LIBRARY OF PRINCETON ThTOLOGICAL SEMINARY THE HISTORY or THE POPES, THEIE CHURCH AND STATE, IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. BY / LEOPOLD EANKE. TRANSLATED FROM THE LAST EDITION OF THE GERMAN, BY WALTEE KEATING KELLY, ESQ. B.A. OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. PHILADELPHIA: LEA & BLANCHARD. 1844. AUTHOU^S PEEFACE. The power of Rome in ancient and medieval times is universally knovpn, and in modern times she has also enjoyed a grand epoch of renovated empire. After the revolt from her rule which befel her in the former half of the sixteenth century, she succeeded in once more constituting herself the centre of faith and opinion for the Latin nations of Southern Europe, and made bold, and not unfrequently prosperous attempts, to reconquer her authority over those of the North. This period of the reconstruction of a mixed spiritual and temporal power, its renova- tion and internal reform, its progress and decline, it is my purpose to portray, at least in outline ; an undertaking which, however imperfectly I may have accomplished it, I should not even have thought of attempting, had I not found opportunity to avail myself of certain aids hitherto unknown. It is my duty in the first place to indicate generally the nature and the source of those aids. I have already laid before the public the contents of our Berlin MSS. : but how much wealthier is Vienna in treasures of this kind than Berlin ! Besides its Teutonic basis, the character of Vienna exhibits an European feature : the most diversified manners and tongues meet here, from the highest to the lowest station, and here Italy in particular enjoys a living representation. The collections too of this city are of a more comprehensive character, a fact originating directly in the policy of the state and its position among nations, its ancient alliance with Spain, Belgium, and Lombardy, and its intimate relations of neighbourhood and religion with Rome. Hence, even the original collections of the imperial library, though bearing only on national topics, are of great value. To these some foreign acquisitions have subsequently been added. There have been purchased from Modena, from the house of Rangone, a num- ber of volumes similar to our Berlin " Informazioni ;" from Venice, the invaluable MSS. of the doge Marco Foscarini, amongst wliich are his own preparatory notes for the conti- nuation of his literary work, "Chronicles of Italy," of which no trace is elsewhere to be found. There is also preserved a rich collection of historico-political MSS., left by Prince Eugene, comprehensively and judiciously planned by that distinguished states- man. The reader is animated with pleasure and with hope, as he peruses the catalogue: amidst all the unsatisfactoriness of printed books, what an unwrought mine of information is here ! a whole futurity of study ! And yet but a few steps further, and Vienna lays before us still more valuable stores. The imperial archives contain, as might naturally be surmised, the most important and trustworthy records and materials for the elucidation of German and general history, and more especially of that of Italy. True it is, by far the greater part of the Venetian archives have, after many viscissitudes, found their way back to Venice; but there is still extant in Vienna no small quantity of Venetian papers; despatches, original or copied ; extracts from them for the use of the state, called rubri- iv AUTHOR'S PREFACE. caries ; reports, of which in no few instances no second copy exists, and which are of great value; official registers of government functionaries; chronicles and diaries. The details which will be found in these volumes respecting Gregory XIII. and Sixtus V., are for the most part derived from the Vienna archives. I cannot sufficiently laud the unrestricted liberality with which access to these has been granted me. I ought by all means to particularize in this place the many and various services rendered me towards the furtherance of my task, both at home and abroad ; and yet a Ecruple, whether just or not I cannot tell, occurs to me. I should have to record a mul- titude of names, and among them some of high note : my gratitude would almost look like boasting, and give to a work, that has every reason to appear in modest guise, an air of ostentation that would ill become it. Next to Vienna, my attention was chiefly turned to Venice and Rome. In Venice it was formerly the almost invariable practice of the great houses to have cabinets of MSS., in addition to their libraries. The contents of the former related as a matter of course principally to the affairs of the republic ; they served to show the part taken by the respective families in public affairs, and were preserved as records of the house for the instruction of its younger members. A few of these private collections are still in existence, and I had access to one or two such. But vastly the greater number were lost in the fatal 1797, or have subsequently perished ; and if more of them have been preserved than might have been expected, the credit of this is chiefly due to the librarians of St. Marc, who strove in the general wreck to save as much as the utmost capabilities of their institution allowed. This library possesses an ample stock of MSS., which are of indispensable importance towards the history of the city and the government, and which even throw some light on that of Europe in general. Still we must not expect too much of this collection : it is a somewhat immature assemblage of private ones casually brought together, without completeness or unity of plan. It is not to be compared with the wealth of the government archives, particularly as these are now arranged. In my inquiry into the conspiracy of the year 1618, I have already given an account of the Venetian archives, which I will not here repeat. The docu- ments of most interest for me, as regarded my Roman investigation, were the reports of ambassadors on their return from the papal court. But for this subject too I had much reason to wish for additional aid from other collections : lacunae are no where avoidable ; and these archives have necessarily sustained many losses in their various wanderings. I found altogether eight-and-forty reports respecting Rome, the oldest of them belonging to the year 1500; nineteen of them being of the sixteenth, twenty-one of the seventeenth century, a nearly complete series with but few breaks here and there ; while the eighteenth century numbered but eight, but these very instructive and welcome. In far the greater number of cases I saw and made use of originals. They contain a great multitude of interesting notices, the fruits of direct personal observation, embody- ing evanescent contemporary traits. This it was that first prompted and encouraged me to the task of composing a continuous narrative. The means of authenticating and extending these materials could manifestly be found only in Rome. But was it to be expected, that in that city a foreigner and an alien in religion should be allowed freely to ransack the public collections in order to unveil the secrets of the popedom? This would not perhaps have been quite so ill-advised as it may appear, for no search can bring anything to light worse than vague conjecture surmises, or than the world has already made up its mind to believe. I cannot boast, however, that the thing was so. I was allowed to take cognizance of the treasures of the Vatican, and to make use of a number of volumes: still I was by no means indulged with the freedom I could have desired. Fortunately, however, other collections were thrown open to me, from AUTHOR'S PREFACE. v which very extensive and authentic, if not complete, materials were to be gathered. In the palmy days of aristocracy — that is, especially in the seventeenth century — it was customary throughout all Europe for the noble families that administered affairs of state, to hold in their hands a portion of the public documents. No where, perhaps, did the practice prevail to a greater extent than in Rome. The pope's kinsmen, who at all times possessed supreme power, were in the habit of bequeathing, as heir-looms to the families they founded, a large portion of the state papers they had collected durinf their tenure of authority. These constituted a part of the family endowments. In the palaces they built there were always a few rooms reserved, usually on the upper floor, for books and MSS., which it was a point of honour with succeeding generations to fill as credita. bly as their predecessors had done. Thus, in a certain respect, the private collections are also the public ones ; and the records of the state became dispersed, without a word of objection from any one, throughout the houses of the several families that had exercised the control of public affairs. Somewhat in the same way it happened that the lavish expenditure of the public wealth enriched the papal families, and that the Vatican gal- lery, though distinguished for the number of masterpieces it contains, cannot yet be compared in extent and in historical importance with some private collections, as, for instance the Borghese or the Doria. Thus it is that the MSS. preserved in the Barbe- rini, Chigi, Altieri, Albani, and Corsini palaces are of inestimable value as regards the history of the popes, their ecclesiastical and their civil policy. The state record office, which has been but recently founded, is chiefly worthy of note for its collection of regis- ters illustrative of the middle ages : the investigator of a part of that period will find there much that is worth his attention, though, as far as I am aware, it does not promise much for later centuries. If I have not been purposely deceived, it sinks to nothing in comparison with the splendid wealth of the private collections. Each of these, as may be supposed, embraces more especially the period occupied by the pope of the family ; but since the pope's relations continued in high station after his death, since every one is eager to enlarge and complete a collection he has once begun, and Rome, where a trade in MSS. had sprung up, offered opportunities enough to this end, there is not one of these private collections but contains useful illustrations of other periods also, both recent and remote. The richest of them (in consequence of valuable documentary bequests) is the Barberini : the Corsini was arranged from the very beginning with the utmost circumspection and discrimination. It was my good fortune to be allowed the use of all tliese collections, and of others of less importance, sometimes with the most unrestricted freedom. They presented to me an unlocked for prize in the shape of authentic materials, directly bearing on my subject, consisting of the correspondence of nunciatures, with the instructions imparted to them, and the reports they sent back; copious biographical details of numerous popes, related with so much the more freedom as they were not destined for the public eye ; biographical accounts of distinguished cardinals ; official and private journals ; inquiries respecting special occurrences and circumstances ; opinions and advices ; particulars concerning the administration of the provinces, their trade and manufactures ; statistical tables and computations of income and expenditure. All these were for the most part hitherto wholly unknown, and they are generally the work of men having an intimate practical knowledge of their subject, and of a trustworthiness which does not indeed preclude the exercise of searching and discriminating criticism, provided only it deal with them in the spirit it generally evinces towards well-informed contemporaries. The oldest of these MSS. which I had an opportunity to make use of, related to the conspiracy of the Foscari against Nicholas V. I met with only two pertaining to the fifteenth century : as we enter on the sixteenth century, they become at every step more copious and numerous; they follow the whole course of the seventeenth century, in which so little is confidently known 2 vi AUTHOR'S PREFACE. of Rome, affording information the more welcome in proportion to the previous scantiness of our knowledge : on the other hand, they decline in number and intrinsic worth after the beginning of the eighteenth century : but those were times when court and state had already lost no small portion of their efficiency and importance. I will go through these Roman MSS., as well as the Venetian, in detail at the end of the work, citing whatever has struck me as worthy of attention, and which I could not include in tljp body of the narrative. Indeed, the huge mass of materials now before us in many printed and manuscript papers, makes a strict observance of limits indispensable. An Italian, a Roman, or a Catholic, would enter upon the execution of the task in a totally different manner from that I have pursued. He would, by the expression of per- sonal veneration, or perhaps, as matters stand at present, of personal hatred, give his work a peculiar, and, I doubt not, more brilliant colouring ; in many things too he would be more copious in detail, more ecclesiastical, more local. A Protestant and a native of Northern Germany cannot compete with him in these respects. The latter's feelings with regard to the papal power are much more those of indifference : he must, therefore, from the outset renounce that warmth of tone and colouring which springs from partial or hostile prejudice, and which might perhaps produce a considerable impression in Europe. In reality we feel but little interest in mere matter of ecclesiastical and canon- ical detail, whereas on the other hand our position afibrds us other, and, if I am not mistaken, more just points of view, from which we may contemplate history.* For what is it in this our day that can make the history of the papal power of importance to us 1 Certainly not its special bearing upon ourselves, seeing that it no longer exercises any real influence over us ; nor is it any solicitude it excites in us : the times when we had anything to fear are gone by ; we are too fully secure to harbour any apprehension. It can be nothing else than its development and range of action on the great scene of the world's history. The papal power was not after all so fixed and inflexible as is commonly supposed. If we put out of consideration those principles in which its very existence is essentially involved, and which it cannot abandon without consigning itself to certain ruin, we shall find that in other respects it has been affected to its very core, no less than the other powers, by every fate that has been dealt out to the European family. With every vicissitude in the history of the world, with each successive rise of nation after nation to pre-eminence over the rest, with every fluctuation of the general tide of society, essential metamorphoses befel the papal power, its maxims, tendencies, and pretensions; and, above all, its influence underwent the most important changes. If indeed we cast a glance over the long catalogue of oft-repeated names through the many centuries from Pius I. in the second, to our contemporaries Pius VII. and VIII. in the nineteentii, we are readily impressed with the idea of an uninterrupted stability ; but let us not be misled by appearances : in point of fact, there is much the same difference between the popes of the several ages as between the various dynasties of a kingdom. For us, who stand aloof, the observation of these mutations is precisely matter of the highest interest. We read in them a portion of universal history, of the general progress of man. We read this not exclusively in the periods of Rome's undisputed sovereignty, but perhaps still more legibly in times of clashing action and counter-action, such as those which this work proposes to embrace, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; times in which we see the popedom threatened and rudely shaken, yet standing its ground with head erect, nay extending its influence anew, advancing vigorously for awhile, then lastly halting in its course, and once more bending to its fall; times in • Which cannot have been altered by the events that have occurred since the first publication of this work. The author, on revising this volume, has found occasion for but slight additions and changes, of no importance to the main subject. [Note to the Second Edition] AUTHOR'S PREFACE. vu which the mind of the western nations was chiefly engrossed with ecclesiastica I ques- tions, and when that power, which, deserted and assailed by the one party, was stedfastly adhered to and defended with fresh zeal by the other, was necessarily an object of high and general interest. Such is the point of view from which our natural position demands that we should regard this power, and from which I will now essay to portray it. It is fit that I should begin my task with reminding my readers of the posture of the papal power in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and of the course of events that led thereto. CONTENTS. PART I. author's fueface Page 3 BOOK THE FIRST. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I.— Epochs of the papact. Christianity in the Roman empire 17 The papacy in connexion with the Prankish empire 30 Relation to the German emperors 22 Internal progressive improvement of the hie- rarchy 22 Contrasts between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 26 CHAPTER, n.— The church and its territories in the beginning of the sixteenth centurt. Extension of the ecclesiastical dominions .... 28 I Intellectual tendency 34 Growth of a secular spirit in the church 32 | Opposition to the papacy in Germany 37 CHAPTER ni. — Political complications — connexion between them and the reformation. Leo X 39 I Clement VII 44 Adrian VI 42 | BOOK THE SECOND. BEGINNING OF A REGENERATION OF CATHOLICISM. Introd uction 53 Opinions analogous to protestantism entertain- ed in Italy ib. Attempts at inward reforms, and at a reconcilia- tion with protestants 57 New ecclesiastical orders 64 Ignatius Loyola 66 First sittinjrsof the council of Trent 71 The Inquisition 74 Progress of the Jesuit institution 77 Conclusion 82 BOOK THE THIRD. THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Introduction 82 Paul III 83 Julius III 92 Marcellus II 94 PaulIV 95 Remarks on the progress of protestantism during this reign 103 Pius IV 105 The latter sittings of the council of Trent. . 108 PiusV 115 CONTENTS. BOOK THE FOURTH. COURT AND STATE. TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. PAGE Introduction 123 Administration of the states of the church . . 123 Finances 129 Gregory XIII 134 Sixtus V 139 Extirpation of the banditti 142 PAGE Characteristics of the administration 143 Finances 146 Architectural enterprises of Sixtus V 148 General changes in the intellectual tendency of the age 1 52 The Curia 157 BOOK THE FIFTH. COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. 1563—1569. Introduction 1 62 Situation of Protestantism about the year 1563 163 Capacities of the papacy for contest 167 The first Jesuit schools in Germany 169 Beginning of the counter-reformation in Ger- many 1 72 Troubles in the Netherlands and in France. . 177 Resistance made by the protestants in the Netherlands, France, and Germany 181 Contrasts exhibited throughout the rest of Europe 1 84 Crisis in the Netherlands, 188 Progress of the counter-reformation in Ger- many 194 The Ligue 203 Savoy and Switzerland 207 Attempt on England 208 Assassination of Henry III 210 PART II. BOOK THE SIXTH. INTERNAL DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL- 1589—1607. Introduction 213 Ecclesiastico-political theory 214 Conflict of Doctrines 217 Latter times of Sixtus V 219 Urban VII., Gregory XIV., Innocent IX., and their conclaves, 1590, 1591 225 Election and character of Clement VIII. . . . 227 Absolution of Henry IV 230 Ferrara under Alfonso II 236 Conquest of Ferrara 240 Commotions among the Jesuits 243 Political situation of Clement VIII 251 Election and first proceedings of Paul V. . . 254 Disputes with Venice 256 Issue of the affairs of the Jesuits 264 Conclusion 265 BOOK THE SEVENTH. COUNTER-REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD. 1590—1630. CHAPTER I. — PROGRESS of the restoration op CATHOLICISM. 1-590—1617. Introduction 266 § 1. — Measures taken on behalf of Catholicism in Poland and the adjoining countries ... ib. Attempt on Sweden 268 Designs on Russia 273 Internal commotions in Poland 274 § 2. — Continuation of a counter-reformation in Germany 276 Nunciature in Switzerland 282 Regeneration of Catholicism in France .... 284 CONTENTS. Breaking out of war, CHAPTER II.— GEKBRAL WAR.— TRIUMPH OP CATHOLICISM. 1617—1623. PAGE PAGE 287 I Gregory XV 291 CHAPTER III. — GENERAL OUTSPREAD OF CATHOLICISM. I. Bohemia and the hereditary dominions of Austria 293 II. The Empire. Transfer of the Electorate 296 III. France 298 IV. United Netherlands 299 V. State of Catholicism in England ib. VI. Missions 302 CHAPTER IV.— COlfFLICTING POLITICAL RELATIONS. NEW VICTORIES OF CATHOLICISM. 1623 — 1628 256 CHAPTER V. — MANTUAN WAR.— THIRTY YEARS* WAR. — REVOLUTION IN THE STATE OF THINGS. Mantuan Succession 313 Urban VIII 315 The power of the emperor Ferdinand in the year 1629 319 Negociations with Sweden. Electoral diet at Ratisbon .320 Swedish war. — Position of the pope 323 Restoration of the balance of the two confes- sions 321 BOOK THE EIGHTH. THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.— LATER EPOCHS. Introduction. . . 328 The escheat of Urbino ib. Increase of the debts of the ecclesiastical states 330 Foundation of new families 331 War of Castro 334 Innocent X 338 Alexander VIT. and Clement IX. 342 Elements of the Roman population 345 Edifices erected by the Popes 347 Digression concerning queen Christina of Sweden 351 Administration of Church and State 358 The Jesuits in the middle of the seventeenth century 383 The Jansenists. 367 The position of the court of Rome with re- gard to the two parties 370 Relation of the Roman see to the temporal power 372 Transition to the later epochs of the papacy. 374 Louis XIV. and Innocent XI 375 The Spanish succession 379 Altered stale of Europe. Internal ferments. 381 Suppression of the order of Jesuits 383 Joseph II 387 The French Revolution 388 The times of Napoleon 389 The Restoration 392 Conclusion 395 PART III. APPENDIX. INDEX . Page 397 629 LIST OF THE POPES AND LEADING SOVEREIGNS OF EUROPE IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. Alexander VI. Pius III. Julius II. EMPERORS KINGS OP FRANCE. KINCS OF SPAIN Leo X. Adrian VI. Clement VII. Paul III. Julius III. Marcellus II. Pius IV. Pius V. Gregory XIII. Sixtus V. 1492 1493 1498 1503 1503 1504 1509 1513 1515 1516 1519 1522 1523 1534 154 1550 1553 155 1556 1558 1559 1560 1564 1566 1572 1574 1576 1585 1589 1590 1590 1591 1592 1598 1603 1605 1610 1612 16191 .... 1621 Gregory XV 1623 Urban VIII 1625 1637 1643 1644 1649 1655 1658 1660 1665 1667 1670 1676 1685 163 169 1700 Frederick III. Maximilian I. Charles VIII. Louis XII. Charles V. Ferdinand I. Urban VII. Gregory XIV. Innocent IX. Clement VIII. Henry II. Maximilian II. Rodolph II. Leo XI. Paul V. Ferdinand and Isabella. Philip I. Francis I. Charles I. (Emp. Chs. V.) Francis II. Charles IX. Henry III. Henry IV. Matthias Ferdinand II. Ferdinand III Innocent X. Alexander VII. Clement IX. Clement X. Innocent XI. yexanderVIII Innocent XII. 'lement XI. Louis XIII. KINQS OF EKOLXMD. Henry VII. Henry VIIL Philip II. Edward VI. Mary. Elizabeth. Philip IIL Leopold I. Philip IV. Louis XIV. James I. Charles I. Charles II. Philip V. The Commonwealth. Charles II. James II. William and Mary. x^hhto^-tgh THE POPES OE EOME, THEIR CHURCH AND STATE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTFEIES. BOOK THE FIRST. INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. EPOCHS OF THE PAPACY. Christianity in the Roman Empire. If we take a general survey of the world in the earliest times, we find it filled with a mul- tude of independent tribes. We see them set- tled round the Mediterranean, from the coasts as far inland as the country had yet been ex- plored; variously parted from each other, all originally confined within narrow limits, and living under purely independent and peculi- arly constituted forms of government. The independence they enjoyed was not merely political: in every country a local religion arose ; the ideas of God and of divine things became as it were appropriated to certain places ; national deities of the most diversi- fied attributes occupied the world ; and the law obeyed by their votaries became insepar- ably identified with that of the state. We may venture to assert that this intimate union of religion and state, this twofold freedom, which was shackled only with the light obli- gations imposed by community of blood, had the largest share in fashioning the character of antiquity. Men were confined in those days within narrow limits, but within these the exuberance of a young and uncoerced ex- istence was left to develope itself as its own free impulses prompted. How wliolly was all this changed when the power of Rome gained the ascendant ! We see, one after the other, all the primitive legislations that filled the world bow down and disappear ; how denuded of free peoples did the earth suddenly become ! In other times states have been convulsed because their subjects had ceased to believe in the religion they sanctioned ; in those days the subjection of the state necessarily induced the downfall of its religion. They were both inevitably hurried along by the current of political power, and carried together into Rome: but what significance could they pos- sess when uprooted from the soil to which they had been indigenous] The worship of Isis had probably a meaning in Egypt : it was a deification of the forces of nature as they are witnessed in that country : in Rome it became a mere unmeaning idolatry. Nothing, there- fore, could ensue from the reciprocal contact of the several mythologies, but their mutual hostility and extinction. No system of philo- sophy could be devised capable of reconciling' their contradictions. But even had this been possible, it would not have satisfied the wants of the world. With all our sympathy for the downfall of so many free states, we cannot deny that a new life was directly generated from their ruin. Simultaneous with the death of their independence, was the downfall of the barrier set up by their narrow national spirit. The nations were subdued, involved in one com- mon system of conquest, but by that very means they were united and blended together. The very range of this empire being desig- nated by the name of orbis terrarum, its in- habitants looked upon themselves as a single collective body. The human race began to be conscious of its common nature. At this crisis of the world's progress Jesus Christ was born. How unpretending and obscure was his life : his occupation, the healing of the sick, and to talk of God in signs and parables, to a few fishermen who did not always understand Him: He had not where to lay his head : but, even taking our stand upon this our review of the world's history, we may affirm, never has this earth exhibited anything more guile- less or mighty, sublimer or holier than his walk, his life, and his death ; in every sen- tence He uttered breathes the very breath of God ; his are words, as St. Peter says, of everlasting life: the records of the human 18 EPOCHS OF THE PAPACY. [iNTROD. race offer nothing worthy of remote compari- son with them. If the national creeds ever contained within them a germ of practical religion, this had now been wholly obscured ; they had, as already said, no longer a meaning: in Him, who was both God and man, there stood in contrast with them the eternal and universal relation- ship of God to the world, of man to God. Christ was born in a nation between which and all others an exclusive and uncompromis- ing ritual law had drawn the strictest line of demarcation ; but whose measureless merit it was to have clung with unchanging and in- vincible stedfastness to that monotheism it had from the very beginning received as its creed. Undoubtedly it did, like other nations, regard this as a religion intrinsically belonging to itself, but now it received a wholly different significancy. Christ put an end to the law by fulfilling it : the Son of man proved himself, according to his own expression, Lord also of the sabbath ; He freed that which was essen- tial and eternal from forms whose meaning a narrow understanding had failed to seize ; and now from out a people hitherto severed from i all others by insurmountable barriers of sen- timent and custom, there arose with all the energy of truth, a faith that invited and em- braced them all. The common God of all was proclaimed, who, as St. Paul preached to the Athenians, " hath made of one blood all races of men to dwell on the face of the earth." The fitting time, as we have seen, was ar- rived for this sublime doctrine : there existed a human race to adopt it. " It gleamed over the earth like a sunbeam," as Eusebius says.* In brief time we behold it outspread over the whole range of the empire, from the Euphrates to the Ebro, the Rhine, and the Danube. But guileless and gentle though it was, it was in the very nature of things that it should encounter strong opposition from the existing creeds, which had attach,ed themselves to the habits and wants of society, and to all tradi- tional feelings, and which had now taken a turn that enabled them to reflect the constitu- tion of the empire. The political spirit of the antique religions came forth once more in a new guise. The sum and substance of all the old independent systems that had once filled the world, had fallen into the grasp of one ; there existed but a single power that seemed self-dependent ; religion acknowledged this when it sanctioned the payment of divine honour to the emperor. Temples were erected to him, altars heaped with sacrifices, oaths were sworn by his name, and festivals were solemnized in honour of him ; his images invested the place where they stood with the right of sanctuary. The adoration paid to the genius of the emperor was, perhaps, the only universal worship in the empire.* All idolatries regarded it with favour, for it afforded them countenance and support. This worship of the Caesar and the doctrine of Christ bore, with relation to the local reli- gion, a certain degree of mutual resemblance, while at the same time they were contrasted with each other to the utmost conceivable de- gree. The emperor regarded religion in its most worldly point of view, as bound to earth and the things of earth : to him be these surren- dered, says Celsus ; from him come whatever each man possesses. Christianity regarded it in the fulness of the Spirit and of heavenly truth. The emperor identified religion and the state : Christianity above all things separated that which is God's from that which is Caesar's. Every sacrifice offered to the emperor was a confession of the lowest thraldom. That very thing wherein had consisted the freedom of the constitution, the ilnion of religion and the state, was now the confirmation of sub- jection. The injunction of Christianity, for- bidding its followers to sacrifice to the emper- ors, was an act of emancipation. Lastly, the worship of the emperor was re- stricted within the limits of the empire, the supposed orb of the earth; Christianity was destined to embrace the world's real limits, and the whole race of man. The new faith sought to revive among the nations the prime- val religious sentiment, (if it be true that such a thing was antecedent to all idolatries) or at least an absolutely pure sentiment u-nsullied by any necessary relation to the state, and set this in opposition to that imperious power, which, not content with earthly things, would grasp divine things likewise. By this means mankind became possessed of a spiritual ele- ment in which it was again self-sustained, free, and personally invincible; a new vital- ity filled the bosom of the freshened earth ; it was fructified for the birth of new productions. The contest lay between the earthly and the spiritual, thraldom and freedom, slow de- cay and the rekindling of youthful vigour. This is not the place for describing the long strife between these principles. All the vital elements of the Roman empire were set in motion, and, gradually seized and penetrated by the Christian system, were hurried onward in this grand spiritual march. "The error of idolatry," says Chrysostom, " was by its own self extinguished.."! ♦ Hist. Eccl. ii. 3. ♦ Eckhel, Doctrina nummorum veterum, pt. ii. vol. viii. p. 4-5G. He quotes a passage from Tertullian, from which it would appear, tiiat the adoration of the Csesar waa also at times the most fervent of all. 'liuxtAvoi KAi TTPce "EXAXK^tf.— Chrj-sosiomi 0pp. od. Paris, U. 540. INTROD.] CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 19 Already paganism appears to him as a con- quered city, whose walls are demolished, its halls and theatres and public buildings burned to the ground, its defenders prostrate, while only here and there a few aged persons and children are seen surviving amidst its ruins. Ere long these too were no more; and a transmutation without a parallel ensued. Out of the catacombs ascended the worship of the martyrs ; on the spots where the Olym- pic Gods had been adored, from the self-same columns that had sustained their temples, arose shrines to the memory of those who had died for scorning their worship. The religious system, begun in deserts and in dungeons, overspread the world. It sometimes excites surprise that precisely a secular building of the pagans, the basilica, should have been transformed into a Christian temple. There is something very suggestive in this. The apsis of the basilica contained an Augustcum,* the images of those very Cfesars to whom di- vine honours had been paid. To their place succeeded, as we see in so many basilicas to this day, the images of Christ and the apos- tles ; instead of the world's masters, who were themselves regarded as gods, appeared the Son of God clothed in the nature of man. The local deities faded away. On every high- way, on the mountain cliffs and in the passes through the ravines, on the housetops and on ranks, consecrated by the imposition of hands, withdrawn from all secular pursuits, is pledged to devote itself " to spiritual and divine purposes." At first, the Church con- ducted itself in accordance with republican forms, but these disappeared in proportion as the new faith advanced to supremacy. By and by, the minister of religion assumed a position diametrically contrasted with that of the layman. It was not, I think, without a certain in- trinsic necessity that this occurred. In the advance of Christianity was involved an eman- cipation of religion from the political element, and this infers the establishment of a distinct spiritual class with peculiar institutions. In this separation of the Church from the State, consists perhaps the greatest and most tho- roughly effective peculiarity of the Christian times. The spiritual and the temporal powers may closely affect each other, they may exist in the most intimate communion ; but per- fectly to coalesce is what they can do at the very most but exceptionally and for a short while. In their mutual relations and bear- ings has been involved, ever since those days, one of the most important considerations pre- sented in all history. At the same time, the constitution of this class was necessarily modelled on that of the empire. The hierarchy of the bishops, me- the mosaic of the floors, was seen the emblem tropolitan patriarchs, arose in correspondence of the Cross. The victory was complete and decisive. As the labarum appears over the vanquished dragons on the coins of Constan- tino, so the worship and the name of Christ towered over flillen paganism. Regarded in this aspect too, how immense is the impor- tance of the Roman empire. In the centur- ies of its rise it shattered independence, and prostrated the nations ; it annihilated every feeling of self-reliance involved in isolation ; on the other hand, it beheld in later times the true religion springing up in its bosom, the purest expression of a common consciousness prevailing more widely far than the limits of its empire, the consciousness of community in the one true God. May we venture to say that the empire, by this development, an- nulled its own necessity] The human race was thenceforth acquainted with the depths of its own nature ; it had found its own unity in religion. To this religion the Roman empire now gave moreover its outward form. The heathen priesthoods were assigned in the same way as civil offices ; in the Jewish system, one tribe was specially charged with spiritual functions : it is the distinctive of Christianity, that in it a particular class, com- posed of members voluntarily seeking its with the gradations of the civil administra- tion. It was not long before the Roman bishops assumed the highest rank. It is in- deed an idle pretence to assert that they en- joyed in the first century, or at any period whatever, a supremacy universally recognized by East and West ; but unquestionably they speedily attained a consequence that exalted tliem above all other ecclesiastical dignita- ries. Many circumstances combined towards this consummation. Seeing that in every instance the superior importance of a provin- cial capital endowed its bishop with a peculiar preponderence, how much more must this liave been the case with the ancient capital of the entire empire, from which the latter even derived its name?* Rome was one of the most illustrious apostolic sees; here had the greatest number of martyrs shed their blood ; the bishops of Rome had borne themselves with pre-eminent firmness during the perse- cutions, and frequently had they succeeded each other not so much in office as in martyr- dom and death. But now, in addition to all this, the emperors were disposed to favour the rise of a great patriarchal authority. In a law, that proved decisive of the supremacy over Christendom, Theodosius the Great en- joins, that all nations subject to his clemency * I talfp. this fact from E. Q. Visconti, Museo Pio-Clem- * Casauboni Exercitaiiones ad Annates Ecclesiasticoa emino VII. p. lUO, ed. of 1S07. I Baronii, p. 260. 20 EPOCHS OF THE PAPACY. [iNTROD. should follow the faith propounded to the I Romans by St. Paul.f Valentinian III. for- bade the bishops both of Gaul and of the other provinces to depart from the received customs of the Church, without the sanction of that venerable authority, the pope of the holy city. Thenceforth the power of the Roman bishop grew up under the protection of the emperor himself: but at the same time a limit was set to it by the very circumstance of this political connexion. Had there been but one emperor, the universal supremacy might then have been firmly established ; but this was forbid- den by the partition of the empire. It was impossible that the eastern emperors, who clung so jealously to their ecclesiastical rights, should have favoured the outspread of the power of the western patriarchs in their dominions. In this respect, too, the constitu- tion of the Church reflected that of the em- pire. The Papacy in connexion with the Frank- ish Empire. Hardly had this grand change been ac- complished, the Christian religion planted, and the Church founded, when new events of vast magnitude arose : the Roman empire, so long victorious, was now in its turn assailed by its neighbours, invaded, and vanquished. In the huge downfall that ensued, Christi- anity itself was once more shaken to its foundations. The Romans in their hour of peril bethought them once more of the Etru- rian mysteries, the Athenians trusted to be saved by Achilles and iVIinerva, the Cartha- ginians prayed to the genius Ccslestis. But these were only transient emotions ; whilst the empire was shattered in the western pro- vinces, the entire edifice of the Church held cut unbroken even there. Nevertheless, it too unavoidably fell into manifold painful trials, and found itself in a wholly altered condition. A pagan nation laid hold on Britain ; Arian kings subdued the greater part of the remaining West ; the Lombards, for a long time Arians, and always dangerous and ill-disposed neighbours, found- ed a powerful realm in Italy before the gates of Rome. While the Roman bishops, thus hemmed in on all sides, were bestirring themselves — and that with all the shrewdness and pertina- city which has ever since been their peculiar characteristic — to become once more masters, at least in their old patriarchal diocese, a new and still heavier calamity befel them. + Codex-Theodos. xvi. 1,2. Cunclos populos quos cle- menlise nostrae regit lemperanipntimi, in tali volumus religione versari quam divinum Petnim Aposloluiii tradi- disse Romanis, religio usque nunc ab ipso insinuata de- claral. The edict of Valentinian III. is noticed also by Planck, Geschichte der chrisllichkirchlichen Gesell- schaflsverfassung, i. 642. The Arabs, not mere conquerors like the Ger- mans, but men inspired to fanaticism by a haughty dogmatic faith, radically and invete- rately hostile to Christianity, swept over the West as they had done over the East ; they conquered Africa after repeated attacks, Spain in a single campaign ; and Musa boast- ed that he would push forward through the passes of the Pyrenees and over the Alps to Italy, and cause the name of Mohammed to be proclaimed from the Vatican. The situation in which the western portion of Roman Christendom was then placed, was the more perilous, inasmuch as at that mo- ment the iconoclastic controversy was raging with the most bitter animosity. The emperor of Constantinople had adopted a different side from that of the pope of Rome ; he even more than once practised against the latter's life. The Lombards were not slow to perceive the advantage likely to accrue to them from these dissensions. Their king Astulphus seized on provinces that, till then, had always recog- nized the emperor's supremacy : he advanced against Rome, and summoned that city too with vehement threats to surrender to him and pay him tribute.* Help there was none in the Roman world ; not even against the Lombards, still less against the Arabs, who meantime began to lord it over the Mediterranean, and threaten- ed Christendom with a war for life or death. But, happily, the means of help were no longer confined witliin the limits of ihe Roman empire. Christianity, in accordance with its primary destiny, had long overspread those limits : in the West it had especially laid hold on the Germanic tribes ; nay, a Christian power had already arisen amongst these, to which the pope had but to stretch out his hands to pro- cure ready allies against all his enemies and the most energetic succour. Of the Germanic nations the Frankish alone had become Catholic on its very first rise in the Roman empire. This step on its part had helped it to great advantages. The Franks found natural allies a^ftiong the sub- jects of their Arian enemies, the Burgundians and West Goths. We read of numerous mi- racles said to have occurred to Clovis : how St. Martin discovered to him the ford over the Vienne by means of a hind ; how St. Hil- ary marshalled his way in a pillar of fire : we shall not be far astray if we conjecture, that in these legends are veiled, under sensible imagery, the acts of assistance rendered by * Anastasius Bibliothecarius : Vitae Pontificum. Vita Stpphani III. Paris edit. p. 8-3. Tremens ut leo pestiferas minas Kouumis dirigere non pesinebat, asserens omnes uno gladio jugulari, nisi suaesese^subderentditioni. [Rag- ing like a lion, he ceased not to utter deadly threats against the Romans, declaring that he would put them indiscriniinalely to tlie sword if they did not yield to his sway.] INTROD.] THE PAPACY AND THE FRANK EMPIRE. 21 the natives to a participator in their own creed, to whom, as Gregory of Tours says, they wished victory " with eager inclination." But the attachment to Catholicism, thus confirmed from the very first by consequences of such magnitude, was subsequently revived, and mightily corroborated, by a very peculiar influence from another quarter. Pope Gregory the Great happened to see some Anglo-Saxons in the slave market in Rome, who attracted his attention, and prompted him to cause the promulgation of the Gospel amongst the people to which they belonged. Never, perhaps, did a pope adopt a resolution pregnant with more important results. With the new doctrine a spirit of veneration for Rome and the holy see, such as had never before existed elsewhere, be- came implanted in Germanic Britain. The Anglo-Saxons began to make pilgrimages to Rome ; they sent their youth thither ; King Offa established the tribute called Peter's pence, for the education of the clergy, and the relief of pilgrims ; the higher orders travelled to Rome to die there, and so be more cordial- ly received into heaven by the saints. It was as though that nation applied to Rome and the Christian saints the old Teutonic superstition, that the gods are nearer to some places than to others. But in addition to all this, results far weightier still ensued when the Anglo-Sax- ons began to propagate these views and feel- ings of theirs on the continent, and in the Frankish realm. The apostle of the Germans was an Anglo- Saxon. Bonifacius, thoroughly imbued as he was with the reverence for St. Peter and his successors common to his nation, pledged Jiimself from the very first to adhere faith- fully to the ordinances of the Roman see ; and this vow he most scrupulously fulfilled. He imposed on the German church he found- ed an extraordinary obligation to obedience. The bishops were required distinctly to vow that they would persist to their lives' end in submissiveness to the Romish church, St. Peter, and his representative. Nor did he eft'ect this only with the German bi.shops : those of Gaul had hitherto maintained a cer- tain independence of Rome. Bonifacius, whose lot it was to preside a few times in their synods, there found an opportunity to dispose this western part of the Frankish church to' the same way of thinking ; and thenceforth the Gallic archbishops received the pallium from Rome. In this manner did the Anglo- Saxon submissiveness extend over the entire Frankish realm. And this realm was now the centre of the whole Germanic west. The murderous fren- zy by which the Merovingian race had wrought its own destruction, had not impair- ed the strength of the empire. Another family rose in its stead to the supreme power ; men, all of them, full of energy, of command- ing will, and lofty vigour. Whilst other realms were toppling down in ruin, and the world seemed destined to fall a prey to the Moslem sword, it was this race, the house of Pepin of Heristall, afterwards called the Car- lovingian, that made the first and the decis- ive stand against the Mahommedan con- querors. This family moreover favoured the religious development now in process of accomplish- ment ; we find it very early in good intelli- gence with Rome ; the labours of Boniface were carried on under the special protection of Charles Martel and Pepin le Bref.* Let us now picture to ourselves what was the temporal position of the Papal power. On the one side, the East Roman empire crumbling to ruin ; weak, incapable of pro- tecting Christendom against Islamism, unable even to defend its own territories in Italy against the Lombards, and yet pretending to an all-commanding voice even in spiritual mat- ters ; on the other, the German nations, full of life and vigour, and victorious over Islam- ism, devoted with all the fresh ardour of youth to the authority of which they were still in need, and animated with a boundless volun- tary devotion. Already Gregory II. was fully sensible to the value of the prize he had won. " All they of the West," he writes in the fulness of his self-complacency to the iconoclast emperor, Leo the Isaurian, " have their eyes bent on our humility; they regard us as a god on earth." But his successors were continually more and more impressed with the necessity of separating themselves from a power that only imposed duties upon them, while it could render them 'no protection in return ; the suc- cession or the Roman name and empire was not sufficient to bind them ; on the contrary, turning to those from whom alone they could expect any help, they entered with the supreme chiefs of the West, the Frankish monarchs, into an alliance, that every year became more strict, was productive of the greatest advantages to both parties, and finally manifested a vast and important bearing on the whole scheme of history. As Pepin the younger, not content with the reality of kingly power, began to long for the name too, he felt his full need of a higher sanction ; and this the pope afforded him. In *Bonafacii Epistolae ; ep. 12 ad Danielem episc. Sine patrocinio principis Fraiiconim nee populum regere, nee presbyteros vel uiaconos, monachos, vel ancillas Dei de- lendere possum, nee ipsos pa^anorum ritus el sacrilegia idolorum in Germania sine illius mandalo et limore pro- hibere valeo. [Witlioul the patronage of llie sovereign of the Franks, I can neillter rule the people nor defend the priests and deacons, the monks, and the handmaids of God, nor can I put a stop to pagan rites and sacrilegi- ous idolatries in Germany, without his mandate, and the awe of his name.] 22 EPOCHS OF THE PAPACY. [iNTROD. return, the newly-made king- took upon him to defend "the Holy Church, and God's com- monvveath," against the Lombards. To defend them merely, was not enough for his zeal ; he very soon compelled the Lombards to surren- der the Italian territory, the Exarchate, of which they had despoiled the East Roman empire. Justice obviously demanded that this should be restored to the emperor to whom it belonged; and the proposal was made to Pepin. His answer was, that " he had not taken the field for the sake of a man, but solely out of his veneration for St. Peter, to the end that he might obtain forgiveness of his sins."* He caused the keys of the conquered towns to be laid on St. Peter's altar. This was the foun- dation of the whole temporal dominion of the popes. In this lively spirit of mutual serviceable- ness the alliance was continued and further developed. At last Charlemagne wholly rid the pope of his so long troublesome and oppres- sive neighbours the Lombards. In his own person he manifested the most profound defer- ence for the holy father; he visited Rome, kissing the steps of St. Peter's as he ascend- ed ; he entered the vestibule, where the pope awaited him, and confirmed to the pontift'the gifts made by Pepin. The pope, on his part, continued the monarch's most unswerving friend : the relations in which the spiritual chief stood to the Italian bishops made it an easy matter for Charlemagne to master the Lombards, and possess himself of their king- dom. Now this course of events was forthwith to lead to a still greater result. The pope could no longer abide without foreign aid in his own city, where the strife of opposite factions was raging with the utmost violence; Charlemagne accordingly^ncemore visited Rome, to afford him the assistance he needed. The aged monarch was now full of renown and victory. He had, in a long course of warfare, subdued one by one all his neigh- bours, and well-nigh united under his sway all the Latin and Teutonic nations of Christen- dom ; he had led them to victory against their common enemy: it was matter of remark that he possessed all the seats of the western empe- rors in Italy, Gaul, and Germany, and their power likewise.! True, since their day, those countries had become altogether another world ; but should they, therefore, be a bar to this dignity ! Thus Pepin received the royal * Anastasiua : affirmans etiam sub juramento quod per nuUius hominis favorem sese cenamini saepius dedisset, nisi pro amore Petri et venia delictorum. t So I understand the Annales Laureshamensps : ad annum 801. Visum est et ipsi apostolico Leoni, ut ipsum Carolum regem Francorum imperaiorem noniinare debuis- eent, qui ipsam Romam tenebat, ubi semper Ctesares seders soliti erant, et reliquas sedes quas ipse per Ilaliam eeu Galliam nee non et Germaniam tenebat (he meant to say: ipsi tenebanl) : quia Deus omnipolens has omnes sedes in potestalem ejus concessit, ideo justum eis vide- baiur, ut ipse cum Dei adjutorio . . . ipsum nomen haberet. diadem, because he who possesses the power is no less entitled to the dignity. On this occasion, too, the pope came to a similar reso- lution. Penetrated with gratitude, and in need, as he well knew, of permanent protec- tion, he crowned Charlemagne on Christmas eve of the year 800 with the crown of the western empire. With this act was fully accomplished that series of historical events, which had begun with the first incursions of the German tribes into the Roman empire. A Frank sovereign succeeded to the position of the Western Roman emperors, and exer- cised all their prerogatives. We see Char- lemagne fully executing the most indisputable acts of supreme authority in the territories that had been conferred on St. Peter. In like manner his nephew Lothaire appointed his own judges there, and annulled confiscations made by the pope. The pope, on the other hand, supreme head of the hierarchy in the Roman West, became a member of the Frank empire. He broke off" from the East, and gra- dually ceased to meet with any further recog- nition there. The Greek emperors had long despoiled him of his eastern diocese.* To compensate him for this, the western churches (not excepting the Lombard, on which the Prankish institutions had been engrafted) ren- dered him an obedience such as he had never before enjoyed. Admitting schools in Rome for Frieslanders, Saxons, and Franks, by means of which that city itself began to be german- ized, he commenced tliat blending of Latin and German elements, which has since shaped the character of the West. In the moment of its utmost adversity his power struck fresh root; when it seemed devoted to ruin, it secured for itself a firm and lengthened endu- rance. The hierarchy, formed in the Roman empire, ditliised itself amongst the German nations; and there it found a limitless field for an ever progressive activity, in the course of which it first fully developed the germs of its nature. Relation to the German Emperors. — Internal progressive Improvement of the Hierarchy. We pass over centuries, in order to arrive at a more clear conception of that point of development to which they led. The Prankish empire is prostrate ; the German is risen in the utmost vigour. Never has the German name stood higher in Europe than in the tenth and eleventh cen- * Nicholas I. bewails the loss of the patriarchal power of the Koman see : per Epirum veterem Epirumque novam alque Illyricum, Macedoniam, Thessaliam, Acliaiam, Da- ciam ripensem Daciamque mediterraneam, Moesiam, Dar- daniaii], Preevalem, andllie loss of the patrimony in Cala- bria and Sicily. Pagi (Critica in Annales Baronii) couples this letter with another of Adrian l.'s to Charlemagne, from which it appears that this loss resulted out of the iconoclastic controversy. INTROD.] THE POPES AND THE GERMAN EMPERORS, 23 turies, under the Saxon and first Salique emperors. We see Conrad 11. hurrying- from the eastern frontiers, where the King of Poland had been forced to submit to personal subjec- tion and the partition of his territories, and where the Duke of Bohemia had been con- demned to incarceration, to support Burgundy against the pretensions of the French gran- dees. He vanquishes them in the plains of Champagne : his Italian vassals cross the St. Bernard to his aid : he causes himself to be crowned at Geneva, and holds his diet at Solo- thurn. Immediately after this we meet him in Lower Italy. " He put an end by his word," says his historian Weppo, " to the dis- sensions on the confines of his empire in Capua and Benevento." Henry III. ruled with no less vigour : at one time we find him by the Scheldt and the Lys, victorious over the Counts of Flanders; presently in Hungary, which he compelled, at least for a consider- able time, to do him feudal service, beyond the Raab, and scorning all limits but those set him by the elements. The King of Denmark goes in quest of him to Merseburg ; one of the most powerful princes of France, the Count of Tours, acknowledges himself his vassal ; and the Spanish histories relate, that he demanded of Ferdinand I. of Castile, victorious and powerful as the latter was, that he should be recognised by all Christian kings as their liege suzerain. If we now inquire on what intrinsically rested this power, so wide in its range, and which laid claim to an European supremacy, we shall find that it contained within it a very important ecclesiastical element. The Ger- mans conquered whilst they made converts. , Their marches advanced in conjunction with the church over the Elbe, to the Oder on the one side, to the Danube on the other : monks and priests were the forerunners of German influence in Bohemia and Hungary. By this means a great accession of strength every where accrued to the spiritual power. In Germany bishops and abbots of the empire enjoyed, not only in their own possessions, but beyond them, the rights of counts, nay, some- times of dukes ; and ecclesiastical estates were no longer described as situated in such or such a county, but the counties as in such and such bishoprics. In Upper Italy almost all the towns became subject to the viscounts of their bishops. It would be an error to infer from this that the spiritual powers had already acquired a special independence. As the disposal of ecclesiastical appointments rested with the kings, (the chapters used to send back the ring and crosier of their deceased superior to the court, whence it was again bestowed on his successor,) it was in general advantageous for the princes to eke out the temporal privi- leges of the men of their choice, on whose devotedness they could rely. In defiance* of the most refractory nobility, Henry III. placed a plebeian, one of his creatures, in the chair of St. Ambrose in Milan : to this line of con- duct he was mainly indebted for the obedience he subsequently met with in Upper Italy. That Henry II. proved himself of all these emperors the most munificent to the church, and that he was the most strenuous in insisting on his right to the nomination of the bishops,* are facts that carry with them their mutual explanation. Care was also taken that the collation should be without prejudice to the rights of the state. The property of the Church was exempted neither from civil bur- dens, nor even from feudal service : we fre- quently find bishops taking the field at the head of their vassals. On the other hand, what an advantage it was to have the right of nominating the bishops, who, like the Arch- bishop of Bremen, exercised the highest spiri- tual authority in the Scandinavian dominions and over many Wendish tribes! If then the ecclesiastical element was of such eminent importance in the institutions of the empire, it is self-evident how much this must have been enhanced by the relation in which the emperors stood to the supreme head of the entire clergy, the pope of Rome. The popedom was bound to the German emperors by the strictest ties, as it had before been to the Roman emperors and to the suc- cessors of Charlemagne. True, indeed, the popes had exercised acts of sovereign autho- rity over the imperial sceptre before it passed definitively to the Germans, and while it was yet in weak and wavering hands. But when the vigorous princes of Germany had achieved the conquest of that dignity, they became, if not admittedly, at least in fact what the Car- lovingian race had been, the liege lords of the popedom. Otto the Great shielded with a powerful hand the pope whom he had seated in the pontifical chair :t his sons followed his example : the fact that the Roman factions did once more make head, and seize on and resign that dignity as their family interests fluctuat- ed, purchase and traflic it away, did but more clearly indicate the necessity of some higher intervention. It was well known how vigor- ously this was exercised by Henry III. His synod at Sutri deposed the intruders upon the popedom. No sooner had he put the patrician ring on his finger, and received the imperial crown, than he declared of his own good plea- sure the individual who was to mount the papal chair. Four successive German popes were nominated by him : upon the occasion of a vacancy in the highest station in the Church * For instances of this strictness see Planck, Geschichto der cliristl.-kirchl. Gesellschaftsverfassung, iii. 407. t In Goldast, Constitutt. Imperiales, i. p. 221, we find an instnimenl (with the scholia of Dietrich of Nieni) by which the right of Charlemagne to choose a successor to himself, and in future the popes of Rome, is transferred to the Ger- man emperors. It is, however, undoubtedl/ a fabrication. 24 EPOCHS OF THE PAPACY. [iNTROD. the delegates from Rome presented themselves at the imperial court exactly as the envoys from other bishoprics, to receive the announce- ment of a successor to the dignity. In this position of things it was a matter of personal interest to the emperor that the papacy should wear an imposing aspect in the eyes of the world. Henry III. promoted the reformation, which was undertaken by the popes appointed by himself; the augmentation of their power in no wise moved him to jeal- ousy. That Leo. IX. held a synod at Rheims in defiance of the King of France, instituted and deposed French bishops, and received the solemn admission of the principle, that the pope is the sole primate of the universal church, might perfectly suit the emperor's purposes, so long as he himself had the dis- posal of the popedom. All this contributed to uphold that paramount majesty which he claimed over all Europe. What the arch- bishop of Bremen effected for him in the North, the pope obtained for him amongst the other powers of Christendom. But there was a great danger too involved in this condition of things. The ecclesiastical order had become in the German and the germanized empire a totally different institution from what it had been in the Roman. A large share of political influ- ence had been transferred to it ; it was pos- sessed of princely power. We have seen that it still depended on the emperor, the highest secular authority. But what if this authority should again fall into weak hands, and if at the same time the supreme head of the church, thrice powerful through his uni- versally venerated rank, the obedience of his subordinates, and his influence over other states, should seize the favourable moment, and set himself in opposition to the imperial authority 1 The nature of the case involved more than one element conducive to such a contingency ; but there was an inherent principle in the ec- clesiastical body, essentially opposed to so great secular influence, which, when it should have gathered sufficient strength, could not fail to hurry on the consummation. It seems, too, to me to have carried with it a palpable inconsistency, that the pope should have ex- ercised on all sides a spiritual power of the highest order, and have been at the same time subject to the emperor. The case would have been different, had Henry III. actually com- passed his design of elevating himself to be the head of all Christendom ; but as he did not succeed in this, it needed but a certain evolution of politics, and the pope might by all means have been hindered by his subordina- tion to the emperor from being fully and free- ly, as his office inferred, the common father of the faithful. Circumstances were in this state when Gregory VII. ascended the papal chair. Gre- gory was a man of a bold, bigoted, and aspir- ing spirit; straightforward he was, so to speak, as a scholastic system, invincible in the stronghold of logical consequence, and no less dexterous in parrying just and well- founded objections with specious arguments. He saw the goal towards which things were tending; amidst all the petty bustle of every- day business his sagacity detected the germs of possible mighty events ; he resolved to emancipate the papal power from the imperial yoke. Having once fixed his mind on this object, he forthwith, without a moment's hesi- tation, or casting one glance behind, laid hold on the decisive means towards its attainment. The resolution which he caused to be passed by one of his ecclesiastical assemblies, that for the future no spiritual appointment should ever be disposed of by a secular patron, was of a nature to overthrow the constitution of the empire in its very essence. This latter rested, as already mentioned, on the inter- connexion of the spiritual and temporal insti- tutions : the bond between both was the right of investiture ; the determination that this ancient right should be wrested from the em- peror was of the nature of a revolution. It is manifest that Gregory could never have been in a condition to entertain this design, much less to accomplish it, had he not been seconded by the convulsions of the empire during the minority of Henry IV., and the insurrection of the German populations and princes against that sovereign. In the per- sons of the great vassals he met with natural allies : they too felt themselves oppressed by the preponderance of the imperial power; they too desired to become free. Then the pope too was in a certain respect one of the mag- nates of the empire. The two facts are in per- fect accordance — that the pope declared Ger- many an electoral empire (a doctrine tending prodigiously to the augmentation of the power of the princes), and that the princes were so little disposed to murmur if the pope should shake oft' the imperial yoke. Even in the contested matter of the investiture their in- terests went hand-in-hand. The pope was still far from desiring personally to nominate the bishops ; he referred the choice to the chapters, over which the German nobility ex- ercised the most commanding influence. In a word, the pope had the aristocratic interests on his side. But even with these allies what long and sanguinary conflicts did it cost the popes to accomplish their undertaking ! From Den- mark to Apulia, says the hymn in praise of St. Anno, from Carlingen to Hungary, the arms of the empire have been turned against its own vitals. The strife between the spiri- tua] and the temporal principles, which had before gone hand-in-hand, spread fatal discord INTROD.] THE POPES AND THE GERMAN EMPERORS. 25 throughout Europe. Frequently were tlie i tical principle was soon transformed into a popes themselves compelled to abandon their capita], and see rivals usurp their seat on the apostolic chair ! At last, however, the task was achieved. After long centuries of subjection, after other centuries of often dubious contest, the inde- pendence of the Roman see and of its ruler was finally establisbcd. The position of the popes at that moment was in fact the grand- est and most exalted. The clergy were whol- ly in their hands. It was worthy of note that tlie most resolute popes of those times, includ- ing Gregory VII. himself, were Benedictines. kind of sovereignty. The ecclesiastico-poli- cal character winch society had assumed throughout, and the course of events, necessa- rily tended to such an issue. When countries long lost, such as Spain, were finally wrested from Mohammedanism; when provinces which had not yet been acquired, such as Prussia, were snatched from Paganism, and filled with a Christian population; when even the capi- tals of the Greek faith submitted to the Latin ritual ; and when hundreds of thousands were continually taking the field to rear the banner of tlie cross over the holy sepulchre, must not By the introduction of celibacy tiiey convert- the high-priest, whose hand was in all these ed the entire of the secular clergy into a kind undertakings, and who received the fealty of of monkish order. The universal bishopric to j the subdued, have been invested with a most which they made pretensions was in some I surpassing grandeur ] Under his directions, degree analogous to the power of an abbot of I and in his name, the western nations poured Cluny, who was the only abbot in his order in like manner these pope saspired to be the only bishops of the entire Church. They made no scruple of grasping at the adminis- tration of all the dioceses,* and even com- pared their own legates with the ancient Roman proconsuls! Whilst this close-knit and universally diffused order, powerful through its wealth, and absolute controllers of all the social relations, was moulding itself to the sway of a single chief, the secular powers were sinking into ru.n. Already in the beginning of the twelfth century I'rior Gerohus made bold to say : " It will come at last to this, that the golden statue of the king- dom will be utterly demolished, and every great empire divided into tetrarchies ; not till then will the church stand up free and unop- pressed, under the protection of the great crowned priest."f It wanted but a little that this should have been literally fulfilled. For in truth, which was the more powerful in England in the thirteenth century, Henry III., or tiiose four-and-twenty to whom for a long- period the administration was committed ; which of the two in Castile, the king or the altoshomes ! The power of an emperor seemed almost superfluous from tlie time that Frederick ceded the essential attributes of sovereignty to the princes of the empire. Italy and Germany were filled with independ- ent powers. Comprehensiveness and unity were qualities to be found almost exclusively in tiie power of the pope. Thus it came to pass that the independence of the ecclesias- * One of the main points in reference to which I will cite a passage from a letter of Henry IV. to Gregory. (Mansi, Concil. n. collectio xx. 471.) Rectoreg sanctae ecclesiEe, viilel. archiepiscopas, episcopos, presbyleros sicut servos pedibus tuis calcasti. [You have trampled like slaves under your feet the guides and guardians of the Holy Church ; that is to say, the archbishops, bishops, and priests.] We see that in this the pope had the pub- 1^ voice in his favour. In quorum conculcatione tibi favorem ab ore vulgi comparasli. [By trampling on Ihem you have won for yourself the apnlauseof the mnb.] t Schriick cites this passage in his Kirchengeschichie, Th. 27, 117. 4 themselves forth in immense colonies, as though they had been a single people, and sought to possess the whole world. It cannot create surprise if he then exercised unlimited sway in his internal administration, if a king held his dominions of him as a fief, if a king of Aragon transferred his to the apostle Peter, and if Naples was actually transferred through the pope's means into the hands of a foreign family ! Marvellous physiognomy of those times, which no one has yet pourtrayed in its entire fulness and truth ! the most extraordi- nary combination of internal discord and splendid progress without, of independence and subjection, of the spiritual and the tempo- ral. And how contradictory a character is exhibited even in the piety of those times ! Sometimes she retires into the rugged moun- tain, or the lonely forest, to devote all her harmless days to Divine contemplation and prayer ; longing for death she already denies herself every enjoyment offered by life ; or with youthful fervour she labours, if dwelling amongst men, to body forth in serene, sublime, and profoundly suggestive forms, the myste- ries she dimly surmises, the ideas in which she has her being : — but one moment more, and we behold another Piety, that which in- vented the Inquisition, and plied the fearful judgment of the sword against heretics : " We have spared," says the leader of the expedi- tion against the Albigenses, "neither sex, nor age, nor rank, but put all alike to the sword." Sometimes the two make their ap- pearance together. At sight of Jerusalem the Crusaders dismount from their horses, and bare their feet, to approach the holy walls in the guise of true pilgrims; in the hottest fights they believe themselves aided by the visible presence of saints and angels. But no sooner have they scaled the walls, than they rush forth to pillage and bloodshed; they butchered many thousand Saracens on the site of Solomon's temple ; they burned the Jews in their synagogues, and they sullied 26 EPOCHS OF THE PAPACY. [iNTROD. with blood the holy threshold before which they had come to olter adoration ; — an incon- sistency this, that pervaded the whole nature of that religio- political constitution, and stamp- it with its visible impress. Contrasts between the fourteenth andjifteenlh Centuries. At certain stages of history we feel peculi- arly disposed, if we may so express it, to in- vestigate the divine plan of tlie world's gov- ernment, and the forces at work for the edu- cation of the human race. However imperfect may have been the de- velopment we have just depicted, it was ne- cessary towards the complete naturalization of Christianity in the West. It was no easy matter thoroughly to imbue with the ideas of Christianity tiie refractory spirits of the north- ern tribes, engrossed as they were by their traditional superstitions. It needed a long predominance of the spiritual order to achieve full hold upon the German temperament. The same means served likewise to effect that close union of Germanic and Latin elements on which is founded the character of Europe in more recent times. There is a community in the modern world whicli has always been regarded as a main foundation of its progres- sive improvement in Church and State, in manners, social intercourse, and literature. To bring this about, it was necessary that the western nations should for once constitute, as it were, a single ecclesiastico-political state. But this was the phenomenon of a moment only in the great course of things. Ai\er tiie conversion was fully effected, new necessities made themselves felt. It was already indicative of the dawn of a new epoch, that the national languages arose everywhere at the same time. Slowly but unceasingly they insinuated themselves into the various branches of mental activity ; step by step the idiom of the Church gave way be- fore them. Universality retired, and in its stead appeared a new species of partition founded on a higher principle. Hitherto the spirit of the Church had been predominant over the sense of nationality ; the latter, modified and transformed, but again indivi- dualized, entered on a new career. It cannot be doubted that all human pro- ceedings, though often they deviate from the beaten track, and fbllov/ a route less open to observation, are invariably subject to one mighty and unintermitting system of se- quences. The papal power was promoted by the earlier circumstances of history, its fur- ther progress was opposed by the new. When the nations no longer needed the impulse of the ecclesiastical power to the extent they had done before, they presently began to ofier it resistance. They felt conscious of their sufficiency for self-control. It is worth while to recal to mind the more important occur- rences that betokened the existence of this feeling. It was the French, as is well known, who offered the first decisive resistance to the as- sumptions of the popes. They set themselves with national unanimity against the bulls of excommunication of Boniface VIII. ; all the popular authorities declared, in documents amounting to several hundreds in number, their cordial acquiescence in the steps taken by Philip le Bel. The Germans followed next. When the popes began once more to assail the imperial authority with all the old animosity, although the latter was now far from possessing its for- mer importance, and when they enlisted foreign influence in their aid, the electors assembled on the banks of the Rhine, on their stone seats in the field of Bense, to adopt measures in common for maintaining " the honor and dignity of the empire." It was their purpose to secure the independence of the empire against the encroachments of the pope by a solemn reso- lution. This followed soon after in due form, with the sanction of all orders of potentates, emperor, princes, and electors ; with one com- mon consent they took their stand against the principles of the papal policy.* England did not long remain in the back- ground. No where had the pope possessed greater influence or dealtmore arbitrarily with benefices: but when at last, Edward III. refus- ed to continue the payment of the tribute, to which former kings had made themselves liable, his parliament united with him, and promised him their support. The king took measures to prevent the other encroachments of the papal power. Thus we see nation after nation evincing their sense of self-reliince and unity : the public administration will not hear of any higher authority; the popes no longer find allies in the middle classes, and their influence is resolutely repulsed by princes and legisla- tive bodies. In addition to all this, the papacy itself had fallen into weakness and disorder, which gave the temporal princes, who had hitherto sought only how they might secure themselves, an opportunity of even visiting it with reprisals. The great schism occurred. Observe the consequences that followed. For a long time it was optional with the princes to adhere to the one pope or the other, as political conven- ience dictated — the ecclesiastical power had no means within itself to heal the breach, the secular power alone could eflect this; — when an assembly was held in Constance to this end, votes were taken not individually as before, * Licet juris iitriusque. See Olenschliiger, Staatsgps- chichle des riJm. Kaisertliums in der eislen Hiilfie des 1 Iten Jahrhunderts, Nr. 63. iNTROD.] CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE 14TH AND 15TH CENTURIES. 27 but by the four nations: it was left to eacfi nation to determine in previous committee the vote it was to give — they unanimously deposed a pope — the newly-elected pontiff was obliged to arrange concordats with each several nation, which were of* serious importance, at least from the precedent they afforded ; during the coun- cil of Basle and the new schism some king- doms held themselves neutral — nothing but the direct efforts of the princes succeeded in repairing this second rupture in the church.* Nothing could have occurred more conducive to the preponderance of the temporal power and to the independence of the several states. And now the pope was once more in a posi- tion of exalted splendour ; he was universally obeyed; the emperor still held his stirrup; there were bishops not only in Hungary but in Germany too, who styled themselves bishops by the grace of the apostolic see ;f the Peter's penny continued to be collected in the north ; innumerable pilgrims from all countries visited the threshold of the apostles on the occasion of the Jubilee of 1450 ; an eye-witness compares them for multitude to swarms of bees, or flocks of migratory birds; and yet for all that, the old condition of thi^gs was far from existing any longer. ^ if we would seek a proof of this, we have but to call to mind the enthusiasm which the march to the holy sepulchre excited in former times, and to compare it to the coldness vi^ith which every appeal in favour of a combined resistance to the Turks was received in the fifleenth century. How much more urgent was the necessity of protecting one's own land against the danger that incessantly hovered round it in the most palpable reality, than of securing the custody of the holy sepulchre to Christian hands ! ^neas Sylvius and the niinorite Capistrano exerted their utmost elo- quence, the one before the diet, the other in the market-place before the people; and histo- rians tell of the impression produced by them on the public mind; but we do not find that any one took up arms in consequence. What pains the popes took! One equipped a fleet; anotlier, Pius II., the same yEneas Sylvius, betook himself, weak and ill as he was, to the harbour, where, if none others, those at least who were in most immediate danger, should assemble : he wished to be present, he said, to do what he alone might, to lift up his hands to God during the fight like Moses ; but neither exhortations, nor entreaties, nor example could avail with his contemporaries. The youth- ful emotions of a chivalric Christendom were by-gone things : no pope might call them back again. Other interests filled the times. It was the period when the European kingdoms were finally consolidating themselves after long in- ternal struggles. The central authorities succeeded in overcoming the factions that had hitherto jeopardized the throne, and in gathering all their subjects round them in new and stricter bonds of allegiance: and very soon the papacy, which sought to lord it over all, and intruded every where, came to be regard- ed in a political light. Monarchy began to evince far higher pre- tensions than it had hitherto done. The notion is frequently entertained, that the papacy was almost unrestricted till the Reformation ; whereas in reality, during the fifleenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries the several states had appropriated to themselves no small portion of the rights and privileges of the clergy. In France the encroachments of the Roman see were for the greater part prevented by means of the pragmatic sanction, which for more than half a century was regarded as the palladium of the kingdom. True, Louis XI. from a spurious tenderness for religion (to which he was the more prone, inasmuch as he was wanting in the genuine feeling), was induced to be compliant on this score ; but his successors insisted but the more strongly on this their fundamental law. Accordingly when Francis I. signed his concordat with Leo X., it was asserted that the court of Rome had by that instrument recovered its ancient paramount influence. Now it is true that the pope was again put in possession of the an- nates : in return, however, he was obliged to give up many other sources of income, and what was the most important thing of all, he ceded to the king the right of nomination to the bishoprics and all the higher benefices. It is undeniable that the Gallican church did lose its rights, but this far less m favour of the pope than of the king. Leo X. made little difficulty of giving up the axiom for which Gregory VII. had agitated the world. Matters were not pushed so far in Germany. The Basle resolutions, which in France as- sumed the form of the pragmatic sanction,* were exceedingly enervated in Germany, where they had also been adopted at first, by the concordat of Vienna. But this alteration * Declaration of Pope Felix in Georgius, Vita Nicolai v., p. 65. t Constance, Schwerin, Fiinfkirchen. Schrock, Kir- chengeschichte, Bd. 33, p. 60. * We recoii cardinales, non quod no- vam non cuperent basilicam magniliccntissimaui extrui, sed quia antiquum toio terrarum orbe vtnerabileiu, tot sanctorum sepulchris augustisslmain, tot celeberrirnis in ea gestis insignem fundilus deleri ingemiscant." [In which matter he had men of almost all classes against him, and especially the cardinals; not because they did not wish that a now basilica should be built with the uimosl magnificence, but because they grieved to think that the old one should be pulled down, revered as it was by the whole world, ennobled by the sepulchres of so many saints, and illustrious lor so many great things that had been done in it.] pel in the light and cheerful form of a perip- teros. If this involved a contradiction, it was one that pervaded the whole being and habits of the times. Men went to the Vatican less for the pur- pose of adoration on the threshold of the Apos- tles, than to admire the great works of ancient art in the pope's dwelling, the Belvedere Apollo and the Laocoon. As strong repre- sentations as ever were made to the pope, urging him to s6t on foot a war against the infi- dels; I find this for instance in a preface of Na- vagero's;* but the author had no thought in this for the interests of Christianity, or for the con- quest of the holy sepulchre ; his cherished hope was, that the pope would discover the lost writ- ings of the Greeks, and perhaps of the Romans. In the midst of this abundant scene of stu- dies and productions, of intellect and art, in the enjoyment of the expanding temporal pow- er belonging to the highest spiritual dignity, now lived Leo X. His title to the honour of giving name to the age in which he lived has been called in question, and it is possible his merit may have been exaggerated. Be that as it may, he was now the favourite of fortune. He had grown up among the elements that fashioned the world around him ; he possessed liberality of mind and sensibility enough to promote and enjoy them. If he had delighted in the Latin works of direct imitators, the original works of his contemporaries could not fail of engaging his interest. In his presence was produced the first tragedy, and (however objectionable that may have been for its timid imitation of Plautus) the first comedy written in the Italian language. There is hardly any which he was not the first to see. Ariosto was amongst the acquaintances of his youth ; Machiavel composed more than one of his works at his express desire ; for him Raphael filled chambers, galleries, and chapels, with ideals of human beauty and of purely ex- pressed existence. He passionately loved music, the practice of which, in a high degree of perfection, was just then becoming diffused throughout Italy : the palace rang daily with music, the pope hummed the airs that were played. It may be that all this was a sort of intellectual debauchery ; if so, it is at least the only one that becomes a man. For the rest, Leo X. was full of kindness and personal sym- pathy. He never, or if at all, only in the mildest terms, refused a request, although it was really impossible to grant everything. "He is a good man," said one of those obser- vant ambassadors, " very liberal and good natured; were it not that his relations drive him upon them, he would avoid all dissen- sions."! " He is learned," says another, "and * Naugerii Prsefalio in Ciceronis Orationrs, t. i. + Zorzi. Per il papa non voria ni guerra ni faliche, ma quest! soi lo intriga. INTROD.] OPPOSITION TO THE PAPACY IN GERMANY. 37 a friend to the learned: religious he is indeed, but he has a mind to live."* Certainly he did not always observe pontifical decorum. He sometimes left Rome, to the sore distress of his master of the ceremonies, not only without surplice, but, as that officer has noted in his journal, " what is worst of all, with boots on his feet." He passed the autumn in rural re- creations, enjoying hawking at Viterbo, hunt- ing at Corneto, and fishing on the lake of Bolsena. He then spent some time at Malli- ana, his favourite resort Improvisator! and men of light quick talents, capable of enliven- ing every hour of the day, accompanied him. Towards winter the party returned to the city. This was in great prosperity : the number of its inhabitants increased by a third within a few years ; it offered profit to the artisan, hon- our to the artist, to every one security. Never had the court been more animated, cheerful, and intellectual. No cost was too great for spiritual or secular festivals, plays and thea- trical entertainments, presents and favours; nothing was spared. It was heard with de- light that Giuliano Medici was thinking of taking up his residence at Rome with his young wife. "God be praised," says cardinal Bibbiena in a letter to him, " for here we lack nothing but a court of ladies." Alexander's sensuality must ever be regard- ed with loathing : there was nothing absolutely censurable in the arrangements of Leo's court : but it certainly cannot be denied that his life did not correspond to that befitting a supreme head of the Church. Life easily veils its own incongruities: so was it with these, till men pondered and weighed them, and then they could not fail to be apparent. Under such circumstances, there could no longer be any question of true Christian senti- ment and conviction : on the contrary, there arose a direct opposition to these. The philosophical schools disputed whether the reasonable soul were immaterial indeed and immortal, but single and common to all mankind, or whether it was absolutely mortal. The most noted philosopher of the day, Pietro Pomponazzo, took upon him to maintain the latter opinion. He likened himself to Prome- theus, whose heart was devoured by the vul- ture because he sought to steal his fire from Jupiter. But with all these painlul efforts, with all his subtlety, he arrived at no other result than that, "if the law-giver had estab- lished the immortality of the soul, he had done so without troubling himself about its truth. "f We must not suppose that these sentiments were confined to a few, or that they were kept secret. Erasmus declares his astonishment at the blasphemies that met his ears ; they sought to prove to him, a foreigner, out of Pliny, that there is no difference between the souls of men and those of brutes.* Whilst the common people sank into almost heathenish superstition, which sought its sal- vation in an ill-founded mechanical devotion, the higher classes adopted notions of an anti- religious tendency. What was young Luther's amazement when he visited Italy. At the moment when the sacrifice of the mass was accomplished, the priests blurted out blasphemies in which they denied it. In Rome it was a characteristic of good society, to dispute the fundamental principles of Christianity. " One passes no longer," says P. Ant. Bandino,f " for an accomplished man, unless he entertain some heterodox notions of Christianity." At court they spoke of the institutions of the catholic church, of passages in the holy Scriptures, only in a tone of jesting; the mysteries of faith were held in derision. We see how everything conforms to certain laws, how one thing begets another ; the eccle- siastical pretensions of the sovereigns produce the temporal claims of the popes ; the corrupv tion of the ecclesiastical institutions elicit the development of a new intellectual tendency, until at last the very basis of faith becomes affected in public opinion. Opposition to the papacy in Germany. I regard as surpassingly interesting the re- lation on which Germany entered to this intel- lectual development. Jt took part in it, but in a totally different spirit. If in Italy it was poets, such as Boccacio and Petrarch, who promoted the study of an- cient literature in their day, and created the national impulse in that direction, in Germany this was the work of a spiritual fraternity, the procedalur. ISJunii, 1518. [Peter of Blantiia has assprt- ed, thai accordinc; to the principles of philosoj)hy and the opinions of Aristotle, the rational soul is or appears to be mortal, contrary to the determination of the Lateran coun- cil : the pope commands that the said Peter retract, other- wise that he be proceeded against.] * Burieny, Life of Erasmus, i. 139. I will here quote also the followin? passage from Paul Canensius, in his Vita Pauli 11. " Pari ciuoque dilisrentia e medio Komanse curis nefandum nonnuUorum jitvenum sectam sceles- tamque opinionem subtulit, qui depravatis moribus assere- bant noslram fideni orthodoxam polius quibusdam sancto- rum astutiis quam verjs rerum testimoniis subsistere." [With equal diligence he eradicated from the Roman court an infamous heresy, and abominable opinion of some profligate young men, who asserted that our orthodox faith reposed rather on certain subtleties of the saints, than on real substantial evid'-nce.] The Triumph of Charlemagne, a poem by Ludovieo, breathes a spirit of * Mario Minio, Relazione. E docto e amador di docti ; ben religioso, ma vol viver. He calls him " bona persona." t Pomponazzo was very seiiously assailed on the sub- „- , - ject, as appears, anong other proofs, from extracts out of j strongly marked materialism, as we see from the'^quoti papal letters by Contelori. " Petrus de Mantua," it is tions of Daru in the fortieth book of his Hisioire de Venise. there said, "asseruit quod anima rationalis secundum t In Caracciolo's MS. Life of Paul IV. In quel tempo propria philosophiae et mentem Aristolelissit seu videatur non pareva fosse galantuomo e buon corlo!:iano colui che morlalis, contra determinuioneni concilii Lateranensis : de' dogmi della chiesa non avevaqualche opinion erronea papa mandal ut dictus Petrus revocel ; alias contra ipsum ed heretica. 38 THE CHURCH IN THE BEGINNING OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [introd. Hieronymites, a fraternity bound together by laborious industry and sequestration from the world. It was one of its members, the pro- found and blameless mystic Thomas a Kempis, in whose school were formed all the worthy men, who first borrowed from the light of ancient literature newly risen in Italy, and then returned to diffuse it through Germany.* The difference thus observable in the be- ginning, marked the subsequent progress likewise. In Italy men studied the works of the an- cients to learn the sciences from them ; in Germany they founded schools ; there men sought the solution of the highest problems affecting the human soul, if not by indepen- dent thought, at least at the hand of the an- cients ; here the best books were devoted to the education of youth. In Italy men were captivated by the beau- tiful in form, and began to imitate the an- cients ; they achieved, as we have seen, a national literature. In Germany these stu- dies took a spiritual direction. The renown of Reuchlin and of Erasmus is familiar to every one : if we inquire what constituted the highest merit of the former, it was that he wrote the first Hebrew grammar, a monu- ment of which he hoped equally as the Italian poets, " that it would be more durable than brass." If he was the first thus to make the study of the Old Testament possible, Erasmus applied his industry to the New ; he was the first who caused it to be printed in Greek ; his paraphrases and annotations wrought an effect that even far exceeded his intention. While the course now entered on in Italy withdrew men from the Church, or set them in opposition to it, something of a similar kind happened in Germany. There that free- dom of thought which can never be wholly suppressed intruded into literature, and here and there assumed the form of decided unbe- lief A more profound theology too, sprung from unknown sources, had been discounte- nanced by the Church, but defied its power to put it down. This now became mixed up with the literary movements in Germany. In this point of view it seems to me worthy of remark, that so early as the year 1513, the Bohemian brethren made advances to Eras- mus, whose views and sentiments yet differed widely from theirs.f And thus the development of the age on both sides of the Alps led to an opposition against the Church. Beyond them this was connected with literature and science, on this side it arose out of spiritual studies and a profounder theology. There it was negative and incredulous; here it was positive and * Meiners has the merit of having first brought to light this genealogy from the Davenlria lUustrala of Revius. Biographies of celebrated men of the times of the revival of letters, ii. 308. t Fiisslin ; Kirchen- und Ketzergeschichte, ii. 82. believing ; there it utterly abrogated the very basis of the Church, here it re-established it ; there it was mocking, satirical, and pliantly submissive to power ; here it was full of ear- nestness and deep indignation, and rose up against the Roman church, turning upon it the boldest attack it ever sustained. It has been regarded as a fortuitous circumstance, that this was directed in the first mstance upon the abuses practised in the matter of indulgences. But as the conversion into an outward thing of that which was most essen- tially a concern of the inward man, (a princi- ple involved in the doctrine of indulgences) was a most crying exemplification of that fatal vice on the whole system, the worldli- ness that had seized upon the Church, it was of all things the most diametrically opposite to the conceptions drawn from the profounder German theology. To a man like Luther, with a deep and lively sense of religion, filled with the notions of sin and justification, as they had been expressed in the books of Ger- man theology before his time, strengthened therein through the Scriptures, which he im- bibed with a thirsting heart, nothing in the world could be so shocking and repulsive as the system of indulgences. The notion of a pardon for sin to be had for money must needs have been most deeply offensive to him whose conclusions on this very point had been built on considerations of the eternal relations be- tween God and man, and who had learned to interpret Scripture for himself He did by all means set himself to oppose the abuse ; but soon the weak-grounded and prejudiced opposition he encountered led him step by step further : he was not long blind to the connexion between that monstrous abuse and the general corruption of the church. His was not a nature to quail before any extremity : he grappled with unhesitat- ing boldness with the very head of the church. Out of the midst of the most devoted depend- ents and champions of the papacy, the mendi- cant monks, arose the boldest and most vigor- ous opponent it had ever encountered. For- asmuch as Luther held up its own proper principles, in their fullest precision and clear- ness, in the face of a power that had so widely lapsed therefrom, forasmuch as he proclaimed that which had already become a general conviction, forasmuch as his opposition, which had not yet developed the wliole system of its positive principles, was welcome to the re- jectors of the faith, and yet because it did ac- tually involve those principles, was satisfac- tory to the serious feelings of believers, it followed that his writings wrought an incal- culable effect : in a moment they filled Ger- many and the world. A. D. 1513—22.] UNDER LEO X. 39 CHAPTER III. POLITICAL COMPLICATIONS. CONNEXION BE- TWEEN THEM AND THE REFORMATION. Thus simultaneously with the secular aspirations of the papacy had arisen a twofold movement ; the one was religious ; a revolt was already begun, of which it was foreseen that it contained an immense futurity within it ; the other political — the antagonising ele- ments were in the most vehement fermenta- tion, and tending rapidly to new combinations. Both these movements, their reciprocal action, and the opposing currents they engendered, thenceforth for many centuries shaped the history of the papacy. Would that never prince or state might imagine that any good may befal them which they owe not to themselves, which they shall not have won by their own native strength ! Whilst the Italian powers sought the one to overcome the others with the aid of foreign nations, they destroyed with their own hands the independence they had enjoyed during the fifteenth century, and exposed their coun- try to be the common battle prize for the rest of Europe. A great share in this result must be imputed to the popes. They had now assuredly acquired a might, such as had never before been possessed by the Roman see ; but they had not acquired it of themselves : they owed it to Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, and Swiss. But for his league with Louis XII., Csesar Borgia would hardly have accom- plished much. Enlarged as were the views of Julius II., heroic as were his achievements, he must have succumbed but for the aid of the Spaniards and the Swiss. How could it be, but that they who had fought out the vic- tory should seek to enjoy the preponderance that thence accrued to them'! Julius II. saw this clearly. His purpose was to maintain a certain balance among the other powers, and to make use only of the least potent among them, the Swiss, whom he might hope to lead. But it proved otherwise. Two great powers grew up, and contended with each other, if not for universal dominion, at least for the supremacy in Europe, powers so mighty that a pope was far from being able to match them ; and they fought out their quarrel on Italian ground. First came the French. Not long after Leo's accession they appeared in greater force than they had ever before crossed the Alps, to reconquer Milan ; at their head Francis I., in the ardour of youth and chivalry. Every- thing hung on the question whether or not the Swiss would be able to resist them. The battle of Marignano was therefore so impor- tant, because the Swiss were wholly routed, and because they never since that defeat have exercised an independent influence in Italy. The battle had remained undecided the first day, and already bonfires had been light- ed in Rome upon intelligence of a victory won by the Swiss. The earliest tidings of the second day's result, and of the real issue of the fight, were received by the envoy of the Venetians, who were in alliance with the king, and who themselves contributed in no small degree to the event. He hastened at the earliest hour to the Vatican to impart the news to the pope : the latter came out but partly dressed to give him audience. " Your holiness," said the envoy, "gave me bad tidings last night, and false ones too : to-day I bring your holiness in return good news, and true ; the Swiss are beaten." He read him the letter he had received, written by men known to the pope, and putting the mat- ter beyond the possibility of doubt* The pope did not disguise his deep dismay. " Then what will become of us, what will become even of you?" " We hope the best for both." " Sir envoy," replied the pope, " we must throw ourselves into the king's arms, and cry him mercy."! In fact the French through this victory acquired the decided preponderence in Italy. Had they followed it up with resolution, nei- ther Tuscany nor the States of the Church, both so easily moved to rebellion, would have been able to offer much resistance, and the Spaniards would have found it difficult to maintain themselves in Naples. " The king," says Francis Vettori unconditionally, " might have become lord of Italy." How much rest- ed at that moment upon Leo ! Lorenzo Medici said of his three sons, Ju- lian, Peter, and John, that the first was good, the second a fool, the third prudent. This third was pope Leo X. ; he now showed him- self competent to encounter the difficult posi- tion into which he had fallen. Against the advice of his cardinals he be- took himself to Bologna, to have speech with the king-l Here they concluded the concor- dat, in which they shared between them the rights of the Gallican church. Leo was forced to give up Parma and Placenza ; but for the rest he succeeded in conjuring the * Summario de la relationp di Zorzi. E cussi desmissi- ato venne fuori non compilo di veslir. L' orator uisse : Pater sante eri via. sant^. nii dette una cattiva miova e falsa, io le daro ozi una bona e vera, zoe Sguizari 6 rotti. The letters were from Pasqualiso, Dandolo, and othTS. + Domine oraror, vederemo quel fara il re Christmo. se metteremo in le so man dimandando misericordia. Lui orator disss: Pater sante, vostra santili non avri raal alcuno. t Zorzi. " Questo papa 6 savio e praticho di state, o si pensd con li suoi consultori di venir abocharsi a Bologna con vergocna di la sede (ap.) : molti cardinali, tra i qual il cardinal Hadriano, lo disconsejava: pur vi volse an- dar." [This pope is learned and practised in matters of state, and he consulted with his advisers about going to have speech at Bologna to the degradation of the (aposto- lic) see. Many cardinals, amons them cardinal Hadrian, dissuaded him, but he would go there.] 40 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE REFORMATION, [a. d.1513-22. storm, inducing the king to turn his steps homewards, and himself remaining secure in the possession of his dominions. What a stroke of fortune for him this was, is apparent from the immediate effects of the mere approach of the French. It is highly deserving of remark that Leo, after his allies had been defeated, and he had been forced to yield up a portion of his territory, was able to keep hold on two provinces but just won, ac- customed to independence, and lull of all the elements of insurrection. A constant theme for censure has been his attack on Urbino, a princely house that had afforded refuge and sustenance to his own family in their season of exile. The cause was this : the duke of Urbino had accepted the pope's pay, and had deserted him in the mo- ment of crisis. Leo said, " if he did not visit him with punishment for this, there would be no baron in the states of the church so feeble as not to resist him. He had received the pontificate in credit, and would so maintain it."* But as the duke received support, at least in secret, from the French, as he had allies in the state and even in the college of cardinals, the conflict was yet of a hazardous nature. The warlike prince was not easily to be expelled from his possessions : the pope was seen at times to tremble at the receipt of unfavourable news, and to be reduced to ex- treme perplexity. It is said a plot was form- ed to poison him, in the course of treatment for a malady under which he laboured. f The pope succeeded in mastering this foe, but it is manifest how much pains the conquest cost him. The defeat of his party by the French affected him in his very capital, nay iii his own palace. Meanwhile, the second great power had be- come consolidated. Strange as it appeared that one and the same monarch should rule in Vienna, Brussels, Valladolid, Saragossa, and Naples, and besides all these in a new contin- ent too, this had been brought about by an easy and scarcely noticed interlacement of family interests. This elevation of the house of Aus- tria, which linked together so many different nations, was one of the greatest and most pregnant changes that Europe had ever wit- nessed. At the moment when the nations parted from their old centre, they were thrown, through their political circumstances, into a new system of combinations. The power of Austria forthwith set itself against the pre- ponderant influence of France. Charles V. * Franc. VeUori (Sommario della storiad' Italia) a very intimate friend of the Medici, gives tiiis explanation. The defender of Francesco Maria, Giov. Batt. Leoni (Vita di Francesco Maria,) relates facts that tend very much to the same purport, p. 166, et seq. ■|- Fea, in his Naiizie intorno Rafaele, p. 35, has com- municated from the acts of the consistory the sentence against the three cardinals, which expressly refers to their understanding with Francesco Maria. acquired through the imperial dignity a legi- timate claim to paramount rank, at least in Lombardy. War arose without much delay out of these Italian circumstances. The popes, as we have said, had hoped to attain to complete independence through the enlargement of their dominions. They now saw themselves hemmed in between two far superior powers. A pope was not so insigni- ficant that he could remain neutral in a strife between them ; nor, on the other hand, was he strong enough to give a preponderance to the scale into which he cast his force : he could only look for safety to the dexterous use he made of events. Leo is reputed to have said, that when one had concluded terms with either party, he must not omit to treat with the other.* So double-tongued a policy was the forced result of the position in which he was placed. Leo nevertheless could hardly entertain any serious doubt as to which party it was his interest to adopt. Even had it not been of infinite importance to him to recover Parma and Piacenza ; had the promise of Charles V. so greatly in his favour, to seat an Italian sovereign in Milan, been insufficient to deter- mine him ; there was yet, it appears to me, a still more decisive motive to fix his choice. This was derived from religious considera- tions. Throughout the whole period we are con- templating, there was nothing princes had so much at heart, in all their involved dealings with the Roman see, as to elicit a spiritual opposition against it. Charles VIII. of France had no more trusty support against Alexander VI. than the Dominican Geronimo Savonarola of Florence. When Louis XII. had abandon- ed all hope of reconciliation with pope Julius II., he summoned a council to meet at Pisa ; ineffectual as was the attempt, it appeared to Rome a matter of the utmost peril. But when had a bolder or a more prosperous foe than Luther ever stood up against the pope 1 His mere appearance, his existence, gave him a weighty political importance. In this light Maximilian viewed the matter : he would not have suffered any violence to befal the monk ; he recommended him to the special protection of the elector of Saxony : " there might some time or other be need of him." From that time forth Luther's influence increased day by day. The pope had failed in all his attempts to silence him either by persuasion or terror, or to get him into his hands. Let it not be supposed that Leo was deceived as to the magnitude of the danger : how often did he urge the able men with whom he was sur- rounded in Rome, to engage in that contest. * Suriano, Relatione di 1533. Dicesi del papa Leone che quando '1 aveva falto lega con alcuno prima, soleva dir che pero non si dovearestardetratar cum loallroprin- cipe opposto. A. D. 1513-22.] UNDER LEO X. 41 But there was yet another means left. As he should have had reason, had he declared against the emperor, to fear so dangerous an opposition protected and encouraged, so he might hope, if he allied himself with that po- tenate, to put down the religious revolution with his assistance. The diet of Worms, in the year 1521, took the state of political and ecclesiastical affairs into consideration. Leo concluded a league with Charles V. for the reconquest of Milan. The very same day on which this alliance was made has been assigned as the date of the edict published respecting Luther. Other motives may indeed have co-operated towards the promulgation of that document, but no one will endeavour to persuade himself that it was not most intimately connected with the politi- cal treaty. And not long was it ere the double eflects of this alliance were manifested. Luther was imprisoned and kept concealed in the Wartburg.* The Italians at once re- fused to believe that Charles had let him go from a conscientious unwillingness to violate the safe-conduct granted him. *' Since he perceived," said they, " that the pope was alarmed at Luther's doctrine, he designed to keep him in check by means of it."f However that may be, Luther did actually disappear for a moment from the scene of the world ; he was in a certain degree out of the pale of the law, and the pope had in any case effect- ed the adoption of decisive measures against him. Meanwhile the combined forces of the pope and the emperor had been prosperous in Italy. One of the pope's nearest relations, cardinal Giulio Medici, the son of his father's brother, was himself in the field, and entered Milan with the victorious army. It was asserted in Rome that the pope had it in contemplation to bestow that dukedom upon him. But I find no direct proof of this, and it is very unlikely the emperor would have easily given his con- sent. But even without this, the advantage gained was not easily to be calculated. Parma and Piacenza were taken ; the French remov- ed, the pope would inevitably possess a great influence over the new sovereign of Milan. It was one of the most important of moments. A new political development was begun ; a great movement in the church had arisen. It was a moment in which the pope might have flattered himself with the hope of leading the former, and with the assurance that he had stayed the latter. He was still young enough * Luther was supposed to be dead : it was reported thai he had been murdered by the papal party. Pallavicini (Istoria del Concilio di Trenlo, I. c. 28) infers from Alean- der's letters, that the nuncios were in danger of their lives on that account. t Vettori : Carlo si excus6 di non poler procedere piu oltre rispetto al salvocondotto, ma la verita fu che conos- cendo che il papa lemeva molto di quesla doctrina di Lu- i there, lo voile tenere con questo freno. ' to indulge the anticipation of turning the aus- picious moment to full account. Strange delusive lot of man ! Leo was in his villa Malliana when the news was brought him of the entrance of his own party into Milan. He abandoned himself to the feeling naturally occasioned by a happily completed enterprise. He looked on with glee upon the rejoicings celebrated by his people out of doors ; moved to and fro till a late hour in the night between the window and tlie fire on the hearth — the month was November.* Somewhat exhausted, but in the utmost de- light, he reached Rome ; and there the festi- vities for the victory were not yet quite ended, when he was seized with a mortal sickness. " Pray for me," he said to his servants, " that I may yet make you all happy." He loved life, we see, but his hour was come. He had not time to receive the eucharist and extreme unction. So suddenly, so prematurely, in the midst of such great hopes did he die, " as the poppy fades."! The Roman people could not forgive him that he had departed without the sacraments, that he had expended so much money and yet left abundant debts behind. They followed his corpse with jeers. " You sneaked in like a fox," they said, " ruled like a lion, and have gone off like a dog."J After times, on the other hand, have designated a century and a great epoch in the progress of mankind by his name. We have called him a favourite of fortune. After he had overcome the first mischance, wliich affected not himself so much as other members of his house, his lot carried him for- ward from enjoyment to enjoyment, from suc- cess to success. But even disappointments themselves seemed constrained to promote his prosperity. His life passed away in a sort of intellectual intoxication, in the continual ful- filment of all his wishes. To this end too his personal qualities contributed, his good-nature and liberality, his activity of imagination, and his abundant readiness to acknowledge desert. These qualities themselves are the fairest * Copia di una lettera di Roma alii Sgri. Bolognesi a dS 3 Dcbr. 1521, scritta per Bartholomeo Argilelli, in the 32d vol. of Sanuto. The intelligence was conveyed to the pope Nov. 24, during the Benedicite. He took this also for a particularly good omen ; and said, Questa e una buona nuova che havete portato. The Swiss began imme- diately to fire feiiz de joie. The pope sent to beg they would desist, but in vain. t People spoke immediately of poison. Lettera di Hieronymo Bon a suo barba a di 5 Dec, in Sanuto. Non si sa certo se'l pontefice sia mono di veneno. Fo. aperto. Maistro Ferando judica sia stato venenato : alcuno de li altri no : e di questa opinione Mastro Severino, che lo vide aprire, dice che non 6 venenato. [It is not known for certain whether or not the pope died of poison. He was « opened. Master Ferando judged that he was poisoned: some of the others said no ; and of this opinion was Master Severino, who saw him opened, and said he was not poisoned.] t Capitoli di una lettera scritta a Pioma, 21 Dec. 1.521. " Concludo che non 6 morto mai papa cum peggior fama dapoi 6 la chiesa di Dio." [Ijudgethal never diedapope in worse repute since the existence of God's church.] 43 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE REFORMATION, [a. d. 1522-3. boons of nature, fortune-gifts, which fall but seldom to the lot of men, and which yet are essential to all the enjoyments of life. Busi- ness but little disturbed his pleasures. As he did not trouble himself about details, and look- ed only to leading matters, they were not oppressive to him, and exercised only the nobler faculties of his mind. For the very reason that he did not devote every day and hour to them, it would seem that he could deal with them upon large and unrestricted views, and that in all the entanglements of the mo- ment he had constantly before his eyes the leading idea, the clue to all the mazes of the labyrinth. All the grander impulses bestow- ed on affairs were his own work. In his last moments all the purposes of his policy met together in cheering prosperity. We may even regard it as a good fortune that he then died. Times of another complexion followed, and it is hard to imagine that he could have successfully made head against their unpropi- tious nature. His successors had to endure their whole burden. The conclave lasted very long. " My lords," at last said Cardinal Medici, whom the return of his house's foes to Urbino and Peru- gia filled with alarm, so that he feared even for Florence : "My lords, I see that none of us here assembled can become pope. I have pro- posed three or four to you, but you have reject- ed them : on the other hand, I cannot accept those whom you put forward. We must look about for some one else not present." The suggestion was approved of, and he was asked whom he had in view. " Take," he answered, " cardinal Tortosa, a venerable and aged man, who is universally regarded as a saint."* This was Adrian of Utrecht,! formerly profes- sor in Louvain, the tutor of Charles V., through whose personal regard he had been raised to the rank of a governor of Spain, and to the dignity of cardinal. Cardinal Cajetan, who yet did not belong to the Medici party, rose to speak in praise of the proposed candidate. Who could have believed that the cardinals, ever accustomed to consult their personal intei'ests in the election of a pope, should have pitched upon an absent Netherlander, whom very few of them knew, and with whom not * Letlera di Roma a dl 19 Zener. in Sanuto. Medici, dubilando de li casi suoi, se le cosa fosse troppo ita in longo, deliber6 metlere cunclusione, et liavendo in animo queslo c'e. Deilusense per esser imperialissimo — disse : «tc. [Medici bein? dubious as to his own affairs, if the mauer was loo Ions; protracted, and having in his eye that cardinal Tortosa wasonestrongly attached to the emperor —said, &c.] t So he calls himself in a letter of 1514, to be found in ■Caspar Burma nnus : Adrianus VI. sive analecta hislorica ■de Adriano VI. p. 2W. In original doctiments of his native country he is called Meysler Aryan Florisse van Ulrecht. Modern writers have soineliines given him the name of Boyens, because his father signed himself Floris Boyens ; but that means only Bodewin's son, and is not. a family name. See Burmunn in the notes to Moringi Vila AdriaBi, p.'i. one of them could stipulate for, any private advantage ? They suffered themselves to be surprised into this determination ; and when the thing was done they scarce knew how it had come about. They were half dead with terror, says one of our informants. It is assert- ed they had persuaded themselves for a mo- ment that the object of their choice would not accept the appointment. Pasquin derided them, representing the pope elect in the cha- racter of a school-master, and the cardinals as schoolboys whom he was chastising. On a worthier man, however, the choice had not for a long time fallen. Adrian was a man of thoroughly unblemished reputation, upright, pious, active, very serious, so that no more than a faint smile was ever seen upon his lips, but full of bene volent and pure intentions ; a genuine clergyman.* What a contrast v,'hen he now entered the city where Leo had kept his court with such lavish splendour ! There is a letter of his extant, in which he says, he would rather serve God in his priory in Lou- vain than be pope.f Indeed, he continued in the Vatican the life he had led as professor. It was characteristic of him, and we may be permitted to relate it, that he had even brought with him the old woman his attendant, who continued to provide for his domestic wants as before. He made no alteration in his personal habits : he rose with the dawn, read his mass, and then proceeded in the usual order to his business and his studies, which he interrupted only with the most frugal dinner. It cannot be said of him that he was a stranger to the general culture and acquirements of his age; he loved Flemish art, and prized the learning that was adorned with a tinge of elegance. Erasmus testifies that he was especially pro- tected by him from the attacks of the bigots of the schools.]: But he disapproved of the almost heathenish tendency to which they gave them- selves up in Rome at that day, and he would * Literae ex Victorial directivse ad Cardinalem de Flisco, in the 33rd vol. of Sanuto, describe him thus: •' Vir est sui lenax ; in concedendo parcissimus ; in reci- piendo nuUus aut rarissiaius. In sacriticio cotidianus et mavulinus est. Quern amel aut si quern amel nuUi ex- ploralum. Ira non asitur, jocis noa ducitur. Neque ob pnntificatum visus est exultasse : quin constat graviter ilium ad ejus famam nuntii ingemuisse. [He is a man tenacious of his own, very chary in conceding, and never or very rarely accepting. He is punctual in the daily and early performance of mass. Whom he loves, or whether he loves any one, is known to none. He is not to be driven by anger nor to be led by mirthful sallies. Nor did he seem to exult at obtaining the ponliticaie ; on the contrary, it is known that he \vas afflicted with grief on hearing the intelligence.] In Burmann's collection there is an Itlnerarinm Adriani by Ortiz, who accompanied the j.ope and knew him intimately. He asserts, p. 223, that he never observed any thing in him deserving of censure, that he was a mirror of every virtue. t Florence Oem Wyngaerden : Vittoria, 15 Feb. 1523, in Burmann, p. 398. t Erasmus says of him, in one of his letters: "Licet scholasticis disciplinisfaveret, satis tamen aequus in bonas lileras." [Although he favoured scholastic pursuits, he was nevertheless Well enough disposed towards polite learning.] Jovius relates with satisfaction, how n.uch the fame of a scripuir annalium valde elegans availed him with Adrian, especially as he was no poet. A. D. 1522-3.] UNDER ADRIAN VI. 43 not so much as hear of the sect of the poets. No one could more earnestly desire than Adrian VI. (lie retained his original name) to heal the diseased condition in which he found Christendom. The progress of the Turkish arms and the fall of Rhodes and Btdgrade were further spe- cial motives prompting his thoughts towards re-establishing of peace among the Christain powers. Although he hnd been the emperor's instructor, he forthwitli assp.med a neutral po- sition : the imperial ambassador, who hoped on the new outbreak of war to move him to a de- cided declaration in favour of his pupil, was obliged to leave Rome without accomplishing his purpose.* When tiie news of the conquest of Rhodes was read to the pope, he looked down to the ground, said not a word, but sighed deeply.f The danger of Hungary was palpa- ble. He feared even for Italy and for Rome. His whole endeavour was to bring about if not a peace, at least a truce for three years, in order to a general campaign in the mean- time against the Turks. He was not less resolved to meet the de- mands of the Germans. With regard to the abuses that had made their way into the church, no one could express himself more strongly than did he. " We know," he says in the instructions for the Nuncio Chieregato, whom he sent to the diet, " that for a consid- erable tmie many abominable things have found a place near the holy chair, abuses in spiritual things, exorbitant straining of pre- rogatives, everything turned to evil. The disease has spread from the head to the limbs, from the pope to the prelates : we are all gone astray, there is none that has done rightly, no not one." He now promised on the contrary all that became a good pope ; to promote the virtuous and the learned, to suppress abuses, gradually at least, if not at once ; and he held out a hope of reformation both in the head and the members, such as had often been eagerly desired.f But to reform the world is not so easy a task. The good intentions of an individual, however high his station, reach but a little way towards such a consummation. Abuses for the most part strike root too deeply ; they grow up enlwnied with the very growth of the body they encumber. The tall of Rhodes was far from inducing the French to make peace : on the contrary, perceiving that the loss would give the em- peror fresh occupation, they concerted the * Gradenigo, in his Rplalione, names the viceroy of Naples. Girolamo Npgro, some highly interesting li'tters 1 from whoiii respecting this perio.l we find in theLeitere Idi prin.;ipi, t. i. says, p. lOJ, of John Manu'-I: "Su parti mezo disperaio." i t Negio, from the narration of the Venetian Secretary, p. 110. I t In3tru"lio pro te Francisco Chieregato, &c. &c., to be ' found in Rainaldus, toin. xi. p. 3u3, and elsewhere. i more vigorous measures against him. They formed connexions in Sicily, not without the privity of the cardinal who was most in Adrian's confidence, and they made an at- tempt upon that island. The pope found him- self constrained at last to enter into a league on his own part with the emperor, which was virtually directed against France. 'I'he Germans too were no longer to be con- ciliated by what would once have been con- sidered a reformation of head and members; and then how difhcult, how almost impracti- cable would such reform have been ! Had the pope thoug-ht to suppress those dues accruing to the curia, in which he per- ceived a colour of simony, he could not have done so without violence to the legitimate rights of those whose offices were founded thereon, offices which in most instances they had purchased. Did he contemplate a change in the system of marriage dispensations, and some relaxa- tion in the existing prohibitions I it was re- presented to him that such a course would in- fringe upon and weaken the discipline of the church. To check the monstrous abuse of indulgencea he would gladly have revived the old pe- nances: but the Penitenziaria set before him the risk he would then run of losing Italy, while he sought to retain Germany.* In short, at every step ho saw himself sur- rounded 'oy a thousand difficulties. Add to this, that he found himself at Rome in a strange element, which he could not rule, inasmuch as he was not familiar with it, and did not understand its constitution or its inhe- rent forces. He had been joyfully welcomed : it passed from mouth to mouth that he had somewhere about 5U00 vacant benefices to bestow, and every one's hopes were on the alert. But never did pope show himself more chary and reserved on this particular. Adrian would know who it was for whom he provided, to whom he commmitted ecclesiastical posts: he set to work with scrupulous conscientious- ness,! ^nd disappointed innumerable expecta- tions. The first decree of his pontificate sup- pressed the reversionary rights formerly an- nexed to ecclesiastical dignities: he even re- called those which had been already conceded. It could not be but that the publication of this decree in Rome should stir up feelings of the bitterest animosity against him in abundance. Hitherto a certain freedom of speech and of writing had been enjoyed at court: this he would no longer permit. The impoverished *In the first book of ihe Historia de Concilio Triden tino, by P. Sarpi, ed. of l'J29, p. 2-3, there is a goo 1 exposi- tion of the state of things extracted frum a diary of Chieregato. tOni-i Itinerarium, c. xxviii., c. xxix., partiiularly wo.thy of credit, as he says, " cum provision's et alia hu- * ju3iiio.li testis oculatus inspex^rim." [I personally loolied into appouumeuts and other things of thai kind.j 44 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE REFORMATION, [a. d. 1523-34. state of the exchequer, and the increasing de- mands upon it, obliged him to impose some new taxes, and this was looked on as intole- rable on the part of one who expended so little. Dissatisfaction generally prevailed.* He was well aware of this : it had its effect upon him. He trusted the Italians still less than before : the two Netherlanders to whom he confided authority, Enkefort and Hezius, the former his datary, the latter his secretary, were not masters of business or of courtly affairs. He himself found it impossible to direct them ; besides, he was bent on still pursuing his studies, not reading only but even writing. He was not very accessible ; busi- ness was procrastinated, tediously prolonged, and unskilfully handled. Thus it was that in circumstances of great- est general moment nothing effectual was done. War was renewed in Upper Italy. In Germany, Luther was again at work. In Rome, which was besides afflicted with the plague, discontent was universal. Adrian once said : " How much it imports on what times is cast even the best of men !" The whole feeling of his position is embodied in this painful exclamation : fitly has it been engraved on his monument in the German church at Rome. At least it is not ascribable exclusively to Adrian's personal character if his times were barren of result. The papacy was enveloped in the march of mighty necessities swaying the destinies of the world, necessities that would have inhnitely tasked the powers of men the most practised in statesmanship, and the most fertile in expedients. Among all the cardinals there was none who seemed more peculiarly fitted to wield the papacy, more equal to sustain the burthen of that station, than Giulio de' Medici. He had already under Leo the chief share in pub- lic business, and had held the whole of its de- tails in his hands ; even under Adrian loo he had retained a certain degree of power.f He did not let the highest dignity a second time escape him. He took the name of Cle- ment VII. The new pope avoided with great caution the evils that had made themselves felt under his two immediate predecessors, Leo's insta- bility, profuseness, and objectionable habits, and Adrian's discordancy with the tempera- ment of his court. Every thing under him * Lettere di Negro. Capitolo del Berni. E quando un srgue il libera costume Di slbgarsi scrivendo e di cantare, Lo minaccia di far biiUare in fiiime. [And when any one indulges in tlie liberal custom of venting his feelings in writing or in song, they threaten to pitch him into the river.] •f The Relatione di Mari o Foscari, 1.326, says of him in reference lo thosetimes: " Stavacon grandissini;i.reputa- tion e governava il papato e havia piu zente alia sua au- dientia che il papa. [He enjoyed the highest reputation, and had the government of the papacy: his aujiencps were more numerously attended than those oi the pope.] was controlled by sound discretion ; at least in himself nothing was apparent but blameless rectitude and moderation.* The pontifical ceremonies were carefully observed, he gave audience with unwearied assiduity from an early hour till evening, and promoted the arts and sciences in the course they had once for ail assumed. Clement VII. was himself very well informed. He could converse with equal knowledge of his subject, whether the topic related to mechanics and hydraulic architec- ture, or to philosophy and theology. In every- thing he manifested extraordinary acuteness; his sagacity penetrated the most difficult cir- cumstances, and saw through them to the very bottom : never was man heard to debate with greater skill. In Leo's time he ^"had proved himself unsurpassed for prudence in counsel and circumspect ability in practice. But the storm is the test of the pilot's powers. Clement received the popedom, if we consider it only in the light of an Italian sove- reignty, in a most critical condition. The Spaniards had contributed the most to enlarge and uphold the states of the church ; they had established the Medici in Florence. Thus leagued with the popes, their own ad- vancement in Italy had accompanied that of the Medici. Alexander VI. had opened Lower Italy to them ; Julius had given them access to the middle regions ; and through their com- bination with Leo, in the attack on Milan, they had become masters in Upper Italy. In this course of events, (/lement had personally afforded them manifold assistance. There is extant an instruction of his to his ambassadors at the Spanish court, in which he enumerates the services he had rendered to Charles V. and his house. He it was above all who had brought it about that Francis I. in his first expedition did not push on to Naples: to his instrumentality it had been owing that Leo offered no impediment to the election of Charles V. to the imperial dignity, and re- pealed the old constitution, by which it was enacted that no J^ing of Naples should be em- peror at the same time. In spite of all the promises of the French, he had aided towards the conclusion of the alliance bewteen Leo and Charles for the reconquest of Milan, and to promote that enterprise he had spared neither the means of his country and his friends, nor his own person ; he had procured the popedom for Adrian, and when he did so it seemed almost the same thing whether Adrian or the emperor was made pope.f I will not inquire how much of Leo's policy is * Vettori says that so good a man had not been pope for the last hundred years: non su|)erbo, noa simoniaco, non avaro, non libidinoso, sobrio nel vicio, parco nel vestire, religioso, devolo. [Not proud, not simoniacal, not avari- cious, not lustful, temperate in diet, frugal in apparel, re- ligious and devout.] t In.^trutlione al Card, reverendmo' di Farnese, che fu poi Paulo III., quando ando legato all' Imperatore Carlo v., doppo il sacco di Eoma. (Appendix, No. XV.) A. D. 1523-34.] UNDER CLEMENT VII. 45 ascribable to the counsellor, and how much to the sovereign; certain it is that Cardinal Medici was always on the emperor's side. After he had become pope too he aided the imperial troops with money, provisions, and grants of ecclesiastical revenues; once again they were partially indebted for victory to his support. Thus closely was Clement leagued with the Spaniards; but, as not unfrequenlly occurs, prodigious evils ensued from this alliance. The popes had occasioned the growth of the Spanish power, but this had never been their direct purpose. They had wrested Milan from the French; but they had not entertained a desire to transfer it to the Spaniards. (5n the contrary, more than one war had been carried on to prevent the possession of Naples and Milan by one and the same power.* That now the Spaniards, so long masters in Lower Italy, were daily obtaining firmer footing in Lombardy, and that they delayed the investi- ture of Sforza, was regarded in Rome with impatience and displeasure. Clement was also personally dissatisfied. We see from the instructions before cited, that already as cardinal he had often thought him- self treated with less consideration than was due to his deserts: he still continued to meet with little deference, and the expedition against Marseilles was undertaken in 1524, in direct opposition to his advice. His minis- ters— so say themselves — perpetually looked for still grosser marks of disrepect towards the apostolic see. They recognized in the Spaniards nothing but imperiousness and in- solence.f How straitly did Clement seem knit, through the course of events and his personal position, in the bonds of necessity and inclination with the Spaniards ! But now a thousand reasons presented themselves to make him execrate the power he had helped to found, to oppose the very cause he had hitherto favoured and furthered. Of all political efforts, the hardest perhaps is to abandon the course in which one has hith- erto moved, to undo the results he has himself elicited. And how much depended now on such an effort! The Italians felt thoroughly that upon the issue depended the decision of their fate for centuries. A great community of feeling had sprung up in the nation. I am firmly per- suaded that this owed its origin to the literary and artistic progress of Italy, in which it left all other nations so far behind ! The haught- * It is expressly stated in tlio before-mentioned instruc lion, that the pope had shown himself ready to acquiesce even in what was disagreeable to him, purche lo slato di Milano restassp'al duca, al quale efTetto si erano fatte lulte le guerre d'ltalia. [In order that the state of Milan might remain in the duke's possession, a thing which had been the object of all the wars of Italy.] t M. Giberto datario a Dun Michele di Silva. Lettere di Principi, I. 197 b. iness too and the rapacity of the Spaniards, both officers and privates, seemed absolutely intolerable. It was with a mixture of con- tempt and rage that the Italians beheld those foreign half-barbarous masters in their country. Things were moreover at such a pass, that these intruders might possibly be got rid of. But the fact was not to be disguised, that if the attempt were not made with all the na- tion's might, if the enterprise should prove unsuccessful, all was lost forever. I could wish it were in my power fully to develope the history of this period, to set forth in detail the whole struggle of the roused powers of Italy. Here, however, we can only mark some leading points. The first step taken, and it seemed ex- tremely well devised, was an attempt made in the year 1525 to gain over the emperor's best general, who was decidedly very much dissatisfied. What more would be wanted if, aa was hoped, the emperor should lose with his general the army too by means of which he ruled Italy] Promises were not spared; the offer even of a crown was held out. But how erroneous was the calculation! How wholly was their self-complacent cunning shivered upon the stubborn material on which it made essay ! Pescara, the general in question, was born indeed in Italy, but of Spanish blood; he spoke nothing but Spanish, would be nothing but a Spaniard, and had no tincture of Italian art or literature: his mental character had been fashioned by the Spanish romances, which breathe only the spirit of loyalty and fidelity. He was by nature opposed to a na- tional Italian enterprize.* No sooner had overtures been made to him than he communi- cated them to his comrades, and to the empe- ror: he made no other use of them than to extract their secrets from the Italians, and to frustrate all their plans. But these very proceedings rendered a de- cisive contest with the emperor unavoidable; for how was it henceforth possible that any re- mains of mutual confidence should subsist be- tween the parties] In the summer of 1.526, we see the Italians at last going to work with their own strength. The Milanese are already in the field against the Imperialists. A Venetian and a papal army advance to their support. Swiss aid is pro- mised, and the alliance of France, and of England has been secured. "This time," said * Vettori sums up his character in the most opprobioua manner. Era superbo oltre modo, invidioso, ingrato, avaro, venenoso e crudele, senzareligione, senzahumaniti, nato proprio per distruggere Tllalia. [He was haughty beyond measure, envious, ungrateful, covetous, virulent and cruel, without reliffion, without humanity, born expressly for the destruction of Italy.] Morone, too, said once to Guicciar- dini, there was no more faithless, malicious man than Pescara (Hist, d'ltalia, XVI., 476,) and yet he made him the offer. I do not cite these judgmentts as though they were true; only they show thai Pescara had evinced nothing but enmity and haired towards the Italians. 46 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE REFORMATION, [a. d. 1523-34. Giberto, the most confidential minister of Clement VII., " the matter concerns not a petty revenge, a point of honour, or a single town. This war decides the liberation or the perpetual thraldom of Italy." He expresses no doubt of a successful issue. " Posterity will envy us that that their lot had not been cast on our days, that they might have wit- nessed so high fortune and have had their part in it." He hopes there will be no need of foreign aid. " Ours alone will be the glory, and so much the sweeter the fruit,"* With these thoughts and hopes Clement entered on his war against the Spaniards.f It was his boldest and loftiest conception, his most unfortunate and fatal. The affairs of the State and of the Church are most intimately interwoven. The pope seemed to have left the commotions of Ger- many wholly out of consideration, and from these originated the first reaction. At the moment when the troops of Clement VII. advanced into Upper Italy, in July 1526, the diet had assembled at Spires to come to a definitive resolution with regard to the dis- sensions in the church. That the imperial party, that Ferdinand of Austria who repre- sented the emperor, and who himself had de- signs upon Milan, should have been very eager to uphold the power of the pope on this side the Alps, at the very time when beyond them they were attacked by him with the ut- most determination, would have been contrary to the nature of things. Whatever intentions might have been entertained or announced be- fore,| the state of open war between the pope and the emperor put an end to all considera- tions in favour of the former. Never had the towns spoken out more freely than on this oc- casion ; never had the princes pressed more urgently for a removal of their burthens. The proposal was made that the books containing the new statutes should be forthwith burned with- out reserve, and that the holy Scriptures should be taken as the sole rule of faith. Although some opposition arose, yet never was a reso- lution adopted with more firmness. Ferdinand signed a decree of the diet, by virtue of which it was left open to the states so to comport themselves in matters of religion, as each might think to answer to God and the empe- ror, that is, to act according to their own judgment; a resolution in which not a thought was bestowed on the pope, and which may be regarded as the beginning of the actual refor- mation, and of the establishment of a new church in Germany. In Saxony, Hesse, and j the neighbouring countries, measures in ac- cordance with this resolution were taken without further delay. The legal existence of the protestant party in the empire rests essentially on the decree of Spires, of the year 1526. We may assert that this state of public feel- ing in Germany was decisive for Italy likewise. Zeal for their vast undertaking was far from being universal among the Italians, nor was there anything like perfect unity among those who actually took part in it. The pope, able as he was, and thoroughly Italian in feel- ing, was yet not of that order of men by whom fate will submit to be mastered. His penetra- tion seemed at times prejudicial to him. He seemed to know more clearly than was expe- dient, that he was the weaker party; all pos- sible contingencies, every shape of danger presented themselves to his mind and be- wildered him. There is a practical inventive- ness that in business instinctively perceives the simple principle, and unerringly seizes on the feasible or expedient. He possessed it not.* In the most important moments he was seen to hesitate, waver, and think of economizing money. As his allies now failed to keep their engagements with him, the re- sults anticipated were far from being obtained, and the imperialists still kept their ground in Lombardy,when in Nov. 1526, George Frunds- berg crossed the Alps with an imposing army of lansquenets, to bring the contest to an end. Both general and men were full of Lutheran sentiments. They came to revenge the empe- ror upon the pope. The latter's breach of the alliance had been represented to them as the cause of all the mischief then felt, the pro- tracted wars in Christendom, and the success of the Ottomans, who were at that moment overrunning Hungary. " If I make my way to Rome," said Frundsberg, " I will hang the pope." Painful is it to witness the storm gathering and rolling onwards from the narrowing hori- zon. That Rome, so full it may be of vices, but not less full of noble eflforts, intellect, and mental accomplishments, creative, adorned with matchless works of art, such as the world had never before produced, a wealth ennobled by the stamp of genius, and of living and im- perishable efficacy, that Rome is now threat- ened with destruction. As the masses of the Imperialists draw together, the Italian troops * G. M. Giberto al vescovodi Veruli. LeltrediPrincipi, I. p. 192 a. t Foscari tco, says, " QupUo fa a presente di voler far lega con Francia, fa per ben suo e d'llalia, non perch6 ama Francesi." [His present desire to ally himself with France is directed to his own good and that of Italy, and is not prompted by any love for the French.] I t The instructions of the emperor, which had caused ' the protestants some alarm, were of the dale of Blarch 1526, ] a period in which the pope was not yet in alliance with France. * Suriano, Rel.de loSS, finds inhim "core frigidissimo; el quale fa la Beatne. S. esser dotata di non vulgar timi- diid, non dire pussillanimitil: il che peio paniii avere trovato coiiiuneniente in la natura fiorentini. Qursta timiditCi causa che S. S*. 6 molio irresolula." [A very cold heart; for which reason his holiness is possessed with no common timidity, not lo say cowardice. This, by the by, I think I have commonly noticed among Flo- rentines. This timidity causes his holiness to be very undecided.] A. D. 1523-34.] UNDER CLEMENT VII. 47 disperse before them : the only army that yet remains follows thoin from a distance. The emperor, who had long been unable to pay his army, could not, even if he would, g-ive it any other direction. It marches under the impe- rial banner, but follows its own stormy im- pulses. The pope still hopes, negotiates, concedes, concludes: but he either will not or cannot lay hold on the only means that can save him, namely, contenting the army with the money it thinks it may demand. Well, then, shall at least a resolute stand be made against the enemy with the weapons that are at command! Four thousand men were suf- ficient to close the passes of Tuscany ; yet the attempt is not once made. Rome numbered perhaps thirty thousand inhabitants capable of bearing arms ; many of tliem had seen ser- vice ; they went about with swords by their sides, fought with each other, and boasted loudly of their deeds. But to resist the enemy, who brought with them certain havoc, never more tiian five hundred men were mustered out of the city. The pope and his power were vanquished at the first onset. On the 6lh May 1527, two hours before sunset, the Imperialists burst into Rome. Old Frundsberg was no longer at their head : he had been invalided and left behind, having been struck with ap- oplexy on failing to meet with the usual obe- dience on the occasion of a disturbance among his troops. Bourbon, who had led the army so far, fell upon the first setting up of the storm- ing ladders; and now restrained by no leader, the bloodthirsty soldiery, hardened by long privations, and rendered savage by their trade, burst over the devoted city. Never fell a richer booty into more violent hands, never was plunder longer, more continuous, or more destructive.* The splendour of Rome fills the beginning of the sixteenth century ; it distinguishes a wonderful period in the intel- lectual development of mankind : that day it came to an end. And thus did the pope, who had sought the liberation of Italy, see himself i beleaguered in the castle of St. Angeio, and as it were a prisoner. We may assert, that by this great blow, the preponderance of the Spanish power m Italy was irrevocably estab- lished. A new expedition of the French, which promised much at first, failed completely in the end; they were constrained to give up all their pretensions in Italy. * Veltori : La urcisione non fu molta, perr.he rari si urcidono quelli che non si vogliono difendere; ma la preda lu jnestimabile in danaii conuinlo, di gioie, d'oro e d'argenlo lavoralo, di veslile, d'arazzi, paramenti di casa, mercanlie d'ogni soite e di taglie. [Tlie slaughter was not great, because few were killed but those who attempted to defend themselves ; but the booty was inestimable in specie, jewels, wrought euld and silver, gamients, tapestry, household furniture, meichandize of every kind, and ran- som.] The pope, he says, was not to be blamed for the misfortune ; it whs owing to tho inhabitants, superbi, avari, homicidi, invidiosi, libidinosi e simulaiori, [proud, cov- etous, murderers, envious, lustful and hypocritical,] as he calls them. Such a population could not sastain itself. Not less important was another occurrence. Before Rome was yet captured, when it was merely seen that Bourbon's route lay thither, the enemies of the Medici at Florence had availed themselves of the confusion of the moment, once more to expel the family of the pope. Clement felt almost more acutely the revolt of his native city than the capture of Rome. With amazement men beheld him again connecting himself with the Spaniards after enduring such deep indignities at their hands. His motive was that he saw in Spanish aid the only means of reinstating his party in Florence. It seemed to him better to endure the domination of the emperor than the refrac- toriness of the rebels. The worse the fortune of the French, the nearer did he draw to the Spaniards. When at last the former were completely defeated, he concluded with the latter the treaty of Barcelona. So wholly did he change his policy, that he now himself made use of the same army that had taken Rome before his eyes, and kept himself so long besieged — that he made use of this, only recruited and improved, to subjugate his na- tive city. Thenceforth Charles was more powerful in Italy than any emperor for many centuries. The crown which he received at Bologna had once more its full significance. Milan gradu- ally owned allegiance to him no less than Naples: in Tuscany, his restoration of the Medici in Florence procured him direct influ- ence throughout his lite ; the remaining pow- ers sided with him or submitted : with the combined strength of Spain and Germany he held all Italy between the Alps and the sea in subjection to his victorious arms, and to the rights of the imperial crown. Such was the course and result of the Italian war. Since that period foreign nations have not ceased to rule in Italy. Let us now look to the course of religious differences, which were so intimately connected with those of a political kind. If the pope acquiesced in seeing the Spanish power paramount all around him, he might at least hope through the aid of that mighty emperor, who was pictured to him as catholic and devout, to have his authority re-established in Germany. This had been stipulated by an article in the treaty of Barcelona. The em- peror promised with all his might to efi^ect the reduction of the Protestants, and he seemed too resolved on doing so. He returned a very ungracious answer to the Protestant delegates who waited on him in Italy. On his journey into Germany in the year 1530, some members of the curia, particularly cardinal Campeggi, the legate who accompanied him, struck out some bold plans, most perilously threatening to Germany. There exists a memorial presented by him to the emperor at the time of the diet of Augs- 48 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE REFORMATION, [a. d. 1523-34. burg, in which he sets these forth. I must in deference to the cause of truth, thoug-h with extreme reluctance, say a word respecting this document. Cardinal Campeggi did not content himself with deplormg the disorders in religion, but specially pointed out their political conse- quences; how the nobility had sunk in the cities of the empire through the operation of the Reformation, how neither spiritual nor temporal princes any longer met with due obedience, and how even the majesty of the emperor was no longer regarded. He then suggests the remedy for the evil. The mystery of his curative system was not very profound. No more, he states, was neces- sary than that a compact should be entered into between the emperor and the well-dis- posed princes, whereupon endeavours should be made to convert the disaffected either by promises or threats. But what if they remain- ed stubborn ] It would then be right to extir- pate such pestilent weeds with fire and sword.* The grand thing was to confiscate their pro- perty temporal and spiritual, in Germany as well as in Hungary and Bohemia ; for this is lawful and right with regard to heretics. When they should have been thus mastered, holy inquisitors should be appointed to trace out any remnants left of them, and to proceed against them as had been done in Spain against the Moors. Furthermore, the university of Wittemberg should be put under ban, and the students declared unworthy of imperial or papal favour, the books of the heretics should be burned, and the monks sent back to con- vents they had abandoned, and no heretics tolerated at any court. But above all things, a vigorous confiscation was necessary. " Even should your majesty deal only with the ring- leaders," says the legate, "you may exact from them a large sum of money, which in any case is indispensable for operations against the Turks." So runs this scheme ;t these are its main propositions. How every word breathes of oppression, blood, and rapine ! We cannot wonder if the worst was apprehended by the Germans of an emperor who went among them under such escort, and if the Protestants con- sulted together as to the extent to which they might be warranted in carrying measures of self-defence. Fortunately, as matters stood, no such pro- ceedings as those suggested by the legate were to be apprehended. The emperor was far from being strong * Se alcuni ve ne fossero, che dio non voglia, le quali obstinemente perseverassero in quesla diabolica via, quella, (S. M.) potri mpllere la mano al ferro et al foco et radicilus extirpare quesla mala venenosa pianta. t Such a scheme ihey ventured to call an inslmclion. Inslruclio data Caesari a reverpndmo- Cainpeegio in diela Auguslana 1530. I found it in a Roman library in the handwriting of the time, and undoubtedly genuine. enough to carry them out. This was convinc- ingly demonstrated at the time by Erasmus. But even had he possessed the power, his will would hardly have inclined that way. He was by nature rather kind, considerate, deliberate, and averse to precipitation than otherwise. The more closely he examined these dissensions, the more they touched a chord in his own mind. His very proclama- tion for a diet announced his desire to hear the different opinions, weigh them and endea- vour to reduce them to the standard of Christian truth. Towards any such violent measures as those above mentioned, he was far from disposed. Even those who systematically doubt the purity of human intentions, cannot apply their opinions here. It would not have been for the interest of Charles to employ violence. Was he, the emperor, to make himself the executor of the pope's decrees? Should he subdue for the pope, not merely for the exist- ing one, but for all his successors likewise, those enemies who would give them the most occupation] The friendly disposition of the Roman see was far from being sufficiently secure to warrant this. On the contrary, the existing state of things offered him spontaneously and naturally an advantage, which he had but to lay hold on to attain more unconditional superiority than that he yet possessed. It was generally admitted, whether justly or not I will not inquire, that only an assembly of the Church could be adequate to the settle- ment of such important differences. Councils had maintained their credit for this very rea- son, that the popes entertained a natural re- pugnance to them ; and every act of opposition shown by the latter, had all along exalted their favourable reputation. In the year 1530, Charles applied his thoughts seriously in this direction. He promised a council within a brief specified period. It had long been the habitual most earnest wish of the princes, in all their entanglements with the papal see, to be backed by some spiritual power. Charles would therefore acquire in a council assembled under these circumstances the most efficient of allies. Called together at his instigation, and held under his influence, the execution of its de- crees would act two ways : they would make themselves felt by the pope equally as by his opponents. The old notion of a reformation in head and members would be realized; and what a predominance would this give to the temporal authority, above all to the emperor himself! This course was rational ; it was, if you will, unavoidable; but it was at the same time for the emperor's best interest. On the contrary, nothing more grave could befal the pope and his court. I find that on A. D. 1523-34.] UNDER CLEMENT VII. 49 the first serious apprehension of a council, the price of all the vendible offices of the court fell considerably.* It is evident how much danger was apprehended to the existing state of things. But in addition to all this, Clement VII. was influenced by personal considerations like- wise. That he was not of the legitimate birth, that he had not risen to the supreme dignity by perfectly pure means, an^l that from personal motives he had suffered himself to carry on a costly war with the forces of the Church against his native land, matters all of them which must weigh heavily against a pope, occasioned him well-grounded alarm. Clement, says Soriano, shunned as much as possible the very mention of a council. Although he did not flatly reject the pro- posal (he durst not, with any regard to the honour of the papal see), it cannot be matter of doubt with what heart he set about carry- ing it into effect. He did give way indeed, he was fully compliant; but at the same time he put for- ward the opposing arguments in their strong- est form, depicted in the liveliest manner all the difficulties and dangers incident to a coun- cil, and declared his belief that the result was more than doubtful. f He stipulated too for the co-operation of all other princes, and for a previous subjection of the Protestants, things that might very well figure in an abstract scheme of papal doctrine, but utterly imprac- ticable in the existing state of things. But how indeed could it have been expected of him, that during the delay appointed by the emperor he should proceed, not merely in out- ward show and form, but vigorously and de- cisively, upon a work so repugnant to him? Charles often upbraided him with his back- wardness, ascribing to it all the farther mis- chief that ensued. No doubt he hoped to evade the necessity that hung over him. But it clung to him sternly and fast. When Charles again visited Italy in 1533, still full of what he had seen and projected in Ger- many, he pressed him in person (he held a congress with the pope in Bologna) and with increased earnestness on the subject of a coun- cil, which he had so oflen demanded in writ- ing. The different opinions and inclinations were now brought into direct collision: the pope adhered to his stipulated conditions, while the emperor on his part represented to him the impossibility of their fulfilment. They could not come to any agreement. In the briefs which were issued on these matters, a certain discrepancy is observable ; in some the pope seems more disposed to the emperor'a views than in others.* But however that may have been, he had no alternative but to pro- ceed to a fresh proclamation of the council. If he would not close his eyes to the light, he could not doubt that on the return of the em- peror, who had set out for Spain, bare words would avail no longer ; that the danger he apprehended, and with which a council sum- moned under such circumstances really me- naced the Roman see, would burst upon his head. The situation was one, in which the pos- sessor of a power of whatever kind might well be excused, if he adopted even a des- perate resolution to ensure his safety. The political preponderance of the emperor was already excessive; and even though the pope resigned himself to this, he could not but feel his own depressed condition. He was deeply mortified that Charles V. had decided the old disputes of the Church with Ferrara in favour of the latter: he bore it with outward calm- ness, but gave vent to his complaints among his friends. But how much mare afflicting was it when that monarch, to whom he had looked for the immediate suppression of the Protestants, on the very contrary availed him- self of the pretext of the religious dissensions, to obtain an ecclesiastical predominance, un- paralleled for centuries, and perilled even the spiritual authority and dignity of the Roman see ! Was it to be Clement's fate to fall wholly into his hands, and be totally at his mercy] He formed his resolution at once in Bologna : Francis I. had often already proposed to Cle- ment an alliance to be cemented by ties of blood, which the latter had always declined. In his present need the pope himself recurred to this. It is expressly affirmed, that the spe- cial ground on which Clement again lent an ear to the king of France was the demand made for a council. f * Lettera anonima all' arcivescovo Pimpinello. (Let- ters di Principi, iii. 5.) Gli ufficii solo con la fama del conciliosono invilili, che non se ne irovano danari. I see thai Pallavicini loo ciies ihis letter, iii. 7. 1 ; I know not how he comes to ascribe it to Sanga. t Ex. gr. Air iinperatore : di man propria di papa Cle- mente, Lettere di Principi, ii. 197. Al conlrario nessun (rimedio) 6 piu pericoloso e per partorir niaggiori mali (del concilio), quando non concorrono le debite circonstanze. [On the contrary, no remedy can be more perilous or pregnant with greater evils (than the council) if the re- quisite circumstances do not concur.] ♦ Valuable information respecting the negotiations at Bologna, derived from the archives of the Vatican, is to be found in one of the best chaptersof Pallavicini, lib. iii. c. 12. He mentions the discrepancy spoken of in the text, and states that it rested on explicit negotiations. Indeed we find in the despatches to the catholic states in Rainaldus, xx. 659, Honleder, I. xv. a repetition of the stipulation for a general co-operation; the pope promises to coramunicate^the result of his efforts; in the list of points proposed to the Protestants, it is said expressly in the seventh article: Quod si forsan aliqui princlpes ve- lint tarn pio negotio deesse, nihilominus summus D^s- nr. procedet cum "saniori parte consentiente. But if per- chance any princes shall refuse to co-operate in so pious a matter, our supreme lord shall nevertheless proceed with the consent of the more sound minded part.] It, would seem that this was the discrepancy Pallavicini had in view, although he mentions another. t Soriano Relatione, 1535. II papa and6 a Bologna contra sua voglia e quasi sforzato, come di buon logo ho inteso, e fu assai di cio ovidente segao che S. S*. con- 50 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE REFORMATION, [a. d. 1523-34. Purely political motives would never per- haps have prompted this pope again to attempt effecting a balance of power between the two great rivals, and to divide his favour equally between them ; but upon this course he was now determined, in consideration of the dan- gers threatening the Church over which he presided. Shortly after this Clement had another meeting with Francis I. : it took place at Marseilles, and the strictest alliance was con- cluded between them. Precisely as at an- other period, in the P^'lorentine emergency, the pope had cemented his friendship with the emperor by the marriage of a natural daughter of the latter with one of his own nephews, so now in the embarrassment of the Church he sealed the league he had formed with Fran- cis I. by betrothing his young niece Catherine de'Medici with the king's second son. On the former occasion he had reason to fear the French and their indirect influence on Flo- rence ; on the present, the emperor and his intentions with regard to a convocation of the Church. And now he took no further pains to con- ceal his aim. We have a letter from him to Ferdinand I., in- which he declares that his exertions to obtain a co-operation of all Chris- tian sovereigns towards the council had not been successful : king Francis I., with whom he had spoken, held the present moment un- suited to such a project, and refused to adopt it ; but he, the pope, hoped on another oppor- tunity to obtain a favourable decision from the Christian sovereigns.* I cannot conceive how a doubt can exist as to the purposes of Clement VII. Even again, in his last docu- ment addressed to the catholic princes of Ger- many, he had repeated his conditions as to an universal participation in the proposed mea- sure: his present declaration, that he could not succeed in obtaining this, is tantamount to an unambiguous refusal to give effect to his announcement of a council.f His alliance eum() di giorni cento in tale viaggio il quale polea far in sei di. Considerando dunque Clenienle quesli tali casi 8Uoi 8 per dire cosi la servitii nella quale egli si trovava per la materia del concilio, la quale Csesare non lasciava di stimolare, comincii) a rendersi piu facile al Clirislian- issimo. Equivi si irattii I'andala di Marsilia, ct insieme la practicadel malriiuonio, essendo gia la nipoie nobile el habile. [The pope went 4o Bologna contrary to his will and almost upon compulsion, as I have heard from good authority; an evident proof of which was, that his holiness spent a hundred days on the journey, whereas he might have completed it in six. Clenienl then, reflecting on the present condition of his affairs, and on the servi- tude, so to speak, in which he was placed as regarded the serious matter of the council, which the emperor never ceased to urge, began to be more compliant towards the most christian king. Thereupon negotiations were en- tered into for the conference at Marseilles, and for the marriage, the pope's niece beina now marriageable.] At a previous period the pope would have alleged her birth and her age as a pretext for evading the match. *20lh March, 15.i4. Pallavicini, III. xvi. 3. tLa Serta. V". dunque in maloiia del concilio puf) esser certissima che dal canto di Clemente fu fuggita con tuiti li raezzj e cod lulte le vie. [As regards the council, with France gave him alike courage and a pretext for this. I cannot persuade myself that this council would ever have taken place under his pontificate. This however was not the only consequence of his new league. Another and unexpected one forthwith developed itself, one which is of the utmost importance, especially for the German people. Very singular was the combination result- ing from the alliance, as regarded the inter- mixture of ecclesiastical and temporal inte- rests. Francis I. was then on terms of the best understanding with the Protestants, and now becoming so closely connected with the pope, he to a certain degree linked together the Protestants and the pope in one system. And here we have evidenced the political strength of the position the Protestants had assumed. The emperor could not entertain the thought of so unconditionally subjecting them again to the pope ; on the contrary, he availed himself of their proceedings to keep the latter in check. Gradually it appeared that the pope too, on his part, had no wish to see them wholly at the mercy of the emperor; it was not altogether unconsciously that Cle- ment was in a measure leagued with them ; he hoped to be able to turn their opposition to the emperor to account, and to occasion him some trouble in his turn. It was immediately remarked at the time, that the king of France had persuaded the pope that the principal Protestant princes were dependent on him, and had induced him to hope he would prevail on them to impede the assembly of the council.* But if we are not much mistaken, these engagements went still fxirther. Shortly after his conference with the pope, Francis held another with Philip of Hesse. They agreed together on the resto- ration of the Duke of Wurtemberg, who at that time had been dispossessed by the house of Austria ; Francis I. consented to aid with supplies of money. Landgrave Philip effected the enterprise with surprising rapidity in a brief campaign. It is certain he had intended to push his way into the hereditary dominions of the house of Austria, f and it was generally surmised that the king purposed an attack on Milan for once from the side of Germany. | your serenity may therefore be assured that Clement took all possible ways and means to avoid it.] *Sarpi, Historia del Concilio, Tridentino, lib. i. p. 68. Soriano does not confirm all Sarpi's assertions, but a con- siderable part of them he does. That ambassador says, Avendo fatto credere a Clemente che da S. M. Chma. di- pendessero quelli Sri. principal issimi e capi della fat- tione luterana — si che almeno fugisse il concilio. This is all I have ventured to assert. tin his instruction to his ambassador to France, Aus. 1532, (Rommel Urkundenbuch 61.) he excuses himself " for our not having proceeded to attack the king in his hereditary possessions"— (dass wir nit fuitzugen, den Kiinig in seinen Erblanden auzugreifen.) tJovJus, Historiae sui temporis, lib. xxiii. p. 129: Pa- ruta, Storia Venez. p. 389. A. D. 1523-34.] UNDER CLEMENT VII. 51 A still further view is set before us by Marino Giustiniuno, in those days Venetian ambassa- dor to France. He positively assures us that these German movements were concerted by Clement and Francis at Marseilles, and adds, that it was assuredly not foreig-n to the plan to cause the troops engaged in them to march upon Italy : the pope would privately have lent his co-operation to the enterprize.* It would be somewhat rash to regard these as- sertions, however confidently made, as fully authentic ; still further proofs were necessary to this : but even though we should not re- ceive them, still we are met beyond the pos- sibility of doubt by one very remarkable phe- nomenon. Who could have surmised it 'i At the moment the pope and the Protestants were pursuing each other with the most implacable hatred, whilst they were waging a spiritual war against each other that filled the world with discord, they were on the other hand bound together by the like political interests. Now whereas, on previous occasions of Ita- lian politics, nothing had proved so pernicious to the pope as the ambiguous supersubtle po- licy he pursued, the same system produced him still more bitter fruit in spiritual con- cerns. King Ferdinand, threatened in his heredi- tary possessions, hastened to conclude the peace of Kadan, by which he abandoned VVur- temberg, and even entered into a close un- derstanding with the Landgrave. Tliose were Philip of Hesse's happiest days. That he had with a strong hand helped an exiled German prince to his rights, made him one of the ♦Relatione del clarrissimo M. Marino Guistinian el Kr. venulo d'ambasciator al Christianissimo re di Francia del 1535. (Archivio Venez.) Francesco fece I'abocca- mento di MarsiliaconClemente, nelqual videndoloroclie Cesare slava fermo — conchiuiero il moinmento delle armi in GeTniania, soUo prelesto di voler metier il duca di Vir- tenberg in casa; nel quale se Iddio non avesse posto la mano con il mezzo di Cesare, il quale all' iniproviso e con gran preslezza, senza saputa del Xmo ; con la;resiitulion del ducato di Vitenberg fece la pace, tulle quelle genti veni- vano in Italia sollo il favor secrelo di Clemenle. [Francis held a conference al Marseilles, with Clement, wherein seeing the emperor's firmness, Ihey resolved on tke war in Oermany, under pretext of reinstating the duke of Wiir- temburg ; in the course of which if Gocl had not interfered through the emperor, who suddenly and with great haste made peace unknown lo the most christian king by the restilulion of the duchy of Wiinemburg, all those forces would have entered Italy under the secret countenance ofClemenl.] More accurate information will,Ilhink, be yet obtained. Soriano superadds the following. Di tuui li desiderii (del re) s'accommodu Clement, con parole tali che lo facevano credere S. S. esser disposla in tuUo alle sue voglie, senza pero far provisione alcuna in scrittura. [Clement acceded lo all the kins's desires in such terms as led him lo believe that his holiness was disposed in evei7 thing to comply with his will, but at the same time without making any stipulation in writins.] That an Italian expedition was talked of, cannot be denied. The pope maintained that he had declined it: "non avere bisosno di mo;o in Italia" [that he did not want any movement in Italy.] The king had told him he should remain quiet, " con le mani accorte nelle manichi" [with his hands lucked up in his sleeves.] Probably the French asserted what the Italians denied, so that the ambassador in France is more positive than Ihe ambassador in Rome. If, however, the pope said he did not want a movement in Italy, il is obvious how Utile that expression excludes the idea of a movement in Germany. most respected chiefs of the empire. But he had by the same means achieved another im- portant result. This treaty of peace con- tained likewise a momentous decision respect- ing the religious controversies. The imperial chamber was directed to entertain in future no complaints concerning confiscated Church property. I know not that any other single occurrence ever operated so decisively as this enterprise of Philip of Hesse's for the preponderance of the Protestant name in Germany. That di- rection to the imperial chamber involves a judicial security for the new party of extra- ordinary importance. Nor were its effects long delayed. We may, I think, regard the peace of Kadan as tlie second grand epoch of the rise of a Protestant power in Germany. After it had for a long period made a feebler progress, it began anew to spread in the most triumphant manner. Wurtemberg, which had been taken, was reformed forthwith. The German provinces of Denmark, Pomcrania, the March of Brandenburg, the second branch of Saxony, one branch of Brunswick, and the Palatinate, followed shortly after. Within a few years the reformation of the Church spread over the whole of Lower Germany, and obtained firm and permanent footing in Upper Germany. And pope Clement had been privy to an en- terprise which led to this result, which so im- measurably augmented the desertion from the Church's ranks, nay he had perhaps approved of it. The papacy was in an utterly untenable position. Its secular tendencies had engen- dered in it a coruption that had caused it numberless opponents and dissidents ; but the continuation of that tendency, the further commingling of spiritual and temporal inter- ests, brought it wholly to the ground. Even the English schism arose essentially from this source. It is very deserving of attention, that how- ever hostilely Henry VIII. may have declared against Luther, and however closely connect- ed he may have been with the Roman see, nevertheless on the first difference in purely political matters in the beginning of the year 1525, he threated the papacy with ecclesias- tical innovations.* Matters were accommo- dated, indeed on that occasion ; the king made common cause with the pope against the em- peror. When Clement was besieged in the castle of St. Angelo, and abandoned by every one, Henry VIII. found means to furnish him with aid; for this reason Clement was per- haps personally inclined to him, more than to * Wolsey had written, threatening " che ogni provincia doventari Lulherana;" [that every province will become Lutheran;] an expression that may fairly be considered as the first symptom of secession from Rome shown by the English government. (See Gibeno ai nuatii d'lnghilter- ra: Letters di Principi, i. p. 147.) 52 CONNEXION OF POLITICS WITH THE REFORMATION, [a. d. 1523-34. any other potentate.* But, since tliat period, definitive sentence in the year 1534, he, too, the question of the king's divorce had arisen. ^ wavered no longer, but pronounced the total It is not to be denied, that in the year 1528, separation of his kingdom from the pope's the pope, if he did not promise a satisfactory authority. So weak were, already, the ties decision of the question, at least held out a that bound together the Roman see and the show of its probability, "so soon as the Ger- several national churches, that it needed only mans and Spaniards should have been driven the resolve of a sovereign to wrest his king- out of Italy."f The very contrary of this dom from the connexion. took place, as we know. The Imperialists j These events filled up the last year of Cle- now first acquired a footing of real stability ; ment's life : they were the more bitter to him, we have seen into what strict alliance Cle- | inasmuch as he was not wholly blameless xnent entered with them : under such circum- > with regard to them, and his mischances stood stances he could not fulfil the expectations, in a painful relationship with his personal which, be it observed, he had warranted only qualities. And day by day the course of by a passing hint.]: No sooner was the peace events assumed a more perilous aspect. Fran- of Barcelona concluded, than he called the cis I. was already threatening a fresh attack case before the tribunal of Rome. The wife on Italy, and in this he asserted he was sanc- from whom Henry wished to part, was the tioned, not, indeed, by the written, but at emperor's aunt ; the validity of the marriage least by the orally expressed approval of the had been expressly declared by a former pope ; ' pope. The emperor would no longer be put was there a possibility of doubt as to the de- .off with pretences, and urged the summoning cision, when once the suit was brought in ; of a council more pressingly than ever. Fam- usual form before the judiciary court of the ily discords swelled the catalogue of his curia, particularly under the permanent influ- troubles. After all the pains it had cost to ence of the Imperialists'! Hereupon, Henry, ; bring Florence under, the pope was doomed without more ado, adopted the course that had j to see his two nephews fall at variance with before this time presented itself to him. In es- ; each other, and break out into the most savage sentials, in what regarded dogmas, he was, and ', hostility. His reflections on this catastrophe, continued, undoubtedly catholic ; but that af- his fear of coming events, " sorrow and secret fair of his, which was dealt with so openly in Rome in its political bearings, now excited him to an opposition to the temporal power of the papacy, that every day grew more vehe- ment. To every step taken in Rome to his disadvantage he responded with some measure against the curia ; from stage to stage his se- paration from it became continually more for- mal. When the curia at last pronounced its * Contarini, Relatione di 1530, expressly affirms this. Soriano, too, says in 1533, Ansjlia S. Santita ania e era conjunctissimo prima. [His holiness loves the king of England, and was at first on terms of the strictest friend- ship with hirn.] The king's design of obtaining a di- vorce he flatly declares to be a "pazzia" [a piece of folly]. + 1- rom the despatches of Doctor Knight of Orvieto, l.st and 9th Jan. 1528; Herbert's Life of Henry ATII., p. 218. t The whole situation of affairs is e.vplained by the fol- lowing passage of a letter from the papal Secretary San- ga to Campeggi, dated Vilerbo, 2nd September, l.o28, at the moment the Neapolitan enterprise had failed, (an event alluded to in the letter,) and when Campeggi was preparing to go to England: — Come vostra Slgn.Tlevma. sa, tenendosi N. Signore obligatissimo come fa a quel Se- rennio. re, nessuna cosa 6 si grande della quale non desi- deri coinpiacerli, ma bisogna ancora che sua Beatitudine, vedendo 1' imperatore vitlorioso e sperando in questa vit- toria non trovarlo aliena della pace, — non si precipiti a dare all' imperatore causa di nuova rottura, la quale leve- ria in perpetuo ogni speranza di pace: oltre che al certo metteria S. Sa. a fuoco et a totals eccidiotutto il suo stato. (Leltere di diversi autori, Venetia, 1556, p. 39.) [Ourlord the pope, esteeming himself, as your most reverend lord- ship knows, most deeply obliged to that most serene king, there is nothing of such magnitude that he would not willingly do to gratify him; but still there is need that his holiness, seeing that the emperor is victorious, and having reason, therefore, to expect to find him not averse to peace, should not rashly give the emperor cause for a new rupture, which would forever obliterate all hope of peace: besides, that his holiness would undoubt- edly bring down ruin and destruction upon his whole Btate.J anguish," says Soriano, " brought him to the grave."* We have designated Leo as fortunate : Clement was perhaps a better man — in any case, freer from faults, more active, and in particulars even more acute ; but in all his concerns, active and passive, ill-luck attended him. In truth he was the most ill-fated man that had ever filled the pontiff's chair. He met the superiority of the hostile forces that surrounded him on all sides with an uncertain policy, dependent on the probability of the moment, and this was utter ruin. The at- tempts, to which the most distinguished of his predecessors had devoted themselves, to found an independent temporal power, it was his fate to see issue in a directly opposite re- sult : he had to endure, that those from whose grasp he sought to wrest Italy should consol- idate their dominion there forever. The great Protestant secession proceeded unremittingly * Soriano. L' imperatore non cessava di sollecitar il concilio. — S. M. Chrisms, dimando che da S. SA. li fussi- no osservate le promesse essendo le conditioni poste fra loro. Percio S. S-i. si pose a grandissimo pensiero, e fu queslo dolore et atlanno che lo condusse alia morle. II dolor fu accresciunlo dalle pazzie del cardinal de Medici, il quale allora piu che mai intendeva a rinuntiare il ca- pello per la concurrenza alle cosedi Fiorenza. [The em- peror persisted incessantly in demanding the council. — His Hiost Christian majesty recjuired that his holiness should fulfil what he had promised on the conditions sti- pulated between them. His holiness was thereby cast into a state of profound and melancholy reflection, and this grief and vexation it was that led to his death. His grief was augmented by the mad schemes of the cardinal da Medici,\vho was at that time more than ever bent on re- nouncing the cardinal's hat, lo enter the lists of political competition at Florence.] A.D. 1513-41.] OPINIONS ANALAGOUS TO PROTESTANTISM IN ITALY. 53 before his eyes; whatever means he employed against it, all helped to spread it more widely. He left the papal see infinitely sunk in repu- tation, without spiritual, without temporal authority. Tiiat North Germany, which from of old had been so important to the papacy, through whose first conversion in remote times the power of the popes in the West had been mainly established, whose revolt against the emperor Henry IV. had so greatly served them towards the completion of their hierar- chy, that country had now stood up against them. To Germany belongs the imperishable merit of having restored Christianity in a purer form than it has worn since the first centurifes, of having re-discovered the true religion. Armed with such weapons it was irresistible. Its convictions made themselves paths through every neighbouring land. They had already possessed Scandinavia ; they spread in England, contrary to the king's intention, but under protection of the mea- sures he had adopted ; in Switzerland they achieved for themselves, with a few modifica- tions, an unassailable existence ; they made bold progress in France ; in Italy, and even in Spain, we find traces of them as early as under Clement's reign. Ever furtiier and further spreads the vast inundation. There is a power in these opinions that convinces and captivates all minds; and the struggle between spiritual and temporal interests in which the papacy had engaged, seems to have been directly adapted to procure them com- plete dominion. BOOK THE SECOND. BEGINNING OF A REGENERATION OF CATHOLICISM. Introduction. It is not in our day that the influence of public opinion first made itself felt in the world ; in every age of modern Europe it has been an important element in social life. Who can tell whence it arises, how it is fashioned ? We may regard it as the most peculiar pro- duction of our common nature, as the nearest expression of the inward movements and re- volutions of the great frame of society. It springs from and is fed by secret sources-: without requiring much force of reasoning, it seizes on men's minds by involuntary convic- tion. But it is only in its most general out- lines it is consistent with itself ; within these it is reproduced with various special modifi- cations, in innumerable greater and smaller circles. And since a host of new observations and experiences are perpetually flowing in upon it, simtie there are original minds that are moved indeed by it, but not wholly borne along by its current, and that exercise upon it a vigorous reaction, it is hence involved in an endless series of metamorphoses — it is transient, multiform, sometimes more, some- times less in unison with truth and justice, being rather a tendency of the moment than a fixed system. Frequently it only accompa- nies the occasion that calls it forth, and fa- shions itself to its complexion ; but now and then, when it encounters an unaccomodating will which it cannot overcome, it chafes and swells, and assumes a character of exorbitant demand. It must be admitted that it com- monly displays a just apprehension of wants and deficiencies, but the course of proceeding which these demand it is not in its nature to conceive with any instinctive accuracy. Thus it happens, that in the course of time it often runs into directly opposite extremes. It help- ed to establish the papacy, it helped likewise towards its demolition. In the times under our consideration it was at one period utterly profane ; it became thoroughly spiritual. We have reinaiked how throughout all Europe it inclined to Protestantism ; we shall also see how in a large part of the same quarter it took another colouring. Let us set out with observing how the doctrines of the Protestants made way even in Italy. Opinions analogous to Protestantism enter- tained in Italy. Literary associations exercised an incalcu- lable influence on the development of learning and art in Italy. They grew up sometimes round a prince, sometimes round a distinguished scho- lar, or a private individual of literary tastes and easy fortune, occasionally, too, in the free companionship of equals. Such institutions are usually most valuable when they arise, naturally and without formal plan, out of the immediate wants of their day. It is with pleasure we explore the vestiges of their course. At the same period as the protestant move- ments began in Germany, literary meetings, assuming a religious colour, made their ap- pearance in Italy. Just when it was the fashion of society, 54 BEGINNING OF A REGENERATION OF CATHOLICISM, [a. d. 1513-41. under Leo X., to doubt or deny the truth of Christianity, a reaction exhibited itself in the minds of able men, men who possessed the acquirements of their age, without merging in it their individual character. It was very natural tliat they should seek each other's society. The human mind needs the support of kindred opinion — at least it always loves it ; but it is indispensable to it in religious convic- tions, the very basis of which is the profoundest feeling of community. So early as in Leo's times mention is made of an Oratory of Divine Love, which had been founded by some distinguished men in Rome for their mutual edification. They met to worship God, to preach and practise spiritual exercises in the Trastevere, in the church of St. Silvestro and Dorotea, not far from the place where the apostle Peter was supposed to have resided, and superintended the first assemblies of the Christians. They were in number about 50 or 60. Contarini, Sadolet, Giberto, and Carafiu, all of whom afterwards became cardinals, Gaetano da Thiene, who has been canonized, Lippomano, a spiritual writer of much repute and industry, and some other celebrated men, were of the number. Julian Bathi, minister of the church where they met, was the centre round which they were grouped.* It was far from being the case, as might easily be supposed from their place of meet- ing, that their general views were directly opposed to those of Protestantism ; on the con- trary, they coincided with them to a certain extent, as for instance, in the purpose (the same as that from which Luther and Melanc- thon set out) to stay the general corruption of the church by the revived force of religious conviction. Their numbers were made up of men who subsequently displayed great diver- sity of sentiment ; at that time they all enter- tained a community of opinion. But very soon more decided and heterogeneous tendencies ajose among them. We again, after a lapse of a few years, meet a part of this Roman society in Venice. Rome * I extract this note from Caracciolo, Vita di Paulo IV., MS. Quei pochi huomini da bene ed eruditi prelati che erano in Roma quel tempo di Leone X., vedendo la cillii di Roma 6 tutto il resto d'ltalia, dove per la vicinanza alia sede apostolica doveva piu fiorire I'osservanza de riti, essere cosi maltiatato il culto divino, — si uniron' in un' oratorio chiamalo del divino aniore circa sessanta di loro per fare quivi quasi in una torre ogni sforzo perguardare le divine legsi. [Those few men of worth and learned prelates who were in Rome in those days of Leo X., seeing divine worship so ill conducted in the city of Rome and throughout all the rest of Italy, where the observance of religious rites should have more especially flourished, from the vicinity of the apostolic see, — united themselves, to the number of about si.\ty, in an oratory called that of Divine Love, there to make, as in a strong tower, every effort to maintain the divine laws.] In the Vila Cajetani Thienasi, (AA. SS. Aug. II.) c. i. 7—10, Caracciolo has re- peated this, and with fuller details, though in the latter place he reckons but fifty members. The Historia Cleri- coRim Regularium, vuIl'o Tlieaiinorum, by Joseph Silos, confirms it in many passages, which are printed in the Commentarius priBvius to the Vita Cajetani. had been sacked, Florence subdued ; Milan had become the continual haunt of armies. In the midst of this general ruin Venice had maintained itself untouched by foreigners and their armies, and was, therefore, regarded as the common place of refuge. In that city met together the scattered literati of Rome, and the patriots of Florence, whose native land was forever closed against them. In these latter, particularly, was manifested a very strong spiritual tendency, not unmarked by the influence of Savonarola's doctrines, as instances of which, we may mention the his- torian Nardi, and Bruccioli, the translator of the Bible. The same feelings were shared by other refugees also, such as Reginald Pole, who had quitted England to escape from the innovations of Henry VIII. They met with a ready welcome from their Venetian hosts. At Peter Bembo's, in Padua, who kept open house, the constant topics of conversation related to classic literature and Ciceronian Latin. More profound discussions cccupied the guests of the learned and intelligent Gre- gorio Cortese, abbot of San Georgio Slaggiore at Venice. Bruccioli lays the scene of some of his dialogues in the groves and bowers of San Georgio. Not far from Treviso was the villa of Luigi Priuli, named Treville.* His was one of those pure and finished Venetian characters, such as we now and then encoun- ter even in the present day, full of calm suscep- tibility for true and noble sentiments, and for disinterested friendship. The chief occupa- tions of his circle lay in spiritual studies and and discourse. There was the Benedictine Marco of Padua, a man of deep piety, the same apparently from whom Pole asserts he drew his ghostly nurture. Caspar Contarini might be regarded as the head of the whole band, a man of whom Pole says, that nothing was unknown to him which the human mind had discovered by its own powers of investi- gation, or which God's grace had imparted to it ; and to this store of wisdom he added the adornment of virtue. If we now inquire what were the leading convictions of these men, we shall find fore- most among them that doctrine of justification, which, as taught by Luther, had originated the whole Protestant movement. Contarini wrote a special tract on the subject, which Pole knows not how sufficiently to praise. " Thou hast," he says to him, " brought to light that jewel which the Church kept half- buried." Pole himself finds that Scripture in its profounder connexion preaches nothing but this doctrine ; he congratulates his friend that he had begun the disclosure of that " holy, fruitful, and indispensable truth. "f To the circle of friends who attached themselves to ♦ Epistolse ReginaUli Poli,ed.Quirini, torn. ii. Diatriba ad Epislolas Si.'hi'lhornii, clxxxiii. t Epistolae Poll, torn. iii. p. 57. A. D. 1513-41.] OPINIONS ANALOGOUS TO PROTESTANTISM IN ITALY. 55 this doctrine belonged M. A. Flaminio. He resided a long time with Pole : Contarini wished to take him with him to Germany. Observe how decidedly he proclaims the doc- trine in question. " The Gospel," he says in one of his letters,* " is nothing else than the glad tidings that the only-begotten Son of God, Flaminio revised it."* According to this ac- count therefore, with a pupil and friend of Valdez rests the authorship of this book, which in reality had an incredible success, and for a length of time made the doctrine of justifica- tion popular in Italy. Valdez, for all that, was not exclusively devoted to theological clothed in" our flesh, has satisfied the justice | pursuits; being in the discharge of an impor- of the eternal Father for us. He who believes tant secular office, he founded no sect, and this enters the kingdom of heaven : he enjoys this book was the result of a liberal study of the universal forgiveness ; from being a carnal he becomes a spiritual creature, from being a child of wrath he becomes a child of grace ; he lives in a sweet peace of conscience." It is scarcely possible to find expressions more ortho- do.xly Lutiieran. These convictions spread just like a literary opinion or tendency over a great of Italy. f Now it is worthy of remark, how suddenly a controversy upon a point that had previously been only now and then mentioned among the school-men, could seize upon and engross a century, and call forth the activity of every mind. In the sixteenth century, the doctrine of justification was the parent of the greatest agitations, ruptures, and even revolutions. It would seem to have befallen by way of coun- terpoise to the worldliness settled upon the church, now almost blind to the notion of man's hnmediate relation to God, that so transcen- dental a question, affecting the profoundest mystery of that relation, became the universal subject of men's thoughts. Even in pleasure-loving Naples it was widely promulgated, and that by a Spaniard, Juan Valdez, one of the viceroy's secretaries. Un- fortunately the writings of Valdez have wholly disappeared ; but we have at least very dis- tinct evidence as to their character, from the objections made to them by his opponents. About the year 1540, a little book " On the Benefits bestowed by Christ," obtained circu- lation, which, as a notification by the Inquisi- tion expresses it, "treated in an insinuating manner of justification, undervalued works and merits, and ascribed every thing to faith alone ; and forasmuch as that was the very point on which so many prelates and monks stumbled, the book had been diffused to an unusual extent." The name of the author has been frequently inquired after; this notification distinctly identifies him. " It was a monk of San Sererino," it asserts, "a pupil of Valdez : * To Theodorina Saxili, 12ih Feb. 1542. Letters Volgari (Raccolla del Manuzio), Vinegia, 1553. ii. 43. t Anion? other documents, Sadolel's letter to Contarini (Epistolae Sadoleti lib. ix. p. 365,) upon his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans is very remarkable, " in nuibus commentariis," says Sadolel, " mortis et crucis Christ! mysterium totum aperire atque illustrare sum conatus ;" [in which commentary I have endeavoured to unfold and illustrate the whole mystery of Christ's death and passion.] He had not however quite satisfied Conta- rini, nor did he quite concur in opinion with the latter. He promises meanwhile to undertake in the new edition, a clear explanation of the doctrines of original sin and grace : " de hoc ipso morbo naturae noslrse et de repara- tione arbilrii nostri a spirilu sancio facta." Christianity. His friends thought with rup- ture of the sweet days they enjoyed with him at Chiaja and Posiiippo, " where nature smiles and rejoices in her rich array." Valdez was gentle, of pleasing manners, not without vigo- rous reach of mind. His friends used to say of him, "A part of his soul served to animate his feeble slender body ; with the greater part, the clear unclouded intellect, he was ever up- lifted to the contemplation of truth." Valdez had extraordinary influence among the nobility and the learned of Naples: even the women took a lively interest in these reli- gious and intellectual movements. Among these was Vittoria Colonna. After the death of her husband Pescara, she had given herself up wholly to study. Her poems and her let- ters displayed a heartfelt morality and a reli- gion void of hypocrisy. How beautifully does she console a female friend for the loss of her brother, " whose peaceful spirit has passed into the everlasting true peace. She must not complain, since she can now speak to him, without his absence hindering her, as so often before, from being understood by him."f Pole and Contarini were among her most confiden- tial friends. I am not disposed to think that she devoted herself to spiritual exercises of a monastic life. At least Aretino writes to her with much naivete, that " it surely is not her opinion that the silent tongue, the downcast eyes, and the coarse raiment are the great essentials, but purity of soul." The house of Colonna generally, and in par- ticular Vespasiano duke of Palliano, and his wife Julia Gonzaga, the same who was reput- * Schelhorn, Gerdesius, and others, have ascribed this book to Aonius Palearius, who says in a discourse, " hoc anno Tusce scripsi, Christi morte quanta commoda allata sint humano generi," [this year I wrote in the Italian language, a work on the numerous advantages conferred on mankind by the death of Christ.] The words of the compendium of the inquisitors, which I found in Carac- ciolo, Vita di Paulo IV. MS., are on the other hand as follows : Quel libro del beneficio di Christo, fu il suo autore unmonaco di Sanseverino in Napoli, discepolo del Valdez, fu revisore di detto libro il Flaminio, fu stampato molte volte, ma particolarmente a Modena de mandate Moroni : insannC) molti, perche Irattava della giustificatione con doice modo, ma hereticamente. Now the passeige quoted from Palearius, does not so distinctly indicate this book as to make it certain none other is meant : Palearius says, that he was called to account for it the same year; while, on the contrary, the words of the compendium admit of no doubt, and it goes on to say, " quel libro fu da molti appro- bato solo in Verona, fu conosciuto e reprobato, dope molti anni fu posto nel Indice." For these reasons, I hold the opinion of the above mentioned scholars to be erroneous. t Letters Volgari, i. 92. Lettere di diversia Autori, p. 60-1. A very useful collection, especially the first part. 56 BEGINNING OF A REGENERATION OF CATHOLICISM, [a. d. 1513-41. ed the most beautiful woman in Ital}', partici- pated in these religious sentiments. Valdez dedicated one of his books to Julia. But these doctrines made moreover an un- common progress among the middle classes. The report of the Inquisition almost seems exaggerated, when it reckons three thousand schoolmasters attached to them. But how deeply must even a smaller number have wrought upon the minds of youth and upon the people ! Scarcely with less cordiality was the doc- trine received in Modena. The bishop him- self, Morone, an intimate friend of Pole and Contarini, was in its favour. The work, " On the Benefits bestowed by Christ," was printed at his express command, and numerous copies of it circulated. His chaplain, Don Girolamo da Modena, was president of a society, in which the same principles prevailed.* Mention has from time to time been made of the Protestants of Italy, and we have al- ready adduced many of the names recorded in their lists. Certainly some of the convic- tions predominant in Germany had taken root among these men ; they sought to build doc- trine on the basis of scriptural testimony, and in the article of justification they approxima- ted closely to the Lutheran opinions ; but that they participated in these on all other points cannot be asserted ; the sense of the Church's unity and reverence for the pope had struck too deeply into their minds, and many catho- lic usages were too intimately interwoven with the national character to have been so easily shaken off. Flaminio composed an exposition of the Psalms, the dogmatic contents of which have been approved of by Protestant writers ; but even to this he prefixed a dedication, in which he called the pope " The Warder and Prince of all Holiness, the Vicegerent of God on earth." Giovan Battista Folengo ascribes justifica- tion to grace alone ; he speaks even of the utility of sin, which is not far removed from the sinfulness of good works : he is vehement in his zeal against trusting in fasts, frequent prayers, masses and confessions, nay even in the priestly calling, tonsure, and mitre ;f and yet he died quietly, somewhere about his six- tieth year, in the same Benedictine convent in which he had taken the vows in his six- teenth.! Not far otherwise was it for a long while with Bernardino Ochino. If we believe his * In Schelhorn's Amoenitatt. Literar. torn. xii. p. 564, are reprinted, the Articuli contra Moronum, published by Vergerio in the year 1558, and in which these accusations do not fail to appear. The more exact notices I take from the compendium of the inijuisitors. + Ad Psalm. 