he kept a list of the poor of Rome, whom
he regularly assisted according to their station and their
wants.

Men of this character are habitually humble, meek and
childlike ; but when irritated and wounded, their anger is
violent, and their resentment implacable. They regard
their peculiar form of faith as a duty of the highest order,
the nonfulfilment of which exasperates them. Pius V. had
the most thorough conviction that he had never deviated
from the right path ; the fact that this path had conducted
him to the papacy, filled him with a confidence which
raised him completely above all idea of doubt or com-
promise.

246 I*IUS V. " [Book HI.

He adhered with intense obstinacy to his opinions,
which the strongest arguments would not induce him to
change. He was easily irritated by contradiction, became
red in the face, and used the most violent expressions.'"'
As he understood httle of the affairs of the world and of
the state, and suffered himself to be affected in various
ways by subordinate and accidental circumstances, it was
exceedingly difficult to deal with him.

In his personal relations, he did not indeed allow himself
to be determined by first impressions ; but when once he
had made up his mind that a man was good or bad, no-
thing could change his opinion. f He was, however, more
ready to believe that people grew worse than better; most
men were objects of suspicion to him.

It was remarked, that he never commuted a sentence for
a more lenient one ; on the contrary, he generally wished
them more severe.

It was not enough in his estimation that the inquisition
punished crimes of recent date, he caused inquiry to be
made into those of ten or twenty years' standing. If a
place was distinguished for the small number of its convic-
tions, he thought it needed purging ; he attributed its
exemption from punishments to the neghgence of the
authorities.

Let us only see with what rigour he urged the main-
tenance of church disciphne. " We forbid," says he in one
of his bulls, " every physician who may be called to the
bedside of a patient, to visit him for more than three days,
unless he receives an attestation that the sick man has
made fresh confession of his sins.'^J Another allots the
punishments for the desecration of the sabbath and for
blasphemy. In the case of wealthy offenders, fines were
imposed. " But a poor man who cannot pay, shall, for

* Informatione di Pio V. (Ambrosian profitta a se stesso et altri." (App.

I.ibrary at Milan, F. D. 181 :) «La Si\ No. 43.)

S naturaiinente e gioviale e place vole, f Informatione di Pio V. : " E piu

80 ben per accidente pare di altra dis- difficultoso di lasciar la cattiva impres-

positione, e di qui viene che volontieri sione che la buona, e massimamentc di

onestamente i-acjiona con Mi', Cisillo suo quelle persone che non ha in pratica."
maestro di casa, il quale con le sue pia- X Supra gi'egcm domiuicum : Bull iv.

ccvolezze, cssendo huomo destro et ii. p. 281.
accorto, diletta S. Bcatitudinc, e sempre

§ viiL] PIUS V. 247

the first offence, stand the whole of one day before the
church-door with his hands tied behind his back ; for the
second, he shall be flogged through the town ; and for the
third, his tongue shall be pierced and he shall be sent to
the galleys/^

Such is the general tenor of his ordinances ; his attend-
ants were continually obhged to repeat to him, that he
had to deal, not with angels but with men."^^

The urgent necessity which now existed for avoiding
any measures ofiensive to the temporal potentates of
Europe, did not restrain him in these courses : the bull
In Ccend Domini, which the princes had always complained
of, he not only reissued, but enhanced its severity by new
provisions of his own, in which he evinced a general pur-
pose of refiising to governments the right of imposing new
t/axes»

It may be concluded, of course, that a reaction followed
upon such violent encroachments. It was not only that the
demands which a man of such sternness and austerity con-
ceives himself entitled to make upon mankind, can never
be satisfied ; but in this case they provoked deliberate
resistance and gave rise to countless misunderstandings.
Devout and bigoted as Phihp II. was, even he was once
forced to remind the pope that he had better not try what
a king, pushed to the last extremity, was capable of doing.

This, the pope, on his side, felt most profoundly. He
was often unhappy in his lofty station. He said he was
weary of life ; that as he had acted without regard to
persons, he had made enemies ; and that since he had
been pope he had experienced nothing but disgusts and
persecutions.

Be this as it may, and although Pius V., like other men,
was doomed to find that supreme power did not bring him
full content and satisfaction, it is certain that his deport-
ment and mode of thinking exercised an incalculable influ-
ence on his contemporaries, and on the general development

* In the Informationi Politiche, xii., this subject. The Caporioni begged the

there is, for instance, an " Epistola a pope to show them at least the smallest

N. S. Pio v., nella quale si esorta S. S. degree of tolerance. The pope answered,

tolerare gli Ebrei et le corteggiane," by " he had rather quit Rome than wink at

a certain Bertano ; which expatiates on such things."

248 PI^'S V. [Book III.

of the church of which he was the head. After so many
circumstances had concurred to excite and to foster a reU-
gious spirit, after so many resolutions and measures had
been taken to exalt it to universal dominion, a pope like
this was needed, not only to proclaim it to the world, but
also to reduce it to practice : his zeal and his example
combined produced the most powerful effect.

The reformation of the court, so often promised, was
now set on foot, if not in the form which had been pro-
posed, yet in fact and practice. The expenses of the papal
household were immensely reduced. Pius V. needed little
for his own wants, and often said, " He who would govern,
must begin with himself." He provided liberally for his
servants, who had been faithful to him through his whole
life, not, he believed, from any hope of reward, but from
attachment alone ; but he held his dependents generally
within stricter bounds than any pope before him had ever
done. He gave his nephew Bonelli, whom he created car-
dinal only because he was told that this was essential to
a more intimate connexion with the temporal powers, a
moderate establishment ; but on one occasion when Bonelli^s
father came to Rome, he compelled him to quit the city
the same night, nay the same hour : he w^ould never raise
his other relations above a middle station, and if one among
them was detected in any offence, even in a lie, he never
forgave him, but drove him without mercy from liis pre-
sence. How far was such a state of things from that system
of nepotism which for centuries had constituted so large a
portion of papal history 1 By one of his most severe and
earnest bulls Pius forbade any future infeudation of church
property under any title or pretext whatsoever ; he uttered
sentence of excommunication against those who should
even so much as advise it, and he made all the cardinals
subscribe this edict. ■^^'

He proceeded strenuously in the removal of abuses ;
granted few dispensations, and yet fewer compositions,
and often limited the indulgences granted by his predeces-
sors. He charged his auditor-general to proceed without

* Prohibitio alituaiidi ct iiifcudaudi civitates et loca S. 11. E. : Admouet uos :
1 567, 29 Mart.

§ VIII.] • PIUS V. 249

delay against all archbishops or bishops who did not reside
in their dioceses, and to report to him, in order that he
might immediately dismiss the disobedient.'"' He com-
manded all parish priests, under heavy penalties, to remain
in their parishes and to see that God^s service was duly
performed ; he recalled whatever dispensations they might
have received on this matter.f Nor were his efforts to
restore the order and discipline of the cloister less stre-
nuous. On the one side he confirmed to the convents
their exemption from taxes and other burthens, for instance,
the quartering of troops, — for he would not suffer their
tranquillity to be interrupted ; but at the same time he
forbade monks to hear confession without the permission
and examination of the bishop, and ordained that every
new bishop should have power to repeat the examination.^
He commanded the strictest seclusion, as well of monks as
of nuns. This was not universally commended. It was
alleged that he imposed upon people severer rules than
they had engaged to abide by ; some fell into despondency,
others fled from the cloister. J

All these things he carried into effect first in Rome and
the states of the church. He bound the secular as well as
the spiritual authorities to the maintenance of his spiritual
ordinances, || while he himself watched over a severe and
impartial administration of justice ;1F he not only earnestly
admonished magistrates to that end, but every last Wed-
nesday of the month held a public session with the
cardinals, at which all persons whatever might state any
complaints they had to make of the ordinary tribunals.

Independently of this, he was unwearied in giving

* Cum Alias, 1566, 10 Junii. Bull, gratie non si cura delle circonstanze,

iv. ii. 303. secondo che alle volte sarebbe necessario

f Cupientes, 1568, 8 Julii. Bull. iv. per qualsivoglia rispetto considerabile,

iii. 24. ne a requisition d' aleuno la giustitia si

J Romani, 1571, 6 Aug. Bull. iv. iii. ha punto alterata, aneora che sia senza

177. dar scandalo e con esempio d' altri pon-

§ Tiepolo : " Spesse volte nel dar tefici potesse fare." Soriano is of opinion

rimedio a qualche disordine incorre in that he never granted any favour without

un' altro maggiore, procedendo massima- adding to it an admonition : " il che mi

mente per via degli estremi." parse proprio il stilo de' confessori, che

II Bull. iv. iii. 284. famio una gran riprensione al penitente,

TI Informatione delle qualita di Pio quando sono per assolverlo." (App.

v., e delle cose che da quelle dependono No. 42.)

(Berlin Library) : « Nel conferire le ,

250 PIUS V. [Book III.

audience. From early morning he remained seated in his
chair, and every body was admitted to his presence. In
effect this zeal and activity produced a total reform of the
manners of Rome. "At Rome/' says Paolo Tiepolo, "things
now go on in a wholly different way from that we have
been accustomed to. Men are become much better, or at
least they appear so.''

The same results took place more or less all over Italy.
Church disciphne was universally rendered more strict by
the publication of the decrees of the council, and a degree
of obedience was paid to the pope which it was long since
any of his predecessors had obtained.

Duke Cosmo of Florence scrupled not to deUver up to
him those who were condemned by the inquisition. Car-
nesecchi, one of the literati who had taken part in the first
movement towards protestantism in Italy, had hitherto
escaped unharmed ; but now neither his personal respect-
abihty, nor the reputation of his family, nor the relation in
which he stood to the reigning house, had power to afford
him protection ; he was dehvered up in fetters to the
Roman inquisition, and condemned to perish in the flames.*
Cosmo was entirely devoted to the pope. He supported
him in all his undertakings, and admitted all his spiritual
claims without hesitation. In return, the pope was induced
to confer on him the title and the crown of grand duke of
Tuscany. The right of the see of Rome to make such a
grant was in the highest degree questionable, and Cosmo's
immoralities rendered it justly offensive ; but the devotion
he manifested to the holy see, the strict ecclesiastical ndes
which he introduced into liis dominions, were, in the eyes
of the pope, merits which covered all his defects.

The old antagonists of the Medici, the Farnesi, rivalled
them in the same course. Otta\4o Farnese deemed it an
honour to execute the commands of the pope on the
shghtest hint.

The terms on which Pius stood with the Venetians were
not quite so good. They were neither so hostile to the
Turks, nor so indulgent to monastic bodies, nor so obse-
quious to the inquisition, as he desired. He took care

* 1567. Cantini, Vita di Cosimo, p. 4o8.

§ viiL] PIUS V. 251

however not to quarrel with them. He pronounced that
the repubhc was founded on the faith ; that she had ever
remained true to the cathohc church ; that she alone had
been exempted from the incursions of barbarians ; that
the honour of Italy rested on her : — he declared that he
loved Yenice. The Venetians, on their side, conceded
more to him than they had done to any other pope. They
delivered up the unfortunate Guido Zanetti of Fano, who
had fallen under suspicion of heterodoxy and had fled to
Padua : — an act unknown before in Venice. The clergy
of the city, who for a long time had troubled themselves
little about the rules of the church, were brought into
tolerable order. Besides this, the churches of Verona were
placed under the most admirable discipline by G. Matteo
Giberti. His example was quoted as affording a perfect
pattern of the life of a true bishop ;'^^ his plans and regu-
lations served as models throughout the catholic world, and
many of them were adopted by the council of Trent.
Carlo Borromeo caused a portrait of him to be painted,
and kept it before his eyes, that he might be constantly
reminded of his life and conversation.

But a still stronger influence was exercised by Carlo Bor-
romeo himself. Possessed of various dignities and appoint-
ments (among others that of grand penitentiary), chief of
the cardinals nominated by his uncle, he might have occu-
pied the most brilhant position in Rome ; but he renounced
all, he declined all, to devote himself to the duties of his
archbishopric of Milan. He devoted himself to them with
singular energy, nay, with passion. He constantly tra-
velled about his diocese in every direction, nor was there
a village in it which he had not visited two or three times ;
the loftiest mountain, the most secluded valley, did not
escape his notice. He was generally preceded by a visi-
tator, whose report he received ; but he proceeded to
examine into everything with his own eyes, he adjudged
the punishment of offences, and confirmed all improve-
ments and reforms, f He led his clergy to adopt similar

* Petri Francisci Zini, boni pastoris and originally intended for England,

exeraplum ac specimen singulare ex Jo. Opera Giberti, p. 252.
Matthaeo Giberto Episcopo expressum f Glussianus, De vita et rebus gestis

atque propositum. Written in 1556, S. Caroli Borromaei Mediol. p. 112 :

252 PIUS V. [Book III.

proceedings; six provincial councils were held under his
presidency. But he was also unwearied in the perform-
ance of his own peculiar functions as a minister of the
church. He preached and said mass, passed whole days
in administering the Lord's supper, ordaining priests,
receiving the profession of nuns, and consecrating altars.
The ceremony of the consecration of an altar lasted eight
hours ; it is calculated that he consecrated three hundred.
It must be admitted that many of his measures were of a
wholly external character, being directed more particularly
to the restoration of buildings, harmonising of the ritual,
exhibition and adoration of the host, &c. The main point
is the rigid discipline in which he held his clergy, and
in which their flocks were again held by them. He
perfectly understood the means of winning acceptance
and obedience to his ordinances. In the Swiss dis-
tricts he visited the places of the most ancient and vene-
rable sanctity, distributed gifts among the people, and
invited the men of higher station to his table. On the
other hand, he knew how to meet disobedience with
cfi*ective measures. The country people in Valcamonica
waited in the roads to receive his blessing as he passed,
but, as they had not paid their tithes for some time, he
drove through them without moving his hand or looking
at them. The people were terrified, and consented to pay
all their arrears. ''' Yet he occasionally fomid more stub-
born and bitter resistance. The members of the order
of the UmiUati, who had entered it only that they might
enjoy its wealth in dissolute living, f were so incensed at
his attempts to reform them that they conspired against
his life. While he was praying in liis chapel, a shot was
fired at him. Nothing, however, was more useful to him
than this attack. The people deemed his escape a miracle,
and from that moment regarded him with the utmost

very detailed on the " ritus visitationis," which could have maintaiued a hundi*ed

aiid all such things. men ; but so little numerous were the

* llipamontc, Historia Urbis Medio- members of thcii* society, that but two

huii, in Gnevius, ii. i. p. 8()4. liipa- fell to each house. The Order was dis-

monte has besides dedicated tlie whole solved, and the endowments of JioiTomeo,

of the Second Part of his History, lib. as well as the Jesuits, tlien benefited by

xi. xvii., to St. Charles Borromeus. theii* posbcssions,

t They had in all Ü4 houses, each of

§ VIII.] PIUS V. 253

veneration. Since his zeal was as pure, as free from all
alloy of earthly motives, as it was steady and persevering ;
since, even in the hour of danger, amid all the horrors of
the plague, he showed an unwearied solicitude for the
temporal and eternal safety of those committed to his care
and government, his influence increased from day to day,
and Milan assumed a totally different aspect. " How can
I sufficiently praise thee, fairest of cities !" exclaims Gabri-
elle Paleotto, towards the end of Borromeo's administration ;
" I admire thy sanctity and thy piety, I behold in thee a
new Jerusalem." — Whatever might be the worldliness of
the Milanese nobility, exclamations so enthusiastic could
not be uttered without some reason, and the duke of Savoy
solemnly congratulated the archbishop on the results of
his labours. The latter now sought to establish his regu-
lations on a secure and permanent basis. A congregation
was instituted whose business it was to watch over the
uniformity of the ritual ; a peculiar order of regular clergy
called Oblati devoted themselves by vow to the service of
the archbishop and his church ; the Barnabites received
new rules, and from that time have made it their duty to
assist the bishops in the cure of souls, at first at Milan,
and afterwards wherever introduced.'" These arrange-
ments were imitated on a small scale by the Romans. A
collegium Helveticum was also founded in Milan for the
restoration of Catholicism in Switzerland, like the colle-
gium Germanicum in Rome, which we have mentioned
as having the same object in view for Germany. The
dignity and influence of the pope could only be height-
ened and confirmed by these measures. Borromeo,
who never received a papal brief without uncovering his
head, implanted his own reverential sentiments in his
church.

Meanwhile Pius Y. had also acquired unwonted influence
in Naples. In the very first days of his pontificate he had
sent for Tommaso Orfino da Foligno, and charged him with
a reformatory visitation of the Roman churches. After
this was completed, he nominated Orfino bishop of Strongoli,

* Ripamonte, 857. To the first foun- Ferraria, and Morigia : Giussano, p. 442,
ders he gives the names of Beccaria, makes use of the customary names.

254 ^lUS V. [Book III.

and sent him for the same purpose to Naples. Amidst a
great concourse of this devout people, Orfino accomphshed
his visitation in the capital, and throughout a considerable
part of the kingdom.

In Naples as well as in Milan, the pope had, it is true,
frequent disputes with the royal authorities. The king
complained of the bull In Ccend Domini, — the pope would
hear nothing of the Exequatur Regium ; the one thought
that the spiritual authorities did too much, the other, that
the royal functionaries did too Httle : there were incessant
provocations between the viceroys and the archbishops.
The court of Madrid was, as we have said, often thoroughly
discontented, and the king's confessor loudly complained.
Yet there was no open rupture. Each sovereign invariably
laid the chief blame on the officers and advisers of the
other ; they themselves personally maintained a friendly
intercourse. Once when Philip was ill, Pius V. raised his
hands to heaven and prayed that God would deliver him
from his sickness : the aged man prayed God to take some
years from his own life, and add them to that of the king,
on whom so much more depended than on himself.

Spain too was governed entirely in the spirit of ecclesi-
astical regeneration. The king had doubted for a moment
whether he should immediately recognise the decrees of
the council of Trent, or not ; at all events he would fain
have limited the right of the papal power to make con-
cessions at variance with those decrees ; but the religious
character of his monarchy forbade every attempt of this
kind ; he saw that he must avoid even the semblance of a
serious difference with the holy see, if he wished to remain
secure of the obedience which was paid to himself The
decrees of the council were universally promulgated and
its regulations introduced. The strictly dogmatic tendency
was predominant here also. Carranga, archbishop of
Toledo, was the highest ecclesiastic of the land ; he was
formerly member of the council of Trent, and the man
who, after Pole, had done more than any other for the
restoration of Catholicism in England under Queen Mary ;
yet spite of all these claims to reverence, he could not
escape the inquisition. " I have," says he, " had no other

§ VIII.] PIUS V. 255

object than the suppression of heresy, and in this God has
shown favour to me. I have myself converted many who
had erred from the faith ; I have caused the bodies of some
leaders of heresy to be dug up and burned ; catholics and
protestants have called me the chief defender of the faith."
But these unquestionable proofs of Catholicism availed him
nothing against the inquisition. Sixteen articles were
found in his works, in which he appeared to lean to the
doctrines of the protestants, mainly with regard to justifi-
cation. After being imprisoned for a long time in Spain
and tormented with the tedious forms of procedure, he was
carried to Rome ; it appeared a great favour to snatch him
out of the grasp of his personal enemies, yet even in Rome
he could not escape sentence of death. "^^

If this was the fate of so exalted a personage, if this the
termination of so doubtful a case, it may be imagined how
little the inquisition could be disposed to tolerate undenia-
ble deviations from the faith, on the part of persons of
inferior station, such as here and there occurred in Spain.
All the relentless severity with which the traces of Jewish
or Mahommedan opinions had been persecuted, was now
directed against the protestants. One auto da fe followed
hard upon another, till every germ of heresy was at length
crushed. After the year 1570 we find scarcely any but
foreigners brought before the tribunals of the inquisition
on a charge of protestantism, f

In Spain, the government did not favour the Jesuits.
They were said to be for the most part Jewish Christians,
not of pure Spanish blood ; and were believed to cherish
projects of ftiture vengeance for all that their persecuted
race had suffered. In Portugal, on the contrary, the mem-
bers of this order attained but too soon to unlimited power ;
they governed the kingdom in the name of king Sebastian.
As they also enjoyed the greatest credit in Rome under
Pius v., they used their authority in that country in
accordance with the views of the curia. Pius V. thus
ruled both peninsulas with more absolute sway than any

* Llorente has devoted to this event f M*Crie, History of the Progress and

three long chapters of his History of the Suppression of the Reformation in Spain,

Inquisition. Hist, de I'Inquisition, iii. p. 336.
183—315.

256 PIUS V. [Book III.

one of his predecessors for a long time before ; the ordi-
nances of the council of Trent had ever^nivhere gained a
living power ; all the bishops swore to the Professio Fidei,
in which is embodied the substance of the dogmatic rules
of the council, and pope Pius pubhshed the Roman cate-
chism, in which these are still more fully developed. He
abolished all breviaries which had not been expressly issued
by the see of Rome, or which had been introduced within
the last two centuries, and published a new one composed
after the usages of the most ancient of the principal
churches of Rome, expressing his wish that it might be
universally adopted/"* He also published a new missal,
"after the pattern and the ritual of the holy fathers," f for
universal use : the seminaries for clergy filled ; the reli-
gious houses were efficiently reformed ; the inquisition
watched with relentless severity over the unity and invio-
lability of the faith.

A strict union was consequently brought about among
all these countries and states. To this the situation of
France infinitely contributed; for, torn with civil wars, she
either renounced her old hostihty to Spain, or was unable
to display it with vigour and effect. The French troubles
were also followed by another consequence. The events
of a period always give birth to certain general political
convictions, which then practically govern the world. The
catholic monarchs thought they perceived that changes in
the religion of a country were pregnant with destruction to
its political institutions. If Pius IV. had said that the
church could not subsist without the support of kings,
kings were now persuaded that a union with the church
was indispensable to their safety. This doctrine Pius V.
incessantly preached to them ; and in fact he lived to
see southern Christendom united ^vith him in one common
undertaking.

The Ottoman power was still making rapid strides : it
ruled the Mediterranean ; its attacks on Malta and on
Cyprus showed how seriously it contemplated the con-

* " llomotis lis qiuo aliena et incerta nostrre Vaticanre bibliothecre aliisque
csscnt." — Quoniaiii Nobis: 9 Julii 1.5()'{{. undiqiie conquisitis eniendatis atque in-
t " Collatis onmilni.s cum vetustissimis corruiitis codicibus."

§ VIII.] PIUS V. 257

quest of these yet imconquered islands ; it threatened
Italy from the side of Hungary and Greece. Pius V.
succeeded in at length arousing the catholic princes to a
sense of the imminence of this danger ; the attack on
Cyprus suggested to him the idea of a league, which he
proposed to the Venetians on the one side, and to the
Spaniards on the other. " When I received permission to
treat with him on this matter," says the Venetian ambas-
sador, " and communicated the same to him, he raised his
hands to Heaven and thanked God ; he promised to devote
to it his whole mind and all his powers.'^'"' It cost him
endless trouble to remove the difficulties which opposed
the union of the two maritime poAvers ; he associated with
them the other powers of Italy, and though at first he had
neither money, nor ships, nor arms, he found means to add
some papal galleys to the fleet. He had a share in the
choice of the commander, Don John of Austria, whose
ambition and devotion he contrived to inflame at the same
time. The result was the battle of Lepanto, — the most
triumphant for the Christian arms that had ever been
fought. So entirely was the pope absorbed in this enter-
prise, that on the day of the battle he thought he beheld
the victory in a sort of trance. The successful issue of it
filled him with the loftiest self-reliance, and the most daring
projects. He hoped to crush the Ottomans in a few years.
But it was not only in enterprises so unquestionably
glorious that he employed his mediation. His religion
was of so exclusive and domineering a character, that he
bore the bitterest hatred to all Christians who differed
from himself What a contradiction— that the religion of
meekness and humility should persecute genuine piety ! —
a contradiction, however, of which Pius V., bred in the
inquisition, grown old in its notions, was utterly uncon-
scious. While he strove with unwearied zeal to extirpate
all remains of dissent which were to be found in catholic
countries, he persecuted with yet more furious wrath the

* Soriano : " Havuta la risolutione — Fiorenza ed il protesto dell' ambasciatore

andai subito alia audienza, benche era di Cesareo [against it] : e communicata la

notte et 1' hora incommoda et S. Sh. <;omniissione che haveva, S. Sä. si allegro

travagliata per li accidenti seguiti quel tutta."
giorno per la coronatione del duca di

YOL. I. S

258 PIUS V. [Book III.

avowed protestants who were either emancipated from his
authority, or still engaged in the struggle. Not only did
he aid the French cathohcs with a small miUtary force, he
gave to their leader count Santafiore the unheard of injunc-
tion, " to take no Hug-uenot prisoner, but instantly to kill
every one that fell into liis hands."'""

When the Netherlands revolted, Phihp II. at first hesi-
tated as to the way in which he should treat the provinces ;
the pope advised an armed intervention. The reason he
alleged was, that those whose negotiations were not
enforced by arms, must consent to receive laws ; while
those who had arms in their hands imposed them. He
approved Alva's bloody measures, and sent him the conse-
crated hat and sword in token of his approbation. It
cannot be proved that he was privy to the preparations for
the massacre of St. Bartholomew, but he did things which
leave no doubt that he, as well as his successor, would have
sanctioned them.

How strange an union of singleness of purpose, magna-
nimity, austerity, and profound rehgious feehng, with sour
bigotry, relentless hatred, and bloody zeal for persecution !

In this spirit lived and died Pius V. f When he felt the
approach of death, he once more visited the seven churches,
to bid farewell, as he said, to those sacred places ; three
times he kissed the lowest steps of the Scala Santa. He
had at one time promised not only to expend the whole
treasures of the church, not excepting the chalices and
crucifixes, on an expedition against England, but even
to appear in person at the head of the army. On his way,
some of the banished catholics of England presented them-
selves before him ; he said, " he wished that he could pour
forth his blood for them." He spoke of the league as an
affair of the highest moment ; he had left everything in
preparation which could ensure its success ; the last money
that he issued was destined to this purpose. J The phan-

* Catena, Vita di Pio V., p. 85 : " Pio V. : " Havcndo in sua stanza in una

si dolsc del Conte che non havesse il casscttina 13'". sc. per donai'e e fare ele-

comandamento di lui osservato d' am- mosine di sua mano, due giorni avanti sua

mazzar subito qualunque heretico gli morte fece cliiamare il dcpositario della

fosse venuto alio mani." camera e levarli, dicendo che sai'ieuo

t He died on the 1st of May 1572. boni per la lega."

± Informationc dell' infermitä di Pio

§ VIII.] PIUS V. 259

toms of these enterprises haunted him at his last moments.
He had no doubt of their eventual success. " Grod/^ he
said, " will, of the stones, raise up the man necessary for
this great work."

If his loss was more felt than he himself had anticipated,
yet a unity was established, a power was called into
existence, which must of necessity be applied to the main-
tenance of the principles which he had recognised and
adopted.

S 2

BOOK IV.

STATE AND COURT; THE TIMES OF GREGORY XIII.
AND SIXTUS V.

INTRODUCTION.

With new and collected strength Catholicism now
advanced to the conflict with the protestant world.

If we institute a general comparison between these two
great parties, we shall find that Catholicism enjoyed an
incalculable advantage, in possessing a common centre, —
a leader who directed all its movements. The pope was
not only able to unite the strength of the other catholic
powers for one common effort, but he had a territory of
his own sufficiently powerful to contribute materially to its
success.

We have now to consider the States of the Church under
a new aspect.

This dominion had arisen out of the attempts of the
popes to raise their families to sovereign power, or to
procure for themselves a supremacy over temporal rulers,
particularly those of Italy. They had attained neither
object, in the degree they had desired, and it had now
become for ever impossible to renew these attempts. A
special law forbad the ahenation of church property. The
Spaniards were now far too powerful in Italy for the papal
government to contend with. On the other hand, the
state was become auxiliary to the church, and the financial
resomxes which the former afforded, were of the highest
importance to the general development of the papal power.

Before we proceed further it becomes necessary to
investigate more closely the administration of the popes,
ill the form which it gradually assumed in the course of
tlic l()tli century.

§ I.] THE PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 261

§ 1. ADMINISTRATION OF THE PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH.

A WELL-SITUATED, rich and splendid province had fallen
to the share of the popes.

The writers of the 1 6th century can scarcely find words
to celebrate its fertility ; — the fair plains around Bologna,
and through all Romagna, — the loveliness combined with
fertility along the skirts of the Apennines. "We travelled,"
say the Venetian ambassadors in 1522, "from Macerata
to Tolentino, through the most beautiful country ; hills
and valleys were covered with corn ; for thirty miles
nothing else was to be seen ; we could find hardly a foot
of uncultivated land ; it appeared to us impossible to
gather in such a quantity of grain, much more to find con-
sumers for it." Romagna yearly produced 40,000 stara
of corn more than was necessary for its own consumption :
its produce was in great request, and after the hilly region
about Urbino, Tuscany, and Bologna had been supplied,
35,000 stara were sometimes exported by sea : whilst, on
the eastern coast, Venice was supplied from Romagna and
the March, ■""* on the western, Genoa, and sometimes even
Naples, were provided with corn from the country round
Viterbo, and the patrimony of St. Peter.

In one of his bulls of the year 1566, Pius V. boasts,
as a proof of the divine favour, that whereas Rome in
former times could not exist without foreign corn, she had
now not only abundance for her own consumption, but had
often been able to supply her neighbours and strangers,
by land and by sea.f In the year 1589, the export of
corn from the States of the Church was valued at 500,000
scudi a year. J The several districts were likewise famed

* Badoer, Relatione, 1591. The friend- J Giovanni Gritti, Relatione, 1589:

ship of Romagna for Venice was founded " La Romagna e la Marca sola si mette

on the view, " quanto importa la vieinitä che alcune volte abbia mandato fuori

di questa citta, per ben vendere per 1' 60™. rubbia di grano e piu di SO*", di

ordinario le loro biade, vini, frutti, guadi menudi. II paese di Roma e lo state di

et altre cose, riportandone all' incontro la dell' Alpi quasi ogni anno somministra

boni danari " (App. No. 60.) il viver al paese di Geneva et altri luoghi

t Jurisdictio consulum artis agricul- circonvicini : onde deir uscita di grani e

turse urbis: — 9 Sept. 1566 : Bullar. Coc- di biade dello State Ecclesiastico si tien

quel. iv. ii. 314. per cosa certa che ogu' anno entri in esso

262 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [Book IV.

for their peculiar productions : Perugia for its hemp,
Faenza for its flax, Viterbo for both ;"''" Cesena for its wine,
which was exported, Rimini for oil, Bologna for woad, San
Lorenzo for manna ; the produce of the vineyards of
Montefiascone was celebrated all over the world ; the
Campagna at that time produced a breed of horses little
inferior to those of Naples ; towards Nettuno and Terra-
cina there was excellent hunting, especially of the wild
boar ; there were lakes abounding in fish ; there were salt
and alum works, and quarries of marble ; in short every-
thing which could contribute to the enjoyment of hfe was
there produced in profusion.

Nor was this territory less favourably situated for com-
merce with the whole world. Ancona had a thriving trade.
" It is a beautiful spot,^' say these same ambassadors of
1522, "fuU of merchants, chiefly Greeks and Turks : we
were assured that some of them in former years had
transacted business to the amount of 500,000 ducats.^' In
the year 1549, we find there were two hundred Greek
families, all merchants, settled there, and possessing a
church of their own. The harbour was full of caravels
from the Levant. There were, besides, Armenians and
Turks, Florentines, people from Lucca and Venice, Jews
from the east and the west. The wares which were here
exposed for sale consisted of silks, wool, leather, lead from
Flanders, and cloth. Luxury increased, the rent of houses
rose, the fees to physicians and teachers were higher than
at any preceding time.f

But the inhabitants of the States of the Church were
still more celebrated for their courage, than for the activity
and talents for business of their merchants. We some-
times find them described according to the various charac-
teristics they displayed : — the Perugians were reckoned
sturdy in service ; the inhabitants of Romagna, brave but
improvident ; those of Spoleto, fertile in stratagems of
war ; the Bolognese high-spirited, but difficult to keep

valsente di 500'». sc. almeno : ne all' nobili e persone principali." (App. No.
incontro ha bisogno di cose di fuori se 58.)

noil di poco moraento et in poca stima, • Voyage de Montaigne, ii. 488.
che souo specierie e cose da vestirsi di f Saracini, Notizie istoriche della Cit-

lA d' Ancona : Roma, 1675 ; p. 362.

§ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 263

under discipline ; the inhabitants of the March, addicted
to plunder : the Faentini excelled in steadiness under
attack, and in the pursuit of a retreating enemy ; the men
of Forli, in difficult manoeuvres ; those of Fermo in the
management of the lance.''''" " The whole population,"" says
one of our Venetian authorities, "is skilled in warfare, and
of a fierce nature ; as soon as they leave their homes,
these men are fit for every deed of war, whether in a siege
or a field of battle. They bear with ease the toils and
hardships of a campaign.'^ f The Venetians drew their
best troops from the March and from Romagna, which
rendered the friendship of the duke of Urbino so important
to the republic ; we always find officers in their service
drawn from this district. It was said, however, that here
were to be found captains for all the princes of the world ;
that from hence went forth that company of St. George
with which Alberigo of Barbiano had exterminated the
foreign mercenaries, and revived the fame of Italian arms.
They were still the same race and stock of men who had
once contributed so much to the establishment of the
Roman empire. J In later times they have not maintained
their claim to this high reputation ; yet the last great cap-
tain who led them beyond the frontiers of their own
country, gave them the unquestioned preference over all
his Italian, and even a large portion of his French troops.

All these rich districts and this brave population were
now subject to the peaceful, spiritual power of the pope.
It remains to trace minutely the nature of the government
which developed itself under the sovereign pontiffs.

This consisted, as in the Italian states generally, in the
more or less strict limitation of the independence, which,
in the course of the century, the municipalities had almost
everywhere acquired.

* Landi, Qusestiones Forcianse : Nea- J Lorenzo Priuli, Relatione, 1586 :

poll, 1536 : a book full of excellent and "Lo stato pleno di viveri per darne anco

remarkable accounts of the state of Italy a popoli vicini, pieno di huomini belli-

at that time. cosi : " — he mentions the families of

f Soriano, 1571 : " Quanto a soldati, Genga, Carpagna, and Malatesta. — "Pa-

e commune opinione, che nello stato reno tutti questi popoli nati et allevati

della chiesa siano i migliori di tutto il neUa militia. E molto presto si metteria

resto d'ltaha, anzi d'Europa." (App. insieme molto buona gente toccando il

No. 42.) tamburo."— (App. No. 57.)

264 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [Book IV

Even during the 15tli century, the priors of Viterbo,
seated on their stone seats before the door of the town-hall,
received the oath of the podesta sent to them by the pope
or his representative. '''*

In 14G3, the city of Fano, before putting itself under
the immediate power of the Roman pontiff, made its own
terms. It stipulated not only that it should remain an
immediate subject for ever, but also that it should enjoy
the right to name its own podesta without the necessity of
his appointment being confirmed ; freedom from all new
taxes for twenty years, the advantages accruing from the
sale of salt, and many other privileges, f

Even so despotic a ruler as Caesar Borgia was compelled
to bestow privileges upon the towns which constituted his
principality : he surrendered to the town of Sinigaglia,
revenues which had, till then, belonged to the sovereign.;]:

How much more imperative was the demand for such
concessions on Julius IL, whose ambition it was to appear
in the character of a hberator ! Of liis own accord he
reminded the Perugians that he had spent the bloom of
his youth within their walls. When he drove Baglione out
of Perugia, he was satisfied to bring back the exiles, to
restore their power to the peaceful magistracy, the priori^
and to bestow higher salaries on the professors of the uni-
versity : he made no inroad on the old hberties of the
town. For a long time afterwards Sinigaglia paid no more
than 2000 ducats a year in recognition of his sovereignty;
and even under Clement VII., I find a calculation of how
many troops they could bring into the field, as if they were
a completely free community. §

Bologna felt the yoke as little, and in all times preserved
not only the forms, but many important attributes of muni-
cipal independence : it possessed complete control over the
administration of its finances, had troops of its own, and
paid a salary to the pope's legate.

During the Venetian war, Juhus II. brought the towns

* Fcliciauo Bussi, Istoria di Viterbo, :|: Siena, Storia di Sinigaglia, App.

p. 59. n. V.

f Amiaiii, Memorie istoriche della Cit- § Suriano, Relatione, di Fiorenza,

ta di Fano, t. ii. p. 4. 1.533.

§ L] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 265

of Romagna under his sway ; but lie annexed none of them
to his dominions without entering into certain conditions,
and granting new and settled privileges. In later times
they always referred to the capitulations which they then
made with him. They designated the political relation in
which they stood to him under the title of " Ecclesiastical
Freedom." '"'

As a whole, the state which was thus formed bore a
considerable resemblance to the Venetian. In the one, as
well as in the other, the powers of government had hitherto
been in the hands of the communes, which ha^d for the most
part conquered and ruled over other smaller communities.
Under the Venetians, these self-governing municipalities,
without losing their independence on all points, had sub-
jected themselves, under accurately defined conditions, to
the power of the nobili of Venice. In the Ecclesiastical
States, they were subject to the sovereignty of the curia ;
for in Rome the governing body was the court, whereas in
Venice it was the aristocracy. It is true the dignity of the
prelacy during the first half of this century was not an
indispensable qualification for the most important ofiices ;
we find lay vice-legates in Perugia ; in Romagna it appears
to have been almost the rule that a lay president should
be at the head of the administration.

In some instances laymen acquired the greatest power
and influence, as for instance Jacopo Salviati, under Cle-
ment VII. ; but even they belonged to the curia. They
were dependents of the pope, and therefore members of
that corporation. But at that time the towns did not like
secular governors ; they petitioned to have prelates, think-
ing it more honourable to obey the higher clergy. Com-
pared with a German principality and its regularly organ-
ized government by estates, the Italian appears at first
sight almost lawless ; but in reality there was, even in the
latter government, a remarkable distribution of powers and
privileges. Thus the nobles of a city acted as a check on
the administrative body, the citizens on the nobles, the
subject on the governing communes, and the peasantry on

* Rainaldus mentions it, but very onymi Rubei Historiarum Ravennatum,
briefly. Concerning Ravenna, see Hier- lib. viii. p. 660.

2ßß ADMINISTRATION OF THE [Book IV.

the towns. It is remarkable that the idea of estabhshing
provincial authorities seems hardly ever to have occurred
in Italy. In the States of the Church it is true some pro-
vincial assemblies were held, and were even dignified with
the highly significant name of parhaments ; but it must
have been contrary to the manners of the country and to
the Italian character to bring such an institution to maturity,
since these meetings never enjoyed any lasting influence.

But if the municipal constitution had fully developed
itself, as was possible, and even appeared probable, it
would, by limiting the powers of government on the one
side, and the positive rights, the great power of the com-
munes, and the number of individual privileges on the
other, have exhibited the principle of stabihty in its most
striking form, — a constitution based on distinct and well-
defined authorities and on mutual checks.

In the Venetian states considerable approaches to such
a constitution were made ; in the States of the Church,
far less.

This may be traced to the original difference in the forms
of government. In Venice it was an hereditary, self-
governing corporation, which looked upon the supreme
power as their patrimony. The Roman curia was, on the
contrary, a flux body, into which every new conclave infused
new elements ; the countrymen of the successive popes
always got a large portion of the public business into their
hands. In Venice the election to every office was vested
in the corporation itself; in Rome it depended upon the
favour of the sovereign pontiff. In the former, the rulers
were held in check by severe laws, and vigilant inspection.
In the latter, they were restrained less by fear of punish-
ment than by hope of promotion (which depended chiefly
on favour and affection), and enjoyed comparative freedom
of action.

The papal government had likewise from its earhest
beginning secured to itself a more independent position.

A remarkable result presents itself in this point of view,
from a comparison of the grants of the Roman and Vene-
tian states : this is apparent, among other instances, in the
case of Faenza, which had surrendered itself to the Vene-

§ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 267

tian state a few years before its subjection to Rome, and
had made capitulations with both powers/'' Both times it
had, for example, stipulated that no new tax should be
levied without the consent of the majority of the council
of Faenza : the Venetians had granted this without hesita-
tion ; but the pope added the reservation, " in as far as it
may not appear advisable to do otherwise, for important
and prudent reasons/^ I will not enlarge on this subject,
as the same difference preipiils throughout ; it is sufficient
that I point out one other proof of it. The Venetians had
granted without hesitation, that all criminal judgments
should be pronounced by the podesta and his court : the
pope also granted the same privilege generally, but esta-
blished one exception : " In cases of high treason, or crimes
of a class calculated to cause popular irritation, the autho-
rity of the governor shall step in/^ It is evident that the
papal government reserved to itself, from the very begin-
ning, a much more active share of the sovereign power
than the Venetian. f

It cannot be denied that on the other hand this burthen
was rendered very easy to the pope.

In those times, the middle classes, consisting of the sub-
stantial citizens, the merchants and artisans of the subject
cities, were peaceable and obedient ; while the patricians,
the nobles, who held in their hands the municipal authority,
were in a state of perpetual agitation and tumult. They
carried on no trade ; they cared little for agricultural pur-
suits ; they were not devoted to intellectual improvement,
or to the science of arms ; their own feuds and animosities
exclusively occupied their thoughts. The old factions of
the Guelphs and Ghibellines still existed ; they had been
kept alive by the late wars, during which victory fluctuated
between the two parties : the families which belonged to
either faction were well known. In Faenza, Ravenna,

* Historie di Faenza, fatica di Giulio qui viennent nouvellement au papat

Cesare Tonduzzi, Faenza, 1675, contains, viennent pauvres, obliges de promesses,

p. 569, the capitulations concluded with et la depense qu'ils font pour s'asseurer

the Venetians, 1501, and confirmed by dans les terres de I'eglise monte plus

Julius II. in 1510. que le profit des premieres annees." Le

f What means it used, Paul III. Cardinal de Guise au Roy de France, in

shows, when he says (1547): "Ceux Ribier, ii. 77.

268 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [Book IV.

Forli, the Ghibellines were the strongest ; in Rimini, the
Guelphs : nevertheless the weaker party still maintained
itself in each of these towns : in Cesena and Imola the
parties were nearly equal. In the midst of apparent peace
a secret warfare was carried on ; every man Avas occupied
in keeping down his opponent of the other faction, and
thrusting him into the background.*'' The chiefs had at
their beck adlierents in the lowest class ; fierce determined
men, wild and wandering bravoes, who of their own accord
sought out those whom they knew to be in fear of enemies,
or to have injuries to avenge : they were always ready to
commit murder for gold.

The only effect of these universal feuds was, that as
each party distrusted the other, and would not permit
power to be lodged in its enemy's hands, the cities were
less firm and vigilant in maintaining their privileges.

When the president or the legate came into the pro-
vince, it was not asked whether he intended to observe
their municipal rights ; the only question was, which party
he would favour ; and when this was declared, the joy of
the one party and the dejection of the other can hardly be
described. The legate was obliged to act with great cau-
tion. The most influential men sought his intimacy,
endeavoured to be agreeable to him, professed an intense
zeal for the interests of the state, and acceded to all mea-
sures undertaken for the promotion of them ; but they
often did all this only with a view to insinuate themselves
into his favour and confidence, so as more effectually to
injure and persecute the party which they hated. f

The barons in the country were in a somewhat different
position. They were generally poor, but so prodigal and
ambitious that they kept open house ; and, without an

* Relatione della Romagna (Bibl. vano di contrabandare grano." (App.

Alt.) : " Li nobili hanno seguito di No. 92.)

niolte pcrsone, delle quali alcune volte si f Relatione di Mens''« Rev™° Giov. P.

vagliono ne consegli per conscguii-e qual- Ghisilieri, al P. Grcgorio XIII., tor-

che carica o per se o per altri, per potere nando egli dal presidentato di Romag-

vincere o per impedire all' altri qualche na. (App. No. 47.) It appears from

ric'hiesta : ne giudicii i>er provare et Tondiizzi (Historic di Faenza, p. G73,)

alcune volte per testificare nelle ininii- that Gliisilieii came into the province in

citio per fare vendette, ingiurie : aleuni 1578.
aucora a Ravenna, Imola e Faenza usa-

§ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 269

exception, their expenditure went beyond their means.
They had always dependents in the towns, whom they fre-
quently employed in the most lawless acts ; but their chief
care was to maintain a good understanding with their pea-
santry, who always occupied the greater part of the soil,
although they had no other wealth. In the southern pro-
vinces, illustrious birth and gentle blood were held in great
reverence, but distinction of ranks was not nearly so
strongly marked as in the north, nor did it prevent the
closest personal intimacy : the peasantry lived with the
barons almost on the footing of brotherly subordination,
and it was difficult to say whether the tenants were more
willing to render obedience and service, or the barons sup-
port and assistance ; there was something patriarchal in
their connexion.*"" One reason for this, among others, was,
that the barons sought above all things to avoid giving
their vassals cause to appeal to the government. They
were determined never to recognise the feudal sovereignty
claimed by the holy see. The vassals imagined that the
claim asserted by the pope's legate, of deciding not alone
upon the appeal but upon the original proceeding, was not
so much a right, as the consequence of an unlucky political
conjuncture which would speedily pass away.

Here and there were to be found, particularly in
Romagna, independent communities of peasants.! They
were large clans, deriving their descent from a common
stock ; lords in their own villages, all armed, well skilled
in the use of the arquebus, generally half savage : they
may be compared with the free Greek or Sclavonian com-
munities, which maintained their independence under the
Venetians, or reconquered it, when lost, from the Turks ;
such, for example, as were found in Candia, the Morea and
Dalmatia. In the States of the Church, they sided with
the different factions : the Cavinas, Scardocci and Solaroli

* Relatione della Romagna : " Essen- quelle citta [e. g., Forli, Cesena] si

dosi aggiustati gli uni all' humore degli governano con certe loro leggi separate

altri." sotto il governo d'un protettore eletto da

f The peasants had often shaken off loro raedesimi, li quali hanno amplissima

the dominion of the towns in the same autorita di far le resolutioni necessarie

manner. Ghisilieri : " Scossi da quel per li casi occorrenti alii contadini."

giogo e recati quasi eorpo diverse da (App. No. 47.)

270 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [Book IV.

were Ghibellines ; the Manbelli, Cerroni and Serras were
Guelphs. There was a hill in the territory of the Serras
which served as an asylum for those who had com-
mitted any crime. The most powerful of all were the
Cerroni, who also stretched over the frontier into the Flo-
rentine territory. This clan had spht into two branches —
Rinaldi and Ravagli, — which, in spite of their affinity, were
in a state of constant feud. They were in a kind of
hereditary connexion not only with the chief famihes of
the cities, but also with lawyers, who supported one or the
other faction in their litigations. In the whole of Romagna
there was no family so powerful that it could not have
been easily harmed by these peasants. The Venetians
always had a military commander among them, in order to
be sure of their assistance in case of war.

Had all this population been united, it would have been
difficult for the Roman prelates to assert their authority ;
but their divisions strengthened the government. In the
report of a president of Romagna to Pope Gregory XIII.,
I find these words : " The business of governing is difficult
where the people hold well together ; when divided, they
are easily mastered." ''''

A party also formed itself in these provinces, favourable
to the government ; it consisted of the peaceable part of
the population, who wished for quiet ; that middle class
which was not infected with the rage of faction. In Fano
they entered into an association, called the " holy union ; "
compelled thereto, as the original record of this institution
states, " because the whole city was full of robbery and
murder, and not only those who took part in the feuds
were insecure, but also those who desired nothing but to
eat their bread in the sweat of their brow." They bound
themselves by an oath in the church, as brothers for life
and death, to maintain the peace of the city and to exter-
minate those who disturbed it.f The government favoured
them, and allowed them to carry arms, and we meet with

* Ghisilieri : " Siccome il popolo Araiani, Mcmorie di Faiio, ii. 146, con-

disunito facilmente si domiua, cosi tains their formula, grounded on the

difticihnente si regge quando c troppo sentence : " Beati pacifici, quia fihi De-

unito." vocabuntur." Hence may have ai'isen

f It resembles the Hennandad. their name in otluT towns.

§ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 271

them throughout Romagna under the name of the " pacifici/^
They gradually formed a kind of plebeian magistracy.
The government had also adherents among the peasants ;
the Manbelli joined the court of the legate, they captured
banditti, and guarded the frontiers, — services which gave
them no small influence. ■^^* The jealousy of neighbours, the
hostility between the country villages and the cities, and
various other internal evils, came to the assistance of the
government.

And thus, instead of that respect for law, that quiet
and stabihty, which this institution appeared calculated to
produce, we find restless strife of factions, interference of
the government whenever these were in a state of dis-
sension, opposition of the municipal bodies whenever they
were united ; — might instead of right, — might opposed to
right ; — every individual trying how far he could carry
his defiance to law.

Even under Leo X., the Florentines, who had the
management of affairs chiefly in their hands, exercised
the rights of the curia in a most oppressive manner. Depu-
tations from the cities repaired one after the other to
Rome, seeking redress of their grievances. Ravenna
declared it would rather voluntarily surrender to the
Turks than endure the continuance of such a government. f
Very often, during the vacancies of the holy see, the
ancient nobles returned to power, and were with difficulty
driven back from it by the new pope. On the other
hand, the cities dreaded being again alienated from the
papal crown.

Sometimes a cardinal, or a dependent of the pope, or a
neighbouring prince, offered a sum of money to the papal
treasury for the right of governing one of these towns.
Hence the towns had agents and delegates at Rome whose
business it was to learn every plan of this sort as soon as
formed, and to defeat its execution. In this they generally

* According to the Relatione della in ovviare alle fraudi che si fanno in

Romagna, they Ukewise gave themselves estrarre bestiami dalle montagne." (App.

the name of Huomini da Schieto, after No. 92.)

the place of their abode : — "Huomini," -f- Marino Zorzi, Relatione di 1517 :

it says, " che si fanno molto riguardare, " Le terre di Romagna e in gran com-

sono Guelfi : la corte di Romagna si 4 bustione e desordine : li vien fatta poca

valuta deir opera loro molto utilmente, justitia : e lui orator ha visto tal x man

massime in havere in mano banditi et di oratori al cardinal di Medici, che

272 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [Book IV.

succeeded ; but it sometimes happened that they were
obhged to use force against the papal authorities, and even
against the pope's troops. In nearly all the histories of
these places is to be found some instance of lawless vio-
lence. In Faenza, on one occasion, in the summer of
1521, the Smss guards of Leo and the citizens engaged in
a regular battle in the very streets : the Swiss succeeded
in rallying in the piazza, but finding all outlets from it
barricaded by the citizens, they were glad, when one was
opened to them, to be suffered to depart ^dthout injury.
For many years afterwards this day was celebrated in
Faenza with religious solemnities and rejoicings.'"

On the 25th Nov. 1528, the inhabitants of Jesi, a town
of comparatively small importance, had the courage to
attack the palace of their vice-governor, who had demanded
certain marks of honour which they refused to pay him ;
the citizens and the peasants united, and took into pay a
hundred Albanians who happened to be in the neighbour-
hood. The vice-governor and his suite took to flight.
" My native city," says the chronicler of this town, other-
wise a most devout catholic, " which now saw itself
restored to its original freedom, determined to celebrate
the anniversary of this day at the public expense.^f

From such acts of violence nothing could arise, as may
be imagined, but new excesses, new punishments, and a
still further limitation of their privileges. The government
seized on the pretext afforded by such incidents for anni-
hilating the privileges of towns which still possessed impor-
tant remains of their former freedom, and for reducing
them to complete subjection. Ancona and Perugia are
remarkable examples of this result.

Ancona merely paid the pope a small yearly tribute in
recognition of his sovereignty ; the inadequacy of which
appeared the more striking in proportion as the town
increased. The court estimated the revenue of Ancona at
50,000 scudi, and thought it intolerable that the nobles
there should share so large a sum amongst themselves. As

negotia Ic faccndo lamcntandosi di mali f Baldassini, Memorie istoriclie deU'

portainniti fanno quclli rottori loro." antichissima Citta di Jesi; Jcsi, 1744,

(App. No, 7.) p. 256.
♦ Tonduzzi, Historie de Faenza, p. 609.

§ 1.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 273

tlie city not only refiised to pay new taxes, but toot forcible
possession of a castle to which it laid claim, it came to an
open rupture with Rome. The mode in which the govern-
ments of that day enforced their claims is worthy of
remark; — the papal officers drove away the cattle from the
March of Ancona, as a means of levying the amount of the
new tax ; a measure which went under the name of
reprisals.

This did not satisfy Clement VII. He only waited for
a favourable opportunity to make himself completely
master of Ancona ; this opportunity he employed a strata-
gem to create.

He caused a fort to be built in that city ; alleging that
the Turks, after their successes in Egypt and Rhodes, and
throughout the Mediterranean, would without doubt shortly
attack Italy, and that there would be great danger in leaving
Ancona, where so many Turkish merchant ships always lay,
without defence. He sent Antonio Sangallo to construct the
fort ; the works proceeded most rapidly, and very shortly a
small garrison took possession of it. This was the very
moment the pope waited for : affairs being thus far
advanced, in September 1532, the governor of the March,
Monsignore Bernardino della Barba, a priest, but of a war-
like character, appeared in the district of Ancona at the
head of a formidable army which the jealousy of the
neighbouring cities had assembled ; took one of the gates
of the city, marched into the piazza, and drew up his
troops in front of the palace ; the Anziani, but lately
chosen by lot, dwelt here, perfectly unsuspecting, and sur-
rounded with the badges of the supreme power. Monsignore
della Barba entered with his military followers, and declared
without much preamble, that "the pope desired to have
the absolute government of Ancona in his own hands.''
They could oppose no resistance. The young nobles
brought in from the country, in all haste, a few bands of
devoted retainers. But what could be done, since the papal
troops were prepared against all chances by the new fort-
ress ? The elder nobles would not subject their city to
the risk of pillage and destruction ; they yielded to what
was inevitable.

VOL. I. T

274 ADMINISTRATION OF THE [Book TV.

The Anziani left the palace : in a short time appeared
the new papal legate, Benedetto della Accolti, who had
promised the apostolical treasury 20,000 scudi a year as
government dues from Ancona.

A complete revolution was effected. All arms were
commanded to be delivered up, and sixty-four of the prin-
cipal nobles were exiled ; new lists of names for the
magistracies were made ; some of the offices under govern-
ment were distributed among the inhabitants of the country,
and persons who were not noble. Justice was no longer
administered according to the old statutes.

Woe to him who offered any opposition to these orders !
Some leading men brought on themselves a suspicion of
being engaged in a conspiracy : they were immediately
seized, sentenced, and beheaded ; the following day a
carpet was spread in the market-place, the bodies laid upon
it, and a burning torch placed near each ; thus they
remained the whole day.

Paul III. indeed subsequently granted the inhabitants of
Ancona some alleviation of their yoke, but this act of favour
implied no diminution of his absolute power ; he was little
inclined to restore their ancient liberties j"^^' on the contrary,
he made use of this same Bernardino della Barba as
an instrument for depriving another of his cities of its
privileges.

The pope had raised the price of salt by one half The
Perugians considered themselves justified by their privi-
leges in resisting this impost. The pope having excommu-
nicated them, the citizens assembled in the churches, and
elected a body of magistrates called the " twenty-five
defenders."' They laid the keys of their gates at the foot
of a crucifix in the market-place. Both parties armed
themselves.

The revolt of so important a city against the papal
authority excited a general agitation, and would have pro-
duced serious consequences, had there been war in any
other part of Italy ; but, as all was tranquil, no state could
render the assistance on which it had reckoned. For
although Perugia was not without power, yet it was not

* Saracinelli, Notizieistorichc della Citta d' Ancona ; Roma, 1675, ii. xi. p. 335.

§ I.] PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 275

nearly strong enough to enable it to resist the army of ten
thousand Italians and three thousand Spaniards, brought
against it by Pier-Luigi Farnese. The government of the
twenty-five too displayed more arbitrariness and violence
than prudence or care for the protection of the city ; they
were not even prepared with money to pay the troops
which a member of the house of Baglione brought to their
assistance ; their only ally, Ascanio Colonna, who also
resisted the payment of this same impost, contented himself
with driving off the cattle from the territory of the church ;
he could not resolve to render them any more serious
assistance.

This city therefore, after a short interval of freedom, was
compelled again to surrender to the pope on the 3rd of
June, 1540. Habited in long mourning garments, with
halters round their necks, the delegates appeared in the
portico of St. Peter's and implored pardon at the feet of the
pope. This he granted, but their freedom was gone ; he
stripped them of all their privileges.

Bernardino della Barba was sent to Perugia, to deal with
that city in the same manner as with Ancona. No man
was allowed to possess arms ; the chains which had been
thrown across the streets were removed, the houses of the
twenty-five, who had escaped in time, were razed to the
ground, a fortress was erected on the spot where the
Baglioni had hved, and the citizens were compelled to pay
the cost of its erection : a magistrate was placed over them,
whose name sufiices to show the purpose of his appoint-
ment ; — he was called the " conservator of ecclesiastical
obedience." A later pope restored to him the title of prior,
but without any of his ancient powers.*

Ascanio Colonna was Ukewise driven from all his strong-
holds by the same army.

The papal authority in the States of the Church was
incalculably augmented by these repeated and successful
blows: neither the towns nor the barons ventured any
longer to offer resistance ; one after another, the free

* Mariotti, Memorie istoriche civili these events in detail, and on authentic
ed ecclesiastiche della Citta di Perugia information ; i. p. 113 — 160. He also
e suo contado ; Perugia, 1806 ; relates mentions them again ; e. g. vol. iii. p. 634.

T 2

276 FINANCES. [Book TV-

communities submitted, and the pope was able to dispose
of all the resources of the country for the attainment of
his own objects.

We ^vill now inquire what were these objects, and what
the mode of accomphshing them.

§ 2. FINANCES.

It is however necessary first to examine into the system
of the papal finances, a system which is important, not only
in reference to the country in which it originated, but on
account of the example it afforded to all Europe.

It is remarkable that the system of exchanges prevailing
in the middle ages, chiefly owed its form to the nature of
the papal revenues, which were drawn from every country,
and remitted from all parts to the curia; and it is not less
remarkable that the system of national debt which at this
moment prevails, and exercises so powerful an influence on
the dealings of men, should have first grown up in the
Papal States.

However just were the complaints of the extortions
which prevailed in Rome during the 15th century, it is
certain that but little of the money raised found its way
into the coffers of the pope. Pius II. commanded the
obedience of all Europe, notwithstanding which he was at
one time so greatly in want of money, that he was com-
pelled to limit himself and his estabhshment to one meal
a day ; he was forced to borrow the 200,000 ducats requi-
site for the Turkish war which he meditated. Those petty
expedients to which many popes resorted, such as requiring
from a prince, a bishop, or a grand master who had some
cause pending in the court, a present of a golden cup filled
with ducats, of rich furs, or the like, only show the miser-
able state of the treasury. "^^ The money certainly reached

* Voigt, Voi cos from Rome concern- vor mid seit dem Jahre 1740, will find

ing the Papal Court in the Fifteenth in it a satire of the 1 Tith century, by no

Centui'y, given in the Historisches Tas- moans ill done, on this monstrous custom

chenbuch of l'\ von lltiumer, MV.VA, con- of present giving : " Passio domini papre

tains a crowd of notices on this subject, secundum marcam auri et argenti."
Whoever has at hand the book, Silesia

§ IL] FINANCES. 277

the court in considerable sums, although not in those enor-
mous masses which people have imagined ; but when there,
it passed into a thousand hands, and was absorbed by those
offices which had long been saleable. These offices were
chiefly paid by means of fees, and Httle restraint was
imposed on the exactions of the officials. The papal trea-
sury received nothing more than the price of the office,
when it became vacant.

The pope was driven to extraordinary expedients when-
ever he undertook any costly enterprise ; hence jubilees
and indulgences were a most valuable resource. The
docility of the faithful then affi)rded a clear revenue.
Another means very naturally suggested itself, whenever
he wanted to raise an unusually large sum, viz., the creation
and sale of new offices, — a strange sort of loan, the interest
of which the church paid by increasing its own imposts.
This custom had long obtained footing. According to an
authentic register in the Chigi palace, there existed in the
year 1471 nearly 650 saleable offices, the incomes of which
amounted to about 100,000 scudi."'" These were chiefly
procurators, registrars, abbreviators, correctors, notaries,
clerks, even messengers and doorkeepers, whose increas-
ing numbers continually raised the cost of a bull or a
brief This was indeed the very purpose for which they
were appointed, for their duties amounted to little or
nothing.

We can easily conceive that the succeeding popes, deeply
implicated as they were in the politics of Europe, seized
with avidity upon so easy an expedient for filling their
coffers. Sixtus IV. adopted the plan proposed by his>
prothonotary Sinolfo, and established at once whole colleges,
the places in which were sold for two or three hundred
ducats each. These bore the most singular titles ; for
instance the " college of a hundred janissaries," who were
nominated for 100,000 ducats, and whose salaries were
charged upon the profits arising from the bulls and

* Gli ufficii piu antichi : MS. Biblio- what Onuphrius Panvinius says, that

theca Chigi, N. ii. 50. There are 651 Sixtus IV. was the first who sold them ;

places and 9H,340 sc. " fin alia creatione p, 348.
di Sisto IV." So little truth is there in

278 FINANCES. [Book IV.

annates. ■^^' The places of notary, prothonotary, and procu-
rator to the camera, — indeed all offices whatsoever, — were
sold by Sixtus IV., who carried this system to such an
extent as to have been accounted its author, and it certainly
was not completely adopted till his time. Innocent VIII.,
whose embarrassments forced him to pawn even the papal
tiara, founded a new college of twenty-six secretaries, for
60,000 scudi, A\dth a complement of other offices. Alex-
ander VI. created eighty writers of briefs, each of whom
paid 750 scudi for his appointment ; and Julius II. added,
upon the same terms, one hundred writers of archives.

But the sources from which these hundreds of placemen
drew their incomes were not inexhaustible. We have
already seen that nearly all the Christian states had
attempted, and in most instances successfully, to hmit the
interference of the papal power, and this, too, at a time
when the popes had been involved in unusual expenses by
their great undertakings. It was therefore most fortunate
for them that they became masters of a territory from
which, though their government was at first a mild one,
they drew considerable revenues ; and it cannot surprise
us that these were administered in precisely the same
manner as were the ecclesiastical funds.

Julius IL, in addition to the assignment made upon the
annates, also quartered the above-mentioned writers of
archives upon the dogana and the public chest. He esta-
blished a college, consisting of a hundred and forty-one
presidents of the annona, all of whom were paid by the
state. He applied the surplus land-revenue in making
loans. The quality of this pope which most excited the
admiration of other princes was, his power of raising as
much money as he ^vished ; and indeed this was in a great
degree the basis of his policy.

The necessities of Leo X. were much more urgent than
those of Julius, as the former was not less involved in wars,
while he was far more prodigal, and more dependent upon

* There were also Sti'adiotes and tabulse : " Onuphrius Panvinius. Ac-

Mamelukos, who were however sup- cording to the register, (Utfieii Antichi,)

pressed at a later period. " Adstipu- this creation seems to have brought in

latorcs, sine (|uibu8 nullte posscnt confici only 40,000 ducats.

§ IL] FINANCES. 279

the political support of his family. " It was as impossible
for the pope," says Francesco Vettori of him, " ever to
keep 1000 ducats together, as for a stone to fly into the
air of itself." He has been accused of squandering the
incomes of three popes ; that of his predecessor — from
whom he inherited a large treasure — his own, and his
successor's, to whom he bequeathed a mass of debts. Leo
was not satisfied with seUing the existing offices, he raised
a large sum by nominating additional cardinals ; and
having once entered on the course of creating new offices
for the mere purpose of selKng them, he proceeded in it
with daring pertinacity. Above 1200 were created by him
alone.* The characteristic of all these " portionarii,"
"scudieri," and "cavalieri di S. Pietro" — or whatever
other titles they bore, — is that they paid a sum down on
their nomination, and received the interest of it for life
under these titles ; their offices had no other meaning than
the enjoyment of this interest, increased by some other
small privileges ; they were in fact nothing more than a
kind of Hfe annuity. The sale of these produced to Leo
the sum of 900,000 scudi. The interest, which was high,
as it yearly amounted to an eighth of the capital,t was
partly produced by a sHght augmentation of church dues ;
but it chiefly flowed from the treasuries of the conquered
provinces ; that is, from the surplus of the municipal
administrations paid into the coffers of the state, from the
produce of the alum works, the sale of salt, and the dogana
of Rome. Leo increased the number of offices to 2150,
the yearly salaries of which were reckoned to amount to
320,000 scudi, and were a burden upon both church and
state.

However censurable this prodigality, Leo was doubtless
encouraged in it by finding that it produced, for the time,
advantages rather than mischievous effects. It was partly

* Sommario di la Relation di M. f The 612 portionarii di ripa — aggi-

Minio, 1520 : "non ha contanti, perche unti al Collegio dei Presidenti — paid

e liberal, non sa tenir danari : poi li 286,200, and received 38,816 ducats a

Fiorentini, (che) si fanno e somio soi pa- year : the 400 cavalieri di S. Pietro paid

renti, non li lassa mai aver un soldo : e diti 400,000, and received in return 50,610

Fiorentini e in gran odio in corte, perche ducats a year,
in ogni cosa e Fiorentini." (App. No. 8.)

2 go FINANCES. [Book IV.

owing to this system of finance that Rome, at the period in
question, rose to such an unexampled height of prosperity,
since there was no place in the world where capital could
be invested to so much advantage. The multitude of new
offices, the vacancies, and consequent re-appointments, kept
up a continual stir in the curia, and held out to all the
prospect of easy advancement.

Another consequence was, that there was no necessity
for burdening the public with new taxes ; it is indisputable
that the States of the Church compared with other pro-
vinces, and Rome with other cities, in Italy, were charged
with the smallest amount of taxation. The Romans had
already been told that whilst other cities furnished to their
princes heavy loans and vexatious taxes, their master, the
pope, on the contrary, made his subjects rich. A secretary
of Clement VIL, who shortly afterwards wrote an account
of the conclave in which that pope was elected, expresses
his astonishment that the Roman people were not more
devoted to the holy see, since they suffered so little from
taxation. " From Terracina to Piacenza," he exclaims,
" the church possesses a large and fair portion of Italy ; her
dominion stretches out far and wide : nevertheless all these
fertile lands and rich cities, which under any other govern-
ment would be taxed for the maintenance of large armies,
pay scarcely enough to the Roman pontiff to cover the
expenses of their own administration." ''"

It was evident, however, that this could only last as long
as there remained a surplus in the public treasury. Leo
had not yet succeeded in funding all his loans. Aluise
Gaddi had advanced to him 32,000 ducats ; Bernardo Bini
200,000. Salviati, Ridolfi, all his servants and dependents,
had done their utmost to raise money for him ; they

* Vianesius Albergatus, Commentarii the March and Roraagna, is reckoned,

Renim sui temporis (nothing in fact but after a calculation by Francesco Armel-

the description of the conclave) : "opu- lino, to amount to 120,000 ducats. The

lentissimi po])uli otditissimae urbes, quae, half of this fell to the papal treasury,

si altcrius ditionis essent, suis vectigali- " Di quel sonnna la mit<\ e per terra

bus vel magnos excrcitus alere possent, per pagar i legati et altri oflRcii, e altra

Romano pontifici vix tantum tributum mit;\ ha il papa." Unfortunately there

pendunt, <iuantum in prietonim magis- is no small number of mistakes in the

tratuunKpie expensam sufHcere queat." copy of the Narrative in Saiuito. (App.

In the Narrative by Zorzi, 1.517, the No. 7)
revenue drawn from Penigia, Spoleto,

§ IL] FINANCES. 281

founded their hopes of future compensation and gratitude,
upon his generosity and his youth. They were utterly
ruined by his early death.

Leo left his dominions in a state of exhaustion which his
successor was not long in feeling.

The universal hatred which attached itself to the unfor-
tunate Adrian, was chiefly owing to the measure he adopted
of imposing a direct tax to relieve the extreme poverty to
which he found himself reduced : — a hearth tax of half a
ducat was imposed ; ^ which was the more unpopular
inasmuch as the Romans were little accustomed to such
exactions.

Nor could Clement YII. avoid levying new taxes : mur-
murs were raised against Cardinal Armellino, who was
regarded as the suggestor of these imposts, which were of
an indirect kind ; the augmentation of the duties levied at
the gates on articles of food, caused peculiar discontent,
but the people were obliged to bear it.f Indeed, affairs
were come to such a pass, that far stronger measures were
imperiously demanded.

Hitherto, loans had been, raised under the form of sale-
able offices ; the financial transactions of Clement YII.
seem first to have approximated to genuine loans, at the
important crisis when, in 1526, he took arms against
Charles V.

On the former plan, the capital sunk in the purchase of
the office was lost upon the death of the party unless the
family recovered it from the papal treasury. Now, how-
ever, Clement raised a capital of 200,000 ducats, which,
though not yielding so high a rate of interest as the places,
still paid a considerable one, viz., ten per cent., which, more-
over, went to the heirs. This is a "monte non vacabile" —
the " monte della fede.'^ The interest was charged upon
the dogana ; and the monte was rendered more secure by
giving a share in the management of the dogana to the

* Hieronymo Negro a Marc Antonio nuove invention per trovar danari in

Micheli, 7 April, 1523 : Lettere di Prin- Roma, e fa metter nove angarie, e fine,

cipi, i. p. 114. chi porta tordi a Roma et altre cose di

t Foscari, Relatione, 1 526 : " E qual- manzar paga tanto : la qual angaria im-

che murmm-ation in Roma etiam per porta da due. 2500." (App. No, 17.)
causa del cardinal Armeliin, qual truova

282 FINANCES. [Book IV.

creditors. It appears, however, that the old form was not
wholly abandoned : the montists constituted a college ; a
few undertakers of the loan paid the whole amount into
the treasury, and then disposed of the shares among the
members of the college.

May it not be said, that the state creditors, in so far as
they had claims upon the public revenue and on the pro-
duce of the labour of the community, acquired a sort of
share in the government 1 At any rate so the matter
appeared to be understood in Rome, and no capitahst
would lend his money without the form of such partici-
pation.

This however was, as will appear, the commencement of
the most extensive financial operations.

Paul III. proceeded in them with moderation. He con-
tented himself with reducing the interest of the " monte
Clementino ;" and as he succeeded in making new assign-
ments of it, he raised the capital by one half. He did not
establish any new monte, but the creation of six hundred
new ofiices amply indemnified him for this forbearance.
The measures by which he rendered himself remarkable
in the financial history of the papal dominions were of a
diff'erent character.

We have already seen what excitement was produced
by his increase of the salt duty ; this he consequently
abandoned, but instead of it, he introduced the direct tax
of the "sussidio,^' with the most solemn promise that it
should not be permanent. This is the same tax, which,
under difierent names, was at that time levied in so many
of the southern states ; in Spain it was called the " ser-
vicio," in Naples, the " donative," and in Milan, the " men-
suale." In the States of the Church it was originally
introduced for three years, and fixed at the sum of 300,000
scudi. The contribution of each province was sent to
Rome ; the provincial parhaments met to apportion the
contingents of the various cities, which were again sub-
divided between the several cities and the rural population
of their dependencies. It included everybody; the bull
expressly ordered that all the lay subjects of the Roman
church, even those enjoying exemptions and privileges,

§ IL] FINANCES. 283

marquises, barons, feudal tenants and official persons not
excepted, should be rated to this contribution."^^

The " sussidio '^ however was not paid without vehement
complaints, particularly when it was perceived that it was
extended from one period of three years to another ;
indeed it was never abolished, but was always imperfectly
collected, f The inhabitants of Bologna, which had been
assessed at 30,000 scudi, were prudent enough to buy their
exemption for ever, by paying a large sum down ; Parma
and Piacenza were alienated from the holy see, and paid
no more ; Fano affords an example of what occurred in
other towns. Under the pretext of being rated too high,
this town refrised for some time to pay its contingent, and
Paul III. on one occasion was induced to remit the pay-
ment of the instalments due, but on condition that the
amount should be apphed to the repair of the fortifications ;
a third of the contribution was afterwards remitted for the
same purpose. Nevertheless, the descendants of these
same men continued to complain that they were assessed
too highly ; the rural districts incessantly murmured at
the contingent they were obhged by the town to contribute ;
they endeavoured to free themselves from the dominion of
the town council, and as that body asserted its sovereignty,
they would gladly have placed themselves under the pro-
tection of the duke of Urbino. It would lead us too far
from our subject, were we to follow out the conflict of
these petty interests. It is sufficient for our purpose to
see how it came to pass that not above one half of the
" sussidio " actually found its way into the treasury.^ In
1560, the whole produce of this tax was estimated at
165,000 scudi.

Be this as it may, this pope had greatly raised the

* Bullar. In the year 1537, he de- iv. i. 358 : "Exactio, causantibus diver-
clares to the French ambassador, " la sis exceptionibus Ubertatibus et immuni-
debilite du revenu de 1' ^glise [and con- tatibus a solutione ipsius subsidii diversis
sequently of the state,] dont eile n'avait communitatibus et universitatibus et par-
point maintenant 40'". escus de rente par ticularibus personis nee non civitatibus
an de quoi eile puisse faire estat." Ri- terris oppidis et locis Nostri Status Ec-
bier, i. 69. clesiastici concessis, et factis diversarum

+ Bull : Decens esse censemus : 5 portionum ejusdem subsidii donationibus

Sept , 1543 : Bull. Cocq. iv. i. 225. sen remissionibus, vix ad dimidium sum-

J Bull of Paul IV. ; Cupientes Indem- mee trecentorum millium scutorjim hujus-

nitati ; 15 April, 1559: Bullar. Cocq. modi ascendit,"

2g4 FINANCES. [Book IV.

revenues of the Ecclesiastical States ; under Julius IL,
these were estimated at 350,000, under Leo at 420,000,
under Clement VIL, in the year 1526, at 500,000 scudi.
Immediately after the death of Paul III., we learn fi-om an
authentic report which the Venetian minister Dandolo
procured from the treasury, that they amounted to 706,473
scudi.

Nevertheless his successors did not find themselves much
the richer. In one of his instructions, Julius III. complains
that his predecessor had completely ahenated the revenue,
(doubtless with the exception of the "sussidio,'' which
could not be alienated, as it was nominally granted only
for three years,) and besides this, had left behind him a
floating debt of 500,000 scudi. ''^

In spite of this state of things, however, Julius III.
entered into a war with the French and the Farnesi, and
thus plunged the country into the greatest embarrassments.
Although the imperialists paid him, for those times at least,
a considerable subsidy, his letters contain the bitterest
complaints. " He had expected to raise 100,000 scudi in
Ancona, — of this he had not received 100,000 bajocchi ;
instead of 120,000 scudi from Bologna, he had only
received 50,000. The promises of the Genoese and Luc-
chese money-changers were recalled almost as soon as
made ; whoever possessed a carhne, held it back, and
would not speculate with it.^^f

The pope was compelled to resort to more energetic
measures, if he wished to keep his army on foot ; he there-
fore determined to establish a new monte, and this he did
on a plan which was almost invariably imitated in later
times. He laid a new tax of two carlines upon every
rubbio of flour : this produced, after all charges of collec-
tion, the sum of 30,000 scudi, which was assigned to pay
the interest of a capital forthwith raised : this was the
origin of the " monte della farina." We must observe how
nearly similar this is to the earlier financial operations : in
exactly the same manner as, at a former period, new

• Inatnittione por voi Monsignore d' f II Papa, a Giovaiub. tli Monte, 2
Iinola, ultimo di Marzo, 1551 : Informa- April, 1552.
tioni Polit., vol. xii.

§ IT.] FINANCES. 285

ecclesiastical offices were created, and the salaries assigned
upon the revenues of the curia (revenues which it was the
object of the measure to increase), for the sole purpose of
raising the sum required for immediate use, by the sale of
these places ; so the income of the state was now aug-
mented by means of a new impost, which only served to
pay the interest of a large capital that could not otherwise
have been obtained.

All succeeding popes followed in the same track ; some-
times these " monti " were " non vacabili," like that of
Clement ; at other times they were " vacabili," that is, the
obligation to pay interest ceased on the death of the cre-
ditor ; the interest was, in this case, higher, and the colle-
giate character given to the montists approached more
nearly to that of holders of saleable offices. Paul IV.
established the " monte novennale de' frati," on an impost
levied upon the regular monastic orders ; Pius IV. laid a
tax of a quatrino upon every pound of meat, with which
he founded the " monte Pio non vacabile,'' which produced
about 170,000 scudi. Pius V. added another quatrino
upon every pound of meat, and upon this established the
" monte lega."

By keeping the development of this system in view, we
acquire a more distinct and precise idea of the character
of the Ecclesiastical States. What were the necessities
which compelled the popes to resort to this extraordinary
mode of raising loans, which burthened their territory
with such an immediate weight of taxation 1 We answer,
chiefly the necessities of Catholicism. As the time for
giving effect to the purely political views of the papacy
was past, there remained only the ecclesiastical which
could be pursued with any prospect of success. The sup-
port of catholic powers in their contests with protestants
and their enterprises against the Turks, was now almost
invariably the proximate cause of new financial operations.
The monte of Pius V. was called the " monte lega,''
because the money produced by it was intended for the
Turkish war which that pope undertook, in conjunction
with Spain and Venice. We shall find this to be more
and more the case. Every commotion in Europe affected

286 FINANCES. [Book IV.

the States of the Church in this manner. On almost every
occasion, Rome was obhged to contribute to the defence
of ecclesiastical interests by some new burthen on her own
subjects. Hence the possession of a state, and the com-
mand of its resources, was so important to the ecclesiastical
position of the popes.

But they did not rest satisfied with the funds produced
by the monti ; they continued the old practice of creating
new offices, or " cavaherate,'^ wdth peculiar privileges ;
whether it was that the salaries were, as before, covered
by new taxes, or that the remarkable diminution in the
value of money which took place at that time, caused
larger sums to flow into the treasury. ''''

Hence it happened that the revenue of the popes, with
the exception of a short falling off" under Paul IV., in
consequence of the war he was engaged in, was constantly
on the increase. Even under Paul it rose again to 700,000
scudi, and under Pius it was reckoned at 898,482 scudi.
Paolo Tiepolo expresses his astonishment, in 1576, after
an absence of nine years, at finding the revenue increased
by the sum of 200,000 scudi, and amounting in the whole
to 1,100,000 scudi. f It is a curious fact, but an inevitable
consequence of the system, that the popes did not in reahty
receive more money. The alienations increased in pro-
portion to the taxes. It was reckoned that under Juhus
III., the sum of 54,000 scudi, under Paul IV., 45,960,
and under Pius IV., who hesitated at notliing, the sum of
182,550 scudi was alienated from the pubhc revenue.
Pius IV. raised the number of saleable offices to three
thousand five hundred, exclusive, of course, of the monti,
which were not reckoned among tlie offices. ;|: Under this
pope the total amount of the alienated funds rose to
450,000 scudi, and was constantly on the increase, so that
in the year 1576, it amounted to 530,000 scudi. Thus,
whatever was the increase in the revenue, these alienations
swallowed up nearly one half of it. §

* Thus, about the year 1580, many f App. No. 45.

" hioglii (li nionto" stood at 100, instead J ListadegliUfficiidellaCorteRoinana,

of 130 : the interest of the « vacabili " 1560 : Chigi Library, No. ii. 50. Many

was reduced from 14 to .0, which effected other separate lists of different years,

a great saving on the whole. § Tiepolo reckons that, besides 1 00,000

§ IL] FINANCES. 287

The accounts of the papal revenues in these times pre-
sent a remarkable aspect. At every article, after the
sums have been specified which the farmers of the revenue
had contracted to pay (the contracts with whom were
usually made for a period of nine years), it is also stated
how much was alienated. The dogana of Rome, for
example, yielded in 1576, and the following years, the
large sum of 133,000 scudi, of which, however, 111,170
were assigned, and, after other deductions, the treasury
actually received only 13,000 scudi. Some taxes upon
corn, meat, and v^ne were completely lost to the state,
and were wholly absorbed by the payment of the monti.
From many provincial chests, called treasuries, which also
had to meet the exigencies of the provinces, — for example,
from the March and from Camerino — the papal treasury
received not a single bajocco, and yet the sussidio was
often applied to the same purpose. Such large sums
were secured upon the alum works of Tolfa, which had
formerly always been reckoned upon as a source of revenue,
that there was actually a deficit of 2000 scudi.'"'

The pope's personal expenses and those of his establish-
ment were chiefly charged upon the dataria, which pos-
sessed two distinct sources of income. The one was
ecclesiastical, produced by compositions or fixed fines, on
payment of which the datario permitted various canonical
irregularities, on the translation from one benefice to
another. This source of profit Paul IV. had greatly
diminished by the strictness of his measures, but it gradu-
ally increased again. The other was rather of a temporal
nature ; it arose from the vacancies, and consequent new
appointments to the " cavalierate," saleable offices, and
places in the " monti vacabili ; '^ and it increased in pro-
portion to the number of these appointments, f Both
together, however, did not amount, in 1570, to more

sciidi for services, 270,000 were spent Camera Apostolica sotto il Pontificato

on fortifications and legations ; the pope di N. S. Gregorio XIII., fatta neir Anno

had thus 200,000 still left free. He cal- 1576. MS. Gothana, No. 219.
culates that, under the pretext of the f According to Mocenigo, 1560, the

necessities of the Turkish war, the popes dataria, at an earlier period, produced

had received 1,800,000 scudi, and as yet, between 10,000 and 14,000 ducats

had only applied 340,000 to that use. monthly. Under Paul IV., it fell to

* E. G. Entrata della Reverenda between 3000 and 4000. (App. No. 31.)

288 FINANCES. [Book IV.

than sufficient to cover the daily expenses of the pope's
household.

This course of things completely altered the position of
the Roman State, which, from having been celebrated as
the least burthened among the Italian states, now suffered
as much or more from taxation than any other,'"* and the
inhabitants complained loudly. Little remained of their
former municipal independence. The administration gra-
dually became more uniform. The powers of government
were, in earlier times, frequently delivered over to some
favourite cardinal or prelate, who turned them to his own
profit. The countrymen of the popes — for example, the
Florentines under the Medici, the Neapolitans under Paul
IV., and the Milanese under Pius IV. — then always en-
joyed the best places ; this system was abolished by Pius
V. These favourites had never themselves carried on the
government committed to their charge, but had always
left it to the direction of a doctor of laws.f Pius V.
appointed this doctor himself, and applied to the treasury
the money which before had gone to enrich the favourites.
Everything was conducted with more order and decorum.
In former days a militia had been established in the
country, and 16,000 men enrolled; Pius IV. had main-
tained a corps of light cavalry ; Pius V. abohshed both
the one and the other ; he disbanded the cavalry, — the
militia was suffered to fall into disuse. His whole armed
force did not amount to 500 men, of whom 350, chiefly
Swiss, were in Rome. Had it not been for the necessity
of protecting the sea coasts from the inroads of the Turks,
the use of arms would almost have been forgotten. This
warlike population seemed inclined to devote itself exclu-
sively to the arts of peace. The popes wished to rule
their land like a large domain, the rents of which should,

* Paolo Tiepolo, Relatione di Roma incerto non si trovaria chi desse danari."

in tempo di Pio IV. e Pio V., at that (App. No. 41.)

time says, " L' impositione alio Stato f Tiopolo, ibid. : " Qualche governo

Ecclesiastico o gravezza quasi insop- o Icgatione rispondeva sino a tre, quatro

portabile per essere per diversi altri o forse sette mila e piu seudi 1' anno.

conti molto aggi'avato ; d' alie- E quasi tutti allegramente ricevendo il

nare piu entratc della chiese, non vi c denaro si scaricavano del peso del go-

piii ordine, pei'che quasi tutte 1' entrate verno eol mettere un dottore in luogo

certe si trovano gia alienate e sopra 1' loro."

§ III.] GREGORY XITI 289

in part, be applied to their household expenses, but the
chief portion should go to meet the exigencies of the
church.

We shall see the great difficulties they encountered in
their attempts to realize this project.

§ 3. THE TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V.
GREGORY XIII.

Gregory XIII. , Ugo Buoncompagno of Bologna, who
had risen in life as a jurist, and in the civil service, was of
a cheerful, jovial nature; he had a son, born indeed before
he was invested with spiritual dignities, but out of wed-
lock, and although he afterwards led a more regular hfe,
he was at no time scrupulous ; on the contrary, he rather
manifested his disapprobation of a certain kind of austerity.
He appeared to follow the example of Pius IV., whose
ministers he instantly restored to their places, rather than
that of his immediate predecessor.'"'

But in this pope we see the potent influence of public
opinion. A century earlier he would have governed, at
most, like an Innocent VIII. Now, on the contrary, even
a man of his character could not emancipate himself from
the severe ecclesiastical spirit of the age.

There was a party at court who made it their chief
business to uphold and to defend this spirit. It consisted
of Jesuits, Theatins, and their adherents. We find the
names of monsignori Frumento and Cornigiia, the intrepid
preacher Francesco Toledo, and the datarius Contarelli.
Their power over the pope was the more absolute from
their union. They represented to him that the respect
which Pius V. enjoyed, mainly arose from his personal
character and conduct ; all the letters which they read
aloud to him dwelt on the memory of the holy life of the
departed, on the fame of his reforms and his virtues. They

* People expected he would rule dif- datiori ratione." Commentarii de rebus
ferently from his predecessors : "Mitiori Gregorii XIII. (MS. Bibl. Alb.) (App.
quadam hominumque captui accommo- No. 46.)

VOL. I. U

290 GREGORY XIII. [Book IV.

suppressed or avoided every contrary expression. They
thus tinged the ambition of Gregory XIII. with a thoroughly
spiritual colour.'"

His most ardent desire was to promote his son, and to
elevate him to princely rank. But at the very first favour
that he show^ed him — the nominating him castellan of St.
Angelo and gonfaloniere of the church — Gregory's friends
alarmed his conscience ; and, during the jubilee of 1575,
they would not tolerate Giacomo's presence in Rome. It
was not till this was over that they consented to his return,
and then only because the vexation of the aspiring young
man impaired his health. Gregory then disposed of liim
in marriage, and prevailed on the republic of Yenice to
create him one of its nobili,t and the king of Spain to
appoint him general of his liommes dJ armes. Nevertheless
he did not relax the vigilant restraint in which he kept
him. Having attempted to liberate one of his university
friends from custody, the pope sent him again into exile,
and threatened to deprive him of all his offices ; he was
only deterred from this severity by the prayers of Giacomo's
young wife, who fell at his feet and implored his pardon.
The time for any more ambitious hopes was long past. J
It was not till the close of the pope's life that his son
obtained influence over him, and even then it was by no
means absolute in important afiairs of state. § When any
one craved his intercession, he shrugged his shoulders.

* Relatione della corte di Roma a molte parole il fatto di S. S% che prima

tempo di Gregorio XIII., (Bibl. Corsini, che havesse alemio ordine ecclesiastico,

714.) 20 Febr., 1574, is very instructive generasse questo figlivolo, disse : * che

on this point. The author says of the si potrebbe nominarlo per il S"" Jacomo

disposition of the pope, " Non e stato Boncompagno Bolognese, strettamente

scrupoloso no dissolute mai e le son congiuuto con Sua Santita.' " Dispac-

dispiaciute Ic cose mal fatte." (App. cio, Paolo Tiepolo, 3 Marzo, 1574.

No. 44.) X Antonio Tiepolo, Dispacci, Agosto

+ On this occasion they had the diffi- Sett., 1576. In the year 1583, (29th

cult task of describing his birth. It has of March,) it is said in one of these

been praised as an evidence of Venetian despatches : " II S"^ Giacome non si

address, that he was designated as lascia intromettere in cose di stato."

" Signer Giacomo Boncompagno, closely § It is only at this latter period that

connected with His Holiness;" but it the opinion of him is true, which has

was, in fact, an evasion of cardinal taken such fii'ra root, and which, for

Como's. When the matter was under dis- instance, I find, even in the Memoii's of

cussion, the ambassador asked the minis- Richelieu : " Prince doux ct bcnin, fut

tor, whether Giacomo should be called mcilleur homme que bon pape." We

the son of His Holiness. " S. Stf"" 111'"» sliall sec m how limited a degree this is

[)rüntaniente dopo avere scusato con true.

§ III,] GREGORY XIII. 291

If this was the case with his son, how much less could
any other relations hope for irregular favours, or a share
in the supreme power ! Gregory raised two of his nephews
to the cardinalate, — this was no more than Pius V. had
done ; when a third, presuming on their success, came to
solicit promotion, his uncle refused him an audience and
ordered him to quit Rome within two days. The pope's
brother had also set out for Rome that he might enjoy the
sight of the prosperity which had befallen his house ; he
had already reached Orvieto, when he was met by a mes-
senger of the court who desired him to return. The old
man's eyes filled with tears, and he could not resist advanc-
ing a little further on his way towards Rome ; but there a
second prohibition met him, and he returned to Bologna.''^

In short, this pope cannot be reproached with having
encouraged nepotism, or favoured his kindred at the expense
of the laws and the public. When a newly appointed car-
dinal once said to him, that he should ever be grateful to
the family and the nephews of his holiness, he struck the
arms of the chair on which he was sitting with his hands,
and exclaimed, " Be grateful to God and to the holy see."

So thoroughly was he already imbued with the religious
spirit. He endeavoured not only to equal, but to surpass,
Pius v., in devout demeanour. f During the first years of
his pontificate he said mass thrice every week, and he never
failed to do so on Sundays. His life and conversation were
not only blameless, but edifying.