67. f. 2^16. An extract from these explana- tions is given in the "Italia Reformata" of Gerdesius, p. 8o7— 261. t Thuani Historis ad a. 1539, i. 473. own words, it was from the very first a deep longing, as he expresses himself, " after the heavenly paradise that is achieved through God's grace," that led him to become a Fran- ciscan. His zeal was so deep-seated, that he soon passed over to the severer penitential practices of the Capuchins. He was named general of the order in its third, and again in its fourth chapter, and filled the ofhce with extraordinary credit. But however rigorous was his life, (he always went on foot, slept on his cloak, never drank wine, and was most strict in enforcing the vow of poverty on others, as tlie most efficacious means towards evangelical perfection,) yet even he was by degrees convinced and penetrated by the doctrine of justification through grace. He presented it in the most urgent manner in the confessional and from the pulpit. " I opened my heart to him," says Bembo, " as I could have done to Christ himself; it seemed to me that I had never beheld a holier man." The cities poured out their multitudes to hear him preach ; the churches were too small to contain them ; the learned and the common people, both sexes, old and young, all were gratified. His coarse garb, his beard that swept his breast, his gray hairs, his pallid meagre countenance, and the feebleness he had contracted from his obstinate fasts, gave him the aspect of a saint.* Thus was there yet a line within Catholi- cism, which the opinions analogous to the new doctrines never overstepped. Priesthood and monachism encountered no direct opposition in Italy ; none there entertained a thought of assailing the primacy of the pope. How, for instance, should that principle have failed to command the strong attachment of a Pole, who had fled from England rather than ac- knowledge his king as head of the English Church ] They thought, as Ottonel Vida, a pupil of Vergerios, declared to the latter, that " in the Christian Church every one had his appointed office ; to the bishop belonged the care of the souls in his diocese, whom he was to protect from the world and the evil one ; it was the metropolitan's duty to see to the residence of the bishops ; the metropolitans were in their turn subject to the pope, to whom was committed the general control of the Church which he was to guide with holi- ness of mind.f Every man must fulfil his several calling."| These men regarded sepa- ration from the Church as the worst of evils. Isidore Clario, a man who improved the Vul- gate with the aid of the Protestant works, and prefixed to it an introduction which has been subjected to expurgation, warned the * Boverio, Annali di Frati Minori Capuccini, i. 375. Gratiani Vie de Commendone, p. 143. t In the original, "mil heiligem Geiste." (Translator.) t Oitonello Vida Dot. al Vescovo Vergerio ; Lettere, Tol. ix. I. 80. A. D. 1541.] ATTEMPTS AT INTERNAL REFORM. 57 Protestants from such a project in a special treatise. " No corruption," he says, " could be so great as to warrant a revolt from the hallowed communion of the Church. Were it not better to repair what we have, than to commit ourselves to dubious attempts at pro- ducing something else? Our sole thought should be how the old institution may be ameliorated and freed from its defects." With these modifications there was a mul- titude of adherents to the new doctrine in Italy ; among them Antonio dei Pagliarici of Siena, to wliom had been imputed the author- ship of the book, " Of the Benefits bestowed by Christ ;" Carnesecchi of Florence, who was considered as an adherent to its doc- trines and a promoter of its circulation ; Gio- van Battista Rotto of Bologna, who had pa- trons in Morone, Pole, and Vittoria Colonna, and found means to aid the poorest of his fol- lowers with money ; Fra Antonio of Volterra, and some man of eminence in almost every city of Italy.* It was a system of opinion de- cidedly religious, but tempered by the forms of the Church, that stirred the whole land from end to end in all its circles. Attempts at inward reform, and at a recon- ciliation with the Protestants. The saying is attributed to Pole, that men should content themselves with their own inward convictions, without concerning them- selves to know if errors and abuses existed in the Church. f But precisely from a party to which he himself belonged, proceeded the first attempt at reformation. That was per- haps the most honourable act of Paul III. with which he marked the commencement of his reign, namely, the calling to the college of cardinals several distinguished men, without regard to anything besides their merits. He began with that Venetian Conlarini, already mentioned, who again is supposed to have suggested the names of the rest. They were men of irreproachable manners, in high re- pute for learning and piety, and who must have been intimately acquainted with the * The extract from the compendium of the inquisitors is our authority on this subject. Bologna, it says, fu in molli pericoli, perche vi furono heretici principali, fra quali fu un Gio B». Rotto, il quale haveva amicizia et ap poggio di persone poteniissiine, come di Moione, Polo Marchesa di Pescara, e raccoglieva danari a tuito suo poiere, e gli compartiva ira gli heretici o,;culti e poveri che stevano in Bologna: abjun") poi nelle mani del padre Salmerone (the Jesuit,) per ordine del legato di Bologna (compend. fol. ix. c. 94.) [Bologna was beset with dan- ger, because the principal heretics were there, among ihein one Gio B^. Roiio, who enjoyed the friendship and patronage of very influential people, such as Morone, Pole, and the Marchesa di Pescara, and who collected money with all his might, and distributed it among the secret and needy heretics of Bologna. H'B afterwards read his recantation before father Salmerone, by order of the legate of Bologna.] The same course was pursued in all the towns. + Passages from Atanagi in Mc Crie's Reformalion in Italy. German translation, p. 172. 8 wants of the several countries; Caraffa, who had resided long in Spain and the Nether- lands ; Sadolet, bishop of Carpentras in France ; Pole, a refugee from England ; Gi- berto, who, after he had long taken part in the general administration of affairs, conduct- ed his bishopric of Verona with exemplary excellence; Federigo Fregoso, archbishop of Salerno, almost all, as we see, members of the oratory of Divine Love, and several of them participating in the tendencies akin to Protestantism.* It was these same cardinals who now, by command of the pope, concocted a project of church reform. It became known to the Protestants, who rejected it with derision. They had themselves indeed by this time ad- vanced much further. But it can hardly be denied that it was a matter of strange signi- fication for the catholic church, to see the evil thus grappled with in Rome itself — that in language addressed to a pope, was urged the reproach of the popes, staled in that in- troduction to this document, that " they had frequently selected servants, not to learn from them what their duty demanded, but that they might be flattered by them with the declared lawfulness of what their desires co- veted ;" that such abuse of supreme power was declared to be the most prolific source of corruption.! Nor did matters rest here. There are extant some short pieces by Caspar Contarini, in which he waged the most vehement war on abuses, especially those abuses which were profitable to the curia. The custom of compositions, that is, the taking of money even for the bestowal of religious favours, he pronounces simony, which may be regarded as a species of heresy. It was taken amiss that he inculpated former popes. " What !'* he exclaimed, " shall we concern ourselves so much about the fame of three or four popes, and not rather amend what is deformed, and win ourselves a good name 1 It would in- deed by a trying task to defend all the acts of all the popes." He attacks the abuse of dispensations most earnestly and effectively. He considers it idolatrous to say, as was ac- tually maintained, that the pope was bound by no rule but that of his own will in con- firming or suspending the positive law. It is worth while to hear his remarks on this sub- ject. " The law of Christ," he says, " is a law of liberty, and forbids such gross servi- tude, which the Lutherans were perfectly justified in likening to the Babylonish captiv- * Vita Reginaldi Poli in the edition of his letters by Quirini, torn. i. p. 12. Floribelli de vita Jacobi Sadojeli Commentarius, prefixed to the Epp. Sadoleti Col. 1590, t This is the Consilium delectorum Cardinalium et ali- orum Pralatorum de emendanda ecclesia. It is signed by Contarini, Caraffa, Sadolet, Pole, Fregoso, Giberto, Cortese, and Aleander. 58 BEGINNING OF A REGENERATION OF CATHOLICISM, [a. d. 1541. ity. But furthermore, can that be indeed called a government, the rule whereof is the will of a man by nature prone to evil, and of innumerable affections ] No ! all true do- minion is a dominion of reason. It has for its end to lead those who are subject to it by the right means to their great end, happiness. The authority of the pope is likewise a do- minion of reason ; God has bestowed it on St. Peter and his successors, to guide the flocks confided to them to everlasting blessedness. A pope must know that they are free men over whom he exercises it. He must not command, or forbid, or dispense according to his own good pleasure, but in obedience to the-^ule of reason, of God's commands, and of love: a rule that refers everything to God, and to the greatest common good. For the positive law is not arbitrarily imposed, but in unison with natural rights, the command- ments of God, and circumstances; only in ac- cordance with the same laws and the same things, can it be altered." " Be it the" care of your holiness," he says to Paul HI., " not to depart from this rule. Turn not to the impotence of the will, which chooses evil, to the servitude which ministers to sin. Then wilt thou be mighty, then wilt thou be free : then will the life of the Christian common- wealth be sustained in thee.* Here, we see, was an attempt to found a rational papacy ; the more remarkable, mas- niuch as it set out from the same doctrine concerning justification and free-will, which served as the principle of the Protestant de- fection. We do not merely conjecture this, as knowing that Contarini cherished these views ; he affirms it in express terms. He lays it down that man is prone to evil ; that this comes of the impotence of tiie will, which, as soon as he turns to evil, becomes rather passive than active ; that only by Christ's grace he becomes free. He distinctly recog- \ nizes the papal authority ; but he requires that it be guided with a view to God and to the greatest common good. Contarini laid his essay before the pope. On a fine day in November, 1538, he journeyed with him to Ostia. " On the way thither," he writes to Pole, " this our good old man drew me aside, and talked with me alone about the reform of the compositions. He said he had by him the little treatise I had written on the sub- ject, and that he had read it in his morning hours. I had already given up all hope; but now he spake to me with such Christian feel- ing, that I have conceived fresh hope that God will accomplish something great and not suffer * G. Contarini Cardinalis aJ Paulum III. P. M. de po- teslate ponlificis in coinjiositionibus: Printed in Rocca- berte's BibliolVieca Ponlilicia Maxima, torn. xiii. Tliere is also a Tractatus de rompositionibus datarii Revmi. D. Gasparis Contarini, 1536, no copy of which I have any- where found in print. the gates of hell to prevail over his Spi- rit."* It may easily be conceived that a thorough reform of abuses with which were bound up so many personal rights and claims, and so many habits of society, was of all things the most difficult that could be undertaken. Pope Paul, however, appeared gradually disposed to proceed seriously to the task. Thus he named commissions for carrying out reform f in chamber, ruota, chancery, and penitenziera: he also called back Giberto to his counsels. Bulls were issued also of a reforming character, and preparations were made for the general council which Clement had dreaded and shunned, and which Paul HI. might have found many reasons of a private nature to avoid. How, now, if an amelioration had actually taken place, the Roman court been reformed, and the abuses of the constitution removed? How if then the same dogma from which Lu- ther had set out had become for the Church a principle of renovation in life and doctrine'? would not a reconciliation in that case have been possible? For even the Protestants but slowly and reluctantly tore themselves away from the unity of the Church. To many this seemed possible, and no few built great hopes on a religious conference. Theoretically speaking, the pope should not have consented to the latter, since its object was to decide, not uninfluenced by the secular power, upon religious controversies, over which he himself laid claim to paramount authority. Accord- ingly, he was very guarded on the subject of the conference, though he suffered it to pro- ceed, and sent his delegates to attend it. He proceeded with great circumspection in the matter; invariably selected moderate men, persons who subsequently, on many occasions, incurred the suspicion of Protestantism. Fur- thermore, he gave tiiem sound admonitions as to their personal and political conduct. Thus, for instance, when he sent Morone, who was still young, to Germany, in 1536, he failed not to enjoin him that " he should con- tract no debts, that he should pay in the lodg- ings assigned him, and dress without luxury, and also without meanness; that he should, indeed, visit the churches, but by all meana without any show of hypocrisy," He was to represent in his person that Roman reform of which so much had been said ; and he was counselled to maintain a dignity tempered with cheerfulness.| In the year 1540 the bishop of Vienna had counselled a very ex- treme course. In his opinion it was advisable to lay before the adherents of the new sect * Caspar C. Contarenus Reginaldo C. Polo. Ex. ostiia Tiberinis, 11 Nov. 1538. (Epp. Poli, ii. 142.) + Acta Consistorialia, (6 Aug. 1540,) in Rainaldus, An- nales Ecclesiastici, toni. xxi. p. 146. t Instructio pro causa fidei et consilii,dataepiscopoIVIu. linae, 24 Oct. 1536. MS. (App. No. XXII.) A. D. 1541.] ATTEMPTS AT INTERNAL REFORM. 59 those articles of Luther and Melancthon's which had been declared heretical, and to ask them yes or no, whetiier they were disposed to renounce them. But to such a course as this the pope by no means counselled his nun- cio. "They would rather die, we fear," he says, " than make such a recantation."* He only wishes to see a hope of reconciliation : at the first glimpse of it he will send a formula conceived in terms free from offence, already drawn up by wise and venerable men. " Would it were now come to that! Hardly do we dare to expect it !" But never did the two parties approach each other nearer than in the Ratisbon Conference, in the year 1541. The aspect of politics was singularly favourable. The emperor, who needed the strength of the empire, for the purposes of a war against Turkey or France, longed for nothing more ardently than a recon- ciliation. He chose for speakers the most in- telligent and moderate men among the cathol ic theologians, Gropper, and Julius Pflug. On the other side, Landgrave Philip was again on good terms with Austria, and hoped to obtain the chief command in the war now in preparation : the emperor beheld him with admiration and delight ride into Ratisbon on his stately charger, himself as vigorous as the steed. The placid Bucer, and the yielding Melancthon appeared on the Protestant side. How earnestly the pope desired a happy result was evinced by the choice of the legate he sent, that same Caspar Contarini, whom we have seen so deeply engaged in the new course of sentiment that had arisen in Italy, and so active in devising schemes of general reform. He now assumed a more important position, midway between two systems of opi;iion, be- tween two parties that divided tlie world, commissioned in an advantageous moment, and earnestly purposing to reconcile them ; a position, which if it does not make it our duty, yet affords us permission more nearly to ex- amine his personal characteristics. Messer Gasper Contarini, the eldest son of n noble house in Venice that traded to the Levant, had devoted himself especially to phi- losophical studies. His manner of proceeding in this is not unworthy of remark. He set apart three hours daily for his special studies, never devoting to them more, and never less. He began each time with accurate repetition: whatever he did he did thoroughly, never slurring over any subject before him.f He did not suffer the subtleties of Aristotle's * Instructiones pro Revmo- D. ep. Mulinpnsi apostolico nuncio inlprfuturoconventui Germanoium Spirse, 12Muii, ir)40, celebrando. " Timendum est alqup atleo eenn scien- dum, isla qu£e in his aniculis pie el prudrnter conlincn- tur non solum frelos salvo conductu esse eos recusaturos, verum etiam ubi mors praespns imminerel, ilium polius praelpcturos." App. No. XXV. t Joiumnis CascB Vila Gasparis Conlarini ; in Jo. Casae Monumenla Lalini, ed. Hal. 1708, p. 88. commentaries to beguile him into similar point-splitting. He found that nothing is more astute than untruth. He displayed the most decided talent, but still greater perseverance. He did not aim at the graces of language, but expressed him- self simply and to the purpose. As nature unfolds the growing plant in regular succession, yearly producing ring on ring, so did his mind develope itself. When he was admitted at rather an early age into the council of the Pregadi, the senate of his native city, he did not for a while ven- ture to speak ; he could have wished to do so; he could have found matter worth delivering; still he could not summon up resolution ; but when at length he conquered liis timidity, he spoke, neither very engagingly, indeed, nor wittily, nor warmly and energetically, but so simply, and with such solidity of reasoning, that he acquired the highest consideration. He was cast upon most agitated times. He was born to see his native city stripped of its territory, and he contributed towards its reco- very. On the first arrival of Charles V. in Germany, he was sent as ambassador to him, and there he witnessed the beginning of the division in the Church. They entered Spain as the ship Vittoria returned from the first circumnavigation of the globe:* he was the first, so far as I can discover, to solve the enig- ma, that she entered port a day later than she should have done, according to the reckoning in her log-book. He helped to reconcile the emperor and the pope, under whose orders he passed, after the taking of Rome. Of his sagacious penetrating views of men and things, and his judicious patriotism, there are clear proofs in his small book on the Venetian con- stitution, a very instructive and well-arranged little work, and in his reports of his embassies, which exist here and tliere in manuscript.! One Sunday, in the year 153-5, just as the great council was asseinbled, and Contarini, w ho, meanwhile, had been advanced to the most important offices, was seated by the balloting urn, the news arrived, that pope Paul whom he did not know, and with whom he had no manner of connexion, had named him cardinal. Every one hastened to congratulate the aston- ished man, who would hardly believe the re- port. Aluise Mocenigo, who had hitherto been opposed to him in political matters, ex- claimed that the republic lost in him her best citizen.]: * Beccalello, Vila del C. Contarini, (Epp. Poli, lii.) p. 103. There is also a separate edition, but which has only been detached from the volume of letters, and has simi- larly numbered pages. t The first belongs to the year 1.j25, the second to the year 1.5:30. The lirst is, above all, very important in rela- tion to the earlier limes of Charles V. I found no trace of it, either in Vienna, or in Venice. I discovered one copy in Home, but never mel with another elsewhere. (App. No. XVIIl.) }:DanielBarbarotoDominicoVeniero:LettereVolgari,i.73. 60 BEGINNING OF A REGENERATION OF CATHOLOCISM. [a. d. 1541. This honourable fortune, nevertheless pre- sented to him one painful aspect. Should he abandon his free native city, that offered him its highest dignities, and in any case a sphere of action in full equality with the heads of the state, to enter the service of a pope, often swayed by passion and restiicted by no binding law 1 Should he withdraw from the republic of his forefathers, whose manners harmonized with his own, to measure him- self against the rest in the luxury and splen- dour of the Roman court 1 The consider- ation, that in such trying times the example of contempt for so high a dignity would have injurious effects, was, we are assured, what chiefly determined him to accept it.* The whole zeal which he had hitherto de- voted to his native city, he now bestowed on theaftairsof the Church. Heoften had against him the cardinals, who thought it strange that a new comer hardly installed, and a Venetian, should take upon him to reform the Roman court: sometimes too he encountered the re- sistance of the pope. He once opposed the nomination of a cardinal. " We know," said the pope, "how tiie land lies; the cardinals like it not that another should be made equal in honour with themselves." Hurt at this, Contarini replied ; " I do not think that the cardinal's hat constitutes my greatest honour." He continued to maintain in Rome all his previous gravity, simplicity, and activity, all his dignity and gentleness of character. Na- ture leaves not the simple weed without the adornment of its blossoms, in which its very being breathes and imparts itself. To man, she gives the disposition, the combined product of all the higher powers of his organization, which shapes his moral demeanour and be- stows its expression on his aspect. Contarini's was characterized by gentleness, innate truth, pure morality ; above all, by that deep reli- gious conviction that blesses while it enlight- ens its possessor. Endowed with a temper like this, full of moderation, and almost of like views with the Protestants upon the weightiest points of doc- trine, Contarini appeared in Germany, where he hoped by a doctrinal reform based on that same great principle common to himself and the Lutherans, and by the suppression of abuses, to heal the division in the Church. But had it not already gone too far? Had not the dissentient opinions already struck too deep root ! This is, 1 think, a question not to be decided oft-hand. Marmo Giustiniano, another Venetian who left Germany shortly before the meeting of this diet, and who seems to have carefully observed the position of things, represents tiie scheme as at least very feasible ;f only a few * Casa, p. 1U2. t Relaziorifi del clarmo- M. Marino Giustinian Kavi- (ritornato) dalla legazoine di Gemiania solto Ferdinando, re di Romani. Bibl. Corsini in Rome, n. 481. important concessions he thinks were indis- pensable. He particularizes the following: " The pope must no longer claim to be Christ's representative in secular as well as in spirit- ual matters — substitutes of blameless life, and capable of instructing the people, must be appointed in the place of the unlearned and the profligate bishops and priests — neither sale of masses, nor accumulation of benefices, nor abuse of compositions, must any longer be tolerated — the breach of fasting ordinances must be visited at the very most with light punishments — then if the communion in both kinds be accorded, and the marriage of priests sanctioned, all parties in Germany will forth- with abjure their dissensions, yield obedience to the pope in spiritual things, assent to the mass, submit to oral confession, and even ad- mit the necessity of good works as fruits of faith, in so far as they spring from faith. As the present discord arose out of abuses, so it will be allayed by their abolition." In relation to this subject let us recollect, that Landgrave Philip of Hesse had declared the year before, that the temporal power of the bishops might be tolerated in proportion as means were found for the suitable exercise of their spiritual authority ; and that with re- spect to the mass, matters might easily be accommodated, provided the question of the two kinds were conceded.* Joachim von Branden- berg declared his readiness to acknowledge the pope's supremacy, doubtless under certain conditions. Meanwhile, advances were made from the other side also. The imperial am- bassador reiterated, that concessions must be made by both parties, so far as ever it was possible, consistently with the honour of God. Even the nonprotesting party would have w^el- comed the withdrawal of spiritual power throughout all Germany from the bishops, who had become to all intents and purposes secular princes, and its transference to super- intendents, and the adoption of one general measure tor the conversion of Church property. Men began already to talk of neutral things which might be retained or omitted ; and even in the ecclesiastical electorates, prayers were offered up for the prosperous issue of the work of reconciliation. We will not debate the degree of possibility and probability of this consummation ; it was in any case very difficult, but if there appeared even a glimmering of hope, the attempt de- served well to be made: thus much we see, that a great inclination to such a result had * Despatch of the Landgrave in Rommelg Urkunden- buch, p. So. Compare that of the bishop of Lunden in Seckendorf, p. 299. Contarini al C. Farncse, 2Slh April, 1541, Epp. (Poli, III. p. cclv.) The landgrave and the elector demanded the rijiht of marriage for bolh orders of the prieslhdod, and the sacrament in boih kinds. The former made more difficulty with respect to the pope's supremacy, the latter with respect to the doctrine " de missaquod sit sacrificiuni," [that the mass is a sacrifice.] A. D. 1541.] ATTEMPTS AT A RECONCILIATION WITH THE PROTESTANTS. 61 manifested itself, and that vast expectations were built upon it. It was now asked, whether the pope too, without whom nothing: could be done, was dis- posed to abate something from the strictness of his demands. With respect to tiiis, a pas- sage in his instructions to Contarini on his de- parture for the conference, is very worthy of attention.* He had not conferred upon him the unlimi- ted authority which was pressed for on the part of the Imperialists. lie suspected that demands might be put forward in Germany, which no legate, nor even himself the pope could concede without consulting the other nations. But he did not absolutely reject all negotiations thereupon. " We must first see," he says, " whether the Protestants accord with us in the main principles, for example, the su- premacy of the holy see, the sacraments, and son)e others." If we now ask what are these others, we find that the pope does not express himself very clearly respecting them. He de- scribes them generally as " whatever is sanc- tioned as well by the holy Scriptures as by the perpetual usage of the Church, matters all of them well known to the legate." " Upon this basis," he adds, "endeavours may then be made to arrange all differences."! There cannot be a question, but that this vagueness of expression was purposely adopt- ed ; Paul III. might have desired to see how far Contarini could bring matters, and might have been unwilling to bind himself before- hand to a ratification of all his acts. He al- lowed the legate a certain latitude. Undoubt- edly it would have cost the latter new and arduous efforts, to make that result acceptable to the intractable Roman curia, which should have been compassed in Ratisbon with much straining, and without the possibility of fully contenting all parties; but on the main object of reconciling and uniting the assembled di- vines, everything in the first instance depend- ed. The conciliatory tendency was still much too loose and undefined, it scarcely admitted of a name ; nor till it had acquired consistence and stability could it promise to possess greater efficacy. The discussion began on the 5th of April, 1541, and a plan of proceeding proposed by * Instructio data Revmo. Cli. ContarnPO in Germaniam legato, d. 28 mensis Jannarii, 1541. MS. in many libraries ; printed in Quirini; Epp. Poli, iii. ccl.'c.xxvi. t Vidpnduiii inprimis est an Prolestantes et ii qui ab ecclesia; gremio defecerunt in principiis nobiscum con- veniani cujusmodi p.st hujus sanctiew, the exercitant is to follow these out. He must on retiring to rest, and immediately on his * Orlandinus, lib. vi. 70. A comparison might be made wilh the conventual schools of the Protestants, in which too the religious tendency fully predominated. See Sturm in Ruhkopf, Geschichte des Schulwesens, S. 378. The points of clifference would be the most interesting. first awaking, turn his thoughts in the assign- ed direction, sedulously barring every other : doors and windows are shut close, and then kneeling or prostrate on the earth he com- pletes his task of contemplation. He begins with being conscious of his sins; he considers how for a single act of will the angels were hurried down into hell ; but for him, although he has committed far greater trespasses, the saints have offered their pray- ers, heaven and its stars, animals and plants of the earth have ministered to him ; that he may now be free from his guilt, and not cast into everlasting condemnation, he calls on Christ crucified : he feels his reply : there ensues between them a discourse, like that between friend and friend, like that between a servant and his master. * Regula Sacerdotum, § 8. 10. 11. t For after all that has been written pro and contra, it is manifest that Ignatius had in view a similar work by Garcia de Cisneros. But all that is most peculiar seems his own. Comm. prsevius, n. 64. t Non enim abundantia scientiae, sed sensus et gustus renira interior desiderium animse replere solet. A. D. 1543-56.] PROGRESS OF THE JESUIT INSTITUTION. 81 He then seeks chiefly to edify himself by the contemplation of holy Scripture. " I .see," says Ignatius, " how the three persons of the Godhead overlook the whole earth, filled with men doomed to hell : they resolve that the second person shall for their redemption take upon him human nature : I cast my eyes over the whole range of the round earth, and in a corner I discern the hut of the Virgin Mary, from which salvation issues forth." He pro- ceeds onward from point to point through the sacred history; pictures to hunself the several transactions in all their particulars, according to the category of the senses : tlie widest scope is allowed to the religious fancy un- shackled by the bonds of the letter ; imagina- tion touches and kisses the garments, the footsteps of the sacred personages. In this exalted state of imagination, possessed with the feeling, how great is the blessedness of a soul that is filled with divine graces and virtues, the exercitant returns to the contem- plation of his own condition. If a man has yet to choose his calling, he chooses it now in accordance with the wants and wishes of his heart, keeping ever one sole object in view, how he may be saved to God's glory, and believing he stands in the presence of God and all the saints. If the choice no longer remains to be made, he then ponders on his way of life, his daily walk and conversation, his domestic economy, his necessary expendi- ture, what he has to gi\e to the poor ; all this he considers in that tone of mind in whicli in the hour of death he will wish he had com- muned with himself, looking exclusively to what tends to the honour of God and to his own salvation. Thirty days are devoted to these exercises. Reflections on sacred history, on the indi- vidual's personal circumstances, prayers and resolutions, alternate with each other. The soul is continually intent and spontaneously active. Lastly, when the individual repre- sents to himself God's provident care, " who in his creation labours actively as if it were for man," he once again thinks he stands in the sight of the Lord and his saints : he be- seeches Him to vouchsafe to accept his love and adoralion ; he offers up to Him his free- do.m, dedicates to him memory, understanding, and will, and thus he seals with liim the league of love. Love consists in the commu- nity of all capacities and possessions. In re- turn for its devotedness, God bestows his grace on the soul. It is enough that we give this passing view of this book. In its general tenour, its seve- ral propositions and their mutual coimection, there is a certain cogency that excites the thoughts indeed to inward activity, but con- fines them within a narrow circle. It is most happily adjusted to the author's aim, the fos- tering of a spirit of meditation under the go- 11 vernment of the imagination; the more so, inasmuch as it is based upon his own experi- ence. In tiiiswork Ignatius successively em- bodies every striking phenomenon of his reli- gious awakening and his progress, from the beginning to the year 1548, when his system received the pope's sanction. It has been said that Jesuitism turned the experience of the Protestants to good account, and this may be true in some few particulars : but on the whole the two principles are diametrically opposed. Here at least Ignatius set up in op- position to the discursive, logical, radical, and, by its very nature, polemical method of the Protestants, another wholly different, brief, intuitive, and leading to contemplation, ad- justed to the imaginative principle, and prompting to instantaneous resolves. Thus atler all did every visionary trait that had marked liis temperament from the begin- ning, grow at last to extraordinary practical significance. Being too a soldier, he gathered together a spiritual standing army, recruited, likewise, by the help of religious fancy, se- lected man by man, individually trained to his purpose, and commanded by himself in the service of the pope. He beheld it overspread every country of the earth. When Ignatius died, his society numbered thirteen provinces, exclusively of the Roman.* Mere inspection of the list shows where lay the strength of the order. The majority of j these provinces, seven, belonged to Spain and j her colonies. There were ten colleges in Castile, five in Arragon, and the same num- ber in Andalusia, The greatest progress had been made in Portugal, where there were houses both for professed members and for no- vices. In Brazil there were twenty-eight members of the society busily engaged, and about one hundred in the East Indies from Goa to Japan. From this quarter an experi- ment had been made on ^Ethiopia, and a pro- vincial sent thither: the prosperity of the en- terprize seemed to be secure. All these pro- vinces, of Spanish and Portngues language and habits, were under the direction of a com- missioner general, Francesco Borgia. The nation which had witnessed the birth of the society, was also that in which its influence had become most comprehensive. Nor indeed was it much less so in Italy. There were three provinces of the Italian tongue; there was the Roman, which was under the imme- diate direction of the general, with houses for professed members and novices, the Collegium Romanum, and the Collegium Germanicurn, which latter had been erected by the advice of cardinal Morone expressly for Germans, but which had not yet made any decisive pro- gress : Naples also belonged to this province. ♦ In the year 155S. Sicchinus, Historia Societatia Jef u, p. ii. give lUiniua iiom the begiuuiug. 82 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1534. The second province was the Sicilian, with Conclusion. four colleges already completed and two be- gun : the viceroy Delia Vega had introduced the first Jesuits there ;* Messina and Palermo had vied with each other in establishing col- leges, from which the others subsequently took their rise. The third was the province of Italy proper, including upper Italy, and con- taining ten colleges. The order had not made such good speed in other countries; in them it was everywhere opposed by Protestantism, or by an already well marked and matured inclination thereto. In France they had but a single college actually in operation : they reckoned two German provinces, but these were yet in their infancy. The first em- braced Vienna, Prague, and Ingolstadt, but its existence was in every way very precari- ous ; the other comprised the Netherlands ; but Philip II. had not yet granted the Je- suits any legal existence in these territo- ries. Nevertheless, this first rapid success was in itself a guarantee to the order of the might it was destined to attain. That it had risen to such power and influence in those purely catholic countries, the two pe- ninsulas, was a circumstance of vast signifi- cance. Thus we see, in opposition to those Protest- ant movements that every moment spread more widely, a new tendency had arisen in the midst of Catholicism in Rome, around the pope. This too, like its antagonist, rose out of the mundane corruption of the church, or rather out of the wants thereby excited in the minds of men. At first those two tendencies approximated to each other. There was a moment in which the Germans had not so fully determined on casting off the hierarchy — in which even Italy would have been disposed to see the power of that hierarchy rationally modified. That mo- ment passed away. Whilst the Protestants, relying on the Scriptures, went back more and more boldly to the primitive forms of the Christian faith and Christian life ; the opposite party resolved to stand fast by the ecclesiastical institutions that had been consolidated in the course of the century, and truly to renovate them, and imbue them with fresh spirit, earnestness, and strictness. So rise two neighbouring and kindred springs on the mountain top ; and then gush- ing over difl"erent declivities, roll their tbr- ever-parted waters in opposite directions. BOOK THE THIRD. THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Introduction. The sixteenth century is pre-eminently distinguished by its spirit of religious produc- tiveness. To this very day we live and breathe amidst the conflicting notions which then first broke upon the world. If we would still more closely mark the momentous crisis in which the severing of the two religions was completed, we should find it did not coincide with the first appearance of the reformers; for their opinions did not in- stantly assume a fixed character, and for a long time there was reason to hope for an ac- commodation between the conflicting doc- trines: it was not till the year 1552 that all efforts towards this end were finally and ut- terly wrecked, and the three great forms of western Christianity for ever parted from each other. Lutheranism became more strict, aus- tere, and exclusive. Calvinism diverged from it in the most important articles, whereas Cal- vin himself had formerly passed for a Luthe- * Ribadeneira, Vita Ignatii, n. 203. ran. Opposed to them both, Catholicism as- sumed its modern form. The three conflicting theologies sought to establish themselves firm- ly, each on the ground it had severally as- sumed, and from thence to harass and subdue the others, and bring the world under sub- jection. It might appear that the catholic tendency, which sought principally only the renovation of existing institutions, would have found it an easier task than could the others to make good its progress. But the advantage on its side was not great. It, too, was encompassed, and its course impeded, by many other im- pulses affecting society, such as secular feel- mgs, profane learning, and dissentient theo- logical opinions. It rather resembled a fer- menting principle, of which it was yet ques- tionable whether it would really lay hold on and assimilate to itself the elements around it, or be overwhelmed by them. It encountered its first obstacle in the popes themselves, their personal circumstances, and their policy. We have remarked how a thoroughly un- A. D. 1534.] PAUL III. spiritual temper having taken root in the heads of the cliiirch, elicited that opposition which gave such an immense impetus to pro- testantism. The question was, whether, and to what extent, the strict ecclesiastical tendencies would overcome and transform tliat temper. It appears to me that the conflict between these two principles, between the active and passive habits of policy that had hitherto pre- vailed, and that had now grown inveterate, and the necessity of applying to these a tho- rough internal reform, constitutes the para- mount interest in the history of tlie nexl, popes. Paul III. Excessive stress is too often laid in the pre- sent day on the designs and influence of ex- alted personages, prmces, and governments : their memory is often compelled to atone for faults committed by the multitude; frequently, also, they are allowed credit for what really proceeded spontaneously from the community. The catholic movement which formed one of the subjects of our consideration in the pre- ceeding book, began under Paul III. but it would be an error to ascribe its origin to that pope. He saw clearly what was its import- ance to the Roman see ; he not only let it take its course, but he furthered it in many re- spects. We may, however, unhesitatingly assert that his own personal feelings were never once enlisted in its favour. Alexander Farnese (such was the former name of Paul III.) was a worldling as ever was any pope before him. His education was completed m the 15th century, for he was born in 1468. His studies were pursued un- der Pomponius Lsetus at Rome, and in the garden of Lorenzo Medici at Florence. He became fully imbued with the elegant erudi- tion and the feeling for art characteristic of that epoch ; nor was he untinclured with its morals. His mother once found it necessary to have him imprisoned in the castle of St. Angelo: he availed himself of an unguarded moment afforded him by the procession of Corpus Christi day, to let himself down from the castle by a rope, and escape. He acknow- ledged a natural son and daughter ; but for all that he was advanced to the rank of car- dinal in rather early life, for in those days little offence was taken at such matters. While still cardinal he laid the foundation of the most beautiful of all palaces, the Farnese ; and at Bolsena, where his hereditary estates were situated, he built himself a villa, which pope Leo found so much to liis taste, as now and then to visit him there. Amidst these sumptuous and brilliant habits of life, he che- rished desires of another kind. P^rom the very first he fixed his eye on the highest dignity. It is characteristic of him that he sought to attain it by means of a strict neutrality. The French and imperial factions divided Italy, Rome, and the college of cardinals: he con- ducted himself with such consummate caution, such happy prudence, that no one could have said to which of the two he was more inclined. Already upon the death of Leo, and again after that of Adrian, he had gone near to be chosen. He bore a grudge against the memory of Cle- ment VII., who had wrested from him twelve years of the popedom that would otherwise have been his. At last, in October 1534, in the fortieth year of his cardinalate and the sixty-seventh of his age, he reached the object of his ambition, and was chosen.* He now came to feel, in a manner wholly new to him, the great conflict that agitated the world — the strife between those two par- ties between whom he had just assumed so important a station — the necessity of combat- ing the protestants, anil the secret connexion with them into which he was led by their po- litical attitude — hisnatural inclination, arising out of the posture of his Italian principality, to weaken the ascendency of the Spaniards, and the danger involved in every attempt to that end — the urgent necessity of a reform, and the undesirable circumscription with which it threatened the papal power. The manner in which his nature displayed itself in the midst of so many contradictory demands is very worthy of observation. Paul III. was a man of easy, magnificent, liberal habits. Seldom has a pope been so much beloved in Rome as he was. There was something noble in his naming the cardinals we have spoken of without their knowledge: how advantageously does such conduct con- trast with the petty personal considerations it had almost become a rule to observe. But he did not appoint them merely, he left them also unusual liberty : he bore with contradic- * Onuphrius PanviniusVita Pauli III. In the yparlo38, Mure Antonio Contarini mado a repoit regard! ngihe papal court to the Venetian Senate. This I was unfortunately unable to find in the Venetian archives or elsewhere. In a MS. relating to the Turkish war of that time, under the title, Tre libri delli Commentari della Guerra, lo37, 8, 9, in my possession, I find a short extract from the report from which I have derived the above notices. Disse del stato della corte che niolti anni inanzi li prelati non erano stati in quella riforma di vita ch'eran allora, e che li cardinal! havevano liberty maggiore di dire I'opinion loro in consisloro ch'avesser avuto gia mai da gran tempo ; e che di ciO il pontefice non solamente non si doleva, ma se n'era studiatissimo, onde per questa ragione se poleva sperare di giorno in giorno magior riforma. Consideri> che tra cardlnali vi erano tali uomini celeberrimi, che per opinione commune il mondo non avria altretanti. [He said of the state of the court, that for many years past the prelates had not led such reformed lives as then, and that the cardinals had more liberty in speaking their minds than ever they had enjoyed before, whereat the ]jope was not only not displeased, but was most desirous of seeing it so, for which reason a greater measure of reform might be looked for from day to day. He considered that there were among the cardinals men of such e.vceeding cele- brity, that in the common opinion the world had not their equals.] 84 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OP THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1538. tion in the consistory, and encouraged unre- stricted freedom of discussion. i But if lie letl due liberty to others, if lie] accorded to each the advantage incident to his position, he was equally resolved not to fore- go one single prerogative of his own. The emperor once addressed remonstrances tohim on the subject of his having advanced two of his nephews to the cardinalate at much too early an age: his reply was, that he would do as his predecessors had done ; there were instances of boys having been made cardinals in their cradles. He manifested a preference for his family unusual even in his station.* He was fully as much bent as any other pope on advancing them to princely digni- ties. Not that, like Alexander the VI., he post- poned every other consideration to this one ; no one could allege that against him ; he ap- plied himself nio.-t honestly to etiecting a peace between France and Spain, to the sup- pression of the protestants, the resisting the Turks, and the reform of the church ; but along with all this he had it strongly at heart to exalt his own house. Combining together, as he did, all these discordant purposes, pursuing at one and the same time public and private aims, he was constrained to a policy in the utmost degree circumspect, watchful, lingering, and expect- ant: for if every thing depended on the fa- vourable moment, the happy combination of circumstances, these were to be slowly and laboriously brought about, and then grasped with the utmost rapidity, and turned to ac- count. Ambassadors found it difficult to treat with him. They were surprised to see that he be- trayed no deficiency in spirit, and yet could seldom be brought to a decisive resolution. He studied to fetter other-s watched to lay hold of a binding word, to obtain an irrevoca- ble assurance; but he never was willing to pledge himself. This disposition he displayed even in minor things; he was not inclined to refuse or promise anything beforehand ; liking to have his hands free to the last moment. But how much more was this evinced by him in difficult circumstances! Sometimes it would happen that he himself pointed out an escape frum a difficulty, or a means of accom- modation, and when others were disposed to adopt it, he would nevertheless draw back. ♦ Sonano lo3o. E Romano di saneue et 6 cranimo mollo gagliaido: . . . slima assai I'ingiurif chei;li si fanno, ei 6 ini.linalissimoa fargrandi i suoi. [He isaKo.iian in blood, and of a very lively lenippninipul : ... he is sensitive enough to injuries done hiin, and is ir.ost sUonsly inclined to aggrandize those belonging to him.'] Varchi (Islorie Florentine, p. C3J,) gives aii account ol" Paul's first secre- tary, JMesse Ambrogio, "who coid 1 have all he wished, and wished all he could have." An.oug many other pre- sents he o:ice had sixty silver wiish-hand basins and ewers bestowed on him. " How comes il," ii was sai.l, "that with so many basins he yet has nol clean hands ?J" He wished always to remain master of his own transactions.* He too, as we have said, belonged to the classical school ; he aimed at speaking both Latin and Italian with unvarying choiceness and elegance: he always selected and weigh- ed liis words with the twofold view to their import and form: he delivered himself in a low tone, and with the slowest deliberation. People were often at a loss to know e.\actly how they stood with him. Sometimes they thought they should rather infer the vei-y op- posite to what his words ostensibly portended. But this would not have been correct in all cases. Those who knew him more intimately remarked, that he entertained the strongest hopes of accomplishing a project just at the very time when he abstained from all men- tion of it, neither alluding to the thing itself, nor to the persons whom it concerned. f For thus much was manifest, that he never let go a purpose he had once embraced. He trusted to carry out every project, if not immediately, yet some other time, under altered circum- stances, by another course. It was not inconsistent with the habits of a mind so constituted, of such far-searching fore- thought, such a tendency to look warily around in every direction, and to ponder its purposes in secret, that it should have taken into the scope of its reflections powers above as well as upon the earth. The influence of the constellations over the results of human actions was little questioned in those days. Paul III. held no important sitting of the con- sistory, nor made any journey, without having first consulted the stars on the choice of tlie ♦ In the Lettres el Bl^moires d'Estat, par Guill. Ribier, Paris, l!JG6, we find numerous specimens of his negocia- lions and their character, from lo37 to 1540, and from 1547 to 154^\in the despatches of French ambassiidora. Matteo Dandolo describes thent directly in a MS. in my posses- sion, Relatiime di Roma, 1551, d. 2o. Junii in Senatu. 11 negoiiare con P. Paolo fu giudicato ad ogn'un difficile, perclie era tardissimonel pailare, perche non voleva niai pioferire paiola che non fiisse elegante el exquisila, cosi nellii volgare come nella latina e greca, che di tune ire ne faceva profcssione (I should nol think he very often used Greek in his negotiations), e mi aveva scopeno di t;u-"l i)ocoche io ne inteudeva. E perche era vecchissimo, parlava bassissimo e era longhissimo, ne volea negar cosa clie segli addimandasse; ma n6 anche (volea) che luomo clie ne2o;iava seco potesse esser sicuro di haveie havuto da S. Si. il si piu che il n^ perche lei voleva starse sem- pre in I'avanlaggio di poter negare e concedere: peril che sempre si risolveva tardissimamenle, quamlo volea ne- gare. [To negotiate with Pope Paul was considered a dif- ficult thine for every one, because he was very slow in speech, nol wishing ever to utter a word tliat was nol ele- gant and select, as well in the vulsar tongue as in Latin and Greek, for he professed them all three, and discovered in me what little I knew of iheiu. And as he was very old, he spoke very low, and was extremely dilatory, nor woulil he refuse anyThing that was asked of him ; nor, on the other hand, was he willing that the man who negoti- ated with him could be sure of having had "yes" more than " no" of his holiness, lor he wished always to stand on the vantage ground of being able to reluse or concede; wherefore he w--an(l the pope. This pope, it is plain, felt himself in tlic midst of a tliousand conflicting agen- cies, not only of the powers of tiie earth be- low, but of the configuration of the stars above: his plan was, to give due attention alike to the one class and to the other, to mitigate' their unpropitious influences, turn their favours to account, and dexterously to steer home his bark between the rocks that threatened him on every side. Let us consider how he attempted this, whether or not he was successful, wlictiierhe actually lifted himself above the warring forces of the world's great movements, or whether he too was involved in their vortex. lie succeeded in the very first year of his pontificate in effecting a league with Charles V. and the Venetians against the Turks. He urged the Venetians with great earnestness to the task, and the hope once more prevailed of seeing the boundaries of Christendom ex- tended as tiir as to Constantinople. The war, however, meanwhile renewed be- tween diaries V. and Francis I. was a tbrmi- dable obstacle to every undertaking. The pope spared no pains to allay the hostility of the two sovereigns. The congress between them at Nice, where he too was present, was wholly his work. The Venetian ambassador, who was present, cannot find words sufficient- ly to extol the zeal and patience exhibited on that occasion by the pope. It was only by means of the utmost assiduity, and but at the last moment, when he was already threaten- ing to depart, that he at last succeeded in bringing about a truce.f He effected a good understanding between the two sovereigns, which very soon afterwards seemed to pass into something like friendship. While the pope thus promoted public affairs, he did not neglect his own. It was noted that he always interwove the two together, and made them advance in concert. The Turkish war gave him an opportunity to seize ('anierino. It was on the point of be- ing incorporated with Urbino ; the last Vara- na, heiress of Camerino, had married Guido- baldo II., who attained to the government of Urbino in the year 15384 ^^^ ^^^'^ V^P^ ''^" clared that Camerino could not be iidiorited by a woman. The Venetians ought in justice * Mendoza. Es venitlo la cosa 4 que ay muy pocos car- denalps, que concierien ne^ocios, auiiquf si'a para coiii- f)rar unacari;;a ile lena, siao es o pornieilio lioalgun asuo- ogo o hechizero. [Ii is cone lo such a pass, tlial there! are vpiy few cardinals wlio will traiisacl any business, ' though il be only to buy a load of woxl, exceiJt through : the medium of so.ne aslroloi^er or wizard.] We meet! with the most un(iupstionable particulars respecting the | pope hiiDSi 11'. I •f RtliiioiK; del Clma. M. Niccolo Ticpoln d( 1 Convenlo di Nizz:i, lafonnalt. Politichs VI. (Berlin Library .> There ^Iso oxisis an old iinpressiou. | $,Adriaui, Islorier bs, U. to have supported the duko, whose nncestora had been under their |)r()trction, and had serv- ed in their armies; and they did appeal urg- ently and warmly in his behalf, but were de- terred from doing more i<)r tear of war. Tiiey feared that the pope would call in the aid of the emperor or tlic king of France ; they pru- dently considered, that sliould he gain the emperor to his side, the latter would be the less capable of acting against the Turks; or should he obtain tlie assistance of France, the peace of Italy would be endangered, and their own position would become still more disad- vantageous and isolated :* accordingly they abandoned the duke to his fate, and he was compelled to cede Camerino, which the pope bestowed on his Grandson Ottavio ; tor his house was already rising to splendour and power. How profitable to him was the con- gress of iXice! While it was yet pending, his son, Pier Luigi, obtained Novara and the district about it from the emperor, who also pledged himself irrevoca.bly to give his natu- ral daughter Margaret, after the death of Alessandro de Medici, in marriage to Ottavio Farnese. We may believe the pope when he affirms that he did not i()r this go over uncon- ditionally to the imperial party. On the con- trary, he wished to enter into a no less strict connexion with Francis I. The king too, on his part acquiesced in the proposal, and pro- mised him at Nice a prince of the blood, the duke of Vendome, t()r his granddaughter Vit- toria.f Great was the happiness of Paul III. in being thus connected with the two greatest liouses of Europe ; he was very sensible of the honour, and spoke of it in the consistory. The peace-making mediatorial position, too, which he occupied between the two powers, flattered his ecclesiastical ambition. But the further course of these matters proved not altogether so favourable. The Ottomans were far from suffering any check ; and Venice was compelled to accept an unfa- vourable peace. Francis I. afterwards recall- ed the personal promise he had given, and though the pope never abandoned the hope of actually efiectmg a family alliance with the house of Valois, still the negociation lan- * The deliberations are contained in the before-men- tioned commentary on the Turkish war, which thus ac- quires a peculiar interest. t Grisrnan, Ambassadrur du Roi de France a Borne, au Connetable. Kibier, i. p. 2ol. Moascigneur, sa dite Saintet6 a un merveilleus drsir du mariage de Vcndosme : car il s'en est enli6reinent detlar6 a n oy,disanlque | our estre sa niece unique et lanl aim^e de luy, il ne desiroit, apr6s lo bien de la Chrestii nl^, autre chose i his que voir sa dite niece niarieo en France, di>iil le dit seiineur (le roy) luy avoit tenu pro.xis i\ Nice, el aprfis, v ous, Mon- seigneur, luy en aviez parl6. [Monseigncur, his said ho- liness, marvellously desires the Vendome marriage: for so he declared lully to me, saying that his niece being his only on", and to nmeh br loved by him,tliprp was no- tliing he n.o.e d( sired, next lo the wi Ifare of Christendom, than to see his said niece married in France, whereof the king had made him pio, osi.ls al Nice, and you, Mousig- ueur, spoke to him aiterwards.j 86 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1539-43. guished. The good understanding which the pope had brought about between the king and the emperor appeared indeed to be continually on the increase. At one time the pope seemed well nigh jealous on the subject, complaining that it was he who had founded it, and now it proved the cause of his being neglected.* Nevertheless, it but too soon came to an end, and war broke out afresh. Thereupon the pope addressed himself to new designs. Till now he had always openly declared among his friends, and had even given the emperor to understand as much, that Milan belonged to the French, and ought of right to be restored to them.f By degrees he gave up that opinion. Presently, we meet with a proposal to Charles from cardinal Carpi, who of all the cardinals was the most in the pope's confidence, which points to far different con- clusions.! " The emperor," he says, " must not think of being count, duke, or prince; he must be emperor and nothing else : he must possess not many provinces, but great vassals. His prosperity has ceased since he became pos- sessed of Milan. He cannot be counselled to return it to Francis I. whose thirst for terri- torial acquisition it would but irritate, but neither on the other hand ought he to retain it.J The emperor has enemies only because it is feared he seeks to appropriate to himself foreign dominions. Let him annihilate this suspicion, let him give Milan to a distinct duke, and Francis L will no longer find an adherent : he, the emperor, on the contrary, will have Germany and Italy for him, he will carry his banners into the remotest nations, and he will associate his name" (such is the expression) " with immortality." Now if the emperor was neither to surren- der Milan to the French, nor to retain it him- self, to whom then was he to transfer the duchy? The pope thought it would be no unapt solution of the dilemma if it were given to his grandson, the emperor's son-in-law. He had already hinted at this arrangement in former missions. At a new conoress which * Gri^nan, 7 Mars, 1539. Ribier, i. 40G. Le cardinal de Boulogne au Roi, 20 Avril, 1539. Ibid. p. 445. The pope said lo him, "qu'il estoil fori eslonne, veu la peine et travail ([u'il avoit pour vous appoinifr, Vous et I'Em- pereur, (pie vous le laissiez ainsi arrifire." [That he was much astonished, seeing the pains and labour he had taken to effect an accordance between you and the em- peror, that you should both so turn your backs upon him.] I + M. A. Contarini likewise confirmed this in his report. ' $ Discurso del Rmo- c'e- di Carpi del 1543 (perhaps however a year earlier) a Carlo V. Cesare del modo nel dominare. Bibl. Corsini n. 443. § Se la M. V. dellostato di Milano le usasse cortesia, non lanto si speffnerebbe quantosi ascenderebbe la sete sua; si che 6 meglio di armarsi di quel dacato contra di lui.— V. M. ha da esse certa, che non peraftettione che al- tri abbia a questo re, ma per interpsse particolare, e la Germania e 1' Italia, sinche la mayor pane del tempo (on Uiat day) en contar bus felicidades y •ompararse a Tiberio imperador. 12 but we cannot entertain a doubt of what every one in that day believed, that Ferrante Gon- zaga, governor of Milan, had a hand in the affair.* Gonzaga's biographer, who had been in the times we arc speaking of his confiden- tial secretary, and who seeks to exculpate him, assures us that his intention had only ex- tended to the imprisonment and not to the assassination of Farnese.f I find in some MSS.. still clearer hints that the emperor had received previous information of this design; but I hesitate to credit this without further substantiation. Be this as it may, the imperial troops hastened to the spot, took possession of Piacenza, and asserted the claims of the em- pire upon tliat city. This was in some mea- sure a retaliation for the pope's de.sertion of the emperor in the war of Smalcald. The state of ihings that now arose is with- out a parallel. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, some pre- tended to know, had said he could only help himself out of his difficulties by the death of some imperial ministers : he could not take them off by violence, and must, therefore, have recourse to art. While, therefore, the persons aimed at sought to secure themselves against poison, two or three Corsican bravoes were arrested in Milan, and brought to confess, whether truly or falsely I will not pretend to say, they had been hired by those belonging to the pope to assa.ssinate Ferrante Gonzago, At all events, Gonzago was exasperated afresh. He must, he said, secure his life as well as he could : nothing remained for him but to put out of the way two or three of these his enemies, either by his own hand or by ano- ther's.! Mendoza is of opinion there was a design to kill all the Spaniards in Rome; the people were to be secretly instigated to the act, which when done was to be excused on the plea of their ungovernable fury. No reconciliation was to be thought ofl There had been a wish to employ the media- lion of the emperor's daughter to that end. But she had never liked the Farnese family, she despised her husband, who was much her jimior, and exposed his bad qualities to the ambas.sadors without reserve ; she said she would rather cut off her child's head than * CompertumhabemusFerdinandum esseautorem,[We have ascertained that Ferrante was the instigator of the deed] said the pojje in tlie coasislory. Extrait du Consis- toire tenu par N. S. P6re, in a dispatch from Morvillier, Venise, 7 Sept. 1547. Ribier, ii. 61. t Gossellini, p. 45. N6 I'imperatorp, n6 D. Fernando, come di natura magnanimi, consentirono mai alia niorte del duca Pier Luigi Farnese; anzi fecero o;ni opera di salvarlo, cnmandando in specialiti a congiurati che vivo il tenessero. [Neither the emperor nor Don Fernando, men of noble natures, ever would consent to the death of the duke Pier Luigi Farnese, but did all in their power to save him, eiving special orders to the conspirators, thai they should keep him alive as a prisoner.] t Mendo'ja al Emp. Don Hernando procurara de asfi- purar su vida come mejor piidiere, hechando a parte dos (t lies di estos, o por su mano o por mano du oiros. 90 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1548. make any request lo her father that might be displeasing to him. Mendoza's correspondence with his court lies before me. It would not be easy to match these letters, for the tone imparted to them by that deep rooted hate, which both parties strove to conceal, and each perceived in the other. There is in them a feeling of superiority filled with bitterness, of contempt that is yet on its guard, of distrust, such as men entertain to- wards an inveterate malefactor. In this posture of thmgs, France was the only country to which the pope could look for support or help. Accordingly we find him sometimes discus- sing for hours the relation of the Roman see to France, in the presence of the French am- bassadors and cardinals Guise and Farnese. " He had read in old books," he said, " and heard it from others during his cardinalate, and personally experienced it since he became pope, that the holy see was always then in power and prosperity when it was allied with France, while on the contrary it sustained losses so soon as this ceased to be the case. He could not forgive Leo X. and his prede- cessor Clement, he could not forgive himself for having even favoured the emperor : now, however, he was determined forever to unite himself with France. He hoped to live yet long enough to leave the papal see devotedly attached to the French king ; he would endea- vour to make the latter the greatest sovereign in the world ; his own house should be con- nected with him by the most indissoluble ties."* His purpose was to form with France, Swit- zerland, and Venice, a league at first defen- sive, but of which he himself says, that it was " the door to an offensive league."! The French calculated that their friends, once united, would secure to them as large a terri- tory in Italy as that which the emperor pos- sessed : tlie whole Orsini party were again ready to devote themselves to the king with life and substance. The Farnesi thought that in the district of Milan they could count at least on Cremona and Pavia : the Neapolitan emigrants promised to bring fifteen thousand men into the field, and forthwith to deliver up Aversa and Naples. The pope entered with • Guise au Roy, 31 Oct. 1547. Ribier, ii. 75. + Guise au Roy, 11 Nov. 1-547. Ribier, ii. 81. Sire, il aemble au pape, it. ce qu'il m'a dit, qu'il doil comniencer a vous faire declaration de son ainili6 par vous presenter luy el toute sa maison : el pour ce qu'ils n'auroifnl puis- sance de vous faire service, ny vous aider 4 oft'enser, si vous premierenienl vous ne les aidez d. defendre, il luy a 8embl6 devoir commencer par la lieue defensive, la quelle il dil estre la vrayeportedel'offensive. [Sire, the pope is minded, as he has told me, that he ousilil to begin his dec- laration of friendship by presenting to you himself, and his whole house: and for thai they could have no power lo do you service, or to aid you to offend, unless you in the first place aid them to defend, il seems fit to him lo bpgin with the defensive league, which he says is the real door to the offensive.] The whole correspondence relates to this topic. great eagerness into all these schemes. He gave the French ambassador the first intelli- gence of a design on Genoa. He was not at all averse to the conclusion of a league with the Sultan or with Algiers, for the sake of getting hold of Naples. Edward VI. had just ascended the throne of England, and a decid- edly protestant administration had assumed the helm of state : the pope for all that advised Henry II. to make peace with England, "that he might be free to accomplish other designs for the best interests of Christendom."* Thus vehement was the pope's hostility to the emperor, thus close his connexion with the French, thus vast were the views he pro- posed to himself: and yet he never completed his projected league, he never took the final step. The Venetians were astounded. " The pope," they said, "has been assailed in his dignity, injured in his own blood, robbed of the best possessions of his house : he should grasp at every alliance, on any terms; yet after so many injuries and insults he still hesitates and wavers." Most commonly personal injuries prompt to extreme resolves. There are natures, how- ever, in which that is not the case, which even then deliberate when they are most deeply wounded ; not that the sentiment of revenge is less strong in them, but because they are more forcibly possessed with the con- sciousness of their adversary's superiority. The prudence that anticipates the aspect of the future predominates in them : great mis- chances do not rouse them, but make them spiritless, vacillating, and weak. The emperor was too powerful to enter- tain any serious fear of the Farnesi. He kept on his way without bestowing a thought upon them. He protested solemnly against the sittings of the council in Bologna, and declared beforehand all acts that should issue from it to be null and void. In the year 1548 he publislied the Interim in Germany. However intolerable the pope tliought it that the em- peror should venture to prescribe a rule of faith, however vehemently he complained that the property of the church should be left in the hands of its present possessors (in addition to all this, cardinal Farnese said he could point out seven or eight heresies in the Inte- rim,!) the emperor did not suffer himself to * Franoois de Rohan au Roy, 24 Febrier, 1548. Ribier, ii. 117. S. S. m'a conniiand6 de vous faire entendre et conseiller de sa part, de rcgarder les moyens que vous pouvez tenir pour vous mettre en paix pour quelqtie temps avec les Anglais, afin que n'estanl en lanl d' endroits eni- ppsche vous pussiez plus facilemenl executer vos desseins el entreprises pour le bien public de la Chrestient^. + " Hazer intendcr a V. M. como en el Interim ay 7 o 8 herecias." Mondoca, 10 Juni, 1348. In the " Leltere del Commendatore Annibal Caro, serine al nome del VA- Far- nesp," which in other respects are composed with great reserve, there is a letter (i. 65) to the Cardinal Sfondrato with respect to the Interim, in which it is said, " the em- peror has caused a scandal in Christendom; he might have taken somelhing better in hand." A. D. 1548.] PAUL III. 91 be moved from his purpose. In the affair of Piacenza too, he did not yield a hair's breadth. Tlie pope demanded the immediate restitution of that city ; the emperor maintained his claim to it in right of tlie empire. The pope ap- pealed to the treaty of 1521, in which Pia- cenza had been guaranteed to the Roman see ; the emperor pointed to the word " inves- titure," by which the empire had asserted its own right of sovereignty. The pope rejoined that the word was here employed otherwise than in the feudal sense : the emperor carried the discussion no further, but declared that his conscience forbade him to give back Pia- cenza.* Gladly would the pope now have taken up arms, attached himself to France, and set his friends and partisans in motion (his adherents were observed to be busy in Naples, Genoa, Siena, Piacenza, and even in Orbitello), gladly would he have revenged himself by some un- expected blow ; but on the other hand, he felt extreme dreqjd of the emperor's superior pow- er, above all of his influence in ecclesiastical matters ; he was apprehensive that a council would be called that would declare itself de- cidedly against him, and even proceed to his deposition. Mendoza affirms, that the attempt of the Corsicans upon the life of Ferrante Gonzaga had especially alarmed him. However this may be, certain it is he kept still and smothered his rage. The Farnesi were even not displeased to see the emperor take Siena, hoping he would bestow it on tliem in compensation tor their losses. The most singular proposals were made in connection with this subject. " If the emperor agrees to this," it was said to iSlendoza, "the pope on his part must then send back the council to Trent, and not only proceed in other respects according to the emperor's wishes (for exam- ple, m solemnly recognizing his right to Bur- gundy), but also declare Charles his successor in the papal see. For, said they, the climate of Germany is cold, that of Italy warm ; warm countries are more wholesome for the gout, with which the emperor is afflicted. "f I will not maintain that they were serious in mak- ing these proposals, for the old pope lived in the belief that he should survive the emperor ; we see, however, on what dubious and strangely unaccustomed paths tlieir policy had adventured. I'heir movements and their * " LettPre del Cardiniil Fainese, scritte al Vpscovo di Fano, nuntio al imperatore Carlo," Inforiiiationi PoliticliP, xix. anil some instruction-! of the pope's and Farnpse's, ib. xii. throw light on ihpse transactions, of which I can only touch on the main points. t Cardinal Gambara inadR the proposition to Blendoza in a private meeting in a church. He said at least, " que avia scripto al papa al20 desto, y no lo havia toinado mal." [That he had written somewhat thereabout to the pope, and that he had not taken it aiuiss.] Le Conneslable au Eoy, 1 Sept. l.)19 (Ribier, ii. 155, p. 69). Lp papp et sos minislrps vousontjusques-icy us6 de toutes dissiimdalions, les-quellps ils ont depuis quilque temps voulu couvrir de pur mensoiigp, pour en former une vraye meschancete, puis qu'il faut que je I'appelle ainsi. negotiations with the emperor did not escape the observation of the French. We have a very indignant letter from the constable de Montmorency, in which he speaks without qualificationof" dissimulations, lies, and down- right villainies," practised in Rome against the king of France.* At last, that he might after all do some- thing, and gain at least one fixed point in these contentions, the pope resolved, since not only his house's title to Piacenza but even that of the church was disputed, to give back that dukedom to the immediate possession of the latter. This was the first time he had ever done anything contrary to the interests of his grandchildren. He thought he pos- sessed unlimited authority over them ; he had always lauded them, and deemed himself for- tunate in their faultless obedience. But the difference was, that till now he had always striven for their manifest advantage; now, on the contrary, he proposed a measure at vari- ance therewith. They attempted at first to divert him from his purpose by indirect means. They had it represented to him that the day proposed for the consistory was inauspicious, being St. Roque's day ; that the exchange he contemplated in giving them back Camerino instead of Piacenza, would be rather prejudi- cial to the church than otherwise. They turned against him the very arguments he had himself used on a former occasion. But ail their efforts could but delay, not prevent the measure. Paul J II. finally gave orders to Camillo Orsino, governor of Parma, to keep pos.session of that city in the name of the church, and to give it up to no onfe whatever. After this declaration, which left not a doubt behind, the Farnese no longer contained them- selves. On no consideration would they con- sent to be despoiled of a dukedom, that put them on a footing with the independent princes of Italy. Ottavio made an attempt to get Parma into his hands in defiance of the pope, by fiirce or stratagem ; but Camillo's prudence and determination frustrated his schemes. What must have been Paul's feel- ings when he learned this! It was reserved for the old man at the close of his days to see his grandsons, to whom he had manifested so much affectionate partiality, for whose advan- tage he had heaped on himself the reproaches of the world, now rebelling against him! Even the failure of his attempt did not deter Ottavio from his purpose. He wrote to the pope, telling him flatly, that if Parma w^as not restored to him by fair means, he would make peace with Ferrante Gonzaga, and endeavour to possess himself of it with the help of the imperial arms. And in fact his negociations with that mortal enemy of his house were * Dandolu also asserts his positive determination: S. S. era a tutto volla a restiluir Parma alia chiesa. [His holi- ness waa fully minded to restore Parma lo the church.] 92 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d, 1552. highest station. But how insignificant ap- pears even a miglity mortal in comparison with the world's history ! In all his thoughts and efforts he is circumscribed and commanded by the span of time he looks upon, by momen- tary struggles that press upon him as though they were those of eternity : he is fettered too beyond the lot of other jnen, by the personal considerations incident to his station; they tax his powers to the utmost, fill up his days, sometimes it may be with satisfaction, but oftener with vexation and sorrow, and waste and wear him away. Even while he per- ishes, the eteniLil destinies of the world roll on to their accomplishment. already far advanced : a courier had been des- patched to the emperor with the definitive proposal.* The pope complained loudly that he was betrayed by his own kindred ; their conduct was such as must bring him to the grave. What wounded him mo^t deeply was, that the rumour arose he had himself been privy to Otiavio's proceedings, and had taken a part in them belying his open professions. He told cardinal Este that never in his life had anything caused him such anguish, not even Fier Luigi's death, nor the seizure of Piacenza. But he would not leave the world in any doubt as to his real sentiments.f His only consolation was, that at least Alessandro Farnese, the cardinal, was innocent, and de- voted to him. He gradually became con- vinced that the latter too, in whom he trusted wholly, to whose hands were committed the entire management of public affairs, was but too well aware of the matter, and had been a consenting party to it. This discovery broke his heart. On the day of All Souls (Nov. 2, 1549), he communicated it to the Venetian ambassador in bitter anguish of heart. The day following he went, to seek if possible some relief of mind, to his vigna on iVIonte Cavallo. But he found no repose. He sent for Cardinal Alessandro : one word brought on another ; the pope burst into the most vio- lent paroxysm of anger, snatched his nephew's cap out of his hand, and dashed it on the ground.| The court already anticipated a change ; it was generally supposed the pope would remove the cardmal fi-om the adminis- tration. But it did not come to that. This violent agitation of mind at the advanced age of eighty-three, was fatal to the old man. He was immediately taken sick, and died a few days afterwards, on the lOth Nov. 1549. All ranks flocked to kiss his foot. He was as much beloved as his grandsons were hp.ted : that he had met with his death through their means, on whom he had bestowed most kind- ness, moved every one to pity. Paul III. was a man fjll of talent and intel- lect, of penetrating sagacity, exalted to the * Gossplini, Vita di Ferr. Gonzasa, p. 65. t Hippolytp, Cardinal de Ferrare, an Roy, 22 Oct. 1540. Kibier ii. 2i8. S. 8. m'a asseure n'avoir en sa vie eu chose dont die ait tant receu d'ennuy, pour ropinjon qu'elle craint qu'on veuille prendre que cecy ail este de son conspntemi nl. t Dandolo. II Kev'"0' Farnese si resolse di non volpr che casa sua restasse priva di Roma, e se ne messe alia forte. . . S. S. accortasi di quesla contrao|)eralione del Revmo- Farnese me la comunico il di de' niorti, in cran piarte con grandissima amaritudine, et il di dielro la mat- lina per tempo se ne anda alia sun viena di Monte Ca- vallo per cercar transtuUo, dove si ini;oler6 per lal causa con esso Revn.o- Farnese. . . . Gli fu troviito tulto I'inte- riore nellissimo, d' haver a viver ancor qualche anno, se no.i che n' 1 coie Ire goccie di sanL'ue agghiaciato (this is well known to be an erroneous noiion), suidicati dal molo della colera. [ — All his inside was lound in a very sound state, so that he mifrhl have lived so:np years longer, with the exception of three clols of coj,'.'ulated blood in thp heart, sud] 03,jd to have betn caused by the vehemence of his choler.] Julius III. During the conclave, five or six cardinals happened to be standing round the altar of the chapel, talking of the difficulty there was to choose a pope. *' Elect me," said cardinal Monte, one of their number, "arid the day fol- lowing 1 will make you my intimates and fa- vourites of the whole college of cardinals." "Shall we indeed elect him !" said Sfondrata, another of them, when they had separated. Da Monte had the character of being impetu- ous and irascible, and in other respects too had small grounds for hope : the lowest bets were staked upon his name.* In spite of all this, so it was that he was elected (Feb. 7, 1550.) In memory of Julius II., whose chamberlain he had been, he styled himself Julius III. Every face in the imperial court was lighted up with joy, when this choice became known. Duke Cosmo had chiefly contributed to bring it about. It was part and parcel of the pre- eminence of fortune and power, at which the emperor then found himself arrived, that at last a pope, on whose devotedness he could reckon, ascended the papal chair. Public af- fairs seemed destined now to take a difierent course. The emperor still regarded it as of extreme importance, that the council should again be established in Trent; he still hoped to com- pel the Protestants to attend it, and to submit to its authority. The new pope received the proposition with cordiality. If he did set forth the difficulties inherent in the matter, his only anxiety was, lest he should be thought to put them forward as excuses : he was never tired of protesting that this was not so: he had acted all his days without subterfuge or pretence, and would ever maintain the same conduct. He did actually appoint the re- newal of the council for the spring of 1551, * Dandolo, Rf laUone, 1551 ; Questo revmo. di Monte sa bm subito in consideratioae di ogn' uno, ma all' imon- trooiin' uno parldva tanto d: Ua sua tolera e subitezza, che ne posso mai che di pochissima scommessa. A. D. 1552.] JULIUS III. 03 declaring that he did so without pact or con- dition.* But all was far from being achieved when the good will of the pope was secure, Ottavio Farnese had, by a resolution passed by the cardinals in conclave at the instance of Julius, become again possessed of Parma. This had not occurred contrary to the empe- ror's will ; they had long been negotiating together, and some hopes were entertained of a renewed good understanding between tliem. But the emperor's mind was made up not to give Ottavio back Piacenza too; and he even retained the places in the territory of Parma, which Gonzaga had seized : Ottavio, in con- eequence, continued to maintain a warlike attitude.f There was no possibility of any real confidence between the two, after so many reciprocal offences. It is true, the death of Paul III. had deprived his grandsons of a great support, but it had also set their hands free. 'J' hey had now no need to give any fur- ther consideration to the general interests or to those of the Church, but could adopt mea- sures with an exclusive view lo their own. "We still find Ottavio possessed with feelings of bitter hatred. His enemies, he said, were endeavouring to wrest Parma from him, and even to put himself out of the way ; but they should succeed in neither the one nor the olher.f In this temper he turned to Henry II., and that king joyfully accepted his proposals. Italy and Germany were filled with mal- contents. What the emperor had already ef- fected, and that which was yet looked for from him, his religious and his political atti- tude, had all stirred up numberless enemies again,-t him. Henry II. resolved to revive his father's anti-Austrian plans. He aban- doned the war with England, concluded an alliance with Ottavio, and took the garrison of Parma into his pay. French troops too soon appeared in Mirandola. The banners of France were seen waving in the heart of lUly. In this new complication of things Julius adhered stedfastly to the emperor. He thought it intolerable that a miserable worm, Ottavio Farnese, should rebel at once against an em- peror and a pope. " It is our will," he de- clares to his nuncio, "to embark in the same vessel with his im.perial majesty, and to share the same fortune. To Him who has the wis- dom and the power we leave the determina- tion of the course.^" The emperor declared * Letlpre del Nunzio Pighino, 12 e 15 Ag. 1550: Inff. Polit. xi.x. t Gosstllini, Vila di Ferr. Conzagii, and the justifica- tion of Gonzaga, in the third boolc, fio^n the accusation of his having caused the war, atibrd an authentic explana- tion of this turn of things. t Letters delli Signoii Farnesiani per n'^poliodi Parma, Infoimalt. Pol. xix. The above is fio n a 1'11't of Oltnvio lo cardinal AltssHndro Farn?SP,Parina, 2Il1i March, loot. § Juhus Papa III. Manu propria: Instiutiione per voi himself for the immediate forcible pjrction of the French and their adherents. 'J'he impe- rial and papal troops were very soon in the field. An important fortress in the Parmcg- giana fell into their hand.«, they laid waste the whole region, and completely surrounded Mirandola. But these petty hostilities were not enough to quell the movements that had indeed ori- ginated here, but had since laid hold on all Europe. War broke out by land and sea, and on every frontier where met the territories of the emperor and of the king of France. When the Protestants at last allied themselves to the French, they cast into the scale a weight very different from that of the Italians. The most determined attack Charles had ever sus- tained ensued. The French appeared on the Rhine, the elector Maurice in the Tyrol. The veteran conqueror, after taking up his position on the mountain land between Italy and Germany, to keep them both in obedience, saw himself suddenly perilled, vanquished, and almost a prisoner. This produced an immediate effect on the affairs of Italy. " Never could we have be- lieved," said the pope, "that God would so visit us.*" He was constrained, in April 1552, to agree to a truce with his enemies. Some mischances there are that come not wholly unwelcome. They put an end to a course of action that begins to be irksome, they give a legitimate reason or a manifest excuse for abandoning it. The ill luck that befel the pope seems al- most to have been of this kind. It was with dissatisfaction he had seen his capital filled with troops, his coffers emptied, and he thought he sometimes had cause to complain of the imperial ministers.! The council, too, had become a source of real uneasiness to him. Since the appearance of the German delegates, to whom promises of reformation had been made, the proceedings took a bolder course. Already in 1552, the pope complained that attempts were made to despoil him of his au- thority ; that the intention of the Spanish bishops, was on the one hand servilely to sub- mit to the chapters, on the other to withdraw from the holy see the patronage of all bene- fices : he would not however suffer that, under the title of abuses, he should be robbed of that which was no abuse, but an essential attribute Monsignor d'Imola con I'imperatore. L' ultimo di Marzo Infoi-matt. Pol. xii. Reassigns the rea!;oii for this close union: Non per atfelto alcuno humano, ina perche ye- demo la causo nostra esse con S. Ma. Cesarea in tulli li atTari e niassimamente in quello della rpligione. [Not for any human affection, but because we see that our cause is identified with the emperor's in all matters, espe- ciullv those of religion.] * Al C. Crescentio, 13 April, 1552. t «• w i tLetteradel papa a Meniloza,2G Dec, 1351. (Inflf.Pol. xix.) " Without pride be it said : Of i.ounsol we have no n-ed; we could even hflp others in that respect; help indeed we might require." 94 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1555. of his power.* It cnuld not, therefore, have been wholly displeasing to him, that the at- tack of the Protestants broke up the council: he hastened to decree its suspension. He was thereby rid of innumerable pretensions and disputes. From that time forth, Julius III. never again seriously applied his energies to politics. The inhabitants of Siena indeed complained, that although their half townsmen by the mother's side, he had seconded duke Cosmo's project of subduing them; but a subsequent judicial investigation proved the falsehood of the charge. It was rather Cosmo who had rea- son to complain. The pope did not hinder the Florentine emigrants, the bitterest foes of his ally, from assembling and arming in the states of the church. The villa of pope Giulio, at the entrance of the Porta del Popolo, is still visited by the stranger. Those times come bodily before him, as he ascends the ample steps to the gal- lery, whence he overlooks the whole extent of Rome from Monte Mario, and all the wind- ings of the Tiber. The buildmg of this palace, the laying out of its gardens, were the daily and hourly occupation of Julius III. He him- self designed the plan, but the work was never ended; every day new suggestions and ca- prices presented themselves, which were forth- with to be put in execution by the architects.f Here the pope passed his days, forgettinar all the world beyond. He had done a'good deal for the advancement of his relations. Duke Cosmo gave them Sansovino, their ancestral place, and the emperor gave them Novara ; Julius himself bestowed on them the dignities of the ecclesiastical states, and Camerino. He kept his word with his favourite, a youth whom he had taken a liking to in Parma, and made him a cardinal. He had happened once to see him seized by an ape, and had been pleased by his spirit and courage : from that moment he brought him up, and bestowed on him a regard which unhappily constituted his only merit. Julius wished to see him, and the rest of those belonging to him, well pro- vided for, but he had no inclination to involve himself in dangerous perplexities on their ac- * Al Crescenlio 16 Gena., 1j52. He exclaims: Non sari veio, non coinportaremo mai, prima lassaremo ruinare il mondo. [It shall nol be, we will never endure it, we would sooner see Uie downfall of the world.] t Vasari. Boissard describes their extent at that time; "Occupat fere omnes colles qui ab urbe ad pontem Mil- vium protenduntur;" [ocrupyin? almost the whole range of hills from the city to the Miivian bridge,] he relates their magnificence, and gives some of the inscriptions: e. g. Honeste voluptarier^cunctis fas honestis eslo. [Be ■virtuous delights allowed the virtuous,] and particularly: Dehinc proximo in templo Deo ac divo Andreae gratias agunto (the visiters I presume are understood,) vitamque et salutem Julio III., Poiiici IVIaximo, Baluino ejus fratri, et eorum familiae universae, plurimam et seternam p e- canlor. [Let them give thanks to God and St. Andrew in the adjoining temple, and implore life and healih, abund- ant and eternal, for poae Paul [11., Baldwin his brother, and their whole family.] Julius died on the 23rd of, March, 1555. I count. The easy pleasant life of his villa, as we have said, suited best for him. He gave en- tertainments, which he seasoned with sprink- lings of proverbial wit, that at times indeed called up the blushes of his guests. In the important business of Church and state, he took no more part than was barely unavoid- able. Marcellvs II. It was impossible that Church or state could thrive much under such treatment. The rup- ture between the two great catholic powers was constantly becoming wider and more pe- rilous; the German Protestants had mightily recovered from their defeat of 1547, and stood firmer than ever. No thought could be enter- tained of the often proposed catholic reform. The fact could not be concealed, that the pros- pects of the Romish church were in every direction gloomy and ambiguous. Now if, as we have seen, there had risen in the bosom of that church, a stricter spirit, that heartily condemned the whole life and conduct of so many pontiffs, must not that feeling at last display itself in the election of a pope? Much indeed depended on the per- sonal qualities of the pontiffs; for this very reason had the highest dignity been made elective, in order that a man representing the prevailing spirit of the Church should be set at the head of affairs. The first time the more austere party pos- sessed influence in the choice of a pope, was after the death of Julius Hi. The latter had often felt himself checked in his undignified behaviour by the presence of cardinal Marcello Cervini. This determined the choice. April II, 1555, Marcellus II. was elected. His whole life had been earnest and irre- proachable : that reformation of the ('hurch, of which others but talked, he exhibited in his own person. His election gave rise to the greatest hopes. " I had prayed," says a con- temporary, " that there might come a pope, who should know how to redeem the fair words, church, council, and reform, from the contempt into which they had fallen ; tli rough this election, I deemed my hope fulfilled ; my wish appeared to have become a fact."* " The opinion," says another, "entertained of this pope's worth and incomparable wisdom, filled the world with hope : now, if ever, it was thought, will it be possible for the Church to exting-uish heresy, to reform abuses and cor- ruption of manners, to become whole and sound again, and once more united. "f Mar- cellus began entirely in this spirit. He did not suffer his relations to come to Rome : he * Seripando al vescovo di Fiesole. Lettere di Principi, iii. Iii2. t Lettere di Principi, iii. 141. The editor speaks here in his own person. A. D. 1555.] PAUL IV. 95 made a multitude of retrenchments in the ex- penditure of tlie court, he is said to have drawn up a catalogue of the principal reforms requisite in the ecclesiastical institutions; he immediately endeavoured to restore its gen- uine solemnity to divine worship; all his thoughts turned on a council, and on reform.* In politics he assumed a neutral position, with wliich tiie emperor was contented. " The world however," say those contemporaries of his, " was not worthy of him ;" and they apply to this Marcellus, Virgil's words respecting another : " Oslendent terris hunc tanlum fata." He died on the twenty-second day of his pon- tificate. We cannot speak of effects operated during 60 hrief an administration ; but even this be- ginning, this election, are in themselves indi- cations of the spirit that was beginning to prevail. It predominated in the next conclave likewise, whence the most austere of all the cardinals, Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, issued as pope, May 23, 1555. Paul IV. We have often spoken of him already: he is the same who founded the Theatines, re- established the inquisition, and so essentially contributed to the confirmation of the old doctrine at Trent. If there was a party which purposed the renovation of Catholicism in all its strictness, that party possessed in him who now ascended the papal chair, not a member merely, but a founder and a leader. Paul IV. already numbered nine-and-seventy years, but his deep sunk eyes retained all the fire of youth. He was very tall and thin, his etep was rapid, and he seemed all sinew. In his personal habits, he bound himself by no rule, often slept by day and studied by night, and woe to the servant who should have enter- ed his room before he had rung his bell. In like manner in all other matters he followed the impulse of the moment,f but this was always governed by a habit of mind formed by the practice of a long life into a second nature. He seemed to know no otiier duty, no other occupation, than the restoration of the old faith to its former domination. Such natures arise from time to time, and we occa- sionally meet with specimens of them in our own day. They form their conceptions of the * Petri Polidori, de Vita Marcelli II. Coniracntarius, 1744, p. 119. t Kelazione di M. Bernardo Navagero (clie fu poi car- dinale) alia .Serma- Repca- di Venetia, lornando di Roma, Ambascialore appresso del Pontefice Paolo IV., 1558, in many Italian libraries, also in the Informazioni Politiche in Berlin. La complessione di quesio pontefice 6 cole- rica adusto ; ha una incredibil gravitSi e grandezza in tutte le sue azioiii, et veramenie pare nato al signnresgiare. [The complexion of this pontiff is swarthy choleric; he displays incredible gravity and grandeur in all his ac- tions, aad seems truly born to command, j world and all its purposes from a single point of sight; their individual instincts are so pow- erful as to tincture all their views; they are indefatigable speakers, and always possess a certain freshness of manner, pouring forth in inexhaustible streams the system of thought that has grown up in them by a sort of fatality. How vastly important do they become at times, when all their actions are purely and absolutely dependent on their opinions, and their will becomes united with power ! What might there not have been expected of Paul IV., who had never known what it was to pause from any motives of discretion, who had always carried out his opinions with the ut- most impetuosity, now that he was exalted to the topmost station !* It was matter of wonder to himself how he had arrived there, since he had never bestowed the least favour on a single cardinal, and had never shown a trace in his conduct, of anything but the utmost austerity. He believed it was not the cardinals, but God himself who had chosen him and called him to the accomplishment of his purposes.! " We promise and vow," he says, in the bull published on the commencement of his ponti- ficate, "to make it in truth our care, that the reform of the universal church, and the Roman court, shall be set on foot." He marked the day of his coronation by the issuing of com- mands respecting convents and orders. He sent without delay two monks from Monte Cassino into Spain, to restore the decayed discipline of the convents in that country. He appointed a congregation for general re- form, consisting of three classes, each consti- tuted by eight cardinals, fifteen prelates, and fifty learned divines. The articles which were to be discussed by them, and which re- lated to the collation to benefices, were com- municated to the universities. He set to work, as we see, with great earnestness.]: It seemed as if that ecclesiastical spirit, which * It may bo guessed that his character did not meet with unanimous approbation. Aretino's Capitolo al R& di Francia thus describes him: Caraffa, ipocrita infingardo, Che tien per concienza spirituale Quando si mette del pepe in sul cardo. [Caraffa, loitering hypocrite, who makes matter of reli- gioug conscience of peppering a thistle.] t Relatione del Clmo- M. Aluise Mocenigo K. ritornato dalla corie di Roma, 1560, (Arch. Venez.) Fu eletto ponte- fice contra il parer e credere di ogn' uno, e forse anco di se stesso, come S. S. propria mi disse poco inanzi morisse, die non avea mai comoiaciulo ad alcuno e che se un car- dinale eli avea domandatoqualche gratia, gli aveasempre risposto alia ri versa, ne mai compiaciutolo ; onde disse : lo non so come mi habbiano eletto papa, e concludo che Iddio faccia li pontefici. [He was elected pope, contrary to probability and lo the belief of every bidy, himself perhaps included, as his holiness himself told me short- ly before he died, that he had never been complaisant to any one, and that if a cardinal asked him any favour, he had always given a contrary answer, and never had com- plied with the request ; for which reasons, he said, I know not how they elected me i»pe, and conclude that God appoints the pontiffs.] t Bromato, Vila di Paolo IV. lib. ix. § 2. § 17. (ii. 2iH. 289.) 98 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1555- had for a considerable time made good its in- fluence ainon^ the inferior classes of the clergy, had now taken possession of the papacy likewise, and would forthwith assume the sole direction of Paul IV's pontifical career. The only remaining question was, what position he would assume with respect to the general movements of the political world. It is no easy task to change the main direc- tions a power has once taken, and which have gradually identified themselves with its very being. This was a moment in which it seemed for once possible to indulge the wish which must have ever been natural to the popes, to deliver themselves from the yoke of the Spaniards. That war which we have seen arising out of the concerns of the Farnesi, was the most unfortunate in which Charles V. ever embark- ed. He was.pressed hard in the Netherlands ; Germany revolted from him ; Italy had ceased to be faithful; he could no longer rely on the Estes and the Gonzagas; he himself was sick and weary of life. I know not whether any other pope, had he not belonged directly to the imperial party, could have resisted the allurements presented by these circumstances. For Paul IV. they were specially attractive. He had beheld Italy still in the freedom of the fifteenth century (he was born in 1476), and his soul clung to the remembrance. He compared the Italy of those times to a well- tuned instrument of four strings, namely, Na- ples, Milan, the Church, and Venice. He execrated the memory of Alfonso and Louis the Moor, "unhallowed and lost souls," as he said, "whose discord destroyed that har- mony."* The mastery since acquired by the Spaniards he had never brought himself to endure. The house of Carafta from which he sprang, belonged to the French party: it had borne arms unnumbered times against Castil- ians and Calalonians; in 152S it had again joined the French ; during the troubles of 1547 it was Giovanni Pietro Carafta, who advised Paul III. to sieze Naples. But this party- hatred was augmented by other causes. Ca- rafta had always maintained that Charles V. favoured the Protestants out of jealousy to- wards the pope, and he ascribed the progress of that party directly to the emperor.f Charles knew him well. He once excluded him from the council appointed for the administration of Naples; he never allowed him to obtain quiet possession of his Neapolitan ecclesiasti- cal offices: furthermore, he had occasionally remonstrated severely against his declama- tions in the consistory. All this, as may be supposed, added to the virulence of CaratTa's ♦ Infelici quplle anime di Alfonso d'Aragona el Ludo- Tico Ui Milano, che furiio li primi che guaslaroDO cosi nobil inslruiiienlo d'llalia. In Navagero. t Meino.iale dato a Annibale Kucpllai, Sell. 1555, (In- formall. Pol. torn, xxiv.) Chiamava Uberamanie la M^' 6. Cesarea fautore di herelici e di scianialici. dislike. As a Neapolitan and Italian, as a Catholic and as pope, he hated the emperor, and, save his reforming zeal, he cherished no other passion than that hate. Hardly had he taken possession of the pon- tificate— not without a certain self-compla- cence, when he remitted taxes to the Romans, imported corn, for which he saw a statute erected to him, and received amidst the pa- geantry of a sumptuous court, administered by Neapolitan nobles, the homage of embassies flocking in from all quarters — hardly had he been installed, when he v/as already involved in a thousand disputes with the emperor. Thereupon the latter was said to have remon- strated with the cardinals of his party ; his adherents held suspicious meetings, and some of them carried ofTfrom the harbour of Ci vita Vecchia some ships that had previously been taken from them by the French.*' The pope's fury instantly blazed up. He arrested such of his vassals and cardinals as were inclined to the emperor's cause, or they fled and ho confiscated their possessions. Nor was that enough for him. He entered, without long deliberation, on the alliance with the French, which Paul III. could never make up his mind to conclude. " The emperor," he said, "only thought to put an end to him by a kind of mental fever ; but he would come to open con- flict; and with the help of the king of France, he would seek to free poor Italy from the tyranny of the Spaniards : he hoped yet to see two French sovereigns in Milan and Naples." He would sit for hours at table over the black thick volcanic wine of Naples, that was his favourite beveragef (it was of the kind called Mangiaguerra), and pour forth torrents of in- vectives against the Spaniards, those schis- matic and heretics, accursed of God, seed of Jews and Moors, dregs of the world, and so * Instrutlioni e LetlerediMonsignor dellaCasaa nomo del C'- Caratfa, dove si contiene il principio della roitura della guerra fra papa Paolo IV., e I'imperalore Carlo V., 1555. Also in the Inf. Pol. 24. t Navagero. L'ordine suo 6 sempre di mangiare du9 voile il giorno: vuol esserservito niollo delicalanienle, e nel principio del ponlificalo 25 pialli non basiavano: beve molto piu di quello che mangia ; il vino 6 polenie e gagli- ardo, negro e lanlo spesso che si potria quasi lagliare, di- mandasi mangia-guerra, che si conduce del regno di Na- poli : dopopasto sempre beve malvagia, che isuoichiamano lavarsi i demi. Slava a mangiare in publico, come gli allri ponleficijSino al ultima indispositione che furiputala monale, quando pcrdelto I'appetito: consumava qualcha voltalre hore di tempo dal sedere al levarsi da mensa, enirando in varii ragionoinenti secondo I'occasione el usando molle voile in quel impctoadir molle cose secrets e d'imporianza. [His custom is, always to eal twice a day ; he insists on being served delicately, and in the be- ginning of his pontificate iwenty-five dishes were not enough for his table. He drinks much more Ihau he eala. His wine is strong and brisk, black, and so thick thai it might almost be cut. It is called mangiaguerra, and comes from the kingdom of Naples. He used to eal in public like other popes, till his last illness, which was reputed mortal, when he lost his appetite. After meals he always drinks malmsey, which those about him called rinsing his mouth. He would sometimes spend three hours from the lime he sal down till he rose from table, entering into numerous discussions, as the occasion sug- gested, and ofK n in his loquacity giving utterance lo man/ matlers oiaecreaj and impoilance.] A. D, 1556.] PAUL IV. 97 forth.* But he consoled himself with the text, " Thou siialt walk upon serpents, thou shall tread upon lions and dragons," Now was the time arrived when Charles and his son should suffer chastisement for their sins. He, the pope, would inflict it; he would free Italy from him. If men would not hearken to him, if they would not stand by him, then must it be told in future times that an aged Italian, so near his death, and who ought rather to have sought repose, and to have prepared for his last hour, had yet conceived sucii exalted plans. It is not necessary to go into the de- tails of the negotiations he plied in the earnest pursuit of this idea. When the French, in spite of an understanding already entered into with him, yet concluded a truce with Spain,! he sent his nephew Charles Caraffa to France ; where the latter succeeded in engaging in his interests the several parties that were there contending for power, the Montmorencies and the Guises, the king's wife and his mistress, and in causing a new outbreak of hosti]ities.| In Italy, he procured a vigorous ally in the duke of Ferrara. They contemplated com- pletely revolutionizing Italy. Florentine and Neapolitan emigrants filled the curia ; the time of their restoration seemed arrived. The papal fiscal commenced a legal process against the emperor Charles and king Philip, in which he proposed an excommunication against those sovereigns, and a release of their subjects from their allegiance. In Florence, evidence, it was constantly asserted, existed to show, that the house of Medici was also doomed to suffer downfall. 5 Every preparation was made for war, and the result of all the previous struggles and tendencies of the century was once more rendered problematical. How wholly different was the turn now taken by the papacy from that anticipated ! * Navagero. Mai parlava di S. M^- e della nalione Spag- nola, che non gli chiamasse eretici, scisinalici, e iiiala- delti da Dio, seme di Giiulei e di Mori, feccia del mondp, deplorando la miseria d'It:ilia, che fosse astrelta a servire gente cosi abjetta e cosi vile. The dispatches of llie French ambassadors are full of these outbreaks. See, for instance, those of Lansac and Avancon, in Ribier, ii. 610—618. t The account of CarafTa's incredulity in the first in- stance, given by Navagero, is very characteristic : Doman- dando io al ponlc-fice el al C' CaratTa se havevano avviso alcuno delle tregue (of Vaucelles) si guardarono I'un I'al- tro ridendo, quasi volessero dire, si come mi disse anche apertamente il pontefice, che questa speranza di tregue era assai debole in lui; e non di meno venne I'avviso il giorno seguente, il quale si come consolo tutta Roma, cosi diede tanto travaglio e tanlo molestia al papa et al car- dinale, che non lo poterono dissimulare. Diceva il papa che queste tregue sarebbero la ruina del mondo. [When 1 asked the pope and cardinal Caratfa if they had any advices of the truce, they loolted at each other with a smile, as if they would say, as the pope iudeed even told me openly, that their anticipations of such a truce were faint enough : nevertheless the news arrived the next day, and proved as consolatory to all Rome, as it caused trou- ble and vexation to the pope and the cardinal, which they could not conceal. The pope said that tViis truce would be the ruin of the world.] t Rabulin, M^inoires, Collect. Univers. torn. 38. 358. Particularly ViUars, Memoires. lb. torn. 35. 277. § Gussoni, Rel"«- di Toscana. 13 All designs of reform were forced to give way to those of war, which brought in their train results of a totally opposite character. He who as Cardinal had most zealously, and even at his own personal risk, condemned the system of nepotism, was now seen to abandon himself to that very abuse. He raised to the rank ofcardinal his nephew. Carlo Caraffa, who had revelled in the wild excess of the soldier's life,* and of whom Paul IV. said himself, that his arm was dyed in gore to the elbow. Carlo had found means to propitiate the weak old man, causing himself to be discovered occa- sionally praying in seeming remorse before the crucifix.f But the main thing was, that they both agreed in hating the same object. Carlo Caraffa, who had rendered the emperor military service in Germany, complained that the latter had made him nothing but the most ungracious return. The depriving him of a prisoner, from whom he had expected a large ransom, and the refusal to ratify his nomina- tion, which had been actually made, to a pri- ory of the order of Malta, filled up the mea- sure of his hatred and thirst for vengeance. These passions stood in the pope's eye in lieu of every virtue. He could never make an end of praising him, affirming that the Roman see had never possessed a more able servant. He committed to him the entire weight not only of secular but even of ecclesiastical affairs, and was pleased when he was regarded as the author of whatever favours individuals re- ceived at the hands of the government. For a long time the pope did not deign to cast one glance of favour on his two other nephews. It was not till they conformed to to tlieir uncle's anti-Spanish sentiments that he bestowed his good-will upon them. J Never could any one have anticipated what he then did. He declared that frequently as the Co- lonnas, those inveterate rebels against God and man, had been deprived of their castles, they had never been permanently detained ; but now he would commit them to the keep- ing of vassals who should know how to defend them. He bestowed them on his nephews, naming the elder duke of I'alliano, and the younger marquis of Montebello. The cardi- nals, when he made known his will to them, were silent, and looked down to the ground. The Caraffas now indulged in the most aspi- ring projects. The daughters should marry, if not into the family of the king of France, at least into that of the duke of Ferrara : the sons hoped at least to compass the possession of Siena. Some one spoke jestingly of the » Babon in Ribier, ii. 745. Villars, p. 255. t Bromato. i Extractus processus Cardinalis Caraffae. Similiter dux Palliani deponit, quod donee se declaraverit contra imperiales, papa eum nuuquam vidit gralo vullu el bono oculo. [The duke of Palliano likewise deposes, that un- til he declared against the imperialists, the pope never looked on him with a favourable eye.J 98 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1557. jewelled cap of a child of that family ; " This is no time to talk of caps, but of crowns," re- plied the mother of the nepotes* In truth, every thing depended on the issue of the war which now broke out, but from the very first, indeed, with no promising aspect. After the above-mentioned act of the fiscal, the duke of Alva had advanced from the Nea- politan into the Roman territory. The papal vassals accompanied him, and all their con- federates were on the alert. Nettuno drove out the papal garrison, and recalled the Co- lonnas. Alva seized Frosinone, Anagni, Ti- voli in the mountains, Ostia on the sea, and hemmed in Rome on both sides. The pope relied at first on his Romans : he had reviewed them in person. They marched from Campofiore past the castle of St. Angelo, which saluted them with its artillery, to the piazza San Pietro, where the pope stood with his nephew at a window. There were three hundred and forty ranks armed with harque- buses, and two hundred and fifty armed with pikes, in each rank nine men, presenting an imposing appearance, and led by officers all of noble blood. When the caporioni and the etandard-bearers came before his holiness, he gave them his blessmg.f All this made a brave 6how ; but these were not the fit men for the defence of the city. After the Spaniards had approached somewhat nearer, a false rumour, a small body of horse, was enough to throw them all into such confusion, that not a man was to be found by the colours. The pope was constrained to look round for other help. Pietro Strozzi at last brought the troops to his assistance who were serving before Siena : he reconquered 'i'ivoli and Ostia, and removed the most pressing danger. But what a war was that! There are times when the motives that prompt men's present actions, and the secret principles of their lives, seem as though they stood in direct and visi- ble opposition to each other. Alva might, at the beginning, have taken Rome without much difficulty ; but his uncle, cardinal Giacomo, reminded him of the unfor- tunate end to which all had come who had taken part in Bourbon's conquest. As a good catholic, Alva carried on the war with ex- treme reserve : he combated the pope, but without ceasing to reverence him ; he sought only to wrest the sword from his hand, but he had no desire for the tame of being numbered among the conquerors of Rome. His soldiers complained it was a mist, a cloud, against which he led them ; it annoyed them, and they could not lay hold on it, nor stifle it in its source. And who, on the other hand, were they who * Bromato ix. 16; ii. 28G. Literally, Non esaer quel tempo da pailar di bercue ma di corone. t Diario di Cola Calleinn Romano del rione di Traste- vei'e dall' anno 1521 siuo all' anno 1582, MS. defended the pope against such good catholics? The best among them were Germans, all pro- testants. They jeered at the images of the saints on the roads and in the churches, laugh- ed at the mass, broke the fasts, and did a mul- titude of things every one of which the pope at any other tmie would have punished with death.* I find even that Carlo Carafta enter- ed into an intimate understanding with the great protestant leader. Margrave Albert of Brandenburgh. More glaring the contradiction on both sides could not be. On the one was the rigid spirit of Catholicism, with which the leader, at least, was penetrated: — how far he had left the old Bourbon times behind him I On the other was the secular tendency of the popedom, which had seized hold even on Paul IV., how- ever disposed he was to condemn it in the ab- stract. Thus it was that the followers of his faith were his assailants, the seceders from it his defenders; but the former, even in the at- tack, retained their submissiveness ; the latter, while they protected him, treated himself and everything belonging to him with hatred and scorn. It was not till the French forces, ten thou- sand foot and a less numerous but very bril- liant cavalry, had crossed the Alps, that the war began in earnest. The French would rather have turned their strength at once against Milan, which they thought less strongly de- fended ; but they were obliged to follow the impulse the Carafias gave them towards Na- ples. The latter had no doubt of finding num- berless adherents in their native country. They counted on the power of the emigrants, on a rising of their party, if not through the whole kingdom, yet by all means in the Ab- ruzzi, round about Aquila and Montorio, where their paternal and maternal ancestors had al- ways possessed great influence. In some way or another the natural forces of things would find vent; for the papal pow- er had too often been excited to opposition against the domination of Spain, not to break out at last. The pope and his nephews were resolved on the most extreme measures. Caraff'a notonly sought the aid of the Protestants, but even made the proposal to Solyman I. that he should desist from his Hungarian campaign, to throw himself with his whole force upon both Sici- lies.* He solicited the help of the infidels against the catholic king. * Navagpro. Fu ripiitata la piu esercitata gente la Tedesca (35(X) fanU) [other MSS., however, give (litferent numbers] e piu alia alia guerra, ma era in tuito Luterana. La Guascona . . . era lanlo insolente, taiilocontroronor delle donne et in torre la robba, . . . gli oftesi maledice- vano publicanienle chi era causa di questi disoidini. [The German infantry, 3500 strong, were reckoned Iha best drilled men, and the most serviceable soldiers. The Gascons were so insolent, such violators of female honour, and such plunderers ;— the injured publicly cursed him wlio was the cause of these disorders.] t His confessions in Bromato, Vita di Paola IV. lom. ii. A. D. 1557.] PAUL IV. 99 In April, 1557, the papal troops crossed the Neapolitan frontiers. They disting'uished Holy Thursday by the conquest and atrocious pil- lage of Conipli, wl'.ich was full of treasure, as well belonginn;' to the place as carried thither for safety. Thereupon Guise too crossed the Tronto, and laid sie<^'e to Civitella. But he found the king in a good state of preparation. Alva well knew there would be no insurrections against him, so long as he was the strongest pnrty in the country. He had obtained an important grant of money in the parliament of the barons. Queen Bona of Poland, of the old Arragon race, who had shortly before arrived in her duchy of Bari, and who was with all her heart an enemy to the French, furnished him with a subsidy of half a million of scudi. He confiscated the ecclesiastical revenues destined for Rome, and even laid claim to the gold and silver in the churches, and to the bells of Benevento.* He had contrived to fortify, the best way he could, all the Neapolitan frontier places, and as many of the Roman as were still in his hands, and to collect a formidable army, con- stituted in the old way of Germans, Spaniards, and Italians, and had also formed Neapolitan centuries under the conduct of nobles. Civi- tella was stoutly defended by count Santafiore, who had animated the inhabitants to active co-operation: they even repulsed a storm. VVhilst the kingdom remained thus com- bined, and displayed nothing but devotedness to Philip n. sharp dissensions on the other hand, broke out between the assailants, be- tween French and Italians, Guise and Monte- bello. Guise complained that the pope did not adhere to his agreement with him, and failed to supply the promised aid. When the duke of Alva appeared with his army in the Abruzzi, in the middle of May, Guise thought is best to raise the siege, and retire with his army over the Tronto. The war was again transferred to the Roman territory ; a war in which the belligerents advanced and fell back, besieged towns and abandoned them, but only once came to a serious engagement. Marc Antonio Colonna threatened Palliano, which the pope had wrested from him : Guilio Orsino hastened to its support with provisions and troops. Three thousand Swiss had just arrived in i?ome under a colonel from Unter- walden. The pope welcomed them with de- light, decked their officers with gold chains and knightly titles, and declared tliem the le- gion of angels whom God had sent him. Giu- p. 369. Bromato also convpys good information rpspecting the war. He frequ -nily boinnvi-'J it, a tkcl ho do'^s not conceal, from a voluminous MS. by Nores, which treats of this war, and which is often found in Italian libraries. I * Gianuon ', Islona di Nipoll, lib. xx.xiii. c. 1. Not only Goss dini, but M imbrino Ros'^o likewise, Delle His- lorie dA Moudo, lib. vii. givi s a dPtaiU'd account of this war fro.n auLh'nuc sources; others also ascribe to Fer- | rante G inza!;a a considerable share in the measures adopted by Alva. I lio Orsino commanded these troops, and some Italian companies of infantry and cavalry. Marc Antonio Colonna opposed his course, and once more a battle was fought in the style of the old Italian war of 1491 — 15:31 ; on either side papal and imperial troops, a Colonna and an Orsino. The German lansquenets under their last distinguished leaders, Caspar von Feltz and Hans Walther, were opposed, as they had so often been before, to the Swiss. Once more these old antagonists fought for a cause that little concerned themselves ; but their bravery was not the less extraordinary.* At last Hans Walther, huge and strong as a giant, say the Spaniards, flung himself into the midst of a Swiss company, and vvilh a pis- tol in one hand, and his naked sword in the other, forced his way up to the standard-bear- er, whom he brought down, dealing him a violent cut over the head, and shooting him at the same time in the side. The whole com- pany rushed upon hiin, but his lansquenets had already pressed up to his support. The Swiss were completely broken and routed. Their banners, on which were inscribed in large letters, " Defenders of the faith, and of the holy see," sank in the dust. Of his eleven captains, their colonel led back only two to Rome. Whilst this petty war was in progress here, the main armies confronted each other on the confines of the Netherlands. The battle of St. Quintin ensued, in which the Spaniards gained the most complete victory. The only wonder felt in France was, that they did not push straight on to Paris, which they might have taken. f " I hope," hereupon wrote Henry 11. to Guise, " that the pope will do as mucli for me in my need as I did for him in his."| So far was Paul IV. now from being justified in counting on French aid, that the French r nther expect- ed succour from him. Guise declared " that no chains could hold him any longer in Italy ;"^ and he hastened back with his forces to his embarrassed sovereign. Upon this the Spaniards and the Colonnas advanced again upon Rome, safe from all pos- sibility of hindrance. The Romans saw themselves once more threatened with con- quest and plunder; and to make their condi- tion the more desperate, they had not much less reason to fear their defenders than their foes. For many nights, lights were burned in every window, all the streets were illuminated, and it is said that a skirmishing party of Spaniards, that had advanced almost up to the gates, was frightened back by that means. But the chief purpose of this precaution was * I borrow the details of this little encounter from Ca- brera, Don Fell je Segundo, lib. iii. p. IdJ. t Monluc, Meu.oirps, p. Uti. t Le Koy li Mons. de Guise, in Ribier, ii. p. 750. § Leltera del ducd di Palliano al C. Caralfa. Informatt. Folii. xxii. 100 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1559. to enable the citizens to be on their watch against the violence of the papal troops. Every one murmured : they wished the pope dead a thousand times, and demanded that the Spanish army should be admitted by a formal capitulation. To such a pass did Paul IV. suffer things to arrive. Not till his undertakings had com- pletely broken down, his allies been beaten, his territory for the most part occupied by the enemy, and his capital a second time threat- ened, did he consent to peace. This was concluded by the Spaniards in the same spirit as they had carried on the war. They gave him back all the castles and cities belonging to the church ; and they even pro- mised the Caralfas a compensation for Pallia- no, which they had lost.* Alva went to Rome and kissed with profound reverence the foot of him he had vanquished, of the sworn foe to his nation and his king. He has been known to say, that he never feared the face of man as he did the pope's. Favourable, however, as this peace seemed to the papal power, it was yet decisive against the aims it had hitherto cherished. 'J'here was an end to all attempts at throwing off the Spanish yoke : they were never again renew- ed in the old way. The dominion of the Spaniards had proved unassailable in Milan and Naples : their allies were stronger than ever. Duke Cosmo, whom it had been pro- posed to expel from Florence, had won Siena in addition thereto, and was now in possession of a considerable independent power. The Farnesi were secured to Philip II. by the re- storation of Piacenza. Marc Antonio Colon- na had made himself a great name, and re- gained the position held of old by his family. Nothing remained for the pope but to accom- modate himself to this state of things. Even Paul IV. was constrained to this ; with what mortification may easily be supposed. Some one once called Philip II. his friend: "Yes, my friend," he retorted, " who kept me be- sieged, who sought my very soul." In public he compared him to the prodigal son in the gospel, but among his intimates he spoke in praise only of such popes as had designed to raise French kings to the imperial dignity.f His sentiments remained unchanged, but he was controlled by circumstances. He could no longer hope, much less undertake any- * A secret convention touching Palliano was made be- tween Alva and Cardinal Caraffa; secret not only as re- garded the public, but even the pope himself. Biomato, ii. 385. tL'evesque d'Angouleme au Roy, 11 Juin, 15.58. Ribier, ii. 745. Ihe pope said, "Que vous, sire, n'esliez pas pour degenerer de vos predecessruis, ([ui avoienl toujours est6 conservaleurs et dclVnst urs de ce saint siege, comme au tontraire le loy Philippe tenoit de race de le vouloir ruiner et conlondre enlierenient." [That you, Bire, were not disposed to degenerate fro n your predeces- sors, who hai.l always been cousPrvalors and defenders of the holy see, while, on the contrary, it was hereditary with king Philip to wish utterly to ruin and confound ii.J thing ; even his complaints he durst only vent in secret. But it is always a vain attempt to resist the consequences of an event accomplished. Even Paul IV. experienced after some time the in- fluence of a reaction, of the utmost moment as regarded both his administration, and the general transformation of the papal system. His nepotism was not based on the selfish- ness or the family partialities that had actu- ated other popes; he favoured his nephews because they seconded his designs against Spain ; he legarded them as his natural help- ers in that struggle. The contest was now over, and with it ceased the utility of the nephews. Success is requisite to the stability of every distinguished station, particularly of such as are not altogether legitimate. Cardi- nal Carafl^a now undertook an embassy to king Philip, especially in the interest of his own house, in order to secure the promised compensation for Palliano. Since his return from this, without accomplishing much, the pope was observed to treat him with more and more coldness. Ere long the cardinal found it no longer possible to command all the ap- proaches to his uncle, and to exclude all but his own creatures from access to him. At times, too, unfavourable rumours reached the pope's ears, calculated perhaps to revive the repugnance he had felt in former years for his nephew. The latter was once taken ill, and the pope visiting him unexpijctedly, found him with two persons of the worst re- putation. " The aged," he said, " are mis- trustful. I saw things there that opened my eyes widely." It needed but a provocation, we see, to rouse a storm witliin him, and this was afforded by an otherwise insignificant oc- currence. On new year's night, 1559, there was a riot in the streets, in which a young cardinal, that same favourite of Julius III., cardinal Monte, drew his sword. The pope heard of this the very next morning, and was deeply ofi'ended that his nephew made no mention to him of the circumstance. He waited a few days, and at last gave vent to his displeasure. The court, in its natural ap- petite tor change, caught eagerly at that token of the cardinal's disgrace. The Florentine ambassador, who had endured a thousand mortifications at the hands of the Caraffas, now made his way to the pope, and laid the bitterest complaints betiire hmi. The Mar- chesa della Valle, a relation of the pontiff's, i who had never been allowed free access to jhim, found opportunity to slip a paper into the pope's breviary, on which were noted down some of his nephew's misdeeds. " If your holi- ness desire further inlbrmation, you need but sign your name." Paul afhxed his signature, and tiie promised information tailed not to be I fonhcoming. Thus ready charged with dis- ' content and acerbity, the pope went on tlie A. D. 1559.] PAUL IV. 101 9th of Jan. to the assembly of the inquisition. He proceeded to speak of the night riot, ve- hemently upbraided cardinal Monte, threat- ened to punish him, and thundered out inces- santly, reform, reform. The cardinals, usu- ally so taciturn, had now plucked up courage. "Holy father," said cardinal Pacheco, inter- rupting him, " we must begin reform with ourselves." The pope was silenced. The phrase struck home to his heart : it brought palpably before him the half-formed convic- tions that stirred within him. He said no more about Monte's business, went and shut himself up in his chamber in a burning rage, and thought of nothing but his nephews. After giving immediate orders that nothing for the future should be done in obedience to the commands of cardinal Caraffa, he sent to demand his papers of the latter. Cardinal Vitellozzo Vitelli, who was reputed to be privy to the secrets of the Caraftas, was com- pelled to swear that he would disclose what- ever he knew of them. Camillo Orsini was summoned to the same end from his country house. The rigorist party, that had long looked on with displeasure at the doings of the pope's nephew, now raised their heads. The old Theatine, don Geromia, who was re- garded as a saint, was closeted for hf)urs with the pope; the latter learned things he never could have guessed at, that bewildered him with rage. He fell into the most violent agi- tation ; he could neither eat nor sleep, and for ten days laboured under a fever. Memo- rable forever is that pope, who with self-in- flicted violence rent assunder the partial ties that bound him to his kindred. At length he was resolved. On the 27lh Jan. he summon- ed a consistory, set forth with passionate emo- tion the evil lives of his nephews, and called God and the world and men to witness, that he had never known of this, and that he had been betrayed. He divested them of their offices, and banished them with their families to various remote places. His nephews' mother, seventy years of age, bent with sick- ness, and personally blamele.ss, cast herself at his feet as he went back to the Palace : he passed her with harsh words. The young Marchesa Montebello arrived just now from Naples. She found her palace fast closed: no one would receive her in any of the inns; she drove from one to another on a rainy night, till at last an inn-keeper in a remote corner, who had not received any orders in the matter, afforded her a shelter. Cardinal Caraftk in vain solicited that he should be im- prisoned, and his conduct invi^stigated. The Swiss guards had orders to repulse not only himself, but also any one who should ever have been in his service. The pope made but a single exception. He kept with him the son of Montorio, whom lie loved, and whom he had made cardinal in his eighteenth year, and read his hours with him. But never dust the young man allude to the discarded favourites, much less venture an entreaty for them : he was not allowed even to hold any communion with his father. The misfortune of his house preyed on him so much the more deeply : what he durst not utter in words was legible in his face, and in his whole per- son.* Would it not be supposed that these occur- rences had their effect on the mind of the pope likewise 1 He seemed as though nothing had happen- ed. No sooner had he with tempestuous elo- quence pronounced sentence in the consistory, while most of the cardinals sat spell-bound with amazement and terror, than lie seemed on his part wholly impassive, and proceeded at once to other business. The foreign am- bassadors were astounded when they observed his demeanour. " In the midst of such sud- den and sweeping changes," they said of him, " surrounded by entirely new ministers and servants, he stands up resolute, unbending, and indifferent. He feels no pity, and seems to have retained not the least remembrance of his kindred." Henceforth he surrendered himself to a wholly different passion. Assuredly this was an ever memorable re- volution of feeling. Hatred against the Spa- niards, the idea of becoming liberator of Italy, had hurried even Paul IV. into worldly designs and practices, to the bestowal of eccle- siastical territories on his nephews, to the ele- vation of a soldier to the ministry even of spiritual aflairs, to deeds of hostility and bloodshed. Events compelled him to abandon that idea and suppress that hatred, and then were his eyes gradually opened to the cen- surable conduct of those about him. After a violent struggle, his stern justice prevailed, and he shook them off, and from that hour re- turned to his old plans of reform. He began to reign as had been e.xpected of him at first, and now urged on the reform of the state, and above all the church, with the same passion- ate energy he had formerly manifested in en- mity and war. Secular affairs from the highest to the low- est grade were transferred to other hands. The existing podestis and governors lost their places, and the manner in which this was ef- fected was sometimes singular. The newly appointed governor of Perugia appeared there by night: without waiting for day, he had the Anziani summoned, produced his creden- tials, and commanded them forthwith to ar- rest the late governor, who was present in * Satisfactory information on this head is furnished by Pallavicini, and slill mure so by Bromato. In the Berlin Infonnationi is also to be found a Diario d'akune attioni piu notabili nfl pontiticato di Paolo IV. I'anno 1.358, sino alia sua niorte (beginning from the lOih of Sep. 1558,) that was not known to either of them, was composed from personal observation, and has afforded me quite new in- ibrmaiion. 102 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1559. the assembly. Paul IV. was now the first pope since time immemorial, who governed without ncpotes. Their place was supplied by cardinal Carpi and Camiilo Orsini, who had already been so influential under Paul III. The system of the government was also changed with the persons. Sums of no in- considerable amount were economised, and a proportional diminution made in taxation. A box was put up into which every one could deposit a statement of his grievances, and of which the pope alone retained the key. The governor made his report daily. Everything was conducted with the greatest care and circumspection, without any remains of the old abuses. If the pope, amidst all the commotions that had hitherto prevailed, had never lost sight of church reform, he now devoted himself to it more zealously and more with his whole heart. He introduced a stricter discipline into the churches ; he forbade all begging, even the collections of the clergy for masses. He removed all offensive pictures. A medal was struck representing him under the type of Christ clearing the temple. He banished from his city and territories the fugitive monks. He compelled the court regularly to observe the fasts, and to solemnize Easter by receiv- ing the Lord's Supper. Nay, the cardinals were obliged to preach occasionally ! The pope himself set the example. He endeavour- ed to suppress many profitnble abuses. He would hear no more of marriage dispensations or their produce. A host of places that had hitherto been sold, including those of the chiericali di camera,* he determined should be disposed of according to merit. Ho insist- ed still more strongly on the worth and cleri- cal habits of those on whom ecclesiastical offi- ces were bestowed. He no longer tolerated the compacts so long and so generally in vogue, in consequence of which one man per- formed the duties of an office, and another enjoyed tlie best part of its reveimes. He also entertained the design of restoring to the bishops many of the rights of which they had been supplanted, and highly disapproved of the rapacity with which everything had been absorbed into Rome.f His reforms were not merely negative, they were not confined to undoing. He sought too to surround public worship with a greater pomp. The decoration of the Sixtine chapel, and the representation of the holy sepulchre, * Caracciolo, Vila di Paolo IV. MS. particularly mpn- tions them. The pope said, " Chesiinili officii d'ammin- istralioni e di giustitia conveniva chesi dasspro a persoiie che li lacesseio p non vinderli a chi avesse occasioii de volerne cavare il sue di^n iro." [That it was expedient to bestow such offices of administration and of justice, on persons who would discharge the duties beJoniiins; to ' them, and not on such as were prompted to make them a I source of cain.] I t BiO.nato, ii. 483. are to be ascribed to him.* There is an ideal of the modern Catholic worship, full of digni- ty, devotion and splendour, and this concep- tion it was that floated before his mind too. It was his boast that he let no day pass without promulgating some order towards the restoration of the church to its original purity. In many of his decrees we trace the outlines of those ordinances, to which the council of Trent shortly afterwards gave its sanction. -j- In this career, too, as might be expected, he evinced all the inflexibility peculiar to his nature. Above all other institutions, he favoured the inquisition which he had himselfre-estab- lished. He often let pass the days appointed for the sittings of the segnatvra and the con- sistory, but never the Thursday on which the congregation of the inquisition assembled in his presence. He insisted on the utmost ri- gour in the proceedings of that body. He subjected new classes of offences to its juris- diction, and endowed it with the barbarous prerogative of employing torture for the de- tection of accomplices. No respect of per- sons availed with him ; he brought the high- est barons before that tribunal, and he now had cardinals, like Morone and Foscherari, arrested and thrown into prison, doubts hav- ing occurred to him of their orthodoxy, though he had formerly employed those very men in criticising the contents of important books, such for instance as the spiritual exercises of Ignatius. He instituted the festival of St. Dominic in honour of that great inquisitor. Thus it was that the rigidly spiritual, re- storative tendency of the papacy became pa- ramount. Paul IV. seemed almost to have forgotten that he had ever entertained any other views; the men)ory of past times was extinguished within him. He lived and moved in his re- forms, and his inquisition ; passed laws, im- prisoned, excomynunicated, and held autos-da- tes. At last, when laid low by an illness suf- ficient to cause the death even of a younger man, he called the cardinals once more to- gether, commended his soul to their prayers, and the holy see and the inquisition to their * Mocenigo, Relatione di 15G0. Nelli officii divini poi e nelle ceremonie procedeva questa pontofice con lanta graviti edevotione c.hs veranmnte pareva degnissiino vi- cario di Gesu Christo. Nelle cose poi delta reli^'ione si prendeva tanlo pensiero et usava tanta diliirentia che maggior non si poteva desiderare. [In the divine offices liliewise, and ceremonies, this ponlitf proceeded with such gravity and devotion, that he truly appeared a most worthy vicar of Jesus Christ. To the affairs of religion t03 he applied himself with such deep thought, and so mu.'li diligence, as left nothing to be desired.] + Mocenigo. Papa Paolo IV. andava continuamente facendo qualche nova deteriiiinatione erifo.''ma, e sempre diceva preparare altre, accij che restasse nianco occa- sione e meno necessity di far concilio. [Pope Paul IV. was continually malting some new resolution in the way of reform, ami was always saying that he had others in preparation, so that there was little opportunity, and less necessity for assembling a council.] A. D. 1555-9.] PAUL IV. 103 care : he strove to collect his energies once more, and to raise himself up ; his strength failed him ; he fell back and died (18 Aug. 1559.) Herein, at least, are these men of decided and passionate temperament, happier than weaker natures: their prejudices dnzzle them, but at the same time steel them, and make them intrinsically invincible. But the people forgot not so quickly as the pope himself, what they had suffered under him. 'J'hey could not forgive him the war he had brought on Rome ; his alienation of his nephews, hated as they certainly were, was not enough for the masses. Upon his death some assembled in the capitol, and resolved to destroy his monuments, since he had been an ill-doer to the city and to the whole earth. Others pillaged the buildings of the inquisi- tion, set fire to them, and mal-treated the servants of the tribunal. An attempt too was made to burn the Dominican convent della Minerva. The Colonnas, Orsini, Cesarini, Massimi, who had all been mortally offended by Paul IV., took part in these tumultuous proceedings. The statue that had been erected to the pope was torn down from its pedestal, broken in pieces, and the head with the triple crown dragged through the streets.* But how fortunate had it been for the pope- dom, had it never encountered any other reaction against the projects set on foot by Paul IV. Remarks on the progress of Proteslanlism during this reign. We saw how the former discord between the papacy and the imperial, or Spanish power, contributed more perhaps than any otlier external circumstance to the establish- ment of protestantism in Germany. INever- theless, a second breach had not been avoid- ed, and this led to still greater, and more comprehensive consequences. We may date its commencement from the recal of the papal troops from the imperial army, and the removal of the council. The importance of these acts was manifested at once. Nothing so essentially impeded the subjection of the protestants as the policy of Paul III. at that period. But the great and permanent effects of that pope's measures were not felt till afler his * Mocenigo. Viddi il popolo correr in fun a verso la casa di Ripetta, deputata per le cose dell' iiKjuisitione, melter a sacco tuUa la robba ch'era denlro, si di vitlualie come d'allra robba, che la inaggior parte era del Kevmo- CI- Alessandrino,sommo inquisilorp,lraUar male con bas- tonate e feriti tuui i ministri dell' inquisilione, levar le scitture, geltandolea refuso per la slrada e finalmenle po- ner foco quella casa. . I frati di S. Domenico eruno in tant' odioa quel populo che in ogni uiodo volevan abbru- ciar il monastero della Minerva. He goes on to stale that the blame rested most on the nobles. Similar tumults took place in Perugia. death. The connexion with France, into which he introduced his nephews, occasioned a general war; a war in which not only did the German protestants achieve that ever me- morable victory, that secured them forever from council, emperor, and pope, but in which too the new opinions made vigorous progress in France and in the Netherlands, being in- troduced directly by the German soldiers, who fought on both sides, and being favoured by the turmoil of war, which precluded any ri- gorous precautions. Paul IV. ascended the papal chair. He ought steadily to have fixed his eyes on the existing state of things, and have bent all his efforts to the restoration of peace ; but with the blind impetuosity of passion he plunged into the strife. The result was, that he, the most fiery of zealots, was destined, more per- haps than any of his predecessors, to promote the dissemination of protestantism, which he hated, loathed, and persecuted. Let us call to mind his influence upon Eng- land. The first victory of the new opinions in that country was for a long time incomplete ; it needed but a retrocession of the govern- ment, nothing more than the accession of a catholic queen was requisite, to determine the parliament to a new subjection of the church to the pope's sway. tStill the latter had every reason to proceed with moderation, nor durst he wage open war upon the cir- cumstances that had arisen out of the past in- novations. Julius III. clearly perceived this. The first papal legate immediately remarked,* how potent were the interests connected with the confiscated church properties. Julius adopted the magnanimous resolution not to insist on their restoration. Indeed, the legate was not permitted to enter England till he was first in a condition to give satisfactory assurances on that head : they formed the ba- sis of all his subsequent influence,! and by their means he obtained the most signal suc- cess. The legate was Reginald Pole, with whom we are already acquainted ; amongst all the men of the day the very one most fit- ted to labour after the restoration of Catholi- cism in England ; a man exalted above all suspicion of impure motives, intelligent, mod- erate, and, as a native Englishman of high rank, equally acceptable to queen, nobles, and people. The undertaking prospered be- yond all expectation. The accession of Paul IV. to the throne was distinguished by the presence of English ambassadors, who assured hirn of the obedience of that country. * Leltere di Mr- Henrico, Nov. 15o3, in a MS. entitled Letlere e Negotiati di Polo, which contains much matter besides, important to this history. Respecting this trans- action see Pallavicini, xiii. 9. 411. t He did not hesitate to acknowledge the rights of the actual possessors. Litters Dispensatoriae C" Poll, Con- cilia M. Britanniae, iv. 112. 104 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1559. Paul IV. had not to acquire the allegiance of England, but merely to retain it. Let us see what measures he adopted towards that end. He declared the restitution of the church property to be an indispensable duty, the vio- lation of which entailed everlasting damna- tion. He strove also to re-establish the col- lection of Peter's pence.* But besides all this, what worse means could he adopt to complete the recovery of England within the pale of the church, than pursuing with such rancorous animosity Philip II. of Spain, who was also king of England ] English soldiers took part in the battle of St. Quintin, the con- sequences of which were so serious to Italy. Lastly, he persecuted cardinal Pole, whom he never could endure, despoiled him of the rank of legate, which no one had ever exer- cised with greater advantage to the holy see, and put in his place an inefficient, aged, and infirm monk, but one of more violent opin- ions.! Had the problem proposed to Paul IV. been, how he might prevent the work of re- storation, he could not have adopted any oth- er course. It was no wonder, therefore, that after the early and unexpected death both of the queen and the legate, the two conflicting tendencies broke out with renewed violence. This result was greatly accelerated by the religious per- secutions, which Pole had condemned, but which were approved of by his bigoted oppo- nents. The question was then once more submit- ted to the pope : it demanded the more serious consideration, inasmuch as its import no doubt concerned Scotland likewise. There too strife ran high between the two religious parties : the final determination of the matter in Eng- land would needs decide the future condition of Scotland. What an important fact it was, that Eliza- beth in the beginning of her reign appeared by no means decidedly Protestant,| and that she caused her accession to be notified to the pope. A marriage between her and Philip II. was at least made matter of negociation, and was generally regarded in that day as very probable. One would suppose that no event could have been more desirable for the pope. But Paul IV. knew no moderation. He gave a repulsive scornful answer to Eliza- beth's ambassador. " She must first of all," he said, " submit her claims to his judgment." Let it not be supposed he was moved to this * He was then wholly engrossed with these ideas. He published his Bull Rescissioalienalionuni, (Bullariumiv. 4. 319.) in which he annulled all alienations whatever of the old ecclesiastical possessions. t Godwin's Annales Angliae, etc. p. 45G. t Nares alto, in his Memoirs of Buileigh, ii. p. 43, thinks her religious opinions "at first liable to some 4oubtB." conduct only by his regard to the dignity of the apostolic see: other motives co-operated. The French desired from political jealousy to prevent the proposed marriage. They em- ployed the pietists, the Theatines, to represent to the old pope that Elizabeth was after all a Protestant at heart, and that the marriage would never lead to any good.* The Guises had the strongest interest in this matter. Should Elizabeth be repudiated by the Roman see, their sister's daughter, Mary Stuart, dau- phine of France, and queen of Scotland, would possess the next title to the crown of England. The Guises might hope to rule in her name over all the three kingdoms. Mary actually assumed the English arms, and already dated her edicts with the year of her reign over England and Ireland. Preparations for war were made in the Scottish ports. f Even though Elizabeth had not been so inclined, she would yet have been compelled by circumstances to throw herself upon Pro- testantism : she did so in the most decided manner. She succeeded in procuring a par- liament with a protestant majority,]: by which, in a few months, all those changes were adopted that essentially fixed the character of the English Church. Scotland too was necessarily affected by this course of things : there a national Pro- testant party resisted the progress of the French catholic interests. Elizabeth hesi- tated not to ally herself with that party, and in this purpose she was confirmed even by the Spanish ambassador. J The treaty of Berwick, which she concluded with the Scottish oppo- sition, gave the latter the predominance. Be- fore Mary Stuart could set foot in her kingdom, she was forced not only to forego the title of queen of England, but even to ratify the sta- tutes of a parliament of protestant views; statutes, one of which prohibited mass under the penalty of death. Thus it was in a great degree a re-action against the French pretensions, to which the pope lent his sanction, that contributed for- ever to secure the victory of Protestantism in Great Britain. Not that the inward impulses of the parties inclined to Protestantism were dependent on those political movements; their origin lay far deeper; but it commonly happened that the data from which followed the outbreak, progress, and decision of the strife, coincided closely with the various contingencies of politics. In Germany, too, a measure adopted by * Private narrative of Thuanus. t In Forbes's Transactions there is a Responsio ad peti- tiones D. Glasion. et Episc. Aquilani, by Cecil, which sets forth all these motives in the most striking manner. $Neal, History of the Puritans, i. 125. "The court took such measures about elections as seldom fail of suc- cess." § Camden, Rerum Anglicanim Annales, p. 37. A. D. 1559.] PIUS IV. 105 Paul IV. proved in one respect of great impor- tance. His opposition to the transfer of the imperial crown, in pursuance of his old aver- sion to the house of Austria, obliged Ferdinand I. to be more observant than before of the maintenance of friendly relation with his Protestant allies. From that time forth it was an union of the moderate princes of both i parties that guided the affairs of Germany;! and under their influence the transference of ecclesiastical foundations in Lower Germany to Protestant administrations was speedily-; accomplished. It seemed as though the papacy was not to suffer any detriment, to which it did not itself conduce in one way or another by its political eflbrts. Let us pause at this moment to cast a glance over the world from the summit of Rome, and contemplate the enormous losses the catholic creed had sustained. We see Scandinavia and Britain revolted, Germany almost wholly Protestant, Poland and Hun- gary in violent fermentation, Geneva become a central point for the Latin nations and the West, as important as Wittenberg for the German nations and the East : in France too, and in the Netherlands, we see a party already on foot beneath the banners of Protestantism. But one last hope remained to the Catholic faith. In Spain and Italy the symptoms of dissent had been quelled, and a strict spirit of ecclesiastical restoration had arisen. How- ever disadvantageous was the secular policy of Paul IV. in other respects, he had yet achieved the supremacy of that spirit in the court and the palace. The question was, whether it would continue to maintain itself there, or whether it would once more be ena- bled to pervade and unite the catholic world 7 Pius IV. It is related that once at a banquet of car- dinals, AlessandroFarnese presented a garland to a lad who had the art of improvisatising to the lyre, and bade him offer it to him among them who was one day to be pope. The lad, Silvio Antoniano, himself afterwards a distin- guished man and cardinal, went up instantly to Giovanni Angelo Medici, and pronouncing an eulogy upon him, presented him with the garland. That Medici was Paul's successor by the title of PiuslV.* He was of mean extraction. His father Bernardino had originally settled in Milan, where he had accumulated a small fortune by government contracts.f His sons, however, ♦ Nicius Erylhrseus relates this anecdote in the article on Anioniano, Pinacolheca, p. 37. Mazzuclielli also repeals it. The election took place on the 26ih of Dec. 15o9. t Hieronymo Soranzo, Relatione di Roma. Bernardino padre della B.S. fu stimalo persona di soinma bonli e di gran industria, ancora che fusse nalo in povero e basso fltato : nondimeno venuto habitar a Milano si diedi a pig- liar datii in affilto. 14 were lefl to shift for themselves with but very slender means. One of them, Giangiacomo, who adopted the military profession, took ser- vice at first with a nobleman ; the other one, Giovanni Angelo, applied himself to study, but in very straitened circumstances. Their fortunes originated in the following manner. Giangiacomo, reckless and enterprising by nature, made himself serviceable to the then rulers of Milan, in putting out of the way one of their opponents, a Visconti named Monsig- norino. No sooner, however, was the murder done, than those who devised it sought to get rid of their tool likewise, and sent the young man to the castle of Mus on the lake of Como, with a letter to the castellan, directing him to put the bearer to death. Giangiacomo had his suspicions, opened the letter, saw what was prepared for him, and forthwith adopted his resolution. He chose a few trusty com- rades, obtained admission into the castle by means of the letter, and then succeeded in seizing possession of it. From that time forth he conducted himself as an independent prince ; secure in his fastness, he kept the Milanese, Swiss, and Venetians in perpetual commotion ; at last he took the white ctoss and entered the imperial service. He was created Marquis of Marignano, served as chief of the artillery in the war against the Luthe- rans, and commanded the imperial army encamped before Siena.* He was equally shrewd as desperate, fortunate in all his en- terprizes, and devoid of pity. Many a peasant who sought to convey provisions into Siena did he slay with his own hand with his iron staff. There was not a tree far and wide on which he had not caused some one to be hanged : the victims he had caused to be put to death were said to amount to 5000. He conquered Siena, and founded a considerable house. The advance of his brother Giovanni An- gelo had accompanied his own. He took the degree of doctor, and acquired reputation aa a jurist. He then purchased an appointment in Rome. He was already in the confidence of Paul III., when his brother the marquia married an Orsina, sister to the wife of Pier Luigi Farnese.f Upon this he was made car- * Ripamont, Historise Urbis Mediolanis. Natalis Comes Hist. t Soranzo. Nato 1499, si dottor6 152.5, vivendo in stu- dio cosi strettamente che il Pasrjua suo medico, che slava con lui a dozena, I'acconimodoun gran tempo del suo ser- vilore e di qualche altra cosa necessaria. Del 1527 com- pro un proionolariato. Servendo il cardinal Farnes9 (Kipamonte tells of his good understanding with Paul III. himself) coUa piu assidua diligenza s'andu meltendo inanzi: ebbe drversi impieghi, dove acquisto nome di persona integra e giusta e di natura officiosa. [Born in 1499, he took his degree of Doctor in 1525, pursuing his studies in such straitened circuLiistances, that Pasqua his physician accommodated him with the service ot his own domestic and with other necessaries. He purchased a prothonotary's place in 1527. Exercising the most assidu- ous diligence in the service of the cardinal Faruese, his advance was constant. He held dilierenl employmeals, 106 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1559. dinal. After that we find him entrusted with the administration of the papal cities, the con- duct of political negociations, and more than once with the commissariat of papa] armies. He showed himself dexterous, prudent, and good humoured. But Paul IV. could not en- dure him, and once broke out into violent in- vectives against him in the consistory. Medici thought it best to withdraw from Rome. He assuaged the pains of exile by literary occu- pations, and by a munificent bounty that pro- cured him the title of father of the poor, residing sometimes at the baths of Pisa, sometimes in the Milan, where he built a great deal. Perhaps the diametrical contrast he exhibited to Paul IV. now contributed chiefly to his election. That contrast was more than usually strik- ing. Paul IV. was a Neapolitan of high birth, of the anti-Austrian faction, a zealot, a monk, and an inquisitor. Pins IV. a Milanese par- venu, closely connected through his brother and some German relations with the house of Austria, a jurist, of a jovial and worldly dis- position. Paul IV. had stood aloof and inac- cessible ; in his least actions he aimed at displaying dignity and majesty ; Pius was all goodness and condescension. He was daily seen on foot or on horseback in the streets, almost without attendants ; he talked affably with every body. The Venetian despatches make us "fully acquainted with him.* The ambassadors come upon him as he writes or transacts business in a cool hall : he rises and walks up and down with them, or they meet him as he is proposing to visit the Belvedere : he seats himself without laying down his stick, hears what they have to say without further ceremony, and then sets off on his excursion in their company. Whilst he treats them in this familiar way, he looks too for courteous address and deference on their parts. The clever sallies with which the Venetians some- times accost him, delight him, and elicit his smile and plaudits. Staunch partisan of Aus- tria as he is, he is disgusted at the unbending and imperious manners of the Spanish ambas- sador Vargas. He dislikes to be encumbered with details, which soon fatigue him ; but those who confine themselves with him to general important matters, always find him good humoured and easy to deal with. On such occasions he pours out a thousand cor- dial protestations, how heartily he hates the bad, how by nature he lovesjustice, and desires to molest no man's freedom, but to evince good feeling and friendliness to every one : in which he acquired the reputation of an upright and just man, of an obliging disposition.] The marriage of the marquis followed, " con promessa di far lui cardinale" [with the promise that he should be made cardinal]. * Kagguagli del Ambasciutore Veneto da Roma 15G1. By Marc Antonio Amulio (Mulla). Informatt. Politt. zxxvii. but especially his thoughts are bent on labour- ing with all his might for the church, and he hopes to God he will be able to effect some- thing for its good. We may easily picture him to ourselves; a hale burly old man, still active enough to reach his country house be- fore sunrise, with a cheerful face and lively eye ; fond of conversation, good cheer, and merriment. Recovered from an illness that had been deemed alarming, he throws himself on his horse, rides off to the dwelling he had 'occupied when a cardinal, runs nimbly up and down the stairs, and cries, " No ! no ! we' are not going to die yet." But was a pope of this joyous and mundane temperament the one best fitted at this crisis to pilot the church through her difficulties'? Was it not to be feared that he would lapse from the tenor of the course but scarce begun in the close of his predecessor's reign 1 His nature I will not deny may have tended that way ; but the event was otherwise. For his own part he had no good will to the Inquisition ; he censured the monkish harsh- ness of its proceedings, and seldom or never frequented the congregation : but on the other hand he never ventured to molest it, declaring that he knew nothing about the matter, that he was no theologian ; and he left it all the power it had possessed under Paul IV.* He made a fearful example of the nephews of the pope. The excesses committed by the duke of Palliano even after his fall (he put his own wife to death out of jealou.sy) made it an easy matter for the enemies of the Caraffa to gratify their thirst for vengeance. A penal process was instituted against them, wherein they were accused of the most horrible crimes, robberies, murders, forgeries, and besides all this, of very arbitrary conduct in the adminis- tration of public affairs, and of continued system of deception practised on poor old Paul IV. Their reply is extant, and is not indeed destitute of a show of justification.! But their accusers prevailed. Tlie pope, after sitting one day in the consistory from an early hour till evening, to hear the several documents read to him, pronounced sentence of death on * Sorano. Se bene si connobbe non esser di sua satis- fatione il modo che tengono gl' inquisiiori di procedere per I'ordlnario con lanto rigore contra gli inquisiti, e che si lascia intendere chepiuli piaceriache usassero termini da cortese gentilhuomo che da frate severo, non di meno non ardisce, o non vuole mai opponersi ai giudicii loro. [Though it be well known that he is not satisfied with the manner in which the inquisitors commonly proceed with such rigour against the accused, and that he gives it to be understood he would be better pleased were they to use the language of gentlemanly courtesy, than of monkish harshness, nevertheless he does not venture or does not. wish ever to oppose their judgment.] t Bromato gives chiefly from Nores a circumstantial account of these proceedings. In the Informatt. we also find the letters of Mula, e. g. 19 July, 1560; the Extractus Processus cardinal is Caraffae, and El sucesso de la muerte de los Carafas, con ladeclaracion y el modo que murieron. La morte de C' Caraffa (Library at Venice, vi. no. 39.) is the MS. Bromata had before him in addition lo thai of Nore«. A. D. 1560.] PIUS IV. 107 the accused, namely, the cardinal, the duke of Palliano, and two of his nearest relations, the counts Aliffe, and Leonardo di Cardine. Mon- tebello and some others had fled. The car- dinal perhaps had expected banishment, but never thought of being condemned to death. When the sentence was announced to him one morning as he lay in bed, and when every doubt was now removed, lie covered his face for a moment in the coverlet ; then rising up he smote his hands together, and uttered that painful exclamation common in Italy in des- perate contingencies, " Well, well, patience !" He was not allowed his usual confessor: he had much to say, as may be imagined, to the confessor sent liim, and the shrilt was some- what protracted. " Finish, will you, mon- signore," cried the officer of police, *' we have other business in hand." Thus perished these nepotes. They are the last who aspired after independent sovereign- ties, and who excited great general move- ments with a view to their private political ends. We meet with this class from the days of Sextus IV. ; Hieronymo Riario, Caasar Bor- gia, Lorenzo Medici, Pier Luigi Farnese ; the Caraftas close the list. Other nepotist fami- lies have since arisen, but under wholly dif- ferent circumstances. Nepotism has never been revived in its old shape. How, for instance, should Pius IV., after so violent an execution, have ventured to bestow on his nephews a power of the same nature as that, the exercise of which he had so impla- cably visited upon the CarafFas] Besides, as a man of naturally active temperament, he was disposed to govern for himself; he deter- mined all important matters only upon the strength of his own judgment, and if he was open to censure, it was rather for relying too little on the support of others. Add to this, that the nephew he might have been tempted to push forward, Federigo Borromeo, died young. The other Carlo Borromeo, was not the man for worldly elevation ; he would never have accepted it. Carlo Borromeo regarded his position with respect to the pope, and tiie contact into which it brought him with the weightiest affairs of government, not as con- veying to him a right to any selfish indul- gence, but as imposing duties to which he was to devote himself with all assiduity. He did so with equal modesty and perseverance, gave audience indefatigably, and sedulously devoted himself to the administration of the state ; the latter was in one respect importantly affected by his tenure of authority, inasmuch as he formed around him a college of eight doctors, which afterwards grew into the Consulla. After dispatching these occupations, he gave his assistance to tlie pope. lie is the same who was afterwards pronounced a saint, and in ihe times we are speaking of his conduct was noble and irreproachable. " !So tar as is known," Hieronymo Soranzo says of him, " he is pure from every stain; so religious is his life, and so excellent his example, as to leave the best men nothing to desire. It redounds very greatly to his praise, that in the prime of his years, nephew to a pope whose favour he fully enjoys, and residing at a court where he might procure himself every kind of plea- sure, he leads so exemplary a life." His recreation was to collect some learned men about him in the evening. The conversation began with profane literature, but from Epic- tetus and the stoics, whom Borromeo, still a young man, did not disdain, it soon passed, even in those hours of leisure, to ecclesiastical questions.* If any thing was objected against him, it was not as regarded his good will or his diligence, but only in some degree as to his talents ; or his servants complained that they were forced to forego the rich marks of favour enjoyed under the nepotism of former years. Thus did the nephew's qualities make up for what the more strictly inclined might have blamed as wanting in the uncle. At any rate every thing proceeded in the established course : ecclesiastical and secular business was completed zealously and with due atten- tion to the interests of the church, and the pro- gress of reform was maintained. The pope publicly admonished the bishops to reside in their dioceses, and some were seen forthwith to kiss his foot and take their leave. There is a coercive power in widely prevalent ideas that have once gained the upper hand. A serious spirit in religious matters had attained supremacy in Rome, and not even the pope could any longer swerve from its dictates. But if the more mundane disposition of this pope was not unpropitious to the restoration of strict discipline in the church, we may add that, on the other hand, it was calculated to contribute immensely towards cementing the breaches that had occurred in the catholic world. Paul IV. had held that it belonged to the pope to lord it over emperors and kings : for this it was that he had plunged into so many enmities and wars. Pius was the more clearly aware of this fault, forasmuch as it was com- mitted by a predecessor with whom he had other reasons besides to feel himself in direct contrast. "Thereby we lost England," he exclaimed, " which we might have retained, had cardinal Pole been better supported ; thereby was Scotland also lost : during the war the German doctrines penetrated into France." He on the contrary desired peace above all things. Even a war with the pro- testants was not to his mind. He frequently interrupted the ambassador from Savoy, who solicited his aid towards an attack on Geneva, * ThPSR are thR Nodes Vaticanas mentioned by Glus sianus, Vila Carol i Borromei, i. iv. 22. 108 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1562. exclaiming', "What times are these to make me such proposals 1 There is nothing they demand so imperatively as peace."* He would fain have been on good terms with every one. He dispensed his ecclesiastical favours readily; and if he had to refuse any thing, he did so courteously and modestly. It was his convic- tion, and he declared it openly, that the power of the pope could not subsist without the autho- rity of sovereigns. The last part of the pontificate of Paul IV. was marked by the renewed demand of the whole catholic world for a council. It is cer- tain that Pius IV. could not, without the greatest difficulty, have resisted the call. He could no longer make war a pretext for refusal, as his predecessors had done, for at last all Europe was at peace. The measure was even of urgent necessity on his own account, since the French were threatening to assemble a national council, which might very possibly have led to a schism. But in truth I find that, apart from all this, he was very well inclined that way. Let us hear himself: " We desire the council," he says, " we desire it assuredly, and we desire it general. Were it not so, we might throw obstacles in the way, and dally with the expectations of the world for years : but we are, on the contrary, much more dis- posed to remove all hindrances. What needs reform shall be reformed, even in our own per- son and in our own affairs. If we have any other thought than to do God service, may God chastise us accordingly." It often ap- peared to him that he did not meet with suffi- cient assistance from the several sovereigns towards so great a design. One morning the Venetian ambassador found him in bed, crip- pled with the gout, and immersed in thought. "Our purpose is good," he exclaimed, "but we are alone." " I was seized with pity," says the ambassador, " to see him as he lay in bed, and to hear him say, ' We are alone to bear so heavy a burden.' " Meanwhile, how- ever, he set the work in progress. On the 18th Jan. 1.562, there were so many bishops and delegates assembled in Trent, that it was possible to resume, for the tliird time, the twice-interrupted council. The pope had mainly contributed to this. " Assuredly," says Girolaino iSoranzo, who does not take his part on other occasif)ns, "his holiness has shown in this matter all the zeal that was to be expect- ed of so great a chief shepherd : he has neglected nothing that could conduce towards so holy and so necessary a work." The latter sittings of the Council of Trent. The state of the world was entirely altered since the first assembly of this council. The * Mula, 14 Fpb. 15GI. Pius becged him lo say : "Che havemo aninjo di stare in pace, e che non sapenio nipnte de quesii pensieri del duca di Savoia, e ci meravigliamo pope had no longer reason to fear that a power- ful emperor would avail himself of it to become master of the popedom. Ferdinand I. had no power whatever in Italy : nor was any serious diversity of opinion on essential dogmas now to be apprehended.* These, in the form in which they had been confirmed, though not fully developed, had already become predom- inant throughout a great part of the catholic world. A reunion of the protestants with the church was no longer seriously to be thought of They had assumed in Germany a power- ful and henceforth unassailable position : in the north their ecclesiastical notions had been incorporated with the state policy, and the same thing was just now taking place in Eng- land, when the pope declared that the new council was but a continuation of the former, and finally silenced the voices raised against this declaration, he virtually abandoned all hope of the kind. How could the free protes- tants acquiesce in a council by whose earlier resolutions the most important articles of their faith had been already condemned !f In this way the influence of the council was limited beforehand to the exceedingly contracted cir- cle of the catholic nations. Its purpose could, on the whole, extend only to settlmg the dis- putes between the latter and the supreme ecclesiastical authority ; to the establishment of dogmas on certain as yet undetermined points ; and, above all, to the completion of the internal reform already begun, and the issuing of rules of discipline which should be of universal authority. But even this limited task proved exceed- ingly difficult. The most vehement contro- versies soon broke out among the assembled fathers. The Spaniards mooted the question, wheth- er the residence of the bishops in their dio- ceses was a matter prescribed by divine law, or by human authority. This might seem an idle dispute, since all parties were agreed in holding residence to be necessary. But the Spaniards maintained the general principle that episcopal authority was not an emanation of the papal, as was alleged in Rome, but that its che vada cercando qupsle cose : non 6 tempo di fare I'im- presa di Ginevra, ne di fa generali. Scrivele che siamo constanli in qupsta opinione de star in pace." * This was the view taken of the matter by Ferdinand I. Lilterse ad Legates, 12 Aug, loG2, in Le Plat, Monum. ad Hist. Cone. Tridentini, v. p. 452. Quid enim allinet . . . disquirere de his dogmatibus, de quibus apud oiiines non EOliim principes, verum eliam privates homines catholi- cos, nulla nunc penitus exislil disceptalio i [For what end does it serve ... to discuss those dogmas, respecting which among all catholics, whether princes or private individuals, there nnw exists no manner of dissension ?] + The main argument in the protest of the Piotpsiants : " Causae cur electores principesaliique Aueustanseconfes- sioni adjunctae status recusent adere conciliuiu." Le Plat, iv. p, 57. The remark in the very first pioclamation, the formidable words, " omni suspensione sublata." Ihey recal to mind the condemnation lormerly passed on their fundamental principles, and copiously set forth "quae mala sub eaconfirmatione laleaal" [what evil lurks under that confinnalion.] A. D. 1562.] PIUS IV. LATTER SITTINGS OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 109 origin rested directly on divine appointment. This was striking at the very heart of the whole system of tlie church. The indepen- dence of the subordinate clerical authorities, whom the pope so sedulously kept under, would of necessity have followed in the train of this principle. The debate on this topic was already very animated, when the imperial ambassadors ar- rived. The articles they proposed are highly remarkable: "It is to be wished," say some of them, " that the pope, following the exam- ple of Christ, will humble himself, and sub- mit to reform as regards his own person, his dominions, and his curia. The council must reform both the nomination of the cardinals and the conclave." Ferdinand was used to say: " Since the cardinals are not good, how can they choose a good pope 1" He wished the reform he proposed to be based on the plan promulgated by the council of Constance, but which had not been carried into effect. The resolutions were to be prepared by deputations from the several nations. But, furthermore, he demanded the cup for the laity, and the marriage of priests ; remission of fasts for some of his subjects ; the establishment of schools for the poor ; the purification of the breviary, legends, and homilies; more intelligible cate- chisms ; the use of German in church sing- ing; a reform of the convents, and for this special reason too, " that their great wealth might no longer be expended in so flagitious a manner."* These were indeed proposals of vast moment, the upshot of which would have been nothing less than a thorough transmuta- tion of the whole church system. The em- peror urged the consideration of them in re- peated letrers. Last of all appeared the cardinal of Lor- raine with the French prelates, and cordially seconded the German proposals. He demand- ed, especially, the grant of the cup to the lai- ty the administration of the sacraments in the vulgar tongue, the accompaniment of the mass with instruction and preaching, and permis- sion to sing the psalms in French in full con- gregation— all of them matters from which the most desirable consequences were antici- pated. " We are fully assured," says the king, " that the accordance of the cup to the laity would quiet many uneasy consciences, re- unite to the catholic church whole provinces that have severed themselves from its commu- nion, and be one of the best means ofappeas- ♦ Pallavicini almost wholly passpsoverlhpse postulates, xvii. 1, 6. They are irksome to him. Indeed they have never been made linown in their proper form. They lie before us in these extracts. The first Is in P. Sarpi, lib. vi. p. 32.5, and precisely alike, but in Latin, in Rinaldi and Goldast. The s°cond is in Bartholoiiiaeus de Maity- ribus, and is somewhat ir.ore copious. The third was ta- ken by Shelhoin from the papers of Slaphylus. They do not agree very well together. I am inclined to thinlc the orisrinal of them is to be found in Vienna: it must be a remarkable do ument. I have adhered lothe e.xtract in Shelhom. Le Plat gives them all, as well as the answer. ing the troubles in our realm."* But, besides all this, the French bishops sought also to bring forward the resolutions of Basel, and they maintained openly that a council is above the pope. The Spaniards did not concur in the de- mands of the Germans and the French. They condemned in the most energetic manner the layman's cup and the marriage of priests, and I it was impossible to obtain, from the council I at least, any concession on these points: all ' that was done was to refer the expediency of j the concessions to the pope's decision. There ! were points, however, on which three nations agreed in resisting the pretensions of the cu- ria. They thought it intolerable that the le- gates alone should have the right of proposing resolutions; but, besides this, the conduct of the legates in previously consulting the pope's good pleasure with regard to every resolution, appeared to them an insult to the dignity of the council. According to that way of pro- ceeding, as the emperor said, there were prop- ' erly two councils, the one in Trent, the other, and more real one, in Rome. I In this state of opinions, had the votes been taken by nations, what singular results would have ensued ! As this, however, was not the case, the three nations, even taken together, were in a mi- nority. The Italian, much the more numer- ous party, as usual supported, without much tenderness of conscience, the opinions of the curia, on which they were for the most part dependent. Great bitterness of feeling arose on both sides. The French jested about the ' Holy Ghost arriving in Trent in a ma^bag. The Italians spoke of Spanish leprosies and French diseases, with which the orthodox were visited in turns. When the bishop of Cadiz said, there had been famous bishops, nay, fathers of the church, whom no pope had appointed, the Italians were loud in their vo- ciferations: they demanded his expulsion, and talked of anathema and' heresy. The Span- iards retorted upon them the charge of here- sy.f Sometimes different parties assembled in the streets, shouting the watchwords, Spain! Italy : and blood was seen to flow on the cho- sen ground of peace. Was it then to be wondered at, if for ten months it was never found possible to come to a session"? if the pope's first legate dis- suaded him from going to Bologna, repre- sentmg to him what would be said if even then the council could not reach any regular termination, but must be dissolved 7| A dis- ♦ M^moire baill6 i Mr le C de Lorraine, quand il est parti pour aller au concil. Le Plat, iv. 5G2. t Pallavicini XV. V. 5. Paleotto, Acta: "Alii praelali ingeuiinabant clamanies. Exeat, exeat; etalii, Anathema sit ; ad quos Gran itensis conversus respondit : Anatliema vos estis." Mendham, Memoirs of the Council of Trent, p. 251. t Letteradel C'e. di Blantua, legato al concilio di Tren- to, scritia al papa Pio IV. li 15, Gen. 1503. Quando si 110 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OP THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1563. solution however, a suspension, or even a mere translation, which had often been thought of, would have been exceedingly hazardous. Nothing was expected in Rome but mischief: they thought there that a council was much too violent a remedy for the debilitated body of the church, and that it would prove fatal to it and to Italy. "A few days before my de- parture, in the beginning of the year 1.563," Girolanio Soranzo tells us, "cardinal Carpi, dean of the college, and a very intelligent man, said to me, that in his last illness he had prayed to God to grant him death in His mer- cy, that he might not live to see the downfall and the burial of Rome. All the other emi- nent cardinals, too, incessantly deplore their ill fortune: they see plainly there is no es- cape for ihem, unless God's holy hand be es- pecially extended to them."* Pius IV. dread- ed to see all the evils with which other popes had ever thought themselves threatened, now burst upon himself. It is a lofty thought, that in times of difficulty and of keen discord in the Church, it is to an assembly of its chief shepherds it must look for remedy. " Let it deliberate without pre- sumption or envy in catholic peace," says Au- gustine; "after fuller experience, let it open what was shut, and bring to light what was hidden." But even in the earliest times, this ideal was far from being attained : it would have needed a purity of sentiment, and an in- dependence of extraneous influence, that seems not bestowed on man. But how much more unattainable was it, now that the Church was intwined with the state by such innumer- able and such conflicting relations. If, not- withstanding this, councils still remained ob- jects of so much respect, and were so often, and so urgently demanded, that was to be at- tributed tor the most part, to the necessity of curbing the power of the popes. But now, what the latter had always asserted, seemed to be confirmed, viz., that in times of great con- fusion, councils were rather fitted to augment than to allay the evil. All the Italians shared in the alarm of the curia. " Either," said they, " the council will go on, or it will be dissol- ved. In the former case, especially if the pope should die in the interim, the ultramontanes will fashion the conclave after their own views, and to the detriment of Italy : they will cir- havesse di disolvere questo concilio . . . per causa d' allri e non nostra . . . mi piaceria piu che V". Bealilu- dine fusse reslala a Roma. * Li Cardinali di maggior auloritideploravano con tutli a tuue Tore la loromispria, la quale stiniano tanlo mag- giore che vedonn e conoscono assti chiaro non esservi rim- edio alcuno, se non quf Uo che piacesse dare al S^. DIo con lasua sanlissiiiia mano!— Ceno nonsi puj se non le- mere, adds Sorano on his own pan, Sermo. Principe, che la povera Italia afflitla per altre causa habbi ancora a sen- lire afflillione per queslo particolannente : lo vedono e lo conoscono tutti i savj. [Certainly, most serene prince, it cannot but be feared that poor Italy isdestined, inaddilion to all her other afflictions, to sutler particularly from this cause too. This is mauifesi to all wise men.] cumscribe the pope to that degree, that he will be little more than a mere bishop of Rome : under the pretext of reform, they will destroy all offices, and ruin the whole curia. Should it, on the other hand, bo dissolved without having effected anything desirable, even the faithful will take great offence thereat, and the waverers will run extraordinary risk of being lost altogether." Looking at the position of things, it seemed impossible to elicit in the council itself any change in the sentiments prevailing there. Confronted with the legates, who were gui- ded by the pope, and the Italians, who were dependent on him, stood the prelates of the other nations, who, on their parts, adhered to the ambassadors of their respective sovereigns. No reconciliation, no accommodation could be devised. Matters seemed still desperate in Feb. 1.563; all was bickering; each party obstinately stood fast to its own notions. But, on more closely viewing the case in its naked reality, one possibility appeared of an escape from the labyrinth. The discordant opinions only met and com- bated in Trent; they had I their sources at Rome, and in the courts of the several sove- reigns. If these dissensions were to be anul- led, they must be dealt with at the fountain head. Pius IV. had said, that the popedom could no longer subsist isolated from the sove- reigns of Europe ; this then was the very moment to act upon that maxim. He had once thought of receiving the demands of the several courts, and fulfilling them without the interference of a council ; but this would have been but a half measure. The grand object was to bring the council to a close in harmony with the greater powers; in no other way could it be done. Pius IV. resolved to attempt this; and he was seconded by his ablest and most states- manlike cardinal Morone. The most important personage to conciliate, was the emperor Ferdinand, in whose views the French, as we have said, concurred, and for whom, as his uncle, Philip II. entertained no little deference. Morone, who shortly before had been named president of the council, but who felt assured that nothing could be effected in Trent, betook himself, in April 1563, unaccompanied by a single prelate, to Inspruck to meet the empe- ror. He found him soured, discontented, and offended, convinced that no serious intentions of reform were entertained at Rome, and de- termined, in the first place, to secure the free- dom of the council.* * To this place belongs also the Relatione in scr. fatta dal Co.iiendone ai S". legati del concilio supra le cose ri- tratle dal' iniperatore, 19 Febr. 15G3. Para che pensino trovar inodo e forma di haver piu parte et aulonl^ nel pre- sente concilio per slabilire in esse tutte le loro peiitioni giuiitaniente con li Franresi. [It appears, thpy think to find ways and means of possessing more share and greater A. D. 1563.] PIUS IV. LATTER SITTINGS OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. Ill Extraordinary address, great diplomatic skill, as we should say in these days, was re- quisite on the legate's part, to propitiate the incensed monarch.* Ferdinand was angry that his propositions of reform had been put aside, and never made subjects of actual disscussion. The legate had the art to persuade him that it had, for reasons not altogether to be despised, been judged hazardous to discuss them in form, but that the most important points they contained had, nevertheless, been considered, and even already adopted. The emperor further com- plained, that the council wa.s led by Rome, and that the legates were governed by in- structions received thence. Morone rejoined, and the fact was undeniable, that the ambas- sadors of the sovereigns were also guided by instructions from home, and were continually receiving fresh orders. In fact Morone, who had already long pos- sessed the confidence of the house "of Austria, got happily over this most delicate matter. He glossed over the unfavourable impressions the emperor had taken up, and then applied himself to effect a mutual agreement on those controverted points that had caused the great- est discord in Trent. It was not at all his in- tention to give way on essential matters, or to sutler the pope's authority to be in any wise weakened: "the great object was," he him- self says, "to hit upon such conclusions, that the emperor might deem himself satisfied, without trenching loo closely upon the au- thority of the pope or the legates."! The first of these points was the exclusive right of initiating measures vested in the le- gates, a right which it was constantly asserted militated against the freedom of the council. Morone remarked, that it was not for the in- terest of the sovereigns to concede the initia- tive to all prelates; a fact of which he could have had no difficulty in convincing the em- peror. It was easy to foresee that the bishops, once possessed of that privilege, would not be slow to propose resolutions running directly counter to the existing pretensions and rights of the state. It was manifest what confusion would arise out of such a concession. Still there was a desire, in some degree, to meet the wishes of the sovereigns, and the device adopted to that end is worthy of notice. Mo- rone promised to bring forward everything that the ambassadors should suggest to him with that intention, or on his failing to do so, influence in the present council, so as to carry their mea- sures in conjunction with the French.] * Tlie most iiiiponant docuiiient I have met with touch- ing the transactions at Trent, is Morone's Report of his Legation: it is brief, but to the point. Neither Sarpi nor even Pallavicini make mention of it. Kelatione somma- r:a del Ci. Morone sopra la legatione sua. Bibl.Allieri in Koma, vii. F. 3. t Fu necessario trovare temperamento tale che paresse all' imperatore di essere in alcuno modo satisfatlo, et in- gieme non si pregiudicasse all' autoriicl del papa n6 de' legati, ma restasse ilcoauilio ael suo possesso. to admit their right to propose the measures in person. The accommodation was signifi- cant of the spirit that gradually began to pre- vail in the convocation. The legates admitted an occasion on which they would forego their exclusive right to the initiative ; but this not so much in favour of the fathers assembled in council, as of the ambassadors.* It followed thence, that the sovereigns alone were accord- ed a .share in those rights, which in other respects the pope reserved to himself. A second point was the demand that the committees which prepared the resolutions, should be constituted according to the several nations. Morone remarked that this had al- ways been the practice, but that for the future, since the emperor desired it, it should be more strictly observed. The third point was, reform. Ferdinand conceded at last, that the expression, reforma- tion of the head, and also the old question of the Sorbonne, whether councils were superior to the pope or not, should be avoided ; in re- turn for which, Morone promised a real search- ing reform in all other particulars. The plan agreed on to that end included even the conclave. These main points being set at rest, all secondary questions were easily arranged. The emperor desisted from many of his de- mands, and enjoined his ambassadors, above all things, to maintain a good understanding with the papal legates. Morone returned back over the Alps, having successfully accomplished his mission. "As soon as the emperor's favourable determination was known in Trent," he says himself, "and the concord between his ambassadors and the pope's was fully ascertained, the council be- gan to assume a different aspect, and to become much easier to manage." Other circumstances also contributed to this result. The Spaniards and the French had quarrel- led about the precedence due to the represent- atives of their kings, and had ever since liung much less together. Special negotiations had also been entered on with each of them. Philip II. was urgently impelled by the force of circumstances towards a good under- standing with the pope. His power in Spain was, in a great measure, founded on ecclesi- astical interests, and these it was naturally * Sumniariumeorumqusedicunturacta inter Caesaream Majestatem et illuslrissinmm cardinalem Moroniim, in the Acts of Torellus, likewise in Salig, Geschichte dea Tridentinischen Conciliuins III., A. 2y2., wherein this is expressed in the following manner: Maj. S. sibi reserva- vit, vel per medium dictorum legatorum, vel si ipsi in hoc gravarentur, perse ipsum, vel per ministros sues proponi curare: [His majesty reserved to himself, the causing measures to be proposed through the medium of the said legates, or if they objected to this, by himself or his ser- vants.] I confess I should not readily have inferred from hence, such a negotiation as Morone reports, though in- deed it is implied in it. 112 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1563. his prime care to hold in his own hand. The Roman court was well aware of the fact, and the nuncio from Madrid often said, that a quiet termination of the council was as desirable for the king as for the pope. The Spanish prelates at Trent had already raised their voices against the burdens imposed on church property, burdens which in Spain constituted an important part of the public revenues. The fact had caused the king much uneasiness, and he entreated the pope to forbid such ob- jectionable language.* Under these circum- stances, how could he have thought of securing his prelates a right to initiate any measure? On the contrary, he rather sought to impose restrictions upon them. Pius complained of the constant opposition offered him by the Spanish prelates: the king promised to adopt means for checking their disobedience. In short, the pope and the king were clearly convinced that their interests were identical. Other negotiations too must have taken place. The pope threw himself wholly into the king's arms, while the latter solemnly promised to aid the pope in every emergency with all the strength of his kingdom. Meanwhile, the French, on their part, were approximating to Rome. The Guises, who exercised so great an influence in the govern- ment at home and in the council, adopted in both places a policy decidedly and increasingly catholic. It was owing only to the compliances of cardinal Guise, that after ten months' delay, and an eighth postponement, there was at last a possibility of again holding a session. But furthermore, an alliance of the strictest nature was talked of Guise proposed a congress of the leadmg catholic sovereigns, the pope, the emperor, and the kings of France and Spain.f He went in person to Rome to discuss the project more fully, and the pope was at a loss for words to laud " his Christian zeal for God's service and the public tranquillity, not only in matters touching the council, but also in others that concerned the general welfare."| The proposed congress would have been very wel- come to the pope, who. sent ambassadors on the subject to the emperor and the king. Thus it appears that the important dissen- sions were appeased, and the obstacles to a happy termination of the council were remov- ed, not at Trent, but at the several courts, and by means of political negotiations. Mo- rone, who had most largely contributed to this result, succeeded also in the mean time, in gaining over the prelates individually, lav- ishing on them all the acknowledgments, praise, and favour for which they panted. ^ * Paolo Tiepolo, Dispaccio di Spagna, 4 Dec. 1552. + Instruuione data a Mons. Carlo Visconti mandato da papa Pio IV. al re call, per le cose del concilio di Treiito (ultimo Ouobre, 1563.) Bibl. Barb. 1007. t " il beneficio universale." Leltera di papa Pio IV., 20 Ouobre, 1503. § I have not yet seen the Life of Ayala by Villanueva, i He furnished a striking example of what can be eftected in the most trying circumstances by a man of intellect and address, who com- prehends the posture of affairs, and directs his powers to an aim compatible therewith. To him, above every other individual, the catholic church is indebted for the favourable issue of the council of Trent. The path was smoothed, and, as he says himself, the inherent difficulties of the subject might now be accosted. 'J'he old controversy respecting the neces- sity of residence, and the divine right of the bishops, was still pending. For a long time the Spaniards held out immovably in defence of their doctrine on tliis head, declaring it, so late as in July, 1563, as infallible as the ten commandments; the archbishop of Grenada wished that all books should be burned in which the contrary opinion was asserted.* Nevertheless, when the decree came to be drawn up, they submitted to the omission from it of their favourite opinion. A form, however, was adopted, that still left them a possibility of arguing in favour of their own views. This very ambiguity in the decree, Lainez made the subject of his special praise.f The same course was pursued with respect to the other disputed point, the initiative, the ^^ proponenlibus legatis." The pope declared that every one should be at liberty to ask and to say whatever he had a right, in accordance with the usages of ancient councils, to ask and to say ; but he cautiously abstained from em- ploying the word prnpose.l An expedient was thus hit upon, with which the Spaniards were satisfied, although it did not involve the slightest concession on the pope's part. The obstacles arising out of political con- siderations being removed, the questions which had given occasion to bitterness and wrang- ling, were dealt with, not so much with a view to decide them, as to get rid of them by some dexterous accommodation. In this disposition of the council, the less serious matters were got through with so much the more ease. Never did the council's proceedings make more rapid progress. The important dogmas of clerical ordination, the sa- crament of marriage, indulgences, purgatory, the adoration of saints, and by far the weighti- est measure of reform it ever adopted, belong to the last three sessions in the second half of the year 1563. The congregations on every one of these topics were composed of different nations. The project of reform was concerted in which, as I find, there must be some account of this. Meanwhile, Morone's assurance is quite sufficient. "I prclati," says he, " accarezzati e stimiti e loJati e gra- tiati si fecero piu trattabili." * Scrittura nelle lettere e momorie del nuncio Visconti, ii. 174. + "Ejus verba in utramque partem pie satis posse ex- poni." Palpolto in iMendham, Memoirs of the Council of - Trent, p. 252. t Pallavicini, xxiii. 6. 5. A. D. 1583.] PIUS IV. LATTER SITTINGS OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 113 in five separate assemblies, one of them French, presided over by the cardinal de Guise, one Spanish, at the head of which was the archbishop of Grenada, and three Italian * They easily atjreed on most questions : only two real difficulties presented themselves, the questions as to the exemption of chapters, and plurality of benefices, in which private inter- ests again played an important part. The former question particularly affected Spain, where the chapters had already lost something of the extraordinary freedom they had once possessed. Whilst it was their wish to regain this, the king conceived tlie design of still further curtailing their privileges; for the nomination of the bishops being vested in himself, he had an interest in extending this authority. The pope, on the other hand, was for the chapters, the absolute subjection of which to the bishops, would have not a little diminished his influence over the Spanish church. On this point, therefore, these ^'o great powers were again in collision, and it was a question, which of them would com- mand a majority. The king too was exceed- ingly strong in the council. His ambassador had succeeded in excluding from it a delegate sent by the chapters, to watch over their rights. He had so much ecclesiastical patron- age at his d isposal, that every one was rel uctant to break with him. The opinions pronounced orally, were unfavourable to the chapters, but observe the device adopted by the papal le- gates to counteract that result. They decided that the votes should, on this occasion, be taken in writing: the viva voce declarations alone, made in the presence of so many of the king's adherents, were shaped in compliance with his views, not the written ones, which were placed in the legate's hands. By this scheme they at last obtained an important majority for the papal views and for the chap- ters. Encouraged by this, they then entered, through Guise's mediation, into negotiations with the Spanish prelates, who, in the end, contented themselves with a much more mode- rate extension of their immunities than they had contemplated. f * The best accounts on this are to be found where they would be least expected, in Baini, Vila di Palestrina, i. 199. derived from authentic letters. The diary of Servan- lio, of which Mendham has made use, (p. 304.) also touch- es en the affair. t Sarpi, viii. 816, does not give a very clear account of this matter. Mordne's authentic explanation is very ac- ceptable. L'articolo delle cause e dell" essenzioni di can- onici fu vinto secondo la domanda degli oltraniontani : poi facendosi contra 1' uso che li padri tutti dessero voti in iscritio, furono mutate niolte sententie e lu vinio il con- Irario. Si venne al fin alia concordia che si vede nei de- creti, e fu mezzano Lorena, che gia era lornato da Roma, lutto addittoal servilio di S. Beatitudine el alia fine del concilio. [The article of the causes and essential attri- butes of the clergy, was passed in accordance with the views of the ultramontanes : afterwards the usual order being broken through, according to which the assembled fathers should have given their votes in writing, many opinions were changed, and the contrary resolution was adopted. At last the council came to that agreement 15 The second question, that respecting plu- ralities, was still more niomentou fo • the curia. A reform of the institution of cardi- nals had been long talked of, and there were many who regarded its corruption as the pri- mary source of all mischief Now the cardi- nals often accumulated a multitude of bene- fices, and it was proposed to restrict them in this by the most cogent laws. It will readily be conceived how sensitive the curia must have been with regard to every innovation of this kind ; they shrank in alarm from the very thought of a serious discussion of the subject. In this case, too, the evasion contrived by Mo- rone was very remarkable : he mixed up the reform of the cardinals with the articles af- fecting the bishops. " But a few," he says, " perceived the importance of the circum- stance, and in this way all rocks and shoals were avoided." Whilst the pope thus successfully main- tained the subsistence of the Roman court in the form it had hitherto worn, he aLso mani- fested his readiness to drop the project that had been entertained of a reformation of princes. On this head he yielded to the em- peror's representations.* The whole of the proceedings were actu- ally like those of a peaceful congress. While questions of subordinate interest were dis- cussed to general conclusions by the divines, those of more importance were subjects of negociation between the courts. Couriers were incessantly flying to and fro, and one concession was requited with another. The pope's foremost object was now to bring the convocation to a speedy close. For a while the Spaniards held out against this : they were not satisfied with the reforms that had been effected ; and the king's ambassador once even made a show of protesting : but as the pope declared his readiness to call a new synod in case of urgency,-}- as every one was alive to the extreme inconvenience that would ensue, were the papal see to become vacant pending a council, and lastly, as every one was tired and longed to return home, even the Spaniards gave way in the end. The spirit of opposition was virtually over- come. To the very last the council mani- fested extreme submissiveness. It conde- scended to solicit the pope's confirmation of its decrees, and declared expressly that all reforming decrees, however their words might run, were conceived with the fixed under- standing that nothing in them should be con- which is seen in its decrees, the mediator being the car- dinal of Lorraine, who had now relumed from Kome, entirely devoted to the service of his holiness, and to the ends of the council.] * That a rigid retorm of the curia, the cardinals, and conclave did not lake place, was in close keeping with the omission of a reformation of ihe princes. Extract* from the correspondence of the legatee in Pallavicini, 23, 7,4. ' t Pallavicini, 24, 8, 6. 114 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1563. strued as affecting the dignity of the holy see.* How far were they at Trent from renewing the pretensions of Constance and Basel to superiority over the papal power ! In the proclamations with which the sittings were closed, and which were composed by cardinal Guise, the universal bishopric of the pope was especially recognized. Thus prosperous was the event. The coun- cil that had been so vehemently demanded, and so long evaded, that had been twice dis- solved, had been shaken by so many political storms, and whose third convocation even had been beset with danger, closed amidst the general harmony of the catholic world. It may readily be understood how the prelates, as they met together for the last time on the 4th Dec. 1.56:^, were all emotion and joy. Even those who had hitherto been antago- nists congratulated each other, and tears were seen to start into the eyes of many of those aged men. Now seeing, as we have remarked, that the result obtained had been the fruit of so much suppleness and political dexterity, it might be asked whether the efficacy of the council had not been impaired thereby. The council of Trent must ever be regard- ed as the most important, if not of all coun- cils, yet assuredly of those of more modern ages. Its importance is compressed into two great crises. In the first, which we touched on in a for- mer place, during the war of Smalcalde, the doctrines of Rome after many fluctuations broke forever with the protestant opinions. Out of the doctrine of justification as then set forth, arose forthwith the whole system of dogmatic theology, such as it is professed to the present day by the catholic church. In the second of these crises, and the last we considered, after Morone's conference with the emperor, in the summer and autumn of the year 1563, the hierarchy was establish- ed anew, theoretically by the decrees respect- ing clerical ordination, and practically by the resolutions touching measures of reform. The.'ie reforms are, to the present day, of the greatest moment. The faithful were again subjected to the uncompromising disciphne of the church, and in urgent cases to the sword of excommuni- cation. Seminaries were founded, where young ecclesiastics were carefully brought up under strict discipline and in the fear of God. The parishes were regulated anew, the administration of the sacraments and preaching subjected to fixed ordinances, and the co-operation of the regular clergy sub- jected to determined laws. The bishops were held rigidly to the duties of their office, espe- ♦Sessioxxv. c. 21. cially to the superintendence of the clergy, according to their various grades of consecra- tion. It was a regulation attended with weighty results, that the bishops solemnly bound themselves by a special confession of faith, signed and sworn to by them, to observ- ance of the decrees of the council of Trent, and to submissiveness to the pope. But the purpose undoubtedly entertained at first in this convocation, of limiting the power of the pope, was not fulfilled : on the contrary, that power is.^ued from the struggle even aug- mented in extent and cogency. As the ex- clusive right of interpreting the decrees of the council of Trent was reserved to the pope, it was always in his power to prescribe rules for faith and conduct. All the cords of the re- stored discipline centred in Rome. The catholic church owned the circum- scription of its dominion ; it gave up all claims upon the Greeks and the East, and protest- antism it repudiated with countless anathe- mas. In the earlier Catholicism there was in- volved an element of protestantism : this was now forever cast out. But Catholicism, in thus limiting the field of its operation, con- centrated its strength, and braced up all its energies. It was only, as we have seen, by means of a good understanding and agreement with the foremost catholic princes, that so much was achieved; and in this alliance with monarchy lies one of the main conditions of all catholo- cism's subsequent development. This is in some degree analogous to the tendency of protestantism to combine episcopal with sove- reign rights. It was only by degrees it exhi- bited itself among the catholics. It is obvious that it involves a possibility of new divisions, but of this there was, in the times we are speaking of, no immediate danger. The de- crees of the council were promptly received in province after province. The claims of Pious IV. to importance in the world's history rest on his having effected this event: he was the first pope who deliberately abandoned the tendency of the hierarchy to set itself in op- position to the authority of sovereigns.. Having now attamed this grand result, Pius thought full surely that the work of his life was completed. It is remarkable, that the tension of his mind relaxed from the mo- ment the council was closed. Men thought they noticed in him a neglect for divine ser- vice, too great a proneness to good living, and too much indulgence in courtly splendour, sumptuous festivities, and magnificent build- ings. The zealous perceived a difl'erence be- tween him and his predecessor, of which they complained loudly.* * Paolo Tiepolo. Dopo che questo (il concilio) hebbe fine, liberate da una grande sollecitudine, fattosi feniio e gagliardo nell' autoriti sua, incomincio piu liberamente ad operare conforme alia sua inclinatione e p^nsieri: 1565.] PIUS V. 115 Nevertheless, there was no reason to ap- prehend any reaction in pnblic feeling from this cause. A tendency luid unfolded itself in Catholicism that was no longer to be sup- pressed or restrained. When once a spirit is roused, there is no prescribing to it ihe path it shall pursue. Every departure, however trifluig, from its rules on the part of those who should repre- sent it, will be productive of tiie most striking symptoms. Tlie spirit that had gone forth in the direc- tion of rigid Catholicism became forthwith dangerous to Pius himself. There lived in Rome a certain Benedetto Acculti, a catholic even to euthusiasm, who talked perpetually of a mystery that had been conliJed to him by God : tiiis he would reveal, engaging, in proof that he spoke the truth, to pass uninjured through a burning pile, in jire- sence of the assembled people in the Piazza Navona. His secret was the foreknowledge he ima- gined he possessed, that an union would shortly take place between the Greek and Romish churches; the then united Catholic church would subdue the Turks and all apos- tates ; the pope would be a holy man, attain to universal monarchy, and introduce the mil- leuium on earth. He was tilled to fanaticism with these notions. He now found, however, that Pius IV., whose habits and temper were infinitely re- mote from his ideal, was not the man tor so great an enterprise. Benedetto Accolti deem- ed hiiuself destined by God to free Christen- dom from so unfit a chief. He conceived the design of putting the pope to death, and found an accomplice, whom he assured of rewards to be received at the hands of Gjd, and of the future holy monarch. They set out one day on their purpose, and soon saw the pope approaching in the midst of a pro- cession, easy to be come at, tranquil, without suspicion and without defence. Aicotti. instead of rushing upon him, began to tremble and to change colour. There is in all that surrounds the person of a pope some- thing that must irresistibly impress minds so fanatically catholic as his. The pope passed on his way. Others, meanwhile, had observed Accolti. His accomplice, Antonio Canossa by name, was a man of no stedfast resolution; some- times he suffered himself to be prevailed on onde facilmenlR si conobbe in lui aninio piu toslodaprin- cipe die allendesse solcimenie al t'auo suo, chf? di ponie- fice die avesse rispeuo al benpficio e s.ilu'.e degli altri. [AflPi- ilie council had coine 10 an end, being freed from so great an anxiety, and being secured and set at his ease in ihe exercise of his authority, he began to act more freely in conformity with his own inclinations and views: so that li' manifested rather the disposition of a sovereign who l:iolcs only to liis personal interest, tluin of a pope re- gardUil of the advantage and weal of others.] Panvinius has remarked the some thing. to attempt the deed some other time, some- times he felt tempted to divulge the design. Neither of them observed strict silence, and at last they were secured and condemned to death.* We see what manner of minds were astir in those agitated times. Much as Pius IV, had done for the reconstruction of the church, there were yet many for whom that was far from being enough, and who cherished far other projects. Pius V, But the partisans of the more austere sys- tem had presently a great and unexpected success. Pius IV. dying on the 9th Dec. 1585, a pope was elected, whom they might by all means reckon as one of themselves. This was Pius V. I will not repeat the more or less dubious secret information concerning his election, contained in the book on the conclaves, and in some historians of that time. VVe have a letter from Carlo Borromeo, that gives us a sufficient explanation of the result. " [ re- solved," he says, (and it is certain that he was very influential in determining the choice,) " to look to nothing so much as to religion and faith. 'J'he piety, irreproachable life, and holy disposition of the cardinal of Alessandria, afterwards Pius V., being known to me, I thought that the Christian commonwealth could be best administered by him, and I ex- erted all my etlbrts in his favour."f In a man of such spiritual-mindedness as cardinal Bor- romeo, no other motives could have been ex- pected. Philip II., interested by his ambas- sador in fivour of the same cardinal, expressly thanked Borromeo for the part he look in the election. I Pius V. was just such a man as was thought to be wanted. The adherents of Paul IV., who had hitherto kept still, now deemed themselves hapjiy. Letters of theirs are extant, " 'J'o Rome, to Rome !" writes one * I lake these notices, which I have met witli no where else, from a MS. in the Corsini library in Koine. No. 674, under the title, Antonio Canossa. Quesio 6 il sommario della mia deposiiione per la qual causa io moro, rjuale si degnari V. S. mandare alii miei s". padre e iiiadre. t Ciis. Borromeus Henrico CI'. Infanti PonugalliEB, Romae, d. 26 Feb. 1566. Clussiani, VitaC.Borromei, p. 62. Compare Ripamonli Historia Urbis Mediolani, lib. xii. p. 814. 1 1 find this in a Dispacccio di Soranzo ambre. in Spag- na. Non essendo conosciute le quality di S. Si. da ques- io Ser'ii". R'^, mentre era in cardinalilo, ii delto co.nmen- dalor (Luigi Requesens, Comm. maggior) sempre lo laud6 molto predicando questo soggelto esser degno del pomifi- calo ; con il che S. M. si mosse a dargli ordine che con ogni suo polere li desse favore. [His holiness's qu.ililies since he had been in the cardinalale, not being known to that most serene kins, the said commendaior (Luiiri Re- quesens, Comm. maggior) always praised him liiglily, af- firming that he was a person worthy of the pontificate; whereupon his nuijesty was pleased lo command him that he should favour him with all his power.] Thus the story related by OUrocchi in the rejiiarks on Giussano, p. 219, falls to the ground. The election look place Jan. 8, 1566. 116 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF 16TH CENTURY. [a. d. 1565-72. of them, "come confidently, without hesita- tion, but with all modesty : God has raised up Paul IV. to us again." Michele Ghisliori (now Pius V.) of mean extraction, born in the year 1504, at Bosco, not far from Alessandria, entered a Domini- can convent when but in his fourteenth year, and there gave himself up body and soul to the monastic poverty and devotion required of him by his order. Of the alms he received he retained for himself not even enough to procure him a cloak ; he found the best pre- servative against the heat of summer to con- sist in abstinence ; and though confessor to a governor of Milan, he always travelled on foot with his wallet on his back. When he taught, he did so with precision and zeal ; had he to administer the affairs of a convent as prior, he was strict and frugal, and many were those he cleared from debt. The growth and fashioning of his mind occurred in those times in which Italy herself witnessed the strife between the established doctrines and the protestant innovations. He adopted the party of the old doctrine in all its strictness. Of thirty disputations he held in Parma in 1543, the greater part related to the authori- ty of the pope, and were opposed to the new opinions. He was ere long invested with the office of an inquisitor, which he had to dis- charge precisely in places of especial danger, as Como and Bergamo,* where intercourse with the Swiss and the Germans could not be avoided, and in the Valteline that was under the Grisons. He displayed there the obsti- nacy and the courage of a zealot. He was sometimes pelted with stones on his entry into Como; often to save his life he was com- pelled to hide himself by night in peasants' huts, and steal away like an outlaw. But he suffered no danger to divert him from his course. The count Delia Trinita threatening to have him thrown into a well, he answered, " God's will be done." Thus he too was im- plicated in the struggle between spiritual and political powers then agitating Italy ; and as the side he adopted was victorious, his ad- vancement kept pace with its prosperity. He was named commissioner of the Inquisition in Rome. Paul IV. soon declared that Fra Michele was a great servant of God, and wor- thy of high honour; he appointed him bishop * Paolo Tiepolo, Relazione di Roma in tempo di Pio IV. et V. In Bergamo li lu levalo per forza, dalle prigi- oni del monaslerodi S. Donienico, dove allora sisolevano mettere i rei, un principale hereiico, noininato Giorgio Mondaga (another name to add to the list ol the Italian Protestants,) ton gran peritolo suo e de' frali. Nella me- desima cilli poi travaglio assai per forniare il piocesso contra il vescovo uUora di Bergamo. [At Bergamo there was rescued from him by force, from the prisons of the monastery of St. Dominic, where accused persons used then to be kept, a chief heretic named Giorgio Montallo, under circumstances of great peril to hiiiiself and the monks. He afterwards exerted himself so far in the same ciiy, as to institute a process against the then bishop of | ras'sa che come /rate incomincio di portare. Fa le orati iJergamo.J | oni divoiissimaniente et alcune volte coUe lacriiue. of Neri, wishing, as he said, to put a chain on his legs, so that he might never hereafter be tempted to withdraw to the repose of a mon- astery.* In 1557 he made him cardinal. In this new dignity Giiislieri continued as before, austere, poor, and unpretending; he told the members of his household they must imagine they were inmates of a monastery. For him- self, he lived only in his devotions and in the Inquisition. In a man of this character, Borromeo, Phi- lip II. and the entirestrictparty, thought they beheld the saviour of the Church. The Ro- man citizens were not perhaps so well satis- fied. Pius V. heard of it and said, " They shall lament me so much the more when I am dead." He retained all his monastic austerity even when pope, rigidly and undeviatingly observed all the fasts, allowed himself no garment of fine texture,! read frequently, and daily heard mass, but still took care that his devotional practices should not offer any hindrance to public business. He never indulged in the siesta, and was a very early riser. Were there any doubt as to the depth of his reli- gious earnestness, we might find a warrant for it in the fact, that he did not regard the papacy as conducive to the increase of his piety, nor as tending to the soul's weal, and to the attainment of the glories of Paradise ; were it not for prayer, he thought the burden would be intolerable to him. To his last hour he enjoyed the bliss of a fervent devo- tion, the only bliss of which he was capable, a devotion that often moved him even to tears, and from the practice of which he rose up with the conviction that he had been heard. The people were in raptures when they saw him in procession, barefooted and bareheaded, with his long snow-white beard, and his face that beamed with unaffected piety. So pious a pope they were sure they had never looked upon, and they would relate how his very as- pect had converted protestants. Moreover, Pius was kindly and afi'able ; he treated his old servants with the utmost familiarity. How noble was his manner of accosting that same count Delia Trinita, when he was now sent as ambassador to him ! " Behold," he said, when he recognized him, " thus does God help the innocent:" this was the only way in which he ever visited the past upon the count. Benevolent he had always been : he had a list of the needy in Rome, whom he regularly assisted in proportion to their sta- tion. * Catena, Vita di Pio V., from which we have taken the greater part of our inl'ormation, gives this also. Pius V. related it himself to the Venetian ambassadors as they, namely, Mich. Suriano and Paul Tiepolo, (Oct. 2, 1508) acquiiint us.] f Catena. Tiepolo: N6 mai ha lasciato la camisia di A. D. 1565-72.] PIUS V. 117 Natures such as his are humble, resigned, and childlike; but when they are irritated and offended, they kindle into stormy vehe- mence and implacable resentment. Their own turn of thought they regard in the light of a duty, a paramount duty, the neglect of which rouses their indignation. Pius V. was conscious that he always pursued the straight- forward path. That this had conducted him to the papacy, was a fact that filled him with such self-reliance as made him utterly indif- ferent to every extraneous consideration. His obstinate adhesion to his own opinion was extreme ; the soundest arguments were found insufficient to wean him from them. He was easily irritated by contradiction ; his face reddened, and he broke out into the most violent expressions.* As he understood but little of the affairs of the world or of domestic politics, and rather suffered his judgment to be warped in one way or another by second- ary circumstances, it was a matter of the greatest difficulty to deal with him to the pur- pose. With regard to individuals, he did not in- deed allow his opinions to be determined at once by the first impression ; but having once made up his mind to consider any one as good or bad, there was no moving him from that conclusion.f He was prone, however, to think that men deteriorate rather than im- prove in character, and he looked on most men with suspicion. It was remarked that he never mitigated a penal sentence ; commonly he would much rather have wished they had been more se- vere. It was not enough for him that the Inquisi- tion punished recent offences; he caused in- quiry to be made into old ones of ten or twen- ty years' standing. If there was a place where fewer punish- ments were inflicted, that was enough to con- demn it in his eyes as impure : he ascribed the circumstance to official negligence. Observe with what rigour he insists on the application of ecclesiastical censure. " We forbid," he says in one of his bulls, " every physician, who shall be called in to attend a * Informationedi Pio V. (Bib. Ambroaiana in Milan F. D. 161.) La S. S^- naluralnienle 6 gioviale e piacevole, se ben paraccidenle pare di allradispositione, edi qui viene che volonlieri onesleniente ragiona con M"" Cirillo, suo niaeslro di casa, il quale con le sue piacevolezze essendo huomo desli'o e accorto, diletta S. Beatiludinp, e sempre prolitta a se slesso et altri. [His holiness is naturally of a cheerful and pleasant temper, though he may by accident appear otherwise; wherefore he readily engages in hon- ourable discourse with monsignor Cirillo, his maestro di case, who, being a man of polished address, delights his holini ss with his pleasant sallies, to the constant profit of himself and others.] flnforrnationi di Pio V. E piu difficultoso di lasciar la cattiva impressione che la buona, e niassimamente di quelle persone che non ha in pralica. [He foregoes a bad impression with more dilficulty than a good one, particu- larly with regard to those persons of whom he does notsee much.] bedridden patient, to visit the said patient for a longer space than three days, unless he re- ceive a certificate within that time, that the patient has confessed his sins afresh."* An- other bull imposes punishments upon the vio- lation of the sabbath and on blasphemy. For the rich these were of a pecuniary nature. " But a common man who cannot pay, shall for the first offence stand a whole day before the church-doors with his hands bound behind his back ; for the second, he shall be whipped through the city; for the third, his tongue shall be bored, and he shall be sent to the galleys." Such is the general style of his ordinances. How often was it necessary to remind him that he had to do, not with angels, but with men If Deference towards the secular powers, now become so urgently necessary, never checked him in this respect. He not only caused the bull In Coena Domini, which had been an old subject of complaint on the part of the sove- reigns, to be proclaimed anew, but even ren- dered it more harsh by some special additions. In that bull he appeared, on the whole, to deny the right of government to impose new taxes. Such violent proceedings were followed of course by re-actions ; not merely inasmuch as the demands which a man of such austerity thought himself justified in making upon the world, could never be satisfied, but further- more, a deliberate resistance arose, and jar- rings innumerable. Philip II., devotee as he was, once hinted to the pope that he should not venture to try of what a sovereign, irrita- ted to the utmost, might be capable. The pope, on his part, was deeply affected by this state of things. He often felt himself unhappy in his rank. He said he was weary of life ; that since he acted without respect of persons he had made himself enemies, and that ever since he had been pope, his life had been one series of vexations and persecutions. Be that as it may, and although Pius no more succeeded than any other man in giving full content and satisfaction, certain it is that his demeanour and his habits of mind exer- cised an incalculable influence over his con- temporaries, and over the general develop- ment of his church. After so long a train of circumstances, all conspiring to call forth and promote a more spiritual tendency, after so many resolutions adopted to make this gener- ally predominant, there needed a pope of his * Supra eregem Dominicum, Bull. iv. ii. p. 281. •f In the Informationi Politiche, xii. is to be found for instance an Epistola a N. S. Pio V. nella quale si esorta S. S. tulerare gli Ebrei e le corteegiane, [An episile loour lord Pius v., in which his holine'ss is exhorted to tolerate the Jews and the courtesans] by a certain Bertano, who expatiates largely on his subject. The Caporioni begged the pope that he would grant at least the barest toleration. The pope answered, he would rather quit Kome, than wink at such abominations. 118 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1566-72. mould to provide that the new system should not only be every where proclaimed, but also practically enforced. To this end his zeal and his example alike were of immense efH- cacy. 'I'he often talked-of reformations of the court were commenced in fact at least, if not in the forms that had been proposed. The expendi- ture of the papal household was retrenched to an extraordmary degree. Pius V. required little for his own person, and used often to say, "He who would govern, must begin with himself." For his servants, who as he thought had remained true to him all his life through without hope of reward, and purely out of afl'ection, he provided not indeed without lib- erality ; but still he kept his dependents with- in more straitened limits than ever had any pope before him. He moderately endowed his nephew Bonelli, whom he had made car- dinal, only because he was told that such a step was expedient towards maintaining a more confidential intercourse with sovereigns. When Bonelli once invited his father to Rome, Pius obliged him to quit the city again that night and that very hour. The rest of his relations he would never raise above the mid- dle station, and woe to him who should have been induced into any transgression, even into a lie ; he never forgave him, but drove him from him without mercy. How far was he from the practice of that nepotism, that for centuries had constituted so considerable a part of papal history. In one of his most en- ergetic bulls, Pius V. forbade for the future every enfeoftinent of a possession of the Ro- man Church under any title and pretext what- ever : he declared ipso facto excommunicated all who stiould even counsel such an act, and he caused these declarations of his to be sign- ed by all the cardinals.* He proceeded with zeal in the repeal of abuses; few dispensa- tions, and still fewer compositions, were known to issue from him ; and frequently did he restrict the indulgences that had been granted by his predecessors. He enjoined his auditor-general to proceed without ceremony agMiii.-i all archl)ishops and bishops who ne- glected to reside in their respective dioceses, and to report them to himself, that he might depose the disobedient.! He commanded°all parish priests, under heavy penalties, to attend closely to the discharge of public worship in their several churches, and he cancelled what- ever dispensations from that duty they might have received.J He was not less zealous in his endeavours to restore order in the con- vents. On the one hand, he confirmed to them their exemption from imposts and other burthens, as, for instance, the quartering of * Prohibitio alipnandi pt infpudandi civiiates et loca S. K. E. adiijOiiPl nos: 15G7, 2'.) Man. t Cum alias 15G6, 10 Junii, Bull. iv. ii. 303. J (Jupiemes 1508, 8 Julii, Bull. iv. iii. 24. troops ; he would not have their tranquillity molested ; but, on the other hand, he forbade the monks to hear confessions without exami- nation and permission of the bishops, and every new bishop was to be at liberty to re- peat the examination.* He enjoined the strictest seclusion both of monks and nuns. This was not universally approved of Com- plaints were urged that he enforced rules more strict than those to which members of orders had bound themselves: some fell into a sort of desperation, others fled.f All these things he enforced in the first instance in Rome, and in the states of the Church. He bound the secular as well as the ecclesiastical authorities to the adminis- tration of his spiritual ordinances,! while he himself provided for a rigorous and impartial administration of justice.^ He did not merely admonish the magistrates earnestly thereto, but every last Wednesday of the month he held a public sitting with the cardinals, at which every one might appeal in person against the ordinary tribunals. Independently of this, he was indefatigable in giving audi- ence. He remained in his chair from early morning, and every one was admitted. His zeal did actually produce a total reform in the ways of Rome. " At Rome," says Paul Tiepolo, " things go on very differently from the old flagitious course. The inhabitants are become much better, or at least they appear so." Something similar took place more or less throughout all Italy. Church-discipline was every where rendered more strict by the publication of the decrees of the council. An obedience was rendered to the pope, such as none of his predecessors for a long time had enjoyed. Duke Cosmo of Florence did not hesitate to give up to him those who were denounced by the Inquisition. Carnesecchi, another of tliose men of letters who had participated in the * Romani 1571, G Ausr. Bull. iv. iii. 177. t Tiepolo, Spesse voile nel dar rhnedio a qunlche dis- ordiiie incorre in uii altro niassiore, procedendo niassim- aniente per vie degli esiremi. [Frequently in applying a remedy to one evil, he incurred another of greater mag- nitude, his proceedings being for the most part in ex- tremes,] t Bull. iv. iii. 284. § Informatione della quality di Pio V. e delle cose the da quelle dependono (Berlin Library). Nel conferire le gratie non si cura delle circonstanze, secondo che alle volte sarebbe necPssario per qualsivogliarispelto conside- rabile, n6 a requisition d'alcuno la giustitia si ha punto alterala, ancora che sia senza dar scandalo e con psempio d'altri pontefice polesse fare. [In conferring favours he pays no heed to circumstances, as would at times seem necessary in regard to some considerable claim to defer- ence, nor does justice waver a jot at the solicitation of any one, even though it might be done without giving scandal, and under the sanction of other popes' examplrs.] Sori- ano observes, that he never conferred a favuur without accompanying it with an admonition: " il che mi parse proprio il stilo de' confessori, che fanno una gran repren- sioneal penitenie, quaado sono per assolverlo," [which seems to me the peculiar style of confessors, who chide the penitent largely when they are about to aljsolve him.] A. D. 1566-72.] PIUS V. 119 first movements towards protestantism in dinals who had chosen his uncle, he mio-ht Italy, had hitherto always come off safely : have occupied a brilliant position in Rome • but now neither his personal credit, nor the but he gave up everything, and refused every- reputation of his family, nor his connexion thing, to devote- himself to the ecclesiastical even with the reigning house itself, could any duties of his bishopric of Milan. These he longer protect him. _ He was delivered bound discharged with uncommon energy, nay with to the Roman Inquisition, and suffered death passion. He was continually journeying at the stake.* Cosmo was entirely devoted through his diocese in every direction ; there to the pope ; he aided him in all his under- I was not a place in it which he had not visit- takings, and admitted his spiritual claims ; ed two or three times ; the loftiest mountains without hesitation. In return for this, the tbe remotest valleys, were not neglected by pope felt moved to crown him archduke of i him. He was usually preceded by a i;isj7«8. t CoUatis omnibus cum vetustissiiiius nostriB Vaticanae bibliolhecsB aliisque undique conquisilis eniendatis atque incorruptis codicibus. [Collated with all the most ancient MSS. in our Vatican library, and with other correct and uncorrupted MSS. selected from all quarters.] l(i The troubles of France were productive of another result also. The events of a period always evolve some general political notions, which then exercise a practical dominion over the world. The catholic princes believed themselves assured that the admission of changes in religion was fatal to a state. Whereas Pius V, had said that the church could not subsist without the support of sove- reigns, the latter were now convinced that for them, too, an union with the church was indispensably necessary. Pius V. never ceas- ed to preach up this doctrine to them. In fact, he lived to see all Southern Christendom grouped around himself in one common enter- prise. The Ottoman power was still making vigor- ous progress: it ruled the Mediterranean; and its enterprises, first against Malta, and then against Cyprus, showed how earnestly it was bent on tiie conquest of the yet unsub- jugated islands. It threatened Italy from Hungary and Greece. Pius V. succeeded in at last opening the eyes of the catholic mon- arclis to the magnitude of this danger. The thought of a league between those sovereigns suggested itself to him upon the attack on Cyprus, and he proposed it to Venice on the one side, and to Spain on the other. " When I received permission to treat with him on the subject," says the Venetian ambassador, " and communicated my instructions to him, he rais- ed his hands towards heaven and thanked God : he promised that his whole soul, and every thought of his mind, should be devoted to that busmess."* It cost him infinite trouble to remove the difficulties that impeded an union of the two maritime powers. He add- ed the other states of Italy to them ; and he himself, though at first he possessed neither money nor ships nor arms, yet found means to reinforce the fleet even with papal galleys. He had a share in the choice of the leader, Don John of Austria, whose ambition and devo- tion he contrived equally to influence. The result at last was the most successful engage- ment, that of Lepanto, in which Christendom had ever been concerned. So intensely was the pope interested in this enterprise, that on the day of battle he believed he beheld the victory in a sort of rapturous trance. Its achievement filled him with the highest self- confidence and the most daring projects. In * Soriano. Havuta la resolutione, andai subito alia audienza, benche era di notte, e I'hora incomnioda, e S. Sa. travaglialo per li accident! sesuiti quel ciorno per la coronatione del duca di Fiorenza ed il protesto dell' am- basciatore Cesareo (against it): e co.uniunicata la com- missione che haveva, S. S^. si allegrO tutto. [Having received the resolution, I went instantly to seek an audi- ence, though il was night, and the hour inconvenient, and his holiness had been much faticued that day by the inci- dents arising out of the coronation of the duke of Florence, and the protest of the imperial ambassadors asainst it ; and on my communicating my orders, his holiness was entirely delighled.J 122 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 16TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1572. a few years he hoped to see the Ottomans wholly prostrated. But his mediation was not exclusively de- voted to the bringing about of such unques- tionably glorious enterprises. His religion was of so exclusive and imperious a kind, that he cherished the bitterest hatred towards all Christians of a different faith. Strange incon- sistency, that religion should persecute inno- cence and humility and genuine piety ! It seemed none to Pius V., who had risen through the Inquisition, and grown old in its ways. If he sought with inexhaustible zeal to extir- pate the remains of dissent that yet lurked in catholic lands, he persecuted with still more savage fury tJie avowed Protestants who had already shaken off his yoke, or who were yet engaged in the struggle. He not only aided the French catholics with a small body of troops, but he gave the leader of these, the count Santafiore, the monstrous order, to take no Huguenot prisoner, but to kill forthwith every Protestant who should fall into his hands.* When the disturbances broke out in the Netherlands, Philip II. wavered at first as to what course he should pursue with these provinces ; the pope advised him to an armed intervention. His argument was, " He that negociates without the cogency of arms must receive laws ; but he that has arms in his hands can prescribe them." He approved of Alva's bloody measures, and sent him, in re- ward of them, the consecrated hat and sword. It cannot be proved that he was privy to the preparations for the massacre of St. Bartho- lomew ; but he did things that make it evident he would have approved of it as much as his successor. What a medley of singleness of purpose, loftiness of soul, personal austerity, and entire devotion to religion, with grim bigotry, ran- corous hatred, and sanguinary zeal for perse- cution ! In this spirit lived and died Pius V.* When he saw his end approaching, he once more visited the seven churches, " in order," as he said, " to take leave of those holy places ;" and he thrice kissed the last steps of the Scala Santa. He had once promised not only to expend on an expedition against England the property of the church, chalices and crosses not excepted, but even to head it in person. Some fugitive catholics from England pre- senting themselves in his way, he said, " he wished he might shed his blood for them." He spoke with special interest of the Ligue, for the successful prosecution of which he left every thing in ready train : the last money he dispensed was for that purpose.f The phantoms of his enterprises hovered round him to his last moment. He had not a doubt of their prosperous issue, deeming that God would needs raise up from the very stones the man his work demanded. If his loss was immediately felt more acutely than he himself had anticipated, an unity had yet been founded, a force had been summoned forth, whose inherent momentum would of necessity maintain the course begun. BOOK THE FOURTH. COURT AND STATE. THE TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. Introduction. Henceforth Catholicism confronted the protestant world in renovated collected vigour. Comparing the two antagonists together, we see an extraordinary advantage on the side of Catholicism, inasmuch as it had a centre, a chief who guided its movements in every di- rection. Nor only had the pope the means of uniting the other catholic powers in a community of efforts, but he possessed besides dominions of his own, sufficiently strong to contribute something to the general force. From this time forth, the states of the Church come before us in a new light. Their foundation resulted from the efforts * Catena, Vila di Pio V., p. 85. Pio si ilolso dpi conte che non huvesse il comandamemo di lui osservato d'am- mazzar subilo qualunque ^ereiico gli fosse veuuto alle mani. of the popes to elevate their families to princely station, or to secure for themselves a para- mount importance among the powers of the world, and especially among the Italian states. In neither object did they succeed to the full extent of their desires ; and now it was be- come forever impossible to renew those ef- forts. A law of their own making forbade the alienation of the possessions of the Church, while the Spaniards were far too powerful in Italy to admit of any contest with them. On the other hand, the temporal sovereignty had ♦ Hp died May 1,1572. t Infonnaiione dell' infermitil di Pio V. Havendo in sua stanza in una cassettina 13m. sc. per donare e fare eleemosine di sua niano, dueglorni avanti sua morte, fece chiamare il deposilario della camera e levarli, dicendo che sarieno boni per la lega. [Having in his chamber a casket containing tliirteen thousand scudi, intended for presents and alms to be bestowed with his own hand, two days before he died hesent for the treasurer to the camera to take them, saying, ihey would be serviceable to tha L/igue.] i ADMINISTRATION OF THE STATES OF THE CHURCH. 123 now become a prop for the spiritual authority : I the financial means it aftbrded were import- ant to the g-eneral development of the papal power. Belbre we proceed further, it will be necessary to take a closer view of the admi- nistration of the States of the Church, in the form it gradually assumed during the course of the sixteenth century. Administration of the States of the Church. A well-situated, rich, and noble region had fallen to the lot of the popes. The writers of the sixteenth century can- not find words sufficiently to extol its fertility. What beautiful plains did it exhibit round Bologna, all through Romagna ! what loveli- ness combined with fertility, down tlie slopes of the Apennines! " We travelled," say the Venetian ambassadors of 1522, "from Mace- rata to Tolentino through the most beautiful fields ; through hills and plains covered with corn : there was nothing else to be seen grow- ing for a space of thirty miles; not a foot of uncultivated land was discoverable ; it seemed impossible to gather in, not to speak of con- suming, such an abundance of corn." Ro- magna yearly yielded forty thousand stara more corn than was sufficient for its own con- sumption ; for this there was a great demand, and after supplying the mountain districts of Urbino, Tuscany, and Bologna, thirty-five thousand stara more were at times exported by sea. Whilst Venice,* on the one sea, was supplied with necessaries from Bologna and the iVlarch ; on the other, Genoa commonly, and occasionally Naples too, were supplied from Viterbo and the patrimony. In one of his bulls of the year 1566, Pius V. extols the divine grace, that had permitted that Rome, which formerly had not been able to subsist without foreign supplies of 6orn, should now not only possess it in superfluity, but often be able to supply it of its own growth to neigh- bouring and distant countries, by land and sea.f In the year 1589, the exports of corn from the States of the Church are estimated at the an- nual value of five hundred thousand scudi.l * Badoer, Relatione, 1591 . The friendship of Romagna for Venice rested on the consideration, "quanto impona la vicinili di questacitli per ben vendere per rordinario le lore biade, vini, frutti, guadi et altre cose, ri(;oilandone aU'incomro boni danari." [How imporianl the vicinity of the latter city was for the ready sale of the corn, wine, fruits, nets, and other very profitable coiniuoililies.] t Jurisdictio consuluin arlis agriculiurae urbis — 9 Sep. 1566. Bullar. Cocquel. iv. ii. 314. JGiovanni Griiti, Relatione, 1589. La Romagna e la Marca sola si mette che alcune voile abbia mandato fuori 60n)- rubbia di grano e piu di SOm- di menudi. II paese di Roma e lo staio di li dell' Alpi quasi oani anno s.immin- islra il viver al paese di Genova et altri jiinshi circonvi- cini : onde deU'uscita di grani e di biade dellostato eccle- eiastico si tien per cosa certa che ogn'anno eniri in esso valsente di 500m- go. almeno : n6 ail'incontro ha bisnjno di fosi di fuori se non di poco niomento et in poca stima, che sono specierie e cosi da vestirsi di nobili e ])ersone principali. [Il is stated thai Romagna and the March alone have occasionally sixty thousand rubbia of wheal, Particular districts were further celebrated for their several peculiar productions; Perugia for hemp, Faenza for flax, Viterbo for both,* Cesena for a wine for exportation, Rimini for oil, Bologna for woad, San Lorenzo for its manna; the vintage of Montefiascone was famous all over the world. In Campagna there existed in those times a breed of horses not much inferior to that of Naples; about Nettuno and Terracina there was excellent hunting, especially of the wild boar. There was no lack of lakes abounding in fish : there were salt and alum works, and quaries of mar- ble : the country seemed to possess in plenty every thing that could be desired for the com- forts of life. Nor was this territory by any means ex- cluded from the general commerce of the world. Ancona had a very flourishing trade, " It is a handsome place," say the ambassa- dors of 1522, "full of merchants, particularly Greeks and Turks : we were assured that in preceeding years some of them did business to the amount of five hundred thousand du- cats." In the year 1549, we find two hun- dred Greek families settled there as traders, having their own church. The harbour was full of Levantine caravels. There were Ar- menians, Turks, Florentines, people from Lucca, Venetians, and Jews from the East and from the West. The goods that changed hands here consisted of silk, wool, leather, Flemish lead and cloths. Luxury was on the increase; house-rents were rising, phy- sicians and schoolmasters were more nu- merous, and their fees higher than ever be- fore, f But the inhabitants of the States of the Church were still more renowned for their valour than for their commercial activity and capacity. They are sometimes described to us according to the several shades of their military character. The Perugians are steady soldiers, the inhabitants of Romagna brave but improvident, those of Spolelo abound in stratageins of war ; the Bolognese are high- spirited, but hard to keep in discipline; the inhabitants of the March addicted to plunder; the Faentini are above all others the men to resist a charge, and to pursue the enemy on his retreat ; the men of Fori i are distinguished for skill in executing difficult mancEuvres; those of Fermo for dexterity in the use of the and more than thirty thousand rubbia of olher grain The country round Rome and the Transalpine Slate, almost every year supply the necessaries of life to Geneva and other surrounding neighbourhoods: accordingly il is ascer- tained, thai in return for the corn and oats of the Ecclesi- aslical States, there yearly flows into them the amount of five hundred thousand scudi at least. On the other hand, they have no need of foreign goods, with the exception of things of small importance and value, such as groceries, and ^materials of apparel for the nobility and persons of distinction.] * Voyage de Montaigne, ii. 488. t Saracini, Noiizie istoriche della citt4 d'Ancona. Roma, 1675, p. 362. 124 COURT AND STATE. TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTHS V. lance.* "The whole population," says one of our Venetians, " is martial and fierce by nature. So soon as these men leave their homes they are fit for every deed of war, whether of leaguer or of open fight : they bear with ease the toils of a campaign.!" The Venetians constantly drew their best troops from the March and from Romagna : for that reason was the friendship of the dukes of Ur- bino of such moment to the republic we always find officers from those districts in its service. It was said, however, that here there were cap- tains enough for all the sovereigns in the world ; from hence had gone forth the com- pany of St. George, with which Albericii of Barbiano had extirpated the foreign mercena- ries, and revived the fame of the Italian arms ; here was still the race and slock of the men who had contributed so much to the establish- ment of the Roman empire. | Later times have not justified such high encomiums; still the last leader who employed these men on foreign service is said to have given them the decided preference over the rest of his Italian, and over a considerable part of his French troops. All these rich districts and this brave popu- lation were now subject to the peaceful, spi- ritual power of the pope. Let us now trace the leading features of the government that developed itself under the pontiifs. It was founded, as usual in the Italian states, on a more or less stringent limitation of the independence to which the municipalities had almost every where grown in the course of centuries. Down even to the fifteenth century, the priors of Viterbo, sitting on their stone seats before the door of the town-hall, received the oath of the podestas, sent them by the pope or his representative.^ When the city of Fano became immediately subject to the Roman see, it made stipula- tions beforehand, conditioning not only that it should tor the future be under the immediate sovereignty of Rome, but also that it should have right of choosing its own podesta, with- out the need of any further confirmation of tlie appointment, withtwenty years immunity *Laudi, QuEBSliones Forcianae, Neapoli, 1536: a book full of authentic and minute observations on the state of Italy in those days. t Soriano, 157U; Quanto a soldati, 6 commune opinions clie nello statodellacliicsa siano i mialiori di tutto il resto d'ltalia, anzi d'Europa. [As for soldiers, it is commonly thought that the Ecclesiastical States possess the best in Italy, or even in Europe.] t Lorenzo Priuli: Relatione, 1.58G. Lo stato pieno di viveri per darne anco a popoli vicini, pieno di huomini bellicosi — he specifies Genga, Carpacna, and Malatesta. Pareno tulti questi popoli nati et allevali nella militia. E molto presto si metteria insieme molto buona gentetoc- cando il tamburo. [The State abounds with the necessa- ries of life, so that it can supjdy its neiulibours, and is full of warlike men. The wliole population seems born and bred to war. A fine body of men would speedily assem- ble at the beat of the drum.] § Feliciano Bassi: Istoria di Vitorbo, p. 59. from all new burthens, the advantages of the sale of salt, and several other privileges.* Even so arbitrary a ruler as Cesar Borgia could not avoid granting privileges to the towns of which he had composed his princi- pality. He even surrendered to the town of Sinigaglia revenues that had till then belonged to the sovereign."!- How much more incumbent was this upon Julius II., whose ambition it was to figure as an emancipator from tyranny. He himself re- minded the Perugians that he had spent the best years of his youth within their walls. When he drove Baglione out of Perugia, he contented himself with recalling the emi- grants, restoring their power to the peaceful magistrates, the priori, and bestowing higher salaries on the professors of the universities : he made no encroachments on the ancient immunities of the city. For a long time after- wards it paid no more than a few thousand du- cats, by way of recognition of the pope's sove- reignty; even under Clement VII. I find a calculation of the number of troops it could bring into the field, just as though it were a perfectly free community.! Bologna's yoke was equally light. With the forms, it at all times maintained likewise many of the essential attributes of municipal independence. It freely administered its own revenues, maintained its own troops, and the pope's legate received a salary from the city. Julius II. conquered the towns of Romagna in the Venitian war ; but he did not possess himself of a single one without consenting to restrictive conditions or conferring new posi- tive rights. In later times they always re- curred to the stipulations they then concluded with him. They designated the political con- dition on which they entered by the name of " Ecclesiasiical Freedom. "J The state, tlfus constituted, had on the whole a certain analogy to that of Venice. In the one, as in the other, the political power liad hitherto been in the hands of the com- munes, which had for the most part subjected smaller communities to their sway. In the Venetian territories these ruling municipali- ties, without in all respects foregoing their independence, had subjected themselves under accurately defined conditions to tlie control of the nobilii of Venice: in the Ecclesiastical States they fell under the commonwealth of the curia ; for the court constituted a common- wealth in tlie latter, as the nobility did in the former. The dignity of prelate, indeed, was not indispensable towards the occupation of the highest posts in the municipalities during *Amiani: Memorie istoriche della citti'di Fano, t. ii. p. 4. t Siena, Storia di Senigaglia, App. n. v. t Surlano, Relatione di Fiorenza, 1.533. § Rainaldus alludes to tliis but very briefly. Concern- ing Ravenna, see Hieronymi Kubei Historiarum ilaven- nalum lib. viii. p. 6G0. ADMINISTRATION OF THE STATES OF THE CHURCH. 125 the first half of this century : temporal vice- legates present themselves to us in Perug^ia ; in Romagna it seemed almost an established rule that a secular president should be at tlie head of the administration; laymen attained occasionally to the greatest power and conse- quence, as for instance, Jacopo Salviati, under Clement Vli. ; but these laymen belonged after all to the curia ; they were servants of the pope, and thereby members of that corpo- ration. The towns, however, did not like those secular governors ; they demanded pre- lates, tiiinking it more Jionourable to obey ec- clesiastics of high rank. Compared with a German principality, with all its organized system of estates, an Italian at first sight ap- pears almost anarchical. But even in the case of the latter, there existed in fact a nota- ble partition of privileges between the various classes, between the highest authorities of a city and its nobili, between these latter and the cittadini, between the aristocracy and the communes subject to them, between the city and the rural population. It is a striking fact, that hardly in any once instance was a sys- tem of provincial administration adopted in Italy. Provincial assemblies were held in- deed in the Ecclesiastical States, and these have been dignified with the name of par- liaments; but in some way or other it must have been inconsistent with the manners ol' the country and with the Italian character to bring such institutions to perfection: they never attained to any enduring influence. Now had the municipal constitution reached that complete development of which it was susceptible, and towards which it seemed in progress, seeing on the one hand the limita- tion of the government authority, on the other the positive rights and the great power of the communes, and the multitude of the indivi- dual privileges, it would have e.xhibited the principle of stability in the most striking form — a political system defined by special prero- gatives and reciprocal limitations. Considerable progress was made in this di- rection in the Venetian dominions, not nearly so much in the States of the Church. This difference is referable to the original diversity of their forms of government. In Venice there was a hereditary self-governing corporation, that regarded the supreme power as its own property. The Roman curia on the other hand was extremely fluctuating ; new^ elements flowed in upon it after every new conclave ; the countrymen of the several popes always acquired a large share in the disposal of business. In the tbrmer, appoint- ments to places in the administration proceed- ed from the corporation itself; in the latter, they depended on the favour of the head of tlie state. In the former, the rulers were kept in check by rigorous laws, close inspection, and syndication; in the latter, individuals were less restricted byfear of punishment than by hope of promotion, which moreover depended, in a great degree, on favour and afl'ection, and they enjoyed a wider range of action. From the very first, too, the papal govern- ment had secured to itself a freer position. In this point of view we arrive at a remark- able result, on comparing the concessions made respectively by Rome and Venice. A favour- able opportunity for this is aflbrded, among others, by the case of Faenza, which had yield- ed itself up to the Venetians a few years before its surrender to the pope, and had made stipu- lations with both.* On both occasions it had demanded, for instance, that no new tax should ever be imposed without the approval of the majority of the great council of Faenza : to this the Venetians acceded unconditionally, whereas the pope added the clause, "unless it should otherwise seem fit to him upon im- portant and reasonable grounds." I will not enlarge upon this subject ; the same difl^erence is every where observable ; it is sufficient that I mention one other instance. The Venetians had consented without hesitation that all cri- minal judgments should be subject to the approval of the podesta and his curia : the pope likewise granted this in general, but insisted on one exception. "In cases of high treason, or of similar crimes, which might occasion public irritation, the authority of the governor sha,ll step in." It is manifest that the papal government reserved to itself, from the very outset, a much more vigorous exercise of the sovereign authority than did the Venetian.f It cannot be denied that its efforts to this end were greatly facilitated by the other side. In the subject towns in those days the mid- dle classes, the burghers, and the traders and artisans, when their incomes sufficed for their maintenance, remained peaceable and obedi- ent ; but there was no end to the commotions among the patricians, the nobili, who held the municipal authority in their hands. They practised no arts, cared little for agriculture, set no great store by intellectual cultivation, or skill in arms ; their own feuds and enmities were all that engrossed their attention. The old factions of Guelphs and Ghibellines still subsisted ; they had been fostered by the last wars, in which victory had alternated between them ; all the f imilies belonging to either party were well known. In Faenza, Ravenna, and Forli, the Ghibellines were the stronger; in Rimini the Guelphs ; but in all these towns the weaker party still maintained itself. In * Historie di Faenze, falica di GiulioCesare Tonduzzi, Fapnza, 1U75, contain (p. 5li9) ihe capilulatious concluded wilh the Venetians in 1501, and (p. 08?) those assented to by Julius II. in 15111. t What were the means it used is shown by Paul III. when he says (1547) : " Ceux qui viennent nouvellenient au papat viennent pauvres, obliges de promesses, at la de- pense qu'ils font pour s'asseurerdans les lerresde I'eglise nionte plus c^ue le profit des proniieresann^es." Le Card', de Guise au Koy de France, en Kibier, ii. 17. 126 COURT AND STATE. TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTHS V. Cesena and Imola the two* were on a par. Even in the midst of outward peace a secret war was carried on ; every one made it his special purpose to keep down his adversary of the other faction, and to cast him into the shade.* The chiefs had at their beck depen- dents in the lowest classes, stout determined fellows, vagabond bravi, who voluntarily offer- ed their services to those who they knew stood in fear of enemies, or had an injury to avenge. They were always ready to commit murder for hire. The result of these universal feuds was, that while neither party trusted the other, or allow- ed it the exerciseof authority, the cities were less sedulous to maintain their privileges. When the president, or the legate, entered the province, the question was not asked whe- ther he was disposed to respect the rights of the municipalities ; the only thing attempted to be guessed at was, to which party he ad- hered. It is impossible to describe the exul- tation of the favoured party, and the dismay of their rivals. The legate had need be very wary. The most influential men sought his intimacy, courted his good-will, affected to display great zeal for the interests of the state, and acquiesced in all measures proposed for its advantage ; but all this was often but a pretence to secure them a better footing with the legate, to ingratiate themselves with him, and so enable them the more keenly to wound and persecute the party they hated.f The barons in the country were in a some- what diflerent position. They were for the most part poor, but liberal and ambitiojis, so that they even kept open house, and without exception expended more than their means could affijrd. They always had dependents in the towns, whose aid they often employed for illegal purposes. But they made it their chief care to maintain a good understanding with their peasantry, who always possessed the largest extent of ground, though no wealth. In southern countries regard is indeed paid to high birth and to the prerogatives of gentle blood, but the distinction of ranks is very far from being so strictly marked there as in nor- thern lands, nor does it act as a bar to the closest personal intimacy. The peasants lived * Relatione dellaRomagna(Bibl. All.). Li nobili hanno seguilo di iiiolle persone, delle quale alcune voile si vag- liono no' consegli per conseguire qualche carica, o per se o per allrl, per poiere vincere o per impedire all' allri qualclip richiesla: ne' giudicii per provare el alcune volte per testificare, nelle inimlcitie per fare vendette, ingiurie: alcuni ancora a Ravenna, Imola e Faenzausavano di con- trabandare grano. [The nobles have a numerous train of dependents, of whose aid they avail themselves in the council, to obtain any charge either for themselves or for others, to further any request of their own, or hinder those of others; before the tribunals to carry on suits, and some- times to bear witness and in their quarrels to satisfy their reven'/e. Some too in Ravenna, Imola, and Faenza, em- ployed these persons in smugslina corn. t Relatione di Monsre- Rev"'o- Giov. P. Ghisilieri al P. Gregorio XIII. tornando esli dal presidentatodi Romagna. We learn from Tonduzzi (Hislorie di Faenza, p. 673) that Ghisilieri came inloihe province in 1573. with their barons rather on the footing of bro- therly subordination, nor could it well be said whether the peasants showed more alacrity towards obedience and service, or the barons towards acts of patronage and support : there was something of a patriarchal character in the connexion between them.* This arose chiefly out of the desire of the barons to hinder their vassals from having recourse to the state authorities. They paid but little regard to the feudal supremacy of the papal see. They looked on the pretensions of the legate to judge, not only on appeal, but sometimes even in the first instance, not as claims of right, but as consequences of an unfortunate politi- cal conjuncture that would soon pass away. There existed also here and there, particu- larly in Romagna, independent communities of peasants.f They were large clans descend- ed from a common stock ; lords in their own villages; all armed, and especially practised in the use of the arquebus; generally half- savage. They may be compared with the free Greek or Sclavonian communities, that maintained their independence among the Venetians, or with those of Candia, Morea, and Dalmatia, who reconquered their lost independence from the Turks. In the States of the Church these peasants likewise adiiered to the different factions. The Savina, Scar- docci, and Solaroli, were Ghibellines; the Manbelli, Cerroni, and Serra, were Guelphs. The Serra had in their district an eminence that served as an asylum for those who com- mitted any offence. The strongest of all were the Cerroni, whose numbers extended also into the Florentine territory. They had di- vided themselves into two branches, Rinaldi and Ravagli, which were unceasingly at feud, notwithstanding their relationship. They stood in a sort of hereditary connexion not only with the noble families of the towns, but also with lawyers who supported the one or the other faction in their litigations. There was not in all Romagna a single family so powerful that it could not easily have been hurt by these peasants. The Venetians al ways kept some one of their military commanders among them, in order to be assured of their aid in case of war. If, as we have already said, all these popu- lations had been united, it would have been * Relatione della Romagna : Essendosi agginstate gli uni air humore degli allri. [Being filled to each other's humour.] t The peasants likewise often threw off the yoke of the towns. Ghisilieri: " Scossi da quel giogo e recali ([uasi corpo diyerso da quelle cilfA" (ex. gr. Forli, Cesena), "si governaho con eerie loro lesgi separate, solto il governo d'un protettore eletto da loro medesimi, li quali hanno aniplissima aulorita di far le resolulioni necessarie per li casi occorrenli alii conladini." [Having shaken oT tha yoke, and seceded as a separate body from those cities, they are under the governmeniof th^irown distinct laws, administered by a president elected by ihems'lves, who has the amplest authority to adopl all resolutions neces- sary under the various circumsiances occurring lo the peasants.] ADMINISTRATION OF THE STATES OF THE CHURCH. 127 difficult for the Roman prelates to assert the authority of the state ; but their dissensions strengthened the hands of the government. In the report of a president of Romagna to pope Gregory XIII. I find the words : " As the people is easily ruled when disunited, so is it with difficulty governed when too much unit- ed."* But, furthermore, another party sprung up in these centuries in favour of tlie govern- ment. It consisted of those peaceful indivi- duals who wished for tranquillity, men of the middle station, who were not partisans of either faction. In Fano tliis party formed an association, called the " Holy Union," com- pelled to this step, as stated in their founda- tion-deed, " because the whole town is become full of robbery and murder, and not only are those persons insecure who are involved in the several feuds, but those, too, who would fain eat their bread m the sweat of their brow." They bound themselvestogether in the church by an oath of brotherhood for life or death to uphold the quiet of the town, and to exter- minate its disturbers.f The government fa- voured them, and allowed them the right of bearing arms. We find them throughout all Romagna under the title oi' pacijici, gradually constituting a kind of plebian magistracy. The government had its adherents likewise among the peasants. The Manbelli attached themselves to the legate's court. They arrest- ed banditti, and acted as warders of the fron- tiers, whereby they acquired no slight increase of consequence in the eyes of their neigh- bours.| The government was further assisted by local jealousies, the opposition of the rural communities to the towns, and many other internal evils. Thus, instead of that legal order, quiet, and stability, to which, judging theoretically, the constitution miglithave led, we find turbulent strife of factions, interference of government so long as these are at variance, reaction of the municipalities when they are again united ; violence on the side of the law, violence against the law, every man trying how far he might riot in license. Under Leo X. the Florentines, who for the most part held the reigns of administration, immediately exercised the rights of the curia ♦ Siccome il popolo disunilo facilmente si doniina, cosi difficilmenie si rpgge quando 6 iroppo unilo. t They were like the Herniandad. Aiiiiani, Memorie di Fano, ii. 146, gives their formula grounded on the text " Beali pacifici, quia filii Dei vocabunlur." [Blessed are Ihe peace-makers, for they shall be called the sons of God.] Hence may have been derived their name in other towns. t According to the Relatione della Romagna, they call- ed themselves also, from their place of abode, " Huomini da Schieto:" — " Uomini," it says, "che si fanno mollo ri- guardare ; sono Guelphi : la corte di Romagna si 6 valuta dell' opero loro mollo utilmente, massime in havere in niano bandiii, et in ovviare alle fraudi the si fanno in estrarre bestiani dalle montagne." [Men who are much esteemed : they are Guelphs : the court of Romagna has profited much by their aid, especially in curbing the ban- ditti, and in preventing the fraudulent absuaclion of cattle from the mounlains.J in a very oppressive manner. Embassies from the towns arrived one after the other in Rome, entreating relief of their grievances. Raven- na declared it would rather surrender to the Turks, than endure the continuance of such a system of government.* Often during the vacancies of the papal see the old lords re- turned, and were not afterwards expelled without difficulty by the new pope. On the other hand, the towns dreaded being alien- ated from the papal see. Sometimes a cardi- nal, sometimes one of the pope's adherents, or a neighbouring prince, would endeavour to obtain the right of government in one or other of the towns, in consideration of money paid to the camera. The towns, therefore, kept agents and envoys at Rome, to discover every scheme of this kind the moment it was sug- gested, and to frustrate it whenever it was sought to be put in operation. They were generally successful in this ; but sometimes it happened that they were obliged to have recourse to force against the pope's authority, and even against his troops. In almost all the histories of the towns there occur one or more examples of rude insubordination. In Faenza once, in the summer of 1.521, the Swiss of Pope Leo and the citizens came to a regular battle in the streets. The Swiss con- trived to concentrate themselves in the piazza, but the citizens baricading all the streets that opened upon it, they were glad enough when one was unbarred, and they were suffered to march out unmolested. That day was for many a year afterwards celebrated in Faenza with religious solemnities.! Jesi, which could hardly be called an important town, had yet courage enough to attack the vice- governor in his palace, on the 25th Novem- ber, 1528, on his demanding certain marks of honour which the inhabitants refused to pay him. The citizens and the peasants united, and a hundred Albanians who were in the neighbourhood were taken into pay : the vice- governor fled with all his officers. " My native town," says the otherwise very devout catholic chronicler, "having in this way re- trieved its original freedom, resolved yearly to solemnize that day at the public cost."| From such acts nothing, it is obvious, could ensue but new subjugations, new punish- ments, and harder restrictions. The govern- ment seized on the pretext afforded them by such occurrences, to wrest from the towns ♦ Marino Zorzi: Relatione di 1517. La terra di Ro- magna e in gran combustione e desordine: li vien fatta poco juslitia: e lui orator ha visto tal x man di oratori al cardinal di Medici, che ncgotia le facende, lamentandosi di mali portainenti fanno quelli reiiori loio. [Romagna is in the utmost turbulence and disorder; justice is little regarded there, and the reporter has seen as many as ten deputations to cardinal Medici, respecting the state of Ihinss there, all loudly complaining of the misconduct of their rulers.] t Tonduzzi, Hislorie di Faenz, p. f>09. JBaldassini, Memorie istoriche dell' antichissimacitt& de Jesi. Jesi, 1744, p. 256. 123 COURT AND STATE. TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. whatever remnants they yet retained of an- cient independence, and to bring thern into total subjection. Ancona and Perugia afford striking and memorable instances of this. Ancona was one of those towns that paid the pope merely a small annual sum by way of recognition ; the inadequacy of which ap- peared the more strongly as the prosperity of the town augmented. The court reckoned th'3 revenue of Ancona at fifty thousand scudi, and thought it intolerable that the local nobi- lity, should divide all that money between themselves. So when the city refused to submit to new taxes, and took forcible posses- sion of a castle to which it laid claim, an open rupture ensued. The manner in which governments of that day sometimes asserted their rights is worth notice. The papal func- tionaries swept away all the cattle Irom the March of Ancona to realize the amount of their dues : this they called exercising re- prisals. Clement VII. however was not satisfied with this : he only waited a favourable oppor- tunity to make himself temporal master of Ancona, and, to bring this about, he had re- course to stratagem. He ordered a fort to be erected in the city, alleging he did so only because the Turkish power, after its recent successes in Egypt and Rhodes, which gave it such strength in the Mediterranean, would undoubtedly make a speedy descent on Italy. How perilous would it be then if Ancona, ni which there were always numerous Turkish vessels at anchor, should be left without any military works! He sent Antonio Sangallo to erect the fort. The works were carried on with the utmost rapidity, and a small garrison was soon installed in them. This was the moment the pope looked for. AVhen things were so far advanced, one day in September, 1532, the governor of the March, Monsignor Bernardino della Barba, a priest, but a man of martial character, made his appearance in the territory of Ancona with an imposing army furnished him by the jealousy of tlie neighbouring districts, took one of the gates of the city, and marched his troops up to the palace. The Anziani, but recently chosen by lot, dwelt there free from apprehension, and surrounded with the badges of supreme digni- ty. Monsignor della Barba entered with a military staff", and announced to them, witii little ceremony, " that the pope was resolved to have the uncontrolled government of An- cona in his own hands." In fact, there was no possibility of resisting him. The younger nobili brought in from the country in all haste a few bands of retainers ; but what could they do, now that the papal troops were already prepared by new fortifications for every contingency ] The elder nobles would not risk the plundering and devastation of the city. They yielded, therefore, to what was inevitable. The Anziani left the palace, and presently appeared the new legate, Benedetto della Ac- colti, who had stipulated to pay the camera twenty thousand scudi yearly for the govern- ment of Ancona. The whole state of things was changed. All arms were required to be given up, and sixty-four of the principal nobles were exiled: new lists of magistrates were made out ; some of the offices of state were conferred on the inhabitants of the rural district and persons not noble. Justice was no longer administered according to the old statutes. Woe to him who offered to oppose these regulations ! Some leading men incurred the suspicion of conspiring together: they were forthwith arrested, sentenced, and be- headed. The next day a carpet was spread in the market-place, and the corpses laid upon it, with a lighted torch by each: in that manner they were left lying the whole day. Paul III. indeed subsequently granted the inhabitants some relaxation from the severity shown them ; but they were not raised Irom their state of abject subjection, nor had he any thought of restoring their ancient inde- pendence. On the contrary, he employed the same Bernardino della Barba to suppress the liber- ties of another of his towns. The pope having raised the price of salt one-halt; the city of Perugia thought itself justified by its privileges in opposing the ex- action. The pope excommunicated the citi- zens who assembled in the churches, elected a magistracy of " twenty-five defenders," and laid the keys of their gates before a crucifix in the market-place. Both sides prepared for action. The insurrection of so important a city against the pope's .sway excited general com- motion, and would have led to remarkable consequences, had there been war at the time in Italy : but as every thing was quiet, no state could afford them the aid on which they counted. Though Perugia was not without strength, it was far from being able to cope with the army led against it by Pier Luigi Farnese, consisting of ten thousand Italians and three thousand Spaniards. The government of the five-and-twent.y, too, was marked rather by violence and impetuosity than by discretion and care for the protection of the city. They did not even provide money for the payment of the troops brought to their aid by one of the Baglioni. Their only ally, Ascanio Co- loiina, who resisted the same impost, con- tented himself with driving oft' cattle from the ecclesiastical territories, but could not be prevailed on to render them any more serious assistance. FINANCES. 129 Accordingly, after a brief enjoyment of freedom, the city was forced to surrender again on the 3rd of June, 1540. Delegates from it were obliged to attend at the pope's feet in the portico of St. Peter, in long mourn- ing-robes, with ropes round their necks, to beg for mercy. This was granted, but their liberties were already destroyed ; all their privileges were repealed. Bernardino dejla Barba arrived in Perugia, to deal with it as he had done with Ancona. The inhabitants were disarmed ; the chains with wliich the streets had been closed till now were taken away ; and the houses of the five-and-twenty, who had early taken flight, were levelled with the ground. A fort was erected on the site where the Baglioni had resided. The citizens were forced to pay the expenses. A chief magistrate was appointed, whose title, " conservator of ecclesiastical obedience," was sufficiently indicative of the purpose for which he was intended. A sub- sequent pope restored the title of prior, but without any renewal of the old privileges.* Ascania Colonna, too, was meanwhile over- come by the same papal army, and driven out of his strongholds. The papal power was incalculably aug- mented in the states of the church by so many successful achievements; neither towns nor barons dared any longer stand out against it. The free communes had submitted one by one, and the popes could now bend all the resources of the country to their own ends. Let us contemplate the manner in which they did this. Finances. It is necessary that we should, in the first instance, make ourselves acquainted with the papal system of finance ; a system important not only as regarded that state, but also from the example it furnished to all Europe. It has been observed, that the system of exchanges of the middle ages owed its origin chiefly to the nature of the papal revenues, which, falling due all over the world, were to be remitted from all parts to the 'curia : nor is it less worthy of remark, that the system of public debt, with which we are all now en- compassed, and which exercises so paramount an influence over all tlie springs of couimerce, was first systematically developed in the states of the Church. However just may have been the com- plaints raised against the exactions of Rome during the fifteenth century, it is yet manifest *Marioui, Memorie isloriche civili ed ecclPsiasticVie delta ciltik de Perugia e su conlado, Perui^ia, ISOG, gives an aulheniic and detailed account of these occurrences, I. p. 113— IGO. lie recurs to them again, for instance, iii. p. 634. 17 that but a small part of the proceeds passed into the hands of the pope. Pius II. enjoyed the general obedience of Europe ; and yet, for want of money, he was once compelled to limit himself and his household to a single meal a day. He was obliged to borrow the two hundred thousand ducats requisite lor the Turkish war he had in contemplation. Even those petty expedients which many a pope adopted, such as obtaining from a prince, a bishop, or a grand-master, who had an afliiir pending at the papal court, a present, it might be of a gold cup, with a sum of ducats in it, or of costly fur, only show the really misera- ble state of their economy.* Money certainly arrived at the court in very considerable sums, though not so exorbitant as has been supposed ; but there it was dissipated among a thousand hands. It was absorbed by the offices which it had been the practice for a great length of time to put up to sale. The income of these was chiefly founded on gratu- ities, and free scope was given to the exac- tions of the holders. The pope received no- thing but the price paid for the offices on the filling up of vacancies. If the pope was disposed to engage in any costly undertaking, he was obliged to have recourse to extraordinary means. Jubilees and indulgences were most welcome helps ; through such instrumentality the docility of the faithful afforded him a clear revenue. There was another ready means at his com- mand. To procure important sums he had but to create new offices, and sell them ; a singular kind of loan, for which the church paid heavy interest, liquidated by the increase of its own dues. This practice had long prevailed. According to a register of the house of Chigi, which is deserving of credit, there were in the year 1471 about six himdred and fifty vendible offices, the income of which was calculated at about one hundred thousand scudi.f These were almost all places of proc- tors, registrars, abbreviators, correctors, no- taries, secretaries, and even messengers and porters; the increasingnumber of which con- tinually augmented the cost of a bull or a brief. This was the very object of their crea- tion ; the duties attached to them amounted to little or nothing. It will readily be supposed that the suc- ceeding popes, deeply involved as they were * Voight, " Voices from Rome respecting the papal court in the fifteenth century," in Fr. von Raumer's His- torischen Taschenbuch for the yearlS33, contains numer- ous notices on this subject. Those v/ho have access to the work entitled " Schlrsien vor und seit dem Jahre 1740," will find there, ii. 483, a satire of thf> fifteenth cen- tury, not badly executed, on this monstrous system of pre- sent-giving: "Passio domini papse secundum marcam auri et arsenti." + Gli uificii piu antichi. MS. Bibliotheca Chigi, No. ii. 50. There are (iSl offices and 98,.340scudi, " fin al crea- tioni di Sisto IV." (up to the creation by Sixtus IV.) So littlelrulh is there in the assertion of Onuphrius Panvin- ius, that Sexlus IV. was the first who sold them : p. 348. 130 COURT AND STATE. TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. in European politics, eagerly laid hold on so convenient a means oi' filling their coffers. Sixtiis IV. availed himself in this matter of the advice of his prothonotary Sinolfo. He es- tablished whole colleges at once, the posts in which he sold for a few hundred ducats. They were singular titles under which these new establishments figured ; as, for instance, a college of a hundred janissaries, who were nominated for one hundred thousand ducats, and their salaries charged upon the proceeds of the bulls and annates.* Sixtus IV. sold notairates, prothonotariates, proctorships of the camera, and every office besides, and car- ried the system to such lengths that he has been held to be its founder. At any rate, it was first fully adopted in his time. Innocent VIII., whose embarrassments were such as to make him even pledge the papal tiara, found- ed a new college of twenty-six secretaries for sixty thousand scudi, and a full complement of other offices. Alexander VI. named eighty writers of briefs, each of whom had to pay seven hundred and fifty scudi. Julius II. ad- ded a hundred writers of archives upon the same terms. The sources, however, from which all these hundreds of functionaries derived their sala- ries, were not inexhaustible. We have seen how almost all Christian states made simulta- neous and successful attempts to limit the in- terference of the papal court. These took place precisely at the juncture when the popes beheld themselves constrained to great ex- penditure by the magnitude of their under- takings. It was fortunate for them that they obtain- ed possession of a territory from which, mild as was their administration in the beginning, they yet drew considerable new revenues. It will not excite surprise that they dealt with these just in the same way as with the eccle- siastical funds. Julius II., besides the assignment of the an- nates, gave the above-mentioned writers a lien also on the dogana and the treasury. He in- stituted a college of a hundred and forty-one presidents of the Annona, who were all paid out of the coffers of the state. In this way he made the surplus revenue of the country serve as a basis for contracting loans. The grand distinguishing character of this pope in the eyes of foreign powers was that he could raise as much money as he chose. This was, in a great degree, the foundation of his policy. The wants of Leo X., however, were much greater than those of Julius, since he was no loss involved in war, was much more prodigal, and more dependent on the support of his re- • There were also Stradiotesand Mamelukos, who wi^re afterwards however suppressed. "Adistipulalores sine quibus nullae possent confici tabulae." Onuphrius Pan- viniua. According lo the register (Ufficii Antichi,) this creation would seem to have brought iaonly 40,000 ducats. lations. "That the pope should ever keep by him a thousand ducats together," says Fran- cesco Vettori of him, "is just as impossible as that a stone should fly up into the air itself." The charge has been laid at his door, that he ran through the wealth of three pontificates; that of his predecessor, from whom he inheri- ted a considerable treasure, his own, and that of his successor, to whom he bequeathed a mass of debt. He was not content with sell- ing existing offices; his great nomination of cardinals brought him in important sums, and nothing could exceed the boldness with which he employed the established expedient of cre- ating new offices simply for the purpose of sale. Above twelve hundred such were cre- ated by him alone.* The characteristic of all these portionarii, scndieri, cavalier i di San Pietro, and whatever else they were cal- led, is, that having paid down a sum of money, they drew interest on it for life under those titles: their office had no other signification than the addition of some small prerogatives to the enjoyment of that interest. This was, in point of fact, nothing else than a system of borrowing on annuities. Leo derived about nine hundred thousand scudi from the sale of offices. The interest, which was indeed very high, as it yearly amounted to an eighth of the capital,! was to a certain extent provided for by a slight advance in the amount of eccle- siastical dues; but it was principally furnished by the treasuries of the recently conquered provinces, that is, by the surplus funds of the ujunicipal administrations, paid into the state coffers, by the proceeds of the alum works, the salt trade, and the dogana at Rome. Leo swelled the number of offices to 2150, the yearly income of which was calculated at 320,000 scudi, and was a burden to both church and state. However intrinsically censurable was this prodigality, Leo may have been confirmed in it by observing that for the time it produced beneficial rather than pernicious effects. The singular elevation of Rome at that period was ascribable in part to this system of finance. There was no place in the world where a man could lay out his capital to as much advantage. The multitude of new offices, vacancies, and re-appoiutmencs, created an incessant move- ment in the curia, that offered every one an easy opportunity of advancement. * Sommario di la relation di M. Minio, 1520: Non ha contanti, perche 6 liberal, non se lenir danari : poi li Fi- orenlini, (che) sifanno esonosoi parenli, non li lassa mai aver un soldo: e diii Fioi-entini 6 in gran odio in cone, perche in ogni cosa 6 Fiorenlini. [He has no ready n:0upy, because he is liberal and cannot keep it. Then the Florentines, who are, or pretend to be, his relations, never leave him a penny. And the said Florentines are in great odium at court, because they thrust themselves into every thing.] t The til2 poitionarii di ripa— aggiunli al collegio dei presidenli— paid 286,200 ducals, and received yearly 38,816: the 400 cavalieri di S. Pietro paid 400,000, and had in return 50,610 ducats yearly. FINANCES. 131 Another consequence was, that the burden of new imposts was avoided. Undoubtedly, the states of the church, of all countries in those days, and Rome of all cities, paid the lowest taxes. It had long before been repre- sented to the Romans that every other city furnished to its sovereign heavy loans and vexatious imposts, whilst their lord, the pope, rather made them rich. A secretary of Cle- ment VII., who shortly after wrote an account of the conclave in which hisniaster was elec- ted, expresses his wonder that the Romans 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 part of Italy : its dominion spreads far and wide; yet so many flourishing lands and wealthy cities, which, under any other government, would be taxed to maintain great armies, pay the Roman popes hardly so nmch as may suffice to cover the cost of their own administration."* But, of necessity, this system could only last so long as there was a surplus in the state coffers. Leo himself did not succeed in fund- ing all his loans. AluiseGaddi had advanced him thirty-two thousand, Bernardo Bini two hundred thousand ducats : Salviati, Ridolfi, all his servants and retainers, had done their utmost to procure him money, relying on his liberality and his youth for repayment and brilliant reward. They w^ere every one of them ruined by his sudden death. He left his dominions in a state of exhaus- tion, which was sorely felt by his successor. The universal hatred the unfortunate Adrian drew down on his head, arose partly from his having recourse, in his urgent need of money, to the imposition of a direct tax of half-a-dticat on each hearth. f This was the more unpopu- lar, because the Romans were little accustom- ed to such demands. But Clement VII., too, could not avoid new taxes, at least indirect ones. Murmurs were raised against cardinal Armellino, who was regarded as their inventor: the augmentation of the duties levied at the city gates on arti- cles of provision caused particular dissatisfac- tion, but the people were obliged to bear with it.|: Things were come to such a pass, that * Vianesius Albergatus, Commentarii rerum sui tempo- ris (nolhing more than the descriplion of the conclave.) Opuleiitissinii populi et ditissiiuae urbes, quse si allerius ditioiiis essenl, suis vectigalibus vei magnos exercitus al- ere possenl, Ro.nano pontifici vix tantuni tribuiuni pen- duiit quaiiiuin in praeiorum magislratuunKiue expensam sufficere qunal. In the report ol' Zorzi, 1517, the united revenues of Perugia, Spolelo, the March and Romagna, are set down, after a calculation made by Francesco Ar- mellino, at 1-20,00J ducats. Of this one half fell to the papal treasury. " Di quel somma la mili 6 per terra per pagar i legati el aliri oliicii e altra mitA ha il papa." IJn- fortunately thfre are no few mistakes in the copy of the report given by Sanuto. + Hieronyino .Nfegro a Marc Antonio Micheli, 7 April, 1523. Letters di Piincipi, i. p. 114. jFoscari: Relatione, loitj. Ei|iialchemurmuration in Roma eiiam per causa del Cardinal Armellin, qual iruova it would be necessary to have recourse to mea- sures of a far more efficient character. Hith- erto loans had been raised under the form of saleable offices : Clement VJI. was the first who approximated to the system of direct loans, on the important occasion of his taking up arms against Charles V. in the year 1.526. When offices were purchased, the capital was lost in case of death, unless the family re- covered it from the papal treasury. Clement VII. now took up a capital of two hundred thousand ducats, which did not yield so high an interest as the places, yet paid a consider- able one, viz. ten per cent., passing, moreover, by inheritance. This is a ' monte non vaca- bile,' the 'monte della fede.' The interest was charged on the dogana. The security of the monte was furthermore greatly increased by the provision that the creditors became im- mediately admitted to a share in the direction of the dogana. Nor even in this matter were the old forms quite forgotten, for the montes were incorporated into a college. A few con- tractors paid the sum required to the camera, and then shared it out among the meml^rs. Can it be said that the creditors of the state, in so far as they have a lien on the general in- come, on the product of the labours of the com- munity, acquire tiiereby an indirect share in the government ? Such, at least, appeared to be the case in Rome at that day, nor would capitalists lend their money without the form of such a participation. Now this was, as we shall see, an introduc- tion to the most extensive operations of finance. Paul III. proceeded in them with modera- tion. He contented himself with diminishing the interest of the monte established by Cle- ment; and as he succeeded in making new assignments of it, he augmented the capital nearly one half. But he did not found a new monte. The creation of six hundred new places sufficiently compensated him for this moderation. The measures by which he made himself memorable in the history of finance are of a different character. We have seen what commotions were ex- cited by his enhancement of the price of salt. He abandoned this, but he instituted in its stead, and with the express promise of fore- going it, the direct tax of the sussidio. It is the same impost which was levied in many of the southern countries in those days : in Spain under the name o'i servicio, in Naples by that o\' donative, as mensuale in Milan, and else- where under diff'erent titles. In the states of nuove invention per trovar danari in Roma, e far metier nove angarie, e fino chi porta tordi a Roma et altre cose di manzar, pagatanlo: la qual angaria importa da due. "2,500. [There is somemurnmring in Rome on account of cardinal Armellino, who has devised new schemes for getting money, and imposes new duties, so that every one, even down to those who bi'ing thrushes and other eatables to Rome, pays something ; which duty brings in 250U ducats.] 132 •COURT AND STATE. the church it was originally introduced for three years, and fixed at three hundred thou- sand scudi. The contribution of each pro- vince was determined in Rome ; the provincial parliaments assembled to divide it between the several towns; the towns again allotted it between themselves and the surrounding dis- tricts. Every one was called on to bear his share of the burden. The bull expressly en- joins that all secular subjects of the Roman church, whatever were their exemptions or privileges, marquises, barons, vassals, and pub- lic officers not excepted, should be rated to this contribution.* But payment was not made without the most urgent remonstrances, especially when the sussidio was seen to be renewed for successive periods of years : it had never, indeed, been repealed ; but it had always been imperfectly collected. f Bologna, that had been assessed at thirty thousand scudi, was prudent enough to compound for perpetual freedom from the tax on paying down a sum of ready money. Parma and Piacenza were alienated, and paid the subsidy no longer. Fano affords us an example Jiow the other towns fared. That town long witheld payment, on the pretext that it was assessed at too higli a rate. There- upon Paul III. felt himself obliged, for once, to remit the inhabitants all arrears, but on condition that they should expend the full amount on the repair of their walls. Subse- quently, too, a third of their contingent was always allowed to be set oft' on the same ac- count. Nevertheless, the descendants of these men have continually complained of being ex- orbitantly rated. The rural districts, too, were incessant in their outcries against the share of the burden imposed on them by the towns; they made attempts to withdraw from the control of the town council ; and, as the latter struggled to maintain its authority, they would gladly have placed themselves under the command of the duke of Urbino. It would carry us too far, were we to continue the in- vestigation of these petty interests. It is enough if we arrive at an explanation of the fact, that not much more than the half of the subsidy was ever realized.]: In the year 1560, the whole proceeds were valued at 165,000 scudi. * Bullar. In the year 1537, he declares to the French ambassador," ladebilili(5 du revenu de Teglise (and there- by of the stale) donl elle n'avoit point iiiaintenant 40m- escus de rente par an de quoi elle puisse faire estat." In Ribier, i. 69. [The scantiness of the revenues of the church, which had not then 40,000 crowns a year which it could dispose of.] + BuU: Decens esse censemus: 5 Sept. 1543. Bull. Cocqu. iv. i. 225. t Bull of Paul IV. Cupientes indemnitati : 15 April, 1559. Bullar. Cocq. iv. i. 358. Exactio, causantibus di- versis exceptionibus, libeitatibus, el iiiiniunitatibus a so- lulione ipslus subsidii diversis cominunitatibiis el univer- sitalibus el particularibus personis, necnon civilatibus, lerris, oppidis, el locis nosiri status ecclesiastici concessis, el factisdiversarum portionuni ejusdem subsidii donalion- jbus, vix ad dimidum suminae irecemorum millium scuio- Be this as it may, this pope had greatly augmented the revenues of the ecclesiastical states. Under Julius II. they were estimated at 350,000 scudi; under Leo, at 420,000; un- der Clement VII., in the year 1526, at 500,- 000. According to an authentic table procur- ed by the Venetian ambassador, Dandolo, from the Roman treasury, they amounted im- mediately after the death of Paul III. to 706,- 473 scudi. His successors, for all that, did not find themselves in much the better plight. Julius III. complains in one of his instructions, that his predecessor had alienated the whole revenues of the see (with the exception, doubtless, of the sussidio, which could not be so dealt with, since it was always, nominally at least, im- posed but for three years), and that he had moreover left behind him a floating debt of 500,000 scudi.* Julius III. by embarking, in spite of this, in his war against the French and the Farnesi, necessarily involved himself in the greatest embarrassments. Although the imperialists furnished him with subsidies by no means inconsiderable for those times, his briefs are yet filled with complaints: "He had counted on receiving 100,000 scudi in Ancona, but had not taken 100,000 bajocchi : instead of 120,000 scudi from Bologna, he had gotten only 50,000. The promises of Genoese and Lucchese money-changers were recalled im- mediately after they were given ; whoever possessed a carline, kept it back, and would not risk it."t The adoption of more effectual measures was imperiously demanded, if the pope would keep his army together: he resolved, there- fore, to found a new monte ; and the manner in which he did this is the same as that which has almost ever since been pursued. He appointed a new tax. He laid two car- lines on the rubbio of flour, which brought him in, clear of all deductions, 30,0U0 scudi : this sum he appropriated to the payment of interest on a capital he forthwith raised : thus originated the " monte della farina." We observe the close analogy between this and former financial operations. On previous oc- casions ecclesiastical offices, payable out of the augmenting revenues of the curia, had been created, solely that they might be sold to furnish the sums of which there was present need : in this instance the revenues of the state were increased by a new tax, which, however, rum hujusmodi ascendil. [In consequence of various ex- ceptions, liberties, and immunities from the payment of the subsidy granted to divers communities, universities, and individuals, moreover to cities, lands, towns, and places in our ecclesiastical slate, and donations or remis- sions being made of divers portions of the said subsidy, the net proceeds hardly amount to half the gross sum of three hundred thousand crowns.] * Inslruttione per voi Monsignore d'Imola: ultimo di Marzo, 1.551. Informationi Poliliche, torn. xii. + II papa a Giovamb. di Monte, 3 April, 1552. FINANCES. 133 was employed merely as interest upon a large capital which there was no other means of raising. All subsequent popes continued this practice. Sometimes these "monti" were like Clement's, "non vacabili ;" at other times they were "vacabili;" i. e. the payment of the interest ceased upon the death of the cre- ditor. In the latter case the per-centage was higher, and the collegiate character of the montists brought the system still nearer to that of saleable offices. Paul IV. established the " monte novennale de' frati," upon a tax he imposed on the regular monastic orders. Pius IV. laid a quatrino on every pound of meat, and immediately applied the proceeds to the foundation of the " monte pio," which brought him in 170,000 scudi. Pius V. laid another quatrino on the pound of meat, and based upon it the "monte lega." If we keep the development of this system in view, we shall be very strongly possessed with the general importance of the territorial dominions of the church. What were the necessities that compelled the popes to have recourse to those singular kinds of loan, which entailed such an immediate burden on the resources of their country"? They were, for the most part, the necessities of Catholicism. As the time of purely political tendencies was gone by, there were none other which the popes could aim at carrying out but those of an ecclesiastical nature. The support of the catholic powers in their struggle against the Protestants, and in their enterprizes against the Turks, was now almost always the imme- diate inducement to financial operations. The monte founded by Pius V. was called " monte lega," because the capital derived from it was applied to the Turkish war, which that pope undertook in league with Spain and Venice. This became still more and more the case. Every European commotion affected the states of the church in this manner. On almost every occasion they were constrained to con- tribute through some new exaction to the de- fence of the ecclesiastical interests. For this reason was the possession of these temporal states of such moment as regarded the eccle- siastical position of the popes. For they were not content with the monti alone, but kept up the old contrivances also. Theycontinually created new places, or caval- ierate with special privileges ; whether it was that the salaries were covered as before by new taxes, or that the fall in the value of gold, which then began to be very obvious, caused larger amounts to flow into the treasury.* Hence it happened, that the revenues of the popes, after the short depression under Paul IV., occasioned by his wars, continued * Thus, about I08O, many "luoghi di monte" stood at 100 instead of 130 : the interest of the " vacabili " was de- pressed from 1-1 to 9, whereby a great saving was effected on the whole. constantly to rise. Even under Paul they increased again to 700,000 scudi ; under Pius they were reckoned at 898,482 scudi. Paul Tiepolo expresses his astonishment at finding them, after an absence of nine years, augment- ed in the year 1576 by 200,000 scudi, and amounting to 1,100,000. It was a curious fact, however, though inevitable under the circumstances of the case, that the popes did not receive more money in consequence of this rise in their revenues. The alienations kept pace with the taxes. It is calculated that Julius III. alienated 54,000 scudi of in- come, Paul IV. 45,960, and Pius IV., who made the most of everything, as much as 182,550. Pius IV. also increased the number of saleable offices to three thousand five hun- dred, exclusively, of course, of the Monti, which were not counted as belonging to the offices.* The amount of alienated revenue reached 450,000 scudi; it was continually on the increase ; in the year 1576 it had grown to 530,000 scudi. Great as had been the in- crease of income, this swallowed up nearly the halfofit.t The tables of the papal revenues about this time present a remarkable aspect. After naming the sum which the farmers of the revenue had contracted to pay (the contracts were generally for periods of nine years), they also slate what portion of those sums was alienated. The dogana of Rome, for instance, yielded in 1576 and the following years the considerable sum of 133,000 scudi ; of this, however, 111,170 scudi were assigned; other deductions occurred; and, finally, the camera received only 13,000 scudi. Some taxes upon corn, meat, and wine, were wholly swallowed up by the monti. From several provincial chests, called treasuries, which likewise had to meet the exigencies of the provinces,— for instance, from the March and from Camerino, — not a bajocco reached the papal camera; and yet the sussidio was often applied to the same use. Nay, such heavy incumbrances were laid on the alum-works of Tolfa, which had formerly been reckoned a superior source of revenue, that there was actually a deficit of2000scudi.t The pope's personal expenses and the main- tenance of his court, were charged principally upon the dataria, which had two several sources of income. The one was more pecu- liarly ecclesiastical, consisting of compositions * Lista degli ufficii della corte Romana, 1560; Bibl. Chigi, N. ii. 50. Many other separate lists of different years. , , . + Tiepolo reckons, that besides 100,000 scudi for salaries, 270,000 were spent on fortifications and nunciatures, so that the pope still had 200,000 left. He calculates, that under the pretext of the necessities of the Turliish war the popes had received 1,800,000 scudi, and had only ex- pended 340,000 in that way. . t E. G. Entrata della reverenda camera apostolica sotto il pontificato di N, S. Gregoria XIII. fala ael anuo 1570. MS. Gothana, No. 219. 134 COURT AND STATE. [a. d. 1572-85, and fixed fines, for which the datario permit- ted various canonical irregularities on the translation from one benefice to another. These profits had been very much contracted by the rigorous measures of Paul IV., but they gradually increased again. The other was of a more secular character, growing out of the appointments to vacant " Cavalierate," saleable offices and places in the "monti va- cabili," and augmenting in proportion as the number of these increased.* About the year 1570, however, both these sources of revenue together were no more than sufficient barely to meet the daily expenses of the household. The course of things had placed the states of the church in a wholly altered position. Whereas they had formerly boasted of being the least burdened of all those of Italy, they were now as badly off as the rest, nay worse;! and the inhabitants were loud in their con)- plaints. But little remained of the ancient municipal liberties; the administration was become moi-e and more systematic and uniform. In former times the rights of government had frequently been conceded to favoured cardi- nals and prelates, who made no inconsiderable profit of them. The pope's countrymen, the Florentines under the Medici, the Neapolitans under Paul IV., the Milanese under Pius IV., had then monopolized the best places. Pius V. put an end to this system. Those favour- ites had never personally conducted the gov- ernments committed to them, but had always left them in the hands of a doctor of laws";| Pius V. himself appointed this doctor, and appropriated to the camera the advantages that had before accrued to the favourites. Every tiling proceeded with more order and quiet. In earlier times a militia had been established in the coimtry, and 16,000 men enrolled: Pius IV. had maintained a corps of light cavalry : Pius V. abolislied both the one and the otiier ; he disbanded the cavalry, and suffered the militia to fall into disuse. His ♦ Accordin? to Moceniso, 15G0, the dataria had formprly yielded between 10,000 and 14,0110 ducats per month. Un- der Paul IV. the proceeds fell to 3000 or 4000 ducats. f Paulo Tiepolo, Rplation-^ di Roiria in tempo di PioIV. e Pio v., says at that lime :~L'impositio.'ie alio stato eccle- siasUco e gravezza quasi insopporlabile per essere per diversi altri conli molto asgravato ; . . . . d'alienare, piu enlrale della chiese noaVi 6 piuordine, perche quasi tutle I'entrate eerie si Irovanogia alienate esopra I'incer- to non si trovaria chi desse danari." [The incumbrances on the ecclesiastical states are a burden almost insupport- able, being asgravated from various other causes; . . . . there is no possibility of making any further alienation of church revenues ; for almost all the certain revenues are already alienated, and no one would advance money upon an uncertainty.] t Tiepolo. Ibid. Qualche governn o legatione rispon- devasino a Ire, qualroo forsesettemilie piuscudi I'anno. E qu isi tulti allegramenle ricevendo il denaro si scarica- vanodel peso del governo col mellere un doilore in luogo loro. [Each government, or lesation, was wortti three, four, or, perhaps, seven thousand scudi, and more, annu- ally. In almost every instance the persons appointed eagerly received the money, relieved themselves uf the burden of the government, deputing a doctor in their etead.] whole armed force did not amount to 500 men ; 350 of whom, chiefly Swiss, were sta- tioned in Rome. Had it not been for the ne- cessity of defending the coasts against the assaults of the Turks, the people would have quite forgotten the use of arms. That war- like population seemed disposed to become wholly peaceful. The popes wished to rule their country like a great domain, the rents of which should in part be applied to the ad- vantage of their own households, but the main portion be devoted to the exigencies of the church. We shall see that in this design they again encountered great difficulties. The Times of Gregory XIII. and Six- tus V. GREGORY XIII. Gregory XIII. — Hugo Buoncompagno of Bologna — who had risen to eminence as a jurist and in the civil service, was of a cheer- ful and jovial nature. He had a son, who was born to him before indeed he had as- sumed the clerical character, but not in wed- lock. Though he afterwards led a regular life, he was at no time over-scrupulous, and to a certain kind of sanctimony he rather ma- nifested his dislike. He seemed disposed to follow the example of Pius IV., whose minis- ters he forthwith recalled, rather than that of his immediate predecessor.* But in this pope was exemplified the constraining influence of public opinion. A hundred years earlier he would have reigned at most like an Innocent VIII. ; now, on the contrary, a man, even such as he, could no longer resist the severe ecclesiastical spirit of the times. There was a party at court that had made it its primary business to maintain and defend that spirit. It consisted of the Jesuits, the theatines, and their friends. We meet with tlie names of Monsignori Frumento and Cor- niglia, the fearless preacher Francis Toledo, and the datary Contarell. They obtained command over the pope the more readily, as they acted in combination. They represent- ed to him, that the consideration Pius V. had enjoyed was owing principally to his personal conduct. In all the letters they read to him, nothing was talked of but the memory of the holy life of the departed, anJ the fame of his reforms and his virtues. They suppressed every expression of an opposite character. They gave the ambition of Gregory XIII. a thoroughly ecclesiastical colouring.f * It was expected his reign would be different from that of his predecessor: " mitioi'i quadam hominumque captui accommodatiori ratione" [of a jiiilder and more conciliating character.] Coairaentarii de rebus Gregorii Xni. (MS. Bibl. Alb.) t Relatione della corte di Roma a tempo di Gregorio XIII. (Bibl. Corsini, 7U.)20ih F^br. 1574, is very iusiruc- A. D. 1572-59.] GREGORY XIII. 135 He had it much at heart to promote his son, and to elevate him to princely rank. But upon the very first mark of favour he showed him (he named him castellan of St. Angelo, and gonfaloniere of the church,) the rigorous friends alarmed his conscience. Durhig the jubilee of 1575 they would not tolerate Gia- como's presence in Rome : it was not till it was over, they consented to his return, and then only because the aspiring young man's health suffered from his vexation. (Gregory then caused him to marry, and effected his nomination by the Venetians as one of their nobili,* and by the king- of Spain as general of his hoinmcs cfarmes. But he continued to keep him sedulously under restraint. When the young man once went so far as to liberate one of his university friends from arrest, the pope again banished liim, and threatened to deprive him of all his offices. The young wife's prostrate entreaties hindered this, but all loftier hopes were gone for many a day.f It was not till the pope's last years that Gia- como recovered his influence over his father, and not even then in important matters of state, or unrestrictedly.| When his interces- sion was solicited by any one, he shrugged his shoulders. If this was the case with the pope's son, how much less might his other relations ven- ture to hope for irregular favours or for a share of authority! Gregory admitted two of his nephews to the cardinalate ; even Pius V. had done something similar ; but a third, who thought to assume the same rank, he refused to admit to an audience, and compelled him to begone within two days. The pope's bro- ther had set out to enjoy a sight of the good live on this head. Of the pope's disposition, the author says: — " Non 6 statoscnjpuloso n6 dissolute niai, e leson djspiaciule la cose inal f^tte." [He has never been eciupulous or dissolute, and he looks with displeasure on misconduct.] * They had the difficult task on this occasion of declar- ing his biith. It has been praised as an instance of Ve- netian address that they called him Signor Giacoiiio Bon- compagno, closely connected with his holiness. This was really the expedient of Cardinal Conio. When the matter was under discussion, the ambassador aslied the minister, whether Giacoirio was to be designated as the son of his holiness. "S. Ssri-i' lUi'i^- proniamente dopo averscusato con molte parole il fatto di S. Si. che prima che avesse alcuno ordine ecclesiastico, generasse questo figlivolo, disse : che si poirebbe nominarlo peril Sr' Jaco- nio Boacompagno Bologncse, streltamenle congiunto con Sua Saniti." Dispaccio Paolo Tiepolo, 3 Rlarzo, 1574. [His excellency, immediately after making profuse ex- cuses for his holiness, who had begotten that son before he had taken any ecclesiastical orders, said that he might be called Sr. Jacomo Boncompagno of Bologna, closely connected with his holiness.] f Antonio Tiepolo : Dispacci Agosto Sett. 1576. In the year 1583 (29th of March) il is said in one of these dis- patches, " II Sr. Gia<;omo non si lascia intromettere in cosa di .slato. ' [S^. Giacomo is not allowed to interfere in matters of stale.] t It is to this last period only of Gregory's life that judg- ment is applicable, which has taken such firm root, and which I find, for instance, in the Memoires de Richelieu : "Prince doux elbenin fut nieilleur homme que bon pope." [A mild and beneticent prince, he was better as a man than as a pope.] Il will be seen in how limited a degree this is true. fortune that had befallen his house : he had already reached Orvietto, when he was met by a messenger from the court, ordering him to turn back. Tears started into the old man's eyes, and he could not forego advancing a little further on his way to Rome : upon a se- cond order, however, he retraced his steps to Bologna.* In short, this pope cannot be charged with nepotism, or undue favouring of his family. When a newly-appointed cardinal told him that he would be grateful to the house, and the nephews of his holiness, he struck the arms of his chair with both hands, exclaiming, " You must be grateful to God, and to the holy see !" So deeply was he already penetrated by the religious spirit of the times. He sought not only to equal, but even to surpass Pius V. in evidences of piety.f In the first years of his pontificate, he himself read mass thrice every week, and never omitted to do so on Sunday. His life and deportment were not only blameless, but edifying. No pope ever discharged certain duties of his office more faithfully than Gregory. He kept a list of men of all countries who were fit for the episcopal dignity : he proved him- self well informed respecting every one pro- posed to him, and sought to conduct the nomi- nations to those important offices with the ut- most care. Above all, he devoted his earnest endea- vours to promote a strict system of ecclesias- tical education. He aided the progress of the Jesuit colleges with extraordinary liberality. He made considerable presents to the estab- lishment of professed members in Rome ; and purchased houses, closed up streets, and al- lotted revenues for the purpose of giving the whole college the form it wears lo this day. It was calculated to contain twenty lecture rooms, and three hundred and sixty cells for students; it was called, " The Seminary of all Nations." Upon its first foundation, in order to signify its purpose of embracing the whole world within its scope, twenty-five speeches were delivered, in as many different languages, each immediately accompanied by a Latin translation.]: The Collegium Ger- manicum, which was founded earlier, had fal- len into a critical condition, from the failure of its funds; the pope granted it not only the San Apollinare palace, and the revenues of * The good man complained that his brother's ad- vancement to the papacy was more 'hurtful than advan- tageous lo himself: since it obliged him lo greater expen- ses than were covered by the allowance made him by Gregory. t Seconda relatione dell ambasciatore di Roma Clmo- M. Paolo Tiepolo Cavre-, 3Maggio, 1575. Nella religione ha tolto non solo d'imitar, ma ancora d'avanzar Piu V.: dice per I'ordinario almenotre voile messa alia seltimana. Ha avuto particolar cura delli chiese, faciendole non solo con fabriche et altri modi ornar, ma ancora colla assislen- tia e frequentia di preti accrescer nel culto divino. t Dispaccio, Donate, 13 Genu. 1582. 136 COURT AND STATE. [a. d. 1572-85. San Stefano on Monte Celio, but 10,000 scu- di besides, from the apostolic treasury. Gre- gory may be regarded as the proper founder of this institution, from which, since that day, a vast number of champions of Catholicism have year by year been sent into Germany. He also founded an English college in Rome, and found means to endow it. He aided the colleges in Vienna and Gratz out of his privy purse ; and there was probably not a Jesuit school in the world that had not cause in some way or other to applaud his liberality. By the advice of the bishop of Sitia he founded a Greek college likewise, in which young peo- ple from thirteen to sixteen years of age were received, not merely from lands already under Christian rule, such as Corfu and Candia, but also from Constantinople, the Morea, and Sa- lon ichi. They had Greek teachers, wore the caftan and the Venetian baret ; they were to be kept thoroughly Greek, and the thought was always to be impressed upon them that they were to return to their native land. Their own ritual was to be retained as well as their language ; and the instruction to be given them was modelled on the principles laid down by the council, in which the Greek and Latin churches had been united.* Gregory's reform of the calendar was an- other instance of his comprehensive care for the whole catholic world. The measure had been desired by the council of Trent, and it was rendered unavoidable by the removal of the high festivals of the church from the con- nexion with seasons of the year imposed upon them by decrees of councils. All catholic na- tions took part in this reform. Luigi Lilio, a Calabrian, in other respects little known, won for himself immortal memory by his sug- gestion of the easiest method of overcoming the difficulty. His proposal was communicat- ed to every university, among others to those of Salamanca and Alcala, and opinions were collected from every quarter. A commission in Rome, the most active and best-informed member of which was the German Clavius.f then subjected the plan to a fresh investiga- tion, and passed the final decision. The learned cardinal Sirleto had the greatest in- fluence over the whole course of the proceed- ings. A certain degree of mystery was ob- served ; the new calendar was shown to no one, not even to the ambassadors, until it had been approved by the several courts.^ There- upon it was solemnly published by Gregory. * Dispaccio Antonio Tiepolo, IS Marzo, 1577. "Accio che fauo magsioii possano attelinnatamenie e con la veri- ty imparata dar a vedere suoi Grpci la vera via." [So that when grown up, they may with affectionate zeal, and with the aid of the truth they shall have acquired, demon- strate the tnie faith to their Greek countrymen.] t Erythrseus, " In (juibus Christophorus Clavius princi- pem locum obtinebat." t Dispaccio Donato, 20 Dee. 1581. 2 Giugno, 1582. He firaises the cerdinal as an " huomo veraiiiente di grande iueratura." [A man of tiuly great learning.] He extols the reform as a proof of God's infi- nite grace to his church.* But tliis pope's efforts were not all of so peaceful a nature. It gave him deep concern that the Venetians in the first place conclud- ed a peace, and subsequently, even king Phi- lip II. made a truce with the Turks. Had it rested with him, the league that had won the victory of Lepanto would never have been dissolved. The disturbances in the Nether- lands and in France, and the collision of par- ties in Germany, opened a wide field for his exertions. He was indefatigable in efforts against the Protestants. The insurrections queen Elizabeth had to subdue in Ireland were almost all instigated by Rome. The pope made no secret of his wish to bring about a general combination against England. Year after year his nuncios negociated on this sub- ject with Philip II. and the Guises. It would not be uninteresting, were a connected his- tory composed of all those negociations and endeavours, which were often unknown to those for whose ruin they were intended, and which led at Inst to the great enterprise of the Armada. Gregory plied them with the most ardent zeal. The French league, which was so dangerous to Henri III. and Henri IV., owed its origin to the connexion between this pope and the Guises. Little as Gregory XIII. burdened the state for the sake of his relations, it yet follows of course, from the comprehensiveness and the costly nature of his undertakings, that he did not spare the public revenues. Even Stuke- ley's expedition, which ended so disastrously, in Africa, trifling as it was, absorbed a consi- derable sum. He once sent Charles IX. four hundred thousand ducats, the proceeds of a direct tax on the towns of the ecclesiastical states. He frequently furnished subsidies to the emperor, and to the grand-master of iVJal- ta. But even his pacific enterprises required considerable sums. It was calculated that the aid afforded to young men pursuing their studies cost him two millions. f How much then must he have expended on the twenty- two colleges of the Jesuits alone, which owed their origin to him ! Considering the financial condition of his states, which, in spite of an increasing reve- nue, never exhibited a surplus, he must have M\ frequently found himself involved in embai*- Jl rassment. The Venetians, shortly after his accession, made an attempt to induce him to grant them a loan. Gregory listened with augmenting * Bull of the 13th Feb. 1582, § 12. BuUar. Cocq. iv. 4, 10. + Calculation of Baronius. Posseviniis in Ciacconius, Vitje Pontificum, iv. 37. Lorenzo Priuli reckons that he expended yearly 200,000 scudi on opere pie. Tlie extracts given by Cocquelines, at the close of Mafl'ei's Annals, from the reports of cardinals Como and Musotti, are most copious and authentic on this bead. A. D. 1572-85.] GREGORY XIII. 137 attention to the detailed proposals of the am- bassador, and when at last he saw what he was aiming- at, he cried out, " What do you mean, sir ambassador'! The congregation sits every day to devise means of raising money, and never lights upon any serviceable expedient."* The secular administration of Gregory XIII. was now become of paramount impor- tance. It was already come to this, that both alienations and imposition of new taxes were regarded as impolitic ; the dubious, nay perni- cious results of such a system were fully appreciated. Gregory imposed on the con- gregation the task of procuring him money, but that neither through ecclesiastical conces- sions, nor through new taxes, nor thi-ough the sale of ecclesiastical revenues. But what other means than these remained to be tried ] The measures devised, and the effects subsequently produced by them, are very deserving of attention. Gregory, who always carried out to the utmost an absolute idea of right, thought lie discovered that the popedom was endowed with many rights, which it had only to assert, to become possessed of new sources of reve- nue.f It was not his disposition to respect the privileges that stood in his way. Amongst others, he unhesitatingly abolished that which the Venetians possessed, of exporting corn from the March and from Ravenna under certain advantages, saying it was just that foreigners should pay the same amount of dues as the natives. | Upon the Venetians failing to comply at once with his measures, he caused their warehouses at Vienna to be forcibly broken open, their contents sold by auction, and the owners imprisoned. This, however, was but a small matter ; it is merely an indication of the course he was bent on pursuing. It was of much more moment that he thought he discovered a crowd of abuses among the aristocracy of his own dominions, the abolition of which would be profitable to the papal treasury. Rudolfo Bonfiliuolo, the secretary of the treasury, proposed a sweeping extension and renewal of feudal rights, till then hardly thought of. He asserted that a large portion of the castles and estates of the barons had lapsed to the pope ; some from the fliilure of the direct line of succession, some from the neglect to pay the rent due upon them. 5 Nothing could be more acceptable to * Dispaccio, 14 Marzo, 1573. It is a Conjregatione deputHla sopra la provisione di danari. t Maffi-i, Annali di Gregorio XIII. i. p. 101. He calcu- lates tliat the states of the church yielded a net income of 160,000 scud i only. t Dispaccio, Antonio Tiepolo, 12 April, 1577. § Dispaccio, A. Tiepolo, 12 Gf>nn. 1579. II commissa- rio della camera altende con molta diligentia a ritrovare e rivedere scrillure per ricupprare quanto dalli pontefici paasati si 6 stato oblie;ato, o data in petjno ad alcuno, e ve- aendo che S. S^- e;li ass mtisse volenlieri, non la sparagna o porta rispetto ad alcuno. 18 the pope, who had already acquired some such estates by escheat or purchase. He put the scheme forthwith into operation. He wrested, in the highlands of Romagna, Cas- telnovo from the Isei of Cesena, and Corcana from the Jassatelli of Imola. Lonzana, on its beautiful hill, and Savignano in the plain, were taken from the Rangoni of Modena. Alberto Pio voluntarily surrendered Bertinoro, to avoid the suit with which he was threat- ened by the treasury, which, however, was not content with that, but divested him like- wise of Verucchio and other places. There- upon he tendered his rent every Peter's-day, but it was never again accepted. All this happened in Romagna alone; and precisely the same course was pursued in the other pro- vinces. Claim was laid not only to estates on which the feudal dues had not been dis- charged; there were others which had origi- nally been only mortgaged to the barons, though this circumstance had long been for- gotten, and they had passed as freehold from hand to hand, and been greatly improved : it was now the pleasure of the pope and his commissioners of the treasury to redeem them. In this way they got possession of the castle of Sitiano, by payinnr off the original incum- brance of 14,000 scudi, a sum far inferior to its actual value at that time. The pope congratulated himself much on these proceedings. He thought he possessed a claim the more on the grace of heaven so soon as he had succeeded in raising the reve- nues of the church by ten scudi ; provided it were without imposition of new taxes. He reckoned with satisfaction that the income of the ecclesiastical dominions had by legal means, within a short space of time, received an augmentation of a hundred thousand scudi. How greatly would this increase his means of proceedingagainst heretics and infidels? The court for the most part approved his measures. "This pop3 is named the Watchful," (such is the etymological signification of Gregorius,) says cardinal Como; "he is resolved to watch and retrieve his own."* Throughout the country, and among the aristocracy, these measures exited, on the contrary, a very different feeling. Many great families found themselves sud- denly ejected from properties they had consi- dered their own by the most legitimate titles; others saw themselves threatened. Daily search into old papers was made in Rome, and every day new claims were extracted from them. Ere long no man thought himself secure, and many resolved to defend their possessions with the sword, rather than sur- * Dispaccio, 21 O^t. 15S1. Soiio molti anni che lachiesa no ha havuLo pontafice di queslo no:ne Grejorio, che secundo li sua elimologia greca vuol dire vigilante: qussto che 6 Grego.'io e vigilante, vuol vigil ire e ricupe- rare il suo, e li par di far un graasarvilio quando ricupera alcuna cosa, benche minima, 1^ COURT AND STATE. [a. d. 1572-85. render them to the commissioners of the trea- sury. One of these feudatories once said to the pope, to his face, "Wliat is lost, is lost; but a man has at least some satisfaction when he has stood out in his own defence." In consequence of the influence of the aris- tocracy over their peasants and over the nobili of neighbouring towns, the pope's proceedings set the whole country in a ferment. Moreover, the pope had by other injudicious measures inflicted very painful losses on some towns. He had raised the tolls of Ancona, for instance, on the principle that the advance would fall upon the merchants, and not upon the country. He thus inflicted a blow upon that town, from which it has never recovered. Its commerce suddenly departed, nor was it of much avail that the impost was repealed, and even that their old privileges were restored to the Ragusans. The consequences that ensued were most miexpected and peculiar. Obedience in every country, but especially in one so pacific, is founded on a voluntary subordination. The elements of discord were here not removed or suppressed, but merely concealed by the incumbent power of the government. As soon as the principle of sub- ordination gave way in one place, all those elements burst out together, and appeared in full conflict. The country seemed suddenly to remember how warlike, how skilful in arms, how independent in its parties, it had been for centuries; it began to despise its government of priests and doctors, and relapsed into a con- dition congenial to its nature. Not that the people directly opposed the government, or rebelled against it, but the old feuds broke out again on all sides. All Roraagna was once more divided by them. In Ravenna tJie Rasponi and the Leonardi were arrayed against each other ; in Rimini, the Ricciardelli and the Tignoli ; in Cesena, the Venturelli and the Bottini; in Forli, the Numai and the Siragli ; in Irnola, the Vicini and the Sassatelli : the former of all these were Ghibellines; the others, Guelphs; for the old names survived, although the interests originally connected with them had been so wholly changed. The two par- ties had often distmct quarters and churches; they distinguished themselves by slight signs ; the Guelphs wore the feather on the right side of the hat, the Ghibellines on the left.* The division extended even to the pettiest village : no one would have spared the life of his own brother, had he belonged to the oppo- site faction. Some there were who put their wives out of the way, that they might marry * The Relatione di Romagna points out the differences, "npl lagliar del pane, nel cingersi, in ponare il pennac- chio, fiocco o liore al capello o all' orecchio" [in cutting bi'ead, wearing the belt, the feather, locks or flowers in the hair or in the ear]. into a family belonging to their own party. The pacijici were no longer serviceable, since fovouritism had admitted unfit persons into their body. The factions took the adminis- tration of justice into their own hands, and often declared those persons innocent who had been condemned by the papal tribunals. They broke open the prisons, to liberate their friends, and to assail their enemies, and the heads of the latter were sometimes seen the next day stuck up round the fountains.* Public authority being now so weak,, the March, Campagna, and all the provinces were infested with troops of outlawed bandits, that swelled into small armies. At their head were Alfonso Piccolomini, Roberto Malatesta, and other young men of t!ie first families. Piccolomini seized the town-house of Monte- abboddo, had all his enemies hunted out and executed before the eyes of their mothers and wives. He put to death nine of the single family of Gabuzio, his followers in the mean while dancing in the market-place. He marched through the country as lord of the land, nor was he even stopped by an attack of the ague, being carried on his bad days on a litter at the head of his troops. He sent a message to the inhabitants of Corneto, desir- ing them to hasten their harvest; for he was coming to burn up the crops of his enemy Latino Orsino. Personally, he was governed by a sort of principle of honour; he took away a courier's letters, but did not touch the money the man carried : his followers, however, were but the more brutally rapacious. From all sides delegates flucked to Rome, imploring help on behalf of the towns.f The pope aug- mented his forces, and gave cardinal Sforza more ample plenary powers than ever had been possessed by any one since cardinal Albornoz : he was to proceed not only without regard to any privilege, but even without being bound by any rule of law, or observing any form of process, manu regid.\. Giacomo Boncom- pagno took the field, and they succeeded indeed in dispersing the bands of robbers, and clearing the country of them ; but as soon as their backs were turned, all the old mischiefs broke out as freshly as before. A particular circumstance contributed great- ly to make these incurable. Gregory, who is often represented as good- natured to excess, had yet asserted his eccle- t * In the MS. Sixtus V. Pontifex M. (Bibl. Altieri in Rome) is the most detailed description of this state of things. An extract is given in the Appendix, No. 52. t Dispacci Donato, del 15S2, passim. t Brief for Sforza, given in the Dispacci: Omnimodam faculiatem, potestatem, auctoritatem, et arbitriuiri, contra quoscunque bannitos facinorosos receptalores fautores complices et seguaces, etc. necnon contra communitates iiniversitates et civitates terras et castra et alios cujuscun- que dignitatis vel praeeminenliae, Baiones Duces et quo- vis aucloritatefungcntes,etexlrajudicialiteretiurisordine non servato, etiam sine processu et scripiuris ct manu rpgia, illosque omnes et singulos puniendi tam in rebus in bonis quam in personis. I A. D. 1572-85.] SIXTUS V. 139 siastical as well as his secular rights with rigour.* He spared neither the emperor nor the king of Spain, and paid no deference to his neighbours. He was involved in a thou- sand disputes with Venice witli respect to the affairs of Aquileia, the visitation of their churches, and other points: the ambassadors cannot describe his violence, the intense bitter- ness he manifested whenever these subjects were touched upon. The same was tiie case as to Tuscany and Naples; Ferrara found no favour ; Parma had shortly before lost consi- derable sums in litigation with him. All these neighbours exulted at seeing the pope invol- ved in such unpleasant perplexities, and un- hesitatingly gave shelter to the bandits, who then, as soon as opportunity offered, returned to the states of the Church. The pope entreat- ed them, in vain, to desist from this conduct: they thought it curious that Rome should treat all others with indifference and contempt, and then lay claim to service and respect at the hands of every one.f Thus Gregory was never able to lay hold on the outlaws of his dominions. The taxes ceased to be paid, the sussidio was not col- lected. Universal discontent settled upon the country. Even cardinals asked themselves the question, whether it were not better to attach themselves to some other state. Under these circumstances, the further pro- secution of the treasury secretary's measures was not to be thought of In December, 1581, the Venetian ambassador distinctly announced that the pope had put a stop to all proceedings in matters of confiscation. He was forced to allow Piccolomini to come to Rome and present a petition to him.| A shudder crept over him as he read the long list of murders he was called on to forgive, and he laid it on the table : hut he was told that one of three things was inevitable ; either his * Already in 157G, P. Trepolo takes notice of this. Quanto piu cerca d' acquistarsi nome di guisto, tanlo piu lo perde di gratioso, perclie concede niolto meno gralie exlraordinarie di quel che ha failoaltro poniefice di molti anni in qua : — la qual cosa aggiunta al mancamenlo ch' 6 in lui di certi offici grati et accetli per la difficult^ raassi- mamente naturale che ha nel parlar, e per le pochissiine parole che in ciascuna occasione usa, fa ch' egli in gran parte manca in (luella gratia appresso le persone. [The more he strives lo acquire the title of Just, the more he loses that of Gracious, because he grants much fewer ex- traordinary favours than any pope for many years past ; — ■ which circumstance, joined to his deficiency in certain winning arts, arising from the dilliculty, chiefly natural, which he feels in expressing himself, and from the very few words he uses on every occasion, are the causes in a great measure that he is thus wanting in personal favour.] + Dispaccio, Donito, 10 Set. 1D81. E una cosa grande che con non dar mai satisfatione nissuna si pretendre d' avere da altro in quello che locca alia liberti dello stato 8U0 correniemente ogni sorte d'ossequio. t Donato, April 9, 1583. II sparagnar la spesa e I'assi curar il Signor Giacoino, che lo desiderava, et il fuggir I'occasione di disgustarsi ogni di piu per ([uesto con Fio- renza, si co.ne ogni di avveniva, ha fatto venir S. Si' in quesla risolulione. [The saving of expense, and the secu- rity of Signor Giacomo, who desired it, and the wish to avoid further cause of quarrel with Florence, such as was every day arising, induced the pope lo this step.] son Giacomo mu.st expect death at the hand of Piccolomini, or he must put Piccolomini to death, or extend forgiveness to him. The father confessors of St. John Lateran declared that, although they durst not violate the secrets of the confessional, thus much they were at liberty to say, if something was not done, a great calamity was at hand. Besides this Piccolomini was openly favoured by the grand duke of Tuscany, and then inhabited the Medici palace. At last the pope consented, but with a deeply mortified heart, and signed the brief of absolution. But the act did not restore tranquillity. His own capital was full of bandits. Things arrived at such a pass, that the city magistracy of the " conservatori" were obliged to interpose, to procure obedience to the pope's police. A certain Marianazzo rejected the protfered par- don, saying it was more advantageous for him to live as a bandit, and safer too.* The aged pope, weak and weary of life, looked up to heaven, and cried, " Thou wilt arise, O Lord, and have mercy upon Zion !" SiXTUS V. It would seem at times as if there were in turbulence and disorder some secret virtue that brings forth the man who is fitted to con- trol them. Whilst throughout the world hereditary sovereignties or aristocracies transmitted their power from generation to generation, it was the distinguishing characteristic of the ecclesiastical sovereignty, that it offered the opportunity of rising from the lowest to the highest grade of human society. From the very humblest class the pope now arose, who possessed the power and every natural quality requisite for putting an end to all the disor- ders that prevailed. On the first successful incursions of the Otto- mans into the Illyrian and Dalamatian pro- vinces, many of their inhabitants fled to Italy. They were seen arriving in groups, and sitting on the shore with their hands outstretched to heaven. It is probable that Zanelto Peretli, the ancestor of Sixtus V. and a Sclavonian, was one of these refugees. As commonly happens with exiles, neither he nor his poste- rity, who settled in Monlalto, could boast of much prosperity in the country of their adop- tion. Peretto Peretti, the father of Sixtus, was even forced by debt to leave that town ; nor was it till after his marriage that he was in a condition to rent a garden m Grotto a Mare, near Fermo. This was a remarkable locality. Among the plants of the garden were discoverable the ruins of a temple of Cupra, the Etruscan Juno ; there was no lack * " Che il viver fuor gior sicurti." Gregory rei 10, 1585. uscitolitorni piuaconto e di mag- reigned frojn May 13, 1572, to April 140 COURT AND STATE. [a. d. 1585. of the finest fruits of the South ; Fermo, at that time, enjoying a milder climate than the rest of the March. In this place a son was born to Peretti, on the ISth of Dec. 1521. It had shortly before appeared to him in a dream, that whilst he was bewailing his many vexa- tions, a sacred voice had comforted hnn with the assurance that he was to have a son who should make the fortune of his house. He caught at this hope with all the alacrity of a visionary temperament, whose natural prone- ness to mysticism had been exalted by want, and he named the boy Felix.* What were the circumstances of the family, is plain enough, when we learn, for instance, that the child once fell into a pond, and was pulled out of it by his aunt who was washing there ; that he was obliged to watch fruit, and even to tend swine. He learned his letters out of the primers which the other boys laid down beside him, as they passed through the fields on their way to and from school : his father could not muster the five bajocchi, de- manded monthly by the nearest schoolmaster. Fortunately there was a member of the family in orders, Fra Salvatore, a Franciscan, who was at last prevailed on to pay the school- money. Young Felix now went to i-eceive instruction with the rest, carrying with him a piece of bread, which he used to eat at noon, sitting by the fountain, with the water of which he washed down his meal. In spite of such cheerless circumstances, the father's hopes were soon shared by the son. When the latter entered the Franciscan order at the early age of twelve, — for as yet there was no decree of the council of Trent to forbid such premature vows, — he retained his name of Felix. Fra Salvatore treated him with great strictness, exercising the authority both of an uncle and a f ither ; but he also sent him to .school. Felix often studied supperless, by the light of a lantern in the cross-roads, or, when that had gone out, by a lamp burning before the host in the church. We do not find that * Tempesti, Sloria della vita e geste di Sisto V., 1754, has given the result of his investigations of the archives of Montallo respecting the descent of his hero. The Vita Sixti v., ipsius nianu emendala, is also authentic. MS. in the Bibl. Altieri in Rome. Sixtus was born, "cum pater Ludovici Vecchii Firmani horlum e.xcoleret, mater Dianse nurui ejus perhonestse matronse domeslicis minis- teriis operam daret" [whilst his father cultivated the gar- den of Ludovico Vecchio of Fernio, and his mother aided his housekeeper, Diana, a very virtuous matron, in domes- tic duties.] Thi.s Diana lived to witness the pontificate of Sixtus, at a very advanced age. "Anus senio confecta Romam deferri vluit, cupida venerari euin in suinmo rerum humanarum fastigio positum, quem oliioris sui filium paupers victu doini suae nalum aUierat." [The decrepid old woman desired to be carried lo Rome, that she misht otfer homage, in his topmost elevation, to him whom she had known as the son of her gardener, born, and humbly nurtured in her house.] Further, " Pavisse puenim pecus et Picentes memorant, et ipse ad'o non diffitetur ut etiam prae se ferat." [The peoplp of Piceno relate that the boy tended cattle, and he himself fir from denying it, boasts that it was so.] In the Ambmsiana R. there is F. Radice deir origine di Sisto V., an Information, dated Rome, May 4, 1585, which, however, does not contain much. he gave any direct indications of an original tendency to devotional feeling or to profound science : we only learn that he made rapid progress both in the school at Fermo, and in the schools and universities of Ferrara and Bologna : he took his degrees with very great credit. He displayed a particular talent for dialectics, and he made himself master in a high degree of the monkish accomplishment of treating intricate theological questions. In the general convention of the Franciscans in the year 1.549, in which literary contests were also exhibited, he encounteretl with address and presence of mind a Telesean, Antonio Persico of Calabria, who was then in high repute in Perugia.* This was the first thing tliat brought him somewhat into notice ; from that time cardinal Pio of Carpi, the protector of the order, took a lively interest in him. But his high fortune is ascribed more parti- cularly to another incident. In the year 1552, he preached the lent ser- mons in the church of the Santi Apostoli in Rome, with the greatest success. His style was considered animated, copious, and fluent ; his language free from meretricious ornament, his matter well arranged, and his utterance distinct and pleavsing. Once on this occasion, in presence of the whole congregation, as he paused in the midst of his discourse, according to the custom in Italy, and after taking breadth, read the memorials presented, which usually contain entreaties and intercessions, he light- ed on one which was found lying sealed on the pulpit, and the contents of which were of a widely diflTarent kind. All the main points of the sermons already preached by Peretti were set down in it, particularly those relat- ing to predestination, and beside each stood in large letters, " Thou liest." Peretti could not wholly conceal his surprise ; he hastened to conclude his discourse, and immediately on reaching home sent the paper to the Inquisi- tion.f He very speedily saw the grand inqui- sitor Michelc Ghislieri enter his room. The most searching examination began. Peretti used often afterwards to tell how much he had been frightened by the aspect of that man, with his stern brows, his deep set eyes, and his strongly marked features. He collected himself, however, answered satisfactoi'ily, and without committinor himself When Ghislieri * Sixtus V. Pontifex Maximus : MS. Bibl. Altieri. Exi- mia Persicus apud omnes late fama Perusiae philosophiam ex Telesii placitis cum publics doceret, novitale doctrinae turn primum nascentis nativuni ingenii lumen niirifice illustrabat. Montaltus ex universa theologia excerptas positiones eardinali Carpensi inscrijjtas tanta cum ingenii iaude defendit, ut omnibus admiralioni fuerit. t Narrative in the same MS. Jam priorem orationis partem exegerat, cum oblatum libellum resignat, et tacitus, ut populosummam exponat, legere incipil. Quotquot ad eam diem catholiiae fidei dogmata Montaltus piocoiicione afiiniiarat, ordine coUecia conlinebat, singulisque id lan- tum addebal, Uteris grandioribiis : Mentiris. Complica- tum diligenter libellum, sed ita ut consternationis mani- festus multis esset, ad pectus dimittit, orationemciue brevi praecisione paucis absolvit. ^ A. D. 1585.] SIXTUS V. 141 saw that the monk was not only guiltless, but so versed and so firmly rooted in catholic doc- trine, he was like another man, embraced Peretti with tears, and became his second patron. From that period Fra Felice Peretti adher- ed to the strict party, which was just then arisen in the church. He maintained an inti- mate intercourse with Ignatio, 'J'elino, and Filippo IVeri, who all three won the title of saints. The opposition he encountered in his order, which he sought to reform, and his ex- pulsion once from Venice by the brethren, only increased his credit with the representa- tives of tiie dominant opinions. He was pre- sented to Paul IV., and was often consulted by him on occasions of difficulty. lie labour- ed as a theologian in the congregation for the council of Tent, and as consultor attached to the inquisition ; and he had a considerable share in the condemnation of the arciibishop Carranza, patiently undergoing the drudgery of searcliing out those passages in the writings of the protestants, which ('arranza had adopt- ed into his own. He won the implicit confi- dence of Pius V, who named him vicar-general of the Franciscans, expressly with a view to his reforming the order ; and this, indeed, Peretti effected with a high hand. He deposed the commissioners-general, who had hitherto exercised the highest authority in the order, restored the ancient constitution, according to which the latter was vested in the provincials, and held the most rigid visitations. Pius saw his expectations not only fulfilled, but surpass- ed ; he regarded the liking he entertained for Peretti, as a kind of divine inspiration; with- out heeding the calumnies with which he was pursued, he named him bishop of St. Agatha, and cardinal in the year 1570. He was also invested with the bishopric of Fermo. Felice Peretti returned in the church's purple to his native place, where he had once watched fruit and swine; still his father's prophecies, and his own hopes, were not yet fully accomplished. It has been repeated, times without number, what crafty plans cardinal Montalto (so he was now called) employed to reach the tiara, how he affected humility, and tottered along with the help of his stick, bent and coughing : but the critic will see the a priori unproba- bility of all this ; it is not by such means that men reach the highest dignities. Montalto led a quiet, frugal, and diligent life of retirement. His pleasures consisted in planting trees and vines in his vineyard at Santa Maria Maggiore, whicli is still visited by strangers, and in doing some service to his native town. His more serious hours were occupied with the works of St. Amhrnse, which he edited in 1580. With all the diligence he applied to that task, his treatment of his au- thor was yet somewhat arbitrary. For the rest, it does not appear that his character v/as quite so inoflensivc as it has been represented. A report of 1.574 already designates Montalto as learned and prudent, but also crafty and malicious.* But he displayed extraordinary self-command. When his nephew, the hus- band of Vittoria Accorombuona, was murdered, he was the first who entreated the pope to let the investigation of the matter drop. It was probably this quality, which every one ad- mired, that contributed most to his actual election, when the intrigues of the conclave of 1585 led to his nomination. It was also taken into account, as is stated in the genuine narratives of those proceedings, that all things considered he was still of hale years, his age being sixty-four; and that he was of a strong and healthy constitution. Every one confessed, that, under the circumstances of the times, a man of vigour was above all things necessary. Thus Fra Felice saw his end attained ; and it must have been with an honourable pride that he beheld the gratification of so exalted and so legitimate an ambition as that which had animated him. All those circumstances in which he had ever thought he recognized the indications of a higher destiny, now came before his mind. He chose fur his motto: " From my mother's womb, thou, O God, hast been my defender." * A " Discorso sopra i soggetii papabili" under Gregory XIII., says of Montalto : " La naluia sua, lenuta lerribile, hiiperiosa el anoganie, non li put) punto conciliare la gratia." [His disposition reputed feiocious, imperious, and arrogant, is by no means fitted to gain liim regard.] We see see that in his cardinalale he was the same man as he was when pope. Gregory XIII. used to say to those about him, "caverent magnum ilium cinerarium." [They should be- ware of that great grey friar.] The author of SixtusV. P. M. malces Farnese say, on seeing him between the two domi- nicans, Trani and Justinian, who also entertained hopes of the papacy: "Nae Picenum hoc junientum magnifice olim exilietjSi duos illos, quoshinc atque iUinc male fert, carbonis saccos excusseril." [That Picenian packhorse will assuredly conie out grandly some time or other, if ever he shakes otf those two sacks of coal, with which he is encumbered on either side.] He adds, that it was this very anticipation that induced Accorombuona to marry the nephew of Sixtus V. The grand duke Francis of Tus- cany liad a great part in the election of Sixtus. In a dis- patch of Albeni, the Florentine Ambassador, of the 11th May, 1585 (Roma Filza, n. 36,) it is said, " ¥">•»• AUezza sia solaquella che come conviene goda il frutto dell'opera che ella Itafatta (he means this election) per avere questo Pontefice e non altro, se ne faccia belle." [Your high- ness alone, as is rieht, enjoys the frail of your own work, inasmuch as~you alone will have the advantage of this pope's friendship in case of war.] Another Florentine dispatch says, "II papa replica che il gran duca aveva molle ragioni di desiderargli bene, perche egli era come quel agricoltore che pianta un frutto che ha poi caro in- sieme di vederlo crescere et andare avanti lungo tempo, asgiungendoli che egli era slalo quello che dopo il Signer Iddio aveva condotta quest 'opera, che a lui solo ne aveva ad aver oblige, e che le conosceva, se ben di queste cose non poteva ijarlar con egn'uno." [The pope replied, that the grand duke had many reasons for wishing his pros- perity, since his highness was like the liusbandman, who plants a tree, and delights in seeing il long grow and thrive, adding that it was his hishness, who under God hail conducted this matter, that to him alone he, the pope, was bound in gratitude for the same ; that he was aware of this, though he could not speak to every one on the subject.] We see from this that something very peculiar was transacted behind the scenps, of which we know Utile or nothing. The election took place on the 24th of April, 1585. 142 SIXTUS V. EXTIRPATION OF THE BANDITTI, [a. d. 1585-90. And in all his undertakings he believed him- self to be under the continual favour and pro- tection of God. Immediately on his ascending the throne, he declared his intention of exter- minating the bandits and malefactors. Should his own strength be insufficient thereto, he knew that God would send legions of angels to his aid.* He immediately entered on that difficult task with resolution and judgment. Extirpation of the Banditti. Gregory's memory was repugnant to him, he had no inclination to follow out the mea- sures of that pope. He dismissed the greater part of the troops, and reduced the number of the sbirri by one-half On the other hand, he resolved on an unsparing punishment of the guilty who should fall into his hands. The carrying short weapons, especially a kind of gun, had long been prohibited. Four young men of Cora, nearly related to each other, were taken with such weapons upon them. The following day was fixed for the coronation, and the auspicious opportunity was taken to intercede for the young men's par- don. Sixtus replied, " While I live, criminals must die.f" That very day all the four were seen hanging on one gallows, by the bridge of St. Angelo. A young Transteverine was condemned to death for having resisted the sbirri who at- tempted to take away his ass. Every one was filled with pity for the poor lad as he was led weeping to the place of execution, for so small an offence : his youth was represented to tlie pope, who is said to have answered, " I will add a few years of my life to his," and he caused the sentence to be executed. These first acts of Sixtus V. struck terror into every one, and gave great force to the orders he now issued. Barons and communes were commanded to clear their castles and towns of bandits : — the losses sustained at the hands of the bandits were to be made good by the lord or the com- mune in whose jurisdiction they occurred. | It had been usual to set a price on the head * Dispaccio, Priuli, 11 Maggio, 1585. Speech of the pope in the consistory. Disse di due cose che lo trava- gliano la materia della giustilia e della abondantia, alle quale voleva attender con ogni cura, sperando in Dio che quando le mancassero li ajuti proprii e forastieri, le man- der4 tante legioni di angeli per punir 11 malfattori e ribaldi, et esorto li cardinalidi non usarle loro franchigie nel dar recapilo a trisli, deteslando il poco pensier del suo predecessor. [He spoke of two things that engaged his attention; the administration of justice, and t!ie at- tainment of plenty ; to which he would attend with all diligence, trusting in God, that should his own power and other help fail him, He would send him legions of angels to punish malefactors and reprobates; and he exhorted the cardinals not to employ their privileges in sheltering the wicked, expressing his detestation of his predecessor's jnconsiderateness.] tSe vivo facinorosis moriendum esse. t Bull, t. iv. p. iv. p. 137. Bando, in Tempesti i. ix. p. 14. of a bandit. Sixtus enacted that this should no longer be paid by the treasury, but the bandit's relations, or, if they were insolvent, by the commune in which he was born. Besides thus obviously engaging the inte- rests of the lords of the soil, the communes, and the kindred, in favour of his purpose, he likewise sought to avail himself of the ban- ditti's own interests. He promised every one who should deliver up a comrade alive or dead, pardon not only for himself, but also for some friends whom he might name, and a gratuity besides in money. When these regulations had been adopted, and a few examples exhibited of their strict enforcement, the pursuit of the banditti pre- sently assumed another appearance. It was fortunate that at the very first he was successful with respect to certain captains of bands. The pope could not rest for thinking thut the priest Guercino, who called himself king of Campagna, and who had once forbidden the subjects of the bishop of Viterbo to obey their lord, was still carrying on his practices, and had just committed new acts of plunder. Sixtus prayed, says Galesius, that God would free the states of the church from that robber : on the following morning news arrived that Guercino was captured. His head was stuck upon the bridge of St. Angelo, decked witli a gilded crown ; the man who brought it re- ceived his reward, two thousand scudi ; the people applauded his holiness's excellent ad- ministration of justice. Della Fara, for all that, another of these banditti, dared one night to call up the watch- men at the Porta Salara, and desired them to give his respects to the pope and the governor. Thereupon Sixtus commanded his kinsmen, on pain of death, to deliver him up. Before a month was passed, Della Fara's head was brought in. At times it was something else than justice that was exercised against the banditti. Thirty of them had ensconced themselves on a hill near Urbino; the duke had mules laden with provisions driven by the place, which the robbers failed not to plunder. But the provisions were poisoned, every man of the thirty died. On being informed of this, says a historian of Sixtus V., the pope was greatly delighted.* A father and son were led to death in Rome, although they persevered in asserting their innocence. The mother placed herself in the way; she begged only for a short respite, when she could prove that her husband and ■ her son were guiltless. The senator denied I her request. " Since then you thirst for blood," she cried, " you shall have your fill of *Memorie del Ponteficato di SistoV.; " Ragguagliato Sisto ne prese gran comento." D. 15S5-90.] SIXTHS V. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 143 it," and she threw herself out of a window of the capitol. Meanwhile, the two victims reached the place of execution ; each wished to be the first to die; the father could not bear to see the death of the son, the son that of the father : the people shrieked for pity ; the savage executioner stormed at the useless delay. No respect of persons was observed. The count Giovanni Pepoli, descended from one of the first families of Bologna, but who was deeply implicated in the deeds of the banditti, was stran(>led in prison: all his money and estates were confiscated to the treasury. Not a day passed without executions; every where in the woods and in the open fields, stakes were to be seen with the heads of banditti impaled on them. Those legates and gover- nors alone received the pope's encomiums, who satisfied him in this respect, and sent him plenty of heads. There was something of ori- ental barbarism in this kind of justice. If there were robbers unreached by it, they fell by the hands of their own comrades. The pope's promises had sowed disunion among their bands; no one trusted a comrade ; they murdered each other.* Thus, before a year had passed, the troubles of the Ecclesiastical States were suppressed in their open manifestation, if not stifled at their source. In 1586 it was announced that the last leaders, Montebrandano and Arara, had been put to death. It was a source of great delight to the pope when ambassadors, as they now arrived at his court, remarked to him, that in every part of his territory they had passed through, they had beheld a country blessed with peace and security.! Characteristics of the Administration. Now as the abuses combated by the pope owed their origin to other causes besides the mere want of vigilant control, the success too of his efforts was connected with other steps that he adopted. Sixtus is sometimes regarded as the sole founder of the internal system of the Ecclesi- astical States : arrangements are attributed to him tliat had existed long before his day : ♦ Disp. Priuli, as early as thp 29lh of June, I5S5. Li fuorusciti s'ammazzano I'un I'allro per la provision del novo breve. t Vila Sixti V. i. m. em. Ea fjuies et tranquillitas, ut in urbe vasta, in hoc convenlu nalionuni, in tanta pere- grinorum adversarumque colluvie, iibi lot nobilium su- perbae eminent opes, nemo tarn tenuis, lam abjectae for- tunae sit qui se nunc sentiat cujusquam injuriae obnox- iuni. [Such is the peace and tranquillity prevailing, that in this great city, in this assemblage of nations, this vast conflux of strangers and immigrants, amidst all the wealth and splendour of so many nobles, there is no one, how- ever feeble, or however lowly his fortune, who need fear vcrong or insult at the hand of any man.] According to Gualterius, Vita Sixti V., the latter applied the text, Fugit irapius nemine persequente. [The wicked fleeth though no man pursueth.] he is extolled as an incomparable master of finance, a highly unprejudiced statesman, a restorer of antiquity. lie possessed a charac- ter that stamped itself upon the memories of men, and gave credibility to fabulous and ro- mantic stories. But if his administration was not all it has been declared to have been, it was assuredly very remarkable. In one particular it was strongly contrasted with that of Gregory. The latter pope was severe, decisive, and partial in his general measures; special instances of disobedience he overlooked. The provocation he gave to individual interests on the one hand, and the unparalleled impunity he permitted on the other, were the very causes of the miserable perplexities he had to endure. Sixtus, on the contrary, was inexorable in special cases : he insisted upon the enforcement of his laws with a rigour that bordered upon cruelty; whereas in general measures we find him mild, indul- gent, and conciliatory. Under Gregory's rule obedience would have profitted nothing, nor resistance been attended with any disadvan- tage. Under Sixtus, men had every thing to fear the moment they offered to withstand him : on the other hand, they might reckon on proofs of his favour when they strove to please him. Nothing was more efficacious than this in promoting his views. From the first he let all the bickerings drop in which his predecessor had been involved v/ith his neighbours on account of his eccle- siastical pretensions, declaring that it was incumbent on the pope to uphold and extend the privileges that had been granted to sover- eigns. He restored, for instance, to the Mi- lanese the place in the rota which Gregory XIII. had attempted to take from them. VVhen the Venetians at last brought to light a brief which appeared conclusive in favour of their rights in the afi:air of Aquileia, he expressed his satisfaction. He resolved to suppress the offensive clause in the bull In Cosna Domini, and he totally abolished the congregation concerning ecclesiastical jurisdiction, from which the greater number of disputes had originated.* There is certainly something magnanimous in voluntarily foregoing con- tested rights. He forthwith reaped the most fortunate fruits of this conduct. The king of Spain announced to the pope, in an autograph letter, that he had enjoined his ministers in * Lorenzo Priuli, Relatione, 1586. E pontefice che non cosi leggiermenteabbraccialequerellecon principi,anzi perfuggirleha levata la congregatione delta giu;isdiUione ecclesiastica : (in another place he says, chiefly with refer- ence to Spain,) Estima di potereperquesta via concluder con maggior facility le cose e di sopportare con manco in- dignity quelle che saranno trattate secrelamenle da lui solo. [He is a pope who does not readily embark in quar- rels with princes ; so to avoid these he lias suppressed the congregation of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, whereby he thinks he can more easily conduct his negotiations, and sustain with less discredit matters secretly managed by himself alone.] 144 COURT AND STATE. [a. d. 1585-90. Naples and Milan to obey the commands of the pope no less strictly than his own. Sixius was moved to tears that the greatest monarcli in the world should, as he expressed himself, so honour a poor monk like him. Tuscany manifested its devotedness; Venice was satis- fied. Those states now adopted a new line of policy. Banditti who had fled to the neigh- bouring frontiers were sent from all quarters to the pope. Venice hindered their return mto the ecclesiastical states, and forbade her vessels to receive them wiien they touched at the Roman coasts. The pope was in raptures at this. He said he would remember it to the republic ; lie would, such were his words, suffer himself to be flayed alive for her, he would give his blood for her. It was in this way he became complete master of the banditti, because tiiey no longer found asylum and aid in any quarter. In his own dominions likewise he kept far aloof from the severe measures adopted by Gregory in favour of the treasury. After he had "banished the offending feudatories, he souo-ht rather to conciliate the other barons and'' attach them to himself. He bound the two great famalies of Colonna and Orsini both to his own house and to each other by mar- riage. Gregory had seized the castles of the Cofonnas; Sixtus himself regulated their household expenditure, and made them advan- ces of money.* He gave one of his grand-nieces to the contestabile AI. A. Colonna ; another to the duke of Virginio Orsini. He bestowed the like dowry on both, and very equal marks of favour; and he adjusted their contending claims for precedence by always according it to the elder of either house. Donna Camilla, the pope's sister, now enjoyed a position of exalted dignity, surrounded by her children, by sons-in-law of such high birth, and by her married grandchildren. Sixtus took special pleasure in imparting privileges. The people of the March, in par- ticular^had reason to regard him as a benevo- lent fellow-countryman. He restored some of their ancient immunities to the inhabitants of Ancona: he instituted a supreme tribunal in Macerata for the whole province, and dis- tinguished the college of advocates in that province by the grant of new privileges. He erected Fermo into an archbishopric, Tolen- tino into a bishopric: the little village of Montalto, in which his ancestors had first taken up their abode, he raised by a special bull to the rank of an episcopal city ; " for," said he, " it gave our race its fortunate origin." Already as cardinal he had founded a learned school there, and now as pope he establislied in the university of Bologna the college of Montalto for fifty students from the March,^ of whom Montalto alone liad the nomination of eight, and even the little Grotto a Mare of two.f * Dispaccio degli Ambasciatori estraordinarii, 19 Ou., 25 Nov. 1585. . .,, . r + He included Ihe neighbouring villages too, as pari of He resolved also to erect Loreto into a city. Fontana represented to hini the difficulties of the attempt. " Don't give yourself any unea- siness, Fontana," said he, " I found it harder to make up my mind to it than I shall to accomplish it." A part of the land was bought from the inhabitants of Recana; valleys were filled up, hills levelled, lines of streets were marked out; the communes of the March were encouraged to build houses on the spot; car- dinal Gallo placed new civil authorities in the holy chapel. By this measure the pope grati- fied at once his patriotism and his devotion to the blessed Virgin. The several towns of all the other provinces were likewise objects of his care. He adopt- ed means for controlling the increase of their debts, and set limits to their alienations and mortgages ; he caused a strict inquiry to be made into their finances, and to his regula- tions was ascribable the gradual revival of prosperity among the communes.* He every where encouraged agriculture. He undertook to drain the Chiana of Orvieto and the Pontine marshes. The latter he vis- ited in person: the Fiume Sisto, the most useful contrivance with regard to them until the days of Pius VI., owed its origin to him. The promotion of manufactures was equally an object of his solicitude. A certain Peter of Valencia, a citizen of Rome, had proposed to establish the silk trade. The high handed measure by which the pope sought to aid him was highly characteristic. He gave orders that throughout his whole dominions, in every garden and vineyard, meadow and grove, hill and valley where no corn grew, mulberry-trees should be planted: he fixed the number at five for every rubbio of land, threatening each commune with a heavy fine in case of non- compliance.f He also sought to promote the Montalto. Viti Sixti V. ipsius manu emenilata. Porcu- lam, Patrignorum, et Minlenoruni, quia Montalto haud ferine longius absunt quam ad leli jactura, el crebris affin- itatibus inter se et cominerciis reruni omnium et agrorum quadam communitate conjunguntur, haud secus quam pa- triae partem Sixtus fovit semper alque dilexit, omniaque iis in commune est elargilus, quo paulatim velul in unam coalescerent civitalem. [Porcula, PatrignoiO, and Min- lenoro being generally but a bow-shot from Montalto, and being all connected with it by frequent intermarriages, general traffic, and some community of lands, were always cherished and beloved by Sixtus as poitions of his native place, and he bestowed all favours on them in common, to the end that they might gradually coalece as it were into one city.] * Gualterius: Ad ipsarum (universitatem) statum cog- noscendum, corrigendum, constituendum, quinque cam- era aposlolicae clericos inisit. [He sent five members of the apostolic chamber to inciuire into the state of ihra uni- versities, and to amend and orcanize them.] The Memorie also afford evidence of the utility of these measures. Con le quali provision! si diede principio a rehaversi le com- munilci dello stalo ecclesiastico: le quali pol de tulto ritor- norono in piedi: con quanto I'istesso provedimenlo per- feziont) Clemente VIII. [These arrangements were the beginnina of a better condition of things in the communi- ties of the Italian states, which subspqu»nlly recovered themselves in general ; so mucli did Clement VIII. com- plete the same judicious measures.] t Cum sicut'accopimus,23 Maii, 1583. Bull Cocq. iv. 4, 218. Gualterius : Bombicinam, sericam, lanificiam, vi- Ireamque artes in urbem vel induxitvel amplificavil. Ul A. D. 1585-90.] SIXTUS V. ADMINISTRATION. 145 woollen manufacture, " so that the poor," as he said, " mig-ht have the means of earning something." He aided the first person wlio undertook the business with funds from the trea'-ury, hi return for which he was to deliver a certam number of pieces of cloth. It would be unjust to the predecessors of Sixtus V. to attribute to him alone projects of this kind. Pius V. and Gregory XIII. like- wise tavoured agriculture and manufactures. Sixtus distinguished himself not so mucli by entering on a new course, as by the more rapid and successful impetus he gave to one already begun. This it was that fixed his name in the memory of men. The assertion that he founded the congre- gations of cardinals must not be taken in an unqualified sense. The seven most important, those regarding the inquisition, the index, the affairs of councils, the bishops, the monks, the segnatura, and the consulta, were already establitihed. Nor was the state wholly ne- glected in their constitution; the last two named embraced matters of justice and ad- ministration. Sixtus now resolved to add eight new congregations to those already existing, of which, however, only two were to occupy themselves with ecclesiastical matters ; the one with the establishment of new bishop- rics, the other with the maintenance and renovation of church usages :* the other six were intended to apply to special branches of administration, — corn laws, roads, repeal of oppressive taxes, building of ships-of-war, the Vatican press, and the university of Rome.f It is obvious with how little regard to system the pope proceeded in this; how much alike he dealt with permanent and transient inter- ests: nevertheless his arrangements worked well, and have, with .slight modifications en- dured for centuries. He fixed a high standard for the personal character of the cardinals. They were all to be distinguished men, their morals exemplary, their words oracles, their judgments rules of life and opinion for other men ; they were to vero serica ars frequentoir esset, mororum arborum SRitii- naria et pUntaria per universam ecclesiaslicam ililionem fieri proecepiijob eamque rem Maino, cuidam Hebraeo, ex bombicibus bis in anno fructum el sericam aniplilicalu- ruin sedulo pollicenii ac recipienli, maxima privilegia impenivil. [He introduced inlo Ihe city, or extended, the culture of silkworms, and the silk, woollen, and glass- making arts. But the silk trade being the most in vogue, he caused nurseries and plantations of mulberry- trees to be made thioughout all the ecclesiastical states, and for the saiiie reason bestowed vast privileges on a certain Jew, named iMain, who i)roduced two sets of cocoons anntuilly from silk-worms, and promised sedulously to enlarge the manufacture of silk.] * Congregation de' sacri riti e ceremonie ecclesiastiche, dclle provisioni consisioriali : a questa voile appartenesse la CO rniiione delle cause dell' ereltione di nove cattedrali. f "So;)ra alia grascia el annona — sopra alia fabrica, armamento, e manienimento delle galere— sopra gli aggra- vi del popolo — sopra le strade, acque, ponti e confini — sopra alia stamperia Vaticana" (he gave the first mana- ger of the ecclesiastical press a residence in Ihe Vatican, and 20,000 scudi, for ten years |) " sopra I'univwsUi dello studio Komano." 19 be the salt of the earth, the lights set on the candlestick.* It must not be imagined, for all that, that on every occasion he exercised the right of nomination very conscientiously. In favour of Gallo, whom he raised to that dignity, he had nothing to allege but that he was his servant, for whom he had much rea- son to feel regard, and who had once enter- tained him well on a journey.f But even in this department he set an example, which, if subsequently not always followed, has yet been generally kept in view. He limited the number of cardinals to seventy, "as Moses," he said, " chose out seventy elders from the whole people to take counsel with them." The abolition of nepotism has not unfre- quently been ascribed to this pope: but on more close examination the facts of the case will appear otherwise. Already, as we have seen under Pius IV., Pius V., and Gregory XIII., the privileges of the papal families had become very insignificant. If special praise is at all due to any of them in this respect, it is to Pius v., who expressly forbade the alien- ation of church lands. As we have already said, the old system of nepotism had ceased before the reign of Sixtus V., but another form grew up under the popes of the succeed- ing century. There were always two favour- ed nephews or kinsmen, of whom the one, being raised to the cardinalate, was entrusted with the supreme administration of ecclesiasti- cal and political affairs ; the other a layman, con- tracting a wealthy marriage, endowed with lands and '' luoghi di monte," established a ma- jorat, and laid the foundation of a princely house. If we inquire when this form of nepo- tism first arose, we find that it grew up gradual- ly, but that it reached its maturity under Sixtus V. Cardinal Montalto, whom the pope tender- ly loved, so that he even bridled his natural impetuosity with regard to him, was admitted into the consulta, and had at least a share in foreign affairs : his brother Miciiele was made a marquis, and founded a wealthy house. It would, however, be a capital mistake to suppo.se that Sixtus had thus introduced a sys- tem of governing by nepotism. The marquis had no influence whatever, and the cardinal none at least of any importance.]; It would have been quite at variance with the habits of mind of Sixtus to have allowed them any. * Bulla: Postquam varus ille, 3 Dec. 1586. Bullar. M. iv. 4. 279. t Though Sixtus would not endure any other form of contradiction, he had to bear with that of the pulpit. The Jesuit Francis Toledo said in a sermon, in allusion to this subject that it was sinful to bestow a public appointment in requital for private services. " Non perche," he went on to say, " una sia buon coppiere o scalco, gli si conimette sr^nza nota d'iniprudenza o un vescovato o un cardinal- alo." [It is not because a man is a good cupbearer or carver, that he may be safely entrusted with a bislw>pric ora cardinilate.] Gallo had been head-cooli. (Mtfmorie della vita di Sisto V.) t Bcnti voglio, Memorie, p. 90. Noa aveva qusai, alctuia parlecipatione nel governo. 146 COURT AND STATE. [a. d. 1585-90. There was something' cordial and unaffected in his marks of favour ; they laid a foundation of good-will for him in the minds of the public and of individuals : but he never surrendered the helm to another hand, he always g-overn- ed for himself. Much as he seemed to favour the congregations, much as he even invited to freedom of speech, he nevertheless always betrayed impatience and petulence the mo- ment any one availed himself of the permis- sion.* He always obstinately carried out his own will. " With him," says Giov. Gritti, "hardly any one has a counselling', not to say a deciding voice."f Even in all those acts of favour to individuals and provinces to which we have alluded, his administration maintained a determined, rigid, and arbitrary character. . This was no where more strongly exhibited than in the department of finance. Finances. The Chigi family in Rome are in posses- sion of a small autograph memorandum-book of Sixtus V. which he kept when a monk. J This document possesses great interest. The writer has carefully noted down in it every thing of moment that occurred to him during his life, the places he preached in every Lent, the commissions he received and discharged, even tiie hooks he possessed, which of them were single, which bound up together, and, finally, all the petty details of his monkish economy. We read in it, for instance, how his brother-in-law, Baptista, bought twelve sheep for him ; how he, the friar, paid for them, first twelve, then again two florins twenty bolognins, so that they became his own property : his brother-in-law kept them by him upon the terms, usual in Montalto, of half profits. In this way it goes on through- out. We see how he nursed his little savings, how carefully he kept account of them, and how they gradually grew into an amount of some two hundred florins. W-'e trace this little history with pleasure and sympathy; it exhibits the same economical temper which this Franciscan shortly afterwards brought to bear on the administration of the popedom. His frugality was a quality of which he boast- ed in every bull that allowed him any oppor- tunity thereto, and in many inscriptions. In * Guallerius : Tametsi congregationibus aliisque negotia mandaret, ilia tamei) ipsa cognoscere atque conficere con- suevil. Diligenlja incredibilis sciendi cognoscendique omnia qua a recloribus urbis, provinciarum, populorum omnium, a ceteris niagislralibus sedis apostolicae ageban- tur. [Although he referred matters to the congregations and to others, it was nevertheless his custom to take cc- nizance of them, aijd to e.xecute them himself. It is in- credible with what zeal he investigated all the'procecdines of the administralorg of the city, the provinces, and of all the nations, as well as that of ilie other magistrates of the apostolic see.] t Ghitti, Relatione : Non ci d chi abbi con lui voto deci- livo, ma quasi ne anche consultivo. t Memoire auiografe di papa Si»io V. truth, no pope before or since his times ad- ministered the revenues of his states with so much success. On ascending the throne he found the treasury utterly exhausted : he complains bit- terly of pope Gregory, who had squandered a considerable part of the revenues both of his predecessor and his successor.* He conceived so bad an opinion of him, that he once ordered masses to be said for his soul, having dreamed that he beheld his punishment in the other world. The revenues were pledged in ad- vance up to the following October. He therefore applied himself the more sed- ulously to the task of replenishing the public coffers, and in this he succeeded beyond all expectation. By the close of his first year in the papacy, in April, 1586, he had already amassed a million of gold scudi, a second in November, 1587, and in April, 1588 a third ; an amount in all equivalent to upwards of four and a half millions of silver scudi. When he had got together the first million, he deposited it in the castle of St. Angelo, dedicating it, as he expressed himself, to the holy virgin Mary, the mother of God, and to the holy apostles Peter and Paul. " He casts his eyes," he says in one of his bulls, " not alone over the billows on which Peter's little bark is now sometimes tossed, but upon the storms, likewise, that threaten from afar. The rancour of the heretics is implacable; the powerful Turk, Assur, the rod of God's wrath, threatens the faithful. By that God on whom he relies in these perils, he is also taught that the fiither of the household must watch by night. He follows the example of the Old Testament fathers, by whom a large sum of money was always kept in the temple of the Lord." He fixed, as is well known, the contin- gencies under which alone it should be allowa- ble to have recourse to that fund. They are as follows : the undertaking of war for the con- quest of the Holy Land, or of a general cam- paign against the Turks ; the occurrence of famine or pestilence ; manifest danger of losing a province of catholic Christendom ; hostile invasion of the states of the church ; the possibility of reconquering a city belonging to the Roman see. He pledged his successors to these terms, under penalty of God's wrath, and that of the holy apostles Peter and Paul.* * Vita e success) del cardinal di Santaseverina. MS. Bibl. Alb. Mentre glj parlavo del coUegio de' neofiti e di quel degli Arnieni, che avevano bjsogno di soccorso, mi rispose con qualche alteratione, che in castello non vi erano danari e che non vi erano entrata ; che il papa pas- sato havea mangiato il pontificato di Pio V. e sue, dolen- dosi acremente dello stato nel quale haveva trovato la sede apostolica. [When I spoke to him of the college of the neophytes, and of that of the Armenians, which wers in want of assistance, he answered with some irritation, that there was no money in the castle, and that there was no revenue ; for the last pope had squandered the income of Pius V. 'a pontificate and his loo; and he complained bitterly of the condition in which he had found the apos- tolic see.] * Ad clavum : 21 Apr. 1585. Cocq. ir. ir. 206. A. D. 1585-90.] SIXTUS V. FINANCES. 147 We will leave the utility of these regula- tions for the present untouched, and inquire into the means Sixtus employed to gather to- gether wealth so prodigious tor those days. It was not tlie product of the direct revenue of the papal see. Sixtus liinisclf often said that this did not exceed 200,000 scudi.* Neither is it to be considered as the imme- diate fruit of his savings. He did practice retrenchment indeed, limited the expenses of his table to six paoli a day, abolished many useless places at court, and reduced the num- ber of his troops ; but we have the testimony ofDelfinothe Venetian, that all this did not reduce the outgoings of the treasury by more than 150,000 scudi. JSixtus himself once cal- culated the retrenchments for which the treasury was indebted to him at only 146,000 scudi.f And thus, by his own declaration, with all his economy, his direct income amounted only to 350,000 scudi. This was hardly enough for the buildings he erected, much less tor amassing so enormous a treasure. We have already considered the singular system of finance established in this state, the continual increase of taxes and burdens with- out any augmentation in the net revenue, the multiplicity of loans by sale of offices and by monti, the growing incumbrances of the state for sake of the church. The many evils at- tending this system are manifest and glaring; and when we hear of the praises so liberally bestowed on Sixtus V., we are naturally dis- posed to conjecture that he put an end to these mischiefs. What is our astonishment then, to find that, on the contrary, he actually pursued the self-same course in the most reck- less manner, and established this system on such a basis as put it forever beyond the reach of control ! One of his most considerable sources of profit was the sale of places. In the first place, he raised the price of many that were already used to be sold. The price, for in- stance, of a treasurership of the camera had been fixed at 15,000 scudi: he sold tliis, first, to a Giustiniani for 50,000 scudi; then on the latter being made cardinal, he sold it to a Pepoli for 72,000 scudi; and on the advance of Pepoli to the purple, he lopped oft' a full half, 5,000 scudi, from the income of the of- fice, which he applied to a monti ; the office thus shorn he still disposed of for 50,000 gold scudi. In the second place he began the practice of selling offices that before had always been conferred gratuitously, such as notariates, fiscalates, the places of conunie- sioner-general, of solicitor to the camera, and advocate of the poor, often for considerable sums; the post of commissioner-general for 20,000 scudi, the notariate for 30,000 scudi. Lastly, he created a multitude of new offices, some of them very considerable ; a treasurer- ship of tiie dataria, a prefecture of the prisons, twenty-four refendaryships, two hundred ca- valierships, and notariates in the chief places of the states, — every one of these he sold. Undoubtedly he amassed large sums in this way : the sale of offices brought him in 608,510 gold scudi, and 401,805 silver, mak- ing together near a million and a half silver scudi :* but if the sale of places had been al- ready a fruitful source of mischief to the state, occasioning, as we have shown, a portioning out, on the principle of a loan, of the rights of government, — rights which were for that very reason enforced with the utmost rigour against those who were liable to pay, while the duties of the several offices were quite neglected, — how vastly was the evil now in- creased ! It came, as we have said, wholly to this, that every office was regarded as a property which conferred rights, not as an obligation which exacted labour. But; furthermore, Sixtus made an extraor- ditary augmentation of the number of monti, instituting three more monti non vacabili, and eight more monti vacabili, than any one of his predecessors. We have seen that the monti were always founded of necessity on new taxes. Sixtus V., too, found no other means of effecting them, though he was averse to it at first. The first time he spoke in the consistory of an investment, cardinal Farnese remarked, in objection to his proposal, that his grandfather, Paul III., had en- tertained the same intention, but had seen that it could not be effected without an augmenta- tion of imposts, and had therefore abandoned it. Sixtus turned fiercely upon him ; the hint that a former pope had been wiser than him- self set him in a rage. " That was," he re- torted, " because in the days of pope Paul III. there were certain great spendthrifts, who, thank God, do not exist in ours." Farnese coloured up, and held his peace.f Things turned out, however, as he had predicted. In the year 1587, Sixtus threw aside all conside- ♦ Dispaccio, Gritti, 7 Giuino, 1586. The pope finds fault with Henry III. because with fourteen millions of revenue he saved nothing. Con addur I'essempio di se medesiino nel governo del pontificalo, chedice non haver di netlo piu di 200,000 sc. all' anno, baltuti li interressi de' Eonletici passati e le spese che convien fare. [Adducing is own e.vample in the administration of the popedom, the nel annual income of which was no more, he said, than 200,000 scudi, deducting the interest payable on account of former popes, and the incidental expenses.] ■j- Dispaccio, Badoer, 2 Gius;io, 15S9. ♦ Calculation in a circumstantial MS. on the Roman finances under Clement VIII. (Bibl. Barberina in Rome.) tMemorie del Pontificato di Sisto V. Mulatosi per lanto nel volto mentre Farnese parlava, irato piu tosto che grave gli risposse: Non 6 maraviglio, Monsignore, che a tempo di vostro avo non si poiesse mettere in opera il disegno di far tesoro per lo chiesa con Tenlraie a pro- venli ordinarii, perche vi erano di molli e grandi sciala- (juatori (a word he was very fond of), i quali non sono, Dio gratia, a tempi nostri ; nolando am.iramcnte la moltitu- dine di fisli e fis^lie e nepoli d'ogni sorle di queslo ponte- fice. Arrossi alquanto a quel dire Farnese e lacque. 148 COURT AND STATE. [a. d. 1585-90. rations of prudence. He imposed new taxes on the most laborious callings, such, for in- stance, as that of towing vessels up the Tiber with oxen and horses, and on the most indis- pensable necessaries of life, as firewood and the pint of wine in retail, and immediately founded new monti with the proceeds. He debased the coinage, and as a petty money- changing trade started up in consequence at every corner of the streets, he turned even that to account, by selling licenses to carry it on.* Much as he favoured the March, he nevertheless burdened the commerce of An- cona with an additional two per cent, on its imposts. He forced the infant manufactures of his states to afford him at least an indirect advantage.! In these and other similar ope- rations, his constant adviser was a Portuguese Jew named Lopez, who had fled his country to escape the inquisition, and who succeeded in ingratiating himself with the datary, with Signora Camilla, and at last with the pope himself. After the manner in which Farnese had been so summarily put down, not a cardi- nal dared to offer a word of objection. When the tax on wine was talked of, Albano of Ber- gamo said, " I approve of all your holiness proposes ; but my approbation would be still greater if your holiness disliked this tax." In this way Sixlus contrived so great an addition to his revenues, that he was able to take up a loan on monti of two and a half millions of scudi (accurately 2,424,725) and to pay interest thereon. It must be owned, however, that there is something incomprehensible in such a system cl political economy. New and doubtless very oppressive burdens were imposed on the country by the new tax- es and by the multitude of places; the emol- uments of the latter were made to depend on perquisites, a system most fitted to embarrass the course of justice and of the administra- tion ; the taxes were imposed on trade, whole- sale and retail, and could not but impair its activity. And to what end, after all, was the money thus raised applied '! If we reckon up the total proceeds of monti and offices, we shall find them amount to about the sum that was locked up in the cas- tle of St. Angelo, four and a half million *For an old giulio, besides ten bajocchi of the coin of Sixtus, there was given a premium of from four to six quatrini. t A good example of his administration. Le Stesse Me- morie: Ordini) nun si vendessi^ seta o sciolta o lessiita in drappi n6 lana o panni, se non approbati da officiali cre- ali a tel efFello, n6 si pstracssero senza licenza decli stes- si : inventione utile contro alle fraudi, ma molio piu in pro della camero, perche pagandosi i srgni e le licenze se n'imborsava gran danaro dal pontificp. [He enacted that no silk, raw or woven, nor wool or cloths, should be sold without the approval of officers aj)] ointed to that end, nor be admitted to market without license from them; an expedient serviceable against fraud, but still more so in favour of the treasury, because the fees on stamps and licens' s brought the pope in a great deal of money.] This could not have been very beneficial to trade. scudi, not much more. All the undertakings by which this pope acquired renown, he might have accomplished out of the amount of his savings. To collect and hoard up superfluous reve- nues is an intelligible proceeding: to raise loans, in order to meet present necessities, is in the common course of things; but to raise loans, and impose burdens, in order to lock up funds for future necessities in a fortified cas- tle, is in the highest degree extraordinary. Yet this is the very thing which posterity have always most admired in Sixtus V. It is true there was something odious and tyrannical in the measures of Gregory XIII., and their reaction was very pernicious. Nev- ertheless, I am inclined to think, that had he succeeded in rendering the papal treasury in- dependent for the future both of new taxes and of loans, the result would have been high- ly beneficial, and the condition of the ecclesi- astical states would probably have become much more prosperous. But Gregory lacked, especially in his latter years, the strength to carry out his projects. That practical and effective strength was precisely the distinguishing quality of Sixtus. His accumulation of treasure, by Jo:ins, sales of offices, and new taxes, heaped burden upon burden : we shall see the consequences to which this led ; but its success dazzled the world, and for the moment did really give the papacy new importance. Surrounded by states that for the most part were scant of money, the popes enjoyed through their possession of treasure a great confidence in themselves, and a higher conse- quence in the eyes of others. In fact, this scheme of administration was essentially part of the catholic system of those times. That system, by committing all the finan- cial power of the state to the head of the church, first made it completely an organ of spiritual power. For to what other purpose could this money be applied, than to the de- fence and dissemination of the catholic tJiith'? Sixtus V. passed his whole life in projects to that end ; sometimes directed against the East and the Turks, more frequently against the West and the Protestants. A war broke out between the two systems, the catholic and the protestant, in which the popes took the most earnest part. We shall treat of this in the following book. For the present we shall dwell a little longer on Rome, which once more made her milu- ence felt by the whole world. Architectural Enterprises of Sixtus V. For the third time, Rome now assumed in externa! appearance, as well as intrinsically, the aspect of a capital of the world. A. D. 1585-90.] ARCHITECTURAL ENTERPRISES OF SIXTUS V. 149 We know the pomp and magnitude of an- cient Rome : its ruins and its lii.stury have been explored in every direction, to bring its image before our imagination. The Rome of the middle ages, too, might well be the ob- ject of a similar diligence. It, too, was a no- ble city, with its majestic basilicae ; its grotto and catacomb worship ; its patriarchal tem- ples of the popes, in which were preserved the monuments of the earliest Christianity ; the still splendid imperial palace, which be- longed to the German kings ; and the fort- resses erected by independent races in defi- ance of the numerous powers around them. During the absence of the popes in Avig- non, this Rome of the middle ages fell equal- ly into decay with the long-ruined Rome of antiquity. When Eugenius IV. returned thither in 1443, it was become a town of cowherds : its inhabitants differed in nothing from the pea- sants and herds of the surrounding country. The hills had long been abandoned, the dwel- lings were all accumulated in the plain along the windings of the Tiber ; there was no pave- ment in the narrow streets, which were fur- ther darkened by the projecting balconies and bowed windows, that almost met from side to side ; cattle were seen strolling about as in a village. From San Silvestro to the Porta del Popolo there was nothing but gardens and morasses, the resort of wild ducks. The very memory of antiquity had almost vanished. The capitol was become the Goat's Mountain, the Forum Romanum the Cowfield ; the strangest legends were attached to some mon- uments that still remained. St. Peter's church was in danger of falling down. When at last Nicholas once more comman- ded the alleg-iance of all Christendom, and had become rich through the contributions of the pilgrims that flocked in shoals to Rome on the occasion of the jubilee, he conceived the idea of so adorning Rome with buildings, that every one who beheld it should be im- pressed with the feeling that it was indeed tlie capital of the world. To bring this about was not, however, a work for one man. The succeedmg popes laboured at it for centuries. I will not recapitulate all their exertions, accounts of which may be found in their seve- ral biographies. The most remarkable, both for their consequences and their mutual con- trasts, were the epochs of Julius II. and Six- tus V. Under Julius II. the lower city on the banks of the Tiber, whither it had withdrawn itself, was completely renovated. After Sixtus IV. had made a better connexion between the two opposite banks of the river by that simple and substantial bridge of travertine, which to this day bears his name, building v.'as carried on on both sides with great spirit. On the south- ern side Julius did not content himself with undertaking the church of St. Peter, which rose majestically under his direction, but also renewed the Vatican palace. In the depres- sion between the old edifice and the country- seat of Innocent VIII., the Belvedere, he laid the foundation of the Loggie, one of the best- designed works in existence. Not far from thence his kinsmen the Riari, and his trea- surer Agostino Chigi, vied for the fame of erecting the more beautiful dwelling. Chigi undoubtedly deserves the palm : his building was the Farnesina, admirable indeed in its construction, but incomparably enhanced by the beauties bestowed on it by Raphael's hand. On the north side we owe to Julius II. the completion of the Cancellaria, withit3 cortile, constructed in chaste and happily- conceived proportions, the most beautiful court in the world. His cardinals and barons emulated his example : Farnese, whose palace has been regarded for its magnificent entrance as the most perfect in Rome ; Francesco di Rio, who boasted of his own, that it would stand till tortoises crawled over the face of the earth ; the Medici, whose house was filled with treasures of art and literature of all kinds; and the Orsini, adorned their palace on Campofiore with statues and pictures with- in and without* The remains of that inter- esting period, when men so boldly rivalled antiquity, all round Campofiore and the Piaz- za Farnese, do not always meet from the stranger the attention they deserve. Here all was emulation, genius, fertility ; a period of universal prospenty. As the population augmented, buildings were erected on the Campo Marzo, round the mausoleum of Au- gustus. These increased still more under Leo, but even Julius found occasion to lay out the Lungara on the south side, and oppo- site it, on the north, the Strada Julia. The inscription is still to be seen, in which the Conservatori publish to his fame, that he had laid out and opened new streets " proportion- ed to the majesty of his newly-acquired sove- reignty." The plague, and the sack of the city, a^ain diminished the population ; the commotions under Paul IV. also did great damage : it did not recover for some time after, when the number of the inhabitants began to keep pace with the augmenting obedience of the Catho- lic world. Already Pius IV. contemplated building again on the abandoned hills. He laid the foundation of the palace of the Conservatori on the Capitoline ; on the Viminal, Michael Angelo erected for him the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli out of the ruins of the * Opusculum de Minibilibus novae n veteris urbis Ro- nise piliium a Francisco Albenino, 1015, especially in the second part, De nova Urbe. 150 COURT AND STATE. [a. d. 1585-90. baths of Dioclesian; the Porta Pia on the Quirinal bears his mark to this day,* Gre- gory XIII. also built on this spot. But these were all vain efforts so long as the hills were destitute of water. Here it was that Sixtus V. achieved for himself a fame surpassing that of all other popes, rivalling the old Caesars in supplying the city's want of water by means of colossal aqueducts. He did so, he said, "that those hills, adorned in early Christian times with basilicas, distinguished for the salubrity of their air, their pleasing situation and agree- able prospects, might again become inhabit- ed." " Therefore," he adds, " we have not suffered ourselves to be deterred by any diffi- culty or any cost." Indeed, he told the archi- tects from the first, that he desired to have a work that should bear comparison with the splendour of imperial Rome. He brought the Aqua Martia from the Agro Colonna to Rome, a distance of tvvo-and-twenty miles, in defi- ance of all obstacles, carrying it partly under ground, partly on lofty arches. With great satisfaction the pope at last saw a stream of this water gush into his own vineyard : he carried it still further to the Quirinal; he called it after his own name Aqua Felice ; and it was with no little self-complacency he had a statue set up by the fountain represent- ing Moses in the act of striking water from the rock with his staff. f This work was of vast advantage to the neighbourhood, and to the whole city. The Aqua Fontana furnishes 20,.537 cubic metres of water every twenty-four hours, and feeds twenty-seven fountains. Building was now actively resumed on the hills, and enterprise was encouraged by the grant of peculiar privileges. He levelled the ground about Trinita de' Monti, and laid the foundation of the steps to the Piazza di Spag- na, which affords the nearest communication between the lower town and that height.