Never did pope perform certain duties of his office with
more fidelity than Gregory. He kept a list of men of every
country who were likely to acquit themselves well as bishops,
showed himself well informed of the characters and quali-
fications of every one who was proposed to him, and exhi-
bited the greatest caution in the appointments to these
important offices.

* The good man complained that the ha tolto non solo d'imitar, ma ancora

election of his brother to the papal chair d' avanzar Pio V. : dice per 1' ordinario

was of more injury than advantage to alraeno tre volte messa alia settimana.

himself, since it obliged him to greater Ha avuto particolar cura delle chiese,

expenses than could be covered by the facendole non solo con fabriche et altri

allowance granted by Gregory. modi ornar, ma ancora coUa assistentia

-f- Seconda Relatione dell' Ambascia- e frequentia di preti accrescer nel culto

tore di Roma Cl"^° M. Paolo Tiepolo, divino."
CaV% 3 Maggio, 1576 : « Nella religione

u2

292 GREGORY XIII. [Book IV.

Above all, he laboured to encourage a strictly ecclesi-
astical course of instruction. He contributed to the increase
of Jesuits' colleges with extraordinary liberality. He made
considerable presents to the estabhshment of the professed
members in Rome, bought houses, inclosed streets, and
allotted revenues, for the purpose of giving to the whole
college the form in which we still see it. It was calculated
to contain twenty lecture rooms, and three hundred and
sixty cells for students. It was called the Seminary of all
Nations ; and, at its first opening, to show that it was
intended to embrace the whole world, twenty-five speeches
were spoken in as many languages, each followed by a
Latin interpretation.'" The " collegium Germanicum,'' which
was founded earlier, was in danger of total extinction from
want of funds ; the pope not only gave the Palazzo Sant'
Apollinare, and the revenues of San Stefano on Monte
Celio, but also granted it ten thousand scudi from the
apostolic treasury. Gregory may be regarded as the real
founder of this institution, which yearly furnished Germany
with a number of champions of Catholicism. He also
founded an English college at Rome, and provided funds
for its maintenance. He contributed to the colleges at
Vienna and Grätz out of his private purse, and there was
perhaps not a single Jesuits' school in the world which
had not cause to boast in one way or other of his liberahty.
By the advice of the bishop of Sitia, he also founded a
Greek college, in which boys of from thirteen to sixteen
were received, not only from countries which were under
christian rule, such as Corfii and Candia, but also fi-om
Constantinople, Morea, and Salonichi ; they had Greek
teachers, they were dressed in the caftan and the Venetian
barett, and were made to retain all their Greek customs,
and to keep always before their minds that they were
destined to return to their native land. They were allowed
to retain not only their language, but their rite, and were
instructed in the faith according to the rules of the council
by which the Greek and Latin churches were united. f
Another proof of Gregory's comprehensive care for the

* Dispaccio, Donato, 13 Genn., 1582. giori possano affettionatamente e con la
t Dispaccio, Antonio Tiepolo, 16 verita iniparata dar a vedere ai suoi
Marzo, 1.577: "accio che fatto map:- Grcci la vera via."

§ III.] GREGORY XIII. 293

whole catholic world was, his reform of the calendar.
This measure had been desired by the council of Trent ;
and the removal of the high festivals of the church from
the connexion in which they had been placed to the sea-
sons of the year, by decrees of councils, rendered it indis-
pensable. All catholic nations took part in this reform.
Luigi Lilio, a Calabrese, who had few other claims to dis-
tinction, acquired immortal fame by discovering the easiest
method of remedying the inconvenience. His plan was
communicated to all universities; among them, to Sala-
manca and Alcala ; and opinions upon it were collected
from all quarters. It was then subjected to the scrutiny
of a commission appointed in Rome, whose most learned
and laborious member was a German, Clavius ; '"* and by
this body the final decision was given. The learned car-
dinal Sirleto had the greatest influence on the whole pro-
ceeding. It was conducted with a sort of mystery ; the
new calendar was shown to no one, not even to the ambas-
sadors, until it had been approved by the several courts. f
Gregory then solemnly proclaimed it, dwelling on this
reform as a proof of the immeasurable grace of God to his
church. J

But the exertions of this pope were not all of so pacific
a nature. It made him unhappy that the Venetians con-
cluded a peace, and afterwards Philip II. a truce, with the
Turks. Had it depended on him, the league which won
the battle of Lepanto would never have been dissolved.
The troubles in the Netherlands and in France, and the
conflict of parties in Germany, furnished a boundless field
to his activity. He was unwearied in devising projects
against the protestants. The rebellions which queen Eliz-
abeth had to contend with in Ireland were almost always
abetted by Rome ; and indeed the pope did not conceal
that he wished to bring about a general combination
against England. Year after year his nuncios endeavoured
to negotiate this matter with Philip II. and the Guises. It

* Erythreeus, " in quibus Christo- nal as a " huomo veramente di grande

phorus Clavius principem locum ob- litteratura."

tinebat." J Bull of the 13th of Feb. 1582. § 12.

t Dispaccio, Donate, 20 Dec, 1581 ; BuUar. Cocq. iv. 4. 10.
2 Giugno, 1582. He praises the cardi-

294 GREGORY XIII. [Book IV.

would be an interesting labour to collect and arrange all
these negotiations and projects, which were often unknown
to those whose ruin they were designed to accompHsh, and
which at length led to the grand enterprise of the armada.
Gregory conducted and urged them with the most ardent
zeal. The French league, which was so perilous to Henry
III. and IV., had its origin in the connexion of this pontiff
with the Guises.

Although it must be admitted that Gregory XIII. did
not burden the state with his kinsmen, yet the vast and
costly enterprises in which he engaged were a far more
formidable charge on the public revenues. Even Stukeley's
expedition, which terminated so disastrously in Africa,
insignificant as it was, cost him a considerable sum. He
once sent Charles IX. 400,000 ducats, raised by a direct
tax, levied on the cities of the Roman States ; and he
afforded frequent subsidies to the emperor and to the
grand master of Malta. But his pacific undertakings also
required a large outlay. It was calculated that the main-
tenance of young men during their studies cost him two
millions.*"' What then must he have expended on the
twenty-two Jesuits' colleges which owed their existence to
him ?

Hence he frequently found himself involved in financial
difiiculties, with a revenue which, though constantly
increasing, never yielded a disposable surplus.

Shortly after his accession to the throne, the Venetians
made an attempt to induce him to grant them a loan.
With increasing attention Gregory listened to the detailed
proposals of the ambassador, but when at length he per-
ceived what he was aiming at, he exclaimed, " What do
you ask, sir ambassador ? The congregation meets every
day to devise means of raising money, and never hits upon
a practicable expedient." f

* Calculation of Baronius. Possevi- Annals of Maffei, are the most cii*-

nus, in Ciacconius Vitae Pontificum, iv. cumstantial and worthy of belief on this

37. Lorenzo Priuli calculates that he point.

spent 200,000 scudi yearly on " operc f Dispaccio, 14 Marzo, 1573. It is a
pie." The extracts from the narratives " Cong;re,u;atione deputata sopra la pro-
of the Cardinal di Conio and Musotti, visione di danari."
eivcn bv CocMuelhies at the end of the

§ III.] GREGORY XIII. 295

The financial administration of Gregory XIII. was now
a matter of paramount importance. The ahenations and
the imposition of fresh taxes were already become subjects
of censure ; the questionable, nay, the ruinous nature of
such a system, was thoroughly perceived. Gregory charged
the congregation with the business of raising money for
him, but it was to be neither by spiritual grants, nor by
new taxes, nor by the sale of ecclesiastical revenues.

What means then remained ? The expedients resorted
to were very remarkable, and not less so the results which
they produced.

Gregory, who undeviatingly followed an absolute idea of
right, thought he had discovered that the sovereign of the
papal dominions possessed many prerogatives which he
needed only to put in force, in order to obtain new pecu-
niary resources.'"'' He was not at all inclined to respect
privileges which stood in his way. Among other things,
he abolished, without the least scruple, the right possessed
by the Venetians of exporting wheat from the March and
Ravenna, under certain advantageous conditions. He said
it was fair that foreigners should pay as much duty as
natives. f As they made some resistance, he caused their
warehouses at Ravenna to be broken open, the contents of
them to be feold by auction, and the owners to be impri-
soned. This incident alone, however, does not prove
much ; it only shows the mode in which he intended to
proceed. A far more important thing was, that he thought
he discovered a number of abuses amongst the nobles of
his dominions, the reform of which might be turned to the
account of the treasury. His secretary of the treasury,
Rudolfe Buonfigliuolo, suggested a scheme for a vast exten-
sion and renewal of feudal claims which were almost for-
gotten. He alleged that a great portion of the castles and
estates of the barons of the papal dominions had escheated
to the pope ; some by the failure of the lineal heirs, others
by the nonpayment of the rent due to the government. J

* MafFei : Annali di Gregorio XIII., f Dispaccio, Antonio Tiepolo, 12

i. p. 104. He reckons, that the States of April, 1577.

the Church yielded a clear income of t Dispaccio, A. Tiepolo, 12 Genn.

160,000 scudi only. 1579 : "II commissario dclla camera

296 GREGORY XIII. [Hook IV.

Nothing could be more acceptable than such a suggestion
to the pope, who had already acquired some such estates
by purchase or escheat, and he immediately proceeded to
act upon it. In the mountains of Romagna he wrested
Castelnuovo from the Isei of Cesena, and Corcana from the
Sassatelli of Imola. Lonzano, situated on its beautiful hill,
and Savignano in the plain, were confiscated from the
Rangoni of Modena. Alberto Pio voluntarily ceded Ber-
tinoro, to avoid the suit with which the treasury threatened
him ; but not satisfied with this, it stripped him also of
Verucchio and other places. From this time he came, on
every festival of St. Peter, to offer the arrears of rent due ;
but they were never accepted. These instances occurred
in Romagna alone ; but the other provinces were treated
in the same manner. The papal court laid claim not only
to estates of which the feudal services had not been ren-
dered ; there were some which had originally only been
mortgaged to the barons, — an origin of their tenure which
had long fallen into oblivion ; the estate had passed from
father to son as if held in fee, and had been greatly
improved ; it was now the pleasure of the pope and his
fiscal commissaries to redeem the mortgages. In this way
they took possession of the Castle of Sitiano, by paying
down the 14,000 scudi for which it had been mortgaged, —
a sum far below its actual value.

The pope congratulated himself greatly on these pro-
ceedings. He thought he had established a fresh claim to
the favour of Heaven when he had succeeded in raising the
revenues of the church, if only by ten scudi, provided it
were done without new taxes. He calculated with satis-
faction that in a short time an addition of 100,000 scudi
would be made, by legal means, to the revenue of his states.
What increased resources would this give for expeditions
against heretics and infidels ! At court his measures were
generally approved. ^' This pope is called ^ the Watchfiil,'
(the signification of the name Gregory)" says the cardinal
of Como ; " he will watch and recover his own." '"*

attende con raolta diligentia a ritrovarc vedendo die S. S" gli assentisse volon-

c rivcdcrc Rcritture per ricuperare tieri, noii la si)aragna o porta rispetto

(juaiito dalli pontefici passati si e stato ad alcuno."

obligato o dato in pegno ad alcuno, e • Dispaccio, 21 Ott. 1581 : "Sono

§ III.] GREGORY Xlll. 297

In the country, however, which was under the influence
of the aristocracy, these measures made a very different
impression.

Many great famihes found themselves suddenly driven
out of an estate to which they believed themselves to have
an indisputable legal title. Others were threatened with
a similar fate. Old papers were daily searched through in
Rome, and daily new claims grounded upon them. In a
short time no man thought himself secure, and many deter-
mined rather to defend their property with arms than to
deliver it up to the fiscal commissary. One of these feud-
atories told the pope to his face, — " What 's lost is lost ;
but one has at least a kind of pleasure in making a good
defence.^^

In consequence of the influence of the nobles on the
peasantry, and on the " nobili '^ of the neighbouring towns,
this violent expedient for raising money occasioned a
ferment throughout the country.

This was heightened by other ill-concerted measures by
which the pope occasioned very grievous losses to certain
cities. For example, he raised the duties of the port of
Ancona, with the notion that the increase would fall upon
the foreign merchants, and not upon the country. He thus
inflicted a blow on that city from which it never recovered :
trade suddenly withdrew itself, and the removal of the
increased duties, and even the restoration of their old
privileges to the Ragusans, proved but feeble remedies for
the injury they had sustained.

The event brought about by this policy was most unex-
pected and peculiar.

Obedience to authority rests, in every country, but espe-
cially in one of so peaceftil a character, on voluntary subor-
dination. The elements of commotion were here not
removed nor suppressed ; they were only concealed by the
domination of the government, so that when subordination
gave way on one point, these elements all burst forth and

molti anni che la chiesa non ha havuto e vigilante, vuol vigilare e ricuperare il

pontefice di questo nome Gregorio, che suo, e li par di far un gran servitio,

secundo la sua etiraologia Greca vuol quando ricupera alcuna cosa, benche

dire ' vigilante : ' questo che e Gregorio minima."

298 GREGORY XIII. [Book IV.

appeared in full conflict. The country seemed suddenly to
wake to the recollection, how warlike, how skilful in arms,
how independent in its parties, it had been for centuries ;
it began to scorn this government of priests and doctors,
and to relapse into a state more congenial to its nature.

Not that people directly opposed the government, or
revolted against it ; but the old feuds revived on every
side.

The whole of Romagna was already divided into factions.
In Ravenna there were the Rasponi and the Leonardi, in
Rimini the Ricciardelli and the Tignoh, in Cesena the
Venturelli and the Bottini, in Forli the Numai and the
Sirugli, in Imola the Vicini and the Sassatelh, arrayed
against each other ; the former of all these were still
Ghibellines, the latter Guelfs ; and even after interests
had entirely changed, the names came into use afresh.
The parties often possessed themselves of different quarters
and different churches ; they were distinguished by little
badges, such as, that the Guelfs wore the feather on the
right side of the hat, the Ghibellines on the left."^^' The
feud spread into the smallest villages ; not a man would
have spared the hfe of his own brother if he declared
himself for the opposite faction. There were instances of
men putting their mves to death that they might marry
into families belonging to their party. The Pacifici had
lost all their influence, the more completely, because unfit
people had been admitted into the fraternity from favour.
The factions took justice into their o^vn hands, and often
pronounced those guiltless who had been condemned by
the papal tribunals. They broke open prisons to hberate
their friends, or to take vengeance on their enemies, whose
heads were often seen the following day stuck up around
the fountains.!

The sovereign power was now so weak, that in the
March, the Campagna, and all the provinces, the troops of
outlawed bandits grew into small armies. They scoured

* The Relatione di Romagna points f In the MS. Sixtus V. Pontifox M.

out the difteronccs " nel tagliar del pane, (Altieri Library at Rome) there is the

nel cingersi. in j)ort;ire il pennacchio, most detailed description of this state of

fioeco o fiore al eapello o all' orecchio." aftaii's. (See App. No. 52.)
(App. No. 92.)

§ III.] GREGORY XIII. 299

the country under the conduct of Alfonso Piccolomini,
Roberto Malatesta, and other young men of the most illus-
trious families. Piccolomini took the town-house at Monte
Abboddo, hunted out all his antagonists, and had them
put to death before the eyes of their wives and mothers ;
nine of the name of Gabuzio shared this fate, while Picco-
lomini's followers danced in the market-place. He marched
through the country as its sovereign, nor did even the ague
arrest his course ; on the day of the fever-fit he caused
himself to be carried in a litter at the head of his troops.
He sent word to the inhabitants of Cornet o that they had
better make haste to finish their harvest, for that he was
coming to burn all the crops of his enemy. Latino Orsino.
In his own person he affected a sort of honour : thus, on
one occasion, when he took away the letters with which a
courier was charged, he did not touch the man's money ;
but the brutal rapacity of his troops knew no bounds.
Delegates were now sent from the towns in every direction
to Rome, to implore succour.''^ The pope increased his
forces, and conferred on cardinal Sforza larger powers than
any man had possessed since the time of Cardinal Albor-
noz ; he had authority to proceed not only without regard
to any special privileges, but unrestrained by any rule of
law ; nay, even without any trial whatsoever ; — manu
regia. ■\ Giacomo Buoncompagno took the field, and
together they succeeded in dispersing the bands of bri-
gands and clearing the country, but as soon as they
retired from a spot, the old disorders arose again in their
rear.

One circumstance especially contributed to render these
evils irremediable.

Gregory XIIL, who is often represented as good-natured
to excess, had nevertheless formed the highest and most
rigorous estimate of his rights, not only as temporal prince,

* Dispacci, Donato, del 1582, passim. alios cujuscunque dignitatis vel prseemi-

+ Brief for Sforza, given in the Dis- nentise, barones, duces, et quavis auto-

pacci : *' Omnimodam faeultatem, potes- ritate fungentes, et extrajudicialiter et

tatem, auctoritatem, et arbitrium, contra juris ordine non servato, etiam sine pro-

quoscunque bannitos, facinorosos, recep- cessu et scripturis, et manu regia illosque

tatores, fautores, complices et sequaces, omnes et singulos puniendi tam in rebus

etc., nee non contra commmiitates, vmi- in bonis quam in personis.'*
versitates et civitates, terras et castra, et

300 GREGORY XIII. [Book IV.

but as pontift/"' He showed no favour to the emperor or
to the king of Spain, nor did he pay the least regard to
his neighbours. He was involved in a thousand disputes
with Venice (as for instance concerning the affair of
Aquileja, the visitation of their churches, and other points) ;
the ambassadors could not describe his violence at the least
mention of these matters, or what intense bitterness he
displayed. The same was the case with Tuscany and
Naples ; Ferrara found no favour ; Parma had shortly
before lost considerable sums in legal disputes with him.
All these neighbouring powers saw the pope involved in
such annoying perplexities with pleasure ; they scrupled
not to give asylum to the bandits, who, on the first oppor-
tunity, returned to the Ecclesiastical States. In vain did
the pope entreat them to desist ; they professed to think
it extraordinary that, after totally disregarding the interests
or the complaints of all others, Rome set up claims to the
services and the respect of every one.f

Gregory thus found it impossible ever to reduce the
outlaws to submission. No taxes were paid, and the
sussidio could not be collected. Universal discontent over-
spread the land ; even cardinals suggested the question,
whether it would not be better to attach themselves to
some other state.

In this posture of things the execution of the measures
proposed by the secretary of the treasury was out of the
question. In December 1581 the Venetian ambassador
distinctly announced, that the pope had put a stop to all
proceedings in matters of confiscation.

He was compelled to permit Piccolomini to come to
Rome and to present a petition to him. J He shuddered

* p. Tiepolo makes this remark as + Dispaccio, Donate, 10 Sett. 1581 :

early as 1576 : " Quanto piu cerca d'ac- " E una cosa graude che con non dar niai

quistarsi norac di giusto, tanto piu lo satisfatione nissuna si pretende d' avere

perde di gratioso, perche concede molto- da altri in quello che tocca alia liberta

meno gratie extraordinarie di quel che dello stato suo correntemeute ogni sorte

ha fatto altro pontefice di molti anni in d' ossequio."

qua: — la qual cosa, aggiunta al manca- X Donato, 9 April, 1583 : "U sparag-

mento ch' e in lui di ccrti oftiei grati et nai' la spesa e I'assicurar il Signor Gia-

accetti per la difticulta massinianiente como, che lo dcsiderava, ct il fuggir I'oc-

naturalc che ha ncl parlar e per le po- casione di disgustarsi ogni di piu per

chissimc parole che in ciascuna occasione questo con Fiorenza si come ogni di av-

usa, fa ch' cgli in gran parte inanca di vcniva, ha fatto venir S. S"* in questa

quclla gratia appresso le pcrsonc." (App. risolutione."
No. 15.)

§ IV.] SIXTUS V. 301

as he read the long catalogue of murders which he was
required to pardon, and laid it on the table ; but he was
told that one of three things was inevitable, — either he
must expect his son Giacomo to fall a victim to the ven-
geance of Piccolomini, or he must resolve to put Piccolo-
mini to death, or to grant him free pardon. The father
confessors of St. John Lateran declared that, though they
dared not violate the secrecy of the confessional, they
were permitted to say thus much, — that if something was
not done, a great calamity would ensue. Another reason
was, that Piccolomini was openly protected by the grand
duke of Tuscany, and then inhabited the palace of the
Medici.

At last the pope consented, — though with a heart
wounded to the core, — and signed the brief of absolution.

But even by this concession he did not restore tran-
quillity to the country. His own capital was full of
bandits, and things were in so desperate a condition that
the city magistracy of the " conservatori^^ was obliged to
interpose to secure obedience to the pope's police. A
certain Marianazzo refused the pardon offered him ; he
said that the life of a bandit was more advantageous to
him, and afforded him greater security.''"

The aged pope, feeble and weary of life, cast his eyes to
Heaven, and cried, " Thou wilt arise, 0 Lord, and wilt
have mercy upon Zion \"

§ 4. SIXTUS v.

It sometimes appears as if tumult and disorder pos-
sessed some secret power of producing the man capable of
ruling the storm.

While, throughout the world, hereditary monarchies or
aristocracies transmitted power from generation to genera-
tion, the spiritual sovereignty was distinguished by being
attainable from the lowest ranks of society. It was from
the humblest station that a pope now arose, endowed with

* "Che il viver fuoruscito li torni piu reigned from the 13th of May, 1572, to
a conto e di maggior sieurt^." Gregory the 10th of April, 1585.

302 SIXTUS V. [Book IV.

all the qualities requisite to crush the disturbances that
prevailed.

At the time of the first successful progress of the Ottoman
arms in lUyria and Dalmatia, many of the inhabitants of
those provinces fled into Italy. Groups of them were seen
sitting on the sea-shore and raising their hands to Heaven.
Among such fiigitives, the ancestor of Sixtus V., Zanetto
Peretti, a Sclavonian by birth, probably passed over into
Italy.

But, as is often the 'fate of exiles, neither he nor his
posterity, who had settled in Montalto, could boast of any
remarkable good fortune in the country of their adoption.
Peretto Peretti, the father of Sixtus V., was obliged to quit
that city on account of debt ; and it was not till his mar-
riage, that he was enabled to hire a garden at Grotto a
Mare, near Fermo. It was a remarkable spot : the ruins
of a temple of the Etrurian Juno Cupreea stood amidst the
trees and shrubs of the garden, which, as Fermo enjoys a
milder climate than any other part of the March, abounded
in the finest fruits of the south. Here a son was born to
Peretti, on the 18th of December, 1521. Shortly before
this event he dreamt, that while he was deploring the
various distresses of his hfe, he was consoled by an assur-
ance, pronounced by a divine voice, that he should have a
son who should raise his house to prosperity. He clung to
this hope with all the ardour of a visionary nature exalted
by poverty, and strongly inchned to the regions of mystery.
He called the boy's name Felix.'"'

The indigent circumstances of the family may be gathered
from many little incidents of the child's life, such as his
falling into the pond at which his aunt was washing, his

* Tcmpesti, Storia della Vita e Geste "„Anus scnio confecta Romam defcrri
di Sisto v., 1754, — has searched iii the voluit, cupida venerari eum in siiinino
archives of Montalto for the origin of his reruin humanarinn fastigio positum,
hero. The Vita Sixti V., ipsius manu quem ohtoris sui tihum paupere victu
cmendata, is also authentic. MS. in the domi sute natum aluei'at." Likewise :
Alticri Library at Rome. Sixtus was " pavisse puerum pecus et Picentes mo-
born, *' cum pater Ludovici Vecchii Fir- morant et ipse adeo non diffitetur ut
mani hortmn excolerct, mater Uianaj etiam prre se ferat." In the Ambi'o-
luu'ui ejus perhonesta; matronas domes- siana, R. 124, there is, F. Radice doll'
ticis ministeriis opcram daret." This Origine di Sisto V., an Information,
same Diana lived to see, when fai* ad- dated Rome, 4th of May, 1585, which
vanced in age, the pontificate of Sixtus : however tells but little.

§ IV.] sixTUS V. 303

watching fruit, and even tending swine. He learned the
alphabet out of the hornbooks which other children, whose
way to school lay across the field in which he was sitting,
left lying by him ; his father could not spare the five
bajocchi a month which the neighbouring schoolmaster
demanded. Fortunately there was one member of the
family in the church, Fra Salvatore, a Franciscan, who at
last suffered himself to be prevailed upon to pay the money
for his schooling. The young Felix then went to school
with the other boys ; he carried with him a piece of bread,
and at noon sat down and ate it by the side of a spring of
water, at which he quenched his thirst. Spite of this
extreme poverty, the hopes of the father had communicated
themselves to the son. When, in his twelfth year, he
entered the Franciscan order, (for the decree of the council
of Trent prohibiting such early vows was not yet in exist-
ence) ; he retained the name of FeHx. Fra Salvatore kept
him under very severe discipline, uniting, as he did, the
authority of an uncle and of a father ; he however sent him
to school. Felix often passed his evenings fasting, and
studying by the light of a lantern in the cross-ways, or, if
that went out, by the lamp burning before the host in the
church. We find no record of any marked indication of an
innate spirit of devotion, or of a turn for profound scientific
speculation ; we learn only that he made rapid progress
both at the school at Fermo and at the schools and uni-
versities of Ferrara and Bologna, where he carried off"
the academic honours with great credit. He distinguished
himself especially by his dialectical talent, and attained to
a consummate and truly monkish dexterity in handling
subtle theological questions. At the general convocation of
the Franciscans in the year 1549, which opened with
hterary trials of skill, he held a disputation against one
Antonio Persico of Calabria, a disciple of Thelesius, who at
that time had acquired a high reputation in Perugia.'" The

*,Sixtus V. Pontifex Maximus : MS. lumen mirifice illustrabat. Montaltus

in the Altieri Library (App. No. 51.) : ex universa theologia excerptas posi-

" Eximia Persicus apud omnes late fama tiones cardinali Carpensi inseriptas tanta

Perusise philosophiam ex Telesii placitis cum ingenii laude defendit ut omnibus

cum publice doceret, novitate doctrinse admirationi fuerit."
tum primum nascentis nativum ingenii

304 SIXTUS V. [Book IV.

quickness and presence of mind which he displayed on this
occasion first secured him notice and respect ; the patron
of the order, cardimal Pio of Carpi, from that time warmly
espoused his interests.

His high fortune, however, is to be ascribed to another
accident.

In the year 1552, he preached during Lent in the church
of the Santi Apostoli in Rome with the greatest success.
His style was esteemed animated, copious, fluent, not over-
laid with ornament, well arranged ; his utterance was
distinct and agreeable. One day when he was preaching
to a large congregation in that church, he paused, as is the
custom in Italy, in the middle of his sermon ; after he had
rested, he read the petitions, which usually consist of
prayers and intercessions, when his eye suddenly lighted
upon one which had been found sealed in the pulpit and
contained something of a very different nature. All the
leading principles of Peretti's sermons, especially those
regarding the doctrine of predestination, were therein
described, and opposite to each was written in large cha-
racters, " Thou liest." Peretti could not entirely conceal
his astonishment ; he hastened to conclude his discourse,
and as soon as he reached his home, sent the paper to the
inquisition."''' In a very short time he beheld the grand
inquisitor, Michele Ghislieri, enter his room. Peretti had
now to undergo the most rigorous examination. He often
related afterwards with what dread the sight of this man,
with his stern brow, his deep-set eyes and his hard features,
inspired him. But he collected himself, answered well, and
afforded no hold for suspicion or censure. When Ghislieri
saw that the friar was not only innocent, but was so exten-
sively versed, and so firmly fixed, in the catholic doctrines,
he instantly became another man, embraced him with tears,
and from that time was his second patron.

* Narrative contained in the same tinebat singulisque id tantum addebat,

MS. : " Jam priorem orationis partem Uteris grandioribus, * Mentiris.' Com-

exegerat, cum oblatum libellum rcsignat, plicatum diligenter libellum, sed ita ut

ac tacitus, ut populo summam exponat, consternationis manifestus multis esset,

legere incipit. Quotquot ad earn diem ad pectus dimittit, orationemque brevi

catholicBB fidei dogmata Montaltus pro prtecisione paucis absolvit."
concione affirmarat, ordine collecta con-

§ IV.] siXTUS V. 305

Fra Felice Peretti from that moment attached himself
most decidedly to the strict party which just then gained
the ascendancy in the church. He kept up a close inti-
macy \vith Ignazio, Felino, and Filippo Neri, all three of
whom obtained the title of saints. The resistance he expe-
rienced in his attempts to reform his order, and his
expulsion from Venice by the brethren, served only to
increase his reputation among the partisans of the opinions
which were then rising into power. He was introduced to
Paul IV. and often consulted in difficult cases ; he laboured
as theologian in the congregation for the council of Trent ;
as consultor to the inquisition, he took a large share in the
trial and condemnation of cardinal Carranza ; nor was he
repelled by the labour of searching out all the passages in
the writings of protestants, which Carranza had introduced
into his. He won the entire confidence of Pius V. That
pope nominated him vicar-general of the Franciscans,
expressly for the purpose of giving him authority to reform
his order ; an undertaking which Peretti carried through
most strenuously. He displaced the commissaries-general
who had of late possessed the highest power ; restored the
old constitution, according to which this supremacy resided
in the provincials, and made the most rigorous visitations.
Pius saw his expectations not only fulfilled, but surpassed ;
he looked upon the partiality he felt for Peretti as a sort of
divine inspiration, and disregarding the calumnies which
were industriously circulated concerning him, he appointed
him bishop of St. Agatha, and, in the year 1570, cardinal.

The bishopric of Fermo was also conferred on him.
Robed in the purple of the church, Peretti returned to his
native place, where he had once watched the fruit and
tended the cattle ; yet the predictions of his father and
his own hopes were still not completely fulfilled.

Accounts have been a thousand times repeated of the
artifices employed by cardinal Montalto (so he was now
called) in order to obtain the tiara ; of his affectation of
humility ; of his crawling about, bent double, coughing and
leaning on a stick ; but those who are acquainted with his-
tory and with mankind will want no evidence to lead them
to suspect that there is little truth in these stories. This

VOL. I. X

300 SIXTUS V. [Book IV.

was not the way in which the highest dignities were to be
won.

Montalto hved a sechided, quiet, frugal, and industrious
Hfe. His pleasure was to plant trees and vines in his vine-
yard near Santa Maria Maggiore (which strangers still go
to visit), and to do what he could for the welfare of his
native town. His more serious hours were devoted to the
works of St. Ambrose, of which, in 1580, he published an
edition. This, whatever evidence it may afford of his
industry, shows his disposition to make the meaning of his
author bend to his own views. Nor does it appear that, in
other respects, he exhibited that meek and inoffensive
character which has been ascribed to him. We have an
account of him even as early as 1574, which describes him
as learned and prudent, but also as cunning and malig-
nant.'"' Yet he showed extraordinary self-control. When
his nephew, the husband of Vittoria Accorambuona, was
murdered, he was the first to entreat the pope to let the
investigation drop. The intrigues of the conclave of 1585
having caused him to be put in nomination, this quality,
which commanded universal admiration, probably conduced
more than any other to ensure his election. It was also
noted, as it is expressly said in the genuine narrative of the
transaction, that he was of a comparatively vigorous time

* A Discourse, Sopra i soggetti papa- Alberti, May 11th, 1585, (Roma, Filza,

bili, written in the time of Gregory XIII., n. 36.) it is said : " V'"'* Altezza sia sola

says of Montalto : " La natura sua, tenuta quella che come conviene goda il frutto

terribile, impex'iosa et arrogante, non li dell' opera che ella ha fatta (he speaks of

puö punto conciliare la gratia." We this election) per avere questo pontefice

see, he was the same when cardinal, as amico e non altro se ne faccia bello."

he afterwards showed himself when pope. In another Florentine despatch, it is

Gregory XIII. often said to those about said : " II papa replica che il gran duca

him : " caverent magnum ilium cincra- aveva molte ragioni di desiderargli bene,

rium." Farnesc saw him between the perche egli era come quel agricoltore che

two Dominicans Trani and Justinian, pianta un frutto che ha poi caro insieme

who also indulged in hopes of the papacy di vederlo crescere et andare avanti

for themselves. The author of " Sixtus lungo tempo, aggiungcndoh che egli era

V. P. M." makes him say : " Na? Pice- stato quello che dopo il Signer Iddio

numhoc jumentummagnificeolim cxiliet, aveva condotta quest' opera, che a lui

si duos illos, quos hinc atque illinc male solo ne aveva ad aver obligo, e che lo

fert, carbonis saccos excusserit." He conosceva, se ben di queste cose non

adds, that it was on account of this pros- poteva parlar con ogn' uno." We see

pect, that Vittoria Accorambuona mar- that a very different transaction took

ried the nepliew of Sixtus. The Grand place behind the scenes, of which we

Duke Francis of Tuscany had a great know little or nothing. The election

share in the election of Peretti. In a took place the 24th of April, 1585.
despatch of the Florentine ambassador,

§ v.] EXTERMINATION OF BANDITTI. 307

of life, sixty-four, and of a robust and healthy constitution.
Everybody admitted that the actual state of affairs de-
manded above all things a man of unimpaired energies of
mind and body.

Fra Felice thus saw himself at the term of all his wishes.
It must have been with a lofty feeling of satisfaction that
he contemplated this fulfilment of a noble and legitimate
ambition. All those circumstances in which he had ever
imagined he discerned indications of his high destiny, were
now present to his mind. He chose as his motto, " From
my mother's womb, thou, 0 God, hast been my defender."

From this time forth he believed himself to be favoured
by God in all his undertakings. Immediately on ascending
the throne he declared his determination of exterminating
the banditti and public malefactors. He said that if he had
not power enough of himself, God would assuredly send
legions of angels to his assistance.'"' He instantly pro-
ceeded to the execution of this arduous work with delibe-
rate and inflexible resolution.

§ 5. EXTERMINATION OF BANDITTI.

SiXTUS V. regarded with aversion the memory of Gregory,
and determined not to adhere to his measures. He dis-
banded the greater part of the troops which he found, and
diminished the number of the sbirri by one half On the
other hand, he resolved on a relentless punishment of the
criminals who fell into the hands of justice.

There had long been a prohibition against carrying short
arms, especially a particular kind of firelock. Notwith-
standing this, four young men of Cora, near kinsmen,
were seized with such arms about them. The following
was the day of the coronation, and so joyful an event fur-
nished their friends with an occasion for begging a pardon

* Dispaccio, Priiili, 11 Maggio, 1585 : mancassero li ajuti proprii e forastieri, H

Speech of the Pope in the Consistory : manderä tante legioni di angeli per punir

*' Disse di due cose che lo travagliavano, li raalfattori e ribaldi, et esortö li cardi-

la materia della giustitia e della abon- nali di non usar le loro franchigie nel dar

dantia, alle quali voleva attender con ricapito a tristi, detestando il poco pen-

ogni cura, sperando in Dio che quando li si er del suo predecessor."

X 2

308 EXTERMINATION OF BANDITTI. [Book IV.

for them. " So long as I live," replied Sixtus, " every
criminal must die."'"" On the same day all four were
hanged on one gallows, near the bridge of St. Angelo.

A young Trasteverine was condemned to death for
having resisted the sbirri who wanted to take away his ass.
All present were full of compassion, as the boy was led
weeping to the place where he was to suffer death for so
small an oifence ; they pleaded his youth to the pope. " I
will add a few years of my life to his," said he ; and com-
manded that the execution should proceed.

These first acts of Sixtus struck terror into all, and
imparted an extraordinary force to the orders which he now
issued. Barons and communes were warned to clear their
castles and towns of banditti, and were sentenced to make
compensation for any damage committed by banditti within
their territories respectively, f

It had been the custom to set a price on the head of a
bandit ; Sixtus ordered that this money should no longer
be paid by the treasury, but by the kinsmen of the bandit,
or, if they were too poor, by the commune in which he
was born. This, it is obvious, was an endeavour to enlist
the interests of the nobles, the communes and the kindred
on the side of justice, in favour of which he even tried to
engage the interest of the banditti themselves. He pro-
mised any one of them who would deliver up a comrade,
alive or dead, not only his own free pardon, but the pardon
of some of his friends, whom he might name, and also a
sum of money.

After these orders had been carried into effect, and
some examples had been given of their rigorous execution,
the pursuit of the banditti shortly assumed another form.
It was fortunate that at the very beginning it was success-
fully directed against certain captains of bands. The pope
could not rest, because the priest Guercino, who called
himself the king of the Campagna, and who had once
commanded the subjects of the bishop of Viterbo not to
obey their lord, continued his old practices and had just
committed fresh acts of pillage. " Sixtus prayed," says

* " Se vivo, facinorosis morienduin f Bull. t. iv. p. iv. p. 137. Bando, in
esse." Tempesti, i. ix, 14.

§ v.] EXTERMIx^ATION OF BANDITTI. 309

Galesinus, "that God would deliver the States of the
Church from this robber ; " on the following morning
intelligence was received of the capture of Guercino. His
head encircled with a gilded crown was stuck up on Mount
St. Angelo ; the man who brought it receiv-ed the reward
of two thousand scudi, and the people applauded the
excellent administration of justice by his holiness.

Nevertheless another captain called Delia Fara, had the
audacity one night to knock up the watchmen of the Porta
Salara, tell them his name, and desire them to greet the
pope and the governor from him. Upon this Sixtus com-
manded his kinsmen, under pain of death, to find him and
deliver him up. Before a month was over, Farads head
was brought to Rome.

Sometimes the means employed against the banditti
exceeded the bounds of justice. Thirty of them had assem-
bled on a height in the territory of Urbino, when the duke
caused some mules laden with provisions to be driven in
that neighbourhood, presuming that they would not fail to
plunder them. His expectations were not disappointed,
and the provisions being poisoned, the robbers all died.
" At the news of this," says a historian of Sixtus V., " the
pope was much pleased."'"*

In Rome a father and son were led to death, though
they persisted in declaring their innocence. The mother
placed herself in the way, imploring only a short delay to
enable her to prove the innocence of her husband and son.
The senator refused it. "Since you thirst for blood,"
cried she, " I will glut you with it ;" and she threw herself
from the window of the capitol. Meanwhile the two
unhappy sufferers came to the place of execution : each
entreated to die first ; the father could not endure to see
the death of the son, nor the son that of the father ; the
people called aloud for mercy, while the savage executioner
murmured at the needless delay.

Nor was there any respect of persons. Count Giovanni
Pepoli, a descendant of one of the first houses of Bologna,
but who had been accessary to many of the excesses of the

* Memorie del Ponteficato di Sixto V. : " Ragguagliato Sisto ne prese gran
contento." (App. No. 52.)

310 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. [Book IV.

banditti, was strangled in prison, and all his landed pro-
perty, as well as his money, confiscated to the treasury.

Not a day passed without an execution ; in every part
of the country, in wood and field, the traveller encountered
stakes upon which were placed the heads of bandits. The
pope reserved his commendations for those of his legates
and governors who satisfied him on this point, and sent
him in a large tribute of heads. His justice had something-
barbaric and oriental in it. Those robbers whom its arm
could not reach, fell by the hand of their own comrades.
The pope's promises had sown disunion among the ban-
ditti ; no one trusted his fellow ; they murdered each
other.*"*

And thus not a year passed in which the disorders
which had prevailed in the Ecclesiastical States were not
crushed as soon as they openly burst forth, even if not
stifled at their birth. In the year 1586 news was received
that the last brigand leaders, Montebrandano and Arara,
were killed. Nothing gave the pope greater pleasure than
when ambassadors from foreign courts observed on their
arrival, that they had found security and tranquiUity in
their whole passage through his States, f

§ 6. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADMINISTRATION.

As however the abuses which Sixtus V. warred against
had another origin, besides the mere want of a vigilant
police, his success in this struggle was connected with
other measures of his government.

Sixtus V. is sometimes regarded as the sole founder of
the laws and ordinances of the Roman States, and institu-
tions which existed long before his time are ascribed to

* Disp,, Priuli, as early as the 29th nobiUum superbse eminent opes, nemo

of Juno, 1 585 : " Li fuorusciti s' animaz- tarn tenuis, tam abjeeta^ fortuna? sit, qui

zano I'un Taltro per la provision del novo se nunc sentiat eujusquam injuriix? ob-

brevo." noximn." (App. No. 50.) According

t Vita Sixti V., i. m. em. : « Ea quies to Gualterius, Vita Sixti V., the latter

et tranciuillitas ut in urbe vasta, in hoc applied this sentence : " Fugit impius

convcntu iintionuni, in tanta pcregrino- neniinc persequente." (App. No. 53.)
rum advenaru!n(]uc c(»lhivi(>, ubi tot

§ VI.] CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 3IX

him : he is lauded as an unequalled master of finance, a
perfectly unprejudiced statesman, a restorer of antiquity.
He had that sort of character which stamps itself on the
memories of men, and gains credence for fabulous, roman-
tic stories.

But if all is not true that is related of him, it is at least
unquestionable that his government was very remarkable.

It stood in a singular relation to that of Gregory.
Gregory was, in his general measures, severe, decisive,
partial ; but he was indulgent to individual cases of diso-
bedience. By setting interests in array against himself
on the one hand, while, on the other, he permitted an
unparalleled impunity to certain actions, he gave rise to
that ruinous state of things which he lived to witness.
Sixtus, on the contrary, was inexorable in individual cases ;
he adhered to his laws with a rigour that amounted to
cruelty, while, in the framing of general rules, we find him
mild, yielding and placable. Under Gregory, obedience
had met with no reward, and insubordination with no
punishment. Under Sixtus, those who resisted had every-
thing to fear ; while those who strove to please him might
confidently expect proofs of his favour. Nothing could
better promote his views.

From his first accession to power, he suffered all the
misunderstandings which had arisen between his prede-
cessor and his neighbours, out of ecclesiastical claims, to
drop. He declared that a pope ought to uphold and to
fortify the privileges which are enjoyed by princes, and,
in accordance with this declaration, he restored to the
Milanese their place in the rota, which Gregory XIII. had
tried to take from them ; he also evinced the highest
satisfaction when the Venetians at length brought to light
a charter which decisively established their claims in the
affair of Aquileja : he was resolved to remove the objec-
tionable clause in the bull, In Ccend Domini, and com-
pletely abolished the congregation concerning ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, whence the greater part of the disputes with
other powers had arisen.'" There is certainly something

* Lorenzo Priuli : Relatione, 1586: abbraccia le qvierele eon principi, anzi
" E pontefice che non cosi leggiermente pei' fuggirle ha levata la congregatione

312 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. [Book IV.

magnanimous in the voluntary cession of contested rights ;
and in the case in question this proceeding vras attended
with the most fortunate results to Sixtus. The king of
Spain sent an autograph letter to the pope, in which he
informed him that he had commanded his ministers in
Milan and Naples to pay no less implicit obedience to the
papal ordinances than to his own. Sixtus was moved to
tears, " that the greatest monarch in the world should,"
as he expressed it, " so honour a poor monk." Tuscany
declared herself devoted, Venice satisfied, and both these
neighbours now adopted a new line of policy. Banditti
who had taken refuge on the frontiers were delivered up
to the pope from all quarters ; Venice forbade their return
into the States of the Church, and refiised her vessels for
conveying exiles to the coasts. The pope was transported
at this ; he said, " he would think of the republic another
time ; he would suffer himself to be flayed alive for her,"
(that was his expression) " he would shed his blood for
her." Hence it was, that he subdued the banditti ; they
found refuge and succour nowhere.

In his own country, he was far from enforcing those
severe measures which Gregory had proposed for the
advantage of the revenue. After chastising the offending
feudatories, he sought rather to conciliate and attach the
other barons. He united the two great famihes of Orsini
and Colonna by marriages, both with his own house and
with each other. Gregory had stripped the Colonnas of
their castles ; Sixtus regulated their household expenditure
and advanced them sums of money.'"" He gave one of his
great-nieces in marriage to the constable M. A. Colonna,
and another to duke Virginio Orsini, besto^Aing on each an
equal dower and very similar marks of favour ; he also
settled their quarrels for precedence, by making it depend
on the seniority of the head of either house. Donna
Camilla, the pope's sister, now occupied an august position,

ddla giurisdittione ecclesiastica : " (in manco indegnit\ quelle che saranno

another place he says, principally with trattate secretamente da lui solo." (App.

reference to Spain :) "e stinia di potere No. 57.)

per qnesta via conclnder con maggior * Dispacoio degli Ambasciatori estra-

iacilita le cose e di sopportaro con ordinarii, lf> Ott., 25 Nov. 1585.

§ VI.] CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 313

— surrounded by her children, by sons-in-law of such high
and venerable nobility, and by grand-daughters married
to the princes of Rome.

Sixtus also delighted in dispensing privileges. To the
March especially he proved himself a kind and bountiful
fellow-countryman. He restored to the Anconitani some
of their ancient rights ; established a supreme court of
justice for the whole province in Macerata ; granted fresh
privileges to the college of advocates of that province ;
raised Fermo to an archbishopric, and Tolentino to a
bishopric ; and elevated the village of Montalto, in which
his forefathers had first settled, by an express bull, into a
city and a bishopric ; " for," said he, " it gave to our race
its fortunate origin." Even when cardinal, he had founded
a learned school there ; now, as pope, he endowed the
Montalto college at the university of Bologna, for fifty
students from the March, of whom Montalto had a right
to present eight, and the little Grotto a Mare, two.''^

He determined also to raise Loreto to the rank of a
city. Fontana set before him the difficulties in the way
of this measure. " Don't trouble yourself, Fontana," said
he ; " it cost me more to resolve upon it, than it will to
execute it." A portion of the land was bought from the
inhabitants of Recana ; valleys were filled up, hills levelled,
and roads laid out ; the communes of the March were
encouraged to build houses ; cardinal Gallo placed new
civic authorities in the holy chapel. The pope thus satis-
fied at once his patriotism and his devotion to the Holy
Virgin. The cities of the other provinces were likewise
the objects of his attention and solicitude. He made
arrangements to prevent the increase of their debts, and
limited their alienations and securities ; he instituted
an accurate inquiry into their whole financial condition,
and it is to be ascribed to the provisions of which he was

* He included even the neighbouring rum quadam communitate conjunguntur,

villages as part of Montalto. Vita Sixti haud secus quam patriae partem Sixtus

V. ipsius manu emendata, " Porculam fovit semper atque dilexit, omniaque iis

Patrignorum et Mintenorum, quia Mon- in commune est elargitus, quo paulatim

talto haud ferme longius absunt quam ad velut in unam coalescerent civitatem."

teli j actum et crebris affiuitatibus inter (App. No. 50.)
se et commerciis rerum omnium et agro-

314 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. [Book IV.

the author, that the communes gradually recovered their
prosperity.'"'

He encouraged agriculture generally. He undertook
the work of draining the Chiana of Orvieto and the Pon-
tine marshes, the latter of which he visited himself ; the
river Sisto (a canal cut through the marshes), which was
the best attempt at drainage before the time of Pius VI.,
owed its origin to him.

He showed no less disposition to foster manufactures.
A certain Pietro of Valencia, a Roman citizen, had pro-
posed to introduce a manufactory of silk. The peremptory
order with which Sixtus attempted to support him is very
characteristic of that pope. He commanded that mulberry
trees should be planted throughout his whole dominions,
in every garden and vineyard, in every field and wood, in
every hill and valley : wherever corn did not grow, he
fixed the number of five for every rubbio of land, and
threatened the commune with the imposition of considerable
fines in case of neglect.f He tried likewise to encourage
the woollen manufacture ; "in order," says he, " that the
poor may be able to earn something." He granted the
first who undertook a manufactory an advance from the
treasury, in return for which he was to dehver in a certain
number of pieces of cloth.

We should do injustice to the predecessors of Sixtus V.,
if we attributed such intentions exclusively to him ; Pius
V. and Gregory XUI. also encouraged agriculture and
manufactures. What distinguished Sixtus was, not so
much that he took a new course, as that he pursued with
greater rapidity and energy the course which had already

* Gualtei'ius, " Ad ipsorum (universi- 1586 ; Bull. Cocq., iv. 4. 218. Gualte-

tatum) statum cognoscendum, corrigen- rius, " Bombicinam sericam lanificiam

dum, coustituendum, quinque camerse vitreamque artes in urbem vel iuduxit

apostoliccu clericos misit." (App. No. vel amplificavit. Ut vero serica ars

53.) The advantages of these regulations frequentier esset, moroiaim arborura

may be observed in the Memorie also : seminaria et plantaria per universam

"Conle (juali provisioni si diede prin- ecclesiasticam ditionem fieri prrecepit,

cijjio a rihaversi le conununita dello stato ob eanique rem Maine euidam Hobreo

eeclesiastico ; le quali poi de tutto ritor- ex bombieibus bis in anno fructum et

narono in ])iodi : eon quanto I'istesso sericam aniplificaturum sedulo pollicenti

provedimentoi)crfezionoOlemente VIII." ac reeipienti maxima privilegia imper-

(App. No. 52.) tivit." (App. No. 53.)

t Cum sicut accepimus : 28 Maji,

§ VI.] CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 315

been traced out. Hence it happened that he made such
an impression on the minds and memories of men.

The assertion that he founded the congregations of car-
dinals must also be qualified. The seven most important,
— those of the inquisition, the index, the affairs of the
council, of the bishops, of the religious orders, the " segna-
tura" and "consulta,'^ he found already in existence. Nor
were the political affairs left wholly unprovided for in
these, for the two last mentioned had cognisance of
judicial and administrative business. Sixtus now deter-
mined to add eight new congregations to those already
existing, of which only two however were to be employed
on the affairs of the church, — the one, on the founding of
new bishoprics, the other, on the direction and the renova-
tion of ecclesiastical usages f' the remaining six were
destined for separate departments of administration ; for
the annona, the inspection of roads, the abolition of oppres-
sive taxes, the building of ships of war, the printing-office
in the Vatican, and the university of Rome.f We see
how unsystematically the pope proceeded in these arrange-
ments, how completely he placed partial and transient
interests on a level with general and permanent ones ;
nevertheless they were very successful, and with slight
alterations subsisted for centuries.

He established a high standard for the qualities befitting
the ofiice of cardinal generally. They were all to be " dis-
tinguished men, their morals unimpeachable, their words
oracles, their expressions a rule of life and thought to others ;
the salt of the earth, the light set upon a candlestick.'^!
It must not be thought, however, that his nominations were
always strictly conscientious. In the case of Gallo, whom
he raised to that dignity, he had nothing better to plead,
than that he was his servant, towards whom he had many
reasons for attachment, and who had once given him a

* Congregation de sacri riti e cerimo- — sopra le strade, acque, ponti e confini

nie ecclesiastiche, delle provisioni con- — sopra alia staraperia Vaticana (to the

sistoriali : a questa voile appartenesse la first superintendent of the ecclesiastical

cognitione delle cause deU' erettione di press he gave apartments in the Vatican,

novc cattedrali. and 20,000 sc. for ten years) — sopra

f Sopra alia grascia et annona — sopra I'universlta dcljo studio Romano,

alia fabbrica armamento e mantinimento J Bulla : Postquam verus ille ; 3 Dec.

delle galere — sopra gli aggravi del popolo 1586, Bullar. M. iv. iv. 279.

316 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. [Book IV.

very hospitable reception when he was on a journey.*" But
even in this department of his government he laid down a
rule which, if not invariably followed, was ever after kept
in view. He fixed the number of cardinals at seventy ;
" as Moses," says he, " chose seventy elders out of all the
people to take council with him."

It has also been not unfrequent to ascribe the overthrow
of nepotism to Sixtus, but on more accurate examination,
this praise will be found to be unmerited. The favours
and privileges bestowed on the papal families had already,
as we have seen, fallen into insignificance, under Pius IV.,
Pius v., and Gregory XIII. If any one of these pontiffs
deserves more especial commendation, it is Pius V., who
expressly forbade the alienation of church property ; this
early form of nepotism was, as we have said, abolished
before the time of Sixtus Y. But another form had
sprung up under the popes of the following century.
There were always two favourite nephews or kinsmen, the
one of whom, raised to the rank of cardinal, gained pos-
session of the higher administration of ecclesiastical and
political affairs ; the other, in a secular station, splendidly
married and endowed with landed property and "luoghi
di monte," founded a " majorat," and became the head
and stock of a princely house. If we inquire when this
form was introduced, we shall find that its growth was
gradual, but that it first acquired consistency under Sixtus
V. Cardinal Montalto, whom the pope loved so tenderly
that towards him he moderated his natural violence of
temper, had a place in the " consulta," and a share at least
in the administration of foreign affairs ; while his brother
Michele was made a marquis, and founded a wealthy
house.

If, however, we were to infer from this that Sixtus intro-
duced a system of government by nepotism, we should
totally mistake. The marquis had no influence whatever,

* Although Sixtus would endure no " Non perche," he continues, " uno sia

other remonstrance, he did not escape buon coppiere o scalco, gli si commette

that of a sermon. The Jesuit Francis senza nota d' imprudenza o un vescovato

Toledo, in a discourse preached before o un cardinalato." Gallo had formerly

him, said, " it is sinful to requite private been head-cook. (Memorie della di Vita

services by a public appohitment," Sisto V.)

§ VII.] FINANCES. 317

the cardinal none of importance ; ''' to allow them any,
would have been at variance with the pope's ways of
thinking. His favours and partialities had something
single-hearted and confiding about them, and they secured
him public and private good-will ; but he never for a
moment resigned the helm to any other hand ; he always
ruled. Though he seemed to regard the congregations
with the highest favour, though he even pressed them for
their free and unconstrained opinions, yet he was impatient
and irritated whenever any one used this permission.! He
obstinately persisted in the execution of his own will.
" Scarcely any one," says Giovanni Gritti, " has a voice in
his councils, — far less in his decisions." J Whatever were
his personal or provincial partialities, his government was
thoroughly impressed with an energetic, rigorous, auto-
cratic character.

This character was nowhere more strikingly displayed
than in the financial department, which we shall now
consider.

§ 7. FINANCES.

The house of Chigi at Rome possesses a most interesting
document, — a small memorandum book of pope Sixtus V.,
in his own handwriting, kept while he was a monk. §
Every important event of his life, every place where he
preached during Lent, the commissions which he received
and executed, the books which he possessed, how they were
bound, whether singly or together, and all the items of his
small monkish expenditure, are carefully noted down : for
example, we read there how his brother-in-law Baptista
bought twelve sheep for him ; how he, the monk, paid first
twelve, and afterwards two florins and twenty bolognins, so

* Bentivoglio, Memorie, p. 90 : " Non vinciarum populorum omnium, a ceteris

aveva quasi alcuna partecipatione nel magistratibus sedis apostolicse ageban-

governo." tur." (App. No. 53.)

t Gualterius, " Tametsi congregationi- J Gritti, Relatione, "Non ci ^ chi

bus aliisque negotia mandaret, ilia tarnen abbi con lui voto decisivo, ma quasi ne

ipse cognoscere atque conficere consuevit. anche consultivo." (App. No. 58.)

Diligentia incredibilis sciendi cognoscen- § Memorie autografe di Papa Sisto V.

dique omnia quae a rectoribus urbis pro- (App. No. 49.)

318 FINANCES. [Book IV.

that they became his property, the brother-in-law keeping
them, as was the custom in Montalto, and recei\ing half
the profits ; and so on. We discover how sparing he was
of his small savings, how carefully he kept an account of
them, and how in the end the sum increased to several
hundred florins. These details are interesting, as exhibi-
ting traces of the same economical mind which was shortly
afterwards applied to the government of the Papal States.
Economy is a quality for which he praises himself in every
bull which affords an opportunity, and in many inscriptions ;
and in truth no pope, either before or after him, adminis-
tered the revenues of his states with equal success.

On his ascending the throne, he found an exhausted
exchequer, and bitterly does he complain of pope Gregory,
who had spent a large portion of the revenues of his pre-
decessor as well as of his successor : '"" he had so bad an
opinion of him, that he once ordered masses to be said for
his soul, in consequence of a dream that he had seen him
sufl'ering punishment in the other world.

The revenues were already anticipated until the October
following ; it was therefore the more important for him to
fill his treasury, and he succeeded beyond his expectations :
at the end of one year of his reign, in April 1586, he had
already treasured up a million of scudi in gold ; in Novem-
ber 1587, another; and in April 1588, a third million.
This makes above four millions and a half of scudi in
silver. As soon as he had got together one million, he
deposited it in the castle of St. Angelo, consecrating it as
an offering, as he expresses it, to the Holy Virgin, the
Mother of God, and to the holy apostles, Peter and Paul.
" He saw,^' as he says in his bull, " not only the waves on
which the bark of St. Peter was now occasionally tossed,
but the storms which lowered in the distance ; implacable
was the hatred of the heretics ; while the powerftil Turk,
Assur, the scourge of God's wrath, threatened the faithful :

* Vita e Successi del Cardinal di San- e che non vi era entrata, che il papa

taseverina. MS. Bibl. Alb. : " Mentre gli passato havca mangiato il pontificato di

parlavo del collegio de neofiti e di quel Pic V. e suo, dolendosi acrcmente dello

degli AiTiioni, che havevano bisogno di state nel quale haveva ti'ovato la sede

soccorso, mi rispose con (jualche altera- apostolica." (App. No. 64.)
tione, che in castcllo non vi crano danari

§ VII.] FINANCES. 3][9

lie was taught by the God in whom he trusted, that the
father of the family should watch by night ; he followed
the example of the patriarchs in the Old Testament, by
whom a large sum of money was always kept in the temple
of the Lord.^^ He expressly determined the occasions on
which it was allowable to touch this treasure ; they were
as follows : a war undertaken for the recovery of the Holy
Land, or a general campaign against the Turks ; a famine
or a pestilence ; the imminent danger of losing a province
of catholic Christendom ; the invasion of the States of the
Church, or the chance of recovering a city which had
belonged to the Roman see. He bound down his succes-
sors, as they feared the anger of the Almighty and of the
holy apostles Peter and Paul, to confine themselves within
these limits.'"

We will leave unquestioned for the present the wisdom
of these regulations, and will inquire into the means which
Sixtus applied to collect a treasure so astonishing for those
times.

It could not arise out of the net revenue ; for Sixtus
himself had often said, that the net income of the papal
see was not more than 200,000 scudi a year.f Nor can it
be ascribed exactly to his savings, although they were con-
siderable (he limited the expenses of his table to six paoli
a day, abolished many useless places about his court, and
decreased the number of his troops ;) for we have not only
the testimony of the Venetian Delfino, that all this did not
lessen the expenditure of the camera by more than
150,000 scudi, but Sixtus himself reckoned the savin»; to
the exchequer which he effected, at only 146,000 scudi. ;|:
Thus, according to his own declaration, with all his
economy, the net income was only increased by 350,000
scudi ; — a sum scarcely sufficient for the buildings which
he carried on, much less for the amassing of so vast a
treasure.

* Ad Clavum ; 21 Apr. 1586 : Cocq. I'esempio di se medesimo nelgoverno del

iv. iv. 206. pontificato, che dice non haver di netto

j" Dispaccio, Gritti ; 7 Giugno, 1586. piu di 200,000 scudi all' anno, battuti li

The pope finds fault with Henry III., interessi de' pontefici passati e le spese

because with a revenue of fourteen mil- che convien fare."

lions he saved nothing. "Con addur J Dispaccio, Badoer ; 2 Giugno, 1589.

320 FINANCES. [Book IV.

We have before considered the singular financial system
which had been established in the Roman States ; the
increase of the imposts and taxes without any increase of
the clear revenue, the multiplicity of loans through the
sale of offices and monti, the increasing burdens of the
state to meet the necessities of the church. It is obvious
what enormous abuses were involved in this system ; and
when we consider the praise so lavishly bestowed upon
Sixtus v., we are led to conclude that he found means to
remove the evil. What then must be our astonishment
when we discover that he followed the same system in the
most reckless manner, and even fixed this system on such
a basis that it was beyond the reach of future control or
remedy !

One of his chief sources of gain was the sale of offices.
In the first place, he raised the price of many which were
already venal. We may take as an example the office of
the treasurer of the camera, which had till now been sold
for 15,000 scudi ; he first sold it to one of the Giustiniani
for 50,000 sc, and on making him a cardinal, he sold it to
a Pepoli for 72,000 sc. : having invested him also with the
purple, he applied full one half of the income of this office,
viz., 5,000 sc, to a monte, and sold it, diminished by that
amount, again for 50,000 golden sc Secondly, he ren-
dered offices venal which previously had alwa^^s been given
away^ as, for instance, the places of notaries, of fiscals,
those of commissary general, of solicitor to the camera, and
advocate of the poor ; he often sold them for considerable
sums, — that of the commissary general for 20,000 sc, and
of notaries for 30,000 sc Lastly, he created a number of
new offices, and often important ones ; such as, offices of
treasurer of the dataria, of prefect of the prisons, of
twenty-four referendaries, two hundred cavalieri, notaries
in the principal places of the state, &c — all of which he sold.

By these means he doubtless collected very large sums ;
the sale of offices produced 608,510 golden scudi, and
401,805 silver scudi ; — altogether about one million and a
half of silver scudi.*"" But, if the saleable offices were

* Calculation of the Finances of Rome under Clement VIII., in a detailed MS.
(Bibl. Barberina, at Rome.)

§ VIL] FINANCES. 321

before a vexation to the people, in consequence of their
bringing with them, as we have mentioned, a participation
in the rights of government, under the plea of a loan, —
rights which were most rigorously enforced against those
upon whom the taxes were levied, while the duties of the
office were utterly neglected, — how much was this evil
now increased ! An office, as we have before remarked,
was thus regarded as a possession conferring certain rights,
and not as a duty imposing labour.

Sixtus also increased the number of the monti to an
extraordinary degree ; he established three monti non
vacabili and eight monti vacabili more than any of his
predecessors.

We have already seen that the monti were always
assigned for payment upon new imposts, and Sixtus could
devise no other expedient, although he was very reluctant
to employ this. The first time he spoke in the consistory
of cardinals, of investing a fund for the use of the church,
cardinal Farnese replied, that his grandfather, Paul III.,
had thought of that scheme ; but had foreseen that it
could not be done without an increase of taxation, and
had abandoned it for that reason. Sixtus answered him
sharply ; the insinuation that a former pope could have
been wiser than himself, put him in a rage. " The cause
of that was," he replied, " that under Paul III., there were
certain extravagant spendthrifts, who, thanks be to God,
in our time do not exist." Farnese blushed, and held his
tongue,'" but the result was as he had said. In the year
1587, Sixtus v., no longer restrained by these considera-
tions, loaded with new taxes the most toilsome occupation,
namely, that of towing boats up the Tiber with buffaloes
and horses, — and the most necessary articles of life, such
as wood for burning, and the wine of Foglietta, which was
sold by retail, — and instantly applied the proceeds to the

* Memorie del pontificato di Sisto V. : e grandi scialaquatori (a word he was

" Mutatosi per tanto nel volto mentre very fond of using) i quali non sono Die

Farnese parlava, irato piu tosto che grave gratia a tempi nostri : ' notando amara-

gli rispose : * Non e raaraviglia, Monsig- mente la moltitudine di figli e figlie e

nore, ehe a tempo di vostro avo non si nepoti d'ogni sorte di questo pontefice.

potesse mettere in opera il disegno di far Arrossi alquanto a quel dire Farnese e

tesoro per la chiesa con I'entrate e pro- tacque." (App. No, 52.)
venti ordinarii, perche vi erano di molti

VOL. I. Y

322 FINANCES. [Book IV.

foundation of " monti." He debased the coin ; and as this
gave rise to a small money-changing trade at all corners
of the streets, he turned even that to account, by selKng
permission to carry on the trade/'" Much as he favoured
the March of Ancona, he loaded its commerce with a new
duty of two per cent, upon all imports. He compelled the
just-reviving industry of the country to minister indirectly
to his advantage, t His great adviser in these matters was
a Portuguese Jew, named Lopez, who had fled from Por-
tugal from fear of the inquisition ; he had gained the con-
fidence of the datarius, of the Signora Camilla, and event-
ually of the pope himself, who entrusted to him these and
similar operations. After the answer with which he had
silenced Farnese, no cardinal again ventured to contradict
him. When the above-mentioned tax upon wine was under
discussion, Albano of Bergamo said, " I approve whatever
pleases your holiness, but my approbation would be stronger
if this tax displeased you."

Thus did Sixtus render available so many new sources
of income, that he could take up, and pay interest upon,
a loan of 2,424,725 scudi.

We must however confess that this financial system is
somewhat incomprehensible.

New and very oppressive burdens were heaped upon the
country by these taxes, and by the multiplicity of offices,
the salaries of which were paid by fees which could not
]}ut impede the course of justice and of administration ;
the taxes fell upon trade, both wholesale and retail, and
greatly injured its activity. And to what, after all, was
the product of so much suffering applied ?

If we put together what the monti and the offices pro-
duced on the whole, we find it will amount to about the
sum which was deposited in the castle of St. Angelo ; viz.,
four millions and a half of scudi, or but little more. With

* In exchange for an old Giulio, da officiali creati a tal eifetto, no si

besides ten bajocchi of Sixtus's coinage, estraessero senza licenza degli stessi :

a premiinn of from four to six quatrini inventiono utile contro alle fraudi, nia

was given. molto pin in pro della camera, perche

+ A good example of his administra- pagandosi i segui e le hcenze se n'im-

tion. Le stesse Memorie : ** Ordino non borsava gran danaro dal pontefice." —

si vendesse seta o sciolta o tessuta in This could not be very beneficial to

drappi ne lana o panni so non approbati industry.

§ VII ] FINANCES. 323

the amount of his savings, Sixtus could have carried into
effect all the undertakings which have rendered him famous.

That a government should accumulate and save what-
ever it can spare, is intelligible enough ; nor is it less so
that it should borrow money to help itself out of present
difficulties ; but that it should raise loans and impose bur-
dens, for the mere sake of shutting up in a strong castle a
treasure against any future exigency, is most extraordinary.
Yet, this it is, which has always excited the admiration of
the world in the government of Sixtus V.

It is true that the measures of Gregory XIII. were
somewhat odious and tyrannical, and re-acted very unfa-
vourably on the state ; nevertheless, I think that if he had
rendered it possible for the papal treasury to do without
new taxes and loans for the future, the effect would have
been most advantageous, and the States of the Church
would perhaps have received a more beneficial impulse.
But Gregory, particularly in his latter years, was wanting
in energy to carry out his views.

It was precisely this all-accomplishing energy which dis-
tinguished Sixtus : his accumulations of money by means
of loans, sale of offices, and new taxes, heaped burden
upon burden ; and we shall have occasion to observe the
consequences; but his success blinded the world, and gave,
for the moment, new importance to the papacy.

Placed in the midst of states which were generally dis-
tressed for money, the popes, by the possession of wealth,
acquired confidence in themselves and extraordinary influ-
ence over others.

In fact this principle of administration was an essential
part of the catholic system of those times. While it placed
all the financial strength of the state in the hands of the
head of the church, it made him, for the first time, com-
pletely the organ of ecclesiastical power. For to what
other purpose could this money be applied, but to the
defence and diffusion of the catholic faith 1

Sixtus V. was entirely absorbed in enterprises which
had that object, and were sometimes directed against the
east and the Turks, but oftener against the west and the
protestants. Between the two systems, the catholic and

Y 2

324 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. [Book IV.

the Protestant, a war broke out, in which the popes took
the greatest interest and share.

We shall consider this in the next book : but will now
direct our attention to Rome, which once more regained
her influence over the whole world.

§ 8. PUBLIC BUILDINGS.— SIXTUS V.

For the third time, Rome assumed the aspect of capital
of the world.

Our minds are familiar with the grandeur and magnifi-
cence of ancient Rome, which the remains of art and the
records of history have been explored to bring before us ;
nor did her glories in the middle ages deserve less atten-
tive research. This second Rome was august with the
majesty of her basiUcas, the religious ser\dces of her grottoes
and catacombs, the patriarchal temples of the popes, (in
which the relics of the earliest Christianity were preserved,)
the still splendid imperial palace which belonged to the
German kings, and the fortified castles raised by indepen-
dent clans, as if in defiance of the numerous powers by
which they were surrounded.

During the absence of the popes in Avignon, this Rome
of the middle ages had sunk into equal decay with that
ancient Rome which had so long lain in ruins.

When Eugenius IV. returned to Rome in the year 1443,
it was become a city of herdsmen ; its inhabitants were
not distinguishable from the peasants of the neighbouring
country. The hills had long been abandoned, and the only
part inhabited was the plain along the windings of the
Tiber ; there was no pavement in the narrow streets, and
these were rendered yet darker by the balconies and but-
tresses which propped one house against another ; the
cattle wandered about as in a village. From San Silvestro
to the Porta del Popolo, all was garden and marsh, the
haunt of flocks of wild ducks. The very memory of anti-
quity seemed almost effaced : the capitol was become the
Goats' Hill, the Forum Romanum the Cows' Field ; — the

§ VIII.] PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 325

strangest legends were associated with the few remaining
monuments. The church of St. Peter was in danger of
falling down.

When at length Nicholas regained the obedience of all
Christendom, he conceived the idea of employing the
wealth he had acquired by the concourse of pilgrims to
the jubilee, in adorning Rome with such buildings as that
all should instantly perceive and acknowledge that it was
indeed the capital of the world. This, however, was not a
work to be accomplished by one man. Succeeding popes
laboured at it for centuries.

I shall not repeat the details of their labours, which are
to be found in their several biographies. The most remark-
able, both from their consequences and their contrast, were
the epochs of Julius II. and Sixtus Y.

Under Julius II., the lower city, which had retreated to
the banks of the Tiber, was completely restored. After
Sixtus IV. had estabhshed a better communication between
the two banks, by that solid simple bridge of travertine
which still bears his name, people began to build on both
sides with the greatest activity. On the southern side
Julius did not rest satisfied with the project of the church
of St. Peter, which arose majestically under his direction ;
he also restored the palace of the Vatican. In the hollow
between the old building and the country house of Inno-
cent VIIL, the Belvedere, he erected the Loggie, a work
of consummate beauty of conception. Not far from hence,
his cousins, the Riari, and his treasurer, Agostino Chigi,
rivalled each other in the beauty of the houses they con-
structed ; that of Chigi, the Farnesina, admirable for the
perfection of its plan, and decorated by the matchless hand
of Raffaelle, is unquestionably the superior. On the
northern side of the river, posterity is indebted to Julius II.
for the completion of the Cancelleria, with its cortile,
executed in those pure and harmonious proportions which
render it the most beautiful court in existence. His car-
dinals and barons emulated his example : Farnese's palace
has acquired the reputation of the most perfect in Rome,
from its vast and magnificent entrance ; Francesco de Rio
boasted that his would stand till tortoises crawled over the

326 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. [Book IV.

face of the earth ; while the Medici filled their abode with
every treasure of literature and of art, and the Orsini
adorned theirs at Campofiore, within and without, with
statues and pictures.'" Foreigners do not always devote
all the attention they deserve to the remains around Cam-
pofiore and the Piazza Farnese, belonging to this splendid
period, which so boldly entered the lists with antiquity.
It was a period of emulation, genius, fertihty, universal
prosperity. As the population increased, buildings arose
on the Campo Marzo and around the mausoleum of
Augustus. Under Leo, they continued to increase ; Julius
having already constructed the Lungara on the south side,
opposite to the Strada Giulia on the north. The inscrip-
tion is yet visible in which the Conservatori boast that he
had laid down and opened new streets, " suitable to the
majesty of his newly-acquired sovereignty.^^

The population was again reduced by pestilence and by
conquest ; and the city again injured, during the troubles
under Paul IV. ; it was not till a later period that it began
once more to revive, and that the number of its inhabit-
ants increased, together with the renewed obedience of the
catholic world.

Pius IV. had conceived the project of building again on
the deserted hills. He founded the palace of the Con-
servatori on the Monte Capitolino ; on the Viminale,
Michael Angelo constructed, by his order, the church of
S** Maria degli Angeli, out of the ruins of the baths of
Dioclesian ; the Porta Pia on the Quirinale still bears his
mark.f Gregory XIII. also added to this quarter.

These were, however, but vain labours, so long as the
hills were without water.

It is the distinguishing glory of Sixtus V., that he
resolved to emulate the ancient Ca3sars, and to supply the
city with water by means of colossal aqueducts. " He did
it," as he said, " in order that these hills, which, even in
early Christian times, were graced with basilicas, distin-

* Opusculum de Mirabilibus uovse et f Luigi Contariiii, Antichita di Roma,

veteris Urbis Roinae, editum a Francisco p. 76, praises above all the exertions of

Albertino, 1515 ; especially the second Pius IV. : " S' cgli vivevaancora 4 anni,

part, De nova urbe. Roma sarebbc d' edificii un altra Roma."

§ VIII.] PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 327

guished for the salubrity of the air, the pleasantness of the
situation, and the beauty of the views, might be once more
inhabited. We have, therefore," adds he, " suffered our-
selves to be deterred by no difficulty or expense.'' In fact,
he told the architects from the very beginning, that he
would have a work which might compete with the mag-
nificence of imperial Rome. For a distance of two-and-
twenty miles from the Agro Colonna, in despite of all
obstacles, he conducted the Acqua Martia, partly under-
ground, partly on lofty arches, to Rome. At length the
pope had the lively satisfaction of seeing a stream of this
water flow into his own vineyard ; he carried it onward
to Santa Susanna on the Quirinale, calling it, after his own
name, Acqua Felice ; and it was with no slight self-com-
placency that he erected a statue of Moses striking the
rock.'^'' This aqueduct was a work of the greatest utility,
not only to that district but to the whole city. The Acqua
Felice gives 20,537 cubic metres of water in twenty-four
hours, and feeds twenty-seven fountains.

The buildings on the heights now proceeded with great
activity, which Sixtus stimulated by the inducement of
peculiar privileges. He levelled the ground around Trinita
de' Monti, and laid the foundations of the flight of steps to
the Piazza di Spagna, which forms the shortest communi-
cation between that height and the lower city.f Here he
laid out Via Felice and Borgo Felice, and opened the
ways which still lead in all directions to Santa Maria
Maggiore ; intending to connect all the basilicas with that
church by spacious streets. The poets assert that Rome
nearly doubled her size, and sought again her old abodes.

Nor were these constructions on the heights the only
works by which Sixtus V. was distinguished from his pre-
decessors. He entertained designs which were directly
contrary to those of the earlier popes.

• Tasso has written '* Stanze all' Ac- Exquilias commode strueret, Pincium

qua Felice di Roma," (Rime, ii. 311,) ipsum coUem ante Sanctissimse Trinitatis

describing how the water first flows on in templum humiliorem fecit et carpentis

a dark course, and then joyfully emerges rhedisque pervium reddidit, scalasque ad

into the light of the sun, to behold Rome templum illud ab utroque portee latere

such as Augustus beheld it. commodas perpulcrasque admodum ex-

f Gualterius : " Ut viam a frequentio- truxit, e quibus jucuudissimus in totam

ribus urbis locis per Pincium coUem ad urbem prospectus est." (App. No. 33.)

328 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. [Book IV.

Under Leo X., the ruins of ancient Home were regarded
with a kind of rehgious veneration ; in them the divine
spark of the antique spirit was recognised with a sort of
rapture. That pope hstened to the recommendation, to
preserve "those things which are all that remain of the
ancient mother of the glory and the greatness of Italy /^ '"'

The spirit in which this recommendation was made or
received was distant as pole from pole from that which
actuated Sixtus V. The Franciscan had no sense which
could apprehend the beauty of the remains of antiquity.
The Septizonium of Severus, a most remarkable work,
which had survived the storms of so many centuries, found
no favour in his eyes. He utterly demolished it, and
transported some of its pillars to St. Peter's, f He was as
rash and reckless in destroying, as he was zealous in build-
ing, and it was universally feared that he would observe no
moderation in either. Let us listen to what the cardinal
of Santa Severina relates ; it would be incredible, if we had
it not from an eye-witness. "As people saw," says he,
" that this pope was fully bent on the destruction of the
antiquities of Rome, a number of Roman nobles came to
me one day, and entreated me to do all in my power to
dissuade his holiness from so extravagant a thought."
They addressed themselves to that cardinal who was then
unquestionably esteemed the greatest zealot. Cardinal
Colonna supported their petition. The pope answered that

* Extract from the well-known Letter gination and description. This opinion

from Castiglione to Leo X. Lettere di does not rtm counter to the views hitherto

Castiglione ; Padova, 1796, p. 149. I set forth ; on the contrary, it serves only

can find nothing in this letter of a project to determine them more accurately. We

for a systematic excavation of the ancient may infer that the work which occupied

city. It appears to me evident that it is the end of RaffacUe's life was tolerably far

the preface to a description of Rome, with advanced, as a dedication of it was

a plan, to both of which reference is con- already written in his name. What a

tinually made in it. It is highly pi'obable name to add to the number of astyogra-

tliat the works of Raffaelle himself were pliers ! The papers and plans may have

to be introduced with this preface ; this fallen into the hands of Fulvius, who, in

appears to me the more probable from all probability, took a considei'able pai*t in

the coincidence of several expressions in the researches.

the well-known epigram on Raffaelle's + Gualterius : " Prsecipue Severi Septi-

death, with others in this lettei*, e.g., zonii, quod incredibili Romanorum dolore

" vedcndo cpiasi il cadavcre di quella demoliendum curavit, columnis marmori-

nobilpatriacosi miscramentelacerato ;" — busque usus est, passimque per urbem

" urbis laccrum ferro igni annlsque cada- caveae vidcbantur nnde lapides omnis

ver ad vitam revocas." This, it is true, generis effodiebantm'." (App. No. 53.)
betokens a restoration, but only in ima-

§ VIII.] PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 329

he would clear away the ugly antiquities, but would restore
the others which stood in need of restoration. Will it be
believed, which he thought ugly '? The tomb of Csecilia
Metella, even then the only considerable vestige of repub-
lican times, an admirable, sublime monument, he had
doomed to utter demolition. What may he not have
destroyed !

He could hardly bring himself to endure the Laocoon
and the Apollo Belvedere in the Vatican ; nor would he
even suffer the statues with which the citizens of ancient
Rome had adorned the capitol to remain there ; he declared
that he would pull down the capitol if they were not
removed. They were, Jupiter Tonans between Apollo and
Minerva, of which the two former were in fact removed ;
the Minerva alone was suffered to remain, but under the
character which Sixtus chose to impose upon her, viz., that
of Christian Rome. He took away her spear, and substi-
tuted for it an enormous cross.'"''

In the same spirit, he restored the pillars of Trajan and
Antonine ; from the former he caused the urn to be taken
away, which was said to contain the ashes of the emperor ;
this he dedicated to the apostle Peter, and the other to the
apostle Paul ; and from that time the statues of the two
apostles have stood opposite to each other on this airy
height, overtopping the houses. Sixtus imagined that he
thus gave a triumph to the christian faith over paganism, f

His intense anxiety concerning the erection of the obe-
lisk in the front of St. Peter's, was caused by his wish to
see the monuments of impiety subjected to the cross, on
the very spot where once the Christians suffered the death
of the cross.;]; There was grandeur in the project ; but
his execution of it was highly characteristic, — a mixture of
violence, greatness, pomp, and fanaticism. He threatened
the architect, Domenico Fontana, who had worked his way

* Passage from the " Vita Sixti V., grassatum olim suppliciis in Christianos

ipsius manu emendata," printed in Bun- et passim fixee cruces, in quas innoxia

sen's Description of Rome, i, p, 702. natio sublata teterrimis cruciatibus neca-

f So at least thinks, amongst others, retur, ibi supposita cruci et in crucis

J. P. Maffei, Historiarum ab exeessu versa honorem cultumque ipsa impietatis

Gregorii XIII., hb. i. p. 5. monumenta cernerentur." (App. No. 50.)

t Vita Sixti V., I. M. E. : " Ut ubi

330 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. [Book IV.

up under his eye from a mason's boy, with punishment, if
the scheme miscarried, or if the obehsk sustained any
damage. It was a work of the utmost difficulty, — to raise
it from its base near the sacristv of the old church of
St. Peter, to remove it entire, and to fix it on a new site.

All engaged in it seemed inspired with the feeling that
they were undertaking a work which would be renowned
through all ages. The workmen, nine hundred in number,
began by hearing mass, confessing, and receiving the com-
munion. They then entered the space w^hich had been
marked out for the scene of their labours by a fence or
railing. The master placed himself on an elevated seat.
The obelisk was covered mth matting and boards, bound
round it with strong iron hoops ; thirty-five windlasses
were to set in motion the monstrous machine, which was to
raise it up with strong ropes ; each windlass was worked
by two horses and ten men. At length a trumpet gave
the signal. The very first turn took excellent eff'ect ; the
obelisk was heaved from the base on which it had rested for
fifteen hundred years ; at the twelfth, it was raised two
palms and three quarters, and remained steady ; the
master saw the huge mass, weighing, with its casings, above
a million of Roman pounds, in his power. It was carefully
noted, that this took place on the 30th of April, 1586,
about the twentieth hour (about three in the afternoon).
A signal was fired from fort St. Angelo, all the bells in the
city rang, and the workmen carried their master in triumph
around the inclosure, with incessant shouts and acclamations.

Seven days afterwards the obelisk was let down in the
same skilful manner, upon rollers, on which it was then
conveyed to its new destination. It was not till after the
termination of the hot months, that they ventured to
proceed to its re-erection.

The pope chose for this undertaking the 10th of Sep-
tember, a Wednesday, which he had always found to be a
fortunate da}^, and the last before the feast of the Elevation
of the Cross, to which the obelisk was to be dedicated. On
this occasion, as before, the workmen began by recommend-
ing themselves to God ; they fell on their knees as soon as
they entered the inclosure. Fontana had not omitted to

§ VIIL] PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 331

profit bj the suggestions contained in a description by
Ammianus Marcellinus of the last raising of an obelisk, and
had likewise provided the power of one hundred and forty
horses. It was esteemed a peculiar good fortune that the
sky was covered on that day. Everything went well : the
obelisk was moved by three great efforts, and an hour
before sunset it sank upon its pedestal on the backs of the
four bronze lions which appear to support it. The exulta-
tion of the people was indescribable, and the satisfaction of
the pope complete ; for the work which so many of his
predecessors had desired to execute, which so many writers
had recommended, he had now accomplished. He remarked
in his diary, that he had succeeded in the greatest and
most diflficult enterprise which the mind of man could
imagine. He caused medals commemorating it to be struck ;
received congratulatory poems in every language, and sent
formal announcements of it to all potentates.'"'

He affixed a strange inscription, boasting that he had
wrested this monument from the emperors Augustus and
Tiberius, and consecrated it to the Holy Cross ; in sign of
which he caused a cross to be placed upon it, in which was
inclosed a supposed piece of the wood of the true cross.

This transaction is a complete expression of his cha-
racter and tone of thought. Even the monuments of
paganism were compelled to minister to the glorification of
the cross.

He devoted himself with his whole soul to his projects
of building : to the shepherd boy, brought up in the midst
of fields and gardens, the city had peculiar attractions ;
he would never hear of a villeggiatura, and replied to
every proposal of the kind, that " his recreation and
delight was to see abundance of roofs."

* The Dispacci of Gritti, from 3 — 10 suspensam inde sensim deponeret exten-

Maggio, 12 Luglio, 11 Ottobre, speak of deretque humi junetis trabibus atque ex

this undertaking. The " Vita Sixti V. his ingenti composita traha quae jacentem

ipsius manu emendata," well describes exciperet, aut cum suppositis cylindris

the effect : " Tenuitque universse civitatis (sunt hae lignese colunmse teretes et volu-

oculos novae et post 1500 amplius annos biles) quaternis ergatis protracta paulatim

relatte rei spectaculo, cum aut sedibus per editum et ad altitudinem basis cui

suis avulsam toUeret molem, uno tempore imponenda erat excitatum aggerem atque

et duodenis vectibus impulsam et quinis undique egregie munitum incederet, dc-

tricenis ergatis quas equi bini homines nique cum iterum erecta librataque sui«

deni agebant in sublime elatam, aut cum reposita sedibus est."

332 PUBLIC BUILDINGS. [Book IV.

He kept thousands of hands constantly employed ; nor
did any difficulty deter him from an undertaking.

The cupola of St. Peter's was still wanting, and the
builders required ten years for its completion. Sixtus was
willing to furnish money for this purpose, but on condition
that he might feast his eyes on the perfect work. He set
six hundred men to work, and allowed no intermission,
day or night : in two-and-twenty months it was finished ;
the leaden covering to the roof was the only part that he
did not live to see.

But even in works of this kind, he set no bounds to his
headstrong and impetuous will. He demolished without
remorse those remains of the papal Patriarchium, near the
Lateran, which were by no means inconsiderable or mean,
and were, moreover, singularly interesting — antiquities
connected with the dignity which he himself enjoyed, — in
order to erect in their place his palace of the Lateran,
which was not at all wanted, and which excites a very
equivocal interest, solely as being one of the first specimens
of the uniform regularity of modern architecture.

So entirely were the relations changed in which the
existing generation stood to antiquity. A preceding age
had emulated the ancients, and so did that which we are
now contemplating ; but the former had sought to rival
them in grace and beauty of form ; the present, to equal
or surpass them in massive construction. Formerly, any
trace of the antique spirit was reverenced in the smallest
remains ; now, it seemed to be the object to obliterate
these traces. The men of this age followed one exclusive
and omnipotent idea, and recognised no other. It was the
same which had gained dominion in the church ; the same
which had made the state the organ of the church. This
idea, which characterised modern Catholicism, now per-
vaded every vein of the social body, and flowed in the
most various directions.

§ IX.J INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 333

§ 9. GENERAL CHANGE IN THE INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY

OF THE AGE.

It would be a mistake to imagine that the influence of
the spirit we have just contemplated was confined to the
pope. In every department of mind, in every portion of
society, we discern, at the termination of this century, a
tendency directly opposed to that which marked its com-
mencement.

One of the strongest indications of this change is, that
the study of the ancients, which in the former period had
been the source and spring of all knowledge, had now
fallen into complete neglect. It is true that another Aldus
Manutius appeared at Rome, and that he was professor of
eloquence ; but neither his Greek nor his Latin could win
admirers. At the hours of his lectures he was seen pacing
up and down before the portal of the university, with one
or two hearers, from whom alone he found any sympathy
in his pursuits. What vast progress did the study of the
Greek language and literature make in the beginning of
the century ! — and at the conclusion of it, Italy did not
possess a single Hellenist of note.

It is not my intention to represent this change entirely
as a symptom of decline : in a certain sense it is connected
with the inevitable progress of scientific discovery.

For though all science had formerly been drawn directly
from the ancients, this was now no longer possible. On
the one hand, the materials had enormously accumulated.
What a totally different knowledge of natural history, for
example, was acquired by Ulisse Aldrovandi, during the
labours of a long life and extensive travel, from that which
any ancient could possess 1 He collected a museum which
he endeavoured to render complete ; wherever the natural
object was wanting, he filled its place with a drawing, and
attached to every specimen an elaborate description. The
field of geography had also received an extension far
beyond the widest imaginations of the ancient world.

On the other hand, a deep and searching spirit of inves-

334 GENERAL CHANGE IN THE [Book IV.

ligation had arisen. The mathematicians sought at first
only to fill up the chasms left by the ancients. (Comman-
dino, for example, thought he discovered that Archimedes
must have either read or written something concerning the
centre of gravity, which, consequently, must have been
lost ; and this idea caused him to investigate the subject
itself) But this very process led to far more extensive
results ; tliose who began their inquiries under the conduct
of the ancients, emancipated themselves from their autho-
rity; discoveries were made beyond the limits which they
had prescribed, and these again opened a way to further
researches.

The study of nature especially was pursued with equal
ardour and independence of mind. There was a moment-
ary vacillation between an acquiescence in the mystery in
which Nature veils all her works and a courageous, search-
ing investigation of phenomena. But the latter, the scien-
tific tendency, was soon victorious. An attempt was
already made to divide the vegetable world according to a
rational system ; whilst Padua boasted a professor who
was called the Columbus of the human body. Inquiries
were more and more extended and active, and science was
no longer limited to the regions explored by antiquity.

It followed — if I mistake not, by necessary consequence,
— that as the antique was no longer studied with the same
veneration and faith with reference to matter, it could no
longer have the same influence with reference to form,
which it had hitherto exercised.

Works of erudition began to be valued mainly in pro-
portion to the accumulation of materials. In the beginning
of the century, Cortesius had given to the world the essential
part of the scholastic philosophy — inapplicable as that was
to the wants of the age — in a well- written classical work,
fiill of talent and wit ; now, Natale Conte manufactured
a tedious uninviting quarto out of that antique material,
the fit handling of which would have called forth all the
resources of genius and imagination, — mythology. The
same author likewise wrote a history ; yet though the
sentences with which his book is adorned are almost all
taken immediately from the ancients, and the passages

§ IX.] INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 335

from which they are extracted are cited, he makes no
approach to a hvely and characteristic representation of
antiquity. It seemed enough for his cotemporaries to heap
together masses of facts. It may safely be affirmed, that
a work hke the Annals of Baronius, so utterly devoid of
all attempt at form, written in Latin, but without a trace
of elegance even in the detached phrases, was a thing that
could not have entered the minds of men in the beginning
of the century.

Whilst the track of the ancients was thus deserted, not
only in scientific inquiries, but still more in form and expres-
sion, changes took place in the vital condition of the nation,
which exercised an incalculable influence on all literary and
artistical pursuits.

Republican, independent Italy, on whose peculiar cir-
cumstances the earlier development of the genius of her
sons depended, fell for ever. The freedom and simplicity
of the intellectual commonwealth utterly vanished. It is
worthy of note, that titles were then introduced : as early
as the year 1520 some persons remarked with disgust that
every man wanted to be called " sir ;" a degeneracy of taste
which was ascribed to Spanish influence. About the year
1550 ponderous epithets of honour already encumbered
and oppressed the simple address by speech and letter
hitherto in use. Towards the end of the century the titles
of " duca " and " marchese '^ became prevalent ; everybody
wanted them ; everybody would be " excellency.^^ It is
easy to say that this love of trivialities has no great signi-
ficancy ; but its influence is still felt, long after the state of
things which occasions it is obsolete ; how much more
when it was new ! In every other respect, also, society
became stricter, stiffer, more exclusive : the gay ease of
earlier manners, the simple frankness of mutual intercourse,
were gone for ever.