| Here he laid out the Via Felice and the Bor- go Felice, and opened those streets that to the present day lead from all sides to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, purposing to con- nect all the basilicas with that churcli by spa- cious roads. The poets boast that Rome al- most doubled herself, and sought again her old abodes. * Luigi Contarini, AntichilSl di Roma, p. 7G, bestows the highest praise on the efforts of Pius IV. S'egli viveva ancora 4 anni Roma sarebbe d'editicii un altra Roma. [Had he lived four years longer, Rome would have been a different city for its buildings.] t Tasso hasleftus "Sianze air acquafelice di Roma" (Rime, ii. 311.), describing how the water at first rolls along a gloomy path, and then bursts joyfully into the light of day, to look on Rome as Augustus beheld it. J Gualterius. Ut viam a freciuentioribus urbis locis per Pincium coUem ad Esquilias coiiimo.le strueret, Pin- cium ipsum coUem ante sanctissimae Trinilatis templu n humiliorem fecit, et carpentis rhedisque pervium reddi- dit, scalasque ad templum illud ab utroijue ponas latere commodas perpulchrasque ad moJum exlruxit, e quibus jucundissinius in loiam urbem prospectus est. These architectural works on the hills were not, however, the only ones by which Sixtus V. distinguished himself from former popes. He entertained projects directly opposed to those of his more remote predecessors. The ruins of ancient Rome were regarded with a sort of religious veneration under Leo X. ; the divine sparks of ancient genius were discovered in them with feelings of rapture: that pope lent a ready ear to the reccommenda- dation to preserve them, " the all that yet re- mains to us of the ancient mother of Italy's greatness and renown."* Such a spirit as this was as remote from the conception of Sixtus V. as earth from heaven. The Franciscan was utterly insensible to the beauty of the remains of antiquity. The Sep- tizonium of Severus, a most remarkable work, that had survived the storms of so many cen- turies, found no favour in his eyes ; he de- molished it to the very foundation, and carried away some of its pillars to the church of St. Peter's.f His rage for destroying was fully equal to his zeal in building ; every one feared that he would carry it beyond all bounds of moderation. Let us hear what Cardinal Santa Severina relates: it would appear in- credible, had he not spoken of his own per- sonal knowledge. "It being perceived," he says, " that the pope was wholly bent on the demolition of the Roman antiquities, a number of Roman nobles came to me one day, and begged me to exert my eflbrts to dissuade hia holiness from so extravagant a design." They applied to that cardinal, who was undoubtedly to be regarded as the greatest bigot of the day. Cardinal Collona coincided with their views. The pope replied to them that he would clear away the ugly antiquities, but restore such of the others as stood in need of it. Imagine what he was pleased to consider ugly ! He thought of utterly demolishing the tomb of CsBcilia Metella, an admirable sublime monu- * Passages from Castiglione's well-known letter to Leo X., Lettere di Castiglione, Padova, 1796, p. 149. I can find nothing, however, in the letter hinting at a plan for aregular excavation of the ancient city. It seems obvious to me, that it is a preface to a description of Rome, with a filan, to both of which there is constant reference made, t is highly probable that it was even Raphael's works to which this preface was to serve as an introduction. This appears particularly from the coincidences of expression between the well-known epigram on Raphael's death and this letter. For instance, " Vedendo quasi il cadave- ro di quella nobil palria cosi miseramente lacerato;" " urbis lacerum ferro, igni, annisque cadaver Ad vitam revocas." This, indeed, betokens a restoration, but only in idea and description. This opinion is not essentially at va- riance witli the views heretofore expressed, but only con- firms them. I think we may conclude that the labour on which Raphael employed tlie latter years of his life was already far advanced, since a dedication of it was already composed in his name. What a name to add to those of the astyojraphers ! The papers and the plan may have fallen into the hands of Fulvius, who probably had a con- siderable share in the researches. t Gualterius. Praecipue Severi Septizonii, quod incre- dibili Romanorum dolore deiiiolienduiii curavit, columnis maniioribusque usus est, passimque per urbem caveae videbamur undo lapides omnis generis effodiebantur. A. D. 1585-90.] ARCHITECTURAL ENTERPRISES OF SIXTUS V. 151 ment, even then the only important relic of the republican times. How much may have perished under his hand ! It went hard with him to endure the pres- ence of the Lacoon and the Belvedere Apollo in the Vatican ; nor would he suffer the ancient statues, with which the Roman citizens had adorned the capitol, to remain even there, but declared he would pull down the capitol itself if they were not removed. They were a Ju- piter Tonans, and on either side a JMinerva and an Apollo. The two former were ac- tually removed, but the Minerva was tolerated in its place. As Sixtus would have it, how- ever, the statue was to represent Rome — Christian Rome ; to which end he took away the spear of the goddess, and put a huge cross in her hand.* In the same style he restored the colums of Trajan and Antonius, taking from the former the urn which was said to contain the ashes of the emperor. He dedicated it to St, Peter, and Antonine's column to St. Paul; and ever since the statues of the two apostles have stood perched opposite each other upon those airy sites above the dwellings of men. This he considered bestowing a triumph upon Chris- tianity over paganism.f He had set his heart on erecting the obelisk before St. Peter's, the more because he wished to see the monuments of infidelity subjected to the cross on the very spot where the Chris- tians once suffered crucifixion. | A magnificent design, indeed, but one which he carried out wholly afler his own fashion, with a singular mixture of despotism, great- ness, pomp, and bigotry. He threatened even with punishment the architect, DomenicoFontana, who had worked his way up under his own eyes from the con- dition of a mason's boy, if he failed in the at- tempt, or damaged the obelisk. It was a task of extreme difficulty toupheave it from its basis by the sacristy of the old church of St. Peter, to let it down again, transport it to another site, and there finally set it up again. It was entered upon with the feeling that the work in hand was one that would claim renown throughout all ages. The workmen, nine hundred in number, began by hearing mass, confessing, and receiving the commu- nion. They then entered the space that was marked off for their operations by a barrier, the master of the works being raised on an elevated platform. The obelisk was sheathed * A passage from the Vita Sixti V. ipsiua manu emen- data, extracted in Bunson's Beschreibung von Rom, I. S. 702. f So thinks, among others, J. P. Maffei, Hisloriarum ab excessu Gregorii XIII. lib. i. p. 5. t Sixti V. i. m. e.: Ui ubi grassatum olim suppliciis in Christianos et passim tixEe cruces, in quas innoxia natio ^ublata leterrimis crucialibus necaretur, ibisuppositacru- ci, el in crucis versa honorem cultumque, ipsa impietatie monumenta ceruerentur. in straw mats and planks, which were em- braced by iron rings. Thirty-five windlasses were employed to put the enormous machine in motion that was to lit\ it up with strong hempen ropes; each windlass was worked by two horses and ten men. At last the signal was given by sound of trumpet. The very first strain succeeded admirably ; the obelisk rose from the base on which it had rested one thousand five hundred years ; at the twelfth it had been raised two and three quarter palms, at which height it was made fast ; the archi- tect saw the huge mass with its coating, weighing upwards of a million of Roman pounds, in his power. This, it has been re- corded with scrupulous care, took place on the 30th of April, 1586, about the twentieth hour (towards three in the afternoon.) A salvo was fired from the castle of St, Angelo, all the bells of the city pealed, and the workmen carried their architect in triumph round the barrier with never-ending hurrahs. Seven days afterwards, the obelisk was let down with no less dexterity; after which it was conveyed on rollers to its new site. It was not till the hot months were passed that its re-erection was attempted. The pope chose the lO.th of September for this enterprise, the day being Wednesday, which had been always found lucky, and the eve of the Elevation of the Cross, to which the obelisk was to be dedicated. On this occasion, too, the workmen began with commending themselves and their work to God, falling on their knees as they entered the enclosure. Fontana had made his arrangements, not with- out reference to the last elevation of an obelisk described by Ammianus Marcellinus, but he had provided himself with a force of one hun- dred and forty horses. It was likewise re- garded as a special piece of good fortune that the sky was overcast on that day. Every thing proceeded just as was desired. The obelisk was moved in three great efforts ; an hour before sunset it sank on its pedestal on the backs of the four bronze lions that served to support it. The exultation of the people was indescribable; the pope's satifaction was complete : many a predecessor of his had longed to effect this task, many a writer had recommended it ; now had he accomplished it. He set it down in his diary, that he had achieved the greatest and most difficult work it was possible for the human mind to con- ceive. He caused medals commemorative of it to be struck, received congratulatory poems in every language, and sent official announce- ments of the event to foreign powers.* *The despatches of Gritti, May 3, 10, July 12, and Oct. II, treat of this elevation of the obelisk. The effect is not badly described in the Vita Sixti V. ipsiusmanu emenda- ta. Tenuitque universae civitatis oculos novse et post 1500 amplius annog relatx rei spectaculo,cum aul sedibussuis avulsam toUeret molem, uno tempore eiduodenis veclibua impulsam et quinis tricenia ergatis quas equi bini, homi- TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. [a. d. 1585-90. modern Catholicism permeates every vein of society in its most diversified directions. General changes in the intellectual tendency of the age. It vv'ould be a mistake to suppose that the pope alone was under the dominion of this spirit : towards the close of the sixteenth cen- tury a tendency manifested itself in every de- partment of mind, opposed to that which had prevailed at its commencement. A leading circumstance of the times was, that the study of the ancients, which had been the mainspring of every thing in the first part of the century, had now vastly declined: Even now an Aldus Manutius appeared in Rome as professor of eloquence; but he found no ad- mirers of his Greek nor yet of his Latin. In the hours appointed for his lectures he was seen walking up and down before the portal of the university with one or two hearers, the only persons who evinced any interest in his erudition. How incredible was the progress of Greek learning in the beginning of the century ! At its close there did not exist a single distinguished Hellenist in Italy. Now I am not disposed to represent this change altogether in the light of an intellec- tual decline : in a certain respect it was con- nected with the necessary progress of litera- ture and science. For whereas these had formerly been de- rived immediately from the ancients, this was now no longer possible. On tlie one hand, materials had enormously accumulated. For instance, how vastly did the mass of knowledge pertaining to natural history col- lected by Ulysse Aldrovandi, by the ceaseless etForts of a long life and during numerous journeys, surpass that possessed by any of the ancients. In the construction of his museum he had aimed at a real completeness of the science ; and what was wanting in actual specimens, he supplied by means of drawings, and each specimen was described in detail. How had the science of geography been extended beyond every conception of anti- quity ! — On the other hand, a more profound system of inquiry had arisen. The mathema- ticians sought at first only to fill up the omissions of the ancients. Commandm, for instance, imagined that Archimedes must have either read, or even composed, some- thing on gravitation, which was subsequently lost ; and this notion served as a motive to induce him personally to investigate the sub- ject. But this very process led to \ery en- larged results; helped forward even by the ancients, men acquired strength to emanci- pate themselves from their tutelage. Disco- veries were made that led far beyond the circle they had traced, and that opened new paths for further exploration. 152 It was a strange inscription which he set up, boasting that he had wrested this monu- ment from the emperors Augustus and Tibe- rius, and dedicated it to the holy cross. He had a cross erected upon it, in which was en- closed a piece of the supposed true cross. This is expressive of his whole tone of thought. Even the monuments of paganism were to minister to the glorification of the cross. He devoted himself with his whole soul to these his architectural pursuits. The herd- boy, who had grown up among gardens and open fields, was a lover of the town; he would never hear of a villegiatura, saying, " his recreation was to look upon many roofs." I can well imagine that his buildmg-projects aftbrded him the highest gratification. Many thousand hands were constantly em- ployed : he was not deterred by any difticulty. The cupola of St. Peter's was still wanting, and the architects required ten years for its completion. Sixtus was willing to expend his money on the work, but so that his own eyes might be gratified with beholding it. He set six hundred men to work, who wrought day and night, and in the twenty-second month the cupola was completed. He did not live, however, to see the leaden casing placed on the roof. Even in such works as these he set no bounds to his arbitrary disposition. He pulled down without pity the remains of the Patriar- chium of the popes near the Lateran, which were by no means inconsiderable, and were of singular interest, — antiquities belonging to the dignity he himself filled; and in their place he erected his Lateran palace, which was not at all wanted, and which has acquired a very ambiguous reputation, merely as one of the earliest examples of the monotonous regularity of modern architecture. What a complete revolution had taken place in the relation of the age to antiquity ! Both in former times and now, men vied with the ancients ; but the earlier efibrts were directed towards equalling them in beauty and grace of form, now men strove to match, or even sur- pass them in undertakings of vast magnitude. Formerly, the most trifiing monument was reverenced as a relic of the antique spirit; now there was much greater proneness to de- stroy those relics. Men followed a single idea, which claimed sole predominance, and would tolerate none other by its side, — that same, namely, which had acquu'ed sovereignly in the church, and had made the state an in- strument of the latter. This ruling idea of nes deni, agpbanl in sublime elatam, aul cum suspensam inde sensiiu de|joiierel extenderelque humi, junctis ira- bibus alque ex his ingenti coinposila Iraha quae jacenlem exciperel, aul cum supposilis cylindris (sunt hae lignese coluiiinae leretes et volubilcs) (lualernis ergatis proliacia paulaliui per ediium ei ad aluiuilinem basis cui impouen da eiat excilalum aggerem aiquo undicjue egregie iiiuni- tum incederei, denique cum iierum erecia libralaque suis reposiu sedibua est. A. D. 1572-90.] THE INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 153 The study of nature was especially prose- cuted with zeal and self-reliance. For a moment, men wavered between the admis- sion of mystic virtues in natural tilings, and the bold deep-searching investigation of phe- nomena. But the latter, the more scientific course, presently prevailed. Ere long an attempt was made after a rational classification of the vegetable kingdom : in Padua there lived a professor who was called the "Colum- bus of the human body." Inquiry was pushed forward continually in every direction ; science was no longer lodged alone within the works of antiquity. It followed as a matter of course, if I am not mistaken, that the study of antiquity, when it could no longer claim such engross- ing attention for the matter's sake, could neither with regard to the form produce the effect it had hitherto done. Men began, in the composition of learned works, to aim chiefly at the accumulation of matter. In the beginning of the century, Cortesius had conveyed the essence of the scholastic philosophy, untractable as it might seem, in a well-written classical work, full of talent and wit: now, on the other hand, a Natal Conte compiled a dry uninteresting quarto upon an antique subject, that invited the most genial and exalted treatment, name- ly, mythology. The same author wrote a history too : his book is tricked out with sen- tences, almost all of which he took immedi- ately from the ancients, citing the passages from which they are borrowed ; but he does not appear to have possessed the least notion of genuine description. The mere crude compilation of facts was enough for his con- temporaries. It may be safely asserted that a work like the Annals of Baronius, so desti- tute of form — written in Latin, yet without a trace of elegance even in detached phrases — cpuld not once have been thought of in the beginning of the century. Whilst the track of the ancients was thus abandoned not only in scientific pursuits, but still more in form and expression, clianges took place in the social habits of the nation, that exercised an incalculable influence on all literary and artistical ettbrts. Republican, independent Italy, on whose peculiar circumstances the earlier develop- ments, those even of the mind included, had depended, now fell forever. All the freedom, and simplicity of intellectual intercourse dis- appeared. It is worthy of note, that the use of titles began to prevail. As early as the year 1520, some persons remarked with dis- gust that every one claimed to be called "sir:" this was ascribed to the influence of tlie Spaniards. By the year 1.550, cumbrous ceremonious designations had supplanted the simple form of address, both in discourse and epistolary correspondence. Towards the end 20 of the century, the titles of " marchese" and "duca" came generally into vogue. Every one would have them ; every one would be "excellency." It is idle to say that this was of small moment ; if it has its effect even now, when the system is become a mere habit, the meaning of which has grown obsolete, bow much more must that have been the case when it was first introduced ! But, besides this, in every other respect society was be- come more rigid, fixed, and exclusive ; its former cheerful, easy tone, the frank and simple intercourse of man with man were by-gone things. Be the cause what it may, — be it, if you will, a change incident to the constitution of the human soul, — thus much is manifest, that already, about the middle of the century, a different spirit pervaded all its productions ; and that society, both in its essence and its outward character, became conscious of new wants. Of all the phenomena that betoken this change, the most striking, perhaps, is the recast of Boiardo's "Orlando Innamorato," by Berni. It is the same work, yet altogether different. All the charm, all the freshness of the original poem are obliterated. If we ex- amine somewhat more closely, we shall find that the author has every where substituted general for individual notions, and for the unfettered expression of a lovely and loving nature, a sort of conventional decorum suited to the demands of Italian manners in his own and in later times.* His success was com- plete. His work was received with incredi- ble approbation ; the rifacciamento entirely exploded the original poem. How suddenly, too, was this revolution effected ! Fifty years had not elapsed since the publication of Bo- iardo's work. We may trace this altered key-note, this infusion of another spirit, through most of the productions of those days. It is not downright want of talent that makes the poems of Alamanni and Bernardo Tasso so tedious and uninteresting; at least, it is not so with those of the latter. But the very conception of both authors is cold. In accordance with the tastes of a public by no means remarkable for virtue, but one that had grown serious and staid, they selected imma- culate heroes. Bernardo chose Amadis de Gaule, of whom the younger Tasso says, " Dante would have recalled the condemna- tion he pronounces on romances of chivalry, if he had known the Amadis de Guale or de Grece ; so full are their characters of noble- ness and constancy." Alamanni took for his subject Giron le Courtoys, the mirror of all knightly virtues. His declared object was to * I have endeavoured to pursue this more in detail in the academical essay before mentiuaed. 154 THE TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. [a. d. 1572-90. hold up to youth an example how to endure hunger and vigils, cold and sunshine, — how to practice arms, to display justice and cour- tesy to every one, and to forgive enemies. As both authors carried out their moral and didactic designs exactly in the manner of Berni, and deliberately tore away the poetic groundwork from their fables, their works, as might naturally have been expected, turned out intolerably prolix and insipid. It seemed, if wo may so speak, as though the nation had used up the stock of poetic conceptions that had descended to it from its past history, from the ideas of the middle ages, and that it retained not even the capacity to understand them. It cast about for something new : but neither would creative genius arise, nor did the existing state of society ofter any fresh material. Till towards the middle of the century, Italian prose, though naturally didactic, was still imaginative, warm, pliant, and graceful. Gradually it, too, grew stiff and frigid. It fared with art as with poetry. It lost the inspiration that had formerly given it its religious subjects, and, soon after, that which had suggested its profane works. It was only in the Venetian school that some traces of this remained. With one single exception, how completely did Raffaelle's scholars fall off from their master's example ! Aping him, they fell into artificial beauty, theatrical pos- ture-making, and affected graces ; and their works speak plainly of the coldness and insen- sibility to beauty in which they were con- ceived. The followers of Michael Angelo did no better. Art was no longer conscious of its true objects ; it had abandoned the ideas it had once strained all its powers to embody ; nothing remained to it but the externals of method. In this state of things, when men had al- ready deserted antiquity, no longer imitated its forms, and had outgrown its science, — when tlie old national poetry and all religious colouring were scorned both by literature and art, — the new exaltation of the church occur- red; it seized voluntary or involuntary hold of every mind, and produced a thorough change in the whole system of literature and art. The church, however, if I am not mistaken, exercised a far different influence over science from that it manifested upon art. Philosophy and science in general now passed through a very important epoch. After the genuine Aristotle had been restored, men began in philosophy, too, (as well as in other departments and with other ancient writers) to cast themselves loose from his authority, and to enter upon a free investigation of the highest problems. It was not in the nature of things that the church should favour this tendency. She herself had prescribed the highest principles in a manner that forbade all doubt. Now, whereas Aristotle's adherents had frequently owned opinions at variance with the church and savouring of naturalism, some- thing similar might be apprehended on the part of his opponents. They wished, as one of thera expressed himself, to compare the dogmas of the existing race of teachers with God's ori- ginal handwriting, the world and nature ; a project the issue of which could not be fore- seen, though whether it led to discoveries or to errors, it could not fail to be highly peril- ous; the church, therefore, set its veto upon it. Telesius, though he never ventured be- yond the strict domain of science, was never- theless all his life confined to his little native town ; Campanella was forced to live an exile, ^ and, finally, to endure the torture; the pro- foundest of them all, Giordano Bruno, a true philosopher, after many persecutions and long wanderings, fell at last under the censure of the inquisition, was arrested, carried to Rome, and sentenced to be burned, "not only," as the original document states, "as a heretic, but as a heresiarch, who had written some things that affected religion, and that were not seemly.* After such examples where was the man would venture upon the free exercise of his understanding. Of all the innovators of the century only one, Francesco * In a Venetian MS. in the Vienna archives, under the rubric Roma, Exposition!, 1592, 28 Sett., is contained the original of a protocol respecting the surrender of Giordano Bruno. The patriarch's vicar, the father inquisitor, and Toinmaso Morosini, the assistant of the inquisition, ap- peared before the college. The vicar stated, "li giorni passati esser stato ritenuto, e tuttavia ritrovarsi nf lie pri- gioni di questa citt^ deputate al servicio del sanlo ufflcio, Giordano Bruno da Nola, imputato non solo di heretica, nia anco di heresiarca, havendo composto diversi libri nei quali laudando assai la regina d'lnghilterra et allri prin- cipi heretic!, scriveva alcune cose concernenti il particu- lar della religions che non convenivano, sebene egli parlava filosoticainente ; e che cestui era apostata, essendo stalo prima frate Dominicano, che era vissuto molt' anni in Ginevra et Inghilterra, e che in Napoli et altri luoghi era slato inquisito della medesima imputatione : e che es- sendosi saputa a Roma la prigionia di coslui, lo illm"' Santa Severina supremo inquisitors aveva scritto e dato ordine che fusss inviato a Koma .... con prima sicura occasions." [That within the last few days iad been arrested, and was still retained in the prisons of this city destined to the service of the holy office, Giordano Bruno da Nola, charged not only as a heretic, but as a heresi- arch ; he having composed divers books in which, besides praising not a little the queen of England and other he- retic sovereigns, he had written things concerning reli- gion which were not becoming, even though he spoke philosophically : moreover, thaf he was an apostate, hav- ing been originally a Dominican friar, who had lived many years in Geneva and in England, and had been an object of inquisition upon the same charge in Naples and other places; and that the imprisonment" of the said Gior- dano Bruno having been made known at Rome, the most illustrious Santa Severina, supreme inquisitor, had written to give orders that lie should be sent to Rome .... by the first safe opportunity.] Such an opponunity, the vicar stated, now presented itself. The answer was not imme- diately given. After dinner, the father inquisitor ap- peared again, and was very urgent, for the boat was about to depart. The savi, however, answered, " Che essendo la cosa di momenlo e consideratione e le occupationi di questo stato molle e gravi non si haveva per allhora poluto faie risolutione." [That the matter being of weight and demanding consideration, and the concerns of tlie state being numerous and serious, it had not been possible to come to any resolution for the present.] This time, there- fiu-e, the boat departed without the prisoner. I have not been able to ascertain whether his subsequent surrender was occasuj^jed or not by new negociations. A. D. 1572-90.] THE INTELLECTUAL TENDENCY OF THE AGE. 155 Patrizi, found favour in Rome. He, too, at- 1 tacked Aristotle, but only on the ground tliat his principles were opposed to the church and to Christianity. In opposition to the Aristo- telic notions, he sought to indicate a genuine philosophical tradition, handed down through successive ages from the supposed Hermes Trismegistus, and in which he aflected to find a clearer exposition of the doctrine of the Trinity than even in the writings of Moses. This tradition he strove to revive and restore, and to substitute it in the place of the Aristo- telic philosophy. In all his dedications he sets forth this purpose of his, and the utility and necessity of its execution. He was a man of singularly constituted mind, not without criti- cal discernment, but that only as regarded what he rejected, not what he adopted. He was called to Rome, and there maintained a high credit through the peculiar spirit of sub- serviency to the church displayed in his works, but not by reason of the effects they produced, which were inconsiderable. The investigations of physics and of natural history were in those times almost inseparably connected with those of philosophy. The whole system of opinion that had hitherto pre- vailed was called in question. In fact, the Italians of that epoch manifested a grand ten- dency to searching thought, to vigorous prose- cution of truth, and lofty forecasting specula- tion. Who shall say at w"hat they might have arrived ] But the Church marked out a line for them they were not to overstep. Woe to him who ventured beyond it. If, as was unquestionably the case, the reno- vation of Catholicism operated thus repres- al spirit, and truth of character, and it has upheld Tasso's name high in the favour and admiration of his countrymen to the present day. But what a contrast between him and Ariosto ! The poetic art had fallen off from the Church ; it now renewed its allegiance to the renovated might of religion. In Bologna, not far from Ferrara, where Tasso composed his poem, the school of the Caracci arose immediately after, and its rise marked a general revolution in painting. If we ask what were the causes of this change, we are told of the anatomical studies of the Bolognese academy, their electic imita- tion, and the erudition of their manner in art; and certainly the zeal with which they sought in their way to seize upon the appearances of nature, was highly meritorious. But the pro- blems they proposed to themselves, and their manner of treating them, appear to me no less important considerations. Ludovico Caracci employed himself much upon the ideal of Christ. He is not always, though occasionally, successful (as in his pic- ture of the calling of Matthew) in depicting the mild and earnest man, full of truth and fervour, of benignity, and majesty, under a form that has so often been the model for suc- ceeding painters. It is true he imitates pre- ceding masters, but his manner of doing so is characteristic. He evidently had Raphael's Transfiguration before his eyes ; but even in appropriating it, he makes his Christ raise his hand towards Moses with the gesture of a teacher. Agostino Caracci's masterpiece is unquestionably his St. Jerome, an old man at the point of death, no longer capable of motion, sively on science, the contrary was rather the hut who to his last gasp gazes in fervent long- case as regarded poetry and art. These lack ed a copious material, a lining object, and this the Church afforded them. Torquato Tasso presents an example of the dominion exercised over men's minds by the renovation of religion. His father had sought him out a morally spotless hero ; the son went a step further. As another poet of that age chose the crusades for his subject, " because it was better to treat a true argument in Christian rtyle, than to seek a little Christian fame m a fictitious one," so likewise did Tor- quato Tasso ; he adopted a hero not from fable, but from history, a Christian hero. Godfrey is more than yEneas; he is like a saint sated with the world and its fleeting fame. The poet would, however, have produced a very insipid work, if he had contented himself with portraying such an individual : but Tasso seized at once on the sentimental and enthu- siastic part of religion, which happily har- monized with that fairy imagery whose rainbow hues he wrought into the web of his story. The poem is here and there somewhat prolix ; the style is not always finished ; still the work is full of fancy and feeling, of nation- ing upon the host presented to him. Annibal's Ecce Homo, in the Borghese palace, a figure strongly shaded, with delicate transparent skin, and m tears, is Ludovico's ideal exalted to a higher pitch. That ideal is admirably embodied, with all the fulness of youth, even in the rigidity of death, in the Pieta, a work in which the dismal event is conceived and expressed with original feeling. In the lunet- tis in the Doria palace, the landscape is strik- ingly enlivened by the simple expression of human events in the sacred histories. We see, that although these masters applied themselves occasionally to profane subjects, they wrought upon sacred ones with peculiar zeal. It is not, therefore, wholly to their ex- ternal technical merits they owe the rank they occupy ; their grand distinction is, that they once more caught the full inspiration of their subjects ; that the religious conceptions they set before us, had for themselves once more some significancy. This same tendency distinguishes their pu- pils. Domenichino elaborated the idea of St. Jerome conceived by Agostino, with suc^ happy diligence, that in variety of grouping, 156 TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. [a, d. 1572-90. and fulness of expression, he perhaps surpassed his master. His head of St. Nilus appears to me a noble work, from its mingled expression of anguish and reflection : his prophetesses are full of youth, innocence, and deep medi- tation. He loved, above all, to contrast the joys of heaven with the woes of earth ; in like manner has he, in the Madonna del Ro- sario, most strikingly contrasted the divine Mother, full of grace, with the needy and wretched son of earth. Guido Reni, too, may be said sometimes to adopt this system, though it be only in placing the Virgin, glowing in eternal loveliness, in juxtaposition with emaciated monkish saints. Guido has racy vigour and original conception. How noble is his Judith, towering in the con- sciousness of the deed she has accomplished, and of the gratitude she owes for Heaven's aid ! Who is there that knows not his enrap- tured Madonnas, almost dissolving in their raptures 1 Even in his saints he embodies an ideal of sentimental reverie. We have not yet, however, indicated all the peculiarities of this epoch of art : it has ano- ther less attractive side. There is sometimes a tone of quaint incongruity in the conceptions of these painters. The lovely group of the holy family, for instance, is figured with a St. John ceremoniously kissing the foot of the infant Jesus, or the apostles come to condole, as the phrase is, with the Virgin, deliberately prepared to wipe away their tears. How often too is the horrible represented without the least mitigation ! In the St. Agnes of Domeni- chino, we see the blood spouting out under the sword. Guido portrays the murder of the infants in Bethlehem in all its horrors : the women are all screaming, open-mouthed, while the blood-thirsty soldiers are butchering the children. Relic-ion had resumed its former empire over men's minds, but its influence over art was very different from that it exercised in former times. Then art was sensuous, simple, and true : now it often exhibited something fan- tastic and constrained. No one will withhold his admiration from the talent of Guercino: but what a John is that from his hand, preserved in the Sciarra gallery ! With brawny arms, huge naked knees, gloomy, and inspired assuredly, but who can say whether the inspiration be of a heavenly or an earthly nature. His St. Thomas lays his hand so forcibly on the wound in the Redeemer's side, that his rude touch must give it pain. Guercino depicts Peter Martyr, precisely at the moment the sword cleaves his head. By the side of that duke of Aquitaine, whom St. Bernard is investing with the cowl, he introduces a monk in the act of converting an esquire, and the spectator sees himself inexorably condemned to witness a scene of premeditated devotion. We will not here inquire how far the bounds of art were overpassed by this mode of treat- ment, sometimes unsubstantially ideal, some- times hard and unnatural ; suffice it to say, that the church acquired complete dominion over painting in its renovated slate. It animat- ed the art with the breath of poetry, and with the principles of positive religion, but it gave it at the same time an ecclesiastical, sacer- dotal, and modern dogmatic character. Such a consummation must have been still easier for the Church with regard to architec- ture, which was engaged in her immediate service. I am not aware that any one has investigated the progression in modern con- structions, from the imitation of the ancients to the canon for the building of the churches devised by Barozzi, and since his day, contin- ually observed in Rome and throughout the catholic world. The lightness and general freedom that characterized the beginning of the century, here too became transformed into gravity, and pomp, and religious magnificence. As regarded one art alone, it long remained questionable, whether or not it would render itself subservient to the purposes of the church. About the middle of the sixteenth century, music had merged into the most intricate technicality. Variations, proportions, imita- tions, riddles, and fugues, constituted the glory of the composer. The meaning of the words was utterly disregarded : we meet with a whole hostof masses of that period, the themes for which were furnished by profane melodies. The human voice was treated as a mere in- strument.* It is no wonder that the council of Trent took ofl^ence at the introduction of such music into the churches. In the course of the proceed- ings, Pius IV. instituted a commission for the express purpose of inquiring, whether music should be tolerated in the churches or not. The question was very doubtful. The church required that the words sung should be intel- ligible ; and that there should be an accord- ance between them and the expression of the music : this the musicians asserted was unat- tainable by the laws of their art. Cardinal Borromeo was one of the commissioners, and his austerity might easily have led to the adoption of a harsh resolution. Happily, the right man once more present- ed himself at the right moment. Among the Roman composers of that day, was Pier Luigi Palestrina. The rigid Paul IV. had expelled him from the papal chapel, because he was married ; since which event he had lived retired and forgotten, in a sorry cottage among the vine- yards of xMonte Celio. His was a mind inca- pable of succumbing to adverse fortune. Even * Giuseppe Baini : Blemoriestoricho-criuchp della vita I e (JpHr opere di Giovanni Pier Lui^i ili Par-strinn, Koina, 1 1828, convey the information of which I have made use. I 1572-90.] THE CURIA. 157 in his solitude he devoted himself to his art with an ardour that rewarded his creative powers with freedom, and originality of pro- duction. Here he wrote the improperie, that to this day ennoble the solemnities of Good Friday in the Sixtine chapel. Never, per- haps, has any musician seized with more genius on the profound meaning of a scriptural text, its symbolical significance, and its bearing on the human soul and on religion. If any man were especially qualified to make the experiment, whether it was possible to apply that method to the whole complicated work of a mass, that man was Palestrina ; and to him the commission referred the subject. He was thoroughly sensible that on the result of his experiment rested, so to speak, the life or death of the grand music of the mass, and he entered on it with the deliberate resolution to strain all his powers for its success. On his manuscript were found the words, " Lord, enlighten my eyes !" He did not immediately succeed ; his first two works were failures ; but at last, in happy hour, he completed the mass which is known by the name of " The mass of Pope Marcel- lus," and which surpassed all expectation. It is full of simple melody, and yet will bear comparison, in point of richness and variety, with any that preceded it ; its chorusses sepa- rate and meet again; the meaning of the text is incomparably expressed ; the Kyrie is all prostration, the Agnus is very lowliness, the Credo majesty. Pope Pius IV., before whom it was performed, was delighted, and com- pared it with the heavenly melodies, such as the apostle John may have heard in his ecstasy. By this one great example the question was set at rest forever, and a course was opened, in which have been produced the most beauti- ful works, and the most touching too, even to those who do not own the Romish faith. Who can listen to them and not? feel his spirit stir within him? It is as though nature became endowed with tone and voice, as though the elements spoke, and the sounds of universal life mingled in spontaneous harmony to hallow and adore, now undulating like the sea, now soaring heavenward in exulting bursts of jubilee. The soul is borne aloft to the regions of religious ecstasy, on the wings of universal sympathy. This art, which had perhaps most widely alienated itself from the church, was now, above all others, that which became most closely attached to it. Nothing could have been of more moment for Catholicism. Even in its dogmas, if we mistake not, it had ad- mitted something of reverie and enthusiasm ; and in its most impressive penitential and didactic books, these constituted a leading characteristic. Spiritual sentimentality and rapture were the favourite subjects of poetry and painting, whilst music, more direct, more penetrating and irresistible in its appeals than any other expositor or any otlier art, embodied those feelings in all the abundance of a more kindred and more purely ideal language, and spell-bound every mind. The Curia. Whilst all the elements of society and men- tal activity were thus seized and transformed by the ecclesiastical spirit, the court of Rome, in which they all met and mingled, was like- wise greatly changed. This change was already noticed under Paul IV. ; the example of Pius V. was of ex- traordinary influence upon it ; under Gregory XIII., it became palpable to every one. " It has contributed immeasurably to the welfare of the church," says P. Tiepolo, in 1.576, "that several successive popes have been men of irreproachable lives. This has induced other men too to become better, or at least to put on that appearance. Cardinals and pre- lates are diligent in their attendance on mass ; in their households every thing that would give scandal is sedulously avoided ; the whole city has laid aside its old disregard to morality, and is become much more Christian than be- fore in its manners and habits. We may ven- ture to assert, that in matters of religion Rome is not far from such a degree of perfection as it is given to man to attain." Not that the papal court was all made up of puritans and canters : it consisted unques- tionably of distinguished men, but who had committed themselves in a high degree to a rigorous tone of sentiment in ecclesiastical matters. If we picture it to ourselves as it existed under Sixtus V., we shall find in it no few cardinals who played a considerable part in the politics of world: — Gallio of Como, first minister during two pontificates, who possessed the art of ruling by compliancy ; he now fur- ther distinguished himself by the application of his great income to ecclesiastical endow- ments ; — Rusticucci, already powerful under Pius v., and not without great influence un- der Sixtus, a man full of penetration and good- ness of heart, industrious, and the more cir- cumspect and irreproachable, inasmuch as he aimed at the papacy ; — Salviati, who had ad- quired reputation by his well-ordered govern- ment of Bologna, a man of blameless life and simple habits, and not serious merely, but even austere ; — Santorio, cardinal of San Severina, the man of the inquisition, long in the com- mand of paramount influence in all spirit- ual afl^airs ; obstinate in his opinions, severe with his servants, full of harshness even to- wards his own relations, much more so to- wards oihers, inaccessible to every one; — contrasted with him Madruzzi, who always 158 TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. [a. d. 1572—90. possessed the secret of the policy of the house of Austria, both of the Spanish and the Ger- man line, and who was called the Cato of the college, only however for his learning and his blameless virtue, not his censorious preten- sions, for he was modesty itself. Sirletto was still living, of all the cardinals of his times, unquestionably the most versed in science and in languages, a living library, as Muret said ; yet when he rose up from his books, he would call the boys to him as they carried their fagots to market in winter, instruct them in the mysteries of faith, and then buy their wood of them : he was, in truth, a cordially good natured and compassionate man.* The example of Carlo Borromeo, whose memory gradually ripened into the glory of sainthood, had great influence. Federico Borromeo was by nature irritable and impetuous, but, follow- ing the pattern set before him by his uncle, he led a religious life, and sutFered not the mor- tifications he not unfrequently endured to dis- turb his composure. But the truest copy of that exemplary man was Agostino Valiere, a man of a nature as noble and pure as his eru- dition was rare, who followed the voice of his conscience alone, and who now, at an ad- vanced age, seemed to present the type of a bishop of the primitive times. The rest of the prelates followed the exam- ple of the cardinals, whose associates they were in the congregation, and whose places they were one day to occupy. Among the members of tlie highest tribunal of Rome, the Auditori di Rota, two in particu- lar distinguished themselves at this period ; they being at the same time men of opposite characters. The one'was Mantica, who lived only among books and legal documents, who served the forum and the schools by his judicial works, and was in the habit of ex- pressing himself briefly, and without much ceremony. The other was Arigone, who gave himself up not so much to books as to the world, the court, and politics, and who was remarkable for judgment and for suppleness of character. Both, however, strove alike to maintain a reputation for purity of conduct and religious fervour. Of the bishops about the court, those were particularly noticed who had been engaged in nunciatures: Torres, who had had a great part in the conclusion of I*ius V.'s league against the Turks; Malas pina, who had watched over the interests of the catholic church in Germany and the North; Bolognetti, to whom had been com- mitted the laborious visitation of the Venetian churches ; all of them men who had risen by their talents and their zeal for religion. * Ciaconius, Vitae Paparum, iii. p. 978, where also is given the epitaph on Sii'leto, in wliich he is described as " eniditorum pauperumque patronus" [pa.lron of the learned anl of the poor.] Cardella's Meruorie Sioriche de' Cardinali contain no more than the notices of Ciaco- nius put into Italian. The learned men of the court occupied a distinguished rank: — Bellarmine, professor, grammarian, the greatest controversialist of the catholic church, who left behind him the reputation of an apostolic life ; another Jesuit, Matfei, who wrote the history of the Portu- guese conquests in India, particularly as they regarded the propagation of Christianity in the South and in the East, and who also com- posed the life of Loyola, a work in which phrase follows phrase with deliberate diffuse- ness and nicely poised elegance.* Some- times there were strangers, such as the Ger- man Clavius, who combined profound science with Jjlamelessness of life, and enjoyed the esteem of every one ; or Muret, a French- man, the best latinist of that day, who after he had long expounded the pandects in an original and classic manner (he was as wittty as he was eloquent,) became a priest in his old age, applied himself to theological studies, and read mass every day; or the Spanish canonist Azpilcueta, whose responsa were re- garded as oracles by the court, and the whole catholic world : Pope Gregory XIII. was often seen to stop tor hours before his house to con- verse with him; yet he humbled himself to the lowest offices in the hospitals. Among these remarkable personages, Filip- po Neri, founder of the congregation of the Oratory, an eminent confessor and guide of souls, obtained great and extensive influence. He was good-natured, playful, strict in essen- tials, indulgent in trifles. He never com- manded, but only gave counsels: he even seemed to request : he did not dissertate, but conversed : he possessed the requisite pene- tration todistinguish the peculiar bent of every mind. The Oratory he founded grew up out of the visits made him, and the attachment of some young men, who looked on themselves as his disciples, and wished to live with him. The most famous among them is Cesar Ba- ronius, the annalilt ' of the church. Filippo Neri recognized his talent, and persuaded him to set forth the history of the church in the meetings of the Oratory, though at first he showed no inclination to the task.f Baronius applied himself for thirty years continuously to his historical labours, and even when he had become cardinal he used to rise before day to pursue them. He regularly ate at the same table with his household ; nor was any- thing ever observable in his character incon- sistent with humility and godliness. Both in the Oratory and as cardinal, he maintained a strict intimacy with Tarugi, who was in high consideration as a confessor and preacher, and who was like himself remarkable for guileless piety. Their friendship lasted till death, and was" a source of happiness to both : they were t Vita J. P. Mallei Serassio auclore. In the edition of Maffi'i's works, Berg. 1747. t Gallonius, Vila Phil. Nerii. Mog. 1602. p. 163. 1572—90.] THE CURIA. 159 buried side by side. A third disciple of San Fillippo's was Silvio Antoniano, whose incli- nations indeed tended rather to literature and poetic labours, and who subsequently dis- played extraordinary literary skill in the corn- position of papal briefs, when that duty was consigned to him. lie was a man of the gen- tlest manners, humble and affable, all good- ness and piety. All the prominent features of this court, politics, administration, poetry, art, and learn- ing, wore the same complexion. What a change from the curia of the be- ginning of the century, when the cardinals were at open war with the popes ; when the latter buckled on the sword, and in court and in person repudiated every thing that called to mind their Christian vocation. Now, on the other hand, how still and conventlike were the habits of the cardinals. The failure of Cardinal Tosco, who once had the nearest prospect of the papacy, was chiefly owing to his habitual use of two or three Lombard pro- verbs that W'Ore considered objectionable. So punctilious and so easily ofl'ended was public opinion. But we must not conceal, that in social habits too, as well as in literature and art, another, and to our feelings less agreeable, aspect of things, unfolded itself Miracles, that had not been seen for a long time, were renewed. An image of the Virgin at San Silvestro began to speak, an event that pro- duced such an impression upon the people, that the waste district round the church was very soon put under cultivation. In Rione de' Monti a miraculous image of the Virgin ap- peared in a hayrick, and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood looked on this as such a special token of Divine favour, that they rose in arms to resist its removal. We hear of similar phenomena in Narni, Lodi, and San Severino; and from the States of the Church they spread over the whole Catholic world. The popes, too, resumed the practice of canonization, which had been disused for a considerable time. All confessors were not so judicious as Filippo Neri : a barren work- seeking pietism was encouraged, and the con- ception of Divine things was mingled with fantastic superstition. Would we could, at least, cherish the be- lief, that even with these false notions, the multitude had imbibed a thorough devotion to the precepts of religion ! But it resulted from the very nature of the court, that along with its religious efforts those of the most vehemently secular ten- dency manifested themselves likewise. The curia was not exclusively an ecclesi- astical institution, it had a state, and indi- rectly a great portion of the world to rule. In proportion as any individual acquired a eliare in that power, he won consequence, the gifts of fortune, influence, and every thing that man is prone to covet. Human nature could not have so changed, that men should have struggled only by spiritual means for the prizes offered by society and politics. The same courses were here adopted as at other courts, but with very peculiar modifications, consonant with the nature of the arena. Of all the cities in the world, Rome proba- bly possessed in those days the most fluctuat- ing population. Under Leo X. it had swelled to more than eighty thousand souls, and it had sunk again to forty-five thousand under Paul IV., from whose rigour every one fled. Im- mediately after his days it rose again in a few years to seventy thousand, and to upwards of one hundred thousand under Sixtus V. The most remarkable circumstance was, that the fixed residents bore no proportion to these numbers. The city was peopled rather by long sojourners than by natives ; it might be compared to a fair or a diet, without countinu- ance or stability, without the cement of blood. Numbers flocked to Rome, because they could not find any preferment in the land of their birth. Wounded pride drove some thither, wayward ambition others. Many thought there was more liberty there than elsewhere. Every man sought to rise in his own way. The heterogenous elements were still far from coalescing into one compact body; the various races were still numerous, and so distinct, that the diversities of national and pro- vincial character were easily to be seen. The courteous docile Lombard was distinguished from the Genoese, who thought to carry all before him by the force of his money, and the Venetian, alert to discover the secrets of others. There might be seen the frugal loquacious Florentine, the Romagnese with his instinctive staunchness in the chase of his own interest, and the assuming and ceremo- nious Neapolitan. The men from the north were simple in their habits, and fond of com- fort, even Clavius the German was the butt of many a joke, for his two very substantial breakfasts. The French kept apart, and had the most difficulty in relinquishing their na- tional habits. The Spaniard stalked about wrapped in his sottana and his cloak, full of pretension and ambitious schemes, and de- spised all the rest. There was nothing which an individual in the multitude might not venture to set his heart on. People were fond of the recollec- tion, that John XXIII., when he was asked why he was going to Rome, answered, he wished to become pope, — and pope he was. In like manner Pius V. and Sixtus V. had risen from the lowest grade to supreme digni- ty. Every man deemed himself capable of every thing, and hoped for every thing. It was a frequent remark in those days, and a perfectly just one, that there was some- 160 TIMES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. [a. d. 1572-96. thinf of a republican character in the prelacy and the curia ; this consisted in the circum- stance that all might pretend to all, and that individuals continually rose from humble ori- gin to the highest dignities. Nevertheless, that republic was one of the most singular constitution : on the one hand was the uni- versal qualification of individuals for public honours, on the other the absolute power of a single man, upon whose arbitrary decision depended every endowment and every pro- motion. And who was that man 1 He on whom an utterly incalculable combination bestowed the victory in the elective contest. Previously of little weight, he suddenly be- came invested with the fulness of authority. Beino- under the conviction that he had been raised by the operation of the Holy Ghost to the highest dignity, he had so much the less motive to forego any of his personal inclina- tions. He usually began forthwith, with a thorough alteration of existing arrangements. The legates and governors were changed in all the provinces : in the capital there were places that, as a matter of course, always fell to the pope's kinsmen and nephews. Even when nepotism was restricted, as it was in the period under our immediate consideration, still every pope favoured his old confidants and retainers. It was quite natural that he should not break oft' his habitual intercourse with them. Thus the secretary, who had long served the Cardinal Montalto, was also the most acceptable to Pope Sixtus V. Each pope, of necessity, brought forward with him- self the partisans of the opinions to which he himself inclined. Thus did every new acces- sion to the papal chair bring about a kind of revolution in all prospects and expectations, in the approaches to power, and in ecclesias- tical and temporal dignities. " It is," says Commendone, "as though the site of the princely castle in a city were changed, and all the streets were made to run towards the new edifice : how many houses must be pulled down, how often must the road be carried through a palace, while new lanes and passa- ges begin to be thronged." This comparison does not unaptly depict the violent changes occurring on each occasion, and the degree of stability of the consequent arrangements. A circumstance of a most peculiar kind rose inevitably out of this. From the frequent recurrence of these mu- tations, and the accession of the popes at so much a more advanced age than usual with other sovereigns, and the momentarily im- pending possibility of a transition of power in- to other hands, every man's life was, as it were, a continuous game of chance ; no man could calculate the upshot, but his hopes were kept continually alive by the uncertainty. Each individual's hopes of fortune and pro- motion depended especially on personal fa- vour ; and where all personal influence was in such a continual state of fluctuation, the calculations of ambition must necessarily have assumed a corresponding tone, and cast them- selves upon very peculiar devices. In our manuscript collections are to be found a multitude of directions respecting the behaviour expedient to be observed at the papal court.* The manner in which each man plies his schemes, and seeks to make his fortune, appears to me no uninteresting ob- ject of notice. Human nature is inexhaust- ible in its plastic capacity for adaptation to circumstances ; the more rigidly defined the data imposed on it, the more unexpected are the forms into which it throws itself All cannot adopt the same course : he who possesses nothing must be content to take service. A liberal domestication in the houses of cardinals and princes was still open to lite- rary men. If a man felt compelled to place himself in such a position, it became the ob- ject of his chief solicitude to ingratiate him- self with the head of the house, to acquire merit in his eyes, to penetrate his secrets, and to become indispensable to him. Everything was patiently endured at his hands, even in- justice was borne with cheerfulness ; for how soon, on a change in the papacy, might his star too rise in the ascendant, and his retain- ers partake of its splendour. Fortune ebbs and flows : the man remains the same. Others, perhaps, directed their efibrts to the attainment of a little place, that with zeal and activity might open a certain field to their ambition. But in truth, it is always an irksome thing — and so it was then and there as much as in any other city and other times — to be obliged to look to necessary wants in the first place, and to honour afterwards. How much more fortunate was the condi- tion of those who had a competency ! The monti, in which they purchased shares, yielded thern a certain income every month : they they bought a place, in right of whicii they entered directly into the prelacy, and not only attained an independence, but also an opportunity of brilliantly displaying their talents. Whoso has to him shall be given- At this court it was doubly advantageous to possess something, because the possession re- verted to the camera, so that the pope himself had an interest in its increase. In such a situation there was no more need of so slavishly attaching oneself to a great man ; so strongly renounced partisanship * For instance: Instrutlione al signor cardinale dl Medici del modo como si deve governare nella cone di Roma.— Avverlimenli air illnio- cardinal Montallo sopra il modo col quale si possa e debba ben governare com cardinale e nepote del papa. Inform xii.— Avvertimenli politici et utilissimi per la cone di Koma: seventy-eight very questionable maxims: inform xxv.— Tiie most im- ponant of all, Discorso over ritratto della cone di Koma di W. Illmo. Commendone. Codd. Rang, al Vienna. A. D. 1572-90.] THE CURIA. 161 would rather, indeed, have stood in the wayi of a man's promotion, if it ran counter to the caprices of fortune. The most essential pre- caution to be observed was, to avoid ^ivinsf oiFence to any one ; a precaution most sensi- tively and watchfully attended to in the slightest and most superficial intercourses of life. Care was taken, for instance, not to treat any man with more honour than he was exactly entitled to; equality of comportment towards persons of different degrees would be inequality, and might produce an unfavoura- ble impression. Even of the absent nothing but good was to be spoken, not only because words once uttered are no longer in our power, they fly one knows not whither, but also because very few love a keen scrutinizer. It behoved a man to make a moderate use of his knowledge, and to avoid rendering it tedi- ous to any one. It was not advisable to be the bearer of bad news, a part of the unfa- vourable impression always recoiling upon the bearer of the tidings. Tlie only difficulty on the other hand was to avoiiso strict a si- lence as would render one's purpose apparent. Elevation to higher dignities, even to that of cardinal, conferred no exemption from these duties ; it only obliged the individual to be more assiduous of observance of them in his own sphere. Who should venture to betray his belief that any member of the college of cardinals was unfit for the papal dignity 1 There was not one of them so insignificant on whom the choice might not possibly fall. A cardinal's first concern was to cultivate the favourable opinion of the reigning pope : on it depended fortune and dignity, universal deference and obsequiousness. Great discre- tion, however, was necessary in the manner of paying his court. Profound silence was to be observed as to all the personal concerns of the pope, whilst, at the same time, no pains were to be spared to come at the bottom of theoi, so as secretly to shape one's proceedings accordingly. The pope might, indeed, now and then be addressed in praise of his nephews, their fidelity and their talents : such topics were usually welcome. To learn the secrets of the papal house, use might be made of the monks, who under pretence of religion pene- trate further than any one imagines. The importance and the rapid vicissitude of personal relations, imposes especially on ambassadors a necessity for extraordinary vi- gilance. Like a skilful pilot, the envoy ob- serves how tlie wind blows : he spares no money to get hold of persons who may give \^m information; all his outlay is well repaid by a single valuable intelligence, which may indicate to him the seasonable moment for pushing forward his negociations. If he has a request to make of the pope, he makes it his business insensibly to interweave its pur- port with the pope's own interests, however 21 remote from each other the two may really be. Above all, he strains every efibrt to win over the favourite kinsman, and to convince him that from no court, so much as his own, has the latter reason to expect wealth and permanent greatness. He also endeavours to secure the good will of the cardinals. To none will he absolutely promise the papacy, but he flatters the hopes of all. He will not commit himself wholly to any of them, but he will occasionally bestow marks of his favour even on those who are hostilely disposed. He does like the falconer, who shows the piece of meat to the hawk, but only gives him a little of it from time to time. So lived and moved among each other, car- dinals, ambassadors, princes, public and pri- vate possessors of power; full of ceremony, of which Rome was the classic ground, of ob- sequiousness and submissiveness, but egotists all to the very core ; ever craving only to accomplish some private end, and to over- reach others. Curious it is to note how the struggle for what all covet, power, honour, wealth, and enjoyment, elsewhere the fruitful source of rancour and feud, here took the shape of cour- tesy and officiousness ; how, the better to gratify his own passions, each flattered in others those of which he was in some mea- sure conscious in himself Here self-denial was full of greed, and passion stole onward with v/ary step. We have seen the dignity, the earnestness, the religion, that prevailed at this court; we now see its worldly side likewise, ambition, covetousness, dissimulation, and craft. Were it our purpose to pronounce an eulo- gy on the Roman court, we need select only the former of these its constituent elements : were we inclined to inveigh against it, we might look exclusively to the latter. But when we rise to the heights of clear and un- prejudiced observation, we take both into our contemplation, nay, admit the necessary deri- vation of both from the nature of man and the force of circumstances. That phase in the world's history which we have been considering," gave more vivid coerciveness than ever to the demand for de- corum, purity of life, and religion ; it coin- cided with the principle of the court, whose position with regard to the world rested on the maintenance of those qualities. It fol- lowed, of necessity, that tliose men rose to most eminence whose characters most amply accorded with that demand : had it been otherwise, public opinion would not only have been untrue to itself, but suicidal. The hap- pening however, as it did, that the goods of fortune were so immediately connected with spiritual qualities, was an enormous provoca- tive of the spirit of this world. We cannot doubt the genuine nature of the 162 COUNTER REFORMATIONS. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89, temper and sentiments not unfrequently de- picted to us by our observant and discreet authorities. But how many a man may yet have sought to secure his fortunes by mere outward show ] Into how many other minds may mere worldly tendencies have forced their way along with those of religion, in the misty dimness of half-developed motives. It was with the curia as with literature and art. All alike had fallen off from the church, and rushed upon paths verging almost upon paganism. Yonder march of events awoke the dormant principle of the cliurch, moved all the energies of society as with a new breath of life, and gave a new colouring to the whole body of the limes. How broadly marked the difference between Ariosto and Tasso, be- tween Giulio Romano and Guercino, between Pomponazzo and Patrizi ! A great epoch lies between them. Yet is there something com- mon to the former and the latter, and they have a mutual point of contact. The curia, too, retained its old form, and preserved many other particulars of its old nature. Yet this did not prevent its being swayed by a new spirit ; what the latter could not wholly trans- form and assimilate to itself, it animated, at least, with its own impulse. As I contemplate the mingling of the vari- ous elements, I call to mind a natural specta- cle, that may, perhaps, serve as a sort of type and similitude to aid our conception of this state of things. Near Terni, the Nera is seen approaching through the lengthened valley, between woods and meadows, in calm unruffled flow. On the other side, the Velino, pent up between rocks, rushes on with giant speed, till at last it dashes headlong from the cliffs in splendid cascades, that f(xini and sparkle with a thousand hues. Meeting immediately with the Nera, in an instant it communicates to it its own commotion. Roaring and surging, the mingled waters sweep torrent-like along. Thus did the newly-awakened spirit of the catholic church give a new impetus to all the organs of literature and art, to the whole being of society. The curia was at once devout and restless, spiritual and warlike ; on the one hand full of dignity, pomp, and ceremony; on the other, unparalleled for calculating sub- tilty, and unwearied lust of sway. Its piety and its ambitious projects, both reposing on the idea of an exclusive orthodoxy, coalesced into one system. Thus constituted, it once more essayed to subdue the world. BOOK THE FIFTH. COUNTER REFORMATIONS. FIRST PERIOD. 1563—1589. Introduction. It is one of the most difficult problems in the history of a nation or of a power, to appre- ciate the connexion of its special relations with those of the world at large. It is true the individual life of the body politic grows in obedience to inherent laws assorted to its peculiar moral constitution, and displays a characteristic consistency through- out the progress of ages. Still it is incessant- ly under the operation of general influences, that powerfully affect the course of its devel- opment. We may lay it down as a maxim, that the character of modern Europe is founded on this contrast of forces. It states that races are for ever parted from each other, but at the same time they are knit together in an insep- arable system of community. There are no national annals in which universal history does not play an important part. So bound by the laws of necessity, so all-embracing is the consecutive series of ages, that even the mightiest state often appears but as a member of the great commonwealth, involved in, and ruled by its destinies. Whoever has once attempted to consider the history of a people in the whole, and to survey its course, without arbitrarily straining truth, and without illu- sion, will have experienced the difficulty arising from this source. In the several phases of a nation's progressive existence, we discern the various currents of the world's general destiny. But this difficulty becomes double when, as sometimes occurs, a power sets on foot a movement that involves the whole world, and of the principle of which it is itself the pecu- liar representative. Such a power then takes so potent a share in the collective operations of the age, it enters into such vivid relations with all the active forces of the world, that its history expands in a certain sense into universal history. On such a phase as this, the papacy entered after the council of Trent. Shaken to its very centre, perilled in the very ground-work of its being, it had yet been able to bide the brunt, and to arm itself with renovated vigour. In both peninsulas it had promptly swept aside all the hostile efforts by A. D. 1563-1589.] SITUATION OF PROTESTANTISM ABOUT 1563. 163 whicli it had been assailed, and had once more gathered to itself and pervaded all the ele- ments of life. It now conceived the project of re-subduing the revolted in all other parts of the world. Rome became once more a conquering power, it formed projects, and en- gaged ill enterprises, such as in ancient times and in the middle ages had issued from the seven-hilled city. We should make but little progress in the history of tiie renovated papacy, vyere we to limit our observation to its centre only. Its actual significance is perfectly to be seen but in its operation upon the world in general. Let us begin with contemplating the strength and position of its rival. Situation of Protestantism about the year 1563. North of the Alps and the Pyrenees, the Protestant opinions had been in vigorous and incessant progress till the period of the council of Trent: their dominion extended far and wide over German, Sclavonian, and Latin nations. In the Scandinavian realms they had estab- lished themselves the more impregnably, be- cause there their introduction was coincident with the establishment of new dynasties, and the re-modelling of all political institutions. From the very first they were hailed with joy, as though there was in their nature a primi- tive affinity to the national feelings. Bugen- hagen, the founder of Lutheranism in Den- mark, cannot find words enough to describe the zeal with which his preaching was listened to in that country, " even on work-days," as he expresses himself, " even before day, on holidays and all day long."* The Protestant doctrines had now spread to the very remotest boundaries of Scandinavia. How the Faro Isles became Protestant is unknown, so easy and spontaneous was the change.f In the year 1552, the last representatives of Catholi- cism in Iceland succumbed : a Lutheran bi- shopric was founded in VViborg in 1554 : evangelic preachers travelled to far Lapland in company with the Swedish governors. In 1560, Gustavus Vasa earnestly enjoined his heir in his will, that he and all his poster- ity should hold fast by the evangelical doc- trine, and tolerate no false teachers. He made this almost a condition to the inheritance of the throne.]: On the Southern shores too of the Baltic, Lutheranism had achieved complete predomi- nance, at least among the population of Ger- man tongue. Prussia had set the first exam- ple of secularization on a grand scale : this * Narrative of D. Pomerani, 1539. Sabb. p. visit, in Miillers Entdecktem Slaatsc.abinet 4te ErotTn. p. 365. f Miinter: Kircliengeschichte vun Diinemark, iii. 429. i Testamentuin religiosum Gustavi I. in Baaz: Inven- tarium Ecclesise Sueogolh. p. 282. having been followed by Livonia in 1.561, the first condition stipulated for by that province on its submission to Poland, was, that it should be at liberty to abide by the Augsburg con- fession. Their connexion with those coun- tries, whose subjection was based on the Pro- testant principle, operated as a check upon the Jagellon kings, to prevent their opposing the progress of tiie new faith. The great cities of Polish Prussia were, in the years 1557, 15.58, confirmed in the exercise of their religion according to the Lutheran ritual by express charters ; and the privileges soon after acquired by the smaller towns, which had previously been exposed to the attacks of pow- erful bishops,* were still more explicit. In fact, even in Poland Proper a considerable part of the nobility had been gained over to the Protestant opinions, grateful as these were to the feelings of independence nurtured by the constitution of the state. It was a com- mon saying, " A Polish nobleman is not sub- ject to the king ; is he to be so to the pope !" So far were matters carried, that Protestants made their way even into the episcopal sees, and even constituted the majority of the senate under Sigismund Augustus. That sovereign was unquestionably catholic ; he heard mass daily, and catholic preaching eve- ry Sunday ; he joined the singers of his choir in the Benedictus; observed the seasons of confession and communion, which latter he received in one kind : still he seemed to give himself little concern about the creed of his court or his subjects, and was not disposed to embitter the last years of his lite, by a contest against so vigorously progressive a system of belieff Such an attempt at resistance had, to say the least of it, not been beneficial to the gov- ernment in the neighbouring dominions of Hungary. Ferdinand I. could never force the diet to any resolutions unfavourable to Pro- testantism. In the year 1554, a Lutheran was elected palatine of the empire, and soon after concessions were extorted in favour of the Helvetic confession in the vale of Erlan. Transylvania separated itself altogether ; the ecclesiastical possessions in that country were confiscated by a formal decree of the diet, in the year 1556, the princess even appropriating to herself the greater part of the tithes. We come now to Germany, where the new * Lengnich: Nachricht von der Religionsanderung in Preussen vor dein 4ten Theil derGeschichte der Preussi- schen Lande, § W. t Kelalione di Polonia del vescovo di Camerino, about 1555. MS. in tlie Chigi library. A molti di questi (wlio reside at court) compona che vivano come li piace, perche si vede che S. Maesti 6 tanto benigna clie non von ia mai far cosa che dispiacesse ad alciino, ed iovorreiche nelle cose della religione fosse un poco piu severa. [Many of those who reside at court, are at liberty to live as they please, because it is evident his majesty is so benignant, he could never consent to molest any one. For my part I could wish that in matters of religion he waa a little more severe.] 164 COUNTER REFORMATIONS. FIRST PERIOD, [a. d. 1563-89. form ofthe church had first unfolded itself spon taneously out ofthe national mind, upheld itself throughout a long and formidable war, achiev- ed a legalized existence, and was now in the act of taking full possession of the several states. In this it had already made extensive progress. Protestantism not only reigned paramount in Northern Germany, where it had originated, and in those districts of Upper Germany where it had always maintained itself; its grasp had been extended much more widely in every direction. In Franconia, the bishoprics vainly opposed it. In Wurzburg, and Bamberg, by far the greater part of the nobility and of the episco- pal functionaries, the magistrates, and the burghers of the towns, at least the majority of them, and the bulk of the rural population, had passed over to the reforming party. In the territories of Bamberg, we trace the name of a Lutheran pastor attached to almost every single parish.* Such was the tone prevailing in the administration, which moreover was principally in the hands of the estates, regu- larly constituted bodies corporate, invested even with the right of imposing taxes and duties : such too was the tone prevailing in the tribunals, and the observation was com- monly made, that the greater number of de- cisions were hostile to the catholic interests.! The bishops had little weight; those even who, " with Teutonic and Frankish fidelity," reverenced them as princes, could not yet en- dure to see them parade, mitred and decked in their clerical trappings. The movement had not been much less en- ergetic in Bavaria. The great majority of the nobility had adopted the protestant doc- trine, and a considerable portion ofthe towns was decidedly inclined to it : the duke was compelled in his diets, for instance, in the year 1556, to grant concessions, such as elsewhere led to the complete introduction of the Augs- burg confession, and which here seemed to promise the same result. The duke himself was not so inveterately opposed to that con- fession as not occasionally to listen to a pro- testant sermon.]; Far more than this, however, had been done in Austria. The nobility of that country studied in Wittemberg: all the colleges ofthe land were filled with Protestants; it was said to be ascertained, that not more perhaps than the thirtieth part of the population had re- mained catholic : step by step, a national con- stitution unfolded itself, formed upon the prin- ciple of Protestantism. The archbishop of Salzberg too, encompass- ed by Bavaria and Austria, had been unable * Jack has specially occJipied himself with this matter, in the second and third parts of his Geschichte von Bam- berg. I Gropp, Dissertatio do Statu Rfligionis in Franconia Lulheranismo infecta. Sc.riptores Wirceb. i. p. 42. t Siizinger in Strobel : Beitrage zur Literatur, i. 313. to keep their dominions stedfast to the ancient faith. True, they admitted no protestant preacher, but the disposition ofthe population was not the less decidedly pronounced. The mass was no longer frequented in the capital ; nor fasts nor holidays observed. Those who were too remote to attend the preachers in Austrian localities, edified themselves at home with Spangenberg's postiles. The people of the mountains were not content with this. In the Rauris and the Gastein, in St. Veit, Tam- sweg, and Radstadt, the inhabitants loudly demanded the sacramental cup, and this being refused them, they ceased altogether to attend the sacrament: they withheld their children too from the schools ; and it actually occurred in the church, that a peasant rose and cried out to the preacher, "Thou liest." The pea- sants preached to each other.* We need not be surprised, if under the suppression of all worship accordant with their newly adopted convictions, notions of a visionary and roman- tic character grew up among those inhabi- tants of the lonely Alps. How advantageously contrasted with this picture, is that which presents itself to us in the dominions of the spiritual electors on the Rhine, where the nobihty had independence enough to procure for their vassals a freedom, which could hardly be granted by the spiritual lord. The Rhenish nobility had early embra- ced protestantism ; they allowed no encroach- ments of the sovereigns upon their domains, not even of a religious kind. In all the towns there existed already a protestant party. It showed its activity by reiterated petitions in Cologne; in Trier it was already so strong as to invite a preacher from Geneva, and to main- tain him in defiance ofthe elector: in Aix la Chapelle it strove for absolute supremacy; the inhabitants of Mainz too did not hesitate to send their children to protestant schools, for instance to Niirnberg. Commendone, who was in Germany in the year 1561, cannot ex- press the dependence ofthe prelates upon the Lutheran princes, and their complaisance towards protestantism. f He declares he has known protestants of the most violent opinions in their very privy councils.| He is amazed that time had so utterly failed to bring relief to Catholicism. It was the same in Westphalia as else- where. The whole rural population was busy with the harvest on St. Peter's day : the ap. pointed festivals were generally no longer ob- served. The town-council of Paderborn watch- ed with a kind of jealousy over its protestant * Extract from a report by the canon Wilh. v. Traut- mannsdorfof the ye^ir 1555, in Zauneis, Chronik von Salzburg, vi. 327. I Gratiani, Vie de Commendon, p. 116. t De' piu arrabbiati heretici. Mi e parso che il tempo non habbia apportalo aU'un giovaraento. Commendone, Relatione della state della religions in Gerniania. MS. Vallicell. ^ A. D. 1563-98.] SITUATION OF PROTESTANTISM ABOUT 1563. 165 confepsion. In Miinster more than one bishop I were wrested from it: these were followed in had the reputation of Lutheran sentiments, and most of the priests were formally married : duke Wilhelm of Cleves adhered indeed on the whole to Catholicism ; in his private chap- el, nevertheless, he received the sacrament in both kinds; the greater part of his council were avowed protestants ; no essential obsta- cle was offered to the evangelical ritual in his dominions.* In short, from west to east, and from north to south, throughout all Germany, protestant- ism had unquestionably the preponderance. The nobility were attached to it from the very first: the body of public functionaries, already in those days numerous and important, was trained up in the new doctrine: the common people would hear no more of certain articles, such for instance as purgatory, or of certain ceremonies, such as the pilgrimages: not a man durst come forward w^ith holy relics. A Venetian ambassador calculates, in the year 1558, that but a tenth part of the inhabitants of Germany still clung to the ancient faith. It is not surprising if the losses sustained by Catholicism in power and property, kept pace with the continual decay of its spiritual influ- ence. The canons in most of the ecclesiasti- cal foundations were either devoted to the reformed doctrine, or were lukewarm and in- different. What was to hin/ler them then from proposing protestant bishops when op- portunity occurred, should that seem to them advantageous in other respects'? True, it was ordained by the treaty of Augsburg, that a spiritual prince should lose both his rank and his revenues if he abandoned the old faith ; this it was thought, however, by no means aimed at preventing a chapter already pro- testant, from choosing an evangelical bishop ; all that could be insisted on was, that the en- dowments should not be made hereditary. Thus it occurred, that a Brandenburg prince received the archbishopric of Magdeburg, a Lauenburg prince that of Bremen, and a prince of Brunswick thatof Halberstadt. The bishop- rics too of Liibek, Verden, and Munden, and the abbey of Quedlingburg, fell into protestant hands.f Nor was the confiscation of church property less energetically carried on. How great were the losses sustained, for instance, within a few years by the bishopric of Augsburg. In the year 1537 all the convents in VVirtemberg ♦ Tempesti, Vita di Sisto V. from the Anonymo di Cam- pidoglio, I. xxiii. Da moll' anni si commiinicava con ambe le specie, quantunqueil suocapellano clien' havesse par- lalo, inducendolo a comnuinicarsi cosi'nrlla sua capella segreta, per non dar mal essempio a' sudditi. In a letter given in Niesen's Miinstersche Urkundensaiiiniluns, I. xxi. it is said with similar significance of the bisliop of Miinster and the court of Cleves: Wilhelnius episco- pus (W. V. Rettler) religionem semilutheranam hausit in in aula Juliacensi. [Bishop Wilhelm imbibed a senii- lutheran religion at the coun of Cleves.] t See also my Hist. Pol. Zeitschrifl, I. ii, 269 elseq. 1553 by the convents and pari.shesof the county of Oettingen. It was not till ajler the peace of Augsburg, that the protestants rose to an equality with their rivals in Diinkelsbiihl and Donauwerth, and to supremacy in Nordingen and Memmingen. Thereupon tlie convents in those towns, among them the rich precept- oryofSt. Anthony in Memmingen, and the parochial livings, were irretrievably lost.* In addition to all this, there was but little of a cheering nature in the future prospect of Catholicism. Protestant opinions had triumphed in the universities and educational establishments. Those old champions of Catholicism who had withstood Luther were dead, or in advanced years: young men capable of supplying their places had not yet arisen. Twenty years had elapsed in Vienna since a single student of the university had taken priest's orders. Even in Ingoldstadt, pre-eminently catholic as it was, no competent candidates of the faculty of theology presented themselves to fill the places that had hitherto been always occupied by ec- clesiastics.! The city of Cologne founded an endowed school ; but when all the arrange- ments for it had been made, it was found that the regent was a protestant.|; Cardinal Otto Truchess established a new university in his city of Dillingen, with the express design of resisting the progress of protestantism. The credit of this institution was maintained for some years by a few distinguished Spanish theologians, but as soon as tliese left it, not a single scholar could be found in all Germany to succeed to their places; and even the.se were likewise filled with protestants. About this period the teachers in Germany were all, almost without exception, protestants; the whole body of the rising generation sat at their feet, and imbibed a hatred of the pope with the first rudiments of learning. Such was the state of things in the north and east of Europe : in many places catholic- ism was entirely exploded, in all it was sub- dued and despoiled. While it was struggling to defend itself, enemies still more formidable rose against it in the west and south. For assuredly the Calvinistic system was still more pointedly opposed to the Romish doctrines than was Lutheranism : just at the epoch before us. Galvanism took possession of men's minds with resistless force. It had arisen on the frontiers of Italy, Ger- many, and France, and had spread thence in all directions. Eastward, in Germany, Hun- * Placidus Braun : Geschichte der Bischiife von Augs- burg, Band iii. 533, 535 et seq., on this head from authea- tic sources. t Agricolo, Hisioria provincia» socieiatis Jesu Germanise superioris, i. p. 29. t Orlandinus, Historia Societatis Jesu, torn. i. lib. xvi. n. 25. Hujus novae bursae regens, quem prinium prafeca- rant, Jacobus Lichius, Lutheranus laudem apparuit. 166 COUNTER REFORMATIONS. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89. gary, and Poland, it constituted a subordinate but still very important element of the pro- testant movement ; in western Europe it had already risen to independent power. Whereas the Scandinavian kingdoms had become Lutherean, the British had adopted the Calvinistic faith : in the latter, the new church had assumed two opposite aspects. In Scotland, where its power had been won during its struggles with the government, it was poor, popular, and democratic : so much the more resistless was the fervour with which it animated its votaries. In England, where it had risen to eminence in league with the government of the day, it was rich, monarchi- cal, and magnificent ; and it declared itself content with mere forbearance from opposition to its ritual. The church of Scotland naturally approximated infinitely more to the model of Geneva, and was infinitely more in accord ance with the spirit of Calvin. The French had embraced the doctrines of their countryman Calvin, with all theircharac- teristic vivacity. In defiance of every perse- cution, the French churches modelled them- on the type of that of Geneva : they held a synod as early as the year 1559. In the year 1561, the Venetian ambassador Micheli finds not one province free from protestantism, and three-fourths of the realm filled with it, — Bre- tagne and Normandy, Gascony and Langue- doc, Poictou, Touraine, Provence, and Dau- phine. " In many places in these provinces," he says, " meetings and preachings are held, and rules of life laid down, exactly after the pattern set by Geneva, without the least re- gard to the royal prohibitions. Every one has adopted these opinions, even, what is most remarkable, the clergy; not only priests, monks, and nuns — there may possibly be a few convents uninfected by them — but the very bishops, and many of the more eminent prelates." " Your highness:" he says to the doge, — " with the exception of the common people, that is still zealous in frequenting the churches, all the rest of the nation are fallen away, especially the nobles, and the younger men under forty years of age, almost without exception. For although many of them still go to mass, they do so only for appearance sake, and out of fear: when they think them- selves unobserved, they turn their backs on mass and church." When Micheli arrived in Geneva, he learned that immediately after the death of Francis 11. fifty preachers had set out from that city to different towns in France. He was amazed to see the consideration in which Calvin was held, and the quantity of money that poured in upon him in aid of the multitudes that had fled ibr refuge to Geneva.* He finds it unavoidable that religious freedom should be accorded to the French protestants, at least for an interim, as he expressed him- self, if a deluge of blood was to be avoided. In fact, this report was soon followed by the edict of Jan. 1562, which granted a recognized and legal existence to protestantism in France, and is the basis of the privileges it has since enjoyed there. All these changes on every side, in Ger- many, France, and England, could not fail of affecting the Netherlands. The German in- fluence had first prevailed there. One of the most cogent motives that impelled Charles V. to the war of Schmalcalde was, that the sym- 1 patliy the German protestants excited in the | Netherlands, daily increased the difliiculty of governing those provinces, which constituted so important a part of his dominions. By put- ting down the German princes, he guarded himself at the same time from insun-ection on the part of his Flemish subjects.* All his laws, however, ihough he enforced them with extraordinary rigour, all the executions in- flicted in almost incredible number, particular- ly in the early part of his successor's reign (it was calculated at the time, that up to 1562 thirty thousands protestants, men and women, had been put to death,!) were unable to stop the progress of the new opinions. The only result was, that in the Netherlands these as- sumed rather the French Calvinistic tone than the German Lutheran. In this country, too, in defiance of all persecution, a formal con- fession was put forward so early as in the year 1.561 : churches were established on the Gen- evese model ; and the protestants, connecting themselves with local rights and their defend- ers, acquired a political basis, from which they might expect not only safety and support, but even political importance for the time to come. * Micheli, Relatione delle cose di Francia, I'anno I5G1. Da poi che fu conosciuto che col mettere in prigioni e con casligare e con I'abbrucidre uon solo non si emendavano, ma si dieordinavano piu, fu deliberalo che non si proce- desse piu contra alcuno, eccetto che contra quelli che andavano predicando, seducendo e facendo publicamenle le congregalioni e le asseniblce, e gli altri si lassassero vivere: ondi ne fuiono liberati ecavati di prigioni di Par- igi e di lulli le altre lerre del regno un grandisssimo nu- mero, che rimasero poi nel regno pralicando liberamente e parlando con ogn'uuo e gloriandosi che aveano guadag- nato la lite contra i Papisti ; cosi chiamavano e chiamano li loro adversarii. [After it was ascertained that im- prisonment, chastisement, and burning did not mend them, but made them more disorderly, it was determined to proceed no more against any one, except those who per- sisted in preaching, misleading, and publicly holding meetings, and that all others should be left unharmed. Accordfngly, a great number of them were let loose from the prisons of Paris, and a vast multitude from all the other parts of the kingdom, who continued in it freely exercising their religion, talking to every one, and boast- ing that they had been victorious over the Papists. So they called, and still call their adversaries.] * A view taken by the then Florentine resident at the imperial court, on very good grounds as I think. t In a report concerntng Spain in 1562, apparently by Paolo Tiepolo, to be found in the Venetian archives, it is said: Unagradissima parte di quei paesi bassi e guasta e corrotta da queste nuove opinioni e per tutte le pro- vision! che si abbiano fatte e per la morte data a molte migliara de homeni (che da setle anni o poco piu in qua per quel che mi e stalo affermalo da persone principal! di que' paesi, sono stall morti di giustitia pi 3Gni. ffa hom- ine e donne) no solamenle (non) si 6 rimediato, ma, etc. A.D. 1563-89.] SITUATION OF PROTESTANTISM ABOUT 1563. 167 Under these circumstances new energies were also infused into the older oppositions to Rome. The Moravian brethren had been formally recognized in the year 1562, by Maximilian II., and they availed themselves of that fortunate event to elect that very same year in their synod a great number of new clergy, as many it is said, as one hundred and eighty-eight.* In the year 1561, the duke of Savoy, too, saw himself compelled to ac- cord new privileges to the poor congregations of Waldenses in the mountains.! The pro- testant notions extended their vivifying ener- gies to the most remote and most forgotten corners of Europe. What an immense domain had they conquered within the space of forty years 1 From Iceland to the Pyrenees, from Finland to the heights of the Italian Alps. Even beyond the latter mountains opinions analogous had once, as we are aware, pre- vailed. Protestantism embraced the whole range of the Latin church : it had laid hold on a vast majority of the higher classes, and of the minds that took part in public life : wliole nations clung to it with enthusiasm, and states had been remodelled by it.J This is the more deserving of our wonder, inasmuch as protestantism was by no means a mere antithesis, a negation of the papacy, or an emancipation from its rule : it was in tlie highest degree positive; a renovation of Chris- tian notions and principles, that sway human life even to the profoundest mysteries of the soul. Capacities of the Papacy for Contest. The papacy and Catholicism had for a long time maintained a defensive attitude against the progress of their foe, but passively only, * Regenvolscii Ecclesias Slavonicae, i. p. 63. t Leger: Histoire des Eglises Vaudoises, ii. p. 38, gives the trpaty. t In this light the loss was regarded in Rome itself. Tiepolo, Relatione di Pio IV. e V. Parlando solamente di quelli (popoli) d'Europa che nonsoleobedivano lui (al papa) ma ancora seguivano in tutlo i riti e le consuetudini della chiesa romana, celebrando ancora li officii nella lingua Lalina, si sa che I'lnghillerra, la Scotia, la Dania, la Norvegia, la Suetia, e tinalmente tutti i paesi selten- Irionali, si sono alienati da lei : la Gennania e quasi lutta norduta, la Bohemia e la Polonia si trovano in gran parte mfette, li paesi bassi della Fiandra sono cosi corotti che per rimedio che vi si sforzi dar loro il diica d'Alva dilBcil- mente rilorneranno alia prima sanita, e finalmente la Francia per rispetto di questi mal humori e lutta ripiena di confusioni, in modo che non pare che sia restato aliro di sano e di sicuro al pontefice che la .Spagna e I'ltalia, con alcune poche isole e con quel paeso che e dalla Serti. V"' in Dalmatia et in Grecia posseduto. [Speaking only of those nations of Europe, which not only used to obey the pope, but also followed in every particular the rites and usages of the Roman church, celebrating public wor- ship too in the Latin language, it is notorious that Eng- land, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and in a word all the countries of the North, are alienated from il. Germany is almost wholly lost, Bohemia and Poland are In a great degree infected, the Low Countries of Flanders are so corrupted, that notwithstanding all the efforts of the duke of Alva to remedy the evil, they will hardly ever return to their original liealthy condition ; and lastly France, by means of these morbid humours, is all replete with confusion, so that it appears nothing remains to the and without power to offer it any effectual resistance. Now, however, matters assumed a different aspect. We have seen the inward evolutions through which Catholicism began the work of self-re- generation. On the whole we may say, that it again manifested a living power, regene- rated its creed in the spirit of the age, and created reforms in general accordance with the demands of tlie times. It did not suffer the religious tendencies existing in southern Europe to grow up there also into hostile de- monstrations, but adopted and governed them, and so infused new vigour into its own sys- tem. Hitherto the spirit of protestantism alone had successfully filled the theatre of the world, and captivated the minds of men ; another spirit, equally, perhaps, deserving of esteem, when regarded from a loftier point of contemplation, though of the most decidedly opposite character, now entered the lists against the former, skilled likev^^ise to win and sway the minds of men, and to kindle them to activity. The restored catholic system first obtained mastery over the two southern peninsulas. This it did not accomplish without extraor- dinary rigour: the Spanish inquisition was seconded by that which had been revived in Rome, and all demonstrations of protestantism were violently suppressed. But at the same time those inward sentiments and promptings which renovated Catholicism especially ad- dressed and claimed as her own, were pecu- liarly powerful in those countries. The sovereigns, too, attached themselves to the interests of the church. It was a circumstance of singular moment, that Philip II., the mightiest of them all, so decidedly adhered to the papacy. He repu- diated all opinions opposed to Catholicism with the pride of a Spaniard, by whom imma- culate Catholicism was regarded as the token of purity of blood and noble descent. Nor was it, after all, his personal inclinations only that stamped the character of his policy. From remote times, and especially since the mea- sures instituted by Isabella, the kingly dignity had worn an ecclesiastical complexion in Spain : in every province the royal authority was strengthened by a supplement of spiritual power ; its rule would have been at an end had it been deprived of the inquisition : even in his American possessions, the king ap- peared above all in the light of a disseminator of the Christian and catholic faith : this was the thought that combined all his territories in allegiance to him, nor could he have aban- doned it without real danger. The spread of the Huguenots in the south of France excited pope intact and secure but Spain and Italy, with some few islands, and with those countries possessed by your Serenity in Dalmatia and in Greece, 166 COUNTER REFORMATIONS. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89. gary, and Poland, it constituted a subordinate but still very important element of the pro- testant movement ; in western Europe it had already risen to independent power. Whereas the Scandinavian kina^doms had become Lutherean, tlie British had adopted the Calvinistic faith : in the latter, the new church had assumed two opposite aspects. In Scotland, where its power had been won during its struggles with the government, it was poor, popular, and democratic : so much the more resistless was the fervour with which it animated its votaries. In England, where it had risen to eminence in league with the government of the day, it was rich, monarchi- cal, and magnificent ; and it declared itself content with mere forbearance from opposition to its ritual. The church of Scotland naturally approximated infinitely more to the model of Geneva, and was infinitely more in accord- ance with the spirit of Calvin. The French had embraced the doctrines of their countryman Calvin, with all theircharac- teristic vivacity. In defiance of every perse- cution, the French churches modelled them- on the type of that of Geneva : they held a synod as early as the year 1559. In the year 1561, the Venetian ambassador Micheli finds not one province free from protestantism, and three-fourths of the realm filled with it, — Bre- tagne and Normandy, Gascony and Langue- doc, Poictou, Touraine, Provence, and Dau- phine. " In many places in these provinces," he says, " meetings and preachings are held, and rules of life laid down, exactly after the pattern set by Geneva, without the least re- gard to the royal prohibitions. Every one has adopted these opinions, even, what is most remarkable, the clergy; not only priests, monks, and nuns — there may possibly be a few convents uninfected by them — but the very bishops, and many of the more eminent prelates." " Your highness:" he says to the doge, — " with the exception of the common people, that is still zealous in frequenting the churches, all the rest of the nation are fallen away, especially the nobles, and the younger men under forty years of age, almost without exception. For although many of them still go to mass, they do so only for appearance sake, and out of fear: when they think them- selves unobserved, they turn their backs on mass and church." When Micheli arrived in Geneva, he learned that immediately after the death of Francis II. fifty preachers had set out from that city to different towns in France. He was amazed to see the consideration in which Calvin was held, and the quantity of money that poured in upon him in aid of the multitudes that had fled lor refuge to Geneva.* He finds it unavoidable that religious freedom should be accorded to the French protestants, at least for an interim, as he expressed him- self, if a deluge of blood was to be avoided. In fact, this report was soon followed by the edict of Jan. 1562, which granted a recognized and legal existence to protestantism in France, and is the basis of the privileges it has since enjoyed there. All these changes on every side, in Ger- many, France, and England, could not fail of affecting the Netherlands. The German in- fluence had first prevailed there. One of the most cogent motives that impelled Charles V. to the war of Schmalcalde was, that the sym- pathy the German protestants excited in the Netherlands, daily increased the difficulty of governing those provinces, which constituted so important a part of his dominions. By put- ting down the German princes, he guarded himself at the same time from insurrection on the part of his Flemish subjects.* All his laws, however, though he enforced them with extraordinary rigour, all the executions in- flicted in almost incredible number, particular- ly in the early part of his successor's reign (it was calculated at the time, that up to 1562 thirty thousands protestants, men and women, had been put to death,f) were unable to stop the progress of the new opinions. The only result was, that in the Netherlands these as- sumed rather the French Calvinistic tone than the German Lutheran. In this country, too, in defiance of all persecution, a formal con- fession was put forward so early as in the year 1561 : churches were established on the Gen- evese model ; and the protestants, connecting themselves with local rights and their defend- ers, acquired a political basis, from which they might expect not only safety and support, but even political importance for the time to come. * Micheli, Relatione delle cose di Francia, Tanno 15C1. Da poi che fu conosciuto che col mettere in prigioni e con casligare e con I'abbruciare non solo non si emendavano, ma si disordiuavauo piu, I'u deliberate che uun si proce- desse piu contra alcuno, eccetto che contra quelli che andavano predicando, seducendo e facendo publicamente le congregationi 6 le assemblce, e gli altri si lassassero vivere: ondi ne furono liberati ecavati di prigioni di Par- igi e di tutti le altre lerre del regno tin grandisssimo nu- mero, che rimasero poi nel regno praticando liberamente e parlando con ogn'uno e gloriandosi che aveano giiadag- nato la lite contra i Papisti : cosi chiamavano e chiamano li loro adversarii. [After it was ascertained that im- prisonment, chastisement, and burning did not mend them, but made them more disorderly, it was determined to proceed no more against any one, except those who per- sisted in preaching, misleading, and publicly holding meetings, and that all others sliould be left unharmed. Accordmgly, a great number of them were let loose from the prisons of Paris, and a vast multitude from all the other parts of the kingdom, who continued in it freely exercising their religion, talking to every one, and boast- ing that they had been victorious over the Papists. So they called, and still call their adversaries.] * A view taken by the then Florentine resident at the imperial court, on very good grounds as I think. f In a report concerning Spain in 1562, apparently by Paolo Tiepolo, to be found in the Venetian archives, it is said : Unagradissima parte di quei paesi bassi e guasta e corrotta da queste nuove opinioni e per tutte le pro- visioni che si abbiano fatte e per la morte data a molte migliara de hoaieni (che da sette anni o poco piu in qua pel- quel che mi e stalo atfermato da persone principal! di que' paesi, sono stati morti di giustitia pi SGni. fra hom- ine e donae) no solameute (non) si 6 rimediato, ma, etc. ,D. 1563-89.] SITUATION OF PROTESTANTISM ABOUT 1563. 167 Under these circumstances new energies were also infused into thie older oppositions to Rome. The Moravian brethren had been formally recognized in the year 1562, by Maximilian II., and they availed themselves of that fortunate event to elect that very same year in their synod a great number of new clergy, as many it is said, as one hundred and eighty-eight.* In the year 1561, the duke of Savoy, too, saw himself compelled to ac- cord new privileges to the poor congregations of Waldenses in the mountains.! The pro- testant notions extended their vivifying ener- gies to the most remote and most forgotten corners of Europe. What an immense domain had they conquered within the space of forty years ] From Iceland to the Pyrenees, from Finland to the heights of the Italian Alps. Even beyond the latter mountains opinions analogous had once, as we are aware, pre- vailed. Protestantism embraced the whole range of the Latin church : it had laid hold on a vast majority of the higher classes, and of the minds that took part in public life : whole nations clung to it with enthusiasm, and states had been remodelled by it.| This is the more deserving of our wonder, inasmuch as protestantism was by no means a mere antithesis, a negation of the papacy, or an emancipation from its rule : it was in the highest degree positive ; a renovation of Chris- tian notions and principles, that sway human life even to the profoundest mysteries of the Boul. Capacities of the Papacy for Contest. The papacy and Catholicism had for a long time maintained a defensive attitude against the progress of their foe, but passively only. * Regenvolscii Ecclesise Slavonics, i. p. 63. t Leger: Hisloire des Eglises Vaudoises, ii. p. 38, gives the trpaly. t In ihis light the loss was regardpcl in Rome itself. Tiepolo, Relatione di Pio IV. e V. Parlando solamente di quelli (popoli) d'Europa die nonsoleobedivano lui (al papa) ma ancora seguivano in tulto i riii e le consuetudini flplla chiesa romana, celebrando ancora li officii nella lingua Lalina, si sa che I'lnghilterra, la Scotia, la Dania, la Norvegia, la Suetia, e finalmente tutti i paesi setten- Irionali, si sono alienati da lei : la Gennania e quasi lutta perduta, la Bohemia e la Polonia si trovano in gran parte iufette, li paesi bassi della Fiandra sono cosi corotti che per rimedio che vi si sforzi dar loro il duca d'Alva difficil- mente rilorneranno alia prima saniti, e finalmente la Francia per rispetto di questi mal humori e tutta ripiena di confusioni, in modo che non pare che sia reslato allro di sano e di sicuro al pontefice che la Spagna e I'ltalia, con alcune poche isole e con quel paeso che e dalla Serti. Yn- in Dalinatia et in Grecia possedulo. [Speaking only of those nations of Europe, which not only used to obey the pope, but also followed in every particular the ritea and usages of the Roman clturch, celebrating public wor- ship too in the Latin language, it is notorious that Eng- land, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and in a word all the countries of the North, are alienated from it. Germany is almost wholly lost, Bohemia and Poland are In a great degree infected, the Low Countries of Flanders are so corrupted, that notwithstanding all the etforts of the duke of Alva to remedy the evil, they will hardly ever return to their original Iriealthy condition ; and lastly France, by means of these morbid humours, is all replete Willi confusion, so that it appears nothing remains lo the and without power to offer it any effectual resistance. Now, however, matters assumed a different aspect. We have seen the inward evolutions through which Catholicism began the work of self-re- generation. On the whole we may say, that it again manifested a living power, regene- rated its creed in the spirit of the age, and created reforms in general accordance with the demands of the times. It did not suffer the religious tendencies existing in soutliern Europe to grow up there also into hostile de- monstrations, but adopted and governed them, and so infused new vigour into its own sys- tem. Hitherto the spirit of protestantism alone had successfully filled the theatre of the world, and captivated the minds of men ; another spirit, equally, perhaps, deserving of esteem, when regarded from a loftier point of contemplation, though of the most decidedly opposite character, now entered the lists against the former, skilled likevv'ise to win and sway the minds of men, and to kindle them to activity. The restored catholic system first obtained mastery over the two southern peninsulas. This it did not accomplish without extraor- dinary rigour: the Spanish inquisition was seconded by that which had been revived in Rome, and all demonstrations of protestantism were violently suppressed. But at the same time those inward sentiments and promptings which renovated Catholicism especially ad- dressed and claimed as her own, were pecu- liarly powerful in those countries. The sovereigns, too, attached themselves to the interests of the church. It was a circumstance of singular moment, that Philip II., the mightiest of them all, so decidedly adhered to the papacy. He repu- diated all opinions opposed to Catholicism with the pride of a Spaniard, by whom imma- culate Catholicism was regarded as the token of purity of blood and noble descent. Nor was it, after all, his personal inclinations only that stamped the character of his policy. From remote times, and especially since the mea- sures instituted by Isabella, the kingly dignity had worn an ecclesiastical complexion in Spain : in every province the royal authority was strengthened by a supplement of spiritual power ; its rule would have been at an end had it been deprived of the inquisition : even in his American possessions, the king ap- peared above all in the light of a disseminator of the Christian and catholic faith : this was the thought that combined all his territories in allegiance to him, nor could he have aban- doned it without real danger. The spread of the Huffuenots in the south of France excited pope intact and secure but Spain and Italy, with some few islands, and with those countries possessed by your Serenity in Dalmatia and in Greece. 16S COUNTER REFORMATIOxNS. FIRST PERIOD, [a. d. 1563-89. the greatest anxiety in Spain ; the inquisition deemed itself bound to double vigilance. " I assure your highness," the Venetian ambassa- dor says in a letter to his sovereign, Aug. 25, 1562, " no great religious excitement is to be wished for, for this country : there are many in it who long for a change of religion."* The papal nuncio was of opinion, that the progress of the council then sitting was a matter that no less concerned the royal than the papal authority. " For," said he, " the obedience paid to tlie king and his whole government depend upon the inquisition. Should this lose its consideration, insurrections would be the immediate consequence." The southern system would have acquired immediate influence upon the affairs of Europe collectively, from the mere circumstance that Philip was master of the Netherlands ; but besides this, all was far from having been lost in the other kingdoms. The emperor, the kings of France and of Poland, and the dukes of Bavaria, still adhered to the catholic church. There were on all sides spiritual princes, whose extinguished zeal might yet be rekin- dled ; and in many places protestantism had not yet seized upon the mass of the popula- tion. The majority of the rural inhabitants of France, and likewise of Hungaryf and Po- land, were still catholic ; Paris, which already in those days exercised a great influence over the other French cities, had not been tainted with innovation. In England a great part of the nobles and commons, and in Ireland the whole of the primitive stock, had remained catholic. Protestantism had gained no admis- sion into the Tyrolese or the Swiss Alps. Among the rural population of Bavaria, too, it had made no great progress. At all events, Canisius compared the Tyrolese and the Ba- varians wnth the two tribes of Israel, " who alone remained faithful to the Lord." It would be well worth while to inquire more closely what were the internal causes of this pertinacity, this imperturbable attachment to tradition evidenced by so many various and dissimilar races. The same phenomenon was likewise presented in the Walloon provinces of the Netherlands. And now the papacy resumed a position in which it could once more command all these * Diapaccio, Soranzo : Perpignan, 28 Maggio. Essendo in quesla provincia (Spagna) molti Ugonoui quasi non osano moslrarsi per la severissima dimostratione che qui fanno contra. Dubilano che non si mettano insieme es- sendone molti per lutta la Spagna. [Whereas there are many HuL'uenots in Spain, they scarcely dare to show themselves, on account of the very severe demonstrations egainst them. They waver about combining, there being many of them throughout all Spain.] + If it were not ignorance in this case, as, at least, is asserted by Lazarus Schwendi: "En Ungarie tout est confusion el misfire: ils sont de la plus part Huguenots, mais avec une extreme ignorance du people." [In Hun- fary all is confusion and wretchedness: the majority are luguenols, but the common people are extremely igno- rant.] Schwendi an prince d'Orange. Archives de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau, i. p. 288. inclinations, and knit them indissolubly to itself. Though it too had to undergo muta- tions, it still enjoyed the inestimable advan- tage of having on its side the externals of the past, and the habit of obedience. In the council they had brought to a happy termina- tion, the popes had even succeeded in enlarg- ing their own authority, which there had been an intention of curtailing, and in acquiring aug- mented influence over the national churches. Furthermore, they abandoned that temporal policy by which they had previously involved Italy and Europe in confusion ; they attached themselves confidentially and without reserve to Spain, and reciprocated her devotion to the church of Rome. The Italian sovereignty, the extended dominions of the pope, were pre-eminently subservient to the promotion of ecclesiastical enterprises : for awhile the whole .surplus revenue was devoted to the interests of the entire body of the catholic church. Thus intrinsically strong, and backed by ' powerful adherents, and by the might of an idea associated with their names, the popes passed from the defensive system, to which they had hitherto been forced to confine them- ' selves, and became assailants. The attack they made, its course and consequences, it is the principal object of this work to consider, A boundless theatre opens before us. The action began simultaneously in several places ; we are called on to direct our attention to the most remote and distinct parts of the world. The religious action is most intimately con- nected with political impulses; combinations arise embracing the whole world, under the influence of which tlie scheme of conquest succeeds or fails ; we shall keep in view the great changes manifested in the events of general politics the more steadily, because they often immediately coincided with the results of the religious contest. We must not, however, confine ourselves to generalities. Religious conquests can still less than temporal be accomplished without some native sympathies of the conquered with the conquerors. We must fathom the inte- rests of the several countries, in order to com- prehend the inward movements by which the designs of Rome were favoured. Such is the abundance and diversity of occurrences and of aspects of life here pre- sented to us, that we have almost reason to fear they can hardly be comprehended in one view. A great plastic movement is before us, actuated throughout by kindred principles, and sometimes combining grand universal crises, but which offers an infinite diversity of phenomena. Let us begin with Germany, where the pa- pacy first sustained its great losses, and where now, too, the strife between the two princi- ples was chiefly fought out. Here pre-eminently good service was ren- A. D. 1563-89 ] THE FIRST JESUIT SCHOOLS IN GERMANY. 169 dered the church of Rome by the society of the Jesuits, which combined worklly prudence with religious zeal, and was penetrated by the spirit of modern Catholicism. Let us first bestow our attention on the eftective power of this body. The first Jesuit Schools in Germany, Ferdinand I. had with him his confessor Bishop Urban of Laibach at tlie diet of Augs- burg-, in the year 1550. The latter was one of those few prelates who had not suffered themselves to be shaken in their faith. At home he often mounted the pulpit to exhort the people in the local dialect to stand fast by the faith of their fathers, preaching to them of the one fold, and the one Shepherd.* The Jesuit Le Jay was also present in Augsburg on that occasion, and gained consideration by some conversions. Bishop Urban became ac- quainted with him, and heard from him, for the first time, of the colleges the Jesuits had found- ed in several universities. Upon this the bishop advised his imperial master to found a • similar college in Vienna, seeing how great was the decay of catholic theology in Germany. Ferdinand warmly embraced the suggestion ; in a letter he wrote to Loyola on the subject, he declares his conviction, that the only means to uphold the declining cause of Catholicism in Germany, was to give the rising generation learned and pious catholics for teachers.f The preliminaries were easily arranged. In the year 1551 thirteen Jesuits, among them Le Jay himself, arrived in Vienna, and were, in the first instance, granted a dwelling, chapel, and pension, by Ferdinand, until shortly after he incorporated them with the university, and even assigned to them the visitation of it. Soon after this they rose to consideration in Cologne, where they had already resided for two years, but had met with so little success, that they had even been compelled to live separate. It was not till the year 1556 that the endowed school we have spoken of, gov- erned by a protestant regent, gave them an opportunity of gaining a firmer footing. For since there was a party in the city bent above all things on maintaining the catholic cha- racter of the university, the advice given by the patrons of the Jesuits, to hand over the establishment to that order,! "'^t with atten- tion. Their chief supporters were the prior of the Carthusians, the provincial of the Car- melites, and especially Doctor John Groppor, who now and then gave an entertainment, to which he invited the most influential citizens, that he might have an opportunity of helping forward the cause he had most at heart in * Valvassor: Ehre dea Herzogthums Krain, Theil ii Buch vii. p. 433. t Printed in Soctier'sHistoriaProTinciae AusUiiB Socie- latis Jesu, i. 21. 22 good old German fashion, over a glass of wine. Fortunately for the Jesuits, there was amongf the members of the order a native of Cologne, John Rhetius, a man of patrician family, to whom the endowed school could be more par- ticularly entrusted. But this was not done without strict limitations. The Jesuits were rigorously forbidden to introduce into the school the monastic rules of life usual in their colleges.* At this same period they also gained a firm footing in Ingoldstadt. Their previous at- tempts had been frustrated by the resistance of the younger members of the university, who were unwilling that any privileged school should interfere with the private instruction they were in the habit of giving. In the year 1556, however, when, as we have said, the duke had been forced to large concessions in favour of the prolestants, his catholic counsel- lors deemed it imperatively necessary to adopt some substantial measures for upholding the ancient faith. The foremost among these men were the chancellor Wiguleus Hund, equally remarkable for his zeal in supporting the church, as in investigating all the particulars of its ancient history, and Heinrich Schwigger, the duke's private secretary. ThrougJi their instrumentality the Jesuits were all recalled. Eighteen of them entered Ingoldstadt on St. Wilibald's day, 1.556, having selected that day because St. Wilibald was regarded as the first bishop of that diocese. They had still many difficulties to encounter in the city and the university, but they were gradually enabled to overcome them by the aid of the same patronage to which they owed their establish- ment. From these three metropolitan centres, the Jesuits now spread out in every direction. From Vienna they extended immediately over the Austrian territories. Ferdinand L introduced them in 1556 into Prague, where he founded for them a school, destined chiefly for the education of sons of the nobility. He himself sent his pages thither, and the order met with countenance and support, at least, at the hands of the catholic part of the Bohemian nobility, particularly the Rosenbergs and Lob- kowitz. One of the most eminent men in Hungary at that time was Nicolaus Olahus, archbishop of Gran, a Wallachian by descent, as his name testifies. His father, in his horror at the murder of a waiwode of his house, had dedicated him to the church, and in that career the son had made the most auspicious pro- gress. He had already filled the important post of private secretary under the last native kings ; and, subsequently, he had risen still higher in the service of the Austrian party. Contemplating the general decay of Catholi- cism in Hungary, he saw that the last hope ♦ Sacchinus, Hist. Socieialis Jesu, pars ii. lib. i. n. 103. 170 COUNTER REFORMATIONS. FIRST PERIOD. left for it, was that of maintaining its hold on the common people, who had not yet wholly lapsed from its rule. To this end, however, there lacked teachers of catholic principles, to form whom, he founded a college of Jesuits at Tyrnau in the year 1561, bestowing on them a pension out of his own revenues, to which the emperor Ferdinand added the gift of an abbey. Jifst at the period the Jesuits arrived, there was an assembly of the diocesan clergy convened : the first efforts of the Jesuits were directed towards recalling those Hungarian priests and pastors from the heterodox doctrine to which they inclined. By this time, too, there was a call for the Jesuits in Moravia. Wilhelin Prussinowski, bishop of Olmutz, who had become acquainted with the order whilst pursuing his studies in Italy, invited them thither. Hurtado Perez, a Spaniard, was the first rector in Olmutz. Soon after, we meet wiih members of the society in Brvmn like- wise. From Cologne the society spread over the whole territory of the Rhine. Protestantism had found adherents, as already noticed, in Trier too, and occasioned fernaents there. John von Stein, the archbishop, resolved to inflict only slight punishment on the refrac- tory, and to rely chiefly on doctrinal means for counteractmg the movements of their party. He invited to Coblentz the two heads of the Jesuit school of Cologne, and stated to them that he wished for some members of their order, " to the end," as he expressed himself, " that he might maintain the discipline of the flock entrusted to him rather by admonition and friendly instruction, than by weapons and threats." He also turned to Rome, and an agreement was speedily concluded. Six Je- suits were sent from Rome ; Cologne furnish- ed the rest. They opened their college on the 3rd of February, 1561, and undertook to preach during the ensuing Lent.* Two privy councillors of the elector Daniel of Mainz, namely, Peter Echter and Simon Bagen, conceived likewise that the admission of the Jesuits was the only means that pro- mised the recovery of the decayed university of Mainz. In despite of the opposition made by the canons and feudal proprietors, they found- ed a college of the order in Mainz, and a pre- paratory school in Aschaffenburg. The society continued to advance continu- ally up the Rhine. They particularly coveted a settlement at Spires, both because amongst the assessors of the Kammergericht assembled there, there were so many distinguished men, over whom it would be of extraordinary mo- ment to possess influence ; and also in order to be placed near the Heidelberg university, which at that day enjoyed the highest repute [a. d. 1563-89. They gradually * Browerus: Annales Trevirenses, torn. ii. lib. xxi. 106—125. for its protestant professors.* carried their point. They tried their fortune also along the Maine, and that without delay. Though Frankfurt was wholly protestant, they had hopes of accomplishing something there too during the fair. This, however, was a peril- ous experiment ; and, to avoid discovery, they were obliged to change their lodgings every night.f But equal to the difficulties they encountered here, were the security and the welcome they experienced at Wiirzburg. It would seem as though the admonition addres- sed to the bishops by the emperor Ferdinand, in the diet of 1559, that they too should, at length, put out their strength for the mainten- ance of the catholic church, had greatly con- tributed to the brilliant success of the order in the ecclesiastical principalities. From Wiirz- burg they spread through Franconia. Meanwhile the Tyrol had been opened to them from another quarter. At the desire of the emperor's daughter they seated them- selves in Inspruck, and, afterwards, in Halle in its vicinity. In Bavaria their progress was continual. At Munich, where they had arrived in 1559, they were even better satis- fied than at Ingoldstadt ; they declared it the Rome of Germany. And already a new great colony had been planted not far from Ingold- stadt. In order to bring back his university of Dillingen to its original purpose, cardinal Truchsess resolved to dismiss all the profes- sors who still taught there, and to commit the establishment entirely to the Jesuits. A for- mal convention on this subject was agreed to at Botzen between German and Italian com- missioners, on the part of the cardinal and of the order. The Jesuits arrived in Dillingen in 1563, and took possession of their profes- sorships. They relate with much complacency how the cardinal, who shortly after, on his return from a journey, entered Dillingen in state, turned with marked preference to the Jesuits amongst all those who had gone out to receive him, offered them his hand to kiss, greeted them as his brethren, visited their cells in person, and dined with them. He promoted their interests to the utmost of his power, and soon established a mission for them in Augsburg. This was an extraordinary progress made by the society in so brief a space of time. In the year 1551 they had not yet any fixed posi- tion in Germany ; in 1556 they had extended over Bavaria and the Tyrol, Franconia, and Swabia, a great part of Rhineland, and Aus- tria, and they had penetrated into Hungary, Bohemia, and Moravia. The effects of their * E. g. Neuser says in his famous letter to the sultan, that he was a teacher and a preacher at Heidelberg, "to which place the most learned of the whole German peopla now-a-days resort." Arnold, Ketzerhist, ii. 1133. t Gropp, Wirzburgische Chronik der letztereu Zeiten, Th. i. p. 237. A. D. 1563-89.] THE FIRST JESUIT SCHOOLS IN GERMANY. 171 proceedinsfs had already become manifest. In the year 1561 the papal nuncio asserts, that *' they are winning many souls, and doing great service to the holy see." This was the first enduring anti-protestant impression made on Germany. Their labours were above all devoted to the universities. They were ambitious of rival- ling the fame of tiiose of the protestants. The whole learned education of those times was based on the study of the ancient languages. This they prosecuted with lively zeal, and ere long it was thought, here and there at least, that tlie Jesuit teachers deserved a place beside the restorers of classical learning. They likewise cultivated the sciences : Franz Ros- ier expounded astronomy at Cologne, in a manner as attractive as it was instructive. But their main concern was, of course, theolo- gical discipline. The Jesuits lectured with the greatest industry even during the holi- days ; they revived the practice of disputa- tion, without which, as they said, all instruc- tion was a dead letter. Their disputations, which were held in public, were conducted with dignity and decorum, were full of matter, and the most brilliant that had ever been wit- nessed. In Ingoldstadt they soon persuaded themselves that they had made such good speed, that the university could compete with any other in Germany, at least, in the faculty of theology. Ingoldstadt acquired, though in an opposite direction, an influence parallel to that possessed by Wittenberg and Geneva. I^he Jesuits displayed no less assiduity in the conduct of their Latin schools. It was one of the leading maxims of Lainez, that the lower grammatical classes should be supplied with good teachers, since lirst impressions exercise the greatest influence over the whole future life of the individual. He sought with just discernment for men, who having once adopted that more limited department of edu- cation, were content to devote themselves to it for their whole lives ; for time alone could enable the teacher to learn so difficult a busi- ness, or to acquire the becoming authority. In this the Jesuits succeeded to admiration. It was found that young persons learned more under them in half a year than with others in two years : even protestants called back their children from distant schools, and put them under the care of the Jesuits. Schools for the poor, modes of instruction adapted for children, and catechizing followed. Canisius composed a catecliism, that satisfied the wants of the learner by its well-connected questions and its apposite answers. The instruction of the Jesuits was conveyed wholly in the spirit of that enthusiastic devo- tion, which had from the first so peculiarly characterized their order. The first rector in Vienna was a Spaniard named John Vittoria, a man who had once, in Rome, marked his admission into the order, by going about the Corso during the festivities of the carnival clad in sackclotii, scourging himself all the while till the blood ran down in streams. Ere long the children, who frequented the schools of the Jesuits in Vienna, were distinguished for their resolute refusal to partake on fast days of forbidden meats, which their parents ate without scruple. In Cologne it was once more regarded as an honour to wear tlie ro- sary. Relics began to be honoured in Trier, where for many years no one had ventured to exhibit them. Already, in the year 1.560, the youth of Ingoldstadt went in procession two and two from the Jesuit school to Eich- stiidt, in order to be strengthened at their confirmation " with the dew that distilled from the tomb of St. Walpurgi." The feel- ings thus engendered in the schools were pro- pagated throughout the mass of the popula- tion by preaching and confession. This is a case for which, perhaps, the world has never exiiibited an exact parallel. Whenever a new intellectual movement has seized mankind, it has always been eftect- ed by grand personal qualities, or by the cap- tivatmg force of new ideas. The efiects pro- duced in this case were accomplished inde- pendently of any remarkable original concep- tions. The Jesuits may have been learned and pious in their way ; but no one will pre- tend that their science was the fruit of spon- taneous genius, or that their piety aroSe out of the depth and the ingenuousness of a single heart. They were learned enough to acquire reputation, to excite confidence, to form and attach scholars : more than this they did not aspire to. Their piety not merely shunned all moral taint, but was positively conspicuous, and so much tlie less questionable : this was enough for them. Neither their piety nor their learning ventured upon undefined or untrodden paths : but they had one quality that particularly distinguished them — strict method. With them every thing was subject of calculation, for every thing had its special end. Such a combination of competent know- ledge and indefatigable zeal, of study and persuasiveness, of pomp and asceticism, of world-wide influence and of unity in the go- verning principle, was never beheld before or since. They were assiduous and visionary, worldly-wise and filled with enthusiasm ; well-comported men, whose society was glad- ly courted; devoid of personal interests, each labouring for the advancement of the rest. No wonder that they were successful. Another consideration connected with this subject forces itself upon a German writer. Papal theology had, as we have said, all but perished in Germany : the Jesuits arose to revive it. Who were those Jesuits who first arrived in that country 1 they were Spaniards, Italians, and Flemings ; the name of their 172 COUNTER REFORMATIONS. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89. order was long unknown: they were called Spanish priests. They occupied the profes- sors' chairs, and found pupils who attached themselves to their doctrines. They received nothing from the Germans ; their doctrines and their constitution were complete before they appeared among them. The general progress of their institution in Germany may be regarded as a new instance of the influence of the Latin portion of Europe on the Ger- manic. They conquered the Germans on their own soil, in their very home, and wrest- ed from them a part of their native land. Undoubtedly the cause of this was, that the German theologians were neither agreed among themselves, nor were magnanimous enough to mutually tolerate minor discrepan- cies. Extreme points of opinion were seized upon ; opponents attacked eacli other with reckless fierceness, so that those who were not yet fully convinced were perplexed, and a path was opened to those foreigners who now seized on men's minds with a shrewdly constructed doctrine, finished to its meanest details, and leaving not a shadow of cause for doubt. Beginning of the Counter-Reformation in Germany. Notwithstanding all this, it is manifest that the Jesuits could not have succeeded so easi- ly, h&d it not been for the aid of the secular arm, and the favour of the princes of the em- pire. For it had fared with theological as with political questions : no measure had been brought about by which the intrinsically hie- rarchical constitution of the empire might have been made to harmonize with the new circumstances of religion. The sum and sub- stance of the peace of Augsburg, as it was understood from the first, and was subsequent- ly interpreted, was a new extension of the civil sovereignty. The several principalities, too, acquired a degree of independence in respect of religion. Thenceforth it depended solely on the creed of the prince, and on the understanding between him and his estates, what ecclesiastical position any territory should assume. This was a consummation that seemed to have been devised in favour of protestantism, but which has actually served only to promote Catholicism. The former was already estab- lished when the principle was laid down ; the latter re-established itself only by resting upon it. This occurred first in Bavaria ; and the manner in which it took place there is worth notice, from the immense influence it exer- cised. The Bavarian diet presents us, during a considerable period, with a series of struggles between the sovereign and the estates. We see the duke continually in want of money, loaded with debt, forced to the imposition of new taxes, and incessantly constrained to so- licit the aid of his estates. In return for this the latter demanded concessions, chiefly of a religious kind. A similar state of things to that which had long prevailed in Austria seemed inevitable in Bavaria ; a legitimate opposition of the estates against the sovereign, grounded at once on religion and on privi- leges, unless the prince himself should become a convert to protestantism. Undoubtedly, it was this state of things through which the introduction of the Jesuits, as we have mentioned, was mainly prompted. It may possibly be true, that their preaching made a personal impression on duke Albert V. ; he subsequently declared, that whatever he knew of God's law he had learned from Hoflaus and Canisius, both of them Jesuits. But another agency co-operated. Pius IV. not only set before the duke that every reli- gious concession would diminish the obedi- ence of his subjects,* (which in the actual condition of German sovereignties was hardly to be denied,) but he gave force to his admo- nitions by marks of favour ; he abandoned to him a tenth of the property of his clergy. Thus rendering him independent of the plea- sure of his estates, he showed him at the same time what advantages he had to expect from a connexion with the Roman church. The main question now was, whether the duke would be able to put down the religious opposition actually constituted among his estates. He entered on the task in a diet at Ingold- stadt, in the year 1563. The prelates were already well-inclined to him : he next wrought upon the cities. Whether it were that the doctrines of reviving Catholicism, and the activity of the Jesuits, who insinuated themselves every where, had gained ground with the cities, and especially with the lead- ing members of their assemblies, or that other considerations swayed them, it is enough to say, that the cities desisted from the demands of new religious concessions they had always hitherto urged with earnestness, and proceed- ed to grant supplies without stipulating for new privileges. Now then the nobles alone remained to be dealt with. They left the diet in discontent, nay bitterness ; threaten- ing expressions that had dropped from various members of the body were reported to the duke ;f at last, the foremost of them all, the * Legationes paparuni ad puces Bavarias. MS. in the library of Municli. " Quod si Sua Celsiludo Ill'»a absque sedis apostolicae autorilale usum calicis concedat, ipsi priiicipi eliani plurimuni decederel de ejus apud subdiios autorilale." Tliey complained in Ihe Bavarian diel ihal ihe prince had lei himself be dazzled by the decimation grant. t Private inciuiry and report respecting the unbecoming A. D. 1563-89.] BEGINNING OF COUNTER REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 173 count of Ortenburg, who claimed for his coun- ty an unmediatized position disputed by the duke, resolved forthwith to introduce the evan- gelical confession into that territory. But by that very means the duke found the best wea- pons placed in his hands. Above all, when he discovered in one of the castles he seized, a correspondence between the Bavarian lords, containnig violently acrimonious language, in which he was designated as a hardened Pharaoh, and his council as thirsting for the blood of poor Christians, besides other expres- sions which seemed to indicate the existence of a conspiracy, he had now a fair pretext for calling to account all the members of the nobility that were opposed to him.* The punishments he inflicted upon them cannot be called rigorous, but they effected his purpose. He excluded all the individuals compromised from the Bavarian diet, and as they constitut- ed the only remaining opposition in that body, he thus became complete master of his es- tates, which from that time forth never stirred any question of religion. The great importance of this result was forthwith made apparent. For a long time duke Albert had been urgent in his demands to the pope and the council for permission to the laity to partake of the cup; he seemed to set the whole fortune of his dominions on that point : at last his suit was granted, in April, 1564. Could it be believed ! he did not even make the fact known. Circumstances were altered : a privilege departing from the strict tenour of Catholicism, now seemed to him ra- ther hurtful than advantageous; he put down by force some communities in Lower Bava- ria that boisterously renewed their former demands.! In a short time there was not in Germany a more decided catholic prince than duke Al- bert. He set himself with the utmost earnest- ness to the task of making his country once more wholly catholic. The professors in Ingoldstadt were compel- led to subscribe the confession of faith tliat had been published in pursuance of the de- crees of the council of Trent. All the officers in the duke's employ were obliged to pledge themselves by oath to an unambiguous catho- lic confession : if any refused to do so, they were dismissed. Even among the common people, duke Albert gave no toleration to pro- testantism. In Lower Bavaria, in the first instance, whither he had sent some Jesuits for the conversion of the inhabitants, not only were the protestant preachers, but every in- dividual who adhered to their doctrine, corn- seditious speeches, in Freiberg: Geschichte der baieris- chen Lanilsiilnde, ii. 352. * Huschberg: Geschichte des Hauses Ortenberg, S. 390. + Adlzreitter, Annalea Bnicae gentis, ii. xi. n. 22. Al- bertus earn indulgeuliam juris publici in Boica esse Qoluit. pelled to sell their property and quit the coun- try.* The same course was afterwards pur- sued in all other parts of the duke's domin- ions. It would not have been advisable for any magistrate to tolerate protestants : he would thereby have drawn down the severest punishment on himself. Now with this renovation of Catholicism, ' all its modern forms passed over from Italy into Germany. An index of prohibited books was drawn up : they were picked out from the libraries, and burned in heaps: on the other hand, books of rigidly catholic principles were treated with marked favour ; the duke failed not to encourage their authors. He caused the Sacred History of Surius to be translated into German, and printed at his own cost. The utmost veneration was paid to relics; St. Benno, of whom in another part of Germany (Meissen) they would no longer hear, was solemnly declared the patron saint of Bavaria. Architecture and music, in ac- cordance with the taste of the revived church, were first introduced in Munich : above all, the Jesuit institutions were encouraged, by means of which the rising generation was thoroughly educated in'the orthodox spirit. The Jesuits on their part could never suffi- ciently extol the duke, that second Josias, as they said, another Theodosius. Only one question remains for considera- tion. The more considerable the augmentation of sovereign authority, which accrued to the Protestant princes from their agency in the affairs of religion, the more glaring would it have been, had the catholic sovereigns found their own power shackled by the restoration of the ecclesiastical authority. This, however, was provided against. The popes saw plainly that they could not succeed in upholding their declining power, or in re- newing that they had lost, but through the aid of the sovereigns ; they practised no illusion on themselves on this score; accordingly they made it the essence of their policy to knit themselves to the reigning princes. In the instruction addressed by Gregory to the very first nuncio he sent to Bavaria, this purpose is declared without any circumlocu- tion. He says, " the most ardent wish of his holiness, is to restore the fallen discipline of the Church ; at the same time he sees that to attain so important an end, he must enter into combination with the sovereigns ; by their piety has religion been upheld ; with their laelp alone can Church discipline and morals be restored."! Accordingly, the pope endows * Agricola: Ps. i. Dec. iii. 115—120. t Legatio Gregorii XIH. 1573. " S. S. in earn curam incumbit qua ecclesiastica disciplina jam ferine in Ger- niania collapsa aliquo modo inslauretur, quod cum ante- cessores sui aul neglexerint aut leviter atligerint non tarn bene quam par erat de republica Christiana meritos esse aniinadvertit: adjungendos sibi ad tale lanlumque opu3 174 COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89. the duke with authority to stimulate the ne- gligent bishops : to carry into effect the reso- lutions of a synod that had been held in Salz- berg ; to constrain the bishop of Ratisbon and his chapter to erect a seminary ; in short, lie confers on him a sort of ecclesiastical super- vision, and he takes council with him as to whether it were not advisable to institute seminaries for monastic clergy, in addition to those already existing- for the secular clergy. To this the duke very cheerfully assents; he only demands that the bishops should not be allowed to trespass too far on the rights of the sovereign, whether traditional or newly be- stowed, and that the clergy should be kept in discipline and subordination by their superiors. There exist edicts, in which the prince treats convents as state property, and subjects them to secular administration. If protestant princes in the course of the reformation appropriated clerical attributes, the same thing was now accomplished by the catholic princes likewise. What in the one case was done in opposition to the papacy, in the other took place in union with it. If the protestant princes placed their younger sons as administrators of the neighbouring evan- gelical foundations, in the countries that had remained catholic the sons of catholic princes were directly advanced to episcopal dignities. Gregory had promised duke Albert from the very first, " to neglect nothing that might be for the advantage of himself or his sons." We soon find two of the latter in possession of the most sumptuous preferments; one of them gradually rose to the highest dignities of the empire.* But besides all this, Bavaria acquired a high degree of instrinsic importance from the posi- tion it took up. It championed a great prin- ciple, which was in the act of rising to new power. The inferior German princes of the same persuasion for some time regarded Ba- varia as their chief. For as far as ever the duke could stretch catholicos principes sapientissime statuil." [His Holi- ness is intent upon the consideration how ecclesiastical discipline, now generally decayed in Germany, may be restored, and he remarks that his predecessors in neglect- ing this, or treating it with but slight attention, have not done lh"ir duty by the Christian commonwealth :— he has most wisely determined on conjoining the catholicprinces with him in so excellent, and so great a work.] The am- bassador Bartolomeo, count of Porzia, expressly promises, "Suam Sanctilatem nihil unquam praetermissurum esse quod est e re sua (duels Bavariae) aut filiorum." * Even Pius V. moderated the rigour of his principles in favour of the duke of Bavaria. Tiepolo : Relatione di Pio IV. e V. " D'altri principi secolari di Germania, non ei sa che allro veramente sia cattolico che il duca di Ba- Tiera: pert) in gralificatione sua il pontefice ha concesso che il.figliuclo, che di gran lunga non ha ancora 1 ' et a deter- minato dal (;oncilio,habbiail vescovaloFrisingense; cosa che non 6diluislataconcessaadaUri." [Of the'oiher secu- lar princes of Germany, hardly one seems really catholic, witfi the exception of the duke of Bavaria: accordingly for his sake the pope has allowed that his son, who is very far from havineattainedtheage fixed by the council, shall have the bishopric of Friesingen: such a concession he lias never made to any one else.] his power, he exercised it zealously for the restoration of the catholic doctrine. No soon- er had the county of Haag passed into his hands, than he expelled the Protestants, who had been tolerated by the last count, and caused the catholic faith and ritual to be rein- stated. Margrave Philip of Baden-Baden, having fallen in the battle of Moncontour, his son Philip, a boy ten years of age, was placed under the guardianship of Albert, and brought up in Munich, of course in the catholic creed. But the duke did not wait to see what the young Margrave would do, when he took the reins of government into his hands, but in- stantly sent his grand steward, count Schwarz- enberg, and the Jesuit, George Schorich, who had already wrought together in the conver- sion of Lower Bavaria, into the Baden terri- tory, to convert it to Catholicism by the same means. True, the Protestant inhabitants ad- duced imperial edicts in opposition to those practices, but no heed was paid to them : " the plenipotentiaries proceeded," as the historian of the Jesuits complacently says, " to clear the ears and the minds of the simple multi- tude for the reception of heavenly doctrine." That is to say, they removed the protestant preachers, compelled the monks who had not continued quite orthodox to abjure all dissent- ing doctrines, filled the schools and colleges with catholic teachers, and banished such of the laity as would not conform to the ordinan- ces of the Church. Within two years, 1570, 1571, the whole country had once more be- come catholic* While these transactions were taking place in the secular principalities, a similar move- ment arose by a still more inevitable necessity in the ecclesiastical. The German spiritual princes were above all things bishops, and the popes lost not a moment in exerting in Germany too, the aug- mented power over the episcopal office, ac- corded to them by the decisions come to in Trent. Canisius was sent in the first place to the several spiritual courts, with copies of the resolutions of the council. He conveyed them to Mainz, Trier, Cologne, Osnabruck, and Wiirzburg.f He gave force and meaning to the official courtesies with which he was received, by his activity and address. The * Sacchinus, pars iii. lib. vi. n. 88. lib. vii. n. 67. Agri- cola, i. iv. 17, 18. The pope duly valued the duke for this. " Mira perfunditur laetitia," it is said in the account of that embaasy, " cum audit ill. Sis Yne opera et industria marchionem Badensemin religione catholica educari, ad quod accedit cur i ingens quam adhibuit in comitatu de Hag ut catholica fides, a qua turpiter defecerant, restitua- tur." [He is filled with exceeding joy at hearing, that by the care and application of your serene highness, the Margravate of Baden is trained in the catholic faith, be- sides the great care your serene highness has taken in the county of Haag, that the catholic faith, from which it had shamefully lapsed, should be restored.] t Maderus de vita P. Ganisii, lib. ii. c. ii. Sacchinus, iii. ii.22. A. D. 1563-89.] BEGINNING OF COUNTER REFORMATION IN GERMANY. 175 matter then came under discussion in the diet of Augsburg of 1566. Pope Pius V. had feared that protestantism would make new demands, and obtain new concessions in that assembly. He had alrea- dy instructed his nuncio, in case of urgency, to come forward with a protest, threatening the emperor and the princes with privation of all their rights, nay, he even thought the moment for this was now come.* The nuncio, who saw more closely into the state of things, did not hold this expedient. He perceived there was nothing more to be feared. The protestants were divided, the catholics held together. They often assembled at the house of the nuncio, to concert measures in common ; Canisius, by his irreproachable life, his perfect orthodoxy, and his prudence, possessed great personal influence among them : no concession was to be thought of; on the contrary, this diet was the first in which the catholic princes set up a successful resistance. The pope's admonitions received attention ; the resolu- tions of the council of Trent were prelimina- rily adopted in a special assembly of spiritual princes. From this moment begins a new life in the catholic church in Germany. The decrees in question were successively publish- ed in the several provincial synods: semina- ries were erected in the episcopal sees, the first who complied with this order being, as well as I can ascertain, the bishop of Eichstadt, who founded the collegium Wilibaldinum :f the professio Jidei was subscribed by all classes, high and low. It is a very important fact, that subscription to this document was also imposed on the universities. This was a regulation proposed by Lainez, approved of by the pope, and now generally carried into etfect throughout Germany, through the zeal of Canisius. Not only were no appointments, but not even were degrees, though it were but in the faculty of medicine, to be granted witJiout a subscription of the professio Jidei. The first university where the regulation was enforced, was to the best of my knowledge that of Dillingen : the others followed in their turn. The most rigid visitation of the church- es was began. The bishops, who hitherto had been very remiss, now displayed zeal and devotion. One of the most zealous among them was doubtless Jacob von Eltz, from the year 1567 to 1581 elector of Trier. He had been edu- cated in the old Louvain discipline, and had long devoted his literary powers to the cause of Catholicism : he had himself compiled a martyrology, and composed prayers tor the hours : he had already, under the reign of his predecessor, taken very great part in the in- troduction of the Jesuits, and he now, on his * Catena, Vita di Pio V. 49, gives an extract from this instruction. Gratiani, Vita Commeadoni, lib. iii. c. ii. t Falkenstejn, Nordgauische Altenhiiuier, i. 222. own accession, committed to them the visita- tion of his diocese. Even schoolmasters were obliged to subscribe the professio fidei. Rigid discipline and subordination after the methodic spirit of the Jesuits was introduced among the clergy : the parish priests were required to report monthly to the dean, the dean quarterly to the bishops : all who refused obedience were dismissed without delay. A part of the Trent decrees were printed for the dioceses, and published for every body's behoof, and a new edition of the missal was published, in order to put an end to all discrepancies in the ritual. The spiritual tribunals received a new rigor- ous organization, to which Bartholomew Bo- deghem of Delft, principally contributed. No- thing seemed to afford the archbishop such high delight, as the discovery of any one who was ready to cast off" protestantism : on such returning penitents he never failed personally to bestow the benediction,* But other motives, besides those of connec- tion with Rome, now further prompted to these duties of the spiritual electorate. The spi- ritual princes were urged by the same mo- tives as the secular, to bring back their domin- ions to their own faith, nay, periiaps it was more imperative upon them, since a popula- tion inclined to protestantism would necessa- rily evince a more decided opposition to them, on account of their priestly character. This important aspect of the German history first presents itself to us at Trier. The arch- bishops, like the rest of the spiritual princes, had long been at strife with their capital. In the sixteenth century, protestantism added another source of discord ; the ecclesiastical tribunal in particular met with obstinate re- sistance. Jacob von Eltz found himself com- pelled at last formally to besiege the city. He subdued it, and then produced a decree of the emperor favourable to his own claims. Thus he reduced the citizens to temporal and spi- ritual obedience. One other step he took, the effects of which were generally felt. In the year 1.572, he irrevocably excluded the protestants from his court. This was a most serious matter, par- ticularly for the nobility of the countr}', who looked to the court for advancement. All their future prospects were cut off, and it is likely that many an one of them may have been moved by that consideration to return to the old religion. A neighbouring prince too, Daniel Brendel, elector of Mainz, was a staunch catholic. Contrary to the advice of all about him, he revived the procession of Corpus Christi day, and figured in it himself: he would on no ac- count have omitted vespers ; always bestowed his attention on spiritual in preference to all * Browerus, Annales Trevirenses, ii. xiii. 25. in geno- ' ral our best authority on these topics. COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89. Orange suspected, have availed themselves of the first flush of victory, to induce the king to some violent resolution.* In fact, towards the end of the year 1565, an edict fol- lowed, that surpassed in harshness all that had preceded it. The penal edicts, the resolutions of the council, and of the provincial synods that had been subsequently held, were to be enforced undeviatingly, and the inquisitors alone were to take cognizance of spiritual transgressions. All functionaries were commanded to aid in carrying out these provisions : a commis- sioner was also specially charged with this duty in every province, and was to report pro- gress quarterly.! It is manifest that these measures tended to the certain introduction of a spiritual domi- nation, if not exactly like that of Spain, at least similar to that established in Italy. The first result was, that the people took up arms, the demolition of images began, and the whole country became a scene of the fiercest turbulence. There was a moment when the authorities seemed disposed to give way ; but, as usual in such cases, the violence of the insurgents was fatal to their own cause : the moderate and peaceable inhabitants were alarmed and incited to aid the government. The governess was victorious. As soon as she had seized possession of the rebellious places, she felt herself at once in a condition to impose an oath on the government func- tionaries, nay, on the king's vassals in gene- ral, by whicli they formally pledged them- selves to the maintenance of the catholic faith, and to the prosecution of war against the heretics.]: But even this was not enough for the king. The moment was that unhappy one which was marked by the dismal end of his son Don Carlos : never was he more stern and unbend- ing. The pope exhorted him once more to grant no concessions prejudicial to Catholi- cism, and tlie king assured his holiness " that he would not sutler the root of a noxious plant to remain in the soil of the Nether- lands ; he would either lose the provinces, or maintain the catholic religion there in its in- tegrity."^ For the fulfilment of his purpose he sent, even after the troubles had been allayed, his best general, the duke of Alva, and an imposing army, into the Netherlands. * The prince held Granvella in suspicion. See his letters in the Archives de la Maison d 'Orange-Nassau, i. 2d9. fSlrada, after a formula of the 18th Dec. 1565, lib. iv. p. 94. t Brandt, Hisloire de la reformation des pays bas, i, 156. § Cavalli, Dispaccio di Spagna, 7 Aug. 1567. Riapose il re che quanto alle cose della religione S. Sta- stasse di buon animo, che ovvero si han da perder lulti quei stati, 0 che si conserveri in essi la vera cattolica religione; n6 comporteri che vi rimanghi, per quanto potrcl far lui, al- cuna radice di mala pianta. Let ns investigate at least the fundamental principles that dictated Alva's proceedings. Alva was convinced that in a country dis- tracted with the violence of revolution, every thing requisite to the re-establishment of order was effected, when the heads of the move- ment were disposed of. That Charles V., after so many. and such great victories, had yet been in a manner thrust out of the Ger- man empire, he attributed to the indulgent spirit of that monarch, who spared the ene- mies who fell into his hands. Frequent men- tion has been made of the alliance between the French and the Spaniards, concluded at the congress of Bayonne in 1565, and of the measures concerted there : of all that has been said on the subject, thus much only is certain, that the duke of Alva urged the queen of France to get rid of the chiefs of the Hu- guenots, no matter how. What he then advised, he now scrupled not to practice. Philip II. had furnished him with some blank warrants bearing the royal signature. The first use he made of them was for the arrest of Egmont and Horn, whom he assumed to have been implicated in the recent distur- bances. " May it please your sacred catholic majesty," begins the letter which he .wrote thereupon to the king, and which seems to warrant the inference that he had no special commands from the king for what he had done, "after my arrival in Brussels, I pro- cured the necessary information from proper quarters, and thereupon secured the person of the count von Egmont, and also caused the count von Horn and others to be imprisoned."* The reader perhaps will ask, why he sen- tenced the prisoners to be executed a year afterwards. It was not for any demonstration of their guilt produced on their trial ; it lay heavier at their door that they had not hin- dered the disturbancps than that they had occasioned them ; nor was it in consequence of any command of the king's, who rather left it to the duke's discretion to execute the pri- soners or not, as he thought expedient. — The reason was as follows : A small body of pro- testants had invaded tlie country : they had not indeed eftected any thing of moment, but they had engaged the king's troops with ad- vantage at Heiligerlee, and a royal general of high reputation, tlie duke of Arenberg, had fallen on the occasion. In his consequent despatch to the king, Alva says he had no- * Dispaccio di Cavalli, 16 Sett. The governess ad- dressed complaints to the king concerning the arrest, to which he replied that he had not given orders for it. In proof of this, he showed Alva's letter, from which the pas- sage adduced in proof is here given. It runs thus: "Sacra caTtolica Maesttl, dapoi ch'iogionsi in Brusselles, pigliai le information da chi dovea Helle cose di qua, onde poi mi son assicuralo del conte di Agmon e fatlo ritener il conte d'Orno con alquanti altri. Sari ben che V. M. per bon rispetto ordini ancor lei che sia fatto istesso di Montigni (who was in Spain) e suo ajutante di camera." Hereupon followed the arrest of Montigny. A. D. 1563-89.] TROUBLES IN THE NETHERLANDS AND IN FRANCE. 179 ticed that this untoward event had set the people in a ferment, and rendered them auda- cious ; he held it expedient to let the folks see he did not fear them in any wise ; also he proposed to prevent any desire, on their part, to excite new commotions with a view to the rescue of the prisoners: he had therefore come to the resolution of causing their imme- diate execution. Thus were these noble men doomed to die, to whom no guilt worthy of death could be brought Jjome, whose sole crime was that they had defended the ancient liberties of their native land : they fell a sai^- rifice, not so much to right and law, as to the momentary considerations of a ferocious po- licy. Even then Alva bethought him of Charles V., whose errors he was resolved not to imitate.* Alva was cruel, we see, on principle. Who could have looked for mercy to the dreadful tribunal which he founded by the title of the Council of Disturbances'! Arrests and exe- cutions were the means by which he ruled the provinces ; he pulled down the houses of the condemned, and confiscated their proper- ty. With his ecclesiastical he simultaneously prosecuted his political views : the old power of the estates was set at nought; Spanish troops filled the whole country, and a citadel was erected -for them in the most important commercial city : Alva insisted with despotic obstinacy on the payment of the most odious taxes; and the only wonder expressed in Spain — for he drew considerable sums from that quarter too — was what he could do with all that money. It is, however, perfectly true, that the land was obedient; no mal-content raised his head ; every trace of protestantism disappeared ; and the exiles in the neighbour- ing countries remained still. " Monsignor," said a privy councillor of Philip II. to the papal nuncio while these events were in progress, "are you now con- tent with the king's proceedings ]" " Per- fectly content," replied the nuncio with a smile. Alva himself believed he had accomplished a master-stroke of policy, and looked with scorn on the French government, that could never make their authority respected in their own country. In Francfe, after the vast strides made by protestantism in the year 1562, a great re- action had set in, especially in the capital. The most injurious circumstance to protes- tantism in France, was unquestionably its close connexion with the court factions. For a while there seemed to be a general leaning towards the protestant confession: but when its adherents, hurried on by their association with some leading men, took up arms and committed acts of violence such as are always inseparable from war, they lost ground in public opinion. " What sort of a religion is this?" men asked: "where has Christ com- manded to plunder one's neighbour, and to shed his blood !" When at last the Parisians found it necessary to put themselves in a pos- ture of defence against the aggressions of Conde, who was regarded as the head of the Huguenots, all public bodies assumed an anti- protestant complexion. All the male inhabi- tants of the city capable of bearing arms were put into military training, and the captains appointed to command them were required, above all things, to be catholic. The mem- bers of the university and of the parliament, including the very numerous class of advo- vates, were called on to subscribe purely catholic articles of faith. Backed by this state of piJblic feeling, the Jesuits established themselves in France. They began there on a somewhat small scale, being constrained to content themselves with colleges thrown open to them by a few eccle- siastics, ardent partisans of theirs in Billon and Tournon, places remote from the grand central point, and where nothing of conse- quence was at all likely to be accomplished. They encountered, at first, the most obsti- nate resistance in the great cities, especially in Paris, on the part of the Sarbonne, the parliament, and the archbishop, who were all apprehensive lest their own interests should be prejudiced by the privileges and the spirit of the order. But as the latter won favour with the zealous catholics, and particularly with the court, which was never tired of recommending them "for their exemplary lives, and the purity of their doctrine, such that many apostates had been brought back by them to the faith, and East and West through their exertions acknowledged the presence of the Lord ;"* and as that change in public opinion just mentioned happened opportunely for them, they at last forced their way through all impediments, and were ad- mitted in the year 1564 to the privilege of * In a manuscript in the Berlin library, MSS. Gall. n. 75, the following document is given among others : Deli- * Cavalli, July 3, 1568, also gives this dispatch in the extract. It is, if possible, still more remarkable than the former. Capilt) qui I'avviso della giuslitia falla in Fian- dra contra di quelli poveri signori prigioni, inlorno alia quale scrive il D. d'Alvar che havendo facolti di S. M. di far tal esecutione o sopraslare, secondo che avesse ripu- tato piu espediente del suo servitio, che perO vedendo li Eopoli un poco alterati et insuperbili per la morte d'Aren- erg e rotta di quelli Spagnoli, havea giudicato tempo opportuno e necessario pertal effetlo per dimostrar di non , .„, v..„ ^ — ^ j "o v. nt lemer di loro in conto alcuno, e poner cnn nues'to terrors beralions et Consultations au parlement de fans loucnani a molti, levandoli la speranza di tumultuar per la loro liberatione, e fuggir di cascar nel errore nel quale incorse I'imperaiore C^rlo, il qual per tener vivo Sa.xonia e Lan- gravio diede occasione di nova congiura, per la quale S. M. fu cacciata con poca digniia della Germania e quasi dell' impero. I'establissement des Jesuites en France, in which are con- tained in particular, the messages of the court to the par- liament in favour of the Jesuits: " infracta et ferocia pectora," it is said therein, "gladio fidei acuto penetra- runt." [They have pierced rude and unyielding bosoms with the sharp sword of the faith.] 180 COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89. teaching. Lyons had already received them. Whether it was the result of good fortune or of merit, they were enabled at once to pro- duce some men of brilliant talents from amongst them. In opposition to the Hugue- not preachers, they put forward Edmund Au- gier, who was born in France, but educated at Rome under Ignatius, and of whom protes- tants themselves have said, that had he not worn the catholic vestments, there would never have been a greater orator. He pro- duced an extraordinary impression both by his preaching and his writings. In Lyons, especially, the Huguenots were completely routed, their preachers exiled, their churches demolished, and their books burned ; whilst, on the other hand, a splendid college was erected for the Jesuits in 1567. They had also a distinguished professor, Maldonat, whose exposition of the bible attracted crowds of charmed and attentive youth. From these chief towns they now spread over the king- dom in every direction ; they formed settle- ments in Toulouse and Bourdeaux ; wherever they appeared, the number of catholic com- municants increased. Augier's Catechism had prodigious success ; within the space of eight years thirty- eight thousand copies of it were sold in Paris alone.* It is very possible that this revived popu- larity of catholic* ideas, particularly as it was most remarkable in the capital, may have had its action on the court. At any rate it afford- ed the latter one prop the more, when after protracted fluctuations it once again, in the year 1568, declared itself decidedly catholic. This arose more particularly from the fact that Catherine of Medici felt her power much more secure since the majority of her son, and had no longer need to conciliate the Hu- guenots as she had done before. Alva's ex- ample showed how much could be accomplish- ed by a resolute will. The pope, who never ceased exhorting the court not to suffer the further growth of the rebels' insolence, nor to tolerate them a moment longer, at last backed her admonitions with the permission to alien- ate church property, from which a million and a half of French livres accrued to the royal treasury. f Accordingly, Catherine of Medici, following the precedent set the year before by the government of the Netherlands, imposed an oath on the French nobility, by virtue of which they were to forego every engagement contracted without the previous knowledge of the king.]: She demanded the dismissal of all magistrates of cities, who had incurred suspicion of a leaning to the new * These details are given by Orlandinus and by the author of the conlinuation of his work, pars i. lib. vi. n. 30, ii. iv. 84. iii. iii. 169 el seq. Juvencius, v. 24, 769, gives a biography of Augier. t Catena, Vila di Pio V. p. 79. t The oath is given by Sorranus, Commeniarii de Statu Religionis in regno GalliiE, iii. 103. opinions ; and she declared to Philip II., in 1563, that she would tolerate no other reli- gion than the catholic. Such a resolution was not to be carried into effect in France without recourse to arms. War instantly broke out. It was entered on with extraordinary spirit on the catholic side. At the pope's request the king of Spain sent practised troops under skilful leaders to the aid of the orthodox. Pius V. caused collections to be made in the states of the church, gathered contributions from the Italian princes ; nay, himself, the holy father, sent a little army of his own across the Alps, that same to which he gave the ferocious order to kill every Huguenot that fell into their hands, to grant quarter to none. The Huguenots also bestirred themselves ; they, too, were full of religious zeal ; they looked on the catholic soldiers as the army of antichrist arrayed against them ; they, too, gave no quarter; they were equally well provided with foreign aid ; and yet they were completely beaten at Moncontour. With what exaltation did Pius V. hang up the Huguenot standards sent him by the vic- tors in the churches of St. Peter and St. John Lateran ! He conceived the boldest hopes. This was the very moment when he pro- nounced sentence of excommunication against Queen Elizabeth. He sometimes flattered himself with the thought of leading an expe- dition against England in person. But fortune did not favour his schemes so far. As had so often before occurred, a revolu- tion in opinion took place at this crisis in the French court, which, though founded on tri- vial circumstances of a personal nature, brought about a grand alteration in matters of the highest moment. The king grudged his brother, who had commanded at Moncontour, the honour of vanquishing the Huguenots, and giving peace to the kingdom. In this he was confirmed by those around him, who were also jealous of Anjou's suite, fearing that power would go hand in hand with glory. Now, therefore, not only were the advantages already gained very languidly followed up, but ere long, in opposition to the strict catholic party that rallied round Anjou, another moderate one sprang up at court, which adopted a directly contrary system of policy, made peace with the Huguenots, and invited its leaders to court. The French, in alliance with Spain and the pope, had attempted to overthrow the queen of England in the year 1.569 : in the summer of l')72 we see them leagued with that same queen to wrest the Netherlands from Spain. The change, however, had been too sud- den, too imperfectly matured to endure. The A. D. 1563—89.] RESISTANCE IN THE NETHERLANDS, &c. 181 most violent explosion ensued, and all things recoiled into their former course. It can hardly be doubted, but that while queen Catherine engaged with alacrity and zeal in the policy and plans of the dominant party, which favoured her interests, at least in so far as they seemed to tend towards plac- ing her youngest son Alengon on the throne of England, she was still concerting all requi- site measures to carry an opposite stroke of policy into execution. She contributed every thing in her power towards bringing the Huguenots to Paris, where numerous as they were, they were surrounded and held in check by a far larger population, possessed of military organization, and prone to fanatical excitement. She gave the pope beforehand pretty clearly to understand what it was she contemplated: but even had she wavered, the circumstances that arose just at this moment must have determined her. The Huguenots won over the king himself; they seemed to cast the consequence of the queen-mother into the shade. Thus personally endangered, she hesitated no longer. With the irresisti- ble magic power she possessed over her chil- dren, she roused in the king's mind all his slumbering fanaticism : it cost her but a word to make the people- fly to arms ; she spoke it ; each of the most eminent Huguenots was con- signed to the special vengeance of his per- sonal foes. Catherine has said she had only designed the death of six men ; these were all she would take upon her conscience : the numbers that fell amounted to 50,000.* Thus the French surpassed the doings of the Spaniards in the Netherlands. What the latter did with calculating policy, with the observance of legal forms, and by degrees, the latter accomplished in the heat of passion, without regard to forms, with the help of a fanatical multitude. The result appeared the same. Not a leader was left whose name could furnish a rallying-point for the scattered Huguenots: many fled; vast numbers sur- rendered ; place after place resumed the prac- tice of the mass; the protestant preachers were silenced. With pleasure Philip II. saw himself imitated and surpassed ; and he offer- ed Charles IX., who had now for the first time earned a right to the title of " Most Christian King," the aid of his arms to complete the good work he had begun. Pope Gregory XIII. celebrated this great event by a solemn pro- cession to the church of San Luigi. The Ve- netians, who seemed to have no special inte- rest in the matter, expressed in their official despatches to their ambassador their satisfac- tion at "this grace of God." But can it be that such bloody atrocities should ever be permanently successful] Are * For the sake of brevity I refer the reader on this sub- ject to my Essay on the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in the Histor. Polil. Zeitschrift, ii. iii. they not repugnant to the profounder myste- ries of human life and action, to the unde- fined, inviolable principles that inwardly actu- ate the unchanging order of nature '! The minds of men may be dazzled ; but the moral laws of their nature they cannot shake ; they are swayed by them with a necessity as cogent as that which rules the stars of heaven. Resistance made by the Protestants in the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Machiavel advises his prince to dispatch in rapid succession the cruelties he deems neces- sary, and then gradually to adopt more merci- ful proceedings. It seemed as though the Spaniards desired to act to the letter upon this maxim in the Netherlands. It seemed as though they were even them- selves at last of opinion, that property enough had been confiscated, that heads enough had fallen, and that the time for mercy had ar- rived. In the year 1572 the Venetian am- bassador at Madrid expresses his confident belief that the prince of Orange would receive his pardon, were he to entreat for it. The king very graciously received the deputies from the Netherlands, who waited on him to sound him with regard to the repeal of the tax of the tenth penny, and even thanked them for their pains : he had resolved to recal Alva, and to send a milder viceroy in his stead. But it was now too late : the insurrection broke out in the sequel of that Anglo-French alliance which preceded the bloody day of St. Bartholomew. Alva had imagined his work was ended ; but it was now the struggle properly began. Alva beat the enemy as often as he showed himself in the open field ; on the other hand, in the towns of Holland and Zealand, where the religious movement had deepest stirred men's minds, and where protestantism had instantly acquired an organ- ized vitality, he encountered an opposition he was unable to overcome. In Haarlem, when all the provisions were consumed to the very grass that grew between the stones in the streets, the inhabitants re- solved to cut their way through the besiegers, with their wives and children. The dissen- sions of the garrison, indeed, compelled them at last to surrender, but still they had shown that the Spaniards were not irresistible. The people of Alkmar declared in favour of the prince of Orange at the very moment the enemy was at their gates. Their defence was as heroical as their resolution ; not a man would quit his place, however severely wounded : the pride of the Spanish arms was first humbled before the walls of Alkmar. The country breathed again ; fresh courage 182 COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89. filled the hearts of the people. The men of Leyden declared that, rather than surrender, they would eat their left arms, so they might still defend themselves with their right. They conceived the bold project of breaking down their dams, and calling to their aid the waves of the Northern Ocean. Their distress had reached its utmost limit, when a wind from the north-west, setting in at the critical mo- ment, flooded the land to the depth of some feet, and put the foe to flight. By this time the French protestants had likewise resumed courage. As soon as they perceived that their government, notwith- standing its recent act of ferocity, pursued a wavering, dilatory, and contradictory policy, they stood to their arms, and war broke out afresh. Sancerreand Rochelle, defended them- selves with the courage of Leyden and Alka- mar. The preacher of peace was heard call- ing to arms. The women vied with the men. It was the heroic age of prote.stantisra in west- ern Europe. Tlie cruel deeds committed or applauded by the most powerful sovereigns encountered in isolated nameless points a resistance that no force could overcome, for its secret spring was deep religious conviction. It is not at all our purpose in this place to detail the course and vicissitudes of the war in France and the Netherlands; it would lead us too far from the main body of our sub- ject ; besides, it has been done in many other works : suffice it to say, the protestants held their ground. In France, the government was forced, even in 1573, and frequently afterwards in the en- suing years, to consent to terms, by which the old concessions to the Huguenots were re- newed. In the Netherlands, the power of the go- vernment had utterly fallen to ruin in the year 1576. The Spanish troops having broken out into open mutiny, in consequence of the pay being withheld, all the provinces had again combined together; those that had hitherto maintained their allegiance, with the revolted, — those that were still chiefly catholic, with the wholly protestant. The states-general took the government into their own hands, appointed captains-general, deputies, and ma- gistrates, and garrisoned the fortresses with their own, not with the king's troops.* The league of Ghent was concluded, by which the provinces mutually pledged themselves to drive out the Spaniards, and keep them out of the country. The king sent his brother, who might be considered as a native of the Netherlands, to govern them as they had been governed by Charles V. But don John was not even recognized, till he had promised to fulfil the principal conditions demanded of ♦ This turn of aifairs ia made particularly clear in Tas- Bis, iii. 15—19. him : he was compelled to accept the treaty of Ghent, and to dismiss the Spanish troops ; and no sooner did he make a movement of re- sistance to the restraints that encumbered him, than all parties rose up against him. He was declared an enemy to the country, and the heads of the provinces called for another prince of the family in his stead. The principle of local authority overcame the monarchical ; the native power was victo- rious over the Spanish. Other consequences were necessarily asso- ciated with this consummation. The north- ern provinces, which had carried on the war, and thereby conduced to the existing posture of affairs, at once acquired a natural prepon- derance in all that related to the war and the governn)ent ; and this led again to the propa- gation of the protestant religion over the whole range of the Netherlands. It found its way into iVIechlin, JJruges, and Ypres; the churches were divided in Antwerp between the two ' confessions, and the catholics were in some cases obliged to content themselves with the choirs of those churches, of which they had so lately been sole possessors ; in Ghent the pro- testant tendency was mixed up with a civil movement, and acquired complete ascendancy. The treaty of Ghent had fiilly ratified the old supremacy of the catholic religion : but now the states-general issued an edict confirming an equal degree of freedom to both confessions. Thenceforth protestant demonstrations arose in every direction, and even in those provinces where Catholicism predominated : there seem- % ed reason to anticipate that protestantism would prove universally victorious. What a position was that now occupied by the prince of Orange ! But recently an exile and solicitous for pardon, now the possessor of a firmly established power in the northern provinces, Ruwart in Brabant, and all-potent in the assembly of the estates ; recognized as their chief and leader by a great and rapidly advancing politico-religious party ; united by close ties with all the protestants of Eu- rope,— above all, with his neighbours, the Germans. In Germany, too, the aggressive measures of the catholics were met by a resistance on the part of the protestants, that promised great results. We remark this resistance in the general transactions of the empire, in the assemblies of the electors, and in the diets ; although here the German system of public proceedings for- bade its being matured to any direct result. In general, it was most active, as was also the aggression, in the several territories and dis- tricts. The spiritual principalities were now for the most part, as we have seen, the scenes where this strife was carried on. There was A. D. 1563-89.] RESISTANCE IN THE NETHERLANDS, &c. 183 hardly one in which the prince had not made an attempt to restore the supremacy of Catholi- cism. Protestantism, which also felt its own strength, retaliated with no less far-reaching endeavours to bring over the spiritual princi- palities themselves to its own side. In the year 1577, Gebbard Truchsess be- came archbishop of Cologne, chiefly through the personal influence of count Nuenar with the chapter, and very well did that great protestant know who it was he recommended. In truth, his acquaintance with Agnes von Mansfield was not needed, as has been said, to give him his first anti-catholic bent. Upon his very first entrance in state into Cologne, when the clergy met him in procession, he did not, according to established usuage, alight from his horse to kiss the cross ; he made his appearance in the church in military dress, nor did he choose to perform high mass. He attached himself from the outset to the prince of Orange, and his chief counsellors were Calvinists.* As he did not hesitate to grant mortgages in order to raise troops, as he sought to secure the nobility to his side, and favoured a party among the guilds of Cologne that was beginning to oppose the catholic usages, all his acts tended to that purpose which he af- terwards openly manifested, — the conversion of the spiritual into a secular electorate. Gebhard Truchsess was still, occasionally at least, outwardly a catholic : the neighbour- ing sees of Westphalia and Lower Saxony fell on the other hand, as we have seen, im- mediately into protestant hands. The eleva- tion of duke Henry of Saxe Lauenburg was of peculiar importance. While still very young, he was elected, though a staunch Lu- theran, to the archbishopric of Bremen, then to the bishopric of Osnabriick, and in 1577, to the bishopric of Paderborn.f He had even in Miinster a great party, consisting of all the younger members of the chapter, in his fa- vour ; and it was only by the direct interven- tion of Gregory XHI., who declared a resig- nation actually made of no effect, and by the strenuous opposition of the rigid catholic party, that his elevation to that see was prevented. But the adverse party were not able to carry the election of another bishop. It is obvious what an impulse this disposi- tion, on the part of the ecclesiastical chiefs, must have given to protestantism in Rhenish Westphalia, where, independently of this, it had already spread widely. There needed but a happy combination of circumstances, a stroke that told home, to give it a decided preponderance in those regions. Nay, all Germany must have sensibly felt the influence of such an event. The bishoprics of Upper Germany were open to the same con- tingencies as those in the lower division of the ♦ Maffei, Annali di Gregorio X[I. torn. i. p. 331. t Hamelmann, Oldenburgishea Chronikon, s. 43S. empire ; even within the territories where the restoration had begun, the opposition was not long suppressed. Sorely did abbot Balthazar of Fulda expe- rience this. When it was found that the solicitations of neighbouring princes, and the complaints laid before the diet, were of no avail, and that the abbot recklessly persisted in his restoration of the ancient faith, going from place to place to enforce it in every quar- ter, it came to pass one day, in the summer of 1576, as he happened to be in Hamelberg upon that very business, that he was set upon by his nobles with arms in their hands, and be- sieged in his own house : public resentment running high against him, his neighbours look- ed on his distress with satisfaction, the bishop of Wiirzburg even lent a hand to his assail- ants, and he was forced to abdicate the govern- ment of his dominions.* Even in Bavaria, duke Albert did not carry all before him. He complained to the pope that his nobility chose rather to forego the sacrament altogether, than receive it only in one kind. But what was of still more moment, protes- tantism was continually advancing in the Austrian territories to a more legitimate power and recognized existence. Under the prudent conduct of Maximilian II. it not only obtained firm footing, as we have mentioned, in Austria Proper, above and below the Ens, but had also spread through all the other dis- tricts. Hardly, for instance, had that empe- ror redeemed the county of Glatz from the dukes of Bavaria who held it in pledge, (in the year 1567,) when here too, nobles, public functionaries, cities, and finally the majority of the people, went over to the evangelical confession: the governor-general Hans von Pubschiitz, of his own authority, founded a protestant consistory, with which he often went further than the emperor could have wished. Here, too, the estates gradually ac- quired a high degree of independence and inherent authority : altogether it was the most prosperous period in the annals of the county : agriculture was on the rise : the towns were wealthy and flourishing : the nobility educat- ed and polished ; waste lands were every where reclaimed, and covered with villages.! The church of Albendorf, where at this day crowds of pilgrims assemble to kiss an old * Schannat, Historia Fuldensis,parsiii. p. 268. A letter from the abbot lo pope Gregory, dated August 1,1576, given in that place, is exceedingly remarkable. " Clamantes," he says of the threats of his enemies, " nisi consentiam ut administratio ditionis mese episcopo iradalur non aliter se me ac caaem rabidum interlecturos, turn Saxoniae et Has- siae principes in meum gregem immissuros." [Vociferat- ing that, if I do not consent to the transference of my authority to the bisliop, they will kill me as they would a mad dog, and then let in the princes of Saxony and Hesse upon my flock.] tt /■ « ««> t Joseph KiiglersChronik von Glatz. Bd. i. Heft 2 p.TZ. The author was a catholic ; his work is very substantial and useful. 184 COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89- image of the Virgin, was then for sixty years under the ministry of Protestant pastors;* in the capital there were reckoned some few half-score years later only nine catholic burg- hers, while the numbers of the evangelical burghers amounted to three hundred. It is no wonder, therefore, that pope Pius V. cherished an inexpressible animosity against the emperor. The subject of Maximilian's war with the Turks, being once discussed in his presence, he said outright, he knew not which side he less wished to see victorious.f Protestantism, however, made increasing way under these circumstances, even in the dis- tricts of inner Austria, over which the empe- ror did not exercise immediate control. In the year 1568, there were as many as twenty- four evangelical preachers in Krain ; in the capital of Styria there was in the year 1571 but one catholic member in the council. Not that protestantism enjoyed the support of the ruler, the archduke Charles, who, on the con- trary, introduced the Jesuits into the country, and favoured them with all his might; but the estates were evangelical.| They had the upper hand in the diets, where the business of the administration and of the defence of the country was mixed up with the affairs of reli- gion ; they exacted religious concessions in return for every consenting vote they gave. In the year 1578, the archduke was compel- led in the diet at Bruck on the Muhr to accord the free exercise of the Augsburg confession, not only in the domains of the nobles and landed proprietors, where he could under no circumstances have prevented it, but also in the four leading towns, Gratz, Judenburg, Klagenfurt, and Laibach.^ , Hereupon protes- tantism became organized in these provinces equally as in the imperial. A protestant ministry for church affairs was established, and rules laid down for the management of churches and schools, modelled on those of Wiirtemberg : in some places, for instance, in St. Veit, catholics were excluded from vot- ing in the election of councillors,!! and they were no longer admitted to provincial offices; circumstances under favour of which, protestantism first obtained decidedly the * From 1563 to 1623. Documentirte Beschreibung von Albendorf, (an earlier printed fragment of the same chro- nicle,) p. 36. t Tiepolo, Relatione di Pio IV. e V. He adds : In pro- posito della morte del principe di Spagna apertamente aisse il papa haverla sentita con grandissimo dispiacere, perche non vorria che le stati del re cattolico capitassero in mano de' Tedeschi. [Talking of ihedeath of theprince of Spain, the pope said he had heard of it with great grief, because he would not have the dominions of the catholic king fall into the hands of the Germans.] t Socher, Historia Societatis Jesu provinciae Austriae, i. iv. 166. 