Be the cause what it may — whether it be a change
founded in the nature of the human mind, — thus much is
manifest, that all productions, even towards the middle of
the century, are pervaded by a new spirit; that society, in
its living and positive forms, had new wants.

Of all the phenomena which mark this change, perhaps

33G GENERAL CHANGE IN THE [Book IV.

the most striking is the recast of Bojar do's Orlando Inna-
morato, by Berni. It is the same work, and yet a totally
different one. All the charm, all the fi^eshness of the
original poem, are obliterated. On a deeper observation,
we find that the author has everywhere substituted the
universal for the individual ; the sort of conventional deco-
rum required by Italian society, both then and now, for
the unconstrained, careless expression of a lovely and living
nature.'"^ He exactly hit the public taste ; his poem was
received with incredible approbation, and the parasitic
work, thus remodelled, has entirely superseded the original.
How rapidly too had this transformation become complete !
Not fifty years had elapsed since the publication of the first
edition.

We may follow this altered key-note, these indications
of a new spirit, through most of the productions of that
time.

It is not entirely want of talent which renders the great
poems of Almanni and Bernardo Tasso uninteresting and
tedious (the latter especially). Their very conception is
cold. In conformity with the tastes and demands of a
public which, though assuredly not very virtuous, was
become sedate and decorous, they selected irreproachable
heroes. Bernardo chose Amadis, of whom Torquato Tasso
says, " Dante would have retracted the unfavourable judg-
ment he expresses concerning the romances of chivalry, if
he had known the Amadis of Gaul or of Greece ; so full
are their characters of nobleness and constancy." Al-
manni took for his subject Giron le Courtoys, the mirror
of all knightly virtues. His avowed object was to show
youth by this example, how to endure hunger and watch -
ings, cold and heat ; how to bear arms, to show justice
and mercy to all, and to forgive enemies. As they pro-
ceeded in the manner of Berni with this moral and didactic
aim, and designedly stripped their fables of the poetical
ground-work they possessed, it followed that their works
were feeble, dry, and diffuse.

It appeared, so to speak, as if the nation had used up

I have attempted to carry this out more in detail in tlie before-mentioned
Academical Treatise.

§ 1X3 INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 337

the stock of poetical conceptions and images which had
sprung out of her past history, and out of the ideas of the
middle ages ; as if she no longer possessed even the power
of understanding them. She sought something new. But
neither would creative genius arise, not did society furnish
any fresh and unwrought material. Up to the middle of
the century, Italian prose, though, in accordance with
its nature, didactic, was yet spirited, warm, pliant, and
graceful. Gradually prose too became stiff and cold.

Art shared the fate of poetry. She lost the inspiration
which had suggested her religious subjects, and, soon after,
that which had animated her profane works. Some traces
of it remained in the Venetian school alone ; RafFaelle's
scholars, with one exception, were wholly degenerate.
While they endeavoured to imitate him, they lost them-
selves in artificial beauty, theatrical attitudes, affected
graces ; and their works bear sufficient evidence of the
total want of warmth, or sense of beauty, in the soul which
conceived them. The scholars of Michael Angelo did no
better. Art had lost all comprehension of her object; she
had discarded the ideas which she had formerly taxed all
her powers to clothe with form ; she retained nothing but
the externals of method.

In this state of things, when antiquity was deserted, —
when it had ceased to furnish form to art, or to prescribe
limits to science, — when, at the same time, the old national
poetry and the religious mode of conception were scorned
and rejected by literature and by art, — the resuscitation
of the church began. It gained possession of men's minds,
with their will or against it ; it introduced an entire altera-
tion in the whole domain and condition of art and of
literature.

The influence of the church on science was, however, if
I mistake not, completely different from that which she
exercised over art.

Philosophy, and indeed science generally, passed through
another very remarkable phase. After the restoration of
the genuine Aristotle, men began (as it happened in other
branches, and with other writers of antiquity,) to eman-
cipate themselves even from his authority in philosophy,

VOL. L z

338 GENERAL CHANGE IN THE [Book IV.

and to advance to a free investigation of the highest pro-
blems that can engage the human mind. From the very
nature of things, the church could not encourage this free-
dom of thought. She herself hastened to establish first
principles, in a manner that might leave no room for doubt.
But if the followers of Aristotle had frequently professed
opinions at variance with the church and with revealed
religion, something of the same kind was also to be feared
from his opponents. They were resolved, as one of them
expressed it, to compare the dogmas of former teachers
wiih the original handwriting of God — with the world
and the nature of things ; an undertaking the consequences
of which could not be foreseen or estimated, which must
inevitably lead either to discoveries or to errors of very
insidious tendency, and which therefore the church took
care to thwart. Although Thelesius did not in fact extend
his speculations above the sphere of physics, he was com-
pelled to remain all his life in his small native to^Ti ;
Campanella lived a fugitive, and suffered torture ; the
deepest thinker of all, Giordano Bruno, a true philosopher,
after many persecutions and long wanderings, was at length
accused before the inquisition, "not only,'^ as the legal
record declares, "as a heretic, but a heresiarch, who
had written things unseemly concerning religion ; '' '" he
was imprisoned, sent to Rome, and condemned to perish in
the flames.

* In a Venetian MS. in the Archives ten*a, e che in Napoli et altri luoghi era

at Vienna, under the head " Roma, Espo- stato inquisito della niedesima iniputa-

sitioni, 1592, 28 Sett.," is the original tione : eche essendosi saputa a Roma la

copy of a protocol concerning the deliver- prigionia di costui, lo ill'"" Santa Severina

ing up of Giordano Bruno. The vicar of supremo inquisitore haveva scritto e dato

the patriarch, the father inquisitor, and online che fusse inviato a Roma con

the assistant of the inquisition, Tommaso prima sicura occasione :" he further de-
Morosini, appeared before the college, clared that such an opportunity now
The vicar asserted : " Li giorni passati offered itself. They received no imme-
csser stato ritenuto e tuttavia ritrovarsi diate answer. After dinner, the father
nelle prigioni di questo citta deputate al incjuisitor again appeared, and was very
servifio del santo ufficio Giordano Bruno urgent, as the vessel was just on the point
da Nola, iniputato non solo di heretico, of depai'ture. But the Savj answered :
ma anchcdi heresiarca,havcndocomposto " che essendo la cosa di momcnto e con-
diversi Hhri, nei (junli, Inudando assai la sideratione e le occupationi di questo
regina d' Inghilterra et altri principi here- stato molte e gravi non si haveva per
tici, ficriveva alcune cose concernenti il alhora potuto fare risolutione." Accord-
particular della religione che non con- ingly the vessel sailed without the pri-
venivano sebene egli parlava filosofica- soner. I have not been able to discover
mente, e che costui era apostata, essendo whether he was eventually given up in
st^vto prinio frate domenicnno, che era consequence of fresh negotiations,
vissuto molt' amii in CJinevia et hmhil-

§ IX.] INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 339

After such examples, who could have courage for free
inquiry ? Of all the innovators which this century pro-
duced, there was but one, Francesco Patrizi, who found
favour at Rome. He too attacked Aristotle, though only
on the ground that the doctrines of that philosopher were
contrary to the church and to Christianity. He endea-
voured to trace a genuine philosophical tradition (as opposed
to the Aristotelic opinions,) from the pretended Hermes
Trismegistus, in whom he thought he found a clearer exposi-
tion of the Trinity than even in the Mosaical writings, down
through all succeeding ages : this he sought to renovate, to
restore, and to substitute for the Aristotelic philosophy.
In all the dedications of his works, he insists on this project
of his, and on the utility, the necessity, of its execution.
He was a man of a singular turn of mind ; not without
critical power, but power displayed only in what he rejects,
not in what he accepts. He was called to Rome, and
maintained himself in high favour there, by those pecuha-
rities in his opinions which were acceptable to the church,
and by the tendency of his labours ; not certainly by their
influence, which was extremely small.

Researches in physics and natural history were at that
time almost inextricably interwoven with speculations in
philosophy. The whole system of previous and existing
ideas was called in question. In fact, the Italians of that
epoch manifested a grand tendency towards searching
investigation, intrepid pursuit of truth, noble aspirations,
and high prophetic visions of discovery. Who shall say
whither this tendency would have led 1 But the church
marked out a line which they were not to overstep ; — woe
to him who ventured to pass it.

But if, as it is impossible to doubt, the restoration of
Catholicism acted repressively on science, it had a contrary
effect on art and poetry. They stood in need of a prolific
material, of a living subject ; and they found it once more
in the church.

The example of Torquato Tasso is a striking proof of the
power which the regeneration of reUgion had acquired over
the minds of men. His father had selected a morally
faultless hero ; Torquato went a step further. Another

z 2

340 GREAT CHANGE IN THE [Book IV.

poet of that time liad chosen tlio crusades for his subject,
" because it is better to handle a true argument in a chris-
tian manner, than to seek a httle christian renown in a
fictitious one." Torquato Tasso did the same. He took
his hero not from fable, but from history, — a christian hero.
Godfrey is more than iEneas — he is like a saint, sated with
the world and with its transitory glory. A poem exclu-
sively devoted to the delineation of such a character would
have been a very dry and insipid work, but Tasso instantly
seized on the sentimental and enthusiastic part of religion,
which ha^rmonises perfectly with the fairy world whose
many-coloured threads he interwove in the web of his story.
The poem is occasionally somewhat tedious, and the expres-
sion is not always thoroughly worked out ; yet it is a poem
full of fancy and of feeling, of national spirit and truth of
character, by which Tasso has enchained the love and the
admiration of his countrymen to this hour.

Yet what a contrast to Ariosto ! Poetry had formerly
fallen away from the church ; religion, rising in new youth
and vigour from her languor and weakness, now once more
subjugated poetry to her empire.

At Bologna, not far from Ferrara, where Tasso composed
his poem, arose, soon after, the school of the Caracci, whose
rise marks a general change in the state of painting.

If we inquire what were the causes of this change, we
are referred to the anatomical studies of the Bolognese
academy, their electic imitation, and their learned style of
art. And undoubtedly the zeal with which they laboured,
in their manner, to approach the appearances of nature, is
a great merit. But what w^ere the tasks which they pro-
posed to themselves, and wiiat the spirit in which they
addressed themselves to their accomplishment, seem to me
a consideration of at least equal importance.

Ludovico Caracci employed himself much in embodying
the ideal of Christ ; in some instances, as in his picture of
the calhng of Matthew, he is successful in producing a
representation of the mild and serious man, full of truth
and fervour, of benignity and majesty, wdiich has so often
served as a model to succeeding painters. It is true he
imitates elder masters, but the manner in which he does

§ IX.] INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 34I

this is characteristic of his turn of mind. He evidently has
Eaffaelle's Transfiguration before his eyes ; but even while
he appropriates it, he makes Christ raise his hand towards
Moses, as if in act to teach. The masterpiece of Agostino
Caracci is unquestionably his St. Jerome. The aged saint
is represented in the arms of death, motionless ; his last
breath is a fervent aspiration after the host, which the
ministering priest is bringing him. Annibars Ecce Homo,
of the Borghese palace, with its deep shadows, its delicate
transparent skin, and its flowing tears, is Ludovico's ideal,
but elevated to a higher pitch of sublimity. There is
admirable grandeur and freshness of conception, even in the
rigidity of dearth, in the Pieta, a work in which the tre-
mendous and tragical event is conceived and expressed
with a new feeling. In the lunettes at the Doria palace,
the landscape is inspired with life by the simple expression
of the human incidents of the sacred history.

We perceive, that although these masters did not reject
profane subjects, they devoted themselves with great zeal
to sacred ones. It is not therefore so much their outward
and technical merits which entitle them to the rank they
hold among artists ; the grand point will ever be, that
they, like their great predecessors, were filled and animated
by their subject ; that the religious scenes which they
bring before our senses, had once more some significancy
to their own minds.

The same tendency distinguishes their pupils. Domeni-
chino worked out the ideal of St. Jerome, of which
Agostino Caracci was the author, with such felicitous
industry, that he perhaps surpassed his master in variety of
grouping and perfection of expression. His head of St.
Nilus appears to me admira^ble, from its blended expression
of suffering and reflection ; his prophetesses are full of
youth, innocence, and profound meditation. His favourite
study was, to place the joys of heaven in contrast with the
suff'erings of earth ; the most striking example of which is
in the Madonna del Rosario, — the Divine Mother, full of
grace, contrasted with a feeble and miserable mortal.

Occasionally Guido lleni, too, seizes this contrast, though
perhaps only in the more o])vious form of the Virgin

342 GENERAL CHANOE IN THE [Book IV.

glowing in immortal beauty, opposed to some monkish
saint, worn and attenuated with ascetic practices. Guido
has freedom and originality of conception. How magnifi-
cent is his Judith, taken in the very feeling of the deed she
has accomplished, and of the gratitude she owes to Heaven
for the aid she has received ! Who does not immediately
recognise his ecstatic Madonnas, almost dissolved in rapture ?
Even his saints are distinguished by that expression of
sentimental reverie which was the pecuhar ideal of his
creation.

But we have not yet described all the characteristics of
the dominant tendency of the age ; it has another and a
less attractive side. The conceptions of these painters are
sometimes fantastic and incongruous. For example, we
find a St. John ceremoniously kissing the foot of the infant
Jesus, introduced into the beautiful group of the Holy
Family ; or the apostles coming apparently to condole
with the Virgin, and preparing to wipe away their tears.
How often, too, is the horrible delineated, without the
least attempt to soften its repulsive aspect ! In the St.
Agnes of Domenichino, we see the blood start from beneath
the sword. Guido conceived the murder of the Innocents
in its naked atrocity and terror ; the women have all their
mouths open, screaming, while the savage soldiers are in
the act of butchering the defenceless infants.

In the age we are now contemplating, art is once more
become religious, as she was in earlier times, but her inspira-
tions are of a widely different character. Elder art was
simple, true, pure ; in this age she had something forced
and fantastic.

No one will refuse admiration to the talents of Guercino ;
but what a St. John is that in the Sciarra gallery, with
large muscular arms, colossal bare knees, and an expres-
sion of gloomy inspiration, which leaves the spectator in
doubt whether it be of a heavenly or an earthly nature !
His St. Thomas lays his hand with so rude a touch on the
wounds in the side of Christ, that we shrink back with a
feeling of pain. Guercino represents Peter Martyr pre-
cisely at the very moment in which the sword enters his
head. There is a picture by this artist of St. Bernard

§ IX. INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 343

investing a duke of Aquitaine with the cowl, while a monk
by his side is labouring at the conversion of one of the
duke's squires : we thus find ourselves consigned to a
premeditated scene of devotion, from which there is no
escape.

We shall not here go into the inquiry how far the
bounds of art were overpassed by this treatment of sub-
jects,— sometimes fantastically ideal, sometimes hard and
unnatural ; it is sufficient if we remark, that the church
obtained entire dominion over restored painting. She
infused new life into art by the breath of poetry and by
the principles of a positive religion ; but she imparted to
it at the same time an ecclesiastical, sacerdotal, and dog-
matical character.

This she effected with still greater ease in architecture,
which was her more immediate handmaid. I do not
know if any one has traced the progress of modern archi-
tecture, from the imitation of the antique, to the canon
invented by Barozzi for the construction of churches, which
has been adhered to ever since in Rome, and throughout
the catholic world. The lightness and genial freedom
which marked the beginning of the century were trans-
muted, in this, as in the sister arts, into solemnity and
pomp, and religious magnificence.

With regard to one art alone, it was long doubtful
whether it would lend itself entirely to the purposes of the
church or not.

In the middle of the sixteenth century, music had lost
herself in the most intricate artificiality. The reputation
of a composer rested entirely on arbitrary and difficult
tricks, while the meaning of the words was wholly disre-
garded : there are a great number of masses of that period,
which were little else than variations on themes of some
well-known profane airs ; the human voice was treated as
a mere instrument.'"'' No wonder if the council of Trent
was scandalised at the performance of such music in the
churches. In consequence of its discussions, Pius IV.

* Giuseppe Baini, Memorie storico- 1828, communicates the information of
critiche della Vita e delle Opei'e di Gio- which I have made use.
vanni Pier-Luigi di Palestx-ina, Roma,

344 GENERAL CHANGE IN THE [Book IV.

nominated a commission to advise upon the question,
whether music was to be permitted in the churches or not.
The decision was very doubtful. The church required
distinctness of the words, and adaptation of the musical
expression to them. The musicians affirmed that this was
not to be attained according to the rules of their art.
Carlo Borromeo was in the commission, and a severe judg-
ment was rendered very probable by the strict opinions of
this great ecclesiastic.

Happily for art, the right man appeared at the critical
moment.

Among the composers at that time in Rome was Pier-
Luigi Palcstrina. The rigour of Paul IV. had driven him
out of the papal chapel because he was married ; from that
time he had lived, secluded and forgotten, in a miserable
hut among the vineyards of Monte Celio. His was a
spirit that adversity could not crush. Even in this soli-
tude he devoted himself to his art with an enthusiasm
which ensured to the creative power within him, freedom
and originality of production. Here he wrote the " Im-
properie," which still yearly solemnise Good Friday in the
Sistine chapel. Never, probably, had a composer a more
exquisite appreciation of the profound sentiment of his
text, of its symbolical meaning, its applicability to religion,
its capacity for moving the soul.

If ever a man was competent to make the experiment,
whether the method he had adopted could be applied to
the more extended and complicated work of a mass, it
was Palcstrina ; the commission intrusted it to him. He
felt completely that it was an experiment on which de-
pended the life or death of the grand music of the mass.
He applied himself to his task with conscious tension of all
his powers ; on his manuscript were found the words,
" Domine, illumina oculos meos !"

He did not immediately succeed ; the two first attempts
failed ; but at length, in a happy moment, he completed
that mass, known under the name of the mass of Pope
Marcellus, whicli surpassed all expectation. Though full
of simple melody, it may be compared in variety with any
preceding masses. Choruses separate, and reunite ; the

§ X.] INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 345

meaning of the words is expressed with unrivalled force
and accuracy ; the Kyrie is submission ; the Agnus, humi-
Uty ; the Credo, majesty. Pope Pius IV., before whom it
was performed, was enraptured, and compared it to the
heavenly melodies which the apostle John heard in his
ecstatic trance.

By this one great example the question was now for
ever set at rest. A path was opened, in following which
the most beautiful works, the most touching, even to those
who are not of the church, were produced. Who can hear
them without enthusiasm ? It is as if nature acquired
tone and utterance ; as if the elements spoke, and the
voice of universal life broke forth in the spontaneous
harmony of adoration ; now undulating, like the waves
of the sea — now mounting in songs of triumph to Heaven.

This art, which had perhaps been more completely
alienated from the spirit and service of the church than
any other, now became the most strongly attached to it.
Nothing could be more important to Catholicism. Even in
its dogmas, it had, if we mistake not, caught somewhat
of that spirit of enthusiastic reverie which pervades the
most impressive penitential and devotional books. Spiritual
sentimentality and rapture were the favourite themes of
poetry and painting. Music, which speaks a language
more direct, more impressive, more irresistible, more
adapted to ideal expression, than any other expositor or
any other art, became the interpreter of these emotions,
and thus subjugated all minds to her empire.

§ 10. THE CURIA.

While all the elements of social life and of intellectual
activity were thus penetrated and transformed by the
ecclesiastical spirit, the court of Rome, which was the
centre where all these elements met, was itself greatly
changed.

Even under Paul IV., this change was perceptible ; the
example of Pius V. had an immense influence in accele-
rating its progress ; and under Gregory XIIL, it displayed

346 THE CURIA. [Book IV.

itself in all its strength, and became obvious to every mind.
" It has contributed infinitely to the advantage of the
church," says Paolo Ticpolo, in the year 1576, "that
several popes in succession have been men of irreproach-
able lives ; hence all others are become better, or have at
least assumed the appearance of being so. Cardinals and
prelates attend mass punctually ; their households are
studious to avoid anything that can give scandal ; the whole
city has put off its old recklessness, and is become much
more christian-likc in life and manners than formerly. It
may be affirmed, that Rome, in matters of religion, is not
far from that degree of perfection which human nature
can attain to."

We are not, however, to imagine that this court was
composed of puritanical hypocrites. On the contrary, it
consisted of distinguished men, but of men who had
adopted sincerely and energetically the strict and ortho-
dox opinions and sentiments described by Tiepolo.

If we bring before our view the court as it was in the
time of Sixtus V., we shall find among the cardinals not a
few who had taken a leading part in political affairs :
Gallio di Como, who had conducted the government as
prime minister under two pontificates, endowed w^th the
talent of ruling by suppleness, and who now distinguished
himself chiefly by the application of his great revenues
to ecclesiastical endowments : Rusticucci, powerful even
under Pius V., and not without great influence under
Sixtus ; a man of great industry, full of acuteness of mind
and kindness of heart, but doubtless rendered the more
circumspect and blameless in his manners by his hopes of
the pontificate : Salviati, who had acquired a high reputa-
tion by his successful administration of the government of
Bologna ; irreproachable, simple, and not only serious, but
severe in his life : Santorio, cardinal of Santa Severina, the
man of the inquisition, long possessed of great and leading
influence in all spiritual affairs ; obstinate in his opinions,
rigorous towards his servants, harsh and hard even to his
kindred, much more so to others, inaccessible to all : con-
trasted with him, Madruzzi, always in the secret of the
policy of the house of Austria, (both the Spanish and the

§ X.] THE CURIA. 347

German lines) who was called the Cato of the college ; a
name however applicable only to his learning and spotless
virtue, not to any censorious arrogance, for he was modesty
itself. Sirleto was still living ; of all the cardinals of his
time unquestionably the most profoundly versed in science
and in languages, — a living library, as Mureto calls him ;
yet who did not disdain, when he quitted his books, to call
about him the poor boys who were carrying their fagots ot
wood to market, to instruct them in the mysteries of the
faith, and then to buy their wood of them ; a man of a
most kindly and compassionate temper.'"*

Tlie example of Carlo Borromeo had a great influence,
and his memory was gradually exalted to the glories of
canonization. Federigo Borromeo was by nature irritable
and violent, but, taking his uncle as a model, he led a
devout life, and did not allow the mortifications which he
frequently experienced to impair his self-control. But he
who presented the most faithful copy of the holy bishop
of Milan, was Agostino Valiere, — a man of a nature as
pure and noble as his erudition was rare ; one who im-
plicitly followed the dictates of his own conscience, and
now, in his extreme old age, appeared the living type of a
bishop of the primitive church.

The example of the cardinals was followed by the rest
of the prelates, who were their associates in the congrega-
tion, and their destined successors in the college.

Among the members of the supreme court, the " auditori
di roto,^' two were peculiarly eminent, of entirely opposite
characters : Mantica, who lived only amidst books and
records, who served the forum and the schools by his
jurisprudential works, and whose language was plain and
abrupt ; and Arigone, who gave his time to the world, the
court, and business, rather than to books, and was remark-
able for judgment and for pliancy of character ; both how-
ever equally anxious to maintain a high reputation for
purity and sanctity of life. Among the bishops about the
court, the most remarkable were those who had exercised

* Ciaconius, Vitae Paparum, iii. p. 978. Memorie storiche de' Cardinali, we only

This also contains Sirleto's epitaph, in find the notices contained in Ciaconius

which he is described as " eruditorum put into Italian,
pauperumque patronus." In Cardella,

348 THE CURIA. [Book IV.

their talents as nuncios : Torres, who had taken a great
share in the formation of the league of Pius V. against the
Turks ; Malaspina, who had watched over the interests of
the catholic church in Germany and the north ; Bolognetti,
to whom the arduous visitation of the Venetian churches
was committed : all indebted for their advancement to their
talents for business, and their zeal for the faith.

Men of learning held a distinguished rank in the court :
Bellarmine, professor, grammarian, and the greatest con-
troversialist of the catholic church, who left behind him
the reputation of an apostolic hfe ; another Jesuit, MafFei,
the author of the history of the Portuguese conquests in
India, especially as they affected the diffusion of Christi-
anity in the south and east, and also of a Life of Loyola,
Avritten with deliberate diffuseness and laboured elegance.'"'
Sometimes there were also foreigners, as for example the
German Clavius, who united profound science with inno-
cence of hfe, and enjoyed universal respect ; or Muret, a
Frenchman, the best Latin scholar of his time, who, after
having passed a great portion of his life in writing a com-
mentary on the Pandects in an original and classical style
— a work in which he showed equal wit and eloquence, —
beaame a priest in his old age, devoted himself to theolo-
gical studies, and said mass daily ; or the Spanish canonist
Azpilcueta, whose "responsa" were regarded as oracles
both at the court of Home and throughout the whole
catholic world, and who, at the very time when Pope
Gregory XIII. was often seen to stop before his door for
hours talking to him, disdained not to perform the lowest
offices in the hospitals.

Among these remarkable personages, Filippo Neri,
founder of the congregation of the Oratory, an eminent
confessor and guardian of souls, acquired a profound and
extensive influence. He was good-humoured, jocose, strict
in essentials, indulgent in trifles ; he never commanded, —
he advised, or, perhaps, requested ; he did not dissertate,
he conversed ; he possessed the acutcness necessary to
distinguish the peculiar merit of every character. His
Oratory grew out of visits which were paid to him by

* Vita J. 1'. Maft'cjijScra.shio Aui'toiv. In iho edition of MaflFci's Works ; hcvfi.
1747.

§ X.] THE CURIA. 349

young men who regarded themselves as his disciples, and
wished to live in his society. The most celebrated among
them is the annalist of the church, Caesar Baronius ;
Filippo Neri perceived his talents, and persuaded him to
give lectures on ecclesiastical history in the Oratory.
Though, at first, he had no great inclination for this task,"'"
Baronius prosecuted it for thirty years, and when created
cardinal, constantly rose before daylight to labour at it.
He regularly ate with all his household at one table, and
suffered nothing but humility and piety to be seen around
him. In the college, as well as in the oratory, his most
intimate friend and associate was Tarugi, who had acquired
great credit as a preacher and confessor, and was no less
remarkable than Baronius for a blameless and godly life ;
they were happy in a friendship which ended only with
their lives, and were buried side by side. A third disciple
of San Fihppo was Silvio Antoniano, who was indeed
rather conspicuous for his love of liberal literature and of
poetical composition ; when, at a later period, a pope
employed him to compose his briefs, he did it with unusual
literary perfection. His manners were most gentle, modest,
and affable ; his whole character, kindness and piety.

All who rose to eminence in this court, whether in
politics, administration, poetry, art, or learning, were
imbued with the same spirit.

What a contrast to the curia in the beginning of the
century, when the cardinals lived at open variance with the
popes ; when the popes girded on the sword, and kept at
a distance from their court and from their daily life what-
ever could recal their christian duty and vocation ! The
cardinals now lived in a conventual quiet and decorum.
The thing which mainly contributed to prevent cardinal
Tosco's election to the papacy, which he was at one time
very near obtaining, was, that he had a habit of using two
or three Lombard proverbs which shocked the ears of the
Romans. So exclusive, so sensitive, was public opinion.

But we must not conceal that, as in literature and art,
so also in opinions and manners, another, and to our feel-

* Gallonius, Vita Phil. Nerii ; Mog. 1602 ; p. 163.

350 THE CURIA. [Book IV.

ings, a less agreeable side of the picture, manifested itself
Miracles, which had not been seen for a long time, were
revived. At San Silvestro an image of the Virgin began
to speak, which made so universal an impression on the
people, that the barren region around the church was soon
covered Avitli houses. In Rione de' Monti a miraculous
image appeared in a hayrick, and the country people of
those parts thought this so visible a mark of the favour of
Heaven, that they took up arms to resist the attempt to
remove it ; we find similar appearances in Narni, Todi,
San Severino, and gradually spreading from the States of
the Church over the whole catholic world. The popes too
resumed the practice of canonization, which they had long
discontinued. Few confessors had the wisdom and discre-
tion of Filippo Neri ; empty and unprofitable works of
sanctity were encouraged, and the representation of divine
things was mixed with fantastic superstition.

Happy would it be could we cherish the conviction that
this was accompanied in the minds of the many, with an
entire obedience to the precepts of rehgion.

But the very nature and constitution of the court of
Rome rendered it impossible that the most eager worldly
competition should not be as active there as exertions in
the cause of religion.

The curia was not merely an ecclesiastical institution ;
it had to rule a state, and, indirectly, to govern a great
part of the world. In proportion as a man sliarcd in the
exercise of this power, he acquired consideration, fortune,
influence, and all that excites the cupidity or stimulates the
exertions of men. Human nature could not be so utterly
changed as that the members of the court of Rome should
aim at the acquisition of the great prizes of social and
political life by spiritual means alone. The struggle for
them here was in general the same as in other courts, only
it was carried on with certain peculiarities of manner,
generated by the nature and character of the arena.

Rome had at that time the most fluctuating population
of any city in the world. Under Leo X., it had risen to
more than 80,000 souls ; while under Paul IV., whose
inexorable severity put everybody to flight, it sank to

§ X.] THE CURIA. 351

45,000 ; immediately after his death, it rose again in two
or three years to 70,000 ; and in the reign of Sixtus V.,
to upwards of 100,000. The most remarkable thing was,
that so great a number of residents were unconnected with
the place or the population ; it was rather a long sojourn
than a permanent citizenship. It might be compared to a
fair or a diet, — an assemblage of people without stability
or fixedness, without connecting ties of blood. Numbers
repaired to Rome because they could find no road to pre-
ferment in their own country ; one was driven thither by
wounded pride, another by boundless ambition ; while
many thought they enjoyed more liberty there than else-
where. Every man sought to rise in his own way.

But all these heterogeneous elements had not grown
into one body ; the races and countries were still so
numerous and so distinct, that the peculiarities of national
and provincial character were very discernible. The
attentive, docile Lombard was easily distinguished from the
Genoese, who thought he could accomplish everything by
means of his money ; or from the Venetian, eager in the
discovery of other men's secrets. There was the frugal,
loquacious Florentine ; the Romagnese, who followed his
own interest with inflexible perseverance and instinctive
sagacity ; the exacting and ceremonious Neapolitan. The
men of the north were remarked for their simphcity and
their taste for good living ; even Clavius, the learned
German, provoked the jests of his friends by his two plen-
tiful breakfasts : the French held themselves apart, and
relinquished their national customs with more difiiculty
than any others ; while the Spaniard, wrapped in his
sottana and his cloak, full of pretensions and ambitious
schemes, looked down on all the rest with contempt.

There was nothing which the obscurest individual of
the throng might not aspire to. It was remembered with
pleasure that John XXIIL, when asked why he went to
Rome, replied, "that he meant to be pope ;" — and he was
pope. Pius Y. and Sixtus V., too, had risen from the
lowest station to the highest earthly dignity. Every man
deemed himself capable of everything, and hoped for
everything.

It was a common remark at that time, and it is perfectly

352 THE CURIA. [Bock IV.

true, that the prelacy and the curia had somewhat of a
repubhcan character. The resemblance consisted in this ; —
that all might pretend to all ; that every day saw examples
of men of mean extraction rising to the highest offices.
But this republic was most strangely constituted ; opposed
to the rights of the many, was the absolute power of one,
on whose will every favour, every advancement depended.
And who was this one 1 It was he who, by a combina-
tion on which it was absolutely impossible to calculate,
came out of the elective contest victorious. Hitherto of
little importance, he suddenly came into possession of the
fulness of power. He was the less tempted to deny his per-
sonal character or circumstances, since he had the persua-
sion that he was chosen to bear the highest dignity by the
operation of the Holy Spirit. He generally began his
reign by a thorough and radical change. All the legates,
all the governors of provinces, were changed. In the
capital there were places which fell, as matter of course,
to the nepotes for the time being. If nepotism, as in the
times we have just been considering, was kept in check,
yet every pope favoured his old friends and dependents ;
it was natural that he should not bear to be robbed of the
society of those he had been accustomed to live with ; the
secretary who had so long served the cardinal Montalto,
must of course be the most agreeable to pope Sixtus ; it
was natural that a pope should make those who shared
his opinions, share also in his advancement. The acces-
sion of a new pope therefore caused a sort of revolution in
all prospects and all expectations ; in the road to power,
and in ecclesiastical, as well as temporal, dignities.

" It is,'' says Commendone, " as if the royal palace in
a city were transplanted, and all the streets and ways
leading to it altered. How many houses must be pulled
down, how often must the road be cut through a palace,
while new lanes and alleys begin to be inhabited and fre-
quented!" This comparison not unaptly describes the
violence of the changes, and the instability of all establish-
ments at that time.

Hence necessarily arose a circumstance of the most
singular kind.

As it frecpiently happened that the popes came to the

§ X.] THE CURIA. 353

throne at so much more advanced an age than other
sovereigns , as a fresh change might take place at any
moment, and power pass into other hands, people Hved as
it were in a perpetual game of chance ; like that, the state
of things was reducible to no calculation, and like that,
it kept hope continually alive.

The promotion which every one anxiously desired,
depended chiefly on personal favour ; while the extraor-
dinary instability of all personal influence, compelled calcu-
lating ambition to assume a corresponding form, and to
pursue most unusual paths.

Among the MS. collections at Berlin are a great num-
ber of directions for conduct at this court.'" The various
ways in which each man seeks his advancement and for-
tune, are a curious subject of observation. Human nature
is susceptible of endless modifications ; the more complex
and difficult the relations in which it stands, the more
unexpected are the forms which it assumes.

The same path was not open to all. He who possessed
nothing, was compelled to adapt himself to the service of
others. Literary men still lived in the houses of princes
and cardinals as a sort of retainers. Those who were
obliged to undertake such a situation, tried by every pos-
sible means to win the favour of their lord, to acquire
some merit in his eyes, to insinuate themselves, into his
secrets, and to become indispensable to him. They sub-
mitted to every indignity, they endured injustice in silence ;
— for who could tell how soon the papacy might fall into
new hands ; how soon the star of their patron might be
in the ascendant, and shed its lustre on his dependants ?
Fortune ebbs and flows ; persons remain the same.

The aspirations of others perhaps were directed to some
little employment, which, by dint of zeal and activity,
might open the way to higher prospects. It was however

* E.g., Instruttione al signor cardinale tici et utilissimi per la corte di Roma ; —

de' Medici, del modo come si deve go- seventy-eight maxims of very dubious

vernare nella corte di Roraia. — Avverti- morality : Inform, xxv. The most im-

menti all' ill">° cardinal Montalto, sopra portant : " Discorso over ritratto della

il modo col quale si possa e debba ben corte di Roma di M"^ Ill">° Commen-

governare come cardinale e nepote del done : " Codd. Rang., at Vienna ; xviii,

Papa: Infonn. xii. — Avvertimenti poli- (App. No. 48.)

yOL. I. A A

354 THE CURIA. [Book IV

a critical thing there, as in every other age and country, to
be obhged to consider interest first, and honour after.

Those who had a competence were much more favour-
ably situated. They derived a secure monthly income from
the monti, in which they had shares ; they bought a place,
in virtue of which they immediately entered the prelacy,
and not only gained an independent existence, but a field
for the brilliant display of their talent. " He who hath, to
him shall be given.^^ In tliis court it was doubly advanta-
geous to possess something, because this possession reverted
to the camera, so that the pope himself had an interest in
its increase.

In such a situation as this, there was not the same neces-
sity for absolute and servile attachment to a great man ;
indeed, so open a partisanship, if not seconded by fortune,
was likely to be injurious. The most important point was,
to be watchful to offend nobody. This caution was intensely
felt and carefully observed, in even the slightest and most
superficial intercourses of life. Great care was taken, for
example, not to pay any man more honour than he was
exactly entitled to ; equaUty of demeanor towards different
persons would be inequality, and was likely to produce an
evil impression. Even of the absent, nothing but good was
to be said ; not only because words once uttered are no
longer in, our power, and fly we know not whither, but also
because very few love an acute observer. It is prudent to
make but a moderate use or display of knowledge, and to
abstain carefully from rendering it tedious to any one. It
is expedient never to carry bad news ; — a part of the
unpleasant impression recoils on the bearer : but, on the
other hand, there is a difiiculty to be shunned, viz., to
observe so strict a silence as to render the motive evident.

Nor was the aspirant in any degree exempted from these
observances by promotion, — not even to the rank of car-
dinal, which only imposed upon him a necessity for greater
caution in his own sphere. For how could he dare to
betray that he thought one of the sacred college less worthy
than another of the tiara ? There was none so obscure or
insignificant upon whom the choice might not fall.

A cardinal had above all to cultivate the favour of the

§ X.] THE CURIA. 355

reigning pope. Upon this depended fortune and dignity,
universal respect and obsequiousness. He must however
cultivate it with increased caution. He was to observe
profound silence concerning the personal interests of the
pope ; to spare no pains to penetrate to the bottom of
them, and secretly to govern his conduct accordingly. The
kinsmen of his holiness might occasionally be mentioned,
their fidelity and their talents might be applauded, — this
was generally a welcome topic. The secrets of the papal
house were to be got at by means of monks, who, under
the pretext of religion, penetrate ftirther than could be
imagined. The influence and the rapid changes of personal
relations, rendered it pecuharly imperative on ambassadors
to exercise the most vigilant attention to all that passed.
The diplomatic envoy, like a skilful pilot, observes from
which quarter the wind blows ; he spares no money to get
good intelligence, and will esteem all his expenditure repaid
by a single piece of information which may show him the
seasonable moment for his negotiation. If he had a request
to make to the pope, he endeavoured imperceptibly to
interweave other interests of the holy see with the point he
wanted to carry. Above all, he endeavoured to gain influ-
ence over some nephew or kinsman, and to persuade him
that he could expect from no other court so much wealth
and permanent greatness, as from that which he repre-
sented. He also tried to secure the good-will of the
cardinals. He would promise the papacy to none ; but
flattered all with hopes. He would be devoted to none ;
but would occasionally do a favour, even to the most
hostilely disposed. He was like the falconer who shows
the piece of meat to the hawk, but gives it him only
gradually and sparingly.

Such was the life, and such the policy of the court of
Rome ; of its cardinals, ambassadors, prelates, princes,
ostensible and secret possessors of power ; full of ceremony
— of which Rome was the classic soil — of reverential
observance, of submissiveness ; but profoundly selfish,
absorbed in the desire to attain, to achieve, to acquire.

Strange that the struggle for what all desire — powder,
honour, riches, pleasure, which elsewhere engender animo-

A A 2

356 THE CURIA. [Book IV.

sitj and feuds, here assumes the attitude of studious desire
to serve ; how one man flatters in others the passions of
which he is himself in a certain degree conscious, in order
to arrive at the gratification of his own ; how abstinence is
full of desire ; how passion glides warily to its object.

We saw the dignity, the seriousness, the religion, which
prevailed in the court ; we now likewise see its worldly
side, — ambition, avarice, dissimulation, and cunning.

If it were our intention to pronounce an eulogium on the
court of Rome, we should bring to view only the former of
the two elements which composed it ; if we wished to
attack it, only the latter. But as soon as we rise to a clear
and unprejudiced view of the whole subject, we come to
the perception of both ; we see, indeed, that both are
inevitable, from the nature of man and the situation of
things.

The spirit and opinions which had been awakened
throughout the world, and which we have been considering,
rendered the demand for decorum, blamelessness, and piety
more pressing than before ; this state of the public mind
coincided with the principle of the court whose position,
with regard to the rest of the world, is founded upon those
qualities. It necessarily follows that those men rise to
eminence and power whose characters are the most in con-
formity with this demand ; public opinion would not alone
belie but destroy itself, did it not produce this effect. But
that it should happen that the goods of fortune should be
immediately connected with spiritual qualities, is one of the
most enormous allurements ever held forth by the spirit of
this world.

We cannot doubt of the sincerity of the prevalent turn
of thought, as our observant and acute informants not
unfrequently represent it to us. But how many monks
conformed to it in appearance for the sake of clutching
fortune by simulated rigoui's ! In a vast many others, the
worldly tendencies are to be descried, struggling, in the
obscurity of half-develQ{)ed motives, with the spiritual.

It was with the curia as with literature and art. There
had been a general defection from the church, a general
leaning towards sentiments approximating to paganism.

§ X.] THE CURIA. 357

The principal of the church was re-awakened by the general
tenor of public opinion ; it moved the powers of life as
with a new breath, and gave a fresh colour to existence.
What a difference between Ariosto and Tasso, Giulio
Romano and Guercino, Pomponazzo and Patrizi ! A vast
epoch lies between them ; yet they have something in
common, and the chain of art descends from the earlier to
the latter. The curia, too, preserved its ancient forms, and
much of its ancient character. But this did not prevent it
from being ruled by a new spirit. What it could not
completely transform, and absorb into itself, it at least
impelled with resistless force.

In contemplating the blending of the different elements,
I have been reminded of a natural scene which may per-
haps serve as an illustration and type of this state of things.

At Terni, the Nera winds between wood and meadow, in
a tranquil, even stream, through the distant valley. From
the other side, the Velino, pent in between rocks, rushes on
headlong, and at length falls in magnificent cascades, foam-
ing and tinged mth a thousand hues, from its heights : it
reaches the Nera, and immediately communicates to it its
own impetuosity. Brawling and foaming, the mingled
waters roll on with rapid and hurrying course.

Thus did the newly awakened spirit of the catholic
church give a fresh impulse to all the organs of literature
and art, — nay, to life itself. We behold the curia at once
devout and restless, ecclesiastical and warlike ; on the one
side, full of dignity, pomp, and ceremony ; on the other,
unmatched in calculating prudence, in insatiable love of
domination. Its piety and its ambition, both resting on
the idea of an exclusive orthodoxy, coincide. Thus consti-
tuted, it once more makes an effort to subdue the world.

BOOK V.

COUNTER REFORMATION.

FIRST PERIOD, 1563—1589.

One of the most difficult problems presented to the
historian of a nation or other political community is, to
apprehend con^ectly the connection of its particular, with
its general relations.

It is true that the peculiarities in the life of a nation,
like those in the hfe of an individual, are determined by
causes inherent in its original character, and therefore
retain through every age a certain uniformity. It is,
however, equally true that every nation is continually
influenced by general causes, which powerfully affect its
progress.

It may be affirmed that the character of modern Europe
rests on these two conflicting principles. States and
peoples are severed by eternal barriers, yet are at the
same time united in an indissoluble community. There is
no national history of which universal history does not
constitute a large part. So inevitable, so all-embracing is
the sequence of events, that the most powerful state often
appears merely as a member of the political community,
entangled with, and governed by, its destinies. Whoever
has tried to conceive the history of a people as a whole, to
survey its course without prejudice or illusion, will have
experienced the difficulty arising from this cause. In the
several crises of the progressive existence of a nation,
we trace the various currents of the destiny of the
human race.

This difficulty is, however, doubled when, as sometimes

§ I.J PROTESTANTISM IN THE YEAR 1563. 359

happens, an individual power gives the first impulse to a
movement which agitates the whole world ; when it appears
as the special representative of a principle. It then takes
so large a share in the collective action of the century, it
stands in so intimate a relation to all the powers of the
world, that its history, in a certain sense, expands into a
universal history.

Such was the epoch upon which the papacy entered after
the council of Trent.

Shaken to its very core, endangered in the very ground-
work of its being, it had found means to maintain and to
renew itself In the two southern peninsulas it had
promptly repelled all hostile influences, and had once more
attracted and pervaded all the elements of thought and
action. It now conceived the idea of reclaiming apostates
in all other parts of the world, and subjecting them once
more to its sway. Rome was once more a conquering
power ; once more she meditated projects and enterprises
such as, in ancient times, or in the middle ages, had ema-
nated from the Seven Hills. We should have but an
imperfect conception of the restored papacy were we
to contemplate it only at its centre. It is in its opera-
tion on the world at large that we apprehend its real
significancy.

We shall begin by taking a review of the power and the
situation of its opponents.

§ 1. STATE OF PROTESTANTISM IN THE YEAR 1563.

Up to the time of the last sittings of the council of
Trent, protestant opinions had continued to make their
way with irresistible force, north of the Alps and the
Pyrenees ; their dominion extended far and wide over the
Germanic, Sclavonic, and Romance nations.

Protestantism was the more firmly established in the
Scandinavian countries, inasmuch as its introduction coin-
cided with the foundation of new dynasties, and the entire
remodelling of their political institutions. From the very
first it was hailed with delight, as if it bore a natural

360 STATE OF PROTESTANTISM [Book V.

affinity to the national feelings ; Bugenhagen, the founder
of lutheranism in Denmark, dwells with enthusiasm on the
eagerness with which his preaching was listened to there,
" even on working-days," as he expresses it, " even before
daybreak, and on holydays, all day long."'"' Protestantism
had now spread to the remotest regions. In 1552 the
last representatives of Catholicism in Iceland finally suc-
cumbed. In 1554 a lutheran bishopric was established in
Wyborg ; evangelical preachers accompanied the Swedish
governors to the remote region of Lapland. Gustavus Vasa,
in his will, made in 1560, earnestly exhorted his successors
and their descendants to adhere firmly to the evangelical
doctrines, and not to tolerate any false teachers : he made
this almost a condition of their right to the throne. f

On the eastern shores of the Baltic also, lutheranism
had gained a complete ascendancy, at least among such of
the inhabitants as spoke the German tongue. Prussia had
set the first example of a great secularisation; in 1561
Livonia followed it ; and the first condition of submission
to Poland made by that province was, that it should be
allowed to adhere to the Augsburg confession. Thus, by
their relation to countries whose submission was contingent
on the maintenance of protestantism, the Jagellonian kings
were prevented from opposing the progress of the reform-
ation. The right of the chief towns in Prussian Poland to
the exercise of religion according to the lutheran forms,
was confirmed in the years 1557 and 1558 by express
charters ; and still more distinct were the privileges shortly
after granted to the small towns, which were more exposed
to the attacks of the powerful bishops.;}; In Poland proper,
too, many of the nobles had embraced protestant opinions,
which were more agreeable to the feelings of independence
generated and kept alive by the nature of their consti-
tution. " A Polish nobleman is not subject to the king ;
should he then be so to the pope V Protestants even
obtained possession of bishops' sees, and indeed under

* Narrative of D. Pomerani, 1539 : in Baaz : Inventariiim Ecclesiae Siieo-

Sabb. p. visit., in Miillcr's Entdecktes goth., p. 282.
Staatsc-abinot, 4to Eröffn. p. 3(55. + Lcngnicli : Account of the religious

f Te.stanicntuni roligiosum Guslavi I., changes in Prussia ; prefixed to the

§ I.J IN THE YEAR 1563. 36]

Sigismund Augustus they formed the majority in the
senate. This prince was undoubtedly a cathohc : he heard
mass every day and a catholic sermon every Sunday, and
even sang the " Benedictus" himself with the singers of his
quire ; he confessed at the appointed times, and received
the Lord's supper in one kind ; but he appeared extremely
indifferent to the faith of his court or of his country, and
was by no means disposed to embitter the last years of
his life by a struggle with a conviction so rapidly gaining
ground.'""

In the neighbouring territory of Hungary the govern-
ment had certainly gained nothing by attempting a resist-
ance to the current of opinion. Ferdinand I. could never
prevail on the Hungarian diet to pass resolutions unfavour-
able to protestantism. In the year 1554, a Lutheran was
elected palatine of the empire, and soon after forced con-
cessions were made in favour of the Helvetic confession in
the valley of Erlau. Transylvania separated itself alto-
gether ; the property of the church was confiscated in
1556 by a formal decree of the diet, and the sovereign
even seized upon the greater part of the tithes.

We now come to Germany, where the new church, first
raised into being by the original character of the nation,
had, by long and perilous wars, obtained consideration and
legal existence in the empire, and was now on the point
of gaining entire possession of the several members of the
Germanic body. Great progress towards this result was
already made. Protestantism prevailed, not only in northern
Germany, where it had arisen, and in the districts of
southern Germany, where it has retained a permanent
ascendancy, but extended itself far beyond those limits.

In Franconia the bishops vainly opposed its progress.
In Würzburg and Bamberg by far the greater part of the
nobility and the episcopal authorities, the majority of the
magistrates and burghers of the towns, and the whole mass

Fourth Part of the History of the Prus- vivano come li piace, perche si vede, che

sian States, § '.'0. S. Macsti e tanto henigna che non vorria

* Relatione di Poloiiia del Vescovo di mai far cosa che dispiacesse ad alcuno,

Cameriiio, about the date of 1555 : MS. cd io vorrei che nelle cose della religione

in the Chigi Library : " A niolti di questi fosse un poco piu severa."
(those who live at court) comporta che

362 STATE OF PROTESTANTISM [Book V.

of the people, had embraced the new doctrines. In the
bishopric of Bamberg there was a Lutheran preacher in
almost every parish.''' The administration was carried on
in a Protestant spirit ; since the States, which were regu-
larly constituted bodies and possessed the power of impos-
ing taxes, had the principal conduct of it. In the same
spirit judicial appointments were made, and it was remarked
that most of the decisions of the courts were adverse to
the interests of catholicism.f The prince-bishops had not
much influence ; even those who still, with " old German
and Franconian fidehty," revered the sovereigns of the
country in their persons, could not endure to see them
appear in their clerical ornaments, crowned with their
mitres.

The Protestant movement had proceeded with equal
activity in Bavaria. A large majority of the nobles had
embraced the protestant faith, and many of the towns
showed a decided inclination to follow their example. At
the meeting of his states in the year 1556, the duke was
obliged to make concessions which elsewhere had led to
the complete establishment of the confession of Augsburg,
and which seemed likely to produce the same results in
Bavaria. The duke himself was not so entirely opposed to
the new opinions, but that he from time to time attended
a protestant sermon. J

In Austria protestantism had made still greater progress.
The nobles studied at Wittemberg ; all the colleges of
Austria proper were filled with protestants, and it was
asserted that only about one thirtieth part of the inha-
bitants had adhered to Catholicism ; even the constitution
of the Austrian states gradually underwent changes derived
from the free principles of protestantism.

The archbishops of Salzburg, inclosed between Bavaria
and Austria, had found it impossible to maintain the ancient
faith in their states. It is true they did not as yet tolerate
protestant preachers, but the sentiments of the people were
not the less distinctly pronounced. In the capital, mass

* Jack has made this point his parti- gionisinFraiiconia Lutheranismoinfecta.

eular object in the •2nd and 3rd volumes Sci'iptores Wirceb. i. p. 42.

of bis History ol" r»:iniberg. J Sitzinger in Sti'obel's Beiti'ägc zur

t Gropp, Dibsertatio do Statu ReH- Literatur, i. 313.

§ I.] IN THE YEAR 1563. 363

was no longer attended, and neither fasts nor festivals
observed. Those who were prevented bj distance from
hearing the protestant preachers in the Austrian villages,
read Spangenberg's sermons for their edification at home.
The mountaineers were not content with this ; in Rauris,
Gastein, St. Veit, Tamsweg and Radstadt, the country
people loudly demanded the cup at the Lord's supper, and
as it was not granted to them, they avoided the sacrament
entirely. They no longer sent their children to school ;
and on one occasion a peasant rose up in church and called
aloud to the priest, " Thou liest." The peasants preached
to each other.'"' It is not surprising that in consequence
of the prohibition of all divine service conformable with the
newly adopted faith, wild and fantastic opinions arose in
these Alpine solitudes.

It was an immense advantage, when compared with this
state of things, that in the dominions of the ecclesiastical
electors on the Rhine, the nobles were sufiiciently indepen-
dent to procure for their vassals a freedom of opinion which
a spiritual prince could hardly have granted. The Rhenish
nobles had very early adopted protestantism ; and allowed
the sovereign to make no encroachments on their domains,
even of a religious nature. A protestant party existed in
every city. It evinced its activity in Cologne by repeated
petitions. In Treves it had become so powerful as to send
for a protestant preacher from Geneva, and to maintain
him in defiance of the elector. In Aix-la-Chapelle it aimed
at nothing less than ascendancy. The citizens of Mayence
did not scruple to send their children to protestant schools,
for instance to Nuremberg. Commendone, who was in
Germany in 1561, is at a loss for words to describe the
subservience of the prelates to the Lutheran princes, and
their concessions to protestantism. f Even in their privy
councils he thinks he observes protestants of the most
violent opinions.;!: He is astonished to find that time had
so entirely failed to bring any succour to Catholicism.

* Extract from a Report by the Canon J De' piü arrabbiati heretici. — " Mi e

Wilh. V. Trautmannsdorf, dated 1555 ; parse che il tempo non habbia apportato

in Zauner's Chronicle of Salzburg, vi. alcun giovamento." Commendone, Rc-

327. latione dcllo Stato della Religione in

+ Gratiani, Vie de Commendon, p. Germania : MS. Vallicell. (See App.

116. No. 38.)

364 STATE OF PROTF.STANTISM [Book V.

The same state of things prevailed in Westphalia as
elsewhere. The whole peasantry was engaged in the
labours of the harvest on St. Peter's day, and the fasts
ordained by the church were generally neglected. The
town-council of Paderborn guarded with a kind of jealousy
its Protestant profession. In Münster most of the priests
were publicly married with all due forms : duke William
of Cleves, it is true, professed himself in the main a catholic,
but in his private chapel he received the sacrament in both
kinds ; the greater part of his council were confessedly
protestants, and no important obstacle was placed in the
way of the evangelical form of worship.'"

In short, throughout the whole of Germany, from east
to west and from north to south, protestantism decidedly
predominated. The nobles were inclined to it from the
very first ; the official functionaries — even then a numerous
and influential body — were educated in the new belief;
the common people would hear no more of certain articles
of faith, for example, the doctrine of purgatory, or of cer-
tain ceremonies, such as pilgrimages ; not a convent could
continue to support itself, nor did any one venture to
exhibit the relics of saints to the multitude. A Venetian
ambassador in the year 1558 reckons that only a tenth
part of the inhabitants of Germany had remained faithful
to the old religion.

It is not surprising that the power and the possessions
of the catholic church continued to decline, together with
her spiritual authority. In most of the ecclesiastical foun-
dations the canons were either inclined to the reformed
religion, or were at any rate lukewarm and indifferent.
What then was to hinder them, when a vacancy occurred,
from proposing protestant bishops, if the measure appeared
advantageous in other respects ?

It is true that, according to the terms of tlie peace of
Augsburg, a spiritual prince forfeited his office and reve-
nues if he forsook the ancient faith ; but this was not
thought in any degree to restrain a chapter which had

• Tenipesti, Vita di Sisto V. ; froiu glien' havessc parlato induceudolo a

tlie Anoiiymo di Caini)idogliü., i. xxiii. : conuinicaisi cosi nella sua capella segreta

" Da molt' aiiiii .si coiuunicava eon anibc per iiou dar mal esempio a' sudditi."
le specie, (jua^ituiique il suo capellano

§ I.] IN THE YEAR 1563. 365

embraced evangelical opinions, from electing an evangelical
bishop ; the only law binding upon them was that the
endowments should not be made hereditary. In this man-
mer a prince of Brandenburg obtained the archbishopric
of Magdeburg, a prince of Lauenburg that of Bremen, and
a prince of Brunswick that of Halberstadt. Even the
bishoprics of Lübeck, Verden, Minden, and the abbey of
Quedlinburg, fell into protestant hands.'"'

These changes were accompanied by a proportionate
confiscation of church property ; the bishopric of Augs-
burg, for instance, sustained great losses in the course of
very few years. In 1557 it was stripped of all the con-
vents in Würtemberg, and in 1558 of the convents and
livings of the county of Oettingen. It was not till after
the peace of Augsburg, that the protestants raised them-
selves to equality in Dünkelsbühl and Donauwörth, and to
supremacy in Nördlingen and Memmingen ; when the
convents in those towns, among which was the rich pre-
ceptory of St. Antony at Memmingen, and the parochial
livings, were irrecoverably lost.f

Nor were the future prospects of Catholicism more
encouraging than its present condition, since protestant
opinions had become the predominant ones in the esta-
blishments for education. The ancient champions of
Catholicism, who had taken the field against Luther, and
distinguished themselves in religious controversies, were
either dead or at a very advanced age, and no young men
competent to supply their places had arisen. It was now
twenty years since any student at the university of Vienna
had taken priest's orders. In Ingolstadt itself, which was
so pre-eminently catholic, no qualified members of the
faculty of theology presented themselves as candidates for
important ofiices, which had hitherto always been filled by
ecclesiastics.;]:

A school, with foundations for the benefit of the scholars,
was opened by the city of Cologne, but when all the

* On this subject see also my Hist. Pol. et seq., in this case, from authentic

Zeitschrift, i. ii. 269, et seq. sources.

f Placidus Braun, History of the X Agricola, Historia Provinciae Socie-

Bishops of Augsburg, vol. iii. .^SS, 535, tatis Jesu Germanise superioris, i. p. 29.

306 STATE OF PROTESTANTISM [Book V.

arrangements were made, it appeared that the new regent
was a Protestant.'"' Cardinal Otto Truchsess built a new
university in his town of Dillingen for the express purpose
of combating protestantism. For a few years it flourished,
under certain eminent Spanish theologians ; but at their
departure, no learned catholic could be found in Germany
to fill their places ; even these were occupied by protest-
ants. At this period almost all the teachers in Germany
were protestants ; the rising generation sat at their feet,
and, with the first rudiments of knowdedge, imbibed hatred
of the pope.

Such was the condition of affairs in the north and east
of Europe. In many places Catholicism was entirely
crushed, in all, oppressed and despoiled ; and whilst it was
striving to defend itself here, enemies yet more formidable
had arisen against it in the south and west.

For undoubtedly the calvinistic view of Christianity was
far more decidedly opposed to the doctrines of the church
of Rome, than the lutheran ; and it was precisely during
the epoch of which we are now speaking, that Calvinism
took possession of men's minds with irresistible force.

It had arisen on the frontiers of Italy, Germany, and
France, and had extended in all directions : in Hungary,
Poland and Germany it formed a subordinate, but yet
considerable element of the protestant movement ; in
the west of Europe it had already acquired independent
power.

While the Scandinavian nations had adopted the lutheran
faith, Britain had become calvinistic, though the protestant
church had assumed two wholly opposite forms in England
and Scotland. In Scotland, where it attained to power in
opposition to the government, it was poor, popular, and
democratic ; but so much more resistless was the enthu-
siasm which it inspired. In England, on the contrary, it
had gained the ascendancy by its alliance with the existing
government ; there it was rich, monarchical and magnifi-
cent, and was content with exacting conformity to its

* Orlandinus, Historia Societatis Jesu, rant, Jacobus Lichius, Luthei*anus tan-
tom. i. lib. xvi. nr. 25 : " Ilujus novte dem apparuit."
bursse regens, quern primum prrefece-

§ I.] IN THE YEAR 1563. 367

ritual. The former naturally bore a far stronger resem-
blance to the church of Geneva, and was infinitely more in
accordance with the spirit of Calvin.

The French had embraced the doctrines of their coun-
tryman with their national vehemence ; and in spite of all
persecutions, the French churches were soon organized in
a Protestant form, on the model of those of Geneva ; they
even held a synod as early as the year 1559. In 1561
the Venetian ambassador Micheli did not find a single pro-
vince free from the protestant doctrines : he says, " three-
fourths of the kingdom were filled with them ; namely,
Brittany and Normandy, Gascony and Languedoc, Poitou,
Touraine, Provence and Dauphine.^^ " At many places in
these provinces," says he, "meetings are held, sermons
preached, and rules of life laid down, entirely on the model
of Geneva, without any regard to the royal prohibition ;
these opinions are adopted by all, and, what is most
remarkable, even by the clergy ; not only by priests,
monks and nuns — few indeed of the convents remain unin-
fected— but even by the bishops and many of the most
considerable prelates." " Your Highness," says he to the
Doge, " may be assured that with the exception of the
lower classes, who still zealously frequent the churches, all
the rest have fallen away, especially the nobles, and, almost
without a single exception, the men under forty ; for
although many of them still go to mass, it is only for
appearance sake, and through fear ; when they are certain
of escaping observation, they avoid the mass and the
churches." When Micheli went to Geneva he found that
immediately after the death of Francis II. fifty preachers
had gone from thence to different towns in France ; he
was astonished at the consideration in which Calvin was
held, and at the sums of money he received for the assist-
ance of the thousands who had taken refuge at Geneva. "^^

* Micheli, Relatione delle Cose di seducendo e facendo publicamente le

Francia Tanno 1561 : "Dapoi che fu congregationi e le assemblee, e gli altri

conosciuto che col mettere in prigione e si lassassero vivere : onde ne furono

col castigare e con 1' abbrucciare non liberati e cavati di prigione di Parigi e

solo non si emendavano, ma si disordi- di tutte le altre terre del regno un gran-

navano piujfu deliberate che non si pro- dissimo numero, che rimasero poi nel

cedesse piu contra alcuno, eccetto che regno praticando liberamente e parlando

contra quelli che andavano predicando, con ogn' uno, e gloriandosi che aveano

36g STATE OF PROTESTANTISM [Book V.

He thought it indispensably necessary, in order to avoid
sliedding torrents of blood, to grant freedom of religion, at
least ad interim, as he expresses it, to the French protest-
ants. And in fact his report was soon followed by the
edict of January, 1562, which granted a legal and recog-
nised existence to protestantism, and is the basis of the
privileges it has from that time enjoyed in France.

These general changes in Germany, France, and Eng-
land, necessarily produced an effect on the Netherlands
also. The influence of Germany was first predominant.
Among the various motives which determined Charles V.
to undertake the Smalcaldic war, one of the most cogent
was, that the sympathy excited by the German protestants
in the Netherlands daily increased the difficulty of govern-
ing that province, which formed so important a part of his
dominions. In subduing the German princes he at the
same time prevented a revolt of his Netherlanders.''' Yet
all his laws, severely as they were executed, (it has
been calculated that up to the year 1560, thirty thousand
protestants were put to death,) w^ere unavailing to arrest
the progress of the new opinions. The only consequence
was, that these gradually inclined more to the French
calvinist doctrines than to the German lutheran ones. In
the year 1561 a formal confession was subscribed in that
country, churches were established on the model of that
of Geneva, and the protestants, by uniting themselves with
the local authorities and their supporters, acquired a politi-
cal basis which seemed to promise them security and
success for the future.

Under these circumstances the earlier oppositions to the
church of Rome acquired fresh force. In the year 1562
the Moravian brethren were formally acknowledged by
Maximilian IL, and took advantage of this favourable event
to choose a large number of new pastors in their synods,
to the number, it is reckoned, of a hundred and eighty-
eight, f In 1561 the duke of Savoy found himself con-

guadagnato la lite contra i Papisti, cosi renti'ne resident at the imperial court,

fhianiavano e chiamano il loro adver- appears to me to rest on good groxmds.
sarii-" f Regenvolscii Ecclesiee Slavonicse, i.

This view, taken by the then Flo- p. 63.

♦ 't

§ IL] IN THE YEAR 1563. 369

strained to grant new privileges even to tlie poor commu-
nities of Waldenses in the mountains.'" The protestant
spirit had extended its vivifying power to the most distant
and obscure corners of Europe. What an immense empire
had it conquered in the space of forty years ! — an empire
reaching from Iceland to the Pyrenees, from Finland to
the summit of the Italian Alps ! Opinions analogous to
protestantism, as we have already observed, even found
their way across those mountains, and were diffused over
the whole territory of the Latin church. The new faith
had been adopted by the great majority of the higher
classes, and of those who took an active part in public
life ; whole nations were enthusiastically devoted to it,
and it had entirely altered the constitution of states, f
This is the more remarkable, since its doctrines were by
no means a mere negation or renunciation of popery, but
on the contrary were in the highest degree positive, and
contained a renovation of those christian feelings and
principles which guide and govern human life, even to the
deepest and most secret recesses of the soul

§ 2. RESOURCES POSSESSED BY THE PAPACY FOR ACTIVE

CONTEST.

For a long time the papacy and Catholicism had main-
tained an attitude defensive, it is true, against the encroach-
ments of protestantism, but yet passive, and had been
obliged to endure them as they best might.

Now, however, things assumed a new aspect.

* Leger, in his Histoire des Eglises mia e la Polonia si trovano in gran parte

Vaudoises, ii. p. 38, gives the treaty. infette, li paesi bassi della Fiandra sono

+ The loss was thus looked upon in cosi corrotti che per rimedio ehe vi si

Rome itself. Tiepolo, Relatione di Pio sforzi dar loro il Duca d'Alva difiicil'"

IV. e V. : " Parlando solamente di quelli ritorneranno alia prima sanita, e final-

(popoli) d' Europa che non solo obedi- mente la Francia per rispetto di questi

vano lui (al papa) ma ancora seguivano mal humori e tutta ripiena di confusioni ;

in tutto i riti e le consuetudini della in modo che non pare che sia restate

chiesa romana, celebrando ancora li altro di sano e di sicuro al pontefice che

officii nella lingua latina : si sa che 1' la Spagna e 1' Italia con alcune poche

Inghilterra, la Scotia, la Dania, la Nor- isole, e con quel paese che e dalla Ser'*

vegia, la Suetia e final'" tutti i paesi V"^"^ in Dalmatia et in Grecia posseduto."

settentrionali si sono alienati da lei : la (App. No. 41.)
Germania e quasi tutta perduta, la Bohe-

VOL. I. BB

370 RESOURCES OF THE PAPACY [Book V.

We have already contemplated that inward develop-
ment by which the catholic church began the work of self-
restoration.

We may affirm generally, that she was once more
inspired with a fresh and living energy ; that she regene-
rated her creed in accordance with the spirit of the age,
and originated a reform which, on the whole, satisfied its
demands. She did not allow the religious tendencies then
existing in the south of Europe to grow into hostility ; on
the contrary, she incorporated them with her own, and
gained the absolute direction of them. This was the pro-
cess by which she renewed her strength and repaired her
disasters.

Hitherto protestantism alone had filled the theatre of
the world with those brilliant results wliich carried away
the minds of men ; but another spirit, which, if contem-
plated from the elevated region of enlarged and dispassion-
ate thought, is perhaps equally deserving of veneration,
though in direct opposition to that which had actuated the
first reformers, now entered the lists, equally skilled to
engage the hearts of men on its side and to rouse them to
activity.

The restored catholic system first gained possession of
the two southern peninsulas. This could not be efi"ected
without the exercise of extraordinary severity : the reno-
vated inquisition of Rome came to the support of that of
Spain, and every effort of protestantism was forcibly
crushed. At the same time all those tendencies of thought
and feeling which renewed Catholicism most especially
addressed, and most strongly captivated, were peculiarly
powerful in those countries. There, too, the temporal
sovereigns allied themselves to the interests of the church.

It was a circumstance of the utmost importance that
Philip 11., the most powerful of them all, was so firm in
his attachment to the papacy. With all the pride of a
Spaniard, by whom unblemished Catholicism was esteemed
the mark of a purer blood and a more noble descent, he
rejected every adverse opinion. It was not however a i
mere personal feeling which influenced his political con- I
duct. The kingly dignity in Spain had from time imme-

§ IL] FOR ACTIVE CONTEST. 37 1

morial being tinged with a spiritual colour, which had been
heightened by Isabella's institutions. The royal power
was strengthened in every province by the addition of
spiritual authority ; nor indeed could the kingdom have
been governed without the aid of the inquisition. In his
American possessions, too, the king appeared pre-eminently
in the hght of a propagator of the christian and catholic
faith : this was the common bond that united all his
dominions in obedience to him ; he could not have given
it up without imminent danger. The increase of the
Huguenots in the south of France caused the greatest
alarm in Spain. The inquisition thought itself bound to
be doubly watchful. " I assure your highness," writes the
Venetian ambassador to his sovereign on the 25th August,
1562, " that no great religious excitement is to be desired
for this country : there are many here who long for a
change of religion. '^ '' The pope's nuncio thought the issue
of the council then assembled was no less important to the
royal than to the papal power. "For,'' says he, "the
obedience paid to the king, nay his whole government,
depends on the inquisition ; were that to lose its authority,
seditions would instantly arise."

The power which this prince possessed in the Nether-
lands was alone sufficient to give to the southern system
an immediate influence over the rest of Europe. But
besides that, all was far from being lost in other nations.
The emperor, the kings of France and Poland, and the
duke of Bavaria, still adhered to the catholic church.
There were still many spiritual princes whose frozen zeal
could be revived, and in many places protestantism had
not yet penetrated the mass of the population. The
greater part of the peasantry in France and even in Hun-
gary f and Poland were still catholic : Paris, which even
at that period exercised great influence over the other

* Dispaccio Soranzo, Perpignan, 28 ranee, as Lazarus Sehwendi asserts :

Maggio : " Essendo in questa provincia " En Ungarie tout est confusion et mi-

(Spagna) molti Ugonotti quasi non osano sere : ils sont de la plus parte Huguenots,

mostrarsi per la severissima dimostra- mais avec una extreme ignorance du

tione che qui fanno contra. Dubitano peuple." (Sehwendi au Prince d'Orange,

che non si mettano insierae, essendone Archives de la Maison d'Orange- Nassau,

molti per tutta la Spagna." i. p. 288.)

f If it were not, in this case, igno-

B B 2

372 RESOURCES OF THE PAPACY [Book V.

towns of France, had not been infected with the spirit of
innovation. A large proportion of both nobles and com-
moners in England, and the whole of the ancient native
population of Ireland, adhered to the catholic faith. In
the Tyrolese and Swiss Alps protestantism had found no
acceptance, neither had it made any considerable progress
among the Bavarian peasantry. At all events Canisius
compares the Tyrolese and Bavarians to the two tribes of
Israel " who alone remained faithful to the Lord/'

It is a subject deserving of a minute inquiry, on what
internal causes was founded this pertinacious constancy,
this immovable attachment to tradition, among popula-
tions so various and dissimilar. In the Netherlands, the
Walloon provinces exhibited the same phenomenon.

And now the papacy resumed a station in which it
could once more win over all these inclinations and bind
them indissolubly to itself Although greatly changed, it
possessed the immeasurable advantage of having on its
side all the external associations of the past, and the habit
of obedience. In the council, which they had brought to
a happy conclusion, the popes had even succeeded in
increasing their authority, which it had been the object of
that assembly to diminish, and in strengthening their
influence over the national churches. They now also
renounced that worldly policy by which they had formerly
thrown Italy, and indeed the whole of Europe, into con-
fusion. They allied themselves, with entire confidence
and without any reservations, to Spain, and flilly returned
her devotion to the church of Rome. Their Italian princi-
pality, their extended territory, were exceedingly favour-
able to the success of their ecclesiastical undertakings.
The surplus of its revenues for some time greatly assisted
the universal catholic church.

Thus strong in themselves, thus strengthened by their
powerful adherents and by the idea of which they were
living representatives, the popes (]uitted the defensive
position with which they had been hitherto forced to con-
tent tliemselves, for attack ; — an attack the progress and
consequences of which it is the main object of this work to
consider.

§ II ] FOR ACTIVE CONTEST. 373

A boundless theatre opens to our view ; the action
begins in many different places at once, and our attention
is solicited to the most opposite and dissimilar parts of the
vrorld.

Religious activity is intimately connected with the cur-
rent of political opinions : combinations arise embracing
the whole world, and causing the success or the failure of
enterprises. We shall keep the great changes in political
affairs the more steadily in view, since they often exactly
coincide with the results of the religious warfare.

We must not however confine ourselves to generalities.
Even the conquests of the sword cannot be achieved with-
out some native sympathies in the conquered in favour
of the victors ; how much less those of opinion ! We
must fathom to the very bottom the interests of the several
countries, in order to understand the internal movements
which facilitated the projects of Rome.

Such is the abundance and the variety of events and of
modes of existence comprised within the period now to be
considered, that we have almost to fear the impossibility of
embracing the whole at one glance. It exhibits a state of
civilisation which rests on homogeneous foundations, and
occasionally contracts into great crises, but which presents
an infinite variety of phenomena.

We shall begin with Germany, the country where the
papacy experienced its first severe reverses, and the arena
on which the conflict of the two principles was fought out
with the greatest pertinacity and acrimony.

Above all, the society of the Jesuits, combining worldly
wisdom with religious zeal, and deeply imbued with the
spirit of modern Catholicism, did good service to the church
of Rome. Our first considerations shall be directed to the
influences of this remarkable association.

§ 3. THE FIRST JESUITS' COLLEGES IN GERMANY.

At the diet of Augsburg, in the year 1550, Ferdinand
I. was accompanied by his confessor, bishop Urban of
Laibach. Urban was one of the few prelates whose

374 THE FIRST JESUITS' COLLEGES IN GERMANY. [Book V.

opinions had remained unshaken. At home he often
ascended the pulpit to exhort the people, in their own pro-
vincial dialect, to be constant to the faith of their fathers ;
he preached to them of the one fold under the one shep-
herd.'"' At this time the Jesuit Le Jay was also at Augs-
burg, and excited great attention by his conversions.
Bishop Urban made his acquaintance, and from him first
heard of the colleges which the Jesuits had founded in
several universities. In order to rescue catholic theology
from the neglect into which it had fallen in Germany, he
advised his master to establish a similar college at Vienna.
Ferdinand eagerly embraced the project ; and, in the
letter he addressed on the subject to Ignatius Loyola, he
expresses his conviction, that the only means of propping
the declining cause of Catholicism in Germany was, to give
the rising generation learned and pious catholic teachers. f
The arrangements were quickly made. In the year 1551
thirteen Jesuits, among whom was Le Jay himself, arrived
at Vienna, where Ferdinand instantly granted them a
dwelling, chapel, and pension, and shortly after incorpo-
rated them with the university, and assigned them the
superintendence of it.

They soon after rose into consideration at Cologne,
where they had already dwelt for two years, but had been
so far from making any progress, that they had even been
forced to live separate ; nor was it till the year 1556, that
the endowed school, established under a protestant regent,
gave them the means of acquiring a more secure footing.
For as there was a party in the city which was most
deeply interested in keeping the university catholic, the
partisans of the Jesuits at length prevailed on the citizens
to confide the direction of the establishment to that order.
Their great advocates were, the prior of the Carthusians,
the provincial of the Carmelites, and, above all, Dr. Johann
Gropper, who occasionally gave a feast to which he invited
the most influential burghers, in order that, after the good
old German fashion, he might further the interests he had
most at heart over a glass of wine. Fortunately for the

* ValvafsHor, Ehre dos Herzogtlmras f Printed in Sochcr, Mistoria Provin-
Krain, vol. ii, b. vii. p. 133. ciic Austria? Societatis Jesu, i. 21.

§ III.] THE FIRST JESUITS' COLLEGES IN GERMANY. 375

Jesuits one of their order was a native of Cologne, Johann
Rhetius, a man of patrician family, to whom the endowed
school could be more particularly entrusted. This could
not however be done without very considerable restric-
tions ; the Jesuits were expressly forbidden to introduce
into the school those monastic rules of life which were in
force in their colleges.'""

At this same period they also gained a firm footing in
Ingolstadt. Their former attempts had been frustrated
chiefly by the resistance of the younger members of the
university, who would not suffer any privileged school to
interfere with the private instruction they gave. In the
year 1556, however, after the duke, as we have already
related, had been obliged to make important concessions
in favour of the protestants, his counsellors, who were zea-
lous catholics, deemed it a matter of urgent necessity to
have recourse to some vigorous measures for the support
of the ancient faith. The principal movers were the chan-
cellor Wiguleus Hund, a man who displayed as much zeal
in the support of the church, as in the study of her ancient
history and constitution, and the duke's private secretary,
Heinrich Schwigger. By their instrumentality the Jesuits
were recalled, and eighteen of them entered Ingolstadt on
the day of St. Wilibald, 7th of July, 1556. They chose
that day because St. Wilibald was said to be the first bishop
of the diocese. They still had to encounter great difiicul-
ties in the town and in the university, but they gradually
overcame all opposition by the assistance of the same
patronage to which they owed their establishment.

From these three metropolitan settlements the Jesuits
now spread in all directions.

From Vienna they immediately extended over the whole
of the Austrian dominions. In 1556 Ferdinand I. removed
some of them to Prague, and founded a school there,
intended principally for the young nobility. To this he
sent his own pages, and the order found support and
encouragement from the catholic portion of the Bohemian
nobility, especially from the families of Rosenberg and

* Sacchiuus, Hist. Soc. Jesu, pars ii. lib. i. n. 103.

376 THE FIRST JESUITS' COLLEGES IN GERMANY. [Book V.

Lobkowitz. One of the most considerable men in Hun-
gary at that time was Nicolaus Olahus, archbishop of Gran,
of Wallachian extraction, as his name denotes. His father
Stoia, in a fit of terror for the murder of a Woiwode of
his family, had consecrated him to the church, and the
success of his destination was complete. Under the last
native kings he filled the important office of private secre-
tary, and he had subsequently risen still higher in the ser-
vice of the Austrian party. At the time of the general
decline of Catholicism in Hungary, he perceived that the
only hope of support for it was from the common people,
who were not entirely alienated. But here also cathohc
teachers were wanting ; in order to form them, he founded
a college of Jesuits at Tyrnau in 1561, and gave them a
pension out of his own income, to which the emperor Fer-
dinand added the grant of an abbey. An assembly of the
clergy of the diocese had just been convoked when the
Jesuits arrived. Their first labours were devoted to an
attempt to reclaim the Hungarian priests and clergymen
from the heterodox opinions to which they leaned. They
were immediately after summoned to Moravia also. Wil-
liam Prussinowski, bishop of Olmütz, who had become
acquainted with the order when he was studying in Italy,
invited them to his diocese ; Hurtado Perez, a Spaniard,
was the first rector in Olmütz. Shortly after we find them
likewise established at Brunn.

From Cologne the society spread over the whole of the
Rhenish provinces. We have already mentioned that
protestantism had found adherents, and had occasioned
some fermentation in Treves. The archbishop John von
Stein had determined to inflict only slight punishments on
the recalcitrants, and to oppose innovation by argument
rather than by force. He summoned the two principals
of the Jesuit college of Cologne to repair to him at Cob-
lentz, and represented to them that he wished to have
some of the members of their body with him ; " in order,"
as he expresses it, " to lead the flock entrusted to him in
their duty, rather by means of admonition and friendly
instruction, than by arms or by threats." He then ad-
dressed himself to Rome, and very soon came to an under-

§ III.] THE. FIRST JESUITS' COLLEGES IN GERMANY. 377

standing with both. Six Jesuits were sent to him from
Rome ; the rest came from Cologne. They opened their
college with great solemnity on the 3rd Feb. 1561, and
undertook to preach during the approaching season of
Lent.''^

Two privy councillors of the elector Daniel of Mayence,
Peter Echter and Simon Bagen, now thought they per-
ceived that the introduction of the Jesuits was the only
means of restoring the declining university of Mayence.
In spite of the opposition of the canons and feudal lords,
they founded for the order a college at Mayence, and a
preparatory school at Aschaffenburg.

The society continued to advance higher up the Rhine.
What they more particularly desired was an establish-
ment at Spires ; partly because the body of assessors to
the Kammergericht included so many remarkable men
over whom it would be of the greatest importance to
obtain influence ; and partly in order to place themselves
in immediate and local opposition to the university of
Heidelberg, which at that time enjoyed the greatest cele-
brity for its Protestant professors. f The Jesuits gradually
gained a footing at Spires.

Without further delay they also tried their fortune along
the Main. Although Frankfort was wholly protestant,
they hoped to achieve something there during the fair.
This was not to be done mthout danger, and they were
forced to change their lodging every night for fear of
being discovered.

At Würzburg they were far safer and more welcome.^
It seemed as if the exhortation which the emperor Fer-
dinand addressed to the bishops at the diet of 1559,
imploring them at last to exert their strength in the
support of the catholic church, had contributed greatly
to the brilliant success of the order in the spiritual
principalities. From Würzburg they spread throughout
Franconia.

* Browerus, Annales Trevirenses, t. which place the most learned men of the

ii. lib. xxi. 106 — 125. whole German nation now-a-days resort."

+ e.g., Neuser, in his celebrated letter (Arnold, Ketzerhist, ii. 1133.)

to the Turkish emperor, says, that he J Gropp, Wirzburgische Chronik der

taught and preached at Heidelberg, " to letzteren Zeiten, vol. i. p, 237.

378 THE FIRST JESUITS' COLLEGES IN GERMANY. [Book V.

In the meanwhile the Tyrol had been opened to them
from another point. At the desire of the emperor's daugh-
ters, they settled at Inspruck, and then at Hall in that
neighbourhood. In Bavaria they continued to make great
progress. At Munich, which they entered in 1559, they
were even better satisfied than at Ingolstadt, and pro-
nounced it to be the Rome of Germany. A large new
colony already arose not far from Ingolstadt. In order to
restore his university of Dillingen to its original purpose,
cardinal Truchsess resolved to dismiss all the professors
who then taught there, and to commit the institution to
the exclusive care of Jesuits. A formal treaty was accord-
ingly concluded at Botzen between German and Itahan
commissaries of the cardinal and of the order. In the
year 1563 the Jesuits arrived in DilHngen and took pos-
session of the chairs of the university. They relate with
great complacency how the cardinal, who, returning shortly
afterwards from a journey, made a solemn entrance into Dil-
lingen, turned with marked preference to the Jesuits, amidst
aU the crowd arrayed to receive him, stretched out liis hand
to them to kiss, greeted them as his brethren, visited their
cells himself, and dined with them. He encouraged them
to the utmost of his power, and soon established a mission
for them in Augsburg."^*'

This was a most extraordinary progress of the society
in so short a time. As late as the year 1551 they had no
firm station in Germany ; in 1566 their influence extended
over Bavaria and Tyrol, Franconia and Suabia, a great
part of the Rhineland, and Austria ; they had penetrated
into Hungary, Bohemia, and Moravia. The effects of their
labours were already perceptible; in the year 1561 the
papal nuncio affirms, that " they gain over many souls,
and render great service to the holy see." This was the
first counteracting impulse, the first anti-protestant impres-
sion, that Germany received.

Above all, they laboured at the improvement of the
universities. They were ambitious of rivalling the fame of
those of the protestants. The education of that time being

* Sacehinus, pars ii. lib. viii. n. 108.

§ III.] THE FIRST JESUITS' COLLEGES IN GERMANY. 379

a purely learned one, rested exclusively on the study of the
languages of antiquity. These the Jesuits cultivated with
great ardour, and in a short time they had among them
teachers who might claim to be ranked with the restorers
of classical learning. They likewise addicted themselves to
the strict sciences ; at Cologne, Franz Koster taught astro-
nomy in a manner equally agreeable and instructive.
Theological disciphne, however, of course continued the
principal object. The Jesuits lectured with the greatest
diligence even during the holidays ; they re-introduced the
practice of disputations, without which they said all instruc-
tion was dead. These were held in public, and were
dignified, decorous, rich in matter — in short, the most bril-
liant that had ever been witnessed. In Ingolstadt they
soon persuaded themselves that they had attained to an
equality with any other university in Germany, at least in
the faculty of theology. Ingolstadt acquired (in the con-
trary spirit) an influence like that which Wittenberg and
Geneva had possessed.

The Jesuits devoted an equal degree of assiduity to the
direction of the Latin schools. It was one of the principal
maxims of Lainez, that the lower grammar schools should
be provided with good masters. He maintained that the
character and conduct of the man were mainly determined
by the first impressions he received. With accurate discrimi-
nation, he chose men who, when they had once undertaken
this subordinate branch of teaching, were willing to devote
their whole lives to it ; for it was only with time that so
difficult a business could be learned, or the authority indis-
pensable to a teacher be acquired. Here the Jesuits
succeeded to admiration ; it was found that their scholars
learned more in one year than those of other masters in
two, and even protestants recalled their children from distant
gymnasia and committed them to their care.

Schools for the poor, modes of instruction suited to chil-
dren, and catechising followed. Canisius constructed his
catechism, which satisfied the mental wants of the learners
by its well-connected questions and concise answers.

The whole course of instruction was given entirely in
that enthusiastic, devout spirit which had characterised the

380 THE FIRST JESUITS' COLLEGES IN GERMANY. [Book V.

Jesuits from their earliest institution. The first rector in
Vienna was a Spaniard, Juan Victoria, a man who distin-
guished himself at Rome on his first entrance into the
society, by walking along the Corso clad in sackcloth during
the festivities of the carnival, and by constantly scourging
himself till the blood streamed from his body. The chil-
dren who frequented the Jesuits' schools in Vienna were
soon remarkable for the firmness with which they rejected
the forbidden viands on fast days, while their parents par-
took of them without scruple. In Cologne it was once
more regarded as an honour to wear the rosary, while
relics, which no man had dared for years to exhibit publicly,
began once more to be held in reverence. In the year
1560 the youth of the Jesuits' school at Ingolstadt walked
two and two on a pilgrimage to Eichstadt at the time of
their confirmation, in order that they might be strengthened
with the dew which dropped from the tomb of St. Wal-
purgis. The sentiments of which these acts were demon-
strations, thus carefully instilled into the schools, were
disseminated through the whole population by means of
preaching and confession.

This is a case perhaps without a parallel in the history
of the world. All the other intellectual movements which
have exercised an extensive influence on mankind have
been caused either by great qualities in individuals, or by
the irresistible force of new ideas. But in this case the
effect was produced without any striking manifestation of
genius or originality. The Jesuits might be learned, and,
in their way, pious ; but no one will affirm that their
acquirements were the result of any free or vigorous
exercise of mind, — that their piety proceeded from the
depth or the ingenuousness of a single heart. They were
just learned enough to get reputation, to secure confidence,
to train and to attach scholars ; but they attempted iiotliing
higher. Their piety was not only sufficient to keep them
free fi:-om all reproach on the score of morals, but was
positively conspicuous and striking, and therefore admitted
of no question ; — and this was enough for them. Neither
their piety nor their learning moved in any undefined or
untrodden paths. They liad however a quality which dis-

§ III.] THE FIRST JESUITS' COLLEGES IN GERMANY. 381

tinguished them in a remarkable degree — rigid method, in
conformity with which everything was calculated, every-
thing had its definite scope and object. Such a union of
appropriate and sufficing learning with unwearied zeal ; of
study and persuasiveness, of pomp and penance, of wide-
spread influence and unity of a directing principle and aim,
never existed in the world, before or since. They were
industrious and visionary, worldly wise and full of enthu-
siasm, well-bred men and agreeable companions, regardless
of their personal interests, and eager for each other's
advancement. No wonder that they were successful.

A German writer must add another observation. The
papal theology had, as we have said, fallen nearly to utter
decay. The Jesuits arose to revive it. Who were the
Jesuits that first appeared in Germany ? They were Spa-
niards, Italians, Flemings ; for a long time the people did
not even know the name of their order ; they called them
the Spanish priests. They got possession of the chairs of
universities, and found pupils who attached themselves to
their instructions. They acquired nothing from the Ger-
mans, for their doctrine and constitution were perfected
before they came amongst them. The progress of their
institution in Germany may generally be regarded as a new
example of the influence of the Romance part of Europe on
the Germanic.

They conquered the Germans on their own soil, in their
very home, and wrested from them a portion of their own
country. The cause of this doubtless was, that the German
theologians had neither come to an understanding among
themselves, nor had they the magnanimity to tolerate in
each other the less important differences. The extreme
points of opinions were seized upon for discussion ; oppo-
nents attacked each other with reckless violence ; so that
the wavering and the half-convinced were thrown into
perplexity, and the door was opened to these foreigners,
who took captive all minds by a system of doctrine, pru-
dently constructed, finished down to its minutest details,
and leaving no colour or occasion for doubt.

3^2 COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. [Book V.

§ 4. BEGINNING OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY.

Notwithstanding the causes of success which w^e have
remarked above, it is manifest that the Jesuits could not so
easily have risen to the station they occupied, without the
aid of the secular arm and the favour of the princes of the
empire.

For the destiny of political had been the same as that of
theological questions ; no measure by which the essentially
hierarchical constitution of the empire might be brought
into harmony with the new circumstances of rehgion, had
yet been devised. The total result of the peace of Augs-
burg, as it was at first understood and subsequently
expounded, was a fresh extension of the civil sovereignty.
The several provinces also acquired a great degree of inde-
pendence in respect of religion. From that time the
convictions of the sovereign, and his agreement w4th the
Estates of his dominions, were the sole causes which deter-
mined what ecclesiastical position a country should assume.

This was a consummation which appeared to be brought
about for the express advantage of protestantism, but which
in the end became far more favourable to Catholicism. The
former was already established before this result had taken
place ; the revival of the latter may be dated from, and
was indeed based upon it.

This state of things first obtained in Bavaria, and the
immense influence which it exercised, renders the mode of
its origin w^cll w^orthy of our particular examination.

Looking back on the proceedings of the Bavarian diets
during a considerable period of years, we find the sovereign
continually involved in differences with his Estates. The
duke in continual embarrassments, oppressed with debts,
compelled to impose new taxes, and constantly forced to
claim subsidies from his Estates ; these in return demand-
ing concessions, chiefly of a religious land. It seemed
inevitable that a state of things would arise in Bavaria
similar to that wiiich had long prevailed in Austria ; a legal |
opposition of the Estates to the sovereign, founded at once

§ IV.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 383

on religion and on privileges, unless the prince should
himself become a convert to protestantism.