184. V. 33. § Supplication to his Imp. Rom. Maj. and intercession of the three principalities in the country, in Lehmann, DePace Ileligionis, p. 461 ; a document which serves to correct the account of Khevenhiller, Ann. Ferdinandei, i.e. II Hermann in the Kartnerische Zeitschrift, v. p, 189. upper hand in those regions that so nearly bordered on Italy. The impulse given by the Jesuits was here steadfastly counteracted. In all the provinces of Austria, — German, Sclavonic, and Hungarian, — with the single exception of the Tyrol, protestantism might be regarded as ruling paramount in the year 1578. Thus we see that throughout all Germany it successfully withstood the advance of Catho- licism, and met every step it made by an onward movement of its own. Contrasts exhibited throughout the rest of Europe. It was a memorable epoch, in which the two great religious tendencies were once more in active strife, with equal anticipation of victory and dominion. The posture of things had now undergone an essential change. Formerly the two parties had been willing to treat with each other : a reconciliation had been attempted in Germany ; in France it had been entered on, in the Netherlands demanded ; for a while it appeared feasible, and in some places tolera- tion was actually practised. But now the contrasts between the two seemed to stand out more prominently, and with greater show of hostility. They challenged each other, so to speak, throughout all Europe. It is well worth the pains to cast a glance over the state of things as they appeared in the years 1578, 1579. Let us begin eastwards with Poland. The Jesuits had made their way into this country likewise, countenanced by the bishops, who looked to them for the strengthening of their own power. Cardinal Hosius, bishop of Ermeland, founded a college for them in Braunsberg, in 1569 : they tixed themselves in Pultusk and Posen, with the help of the bishops of those places. Bishop Valerian, of VVilna, deemed it a matter of paramount mo- ment to counteract the Lithuanian Lutherans, who proposed erecting an university on their own principles, by founding a Jesuit institu- tion in his episcopal see : he was grown old and feeble, and wished to mark his last days by this meritorious act. The iirst member of the society arrived in his see in the year 1570.* Now here, too, the immediate consequence of these eflx)rts was but that the protestants took measures to maintain their power. They carried a resolution in the convocation diet of 1573, by virtue of which, no one was to be injured or prejudiced on account of his reli- gion.f The bishops were forced to comply ; the example of the troubles in the Netherlands * Sacchinus, Historia Societatis Jesu, pars ii. lib. viii. 114. Pars iii. lib. i. 112; lib. vi. 103—108. t Fredro, Henricus I. rex Polonorum, p. 114. A. D. 1563-89.] CONTRASTS EXHIBITED IN THE REST OF EUROPE. 185 was held out to them, to show the danger of refusal ; and the succeeding kings were oblig- ed to swear to maintain the resolution. In the year 1579, the payment of tithes to the clergy was absolutely suspended ; in consequence of which, the nuncio asserted it for fact, that twelve hundred parish priests had been ruined. In the same year, a supreme tribunal was con- stituted of laymen and clergy, which decided all disputes, even touching ecclesiastical mat- ters. It was a matter of amazement at Rome, that the Polish clergy had suflered this mea- sure to be carried. , The contest was no less sharp in Sweden than in Poland, and there its course, indeed, was most singular : it had immediate refer- ence to the sovereign, and was waged around his person. In all the sons of Gustavus Vasa — " the brood of king Gustavus," as the Swedes call them — there is noticeable a most unusual mix- ture of reflection and wilfulness, of religion and violence. The most learned of them was the second John. Being married to a catholic princess, Catherine of Poland, who had shared with him the prison, in the narrow solitude of which he had often received the consolations of a catholic priest, his feelings were especially interested by the current controversies. He studied the fathers, to arrive at a clearer con- ception of the primitive condition of the church ; he was fond of those books that treated of the possibility of religious union, and earnestly pondered the questions that bore upon the subject. When he became king, he accord- ingly approached some steps nearer to the catholic church. He published a liturgy imi- tated from that of Trent, in which the Swedish • divines discovered with amazement not only usages of the Roman church, but even certain of its distinguishing doctrines.* As the pope's intercession as well with the catholic princes in general with regard to the Russian war, as with Spain in particular respecting his wife's maternal inheritance, might be of much service to him, he did not hesitate to send a nobleman of his kingdom as ambassador to Rome. He even gave private permission to a couple of Jesuits from the Netherlands to come to Stock- holm, where he committed an important edu- cational institution to their charge. Such conduct naturally excited high hopes in Rome; and Antonio Possevin, one of the most adroit members of the society of Jesus, was selected to make an earnest attempt for the conversion of kmg John. Possevin made his appearance in Sweden in the year 1578. The king was not disposed to give way on all points. He demanded per- mission for priests to marry, the accordance of ♦ They are all sel forth in the Indicium prsdicatomm Kolmenss. de publicala liturgia in Baaz : Invenurium ecclesiarum Sueogoih. p. 393. 24 tlie sacramental cup to the laity, the celebra- tion of the mass in the vernacular tongue, an abandonment of the ciiurch's claims to confis- cated property, and so forth. Possevin had no authority to go into these questions ; and pro- mising merely that he would communicate the king's demands to the apostolic see, ho hasten- ed to plunge with him into dogmatical contro- versy. In this he was much more happy. After two or three conversations, and a short time for reflection, the king declared himself resolved to make the professio Jidtd, according to the formula of the council of Trent. He actually did so, and he confessed ; whereupon Possevin asked him once more, whether he submitted himself to the judgment of the pope as regarded the communion in one kind. John declaring he did, Possevin solemnly granted him absolution. It would almost seem that this absolution had been the grand object of the king's longing desires. He had caused his brother to be put to death, with the previ- ous approbation, indeed, of his estates; but put him to death he had, and that in the most violent manner ! The absolution granted him seemed to tranquillize his soul. Possevin besought God that he might now be able completely to convert the heart of the king : the latter rose, cast himself into his confes- sor's arms, and cried, " Even as I thus embrace thee, do I embrace the Roman catholic faith forever." He then received the Lord's supper after the catholic ritual. Having thus satisfactorily accomplished his task, Possevin hastened back to Rome. He communicated the intelligence to the pope, and, under the seal of secresy, to the most powerful catholic princes. It now only re- mained to take into consideration those de- mands of the king on which he made the general restoration of Catholicism in his king- dom dependent. Possevin was a man of great address, eloquent, and of much talent for ne- gociation ; but he persuaded himself too readily that he had attained his end. According to the account he gave, it appeared unnecessary to pope Gregory to make any concession ; on the contrary, he called on the king to come over freely and unconditionally to the catholic church. He furnished the Jesuit with des- patches to this effect on his second departure, and with indulgences for all who would re- cant. Meanwhile, however, the opposite party had not been idle ; protestant princes had sent warning letters to the king — for the news had instantly spread all over Europe; — Cin-ytraug had dedicated to the king his work on the Augsburg confession, which had had made a certain impression on the learned monarch. The protestants no longer lost sight of him for a moment. Possevin now arrived, not, as before, in the garb of a civilian, but the usual costume of COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89. bis order, and brought witb him a heap of qatholic books. Even his mere appearance produced any thing but a favourable impres- sion. For a moment he hesitated to produce the pope's reply ; but at last he could pro- crastinate no longer, and he laid it before the Ijing in an audience of two hours' duration. yVho shall explore the secrets of a wavering and unstable soul? It may be, the monarch's sjelf-esieem was wounded by so peremptory a refusal of his demands; besides, he was con- vinced that without the concessions he had Stipulated for, nothing waste be accomplished ifl Sweden, and he had no inclination to lay (lowa his crown for religion's sake. In short, the audience was a decisive one. From that hour the king manifested coldness and aver- sion-to the pope's ambassador. He required his Jesuit schoolmen to receive the sacrament in both kinds, and to read mass in the Swedish tpngue: as they did not obey, which, indeed, they could not, he refused them the provision he had hitherto allowed them. Their departure fronvStockholm, which took place shortly after, \^as doubtless not caused alone, as they wish- ed it,to be supposed, by the presence of the plague in that city. The protestant nobles, Charles of Sudermania, the king's younger brother, who was disposed to Calvinism, and the ambassadors of Liibeck, omitted nothing to augment the king's growing aversion. The catholic^' sole stay and hope were in the queen, and, after her death, in the heir to the dirone. For the present, the sovereign power iO: Sweden remained essentially protestant.* This was daily more and more the case in l^ipglaqd under queen Elizabeth. But in that kingdom there; were assailable points of a different kind; it was full of catholics. Not qnJy did. th^ Irish population stedfastly ad- here to the old iaith and ritual ; in England, probably one half the nation, if not a still larger portion, as has been asserted, were likewise devoted to Catholicism. It is singular, ijfldeed, how the English catholics submitted, at. leEist during the first fifteen years of her reign, to that queen's protestant laws. They t»ok the. oath required of them, though it dia- metrically opposed the papal authority ; they frequented tbO; protestant churches, and thought they did all that was necessary, if, in going and returning, they kept together and avoided the society of the protestants.f * Iti this whole account I adhere to the reports of the .Jesuits, (never so far as 1 know, hitherto used,) which are lo.be found in detail in Sacchinus, Hist. Socielalis Jesu, pars iv. lib,, vi. ri. 64— 7G, and lib. vii. n. 83—111. I am curious to Jjhow whether the continuation of Theiner's .Schweden und seine Slellung zum heiligen Siuhl will really coniniunirate any thing new that may be worth nftiice. 'Hitherto this work, with all its scurrility, excites pity rather than altenjlion. It is to be hoped " they know not what they do." I; Relatione del presente state d'lnghilterra cavata da analellera Bcritta;di Xondrei, etc. Roma, 1590, (printed p^ro|^kl£tj^),ciose2y,^j:ee3 ou this subject with a passage Rome, however, felt secure of their secret attachment, and was persuaded that nothing was wanting but an opportunity, a slight ad- vantage, to rouse all the catholics in the country to resistance. Pius V. had longed to shed his blood in an expedition against Eng- land ; and Gregory XIII., who never abandon- ed the idea of such an enterprise, thought of availing himself to that end of the martial spirit and exalted station of don John of Aus- tria. He sent his nuncio Sega, who had been with don John in the Netherlands, to Spain for that exMjress purpose, that he might gain the consent of king Phillip. Partly, however, m consequence of the king's dislike to his brother's ambitious views, and to any new political entanglements, partly by reason of other obstacles, these vast schemes broke down, and their projectors were forced to content themselves with less brilliant attempts. Pope Gregory next fixed his eyes on Ireland. It was represented to him that there was no nation more strictly and immovably catholic than the Irish ; but that it was most tyran- nously ill-used and plundered by the English government, kept diligently in discord and barbarism, and coerced in its religious con- victions : it was, therefore, ready for war at a moment's notice ; there needed but to second it with a small force ; five thousand men would suffice for the conquest of Ireland, where there was not a fortress that could hold out beyond four days.f Pope Gregory was persuaded without difficulty. There was then at Rome an English refugee, one Thomas Stukeley, an adventurer by nature, but one who possessed in a high degree the art of gaining access to the great, and winning their confidence. The pope made him his chamberlain, created him marquis of Leinster, and went to the ex- pense of forty thousand scudi to furnish him with vessels and men. He was to take in from Ribadeneira de Schismata, quoted by Hallam (Con- stitutional History of England, i.p. 162,) and is, doubu less, the original of the latter: "Si peruiettevano giura- menti impii contra I'auio.itidella sedeapostolica ecjues- to con poco o nissun scrupulo di coscienza. Allora lutti andavano connnunemente alle sinagoghe degli eretici et alle prediche loro menandovi li figli e famiglie: . . . si teneva allora per segno distintive sufficienie venire alle chiese prima degli eretici e non panirsi in com- pagnia loro." + Discorso sopra il regno d'Irlanda e della genie che bisogneria per conquistarlo, fattoaGregorioXllI. Vienna Library, Fugger MSS. The government of the queen is fironounced a tyranny : " lasciando il governo a niinistri nglesi i quali per arrichire se stessi usavano tutta I'arte deTla lirannide in quel regno, come transportando le commodity, del paese in Inghilterra, tassando il popolo contra le leggi e privilegi antichi, e manienendo guerra e fatlioni tra i paesani, . . . non volendo gli Inglesi che gli habitanli imparassero la difterenza fra il viver libero e la servitu." [Leaving the govern- ment to English ministers, who, to enrich themselves, employed the whole art of tyranny in that kingdoiu, such as transporting the commodities of the country to Eng- land, taxing the people contrary to the laws and to an- cient privileges, and keeping up war and factions among the peasants, . . . the English not wishing that the in- habitants should learn the difference between servitude and living free.] A. D. 1563-89.] CONTRASTS EXHIBITED IN THE REST OF EUROPE. 18^ a small body of men upon the French coast, collected there by Geraldine, an Irish refuijee, likewise with the aid of papal funds. King Philip, who, though he had no inclination to involve himself in a war, was glad enough to see Elizabeth provided with occupation at home, also contributed some money towards the enterprise,* Stukeley, however, unex- pectedly suffered himself to be persuaded to take part in king Sebastian's African expe- dition, with the forces intended for Ireland, and perished in it. Geraldine was left to pursue his fortunes alone: he landed in June, 1579, and actually made some progress. He made himself master of the fort commanding the harbour of Smerwick : the earl of Desmond was now in arms against the queen ; the whole island was in commotion. But presently re- verse after reverse befel the insurgents, the most serious of them being the fall of Geral- dine himself in a skirmish. Upon this the earl of Desmond could make head no longer. The aid supplied by the pope was not sufficient; the money counted on did not arrive : the English, therefore were victorious. They punished the insurgents with horrible cruelty ; men and women were driven into barns, and there burned to death ; children were stran- gled ; all Munster was laid waste : English colonists overran the desolated region. If ever again Catholicism was to achieve any thing in that kingdom, it could only be by direct experiments on England itself: and this could manifestly take place only under an altered aspect of European affairs. But that the catholic population might not, when the moment arrived, be found wholly changed, that they might still be catholic, it was neces- sary to stand by them with spiritual aid. William Allen first conceived the idea of uniting the young English catholics who re- sided on the continent for the prosecution of their studies, and, chiefly through the support of Pope Gregory, he established a college for them at Douay. This, however, did not seem to the pope to be adequate to the purpose in view. He wished to provide for those fugi- tives, under his own eyes, a more tranquil and less dangerous retreat than could be tbund in the disturbed Netherlands: accordingly he founded an English college in Rome, endowed it with a rich abbey, and consigned it, in 1579, to the care of the Jesuits.f * Twenty thousand scudi, according to the nuncio Sega, in his Relatione compendiosa, (MS. in the Berlin library,) " altre mercedi fece fare al barone d'Acres, al Signer Carlo Buono et altri nobili Inglesi che si trovavano in Madrid, ch' egli spinse andare a quesia impresa insieme col vescovo Lionese d'Irlanda." [He caused other grants to be made to the baron D'Acres, to signor Carlo Buono, and other English noblemen who were in Madrid, and whom he urged to go upon this expedition along with bishop Lionese of Ireland.] + We may here compare the report of the Jesuits, in Sacchinus, pars iv. lib. vi. 6, lib. vii. 10 — 30, with Cam- den's narratives Berura Britanuiee, torn. i. p. 315. No one was admitted into the college who did not pledge himself, on the completion off his studies, to return to England, and to preach there the faith of the Roman church. This was the exclusive end to which the students were trained. Kindled as they were into re*- ligious enthusiasm by the spiritual exercises of Ignatius, their teachers set before them as models for their imitation those who had con- verted souls to the faith, such as the men whom Gregory the Great had once sent amon* the Anglo-Saxons. Ere long, some of the elder students lied the way. Two English Jesuits, Parsons and Campian, went back to their native country. Constantly pursued, constantly under feigned names, and various disguises, they reached the capital, whence they travelled, the former through the northern, the latter through the southern counties. They took up their abode principally in the mansions of catholic noble- men : their coming was announced before- hand, but the precaution was adopted of ac- costing them as strangers on their arrival. Meanwhile a chapel had been got in readiness in the innermost chamber of the house, int-o which they were conducted, and there they bestowed their benediction on the members of the family assembled there to receive them. The missionary usually remained but one night. The evening was employed in re- ligious preparation and confession : the next morning mass was read, and the Lord's supper administered, after which there was a sermon. All the neighbouring adherents of the catholic faith attended, sometimes in great numbers. The religion that for nine hundred years had ruled supreme in the island, was again promul- gated with all the charms of mystery and nov- elty. Synods were secretly held ; a printing press was set up, first in a village near Londoii, then in a lonely house in a neighbouring wood-: suddenly, once more catholic works made their appearance, written with all the ability de- rived from constant practice in controversy, and often not void of elegance : the sensation they produced was the greater, the more im- penetrable was the secret of their origin. The immediate consequences of these pro- ceedings were, that the catholics ceased to attend protectant worship, and to observe the queen's ecclesiastical laws, and that the op- posite party became more polemical in doc- trine, and more severe and crushing in their persecutions.* Wherever the principle of catholic restora- tion was not strong enough to become para- mount, it served, at least, to exasperate the opposite party, and to render it more implaca- ble. Switzerland, too, afforded examples of this, al- * Besides Sacchinus, see also Campiani Vita et Mar- tyrium, Ingolstadii, 1584. 188 COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. [ v. d. 1563-89. though each canton had long possessed the right of self-government in matters of religion, and the disputes that had from time to time arisen* respecting the condition of the confederacy, and the interpretation of the religious provi- sions in the covenant of public peace (des Landfriedens,) had been to a considerable de- gree set at rest. But now the Jesuits made their way into this country too. Upon the solicitation of a colonel in the Swiss guard in Rome, they ar- rived in Lucern in 1574, where they met with a cordial reception and support, especially from the family of Pfyffer.i Ludwig Pfyffer alone spent probably thirty thousand guilders upon the erection of the Jesuit college; Phi- lip II. and the Guises contributed something, nor did Gregory XJII, fail of his wonted libe- rality in such cases, but gave the funds for the establishment of a library. The people of Lucern were delighted. They addressed an express memorial to the general of the order, entreating him not to deprive them of the fathers of the society who had already arrived among them : " they had it at heart, above all things, to see their young people brought up in sound learning, and especially in piety and Christian life :" they promised him in return that they would spare no toil or trouble, neither their means nor their blood, to serve the society in every thing they could desire. I An opportunity soon presented itself to them of proving their renewed zeal for Catho- licism in no unimportant matter. The city of Geneva had placed itself under the special protection of Bern, and now sought to draw into the same connexion both Solo- thurn and Freiburg, which were wont to ad- here, politically at least, though not ecclesi- astically, to Bern. They succeeded in this as regarded Solothurn. A catholic city took the focus of western protestantism under its protection. Gregory XIII. was horrified, and strove with all his might to keep back Frei- burg at least from the union, and in this the Lucerners now lent him their aid. An em- bassy from that canton co-operated with the papal nuncio, and Freiburg not only rejected the proposed alliance, but even invited the Jesuits, who founded a college in the canton, with the assistance of the pope. Meanwhile Carlo Borromeo's exertions be- gan to produce their effect. He had connex- ♦ The most important undoubtedly related to the fate of the evangelical party thai had grown up in Locaino, re- specting which F. Meyer produced, In 1836, an account derivedfrom original documents. Tlie proteslant can- tons assented, in 155.5, to that interprelation of the dispu- ted article which favoured the catholics, and allowed that the evangelical inhabitants should be forced lo quit their native land. They had wholly disappeared from it about the year 1580. f Agricola, 177. j Literae Lucernensium ad Everardum Mercurianum, '«jt Sacchinus, Hisiona Socieiatis Jesu, iv. v. 143. [ions, particularly in the Wald cantons ; Mel- chior Lussi, landammann of Unterwalden, was regarded as his intimate friend. Borro- meo sent thither Capuchins first of all, who produced a considerable impression by the rigour and simplicity of their lives : after them followed pupils of the Helvetian col- lege, which he had founded solely for this purpose. Their influence was soon to be traced in all public concerns. In the autumn of 1579, the catholic cantons concluded a treaty with the bishop of Basel, in which they not only promised to protect him in religious matters, but also, as occasion served, to bring back " to the true catholic faith," such of his sub- jects as had become proteslant : engagements which naturally caused much excitement among the evangelical cantons. The breach became more decided than it had been for a long time. A papal nuncio arrived : he was received with the highest possible marks of reverence in the catholic cantons ; in the proteslant he was scorned and insulted. Crisis in the Netherlands. The following was the general state of things in that day. Renovated Catholicism, in the form it had assumed in Spain and Italy, had made a vigorous inroad upon the rest of Europe. It had made important conquests in Germany, and had pushed forward into many other countries; nevertheless, it had every- where encountered powerful resistance. In France the protestants were secured by com- prehensive concessions, and by their strong politico-military attitude ; in the Netherlands they had the preponderence ; they were tri- umphant in England, Scotland, and the North. In Poland they had exacted peremptory laws in their favour, and had gained a large share of influence on the general concerns of the kingdom. Throughout the territories of Aus- tria they confronted the government, armed with old provincial immunities. In Lower Germany a decisive change in the ecclesias- tical institutions seemed to be begun. In this state of things an immensity was at stake on the issue of the contest in the Neth- erlands, where arms were continually resort- ed to afresh. Now it was impossible khig Philip II. should have thought of repealing the mea- sures that had already so signally failed ; nor could he have done so even if he would. For- tunately for him, friends offered thomselves to him spontaneously, and protestantism in its new and thriving career, found yet in its way an unexpected and insuperable resistance. It is well worth while to dwell a moment upon this momentous contingency. In the first place, to see the prince of Orange attaining to such great power in the A. D. 1563-89.] CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 189 provinces was far from affording' satisfaction to all partie.-, and least of all to the Walloon nobility. Under the king's government that nobility had always been the first to take horse, espe- cially in the French wars; whence the lead- ers of note, whom the people were used to follow, had acquired a certain independence and authority. The nobles now saw them- selves thrust into the back ground under the rule of the estates; pay was not regularly forthcoming ; the army of the estates consist- ed principally of Dutch, English, and Ger- mans, who were treated with most confidence as unquestionably protestant. When the Walloons acceded to the pacifi- cation of Ghent, they flattered themselves with the hope of obtaining a leading influ- ence over the general concerns of the coun- try. But the reverse was much rather the case. Power fell almost exclusively into the hands of the prince of Orange, and his friends from Holland and Zealand. With the disgusts thus excited, were com- bined likewise special religious considera- tions. Whatever may have been the cause, cer- tain it is, that the protestant movement ex- cited but little sympathy in the Walloon pro- vinces. Their new bishops, almost all of them men of great practical ability, had been quietly installed. The bishop of Arras was FranQois de Richardot, who had fully imbibed the prin- ciple of catholic restoration in the council of Trent, and who was the subject of unceasing panegyric, for the striking combination of so- lidity and force in his preaching, with exqui- site refinement and polish, and for the zeal tempered with knowledge of the world dis- played in his life.* In Namur we meet with Antoine Havet, a Dominican, a man, perhaps, of less worldly prudence, but who had also been a member of the council of Trent, and displayed no less earnestness in giving effect to its maxims.f The see of St. Omer was filled by Gerard de Hamericourt, one of the richest prelates in all the provinces, abbot likewise of St. Bertin, who now made it the grand object of his ambition to promote the education of youth, and to found schools, and who was the first to establish in the Nether- lands a college for the Jesuits, supported by fixed revenues. Under these and other eccle- siastical heads, Artois, Hennegau, and Na- mur, kept themselves free from the contagion of the iconoclastic mania, that filled all the *GazPt: Histoire Eccl^siastique Aea Pays-Bas, p. 143, describes him as " subtile el solide en doctrine, nerveux en raisons, riche en sentences, copieux en discours, poly- en son lan^age et grave en actions ; niais suitout I'excel- lenta pieie et virtu, qui reluisoit en sa vie, rendoit son oraison persuasive." + Hivensius, De Erectione novoi'um Episcopatuum in Belgio, p. 50. other provinces with turbulence and fury ;* accordingly, these localities had not suffered so violently from the reaction under Alva.f The resolutions of the council of Trent were without long delay discussed in the provincial and diocesan synods, and put in force. The influence of the Jesuits spread vigorously from St. Omer, and still more from Douay, where Philip II. had founded an university, to afford his subjects who spoke the French language an opportunity of prosecuting their studies in their own country. This was in keeping with the close ecclesiastical consti- tution which it was his purpose to introduce generally in his dominions. Not far from Douay is the Benedictine abbey of Anchin. At the period when the greater part of the rest of the Netherlands endured the havoc of the iconoclastic storm, John Lentailleur, ab- bot of Anchin, continued with his monks to practice all the spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola. Filled with their spirit, he resolved out of the revenues of the abbey to found in the new university a Jesuit college, which was opened in the year 1563, was immediate- ly granted a certain independence of the uni- versity functionaries, and became rapidly and unusually prosperous. Eight years afterwards the flourishing condition of the university, and that, too, with regard to literature, was ascribed to the Jesuits. Not only was their college filled with pious and diligent youth, but the other colleges, too, profited by their emulation of its example; it ah'eady furnished the university itself with excellent theolo- gians, and all Artois and Hennegau with pas- tors.]: Gradually this college became a centre of modern Catholicism for all the surrounding districts. In the year 1578 the Walloon pro- vinces had the reputation among contempora- ries, as one of them expresses himself, of be- ing in the highest degree catholic. ^ But this state of things in religion, no less than the political pretensionsof the provinces, was threatened by the ascendency of protes- tantism. Protestantism had assumed in Ghent an aspect such as in the present day we should designate as revolutionary. There the old liberties were not yet forgotten, which * Hopper: Recueil et Memorial des Troubles des Pays- Bas, 93. 98. f According to Viglii Commentarius rerum acturum su- per impositione decimi denarii, in Papendrecht, Analec- ta, I. i. 292 ; the tenth penny was imposed on them, with the assurance that it should not be rigorously exacted. t Testimonium ThoniEe Slapletoni (rector of the univer- sity) of the year 1576, in Sacchinus iv. iv. 124. " Pluri- mos ex hoc patrum collegio (the collegium Acquicintin- ense) Artpsia et Hannonia paslores, multos schola nostra Iheologos opii ne institutos et comparatosaccepit." Other, and siill stronger, encomiums follow, which we may the more readily pass by as Slapleton himself was a Jesuit. § Michiel: Relatione di Francia. "II conte (ihe gov- ernor of Hennegau) 6 cattolichisimo, come 6 tulto quel contado insieme con quel d'Artoes, che li 6 propinquo." [The count is in the highest degree catholic, as is the whole of that province, together with the adjoining one of Artois.] 190 COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89. Charles V. had broken down in 1539 : Alva's atrocities had here especially engendered ill blood ; the populace were fierce and impetu- ous, given to image breaking, and outrage- ously exasperated against the priests. Two daring declaimers, Imbize and Ryhove, took advantage of these passions. Imbize con- ceived the project of establishing a republic, and dreamed that Ghent would become a se- cond Rome. They began their proceedings at the moment Arschot, the governor, was holding a meeting with some bishops and catholic leaders of the neighbouring towns, by taking them all prisoners. Thereupon they restored the old constitution, of course with some modifications which secured them- selves in the possession of power ; they then laid hands on the property of the church, abolished the bishopric, and confiscated the abbeys ; they converted the hospitals and monasteries into barracks ; and, lastly, they endeavoured by force of arms to propagate their system among their neighbours.* Now some of the imprisoned leaders be- longed to the Walloon provinces : the troops of Ghent were already making incursions into those lands ; all that part of their popu- lation who were disposed to protestantism were beginning to bestir themselves, and to follow the example of Ghent in mingling the passions of democracy with those excited by religious matters. In Arras an insurrection broke out against the council. From Douay itself the Jesuits were expelled by a popular commotion in despite of the council ; their exile lasted indeed but fourteen days, but even this is an important occurrence. In St. Omer they held their ground only through the special protection of the council. The city magistracy, the provincial nobili- ty, and the clergy, were all alike beset with dangers and difficulty ; they felt themselves threatened with the same destructive pro- ceedings that had taken place in Ghent. No wonder, therefore, if in their peril they strove after every possible means of protection, first sending out their troops, which cruelly rav- aged the territory of Ghent, and then casting about to devise another confederation, which should afford them more security than that they had derived from their connexion with the general union of the Netherlands. Don John of Austria failed not to turn this disposition of theirs to account. When we take a general survey of all Don John's proceedings in the Netherlands, it almost strikes us that he effected nothing, that his whole career passed away, leaving no more trace of its existence than to himself it had been productive of satisfaction. But when we more narrowly consider what was * Van der Vynkts Geschichle der Niederlande, Bd. II., Buch v., Abschn. 2. This section is probably the most important in the whole work. his position, what were his acts, and what the consequences of his measures, we are forced to attribute to him above all other individuals, the settlement of the Spanish Netherlands. For a while he sought to abide by the treaty of Ghent; but the independent position as- sumed by the estates, the circumstances of the prince of Orange, who was far more potent than himself, the viceroy, and the mutual sus- picions of the two parties, rendered a breach inevitable. Don John resolved to begin the war. Undoubtedly this was contrary to the king's wishes, but it was unavoidable. It was the only means that promised to enable him, as enable him it did, to become master of a tract of country that recognized the Spanish sovereignty. He kept possession of Luxem- burg ; he invested Namur ; the battle of Gemblours threw Louvain and Limburg into his hands. If the king desired to become once more sovereign of the Netherlands, the end was not to be obtained by treaty with the states general, the impossibility of which was apparent, but by a gradual subjection of the several districts, either in the way of negoti- ation or by force of arms. The latter was the course adopted by Don John, and already opened out the most extensive prospects. He awoke again the old feelings of attachment of the Walloon provinces to the Burgundian race : and in particular he gained over to his side two powerful individuals, Pardieu de la Motte, governor of Gravelines, and Matthieu JMoulart, bishop of Arras.* These were the men, who after the early death of John, conducted the negotiations on which every thing depended with gi-eat zeal and fortunate address. De la Motte availed himself of the growing hatred against the protestants. He effected the removal from many fortresses of the gar- risons placed in them by the estates, on the express grounds that they might become pro- testant, and prevailed on the nobility of Ar- tois to determine as early as November on the expulsion of all protestants from that pro- vince, and to carry the resolution into opera- ration. Hereupon Matthieu Molart sought to bring about a complete reconciliation with the king, beginning his proceedings with a formal procession through the city to invoke God's aid. In truth, he had a difficult task to per- form, having sometimes to effect a coalition between men whose claims were directly op- I * That they were won over in Don John's time appears from the two following passages. 1. Strada ii. 1, p. 19. Pardiaeus Mottae dominus non redilurum modo se ad regis obedienliam, sed eliam quampluressecumlracturum, jam pridemsignificaratJoanni Austriaco, [Pardieu de laMolte had already signified to Don John of Austria, not only that he would himself return to his allegiance to the king, but that he would bring over as many as he could with him.] 2. Tassis: Episcopum Alrebalensem qui vivenie adhuc Austriaco se regi conciliarat. [The bishop of Arras, who had become reconciled to the king during the life of Don John.] A. D. 1563-89.] CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 191 posed to each other. He proved himself inde- fatigable, shrewd, and supple, and his efforts were crowned with success. Alexander Farnese, Don John's successor, possessed the valuable gift of persuading, con- ciliating, and inspiring lasting confidence. He was supported by Francjois Richardot, nephew of the bishop, '* a man," says Cabrera, "of sound penetration in many things, and practised in all ; one who knew how to con- duct every business, be it of what kind it might ; and Sarrazin, abbot of Vaast, accord- ing to the portraiture of the same Cabrera, " a great statesman under the show of still- ness, very ambitious under the show of humil- ity, and one who knew how to maintain his consequence in every one's eyes."* We cannot follow the whole course of the negociations till they gradually reached their object. It is enough to observe, that on the side of the protestants the interests of self-preserva- tion and of religion pointed directly to the king, while on the part of the latter nothing was omitted that priestly influence and dex- terous negociation, combined with the return- ing favour of the sovereign, could effect. In 1579 Emanuel de Montigny, whom the Wal- loon arn)y owned for their leader, accepted the king's pay. His example was followed by the count de Lalaing, but for whom Hen- negau could never have been taken. At last, on the 17th of May, 1579, the treaty was con- cluded in the camp at Maestricht. But to what conditions was the king constrained to yield ! it was a restoration of his authority, but under the strictest limitations. He not only promised to dismiss all foreigners from his army, and to employ no troops but those raised m the Netherlands ; but he even con- firmed all existing functionaries in the ap- pointments they had received during the trou- bles. The inhabitants even pledged them- selves to receive no garrison, of which infor- mation had not previously been given to the estates of the country. Two-thirds of the council of state were to consist of men who had been implicated in the troubles. All the other articles are in the same spirit.f The provinces acquired an independence such as they had never before possessed. This event involved a turn of affairs of uni- versal importance. Hitherto, throughout all the west of Europe, the maintenance and re- introduction of Catholicism had only been at- tempted through the agency of public author- ity ; the sovereign power had endeavoured under this pretext completely to crush all provmcial rights. But now it felt itself com- pelled to adopt another course. If it would restore Catholicism and uphold its own author- ♦ Cabrera: Felipe segundo, p. 1021. t TasBis gives this treaty in all its details, book t. 394— 405. ity, it could only efiect that in unison with con- stitutional assemblies and public privileges. Yet with all the restrictions imposed on it, the royal power had gained immensely : it once more commanded the allegiance of those regions on which the greatness of the house of Burgundy had been founded. Alexander Farnese carried on the war with the Walloon troops, and though its course was slow, he continued to make advances. In 1.580 he look Courtray, Tournay in 1581, and Oude- narde in 1582. But matters were not decided at once by these events. Probably the union of the catho- lic provinces with the king was the very cause that induced the northern, and wholly protestant provinces, not only forthwith to form a more intimate confederacy among themselves, but finally to shake off the king's yoke altogether. Let us here cast a glance over the general field of the history of the Netherlands. In all the provinces there was a strife of long stand- ing, between the provincial rights and the sovereign authority. In Alva's time the lat- ter acquired an ampler ascendancy than it had ever before possessed, but it was not long able to retain it. The treaty of Ghent aft'ords proof of the complete superiority the estates had won over the government. The northern provinces had no advantage in this respect over the southern : had they both been united in religion they would have founded a general republic of the Netherlands: but their sepa- ration was caused, as we have seen, by their difference in faith. The first consequence was, that the catholics returned beneath the king's protection, and bound themselves with him above all things to the maintenance of the catholic religion: the next was, that the protestants, after so long maintaining their ground in war, at last repudiated even the name of subjection, and wholly renounced their allegiance to the king. Though we give the name of the subject provinces to the one set, and distinguish the others by the title of republic, we must not yet suppose that the intrinsic difference between them was at first very great. Even the subject provinces main- tained all constitutional rights with the great- est zeal ; whilst the republican could not dis- pense with an institution, that of the stadt- holdership, which was analagous to the royal authority. The grand distinction consisted in religion. It was this alone that brought out the true principles of the contest, and matured the consummation. Philip II. had just conquered Portugal : at the moment when he was stimulated by the happy achievement of so great a conquest to embark in new enterprizes, the Walloon estates consented at last to the return of the Spanish troops. 192 COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89. Lalaing was won over, and with him his wife, who had always been a strenuous oppo- nent of the Spaniards, and to whom their ex- clusion was principally ascribed : the whole Walloon nobility followed their example. Every one felt assured there was no reason to apprehend a return of Alva's despotism and its horrors. The Spanish army already sent away, brought back, and again dismissed, arrived once more in the country. With the troops of the Netherlands alone the war must have been endlessly protracted: but the superior force and discipline of the Spanish veterans brought the conflict to a crisis. As in Germany it was colonies of Jesuits, consisting of Spaniards, Italians, and some Netherlander?, that restored the reign of Catholicism by the force of education and the inculcation of dogmas; so in the Nether- lands, an Italico-Spanish army presented itself, to unite with the Walloon element in bringing about the ascendancy of the catholic faith. At this point of history it is impossible to avoid speaking of the war : its course was likewise that of the destinies of religion. In July, 1583, the port and town of Dun- kirk were taken in six days ; and after that Nieuport and the whole coast as far as Ostend, Dixnuiyden, and Fumes. Here at once the character of the war de- veloped itself. In every thing relating to politics the Spaniards evinced moderation, but they were inexorable in every thing per- taining to the church. It was not to be thought of that a church, or even the right of private worship should be accorded to the protestants ; all the preachers of that per- suasion who were caught were hanged. The war was deliberately carried on as a war of religion. This was, indeed, in a certain sense, the most prudent system under the ex- isting state of things : no complete subjection of the protestants could ever have been eflfect- ed ; while on the other hand, so decided a line of conduct allied to the Spanish side every jot of Catholicism the provinces con- tained, and bespoke their spontaneous co-ope- ration. The baillui Servaes of Zealand gave up the whole country of Waes to the royal- ists; Hulst and Axel voluntarily surrendered. Alexander Farnese was soon strong enough to contemplate an attack on the great cities ; he was already master of the inland country and the coasts. One after the other, Ypres in the month of April, then Bruges, and finally Ghent, where Imbize himself had become a partisan of the reconciliation with Spain, were forced to surrender. Very tolerable terms were granted to the communes in their corporate capacity ; they were left for the most part in possession of their privileges : only the protestants were proscribed without mercy. The chief conditions were in every case that the catholic clergy should return, and that the churches should be appropriated to the exercise of the catholic ritual. But notwithstanding all this, nothing per- manent seemed effected, no security seemed gained, so long as the prince of Orange lived to give stability and force to the opposition, and to keep alive a spark of hope even in the vanquished. The Spaniards had set a price of twenty- five thousand crowns on his head, and amidst all the fierce excitement of the times, there could be no lack of men who would seek to earn it, prompted at once by avarice and fanaticism. I know not if there exist a more shocking example of blasphemy than that ex- hibited in the papers of the Biscayan Jaure- guy, which were found upon him on the occa- sion of his attempting the life of the prince. He carried about him, in the fashion of an amu- let, prayers, in which he invoked the merciful Deity, who appeared to men in the person of Christ, to aid the murder with his favour, pro- mising that Being a part of the booty, as it were, should the deed be successful, viz. for the mother of God of Bayonne a garment, a lamp, and a crown ; for the mother of God of Aranzosu a crown, and for the Lord Christ himself a very rich curtain"!* Fortunately this fanatic was seized, but another was alrea- dy meditating the same crime. The thought of perpetrating it had possessed the mind of a Burgundian, Balthazar Gerard, who resided in Maestricht, at the moment the act of out- lawry was proclaimed in that city.f The hopes he cherished of earthly fortune and glory should he succeed, of the fame of a mar- tyr should he perish in the attempt, hopes in * Contemporary copy of a vow, and of certain prayers found in ihe form of an amulet upon Jameguy ; in Lord F. Egerton's collection. "A vos, Senor Jesus Chrislo, redemplor y Salvador del mundo, criador del cielo y de la tierra, os oft'rezco, siendo os seivido librarme con vida despues de haver etfeciuado mi desi o, un belo muy rico." [To you Lord Jesus Christ, Redeemer and Saviour of the world, creator of heaven and earth, I offer, on your bring- ing me otf with life, after having etfected my purpose, a very rich curtain.] And so it goes on. t Relatione del successo della morte di Guilielmodi Nassau principe di Orange, e delli tormenti patiti del generosissimo giovane Baldassarre Gerardi Boriiognone : Inf Polilt. xii. [An account of the d ath of William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and of the tortures endured by that most gallant youth Balthazar Gerard,] contains some particulars at variance with the ordinary statements. " Gerard i, la cui mad re, 6 di Bisansone, d'anni-i8 incirca, giovane non nieno dolto che eloquente." [Gerard, whose mother is from Besangon, aged about twenty eight, a young man no less learned than eloquent.] He had en- tertained this project six years and a half " Otferendosi dunque ropportunili di portar le letteredel duca d'Alan- sone al Nassau, essendogiiXluigenlilhuomodi casa, alii 7 Luglio un hora e mezzo dopo pranso, uscendo il principe della tavola, scargandoli un archibugelto, con tre pallo gli colse solto la zinna manca e gli fece una ferita di due diti, coUa quale I'ammazzo." [The opportunity, therefore, presenting itself of carrying tlie duke d'Alenron's letters, he being a gentleman of his household, on the 7lh uf July, an hour and a half after dinner, as the prince came from table, he discharged an arquebuss at him, and struck un- der the left breast with three balls, inflicting a wound two fingers' breadth, of which he died.] A. D. 1563-89.] CRISIS IN THE NETHERLANDS. 193 which he had been confirmed by a Jesuit of Trier, had ever since given him no rest till he set out to accomplish the deed. He repre- sented himself to the prince as a fugitive, and so having- gained admission to him and a fa- vourable moment, he shot him dead in the month of July, 1584. He was seized : but not all the tortures inflicted on him could force from him one groan : he persisted in saying, were the deed yet to be done, he would do it. Whilst he was expiring in Delft amidst the the execrations of the people, the canons in Herzogenbusch performed a solemn Te Deum for his achievement. The passions of both parties were in fierce commotion; but the impulse they gave the catholics was the stronger : it accomplished its purpose, and bore away the victory. Had the prince lived he would, it is thought, have found means to relieve Antwerp, which was besieged, according to his promise. As it was, there was no one capable of taking his place. Now the enterprize against Antwerp was so comprehensive in its scope, that the other important towns of Brabant were directly as- sailed by it. The prince of Parma cut them all off from supplies of provisions. Brussels was the first to surrender, being forced thereto by the factions that broke out as soon as that city, habituated to the enjoyment of lavish abundance, saw itself threatened with want. Mechlin fell next, and finally Antwerp was obliged to yield, on the failure of its last at- tempt to break its dams, and efl^ect a means of transit for provisions from the country. The mildest conditions were imposed on these Brabantish cities too, as well as on those of Flanders. Brussels was exempted from the payment of contributions; Antwerp receiv- ed the assurance that no Spanish garrison should be quartered in the city, and that the citadel was not to be repaired. One sole obligation was imposed on them all, that the churches and chapels should be restored, and the exiled priests and regular clergy re- called. The king insisted on this with im- movable firmness : he said it must be the first and the last stipulation in every agreement. The only grace to which he would consent was, that two years should be allowed the residents in each place either to change their religion, or to sell their property and quit the Spanish territories. How completely changed were the times. The day had been when iMiilip II. himself had scrupled to permit the establishment of the Jesuits in the Netherlands, and subsequently they had frequently been menaced, assailed, and banished. They now returned in the sequel of the events of the war, and that under the decided protection of the government. The Farnesi were moreover special patrons of the society : Alexander had a Jesuit for his 25 confessor, and he looked on the order as the most efficient instrument for entirely recover- ing to Catholicism tiie half protestant country he had conquered, and so completing the main design of the war.* The first place to which they returned was the same that liad been first conquered, Courtray. The parish priest of the town, Jean David, had become ac«se to her that she should return to the bosom of the catholic church. Singular proposal ! As if she had been in a condition to choose ; as if all her previous history, the whole import of her being, her political position, admitting even that her conviction had not been sound, had not bound her fast to the protestant inte- rests. Elizabeth answered not a word, and only laughed. When this was told the pope, he said he must bethink him of wresting her kingdom from her by force. Previously he had but hinted at this ; but in the spring of 1596 he openly declared his purpose, and boasted that he would lend the king of Spain a far different aid in an enter- prise against England, from that afforded by former popes to Charles V.f In January, 1587, he loudly complained of the backwardness of the Spaniards, and num- bered up the advantages a victory over Eng- land would afford them towards the reconquest of the rest of the Netherlands. J He soon grew bitter on the subject. When Philip II. issued a pragmatica, imposing res- trictions on the spiritual dignities generally, including those over which the Roman curia asserted claims, the pope's fury knew no bounds. " What !" he exclaimed, " does don Philip think to bluster with us, and lets him- self be bullied by a woman ■?"§ In truth the king was not spared. Eliza- beth openly espoused the cause of the Nether- lands, and her admiral, Drake, rendered every coast of America and Europe unsafe. What pope Sixtus uttered was at bottom the opinion of all catholics. They were perplexed at the * Thealrum cnidelitatum liEereticorum nostri temporis. [Theatre of the cmelties of the heretics of our day.] It begins witli a "Peculiaris descriptio crudelitatiini et ini- manitatum schisrnaticorum Angliae regnante Henrico VIII." [A special description of the cruelties and atroci- ties of the schismatics of England in the reign of Henry VIII.], and ends with " Inciuisitionis Anglicanae et facin- orum crudelium Machiavelanorum in Anglia et Hibernia a Calvinistis protestantibus sub Elizabetha etiamnum regnante peractorum descriptiones." [Descriptions of the Anglican Inquisition, and of the Machiavelian deeds of cruelty perpetrated by the Calvinistic protestants in England and Ireland during Elizabeth's reign.] Plates are given exhibiting all sorts of unheard-of tortures : a horrible sight. + Dispaccio Gritti, 31 Maggie, 1.586 : "Accresciuto qua- Iro volte tanto. U papa vorria die si fingesse d'andar contra Draco e si piegasse poi in Inghilterra." [Four limes as much. The pope would wish that a feint should be made of proceeding to encounter Drake, and that the expedition sliould then turn aside towards England.] t Dispaccio, Gritti, 10 Genn. 1587. § Dolendosi che '1 re si lascia strapazzar da una donna e vuol poj bravar con lei (Sua Sanliti). 27 strange endurance of that mighty king. The cortes of Castile conjured him to avenge him- self. Philip was even personally insulted. He was made a mock of in comedies and masques. Once when this was reported to him, the aged monarch, long used only to adulation, sprang from his chair; never had he shown such irritation. Such was the temper of the pope and the king, when the news arrived that Elizabeth had caused the imprisoned queen of Scotland to be executed. This is not the place to in- quire what legal right she may have had to take such a step: it is principally to be regard- ed as an act of political justice. The first tliought of it arose, so far as I can learn, at the time of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. In one of his letters to lord Burleigh, the then bishop of London expresses his anxiety lest so treacherous an act should find its parallel in England, and states his opinion that the main cause of danger was presented by the Scot- tish queen. " The safety of the realm," he says, " demands that her head should be cut oft!"* But how much more powerful was the catholic party now become in Europe ; how much more was it in ferment and commotion in England itself! Mary Stuart continually maintained a secret connexion with her cou- sins the Guises, with the malcontents in the country, with the king of Spain and the pope. She represented the catholic principle, inasfar as it was by nature hostile to the existing government : upon the first success of the catholic party, she would infallibly have been proclaimed queen of England. For this her position, arising out of the circumstances of the times, but from which she certainly did not attempt to withdraw, she paid the forfeit of her life. Her execution, however, brought the Span- ish and papal schemes at last to maturity. It exceeded all measure of catholic endurance. Sixtus filled the consistory with his vocifera- tions against the English Jezebel, who had smote the annointed head of a sovereign, sub- ject to none but to Jesus Christ, and, as she had herself professed, to his vicegerent. To show his cordial approval of the efforts of the catholic opposition in England, he created William Allen, who had been the first founder of the seminaries, a cardinal of the church ; a nomination which was at once regarded, at least in Rome, as a declaration of war against England. A formal league was now also concluded between Philip II. and the pope.f * Edwin Sandys to Lord Burghley, Fulhani, 5th of Sept. 1572: " The saftie of our quene and realme yf God wil ; furtwith to cutte of the Scotish queue's heade: ipsa est nostri fundi calamitas."— Ellis's Letters, second series, vol. iii. p. 2.5. t The pope's original views, Dispaccio Gritti, 27 Giug- no, 1587. "II papa fa gran oflferta al re per I'impresa d'Inghilterra, ma vuole la denomination del re, e che 'i 210 COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-8^ The latter promised the king a subsidy of a million of scudi towards his enterprise : but as he was always on his guard, particularly where money was concerned, he bound him- self to payment only so soon as the king should have made himself master of an Eng- lish port. " Let your majesty delay no longer," he wrote to the latter, "every delay would change a good intention into a bad perform- ance." The king strained all the resources of his kingdom, and fitted out that armada that received the name of the "Invincible." Thus did the Italico-Spanish powers, from which such mighty influences had gone forth over the whole world, now bend their ener- gies to an attack on England. The king had caused the archives of Simancas to be search- ed, and a statement to be drawn up of the claims he himself possessed to the throne of that kingdom, after the extinction of the Stuart line. He founded brilliant anticipa- tions on this expedition, especially that of the universal dominion of the seas. Every thing seemed to combine to one end — the ascendancy of Catholicism in Germany, the renewed attack on the Huguenots m France, the attempt on Geneva, and the enter- prise against England. At the same moment occurred an event that we shall hereafter consider more nearly, the elevation of a de- cidedly catholic sovereign, Sigismund III., to the Polish throne, with the prospect also of one day succeeding to that of Sweden. Brt whenever any principle, be it what it may, aspires to absolute dominion in Europe, it invariably encounters a vigorous resistance, arising out of the deepest springs of human nature. Philip's path was crossed in England by the national energies in the full glow of youth, and fired with the sense of their future desti- nies. The bold corsairs, who had rendered every sea insecure, gathered around the coasts of their native land. The whole body of the protestants, the very puritans themselves, though they had been forced to endure oppres- sions as severe as the catholics, rallied round the queen, who now gave admirable proof of her masculine courage, and her princely talent for winning and guiding and steadily control- ling the minds of men. The insular position of the country, the very elements leagued with the defenders of England ; the invincible armada was annihilated even before it had made its attack; the enterprise entirely failed. It must, however, be understood, that the plan, the grand purpose itself, was not forth- with abandoned. The catholics were reminded by the wri- ters of their party, that Julius Csesar, that regno sia feudo della chiesa." [The pope made large oflfers to ihe kin? in favour of the entfrprise airainst Eng- land, but he desires to have the noniination of the king, OMd that the kirgdorn should be afiefofthe church.^ Henry VII., the grandfather of Elizabeth, had both of them been unlucky in their first attempts on England, though they had after- wards become lords of the country. "God," they said, "often delayed to give the victory to his faithful servants. The children of Israel were twice beaten with great loss in the war they had undertaken by God's ex- press command against the children of Benja- min; it was not till the third attempt they proved successful, 'then did the devourmg flames lay waste the towns and villages of Benjamin, and the edge of the sword smote both men and cattle.' " " Let the English," they exclaimed, " ponder this, and not be pufl'ed up because their punishment tarries."* Philip II. too was by no means disheartened. It was his intention to equip smaller and more manageable vessels, with which an attempt should at once be made to land on the English coasts, without previously endeavouring to fall in with the fleet of the Netherlands in the channel. The utmost activity prevailed in the arsenal at Lisbon. The king was re- solved to stake every thing upon the enter- prise, though, as he said once at table, he should be driven to sell the silver candlesticks that stood before him.f But whilst his mind was still busy with these thoughts, new prospects opened out before him, a new theatre presented itself for the display of the powers of Roman catholic- ism, as represented by Italy and Spain, The assassination of Henry III. Shortly after the disaster of the Spanish fleet, a reaction took place in France, unex- pected, as so often the case, violent, and bloody. At the moment when Guise, who swayed the states of Blois as he willed, seemed des- * Andreae Philopatri (Parsoni) ad Elizabelhas reginse Anglise ediclum lesponsio. § 146, 147. " Nulla," he adds, " ipsorum fortitudine repuisa vis est, sed iis potius casibus qui saepissime in res bellicas solent incidere, aeris nimi- runi inclementia, maris incogniti inexperientia, nonnul- lorumquo fortassis hominum vel neeligentia vel inscilia, Dei denique voluntate, quia forte micericors Dominus ar- borem infructuosam diniiltere adhuc voluit ad terlium annum evangelicum." [The assault was repulsed by no valour of their own, but rather by those casualties so com- mon to warfare, viz. by the inclemency of the weather, want of acquaintance with unfrequented seas, by the negligence and unskilfulness, perhaps, of some individu- als, and, finally, by the will of God, because it may be, the Lord in his mercy was pleased to spare the unlruitl'ul tree to the third gospel year.] t Dispacci Gradenigo, 29 Sett. 1588. Si come il re ha sentilo molto questoaccidente di mala Ibrtuna, cosi mostra di esser piu che mai risoluto di seguiiar la impresa con tutte le sue forze. — 11 Olt. S. Mii- sta ardemissima nel pensar e trattar le provisioni per I'anno fuluro. 1 Nov. "Si venderanno,"tne king had exclaimed, " esti candel- lieri, quando non vi sia allro modo di far danari." [How- ever much his majesty has felt this painful mischance, still he gives proof that he is more than ever resolved on pursuing the enterprise with all his might. 11 Oct. His majesty is most ardent in devising and directing arrange- ments for next year. 1 Nov. " These candlesticks shall be sold," exclaimed the king, " if no other means remain of raising money. "j A. D. 1563-89.] THE ASSASSINATION OF HENRY III. 211 lined through his office of constable to rule all the affairs of the whole realm, Henry III. had him despatched. That king, finding him- self circumvented by the Spanish or catholic party, and made their tool, tore himself from them at once, and threw himself into the arras of the opposition. But the death of Guise was not the extinc- tion of his party, or of the Ligue ; this now for the first time assumed a position of undis- guised hostility, and attached itself more closely than ever to Spain. Pope Sixtus was wholly on its side. The murder of the duke whom he loved and admired, and in whom he beheld a pillar of the church, was of itself enough to fill him with grief and resentment;* but it appeared to him beyond all endurance that cardinal Guise had also been assassinated, "a priest- cardinal," he exclaimed in the consistory, "a noble member of the holy see, without process or sentence, by the secular authority, just as though there were no pope in the world, as though there were no longer a God !" He upbraided his legate Morosini for not having instantly excommunicated the king; he should have done it had it cost him a hundred lives.f The king made small account of the pope's anger. Nothing could move him to release the cardinal of Bourbon or the archbishop of Lyons, whom he kept imprisoned. He was incessantly plied with demands from Rome that he should declare Henry of Navarre in- capacitated from succeeding to tlie throne ; but instead of doing so he made him his ally. Upon this the pope on his part resolved on the uttermost measures. He cited the king personally to Rome to answer for the cardi- nal's assassination, and he menaced him with excommunication if he did not release his pri- soners within a stated time. He was bound to act thus, he declared ; did he not do so, God would call him to ac- count as the most unprofitable of all popes : now that he discharged his duty he needed not to fear the whole world ; he doubted not that Henry HI. would perish like king Saul.]: * The pope further complained, especially, that the king had extracted a brief from him: " che li concesse poier esser assolto da qualsivoglia peccato anco riservato alia sede apostolica, col quale si voglia hora coprire il grave peccato che ha fatto," [which conceded to him the possibility of being absolved from any sin yet reserved to the apostolic see, and wherewith he now seeks to cover the grievous sin he has committed.] + Tempesti, ii. 137, gives both the pope's speech at full length, and the letter to Morosini : " Essendo ammazzato il cardinalp," it says, " in faccia di V. &'''">■■ Illmi', legato a latere, come non ha publicato i'interdetto, ancorchfi gli- ene fossero andale cento vite V JDispaccio Veneto, 2U Maggio, 1589. " II papa accusa la sua negligentia di non haver fatto, dipoi mesi 5 che gli 6 stato ammazzato un cardinale e tenuto ne un'altro pri- gione con un arcivescovo, alcune riraostratione o provi- sione. Dubita del ira di Dio, etc." [The pope blames his negligence in not having made any remonstrance, or taken -any suitable step, during all the five months elapsed, since one cardinal had been put to death, and another with an archbishop had been kept a prisoner. He apprehends the wrath of God, &c.] As it was, the king was abhorred by the zealously catholic and the adherents of the Ligue as accursed and reprobate, but the pope's proceedings strengthened them in their furious opposition. The pope's foreboding was fulfilled sooner than could have been ex- pected. The monitorium was published in France on the 23rd of June : on the 1st of August the king was murdered by Clement. The pope himself was amazed. " In the midst of his army," he exclaimed, " on the very point of conquering Paris, in his own closet he has been dispatched at one blow by a poor monk." He ascribed this to the imme- diate interposition of God, who thereby showed that he would not abandon France.* How is it that the empire of an illusion can become so universal ! This was a conviction prevailing over the minds of innumerable catholics. "To nothing but the hand of the Almighty himself," says Mendoza in his dis- patch to Philip, " that we are to ascribe this happy event."! Young Maximilian of Bava- ria was then pursuing his studies in the dis- tant city of Ingolstadt : in one of the earliest of his letters extant, he expresses to his mother the joy with which the intelligence had filled him, " that the king of France had been dispatched."]: Nevertheless, the event had another aspect, Henry of Navarre, whom the pope had ex- communicated, and the Guises had pursued with such rancorous animosity, now succeeded to his legitimate rights. A protestant assumed the title of king of France. The Ligue, Philip II. , and the pope, were resolved on no condition to suffer him to at- tain the enjoyment of his rights. In place of Morosini, who appeared far too lukewarm, the pope sent another legate to France, Gae- tano, who was considered to be inclined to Spain, and gave him, contrary to what he had ever done before, a sum of money to be aplied to the purposes of the Ligue. The grand ob- ject of his care was to be, that none but a catholic should be king of France. The crown was by all means to belong to a prince of the blood ; but that was not the sole condition to be insisted on : there had been occasions on which the strict order of inheritance had been disregarded, but never had an instance occur- red of the acceptance of a heretic. The main thing, in short, was, that the king should be a good catholic.} *Dsipaccio Veneto, 1 Sett. II papa nel consistorio dis- corre, che'l successo della niorte del re di Francia si ha da conoscer dal voler espresso del signorDio, e che perci6 si doveva confidar che continuarebbe al haver quel regno nella sua protetiione. + Cappfieue, v. 290. t Wolf :'^Maximilian, I. Th. I. S. 107. § Dispaccio Veneto, 30 Sett. The pope declares, "che non importava che'l fosse eletto piu del sangue che di altro famiglia, essendo cio al re volte occoiso, ma mai erelico dopo la nostra religione: che Savoia, Lorena e forse anche Umena pretendeva lacarona: che S. S'»" non vuol favorir I'uno piu che'l altro." 212 COUNTER REFORMATION. FIRST PERIOD. [a. d. 1563-89. In this state of feeling the pope even thought it laudable in the duke of Savoy, that he had taken advantage of the disorders of France to possess himself of Saluzzo, which then be- longed to the French. It was better, Sixtus said, that the duke should take it, than that it should fall into the hands of the Hugue- nots.* And now every thing depended on enabling the Ligue to be victorious in its contest with Henry IV. For this end a new treaty was planned be- tween Spain and the pope. Cardinal Sanse- verina, the most zealous of the inquisitors, was commissioned under the seal of confes- sion to arrange the project. The pope pro- mised actually to send an army of fifteen thousand foot and eight hundred horse into France, and he furthermore declared himself ready to come forward with subsidies so soon as the king should have entered France with a powerful army. The papal forces were to be commanded by the duke of Urbino, a subject * Reproaches were cast against him on that account: il papa si giuslifica con inolle ragioni dellaimpressache'l sopradetto duca ha fatlo del marchesato di Saluzzo con sua participalione. (Dispaccio Venelo.) of the pope, and an adherent to his majes- ty.* In this manner did the united powers of Italy and Spain prepare in combination with their adherents in France, to secure forever the throne of that kingdom to their own party. No greater prospect could present itself either to Spain or to the pope. The former would be forever freed from that ancient rivalry that had so long crippled her. The sequel showed how much Philip II. had this at heart. It would have been an immense stride for the papal power to have exercised an active influence in placing a king upon the throne of France. Gaetano was instructed to demand the introduction of the inquisition and the repeal of the Gallican liberties. But it would have been of still greater signifi- cance, that a legitimate prince should have been excluded from the throne upon religious considerations. The ecclesiastical impulses, already pervading the world in every direc- tion, would thereby have achieved complete supremacy. * Authentic account in the autobiography of the cardi- nal adopted by Tempesti, ii. 236. END OF THE FIRST PART. THE POPES OF EOME, THEIR CHURCH AND STATE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. PART THE SECOND. BOOK THE SIXTH. RADICAL DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. 1589—1607. Introduction. The moral and intellectual growth of the century had now assumed a totally different bent from that which might justly have been anticipated at its commencement. In the beginning of the century the bonds of ecclesiastical authority gav^e way ; the nations sought to cast off their connexion with their common spiritual head ; the principles on which the hierarchy was based were treated with mockery in the very court of Rome ; a profane spirit predominated in literature and art ; and the maxims of pagan morality were professed without disguise. How wholly otherwise was it now ! Wars were entered upon, conquests achieved, and states revolutionized in the name of religion ! Never has there been a period when theolo- gians were more powerful than in the latter part of the sixteenth century. They sat in the councils of sovereigns, and discussed poli- tical matters in presence of the whole people from the pulpit ; they controlled the establish- ments for education, the labours of the learn- ed, and the general range of literature ; the confessional yielded them opportunity to spy out the self-contradictions of the soul, and to give the decisive bias in all the doubtful con- tingencies of private life. We may perhaps assert, that the very vehemence of their mu- tual opposition, the fact that within their own body each of its two great sections found its direct antagonist, was precisely the cause that made their influence so comprehensive and pervading. If this was true of both parties, it was more particularly manifest with regard to the catho- lics. Among them the ideas and institutions that exert the most immediate discipline and guidance over the minds of men had been wrought up to the highest degree of practical efficiency : there was absolutely no living without father confessors. Among them the clergy, whether as brethren of some order, or as members of the hierarchy in general, con- stituted a corporation held together in strict subordination, and acting in entire unison. The head of this hierarchical body, the pope of Rome, again acquired an influence not much less than that he had possessed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries ; he kept the world perpetually astir by the enterprises to which he was prompted by his religious in- terests. Under these circumstances were revived the boldest pretensions of the days of Hilde- brand : principles that had hitherto lain by rather as relics of antiquity in the lumber- rooms of the canon law, once more came forth in full force and efficacy. The European commonwealth has never been subjected to the despotism of mere force ; thoughts and opinions have been rife within it in every stage of its history ; no enterprize of moment can succeed, no power can rise to general importance, without immediately sug- gesting the conception of a forthcoming new order of society. Hence the origin of theories. They express the moral import and signifi- cance of a fact, and present it in the light of a general truth, as a deduct on from reason or from religion, as a result arrived at by reflec- tion. Thus they anticipate, as it were, the 214 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1589-1607. fulfilment of the event, which at the same time they mightily promote. Let us observe how this is exemplified in the case before us. Ecclesiastico-political theory. The catholic principle has not unfrequently been regarded as characterised by a special importance with regard to monarchy or aris- tocracy, an intrinsic sympathy for those forms of government. A century like the sixteenth, in which tliat principle stood forth in the ple- nitude of its vigour and self control, affords the amplest data for investigating the truth of this opinion. Now we find that in those times it adhered in Italy and Spain to the existing order of things; in Germany it was subservient towards conferring on the sovereign autiiority a new preponderance over the estates; in the Netherlands it helped forward the subjuga- tion of the country ; and in Upper Germany and in the Walloon provinces it was main- tained with peculiar preference and attach- ment by the nobility. But if we carry our inquiries further, we find that these were not the only sympathies it awakened. If in Cologne it was adhered to by the patricians, in the neighbouring city of Trier it commanded no less the affections of the common people. In France it was every where associated with the claims and struggles of the populace. The only conside- ration it looked to was this, where might it find its surest and strongest supports If the existing authorities were inimical to it, far was it indeed, from sparing them, — nay, even from acknowledging them. It corroborated the Irish nation in its spontaneous refractori- ness against the English government ; in England itself it undermined to the utmost of its power the allegiance demanded by the queen, and frequently broke out into active rebellion ; finally, in France it confirmed its adherents in their insurrection against their legitimate sovereigns. Intrinsically, the reli- gious principle in general has no special par- tiality for any one form of government. During the short period of its renovation, Catholicism displayed the most diversified in- clinations : first, to the monarchical authority in Italy and Spain, and to the strengthening of feudalism in Germany ; next, in the Netherlands to the conservation of the rights of aristocratic bodies; lastly, at the close of the century it allied itself decidedly with the spirit of democracy. This was the more im- portant, since Catholicism was now in the acme of its vigour, and the movements in which it took part were the most serious events of the political world in those days. Had the popes been successful then, they would have secured forever a paramount in- fluence over the state. They advanced claims, their adherents and champions put forth opinions and principles, that threatened kingdoms and states both with internal revo- lutions and with loss of independence. It was the Jesuits principally who appeared on the arena as propounders and champions of doctrines of this sort. First of all they claimed for the church an unlimited supremacy over the state. To this a certain necessity impelled them in England, where the queen had by the laws of the land been declared head of the church. The leaders of the catholic opposition met this principle with contrary pretensions of the most violent kind. William Allen pronounced not only the right, but the duty, of a nation, espe- cially when further sanctioned by the pope's command, to refuse allegiance to a sovereign who had fallen off" from the catholic church.* Parsons stated it as the fundamental condition of a sovereign's whole authority, that he should cherish and protect the Roman catho- lic faith ; such was the tenour of his baptis- mal vows, and of his coronation oath ; it would be blindness to regard him as capable of reigning should he fail to fulfil that condi- tion : much rather would his subjects be bound^ in such a case to expel him from the throne.f All this was perfectly natural in these authors: they beheld in the exercise of religion the grand aim and duty of life ; they regarded the Roman catholic church as the only true one ; that authority they concluded, there- fore, could never be legitimate which resisted this religion : they made the existence of a government and the allegiance paid to it, to depend on the application of its power to the interests of the catholic church. This was indeed the general tenour of the * In the letter : Ad persecutores Anglos pro Christianis responsio (1582), I remark the following passage: "Si reges Deo et Dei populo tidem datam fregerim, vicissim populo non solum permitlitur, sed etiani ab eo requiritur ut jubente Chrisli vicario, supremo nimirum populorum omnium paslore, ipse quoque fidem datam tali principi non servet." [If liings violate the faith pledged to God and to God's people, it is in turn not only allowed the people, but it is even demanded of them, that at the be- hest of Christ's vicar, the supreme pastor assuredly of all peoples, that they too should cease to observe the faith pledged to such a sovereign.] tAndrese Philopatri (Parsons) ad Elizabethse reginae edictum responsio. No. 162: " Non tautum licet sed sum- ma etiam juris divini necessitate ac preceplo, inio con- scienliae vinculo arctissimo et extreme animarum suarum periculo ac discrimine christianis omnibus hoc ipsum in- cumbit, si praestare rem possunt. No. 163: Incumbit vero tum maxime . . . cum res jam ab ecclesia ac supremo ejus moderatore, pontifice nimirum Romano, judicata est: ad ilium enim ex officio pertinet religionis ac divini cultus incolumitali prospicere etleprosos amun- dis, ne inficiantur, secernere." [This is not only lawful, but it is even incumbent on all Christians, with the utmost force, and by the precepts of the divine law,— nay, by the strictest bonds of conscience, and at the utmost hazard of their souls, if they can accomplish it. But it is especially incumbent . . . when the matter has already been judged and decided by the church and its supreme direc- tor, the pope of Rome; for to him, by virtue of his office, it belongs to provide for the safety of religion and of divine worship, and to separate the leprous from the clean, thai the latter be not infected.] A. D. 1589-1607.] ECCLESIASTICO-POLITICAL THEORY. 215 doctrines now gaining ground. What in England was thrown out in the heat of con- troversy, Bellarmine repeated from the soli- tude of his study in circumstantial works, in a consistent and well-weighed system. He laid down the proposition, that the pope is set over the whole church as its guardian and head immediately by God himself* For this reason the fulness of the spiritual authority is his ; it is granted to him that he cannot err ; he judges all, and may not be judged of any : whence there accrues to him a great share in the secular authority. Bellarmine does not go the length of ascribing a secular power to the pope directly of divine right ;f though Sextus V. cherished this opinion, and was even displeased when any abandoned it ; but he nevertheless distinctly attributes to him an indirect power of the kind. He compares the secular authority to the body, the spiritual to the soul of man, and ascribes to the church the same sway over the state which the soul exer- cises over the body. It is the right and the duty of the spiritual authority to curb the secular whenever the latter becomes prejudi- cial to the purposes of religion. It cannot be said that to the pope belongs a regular influ- ence over the legislation of the state ;| but should a law be necessary to the welfare of souls, and the sovereign refuse to pass it, or should a law be noxious to the welfare of souls, and the sovereign obstinately persist in main- taining it, then is the pope by all means justi- fied in enjoining the one and abrogating the other. This same principle carries him very far indeed. Does not the soul command even the death of the body if it be necessary ] In the common routine the pope can certainly not depose a prince ; but should it be neces- sary to the welfare of souls, in that case he possesses the right of changing the govern- ment, and transferring it from one occupant to another. 5 *BeUaniiiQus de conciliorum auloritale, c. 17: "Sum- mits ponlifex simpliciter el absolute est supra ecclesiam universam et supra concilium generalf>, ita ut nullum in lerris supra se judicium agnoscat." [The supreme pon- tifi" is simply and absolutely above the universal church and above the general council, so that he owns no judg- ment on earth over him.] t Bellanninus de Romano pontifice v. VI. : " Asserimus pontificem ut pontificem etsi non habeat ullam merara lemporalempotestalem, tamen habere inordine adbonum spirituale summain potestatem disponendi de temporali- bus rebus omnium cliristianorum." [We assert that the pope, as pope, though he has no mere temporal authority, yet has, in order to spiritual good, supreme power of dis- posing of the temporal things of all Clirislians.] J Bellarminus de Romano pontifice V. VI. : " Quantum ad personas, non potest papa ut papaordinarie temporales principes deponere, etiam justa de causa, eo modo quo de- ponet episcopos, id est tanquam ordinarius judex : tamen potest mutare regna et uni auferre atque alleri conferre tanquam summus princeps spiritualis, si id necessarium sit ad animarum salutem," etc. etc. [As regards persons, Ihe pope cannot, as pope, ordinarily depose temporal princes, even for just causes, in the same way as he de- poses bishops,— that is, as ordinary judge; nevertheless, as supreme spiritual prince, he can change kingdoms, and take them from one sovereign and bestow them on ano- ther, if that be necessary to tlie weal of souls, &c. &c.] § These doctrines are, in fact, but a recapituation of the But these assertions were exposed to the objection, that the royal authority was like- wise based on divine rigjit. If not, what was its origin ? — what its inhe- rent force and import'! The Jesuits did not hesitate to deduce the princely power from the people. They blend- ed together into one system the thcoiy of the sovereignty of the people, with their doctrine of the pope's omnipotence. That theory had already been virtually put forth with more or less explicitness by Allen and Parsons; Bel- larmine sought to establish it in detail. He finds that God has not bestowed the temporal authority on any one in particular ; whence it follows that he has bestowed it on the masses. The authority of the state therefore is lodged in the people, and the people consign it some- times to a single person, sometimes to several : it perpetually retains the right of changing the forms of government, of retracting its grant of authority and disposing of" it anew. Let it not be supposed that these are only the author's individual views; they are, in fact, identical with the prevailing doctrine of the Jesuit schools of those times. In a manual for confessors, which obtained currency through- out the whole catholic world, and which had been revived by the Magister Sacri Palatii, the monarchiai authority is not merely considered as subject to the pope in as far as weal of the souls demands ;* it is roundly asserted, that a king may be deposed by the people for tyr- anny, or for neglect of his duties, and another be elected in his stead by the majority of the nation. t Francis Suarez, professor primarius of theology in Coimbra, makes it his espe- cial business, in his defence of the catholic church against the Anglican, to expound and confirm Bellarmine's doctrine.| But it is above all- Mariana who elaborates with pecu- liar zest the idea of the sovereignty of the people. He suggests all the questions that maxims put forward in the thirteenth century. Thomas Aquinas had already employed the comparison that here plays so important a part: "Potestas secularis subditur spiritual! sicut corpus animae." [The secular power is subordinate to the spiritual, as the body is to the soul.] Bellarmine, in his Tractatus de potestate'summi pontificis in rebus temporalibus adversus G. Barclaium, cites up- wards of seventy authors of difterent countries, by whom the power of the pope was regarded nearly in the same light as by himself * Aphorismi confessariorum ex doctorum sententiis col- lecti, auctore Emanuele Sa, nuper accurate expurgati a revnio- sacri palalii ed. Antv. p. 480. The author adds, however, as though he had not said enough : " Quidam tamen juris periti putarunt sunimuni pontificem suprema civili potestate pollers. " [Some jurists, however, have been of opinion, that the pope is endowed with supreme civil authority.] t Ibid. p. 5118 (ed. Colon, p. 313). " Rex potest per rem- publicam privari ob tyrannidem et si non facial officium suum et cum est aliqua causa justa, et eligi potest alius a majore parte populi : quidem tamen solum tyrannidem causam putani." t R. P. Franc. Suarez Granatensis, etc. defensio fidei catholica et apostolicae adversus Anglicanaesectae errores lib. III. : desummi pontificis supra temporales regesexcel- lentia et potestate. It is evident that Bellarmine's doc- trine of the right of the people to revoke the delegated 1 authority, had excited special opposition. 216 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1589-1607. could be raised on the subject, and uncompro- misingly decides them in favour of tlie people, and to the prejudice of the royal authority. He doubts not that a prince may be deposed, nay, put to death, if iiis conduct be hurtful to religion. He pronounces an euloguim full of pathetic declamation on Jacques Clement, who, after taking counsel with theologians, went and slew his king.* He is at least perfectly logical and consistent in this ; these very doc- trines had unquestionably kindled the fanati- cism of the assassin. For no where were they promulgated with such furious violence as in France. It is im- possible to meet with any thing more anti- royal than the diatribes thundered out from the pulpit by Jean Boucher. That preacher finds centred in the estates of the nation the public might and majesty, the power to bind and to loose, the indefeasible sovereignty, and the judicial sway over sceptre and realm : for in them subsists the very fountain of all these ; from the people comes the prince, not by neces- sity and compulsion, but by free choice. He takes the same view with Bellarmine of the relation between church and state, and repeats the comparison of body and soul. One condi- tion alone, he says, limits the freedom of the popular choice : one thing alone is forbidden the people, namely, to accept a heretic king ; it would thereby draw down upon it the curse ofGod.t Strange combination of ecclesiastical pre- tensions and democratic notions, of absolute freedom and complete subjection, — self-con- tradictory and anti-national, — but which yet cast an inexplicable spell over the minds of men. The Sorbonne had hitherto constantly de- fended the royal and national privileges * Mariana de rege et regis insiitutione. The follow- ing among other expressions : " Jac. Clemens . . cognilo a theologis, quos erat sciscitalus, lyrannum jure inierimi posse . . cseso rege ingens sibi nomen fecit." [Jacques Clement . . having learned from the divines he had consulted, that a tyrant might justly be put to death, . . . achieved a great name by liilling the king.] f Jean Boucher : Sermons, Paris, 1594, in several pas- sages. He says,p.l94, '"L'Egliseseigneurieles royaumes et estates de la chrelient^, non pour y usurper puissance directe comme sur son propre temporel, mais bien indi- reclemenl pour empescher que rien ne se passe au tem- porel qui soit au prejudice du royaume de Jesus Christ, comme par cydevant il a est6 declare par la similitude de la puissance de I'esprit surle corps." Further on, p. 162 : " La difference du prestre et du roi nous eclaircit cette maliere, le pretre eslant de Dieu seul, ce qui ne se peut dire du roi. Car si tous les rois estoient morls, les peuples s'en pourroient bien faire d'aulres: mais s'il n'y avoit plus aucun prestre, il faudroit que Jesus Christ vint en personne pour en faire de nouveaux." [The church has aominion over the kingdoms and states of Christendom, not to usurp direct power over them as in its own tempora- lities, but indirectly to prevent any thing occurring in the temporal government prejudicial to the kingdom of Jesus Christ, as heretofore it has been set forth by the similitude of the power of the mind over the body. . . The dilfer- ence between the priest and the king elucidates this mat- ter to us; the priest being of God alone, which cannot be said of the king. For if all kings were dead, the people might readily make them others in their places ; but if there was no longer a priest in existence, it would be ne- cessary that Jesus Christ should come in person to make new ones.] against these ultra-montane sacerdotal pre- tensions. When now, after the murder of the Guises, these doctrines were preached from all the pulpits, — when it was proclaimed aloud in the streets, and typified by symbols on the altars and in processions, that king Henry HI. had forfeited his crown, " the good citizens and inhabitants of the city," as they called themselves, turned, "in their scruples of con- science," to the theological faculty of the university of Paris, to obtain from it a valid decision respecting the legitimacy of their withstanding their sovereign. Thereupon the Sorbonne assembled on the 7th of January, 1589. " After," says their decision, " having heard the nature and free counsels of all the magistri, — after many and divers arguments heard, drawn for the most part verbatim from holy writ, the canon law, and the papal ordin- ances,— it has been concluded by the dean of the faculty, without any dissenting voice : first, that the people of this realm are absolved from the oath of fidelity and obedience sworn by them to king Henry. Furthermore, that the said people may, without scruple of con- science, combine together, arm themselves, and collect money for the maintenance of the Roman catholic apostolic religion against the abominable proceedings ofthe aforesaid king."* Seventy members of the faculty were present, the younger of them in particular voted for the resolution with fierce enthusiasm.f The general acquiescence which these theo- ries obtained, was doubtless owing chiefly to their being at this moment the real expression of the phenomena, of the occurrences. In the French troubles, popular and ecclesiastical opposition had actually come forward from their respective sides and met in alliance ; the citizens of Paris had been countenanced and confirmed in their insurrection against their lawful sovereign by the pope's legate. Bel- larmine himself had long been in the suite of the latter : the doctrines he had wrought out in his learned solitude, and put forward with such logical consistency and Vv'ith such great success, announced themselves in the event which he witnessed and in part elicited. It accords too with this view of the case, that the Spaniards approved of these doctrines, and that they were tolerated by a sovereign so jealous as Philip II. The Spanish mon- archy was a power essentially supported by ecclesiastical attributes. Numerous passages from Lope de Vega manliest that it was so understood by tiie nation, and that it was the religious majesty they loved, and liked to see represented, in their sovereigns. But besides * Responsum facultatis theologiae Parisiensis: printed in the Additions au Journal de Henry HI. p. 317. t Thuanus, lib. 94, p. 258, states the members present at but sixty, and will not allow of their unanimity, although the document cited says verbatim : " audita omnivun et singulorum magistrorum, quid ad septuagintaconveuerant, deliberatione , . conclusum est nemine refragante." A. D. 15S9-1607.] CONFLICT OF DOCTRINES, 217 this, the king was linked in the efforts for the renovation of Catholicism, not with the priests alone, but also with the revolted people. The people of Paris reposed greater confidence in him than in the French princes at the head of the Ligue. A new ally, as it were, now pre- sented itself to the king in the doctrine of the Jesuits. There seemed no reason to foresee that he should have any thing to fear from them ; they rather afforded his policy a justi- fication both legal and religious, highly advan- tageous to his dignity and consideration even in Spain, and immediately conducive to the success of his foreign enterprizes. The king dwelt more on this momentary utility of the Jesuit doctrines, than on their general purport and tendency.* Now is not this commonly the case with regard to political notions ] Whether do they rather arise out of the events, or originate them] For which of the two are they more cherished, for their own sake, or for the use to which it is thought they can be turned ! However this may be, their force remains the same. Whilst the Jesuit doctrines express the efforts of the papacy in its crisis of restora- tion, or rather those of the world at large in the midst of wiiich the papacy was placed, they gave it new strength by furnishing it with a systematic foundation in accordance with the predominant convictions in theology, and they promoted a spirit in the minds of men, on the prevalence of which the victory was dependent. Conflict of doctrines. Never, however, in Europe has either a power or a doctrine, least of all a political doctrine, attained to complete and sole domi- nion. Nor can any be conceived which shall not appear partial and narrow when compared with the highest abstract standard. At every period the notions that strove for exclusive dominion have been met by a resis- tance which, springing from the inexhausti- ble soil of common daily life, has called new and vigorous powers into action. Whilst we perceive that no power can rise to eminence unless it rests upon a basis of opinion, we may add to this, that, in opinion too it finds its limits ; the conflicts of ideas * Pedro Ribadeneira, in his book against Machiavelli, which was produced as early as ihe year 1595, and dedi- cated to the prince of Spain, repeated them, in a moderdt- ed form it is true, but he did repeat them. Tratado de la religion y viitudes que deve tener el principe Christiano para governar y conservarsus estados, contro lo que Nicolo Machiavello y los politicos d'este tiempo ensenan. Anve- res, 1597. Princes, according lo him, are the servants of the church, but not its judges, armed to chastise heretics, the enemies of the church, and rebels against it: but not to give laws to it, nor to be expositors of God's will. He abides by the illustration of body and soul. The earthly kingdom, as St. Gregory says, must obey the kingdom of heaven. 28 that engender great social results always find their accomplislimcnt too in the regions of conviction and thought. Thus in the present case the idea of a sa- cerdotal religion ruling supreme over all the temporalities of the world, encountered a mighty resistance in that national indepen- dence, which is the proper expression of the temporal element of society. The Germanic institution of monarchy dif- fused through the nations of Romish origin, and deeply rooted amongst them, has invari- ably triumphed over every attempt to over- throw it, whether by the pretensions of the priesthood, or by the fiction of the sovereignty of the people, which has always finally proved untenable. The extravagant connexion into which these two principles had entered in the times under consideration, was met by the doctrine of the divine right of monarchy. It was next attacked by the protestants, though at first they may possibly have wa- vered, with all the ardour of an enemy who sees his opponent venturing on a desperate game, and entering upon a path that must lead him to destruction. God alone, the protestants maintained, sets princes and sovereigns over the human race : Me has reserved to Himself to lift up and bring low, to apportion and moderate authori- ty. True, He no longer descends from hea- ven to point out with his finger those to whom dominion is due, but through his eternal pro- vidence there have been introduced into every kingdom laws and an established order of things, according to which the ruler is chosen. If by virtue of this appointed order a prince accedes to command, his title is to th" fill the same as though God's voice declared, This shall be your king. Time was when God did point out Moses, the judges, and the first kings personally to his people, but after a fixed order had been established, those who subsequently ascended the throne were equal- ly God's anointed as the former.* Arguing from these principles, the protest- ants now insisted on the necessity of submit- ting even to unjust and censurable sovereigns. No man is perfect. Now, if it were once deemed allowable to deviate from the order appointed by God, even trifling defects would be seized on to justify the deposition of a so- vereign. Not even heresy on the monarch's part could, they said, on the whole, absolve subjects from their allegiance. The son must not indeed obey the impious father in what is contrary to God's commands, in other re- * Explicatio controversiamm quse a nonnullis moventur ex Henrici Borbonii ragis in regnum Franciae constitu- lione, . . . opus ... a Tossano Bercheto Lingonensi e Gallico in Latinum sennonem conversum. Sedani, 1590. Cap. ii. 218 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL, [a. d. 1589-1607. spects, however, he continues to owe him reverence and subjection. The matter would not have been insignifi- cant had tlie protestants even been alone in devising and adhering to these principles ; but what was of still more moment, these also found acceptance among a part of the French catholics, or rather the latter arrived sponta- neously at analogous conclusions. In spite of the papal excommunication, no inconsiderable body of good catholics main- tained unswerving fidelity to Henry III., and transferred their allegiance to his successor, Henry IV. The Jesuit doctrines did not take with this party, who were not wanting in ar- guments to defend their position, without yet apostatising from Catholicism. This party next endeavoured to define the authority of the clergy, and its relation to the temporal power, upon opposite views to those of the Jesuits. They held that the spiritual kingdom is not of this world ; that the power of the clergy relates only to spiritual things; that excommunication can, by its very na- ture, only afi^ect communion with the church, but can detract nothing from temporal rights. Now a king of France can never, on any ac- count, be excluded from the communion of the church ; for this is one of the privileges belonging to the lilies; how much less allow- able is it to attempt to strip him of his inher- itance. And where is it to be found distinct- ly written that the subject may rebel against his king, and adopt measures of force against him 1 God has appointed him ; he calls him- self king by the grace of God ; in one solitary case may the subject refuse him allegiance, namely, when he exacts any thing contrary to God's commands.* From these principles of divine right they drew the conclusion, that not only was it law- ful for them, but that it was their duty to obey even a protestant king. The subject must accept the king such as God imposes him; obedience to him is God's command; there can exist absolutely nothing to justify depriving a prince of his rights.f They even maintained that their proceedings were the most advantageous for the catholic interests. Henry IV. was intelligent, gracious, and up- right ; nothing but good was to be expected of him ; but if France should reject him, petty potentates would spring up in every direc- tion, till the general discord would enable the protestant party to acquire complete as- cendency.]: Thus within the limits of Catholicism itself arose an opposition against the endeavours of * I follow in this place the extract from an anonymous writing which appeared in Paris in 1588, in Cayet, Col- lection Univprselle de M^iiioires, tome 56, p. 44. t Elienne Pasquier, Recherches de France, 341. 344. i Explanation in Thuanus, lib. 97, p. 316. Sectanos dissoliito imperio et singulis regni partibus a reliquo cor- pore divisis potentiores lore. the papacy which had grown out of the revi- val ; and it was dubious from the very first whether Rome would be able to put down these antagonists. It might be, the doctrine of the opposition was not fully wrought out ; it might be it possessed less practised cham- pions, but it was more firmly rooted in the convictions of the European comnmnity ; its whole position was in itself just and blame- less ; and what above all gave it accessory strength was, that the papal doctrines were in alliance with the Spanish power. The monarchy of Philip II. seemed day by day to become more menacing to the general freedom, and it awoke throughout all Europe that jealous dislike, which arises less from actual aggressions than from apprehension of them, and from that sense of endangered li- berty which seizes on men's minds, though they cannot fully account to themselves for their motives. So close an imion now subsisted between Rome and Spain, that those who gainsayed the pretensions of the Church, thereby at the same time resisted the progress of the Span- ish power. They thereby fulfilled a course become necessary in Europe, and were in consequence secure of approbation and sup- port. A secret sympathy links nations to- gether. Resolute allies arose unsolicited and from unexpected quarters in aid of the nation- al party of French catholics, and. this, too, in Italy itself, before the pope's eyes. The Venetians were the first. In Venice some few years previously — in the year 1.582 — there had taken place a noiseless change, almost wholly overlooked in the history of the republic, but not the less highly influential. Hitherto important mat- ters had been confined to the hands of a few old patricians chosen out of a small circle of families. But at this period a discontented majority in the senate, consisting chiefly of the younger members, were successful in their struggles to obtain a share in the admin- istration, such as they were by all means en- titled to according to the letter of the consti- tution. Now the former government had never, in- deed, been backward in- carefully upholding its own independence, but still it had always, as far as practicable, coalesced in the mea- sures of the Spaniards and of the Church. The new government no longer observed this policy, but rather, for mere opposition's sake, were disposed to cross the designs of those powers. The Venetians had naturally a strong in- terest in so doing. On the one hand they remarked with dis- pleasure that the doctrine of the pope's omni- potence, and of the blind obedience due to him, was preached even in their own domin- ions ; on the other they dreaded the complete A. D. 1589-1607.] LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. 219 destruction of the European balance of power if the Spaniards succeeded in acquiring a pre- dominant influence in France. Hitherto the liberties of Europe had seemed to depend on the mutual hostility of those two countries. The coarse of events in France was, there- fore, watched with redoubled interest. Those writings which defended the royal preroga- tive were fastened on with avidity. Especial influence was exercised by a society consist- ing of statesmen and men of letters, which assembled at the house of Andrea Morosini, and which numbered among its members Le- onardo Donate and Niccolo Conterini, both of them afterwards doges, Domenico Molini, subsequently a leading chief of the republic, fra Paolo Sarpi, and other distinguished men, all of them at an age when men are disposed not only to adopt new opinions, but also to adhere to them and carry them out ; and all of them declared adversaries of the assump tionsof the Church, and of the ascendency of the Spaniards.* It is always highly impor- tant towards working out a political system, and giving it efficacy, even when it is found- ed on fact, that there should exist men of talent who may represent it in their own per- sons, and who are agreed among themselves to propagate it each in his own circle : but this is doubly important in a republic. Under these circumstances, matters were not left at the point of mere thought and in- clination. From the very first the Venetians had conceived a confidence in Henry IV. that he would prove capable of raising up France again, and restoring the lost balance of power. Though themselves under manifold obliga- tions to the pope who had excommunicated him, though encompassed both by land and sea by the Spaniards, who wished for his downfall, and though possessed of no vast and commanding power, they were yet of all ca- tholics the first who had the spirit to recog- nize that king. On the notification of their ambassador, Mocenigo, they empowered him to congratulate Henry IV. on his accession.! This example was not lost on others. Though the archduke Ferdinand of Tuscany had not the courage to commit himself to an open re- cognition, he yet engaged in a friendly per- sonal correspondence with the new king.| The protestant monarch suddenly saw him- self surrounded by catholic allies, nay, pro- * In the anonymous Vita di Fra Paolo Sarpi (by Fra Fulgentio) p. 104, in Griselini's Memorabilia of Fra Pao- lo, p. p. 40. 78, and in some passages in Foscarini, we find accounts of this " ridotto Mauroceno." Besides the above- named meiubers of the society, there belonged to it like- wise Pielro and Giacopo Contarini, Giacopo Morosini, Leonardo Mocenigo, who, however, did not attend as reg- ularly as the others, Antonio Quirini, Giacopo Marcello, Marino Zane, and Alessandro Malipiero, who, old as he was, always accompanied Fra Paolo home. t Andreae Mauroceni Historiarum Venelarum, lib. xiii. p. 548. tGalluzzi. Isloria del Granducalo di Toscana, lib. v. (torn. V. p. 78.) tected by them against the head of their own Church. In every crisis of great moment the public opinion of Europe invariably declares its bias in a manner that admits of no ambiguity. Fortunate is he on whose side it ranges itself; all his cnterprizes proceed thencetbrth with so much the more facility. Henry IV. was now the favourite. The ideas coupled with his name had hardly found utterance, yet were they already so mighty, the}' could even venture to attempt winning over the papacy to own their validity. Latter times of Sixtus V. We return once more to Sixtus V. Hav- ing already spoken of his internal administra- tion, and of his share in the ecclesiastical re- vival, we must now say a word or two about his policy in general. It is exceedingly remarkable how the inex- orable justice he practised, the severe finan- cial system he introduced, and his rigid eco- nomy, were yet associated with an extraor- dinary propensity to fantastical plans of po- licy. What a medley of strange projects entered his head ! For a long while he flattered himself with the hope of being able to annihilate the Turk- ish empire. He entered into correspondences in the East, with the Persians, some Arab chiefs, and the Druses; he fitted out galleys, and others were to be furnished him by Spain and Tuscany. Thus he thought he should be able to second by sea the efforts of Stephen Bathory, king of Poland, who was to make the main attack by land. The pope hoped to combine all the powers of the north-east and south-west in this undertaking, and persuaded himself that Russia would not only coalesce with the king of Poland, but even become subject to his authority. Another time he indulged the thought of conquering' Egypt, either alone, or with no other alliance than that of Tuscany. On this project he founded the most extensive views and schemes — the connection of the Red Sea with the Mediterranean,* the revival of the old commercial system between the east and the west, and the conquest of the holy sepul- chre. Supposing, however, that this should not appear immediately practicable, what was * Dispaccio Gritti, 23 Agosto, 1587. " (II papa) entrf) a parla della fossa che li re dell' Egitto havevano fatta per passar del inare rosso nel mare mediterraneo." [Tha pope began to talk of the canal the kings of Egypt had made in order to pass from the Red Sea into the Mediter- ranean.] Sometimes he contemplated attacking Egypt single handed. " Scopri la causa del desiderar danari per implegarli in unaarmata che vorria far solo per leim- presa dell' Egitto e pasar quelle ealee che ajulassero a far quella impresa." [He made known the cause of his wishing for money, namely, to spend it on an expedition to be fitted out by himself alone against Egypt, and to pay those galleys which should aid in the enterprize.] 220 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1589-1607. to hinder at least an expedition to Syria, in order to have the tomb of the Saviour cut out from the rock by skilful artists, and conveyed, carefully wrapt up, to Italy? He already in- dulged the hope of yet setting' up in Montalto that most holy of all shrines; then would his native land, the March, where already stood the sacred house of Loretto, comprise within its boundaries the birthplace and the grave of the Saviour. One other idea I find attributed to him, which surpasses all the others in extrava- gance. It is said that after the murder of the Guises, the proposal was made to Henry III. that he should nominate a nephew of the pope's as heir to the throne. The legate, it is said, made this proposal with the pope's know- ledge. If the nomination was made with all due formality, his holiness was convinced that the king of Spain would give the infanta in marriage to the declared heir: such a suc- cessor would be recognized by every one, and an end would be put to all troubles. It is as- serted that Henry III. was really for a mo- ment caught by these representations, until it was set before him what a reputation, if he yielded to them, he would leave behind for cowardice and pusillanimity.* Projects these, or rather, for the word is al- most too definite, fantasies, castles in the air of the most extraordinary kind. How strangely discordant do they seem with this pope's active measures, so strenuously practi- cal and to the purpose ! And yet, might we not venture to assert, that these were often based on extravagant, impracticable thoughts'? The elevation of Rome into a regular metropolis of Christen- dom, to be visited after the lapse of an ap- pointed number of years by the people of every country, even of America; the conver- sion of the monuments of antiquity into memo- rials of the subjugation of paganism by the Christian religion; the hoarding up of money borrowed at interest, to form a treasure on which the temporal power of the Church was * This account is contained in a Menioire du seii^neur de Schomberg, Marechal de France sous Henri III., in the Hohendorf MSS. of the imp. library in Vienna, No. 114. "Quelque temps apr6s la mort de Mr. de Guise avenue en Blois il lut propose par le cardinal de More- sino de la part de Sa Saintel^, que si S. M. vouloit de- clarer le marquis de Pom 0 probably misspelt) son neveu herilier de la couronne et le faire recevoir pour tel avec solemnitez requises, que S. S. s'assuroil que le roy d'Es- pEigne bailleroit en niariajre audit marquis rinlanie et qu'en ce faisant tous les troubles de France prendroient fin. A quoi le roy estant prest a se laisser aller, et ce par la persuasion de ((uehiu'uns (pii pour lors esloient pres de S. M., Mr. de Schomberg rompitce coup partelles raisons, que ce seroit I'invenir i'ordre do !•' ranee, abolir les loix fondamenlales, laisser A la posterity un argument certain de la lachet6 et pusillanimit6 de S. M." It is very true that Schomberg makes a merit of having prevented this intention, but I should not on that account be inclined at once to pronounce it altogether imaginary. The memoir which sets forth the legitimacy of Henry IV. 's claims gives this warrant for its genuineness, that it lies ob- scurely among other papers. It is only surprising that nothing more should have been said on the matter. to be founded ; all of them plans surmounting the limits of practicability, and whose origin is to be sought in the fire of religious enthu- siasm, and yet which mainly determined the active character of this pope's life. From youth upwards, hopes and desires sway all the conduct and feelings of men; the present is as it were compassed round by the future, and the soul is never weary of committing itself to the expectation of a per- sonal good fortune. But the more a man's condition rises, the more do these longings and anticipations attach themselves to gene- ral interests, to some great purpose in science, in politics, or in the general concerns of life. In our Franciscan, the stimulus and impulse of personal hopes had always been the stronger inasmuch, as he found himself on a career that opened out to him the noblest prospects ; they had led him on from step to step, and nurtured and sustained his spirit in the days of his pe- nury ; he had caught up every prophetic word and treasured it in his heart, and linked with it, against the time of success, exalted plans suggested by monkish enthusiasm. At last all his hopes were fulfilled ; from a mean and un- promising beginning he had reached the high- est eminence in Christendom, a dignity of the importance of which he entertained an ex- aggerated conception : he believed himself chosen by a special providence to carry into effect the ideas that floated before him. Even in the possession of the supreme au- thority he did not abandon his habit of dis- cerning, amidst all the bustle of general busi- ness, the possibility of brilliant enterprizes, and of forming projects for their execution. There was in all of them an element of a very personal nature : power and renown had charms for him; he loved to difluse his own splendour over all that belonged to him, his family, his birth-place, and his native pro- vince ; but these desires were always subordi- nate to the general interests of catholic Chris- tendom ; his mind was always open to grand ideas. Only this difference is to be taken into account ; one part of his projects he could himself carry out; another he had to leave for the most part to other agents. To the former he applied himself with that inex- haustible activity which springs from convic- tion, enthusiasm, and ambition ; in the latter, on the contrary, we find him display far less zeal, either because he was by nature dis- trustful, or because the chief part of the exe- cution, and consequently of the fame and ad- vantage, was to be consigned to others. If we ask what he really did towards the accom- plishment, for instance, of his oriental schemes, we find it amounts after all to no more than this, that he cemented alliances, interchanged letters, issued admonitions, and made prepa- rations; we do not observe that he ever .adopted serious measures adequate to the end A. D. 1589-1607.] LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. 221 in view. He grasped the plan with the ar- dour of an enthusiastic imagination ; but as he could not forthwith set his own hand to the work, as the accomplishment was remote, his will was not really effective ; the scheme that had so busily occupied his mind he let drop again, and its place was taken by another. At the moment before us the pope was full of the grand anticipations connected with the undertaking against Henry IV., anticipations of a complete victory for strict Catholicism, and of renovated power over the world for the popedom : with these thoughts he was wholly engrossed. Nor did he doubt but that all catholic states were fully agreed, that they would make cominon cause against that pro- testant who pretended to the throne of France. Such was the tone of his mind, such his ardour, when the fact obtruded itself upon him, that a catholic power with which he thought he was on peculiarly good terms, that Venice had offered her congratulations to that very protestant. He was profoundly mortified by the intelligence. For a while he endeavoured to restrain the public from taking further steps; he entreated her to wait ; time, he said, bore marvellous fruit ; he had himself learned from the good old senators to let them come to maturity.* Venice for all that recognized the existing ambassador from France, de Maisse, after he had received his credentials as plenipotentiary from Henry IV. Upon this the pope proceeded from admonitions to threats. He exclaimed that he would know what it behoved him to do : he had the old nionito- ria which Julius II. had issued against the Venetians brought tbrth, and a draft of a new one against them prepared. Still it v;as not without pain and inward repugnance he did this. Let us hear for a moment how he expressed himself to the am- bassador whom the Venetians sent him on the subject. "To fall out with those one does not love," said the pope, " is no such great mischance ; but to quarrel with those one loves, is indeed painful. Yes ; it will give us pain" — he laid his hand on his breast — " to break with Venice. " But Venice has aggrieved us. Navarre," so he called Henry IV., " is a heretic excom- municated by the holy see ; yet has Venice recognized him in defiance of all our admo- nitions. "Is the Signory then the first among the sovereigns of the earth, v;hose place it is to set an example to others ? There is still a king of Spain, there is still an emperor. " Is it that the republic has any fear of Na- varre ? We will defend it, if necessary with all our might ; we have the strength thereto. * 9 SeU. 1589. " Che per amor di Dio non si vada tanto avanti con questo Navarre, che si stia a veder," &c. Or does the republic think to inflict any in- jury on us? God himself would stand by us. "The republic should prize our friendship higher than that of Navarre. We can better aid it. " I entreat you recall one step ! The catho- lic king has retracted many a thing because we desired it; not from fear of us, for our power against his is but as that of a fly against an elephant's, but from love, because it was the pope who made the request, the vicege- rent of Christ, who prescribes the rules of faith to him and to all others. Let the Signory do likewise ; let it find some pretext of escape, it will be no difficult matter ; it has men enough full of years and wisdom, every one of whom might rule a world."* But one cannot speak forever without re- ceiving an answer. The ambassador extraor- dinary from Venice was Leonardo Donato, a memijer of Andrea Morosini's society ; wholly imbued with the spirit of the ecclesiastico- political opposition ; a man as we should say in the present day, of the greatest diplomatic dexterity, who had already conducted many difficult negociations to a prosperous issue. Donato could not explain in Rome all the motives that wrought on the Venetians; he put forward those which were likely to find acceptance with the pope, since their import concerned himself in common with Venice. For was it not manifest that the Spanish ascendancy in the south of Europe was mightily augmenting from year to year ! The pope felt this as distinctly as any other Italian sovereign : even now he could not take one step in Italy without the approbation and con- sent of the Spaniards; what would be the state of things when they should have become masters of France 1 Donato most prominently put forward this consideration, dwelling on the balance of power in Europe, and the necessity of its restoration. He laboured to show that the republic had not conceived the thought of injuring the pope, but rather of favouring and protectmg a grand interest of the Roman see itself. * Dispaccio Donato, 25 Nov. 1589. The pope spoke so long, that the ambassadors said were they to write it all down, it would take an hour and a half to read it in the senate. Among other things he insisted continually on the effects of excommunication. " Tre sono stali scom- niunicati, il re passato, il principe di Conde, il re di Na- varra. Due sono malamente moni, il lerzo ci Ira vagi ia e Dio per nostro esercito lo manliene : ma finira anche esso e lerminari male : dubitiamo punto di lui. — 2. Dec. II papa publicaun solennissimo eiubileo per invitar ogn' uno a dover pregar S. Divina M-i. per la quiete el augumento della fede cattolica." [There were three excommuni- cated, the late king, the prince of Cond6, and the king of Navarre. Two of them came to a bad end ; the third is labouring under the burthen, and God for our trial still supports him, but he too will at last end badly : let us not have any doubt about him.— 2 Dec. The pope publishes a very solemn jubilee, inviting every one to pray to the Divine Majesty for the quiet and increase of the catho- lic faith.] During this jubilee he would see no one per viver a se slesso el a sue divotioni." [That he might pasa his time with himself and his devotions.] 222 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1589-1607, The pope listened to him, but appeared im- movable and not to be convinced. Donato despaired of effecting any thing with him, and applied for an audience to leave. He re- ceived it on the 16th of December, 1589, and the pope appeared disposed to refuse him his blessing.* Sixtus V., however, was not so blinded by prejudice, that substantial argu- ments could make no impression on him. He was self-opinionated, high-handed, dogmati- cal, and obstinate, yet with all that, his in- ward thoughts were not unsusceptible of change, he was capable of being gained over to new views, and at bottom he was good na- tured. Even whilst he was still disputing, and stubbornly upholding his principles, he felt himself in his heart shaken and convinced. In the middle of the audience he became all at once mild and complying.! " He who has a colleague," he exclaimed, " has a master: I will talk with the congregation ; I will tell it that I have been angry with you, but that I have been overcome by you." The ambassa- dors waited a few days longer ; the pope then declared, that he could not approve of what the republic had done, still he would not adopt the measures he had contemplated against it. He gave Donato his blessing and kissed him. Here was an almost insensible change of personal feeling, and yet it was pregnant with the greatest results. The pope himself re- laxed the rigour with which he persecuted the protestant king; nor would he absolutely condemn the catholic party that had adhered to that monarch in opposition to the policy hitherto pursued by Sixtus. A first step is of much importance, as it determines the whole subsequent course. This was palpably per- ceived on the part of the opposition : origin- ally it had only sought to excuse itself, but now it forthwith endeavoured to win over and subdue the pope himself. Commissioned by the princes of the blood and by the catholic peers that had sided with Henry IV., monseigneur de Luxembourg made his appearance in Italy. In spite of the warnings of the Spaniards, Sixtus V. ad- mitted him into Rome in January, 1590, and gave him an audience. The envoy dwelt particularly on Henry's personal qualities, and set forth in glowing colours his valour, his magnanimity and goodness of heart. The pope was quite charmed with the picture. " Now truly," he cried, " I grieve that I have ex- communicated him." Luxembourg said his lord and king would even yet make himself worthy of absolution, and return at the feet of his holiness into the bosom of the catholic church. " In that case," replied the pope, "I will embrace and comfort him." His imagination was already strongly pos- sessed : these advances at once suggested to him the boldest hopes. He gave admission to the notion that it was rather political aversion to Spain, than any religious conviction hostile to the Roman see, that withheld the protest- ants from returning to the catholic church, and thought that he ought by no means to repulse them.* An English envoy was already in Rome ; one from Saxony was announced. He was very ready to hear them : " Would to God," he said, " they would all come to our feet." The extent of the change that had taken place in him was manifested, among other proofs, by his behaviour to cardinal Morosini, his legate in France. The cardinal's com- pliancy towards Henry III. had formerly been regarded as criminal, and he had returned to Italy loaded with the pope's displeasure : he was now introduced into the consistory by cardinal Montalto, and the pope received him with the declaration that he rejoiced that a cardinal of his own choice had obtained such universal approbation.! Donna Camilla led him to table. How amazed must the rigid catholics have been at this change. The pope showed a leaning towards a protestant he had himself excommunicated, and who, according to the old principles of the church, was incapacitated for absolution as a double apostate. It is in the nature of things that this should have produced a re-action. The strict catholic parly was not so thoroughly dependent on the pope that it could not offer him resistance : the Spanish power afibrded it a stay to which it eagerly clung. The liguists in France upbraided the pope with avarice : he would not draw his purse strings ; he wanted, they said, to economise the gold accumulated in the castle of St. An- gelo for his nephews and his relations. In * Disp. Donato Dec. 16. " Dope si lungo negotio restan- do quasi privi d'osni aperanza." f Ibid. " Finalinente inspiraladel signorDio . . . disse di conieniarsene (lo give him bis blessing) e di essersi lascialo viucer da noi," * Dispaccio Donato, 13 Genn. 1590. "11 papa biasima 1' opinione, de' cardinali e d'altri prelati che lo stimulano a dover licentiar esso signor di Lucenburg e li accusa clie vogliano farsi siio pedants (liis prompter, as we should say) in quello che ha studiato tutto il tempo (Je la vita sua. SoL'giunse che haveria caro che la regina d' Inghilterra, il liuca di Sassonia e tulti gli altri andassero a suoi piedi con bona dispositione. Che dispiaceri a Si- che andassero ad altri principi (catholic that is) et havessero communi- catione con loro, ma si consolava quande vadino a suoi piedi a dimandar perdono." [The pope finds fault with the opinions of the cardinals and other prelates, who urge him to dismiss this monseigneur Luxembourg, and charges them with a desire to malje themselves his prompter in a matter he had studied all his life. He added, that he would be glad if the queen of England, the duke of Sax- ony, and all the rest of them would approach his feet in a becoming disposition: that it was displeasing to his holi- ness that they should have recourse to other princes, but that it would be cheering to him if they betook them- selves to his feet to ask for pardon.] He repeated these sentiments in various forms in every audience. •t Dispaccio, 3 Marzo. " Dice di consolarsi assai ch' egli soa creatura fusse di tutti tanto celebrato. II clmo- Moro- sini acquisla niolto honore e reputatione per la soa rela- tione delle cosi di Francia." [ . . • His eminence cardi- dal Morosini acquired much honour and reputation by his report of the affairs of France.] A. D. 1589-1607.] LATTER TIMES OF SIXTUS V. 223 Spain a Jesuit preached upon the deplorable condition in which the church was then placed. "Not only does the republic of Ve- nice countenance the heretics, but — hush ! hush !" he said, laying his finger on his lips, " but even the pope himself." This was echoed in Italy. Sixtus V. was already grown so captious, that the admonition issued by the general of the capuchins for general prayers, " to invoke God's grace on the aflairs of the church," was regarded by him in the light of a personal insult, and he suspended the gen- eral. Hints and private complaints were not all the effect produced. On the ■22nd of March, 1.590, the Spanish ambassador appeared in the papal apartments, to make a formal protest in his master's name, against the pope's con- duct.* There was, we see, a system of opi- nion more orthodox and more catholic than the pope himself: the Spanish ambassador stood forth to give it expression and words be- fore the pope's face. Strange incident ! The ambassador knelt on one knee, and besought his holiness to permit him to execute his mas- ter's commands. The pope endeavoured to raise him up, saying, ♦' it was a heresy to con- duct himself towards Christ's vicegerent in the manner he purposed." The ambassador was not to be put out of his course. " May it please your holiness," he began, " to proclaim Navarre's adherents excommunicated without distinction, and to declare Navarre incapable under all circumstances and forever, of hold- ing the crown of France. If not, the catholic king will renounce his allegiance to your ho- liness, for he cannot suffer the cause of Christ to be ruined. "t The pope hardly let him utter thus much ; he cried out that this was not the king's business. The ambassador stood up, threw himself on his knees again, and tried to proceed. The pope called him a stone of offence and went away. But Olivarez was not to be put off so ; he declared that he would and must finish his protestation, though * Already on the 10th of March, the ambassador had laid the following questions before the pope. "Li ha ricercato la risposla sopra le tre cose, cio6 di licentiarLu- cenburg, iscommunicar li cardinali et altri prelati die seguono il Navarra e promettar di non habilitar mai esso Navarra allasuccessione della corona:" [he demanded a reply touching three things ; viz. the dismissal of Lux- emburg, the excommunication of the cardinals and other prelates who followed Navarre, and a promise never to capacitate the said Navarre for succeeding to the crown.] He had also given notice of a protest. Upon this the pope had threatened excommunication. " Minaccia di iscom- municar quei e castigarli nella vita che ardiranno di ten- lar quanio egli li havea detlo, cacciandolo inanzi e seran- dogli in faccia la porta." [He threatens to excommuni- cate and to punish capitally, those who shall dare to at- tempt what he (the ambassador) had said to him, turning him out and slamming the door in his face.] f'Che S. Si' dichiari iscommunicati lutti quei che seguitano in Francia il Navarra e tulti gli altri che quo- vismodo il desseroa juto, e che dichiari es.so Navarra inca- pace perpetualmente alia corona di Francia: altramente chp il re suo si leveri dalla obedicnza della chiesa, e pro- cureri che non sia fatta ingiuria alia causa di Christo e che la pieii e la religione soa sia conosciuta." the pope should cut off his head ; he knew well that his king would avenge him, and reward his fidelity in the persons of his chil- dren. Sixtus V. on the other hand was infu- riated. " No prince in the world," he said, " was entitled to dictate to a pope, to him who is set by God as master over others : the ambassador's conduct was quite indecent : his instructions empowered him to protest only in case the pope should manifest coldness in the cause of the Ligue : how did he know that such was the ca.se 1 Did the ambassa- dor pretend to direct the steps of his holi- ness !" Genuine Catholicism seemed to have only one aim, one undivided system of thought, it seemed to be borne along on the full tide to vic- tory, to be at the very point of success; when, unexpectedly, there arose within it two parties, two systems of opinion, politically and ecclesi- astically opposed to each other ; the one ag- gressive, the other opposed to resistance. The commencement of their warfare was marked by the efforts which each made with all its might to gain over the head of the church to itself The one party had already possessed the pope, and now with bitter exasperation, with threats, and almost by force, strove to retain him. To the other he had been in- clined by a secret emotion in a critical mo- ment, and it now sought to get complete hold of him, offering alluring promises, and setting before him the most brilliant prospects. It was of the greatest moment as regarded the struggle, to which of the two parties he should give his countenance. The behaviour of this pope, so renowned for his energy and decision of character, fills us with amazement. Does he receive letters from Philip II. de- claring that sovereign would defend the right- ful cause, and that he would support the Ligue with the strength of his dominions, and at the cost of his own blood ; the pope, too, is full of zeal, and vows he will not bring upon himself the disgrace of having failed to op- pose a- heretic like Navarre.* Yet for all that, he inclined again to the other side. When the difficulties in which the affairs of France involved him were re- presented to him, he exclaimed that, " were Navarre present he would beseech him on his knees to become catholic." * He declares even in the consistory , " di haver scritto al re con sua propria mano, che procurera sempre con tutte le sue forze spirituali e temporali che mai riesca re di Francia alojuo che non sia di compita sodisfattione alia Sua Catolica Maesli:" [that he had written to the king with his own hand saying, that he would always en- deavour with all his might, spiritual and tenporl, that no one should ever succeed to the throne of France, who was not fully satisfactory to his catholic majesty.] In Jan. 1590, the ambassadors say : " II papa nelle traltationi parla con unoad un modo con suoi disegni ed ad un altro con altri (disegni)." [He in tlie discussion of business, holds one sort of language touching his designs with one party, and a different one with another.], 224 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 15891607. Never surely did any prince stand in a stranger relation to his plenipotentiary than did pope Sixtus to the legate Gaetano, whom he had sent to France during the period of his close union with Spain. At present the pope had not indeed passed over to the side of the French, but he had been brought to an ir- resolute, neutral way of thinking. The legate followed his original instructions without the least consideration for the change in his mas- ter's sentiments. When Henry IV. besieged Paris after his victory at Ivry, it was the pope's legate who offered him the most resist- ance. Captains and magistrates took the oath administered by him never to capitulate with Navarre ; and by the dignity of his of- fice, and by a deportment equally adroit and firm, he succeeded in keeping them fast to their engagements.* In the end, however, the rigidly orthodox opinions manifested the greatest strength. Olivarez obliged the pope to send away Luxemburg, though it were only under the pretext of a pilgrimage to Loreto. The pope had designed to send as legate to France Monsignor Serafino, who was reputed to hold French opinions: Olivarez complained loudly, and threatened he would not present himself at another audience; to which the pope re- plied, "he might depart in God's name:" finally, however, Olivarez was victorious, and the mission of Serafino was postponed. There is an incredible power in an onthodox system adhered to with unwavering stedfastness, especially when it is advocated by a man of capacity. Olivarez had on his side the con- gregation which managed the French de- partment of business, and which had been constituted in earlier times. In 1590 a new alliance between Spain and the pope, was taken into consideration,! and the pope de- clared he must do something in favour of Spain. Let it not be supposed, however, that he had meanwhile given up the other party. He had at his court at the very same time, the * Discours veritable et notable du siege de la ville de Paris en I'an 1590; in Villeroy, M6moires d'estat, t. ii. p. 417. t The king was to equip 20,000 infantry, and 3000 cav- alry, the pope 15,000 infantry, and 2,0U0 cavalry. "Li ambasciatori sollicitano con li cardinali la conclusione e soltoscritlione del capitolalo (Disp. 14. Luglio)." [The ambassadors were urgent with tlie cardinals for the con- clusion and subscription of the convention, Desp. 14. July.] The pope proposed in the congregation the ques- tions: an electio regis Franciae, vacante principe ex cor- pora sanguinis, spectet ad pontificem." [Whether the election of a king of France, failing a prince of the blood, belongs to thn sovereign pontiff.] " Esortato a star neutrale, laudando il consiglio risponde non polerreslara far qualche cosa (Disp. 28 Luglio.)" [Being exhorted to remain neutral, he replied, while he commended the counsel, that he could not refrain from doing something. (Desp. July 28.)] It is said, however, in the dispatch of tlie 2Isl of July ; " Laodigeres haveva mandalo un suo huoiiio a trattar con S. Si' il quale ha tratlalo lungamente seco." [Lesdiguieres had sent a man of his to treat with his Holiness, which said person had treated with him at much length.] agent of Lesdiguieres, a leader of the Hugue- nots ; a minister of the landgrave, and an English ambassador were also there, and the imperial ambassador was already bestirring himself to make head against the suggestions he apprehended on the part of the Saxon en- voy, who was once more expected : the ma- ncEuvres of chancellor Crell extended even to Rome.* Such was the position of the potent eccle- siastical sovereign, who cherished the belief, that he was invested with direct authority over the whole earth, and who had amassed a treasure that might well have enabled him to give a grand decisive impetus to the course of events ; thus irresolute and vacillating was he at the critical moment. May this fairly be charged upon him as a fault ! I fear in judging thus we should do him wrong. He saw through the posture of things ; he saw the dangers on either side ; he gave admission to contending opinions; no conjuncture occurred to force him to a final decision. His own soul was filled with the strife of those elements that parted the world between them, none obtained the mastery over the rest. But hence assuredly it became impossible for him to constrain the course of European affairs, or to exert any vast influence over them. On the contrary, the forces agitating society reacted upon himself; this re-action took place under the most peculiar form. Sixtus had succeeded in putting down the banditti, chiefly in consequence of the good understanding into which he entered with his neighbours. But this being now interrupt- ed, different opinions prevailing in Tuscany and Venice from those entertained in Naples and Milan, and the pope not declaringdecided- ly for either, he incurred the suspicion now of one, now of another of his neiglibours, and the banditti sprung up once more. They made their appearance again in April 1590, led by Sacripante in the Maremma, by Piccolomini in Romagna, and by Battistella in the campagna of Rome. They were abundantly provided with money, and it was said to have been noticed that they passed many Spanish doubloons. Their chief ad- herents were of the Guelphish party; already they marched through the land in regular bodies, with banners flying, and drums beat- ing; nor had the papal troops any mind to engage them.f This state of things imme- * We cannot otherwise account for the fact that the imperial ambassador warned the pope against Saxon in- sinuations. " L'ambasciatore dell' imperatore prega il pontefice di non voler ascollare quel huoino che viendetto esser mandato dal duca di Sassonia, in quello che fusse di pregiuditio del suo patron e della casa d'Auslria: ecosl li vien promesso." [The ambassador from the emperor entreated the pope not to lend an ear to that man who was said to be sent by the duke of Saxony, in what might be to thp prejudice of his master, and of tlte house of Aus- tria : and tlie same was promised him.] t Disp. 21 Luglio. " f fuorusciti corrouo fine su le porte A. D. 1589-1607.] URBAN VII., GREGORY XIV., INNOCENT IX. 225 diately made itself felt throughout all the re- lations of the country. The Bolognese op- posed, with a boldness and independence of spirit long unexampled, the pope's design of augmenting the number of senators in their city. In this situation, beset by so many near and pressing vexations, without having even at- tempted to come to a decision, or to adopt any resolution in the weightiest matters, died pope Sixtus V. on the 27th of August, 1590. Just at the moment he breathed his last, a storm burst over the Quirinal. The stupid multitude persuaded themselves that Fra Fe- lice had made a compact with the evil one, by whose help he had climbed from step to step, and that now on the expiration of the stipulated time, his soul was fetched away in the midst of the tempest. In this way they symbolized their dissatisfaction at the many new taxes he had imposed, and the doubts as to his perfect ortliodoxy which had so often been agitated of late years. In an excess of tumultuous fury they pulled down the statues they had once erected to him ; nay a resolu- tion was passed in the capitol, tliat never again should a statue be erected to a pope during his life time. Urban VII., Gregory XIV., Innocent IX., and their conclaves, 1590, 1591. The new election was now doubly moment- ous. It depended mainly on the personal disposition of the pope to be chosen, for which of the two parties, whose strife had just be- gun, he would declare himself, and there was no doubt that his determination might lead to results whose influence would be universally felt. Hence the intrigues and the election- eering struggles of the conclave derived a pe- culiar significancy, and compel us to devote a few words to them in this place. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the ascendancy of the imperial or of the French faction commonly prevailed among the elec- tors; the cardinals, as a pope once said, en- joyed no longer any freedom of election. After the middle of the same century this influence of foreign powers had greatly diminished, and the curia was left much more to the course of its own inclinations. Thereupon there arose out of the ferment of its internal agitations a principle or a custom of a very singular kind. Each pope was wont to nominate a number of cardinals, who, in the next conclave con- sorted with the nephews of the deceased, con- stituted a new power, and usually sought to advance one of their own party to the throne. It is a remarkable fact that they never suc- ceeded in this, that the opposition was always victorious, and commonly promoted an ad- versary of the last pope. I Will not attempt to investigate this matter in detail. We are m possession of documents relating to these elections, which are not al- together unworthy of credit ; still it would be impossible to bring fully and fairly before our eyes all the personal considerations that ope- rated in them ; our delineations would always remain mere shadows. It is enough that we direct attention to the principle. During the period in question, it was without exception not the adherents but the antagonists of the last pope, that is to say, the creatures of the last but one, who were victorious. Paul IV. was elected by the crea- tures of Paul III. ; Pius IV. by the enemies of Caiaffa and of Paul IV. The nephew of Pius IV., Borromeo, had the self-denial voluntarily to give his support to a man of the opposite parly, whom he esteemed the most devout, namely, Pius V. ; but he did so not without the most vehement remonstrances on the part of his uncle's creatures, who, as it is said in the report, hardly believed they saw what they saw or did what they did. Nor did they neglect to turn their compliance to account on the next occasion. They endeavoured to give a recog- nized validity to the precedent, and to constitute it a rule ; and in tact they chose the successor of Plus V. out of the creatures of Pius IV. The same was the case in the election of Sixtus v., who was elevated from among the adver- saries of his predecessor, Gregory Alll. Under these circumstances it is no wonder that we always encounter men of opposite character in the successive occupants of the papal sees. The several factions alternately drove each other out. On the present occasion this usage ofl^ered a great prospect to the antagonists of iSixtua V. especially to the opponents of his latter policy. iSixtus V. had made his nephew ex- ceedingly powerful, and the latter now entered the conclave wiih a body of cardinals devoted to his interest as nunierous as had ever betbre been combined together. Notwithstanding all this he was obliged to give way. The creatures ot Gregory carried the election of an opponent of ttie last pope, one who had even been peculiarly offended by him, and who was unquestionably attached to the Span- ish party — Giambattista Castagna, Urban VII.* di Roma." [The outlaws make incursions up to llie very gates of Rome.] The dispatches of March 17tti, April 7ih, April 28th, May 12th, June 2aJ, contain de- tails on this subject.] 29 ♦ Conclave di papa Urbano VII. MS. "Lapratica (di quesla elettione) lu guidala dal cardinal Sforza (capo delle ciBalure di papa Gregono Aill.) e da cardinal! Geuovesi." [I'he proceedings of this election were directed by cardi- nal Sioiza (vhi head of the creatures of On gory XIII.,) and by Genoese cardinals.] In a despatch fio.n Maisse, the trench ambassador at Venice, in F. v. Raumer's Histor. Briefen, i. 360, it is staled that Sforza had dragged down Colonna from the papal chair, after he had already seated himself theie; this, however, is not to be under- stood literally. 226 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1590-1. But they were unfortunate in this choice. Urban VII. died before he had even been crowned, before he had nominated a single prelate, on the twelfth day of his pontificate, and the contest broke out afresh. It was distinguished by the circumstance that the Spaniards again took the most earnest part in it. They saw plainly how much depended on the result with regard to the affairs of France. The king resolved on a step which was charged upon him in Rome as a dangerous innovation, and which even his adherents could only attempt to justify on the ground of the urgent circumstances in which he was placed :* he named seven cardinals who seem- ed likely to be of service to him, and would not accept any other. At the head of these nominees stood the name of Madruzzi, and the Spanish cardinals forthwith made an effort to to effect his election. But they met with obstinate resistance. The cardinals would not have Madruzzi, be- cause he was a German, and they could not bear to have the papacy pass again into the hands of the barbarians,t nor would Montalto allow the election ofany of the others. Montalto would, indeed, in vain have attempted to raise any of his own party to the papal chair, but at least he was able to exclude from it those whom he opposed. The conclave was im- moderately protracted ; the banditti were masters in the land ; accounts were daily heard of property plundered and villages burn- ed ; commotions were to be apprehended in Rome itself. One only means presented itself of reaching the desired end ; that was to select from amongst the proposed candidates him who was least objectionable to the kinsmen of Sixtus V. In the Florentine memoirs I it is stated that the grand duke of Tuscany, in the Roman that cardinal Sforza, the chief of the Gregor- ian cardinals, contributed most to bring this about. Cardinal Sfondrato, one of the seven, was passing his days in the retirement of his cell, perhaps because he had been told that his interests would be best promoted by silence, and was suffering there from fever. The two parties accorded in choosing him, and an union between the two houses of Sfondrato and Mon- talto was immediately discussed by way of preliminary. Upon this Montalto visited the cardinal in his cell, and found him praying before a crucifix, and not wholly free from fever; he told him that he should be elected the next morning. On the morrow (Dec. 5, 1590) he accompanied him, along with Sforza, * " II grande interesse del re caUolico e la sppsa nella quale si Irova spnza ajulo nissuno per servitio della chris- tianili fa che gli si debbia condonare." t Cardinal Morosiiii said, " Italia andercbbein predaa' barbari, che farrebbe una vergogna. Concl. della seJe vacanle di UrXjano VII." [Italy would become the booty of the barbarians, which would be a sliaiiic.] t Galluzzi. Sloria del graiiducalo di Toscano, v. 99. to the chapel where the votes were taken. Sfondrato was chosen, and assumed the name of Gregory XIV.* He was a man who fasted twice every week, read mass every day, always repeated the appointed number of prayers on his knees, and then devoted an hour to his favourite author, St. Bernard, out of whom he carefully noted the sentences that particularly struck him; — a soul of virgin innocence. It was remarked, however, half in jest, that as he had come prematurely into the world, in the seventh month, and had been reared but with diffi- culty, he had on the whole too little earthly stuff about him. He had never been able to comprehend any thing of the practice or the intrigues of the curia. The cause which was upheld by the Spaniards he regarded purely and simply as the cause of the Church. He was a subject born of Philip 11., and a man after his own heart. He declared himself, without the least wavering or hesitation, in favour of the Ligue.f " Do you," he wrote to the Parisians, "who have made so praiseworthy a beginning, per- severe still, and halt not till you are arrived at the goal of your course. Inspired by God, we have resolved to come to your aid. First, we bestow upon you a subsidy in money, and that even beyond our means. Next, we des- patch our nuncio, Landriano, to France, in order to bring back all deserters to your union. Lastly, we send to you, though not without heavily bnrthening the Church, our dear son and nephew, Ercole Sfondrato, duke of Montemarciano, with cavalry and infantry, to employ their weapons in your defence. Should you, however, have need of more, we will supply you therewith."! The whole policy of Gregory XIV. is com- prised in this letter. It was very efTective. The declaration itself, the repetition of the excommunication of Henry IV. which was connected with it, and then the call which Landriano was charged to make on all the clergy, the nobles, the officers of justice, and the tiers etat, to separate from Henry on pain of heavy punishment, produced a deep impres- sion.J There were on the side of Henry IV. many strict catholics, who were at last throw^n * Torquato Tasso celebrated his accession in a splendid canzone, "Dagranlode immortal." + Cicarella, de vita Gregorii XIV., to be found in all the later editions of Platina. t Gregoire, pape XIV., i mes fits bien-aymez les gens du conseil des seize quartiers de la villa de Paris, in Cayet. Chronologie novenaire. M6moires coll. univ. lorn. Ivii. p. 62. § Cayet remarks this. "Le party du roy estoit sans aucune division. Ce qui fut enlretenu jusques au temps de la publication des buUes monitoriales du pape Gre- goire AlV., que d'aucuns voulurent engendrer un tiers party et le former des calholiques, qui estoit dans le party royal." [The party of the king was without any division. This continued till the time of the publication of the monitorial bulls of pope Gregory XIV., when certain per- sons wished 10 form a tiers parti, and to constitute it from among the catholics belonging lo the royal party. A. D. 1590-1.] GREGORY XIV., INNOCENT IX. 227 into perplexity by this decisive step on the part of the head of their Church. They de- clared, that not only the kingdom but the Church, too, had a succession, tliat the reli- gion of the state was no more to be changed than tlie dynasty. From this time forth there arose among the king's adherents the so-called third party, that incessantly pressed him to return to Catholicism, remained faitliful to him only on this condition and with this anti- cipation, and was of the more moment, inas- much as the most powerful men immediately about him became its adherents. But still greater results were to be expect- ed from the other measures which the pope announced in this letter, and which he de- layed not to carry into effect. He sup>piied the Parisians with a montiily subsidy of 1.5,000 scudi; he sent colonel Lusi into Switzerland to raise troops ; and after he had solemnly committed the standard of the Church in S. Maria Maggiore to his nephew Ercole as their general, he sent him to Milan, where his forces were to assemble. The commis- sary who accompanied him, archbishop Mat- teucci, was plentifully furnished with money. Under such auspices Philip 11. did not hesitate longer to engage earnestly in French affairs. His troops advanced into Brittany, and took possession of Toulouse and Montpel- lier. He thought he had peculiar claims on some provinces ; in others he was in close confederacy with the leading chiefs, capu- chins having in some cases cemented and continued to uphold the union. In many places he was looked on as " the sole protec- tor of the orthodox against the Huguenots," and he was invited most earnestly even to Paris. Meanwhile the Piedmontese assailed Provence, and the papal army formed a com- binatiou in Verdun with that of the Ligue. There was a general movement of the powers of Spain and Italy designed to drag France along by force in the safiie strictly catholic direction which prevailed in those countries. The treasures which pope Sixtus had amassed with such efforts, and had so carefully econo- mized, were now converted to the profit of the Spaniards. After Gregory XIV. had taken from the castle of St. Angelo those sums, the expenditure of which was limited by no con- dition, he seized upon those, too, that were most strictly tied up. He was of opinion that no more urgent need could ever befal the Church. The decision with which proceedings were begun, the prudence of the king, the wealth of the pope, and the influence which their combined authority and dignity possessed in France, put it, indeed, beyond the possibility of calculating what success might have attend- ed this twofold ambition, secular and spiritual, had not Gregory XIV. died in the midst of the enterprize. He had occupied the Roman see but ten months and ten days, and yet had brought about such great changes; what would have ensued had he possessed his power for some years! The loss of him was the greatest that the party of Spain and of the Ligue could have sustained. The Spaniards, indeed, once more carried everything before them in the conclave. They had named seven candidates as before,* one of whom, Giovanni Antonio Fachinetto, was chosen pope by the title of Iimocent JX. He, too, as far as can be judged, was of the Span- ish party ; at least he sent money to the Ligue, and there is a letter of his extant, in which he urges Alessandro Farnese to hasten his armament, penetrate into France, and invest Rouen, services which that leader performed with much ability and success.f But the misfortune was, that Innocent IX. was already very old and feeble ; he hardly ever left his bed, even giving audience there: from the death-bed of an aged man, himself now inca- pable of a movement, proceeded exhortations to war that set France, nay, all Europe, in commotion. Hardly had Innocent IX. been two months in possession of the papal see, when he too died. Thus were the struggles of the conclave renewed a fourth time. They were the more important, since these incessant changes had led to the settled conviction, that a man of vigour, and likely to live long, was above all things what was wanted. A definite decision for a lengthened period was now imperatively necessary. The conclave became an impor- tant item in the history of the world. Election and character of Clement VIIL The Spaniards in the prosperous course of their interests in Rome during the last year had finally succeeded in gaining over even Montalto. His tamily had purchased estates in the Neapolitan territory. Whilst Montalto pledged himself no longer to oppose the wishes of the king, the latter promised in return, that ho would not absolutely exclude all the creatures of Sixtus V. Thus were they bound together, and the Spaniards no longer delayed to put forward that claimant from whom they might promise themselves the most effectual co-operation in the French war. Of all the cardinals, Santorio, who bore the surname of Sanseverina, might be regarded * In the Histoire des Conclaves, i. 2JI, it is staled, " Lps Espagnols voulaient retablir leur reputation." This, however, is but a mistranslation. In the MS. on which this book is founded, Conclave di Innocenzio IX. (Inlf. Polilt.) it is said, "Per non perder laracquistala autorita" [not to lose the authority they had re-acquired], which actually accords with the then exislina slate of tilings. + From Davila, Hisloria delle Guerre Civili di Francia XII. p. 763, il would appear that Innocent was not so en- tirely in favour of the Ligue; but the letter mentioned (in Cayet, p. 3oG) removes all doubt on the matter. 228 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1590-1. as the most zealous. In his youth he had i They had acceded to the wishes of the king sustained many a contest with the protestants and of Montalto, but still they only wanted an of Naples. In his autobiography, which is extant in manuscript, he designates the Pari- sian massacre as " the celebrated day of St. Bartholomew, most cheering to the catho- lics."* He had always owned the most vehe- ment opinions: he was the leading member in the congregation for French affairs, had long been the soul of the inquisition, and was still in good health and of tolerably vigorous years. This man the Spaniards wished to invest with the supreme dignity, and none could they have found more devoted to them. Oli- varez too had made every preparation ;t no doubt of his success seemed to exist ; out of fiftv-two votes thirty-six were counted in his favour, just enough to secure his election, for which there were always required two thirds of the votes. Accordingly the very next morning after the conclave had been closed, they proceeded to the formalities of election. Montalto and Madrucci, the heads of the uni- ted factions, brought out Sanseverina from his cell, which was stripped by his servants, according to the customary practice in the case of a pope elect. Thirty-six cardinals accompanied him to the Capella Paolina; his pardon was already solicited for his oppo- nents; he would forgive them all, and as a first token of his disposition, adopt the name of Clement : peoples and realms were com- mended to his favour. ^Meanwhile, one circumstance had escaped notice in the selection of this candidate. Sanseverina had such a character for seve- rity, that every one feared him. This was enough with many to make them inaccessible to all attempts at gaining them over, younger cardinals, for instance, and old personal adversaries. These assembled in the Capella Sistina; they were but sixteen indeed when they came together, one vote was wanting to give them the power of ex- clusion, and several of them seemed inclined to yield to circumstances and declare for Sanseverina ; the experienced Altemps how- ever had sufficient influence over them to make them still hold out. They relied on him, that he saw more clearly into the matter than themselves. Now the fact was, the same repugnance felt by them, prevailed among those too who had given their promises to iSanseverina ; no few of them abhorred him in their hearts. * He speaks of a " giusto sdegno del re Carlo IX. lii gloriosa memoria in quel celebre giorno di S. Bartolonieo lietissinio a' caltolici." [Jusl wralh of king Charles IX. of glorious memory on thai celebrated day of S. Bartholo- mew, most cheering to catholics. 1 t Conclave di Clemente VIII. MS. "11 conle di Oliva- rez, fedele el insepar.ibile aniico di S. Severina, aveva prima di partire di Ko.na per il governo di Sicilia lulto preordinato." [Count Olivarez, the true and inseparable friend of S. Severina, had arranged everylhins before his departure from Rome for the governmeni of Sicily.] opportunity to desert. Upon the entry into the chapel where the election was to be held, there was manifest a restlessness, an agita- tion quite unusual in cases where the choice was already determined. The counting of the votes began; there seemed a reluctance to complete it; Sanseverina's own country- men threw obstacles in the way.* There wanted only some one who should set the example of expressing the sentiments enter- tained by so many. At last Ascanio Colonna summoned up the courage to do this. He was of the number of the Roman barons, who dreaded above all things the inquisitorial harsh- ness of Sanseverina. He cried out, "I see that God will not have Sanseverina, neither will Ascanio Colonna." He left the Capella Paolina, and betook himself to the opposition in the Sistina. This step secured the victory to the latter. A secret scrutiny was resolved on. Some there were who would never have ventured openly and loudly to retract the promise they had already given, who nevertheless did it privily, as soon as they knew that their votes would remain concealed. When the ballot- ing papers were opened, there were found only thirty votes for the nominee. Sanseverina had come secure of his elec- tion : he thought himself already in possession of that fulness of spiritual authority which he had rated so highly, and in behalf of which he had so often combated ; between the fulfil- ment of his most aspiring wishes, and a future forever marred by the sense of rejection, between the condition of ruling and being doomed to obey, he had passed seven hours as though between life and death. At last the lot was cast, and he went back robbed of his hopes to his dismantled cell. "The next night," he says in his autobiography, "was to me more full of pSngs than any moment of misfortune I ever experienced. The heavy affliction of my soul, and my intense anguish, incredible as it may sound, forced bloody sweat from me." He knew enough of the nature of a con- clave to indulge in no further hopes. His friends subsequently put him forward as a candidate, but it was only a hopeless attempt. The Spaniards themselves too had been losers by this event. The king had proposed five names, but on none of them could the choice be made to fall. At last it was neces- sary to proceed to the sixth, set down by the Spaniards as a supernumerary. The king, more to oblige his confederate Montalto than of his own accord, had subjoin- ed the name of cardinal Aldobrandini, a crea- ♦ Besides the accounts of this matter in printed and MS. Conclaves, we have also the narrative of Sanseve* rina himself, which I will give in the Appendix. A. D. 1592.] ELECTION AND CHARACTER OF CLEMENT VIIL 229 ture of Sixtus V., whom he himself had reject- ed a year before. He was now recurred to as the only one whose election was possible. He had, as may be supposed, Montalto's wish- es in his favour ; and the Spaniards could not object against him, as he was in the list of nominees ; he was not unwelcome to the rest of the conclave, being universally beloved : accordingly he was chosen without much op- position, January 20th, 1592. He took the name of Clement VOL The fate of the Spaniards in this matter is very curious. They had brought over Mont- alto to their side in order to carry the election of one of their own party, and this very con- nexion it was that forced them to lend their aid towards placing a friend of Montalto and a creature of Sixtus V. on the pontifical throne. We have to observe, that a change origin- ated on this occasion in the course of papal elections, which cannot be looked upon as unimportant. For a length of time men of opposite factions had alternately followed each other. The same thing had now occurred, the cardinals created by Sixtus V. had thrice been forced to give way ; but the elected popes had in each instance enjoyed but a transient possession of power, and could not found any new strong faction : deaths, funerals, and new conclaves had followed one upon the other. The first who again ascended the papal throne in the full vigour of life was Clement VHL There ensued a dominion of the same party which had been the last to enjoy a longer lease of power. Universal attention was now directed to the question, who was the new pontiff, and what might be expected of him ! Clement VUL had been born an exile. His father, Salvestro Aldrobrandino, of a distin- guished Florentine family, but an earnest and active adversary of the Medici, had, upon the final triumph of the latter house in the year 1531, been expelled, and forced to seek his fortune in other lands.* He was a doctor of laws, and had, previously to these occurrences, once given lectures in Pisa. After his ban- ishment we' find him at one time in Venice, where he had a share in the reform of the Venetian statutes, and in an edition of the institutes ; at another in Ferrara or Urbino, employed in the duke's councils and tribunals; but longest in the service now of this cardinal, now of that, and entrusted in their stead with judicial and administrative functions in some * Varthi: Storia Fioremina, iii. 4-2. CI. Mazzuchelli, Scriuori d' Italia, I. i. p. 372. gives as usual a very indus- triously compiled and instructive article on this name, elill it is not complete. Among other things he omits to mention his employment in Venice, with llie mention of which Gio. Delfino opens his report, so that there can be no doubt of the matter: ''Silvestro Aldobrandini ne' tem- pi della rebellione di Firenza caccialo da quella cilti se ne vene qui, riforma li noslri statuti e rivedde le leggi el ordini della republica." one town or another of the ecclesiastical states. What most distinguished him was perhaps the fact that, though leading the unstable life he did, he was able to bring up five superior sons. The most highly endowed of them all was probably the eldest, John, who was called the charioteer of the house: it was he who opened the path they followed, and he rose in the career of judicial dignities to the cardinalate in 1570. Had he lived longer it is thought he might have entertained hopes of the tiara. Bernardo attained distinction in arms; Tomaso was an able philologist ; his translation of Dio- genes Laertius has been frequently reprinted ; Pietro had the reputation of an eminent prac- tical jurist. The youngest son, Ippolito, born at Fano* in the year 1536, at first caused some anxiety to his father, who feared he should not be able to afford him the education his talents merited. But first of all cardinal Al- essandro Farnese took up the boy, and granted him a yearly allowance out of his bithopric of Spoleto; afterwards the rising fortunes of his brother were enough to help him forward. He soon got a footing in the prelacy, and speedily thereupon succeeded to his brother's place in the tribunal of the rota. Sixtus V. nominated him a cardinal, and entrusted him with a nunciature to Poland, which was his first step to a certain degree of connexion with the house of Austria. The whole stock of that house felt bound in gratitude to the cardinal, because, through the discreet and efficient use he made of his authority, he ac- complished the liberation of the archduke Maximilian from the captivity in which the I'oles held him. When Philip determined to nominate a creature of Sixtus V. as a super- numerary candidate, it was this circumstance that induced him to prefer Aldobrandino to all others. Thus was the highest dignity in catho- lic Christendom reached by the son of a home- less outcast, for whom it was once feared that he should be all his life long doomed to the functions of a scribe. No one can behold without gratified feel- ing the monument in the church della Miner- va, erected by Salvestro Aldobrandino to the mother of so noble a band of sons, — " to his dear wife Lesa, of the house of Deti, with whom he lived in harmony seven-and-thirty years." The new pope now brought to his high office all that active energy which belongs to i. fam- ily that had worked it way out of manifold difficulties. The sittings were held early, the audiences in the afternoon ;t all reports were received and investigated; all despatches were read and discussed ; legal arguu:ients * In the Libro di battrsnio della parochia cattedrale di Fano, it is recordr^d : " A di 4 Marzo 1556, fu batlezaio un puito di Mr- Salvestro, che fu luoioientnte qui: hebbe nome Ippolyto." t Bentivoglio, Meraorie i., p. 54, gives the disposal of a whole week. 228 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1590-1. as the most zealous. In his youth he had i They had acceded to the wishes of the king sustained many a contest with the protestants and of Montalto, but still they only wanted an of Naples. In his autobiography, which is extant in manuscript, he designates the Pari- sian massacre as " the celebrated day of St. Bartholomew, most cheering to the catho- lics."* He had always owned the most vehe- ment opinions: he was the leading member in the congregation for French aifairs, had long been the soul of the inquisition, and was still in good health and of tolerably vigorous years. This man the Spaniards wished to mvest with the supreme dignity, and none could they have found more devoted to them. Oli- varez too had made every preparation ;t no doubt of his success seemed to exist ; out of fiflv-two votes thirty-six were counted in his favour, just enough to secure his election, for which there were always required two thirds of the votes. Accordingly the very next morning after the conclave had been closed, they proceeded to the formalities of election. Montalto and Madrucci, the heads of the uni- ted factions, brought out Sanseverina from his cell, which was stripped by his servants, according to the customary practice in the case of a pope elect. Thirty-six cardinals accompanied him to the Capella Paolina; his pardon was already solicited for his oppo- nents; he would forgive them all, and as a first token of his disposition, adopt the name of Clement : peoples and realms were com- mended to his favour. ^Meanwhile, one circumstance had escaped notice in the selection of this candidate. Sanseverina had such a character for seve- rity, that every one feared him. This was enough with many to make them inaccessible to all attempts at gaining them over, younger cardinals, for instance, and old personal adversaries. These assembled in the Capella Sistina; they were but sixteen indeed when they came together, one vote was wanting to give them the power of ex- clusion, and several of them seemed inclined to yield to circumstances and declare for Sanseverina; the experienced Altemps how- ever had sufficient influence over them to make them still hold out. They relied on him, that he saw more clearly into the matter than themselves. Now the fact was, the same repugnance felt by them, prevailed among those too who had given their promises to ISanseverina ; no few of them abhorred him in their hearts. * He speaks of a " t^iusto sdegno del re Carlo IX. di gloriosa memoria in quel celebre giorno di S. Barlolomeo lietissiino a' cauolici." [Jusl wraih of king Charles IX. of glorious memory on thai celebrated day of S. Barlholo- mew, most cheering lo catholics. 1 j Conclave di Clemenle VIII. MS. " II conte di Oliva. rez, fedi^le el inseparabile amico di S. Severina, aveva prima di paitire di Rcna per il governo di Sicilia luuo preordinato." [Count Olivarez.lhe true and inseparable friend of S. Severina, had arranged everything before his departure from Kome for the governnieni of Sicily.] opportunity to desert. Upon the entry into the chapel where the election was to be held, there was manifest a restlessness, an agita- tion quite unusual in cases where the choice was already determined. The counting of the votes began ; there seemed a reluctance to complete it; Sanseverina's own country- men threw obstacles in the way.* There wanted only some one who should set the example of expressing the sentiments enter- tained by so many. At last Ascanio Colonna summoned up the courage to do this. He was of the number of the Roman barons, who dreaded above all things the inquisitorial harsh- ness of Sanseverina. He cried out, "I see that God will not have Sanseverina, neither will Ascanio Colonna." He left the Capella Paolina, and betook himself to the opposition in the Sistina. Tills step secured the victory to the latter. A secret scrutiny was resolved on. Some there were who would never have ventured openly and loudly to retract the promise they had already given, who nevertheless did it privily, as soon as they knew that their votes would remain concealed. When the ballot- ing papers were opened, there were found only thirty votes for the nominee. Sanseverina had come secure of his elec- tion : he thought himself already in possession of that fulness of spiritual authority which he had rated so highly, and in behalf of which he had so often combated ; between the fulfil- ment of his most aspiring wishes, and a future forever marred by the sense of rejection, between the condition of ruling and being doomed to obey, he had passed seven hours as though between life and death. At last the lot was cast, and he went back robbed of his hopes to his dismantled cell. "The next night," he says in his autobiography, "was to me more full of pangs than any moment of misfortune I ever experienced. The heavy affliction of my soul, and my intense anguish, incredible as it may sound, forced bloody sweat from me." He knew enough of the nature of a con- clave to indulge in no further hopes. His friends subsequently put him forward as a candidate, but it was only a hopeless attempt. The Spaniards themselves too had been losers by this event. The king had proposed five names, but on none of them could the choice be made to fall. At last it was neces- sary to proceed to the sixth, set down by the Spaniards as a supernumerary. 'i'he king, more to oblige his confederate Montalto than of his own accord, had subjoin- ed the name of cardinal Aldobrandini, a crea- * Besides the accounts of this matter in printed and MS. Conclaves, we havp also the narrative of Sanseve- rina himself, which 1 will give in the Appendix. A. D. 1592.] ELECTION AND CHARACTER OP CLEMENT VIIL 229 ture of Sixtus V., whom he himself had reject- ed a year before. He was now recurred to as the only one whose election was possible. He had, as may be supposed, Montalto's wish- es in his favour; and the Spaniards could not object against him, as he was in the list of nominees ; he was not unwelcome to the rest of the conclave, being universally beloved : accordingly he was choseTi without much op- position, January 20th, 1592. He took the name of Clement VDL The fate of the Spaniards in this matter is very curious. They had brought over Mont- alto to their side in order to carry the election of one of their own party, and this very con- nexion it was that forced them to lend their aid towards placing a friend of MontaJto and a creature of Sixtus V. on the pontifical throne. We have to observe, that a change origin- ated on this occasion in the course of papal elections, which cannot be looked upon as unimportant. For a length of time men of opposite factions had alternately followed each other. The same thing had now occurred, the cardinals created by Sixtus V. had thrice been forced to give way ; but the elected popes had in each instance enjoyed but a transient possession of power, and could not found any new strong faction : deaths, funerals, and new conclaves had followed one upon the other. The first who again ascended the papal throne in the full vigour of life was Clement VIII. There ensued a dominion of the same party which had been the last to enjoy a longer lease of power. Universal attention was now directed to the question, who was the new pontiff, and what might be expected of him 1 Clement VIIL had been born an exile. His father, Salvestro Aldrobrandino, of a distin- guished Florentine family, but an earnest and active adversary of the Medici, had, upon the final triumph of the latter house in the year 1531, been expelled, and forced to seek his fortune in other lands.* He was a doctor of laws, and had, previously to these occurrences, once given lectures in Pisa. After his ban- ishment we find him at one time in Venice, where he had a share in the reform of the Venetian statutes, and in an edition of the institutes ; at another in Ferrara or Urbino, employed in the duke's councils and tribunals ; but longest in the service now of this cardinal, now of that, and entrusted in their stead with judicial and administrative functions in some * Varchi: Storia Fiorenlina, iii. 4-2. 01. Mazzuchelli, Scritlori d' Italia, 1. i. p. 372. gives as usual a very indus- triously compiled and instructive article on tliis name, Blill it is not complete. Among other thini;s he omits to mention his employment in Venice, w'ah tile mention of which Gio. Delfino opens his report, so that there can be no doubt of the matter: "Silvestro Aldobrandini ne' tem- pi della rebellione di Firenza caccialo da quella citti se ne vene qui, riformo li nostri staluti e rivedde le leggi et ordini della republica." one town or another of the ecclesiastical states. What most distinguished him was perhaps the fact that, though leading the unstable life he did, he was able to bring up five superior sons. The most highly endowed of them all was probably the eldest, John, who was called the charioteer of the house: it was he who opened the path they followed, and he rose in the career of judicial dignities to the cardinalate in 1570. Had he lived longer it is thought he might have entertained hopes of the tiara. Bernardo attained distinction in arms; Tomaso was an able philologist ; his translation of Dio- genes Laertius has been frequently reprinted ; Pietro had the reputation of an eminent prac- tical jurist. The youngest son, Ippolito, born at Fano* in the year 15:36, at first caused some anxiety to his father, who feared he should not be able to afford him the education his talents merited. But first of all cardinal Al- essandro Farnese took up the boy, and granted him a yearly allowance out of his bishopric of Spoleto; afterwards the rising fortunes of his brother were enough to help him forward. He soon got a footing in the prelacy, and speedily thereupon succeeded to his brother's place in the tribunal of the rota. Sixtus V. nominated him a cardinal, and entrusted him with a nunciature to Poland, which was his first step to a certain degree of connexion with the house of Austria. The whole stock of that house felt bound in gratitude to the cardinal, because, through the discreet and efficient use he made of his authority, he ac- complished the liberation of the archduke Maximilian from the captivity in which the Poles held him. When Philip determined to nominate a creature of Sixtus V. as a super- numerary candidate, it was this circumstance that induced him to prefer Aldobrandino to all others. Thus was the highest dignity in catho- lic Christendom reached by the son of a home- less outcast, for whom it was once feared that he should be all his lite long doomed to the functions of a scribe. No one can behold without gratified feel- ing the monument in the church della Miner- va, erected by Salvestro Aldobrandino to the mother of so noble a band of sons, — " to his dear wife Lesa, of the house of Deti, with whom he lived in harmony seven-and-thirty years." The new pope now brought to his high office all that active energy which belongs to & fam- ily that had worked it way out of manifold difficulties. The sittings were held early, the audiences in the afternoon ;t all reports were received and investigated ; all despatches were read and discussed ; legal arguments * In the Libro di battesn.0 della parochia caltedrale di Fano, it is recorded : " A di 4 Marzo 1556, fu battezato un puiio di Mr- Salvestro, che fu luoioienente qui: hebbe nome Ippolyto." t Bentivoglio, Memorie i., p. 54, gives the disposal of a whole week. 232 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1593. abide by the side which he had once adopted, and which seemed most consonant with the nature of his office. Only this is to be ob- served, that he did not altogether repudiate the other party, nor wislf to provoke its deter- mined hostility. By means of secret advan- ces and indirect expressions he held out to it the prospect of a reconciliation at some future time. He satisfied the Spaniards ; yet might their adversaries persuade themselves tliat his proceedings were not wholly free, — that, whatever they were, they were such in defe- rence to the Spaniards. In Sixtus it was the strife of contending thoughts that finally pre- vented his adopting any decided line of poli- cy ; in Clement it was regard for the senti- ments of both parties, and prudence and cir- cumspection, the results of large experience, and of a desire to avoid hostilities. The con- sequence, however, certainly was, that he too exerted no decisive influence. lieft accordingly to themselves, the affairs of France proceeded in obedience to their natural bent. The most important thing was, that dissen- sion broke out between the chiefs of the Ligue. The Sixteen adhered closely to Spain ; Mayenne pursued the aims of his per- sonal ambition. The jealousy of the Sixteen became the more exasperated, and they pro- ceeded to the most cruel atrocities against those who were suspected or known to be de- serters from them, — for instance, to the mur- der of the president Brisson. Mayenne held it good to punish them, and caused their most violent ringleader to be executed. Promoted by this discord, there grew up, even in Paris, from the beginning of 1593, a more moderate temper, political and religious; one still ca- tholic indeed, but opposed to the course hith- erto pursued by the Ligue, and, above all, to the Sixteen and the Spaniards. A confede- racy was formed, nearly in the same way as the Ligue itself, the object of which was, in the very first place, to put all the offices of the city into the hands of moderate men of accordant sentiments ; and this was tolerably well accomplished in the course of that year.* Similar tendencies were manifested through- out the whole kingdom. They were very influential over the result of the elections for the assembly of the estates. Hence it was that the Spaniards found all their proposals met by so resolute an opposition. Whilst the furious preachers pronounced every one ex- comnmnicated who should venture but to speak of peace with the heretic, even though he should return to the mass, the parliament re- called to memory the fundamental laws of the realm, by which foreign princes were ex- cluded from the throne. It was not to be mistaken, that the wh(de party which was * Cayel, lib. iv. (tome 58, p. 5,) communicates the pro- positions which were made in the first assembly. j designated as the political, only waited for Henry's conversion to submit to him. What difference was there then between them and the catholic royalists in the camp of Henry IV. 1 The only one was, that the former required before their submission to see a step taken, which the latter thought they might venture to wait for. For even the ca- tholic royalists were unanimous in thinking that the king must return to their church though they did not make his right and his legitimacy depend on his doing so. Perhaps too their ill-will to the protestants immediate- ly about the king continually urged them to insist the more on this point. The princes of the blood, the most eminent statesmen, and the majority of the court joined the tiers-par- ti, the distinctive characteristic of which lay in this demand.* As soon as matters had assumed this as- pect, every one said, and the protestants themselves did not deny, that if Henry was ever to be king, he must become catholic. It is not necessary to investigate the pretensions of those who assert that they gave the final impulse towards this consummation. The chief part was effected by the great combina- tion, the necessity of things.f In completing the act that brought him over to Catholicism, Henry linked himself with that national sen- timent of French catholics, which was repre- sented by the tiers-parti and the political party, and which now had a prospect of be- coming predominant in France. Now this was at bottom precisely the very spirit of that catholic opposition, which had rallied round the banners of legitimacy and national independence, to resist the attempts of the ecclesiastico-Spanish party. How vastly had it now augmented in power and consequence ! It had unquestionably the as- cendency in the public opinion of France ; throughout all the country the people de- clared, if not openly, at least privately in its favour; it acquired intrinsic firmness by the conversion of the sovereign, a sovereign too who was so warlike, courageous, and victor- ious. Thus invigorated, it appeared once more before the pope, and besought his recog- nition and his blessing. What renown, what cogent influence were to be obtained if he now at least declared himself without ambi- guity in its favour ! So much stiH depended on this. The prelates even who had received the king into the bosom of the church, had done so only on the anticipated condition of papal absolution ;l and this was urgently soli- * It is so represented by Sully, v. 249. t That Henry was resolved on the step in April 1593, is shown by his letter to the grand duke of Tuscany of the 2Gth. IVi. Galluzzi, Istoria del Granducato, t. v. p. 160. t " Messieurs du clerg6 luy avoient donn6 I'absolution a la charge qu' il envoyerait vers sa S'e- le requerir d'ap- prouver ce qu'ils avoient fait." [The clergy had given him absolution, conditioned that he should send to his D. 1594.] ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. 233 cited by the most powerful leaders of the Ligue, with whom the king had entered into negociations.* Thoiigli promises are not al- ways fulfilled, it cannot yet be doubted that the pope's absolution granted at this moment would have mightily affected the course of things. Henry sent a grandee of the realm, the duke of Nevers, to sue to the pope in the matter. A truce was agreed on till the an- swer should be received. The pope was distrustful and wary. As the hopes of spiritual ambition had fired Six- tus, so the dread of being overreached and ex- posed to irksome consequences, kept back Clement Vlll. He still apprehended that Henry IV. would probably relapse into pro- testantism as he had once already done, and declared he would not believe that the king was a genuine convert unless an angel from heaven came and whispered it in his ear. He looked around him and saw the majority of the curia still averse to the French ; from time to time too, pamphlets appeared reiterat- ing, that Henry, as a " hiereticus relapsus," could not be absolved even by the pope : Cle- ment had still no heart to set himself against the Spaniards, who were the foremost main- tainers of this opinion. f And was not the party that applied to him for pardon actually engaged in hostility to the claims of the Ro- man see ] Were they not, as he expressed himself, " faithless to the crown and to the Church, bastards, children of the handmaid and not of the wife, whilst they of the Ligue had proved themselves the true sons'!"! ^g^- tainly on this ground too it would have de- manded some resolution to grant their request, and Clement could not nerve himself up to that point. 5 Nevers entered Rome with the double confidence inspired by his high rank, and by the importance of his mission ; he doubted not that he would be received with joy; he expressed himself in language to that effect, and the king's letter whicii he con- veyed was also composed in the same tone. The pope fancied it read as though the king was not only a catholic of long standing, but as though he were returning, like a second Charlemagne, from a victory over the foes of the church. Nevers was quite amazed at holiness to petition him to approve of what they had done.] Cayet, 58. 290. * Villeroy, M6moires Coll. Univ. 62. 186. + Les iniiinidaiionsqui furent faites au pape Clement VIII. par le due de Sessa ; not very authentic, however, and long ago printed in the Mf^moires de M""- le due de Nevers, ii. p. 716, yet given as something new in Capeti- gue's Hisloire de la Reforme, toai. vii. $ Disp. 2 J Ag. 1533. Report of Henry's conversion. ""11 papa non s'era per tali avisi molto alierato etuttavia restava con I'animo molto involto nelli suoi solili dubbj e perplessiti." [The pope was not much displeased at such aecouiils, and yet remained much involved as usual in doubt and perplexity.] He said to the Venetian am- bassador, that Henry remained a hae.-elicus relapsus, and that no one could rely upon his conversion. § Relatio dictoi-uai aClem^nteVlH. papa die 28 Dec. 1593, in consislorio. ]\I6m. de Neveis, ii. 638. 30 finding how coldly he was received. All his efiwts proving fruitless, he at last asked the pope what the king was to do to merit the fa- vour of his holiness. The pope answered, there were theologians enough in France to point tiiat out to him. " Will your holi- ness be satisfied with what the theologians say ]" The pope refused to answer the ques- tion. He would never even acknowledge him as Henry's ambassador, but as Louis Gon- zaga, duke of Nevers; and all that passed be- tween them he would have regarded only in the light of private discourse, not as official negociation. He was not to be prevailed on to communicate any resolution on his part in writing. " Nothing remains for me," said Nevers to cardinal Toledo, who made known to him this conclusion of the pope's, " but to bewail the evils which the fury of the sol- diery will bring on France upon the new out- break of war." The cardinal said not a word, but smiled : Nevers left Rome, and vented his dissatisfaction in bitter reports.* Men have in general no feeling but for their personal situation. The Roman curia knew only what was for its own advantage ; we dis- cover in it no true sympathy for the fate of France. We know indeed enough of this pope, to be- lieve that he would not absolutely repulse the adherents of Henry, and least of all now, when their strength was so greatly increased. On the contrary, he assured a secret agent, that so soon as the king should show himself tho- roughly catholic, he should not fail to receive an absolution. It is characteristic of him, that whilst in public he so decidedly disavowed any interest in the king's return to the catholic I'aith, he privately gave the archduke of Tus- cany to know, that he nevertheless would offer no objection to whatever the clergy of France should think fit to do. The grand duke was also instructed to communicate favourable declarations on the pope's part to the catholic royal ists.f Yet with all this, his real care was only for his own prospects ; in France there- fore things were left to proceed as they might. The truce was expired ; the sword wa.s again drawn, and the fortune of war was once more invoked. But Henry's superiority was now made in- stantly and decisively manifest. The com- manders of the forces opposed to him, lacked that security of conviction which previously had ensured them so strong a position : the doctrines of the political party, the king's con- version, and the prosperous course of his for- * Two documents, almost entirely of the same import: Discours de ce que fit M^- de Nevers i son voyage de Koine en l'ann6e 1593, and Discours dela legation de M'" leduc de Nevers, both in the 2d volume of the before-men- tioaed Memoirs of Nevers, the first neatly verbatim in Cayet. Extracts in Thuanus, Davila, and recently, as if from unknown documents, in Capefigue. t Davila, lib. xiv. p. 939. 