Without doubt this was the state of things by which, as
we have mentioned, the invitation to the Jesuits was mainly
caused. It is possible that their doctrine made an impres-
sion on the mind of duke Albert V. ; and indeed he once
confessed at a later period that whatever he understood of
God^s law he had learnt from Hoffseus and Canisius, both
Jesuits. Another influence, however, co-operated : Pius IV.
not only pointed out to the duke that every religious con-
cession would impair the obedience of his subjects'"' (which
in the then situation of the principalities of Germany was
not to be denied), but gave weight to this warning by
marks of favour ; he abandoned to him a tenth of the
property of his clergy. Whilst he thus made him more
independent of the pleasures of the Estates, he showed him
what advantages he had to expect from a connection with
the church of Rome.

The main point then was, whether the duke would be
able to eradicate the religious opposition of his Estates
which had already taken root.

He commenced operations at a diet at Ingolstadt in the
year 1563. The prelates were already well inclined to
him ; he next used his endeavours with the cities. Whether
it were that the doctrines of reviving Catholicism and the
activity of the Jesuits, who insinuated themselves every-
where, had gained influence in the cities (especially over
the leading members of their assemblies) ; or whether
other considerations had weight, it is certain that the cities
on this occasion desisted from the demand for fresh reli-
gious concessions, which they had hitherto always urged
with great eagerness, and proceeded to grant supplies
without stipulating for any new liberties. The nobles were
now therefore the only body which offered resistance.
They quitted the diet in discontent, nay, bitterness of

* Legationes Paparum ad Duces Bava- plurimum decederet de ejus apud subditos

riee, MS. in the library at Munich, Prima autoritate," They complained at the

Legatio, 1563 : " Quod si Sua Celsitudo diet of the province, that the prince was

111'"^ absque sedis apostolicse autoritate blinded by the claimants,
usum calicis concedat, ipsi principi etiam

384 COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. [Book V.

mind ; threatening expressions which this or that noble-
man had let fall, were reported to the duke ; '"" at length
the most distinguished of their body, the count of Orten-
burg, whose claim to hold immediately of the empire was
contested by the duke, resolved without delay to introduce
the evangelical confession into the dominions which formed
the subject of dispute. But he thus only placed the most
formidable weapons in the duke's hands. Above all, the
discovery, in one of the castles which Albert took, of a
correspondence between the Bavarian lords, containing very
offensive expressions, representing him as a hardened
Pharaoh, and his council as bloodthirsty persecutors of
poor Christians, together with hints which were thought to
imply that a conspiracy was on foot, furnished him with a
plausible pretext for calHng to account all the members of
the nobility who were opposed to him.f The punishment
to which he condemned them cannot be called severe, but
it sufficed for his purpose. He excluded all the accused
from the Bavarian diet. As they now constituted the only
remaining opposition, he became absolute master of his
Estates, among whom there has been no further controversy
concerning rehgion from that time to the present moment.

The importance of this step was immediately manifest.
For a considerable time duke Albert had urged the pope
and the council with great earnestness to grant the cup to
the laity ; he seemed to think that the whole welfare of
his country depended on it. At length, in April 1564, he
received it. The result is hardly credible ; — he did not
even make known that he had it. Circumstances were
altered. A privilege departing from the strictest rules of
Catholicism now seemed to him injurious rather than
profitable,! and he forcibly silenced the clamours of some
villages of Lower Bavaria which repeated their former
demands with violence.

In a short time there was not a more decidedly catholic
prince in all Germany than duke Albert, and he now

* Private notice and account of the f Hiischberg, Geschichte des Hauses
unbecoming and violent speeches on this Ortenburg, s. 390.

occasion, in Froil)erg, Geschichte der X Adlzreitter, Annales Boicce Gentis,
baierischen Landstände, ii, 352, ii. xi. n. 22. : " Albertus cam indulgen-

tiam juris publici in Boica esse noluit."

§ IV.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 385

addressed himself earnestly to the task of making his
country once more completely orthodox.

The professors at Ingolstadt were compelled to subscribe
the confession of faith which had been proclaimed in con-
sequence of the council of Trent. All the persons employed
by government were obliged to bind themselves by oath
to a confession of unquestionable orthodoxy ; if any one
refused, he was dismissed. Nor did duke Albert tolerate
protestantism in the common people. The persecution
began in Lower Bavaria, whither he had sent a few
Jesuits to convert the inhabitants, and where not only the
preachers but all persons whatsoever who adhered to the
Protestant faith were compelled to sell their property and
to quit the country.*'^ The same course was pursued with
the other part of his dominions. No magistrate would
have ventured to show toleration to protestants, which
would have drawn upon himself the severest penalties.

With this revival of Catholicism all its modern forms
were transplanted from Italy to Germany. An index of
forbidden books was framed ; they were picked out of
libraries and burned in heaps, while, on the other hand,
everything was done to promote the circulation of those of
a strictly catholic tendency, and to encourage their authors.
The duke caused the Sacred History of Surius to be trans-
lated into German and printed at his own cost. The
greatest devotion was paid to relics ; Saint Benno, of whom
in another part of Germany (Meissen) the people would
hear no more, was now formally proclaimed the patron of
Bavaria. Architecture and music were first introduced at
Munich in the taste of the restored church ; above all,
encouragement was given to the Jesuits' colleges, by which
the education of the rising generation was carried on in
the strictly orthodox spirit.

The Jesuits, on the other hand, were unwearied in their
praises of the duke, whom they called a second Josias, a
new Theodosius.

One question alone remained. The more important
was the extension of the temporal sovereignty which

* Agricola, Ps. i. Dec. iii. 116 — 120.
VOL. I. C C

386 COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. [Book V.

accrued to the protestant princes from the mfluence they
obtained over the affairs of reUgion, the more did the
renovated authority of the ecclesiastical powers seem to
impose restraints upon it.

But a remedy was provided for this also. The popes
clearly saw that they could only succeed in upholding
their dechning power, or in re-establishing it when fallen,
by the aid of the temporal sovereigns ; they cherished no
illusion on the subject, but made it their whole pohcy to
form a close union with the princes of Europe.

In the instruction which Gregory gave to the first
nuncio whom he sent to Bavaria, he says, without any
circumlocution, that it is the most ardent wish of his holi-
ness to re-establish the decayed discipHne of the church,
but that he sees that for the attainment of so important
an end he must unite with temporal princes ; that as
through their piety religion has been upheld, with their
help alone could church discipline and good morals be
re-established.^'' Thus the pope delegated to the duke
authority to urge on the negligent bishops ; to execute
the decrees of a synod then sitting in Salzburg ; to compel
the bishop of Ratisbon and his chapter to establish a
seminary ; in short, he committed to him a sort of spiritual
superintendence. He consulted him whether it would not
be well to found seminaries for the regular, as well as the
secular, clergy. The dul^e assented most cordially to this
proposition ; he only required that the bishops should not
encroach on the rights, whether traditional or newly
acquired, of the prince, and that the clergy should be held
in order and discipline by their superiors. There are
edicts in which the prince treats the monasteries as the
property of his treasury, and subjects them to a secular
administration.

If, in the course of the reformation, protestant sovereigns

* Legatio Gregorii XIII., 1573. "S.S. animadvertit : — adjungendos sibi ad tale

in eain curam incumbit qua ecclesiastica tantumque opus catholicos principes

discipliiia jam ferme in Genuania col- sapientissime statuit." The ambassador,

lapsa ali(pio modo instauretur, quod cum Bartolomeo count of Porzia, promises

anteccssorcs sui aut neglexcrint aut levi- expressly : " Suam Sanctitatem nihil

tor attigerint, non tarn bene quam par unquam praitermissuram esse, quod est

erat de republica christiana mcritos esse e re sua (ducis Bavarire) aut filiorum."

§ IV.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 387

had usurped ecclesiastical attributes, catholic rulers now
successfully imitated their example. What the former
accomplished in opposition to the papacy, the latter
achieved in alliance with it. If the protestant princes
placed their younger sons as administrators in the neigh-
bouring protestant endowments, the sons of catholic princes
were, as matter of course, invested with the episcopal
dignity in those which had remained catholic. From the
very first, Gregory had exhorted duke Albert to neglect
nothing which could be of advantage to himself or his
sons ; and in a short time we see two of these sons in
possession of the most splendid benefices, and one of them
gradually rising to the highest dignities of the empire.'"

But, independently of this, Bavaria acquired great im-
portance by the position she took up. She was the
champion of a great principle which just then rose to new
power. The lesser German princes of the same creed long
continued to regard Bavaria as their chief.

For the duke laboured with ardour to restore the
catholic faith, throughout the whole extent of his domi-
nions. Scarcely had the county of Haag fallen into his
hands, when he drove out the protestants, whom the late
count had tolerated, and re-established the ritual and the
doctrines of Catholicism. Margrave Philip of Baden-Baden
had fallen in the battle of Moncoutour ; his son Philip,
scarcely ten years of age, was brought up at the court of
Munich under the guardianship of duke Albert, and of
course in the catholic faith. But the duke did not wait to
see what would be the conduct of the young margrave
when he assumed the reins of government ; he instantly
sent his high steward, count Schwartzenberg, and the
Jesuit George Schorich, who had been fellow-labourers in
the conversions in Lower Bavaria, into the territory of
Baden, with orders to restore that country to Catholicism
by the same process. The protestant inhabitants brought

* Even Pius V. moderated his stern pero, in gratificatione sua, il pontefiee ha

principles in respect to the duke of concesso che il figHolo, che di gran lunga

Bavaria. Tiepolo, Relatione di Pio IV. non ha ancora Teta determinata dal con-

e V. : " D' altri principi secolari di cilio, hahbia il vescovato Frisingense :

Geraiania non si sa chi altro veramente cosa che non e da lui stata concessa ad

sia cattolico che il duca di Baviera : altri." (App. No. 41.)

C C 2

388 COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. [Book V.

forward imperial decrees for their protection, but no heed
was paid to them ; the duke's authorities proceeded, as the
historian of the Jesuits complacently expresses it, " to set
free the ears and the spirit of the simple multitude for the
reception of the heavenly doctrine /' — that is to say, they
sent away the protestant preachers, compelled the monks
who had not remained strictly orthodox to abjure all
deviations from the true faith, filled the schools, both
primary and superior, with catholic masters, and exiled
the laity who refused to conform. In the space of two
years, 1570 and 1571, the whole country was restored to
Catholicism.*"*

While this was going on in the secular principalities, a
similar movement arose, by a yet more inevitable neces-
sity, in the ecclesiastical.

At one time the spiritual princes of Germany were
chiefly characterised by their episcopal functions, and the
popes neglected not for an instant to enforce in Germany
that increased power over the bishoprics which accrued to
them from the decrees of the council of Trent.

The first thing was to send Canisius with the copies of
these decrees to the several ecclesiastical courts. He
carried them to Mayence, Treves, Cologne, Osnaburg, and
Würzburg, where, by his activity and address, he gave
animation and expression to that official respect with which
he was received.

The affair of the diet of Augsburg of 1566 then came
under discussion, f Pope Pius V. had feared that pro-
testantism would on this occasion make new demands and
receive new concessions ; he had already warned his
nuncio, in case of urgency, to come forward with a protest
threatening the emperor and princes with the privation of
all their rights ; he even thought that the moment for it
was already arrived, if The nuncio, who had a nearer

♦ Saccliiiius, pars iii. lib. vi, n. 88., lib. buit in comitatu de Hag, ut catliolica

vii. n. f)7. ; Agricola, i. iv. 17, 18. The fides, a qua tnrpiter defecerant, resti-

pope duly prized the duke on this aceount. tnatur."

"Mira pert imditur liotitia," it says in the f Maderus de Vita P. Canisii, lib. ii.

account of that embassy, " euni audit, ill. e. ii. Saeehinus, iii. ii. 22.

Ser"- V'"*' opera et industria marehioucni X Catena, Vita de Pio V., p. 40, gives

Badenseni in religion«« catliolica educari, an extract from the Instruction, Gra-

ad (^uod accedit cura ingens, quam adhi- tiani, Vita, Connuentloni, lib. iii. c. ii.

§ IV.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 389

view of things, held this to be inexpedient. He saw
that there was nothing more to fear. The protestants
were divided, the cathohcs held together. They often
assembled at the house of the nuncio for the purpose of
consulting on measures to be taken in common. Canisius,
from his unspotted reputation, his unquestioned orthodoxy
and his prudence, had a great influence over them, and
they decided that no demand for concession should be
listened to ; this diet was indeed the first in which the
catholic princes manifested an efiectual resistance to inno-
vation. The admonitions of the pope were heard with
attention ; the decrees of Trent were previously accepted
in a separate meeting of the ecclesiastical princes.

From this moment we may date the commencement of
a new life in the catholic church of Germany. These
decrees were gradually promulgated in provincial synods,
and seminaries were established in the bishops' sees : the
first who complied with this rule was, so far as I can dis-
cover, the bishop of Eichstädt, who founded the Wilibald
college,* The professio fidei was subscribed by high and
low. It is a highly important fact that this was rendered
compulsory in the universities. This was a rule proposed
by Lainez and approved by the pope, and now brought
into operation in Germany, mainly by the zeal of Canisius.
Not only could no university appointment be given, but
no degree, not even in the faculty of medicine, could be
granted, without the previous subscription of the professio
fidei. The first university in which this was introduced
was, as far as I can find, Dillingen ; by degrees the others
followed. The strictest visitations were set on foot, and
the bishops, who had hitherto been very indulgent, now
manifested great zeal and rigour.

One of the most zealous among them was, without
doubt, Jacob von Eltz, elector of Treves from 1567 to
1581. He was reared in the ancient discipline of Lou vain,
and devoted his literary attainments and labours to catho-
hcism. He collected a martyrology, and composed prayers
for the hours. Even under his predecessor he had taken
the greatest share in the introduction of the Jesuits into

* Falkeiistein, Nordgauiöche Alterthümer, i. 222.

390 COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. [Book V.

Treves, and immediately upon his installation he entrusted
to them the visitation of his diocese. Even schoolmasters
were obliged to subscribe the professio fidei. Under the
influence of the methodical spirit of the Jesuits, a system
of strict discipline and subordination was introduced
among the clergy ; a regulation was made that the rector
should every month give in a report to the dean, who in
his turn, at the expiration of every quarter of a year, w^as
to lay a report before the archbishop : all who refused
obedience to these measures were sent out of the country
without delay. A portion of the decrees of the council of
Trent was printed for the use of the clergy of the dioctse,
and disseminated amongst them for their guidance ; while,
in order to do away with all differences in the ritual, a
new edition of the missal was published. A new and
rigorous organization, to which Bartholomew Bodeghem of
Delft especially contributed, was given to the ecclesiastical
tribunal. The archbishop was never so happy as when he
met with any one desirous to return from the errors of the
Protestant church ; on such an occasion he never failed to
give the benediction in person.'"

But other motives, besides those arising from their con-
nexion with Rome, now urged the spiritual princes to an
active and rigid performance of the duties of their station.
They shared, to an equal, if not a higher degree, in the
reasons of the temporal rulers for restoring the catholic
faith in their territories, since their ecclesiastical character
provoked a stronger opposition from a population inclining
to protestantism.

This important chapter of the German history opens
upon us at Treves. The archbishops of Treves, like other
spiritual princes, had always been on bad terms with their
capital city. In the sixteenth century protestant doctrines
furnished a new element of dispute ; the ecclesiastical tri-
bunal, in particular, met with obstinate resistance. Jacob
von Eltz at last found himself compelled to lay regular
siege to the city, which he subdued. He then produced
a decree of the emperor, favourable to his claims, and

* Browerus, Annales Trevirenses, ii. xxii. 25 : generally speaking, on tliese
points, our best authority.

§ IV.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 39 1

thus reduced the citizens both to temporal and spiritual
obedience.

Another step taken by him was productive of wide-
spreading effects. In the year 1572 he excluded the pro-
testants irrevocably from his court. The consequences of
this measure were particularly felt by the country nobles,
who looked to the court for their advancement, and now
found themselves cut off from every hope for the future ;
it is likely enough that more than one of them was thus
induced to return to the ancient faith.

Daniel Brendel, elector of Mayence, neighbour to the
archbishop of Treves, was also a zealous catholic. Con-
trary to the general advice of those around him, he re-
established the ceremony of the procession of Corpus
Christi, in which he officiated himself; on no account
would he have neglected vespers, and always insisted on
attending to spiritual affairs before all others ; amongst his
privy-councillors, those received the greatest marks of his
good- will who were the most zealous catholics ; the Jesuits
speak in terms of admiration and gratitude of the favour
they enjoyed at his court, and he sent several pupils to the
Collegium Germanicum at Rome.'"* He did not however
feel inclined to proceed to such extremities as Jacob von
Eltz. His zeal for religion was tinged with a sort of irony.
Many of his vassals expostulated with him on his intro-
duction of the Jesuits : " What,"*^ he replied, " do you
tolerate me, who am far from discharging my duties as I
ought, and will you not tolerate men who perform theirs so
admirably V j- We have no account of the answer which
he returned to the Jesuits when they urged the complete
extirpation of protestantism from the country. It is cer-
tain that he always tolerated lutherans and calvinists both
in the city and at court ; in some few places he even per-
mitted the use of the protestant mode of worship ; J pro-
bably, however, he was thus indulgent from consciousness
of his inability to put a stop to it. He took very decisive

* Serarius, Moguntiacarum Reiiim t Complaint of Robert Turner, who

Libri V. ; in the section on Daniel, in sought a Boniface and found only a

particular, cap. viii. xi. xxii. xxiii. « princeps poUticus." (Serarius, p.

t Valerandus Sartorius in Serarius, 947.)
p. 921.

392 COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. [Book Y.

steps in a more remote part of his domains, where he was
not overawed by such powerful and warhke neighbours as
the count palatine on the Rhine. The restoration of
Catholicism at Eichsfeld was his work. Protestant doctrines
had there gained a firm footing under the favour of the
nobles ; they had even penetrated into Heiligenstadt, in
the very presence of the chapter which possessed the
patronage of all the churches : there was a lutheran
preacher in the latter place, and the sacrament was admin-
istered in both kinds ; and on one occasion at Easter there
were but twelve citizens of any consideration who partook
of the communion according to catholic rites.'"' At this
very period — in the year 1574 — the archbishop made his
appearance in person at Eichsfeld, accompanied by two
Jesuits, for the purpose of holding a visitation of the
churches. He did not proceed to extreme acts of violence,
but employed means well calculated to effect his purpose.
He removed the protestant preacher at Heihgenstadt,
while on the other hand he founded a college of Jesuits.
He dismissed none of the municipal council, but effectually
prevented the admission of protestants for the future, by
making a slight addition to the oath taken by the mem-
bers, in virtue of which each councillor bound liimself to
obey his grace the elector both in spiritual and temporal
matters. His most important step was the choice of a
decided catholic to fill the ofiice of high baihflF, Leopold von
Stralendorf, who scrupled not on his own responsibihty to
follow out the milder measures of his master with great
severity ; and who, in an administration of six-and-twenty
years, conducted with inflexible consistency, succeeded in
restoring to the catholic faith its predominance both in
town and country. He expelled the protestant preachers
from both, without heeding the opposition of the nobles,
and replaced them by pupils from the new Jesuits' schools.

The example of similar proceedings had already been
given in that part of Germany by another spiritual prince.

In the diocese of Fulda the exercise of the reformed
i-eligion had already been permitted by six abbots succes-

* Johann WoU, GcschiclUc und Beschreibung von Hoiligenstadt, p. !)9.

§ IV.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 393

sivelj ; and even the young abbot Balthasar von Dernbach,
surnamed Gravel, promised, at his election in the year
1570, to make no change in this respect. But whether it
was that his ambition became inflamed by the favour
shown him by the papal court, or whether the restoration
of Catholicism appeared in his eyes the fit means of
increasing his insignificant authority, or whether he had
really undergone a more profound change of opinion, — he
gradually evinced not only dislike, but hostihty to the Pro-
testant doctrines. The first thing was to summon the
Jesuits to his aid. He was not personally acquainted with
any, nor had he ever seen one of their colleges ; general
report alone, the descriptions of a few scholars from the
college of Treves, and perhaps the recommendations of
Daniel Brendel, determined him. The members of the
order accepted his invitation with alacrity ; those from
Mayence and Treves founded a colony in common : the
abbot built them a house and school, and assigned them a
pension, and, being himself extremely ignorant and unlet-
tered, submitted to receive instruction from them.''^

Dissensions soon arose between the abbot and the chap-
ter, which had a voice in affairs of this nature, and by no
means approved of the invitation to the Jesuits ; and, a
favourable opportunity having soon presented itself, Bal-
thasar was not long in attacking the city.

The parish priest of Fulda, who had hitherto preached
the tenets of the Reformation, returned to the catholic
faith, and once more began to perform the ceremony of
baptism in the Latin tongue, and to administer the sacra-
ment of the Lord^s supper in one kind only. The citizens,
long accustomed to the reformed ritual, were not at all
inclined to acquiesce in this change, and demanded the
removal of the priest. It may easily be imagined that
their prayer was not listened to. Not only was the catho-
lic form of worship strictly observed in the cathedral; the
Protestant preachers were dismissed one by one from the

* Reiffenberg, Historia Societatis Jesu On the protestant side, complaints of the

ad Rhenum Inferiorem, i, vi, ii. ; who city of Fulda, and of the knights of that

adds in this passage to the notices of chapter, in Lehmann, De Pace Rehgionis,

Sacchinus (iii. vii. 68.) from a treatise ii. ix. 257.
drawn up for him by the Jesuit Feurer.

394 COUNTER REFORMATION IN GERMANY. [Book V.

other churches, and Jesuits placed in their stead. The
abbot had already exchanged his protestant councillors and
oflftcers for others of catholic opinions.

It was in vain that the nobility remonstrated against
these measures ; as if astonished, Balthasar rephed, " that
he hoped it was not their intention to prescribe rules for
the government of the territory entrusted to him by God."
Several powerful princes of the empire endeavoured by
means of embassies to persuade him to desist from these
changes, and to dismiss the Jesuits ; but he remained inex-
orable. He even proceeded to threaten the knights of his
dominions, who claimed a sort of immediate dependence
on the empire ; — a prerogative which would have been
exceedingly impaired, could the spiritual ruler have
enforced obedience in matters of religion.

Such were the steps by which Catholicism, after its
overthrow might have been deemed accomplished, arose
in renovated strength in Germany. The most various
motives lent their aid ; the religion and the doctrines
which were again beginning to resume their ancient sway,
and that system of ecclesiastical subordination restored
by the decrees of the council of Trent, were especially
seconded by motives of internal policy ; it was clear, how
far more powerful was the sovereign whose belief was
shared by his subjects. The restoration of the church had,
indeed, at first extended merely to separate points ; but
these opened a boundless prospect to the spirit of catholic
reform. The fact that the spiritual rulers met with no
more general resistance, must have had vast and peculiar
weight. At the peace of Augsburg an attempt had been
made to secure toleration to the protestant communities
inhabiting ecclesiastical territories, by an express declara-
tion of the emperor ; the spiritual princes now refused to
take any cognizance of this declaration ; at all events they
were utterly regardless of it. The imperial power was not
sufficiently strong or resolute to come to any effective
decision on the subject, far less to enforce obedience. In
the diets of the empire there was neither energy nor unity
enough to maintain any such resolution.

The greatest changes took place without noise, without

§ v.] TROUBLES IN THE NETHERLANDS AND IN FRANCE. 395

attracting the serious observation of contemporaries, without
finding mention in the works of historians, — as if such
were the natural and inevitable course of events.

§ 5. TROUBLES IN THE NETHERLANDS AND IN FRANCE.

Whilst the struggles of Catholicism were thus mighty
and successful in Germany, an agitation from the same
cause arose in the Netherlands and in France, though
marked by very different characteristics.

The fundamental difference was, that in each of these
latter countries there existed a strong central power,
which spontaneously took part in every fluctuation of
public opinion, put itself at the head of religious move-
ments, and was directly affected by the opposition they
encountered. The various relations of the government
had consequently a greater unity, and its proceedings
were conducted with more consistency and energy. It is
well kuQ^Ti how numerous were the measures taken by
Philip II. at the commencement of his government in the
Netherlands, to ensure perfect obedience ; he was com-
pelled to abandon one after another, and he only held fast
with inflexible and relentless pertinacity to those which
conduced to the maintenance of Catholicism and of the
unity of the church.

He completely altered the ecclesiastical constitution of
the country by the creation of new archbishoprics and
bishoprics. No opposition, no appeal to the rights he
thus invaded, turned Philip from his purpose.

These bishoprics assumed a double importance since the
council of Trent had so exceedingly increased the rigour
of church discipline. After a short deliberation, Philip II.
had adopted the decrees of the council, and directed their
promulgation in the Netherlands, as well as in his Spanish
dominions. The people of the former country, who had
hitherto been exempt from any galling restraint, were
now subjected to the strictest supervision and to all the
rigours of forms and ceremonies from which they were
just anticipating entire emancipation. To this cause of

39G TROUBLES IN THE [Book V.

discontent we must add the penal laws, so many of which
had been enacted by the preceding government of the
Netherlands, and the zeal of the inquisitors, daily more
and more stimulated by the new Roman tribunal.

The Netherlanders left no means untried to move the
king to relax from his severity, and he sometimes appeared
inclined to milder measures. Count Egmont imagined,
during his stay in Spain, that he had received his assur-
ances to that effect ; but this was scarcely to be expected.
We remarked in a former place how much Phihp^s power
throughout his dominions rested on the religious temper of
the times ; had he made concessions to the Netherlanders,
they would have been demanded in Spain, where he could
not have granted them. It cannot be denied that he was
subject to the pressure of a tyrannous necessity ; but,
besides, these were times in which the accession of Pius
v., and the proceedings which marked the beginning of
his reign, awakened a new zeal throughout the whole
catholic world. Phihp was singularly devoted to that
pope, and lent a ready ear to his exhortations. ^ At this
moment the attack of the Turks upon Malta was repulsed ;
and the bigoted enemies of the Netherlanders might, as
the prince of Orange feared, have taken advantage of the
impression made by this victory to bring the king to some
violent determination.''^ And in fact, towards the end of
the year 1565, an edict appeared which surpassed all
former ones in severity.

The penal laws and the decrees of the council, and of
the subsequent provincial synods, were to be most scrupu-
lously executed ; the inquisitors were to have exclusive
cognizance of religious offences ; all the civil authorities were
instructed to afford their assistance ; and in each province
a commissary was appointed to watch over the execution
of this edict, and to report thereon every three months, f

It is evident that the effect of this edict was to establish
a spiritual domination, if not as strict as in Spain, certainly
not less so than that of Italy.

* The prince held Granvella in suspi- + Strada, after a formula of the 18th
cion. Sec his letter in the Archives de Dec. 15b'5, lib. iv. p. 1)4.
la Maisou d'Orange-Nnösau, i. 289.

§ v.] NETHERLANDS AND IN FRANCE. 397

The consequence was, that the people flew to arms ; the
destruction of images began, and the whole country was
wasted by fire and sword. There was a moment, indeed,
in which the government was compelled to give way ; but,
as usually happens, acts of violence defeated their own
ends ; the more moderate and quiet of the inhabitants were
alarmed, and lent their assistance to the government.
The Governess was victorious ; after she had taken the
rebellious places, she felt herself strong enough to impose
an oath upon the men in office, and even upon the king's
vassals generally, by which they solemnly bound themselves
to the maintenance of the catholic faith, and the extirpation
of heretics.''^

The king, however, was not yet satisfied. These events
occurred at that unfortunate moment marked by the cata-
strophe of his son Don Carlos, and never was he more stern
or more inflexible. The pope again exhorted him to make
no concession prejudicial to Catholicism ; the king assured
his holiness that he would not suffer even the roots of a
malignant plant to remain in the Netherlands, and that he
was determined either to lose the provinces, or to maintain
inviolate the catholic religion. f In order to carry this
resolution into effect, as soon as the disturbances were
put down, he sent into the Netherlands his best general,
the duke of Alva, at the head of a well-appointed army.

Let us pause a moment to consider the fundamental idea
which guided all Alva's proceedings and conduct.

Alva was convinced that in all violent revolutionary
movements, everything was accomplished when the leaders
were got rid of The fact that Charles V., after all his
mighty victories, was almost driven from the imperial
throne, he attributed to the forbearance of that prince in
sparing his enemies when he had them in his power. The
alliance between the French and the Spaniards, which was
contracted at the Congress of Bayonne in 1565, and the
terms there agreed upon, have been the subjects of much

* Brandt, Histoire de la Reformation animo ; che ovvero si han da perder tutti

des Pays Bas, i. 156. quel stati o che si conservera in essi la

i* Cavalli, Dispaccio di Spagna, 7 Aug. vera cattolica religione, ne coniporterä

1567 : Rispose il re, che quanto alle cose che vi rimanghi, per quanto potra far liii,

della rehgione S. Santita stasse di buon alcuna radice di mala pianta."

398 TROUBLES IN THE [Book V.

discussion. Of all that has been said about them thus
much only is certain, — that the duke of Alva exhorted the
queen of France to get rid of the leaders of the Huguenots,
by fair means or foul, and for ever. What he then recom-
mended to others, he did not now hesitate to put in prac-
tice. Philip IL had furnished him with some blank warrants
to which his royal signature was affixed. The first use he
made of them was to arrest Egmont and Horn, both of
whom he assumed to have been imphcated in the former
troubles. "May it please your sacred Catholic Majesty,"
he begins the letter which he sent to the king on this occa-
sion (and which seems to prove that he had no express
command to act as he did), "as soon as I arrived at
Brussels I obtained the necessary information from the
proper sources, and then secured the person of count
Egmont, and arrested count Horn and some few others."^'
If we inquire why, a year afterwards, he sentenced the
prisoners to death, we find that it was not from a con\4c-
tion of their guilt resulting from the trial ; for they were
chargeable rather with not having prevented, than with
having caused, the commotions ; neither was it in conse-
quence of a command from the king, who, on the contrary,
left it to the duke to carrry the sentence into execution or
not, as he deemed it most expedient. The cause was as
follows : — A small band of protestants had made an incur-
sion into the country ; they had not indeed achieved any
thing of importance, but had gained a shght advantage at
Heiligerlee, and a general in the king's army of high repu-
tation, the duke of Aremberg, had fallen in the encounter.
Alva says, in his despatches to the king, that as he had
observed that the people had been throAvn into a ferment
by this disaster, and were becoming daring, he considered
it necessary to show that he in nowise feared them ; he

* Dispaccio di Cavalli, 16 Sett. The Bnisselles, pigliai le information da chi

Governess caused her complaints regard- dovea delle cose di qua, onde poi mi son

ing these arrests to be transmitted to the assicurato del conte di Agmon e fatto

king. The king answered he had not ritener il conte d'Orno con alquanti altri.

commanded them. To prove this, he Sara ben che V. M. per bon rispetto

showed tlio letter from Alva, fi'om which ordini ancor lei che sia fatto 1' istosso di

the passage intended to prove his asser- Montigni" (who was in Spain) " e suo

tion is liere given. It nms thus :" Sacra ajutante di camera." Hereupon followed

cattolica Maest^, da poi ch' io gionsi in the arrest of Montigny.

§ v.] NETHERLANDS AND IN FRANCE. 399

also wished to crush all hope of obtaining the liberation of
the prisoners by fresh disturbances, and had therefore
determined immediately to cause the sentence to be exe-
cuted. Such were the motives which caused the death of
these noble men, whose guilt consisted in the defence of
the ancient and established liberties of their country, — in
whom no capital offence can be discovered. Thej fell,
rather as victims to the momentary considerations of a per-
verse and tyrannical policy, than to any principle of law
or justice. Even then did Alva advert to Charles V.,
whose errors he resolved not to imitate.''^

We perceive that Alva was cruel upon principle. Who
ever found mercy at that fearful tribunal which he esta-
blished under the name of the council for the prevention of
public disturbances 1 He governed by arrests and execu-
tions ; he razed to the ground the houses of the convicted,
and confiscated their property ; he pursued political con-
jointly with religious aims. The ancient power of the
assembly of estates was reduced to nothing ; Spanish troops
overran the country, and a citadel was erected in the most
important mercantile city. Alva insisted with determined
obstinacy upon the payment of the most odious taxes, and
people in Spain wondered — for even from thence he drew
large sums — what he did with all the money. It is, however,
perfectly true that the country was submissive, that no mal-
contents bestirred themselves, that every trace of protestant-
ism disappeared, and that the refugees in the neighbouring
countries remained quiet. " Monsignore,"^ said a private
secretary of Philip IL during these events to the papal
nuncio, " are you now satisfied with the proceedings of the
king ? '^ " Quite satisfied," answered the nuncio, with a smile.

* Cavalli, 3rd July, 1568, gives this noli, havea giudicato tempo opportune e

letter also in the extract. It is, if possi- necessario per tal effetto per dimostrar

ble, still more remarkable than the former di non temer di loro in conto alcuno e

one. " Capito qui Y avviso della giustitia poner con questo terrore amolti levandoli

fatta in Fiandra contradi quelli poveri la speranza di tumultuar per la loro libe-

signori prigioni, intorno alia quale scrive ratione, e fuggir di cascar neli' errore

il d. d'Alva, che habendo facolta di S. M. nel quale incorse I'imperatore Carlo, il

di far tal esecutione o soprastare secondo qual per tener vivo Saxonia e Langravio

che havesse riputato piu espediente del diede occasione di nova congiura, per la

suo servitio, che perö vedendo li popoli quale S. M. fu cacciata con poca dignitä

un poco alterati et insuperbiti per la della Germania e quasi delV impero."
morte d' Arenberg e rotta di quelli Spag-

400 TROUBLES IN THE [Book V.

Alva himself thought he had executed a master-stroke of
policy, and looked with contempt upon the French rulers,
who had never been able to command obedience in their
own land.

In France, after the rapid strides which protestantism
had made, a strong re-action took place in the year 1562,
especially in the capital.

The circumstance which had doubtless been the most
injurious to protestantism in France was, that it had been
so closely implicated with the court faction. For some
time the whole people seemed to lean towards the Pro-
testant confession ; but when its adherents took up arms
and committed acts of violence inevitably leading to war,
public opinion turned against them.

What sort of religion is this ? men asked : Where has
Christ commanded a man to rob his neighbour, and to
shed his blood ? But it was especially at the time when
Paris was put in a state of defence against the attack of
Conde, that all the public bodies assumed an anti-pro-
testant complexion. The whole population of the city
capable of bearing arms was organised by military officers,
who, above all things, were required to be catholics. The
members of the university, of the parliament, and even
the numerous class of lawyers, were all compelled to sign
a confession of pure catholic faith.

Favoured by this state of the public mind, the Jesuits
obtained firm footing in France. Their beginning was
small indeed, for they were forced to be content with col-
leges which were thrown open for their reception by a few
ecclesiastics, their devoted partisans, in Billon and Tournon,
places remote from the metropolis, and where nothing
important was likely to be accomplished.

In the large towns, and especially in Paris, they expe-
rienced at first the most stubborn opposition. The Sor-
bonne, the parliament, the archbishop, who all thought
their privileges invaded, were against them. But as they
gradually acquired the support of the most zealous catlio-
h'cs, and more particularly of the court, and were urgently
reconmieiided by them for their exemplary lives and their

§ v.] NETHERLANDS AND IN FRANCE. 40X

pure faith, which had caused many wanderers to return to
the true way, and east and west to acknowledge the pre-
sence of the Lord ; as also public opinion had undergone
the change we have just described,'"* they prevailed over
all opposition, and in 1564 obtained the privilege of
instructing youth. Lyons had already opened her gates
to them. Whether it was owning to their good fortune or
to their merits, at this moment they produced from among
their ranks several men of striking talent. In opposition
to the huguenot preachers, they put forward Edmond
Augier, who was born in France, but educated under Igna-
tius Loyola at Rome ; and of whom the protestants them-
selves are said to have admitted, that had he not been
clothed in catholic vestments, there never could have
existed a more eloquent orator. By his preaching and
writings he produced an extraordinary impression. The
huguenots were completely worsted, especially in Lyons ;
their preachers were driven away, their churches destroyed,
and their books burned. On the other hand, a magnifi-
cent college was erected for the Jesuits in 1567. They
possessed likewise an eminent professor, Maldonat, whose
exposition of the Bible drew the youth in crowds and
riveted their attention. From these principal cities they
traversed the country in all directions, fixed themselves at
Thoulouse and Bourdeaux, and wherever they appeared
the number of catholic communicants increased. The
catechism of Augier obtained universal approbation ; in
less than eight years thirty-eight thousand copies were sold
in Paris alone, f

It is indeed possible that this revived popularity of
catholic ideas, which chiefly prevailed in the metropolis,
had its influence upon the court ; at all events the court
received the support of public opinion, when in 1568, after
long hesitation, it once more declared itself decidedly
catholic.

* In a manuscript in the Berlin Library, et ferocia peetora," it says, " gladio fidei

MSB. Gall., n. 75, we find the following acuto penetrarunt."

i document amongst others : " Delibera- + We meet with these notices in Or-

t tionset consultations auparlement deParis landinus and his continuers, pars i. lib. vi.

I touchant Testablissement des Jesuites en n. 30. ii. iv, 84. iii, iii. 169, and further.

1 France ;" in which are especially contained Juvencius, v. 24.769., gives an account

t the messages from the court to the par- of the hfe of Augier.
1 liament in favour of the Jesuits : " infracta

VOL. I. DD

402 TROUBLES IN THE [Book V.

The principal cause of this was, that Catherine of
Medici felt that her power was more secure since her son
had attained his majority, and there was no further neces-
sity for keeping terms as before mth the huguenot nobles.
The example of Alva showed how much was to be effected
by an inflexible will ; the pope also, who incessantly ex-
horted the court not to suffer the insolence of the rebels
to increase, nor to use any longer forbearance with them,
at length accompanied his warnings vdth the permission
to alienate church property, which brought a million and a
half of livres to the treasury.'''' Catherine of Medici, follow-
ing the example set a year before by the Governess of the
Netherlands, imposed on the French nobility an oath, by
which they bound themselves to renounce every engage-
ment they had contracted without the previous knowledge
of the king, f She insisted on the dismissal of all magis-
trates who were suspected of holding the new opinions,
and she declared to Philip IL in September 1563, that
she would tolerate no religion but the cathoHc.

This was a determination which could not be carried into
execution in France without an appeal to arms.

Accordingly war immediately broke out, and was under-
taken with the most extraordinary zeal by the cathohc
party. The king of Spain sent, by request of the pope,
veteran troops under experienced leaders to the assistance
of the French. Pius V. collected contributions in the States
of the Church, and subsidies from the Italian princes ; even
the holy father himself sent, as his contingent, a small body
of troops across the Alps, to whom he gave the cruel
instructions to slay every huguenot who should fall into
their hands, and give no quarter.

The huguenots also collected their forces ; they too were
inspired by religious fervour, and in the papal soldiers
beheld the army of Antichrist advancing against them.
They too gave no quarter, nor were they less provided
with foreign aid than their adversaries ; nevertheless they
were completely routed at Moncontour.

With what joy did Pius V. place the standards taken
from the huguenots in the chm-ches of St. Peter and St.

* Catena, Vita di Pio V., p. 79. de Statu Religionis in Regno Gallise, iii.

t V. the oatli in Serranus, Commentarii 1 53.

§ v.] NETHERLANDS AND IN FRANCE. 403

John Lateran ! He conceived the most daring hopes : it
was under these circumstances that he uttered sentence of
excommunication against queen EKzabeth, and he even
sometimes flattered himself with the thoughts of heading
in person an expedition against England.

But these extravagant hopes were never fulfilled.

It now happened, as had often been the case, that a
change of opinion manifested itself in the French court,
which, though originating in trifling circumstances of a
personal nature, brought about a complete revolution in the
most important affairs. The king grudged his brother, the
duke of Anjou, who had led the troops at Moncontour,
the honour of conquering the huguenots and quieting the
kingdom. This feeHng was exasperated by those around
him, who in like manner were jealous of the household of
the duke of Anjou, and feared that power would go hand
in hand with glory. Not only were the advantages already
gained languidly followed up, but in a short time another
and a more moderate party, which pursued a policy directly
contrary to that of the high catholic party headed by
Anjou, appeared at court, made peace with the huguenots,
and invited their leaders to the palace. In 1569, the
French, in league with Spain and the pope, had attempted
to hurl Elizabeth of England from her throne ; in the
summer of 1572, they entered into a league with this ver^^
queen to wrest the Netherlands from Spain.

The change, however, was too sudden ; the measures
were taken with too little deliberation for it to be lasting.
A violent explosion of public opinion followed, and matters
again took their former course.

It is indeed certain, that Catherine of Medici, while she
entered with zeal and cordiality into the policy and plans
of the dominant party, which favoured her views, at least
in so far as they appeared calculated to advance her
youngest son, Alen9on, to the throne of England, yet had
everything in preparation to carry into execution a con-
trary stroke of policy. She used every art to draw the
huguenots to Paris ; numerous as they were, they here
found themselves surrounded and held in check by a far
larger population, which was in a state of military organisa-

D D 2

404 TROUBLES IN THE NETHERLANDS AND IN FRANCE. [Book V.

tion and fanatical excitement. She had previously given
the pope tolerably clear intimations what her intentions
were ; but had she still hesitated, the circumstances which
occurred at this moment must have decided her line of
conduct at once. The huguenots won over the king, and
appeared to supplant her influence over him. This personal
danger put an end to all delay ; with that resistless and
magical power which she possessed over her children, she
re-awakened all the slumbering fanaticism of her son ; it
cost her but one word to rouse the populace to arms, and
that word she spoke ; every individual huguenot of note
was delivered over to the vengeance of his personal enemy.
Catherine had said she only wished for the death of six
men, and the charge of their death alone would she take
upon her conscience. The number of the victims was fifty
thousand.'"

The French thus outdid all that the Spaniards had per-
petrated in the Netherlands. What the latter accomplished
by degrees, by a calculating pohcy, and according to forms
of law, the former carried into execution in the heat of
passion, with the absence of all formalities, and by the aid
of a populace drunk with fanaticism. The result appeared
the same ; there remained not a single leader under whose
banner the scattered huguenots could rally ; many fled,
numbers surrendered themselves ; mass was again attended
in various places, and the protestant preachers were
silenced. Phihp II. saw with pleasure his example imitated
and surpassed, and offered to Charles IX., who had now,
for the first time, earned his title of the most christian king,
military aid for the completion of his undertaking. Gre-
gory XIII. celebrated this great event by a solemn pro-
cession to San Luigi. The Venetians, who appeared to
have no special interests at stake, expressed in their official
despatches to their minister, their satisfaction at this " mark
of God's favour."

But can crimes of so bloody a dye be crowned with
lasting success ? Are they not at variance with the deeper
mysteries of liuman events, and with those inviolable laws

* For brevity's sake I lioiv refer the of St. Bai'tholoinew, in the Histor. Polit.
reader to my disquisition on the Massacre Zeitselirift, ii. iii.

§ VI.] RESISTANCE OF PROTESTANTS, 6cc. 405

of nature, which, even when not understood, are in constant
though silent operation ? Men may bhnd themselves for a
time, but they cannot shake that order of the moral world
which regulates the very principles of their being, with a
necessity not less inexorable than that which guides the
stars in their courses.

§ 6. RESISTANCE OF THE PROTESTANTS IN THE NETHERLANDS,
FRANCE, AND GERMANY.

Macchiavel advises his prince to execute in rapid suc-
cession whatever cruel measures he thinks necessary ; but
when those are accomplished, gradually to adopt a more
merciful system.

It almost seemed as if the Spaniards endeavoured to
follow this counsel to the letter in the Netherlands. They
appeared at length to think that a sufficient amount of
property had been confiscated, a sufficient number of lives
sacrificed ; in short, that the period for mercy was arrived.
In the year 1572, the Venetian minister in Madrid states
his conviction that the prince of Orange would obtain his
pardon if he would ask for it. The king received with
great kindness the deputies of the JNTetherlands, who came
to petition for the remission of the impost of the tenth
penny, and even went so far as to thank them for their
trouble.

He had determined to recal Alva, and send a milder
viceroy. But it was now too late ; the rebellion broke out
at the very conclusion of the treaty between the French
and English which preceded the massacre of St. Bartholo-
mew. Alva had imagined the contest was over, whereas
it now in fact first began. The enemy was beaten by Alva
whenever he met them in the open field ; but in the towns
of Holland and of Zealand, where the religious excitement
had been the most profound, and protestantism had acquired
a thorough and active organization, he encountered a resist-
ance which he could not overcome.

In Haarlem, when all the provisions, and even the grass
which grew in the streets, were exhausted, the inhabitants

406 RESISTANCE OF PROTESTANTS IN THE [Book V.

determined to cut their way through the besiegers A\'ith
their wives and children. The want of unity in the garri-
son at length compelled them to surrender, but they had
succeeded in proving that resistance to the Spaniards was
possible.

In Alkmar, the inhabitants declared themselves for the
prince of Orange at the very moment the enemy appeared
before their gates. Their defence was as heroical as their
determination ; not a man deserted his post, however
grievously wounded, and before these walls the Spaniards
received their first check. The country breathed again,
and new courage inspired the people. The inhabitants of
Leyden declared that sooner than surrender, they would
devour their left arms, that they might retain strength to
defend themselves with their right ; nor were the means
they adopted for their defence less daring and desperate
than their words. They called to their aid the billows of
the Northern ocean. Their sufferings had reached their
height, when they cut the dams which had hitherto pro-
tected them from its incursions, and a driving north-west
wind having set in just at this moment, the whole country
was soon several feet under water.

The French protestants had again taken heart. As soon
as they perceived that their government, notwithstanding
the ferocity it had recently displayed, hesitated, delayed,
and resorted to contradictory measures, they took up arms,
and war broke out afresh. Sancerre and Rochelle rivalled
Leyden and Alkmar in the gallantry of their defence. The
voice of the preachers of the Gospel of peace was raised to
call men to arms ; women vied with men in courage and
fortitude ; it was the heroic age of the protestantism of
the west.

The deeds of cruelty committed or countenanced by the
most powerful sovereigns provoked a resistance which dis-
played itself in various nameless points, — a resistance which
no force could put down, and which had its hidden origin
in the depths of religious conviction.

But we cannot here follow out the progress and vicissi-
tudes of the war in France or the Netherlands ; these
details would carry us too far from the main point of our

§ VI.J NETHERLANDS, FRANCE, AND GERMANY. 4Q7

subject, and are to be found in many other authors ; it is
sufficient for our purpose to state that the protestants held
their ground.

In 1573 and the following years, the government of
France was already frequently compelled to come to terms
with the huguenots, and to renew concessions formerly
granted them.

In the year 1576 the power of the government in the
Netherlands had utterly fallen.

Whilst the Spanish troops were in a state of complete
insubordination from want of pay, all the provinces had
united against them ; those which had previously remained
loyal, with those in revolt ; those in which Catholicism pre-
dominated, with those wholly protestant. The states-
general took the reins of government into their own hands,
named captains-general, stadtholders, and magistrates, and
garrisoned the fortified towns with their own troops.*''^

The treaty of Ghent was signed, by which the provinces
bound themselves to drive out the Spaniards, and keep
them out of the country. The king sent his brother, who
might be called a Netherlander, to govern them according
to the laws and usages of Charles V. But Don John was
not even acknowledged until he had promised to fulfil the
chief conditions which were required of him ; he was forced
to recognise the treaty of Ghent, and to dismiss his Spanish
troops ; and scarcely did he make the slightest movement
to shake off the restraints by which he was bound, when
all parties rose up against him, declared him an enemy to
his country, and the leaders of the provinces invited another
prince of his family to govern in his stead.

The principle of local and federal government was vic-
torious over that of monarchy, and the Spanish was super-
seded by domestic rule. This necessarily brought in its
train other consequences. The northern provinces, which
had first declared war, and had thus led the way to the
accomplishment of so mighty a change, at once acquired a
natural ascendancy in the conduct of the war and the
government ; hence followed the propagation of the reformed

* This turn of affairs is rendered particularly intelligible in Tassis, iii. 15 — 19.

408 RESISTANCE OF PROTESTANTS IN THE [Book V.

religion throughout the United Provinces. Protestantism
found its way into Mechhn, Bruges, and Ypres ; in Ant-
werp the churches were divided between the two confes-
sions, and the cathoHcs were sometimes forced to content
themselves with the choirs of those churches of which they
had so lately had exclusive possession. In Ghent the Pro-
testant tendency was blended with civil troubles, and gained
complete ascendancy. Full security had been given by
the treaty of Ghent for the maintenance of the catholic
church in its ancient condition ; but now the states-general
put forth an edict, which guaranteed equal freedom to the
exercise of both religions. Everywhere, even in those
provinces which were mainly catholic, protestant opinions
were actively promulgated, and appearances would have
justified the expectation that protestantism would event-
ually obtain a complete and universal victory.

What a position was that now occupied by the prince of
Orange ! But lately an exile and anxious only for pardon,
and now in possession of a firmly-established power in the
northern provinces ; Ruwart of Brabant, and all-powerful
in the assembly of the States ; recognised by a great and
successful religious and political party as their head and
leader ; and in strict alliance with the protestants of
Europe, more especially with those of Germany, whose
friendship, as neighbours, was of the most importance to
him.

In Germany, likewise, the aggressions of the catholics
were met by the protestants with a resistance which seemed
to promise great results. We perceive it in the general
transactions of the Germanic body, in the meetings of the
electoral princes, and at the imperial diet ; though here,
agreeably to the nature of the German mode of transacting
business, it led to no positive results. The resistance
broke forth with the greatest activity where the attacks
had chiefly been made, — in the several territories and dis-
tricts. The contest was now principally carried on, as we
have seen, in the ecclesiastical principahties ; there scarcely
existed one where the prince had not made an attempt to

§ VI.J NETHERLANDS, FRANCE, AND GERMANY. 409

restore the domination of the cathoHc party. Protest-
antism, which also felt its own strength, strove with not
less energy and foresight to bring the spiritual principalities
over to its side.

In the year 1577, Gebhard Truchsess was created arch-
bishop of Cologne, chiefly through the personal interest
which Count Nuenar exercised over the chapter ; and this
powerful Protestant well knew the character of the man he
had recommended. In truth, the acquaintance of Cebhard
with Agnes von Mansfeld, to which his conversion has been
attributed, was not wanting to give him an anti-catholic
feeling. Even at his solemn entrance into Cologne, when
the clergy met him in procession, he did not alight from
his horse, according to ancient custom, to kiss the cross ;
he appeared in the church in military uniform, nor did he
choose to officiate at high mass ; from the very beginning
he attached himself to the party of the prince of Orange,
and his principal councillors were calvinists. "'' As he did
not hesitate to mortgage land for the purpose of raising-
troops ; as he endeavoured to gain over the nobles, and
favoured that party among the guilds of Cologne who
began to oppose the practices of the catholic church, he
betrayed the design which he afterwards more openly
manifested — the conversion of an ecclesiastical into a tem-
poral electorate.

Gebhard Truchsess still outwardly conformed, occasion-
ally at least, to the catholic rite ; but the neighbouring
sees in Westphalia and Lower Saxony fell, as we have
already seen, completely into protestant hands. The ele-
vation of duke Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg was of peculiar
importance. While yet very young, and a good lutheran,
he had been nominated to the bishopric of Bremen, then to
that of Osnabrück, and in 1577 to the bishopric of Pader-
born, f Even in Münster he had a large party on his side,
consisting of all the younger members of the chapter; and
his further elevation was only hindered by the immediate
interference of Gregory XIII. (who declared a resignation
already made invalid), and by the resolute opposition of

* Maffei, Annali di Gregorio XIII., t. + Hamelmann, Oldenburgisches Chro-
i, p. 331. nikon, s. 436.

410 RESISTANCE OF PROTESTANTS IN THE [Book V.

the high cathohc party. They were, however, not able to
place another bishop in that see.

It is evident what an impulse must have been given to
Protestant opinions in Rhenish Westphalia (where they
were already widely disseminated), by these dispositions
of its spiritual rulers. Nothing was wanting but a lucky
coincidence or a successful stroke, to give it a decided pre-
ponderance in tliis country.

Such an event would indeed have produced a great
reaction throughout Germany. The same chances existed
for the bishoprics in Upper as in Lower Germany ; and as
yet, even in those territories where the restoration had
begun, the opposition was by no means overcome.

Of this, Balthasar, abbot of Fulda, had bitter experience !
The intercession of the neighbouring princes failed to dimi-
nish the weight of grievances laid before the diet ; the
abbot proceeded with reckless obstinacy in his restoration
of the ancient faith, and went from place to place to bring
about its accomplishment, when one day in the summer of
1576, as he happened to be in Hamelburg for this purpose,
he was attacked by his nobles with arms in their hands,
and besieged in his own house ; every means was employed
against him, and as his neighbours looked on complacently,
and the bishop of Würzburg even lent his assistance to his
enemies, he found himself compelled to abdicate the govern-
ment of his own dominions.'"'

Nor did duke Albert carry everything before him in
Bavaria. He complained to the pope that his nobility
would rather renounce the sacrament altogether than re-
ceive it in one kind.

But it was of far greater importance that in the Aus-
trian provinces protestantism gradually acquired a more
legitimate and recognised existence. Under the mild and
prudent sway of Maximilian II. it had become established
in Upper and Lower Austria. Pope Pius V. consequently

* Schannat, Historia Fuldensis, ps. iii. consentiani, ut administratio ditionis mese

p, 268., gives a letter from the abbot to cpiscopo tradatiir, lum alitcr se me ac

pope Gregory, (dated Aug. 1. 157h',) from canem rabidum interfecturos, turn Saxo-

tlie Arcliivcs of the Vatican, which is nia; et II assise priucipcs ill meum grcgcm

eminently remarkable. " Clamantes," he immisburos."
says of the threats of his enemies, " nisi

§ VI] NETHERLANDS, FRANCE, AND GERMANY. 411

took an inexpressible aversion to that emperor : when the
conversation once turned on the war he was carrying on
against the Turks, the pope oi)enly said, he did not know
to which party he wished victory the least/'' Protestantism,
however, made unchecked progress, even in the inner pro-
vinces of Austria. In the year 1568, there were already
in Carinthia twenty-four evangelical pastors, and in 1571
there was only one catholic in the council of the capital
town of Styria. The protestant creed indeed found no
support from the feudal lord of these provinces, the arch-
duke Charles, who rather on the contrary sought to intro-
duce the Jesuits, and favoured them by every means at his
disposal ; but the states were too powerful for him.f They
had the upper hand in the diets, where the business of
administration and of the defence of the country was mixed
up with religious matters. They exacted rehgious conces-
sions in requital for every assent they gave to a political
measure. In the year 1578, at the diet of Brück on the
Muhr, the archduke was compelled to allow the free exer-
cise of the confession of Augsburg, not only in the domains
of the nobles and landed proprietors (where indeed he
could not easily have prevented it), but also in the four
important towns of Grätz, Judenburg, Klagenfurt, and
Laibach.| Hence protestantism acquired in these pro-
vinces the same regular organization as in the Austrian
dominions ; a protestant church ministry was established,
a church and school discipline after the model of that of
Wiirtemburg was adopted; in some places, for example at
St. Veit, the catholics were excluded from the election of
councillors,^ and were no longer permitted to fill the pro-
vincial offices; — circumstances, by favour of which the
protestant opinions gained a decided superiority, even in
those districts bordering on Italy. The impulse which the

* Tiepolo, Relatione di Pio IV. e. V. : J Supplication to his Imp. Rom. Maj.

he adds besides, " In proposito della and intercession of the three principalities

morte del principe di Spagna apertam*^ and the state, in Lehmann, De Pace Re-

disse il papa haverla sentita con grandis- ligionis, p. 461.; a document, which

simo dispiacere, perche non vorria che rectifies the account of Khevenhiller, Ann.

li stati del re cattolico capitassero in Ferdinandei, i. 6.

mano de' Tedeschi." (Appendix, No. 41.) § Hermann in the Carinthian Zeit-

f Socher, Historia Societatis Jesu Pro- schrift, v. p. 189.
vincise Austriae, i. iv. 166. 184. ; v. 33.

41.2 CONTRASTS EXHIBITED IN [Book V.

Jesuits had given met here with a steady and determined
counteraction.

We may consider protestantism in the year 1578, as still
the dominant creed of all the Austrian provinces, whether
of the German, Sclavonic, or Hungarian tongues, with the
single exception of the Tyrol. The result of our observa-
tion of the general religious aspect of Germany at this
period is, that the progress we have seen made by restored
Catholicism was held in check by a successful resistance,
and met by a corresponding progress on the part of the
new confession.

§ 7. CONTRASTS EXHIBITED IN THE REST OF EUROPE.

We are now arrived at a remarkable epoch, in which the
two grand religious tendencies are once more aroused to
action, with equal ardour and equal hope of victory.

But affairs had already materially changed from their
former position. In the earlier period of the reformation,
both parties sought to come to an understanding ; a recon-
ciliation had been attempted in Germany, prepared in
France, and called for in the Netherlands, and appeared,
indeed, to be still feasible, since practical toleration partially
existed. But now their differences seemed to stand out
with greater sharpness and animosity, and through all
Europe they challenged each other to the combat. It is
well worth our while to glance over the state of affairs as
they stood in the years 1578-9.

Let us begin in the east, with Poland, where the Jesuits
had already made their way, and were regarded by the
bishops as allies and supporters of their own power. Car-
dinal Hosius, the bishop of Ermeland, founded a college for
them in Braunsberg in the year 1569, and they fixed them-
selves, with the assistance of the bishops of those places, in
Pultusk and Posen. Bishop Valerian of Wilna thought it
a matter of the utmost importance to anticipate the
Lithuanian luthcrans, who intended to establish a university
on their own principles, by the endowment of a Jesuit
school in his see. lie was already old and feeble, and
wished his last days to be marked by this meritorious act.

§ VIT.] • THE REST OF EUROPE. 443

The first members of the company of Jesus arrived in the
year 1570.'"'

The immediate consequence of these exertions on the
part of the cathohcs was, that the protestants took mea-
sures to maintain their ground. In the convocation diet
of 1573, they carried a resolution to the effect, that no
one should be injured or persecuted on account of his
religion ; f and the bishops were obliged to yield. The
example of the disturbances in the Netherlands was adduced
to prove to them what dangers might arise from their
opposition: from that time the kings of Poland took an
oath to maintain this resolution. In the year 1579 the
payment of tithes to the clergy was wholly suspended, and
the nuncio asserts that, by this act alone, twelve hundred
parish priests were left wholly destitute : at the same time
a supreme court of judicature, composed of laity and clergy,
was established, which decided all causes, ecclesiastical as
well as temporal. It was matter of astonishment in Rome
that the Polish clergy could acquiesce in such an institution.

The same struggle was going on in Sweden as in Poland,
and with the most singular characteristics. It immedi-
ately concerned the person of the prince, who was indeed
the object of the contest. In all the sons of Gustavus
Vasa, " the brood of king Gustavus," as the Swedes called
them, there was a singular mixture of reflection and wilful-
ness, of devotion and violence. The most learned among
them was the second, John. Religious dissensions touched
him the more nearly from his marriage with a catholic
princess, Catherine of Poland, who had shared his prison,
in the narrow solitude of which he had often received
consolation from a catholic priest. He studied the fathers,
in order to gather from their writings a correct idea of the
primitive state of the church. He delighted in books
which treated of the possibility of a unity of faith, and was
continually revolving in his mind the questions connected
with that subject. When he succeeded to the throne, he
accordingly made some advances to the catholic church ;
he published a liturgy, framed after the model of that of

* Sacchinus, Hist, Soc. Jes., p. ii. lib. + Fredro, Henricus I. rex Polonorum,
viii. IH.p.iii.lib.i. 112.1ib.vi. 103— 108. p. 114.

414 CONTRASTS EXHIBITED IN [Book V.

Trent, and in which Swedish theologians imagined they
detected Romish doctrines/- As he thought he should
need the pope's mediation, both with the catholic powers
generally, in his Russian war, and with the Spanish court
particularly, in the matter of the maternal inheritance of
his wife, he did not scruple to send one of the nobles of
his kingdom as ambassador to Rome. He also secretly
directed certain Jesuits to come over to Stockholm from the
Netherlands, and entrusted to their charge an important
establishment for education.

His conduct naturally raised the highest hopes in Rome ;
and accordingly Antonio Possevin, one of the ablest mem-
bers of the company of Jesus, was selected to make a
strenuous attempt to convert king John.

Possevin appeared in Sweden in the year 1578. The
king was not inclined to give way on all points. He
demanded that the clergy should be allowed to marry,
that the laity should receive the cup at the sacrament, that
mass should be said in the vernacular tongue, that the
church should renounce its claims on confiscated estates, &c.
Possevin had no authority to go into these questions ; he
therefore promised to communicate them to the papal see,
and then passed to the dogmatical points of controversy.
In these he was far more fortunate. After a few confer-
ences, and some time for reflection, the king declared
himself resolved to make the professio fidei according to
the formula of the confession of Trent. This he accord-
ingly did ; he then confessed to Possevin, who once more
asked him whether he conformed to the papal decision in
regard to the communion in one kind ; and on the king's
declaration that he did, Posse\4n solemnly granted him
absolution. It almost appears as if this absolution w^ere
the chief object of the wishes and the wants of the king.
He had caused his brother to be put to death, certainly
with the previous sanction of his estates, but still it was
the death of a brother, and marked with every circum-
stance of violence. This absolution seemed to tranquillize
his spirit. Possevin prayed to God to permit him fiilly to

* They are all drawn up in the " J udi- licata Liturgia" m Baaz, Inventarium
cium Prsedicatorum Holmenss. de pub- Ecclesiarum Sueogoth, p. 393.

§ VIL] THE REST OF EUROPE. 415

turn the heart of the monarch. The king arose, and
throwing himself into the arms of his confessor, exclaimed,
" As I embrace thee, so do I likewise the Roman catholic
faith for ever." He then received the Lord's supper accord-
ing to the catholic ritual.

After this satisfactory fulfilment of his mission, Possevin
went back to Rome, rendered an account of it to the pope,
and also, under promise of secrecy, to the most powerful
catholic sovereigns. It now only remained to take into
consideration those demands of the king upon which he
made the re-establishment of the catholic faith in his king-
dom mainly depend. Possevin was a man of great address,
eloquent, and full of talent for negotiation ; but he allow^ed
himself to be too easily persuaded that his success was
complete. From his representation, pope Gregory did
not think it necessary to give way on any point ; on the
contrary, he required of the king a voluntary and uncondi-
tional conversion. He therefore despatched the Jesuit a
second time, charged with letters to this intent, and with
indulgences for all who would become converts.

In the meanwhile the opposite party had not been idle ;
admonitory letters had been sent by protestant princes,
for the account of Possevin's mission had instantly spread
over Europe. Chytrseus had dedicated to the king his
treatise on the Confession of Augsburg, which had made
some impression on the learned monarch. From this
moment the protestants never again lost sight of him.

Possevin now arrived in Stockholm, no longer, as before,
in a civilian's dress, but in the customary habit of his
order, and furnished with a vast quantity of catholic books.
Even his mere appearance made an unfavourable im-
pression : he hesitated for a moment, whether he should
produce the pope's answer, but at length he could with-
hold it no longer, and communicated it to the king in an
audience which lasted two hours. Who can penetrate the
secret workings of a wavering and unstable spirit 1 Per-
haps the self-love of the king was wounded by so absolute
a refusal of his terms ; perhaps, too, he was convinced that
nothing was to be accomplished in Sweden without the
proposed concessions : he had no inclination to abdicate

416 CONTRASTS EXHIBITED IN [Book V.

his throne for the sake of reUgion. In short, this audience
was decisive. From that hour the king showed a marked
aversion to the emissary of the pope. He required his
Jesuit schoolmen to receive the sacrament in both kinds,
and to perform mass in the Swedish language ; and as
they did not obey him (which indeed they could not do),
he refused them the provision they had hitherto enjoyed.
They quitted Stockholm shortly afterwards, doubtless not
merely, as they gave out, on account of the plague. The
Protestant nobles, the younger brother of the king, Charles
of Sudermania, who was inclined to Calvinism, and the
envoys from Lübeck, neglected nothing which could increase
this growing aversion. The only remaining stay and hope
of the cathoHcs was the queen, and after her death, the
heir to the throne ; for the time, the sovereign power in
Sweden remained substantially protestant.'""

In England the government became more so every day
under queen Elizabeth. But there existed in that kingdom
points of attack of another kind : it was fiill of catholics ;
it was not the population of Ireland alone that adhered
with constancy to the faith and ritual of their ancestors,
but in England, probably one half of the nation, if not, as
some have maintained, a larger proportion, were still
attached to Catholicism. It is always matter of astonish-
ment that the English catholics, at least for the first fifteen
years of Elizabeth's reign, submitted to the protestant laws
of that queen. They took the oath which was required of
them, although diametrically opposed to the papal author-
ity ; they attended the protestant churches, and their
consciences were satisfied if they kept together in going
and coming, and avoided the society of protestants. f

* In this whole account I follow the Hallam (Constitutional History of Eng-

reports of the Jesuits, (which, by what I land, i. p. 162.), and is without doubt the

ca,n find, have not hitherto been used,) original source " Si perniettevano giu-

which may be seen at length in Sacchinus, ramenti impii contra I'autoritii della sede

Hist. Societatis Jesu, pars iv. lib. vi. n. 64 apostolica, e questo con poco o nessun

■ — 76., and lib. vii. n. 83 — 111. scrupulo di conscienza. Allora tutti anda-

+ Relatione del presente Stato d'Inghil- vano conimunemente alio sinagoghe degli

terra, cavata da una lettera scritta di Lon- eretici et alle prediche loro menandovi

dra, etc., Roma 1590 (printed pamphlet), li figli et famiglie si teneva allora

is entirely in accordajice on this head per segno distintivo sufficiente venire

with a passage from Riba-daneira, De alle chiese prima degli eretici e non par-

Schismate, which has been (juoted by tii'si in compagnia loro."

§ VIT.] THE REST OF EUROPE. 4;[7

Rome founded great hopes upon this condition of things,
and was convinced that some occasion, some sKght advan-
tage alone was wanting to arouse all the catholics in the
country to resistance. Pius V. had declared that he
wished he could shed his blood in an expedition against
England. Gregory XIII., who never abandoned the idea
of this enterprise, was rather inclined to employ the warlike
turn and illustrious position of Don John of Austria for its
accomplishment ; he therefore sent his nuncio Sega, who had
been with Don John in the Netherlands, to Spain, expressly
with the view of gaining over king Philip to his object.

Either, however, from Philip's jealousy of the ambitious
designs of his brother, and his aversion to any new politi-
cal embarrassment, or from some other impediments, these
vast schemes came to nothing, and their projectors were
forced to be satisfied with less brilliant enterprises.

Pope Gregory then turned his eyes to Ireland. Ireland
had been represented to him as unsurpassed in the strict-
ness and constancy of her attachment to the catholic faith ;
a victim to the tyranny and cruelty and rapacity of
England ; her dissensions fostered, her barbarism design-
edly perpetuated, her conscience trammelled and violated :
he was told that she was consequently ready at any
moment to break out into open rebellion ; that nothing
was necessary but to send a few troops to her assistance ;
that an army of five thousand men would conquer Ireland ;
that there was not a fortress which could hold out above
four days.*

Pope Gregory was easily persuaded. There happened
to be staying at Rome at that time an English exile, one
Thomas Stukely ; an adventurer by nature, but possessed
in an extraordinary degree of the talent of gaining access
to men in power, and winning their confidence. The pope
had made him his chamberlain, and given him the title of

* Discorso sopra il Regno d'Irlan da e come trasportandolecommodita del paese

della Gente che bisogneria per conquis- in Inghilterra, tassando il popolo contra

tarlo, fatto a Gregorio XIII., Library at le leggi e privilegi antichi, e mantenendo

Vienna, Fugger MSS. The government guerra e fattioni tra i paesani, — non vo-

of the queen is declared to be a tyranny : lendo gli Inglesi che gli habitanti impa-

*' Lasciando il governo a ministri Inglesi, rassero la differenza fra il viver libero

i quali per arricchire se stessi usavano e la servitu."
tutta I'arte della tirannide in quel regno,

VOL. I. E E

418 CONTRASTS EXHIBITED IN [Book V.

marquis of Leinster ; he also advanced 40,000 scudi to
equip him with vessels and men : Stukely was to touch on
the coast of France, where he was to be joined by another
small body of men, got together (also with the pope's
assistance) by an Irish refugee of the name of Geraldine.
Philip, who had no wish to engage in a war, but was not
unwilling to give Elizabeth some occupation at home,
advanced money for the same purpose.'"^ Stukely, however,
in the most unexpected manner, allowed himself to be per-
suaded to join the expedition of king Sebastian against the
Moors, with the troops destined for Ireland, and found his
death in that enterprise. Geraldine was reduced to try
his fortune alone ; he landed in June 1579, obtained some
advantages, and made himself master of the fort which
commanded the harbour of Smerwick. Meanwhile the
earl of Desmond was in arms against the queen, and the
whole country in agitation. But one reverse soon followed
another, the greatest of which was, that Geraldine himself
was killed in a skirmish. The earl of Desmond could now
no longer hold out. The assistance given by the pope was
not sufficient, and the money upon which the Irish counted
was not forthcoming. The Enghsh maintained their vic-
torious position, and punished the rebellion with fearful
cruelty. Men and women were driven together into barns,
and there burned, children were strangled, all Munster
laid waste, and English settlers poured into the devastated
province.

To accomphsh anything of importance, the attempt must
evidently be made in England itself; but this appeared
impracticable unless the political aspect of Europe should
change : and should this take place, if they hoped to find
the catholic population not wholly altered, if they expected
to find them still cathohcs, they must afford them spiritual
assistance.

William Allen first conceived the project of collecting
together the young English cathohcs who were residing on

* According to the nuncio Sega, in his Buono et altri nobili Inglesi che si trova-

Relatione compondiosa (MS. in the Berlin vano in Madrid, ch' egli spinse andare a

library), 20,000 scudi. " Altre mercedi questa impresa insieme col vescovo

fece fare al barone d' Acres, al S"^ Carlo Lionese d' Irlanda."

§ VTL] THE REST OF EUROPE. 4X9

the continent for the prosecution of their studies ; and,
principally by the aid of pope Gregory, he estabhshed a
college for them at Douay. But this did not satisfy the
pope, who wished to secure a retreat for these fugitives
under his own eye, and to place them in a more quiet and
less dangerous station than Douay, in the turbulent Nether-
lands. He therefore established an English college at
Rome, granted it a rich abbey, and consigned it to the care
of the Jesuits in 1579.*

None were admitted into this college but those who
pledged themselves to return to England when their studies
were completed, and to preach the Roman catholic faith.
This was the exclusive end of their training. Excited as
they were by that religious enthusiasm which the spiritual
practices of Ignatius Loyola tended to generate, the mis-
sionaries whom pope Gregory the Great sent to convert
the Anglo-Saxons were held up as examples for their
imitation.

A few of the older students led the way. In the year
1580, two English Jesuits, Parsons and Campion, returned
to England. Constantly pursued, and reduced to the neces-
sity of perpetually changing their names and their dress,
they at length succeeded in reaching the capital, where
they separated, and traversed, the one the northern, the
other the southern counties, principally residing in the
houses of the catholic noblemen. Their coming was always
announced, but their hosts cautiously received them as
strangers. Meanwhile a chapel was prepared in the inner-
most chamber of the house, into which they were conducted,
and there they found the members of the family assembled
to receive their blessing. The missionary seldom stayed
more than one night. The evening was occupied in reli-
gious preparation and in confession ; the next morning-
mass was said, the Lord's supper administered, and a ser-
mon preached. All the cathohcs who were within reach
assembled, and their number was often very great. That
religion which for nine hundred years had extended its
sway over the island, was now once more taught, with the

* We may here compare the relation vi. 6, Ub. vii. 10 — 30, with the narratives of
of the Jesuits in Sacchinus, pars iv. lib. Camden, Rerum Britannic, torn. i. p. 315.

E E 2

420 CONTRASTS EXHIBITED IN [Book V.

additional zest of secrecy and novelty. Synods were held by
stealth ; a printing press was set up, first in a village near
London, and afterwards in a lonely house in a neighbour-
ing wood ; catholic writings suddenly re-appeared, composed
with all the skill which constant practice in controversy
gives, often with elegance, and calculated to make a deeper
impression from the mystery of their origin. The imme-
diate consequence of these publications was, that the catho-
lics ceased to attend the protestant service, or to observe
the ecclesiastical laws of the queen ; and that, on the other
side, the contest of opinions was carried on with greater
vehemence, and persecution became more severe and
crushing.*^

In all countries, wherever the principle of catholic resto-
ration was not possessed of sufficient strength to gain
ascendancy, its effect was to widen the breach between the
parties, and to render their differences more striking and
irreconcileable.

Of this Switzerland afforded another example, although
each canton had long possessed rehgious independence, and
the disagreements which occasionally broke out concerning
the terms of the confederation were very nearly settled.

But the Jesuits now found their way into this country.
In the year 1574, at the suggestion of a colonel of the
Swiss guard in Rome, they went to Lucern, and found
sympathy and support, especially from the family of
Pfyfier. f Louis Pfyffer alone is supposed to have contri-
buted 30,000 guilders towards the foundation of the Jesuits'
college ; Philip IL and the Guises are also said to have
advanced something towards it ; and Gregory XIIL, who
never withheld his assistance from such institutions, gave
the means to purchase a library. The people of Lucern
were delighted, and wrote expressly to request the general
of the order not to deprive them of the fathers of the com-
pany who had already arrived : " It was their most earnest
wish to see their youth well brought up in sound learning,
and more especially in piety and a christian life." They pro-
mised, in return, to spare neither pains nor labour, neither

* Campiani Vita et Martyrium, as well as Sacchinus. Ingolstadii, 1584.
f Agricola, 177.

§ VIL] THE REST OF EUROPE. 421

their property nor their blood, to comply with every wish
of the order. ''''

An opportunity was soon afforded them of showing their
renovated zeal for Catholicism in a matter of some im-
portance.

The city of Geneva had placed itself under the peculiar
protection of Berne, and now endeavoured to draw into
this alliance Soleure and Freiburg, which usually attached
themselves to Berne in political, although not perhaps in
ecclesiastical matters. With respect to Soleure they suc-
ceeded. A catholic city took under its protection the
focus of western protestantism. Gregory XIII. was
alarmed, and used every effort, at any rate to deter
Freiburg from following the example of her neighbour.
Lucern now came to his assistance ; an embassy from that
city united its exertions to those of the papal nuncio.
Freiburg not only refused to enter into the proposed alli-
ance, but invited the Jesuits ; and, with the help of the
pope, a college soon arose in this canton.

In the meanwhile the influence of Carlo Borromeo's
unwearied zeal and spotless character began to be felt;
more especially in the Wald cantons. Melchior Lussi, the
landamman of Unterwaiden, was esteemed his particular
friend. Carlo Borromeo sent thither, in the first place,
capuchin friars, who made a great impression in the moun-
tain districts by the austerity and simplicity of their lives ;
to them succeeded the pupils of the Swiss college, which
he had founded for this express purpose.

Their influence was soon traced in all public affairs. In
the autumn of 1579, the catholic cantons concluded a
treaty with the bishop of Basle, by which they promised
not only to protect him in religious matters, but also, if
opportunity offered, to bring back "to the true catholic
faith" those of his subjects who had become protestants ;
engagements which naturally aroused the lutheran part of
the community. The animosity became fiercer than it had
been for a long time. A papal nuncio arrived, who was

* Literae Lucernensium ad Everardum Mercurianura in Sacchinus, Hist. Soc.
Jesu, iv. V. 145.

422 CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. [Book V.

received in the catholic cantons with the greatest possible
lionours ; while from the protestants he experienced no-
thing but contempt and insult.

§ 8. CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS.

The religious condition of Europe was now as follows.

Restored Catholicism, under the forms it had assumed in
Italy and Spain, had made a formidable inroad upon the
rest of Europe. In Germany it had achieved no inconsi-
derable conquests, and had made progress in many other
countries ; yet it had everywhere encountered a vigorous
resistance. In France the protestants were protected by
extensive concessions, and by their strong political and
military position. They predominated in the Netherlands.
They ruled paramount in England, Scotland, and in the
north. In Poland they had extorted peremptory laws in
their favour, and a great influence in the general affairs of
the kingdom. Throughout the whole Austrian dominions,
they stood, armed with their whole pro\dncial rights, face
to face with the government. In Lower Germany a com-
plete change appeared to threaten the religious institutions.

In this state of affairs, it was of the utmost importance
to know what would be the issue of the contest in the
Netherlands, where there was continually a fresh resort to
arms.

It was impossible that Philip II. could intend to repeat
measures which had proved so abortive, — nor was he
indeed in a condition to attempt them ; it was his good for-
tune that he found friends who came spontaneously to his
aid, and that protestantism was arrested in its career by an
unexpected and invincible obstacle. It will be well worth
our while to pause for a moment over this important
event.

In the first place, it was by no means agreeable to all
{)arties in the provnices, and least of all to the Walloon
nobility, to sec the prince of Orange acquiring so much
[)()\ver.

Under the king's government, these nobles had always

§ VIIL] CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 423

been the first to take horse in the French wars ; and the
leaders of note, whom the people were accustomed to follow,
had thence acquired a certain independence and authority.
Under the government of the states, they were thrown into
the background ; their pay was irregular : the army of the
states consisted principally of Dutch, English, and Germans,
who enjoyed the greatest confidence as being undoubted
protestants.

When the Walloons acceded to the treaty of Ghent, they
had flattered themselves that they should obtain a leading
influence in the general affairs of the country. But the
very reverse took place. Power fell almost exclusively
into the hands of the prince of Orange and his friends of
Holland and Zealand.

Affairs of religion were blended with the personal dis-
gusts thus engendered. Whatever was the cause, it is
certain that the protestant movement found little sympathy
in the Walloon provinces. The new bishops, almost all of
them men of great activity and influence, had been peace-
ably installed in their sees. In Arras, we find Fran9ois
de Richardot, who had become thoroughly imbued with
the principles of the restoration at the council of Trent ;
we are told, in terms of boundless admiration, how he
united in his discourses firmness and impressiveness with
elegance and learning, and in his life, zeal with knowledge
of the world : '"" in Namur, Antoine Havet, a dominican,
perhaps endowed with less worldly wisdom, but also a
former member of the council, and equally indefatigable in
the introduction of its regulations : f in St. Omer, Gerhard
de Hamericourt, one of the richest prelates in the provinces
(also abbot of St. Bertin), whose ambition it was to pro-
mote the studies of the youth of his diocese, and to establish
schools ; and who first founded in the Netherlands a college
for the order of Jesus, and endowed it with permanent
funds. Under the guidance of these and other heads of
the church, Artois, Hainault, and Namur remained exempt

* Gazet, Histoire Ecclesiastique des mais sui'tout I'excellente piete et vertu,

Pays-Bas, p. 143, thinks him *^ subtile e qui reluisait en sa vie, rendait son oraison

sohde en doctrine, nerveux en raisons, persuasive."

riche en sentences, copieux en discours, f Havensius, De Erectione Novormn

poH en son langage, et grave en actions, Episcopatuum in Belgio, p. 50.

424 CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. [Book V-

from the savage fiiry of the iconoclastic storm which deso-
lated the other provinces. As a consequence of the same
causes,*" the reaction excited by Alva^s atrocities was not
felt so powerfully there. f The decrees of the council of
Trent were, without much delay, discussed in the provin-
cial councils and synods of the diocese, and put in execution.
The influence of the Jesuits spread rapidly from St. Omer,
and still more from Douay. Philip II. had founded an
university at Douay, in order to afford his subjects who
spoke the French language an opportunity of studying in
their own country. This formed a part of the plan for a
close ecclesiastical constitution which he intended to esta-
blish throughout his dominions. Not far from Douay stood
the benedictine abbey of Anchin, where, in the days when
the fury of the image-breakers raged in the greater remain-
ing part of the Netherlands, the abbot Jean Lentailleur
practised the religious exercises of Ignatius ^vith his monks.
Filled with the enthusiasm generated by these practices, he
determined to endow out of the revenues of his abbey a
college of Jesuits in the new university; this was accord-
ingly opened in the year 1568, immediately acquired a
certain independence of the authorities of the university,
and prospered extremely ; eight years afterwards the
flourishing condition of the university, even in respect to
literature, was chiefly ascribed to the Jesuits. Not only
was their college filled with pious and diligent young men,
but the other colleges had greatly improved in conse-
quence of the emulation it excited ; it already frirnished
the whole university with excellent theologians, and the
provinces of Artois and Hainault with numerous priests.;]:
By degrees this college became the central point of modern
Catholicism for all the surrounding districts. In the year
1578, the Walloon provinces were esteemed by their con-

* Hopper, Recueil et Memorial des in Sacchinus, iv. iv. 124. « Plurimos ex

Troubles des Pays-Bas, pp. 93, 98. hoc patrum coUegio," — that is to say,

t According to Viglii Commentarius the collegium Aquicintense, — " Artesia et

Rerum Actarum super impositione De- Hannonia pastores, multos schola nostra

cirai Denarii, in Papendrecht, Analecta tlieologos optinie institutos et conipara-

i. 1., 292, the tenth penny was imposed tos accepit." There follow still higher

with the assurance, that it sliould not be panegyrics, which we may the more

strictly exacted easily omit, as Stapleton himself was also

X Testimonium Thomnu Stajilcton (rcc- a Jesuit,
tor of the university) in the year 1576,

§ VIII.] CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 425

temporaries (to use the expression of one of them) in the
highest degree cathohc.''^

But the rehgious condition of the country was threat-
ened no less than its pohtical claims, by the ascendancy of
protestantism.

Protestantism had assumed a form in Ghent, which in
these times we should describe as revolutionary. The
ancient liberties which had been destroyed by Charles V.
in 1539, were by no means forgotten. Alva's cruelties
had excited peculiar exasperation in this city, where the
populace was of an ungovernable character, given to image-
breaking and violently irritated against the priests. Two
bold leaders, Imbize and Ryhove, took advantage of this
state of popular feeling to put themselves at the head of
the mob. Imbize conceived the project of establishing a
pure republic, and dreamt that Ghent, under such a form
of government, might become a second Rome. Their first
act was to arrest their governor Arschot, while engaged in
holding a meeting with some of the bishops and catholic
leaders of the neighbouring towns ; they then established
the old constitution, of course with some alterations
securing to themselves the possession of power ; they
seized upon the property of the church, abolished the
bishopric, confiscated the abbeys, and converted the hos-
pitals and convents into barracks ; and finally they endea-
voured by force of arms to introduce the same order of
things among their neighbours.!

Some of those leaders who had been taken prisoners
together with Arschot belonged to the Walloon provinces,
into which the troops of Ghent made incursions ; all those
who were inclined to protestantism began to rouse them-
selves ; and from the example of Ghent, the democratic
inclinations of the people were brought into intimate
relation with their religious feelings. In Arras, an insur-
rection broke out against the senate ; in Douay itself the
Jesuits were driven out, against the wish of the senate, by

* Michiel, Relatione di Francia : " il + Van der Vynkt's Hist, of the Nether-

conte (the governor of Hainault) ecatto- lands, vol. ii., book vi., sect 2. : this sec-

lichissimo, come e tutto quel contado tion is probably the most important of

insieme con quel d'Artoes che li e pro- the whole book,
pinquo."

426 CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. [Book V.

a popular commotion ; their exile lasted indeed but a
fortnight, yet even this was an important event ; and in
St. Omer they maintained their position only through the
especial protection of the senate.

The civic magistrates, the provincial nobihty, the clergy,
all were suddenly menaced with danger and oppression,
with a revolution of a no less destructive nature than that
which had already taken place in Ghent ; no wonder there-
fore that in this extremity of peril they sought every means
of defence. With this view they first brought into the
field their troops, which laid waste the country round
Ghent with the most savage atrocity, and then looked
around for an alhance offering greater promise of security
than was afforded by their connexion with the imited
Netherland provinces.

Don John of Austria did not fail to take advantage of
this state of public feeling. On a cursory and general
survey of Don John's measures and conduct in the Nether-
lands, it would appear that they produced no results what-
ever ; that his whole existence had passed away, leaving
as little trace on the world as it had afforded satisfaction
to himself But if we consider more accurately what was
his position, what were his actions, and what their con-
sequences, we shall be forced to admit that the settlement
of the Spanish Netherlands is to be ascribed pre-eminently
to him. For some time he tried to adhere to the terms of
the treaty of Ghent ; but the independent attitude which
the States had taken up, the situation of the prince of
Orange, who was far more powerflü than himself, the
viceroy, and the mutual suspicion of the parties, neces-
sarily tended to an open rupture. Don John made up his
mind to begin the war ; unquestionably this was contrary
to the wishes of his brother, but it was inevitable ; by this
means alone could he possibly succeed in reconquering one
province to the crown of Spain ; and in this he did suc-
ceed. He kept possession of Luxemburg, he invested
Namur, and in consequence of the battle of Gemblours,
became master of Louvain and Limburg. If the king-
wished to regain his power over the Netherlands, this was
not to be eftected by an accommodation with the States

§ VIII.] CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 427

General, which was evidently impracticable, but only by a
gradual subjugation of the particular districts, either by
treaty or force of arms. This system Don John pursued,
and speedily opened to himself the most extensive pros-
pects. He rekindled the old attachment of the Walloon
provinces to the Burgundian race, and especially brought
over to his party two men of great importance, Pardieu de
la Motte, governor of Gravelines, and Matthieu Moulart,
bishop of Arras. '*''''

These were the two men who, after the early death of
Don John, conducted the negotiations on which everything
depended, with the greatest zeal and the most successful
skill.

De la Motte availed himself of the newly-kindled hatred
against the protestants. He managed that the garrisons
belonging to the States should be removed from many
strong places solely on account of their protestantism, and
that early in November the nobles of Artois should decree
the expulsion of all lutherans from that province ; a decree
which they carried into execution. Matthieu Moulart now
endeavoured to bring about a complete reconciliation mth
the king. He began by invoking the assistance of God by
a solemn procession through the city; an act of devotion
prompted by his sense of the enormous difficulties he had
to contend with, as he had sometimes to induce men to
coalesce whose claims were directly at variance. He proved
himself indefatigable, subtle, and conciliating, and he per-
fectly succeeded in his object.

Alessandro Farnese, the successor to Don John, had the
mighty talent of persuading, attaching, and inspiring lasting
confidence ; at his side stood Fran9ois Richardot, the
nephew of the bishop, " a man,'^ says Cabrera, " of sound
and perspicacious judgment in various matters, and expe-
rienced in all ; competent to conduct all business, of what-
soever sort it might be ;" and Sarrazin, abbot of St. Vaast,
described by the same Cabrera, " as a great politician

* That they were won over to Don quamplures secum traeturum jam pridem

John is evident from both the following significarat Joanni Austriaco." 2. Tassis :

passages. 1. Stradajii. l.,p. 19 : "Par- " Episcopum Atrebatensem, qui vivente

difeus Mottte dominus non rediturum adhuc Austriaco so regi conciharat."
modo se ad regis obedientiam sed etiam

428 CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. [Book V.

under the appearance of quietness; ambitious with the
demeanour of humility, and one who knew how to sustain
his dignity in the eyes of all/' '"'

It will be impossible for us to trace the whole progress
of the negotiations until they gradually attained their
object.

It is sufficient to remark that, on the side of the pro-
vinces, the interests of self-preservation and of their religion
pointed immediately to the king ; on the side of the king,
nothing was left untried which priestly influence and dexte-
rous negotiation, united with the returning favour of the
prince, could effect. In April, 1 579, Emanuel de Montigny,
whom the Walloon army had recognised as their general,
entered into the pay of the king. Upon this, count De
Lalaing went over, without whom Hainault could never have
been won. At length, on the 1 7th of May 1579, the treaty
was signed in the camp at Maestricht. But to what con-
ditions was the king subjected ! It was indeed a restora-
tion of his sovereignty, but under the strictest limitations.
Not only did he promise to dismiss all foreigners from his
army and only to employ Netherland troops, but confirmed
all present possessors in the offices which they had acquired
during the disturbances. The inhabitants pledged them-
selves, on their part, to receive no garrison of which in-
formation had not been previously given to the estates of
the country ; two thirds of the council of state were to con-
sist of men who had been implicated in the disturbances.
The other articles were framed in the same spirit, f The
provinces thus acquired an independence such as they had
never before enjoyed.

This event involved a turn of affairs of universal import-
ance. Throughout the west of Europe no other means had
hitherto been resorted to for the maintenance and restora-
tion of Catholicism than the application of open force ; and
the monarchical power, under this pretence, had endea-
voured completely to annihilate all provincial rights and
franchises. It was now compelled to adopt another course.
If kings wished to restore Catholicism, and maintain them-

• Cabrera, Felipe Scgundo, p. 1021.

t Tassis gives this treaty in all its details, lib. v. pp. .394 — 405.

§ VIIL] CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 429

selves, they could do so only by a strict union with repre-
sentative bodies and popular privileges.

But to whatever extent the royal power of Spain was
limited, it had yet made an immense acquisition. It had
recovered the provinces upon which the greatness of the
house of Burgundy had been founded. Alessandro Farnese
kept the field with the Walloon troops, and although the
progress of the war was slow, he continued to advance ; he
took Courtray in 1580, Tournay in 1581, and Oudenarde
in 1582.

But affairs were not decided by these successes. It was
precisely the union of the catholic provinces with the king,
that forced the northern districts (which were exclusively
Protestant) not only to draw closer their mutual alHance,
but eventually to emancipate themselves entirely fi:*om the
king.