234 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1594. tune, had made them all quail in their hearts. One after tlie other they passed over to him without waiting for the papal absolution. Vitri, the commandant in Meaux, no longer receiving pay for his troops of the Spaniards, set the example; it was followed in Orleans, Bourges, and Rouen. The chief considera- tion now was, how matters would turn out in Paris. There the political or national French party, after many oscillations, had gained complete ascendancy, gathered the first fami- lies to itself, and filled the most important places with individuals from among them. The armed citizens were already officered by men of the party; the hotel de Ville was di- rected in the same spirit ; the provost des marchands and the echevins were to a man of these opinions. Under these circumstances there could no longer be any impediment to the king's return. It took place on May 22d, 1594. Henry IV. was astonished to find him- self received with such joyous acclamations by the same people that had so long stood out against him, and was disposed to think, that it must till then have been under the yoke of tyrannous rulers. This however was not pre- cisely the fact; the minds of the people had really been swayed by the sentiments that pervaded the Ligue, but others had now taken their places. The king's return was mainly a victory of political opinion. The party of the Ligue now endured a persecution similar to that they had so often inflicted. With the departure of the Spanish troops, the most influ- ential founders and chiefs of the Ligue, such as the despotic Boucher, quitted the city: more than a hundred of the others who were deem- ed the most dangerous were formally banished. All authorities, and the entire people, took the oath of allegiance. Even the Sorbonne, the most obstinate members of which, including the rector himself, were banished, acquiesced in the doctrines that had become dominant. How very different were their resolutions now, from those they had passed in 1589. Now the Sorbonne too admitted that all power is of God, according to the 13th chapter of Romans, and that whosoever resists th.e king withstands God and falls under condemnation. It repro- bated the opinion, that a subject may refuse obedience to a king, because he is not yet re- cognized by the pope, as a suggestion of wicked and evil advised men. All the members of the university, rectors, deans, theologians, decre- tists, physicians, artists, monks and conventi- cals, students and officers, now swore fidelity and allegiance to Henry IV., and pledged them- selves to spill their blood for him. Nay, what was more, on the strength of this new ortho- doxy the university began a campaign against the Jesuits. It reproached them with their sedi- tious principles, which indeed it had itself pre- viously shared, and with their leaning to the Spanish interests. For a long while the Jesuits defended themselves not unsuccessfully. But since, in the same year, Jean Chastel,* a man who attended their schools, made an attempt to murder the king, and admitted on his exa- mination that he had often heard from the Jesuits, that it was lawful to kill a king who was not reconciled to the church, they could no longer resist the general success of the party to which they had always been opposed. The people was with difliiculty restrained from sacking their college ; at last all the members of the order were condemned, as seducers of youth, disturbers of the public peace, and ene- mies of the king and the state, to quit the kingdom within fourteen days.f Thus the opinions which had taken up their position as opposition by small and feeble beginnings, now gradually overspread Paris and the^whole kingdom, and drove their antagonists out of the field. Similar movements took place in all quarters. New submissions daily occur- red ; the king was crowned and anointed at Chartres ; prayers were offered up for him in all the churches ; the monastic orders recog- nized him ; he exercised the ecclesiastical prerogatives of the crown, important as these are, without gainsay. In this matter he evinced the soundness of his Catholicism ; where the ritual of the church had suffered any detriment during the late troubles, he en- deavoured to restore it; where the exclusive practice of it had been m.aintained, he confir- med that right to it by solemn privileges. All this he did without having yet been reconciled with the pope. But it had now become for the latter urgent- ly necessary to think of reconciliation-! Had he delayed longer there was a possibility of schism ; an actually separate church of France might have arisen. The Spaniards, it is true, still held out against the measure. They maintained that decidedly Henry's conversion was not real ; * Juvenciiis, partis v. lib. xii. n. 13, gives the following description of the criminal: "Indoles juveni tristis ac tetrica, mores iiiiprobi, mens anxiarecordatione criminum alque unius potissiraum quod matrem aliquando vi'rberas- set . . . Conscientia, criminum ultrix, meniem etferatam diro vexare pergebal metti: quein ut leniret immane par- ricidium imposlnemis an potius erebi furiis incitatus de- signat, quo tamquam de religions ac regno bene merilua peccatorum veniam facilius, ut demons repulabat, conse- queretur." [The young man's disposition was gloomy and morose, liis morals depraved, his mind was harassed by the remembrance of crimes, and of one especially, namely, that he had once beaten his mother .... Con- science, the avenger of crimes, continued to torture his brutalized mind v/ith dire fears: to mitigate these he con- ceived in his insanity, or rather incited by hellish rage, the design of committing a monstrous parricide, whereby, as though having done service to religion and the realm, he migiitthe more easily, as the madman imagined, obtain foreiveness of his sins.] f Annuce Literae Societatis Jesu, 159G, p. 3-50. " Tanta superat adhuc preeterili naufragii fluctuatio ul nondum ta- bulas omnes alque arraamenta disjecta collegerimus." [Such is still the surge left behind by the late shipwreck, that we have not yet^coUected all our scattered goods and cliauels.] t Not until Nov. 5, 1594, the Venetian ambassador finds the pope with respect to tlie affairs of France " meglio incliaaio che nel passato" [beuer disposed than formerly.] A. D. 1594.] ABSOLUTION OF HENRY IV. 235 that the true grounds for apprehending a schism would only make themselves felt when he received absolution ;* they even pointed out the occasion on which it would break out. It still required resolution on the pope's part, to set himself in opposition to those whose power encompassed liim, and who possessed a great party in the curia, to separate from opi- nions which passed for orthodox, for which his predecessors had so often wielded the spiritual and temporal weapon, nay, which he himself had countenanced for so many years. He saw, however, that every delay would be pernicious, and that he had nothing more to expect from the opposite party ; he felt that the party triumphant in France, though to a certain extent at variance with the strict doctrines, nevertheless in temporal matters exhibited a manifest sympathy with the interests of Rome ; the former feeling might perhaps be removed and the latter turned to better account : in short, Clement now manifested a willing alacrity upon the very first word addressed to him. We have the account of his negocia- tions written by the French plenipotentiary D'Ossat ; they are amusing, instructive, and worth reading ; but I do not find that he had great difficulties to overcome. It would be useless to follow the proceedings in detail ; the general posture of things had already de- cided the pope. The only question was, would the king too on his part make some conces- sions to the pope. Those who were averse to the reconciliation, would fain have raised the demand for these as high as possible, alleg- ing that the church required the strongest securities in such cases ; the pope, however, remained satisfied with more moderate terms. He demanded especially the restoration of Catholicism in Beam, the introduction of the regulations of the council of Trent, so far as this was consistent with the laws of the land, close observance of the concordat, and the education of the prince of Conde, the presump- tive heir to the throne, in the catholic faith. On the king's part it still continued highly desirable that he should be reconciled to the Roman see. His power was based on his con- version to Catholicism, an act which could only derive full authenticity from the pope's absolu- tion : although by far the greater number were compliant on this point, still there were 6ome who availed themselves of the want of this sanction to justify their continued resist- ance.! Henry IV. agreed to the stipulations * Ossat a Mr- de ViUeroy, Kome, Dec. G, 1594. LeUers d' OssLil, i. 53. t Du Perron au Roi, Nov. G, 1595. " De toucher icy com- bien I'aulhoriie et la faveiir de ce siege eslaiil eiilre vos mains vous pent servir d'un utile instrumenl noa seule- nienl pour reinetlre et conserver vos sujeis en paix et en obeissance, niais aussi pour vous preparer toules sortes de grandeur hors de voire royaume, et 4 tout le moins pour lenirvds ennemis en quelque crainte el devoir par I'ap- prehension de la mesme autliorite dont il at sont aydez pour troubler vos estats et vos peuples, ce seroit un dis- cours superflu." — Les ambassades du cardinal du Perron, with no great difficulty. He had already spontaneously prepared their fulfilment in part. He had it at heart to show himself a good catholic. Much as his power now ex- ceeded what it was at the period of the duke de Nevers's mission, still the letter in which he now solicited absolution of the pope, was much more humble and submissive than the former. " The king," it said,* " returns to the feet of your Holiness, and beseeches you in all humility by the bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deign to accord him your holy bles- sing and your highest absolution." The pope felt perfectly satisfied.! It now only remained that the college of cardinals should declare its assent. The pope, however, would not let the matter be brought before a regular consistory, in which incon- venience might easily have resulted from the observance of old resolutions : he invited the cardinals to give him their several opinions in special audiences, an expedient often before resorted to on similar occasions. Having heard them all, he declared that two-thirds of the votes were in favour of absolution. Accordingly on the ITth of Dec. 1595, the ceremony was performed. The pope's throne was erected before the church of St. Peter, and the cardinals and the curia reverently surrounded their head. The king's petition and the conditions to which he had agreed were read. Thereupon the representative of the most Christian king cast himself at the pope's feet, who striking him slightly with a rod, bestowed absolution upon him. Once more the papal see appeared in all the undi- minished splendour of its ancient traditional authority. J i. 27. [Du Perron to the king, Nov. 6, 1595. To discuss in this place how much the authority and favour of this see placed in your hands may serve you as an useful instru- ment not only to reduce your subjects to peace and obedi- ence and to maintain the same, but also to prepare for you all kinds of greatness beyond the limits of your kingdom, and at the very least to keep your enemies in some fear and duty by the apprehension of the same authority, whereof they have availed themselves to trouble your states and your subjects, would be asuperfluous discourse.] * Requete du Roi, in Amelot's remark, cited by Ossat, i. ICO. t The court of Rome still considered the resolution rash and hazardous. Doltino, Relatione ; " I piu gravi negotii il [lapa ha saputo espedire e molto bene e ancora con gran celeriti; perche con tanti contrarj quanti ogn' uno sa benedisse il re di Francia, lo accetto nel grembo della chiesa, mando li un legato nel tempo che tutti lo ributta- vano sotto pretesto che non fosse sua dignity mandarlo avanti che il re mandasse il suo ambasciatore a Roma, et in quelle I'autoriti della Sna- Vra- giovo assai, che cosi mi disse S. Si- per diversi offlci cheaque! tempo io aveva latte a nome di lei." [The pope succeeded in dispatch- ing the gravest atfairs, not only very well but with the greatest expedition: for in spite of so many notorious ob- stacles, he gave his benediction to the king of France, re- ceived him into the bosom of the church, and sent him a legale, at the time when every one op[)osed this ujion the pretext that it was not consistent with his dignity to do so, till the king had first sent an ambassador on liis jjart ; and in this matter the authority of your signory assisted not a little, as his Holiness told me, in respect to various ser- vices I perforuied at that time in the name thereof] t Ossai, who on other occasions is very circumstantial, passes very lighly overihis ceremony (i. 168.) " Tout s'y est pass6," he says, " convenablemenl a. la dignity de la 236 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL, [a. d. 1560-97. And in truth the ceremony was indicative of a greal result obtained. The ruling power in France, now strong and firmly rooted, was again catholic ; it had consequently an inter- est in standing well with the pope. A new focus of Catholicism was formed in that coun- try, from which great influences would of necessity emanate. More closely considered, this result present- ed two different aspects. It was not by the immediate efforts of the pope, or by a victory achieved by the strict party, that France had been won back to the church ; it was rather by an union of the mo- derate opinions lying midway between both extremes, by the paramount strength of a party that had first appeared as an opposition. Hence it was that the French church assumed quite a different position from that of Italy, or of the Netherlands, or that newly erected in Germa- ny. It submitted to the pope, but it did so with a freedom and an intrinsic independence founded on its origin, the sentiment of which was never again lost. So far the papal see could by no means regard France as an abso- lute conquest. But its advantages on the other, the politi- cal side, were very great indeed. The lost balance of power was restored : — two great powers, jealous of each other, involved in in- cessant mutual struggles, held each other in check. Both were catholic, and might after all fall into the same views ; but between the two the pope assumed a far more independent position than had been possible for any of his predecessors for a long period. He was now to a great degree liberated from the bondage in which the superiority of Spain had hitherto held him. This political result came to light only with the progress of events. The French influence for the first time re-appeared in Italy upon the lapse of Ferrara to the holy see, an event in other respects also of great moment, as regarded the growth of the political power of the ecclesiastical states, and which we may here suffer to interrupt our attention to the affairs of religion, as it then did that of con- temporaries. We shall begin with a re- view of the country under its last sover- eigns. Ferrara under Alfonso II. It is frequently assumed that Ferrara was peculiarly prosperous and flourishing under the last Edtes: this, however, is but an illu- sion, like so many others, originating from the aversion entertained for the secular dominion of Rome. Montaigne visited Ferrara under Alfonso couronnc irSschrelienae. [The whole was conducted in a manner befiuing the dignity of the most Christian crown.] Every one was of that opinion. I II. He admired the broad streets of the city, and its beautiful palaces, but even he made the remark that occurs to modern travellers, that they were lonely and deserted.* The prosperity of the country depended on the maintenance of the dams, and the regulation of the waters; but neither dams, nor streams, nor canals were kept in proper order ; inun- dations were not unfrequent; Volana and Pri- maroo became choked with sand, so that their navigation ceased entirely.f But it were a still greater error to look on the subjects of that house as free and happy. Alfonso most severely enforced the rights of his exchequer. On every contract, though it only related to a loan, a tenth accrued to the duke, and he levied a tenth on every thing that entered the city. He had the monopoly of salt ; he burthened the commerce in oil with a new tax: at the advice of his minister of taxes, Christofano da Fiume, he finally appro- priated to himself the trade in flour and bread, and no one could procure those necessaries of life from any (jther than the ducal officers; no neighbour would have dared to lend a few handfuls of flour to another.^ Even the nobil- ity were allowed the privilege of hunting only a iew days, and never with more than three dogs. One day six men were seen hanging in the market-place, with dead pheasants tied to their feet. This was a token, it was said, that they had been shot in the act of poaching in the duke's presferves. If, therefore, writers speak of the flourishing condition and the activity of Ferrara, they cannot mean the country and the city, but only the court. In the tempestuous days of the early part of the sixteenth century, when so many flour- ishing families, so many powerful principali- ties perished, and all Italy underwent a radi- cal revolution, the house of Este had, by its dexterous policy, and its stout-hearted selt- * Montaigne: Voyage i. 226. 231. I A report respecting the state of the church belonging to tiie beginning of the seventeenth century, cisserls that the duke had transferred lo liis country seat, Mesola, the peasants whose tasli i was to work on the Po, so that eve- ry thing connected with the latter had fallen into ruin, and could not be repaired. (Inf. Poliil. t. ix.) t Frizzi : ftlemorie per la storia di Ferrara, torn. iv. p. 3G4. More particularly Manolesso, Relatione di Ferrara. " II duca non e cost aiiiaio come le suoi precessori e questo per I'austeritS. e esattioni che fa Christofano da Fiume cognominato il Frisaio (Sfregiato) suo gabelllere ... II Frisato s'oil'erse di vendere iriiglior mercato le robbe a beneficio del popolo di quello che facevano gli allri e darne mollu utile a S. Eccz»': piacque il partilo la duca : — ma se bene il Frisato paga al duca quello che gli ha data inteniione, non sudisfa pero al popolo, vendendo la robba cattivaquantoallaqualitu. e mollocara quanloal prezzo." [The duke is not so beloved as his predecessor, by reason of the harshness and the ejof the papacy. He was bent on upholding, in its fullest significancy, the doctrine that the pope was the sole vicegerent of Jesus Christ, that to his good pleasure was committed the power of the keys, and that he was to be hum- bly reverenced by all nations and princes.J He said, that not by men, but by God's Spirit had he been raised to that chair, with the obli- gation of watching over the immunities of the church and the prerogatives of God, and that he was bound in conscience to lend all his strength towards liberating the church from usurpation and violence. He would rather risk his life in the discharge of his duty, than have to answer for its neglect when he should stand before the throne of God. With lawyer-like keenness he identified the pretensions of the church with her rights, and made it a point of conscience to renew them, and carry them out in all their strict- ness. Disputes with Venice. From the time that the papal power had ♦ The four ambassadors relate this occurrence. " Si congettura," they add, '• fondamente che abbi ad esser il ponlifice severe e rigorosissimo et inexoribile in fallo di giustitia." [Il is conjectured that the pope must be at bottom severe and most rigorous and inexorable in matter of justice.] t Du Perron k Villeroy, 17 May, 1606. " Le pape ayant fait entendre que sa volonte etoit que tous les cardinaux qui avoient des eveschez y allassent ou bien les resignas- sent ou y missent descoadjuteurs .... j'ay pens6 . . . ." [The pope having made linown that it was liis will that all cardinals who had bishoprics should go to them, or resign them, or place coadjutors in them .... I have thought . . . .] t Relatione di IV. ambasciatori : " Conoscendo il pon- tefice presente sua grandezza spirituale, e quanlo se le debba da tutti li popoli Christiani attribuir di ossequio e di obedienza, non eccettuando qualsivo^lia grandissiuao principe." again made good its footing as an opponent of protestantism, and revived the ideas on which the hierarchy is mainly founded, it had also enforced all its canonical rights with regard to the internal affairs of catholic states. With its victory over its opponents grew likewise its authority over its own adherents. After the bishops had been bound to more strict obedience, the monastic orders attached more closely to the curia, and all reforms completed with a view to the utmost promo- tion of the pope's power, there were establish- ed in every capital of Europe regular nuncia- tures, combining with the dignity belonging to embassies from an influential power, juris- dictional rights that afforded them an essen- tial control over the most important affairs of social life and of public policy. Even where the church had re-established herself in unison with the state, where they had made common cause in resisting the ad- vancement of protestant opinions, this same circumstance very soon gave rise to disagree- ments. In those days as now the Roman court was particularly intent on upholding* its pretensions in Italy : we find the Italian states incessantly involved in disputes with the ecclesiastical power on this account. The old controversies between church and state had not been dis- posed of either in general by any decisive principle, nor severally by treaty and agree- ment. The popes themselves were not always consistent. Pius V., and Gregory XIII., at least in the first half of his reign, insisted most pertinaciously on their claims : Sixtus V. was much more indulgent in individual cases. The states and their envoys sought to escape out of difficult contingencies with as little pre- judice as they could, and to profit by favoura- ble moments ; nor could they wholly fail of success in this: the interest of popes was transient and shifting, those of the states were permanent. Hence, in every case, the ques- tions which arose for decision were far less concerns of the jus canonicum and of legal inquiry, than of policy, and of reciprocal de- mands and concessions. The view, however, taken of his rights by pope Paul V. was once more wholly that of a lawyer. He held the canonical regulations of the decretals as laws of God. He ascribed not to the intrinsic necessity of things, but to the personal remissness of his predecessors, whatever concessions or connivances they might have stooped to, and deemed himself called to repair these lapses. We find him shortly after his accession involved in angry disputes with all his Italian neighbours on tliis account. In Naples the regent Ponte, president of the royal council, had condemned to the gal- leys an ecclesiastical notary who had refused to give the civil court information respecting A. D. 1605-1607.] DISPUTES WITH VENICE. 257 a marriage, and a bookseller who, in defiance of a royal order, had disseminated a book by Baronius against the Sicilian monarchy. A rnonitorium of (/lement VIII. against the re- gent's proceedings had remained without ef- fect Pope Paul V. delayed not a moment to pronounce excommunication.* The duke of Savoy had disposed of some benefices, the right of conferring which was claimed by the court of Rome: Genoa had in- terdicted societies that were held at the Jesuit colleges, because attempts were made in them to control the elections to public offices: Lucca had wholly forbidden in general the execution of the decrees of papal functionaries without the previous assent of the native magistrates: in Venice lastly a couple of clergymen, who were guilty of grave crimes, had been brought before the civil tribunal. Precisely the univer- sality of this resistance against the authority of the church was what kindled the official zeal and the indignation of the pope. In every quarter he interposed with stern commands and threats. Nay, at this moment he even enlarged upon the existing pretensions of church author- ity. He even made the unheard-of assertion, that it was not for the state to forbid the com- merce of its subjects with protestants, that this was an affair of the church, and belonged exclusively to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Most of the Italian states looked on these steps as extravagances that, with more expe- rience, would die away of their own accord. None wished to be the first to break witli the pope. The grand duke of Tuscany declared he had matters on hand that would drive the pope to frenzy, but that he endeavoured to keep them back ; that Paul V. was a man who judged of the world from a little town of the ecclesiastical states, where everything pro- ceeded according to the letter of the law ;f but there would soon be a change in this ; the Spaniards would be caught, and they must either be let go, or they would rend the net; such an example was to be expected. Some- thing like this was the thought of the others, and they gave way at first. Genoa repealed its edict; the duke of Savoy transferred the disputed benefices to a nephew of the pope ; the Spaniards themselves allowed that the regent should solicit and receive absolution in presence of numerous witnesses. The Venetians alone, usually so prudent and compliant, scorned to adopt this policy. But Venice in truth had been more irritated than the rest. The case aflbrded a striking example how offensive the encroachments of the Roman court could be, especially towards a neisfhbourinij state. * Lps ambassades du cardinal du Perron, ii. 683. 736. + Rplalione di IV. ainbasciatori : "II granduca ricor- dava che il poniefice non era nso a governar come prin- cipe grandp, perche aver avulo qualr.hi? governo di cillii della chiesa, dove si procede col rigor eoclesiaslico e da prete, non basla per saper govornare come capo supremo. ' ' 33 This neighbourhood proved in itself a very inconvenient circumstance, especially since the acquisition of Ferrara by the church. The disputes about bounrlaries which the republic had had with the dukes were prosecuted far more earnestly by the Roman court: Venice was disturbed in the regulation of the Po, which she was engaged in carrying into effect at a great cost, and in the time-honoured pos- session of her fisheries ; she had no alternative but to protect her hydraulic works with armed vessels, and to seize on papal subjects by way of reprisal for the confiscation of some of the fishing boats by the legate of Ferrara. iVIeanwhile pope Paul V. laid claim to the rights of sovereignty which for centuries Ven- ice had exercised undisturbed over Ceneda : he made an attempt to carry to Rome the appeals from the episcopal court which had jurisdiction there. A sharp altercation ensu- ed on the subject ; the papal nuncio proceeded to excommunication, whilst the Venetian sen- ate made it its care that this should be attend- ed by no evil consequences.* Not less bitter were the disputes concerning the tenths of the clergy. The Venetians maintained that they had collected them in former times without question asked of the pope ; they would not admit that the pope's sanction was requisite to the levying of this tax. But it was a still sorer grievance to them that the Romans day by day increased the number of exemptions therefrom. The cardinals who possessed very rich benefices, the knights of Malta, the convents, half the mendicant orders, besides all who were en» gaged abroad in the service of the church, or who were numbered under any title in the household of the pope, lastly those too to whom the court had assigned pensions payable out of the Venetian benefices, were declared ex- empt. It followed that the rich were not call- ed on to pay anything, that the whole burden fell on the poor who could not pay. The in- come of the Venetian clergy was computed at eleven millions of ducats ; the net tenths did not amount to more than 12,000 ducats.f * Nicole Contarini : "Mentre si disputava, pareva che da alciino fusse fugitalaconversalione de' censurati, (offi- cers of the republic who had opposed the appeals to Rome), la qual cosa giudicando il senate apportarli offesa, primi- eraniente fece publicare un bando tontro chi lo havessea schivo, e dopo a qiiesti tulti in vita 11 fu data annua pro- vjsione quale era corrispondente alia loio furluna." [While the dispute was going on, it appeared that some sliunned intercourse with the persons censured, which thinj, the senate regarding as an offence to iiself, first published an ordinance against any one who should shun those persons, and the latter were subsequently granted annual allowances equivalent to their fortunes.] f From a statement given in tothe government in Rome. " Mentre s'esagera so\na. la serveritS del magistrate, non si ritrovava fin hora essersi conseguiti piu di 12in. ducati, per li quali non si doveva far tanti richianii, a le fortune ilFlla republica per gratia di Dio non erano t.ili che ne dovesse far conto piu che tanto." [Whilst exaggerated representations were made of the severity of the magistra- cy, it was not found that more than 12(K)1) ducats had been raised up to the current period, a sum which was not worth so many remonstrances being made about il, and 253 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL, [a. d, 1505-07 To these subjects of dispute were added an immense multitude of others, affecting indivi- duals more than the state. I \yill cite but one of them. It is well known how flourishing was the Venetian press in the beginning of the six- teenth century : the republic was proud of this honourable branch of trade, but the regulations of the curia gradually wrought its downfall. There was no end to the prohibition of books in Rome, first of those of a protestant cast, then of books reflecting on the morals of the clergy, or the immunities of the church, of all that in the least degree departed from its dog- mas, and of the entire works of an author who had once incurred censure. The book trade could only be carried on in works of indispu- table orthodoxy ; commercially speaking, it was a little revived by the splendid decorated missals and breviaries, for which the revival of religious sentiments provided a fair sale. But now, even this trade had declined. An emendation of these books was set on foot in Rome, where it was decided that they should be published in their new form.* The Vene- tians remarked with that indignation wliich is always excited by the perversion of public authority to the advancement of private inter- ests, that some functionaries belonging to the congregation of the index, which had the control of matters relating to the press, had a share in the pecuniary profits of the Roman printing offices. Under these circumstances, the relations between Rome and Venice assumed the cha- racter of utter hatred and vindictiveness. How much must this have contributed to promote that disposition to ecclesiastico-poli- tical opposition, which already, in 1589, had proved so serviceable to Henry IV. That king's triumph, and the whole course of Euro- pean events, confirmed and advanced it. The disputes with the pope himself conduced to- wards gradually investing the representatives of this disposition with the conduct of public affairs. None seemed more fit than they to guard the interests of the republic against the encroachments of the church. In January 1606, Leonardo Donate, the leader of the anti-Roman party, was raised to the rank of doge, and he brought into power all the friends by whose aid he had been successful in the struggle of parties. Whilst a pope arose, who with reckless zeal overstrained the disputed pretensions of his the fortunes of the republic, by God's gracp, were not such that a larger sum need have been seriously regarded.] Hereupon some arransemonts were made with a view to meet the evil. But Conlarini says: "In eftetlo mont6 poco, perciocche il foro era gii fatlo e I'abuso tropo con- fermato che distornarlo era piu che nialagevole." [But little was actually effrcted, because the mischief was al- ready done, and the abuse was so confirmed, that to undo il was more than difBcult.] * Conlarini: " Al presente s'era devenulo in Roma in quesio pensiero di risiarnpar messali et aliro, levando di poterlo far ad altri." authority, the administration of Venice passed into the hands of men, with whom opposition to the dominion of Rome had become a per- sonal feeling, who had risen by its means, and who now urged their favourite principle with the more energy, inasmuch as it enabled them at the same time to defeat and put down their adversaries in the republic itself It followed from the nature of the two pow- ers, that the collisions between them should every day become more hostile and more ex- tensive. The pope insisted not only on the surrender of the clerical malefactors, but also demanded the repeal of two laws, a short while previous- ly renewed in the Venetian senate, whereby the alienation of real estates to the clergy was forbidden, and the erection of new churches was made contingent on the sanction of the civil magistrate. He declared that he would not tolerate regulations so directly opposed to the resolutions of the councils, the constitu- tions of his predecessors, and all the maxims of the canon law. The Venetians did not yield a hair's breadth. They said that such were the fundamental laws of their state, handed down to them from their forefathers, who had rendered such services to Christen- dom, and that the republic could not violate them. The disputants, however, did not long con- fine themselves to the immediate subject of quarrel, but both parties speedily proceeded to allege further grievances. The church, on'its part, considered itself prejudiced by the constitution of Venice in general. The re- public forbade recourse to Rome, excluded, under the title of papalists, from consultations on ecclesiastical matters, those who by means of clerical offices had entered into connexion with the Roman curia, and even burthened the clergy with taxes. The Venetians on the other hand declared these restrictions far from adequate. They required that ecclesiastical benefices should be bestowed only on natives, that these alone should take part in the inqui- sition, that every bull should be submitted for the sanction of the state, that every ecclesias- tical assembly should be presided over by a layman, and that all remittances of money to Rome should be forbidden. But matters did not stop here : from the immediate subjects of the dispute, the parties proceeded to general principles. The .Jesuits had long since deduced from their doctrine of the pope's power, the most important consequences in favour of the rights of the church, and they delayed not to repeat them. The spirit, says Bellarmine, guides and bridles the flesh, not vice versa. Just so the temporal authority must not presume to exalt itself above the spiritual, to guide, command, or punish it; this would be rebellion, a hea- A. D. 1606.] DISPUTES WITH VENICE. 259 thenish tyranny.* The priesthood have their prince, who commands them not only in spiri- tual, but also in temporal aftairs; it is impos- sible that they should acknowledge a special temporal superior : no man can serve two masters. It is for the priest to judge the em- peror, not ihe emperor the priest : it would be absurd were the sheep to think of judging the shepherd.f Neither must the prince exact any taxes from the property of the clergy. He may take his tribute from the laity; from the priesthood he will receive the far greater aid of prayer and sacrifice. The clergyman is exempt from all real and personal burthens, he belongs to the family of Christ. Even though this exemption be not founded on the express commands of holy writ, it is yet found- ed on the consequences that follow from thence and on analogy. To the clergy of the New Testament belongs exactly the same right that was formerly conceded to the Levites under the old dispensation.} This was a doctrine which promised that spiritual republic, to which was to accrue so great an influence over the state, a no less complete independence of any reaction on the part of the latter ; one which it was sought in Rome to establish by innumerable proofs from scripture, from councils, and from imperial and papal constitutions, and which was considered on the whole as irrefutable. Where was the man in Venice who should venture to stand before a Bellarmine or a Baronius? The Venetians possessed in Paul Sarpi, their consultor of state, a man whom nature and circumstances had moulded to such a frame of mind, and conducted to such a posi- tion, that he could venture to take up arms agamst the power of the clergy. Paul Sarpi was the son of a merchant who had come from St. Veit to Venice, and of a lady of the Venetian family of Morelli, which enjoyed the privileges of cittadinanza. His father was a little, swarthy, impetuous, quar- relsome man, who had ruined himself by erroneous speculations. His mother was one of those beautiful Venetian blondes not unfre- quently to be seen ; her figure was large, and her character marked by modesty and good * Risposta del Ci- Bellarmino ad una lettera senza nome dell' auLore (Pamphlet of lliOB.) " La raggione indrizza et regge e comanda alia carne e talvolia la casliga con digiuni e vigitie, ma la carne non indiizza ne regge ne comanda n6 punisce la ragione: cosi lapoiesli spiriiuale 6 superiore alia secolare e pero la pub e deve drizzare e reggere e comandarla epunirlaquando si porta male ; ma la potesti secolare non 6 superiore alia spiriiuale n6 la pu6 drizzare n6 reggere nftgli puocomandare n6 punirla, se non di fatto per ribellione e tirannide, come hanno fat- 10 talvolta li principi geutili o heretici." t Bell irminus, de Clericis, i. c. 30. '' Respondeo prin- cipem quidem ove ii ac spiritualem filium pontificis esse, sed sacenloLem nullo modo filium vel ovem principis dici possp, quoniam sacerdoles et o nnes clerici suuin habent principem spiritualem, a quo non in spiritualibus solum sed etiam in temporalibus reguntur." t Tliese maxims are to be found verbatim either in the above named Rispost;i, or in Bellarmine's book, De Cleri- cis, panicularly in lib. i. c. 30. sense. Her son resembled her in his fea- tures.* A brother of hers, Ambrosio Morelli, was then at the head of a school which enjoyed peculiar reputation, and was principally de- voted to the education of the young nobility. Of course the master's nephew was admitted to share the instruction. Nicolo Contarini and Andrea Morosini were Paolo's school- fellows, and were very intimate with him. In the very threshold of his life he formed the most important connexions. Nevertheless, he did not suffer himself to be restrained either by his mother or by his uncle, or by these connexions, from following his inclination for solitude, and entering a convent of Servites as early as in his four- teenth or fifteenth year. He spoke little, and was always serious. He never ate meat, and till his thirtieth year drank no wine; he abhorred lewd discourse : " Here comes the maiden," his companions used to say when he appeared, " let us talk of something else." Every wish, inclination, or desire he was capable of, was fixed on those studies for which he was endowed with re- markable aptitude. He possessed the inestimable gift of rapid and just apprehension ; for instance, he always recognized again a person he had once seen, or when he entered a garden, he saw and re- marked every thing in it at a glance ; his vision, both mental and bodily, was clear and penetrating.! Hence he applied himself with particular success to natural sciences. His admirers ascribe to him the discovery of the valves in the blood vessels, and of the dilata- tion and contraction of the pupil,|; the first observation of the dip of the needle, and of a great many other magnetic phenomena, and it cannot be denied that he took a lively share both in the way of suggestion and discovery, in the labours of Aquapendente, and still more of Porta.J To his physical studies he added * Sarpi, born August 14, 1552. His father's name was Francesco, his mother's Elizabetta. Fra Fulgentio, Vita di Paolo Sarpi. Griselini, Memorie di Fra Paolo Sarpi, translated into German by Lebrel, p. 13. t According to Fra Fulgentio, he himself spoke of his "gran passibiliti, perche non solo I'oggetlo in lui facesse moto, ma anco ogni minima reliquia." "Come perito suonatore," continues Fulgentio, " ad un sol locco fa giu- ditio del instroinento, cosi con far parla le persone con prestezza ammirabile cono ceva i fini, gl' inleressi," &c. [his great delicacy of perception, for not only did present objects impress him, but even the least traces of them. As a man of practised ear, continues Fulgentio, judges of an instrument upon a single touch, so he, by causing people to speak, discovered with admirable quickness, their pur- poses, their intentions, &c.] t See also Fischer: Geschichte der Physik, i. 167. § " A quo," says Porta of him, "aliqua didicisse non solum fateri non erubesciinus, sed gloriamur, quum eo docliorem, subliliorem, ([uotquol adhuc videre contigerit, neminem cognoverimus ad encyclopsediam" Magiae Natur. lib. viii. praef Grisellini, I. § 20. 24. [Not only do we not blush to own that we have learned some things from him, but we are even proud of it, never, among all tliose it has bpen our lot to meet, having known any man more learned or more acute than he, in the whole circle of knowledge.] 260 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1606. mathematical calculations, and the observation of intellectual phenomena. In the Servite library in Venice, was kept a copy of the works of V^ieta, in which many errors of that author were corrected by the hand of Fra Paolo : there was also preserved there, a little treatise of his on the orgin and decline of opi- nions among men, which, if we may judge from the extracts given from it by Foscarmi, contained a theory of the intellectual powers, which regarded sensation and reflexion as their foundations, and had much analogy to the theory of Locke,* if it did not quite so strictly coincide with it, as some have assert- ed. Fra Paolo wrote only as much as was necessary : he had no natural promptings to original composition : he read continually, and appropriated what he read or observed : his intellect was sober and capacious, metho- dical and bold ; he trod the path of free inquiry. With these powers he now advanced to questions of theology and of ecclesiastical law. It has been said that he was in secret a pro- testant; but his protestanism could hardly have gone beyond the first simple propositions of the Augsburg confession, even if he sub- scribed to these : at all events, Fra Paolo read mass daily all his life. It is impossible to specify the form of religion to which he in- wardly adhered : it was of a kind often em- braced in those days, especially by men who devoted themselves to natural science, — a mode of opinion shackled by none of the exist- ing systems of doctrine, dissentient and spe- culative, but neither accurately defined nor fully worked out. 1'hus much, however, is certain, that Fra Paolo bore a decided and implacable hatred to the temporal authority of the pope. This was perhaps the only passion he cherished. At- tempts have been made to attribute it to the refusal of a bishopric for which he had been proposed : and who may deny the efl'ect which a mortifying rejection, barring the path of natural ambition, may have even on a manly spirit '.' Nevertheless, the true cause lay tar deeper. It was a politico-religious habit of thought, bound up with every other conviction of iSarpi's mind, corroborated by study and ex- perience, and shared with his friends, his con- temporaries, the men who once had assembled at iMorosim's, and who now swayed the hehn of the state. Before the keenness of his pene- * The explanation of substance would be a particularly striking point of tomparison. Paolo Sarpi, according to Foscarmi and Griselini, inlers substance from the multi- plicity of ideas, resting on a basis we cannot comprehend ; and in this basis, he says, consists what we call substance. Griselini, i. p. 46, Gennati translation. Locke, Human Understanding, book ii. ch. 23. " Not imagining how the simple ideas can suLsist by thrmsilves, we accustom our- selves to suppose some subsiratuni wherein they dosubsist, and from which ihey do result, which therelore we call aubatauce." trating observation vanished those chimerical arguments, with which the Jesuits laboured to prop up their assertions, and those doctrines, the real foundation of which was, in fact, to be looked for only in a devotion to the Roman see, created by a by-gone condition of society. It was not without difficulty that Sarpi first convinced the minds of the jurists in his own country. Some held, with Bellarmine, that the exemption of the clergy was an ordinance of Divine law : others asserted, that at least the pope had a right to appoint it ; they ap- pealed to the resolutions of the councils in which the exemption was proclaimed. Now what a council might do was surely much more within the competence of a pope. The first class of objectors were easily refuted ; to the others, Fra Paolo proved chiefly that the councils on which their arguments relied, hav- ing been called by the sovereign, were to be regarded as assemblies of the empire, from which, too, a multitude of other political enact- ments had issued.* This is a point on which the doctrines put forward by Fra Paolo and his friends were mainly grounded. They set out from the principle which had been triumphantly asserted in France, that the sovereign authority is derived immediately from God, and is subject to no one. It is not for the pope even to inquire whether the pro- ceedings of a stale are sinful or not. For whereto should this tend ? Was there any that might not be sinful, — at least, as regard- ed its object ] The pope would have to probe every thing, to interfere in every thing : the temporal authority would by such means be annihilated. To this authority the clergyman is equally subject as the layman. All powers, says the apostle, are of God. No one is exempt from the obedience due to the magistracy, any more than from tlie obedience due to God. The prince imposes the laws, he judges every man, he exacts tribute : in all these respects the clergy owe him the same obedience as the laity.f The hope by all means possesses a jurisdic- tion, but one purely spiritual. Did Christ exercise a temporal jurisdiction 1 .He cannot have transferred either to St. Peter or his fol- * Letter from Sarpi loLeschasser,3rd Feb., 1G19, in Le- brefs Magazine, i. 479. Anobservationlhe more import- ant lor those times, inasmuch as Mariana, for instance, deduced the most extensive temporal preiogatives for the clergy from the decrees of the Sjianish councils. It may, however, be constantly remarked, that already in those times spiritual and temporal pretensions were either con- founded together or were at variance. The old Gothic monarcliv in Spain possessed, in reality, a very strong infusion of spirituality ; for old laws are generally based on old conditions of things. t Kisjiosta d' un doitore in iheologia ad una lettera scritiagli sopra il breve delle censure. "Sonodunque lutli gli ecclesiastic! et i secolari de jure divino soggetti al principesecolari. Omnibus anima potesiatibus sublimi- oribus subdila sit. E laragionesi 6, perchesitcome niuno 6 eccettuato dair ubidienzachedevealprincipe; perche, come seggionge I'apostolo, Omnia poieslas a Deo." A. D, 1606.] DISPUTES WITH VENICE. 261 lowers what he did not claim in his own per- son. In no degree, therefore, can the exemption of the clergy be traced to an original Divine right:* it depends alone on the consent of the prince. The prince has bestowed possession and jurisdiction on the church ; he is her pro- tector, her common patron ; on him, of right, depends the nomination of the clergy, and tiie publication of bulls. The prince cannot surrender this power even if he would; it is a trust committed to him; he is bound in conscience to transmit it unimpaired to his successor. Thus boldly did the theory of the state and its claims array themselves against those of the church. The tendencies of conflicting powers manifest themselves in opposite sys- tems. The intimate blending of spiritual and temporal interests in the European slates af- ford a wide field of action in which both meet and mingle. The church had long claimed this whole field as her own, and now did so anew. The state on its part had at times as- serted similar pretensions ; but never before, perhaps, had it put them forward so boldly and systematically as in the doctrines before us. These claims on either side could never be adjusted legally : politically it was possible only by mutual concessions ; so soon as these were withheld war was the alternative. Each party was impelled to try the utn'.ost reach of its strength ; and when the contest was con- cernmg ihe right of obedience, it remained to be shown broadly and palpably which of the two was able to enforce it. On the 17th of April, 1606, the pope pro- nounced sentence of excommunication in the stern tbrm of past ages, with express refer- ence to predecessors as omnipotent as Inno- cent III., on the doge, the senate, and the whole body of the Venetian authorities, and especially upon the consultors. He granted the condemned only the shortest intervals for recantation, three of eight and one of three days. After the lapse of these, all the churches in the Venetian territory — those of the con- vents and private chapels not excepted — lay under interdict, divine service in them was forbidden. The clergy of the land were en- joined to publish this damnatory brief before the assembled congregations, and to have it aflixed to the church doors.f The whole body. * Difesadi Giovanni Marsilio a favore della risposta delle olio proposilioni, contra la quale ha scritlo I'illn'O' e revmo- S"- Ci- Btllarmino: Venezia, 1605. The author, who has expressed himself somewhat obscurely, explains himself in the following way, and the explanation is at least authentic, as coming from the same quarter: " Dice I'autore due cose: la prima si 6 che le persone ecclesiaa- tiche non siano esenle dalla prolesti aecolare ne meno i beni di esse, inlendendo in quelle cose alle quali la detta polesa. si eslende (i. e. not in purely spiritual matters) : la secondachel'esentioiiech' hanno Udelti ecclfsjasticinon 6 de jure divino, ma de jure humano." (p. 62.) f JWentre in esse si tioveriiadunatamaggior moltitudine di popolo per senlir li divini olScj." [When a consider- from the patriarch to the parish priests, were commanded to do this, under pain of heavy punishment, human and divine. Such was the attack : the defence was not so vigorous. It was proposed, in the college of Venice, to make a solemn protestation, as had been done in times past; this, however, was not approved of, on the principle that the pope's sentence was in itself null and void, and had not even a show of justice. In a short pro- clamation, contained in a quarto sheet, Leon- ardo Donato made known to the clergy the resolution of the republic to uphold the sove- reign authority, " which in temporal things acknowledges no superior but God ;" her faith- ful clergy would of themselves perceive the nullity of the censure issued against them, and would continue uninterruptedly in the discharge of their functions, in the care of souls, and the service of God. No alarm, no threats were uttered : the proclamation was simply a declaration of confidence. Probably, however, something more was expressed by word of mouth.* And now, out of the question of claim and of right, arose immediately a question of power and of possession. Challenged by their two chiefs, the pope and the republic, to tender contradictory proofs of obedience, the Vene- tian clergy had to decide with which of the two calls they would comply. They did not hesitate, but clung to the re- public. Not a single copy of the papal brief was posted up.f The delay allowed by the pope expired. The clergy every where con- ducted public worship as usual. The regular clergy acted like the secular. The newly-founded orders formed the only exception: those orders namely which more particularly represented the principle of eccle- siastical restoration, — the Jesuits, the Thea- tines, and the Capuchins. The Jesuits were not very well decided in their own minds; they consulted their provincial in Ferrara, and the general in Rome, and the latter ajv plied to the pope ; the answer of Paul V. was, they must either observe the interdict, or shake the dust from off their feet and quit Venice. A hard resolve, assuredly, since ihey were flatly told there they should never be permitted to return. But their principles al- lowed them no choice; they betook them- selves in a few vessels to the papal domi- able number of persons shall have assembled there to hear divine service] which had been done in Ferrara with such vast effect. Breve di censure el inlerdetto della Sii. de NSre. P. Paolo V. contio li S". Veneiiaui, 1G06. * This proclamation of the IJth of May, 1606, is printed by Rarapazetto, stampator ducale. On the title-page is represented St. Mark, with the gospel and the drawQ sword. In the senate they investigated, as Priuli says, " le nullita molte e notorie" [the many and notorious nullities] (if the papal brief. t P. Sarpi, Hisioria parlicularp, lib. ii.p. 55, affirms that persons who had attempted to post the bull were arrested by the inhabitants themselves. 262 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1607. nions.* Their example was followed by the other two orders.f A middle course, which the Theatines had proposed, was rejected, as inexpedient, by the Venetians, who were un- willing- to have any division in their land; they required either obedience or departure. The deserted churches were easily supplied with other priests, and care was taken that no one should detect any lack of spiritual aid. The next Corpus Christi day was celebrated with special pomp, and an unusually nume- rous procession. I At all events, here was a complete rupture. The pope was astounded; the reality of things stood in rude contrast with his over- strained pretensions ; — were there any means of overcoming it 1 Paul V. thought at times of the employment of armed force, and in the congregation, too, warlike views once predominated. Cardinal Sauli cried out that the Venetians should be chastised ; legates were appointed, and an army was equipped. But at bottom they durst not venture on war. They would have had reason to dread that Venice should call in protestant aid, and cast Italy, — nay, the whole catholic world, — into the most perilous com- motion. The settlement of questions of ecclesiasti- cal right was after all to be attempted, as in former instances, by political means : not that this could be done by the contending parties, the rupture between whom was too violent; but it devolved on the mediation of the two leading powers, Spain and France. The pri- vate interests of the mediators would of course likewise play a part in the matter. There was a party in both kingdoms that would have welcomed the outbreak of hostili- ties. Among the Spaniards it consisted of the zealous catholics, who hoped once more to en- slave the Roman see to the monarchy, and the governors of Italian districts, whose power would be augmented by war: Viglienna, the ambassador at Rome, also entertained this wisl), expecting, by means of the event, to promote his house to ecclesiastical dignities. In France, on the other hand, the war party was comprized of the zealous protestants. Sully and his adherents would have gladly hailed an Italian war, were it for no other reason than its causing a diversion in favour of the Netherlands, which were then pressed hard by Spinoia. On both sides these parties came to open demonstrations. The king of Spain dispatched a letter to the pope, in which he promised him aid, at least in general terms. In France the Venetian ambassador also re- ceived offers from men of eminence ; it was ♦ Juvencius, Hist. Soc. Jpsu, v. ii. p. 93. I The inr-nlion made by V. Sanili (vi. 1110,) of "i rifor- mail di S. Fr.incisco,'' an error into which many authors have fallen, as well as he, arose out of the fact that the Capuchins are reformed Franciscans, and were SO desig- nated by A. Morisini on this cxasion. J A. Maurocensis, Hist. Ven. torn. iii. p. 350. his belief that he could bring together an army of 1.5,000 Frenchmen within a month. Tlie.se impulses, however, did not prevail. The lead- ing ministers, Lerma in Spain, and Villeroy in France, wished for tranquillity. The for- mer rested his reputation above all on the re- storation of peace ; the latter belonged to the strict catholic party, and would never have consented to an attack by the French on the pope.* The princes agreed with their minis- ters. Henry IV. justly observed that, should he draw his sword for the republic, he would hazard his reputation as a good catholic. Philip III. sent a new declaration to the pope. He would willingly assist him, but not with- out security for the expense to be incurred, and if he aided him it should be for good and not for evil.f Thus perished the possibility of war. Both the great powers only vied which should most contribute towards peace, and thereby best secure its own influence. To this end Fran- cisco de Castro, Lerma's nephew, was sent from Spain to Venice, and cardinal Joyeuse from France. I have neither the disposition nor the means of detailing the whole course of their negotia- tions ; it is enough if we touch only on the most important pomts. The tirst difficulty consisted in this, that the pope demanded above all things the repeal of the Venetian laws that had given him such offence, and he made the suspension of his ecclesiastical censure dependent thereon. J * Relatione di Pietro Priuli rito'-nato di Francia, 4 Sett. 1608, contains a copious account of the interest talien by the French in these proceedings. Villeroy declared; " Esser questa opponunissima e propria occasione di gua- dagnare I'animo del papa. — II re assicuralo dal suo am- basciatore presso la rejjublica che V. Sa. non nietteria in mano d'altri queslo negotio che della Mi. S. ebbe miradi guadagnare etobbligarsi con questa occasione I'animo del pontelice." [Tliat this was a most opportune and fitting occasion for conciliating the pope. — The liing, assured by his ambassador to tlie republic, that your Signory would not put this atfair into any other hands than his majesty's, aimed at employing this opportunity to gain a hold upon the pope's good will.] fl^rancesco Priuli: Relatione di Spagna, 20 Ag. 1608. " Venne il contestabile a trovarmi a casa, e mi disse con- stantamente che gli ordini dell' aramassar genti non erano per altro se non per non star in olio menire lutti potenze del mondo si armavano, ma che pero non s'erano proveduti di danaro: raccomandij la pace d'ltalia, non potendo perder la republica nell' esser liberate di parole ossequenti, per haver in effetloquelloche desiderava. . . . In quel tempo che il duca di Lerma delle forzi da amas- sarsi parlo iperbolicamenle al ambasciaior d'lnghilterra, . . . scrissono al papa che S. Mi. gli aveva ben promesso d'ajutarlo, ma che cio s'iniendeva al bene e non al male, . . . che il cominciar le guerre stava in mano degli uomini et il finire in quelle di Dio." [The constable came to my house and assured me, that the orders for levying men were given only to avoid being idle while all other powers of the world were arming, but that nevertheless they were not provided with money : he recommended peace in Italy, whereby the republic would obtain in reality what it desired, while on the other hand it could not lose by any liberality in obsequious words. ... At the time that the dulie of Lerma spoke hyperbolically to the ambassa- dor of England of the forces in process of collecting, . . . they wrote to the pope that his majesty had indeed pro- mispd to aid him, but that thereby was meant for good but ml forbad, . . . that the beginning of war was in the hands of men, its termination in those of God.J A. D. 1607.] DISPUTES WITH VENICE. 263 Now the Venetians were wont, with a cer- tain republican pride, to declare their laws sacred and inviolable. When the pope's de- mand came to be discussed in January 1007, although the colleg-e vacillated, it was at last decidedly rejected.* The French, who had pledged their word to the pope, succeeded in bringing the question forward again in March, upon which occasion one, at least, of the four opponents of the measure in the college gave way. After the arguments on both sides had been gone over a second time, the result on this occasion was not indeed a formal and ex- press repeal of the laws in question, but a re- solution was passed in which it was said, that "the republic would conduct itself with its accustomed piety." Obscure as was the lan- guage, the ambassador and the pope never- theless regarded it as importing the fulfilment of their wisiies. The pope now, on his part, suspended his censure. But another very unexpected difficulty now presented itself. The Venetians refused to receive back the Jesuits, who, after their de- parture from tjie dominions of the republic, had been excluded by a solemn decree. But could the pope suffer his faithful fol- lowers, whose only fault was their inviolable attachment to him, to be left at such disadvan- tage ! He employed every device to change the purpose of the Venetians. The Jesuits, too, had the French on their side ; they had, by a special mission, secured the king's favour on this emergency, and Joyeuse interested him- self strongly for them. The Venetians, how- ever, remamed imtnovable.t The most striking thing was, that the Spa- * Ger. Priuli: Cronicca Venela, 20 Zener. 1600(1607): " Dopo lunsa dispula di otto giorni e varie pedentie di ^iudicio dt libfro il senaio rispondere agli ainbasciatori di Francia e di Sjiagna, che il devenir a (iiialsivoelia forma di sospensione nonsi puiiaccomodarlareiiublica, essendo cosa di perpMuo prejudicio: il che fu proposlo da S. Bembo el Al. Zorzi savj del coiisilio el A. Mula ei S. Ve- nier savj della terra ferma." [After a lengthened debate of eight days, and various fluctuations of opinion, the senate resolved to reply to the ambassadors of France and Spain thai ihe republic cannot consent to any forms of suspension whatever, inasmuch as the same would be per- manently injurious; this was proposed by, &c.] Otliers were for amore moderate decision. Norwas it improbable ihal they would carry their point; but meanwhile news arrived that there was nothing to be feared from the Span- ish arms in consequence of the troubles in Naples. "E fu perciO preso la total negativa di sospensione." [For ihat reason the question of suspension was absolutely ne- gatived] by ninety-nine votes to seventy-eight, thai is to say a majority of twenty one. On the 9lh of March, how- ever, Bembo withdrew his support from hi30wnpro|josal. The more moderate decision was carried on the 14th of March in spite of the opposition of Zorgi, Mula, and Venier. + Pielro Priuli: Relatione di Francia, adds to this," So- lamente Fufficio dell'ambasciatore ritenne la Jisposilione che avevaS. Ma., eccilala dall' efficaci instanze che fur- ono fatte da un padre Barisoni Padoano mandato in Fran- cia espressamenie dalla sua congregaijone con pensiero d'oltener di interessarsi acciocch6 fussero di nuovo rice- vuti." [Only the embassy continues in the disposition excited in his majesty by the efficacious appeals of father Barisoni of Padua, who was sent expressly to France by his congregation, with the intention that he should take such measures as might lead to their recall.] niards rather declared against the order than for it. The Dominican interest was predom- inant in Spain : Lerma did not like Jesuits, and held it to be a bad principle in general that a state should be compelled to receive back disobedient subjects. In short, Francis- co de Castro avoided at first making mention of the Jesuits, and at last directly opposed the intercession made for them by the French.* This phenomenon, though naturally arising out of the position of things, was yet so strik- ing that the pope himself was startled by it, and suspecting some deep mystery at the bot- tom of it, gave up insisting on the restoration of the Jesuits.f But the resolution must have cost him dear. He had seemed determined to embroil the world for the sake of a couple of insignificant laws, and now he abandoned his most trusty adherents to perpetual exile from a catholic, an Italian territory.J On the other hand the republic now con- sented to deliver up the two clergymen she had imprisoned. But even while doing so, she claimed a right to make a protest, which the pope ab- solutely refused to hear of. The expedient at last resolved on to end the difficulty was a very singular one. 5 'I'he secretary of the Venetian senate led the prisoners into the palace of the French ambassador, and deliver- ed them up to him "out of consideration," he he said, " for the most Christian king, and with the proviso that the right of the republic to judge of its own ecclesiastics should not thereby be impaired or diminished." " So I receive them," replied the ambassador, and led them before the cardinal, who was walk- ing up and down in the loggia. " These are the prisoners," ho said, " who are to be de- livered up to the pope;" but he made no men- tion of the proviso. The cardinal, tiien, with- out uttering one word, handed them over to the papal commissioner, who received them witli the sign of the cross. How far were the several parties from any thing like a good understanding : all they * Francesco Priuli : Relatione di Spagna: " Sentendo (i Spagnuoli) che Franciosi insistevanonell' introduzione de' Gesuiii, scrJsseroaRoma eta Veneziache non irattas- sero di cii), dando raginne alia republica di non volar capitolare con gente suddita che I'aveva si gravemente oft'esa." f Francesco Priuli : " Venuto I'avviso dell' intiero ac- comodamenio, desisterono dal procurare che si trattasse di loro con la S'i. V., non solo per aon aver voluioparlar di loro, ma per essersi attraversati agli gagliardi ufficj di Francesi : che fece dubitare il papa di qualche recondito mistero, e non vi volse insistere con che essi non sapeva- nochedire." t Ger. Priuli : " Peso molto a S. S'i. questa cosa de' Gesuiti, non per loro, ma per la sua propria riputatione." [His holiness felt sorely this aft'air of the Jesuits, not on their account, but for his own reputation.] § Joyeuse thus mentions il as a condition: "Chelevan- dosi le censure siaiio con.signati li due prigioni a chi li riceve in nome di S. Santiil, li quali, se bene S. Serenity (Venice) dice di darliin gralificatione di S. M. Chrma., si dovessero consignare senza dir ultro." 264 DISCREPANCIES, DOCTRINAL AND POLITICAL. [a. d. 1607. desired was an outward show of reconcilia- tion. To this end the removal of the censure and the grant of absolution were still requisite. But even upon these points the Venetians had objections to propose. Tiiey persisted in asserting that the censure was in itself null and void, and in no way whatever affected them, consequently that they needed no abso- lution. Joyeuse declared to them that he could not change the forms of the church. At last it was agreed on that the absolution should not be performed with the usual publicity: Joyeuse appeared in the college, and pro- nounced it privately as it were. The Vene- tians have always persuaded themselves that they came off altogether without absolution.* It is true, indeed, it was not given in full form, but given it certainly was. On the whole, it is plain that the strife did not terminate so thoroughly to the advantage of the Venetians as is commonly asserted. The laws which the pope complained of were suspended ; the clergymen whose sur- render he demanded were delivered up to him ; absolution even was received. Still all this took place but under extraordinary restrictions, The Venetians proceeded as in an affair of honour, with a painful sensitiveness to the preservation of their reputation ; they narrow- ed every concession they made with restrict- ive clauses, and stifled its force to the utmost of their power. The pope, on the other hand, was in the disadvantageous position of being constrained to a remarkable and little credit- able concession, which attracted the attention of the whole world. Subsequently the relations between Rome and Venice returned, outwardly at least, to to their old course. Paul V. cried out to the first ambassador of the Venetians, " Let old things be done away with, let all things be- come new." He complained at times that Ve- nice would not forget what he on his part had forgotten, and he displayed as much mildness and indulgence as any of his predecessors.f But alter all, this in reality but enabled him to avoid fresh hostilities: the latent discords remained : a proper mutual confidence was not very speedily restored. Issue of the affairs of the Jesuits. Meanwhile the contest between the Jesuits and the Dominicans was settled in a similar, that is to say, an imperfect manner. * Daru, at the clo.«!e of his twenty-ninth book, gives Joyeuae's letter, doubtless the only thing of importance he brings forward concerning the mailer, but he makes some objections to it, very untenable, as 1 think. + Kfilatione di Mocenisio. IGI'2. The pope declared, "Che conveniva per servitio d' Italia che fosse sempro buona jntdlinenzafia quella sede e quesla repiiblica." j [That it was fur the interest of Italy that there should al- ways be a cooJ understanding between that see and thai I republic] . \ Clement died, as we have seen, before pro- nouncing his decision. Paul V. who took the matter up with all the zeal which in general marked the beginning of his reign (from Sep- tember, 1(J05 till February, 1606, seventeen assemblies were held in his presence,) was no less inclined than his predecessor to the old system, and to the views of the Dominicans. In October and November, 1006, assemblies were already held to fix on the form in which the doctrine of the Jesuits was to be condemn- ed. The Dominicansthought the victory was in their hands.* But just then the Venetian affairs had as- sumed the perplexed aspect we have just been considering : the Jesuits had given the Roman see a proof of attachment, in which they far surpassed every other order, and Venice made them pay the penalty of their fidelity. Under the circumstances, it would have seemed barbarous had the Roman see thought of visiting these it most faithful servants with a decree of condemnation. When everything was prepared for the act, the pope paused. He let the matter drop for a while, and at last, on the 29th of August, 1607, he published a declaration, by which Disputatores and Con- sultores were dismissed to their homes : the decision would be made known in due time ; meanwhile, it was the pope's most earnest de- sire that neither party should revile the other.f Thus did the Jesuits, after all, reap an ad- vantage from the loss they had sustained in Venice. It was a great gain for them, that their assailed doctrine, though not formally ratified, had yet not been repudiated. They even boasted of victory. With the public prejudice once for all enlisted in favour of their orthodoxy, they now followed up with unabating ardour that line of doctrinal specu- lation to which they had begun to apply tiiom- selves. The only question was, would they be able to put an end to their own internal discords. There was still a violent fermentation in the order. The alterations in the constitution proved insufficient, and the Spanish party did not desist from their efforts to displace Aqua- viva. At last, the procurators of all the pro- vinces took the yet unprecedented step of de- claring a general congregation necessary. It met in the year 1607, and sweeping changes were once more talked of We have already frequently remarked the close connexion into which the Jesuits had entered with France, and the favour which Henry IV. extended to them. He took an f Serry, Historia congre£;ationum de auxiliis, p. 5G2, el seq., gives the documents relating to this alf'air. " Gratia; viclri'ci," he sayg himself, "jam canebantur'Iotriumphe.' " t Coionelli, secretary to the congregation, in Serry, p. 589: " Tratanlo haordinato (S. S^.) molto seriumente che nel tratlare di quesle maierie nrwuno ardisca Ui qualili- cari e censui-are I'aUra parte." A. D. 1607.] CONCLUSION. 265 interest also in the internal dissensions of the order, and was entirely for Aquaviva. He not only assured the latter in a special letter of his good will, but also intimated his wish to the congregation, that no change should be made in the constitution of the society.* Aquaviva managed to turn so powerful a protection to admirable account. The resistance offered him existed prin- cipally in the provincial congregations. He now carried a law, by virtue of which, in the first place no proposition should be regarded as adopted by a provincial assembly, unless it was supported by two-thirds of the whole number of votes, and secondly, that even a proposition so approved, should not be admit- ted for discussion in the general assembly un- less a majority of the latter previously gave their assent thereto. By these regulations, it is manifest that the influence of the provincial congregations was diminished in an extraor- dinary degree. But besides this, a formal condemnation was also pronounced on the adversaries of the general, and the provincial superiors were ex pressly enjoined to proceed against the so called disturbers of tranquillity. Hereupon peace was gradually restored. The Spanish members gave way, and ceased to contend against the new tenour of their order. A more plastic generation gradually arose under the ruling influence. On the other hand, the general endeavoured by double devotedness, to make a return to Henry IV. for the favours he had receieved at his hand. Conclusion. Thus all these dissensions once more gave promise of being allayed. But if we reflect on their course, and the events by which it was marked, we shall perceive that they introduced the greatest changes into the heart of the catholic church. We began from the point at which the pa- pal power, engaged in a career of victory, was advancing to still greater plenitude of might. Closely allied with the policy of Spain, it con- ceived the design of hurrying onward all catho- lic powers in one direction, and of overpower- ing the refractory in one great current. Had it succeeded, it would have exalted the eccle- siastical spirit to unlimited supremacy, bound together all catholic countries in an unity em- bracing ideas, faith, social existence and policy, and thereby have likewise acquired a para- mount influence in their domestic concerns. But at this very moment the most violent internal dissensions manifested themselves. In France, the feeling of nationality array- * Lilerse Chrislianissirai regis ad concregalos palres, iv. Kal. Dec. 160", in Juvencius v. ii. lib. ix. n. 108 ; " Vosque hortamur ad retinendara instituti vestri inlegriialem et splendorem." 34 ed itself against the pretensions of the hierar- chy. The very adherents of the catholic faith would not make themselves dependent on all points upon the actuating principles of the church, or upon the guidance of its head ; there remained other principles of temporal policy, and of national independence, which resisted the designs of the pope with uncon- querable energy. We may assert on the whole, that these principles proved triumph- ant: the pope was constrained to acknowledge them ; the French church itself sanctioned them by assuming them for its own basi.s. Hence, however, it ensued, that France was again plunged into hostilities against the Spanish monarchy, that two great powers, na- tural rivals, and always prone to strife, con- fronted each other in the midst of the catho- lic world. So little possibility was there of maintaining unity. The circumstances of Italy had even the effect of making this dis- cord, and the balance of power that thence ensued, a source of advantage to the Roman see. Meanwhile, new theological ruptures like- wise occurred. Acutely conceived, and point- ed as were the decisions of the council of Trent, they could not yet prevent this ; even within the boundaries traced by them, there was still room for new controversies of faith. The two most powerful orders met each other in the li.sts ; the two great powers even took part, in some degree, in the conflict ; and Rome had not the courage to pronounce a decision of the strife. Next came the disputes respecting the boundaries between the ecclesiastical and the secular jurisdiction, disputes which had a lo- cal origin, carried on with a neighbour of no very great strength, but maintained on the part of that neighbour with a spirit and force that elevated them to general importance.* Justly is the memory of Paolo Sarpi held in high estimation in all catholic lands. He it was, that successfully established the basis for those ecclesiastical rights which they all enjoy. The pope was not able to put him down. These conflicts between ideas and dogmas, between constitutions and might, now vio- lently impeded and threatened utterly to an- nihilate that ecclesiasticosecular unity, which the pope desired to establish. Tlie course of events shows, however, that the conservative ideas were the strono-er. The internal discord there was no preventine-, but an open conflict was avoided. Peace was restored and maintained between the * " V. Sti-," exclaims P. Priuli on liis return from France, " ha dichiarilo, si puO dire, sin a qu?,i termini sia permesso al pontefice estendere la sua lemriorale e spirit- uale authority." (Relatione di Francia, 'iGOS.) [Your serenity may be said to have declared to what limits the pope may be allowed lo extend his temporal and spiritual authority.] 266 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD. [a. d. 1590-1617. great powers; the Italian states had not yet risen to full consciousness of their strength, nor to an effective use of it; silence was im- posed on the contending orders. The dis- putes between church and state were not pushed to extremities. Venice accepted the proffered accommodation. The policy of the papacy was, to assume as much as possible a position raised above partie.s, and to act as a mediator in their dif- ferences. It still possessed authority enough to effect this. Without doubt this policy was reacted upon by that which was in part its effect, the continued progress of the movement without, of the march of reform, and of the conflict with protestantism. We must now return to this latter subject. BOOK THE SEVENTH. COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD. 1590—1630. Introduction. I DO not think I deceive myself, or that I wander from tlie province of history, if I here take note of what appears to me to be a gen- eral law of life. It is indisputable that the great movements that stir society from the very bottom, are always impressed on it by forces of the living mind. Prepared through the foregone ages, these forces arise when their time is come, at the call of some master spirits, out of the un- fathomed depths of the human soul. It is their nature to strive to carry the world with them, to possess it wholly with their impulse. But the more they succeed in this, and the wider the range of their action becomes, the more do they encounter peculiar and inde- pendent elements of social life, which they cannot wholly subdue or absorb. Hence it happens, since they are in a state of ceaseless fashioning, that they themselves experience a transformation. The foreign elements they embrace, become, in fact, incorporated with them ; tendencies spring up in them, and they exhibit manifestations that are not unfre- quenlly at variance with their general charac- ter: nor can these fail to grow and expand with the general progre.ss of the movement. The only matter of importance is, that they do not become predominant; otherwise, they would utterly destroy all unity and the prin- ciple on which it rests. We have seen how violently internal dis- crepancies and profound contrasts wrought within the restorative papacy ; still the pri- mary idea triumphed : the higher principle of unity maintained the ascendancy, even though it were not with its ancient all-em- bracing power, and it advanced incessantly to new conquests even in the moments of in- ward strife, from which it rather seemed even to gather fresh energy for conflict. These enterprises now solicit our attention. It is a very weighty consideration for the world how far they succeeded, what meta- morphoses ensued from them, what resistance they encountered from within or from with- out. CHAPTER I. PROGRESS OF THE RESTORATION OF CATHOLI- CI.SM. 1590—1617. 5 1. — Measures taken on behalf of Catholi- cism in Poland and the adjoining coun- tries. The opinion has been expressed, that the protestants, who, as we have seen, long pos- sessed the upper hand in Poland, might have been able to put a king of their own creed on the throne : but that they themselves, after all, thought a catholic king preferable, as having in the pope a higher authority, and a judge over him. If they thought so, these very unprotestant sentiments were the means of drawing down on them a heavy chastisement. For it was precisely through a catholic king that the pope was enabled to make war on them. Of all foreign ambassadors in Poland, the papal nuncios alone had the right of discours- ing with the king without the presence of a senator. We know well what sort of men they were ; they had prudence and skill enough to cultivate and profit by the more confidential intercourse thus afforded them. At the beginning of the eightieth year of the sixteenth century, cardmal Bolognetto was nuncio in Poland. He complains of the A. D. 1590-1617.] CATHOLICISM IN POLAND. 267 inconveniences of the climate, the cold, which was doubly painful t» an Italian, the dampness of the small heated apartments, and the mode of life altogether strang-e to him ; but, notwithstanding all this, he accompanied king Stephen from Warsaw to Cracow, from Wilna to Lublin, — throughout the kingdom: at times in rather a melancholy mood, but not the less indefatigable. During the cam- pains he kept up a correspondence with the king, and altogether he kept the Roman in- terests in unbroken connexion with the royal person. We have a circumstantial report of the manner in which he exercised the duties of his office, from which we learn what were his undertakings, and how far they pros- pered.* Above all things, he called on the king to fill the offices of state with none but catho- lics, to allow no other than the catholic wor- ship in his towns, and to re-establish tithes ; measures which were adopted about the same time in other countries, and which promoted or marked the renovation of Catholicism. But he was not successful. King Stephen did not think he could venture so far, and de- clared that his power was not sufficient. Yet that sovereign was not only inspired with catholic convictions, but even with an innate zeal for the interests of the church. In many other particulars he yielded to the nuncio's representations. The Jesuit colleges in Cracow, Grodno, and Pultusk were established by the direct pa- tronage of the king, the new calendar was introduced without difficulty, and the regula- tions of the council of Trent fully enforced. But the most important point was the royal determination for the future to bestow the va- cant bishoprics only on catholics.! Protes- tants had made their way even into those ex- alted spiritual offices; these the nuncio was now empowered to summon before him and to depose : a matter of the more consequence, since the episcopal rank conferred likewise a seat and a vote in the senate. The nuncio sought to turn this political significance of the spiritual institution to account. He ur- gently required of the bishops unanimity of proceedings in the diet, and prescribed to them the measures they should pursue. He formed a close personal intimacy with the most powerful of them, tlie archbishop of Gne- sen and the bishop of Cracow, which was of singular advantage to him. In this way he succeeded not only in infusing a new fire of * Spannochi :" Relatione all lUmo- Rpv'^''- Cardinal Ruslicucci, segrelario di N. S. Papa Sislo V., dflle cose di Polonia inlorno alia religions e delle azi < i del cardi- nal Bolognetlo in quatlro anni ch' egli e stato nunziu in quella piov ncia." t " Sendosi (11 re) delerminalo die nessuno possa le- nere chiese che non sia della vera fede romana." (Span- no cchi.) zeal into the clergy, but acquired also a great influence in secular affairs. The English were proposing a commercial treaty with Poland, that promised great advantages for Dantzig in particular ; it was the nuncio alone who defeated the project, chiefly be- cause the English demanded the express pro- mise that they should be allowed peacefully to ply their traffic without being troubled on account of their religion.* In short, however moderate king Stephen may have been, under him Catholicism first essentially resumed its empire. Now this was of the more consequence, since the most powerful party in the country, the Zamoisky faction, to which, through the king's favour, the most important posts in the country accrued,! also assumed a catholic complexion, and since it was this party that after Stephen's death determined the election of his successor. The Zamoiskys placed on the throne that Swedish prince whom Catha- rine Jagellonica had borne in captivity, and who, from his youth up, had, in the midst of a protestant country, remained unswervingly steadfast in the catholic faith, whether it were from natural inclination, or from the influence of his mother, or from the hope he entertained of the Polish crown, or from all these causes together. This was tSigismund III., a sover- eign, the bent of whose mind was in thorough accordance with those catholic impulses which then agitated Europe. Pope Clement says in one of his instruc- tions, that he had, when cardinal legate to Poland, counselled that prince for the future to bestow all public posts only on catholics. The advice had already been frequently given, by Paul IV., by cardinal Hosius,| and by Bo- ♦ Spannochi: "II che non prima venne agli orecchj del Bologneilo, che andO a irovar S. Mta- e con efficacis- sime ragloni moslro quanta esorbitante cosa sarebbe slata che avesse concesso per publico decreio una tamo obbro- briosa setta, e come non senza nascosto inganno e srieran- za d'importanussime conseguenze quella scelerata don- na voleva che si dichiarasse cosi per decreto potersi eser- citar la setta Anglicana in quel regno, dove tutlo il niondo pur troppo sa che si permetta il credere In materia di re- liglone quel che piace a chi si sia: ton queste ad altre elficacissime ragioni il re Stcfano riraase talmente persu- aso che promesse non voler mai I'ar menzione alcuna di religions in qualunijue accordo avesse fatlo con quella regina o suoi mercantl." [This no sooner came to the ears of Bolognetto than he went lo his majesty and point- ed out 10 him, with tlie most cogent arguinents, what a monstrous thing it would be, were he, by public decree, to acl£nowledge so scandalous a sect, and that It was not williout some lurking trlclcery, and hope of most impor- tant conseijuences, that nefarious woman soucht to have him proclaim permission for the exercise of the English sect in that kingdom, where it is but too universally no- torious that every one is at liberty to believe in matters of religion just what he pleases. These and olher most imjjressive arguments so prevailed with king Stephen, that he promised he would never make any mention of religion In whatever compact he should enter into with that queen or her merchants.] t Spannocchi: "AUedigniia senatorie et all' entrate del regno dicono hosgi non anmiettersi se non i depen- dent! da esso cancplllero, acciii che da n'^ssuno venga impedito di far quello che ad esso ed al re piu torneri di piacere di fare." $ In a despatch of the 14th of March, 1368, he requests 268 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1590-1617. lognetto. But now it fell upon an ear more ready to receive it. What could not be ob- tained either from Sig-ismund Augustus, or from Stephen, Sigismund III. assented to with alacrity. He made it his principle, in fact to promote none but catholics, and pope Clement was perfectly right in ascribing the progress of Catholicism in" Poland to this regulation. The highest attribute of the kingly power in Poland consisted in the bestowal of offices and dignities. The king disposed of all spi- ritual and secular places, great and small, of which there were said to be twenty thousand. What an effect it must have had when Sigis- mund III. began to fill, not alone all the ec- clesiastical places, but those of every descrip- tion whatever, exclusively with catholics, to extend the beneficence of the state, as the Ital- ians once expressed it, the full right of citizen- ship in the highest sense of the words, only to his co-religionists. A man's success in life was proportioned to his credit with the bishops and the Jesuits. The Starost Ludwig von Mortangen owed his advancement to the wai- wodeship of Pomerellia principally to his hav- ing bestowed his house on the society of Jesus. In consequence of this system, there arose, at least in Polish Prussia, a feud be- tween the towns and the nobility, which assumed a religious complexion. Originally both had adopted protestantism, but now the nobility recanted. The examples of Kostka, Dzialinsky, and Konopat, who had risen to power by a change of faith, had a great influ- ence on the rest. The schools of the Jesuits were frequented chiefly by the you,ng nobility. We soon find quarrels breaking out between the pupils of the Jesuits and the citizens' sons in the towns that continued protestant. But the new measures displayed their effects prin- cipally among the nobility. The college of Pultusk numbered four hundred students, all of noble blood.* The general impulse com- menced by the spirit of the times, the teaching of the Jesuits, the newly-awakened zeal of the whole body of the clergy, and the favour of the court, all these combined to dispose the Polish nobility to return to Catholicism. But, as matter of course, the government went still further, and let those who would not recant feel the weight of its displeasure. In Poland tlie catholic clergy insisted par- ticularly on the principle, that the ecclesiasti- cal edifices, having been founded by orthodox catholics, with the co-operation of the bishops, and in many cases of the popes, were the un- alienable property of their church. In every place where the catholic worship was exclud- ed from the parish churches, the bishops took the king to declare " millis sr deinceps vrl honores vel praefecluras vel quaecuiKiue landeiii alia munera publice mandalururn nisi qui Cliristuin aperle confessus fuerit el omni perfidire sive Lutherislicae sive Calvinislicoe sive anabapiistarum nuntium remisent." * Maflfei, ii. 140. legal proceedings, relying on this principle. The tribunals were now filled with zealous catholics ; the same suits were prosecuted against town after town, and the same judg- ments were pronounced. In vain were ap- peals made to the king, — in vain was he re- minded of the confederation by which equal protection had been promised to both confes- sions ; the answer was, that equal protection consisted exactly in helping each party to its lawful rights; that the confederation did not comprise any assurance of the possession of church buildings.* In a few years the cath- olics were in possession of all the parish churches in the towns. " In the parish church- es," exclaimed the pope, " the ancient God is worshipped." In the smaller towns of Prus- sia the evangelical service could only be per- formed in a room in the council-house; of the larger towns Dantzig alone retained its par- ish church. f Thus rapidly prosperous, the catholics did not confine their aggressions to the protes- tants, but began to turn their eyes upon the Greek community. On this point too the king and the pope combined their influence ; but what had most efficacy, as far as I can learn, was the threat of excluding the Greek bishops from sitting and voting in the senate ; the result was, that the Wladika of Wladimir and some other Greek bishops resolved, in the year 1595, to unite themselves to the Roman church accord- ing to the standard fixed by the council of Florence. Their delegates proceeded to Rome ; Roman and royal envoys appeared in the pro- vinces; the ceremony of reconciliation was gone through, and a Jesuit, the king's confes- sor, delivered an animated discourse on the occasion. In this part of the Polish dominions likewise, some churches were restored to the catholics. This was an extraordinary advance to be made in a few years. "A little while ago," says a papal nuncio in the year 1598, "it might have seemed as though heresy would totally supplant Catholicism in Poland ; but now Catholicism is carrying heresy to the grave." If we inquire what were the chief causes of this revoUition, we shall find them to have consisted above all things in the personal in- clinations of the king; and to tliese the pecu- liar position of that monarch immediately opened out still wider prospects. Attempt on Sweden. By the death of his father John in the year 1.592, Sigismund became king of Sweden. * The circumstantial letter of the Waywode of Culm, translated in Lengnich:Polnisch-preussischeG'^schichle; Theil iv. S. 291, pailicularly exjilains these nuHivrs. t Lengnich: Nachricht von der Religionsiinderung in PreussKn, § 27, A. D. 1590-1617.] ATTEMPT ON SWEDEN. 269 In that king-dom indeed neither was his authority intrinsically absolute, nor was he personally free from the ties of engagements. He had signed an undertaking in the year 1587, that he would make no change in the ceremonies of the church, and that he would even promote no one who was not a protes- tant ; and now too he further bound himself, that he would maintain the privileges both of the clergy and the laity, that he would neither love nor hate any one for religion's sake, and that he would in no wise seek to prejudice the national church. Notwithstanding all this, all the hopes of the catholics were instantly awakened, and all the anxieties of the pro- testants. The catholics had now attained what had always been an object of their fervent desires, the accession of a king of their own faith to the crown of Sweden. Attended by a catho- lic suite, in which there lacked not even a papal nuncio, Malaspina, Sigismun.l arrived in his hereditary dominions in July 1593. His journey through the Prussian provinces was marked by benefits conferred on Catholicism. In Dantzig a papal envoy, Bartholomaeus Pow- sinsky, hastened to meet him with a present of 20,000 scudi, " a small contribution," as his introduction stated, " towards the expenses which the restoration of Catholicism might oc- casion." This instruction is very remarkable. It shows us how unconditionally this restoration was expected and commanded in Rome.* " Powsinsky," it states, "a confidential ser- vant of his holiness and vassal of his majesty, was sent to testify the pope's interest in the welcome events that had occurred to his ma- jesty ; the delivery of his consort, the happy issue of the last diet, and above all that great- est good fortune that could befal him, namely, that he had now an opportunity of re-establish- ing Catholicism in his native land." The pope delayed not to indicate some points of view in which this work might be consid- ered. " Doubtless through God's providence," he says, " several bishoprics, among others the archiepiscopal see of Upsala, are just now vacant. t Should the king delay a moment to depose the protestant bishops who are yet in the country, he will without fail fill the va- cant sees with orthodox catholics." The en- voy carried with him a list of Swedish catho- lics, which seemed designed to this end. The pope was convinced that those bishops would then make it their business to provide catholic parish priests and schoolmasters. Only care * Instnillione al S^' Banolommeo Powsinsky alia Mi del re di Polonia e Sueiia. (MS. Koiii.) t " Inlfndernlosi restar vacante I'arcivpscovato di Up- salia, che 1 1 divina providenza per piti facilitare le cose del suo seivitio, non ha pennesso che in dueaniii sia slalo provedulo dal re mono, haveri S. M's- pailiculare pen- siere a pigliare un arcivescovo cauolico." was to be taken to provide them with the means of doing so. " Perhaps," he suggests, "a catholic college might be forthwith founded in Stockholm. But should this not be done, the king will assuredly send as many young Swedes as he can to Po- land, to be educated at his court in the catho- lic faith, under the most zealous bishops, or in the Polish Jesuit colleges." The first object aimed at in this, as in other cases, was to become master again of the clergy : meanwhile the nuncio had conceived another. He thought of setting on the catho- lics that were yet to be found in Sweden, to allege grievances against the protestants. Upon this the king would assume a position above the two parties, and every innovation would bear the appearance of a legal decision.* He only regretted that Sigismund was not accompanied by a stronger armed force to give cogency to his resolutions. There is indeed no proof that the king forth- with adopted as his own the views of the Roman court. As far as can be collected from his own declarations, his thoughts may have been in the first instance no more than to be- stow some privileges on the catholics, without destroying the protestant constitution. But could he hope to check the strong religious impulse that possessed those about him, and the representatives of which he brought with him into the country 1 Could it be hoped that when he had reached that point he would stop there ] The protestants did not chose to wait the issue. The designs cherished on the one side called forth on the other an immediate and almost unconscious opposition. Immediately after the death of John, the Swedish councillors of state, — names renown- ed in earlier and latter times : Gyllenstern, Bielk, Bauer, Sparre, Oxenstern — with the brother of the deceased and uncle of the new king, another of the sons of Gustavus Vasa, the zealous protestant duke Charles, "assem- bled to acknowledge him as governor of the realm in his nephew'sabsence, and to promise him obedience in all he should do for the maintenance of the Augsburg confession in Sweden." With the same view a council was held in Upsala in March 1593. The Augsburg confe.ssion was then proclaimed anew, kmg John's liturgy condemned, and eve- * Rasguaglio dell' andata del re di Polonia in Suetia. (MS. Rom.) " Erano luUavia nel regno alcune reliquie de' cattolici : et il nunlio seguendo la forma gii tenuta da Cl- Madruzzo per forliticar I'auloriti dell' iniperatore, cercava di costiluire il re giudice ira gli cattolici e gli heretic! di Suetia, inducendo cjuelli a querelarsi appresso il re del insolenza e delle ingiurie di qiiesti." [There were still in the kingdom soiiTe remnants of the catholic body ; and the nuncio, following the course already pur- sued by cardinal Madruzzo to strengthen the aullioiity of the emperor, endeavoured to constitute the king judge between the catholics and the heretics of Sweden, incit- ing the former to compl.iin to the king of the insolence and injurious conduct of the latter.] 270 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1590-1617. ry thing even in the oldest ritual modified, that seemed to recall to mind the usages of Ca- tholicism,— exorcism was retained, but in mild- er terms, ,and tor the sake of its moral signifi- cance;* a declaration was also drawn up that no heresy, popish or calvinistic, should be tole- rated in the country. f The vacant places were now filled in the same spirit. Many old defenders of the liturgy abjured it; but all did not escape even so ; some were deposed notwithstanding. The bishoprics, on the va- cancy of which such great hopes had been founded in Rome, were conferred on Luther- ans; the archbishopric of Upsala was given to the most ardent opponent of the liturgy, M. Abraham Angermaunns, the clergy thus plac- ing at their head the most zealous Lutheran they could find, and by an overwhelming ma- jority, there being two hundred and lorty-three voices for him, and for his nearest competitor but thirty-eight. Under king John there had existed to the last a more temperate state of public feeling, less keenly opposed to the papacy than in other protestant countries: Sigismund might have easily founded on this such a change as the catholics desired, but the other party were beforehand with him ; protestantism had estab- lished itself more firmly than ever. Nor were Sigismund's royal prerogatives spared. He was in reality no longer looked on purely as the king, but rather as a for- eigner laying claim to the throne, as an apos- tate whom it was necessary to watch closely as dangerous to religion. The great majority of the nation, unanimous in their protestant convictions, adhered to duke Charles. The king on his arrival fully felt his iso- lated position. He could do nothing, and only sought to parry the demands that were made upon him. But while he held his peace and waited, the two hostile parties came into collision. The evangelical preachers stormed against the papists ; the Jesuits who preached in the royal ciiapel, did not remain behindhand with their assailants. The catholics of the royal suite took possession of an evangelical church on the occasion of a funeral ; whereupon the protestants deemed it necessary for a while to forego the use of their desecrated sanctuary. Matters speedily advanced to open violence. The heretics used force to possess themselves * For we are not to believe, with Messenius, that it was don ^ away willi. The only change was thai of the words "Faar har uth," into " Wick har ifra;" and when duke Charles required the total abolition of the form, he was answered, " riiin^ndu n esse exorcisinum lanqiiam liberain ceremoniam pr0j)ter utilem comiiioiiefactionein ad auditorium el baplis.ui spectatores pennanantem :" a view of the matter in which duke Charl s ac(iuifsced. Baaz : Invenlarium iv. x. 525. In B laz may be found the doctrines in general tolerably coaipl>^le. t "Concilium definit," it says further, " ne haerelicis advenientibus deiur locus publice convpniendi." [The council enacts thai no alien heretics be allowed to assem- ble publicly.] of a pulpit which was closed : the nuncio was charged with having suffered their choir boys to be pelted with stones from his house, 'i he rancour of either party augmented every moment. At last the court proceeded to Upsala to celebrate the coronation. The Swedes de- manded, above all things, the ratification of the decrees of their council. The king re- sisted. He desired only toleration for Catho- licism ; he would have been content had he been allowed merely the prospect of confirm- ing this at some future time: but the Swedish protestants were not to be moved. It is as- serted that the king's own sister* told them that it was his character, after long and sted- fast resistance to give way at last, and that she inculcated upon them that they should beset him again and again. They demanded peremptorily that the doctrine of the Augs- burg confession should alone be propounded everywhere in schools and churches.f Duke Charles stood at their head. The position in which he had been placed gave him such an independence and power as he could never have anticipated. His personal relations with the king grew continually more disagreeable and bitter. The king, as we have said, was almost wholly without armed force; the duke collected a couple of thousand men upon his e.states round the city. At last the estates flatly declared to the king, that they would not tender him their homage if he did not comply with tiieir demands J The poor monarch was placed in a painful dilemma. To accede to the demands made on lum was revolting to his conscience ; to re- fuse was to lose his crown. In his distress he first addressed himself to the nuncio, asking hirn if they might not give way. There was no prevailing on Malaspina to sanction this. Upon this the king turned to the Jesuits in his suite. What the nuncio had not ventured to do, that they took upon themselves. They declared that, in consideration of the necessi- ty and the manifest danger in which the king was involved, he might, without offence to God, grant the heretics what they demanded. The king was not sati.^fied until he had this opinion from them in writing. Then, and not till then, he complied with the desires of his subjects. He ratified the de- crees of Upsala, and the exclusive use of the unaltered Augsburg confession, without the * The Ragguaglio calls her " ostinatissima eretica." [A most obstinate heretic] t Messenius vii. 19. "Absolute urgebant ut confessio Augustana, ([Ualis sub ultimo Guslavi regimine et primi Johannis in palria viguisset, talis in posterum unica sola el ubKiue lam in ecclesiis quam in scholis perpeluo flo- rerpt." $ Supplicalio ordinum: " Quodsi cl. rex denegaverii subditis regiani approbalionem honim postulalorum, inhi- benl nostri fratres donii remanenles publicum homagium esse b. H. M.praesiandum." A. D. 1590-1617.] ATTEMPT ON SWEDEN. 271 admission of any admixture of foreign doc- trine either in church or school, and with a pledge that no one should be employed in the public service who was not ready to stand up in its defence.* He recognized the prelates who had been appointed against his will. But could his catholic heart be tranquil under these circumstances? Could his Ro- manist court be satisfied with a result it must have so thoroughly condemned ? This was not to be expected. Accordingly the catholic party proceeded at last to a protest, similar to many other elsewhere made on like occasions. " The nuncio," says the report sent to Rome respecting these events, the words of which 1 cannot do better than quote, " the nuncio ex- erted himself zealously to remedy the irregu- larity which had occurred. He caused the king to draw up a written protest for the se- curity of his conscience, wherein he declared that what he had granted, he granted not with his will, but wholly and solely compelled thereto by force. Furthermore the nuncio induced his majesty to grant corresponding concessions to the catholics, so as to be in Sweden as in Poland, under pledges to both parties, a condition under which the German emperor is also placed. The king was con- tent to do this."t A singular device this. A protest was not considered enough. To be rid in some de- gree of an obligation contracted upon oath, a contrary oath is pledged to the other party: thus an engagement entered into with both parties, and the necessity incurred of extend- ing equal rights to both. The Swedes were astonished that the king, after such solemn pledges, immediately ex- tended an ill-concealed protection to the ca- tholics. This was undoubtedly the result of this secret obligation. " Before his depar- * The words, however, were such as to leave open a chance of evasion. "Ad officia publica nulli proinove- bunlur in palria qui religionem evangelicam nolunt salv- am, quin potius qui earn serio defendere volunl publicis officiis praeficianiur." Generalis confirmatio postulato- rum regis Sigisniundi in Baaz, p. 537. t Relatione dello stato spiriiuale e politico del regno di Suezia, 1598. " Mandi) alcuni senatori Polacchi a darle parte dello stato delle cose in le sue circoslanze e conse- guenze, e detli patri dichiararono che presuppostn la ne- cessity e pericolo nel quale era costituita la M'^' S. la po- tesse senza otfender Dio concedere alii heretici cio che ricercavano, e la IVIt»- S. per sua giustificazioiie ne voile uno scritlo da detli patri. — Horafatla lacoronalione e con- cessione pose ogni studio il nunzio per applicare qu tlche remedio al disordine seguilo, onde opero per sicurezza della conscienzadi S. M'»' che ella faresso una protesta in scrilto, come ella non con la volonl^ sua ma per pura for- za si era indoita a concedere cii> che aveva concesso ; e persuase al smo- re che concedesse da parte agli cattolici altrettanto quanto aveva conceduto alii heretici, di modo che a guisa dell' imperalore e del re di Polonia restasse la M cose che possono fare i vescovi eche speltanoagli ordinarii,se non in sussidio e con vera necessity. : perch6 metlendosi mano ad ogni cosa inditferentemente non solo essi vescovi se sdegnano, ma si oppongono spesse volti e rendono vana ogni fatica del minislro apostolico, ollre che C contro la mente di monsignore e delli canoni che si mella mano nella messe aliena, mandandoli i nunlii per ajutare e non per dislniggere I'autoriia. degli ordinarii." [Report of the Swiss nunciature: Experience has shown me that to obtain useful results from the nunciature, it is not ad- visable that the nuncios should interfere in matters which may be transacted by the bishops, and which belong to the ordinaries, except in the way of assistance, and in case of real necessity; for the consequence of their put- ting their hands to everything inditTerently is, that the bishops take offence, and often oppose and frustrate every effort of the apostolic minister; besides which his ex- cellency's sentiments and the canons are against med- dling with another's harvest, the nuncios being sent to aid, not to destroy, the authority of the ordinaries. 1 * An example is given in Liter* AnnuseSoiietatis Jesu, 1596, p. 187. " Blodus tamen rigidoilli jeiunio est a con- fesaario adhibitus." [Such rigorous fasiiiig waa modera- ted, however, by the confessor.] the Roman see. The nuncios failed not to foster that disposition with all their might. They complied with every conceivable claim of courtesy; they listened patiently to the longest and most wearying discourses, were no niggardsof titles, and professed themselves intense admirers of the ancient deeds of the nation, and of the wisdom of the republican institutions. They found it particularly neces- sary to keep their friends together by means of regularly recurring entertainments; they even replied to every invitation, every mark of re- spect made to them with a present. Presents were here found peculiarly efiBcacious : he who v/as named a knight of the golden spur, and re- ceived in addition to the honour a gold chain or medal, felt himself bound to them forever. All they had to guard against was promising more than they could perform ; if they per- formed more than they promised so much the better. It was necessary that their domestic economy should always be well ordered, and allow no room for censure. Thus it happened that the catholic interests, even in Switzerland, in general attained a fair state of prosperity and smooth progress. There was only one point where the dis- crepancies between catholics and protestants, coinciding in one and the same district with an unsettled condition of politics, might occa- sion danger and strife. In the Grisons the government was essen- tially protestant, while among their depend- encies the Italian, especially Valtellina, were unshakably catholic. Hence arose interminable bickerings. The government tolerated no foreign priest in the valley ; and had even forbidden the inhabitants to send their children abroad to a foreign school ; it had prohibited the bishop of Como, in whose diocese Valtellina lay, from dis- charging his episcopal functions there. On the other hand, the natives beheld with great dissatisfaction protestants residing in their country, and that too as lords and masters ; they clung with secret attachment to the Italians, to orthodox Milan, and their zeal was constantly kept warm by a succession of young theologians from the Collegium Helveticum, in which alone six places were reserved for the Valtelline.* Now this state of things was the more per- ilous, since France, Spain, and Venice, were labouring with all their might, each to estab- lish a party in the Grisons : these parties not unfrequently came to open violence, and drove each other from their places. In the year 1607 the Spanish party first, the Venetian immediately afterwards, seized possession of Coire. The former broke the league, the * Relatione della nuntiatura; "II collegio Elvetico di Milano 6 di gran giovamenlo, et 6 la salute in parlicolare della V;il Telina,'che quanti preti ha, sono soggetli di dettocoUegio, e quasi tutii Uotioraii in theologia." COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1590-1617, 284 latter restored it. The Spanish party had catholic, the Venetian protestant sympathies, and in accordance with these the whole policy of the country was shaped. The main ques- tion now was with which party would France side. The French had their pensioners throughout all Switzerland, not only in the cathofic, but also in the protestant cantons, and they possessed an ancient influence in the Orisons. About the year 1612, they de- clared for the catholic interest; the nuncio succeeded in gaining their friends for Rome : the Venetian alliance was even formally dis- solved. These party feuds would merit of themselves but little attention, but they acquired a higher importance from tlie fact, that upon them de- pended the opening or the closing of the Orison passes for the one or the other of the great powers. We shall see that their weight affected the balance, in which hung the general relations of European politics and religion. Regeneration of Catholicism in France. The question of most moment at this junc- ture is, what was the general position assumed by France with respect to religion ? The first glance shows us that the pro- testants were still in great strength in that country. Henry IV. had granted them the edict of Nantes, whereby not only were they confirm- ed in the possession of the churches actually in their hands, but they had also conferred upon them a share in the public educational institutions, equality with the catholics as re- garded the composition of the chambers of parliament, and the occupation of a great number of fortified places ; and in general they were allowed a degree of independence, of which it might well be questioned, whether it was consistent v/ith the idea of a state. About the year 1600, there were reckoned seven hundred and sixty parishes of French protestants, all well ordered : four thousand of the nobility belonged to that confession, and it was computed that they could bring with ease twenty-five thousand men into the field, and possessed about two hundred forti- fied places : a power capable of exacting respect, and not to be assailed with impu- nity.* But close by them and opposed to them, there rose at the same moment another power, the corporation of the catholic clergy of France. The great possessions of the French clergy, gave them a certain degree of intrinsic inde- pendence which was made obvious and palpa- * Badoer: Relatione di Francia, 1605. ble when they took upon themselves a part of the public debt.* For their obligation in this respect was not so involuntary, as not to require that it should from time to time be renewed with the forms of a freewill act. Under Henry IV., the meetings which were held to this end, acquired a more regu- lar form. They were to be renewed every ten years, to take place each time in May when the days are long, and allow of the transaction of much business. Lesser meet- ings were to be held every two years to pass accounts. It was not to be expected that these meet- ings, especially the greater ones, should con- fine themselves to their mere financial objects. The fulfilment of these was enough to give them courage for wider purposes. In the years 1595 and 1596, they resolved to renew the provincial councils, to withstand the inter- ference of the civil jurisdiction in matters pertaining to spiritual functions, and to per- mit no simony ; and what was of still more moment, the king after some wavering gave his sanction to these determinations.! It was customary for the clergy to make general representations in relation to churches and church discipline. The king could not pos- sibly withhold his attention from these, and they never failed to produce new concessions. At their next meeting the first inquiry entered into by the clergy was, whether their sug- gestions had been carried into effect. Henry's position was thus very peculiar, placed as he was between two corporations, both possessed of a certain independence, both holding their meetings at certain stated times, and then besetting him with conflicting representations, which he could not well op- pose, whether coming from the one side or from the other. His general intention undoubtedly was, to maintain an equilibrium between them both, and not suffer them again to come in collision with each other ; but if we a^k to which of the two he was the more inclined, and which of them he more actively promoted, the an- swer is, manifestly the catholic party, al- * In the M^moires du clerg6 de France, torn. ix. — Re- cueil des conlrats passes par le cleig6 avec les rois — are to be found the documents relating to this matter from the year 15G1. In the convocation of Poisy in that year, the clergy took upon itself to pay not only the interest but the capital of a considerable portion of the public debt. The payment of the capital did not lake place, but the obliga- tion to pay the interest remained. The debts answered for by the clergy were principally those contracted by the Hotel de Ville of Paris, and the interest accrued to that city ; a fixed rent was yearly paid it by the clergy. We perceive why Paris, even had it not been so thoroughly catholic, could never have been brought to consent to the ruin of the clergy, and the destruction of church property which was mortgaged to itself t Relation des principales choses qui ont est<5 resolues dans I'assejnbl^e generale du clerg6 tenue & Paris les ann6es 1595 el 1596 envoy6e k toutea les dioceses. M6ni- oires du clerg6, torn, viii., p. 6. A. D. 1590-1617.] REGENERATION OF CATHOLICISM IN FRANCE. though his own rise had been due to the pro- testant. Henry's gratitude was not a whit stronger than his vindictiveness : he was more bent on gaining new friends, than on rewarding and favouring his old ones. Had not the protestants, in fact, found it necessary to extort the edict of Nantz from him ] He granted it to them only at the mo- ment when he was pressed by the forces of Spain, and when the protestants, too, had put themselves in a very warlike attitude.* The use they made of their immunities corres- ponded with the mode in which they had won them. They constituted themselves into a republic, over which the king had but little influence ; and from time to time they even talked of seeking for themselves some foreign protector. The clergy, on the contrary, attached themselves to the king ; they asked for no aid, but bestowed it ; their independence could not become formidable, since the king held in his own hand the nomination to vacancies. In so far as the position of the Huguenots im- posed restrictions, as it manifestly did, on the royal authority, the extension of the latter was clearly identified with the progress of Catholicism. f As early as the year 1598, the king de- clared to the clergy, that it was his purpose to make the catholic church once more as flourishing as it had been in the preceding century : all he asked of them was patience and confidence ; Paris had not been built in a day-t The rights of the concordat were now ex- ercised in a totally different manner from that of former times : benefices were no longer bestowed on women and children ; in the col- lation to ecclesiastical posts the king looked narrowly to learning, mental disposition, and exemplary conduct. " In all outward things," says a Venetian, " he shows himself personally devoted to the Roman catholic religion, and averse to her opponent." It was this feeling that prompted him to recall the Jesuits. He thought that their zeal would surely contribute to the re-estab- * This appears beyond question from the account given by Benoist, Hisloire de I'^dit de Nantes, i. 185. fNiccolo Contarini : " II re, se ben andava temporeggi- ando con le parti, e li suoi ministri e consiglieri fussero deir una e I'altra religione, pur sempre piii si moslrava alienarsi dagli Ugonotti e desiderale niinori : la ragione principal era perche tenendo essi per li edilti di piace molte piazze nelle loro mani, dellequali bentrentaerano di niolto momento, senza di queste li pareva non essere assolutamenle re del suo regno." [Although the king temporized with the parties, and though his ministers and councillors were of both religions, nevertheless he seemed constantly to become more alienated from the Huguenots, and to wish for their reduction : the principal reason was, that the edict of pacification havihg put many places into their hands, of which fully thirty were of much moment, the king seemed to himself without these not to be absolutely king of his own realm.] t Memoires du clerg6, torn. xiv. p. 259. 285 lishment of Catholicism, and thereby to the enlargement likewise of the royal authority, in the light in which he now contemplated it.* Yet all this would have availed but little, had not the internal regeneration of the catho- lic church already at this period made vast progress in France. Within the first twenty years of that century it had assumed a new form. Let us cast a glance at this change, especially as regards the renewal of monastic discipline, which was its most characteristic feature. Great zeal was displayed in the reformation of the old orders, — the Dominicans, Francis- cans, and Benedictines. The sisterhoods vied with them in zeal. The Feuillantines practised such exaggerated penances, that it is said fourteen of them per- ished thereby in one week; the pope was obliged to admonish them to mitigate the austerity of their discipline.! Community of goods, silence and vigils, were again intro- duced in Port Royal, and the mystery of the eucharist was adored there day and nightj The nuns of Calvary observed the rules of St. Benedict in all their rigour ; by incessant prayer before the cross, they sought to make a sort of expiation for the outrages offered by the protestants to the tree of life.^ At that time St. Theresa had, in a some- what different spirit, reformed the order of the Carmelites in Spain. She, too, enjoined the strictest seclusion ; she strove to resist even the visits of relations at the grating, and even the confessor was subject to inspec- tion. Still she did not regard austerity as the aim and end of monastic institutions. She sought to elicit a condition of the soul attuned to a nearer harmony with the Divine nature. She now found that no seclusion from the world, no self-denial, no discipline of the mind, was sufficient to keep the votary within the needful bonds, unless some further help was added; and this she sought in work, plain household occupation and female handi- work,— the salt that preserves the soul of woman from corruption, the guardian that shuts the door against unprofitable wandering thoughts. But this work, as she further di- rected, was not to be costly or curious, or to be set for an appointed time ; it was not to be of a kind to busy the mind. Her object was * "Per abbassamento del quale (del partite degli Ugo- notti) s'imagint) di poter dar gran colpo col richiamar li Gesuiti, pensando anco in questa nianiera di toglier la radice a molte congiure." [He thought he could strike a great blow towards lowering the Huguenot party by call- ing back the Jesuits, and that he would hereby also eradi- cate many conspiracies.] He made answer to the P^"'*" ments, let but his life be secured, and the exile of the Jesuits should never cease. t Helyot : Histoires des ordres monastiques, v., p. 41-4. t Felibien : Histoire de Paris, ii. 1339 : a work generally valuable as regards the history of this restoration, and in many places grounded on original authorities. § La vie du veritable pere Josef, p. 53. 73. 286 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1590-1617. to promote the tranquillity of a soul conscious of its existence in God, — " a soul," as she says, " that ever lives as though it stood be- fore the face of God, that knows no pain but that of not enjoying his presence." She de- sired to produce what she calls the prayer of love, " in which the soul forgets itself, and hears the heavenly Master's voice."* This was an enthusiasm which, in her at least, vv^as pure, noble, and unaffected, and it made the greatest impression on the whole catholic world. It was very soon admitted in France, that something more was needful than mere penitential practices. Piere Berulle was spe- cially deputed to visit the order in Spain, and he at last succeeded, though not without diffi- culty, in propagating it in France, where it very soon took root, and bore the fairest fruit. The monasteries founded by Frangois de Sales were also of this milder character. In all his occupations de Sales used to comport himself vi^ith cheerful serenity of soul, with- out painful effort or hurry. VVith his associ- ate. Mere Chantal, he founded the order of Visitation, expressly for such as were forbid- den, by the delicacy of their bodily constitu- tion, from entering the more austere commu- nities. In his rules, he not only avoided all direct penance, and dispensed them from per- formance of severer duties, but he warned also against all inward aspirations. " We must," he said, " place ourselves simply, and without overcurious pondering, in the sight of God, and not to desire to enjoy more than He is pleased to vouchsafe ; pride readily beguiles us under the guise of religious rapture ; our vvalk must be only in the common path of the virtues." For this reason he enjoined upon his nuns the care of the sick as their foremost duty. The sisters were always to go abroad two by two, a superior and an associate, and visit the needy sick in their dwellings. Works and labours of love are our best prayers, was the maxim of Frangois de Sales.f His order exercised a beneficent influence over all France. It is easy to perceive in this course of things a progress from austerity to modera- tion, from extacy to calmness, from ascetical seclusion to the fulfilment of social duties. The Ursuline nuns, whose fourth vow it is to devote themselves to the instruction of young girls,— a vow they fulfilled with admi- rable zeal, — had already been received in France. * Diego de Yepes : Vitadella gloriosa vergine S. Ter- esa di Giesu, fondatrice de' carmeliiani Scalzi, Roma, 1623, p. 303. Constituzioni principali, § 3, p. 208. The Exclamaciones o medilaciones de S. Teresa, con algunos otros iraladillos, Brusselas, 1682, exhibit an enthusiasm almost too highly pitched for our taste. ■f E. g. in Gallitia: Leben des h. Franz von Sales, ii. 285. Rut his sentiments are most clearly and most pleas- ingly puuitrayed in his own works, particularly in his Introduction to a devotional life. A similar spirit, as might of course be ex- pected, was also in vigorous activity among the religious communities for men. Jean Baptiste Romillon, who till his 26th year had borne arms against Catholicism, but who then became a convert to that faith, founded, in conjunction with a friend of simi- lar views, the order of the Fathers of Chris- tian Doctrine, which established a new-mo- delled system of elementary instruction in France. We have already made mention of Berulle, one of the most distinguished ecclesiastics of France in those times. From his earliest youth he had manifested a hearty zeal to fit himself for the service of the church : to that end he had daily, as he said, kept before him " the truest and most intimate thought of his heart," which was " to strive after the great- est perfection." Perhaps the difficulty he experienced in this task may have had some share in impressing him with the paramount necessity of an institution for the education of clergymen with an immediate view to the service of the church. He took Philip Neri for his example, and like him he established priests of the oratory. He permitted no vows, and only imposed simple obligations : he had sufficient largeness of mind to allow that every one who did not discover in himself the requisite cast of mind should be at liberty to retire. His institution had great success : its mildness attracted pupils even of higher rank ; and ere long Berulle found himself at the head of a brilliant body of able and docile youth. Episcopal seminaries and high schools were entrusted to him; a new and lively spirit animated the clergy formed in his institution. It gave to the world a host of eminent preach- ers ; from its day was determined the charac- ter of the French pulpit.* Can we in this place omit mentioning the congregation of St. Maur? The French Benedictines, in adhering to the reformation of that order effected in Lorraine, added to their other obligations that of devoting them- selves to the education of the young nobility and to the pursuits of learning. At the very commencement of this change appeared among them that justly famous man, Nicolas Hugo Menard, who gave their studies that bent towards ecclesiastical antiquities, to which we are indebted for so many noble works.f Mary of Medici had already introduced into France the Brothers of Mercy ; an order founded by that indefatigable minister to the sick, Johannes a Deo, a Portuguese, to whom a Spanish bishop had given that by-name in a moment of admiration. In France the order adopted still stricter rules, but its success was so much the greater. Within a short space * Tabaraud: Histoire de Pierre de Berulle, Paris, 1817. t Filipe le Cerf: Bibliolhequehisloriqueet critique des auleurs de le congregation de S. Maur, p. 355. A. D. 1617-1623.] REGENERATION OF CATHOLICISM IN FRANCE. 287 of time we find thirty hospitals established by it.* But what a task it is to remodel the reli- gion of a whole kingdom, — to give a new direction to its faith and doctrine ! In the more sequestered regions, among the rural population, and even among the parish priests, the old abuses were still in many places in full operation. At last, amidst the general religious excitement, appeared likewise the great missionary of the common people, Vin- cent de Paul, who founded the congregation of the Mission, the members of which, passing from place to place, served to spread the devotional spirit into the remotest corners of the land. Vincent was himself the son of a peasant, — humble, full of zeal and practical good sense.f To him also is due the estab- lishment of the order of the Sisters of Charity, in which the more delicate sex, at an age when its hopes might naturally be fixed on domestic happiness or worldly splendour, de- votes itself to the service of the sick, often of the reprobate, without being permitted to give outwardly more than a passing expression to the religious feelings that prompt to all this earnest labour. Efforts like these for the nurture and in- struction of the young, the teaching of the pulpit, encouragement of sound learning, and the exercise of benevolence, have happily been ever renewed in Christian countries. No where can they succeed without the union of manifold powers with religious enthusiasm. Elsewhere, their cultivation was left to each successive generation, to the promptings of present necessity : but here it was sought to give an unalterable basis to the associations for these purposes, an established form to the religious impulses directed towards them; and this, in order to devote them all to the service of the church, and insensibly to mould the minds of future generations to the same shape and bent. The most important results were soon manifested in France. Even in the reign of Henry IV. the protestants felt themselves crippled and endangered by the searching and extensive activity of their antagonists : for a while they ceased to make any progress, and ere long they began to experience losses: already under Henry IV., they complain that desertion from their ranks had begun. And yet Henry was constrained by the very nature of his policy to deal favourably with them, and to reject the suggestions of the pope, such, for instance, as his proposal, that they should be excluded from all public offices. * Approbatio coneregationis fralrum Johannis Dei, 1572. Kal. Jan. (Bullar. Cocquel. iv. Ill, 190.) + Slolberg: Leben des heiligen Vincentius von Paulus. Munsler, 1818. Honest Stolberg, however, should not have looked on his hero in the light of'einen Mann durch den Franlcreich erneuert ward" (p. 6. p. 399) [A man by whom France was regenerated.] But this line of policy was abandoned under Mary of Medici ; a much closer connexion was formed with Spain, and a decidedly ca- tholic spirit predominated in all public affaira domestic and foreign. That spirit ruled both at court and in the assemblies of the estates. The first two estates expressly demanded in the year 1614, not only the publication of the system of Trent, but even the restoration of church property in Beam. It was highly fortunate for the preservation of those protestant institutions which were likewise fostered with a lively zeal, that the party of their defenders was still so strong, and its attitude so martial. When the govern- ment coalesced with the adversaries of the protestants, the latter found support and help at the hands of powerful malcontents, of whom there never has been, and never will be a lack in that country. Some space of time yet elapsed before their enemies could directly assail them. CHAPTER II, GENERAL WAR, — TRIUMPH OF CATHOLICISM. 1617—1623. Breaking out of war. However various may have been the cir- cumstances of which we have traced the growth, they all nevertheless coincide in one grand result. On all sides Catholicism had made powerful strides ; on all sides too it had encountered vigorous resistance. In Poland it was unable to master its opponents, because they were invincibly backed by their neigh- bours. In Germany a close knit opposition had thrown itself in the way of the advancing creed and of the returning priesthood. The king of Spain had been constrained to grant the Netherlands a truce, which was very nearly tantamount to a formal recognition. The French Huguenots were provided against every attack by means of fortresses, troops well equipped for war, and pertinent financial arrangements. In Switzerland the balance of parties had long been established, and even regenerated Catholicism was unable to shake it. Europe has parted into two worlds, at every point mutually encompassed, restricted, re- pulsed and assailed. If we institute a general comparison be- tween them, we are struck in the first place, by an appearance of far greater unity on the catholic side. We know indeed, that it was not without its internal animosities, but these now for the first time mitigated. Above all, ,there subsisted a good, nay a confidential understanding between France and Spain ; 288 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1617-1623. for the occasional outbreak of the old ill-will of Venice or Savoy was not of much weight ; even such formidable attempts as the conspi- racy against Venice passed off without any violent shock. Pope Paul V., after the severe lessons taught him by his first experience, remained quiet and moderate ; he found means to uphold peace between the catholic powers, and from time to time he gave an impulse to the common policy. The protestants, on the contrary, had not only no common centre, but since the death of Elizabeth of England, and the accession of James I., who observed a rather ambiguous policy, they had not even a leader. Lutherans and Calvinists stood op- posed to each with a mutual ill-will that necessarily led to opposite political measures. And even the Calvinists again were divided among themselves; episcopalians and puri- tans, Arminians and Gomarists, assailed each other with fierce hatred. In the assembly of the Huguenots at Saumar in 1611 a rupture occurred, which it was never afterwards pos- sible entirely to heal. Certainly this difference is not to be ascribed to a less vivacity in the religious movements on the catholic side ; the very contrary is apparent. The fact is rather to be imputed to the following cause. Catholicism knew nothing of that energy of exclusive doctrine which ruled over protestantism ; there were important controversies which the former left undecided ; enthusiasm, mysticism, and that profounder habit of feeling, scarce admitting of being shaped into the more palpable form of thought, which ever arises from time to time as the necessary product of religious tendencies, had been adopted by Catholicism, reduced to rule, and made serviceable under the forms of monastic asceticism, whilst on the contrary they were rejected, condemned, and repudiated by protestantism. For this very reason, such feelings thus left to them- selves among the protestants, manifested themselves in the shape of numerous sects, and struck out their own paths with partial views but in uncontrolled freedom. It accords with these facts, that literature in general had assumed much more shapeli- ness and regularity on the catholic side. It may be laid down that the modern classic forms were first established in Italy under the auspices of the church : in Spain an approach was made to them as far as was permitted by the genius of the nation ; and a similar pro- cess was already begun in France, where it afterwards was so actively developed, and produced such brilliant results. Malherbe arose ; he who first voluntarily submitted to rules, and deliberately rejected all license,* * Respecting Malherbe's genius, and his style of wri- ting, new and valuable additions to tlie poet's biography have been made by Racan in the M6moires or rather Historiettes de Tallemeni des Reaux, published by Mon- inerqu6, 1834, i. p. 195. and who gave new cogency to the monarchi- cal and catholic sentiments that inspired him, by the epigrammatic precision, and the some- what prosaic but characteristically French popularity and elegance of the language in which he expressed them. Among the Ger- man nations this classical tendency failed to obtain sway in those days, even on the catho- lic side; its first action was only on Latin poetry, in which, however, it sometimes look- ed like parody, and that even in the works of so able a writer as Balde. All compositions in the vernacular tongue retained the simple expression of nature. Now there was still less possibility of the imitation of the ancients gaining ground among the protestants of the German stock. Shakespeare set before men's eyes the import and spirit of romantic litera- ture in imperishable forms, the spontaneous productions of a mind to which history and antiquity were but as handmaids. From the workshop of a German shoemaker* issued poems darkling, shapeless, and unfathomable, but with irresistible power of fascination, poems marked with German depth of feeling, and a religious view of the world and of na- ture that have never been equalled, — sponta- neous offsprings of nature. I will not, however, attempt to poutray the contrasts of these two opposite intellectual worlds ; in order to their full comprehension, we ought to have devoted more attention to the protestant side. Let it be allowed me to bring forward one particular that had an immediate influence in determining the course of events. The monarchical tendency was now para- mount in Catholicism. Ideas of popular rights, of legitimate opposition to the sovereign, of the sovereignty of the people, and of the law- fulness of regicide, such as had been vehe- mently maintained thirty years before even by zealous catholics, were no longer in fashion. There was now no notable contest between a catholic population and a protestant prince : even James I. v/as borne with, and the old theories found no application. It followed from this that the religious principle became more closely linked with the dynastical one, and the union, if 1 mistake not, was further promoted by the circumstance that there was a certain personal superiority on the side of the catholic princes : such at least was cer- tainly the case in Germany. In that country still lived the aged bishop Julius of VViirz- burg, the first who had there attempted a thorough measure of counter-reformation ; elector Schweikard of Mainz filled the office of arch-chancellor, with talents quickened by warm and hearty interest in public affairs, and once more greatly extended its credit and efficacy ;t both the other Rhenish electors * Hans Sachs. i Montorio; Relatione dlGermania, 1624: "Dicostumi A. D. 1617-1623.] BREAKING OUT OF WAR. 289 were resolute active men ; by their side stood the manly, sagacious, indefatigable Maximilian of Bavaria, an ableadministrator, full of enlarg- ed and grand designs of policy, and archduke Ferdinand, invincible in the strength of the faith he clung to with all the ardour of a vig- orous soul. Almost all these men had been educated by Jesuits, who still found means to stir the minds of their pupils to great impulses : they were reformers too in their way, and it was they who had laboriously, and by force of mind, brought about the existing state of things. The protestant princes, on the contrary, were rather inheritors than founders: they were already the third or fourth generation. Only in some few among them was seen, I will not say energy and strength of mind, but ambition and restlessness. On the other hand, manifest tendencies to republicanism, or at least to aristocratic free- dom, appeared among the protestants. In many places in France, in Poland, and in all the Austrian dominions, a powerful nobility of protestant persuasion was at open war with the government authorities. What might be gained in such a contest, was brilliantly evi- denced by the republic of the Netherlands, which was daily increasing in prosperity. Unquestionably the thought was then enter- tained in Austria, of throwing off the yoke of the reigning house, and constituting the coun- try a republic on the model of Switzerland or the Low Countries. The success of such a project promised the estates of the German empire the only chance of again acquiring high importance, and they took part in it with vivacity. The internal constitution of the Huguenot body was already republican, and even with a mixture of democracy. This latter spirit was also arrayed in the persons of the English puritans against a protestant king. There is a small work extant of an imperial ambassador at the court of Paris in those days, in which the attention of European potentates is earnestly drawn to the common danger that threatened them from the ad- vancement of such a spirit.* The catholic world was at this period unani- mous, classical, monarciiical ; the protestant divided, romantic, republican. In the year 1617, every thing was ripe for a decided conflict between the two. The catholic party, it seems, felt its own superio- gravi, molto iniento alle cose del governo cogi spirituale come temporale, mollo bene affello verso il servigio di cotesta Santa sede,desideroso del progressodella religione, uno de' prirai prelali della Gennania." [A man of serious habits, very intent on the affairs of government both spiri- tual and temporal, very well disposed towards the service of that holy see, desirous of the progress of religion, one of the first prelates of Germany.] * Advis sur les causes des mouvemenls de I'Europe, envoy6 aux rois et princes pour la conservation de leurs royaumes et principaut^s, fail par Messer. Al. Cunr. baron de Fridembourg et present^ au roy trfis chrestien par le comte de Furstemberg ainbassadeur de I'empereur. In- sened in the Mercure Francois, torn. ix. p. 342. 37 rity ; it is not to be disputed that it was the first aggressor. On the 15th of June, 1617, there was issued in France an edict, long demanded by the catholic clergy, but which the court had al- ways refused to grant, in its awe of the power of the Huguenots, and the high consideration of their leaders, whereby the church property in Beam was to be surrendered back. It was obtained from Luines, who, though the protes- tants counted on him at first,* had yet gra- dually attached himself to the Jesuit or papal party. Relying on this disposition of the head of the government, the populace had already here and there riotously attacked the protes- tants, and sometimes at the summons of the tocsin. The parliament also took part against them. The Polish prince Wladislaw once more took up arms, in the confident expectation that he should now make himself master of the Russian throne. It was thought that his arma- ment was made with a view also against Sweden, and war was instantly resumed be- tween Poland and Sweden.f But by far the most important events were ripening in the hereditary dominions of the house of Austria. The archdukes had come to a reconciliation and mutual understanding. With the magnanimity often displayed by that house in moments of peril, the other brother surrendered in favour of archduke Ferdinand, the pretensions that would naturally accrue to them on the death of the emperor Matthias, who had no issue ; and he was shortly after- wards actually acknowledged heir to the throne in Hungary and Bohemia. This was in reality but an adjustment of personal claims ; still it was pregnant with results important to the general interests. It was certainly not to be expected from a man of Ferdinand's determined zeal, but that he should forthwith seek to establish the su- premacy of his own faith in his future domin- ions, and then endeavour to bend their whole strength towards the propagation of Catholi- cism. Here was a common danger, threatening all the protestants in the Austrian dominions, in Germany, and in Europe. An opposition speedily arose out of this * This appears among other proofs from a letter from Duplessis Mornay, Saumur, April 26, 1617: "Sur ce coup de majority," as he calls the murder of the mar^chal tf' Ancre'. La vie de Du Plessis, p. 465. t Hiiirn: Esih-Lyf-und Lettlandische Geschichte, p. 418. " The Swedes knew that the king of Poland had sent his son 10 Russia with a powerful army, to the end that he might surprise the fortresses which the Muscovites had ceded to the Swedes, so that if the enterprize were suc- cessful he might himself be the better enabled to attack the kingdom of Sweden : for he had been promised aid towards the reconqiiest of Sweden, both by the estates in the Polish diet and by the liouse oi" Austria : therefore he had bent all his thoughts on this matter more than on any thing else." 290 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1617-1623. clanger, immediately affecting its cause. The protestants, who set themselves in array against the progress of Catholicism, were not only provided for defence, but they had the courage forthwith to change their tactics into those of aggression. The elements of European protestantism were concentrated in the person of Frederick, the elector palatine. His consort was the daughter of the king of England, and niece of the king of Denmark ; prince Maurice of Orange was his uncle ; the duke de Bouillon, the leader of the less peacefully inclined sec- tion of the French Huguenots, was his nearest relation. He himself stood at the head of the German union. He was a grave prince, who had sufficient self-command to abstain from the bad habits then prevalent in the German courts, and who made it much more his care to fulfil his duties as a ruler, and dili- gently to attend the sittings of his privy coun- cil : he was of a somewhat melancholy dis- position, proud, and full of lofty thoughts.* In his father's time there were tables in the elec- toral dining hall for councillors and nobles ; Frederick caused them all to be removed, and ate only with princes and persons of the highest rank. A lively feeling of a great poli- tical destiny was cherished at this court, which industriously engaged in a thousand connex- ions tending to far-sought views. So long a time had elapsed since any serious war, that no clear perception was entertained of what might be achieved, of what the future might have in store : the most extravagant projects were indulged. Such was the tone and temper of the court of Heidelberg, when the Bohemians, who, im- pelled especially by the threatened danger to protestantism, had broken out into dissensions with the house of Austria, that every day grew more violent and implacable, resolved to reject Ferdinand, although he already possessed their promise, and to offer their crown to the elector palatine. Frederick pondered for a moment. It was an unexampled thing, that a German prince * Relatione di Germania, 1617: " Federico V. d'eti di anni 20, di mezzana slalura, d'aspetlo grave, di nalura malinconico, di carnaggione buona, uomo di alti pensieri, e rare voile si rallegra, e coll' appoggio del accasamento fallo con la figliuola del re d'Inghillerra e di altri parent! e confederal! aspirarebbe a cose maggiori se segli appre- Benlasse occasione a proposilo : onde essendo ben conos- ciuio suo nalurale per il colonello di Scomburg gii suo ajo, seppe cosi ben valersene, accomodandosi al suo umore, che mentre visse fu piu d'ogni altro suo confidenie." [Frederick V. is about iwenly years of age, of middle sta- ture, of a grave countenance, of a melancholy disposition, of good constitution, a man of lofty thoughts, and one who rarely indulges in gaiety. Relying on the support afford- ed him by his marriage with the daughter of the king of England, and on that of other relations and confederates, 'he would aspire to higher things, were a favourable oppor- tunity presented to him. His disposition being well known to colonel Schomburg, formerly his tutor, the latter made such good use of the knowledge, and so accommo- dated himself to Frederick's humour, that, whilst the colonel lived, he was more in his confidence than any one Isee.J should attempt to wrest from another the crown that devolved on him by legitimate suc- cession ! But all his friends, — Maurice, who could not endure the truce with Spain ; the duke of Bouillon; Christian von Anhalt, who had reviewed the whole mechanism of Euro- pean politics, and firmly believed that no one would have the courage and the power to gainsay the event when once accomplished, — these, and all his most confidential advisers, spurred him on. The immense prospect open- ed to him, his ambition, and his zeal for reli- gion, combined with these counsels to urge his resolution, and he accepted the crown (Aug. 1619). How vast must have been the consequences, had he been able to retain it! The power of the house of Austria in Eastern Europe would have been broken, and the pro- gress of Catholicism barred forever. And already strong sympathies awoke on his behalf in every quarter. In France a general movement took place among the Hu- guenots; the Bearnese opposed the royal commands; the assembly of Loudun espoused their cause ; nothing would have been more welcome to the queen mother than to gain over that warlike opposition to her own side ; Rohan had already joined her, and promised to bring over to her the rest of his co-religion- ists. In the ever restless Grisons, too, the Spanish catholic party had now been once more put down, and the protestant had risen on its fall. The court at Davos received with pleasure the ambassador of the new king of Bohemia, and promised him to keep the passes of the Alps forever closed against the Spaniards.* It is well worthy of remark, that these movements were likewise accompanied by the display of republican tendencies. Not only did the Bohemian estates maintain a nat- ural independence towards their elected king, but attempts were made to follow their ex- ample in all the hereditary dominions of Aus- tria. The estates of the German empire con- ceived new hopes, and, in fact, the amplest supplies of money Frederick received towards his enterprise came to him from that quarter. But precisely for these reasons, on the double motives of religion and policy, the catholic princes also now bestirred themselves more than ever. Maximilian of Bavaria, and Ferdinand, who had had the good tbrtune to be chosen empe- ror at this period, formed the strictest league with each other ; the king of Spain armed and prepared to afibrd effectual aid, and pope Paul V. consented to contribute considerable and very welcome subsidies. As the wind sometimes in the stormy sea- * Contemporaries fell the connexion of these events, which in subsequent limes was no longer attended to. Fiirstl. Auhallische Geh. Canzlei Fortsetzung, p. 6". A. D. 1617-1623.] GREGORY XV. 291 sons of the year shifts suddenly round, so the current of fortune and success now all at once turned back. The catholics succeeded in gaining" over the elector of Saxony, one of the most power- ful protestant princes, but who, as a Lutheran, cordially detested the movements which had been set on foot by Calvinism. This alone sufficed to inspire their rising in the assured hope of victory. A single battle, that of the Weiss Berg, fought on the 8th of November, 1620, put an end to the power of the elector palatine, and to all his projects. For even the Union did not support its lead- er with sufficient energy. It may very possi- bly be, that the republican temper we have spoken of may have alarmed the confederate princes; they refused to open the Rhine to the Dutch, fearing the analogies which their constitution might awaken in Germany. The catholics in Upper Germany likewise achieved an instantaneous victory. The Upper Pala- tinate was invaded by the Bavarians, the Low- er by the Spaniards; and in April, 1621, the Union was dissolved. All who bestirred them- selves, or took up arms in favour of Frederick, were driven out of the country or utterly crushed. In a moment, immediately after the greatest danger, the catholic principle was omnipotent in Upper Germany, and in the Austrian provinces. Meanwhile a decisive struggle was com- pleted in France likewise. After a success- ful battle fought by the royal forces, against the opposing court factions and the party of the queen mother, with whom the Huguenots were certainly in close correspondence,* the papal nuncio insisted that the happy moment should be seized for an enterprise against protestantism in general. He would hear of no postponement, asserting that whatever was once postponed in France was forever aban- doned ;t and he forced de Liiines and the king to coincide in his views. The old factions of the Beaumonts and the Grammonts, that had been at feud for centuries, still subsisted in Beam, and gave occasion to the king to make continual incursions into the country, disband its forces, annul its constitution, and restore the ascendancy of the catholic church. True, the protestants in France proper made a show of seconding their co-religionists, but they were beaten in the year 1621 in every quarter. About this time Jacopo Robustelli, a cap- tain of the Valtelline, had gathered round him the catholic exiles from the country, and some banditti from the JVIilanese and Venetian ter- ritories, with the determination of putting an end to the domination of the Grisons, whose * Even Benoist saya, ii. 291, "Les reform^s n'auroient attendu que les premiers succfes pour se ranger au meme farli (de la reine)." [The Huguenots would immediate- y, upon the first successes oftlie queen's arms, have join- ed her parly.] t Siri : Memorie recondite, v. p. 148. protestant tendencies were so oppressive to his countrymen. A capuchin friar fired a bloodthirsty band to fanaticism ; they broke into Tirano on the night of the 19th of July, 1620 ; at the dawn of day they rang the bells, and when the protestants rushed out of their houses at the sound, they were attacked, over- powered, and massacred. The fate of the Tirano was shared by the whole valley. In vain did the Grisons sally more than once from the heights of the mountains to retrieve their lost dominion : as often as they came they were beaten. In the year 1621 the Aus- trians penetrated from the Tyrol, the Spaniards from Milan, into the very heart of the Grison confederacy. " The bleak mountain was filled with murderous yells, and fearfully illumined by the flames of lonely dwellings." Posses- sion was taken of the passes, and of the entire country. These grand successes awoke all the hopes of the catholics. The papal court represented to the Spanish that the Netherlands were divided, and now without allies; there could not be a more favourable opportunity for making war upon those ancient rebels to Spain : these represen- tations produced their intended effect.* Peter Pectius, chancellor of Brabant, appeared in the Hague on the 25th of March, 1621, and instead of proposing the renewal of the truce, which just then expired, he proposed the re- cognition of the legitimate sovereign.! The states general declared this suggestion to be unjust, unexpected, nay, inhuman ; — hostilities broke out again. Here, too, the Spaniards had the advantage in the first instance. They wrested Juliers from the Netherlands, thus putting a grand conclusion to their operations on the Rhine. They were masters of the left bank of the Rhine, from Emmerich to Stras- burg. These numerous concurring victories hap- pening at once in so many various quarters, and brought about by such diversified means, when viewed in the light thrown on them by the general course of European affairs, do really constitute but a single fact. Let us now contemplate that which is the most im- portant point for our consideration, namely, the use to which these victories were applied. Gregory XV. In the procession held to celebrate the vic- tory of Weiss Berg, PaulV. had an apoplectic stroke, which was shortly after followed by * Instnittione a Mre- Sangro. " La onde S. M'i- non pu6 voltare le sue forze in miglior tempo ovvero opponu- nitCi." f The proposal was literally for an union " sub agnitione dominorum principumque legitimorum." [Under the cognizance of legitimate lords and princes.] The de- mand and the reply are to be found in Leonis abAilzema, HLsloria Tractatuum Pacis Belgicse, pp. 3. 4. 292 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1617-1623. another, from the effects of which he died, Jan. 28, 1621. The new election was effected on the whole after the manner of preceding ones. Paul V. had reigned so long, that he had seen nearly the whole college filled anew; accordingly, by far the greater part of the cardinals were attached to his nephew, cardinal Borghese. After some hesitation, the latter pitched upon the man whom all his adherents united in approving, — Alessandro Ludovisio, of Bologna, who was forthwith elected on the 9th of Feb- ruary, 1621, and took the name of Gregory XV. He was a little, phlegmatic man, who in earlier years had acquired a reputation for dexterous negociation, and for the art of quiet- ly and unobservedly compassing his ends.* At present, however, he was bent with years, weakly, and in ill health. What was to be expected befitting that strife on which hung the destinies of the world, from a pope to whom people often feared to com- municate important business, lest any shock should be given to his feeble constitution 1\ But by the side of this tottering old man stood a vigorous man of five-and-twenty, his nephew Ludovico Ludovisio, who immediately possessed himself of the powers of the papacy, and displayed talents and boldness fully ade- quate to all that was demanded by the existing state of things. Ludovico was a lover of pomp and splendour, and was not negligent in securing wealth, forming advantageous family connections, and favouring and prompting his friends : he lived, and let live : still he bore a watchful eye to tlie great interest of the church : even his enemies grant him the possession of genuine talents for the conduct of affairs, a sound saga- city that could discover a satisfactory issue out of the most embarrassing perplexities, and all the coolness and presence of mind required to d'escry a possible contingency through the dim haze of the future, and to shape his course accordingly.! Had he not been crippled by * Relatione di iv. ambascialori, 1631: " Di pelo che avvicinasseal biontio. Lanaturasuaesempreconosciuta piacida et flemnialica, lontano dall' imbarraciarsi in rot- ture, amicissimo d' andjtre in negolio deslreggiando et avanzando li proprj fini." + Rainier Zeno: Relatione di Roma, 1623: "Aggiugen- dosi air el4 cadenle una fiachissinia complessiune in un corpiccivolo stenualo e nial atfetto." t Rainier Zeno: "E d'ingegno vivacissimo: I'hadimos- irato nel suo governo per I'abondanza dei partili clie in ogni grave Iratlatione gli suggerivano suoi spiriti nati per coniandare, i quali se bene in mnlte parti aberravano del' I uopodclla bona politica, nondimeno I'inlrepidezza con I la quale si niostrava pronto ad abbracciare ogni ripi- i ego appreso da lui per buuno, poco curandosi di^consigli di chi gli haveria poluto esser maestro, davano a credere che la sua natura sdegnava una pri vata conditione." [He is a manof most lively genius, of which he liasgiven proof in his government by the abundant resources furnished ' him in every difficult occasion of business by the powers of a mind naturally fitted to couuiiand ; and although those powers have in many instances wandered from ih his uncle's infirmities, which forbade him to hope for any long duration of his power, no timid suggestions of expediency would ever have moved him. It was a very important circumstance that the nephew, as well as the uncle, was filled with the idea that the world's weal was iden- tified with the outspread of Catholicism. Car- dinal Ludovisio had been educated by the Jesuits, and was their earnest patron. The church of St. Ignatius at Rome was built chiefly at his expense : he laid considerable stress on the fact that he was protector of the Capuchins, declaring that he thought this the most im- portant patronage he enjoyed. He devoted himself with warm predilection to the most rigid and orthodox forms of Romanistopinions.* To form a general conception of the spirit of the new administration, we need but call to mind that it was Gregory XV. under whose pontificate the Propaganda was founded, and Ignatius and Xavier, the founders of the Je- suits, were canonized. The origin of the Propaganda is properly to be sought in an edict of Gregory XIII., by which the superintendence of missions in the east, and the printing of the catechism in the less known tongues, was committed to a num- ber of cardinals.f Still the institution was neither firmly established, nor provided with the requisite means ; nor was it comprehensive in its purposes. Now there flourished in those days in Rome a great preacher, named Giro- lamo da Narni, universally venerated for a life that had gained him the reputation of a saint; and whose discourses from the pulpit displayed a richness of thought, a purity of expression, and a majesty of delivery that enchanted all hearers. Bellarmine once said, in coming out from hearing a sermon by him, he believed he had just been granted one of St. Augustine's three wishes, — that of hearing St. Paul. Car- dinal Ludovisio was likewise one of his pa- trons : he defrayed the expense of printing his sermons. This Capuchin now conceived the idea of extending the institution in question. | By his advice a congregation was established in due form, which was to hold regular sittings for the guidance and government of the mis- sions in all parts of the world : it was to assem- ble at least once every month in presence of the pope. Gregory XV. supplied the first funds ; his nephew contributed from his pri- vate resources ; and as the institution was ests of sound policy, nevertheless his intrepidity and promptness in seizing on every remedy he judged ser- viceable, regardless of councils backed by whatever weight of authority, gave reason to believe thai his nature disdained a private condition.] * Giunti : Vita e fatti di Ludovico Ludovisio, MS. t Cocquelines: Praefatio ad Maffei Annales Gregorii XIII. p. 5. t Fr. Hierothei Epitome Historica reruni Franciscana- rum, etc. p. 362. Fra Girolamo had incited the pope, " publicis suasionibus et consiliisprivatis," [to public ex- hortations and private councils.] Compare Cerri, Etat inter- 1 present de Tdclise Roraaine, p. 289, where is also to be nd a circumstantial account of the institution and of the increase of its wealth. A. D. 1617-1623.] BOHEMIA— HEREDITARY DOMINIONS OF AUSTRIA. 293 adapted to meet an actual want, the pressure of which was just then felt, its prosperity grew day by day more brilliant. Who is there that knows not what the Propaganda has done for philological learning 1 In all respects indeed it has ever striven, and perhaps most success- fully in its earliest periods, to fulfil its calling upon a vast and noble scale. The canonization of the two Jesuits coin- cided with the same views. " At the time," says the bull, " when new worlds had been discovered, and when Luther had stood up in the old to assail the catholic church, the soul of Ignatius Loyola was stirred to found a soci- ety, which should devote itself especially to the conversion of the heathen and the bringing back of the heretics to the fold. But, above all its members, Francis Xavier proved him- self worthy to be the apostle of the newly dis- covered nations. Therefore they are now both of them received into the list of the saints : churches and altars, on which men shall offer their sacrifice to God, shall be consecrated to them."* In the spirit that breathes in this document, the new administration made instant arrange- ments for following up the triumphs of the catholic arms with conversions, and justifying and consolidating their conquests by the re- storation of religion. " We must bend all our thoughts," says one of the first instructions issued by Gregory XV., "towards deriving the utmost possible advantage from the happy change and victorious condition of the affairs of the church." A purpose most brilliantly fulfilled. CHAPTER III. GENERAL OUTSPREAD OF CATHOLICISM. 1. Bohemia and the hereditary dominions of Austria. The attention of the papal power was first directed to the rising fortunes of Catholicism in the Austrian provinces. Gregory XV., whilst granting the emperor double the subsidies previously paid to him,f and promising him at the same time no in- considerable extraordinary present, though, as he said, he had hardly left himself enough to support life, urged him not to lose a mo- ment in following up his victory with the utmost speed, and proceeding therewith in the restoration of the catholic religion. | By that restoration alone could he evince his gratitude to the God of Victory. He argues from the principle that rebellion had entailed upon the nations the necessity of more rigor- ous control, and that they should be compelled by force to abandon their godless ways. The nuncio wliom Gregory XV. sent to the emperor was Carlo Caraffa, well known to German history. From the two reports of his that have been preserved, the one printed, the other in manuscript, we may confidently infer what measures he adopted to obtain the ends proposed by the pope. His first care in Bohemia, where his offi- cial duties began, was to remove the protest- ant preachers and schoolmasters, " who were guilty of treason against human and divine majesty." This was no very easy task. The mem- bers of the imperial government at Prague thought it still too hazardous ; nor did they venture upon it till the 13th of December, 1621, when Mansfield had been driven out of the Upper Palatinate, all danger from with- out had been repelled, and a couple of regi- ments, enrolled at the request of the nuncio, had marched into Prague; and even then the two Lutheran preachers were spared in de- ference to the elector of Saxony. The nun- cio, representing a principle that knew no respect of persons, would not hear of this, and complained that the whole people clung to those men ; that a catholic priest had nothing to do, and could not procure a subsistence.* He carried his point at last in October, 1622, and the Lutheran preachers were banished. For a moment the fears of the government counsellors seemed likely to be justified by the event ; the elector of Saxony issued a threatening letter, and assumed a hostile atti- tude : with regard to the most important questions, even the emperor said once to the nuncio that he had been too precipitate, and that he would have done better to wait a more favourable opportunity.! The fit means. * Bullarium, Cocquelines, v. 131. 137. •|- The subsidy was raised from 20,000 gulden to 20,000 scudi. The present amounted to 200,000 scudi. He would have wished that regiments had been supported out of this money under papal authority. t Instruitione al vescovo d'Aversa, 12 Apr. 1G21 ; " Non 6 tempo di indugi nfi di coperli andamenti." [It is no time for delays or for covert proceedings.] They thought at Rome that Bucquoi in particular was far too slow. " La prestezza apporlarebbe 11 remedio di tanti mali, se dal come de Bucquoi per allro valoroso capilano ella si potesse sperare." [Prompt proceedings would afford a remedy for a great number of evils, if they could be ex- pected of count Bucquoi, valorous captain though he be.] * Caraffa, Kagguaglio, MS. ; " Conaucevano m dispera- tione i parochi catolici per vedersi da essi (Luterani) le- varsi ogni emolumenlo." [The catholic parish priests were driven to desperation by seeing themselves deprived by the Lutherans of all emolument.] The printed Com- mentarii, however, contain a more plausible ground of complaint: " Quamdiu illi haerebant, tamdiu adhucsper- abant sectarii S. Majestatem concessurumaliquandolibe- ram facultatem." (p. 130.) [As long as they remained in their posts, so long the sectarians thought that his ma- jesty would grant toleration.] t Caraffa, Ragguaglio: "Sua M'a- mi si dimo3tr6 con questo di qualche pensiere, ed usci a dirmi che si haveva havuto troppo prescia e che saria stato meglio cacciare quel predicanti in allro tempo dopo che si fosse tenuto il convento in Ratisbona. Al che ioreplicai che Sua Maesta. poleva avere piu losto errato nella tardanza che nella fretta circa quest6 fatto, poich6 se il Sassone fosse venule al convento, di che non ammettono che egli avesse avuta 294 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1617-1623. however, to hold Ferdinand stedfast to his purpose were known ; the old bishop of Wiirzhurg represented to him •' that danger would never appal a glorious emperor ; it were better for him in any case to fall into the power of men than into the hands of the living God." The emperor yielded. The nuncio had the triumph of seeing the elector of Sax- ony submit at last to the removal of the preachers, and withdraw his opposition. The way was now smoothed. Dominicans, Augustines, and Carmelites, succeeded to the places of the protestant preachers, for as yet there was a sensible dearth of secular clergy, A whole colony of Franciscans arrived from Gnesen; Jesuits were not wanting; when a dispatch arrived from the Propaganda, re- questing them to take upon themselves the duties of parish priests, they had already done so.* And now the only possible question re- maining was, whether the national Utraquist ritual might not be partially at least retained, according to the determination of the council of Basel. The government council, and the governor himself, prince Lichtenstein, were for it.-f they allowed the administration of the Lord's Supper to take place once more in both kinds on Holy Thursday, 1622, and a feeling already began to find voice among the people against their being despoiled of that ancient hereditary usage. But no argu- ments could bend the nuncio's determination: he adhered inflexibly to the views of the curia, well knowing that the emperor would in the end sanction the course he took ; and in fact he succeeded in procuring from him a declaration that his temporal government had no right to interfere in religious matters. Hereupon the mass was performed every- where exclusively after the Roman ritual, in Latin, with aspersion of holy water, and invo- cation of the saints : all thought of the cele- bration of the Lord's Supper in both kinds was out of the question ; the boldest upholders of that usage were cast into prison. Finally, too, the symbal of Utraquism, the great cup, mai la volonta, si sapeva per ognuno che haverebbe dom- andato a Maesli, che a sua contemplazione permettesse in Praga I'esercizio Luterano che gii vi era." [His ma- jesty manifested some concern at this, and told me there had been too much haste in the matter, and that it would have been better to expel those preachers some other I™'', ^^^^'' l^e convention at Ralisbon. To which I re- plied, that possibly his majesty had rather erred in the matter in the way of tardiness than of speed, since, if the elector of Saxony had come to the meeting, of which they do not admit that he ever entertained an intention, it was notorious that he would have demanded of his majesty that he should endure the exercise of Lutheranisin in Prague as it already existed.] * Cordara, Historia Societatis Jesu, torn. vi. lib. vii. p. 38. t According to the received notions, e. g. in Senkenberg, continuation of the Reichshistorie by Haberlin, v. '25, p. 156, note k, we should believe the contrary of Lichten- stein : this, however, would be quite erroneous, as appears from Caraffa. The nuncio, on the other hand, met with support from Plateis. with the sword, displayed on the Thein church, the sight of which kept the old remi- niscences alive, was taken down. On the 10th of July, which day had always been kept as a holiday sacred to the memory of John Huss, the churches were carefully closed. This extreme enforcement of Romish dog- mas and usages was now backed by the polit- ical measures of the government. Confisca- tions brought a considerable part of the land- ed property of the country into catholic hands; the acquisition of real estates by protestants was rendered next to impossible ;* the coun- cils were changed in all the royal cities ; no member would have been tolerated in them whose Catholicism was liable to suspicion ; the rebels were pardoned as soon as they be- came converts ; while the refractory, those who could not be persuaded, and would not hearken to ghostly admonitions, had troops quartered in their houses, " in order," as the nuncio says, in express terms, " that vexation might bring them to their senses."f The effect of these combined efforts of force and argument surpassed even the nuncio's expectations. He was astonished to see how numerously the churches in Prague were at- tended, there being present on many Sunday mornings from two to three thousand persons ; and how decent, devout, and, to outward ap- pearance, catholic was their deportment. He attributed this to the fact, that the feelings and reminiscences of Catholicism had never been wholly extinguished in Prague ; as was instanced in the people refusing to allow the great crucifix on the bridge to be removed even by the wife of King Frederick : the real cause was, doubtless, that protestant convic- tion had never thoroughly pervaded the masses. Conversions proceeded without in- terruption : the Jesuits alone asserted that in the year 1624 they had brought back sixteen thousand souls to the catholic church. | In Tabor, where protestantism seemed to prevail exclusively, fifty families conformed to the church in Easter, 1622, and all the remaining families in Easter, 1623. In course of time Bohemia became completely catholic. The like events happened in Moravia as in Bohemia ; and that with the more rapidity, since cardinal Dietrichstein, being at once governor of the country and bishop of 01- miitz, united the powers of the spiritual and * Caraffa: "Con ordine che non si potessero inserire nelle tavole del regno, il che apport6 indicible giova- mento alia riforma par tutto quel tempo." [With a regulation to the effect, that they could not be inscribed in the registers of the realm, a measure of unspeakable advantage in furthering the reform during all that lime.] I Acci6 il Iravaglio desse loro sense ed inielletto." This is also repeated in the printed work : " Cognitunique fuit solam vexationem posse Bohemis intellectum prae- bere." t Caraffa : " Messovi un sacerdote catolico di molta dot- trina, e poi facendosi missioni ad alcuni padri Gesuiti." [A catholic priest of much learning having been senlthi- tner, and afterwards some Jesuit missionaries.] A. D. 1617-1623.] BOHEMIA— HEREDITARY DOMINIONS OF AUSTRIA. 295 the secular authority to the end in view. But a peculiar difficulty presented itself here. The nobility would not submit to be deprived of the Moravian brethren, whose don^stic and agricultural services were invaluable, and the localities occupied by whom were the most thriving in the country:* speakers were found on their behalf even iu the emperor's privy council. Nevertheless, here too the the nuncio, and the principle of which he was the instrument, were victorious. About fif- teen thousand were expelled. The young count Thurn had once more led the protestant arms to victory in the Glatz country, but the Poles came to the asistance of the imperialists; the country was over- powered, the town too was captured, and the catholic worship restored with the usual rig- our. Some sixty preachers were banished ; they were followed by no small number of their flock, whose property was confiscated in consequence : the multitude returned to Catho- licism.f Under these circumstances, the so often repeated and so often abortive attempts to restore catholism in Austria proper were at last renewed with decided suc- cess.J The preachers who were charged * Ragiruaglio di Caraffa : " Essendo essi lenuti huomini d'induslria e d'inlegriti venivano impiegati nella cusio- dia de' terreni, delle casp, delle canline e de' molino, oltre che lavorando eccellenlemente in alcuni meslieri erano divenuli ricchi e coniribuivano gran parte del loro guadagno a' signori de' liioghi ne' quali habitavano, seb- bene da qualche tempo indietro havevano cominciato a corrompersi, essendo entralo ira di loro Tambizione e I'avarizia con qualche pane di lusso per comoditi della vita. Costoro si erano sempre andali argumenladoin Mo- ravia, perciocche oltre a quelli che seducevano nella pro- vincia e ne' luoghi convicini havevano corrispondenza per tutti li luoghi della Germania, di dove ricorrevano alia loro fratellanza luui quelli che per debito o poverty dis- peravano poiersi soslenlare, especialmente venivaad essi gran numeri di poveri Grisoni e di Svevia lasciandosi rapire da quel nome di fratellanza e sicurtd. di havere sempre del pane, che in casa loro diffidavano potersi col proprio sudore guadagnare : onde si sono avvanzati alle volte sino al numcro di centomila." [Being esteemed men of diligence and integrity, they were employed in the care of lands, houses, cellars, and mills; besides which, being excellent workmen in some trades, ihe'y were become rich, and contributed a large part of their gains to the lords of the soil where they resided, though for some time past they have begun to be corrupted, ambition and avarice having crept in among them, with some de- gree of luxury in their habits of life. Their numbers have been constantly on the increase in Moravia, because, in addition to those whom they inveigled in the province and the adjacent parts, they kept up a correspondence with all parts of Germany, whence there flocked to their fraternity all those who, either from debt or poverty, de- spaired of maintaining themselves; and especially they received a great number of poor people from the Grisons, and from Suabia, who suffered themselves to be caught by the name of brotherhood, and by the assurance of always having a sufficiency of bread, which they despaired of earning al home by their own e.verlions, whence their numbers have amounted at times to a hundred thousand.] t Koglers Chronik von Glatz : i. iii. 92. t This had been the emperor's first thought, even be- fore the battle of Prague, when Maximilian first entered theterritory of Upper Austria: he urged the latter to depose the preachers instanter, " so that the pipers might be dis- missed and a stop put to the dance," His letter is in Breier's continuation of Wolf's Maximilian, iv. 414. In the year 1624 the Jesuits got the university of Vienna com- pletely into their hands. " Imperator societatem acade- miae intexuit et in unum quasi corpus conflavit, data illi with rebellion were first banished, and after- wards all others : provided with a scanty viat- icum, the poor men slowly ascended the Dan- ube, taunted with the cry, " Where now is your strong tower]"* The emperor roundly declared to the estates of the country " that he wholly and decidedly reserved to himself and his posterity the disposal of all things per- taining to religion." In October, 1624, ap- peared a commission, which apppointed an interval for the inhabitants, during which they were to make up their minds either to profess Catholicism or to quit the country. The nobility alone were granted .some mo- mentary indulgence. It was not possible to proceed so violently in Hungary, conquered though it was; but there too the course of events, the favour of the government, and, above all, the exertions of archbishop Pazmany, brought about a change. Pazmany possessed extraordinary skill as a writer in his mother tongue. His book, called " Kalauz,"f full of talent and learning, was irresistible among his country- men. He was also endowed with the power of eloquence, and is said to have personally eflJected the conversion of fifty families ; among whom we find the names of Zrinyi, Forgacz, Erdody, Balassa, Jakusith, Homonay, and Adam Thurzo. Count Adam Zrinyi alone expelled twenty protestant parish clergymen, and placed catholic priests in their stead. Under such influences, the political affairs of the kingdom of Hungary likewise took a new turn. The catholic Austrian party had a majority in the diet of 1625. A convert, rec- ommended by the court, an Esterhazy, was made palatine. But a distinction is to be noticed in this case. The conversions in Hungary were far more voluntary than in the other provinces; the magnates surrendered not a single right in consequence, but may rather be considered to have gained new ones. In the Austro-Bo- hemian territories, on the contrary, the entire independence, energy, and power of the es- tates, had thrown themselves into the forms of protestantism ; their conversion was, if not in every case, yet on the whole compulsory : in those provinces the restoration of catholic- ism was accompanied by the establishment of the government's absolute authority. amplissima poteslate docendi literas humaniores,linguam Latinam, Graecam, Hebraicam, philosophiam denique omnem ac theologiam." Monitumad statuta acad. Vin- dob. recentiora. "Kollar Anal. ii. p. 282. [The emperor interwove the society into the university, and incorporated them as it were into one body, conferring on it the most ample power of teaching polite letters, the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues, the whole body of philosophy, and theology.] * "Woistnun eure feste Burg'!" In allusion, doubt- less, to Luther's noble hymn, beginning with " Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott." " A tower of strength our God is still."— [Translator.] t Hodoegus, Isgazs^gra vez^rlo Kalauz; Presb. 1613, 1623. 296 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1617-1623. II. The Empire. Transfer of the Electorate. We know how much greater progress had already been made in the German empire than in the hereditary dominions of Austria ; notwithstanding this, the new events had an indescribable effect there. The counter reformation at once acquired a fresh impetus and a new field of action. After Maximilian had taken possession of the Upper Palatinate, he did not lose much time in changing the religion established there. He divided the country into twenty stations, in which fifty Jesuits were employed : the churches were forcibly transferred to them, and the use of the protestant services univer- sally forbidden. The more the probability increased that the country would remain per- manently annexed to Bavaria, the more ready were the inhabitants to conform.* The conquerors looked on the lower Palati- nate as their own property. Maximilian even made a present of the Heidelberg library to the pope ! Before the conquest the pope had solicited that favour of the duke through Montorio the nuncio in Cologne, and the duke had promised it with his usual alacrity. Upon the first in- telligence of the capture of Heidelberg, Mon- torio enforced his claim. He had been told that the MSS. in particular were of inesti- mable value, and he sent a special entreaty to Tilly to protect them carefully from injury in the pillage. f The pope then sent doctor Leo- ne Allacci, scriptor of the Vatican, to Germa- ny to take possession of the books. Gregory XV. regarded this matter in a very exalted point of view. He declared it one of the most fortunate events of his pontificate, which would tend to the honour and advantage of the holy see, the church, and the sciences : it would also redound to the glory of the Bava- rian name, that so precious a booty should be preserved to everlasting memory in the world's great theatre, Rome.]: The duke manifested in the Palatinate his usual indefatigable zeal for reform, surpassing even the Spaniards, who were yet no indiffer- ent catholics. 5 With rapture the nuncio be- held the mass celebrated, and conversions taking place in Heidelberg, " whence had is- sued the norma of the Calvinists, the notori- ous catechism." Meanwhile the elector Schweikard reform- ♦ Kropff, Historia societalis Jesu in Germania superior!, iv. p.271. t Relatione di Mr. Montorio ritornato nuncio di Colo- nia, 1624. Tlie passage is in the Appendix, No. 109. t " die cosi pretiosi spoglio e cosl nobil trofeo si con- Bervi a perpetua memoria in questo tealro del mondo." Instruttione al dottore Leon Allatio per andare in Germa- nia per la liberia del Palatine. We will examine its authenticity in the Appendix, No. 101. § Montorio: "Benclie nelle terre che occupano i Spa- gnuoli non si camini con quel fervore con quale si camina in quelle che occupa il S'. D». di Baviera alia con versione de' popoli." ed the Bergstrasse, of which he had taken pos- session, and margrave William, Upper Baden, which had been adjudged his after a long litigation, though his birth was scarcely le- gitimate, not to say of due nobility through both parents : he had previously given a distinct pledge to Caraffa that he would pursue that line of conduct in the event of his succeed- ing.* Even in countries not immediately affected by the political occurences of the day, the old efforts were renewed with fresh zeal, in Bamberg,f Fulda, Eichsfeld, in Paderborn, where two catholics had successively filled, the episcopal chair, above all in the diocese of Miinster, where Meppen, Vechta, Halteren, and many other districts were made catholic in the year 1624. Archbishop Ferdinand es- tablished missions in nearly all the towns, and a college of JesuitsJ in Coesfield " for the re- vival of the ancient and much chilled catholic religion." We meet with Jesuit missionaries as far as Halberstadt and Magdeburg, and they set themselves down in Altona to learn the language, and then to advance into Den- mark and Norway. We see with what vehemence Catholicism gushed from Upper into Lower Germany, from south to north. Meanwhile an attempt was made to carry a new position, bearing upon the general affairs of the empire. Immediately upon the conclusion of the League, Ferdinand II. had given a promise to duke Maximilian, that in case of success the electorate should be transferred to him. J It cannot be a question what was the chief consideration that actuated the catholic party in this matter. The majority of votes which that party possessed in the council of princes, had hitherto been counter-balanced by the equality of voices possessed by the protestants in the electoral college ; the transfer of the electorate would for ever remove that check. || * Caraffa, Germania reslaurata, p. 129. t Johann Georg Fuchs, of Dornheim, was particularly active, and brought baclt to Catholicism twenty-three knights' parishes. Jiick : Geschichte von Bamberg, ii. 120. t A letter from one of his assistants, Joh. Dr.ichter, dean of Diilmen, is conceived in very curious terms : " Ungern hab ich I. Ch. D. einen grossen Anzhall der hirnlosen Schaifen iiberschreiben willen, und michufdie heulige Stunde noch lieberbearbeitet noch alle mil einander rait swebender Furcht in den rechten Schaifstall hineinzuja- gen, wie dann och Balthasar Bilderbeck uud Caspar Karl mit zwen Fiissen schon hineingestiegen." [I liave been loth to report to your electoral highness a great multitude of the brainless sheep, and I have rather exerted myself up to the present hour to drive tlie whole flock in a panic into the right fold, and already Balthasar Bilderbeck and Caspar Karl have made a leap and gone in.] Compare generally the documents given by Niesert, Miinsterche tJrkundensamlung, i. p. 402. § Letter from the emperor to Baltazar de Zuniga, 15 Oct. 1621, printed in Sattler: Wiirtemburg, Geschichte vi. p. 162. . II Instruttione a Mr. Sacchetti, nuntio in Spagno, desig- nates the restitution of the Palatinate as an " irieparabile perdita della reputatione di questo fatto edellachiesa cattolica se il papa ci avesse condisceso, con indici- bit danno della religione cattolica e dell' imperio: che tanti e tanti anni hanno bramato senza po- lerio sapere, non che ottenere, il quarto ellettor catlolico in servilio ancora del sangue Austriaco." [Irreparable loss of the credit of that achievement and of A. D. 1617-1623.] THE EMPIRE. TRANSFER OF THE ELECTORATE. 297 A close friendship had long subsisted be- tween the papal court and Bavaria, and Greg- ory XV. now made this matter his own per- sonal concern. He caused the king to be exhorted by the very first nuncio he sent to Spain, to contribute to the ruin of the count Palatine, and to the transfer of the electorate, measures which would for ever secure the imperial crown to the catholics.* The Spaniards were not very easily to be moved to that course. They were engaged in the most in)portant negociations with the king of England, and scrupled to offend him in the person of his son-in-law, the count palatine Frederick, to whom the elect- orate belonged. The pope grew but more zealous in the cause ; he was not content to employ the nuncio only, but in the year 1622, we find also the adroit Capuchin brother Hya- cinth, who possessed the special confidence of Maximilian, engaged in a special mission from the pope to the Spanish court.f It was with extreme reluctance the Spaniards ventured to commit themselves more explicitly in the mat- ter: all that could at last be obtained from the king, was a declaration that he would rather see the electorate in the house of Bavaria than in his own. This was sufficient for brother Hyacinth, and with that declaration he hasten- ed to Vienna, to allay whatever scruples the emperor might have conceived in deference to Spain. 'I'here he was aided by the wonted influence of the nuncio Caraffa, and even by a fresh brief from the pope himself: " Behold," exclaimed the pope to the emperor in that document, " the gates of heaven are opened, the heavenly hosts urge thee on to win so great an honour ; they will fight for thee in thy camp." The emperor was further wrought upon by a special consideration which very strikingly characterizes the man. He had long pondered the transfer, and had given ex- pression to that purpose in a letter which fell into the hands of the protestants, and was pub- lished by them. The emperor felt himself as it were bound by this. He thought it essen- tial to the maintenance of his imperial dignity to adhere to a purpose once conceived by him, so soon as its existence was made known. In fine he made up his mind to proceed to the transfer at the next diet.| The only question was, as to whether the princes of the eu)pire would consent. Most depended on Schweikard of Mainz, and the nuncio Montorio at least assures us that at the catholic church, if the pope had condescended to it, to. the inexpressible injury of the catholic religion, and of the empire ; for many and many a year they have longed, ■without being able to devise or effect it, to have a fourth catholic elector in the interest of the house of Austria.] * Inslriutione a Mons. Sangro. He is exhorted " di in- fervorare S. Mti. acciu non si lasci risorgere il Palatino e si metta I'elettorato in persona cattolica, e si assicuri I'impero eternamente fra caltolici." t Khevenhiller, ix. p. 1766. i Caraffa: Germania realaurata, p. 120. 39 first that thoughtful prince was averse to the measure ; that he had declared to the empe- ror that war would break out afresh, and rage more fiercely than before ; that moreover, if a change was by all means to take place, the count Palatine of Neuberg had the nearer right to the electorate, and could not possibly be passed over. The nuncio does not tell us how he at last persuaded the prince. His words are : " In four or five days I passed with him at Aschaffenburg I obtained the desired decision." All we know is, that earnest sup- port was promised on the pope's part, should war break out anew. But the resolution of the elector of Mainz was decisive of the matter. His two Rhenish colleagues followed his opinion. Though Brandenburg and Saxony still opposed the measure (the opposition of Saxony was not overcome till a later period by the archbishop of Mainz,)* though the Spanish ambassador now declared directly against it,f still the emperor steadily persisted. On the 21st of February, 1623, he transferred the electorate to his victorious ally; at first indeed the pos- session was to be but personal, the Palatine heirs and agnates retaining their rights for the future. Even upon this condition, however, an im- mensity had been gained, above all the pre- ponderance in the supreme council of the em- pire, whose assent henceforth gave a legal sanction to every new resolution in favour of Catholicism. Maximilian saw clearly how much he was indebted to pope Gregory XV. in this business. " Your holiness," he writes to him, " has not only forwarded this matter, but absolutely ac- complished it by your admonitions, your au- thority, and your zealous exertions. It must be ascribed wholly and solely to the favour and vigilance of your holiness." " Thy letter, O son," replied Gregory XV., " has filled our breast with a flood of delight, sweet as manna from heaven : at last may the daughter of Sion cast from her head the ashes of mourning, and clothe herself in festive gar- ments."]: * Montorio calls Schweikard " unico instigatore a far voltare Sassonia a favore dell' imperatore nella transla- tions deir elettorato." [The sole instigator of the elector of Saxony's change of sentiments in favour of the empe- ror, with regard to the transfer of the electorate.] f Onate's declaration, and the violent letter of Ludovi- sio against the restoration of an electorate to a blasphemous Calvinist, are in Khevenhiller, x. 67, 68. JGiunti, Vita diLudovisioLudovisi, gives the chief cre- dit to the nephew. " Da. S. Sii edal C'e. furonoscritle mol- te leltereanche di proprio pugnopiene d'ardoreet efficacia per disporre Cesare, et in ollre fu mandato Mor. Verospi au- ditir di rota e dopoil P. F. Giaciniodi CasaleCapuccino." [His holiness and the cardinal wrote many letters, and with their own hands too, full of earnest and cogent argu- ments to urge the emperor on ; and, furthermore, IVIons. Verospi, auditor di rota, was sent on a mission on the sub- ject, and after him father Giancinlo di Casale, a Capu- chin.] By these persons the emperor was told, " che il vicario di Christo per parte del S^e. fin cion le lacrime lo pregava e acongiurava e le ne prometieva felicity e sicu- 298 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1617-1623. 3. France. At the same time as these things were pass- ing- in Germany, the great tide in the affairs of France set in. Upon inquiring whence chiefly arose the losses of protestantism in the year 1621, we shall find them to have originated in the dis- cord of the party, and the apostacy of the no- bles. It is very possible that the latter was due in part to those republican tendencies which were founded as well on a municipal as a theological basis, and were unfavourable to the influence of the nobility. The nobles probably thought it more to their advantage to attach themselves to the king and the court, than to let themselves be ruled by preachers and burgomasters. Be it as it may, in the year 1621, the governors of the fortified towns vied with each other in giving them up : each man sought only to bargain for an advan- tageous post for himself. This was repeated in the year 1622. La Force and Chatillon received the truncheons of marshal on desert- ing their co-religionists: the aged Lesdiguie- res became catholic,* and even commanded a division against the protestants: many others were led away by these examples.! Under these circumstances, it was but a very unfavourable peace that could be concluded in 1622, nor durst the Huguenots flatter them- selves with the hope that it would be pre- served. Formerly, when the protestants were powerful, the king had many times exceeded and broken through his treaties with them : was it likely he would observe them now when their strength was lost! The stipula- tions of the treaty were set at nought in every particular ; the exercise of the protest- ant religion was in many places absolutely prevented ; the Huguenots were prohibited from singing their psalms in the streets and m the shops; their rights in the universities were curtailed ;| Fort Louys, which accord- ing to promise should have been razed, was kept standing ; an attempt was made to get the election of magistrates in the protestant towns into the royal hands ;^ by an edict of the 17th of April, 1622, a commissioner for the convocations of the protestants was ap- pointed, and after the party had once submit- ted to such violent inroads upon their ancient immunities, the government interposed in their affairs of a purely ecclesiastical nature : the rezza della sua salute." [Thai Christ's vicar besought and conjured him, on the part of the Saviour, even with tears, and promised him, in consideration of obedience, felicity and assured salvation.] * M^moires de Deageant, p. 190: several other passages are also very iniiiortanl respecting this conversion. t Liste des gentilshommes de la religion reduils au roi, in Malingre, Histoire des derniers troubles arrives en P>ance, p". 780. Rohan also concluded his treaty : but unfortunately the particulars of it given in the Mercure de France, vii. p. 845, are not authentic. t Benoist, ii. 419. § Rohan, M^m. i. iii. Huguenots were hindered by the commis- sioner from accepting the decrees of the synod of Dort. Their independence was gone; they were no longer capable of any stedfast resistance. Conversions spread widely amongst them on all sides. The Capuchins filled Poitou and Languedoc with missions;* the Jesuits who possessed new establishments in Aix, Lyon, Pau, and many other places, made the greatest pro- gress in the towns and throughout the coun- try ; their brotherhoods of the Virgin attracted universal notice and approbation, by their ex- ertions on behalf of the wounded in the last war.f Some Franciscans, too, distinguished them- selves ; such as father Villele of Bourdeaux, of whom the almost fabulous story is told, that after he had brought over the whole town of Foix, he effected likewise the conversion of a man of upwards of a hundred years of age, the very same who had once received the first protestant preacher from Calvin's hand, and introduced him into Foix. The protestant church was pulled down, and the triumphant fathers had the banished preacher accompa- nied from town by a trumpeter.^ In a word, the work of conversion made rapid progress ; high and low, and even the learned, I'ecanted : the latter were particu- larly moved by the demonstration that the an- cient church, even previously to the council of Nice, had invoked the saints, prayed for the dead, and possessed a hierarchy, and many catholic usages. There have come down to us reports of some bishops, from which we can collect the numerical proportions of the two confessions, as fixed under these circumstances. In the diocese of Poitiers half the inhabitants of some towns were protestants, as for instance Lusignan and St. Mairant ; in others a third, such as Chauvigney and Niort; a fourth in Loudun; in Poitiers itself only a twentieth; and a far lesser proportion still in the country parts. § The bishops were in immediate com- munication with Rome with respect to the conversions, sending in reports and mention- ing their wishes : the nuncio was instructed to lay before the king, and to back with his recommendation whatever they should com- municate to him. In these reports they often went into very minute particulars. The bishop of Vienne, for instance, finds the missionaries especially obstructed by a preacher in St. Marcellin, whom there was no defeating ; the nuncio is engaged to exert himself at court for his removal. He is called on to support the Bishop of St. Malo, who complains that * Instruttione all' arcivescovo di Daniniata, MS. t Cordara: Historia societatis Jesu, vii. 95. 118. t Relation catholique inserted in the Mercure Fran- gois, viii. 489. § Relatione del vescovo di Portiero, 1623, MS. A. D. 1617-1623.] STATE OF CATHOLICISM IN ENGLAND. 299 catholic worship is not tolerated in a castle of his diocese. He is to procure for the bishop of Xaintes an able proselytizer, who is point- ed out to him by name. Sometimes the bisli- ops are called on, when they encounter obsta- cles, to state more explicitly wjiat can be done, so that the nuncio may propose it to the king.* The period was marked by a close union of all spiritual authorities with the Propaganda, which, as we have said, displayed most activity and efficacy in its early years, and with the pope; by zeal and lively assiduity in follow- ing up the consequences of a decisive victory in arms; and by the cordial co-operation therein of the court, which discerned its own great political interest in the struggle. It was therefore a period in which was for- ever decided the downfall of protestantism in France. 4. United Netherlands. Now these advances of Catholicism were not confined to countries where the govern- ment was of that faith ; they manifested tliem- selves at the same moment under protestant rulers. We are astonished when we read in Benti- voglio, that in those cities of the Netherlands which had so heroically and so long withstood the king of Spain, chiefly in behalf of their religion, probably the greater part of the emi- nent families had gone over again to Catholi- cism ;f but it is still more startling when we find a very minute and circumstantial report of the year 1622, detailing the increase and . * Instrmtione al arcivescovo di Damiata: — one example may suffice. "Dalla relatione del vescovo di Candon si cava die ha il dello vescovo la lena di Neaco, ove sono molli eretiii, con una niissione di Gesuili, li quali in danno s'affaticano se con I'autoriti temporale il renonda qualche buon ordine : ed ^lla potr^ scrivereal delto ves- covo che avvisi cio che pu6 fare SuaM'^., perche nel la re- latione non lo specifica. Da quelladel vescovo di S. Blalo s'intende che in un castello e villa del marchese di Moiis- saye e solo lecito di predicare a Calvinisli: per6 sarebbe bene di ricordare alia M'a. del re che levasse i predica- tori acciocchS i missionarj del vescovo potessero far frut- 10 : il castello e villa non 6 nominate nella relatione, e pero si potrCl scrivere al vescovo per saperlo. II vescovo di Monpellier avvisa di haver carestia d'operarj e che dagli eretici sonosentili volontieri i padri Cappucini,onde segli potrebbe procurare una missione di questi padri." [It appears from the report of the bishop of Candon, that he has introduced into the country of Neaco, where there are many heretics, Jesuit missionaries, whose labours will be all fruitless if the king does not interpose his temporal authority: you may write to the said bishop and desire him to state what his majesty can do, for he does not sjie- cify it in his report. From the rpport of the bisliop of .St. Malo, it appears, that in a castle and town belonging to the marquis of Moussayp,the Calvinisls alone are allowed to preach ; wherefore it would be well to put his majesty in mind of removing the preachers, so that the bishop's missionaries might have opportunity of labouring with ef- fect. The castle and city are not named in the report, so the bishop may be written to, to name them. The bishop of Montpellier writes that he lacks labourers, and that the heretics listen with alacrity to the Capuchins, for which reason a mission of those fathers might be furnished him.] + Relatione delle provincie ubbidienti, parte ii. c. II, in which the state of religion in Holland is discussed. progress of Catholicism under such unfavour- able circumstances. It was in the year 1592 the first Jesuit arrived in the Netherlands, and in 1622 the order counted there twenty- two members. New labourers were continu- ally pouring in from the colleges of Cologne and Louvain ; in the year 1622 there were two hundred and twenty secular priests em- ployed in the country, but their numbers were far from adequate to the calls made on them. According to the above-mentioned report, the number of catholics in the arch-diocese of Utrecht amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand ; in the diocese of Haarlem, to which Amsterdam belonged, to one hundred thou- sand souls ; Leu warden possessed fifteen thou- sand, Groningen twenty thousand, Deventer sixty thousand catholics. The apostolic vicar sent at that time from the see of Rome to Deventer, imparted in three towns and a few villages in that diocese, confirmation to twelve ihousand persons. The numbers in this report are no doubt much exaggerated ; still we see that this pre-eminently protestant country was yet strongly leavened with Catholicism. Even those bishoprics which Philip II. had endeav- oured to introduce there were constantly re- cognized by the catholics. f It was probably this state of things that inspired the Spaniards with courage to renew the war against the Low Countries. 5. State of Catholicism in England. Meanwhile more peaceful prospects had un- folded themselves in England. The son of Mary Stuart united the crowns of Great Bri- tain, and he now approximated more decidedly than ever to the catholic powers. Previously to the accession of James I. to the English throne, Clement VIII. sent him word "that he prayed for him as the son of so virtuous a mother; that he wished him all temporal and spiritual welfare, and trusted yet to see him a catholic." James's advent to the throne was celebrated in Rome with so- lemn prayers and processions. James could not have ventured to make any corre.spoiiding return to these advances, even had he been so disposed ; but he allowed Parry, his ambassador to Paris, to enter into confi- dential relations with Bubalis, the nuncio at the same court. The latter produced a letter from the pope's nephew, Cardinal Aldobrandi- ni; wherein the latter admonished the English catholics to obey James as their king and natu- ral lord, and even to pray for him. This was * Compendium status in quo nunc est religio catholica in Hollandia et confederalis Belgii provinciis, 2 Dec. IG22: "His non obstautibus— laus Deo— quotidie crescit catholicorum numerus, praesertim accedente dissensions hsreticorum inter se." [Notwithstanding these things, thanks be to God, the number of the catholics daily in- creases, especially since the lieretics have fallen out among themselves.] 300 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD. [a. d. 1617-1623. met on Parry's part by an instruction from James, in which he promised to let the peace- able catholics live without molestation.