Let us here take a rapid review of the history of the
Netherlands. In all the provinces a contest had subsisted
for ages between the provincial privileges and the royal
prerogative. In Alva's time the latter had attained an
ascendancy it had never before possessed, and which it could
not even then maintain. The treaty of Ghent showed how
completely the popular bodies had gained the upper hand
over the government. In this respect the northern pro-
vinces could claim no pre-eminence over those of the south ;
and had they been united in the matter of religion, they
would have constituted one common Netherland repubUc ;
but, as we have seen, they fell asunder. It followed, first,
that the catholics placed themselves once more under the
protection of the king, with whom their strongest bond of
union was the determination to maintain the catholic re-
ligion ; hence it likewise followed that the protestants, after
having so long persevered in the struggle, at length threw
aside the very name of subjection, and completely shook off
the authority of the king. We may indeed call the one
party the subject provinces, and describe the other as a
repubhc ; but we must not suffer ourselves to be misled by
these names into a belief that the difference in their internal
organisation was at first great. The subject provinces
asserted all their popular rights and privileges with the

430 CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. [Book V.

greatest spirit; while the repubhcan provinces possessed,
in the office of viceroy, an institution analogous to that of
royalty. Their chief difference lay in their religion.

This brought out the true points of the contest, and
events now advanced to their consummation.

Just at this time Philip II. had conquered Portugal, and
in the moment of triumph, stimulated as he was to new
enterprises by this signal success, the Walloon states at
length consented to the return of the Spanish troops.

Lalaing and his wife, who had always been a great oppo-
nent of the Spaniards, and to whom their expulsion was
ascribed, were won over, and the whole body of the
Walloon nobility followed their example ; men were per-
suaded that all danger of a renewal of Alva's acts of
tyranny and violence was at an end. The Spanish-Italian
army, which had once been removed, again brought back,
and again dismissed, returned once more. With the
Netherland troops alone, the war would have been inter-
minable ; the superiority of these veteran, well-disciplined
forces brought matters to a crisis.

While in Germany the colonies of Jesuits, consisting of
Spaniards, Italians, and a few Netherlanders, had restored
Catholicism by their teaching and by the inculcation of the
principles of their creed, in the Netherlands, an Italico-
Spanish army came to unite its forces to the catholic
element of the native population, the Walloons, for the
re-establishment of catholic supremacy by the sword.

In treating of tliis period of history, it is impossible to
avoid speaking of war ; it involves the destinies of rehgion.

In the month of July, 1583, both the harbour and the
town of Dunkirk were taken in six days ; shortly after-
wards Nieuport, and all the coast as far as Ostend,
Dixmunde, and Furnes.

Even here the character of this war manifested itself
In all political matters the Spaniards were forbearing ; but
inexorable wherever the interests of the church were con-
cerned. There was not the slightest question of tolerating
the public or even the private worship of the protestants.
All the preachers who were seized were hanged. They
waged, with full consciousness, a war of relio^on. This

§ Vin.] CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 43X

was, in a certain sense, the most prudent course they could
take in their situation ; they could never have reduced the
protestants to complete subjection ; while by this decided
pohcy they secured all the elements of cathoHcism existing
throughout the country on their side, and excited them to
spontaneous activity. The Bailliu Servaes of Zealand
delivered the county of Waes into their hands ; Hülst and
Axel surrendered, and Alessandro Farnese soon found
himself in sufficient force to make an attack upon the
larger cities ; he was already in possession of the country
and the coast. One after the other, Ypres, Bruges, and
lastly Ghent, where Imbize himself had been a party to the
treaty, were compelled to surrender ; very tolerable terms
were conceded to the communes in their political character ;
for the most part their privileges were respected, but the
protestants were banished without mercy ; the principal
stipulations invariably were, the return of the catholic
clergy, and the restoration of the churches to the catholic
ritual.

In spite of all these successes, nothing lasting seemed to
be accomplished, no security attained, so long as the prince
of Orange lived to give consistency and effect to the struggle,
and to sustain hope even in the conquered.

The Spaniards had set a price of 25,000 scudi upon his
head. In the fierce and excited state of men's minds,
there could not fail to be some who would strive to earn
this reward, urged to it equally by lust of gain and by
fanaticism. I know of no greater blasphemy than that
contained in the papers of the Biscayan Jaureguy, who
was seized in an attempt upon the life of the prince. He
wore, as a sort of amulet, prayers in which the merciful
Godhead, which had manifested itself to man in the person
of Christ, was invoked to favour murder ; in which a share
of the price of blood was promised (should the deed be
achieved) to the divine persons ; to the Mother of God of
Bayonne, a robe, a lamp, and a crown ; to the Mother of
God of Aranzosu, a crown ; to the Lord Jesus himself, a
rich curtain ! '"' Luckily this fanatic was seized ; but in

* " Contemporary copy of a vow and an amulet upon Jaureguy," in Lord F.
of certain prayers found in the form of Egerton's Collection. " A vos, Senor

432 CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. [Book V.

the meantime another was on his way. At the moment
that the sentence of outlawry against Jauregny was pro-
claimed in Maest rieht, a Burgundian, one Balthasar Gerard,
who was living there, was possessed by the desire of carry-
ing the attempted murder into execution.^'* The hope of
acquiring earthly fortune and respect if he succeeded, and
the glory of a martyr if he fell, — ideas which were en-
couraged by a Jesuit of Treves — had tormented him day
and night, until he set out to perpetrate the deed. He
presented himself to the prince as an exile, and having thus
found admittance, he watched a favourable moment, and
killed the prince of Orange at one shot (July, 1584). He
was seized, but no torture wrung from him a sigh ; he per-
sisted in saying that were the deed still to do, he would do
it again. Whilst he expired at Delft amidst the curses of
the people, the canons of Herzogenbusch celebrated his
achievement with a solemn Te Deum.

The passions of both parties were in a state of the
fiercest excitement, but the impulse given to the cathoHcs
was the strongest ; it accomphshed its end, and bore off
the victory.

Had the prince Hved, it was believed that he would have
found means to relieve Antwerp — which was besieged —
as he had promised ; but now there was no one to fill his
place.

The means of attack brought against Antwerp were so
vast that the other considerable cities of Brabant were also
immediately menaced by them : the prince of Parma cut
off from all equally the supply of provisions. Brussels
was the first to yield. ISTo sooner was this city, accustomed
to abundance and luxury, threatened with want, than dis-

Jesus Christo, redemptor y Salvador del e di Bisansone, d'anni 28 incirca, giovane

mundo, criador del cielo y de la tierra, non meno dotto che eloquente;" — he had

OS ofFrezco, siendo osservido Ubrarme entertained this project for seven years

con vida despues de haver effectuado mi and a half ; — " Offerendosi dunque

deseo, un belo muy rico." And so it l'opportunitä di portar le lettere del duca

goes on. d'Alansone al Nassau, essendo gia lui

* Relatione del successo della mortc di gentilhuomo di casa, alii 7 Luglio un hora

Guilielmo di Nassau, principe di Orange e mezzo dopo pranso uscendo il principe

e delli tornienti patiti del generosissimo della tavola, scargandoli un archibugetto

giovane BaldassaiTe Gerai'di Borgog- con tre ]>alle gli colse sotto la zinna

none : Inff. politt. xii. contains some manca, e gli fece una ferita di due diti

circumstances differing from the cus- colla quale 1' ammazzo."
tomary accounts : " Gerardi, la cui madre

$ VTIL] CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 433

cord broke out and soon led to a surrender ; then Mechlin
fell ; and at length, when the last attempt to cut through
the dykes and to procure means of subsistence by land
failed, Antwerp itself was forced to surrender.

The same indulgent terms were granted to the cities of
Brabant as to those of Flanders : Brussels was excused
from the payment of contributions : the inhabitants of
Antwerp were promised that no Spanish garrison should
be quartered in their city, and that the citadel should not
be repaired. One obligation was accepted in the place of
all others — that the churches and chapels should be
restored and the exiled priests and clergy recalled ; on this
point the king was inflexible. In every treaty this, he
said, must be the first and last stipulation. The only con-
cession he could be induced to grant was, that two years
were allowed to the inhabitants of every place, either to
change their religion, or sell their possessions and quit the
Spanish territory.

How completely was the aspect of things altered ! At
one time Philip II. had doubted whether he should grant
the Jesuits fixed settlements in the Netherlands ; and even
since then, they had often been threatened, attacked, and
driven out. In consequence of the events of this war they
now returned with every manifestation of the favour of the
government. The Farnesi were moreover peculiar patrons
of the society; Alessandro chose a Jesuit as his confessor ;
he saw in their order the most eflicacious means of bring-
ing back to Catholicism the half-protestant country he had
conquered, and of fulfilling the main object of the war.*^^'
The first place to which they returned was that which
had first been conquered, Courtray. The parish priest of
the town, Jean David, had become acquainted with the
Jesuits during his exile at Douay ; on his return to Cour-
tray, he immediately entered their order, and in his fare-

* Sacchinus : Alexandre et privati primi secuü, this was also the will of the

ejus consilii viris ea stabat sententia, ut king, " qui recens datis de hoc argumento

quaeque recipiebatur ex haereticis civitas, Uteris ducem cum cura monuerat, ut

continuo fere in earn immitti societatem societatis prsesidio muni re satageret prae-

debere : valere id tum ad pietatem pri- cipuas quasque Belgii civitates ; " — state-

vatam civium turn ad pacem tranquilli- ments which are sufficiently warranted

tatemque intelligebant." (Pars v. lib. by the facts.
iv. n. 58.) According to the Imago

VOL. I. F F

434 CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. [Book V.

well discourse to his parishioners exhorted them not to
allow themselves to be any longer deprived of the spiritual
aid of that society ; his exhortations were readily obeyed.
Shortly after, the veteran Giovanni Montagna, w^ho had
first introduced the company into Tournay, whence he had
frequently been obliged to fly, came back to that town and
established it there for ever. As soon as Bruges and
Ypres had conformed to the required change, the Jesuits
made their entry there also, and certain convents which
had been deserted during the troubles were readily granted
to them by the king. In Ghent, the house of the great
demagogue Imbize, the author of so much mischief to
cathohcism, was fitted up for the reception of the company.
At the surrender of Antwerp, the inhabitants endeavoured
to stipulate that only those orders should be readmitted
into the city which had existed there in the time of
Charles V. ; but this was not conceded to them ; they
were compelled to receive the Jesuits again, and to restore
the buildings which that society had formerly possessed.
All these facts are related by the historian of the order
with great complacency ; he remarks as a proof of the
peculiar favour of Heaven, that they recovered free from
debt, that which they had left burthened with debt. Pro-
perty which had, in the meanwhile, passed through two or
three different hands, was now restored to them without
demur or inquiry. Brussels could not escape the general
fate ; the town-council declared itself ready to receive
them ; the prince of Parma granted aid from the royal
treasury, and in a short time the Jesuits were established
on a secure and advantageous footing. The prince had
already solemnly granted them a right to hold land and
houses under ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and to make use of
the privileges conferred on them by the apostolic see in
these provinces.

The Jesuits were not the only religious order which
enjoyed his protection. In the year 1585 a few capuchins
arrived in his dominions, and, by a special letter to the
pope, he obtained leave for them to remain there ; he
accordingly bought them a house in Antwerp. They pro-
duced a great impression even on the religious fraternities ;

§ IX.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 435

and it was necessary for the pope to restrain the other
franciscan orders by express command, from adopting the
reformed rule of the capuchins.

All these circumstances gradually produced an immense
effect, and transformed Belgium, which had been half Pro-
testant, into one of the most catholic countries of the world.
Nor can it be denied that, for a time at least, they mainly
contributed to the re-establishment of the royal authority.

In consequence of these results the opinion became
more and more firmly established, that only one religion
ought to be tolerated in a state. This is one of the fun-
damental maxims of the policy of Justus Lipsius. "In
matters of religion,'' says he, "neither favour nor indul-
gence is admissible ; the true mercy is to be merciless ; in
order to save many, a few must be gotten rid of without
scruple ; '' — a maxim which in no country found more
acceptance than in Germany.

§ 9. PROGRESS OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY.

As the Netherlands still formed one of the circles of
the German empire, the events which occurred in that
country inevitably exercised a great influence on the affairs
of Germany. One of the more immediate results of them
was, that the affairs of Cologne were brought to an issue.

The Spaniards had not yet returned, far less had Catho-
licism achieved her great triumphs, when Truchsess, the
elector of Cologne, determined, in November 1582, to
embrace the reformed religion and to marry, though with-
out resigning his archbishopric. The greater part of the
nobility was on his side ; the counts of Nuenar, Solms,
Wittgenstein, Wied, Nassau, and the whole duchy of
Westphalia, were all of them lutherans. With the Bible
in one hand and the sword in the other, the elector entered
Bonn ; while Casimir of the Palatinate appeared in the
field with a considerable body of troops to reduce to
obedience the city of Cologne, the chapter, and the other
ecclesiastical officers of the archbishopric which offered
resistance to Truchsess.

F F 2

43ß PROGRESS OF THE \Boc.k V.

We find this Casimir of the Palatinate engaged in all
the transactions of those times, always ready to mount his
horse or to draw his sword, and always having at his beck
warlike bands inclined to protestantism ; notA^^th standing
which he seldom effected anything important for the
cause he espoused. He neither waged war with the devoted-
ness which a religious contest demands (having always his
own private interests in view), nor with the energy and
science which were brought to bear against him. On this
occasion he laid waste the flat country of his opponents ;
but in the main he achieved little or nothing.'" He made
no conquests, nor did he find means to obtain more ample
assistance from protestant Germany.

On the other hand, the catholic powers united all their
strength. Pope Gregory did not abandon the matter to
the delays attending all the proceedings of the curia ; he
deemed a simple consistory of the cardinals sufficient, con-
sidering the urgency of the case, to decide a matter so
important as the stripping an elector of the empire of his
ecclesiastical dignity. f The papal nuncio Malaspina had
already hastened to Cologne ; and had succeeded in concert
with the learned members of the chapter, not only in
excluding all the moderate party from that body, but also
in placing upon the archiepiscopal throne a prince of the
only remaining catholic house of untainted orthodoxy, —
duke Ernest of Bavaria, bishop of Freisingen. J A German
catholic army now appeared in the field, brought together
by the duke of Bavaria, with the aid of the pope's subsi-
dies. The emperor delayed not to threaten the count
palatine Casimir, ^vith the ban and double ban of the
empire, and sent admonitory letters to his troops which
eventually occasioned the dispersion of the army of the
Palatinate.

It was at this point of time that the Spaniards likewise
made their appearance. In the summer of 1583 they had
conquered Zutphen ; and three thousand five hundred

* Isselt, Historia Belli Coloniensis, p. X Letter of Malaspina to duke William

1092: " Tota hac cestate nihil hoc exer- of BaA'ai'ia in Adlzreitter, ii. xii. 295:

citu dignum egit." " Quod cnpiebamus," he says, " impe-

t Maffei, Annali di Gregorio XIII., travimus."
ii. xii. 8.

§ IX.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 437

Belgian veterans now marched into the electorate. Geb-
hard Truchsess was forced to yield to such numerous
enemies ; his troops would not serve against an imperial
mandate ; his principal fortress surrendered to the Bavaro-
Spanish army, while he himself was compelled to seek
refuge with the prince of Orange, and to ask asylum from
him at whose side he had hoped to stand foremost among
the champions of the protestant cause.

It is easy to perceive how powerfully this event must
have contributed to the complete re-establishment of Catho-
licism in that country. At the very first outbreak of the
troubles, the clergy of the diocese had allowed the dissen-
sions which existed amongst themselves to subside. The
nuncio removed all suspected members, and a Jesuits^ col-
lege was founded in the midst of the clash of arms ; so
that after victory was won, there was only to persevere in
the course already adopted. Truchsess had driven out the
catholic clergy in Westphalia ; they now returned, like the
other refugees, and were held in great honour.'"'" The
lutheran canons were expelled from the diocese, and, con-
trary to all precedent, ceased to receive any portion of their
incomes. The papal nuncios were, it is true, obliged to use
great discretion in their deportment even towards the
catholics ; and of this pope Sixtus was so well aware, that
he commanded his nuncio not to set about the reforms
which he thought necessary, until he knew that all parties
were willing to receive them. It was, however, this very
prudence and moderation which enabled them imperceptibly
to gain their end. The canons, how high soever their
birth, once more began to perform their clerical duties in
the cathedral. The council of Cologne, which was opposed
by a protestant party in the city, strenuously supported
the catholic faith.

This great change could not fail to exercise a powerful
influence on all the other ecclesiastical states ; but a par-
ticular accident which occurred in the neighbourhood of
Cologne materially contributed to its operation. Henry
of Saxe-Lauenburg, bishop of Paderborn and Osnabrück,

* " Elector Ernest," says Kheven- to ancient customs, both the cathohc
hiller, " has constituted anew, according religion and the temporal government.

438 PROGRESS OF THE [Book V.

archbishop of Bremen, (who would, if he could, have fol-
lowed the example of Gebhard,) went one Sunday in April,
1585, from his residence at Vöhrde to church, when in
riding back, his horse fell with him ; and although he was
young and healthy, and did not appear to have received
any serious injury, he died in the course of that month.
The elections which followed were very favourable to Catho-
licism ; the new bishop of Osnabrück, whatever might have
been his previous opinions, now subscribed the " professio
fidei,"'" and Theodore of Fürstenberg, the new bishop of
Paderborn, was a most zealous catholic. While yet a
canon, he had opposed his predecessor, and, in the year
1580, carried the statute, that in future cathohcs only
should be received into the chapter ; f he had already
admitted a few Jesuits, had allowed them to preach in the
cathedral, and to teach in the higher classes of the gym-
nasium ; in the latter case, under the condition that they
were not to wear the dress of their order. It was, of
course, much easier for him as bishop, to afford encourage-
ment and assistance to the party they represented ; they
were no longer compelled to conceal their presence ; the
gymnasium was delivered into their hands without any
stipulation, and they were allowed not only to preach, but
to catechise. They found ample occupation. The town-
council was thoroughly protestant, and there was scarcely
a catholic to be found among the citizens ; nor was the
case very different among the peasantry. The Jesuits
compared Paderborn to a sterile field, which required
extraordinary labour and yet produced no fruit. Never-
theless, as we shall hereafter perceive, in the beginning of
the seventeenth century they had completely subdued this
stubborn soil to their culture.

• According to Strunck, Annales Pa- c. i. p. 185, we find a letter from pope

derbornenses, p. 514, Bernard von Wal- Gregory XIII.: " dilectis filiis canonicis

deck was at an cai'lier period inclined to et capitulo ecclesia) Paderbornensis,"

protestantism ; during the troubles at 6th Feb. 1584, in which he praises this

Cologne he remained neuter and now spirit of opposition: "It is right it

acknowledged to the catholic faith. Chy- should be thus : the more you are

tneus (Saxonia, 812.) does not contradict attacked, the stronger must be your

liini. resistance : the pope himself bears in

+ Bossen, Geschichte von Padei'born, his heai't the fathers of the society of

ii. 123. In Reiffcnberg, Ilistoria Pro- Jesus."
vincire ad Rhenum Inferiorem, lib. viii.

§ IX.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 439

The death of Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg was an important
event to Münster also. As the younger members of the
chapter supported, and the elder opposed him, it had
hitherto been impossible to carry any election ; now, how-
ever, duke Ernest of Bavaria, elector of Cologne and bishop
of Liege, was elected bishop of Münster ; principally through
the exertions of the most determined catholic of the chapter,
the dean Raesfeld, who, just before his death, made a will
bequeathing 12,000 reichs -thalers for the establishment of a
Jesuits' college in Münster. In the year 1587 the first
Jesuits arrived. They found enemies in the canons, the
Protestant ministers, and the citizens ; but were supported
by the council and the prince. Their schools soon began
to evince their extraordinary merits, and in the third year
they could reckon a thousand scholars. Even so early as
the year 1590, they were rendered completely independent
by a voluntary grant of church property made to them by
the prince.'"''

Elector Ernest also possessed the bishoprick of Hilde-
sheim ; and although his power there was much more limited
than in Münster, he contributed greatly to the introduction
of the Jesuits. The first Jesuit who came to Hildesheim
was John Hammer, a native of that city, educated in the
lutheran faith by his father, who was still living, but filled
with all the zeal of a proselyte. His preaching was remark-
ably perspicuous and intelligible, and he made some bril-
liant conversions ; by degrees he gained firm footing, and
in the year 1590 the Jesuits acquired a dwelling and a
pension in Hildesheim.

We perceive how important the Catholicism of the house
of Bavaria was, even as affecting Northern Germany, where
a Bavarian prince appears in so many dioceses at once as
the main prop of the catholic party.

Yet we must not imagine that this prince was very zealous
or very devout in his own person. He had natural children,
and it had been thought at one time that he would act in
the same manner as Gebhard Truchsess had done. It is
extremely interesting and curious to observe with what

* Sacchinus, pars v. lib. viii. n. 83 — 91. Reiffenberg, Historia Provinciae ad Rhe-
nuni Inferiorem, i. ix. vi.

440 PROGRESS OF THE [Book V.

caution and delicacy pope Sixtus treated him. He most
carefully avoided showing him that he was aware of his
irregularities, perfectly as he was acquainted with them ;
for then exhortations and remonstrances would have been
necessary, which might very probably have driven the
headstrong prince to some determination little agreeable
to the court of Rome.'""

The affairs of Germany were not to be managed in the
same manner as those of the Netherlands had been ; they
demanded the most skilful and dehcate regard to personal
interests and personal feelings.

Although duke William of Cleves outwardly conformed
to the catholic confession, his policy was on the whole Pro-
testant ; he willingly afforded refuge and protection to
Protestant exiles, and did not permit his son John William,
who w^as a zealous cathohc, to take any share in public
affairs. There were not wanting those in Rome who might
easily have been tempted to show their disapprobation
and resentment at his proceedings, and to encourage any
opposition raised by his son ; but Sixtus V. was far too
prudent to sanction such a course. It was not until the
prince pressed for an interview so earnestly that it was
impossible to decline it any longer without offence, that the
nuncio held a conference with him at Düsseldorf, and even
then he exhorted him in the strongest manner to patience.
The pope would not allow him to be invested with the
order of the Golden Fleece, lest it should awaken suspicion.
Nor did he intercede directly with the father in favour of
his son, since he thought that any connexion of the latter
Avith Rome would displease the duke ; but endeavoured to
procure for the prince a position befitting his birth, by
means of an application which he induced the emperor to
make in his behalf. He admonished the nuncio to act
concerning some things as if he did not perceive them.
This considerate forbearance on the part of an authority
which was still recognised, chd not fail to produce its usual
effect. The nuncio gradually acquired influence, and when
the protestants at the diet asked for certain concessions, it

* Tcmpcsti, Vita di Siüto V., torn. i. p. ,"554.

§ IX.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 441

was chiefly through his representations that they were
refused.''^

In a great portion of Northern Germany, cathohcism
was thus, if not instantly re-estabhshed, yet in the hour of
imminent peril upheld, confirmed, and fortified ; it obtained
a degree of superiority which time might mature into com-
plete ascendancy.

In a great part of Southern Germany, events immediately
took a similar course.

We touched upon the state of the Franconian bishoprics.
It might easily have entered into the imagination of a
resolute bishop to avail himself of it for the establishment
of an hereditary power.

It was probably this state of things that induced Julius
Echter of Mespelbronn — who, in the year 1573, while still
in the flower of youth, and of an enterprising disposition,
had been created bishop of Würzburg — to hesitate some
time what line of policy to adopt. He took an active part
in the expulsion of the abbot of Fulda ; yet it could not
have been any very decided leaning to Catholicism which
brought the chapter and the states of Fulda into connexion
with him, since the re-establishment of Catholicism was the
principal grievance they had to allege against their abbot.
It was on this account too that the bishop fell into a mis-
understanding with Rome ; Gregory XIII. having enjoined
him to restore Fulda, just at the moment when Truchsess
proclaimed his revolt. In this emergency, bishop Julius
actually prepared to address himself to Saxony, and to call
in the aid of the leader of the lutherans against the pope.
He was intimately connected with Truchsess, who at all
events entertained hopes that the bishop of Würzburg would
follow his example, — as the minister of Lauenburg, arch-
bishop of Bremen, announces with great satisfaction to his
master, t

* Tempesti, Vita di Sisto V,, torn. i. p. begged time for a little consideration,

359. immediately ordered his horses and suite

+ Letter of Hermann von der Decken to be in readiness, and determined to

(for Becken must be a false reading), mount and ride over to the elector of

dated 6tli Dec. 1582, in Schmidt -Phisel- Saxony, and complain to his grace of

deck, Historischen Miscellaneen, i. 25. such unheard-of importunity on the part

" Upon the statements and solicitations of the pope, and apply for council, aid,

of the legate, the bishop of Würzburg and consolation His grace

442 PROGRESS OF THE [Book V.

Under these circumstances, it would be difficult to decide
what bishop Juhus would have done, had Truchsess been
able to keep his ground at Cologne ; as however he so com-
pletely failed, Julius not only abandoned all thought of
following his example, but determined to pursue a totally
different line of conduct.

Are we to presume that his only object had been the
acquisition of absolute power in his own dominions 1 or
did he really entertain in his heart strict catholic convic-
tions 1 At all events, he was a pupil of the Jesuits, and
educated at the Collegium Romanum. Whatever was the
cause, in the year 1584 he undertook a visitation of the
churches in a highly catholic spirit, and hitherto unparalleled
in Germany ; and he carried this through in person with
all the energy of a most resolute will.

He travelled through his whole territory accompanied
by certain Jesuits, going first to Gmiinden, then to Arn-
stein, Werneck, and Hassfurt, and so on from circle to
circle. In every to\\Ti he summoned to his presence the
burgermaster and the town-council, and told them of his
determination to root out the errors of protestantism. The
pastors were sent away and their places filled with the
pupils of the Jesuits. Any official person who refused to
attend catholic worship was dismissed without mercy, and
the vacant office instantly filled by one of the catholic
faith. Even private persons were all required to attend
the cathoHc service, and had only to choose between the
mass or exile ; he to whom the religion of his prince was
an abomination ought, it was said, to have no share or
interest in his country.'"' In vain did the neighbouring
princes remonstrate against these measures. Bishop Juhus
used to say, that it was not what he did that caused him
any scruples of conscience, but that he had begun to do it
so late. He received the most active and zealous support

(the elector of Cologne) had great hopes and employments, and to seek their

of the reverend loi'ds bishops, that their livehhood out of the diocese." I have

princely graces would declare against already made use of this biography, and,

the po])e." in particular, along with it, Christophori

* niography of bishop Julius in Mariani Augustani Encaenia et Tricen-

Gropp's Chronicle of Würzl)urg, p. 335 : nalia Juliana in Gropp's Scriptt. Wirceb.

" they were told to give up their offices tom. i.

§ IX.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 443

from the Jesuits, among whom Father Gerhard Weiler was
especially conspicuous, by going alone and on foot, without
even a change of raiment, from place to place preaching.
In the single year of 1586, fourteen cities and market-
towns and above two hundred villages, containing in all
62,000 souls, were brought back to the catholic faith. The
capital of the diocese was the only town which still adhered
to protestantism, and in March, 1587, the bishop under-
took its conversion. He summoned the town-council before
him, and appointed for each quarter and parish a commis-
sion, which was to examine each citizen separately. Here
too it was discovered that one half cherished protestant
opinions ; the faith of many however was feeble and waver-
ing, and soon yielded to persuasion or menace ; and the
solemn communion which the bishop himself celebrated in
the cathedral at Easter was numerously attended. Others
held out longer, and a few chose rather to sell their pro-
perty and go into exile ; among the latter were four
members of the council.

This was an example which the bishop of Bamberg, the
nearest ecclesiastical neighbour of Würzburg, felt himself
especially called upon to follow. There is a hill called
Gosweinstein, rising above the valley of Muggendorf, to the
summit of which pilgrims may, to this day, be seen wend-
ing their way from all the surrounding valleys, by steep
and solitary paths, through magnificent woods and roman-
tic precipices. Here was an ancient sanctuary sacred to
the Holy Trinity ; but at the time we are speaking of, it
was neglected and deserted. When Ernest von Mengers-
dorf, bishop of Bamberg, happened in the year 1587 to
visit this spot, he was greatly shocked at its condition.
Inflamed by the example of his neighbour, he declared that
he also would "bring back his subjects to the true catholic
faith ; no dangers should prevent him from performing
this his duty." We shall see how earnestly his successor
followed the course he marked out.

But whilst in Bamberg things were only in preparation,
in Würzburg bishop Juhus effected a complete change in
the religious character of his dominions. All old ordi-
nances and ceremonies were revived ; devotional exercises

444 PROGRESS OF THE [Book V.

in honour of the Mother of God, pilgrimages, brotherhoods
of the assumption of the Virgin and of her birth, and
various others were restored, and neAV ones founded.
Processions filled the streets. Throughout the whole
country, the sound of the church bells recalled the hour of
the Ave Maria."'' Relics were again collected and deposited
with great pomp in their appointed shrines. The convents
were filled again, and churches built in all directions ;
bishop Julius is said to have laid the foundations of three
hundred ; the traveller may still distinguish them by their
lofty spires. Men observed with astonishment the change
which a few years had wrought. A panegyrist of the
bishop thus expresses himself : " What was formerly
esteemed superstitious and even contemptible, is now held
sacred ; what was lately revered as a gospel, is now
declared to be only deceit."

Even at Rome such signal success had not been antici-
pated. The enterprise of bishop Julius had already been
some time in progress before pope Sixtus heard anything
of it. After the autumn holidays in 1586, Aquaviva, the
general of the Jesuits, appeared before him and informed
him of the new conquests achieved by his order ; Sixtus
was delighted, and hastened to testify his approbation and
gratitude to the bishop. He granted him the right of fill-
ing the benefices which had fallen vacant in the reserved
months, adding, that he would best know whom to reward.

But the pleasure which the pope received from Aqua-
viva's report was enhanced by the arrival of similar intelli-
gence from the Austrian provinces, particularly from Styria.

In the year in which the protestant estates of Styria
acquired such a degree of independence, through the de-
crees of the diet of Brück, that they might almost compare
their position with that of the estates of Austria, and hke
them possessed their own council for rehgious matters,

• Julii cpiscopi statuta ruralia, Gropp, communicates itself downwards to every

Script, tom. i. His meaning is, that the member of the body. Vide p. 444, de

rehgious movement which pi'oceeds from capituhs rui-alibus.
the supreme head of the chiu'ch of Christ,

§ IX.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 445

their own superintendents and synods, and a nearly repub-
lican constitution, — in that very year a change began.

Scarcely had Rudolf II. received the homage of his sub-
jects, when it was remarked how completely he differed
from his father : he performed the acts of devotion in their
utmost strictness ; men saw him vrith astonishment attend
the processions, even in the hardest winter, bare-headed
and carrying a torch in his hand.

This temper of the prince, and the favour which he
showed to the Jesuits, soon caused great anxiety, and in
accordance with the character of the times, excited a
violent counter-movement. In the Landhaus at Vienna,
which, as the protestants had not been allowed to have a
regular church in the capital, was used for their worship,
Joshua Opitz, a disciple of Flaccius, preached with all the
vehemence which characterised his sect. He thundered
out continual invectives against Jesuits, priests, and " all
the abominations of popery,^^ which produced not only
conviction in his hearers, but exasperation ; so that, as one
of his cotemporaries says, " when they came out of their
church, the}^ were ready to tear the papists to pieces with
their own hands."'"' The consequence was, that the emperor
determined to prohibit their meetings at the Landhaus.
While the arguments for and against this measure were
discussed with passionate warmth, and the nobility to
whom the Landhaus belonged gave vent to threatening
expressions, the feast of Corpus Christi of the year 1578
arrived. The emperor was determined to celebrate this
festival in the most solemn manner. After he had heard
mass in St. Stephen's church, the procession, the first
which had been seen for a long time, began. The host
was accompanied through the streets by priests, brethren
of religious orders, and guilds ; in the midst were the
emperor and the princes. But it was soon evident that
the town was in a state of extraordinary ferment. When
the procession reached the peasants' market, it was found
necessary to take away a few stalls to make room for it to
pass. Nothing more was required to produce a general

* D"". George Eder, who was indeed nungsschrift in Raupach, Evangel. Oes-
an adversary : extract from his War- treich, ii. 286.

446 PROGRESS OF THE [Book V.

tumult; the cry of "To arms! we are betrayed!" was
heard on all sides. The choristers and priests abandoned
the host ; the halberdiers and guards fled in all directions ;
the emperor found himself in the midst of an infuriated
multitude, and fearing an attack upon his person, laid his
hand upon his sword, while the princes drew theirs and
closed round their monarch to defend him from the mob.'"'
It will be easily imagined what an impression this incident
made upon a prince of such gravity, and one so attached
to Spanish dignity and stateliness. The papal nuncio
seized on the occasion to represent to him the dangers
with which he was menaced by such a state of things ; he
averred that God himself showed him in this tumult how
requisite it was for him to fulfil the promises he had pre-
viously made to the pope : in these representations he was
supported by the Spanish minister. The Jesuit provincial,
Magius, had frequently urged the emperor to take decisive
measures ; he now obtained a hearing. On the 21st of
June, 1578, the emperor issued an order to Opitz and his
assistants, both in church and school, to leave the city that
very day, " while the sun was shining ; " and, within four-
teen days, the hereditary dominions of Austria. The
emperor, fearing a popular commotion, kept under arms a
body of trustworthy men, ready to act in case of necessity.
But how were the people to resist a prince who had the
strict letter of the law on his side 1 they could only accom-
pany the exiles on their way v^th every demonstration of
sorrow and sympathy, f

From this day a catholic re-action commenced in
Austria, which every year acquired fresh strength and
activity.

The plan was, to expel protestantism in the first place
from the imperial cities. The towns on the east of the
Enns, which twenty years before had separated themselves
from the estates of the nobles and knights, could make no
resistance. The lutheran clergy were banished to various

* Maffei, Annali di Gregorio XIII., gos omnique execratione dignissimos pro-
torn, i. p. 281. 335 ; without doubt written secuta sit numerosa multitudo quotque
from the accounts of the nuncio. benevolentine documentis, ut vel inde mali

t Sacchinus, pars iv. lib. vi. n. 78 : gravitas sestimai'i possit."
" Pudet referre, quam exeimtes sacrile-

§ IX.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 447

places ; catholics were appointed in their stead, and even
private individuals were subjected to a strict examination.
We are in possession of a formula according to which the
suspected were questioned : " Dost thou believe/^ says one
article, " that all is true which is laid down for the govern-
ment of life and doctrine by the church of Rome V " Dost
thou believe," says another, " that the pope is the head of
the sole apostolic church'?" Not a doubt was tolerated.^""
The protestants were removed from all civic offices, and no
one admitted to the privileges of a citizen, who was not a
catholic. Every candidate for a doctor's degree at the
university of Vienna was compelled first to subscribe the
'' professio fideiJ^ A new ordinance for the schools pre-
scribed catholic formularies, fasts, visits to churches, and
the exclusive use of the catechism of Canisius. In Vienna
all Protestant books were taken away from the booksellers'
shops and stalls, and were carried in great heaps to the
bishop's court ; all boxes arriving at the custom-houses
were searched, and books or pictures which were not
strictly catholic were seized, f

But all these acts of the government had not yet accom-
plished their end. In a short time, indeed, thirteen cities
and market-towns were restored to Catholicism in Lower
Austria, and the catholics had regained possession of the
crown lands and mortgaged property. But the nobles still
made a powerful resistance, and the towns on the west of
the Enns were in strict alliance with them, and were too
formidable to be attacked.^

Nevertheless, many of these measures had, as may be
imagined, an influence and efficacy from which none could
escape ; in Styria, for example, they produced an imme-
diate return to old opinions.

At the very time the catholic re-action was advancing
in so many places, the archduke Charles had been forced
to make concessions in that province, and these his family
could not forgive him. His brother-in-law, duke Albert

* Papal, Austrian, and Bavarian arti- + Khevenhiller, Ferd. Jahrb., i. 90.
cles of confession of faith in Raupach, Hansitz, Germania Sacra, i. 632.
Evang. Oestreich, ii. 307. X Raupach, Kleine Nachlese Ev.

Oestr., iv. p. 17.

448 PROGRESS OF THE [Book Y.

of Bavaria, represented to him that the terms of the peace
of Augsburg authorized him to compel his subjects to
embrace the rehgion which he himself professed. He
recommended to the archduke three measures : — first, to
fill all the offices, particularly at court and in the privy
council, exclusively with catholics ; secondly, to separate
the different estates at the diet, by which means he might
deal better with each singly ; and thirdly, to come to a
good understanding with the pope, and to request him to
send a nuncio to his court. Gregory XIII. voluntarily
offered his assistance ; and knowing that it was chiefly
want of money which had forced the archduke to make
concessions to the protestants, he took the best means
of rendering him more independent of his subjects, by
sending him pecuniary aid. In the year 1580 he sent
him 40,000 ^c, at that time a very considerable sum, and
deposited a still larger fund at Yenice, to which the
archduke was to have recourse in case his efforts for the
restoration of Catholicism should produce disturbances in
his country.

Thus encouraged by example, exhortation, and substan-
tial assistance, the archduke Charles, from the year 1580,
took up a position totally different from that wliich he had
previously occupied.

In this year he published an explanation of his former
concessions, which may be considered as a revocation of
them. The estates addressed a humble petition to him,
and for a moment their urgency of the prayer appeared
to have some effect;"'' but on the whole he remained
firm to the measures he had announced, and the expul-
sion of the Protestant ministers commenced in Austria
Mkevnse.

The year 1584 was pregnant with events. The papal
nuncio Malaspina made his appearance in the diet of this
year. He had already succeeded in detaching the prelates
from the secular estates, with which they had always
sided : he now established between them, the duke's

* " According to the natural, benig- mildreichen landsfüi*stlichen deutschen
nant, and paternal disposition of a Ger- Gemüth nach,") says the supplication of
man prince," (" seinem angeborenen, the three states.

§ IX.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 449

ministers, and all the catholics in the province, a strict union
of which he himself was the centre. Hitherto the whole
country had appeared to be protestant ; but the nuncio
contrived to form a strong party around the prince, whose
position thus became impregnable. He declared it to be
his fixed determination to root out protestantism from his
dominions ; the treaty of Augsburg, he said, gave him far
greater powers than he had yet employed, even over the
nobles, and any further opposition would but compel him
to exercise them ; he should then see who would show
himself a rebel.

Peremptory as these declarations were, they w^ere not
less successful than his former concessions ; the estates
granted all his demands.'"'

From this time the counter-reformation began through-
out all the archducal territory. The church-livings and
the seats in the town-councils were filled with catholics ;
no citizen dared to attend any but the catholic church, or
to send his children to any but the catholic schools.

These changes were not always carried into effect peace-
ably. The catholic clergy and the archduke's commis-
sioners were occasionally insulted and driven away. The
archduke himself was once in danger during a hunting
party, in consequence of a report in the district that a
neighbouring preacher had been seized ; the people assem-
bled in arms, and the poor persecuted lutheran was himself
obhged to step forward to protect his merciless master
from the enraged peasantry.! Notwithstanding these dis-
plays of popular feeling, however, the catholic movement
went on. The harshest measures were applied ; they are
described in a few words by one of the papal historians ; —
confiscation, exile, and severe punishment of all the refrac-
tory. The spiritual princes who possessed any property
in those districts, gave their assistance to the temporal
authorities. The archbishop of Cologne, bishop of Freisin-
gen, changed the council of his town of Lack, and sentenced

* Valvassor, Ehre des Herzogthums lib. xiii. c. i. He had without doubt the

Krain, contains good and detailed infor- report of the nuncio before him.

mation on all these matters. ButMaffei's f Khevenhiller, Annales Ferdinande!

account is especially important in the II., p. 523.
AnnaH di Gregorio XIII., lib. ix. c. xx.,

VOL. I. G G

450 PROGRESS OF THE [Book V.

the Protestant citizens to imprisonment or fine ; the bishop
of Brixen resolved on making a new division of the land
in his lordship of Veldes. This spirit extended to all the
Austrian provinces. Although the Tyrol had remained
true to Catholicism, the archduke Ferdinand did not neglect
to enforce the strict subordination of the clergy of Inspruck,
and the regular attendance of all classes at the commu-
nion. Sunday-schools were established for the people ;
cardinal Andreas, the son of Ferdinand, caused catechisms
to be printed and distributed among the school-children
and the uneducated classes ; '''' but in districts where there
was any tincture of protestantism, the archduke was not
satisfied with proceedings of so mild a character. In the
margravate of Burgau, although but recently acquired, and
in the bailiwick of Swabia, although his jurisdiction there
Avas disputed, he proceeded in exactly the same manner as
the archduke Charles in Styria.

The admiration which pope Sixtus expressed at these
measures was boundless and inexhaustible. He extolled
the Austrian princes as the firmest pillars of the Christian
faith, and sent the most aflfectionate letters to the archduke
Charles more especially. f The acquisition of a countship
which then fell vacant, was regarded by the court of
Grätz as a recompense for all the service it had rendered
to Christendom.

Though in the Netherlands the catholic faith took firm
root chiefly by accommodating itself to popular privileges,
this was not the case in Germany, where the several sove-
reigns increased their greatness and extended their power,
in proportion as they favoured the restoration of the catholic
church. Wolf Dietrich von Raittenau, archbishop of Salz-
burg, affords the most remarkable example of this intimate
union of ecclesiastical and political power, and of the lengtlis
to which it was carried.

The former archbishops, cotemporaries of the reformation
and eye-witnesses of all its agitations, contented themselves

• Tuteo in Tempesti, Vita di Sisto V., f Extmct from the briefs, in Tempesti,
torn. i. 375. i. 203.

§ IX.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 451

with occasionally issuing an edict against innovations,
threatening the infliction of a punishment, or making an
attempt at a conversion ; but only, as archbishop Jacob
says, " by gentle, paternal, and upright means." On the
whole, they suffered matters to take their course.*"'

But the young archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raittenau
brought with him totally different impressions, views, and
projects on his accession to the see of Salzburg. He had
been educated in the German college at Rome, and had
imbibed the ideas of the restoration of the catholic church
in all their force and freshness. He had witnessed with
admiration the brilliant commencement of the reign of
Sixtus V. ; and the promotion of his uncle, cardinal Altemps,
in whose house he had been brought up in Rome, to the
purple, served to quicken his zeal and exalt his enthusiasm.
In the year 1588, at the termination of a journey which
had carried him back to Rome, he began the work of con-
version by requiring the citizens of his capital to subscribe
the catholic faith. Many testified reluctance ; to these he
granted a few weeks for deliberation, after which, on the
3rd of September, 1588, he ordered them to quit the town
and the diocese within one month. Only this month (and,
after urgent prayers, a second month) was conceded, to
enable them to dispose of their property, of which they
were required to give in an inventory to the archbishop,
and were then only allowed to sell it to such persons as
were agreeable to him.f But few abandoned their faith,
and these were obliged to do penance publicly in the
churches, with burning tapers in their hands ; by far the
greater number, even of the more opulent citizens, accepted
the alternative of banishment. The loss of them caused
the prince no anxiety, for he thought he had discovered
means by which to sustain the lustre of his see. He had
already arbitrarily raised the taxes, increased the duties of
the excise and customs, advanced the duty on salt from the
mines of Hallein and Schellenberg, converted the aids given

* A more severe edict was issued, it Göekingk, " Vollkommene Emigrations-
is true, in the name of Jacob, but not till geschichte von denen aus dem Erzbis-
after he had been obliged to abandon the thum Salzburg vertriebenen Luthera-
administration to a coadjutor. nern,** i. p. 88.

t Edict concerning the reformation in

G G 2

452 PROGRESS OF THK [Book V.

for the support of the Turkish war into a regular land-tax,
and introduced duties on wines, and a property-tax and
legacy-duty. He showed not the smallest respect for
ancient and established rights and francliises. The dean of
the diocese killed himself, it was said, in a paroxysm of
grief at the destruction of the rights of the chapter. The
aim of all the orders given by the archbishop concerning
the preparation of salt and the whole business of mining,
was to break down the independence of the works, and to
subject them entirely to the control of his own council.
We find no similar example of a regular fiscal system in
this century throughout Germany. The young archbishop
had brought with him across the Alps the ideas current in
an Italian principality, where the art of raising money was
esteemed the highest talent of a statesman. He had taken
Sixtus V. as his model, and aspired, like him, to have in
his hands an obedient, thoroughly catholic, tributary state.
He was therefore delighted at the expatriation of the citi-
zens of Salzburg, whom he looked upon as rebels. He
caused their deserted houses to be pulled down, and erected
in their room palaces in the Roman style.""*

Above all things he loved pomp. He never refused any
foreigner who chose to enter his service, knightly pay and
entertainment, and he once appeared at the diet with a
retinue of four hundred men. In the year 1588 he was
only twenty-nine years of age, full of courage, and covetous
of honour ; and visions of the highest ecclesiastical dignities
already floated before his eyes.

The same process which was going on in the spiritual
and temporal principalities was repeated in the towns,
wherever circumstances rendered it possible. The lutheran
burghers of Gmünden bitterly complained that they were
excluded from the list of members of the city council. In
Biberach, the council which had been appointed on occasion
of the interim by the commissary of the emperor Charles V.

• Zauner's Chronicle of Salzburg, part was itself constructed upon a contcmpo-
vii., is hero oui' most important source of rary biogi*aphy of the ai'chbishop.
information. This part of the chronicle

§ IX.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 453

still existed ; the whole town was protestant, the members
of the council alone were catholic, and studiously excluded
every protestant. "* To what oppressive measures were the
protestants in Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle subject ! The
council of Cologne declared that they had promised the
emperor and the elector to tolerate no religion save the
catholic ; they punished even the listening to a protestant
sermon with fine and imprisonment.! The catholics also
gained the ascendancy in Augsburg ; the introduction of
the new calendar gave rise to dissensions ; and in the year
1586, the protestant superintendent, then eleven ministers
at once, and lastly a number of the most obstinate citizens,
were driven out. Similar causes were followed by scenes
of the same kind in Ratisbon in the year 1587. The towns
began to lay claim to the right of reforming their rehgious
institutions ; and even individual counts and nobles and
knights of the empire, who had been converted by some
Jesuit, asserted a similar claim, and undertook the resusci-
tation of Catholicism within their small territories.

The reaction was boundless. The torrent of pro-
testantism was now driven back with a force equal to that
with which it had overflowed the land. Preaching and
teaching did something, but far more was effected by ordi-
nances, commands, and open force. As formerly the Italian
protestants had crossed the Alps, and sought refuge in
Switzerland and Germany ; so German exiles in still more
numerous bodies now fled from oppression in the western
and southern provinces to the north and east of Germany.
In like manner the Belgians sought an asylum in Holland.
Catholicism marched with victorious strides from land to
land.

Its progress was in an especial manner encouraged and
accelerated by the nuncios, wh©, from this time forth, began
regularly to reside in Germany.

There is still extant a memoir of the nuncio Minuccio
Minucci, dated 1588, which affords an insight into the views
generally entertained and acted upon in his time.| The

* Lehmann, de Pace Religionis, ii. pp. f Lehmann, 436. 270.
268. 480. ± Discorso del molto illustre e rev""

45 i PROGRESS OF THE [Book V.

most especial attention was paid to education ; and it was
earnestly desired that the catholic universities should be
better appointed for the training of distinguished teachers.
Ingolstadt alone was endowed with the requisite means,
and, as matters now stood, everything rested upon the
Jesuit seminaries. Minuccio Minucci expressed his wish
that less attention had been devoted to producing great
scholars and profound theologians, than to forming good
and able preachers. A man of moderate acquirements,
who did not aspire to reach the highest point of learning
or to acquire fame, was perhaps the most efficient and most
useful minister of religion. He recommended these obser-
vations to the attention of those at the head of the esta-
blishments for the German Cathohcs in Italy. A distinction
was originally made in the Collegium Grermanicum, in the
treatment of the youths of the middle classes and the
young nobles ; Minuccio Minucci censures the departure
from this custom. He says that the effect of the change
was not only to disgust the nobles and to render them
averse to go thither, but to excite in the middle classes an
ambition which could not be satisfied in after-life, and a
striving after the higher appointments in the church, which
was detrimental to the faithful performance of the duties of
the lower ones. Besides, an endeavour was now made to
introduce a third or intermediate class, — the children of the
higher official persons, who, according to the common
course of events, would at some future time have the
greatest share in the administration of their native pro-
vinces. Gregory XIII. had already made arrangements
for their reception in Perugia and Bologna. We see that
the distinction of ranks, which is still so strongly marked in
German society, was even then visible.

In this conjuncture, as in all others, the most important
part w^as played by the nobles, to whom the maintenance
of Catholicism in Germany is principally ascribed by the
nuncio, and no doubt with justice ; for as they had an
exclusive right to the richest benefices and highest dignities

nions'"" Minuccio Minucci, sopra il modo Alcmagna, 1588. MS. Barb. (App.
di restituire la cattolica religione in No. ()2.)

§ IX. J COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 455

of the church, they defended it as their hereditary pro-
perty ; and now opposed the introduction of reHgious
Hberty in the dioceses,'"' fearing the great number of Pro-
testant princes who would then claim the right of nomina-
tion to all the benefices.

It was therefore the policy of the church to protect and
to conciliate these nobles. Rome did not dare to vex them
with the law against plurality of benefices ; and indeed the
changing from one residence to another was advantageous,
inasmuch as it served to unite the nobles of the various
provinces for the defence of the church. It was also ne-
cessary to avoid bestowing any ecclesiastical appointments
upon men of the burgher class : a few learned men were
very usefiil in a cathedral, as was remarked at Cologne ;
but if this system were carried much further, it would
cause the ruin of the German church.

The question now remained, how far it was possible to
bring back to the faith the provinces which had become
completely protestant.

We find from this document that the nuncio was far
from recommending open violence ; the protestant princes
appear to him much too powerful to be attacked ; but he
suggests other means which might gradually lead to the
accomplishment of the object in view.

Above all things, he considers it essential to maintain a
good understanding between the catholic powers, especially
between Bavaria and Austria. The treaty of Landsberg
still existed ; this he thinks should be renewed and ex-
tended; and Philip of Spain might be included among the
parties to it.

Might it not also be possible to win back some of the
protestant princes'? — It had long been thought that the
elector Augustus of Saxony betrayed a leaning towards
Catholicism, and attempts upon him had occasionally been

* Particularly in Southern Germany : che nell' occupatione delli principi si leva

*' L' esempio della suppressione dell' altre a loro et a' posteri la speranza dell' utile

(the northern Germans) ha avvertiti i che cavano dai canonicati e dagli altri

nobili a metter cura maggiore nella beneficii e che possono pretendere del

difesa di queste, concorrendo in cio tanto vescovato raentre a' canonici resti libera

gli eretici quanto li cattolici, accorti gia, I'elettione."

456 PROGRESS OF THE [Book V.

made, chiefly through the interposition of Bavaria ; not
only, however, had the greatest caution always been ne-
cessary, but as the wife of the elector, Anne of Denmark,
adhered strictly to the lutheran faith, they had always been
unsuccessful. Anne died in the year 1585 ; her death was
not only a day of deliverance to the oppressed calvinists,
but the removal of an obstacle between the catholics and
their prince. It appeared as if Bavaria, which had hitherto
always been in opposition, determined to take some steps for
the propagation of Catholicism ; and pope Sixtus held him-
self prepared to send absolution to the elector.'"' Meanwhile
Augustus died before anything was effected. But the
catholic party soon directed their attention to other princes ;
to Louis count palatine of Neuburg, in whom they thought
they remarked a coldness to all interests hostile to Catho-
licism, and a peculiar forbearance towards all catholic
priests who accidentally approached his territories ; and
to William IV. of Hesse, who was learned, pacific, and had
occasionally accepted the dedication of catholic writings.
Neither did they lose sight of members of the higher
nobility of northern Germany, and among others they con-
ceived some hope of Heinrich Ranzau.

But if the results of these schemes were too remote to

* As eai'ly as 1574, Gregory XIII. of Pius V. The whole passage is remark-

encoui'aged duke Albert V., "ut dum able. "Con duca Augusto di Sassonia

elector Saxonise Calvinistarum sectam gia raorto tratto sin a tempi della s. m.

ex imperii sui finibus exturbare conaba- di Papa Pio V. il duca Alberto di Baviera,

tur, vellet sermones cum principe illo che vive in cielo, e ridusse la pratica

aliquaudo habitos de religione catholica tanto innanzi che si prometteva sicura

in Saxonia introduccnda renovare." He riuscita : ma piacque a Dio benedetto di

was of opinion that it would be right to chiamarlo, ne d'opera di tanta importanza

send an agent thither ; the duke was fu chi parlasse o pensasse, se non ch' a

entirely against this ; the thing would then tempi di Gregorio di gl. mem. il padre

get to the privy council of the elector, Possevino s'ingegno di fabricare sopra

*' ad consiliarios et fainihares, a quibus quel fundamenti : et in fine nel presente

quid exspectandum aliud quam quod felicissimo pontificate di Sisto, sendo

totam rem pervertat ?" He continues : morta la moglie d'esso duca Augusto, fu

" Arte hie opus esse judicatur, quo tan- chi ricordo I'occasione esser opportuna

quam aliud agens errantem pie circum- per trattare di nuovo la conversione di

veniat.— Uxor, quo ex sexu impotentiori quel principe : ma la providentia divina

concitatior est, eo importimiora suffun- non li diede tempo di poter aspetüire la

det consilia, si resciscat banc apud mari- bencdittione che S. Bcat»^" pur per mezzo

turn rem agi." Legationes Paparum ad del S"^ duca Guliehno di Baviera s'appa-

Duces Jlavariie. MS. in the Library at recchiava di mandarli sin a easa sua."

Munich. Miiuicci relates that tlie first We see how cai'ly tliis coui*se was pur-

tiverturea were made as late as the time sued.

§ IX.] COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 457

be reckoned upon, there were other projects, the success
of which depended more upon their own determination
and will.

The majority of the assessors of the Kammergericht (so
at least the nuncio asserts) were still inclined to pro-
testantism. They were still men of that earlier epoch,
when, in most countries (even those which adhered to
Catholicism), secret or professed protestants sat in the
prince's councils. The nuncio considered this state of
things as tending to reduce the catholics to despair, and
urgently entreated that some remedy should be applied.
It appeared to him an easy matter to compel all the actual
assessors in catholic provinces to make a profession of
faith, and all those about to be appointed, to take an oath
either not to change their religion, or to give up their
places. The catholics, it was asserted, had a right to the
supremacy in this tribunal.

Minucci did not yet quite give up the hope of regaining
possession of the lost bishoprics without having recourse
to violence, if existing rights were asserted with pertinacity.
All connexion between them and Rome had not as yet
been broken off, nor was the ancient right of the curia to
nominate to the benefices which fell vacant in the reserved
months, absolutely denied ; even the protestant bishops
believed that their nominations stood in need of the pope's
confirmation, and we find that Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg,
whom we recently mentioned, still maintained an agent at
Rome to procure this for him. The papal see had not
hitherto been able to take advantage of this still lingering
deference to its authority, in consequence of the practice
resorted to by the emperors, of supplying the want of the
papal confirmations by dispensations of their own ; and
the nominations to benefices which were received from
Rome either came too late, or had some error of form; so
that the chapter always had legal freedom of choice.
Minucci insisted that the emperor should grant no more
dispensations, and, from the opinions which then prevailed
at court, he succeeded. Duke William of Bavaria had
already proposed to delegate the nomination to livings
either to the nuncio or to some trustworthy bishop in

458 COUNTER-REFORMATION IN GERMANY. [Book V.

Germany. It was Minucci's opinion that a special dataria
for Germany should be established at Rome ; where a list
of the qualified catholic nobles should be kept, which could
be constantly rectified by the nuncio or the Jesuits, and,
according to the standard thus afforded, the vacancies
could be filled without delay. No chapter would dare to
reject the Roman candidates thus regularly nominated, and
the consideration and influence which the curia would thus
acquire would be incalculable.

It is evident how strongly the minds of men were imbued
with the notion of a complete re-establishment of the
old power. To win over the nobility, to bring up the
higher classes of citizens in the interest of Rome, to educate
the youth in this spirit, to recover their former influence in
the dioceses (even those converted to protestantism), to
regain the ascendancy in the Kammergericht, to convert
the powerful princes of the empire, and to incorporate the
predominant catholic power with the Germanic confedera-
tion;— such were the mighty and various projects which
were to be simultaneously attempted. Nor must we ima-
gine that these recommendations were neglected. Even at
the very moment they were proposed to the authorities in
Rome, they were already in course of execution in Germany.

The activity and good order of the Kammergericht chiefly
rested upon the yearly visitations which were always under-
taken by the seven estates of the empire, according to their
rotation at the imperial diet. The majority had most fi^e-
quently been catholic in these visitations ; but, on one
occasion, in the year 1588, when the protestant archbishop
of Magdeburg formed one of the number, it was protestant.
This the catholic party determined not to permit ; and
when the elector of Mayence was about to summon the
estates, the emperor arbitrarily commanded him to put off
the visitation for that year. But the difliculty did not end
with one year. The order of succession remained unalter-
able, and the existence of a protestant archbishop of Mag-
deburg was long to be feared; it was therefore proposed
to defer the visitation indefinitely. The result was, that
no more regular visitations were held, which caused irre-
parable injury to tliis noble institution of the highest tri-

§ X.] THE LEAGUE. 459

bunal of the empire/'^ We soon meet with complaints
that ignorant cathoKcs were preferred in this court to
learned protestants. The emperor also ceased to grant
dispensations. In the year 1588, Minucci recommended
that means should be taken for the conversion of protestant
princes ; and in the year 1590, we already find one convert,
Jacob of Baden, who was the first of a long series.

§ 10. THE LEAGUE.

While this great movement agitated Germany and the
Netherlands, it also extended its resistless force to France.
The affairs of the Netherlands were henceforward connected
most closely with those of France ; the French protestants
often assisted those of the Netherlands, while theNetherland
catholics not less frequently came to the aid of the French ;
the downfall of protestantism in the Belgian provinces was
a direct loss to the huguenots of France.

But independently of this, the growing tendency which
existed in other countries towards the re-establishment of
Catholicism, daily made corresponding progress in France.

We have already noticed the first appearance of the
Jesuits, and from that time they had continued to spread.
The house of Lorraine showed them peculiar favour, as
may easily be imagined. In the year 1574, cardinal Guise
established an academy for them at Pont-a-Mousson, which
was resorted to by the princes of his house ; while the
duke founded a college at Eu in Normandy, which was
also intended for the benefit of English exiles.

They found numerous other patrons; cardinals, bishops,
abbots, princes, or high civil functionaries undertook to
defray the cost of new establishments ; in a short time
they had settlements in Rouen, Verdun, Dijon, Bourges,
and Nevers ; their missionaries penetrated into every part
of the kingdom.

* Minucci had written particularly ants shocked him : " von vole dir altro

upon the Kammergericht. There are I'aver gli eretici Tautorita maggiore e li

reasons for supposing that his represen- piu voti in quel senato che un ridurre i

tations brought about this inhibition, catohci d'Alemagna a disperatione."
The majority being composed of protest-

460 THE LEAGUE. [Book V.

They found, however, assistants in France whose aid
they had been obHged to dispense with in Germany.

The cardinal of Lorraine had brought with him from
the council of Trent a few capuchin friars, whom he lodged
in his palace at Meudon ; after his death however they
quitted France, for the order was still restricted by its
statutes to Italy. In the year 1573, the general chapter
sent a few members over the Alps to try the ground. As
they were so well received that on their return they pro-
mised " the richest harvest," the pope did not hesitate to
remove that restriction. In the year 1574, the first colony
of capuchins, under friar Pacifico di S. Gervaso, who chose
his own companions, took their way over the Alps.

They were all Italians, and naturally attached them-
selves in the first instance to their own countrymen. Queen
Catherine of Medici received them with joy, and imme-
diately founded a convent for them at Paris. In the year
1575 we find them at Lyons, where, at the recommenda-
tion of the queen, they were assisted by some Italian
money-changers. From these toTVTis they diverged into
others : from Paris to Caen and Rouen ; from Lyons to
Marseilles, where queen Catherine bought them ground for
building ; new colonies settled in Thoulouse in the year
1582, and in Verdun in 1585. They soon made the most
brilliant conversions, such as that of Henri Joyeuse in 1587,
one of the first men of his time in France."^'

But in one sense at least, these religious agitations pro-
duced more powerful effects in France than in Germany.
The imitations of existing institutions to which they gave
rise had an original and individual character. Jean de la
Barriere, who, in accordance with the peculiar abuses which
had crept into the church of France, held in commendam
the Cistercian abbey of Feuillans near Thoulouse, at the
age of nineteen, was consecrated regular abbot in 1577,
and received novices, with whom he strove not only to
revive but to exceed the austerity of the original institution
of Citeaux. Solitude, silence, and abstinence were carried
as far as human nature could endure. These monks never

■* Boverio, Annali cUm frati Capuccini, i. 546 ; ii. 45, f.

§ X.] THE LEAGUE. 461

left their convent except for the purpose of preaching in
some neighbouring village ; within the convent walls they
wore neither shoes, nor covering for the head ; they denied
themselves not only meat and wine, but even fish and eggs,
living upon bread and water, with, at times, a few veget-
ables.'"' This rigour did not fail to excite reverence and
imitation ; and in a short time Don Jean de la Barriere
was invited to the court at Vincennes. He traversed a
large portion of France with sixty-two companions, without
the smallest relaxation of the devotional exercises or ascetic
restraints of the convent ; very soon afterwards his institute
was confirmed by the pope, and spread itself over the
country.

It seemed, too, as if, spite of the irresponsible nature of
their appointments, a new zeal was infused into the whole
body of the secular clergy. The parish priests again
devoted themselves most earnestly to the care of souls. In
the year 1570 the bishops required not only the accept-
ance of the decrees of the council of Trent, but also the
abrogation of that very concordat to which they were
indebted for their own existence ; and they renewed and
increased the rigour of these regulations from time to
time, t

Who can accurately specify all the impelling causes
which communicated to the religious spirit of the age its
peculiar direction ? Thus much is certain ; that as early
as the year 1580, the greatest change was perceptible.
A Venetian writer afiirms that the number of protestants
was decreased seventy per cent., and that the common
people had again become completely catholic. The excite-
ment of novelty and the energy of impulse were now once
more on the side of Catholicism.;]:

Under these circumstances, however, it assumed a new

* Felibien, Histoire de Paris, vol. ii. 5 Giugno, 1582. Dovemo maravigliarci,

p. 1158. umanamente parlando, che le cose non

f Remontrance de I'Assemblee gene- siano in peggiore stato di quello che si

rale du Clerge de France, convoqu^e en trovano : poiche per gratia di Dio, con

la Ville de Melim, faite au Roi Henri tutto il poco pensiero che li e stato messo

III. le 3 Juillet, 1579. Recueil des e che se li mette, e sminuito il numero

Actes du Clerge, vol. xiv. Thuanus has degli Ugonotti 70§ et e grande il zelo et

also an extract on this subject. il fervor che mostrano cattolici nelle cose

J Lorenzo Priuli, Relatione di Franza, della religione.

462 THE LEAGUE. [Book Y.

attitude in relation to the kingly power. — The condition
of the court was one abounding in self-contradictions. It
cannot be doubted that Henry III. was a good catholic ;
none had his favour who did not attend mass, nor did he
tolerate any protestant magistrates in the towns ; but in
spite of this, he went on, now as heretofore, to fill up
the ecclesiastical vacancies in conformity with the con-
veniences of court favour, without any reference to worth
and talent ; and to grasp and squander the revenues of
the church. He loved religious ceremonies and proces-
sions, and spared himself no penance or mortification ; but
this did not prevent him from leading the most scandalous
life, and permitting it to be led by others. The most
abandoned debauchery was the order of the day at court.
The excesses of the carnival aroused the indignation of
the preachers ; in some cases they refiised burial to the
courtiers on account of their manner of life, and the expres-
sions of their dying moments ; — and this to the very
favourites of the king. Hence it happened, that although
the strict catholic impulse was openly favoured by the
court, it was, in spirit, profoundly opposed to the manners
which prevailed there.

But besides, the king would not abandon the old line of
policy, which consisted chiefly in hostility to Spain. At
any other time this would have signified nothing ; but now
the religious element was, even in France, more powerful
than the feeling for national interests. In the same man-
ner as the huguenots felt themselves bound to the Nether-
land protestants by a natural alliance, so did the cathoUcs
to Philip IL and Farnese ; and the Jesuits, who did such
good service to Spain in the Netherlands, could not see
without alarm, that the enemies whom they vanquished
there found favour and help in France.

In addition to this, came the death of the duke of
Alen9on, in the year 1584 ; and as the king had no heirs,
nor even a hope of issue, Henry king of Navarre became
presumptive heir to the throne.

Apprehension of future evil has perhaps more power
over the human mind than present calamity. This pro-
spect caused the greatest agitation amongst all the catho-

§ X.] THE LEAGUE. 463

lies in France ; '"' above all, in the Guises, the old opponents
and enemies of Navarre, who dreaded the influence he
must acquire as heir-apparent, — how much more the power
he would possess whenever he ascended the throne !

'No wonder, therefore, that they sought support from
king Philip ; to that prince nothing could be more wel-
come than such an application ; nor had he any scruple
in concluding a formal treaty with the subjects of a foreign
power.

The only question now was, whether the revolt of
powerful vassals against their king would be sanctioned at
Rome, where so much had been said about the union of
the monarchical and the ecclesiastical powers.

That it was sanctioned there cannot be denied. There
were among the Guise party some whose consciences were
troubled at the step which they were about to take, and
in order to quiet their scruples, the Jesuit Matthieu went
to Rome, to bring back with him a declaration of the
pope's opinion. After hearing Matthieu s representations,
Gregory XIII. declared that he fully sanctioned the inten-
tions of the French princes, of taking arms against the
heretics ; that he removed all scruples on the subject
which might be entertained ; the king himself, he affirmed,
would assuredly favour their project ; but even should
this not be the case, they should nevertheless pursue their
plan for the accomplishment of the all-important object,
the extermination of the heretics, f The proceedings
against Henry of Navarre had already commenced ; before
their termination, Sixtus V. had ascended the papal chair,
and he proclaimed the excommunication of Navarre and
Conde. The support which he thus gave to the plans of
the League was more powerful than he could have afforded
by any other sort of co-operation. :|:

* A letter was just at that time published Fevr. 1585 ; perhaps the most important

in Rome, on the desirableness of seeing piece of information contained in the

a Guise succeed to the throne : " della whole fourth volume of Capefigue, Re-

inclinatione de cattolici verso la casa di forme, &c., p. 173.

Ghisa, e del servitio che riceverä la J Maffei, Historiarum ab Excessu

ehristianita et il re cattolico della sue- Gregorii XIII., lib, i. p. 10. " Infimis

cessione di uno di quel principi." It foederatorum precibus, et regis Philippi

was sent to Spain, and ascribed to the supplicatione hortatuque, hand aegre se

cardinal d'Este. Dispaccio Veneto, 1 584, adduci est passus ut Hugonotas eorumque

1'"». Dec^". duces coelestibus armis insectaretur."

+ Claude Matthieu au due de Nevers,

464 '^'HE LEAGUE. [Book V.

The Guises had already taken arms, and endeavoured
to get as many provinces and strong places as they could,
absolutely into their ovra power.

At the first movement they took the important towns
of Verdun, Toul, Lyons, Bourges, Orleans, and Mezieres,
without striking a IdIow. The king, in order to avoid an
open admission of their superiority, took a course he had
already once resorted to, — namely, to declare their cause
his OAvn. But before he could be admitted to their alliance
he was compelled to sanction and extend their conquests
by formal treaty, by which he surrendered to them Bur-
gundy, Champagne, a large portion of Picardy, and many
strong places in different parts of the kingdom.'"*

They now undertook the war against the protestants
conjointly, — but how differently ! The king took only
half-measures which led to no results ; the cathohcs even
thought that he welshed success to the protestant arms, in
order that, yielding to the apparent pressure of a resistless
force, he might conclude a peace disadvantageous to Catho-
licism. Guise, on the contrary, swore that, should God
grant him the victory, he would not dismount from his
horse until he had firmly established the cathohc religion
in France for ever. With his own troops, and not the
king's, he surprised the Germans who came to the assist-
ance of the huguenots, and upon whom all their hopes
rested, and completely annihilated them at Auneau.

The pope compared him to Judas Maccabseus. There
was a grandeur and nobleness in his nature which capti-
vated the devoted reverence of the people, and he became
the idol of all catholics.

The king, on the contrary, found himself in a completely
false position ; he knew not what to do, nor even what to
wish. The papal minister Morosini remarks, that he con-
sisted, as it were, of two persons ; he wished for the over-
throw of the huguenots, and feared it no less ; he dreaded
the defeat of the catholics, and 3^et he desired it : such
was the internal discord of his mind, that he had ceased to
follow his own inclinations, or to have faith in his o^vn

* Considerations of the cardinal Ossat on the effects of the League in France ;
Life of Cardinal Ossat, i. 44.

§ X.] THE LEAGUE. 4ß5

thoughts ; "' — a state of mind which of necessity destroys
all confidence, and leads straight to ruin.

The catholics were persuaded that the very person who
was at their head, was secretly against them ; every tran-
sient intercourse with the followers of Navarre, the small-
est favour to any protestant, was noted with watchful
suspicion ; they thought that it was the most christian
king himself who hindered the perfect re-establishment of
Catholicism ; they regarded his favourites, but above all
Epernon, with a hatred the more intense, because the king-
placed him in opposition to the Guises, and entrusted to
him the most important governments.

Under these circumstances, an union of the citizens for
the support of the catholic cause arose by the side of the
alliance of the princes. In every town the people were
stirred up by preachers, who combined a fierce opposition
to the government with a fiery religious zeal. In Paris
more active steps were taken. Three preachers and a re-
spectable citizen were the first who conceived the project of
establishing a popular union for the defence of Catholicism, f
They swore, in the first place, to devote themselves to this
cause to the last drop of their blood ; each then named
two or three trusty friends, the first meeting with whom
was held in a monk's cell in the Sorbonne. They soon saw
the possibility of embracing the whole city in their union.
A smaller number were then chosen to constitute a com-
mittee, which was to lead the movement, and in case of
necessity to collect money. A director was appointed for
each of the sixteen quarters of the city. The enrolling of

* Dispaccio Morosini in Tempesti, ing, Ottomani made the proposal of a

Vita di Sisto V. p. 346. " II re, tutto union with the princes ; at the second,

che sia mouarca si grande, e altrettanto 25th Jan. 1587, it was resolved to nomi-

povero : e quanto e povero, e altrettanto nate sixteen men, one for each quarter,

prodigo : dimostra insigne pieta, e nel " a cui si riferisse da persone fidate

stesso tempo aborrisce la sagra lega : e quanto vi si facesse e dicesse apparte-

in campo contra gli heretici, e pure e nente a fatti publici ; " at a third, held

geloso de' progressi catolici." on Candlemas-day, a council was named,

t The Anonymo Capitolino on the consisting of ten persons, with the right

Life of Sixtus V. contains peculiar of levying contributions, and an embassy

notices of this matter. He gives the to the duke de Guise was immediately

name of Carlo Ottomani to the founder, agi'eed upon. This account gives some

" cittadino ouorato," who was the first additional weight to all we find in Cayet,

to have any communication with the taken from Manaut and Maheutre, in

preachei's. From their vei-y first meet- Poulain, de Thou, and Davila.

VOL. I. H H

466 THE LEAGUE. [Book V.

members proceeded with the utmost rapidity and secresy;
the committee first consulted upon the fitness of the can-
didates, and to those who were not admitted, nothing fiir-
ther was revealed. They had agents in all the colleges ;
one in the Chambre des Comptes, one for the Procureurs
de la Cour, one for the Clerks, one for the Greffiers, and
so forth. The whole city, which had previously received a
catholic military organisation, was comprehended in this
secret and active league. Nor were they satisfied vnth
Paris alone ; they included Orleans, Lyons, Thoulouse,
Bordeaux, and Rouen in their union, and delegates from
these confederates appeared in Paris ; they all solemnly
bound themselves not to tolerate a single huguenot in
France, and to remove the abuses of the government.

This is called the league of the sixteen. As soon as
they found themselves sufficiently strong, they informed
the Guises of its existence ; upon which, Mayenne, the
brother of the duke, came with the profoundest secrecy to
Paris, and the princes and the citizens signed their treaty
of alliance."'"

The king already felt the ground tremble under his feet.
Reports were brought him every day of the movements of
his enemies. So daring were the conspirators grown, that
they had already proposed the question in the Sorbonne,
whether it was lawful to withdraw obedience from a prince
who did not do his duty ; and an answer in the affirmative
was given in a council of from thirty to forty doctors.
The king was exasperated, and threatened to act as pope
Sixtus had done, and to chain the rebelhous priests to the
galleys. But he had not the energy of that pope ; he did
nothing, except to march the Swiss who were in his service
into the neighbourhood of the capital.

The citizens, alarmed at the threat implied in this move-
ment, sent to Guise begging him to come and protect
them : the king caused it to be notified to him that his
compliance would displease him ; nevertheless Guise came.

Everything now seemed ripe for a general explosion,
and on the king ordering his Swiss troops to enter Paris, it

* Nel palazzo di Rens dietro alia una seambievol lega non sola defensiva
chiesa di S. Agostino giurarono tutti ma assoluta. (Anon. Capit.)

§ XL] SAVOY AND SWITZERLAND. 467

broke forth. In a moment the town was barricaded, the
Swiss were driven back, and the Louvre threatened ; the
king was compelled to take to flight.''^

Guise had before got possession of a large portion of
France ; he was now master of Paris. The Bastile, the
Arsenal, the Hotel de Ville, and all the surrounding places
fell into his hands. The king was completely overpowered ;
in a short time he was forced to interdict the protestant
religion, and give up to the Guises some additional strong
places ; the duke of Guise might now be regarded as
master of the half of France ; and the dignity of lieute-
nant-general of the kingdom, with which he was invested
by Henry III., gave him lawful authority over the other
half The estates were summoned ; and as there was no
doubt that the catholics would have the majority in this
meeting, the most decisive measures for the destruction of
the huguenots and the advantage of the catholic party
might confidently be expected.

§ 11. SAVOY AND SWITZERLAND.

It is evident that the predominance of Catholicism in so
mighty a kingdom as France must necessarily produce
corresponding effects on the neighbouring countries.

The catholic cantons of Switzerland in particular, attached
themselves more and more closely to the ecclesiastical prin-
ciple represented by the Spanish alliance.

It is remarkable what vast effects resulted from the
establishment of a permanent nuntiatura in Switzerland as
well as in Germany. Immediately after this had taken
place, in the year 1586, the catholic cantons united to form
the golden or Borromean league, by which they bound them-
selves and their posterity for ever, " to live and die in the
true, undoubted, ancient, apostolical, Roman catholic faith ;"
after which they received the sacrament from the hand of
the nuncio, t

* MafFei reproaches the duke of Guise contentus, Henricum incolumem abire
for havmg borne this : " Inanis popularis permittit." (1, 1.38.)
aurae et infaustse potentise ostentatione f " Ihre ewigen Nachkommen " (their

hh2

468 SAVOY AND SWITZERLAND. [Book V.

Had the party who took possession of the powders of
government at Miihlhauscn in the year 1587, passed over
in reahty, and at the right time, to the catholic faith, as
they seemed inchned to do, they would infallibly have
received the support of the catholics ; indeed conferences
on the subject were immediately held in the house of the
nuncio at Lucern. But they deliberated too long ; while
on the other hand the protestants carried their expedition
into effect with the greatest promptitude, and thus restored
the old form of government, w^hich was essentially favour-
able to them.''^

At this moment, however, the three forest cantons, in
conjunction wdth Zug, Lucern, and Freiburg, made a new
and important step. After a long negotiation, they signed
a treaty w^th Spain on the 12th of May, 1587, in which
they promised to maintain perpetual amity with the king,
and granted him the privilege of raising recruits in their
provinces, and of marching his troops through their terri-
tory ; while Philip, on his part, made them answerable
concessions. Above all, they bound themselves recipro-
cally by oath, to assist each other, with all their might,
should either of them be involved in a war for the sake of
the holy apostolical rehgion.f In this treaty the five
cantons made no exceptions, not even in favour of the
other members of the confederation ; on the contrary, it
was unquestionably framed with especial reference to
them ; since there was no other state with whom the
contracting parties could be in any danger of a war on
account of religion.

How far more powerful there, as well as in France, was
the influence of religious, than of national feeling ! A
comnmnity of faith now united the old Schwytzers and the
house of Austria ! The confederation was for the present
superseded.

eternal posterity), the expression in the founded on the relations of the nuncio,

documents relathig to the alliance, in in the Anonymo Capitol, to which we

Lauffer, Beschreibung helvetischer Ges- shall return in noticing Tempesti.
chichte, vol, x. p. li.'U. f Traite d'alliance fait entre Phihpp

* The importance of the Miihlhausen II., etc. Dumont, Corps diplomatique,

affair in a rchgious point of view, is v. i. p. 459.
peculiarly evident in the narrative

§ XI.] SAVOY AND SWITZERLAND. 469

It was an exceedingly fortunate circumstance that no
incident occurred to give rise to immediate dissension, so
that the influence of this ahiance was at first felt only at
Geneva.

Charles Emanuel, duke of Savoy, a prince actuated all
his life by restless ambition, had already often betrayed a
desire to repossess himself of Geneva on the first favourable
opportunity, as he considered himself its rightfiil master ;
but his designs had till now been promptly defeated by
the resistance of the Swiss and the French, and the protec-
tion afforded by those powers to the Genevese.

The relations, however, of the parties were now altered ;
in the summer of the year 1588, Henry III., influenced by
Guise, promised to throw no more impediments in the
way of any enterprise against Geneva ; and, at all events,
the catholic cantons of Switzerland had now nothing to
object to his plans. So far as I can find, they only stipii-
lated that Geneva, when taken, should not subsist as a
fortress.

The duke, upon this understanding, armed himself for
the attack ; the Genevese did not lose their courage, but
in conjunction with their allies of Berne, made an inroad
into his territories ; the duke however very soon had the
advantage, and the invaders were driven back. Charles
Emanuel, who held the countships bordering on Switzer-
land under very strict limitations, imposed upon him by
former treaties of peace with Berne, seized the opportunity
immediately to make himself more completely master
there. He drove out the protestants, whom, till now, he
had been compelled to tolerate, and made the whole
country exclusively catholic. Until this time he had been
expressly prohibited from erecting fortresses in this part of
his dominions ; he now began to build them in places
which might be made available not only for defence, but
for annoying Geneva.

But before these affairs were further developed, other
enterprises were in agitation, which threatened to produce
far more weighty consequences, and to eff'ect a total change
in all the political relations of Europe.

470 ATTEMPT UPON ENGLAND. [Book V.

§ 12. ATTEMPT UPON ENGLAND.

The greater part of the Netherlands was conquered, and
a negotiation was already on foot for the voluntary sub-
mission of the remaining portion. In Germany the catholic
movement had been triumphant in a great many of the
states, and a plan was laid for subjugating those which yet
resisted. The champion of French Catholicism, by the con-
current influence of victories, investment of the strong-
holds, attachment of the people, and legitimate authority,
advanced in a course which appeared inevitably to lead
him to the possession of autocratic power. The old metro-
polis of the Protestant doctrines, the city of Geneva, was
no longer protected by their former allies. At this moment
a plan was conceived and adopted, for laying the axe to
the root of the tree, by an attack upon England.

England was doubtless the central point of protestant
power and policy; and in queen Elizabeth the still uncon-
quered Netherland provinces, as well as the French
huguenots, beheld their most illustrious protector.

But even in England an internal struggle had, as we
have already seen, commenced. There was a constant
succession of pupils from the seminaries, and of Jesuits
coming over, impelled at once by religious enthusiasm
industriously fostered Avith that view, and by a longing to
revisit their native country. Their efforts were encoun-
tered by queen Elizabeth with severe laws. In the year
1582, it was declared high treason to attempt to pervert
any of her subjects from the religion established in the
realm to that of Rome.'"' In the year 1585 she commanded
all Jesuits and priests belonging to seminaries, to quit
England within forty days, under pain of being dealt with
a^ traitors ; in the same manner as the protestant preachers
had been driven out of the dominions of many catholic
princes, f With this view she brought into active opera-
tion the court of high commission, specially cstabHshed to

• Camden, Rcrum Anglicarum Annales regnante Elizabetha, i. p. 349.
t Ibid. p. 396.

§ XII.] ATTEMPT UPON ENGLAND. 471

inquire into violations of tlie acts of supremacy and of
uniformity, not only according to the usual forms of law,
but by whatever means they could devise — even by cor-
poral oath ; in short, it was a species of protestant
inquisition.'"*

Notwithstanding these acts of despotism, Elizabeth
wished to avoid the appearance of offending against freedom
of conscience. She declared that it was not the re-establish-
ment of their religion which the Jesuits had at heart, but
that their object was only to seduce the country to revolt
from the government, and thus prepare the way for the
entrance of foreign foes. The missionaries on their side,
protested, "before God and the saints,^' "before heaven and
earth ^^ (to use their expressions), that their views were
purely religious, and in no way affected the queen's
majesty ; f but what understanding could discriminate
between these two sets of motives '? The queen's inquisi-
tors were not to be put off by a simple assertion ; but
required a declaration, whether the anathema which
Pius y. had fulminated against the queen were lawful and
binding upon an Englishman ; the prisoners were called
upon to say, if the pope were to absolve them from their oath
of allegiance, and to attack England, what they should do,
and which side they should support. The miserable fright-
ened men knew not how to extricate themselves from this
dilemma ; they answered, that they would render unto
God what was God's, and unto Caesar what was Csesar's ;
but this evasion was itself interpreted into a confession by
their judges. Thus the prisons were filled, execution
followed upon execution, and Catholicism in its turn had
its martyrs. Their number has been estimated at two
hundred during the reign of Elizabeth. It may readily be
concluded that the zeal of the missionaries was not subdued
by these persecutions ; the number and exasperation of the

* "As well by the oaths of twelve 159. "Coram Deo profiteer et angelis

good and lawful men, as also by witnesses ejus, coram coelo terraque, coram

and all other means and ways you can mundo et hoc cui adsto tribunal!, — me

devise," It should at least have been, nee criminis laesae majestatis nee per-

" lawful means and ways." Neal, His- duellionis nee ullius in patriam conjm'a-

tory of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 414. tionisesse reum," &c.

+ Campiani Vita et Martyrium, p. ;

47^ ATTEMPT UPON ENGLAND. [Book V.

cüntumacious (the recusants, as they were called) increased
Avitli the increasing severity of the laws. Pamphlets found
their way even into the court, in which the assassination
of Holofernes by Judith was held up as an example of fear
of God and heroic courage, worthy of imitation ; the eyes
of the many were still constantly turned towards the
imprisoned queen of Scotland, who, according to the
declarations of the pope, was the lawful sovereign of
England ; they were still in constant hope of a general
revolution, to be produced by an attack of the catholic
powers. The most dreadful descriptions of the cruelties
to which the true believers were subjected in England,
were circulated throughout Italy and Spain, and excited
the sympathy and indignation of all catholics. '""

But the man in whom this sentiment was the most
powerful was pope Sixtus. It is unquestionably true that
he felt a sort of reverence for the personal qualities, the
lofty and dauntless spirit, of Elizabeth, and that he actually
invited her to return to the bosom of the catholic church.
Strange proposition ! as if she had it in her power to
choose ; as if her past life, the whole import of her being,
her political position and attitude, did not, even supposing
her conviction not to be sincere, enchain her to the Pro-
testant cause I Elizabeth returned no answer, but she
laughed. When the pope heard this, he said that he
must now devise means for depriving her of her kingdom
by force.

Hitherto he had only hinted at such a scheme ; in the
spring of 1586, he openly declared his intentions, and
boasted that he would assist the king of Spain in an attack
upon England, with far different zeal and efficiency from
those with which Charles V. had been supported by former
popes, t

* Theatruin crudelitatum hseretico- actorum descriptiones." It contains

rnni nostri teniporis. It begins witli a prints of unheai'd-of tortures ; a terrific

"puculiaris descriptio crudelitatum et sight.

inmianitatuni schisniaticoruni Angliai + Dispaccio Gritti, 31 Maggio, 1586 :

vognante Henrico VI II.," and ends with " Accresciuto qiiatro volte tanto. II

" Inquisitionis Anglicanjc et facinorum papa vorria clie si fingesse d'andar

cnidcliiun Machiavellanorum in Anglia contra Draco, e si piegasse poi in

et llibcrnia a (jilvinistis protestantiJms Inghiltcrra."
bub Elizabetha etianmuni regnante per-

§ XII.] ATTEMPT UPON ENGLAND. 473

In January, 1587, he complained loudly of the dilatori-
ness of the Spaniards, and enumerated the advantages
which would accrue to them from a victory in England,
with a view to the reconquest of the Netherlands.'""

He soon became bitter ont his subject. On Philip II.
pubhshing a pragmatic decree, by which the spiritual dig-
nities generally, and consequently those claimed by the
Roman curia, were abridged, the pope broke out into a fiery
passion: "How,'^ exclaimed he, " will Don Philip brave us,
and yet allow himself to be trampled upon by a woman ?"t

In truth the king was not spared, since Elizabeth openly
espoused the cause of the Netherlands, and Drake rendered
every coast of America and Europe unsafe. What pope
Sixtus expressed was, at bottom, the feeling of all catholics.
They were amazed at the long-suffering of the powerful
monarch who could consent to endure so much. The
cortes of Castile exhorted him to avenge himself

Philip was indeed personally insulted ; he was held up
to ridicule in comedies and masques : — on this being once
reported to him, the aged monarch, accustomed only to
reverence, started up from his seat with an indignation
which had never been witnessed before.

Such was the temper of both the pope and the king,
when the news arrived that Elizabeth had ordered the
execution of the captive queen of Scotland. This is not
the place to inquire into her legal right to authorize such
an act ; it is principally to be regarded as an act of political
justice. The first idea of it arose, as far as I have been able
to discover, as early as the time of the massacre of St. Bar-
tholomew. The bishop of London, in one of his letters to
lord Burleigh, expresses his anxiety lest so treacherous a
deed should extend its influence to England, and his opinion
that the source of the danger lay principally in the Scottish
queen : "the safety of the realm,^' he exclaims, "requires that
her head should be cut oflf.^f Since these words were uttered,
how much more powerful had the catholic party become in

* Dispaccio Gritti, 10 Jan. 1587. Fulham, 5th of Sept. 1572, «The saftie

f Dolendosi che '1 re si lascia stra- of our Quene and Realme, yf God wil,

pazzar da una donna e vuol poi bravar furtwith to cutte of the Scotish Quenes

con lei (S. S^), head: ipsa est nostri fundi calamitas."

J Edwin Sandys to Lord Burghley, Ellis's Letters, second series, vol. iii. p. 25,

474 ATTEMPT UPON ENGLAND. [Book V.

Europe, how much greater was its fermentation and excite-
ment even in England ! Mary Stuart was incessantly in
secret correspondence with her cousins the Guises, with the
malcontents in England, with the king of Spain, and with
the pope. She represented the principle of cathohcism, in
so far as it was opposed to the existing government, since
she would infallibly have been called to the throne at the
first success of the catholic party. She expiated with her
life a position into which she was forced by circumstances,
but from which she certainly made no effort to withdraw.

This execution, however, brought to maturity the schemes
of the king of Spain and the pope ; they determined to
forbear no longer. Sixtus filled the consistory with his
invectives against the English Jezebel, who had laid violent
hands on the sacred head of a princess subject to none but
Jesus Christ, and, as she herself admitted, to his repre-
sentative. In order to show how completely he approved
of the activity of the catholic opposition in England, he
created William Allen, the first founder of the seminaries,
a cardinal ; an appointment which, in Rome at least, was
looked upon as a declaration of war against England. A
formal treaty was now concluded by king Philip IL and
the pope,""'" by which the latter promised to the king a sub-
sidy of a million of scudi towards his attack upon England ;
but as he was always on his guard, particularly in money
matters, he pledged himself to pay the money whenever
the king had actual possession of an English port. " Let
your majesty delay no longer,^^ he writes to Phihp ; "every
delay will change good intentions into bad performances.^'
The king strained to the utmost every resource of his king-
dom, and fitted out that armada which was called the
Invincible.

Thus did the united powers of Italy and Spain, from
which such mighty influences had gone forth over the
whole world, now rouse themselves for an attack upon
England ! The king had already compiled, from the
archives of Simancas, a statement of the claims which he

* The original views of the pope ; d'Tnghilterra, ma voiole la dcnorauiation
Dispaccio Critti, 27 Giugno, 1587. "II del re c che H regno sia feitdo dclla
papa fa gi'an offerta al re per I'lmpresa chicsa.""

§ XII.] ATTEMPT UPON ENGLAND. 475

had to the throne of that country on the extinction of the
Stuart hne ; the most briUiant prospects, especially that of
an universal dominion of the seas, were associated in his
mind with this enterprise. Everything seemed to conspire
to one end ; — the predominancy of Catholicism in Germany,
the renewed attack upon the huguenots in France, the
attempt upon Geneva, and the enterprise against England.
At this same moment a thoroughly catholic prince, Sigis-
mund III. (of whom we shall say more hereafter), ascended
the throne of Poland, with the prospect also of future suc-
cession to the throne of Sweden.

But when any principle or power, be it what it may, aims
at unlimited supremacy in Europe, some vigorous resist-
ance to it, having its origin in the deepest springs of human
nature, invariably arises.

Philip II. had to encounter newly-awakened powers
braced by the vigour of youth, and elevated by a sense of
their future destiny. The intrepid corsairs who had ren-
dered every sea insecure, now clustered round the coasts
of their native island. The protestants in a body, — even
the puritans, although they had been subjected to as severe
oppression as the catholics, — rallied round their queen,
who now gave admirable proof of her masculine courage,
and her princely talent of winning the affections, and
leading the minds, and holding fast the allegiance of men.
The insular position of the country — the very elements —
lent themselves to its defence ; the invincible armada was
annihilated, even before it had made its attack ; the
enterprise was utterly abortive.