* In fact, in the north of England people began again openly to attend mass : the puritans com- plained that within a short period fifty thou- sand Englishmen had gone over to Catholicism ; to which James is said to have made answer, that "they might go and convert an equal number of Spaniards and Italians." These successes may have prompted the catholics to strain their hopes too far. But as the king persisted in his preference for the opposite side, as the old acts of parliament were renewed, and fresh persecutions were set on foot, their irritation grew proportion- ally intense, till at last it found fearful expres- sion in the gunpowder plot. After that event there was no possibility of any toleration on the king's part. The most seyere laws were enacted and enforced : domi- ciliary visits, imprisonments, and fines, were inflicted ; the priests, more especially the Je- suits, were persecuted and banished ; the ut- most rigour was deemed necessary to check such enterprising foes. But in private interviews the king's expres- sions were very moderate. He said outright to a prince of the house of Lorraine, who once visited him not without the knowledge of Paul v., that after all there was but little differ- ence between the two confessions. He thought his own indeed the best ; he adopted it from conviction, and not from motives of policy : still he was fond of hearing other opinions ; and since the calling of a council was beset by insuperable difficulties, he would very gladly see a convention of learned men estab- lished for the purpose of effecting a reconcili- ation. If the pope would advance but one step to meet him, he would himself advance four. He too acknowledged the authority of the holy father. Augustine was of more ■weight with him than Luther, St. Bernard than Calvin ; nay, he beheld in the Roman church, even in that of the day, the true church, the mother of all others ; only she needed pu- rification. He admitted (though indeed he would not say as much to a nuncio, however he might go so far in confidence to a friend and a cousin) that the pope was the head of the church, the supreme bishop.f It was therefore doing him great wrong to regard him as a heretic or schismatic : a heretic he * Breve relatione tli cjuanto si 6 Irattalo tra S. S'i- ed il re d'InshiUerra. (MS. Kom.) •f "Che riconosce la chiesa Romana, etiandio quella d'adesso, per la vera chiesa e niadre di luUc, ma ch'ella aveva bisogna d'esser piircala, e di piu ch'egli sapeva die V. S'*. e capo di essa chiesa e primo vescovo." [That he owns the church of Roine, even that of the present day, for the true mother church, though il needed purification, and that he linows your holiness is head of that church, and first bishop,] expressions aliogether incapable of be- ing reconciled with the principle of the English church, though they were attributed from other quarters likewise to that prince. (Relatione di Sr. di Breval al papa.) was not, for he believed the very same as the pope believed, only the pope admitted some fow articles of faith more than he ; neither was he a schismatic, for he held the pope to be the head of the church. Entertaining such views as these, and a corresponding aversion to the puritanical side of protestantism, the king would certainly have much more gladly come to a peaceable un- derstanding with the catholics than have kept them down by force, and at his own incessant peril. They were still numerous and powerflil in England. In spite of great defeats and losses, or perhaps exactly in consequence of these, Ireland was in a continual state of ferment : it was of serious moment to the king to put an end to the insubordination of that country.* Now it must be observed that both the English and the Irish catholics were attached to Spain. The Spanish ambassadors in Lon- don, dexterous, shrewd, and sumptuous men, had gathered round them an extraordinary body of hangers on : their chapels were al- ways full, and Passion-week was celebrated there with great solemnity. The ambassa- dors, moreover, often opened their doors to their co-religionists : they were looked on, as a Venetian says, in the light of legates from the apostolic see. I do not apprehend we should greatly err in conjecturing, that it was principally this cause that suggested to king James the thought of marrying his heir to a Spanish princess. He hoped thereby to make sure of the catho- lics, and conciliate for his own house the re- gard in which the latter held that of Spain. Foreign relations contributed a fresh motive: for it was to be expected that the house of Austria, when so nearly related to him, would be more favourable to his son-in-law the elec- tor palatine. The only question was, whether the thing was practicable. The diflference in point of religion, constituted a difficulty of a nature in those days really very hard to overcome. The real world, and the common place course of things are always encompassed by a fantastic element, that finds its expression in poetry and romantic narrations, through which it readily affects the minds of youth, and re- acts on the events of life. The negociations respecting the marriage being tediously pro- tracted from day to day, and from month to month, the prince of Wales, in concert with his confidant and companion Buckingham, conceived the romantic design of setting out * Relatione di D. Lazzari, 1621. He founds his opinions on the timidity of the king: "havendo io tsperimentalo per manifest! segni che prevale in lui ph\ il timore che I'ira." [since I have had manifest proof that fear is a more cogent passion with him than anger.] Moreover " per la pratica che ho di lui (del re) lo stimoindiflferente in qual- sivoglia religione." [From the practical experience I have had of his character, I believe him to be indifferent as to religion.] A. D. 1617-1623.] STATE OF CATHOLICISM IN ENGLAND. 301 in person to fetch his bride.* The Spanish ambassador Gondemar, seems not to have been altogether without some share in the project. He told the prince that his presence would put an end to all difficulties. Great was the surprise of Lord Digby, the English ambassador in Madrid, who up to this lime had conducted the negociations for the marriage, when one day he was called from his room to meet two cavaliers who desired to speak with him, and beheld in them the son and the favourite of his sovereign. And now indeed, the removal of the exist- ing religious obstacles was set about in good earnest. The pope's approval was a necessary con- dition, and king James had not shrunk from entering upon formal negociations with Paul V. on the subject. But that pope would only give his consent upon the stipulation that the king would grant entire religious freedom to his catholic subjects. So strong, on the con- trary, was the impression made on Gregory XV., by the very significant fact of the prince's journey, that he was ready to accept of less weighty concessions. In a letter to the prince he expresses his hope, that " the antique seed of Christian piety, that had bloomed so fair in English kings, would yet revive in him : in no case could he, intending to wed a catholic lady, desire to oppress the catholic church." The prince replied, that he would never ex- ercise any hostility towards the Roman church ; he would endeavour to bring it about, that " in like manner as we all acknowledge one triune God, so we may all likewise unite in one faith and one church. "f We see how great were the mutual advances on both sides. Olivarez averred that he had most urgently solicited the pope to grant the dispensation, and that the king could deny the prince nothing that lay within the compass of his kingdom. J The English catholics too were pressing with the pope, representing to him that his refusal of the dispensation would draw down fresh per- secutions on their heads. Next the two parties agreed upon the points to which the king was to pledge himself. Not only were the infanta and her suite to be allowed the exercise of their own religion in a chapel at court, but the early education of the princes to be born of that marriage was * Papers relative to the Spanish match in the Hard- ■wicke Papers, i. p. 399. They contain a correspondence between James I. and the two travellers, that excites a very strong interest in the persons concerned. The fail- insjs of James appear at least those of a very kindly na- tui-e. His first begins : " My sweet boys and dear venirous knights, worthy to be put in a new romanso." — "My eweet boys," is his usual mode of addressing them, theirs is " Dear dad and gossip." t Frequently printed. I follow the copy in Clarendon and in the Hardwicke Papers, said to be taken from the original. t In the first impulse of his joy he even said, according to Buckingham's narration, (March 20) " tliat if the pope would not give a dispensation for a wife, they would give the infanta to thy son Baby as his wench." to be in her hands : no penal laws were to be of force against her children, or to affect their right of succession to the throne, even though they should remain catholics.* Furthermore the king promised in general, " not to inter- fere with the private practice of the catholic worship, not to constrain the catholics to take any oath repugnant to their faith, and to pro- vide that the laws against the catholics should be repealed by parliament." King James swore to these articles in Au- gust 1623, and no doubt seemed left of the completion of the marriage. Festivities were held in Spain ; the court received congratulations ; formal intimation was given to the ambassadors ; and the infan- ta's ladies of honour and her father confessor were enjoined not to let fall a word unfavoura- ble to the match. King James reminded his son, that he should not in his joy at these happy events forget his nephews, who were despoiled of their inheri- tance, nor his sister bathed in tears. The cause of the palatine was warmly taken up. A project was conceived of interweaving the imperial line and the palatine house into the new alliance, by uniting the son of the pro- scribed elector in marriage with the daughter of the emperor : and to avoid giving offence to Bavaria, the establishment of an eighth elec- torate was proposed. The emperor forthwith opened the matter to Maximilian of Bavaria, who showed no disinclination to it on his part, and only required that he should be left in possession, as before, of the palatine electorate, and that the eighth electorate proposed to be established, should be conferred on the pala- tine house. This made no important differ- ence to the catholic interests. The catholics were to enjoy freedom of religion in the re- stored palatinate ; and they would still retain a majority in the electoral college.f Thus the power, which under the former reign had constituted the main bulwark of protestantism, now entered into the most friendly relations with ancient foes, to which it seemed to have vowed implacable hatred, the pope and Spain. Already the catholics began to meet with totally different treat- ment in England. Domiciliary visits and persecution ceased ; certain oaths were no longer exacted ; catholic chapels were reared, to the sore annoyance of the protestants ; and the puritanical zealots, who censured the match, were punished. King James doubted not that before winter set in he should em- brace his son and his young bride, and his * The most important point and the source of much mischief The article runs thus: "Quod leges contra catholicos Romanos lat3e vel ferendae in Anglia et aliis regnis regi magnae Britanniae subjectis non attingent lib- eros ex hoc matrimoniooriundos, et libere jure succession- is in regnis et dominijs magnae Britannise fruantur." (Mer. Franc, ix. Appendice ii. 18.) t Khevenhiller, x. 114. COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1617-1623. favourite. All his letters breathe a heart-felt longing- for this consummation. It is manifest what advantages would have sprung from the execution of the above named articles: but the marriage itself gave reason to expect consequences altogether distinct, the extent of which could not have been foreseen. What force has failed to secure, namely, an influence over the administration of England, seemed now to be obtained in the most peace- fal and natural course. 6. Missions. Arrived at this point in our review of the brilliant progress of Catholicism in Europe, we may pause, and cast our eyes towards those distant regions, in which it likewise made vast strides through the force of kindred impulses. Religion had part in the very first idea, which prompted the discoveries and conquests of the Spanish and Portuguese; it constantly accompanied and animated them, and came forth in great strength in the newly founded empires both of the East and of the West. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, we find the stately fabric of the catholic church in South America fully reared. It included five archbishoprics, twenty-seven bishoprics, four hundred convents, and innu- merable parishes and doctrinas.* Magnifi- cent cathedrals had risen, the most gorgeous of which was perhaps that of Los Angeles. The Jesuits taught grammar and the liberal arts, and a theological seminary was connect- ed with their college of San Ildefonso. All branches of theological study were taught in the universities of Mexico and Lima. The Americans of European descent were observed to be distinguished for their remarkable acute- ness : only as they themselves complained, they were too remote from the gracious countenance of royalty, to hope to be reward- ed accorded to their desert. Meanwhile the mendicant orders especially had begun stea- dily to propagate Christianity over the whole South American continent. Conquest had passed into missionary effort, and missions were the parents of civilization. The monks and friars taught conjointly the arts of sowing and reaping, planting trees, building houses, reading and singing, and they were regarded with proportionate affection. When the priest came among his flock, he was welcomed with ringing of bells and music; flowers were strewed in his path, and women held out their children to him and besought him to bless them. The Indians manifested a great liking for the externals of worship. They were never weary of attending mass, singing ves- pers, and waiting in the choir for the perform- ance of service. They had talents for music, and to adorn a church was for them a source of guileless delight. They seemed indeed susceptible in a very high degree to whatever could impress a simple and infantile fancy.* In their dreams they beheld the joys of Para- dise. To the sick appeared the queen of heaven in all her pomp, surrounded by youth- ful attendants who ministered to and refreshed the fainting sufferer. Or she would present herself alone, and teach her worshipper a song of her crucified Son, " whose head is bent like the yellow ear of corn." Such were the particulars of Catholicism that were here most effective. The monks only complain that the bad examples set by the Spaniards, and their tyranny, corrupted the natives, and were an obstacle to the pro- gress of conversion. The work of proselytizing went on nearly in the same manner in the East Indies, as far as the sway of the Spaniards and the Portu- guese extended. Goa became a great focus of proselytism : year after year thousands were converted. As early as 1563, there were reckoned three hundred thousand new Christians in Goa, in the mountains of Cochin, and at Cape Comorin.f But the general relations of foreigners to the natives were here altogether different from those subsist- ing in America. Here a vast, peculiar, and unconquered world defied the force alike of arms and of argument; primeval religions, the ceremonials of which captivated both soul and sense, and were intimately associated with the manners and habits of thought of the inhabitants. It was the natural tendency of Catholicism to overcome even such a world as this. This was the fundamental idea on which were founded the whole course and proceed- ings of Francis Xavier, who had arrived in the East Indies as early as 1.542. He tra- versed India in its whole length and breadth. He prayed at the tomb of the apostle Thomas in Maliapur ; preached from a tree to the peo- ple of Travancore, taught spiritual songs in the Moluccas, which were repeated by the boys in the market-place, and by the fisher- men on the sea. But he was not designed by nature to complete what he began ; his motto was Amplius! amplius ! his zeal for proselytizing was in some sort identified with a kind of passion for travelling. He had * Herrera, Description de las Indias, p. 80. * Compendio y descripcion de las Indias ocidentales, MS. " Tienen miicha caridad con los necessilados y en particular con los sacerdoles : que los respetan y reveren- cien como minislros de Chrislos, abracan los maa tal suerte las cosas de nueslra santa fe, que solo el mal exeni- plo que nos demos es causa que no aya entre ellos gran- des santos, como lo experimenle el liempo que esluve en aquellos regnos." The Lilera annuae provincise Para- guarioB missae a Nicolao Duran, Anlv. 1630, are pariieu- iarly interesting, because the Jesuits kept the Spaniards away from that province. t Maffei, Commeniarius de rebus Indicis, p. 21. A. D. 1542-1623.] MISSIONS. 303 already reached Japan, and was about to seek the focus and birth place of the opinions and habits he fell in with there, when he died.* It was consonant with the nature of man that his example, and the difficulties of his undertaking-, should challenge rather than deter imitation. The most varied activity prevailed in the East in the first decades of the seventeenth century. From the year 1606, we find father Nobili in Madaura. He was astonished to see the small progress Christianity had made in such a length of time, and believed that circum- stance was attributable solely to the fact, that the Portuguese had addressed themselves to the parias. Christ was regarded as a God of the parias. He adopted a totally different course, insisting tliat conversion, to be effec- tual, must begin with the higher castes. He declared on his arrival that he was of the purest race of nobility, of which he had proofs by him, and he attached himself to the Brah- mins. He assumed their dress and modes of life, submitted to their penitential practices, learned Sanscrit, and entered into their ideas.f There was an opinion among them, that there had formerly existed in India four ways of truth of which one had been lost. Nobili affirmed that he was come to point out that lost, but most direct spiritual way to immortality. By the year 1600, he had already gained over seventy Brahmins. He was sedulous to avoid offending their prejudices, and tolerated even their distinctions of castes, only giving them another signification : he separated the castes from each other in the churches, and ex- changed the expressions in which the doc- trines of Christianity had previously been clothed, for others more elegant and of more literary dignity. His proceedings were in all respects so judicious, that he soon saw crowds of converts around him. Though his method caused great scandal, still it seemed the only one fitted to obtain extensive success, Gre- gory XV. pronounced his approval of it in the year 1621. The attempts made about this time at the court of the emperor Akbar are no less worthy of note. It will be remembered that the old Mon- ghol Khans, the conquerors of Asia, had long maintained a peculiarly indifferent position amongst the various religions that divided the world. It would almost seem that the em- peror Akbar held similar views. On sum- * Maffei, Historiarum Indicarum lib. xiii. el xiv. t Jiivencius, Historiae Societ. Jesu, pars v. lorn. ii. lib. xviii. § ix. n. 49. " Biachmanum insliluta omnia cjere- inoniasque cognoscit; linguani vernaculani diclam vulgo Tamulicaiii, quae lalissime pertinet,addiscit ; addil Bada- gicam, qui principum el aulse sermo, denique Grandoni- cam sive Samutcradam, quae lingua erudilorum esl, caeteruui lol obsila ditBcullalibiis, nuUi ut Kuropaeo bene cognita fuisset ad earn diem atque inter ipsosmet Indos plurimum scire videantur qui hanc ulcunque aorint elsi aliud nihil noriat." moning the Jesuits to his presence, he told them that "he had taken pains to become acquainted with all tlie religions on earth ; he now wished to be made acquainted with the Christian religion with the help of the fathers, whom he honoured and prized," Geronimo Xavier, the nephew of Francis, was the first who took up his residence permanently at Akbar's court in the year 1595; the insurrec- tions of the Mahometans contributed to make the emperor incline to the Christians. Christ- mas was celebrated in tlie most solemn man- ner at Lahore in the year 1599; the holy manger was exposed to view for twenty suc- cessive days ; numerous proselytes entered the church in procession, with palms in their hands, and received baptism. The emperor expressed much pleasure on reading a life of Christ composed in Persian, and he had an image of the Virgin, executed after the model of the Madonna del popolo in Rome, brought into his palace to show to his women. The Christians indeed drew from this inferences larger than the circumstances warranted, still they did really accomplish a great deal : after Akbar's death in 1610, three princes of the blood royal solemnly received baptism. They rode on white elephants to the church, where they were received by father Geronimo with trumpets sounding and drums beating.* Gradually Christianity appeared to gain some firmness of footing, though here too opinions and dispositions fluctuated with the more or less friendly political understanding subsist- ing with the Portuguese. In 1621, a college was established in Agra, and a station in Patna: and in 1624, the emperor Jehangir gave hopes that he would become a convert. At the same period the Jesuits had already penetrated into China, where they sought to allure the skilful, scientific, studious people of that empire through the inventions of the west. Ricci obtained his first success by teaching mathematics, and by getting by heart and reciting striking passages from the writings of Confucius. A present he made the emperor of a striking clock, gained him admission into Pekin, where nothing raised him so highly in the favour and good graces of his imperial majesty as the construction of a map, that far surpassed all the attempts which had ever been made in that way by the native artists. It was characteristic of Ricci, that on receiving an order from the emperor to make him ten such maps on silk, to be hung up in his apartments, he took the oppor- tunity of doing something for the promotion of Christianity, and filled the vacant places on the maps with Christian symbols and texts. Such was the general spirit of his teaching : he began usually with mathematics, and ended with religion ; his scientific talents procured ♦ Juvencius, 1. 1. n. 1—33. 304 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1542-1623. respect for his religious instruction. Not only were his immediate pupils gained over, but many mandarins, too, whose garb he assumed, joined him : a society of the Blessed Virgin was formed in Pekin as early as the year 1605. Ricci died in 1610, worn out not only by excessive labour, but chiefly by the numerous visits, the long dinners, and all the other exactions of Chinese social etiquette: but after his death others observed the advice he had given, " to go to work without parade or noise, and in such stormy seas to keep close to the shore," and they followed his example as regarded science. An eclipse of the moon occurred in 1610 : the predictions of the na- tive astronomers and of the Jesuits differed by a whole hour : the event provmg that the latter were right, added greatly to their cre- dit.* Not only were they charged, in con- junction with some mandarins, their pupils, with the reform of the astronomical tables, but Christianity, too, was promoted by their suc- cess. In 1611, the first church was conse- crated in Nankin ; in 1616, there were Christian churches in five provinces of the empire. In the opposition the Jesuits some- times encountered, nothing was of so much service to them as the fact that their pupils had written books which met with the appro- bation of the learned. They had the art to elude the storms that threatened them ; they complied, too, as closely as possible, with the usages of the country, and this they were empowered to do in several points by the pope in the year 1619. The consequence was, that not a year passed in which thousands were not converted ; their opponents gradu- ally died ofl"; in 1624, Adam tSchall appeared, and the accurate description of two eclipses of the moon which happened in that year, and a treatise by Lombardo on the earthquake, added fresh lustre to their reputation.f * Juvency has devoted the whole of his 19th book to the undertakings in China, and added at p. 561 a treatise, Imperii Sinici recens at uberior notitia, which is still worth reading. f Relatione della Cina dell' anno 1621. " Lo stato pre- sents di questa chiesa mi pare in universale molto simile ad una nave a cui e li venti e le nuvole minaccino di coito grave borasca, e per cio li marinari ammainando le vele e calando le antenne fermino il corso, estiano aspet- lando che si chiarisca il cielo e cessino i contrast! de' venti : ma bene spesso avviene che tutto il male si risolve in paura, e che sgombrale le furie de' venti svanisce la lempesta contenta delle sole minaccie. Cos! appunto pare che sia accaduto alia navedi questa chiesa. Quattro anni fa se le levo contro una gagliarda borasca, la quale pareva che la dovesse sommergere ad un tratlo ; li piloti accomodandosi al tempo raccolsero le vele delle opere lore e si rilirarono alquanto; ma in modo che polevano essere trovati da chiunque voleva I'aiuto loro per aspet- tare donee aspiret dies et inclinentur umbrae. Sin hora il male non C slate di altro che di timore." [The present state of this church appears to me on the whole very simi- lar to that of a ship which the winds and the clouds threaten with a speedy and violent tempest; wherefore tlie mariners, shortening sail and lowering the yards, lie to, and wail till the sky clears and the winds cease their conflicts : but very often il happens that the whole danger is resolved into tear, and that the winds having spent their fury, the tempest vanishes, content with mere threata. This is precisely what seems to have happened The Jesuits had struck into a different course in the warlike Japan, incessantly rent by factions. From the beginning they made themselves partisans. In the year 1554 they were fortunate enough to declare for the par- ty that proved victorious ; they were secure of its favour, and by its aid they made extra- ordinary progress. By the year 1579 they counted there 300,000 Christians : Father Valignano, who died in 1606, a man whose advice Philip II. gladly consulted on East In- dian affairs, founded 300 churches and thirty Jesuit houses in Japan. But this very connexion of the Jesuits with Mexico and Spain provoked the jealousy of the native Japanese authorities : they had no longer their tbrmer good fortune in the civil wars ; the party they had adopted was de- feated, and from the year 1612 it was sub- jected to fearful persecutions. But they made a very bold stand. Their proselytes invoked the death of martyrs : they had formed a martyr society, the mem- bers of which encouraged each other to en- dure all sufferings: they distinguished those years as the ^ra Martyrum. Violent as waxed the persecution, says their historian, yet every year produced new converts.* They will have it that from 1603 to 1622, exactly 239,339 Japanese embraced Christi- anity. In all these countries the Jesuits displayed a character equally marked with pliant con- formity to circumstances, and stedfast un- bending pertinacity. They made progress to an extent that could never have been antici- pated, and succeeded in vanquishing, at least in part, the opposition of the established na- tional religions of the East. Nor did they neglect to take measures for the union of the oriental Christians with the church of Rome. In India proper they had fallen in with that primitive -Nestorian community which is known by the name of Christians of St. Tho- mas ; and as these recognized as their head and as shepherd of the universal church, not the pope of Rome, of whom they had never heard, but the patriarch of Babylon (at Mo- to the vessel of this church. Four years ago a sharp gale arose against it, which seemed likely to sink it at a guet: the pilots, obedient to the weather, furled their sails and retired a space, but so that they might be found by who- ever required their aid, to wait till day should break and the shadows melt away. Up to the present lime the whole evil has amounted to no more than alarm.] * Lettere annuo del Giappone dell' anno 1622, furnish an example : " I gloriosi campion! che morirono quest' anno furono 121 : gli adulti che per opera de' padri della compagnia a visla di cosi crudele perseculione hanno ri- cevuto il sanlo bettesirao arrivano al numero di 2236, sen- za numerar quelli che per mezzo d' altri religiosi e sacer- doti Giapponesi si battezorno." [The glorious cham- pions who died this year were 121 : the adults who re- ceived holy baptism at the hands of the fathers of the company in the face of such cruel persecution, amounted to the number of 2236, without counting those who were baptized through the instrumentality of other Japanese monks and priests.] A. D. 1542-1623.] MISSIONS. 3a5 sul,) measures were speedily taken to draw them into the communion of the Roman church. Neither force nor persuasion were spared. In 1601, the most eminent among them seemed won, and a Jesuit was appoint- ed bishop over them. The Roman ritual was printed in Chaldaic : the errors of Nestorius were anathematized in a diocesan council ; a Jesuit college was erected in Cranganor ; the new installation in the episcopal see took place in the year 1624, with the approbation of the most obstinate of the former oppo- nents.* Of course the political superiority of the Portuguese and Spanish power conduced largely to these results. It was also highly influential in Abyssinia about the same time. All former efforts in that country had been ineffectual. It was not till the year 1608 that the Portuguese of Fremona, having ren- dered essential service to the Abyssinians in a battle, obtained high credit for themselves and their religion. Just then Father Paez arrived, an able Jesuit, who preached in the language of the country, and gained access at court. The victorious sovereign wished to form a closer connection with the king of Spain, chiefly with a view to that monarch's support against his foes in the interior. Paez represented to him as the only means towards his eflJecting this, the necessity of his abjur- ing his scJiismatic doctrines and conforcning to the Roman church. His arguments had the more weight, inasmuch as the Portuguese really displayed fidelity and courage in the intestine commotions of the country. Dispu- tations were appointed ; the unlettered monks were easily put down ; the bravest man in the kingdom, Sela-Christos, a brother of the emperor Sela Segued (Socinius,) was con- verted, and his example was followed by countless others : an alliance was then formed with Paul V. and Philip III. The represen- tatives of the established religion naturally bestirred themselves at this; the civil wars of Abyssinia, like those of Europe, assumed a religious colour; tlie abuna and his monks were always on the side of the rebels, Sela- Christos, the Portuguese, and the converts, on that of the emperor. Battles were fought year after year ; success and danger alterna- ted ; at last the emperor and his party were victorious. The victory was shared b}' Ca- tholicism and the Jesuits. In the year 1021, Seltan Segued decided the old controversy respecting the two-fold nature of Christ ac- cording to the views of the Roman church: he prohibited the offering up of prayers lor the patriarch of Alexandria ; catholic church- es and chapels were erected in his towns and in his gardens.f In 1622, after having con- * Cordara: Historia Societ. Jesu, vi. ix. p. 5.35. + Juvenciiis, p. 705. Cordara, vi. p. 330. Ludolf calls the emperor Susneus. 39 fessed to Paez, he received the Eucharist af- ter the catholic ritual. The court of Rome had long been solicited to send a Latin patri- arch to Abyssinia ; but it hesitated to do so as long as the emperor's disposition or his power was doubtful ; at present he had van- quished all his adversaries, and never could he display more good will. On the 19th of Dec. Gregory XV. nominated doctor Alfonzo Mendez, a Portuguese, of the society of Jesus, proposed by king Philip, to be patriarch of yEthiopia.* After Mendez had at last ar- rived, the emperor solemnly tendered his obe- dience to the pope of Rome. Meanwhile attention was directed also to all the Greek Christians : the popes sent mis- sion after mission to them. The Roman pro- fessio fidei had been introduced among the Maronites by some Jesuits. In 1604, we find a Nestorian archimandrite at Rome, where he renounced the doctrine of Nestorius in the name of a great multitude of his fol- lowers. A Jesuit mission was founded in Constantinople, where, through the influence of the French ambassador, it attained a cer- tain degree of stability and credit, and suc- ceeded among other things, in the year 1621, in procuring the removal, at least for a while, of the patriarch Cyrillus Lucaris, who inclined to protestantism. How prodigious was this world-wide range of activity ! forcing its way at once amidst the Andes and the Alps, sending out its scouts and pioneers to Scandinavia and to Thibet, and insinuating itself into the favour of the governments in England and in China ; yet everywhere on this immense theatre fresh, and unbroken, and indefatigable : the im- pulse at work in its centre animating, and that perhaps with more intense vivacity, every labourer on the outermost bounds. CHAPTER IV. CONFLICTING POLITICAL RELATIONS. NEW VICTORIES OP CATHOLICISM. 1623—1628. It is not solely resistance from without that always, or perhaps ever, sets bounds to the career of a conquering power : in general this change of fortune is greatly promoted, if not directly provoked, by internal dissen- sions. Had Catholicism remained one in spirit, and pursued its purpose with united forces, it can hardly be conceived how northern Ger- manic Europe, entangled for the most part as it was in its interests, and circumvented by ♦Sagripanli: Discorso della religione dell' Etiopia, MS. from the Atti Consistoriali. 306 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1623-1628. its policy, could long have been disposed to resist it. But was it not natural, that at this stage in the progress of its power, Catholicism should once more display those early marked discre- pancies, which, though superficially conceal- ed, had never ceased to work within it ! The peculiarity in the progress of religion in the period before us is, that it was every- where founded on political and military supe- riority. Missions marched in the train of war. The consequence was, that with them were associated the greatest political changes, of no little importance in themselves, and which could not fail of exciting reactions, the result of whicii there was no foreseeing. Of all these changes the most important undoubtedly was, that the German line of the house of Austria, which hitiierto, engrossed by the troubles in the hereditary dominions, had taken less part in the affairs of Europe in general, at once attained to the independence, importance, and strength of a great European power. The elevation of German- Austria had the effect of making Spain, which had re- mained pacific since the times of Philip II., awake with fresh martial ardour to the asser- tion of its former pretensions and hopes. The two powers had already come into direct con- nexion, in consequence of the Grisons' trans- actions : the Alpine passes on the Italian side were taken possession of by Spain, those on the German side by Austria. On those lofty mountains they seemed to tender each other mutual aid for enterprizes directed towards all quarters of the world. Certainly this position of things involved on the one hand a great prospect for Catholi- cism, to which the two lines had devoted themselves with inviolable attachment; but, on the other hand likewise, a great danger of internal discord. How much jealousy had the Spanish monarchy under Philip II. pro- voked ! But the combined force of the house was now uprisen in far greater vigour and Bolidity, through the increase of its German resources. The old antipathies to it would of necessity be aroused in a still higher de- gree. This was first manifested in Italy. The small Italian states, severally incapa- ble of standing by themselves, were above all others in those times in need of and keenly sensitive as to the preservation of the balance of power. To find themselves hemmed in, as they now were, on both sides, and appa- rently cut off from all foreign aid by the occu- pation of the Alpine passes, appeared to them pregnant with imminent peril. Without much regarding what advantage their creed might derive from the combination in ques- tion, they applied to France, which alone could help them, in order to its annihilation. Louis XIII. was alarmed too, lest he should lose his influence in Italy. Immediately after the peace of 1622, before he had yet returned to his capital, he concluded a treaty with Sa- voy and Venice, by virtue of which their unit- ed forces should compel the house of Austria to surrender the passes and fortresses of the Grisons.* This intention contemplated it is true but a single point, but it was one that might easi- ly lead to the disturbance of the whole exist- ing state of things. Gregory XV. was fully aware of this, of the danger to the peace of the catholic world, to the progress of the interests of religion, and thereby to the revival of the dignity and importance of the papal see. With the same zeal with which he promoted missions and ef- forts for conversion, he now, in his lively perception of the necessary concatenation, laboured to prevent the outbreak of hostili- ties. The reverence felt for the papal see, or ra- ther the feeling of the unity in the catholic world, was still in such force, that both Spain and France declared they would leave the decision of this matter to the pope. Nay, he was himself requested to take those fortresses which excited so much jealous uneasiness into his own hands as a deposit, pending the fuller adjustment of the dispute, and to garri- son them with his own troops.f Pope Gregory deliberated for a moment whether he ought to take this active and doubtless expensive part in foreign transac- tions; but since it was manifest how much depended thereon, as regarded the peace of the catholic world, he at last caused a couple of companies to be raised, and sent them, un- der the command of his brother the duke of Fiano, to the Grisons. The Spaniards could have wished to retain at least Riva and Chia- venna ; but even these they surrendered to the papal troops. J Archduke Leopold of the Tyrol also consented at last to transfer to them those districts and fortresses, to the pos- session of which he did not happen to have some personal claim. By this means the danger seemed really averted that had most excited alarm among the Italian states. The main consideration now was to provide for the interests of Catho- licism in the subsequent arrangements. It was proposed that, as the Valtelline was not again to fall into the hands of the Spaniards, so neither should it be suffered to revert to the Grisons, since that would be so likely to interrupt the restoration of Catholicism in the valley. It was to be annexed to the three ancient Rhcetian leagues as a fourth indepen- * Nani : Storia Veneta, p. 255. t Dispaccio, Sillery, Nov. 28, 1622. Corsini, 13. 21 Genu. 1623, in Siri, Meraorie reconditf,lom. v. p. 435. 442. Scriuura dtl deposito della Vallellina, ib. 459. t Siri : Memorie recondite, v. 519. A. D. 1623-1628.] NEW VICTORIES OF CATHOLICISM. 307 dent member, with equal privilesjes. From the same motives the pope would not com- pletely sever that union of the two Austrian lines which seemed so necessary to the pro- gress of Catholicism in Germany. The passes throuj^h Worms and the Valtelline were to remain open to the Spaniards, with tiie full understanding- that this should be for the pur- pose of marching tlieir troops towards Ger- many, but not from thence to Italy.* Thus far had things proceeded ; nothing indeed had been actually concluded, but every thing was ripe thereto, when Gregory XV. died, July 8, 1628. He had lived long enough to enjoy the satisfaction of having allayed these formidable dissensions, and of seeing the progress of the church maintained uninterrup- tedly. A new combination between Spain and France for an attack on Rochelle and Holland had even come under consideration in the course of the negotiations. But after Gregory's death these schemes were far from being realized. In the first place, the new pope, Urban VIII., was not yet looked up to with that con- fidence which is begotten by the tried and continual exercise of thorough impartiality : again, the Italians were far from being satis- fied with the terms of the treaty : but what was most important of all, Vieuvilleand Richelieu had come to the helm in France ; men who plied the opposition to Spain, not at the solici- tation of others, as their predecessors had done, or as mere auxiliaries, but of their own spon- taneous impulse, and as the grand object of the French policy. There was perhaps in this less of choice than one is apt to suppose. France, too, as well as the Austro-Spanish power, was ex- panding all her resources: the victory over the Huguenots had vastly exalted the royal authority, and the unity and national feeling of the country ; and as her claims grew with her strength, every thing conduced to urge her upon a bolder line of policy than she had hitherto pursued. This national tendency called forth its appropriate organs ; men who were able and willing to give it effect. From the first Richelieu was resolved to make head against the commanding influence which the house of Austria had always possessed, and which had recently become more vigorous and lofty than ever, and to wrestle with it for su- premacy in Europe. This was a resolution that imported a far more perilous rupture in the catholic world than that which had recently been healed. The two foremost powers would necessarily engage in open war with each other. All thoughts of carrying out the provisions of the Roman treaty were at an end, and Urban VIII. labour- ed in vain to hold the French to the conces- sions to which they had consented. But the French were not content with a mere alliance with the catholic opposition. Though a car- dinal of the Roman church, Richelieu did not scruple to league liimself openly with the protestants. He first made advances to the English, with a view of preventing the Spanish match, from which the house of Austria would necessarily derive so great an accession of strength. Personal circumstances furthered his views : the impatience of James I., who longed for the return of his son and his favourite with the yearning of an old man who thought his death approaching, and a misunderstanding between the two prime ministers, Olivarez and Buck- ingham : but chiefly the result was deter- mined by the thing itself. The aftairs of the Palatinate presented insurmountable difficul- ties in the course of the negociation with Austria, Spain, Bavaria, and the Palatinate.* An alliance with France, on the other hand, seeing the new direction that power was tak- ing, promised a speedy solution of those diffi- culties by way of arms. And since this alli- ance not only secured the king of England so considerable a dowry, but also held out the prospect of reconciling the English catholics with the throne, he preferred marrying his son to a French princess, granting her the same concessions, as regarded religion, that he had made to the Spaniards. Preparations were accordingly forthwith made for the attack. Richelieu struck out one of those vast and comprehensive plans, which before his time were unknown in the policy of Europe, though so peculiarly appro- priate thereto. It was his purpose at once to crush the Austro-Spanish power by a simul- taneous assault upon it from all sides. He himself was to fall on Italy, in combina- tion with Savoy and Venice. Without the least deference to the pope, he caused the French troops to advance unexpectedly into the Grisons, and to expel the papal garrisons from the fortresses there.f He had renewed the alliance with Holland at the same time as that with England. The Hollanders were to assail South America, the English the coasts of Spain. The Turks were set in motion through the instrumentality of King James, and threatened an inroad into Hungary. But the grand blow was to be struck in Germany. The king of Denmark, who had been long in * Art. ix. of the scheme of the convention. * From a letter of the count palatine's, dated Oct. 30, it appears lliat nothing but force could have induced him to accept the terms proposed to him. t Relatione di iv.ambasciatori, 16ij. " II papasi doleva che mai Beitune gli haveva parlato chiaro, e che dellesue parole non aveva compreso mai che si djvessero ponare U arrai della lega contra li suoi presidii." [The pope com- plained that Belhune had never spoken plainly to him, and that he had never understood from his language that the arms of the league were to be turned against bis garrisons.] The visual policy pursued in France. 308 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1623-1628. a state of preparation, was resolved at last to lead the forces of Denmark and Lower Ger- many into the field on behalf of his kindred of the Palatinate. Not only did England promise him aid, but Richelieu too engaged to contribute a million of livres towards the expenses of the war.* Supported by both, Mansfeld was to form a junction with the king, and to march upon the hereditary domi- nions of Austria. Here then were the two foremost catholic powers arrayed against each other in this gen- eral assault. Unquestionably this must have directly tended to stay the progress of Catholicism. Though the French league was one of a poli- tical nature, protestantism must have beheld in it, by reason of this close association of poli- tical and ecclesiastical interests, a great source of advantage to its own cause. It breathed again. A new champion, the king of Den- mark, was in the field for it in Germany, with fresh and unimpaired strength, and supported by the grand combination of European policy. His triumph would have undone all the suc- cesses of the imperial house and of the catho- lic restoration. But it is the attempt that makes manifest the difficulties involved in any undertaking. Brilliant as may have been the talents of Rich- elieu, he had yet plunged too rashly in the enterprize to which his inclinations prompted, and to which he looked forward, whether in full consciousness or in dim presentiment, as the aim of his life. His project generated danger for himself Not only did the German protestants, the adversaries of the house of Austria, take heart, but the French protestants too, Richelieu's own enemies, gathered fresh courage under the new political combination. According to their own statement, they hoped in the worst case to be reconciled with the king, tlirough the instrumentality of his present allies.f * Extract from Blainville's instruction in Siri, vi. G2, ManstelJ was 10 co-operate with him " nel fondodi Alenia- gna [in the heart of Germany]. (Siri, 641.) Relatione di Caraffa: " (I Francesi) haniio tutlavia conlinuato sine al giorno d'hoggi a tener corrispondenza con li nemici di S. M'a- Ces-1-, a dar loro ajulo in gente e danari, si ben con coperta, quale pero nori 6 stala tale che per molle letters intercelle e per molii altri rincontri non si siano scoperli tulli I'andamenti e corrispondenze: onde prima e doppo la rotta data dal Tilly al re di Danimarca sempre I'impe- ralore nel palatinalo inferiore e nelli conlorni d'Alsatia v' ha tenuto nervo di gente, dubitando che da quelle parti polesse venire qualche ruina." [The French have always continued up to this day to Iceep up a correspondence with the enemies of his imperial majesty, and to furnish them aid in men and money covertly, yet not so secretly but that all their manoeuvres and correspondence have been discovered by intercepted letters and other accidents. F^or which reason, both before and since the rout of the king of Denmark by Tilly, the emperor has always kept a strong force in the Lower Palatinate and in the Alsace district, apprehensive that some mischief might occur in that quarter.] t Memoires de Rohan, p. i. p. 146. " Esp^rant que s'il ■venoit d. bout, les allies et liguesavec leioi le porteroient plus facilement it. un accommodement." Rohan set himself in motion by land, Soubise by sea. In May, 1625, the Huguenots were in arms all over the country. And at the same moment enemies, still more formidable perhaps, arose against Richelieu amongst the other party. With all his good will to France, Urban VIII. had too much pride easily to digest such an afl^ront as the ejection of his garrisons from the Grisons.* He raised troops, and dispatched them to the Milanese, with the declared intention of joining with the Spaniards in recovering the lost fortresses. It may possibly be that these warlike threats really meant but little : but so much the more significant was the religious eftect associated with them. The complaints of the papal nuncio, that the most Christian king was lend- ing his aid to heretic princes, found an echo in France. The Jesuits came forward with their ultra-montane doctrines, and Richelieu was violently assailed by the strict church party. True, he found support in the Gallican principles, and protection at the hands of the parliaments ; but notwithstanding this, he durst not long remain the pope's enemy. The catholic principle was too intimately bound up with the restored monarchy : who could war- rant Richelieu against the impression which the admonitions of the clergy might make on his sovereign ? Thus Richelieu found himself assailed even in France, and that by the two opposite par- ties at once. Whatever he might contrive against Spain, this was not a position to be retained : he must hasten to escape from it. Now, as in his plan of attack he had dis- played a genius for immense combinations and bold home-striking projects, so now he exhi- bited that treacherous dexterity in making his allies his mere tools, and then abandoning them, which was all his life peculiar to him. He first prevailed on his new confederates to assist him against Soubise. He had him- self no naval force. With protestant re- sources from foreign countries, with Dutch and English ships, he overcame his protestant foes at home in September, 1625. He em- ployed their mediation to force the Huguenots to an unfavourable peace; they not doubting that as soon as he had got rid of those domes- tic foes, he would renew the attack to which he was engaged with them. But what was their astonishment when, instead of this, the news of the peace of Mon- zon, concluded in March, 1626, between France and Spain, was suddenly noised abroad. A papal legate had proceeded to both courts on that account. It is true, he + Relatione di P. Contarini : " S. S'i' (he speaks of the time immediately after the news was received) somma- mentedisgustata, stimando pocorispetlo s'havesse portato alle sue insegne,del continue egranden)ente se ne quere- lava." [His holiness, incensed to the highest degree al the little respect paid to his flag, complained loudly and continually.] A. D. 1623-1628.] NEW VICTORIES OF CATHOLICISM. 309 does not appear to have had much influence in fixing the terms of the treaty, but at all events he set the catholic principle in motion. Whilst Richelieu employed the protestants to his own ends, under a show of the strictest conlidence, he had eng-aged with still greater earnestness in negociations with Spain for their destruction. On the subject of the Val- telline he agreed with Olivarez, that it should return indeed under the sway of the Grisons, but that it should have an independent voice in the election of its own functionaries, and undiminished freedom in the exercise of ca- tholic worship.* The catholic powers, that had seemed on the point of engaging in a struggle for life or death, in one more moment stood reunited. It contributed to this result, that angry feel- ings had arisen between the French and the English respecting the completion of the engagements contracted in the treaty of mar- riage. A pause naturally ensued to all enterprises hostile to Spain. The Italian princes, however reluctantly, were forced to accommodate themselves to what was inevitable. Savoy concluded a truce with Genoa. Venice thought herself fortunate in not having yet attacked Milan, and disbanded her forces. It was asserted that the vacillating conduct of the French hindered the succour of Breda in the year 162.5, so that to them was ascribable the loss of that important fortress to the Spaniards. The grand and decisive stroke of ill fortune occurred, however, in Germany. The forces of Lower Germany had rallied round the king of Denmark, under the pro- tection, as it was thought, of the general alliance against Spain. Mansfeld advanced towards the Elbe. The emperor had armed against him with double diligence, knowing well how much was at stake. When the two armies came to blows, the alliance no longer existed ; the French subsi- dies were not paid : the English succours arrived far too slowly ; and the imperial troops were much more practised in war. The consequence was, that the king of Den- mark lost the battle of Luiter, and was driven back upon his own territory, and that Mans- feld was driven as a fugitive into the Austrian provinces, through which he had hoped to march as a victor and restorer. This was a success which must necessarily have produced eiiects as universal as its causes. First, as to the imperial dominions. We may describe them in a word. The last * Du Mont, V. 2, 4S~, § 2. " Qu'ils ne puissent avoir ci apr6s autre religion que la catholique ... § 3. Qu'ils puis- senl 61ire par election entre eux leurs juges, gouverneurs et auires magistrals luus catholiques." Then follow some lintitatioQs. movement that was here undertaken for pro- testantism, in reliance on the general confe- deracy, was suppressed. The nobility, who had hitherto remained free from personal molestation, were now compelled to conform. The emperor declared, on St. Ignatius's day, 1627, that, afler the course of six months, he would no longer tolerate in his hereditary kingdom of Bavaria any one, even though of the degree of lord and knight, who did not agree with himself and the apostolic church in the only true faith.* Similar edicts were issued in Upper Austria, in Carinthia, Car- niola, and Syria, in the year 1628, and, after some time, in Lower Austria. It was in vain to entreat even for a respite : the nuncio Caraffa represented that the request was prompted only by the hope of a general change of fortune. From that time forth those countries became once more thoroughly catholic. How had the nobility of Austria opposed the archducal house eighty years before ! Now the sovereign power, orthodox, victorious, and unlimited, towered above every resistance. And still more extensive were the effects of the new victory in the rest of Germany. Lower Saxony was taken possession of; the population subject to the immediate sway of the emperor readied as far as to the Cattegat; Brandenburg and Pomerania were invested ; Mecklenburg was in the hands of the impe- rial generals; all these chief seats of protes- tantism were overruled by a catholic army. Proof was immediately given of the use to which it was purposed to apply this state of things. An imperial prince was nominated bishop of Halberstadt, and the pope then in his apostolic authority named him archbishop of Magdeburg. There could not be a ques- tion but that, if a catholic archducal govern- ment established itself in that place, it would needs insist on the restoration of Catholicism throughout the whole diocese, with the same rigour as the rest of the ecclesiastical princes. Meanwhile the counter reformation pro- ceeded with new zeal in Upper Germany. It is worth casting a look at the list of decrees of the imperial chancery of this year, given by Carafia ; what a multitude of admonitions, resolutions, decisions, recommendations, all in favour of Catholicism. f The young count * Caraffa: Relatione, MS. "Havendo il S^- Cardinale ed io iiiesso in consideratione a S. M'a' che come nou si rifoniiassero i baroni e nobile eretiei si poteva poco o nulla sperare della conversione delli loro sudditi, e per conseguenza havriano potulo ancora infettare pian piano gli aliri, piacque a S. M'i- di aggiungere al S"" C'e' ed agli altri comniissarj autoriti di riformareauche li nobili." [The cardinal and I having submitted to his majesty's consideriiion that so long as the heretic barons and nobles were not reformed, little or nothing could be expected from the conversion of their subjects, and they would con- sequently be able gradually to infect the rest, his majesty was pleased to confer on the cardinal and the other com- missioners authority to reform the nobles likewise.] + " Brevis enumeratio aliquorum negotioruni quae. . . . in puncio reforniationis in cancellaria imperii tractata 810 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1623-1628. of Nassau-Siegen, the younger count palatine of Neuburg, and the grand master of the Teu- tonic order, undertook new reformations; in the Upper Palatinate the nobility themselves were now forced to adopt Catholicism. The old legal processes of spiritual lords against temporal estates, respecting confisca- ted church property, now took a different course from that of former times. How sorely tried was Wiirtemberg ! All the old com- plainants, the bishops of Constance and Augs- burg, the abbots of Monchsreit and Kaiser- sheim prosecuted their claims against the ducal house, the very existence of which was endangered.* The bishops everywhere car- ried their point against the towns ; the bish- ops of Eichstadt against Fiirnberg, the chapter against the town of Strasburg : Schwabisch- Hall, Memmingen, Ulm, Lindau, and several other towns were compelled to restore to the catholics the churches that had been wrested from them. If the letter of the treaty of Augsburg be- gan now to be everywhere insisted on, how important became a more general application of its principles, as they were now under- stood, f " After the battle of Lutter," says Caraffa, " the emperor seemed as it were to awake out of a long sleep; liberated from a great fear that had hitherto held his predecessors and himself enthralled, he conceived the de- sign of bringing back all Germany to the form prescribed by the peace of Augsburg." Besides JVlagdeburg and Halberstadt, Catho- licism had been re-established in Bremen, Verden, Minden, Camin, Havelberg, Schwe- rin, and almost all the North German ecclesi- astical endowments. This had always been the remote aim which the pope and the Je- suits had held in view in the most brilliant moments of their success. For this very reason, however, the emperor looked cauti- ously on the matter. He doubted, says Caraffa, not of the equity, but of the possibility ■ of executing the measure. The zeal of the Jesuits, however, particularly of his confessor Lamormain, the favourable opinion of the four catholic electors, and the unwearied perti- nacity of the papal nuncio, who himself informs us that it cost a month's labour to carry his point, at last overcame all scruples. As early as August 1628, the edict of restitu- tion was drawn up in the same terms in which it subsequently appeared.]; Before publication it was to be submitted once more to the consideration of the catholic electors. But a more extensive plan was connected herewith: the hope was indulged of concilia- ting the good-will of the Lutheran princes. This was to be attempted, not by theolo- gians, but by the emperor, or some catholic princes of the empire. It was intended to argue on the principle, that the notions enter- tained of Catholicism in Germany were erro- neous, that the discrepancies between the unaltered Augsburg confession and the genuine catholic doctrine were but trifling. It was thought that the elector of Saxony would be gained by conceding to him the patronage of the three great chapters in his dominions.* Not a doubt was entertained of the possibility of exciting the hatred of the Lutherans against Calvinism, and then turning that feelmg to the advantage of the complete restoration of Catholicism. This design was warmly embraced in Rome, and worked out into a detailed project. Ur- ban VIII. by no means purposed to content himself with the articles of the treaty of Augsburg, which no pope indeed had ever sanctioned.! Nothing less would satisfy him than a full restoration of all church property, and an entire repudiation of all protestants. But in this moment of prosperty, the pope had risen to a design, if possible, bolder still, that of an attack on England. This thought re-appeared from time to time among the great schemes of Catholicism, by a sort of natural necessity as it were. The pope now hoped to promote its success by means of the renewed understanding between the two crowns.]: He first represented to the French ambas- sunt ab anno 1G20 ad annum 1629," in the appendix to German ia Sacra Keslaurala, p. 34. * Saltier: Gcschichie von Wiirtemberg unter den Her- zogen, Th. vi. p. 2-2ii. t Senkenberg; Fonsetzung der HSberlinschen Reiclis- geschiclite, Bd. 25, p. 633. t This period of the drawing up of the edict is made known to us by Caraffa, Commcntar. de Germ. Sacra Re- Staurala, p. 356. He stales that the edict was drawn up in 1628, and published in 1629 ; he then goes on to say : " Annuit ipse Deus, dum post paucosab ipsa deliberatione dies Cssarem insigni victoria remuneratus est." [God himself expressed his approval, by rewarding the empe- ror wilh a signal victory a few days after the deliberation of the matter.] He alludes to the victory of Wolgasl, gained on the 22nd of August. * As early as 162i hopes were entertained in Rome of the conversion of this prince. Instrultione a Mon?i- Ca- raffa. " Venne ancora qualche novella della sperata riunione con la chiesa catlolica del signor duca di Sas- sonia, ma ella svani ben presto: con tutto ci6 il vederlo non infenso a' catlolici e nemicissimo de' Calvinisli et amicissimo del Magontino e convenuto nell' elouorato di Baviera ci fa sperare bene : laonde non sari inutile che S. Sta- lenga proposito col detto Magontino di queslo desi- derate acquisto." [Some fuither intelligence was received of the expected reconciliation of the duke of Saxony to the Catholic church, but the hope soon vanished. Never- theless, the fact that he is not hostile to the catholics, but exceedingly so to the Calvinisls, that he is most friendly to the elector of Mainz, and that he agreed in the affair of the elector of Bavaria, promises well : wherefore it will not be inexpedient that his holiness confer with the elec- tor of Blainz respecting this desirable acquisition.] t " A cui," says the pope, of the treaty of Passau, in a letter to the emperor, " non haveva giammai assenlito la sede apostolica." t In Siri's Memorie, vi. 257, some account, though very incomplete, is given of this affair. That, too, which is contained in Richelieu's Memoires, xxiii- 283, is but par- tial. The statement given by Nicoletti is much more circumstantial and authentic, and we have made use of it in this place. A. D. 1623-1628.] NEW VICTORIES OF CATHOLICISM. 311 sador, how insulting' it was to France that England utterly disregarded the pledges given in the contract of marriage. Either Louis XIII. must compel the English to observe their pledges, or hurl from the throne a prince, who as a heretic in the sight of God, and a violator of his word in that of man, was un- worthy to fill it.* Next he turned to the Spanish ambassador Ofiate. The pope argued, that as a good knight, Philip IV. was bound to succour the queen of England, so near a relation of his own (she was his sister-in-law), in the oppres- sion she now endured on behalf of her religion. When the pope saw that he might enter- tain hopes, he put the negociation into the hands of Spada, the nuncio in Paris. Among the influential men in France, none took up this subject with more warmth than Cardinal Berulle, who had conducted the ne- gociations for the marriage. He calculated how the English vessels might be seized on the coasts of France; how their fleets might even ^ be burned in their own harbours. In Spain, Olivarez entered on their scheme with- out much hesitation. Former instances of perfidy might indeed have given him reason to pause ; and another high functionary of state, Cardinal Bedmar, decided against the measure on this ground: but the conception was too grand, too vast, to be rejected by Oli- varez, who in all things loved the dazzling and the magnificent. The negociations were carried on with the utmost secrecy : even the French ambassador in Rome, to whom the matter was first open- ed, learned nothing of its further progress. Richelieu drew up the draft of the treaty; Olivarez amended it; and to this Richelieu assented: it was ratified on the 20th of April, 1627. The French pledged themselves to begin their military preparations forthwith, and to set their harbours in a posture of de- fence. The Spaniards were ready for action that same year, 1627 ; and it was arranged * T.'ie pope is made to say in Nicoletli: "Essere il re di Francia offeso nello slato, pel fomenlo che I'Inghillerra dava agli Ueonoui ribelli : nella vila rispetlo agli incita- menii e fellonia di Sciales,il quale haveva indouo il duca di Orleans a macchinare coniro S. M'i', per lo cui deliuo fu poscia falto morire : nella reputazione, rjspello a lanli mancamenli di promesse: e finalmenle nel prnprio san- gue, rispelto agli strapazzi fatli alia regina sua sorella: ma quello che voleva dir lutto, nel anima, insidiando I'Inslese alia salute di quella della regina ed insieine a queila del christianissinio stesso e di luiti coloro che pur troppo hebbero vogliadi fare quello infelice iiialrjinonio." [That, the king of France was oti'ended in his slate, through the comfort and encouragement given by England to the rebellious Huguonois; in his life, through the insti- gations and the felony of Sciales, who had induced the duke of Orleans to plot against his majesty, for which crime he was afterwards put lo death ; in reputation, in respect to so many breaches of promise; and tinally, in his own blood, by reason of the insults heaped on the queen, hissislor: but to sum up all offences in one, he was injured in his soul, since the English plotted against the salvation of that of the queen, and thereby against the soul's salvation of the most Christian king himself, and of all those who had been too forward in effecting that unhappy marriage.] that the French should join them the next spring with their whole force.* It does not appear very clearly from our authorities how France and Spain were to di- vide the spoils between them: thus much only is to be collected, that the pope's inte- rests were regarded in this respect likewise. Berulle communicated to the nuncio in the most profound confidence, that should the en- terprize succeed, Ireland should be consigned to the papal see, and might then be governed by the pope, through the medium of a viceroy. The nuncio received this offer with extraor- dinary satisfaction ; only he recommended his holiness not to let a hint of it escape him, lest it should appear that he was in any degree actuated by secular views. Germany and Italy, too, were brought within the scope of this plan. There still appeared a possibility of putting' down the naval supremacy of the English and Dutch by a general combination. The idea was conceived of forming an armed company; under the protection of which a direct traffic should be carried on between the Baltic, Flanders, the French coasts, Spain, and Italy, without any participation on the part of the two great naval powers. The emperor actu- ally made proposals with this view to the Hans towns ; — the infanta in Brussels wished that a harbour might be conceded to the Spaniards on the Baltic.f Negotiations were entered into with the grand duke of Tuscany, with a view to directing the Spanish and Por- tuguese trade to Leghorn.]: * Lettere del nunzio, Aprile 9, 162". " Torno a Parigi il prefaio corriere di Spagna con avvisi che il re caitolico contentavasi di muoversi il primo, come veniva deside- rato da Frances), purch6 da quesli si concedessero unita- mente le due ofteitealtre volte allernativamente proposte, cio6 che il chrislianisimo si obligasse di muoversi nel mese di maggio o di giugno del anno sequente, o che pre- senteraenie accomodasse I'arraala cattolica di alcune galere ed altri legni. Porto anche ni;ova il medessimo corriere che il come duca haveva in Ispagna staccata la pratica e data ordine che se ne stacasse una simile in Fiandra col re d' Inghilterra, il quale offriva al caitolico suspensione d'armi per tre anni o altjo piu lunio tempo, tanlo al nome del re di Danimarca quanto degli Olandesi." [The aforesaid courier from Spain returned to Paris with advices, that the catholic king was content to make the first move, as had been requested by the king of France, provided the French would concede the two offers pro- posed before by way of alternative; i. e. that the most Christian king should pledge himself lo move in the fol- lowing May or June, and that he should at present furnish the catholic armament with some galleys and other ves- sels. The said courier also brought news, ihat the count duke had broken off intercourse with thekingof Enuland, and caused the same lo be done in Flanders, and that the king of England offered his catholic majesty suspension of arms for three years, or other longer period, both in the name of the king of Denmark, and in that of the Hol- landers.] t Pope Urban states this as an instruction to Ginetti, in Siri, Mercurio, ii. 984. t Scritiura sopra la compagnia militante, MS. in the Archivio Mediceo, contains a discussion concerning the practicability of this plan. " Si propone che i popoli delle citta ansealiche entreranno nella compagnia mili- tante per fame piacere all' imperatore e che i Toscani non abbino a ricusare come chiamati da si gran mon- archi." [It is conceived that the inhabitants of the Hans Towns would enter into the warlike confederacy to oblige the emperor, and that the Tuscans could not 312 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD. [a. d. 1623-1628. Things indeed were not carried to the ex- tent proposed. In consequence of the intri- cacy of the interests concerned, the event took a very different course, but one that finally led to a result very favourable to the cause of Catholicism. Whilst plans of such magnitude w^ere in contemplation for an attack on England, it so befel that the projectors were themselves at- tacked by that country. In July, 1627, Buckingham appeared with a stately fleet off the French coast : he landed on the island of Rhe, and seized it as far as to the citadel of St. Martin, to which he im- mediately laid siege. He summoned the Huguenots to make a new stand for their privileges and their religious independence, which assuredly was every day more and more endangered. The English historians are in the habit of ascribing this expedition to a singular passion of Buckingham's for queen Anne of France. Be the fact that such a passion existed as it may, still there was in the great course of circumstances another, and assuredly a more substantial reason for the enterprise. Was Buckingham to await in England the project- ed attack on' his country] Unquestionably it was more expedient to anticipate it, and to carry the war into France.* A more auspi- cious moment there could not be. Louis XIII. was dangerously ill, and Richelieu was strug- gling with powerful factions. After some de- liberation, the Huguenots actually resumed their arms, and their warlike leaders appear- ed once more in the field. But Buckingham ought to have carried on the war with more vigour, and to have been better supported. King Charles I. admits, in all his letters, that this was not sufficiently the case. As matters were conducted, the enemy were soon no match for cardinal Rich- elieu, whose genius unfolded its resources with double energy in moments of difficulty, and who never proved himself more resolute, stedfast, and indefatigable, than now. Buck- ingham saved himself by retreat ; and his expedition, which might have been in the utmost degree perilous to the French govern- refuse to do the like when called on by such great mo- narchs.] ♦ It may be asked, had not Buckingham learned some- thing of the secret design in question"? It is at least very probable ; for how seldom is a secret so well kept that nothing of it transpires. At any rate Zorzo Zorzi, the Venetian ambassador, who arrived in France about the time when the preliminaries were under discussion, heard of them immediately. " Si ag<;iungeva che le due corone tenevano insieme machinalio'ni e'trattali di assa- lire con pari forze e disjjosilioni I'iiola d'lnghilterra." [It was added that the two crowns plotted and conspired toi-'Plher to make a joint and e(iual attack on tlie island of England.] It is very imlikcly tlien that no intelli- gence of the matter had reached England. The Vene- tians were in very close correspondence with that coun- try, and had even incurred suspicion of having advised the expedition against the isle of Rh6. (Rel. di Francia, 1628.) ment, had no other result than that the whole strength of the country flung itself, with re- newed impetuosity, under the conduct of the cardinal, upon the Huguenots. Rochelle was unquestionably the central point of the Huguenot strength. Richelieu had already in former years reflected on the possibility of capturing that stronghold, at the time when he resided in his bishopric of Lu- Qon, in the neighbourhood. He now felt himself called on to head such an enterprize, and he resolved to accomplish it, cost what it might. Strange to tell, nothing so much furthered his efforts, as the fanaticism of the English puritans. Buckingham had at last taken up arms again to relieve Rochelle : his honour was pledged thereto, his position in England and in the world, depended on his execution of that task, and undoubtedly he had bent to it all his powers and resourses. This was the moment chosen by a fanatic, instigated by re- venge and mistaken religious zeal, to assassi- nate Buckingham. In grand and decisive struggles, it is neces- sary that powerful men should make an en- terprize their own personal aftair. The siege of Rochelle was like a duel between the two ministers. ]\ow Richelieu alone survived. In England there was no one to take Buck- ingham's place, or cordially to vindicate the honour of the deceased. The English fleet appeared in the roads, but effected nothing of consequence. It is said that Richelieu was aware that this would be the case. He per- severed unswervingly, and Rochelle surren- dered to him in October, 1628. After the fall of the principal fortressos, the neighbouring ones despaired of being able to hold out : their only care was to obtain tolera- rable terms.* Thus out of all these political complexities, which at first seemed propitious to the pro- testants, there ensued after all in the last re- * Zorzo Zorzi : Relatione di Francia, 1629 : " L'acquisto di Rocella ultimato sugli occhi dell' armata Inglese, che professava di scioglere I'assedio et introdurvi il soccorso, I'impresa contro Koano, capo et animo di questa fattione, i progress! contra gli Ugonolti nella Linguadocca colla ricuperatione di benoOpiazze hanno sgomentato i cuori e spozzato la foriuna di qeul panito che perdute le forze interne e mancategli le intelligenze straniere si 6 intier- araenle rimesso alia volanti e clemenza del re." [The concjuest of Rochelle achieved before the eyes of the En- glish forces, which professed the intention of relieving the besieged and throwing succour into the tgvvn; the enterprize against Rohan, tlie head and soul of the fac- tion, the successes against the Huguenots in Languodoo, with the recovery of fully fifty fortresses, have disheart- ened the party, and given a blow to their fortunes; so that, deprived of their home resources, and disappointed of aid from abroad, they have cast themselves entirely upon the good pleasure and the clemency of the king.] He remarks that the Spaniards, though late, indeed, did actually arrive witli fourteen ships to lake part in the siege of Rochelle. He ascribes their accession to the "certezza del line" [the certainly of the issue,] and to the desire "parliciparagli onori" [of participating in the honour] A. D. 1623-1628.] MANTUAN SUCCESSION. 313 suit decisive victories and mighty advances on the part of Catholicism. North-eastern Ger- many, and south-western France, which had held out so long, were both subdued. All that now seemed requisite was to subject the con- quered foe forever by laws and permanently effective institutions. The aid which Denmark had afforded to the Germans, and England to the French, had proved rather pernicious than advantageous : it had first provoked the superior strength of the enemy; and these powers were now them- selves endangered or attacked. The imperial troops penetrated to Jutland. Fresh negotia- tions between France and Spain, respecting a combined attack on England, were set on foot in the year 1628, and plied with the utmost earnestness. CHAPTER V. MANTUAN WAR. — THIRTY YEARs' WAR. — REVO- LUTION IN THE STATE OF THINGS. At the first glance at the course of events, the progress of a system of movements once begun presents an aspect of unchangeable persistency. But if we examine more narrowly, we shall not unfrequently see that the funda- mental circumstance on which the whole group depends is slight and feeble, — often little more than personal regard or aversion, which it would not be very difficult to shake. If we inquire what was the principal agency that produced the recent vast advantages on the side of Catholicism, we shall find it was not so much the armies of Tilly and Wallen- stein, or the military superiority of Richelieu over the Huguenots, as the renewed and ex- isting war between France and Spain, with- out which neither the two former nor the lat- ter would have been able to effect much. All power of self-sustained resistence had passed away from protestantism by the year 1628 ; thenceforth nothing but the discord of the catholic powers encouraged it to make a stand ; their reconciliation was its ruin. But who could fail to perceive how easily that union might be rent asunder. Within the pale of Catholicism two opposite impulses had arisen by an equal necessity ; the one i-eligious, the other political. The former demanded union, propagation of the faitii, and disregard of all other con- siderations; the latter unceasingly provoked the strife of the great powers lor pre-emi- nence. It could scarcely be asserted that the course of events had as yet destroyed the balance of power in Europe. That balance rested in those days on the antagonism of 40 France and the Austro-Spanish power ; and France, as well as the latter, had vastly aug- mented in strength in the course of these oc- currences. But political action is prompted and go- verned no less by anticipations of the future tlian by the pressure of present evils. The natural course of things seemed now to lead inevitably towards a state of universal peril. The outspread of Wallenstein's troops over the northern countries of Germany, the an- cient abodes of protestantism, seemed to countenance the possibility of again raising the imperial authority, which, with the ex- ception of a moment in the life of Charles v., had for centuries been a mere sha- dow, to a condition of true power and es- sential importance. Such would be the ine- vitable result if the restoration of Catholicism proceeded as it had begun, France, on the other hand, had no equiva- lent advantage to expect : from the instant it had mastered the Huguenots, there remained for it no other object to be won. But the Italians had the greatest cause for anxiety. To them the renovation of a mighty imperial power, asserting so many claims in Italy, and so immediately connected with the detested power of the Spaniards, appeared perilous, nay intolerable. The question was once more, whether the catholic efforts should be prosecuted without regard to these considerations, and should again overbear every thing else, or whether political motives would gain the upper hand, and put a stop to these exertions. Whilst the current of catholic restoration was sweeping in full force over France and Germany, a movement took place in Italy which was destined to decide the question. Mantuan Succession. At the close of the year 1627 died Vincen- zo II., duke of Mantua, of the house of Gon- zoga, without issue. His next of kin was Carlo Conzaga, due de Nevers. Simply considered, this succession present- ed no difficulty : no doubt could prevail as to the rights of the next of kin. But it involved a political change of great importance. Charles de Nevers was born in France, and was necessarily to be regarded as a French- man : it was thought that the Spaniards would not endure the acquisition of power by a Frenchman in Upper Italy, which they had also sought with peculiar jealousy to keep free from all French influence. If, after the lapse of so long a time, we en- deavour to search the matter to the bottom, we shall find, that at first the thought of ex- cluding Nevers was not entertained either at the Spanish or the Austrian court. In fact, he was related to the house of Austria ; the em- 312 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD. [a. d. 1623-1628. Things indeed were not carried to the ex- tent proposed. In consequence of the intri- cacy of the interests concerned, the event took a very different course, but one that finally led to a result very favourable to the cause of Catholicism. Whilst plans of such magnitude were in contemplation for an attack on England, it so befel that the projectors were themselves at- tacked by that country. In July, 1627, Buckingham appeared with a stately fleet off tlie French coast : he landed on the island of Rhe, and seized it as far as to the citadel of St. Martin, to which he im- mediately laid siege. He summoned the Huguenots to make a new stand for their privileges and their religious independence, which assuredly was every day more and more endangered. The English historians are in the habit of ascribing this expedition to a singular passion of Buckingham's for queen Anne of France. Be the fact that such a passion existed as it may, still there was in the great course of circumstances another, and assuredly a more substantial reason for the enterprise. Was Buckingham to await in England the project- ed attack on his country! Unquestionably it was more expedient to anticipate it, and to carry the war into France.* A more auspi- cious moment there could not be. Louis XIII. was dangerously ill, and Richelieu was strug- gling with powerful factions. After some de- liberation, the Huguenots actually resumed their arms, and their warlike leaders appear- ed once more in the field. But Buckingham ouglit to have carried on the war with more vigour, and to have been better supported. King Charles I. admits, in all his letters, that this was not sufficiently the case. As matters were conducted, the enemy were soon no match for cardinal Rich- elieu, whose genius unfolded its resources with double energy in moments of difficulty, and who never proved himself more resolute, stedfast, and indefatigable, than now. Buck- ingham saved himself by retreat ; and his expedition, which might have been in the utmost degree perilous to the French govern- refuse to do ihe like when called on by such great mo- narchs.] ♦ It may be asked, liad not Buckingham learned some- thing of the secret desisn in question"? it is at least very probable ; for how seldom is a secret so well kept that nothing of it transpires. At any rate Zorzo Zorzi, the Venetian ambassador, who arrived in France about the lime when the preliminaries were under discussion, heard of them immediately. " Si aggiungeva che le due corona tenevano insieme machinationi e'trattali di assa- lire con pari forze e disi)osiiioni I'itola d'Inghilterra." [It was added that the two crowns plotted and conspired together to make a joint and equal attack on the island of England.] It is very unlikely then that no intelli- gence of the matter had reached England. The Vene- tians were in very close correspondence with that coun- try, and had even incurred suspicion of having advised the expedition against the isle of Kh6. (Rel. di Francia, 1628.) ment, had no other result than that the whole strength of the country flung itself, with re- newed impetuosity, under the conduct of the cardinal, upon the Huguenots. Rochelle was unquestionably the central point of the Huguenot strength. Richelieu had already in former years reflected on the possibility of capturing that stronghold, at the time when he resided in his bishopric of Lu- Qon, in the neighbourhood. He now felt himself called on to head such an enterprize, and he resolved to accomplish it, cost what it might. Strange to tell, nothing so much furthered his efforts, as the fanaticism of the English puritans. Buckingham had at last taken up arms again to relieve Rochelle : his honour was pledged thereto, his position in England and in the world, depended on his execution of that task, and undoubtedly he had bent to it all his powers and resourses. This was the moment chosen by a fanatic, instigated by re- venge and mistaken religious zeal, to assassi- nate Buckingham. In grand and decisive struggles, it is neces- sary that powerful men should make an en- terprize their own personal afi'air. The siege of Rochelle was like a duel between the two ministers. Now Richelieu alone survived. In England there was no one to take Buck- ingham's place, or cordially to vindicate the honour of the deceased. The English fleet appeared in the roads, but effected nothing of consequence. It is said that Richelieu was aware that this would be the case. He per- severed unswervingly, and Rochelle surren- dered to him in October, 1628. After the fall of the principal fortresses, the neighbouring ones despaired of being able to hold out : their only care was to obtain tolera- rable terms.* Thus out of all these political complexities, which at first seemed propitious to the pro- testants, there ensued after all in the last re- * Zorzo Zorzi : Relatione di Francia, 1629 : " L'acquisto di Rocella ultimato sugli occhi dell' armata Inglese, che professava di scioglere I'assedio et inlrodurvi il soccorso, I'impresa contro Roano, capo et animo di questa fattione, i progress! contra gli Ugonotti nella Linguadocca coUa ricuperatione di ben 50 piazze hanno sgomentalo i cuorl e spozzato la fonuna di qeul paniio che perduie le forze interne e mancategli le intelligenze straniere si 6 intier- amente rimesso alia volanti e cleuienza del re." [The conquest of Rochelle achieved before the eyes of ilie En- glish forces, which professed the intention of relieving the besieged and throwing succour into the tgwn ; the enterprize against Rohan, tlie head and soul oi the fac- tion, the successes against the Huguenots in Languodoc, with the recovery of fully fifty fortresses, have disheart- ened the party, and given a blow to their fortunes; so that, deprived of tiieir home resources, and disapjiointed of aid from abroad, they have cast themselves entirely upon the good pleasure and the clemency of the king.] He remarks that the Spaniards, though late, indeed, did actually arrive witli fourteen ships to take part in the siege of Rochelle. He ascribes their accession to the "certezza del fine" [the certainty of the issue,] and to the desire "participaragli onori" [of participating in the honour] X. D. 1623-1628.] MANTUAN SUCCESSION. 313 suit decisive victories and mighty advances on the part of Catholicism. North-eastern Ger- many, and south-western France, which had held out so long, were both subdued. All that now seemed requisite was to subject the con- quered foe forever by laws and permanently effective institutions. The aid which Denmark had affiirded to the Germans, and England to the French, had proved rather pernicious than advantageous : it had first provoked the superior strength of the enemy; and these powers were now them- selves endangered or attacked. The imperial troops penetrated to Jutland. Fresh negotia- tions between France and Spain, respecting a combined attack on England, were set on foot in the year 1628, and plied with the utmost earnestness. CHAPTER V. MANTUAN WAR. THIRTY YEARs' WAR. REVO- LUTION IN THE STATE OF THINGS. At the first glance at the course of events, the progress of a system of movements once begun presents an aspect of unchangeable persistency. But if we examine more narrowly, we shall not unfrequently see that the funda- mental circumstance on which the whole group depends is slight and feeble, — often little more than personal regard or aversion, which it would not be very difficult to shake. If we inquire what was the principal agency that produced the recent vast advantages on the side of Catholicism, we shall find it was not so much the armies of Tilly and Wallen- stein, or the military superiority of Richelieu over the Huguenots, as the renewed and ex- isting war between France and Spain, with- out which neither the two former nor the lat- ter would have been able to effect much. All power of self-sustained resistence had passed away from protestantism by the year 1628 ; thenceforth nothing but the discord of the catholic powers encouraged it to make a stand ; their reconciliation was its ruin. But who could fail to perceive how easily that union might be rent asunder. Within the pale of Catholicism two opposite impulses had arisen by an equal necessity ; the one religious, the other political. The former demanded union, propagation of the faith, and disregard of all other con- siderations ; the latter unceasingly provoked the strife of the great powers lor pre-emi- nence. It could scarcely be asserted that the course of events had as yet destroyed the balance of power in Europe. That balance rested in those days on the antagonism of 40 France and the Austro-Spanish power ; and France, as well as the latter, had vastly aug- mented in strength in the course of these oc- currences. But political action is prompted and go- verned no less by anticipations of the future tlian by the pressure of present evils. The natural course of things seemed now to lead inevitably towards a state of universal peril. The outspread of Wallenstein's troops over the northern countries of Germany, the an- cient abodes of protestantism, seemed to countenance the possibility of again raising the imperial authority, which, with the ex- ception of a moment in the life of Charles v., had for centuries been a mere sha- dow, to a condition of true power and es- sential importance. Such would be the ine- vitable result if the restoration of Catholicism proceeded as it had begun. France, on the other hand, had no equiva- lent advantage to expect : from the instant it had mastered the Huguenots, there remained for it no other object to be won. But the Italians had the greatest cause for anxiety. To them the renovation of a mighty imperial power, asserting so many claims in Italy, and so immediately connected with the detested power of the Spaniards, appeared perilous, nay intolerable. The question was once more, whether the catholic efforts should be prosecuted without regard to these considerations, and should again overbear every thing else, or whether political motives would gain the upper hand, and put a stop to these exertions. Whilst the current of catholic restoration was sweeping in full force over France and Germany, a movement took place in Italy which was destined to decide the question. Mantuan Succession. At the close of the year 1627 died Vincen- zo II., duke of Mantua, of the house of Gon- zoga, without issue. His next of kin was Carlo Conzaga, due de Nevers. Simply considered, this succession present- ed no difficulty: no doubt could prevail as to the rights of the next of kin. But it involved a political change of great importance. Charles de Nevers was born in France, and was necessarily to be regarded as a French- man : it was thought that the Spaniards would not endure the acquisition of power by a Frenchman in Upper Italy, which they had also sought with peculiar jealousy to keep free from all French influence. If, after the lapse of so long a time, we en* deavour to search the matter to the bottom, we shall find, that at first the thought of ex- cluding Nevers was not entertained either at the Spanish or the Austrian court. In fact, he was related to the house of Austria ; the em- 314 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1623-1628. press was a Mantuan princess, and always strongly in his favour. " At first," says Khe- venhiller, who was employed in the affairs of Mantua, "no objection was entertained to him : means were rather sought to conciliate his devotion to the imperial house."* Oliva- rez, too, expressly asserted this ; he tells us, that when news were received of the danger- ous illness of don Vincenzo, it was resolved to send a courier to the duke of Nevers, and offer him the protection of Spain in taking peaceable possession of Mantua and Montfer- rat.f It is very possible that conditions would have been prescribed to him, and securities demanded; but of his rights there was no thought of despoiling him. The mode in which this natural course of things was prevented is remarkable. Credit was not given to the Spaniards in Italy for a disposition to act so equitably. No one would ever believe of them, frequent as had been their previous assurances of good faith, that they would not oppose the succes- sion of Nevers.l The Spanish rulers in Italy had once for all drawn down on themselves the suspicion that they were ready to grasp, even by unlawful means, at the possession of unlimited power. Noone would be persuaded that they would not now endeavour to bestow the duchy on some member of the house of Gonozaga more devoted to their own interests. Let us confess, however, that the desire of the Italians to see Mantua ruled by a prince naturally connected with France, and inde- pendent of the Spaniards, had much share in engendering that opinion. They would not believe that Spain would accede to anything which they themselves so longed for in their antipathy to that country. They even com- municated their own belief to the rightful heir, so that he deemed it expedient to take posses- sion of his inheritance with all speed, and in whatever way he could. Like as it occurs in the animal constitution, the internal disease sought only an occasion, an injured part, to break out. Previously to the decease of Vincenzo, the young Gonzago Nevers, duke of Rethel, arri- * Annales Ferdinandei, xi. p. 30. + Francesco degli Albizi, negotiator di Monsr. Cesare Monte: " S. MtiV' says Olivarez, "in sentire la grave indisposilione del duca Vincenzo ordinf) che si dispiacci- asse corriero in Francia al medesimo Nevers prometten- dogli la protellione sua accio egli potesse pacificamenli otienere il possesso di Mantova e del Monferrato ; ma appenaconsegnati eli ordini, si era con altro corrieri ven- uto d'ltaliaimesa la morte di Vincenzo, il matrimonio di Retel sfnza participatione del re," etc. ■f " N6 si deve dar credonza," says Mulla, the Vene- tian ambassador in Mannia in 1G15, "a quello che si 6 hisciato intender piu volte il niarchese di Inoiosa, gii governator di Milano, che Spangolilnon porterebbono quan- do venisse il caso, niai altri alio stalo di Manloa che il duca di Nevers." [No credit is to be given to what has been frequently staled by the marchese d'Inoiosa, formerly governor of Milan, that should the opportunity occur, the Spaniards would never place any other than the duke of Nevers on the throne of Milan]— but wliy not ■? We have only the fact ; the governor asserts it ; the Italians do not believe it ; still it is so beyond doubt. ved in the profoundest secrecy in Mantua, where every thing had been pre-arranged by . a Mantuan minister, of the name of Striggio, who belonged to the anti-Spanish party. The old duke made no difficulty of recognizing the rights of his kinsman. There was still ex- isting a female descendant of the direct native line, a great granddaughter of Philip II., through his younger daughter, who had married into the house of Savoy, and it seemed to be most important that the young duke should wed her. Casual circumstances delayed the affair, and Vincenzo was already dead,* when one night the lady was brought from the con- vent where she had been educated and carried into the palace, where the marriage was per- formed and consummated without much loss of time. Not till after this was the death of the late duke made public, and Rethel saluted as sovereign of Mantua, and homage tendered him. A Milanese envoy was kept at a dis- tance till all was completed, and then, not without a sort of mockery, was made acquain- ted with the whole transaction. Accounts of these proceedings arrived in Madrid and Vienna at the same moment as the news of the duke's death. It must be admitted that such things were peculiarly of a nature to exasperate such great sovereigns as the emperor and the king of Spain, who piqued themselves on a character of sac red majesty. So near a relation married without their consent, — nay, without their knowledge, — with a sort of violence ! An important fief taken possession of without the least deference for the liege lord ! The measures taken by the two courts were nevertheless different. Olivarez, proud as a Spaniard, doubly so as minister of so powerful a king, always full of the most overweening sense of his own im- portance, was now far from disposed to make any advances to the duke: he resolved that, if he did no more, he would at least, to use his own expression, mortify him.f Was not his conduct openly hostile] After such a proof of his inclination, could he be trusted with the important city of Montferrat, which was to be regarded as an outwork of Milan ] The duke of Guastala made pretensions to Mantua, the * Nani, Storia Veneta 1. 7, p. 3-50, Siri, Memorie recon- dite vi. 309, state this fact, the last-mentioned from a let- ter of Sabran's to the French court. t Nicoletti : Vita di papa Urbano, from a despatch of the nuncio Pamfilio: '• Dichiaravasi il conte duca che per lo nieno voleva niortificare il duca di Nevers per lo poco rispetio porlato al re nella conclusione del matrimonio senza paiticiparlo; ma a quel segno potesse giungere la niortificatione non poteva il nuntio fame congettura, e tanlo piu che le ragioni che avevano mosso il papa a con- cedere la dispensa, erano acerbamenie impugnate dal medesimo conte duca." [The count duke declared that, at the least, he would mortify the duke of Nevers for the little respect shown the king in concluding the marriage without communicating it to him: but in what particular this mortification was to be inflicted the nuncio could not conjecture, the more so because the motives that had in- duced the pope to grant the dispensation were bitterly impugned by the count duke.] A. D. 1623-1628.] URBAN Vlir. 315 duke of Savoy to Montferrat ; the Spaniards now entered into connexion witii both ; arms were appealed to; the duke of Savoy advanced on Montferrat from one side, Don Gonzalez, governor of Milan, from the other. The French had already retreated to Casale. Don Gonza- lez hastened to besiege it, and doubted not that he would speedily reduce it, since he counted on an understanding with the parties within the walls. The emperor was not so precipitate. He %vas convinced that God would protect him, because he trod the path of righteousness. He disapproved of the conduct of the Spaniards, and caused formal notice of his disapprobation to be made to Don Gonzalez. On the other hand, he was determined to exercise his right of supreme adjudication in the most unrestrict- ed manner, and pronounced the sequestration of Mantua, till he should have decided to which of the several claimants the inheritance belonged. As the new duke of Mantua, who was now arrived in person, would not submit, the most severe mandates were issued against him.* Now, however, the measures of the two courts differed in origin and in spirit, they co- incided, after all, in their effects. Nevers found himself threatened no less by the legal claims of the German branch of the house of Austria, than by the violent measures of the Spanish branch ; in thinking to avoid the danger, he had drawn it down on his head. At first his prospects were indeed but bad. * The views of the imperial court may be collected from the report of Palotla, June 10, 1628, an extract from which is to be found in Nicoletti. " II nunzioogni di piii accorgevasi che era malissima I'impressione conlo il duca di Nevers, che avresse disprezzato 11 re di Spagno e raolto piu I'imperatore conchiudendo matrimonio senza sua par- ticipazione, col possesso dello slaio senza investitura, anzi senza indulto imperiale; che fosse nemico della casa d'Austria, che avesse intelligenza e disegno co' Fran- cesi di dare loro mano nell' invasione dello stato di Mila- no : e che non di meno S. M'i. Ces^. havesse grandissima inclinalione alia pace, e con questo fine havesse fatlo il decrelo del sequestro per levare I'arrai dalle mani di Spagnuoli e di Savojardi stanti le ragioni che pretende- vano Guastalla, Savoja, Lorena e Spagn i negli stali di Manlova e Monferrato : che dapoi il duca havesse di nu- ovo olTeso I'imperatore col disprezzo de' commissarj, non dando lore la mano dritta e non gli ammettendo in Man- lova e sopra tutto col appellazione e protesta che I'im- peratore fosse caduto dalla ragione e superiority di delti feudi." [The nuncio was daily more and more convinced that the impression entertained against the duke of Nev- ers was very bad, because he had treated the king of Spain with contempt, and still more the emperor, in con- cluding the marriage without their privity and consent, and tailing possession of the stale without investiture or any imperial indult; because he was an enemy of the house of Austria, and was leagued and confederate with the French to give them assistance in their invasion of the state of Milan ; and it was said, notwithstanding all this, the emperor was strongly inclined to peace, to which end he had issued the proclamation of sequestration, to disarm the Spaniards and the Savoyards pending the dis- cussion of the pretensions to the states of Mantua and Montferrat alleged by Guastalla, Savoy, Lorraine, and Spain ; that subsequently the duke had offended the em- peror afresh, by his contempt of the commissioners in not countenancing them or admitting them into Mantua, and above all, by his appeal and protest that the emperor had lost his rights and his superiority over the said fiefs.] It is true some Italian states regarded his cause as identical with their own ; they neglected nothing that could confirm him in his resolution to hold out, but they had not strength sufficient to afford him any effectual succour. Richelieu, too, had promised that he would not let him sink if he could only maintain his position till France could come to his aid. But the question was when might that be ? The circumstances of Mantua had reached a very perilous pitch, while the siege of Ro- chelle was yet pending. Before its fall Riche- lieu could not move a step. He durst not venture to engage in fresh hostilities against Spain, so long as there was a chance of there- by occasioning a dangerous rising of the Hu- guenots. But yet another consideration was forced upon him by his former experience. On no account durst he quarrel with the devout, rigorously catholic party in his native country. He durst not break with the pope, or even venture on a line of policy that might be dis- pleasing to his holiness. An immensity now once more depended on the personal disposition of the pope. His posi- tion, the nature of his office, called on him to make every effort for the maintenance of peace in the catholic world. As an Italian sovereign, he had an unquestionable influence over his neighbours, while even France, as we have seen, was obliged to model her conduct upon his. Every thing depended on whether he would avert the outbreak of the quarrel, or him- self take a part in it. In the former political conjunctures Urban VIII. had found the bent of his policy deter- mined, its path marked out. On this occa- sion his own turn of mind first came to view more completely, and at the same time with more decisive influence on the affairs of the world. Urban VIII. Among the foreigners who attained to a hio-h degree of wealth by the commerce of Ancona, which was in considerable vigour in the sixteenth century, the Florentine house of Barberini distinguished itself by its shrewd- ness and success in business. Maffeo, a scion of the house, born in Florence in the year 1568, was taken, after the early death of his father, to Rome, where lived an uncle of his who had gained a certain station in the curia. Maffeo also entered on the same career, in which he was furthered by the easy circuni- stances of his house, while he likewise mani- fested distinguished talents. At every step of his rise his colleagues recognized his supe- riority. It was chiefly through a nunciature in France, where he won the entire regard of the French court, that higher prospects 316 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD. [a. d. 1623-1628. opened upon him. After the death of Gre- gory XV., the French party, from the very first, fixed on him to succeed to the papal see. The character of the conclave on that occa- sion differed from former ones, from the fact that the last pope had reigned but a short time. Though he had named a considerable number of cardinals, still those created by his predecessor were quite as numerous : the last nephew and the last but one met each other in tolerably equal strength in the conclave. MafFeo Barberini is said to have secretly inti- mated to each of them that he was an adver- sary of the other, and to have been in conse- quence supported by each out of hostility to his rival. But doubtless it contributed still more to his election, that he had always proved himself the champion of the jurisdic- tional pretensions of the Roman curia, and had thereby recommended himself to the ma- jority of the cardinals. In a word, helped forward alike by his own merit, and by others' support, Maffeo Barberini carried the day, and ascended the pontifical throne at the vi- gorous age of 55. The court very soon discovered a marked difference between him and his immediate predecessors. Clement VIII. was usually to be found engaged with the works of St. Ber- nard, Paul V. with those of Justinian of Ve- nice ; while on the study table of the new pope, Urban VIII., were to be seen the last new poems, or even plans of fortifications. It will generally be found that the period in which a man's character assumes its decid- ed bent, is that of the first bloom of manhood, when he begins to take an independent share in public business, or in literature. The youth of Paul V., born in 1552, and of Gre- gory XV., born in 1554, belonged loan epoch in which the principle of catliolic restoration strode onwards in the full unbroken vigour of its march. The first active years of Urban VIII., born 1568, coincided, on the contrary, with the period of the opposition of the papal sovereignty against Spain, and of the re-es- tablishment of Catholicism in France. We find that his inclinations now followed the bent thus acquired. Urban VIII. regarded himself principally in the light of a temporal prince. He entertained the opinion, that the states of the church required to be secured by fort- resses, and rendered formidable by the force of its own arms. The marble statues of his predecessors being shown him, he said he would have statues of iron erected to himself. He built on the borders of the Bolognese Cas- telfranco, which has received the name of Fort Urbano, though its military purpose was so little apparent, that the Bolognese suspect- ed it was rather designed against them, than for their protection. In Rome he began as early as the year 1625 to strengthen the cas- tle of St. Angelo with new breastworks ; and he stored it without delay with ammunition and provisions, just as though war were im- mediately at hand ; he built the lofty wall on Monte Cavallo, which encloses the papal gar- den, regardless of the destruction thereby caused of some noble monuments of antiquity in the Colonna gardens. He erected a man- ufactory for arms in Tivoli ;* the rooms of the Vatican library were used as arsenals ; sol- diers swarmed in Rome, and the seat of the supreme spiritual authority in Christendom, the peaceful compass of the eternal city, re- sounded to the din of arms. A free port was also an indispensable requisite to a well-con- stituted state, accordingly Civita Vecchia was at great cost adapted to that end. But the result was more in accordance with the situation of things than with the intentions of the pope. The Barbary corsairs sold in that very harbour the booty plundered from Chris- tian vessels. And this was the issue of the labours of the chief pastor of Christendom. But in all these things pope Urban acted with unlimited autocratic power. At least, in the early years of his reign, he surpassed the despotism of his predecessors. If it was proposed to him to call the college together, to aid him with their counsels, his answer was, that he understood more than all the cardinals put together. Consistories were held but rarely, and even then few had the courage to speak their minds freely. The congregations assembled as usual, but no questions of importance were laid before ♦ A Conlarini: Relatione de 1635, " Quantoalle armi, i papi n' erano per 1' addielro totalniente sproveduti, perch6 confidavano piu nell' obligarsi i principi can le gratie che nelle difese temporali. Hora si 6 niulalo regis- tro et il papa presente in particolare vi sla applicalissimo. A Tivoli egli ha condotto un lal Ripa Bresciano, suddilo di V. Sena- il quale poi di tempo in tempo 6 andato svi- ando niolli operai della terra di Garden. Quivi costui fa lavorare gran quantity d' arme, prima facendo condurre il ferrogrezzo dal Bresciano et hora lavorandone qualche ponione ancora di certe miniere ritrovate nell' Unibria ; di che tutto diede avviso con mie letlere a sue tempo, che m' imaginopassassero senza reflessione. Di queste armi ha il papasotto la libreria del Vaticano accomodate un' arsenale dove con buon ordine stanno riposti moschetti, picche, carabine e pistole per armare trentamila fanti e cinquemila cavdlli,oltre buon numero che dalla medesi- mal'ucina di Tivoli si 6 mandate a Ferrara e Castelfranco in queste ultime, occorrenze." [As for arms, the popes had formerly been totally unprovided with them, because they confided more in binding princes to them by favours, than in means of material defence. This is now changed , and the present pope is most intent on the matter. He has engaged at Tivoli a certain Ripa of Brescia, a subject of your serenity, who has from time to time procured nu- merous workmen from the Gardon country. Ripa manu- factures a great quantity of weapons, to which end he al first had crude iron brought from the neighbourhood of Brescia, but at present he also works up some portion of certain ores found in Umbria : all this I notified in my letters in due time, but I rather think they were passed over without consideration. The arms then manufactured have been stored up by the pope in an arsenal under the Vatican library, in which are arranged in good order rnus- kets, pikes, carbines, and pistols, sufficient for thirty thousand infantry and five thousand cavalry ; in addition to which a large quantity has also been sent from the same factory at Tivoli to Ferrara and Castelfranco on the late occasions.] A. D. 1623-1628.] URBAN VIII. 317 them ; and whatever resolutions they passed were but little regarded.* Even for the ad- ministration of the state, Urban formed no regular consulta, as his predecessors had done. His nephew, Francesco Uarberini, was perfectly right in refusing, during the first ten years of his pontificate, to take on himself the responsibility of any measure that had been adopted, be its nature what it might. Foreign ambassadors were unfortunate in being able to make but little way in business with the pope. At the audiences he himself spoke more than any one,f harangued, and continued with one envoy the conversation he had begun with his predecessor. He ex- pected to be listened to, admired, and accost- ed with the greatest reverence, even when he rejected requests. Other popes had often given refusals to suitors, but that upon some principle, whether of religion or policy; in Urban this appeared attributable to caprice. No one could ever tell whether he was to e.x- pect a Yes or a No of him. The adroit Vene- tians found out that he loved contradiction, — that he leaned by an almost involuntary instinct to the opposite of what was proposed to him ; to obtain their ends they adopted the expedi- ent of starting objections, in combating which the pope of his own accord fell into designs to which no possible persuasion could have won his consent. Such a temper as this may exhibit itself even in subordinate stations, and was in those days not unfrequent among Italians and Span- iards. It regards a public station in the light of a tribute due to merit and personal impor- tance ; and consequently, in the discharge of official duties, it is much more obedient to * Le " congregalioni servono," says Aluise Conlarini, "per coprire lalvolla qualche errore." [The congrega- tions serve occasionally to cloali some errors.] i Pietro Conlarini : Relatione di 1G27. " Abbonda con grande facondia nelli discorsi, 6 copioso nelli suoi ragio- iiamenli di cose varie, argomenla e tralta nelli negolj con tutie la ragione che inlende e sa, a segno che le audienze si rendono altrettanlo e piii lunglie di quelle de' preces- sori suoi ; e nelli congregalioni dove interviene seque pur il medisimo con grande disavantaggio di chi tratla seco, menire togliendo egli la maggior parte del tempo poco ne lascia agli allri : et ho udito iio dire ad un cardie che an- dava per non ricever 1' audienza ma per darla al papa, poich6 era certo che la S'i' S. piu avrebbe volulo discor- rere che ascoltarlo ; e molle volte 6 accaduto che alcuni entrati per esporre le proprie loro islanze, se ne sono us- citi senza poter de' loro interessi dirle cosa alcuna." [He harangues with great fluency und eloquence, copi- ously debates a variety of topics, and brings all the argu- ments he can think of to bear on the discussion of busi- ness, in proof of which, the audiences last as long again or more than those of his predecessors: he proceeds after the same fashion in the congregations, to the great disad- vantaee of all who have to do with him, for he lakes up the greatest part of the time and leaves little to oihers: indeed I have heard of a cardinal, who said that he went not to receive audience of the pope, but to give him audi- ence, because he knew very well his Holiness would be more inclined to harangue than to listen to him ; and it has repeatedly happened, to persons who have presented themselves before him lo urge their own views, that after he had once taken up the discourse, they left his pre- sence without being able to put in a word upon their bu- siness.] these personal impulses than to the exigen- cies of the case : somewhat as an author, filled with a sense of his own talents, does not so much contemplate the object be- fore him, as give free scope to the play of his fancy. Nay, Urban was actually one of this class of authors! The poems of his that have sur- vived display wit and suppleness ; but how strangely are sacred subjects handled in them ! The songs and sayings of the Old and New Testaments are forced to accommo- date themselves to the Horatian metres, and the song of praise of the aged Simeon must figure in two Sapphic strophes ! No charac- teristic of the text of course survives such a process : the matter is forced to bend to a form discordant with it, because it was a fa- vourite with the author. But these talents, the brilliancy with which they surrounded the person of the pope, even the robust health he enjoyed, only exaggerat- ed the feelings of self-importance with which his lofty station inspired him.* I know not any pope in whom that feeling existed in so high a degree. An objection drawn from the old papal constitutions was once set before him : he replied that the opin- ion pronounced by a living pope was worth more than the maxims of a hundred dead ones. He set aside the resolution that had been adopted by the Roman people, never again tO' erect a statue to a pope in his lifetime, say- ing, that " such a resolution could be of no force- with regard to a pope such as he." Some one spoke to him in praise of th? conduct of one of his nuncios in a matter cf' difficulty, which he met by saying, that " the nuncio had acted upon his instructions." Such a man was Urban VIII.; so filled with the idea of being a mighty prince ; so attached to France, both through his former employments, and through the support he had. received from that power ; finally, so self- willed, energetic, and full of himself; — such was the man who at this moment was put in possession of the highest spiritual authority in catholic Christendom. Upon his resolves, on the attitude he as- sumed in the midst of the catholic powers, mightily depended the progress or the inter- ruption of the universal restoration which now occupied mankind. Now, on many occasions, the pope had al- * This was noticed in him from the very first. Rela- tione de' quattro ambasciatori, 1624: "Ama le proprie opinione e si lascia lusingare dal suo genio ; a che conse- guila una salda tenaciia del proprj pensieri: • • . 6 sem- pre iniento a quelle cose che possono ringrandire il con- cetto della sua persona." [He loves his own opinions, and is vain of his genius : the consequence of which is a rigid tenacity of his own notions : ... he is always in- tent on whatever can enhance the thought ol his personal importance.] 318 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD, [a. d. 1623-1628. ready seemed to give proof of aversion to the Austro-Spanish party.* As early as in the year 1625, cardinal Bor- gia complained of his stubborn hardness : the king could not obtain the least concession from him, — every thing was denied him. Cardinal Borgia asserted that Urban VIII. did not willingly terminate the affair of the Valtelline ; the king had offered to give up the contested passes, but the pope had never paid any attention to the offer. Nor can it be denied that Urban was in part to blame, that the connexion between the houses of Austria and Stuart had not ta- ken place. When he executed the dispensa- tion which had been drawn up by his prede- cessor, he added to the old conditions the clause, that in every county of England pub- lic churches should be erected for the catho- lics,— a demand that could never be acceded to by an irritated protestant population form- ing a majority of the nation, and which the pope himself subsequently abandoned on the occasion of the French marriage. The truth was, he seemed to view with ill-will the in- crease of power which Spain would have ac- quired by an alliance with England. The nuncio then resident in Brussels treated in the utmost secresy for a marriage between the electoral prince palatine and a princess, not of Austria, but of Bavaria.f The pope, too was not less essentially im- plicated in the entangled affair of the Mantuan succession. The secret marriage of the young princess with Rethel, on which every thing turned, could not have taken place without a papal dispensation. Pope Urban granted it without one question asked of the bride's near- est relations, the emperor, and the king of Spain ; and granted it, moreover, precisely at the critical moment. All this being the case, there was no mis- taking the pope's sentiments. Like all the other Italian potentates, there was nothing he desired so much as to see an independent prince in Mantua. Nor did he wait till some step or another should have been taken by Richelieu. Fail- ing in all his applications to the imperial court, the proceedings of which were more and more hostile, and seeing that the siege of Casale was still persisted in, the pope himself turned to France. He made the most urgent entreaties " that the king would send an army into the field, even before Rochelle should have been taken ; * Marquemont (Lettres, in Aubery : M6moiresde Rich- elieu, i. p. 65) remarks this from the very first. It will not be difficult, he says, to deal with the pope: his incli- nations are for the king and for France ; from prudence, however, he will endeavour to satisfy the other sover- eigns. The pope became immediately aware of the aver- sion of the Spaniards. + The nuncio's emissary was a Capuchin, Francesco della Rota. Rusdorf, Negotiations, i. 205, is particularly circumstantial on the subject of his transactions. an enterprise in the cause of Mantua was as pleasing to God as the beleaguering even of that main citadel of the Huguenots; let but the king appear in Lyons and declare for the freedom of Italy, and the pope would not de- lay to send an army into the field and form a junction with the king."* Richelieu, therefore had nothing to fear from that quarter if he should renew the oppo- sition against Spain, which had broken down three years before. But he wished to be per- fectly sure of his ground ; he had none of the pope's precipitancy, and he did not suffer him- self to be disturbed from prosecuting that siege to which his ambition was bound. But he only appeared the more determined when Rochelle had fallen. " Monsignor," he said to the papal nuncio, whom he immediately sent for, " now are we too resolved not to lose another minute : the king will engage with all his might in the affairs of Italy."f Now then that enmity to Spain and Austria, which had so frequently displayed itself, burst forth more vehemently than ever. The jeal- ousy of Italy once more aroused the ambition of France. The state of things appeared so pressing, that Louis XIII. would not wait till the spring, but at once left Paris in the middle of the year 1629, and took the route across the Alps, the duke of Savoy, who, as we have showed adhered to Spain, in vain opposed him ; his passes, which he had caused to be barri- caded, were carried at the first assault ; Susa was taken and he was compelled to come to terms in the month of March, whilst the Span- iards were constrained to raise the siege of Casale. J And so the two foremost catholic powers were once more opposed to each other in arms. Richelieu resumed his boldest designs against the Austro-Spanish power. But a comparison of the times with each other, shows that his footing on the present occasion was far more substantial and tenable than it had been in his former interference in the affairs of the Grisons and of the Palatinate. Then the Huguenots were still in a condition to seize the opportunity, and perplex him by the renewal of civil war. Even now they were not indeed fully subdued, but since they had lost Rochelle they were no longer capable of giving him any uneasiness ; their defeats and losses proceeded without interruption, and they were incapable of making so much as a mere diversion. Besides, it was perhaps of still more moment that Richelieu now had the pope on his side. In his former undertaking, the state of variance with the Roman policy in which he became involved was perilous * Extract from Bethune's despatches of the 23rd Sept. and 8th Oct. 1628, in Siri: Meniorie, vi. p. 478. + Dispaccio, Bagni, 2 Nov. 1628. ± Recueil de diverses relations des guerres d'ltalie, 1 629-31 . Bourg en Bresse, 1 632. A. D. 1629.] THE POWER OF THE EMPEROR FERDINAND IN 1629. 319 even to his position in France : his present one, on the contrary, had been called forth by Rome itself in the interests of the papal sover- eignty. Richelieu found it expedient on the whole to attach himself as closely as possible to the papacy: accordinfjly, in the collisions between the Roman and the Galilean doctrines, he now adhered to the former and repudiated the latter. How important in this way, became the hostility of Urban VIII. to the house of Aus- tria ! With the development of religious opin- ions, and the progress of the catholic restora- tion, were associated political changes, the principles of which incessantly gathered strength, and now set themselves in array against that of the church itself. The pope entered the lists against those powers who made the restoration of Catholi- cism their most earnest care. The question now was, what position those powers, especially the emperor Ferdinand, in whose hands the task of effecting that restora- tion chiefly lay, would take against so mighty and so formidable an opposition. The power of the emferor Ferdinand in the year 1629. The emperor appeared as though nothing were the matter. It is true he could not under existing cir- cumstances promise himself any sort of favour from the pope. In the most trifling things, as for instance, in the affair of the abbey of St. Maximian, he met with resistance, and received nothing but refusal : so it was like- wise in the most pious proposals, as when he desired to have St. Stephen and St. Winces- laus admitted into the Roman calendar, be- cause the one was an object of high veneration in Hungary, the other in Bohemia. Notwith- standing all this, he published the edict of restoration in the empire on the 6th of March, 1629. That document may be regarded as the final sentence in the suit which had been pending upwards of a century. The evange- lists were utterly condemned, the catholics had judgment entirely in their favour. "No- thing more remains for us to do," says the emperor, " than to stand by the injured party, and to order our commissioners to demand back from their wrongful holders all archbishoprics, bishoprics, prelacies, convents, and other eccle- siastical possessions seized since the treaty of Passau." Commissions were forthwith insti- tuted, one of which was put in activity in each several circle of the empire, and the most sweeping and indiscriminate execution of the edict began. Now was not this enough to propitiate the pope, and move him to favour and good will ■} Pope Urban regarded it all as a bare discharge of duty. The emperor solicit- ed the right of nominating, at least for the first time, to the ecclesiastical posts made vacant by the operations of the edict ; the pope refus- ed this, saying, "that he durst not violate the concordats, which were observed even in France."* This mode of refusal was al- most a mockery, for the French concordat actually secured to the king the privilege de- manded by the emperor. The emperor wish- ed to be allowed to convert the recovered convents into colleges, especially for the Je- suits: the pope replied, that the convents must be delivered up directly to the bishops. Meanwhile the emperor held on his course without regarding the pope's disfavour : he looked on himself as the great champion of the catholic church. He brought three armies at once into the field. The first lent its aid to the Poles against the Swedes, and actually restored the fortune of their arms to a certain extent. But this was not the sole object aimed at : the cam- paign was likewise designed with a view to bring back Prussia to the empire and the Teutonic order, from which it had been wrested. t Another army marched against the Nether- lands to the support of the Spaniards. It swept the plain from Utrecht to Amsterdam, and it was only a chance surprise at Wesel that hindered its obtaining the most impor- tant success. Meanwhile a third host assembled at Mem- mingan and Linden, destined for Italy, where it was to decide the Mantuan affair with the sword. The Swiss could not be prevailed on by fair means to grant a passage through their country ; they were therefore compelled by force, and in a moment Luciensteig, Coire, and all the Grison passes as far as the lake of Como were occupied, and the army, amount- ing to thirty-five thousand, descended the val- leys of the Adda and the Oglio. The duke of Mantua was once more summoned to sub- mit. He declared that he was under the pro- tection of the king of France, and that that monarch alone was to be addressed on the subject in question. While the Germans now moved upon Mantua, and the Spaniards on Montferrat, the French too made their appear- ance a second time, and somf^ success attend- ed their arms; they took Saluzzo, and Pine- * Lettere di Segreteria di stato al nuntio Palotta li 2.3 Aprile, 1629. The pope dispatched Pier Luigi Caraffa, his nuncio in Cologne, to Lower Saxony, "con tilolo per la restitutione de' beni ecclesiastici, e delibero di dargli anche le facolli a parte se fosse stale bisogno li usarle, nelle controversie fraecclesiastici edecclesiaslici" [with powers for the restitution of ecclesiastical possessions, and he thought also of giving him special authority to decide, if necessary, in disputes between clergy and clergy.] t M^moires et negotiations de Rusdorf, ii.724." Comiti Negroinonl;ino(Schwarzenberg). " Vionnig nupe] Claris verbis a consiliariis et ministris Caesaris dictumfuit, im- peratorem scilicet sibi et imperio subjecturum quicquid milite suo in Borussia occuparit et ceperit." [It was re- cently declared in plain terms by the councillors and ministers of the emperor at Vienna, that the emperor would subject to himself and to the empire whatever hia arms should obtain posaessioa of in Prussia.] 320 COUNTER REFORMATION, SECOND PERIOD. [a. d. 1629-30. rolo, but they effected nothing as regarded the main design, nor were they even able again to force the duke of Savoy to bend to their w^ish- es. Tlie Spaniards began to besiege Casale, and the Germans Mantua, after a short sus- pension of hostilities,* and had a decided supe- riority. It is not to be wondered at, if in this state of things reminiscences of the ancient supre- macy of the emperors began to be rife, and to find a tongue in Vienna. "The Italians shall be taught that there is still an emperor : they shall be brought to a rigorous account." Venice had especially brought down on itself the hatred of the house of Austria. It was judged at Vienna, that when once Mantua should have fallen, the terra firma of Venice would be incapable of resisting. In a couple of months it would infallibly be reduced, and then the imperial fiefs might be reclaimed. The Spanish ambassador went still further ; he compared the Austro-Spanish power to the Roman, the Venetian to the Carthagenian: " Aut Roma," he exclaimed, " aui Carthago delenda est." The temporal rights of the empire were likewise called to mind as against the papacy. Ferdinand II. purposed to have himself crowned, and demanded that the pope should come and meet him at Bologna or at Ferrara : the pope durst neither promise nor refuse, and sought to evade the difficulty by a mental re- servation.! The feudal rights of the empire over Urbino and Montefeltro came under dis- cussion, and the papal nuncio was told with- out more ceremony, that Wallenstein would make further inquiries on the subject when he came to Italy. This in fact was Wallenstein's intention. He had formerly been averse to the Italian war, but now he declared that he was in favour of it, since he perceived that the pope wished in concert with his allies to put down the house of Austria.^ He hinted that * The eleventh book of the Istoria di Pietio Giov. Ca- priata, investigates the particular bearings of these events. t "Se bene Urbano una volta uscl coll' aiiibasciatore Savelli, che bisognando si saria trasferito a Bologna o Ferrara, non imese perO dire in correspettivita di quello che espresse il principe di Eckenberg." [Though Urban once said to the ambassador Savelli, that if need were he vi'ould go to Bologna or Ferrara, he did not yet mean to say so in the sense expressed by the prince of Eckenberg.] t What was the general opinion entertained of the pope in Vienna appears'frornalelterofPalotta, August 10, 1628. " E state qui rappresantato da' maligni, che son quelli che vogliono la guerra, che lo state di Milano staingrandissi- mo pericolo, essendo cosa sicura che papa Urbano haven- do vastissiaii |)ensieri sia di cativo animo verso la casa d'Austria; che percii) si habbia da lemere di S. S'a- non meno che di Veneziani e di Francesi, havendo gli slati cosl vicini al ducato di Milano e potendo in un tralto met- tare potente esercito incampagna: e di piu gli stessi ma- ligni hanno rappresenlato per cosa gi-k stabilila che S. S'a- vuole in ogni mode far fare re de'lloraani il re di Francia, ed in confirmazione di cio hanno allegato che essendo la S'i- S. nunzio di Francia dicessealla regina ches'egli ar- rivava ad esser papa, voleva procurare di fare re de' Ko- mani il suo figliuolo il quale ancora era fanciullo." [It has been represented by the evil disposed here, who are those tltat desire war, that the stale of Milan is in e.xtreme a hundred years had elapsed since Rome had been plundered, and that it must now be far richer than it had been in those days. Meanwhile France too was not to have been spared. The emperor thought of resuming by force of arms the three alienated bishoprics, his plan being to procure Cossacks from Po- land, and send them against France. The quarrels of Louis XIII. with his brother and his mother, seemed to offer him a desirable opportunity. Thus the house of Austria took up a posi- tion, in which it followed up its efforts against the protestants in the boldest manner, but still strenuously kept down and curbed the catholic opposition, and even the pope himself Negociations with Sweden, at Ratisbon. Electoral diet As often in former times as a contingency of this kind had been but remotely foreseen or apprehended, so often had every power in Eu- rope retaining any independence combined. It had now actually taken place, and the catho- lic opposition looked round for aid beyond the pale of Catholicism, no longer prompted by mere jealousy, but with a view to defence and salvation. But to whom could they turn ] England had her hands full at home, in conse- quence of the rupture between the king and the parliament, and moreover had actually entered on fresh negociations with Spain : the Netherlands were themselves invested by the enemy ; the German protestants were either beaten or kept in awe by the imperial armies, and the king of Denmark had been forced to accept a disadvantageous peace. None else remained besides the king of Sweden. V\^hilst the protestants had been defeated on all sides, Gustavus Adolphus alone had achieved victories. He had conquered Riga, all Livonia as far as Dunamiinde, and of Li- thunia, as the Poles expressed it, " as much as he pleased." Next he made his appearance in Prussia in 1626, principally, as he said, to visit the clergy in tiie bishopric of Ermeland. He took Frauenburgand Braunsberg, the chief seats of restored Catholicism in those parts, and afforded new and strong support to the oppressed protestants there. All eyes were turned upon him. "Above all other men," Rusdorf writes in the year 1624, '-do 1 prize peril, it being known for certain that pope Urban, enter- taining most vast designs, is ill disposed to the house of Austria, and that therefore there is no less to be feared from his Holiness than from the Venetians and the French, he having possession of states so near to the duchy of Mi- lan, and being in a condition at once to send powerful armies into the field. Moreover, the said evil disposed persons have represented as a thing already fixed, that his Holiness is bent by all means on making the king of France king of the Komans, in confirmation of which they affirm, that when his Holiness was nuncio in France, he told the queen that if he came to be pope he would en- deavour to have her son, who was then a boy, made king of the Romans.] A. D. 1629-30.] NEGOTIATIONS WITH SWEDEN. 321 this victorious hero ; I revere him as the sole protector of our cause, and as the terror of our common foes ; my prayers wait on his renown, which is elevated above the reach of all envy."* True, Gustavus Adolphus had sus- tained a loss in the battle of the plain of Stumm, and had narrowly escaped being taken prisoner; but the chivalrous valour with which he cut his way through shed fresh lustre on his name, and he kept the field in spite of tliis disadvantage. To this prince the French turned on the present emergency. In the first place, they effected a truce between him and the Poles ; and it is very possible that tiie emperor's Prus- sian views contributed to make, if not the king, yet the nobles at least of Poland, dispos- ed to peace.f Then they made a further step towards their main object, namely, enticing the king of Sweden into Germany. The only caution they observed in this matter, was to introduce into the treaty some stipulations in^ favour of Catholicism. With these reserva- tions, they declared themselves ready to aid the king, who had an imposing army prepared to take the field, with a proportional subsidy in money. After some hesitation, king Gus- tavus accepted the proposal. He avoided all mention of religion in his instructions, and put forth as the aim of the confederacy merely the restoration of the German estates to their an- cient privileges, the removal of the imperial troops, and the security of the seas and of commerce. I A treaty was drawn up, in which the king promised to tolerate the catholic worship wherever he found it, and in matters of religion to abide by the laws of the empire (such was the expression). This stipulation was necessary for the pope's sake, to whom notice was immediately given of the treaty. The ratification was obstructed indeed by some formalities ; still the measure was regarded as definitive as early as the summer of 1630.^ The papal nuncio in France asserts that Venice had pledged herself to pay a third of the subsidies.il I have not been able to ascer. * Rusdorf, Memoires, ii. 3. "Ejus gloriam invidiae metas elijctatam, extelsam infracli animi magnitudinem, et virtutis niagis ac magis per merita enitescentis et assur- genlis iavictuin robur cum slupore adoro el supplici voto prosequor." t Rusdorf, 1.1. 724. " Polonia proceres, si unquam, vel nunc maxiiiip, pacem desiderabunt." t " Tenor mandatorum qua S. R. Maj. Sueciae clemenier vult, ut consil^arius ejus .... Dn. Ciimerarius observare debeat, Upsaliae, 18 Dec. 1629." Mosers palriotisches Archiv. b. vi. p. 133. § Bagni, IS, Guigno 1G30. He gives in the following form, with slight variations, the article, which is also lobe found in the treaty of the 6ih of January, 1631 : " Si rex aliquos progressus faciei, in caplis aul deditis locis, quan- tum ad ea quae ad religionem apectanl, observabii leges imperii." He also shows how this article was understood. " Le quali legge," he adds, " dicevano dovere inlendersi delta religione cattolica e della confessione Augustana." [Which laws, he says, were lo be understood as concern- ing the catholic religion and the confession of Augsburg.] — So that Calvinism was to be excluded tain what grounds there are for this assertion : at least, it was consistent with the situation of things. But could hopes be fairly entertained that Gustavus Adolphus would be able, single- handed, to break the might of the imperial allied armies, and to conquer them in the field ? It appeared, above all things, desira- ble to elicit a movement in Germany itself, that should fall in with and second his enter- prize. Now in this respect the piotestants might safely be counted on. Whatever might be the policy urged on individual princes by per- sonal motives or by fear, still was the general mind possessed by that ferment that stirs the very depths of society, and rouses the mightiest storms. I will mention but one thought that spread widely in those days. When the edict of restitution began to be en- forced here and there, and the Jesuits mani- fested a disposition to disregard altogether the terms of the peace of Augsburg, the protes- tants intimated, that before matters should be allowed to go such lengths, utter destruction should befal the German empire and nations, " rather would they fling from them all law and all usages of civil society, and cast back Germany into its ancient state of forest wild- ness." But on the catholic side discontent and dis- union appeared. It is impossible to describe the commotion, excited among the clergy by the purpose of the Jesuits to possess themselves of the res- tored monastic possessions. The Jesuits are said to have declared that there were no longer any Benedictines, that they had all gone astray, and were no longer qualified to resume their lost places. On the other hand, the merits of the Jesuits were disputed ; their adversaries would not admit that they had eftected conversions ; what appeared to be such were no more, they said, tlian the effect of force.* Even before the ecclesiastical pos- aggiunta larepublica di Venelia, la quale obligavasi a con- iribuire per la terza parte." * The vehement controversial writings, attacks, and replies, which appeared on this subject, do not enable us to get at the truth of the main facts, butlhey make known to us the points of dispute. "E verissirao,"says the papal nuncio, in a letter in cypher, " che i padri Gesuiti hanno procurato e procurano col favore dell' imperatore, chenon put) esser maggiore, di non solo soprastare agli altri reli- giosi, ma di escluderli dove essi v' hanno alcun interesse o politico o spiriiuale." [It is most true that the Jesuits have contrived and do contrive, through the favour of the emperor, which cannot be greater, not only to make their own order superior to all others, but to exclude the latter where they have any political or spiritual interest.] I find, however, that strongly as the emperor then leaned to the Jesuits, he was yet disposed, in the year 1629, to make an unreserved restitution of their possessions to the old orders. PierLuigi Caraffn, nuncio at Cologne, relates this. But at this juncture the Jesuits had already carried their point at Rome, where, in July, 1629, a deci'ee was issued, " che alcuna parte (dei beni ricuperali) potesse converters! in erezioni di seminarj, di scuole e di coUegj lanlo de' padri Gesuile, quali in gran parte furono motori dell' ediito di Cesare, come di allri religiosi." [that some part of the II Bagni, 16Luglio, 1630. " Sopragiunsero," it is said in ' the extract, " nuove letters del Bagni coll' aviso che alia 1 , „ ^ ^ prefata coafederalione fra il re di Francia e lo Suaco erasi ' recovered possessions might be applied to the erection of 4U 322 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD. [a. d. 1630. sessions were yet recovered, they excited dis- cord and wrangling- between the orders, with respect to their several claims to possess them, and between the emperor and the pope, res- pecting the right of collation. But to these ecclesiastical misunderstand- ings were added temporal ones, of far more serious and extensive nature. The imperial troops were an intolerable burthen to the country ; their marches exhausted the resour- ces of the land and of its inhabitants ; the soldier maltreated the burgher and the pea- sant, as the general did the prince. Wallen- stein held the most insolent language. Even the emperor's old allies, the heads of the League, particularly Maximilian of Bavaria, were dissatisfied with the present, and uneasy about the future. Things being in this state, it befel that Ferdinand, with a view to the election of his son as king of the Romans, assembled the ca- tholic electors at Ratisbon in the summer of 1630. The opportunity could not pass away without mention of all other public affairs. The emperor saw clearly that he must give way somewhat. His intention was to make concessions in German affairs : he showed a disposition to suspend the edict of restitution, as regarded the territories of Brandenburg and electoral Saxony, to come to an arrangement respecting the Palatinate and Mecklenburg, and even to effect a reconciliation with Swe- den ; to which end negociations were actually entered on, whilst in the mean time he should concentrate all his strength upon Italy, bring the Mantuan war to an end, and constrain the pope to recognize his ecclesiastical claims.* He was fain to believe that, having to do with German princes, he should obtain most by a tone of concession in German matters. But the situation of things was not so simple. The spirit of the Italico-French opposition seminaries, endowments, schools, and colleges, as well of the Jesuits, who had been in great part the instigators of the emperor's edict, as of other orders of the clergy.] The Jesuit schools would thus have spread over all North Germany. * Dispaccio Pallotla, 2 Ag. 16.30, mentions among the points that were to be discussed : " 1°. Se si doveva sos- pendere o lirare avanti 1 ' editto della ricuperatione de' beni ecclci- : 2°. Se havendosi da procedere avanti si avesse da sospendere quanto a quelli che erano neglistatidell' elel- tori di Sassonia e di Brandenburgo : ed inclinavasi a sos- penderlo: 3°. Quanto ai beneficii e beni ecclci- che si erano ricuperati, pretendevasi che alii imperatori spet- tase la nominazione ... 6°. Trattavasi di reslituire il ducalo di Mechelburgh agli anlichi padroni, siccome il palatinato almeno inferiore al palatino, con perpetuo pre- giudittio della religione cattolica, come era seguito con Danimarca." [1. Whether the edict for the restitution of ecclesiastical possessions should be suspended or put in force. 2. Whether, in case it was to be enforced, it should be suspended as far as regarded those in the states of the electors of Saxony and Brandenburgh: and opinions in- clined toward^s suspending it. 3. As for the benefices and other ecclesiastical cmoluiiienis recovered, it was main- tained that the nomination to them belonged to the empe- ror 6. The restitution of the duchy of Mecklen- burgh to its old possessors was discussed, as well as that of at least the Lower Palatinate to the Palatine, to the per- manent detriment of the catholic religion, as had been the case in Denmark.] had crept in among the catholic electors, and its leaders sought to turn the discontent of those princes to the furtherance of their own ends. First appeared Rocci, the papal nuncio in Ratisbon. He had every cause to employ all arts that could impede the execution of the emperor's Italian and anti-papal schemes. The pope had enjoined him., above all things, to enter into and maintain a good understand- ing with the elector of Bavaria ; in a short time he announced that this understanding was kept up in the profoundest secresy :* he produced a declaration of the catholic electors, that in all ecclesiastical matters they would continue in union with him, and that they would especially uphold the jurisdiction and the dignity of the papal see. But, to give matters a decisive turn, father Joseph, Richelieu's confidant, came to the nuncio's aid. Never was the consummate crafl of this capuchin more active, more ef- fective, or more obvious to those who were privy to the proceedings, than on this occa- sion. Monsieur de Leon, his colleague in Ratisbon, who gave his name to the embassy, said that father Joseph had no soul, but in its stead shallows and quicksands, into which whoever dealt with him was sure to fall. Through these mediators the emperor's German confederates were speedily made to coalesce with the Italico-French opposition to him. Nothing was done towards a reconcili- ation of the empire with Sweden, or towards tranquillizing the protestants ; never would the pope have consented to the suspension of the edict of restitution. On the other hand, the electors insisted on the restoration of peace in Italy, and demanded the dismissal of the imperial generalissimo, who comported himself as an unlimited dictator. And so mighty was this influence, so adroit- ly was it pressed, that the puissant emperor, in the zenith of his power, gave way without resistance or condition. Whilst these negotiations were pending, his troops had conquered Mantua, and he might regard himself as lord ,and master pf Italy. At this moment he submitted to cede Mantua to the duke of Nevers, in exchange for the unmeaning formality of an apology. But the other demands of the confederates were per- haps still more significant. The German princes, France, and the pope, were alike threatened by the general, to whose person was bound the success of the imperial arms! It is no wonder that they hated him, and wished to get rid of him. The emperor, for peace sake, gave him up. At the moment when he could master Italy * Dispaccio Rocci, 9 Sett. 1630. " E questa correspon- denza riuscl moltofruttuosa, perchS Baviera di buon cuore oper6 che in quel convento non si tratto delle operationi sopra meniovaie." A. D. 1631.] SWEDISH WAR.— POSITION OF THE POPE, 328 he let it it slip out of his hands ! At the mo- ment when the most formidable and warlike enemy attacked iiim in Germany, he dis- missed the general who alone could have been in a condition to defend him ! Never did policy and negociation produce more vast results. Swedish vmr. — Position of the Pope. And now the war really begun. It cannot be denied that Gustavus Adolphus entered upon it under favourable auspices. For had not the imperial army been raised in Wallen- stein's name, and been personally devoted and pledged to him ? The emperor even dismiss- ed a part of it, and subjected the contribu- tions levied by the generals, which had hith- erto been discretional with themselves, to the control of the circles of the empire.* Assur- edly the emperor, by dismissing his general at the same time broke up his army, and took from it its moral force. Torquato Conti, an Italian, who had previously been in the ser- vice of the pope, was with such a body to make head against the emboldened and zeal- ous foe. As a matter of course, he failed out- right : the imperial army no longer was what it had been : nothing was seen in it but inde- cision, vaccillation, panic, and defeat. Gus- tavus Adolphus drove it utterly out of the field, and took up a strong position on the lower Oder. At first it was believed in Upper Germany that this was of little moment to the rest of the empire; and Tilly continued with great composure to pursue his operation on the Elbe. When at last he took Madgeburg, the pope regarded it as a great victory, and the most brilliant hopes were founded on the event. A commissioner was actually ap- pointed, at Tilly's suggestion, " to arrange the afluirs of the archbishopric, in accordance with the laws of the catholic church." But this very measure was the cause that all the protestant princes who v/ere yet undecided now attached themselves to Gustavus Adol- phus, and on Tilly's endeavouring to prevent thera, became involved in a hostility with the League, which put an end to all further dis- tinction between leaguers and imperialists. The battle of Leipsig followed : Tilly was completely routed, and the protestant forces poured alike over tiie countries of the leaguers and of the imperialists. Wi'n-zburg and Bam- berg fell into the king's hands; on the Rhine the protestants of the remote north met the old champions of Catholicism, the Spanish troops, — their mingled skulls are to be seen at Oppenheim; Mainz was conquered; all * Adlzreitler, iii. xv. 48. " Cesar slatuit ne in posierum slipendia pro tribunorum arbiirio seU ex circuloruiu piae- scripta moderatione penderenlur." oppres.sed princes joined the king ; the exiled palatine appeared in his camp. The inevitable result of an enterprize called forth and sanctioned by the catholic opposition, from political views, was an advantage to pro- testantism. Tlie party that had been over- powered and oppressed, found itself once more suddenly victorious. It is true, the king ex- tended his protection to the catholics gener- ally, as he was bound to do by the terms of his engagement; but at the same time he de- clared that he was come to rescue his breth- ren in faith from the violence done to their consciences.* He took under his special pro- tection the evangelical ministers who were subject to catholic governments, — as, for in- stance, those of Erfurt; he also everywhere proclaimed the Augsburg confession ; the ex- iled parish clergy returned to the palatinate, and the preaching of Lutheranism once more ranged the land in the train of the victorious army. Such were the strange perplexities into which fell the policy of Urban VIII. In so far as the king attacked and overcome the Austrian power, he was the natural ally of the pope. This was at once made apparent in the affairs of Italy. Influenced by his losses in Germany, the emperor consented, in the year 16-31, to still more unfavourable con- ditions in the affair of INIantua, than he had submitted to the year before at Ratisbon. Nay, there even subsisted, if not direct, yet indirect ties, between the papal see and the once more victorious protestant powers. " I speak of the matter from good authority," says Aloys Contarini, who was first at the French, and afterwards at the Roman court ; "I was present at every negociation: the pope's nuncios always seconded Richelieu's undertakings, both when they concerned his own safety, and when they had for their ob- ject to unite Bavaria and the league with France. With regard to his alliance with Holland, and with the protestant powers in general, they held their peace, not to say they sanctioned it. Other popes would per- haps have felt some compunctious visitings at this : Urban's nimcios acquired by such means increased consideration and personal advan- tages."! Loud and bitter were the emperor's com- plaints. " The Roman court had first induced him to publish the edict of restoration, and now abandoned him in the war that ensued from thence ; the pope had frustrated the election of his son as king of tiie Romans ; he encouraged the elector of Bavaria, by word and deed, to pursue a separate line of policy, and to ally himself with France ; it was vani * Letter from the king to the town of Schweinfurt in Chemnitz : Schwcdischer Krieg, Th. i. ]>. 231. I Aluise Contarini : Relatione Ui Roma, 11535. 324 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD. [a. d. 1631-5. to solicit of Urban such aid in money or men as other popes had often afforded : he even refused to condemn the alliance of the French with the heretics, or to declare the existing war a war of religion."* In the year 1632 we find the imperial ambassadors in Rome urging, above all things, the last-mentioned point. The pope's declaration, they said, could even yet produce the most important effects ; even yet it was not altogether im- possible to repulse' the king of Sweden: he had not more than thirty thousand men. The pope replied, with frigid erudition, "With thirty thousand men Alexander con- quered the world." He persisted in it that it was no war of re- ligion; it related only to affairs of state. Furthermore, the papal treasury was exhaust- ed, he could do nothing. The members of the curia and the inhabi- tants of Rome were amazed. " Amidst the conflagration of catholic churches and con- vents,"— so they expressed themselves, — " the pope stands as cold and as rigid as ice. The king of Sweden has more zeal for his Lutheranism than the holy father for the sole saving faith." The Spaniards had once more recourse to a protest. Cardinal Borgia appeared before Urban VIII. as once Olivarez did before Six- tus v., to protest solemnly against the con- duct of his holiness. The scene that ensued was, perhaps, still more violent than that on the former occasion. Whilst the pope burst into a boiling i"age, and interrupted the am- bassador, the cardinals present took part with the one side or the other. The ambassador was forced to content himelf with delivering in his protest in writing.f But this was not enough for the zealous catholic party : the thought presently arose, particularly at the instigation of the Ludovisio, the cardinal ne- phew of the last reign, of calling a council in opposition to the pope.} * Aluise Contarini: "Gli Aleraanni si pretendono de- lusi dal papa, perche dopo aver egli reiteratamente per- suaso 1' imperalore di ripetero dalli eretici i beni ecclesi- aslici d' Alemagna ch' erano in loro mani, origine di lante guerre, resislesse S. Sta- poi alle reiterate spedizioni di card'i- e d' auibri- nelle assistenze di danaro, nel mandar gente e bandiere con I'esempio de' precessori, nel piibli- car la guerradi religionn, nell' impedirecoUescomuniche gli appoggi ai medesimi heretici della Francia: anzi nel niedesimo tempo ritardata 1' elettione del re de' Romani, confermalo il duca di Baviera con la lega cattolica all' unione di Francia, assislendo lo medesimo di danari e di consiglio per sostenersi in corpo separalo. II papa si lagna d'esser tenuto erclico et aniatore di buoni progressi de' proteslanli, com talvolla in effetto non li ebbs dis- cari." t "Nelli quale," says cardinal Cecchini, in his autobi- ography, "concludeva che tutti li danni che per le pre- sent! turbolenze erano per venire alia christianitii, sariano stati attribuiti alia negligenza del papa." [In which it laid it down, that all tlie evils which should come upon Christendom through the present troubles, would be attri- butable to the pope's negligence.] t Al. Contarini speaks of the " orecchio che si prestava in Spagna alio praliche di Ludovisio per un concilio" [the ear that was lent in Spain to Ludovisio's suggestions and eflbns for a council.] But what a flame would this have kindled ! Events already took a turn which left no doubt as to their nature, and which would of necessity give a difierent bent to the papal policy. Urban VIII. flattered himself for a while that the king would conclude a treaty of neu- trality with Bavaria, and replace the spiritual princes in their dominions. But every attempt at a reconciliation of interests so diametrically opposed very speedily failed. The Swedish forces poured into Bavaria; Tilly fell; Mu- nich was conquered ; and duke Bernhard pressed forward towards the Tyrol. No doubt could now be any longer enter- tained of what the pope and Catholicism had to expect from the Swedes. How utterly was the state of things changed in a moment! But now the hope had been cherished of win- ning back to Catholicism the dioceses of Northern Germany, and now the king con- ceived the plan of converting the South Ger- man endowments which were in his hands into temporal principalities. He already be- gan to talk of his duchy of Franconia, and seemed disposed to fix his royal court at Augsburg. Two years before, the pope had reason to dread the descent of the Austrians upon Italy, and had been threatened with an attack upon Rome. Now the Swedes appeared on the con- fines of Italy : with the name of a king of Sweden and Gothland, borne by Gustavus Adolphus, were associated reminiscences that awoke in the minds of either party.* Restoration of the balance of the two confes- sions. It is not my intention to go into the details of the strife that filled Germany for sixteen years longer. Enough if we have remarked how that mighty progress of Catholicism, which was in the act of forever mastering Germany, was checked in its career, even at the moment it was about to annihilate pro- testantism at its source, and encountered a victorious re.sistance. It may be laid down as a general maxim, that Catholicism, regard- ed as an unity, was not capable of enduring its own victories. The head of the church himself thought it necessary, for political rea- sons, to set himself against the powers that had most upheld and extended his spiritual authority. Catholics, in concert with the pope, called forth the yet uncrushed powers of protestantism, and prepared its path. * Neverthelesa Al. Contarini avers: "L'opinione vivo tuttavia che a S. Sii- sia dispiaciuta la morie del re di Suezia e che piu gode o per dir meglio manco tema i pro. gressi de' protestanli che degli Austriaci." [that the opi- nion still prevails thathis holiness regrets the death of the king of Sweden, and that he is better pleased with, or rather fears less, the success of the protestants than that of the Austrians,] A. D. 1635-40.] THE BALANCE OF THE TWO CONFESSIONS. 329 Plans of such magnitude as those enter- tained by Gustavus Adolphus, in the plenitude of his power, could not, indeed, be carried out after the untimely death of that sovereign : and for this reason, that the triumphs of pro- testantism were hy no means to be ascribed to its own intrinsic power. But neither was Catholicism able ever more to overpower pro- testantism, not even when it had better com- bined its strength, when Bavaria had again joined the emperor, and Urban, too, once more paid subsidies. This conviction was speedily arrived at, at least in Germany. In fact, the peace of Prague was founded upon it. The emperor suffered his edict of restitution to drop, while the elector of Saxony, and the states in alli- ance with him, gave up the idea of a re-esta- blishment of protestantism in the hereditary dominions of Austria. Pope Urban, it is true, opposed every mea- sure at variance with the edict of restitution, and in the emperor's spiritual council he had the Jesuits on his side, especially father La- mormain, who was frequently lauded as "a worthy father confessor, a man iniluenced by no worldly consideration* ;" but the majority were against him, including the capuchins Quiroga and Valerian, and cardinals Die- trichstein and Pazmany, who asserted that, provided the catholic religion was preserved in its purity in the hereditary Austrian do- minions, freedom of conscience might be al- lowed the rest of the empire. The peace of Prague was proclaimed in Vienna from all the pulpits : the capuchins boasted of their share in that " honourable and holy" work, and cele- brated it with special solemnities : hardly could the nuncio hinder Te Deum being sung.f * Lettera del card'. Barberino al nuntio Baglione, 17 Marzo, 1635 : " Essendo azionc de generoso Chrisliano e | degno confessore di un pio iniperalore, ci6 che egli ha i fatlo rimirando piii il cielo che il mondo." I From Baelioni's correspondence, as extracted in the | 6th vol. of Nicoletli, e. g. April 14, 16;i3. "Disse un giorno il conte di Ognate che assolutamente il re di Spagna non avrebbe dalo ajuto alcuno all' imperatore se non in caso che seguisse la pace con Sassonia: di che maravigllandosi il nunzio disse che la pieti del re calto- lico richiedeva che si cumulassero gli ajuti non seguendo detta pace, laquale doveva piuttoslo disturbarsi, traltan- dosi con eretici, ed applicare 1' animo alia pace univer- sale coi principi caltolici. FuUi risposto che ciO segui- rebbe quando la guerra si fosse fatla per la salute delle anime e non per la ricuperazione de' beni ecclesiastic), ed il padre Quiroga soggiunse al nunzio che 1' imperatore era slato gabbalo da quelli che 1' liavevano persuaso a fare 1' edilto della ricuperazione d' beni ecclesiastici, volendo intendere d' Gesuiti, e che tulto erasi fatlo per interesse proprio: ma avendo il nunzio risposto che la persuasione erastata interposta con buona inlenzione, il padre Qui- roga si accese in raaniera che proruppe in termini esor- bilanti, sicch6 al nunzio fu diflicile il ripigliario, perch6 maggiormente noneccedesse. Ma Ognate passu piu oltre, dicendo che I'imperatore non poteva in conic alcuno riti- rarsi dalla pace con Sassonia per la necessitil in cui tro- vavasi, non potente resistere a tanti nemici, e che non eraobbligalo a rimettervi I'havere de' suoi stall heredi- tarj, ma solamente quelli dell' imperio che erano tenuis- simi, e che non conipliva di tirare avanti con pericolo di perdere gli uni e gli allri." [The count Onate one day i said, that decidedly the king of Spain would not have I Whilst Urban VIII., though practically he contributed so much to the frustation of the catholic schemes, still in theory refused to abandon the least of his pretensions, all he etfected was, that the papacy assumed a posi- tion apart from the living and effective inte- rests of the world. Nothing more stongly demonstrated this than the instructions he gave Ginetti, his legate in Cologne, on the occasion of an attempt at concluding a gene- ral peace in the year 1636. The envoy's hands were tied precisely on all weighty points on which the negotiation absolutely and directly depended. One of the most urgent necessities, for example, was the re-establish- ment of the palatinate; nevertheless, the legate was enjoined to resist the restoration of the pa- latinate to an uncatholic prince.* That which had early appeared as unavoidable in Prague, the granting some concessions to the protest- ants with respect to ecclesiastical possessions, became subsequently still more so ; neverthe- less, the legate was admonished " to extraor- dinary zeal not to yield any thing in respect to ecclesiastical possessions that might turn out to the advantage of the protestants." The pope would not even sanction the treaties of peace with protestant powers. The envoy was not to give his support to any design of including the Hollanders in the peace : he was to stand out against every transfer or surrender to Sweden, — the only thought of the kind at the time relating to one sea- port : " the Divine mercy would soon find means to remove that nation out of Ger- many." The Roman see could no longer entertain any reasonable hope of mastering the protest- ants ; it was, however, of vast importance, that, however involuntary, yet, by its obsti- nate pertinacity in upholding pretensions that could never be realized, it put it out of its power to exercise any essential influence given any aid to the emperor except on condition of peace with Saxony : whereat the nuncio marvelling said, that the piety of the catholic king demanded that such aid should be afforded in abundance witliout regard to that peace, which the king would have done better to in- terrupt, it being a matter that concerned heretics, and to apply liis mind to an universal peace with the catholic sovereigns. He was answered, that his reasoning would be just had the war been undertaken for the weal of souls, and not for the recovery of ecclesiastical properly ; and father Quiroga further told the nuncio, that the emperor had been imposed upon by those who had persuaded him to issue the edict of restitution, meaning thereby the Je- suits, and that everything had been done from interested motives. But the nuncio replying that the advice had been given with a good intention, father Quiroga was so excited that he burst out into very intemperate language, and the nuncio had great difficulty in rebuking his vio- lence and preventing him from going still further. But Onate went even beyond this, saying, that the emperor could on no account withdraw from the peace with Saxony, by reason of the exigency of his contlitiou, being unable to resist so many enemies; and that he was not obliged thereby to cede the rights of his hereditary domi- nions, but only those of the empire, which were very in- considerable, and not worth insisting on to the hazard of the whole.] * Siri : Mercurio, ii. p. 987. 326 COUNTER REFORMATION. SECOND PERIOD. [a. d. 1635-45. over the relations of its own adherents to the protestants. Rome continued, indeed, to send her am- bassadors to the congress assembled for the arrangement of a peace. Gmetti was suc- ceeded by Machiavelli, Rosetti, and Chigi. Ginetti, it was said, was very frugal, and thereby prejudiced his own efficiency ; JMachi- avelli was thought to make his functions sub- servient only to his own exaltation in rank ; Rosetti was unacceptable to the French ; — such are the explanations offered for the in- significance of their influence ;* but the truth is, that the thing itself, tlie position the pope had taken up, rendered any effectual interfe- rence on the part of his nuncios impossible. Chigi was able and popular ; yet he accom- plished nothing-. A peace was concluded be- fore his eyes, precisely such as the papal see had deprecated. The elector palatine and all the exiled princes were restored. So far from anything like a confirmation of the edict of restitution being thought of, many spiritual endowments were absolutely secularized and surrendered to the protestants. Spain re- solved at last to recognize the independence of the Hollanders, those rebels to pope and king. The Swedes retained a considerable part of the empire. The curia could not ap- prove of even the emperor's treaty of peace with France, since it contained stipulations respecting Metz, Toul, and Verdun, by which it conceived its own rights were invaded. The papacy felt itself under the painful ne- cessity of protesting-, determined at least to utter tlie principles it had been unable to carry into effect. But even this had been foreseen and provided for. The articles of the West- phalian treaty touching ecclesiastical matters began with a declaration, that no heed siiould be given to any one who should gainsay them, be he who he might, whether of secular or spiritual station.f By this peace a termination was at last put to the grand struggle between protestants and catholics; but one wholly different from that which had been attempted in the edict of re- stitution. Catholicism still retained vast ac- quisitions, since the year 1624 was taken as the standard, to the condition existing in which all things were to return. On the other hand, the protestant party obtained that parity in the diet which was so indispensable for it, and which had been so long withheld. All the relations of the empire were arranged in accordance with that principle. Manifestly there was now an utter end to undertakings such as had formerly been at- tempted, and with success. On the contrary, the results of the struggle in Germany reacted on the adjoining countries. * Pallavicini : Vita di papa Alrssandro VII. MS. f Oenabriickischen Friedensschluss, Art. v. § 1. Though the emperor had been able to up- hold Catholicism in his hereditary dominion, still he was compelled to make concessions to the protestants in Hungary. In the year 1645 he found himself constrained to give them back no inconsiderable nunfter of churches. After the leap Sweden had made, to a sta- tion of universal importance, what hope re- mained for Poland that it should ever realize its old pretensions respecting that kingdom f Wladislav IV. even eschewed the proselytiz- ing zeal of his father, and was a jgracious king to his dissident subjects. Even in France Richelieu favoured the Huguenots after they had been despoiled of their political independence. But he ren- dered a far greater service to the principle of protestantism, by continuing- to wage with that foremost champion of Catholicism, the Spanish monarchy, a war for life or death, that shook its very foundations. This was the only discord which the pope might have al- layed without a scruple; but whilst all the others were actually appeased, this continued to rage, and incessantly convulsed the bosom of the catholic world. Up to the peace of Westphalia, the Dutch had taken the most successful part in the war against Spain. It was the golden age of their power and their wealth. But in striving after the ascendency in the east, they came in vio- lent collision with the progress of catholic missions in those regions. In England alone Catholicism, or something analogous to its outward forms, seemed at times likely to gain footing. We find ambas- sadors from the English court at Rome, and papal agents in England. The queen, who was treated at Rome with a sort of official recognition,* exercised an influence over her husband which seemed likely inevitably to extend to religion': an approximation to the usages of Catholicism was already made in many ceremonies. But the final result in this case was the very opposite to what was ex- pect^. Charles I. in his heart hardly ever lapsed from protestant doctrine ; but even those slight approaches which he permitted himself towards the catholic ritual, resulted in his ruin. It seemed as though the violent excitement, which had produced such long, universal, and incessant conflicts in the pro- * Nani : Relatione di Roma, 1G40: "Con la regina d| Ineliilterra passa comniunicatione de' minislri con officii e donativi di cortesia, e si concede a quella Mw. noinina- tione di cardinal! a pare decli altri re." Spada: Rela- tione della nunziatura di Fiancia, 1641: "II Sr. conle Rosselii, residenie in quel regno, bene corrisponde nell' ossequio gli ordini del Sr. Oardi. Barberini protetlore tulli pieni dell' ardore e zelo di S. Emza." [Ministerial comnnmications are kept up with the queen of England, with offices and gifts of courtesy, and her ni:ijtsty is al- lowed the privilege of nominating cardinals in like man- ner as other sovereigns. . . . Count Rosetti, resident in that kingdom, duly and obsequiously reciprocates the or- ders of cardinal Barberini, the protector, all filled with the ardour and zeal of his eminence.] A. D. 1635-45.] THE BALANCE OF THE TWO CONFESSIONS. 327 testant world at large, was becoming concen- trated in the puritans. Ireland in vain en- deavoured to withdraw from their sway, and to organize herself as a catholic country : she was subjected to but the severer thraldom. The aristocracy and commons of England con- stituted a power, the rise of which marks a revival of protestantism throughout all Eu- rope. By these events, bounds were forever set to Catholicism. It was assigned its definite limits, and could never again seriously contemplate those schemes of universal conquest it had previously entertained. Indeed, the intellectual development of Europe had taken a turn that rendered this impossible. Impulses, perilous to the higher principle of unity, had become predominant: the force of the religious element had waned; political considerations swayed the world. For it was not by their own arms the pro- testants were saved. It was, above all things, a rent in the bosom of Catholicism, that en- abled them to recover their lost ground. In the year 1631 we find the two great catholic powers in league with the protestants, France openly so, and Spain at least in secret. It is certain tiiat the Spaniards at this period had established an understanding with the French Huguenots. But there was just as little unanimity amongst the protestants. It was not alone that the Lutherans and the catholics attacked each other, — that was an old occurrence ; but the decided Calvinists, though they undoubt- edly had a common interest to defend, were marshalled against each other in this war. The maritime power of the French Hugue- nots was only broken through the aid which their brethren in religion and ancient allies were induced to afford the crown of France. The very head of Catholicism, the pope of Rome, who had hitherto led the attacks against the protestants, at last put aside these the highest interests of the spiritual authority ; he took part against the power that had most zealously pursued the task of restoring Catho- licism ; his conduct was shaped solely in ac- cordance wilh the views befitting a temporal prince. He returned to the policy that had been given up since the days of Paul III. We remember that protestantism, in the first half of the sixteenth century, had owed its pros- perity to nothing so much as to the political endeavours of the popes. These it was, hu- manly speaking, that had saved and upheld protestantism. Now this example could not possibly fail of its effect on the other powers. German-Aus- tria, which had so long remained unswerving- ly orthodo.x, adopted the same policy ; the atti- tude it assumed after the peace of Westphalia rested on its intimate connexion with North- ern Germany, England, and Holland. Do we ask what were the more profound causes of this phenomenon ; I think we should err in identifying them with the exhaustion and decay of religious impulses: I think we must take a different view of the import and significance of the fact. In the first place, the great spiritual strug- gle had wrought its effects on the minds of men. In former times Christianity was rather an afluir of surrender and acquiescence, of sim- ple acceptance, and of faith untouched by doubt; now it was become a thing of convic- tion, of deliberate adoption. It is a point of much moment that men had now to chose be- tween the various confessions, that men could repudiate, dissent, and change. The individ- ual was directly appealed to, his freedom of judgment was invoked. The consequence was, that the ideas of Christianity more deep- ly and thoroughly imbued every ramification of life and thought. To this was added another important con- sideration. It is very true that the predominance of inward discrepancies rent the unity of collect- ive Christianity; but, if we are not mistaken, it accords with another law of humanity that this very circumstance prepared a higher and more large development. In the turmoil of the universal fray, reli- gion was diversely seized by the nations in the several modifications ofits dogmatic forms: the chosen body of dogmas had become blend- ed with the feelings of nationalty, becoming as it were a possession of the community, of the state, or of the people. Weapons were wielded in its defence ; it was upheld amid a thousand perils; it liad wrought itself into the very flesli and blood of the nation. Hence the states arrayed on either side grew into vast ecclesiastico-political bodies, whose individuality was marked on the catholic side by the measure of their devotion to the Roman see, and by their toleration or exclusion of non-catholics : and still more pointedly de- fined on the side of the protestants, among whom, the departure from the symbolical books adopted as standards of doctrine, the mingling of the Lutheran and the Calvinistic confessions, and the more or less near approxi- mation to the episcopal constitution, gave rise to so many obvious distinctions. It became the first question respecting each country, what was the dominant religion there 1 Chris- tianity appears under manifold aspects. How- ever great may be the discrepancies between them, the votaries of no one form can deny the rest the possession of the fundamentals of the faith. On the contrary, these various forms are guaranteed by compacts and treaties of peace, in which all have part, and which are, as it were, fundamental laws of an uni- 328 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1670-98. versal republic. The thought can never again be entertained of exalting any one confession to supreme dominion. The sole point for con- sideration is, how each state, each people may- be enabled to develope its energies in obedi- ence to its own politico-religious principles. On this depends the future condition of the world. BOOK THE EIGHTH. THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEETH CENTURY. LATER EPOCHS. Introduction. After the attempt of the popes to renew their domination over the world had reached so far, but finally miscarried, a general change took place in their position, and in the kind of interest they excite in us. The affairs of their principality, its administration, and its internal progress, once more command our chief attention. Like the traveller who descends from the lofty mountain, with its grand and ample pros- pects, into the valley, where his view is limi- ted and tied to a narrow range, so we now turn from contemplating the events of the world at large, in which the papacy once more played so important a part, to scrutinize the more particular occurences of the ecclesiasti- cal states. The states of the church first attained their complete development in the times of Urban Vllt. Let us begin with the history of this circumstance. The escheat of Urbino. The duchy of Urbino comprised seven towns and about three hundred castles: it had a productive sea-coast, well situated for com- merce, and a healthy and cheerful mountain district, formed by the Apennines. The dukes of Urbino, like those of Ferrara, won renown, sometimes by deeds of arms, sometimes by literary endeavours, sometimes by the munificence and splendour of their court.* Guidobaldo II. had in the year 1570 established four court households, including, besides his own, separate establishments for his consort, for the prince, and for the princess : they were all brilliant, eagerly frequented by the native nobility, and open to those of other lands.f Every foreigner enjoyed the hospi- * Bernardo Tasso has addres.sed a splendid panegyric to them in llie 47tli book of the Amadigi: " Vedete i qualtro a cui il vecchio Apennino Ornerel, il pello suo di fiori e d'erba . . ." + Relatione di Lazzaro Mocenigoritornatoda Guidobal- do d' Urbino, 1570. " Vuole alloggiar luui li personnaggi che passano per il suo slalo, il numero de' (juali alia fine dell' anno si trova esser grandissinw." [It is his pleasure to lodge all the personages who pass through hiaierri- tality of the palace after the fashion of the old times. The revenues of the country would not indeed have been adequate to supply an expenditure, amounting as they did, even when the corn trade prospered in Sinigaglia, to no more than some hundred thousand scudi. But the sovereigns were always, at least nom- inally, in the service of some foreign potentate ; whilst the fortunate position of the country, in the midst of Italy, caused the neighbouring states to vie in securing its good by marks of favour and grants of money. It was a remark made in the country, that the prince brought in more than he cost. Attempts indeed were made here, as every where elese, to increase the imposts ; but they were attended with so much difficulty, espe- cially in Urbino itself, that partly from good feeling, partly from necessity, the govern- ment contented itself with its customary rev- enue. The privileges, too, and the statutes of the country remained unimpaired. San Marino preserved its inoffensive freedom un- der the protection of the ducal house.* Whilst throughout all the rest of Italy the princely authority became more unrestricted and des- potic, here it remained confined within its ancient limits. Hence the inhabitants clung with the clo- sest attachment to their dynasty; to which they were the more devoted, since an union with the states of the church would undoubted- ly prove the demolition of all the traditional relations of the country, and the downfal of its ancient liberties. The lineal continuation of the ducal family was therefore an object of intense interest to the subjects of the house. Francesco Maria, the prince of Urbino, re- sided for a while at the court of Philip Il.f tory, the number of whom is found by the end' of the year to be very great.] * " Ha humor d' esser republica." [It has a fancy for being a republic] a Discorso a N. S. Urbano VIII. sopra lo stato d' Urbino, says of San Marino. On being trans- ferred to the church, it acquired an increase of privileges. fin the Amadigi he is very prettily described in boy- hood , as " Quel piccolo fanciul, che gli occhi alzando Par che si speeclii nel avo e nel padre E I'alla gloria lor quasi pensando." A. D. 1570-98.] THE ESCHEAT OF URBINO. 329 There he formed, it is said, a very serious at- tachment to a Spanish lady, and thought of wedding her. But his fiither Guidobaklo set his face decidedly ag-ainst the match, being resolved to receive into his house none but a daughter-in-law of equal rank. He compelled his son to return home, and to give his hand to the Princess Lucrezia d'Este, of the house of Ferrara. It would have seemed that they were well suited tor each other ; the prince, agile and strong, accomplished in the use of arms, and not without learning, especially of a military kind ; the princess, gifted with talent, and full of majesty and grace. The hope was fondly en- couraged that the match would secure the perpetuation of the ducal line ; the towns of the duchy vied in receiving the married pair with triumphal arches and fair presents. But the misfortune was, that the prince was but twenty-five, whilst the princess numbered nearly forty years. Francesco's father had overlooked this circumstance in his eager- ness, by so exalted, brilliant, and likewise wealthy a match, to gloss over the rejection of the Spanish lady, which was regarded in no favourable light at the court of Philip II. But the marriage turned out worse than he could well have imagined. After Guidobal- do's death, Lucrezia was forced to return to Ferrara, and all hope of posterity was at an end.* We have already noticed the decisive in- fluence Lucrezia d'Este had on the fate and the extinction of the duchy of Ferrara : we now find her most unhappily implicated in the affairs of Urbino. From the moment Ferrara was taken, the escheat of Urbino seemed cer- tain; the more so since there were here no agnates who could pretend to the succession. But the aspect of things changed once more. Lucrezia died in February, 1598, and Fran- cesco Maria was free to take another bride. The country was in ectasy when it came to be known that their good lord, whose whole reign had been one of gentleness and tranquil- ity, and who was universally loved, had hopes, though already advanced in years, that his [That little lad, who with uplifted eyes IVIirrors him in his grandsire and his sire, Pond'ring their lofty glory in his heart.] Mocenigo describes him at the period of his marriage. " Giostra leggiadramente, studia et 6 intelligente delle matematiche e delle fortificationi: tanto gagliardi souo i suoi esercitii — come giuocare alia balla, andare alia cac- cia a pledi per habituarsi all' incomodo della giierra — e cosi continui, che molti dubilano che gli abbino col tempo a nuocere." [He jousts beautifully, studies and is profi- cient in mathematics and foitification ; so vehement are his exercises— such as playing at ball, hunting on foot to inure himself to thehardsiiipsof war— and so continually, that many fear they will be injurious to him.] * Matthio Zane, Relatione del duca d' Urbino 1574, finds Lucrezia already a " Signora di bellazza raanco che mediocre, ma si tien ben acconcia: . . . si dispera quasi di poter veder da questo matrimonio figliuoli." [a lady of less than ordinary beauiy, but she sets herself oft" to advantage . . . almost all liope of oftspring from this marriage is at an end.] 42 line would not end with him. Vows were universally offered for the safe delivery of the new duchess ; and when her time approached, the nobles of the land assembled, with the magistrates of the towns in Pesaro, where the princess resided, and during her labour the piazza before the palace and the neigh- bouring streets were thronged with people. At last the duke appeared at the window. " God," he cried with a loud voice, " God has given us a boy." Indescribable was the ex- ultation with which the news was received. The towns built churches, and founded pioua endowments in fulfilment of their vows.* But how treacherous are the hopes that are built on men ! The prince was well brought up, and displayed at least literary talent ; the old duke had the pleasure to marry him to a princess of Tuscany. Upon this he himself withdrew to the retirement of Castelduante, and resigned the functions of government to his son. But no sooner was the prince his own mas- ter, and master of the country, than he was seized with the intoxication of power. At this period the taste for theatrical amusements had just become predominant in Italy : the young prince was the more strongly seized with it, in consequence of his having con- ceived a passion for an actress. By day his pleasure was, like Nero's, to play the chario- teer ; in the evening he used to appear on the stage, and he indulged in a thousand other licentious acts. The honest citizens looked sorrowfully in each other's faces. They knew not whether to grieve or to rejoice, when one morning, after a night of wild debauchery, the young prince was found dead in his bed. The aged Francesco Maria had now to re- sume the reins of government : full of deep grief that he was the last of the line of Rovere, ihat his house was utterly at an end, his mind racked at having to bear the burthen of public affairs against his will, and to endure the bit- ter insults and injuries of the Roman see.f At first he dreaded that the Barberini would possess themselves of the daughter left by his son, an infant of a year old. Forever to frustrate their suit, he betrothed her to a prince of Tuscany, and removed her immedi- ately to the adjacent state. But another unhappy circumstance imme- diately arose. As the emperor put forward claims to cer- tain portions of the territory of Urbino, Urban VIII., for his own security, demanded a decla- ration from the duke that he held all he possessed as a fief from the Roman see. * La devoluzione'a S. Chiesa degli stati di Francesco Maria II., della Rovere, ultimo duca d' Urbino, descritta dair illoio. s. Antonio Donati nobile Venetiano. (luff. Politl. it has also been printed. i P. Contarini : " Trovandosl il duca per gli anni e per I'indisposiiione gii cadenle prosternaio e avvililo d' animo." 330 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY, [a. d.1585-1643. Francesco Maria long demurred ; such a de- claration was revolting to his conscience ; at last, however, he made it; "but from that moment," says our authority, " he was never cheerful again ; he felt his soul weighed down by the act?' He was soon after obliged to consent that the commandants of his fortresses should swear allegiance to the pope. At last — it was in fact the best thing he could do — he resigned the government of the country abso- lutely into the hands of the pope's plenipoten- tiaries. Weary of life, enfeebled by age, broken down by sorrow, after seeing all his confiden- tial friends die around him, the duke found his only consolation in the practices of devo- tion. He died in the year 1631. Taddeo Barberini instantly hastened to take possession of the country. The allodial inhe- ritance passed to Florence. The territory of Urbino was subjected to the same system as that on which the other dominions of the papacy were governed ; and we very soon find there all the complaints which the govern- ment of priests used every where to excite.* We now come to speak of this administra- tion in general ; and first of that most impor- tant point, on which all others depend, its finances. Increase of the debts of the ecclesiastical states. If Sixtus V. limited the public expenditure, and collected a treasure, still he at the same time increased the revenue and the taxes, and founded a great mass of debt upon them. To set bounds to expenditure, and to amass money, were not things to the taste of every one. The wants, too, of the church and of the state grew more urgent from year to year. Sometimes recourse was had to the reserved treasure, but the application of that fund was fettered by so many conditions, that this could only occur in rare cases. Strange to say, it was much easier to raise loans than to use the ready money actually in hand. The popes pursued the former practice in the most pre- cipitate and inconsiderate manner. It is very well worth observing the ratio of the revenue to the total of debt and interest in the several years, for which we possess authentic estimates. In the year 1587 the revenue amounted to 1,358,456 scndi, the debts to six and a half millions scudi. About one half of the revenue, * In the year 1635, Alcuise Contarini finds the inhabi- tants very much discontented : " Quei sudditi s'aggravano molto della mutatione, chiamando liraniuco ll governo de' nreli i quali altro interesse che d' arnchusi e d' avan- zarsi noA vi lengono." [These subjects complain greatly of the change, calling the government of the priests ty- rannical, and declaring that they have no other object in view but that of enriching and advancing themselves,] 715,913 scudi, was assigned to pay the inte- rest. In the year 1592 the revenue had risen to 1,585,520 scudi, the debts to 12,242,620. The increase of the debt was already much greater than that of the revenue. 1,088,600 scudi, that is about two-thirds of the income of the state, were appropriated to the interest of the debt, in the shape of places, and luoghi di monte.* This state of things was in itself sufBciently inconvenient to cause extreme anxiety. The government would have been glad to have recourse once to a diminution of the rate of interest, and it was proposed that a million should be drawn out from the castle to pay off those who would not accede to a reduction of the interest. A considerable augmentation of the net income would have been effected by this measure. The bull of Si.xtus V., however, and the precautions against the squandering of the reserved fund, prevented arrangements of this kind, and there was no- thing for it but to pursue the old course. It may perhaps be supposed that the acqui- sition of so wealthy a territory as Ferrara would have afforded peculiar relief to the em- barrassments of the government ; but this was not the case. Already, in the year 1599, the interest of the debt swallowed up nearly three-fourths of the gross revenue. But in the year 1605, at the accession of Paul v., there remained but 70,000 scudi of the whole sums accruing to the treasury, unappropriated to the payment of interest.f Cardinal de Perron affirms, that the pope's regular income would not have sufficed him for half a year, though the expenditure of his palace was very moderate. Hence it became so much the more impos- sible to avoid heaping debt on debt. We learn from authentic accounts how systemati- cally Paul V. had recourse to this expedient, in November, 1607, twice in January, 1608, in March, June, and July, 1608, twice in September of the same year, and so on through every year of his reign. His loans were not large apparently; petty wants were met aa they arose, by the establishment of luoghi di monte, in greater or smaller number. These were founded sometimes on the tolls of An- * Circumstantial account of the papal finances in the first year of Clement VIII., without any particular title. Bibliol. Barb. N"- 1639, on eighty leaves. f Per sollevare la camera aposlolica. Discorso di M. Malvasia, 1606. "Gli interessi che hoggi paga la sede apostolico assorbono quasi tutte 1' entrate, di maniera che si Vive in continua angustia e difficoUa di provedere alle spese ordinarie e necessarie, e venendo occasione di qualche spesa straordinaria non ci 6 dove voltarsi." [The interests now paid by the apostolic see absorb almost all its revenues, so that the condition of the government is that of continual embarrassment and diffii ully in provid- ing for ordinary and necessary expenses, and when any extraordinary occasion of expenditure occurs, it knows not which way to turn ] A. D. 1585-1643.] FOUNDATION OF NEW FAMILIES. 331 cona, sometimes on the dogana of Rome, or of a province, now on an augmentation in the price of salt, and now on the proceeds of the post. But they gradually increased to a very great extent. Paul V. alone incurred two millions of debt by way of luoghi di monte.* This, however, would have been impracti- cable had not that pope been aided by a circumstance of a special nature. Power always attracts money. So long as the Spanish monarchy pursued its thriving career, and its influence swayed the world, the Genoese, then the richest monied capital- ists, invested their funds in the royal loans ; nor were they deterred from doing so by some arbitrary reductions and exactions of Philip II. But gradually, when the great movement abated, and war and its demands ceased, they called in their capital. They turned to Rome, which had meanwhile assumed so powerful a position, and the treasures of Europe once more flowed into that city. The Roman luoghi di monte were in extraordinary re- quest. As they afforded considerable inte- rest, and offered satisfactory security, their price sometimes rose to 150 per cent. The pope was sure to find purchasers in abundance for as many of them as he chose to establish. Hence it came to pass that the debts of the state unceasingly increased. In the begin- ning of the reign of Clement VIII. they amounted to eighteen millions. The system of the Roman court obliged the revenue too to rise in the same proportion ; it was cal- culated in the beginning of the reign at 1,818,104 scudi, 96 baj.f I cannot ascertain exactly how much of this sum was expended in the payment of interest, but it must have been considerably the largest part. If we examine the several items of the computa-, tions, we shall perceive that the demands often exceed the income. In the year 1592 the doganaof Rome yielded 162,450 scudi, in the year 162-5, 209,000 scudi; but in the for- mer, 16,956 scudi had passed into the coffers of the treasury; in the latter, the outgoings exceeded the income about 13,260 scudi. The salara di Roma had in that period risen from 27,654 to 40,000 scudi; but in 1592 there had been a surplus of 7482 scudi, while in 1625 there was a deficit of 2321 scudi, 98 baj. It is obvious how little could be effected in such a case by any strictness of household economy. How strongly too does this remark apply to a government like that of Urban VIII., who was so often led by his political jealousy to engage in armaments and works of fortifica- tion. * Nota de' luoghi di monte eretti in tempo del pontifi- cato della felice memoria di Paolo V. 1606-1618. + Entrata el usciia della sede aposlolica del tempo di Urbane VIII. Urbino indeed was added to the possessions of the church; but it contributed little to the wealth of the government, especially at first. After the loss of the ajlodial lands, the reve- nue of the territory amounted to but 40,000 scudi. On the other hand, considerable ex- penses had attended the act of taking posses- sion, important concessions being made to the heirs.* But the year 1635 had augmented the public debt to thirty millions of scudi. To procure the necessary funds for meeting the interest thereon, he had already either created or increased ten different taxes. But even this was far from effecting hi.s purpose. Cir- cumstances occurred which obliged him to go still further ; but these we shall be in a better condition to understand when we shall have considered another series of events. Foundation of new families. If we inquire what became of all these revenues, and on what they were expended, it will appear undeniable that they were for the most part made serviceable to the general efforts in the catholic cause. Armies, such as Gregory XIV. sent into France, and which his successors had to main- tain for a considerable time, the active parti- cipation of Clement VIII. in the Turkish war, subsidies like those which were so often granted under Paul V. to the League and to the house of Austria, which Gregory XV. doubled, and which Urban VIII. transferred, at least in part, to Maximilian of Bavaria, must have cost the Roman see enormous sums. The necessities, too, of the ecclesiastical states often made extraordinary outlays re- quisite ; — the conquest of Ferrara under Cle- ment VIII., Paul V.'s projects against Venice, and all the warlike proceedings of Urban VIII. To these sources of expense were added the splendid erections, whether for the beautify- ing of the city or for the defence of the country, in which each new pope vied with the memory of his predecessor. But there grew up one more institution which contributed not a little to the accumu- lation of this mass of debt, and one which re- ally benefited neither Christendom, nor the state, nor the city, but solely the families of the popes. The custom had become general (and it was one which naturally consisted with the relative position of the priesthood to a very extensive organization of family interests,) that the surplus of the ecclesiastical revenues should devolve on the relations of the several incumbents. * Remark of Francesco Barberini to the nuncio in Vienna, when the emperor founded claims on that acqui- .'jition. 332 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. [\. d. 1585-1643. The popes of those days were prevented by the bulls of their predecessors from granting principalities in fee to their connexions, as had been attempted in former times : but they did not therefore forego the general practice of the ecclesiastical body, but only made it so much the more their care to secure the here- ditary dignity of their kindred by wealth and stable possessions. In doing this they did not neglect to pro- vide themselves with arguments for their jus- tification. They set out from the principle that they were not bound by any vow to po- verty ; and as they decided that they might fairly regard the surplus proceeds of the spi- ritual office as their own property, they judg- ed that they had a right to bestovv^ the same on their relations. But far more potent than such considera- tions as these were the feelings of family and of blood, and the natural inclination of men to leave some lasting endowment after their death. The first who struck out the form to which subsequent popes adhered was Sixtus V. He raised one of his grand-nephews to the rank of cardinal, intrusted him with a share in public business, and assigned him an eccle- siastical income of 100,000 scudi. The other he married to a Sommaglia, and made him marquis of Mentana ; to which estates were afterwards added the principality of Venafro and the county of Celano in Naples. The house of Peretti long maintained itself in high consideration; we repeatedly encounter mem- bers of it in the college of cardinals. But the Aldobrandini were far more power- ful.