It must, however, be understood that the fundamental
plan, the great intention itself, was not immediately given
up.

The catholics were reminded by the writers of their
party, that both Julius Csesar and Henry VII., the grand-
father of Elizabeth, had failed in their first attempt upon
England, but had, notwithstanding, eventually become
masters of the country. God, they said, often delayed
giving the victory to his faithful servants. The children of
Israel had been twice beaten with great loss in their wars
with the tribe of Benjamin ; although undertaken upon the
express command of God, victory followed only the third

476 THE ASSASSINATION OF HENRY III. [Book V.

attack ; " then did the devouring flames make desolate the
towns and villages of Benjamin, and the edge of the sword
smote both man and beast." " The English/^ they ex-
claimed, " should ponder on this, and not be pufled up
because their chastisement was deferred." *" Nor had
Philip IL in any degree lost his courage. His intention
was to fit out smaller and more manageable vessels, and
not to attempt to form a junction with the forces of the
Netherlands in the channel, but to sail direct for the En-
glish coast and endeavour to effect a landing. The arsenal
at Lisbon was in a state of the greatest activity. The
king was determined to persevere to the last extremity,
even were he compelled, as he once said at table, to sell the
silver candlesticks which stood before him.f

But while his thoughts were employed on this scheme,
other prospects opened upon him ; a new arena for the
display of the energies and the resources of Catholicism, of
the characteristic spirit of Italy and Spain, presented itself.

§ 13. THE ASSASSINATION OF HENRY III.

Soon after the disastrous end of the Spanish armada, a
reaction arose in France, unexpected, and (as so often has
been the case in that country) violent and bloody.

At the very moment when Guise led the estates of Blois
at his will ; at the very moment w^lien it appeared that by
his office of constable he must of necessity grasp the whole
business of the kingdom in his hands, Henry III. caused
him to be assassinated. This king, who felt that he was
made the captive and the tool of the catholic or Spanish
party, suddenly broke loose from their chains, and placed
himself in opposition to them.

^ '* Amlrcce Philopatri (Parsoiii) ad Dominus ai'borem infructuosam diniit-

Klizabctliu) Regini« Anglhx; Edictum tere adhuc voluit ad tertium annum

Responsio, § 14G, 147. " Nulla," he evangelicum."

adds, «ipsorum fortitudinc repulsa vis f Dispacci Gradenigo, 29 Sept. 1588.

est, sed iis potius casibus qui scepissime Si como il re ha sentito molto questo

in res bellicas solent incidcre, arris aecidento di mala fortuna, cosi raostra

nimirum iiK-lemontia, maris incogniti di (\sslt piii cho mai risoluto di aeguitar

iiiexpcrientia noimullorumcpiu fortassis la imprcssa eon tutte le sue forze. — II

lioniinum vv\ iioghgentia vcl iiiscitia, Dei Ott. S. Ma. sta ardrutissima nel pensar

dcnicpie voluutate, quia forte misericors e traltar le provisioni per I'anno futuro.

§ XIIL] THE ASSASSINATION OF HENRY III. 477

But with Guise, neither his party nor the League were
destroyed ; on the contrary, it now assumed a more undis-
guisedly hostile attitude, and entered into stricter aUiance
than before with Spain.

Pope Sixtus was completely on their side. The assassi-
nation of the duke, whom he loved and admired, and in
whom he beheld a pillar of the church, had already filled
him with grief and indignation ; '"' the murder of cardinal
Guise also appeared to him intolerable. " A cardinal
priest,^^ he exclaimed in the consistory, " a noble member
of the holy see, — without trial or judgment, and by the
secular arm, — as if there were no pope in the world, — as if
no God existed.^' He reproached his legate Morosini for
not having immediately excommunicated the king ; he
ought to have done it, had it cost him a hundred times his
life.f

The king was little troubled by the anger of the pope,
and was not to be frightened into setting at liberty cardinal
Bourbon or the archbishop of Lyons, whom he kept
prisoners. Demands were constantly sent from Rome that
he should declare Henry of Navarre incapable of succeeding
to the throne ; in defiance of which he entered into alliance
with him.

Upon this the pope determined to proceed to extremities ;
he cited the king to appear in person at Rome, to justify
himself for the murder of the cardinal, and threatened him
with excommunication if he did not set the prisoners free
within a specified time. This, he declared, was the course
he was bound to pursue ; should he act otherwise, he must
expect to be called to account by God, as the most useless
of all popes. Having thus fulfilled his duty, he need not
fear the whole world; he doubted not but that Henry HI.
would perish like king Saul.f

— 1 Nov. " Si venderanno," the king f Tempesti gives, ii. 1 37, both the

exclaimed, '' esti candeUieri, quando non speech of the pope, in all its length, and

vi sia altro modo di far danari." the letter to Morosini. " Essendo am-

* The pope likewise particularly com- mazzato il Cardinale," it is there said,

plained, that the king had obtained a "in faccia di V. S"^ 111™*., legato a

brief from him, " che li concesse poter latere, come non ha publicato I'inter-

esser assolto da qualsivoglia peccato anco detto, ancorche gliene fossero andate

riservato alia sede apostolica, col quale cento vite ? "

si voglia hora coprire il grave peccato J Dispaccio Veneto, 20 Maggio, 1589.

che ha fatto." (Disp. Veneto.) " II papa accusa la sua negligentia di non

478 THE ASSASSINATION OF HENRY III. [Book V.

The king was moreover looked upon by the zealous
catholics and the partisans of the League as an accursed
outcast ; the proceedings of the pope encouraged them in
their furious opposition, and sooner than could have been
expected his prophecy was fulfilled. On the 23rd of June
the monitorium of the pope was published in France ; on
the 1st of August the king was assassinated by Clement.

The pope himself was astonished. " In the midst of his
own army/^ exclaims he, " on the point of taking Paris, in
his very cabinet, was he killed by a poor monk, with one
stroke.^' ''' He ascribes this to the immediate hand of God,
who thus testified that he would not desert France.

How is it that men can be so utterly blinded by fana-
ticism ? This conviction was shared by innumerable catho-
lics. " It is only to the hand of the Almighty himself,"
writes Mendoza to Philip, "that this fortunate event is
to be ascribed.^! The young Maximilian of Bavaria, who
was then studying at Ingolstadt, in one of the first letters
of his which are extant, expresses to his mother his joy
that the king of France was killed.;]:

This event had, however, another aspect. Henry of
Navarre, whom the pope had excommunicated, and the
Guises so relentlessly persecuted, now stepped into his
lawful rights. A protestant assumed the title of Idng of
France. The League, Philip IL, and the pope were deter-
mined on no conditions to suffer him to obtain the enjoy-
ment of those rights. In the room of Morosini, who had
shown himself far too lukewarm, Sixtus V. sent to France
another legate, Gaetano, who was thought to be inclined to
Spain, and (what he had never done before) gave him a
sum of money, to be spent in the manner most conducive
to the advantage of the League. Above all things he was
to take care that none but a catholic should be king of
France. Undoubtedly the cro^vn ought always to descend
to a prince of the blood, but that was not the only thing

liaver fatto dipoi mesi 5 che gli c stato raorte del re di Francia si ha da conoscer

animazzato un cardinale c tenutone iin' dal volei* espresso del S"^ Dio, c che

altro prigione coil imarcivescovo, alcuna percio si doveva confidar che continua-

riniostratioiie o provisione. Dubita delP rebbe al haver quel regno nella sua pro-

ira di Dio," &c. tettione.

* J3isp. Ven. 1 Sett. II papa nel con- f Capefigue, v. 2.00.
sistorio discon'e, che '1 successo della X Wolf, Maximilian I. part i. p. 107.

J

§ XIII.] THE ASSASSINATION OP HENRY III. 479

to be considered : in other cases the strict order of succes-
sion had been deviated from, but never had a heretic been
permitted to reign. The main point, in short, was, that the
king should be a good cathohc.'"'

In this state of mind, it will readily be imagined that
the pope thought it a commendable act of the duke of
Savoy to take advantage of the confusion which reigned in
France, in order to make himself master of Saluzzo, which
then belonged to the French ; it was better, said Sixtus,
that the duke should have it, than that it should fall into
the hands of the huguenots, f

The main object now was, to endeavour to render the
League victorious in the struggle with Henry IV.

To this end a new treaty between Spain and the pope
was drawn up. That most zealous inquisitor, cardinal
Sanseverina, was commissioned, under the seal of confes-
sion, to arrange the terms. The pope promised faithfully
to send into France an army of fifteen thousand foot and
eight hundred horse ; he also declared himself ready to
advance subsidies, as soon as the king should have pene-
trated with a large army into France. The papal troops
were to be commanded by the duke of Urbino, a subject
of his holiness and a partisan of the king of Spain. J

Such were the preparations made by the combined
powers of Italy and Spain, in conjunction with their
adherents in France, with a view to secure the throne of
that country for ever to their party.

More extensive prospects could not be opened to the
ambition of the king of Spain or the pope. Spain would
for ever be freed from that ancient rivalry by which she
had so long been held in check ; and the result proved
how intensely Philip II. had this at heart. The exercise
of an efficient influence in placing a king on the throne of

* Dispaccio Veneto, 30 Sett. The f He met with reproaches on this

pope declares, " che non importava account ; " II papa sa giustifica con

che '1 fosse eletto piu del sangue che di molte ragioni della impresa che '1 sopra-

altra famiglia, essendo cio altre volte detto duca ha fatto del marchesato di

occorso, ma mai eretico dopo la nostra Saluzzo con sua parti cipatione." (Disp.

religione : che Savoia, Lorena e forse Veneto.)

anche Umena pretendeva la corona ; J Authentic account in the autobio-

che S. S'*. non vuol favorir I'uno piu che graphy of the Cardinal, adopted by Tem-

I'altro." Extract from the Instruction pesti, ii. 236.
in Tempesti, ii. 233.

480 '^HE ASSASSINATION OF HENRY III. [Book V.

France, would also have added immensely to the dignity
and authority of the see of Rome. Gaetano had directions
to insist upon the introduction of the inquisition, and the
abolition of the Gallican privileges ; but the exclusion of a
legitimate prince from the succession, solely on account of
his religion, would have been a far more important triumph.
The ecclesiastical spirit which at that moment pervaded
the w^orld would thus have attained to absolute and undis-
puted supremacy.

BOOK VI.

COUNTER REFORMATION.

INTRODUCTION.

The current of public opinion had taken a direction the
most opposite from that which might reasonably have been
expected at the beginning of the century.

At that time there was a general relaxation of the autho-
rity and discipline of the church; the nations sought to
sever themselves from their common spiritual head ; the
papacy itself nearly forgot its hierarchical character ; while
in literature and art profane tastes and studies prevailed,
and the principles of a pagan morality were avowed with-
out disguise.

At the moment we are contemplating, how totally was
all this changed ! In the name of religion wars were
declared, conquests achieved, states revolutionised. The
history of the world does not present a time in which the
clergy were more powerful than at the end of the sixteenth
century. They sat in kings' councils, and discussed poli-
tical matters before all the people from the pulpit ; they
governed schools, learning, and the whole domain of letters ;
the confessional afforded them opportunity of prying into
the secret conflicts of the soul, and of deciding in all the
difiicult and doubtful circumstances of private life. It may,
perhaps, be maintained that the very causes which rendered
their influence so extensive and searching, were, their vio-
lent dissensions among themselves, and the contradictions
which existed in their own body.

This was indeed true of both parties, but in a more
especial manner of the catholics. With them, the ideas

VOL. I. 1 1

482 THEORY OF THE CONNEXION [Book VI.

and the institutions which subject the mind more imme-
diately to disciphne and to guidance, had attained to the
greatest perfection, and the most complete adaptation to
their end ; it was impossible to live without a father con-
fessor. With them, too, the clergy, either as brethren of
an order, or at any rate as members of the hierarchy, com-
posed a corporation held together in strict subordination,
and working in one spirit and with one intention. The
head of this hierarchical body, the pope of Rome, was
once more invested with a power scarcely inferior to that
which he had possessed in the eleventh and twelfth cen-
turies ; he kept the interest and the zeal of the world con-
stantly ahve by the frequent enterprises which he under-
took under the influence, or the pretext, of rehgion.

Under these circumstances the most arrogant pretensions
of the times of Hildebrand were resuscitated; weapons
which had been preserved in the arsenal of canon law
rather for curiosity than use, were now brought into full
activity.

But the European commonwealth has in no age sub-
mitted to the dominion of mere force ; under all its phases,
its condition has been influenced by speculations and
opinions : no important enterprise has ever been carried
through, no power has ever arisen to universal importance,
without instantly awakening in the minds of men the idea
of a possible new order of society. This idea next gives
birth to theories, which are the expression of the moral
signification and purport of facts ; and which represent
those facts as universal truths, deduced from reason or from
religion, and arrived at by reflection. They thus anticipate
the fulfilment of the event, to which at the same time they
most powerfully contribute.

The events we are about to consider aflbrd an illustration
of these remarks.

§ 1. THEORY OF THE CONNEXION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE.

It has been common to ascribe to the principle of the
catholic religion a peculiar connexion, a natural sympathy,
with the monai-chical or aristocratical forms of government.

§ I.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE, 4S8

A century like the 1 6th, in which this principle manifested
itself in the fullest energy and conscious intentionality,
affords us the most instructive data upon which to form a
judgment on this question.

Looking at the facts, we find that in Italy and Spain it
attached itself to the existing order of things ; in Germany
it even enabled the sovereign power to acquire new and
increased predominancy over the popular assemblies ; in
the Netherlands it aided the conqueror ; and in Northern
Germany and the Walloon provinces it was maintained
with peculiar and strenuous attachment by the nobility.

But if we carry our inquiries further, we shall find that
these were not the only sympathies which it awakened. If
in Cologne the patrician party were its zealous upholders,
in the neighbouring city of Treves the common people were
not less so. In the large cities of France it was universally
allied with the claims and the efforts of the popular party.
The results of an extensive and unprejudiced inquiry will
show, that Catholicism always attached itself to the side on
which it found its firmest prop and most powerfiil ally.
When the established authorities were opposed to it, it was
very far from sparing or even from recognising them. It
confirmed the Irish nation in its ancient and hereditary
resistance to the English government. In England itself it
undermined to the utmost of its power the allegiance
demanded by the queen, and often broke out in active
rebellion ; in France it confirmed its adherents in their
resistance to their legitimate princes.

This religious system has no inherent or necessary
affinity to one form of government more than to another.
Even during the short period of its revival, Catholicism
displayed the most opposite predilections ; first, for mo-
narchy in Ital}^ and Spain, and for the strengthening of the
hereditary sovereign power in Germany ; next for the
maintenance of lawfully constituted aristocratical bodies in
the Netherlands ; and at the conclusion of the century, it
formed a decided alliance with the democratical spirit.
This was the more important, as it now stood in the pleni-
tude of its activity, and the movements in which it took
part are in fact the most important events which agitated

I I 2

484 THEORY OF THE CONNEXION [Book VI.

the political world. Had the popes succeeded at this
moment, they would have achieved for ever the predomi-
nancy of the church over the state. They put forward
claims, and their adherents enounced opinions and princi-
ples, which threatened kingdoms and states both with
internal convulsions and with the loss of independence.

It was principally the Jesuits who entered the hsts as the
proclaimers and the champions of these doctrines.

They laid claim,, first, to an absolute supremacy of the
church over the state.

The agitation of this question was in some sort inevitable
in England, where the queen had been declared head of
the church. That principle was met by the heads of the
catholic opposition with the most violent pretensions on
the other side. William Allen declares it to be not only
the right, but the duty of a nation, especially when backed
by the command of the pope, to refuse allegiance to a
prince who has apostatised from the cathohc church.'""
Parsons holds, that it is the fundamental condition of all
authority in a temporal prince, that he should foster and
defend the Roman catholic faith ; that he is bound to do
this by his baptismal vow and by his coronation oath ; it
would therefore be blindness to regard him as capable of
reigning if he did not fulfil this condition ; his subjects
were, on the contrary, bound in such a case to expel him.f
These opinions are perfectly natural and consistent in
writers who place the main purpose and duty of life in the
exercise of religion ; they believe the Roman catholic to be
the only true religion, and they conclude that there can be
no lawful authority which is opposed to that religion ; thus
they make the existence of a government, and the obe-

* In the letter, Ad persecutores Anglos etiara juris divini necessitate ac prse-

pro Christianis responsio, 1582, I notice cepto, imo conscientise vinculo arctissimo

the following passage : — " Si reges Deo et extremo animarum suarum periculo

et Dei populo fidem datam fregerint, ac discrimine Christianis omnibus hoc

vicissim populo non solum permittitur, ipsum ineumbit, si prsestare rem pos-

sed etiam ab eo requiritur, ut, jubente sunt." No. 160: "Ineumbit vero tum

Christi vicario, supremo nimii*um popu- maxime cum res jam ab ecclesia ac

lorum omnium pastore, ipse quoque supremo ejus moderatore, pontifice nimi-

fidem datam tali principi non servet." rum Romano, judicata est : ad ilium enim

t Andrese Philopatri (Personi) ad ex oftieio pertinet religionis ac divini

Elizabethaj reginae edictum responsio, cultus incolumitati prospicere et leprosos

No. 162 : "Nou tantum licet, sed summa a mundis ue iuficiantur secernere."

§ 1] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 4S5

dience which it receives, dependent on the appKcation
of its power to the advancement of the interests of the
church.

This, however, was the general drift of the doctrines
now rising into popularity. That which was asserted in
England in the heat of the struggle, was repeated by Bel-
larmine in the solitude of his study, in elaborate works, in
a connected, well-digested system. He laid it down as
a fundamental maxim, that the pope was placed imme-
diately by God over the whole church as its guardian and
chief'"* Hence the fulness of spiritual power belongs to
him ; hence he is endowed with infallibility ; he judges
all, and may be judged by none ; and hence a great share
of temporal authority accrues to him. Bellarmine does
not go so far as to ascribe to the pope a temporal power
derived directly from divine right ;t although Sixtus V.
cherished this opinion, and was consequently displeased
that it was abandoned ; but so much the more unhesi-
tatingly does Bellarmine attribute to him an indirect right.
He compares the temporal power with the body, the
spiritual with the soul, of man ; he ascribes to the church
the same dominion over the state which the soul exercises
over the body. The spiritual power had, he affirms, the
right and the duty to impose a curb on the temporal,
whenever that became injurious to the interests of religion.
It cannot be affirmed that the pope is entitled to a regular
influence over the legislation of the state ;;|: but if a law
were necessary to the salvation of souls and the sovereign
hesitated to enact it ; or if a law were injurious to the
salvation of souls and the sovereign was obstinately deter-
mined to maintain it, the pope is certainly justified in
ordaining the one and in abolishing the other. This prin-

* Bellarminus de conciliorum autori- in ordine ad bonum spiritiiale summam

täte, e. 17 : " Summus pontifex simpli- potestatem disponendi de temporalibus

citer et absolute est supra ecclesiam rebus omnium Christianorum."
universam et supra conciHum generale, X Bellarminus de Romano pontifice,

ita ut nullum in terris supra se judicium v. vi. : " Quantum ad personas, non

agnoscat." potest papa ut papa ordinarie temporales

f Bellarminus de Romano pontifice, principes deponere,etiamjusta de causa,

V. vi. : "Asserimus pontificem ut pon- eo modo quo deponit episcopos, id est

tificem, etsi non habeat ullam meram tan quam Ordinarius judex : tarnen potest

temporalem potestatem, tamen habere mutare regna et uni auferre atque alteri

4y6 THEORY OF THE CONNEXION [Book VI.

ciple was sufficient to carry him a great way. Does not
the safety of the soul prescribe even death to the body
when necessary '? As a general rule, the pope could
certainly not dethrone a prince ; but should it become
necessary to the salvation of souls, he possessed the right
of changing a government, or of transferring it from one
ruler to another. "^^'

But these assertions were open to the obvious objection,
that the power of the temporal prince, as well as of the
pope, rested on divine right. If not, what was its origin ?
what the sanction inherent in it '?

The Jesuits had no hesitation in deriAang the sovereign
power from the people. They incorporated their theory
of the sovereignty of the people, and the omnipotence of
the pope, into one system. This, more or less openly
expressed, lay at the foundation of the opinions of Allen
and Parsons. Bellarmine first endeavoured to establish it on
a firm and thoroughly worked-out basis. He maintains
that God had conferred supreme temporal power on no
individual in particular, and consequently had conferred
it on the many ; — that this power therefore resided in the
people, who might commit it either to one or to several ;
that they retained an indefeasible right to alter the forms
of government, to resume the sovereignty, and to transfer
it into new hands. It must not be supposed that these
views were peculiar to him ; this is the prevailing doctrine
of the Jesuit schools of that time. In a manual for con-
fessors, which circulated through the whole catholic world,
and was revised by the " Magister sacri Palatii," the tem-
poral sovereign is treated not only as subject to the pope,
in so far as the safety of souls required ;t but it is roundly

confeire tanqiiam summus princeps spi- G. Barclajum," enumei'atcs more than

ritualis, si id necessarium sit ad anima- seventy >vriters of different countries,

rum," &c. &c. by whom the authority of the pope is

* These doctrines are in fact only fivsh regarded in the same Hght as by himself,

combinations of the princi])les laid down f Aphorismi confessariorum ex doc-

in the 13th century. Thomas Aquinas tonmi sententiis collecti, autore Ema-

had already di'awn the comparison which nuele Sa, nuper accurate expurgati a

liere plays so important a part : " Po- rev'"" P. M, sacri palatii, ed. Antv., p.

testas secularis subditur s])irituali sicut 480. The author however adds, as if

corpus animie." Bellarmine, in the he had said too little, " Quidam tarnen

" Tractatiis <le potestate summi ponti- juris pcriti putaruntsummum poutificem

licis in rebus tempoinilibus adversus suprcma civili potestate poliere."

§ I.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 4,^ J

asserted that a king may be dethroned on account of
tyranny or neglect of his duties, and another chosen in his
place by the majority of the nation."'^ Franciscus Suarez,
professor primarius of theology at Coimbra, in his defence
of the catholic church against the Anglican, gives a most
elaborate exposition and confirmation of Bellarmine's
doctrine, f But the writer who developes the idea of
the sovereignty of the people with the greatest compla-
cency and emphasis is Mariana. He suggests all the
questions which can arise out of this idea, and decides
them without hesitation in favour of the people, and to
the prejudice of the kingly authority. He does not question
that a king may be dethroned, nay put to death, if his
life is injurious to religion. He pronounces an eulogium,
full of pathetical declamation, on Jacques f^lement, who
first took counsel of divines, and then went forth and
assassinated his king. J He has at least the merit of being
perfectly consistent ; nor can it be doubted that these
doctrines inflamed the fanaticism of the assassin.

For in jio country were they promulgated with such
furious violence as in France. It is impossible to find any-
thing more anti-royalist than the diatribes which Jean
Boucher thundered from the pulpit. It is in the Estates
that he places the public might and majesty, the power to
bind and to loose, the indefeasible sovereignty, the supreme
jurisdiction over sceptre and realm ; for in them is the
source of all power : the prince is raised from the mass of
the people, not of necessity and compulsion, but of free
choice. Boucher takes the same view of the connexion of
the state with the church as Bellarmine, and repeats his
illustration of the connexion between body and soul. There
is only one limitation, he says, to the free choice of the

* Ibid. p. 508, (ed Colon., p. 313.) reges excellentia et potestate. It is easy

" Rex potest per rempublicam privari to see that Bellarmine's doctrine of the

ob tyrannidem et si non faciat officium right of the people to revoke powers

suum, et cum est aliqua causa justa, et which had been abused, had excited the

eligi potest alius a majore parte populi : strongest opposition,
quidam tamen solum tyrannidem causam J Mariana de rege et regis institu-

putant." tione. " Jac. Clemens, cognito a

f R. P. Franc. Saurez Granatensis, theologis, quos erat sciscitatus, tyran-

&c., defensio fidei catholicse et apostolicse num jure interimi posse — cseso rege

ad versus Anglicanas sectee errores, lib. ingens sibi nomen fecit."
iii., de summi pontificis supra temporales

488 THEORY OF THE CONNEXION [Book VI.

people ; there is only one thing forbidden — ^viz. to place
on the throne an heretical monarch ; that would be to
draw down upon themselves the curse of God.'""

Strange union of spiritual pretensions and democratic
ideas ; of absolute freedom and complete subjection ; —
self-contradictory and anti-national ; yet such was the
doctrine which bound all minds as with a mysterious
spell !

Hitherto the Sorbonne had always stood forth as the
champion of the royal and national privileges, against the
ultra-montane and sacerdotal assumptions. But when,
after the assassination of the Guises, these doctrines were
preached from every pulpit ; when men cried aloud in the
streets and represented by symbols in processions, that
king Henry JII. had lost his right to the crown, " the
good citizens and inhabitants of the city," as they called
themselves, " in the scruples of their consciences," addressed
themselves to the theological faculty of the university of
Paris, in order to obtain a safe decision as to the legality
of resistance to their sovereign lord. Hereupon the Sor-
bonne met on the 7th of January, 1589. "After," says
their decision, " having heard the mature and free coun-
sels of all the magistri ; after many and various arguments,
for the most part literally drawn from the Holy Scriptures,
the canon law, and the papal ordinances, the dean of the
faculty decided without a dissentient voice ; — first, that
the people of tliis kingdom are absolved from the oath of
allegiance and fidelity which they took to king Henry :
further, that this people without scruple of conscience
may assemble, arm, and collect money for the support
of the Roman catholic apostolical religion against the
execrable proceedings of the said king."t Seventy

* Jean Boucher, Sermons, Paris, 1594, corps." Fiu'ther on, " La difference du

in several passages. In p. 194 he says, prestre et du roi nous eclaircit cette

" LY'glise seigneurie les royaumes et matiere, le prestre estant de Dieu seul,

estats de la Chretiente, nou pour y ce qui ne se peut dire du roi. Car si

usurper puissance directe comme sur tons les rois etoient morts, les peuples

son propre teniporel, mais bien indi- s'en pourroient bien faire d'autres :

rectemeut pour enipescher que rien ne mais s'il n'y avoit plus aucun prestre,

se passe au teniporel qui soit au preju- il faudroit que Jesus Christ vint en

dice (hi royaiune ile Jesus Christ, conimc personne pour en faire de nouveaux."

par t-ydcvant il a rte declare par la simi- p. lt)'2.

Jitude de la puissance de I'esprit sur le f Responsum facultatis tlieologicse

§ I.] BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. 489

members of the faculty were present ; the younger of
them carried through this resolution with the fiercest
enthusiasm.''"

The universal assent which these theories received, arose
no doubt mainly from their being at this moment the real
expression of the fact — of the historical phenomenon. For,
in the French troubles, popular and priestly resistance had
advanced from their respective sides to form an alliance ;
the citizens of Paris were encouraged and held firm in
their revolt against their lawful sovereign by a legate of
the pope. Bellarmine himself was for a time in the retinue
of the legate. The doctrines which he developed in his
learned solitude, which he promulgated with so much con-
sistency and with so much success, were expressed in the
event of which he was at once the witness, and, in part,
the author.

Another circumstance connected with this is, that the
Spaniards approved these doctrines ; that so jealous a
monarch as Philip IL tolerated them. The Spanish monarch
rested indeed on a combination of spiritual attributes. In
numerous passages of Lope di Yega we see that it was so
understood by the nation ; that they loved in their sove-
reign the religious Majesty, and wished to see it represented
in his person. But besides this, the king was implicated
in the schemes and efforts of the catholic restoration, not
only with the priests, but even with the revolted people.
The citizens of Paris reposed far greater confidence in him
than in the French princes, the chiefs of the league. A
new ally now appeared on his side in the doctrines of the
Jesuits. It was impossible not to perceive that he might
have something to fear from them ; but this was more than
counterbalanced by the effect they had in giving to his
policy a justification based both on law and on religion ;
of great advantage, even to his weight and dignity in Spain,
and of still greater as opening the way directly to his
foreign enterprises. The king was more intent on this

Parisiensis, printed in the Additions au although the document mentioned ex-
Journal de Henry III., vol. i. p. 317. pressly says, "audita omnium et singu-
* Thuanus, lib. 94. p. 258, gives the lorum magistrorum, qui ad septuaginta

number of those present at sixty only, convenerant, deliberatione cou-

and will not allow their unanimity, clusum est nemine refragante."

490 CONFLICT OF OPINIONS. [Book VI.

immediate utility than on the general purport and tendency
of the Jesuit doctrines. ■^^"

And is not this commonly the case with regard to poli-
tical doctrines ? Are they to be considered as the results,
or as the causes of facts ? Are they valued more for their
own sakes, or for the sake of the personal advantages which
men promise themselves from their dissemination '?

Be this as it may, their force remains the same. Whilst
the Jesuit doctrines expressed the efforts of the reviving
and reforming papacy (or rather of that general current of
opinions and affairs in the midst of which the papacy was
placed), they imparted to it new strength, by giving it a
systematic foundation in the spirit of the prevalent theolo-
gical opinions ; they fostered a disposition of mind, on the
general diffusion of which victory depended.

§ 2. CONFLICT OF OPINIONS.

Never however has either a political power, or a political
doctrine, succeeded in acquiring absolute and sole dominion
over Europe.

Nor is it possible to imagine one which, when compared
with the ideal, and with the loftiest conceptions of which
man is capable, does not appear inevitably fatal to large-
ness and impartiality of mind.

In all times has opposition arisen to opinions which
strove for exclusive domination ; an opposition springing
out of the fathomless depths of the feelings and interests
of the mass, and evolving new powers and new energies.

We have remarked that no kind of power ever rises into
importance which does not repose on the basis of ideas ;

* Pedro Ribadeneira repeated it, it is ensenan.'* Anveres, 1597. Princes, he

true, under a moderated lorm, but still tliinks, ai*e servants of the church, but

he did repeat it, in his book against not her rulers ; armed to chastise here-

Machiavelli, wliich was already com- tics, the enemies of and rebels to the

pleted in 159.5, and presented to the church, but not to impose laws upon her

prince of Spain. " Tratado de la reli- or to declare the will of God. He

gion y virtudes quo deve toner el prin- adheres to the comparison of tlie body

cipe Christiano para governar y conser- and the soul. The kingdom of the

var Kus estados, contra lo que Nicolo earth, as St. Gregory says, should be

Machiavcllo y los poUticos d'este tiemi)o subservient to the kingdom of heaven.

§ IL] CONFLICT OF OPINIONS. 491

we may now add that in ideas it finds its limits. The
struggles of opinion which generate great pohtical acts and
events, also find their accomphshment in the regions of
conviction and of thought.

Thus national independence, which is the proper expres-
sion of the temporal element of society, now rose in power-
ful opposition to the idea of a sacerdotal religion, supreme
and predominant over all temporal powers.

The Germanic institution of royalty, extended over the
Romance nations and deeply rooted among them, has
never been overthrown or shaken, either by the preten-
sions of priests or by the fiction of the sovereignty of the
people ; — a fiction which has in every case eventually
proved itself untenable.

The strange alliance into which these principles had
entered at the time we are contemplating, was opposed by
the doctrine of the divine right of kings. It was next
attacked b}' the protestants (who appear to have vacillated),
with all the zeal and vigour of an enemy who sees his anta-
gonist playing a desperate game, and entering on courses
that must lead to destruction.

The protestants maintained that God alone set princes
and rulers over the race of men ; that he had reserved to
himself the power to exalt or to abase, to divide and to
mete out. It is true, they said, he no longer descended
from heaven to show by outward signs those to whom
dominion should belong ; but by his eternal providence,
laws and an established order of things had been intro-
duced in every kingdom, according to which a ruler w^as
appointed. If a king, in virtue of these laws and institu-
tions, came to power, that fact was equivalent to a declara-
tion by the voice of God that he should be king. God had
indeed of old pointed out to his people the persons of Moses,
the judges, and the first kings ; but after an established
order was once introduced, the others who succeeded to
the throne were not less God's anointed than their prede-
cessors.*''''

* "Explicatio controversiarum quae Bercheto Lingonensi e Gallico in Lati-

a nonnuUis moventur ex Henrici Bor- niim sermonem conversum." Sedani,

bonii regis in regnum Francise constitu- 1590, cap. 2,

tione, opus a Tossano

192 CONFLICT OF OPINIONS. [Book VI.

From these principles the protestants proceeded to urge
the necessity of submission, even to unjust and culpable
princes. Besides, they argued, no man was perfect ; and
if the law was not treated as inviolable, people would avail
themselves of the slightest failings as a pretext for getting
rid of a king. Even heresy did not generally absolve sub-
jects from their allegiance. A son ought not indeed to
obey a godless father in things contrary to God^s command-
ments, but in all other things he remained bound to pay
him reverence and submission.

It would have been a matter of no little moment, if the
protestants alone had developed and maintained these
opinions ; but it was far more important that a part of the
French catholics likewise adopted them, or rather, that
their own spontaneous convictions coincided with them.

In defiance of the pope's excommunication, a considera-
ble body of good catholics remained faithful to Henry III.,
and afterwards transferred their allegiance to Henry IV.
The Jesuit doctrines did not succeed with the party in
question ; nor were they wanting in arguments by which
to defend their position, without involving any apostacy
from Catholicism.

This party next endeavoured to define the authority of
the clergy, and their relation to the temporal power, from
an opposite point of view to that of the Jesuits. They
came to the conviction that the spiritual kingdom was not
of this world, and that the power of the clergy regarded
spiritual things alone. Excommunication, from its very
nature, could touch only the participation in ecclesiastical
privileges, and had no power to abstract anything from the
enjoyment of secular rights. But a king of France could
not even be excluded from the communion of the church,
since this was a privilege indefeasibly attached to the ban-
ner of the lilies ; how much less was it then permitted to
deprive him of his inheritance ! And where was it dis-
tinctly written that men might rebel against their king,
and resort to force against him 1 The}^ urged that God
had set him over them, as was indicated by the words
used in his title, " by the grace of God ; " and that the
only case in which a subject could refuse him obedience

§ IL] CONFLICT OF OPINIONS. 493

was, if he required anything contrary to God's command-
ments.'"'

From these principles they then deduced that they were
not only permitted, but bound to acknowledge a protestant
king. Such as God appoints a king, must his subjects
accept him ; obedience to him is a commandment of God,
nor could there possibly exist a ground for depriving a
king of his rights. f They even maintained that their view
of the case was the most favourable to the catholic interest ;
that Henry TV. was judicious, gracious, and upright, and
that nothing but good was to be anticipated from him ;
that if they endeavoured to shake off his authority, petty
rulers would spring up on every side, and that it was pre-
cisely this universal division which would throw the power
into the hands of the protestant party. J

In this way an opposition to those ambitious projects of
the papacy which had been generated by the catholic
restoration, arose within the pale of Catholicism itself ; and
it was from the very first doubtful whether Rome would
be able to extinguish it. Not only were the principles of
this party, although less elaborately developed, yet more
firmly based on the convictions of the European world
than those of the orthodox party, but the position they had
taken up was perfectly just and irreproachable ; the cir-
cumstance, however, most propitious to them was, the
alliance which subsisted between the papal doctrines and
the Spanish power.

The monarchy of Philip II. seemed every day to become
more dangerous to the liberties of the world ; throughout
Europe it awakened that jealous hate arising less from
committed acts of violence and oppression, than from the
fear of them, and from the danger which seemed to impend
over freedom ; — a hate which takes unconscious possession
of men's hearts.

The connexion subsisting between Rome and Spain was

* In this I follow the extracts from f Etienne Pasquier, Recherches de
an anonymous writing which appeared France, 341, 344.

at Paris in the year 1588 in Cayet, J Explanation in Th nanus, lib. 97. p.
Collection universelle des M^moires, 316 : " Sectarios dissoluto imperio et
torn. 56 f p. 44. singulis regni partibus a reliquo corpore

divisis potentiores fore."

494 CONFLICT OF OPINIONS. [Book VT.

now SO intimate, that the opponents of the claims of the
church were also the adversaries of the progress of Spanish
power. They filled a post which had become necessary to
Europe, and were therefore certain of co-operation and
support. Nations were united by a secret sympathy.
This national party of French cathohcs found determined
allies who had risen up uncalled and in unexpected places ;
— even in Italy itself, under the very eye of the pope.

The first were the Venetians.

A few years pre^dously (in 1582), a change had taken
place in Venice, noiseless indeed, and almost overlooked in
the history of the republic, but not the less influential. Up
to that period the weightier part of public affairs had been
in the hands of a few aged patricians, chosen out of a
small circle of famihes. At the time we speak of, a dis-
contented majority in the senate, consisting more especially
of the younger members, who unquestionably had, accord-
ing to the constitution, a right to a share in the govern-
ment, were struggling for power.

The government hitherto subsisting had never neglected
to keep jealous guard over its independence ; yet it had
attached itself to the measures of Spain and of the church,
whenever it was practicable. The new rulers no longer
entertained these views ; the mere spirit of contradiction
would indeed have sufficed to inspire them with an inclina-
tion to hold those powers in check.

The Venetians had certainly a strong interest in pur-
suing that course.

On the one side they observed with displeasure that the
doctrine of the pope's omnipotence and of blind obedience
to his edicts, found apostles among them ; on the other,
they feared the complete destruction of the balance of
power in Europe, if the Spaniards should succeed in
obtaining a preponderant influence in France. The free-
dom of Europe had hitherto appeared to rest on the mutual
enmity of these tw^o nations.

The course and issue of French affairs were thus fol-
lowed with a double intensity of interest. Writings which
advocated the rights of kings were caught up with eager-
ness. There was a society exercising remarkable influence.

§ II.] CONFLICT OF OPINIONS. 495

which assembled at the house of Andrea Morosini, resorted
to by Leonardo Donate, Nicolo Contarini, both afterwards
doges ; Domenico Mohno, in later times a leading chief of
the republic ; Fra Paolo Sarpi, and some other distin-
guished men ; — all of an age at which men are disposed
not only to adopt new ideas, but to retain and act upon
them ; all declared adversaries of the arrogant pretensions
of the church, and of the overbearing power of Spain.*""
It will ever be very important to the formation and the
influence of a system of political opinions (even when they
are founded on facts), that they are adopted by men of
talent who become their representatives and disseminators ;
it is doubly important in a republic.

Under these circumstances, men did not confine them-
selves to thoughts and inclinations. From the beginning
of his career, the Venetians believed in the ability of Henry
TV. to resuscitate France, and thus restore the balance of
power. Although bound by manifold obligations to the
pope who had excommunicated Henry ; although encircled
both by land and sea by the Spaniards who aimed at his
destruction ; although possessed of no extensive and com-
manding power, yet had Venice first, of all the catholic
states, the courage to acknowledge him. On the notifica-
tion of their ambassador Mocenigo, they were the first to
authorise him to congratulate Henry IV. on his accession
to the throne of France. f Their example failed not to
animate others. Although the grand-duke Ferdinand of
Tuscany had not courage for an open recognition of
Henry's rights, he engaged in a friendly personal cor-
respondence with the new monarch.;]: The protestant king
suddenly saw himself surrounded by catholic allies, nay
even taken under their protection, against the supreme
head of their own church.

* In the anonymous Vita da Fra Quirini, Giacopo Marcello, Marino Zane,

Paolo Sarpi, p. 104 (by Fra Fulgentio), and Alessandro Malipiero, who, notwith-

in Griselini's Memorabilia of Fra Paolo, standing his great age, always accom-

pp. 40, 78, and in some passages of panied Fra Paolo home, belonged to this

Foscarini, we find accounts of this society.

"ridotto Mauroceno." Besides those f Andrese Mauroceni Historiarum

we have mentioned, Pietro and Giacopo Venetarum, lib. xiii. p. 548.

Contarini, Giacopo Morosini, Leonardo ij: Galluzzi, Istoria del Granducato di

Mocenigo (who however did not attend Toscana, iib. v. (t. v. p. 78.)
so regularly as the others), Antonio

496 LATTKR TTMES OF SIXTUS V. [Book VI.

In times when any great and momentous question is to
be decided, the pubhc opinion of Europe invariably declares
itself in favour of the one side or the other, with a dis-
tinctness and energy that leave no room for doubt. For-
tunate is he in whose favour it inclines 1 whatever he
undertakes is accomplished with double facility. It now
espoused the cause of Henry IV. The ideas associated
with his name, though scarcely expressed, were already so
powerful, that it appeared not impossible to lead the papacy
itself to recognise their justice.

§ 3. LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V.

"We return once more to Sixtus V. After having
observed his internal administration, and the share he took
in the restoration of the church, we must say a few words
of his general policy.

It is most remarkable what a strange inchnation for
fantastical pohtical plans was combined with the inexorable
justice he executed, the severe financial system he intro-
duced, and the accurate and frugal conduct of his domestic
affairs.

How extravagant were the projects he conceived ! For
a long time he flattered himself that he should be able to
annihilate the Turkish empire. He entered into corre-
spondences in the East, with the Persians, and with the
Druses, certain Arab chiefs ; he fitted out galleys, and
obtained from Spain and Tuscany a promise of others.
He also imagined that he could render assistance to king
Stephen Bathory of Poland, who was to make the principal
attack on Turkey by land. The pope hoped to unite all
the forces of the north-east and the south-west for this
enterprise, and persuaded himself that Russia would volun-
tarily become not only the ally but the subject of Poland.

At another time he fancied he could conquer Egypt,
either single-handed or with the sole assistance of Tuscany.
On this project he built the most remote and complicated
scliemes, — the opening a passage between the Red Sea and

§ III.] LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. 497

the Mediterranean/'' the re-estabhshment of the commerce
of the ancient world, and the conquest of the holy sepul-
chre. But if so vast a design should appear not imme-
diately practicable, he imagined that at least an incursion
might be made into Syria, and by the aid of skilful work-
men, the tomb of the Saviour be excavated from the rock
and carefully transported to Italy ! Already he indulged
the hope of being able to erect in Montalto this most holy
of shrines ; then would his native province, the March,
where the sacred house of Loretto already stood, contain
within its narrow limits the birthplace and the tomb of the
Redeemer.

There is another idea which I find ascribed to him,
surpassing all these in extravagance. After the assassi-
nation of the Guises, it is asserted that a proposition was
made to Henry III. to acknowledge a nephew of the pope
as successor to the throne of France. The legate, it is
said, made this proposal with the pope^s knowledge. If
the adoption took place with the requisite solemnities, his
holiness was persuaded that the king of Spain would give
the declared successor the Infanta in marriage ; such a
succession would be acknowledged by every one, and all
troubles would have an end. It is confidently affirmed
that Henry III. was really allured by these projects for a
moment, till it was represented to him what a reputation
for cowardice and pusillanimity he would acquire by yield-
ing to them.f

* Dispaccio Gritti, 23 Agosto 1587. de Sa Saintete, qui si S. M. vouloit de-

" (II papa) entr6 a parlar della fossa che clarer le marquis de Pom [probably mis-

li re deir Egitto non havevano fatta per spelt] son neveu heritier de la couronne

passar del mare rosso nel mar mediter- et le faire recevoir pour tel avec solemn-

raneo." He sometimes entertained the itez requises, que S. S. s'assuroit que le

project of attacking Egypt single-handed, roy d'Espagne bailleroit en mariage an

** Scoprl la causa del desiderar danari dit marquis I'infante et qu'en ce faisant

per impiegarli in una armata che vorria tous les troubles de France prendroieiit

far solo per 1' impresa dell' Egitto e fin. A quoileroy etantprest a se laisser

pagar quelle galee che ajutassero a far aller et ce par la persuasion de quel qu' uns

quella impresa." qui pour lors etoient pres de S. M., M''

+ This notice exists in a Memoire du de Schomberg rompist ce coup par telles

S'' de Schomberg, M' de France sous raisons, que ce seroit I'invertir Tordre

Henry III., among the Hohenbaum de France, abolir les loix fondamentales,

MSS. in the imperial library at Vienna, laisser ä la posterity un argument cer-

No. 114: "Quelque tems apres la mort tain de la lachete et pusillanimite de

de M"" de Guise avenue en Blois il fut S. M."
propose par le C de Moresino de la part It is true that Schomberg makes a

VOL. I. K K

498 LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. [Book VI.

Such were the plans, or rather — for that word seems to
imply something far too definite — such were the strange
dreams, the castles in the air, which passed through the
mind of Sixtus. How utterly inconsistent do they seem
^^^th that strenuous practical activity, always pressing
onwards to its end, by which he was distinguished !

And yet, w^ho will venture to assert that this was not
frequently engendered by the exuberance of thoughts too
vast for accomplishment 1 The elevation of Rome to a
regular metropolis of Christendom, to which, after the
lapse of a certain number of years, the people of every
country, even of America, were to resort ; the transform-
ation of the monuments of antiquity into symbols and
memorials of the overthrow of paganism by the Christian
religion ; the accumulation of money obtained on loan and
paying interest, into a fund on which the temporal power
of the states of the church should repose ; — are all plans
which appear to outstrip the bounds of the practicable,
which have their origin in the ardour of a fancy inflamed
by religion, yet which mainly stamped its character on the
active life of this pope.

From youth upwards the condition and conduct of man
are surrounded by hopes and wishes ; the present is, so to
speak, encompassed by the future ; and the soul is never
weary of abandoning herself to the anticipations of personal
felicity. The further we advance in Hfe, however, the
more do these wishes and expectations assume the form of
views for the general interest, and attach themselves to
some grand object in science or pohtics ; — to some great
public end. In our Franciscan the excitement and impulse
of personal hopes had ever been the more powerful, inas-
much as he found himself embarked on a course which
opened to him the most splendid prospects ; they had
accompanied him step by step, and had cheered and for-
tified his soul in days of indigence and obscurity ; he had
eagerly caught up every prophetic word, and had treasured

merit of having prevented the execution proof of authenticity, from the circum-

of this project, hut I sliould not for that stance of its lying in obscurity amongst ,

reason be inclined to think it so entirely other papers. It is only surprising that

chimerical. The Memoire, which asserts nothing should have been said about it.
the rights of Henry IV., has a certain

§ III.] LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. 499

it in his inmost heart ; he had contemplated the success of
his lofty schemes with the enthusiasm of a religious recluse.
At length all his hopes were fulfilled ; he had risen from
a mean and hopeless beginning, to the highest dignity of
Christendom, — a dignity of the significancy of which he
entertained an exorbitant conception ; he believed himself
chosen by an immediate providence to realise the ideas
which floated before his imagination.

Nor, in the possession of supreme power, did the habit
leave him of descrying through all the complexities of
pohtical aflairs, any possibility of brilliant achievements,
and of forming projects for their accomplishment. In all of
these an element of a very personal nature is indeed dis-
coverable ; he was sensible to the charms of power and
posthumous fame ; he wished to shed his own lustre over
all connected with him, — his family, his birth-place, his
province ; yet these desires were always subordinate to an
interest in the whole of catholic Christendom ; and his
mind was ever open to large and magnificent ideas. But
the former he could carry through himself, while he was
compelled for the most part to abandon the execution of
the latter to others. The former therefore he embraced
with that indefatigable activity which is the offspring of
conviction, enthusiasm and ambition ; whereas in the
latter, either because he was by nature mistrustfiil, or because
the most prominent part of the execution (and thence of the
fame) must be conceded to others, he was not nearly so
zealous. If, for example, we inquire what he really did
for the accomplishment of the oriental schemes we have
mentioned, we perceive that it did not go beyond the
forming alliances, interchanging letters, disseminating
notices, and making arrangements : that he adopted any
serious measures calculated to effect the contemplated end,
we do not find. He caught at the plan with lively and
excitable fancy ; but as he could not directly co-operate in
it — as its accomplishment was remote — his will was not
really effective ; the scheme which had occupied him
so much he let drop again, and another succeeded in
its place.

At the moment we are now contemplating, the pope

K K 2

500 LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. [Book VI.

was filled with the grandest anticipations connected with
the enterprises against Henry IV. ; — anticipations of a
complete victory of strict Catholicism, and of a revival of
the universal supremacy of the papacy. In these he was
wholly absorbed. Nor did he doubt that all the cathohc
states would agree to turn their united energy and force
against the protestant who laid claim to the crown of
France.

Such was the temper of his mind, such the ardour of his
zeal, when he learned that Venice, a catholic power with
which he thought himself on a pecuharly good footing, had
sent its congratulations to this very protestant. He was
deeply mortified at the intelligence. He sought to restrain
the republic for a moment from taking any further step ;
he begged for delay ; time, he said, brought forth wondrous
fruits ; he himself had learned from the good and vener-
able senators to allow them to come to maturity.'"" But,
notwithstanding all his entreaties, Venice recognised De
Maisse, (the ambassador who had for some time been
resident there in that capacity) after he i-eceived his
new credentials, as the plenipotentiary of Henry IV.
Upon this the pope proceeded from remonstrances to
threats. He exclaimed that he would ascertain what he
ought to do ; he caused the old monitoria which were
published against the Venetians in the time of Julius IL,
to be searched out, and the formula of a new one to be
drawn up.

Nevertheless it was not without pain and inward struggles
that he took this step. Let us hear for a minute how he
expressed himself to the ambassador whom the Venetians
sent to him. " To fall out with those one does not love,"
said the pope, " is no such great misfortune ; but with those
one loves — that is indeed painful. Yes, it will grieve us
(laying his hand on his breast) to break with Venice.

" But Venice has offended us. Navarre is a heretic
excommunicated by the holy see ; nevertheless Venice,
spite of all our remonstrances, has acknowledged him.

" Is the signory then the greatest sovereign on earth,

* 9 Sett. 1589 : "Che per amor di Dio nou si vada tanto avaiiti eon qiiesto
Navarra. che si Btia a veder," &c.

§ III.] LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. 501

entitled to set an example to others ? There is still a king
of Spain, — there is still an emperor.

" Does the republic fear anything from Navarre *? We
will defend her, if needful, with all our might ; we have
nerve enough.

" Or does the republic meditate any attempt to injure
us ? God himself would be our defender.

" The republic ought to value our friendship more
highly than that of Navarre. We could do more for its
support.

" I entreat you recall one step ! The catholic king
has withdrawn many, because we wished it ; not out of
fear of us, for our power is, as compared to his, like a fly
compared to an elephant ; but from love ; because it was
the pope who asked it, the vicegerent of Christ, who
prescribes the rules of faith to him and to all others. Let
the signory do likewise ; they can hit upon some pretext
for retracting ; it cannot be hard to them, for they have
wise and venerable men enow, every one of whom is compe-
tent to govern a world. ^^ ''^

But no one continues to speak without receiving an
answer. The envoy extraordinary of the Venetians was
Leonardo Donato, a member of the society of Andrea
Morosini which we have mentioned ; completely devoted
to the spirit of the ecclesiastico-political opposition ; a man
of, what we should now call, the greatest diplomatic address,
who had already conducted many difficult negotiations to a
successful close.

Donato could not explain in Rome all the motives which
actuated the Venetians ; he brought forward those which
were likely to find acceptance with the pope, — which the
ruler of the ecclesiastical states had in fact in common with
Venice.

* Dispaccio Donato, 25 Nov^'^ 1589. il terzo ci travaglia e Dio per nostro

The pope made so long a speech that the esercitio lo mantiene ; ma finirä anche

ambassadors said, if they had written all esso e terminara male : dubitiamo punto

down, it would take several hours to read di lui. — 2 Dec. II papa publica im so-

in the senate. Amongst other things, lennissimo giubileo per in vi tar ogn' uno

he frequently insists on the effects of a dover pregar S. Divina M* per la

excommmiication, and threatens them quiete et augumento della fede cattohca."

with it. " Tre sono stati scommimicati, During this jubilee he would see no one,

il re passato, il principe di Conde, il re di " per viver a se stesso et a sue divo-

Navarra. Due sono malamente morti, tioni."

502 LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. [Book VI.

For was it not obvious that the ascendancy of Spain in
the south of Europe yearly became more powerful and
more dangerous ? The pope felt this as strongly as any
other of the Italian princes ; already indeed things were
come to such a pass that he could not take a step in Italy
without the approbation of the Spaniards. What then
would be the case if they should become masters of France 1
This, therefore — the expediency of maintaining the balance
of power in Europe — was the consideration upon which
Donate mainly insisted. He sought to prove that not only
the republic had entertained no thought of offending the
pope, but that its intention was to promote and defend the
best interests of the Roman see.

The pope listened to him, but appeared immoveable and
unconvinceable. Donato despaired of producing any effect
upon him, and requested an audience of leave. On the
16th of December, 1589, he obtained it, and the pope
appeared disposed to refuse him his blessing.'"* But Sixtus
V. was not so blinded by prejudice, that arguments of real
weight, though opposed to his own opinions, did not make
an impression upon him. He was self-willed, domineering,
opinionated, stubborn ; yet he was not inaccessible to
inward doubts, or to new views of things, and at bottom
was good-natured. Even while he kept up the contest
and obstinately defended his principles, he felt himself, in
his heart, shaken and even convinced. In the midst of
this audience he suddenly became mild and complying, f
" He who has a colleague,^' exclaimed he, " has a master ;
I will speak to the congregation ; I will tell them that I
was angry with you, but that I have been conquered by
you." They waited a few days longer ; the pope then
declared that though he could not approve what the
republic had done, nevertheless he would not adopt the
measures against her which he had had in contemplation.
He gave Donato his blessing and kissed him.

This was a scarcely perceptible change in the disposi-
tions and thoughts of an individual, yet it involved the

* Disp. Donato, 1 6 Dec. : " Dopo si Die disse di contentarsene (to

lungo negotiorestiindo quasi privi d' ogni give them his blessing) e di esaersi las-

»iperanza." ciato vincer da noi."

t Ibid. " Finalmeiite inspirata dal S"^

§ III.] LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. 503

most important results. The pope himself abated of the
severity with which he had persecuted the protestant king ;
nor would he absolutely condemn the catholic party which
attached itself to Henry and opposed the policy he himself
had hitherto adopted. A first step is of vast importance
as determining a whole course of opinion and conduct.
This was felt in a moment by the other party, which ori-
ginally had only sought to excuse its own conduct, but now
made an immediate attempt to win over the pope to its side.

Monsieur de Luxemburg now appeared in Italy, com-
missioned by the princes of the blood and the catholic peers
attached to Henry IV. In defiance of the warnings and
representations of the Spaniards, Sixtus V. allowed him to
come to Rome and gave him audience. The envoy placed
the personal qualities of Henry IV., his valour, his magna-
nimity and kindness of heart, in the most brilliant light.
The pope w^as carried away by his description. " Truly,^^
exclaimed he, " I repent that I have excommunicated him."
Luxemburg said that his king and master would now
render himself deserving of absolution, and would return
to the feet of his holiness, and to the bosom of the catholic
church.

" In that case," rejoined the pope, " I will embrace and
console him."

His imagination was already strongly excited, and in an
instant these advances on Henryks part gave birtb to the
most sanguine hopes. He gave it to be understood that it
was rather a political aversion to Spain, than rehgious
opinions hostile to the see of Rome, which deterred the
protestants from returning to the bosom of the ancient
church, and that he did not think himself justified in
doing anything to disgust them.''^ There was already an
English delegate in Rome, and one from Saxony was

* Dispaccio Donate, 13 Genn, 1590. di Sassonia e tutti gli altri andassero a

** II papa biasima 1' opinione de' cardi- suoi piedi con bona dispositione. Che

nali e d' altri prelati che lo stimulano a dispiacera a S. S* che andassero ad altri

dover licentiar esso S"" de Lucenburg, e principi, (catholics, of course,) et haves-

H accusa che vogliano farsi suo pedante sero communicatione con loro, ma si

(his prompter, as we should say), in consolava quando vadino a suoi piedi a

quelle che ha studiato tutto il tempo dimandar perdono." He repeats these

della vita sua. Soggiunse che haveria sentiments under a different form at every

caro che la regina d' Inghil terra, il duca audience.

504 LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. [Book VI.

announced. Sixtus was quite ready to listen to them.
" Would to God," said he, " that they would all come to
our feet ! " His behaviour to his legate in France, cardinal
Morosini, was a sufficient proof of the greatness of the
change his own sentiments had undergone. Formerly
Morosini's concessions to Henry HI. had been treated as a
crime, and he had returned to Italy under all the weight
of the pope's displeasure ; now he was introduced into the
consistory by cardinal Montalto, and the pope received
him with the declaration, that he rejoiced that a cardinal
of his choice had obtained such universal approbation."^^
He was led out to table by Donna Camilla.

How great must have been the astonishment of the high
catholic party at this change ! The pope leaned to a
Protestant whom he had himself excommunicated, and
whom, according to the ancient maxims of the church, a
double apostacy had rendered incapable even of recei\ing
absolution !

It is in the nature of things that this should occasion a
reaction. The strict catholic party was not so absolutely
dependent on the pope, that it could not set itself in oppo-
sition to him ; and the Spanish power afforded them a prop
to which they eagerly clung.

The French leaguers accused the pope of avarice ; they
said that he would not open his purse-strings, and that he
wanted to save all the gold which he had accumulated in
the castle of St. Angelo, for his nephews and kinsfolk. In
Spain a Jesuit preached on the deplorable condition of the
church. " Not only does the republic of Venice favour
the heretics, but, — hush ! hush ! " said he, laying his
finger on his lips, — " but the pope himself' All this
was re-echoed in Italy. Sixtus V. was already become
so sensitive, that he took an admonition to a day of pubhc
humiliation w^liich the general of the capuchins had pub-
lished, " in order to invoke the grace of God on the affairs
of the church," as a personal affront, and suspended the
general.

* Dispaccio, ;} Marzo. *' Dice di con- acqiiista molto honore e inputatione per
8 )larsi assai ch' egli soa crcatiira fusse la soa I'clatione dclle cose di Fraucia."
di tutli tanto cclebrato. II cl"'" Morosini

§ TIL] LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. 505

Things did not, however, stop at mere hints, or private
and unauthorised complaints. On the 22nd of March, 1590,
the Spanish envoy appeared in the papal apartments and
formally protested in his master's name against the conduct
of the pope.'"' We perceive that there were opinions more
orthodox, more catholic, than those of the head of the
church himself ; to these opinions the Spanish envoy gave
utterance and expression in the very face of the pope.
Strange proceeding ! The envoy knelt down on one knee
and prayed his holiness to permit him to execute the com-
mands of his master. The pope sought to raise him up.
He said it was heresy to behave as he meditated doing to
the vicegerent of Christ. The envoy would not be deterred
from his purpose. "His holiness," he began, "was entreated
to utter sentence of excommunication against all the adhe-
rents of Navarre without distinction — to declare that
Navarre himself was, in every case and for all time, inca-
pable of succeeding to the throne of France. If not, the
catholic king would throw off his allegiance to his holiness ;
his majesty could not suffer that the cause of Christ should
be sacrificed.^'t The pope hardly allowed him to proceed
thus far in his speech ; he exclaimed that this was not the
king's business. The ambassador rose, then knelt down
again, then attempted to proceed. The pope called him a
stone of offence, and went away. But Olivarez was not
yet satisfied ; he declared that he would and must utter
his protest to the end, even though the pope were to cut
off his head for it. He knew well, he said, that the king
would avenge him, and would requite his fidelity to his
children. On the other hand Sixtus V. was inflamed Avith
rage. He declared that no prince on earth was authorised

* As early as the 1 Otli of March the detto, cacciandolo inanzi e serrandogli in

ambassador had proposed the follow- faccia la porta."

mg questions to the pope : '^ Li ha ricer- -f* " Che S. S*^ dichiari iscommunieati

cato la risposta sopra le tre cose, cioe di tutti quei che seguitano in Francia il

licentiar Lucenburg, iscommunicar li c'' Navarra e tutti gli altri che quovis modo

et altri prelati che seguono il Navarra, li dessero ajuto, e che dichiari esso

e prometter di non habilitar mai esso Navarra incapace perpetuamente alia

Navarra alia successione della corona ; " corona di Francia : altramente che il re

— and had announced a protest against suo si levera dalla obedienza della chiesa,

him. On this the pope threatened ex- e procurer ji che non sia fatta mgiuria

communication : *^ Minaccia di iscom- alia causa di Christo e che la pieta e la

municar quei e castigarli nella vita che religione soa sia conosciuta."
ardiranno di tentar quanto egli li havea

506 LATTER TIMES OF SIXTHS V. [Book VI.

to school the pope, who was set by God as master over all
others ; whereas, the behaviour of the envoy had been
utterly at variance with decency ; that his instructions
only warranted him in making a protest, in case the pope
should show himself lukewarm in the affairs of the League.
How ! did the envoy want to direct the steps of his
holiness 1

Genuine Catholicism seemed to have only one aim, one
undivided thought ; it seemed in the road to victory and
on the point of success, when unexpectedly two parties, two
opinions, formed themselves within its bosom, opposed both
politically and religiously ; the one organised for attack,
the other for resistance. They began their struggle by
labouring, each with all its might, to win over the head of
the church to itself The one had already possession of the
pope, and strove to hold him fast by means of bitterness,
of threats, almost of force. Moved by his secret feelings,
he had inclined to the other on one important occasion, and
it now sought to gain him over completely ; to seduce him
by promises, to allure him with the most brilliant visions of
the future. It was of the highest importance to the result
of their struggle, which side he embraced.

The demeanor of this pope, so renowned for his energy
and determination, fills us with amazement.

When letters from Phihp IL arrived, in which that king
declared that he would defend the just cause ; that he
would support the League with all the forces of his kingdom
and with his own blood, the pope was filled with zeal, and
declared that he would never bring on himself the reproach
of not having opposed a heretic like Navarre. *"'

Yet jihese protestations did not prevent his inclining
again to the other side. When the difficulties in which
French affairs were involved were represented to him, he
exclaimed, "If Navarre were here, I would beseech him on
my knees to become a catholic/'

* He declares even in the consistory, M»." In January, 1590, the ambassa-

" di haver scritto al re con sua propria dors already said*, " II papa nelle trat-

niano, che procurer;! sempre con tutte le tationi parla con uno ad un modo con

sue forze spirituali e temporali che mai suoi dise^ii ct ad un altro con altri

ricsca re di Francia alcuno che con sia (diset:jni)."
di coTnpita sodisfattioiK« jilla S. (lat'"

§ III.] LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. 507

Never did sovereign stand in a more extraordinary rela-
tion to his plenipotentiary, than pope Sixtus to the legate
Gaetano, whom he had sent to France in the time of his inti-
mate alliance with Spain. The pope was now not indeed
gone over to the side of the French, but was brought into
a neutral, irresolute state of mind. The legate followed
his original instructions, without paying the slightest regard
to this change. When Henry IV., after the victory of
Ivry, besieged Paris, it was the pope's legate who made the
most effective resistance to him : it was in his hands that
committees and magistrates swore never to capitulate with
Navarre ; and it was by his dignity as a minister of the
church, and by a demeanor equally marked by address and
by firmness, that he held them to their promises.'"

In the end, the inflexibly orthodox opinions displayed
the greatest strength.

Olivarez compelled the pope to dismiss Luxemburg,
though indeed under the appearance of a pilgrimage to
Loreto. The pope had fixed upon monsignore Serafino,
who was reputed to hold French opinions, for a mission to
France. Olivarez loudly complained of this appointment,
and declared that he would come no more to the audience ;
the pope replied that he might depart in God's name ;
nevertheless, in the end, Olivarez prevailed, and Serafino's
mission was put off. There lies an incredible power in an
orthodox faith, held with inflexible steadiness ; especially
when its champion is an able and energetic man. Olivarez
had the congregation, which was occupied with French
affairs and which had been formed in earlier times, on his
side. In July 1590, negotiations were set on foot for a
new treaty between Spain and the pope ; Sixtus declared
he must do something in favour of that kingdom, f

* Discours veritable et notable du the question in the congregation : " An

siege de la ville de Paris en I'an 1590. electio regis Fraucise vacante principe ex

Villeroy, Memoires d'Estat, torn. ii. p. corpore sanguinis spectet ad pontificem ?

417. Esortato a star neutrale, laudaudo il con-

'I' The king was to send into the field siglio risponde non poter restar a far

20,000 foot and 3000 horse ; the pope qualche cosa." (Disp. 28 Luglio.) In

15,000 foot and 2000 horse. " Li ambas- the Disp. 21 Luglio it is however re-

ciatori sollicitano con li cardinali la con- corded, " Laodigeres haveva mandato

clusione e sottoscrittione del capitolato." un suo huorao a trattar con S. S% il quale

(Disp. 14 Luglio.) The pope proposed ha trattato lungamente seco."

508 LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. [Book VI.

Let it not however be imagined that he had given up the
other party. At this very time he had an agent of one of
the leaders of the huguenots, Lesdiguieres, near his person ;
there were also a charge d'affaires of the Landgrave, an
emissary from England, and already the imperial ambas-
sador was in dread of the suggestions of the Saxon
ambassador, who was again expected, and was striving to
anticipate and prevent their effect ; the manoeuvres of
Chancellor Crell extended even to Rome.'"'

Thus did the puissant ecclesiastical prince who lived in
the persuasion that a direct power over all the earth was
entrusted to him, — who had accumulated a treasure which
would have enabled him to strike an important blow, —
remain at the decisive moment irresolute and vacillating.

Ought we to impute this to him as a fault ? I fear we
should do him injustice. He saw through the situation of
things ; he perceived the dangers on both sides ; he lis-
tened to conflicting opinions, and no crisis forcing him to
take a final decision presented itself The elements which
divided the world warred even in his soul, and neither
obtained a conclusive mastery.

Certainly however, by this course, he put it completely
out of his own power to subdue Europe, or to exercise any
mighty influence over it. On the contrary, the causes
which then agitated society reacted upon him ; and this
reaction assumed the most extraordinary form.

Sixtus had subjugated the banditti, chiefly by maintain-
ing a good understanding with his neighbours. But as
this was now interrupted — as Venice and Tuscany now
held different opinions from those which prevailed in
Naples and Milan — as the pope decided for neither, and
was therefore alternately an object of suspicion to both —
the banditti once more rose into activity.

In April 1590, they appeared again, led, in the Marem-
ma by Sacripante, in Romagna by Piccolomini, and in the

* We cannot otherwise account for uon voler ascoltare quel huomo che vien

the warnin«; given by the imperial am- detto esser mandate dal duca di Sassonia,

bassador to the pope not to listen to in quelle che I'usse di ])regiuditio del suo

Saxon insinuations. " L' amb«asciatore patron e della casa d' Austria : e cosi li

deir iuq)eratorc jji'cga il pontefice di vien promcsso."

§ IV.] URBAN VII. 509

Campagna of Rome by Battistella. They were abundantly
provided with money, and it was observed that they spent
a great many Spanish doubloons ; they found adherents
chiefly in the Guelf party ; they already marched about
the country in regular bands, with colours flying and
drums beating, and the papal troops had no mind to
engage them.*"' This state of things affected all the rela-
tions of the country ; the Bolognese, for instance, opposed
the pope^s project of increasing the number of the senators
of the city, with an audacity and freedom which had long
been unheard of

In this situation, — a prey to such near and pressing dis-
content,— without having so much as attempted to come to
a decision, or to form a resolution on the weightiest matter,
— pope Sixtus y. died, on the 27th August, 1590.

A storm burst over the Quirinal just as he expired.
The stupid multitude were convinced that Fra Felice had
made a compact with the evil one, had ascended from step
to step by his aid, and that, the term of the agreement
having expired, his soul was now carried off* in a tempest. f

This was their mode of expressing their displeasure at
the number of new taxes he had introduced, and their
doubt of his perfect orthodoxy; — a doubt so frequently
agitated of late years. They proceeded with tumultuous
fury to tear down, the statues which they had formerly
erected to him, and a resolution was passed in the capitol
that no statue should ever again be erected to a living
pope.

§ 4. URBAN VII., GREGORY XIV., INNOCENT IX., AND THEIR
CONCLAVES. 1590, 1591.

The new election was now doubly momentous. It
depended mainly on the personal inclinations of a pope,
for which of the two principles already engaged in conflict
he would declare himself; and his decision might undoubt-
edly lead to consequences affecting the state of the whole

* Disp. 21 Luglio : " I fuorusciti cor- 28th April, 12th May, and 2d June con-
rono fino su le porte di Roma." The tain details on this subject,
despatches of the 17th March, 7th and f See App. No. 124.

510 URBAN VIT. [Book VI.

world. The intrigues and the strife of the conclave thus
acquire a new and peculiar importance, and for a short
time demand our attention.

In the earlier half of the sixteenth century the electors
were generally determined by the preponderancy of the
Imperial or the French faction ; the cardinals had, as a
pope asserted, no longer any freedom of election. In the
latter part of the century this influence of foreign powers
was greatly diminished, and the curia was left much more
to its own decisions. In the ferment of its intestine agita-
tions, a principle was generated which gave rise to a custom
of a most singular kind.

Every pope used to nominate a number of cardinals,
who in the next conclave attached themselves to the kins-
men of the deceased pope, constituted a new power, and
generally tried to raise one of their own number to the
papal throne. It is very remarkable that they never suc-
ceeded ; that the opposition was invariably "säctorious, and
generally elected an adversary of the late pope.

I shall not attempt to explain this fact at length. We
are in possession of documents relating to these elections,
which are not wholly unworthy of credit ; ^'' but it would
be impossible to give a vivid or correct view of the per-
sonal relations and motives which really influenced them ;
our delineations would be mere shado^vs.

Let it suflice that we note the principle. Without an
exception, during the period in question, it was not the
adherents, but the opponents of the last pope, — the crea-
tures, that is, of the last but one, — who were victorious.
Paul IV. was raised to the papacy by the creatures of Paul
III. ; Pius IV. by the enemies of Carafla and of Paul IV.
The nephew of Pius IV., Borromeo, was capable of the
highest self-sacrifice, and voluntarily gave his vote to a man
of the opposite party, whom he esteemed the most truly
devout, — Pius V. ; but he did this amidst the vehement
remonstrances of his uncle's creatures, who, as the report
expresses it, could hardly believe that they saw what they
saw, or did what they did. Nor did they neglect on the

* See App. No. 63.

§ IV.] URBAN VII. 51X

next opportunity to turn this concession to account. They
endeavoured to cause this custom to be acknowledged as a
rule ; and in fact they chose the successor of Pius V. out
of the creatures of Pius IV. The same took place at the
election of Sixtus Y., who was elevated from among the
adversaries of his predecessor, Gregory.

It is therefore no wonder if we always find men of oppo-
site character succeeding each other in the possession of
the tiara. The different factions drove each other suc-
cessively from the field.

At the moment we are treating of, this usage opened a
brilliant prospect to the opponent of Sixtus V. ; especially
of his later line of policy. Sixtus V. had made his nephew
extremely powerful, and he now entered the conclave,
attended by a band of devoted cardinals, as numerous as
any that had ever been bound together by a common
interest and common feelings. But in spite of all these
apparent advantages, he was obliged to give way. The
creatures of Gregory raised to the papal chair an enemy
of the former pope, one who had been peculiarly offended
by him, a man of unquestionable attachment to the Spanish
party, — Giambattista Castagna, who assumed the name of
Urban VII. "

This choice was, however, unfortunate. Urban VII.
died on the twelfth day of his pontificate, before he was
crowned, before he had nominated a single prelate, and the
contest immediately opened afresh.

It differed from the former, inasmuch as the Spaniards
now took the most active part in it. They saw distinctly
how important the event was to the affairs of France. The
king resolved on a step which was regarded in Rome as a
dangerous innovation, and which even his partisans could
only justify on the plea of the urgency of the circumstances
wherein he was then placed. f He nominated seven car-

* Conclave di papa Urbano VII. MS. Colonna from the papal chair, on which

" La pratica (di questa elettione) fu he had already placed himself ; but we

guidata dal card' Sforza (capo delle can hardly understand this literally,
creature di papa Gregorio XIII.) e da +11 grande Interesse del re cattolico

cardinal! Genovesi." In a despatch e la spesa nella quale si trova senza ajuto

from Maisse, the French ambassador at nissuno per serAdtio della Christianita fa

Venice, F. Raumer's Histor. Briefen, i. che gli si debbia condonare.
360, it is stated that Sforza dragged

512 GREGORY XIV. [Book VT.

dinals who appeared likely to be serviceable to him ; he
would accept no others. At the head of his nominees
stood the name of Madruzzi, and with him, as their leader,
the Spanish cardinals immediately made an effort to carry
their point.

But they encountered a stubborn resistance. The con-
clave would not have Madruzzi because he was a German ;
because it would be a shame again to suffer the papacy to
fall into the hands of a barbarian ;"" nor would Montalto
consent to the election of any of the others. Montalto had
indeed tried in vain to secure it for one of his followers ;
but he had at least the negative power of excluding. The
conclave was protracted to an imdue and unprecedented
length ; the banditti were masters of the country ; there
were daily reports of property plundered and villages
burned, and there were fears of disturbances in Rome
itself

There was only one means of bringing things to the
desired end ; — to pick out the one from among the can-
didates who was the least disagreeable to the kinsmen and
followers of Sixtus V. In the Florentine Memoirs f it is
stated that the grand duke of Tuscany ; in the Roman, that
cardinal Sforza, the head of the Gregorian cardinals, prin-
cipally contributed to bring this about. Secluded in his
cell (perhaps for the very reason that he had been told
that his interests would be best advanced by silence), and
suffering from fever, lived cardinal Sfondrato, one of the
Seven. Upon him the parties agreed, and a family alli-
ance between the houses of Sfondrato and Montalto was
immediately discussed as a preliminary measure. There-
upon Montalto visted the cardinal in his cell ; he found
him on his knees before the crucifix, still not wholly free
from fever, and told him that on the morrow he should be
elected. On the morrow (5th Dec. 1590), he and Sforza
led him into the chapel where the votes were given. Sfon-
drato. was elected, and took the name of Gregor}^ XIV.|

* C Morosini «lid, " Italia anderebbe f Galluzzi, Storia del Granducato di
in preda a' barbari, che farebbe una ver- Toscano, v. 9.0.

gogna." Concl. della scdc vacant« di X T. Tasso celebrated this elevation
Urbane Vll. to the throne in a magnificent canzone,

" Da gi*an lode immortal."

•

§ IV.] GREGORY XIV. 513

He was a man who fasted twice a week, said mass daily,
always recited the prescribed nmnber of prayers on his
knees, and then devoted an hour to his favourite author,
St. Bernard, out of whom he carefully noted the sentences
which particularly struck him ; — a soul of virgin innocence.
It was remarked half jestingly, that he had come into the
world too early (at seven months), and was reared with
difficulty ; and that he had therefore too little of earthly
elements in his composition. He had never been able to
understand the practice or the intrigues of the curia. The
cause which the Spaniards defended, he implicitly held to
be the cause of the church. He was a born subject of
Philip II. and a man after his own heart. Without
hesitation or delay, he declared himself in favour of the
League.""'

" Do you," he writes to the Parisians, " who have made
so laudable a beginning, persevere to the end, and stay not
until you have reached the goal of your course. Inspired
by God, we have determined to come to your aid. First,
we send you assistance in money, and truly beyond our
means. We likevdse despatch our nuncio, Landriano, to
France, in order to bring back all deserters into your
union. Lastly, we send, though not without a heavy
burthen on the church, our dear son and nephew, Ercole
Sfondrato, duke of Montemarciano, with horse and foot,
to employ their arms in your defence. Should you stand
in need of yet more, we will also provide you with it.^f

This letter contains the entire policy of Gregory XIV.
It was, however, very effective. The declaration itself, the
repetition of the excommunication of Henry IV., which
was connected with it, and lastly the citation to all the
clergy, the nobles, the judicial officers, and the third estate,
to sever themselves, under pain of severe penalties, from
Henry of Bourbon, of which Landriano was the bearer,
produced a deep impression.^ There were many strict

* Cicarella de Vita Gregorii XIV., Chronologie novenaire, Memoires coll.

contained in all the later editions of univ., torn. Ivii. p. 62,

Platina. J Cayet observes this. " Le party du

+ " Gregoire pape XIV. a mes fils roy estoit sans aucune division. Ce qui

bien aymes les gens du conseil des seize fut entretenu jusques au temps de la

quartiers de la ville de Paris." Cayet, publication des buUes mnnitoriales du

VOL. I. LL

514 GREGORY XIV. [Book VI.

catholics on the side of Henry IV., who were perplexed
by this decisive step of the head of their church. They
declared that not only the kingdom, but the church, had a
succession, and that it was as unlawful to change the
religion as the dynasty. From this time may be dated
the formation, among the king's adherents, of what was
called the third party, which incessantly urged him to
return to Catholicism ; which remained true to him only
under this condition and with this expectation, and was
the more important, inasmuch as the most powerful men
who immediately surrounded him were among its members.

But the other measures which the pope announced in
this letter, and which he delayed not to carry into execu-
tion, produced still greater consequences. He remitted to
the Parisians a monthly subsidy of 15,000 scudi ; he sent
colonel Lusi into Switzerland to levy troops ; and after
having solemnly committed the standard of the church to
his nephew, Ercole, in Santa Maria Maggiore, as their
general, he sent him to Milan, where his army was to
assemble. The commissary who accompanied him, arch-
bishop Matteuci, was abundantly provided with money.

Under such auspices, Phihp II. hesitated no longer to
engage earnestly in French affairs. His troops advanced
into Brittany, and took possession of Toulouse and Mont-
pelier. He thought he had peculiar claims on some pro-
vinces ; in others he had formed an intimate alliance with
the leading commanders, by the mediation of capuchin
friars ; to others he had received the most urgent invita-
tion as " the sole defender of the orthodox against the
huguenots." The Parisians too imated him. Meanwhile
the Piedmontese attacked Provence, and the papal army
joined that of the League in Verdun. It was an universal
movement of the powers of Spain and Italy, for the pur-
pose of dragging France by force into the same high
catholic direction which prevailed in those countries. The
treasures which pope Sixtus had collected with so much
labour, and husbanded ^vith so much care, were now of
great assistance to the Spaniards. After Gregory XIV.

pape Gregoire XIV., quo d'aucuns volu- des catholiques, qui dtoit dans le pai'ty
rent engendrer uii tiers party ct le former royal."

§ IV.]

INNOCENT IX.

515

had taken out of the castle of St. Angelo the funds to the
employment of which no conditions were attached, he
seized upon those which were most strictly tied up. He
was of opinion that a more pressing necessity could never
assail the church.

Considering the decision with which these measures
were undertaken, the prudence of the king, the wealth of
the pope, and the influence which their united dignity and
station had upon France, it can hardly be calculated what
might have been the results which this twofold politico-
religious ambition might have produced, had not Gregory
XIV. died in the midst of his enterprises. He had sat on
the papal throne only ten months and ten days, and had
produced such vast changes, — what might he not have
effected if he had retained this power for some years 1 It
was the greatest loss which the League and the Spaniards
could sustain.

The Spaniards, it is true, once more ruled the conclave.
They had again nominated seven candidates, "'''" and one of
these, Giovan- Antonio Fachinetto — Innocent IX. — was
elected. He too was, so far as could be judged, inclined
to the Spanish cause ; at least he sent money to the
League ; and the manuscript document is extant in which
he urges Alessandro Farnese to hasten his armament, to
advance into France, and invest Houen, which that general
executed with so much skill and success, f But the mis-
fortune was, that Innocent IX., like his predecessors, was
old and feeble ; he scarcely ever left his bed, and even
gave audience there ; from the dying couch of an old man
who had lost all power of moving, went forth exhortations
to war, which set France, nay Europe, in agitation. Scarcely
had Innocent possessed the papal see two months, when he
too died.

And thus were the election struggles of the conclave a

* In the Histoire des Conclaves, i.
251., we read, "Les Espagnols vouloient
retablir leur reputation." This, how-
ever, is a mistranslation. In the MS.
which is the foundation of this book,
Conclave di lunocenzio IX. (InfF. Politt.)
we find, "per non perder la racquis-
tata autoritii," which corresponds to

L L

the actual state of affairs. (App. No.
63.)

f According to Davila, Historia delle
Guerre civili di Francia, xii. p. 763,,
Innocent does not appear to have been
so entirely in favour of the League ; but
the above-mentioned letter (given in
Cayet, p. 356.) removes all doubts.

2

516 ELECTION AND CHARACTER OF CLEMENT VIIL [Book VL

fourth time renewed : they were now the more important,
since these incessant changes had strongly impressed the
conviction that what was wanted above all, was a vigorous
man, who gave promise of long life. The decision which
was taken now, would therefore be definitive and lasting.
This conclave was an important point in the history of the
world.

§ 5. ELECTION AND CHARACTER OF CLEMENT VIIL

Amidst the prosperous advancement of their interest at
Rome during the latter years, the Spaniards had at length
succeeded in gaining over Montalto. His family had
bought land in the Neapolitan territory. Whilst Montalto
promised no longer to resist the king's Avill, the king pro-
mised him in return not absolutely to exclude all the
creatures of Sixtus V. A sort of compact was thus made
between them, and the Spaniards delayed no longer to
bring about the election of the man from whom they might
anticipate the most active co-operation in the French war.

Of all the cardinals, Santorio, who had the title of San
Severina, might be regarded as the most zealous catholic.
Even in his ^^outh he had fought out many a battle with
the protestants at Naples ; in his autobiography, which is
extant in MS., he designates the massacre of St. Baitholo-
mew as " the celebrated day of St. Bartholomew, most
joyful to the catholics j'^"^^" he had always professed the
most violent opinions ; he was the leading member in the
congregation for French affairs, and had long been the soul
of the inquisition ; he was still in the prime of life and in
good health.

This was the man whom the Spaniards wished to invest
with the highest spiritual dignity ; one more devoted to
their cause it would have been impossible to find. Olivarez
too had prepared everything,t nor did there seem a doubt

* He speaks of the "giusto sdegno *' 11 conte di Olivarez, fedele et iusepara-

(lel re Carlo IX. di gloriosa memoria in bile amico di S. Severina, aveva prima

quel celebre giorno di S. Bartolommeo di partire di Roma per il governo di

lietisaimo a' cattoliei," (App. No. 64.) Sicilia tutto preordinato."

t Conclave di demente VIU. : MS.

§ v.] ELECTION AND CHARACTER OF CLEMENT VTIL 51 7

remaining ; out of fifty-two votes, thirty-six were favour-
able,— just sufficient to decide the election, for which two
thirds are always necessary. Accordingly, the morning-
after the close of the conclave, the cardinals proceeded to
the formal act of election. Montalto and Madruzzi, the
leaders of the united factions, fetched Sanseverina from his
cell, which, according to custom, was immediately stripped
by the servants ; thirty-six cardinals attended him to the
Paoline chapel ; already he was entreated to pardon his
enemies, and had declared that he would forgive all, and
as the first mark of his placable disposition, would assume
the name of Clement. Kingdoms and peoples were then
recommended to his care and protection.

Meanwhile one circumstance had been lost sight of
Sanseverina was esteemed so austere that every body
feared him.

Hence it happened that many had resisted all attempts
to win them over to his cause ; young cardinals, and old
personal antagonists, assembled in the Sistine chapel ;
when all collected, they were, it is true, only sixteen in
number ; and as they wanted one more vote to give them
the power of exclusion, many showed a disposition to sub-
mit to what seemed inevitable, and to acknowledge San-
severina ; the experienced Altemps, had, however, sufficient
influence on them to induce them still to make a stand.
They had more confidence in his judgment than in their
own.

And in fact the same antipathy by which they were
actuated, had its effect on those who had given their word
to Sanseverina, very many of whom rejected him in their
hearts. They had conformed to the wishes of the king
and of Montalto, but they only waited an opportunity to
desert. At the entrance into the chapel used for the
elections, there was a disturbance, an agitation, wholly
unwonted in similar cases, when the choice was already
decided. The tellers began to count the votes, but seemed
reluctant' to finish ; even Sanseverina's own fellow-country-
men threw obstacles in the way.''^ There wanted only a

* Besides the account of this matter S. Severina's own narrative, which is
in printed and MS. Conclaves, we have inserted in the Appendix.

518 ELECTION AND CHARACTER OF CLEMENT VIIL [Book VL

man wlio would break ground ; who would give utterance
to the thoughts which so many entertained. At length
Ascanio Colonna took courage to do this. He belonged to
the Roman barons, who beyond all other men feared the
inquisitorial severity of Sanseverina. He exclaimed, " I
see that God will not have Sanseverina, neither will Ascanio
Colonna." So saying he quitted the Paohne chapel, and
joined the opposition in the Sistine.

This accession gave them the majority. A secret scrutiny
was granted. There were some who would never have
dared openly to retract the votes they had promised, but
who did so as soon as they knew that their names would
remain concealed. When the lists were opened, there were
found only thirty votes for the nominee.

Sanseverina had come in the certainty of his election ;
he imagined himself already in possession of that fulness
of spiritual power w^hich he estimated so highly, and had
so often defended ; he had passed seven hours between
the fulfilment of his loftiest desires and the prospect of an
ever-enduring feehng of humiliation and abasement, —
between sovereignty and subjection, — as if between life
and death : at length his fate was decided ; despoiled of
his hopes, he went back to his dismantled cell. " The next
night," says he in his autobiography, " was more painfiil to
me than any moment I ever endured. The heavy grief of
my soul and my inward anguish forced from me — incredible
to say — a bloody sweat."

He knew the nature of a conclave too well to indulge in
any further hope. On a subsequent occasion his friends
put him forward again, but without a chance of success.

His rejection was a loss to the Spaniards. The king had
named five cardinals, and had not been able to carry the
election of one of them. It was now necessary to proceed
to the sixth, who had been designated as supernumerary
by the Spaniards.

The king, rather to please his ally Montalto, than of his
own motion, had also named cardinal Aldobrandino, a crea-
ture of Sixtus v., whom he himself had rejected a year
before. To him they now recurred, as the only one whose
election was possible. He was, as we have intimated,

§ v.] ELECTION AND CHARACTER OF CLEMENT VIIL 5I9

agreeable to Montalto ; the Spaniards could say nothing
against him, as he had been put in nomination among
themselves ; nor was he unwelcome to the others, being
rather generally beloved. He was therefore elected with
little opposition on the 20th January, 1592. He took the
name of Clement YHI.

The result of this compromise to the Spaniards is curious
enough. They had gained over Montalto to their side, for
the purpose of bringing in one of themselves ; and now it
was precisely this alliance which compelled them to lend
their aid to place a friend of Montalto, a creature of Sixtus
v., on the throne.

We may remark, that from this moment an alteration in
the course of papal elections took place, which may be
regarded as not unimportant. For a long time men of
opposite factions had invariably succeeded each other.
The same had recently occurred ; thrice had the creatures
of Sixtus y. been forced to retire from the contest ; the
elected had, however, enjoyed but a very transitory power,
and had been unable to form any strong party ; deaths,
funerals, and new conclaves had followed each other in
rapid succession. The first who once more ascended the
papal chair in the Ml vigour of life was Clement VIII. ;
and the consequence was, a government conducted by the
same party, and enjoying a long tenure of power.

The universal attention was now directed to the ques-
tions, who the new pontiff was, and what was to be expected
from him.

Clement VIII. was born in exile. His father, Salvestro
Aldobrandino, of a considerable family of Florence, but a
violent and active enemy of the house of Medici, was driven
into exile on the final success of that house in the year
1531, and had been compelled to seek his fortune in
foreign parts. ""'^ He was a doctor of law, and had formerly

* Varchi, Storia Fiorentina, iii. 42. 6 L Giov. Delfino begins his relation in a

Mazzuchelli, Scrittori d' Italia, i. i. p. manner that leaves no doubt as to its

392., contains as usual a most elaborate truth : " Silvestro Aldobrandini ne' tempi

and instructive article under his name ; della ribellione di Firenze cacciato da

it is not however complete. Amongst quella citta se ne venne qui, riformo li

other things, he omits to mention his nostri statuti e rivedde le leggi et ordini

proceedings at Venice, a fact with which della republica." (App. No. 70.)

520 ELECTION AND CHARACTER OF CLEMENT VIIL [Book VL

given lectures at Pisa ; we next find him at Venice, where
he took part in a reform of the Venetian statutes, and in an
edition of the institutes ; then in Ferrara or Urbino, in the
councils and tribunals of the duke ; but longest in the
service of some cardinal, and deputed in his place to conduct
the administrations of law or of government in one of the
cities of the ecclesiastical states. But his chief distinction
perhaps is, that in the midst of this unsettled life, he found
means to educate five admirable sons. The eldest, Giovanni,
who was called the steersman of the family, appears to
have had the greatest talents ; he led the way, and in the
career of judicial dignities, rose in 1570 to the cardinalate;
had his life been prolonged, it was thought that he might
have aspired to the tiara. Bernardo was a distinguished
armourer : Tommaso a good philologist ; his translation of
Diogenes Laertius has been frequently reprinted. Pietro
was esteemed an eminent practical lawyer. The youngest,
Ippolito, born in the year 1536 at Fano,'" at first caused
his father some anxiety ; he feared that he should not be
able to give him an education worthy of his talents. But
cardinal Alessandro Farnese took the boy under his protec-
tion, and gave him a yearly allowance out of the revenues
of his bishopric of Spoleto ; after which the rising fortunes
of his brothers naturally led to his advancement. He
obtained first the prelacy, then his eldest brother's place
in the court of the Rota ; lastly, Sixtus V. created him
cardinal, and sent him as nuncio to Poland. Here he formed
a sort of connection mth the house of Austria, every mem-
ber of which felt as an obligation the successful efibrts of
the cardinal to free the archduke Maximilian from the
captivity in which he was held by the Poles, and the discre-
tion and address with which he had employed his authority
for that purpose. When Philip II. determined to nomi-
nate one of the creatures of Sixtus V. as supernumerary
candidate, this was his reason for preferring Aldobrandino.
Thus did the son of a homeless fugitive, whose parents
had once feared that he would have to pass his hfe in the

♦111 the " Libro di batte&mo della fu battezato un putto di M'' Salvestro,
parochia cattodrale di Fano," is the che fu luogotenente qui : hebbe nome
following entry : " A di 4 Marzo, 1536, Ippolyto,"

I

§ v.] ELECTION AND CHARACTER OF CLEMENT VIIL 521

drudgery of a clerk, rise to the highest dignity of cathohc
Christendom.

It is impossible to contemplate without pleasure the
monument in the Chiesa della Minerva at Rome, which
Salvestro Aldobrandino erected to the mother of so noble
a band of sons ; — " to his dear wife Lisa, of the house of
Deti, with whom he had lived for seven-and-thirty years in
harmony."

The new pope brought to his office all that activity
peculiar to a family which has struggled with difficulties.
He held his sittings in the morning, and his audiences in
the afternoon ; ''" all reports were received and looked over ;
all despatches read and discussed ; legal arguments were
sought out, ancient precedents collated ; and not unfre-
quently the pope showed himself better informed than the
refendaries who brought the matter before him ; he worked
as assiduously as when he was auditor of the Rota ; nor
did he devote less attention to the details of internal
administration and to personal affairs, than to the politics
of Europe, or the great interests of the church. People
asked in what he took pleasure ? f In everything or
nothing, was the reply.

Nor, with all this attention to secular business, had he
to reproach himself with the smallest neglect of his spiri-
tual duties. He confessed every evening to Baronius ;
every morning he celebrated mass himself; at noon, at
least during the first year of his pontificate, twelve poor
men always dined with him, and the pleasures of the table
were utterly unknown to him. On Fridays and Saturdays
he fasted. If he had worked hard the whole week, his
recreation on the Sunday was to send for some pious
monks, or the fathers of the Vallicella, and converse with
them on deep theological questions. He thus raised to an

* Bentivoglio, Memorie, i. p. 54., plession flemmatico e sanguiguo, ma con

gives an account of his manner of pass- qualche mistura di colera, di corporatura

ing a week. carnoso e grasso, di costumi gravi e mo-

t Relatione al card' d' Este, 1599. desti, di maniera dolce et afFabile, nel

MS. Fosc. According to this he carries moto tardo, nelle attioni circonspetto,

on war like Julius II., he builds like nell' esecutioni cuntatore ; quando uon

Sixtus v., he reforms like Pius V,, and risolve, premedita. — E tenace del secreto,

withal seasons his conversation with wit. cupo nei pension, industrioso nel tirarli

Then follows this description : " Di com- al fine." (App. No. 69.)

522 ELECTION AND CHARACTER OF CLEMENT VIIL [Book VL

extraordinary pitch the reputation he had always enjoyed
for virtue, piety, and exemplary life. He knew this, and
he wished it. It was this reputation which enhanced his
consideration as sovereign -pastor of the church.

In every particular this pope acted with enhghtened
prudence. He was fond of work ; his nature was one of
those which borrow fresh vigour from toil ; but he did not
pursue it with such ardour as to neglect to season labour
with regular exercise.'"' Thus too he could fly into a rage,
and be violent and bitter ; yet when he saw that the object
of his anger was mute before the majesty of the papacy, or
perhaps expressed by his countenance dissent and thsplea-
sure, he recollected himself, and tried to atone for his irri-
tation. He wished that nothing should be perceptible in
him but what was becoming, and in harmony with the idea
of a good, wise, and pious man. f

Preceding popes had thought themselves exalted above
all law, and had sought to convert the administration of the
Jiighest of all offices into the means of gratifying selfish
and sensual desires ; this the spirit of the times of which
we are treating would no longer permit. Personal cha-
racter or inclinations were now compelled to yield, and to
conform ; the man was lost in the office ; nor could any
one either obtain or administer that office, without a
demeanor befitting the ideal of a head of the church.

It is obvious that this change enormously enhanced the
strength of the papacy. Human institutions are strong
only so long as their spirit animates the living possessors of
the power which they create and confer. J

* Venier, Relatione di Roma, 1601. caminar longamente sempre che seuza

" La gotta molto meno che per 1' inanzi sconcio de' negozi conosce di poterlo fare,

li da molestia al presente per la sua bona ai quali nondimeno per la sua gi-an capa-

rcgola di viver, nel quale da certo tempo citfl supplisce." (App. No. 71.)

in qua procede con grandissima I'iserva, f Delfino : " Si va conoscendo certo

e con notabile astinenza nel here ; che le che in tutte le cose si move S. S*" con

giova anco moltissimo a non dar fomento gran zelo dell' onor di Dio e con gi'an

alia grassezza, alja quale c molto inch- desiderio del ben publico." (App. No.

nata la sua complessione, usando anco 70.)

per questo di frequentare 1' esercitio di X Sec App. No. 65.

§ VI.] ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. 5^3

§ 6. ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV.

Public curiosity was now universally excited as to the
manner in which this pope, so full of talent, activity, and
energy, and moreover of such blameless life, would treat
the most momentous question of Europe, — the state of
France.

Should he, like his immediate predecessors, attach him-
self absolutely to Spain '? He was neither bound to this by
any of the previous circumstances of his life, nor led to it
by inclination. It did not escape him that the Spanish
domination might become oppressive to the papacy, and
more particularly injurious to its political independence.

Or should he take part with Henry IV. ? It is true,
that king made demonstrations of an intention to become a
catholic ; but promises of this kind were more easily made
than fulfilled ; he was still a protestant, and Clement VIII.
probably feared to be deceived.

We have seen how Sixtus vacillated between these two
possibilities, and what evils and perplexities arose out of his
indecision. The zealous party was still as strong as ever
in Rome, and the new pope could not brave their enmity
or their opposition. In the midst of the difficulties which
thus pressed upon him from every side, he was cautious
never to commit himself in words, nor to awaken slumber-
ing animosities. It is only from his acts, his conduct, that
we can gradually infer his inclinations and opinions.

When he came into power, the papal see had a legate in
France, who was generally regarded as a partisan of Spain,
and an army destined to oppose Henry IV.; it also fur-
nished subsidies to the League. These were circumstances
in which the new pope could effect no change. Had he
offered to stop his subsidies, to withdraw his army, or to
recall his legate, he would have endangered his reputation
for orthodoxy ; he would have exposed himself to more
bitter animosities than pope Sixtus had experienced. But
he was far from adding force or activity to the efforts
already made in favour of the League ; he rather gradually

524 ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. [Book VI.

availed himself of every favourable opportunity to moderate
and restrain them.

But he very soon found himself called upon to take a
step of a more unequivocal character. In the year 1592,
Henry IV. had sent cardinal Gondi to Italy, with instruc-
tions to proceed to Rome. The king daily leaned more and
more to Catholicism ; but it appears that his view was
rather to become reconciled to the catholic church by
means of a sort of treaty, effected by the mediation of
Tuscany and Venice, than by submission. And was not
even such a reconciliation very desirable for the pope 1
Was not the return of the king to the bosom of the church
a great gain, in whatever way it might be brought about ?
Nevertheless Clement deemed it necessary not to entertain
the negotiation, nor to receive Gondi. The presence of
Luxemburg, he remembered, had been productive of very
unpleasant consequences to Sixtus V., without any profitable
result. He accordingly sent a monk, Fra Franceschi, to
Florence, where the cardinal had already arrived, to
announce to him that he would not be received in Rome.
The pope was well pleased that the cardinal, and even the
grand-duke complained ; he wished that his refusal should
excite attention and discussion. This was however only
one side of the affair ; it could not be the pope's intention
to irritate the king, nor to repel all advances towards a
reconciliation. In the Venetian reports it accordingly
appears, that Fra Franceschi annexed to his official
announcement, a note, to the effect that he behoved that
the cardinal would be reccived privathn and in secret. ■^^" It
seems probable that Gondi did actually go to Rome ; the
pope is reported to have said to him, that he must knock
at his door more than once. It is at least certain that an
agent of Gondi repaired to Rome, and after several con-
ferences, declared to the Venetian ambassador that he had
every reason to entertain hope, and to be satisfied ; f more

* Dispaccio Donate, 23 Ott. 15.02, ombra clie adraettendolo riceve arabas-

froni a statement made to the Floren- ceria di Navarra."

tine ambassador, Niccolini. Fra Fran- f Ibid. " Uopo aver lassato sfogar

ceschi's declaration was, " Che crede il prime moto della alteration di S.

che il papa 1' admetteria, ma che vuole Beat."
Icvare li cattolici fuori di dubio et ogni

§ VI.] ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. 5^5

he was not at liberty to say. In a word, the open estrange-
ment was accompanied by secret advances. Clement VIII.
wished neither to offend the Spaniards nor to repulse
Henry IV. ; and his conduct was calculated to accomplish
both his ends.

Meanwhile a new and far more important question had
presented itself.

In the January of 1593, all the members of the estates
of France belonging to the party of the League, met to
proceed to the election of a new king. As the sole ground
for the exclusion of Henry IV. was a religious one, an
unusual authority in the assembly fell to the share of the
papal legate, Sega, bishop of Piacenza, who had been
appointed by Gregory XIV. ; a man imbued with the
ecclesiastical spirit of that pontiff's reign. Clement deemed
it necessary to send him particular instructions, in which
he admonished him to look to it that neither violence nor
bribery influenced the votes : he conjured him to beware
above all things of precipitation in so important a matter;''^
a caution which would have materially influenced the con-
duct of an ambassador who thought himself bound to obey
the slightest hint of his sovereign ; but far too general to
draw a dignitary of the church, who looked for advance-
ment rather to Spain than to the pope, from a party to
which he had hitherto belonged, and which he esteemed
the orthodox one. Cardinal Sega changed not his course
in the least. On the 13th of June, 1593, he published a
declaration, in which he called upon the estates to elect a
king who might be not only a true catholic, but also dis-
posed and determined to defeat all the efforts of the here-
tics. This, he said, was what his holiness wished more
than anything on earth, f

The character of the pope's instructions to which we
have just referred, is in conformity with all his other pro-
ceedings. In generals he adheres to the high orthodox
party of Spain and the church. He does not indeed

* Davila gives an extract from this tout les efforts et mauvais desseins des

instruction, xiii. p. 810. heretiques. Cest la chose du monde

t " qu'il ait le courage et que plus S. S. presse et desire." (Cayet,

les autres vertus requises pour pouvoir 58. 351.)
heureusement reprimer et aneantir du ^^

526 ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. LBook VI.

exhibit the fervour and devotion in the cause which had
distinguished other popes ; if he feels them, it is in secret ;
it is sufficient for him to adhere quietly and blamelessly,
as the order of public business required, to that side which
had already been taken, and which had the greatest
analogy with the idea of his high and holy office. It is
however evident, that so far from wishing completely to
repulse the other party, he avoided diiving them to decided
hostility. By means of secret advances and vague expres-
sions, he kept them in hope of a reconciliation at some
future time : whilst he satisfied the Spaniards, he allowed
their adversaries to persuade themselves that his actions
were not quite free ; that in some particulars he was irre-
sistibly constrained by deference to the opinion of Spain.
In Sixtus, it was a war of contending sentiments, which
hindered him from coming to any final decision ; in Clement,
it was regard to the opinion of both sides, prudence, cir-
cumspection ; the offspring of experience of the world, and
of a desire to avoid hostilities. The inevitable consequence,
however, was, that he, like his predecessor, exercised no
determining influence.

Thus left to themselves, the aff'airs of France were the
more free to follow the direction given to them by their
own internal impulses.

The most important circumstance was, that the chiefs of
the League quarrelled. The sixteen attached themselves
closely to Spain, while Mayenne pursued the aims of per-
sonal ambition. This only inflamed the zeal of the sixteen ;
they proceeded to the most atrocious crimes against those
whom they imagined, or who really were, deserters from
their cause ; such, for example, as the assassination of the
president Brisson, for which Mayenne thought it necessary
to chastise them, and to execute the most fanatical of their
leaders. Fostered by this division, there arose in Paris, as
early as the beginning of the year 1592, a party distin-
guished by moderate pohtical and religious opinions ; catho-
lic indeed, but opposed to the measures of the League, and
above all to the sixteen and the Spaniards. A compact
was entered into, not very different from the League itself,
the foremost object of which was to place the offices of

§ VI.] ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. 527

the city in the hands of moderate, judicious men; an
object which was nearly accomphshed in the course of that
year. '"" A similar turn of public opinion manifested itself
throughout the kingdom, and had a great effect on the
results of the elections for the meeting of the estates.
Hence it happened that the Spaniards, in spite of all their
projects, experienced such a pertinacious resistance in that
assembly. While fanatical preachers continued to denounce
every man as excommunicated, however constant in his
attendance at mass, who consented so much as to talk of
peace with heretics, the parliament insisted on the funda-
mental law of the realm, by which foreign princes were
excluded from the throne ; and it was impossible not to
perceive that this whole party, which was called the poli-
tical party, only waited for the conversion of Henry IV. to
declare their submission to him. What, then, was the
difference between them and the catholic royalists in
Henry's camp ? It was only this ; — that the former,
before they tendered their allegiance, required to see a
step actually taken, which the latter thought themselves
justified in awaiting. For the catholic royalists also were
unanimous in thinking that the king must return to their
church ; although they did not make his right or his legiti-
macy as successor to the throne, depend upon it. Perhaps
also antipathy to the protestants who surrounded the king
made them insist the more earnestly on this point ; the
princes of the blood, the most eminent statesmen, and the
greater part of the court, united to form a tiers-parti, whose
distinguishing characteristic lay in this demand, f

As soon as matters had assumed this form, everyone
perceived, and the protestants themselves did not deny,
that Henry, if he wished to be king, must become a
catholic. It is not necessary for us to examine the claims
of those who affirm that they gave the last impulse in that
direction. More was effected by the grand combination
of circumstances, by the necessity of things, than by any
individual exertions. J In performing the act by which he

* Cayet, lib. iv, (torn, 58. p. 5.), f Thus it is described in Sully, v. 249.
gives the propositions made in the first J That Henry was resolved on this in
assembly, April, 1593, is proved by his letter to

528 ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. [Book VI.

became a member of the catholic church, Henry attached
to himself and his cause that national French Catholicism
which was represented by the tiers-parti and the so-called
political party, and which had now the prospect of main-
taining an ascendancy in France.

This was, however, in fact, only that same catholic
party which had rallied round the banner of legitimacy
and of national independence, in opposition to the schemes
of the church and of Spain. How mightily was it now
increased in power and importance ! In the general
opinion of the country it unquestionably predominated,
and throughout France people adhered to it in secret, if
not openly ; it now acquired a firm internal station by the
conversion of the sovereign — a sovereign, too, so warlike,
gallant, and victorious. Thus raised in magnitude and
consideration, this party once more presented itself before
the pope and implored his recognition and his blessing.
What glory was to be acquired, what influence exercised,
by a frank and explicit declaration in its favour ! And so
much still depended on it. Even the prelates who had
received the king into the bosom of the church, had
done so only with a reservation, that the pope would grant
him absolution ; ''* and this the most powerful members of
the League, with whom the king opened a negotiation,
sohcited.f Although promises are not always kept, it
cannot be doubted that the absolution, if granted at this
moment by the pope, would have had a powerful effect on
the course of affairs. Henry IV. sent a grandee of his
kingdom, the duke de Nevers, to solicit it ; and a truce
was concluded until the answer should arrive.

The pope was cautious and mistrustful. As visions of
religious ambition had inflamed Sixtus V., so, on the other
hand, fears of being deceived and betra^^ed into difficulties,
restrained Clement VIII. He thought that Henry IV.
would perhaps at last relapse into protestantism, as he had
done once before ; he declared that he should not believe

the grand duke of Tuscany on the 26th. voyeroit vers sa S. la requerir d'approu-

M. Galluzzi, Storia del Granducato, s. v. ver ce qu'ils avoient fait." (Cayet, 58,

p. 160. 390.)

* " Messieurs du elerge luy avoient f Villei'oy, Momoires. Coll. Univ.

donne I'absolution a la charge qu'il en- 62. 186.

§ VI.] ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. 529

that the king was really converted till an angel from
heaven came and told him so ; he looked around him and
saw the majority of the curia still hostile to the French ;
from time to time a pamphlet appeared, repeating the
assertion that Henry IV., as a " haereticus relapsus,^' could
not be absolved even by the pope himself ; and Clement
still wanted courage to defy the Spaniards who were the
leaders and champions of these opinions.'''' And was not
the party which now solicited his favour really engaged in
opposition to the claims of the church of Rome ? — " traitors
to the throne and the church,'^ as he expressed himself,
" bastards, children of the handmaid and not of the wife ;
whereas the leaguers had proved themselves true and
legitimate sons.^f Certainly it would have required some
resolution to grant their petition ; a resolution of which
Clement was as yet incapable. J Nevers repaired to Rome
with a double sense of his high rank and his important
mission ; he doubted not that he should be received with
joy, and this expectation he expressed ; the king's letter,
of which he was the bearer, was conceived in the same
tone. The pope remarked that it seemed as if the king
had not only been long a catholic, but that he came, like a
second Charlemagne, from achieving a victory over the
enemies of the church. Nevers was astonished at the
coldness of his reception, and at the small attention paid
to his proposals. Finding that all his efforts were vain,
he at length asked the pope what the king should do to
deserve his holiness' favour. The pope replied, that there
were divines enough in France to inform him. " But,''
said the duke, "will your holiness be content with what
the divines prescribe V The pope refused to answer. He
refused even to consider him as ambassador of Henry IV. ;

* Les Intimidations qui furent faites era per tali avisi molto alterato e tuttavia

au Pape Clement VIII. par le Due de restava con V animo molto involto nelli

Sessa, — not very authentic, and which suoi soliti dubbj eperplessita." He said

were printed long ago in the Memoires to the Venetian ambassador that Henry

de M' le Due de Nevers, ii. p. 7 J 6, remained a hsereticus relapsus, and that

though since given as something new in no reliance was to be placed on the truth

Capefigue, Histoire de la Reforme, tom. of his conversion,
vii. J Relatio dictorum a demente VIII.

f Disp. 20 Aug. 1593. Account of papa die 28 Dec. 1593, in consistorio»

Henry's conversion. " II papa non s' Mem. de Nevers, ii. 638.

yOL. I. MM

530 ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. [Book VI.

he would treat him only as Louis Gonzaga, due de Nevers ;
he desired that all that passed between them should be
regarded not as an official negotiation, but as a mere
private conversation ; it was impossible to prevail on him
to give his assent to any written agreement. " Nothing
remains for me," said Nevers to cardinal Toledo, who
brought him his final answer from the pope, " but to lament
the calamity which will once more, when war breaks out,
subject France to the fury of the soldiery." The cardinal
said not a word, but smiled. Nevers quitted Rome, and
gave vent to his disgust in bitter reports of what had
passed. "^^

Men have, generally speaking, no feeling but for their
own situation. The Roman curia knew only what was
advantageous to itself ; not a trace of genuine sympathy
in the destinies of France is discoverable in its conduct.

We know, indeed, enough of Clement to beheve that he
would not have utterly repulsed Henry's adherents ; and
less now than at an earher period, because they were so
much more powerful. On the contrary, it appears that he
assured a secret agent, that the king had only to become
thoroughly catholic and that he would be sure of absolution.
It is very characteristic of this pope, that he, who pubhcly
showed so decided an aversion to take any share in the
king's return to the catholic faith, nevertheless sent word
privily to the grand duke of Tuscany, that he could object
to nothing the clergy of France might think fit to do.
The grand duke was employed to communicate to the cliiefs
of the catholic royalists the conciliatory expressions of the
pope.f Nevertheless Clement's only anxiety was about
his own fiiture, and hence things went in France as they
could.

The truce had expired ; the sword was once more
unsheathed, and affairs were once more to be decided by
the fortune of war. But the superiority of Henry IV. now

* Two wi'itings of almost exactly the Memoirs of Nevers just mentioned ; the

same import : Discours de ce que fit M"^ first almost verbatim in Cayet ; extracts

de Ncvei's ji son voyage de Rome en in Tluianus, Davila, and lately, as if

Tannee 15.03, and Discours de la legation borrowed from unknown documents, in

de M"" le Due do Nevers. Both are con- Capefigue.
tained in the second volume of the f Davila, lib. xiv. p. .939.

§ VI.] ABSOLUTION OF HENRY TV. 53I

manifested itself decidedly and instantly. The commanders
of the forces of the League had no longer that firm convic-
tion which had formerly rendered their position so strong ;
the doctrines of the pohtical party, the conversion of the
king, and his continued successes had shaken the faith and
courage of all. One after another went over, without heed-
ing that the pope still withheld absolution. Vitri, the
commander in Meaux, who no longer received pay for his
troops from the Spaniards, set the example, which was fol-
lowed by those of Orleans, Bourges, and Rouen. But the
most important question was, the part that Paris would
take. There the political, or national party, after many
oscillations, had obtained a clear superiority, had gained
over the most distinguished families, and had filled the
most important posts from its ranks. The armed citizens
were already officered by men of those opinions, which
also prevailed in the Hotel de Ville ; the Prevot des
Marchands and the Echevins belonged, with a single excep-
tion, to that party. Under these circumstances, there
could be no obstacle to the king's return. Accordingly,
on the 22nd March, 1594, he re-entered Paris. Henry IV.
w^as astonished to find himself greeted with such cordial
and joyous cheers by the people from whom he had expe-
rienced such an obstinate resistance, and thought himself
justified in inferring that they had lived under a tyrannical
rule : this however was not entirely true ; the sentiments
of the League had really been the predominant ones,
though others had taken their place. The king's return
was mainly a victory of political opinions. The leaguers now
underwent the same persecution which they had so often
inflicted on others. The most influential founders and chiefs
of the League, such as the formidable Bouchier, quitted the
city with the Spanish troops ; more than a hundred others
who were regarded as the most dangerous were formally
jbanished. All the authorities and the whole population
[took the oath of allegiance ; even the Sorbonne, — whose
I most stiff-necked and intractable members, and among
[them the rector of the university himself, were banished,
— submitted to the dominant opinions. Widely different
were their decisions now from those of 1589. The Sor-

M M 2

532 ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. [Book VI.

bonne now acknowledged that all dominion was from God
(according to the thirteenth chapter of the epistle to the
Romans) ; that every man who set himself in opposition
to the king, rebelled against God and subjected himself to
damnation. It rejected the doctrine that it was lawful to
refuse obedience to the king because he was not yet recog-
nised by the pope, as an invention of evil-minded and ill-
advised men. The members of the university in a body,
— rector, dean, theologians, decretists, doctors in medicine,
artists, monks and conventuals, scholars and officers, — now
took the oath of fidelity and allegiance to Henry IV., and
bound themselves to shed their blood for him. Nay, what
is more surprising, the university immediately opened a
campaign against the Jesuits, on the basis of this their
new orthodoxy. It reproached them with their anarchical
principles, in which, to say truth, that body had fully par-
ticipated, and with their attachment to Spain. For a time
the Jesuits defended themselves with some success. But
as in the same year, Jean Chastel,'"" a man who had
attended their schools, made an attempt to assassinate the
king, and confessed in the course of his examination, that
he had frequently heard from the Jesuits that it was lawful
to kill a king who was not reconciled to the church, they
could no longer withstand the universal triumph of the
adverse party ; scarcely could the people be withheld from
storming their college ; and at length all the members of
the order were sentenced to void the kingdom within four-
teen days, as seducers of youth, disturbers of the public
peace, enemies of the king and of the state, f Thus did
the opinions, which in small and obscure beginnings had
taken their stand as opposition, now gain possession of
Paris, and gradually of the whole kingdom, and drive their
antagonists from the field. The change was universal.

* Juvencius, partis v. lib. xii. n. 13, tatus designat, quo tanquam de religione

gives the following description of this ae regno bene merituspeccatorumveniam

criminal : " Indoles juveni tristis ac te- facilius, ut demens repntabat, conse-

trica, mores improbi, mens anxia recor- queretur."

datione criminum atque unius potissimum f Annuae Literse Societatis Jesu, 1596,

quod matrem aliijuando verberasset. ... p. 350. " Tanta superat adhuc preeteriti

Conscientia criminum ultrix mentem iiaufragii fluctuatio ut nondum tabulas

efferatam diro vexare pergebat motu : omnes atque armamenta disjecta colle-

quem ut leniret, immane pai-ricidium geriraus."
impos mentis an potius erebi furiis inci-

§ VI.] ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. 533

New submissions to the king's authority were daily ten-
dered ; Henry was crowned and anointed at Chartres ;
prayers were put up for him in all pulpits, the monastic
orders acknowledged him, and he exercised without oppo-
sition those ecclesiastical privileges of the crown which are
of such vast importance. He administered them like a
good catholic : wherever the rites of that church had suf-
fered in the recent troubles, he endeavoured to restore
them ; wherever it had maintained its exclusive exercise,
he solemnly confirmed its possession of that privilege. All
this he did ; yet he was still not reconciled with the pope.

Clement, however, was now urged by absolute necessity
to consider the means of effecting a reconciliation.'''' If he
had delayed longer, a schism, a separate church of France,
might have arisen.

The Spaniards indeed still opposed this measure. They
maintained that Henry was not truly converted, and that
the real moment for dreading a schism was that of his
receiving absolution ; f they even pointed out the occasions
on which it would inevitably break out. It still required
some resolution in the pope to set himself in opposition to
those by whose power he was surrounded, and who had a
large party in the curia ; to abandon principles which had
hitherto passed for orthodox ; for which his predecessors
had so often set in motion their weapons, both spiritual
and temporal, and which he himself had for many years
sanctioned. But he clearly perceived that every procras-
tination must become dangerous, and that he had nothing
to expect from the other side ; he felt that the rising
power in France, although in spiritual affairs it might be
in opposition to the strictly orthodox doctrines, yet in tem-
poral, had a manifest sympathy with the interests of
Rome ; it might perhaps be possible to overcome the
former, and to take advantage of the latter ; at all events,
Clement showed the greatest readiness to listen to the first
overtures that were addressed to him. We have the

* It is not till 5th Nov. 1594, that the f Ossat ä M. de Villeroy, Rome, 6
Venetian ambassador finds the pope Dec. 1594. Lettres d'Ossat, i. 53.
" meglio inclinato che nel passato " with
regard to the affairs of France.

534 ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. [Book YI.

accounts of his negotiations from the pen of d'Ossat, the
French minister plenipotentiary; they are agreeable, in-
structive, and well worth reading, but I do not find that
he had any great difficulties to contend with. It would be
useless to follow him through all the details of the trans-
actions ; suffice it to say, that the conduct of the pope
was already determined by the general posture of affairs.
The only question was, whether the king would, in return,
accede to certain demands made by the pope. Those who
were unfavourable to the reconcihation would fain have
raised these as high as possible, on the plea that the
church stood in need of all the securities she could obtain
in the existing state of things ; the pope, however, adhered
to the more moderate and practicable conditions. He
required especially the restoration of the catholic rehgion
in Bern ; the introduction of the decrees of the council of
Trent, so far as they were compatible with the laws of the
land ; strict observance of the concordat, and the education
of the heir-presumptive to the throne, the prince of Conde,
in the cathoHc faith. The king had still great reason to
desire a reconciliation with the see of Rome. His autho-
rity rested on his conversion to Catholicism, and this act
required the pope's absolution to stamp it ^^^th perfect
authenticity : although by far the greater number were
content to waive the point, there were still some who
availed themselves of the want of this sanction as a reason
for their continued opposition."^' Henry IV. agreed to the
required conditions without much difficulty ; he had already
prepared their fulfilment in part, of his own accord, for he
was extremely anxious to appear a good catholic ; and
greatly as his power was increased since the mission of the
duke de Nevers, the letter in which he now craved absolu-
tion of the pope was far more humble and submissive than

* Du Perron au Roi, 6 Nov. 1595 : royaume, et ä tout le moins pour tenir

" Dc toucher icy, conibieu I'autorite' et vos ennemis en quelque crainte et devoir

la favour do ce siege estant entre vos par l'ap])rehension de la mtme autorite

mains vous peut servir d'un utile instru- dont ils se sont aydez pour troublor vos

meiit, non seulenient pour remettre et estats ct vos peuples, ce seroit un dis-

conserver vos sujets en paix et en obeis- conrs superHu." (Les Auibassades du

sance, mais aus.si pour vous preparer Cai'dinal Pei'ron, i. 27.)
toutes sortcs de grandeur hors de vostre

§ VI.] . ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. 535

that of which the duke was the bearer.''^ " The king," it
sajs, "returns to the feet of your hohness, and implores
in all humility, by the bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you would grant him your holy blessing, and your
supreme absolution/^

The pope was fully satisfied, f Nothing now remained
but that the College of Cardinals should declare its assent.
The pope, however, would not allow a regular consistory to
be summoned, where a consistent adherence to the spirit of
former decrees might easily have occasioned inconvenient
results. He invited the cardinals to give him their several
opinions in private audiences ; an expedient which had
often been adopted on similar occasions. When he had
consulted them all, he declared that two-thirds were in
favour of the absolution.

On the I7th of December, 1595, preparations were
accordingly made for the performance of that ceremony.
The pope's throne was erected in front of St. Peter's, while
the cardinals and the curia reverently surrounded their
head. The king's petition, and the terms to which he had
agreed, were read aloud. Thereupon the representatives
of the most christian king threw themselves at the feet of
the pope, who granted them absolution by a slight stroke
with a wand. The papal chair once more appeared in all
the fulness and splendour of its ancient and traditional
authority. J

This ceremony was indeed a symbol or manifestation of
an important fact. The ruling power in France, now
strong and firmly established, was again catholic, and had
an interest to stand well with the pope. A new focus of

* Requete du Roi, in Amelot's notes darlo avanti che '1 re mandasse il suo ani-
on Ossat, i. 160. basciatore a Roma, et in quello V autoritä

+ The court of Rome still thought this della S^'^^ V''» giovo assai, che cosi mi

resolution rash and daring. Dolfino, disse S. S% per diversi offici che a quel

Relatione : ** I piu gra\'i negotii il papa tempo io aveva fatto a nome di lei,"

ha saputo espedire e molto bene e molto % Ossat, who usually describes every-

ancora con gran celerita : perche con thing most circumstantially, passes over

tanti contrarj quanti ogn' uno sa bene- this ceremony with a very slight mention

disse il re di Francia, lo accetto nel (i. 168). " Tout s'y est passe," says he,

grembo della chiesa, mandoli un legato " convenablement ä la dignite de la cou-

nel tempo che tutti lo ributtavano sotto ronne tr^s chretienne." This opinion

pretesto che non fosse sua dignitä man- was not, however, entertained by all.

536 ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. [Book VI.

Catholicism was thus formed, from whence important influ-
ences must of necessity emanate.

On nearer consideration, however, this fact presents
itself under two distinct aspects.

It was not by the immediate efforts of the pope, nor by
a triumph of the strict party, that France had been won ;
on the contrary, it was by a union of the moderate opinions
lying between the two extremes — by the superior popularity
of a party originally in opposition to the court of Rome,
that this had been brought about. Hence it came to pass
that the French church assumed a totally different attitude
from that of Italy, the Netherlands, or from the newly-
established church of Germany. It submitted to the pope,
but it did so with a freedom and an independence which
were based on its origin, and the sentiment of Avhich it
never lost. Hence the papal see could never regard France
as in the slightest degree an absolute conquest.

But the advantages which resulted to Rome in a political
point of view were unqualified. The balance of power,
which had been lost, was restored ; two great nations,
mutually jealous, and involved in interminable wars and
conflicts, held each other in check ; both were catholic,
and might obey the same impulse ; at all events the pope
occupied a far more independent station between them
than he or his predecessors had for a long time found it
possible to attain to. He was now in a great degree eman-
cipated from the bonds in which the preponderancy of
Spain had bound him.

It was only by the course of events that this political
consequence of the reconciliation of France was brought to
light. On the lapse of Ferrara to the papal see, French
influence first showed itself again in Italian affairs. This
event was also one of such great importance to the growth
of the poHtical power of the Roman states, that it must for
a while divert our attention, as it did that of cotemporaries,
from the affairs of religion.

We shall begin by casting back a glance on that state
under the last of its princes.

§ VII.J FERRARA UNDER ALFONSO II. 537

§ 7. FERRARA UNDER ALFONSO IT.

It is frequently assumed by historians that Ferrara was
in a pecuKarly flourishing state under the last prince of
the house of Este ; but this is an illusion, like a multitude
of others, which rests on antipathy to the secular power
of Rome.

Montaigne visited Ferrara in the reign of Alfonso II.
He admired the wide streets and the beautiful palaces of
the city, but even he was struck, as travellers are in our
day, with their empty and deserted appearance.'''" The
prosperity of the country depended on the mainte-
nance of the dams and the regulation of the course of
the waters ; but neither the dams nor the rivers and
canals were kept in good order ; inundations were not
unfrequent ; the Yolana and Primaro were choked with
sand, so that their navigation was utterly stopped. f

It were a still greater mistake to imagine that the sub-
jects of this house were free and happy. Alfonso II.
enforced the claims of his treasury in the severest manner.
At the conclusion of every contract, even were it only for
a loan, the tenth of the sum in question fell to the duke ;
and he took a tenth of everything that was carried into
the city. He had the monopoly of salt ; he laid a new
tax upon oil, and by the advice of his administrator of the
taxes, Christofano da Fiume, he at last took exclusive pos-
session of the trade in flour and bread ; nor could these
prime necessaries of life be obtained except from the duke^s
ofiicers ; no man dared to lend a handful of flour to a
neighbour.^ Even the nobles were not allowed to hunt

* Montaigne, Voyage, i. 226 — 23L Manolesso,Relatione di Ferrara :" II duca

+ A report on the States of the Church non e cosi amato come U suoi precessori,

in the beginning of the seventeenth cen- e questo per Y austerita et esattioni che

tury relates, that the duke had employed fa Christofano da Fixmie cognominato il

the peasants whose duty it was to work Frisato (Sfregiato) suo gabelliere. — II

on the Po, on his own estates at Mesola, Frisato s' ofFerse di vendere miglior mer-

and the banks of the river had thus so cato le robbe a beneficio del popolo di

entirely fallen to decay that they could quelle che facevano gli altri e di darne

not be restored. (Inff. Politt., torn, ix.) molto utile a S. Ecc^^: piacque il partito

X Frizzi, Memorie per la Storia di al duca : — ma se bene il Frisato paga al

Ferrara, tom. iv. p. 364. And especially duca quelle che gli ha data intentione,

538 FERRARA UNDER ALFONSO II. [Book VI.

for more than a few days, and never with more than three
dogs. One day the bodies of six men were seen hanging
in the market-place, with dead pheasants tied to their feet,
to show, it was said, that they were shot poaching in the
duke's preserves.

When therefore writers dwell on the prosperity and
activity of Ferrara, they cannot mean to apply this
either to the country or to the town, but merely to
the court.

In the stormy times of the first ten years of the sixteenth
century, in which so many flourishing houses, so many
powerfiil principalities, were utterly wrecked, and all Italy
was convulsed from its very foundations, the house of Este
had contrived, by an union of dexterous poUcy with spirited
self-defence, to sustain itself erect amidst all dangers.
With these, however, it united other qualities. Who has
not read of that race which, as Bojardo expresses it, was
destined to be the preserver of all valour, kindliness,
courtesy, love, grace, and gaiety V' — of their residence,
which, as Ariosto says, " they had adorned, not so much
with walls and spacious royal roofs, as with fair studies
and excellent manners V'f If, however, the princes of the
house of Este deserved well of the world for their patronage
of learning and poetry, they have been richly rewarded.
The memory of their power and their splendour, which
would soon have passed away, has been rendered eternal
by its connection with the memory of writers who can-
not die.

Alfonso IL sought to maintain things in the same state
in which they had existed under his predecessors. He was
actuated by the same views. He had not indeed to resist
such violent storms as had assailed them ; yet, as he was
involved in incessant misunderstandings with Florence,
and was not always very secure of the dispositions of his
feudal lord, the pope, he did not abandon his defensive

non sodisfa pero al popolo, vemlcndo la Amox'c, Icggiadria, stato p;iocundo

robba cattiva quanto alia qualita e raolto Tra quella gente fiorita nel ramido."
cara quanto al pi'czzo." f Ariosto, Orlando Fiirioso, xxxv. 6.

* Bojardo, Orlando Innamorato, ii. 22. " Non pur di mura c d'anq)li tetti regj,

" Da qucsta (stirpc) fia sorvato ogni valorc, Ma di bei btudi c di costmni ogrcgi."
Ogni bontade et ogni oortcsia,

§ VIL] FERRARA UNDER ALFONSO II. 539

attitude. Ferrara was esteemed the strongest fortress of
Italy after Padua ; twenty-seven thousand men were
enrolled in the militia,'"' and Alfonso was anxious to foster
a military spirit in his subjects. In order to counter-
balance the favour which Tuscany enjoyed at the court of
Rome, by a friendship of not less importance, he attached
himself to the emperors. He crossed the Alps repeatedly
with a brilliant retinue, married an Austrian princess, and
it is affirmed, spoke German ; in the year 1556 he led an
army consisting of four thousand men into Hungary to the
assistance of the emperor against the Turks.

Nor was his reign less favourable to literature and art.
Seldom indeed has the hterary element been so strongly
infiised into the government or the court of any country.
Two professors of the university, Pigna and Montecatino,
were successively prime ministers ; nor did they relinquish
their literary pursuits ; Pigna at least, while at the head of
affairs, continued to deliver lectures, and occasionally pub-
lished books. t Battista Guarini, the author of the Pastor
Fido, was sent ambassador to Venice, and then to Poland.
Even Francesco Patrizi, although occupied with abstruse
subjects, boasts of the sympathy he received from the
court. Every kind of liberal pursuit was encouraged.
Scientific discussions alternated with disputations on ques-
tionable points of love, such as Tasso, who was for a time
attached to the university, once held. Plays were given
sometimes by the university, sometimes by the court ; and
the theatre was not only a place of transient amusement,
but a school of art, in which new dramatic forms were con-
tinually attempted, and which had the merit of perfecting
the pastoral drama, and of founding the opera. Occasion-
ally Ferrara was visited by foreign cardinals and princes,

* Relatione sopra la Romagna di S"^ Giovamb. Pigna, per mano del quale

Ferrara : " Erano descritti nelli rolli passano tutti negotii. Legge publica-

della militia dal commissario della batta- mente la filosofia morale, e scrive 1' istoria

glia a ciö deputato tutti i sudditi atti a della casa d' Este : e oratore, filosofo e

portar armi. Erano eostretti a starne poeta molto eecellente : possiede benis-

provisti per haver da servire nell' ocea- simo la lingua Greca, e servendo il sue

sioni a piedi o a cavallo secondo le forze principe ne' negotii e trattando e iscri-

delle loro facolta e godevano essi alcmie vendo quanto occorre, non tralascia pero

esentioni." i studi, et in tutte le professioni e tale

t Manolesso ; " Segretario intimo e il che pare che ad una sola attenda."

540 FERRARA UNDER ALFONSO II. [Book VI.

by those of the neighbouring cities of Mantua, Guastalla
and Urbino, and sometimes even by a prince of the
imperial house. The court then appeared in all its bril-
liancy. Tournaments were held in which the nobles spared
no cost, and a hundred knights sometimes jousted in
the court-yard of the palace. These were representa-
tions of some fabulous incidents or poetical creations, as
the names used at them show — The Temple of Love,''^
the Happy Island, &c. Enchanted castles were stormed,
defended, and conquered.

The court of Ferrara thus exhibited the most singular
union of poetry, learning, politics, and chivalry. Pomp was
ennobled by its objects, and any defect of means was
amply supplied by talent and taste.

Tasso, both in his " Rime " and his epic poem, has
placed before us a lively picture of this court ; of " the
high-hearted and energetic prince, of whom it is difficult
to say whether he is a better knight or captain ;" of his
consort, and, above all, of his sisters. The elder, Lucrezia,
lived but for a short time with her husband in Urbino,
and returned to reside in Ferrara, where she exercised a
considerable influence in public affairs, but was chiefly dis-
tinguished as the promoter and inspirer of literature and
of music, — the especial patroness of Tasso. The younger,
Leonora, was less prominent in the court and the world ;
she was of a delicate constitution, and quiet retiring man-
ners, but sharing with her sister the higher and stronger
qualities of mind.f During an earthquake both of them
refused to quit the palace ; Leonora especially seemed to
delight in an opportunity of displaying a stoical indiffer-
ence to danger, nor did they give way till the peril was
imminent ; the roof fell in at the very moment they quitted
it. Leonora was regarded as so pure and holy a creature
that the deliverance of Ferrara from an inundation was

♦Extracts from descriptions which cording to Manolesso, " con infinita sodis-

then appeared, e.g. of the Tempio fattione de' sudditi ;" — " uon ha preso," he

d'Amore, may be found in Muratori, Se- continues, " ne vuol prendere marito,

rassi, and Frizzi. per esser di debolissima complessioae :

t In the year 1 566 she carried on the c pero di gran spirito."
regency during the duke's absence, ac-

§ Vn.] FERRARA UNDER ALFONSO II. 541

ascribed to her prayers."' The homage which Tasso paid
to these remarkable women was of a nature corresponding
with their respective characters ; — to the younger, timid
and chastened, always as if he felt more than he dared to
express ; to the elder, perfectly free and unreserved : he
compared her with the full-blown fragrant rose, from which
maturity has taken none of its charms. Other ladies in
subordinate ranks graced the court of Ferrara ; among
them we distinguish Barbara Sanseverina and her daugh-
ter Leonora Sanvitale. Tasso has described the calm dis-
cretion of the mother, and the brilliant charm of youthful
beauty in the daughter, with exquisite finish ; no portrait
could bring them more vividly before us. Then follow
descriptions of the charming villeggiature of the court ; of
their hunting-parties and sports, and all the pleasures and
the business which filled their lives ; nor is it easy to con-
ceive how any mind can resist the captivation of his rich
stream of harmonious description.

Yet it would not be safe to surrender ourselves implicitly
to this impression. The same power which exacted such
absolute obedience in the country, was not unfelt at court.
Those scenes of poetry and of pleasure were sometimes
interrupted by incidents of a far different character : the
noble and the great were as little spared as the humble.

One of the family of Gonzaga was assassinated. The

crime was universally imputed to the young Ercole Con-

[trario, and it was at least certain that the murderers found

j refuge on one of his estates. The duke demanded that

they should be given up. Contrario, probably fearing their

testimony against him, immediately put them to death him-

iself, and sent their dead bodies to the duke. Upon this he

[was summoned to appear at court in person ; on the 2nd of

August, 1575, he had audience. The Contrarj were the

[Oldest and wealthiest family of Ferrara, and Ercole the last

scion of this illustrious stock ; yet in a short time after he

jhad entered the palace he was brought out of it a corpse.

iThe duke said the young man was suddenly struck with

: apoplexy in the midst of their conversation. But no one

* Serassi, Vita di Torquato Tasso, p. 150.

542 PERRARA UNDER ALFONSO II. [Book VI.

believed this ; marks of violence were visible on the body ;
and indeed the duke's friends confessed that their sovereign
had caused him to be put to death, and excused him on the
ground that he did not choose to inflict on an illustrious
name the stain of an ignominious death.'"" It was a way of
executing justice which kept every man in terror, and
which was rendered the more suspicious and the more
formidable, from the fact that the property of the family
must now lapse to the duke.

But we may afiirm generally, that it would not have
been prudent in any one to oppose the sovereign in the
slightest degree, t The court of Ferrara was such shppery
ground, that even Montecatino, subtle and pohshed as he
was, could not eventually keep his footing in it. Panigarola,
at that time the most celebrated preacher in Italy, was
with some difficulty induced to settle at Ferrara ; he was
suddenly banished in a pubUc and violent manner, and
when inquiries were made as to the cause of his disgrace,
no other charge was adduced against him than that he had
listened to some proposals of advancement from another
quarter. It is no wonder if such an atmosphere was fatal
to the wayward, sensitive, melancholy Tasso. The duke
appeared attached to him, listened to him with pleasure,
frequently took him into the country with him, and did not
disdain to correct the descriptions of mihtary transactions
which occur in the Gerusalemme. But from the time that
Tasso showed a sort of inchnation to enter the service of
the Medici, all cordiality between them was at an end ; the
unhappy poet left the court ; dragged back by a resistless
longing, he returned, and a few reproachful words which
he uttered in one of his melancholy moods, were sufficient
to determine the duke to condemn him to seven long years
of capti^aty. |

We have here a perfect type of an Italian principality,

* Frizzi, Memorie, iv. 382. raalignita e pieno d' una certa arabitiosa

t When Tasso is not in good humour, alterezza, la quale egli trae della nobilta

he expresses himself very differently del sangue e della conoscenza eh' egli ha

from what we have quoted above : del suo valore, del quale in molte cose

" Perche io conosceva," says he in a non si da punto ad intendere il falso."

letter to the duke of Urbino, " il duca (Lettere, n. 284. Opere, tom. ix. 188.)

per natural inclinatione dispostissimo alia t Serassi, Vita del Tasso, p. 282.

§ VII.] FERRARA UNDER ALFONSO II. 543

such as it existed in the fifteenth century ; resting on well-
calculated poHtical relations abroad ; unlimited and des-
potic at home ; surrounded with splendour, intimately
connected with literature, and jealous of the very appear-
ance of power. Strange form of society ! The strength
and the resources of the country combine to produce a
court ; the central point of that court is the prince ; and
thus the ultimate product of the social body is, in the last
result, the conscious power and the unchecked will of one
man. The feeling of his own value and importance arises
from his position in the world, from the obedience he
commands, the respect he receives.

Alfonso II., though twice married, had no children. His
conduct under this disappointment is characteristic of his
entire policy.

His aim was twofold ; first, not to let his subjects believe
that it was possible for them to fall off from his house ; and
secondly, to keep the nomination of a successor in his own
hands, and not to raise up a rival to himself.

In September, 1589, he went to Loreto, where the pope's
sister Donna Camilla then happened to be, and spared
neither gifts nor promises to win her to his interests. He
hoped through her means to obtain the power to nominate
the one of his nearest relations whom he held to be the
fittest. Scarcely however were the negotiations opened,
when Sixtus V. died.

By similar means, presents to the pope's sister-in-law,
and obsequious attentions to his nephew, Alfonso, obtained
access to Gregory XIV. in the year 1591. As soon as he
perceived that he might entertain a hope of success, he
went to Rome to conduct the negotiation in person. The
first question was, whether the bull of Pius V., which pro-
hibited the re-investiture of escheated papal fiefs, applied to
Ferrara. Alfonso denied that it was applicable, inasmuch
as Ferrara had never escheated. Yet the words were but
too precise ; the congregation decided that the bull cer-
tainly included Ferrara. The only question then was,
whether a pope had not the power to give a special decision
in a special case. This the congregation did not venture
to deny ; it only annexed the condition that the necessity

54,4 FERRARA UNDER ALFONSO II. [Book VI.

must be urgent, the utility manifest ; "' — a condition involv-
ing important consequences. It is not improbable that if
the proceedings had been hastened, and a new investiture
had been made out in the name of a particular individual,
the matter might have been brought to the desired close.
But Alfonso would not name his heir ; nor indeed was he
of the same opinion as the Sfrondati on this point ; they
proposed marchese Filippo d'Este, whereas he preferred his
cousin Cesare. In this way time passed, and Gregory died
before anything could be definitely arranged, f

Meanwhile negotiations had also been opened with the
imperial court. Ferrara was a fief of Rome, but Modena
and Reggio of the empire. Here therefore the duke's
wonted policy came to his aid ; he was on the best terms
with the most powerful minister of the emperor, Wolf
Rumpf, through whose influence Rudolf II. was induced to
grant him a renewal of the investiture, and even to allow
him a certain period within which he should be at hberty
to name whomsoever he pleased as his successor.

But these compliances of the emperor only rendered
the new pope, Clement VIII., the more unyielding. It
appeared more consonant to catholic and ecclesiastical
policy that the pope should reduce an escheated fief into
possession, than regrant it ; this had been the judgment
of the holy pontiff Pius V. In the year 1592, Clement
proposed, in secret consistory, the ratification of the bull
in question in its original form, without the qualification
annexed by Gregory XIV. ; and in that form it was
passed. J

The time appointed by the emperor had also expired,
and it was become necessary for the duke to designate his
successor. Alfonso I. towards the close of his life had

* Dispaccio Donate : " Quando ci Albani also says, there was no doubt that
fusse evidentissima utilita et urgente ne- Gregory XIV. would have done some-
cessita . . . . il che fu fatto per aprire la thing for Ferrara ; that he left the con-
strada all' intentione del S^ duca." gregation in a fit of rage, which made
Cardinal S. Severina asserts that it was him ill. Alfonso went to a villa of ear-
principally he who prevented this plan, dinal Farnese's, " aspettando o vita o
althougli with much difficulty and oppo- morte di questo papa. Venne la morte.
sition; and that afterwards the pope re- II duca ritorno."
pented of that addition. Ij: Dispaccio Donate, 27 Dec. 1592.

t Cronica di Ferrara, MS. Bibl.

§ VIIL] CONQUEST OF FERRARA. 545

married Laura Eustocliia, by whom he had already a son :
from this son was descended Don Cesare d^Este, who, after
long hesitation, was chosen by the duke. But even after
his choice was determined, he used the most mysterious
precautions. Without the privity of any individual, he
sent an autograph letter to the emperor containing the
nomination in form ; at the same time earnestly entreating
him to let no one know it, not even his own envoy at the
imperial court ; and to express his assent in no other way
than by simply sending back the document subscribed with
the imperial name.*"

He was determined to retain undivided, to his last gasp,
the highest consideration in his narrow territory ; he could
not endure to witness the homage of his court to the rising
sun. Cesare himself knew nothing of the favour conferred
upon him ; indeed he was kept under rather stricter rule
than before ; the splendour of his appearance was some-
what diminished (for instance, he was not allowed more
than three nobles in his retinue) ; and it was not till the
duke's life was at its last ebb, till the physicians had given
up the last hope, that Alfonso sent for him to announce the
fortune which awaited him. The will was opened in the
presence of the first persons of Ferrara, who were admo-
nished by the minister to be faithful to the house of Este.
The duke told Cesare that he bequeathed him the fairest
state in the world, defended by arms and by its population ;
strong in its alliances on either side the Alps. Having said
this, Alfonso H. expired, on the 27th October, 1597.

§ 8. CONQUEST OF FERRARÄ.

Cesare took possession of the fiefs of the empire without
opposition, and even those of the pope did him homage ;

* Relatione di quello che e successo in quale sigillata senza publicare il fatto

Ferrara dopo la Morte del Duca Alfonso la rimandasse indietro per il conte

(MS. Barber.). " II duca fra V anno Ercole Rondinelli, conferendogli altra-

concessogli di tempo alia dichiaratione mente il negotio. II tutto faceva S. A.

scrisse di suo pugno una lettera all' im- accio Don Cesare non s' insuperbisse ne

peratore e nomino Don Cesare, pregaudo della nobilta fusse riverito e corteggiato

caldamente S. M. Ces* che in confirma- come lor principe."
tione del nominato sottoscrivesse la sua,

VOL. I. NN

546 CONQUEST OF FERRARA. [Book VI.

in Ferrara he was invested by the magistrate with the ducal
mantle, and greeted by the people with shouts and accla-
mations as their new sovereign.

But he was soon in a position to put to the proof the
domestic power and the foreign support of which his prede-
cessor had boasted.

Clement remained unshaken in his determination to
reduce Ferrara into the possession of the church. He
thought he should obtain eternal fame if he could accom-
plish what had been vainly attempted by so many of his
predecessors. On the news of Alfonso's death, he declared
that he was sorry that the duke left no son ; but that the
church must have her own again. He would not hsten to
Cesare's ambassadors, and called his taking possession
an usurpation ; he threatened him with excommunication
unless he abdicated within a fortnight ; and to give force
to his words, he immediately began to prepare to carry
his menace into effect. A new loan was made and a new
monte founded, in order not to touch the money in the
castle. ^'^ In a short time, the pope's nephew, cardinal
Pietro Aldobrandino, surrounded by experienced captains,
proceeded to Ancona to collect forces ; he sent recruiters
in all directions, and heavy contributions were levied on
the provinces.

Nor did Cesare betray any want of courage at first, f
He declared that he would defend his good right to the
last drop of his blood ; that neither his religion nor his
salvation would suffer : he repaired the fortifications of his
strong places ; the militia took up arms ; a body of troops
advanced to the frontier of the States of the Church, and
we find an invitation to them to enter Romagna, where the
people were discontented \^^th the papal yoke and only
desired an opportunity to throw it off. It was likewise his

* Many however maintain that this netiane, MS., torn. i. Hb. i. " Cesare nel

money was really used. Delfino says, on principio si mostro niolto coraggioso in

the other hand, " Con gran strettezza de' voler difender le sue ragioni, o perche

danari, senza metter niano a quelli del non prevedeva il eontrasto o pur perche

eastello per conservar la I'iputatione della gl' inesperti come nei viciui pericoli s'at-

chiesa, in poco piii di un mesc ha posto terriscono cosi nelli lontani si nianifes-

insieme un esercito di 22 m. fanti e 3 m. tano inti'epidi." Contarini's narrative

cavalli." (App. No. 70.) contains a great deal of accurate and

f Niceolo Contarmi delle Historie Ve- striking information on this event.

§ VIII.J CONQUEST OF FERRARA. 547

good fortune that the neighbouring Itahan states took part
with him. His brother-in-law, the grand-duke of Tuscany,
declared that he would never desert him. The republic of
Venice prevented the pope from recruiting in Dalmatia,
and refused him the munitions of war which he wanted to
draw from Brescia. The aggrandisement of the States of
the Church was intensely hateful to all the other Italian
powers.

Had Italy been in the same situation as a century ear-
Her, — tolerably independent of foreign influences and rely-
ing only on herself, — it is probable that Clement VIII.
would not have effected more than Sixtus IV. ; but those
times were over ; everything was now referred to the
general relations of Europe, and to the great powers of
that time, France and Spain.

The inclinations of the Spaniards were no longer doubt-
ftd. Cesare d'Este had such imphcit confidence in Philip
II. that he proposed him to the pope as umpire ; the
governor of Milan distinctly declared himself for Cesare,
and offered him Spanish garrisons for his fortresses. It
was however manifest, that the king, who had all his life
repressed every commotion in Italy, hesitated at his
advanced age to give occasion to a war, and conducted
himself with extreme caution, which was also observed by
his ambassador at Rome."'^

Under these circumstances, the war depended on the
decision of Henry IV. The restoration of France as a
mighty and catholic power, was evidently pregnant with
the most important consequences to Italy. Strengthened
by the alliance of the Italian princes, Henry IV. had vic-
toriously defended his right, and they did not doubt that
gratitude would now lead him to take their side in their
differences with the Holy See. Independently of this, the
crown of France was much bound to the house of Este.
During the civil war, that family had advanced above a
million of scudi to the royal house ; this sum, which was

* Delfino relates how much was feared olFesa tale al cattolico e a Spagnuoli che

from him at Rome : " Vi e un pensiero non siano per scordarsela mai, e pare a

radicato a buon fundamento che la bene- S. S* esserne molto ben chiarita in questa

dizione data al re di Franza sia stata occasione di Ferrara." (App. No. 70.)

N N 2

548 CONQUEST OF FERRÄRA. [Book VI.

not yet repaid, would now have sufficed to recruit an army
to which no pope could have offered effectual resistance.

These, however, were not the considerations which
determined Henry IV. Spite of his conversion to Catholi-
cism, he w^ould always be compelled to do many things
which could not be otherwise than displeasing to the court
of Rome ; in the affair of Ferrara he beheld only an
opportunity of procuring oblivion for these things, and of
raising the lilies (as his statesmen expressed it) once more
at the court of Rome. Without the least hesitation or
wavering, he offered the succour of France to the Holy
Father. He was not only ready, he said, as soon as the
pope desired, to send an army across the Alps, but also in
case of necessity to come in person with all his forces to
his assistance.

It was this declaration which decided the affair. The
court of Rome, already conscious of all the difficulties in
which the coldness of its neighbours and the open resist-
ance of Ferrara might place it, now drew breath. " I
cannot express," writes Ossat to the king, " what cordiality,
praises, and blessings have been bestowed upon your
majesty in return for your offer." He promises his royal
master, that if his performance keep pace with his profes-
sions, he will stand in the same relation to the church as
Pepin or Charlemagne.

The pope, on his side, now made immediate preparations
for the formal excommunication of his adversary.

The princes were surprised and alarmed ; they talked
of black ingratitude ; they lost courage to support Ferrara,
which otherwise they would unquestionably have done,
openly or covertly, with all their might.

The influence of these circumstances was immediately
felt by Ferrara. Alfonso's harsh sway had necessarily
created much discontent. Cesare was new to government,
without the requisite talents, and entirely without expe-
rience. He had almost to make tlie acquaintance of his
privy- councillors at his first sittings as their prince ; ^'' and

* Niccol?) Contarini : "Cesare si ridusse era vissuto cosi volendo chi comandava,
in camera co' suoi soli consiglieri, de' non conosceva sc non di faccia, et egli
(juali niolti, per la ritiratezza nella quale non sufficiente di prender risolutione da

VIII.] CONQUEST OF FERRARA. 549

as he had despatched to different courts his old friends who
knew him, and on whom he could rely, he had no one
about him in whom he had any real confidence, or with
whom he could have any frank interchange of opinions.
It was impossible for him to avoid false steps. From the
very first, every one around him seemed infected by that
feeling of insecurity which is usually the forerunner of ruin.
The great and powerful already began to calculate what
advantage might possibly result to them from a change ;
they tried to make a secret treaty with the pope, and des-
patched Antonio Montecatino as their delegate to Rome.
But the most terrible calamity was, that a division arose in
the house of Este itself Lucrezia had hated Cesare's
father ; she hated Cesare himself no less, and could not
endure to be his subject ; she herself, the sister of the late
duke, did not scruple to form an alliance with the pope
and cardinal Aldobrandino.

Meanwhile the pope had performed the act of excom-
munication. On the 22nd of December, 1597, he went in
procession to St. Peter's, and ascended the loggia of that
church with his immediate retinue. A cardinal read the
bull, in which Don Cesare d'Este was declared an enemy
to the church of Rome, guilty of high treason, fallen under
the heaviest censure, and under sentence of anathema ; his
subjects were absolved from their oath of allegiance ; the
ofiicers of his government were warned to quit his service.
After the bull was read, the pope with a wrathful counte-
nance threw down a large burning taper on the ground.
Trumpets and drums sounded, cannons were fired, and the
noise of both was drowned in the cries of the populace.

Circumstances were of such a nature, that this excom-
fmunication could not fail to produce its full effect. An
[inhabitant of Ferrara itself brought a copy of the bull,
'sewed up in his clothes, into the city, and delivered it to

se, vacillava nei concetti perche quelli qui partie pour son peu de resolution,

ehe consigliavano erano pieni di passioni partie pour avoir des rentes et autres

particolari e per le speranze di Roma in biens en I'e'tat de I'eglise et esp^rer et

cui miravano infetti di grandi contamina- craindre plus du St. siege que de lui,

tioni." Ossat too, Lettres, i. 495, gives regardoient autant ou plus vers le pape

as the reason of his misfortunes, *' le que vers lui."
peu de fidelite de ses conseillers memes,

550 CONQUEST OF FERRARA. [Book VI.

the bishop.""' The next morning, 31st of December, 1597,
was fixed for the burial of a canon ; the church was hung
with black and the people assembled to hear the funeral
sermon. The bishop ascended the pulpit and began to
speak of death. " But far worse,^' exclaimed he sud-
denly, "than the death of the body, is the destruction
of the soul, which now threatens us all." He paused, and
ordered the bull to be read, in which all who refused to
separate themselves from Don Cesare were menaced "to
be hewn off, as withered branches, from the tree of spiritual
life." Hereupon the bull was fixed upon the church door;
the church was filled with sighs and lamentations, and fear
fell upon the whole city.

Don Cesare was not the man to arrest the course of such
an agitation. He had been advised to enhst Swiss and
Germans in his service, but he had never been able to
resolve on such a step. Catholics he would not have,
because they were adherents of the pope ; and still less
protestants, because they were heretics ; "just as if it was
his business," said Niccolo Contarini, " to perform the ofiice
of an inquisitor." He now asked his confessor what he was
to do ; Benedetto Palma was a Jesuit ; he advised him to
submit.

Don Cesare f was in such a situation, that in order to
make this submission under favourable conditions, he was
compelled to have recourse to her whom he knew to be his
worst enemy ; he was compelled to make use of the secret,
and in a certain sense treasonable, connexion which Lucrezia
had formed ^vith Rome, to secure a tolerable retreat for

* A certain Coralta. " Ributtato al fidenza dell' amico, andö (Cesare) a ritro-

primo ingresso da' soldati se escusö che vare la duchessa d' Urbino, et a lei, la

lui ivi dimorava ne era ancora partito qual ben siipeva haver pur troppo intelli-

per Bologna," (whence however he was genza col C' Aldobrandino, rimise ogni

just arrived : he had dismounted from sua fortuna. Accett6 ella allegramente

his horse at some distance from the I'impresa ridotta dove al principio haveva

gate,) " e ragionando si pose fra lore a desiderato Con raolta comitiva quasi

sedere, finalmente assicurato si licentio trionfante, acconipagnata dal marchese

della guardia, entrö nella citta, presento Bentivoglio, capo delle militie del duca,

al vescovo la scommunica con la lettera faceva il suo viaggio." He describes Lu-

del arcivcscovo di Bologna." (Relatione crezia as " di pensiei'i torbidi : beuche

di quello che, etc.) simulasse altrimente, era non di mono di

+ Contarini : " Come chi abandona lungo tempo acerrima nemica di Don

ogni spcranza, piii facilmente si rimette Cesare."
ni'll' arbitrio dell' inimico che nella con-

§ VIIL] CONQUEST OF FERRARA. 551

himself. At his request she repaired, with her accus-
tomed magnificence, to the enemy's camp.

Cesare's adherents always maintained that she might
have made better terms for him ; but allured by the pro-
mise of possession for life of Bertinoro, with the title of
duchess, and personally captivated by the young and
witty cardinal, she conceded everything that was desired
of her. On the 12th of January, 1598, the agreement
was drawn up, in virtue of which Cesare was to make a
formal renunciation of Ferrara, Comacchio, and his part of
Romagna, and in return to be freed from the anathema of
the church. He had flattered himself that he should save
at least something, and this total loss of his possessions
appeared very hard to him ; he once more summoned the
chief magistrates of the city, the Giudice de' Savj, and cer-
tain doctors and nobles, to council. They gave him no
comfort ; every man was already thinking only how to
place himself on a good footing with the new power which
was expected ; already they vied with each other in
eagerness to pull down the arms of the Este and to drive
out their officers. Nothing remained for the duke, but to
sign his abdication and to quit the inheritance of his
fathers.

Thus did the house of Este lose Ferrara. Archives,
museum, library, and a part of the artillery which Alfonso I.
had cast with his own hands, were taken to Modena ; all
the rest were dispersed or destroyed. Alfonso's widow
carried away her property, which filled fifty waggons ; his
sister, married in France, took upon herself the claims of
her house to the crown of that kingdom. But the most
unlooked-for conduct was that of Lucrezia. Precisely a
month after she had concluded the above-mentioned treaty,
on the 12th of February, she died. When her will was
opened, it was found that she had made cardinal Aldobran-
dino, the very man who had driven her family from their
ancient seat, heir to all her property. She had even
bequeathed to him her own claims, which now remained to
be contested with Cesare himself. It was as if she had
wished to bequeath to her ancient foe an adversary who
might embitter the whole of his remaining life. There is

552 CONQUEST OF FERRARA. [Book VI.

something demoniacal in the satisfaction and pleasure which
this woman seems to have felt in leading on her own house
to destruction.

In this manner did the papal supersede the ducal sway.
On the 8th of May the pope entered Ferrara in person.
He wished immediately to enjoy the sight of his new
acquisition, and to bind it to the church by suitable
institutions.

He began his work with gentleness and mercy. A
certain number of the principal men of Ferrara were
invested with ecclesiastical dignities.''* Cardinals' hats,
bishoprics, and auditorships were distributed ; among those
thus distinguished was the young Bentivoglio, the historian,
the privy chamberlain of the pope. The duke's power had
rested on the possession of municipal privileges ; the pope
resolved to restore to the citizens their ancient rights.
He formed a council out of the three classes, in w^hich the
higher nobility possessed twenty-seven, the inferior nobility
and the better sort of citizens fifty-five, and the trades
eighteen seats. Their rights were carefully distinguished ;
those of the first class were the most considerable, but on
the other hand, their nomination depended cliiefly on the
pope. To this council the pope committed the superin-
tendence of the provisions, the regulation of the rivers, the
nomination of the judges and podestas, and even the filling
the chairs in the university ; — all rights which the duke
had jealously retained in his own hands ; and, as may be
imagined, a new state of society was introduced by this
important change. Nor were the interests of the humbler
classes neglected ; many of the severe fiscal regulations
were abohshed.f

But affairs could not all be conducted in this temper,
nor was even the sway of the church all mildness. The
judicial duties of ecclesiastical officials very soon became
burdensome to the nobihty ; the first Giudice de' Savj,

* Contarlni : " Al Bevilacqua, che creato auditor di roto. Ad alti'i si dis-
era di molto poterc, fu dato il patriarcato pensarono abbatio."
latino di Constantiuopoli. 1\ Saciato fu + Frizzi, Memorie, v. p. 25.

§ VIII.] CONQUEST OF FERRARA. 553

Montecatino, of whom mention has already been made, was
intensely disgusted at the manner in which the rights of
his office were limited, and sent in his resignation. It
excited universal discontent that pope Clement deemed it
necessary to secure his conquest by the erection of a for-
tress. The representations which the inhabitants made
against this project, however urgent and humble, were
vain ; and one of the most populous parts of the city was
selected for the citadel.'"' Whole streets were pulled down;
churches, oratories, hospitals, the banqueting houses of the
duke and of his court, the beautiful Belvedere, celebrated
by so many poets, — all were levelled to the ground.

It was perhaps imagined that the memory of the ducal
house would be thoroughly obhterated by the destruction
of these buildings ; on the contrary, more effectual means
could not have been taken to revive it : the almost quenched
attachment to the hereditary sovereign race was rekindled.
All those who had belonged to the court removed to
Modena ; and Ferrara, already rather gloomy, became
more and more deserted.

But all who were desirous of following the court were
not permitted to do so. There is extant a MS. chronicle
by an old servant of the ducal house, in which he dwells
with delight on the court of Alfonso, its amusements, its
concerts, and sermons. " But now," says he at the con-
clusion, "all these things are over. There is now no longer
a duke in Ferrara ; there are no longer princesses — no
concerts, or concert-givers : so passes this world^s glory.
For others the world may be made pleasant by changes ;
but not for me, for I remain alone, old, decrepid, and poor.
Nevertheless, God be praised.^f

* Dispaccio Delfino, 7 Giugno, 1598. le entrate vecchie della community — do-

** Si pensa dal papa di far una citadella lendosi di esser ingannati."
della parte verso Bologna, per la poca + Cronica di Ferrara : " Sic transit

sodisfattione che ha la nolailta per non gloria mundi. E per tale variare natura

esser rispettata dalli ministri della gius- e bella, ma non per me, che io son res-

titia e die non li siano per esser restituiti tato senza patrone, vecchio, privo di tutti

i denti e povero. Laude tur Deus."

554 DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. [Book VI-

§ 9. DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS.

It is obvious that the grand results which Clement
VIII. had attained in accordance with the pohcy of France,
necessarily bound him more and more closely to that
power. He now found the advantage of the moderation
he had observed in the affairs of the League ; he rejoiced
that he had opposed no obstacle to the development of
events in France, and had finally determined to grant the
king absolution. The court of Rome took the same
interest in the war which was waging on the fi^ontiers of
Flanders and of France, as if the cause had been its own ;
and that interest was entirely on the side of France. The
conquest of Calais and Amiens by the Spaniards excited
a displeasure at the court of Rome "which cannot be
described," says Ossat ; " an extreme melancholy, shame
and indignation."'"'' " The pope and his kinsmen feared,"
observes Delfino, " that the Spaniards might wreak upon
them the resentment they felt at the king^s absolution."
Fortunately Henry IV. quickly restored his damaged
reputation by the reconquest of Amiens.

Not that the court of Rome had begun to love
those with whom it had formerly been at enmity ; those
leaders of the clergy who had first taken part with Henry,
and had founded the opposition we have described, were
never forgiven ; and promotion was always bestowed by
preference on those adherents of the League who were the
last to relinquish their hostility to Henry ; i. e., who were
in precisely the same predicament as the curia itself. But
(as the opinions of men, however nearly they may approxi-
mate, yet betray varieties of character and inclination) a
cathohc party soon appeared, even among the adherents of

* Ossat a Villeroy, 14 Mai, 1596 ; 20 che cadeva piu la riputatione de' Fran-

Avril, 1597. i. 251. 458. Delfino : "Li cesi, i Spagnoli non avessero mostrato

pericoli di Marsiglia fecero stare il papa apertamente lo sdegiio che hanno a^tito

in gi'an timore e li nepoti : la perdita di della resolutione (absolutione ?) loro e la

Calcs e poi qiiella di Amiens apporto loro sua mala volonta : per qucsta causa

gran mcstitia c massime che si dubito principalmentc hanno avuto carissimo il

alloi'a per Ic voci che andavano attorno bene della Franza."
di peggio, teniendo quelli che ogni poco

§ IX.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. 555

the king, affecting extraordinary rigour, with a view to
maintain a good understanding with the court of Rome ;
to this party the pope chiefly attached himself, in the hope
of reconcihng all the differences which still existed between
the interests of Rome and of France ; but above all, it was
his wish and his endeavour to restore the Jesuits, who had
been driven out of that kingdom, and thus, in defiance of
the course which things had taken in France, to give
greater currency to Romish doctrines.

His designs were aided by a movement in the order
itself, which, though originating in its bosom, had a great
analogy with the general tendencies of the court of Rome,

So strangely involved are often the affairs of this world,
that at the moment in which the gravest charge brought
by the university of Paris against the Jesuits was their con-
nexion with Spain ; — in which it was a common saying
and behef in France, that every Jesuit put up daily prayers
for king Philip,''^ and was bound by a fifth vow to devote
himself to Spain ; — at that very moment the institute of
the Company of Jesus was violently attacked in Spain by
discontented members of its own body, by the inquisition,
by another monastic order, and lastly by the king himself

This turn of affairs was attributable to several causes,
the proximate one of which was as follows. In the early
years of the order, the elder and more accomplished men
who entered it were chiefly Spaniards ; those of other
nations were generally young men who had their education
still to go through. Hence it naturally followed that the
government of the company fell, during the first ten years,
almost entirely into the hands of Spaniards. The first
general congregation consisted of twenty-five members,
eighteen of whom were Spaniards, f The three first
generals belonged to the same nation. After the death
of the third, Borgia, in the year 1573, Polanco, also a
Spaniard, had the best prospect of succeeding him.

It became evident, however, that even in Spain itself,

* " pro nostro rege Philippo." a very slight degree, as out of thirty-
f Sacchinus, v. 7. 99. In the second nine members twenty-four were Spa-
general congregation the proportion niards.
already began to be equalized, though in

556 DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. [Book VI.

his elevation would not be regarded with satisfaction. The
company contained many recent converts from Judaism,
to which class Polanco himself belonged, and it was not
thought desirable that the supreme authority in so power-
ful and so monarchically-constituted a body should fall
into such hands.'" Pope Gregory XIII., who had received
an intimation to this effect, thought a change expedient on
other grounds. A deputation of the congregation assem-
bled to elect a general being presented to him, he asked
how many votes each nation had ; when it appeared that
Spain had more than all the others put together. He
inquired further, out of which nation the generals of the
order had hitherto been chosen. He was told that there
had been three, all Spaniards. '* It is fair,^^ replied Gre-
gory, " that for once you should choose one from among
the other nations." He even proposed a candidate.

The Jesuits for a moment resisted a measure which
violated their privileges, but at length they elected the
nominee of the pope, Eberhard Mercurianus.

This election immediately caused a considerable change.
Mercurianus, a feeble and irresolute man, left the direction
of affairs at first to a Spaniard and afterwards to a
Frenchman, his salaried and official admonitor : factions
arose ; the one expelled the other from important offices,
and the dominant sometimes experienced resistance from
the subordinate.

A far more important circumstance however was, that
at the next vacancy, in the year 1581, Claudio Aquaviva,
of a Neapolitan family, formerly attached to the French
party, — an energetic man only thirty-eight years of age, —
was raised to the dignity of general.

The Spaniards were at one time persuaded that their
nation, by which the society was founded, and to which it
owed its character and direction, was for ever excluded
from the generalship ; they became discontented and diso-
bedient, f and conceived the project of rendering themselves

* Saccliinus, Historia Societatis Jesu, odium." On the historians of the order

pars iv. ; sivc Evcrardus, lib. i, : "Ho- of Jesus, see A pp No. 9li.

rum orij;o niotuum (hi]>lc.v fuit, studia f Mariana, Diseurso de las Enfermc-

nationum ct ueophytorum in Hispania dades de la Compaiiia, e. xii. " La

§ IX.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. 557

more independent of Rome, either by the appointment of
a commissary-general for the Spanish provinces, or by
some other expedient. On the other hand, Aquaviva was
not disposed to abate a single jot of the authority with
which the letter of the constitution of the order invested
him. In order to hold the disaffected in check, he set
over them superiors on whose devotion to his person he
could rely ; young men who resembled himself in age and
modes of thinking ;'" and also members of inferior merit,
coadjutors, who did not enjoy all the privileges of the
order, who beheld in the general their common protector,
and were bound to him by national sympathies. f

The aged, learned, and experienced fathers found them-
selves excluded, not only from the supreme dignity, but
even from the provincial appointments. Aquaviva alleged
their own defects as the cause ; the one was choleric, the
other melancholic ; " naturally,'^ says Mariana, " eminent
men are wont to be afflicted with some defect.^ ^ But the
real reason was that he feared them, and wanted to have
more convenient tools for the execution of his commands.
Generally speaking, there is nothing which men endure
with so little patience as the privation of the right of taking
an active share in public affairs. Accordingly jealousies
and disputes arose in all the colleges. The new superiors
were received with silent animosity, and could carry no
important point ; they were happy if they could but escape
trouble and disorders. They had however power enough
to revenge themselves. They filled the subordinate posts
exclusively with their own personal adherents, who were

nacion espanola esta persuadida queda printed in the Tuba magnum clangens

para sempre excluida del generalato. sonum ad dementem XI., p. 583.

Esta persuasion, sea verdadera sea falsa, ** Videmus cum magno detriment© reli-

no puede dexar de causar disgustos y gionis nostrae et scandalo niundi quod

disunion tanto mas que esta nacion generalis nulla habita ratione nee anti-

fundo la compaiiia, la honro, la ensenö quitatis nee laborum nee meritorum facit

y aun sustento largo tiempo con su quos vult superiores, et ut plurimum

substancia." juvenes et novicios, qui sine ullis meritis

* Mariana, c. xii. *^ Ponen en los et sine uUa experientia cum maxima

gobiernos homes mozos porque arrogantia prsesunt senioribus: .... et

son mas entremetidos saben lamer a sus denique generalis, quia homo est, habet

tiempos." etiam suos affectus particulares,

f Besides Mariana, the Reports to et quia est Neapolitanus, melioris condi-

Clement VIII. contain much that is tionis sunt Neapolitani."
important on this subject. They are

558 DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. [Book VI.

secured to them by the monarchical constitution of the
order, and the ambition of its members ; they sent the
more obstinate of the recalcitrants to a distance, and, espe-
cially when any important deliberation was pending, they
removed them to other provinces. Everything was thus
resolved into personal offences and retaliations. It was
not only the right, but the duty of every member to point
out whatever faults he remarked in another ; a rule which
in the infancy and innocence of a small society might have
some tendency to preserve good morals, but in the present
state of the order grew into the most odious tale-bearing ;
it became an instrument of concealed ambition, of hate
clothed in the garb of fi^endship : were any one to explore
the archives of Rome, exclaims Mariana, " he would pro-
bably not find one single honest man, — at least among us
who are at a distance ; ^' an universal distrust reigned
among them ; there was not one who would have opened
himself unreservedly, even to his own brother.

The evil was increased by Aquaviva^s inflexible determi-
nation not to leave Rome, nor to visit the provinces, as
Lainez and Borgia had done. The excuse made for this
was that it was an advantage to have things stated in
writing, in unbroken series, and without the interruptions
caused by the accidents of travelling. But the immediate
consequence at all events was, that the provincials, in whose
hands the whole correspondence rested, thus acquired a
greater degree of independence. It was useless to make
any complaints of them ; they could easily foresee the
representations likely to be made, and defeat their effects
beforehand, the more completely in consequence of the
favour with which Aquaviva regarded them. Virtually,
therefore, they held their places for life.

Under these circumstances, the old Jesuits in Spain per-
ceived that a state of things which they felt as a sort of
tyranny, was unsusceptible of any change from within the
pale of the society, and therefore determined to look around
for help from without.

They first addressed themselves to the spiritual authority
of their own country — to the inquisition. It is well known
that the inquisition had submitted many offences to the

§ IX.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. 559

judgment of the order. A discontented Jesuit, moved, as he
declared, by scruples of conscience, accused his order of
concealing and even pardoning offences thus referred to
them, provided they were committed by its own members.
The inquisition suddenly caused the provincial, who was
implicated in a case of this kind, together with one of his
most active associates, to be arrested.'"" This first step
having opened the way to other accusations, the inquisition
demanded that the statutes of the order should be laid
before it, and proceeded to authorise new arrests. The
excitement throughout Spain — the country of orthodox
faith — was the more intense from the mystery which enve-
loped its cause ; and from the general behef that the
Jesuits were arrested on account of some heresy.

The inquisition, however, had no power to make any
changes in the constitution of the order ; it could only
decree the punishment of individual members. Affairs
having gone this length, the malcontents addressed them-
selves to the king, whom they assailed with long and
detailed representations of the defects in their constitution.
Philip II. had never liked it ; he used to say that he could
see through all the other orders ; that of the Jesuits was
the only one he could not understand ; he seemed to be
particularly struck with what was told him of the abuse of
absolute power, and the mischiefs of secret accusations : in
the midst of that mighty European struggle in which he
was involved, he found time and thought to devote to this
affair, and immediately commissioned Manrique, bishop of
Carthagena, to subject the order to a visitation, especially
with reference to these two points.

This was an attack affecting, as we perceive, the cha-
racter of the institution and of its chief, the more sensibly,
because it originated in that very country where the society
had sprung up and had first taken root.

Aquaviva betrayed no alarm. He was a man who con-
cealed, beneath great external mildness and amenity of

* Sacchinus, pars v. lib. vi. n. 85. tentata puellae per sacras confessiones

" Quidam e confessariis seu vere seu pudicitia, quod crimen in Hispania sa-

falso delatus ad provincialem turn Cas- crorum qusesitorum judicio reserva-

tellse, Antonium Marcenium, erat de batur."

560 DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. [Book VI.

manners, a profound inflexibility ; a character like that of
Clement VIII. (in that age not an uncommon one), distin-
guished for liberateness, moderation, prudence, and tacitur-
nity. He never ventured to pronounce a positive judgment ;
nor would he even suffer one to be pronounced in his pre-
sence, — least of all concerning an entire nation ; his secre-
taries were expressly admonished to avoid every offensive
or bitter word. He loved piety even in outward appear-
ance ; his deportment at the altar was expressive of the
most serene but intense enjoyment of the service ; 3^et he
kept aloof from everything approaching to mystical fana-
ticism. He would not suffer an exposition of Solomon's
Song to be printed, because the expressions appeared to
him to fluctuate on the confines of spiritual and sensual
love. Even when he censured, he subdued and captivated ;
he showed all the superiority of calmness ; he led the
erring into the right way by reason and argument, and
inspired the young with enthusiastic affection. " One must
love him,'' writes Maximihan of Bavaria to his father from
Rome, " if one only looks at him." These quahties, and
his unwearied activity, together mth his high birth, and
the ever-increasing importance of his order, procured for
him an exalted station in Rome. If his adversaries suc-
ceeded in gaining over the national authorities of Spain, yet
he had the court of Rome on his side ; he had been familiar
with that court from his youth upwards (being chamberlain
when he entered the order), and knew how to manage it
with masterly skill, the result of native talents, strengthened
and refined by practice.""'

It was peculiarly easy to excite in a man of the character
of Sixtus, antipathies against the measures now pursued by
the Spaniards. Pope Sixtus cherished, as we know, the
idea of rendering Rome yet more eminently the metropolis
of Christendom than it already was ; Aquaviva represented
to him that the true and sole object of Spain was to make
herself more independent of Rome. Pope Sixtus hated
nothing so much as illegitimate birth ; and Aquaviva inti-

* Sacchinus, and particularly Juvcn- tonius posterior, xi. 21, and xxv. 33
cius. Hist. Soc. Jesu, partis quinta?, — 41.

§ IX.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. 561

mated to him that bishop Manrique, who had been selected
to fill the office of visitor, was a bastard. This was reason
sufficient for the pope to retract the assent he had already
given to the visitation. He also evoked the proceedings
against the provincial to Rome. Under Gregory XIV. the
general succeeded in obtaining a formal confirmation of the
institutes of the order.

But the company of Jesus had to contend with artfal
and obstinate enemies, who saw that the general must be
attacked in the very court of Rome. They took advantage
of the momentary absence of Aquaviva, who was commis-
sioned to arrange a difference between Mantua and Parma,
to gain over Clement VIII. In the summer of 1592,
Clement, at the suggestion of the Spanish Jesuits and of
Philip II., and without the knowledge of Aquaviva, ordered
a general congregation to be held.

Astonished and dismayed, Aquaviva hastened back.
General congregations were as inconvenient to the chiefs
of the Jesuits as ecumenical councils to the popes. If all
his predecessors had sought to evade them, how much more
reason had Aquaviva, who was the object of such universal
and active hatred ! But he quickly perceived that the
arrangements were irrevocable ;''' he therefore assumed an
air of composure and said, " We are dutiful sons ; the will
of the holy father be done." He then hastened to take his
measures.

He managed to acquire a great influence in the elections,
and had the good fortune to see several of his most formid-
able antagonists, for example Mariana, rejected even in
Spain.

As soon as the congregation was assembled, he did not

* In a Consulta del Padre CI. Aqua- many other causes which rendered a

viva coi suoi Padri assistenti, MS. Bibl. congregation necessary, this also was

Corsini,n. 1055, which relates the details alleged : " Perch e molti soggetti di

of their internal discord very faithfully valore, che per non esser conosciuti piU

on the whole and in conformity with che tanto da generali non hanno mai

Mariana, Aquaviva is reported to have parte alcuna nel governo, venendo a

given the following accoimt of a conver- Roma in occasione delle congregation!

sation he had with the pope : " S. S** sarebbero meglio conosciuti e per conse-

disse che io non aveva sufficiente notizia guenza verrebbero piu facilmente in

de' soggetti della religione, che io veniva parte del medesimo governo, senza che

mgannato da falsi delatori, che io mi questo fosse quasi sempre ristretto a

dimostrava troppo credulo." Amongst pochi."

VOL. I. 0 0

562 DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. [Book VI.

wait to be attacked. At the very first sitting, he declared
that he had had the misfortune to displease some of his
brethren, and therefore prayed that an inquiry into his
conduct might take precedence of all other business. A
commission was appointed ; charges were formally pre-
ferred, but it was highly improbable that the violation of
any positive law could be proved against him ; he was far
too prudent to fall into such an error. The result was his
complete and honourable acquittal. Thus personally secure,
he proceeded, in concert ^vith the meeting, to the examina-
tion of the proposals for the reform of the institute.

Of these king Philip had insisted on some, and recom-
mended others to the deliberation of the assembly. His
demands were two : the renunciation of certain papal pri-
vileges, e. g. the reading forbidden books, and the granting
absolution for heresy ; and a law in virtue of which every
novice, on entering the order, should give up whatever
inheritance he might possess, and even all his benefices.
These were points on which the company interfered with
the inquisition and the civil government. After some
demur these demands were, mainly through Aquaviva's
own influence, complied ^dth.

Far more weighty, however, were the points which the
king had recommended for dehberation ; above all, the
questions, whether the power of the superiors should not
be limited to a certain period '? and whether the general
congregation should not assemble at stated times 1 The
very nature of the institute, the absolute supremacy of its
head, were thus brought into question. On these points
Aquaviva was not inclined to give way, and after warm
debates the congregation rejected the king's proposition.
But the pope too Avas persuaded of their necessity. What
was refiiscd to the king was now commanded by the pope ;
in virtue of his apostolic omnipotence, he positively ordained
that the superiors and the rectors should be changed every
third year, and that the general congregation should meet
every sixth. "^^^

• Juvencius, in his first book, which notices, upon which the accoimt in the
ho calls the eleventh, " Socictas domes- text is founded,
ticia motibus agitata," gives detailed

§ IX.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. 563

It is true, however, that the execution of these ordinances
had not all the effect which had been hoped from them.
The congregations could be gained over ; the rectors were
indeed changed, but they were selected out of a narrow
circle, so that the same men very soon returned to office.
But it was at all events a considerable blow to the society,
that it had been driven, by internal revolt and external
influence, to an alteration of its statutes.

Another storm, too, soon arose in the same quarter.

The Jesuits had originally adhered to the doctrines of
the Thomists, which at that time generally prevailed in
the schools. Ignatius had expressly recommended his
scholars to espouse the system of the angelic doctor.

They however soon thought they perceived that this
doctrine would not enable them to attain their end with
regard to the protestants. They likewise desired to be as
independent in doctrine as in life ; and it was galling to
them to follow in the rear of the dominicans, to whose
order St. Thomas had belonged, and who were regarded
as the natural expositors of his doctrines. They had already
given so many proofs of these feehngs, that the inquisition
had even animadverted on the free opinions of the father
Jesuits,"^' when Aqua viva openly proclaimed those opinions
in his Rule of Studies for the year 1584. He gave it as
his opinion, that St. Thomas was indeed an author eminently
worthy of approbation, but that it would be an intolerable
yoke to follow implicitly in his footsteps, and to be debarred
from all freedom of thought ; that many old doctrines had
been more firmly established by modern theologians, and
many new arguments adduced, which were of admirable
service in combating the errors of heretics ; and that in
all such it would be lawM and expedient to follow these
doctors.

This sufficed to excite a violent agitation in Spain, where
the theological chairs were mostly filled by dominicans.
The Rule of Studies was pronounced to be the most auda-
cious, arrogant, dangerous book of its kind ; both the king
and the pope were attacked for permitting it.f

* Lainez himself was suspected by the f Pegna, in Serry, Hlstoria Congrega-
Spanish inquisition, Llorente, iii. 83. tionum de auxiliis divinae gratise, p. 8 :

00 2

564 DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. [Book VI.

But this excitement was greatly increased by the pub-
hcation of a positive attack on the Thomist system, in one
of the most important expository works of the Jesuits.

Throughout the whole range of theology, catholic as well
as Protestant, the questions concerning grace and good
works, free-will and predestination, continued to be the
most important and the most pregnant with consequences ;
they still occupied the talents, the erudition, and the specu-
lative acuteness of clergy and of la^mien. On the protestant
side, Calvin's severe doctrine of the particular decree of
God, by which " some were predestined to eternal blessed-
ness and others to eternal damnation," found the greatest
acceptance. The lutherans, with their milder system, were
at a disadvantage, and lost partisans in various quarters.
On the catholic side, the progress of opinion was in the
opposite direction. Wherever any leaning even to the most
moderate protestant notions, or to a rigid and calvinistic
construction of the expositions of St. Augustine, betrayed
itself, (as in the case of Bajus at Louvain,) it was attacked
and crushed.

The Jesuits showed peculiar zeal in this warfare. They
defended the scheme of faith expounded at the council of
Trent (which indeed would not have been adopted but for
the influence of their brethren Lainez and Salmeron)
against every deviation verging towards the rejected and
abandoned system. Yet even that scheme did not always
satisfy their polemical ardour. In the year 1588, Luis
Molina of Evora pubhshed a book in which he examined
these disputed points afresh, and sought to give a new
explanation of the difficulties which remained unsolved. ■^^*
The chief scope of his work was to vindicate a yet wider
sphere for the free will of man than that claimed by the
thomist or the tri dentine hypothesis. According to the
latter, the work of sanctification was mainly founded on the
inherent righteousness of Christ ; which being infused into

" Y dado a ccnsurar, fue dicho por pratica lo que oontenia, causai'ia infi-

aquellos censores [Mariana and Serry nitos danos y albovotos en la republica

epeak of the inquisition] que aquel libro Christiana."

era el mas peligroso, tonierario y arro- * " Liberi arbitrii cum gratise donis

i;ante que jamas havia salido in seme- concordia." In all these controversies

jante materia, y que si se metia en it has always been thought necessary to

§ IX.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. 565

US, engendered love, led to all virtues and good works, and
at length produced justification. Molina goes much fur-
ther. His doctrine is, that the free will can, without the
help of grace, bring forth morally good works ; that it has
the power to resist temptation, and to raise itself to acts
of hope, faith, love and repentance.*'' When man has
attained to this point, God then, for the sake of the merits
of Christ, grants him grace, f through which he experiences
the supernatural operations of sanctification; but the recep-
tion of this grace, or its increase, in no way affects the
activity or freedom of the will. On this, he maintains, all
depends ; it rests with ourselves to render the help of God
effectual or ineffectual. Justification is founded on the
joint operation of the will and of grace, which combine
like two men towing a boat. It is manifest that this
scheme is incompatible with the idea of predestination as
enounced by Augustine or Thomas Aquinas ; this Molina
rejects as too stern and cruel, nor will he admit of any
other predestination than that which is involved in the
pure idea of foreknowledge. God, he asserts, from his
omniscient view of all nature, knows beforehand the will of
every man ; what each will do in a given case, although he
was free to do the direct contrary : an event does not
happen because God foreknew it, but God foresaw it
because it would happen.

Molina's doctrine was certainly in direct opposition to
that of Calvin, and was likewise the first which attempted
to rationalise, if we may use the expression, this great
mystery. It is intelligible, acute, and superficial, and
therefore could not fail to have considerable success ; it
may be compared with the doctrine of the sovereignty of

distinguish with care the different edi- natural and divine law are identified

tionsof Lisbon, 1588, Antwerp, 1595, and by Bellarmine; God being the author

Venice, as they all vary. of nature

* The "eoncursus generalis Dei" is f This grace he also explains very

always presupposed ; but by that is naturally, Disput. 54 : " Dum homo

meant only the natural state of the free expendit res credendas per

will, which without God cannot be what notitias concionatoris aut aliunde com-

it is : " Deus semper preesto est per paratas, influit Deus in easdem notitias

concursum generalem libero arbitrio, influxu quodam particulari quo cogaition-»

ut naturaliter velit aut nolit prout em illam adjuvat."
placuerit." It is nearly thus, that

566 DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. [Book VI.

the people, which the Jesuits promulgated about the same
time. *""

By the promulgation of such opinions, they however
inevitably provoked opposition, were it only that they
departed from the system of the angelic doctor, whose
Summa still formed the most esteemed elementary book of
catholic theologians. Henriquez, Mariana, and certain
other members of the order itself, openly expressed their
censure. The dominicans, however, engaged with far
greater fervour in the defence of their patriarch, and
attacked Mohna in their sermons, lectures, and writings.
At length on the 4th of March, 1594, a public disputation
was held between the two parties in Valladolid. The
dominicans, who thought themselves exclusively orthodox,
were extremely violent. " Are then," exclaimed a Jesuit,
*' the keys of wisdom in your hands'?" The dominicans
regarded this as an attack upon St. Thomas himself, and
broke out into loud cries.

From that time a complete division arose between the
two orders. The dominicans would have nothing more to
do with the Jesuits, a large majority of whom, if not all,
took part with Molina. Aquaviva himself and his assist-
ants were of the number.

But here again the inquisition interposed. The grand
inquisitor (that Geronimo Manrique who had been appointed
visitor of the order) seemed inclined to condemn MoHna ;
he caused him to be admonished that his book would not
only be prohibited, but condemned to the flames. He
refused to receive Molina^s charges against the dominicans.

This controversy threw the whole catholic world into
agitation, both on account of the doctrines, and of their

* This rationalist tendency appears propositions of Molina are to be found

elsewhere, c. g. in the propositions of already in these essays, at least in part ;

the Jesuits Less and Hamel in 1585, at attention is likewise di*awn to the com-

Louvaine : " Propositiones in Lessio et plete ditference between them and the

llamelio a theologis Lovaniensibus no- protestant opniion : " Hscc sententia

tat£ß : ut quid sit scriptiu'a sacra, non quam longissime a sententia

est necessarium singula ejus vei'ba inspi- Lutheri et Calvini et reliquorum haere-

rata esse a spiritu sancto." From words ticorum hujus temporis reccdit, a quo-

they proceed forthwith to truths : " Non rum sententia et ai'gumentis difficile est

est necessarium ut siugula) vcritates et alteram sententiam [the augustine and

sententiic sint innnediatc a spiritu sancto thouiistj viudittu'c."
ipai bcriptori inspirattc." The main

§ IX.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. 567

champions, and greatly strengthened that active hostihty
to the institute of the Jesuits which had arisen in Spain.

Hence arose the strange anomaly, that, whilst the Jesuits
were driven out of France on account of their leaning to
Spain, the most formidable attack upon them originated in
Spain itself In both countries political and religious inte-
rests were actively at work. The political movement was
in both, in effect, the same, — namely, a national opposition
to the privileges and franchises of this order ; but in France
it was more fierce and violent, in Spain, more directed
against its pecuhar institutions and abuses. As far as doc-
trine was concerned, it was the novelty of their opinions
which had brought hatred and persecution on the Jesuits ;
their doctrines of the sovereignty of the people and the
lawfulness of assassinating kings were ruinous to them in
France ; that of free will in Spain.

This was a moment in the history of the company, which
was of the utmost importance in determining its future
destiny.

Aquaviva sought aid against the assaults of the national
authorities, the parliament and the inquisition of the head
of the church, — the sovereign pontiff.

He availed himself of the favourable moment when the
grand inquisitor had just died and his place was not yet
filled, to induce the pope to evoke the decision of the
disputed points of faith to Rome. Much was gained even
by a momentary procrastination of the decision, for Rome
abounded with various sorts of influences which might be
turned to account at any critical moment. On the 9th of
October, 1596, the acts relating to the proceedings were
forwarded to Rome, where the most learned theologians on
either side met to fight out their battle under the eyes of
the pope.'"'

On the French question Clement took part with the
Jesuits. He deemed it unjustifiable on account of the

* Pegna, " Rotae Romanse decanus mado el inquisitor general, luego lo aviso

istarum reruni testis locupletissimus," a Roma, donde por obra y negociaeion

as he is called by Serry. " Cerniendo de su general su saiitidad avoco a se

(Molina) lo que verisimilmente podia esta causa, ordinando a la inquisieion

suceder de que su libro fuesc prohibido general que no la concluyesse ni diesse

y quemado, porque assi se lo avia aso- sententia."

568 DISSEiNSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. [Book VI.

delinquency of one man who might have deserved punish-
ment, to condemn an entire order ; the order too which
had contributed the most to the restoration of cathohcism
— which had been so firm a prop of the church. Did not
the Jesuits suffer for their devoted attachment to the papal
see '? for the eagerness with which they had combated in
defence of the claims of Rome against the mightiest powers
of the earth ? It was of the last importance to the pope
to put an end to the opposition which France still main-
tained against him. The more intimate the alliance which
he could form with Henry IV., and the more consonant
their respective systems of policy, the more weight would
his representations have : every successive communication
from Henry was conceived in a more conciliatory and
yielding spirit.'"'

The pope's measures in favour of the Jesuits were vastly
facilitated by their chscreet and considerate conduct.

They were careful not to betray any irritation or aversion
against the king of France, nor were they inclined to rush
into any further danger in behalf of the lost cause of the
League ; as soon as they perceived the turn which the
pope's policy had taken, they adopted a similar one.
Father Commolet, who, even after the conversion of Henry
IV., had exclaimed from the pulpit that it was needful
that some Ehud should arise against him, and who had
been compelled to flee before the \dctorious monarch,
changed his opinion on his arrival at Rome. Even he
declared in favour of the king's absolution. Amongst all
the cardinals, there was none who, by prudent concessions,
conciliatory measures, and personal influence with the
pope, contributed so much to obtain this absolution as
the Jesuit Toledo. f Such was the conduct of the mem-
bers of the company of Jesus while the parliament was
still passing new edicts against them ; edicts of which

* The Jesuits wished to deny that made a declaration in their favour. (Le

their affairs had become connected with Roi au Card' Ossat, 20 Janv. 1601.)

politics ; but it appears from Bentivo- + Du Perron ä Villeroy, Ambassades,

glio, Memorie, ii. C, p. 3!)o, how carefully i. 23 : *' Seulement vous diray-je que M"^

cardinal Aldobrandinq kept in view le C Tolet a fait des miracles, ct s'cst

their interest durin^j; the transactions at monstrc bon rrau(;ais."
J.yons 3 and the king at that very time

§ IX. J DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. 569

Aquaviva complained, but without suffering himself to be
hurried by them into violence or intemperate zeal. It had
been impossible to expel all the Jesuits ; those who remained
now declared for the king, and admonished the people to
love him and be faithful to him. Some were already
eagerly returning to fill the deserted places ; but Aquaviva
refused to sanction this, and desired them to await the
king's permission. Care was taken that both these circum-
stances should come to the king's ears, upon which he
was greatly delighted, and expressed his gratitude to the
general in autograph letters. The Jesuits did not neglect
to confirm him in these favourable dispositions. Father
Rocheome, who was called the French Cicero, composed a
popular apology for the order, the arguments in which were
particularly convincing to the king.'"

These combined efforts of the pope and the order
received additional strength from the political views of
Henry himself He saw, as he says in one of his
despatches, that by persecuting a society which numbered
in its .ranks so many men of talent and learning, — which
had so much power and so large a following, — he would
create irreconcileable enemies and give occasion to conspi-
racies amongst the still numerous class of zealous catholics.
He saw that he could not drive the Jesuits out of those
places in which they still maintained their ground ; while,
by attempting to do so, he would have run the risk of
exciting popular commotions. f Besides this, Henry had
[made such large concessions to the huguenots by the edict
)f Nantes, that he owed some fresh guarantee to the
jathohcs. Murmurs were already heard in Rome, and
the pope sometimes hinted that he feared he had been
Pdeceived.;]: At length, however, the king stood on so com-
manding a height that he could take a more comprehensive
view of the situation of things than his parliament, and
had no need to fear the connection of the Jesuits with
Spain. Father Lorenzo Maggie hastened, in the name of

* Gretser has translated them into + Dispaceio del re d' 15 Agosto, 1603,

Latin for the benefit of those not under- al re Jacopo d' Inghilterra ; abridged in

standing French. Gretseri Opera, torn. Siri, Memorie recondite, i. p. 247.

xi. p. 280. J Ossat a Villeroy, i. 503.

570 DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. [Book VI.

the general, to France, to assure the king with the most
solemn oaths of the fidelity of the society. " If anything
happens to prove the contrary,^' said he, " let me and my
brethren be accounted the blackest traitors."*"' The king
thought it more prudent to put their friendship than their
enmity to the trial. He perceived that he might make
them subserve his own interests against Spain, f

Influenced by so many motives of external policy and
internal necessity, the king declared himself, during the
negotiations at Lyons in the year 1600, ready to admit
the order into his dominions. He chose the Jesuit Cotton
for his own confessor ; and after various other indications
of favour had prepared the public mind for what was to
follow, he published, in September, 1603, the edict by
which the order of Jesuits was re-established in France.
They were subjected to certain conditions ; the most
important of which was, that not only the superiors, but
all the members of the society in France, must for the
future be Frenchmen. J Henry doubted not that he had
arranged everything in such a manner as to justify his
entire confidence.

He granted them his favour frankly and without reserva-
tion, and lent them his assistance in their own affairs, —
especially in their dispute with the dominicans.

Clement VIII. displayed a lively theological interest in
this controversy. Sixty-five meetings and thirty-seven
disputations on all the points which could possibly come
under discussion, were held in his presence ; he wrote a
good deal on the subject himself, and, as far as we can
judge, he inclined to the traditional scheme of faith, and
would have decided in favour of the dominicans. Bel-
larmine himself said, that he did not deny the pope's
inclination to declare himself against the Jesuits, but that

* Sully, lib. xvii, p. 307. favour of the Jesuits ; and in the His-

t " Riconobbe chiararaente d' esserne toria Jesuitica Basileae, by Ludovicua

per ritraiTe scrvigio e contentamcnto in Lucius, 1 627, lib. ii. c. ii., everything

varic occorrenze a pr6 proprio e de' suoi that was said in their disparagement,

amici contra gli Spagnoli stessi." (Dis- From neither do we learn the decisive

paccio, Siri.) causes which turned the scale m their

Z Edictuni Regium, in Juvcncius, p. favour ; they are however more nearly

V. lib. xii. n. ^J). In Juvcncius is to be indicated by thcii* apologist than by their

found everything siiid at that time in accuser.

§ IX.] DISSENSIONS AMONG THE JESUITS. 571

nevertheless he knew he would not act upon it. It would
have been too perilous, at a time when the Jesuits were the
most eminent apostles of the faith throughout the world,
to break with them on account of one article of that faith ;
indeed, they already talked of demanding a council : the
pope is said to have exclaimed, " They dare everything —
everything !"'"*

It would also have involved him in disagreements with
the French, who were their decided supporters. Henry IV.
was on their side ; either because their system of opinions
was more congenial to his mind — which is certainly pos-
sible, or because he wished to show peculiar approbation to
that order which made war upon protestantism, that so he
might place his orthodoxy beyond the reach of doubt.
Cardinal du Perron took part in the congregations, and
sustained the Jesuit party with dexterous zeal. He told
the pope that a protestant might subscribe the creed of the
dominicans ; and it is not impossible that these words made
some impression on Clement.

The great contest between France and Spain which
agitated the world wag likewise blended with these dis-
sensions. The dominicans received as cordial support from
the Spaniards as the Jesuits from the French. f

Hence it happened that Clement eventually came to no

• Serry, 271. Contarini also main- f Principal passage in du Perron,
tains that they had indulged in threats : Ambassades et Negotiations, liv. iii. torn.
" Portata la disputatione a Roma venti- ii. p. 839. Lettre du 23 Janv. 1606 :
lata tra theologi, il papa e la maggior '' Les Espagnols font profession ouverte-
parte de' consultori inclinavano nell' ment de proteger les Jacobins [domiui-
opinione di Domenicani. Ma li Gesuiti, cans], en haine, comme je croy, de I'af-
vedendosi in pericolo di cader da quel fection que le pere general des Jesuites
credito per il quale pretendono d' haver et presque tons ceux de son ordre,
il primo luoco di dottrina nella chiesa excepte ceux qui dependent des peres
catolica, erano resoluti di mover ogni Mendozze et Personius comme particu-
machina per non ricever il colpo." The lierement les Jesuites Anglois, ont mon-
doctrine which, according to Contarini, stre de porter ä vostre majeste : et sem-
they threaten is, that the pope was un- ble que d'une dispute de religion ils en
doubtedly infallible, but that it was no veuiUent faire une querelle d'estat."
article of their faith to acknowledge one Tliis shows that, a small fraction ex-
man or another for the true pope. " La pected, the Jesuits were held to incline
potenza di questi e 1' autorita di chi si to the French party. In Serry, p. 440,
proteggeva era tanta che ogni cosa era we find, that the dominicans were at
dissimulata e si mostrava di non sentirlo that time excluded from the French
e sopra diffinire della coutroversia si court : " Prsedicatores tum temporis in
andava temporeggiando per non tii*arsi Gallia minus accepti et a publicis curise
adosso carica maggiore." munei'ibus nuper amoti."

572 POLITICAL SITUATION OF CLEMENT VIII. [Book VI.

decision. To offend either of these influential orders, or
either of these puissant kings, would have involved him in
fresh perplexities.

§ 10. POLITICAL SITUATION OF CLEMENT VIII.

It was indeed now one of the chief cares of the papal
see to ahenate neither of the great powers, in whose hands
rested the balance of the catholic world ; to appease their
mutual differences, or at least never to allow them to break
out into open war ; and while thus mediating between
them, to preserve its influence over both.

The papacy here appears to us employed in its highest
vocation — as mediator and peacemaker.

The world was mainly indebted to Clement VIII. for
the peace of Vervins, which was concluded on the 2nd of
May, 1598. He seized the favourable moment when the
king of France was constrained by his disordered finances,
and the king of Spain by the increasing feebleness of age,
to think of some accommodation. He prepared the pre-
liminaries, and made the first overtures ; while the general
of the Franciscans, Fra Bonaventura Calatagirona, whom
he had fortunately selected for this business and had sent
to France, removed the first and greatest obstacles. The
Spaniards were in possession of a number of strong places
in France ; they were ready to give them all up with the
single exception of Calais ; the French, on the other hand,
insisted on the restitution of Calais also, and it was Fra
Calatagirona who prevailed on the Spaniards to cede it.
It was not till this point was gained that the negotiations
at Vervins were formally opened. A legate and a nuncio
presided over them ; the franciscan general continued to
mediate with consummate address, and even his secretary
Soto acquired no little credit by his share in the trans-
actions. The main thing was to induce the king of France
to separate himself from his alhes, England and Holland.
This was regarded as an advantage to Catholicism, since it
seemed to complete the secession of Henry IV. from the
Protestant cause. After long hesitation Heniy consented,

§ X] POLITICAL SITUATION OF CLEMENT VIIL 573

upon which the Spaniards gave up all their conquests ;
they were restored to the power which had possession of
them in the year 1559. The legate declared that his
holiness would feel a greater pleasure at this restitution,
than even at the acquisition of Ferrara ; that a peace
embracing and tranquillising all Christendom, was far more
important in his eyes than that temporal conquest.''''

At this peace there was but one point which remained
unsettled, — the dispute between Savoy and France.

The duke of Savoy had, as we mentioned, taken forcible
possession of Saluzzo, and could not be prevailed on to
give it up again ; after many fruitless negotiations, Henry
IV. at length had recourse to arms. The pope, to whom
the mediation of this affair had previously been expressly
committed at Yervins, had the greatest possible interest in
restoring peace, which he urged at every opportunity and
in every audience ; every time the king sent him assurances
of his devotedness, he demanded this peace as a proof of
the sincerity of these professions, — as a favour which must
be granted to himself The real difficulty lay in the
apparent prejudice to Italian interests generally, from the
restitution of Saluzzo, and in the unwillingness of the
Italians that the French should possess a province in Italy.
The expedient of leaving the duke in possession of Saluzzo
and indemnifying France by the cession of Bresse and
certain neigbouring Savoyard districts, was, as far as I can
I discover, first proposed by the minorite Calatagirona. f In
the year 1600, cardinal Aldobrandino had the merit of
^reducing this proposal to a positive agreement at Lyons.
[The French were grateful to him for his successful negotia-
bion, since Lyons thus acquired a more extended boundary,
[which had long been the object of her desire. J

Under these auspicious circumstances, pope Clement
occasionally cherished the idea of turning the forces of the

* At the end of the edition of the + Ossat to Villeroy, March 25th,

Memoires d'Angoul^me, Didot, 1756, 1599.

there is, i. 131 — 363, under the title of X Bentivoglio gives (in the principal
Autres Memoires, a circumstantial ac- part of the second book of his Memorie,
count of the negotiations at Vervins, c. 2 — c. 6) these transactions in de-
distinguished for its accuracy and im- tail. On Bentivoglio, Memoirs, see App.
partiality : the accounts I have given are No. 68.
derived from it ; the last in p. 337.

574 POLITICAL SITUATION OF CLEMENT VIIL [Book VI.

whole catholic world, now reunited under his authority,
against the ancient and hereditary foe of Christendom.
A Turkish war had broken out anew in Hungary ; even
at that time people thought they perceived symptoms of
declining strength in the Ottoman empire ; and the
personal inefficiency of the sultans, the influence of the
seraglio, and the incessant revolts of the people, especially
in Asia, seemed to justify the behef that some attack upon
Turkey might now be attempted with success. The pope
at least gave the project his strenuous support. As early
as the year 1599, the sum which he had applied to this
purpose amounted to a million and a half of scudi, and
shortly afterwards we find a papal army of 12,000 men on
the Danube. But far more momentous consequences might
be anticipated when once the powers of the west should
combine on a large scale for an expedition against the east,
especially if Henry IV. could be brought to add his forces
to those of Austria. The pope was indefatigable in his
exhortations, and in fact Henry wrote immediately after
the peace of Vervins to the Venetians, that he hoped in a
short time to embark at Venice, like the French captains
of old, on an expedition against Constantinople. He
repeated his promise to that effect at the ratification of
the peace with Savoy. ■^'* But unquestionably the execu-
tion of such an undertaking must have been preceded by
a more sincere and cordial friendship than was possible
after so violent a shock of interests and passions.

On the other hand, the animosities and rivalries which
still subsisted between the two greatest powers, were more
than once advantageous to the pope's interests. Pope
Clement had indeed occasion once more to turn them to
account in the affairs of the ecclesiastical states.

In the midst of these brilliant achievements and successes
abroad, Clement exercised a rigorous and very monarchical
power in his own states.

The new constitution which Sixtus V. had given to the
college of cardinals, appeared to liim necessary in order to
give it a due and regular influence in pubhc business. But

♦ Lettre du Roy, in the Appendix to the second volume of Ossat's Letters, p. 11.

§ X.] POLITICAL SITUATION OF CLEMENT VIIL 575

form is not substance ; and the very contrary to his
expectations took place. The tedious course of law pro-
ceedings, and the cumbrousness and immobility to which
a deliberative body is condemned, (chiefly from the diver-
sity of opinions it comprises,) rendered it impossible to
Clement VIIL to confide important business to the con-
gregations. At first he consulted them, though he often
departed from their decisions ; then he only communicated
affairs to them immediately before they were concluded ;
in short the consistories served rather for giving publicity,
than for consultation ; till at length he employed them
only on subordinate matters or mere formalities.'"*

It is not to be disputed that the new turn which Cle-
ment gave to the policy of the court of Rome, rendered
this curtailment of the powers of the congregations almost
inevitable, yet it was not a little prompted by his inclina-
tion for absolute power. The administration of the country
was carried on in the same spirit ; new taxes were im-
posed without the slightest inquiry into the resources of
the country ; the revenues of the communes were placed
under special supervision ; the barons were subjected to
the rigorous operation of the laws, and not the slightest
deference was paid to aristocratic descent or privileges.

As long as the pope conducted all public business him-
self, this worked well. The cardinals, at least, although
their thoughts were not all on the surface, were full of
admiration and submissiveness.

Gradually, however, as the pope advanced in age, the
real possession and exercise of this monarchical power
devolved on his nephew, Pietro Aldobrandino. He was
the son of that Pietro Aldobrandino who had distinguished
himself among the remarkable band of brothers to which
he belonged, by his practical talents as a lawyer. At the
first glance he promised little. His person was insignificant,

* Delfino : " Ora li consistorj non ser- settimana, tutte le altre, anche quelle che

vono per altro che per comunicare in sono de' regolari e de' vescovi, sono in

essi la collation delle chiese e per pub- sola apparenza : perche se bene risolvono

licar le resolution! d' ogni qualita fatte ad un modo, il papa eseguisce ad un altro

dal papa e le congregationi, da quella e nelle cose piu importanti, come nel dar

deir inquisitione in poi che si ä pur con- ajuto a principi, di spedir legati, dichiai'ar

servata in qualche decoro e si induce ogni capi." (App. No. 70.)

57G POLITICAL SITUATION OF CLEMENT VIII. [Book VL

he was marked with the smallpox, he had an asthma and
coughed incessantly, and in his youth he had made no
great proficiency in his studies. As soon, however, as his
uncle took him into public business, he showed an address
and ability which no one expected from him. Not only
did he know how to adapt himself to the character of the
pope, and, if we may use the expression, to fill up its
deficiencies, to soften its asperities, and to render less
conspicuous and less mischievous the weaknesses which
gradually appeared in it,* but he won the confidence and
approbation of foreign ambassadors to such a degree, that
they all desired to see political affairs in his hands. It
was originally intended that he should divide them with
his cousin Cinthio, who was also a man of some talents,
especially for literature ; but Pietro soon shook off his
associate in power. In the year 1603, the cardinal was
omnipotent at court. " All negotiations," says a report of
that year, " all favour and patronage originate with him ;
prelates, nobles, courtiers, ambassadors throng to his house.
It may be said that everything passes through his ear,
and is determined by his opinion ; that every project
is proclaimed through his mouth, and executed by his
hands." f

Such a power as this, so unlimited, so all-pervading, and
at the same time with so little claim to legitimacy, what-
ever friends it might find, inevitably excited in the majority
a profound though secret feeling of discontent. A sHght
incident afforded an occasion for this feehng to break out
into open resistance.

A man who had been arrested for debt, seized the
moment when the sbirri were leading him past the Farnese
palace, to throw off his chains and rush into it for shelter.
The popes had long refused to recognise the right of the

♦ Relatione al CI. Este. " Dove il di tutti, e il eav. demente Sennesio,

papa inasprisce, Aldobrandino raitiga : raastro di camera, salito a quel grado di

dove rompe, consolida : dove comanda privatissima fortuna, e che per ampliar

giustitia, intercede per gratia." (App. maggiormente la sua autoritk ha fatto

No. 69.) salire il fratello al segretariato della con-

t " Orbis in urbe." Yet even Aldo- sulta : cosi possedendo tra lor due la

brandino was subject to secret influences, somma, V uno dclla gratia del cardinale,

" Ha diversi servitori," says the same 1' altro dclla provisione d' officj e delle

narrative, "ma quel che assurbe i favori maggiori espeditioni."

§ X.] POLITICAL SITUATION OF CLP^MENT VIIL 577

great families of Rome to grant asylum to malefactors in
their houses. Cardinal Farnese, though connected with
the pope by the marriage of an Aldobrandino into his
family, now reasserted that right. He ordered his people
to drive out the sbirri, who wanted to search the palace for
their prisoner ; he told the governor, who sought to inter-
pose his authority, that it was not the custom of his house
to give up the accused ; he peremptorily refused the medi-
ation of cardinal Aldobrandino, who, wishing to avoid
scandal, came himself to arrange the affair amicably; and
told him that after the death of the pope, which might
soon be looked for, a Farnese would be of more importance
than an Aldobrandino.

What mainly gave him courage for so daring a defiance
of the pope's power, was his connexion with the Spaniards.
Henry IV.'s cession of Saluzzo (which had been regarded
at Rome as rather poor-spirited) had led to the inference
that he would not meddle in Italian affairs. This had
raised the importance of Spain again in public estimation,
and as the Aldobrandini manifested so strong a leaning
towards France, their antagonists attached themselves to
Spain. The Spanish ambassador Viglienna, gave his entire
approbation to Farnese's conduct in this affair.'"'

What more could be wanting than the support of a
foreign power and the protection of a great family, to bring
to an open explosion the discontent of the Roman nobles '?
Cavalieri and nobili thronged to the Farnese palace ; some
cardinals joined them openly, others favoured them
secretly. t There was an universal outcry that the pope
and the church must be emancipated from the thraldom
they were in to cardinal Aldobrandino. On the pope
ordering troops to Rome, the Spanish ambassador promised

* Contarmi, Historia Veneta, torn. iii. e Santiquatro, che nieute mirarono trat-

lib. xiii. MS., amongst all the authors of tandosi di Spagna al debito de' cardinal!

the time, the most circumstantial and verso il papa : ed a questi che aperta-

worthy of credit on this subject : " Vig- mente si dichiaravano diversi altri in

lienna mandö ordine a tutti i baroni e occulto adherivano, tra' quali il cl. Conti,

cavalieri Romani obligati alia corone che — Ma il popolo, la plebe senza nome,

per servitio del re fossero immediate nella sempre avida di cangiar stato, favoriva

casa del cardinal Farnese." al cardinale, e per le piazze, per le strade

+ Contarini : " Diede grand' assenso a gran caterve applaudevano al partito

al fatto la venuta de' cardinali Sfondrato di lui."

VOL. I. P P

578 POLITICAL SITUATION OF CLEMENT VIIL [Book VI.

subsidies to the conspirators, and advised them to call in
some armed bands which just then appeared on the Nea-
politan frontier. But little was wanting to cause the out-
break of an open feud, in the spirit of past ages, within
the walls of llome itself.

But cardinal Farnese would not suffer things to proceed
to such an extremity. It was enough for him to have
proved his independence, his power, and the possibihty of
resistance. He determined to retire to Castro, his own
estate. He executed this in a grand style. He secured
one gate, caused troops to be posted at it, and then left the
city, escorted by a retinue of ten carriages and three hun-
dred horsemen. He had indeed gained all he wanted ;
this display of insubordination answered his ends ; a for-
mal negotiation was set on foot ; the pope's party affected
to believe that the whole blame rested with the governor,
and made a show of effecting a reconciliation between him
and the house of Farnese. The cardinal then returned,
with not less pomp and splendour than had marked his
departure. Every street, window, and roof was filled with
people, and never, in the time of their greatest power, were
the Farnesi so brilliantly received, or greeted with such
loud acclamations.''*

But it was not only weakness or forced compliance
which led cardinal Aldobrandino to permit this triumphal
entry to take place ; the Farnesi were after all near kins-
folk of the papal house ; neither would it have answered
any end to display implacable resentment ; the main thing
was to remove the cause of the evil, which lay in political
circumstances. It was impossible to obtain from the
Spaniards any alteration of their system, or even the recall
of so troublesome an ambassador ; Aldobrandino's only
resource therefore was, to inspire Henry IV. with a lively
interest in Italian affairs.

The arrival, in December, 1604, of three French cardi-

* Cuntarini : " S' inviö in Roma en- drato, Santiquatro, San Cesareo e Conti,

trando in guisa trionfante con claniori dal general Georgio suo cognate, tutta la

popolari che andavano al cielo, incon- cavalleria e tuttc le guainiie del papa, con-

trato in forma di re dall' ambasciator di fluendo li cavalieri e baroiii."
Cesare, di Spagna, dalli cardinali Sfon-

§ X.] POLITICAL SITUATION OF CLEMENT VIII. 579

nals at once, all distinguished men, was as refreshing to
him, say his enemies, as a cool and gentle breeze in a
scorching day. It was once more practicable to form a
French party in Rome. The new-comers were received
with joy, and the signora Olympia, the cardinal's sister,
declared to them a thousand times that her house would
place itself unconditionally under French protection.
Baronius declared that his historical researches had proved
to him that the Roman see was more indebted to the
French nation than to any other ; when he saw a picture
of the king he broke out into a shout of delight. He
endeavoured to discover whether after the cession of
Saluzzo there was no other pass of the Alps remaining in
the hands of the French. Now Baronius was not merely
a writer of history, — he was the pope's confessor and saw
him every day ; and however circumspect and reserved the
pope and Aldobrandino might be, the effect was the same,
so long as their nearest followers expressed themselves so
openly, since they were supposed to repeat the sentiments
of their master. As Henry at length resolved to grant
pensions, he had soon a party strong enough to counter-
balance that of Spain.

But Aldobrandino's views reached much farther. He
often represented to the Venetian ambassadors and car-
dinals the necessity of setting bounds to the arrogance of
the Spaniards. " Can it be endured," he said, " that they
should rule in the house of another in his own despite '? " ''"
It might indeed be dangerous for one who would soon have
to return to private life, to draw upon himself the ill-will
of that power ; but his honour would not permit him to
endure that the papacy should lose anything of its reputa-
tion under his uncle. In short he proposed to the Vene-
tians a union of the Itahan states, under French protection,
against Spain.

Already too he had entered into negotiations with the
other states. He did not love Tuscany, with Modena he
had continual disputes, Parma was implicated in the trans-
actions of cardinal Farnese ; but he seemed to forget all

* Du Perron au Roi, 25 Janv. 1605. (Arabass. i. 509.)

p p 2

580 POLITICAL SITUATION OF CLEMENT VIII. [Book VL

these things for the sake of avenging himself on Spain.
To this object he devoted himself with passion ; he spoke of
nothing else, he appeared to think of nothing else. In order
to be nearer to the states with which he wished to combine,
he repaired to Ancona in the beginning of the year 1605.

He had as yet accomplished nothing, when his uncle
died, on the 5th of March, 1605, and with him ended his
power.

Meanwhile the stimulus given to public opinion, and the
industrious revival of French influence in Rome and Italy,
were already of considerable importance. They marked a
tendency of the general policy of the Aldobrandini.

We shall not, I think, be over-refining, if we trace the
causes of this policy to the original situation of that family
in Florence. It had always belonged to the French party.
Messer Salvestro had been an active leader in the commo-
tion in the year 1527, in which the Medici were exiled,
and the French called in. Accordingly when his enemies,
the Spaniards and the Medici, remained masters of the
field, he had to pay the penalty of his hostility, and to
quit his country. Was it likely that pope Clement would
forget this ? that he would love the Spaniards and the
Medici ? He was naturally of a close, reserved temper ;
on the rare occasions when he opened himself to his inti-
mate friends, he uttered this maxim : "Ask your fore-
fathers, and they mil show you the way in which you
should go.^''"* It is certain that he once had the view of
reforming the state of Florence, as he expressed himself
His partiality to France is obvious ; he found the papacy
in the strictest alliance with Spain, he led it to the verge
of a union with France against Spain. If the restoration
of a national power in France was for the interests of the
church, it was at the same time with Clement an affair of
inclination, — a personal satisfaction. Nevertheless he was
cautious, provident, guarded ; he attempted nothing that
he could not carry through. Instead of reforming Florence,
he reformed, as a Venetian said, his own thoughts ; when

* Dolfino : " La poea inclinatione che per natura e per heredita ha il papa a
SpagnoU." (App. No. 70.)

§ XL] FIRST PROCEEDINGS OF PAUL V. 5gX

he saw that it could not be done without universal danger,
he abandoned it.'"' It never was his intention to invite the
French arms into Italy. He was satisfied with restoring
the equilibrium, emancipating himself from the tyranny of
Spain, and giving a wider basis to ecclesiastical policy ;
peaceably, gradually, without noise or convulsion, but so
much the more securely.

§ 11. ELECTION AND FIRST PROCEEDINGS OF PAUL V.

The influence of the French manifested itself in the very
next conclave, and, when Aldobrandino joined them, became
irresistible. They raised to the papal dignity a cardinal
whom the king of Spain had expressly excluded, — a
Medici, nearly related to the queen of France. The letters
in which Du Perron announces this unexpected event to
Henry IV. are full of exultation, and the accession of the
new pope was celebrated in France with public rejoicings. f
The triumph, however, was short, for Leo XL survived his
election only twenty-six days ; it is asserted that the
weight of his new dignity, and the feeling of the arduous-
ness of the office imposed upon him, extinguished vital
powers already enfeebled by age.

The contest at the new election raged with greater
violence than before, from the circumstance that Aldo-
brandino was no longer in such close connexion with the
French, and was powerfully opposed by Montalto. As at
some former elections, a contest ensued between the crea-
tures of the last pope and those of his predecessor. Each

* Venier : " Vedendo le preparazioni lippe de Mornay Seigneur du Plessis, p.

e risolutioni di V"^^ S* et anco del gran- 30.5 : " Ce pape de la maison des Medieis,

duca e che la nostra republica s' era dit Leon XL, qui avoit couste au roi

diehiarata col mandar un ambasciatore 300,000 escus a faire, en la faveur duquel

espresso per questo negotio a S. S% cono- il faisoit grand fondement, et pour I'elec-

scendo ella che si sarebbe acceso un gran tion duquel par un exemple nouveau

fuoco in Italia e con pericolo di gravis- furent faits faux de joye et tire le canon

simo incendio della chiesa, in luogo di en France, qui vescut pen de jours et ne

ten tar la riforma dello stato' di Firenze laissa an roy que le reproche par les

riformö i suoi pensieri." (App. No. 71.) Espagnols d'une largesse employee et le

On the successes of Clement VIII. in doute de rencontrer une succession,

extending Catholicism, see App. No. 73. comme il advint, plus favorable a

f Histoire de la Vie de Messire Phi- I'Espagnol."

582 ELECTION AND FIRST [Book VI.

of these party leaders, surrounded by his followers, con-
ducted his chosen candidate to one of the chapels, and
proposed him in opposition to the other party ; attempts
were made to elect several in succession. Baronius, in
spite of the most violent resistance on liis part, was dragged
to the Capella Paolina ; but the opposition only seemed
more furious each time, nor could either party succeed in
carrying the election of any one of its candidates. The
election of a pope, hke most other successes of the kind,
was gradually determined by the question, who had the
fewest enemies, not who could plead the most merits.

At length amongst his uncle's creatures, Aldobrandino
cast his eyes upon a man who had succeeded in conciUat-
ing general favour, and in avoiding all dangerous enmities,
— cardinal Borghese. He contrived to enlist on his side the
French, who had already partially effected a reconciliation
between Montalto and Aldobrandino ; Montalto therefore
gave his vote to Borghese, who was accordingly elected
before the Spaniards even knew that he was proposed
(May 16, 1605.)'"

We have here a fresh example of the rule we formerly
remarked ; the kinsman of the last pope decided the choice
of the new one. The Borghesi too were originally in a
similar position with the Aldobrandini ; they had quitted
Siena, as the latter had abandoned Florence, in order to
escape the domination of the Medici. From these causes it
appeared evident that the new government must be a
direct continuation of the preceding.

Paul v., however, immediately on his election, betrayed
a harsh and eccentric disposition.

From the situation of an advocate, he had risen through
every step of clerical dignity ; f he had been vice-legate at
Bologna, auditore di camera, vicar of the pope, and inqui-
sitor, lie had lived in seclusion, buried in his books and

* Still it may have also been, that datiaRoma, 15 Genn, 1G05, m. V., i. e.

Montalto Aldobrandino first came to an 1606. "II padre Camillo non volendo

a;^rt'eniont about Horghose. Conclave di pili habitare Siena caduta della libertji, se

Taolo v. p. 370 ; it is there said of both, ne ando a Roma. Di bnono spirito, d*

" I'opo d' haver proposti molti, clessero ingcgno aouso, riusci nella profossione

jiorghose, anii(M) di Alontalto e creatnra d' avvocato II papa non vuol

fonlidcnle di Alibibrandino." csser Sanese ma Romano." (App. No.

t Relatione di IV. Ambascialori man- 7^.)

§ XL] PROCEEDINGS OF PAUL V. 533

deeds, and had never taken part in any political affairs ;
hence he had incurred no personal or active hostilities. No
party beheld in him an antagonist ; neither Aldobrandino
nor Montalto, neither French nor Spaniards, had experi-
enced or feared his opposition ; and this was the quality
that gained him the tiara.

He, however, took a totally different view of his own
success. That he should have attained the dignity of pope
without any effort of his own, without employing any arts
or intrigues, appeared to him an effect of the immediate
interposition of the Holy Ghost. He felt raised above
himself by it ; the entire change in his air and demeanour,
in his gestures and tone of voice, astonished even a court
so famihar with metamorphoses of all kinds. He also felt
the whole weight of his duties and obligations, and pro-
posed to himself to administer the supreme power with the
same uncompromising rigour he had shown in adhering to
the letter of the law in all his former ofhces.

Other popes had usually signalised their accession by
some act of mercy. Paul V., on the contrary, began his
reign by passing a sentence which even to this day excites
horror.

A poor author named Piccinardi, a native of Cremona,
out of revenge for some real or supposed injury, had em-
ployed his solitary hours in writing a biography of Clement
VIII., in which he compared that pope to Tiberius, — small
as is the resemblance between them. Not only had Picci-
nardi never allowed this singular work to be printed, but
he had kept it to himself, and communicated it to scarcely
any one ; a woman who had formerly lived in his house
gave information of its existence. Paul V. at first expressed
himself very calmly on the subject, and, as several powerful
persons and even ambassadors used their influence in the
author's behalf, he seemed to have little to fear. The
universal astonishment may be imagined, when one day
Piccinardi was brought out and beheaded on the bridge of
St. Angelo. Whatever might be said in palliation of his
offence, it is undeniable that he had committed the crime
of high treason, to which the laws awarded the punishment
of death. No mercy could be hoped from a pope like

584 FIRST PROCEEDINGS OF PAUL V. [Book VI.

Paul ; even the unfortunate man's small pittance was
confiscated.'"'

At court the pope immediately re-established the rules
of the council of Trent with regard to residence ; he pro-
nounced it a deadly sin for a bishop to live out of his
diocese while enjoying its revenues. He did noi even
except the cardinals, nor would he allow a place in the
administration of public affairs as an excuse. Many retired
to their sees ; others only petitioned for delay ; f while
others again, rather than either quit Rome or be thought
regardless of their duty, sent in their resignation.

But the most serious evil was, that he had imbibed from
his canonical studies the most exaggerated ideas of the
importance of the papacy. He maintained in its fullest signi-
ficancy the doctrine that the pope was the sole vicegerent
of Jesus Christ ; that the power of the keys was confided
implicitly to his discretion, and that he was to be reverenced
by all nations and sovereigns in profound humility. ;j: He
said he had been raised to the papal seat, not by men, but
by the Holy Spirit, which imposed upon him the duties of
protecting the immunities of the church and executing the
judgments of God ; and that he was bound in conscience
to exert all his powers to deliver the church from usurpa-
tion and oppression : for this he would rather risk his life,
than hereafter, when he had to appear before the judgment-
seat of God, be called to account for a single neglect of his
duty.

With lawyer-like keenness he assumed that the rights of
the church were commensurate mtli her claims, and looked
upon it as a matter of conscience to maintain and renew
them in all their strictness.

* The four ambassadors mentioned in allasscut ou bieu les resignassent ou y

the last note relate this incident ; " si missent des coadjuteurs, .... j'ay

congettura," they add, " fondataniente pense "

che abbi ad esser il pontefice severo e :J: Relatione di IV. Ambasciatori :

rigorosissimo et inexorabile in fatto di '* Conoseendo il pontefice prescnte sua

giustitia." gi'andezza spirituale, e quanto se le debba

f Du Perron ä Villcroy, 17 May, 160(). da tutti li popoli christiani attribuir di

" Le pape ayant fait cuten<lrc ces jours ossequio e di oledienza, non occottuando

passez que sa volonte estoit quo tons Ics (pialsivogliagrandissimo principe." (App.

rardinaux qui avoicnt des eveschcz y No. 7H.)

fr

§ XII.J DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. 535

§ 12. DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE,

From the time that the papal power had succeeded in
making head against protestantism, and had brought into
fresh activity the ideas on which the hierarchy is mainly
founded, it had also successfully reasserted all its canonical
rights with relation to the internal affairs of catholic states.

In subduing her adversaries, the church increased her
authority over her adherents.

As soon as the bishops had been constrained to a more
perfect obedience, the monastic orders closely united to the
curia, and all reforms made in a spirit calculated to advance
the supreme power of the pope, regular nuntiatures arose in
all the capitals of Europe, and combined with the dignity
of an embassy from an influential power, a jurisdiction
which enabled them to exercise an important control over
all the most momentous affairs of pubhc and private life.

But even where the church had re-established herself in
unison with the state, and where they had employed their
combined powers for the suppression of protestant opinions,
this very connexion between them soon produced disagree-
ments.

At that time, as indeed at the present day, the court of
Rome was extremely attentive to the maintenance of all its
claims in Italy ; we find the Itahan states involved in inter-
minable disputes with the church from this cause. The
ancient struggles between the popes and those states had
not been put an end to, either in general, by a decisive
principle, or in detail, by treaty and agreement. The popes
themselves diff'ered in their conduct on this point. Pius V.
and Gregory XIII. (in the former half of his reign at least)
were the most obstinate in the assertion of their claims ;
Sixtus V. was in several instances far more yielding. The
policy of the states and of their envoys was, to get over the
moments of difficulty without prejudice to themselves, and
to turn the favourable ones to account ; — a line of conduct
which can never entirely fail of success ; the inclinations of
individual popes changed and passed away, but the interests

586 DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. [Book VI.

of states remained unaltered. At all events the questions
to be resolved thus fell far less witliin the province of the
canon law and legal interpretation, than within that of
pohcj, and the adjustment of mutual demands and con-
cessions.

Pope Paul v., however, viewed his rights in a thoroughly
lawyer-hke manner : he regarded the canonical regulations
of the Decretals as the laws of God. The occasional con-'
cessions or connivances of liis predecessors he ascribed, not
to the stringent necessity of the case, but to their own
weakness and negligence, and felt himself bound to atone
for their faults. Hence we find him, shortly after his
accession, involved in the bitterest animosities with all his
Itahan neighbours.

In Naples, the regent Ponte, president of the king's
council, had sentenced to the galleys an ecclesiastical notary
for refusing to give information of a marriage to the civil
court ; and also a bookseller, who, contrary to a royal decree,
had pubUshed the work of Baronius against the Sicilian
monarchy. A remonstrance of Clement VIII. against these
sentences had produced no effect. Paul V. did not hesitate
an instant to pronounce sentence of excommunication
against the regent.*''

The duke of Savoy had conferred some benefices, the
gift of which was claimed by the court of Rome ; Genoa
had prohibited meetings held at the Jesuits' colleges, because
they endeavoured to control the appointments to public
offices : Lucca had forbidden the execution of any decrees
whatever of papal officers without the previous sanction of
the local magistrates ; and certain ecclesiastics, guilty of
heinous offences, had even been brought before the tem-
poral criminal court of Venice. It was the very universality
of this resistance that so inflamed the official zeal and in-
dignation of the pope. In every case he interposed the
most imperative orders, the severest menaces. He even
chose this moment to extend the claims of the spiritual
power. Amongst other things, he maintained the unheard-
of assertion, that it was not the business of the state to

* Les ainbassadca du cai'diiial du rerrou, ii. 683, 736.

§ XII.J DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. 587

prohibit the intercourse of its subjects with protestants ;
that, he affirmed, was the affair of the church, and one
belonging exclusively to the spiritual jurisdiction.

Most of the Italian states looked upon these proceedings
as the result of exaggerated notions which experience Avould
soon correct, and none of them wished to be the first to
break with the pope. The grand-duke of Tuscany declared
he had affairs in hand which would make the pope furious,
but that he sought to postpone their execution ; that Paul
V. was a man who judged of the world from a town in the
States of the church territory, where everything was con-
ducted according to the letter of the ecclesiastical law ;
but that this could not last ; the Spaniards would be caught,
and then they must either be voluntarily set free, or they
would tear the net for themselves ; and that others had
better wait for their example."'^ The other powers were
nearly of the same opinion, and at first gave way. Genoa
revoked her ordinance ; the duke of Savoy suffered the dis-
puted benefices to be transferred to one of Paul's Idnsmen ;
even the Spaniards allowed their regent to request and
receive absolution before numerous witnesses.

The Venetians alone, usually so prudent and so pliant,
disdained to adopt this policy. Venice had indeed received
greater provocation than the other powers ; the matter in
question afforded an example how irritating the interfer-
ence of the court of Rome might become, especially to a
neighbouring state.

This vicinity was in itself a great inconvenience, especially
after the church had obtained possession of Ferrarra. The
boundary disputes which the republic had with the dukes
were now carried on with far greater eagerness and violence
by the court of Rome ; the Venetians were molested in the
work of clearing the channel of the Po, which they were
then carrying on at a great expense, and in their ancient
rights of fishing. They were forced to protect their work-
men with armed vessels, and to make reprisals on the sub-

* Relatione di IV. ambasciatori. " II cittk delle chiesa, dove si precede col

granduca ricordava che il pontefice non rigor ecclesiastico e da prete, non basta

era uso govcrnar come principe grande, per saper governare come capo supremo."

perche aver avuto qualclie goveruo di App. No. 78.

588 DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. [Book VI.

jects of the pope for some fishing boats which the legate of
Ferrara had captured.

In the meantime Paul also laid claim to the rights of
sovereignty in Ceneda, which Venice had quietly exercised
for centuries ; he attempted to transfer the appeals from
the episcopal court, which had appellate jurisdiction there,
to Rome. The hostility became very serious ; the pope's
nuncio proceeded to excommunications, while the Venetian
senate took measures to prevent any civil consequences
resulting from them.'"'

The disputes concerning the tithes for the clergy were
not less bitter. The Venetians declared that they had
hitherto levied them without consulting the pope, and that
they would not acknowledge his permission to be necessary
for the collection of that tax. But it was still more exas-
perating to them that the court of Rome daily increased
the number of exemptions from the payment of it. The
cardinals, who possessed very rich livings, the knights of
Malta, the monasteries, the mendicant friars, all who were
abroad on the service of the church, or who could under
any title be included in the pope's household, and, lastly,
even those to whom the court of Rome had granted pen-
sions payable out of the revenues of Venetian benefices,
were declared exempt ; the three former classes from half,
and the others from the whole of the tax. The conse-
quence was, that the rich not being obliged to contribute
anything, the whole burden fell on the poor, who were
unable to support it. The revenue of the Venetian clergy
was estimated at eleven millions of ducats, whereas the
actual tithes did not exceed 12,000 ducats a year.f

* Nicolo Contarini : " Mentre si dis- s'esagera sopra la severitii del magistrato,

putava, pareva che da alcimo fusse fuggita non si ritrovava fin liora essersi conso-

la conversatione de' censurati, (officers guiti piu di 12 m. ducati, per li quali non

of the republic who had opposed the si doveva far tanti richianii, e le fortune

transfer of the appeals to Rome,) la qual della republica per gratia di dio non

cosa giudicando il senate apportarU erano tah che ne dovesse far conto piii

ofTesa, primieramente fece publicare un che tanto." Cei'tain arrangements were

bando contra chi li havesse a schivo, e hereupon made, intended to avert the

dopo a questi tutti in vita li fu data evil. But Contarini says, " In effetto

annua provisione quale era corrispondente monto poco })crciocche il foro era gia

alia loro fortuna." fatto e 1' abuso troppo confermato che

+ From a memorandum presented to distornarlo ei*a piu che malage vole."
the government at Rome : " Mentre

§ XII.] DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. 539

To these grievances were added innumerable points of
difference regarding individuals rather than the state. I
will only cite one instance.

It is w^ell known how the press flourished in Venice
during the early part of the sixteenth century ; the repub-
lic was justly proud of this honourable branch of industry.

This was gradually ruined by the ordinances of the
curia. There was no end of prohibitions of books in Rome :
first, all Protestant works, then all publications against the
morals of the clergy, against the immunity of the church,
all that in the slightest degree departed from its dogmas,
and all the works of any author who had in any one instance
incurred an ecclesiastical censure. The trade could now
only be carried on in articles of unimpeachable orthodoxy ;
in a purely mercantile point of view, it certainly revived a
little by means of the splendid decorated missals and bre-
viaries, for which the revival of catholic feelings and tastes
now created a considerable demand. But even this was
soon materially diminished ; the court of Eome set on foot
certain emendations in these books, which, in their new
form, were to be published only at Rome."'"' The Venetians
remarked, with the exasperation always produced by an
abuse of public authority for private ends, that several of
those employed in the congregation of the Index to super-
intend the affairs of the press, shared the profits of the
printing-ofiices at Rome.

Under such circumstances, the relations subsisting be-
tween Rome and Venice were of course exclusively those
of hatred and constraint.

It is easy to conceive how powerfully this temper of the
public mind at Venice must have fostered that politico-
religious opposition which conduced so essentially to the
success of Henry IV. as early as 1589. Henry's victory,
[and the whole current of the affairs of Europe now con-
I firmed and encouraged it. Even the disagreement with the
pope contributed to throw the conduct of affairs into the
hands of the representatives of these opinions ; since none
appeared more fit to defend the interests of the repubhc

* Contarini : " Al presente s'era de- ristampar raessali et altro, levando di
venuto in Roma in questo pensiero di poterlo far ad altri."

590 DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. [Book VI.

against the encroachments of the spiritual power. Accord-
ingly, in January 1606, Leonardo Donate, the chief of the
anti-romanist party, was elected doge; he admitted all the
friends who had assisted him in the secret struggles of
party, to a participation in powder. Whilst the tiara was
worn by a man w^ho overstrained all his doubtful and dis-
putable claims with blind and reckless zeal, the government
of Venice fell into the hands of men in whom hostihty to
the domination of Rome had grown into a personal feeling ;
who owed their rise to it, and maintained the principle of
resistance the more strenuously, because it enabled them
to keep down their antagonists in the repubhc itself.

The character of both the powers rendered it inevitable
that their collisions should every day become more hostile
and more extensive.

The pope demanded, not only that all spiritual offenders
should be dehvered up to him, but also that two laws lately
renewed by the Venetians, forbidding the alienation of
immoveables to the clergy, and rendering the erection of
new churches dependent on the civil authority, should be
repealed. He declared that he would not tolerate ordi-
nances so directly at variance with the decrees of the
councils, the constitutions of his predecessors, and to all
rules of canon law. The Venetians would not yield one
hair's-breadth ; they said that such w^ere the fundamental
laws of their state, transmitted to them by their ancestors,
who had rendered such essential services to Christendom,
and that the republic must keep them inviolate.

The contending parties did not long confine themselves
to the immediate subjects of dispute. On the one hand,
the church considered itself injured by the entire constitu-
tion of the Venetian republic ; a republic which forbade
reference to Rome ; excluded, under the name of papalists,
those who, by holding spiritual offices, had been in aii}^
degree connected with the curia, from any participation
in discussions on spiritual affairs ; and even ventured to
impose taxes on the clergy. The Venetians, on the other
hand, declared that these provisions w^ere quite insufficient.
Tliey demanded that their benefices should be given
only to natives of Venice, who should also have the sole

§ XII.] DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. 59I

direction of the inquisition ; that every bull should be
submitted to the approval of the government ; that every
spiritual assembly should be held in presence of a secular
president, and that all pecuniary aid to Rome should be
forbidden.

Nor did they stop even here, but proceeded from the
immediate questions in debate to general principles.

The Jesuits had long ago deduced the most important
consequences to the rights of the church from their doctrine
of the supremacy of the pope ; and these they did not
delay to bring forward anew.

Bellarmine said, that in like manner as the spirit guides
and governs the flesh, and not the flesh the spirit, so the
secular power should not dare to exalt itself above the
spiritual, or attempt to guide, to order, or to restrain it ;
for that this would be a rebellion, a heathenish tyranny : '""
that the priesthood had its own sovereigns, whose ofiice it
was to govern it not only in spiritual but also in temporal
affairs ; it would therefore be impossible for it to acknow-
ledge any temporal sovereign, since no one could serve two
masters : that the priest was to judge the emperor, not the
emperor the priest, since it would be absurd for the sheep
to attempt to guide the shepherd, f Neither ought a
prince to levy any taxes on ecclesiastical property ; he
should draw his revenues from the laity ; — the clergy
contributed the far more effectual aid of prayer and
sacrifice. The clergy were to be exempt from all burdens
on person or property ; they belonged to the family of
Christ ; this exemption, if not founded on an express
command of holy scripture, at all events rested on infer-
ences drawn from it, and on analogy ; the ministers of

* Risposta del CI. Bellarmino ad una no gli puo comandare no punirla se non

lettera senzanome dell' autore. (Pamphlet di fatto per ribellione e tirannide, come

of 1606.) " La raggione iiidrizza e regge hanno fatto talvolta li prineipi gentili o

e comanda alia carne e talvolta la cas- heretic!."

tiga con digiuni e vigilie, ma la carne + Bellarminus de clericis, i. c. 30 :

non indrizza ne regge ne comanda " Respondeo, principem quidem ovem

n^ pmiisce la ragione : cosi la potesta ac spiritualem filium pontificis esse, sed

spirituale e superiore alia secolare, e pero sacerdotem nullo modo filium vel ovem

la pu6 e deve drizzare e reggere e coman- principis dici posse, quoniam sacerdotes

darla e punirla quando si porta male ; ma et omnes clerici suum habent principem

la potesta secolare non e superiore alia spiritualem, a quo non in spiritualibus

spirituale, ne la puo drizzare ne reggere solum sed etiam in temporalibusreguntur."

592 DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. [Book VI.

the gospel were entitled to the same rights as the Levitcs
in the Old Testament.'"

These doctrines were calculated to secure to that spiritual
republic which exercised so material an influence on poli-
tical government, an equal degree of independence from
its reactions. The greatest pains were taken at Rome to
establish them by innumerable proofs and arguments from
scripture, and by passages from decrees of councils and
imperial and papal constitutions, and they were gener-
ally regarded as beyond the reach of reftitation. Who
in Venice would venture to oppose a Bellarmine or a
Baronius ?

But in the person of their consulter of state Paolo Sarpi,
the Venetians possessed a man so formed by nature and
circumstances, and placed in such a situation, that he could
dare to take up arms against the spiritual powder.

Paolo Sarpi was the son of a merchant who had come
from St. Vitus to Venice, and of a lady of the Venetian
family of Morelli, which enjoyed the privileges of citizen-
ship. His father was a man of small stature, dark com-
plexion, and turbulent, quarrelsome temper, wdio ruined
himself by imprudent speculations. His mother was one
of those tall and beautiful Venetian blondes who are still
not unfrequently to be seen, and was remarkable for
modesty and good sense. Her son resembled her in his
features, f

At the time we are now considering, the brother of
Paolo's mother, Ambrosio Morelli, was at the head of a
school enjoying a very high reputation, and principally
devoted to the education of young nobles. The nephew of
the master naturally shared in the instruction ; among his
companions were Nicolo Contarini and Andrea Morosini,
with both of whom he became very intimate : thus on the
very threshold of life he formed ties which had the strongest
influence on his friture destiny.

He did not however allow either his mother, his uncle,

• These maxims may be found ver- father was named Francesco, liis mother

batim either in the above-mentioned Ris- Ehsabettii. Fra Fulgentio, Vita (h Paolo

posta, or in Helhirniin's l)ook, De clericis, Sarpi. GriseUni, Meniorie di Fra Paolo

particuhirly in lib. i. e. ."JO. Sarpi, translated into German by Lebret,

t Sari)i, born August 14, ir).')2. His p. 13.

§ XII.]

DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE.

593

or these friends to deter him from indulging his inchnation
for sohtude, and as early as his 14th or 15th year he
entered a convent of Servites.

He spoke little and was always serious ; he never ate
meat, and till his thirtieth year drank no wine ; he hated
all lewd conversation : " There comes the virgin," said his
companions when he approached ; '' let us talk of some-
thing else." Every wish, aspiration and desire he was
capable of w^as directed to study, for which he possessed
extraordinary aptitude.

He was endow^ed with the invaluable gift of a quick and
accurate perception ; thus he recognised any person he had
once seen ; as soon as he went into a garden he saw and
remarked everything in it at a glance ; in short, he was
furnished, both bodily and mentally, with a clear and pene-
trating vision.''^ He dedicated himself to the study of the
physical sciences with remarkable success. His admirers
ascribe to him the discovery of the valves in the blood-
vessels, and of the expansion and contraction of the pupil
of the eye,t the first observation of the polar attraction of
the magnet, besides several other magnetic phenomena ;
and it cannot be denied that he took an active share in the
labours of Aquapendente, and still more of Porta. J To his
physical studies he united mathematical calculations, and
the observation of the phenomena of the human mind. In
the library of the Servites at Venice, there is a copy of
Vieta's works, in which the numerous mistakes of that
author are corrected by the hand of Fra Paolo ; there was
in the same place a small treatise of his on the origin and
decline of the opinions of men, which, judging from the
extracts given by Foscarini, contained a theory of the
intellectual powers which assumed sensation and reflection
as their basis, and had considerable resemblance to that of

* According to Fra Fulgentio (p. 38),
I he himself spoke of his " gran passibilta,
■ perche non sola I'oggetto in lui facesse
moto, ma ogni minima reliquia," " Come
un peri to suonatore" continues Fulgentio,
" ad un sol tocco fa giudicio del instru-
mento, cosi con far parlar le persone con
prestezza ammirabile conosceva i fini,
gU interessi," etc.

VOL. I. Q

t See also Fischer, Geschichte der
Physik,!. 169.

J " A quo," says Porta of him, " ali-
qua didicisse non solum fateri non erubes-
cimus, sed gloriamvir, quum eo doctiorem,
subtiliorem, quotquot adhuc videre con-
tigerit, neminem cognoverimus ad ency-
clopsediam." Magise natur. lib. vii. prsef.
Griselini, 1, § 20,24.

Q

594 DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. [Book VI.

Locke, ■^' although not so entire a one as some have sup-
posed. Fra Paolo wrote no more than he was forced ; he
had by nature no inclination for producing ; he read inces-
santly, and appropriated what he read or observed : his
mind was distinguished by sobriety and comprehensiveness,
method and boldness, and went steadily forward in the
paths of free investigation.

Such were the mental powers now directed to questions
of theology and ecclesiastical law.

It has been said that Fra Paolo was in secret a protest-
ant ; it is not however probable that his protestantism
went beyond the first simple principles of the confession of
Augsburg — ^if indeed he held those ; at all events he said
mass every day during his whole life. It would be difficult
to define to what form of Christianity he was inwardly
attached ; it was one often held in those times, especially
by men who had devoted themselves to the physical
sciences ; — a religion bound by none of the established
systems, original and speculative, but neither absolutely
defined nor completely worked out

This however is certain, that Fra Paolo entertained the
most determined and irreconcileable hatred towards the
secular influence of the papacy; probably the only passion
he ever cherished. Some have ascribed it to the refiisal of
a bishopric for which he was a candidate ; and certainly no
one can deny the effect that a mortifying rejection which
shuts out the prospect from natural ambition may have,
even on a manly spirit. Fra Paolo's feehngs however had
a far deeper foundation. His was a mingled pohtical and
religious sentiment, allied to all his other convictions,
strengthened by study and experience, and shared by those
friends and contemporaries who had formerly met at the
house of Morosini, and who were now at the helm of the
state. The chimerical arguments with w^hich the Jesuits

* His explanation of substance was Human Understanding, vol. ii. ch, 23 :

peculiarly striking. Paolo Sarpi, accord- " Not imagining how the simple ideas

ing to P"'oscarini and Griselini, infers sub- can subsist of themselves, we accustom

stajice from the multiplicity of ideas ourselves to suppose some substi*atura

existing on a basis which we cannot dis- wherein they do subsist and from which

cover ; and in this unknown basis, he says, they do result, which therefore we call

consists what we call substance. Gri- substance."
selini, i.p. 46, German translation. Locke,

§ XIL] DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. ' 595

had endeavoured to support their assertions, vanished
before the clear-sighted and searching inquiry of Fra
Paolo.

Indeed, the Jesuitical doctrines were entirely founded on
a devotion to the holy see, arising from a bygone state of
society.

It was not without labour that Sarpi at first wrought
conviction in the minds of the jurists of his own country.
Some held, with Bellarmine, that the exemption of the
clergy was a rule of the divine law ; others maintained,
that at least the pope had the power to command it ; they
appealed to the decrees of councils, in which that exemp-
tion was expressly declared, and urged that what had been
within the competence of a council was far more within
that of a pope. The former of these disputants were easily
confuted ; to the others Fra Paolo's main argument in
reply was, that the councils with which this power rested
were convoked by temporal sovereigns, and were to be
regarded as assemblies of the empire by which a multitude
of other political laws had been enacted. '''' This is a point
upon which the doctrines inculcated by Fra Paolo and his
friends were mainly grounded.

They set out from the principle which had been so
warmly and successfully asserted in France, — that the
kingly power was derived immediately from God, and was
subject to no human control ; — that the pope had no right
or authority even to inquire whether the political acts of a
country were sinful or not. For to what would such a
right lead ? Was there one which might not be sinful as
respecting its objects ? The pope would have to examine
everything, to interfere in everything; — the temporal
authority would, in short, be annihilated.

But to this authority the clergy, as well as the laity of
a country, were subject. All power, says the apostle, is of

* Letter from Sarpi to Leschasser, 3rd stantly remarked, that even then, spi-
of February, 1619, in Lebret's Maga- ritual and temporal pretensions were
zine, i. 479. A remark so much the already either confounded or at van-
more important in those times, as ance. The old Gothic monarchy in
Mariana, for instance, deduced from the Spain contained, in fact, a strong spi-
resolutions of the Spanish councils the ritual element ; for old laws are gene-
most extensive worldly privileges for rally grounded upon circumstances be-
the clergy. It may, however, be con- longing to a remote state of society.

Q Q2

59G DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. [Book VI.

God. No one is exempt from the obligation of obedience
to the estabhshed authorities, any more than from that of
obedience to God. The sovereign enacts the laws, adminis-
ters justice, and raises taxes ; in all these particulars the
clergy are equally bound to obey him as the laity. '''"■

It is not denied that the pope has jurisdiction also ;
but that jurisdiction is exclusively spiritual. Did Christ
exercise any temporal jurisdiction ? He could not transfer,
either to St. Peter or his successors, what he never claimed
for himself

The exemption of the clergy cannot therefore be traced
to any original divine right ;f it can rest only on the con-
sent of the sovereign. The sovereign had granted to the
church, property and jurisdiction : he is its protector, its
general patron ; and therefore to him naturally and justly
belong the nomination of the clergy and the pubhcation of
bulls.

It is not competent to the sovereign to renounce his
power, if he would ; since it is a trust committed to him,
which he is bound in conscience to transmit unimpaired to
his successor.

Thus were the claims and the theory of the church
boldly met by the claims and the theory of the state. The
tendencies of the conflicting powers are expressed in these
opposite systems. The blending of temporal and spiritual
interests in the states of Europe is so intimate, that a wide
field of action lies open on the ground where both meet and
mingle. This entire field has long been claimed by the
church, and to this day she is continually renewing her

* Risposta d'un dottore in theologia CI. Bellarmino, Venezia, 1606, explains

ad una lettera scrittagli sopra il breve in the following manner the meaning of

delle censure. " Bono dunque tutti gli its author, who has expressed himself

ecclesiastici et i secolari de jure divino somewhat obscurely ; the explanation is

soggetti al principe secolare. Omnis at least authentic, as it comes from the

anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita same side : " Dice 1' autore due cose :

sit. E la ragione si e perche siccome la prima si e che le persone ecclesiasti-

niuno e eccettuato dalF ubbidienza che che non siano esente dalla potesta seco-

deve a Dio, cosi niuno e eccettuato dall' lai'e ne meno i beni di esse, intendendo

ubbidienza che deve al principe : perche in quelle cose alle quali la detta potesta

comme soggionge I'apostolo, omnis potes- si estende {L e. not to the purely spi-

tas a Deo." ritual) : la seconda che 1' esentione ch'

t Difesa di Giovanni Marsilio a favore hanno li detti ecclesiastici non ^ de jure

della risposta delle otto propositioni, con- divino, ma de jure humano." (p. 62.)
tro la quale ha scritto V ill'"" e rev""" Sr.

§ XII.] DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. 597

pretensions to its exclusive possession. The state, on the
other hand, has occasionally set up a similar claim ; but
perhaps never so boldly and so systematically as in Venice
at the time we are speaking of. It was impossible that
these conflicting claims could ever be adjusted legally and
politically, it was only practicable by means of mutual con-
cessions ; whenever these were refused, there was no other
arbiter but force. Each side had then to try its strength ;
in a struggle for the right to obedience, there was nothing
to be done but to prove which party was strong enough to
enforce it.

On the 17th of April, 1606, pope Paul Y., with all the
rigid and imposing forms of the early ages of the papacy,
and with express reference to so omnipotent a predecessor
as Innocent III., pronounced sentence of excommunication
on the doge, the senate, and all the constituted authorities
of Yenice, and in a more especial manner on the Consul-
tores. He granted them only the shortest possible intervals
for recantation, three of eight and one of three days. After
the lapse of these, all the churches of the Yenetian terri-
tory, convent churches and private chapels not excepted,
lay under interdict, viz. prohibition to perform divine
service. The clergy were imperatively enjoined to an-
nounce this brief of anathema to the assembled congrega-
tions, and to fix it on the church doors. ''^^ The whole
body, from the patriarch to the parish priest, were com-
manded to do this on peril of heavy chastisement from the
hand of justice, human and divine.

Such was the attack ; the defence was not equally
vigorous.

It was proposed in the Collegium of Yenice to enter a
solemn protest, as had been done in former times ; but
this was not carried, on the ground that the pope's sen-
tence was null and void, and had not so much as a show
of justice. In a short proclamation contained in one
quarto page, Leonardo Donato announced to the clergy

* " Mentre in esse si trovera adunata quences. Breve di censure et interdetto

maggior moltitudine di popolo per sentir della Sta di N. S'"« P. Paolo V. contra li

li divini officj " . . . which had occurred S'' Venetiani 1606.
at Ferrara with such serious conse-

598 DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. [Book VI.

the determination of the repubhc to uphold and maintain
the sovereign authority, "which in temporal things acknow-
ledged no superior but God ; " adding, " that her faithful
clergy would of themselves recognise the nullity of the
censure uttered against them, and would go on uninter-
ruptedly in the performance of their sacred functions —
the cure of souls and the worship of God/' There was
not the smallest expression either of fear or of menace ;
it was a simple declaration of confidence. Probably how-
ever something more was done orally.'"'

The question of claim and of right was thus directly
transformed into a question of might and of possession.
Enjoined to obedience by the conflicting commands of
their two superiors, the pope and the repubhc, the Venetian
clergy had now to decide to w^hich of the two they would
render it.

They did not hesitate ; — they belonged to the republic.
Not a single copy of the pope's brief was fixed up.f The
time granted by the pope for recantation expired. Divine
service everywhere went on in its accustomed manner, and
the regular clergy acted in perfect unison with the secular.

The new orders, who were the especial representatives
of the ecclesiastical restoration, i. e. the Jesuits, theatines,
and capuchins, afforded the only exception. The Jesuits
were not entirely resolved within themselves ; they first
consulted their provincial in Ferrara, and then their
general in Rome, who applied to the pope himself: Paul's
answer was, that they must either obey the interdict, or
shake off the dust from their feet and leave Venice : —
doubtless a hard sentence, since they w^ere distinctly
informed that they would never be permitted to return :
but the principle on w^hich the society was founded, left
them no choice ; and, embarking in their own boats, they
sought refuge in the papal territory. J Their example

* This proclamation, issued on the 6th + P. Sarpi, Ilistoria particolare, lib.

of May, 1 ()06, is printed by llampazetto, ii. p. 55, asserts that certain people who

stanipator dueale. On the title-page is had attempted to fix up copies of the

the Evangelist St. Mark with the Gospel bulls were arrested by the uihabitants

and drawn sword. In the senate, ae- themselves.

cording to Prinli, they investigated " le X Juvencius, Hist. Soc. Jesu, v. ii.

nuilit.-i molte e notorie " of the papal brief, p. P3.

§ XII,] DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. 599

infected the other orders with a similar spirit.'""" The
theatines proposed a middle course, which, however, the
Venetians would not listen to ; they would suffer no
division in their land ; their subjects must obey, or void
the country. The deserted churches were readily supplied
with other priests, and it was carefully contrived that no
trace of a deficiency should be discernible. The following
Corpus Christi day was celebrated with peculiar pomp and
an unusually numerous procession.f

Here then was a complete and open schism.

The pope was amazed : the reahties of things stood in
the most abrupt contrast to his exaggerated notions ; —
were there any means of mastering them ?

Paul V. thought at times of trying the force of arms ;
and the warlike spirit was on one occasion so far pre-
dominant in the congregations, that cardinal Sauli exclaimed
that they would chastise the Venetians ; and legates were
actually commissioned and troops armed. But at bottom
they dared not go to war. They must have known that
Venice would probably call in protestant assistance, and
would throw Italy, nay, the whole catholic world, into the
most perilous agitation.

An adjustment of the question of the rights of the church
must eventually be attempted, now as heretofore, by poli-
tical means ; only that now these could not be resorted to
by the contending parties, between whom animosity had
arisen to too high a pitch, but fell to the mediation of the
two great powers — Spain and France. The particular
interests of those countries were of course consulted in this
negotiation. In each there existed a party desirous of an
open rupture.

In Spain, it consisted of the zealous catholics, who hoped
once more to enchain the see of Rome to the monarchy ;
the governors of the Italian provinces, whose power would
be enhanced by war ; and the ambassador Viglienna, who
thought that his house would acquire spiritual dignities.

* V. Sandi (vi. 1110) continues to reformed franciscans, and are men-
speak of "i re forraati di S. Francesco ;" tioned as such on this occasion by A.
but this error, although shared by many Morosini.

other authors, is attributable merely to + A. Maurocenus, Historia Ven., tom.

the fact, that the capuchins are in truth iii. p. 350,

600 DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. [Book VI.

In France, on the contrary, the war-party was com-
posed of the zealous protestants. Sully and his followers
would have gladly seen a war in Italy, as a diversion in
favour of the Netherlands, which were just then pressed by
Spinola.

The parties at length came to demonstrations of hos-
tility. The king of Spain sent a letter to the pope, in
which he promised him assistance, at least in general
terms. In France, the Venetian ambassador received so
many offers from considerable men, that he was of opinion
he could have raised an army of fifteen thousand French-
men in a month. These movements, however, led to
nothing. The most influential ministers, Lerma in Spain
and Villeroi in France, sincerely desired to maintain peace.
The reputation of the former mainly rested on the esta-
blishment of peace ; the latter was a strict catholic, and
would never have consented to make France a party to an
attack on the pope."^^" The sovereigns were of the same
opinion. Henry IV. justly remarked, that by drawing his
sword for the republic, he should risk his reputation as a
good catholic. Philip III. despatched a second letter to
the pope, explanatory of the first, in which he said that he
would support his holiness, but not unless he w^as secure of
indemnity for the cost ; and added that he would stand by
him for good, but not for evil.f

Thus vanished all possibility of a war. Both the great
powers now strove which should contribute the most to
bring about a peace, as a means of strenthening its own
interests ; to this end, Francisco de Castro, Lerma's

* Relatione di Pietro Priuli ritornato sar genti non erano per altro se non per

di Francia 4 Sett. 1608, contains a de- non star in otio mentre tutte potenze del

tailed exposition of the part taken by mondo si armavano, ma che perö non

the French in these transactions. Vil- s'erano proveduti di danaro : raccoman-

leroi declares, " esser questa opportunis- do la pace d' Itaha non potendo perder

sima e propria occasione di guadagnare la republica nell' esser liberale di parole

I'aninio del papa. — II re, assicurato dal ossequenti, per haver in effetto quello

8UO ainbasciatore pi'esso la republica che che desiderava In quel tempo

V. S" non metteria in mano d' altri quosto che il duca di Lerma delle forze da

negotio che della M" S., ebbe raira di amassarsi parlo iperbolicamente all' am-

guadagnare et obligarsi con questa occa- basciator d' Inghilterra, .... scnssono

sione I'animo del pontefice." al papa che S. M" gli aveva ben pro-

t Francesco Priuli, Relatione di Spag- messo d' ajutarlo ma che ciö s' intendeva

na, 20 Ag. 1G08. " Veime il contesta- al bene e non al male, che il

bile a trovarmi «a casa, e mi disse con- cominciar le guerre stiiva in mano degli

stantemente che gli ordini dell' ammas- uomini et il finire in quelle di Dio."

§ XII.]

DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE.

601

nephew, was sent by Spain, and cardinal Joyeuse by
France, to Venice.

I have neither the incHnation nor the power to explain
the whole course of their negotiations ; it is sufficient for
the present purpose to mark its most important points.
The first difficulty was, that the pope demanded, as an
indispensable condition, the suspension of the Venetian
laws which had given him so much offence, and rendered
the suspension of his ecclesiastical censures dependent
upon it.

On the other hand, the Venetians, with a certain repub-
lican self-complacency, were wont to regard their own laws
as something sacred and inviolable. When therefore in
January 1607, the affair came under discussion, it was
rejected in the senate, though not absolutely in the Colle-
gium. *"* The French, who had promised the pope to bring
it forward again, could not even succeed in obtaining a
hearing for it till the following March. Of the four oppo-
nents in the Collegium, one at least then withdrew his
opposition; and the senate, after the matter had been a
second time thoroughly debated (though even now it could
not be brought to a formal and express suspension of the
laws), passed a resolution to the effect, "that the republic
would conduct itself with its accustomed piety." Dim and
vague as these words appear, the ambassador and the pope
thought they perceived in them the fulfilment of their
wishes, and the pope accordingly suspended his censures.

But another most unlooked-for obstacle immediately
arose. The Venetians refused to re-admit the Jesuits, who,
after their voluntary departure, had been excluded from
the dominions of the republic by a solemn decree. Was it

* Ger. Priuli, Cronica Veneta, 20
Zener, 1606 (1607) ; " Dopo lunga dis-
puta di otto giorni e varie pendentie di
giudicio, delibero il senato rispondere
agli ambasciatori di Francia e di Spagna
che il devenir a qualsivoglia forma di
sospensione non si puo accomodar la
republica, essendo cosa di perpetuo pre-
giudicio : il che fu proposto da S. Bembo
et AI. Zorzi savj del consilio et A. Mula
et S. Venier savj della terra ferma."
Others were for a more moderate deci-
sion. Nor was it improbable that they

would carry their point. In the mean-
time came the news that there was
nothing to fear from Spanish arms, in
consequence of the disturbances at Na-
ples. *' E fu percio preso la total nega-
tiva di sospensione." With ninety-nine
against seventy-eight, they had a majo-
rity of twenty-one voices. On the 9th
of March however Bembo himself re-
tired from the commission. On the 14th
of March, the more moderate decision
was taken, in opposition to Zorzi, and in
spite of Mula and Venier.

602 DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. [Book VI.

possible for the pope to abandon his faithful sons, who had
been guilty of no crime but implicit obedience and unalter-
able attachment to him, in such a strait?

He tried every means to change the determination of
the Venetians. The French too espoused the cause of the
Jesuits, who had secured the king's good will in this exi-
gency by a special mission, and had also interested Joyeuse
in their favour. The Venetians remained inflexible. ■^^"

The most remarkable thing was, that the Spaniards
declared against the order, and not, as might have been
expected, for it. The dominican interest was paramount in
Spain ; Lerma did not love the Jesuits, and thought it wrong,
on general grounds, that a state should be forced to receive
back such disobedient subjects ; in short, Francisco di
Castro at first avoided all discussion concerning the Jesuits,
and at length set himself in direct opposition to the steps
taken by the French in their behalf f

This phenomenon, though originating in the situation of
things, was so striking, that the pope himself was startled
by it, and suspecting that it proceeded fi'om some myste-
rious source, ceased to press for the restoration of the
jesuits.;j:

This resolution, however, must have cost him dear. For
an insignificant law or two, he had seemed prepared to set
the world in commotion ; he now acquiesced in the per-
petual exile of his faithful adherents from a catholic and
Italian territory.^

The republic, on the other hand, consented to deliver up
the two priests w^ho had been imprisoned.

She however claimed the right to enter a protest, of

* Pietro Priuli, Relatione di Francia, gente suddita che Taveva si gravemente

adds to this : " Solamente 1' ufficio dell' offesa."

ambasciatore ritenne la dispositione ehe :J: Francesco Priuli : " Venuto 1' avvnso

aveva S. M% eccitata dall' efficaci in- dell' intiero accoraodamento, desisterono

stanze che furono fatte da un padre dal procurare che si trattasse di loro con

Barisoni Padoano mandato in Francia la S'" V., non solo per non aver A'oluto

espressamente dalla sua congregatione parlar di loro, ma per essersi atti'aver-

con pensiero d' ottener di interessarsi sati alii gagliardi ufficj di Francesi : che

acciocche fusscro di nuovo ricevuti." fece dubitare il papa di qualche recondite

+ Francesco Priuli, Relatione di Spag- mistero, e non vi volse insistere con che

na : " Sentendo (i Spagnuoli) che Fran- essi non sapevano che dire,"
ciosi insistevano nell' introduzionc de' § Gcr. Pi'iuli : " Peso molto a S. S*"

Ciesuiti, scrissoro a Koina et a Vcne/ia questa cosa de' Gesuiti, non per loro ma

che non trattassero di cio, dando raj^ione per la sua propria riputatione."
alia rcpublica di non voler capilolare eon

§ XII.] DISPUTES BETWEEN ROME AND VENICE. ^03

which the pope absolutely refused to hear anything. The
expedient on which the parties at length determined is
very curious. '''' The secretary of the Venetian senate led
the prisoners into the palace of the French ambassador
and delivered them up to him, " out of consideration," said
he, " for his Most Christian Majesty, and with the previous
reservation that the rights of the repubhc to judge her own
clergy shall not be in any degree infringed or diminished
by this act."

" So I receive them," said the ambassador ; a-nd led them
to the cardinal, who was walking up and down in a loggia.
" These are the prisoners," said he, " who are to be deU-
vered up to the pope :" — without the smallest allusion to
the reservation. The cardinal, without adding a word,
then gave them in charge to the papal commissary, who
received them, making a sign of the cross.

It is evident how far the hostile parties were as yet from
anything like a good understanding. Their only object
was to make a show of reconciliation ; and to effect this, it
was still necessary that the pope should revoke the cen-
sures and grant absolution.

But even on these points the Venetians had objections
to offer ; they persisted in maintaining that the censures
had been null and void in se, and had never touched them,
and that consequently they stood in no need of absolution.
Joyeuse declared to them that he could not alter the forms
of the church. At length it was agreed that the absolution
should not be pronounced with the customary publicity :
Joyeuse presented himself in the Collegium, and pronounced
it as it were privatim. The Venetians have always ima-
gined that they had thus got off entirely without absolution,
nor indeed was it granted in all its forms ; f but granted it
unquestionably was.

It is evident that, on the whole, the disputed points

* Joyeuse thus mentions it as a con- + Daru, at the end of his 29th book,

dition : " che levandosi le censure siano gives Joyeuse's letter, which is unques-

consignati U due prigioni a clii li riceve tionably the only thing of importance

in nome di S. Santita, li quali, se bene S. he brings forward in reference to this

Serenita (Venice) dice di darli in grati- affair ; but he makes some objections to

ficatione di S. M. Chr™% si dovessero it which appear to me very untenable,
consignare senza dir altro."

604 ISSUE OF THE AFFAIRS OF THE JESUITS. [Book. V.

were not settled so entirely in favour of the Venetians as
is generally affirmed.

The laws of which the pope complained were suspended ;
the priests whom he demanded were delivered up to him ;
even the absolution was, in fact, accepted. Yet all these
points were carried with the most extraordinary quahfica-
tions. The Venetians proceeded, as in an affair of honour,
with the most anxious solicitude about their reputation,
and surrounded every concession with as many reserva-
tions as possible. The pope, on the other hand, was at a
disadvantage, inasmuch as he was constrained to make a
more obvious and less honourable concession than those he
obtained, and one which excited the notice of the whole
world.

From that time the relations between Rome and Venice
fell, at least to appearance, into the old track.* On
receiving the first ambassador from Venice, Paul exclaimed
that old things were put away, — that all was new ; he
sometimes complained that Venice would not forget what
he had forgotten, and he showed a temper as mild and
indulgent as any of his predecessors, f

But the only real result was, that fresh dissensions were
avoided ; the latent discords still subsisted, nor indeed
was it possible for genuine confidence to be so easily
restored.

§ 13. ISSUE OF THE AFFAIRS OF THE JESUITS.

In a similar, that is to say, in as imperfect a manner,
was the dispute between the Jesuits and the dominicans
terminated.

Clement died, as we have seen, before he had pro-
nounced judgment. Paul V., who entered upon the affair
with all the zeal which distinguished the early part of his
administration, (as a proof of which we find that between
September 1605 and February 1606, no less than seven-

* See App. No. 79. vitio d' Italia che fosse serapre buona

•f- Rolatione di Moccnigo, 1612. The inteUigenza f'rji quolla sode e questa i*e-
pope declared, "che conveniva per ser- publica." (App. No. 81.)

§ XIIL] ISSUE OF THE AFFAIRS OF THE JESUITS. 605

teen meetings were held in his presence) was not less
inclined to the old system, of which the dominican party
were the representatives, than his predecessors. In Octo-
ber and November, 1606, assembhes were even held for
the purpose of settling the form in which condemnation
was to be pronounced on the Jesuitical doctrines, and
the dominicans thought the victory was already in their
hands.*

It was just at this time that the disputes with Venice
had been adjusted in the manner which we have related
above ; the Jesuits had given a proof of attachment to the
see of Rome far exceeding any exhibited by the other
orders ; and for this Venice made them suffer.

Under these circumstances it would have appeared an
act of cruelty on the part of the Roman see to visit these
its most faithful servants with a decree of condemnation.
Accordingly, when all was prepared for its publication, the
pope paused. For a while he allowed the affair to rest ;
at length, on the 29th of August, 1607, he issued a declar-
ation by which Disputatores and Consultores were dis-
missed to their several homes ; the decision was to be
made known in due time ; meanwhile it was his hoHness's
most earnest desire that neither party should censure or
reproach the other, f

In this manner the Jesuits had a compensation for the
loss they had sustained in Venice. It was a great gain
for them that their controverted doctrines, although not
confirmed, were not rejected. They even boasted of vic-
tory. With the prejudice of orthodoxy in their favour,
they once more pursued, with persevering zeal, that doc-
trinal path upon which they had entered.

The only question now was, whether they would also
succeed in perfectly appeasing their internal dissensions.

The society was still in a state of the most violent fer-

* Serry, Historia congregationum de gations, in Serry, p. 589 : "Tratantoha

auxiliis, p. 562, and further, gives the ordinate (S. S^) molto seriamente che

documents relating to the matter. " Gra- nel trattare di queste materie nessuno

tise victrici," he says himself, "jam cane- ardisca di qualificare e censurare V altra

batur * lo triumphe.' " parte."

t Coronelli, secretary to the congre-

006 ISSUE OF THE AFFAIRS OF THE JESUITS. [Book VI.

mentation. The changes in its constitution proved to be
inadequate, and the Spanish opposition, vnih. a view to its
own ends, was unwearied in its endeavours to get rid of
Aquaviva. At length the procurators of all the provinces
declared a general congregation to be necessary — a mea-
sure never attempted before ; in the year 1607 they met,
and radical and sweeping changes were once more dis-
cussed.

We have frequently remarked the close connection
which subsisted between the society and France, and the
favour which Henry IV. had shown it. He even took an
interest in the internal divisions of the order, and was a
warm partisan of Aquaviva. In a letter written with that
express object, he not only assured him of his good- will,
but also gave the congregation to understand his wish that
no alteration should be attempted in the constitution of
the society.*

Aquaviva knew how to make excellent use of so power-
ful a protector.

The opposition which he had to encounter had its seat
chiefly in the provincial congregations. He now passed a
law, in virtue of which, first, no proposition should be
regarded as agreed to in a provincial meeting, unless it
were supported by two-thirds of the votes ; and secondly,
a proposition even when approved in this manner, could
not come under discussion in the general meeting, unless it
had the previous consent of the majority ; ordinances by
which it is obvious the influence of the provincial congre-
gations was extremely diminished.

But besides this, a formal sentence of condemnation on
the enemies of the general was pronounced, and the pro-
vincial superiors were expressly admonished to proceed
against the so-called disturbers of the peace. Tranquillity
was thus gradually restored. The Spanish members sub-
mitted, and ceased to struggle against the new spirit which
actuated their order. A more tractable generation gra-

* Literse christianissimi regis ad con- hortamur ad retinendam instituti vestri
gregatos patres, iv. Kal. Dec. 1607, in integritatem et splendorem."
Juveucius, V. ii. lib. ix. n. 108 : " Vosque

§ XIII.] CONCLUSION. 607

dually grew up under the reigning influences ; while on
the other hand, the general strove to requite Henry IV. for
the countenance and favour he had received from him by
redoubled devotedness.

CONCLUSION.

Thus did all these dissensions seem once more likely to
be tranquillised.

But if we reflect on their growth and general result, we
shall perceive that changes of a most important nature had
been wrought in the bosom of the catholic church.

We started from the point at which the papacy, engaged
in a victorious struggle, advanced by constant progression
to the plenitude of power. In strict alliance with the
Spanish policy, it conceived the design of urging on all
the catholic states in one direction, and overpowering the
refractory by one great movement. Had this scheme suc-
ceeded, the ecclesiastical spirit would have risen to absolute
supremacy, would have incorporated all catholic states in
a unity of opinion, faith, conduct, and policy, and would
thus have acquired a resistless influence even over their
internal affairs.

At this very juncture, however, the most violent internal
disunion showed itself

In France the feeling of nationality rose in opposition to
the claims of the hierarchy. Even the more orthodox
catholics would not submit to be guided in all points by
the interests of the church, or the commands of the eccle-
sia^tical sovereign ; there were still principles at work,
such as temporal policy and national independence, which
resisted the encroachments of the papacy with unconquer-
able energy. In the main these principles obtained the
victory ; the pope was forced to recognise them, and the
French church adopted them as its basis.

Hence it followed, however, that France resumed her
hostile attitude towards the Spanish monarchy ; that two

008 CONCLUSION. [Book VI.

great powers, rivals by nature and always disposed for
strife, advanced to the conflict in the centre of the catholic
world. So little was it possible to preserve unity. The
circumstances of Italy were such as to render this conflict,
and the equilibrium of which it was the cause, advanta-
geous to the see of Rome.

Meanwhile too, new theological schisms broke out. How-
ever acute and precise were the definitions of the council
of Trent, they were ineflectual to prevent them ; within
the circle which it had traced there was still room for con-
troversy. The two most powerful orders entered the hsts ;
the two great powers took part to a certain degree in the
contest, while Rome had not courage to pronounce a
decision.

To the other sources of dissension there were now added
the disputes concerning the limits of the spiritual and the
temporal jurisdictions ; disputes of a local origin, and with
a neighbour of no formidable power, but carried on in a
spirit and with a vehemence which conferred upon them
a general importance.""' Justly is Paolo Sarpi's memory
held in reverence in all catholic states. He was the able
and victorious champion of those principles determining the
bounds of ecclesiastical authority, which are their guides
and safeguards to this day.

These conflicts between ideas and doctrines, — between
constitutional government and absolute power, — now
proved the grand impediment to that ecclesiastico-secular
unity which the papacy sought to estabhsh, and indeed
seemed to render it utterly impossible.

The progress of things however proved that pacific ideas
were the strongest. It was impossible to prevent the
internal discords, but an open struggle was avoided. The
peace between the great powers was restored and main-
tained ; the Italian states were not yet fully conscious of
their strength, nor active in the exertion of it ; silence was
imposed on the hostile orders : the struggles between

• " V. S'*,*' exclaims P. Priuli on his al pontefice estendere la sua temporale
return from France, " a dichiarito, si e spirituale autoritu." (Relatione di
puo dire, sin a quai termini sia permesso Francia, 1608.)

Book VI.] CONCLUSION. 609

church and state were not pushed to extremity ; Venice
accepted the offered mediation.

The pohcy of the papacy was, as far as possible, to

assume a position superior to the contending parties, and

to act as a mediator in their differences ; a position and

, character which it still possessed sufficient authority to

sustain.

Without doubt the perpetuation of the struggle with
protestantism, and the advancement of the catholic reform-
ation, in which the influence of the papacy on the world
was mainly exerted, reacted upon this policy, in which at
the same time it originated.

We must now return to the consideration and the further
development of this grand struggle.

END OF VOL. I.

YOL. L RR

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