* We have seen the influence possessed by Pietro Aldobrandino during his uncle's reign. As early as the year 1599 he had as much as 60,000 scudi of ecclesiastical in- come, and we may guess how greatly this must have subsequently increased. The in- heritance of Lucrezia d'Este helped him greatly; he purchased land, and we find that he invested money in the bank of Venice. But whatever wealth he might accumulate was all destined to pass at last to the family of his sister and her husband, Giovanni Fran- cesco Aldobrandini, who held the offices of castellan of St. Angelo, governor of the Bor- go, captain of the guard, and general of the church. He too had as early as 1599, 60,000 scudi income, and he frequently received sums of ready money from the pope. I find an account, according to which Clement VIII. bestowed on his kinsmen in the thirteen * NicoU) Contarini : Storia Veneta : " Clemente VIII. nel conferir li beneficii ecclesiastici alii nepoti non heb- be alcun lennine, el andi) eliandio di gran lunga supe- riore a Sisto V. sua precessore, clie spalanco quesla por- ta." [Clemnni, VIII. set no bounds to his bestowal of ec- clasiastical bpnefices on his nephews, and in this he even vastly outdid Sixius V. his predecessor, wlio opened the door to the practice.] years of his reign upwards of a million in hard cash. This wealth was increased by the judicious management of Giovan-Frances- co. He bought the property of Ridolfo Pio, which brought in to its original owner no more than 3000 scudi yearly, and made it yield him 12,000. The marriage of his daughter Margareta with Rainuccio Farnese was not effected without a great outlay : she brought her husband a dowry of 400,000 scu- di, besides other advantages ;* although sub- sequently the connexion between the families, as we have seen, did not prove as cordial as had been expected. The example of the Aldobi-andini was fol- lowed, and almost outdone in recklessness, by the Borghesi. The influence possessed by cardinal Scipi- one Cafarelli Borghese over Paul V. was fully equal to that of Pietro Aldobrandino over Cle- ment VHI., and he even surpassed him in the wealth he accumulated. Already in the year 1612 the income of his benefices was estimated at 150,000 scudi. He strove by kindness and courteous affability to appease the envy which so much power and riches in- evitably provoked ; but we must not wonder if in this he did not fully succeed. The temporal offices were conferred on Marc Antonio Borghese, on whom the pope moreover bestowed the principality of Salmo- na in Naples, with palaces in Rome, and the most beautiful villas in the neighbourhood. He loaded his nephews with presents, of which we have a detailed list extending through his whole reign up to the year 1620. They comprised jewels, silver vessels, splen- did furniture, taken directly from the stores of the palace and sent to the nephews; car- riages, and even muskets and falconets; but the main thing is always hard money. It appears that they received, up to the year 1620, in all, 689,727 scudi 31 baj. in cash, 24,600 scudi in luoghi di monte, taken at their nominal value, and in places estimated at the price it would have cost to purchase them, 268,176 scudi ; making on the whole, as in the case of the Aldobrandini, pretty nearly a million.! The Borghesi, too, neglected not to invest their wealth in real estates. They purchased nearly eighty estates in the campagna of Rome, the Roman nobility being readily in- duced to part with their ancient hereditary possessions on consideration of the tempting * " II papa monstvando dolors di esser condotto da ne- poti da fiir cosi contro la propria conscienza, non poteva tamo nasconder nel cupo del cviore che non dironipesse la soprabondanza dell' allegrezza." [The pope, though making a show of grief at being led by his nephews lo act so contrary to liis own conscience, could not yet so conceal his joy at the bottom of his heart, that its excess should not break out.] t Nota di danari, officii e mobili donati da papa Paolo V. aeuoi parent! e concessioni fattegli. MS. A. D. 1621-1639.J FOUNDATION OF NEW FAMILIES. 833 price paid them, and the high rate of interest they obtained by investing the purchase-mo- ney in liioghi di monte. They also establish- ed themselves in many other districts of the ecclesiastical states, which the pope facilitat- ed by granting them peculiar privileges. Sometimes they were allowed the right of restoring exiles, of holding markets, or of having their vassals endowed with certain immunities; they were exempted from du- ties, and they even obtained a bull, by virtue of which their possessions were never to be confiscated. The Borghesi were the most powerful and wealthy family that had yet risen in Rome. Now this system of nepotism was brought into such vogue by these precedents, that even a short reign afforded means for accu- mulating a brilliant fortune.* Undoubtedly cardinal Ludovico Ludovisio, the nephew of Gregory XV., ruled still more absolutely than any of his predecessors. It was his good fortune that, during his adminis- tration, the two most important offices of the curia, — the vice-chancellorship and the cham- berlainship — became vacant and fell to his lot. He acquired upwards of 200,000 scudi of ecclesiastical income. The temporal power, the generalship of the church, and several other proritable posts, devolved on the pope's brother, Don Orazio, a senator of Bologna. As the pope gave little promise of a long life, his family made so much the more speed to enrich themselves. They acquired in a short time luoghi di monte to the amount of 800,000 scudi. The duchy of Fiano was purchased for them from the Sforza, and the principality of Zagarolo from the Farnesi. The young Niccolo Ludovisio could already aspire to the most brilliant and wealthy matrimonial alli- ances. By a first marriage he brought Ve- nosa into his house, and Piombino by a sec- ond. The favour of the king of Spain further contributed, in a special manner, to his pros- perity. Emulating these splendid examples, the Barberini now entered on the same career. By the side of Urban VIII. stood his elder- brother, Don Carlo, as general of the church ; a grave, practised man of business, of few words; one who did not suffer himself to be dazzled by the dawn of his fortunes, or se-» duced into empty arrogance ; and yet, who never lost sight of his grand object of found- * Pietro Coularini : Relatione di 1627. "Quelle che possede la casa PereUa, Aldobrandina, Borghese e Ludo- visia, li loio principati, le grossissime rendite. lante emi- nemissiine fabrjche, superlDJssime supelletili, con estra- ordinarii ornamenti e delizii, non solo superano le condi- tioni di signori e principi privali, ma s' ugiiagliano e 3' avanzano a quelle del inedesimi re." [The possessions of the houses of the Peretii, Aldobrandini, Borghesi, and Ludovisi, their principalities, Iheir great revenues, their numerous splendid fabrics, sumptuous furniture, with extraordinary ornaments and luxuries of all kinds, sur- pass not only the fortunes of lords and private princes, but equal or exceed those of kings themselves.] ing a great family.* " He knows," says the report of 1625, "that the possession of money distinguishes a man from the multitude, and does not deem it seemly, that he who has once been on the footing of a pope's relation, should after his death appear in straitened cir- cumstances." Don Carlo had three sons, Francesco, Antonio, and Taddeo, who now necessarily rose to high consideration. The first two entered the service of the church. Francesco, whose modesty and kindness won universal confidence, and who also had the skill to accommodate his uncle's humours, ob- tained the leading influence in the govern- ment, from which, although on the whole he acted with moderation, considerable wealth could not fail to accrue spontaneously to him in so long a course of years. His income amounted, in the year 1625, to 40,000 scudi, and already in 1627 to nearly 100,000 scu- di.f It was not entirely with his consent that Antonio was likewise made cardinal, and his advancement w^as coupled with the express condition, that he should have no share in the government. Antonio was aspiring, stubborn and proud, though weak in body. In order that he might not be eclipsed in every respect by his brother, he strained hard to possess himself of a multitude of places with great revenues, which as early as the year 1635 amounted to 100,000 scudi. He engrossed to his single share six commanderies of Malta, whicii could not be very agreeable to the knights of that order. He accepted presents, too ; but he also bestowed many, being sys- tematically liberal, with a view to make him- self adherents among the Roman nobility. Don Taddeo, the second of the brothers, was the one selected to found a family by the ac- quisition of hereditary possessions. To his share fell the dignities of the secular nephew, and he became, after his father's death, gene- ral of the church, castellan of St. Angelo, and governor of the Borgo. By the year 1635, he was master of so many possessions, that he, too, enjoyed an income of 100,000 scudi,f * Relatione de' quattro ambasciatori, 1625. " Nellasua casa 6 buon economo et ha mira di far danari, assai sapen- doe^li moUobene che I'oro accresce la reputatione agli uomini, anzi 1' oro eli inalza e gli distingue vantaggiosa- mente nel cospello del mondo." [He is a good economist in his household, and aims at making money, knowing very well that gold increases men's reputations, so does it exalt and advantageously distinguish them in the eyes of men.] . . , j f Pietro Contarini, 1627. " E di oUimi virtuosi e lode- voli costumi, di soave natura, e con esempio unico non vuole ricever donativi o presente alcuno. Sara nondi- meno vivendo il ponlefice al pare d' ogni altro cardinale grande e ricco. Hor deve haver inlorno 80,000 scudi a entrala di beneficii ecclci-, e con li goveini e legationi che tiene deve avvicinarsi a 100m- scudi." [He is a man of excellent, virtuous, and laudable habits, ot a genue disposition, and srts the rare example ot retusing an oo- natives and presents whatever. Nevertheless, it IM pope lives, he will be equal in wealth and splendour to any among the cardinals, (fcc] -.aina t That is to say, such was the yearly income arising from his landed properly : " Per li novi acquisti, s*y^i"- Contarini, " di Palestrina, Monterolondo a Valmonioae, 334 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1639-40- and he was constantly receiving additions to his property. Don Taddeo lived in great re- tirement, and his household economy was exemplary. Ere long the united yearly in- comes of the three brothers w^as computed at half a million of scudi. The most important offices belonged to them : Antonio had the chamberlainship, Francesco the vice-chancel- lorship, and Taddeo the prefecture, which had become vacant by the death of the duke ofUrbino. It was commonly computed that, during his pontificate, the incredible sum of one hundred and five millions of scudi passed into the hands of the Barberini family.* " The palaces," continues the author of this account, " for instance, that at Quattro Fon- tane, a regal work, the vineyards, pictures, statues, wrought gold and silver, and the jewels, that came into their possession, are of greater value than can be believed or ex- pressed." The pope himself, however, seems at times to have felt scruples about the be- stowal of such vast wealth on his family; in the year 1640 he formally appointed a com- mission to examine into the legality of the means by which it was acquired.! In the first place the commission laid down the prin- ciple, that with the popedom was conjoined a temporal sovereignty, out of the surplus re- •venue or savings of which, the pope might make donations to his kindred. Next, the commission estimated the circumstances of the said sovereignty, to determine to what extent the pope might safely extend his libe- rality. After full calculation, they were of opinion that the pope miglit with a safe con- science found a majorat of 80,000 scudi net income, and, besides this, an inheritance for the second son; and that dowries of the daughters of the house might amount to 180,000 scudi. Vitelleschi, too, the general of the Jesuits, — for the order must needs have a hand in every thing, — was asked his opinion ; he declared these decisions mode- rate, and gave them his approval. In this manner new families continued to rise to hereditary power in each successive pontificate ; they ascended immediately into the rank of the high aristocracy of the land, a place in which was willingly conceded to them. It was not to be supposed that they should fatto venders e forza dai Colonnesi e Sforzeschi per pa- gare i debiii loro." [From his new acquisitions ot Pales- irina, Monierolondo, and Valmontone, which the Colon- na and the Sforza lam i lies had been compelled to sell to pay their debts.] The post of general of the church brought in 20,000 scudi. * Conclave di Innocenza X. " Si contano caduti nello Barberina, come risulta da sincera notitia di panite dis- linte 105 milioni di contanti." The sum is so incredible that it miaht well be looked on as an error of the tran- scriber. But it exactly corresponds in several MSS., anion? others in the Foscarini in Vienna and in my own. + Niccolini treats of this subject. I have also seen a special treatise: "Motivi a far liecidere quid possit papa donare, al 7 di Luglio, 1640," by a member of the com- mission. escape collisions. The conflicts between pre- decessors and successors, which had formerly been carried on by the factions of the conclave, were now waged between the nepotist fami- lies. The family that had recently risen to power clung jealously to its supremacy of rank, and usually exercised hostility, nay, persecution, towards that which had immedi- ately preceded it. Great as was the share the Aldobrandini had had in the elevation of Paul v., yet were they thrust aside by the connexions of that pope, treated with enmity, and visited with costly and hazardous law- suits :* they called him " the great ungrate- ful." The nephews of Paul V. found just as little favour at the hands of the Ludovisi ; and cardinal Ludovisio himself was obliged to quit Rome immediately after the entry into power of the Barberini. For the Barberini made a very ambitious use of the authority which the deputed power of the pope gave them over the native nobility and the Italian princes. Urban VIII. bestowed on his secular nephew the dignity of a prefetto di Roma expressly because honorary rights were attached to that office, which it seemed certain would secure to his house a perpetual precedence over all others in the country. But this was productive at last of a move- ment, which though not of much consequence to the world at large, yet marks an important epoch as regards the position of the papacy, both within its own dominions and in relation to all Italy. War of Castro. The highest rank among the non-regnant papal families was always maintained by the Farnesi, since they had not only secured to themselves great possessions in the country, as the others had done, but likewise no incon- siderable principalities ; and it was at all times a difficult task for the ruling nephew to keep this house in allegiance and due subordination. When duke Odoardo Farnese came to Rome in 1639, all possible honours were paid him.f •The pope assigned him lodgings, and noble- men to wait on him, and he lent him aid in money matters. The Barberini feasted him, and made him presents of pictures and horses. But with all their courtesies they could not win him to them. Odoardo Farnese, a prince of talent, spirit, and self-reliance, cherished in a high degree the ambition of those times, * For an example of this in the Vila del C'- Cecchini, see Appendix No. 121. + Deone: Diario di Roma, torn. i. "E fatale a sigri- Barberini di non trovare corrispondenzane'beneficati da loro. II duca di Parma fu da loro alloggialo, accarezzato, servito di genlil' huomini e carozze, beneficalo con la re- dultione del iiionte Farnese, con utile di grossasomma del duca e danno grandissimo di molti poveri particulari,cor- leggiato 8 paitoggialo da ambi li fratelli cardH- per spatio di piu settiiuane, e regalato di cavalli, quadri e altre ga- lanierie, e si parti da Koraasenza pur salularli." A D. 1639-40.] WAR OF CASTRO. 335 which delighted in the jealous observance of slight distinctions. He was not to be induced to pay due respeat to Taddeo's dignity as pre- fect, and to concede to him the rank appropri- ate to his otHce. Even when he visited the pope, he displayed in an offensive manner his thorougli sense of the pre-eminence of his own house, and even of his personal superiority. Misunderstandings arose, which were the less easy to remove, since they sprang from indelible personal impres- sions. It now became a weighty question, how the duke should be escorted on his departure. | Odoardo demanded the same treatment as had j been sltown to the grand duke of Tuscany; i he required that the ruling nephew, cardinal , Francesco Barberini, should escort him in per- son. The latter would only do so on condition that the duke should first pay hirn a formal | leave-taking visit in the Vatican, which Odo- ardo did not think himself called on to do. To this cause of disagreement were added some \ difficulties thrown in the way of his money ! transactions, so that his doubly offended self- love was violently exasperated. After taking leave of the pope in a few words, — and even those few containing complaints of the ne- ; phew, — he quitted the palace and the city without having even saluted cardinal Fran- cesco. He hoped thereby to have mortified him to the heart.* | But the Barberini, possessed of absolute ' authority in the country, had the means of taking a still keener vengeance. j The financial system adopted in the state found likewise acceptance and imitation among ; all the princely houses that constituted its aristocracy: they Jiad all tbunded nionti, and assigned to their creditors the proceeds of their property, just as the popes had assigned the treasury dues : their luoghi di monte passed from hand to hand in the same manner as the papal ones. These monti, however would hardly have obtained credit had they not been placed underthesupervisionof the supreme au- thority : it was only with the special approval of the pope that they could be either tbunded or modified. It constituted part of the prero- gatives of the reigning house, that it could by means of this supervision exert an important control over the domestic affairs of all the oth- ers. Reductions of the rate of interest on the monti were of ordinary occurrence ; they de- * Among the numerous controversial writings on this subject which are extant in manuscript, the following ap- pears to me very dispassionate an' scudi 1' anno, denari tutti spesi in Fiandra: al quale il presente duca Odoardo aggiunse somma per 300"i. scudi in sorte princi- pale a ragione di 4^ per cento: e di piii impose alcuni censi : di niodo che poco o nulla rimane per lui, si che se li leva la tratla del grana, non ci sari il pago per li credi- tori (Jel monte, non che de' censuarii." [Finally both states, that is, Castro and Ronciglione, were farmed out for 94,000 scudi annually to the Siri. On this revenue were founded the two monti Farnesi, the old and the new. The old one paying 54 000 scudi a year, was founded by dulve Alessandro, tlie capital of which was wholly spent in Flanders: to this debt duke Odoardo added a capital sum of 300,000 scudi, paying 4J- per cent : he also granted some mortgages : the consequence is, thai should the corn trade be taken away from those states, no means will be left of paying the creditors of the monte or the mortgagees.] t They relied on the words {if the bull of Paul III , by which was granted them only, "facultas frumenla ad qusecunque etiam prsefatse Romanae ecclesiae e nobis im- mediate vel mediate subjecta conducendi." [tlie privi- lege of exporting corn to all pansirnmediately or mediate- ly subject to the Roujan cliurch.]— general freedom of ex- poitation had however grown up in 'the course of lime. 336 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1642-44. nese. The montists, whose income suddenly failed, insisted on their rights, and applied to the papal government. The duke, seeing himself so intentionally prejudiced, scorned to make any arrangements to satisfy them. But the complaints of the montists were so vehe- ment, urgent, and general, that the pope thought himself justitied in taking the mort- gaged property into his own possession, in or- der to help so many Roman citizens to the money due to them. With this view he sent a small force to Castro. The affair was not effected without some resistance. " We have been compelled," he exclaims in unusuaUn- dignation in his monitorium, " to fire four great gun shots, by which one of the enemy has been slain."* On the i:^th of October, 1641, he took possession of Castro ; and he was resolved not even to stop here. Excom- munication was pronounced in January, 1642, against the duke, who would not allow the revenues to be touched ; he was declared di- vested of all his fiefs, and troops were marched into the field to wrest from him Parma and Piacenza. The pope would not hear of a pa- cification, declaring that between the lord and his vassal, no such proceeding could find place ; he would humble the duke; he had money, courage, and soldiers ; God and the world were on his side. The affair hence acquired a more general importance. The Italian states had long been jealous of the repeated extensions of the states of the church. They would not endure that Parma should be merged in them, like Urbino and Ferrara. The Estes had not yet given up their claims to the latter, nor the Medici cer- tain pretensions they made to the former: they were all offended by the arrogance of Don Taddeo ; the Venetians doubly so, because Urban VIII. had shortly before had an inscrip- tion obliterated in the Sala Regia, in which they were extolled for their fabulous defence j of Alexander III. ; an act which they regarded { as a great insult.f To these particular causes of animosity were added considerations ofi more general politics. The ascendancy of. the French now excited uneasiness among; the Italians, as that of the Spaniards had for- ; merly done. In every direction the Spanish | monarchy sustained the greatest losses. The , Italians dreaded lest a general revohition might be the consequence even among them- selves, if Urban VIII., whom they regarded | as the decided ally of the French, should be- ; come still more powerful. Upon all these I grounds they resolved to oppose him. Their [ * This took place at a bridge. "Dictus dominis Mar- chio ex quo milites niimero 40 circiler, qui in eisdem ponte el vallo ad pusnandum apposili fueninl, amicabili- ler ex eis recedere recusabant, imnio hoslililer pontificio exercilui se opponebani, fuil coaclus pro illorutn expug- , nalione quatuor maenoiuin loriiienioruni ictus explodere, i quorum formidine lioslos perterrili, fugam latidom arri- puerunl, in qua unus ipsorum interteclus remansit." ■f This subject is touched on in the Appendix No. 117. troops formed a junction in the territory of Modena. The Barberini were obliged to give up the attempt to march through that region, and the papal troops opposed to the confede- rates took up their quarters round Ferrara. There was in some sort re-enacted here that conflict between the French and Spanish fn- terests which kept Europe at large in commo- tion. But how much weaker were the mo- tives, the forces, and the efforts that were here engaged in this petty strife. An expedition undertaken of his own auth- ority by the duke of Parma, who now saw himself, without much exertion on his own part, protected and yet not fettered, strikingly displays the singularity of the existihg posi- tion of the parties. Odoardo made an incursion into the states of the church without artillery or infantry, with only three thousand cavalry. He was not checked either by the fort of Urbino, which had cost such large sums, nor by the assembled militia, which had never seen an armed foe in the field. The Bolognese shut themselves up within their walls, and the duke marched through the land without ever getting sight even of the papal troops. Imola opened its gates to him : he made the papal commandant a visit, and admonished the town to be true to the papal see ; for he declared that it was not against Rome, not by any means against Urban VIII., but only against his nephews, he had taken up arms: he marched, he said, under the banner of the gonfaloniere of the church, on which were beheld the semblances of St. Peter and St Paul ; he demanded to pass through in the name of the church. The gates of Faenza had been barricaded ; but when the governor caught sight of the foe, he let himself down from the walls by a rope, in order to have a personal conversation with the duke ; the re- sult of the interview was that the gates were opened. The same things look place in Forli. The inhabitants of all these towns looked qui- etly out of their v/indows upon the enemy as they marched through. The duke crossed the mountains to Tuscany, and then entered the ecclesiastical slates again from Arezzo. Cas- tiglione di Lago and (^itta del Pieve opened their gates to him : he hastened onwards un- checked, and filled the land with the terror of his name.* Rome, above all, was in con- sternation : the pope dreaded the fate of Cle- ment VII. He endeavoured to arm his Ro- mans. But it was necessary to impose a new tax, contributions had to be levied from house to house, whereat there arose no slight com- plaints, before a small body of horse could be equipped. Had the duke of Parma presented himself at that moment, there is no doubt but that a couple of cardinals would have been * For a circumstantial account of this enterprize, see Siri's Mercurio, lorn. ii. p. 1289. A. D. 1642-44.] WAR OF CASTRO. 337 despatched to meet him at the Ponte Molle, and that all his demands would have been complied with. Bat he was no warrior. Heaven knows what considerations, what apprehensions, may have held him back. He suffered himself to be seduced into neg'otiations, from which he could expect nothing. The pope breathed again. With a zeal quickened by danger, he fortified .Rome,* and sent a fresh army into the field, which quickly drove the duke, whose forces did not even hold together, out of the states of the church. As there was now nothing more to fear, Urban again im- posed the harshest conditions: the ambassa- dors of the sovereigns quitted Rome ; and even the inhabitants of unwarlike Italy be- stirred themselves once more to try the force of their native weapons. The confederates made their first attack on the country of Ferrara in May, 1643. The duke of Parma took two fortresses, Bondeno and Stellata. The Venetians and the Mode- nese joined forces, and penetrated further into the heart of the country. But the pope, too, as we have said, had meanwhile rallied all his forces; he had gotten together thirty thou- sand infantry and six thousand cavalry. The Venetians feared to encounter so imposing an army, and fell back ; and presently we find the papal troops advancing into the territory of Modena, and on Polesme di Rovigo.f The grand duke of Tuscany next made an ineffectual attempt on Perugia : the pope's troops made irregular incursions even into the Tuscan territory. What a singular aspect do these move- ments present! On both sides so utterly in- effective and nerveless, when compared with the contemporaneous struggles in Germany, with the march of the Swedish arms from the Baltic to the vicinity of Vienna, from Mora- via to Jutland. And yet the conflict was not purely Italian : foreigners served on both sides : Germans constituted a majority in the army of the confederates, Frenchmen in that of the pope. The consequence, however, of the Italian * Deone : " Si seguilano le fortificationi non solo di Bor- go ma del rinianenie delle mura di Roma, alle quali son deputati Ire cardinali, Pallolia, Gabrieli el Orsino, che giornalmente cavalcano de una porta all'allra: e si lag- liano tutte le vigne chesono appresso le mura per la pane di dentro di Roma, cio6 fanno strada ira le mura e le vigne e giardini con danno grandissimo de' padroni di esso : e cosi verri ancho locco il bellissimo giardino de' Medici, e perderi la parlicella che haveva nelle mura di Roma." [The fortification not only of the Bor^^o is proceeding, but also that of the unfinished part of the walls of Rojne : the business is entrusted to the three cardinals, Pallotta, Gabrieli, and Orsino, who ride daily from one gale to the other. All the vineyards near the walls on the city side are removed : that is, they are making a road be- tween the walls and the vineyards and gardens, to the great injury of the proprietors of the latter. Thus the very beautiful garden of the Medici will suffer, and will lose the small portion contained within the walls of Rome.] f Frizzi: Memorie per la storia di Ferrara, v. p. 100. 43 war, no less than of that waged in Germany, was, that the country was exhausted, and the papal treasury plunged into extreme embar- rassment.* Urban VIII. tried many an expedient to procure the money of which he stood in need. As early as September, 1642, the bull of Si'x- tus V. underwent a fresh discussion, the re- sult of which was a resolution to draw 50,000 scudi from the castle.f Of course that sum could not avail much, and the practice was begun of borrowing from them what was left of the reserved fund ; that is to say, it was positively resolved to pay back at a future time the money that should be drawn from it. We have already seen recourse had to personal taxation ; the expedient was fre- quently repeated : the pope made known to the conservatori what sums he needed, where- upon the inhabitants, foreigners even not ex- cepted, had their quota imposed on them. But the chief source of income was still the duties. At first they were little felt, being, for instance, levied on such things as coarse ground corn for fowls ; but these were soon followed by others more oppressive upon the most indispensable necessaries of life, fire- wood, salt, bread, and wine.| They now reached their second great pitch, rising in 1644 to 2,200,000 scudi. We are prepared to understand that all the money raised by an augmentation or new creation of duties was immediately funded, and new montes founded upon it, and sold. Cardinal Cesi, the former treasurer, calculated that in this way new debts were contracted to the amount of 7,200,000 scudi, though there were still 60,000 scudi in the treasury. The whole expense of the * Riccius: Rerum Italicarum sui temporis narrationes, Marr. xix. p. 590: " Ingens opinioneque niajus bellura exarsit, sed primo impetu validum, mox senescens, pos- tremo neutrius partis fructu, imomilitum rapinis indigenis exitiale: irritis conatibus prorsus inane in mutua siudia olficiaque abiit." [The war raged violently and beyond expeciation, but beginning impetuously it languished by and by, and finally proved of no advantage to either pany, or rather highly pernicious from the rapineof the soldiery. The end was, that after fruitless efforts the contest died away, without one result gained, in mutual compliments and concessions.] t Deone, 20Sptt. 1G42. " Havendo il papa fatto studiare da legisti e theologi di potere conforme labolladi Sisto V. cessare denari dal tesoro del castel Sam' Angelo, il lune- di 2-2 del mese il papa lenne consisloro per il medesimo affare ... Fu resoluto di cessare 500m. scudi d'oro, a lOQm. per volte, e non prima che sia spesi quelli che al presente sono ancora in essere della camera." t Deone, 29 Nov. 1642. " Si sono imposte .3 nuove ga- belle, una sopra il sale sopra 1' altre, la 2a- sopra lalegna, la 3i' sojpra la dogana, la quale in tutte le mercanlie che vengono per terra riscuote 7 per cento, per acqua 10 per cento. Si 6 cresciulo uno per cento d' awantaggio, e si aspeltano altre Ire gabelle per le necessity correnti, una sopra le case, 1' altra sopra li censi, la lerza sopra li cas- ali, cio6 poderi nelle campagna." [Three new duties have been imposed, one on sail in addition to those alrea- dy existing, a second on wood, the third on the customs, which exact 7 per cent, on all merchandize carried by land an, 10 per cent, on those by water: this is raised one per cent, more, and under the present exigencies three new duties are expected, one on houses, one on mortgages, and another on li casali, that is to say, on estates in the country.] POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. [a. d. 1644. war was reported to the Venetian ambassa- dor in the year 1645 at more than twelve millions.* Every moment brought more sensibly home to men's minds the serious consequences like- ly to result from such a system, which would gradually exhaust every resource of the state. The war too did not always proceed as could be wished. In a skirmish at Lagoscuro, on the 17th of March, 1644, Cardinal Antonio owed his escape from behig taken prisoner only to the speed of his horse.f As the pope daily felt his infirmities grow upon him, he was constrained to think of peace. The French undertook to act as mediators. The Spaniards had so little influence at the papal court, and had moreover lost so much of their authority elsewhere, that on this oc- casion they were wholly excluded. The pope had formerly often said he well knew the purpose of the Venetians was to harass and vex him to death, but they should not succeed ; he well knew how to make head against them : but now he was compelled to accede to all their demands, to revoke the ban pronounced against the duke of Parma, and to reinstate him in Castro. Never could he have anticipated being reduced to such an extremity : he felt it most poignantly. Another trouble beset him. He was as- sailed with fresh doubts that he had unduly favoured his nephews, and that this would lie heavy on his conscience when he stood in the presence of God. He once more called to- gether some divines, in whom he placed pe- culiar confidence — among them cardinal Lugo and father Lupis, a Jesuit, to hold a consulta- tion in his presence. The answer was, that since the nephews of his holiness had found so many enemies, it was just, nay even neces- sary, for the honour of the apostolic see, to leave them the means of maintaining after the decease of the pope an undiminished rank and consequence in defiance of their foes. J Amidst such harassing doubts as these, and with the bitter feelings produced by an abor- tive enterprize, the pope felt his death ap- proaching. His physician has affirmed, that at the moment when he had to sign the treaty of peace of Castro, he fainted, overcome by anguish : this was the beginning of the illness of which he died. He prayed to Heaven to avenge him on the godless princes who had forced him to war, and expired on the 29th of July, 1644. Hardly had the papal see retreated from its central position in the affairs of Europe, when it endured a defeat in those of Italy, and even * Relatione d' iv. ambasciatori : " L'erario si trova noli- bilmente esausto, essendoci stato affermato da piii C"' aver epesi i Barberini nella guerra passale sopra 12 milioni d'oro." t Mani : Sioria Veneta, lib. xii. s. 470. i Nicoletti : Vita di papa Urbano, torn. viii. in its own domestic affairs, such as for many a day had not befallen it. Pope Clement VIII. had likewise fallen out with the Farnesi, and had been constrained to pardon them at last. But he did so only be- cause he required the aid of the other Italian princes to revenge himself on the Spaniards. Now, however, the state of things was far different. Urban VIII. had attacked the duke of Parma with all his might: the united forces of Italy had exhausted his own, and forced him to a disadvantageous peace. It could not be denied that the papacy was once more decidedly worsted. Innocent X. The effect of this state of things was forth- with manifested in the new conclave.* The nephews of Urban VIII. introduced eight-and- forty cardinals, their uncle's creatures : never had there been so strong a faction. Notwith- standing this, they soon perceived that they could not carry the election of their favourite, Sacchetti : the scrutinies every day turned out more and more against him. To bar at least the accession of a decided adversary to the tiara. Cardinal Francesco at last decided to support Cardinal Pamfili, who at any rate was a creature of Urban VIII., though he leaned strongly to the Spanish party, and though the French court had expressly except- ed against him. Cardinal Pamfili was elected on the 16th of September, 1644. He took the name ofilnnocent X., in memory it is supposed of Innocent VIII., under whom his house had come to Rome. His accession at once changed the policy of the Roman court. The confederate princes, particularly the Medici, to whom the pope was chiefly indeb- ted for his elevation, now acquired influence over that authority against which they had just been arrayed in arms : the obliterated inscriptions relating to the Venetians were restored ;f and the first promotions fell almost * The old violence and disorder of an interregnum were once more seen. J. Nicii Erylhrsei Epist. Ixviil. ad Tyrr- henum, iii. noa Aug. 1644. "Civilas sine jure est, sine dignitaie respublica. Tantus in urbe armatorum Hume- rus cernitur quantum me alias vidi.sse non memini. Nulla domus est paulo locupletiorqua; non militurn iiiullorum praesidio munialur: ac si in unum omnes cogerenlur, magnus ex eis exercilus confici posset. Summa in urbe armorum impunilas, summa licentia: passim caedes ho- minum fiunt: nil ita frequenter auditurquam, hie vel ills notus homo est interfeclus." [The stale is without law, the coramonweallh without dignity. The number of armed men visible in the city, surpasses any thing I re- member to have elsewhere seen. There is not a house possessing some riches that is not defended by a numerous garrison of soldiers, enough if they were all collected to- gether to form an army. Armed violence and license are at their utmost pitch in the city; assassinations abound ; and nothing is more common than to hear it said, such or such a man of note has been killed.] t Relatione de' iv. ambasciatori, 1645. " II presente pontefice nel bel principio del suo governo ha con publi- che dimostralioni registrate in marmi detestato le opinion! del preceasore, rendendo il lustro alle glorie degli ante- A. D. 1644-46.] INNOCENT X. 339 exclusively to the lot of the friends of Spain. The whole Spanish party revived again, and once more equipoised that of the French, at least in Rome. The Barberini were the first to feel this revolution in affairs. It is impossible at the present day to determine clearly how much of what was laid to their charge was well found- ed. They were said to have allowed justice to be violated, to have seized on benefices not properly belonging to them, and, above all, to have embezzled the public money. The pope resolved to call the nephews of his predeces- sor to account for their administration of the public funds during the war of Castro.* At first the Barberiiii thought they could secure themselves through the protection of France. As Mazarine had obtained his pro- motion in their house, and through their pat- ronage, he did not fail to support them now. They affixed the French arms to their dwel- lings, and put themselves formally under the protection of France. But Pope Innocent declared that he sat in the chair he occupied to administer justice, and that he could not desist from doing so, though Bourbon stood before the gates. Upon this, Antonio, who was in most dan- ger, first took flight in October, 1645 ; and some months later, Francesco and Taddeo, with his children, also withdrew. The pope caused their palaces to be seized, their offices to be given away, and their luoghi di moute to be sequestered. The Roman peo- ple applauded all he did. They held a meeting in the capital on the 20th of February, 1646. It was the most brilliant within the memory of man ; so many nobles of illustrious rank and title took part in it. A resolution was passed to solicit the pope to repeal at least that most oppressive of the duties imposed by Urban VIII., the tax on flour. This wasopposed by the adherents of the Barberini, in their apprehen- sion lest if the tax were taken off" their fortunes would be made to pay the debts founded upon it. Donna Anna Colonna, the wife of Taddeo Barberini, presented a memorial, in which she called to mind the services rendered by Urban VIII. to the city, and his zeal for the admin- istration of justice, and pronounced it unseemly to appeal against the lawful taxes imposed by so meritorious a pope. The resolution was nali di VV. EE." [The present pope, in the noble com- mencement of his pontificate, has by demonstrations regis- tered in murble abjured the opinions of liis predecessor, restoring their lustre to the glories of your excellencies' ancestors.] We see in what a high tone they took the matter up. * Relatione delle cose correnli, 2o Maegio, 1646. MS. Chigi. " I Barberini, come affatto esclusi del matrimonio del novello poniefice, comincioronoa machinar vastitd. di pensieri stimali da loro nobili. II papa conlinuo ad invi- gilare con ogni accuratezza che la discanierata camera fusse da loro soiisfatta." [The Barberini, seeing them- selves wholly divorced by the new pope, began to devise a multitude of plans of great merit in their own eyes. The pope continued to watch very sharply that the untrea- suried treasury should be satisfied by them.] passed notwithstanding. Innocent X. proceed- ed to act on it without delay. The deficit which would be occasioned thereby was to be made good, as had been justly anticipated, out of the fortune of Don Taddeo.* Whilst the family of the late pope was thus violently assailed and persecuted, the question remained to be asked, — now the most impor- tant question in every pontificate, — how would the new family arrange its measures ? It is an important point in the history of the papacy in general, that that this did not take place on the present exactly as on former occasions; although the scandal given by the court was now actually aggravated. Pope Innocent was under obligations to his sister-in-law. Donna Olimpia Maidalchina di Viterbo, particularly because she had brought a considerable fortune to the house of Pamfili. He esteemed it a high merit in her that she had chosen not to marry again after the death of her husband, his brother.f He had himself derived advantages from this. He had long committed the economical affairs of his family to her guidance : no wonder, then, if she now obtained influence over the administration of the papacy. She very quickly rose to distinguished con- sequence. She was the first whom ambassa- dors visited on their arrival ; cardinals had her picture placed in their apartments, as people hangup the portraitof their sovereign ; foreign courts sought to conciliate her favour by pre- sents. As the same course was pursued by all who had any thing to solicit of the curia, — some having even gone so far as to assert that she exacted a monthly commission for all the small places which she was the instrument of procuring, — wealth of course poured in upon her. She soon formed a grand establishment, gave festivals and comedies, travelled, and purchased estates. Her daughters married into the most distinguished and wealthy fami- lies ; one of them wedded a Ludovisi, the other a Giustiniani. For her son, Don Camillo, who had but little capacity, she thought it at first more advisable that he should become an ecclesiastic, and assume at least in appearance the position of cardinal-nephew ;l but when an opportunity offered for him too to make a * For the passage from the Diario Deone, see Appendix No. 122. + Bussi: Storia di Viterbo, p. 331. At first she bore a good reputation. " Donna Olimpia," say the Venetian am- bassadors of 164.5, "6 dama di gran pruJenza e valore, conosce il posto in cui si trova di cognata del pontefice, gode 1' estiiiia e I'afFettione della S'i' S. ha seco molta au- toriti." [Donna Olimpia is a lady of great prudence and worth, she knows her place as the pope's relation, she enjoys the esteem and affection of his holiness, and has great influence with him.] t This excited from the very first the surprise of every- body. " lo stimo," says Deone, 19 Nov. 1644, "chesia opera della S"- Donna Olimpia, che ha voluto vedere il figlio cardinale e desidera piii tosto genero che nora." [I am of opinion that it is Signora Olimpia's doin?, and that it was her choice that her son should be a cardinal, wish ing rather to have a son-in-law than a daughler-in-law.] 340 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1644-55 brilliant matrimonial connexion, — the richest heiress in Rome, Donna Olimpia Aldobran- dini, having recently lost her husband, — he recounced the church and contracted this marriage. Don Camillo was now as happy as it was possible for him to be. His bride was not only rich, but also still in her bloom, and full of grace and talent : she supplied his deficiencies by her own rare qualities. But she too wished to rule. There never was one moment's peace between the mo- ther-in-law and the daughter-in-law. The pope's palace rang with the bickerings of two women. The new married pair were obliged at first to depart ; but they did not endure this long : they returned against the pope's will, and the discord now became obvious to every one. Donna Olimpia Maidalchina, for instance, appeared once during the carnival with a magnificent equipage in the Corso ; her son and daughter-in-law were standing at a win- dow, and as soon as they caught sight of her carriage they turned away. Every one re- marked it: it was the talk of all Rome.* The several parties strove to get hold of the rivals. Unfortunately pope Innocent was of a cha- racter and disposition more calculated to exas- perate than to allay dissensions of this kind. Personally he was a man of by no means common qualities. In his earlier career, in the rota, as nuncio and as cardinal, he had proved active, irreproachable, and upright, and this reputation he still maintained. His exer- tions were regarded as the more remarkable, since he was already seventy-two years old when he was elected. " Labour," it was said, "does not weary him ; he is as fresh after it as before it ; he takes pleasure in speaking to people, and he lets every one say out what he has to say." Instead of the haughty reserve of Urban VIII., he displayed atlability and cheerful good humour. He was particularly anxious to preserve peace and good order in Rome. It was his ambition to maintain the security of property, to ensure the safely of the person by day and night, and to suffer no ill-usage of the low by the high, or of the weak by the strong.f He obliged the barons to pay their debts. As the duke of Parma still refus- ed to satisfy his creditors, and the pope could not show himself in Rome without being ac- costed with cries beseeching him to see justice * Diario Deone. On another occasion he relates as fol- lows :— " Mercordi la tarda (Aug. 1648,) la Sra- Olimpia con ambedue le figliuole con niolta comitivapasso per longo il corso: ogn'uno credeva che ella andasse a visitare la nuora, ma pass6 avanti la casa senza guardarla. [On Wednesday evening, Aug. 1648, Signora Olimpia went through the corso with her two daughters and a numerous suite: every one thought she was going to visit her daugh- ter- in-law, but she passed before the house without looking towards it.] I Relatione di Contarini, 1648. "Rimirasolamente con applicatione alia quiete dello stale ecclesiasiico e partico- larmente di Koma, accio godp ciascheduno delle proprie facoltie della libertiidfl pralicare la nolle e non rimanga I'inferiore liranneggialo dal superiore." done to the montists; and as, moreover, the bishop of Castro was murdered at the instiga- tion, as it was supposed, of the ducal govern- ment, it was resolved at last to take decisive steps in the matter. The estates of the Far- nesi were again put up to sale : soldiers and sbirri were sent to Castro to lake possession of it in the name of the montists.* The duke again resisted, and made attempts to penetrate into the states of the church. But on this occasion he met with no aid. Innocent X. was not, like Urban, feared by the Italian princes : he was rather their ally. Castro was taken and razed to the ground : the duke was forced to yield the country to the administration of the papal camera, which on its part undertook to satisfy his creditors' claims ; the duke even assented to the arrangement, that he should absolutely lose his title to the land if he did not redeem the monti Farnesi within eight years. The capital amounted to 1,700,000 scudi, the accumulated interest to 400,000 scudi. The duke did not appear capable of raising so large a sum, so that the agreement — which, however, was brought about by Spanish mediation — was tantamount from the first to an enforced, and all but admitted, re- nunciation. In all these transactions Innocent appears vigorous, prudent, and determined ; but he laboured under one defect which made it hard to deal with him, and which even embittered his life : he reposed unswerving confidence in no one ; with him favour and displeasure alter- nated according to the impression of the mo- ment. This was experienced among others by the datary Cecchini. After having long stood well in the pope's good graces, he found him- self suddenly an object of suspicion, assailed, reproached, and supplanted by his deputy, — that same Mascambruno who was afterwards convicted of the most extraordinary forgeries.f But still more painful perplexities arose in the papal family, already vexed enough with dissension. After the marriage of Don Camillo Pamfili, Innocent X. had no longer a nephew in the church, — a description of person hitherto long deemed requisite to a papal court. He once felt his heart moved to peculiar affection, * Diario Deone; 16 Giugno, 1649. "11 papa in questo negotio sta poslo totalmente, e mi disse: Non possiamo andare per le strade di Roma, che non si venga gridato dietro, che facciamo pagare il duca di Parma. Sono setiB anni che non paga, e di' ()uesla entrata devon viver molti luoghi pii e vedove e pupilli. [The pope is positively re- solved in this matter, and said to me: We cannot pass through the streets of Rome, without being accosted with cries beseeching us to make the duke of Parma pay his debts. He has not paid these seven years, and on tlie income withheld depend many luoghi pii, widows, and minors.] We see that the pope's motives were not to be despised. + Vita del Cl- Cecchini scritta dalui medesimo. "Scrit- Itira contro Monsr- Mascambruno, con la quale s' intende ches' intruisca il processo che contro il medesimo si va fabricando :" and the still more circumstantial stalemenl, Pro R. P. D. Mascambruno, MS. A. D. 1644-55.] INNOCENT X. 341 when Don Camillo Astelli, a distinguished relation of his house, was presented to him ; and he made up his mind to raise the young man to the rank of cardinal-nephew. He received him into his household, assigned him apartments in the palace, and gave him a share in public business. He caused this elevation to be proclaimed by public festivi- ties and by salvos from tlie castle. Yet nothing else resulted from it but new jarrings. The rest of the pope's relations thouglit themselves slighted : even the cardinals pre- viously nominated by Innocent took offence at the preference bestowed on a new comer;* but no one was so much displeased as Donna Olimpia Maidalchina. She had sounded the praises of young Astelli ; she had proposed his being made cardinal ; but she had never dreamed of his attaining such high favour. In the first place she herself was sent away. The secular nephew and his wife, who, as a contemporary expresses himself, " was as far above ordinary women as he was below ordinary men," entered the palace. But the secular nephew and the adoptive ecclesiastical nephew did not long agree. Old Donna Olimpia was again sent for to establish order in the house. She speedily recovered her wonted autho- rity.! In a chamber in the villa Pamfili stand the busts of the pope and his sister-in-law. Who- ever compares them together, the lineaments of the female, which breathe resolution and talent, with the inexpressive countenance of the pope, will feel convinced that it was not only possible, but even unavoidable, that he should be ruled by her. But after she had been re-admitted into the palace, she too would not endure that the advantages belonging to the position of a pope's nephew should be shared by any other house than her own. As Astelli did not par- ticipate his power with her in the way she wished, she never rested till he lost the pope's favour, was pulled down from his high station, * Diario, Deone, 10 Sett. 1650. " Discorre la corte che il papa ha perduto il beneticio conferilo a tulle le sue creature, che si tengono oll'esi, che papa habbia preferito un giovane senza esperienza a tutti loro, tra quali son huoinini di iriolto valore, segno che tutti 1' ha perdiffi- denli overo ineiti alia carica." [Il is the talk of the court that the pope has lost his labour in the benefits he has conferred on all his creatures, who are offended that the pope has preferred a youth without experience to them all, among whom are men of much worth : they look on this as a proof that he considers them not trustworthy, or not qualified for otRce.] The subject is also largely dis- cussed in a work, Osservationi sopra la futura eletlione, 1652. " lo credo che sia solamente un caprice io che al improvise gli venne . . . conoscendo appena Mods'" Ca- millo Aslaili." [It is my belief il is only a caprice that has suddenly seized him . . . hardly knowing Monsignor Camillo Astelli.] + Pallavicino: Vita di papa Alessandro VII. "Lascal- tra vecchia passu con breve mezzo dal estremo della dis- gralia all' estremo della gratia." [The crafty old woman passed with brief interval from the extremity of disgrace lo the extremity of favour.] and driven from the palace, and she herself ruled there without a rival. On the other hand, conciliated by presents, she entered into close alliance with the Barberini, who had now returned. How sorely must the poor old pope have been tormented by all these changes of favour and disfavour, these incessant quarrels of those by whom he was most immediately and inti- mately surrounded ! Even a formally pro- nounced rupture cannot undo the inward yearnings of the heart : it only makes them sources of restlessness and pain, instead of producing, as they ought, gladness and com- fort. Besides this, the old man felt after all that he was but the tool of a woman's lust of power and pelf; it revolted him, and he would gladly have shaken off the yoke, but he had not the resolution : in fact too, he knew not how to do without her. His pontificate, which glided away without any notable mis- chances, deserves in other respects to be numbered among the fortunate ones : but its reputation has suffered from these disorders in the family and in the palace. They made Innocent X. still more than he was by nature, capricious, fickle, self-willed, and a burthen to himself.* Even in the last days of his life we find him busied in despoiling and inflicting fresh banishment on his other relations. In this miserable state of mind he died Jan. 5, 1655. Three days the corpse lay, without a thought bestowed on its interment by any of those be- longing to him, on whom, according to the usages of the court, the duty devolved. Donna Olimpia said .she was a poor widow, that the matter was beyond all her means : no one else thought himself bound by any obligation to the deceased. A canon who had formerly been in the pope's service, but who had long been dismissed, at last spent half a scudi, and caused the last honours to be paid to the dead man. But let us not suppose that those domestic jars produced no more than personal conse- quences. It is manifest that the system of ruling by nephews, which had in previous pontificates exercised so entire an authority in the state, and so potent an influence in the affairs of the Church, after deceiving such a severe shock in the last years of Urban VIII., had in this reign given no manifestation of its existence, and was indeed approaching its downfall. * Pallavicini: "Fra preliosa arredi oggetto felente e stomachevole . . . proruppe a varie dimostralioni quasi di smanie. . . . Assai temuto, niente amato, non senza qualche gloria e feliciia ne' successi esterni, ma inglorioso e miserabile per le continue o tragedie o comedie domes- liche." [A fetid and loathsome object in the midst of splendid furniture ... he burst out into various indica- tions of almost frenzy. . . . Feared a good deal, loved not al all, not without glory and prosperity in outward events, but inglorious and" miserable by reason of his perpetual domestic traigedies or comedies.] 842 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1655-6. Alexander VII. and Clement IX. The new conclave immediately presented an unwonted spectacle. Hitherto the nephews had appeared, escort- ed by numerous trains of devoted creatures, to sway the new election. Innocent X. left behind no nephew who could keep together the votes of the cardinals, or unite them into a faction. They were not indebted for their promotion to Astelli, who had been but a short while at the helm, and had exercised no commanding influence, nor could they feel themselves in any way bound to him. For the first time for many centuries the new cardinals entered the conclave perfectly free and unfettered. It was proposed to them voluntarily to unite under one head, to which they are said to have answered, that every one of them had a head and feet of his o.wn. They were for the most part distinguished men, of independent ways of thinking: they held indeed together, (they were designated by the name of the squadrone volante,*) but they were resolved for once to follow not the beck of a pope's nephew, but their own convictions and judgment. Beside the very death-bed of Innocent X., one of them, carc^nal Ottobuono, cried out, *' We must look out for an upright man." " If you want an unright man," rejoined Azzolino, another of them, " there he stands," pointing to Chigi.f Not only had Chigi gained for himself in general the reputation of an able and well intentioned man, but he had also particularly distinguished himself as an oppo- nent of the abuses prevailing in the existing form of government, which indeed had never been more crying than in those days. But though he had friends, he had also powerful adversaries, especially in the French. When Mazarin, driven from France by the troubles of the Fronde, travelled to the frontiers of Germany, to procure armed aid towards reco- vering his lost authority, he had not received from Chigi, who was the nuncio at Cologne, the assistance on which he thought he had reason to count : from that time forth he bore him a personal ill-will. Hence the election was not effected without great labour : the contest was again very prolonged ; but at last the now members of the college, the squad- ronists, carried their point. Fabio Chigi was elected on the 7th of April, 1655, and took the name of Alexander VII. An obligation was imposed on the new pope by the very principle that had led to hia elec- * Pallavicini mentions the following members of the confederacy: Imperiale, Omodei, Borromei, Odescalco, Pio, Aquaviva, Ottobuono, Albizi, Gualtieri, and Azzolino. The name of Squadrone was started by the Spanish am- bassador. + " Se vogliamo un uomo da bene, quegli 6 desso, et addit6 C' Chigi, che era indi lonlano alquanto nella me- desima camera." (Pallavicini.) tion, to adopt a different system of govern- ment from that pursued by his more recent predecessors : he seemed to resolve on doing so. For a considerable time he did not allow his nephews to come to Rome, and he boasted that he did not put a single penny in their pockets. His confessor, Pallavicini, who was engaged in writing the history of the council of Trent, hastened to insert in his work a passage, in which he extols Alexander VII., and promises him immortal renown, particu- larly on account of his forbearance with regard to those of his own blood.* But it is never an easy thing to break ^ through a custom once established ; it could never indeed have become prevalent had it not something commendable, something natu- ral to give it credit: at every court there are persons who put forward this better aspect of a custom, and who endeavour to hold fast by usage, even though its abuses stare them in the face. By degrees one person afler another repre- sented to Alexander VII. that it was not becoming that the relations of a pope should remain simple citizens of some town, nor indeed was it even possible ; the people of Sienna would not refrain from paying princely honours to his house ; in this way he might easily involve the Roman see in misunder- standings with Tuscany. Others not only corroborated this, but added moreover, that the pope would set a still better example if he a^^ually received his nephews, but managed tcWieep them within bounds, than if he kept them entirely at a distance. But the greatest impression undoubtedly was made by Oliva the rector of the Jesuit college, who declared outright that the pope indulged a sin if he did not call his nephews to him : foreign ambas- sadors would never place so much reliance in a mere minister as in a blood relation of the pope's; the holy father would be so much the * "Populus," he says in his Latin biography of Alexan- der VII., " qui prae multis vectigalibus humeris sibi ferra videbatur recentiores pontificias domos tot opibus onustas, huic Alexandri Smi- magnanimitati mirifice plaudebal; . . . inexplicabili detrimento erat et sacro imperio dislri- bulione minus sequa beneficiorum el perpetuis populi oneribus." [The people, which by reason of the many taxes imposed on it, seemed to carry on its shoulders the new papal families laden with so much wealth, wonder- fully applauded this magnanimity of Alexander; . . . immense injury had been done to the holy see through the unfair distribution of benefices, and to the people by the perpetual burthens imposed on them.] Relatione de' iv. ambascialori, 1655. "E contiuenza sin ora eroica quella di che S. S'i' si mostra armata, escludendo dall' adito di Roma il fratello, i nepoti, e qualunque si pregia di congionlione di sangue seco : et 6 tanto piu da ammi- rarsi questa parsinionia d' aflfetti verso i suoi congiunti, quanto che non 6 distillala nella mente dalle persuasione, ma 6 volontaria e natavi per propria elettione." [His holiness's moderation continues heroic, in forbidding ac- cess to Rome to his brother, his nephews, and all who boast relationship with him : and we have the more rea- son to admire this thriftiness of affection towards his kindred, since it has not been instilled into him by the arguments of others, but is the voluntary and native growth of his own free will.] A. D. 1656-57.] ALEXANDER VII. AND CLEMENT IX. 343 worse supplied with information, and so much the loss enabled to discharge the duties of his office.* It hardly needed so many arguments to move the pope to what he was of himself well enough inclined to. On the 24th of April, 1656, he proposed the question to the consis- tory, whether it seemed good to his brethren the cardinals, that he should employ his rela- tions in the service of the holy see. No one ventured to speak in the negative, and shortly afterwards the relations arrived. f The pope's brother, Don Marco, had the secular offices assigned to him, the inspection of the annona, and the administration of justice in the Borgo: his sun Flavio became cardinal padrone, and had in a short time 100,000 scudi of ecclesi- astical revenue. Another brotherof the pope's, whom he particularly loved, was already dead ; his son Agostino was selected to found the family, and was endowed by degrees with the fairest possessions, the incomparable Aric- cia, the principality of Farnese, the palace in the Piazza Colonna, and numerous luoghi di monte, and he was married to a Borghese.| Nay, the pope's favour extended even to more remote connexions of the family, for instance to the commendatore Bichi, who appears occasionally in the Candian war, and indeed to the Siennese in general. Thus everything seemed to have returned to the old course. This nevertheless was not the case. Flavio Chigi was far from possessing such authority as Pietro Aldobrandino, or Scipione Cafarelli, or Francesco Barberino ; nor did he aim at it ; sway had no charms for him ; he rather envied his cousin Agostino the layman, to whose share the real enjoyment of high station seemed to fall without much pains or labour on his part. Indeed Alexander VII. himself no longer ruled with anything like the despotic power of his predecessors. Under Urban VIII. there had been institu- ♦ Scritture politiche, etc. "Un giorna Oliva presa occasione di dire al padre Luti, [Father Luli had been brought up with the pope, frequently visited him, and was desirous that the nephews should be called to Rome] che il papa era in oblige sotto peccato mortale di chla- niare a Roma i suoi nepoti." He then gave his reasons as above. t Pallavicini : "In quel primi giorni i partiali d' Ales- sandro non potean coniparir in publico senza soggiacere a mordaci scherni." [In those early days the friends of Alexander could not appear in public without being ex- posed 10 caustic raillery.] t Vitadi Alessandro VII. I6G6. " II principato Farnese, che vale IflOm- scudi, la Riccia, che costa altretlanto, il palazzo in piazza Colonna, che finite arriveri ad altri lOOm- scudi, formano bellissimi slabili per Don Augustine, et aggiuntosi i luoghi di monte et altri officii cemprali farannogli slabili di una sola testa piii di mezzo milione senza le annue rendiie di ijm- scueli che gode il commen- dator Bichi, e senza ben 100m- e piu scudi d' entrata che ogni anni enlrano nella borsa del C'- Chigi." These are 01 course such calculations as might have been made in the talk of the day, and to which no great value can be attached. ted a congregatione di stato, in which the weightiest matters of state were to be discus- sed and determined, but its functions were really of little moment. It became much more important under Innocent X. Pancirolo, the secretary of that congregation, the first dis- tinguished man who filled the post, and who laid the foundation of its subsequent high credit, retained to his death a very great share in the administration of Innocent X., and to him it is especially ascribed that no nepotism prevailed in that reign. Chigi himself long filled the same office. It now devolved on Rospigliosi, who had already the whole range of tbreign affairs in his hands. Associated with him was cardinal Corrado of Ferrara, who had great weight in matters of ecclesias- tical immunity. Monsignore Fugnano had the control of monastic orders, and Pallavicini decided theological questions. The congrega- tions, which had been insignificant under for- mer popes, again rose to consequence and dis- charged special functions. Already some were heard to maintain, that the absolute right of deciding by his own personal authori- ty belonged to the pope only in spiritual mat- ters; while in all secular matters, such as declaring war, concluding peace, alienating a territory, or imposing a tax, he was bound to consult the cardinals.* In fact Alexander VII. took but little active part in state admin- istration. He used to go for two months into the country to Castelgandolfo, and on these occasions business was sedulously avoided : when he was in Rome the afternoons were devoted to literature ; authors presented them- selves and read their works before him, the pope delighting in suggesting emendations. Even in the early part of the day it was diffi- cult to obtain an audience of him on matters of actual business. " I was forty-two months," says Giacomo Quirini, " in the service of pope Alexander, and I perceived that he had but the name of a pope, not the real power. Of those qualities which he displayed when car- dinal, vivacity of intellect, talent for discrimi- nation, resolution in trying cases, and facility in expressing himself, not a trace remained : business was put aside ; his only thought was, how he might pass his life in unruffled tran- quillity."! Sometimes Alexander himself was conscious of this, and felt it with displeasure. When his projects failed, he laid the blame upon the in- terested motives of the cardinals. He was heard to speak to that effect even in his de- lirium shortly before his death. But as this state of things was the natural * Giac. Quirini. " I cardinal!, particolannente CL Al- bicci, pretendevano che il papa potesse disporre d'indul- genze, . . . ma per pace e guerra, alienatione di stall, impositione di gabelle dovrebbe ricorrere ai cardinali. t " Datosi quel capo alia quieta dell' animo, al solo pen- siere di vivere, e con severe diviete ripudialo il negotio." 344 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. [1667. result of circumstances, it continued as be- fore. Those cardinals of the squadrone who had contributed most to the election of Alexander VII., and who had maintained a high import- ance throug'hout his whole reign, had likewise the casting voice in the conclave that ensued upon his death. The only difference was, that on this occasion they were on better terms with France. On the 20th of June 1667, Rospi- gliosi, hitherto secretary of state, was raised to the papal throne under the name of Cle- ment IX.* All voices united in declaring that he was the best and kindest man that could be found in that day. True, his activity was not equal to his good intentions. He was compared to a tree perfect in branch and foliage, adorned perhaps with blossoms, but bearing no fruit : he possessed however, in a high degree, all those moral virtues which consist in a freedom from faults, — purity of manners, modesty and moderation. He was the first pope who actu- ally observed moderation in promoting his kinsmen. They were not absolutely repuls- ed from court, they obtained the usual posts, and even founded new families : but this hap- pened only in consequence of an opportunity occurring to marry a young Rospigliosi to a rich heiress, a Pallavicina of Genoa. The favours they received at their uncle's hand were but very moderate ; they did not appro- priate the public wealth to themselves, even though luoghi de monte were bestowed on them, nor did they partition out among them the business and the authority of the state. Here was indeed a vast alteration. Hitherto on every accession of a pope the public functionaries were either wholly or for the most part changed : the character and proceedings of the court were based on this system. Clement IX. was the first who abol- ished it : he was averse to giving any one pain ; with the exception of a few of the high- er places, he confirmed all functionaries in their posts as he found them.f In those he *Quirini: " Dalle pratiche di volanti, ch' in vero eb- bero il merito della presenie eleuione, successe cheChi- gi con mal regolato consiglio, e fuori di tempo el ordine, si dichiai'u in sala regia nell' enirare in capella alio scrulino, the acconsenliva all nomina di Rospigliosi . . . Ouoboni inanzi dell adoratione fu dichiaralo prodatario, Azzolini segretario distato." [Il was broughl aboul by the practices of the squadionisis, who had really all the credit of this election, that Chigi imprudently and inop- portunely declared in sala regia on entering the chapel to VOIP, thai he consented to The nomination of Rospigli- osi. Otloboni was declared prodatario before the adoration, and Azzolini secretary of stale.] f Grimani: Relatione. " I suoi corteggiani sono mal sodisfalti, per non haver volsuto rimuovere alcuno de' ministri el officiali di quelli dell' antecedente pontefice, come sempre costumarono di far gli altri pontefici." He was blamed for this, because il would leave his nephews without due support. " Quelli che havevano ricevute le cariche di Alessandro VII., bench6 non rimossi da Cle- mente, conseveranno I'obligatione agli eredi di Alessan- dro." [Those who have received their offices from Alex- ander VII., though not removed by Clement, will retain their obligation lo the heirs of Alexander.] caused to be vacated, he placed cardinals, such as Ottobuono and Azzolino, members of the squadrone who had been leaders in the last election, and who, independently of this, were men of weight. He was far from copy- ing the proceedings of so many former popes, in persecuting the nephews of his predecessor. The recommendations of Flavio Chigi had not much less weight with him than with Alex- ander : favours continued to be bestowed through his hand ; all things remained as they had been. How grievously did this pope's countrymen, the Pistojese, find themselves deceived. They had calculated on favours like those but re- cently bestowed on so many Siennese ; every man of them in Rome, it is said, had already assumed airs of consequence, and begun to swear on his honour as a nobleman. How bitter was their surprise when they found that the places on which they counted, were not even vacated, not to say bestowed on them. But Clement IX. did not fail of the munifi- cence with which the popes were accustomed to mark their elevation to the throne : he even went unusual lengths in this respect, bestow- ing upwards of 600,000 scudi in presents in the first month of his reign. But this bounty devolved neither on his countrymen nor even on his nephews, to whom indeed representa- tions were made as to this neglect of their interests,! but it was shared among the car- dinals and the leading members of the curia in general. People pretended to say that certain stipulations made with the conclave were at the bottom of the matter, but no clear trace of anything of the kind is discoverable. This conduct is much rather to be looked on as in accordance with the general modification of opinion which had taken place during this epoch throughout all Europe. There never was a period more favourable to the aristocracy than the middle of the seventeenth century; in which throughout the whole range of the Spanish monarchy, the power of the state, which former kings had withdrawn from the higher nobility, again fell into their hands ; in which the English con- stitution moulded itself amidst the most peril- ous struggles into the aristocratic form which it wears to this day ; in which the French par- liaments persuaded themselves they could play a similar part to that of the English parlia- ment ; in which, in all the German territories the nobility acquired a decided ascendancy, with the exception of one or two, where reso- lute princes beat down all efforts for indepen- dence ; in which the states of Sweden strove * Considerandogli che con tanta profusione d'oro e d'ar- genle una lunga catena per la poverli della loro casa la- voravano." [The thought occurring to them, that with such a profusion of gold and silver they were fabri- cating a long chain for the poverty of their house.] Qui- rini. ELEMENTS OF THE ROMAN POPULATION. 345 to impose intolerable restraints on the sove- reign authority, and the Polish nobility achiev- ed complete independence. So also it came to pass in Rome. A numerous, wealthy, and powerful aristocracy surrounded the papal throne; the families already established cur- tailed the growth of the new ones ; from the absolute will and straightforward boldness of monarchy the spiritual authority lapsed into the deliberation, the quietude, and the phleg- matic slowness characteristic of an aristocratic constitution. Under these circumstances the court as- sumed an altered aspect. A remarkable pause occurred to that immigration of foreigners, who used to seek their fortunes there, and to the incessant flux and reflu.\ of new successful adventurers. A fixed population had grown up, whose numbers continued to increase in much less rapid ratio. Let us cast a glance over its composition. Elements of the Roman population. Let us begin with the highest classes of whom we have just been speaking. Among them flourished the time-honoured stocks of the Savelli, Conti, Orsini, Collona, and Gaetani. The Savelli still possessed their ancient jurisdiction of the Corte Savella, with the privilege of every year delivering one. criminal from the punishment of death ;* ac- cording to immemorial custom, the ladies of this family never left their palaces, or if at all, only in carriages carefully closed on all sides. The Conti preserved in their halls the por- traits of the popes who had sprung from their house. The Gaetani dwelt with no little pride on the memory of Bonifacius VIIL, aflirming — and people were inclined to concede the fact — that the spirit of that pope rested upon them. The Colonna and the Orsini boasted that for eight centuries, no peace had been concluded among ihe sovereigns of Christen- dom in which they had not been included by name.f But however powerful they might have been in former times, they had owed their importance to their connexion with the curia and the popes. Though the Orsini were masters of the fairest possessions, which ought to have brought them in 80,000 scudi, they had been greatly reduced by an inconsiderate liberality, and stood in need of the aid of ec- clesiastical oEBces. The contestabile, Don Filippo Colonna, had but just succeeded in re- establishing his pecuniary circumstances, through the permission granted him by Urban VIIL to reduce the rate of interest on his debts, and by the ecclesiastical benefices to which that pope advanced his four sons.| * Discorso del dominio temporals e spiriluale del sommo ponipfice, 1664. t Descriitione delle famiglie nobili Komane: MS. in the library of St. Mark, vi. 237 & 284. t Alraaden : Relatione di Koma. " II primogenito 6 44 For it was long an established custom, that the rising families should enter into close re- lations with those ancient princely houses. There existed for a long while under Inno- cent two great clans, or factions. The Orsini, Cesarini, Borghesi, Aldobrandini, Ludovisi, and Giustiniani, were connected with the Pamfili; opposed to them were the Colon- nesi and the Barberini. The reconciliation of Donna Olimpia with the Barberini made the union general; it embraced all the fami- lies of note. Even in this class we now remark a change. Formerly the reigning family had always played the leading part, and thrown their pre- decessors into the shade by the acquisition of great wealth. This had now ceased to be practicable : in the first place, because the old families had, either through mutual inter- marriages or by sound economy, become too rich for this ; secondly, because the resources of the papacy had become gradually exhausted. The Chigi could no longer pretend to surpass their predecessors ; the Rospigliosi were far from having any such desire, being quite con- tent if they could succeed in obtaining a foot- ing among them. Every society is sure to be represented, to mirror itself, if we may use the expression, in some intellectual phenomenon, — some custom, or peculiarity of manners : the most peculiar phenomenon of this Roman society and its in- tercourse was the ceremonial of the court. Never, on the whole, has there been an epoch in which ceremony was more rigorously in- sisted on than in those days. This was in general keeping with the aristocratic tenden- cies of the age : the fact that it was more par- ticularly observable at Rome, may have arisen from the pre-eminence claimed by that court over all others, which it sought to express in certain externals,* and from the contests for precedency that had been waged there from remote times by the ambassadors of Spain and France. Hence tliere were innumerable dis- putes about rank ; between the ambassadors and the higher functionaries, such, for in- stance, as the governatore ; between the car- dinals who had places in the rota and those who had not ; between a vast number of other bodies of public officers ; and between the va- rious families, such as the Orsini and the Co- lonna. Pope Sixtus V. in vain decided that the eldest of either house should always have the precedence ; if this chanced to be a Co- Don Fedencoprincipe di Botero ; il secondo Don Girolamo cardinal e, cuore del padre emeritamentepcressersignore di tutta bonta ; il terzo Don Carlo, il quale dopo diversi soldi di Fiandra e di Germania si fece monaco ed abate Casinense: il quarto Don Marc Antonio, accasato in Sicilia: il quinto Don Prospero coramendatore di S. Giovannii: il sesto Don Pietro abbate secolare, stroppio della persona, ma allrettanto fatica d'ingegno." * Complaints of these attempts were made among others by the French ambassador Bethune, Feb. 23, 1G27. See Siri, Meraorie rec. vi. p. 262. 846 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. lonna, the Orsiiii did not make their appear- ance : if it were an Orsini, the Colonna stayed away. But even to these illustrious families the Conti and the Savelli gave way with great reluctance, and only under incessant protestations. The distinctions of rank were most minutely defined. The relations of the pope, for instance, had both wings of the door thrown open for them as they entered the papal apartments : other barons or cardinals were obliged to content themselves with the opening of one wing. A singular fashion of displaying respect was introduced : one who was driving in his carriage would stop when he met the equipage of a person superior to him in rank, or of a patron. It is said that marchese Mattel was the first who paid this compliment to cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and upon that occasion the cardinal also drew up, and they interchanged a few words.* Others soon followed the example. Ambas- sadors received this mark of respect from their countrymen : it became an universal usage, an universal duty, nothwithstanding its ex- treme inconvenience. Trifles are precisely what vanity clings to with most pertinacity ; they excused a man for exacting them to the uttermost from his dependants or equals. Let us go a step lower in the scale. In the middle of the seventeenth century they counted in Rome about fifty noble families, three hundred years old ; five-and-thirty, two hundred ; sixteen, one hundred. None were considered of higher antiquity, and they were generally referred to a mean and obscure origin.f A large proportion of them had ori- ginally settled in the campagna. Unfor- tunately, however, at the period when luoghi di monti bore high interest, the majority of them were induced to sell their estates to the families founded by the pope's nephews, and to invest the proceeds in papal monti. At first this seemed to afibrd them no trifling ad- vantage. The nepotes paid very liberally, often beyond the value of their purchase, while the interest drawn without any personal exer- tions from the luoghi di monte, amounted to more than the net profit which the most care- ful husbandry could have extracted from the cultivation of the land. But the vendors soon found out that they had exchanged real estates for fluctuating capital. Alexander VII. was driven to reductions of the monti, by which a * I have seen a special treatise on this subject in the Barberini library: Circa il fermar le caruzze per compli- nienlo e come s' introdiisse in use. I Almaden : " La maggior parte delle famiglie oggi sli- male a Roma nobili vengono da basso principo, como da- notaro, speziale, che sarebbe da supportare, ma dell' arte puzzolente della concia di corame. lo bench6 sappia particolarmenie I'origine, non pero lo scrivo per non of- fendere alcuno." [The greater part of the families now deemed noble in Rome sprang from base beginnings, such as notaries and apothecaries, wpU enough in their way, though slinking like tan pits. Though I am parti- cularly acquainted with the origin of the several families, still, to avoid giving offence, 1 will not mention it.] shock was given to credit, and the value of the luoghi was greatly depressed. There was not a family that did not lose by the event. But numerous new families arose by the side of the old ones. The cardinals and pre- lates of the curia proceeded in exact imita- tion of the popes, each according to the mea- sure of his fortune. They, too, failed not to employ the surplus of their ecclesiastical re- venues in enriching their kinsmen, and found- ing families. Others rose to eminence through judicial appointments. No few owed their elevation to their employment as money- changers in connexion with the dataria. In the time we are treating of, there were reck- oned fifteen Florentine, eleven Genoese, nine Portuguese, and four French families, who in this way had risen to more or less distinction, according to their good fortune, or their ta- lents : some there were among them whose reputation no longer depended on the affairs of the day, money-kings, such as, under Ur- ban VIII., the Guicciardini and the Doni, with whom Giustiniani, Primi, and Pallavi- cini associated themselves.* And even with- out business of this kind families of note were constantly resorting to Rome, not only from Urbino, Rieti, and Bologna, but also from Parma and Florence. The establishment of the monti, and the saleable offices, were strong allurements. For a long while luoghi di monte were a kind of property in much de- mand, especially the vacabili, which were a sort of life-annuity, and therefore yielded an interest of ten and a half per cent. : but which were not only transferred from more aged to younger members of a family, but even where this had been neglected, passed absolutely in the way of inheritance, — a practice which the curia made no difficulty of furthering. The same was the case with the saleable offices. They ought to have reverted to the camera on the death of the holder, and for this reason the salaries paid on them bore so high a pro- portion to the capital originally paid in ; they were, in fact, purely and simply rent-charges, since the holder was bound to no official du- ties : and even these offices could be trans- mitted without much difficulty. Many a one of them was not vacant for a century to- gether. The union of the public functionaries, and of the montists, in colleges, gave them a sort of corporate character ; and although gradual infringements were made on their rights, still they always maintained an independent posi- tion. They found their advantage in the aristocratic principle blended with the system * Almaden: "Non passano ancora la seconda genera- tione di cittadinanza Romana, . . . son venule da Fio- renza e Genova coll' occasione del danaro . . . molte volte mojono nelle fascie." [Their Roman citizenship is not older yet than the second generation . . . they came hither from Florence and Genoa on money matters . . . they often die in swaddling clothes.] EDIFICES ERECTED BY THE POPES. 347 of credit and public debt. Strangers, indeed, found them at times very overbearing. The lower classes grew continually in num- bers and solidity, grouped round the many fa- milies established, or rising, and daily increas- ing in stability, into whose hands passed the bulk of the church revenues. Lists of the Roman population have come down to us, which exhibit, on a comparison of various years, a very remarkable result re- specting its growth and formation. It cannot be said, on the whole, that its advance was very rapid. In the year 1600 we find the number of inhabitants about 110,000, and fifty- six years afterwards, somewhat above 120,000, no extraordinary increase. But another cir- cumstance particularly merits our attention. Formerly the population of Rome had been very fluctuating; its numbers sank under Paul IV. from 80,000 to 50,000, and rose again, after the lapse of a few decenniums, to more than 100,000. The reason of this was that the court was made up for the most part of unmarried men, who had no permanent abode there. Now, on the contrary, the popu- lation consisted chiefly of resident families. This began towards the end of the sixteenth century, but it was carried to its greatest height in the first half of the seventeenth. Rome numbered in the year 1600, 109,729 inhabit's, 20,019 families, 1614, 115,643 — 1619, 106,0.50 — 1628, 115,374 — 1644, 110,608 — 1653, 118,882 1656, 120,596 21,422 24,380 24,429 27,279 29,081 30,103 We perceive that the number of inhabit- ants occasionally diminishes, while that of the families constantly augments: it rose up- wards of 10,000 in the course of these fifty- six years, which is the more remarkable, since the increase in the number of inhabitants dur- ing that period is exactly the same. The multitude of single men passing to and fro declined, whilst the mass of the population became stationary. The proportion has con- tinued the same up to the present time, with the exception of slight modifications resulting from maladies, and from the natural tendency of population to repair its own losses. After the return of the popes from Avignon and the cessation of the schism, the city, vi^hich had seemed hastening to the condition of a mere village, grew up round the curia. But it was only after the papal families had risen to power and opulence, when all fears of intestine disorders and foreign foes had passed away, and the rent-charges derived from the income of the church or of the state * The tables from which these numbers are extracted exist in manuscript in the Barberini library. A later one from 1702 to 1816, is given in Canoellieri, Del taraniismo di Roma, p. 73. afforded the means of enjoying life without labour, that a numerous resident population grew up in Rome, [ts prosperity and its wealth were always dependent, whether in respect to direct donations, or of the indirect advantages, on the importance of the church and the court. All were indeed upstarts, like the papal families themselves. Hitherto the families already established in Rome had continually received accessions to their numbers in the persons of new settlers who flocked thither, particularly from the na- tive town of each successive pope : but the aspect now assumed by the court put an end to this. The capital itself had assumed its character and constitution under the influence of that vast agency in the affairs of the world, which the Roman see had acquired through the general restoration of Catholicism ; it was in the course of that great evolution, that those Roman families arose which flourish to til is day : from the moment the spiritual do- minion ceased to spread, the population like- wise desisted from its growth. It was alto- gether a creation of that epoch. Nay, the modern city itself, such as it still captivates the attention of travellers, belongs for the most part to the same period of the catholic restoration. Let us advert briefly to its history. Edifices erected by the Popes. We have noticed the magnificence of the architectural schemes projected and executed by Sixtus, and have inquired into the views, with regard to religion and the church, by which they were prompted. Clement VII. imitated him in this respect. Some of the most beautiful chapels in the churches of San Giovanni and San Pietro owe their erection to him : he laid the foundation of the new palace of the Vatican : the pope and his secretary of state reside at this day in the apartments built by Clement. But it was, above all, Paul V. who made it his ambition to rival the Franciscan. " Through- out the whole city," says a contemporaneous life of him, " he has levelled hills, opened long vistas where before there were crooks and corners, laid out great squares, and rendered them still more stately with new buildings : he has constructed water- works, that throw out no mere jets from pipes, but that gush in streams. The variety of the gardens he has planned, vies with the splendour of his pal- aces. The whole interiors of his private cha- pels glisten with silver and gold; they are not so much adorned as filled with jewels. The public chapels tower like basilicse, the basilicaj like temples, the temples like moun- tains of marble."* * Vila Paulj V. compendiose scripta. MS. Barb. 348 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. It is not, we perceive, tlie beauty and the symmetry, but the splendour and colossal mag-nitude of his works that excite our author's praise ; and such indeed were their chief cha- racteristics. In the church of S. Maria Mag-giore, he erected opposite to the Sistine chapel one far more gorgeous, constructed entirely of the most costly marble. He brought the water that bears his name, the Aqua Paolina, to the Janiculus, from a distance of five and thirty miles, a much longer course than that run by the Aqua Felice. Opposite the fountain and the Moses of Sixtus V. but at a distance from them, it bursts forth with five times the force, in four copious branches. Who is there knows not that hill of ancient renown, the site of Porsenna's at- tack, now clothed all over with vineyards, orchards, and ruins'? from its height the eye wanders over the city and the surrounding country, to the distant mountains wrapped in their transparent veil wrought out of the many- coloured mists of evening. The solitude is sublimely enlivened by the noise of the gush- ing waters. What distinguishes Rome from all other cities, is the profusion of its waters, and the multitude of its fountains. The Aqua Paolina contributes the largest share towards this charming feature. It fills the incompar- able fountains of the Piazza S. Pietro, it is con- ducted under the Ponte Sisto into the city proper, and it feeds the fountains in the Far- nese palace, and many others. As Sixtus V. reared ihe cupola of St. Pe- ter's, Paul V. undertook the general comple- tion of the edifice.* This he accomplished on the largest scale, in accordance with the taste of his age. In these days we should, no doubt, prefer seeing the original plan of Bra- mante and Michael Angelo fully carried out; but the work of Paul V. entirely satisfied the tastes of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies. It is true the dimensions are enormous : who can admire that facade ? Still an air of cheerfulness, convenience, and grandeur per- vades the whole fabric. The colossal propor- tions of the buildings, the piazza, the obelisk, and the entire range of objects around, pro- duce that impression of the gigantic which was intended, and which forces itself irresist- ably on the beholder. Short as was the reign of the Ludovisi, they yet left behind them imperishable memorials in the church of S. Ignatio, and in their villa in the city. Niccolo Ludovisio once possessed six palaces, all of which he repaired or beau- tified. * MagnificentiaPauli V., scu piiblicaeutilitatisetsplen- doris opera a Paulo vel in urbe vel alibi insliluta. MS. Unius Pauli jussu impensisque instrucia ejus lempli pars cum reliquis ab omnibus retro ponlificibus exstruciis par- libus meiito conferri potest." [That part of the temple erected at Paul's sole order and expense, may justly be compared with the parts constructed by all the popes that preceded him.] We find reminiscences of Urban VIII. not only in numerous churches, such as S. Bibi- ana, S. Quirico, S. Sebastiano on the Palatine, but also, more in accordance with his tastes, in palaces, and fortifications. After he had surrounded St. Angelo with ditches and ram- parts, and thoroughly fortified it, as he boasts on his coins, he constructed the wall round the Vatican and the Belvidere garden, as far as the Porta Cavalleggieri, according to the plan of the accomplished architect, cardinal Maculano. At the last named point, it met with other defensive works, which were in- tended to embrace the Lungara, Trastevere, and the Janiculus, and to reach as far as the priory on the Aventine : Porta Portuense was principally erected by Urban VIII. It was not till he had thus fenced himself in that he felt secure. He carefully restored the bridge that leads from the papal residence to the castle.* Pope Innocent X. was a zealous architect, and left marks of his taste on the Capitol, the two sides of which he endeavoured to harmon- ize, in the Lateran church, (where he deserves the credit of having dealt with more regard to ancient forms than was usual in his times) and, above all, in the Piazza Navona. It was noticed, that when he crossed the Piazza S. Pietro, he never took his eyes oft' the fountain which Paul V. had erected there.f He would gladly have vied with that pope, and adorned his favourite piazza with one still more beau- tiful. Bernini exerted all the powers of his art to that end. An obelisk was brought from Caracalla's circus, and on it were fixed the arms of the house of Pamfili. Houses were pulled down to give the piazza a new form ; the church of S. Agnete was rebuilt from the foundations, and near it was constructed the palazzo Pamfili, richly adorned with statues, pictures, and costly internal decorations. The vigna which his family possessed beyond the Vatican, he transformed into one of the most beautiful of villas, comprising within it every thing that can render a country life delightful. Tlie modern taste for regularity comes forth in the works of Alexander VII. Many were the houses he pulled down to obtain straight streets : the palazzo Salviati was doomed to fall to form the Piazza del Collegio Romano; and the Piazza Colonna, where stood the pal- ace of his family, was transformed by him. He restored the Sapienza and the Propaganda. But his most illustrious monument is unques- tionably the colonnades with which he sur- * Cancellieri copied into his work, Del tarantismo di Roma, p. 55, the passages which belong here from the Diario of Giacinto Gigli, which wasunfortiniat'--ly purloin- ed from me at Kome,— the greatest loss my collection has sustained. f Diario, Deone ; 4 Luslio, 1648. He remarks, however, " La quale (la fontana di^ papa Paolo— there was then only- one) difficilmente potra superare n6 in bellezza nfi in quantity d' acque." [He will not find it easy to surpass Paul's fountain, either for beauty or quantity of water. J EDIFICES ERECTED BY THE POPES. 349 rounded the upper portion of the Piazza S. Pietro, a colossal work of twelve hundred and eighty-four columns, and eighty-eight pilas- ters. Whatever may have been urged against it, both then and subsequently,* it cannot be denied that it is in keeping with the pervading idea of the building it adjoins, and that it con- tributes to the mingled sense of the immensity and of cheerfulness which is called up by the whole place. Such was the gradual growth of the city, which has since been the object of so many a traveller's pilgrimage. Treasuries of art of every description accumulated in it as it rose. Extensive libraries were collected ; not only the Vatican, the Augustine, and Dominican monasteries, and the houses of the fathers of the oratory, but likewise the palaces too, were furnished with them : men vied with each other in amassing printed books, and gathered to- gether rare MSS. It was not that science was pursued with very great assiduity ; men studied indeed, but leisurely, and less with the desire of novel discovei-ies, than with a view to acquire and reproduce what was al- ready known. Out of all those academies that sprang up year by year, here and there one devoted itself to some branch of natural science, such as botany for instance, though not with any marked success;! but all the rest, the Good-humoured,]: the Orderly, the Maidenlike, the Fantastics, the Uniform, or whatever other strange names they bore, em- ployed themselves with poetry and rhetoric, or with exercises of intellectual skill, which remained confined to a narrow range of thought, and yet wasted the abilities of many a promising mind. Nor were books the only objects in request to adorn the palaces of Rome : works of art of ancient and recent times, antiquities of various kinds, statues, relievos, and inscriptions, were likewise con- sidered indispensable. In the times we are considering, the dwellings of the Cesi, the Giustiniani, the Strozzi, and the Massimi, and * Sagredo. " I colonnati che si vanno intorno alia pi- azza origendo, di quatro ordini di questi restar cinla doven- do, tuui in forma ovala; quali formeranno tre portici coperti con tre magnifici ingressi, e sopra da un corridore che sari d' altro ordine di picciole colonne e di statue adornalo ; il papa prelende che sevir debbano per ricevere della pioggia e del sole alle corrozze." [The colonnades now in the course of erection round the place, which is to be encircled by four orders of them, are all of them of an oval form, and will constitute three covered porticos with three magnificent entrances ; and over them will be a corridore with another order of small columns and adorn- ed with statues. The pope's intention is, that they shall shelter carriages from the sun and rain.] The expenses amounted already to 900,000 scudi, which were drawn from the funds of Fabriea di S. Pietro. •f I allude to the Lincei founded in 1603, by Federigo Cesi, which accom])li3hed indeed little more than the Italian Version of the Natural History of Mexico by Fer- nandez. Tiraboschi : Storia della Letteratura Italiana, viii. p. 195. t Die Gutgelaunten,— for so we must translate Umoristi, according to llie accounts given by Erythoeus, which are extremely well put together in Fischer's Vita Eryihraei, p. 4. 41. the gardens of the Mattel, were the most fa- mous in this respect ; besides which, collec- tions like that of Kircher at the Jesuits' col- lege excited no less admiration among con- temporaries. It was more, however, curiosity and antiquarian pedantry that prompted to the formation of these collections, than sus- ceptibility to the beauty of form or profound understanding of art. It is remarkable, that at the bottom the men of those days still thought on the subject as Sixtus V. had done. They were very far as yet from bestowing on the remains of antiquity that attention and guardian care which they have met with in later times. What could be expected of an age in which we find one of the privileges of the Borghese to have been, that they were not to incur punishment for any kind of demo- lition. It is hardly credible what things were permitted in the seventeenth century. The Thermae of Constantino for example, had tol- erably survived the vicissitudes of so many ages, and assuredly gratitude to their erector, who had done so much for the dominion of the Christian church, should have proved their safeguard ; nevertheless they were demolished to the foundation under Paul V., and convert- ed, in accordance with the taste of the day, into a palace and gardens, which were after- wards exchanged for the Villa Mondragone in Frascati. Even the Temple of Peace, at that time in tolerable preservation, found no favour at the hands of Paul V. He conceived the strange idea of erecting a colossal cast iron statue to the Virgin and Child, and to elevate it to such a height, that the whole city might be overlooked by its protectress. Now a col- umn of unusual length was requisite for that purpose ; and such an one he found at last in the Temple of Peace. Without troubling himself to reflect, that in its place it was in keeping with the general structure, and that when isolated it would rather look odd and startling than beautiful and appropriate, he carried it off, and placed on it that colossus which we now behold. Admitting even that all is not true which has been laid to the charge of the Barberini, it cannot yet be denied that on the whole they proceeded in this self-same style. Under Ur- ban VIII. the intention was actually revived of demolishing that sole surviving and incom- parable monument of the republican times, the monument of Coecilia Metella, in order to employ the travertine of which it was built on the Fontana di Trevi. The project was suggested by Bernini, the most renowned statuary and architect of the day, and the pope gave him a brief sanctioning its execu- tion. The work of destruction was actually begun, when the Roman people, who loved their antiquities, became acquainted with the matter and resisted it by force. For the sec- 350 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. [1644. ond time it rescued this, its oldest relic, from the spoiler's hand : the workmen were obliged to desist to avoid a tumult.* Now all these acts of destruction were part and parcel of the general spirit of the age. The epoch of the restoration had its own pecu- liar ideas and impulses, which strove for sole dominion even in art and literature, and could neither understand nor appreciate any thing foreign to their own nature, but were resolved on demolishing if they could not subdue it. Notwithstanding this, Rome was still the metropolis of civilization, unrivalled in its erudite zeal for collecting, and in the practice of art after the fashion sanctioned by the taste of the age : it was still creative in the depart- ment of music ; the concerted style of the cantata arose then by the side of the church style, and enraptured all travellers. " A man must be by nature perverted," exclaims Spon, who visited Rome in 1674, " who does not find himself satisfied in some branch or anoth- er."t He goes through all these branches, the libraries in which the rarest books may be studied; the concerts in the churches and palaces, where the finest voices are daily to be heard ; the multitude of the collections of statuary and painting, ancient and modern ; the many noble fabrics of all times, whole villas covered with bas-reliefs and inscriptions, of which he singly copied upwards of a thou- sand ; the presence of so many foreigners of all na.tions and tongues ; the enjoyment of na- ture in the enchanting gardens ; and he adds, that any one who loves devotion will find in churches, relics and processions enough to engage his whole life. Undoubtedly other places displayed nobler intellectual movements; but the complete- ness and rounded fulness of the Roman world, the abundance of wealth, and the tranquil en- joyment, heightened by security and content, which the faithful derived from the uninter- rupted contemplation of the objects of their veneration, exerted a mighty charm, some- times appealing to one feeling, sometimes to another, and at times to all alike. Let us consider the force of this charm in its most striking example, one too which had a lively reaction on the court of Rome. Digression concerning queen Christina of Sweden. We have often had occasion to turn our at- tention to Sweden. In that same country where Lutheranism had first revolutionized the whole political constitution, where the anti-reformation in so unusual a manner found representatives and adversaries in the highest personages, and from whence went forth the power that chief- * Deone relates this at full length. f Spon et Wheler : Voyage d'llalie et de Grfice, i. p. 39. ly decided the great struggle that engaged the world, in that country Catholicism, under the new aspect it had assumed, now made the most unexpected conquest, gaining over to itself the daughter of the great protestant champion, queen Christina of Sweden. How this took place is a matter well worthy of consideration, both intrinsically, and as re- gards our subject. Let us begin by investigating the position occupied by the young queen in her native dominions. After the death of Gustavus Adolphus, the question was for a moment agitated in Swe- den, (just as it had been in Austria in 1619, in Portugal in 1640, and in many other places at that time,) whether the country should not throw off the royal yoke, and constitute itself a republic* The proposal indeed was rejected ; homage was paid to the daughter of the deceased king ; but the circumstance that she was a child but six years old, and that there was no one of royal blood capable of grasping the reins of government, threw the powers of the state into the hands of a few. The anti-mo- narchical tendencies of the times found cor- dial acceptance in Sweden ; the conduct of the long parliament in England aroused such feelings, and still more so the movements of the Fronde,, inasmuch as they were more de- cidedly aristocratic. " I see plainly," Chris- tina herself once said in the senate, " that people here wish that Sweden may become an elective monarchy or an aristocracy."! But the young sovereign had no inclination to suffer the decay of the royal authority ; she strove to be queen in the full sense of the word. From the moment she entered on the functions of government, in the year 1644, she devoted herself to public business with admirable zeal. She never neglected a sit- ting of the senate : we hear of her sufl^ering from fever, and having recourse to blood-let- ting, yet attending the sittings notwithstand- ing. She was careful to prepare herself be- forehand, reading through state-papers many sheets in length, and making herself mistress of their contents: in the evening before retir- ing to rest, and in the morning on waking, * La vie de la riene Christine faite par elle mfeme in Arckenholtz, M^moirea pour servir ii I'histoire de Chris- line, torn. iii.p.41 : " On m' a voulu persuader qu'on niit en deliberation en certaines assemblees paniculi6res s'il falloit se mettre en liberie n'ayant qu'un enfant en Idle, dont il 6toit ais6 de se d^faire, et de s'^riger en r6pub- lique." Compare the note by Arckenhollz. t A remarkable proof of this aristocratic tendency is the judgment passed on the constitution by the greater part of the estates and "good patriots" of the year 1644, that has recently been published. See Geijer, Schwe- dische Geschichte, iii. 357. None of the five high offices of state were to be filled u]) in any other way than by the nomination of three candidates by the states, one of whom should be elected. None but one of three proposed by the house of Knights itself should be elected Grand Mar- shal. A Consistorium politico-ecclesiasticum was de- manded, with a president and assessors freely chosen by the estates, &c. A. D. 1644-54.] QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN. 351 she pondered over the points of difficulty.* She had the art of stating questions for dis- cussion with great dexterity, never letting it appear to which side lier own sentiments in- clined. After hearing the opinions of the members, she used to pronounce her own, which was always found substantially based, and was usually adopted. Foreign ambassa- dors were astonished at the personal influ- ence she contrived to acquire in the senate,t though she herself was never satisfied with it. She had a considerable share in an event of such universal importance as the peace of Westphalia. The officers of the army, and even one of her ambassadors to the congress, were averse to the measure ; and there were also in Sweden persons who disapproved of the concessions made to the catholics, parti cularly those of the hereditary dominions of Austria. But Christina did not choose to ap- peal incessantly to fortune ; Sweden had never been so glorious, or so powerful ; her pride was gratified in confirming that condi- tion of her kingdom, and restoring peace to Christendom. She not only repressed the ambition of the aristocracy with all her might, but left them no hope of obtaining in future the power they coveted. Young as she was, she very soon brought forward a proposal for tlie nomination of her cousin, the count palatine Charles Gus- tavus, as her successor. She asserts that the prince had never ventured to hope for such a measure ; that she carried it through single- handed against the will of the senate, which had objected even to take it into considera- tion, and against the will of the estates, which assented to it only in deference to her ; in short, it was wholly her own suggestion, and she realized it in spite of all difficulties. The succession was irrevocably settled. J It is doubly remarkable, that, with all this * Paolo Casati al papa Alessandro VII. sopra la regina di Suecia, MS. " Ella m' ha piu d' una volta assicurato di non aver portalo avanli alcun negotio grave a cui non avesse quasi due anni prima pensato, e che molte hore delld rnalina, dopo clie s' era svegliata da quel poco son- no clie era solita di prendere, impiegava nel considerare i negolii e conseguenze loro benchfi lonlane." [Slie has more than oiice assured me that she never carried out any great measure to which she had not previously given nearly two years thought, and that she was in the habit of employing many hours in tlte morning, on waking from the short sleep she was used to take, in considering mat- ters of slate and their consequences however remote.] t Memoires de cequi est passe en Suede tirez des de- pesches de Mr- Chanut, i. p. 24.5. (1648 F6vr.) " II est incroyable comment elle est puissante dans son conseil, car elle ajoute t la quality dareine la grace, le credit, les bienfails et la force de persuader." [It is incredible what power she possesses with her council, for she com- bines with the dignity of queen, grace, credit, benefi- cence, and persuasive force.] In a copy of these Me- moires which appeared in 167.5, there have been found marginal notes in the queen's handwriting. These in- deed express more the dissatisfaction of a later period, than accurate recollections of the first years of her reign ; but at any rate we must lake them as modifying Chanut's assertions. t R6gne de Christine jusqu' t. sa resignation, in Arck enholtz, ill. 162, Notes. zeal for business, she devoted herself at the same time to study, with an ardour amount- ing almost to a passion. Even in her child- ish years nothing had more delighted her than her lessons. This might have been attributable to her residing with her mother, who surrendered herself wholly to grief for the loss of her husband : the child used daily to long impatiently for the moment when she should escape from the gloomy chambers of mourning. But she possessed extraordinary natural talents too, especially for languages ; she relates that she learned most of them without a teacher,* which was the more re- markable, as in some of them she really at- tained to the proficiency of a native. As she grew up, she became continually more fasci- nated by the charms of literature. It was the epoch in which learning gradually emanci- pated itself from the fetters of theological controversy, and universally acknowledged reputations towered above the strife of par- ties. It was her ambition to have men of celebrity about her, and to avail herself of their instruction. First came a few German philologists and hitorians, such as P'reinsheim, at whose soli- citation she remitted his native town of Ulm the chief part of the war contributions imposed on it.f Next followed Nether- ianders: Isaac Vossius brought into vogue the study of Greek; Christina soon made acquaintance with the best authors of anti- quity, and even the fathers of the church did not remain unknown to her. Nicolaus Hein- sius boasts it as iiis first good fortune, that he was born in the queen's time : as the second, that he became known to her ; for the third and best, he wishes posterity to learn, that he was not wholly displeasing to her. She em- ployed him chiefly to procure her costly MSS. antl rare books from Italy, which he did con- scientiously, and with success. The Italians began to complain that ships were freighted with the spoils of their libraries, that the ap- pliances of learning were carried off from them to the extremity of the north. | In 1650 Salmasius made his appearance : the queen had sent to him to say, that if he would not come to her, she would be forced to go to him. He resided a year in her palace. Lastly, Des Cartes was also induced to visit her. Every * La vie de Christine 4ct. p. e. m. p. 53 ; " Je savois Hi I'age de quatorze ans toutes les langues, toutes les sci- ences et lous les exercises dont on vouloit m'inslruire. Mais depuis j'en ai appris bien d'autres sans le secours d'aucun maitre: et il est certain que je n'en eus jamais pour apprendre la langue AUemande, la Frangoise, I'lta- lienne, ni I'Espaguole." [I knew at the age of fourteen all the languages, all the sciences, and all the accom- plishments they chose to teach me. But since then I have learned many others without the help of any master, and it is certain that I never had one to learn the German, French, Italian, and Spanish languages.] t Harangue pan6gyrique de Freinshemius ii Christine 1647, in Arckenholiz, second appendix, p. 104. t Compare Grauert : Konigin Christina und ihr Hof, p. I 379. 407. 352 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. [ v. d. 1644-54. morning at five o'clock he had the honour to see her in her library. It is asserted that, to his amazement, he found she had succeeded in deducing his own ideas from Plato. It is certain that in her conferences with the learned, as in her discussions with the senate she displayed a most felicitous memory, and a rapid apprehension and penetration. " Her genius is in the highest degree extraordi- nary," exclaimed JNaudoeus in amazement. " She has seen every thing, read every thing, and knows every thing."* A wonderful production she was of nature and fortune : a young lady free from all per- sonal vanity ; she never sought to conceal from herself that she had one shoulder higher than the other. She was told that her great- est beauty consisted in luxuriant hair, yet she did not even devote the most ordinary atten- tion upon it ; she was wholly a stranger to all the petty cares of life : never troubled her- self about her table, never complained of any food set before her, and drank nothing but water. She never could understand any womanly work : on the other hand, she de- lio-hted to be told, that at her birth she had been mistaken for a boy ; that in her earliest childhood, instead of being terrified at the discharge of artillery, she clapped her hands, and proved herself a genuine soldiers child. She sat her horse with great boldness: no sooner had she set one foot in the saddle, than she would start off at speed ; in hunting she would bring down the game at the first shot. She studied Tacitus and Plato, and some- times understood those authors better than philologists by profession. Young as she was, she was capable of conceiving independent and just opinions, and of triumphantly main- taining them among senators grown grey in worldly experience. She plunged into busi- ness with the quick spirit of innate acuteness; above all things, she was penetrated with a sense of the high importance conferred on her by her descent, and by the necessity of ruling by herself. She never referred an ambassa- dor to her minister; she would never suffer a subject of her's to wear a foreign order ;^ she would not, she said, have a member of her flock marked by another's hand. She knew how to assume a countenance that struck generals mute before whom Germany had quailed : had a new war broken out, she would undoubtedly have placed herself at the head of her troops. Such tastes as these, and so imperious a disposition, made the thought of marrying — of giving a man rights over her person — intole- * Naud6 a Gassendi, 19 Oct. 1652. " La reine de la quelle je puis dire sans flallerie qu'ello lienl mieux sa parlie fes conferences qu'elle lieni assez souvenl avec MessiPurs Bochart, Bourdelol, du Fresno el moi, qu'an- cum de la compaL'nie, el si je vous dis que son esprit est tout a fait extraordinaire je he mentirai point car elle a lout vu, elle a tout lus, elle sail loul. rable to her. Whatever obligation she might be under to her kingdom to contract such an engagement, she thought herself sufficiently absolved from it by the settlement of the suc- cession. After her coronation, she declared she would rather die than marry.* But could such a position as hers be main- tained ] There was something forced and laboured in it ; it wanted the equilibrium of health, the security of a natural and self- satisfied state of existence. It was not love of business that plunged her into it so impe- tuously : ambition and the pride of the sove- reign impelled her, but she found no pleasure in it. Neither Avas she fond of her native land, its pleasures or its habits, its religion, or its political constitution ; nor yet of its past history, with which she had no sympathy. The ceremonies of state, the long harangues to which she was obliged to listen, every offi- cial duty in which she was called on to engage personally, was absolutely hateful to her ; the range of education and learning to which her countrymen were content to confine them- selves, was contemptible in her eyes. Had she not occupied the throne of Sweden from her childhood, it would perhaps have appeared an object of desire to her ; but having been a queen from the earliest moment her memory could recal, all the longings that shape men's future destinies had in her taken a bent that averted her from her native land. Fancy, and love of all that was unusual, began to obtain mastery over her : she knew no pru- dential considerations, nor ever thought of opposing to the chance impulses of the mo- ment the superior force of that moral symme- try that became her position. True, she was highminded, courageous, full of elasticity and energy, magnanimous; but unbridled, impe- tuous, elaborately unfeminine, by no means amiable, unfilial even, and that not to her mother alone ; she spared not even the sacred memory of her father for the sake of a caustic retort: it would seem at times as though she knew not what she said.f Exalted as was her station, such conduct could not fail to produce its natural results, and to make her proportionally incapable of feeling contented, attached to her home, or happy. This spirit of discontent fastened above all on matters of religion, and the following were the results. The queen dwelt with peculiar pleasure on the memory of her instructor, doctor Johann Matthise, whose simple, pure, and gentle * " Jeme serois," she says in her autobiography, p. 57, "sans doute marine si je n'eusse reconnueen moi la force de me passer dos plaisirs de I'amour." [I should no doubt have married, had I not felt myself capable of fore- coing the pleasures of love.] And we may the more rea- dily believeherassertion,since this work is a sort of con- fession. t No other conclusion can be drawn from her conversa- tion with her mother, given in Chanut, iii. 365. May, 1654. A. D. 1644-54.] QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN. 353 spirit had gained her affection from the first, and who was her earliest confidant even in all the little affairs of ciiildhood.* Immedi- ately after it had become obvious that none of the existing chnrch parties would be able to overpower the rest, an inclination to unite them arose here and there m some right- thinking minds. Matthias was one of those who cherished this desire, and he published a book in which he discussed the question of an union between the two protestant churches. The queen shared his sentiments, and con- ceived the design of founding a theological academy, which was to undertake the recon- ciliation of the two confessions. But the unbridled zeal of inflexible Lutherans was immediately let loose against the project. A superintendent of Calmar made an indignant attack on Matthias's book, and the estates took part against him. The bishops admonished the council of state to watch over the national religion, and the grand chancellor appeared before the queen with representations that forced tears of vexation from her eyes.f It is probable she now thought she could clearly perceive that it was no pure zeal which stirred her Lutheran subjects. She was of opinion that an attempt was made to delude her by the idea of God that was set before her, with a view only to bend her to the purposes of the party. The representa- tions made to her of God struck her as unwor- thy of that great Being.J The prolix sermons, which had always been wearying to her, and to which she had been compelled by the ordinances of the kingdom to listen, now became intolerable to her. She often manifested her impatience, shifting her chair, and playing with her lap-dog; the in- exorable preachers only strove to keep her the longer. She was presently confirmed, by the arrival of foreigners of learning, in the temper pro- duced by these annoyances, which had excited in her an inward aversion to the established religion of the country. Some of these stran- gers were catholics ; others, for instance Isaac Vossius, gave reason to suspect them of infidelity ; Bourdelot, who had the most influ- ence with her, since he had ably and success- fully treated her for a dangerous illness, — the * " Trfis capable," she says in her Autobiography, p. 51, "de bien insiruire un enfant tel que j'^tois, ayant une honn6lete, une discretion el une douceur qui le faisoienl aimer et estiiner." [A very tit and able instructor for a child such as I was, his integrity, discretion, and gentle- ness being such as made him loved and resijeciod.] f Letter from Axel Oxenstierna, 2 May, 1647, in Arck- enholz, iv. App. n. 21, and particularly one from count Brahe, Arcken. iv. p. 229. — Matthise's work is the " Idea boni ordinis in ecclesia Christi." t " Je crus," she says, in a note given by Goldenblad, " que les homines vous faisoient parler t leur mode el qu'ils me vouloient tromper et me faire peur pour me gouverner Ji la leur." Arckenholtz, tom. iii. p. 209. [I believed that men represented you speaking in their own style, and that they wished to deceive and to frighten me, that ihey might govern me in their own way.] 45 very man for courts, full of information and talent for conversation, and totally divested of pedantry, — ^jested at every thing, the poly- histors and the national crcjeds, and was held a downright antisupernaturalist. The young queen gradually fell into incu- rable doubts. It seemed to her that all posi- tive religions were inventions of men, that every argument was of equal force against them all indiscriminately, and that it was in the end a matter of indifference which of them an individual embraced. With all this, however, she never went the length of absolute irreligion; some convictions she still retained, that were not to be shaken : in her royal solitude of a throne, she could not forego the idea of God, nay she even thought she was placed one step nearer to Him. " Thou knowest," she cried, " how often in language unknown to common souls, I have implored thy grace to enlighten me, and vowed to thee to obey thee, though it should be at the sacrifice of life and happi- ness." She connected this with her other peculiar notions: "I renounce," she said, "all other love, and devote myself to this." But could it be that God had left man with- out the knowledge of the true religion "] She was particularly struck by an expression of Cicero's, that the true religion could be but one, and tiiat all others must be false.* The question was, which was this one] Let us not think to ask what were her ar- guments and proofs. She often declared that she discovered no essential error of doctrine in protestantism. But as her disinclination for that creed sprang from an original feeling whicii was now not to be overcome, and which circumstances but made more intense, so did she rush towards Catholicism with an equally inexplicable inclination and entire sympathy. She was nine years old when she first received any precise account of the catholic church, and it was told her among other things, tliat in that communion the unmarried state was considered honourable. " O !" she cried, " how fine that is ! That is the religion ibr me." This was gravely rebuked ; but she only persisted the more obstinately in her deter- mination. Other impressions of a congenial nature were associated with this. "If one is catho- lic," she says, "one has the comfort of believ- ing what so many noble souls have believed for sixteen centuries, of belonging to a religion ratified by millions of miracles, and millions of martyrs; one," she adds, "which, lastly, has produced so many illustrious virgins, who have triumphed over the weaknesses of their sex, and consecrated themselves to God." * Pallavicini Vita Alexandri VII. For the passage, see Appendix No. 130. 354 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1644-54. The constitution of Sweden is based on protestantism : on it repose the fame, the power of that country, and the position it occupies amidst the nations of Europe. But on Christina protestantism was imposed by necessity: disgusted by a thousand accidental circumstances, untouched by its spirit, she asserted her own free will, and broke loose from its bondage : the opposite system, of which she had but a glimmering preconcep- tion, attracted her ; that the pope was invested with infallible authority, appeared to her an institution in accordance with the goodness of God ; day by day she clung more decidedly to this idea : it would seem as though she thus felt the cravings of her womenly nature satis- fied, as though faith sprung up in her heart, and took the place in others occupied by love, that love which is born of unconscious instinct, which is condemned by the world and must be concealed, but which therefore only strikes the deeper root, and which makes the che- rished bliss of a woman's heart, who is pre- pared to sacrifice all for it. It is at least certain, that Christina, in her desire of approximating to the court of Rome, had recourse to that mystery and craft which are commonly displayed only in the concerns of passion or of ambition ; she engaged, as it were, in an intrigue to become a catholic. In this she showed herself wholly a woman. The first to whom she made known her inclination was a Jesuit, Antonio Macedo, father confessor to the Portuguese ambassa- dor, Pinto Pereira.* Pereira spoke nothing but Portuguese, and brought with him his confessor to act as interpreter. The queen took a strange pleasure, in the audiences she gave the ambassador, in discussing with his interpreter, not state affairs, as the ambassador sujjposed, but religious controversies, and in confiding to him, in presence of a third party, who did not understand a word of what was passing, her most secret thoughts and specu- lations.f Macedo suddenly disappeared from Stock- holm. The queen affected to have him sought for and followed; but, in reality, she had herself sent him to Rome tomakeknown her intention to the general of the Jesuits, and request him to send her a couple of members of his order. In February 1652 they arrived in Stockholm. They were two young men, who represented * A certain Gottfried Fraiiken has sometimes been re- presented 10 have been the author of her conversion. According to the account of the matter given by Arckeii- holtz, i. 4(;5,lhefirstthoughlufsendingKrankentoStock- holij; arose on the return of Salmasius from thence, which took place in IGal. Now Macedo had been there as early a.- ISoO: his claims are indisputable. t Pallavicini: "Arctius idcirco sermones et colloquia miscuit, non tunc solum quum ad earn Macedus ab legato niittebatur, sed etiam ipso przesente, qui nihil intelligens animadvertebat tamen longiores esse inter eos sermones quain res ferrenl ab se imerpreli propositce et sibi ab inier- preie relaiae." themselves to be noblemen on their travels from Italy, upon which they were invited to the royal table. She instantly surmised what they were, and as they went immediately before her into the dining-room, she said in a whisper to one of them, perhaps he had letters for her. He answered in the affirmative without turning, upon which she hurriedly enjoined him to silence, and immediately after dinner sent her most confidential servant, Johann Holm, to conduct them to the palace next morning with the utmost secresy.* In the royal palace of Gustavus Adolphus, ambassadors from Rome met his daughter, to treat with her of her conversion to the Roman church. The peculiar charm the transaction had for Christina, was that no one had the least suspicion of it. The two Jesuits proposed at first, to observe the rules of the catechism ; but they soon perceived that in this case they could not be applied. The queen proposed to them ques- tions altogether different from those adverted to in that document ; — whether there was any ultimate distinction between good and evil, or whether all depended on the utility or mischief of an action ; how the doubts were to be set at rest which might be suggested against the belief in a Providence ; whether the soul of man is really immortal ; whether it were not most expedient to conform exter- nally to the established religion of one's coun- try, and inwardly to live in accordance with the laws of reason. The Jesuits do not in- form us how they replied to these questions : they tell us, that during the parley, thoughts occurred to them which had never crossed their minds before, and which they immedi- ately forgot again ; that the Holy Ghost acted directly on the queen's mind. In fact, she was already possessed by a decided bias that supplied whatever was wanting to each argu- ment, and to conviction itself. The most fre- quent stress was laid on the prime maxim, that the world cannot be left destitute of the true religion, and then the assertion was sub- joined, that of all existing religions, the catho- lic is the most reasonable. " Our grand effort," say the Jesuits, " was to prove that the points of our holy faith are above reason, but by no means contrary to it." The principal diffi- culty concerned the invocation of saints, and the adoration of images and relics. " But her majesty," they continue, "conceived with great penetration the whole force of the argu- ments we set before her ; otherwise we should have needed a great length of time." She also talked with them of the difficulty there would be, should she resolve on conforming to the church of Rome, in putting her design into effect. These difficulties seemed at times insurmountable, and one day the queen told * Relatione di Paolo Casali al papa Alessandro VII. For an extract, see Appendix, No. 131. A. D. 1652-54.] QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN. 355 the Jesuits when she received them, that they had better return home, that the project was impracticable, and that she could hardly ever become a catholic in her heart. The good fath- ers were amazed ; they urged every argument to fix her to her purpose, set before her God and eternity, and pronounced her doubts to be suggestions of Satan. It was highly charac- acteristic of her, that she was more decided at this very moment than at any previous in- terview, " What would you say," she ejac- ulated suddenly, " if I were nearer to becom- ing catholic than you imagine ]" " I cannot describe the emotions we felt," says the Je- suit narrator," " we were like men raised from the dead." The queen asked if the pope could not give her a dispensation to receive the sacrament once every year, according to the Lutheran ritual. " VVe answered no ; then, said she, there is no help for it, I must abdicate." In truth her thoughts daily tended more and more towards that step. The affairs of the country did not always proceed as could be wished. Contrasted with the powerful aristocracy which was closely knit together, the queen, with her retinue and adherents gathered from so many foreign lands, with the heir to the throne whom she had forced on the country, and count Magnus de la Gardie whom she honoured with her confidence, but whom tlie Swedish nobility would never acknowledge as their equal in birth, constituted a party that was regarded almost as foreign. Her unbounded liberality had exhausted the finances, and the moment was seen approaching when every resource would be dried up. Already in October, 1651, she had announced to the estates her intention of resigning. This was at the moment when she sent Antonio Macedo to Rome. She, however, suffered herself to be dissuaded for the time from her design. The chancellor of the realm entreated her not to be determined by the financial difficulties of the country ; due care should be taken that the splendour of the crown should not be impaired.* She saw plainly too, that her conduct would not wear that heroic aspect in the world's eye she at first supposed. When prince Frederick of Hesse shortly afterwards meditated a similar step, she exhorted him expressly against it; not exactly on religious grounds ; she only reminded him that those who change their religion are hated by the party they abandon, and despised by that to which they go over.f But by degrees these considerations ceased to influence herself It was in vain she endea- voured by frequent nominations to make a party in her favour in the council of state, which she increased from twenty-eight mem- bers to thirty-nine : the credit and consequence of the house of Oxenstierna, wliich had been for a while obscured, acquired fresh lustre by means of family connexions, by the force of habit, and by a talent that seemed as it were hereditary in the race. In many important affairs, as for instance, in the adjustment of matters with Brandenburg, the queen was left in the minority. Count Magnus de la Gardie too lost her favour. Money began to be sen- sibly scarce, and there was often not sufficient for the daily necessities of the royal house- hold.* Were it not really better that she should live abroad after the fashion of her own heart upon a stipulated yearly income, without being subjected to the endless interference of fanatic preachers, who saw in all her ways and doings nothing but romantic singularity and apostacy from the faith and the manners of the country ! Business was already be- come irksome to her, and she felt unhappy when she saw her secretaries approach her. Already the only intercourse she took pleasure in was that of the Spanish ambassador Don Antonio Pimentel, who took part in all her social pleasures and amusements, and in the meetings of the order of the amaranth, which she founded, and the memljers of which were obliged to pledge themselves to a kind of ce- libacy. Don Antonio was privy to her catho- lic intentions, and communicated them to his sovereign, who offered the queen an abode in his dominions, and promised to prepare the pope for her conversion.! Meanwhile pre- liminaries had been arranged in Italy by the Jesuits, who by this time had returned thither. She was now no longer to be dissuaded by any arguments from her purpose. Her letter to the French ambassador Chanut, proves how little she counted on approval : at the same time she affirms that this gave her no concern. tShe should be happy, strong in herself, with- out fear before God and man, and behold from the harbour the sufferings of those, who were still tossed on the stormy waves of life. Her only care was to secure her pension in such a manner, that she could never again be depriv- ed of it. * Pufendorf, rerum Suecicarum lib. 23, p. 447. + LeUre de Christine au prince Frederic Landgrave de Hesse, in Arckenlioliz, i. p. 218. "Pouvez-vous ignorer combien ceux qui changent sont ha'is de ceux df s senli- niens desquels ils s'^loigne nl, el ne saurez-vous pas par tanl d'illnstres exemples qu'ils sont mepris6s de ct-ux aupr6s desquels ils se rangent]" * Motivi onde si crede la reginadi Suezia averpresala resolulione di rinnnciare la corona, in Arckenholtz, ii. App. No. 47, probably by Raymond Montecuculi. + Pallavicini, Vita Alexandri VII. " Aiilae Hispanicae adminislri,cum priinuni rem proposuit Malines (who had been sent thither), omnino voluissent ab regini regnum retineri, ob emolumenta quae tum in religionem luiii in regem catholicum redundassent; sed cogniio id fieri non posse nisi Isesa religione, placuit regi patronum esse lacti tam gf nerosi." [The ministers of the Spanish court, wheii^ihe affair was first piojiosed to the king by Malines, would by all means have had the queen rinain her crown, on account of the advantages which would thent,e accrue both to religion and to his catholic majesty ; but when it was known that this could not be done without detriment to religion, the king was pleased to become the patron of so higli-souled an act.] 356 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY, [a. d. 1654. On the 24th of June, 1654, the ceremony of abdication took place. However numerous the causes of complaint the queen's adminis- tration had given, yet high and low were deeply affected by this renunciation of her native kingdom by the last scion of the stock of Gustavus Vasa. Old count Brahe refused to take from her the crown he had placed on her head three years before :* he held the tie between sovereign and subject to be indisso- luble, and deemed such a proceeding unlaw- ful.! '-fhe queen was obliged herself to take the crown from her head ; it was only from her hand he would receive it. Stripped of the insignia of royalty, and in a plain white dress, the queen now received the parting homage of her estates. After the rest appear- ed tiie speaker of the peasantry, "a plain country fellow in his clouted shoon and all other habits answerable." He knelt down before the queen, "took her by the hand and shaked it heartily, and kissed it two or three times; then turning his back to her he pulled out of his pocket a foul handkerchief, and wiped the tears from his eyes, and in the same posture as he came up he returned back to his place again."| Meanwhile all her thoughts and schemes were directed to foreign lands : she would not remain one moment in a country in which she had resigned^ the sovereign authority to other hands. She had already sent off" her valuables: while the fleet was getting ready that was to convey her to Wismar, she seized the first favourable opportunity to escape in disguise with a few trusty attendants from the irksome supervision exercised over her by her late subjects, and to betake herself to Ham- burg. She now began her travels through Europe. On arriving in Brussels she secretly con- formed to Catholicism, and afterwards publicly in Insbruck : attracted by the promise of the pope's benediction she hastened to Italy, where she laid down her crown and sceptre at the shrine of our lady of Loretio. The Venetian ambassadors were astonished at the sumptuous preparations made for her reception in all the towns of the ecclesiastical states. Pope Al- exander, whose ambition was gratified by the occurrence of so brilliant a conversion during his pontificate, exhausted the apostolic coffers to celebrate the event with due solemnity. Christina entered Home, not as a penitent but in triumph. § During the first years of her pri- * She had assuineil ihe reigns of govpinment in 1544: her coronation look place some years later. t " It was opposed to God, to the common 1 w of nations, and to the oath by which she was bound to the realm of Sweden and to her subjects — he could be no honest man who gave her majesty such advice." Life of count Peter Brahe, i^ SchliJzer's Schwedischer Bio'^'raphie, ii. p. 409. f Whitelocke's Journal, ii p. 1(30. § Relatione de' Iv. ariibasciatori : " II sospetloche prese papa Innocenlio che il ricevimento dovesse coslarli caro ritardo il suo arrivo in Koiria: e contenioquel biion ponte- fice del risparmio del danaro lascio la gloria entiera al vate life we oflen find her travelling; we meet her in Germany, twice in France, and even in Sweden. She did not always remain so much aloof from political struggles as she had at first intended. She once exerted herself in down'right earnestness and not without some prospect of success, to obtain the crown of Poland, which she might at least have been able to wear as a catholic. Another time she incurred suspicion of designing to attack Na- ples in the interests of France. The necessity of seeing after her pension, the payment of which was often in arrear, seldom left her entire repose. Her pretensions, though not wearing a crown, to exercise the independent prerogatives of a crowned head, especially in the way she herself understood them, were twice attended with very serious consequences. Who can excuse the cruel sentence she pro- nounced at Fontainebleau in her own cause on Monaldeschi, a member of her household, and which she caused to be executed by his accusers and enemies ? She granted him only an hour to prepare for death.* She regarded as high treason the breach of faith, of which the victim was said to have been guilty to- wards her ; and she deemed it beneath her dignity to summon him before any tribunal whatever. " To own no power above one," she exclaimed, " is worth more than to rule over the whole earth." She even despised public opinion. Monaldeschi's execution ex- cited universal abhorrence in Rome, where the wranglings of her household v/ere better known than to herself; yet nevertheless she hastened back thither. Where else indeed could she have lived but in Rome] She would have-been involved in incessant colli- sion with any secular power, with pretensions of a similar character to her own. She often quarrelled bitterly even with the popes, with Alexander himself, whose name she had added to hers on conforming to the church. Gradually, however, her temper grew mild- er, her habits more tranquil ; she forced herself to observe some considerations of propriety, and recognized the necessities incident to her abode in a city where, after all, the ecclesias- tical rule allowed ample scope to aristocratical privileges and personal independence. She took more part in the splendour, the business, and the life of the curia : habituated herself to suo successore d' accomplire a qiiesla memoranda fun- tione. Intorno a ci6 ritrovammo al nostro giongere in Eoiria occupate le niaggiori application! della corte, et al riiorno ci si fece vedere tutto lo stato della chiesa invollo in facende et a gara 1' una cilli dell' altra chi sapeva fare maggiore ostentatione di pomposi accoglimenti." [Pope Innocent's surmise, that the reception would cost hini dear, retarded her arrival in Rome ; and that worthy pon- tiff, content with saving his money, left to his successor the sole glory of discharging that memoiable luiiction. On arriving in Rome we found the court engrossed witli preparations for this affair, and on our return we beheld the whole ecclesiasiical si te engaged in making arrange- ments, and every city vieing with the rest, which should make the grandest show of welcome.] * Pallavicini. See Appendix No. 130. A. D. 1654-89.] QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN. 357 the tone of Roman society, and gradually made herself fully at home. She now increas- ed the collections she had brought from Swe- den, at so much cost, and with such taste and success, that she surpassed liie native families, and elevated the pursuit from merely minister- ing to curiosity, to a higher importance with regard to learning and art. Men like Span- heim and Havercamp have thought it worth their while to illustrate her coins and medals, and Sante Bartolo devoted his practised hand to her engraved gems. Tlie Correggios of her collection have always been the brightest or- naments of the galleries into which time and chance may have carried them. The MSS. of her library have contributed in no small de- gree to uphold the fame of the Vatican, in which they were included at a late period. Acquisitions and possessions of this kind fill up the hours of every day life with harmless enjoyment. She also took a lively interest in the pursuits of science. It is highly to her honour, that she supported with all her power the exiled Borelli, who was reduced in his old age to give instruction, and that she had print- ed, at her own cost, his celebrated and still unsurpassed work on the mechanics of animal motions, which has had such an influence on the progress of physiology. Nay, I think we may even venture to assert, that she herself, after her mind had been improved and matur- ed, exerted a strong and enduring influence on her age, and especially on Italian litera- ture. It is well known what extravagant turgid ity, tar-fetched conceits, and vapid tri- fling, prevailed in the Italian poetry and rhe- toric of those days. Queen Christina had too much taste and intellect to be caught by this fashion ; it was her aversion. In the year 1680 she founded an academy in her house for political and literary discussion, one of the most prominent statutes of which was, that the members should abstain from the modern inflated and metaphor-crammed style and fol- low only the dictates of sound sense and the models of the Augustan and Medicean ages.* The impression made on us is singular, when we light on the labours of this academy in the Albini library in Rome : essays by Italian ab- bati corrected by the hand of a northern queen; but this strange association is not without its significancy. From Christina's academy issued men like Alessandro Guidi, * Constituzioni dell' academia reale, in Arckenholtz, iv. p. 28. § 28. " In qupsl' academia si studj la purjti la gravilii e la maeslil delta lineua Toscana ; s' imilino per quanlo si puo i maestri delta vera eloquenza de' se- coli d' Augiislo 8 di Leone X . . . e per6 si dia bando alio stile nioderno uirgido et ampoUoso, ai traslali, meia- fore, figure etc." Another paragraph (II) prohibits all eulogy of the queen, — a very necessary provision. There is a description of this academy in the fourth vol. of Nico- letli's life of Urban VIII., the chief point in which is, that its most distinguished members, Ang^lo della Noce, Guiseppe Suarez, Giovanni Francesco Albani (afterwards pope), Steflfano (jradi, Ottavio Falconieri, and Steftano Pignatelli, had all been domesticated with cardinal Fran- cesco Barberini. who had formerly adopted the usual style of the day, but who, after he had come in con- tact with the queen, resolutely renounced it, and leagued himself with a few friends, in order, if possible, to abolish- it altogether. The Arcadia, an academy to which has been ascribed the merit of accomplishing this good work, arose out of queen Christina's associa- tion. On the whole, it is not to be denied, that, amidst the multitude of influences with which she was surrounded, the queen pre- served a noble independence of mind. She had no mind to exhibit that ostentatious piety which the world or themselves are wont to exact of converts. Catholic as she was, and frequently as she reiterated her conviction of the pope's infallibility, and of the necessity of believing whatever was enjoined by him and by the church, still she entertainecl a cordial hatred of bigots, and abhorred the direction of confessors, who then tyrannized over the whole course of life. She would not be with- held from enjoying carnivals, concerts, and comedies, and all the other amusements of Rome ; above all, the internal movement of an intellectual and animated society. She owned she loved satire ; Pasquin was her de- light. She was always mixed up in the in- trigues of the court, the quarrels of the papal houses, and the factions of the cardinals. She adhered to the squadronists, the head of which party was her friend Azzolini, a man whom others besides herself regarded as the most gifted member of the curia, but whom she for her part looked upon as a god-like, incompa- rable man, the only one she thought superior to the venerable chancellor Axel Oxenstierna. She wished to erect a monument to him in her memoirs. Unfortunately but a small part of them has been made public; but this dis- plays an earnestness, a truth in her dealings with herself, a freedom and firmness of mind, before which calumny is dumb. Not less re- markable, are the apophthegms and scattered thoughts, the productions of her leisure hours, which have come down to us.* They be- speak much knowledge of the world, an in- sight into the play of the passions attainable only through experience, and observations upon them of the subtlest kind, yet withal a decided bent towards the essential ; a lively conviction of the power of self-direction, and of the nobility of the mind; a just apprecia- tion of earthly things, which are estimated neither too meanly nor too highly; and a mental constitution that seeks only to satisfy God and itself. The great intellectual move- ment that manifested itself towards the close of the seventeenth century in every branch of human activity, and opened a new era, * We have Iheni edited in two forms, varying some- what from each other. Ouvrage de loisir de Christine reine de Suede, in the appendix to the second, and Sen- timens et diis ni^morabiles de Christine, in the appen- dix to the fourth volume of Arkenholtz. 358 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. wrought also in the person of this princess. Hence a residence in the centre of European civilization, and the leisure of private life, were, if not absolutely necessary to her for the completion of that mental development, yet unquestionably highly advantageous. Passionate was her love for all that the life of that great city presented to her: she thought it impossible to live, if she did not breathe the atmosphere of Rome. Administration of Church and State. There was hardly, besides the court of Rome, another spot in the then world that could exhibit so much social refinement, such manifold efforts in literature and art, so much racy, intellectual enjoyment, and, in fine, an existence so filled with interests that capti- vated the feelings and engaged all the pow- ers of the mind. The yoke of government was little felt : power and splendour were in reality shared among them by the ruling fa- milies. Nor could the cliurch any longer enforce its claims in their full rigour: the temper of the times imposed upon them no inconsiderable check. This was rather an age of enjoyment, a lusty harmonious revel of time-won personal advantages and intellec- tual impulses. The question now was, how church and state were to be governed' under these cir- cumstances of the tunes. For undoubtedly the court — or rather the prelacy, which properly included only the really efficient members of the curia — had the administration of both in its own hands. The institution of the prelacy had grown to its modern form as early as the pontificate of Alexander VII. To become referendario di segnatura, a step on which all future pro- motion depended, it was required that the candidate should be a doctor juris, that he should have studied three years with an ad- vocate, have reached a certain age, possess a certain fortune, and furtliermore, that his cha- racter should be irreproachable. The age had originally been fixed at twenty-five years, the fortune at an income of 1000 scudi. Alexander made the somewhat aristocratic change, by which twenty-one years were held sufficient in point of age, but the income required was raised to 1500 scudi. The can- didate who could prove his possession of these requisites, was invested by the prefetto di segnatura, and appointed to plead two causes before the assembled segnatura.* In this way he took possession of his office, and was thereby qualified for every other. From the governorship of a town or a district, he rose to a nunciature, or a vice-legation, or he ob- * Discorso del dominio temporale e spirituale del S. Pontefice Romano, 1664. MS. tainad a place in the rota, or in the congre- gations; then followed the cardinal's hat, and the rank of legate. On the appearance of the legate in a town, certain honorary pri- vileges of the bishop were suspended : the le- gate bestowed the benediction on the people in like manner as the pope. The members of the curia passed incessantly to and fro be- tween spiritual and secular offices. Let us first advert to the latter, to the administra- tion of the state. Every thing depended on the wants of go- vernment, on the demands made on the sub- ject, on the state of the finances. We have seen to what a ruinous pitch the system of debt had risen under Urban, chiefly through the war of Castro ; but even then loans were successfully effected, and the luo- ghi di monte maintained a high price : the popes pursued the beaten path without reflec- tion or hesitation. In 1644, Innocent X. found the number of luoghi di monte 182,1031, and left it 264,129i in 1655, so that the capital represented by them had risen from eighteen to twenty-six millions. Though with this sum he had dis- charged debts of another kind, and paid off other loans, there was still a serious augmen- tation of the public debt, which was reckoned at his decease at forty-eight millions of scudi. He had been fortunate enough to derive a surplus revenue from the taxes imposed by Urban VIII., on which he founded the new monti. On Alexander's accession an aug- mentation of the taxes was palpably imprac- ticable : loans had become so habitual, that it was in a measure impossible to dispense with them. Alexander resolved to seek a new source of profit in the reduction of the rate of interest. The monti vacabile, which paid ten and a half per cent., stood at one hundred and fifly : he determined to pay them ofiT. Though he did so at the current price, still he had a great profit on the transaction, since the ca- mera raised money in general at four per cent. ; and hence, though it should pay with borrowed money, it would for the future have to disburse, instead of ten and a half, only six per cent, interest. Upon this, pope Alexander bethought him of reducing all the non vacabili which bore more than four per cent, to that rate of inte- rest.* But as in this operation he took no ♦ Pallavicini: Vitadi Alessandro VII. " Perciocche in nessiin allro paese d' Italia la rendita del danaro avease tanto pingue e tanto sicura, pian piano Piasuccedulo che quei luoglii del primitivo lor prezzo di 100 fussero cresci- uli nella piazza al valor di 116. Hor la camera valendo- si del suo dirilto, come avrebbe potuto qualsivoplia priva- 10, rendeva il prezzo originario di 100 non permittendo la vastiii della somma (he calculates 26 millions) n6 per- suadendo laqualit^de' padroni, in gran parte ricchi e fo- reslieri, che ad aggravi de' pover),alle cui spalle slanno lulti i publici pesi, il pontefice usasse piii la liberalitii usato da liu nell' esiiniione de' monti vacabili." [Be- ADMINISTRATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 359 account of the market price, which was one hundred and sixteen per cent, but paid the holders the bare nominal value to which he was pledged, of one hundred to the luogo, he was here too a very considerable gainer. The amount of all these interests was defray- ed, as we have seen, by the taxes, and it is possible that the first intention may have been to remit the most oppressive of these ; but the old system of economy being persisted in, this turned out to be impracticable. A reduction of the price of salt was very soon followed by an augmentation of the tax on flour : the whole profit realized in the finan- cial operations above-mentioned was swallow- ed up by the administration, or by nepotism. If the savings effected by the reductions be summed up, it will be seen that they must have amounted to about 140,000 scudi, the employment of which, by way of interest on new loans, would signify an augmentation of the debt by about three millions. Clement IX., too, had no other device for carrying on the administration besides that of new loans. But he soon found himself brought to such a pass, that he was forced at last to lay hands on the proceeds of the data- ria, which hitherto had always been spared, being, in fact, the fund appropriated to the support of the papal court. He founded upon it 13,200 new luoghi di monte. In the year 1670 the papal debts may have amounted to some fifty-two million scudi. The result of all this was, in the first place, that with the best inclinations it was not pos- sible to effect more than imperceptible and transient diminutions of the burthens that so sorely pressed a country destitute both of ma- nufactures and commerce. Another complaint was, that foreigners were among the shareholders in the monti, and enjoyed the interest yielded by them without contributing anything to the taxes. It was estimated that 600,000 scudi were an- nually sent to Genoa. The country thus be- came the debtor of the foreigner, a circum- stance which could by no means be favoura- ble to the free development of its powers. Another effect that wrought still more deeply was observable. How could it fail to be that the holders of the annuities, the monied men, should obtain great influence over the state and its adminis- tration '! The great commercial houses acquired a ause no other country in Italy afiforded such ample and well-secured return for money, it gradually came to pass that these luoghi rose from their original price of 100 the luoghoto 116. At present the treasury, availing itself of its rights, as any private person might liave done, returned the original price of 100, the magnitude of tlie sum not permitting the pope, nor the ranic of the proprietors, a jarge proportion of whom were rich and foreigners, induc- ing him, to exercise his usual liberality in the extinction of the monte vacabili, to tlie increased suffering of Iho poor, on whose shoulders rest all the public burdens.] direct participation in public bu.siness. With the tesoriere was always associated a commer- cial house, which received and paid out all moneys : the coffers of the state were in point of fact always in the hands of traders; and these were also farmers of the revenue, and treasurers in the provinces. Numerous offices were saleable, and these they had the means of making their own. Then again, no incon- siderable pecuniary means were requisite towards obtaining promotion in the curia. About the year 106.^, we find the most impor- tant places in the administration, filled by Flo- rentines and Genoese. So mercantile a spirit pervaded the court, that by and by promotion depended far less on desert than on money. " A merchant with his purse in his hand," ex- claimed Grimani, "in the end has always the preference. The court is becoming filled with mercenaries, whose only desire js gain, who look on themselves only as traffickers, not as statesmen, and who have not a thought that is not low and sordid."* Now this was the more serious, forasmuch as there was no longer any independence in the country. Bologna alone displayed at times a sturdy resistance, so that they even thought once in Rome of building a citadel there. Other communities indeed stood out now and then against the government : the inhabitants of Fermo once refused to permit grain, of which they thought they themselves stood in need, to be carried out of their country :t the people of Perugia refused to pay arrears of taxes : but the commissioners general of the papal court easily put down these movements, and then enforced so much the more rigid sub- ordination : by degrees the administration of the property of the communes was subjected to the disposal of the court. The institution of the annona affords a re- markable instance of the course of this admin- istration. The principle of discouraging the export of the necessaries of life being universally acted on in the sixteenth century, the popes too took measures to that end, especially with a view- to prevent the rise of the price of bread. But the prefetto dell' annona, to whom was com- mitted this branch of the executive, possessed originally but very limited powers. These were first enlarged by Gregory XIII. The corn gathered was not to be carried out of the country without the permission of the prefetto, * Antonio Grimani. "Per la vendita della maggior parte degli officii piu considerabili si viene a riempire la corte d' uomini mercenarj e uiejcanti, restanti indietio quelli che potrebbero posseder tali officii per meriio e per virtu ; male veramente notabile che smacca il crediio con- cepito della grandezza della corte Komana, non avendo detti mercenarj d' officii invollo 1' animo che in cose me- caniche e basse e piii tosto mercantile che politiche." t Memoriale presentato alia Sti- di N. Sre- papa Inno- centio dalli deputati della cilti di Fermo per il tumulto ivi seguito alii G di Luglio, 1648, MS. See Bisaccioni, Historia della guerre civili, p. 271, in which Fermo ap- pears by the sideof England, France, Poland, andNaples. 360 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. nor even from one district in it to another. This permission was only to be obtained in case grain was below a certain price on the 1st of March. Clement VIII. fixed this price at six, Paul V. at five and a half scudi the rubbio. A special tariff was fixed for bread according to the varying price of corn.* By and by it was found that the wants of Rome increased from year to year. The number of the inhabitants augmented, whilst agriculture declined in the Campagna. The decay of the Campagna took place chiefly in the first half of the seventeenth century, and was attributable, if I mistake not, to two causes: first, to the alienation of the small estates to the great farmers; for the soil of that country demands the most careful culti- vation, such as is usually bestowed only by small proprietors, whose whole incomes are involved in the employment : secondly, to the increasing deterioration of the atmosphere. Gregory XIH. had exerted himself to extend the cultivation of grain, Sixtus V., to destroy the lurking places of the banditti, and so the former had cleared the low lands near the sea of their trees and underwood, and the latter had stripped the hills of their forests.f Neither the one nor the other can have been advanta- geous : the aria cattiva spread, and conduced to the depopulation of the Campagna, the pro- duce of which diminished from year to year. This disproportion between the demand and supply, occasioned Urban Vill. to render the system of inspection more strict, and to aug- ment the powers of the prefetto. By one of his first constitutions he prohibited outright the exportation of corn, cattle, or oil, whether out of the state or from one district in it to ano- ther, and empowered the prefetto to fix the price of corn at Campofiore according to the yield of each harvest, and prescribe to the bakers the weight of bread in proportion. This rendered the prefetto all powerful, and he failed not to turn the privileges conferred on him to account for himself and his friends. He had actually the monopoly of corn, oil, meat, and all the prime necessaries of life in his hands. It cannot be said that the cheap- ness of these articles was much improved in consequence ; favoured parties were even permitted to export, and little other result was experienced from the new measures, than the vexations imposed on purchase and sale. It was forthwith remarked that agriculture still more sensibly declined. | * A long lisl of papal edicts on the subject is to be found in a work of Nicola Maria Nicolai, Memorie, vol. ii. Leggi et osservationi sulle campagna e suU' annone di Roma, 1803. t Relatione dello stalo di Roma presente, or Almaden. See Appendix No. 123. t Pietro Contarini, 1627: "II pontefice avendo levato le tratte concesse a diversi da suoi precessori . . . hora ven- dendole ne cava bonna souinia di danaro : non vole i prezzi troppo vili n6 grano forestiere : 1' arte del campo vienead abbandonarsi per il poco o nitin guadagno che ne trag- gono." [The pope having resumed the tracts granted to Now began those complaints of the general decay of the States of the Church which have never since ceased. " On our journeys from one place to another," say the Venetian ambas- sadors in 1621, in whose reports I find the first mention of them, " we noticed great poverty among the peasants and common people, and small signs of thriving, not to say very strai- tened circumstances among all the other classes. This is the fruit of the system (^ government, and more especially of the scant- iness of commerce. Bologna and Ferrara derive a certain degree of splendour from their palaces and their nobility ; Ancona has some trade with Ragusa and Turkey : but all the other towns are sunk very low." About the year 1650, the opinion universally prevailed that an ecclesiastical government was fatal to its subjects.* The inhabitants already began to complain bitterly. " The taxes imposed by the Barberini," exclaims a contemporary bio- grapher, " have exhausted the country ; the rapacity of Donna Olimpia, the court : the virtues of Alexander VII. gave hope of an amelioration ; but all Sienna has poured in upon the iStates of the Church, to suck them utterly dry."f Yet still the exactions made on the country never abated. A cardinal once compared the country under such a system of administration, to a jaded horse that is goaded to fresh exertion, and sets off anew till it falls exhausted. That moment of utter exhaustion seemed now arrived. There had arisen the worst spirit that can animate a body of public functionaries : every man looked on the commonwealth chiefly as subservient to his own advantage, often but as an object for the indulgence of his rapacity. How frightfully did corruption stalk through the land ! At the court of Innocent X., Donna Olimpia procured places for aspirants, bargaining with them for a monthly testification of their grati- tude. Would we could say she was alone in this practice. But Donna dementia, the sister-in-law of the datario Cecchini, followed the same course. Christmas was particularly the great harvest time of presents. The refusal of Don Camillo on one occasion various persons by his predecessors now gained a considerable sum of money by selling them : he does not wish for loo low prices or foreign grain: agriculture is fall- ing into disuse from the little or no profit it yields.] * Diario, Deone, tom. iv. 1649,21 Ag. "E dovere di favorir lachiesa: pero veggiamo che tutto quel lo che passa a lei 6 in prejudicio dei publico, come che le lerre sue subito sono dishabilate e le possessioni nial coltivate, si vede in Ferrara, in Urbino, inNepe, inNeltuno et in lutte le piazze che sono passate nel domlnio dellachiesa." [It is right to favour the church : still we spe that all that falls into Its hands is prejudicial to the public, and the sudden depopulation of its finds, and their bad state of cultiva- tion, are manifest in Ferrara, Urbino, Nepe, Netluno, and all those places which have fallen under the rule of the church.] t Vita di Alpssandro VII. " Spolpatoe quasi in teschio ridotto dalle gabelle Barberine lo slato ecclesiastico e smunta la corte dall' ingordigia di Olimpia confidavano generoso ristoro della bomi d' Alessandro." ADMINISTRATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 361 to share with Donna Olimpia, as he had given her reason to expect, excited her violent indig- nation, and was the primary cause of his downfall. What forgeries was Mascambruno induced by bribes to commit ! He subjoined false summaries to the decrees which he laid before the pope ; and as the latter read nothing but the summaries, he signed things of which he had no conception, and which covered the Roman court with infamy.* Nothing can be more painful than to read that the brother of Alexander VII., Don Mario, owed his wealth among other things to his having in his hands the jurisdiction of the Borgo. For unhappily this foul plague had tainted even the administration of justice. A catalogue has come down to us of the abuses in the court of the rota, delivered to pope Alexander, by a man who had for twenty- eight years practised in it as an advocate.t He reckons that there was not one auditor di rota who did not receive 500 scudi in presents every Christmas. Those who could not gain access to the auditors in person, still contrived to reach their relations, assistants, or servants. But no less pernicious were the effects wrought by the recommendation of the court or of the great. There were even instances of the judge apologizing to the parties them- selves for the unjust judgments he pronounced against them, declaring that justice was con- strained by force. What a system of jurisdiction was this ! The vacations lasted four months; during all the rest of the year business was carried on in a desultory, fitful, and fretting manner ; judg- ment was inordinately procrastinated, and yet finally displayed every mark of precipitation. Appeals would have been all in vain. The cause no doubt would thereby be transferred to the arbitration of other members; but what more remote would they be than their brethren from the same corrupting influences } In addition to this, their judgment was even biassed by the decision previously given. These evils beginning from the supreme tribunal, diffused themselves through all the the others, and affected the course of justice and of government in the provinces.^ In a paper which has been preserved to our times, cardinal Sacchetti represented in the most urgent manner to pope Alexander, the * Pallavicini endeavours to palliate this on the ground that the transactions of the dataria were written " di carat- tere francese come 6 restato in uso della dataria dapoi che lasediafu in Avignone," [in French characters, as had been the practice in the dataria since the residence of the popes in Avignon,] and which the pope did not like to read. f Disordini che occorrono nel supremo tribunale della rota nella corte Roniana e gli ordini con I quali si poirebbe riformare, scrittura falta da \\n avvocalo da presentarsi alia Sta- di N. Sre- Alessaiidro VII. MS. Rangone in Vienna, No. 2.3. t Disordini " Con le male decisioni di ciueslo tribunale supremo (della rota) si corrompe la giustitia a tutti gli altri minori, almeno dello stalo ecclesiastico, vedendosi da giu- dici dare sentenze con decisioni si fatte." 46 oppression of the poor, who had none to help them, by the powerful ; the perversion of jus- tice through the intrigues of cardinals, princes, and retainers of the palace : the procrastina- tion for years and tens of years of causes that might be dispatched in two days ; the tyranny practised against those who ventured to appeal from an inferior functionary to a superior ; the impoundings and executions employed in exacting the taxes; cruel expedients, the only use of which was to make the sovereign hated, and his servants wealthy : " Sufferings, most holy father," he exclaims, •' worse than those of the Israelites in Egypt. People, not con- quered by the sword, but which have become subject to the Roman see, either through the donations of princes, or of their own free ac- cord, are more inhumanly treated than the slaves in Syria or in Africa. Who can behold this without tears!"* Such was already the condition of the states of the church in the middle of the seventeenth century. Now was it to be expected that the adminis- tration of the church should remain free from abuses of this kind 1 It was, equally with the administration of the state, dependent on the court, and its course was shaped by the spirit of the latter. No doubt restrictions were imposed on the curia with regard to ecclesiastical affairs. In France the crown possessed prerogatives of the highest importance ; in Germany the chapters maintained their independence. On the other hand, the curia had free scope in Italy and Spain, and in those countries it recklessly insisted on its lucrative rights. The Roman court possessed the right of nomination to all the inferior ecelesiastical posts and benefices in Spain, and to all with- out exception in Italy. It is almost incredible what sums flowed into the dataria from Spain from installations, spolia, and the incomes of vacant benefices. The curia, however, re- garded as a whole, derived, perhaps, still greater advantages from its relations to Italy; the richest bishoprics and abbeys, a multitude of priories, commanderies, and other bene- fices, went immediately to enrich its members. Well had it been if this were all 1 Buton these rights, in themselves sufficiently objectionable, were superinduced the most pernicious abuses. I will mention but one of * Lettredu cardinal Sacchetti 6crite peu avant sa mort au pape Alexandre VII. en 1663, copie tir^e des Manu- scriiti della regina di Suezia in Arckenholtz, M6moires, tom. iv. App. No. xxxii. : a very instructive document, which is corroborated by many others, as for instance a Scrittura sopra il governo di Koma, of the same period, (Bibl. All.) " I popoli, non avendo piii argento ne rame, n6 biancherie n6 matarezze, per sodisfare alia indiscre- lionede' commissarj, converrS, che si venderanno schiavi per pagare i pesi camerali." [The people having no longer silver or copper, or linen or bedding, to satisfy the rutiiless commissioners, nothing remains but that they sell themselves for slaves to pay the exactions of the camera.] 362 THE POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. them, but that indeed the worst. The practice crept in, and obtained full vogue in the middle of the seventeenth century, of encumbering all benefices conferred, with pensions in fa- vour of some member or another of the curia. In Spain this was expressly prohibited : in that country none but natives could hold bene- fices, nor could pensions be conferred on any others. But contrivances were found at Rome for evading this regulation. Pensions were nominally assigned to native or naturalized Spaniards, who bound themselves by a civil contract to pay a stipulated sum yearly to some Roman commercial house on account of the actual receivers of the pensions. There was no need in Italy of adopting this subterfuge: the bishoprics there were often encumbered to an intolerable degree. Monsignor de Angelis, bishop of Urbino, complained in the year 1663, that his whole net income from that rich see amounted to no more than 60 scudi yearly, and that he had already tendered his resigna- tion, which the court refused to accept. For years together no one would accept the sees ofAnconaand Pesaro, subject to the heavy conditions imposed on them. In the year 1667, twenty-eight bishops and archbishops were counted in Naples, who were deprived of their sees, because they did not pay the pensions to which they were liable. This monstrous abuse passed down from the bishop- rics to the parishes. The incumbent of the richest parish often derived from it only a scanty means of subsistence, while the poor country priests often found their casual fees burthened with charges.* Some revolted against this and threw up their livings; but new candidates always presented themselves sooner or later ; nay, even vied with each other in bidding higher pensions to the curia. Judge what must have been the character of men concerned in these foul transactions, which could have no other result than the * The malicious Bc^ssadonasays : " Bisogna conch iudere cheosni beneficio capace di pensione riinanga caricalo oome r asino di Apuipjo, che non potpndo piii sosienere il peso meditava di getlarsi in lerra qiiando il veder caduto il compagno eiosio de' vetiurini scoiiicalohebbe per bene euppoitare 1' insopponabil soma." [In fine, every bene- fice must remain charged like the ass of Apxileius, which, unable longer lo bear up its burden was thinking oi" fitretching itself oh the ground, when seeing its fallen oonirade instantly flayed by the drivers, il thought it best to support jts insuppoitable load.] All contemporary writers agree in thc-irdnatription oftheevil. The practice >yas revived of makihgchurctiesover to others, with a reser- vation of a part of the proceeds. Deone, Diario, 7 Genn. 1645, after speaking of the archbishopric of Bolosna transferred by cardinal Colonna to Albregati, proceeds" to say: ''Con questo esempio si 6 aprrta la poita d' ammettere le ris- egne; e cosl slamanasi 6 publicalalarisegnadellachiesa di Bavenna fatta dal cardinal Capponi nella persona di mongr, Tungianni suo nijjote con riseivadi pensione a suo favore e dopo la morie sua d'una buona parte al cardi. Pamfilio." [This example has opened the door to the practice of transfers: thus there has been published this morning the transfer of the church of Ravenna, made by cardinal Capponi to his nephew monsignorTugianni, with the reservation lo himselfof a pension, and of a consider, ble interest for cardinal Pamfilio after his own death.] corruption of the parochial clergy, and the neglect of the common people. The protestant church did far better in at once abolishing all superfluities, and establish- ing the authority of law and order. It is very true that the wealth of the catho- lic church, and the worldly rank conferred by ecclesiastical dignity, had the effect of attract- ing the higher aristocracy. Pope Alexander even made it a maxim to select men of good birth, by preference, for promotion, upon the strange principle, that as earthly princes like to see aroimd them servants of illustrious de- scent, so it must be pleasing to God that his service should be discharged by persons of ex- alted station. But this was, assuredly, not the way in which the church had risen in early times, nor yet that in which it had been restored in later days. The convents and congregations which had contributed so much to the revival of Catholicism, were now suf- fered to fall into contempt. The nepotes liked none who were bound by monastic obli- gations, if it were only because such persons could not incessantly pay them court. The secular clergy were now the successful com- petitors for place, however inferior they might be to the regular in merit or learning. " It seems to be held for certain," says Grimani, "that the episcopal office or the purple would be disgraced, if bestowed on a member of a monastic order." He thinks he can perceive that monks no longer like to show themselves at court, since they meet there with nothing but mockery and insult. It was already be- come apparent, thatnone but persons of humble birth were disposed to enter the convents. "Even a bankrupt shopkeeper," he exclaims, " thinks himself too good to assume the hood."* Whilst the convents thus actually declined in intrinsic importance, it is no wonder if people already began to look on them as superfluous. It is a memorable fact, that this opinion first unfolded itself in Rome, and that there it was first thought necessary to put re- strictions on monasticism. In the year 1649, Innocent X. prohibited by bull all new ad- missions into any regular order, till the in- comes of the several convents were computed, and the number of persons they were capable of containing was determined.! Still more ♦ Grimani adds : " Si toglie ad ognunoaffatola vogliadi studiare e la curadi difendere la religione. Deteriorandosi il numero de' religiosi dotti e esemplari, potrebbg in breve sotfiirne non poco delrimento la corte : onde al mio cre- dere farebbono bene i pontefici di procurar di rimeltere i regolari nel primoposto di slima partecipandoli di ((uando in quando cariche . . . e cosi nelle religioni vi entrereb- bero huomini eminent!. " [All wish for study and care for the defence of religion are smothered. The court may soon suffer not a little from the diminution in the number of learned and exemplary men : wherefore, in my opinion, the popes would do well to endeavour to restore the regu- lar clergy to their former credit, by bestowing employ- iiienis on them from time to time ... in this way supe- rior men would be induced to enter the orders.] t Our journal describes the impression made by the ADMINISTRATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 363 important was a bull of the 15lh of October, 1652, wherein the pope complained that there were so many small convents, in which the offices could not be duly performed, either by day or nio^ht, nor spiritual exercises practised, nor monastic seclusion observed, — mere asy- lums for licentiousness and crime : theirnum- ber was now increased beyond all measure. He suppressed them all at one blow ; for the tares, he said, must be separated from the wheat.* The thought soon suggested itself, and that too first of all in Rome, of alleviating the financial difficulties even of foreign states by confiscations, not of convents alone, but of whole institutions. When Alexander VII. shortly after his accession, was solicited by the Venetians to support them in the war of Candia against the Turks, he proposed to them of his own accord, the suppression of some orders in their country. The Venetians were rather averse to this, since these orders af- forded provision for poor nobili : but the pope accomplished his design. The existence of those convents, he said, was rather a cause of offence than of edification to the faithful ; he would do like the gardener who cuts away useless branches from the vine, to make it more fruitful.f It could not be pretended that any very shining talents were conspicuous among those who wer.e selected for promotion. Complaints of the dearth of distinguished men were uni- versal in the seventeenth century.]: Men of talent were in many cases excluded from the prelacy, because their poverty prevented their complying with the conditions required for admission :5 but besides this, promotion was too absolutely dependent on the favour of the nepotes, which was only to be attained by a fawning suppleness that could not be propiti- ous to tiie growth of high mental endowments. constitution on the 1st of January 1650. " Non entrando quella ragione ne' cappucini et allri i-iforinati che non possedono enlrata, lemono che la prohibitionp sia perpet- uii, e cost cred' io, fin a tamo che il nuniero de' regolari ho2£;i eccessivo sia ridotlo a numero competente e la re- publica da loro non venga oppressa." [This condition not subsisting among the Capuchins and other reformed orders which do not possess revenues, they are afraid that the prohibition will be perpetual, and I tliink so too, till the now excessive numbers of the regular clergy be re duced to a fit standard, so that the conmionweallh be no longer overburdened with them.] * Constitulio super extinctione el suppressione parvor- um conventuum, eorumque reductione ad statum secular- em, et bonorum applicatinne, et prohibitione erigendi nova loca regulario in Italia el insulisadjacelibus. Idibus Oct. 1652. t Relatione de' iv. ambasciatori 1656. See Appendix, No. 129. + Grimani. " Tolti 1' economia esteriore ogni altra cosa si deteriora; . . . d' huomini di valore eftettiva- mente scarseggia al presente la corte al maggior segno." § Relatione di Roma sotto Clemente IX. " Poitando lo stile che le cariche si transferiscono solamente a' prelati e che la prelalura si concede solo a quelli che hanno en- lrata sufficienle per mantenere il decoro, ne siegue pero che la masgior parte di soggetti capaci ne resta esclusa." [It being the established usage that higli offices are en- trusted only to prelates, and those only being admitted to the rank oi^ prelates who have sufficient income to keep up a becoming appearance, the result is that the majority of able men are excluded.] This bad its effect on the whole body of the clergy. It is certainly a striking fact, that the age presented scarcely a single Italian author of originality in the most important branches of theology ; neither in the exposition of Scrip- ture, in which nothing was done besides re- peating the works of the 16th century; nor in morals, though these were elsewhere cul- tivated with great assiduily ; nor in dogmatic theology. Foreigners alone figured in the congregations that debated the question of the means of grace; and in the later controversies concerning freewill and faith, Italians took little part. No distinguished preacher ap- peared even in Rome after Girolamoda Narni. The fact is remarked with astonishment in the diary already quoted, extending from 1640 to 1650, and composed by a very strict catho- lic. "With the carnival," it states, "com- edies cease in theatres and houses, and begin in the pulpits of our churches. The sacred office of the preacher is made subservient to the passion for applause, or to flattery. Mela- physics are propounded, of which the speaker understands little, and his hearers nothing at all. Instead of admonishing and censuring, the preacher deals in encomiums with a view to his own advancement. The selection too of a preacher no longer depends on merit, but on connexion and favour." In fine, that mighty inward impulse which had formerly swayed court, church, and state, and given their strict religious character, was now extinct; the tendency towards restora- tion and conquest had passed away ; other springs were now in action, which urged only towards the acquisition of power and enjoy- ment, and once more obtruded a worldly character upon spiritual afl^airs. The question naturally presents itself, what under these circumstances was the course adopted by that society which was so peculiar- ly founded on the principles of the restoration, namely, the order of Jesuits! The Jesuits in the middle of the seventeenth century. The most prominent change in the internal constitution of the society of Jesu.s, consisted in the advancement of the professed members to the possession of power. At first the professed members who took the four vows were but few. Removed from the colleges, and subsisting solely on alms, they had confined themselves to the exercise of spiritual authority. The places which re- quired the active talents of men of tiie world, — such as those of rectors, provincials, and college offices in general, — fell to the lot of the coadjutors. But this was now altered. The proiessed members themselves attained to the administrative posts; they had part in 364 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. the revenues of the colleges, and they became rectors and provincials.* The first result of this was the gradual cooling of that fervent spirit of personal de- votion which had been peculiarly fostered in the isolation of the houses of the professed. Even upon the admission of members it was no longer possible to look narrowly into their fitness for ascetic vocations. Vitelleschi in particular admitted many who were nowise thus qualified. All strove after the highest station, because it conferred at once spiritual consideration and temporal power. The union of these was in every respect prejudicial. Coadjutors and professed had formerly acted as a check on each other ; but now practical importance and spiritual pretensions were united in the same individuals. The shal- lowest among them had a high conceit of their own abilities, because no one ventured to gainsay them. In possession of exclusive power, they began to enjoy at their ease the wealth, which the colleges had acquired in the course of time, and to bend their thoughts only on increasing it. They abandoned to the younger members the real discharge of duty, both in the schools and in the churches.f They even assumed a very independent posi- tion with regard to the general. I The magnitude of the change is particu- larly manifested in the character and for- tunes of the generals, — in the sort of men who were chosen for heads of the society, and in the manner in which they were dealt •with. How different was Muteo Vitelleschi from his absolute, crafty, indomitable predecessor, Aquaviva ! Vitelleschi was by nature gentle, indulgent, and conciliatory: his acquaint- ances called him the angel of peace ; and on his death -bed he derived comfort from the assurance that he had never injured any man. These admirable qualities of his amiable dis- position were far, however, from suflicing for the government of so widely diffused, active, and powerful an order. He was unable to enforce strict discipline even in the article of dress, not to speak of his resisting the de- mands of resolute ambition. It was under his administration, from 1615 to 1645, that the change noticed above took place. His example was followed by his more im- mediate followers. VincenzoCarafl'a (1645-9), a man who even rejected all personal attend- * In a collection of Scritture poliiiche, morali e satiriche sopra la massinie, insliluti e governo della compagnia Ui Gesu (MS. Rom.) there is a circumstantial essay of "nearly 4(X) leaves : " Discorso sopra la religione de' paUri Gesuili e loro modo di governare," — written between 1681 and 1G86, evidently by a man fully initiated, from which the statements in the text are chiefly derived. t Discorso. " Molli compariscan", pochi opcrano: i goveri non si visilano, i terreni non si coltivano . . . scludendo quei pochi, d'ordinariogiovani, chealtendono at insegnare nelld scuole, lutli gli aIlri,o chesonoconfes- sori o procurator! o reltori o ininistri, appena hanno occu- paiionedi rilievo." ance, and was full of humility and piety,* but who could effect nothing either by his example or his admonitions : Piccolomini (1649-51), who renounced the disposition to vigorous and decisive measures that was natural to him, and only pondered how he might give satisfaction to his brethren of the order. For by this time it wa% no longer advisable to attempt any change in the society. Ales- sandro Gottofredi (from January to March, 1651) would fain have done this, and strove at least to set bounds to the aspiring ambi- tion of the members; but the two months of his tenure of office were enough to make him universally hated in the order ; his death was liailed as a release from tyranny. Still greater was the aversion which the next general, Goswin Nickel, drew down on himself. He could not be charged with contemplating any very sweeping measures of reform : he left things on the whole to go on as they were ; only he was used to adhere obstinately to opinions once adopted, and his demeanour was rude, discourteous, and repulsive ; but this was enough to wound the self-love of powerful members of the order so deeply and so keenly, that the general congregation of 1661 proceeded to measures against him, the possibility of which the monarchical nature of the Jesuit institution would not have led us to anticipate. They first begged permission of pope Alex- ander VII. to associate with their general a vicar with the right of succession. The per- mission was readily obtained, the court even pointing out a candidate lor the proposed office, — that same Oliva who had first advised the calling of the pope's nephews to court, and the order was complaisant enough to elect that favourite of the palace. The only question now was, in what mode the power of the general might be tranferred from his hands to the vicar's. The order could not prevail on themselves to pronounce the word deposition. To get at the thing, and yet evade the word, the question was proposed, whether the vicar should have a cumulative power, i. e., jointly with the general or a privative power, i. e., without hiin 1 The con- * Diario, Deone, 12 Giiigno, 1649. i' Marled! mattina mori generale de' Gesuiti : fu di poche lettere, ma di san- tit&. di vita non ordinaria: quanto alia sua persona, egli non ha mai voluto carozza al suo servigio, n^ esser differ- enlialo da qualsivoglia minimoira di loro nel traltar del vitto o veslito: quanto agli allri, voleva che i padri Gesu- ili fossero e vivessero da religiosi, lasciando i trailali poli- lici e '1 frequentare le corti, nel die havendo trovatodiffi- colii impossi bile gli hanno cagionaloilsedio del la morle." [On Tuesday morning died the general of the Jesuits. He was a man of little learning, but of no common sanctity of life : as for his own person, he would never have a car- riasre for his use, nor be treated in any respect differently as to food or raiment from the humblest of the brethren ; as for the others, he wished that the Jesuit fathers should truly lead the lives of religious men, ceasing to meddleiu politics and to frequent courts; the insurmountable diffi- culties he en( ouniered in trying to effect this, were the primary cause of his death.] THE JESUITS. 365 gregation of course decided for the privative, and, in consequence of this decision, declared expressly that the general had forfeited all his authority, which w^as to be entirely trans- ferred to the vicar.* Thus it came to pass that the society, the principle of which was unconditional obe- dience, itself deposed its chief, and that without anj"^ real transgression on his part. It is manifest how much this act established in this order too the predominance of aristo- cratical tendencies. Oliva was a man who loved outward repose, good living and political intrigue. He had a villa not far from Albano, where he cultivated the rarest foreign plants ; even when he was in the city, he used to retire from time to time to the noviciate house of Santo Andrea, where he gave audiences to no one ; his table was furnished with none but the choicest meats; he never went abroad on foot; in his dwelling comfort was carried to an excessive degree of refinement; he enjoyed his posi- tion and his power ; — assuredly such a man was not fitted to revive the ancient spirit of the order. In fact, it daily departed more and more from the principles on which it had been founded. Had it not been pledged, above all things, to defend the interests of the Roman see, and been founded for that special purpose ! But to such a pitch had it now carried its con- nexion with France, and with the house of Bourbon, that in the competition gradually arising between the Roman and the French interests, it almost invariably sided with the latter.f Occasionally Jesuit works were con- demned by the inquisition at Rome, because they too vehemently defended the rights of the crown. The heads of the French Jesuits avoided intercourse with the papal nuncio, to avoid incurring the suspicion of entertaining ultramontane opinions. ■ Nor could the Roman see boast of the obedience of the order in other respects in those days : in the missions espe- cially, the pope's enactments were almost always treated with contempt. Another fundamental principle of the order was, that they should renounce all worldly ties, and devote themselves solely to spiritual duties. How rigidly had it been insisted on * Detailed account in a contemporary Discorso. " Ve- nendo noi," the author says at the conclusion, "in tal tempo a Kona ed andando a fargli riverenza (to Nickel) . . . conchiuse con dire queste parole: lo mi irovo qui abandouaio e non posso piu niente." [On arriving in Rome at that lime, and going to pay our respects to him ... he ended by saying these words : "I am left here alone, and h:tve not the least power left."] t Relatione della nuntialura di monsr- Scotti nunzio alia Mta- del re Xmo- 1639-1641. " I Gesuiti, che dov- rebbero esserecomealtre volte defensor! della santasede, piudegli altri la pongono in compromesso. — Professano totale ritiralezza (dalla nuntiatura) dubbiosi semprenell' accostarai al nuniio di non perdere appresso ministri regj." in past times, that every one on entering the order should abandon all his possessions ! First, the act was postponed for a while, and then it was performed but conditionally, be- cause the member was liable after all to ex- pulsion ; at last the custom became establish- ed, for the member to make over his property to the society itself, — always, however, with a clear understanding, that it should fall to the share of the college into which he himself entered, in such wise that he often retained the management of it in his own hands, only under another title.* The members of the colleges had often more leisure than their relations who were engaged in active life, whose business therefore they managed, col- lected their money, and carried on their law- suits.f But the mercantile spirit seized the col- leges too in their corporate capacity. They wished to secure their prosperity, and as large donations ceased to be made to them, they en- deavoured to make up for them by means of trade. The Jesuits admitted no marked dif- ference between tilling the ground, as the earliest monks had done, and carrying on business in the way they themselves pursued. The collegio Romano engaged in the manu- facture of cloth at Macerata, at first only for its own use, then for that of all the colleges in the province, and finally for the public; their agents attended the fairs. The close connexion between the several colleges gave rise to a money-changing traffic. The Por- tuguese ambassador at Rome was directed to draw upon the Jesuits of his own country. Their transactions in the colonies were par- ticularly prosperous: the commercial con- nexions of the order spread like a net over the two continents, having its centre in Lis- bon. This was a spirit which, when once evoked, necessarily affected the entire internal econo- my of the order. It still held fast to the principle of giving gratuitous instruction. Presents however were accepted on the admission of pupils, and on certain festival occasions, occurring twice at least yearly,]: wealthy pupils were *. Vincentii Carrafae epislola de mediis conservandi pri- maevum spiritum societatis : " Definitis pro arbitrio dantis domibus sive coUegiis in quibus aul sedem sibi fixtunis est aut jam animo fixerit . . . anxie agunt ut quae socie- tati reliquerunl ipsimet per se administrent." t Epistola Goswini Nickel de amore et studio perfectas paupertatis: "Illud inlolerabile, si et lites inferant et ad tribunalia confligantet violentaspecuniarum repetitiones faciant, aut palam negotiantur ad quaeslum, . . . specie quidem prime aspeclu etiam honesta, caritate, in consan- guinpos, decepti." $ Discorso; "Perlo menol' anno due volte cio6 al natale e nel giorno della propria festa si fanno le loro offerte ov- vero mancie, le quale ascendono a somma considerabile. — 11 danaro poi di queste otferte o che venga impiegato in argemi, quadri o tappezzerie, calici o altri addobbi some- glianti tutto ridonda in utility de' collegi medesiini. Avegna che i rettori locali se ne servono indiiferente- mente, dal che ne derivano infinite oflfensioni, p0i.o o nulla slimano i lamenii de' propri scolari." [At least 366 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. welcomerl by preference. Now the conse- quence of this was, that these youths felt a proportionate consciousness of independence, and would no longer submit to the strictness of the ancient discipline. A Jesuit who raised his stick aarainst a pupil was stabbed by him with a poinard; a young- man in Gubbio, who was treated too harshly by the father prefetto, killed him. Even in Rome the commotions in the colleo^e were the incessant theme of conversation in the city and the palace. The teachers were once actually imprisoned a whole day by their pupils; and finally, it was found necessary to comply with their de- mand, and actually to dismiss the rector. These may be resfarded as symptoms of a general conflict between the old order of thinofs and the new tendencies. In the end the latter prevailed. The Jesuits were no lono-er able to maintain the influence with which, in earlier days, they had swayed the minds of men. On the whole, it was no longer their aim to subjugate the world, or to imbue it with the spirit of religion; rather had their own spirit stooped to the world's ways ; their only endeavour was to make themselves indispen- sable to mankind, effect it how they might. Not only were the rules of the institution, but even its religious and moral doctrines, modified with this view. They gave a turn forever memorable to the oftice of confession, that office through which they exercised so direct an influence over the innermost springs of individual conduct. We possess unquestionable documents bear- ing on this point. The Jesuits have laid down, in numerous elaborate works, the prin- ciples they themselves observed in the con- fessional, and which they commended to others. These are, in general, the very same with which they have been so often re- proached. Let us endeavour to comprehend at least the main principles on which they built their general system of the confessional. In confession everything will infallibly de- pend on the particular view taken of trans- gression and sin. Sin they define to be a voluntary departure from God's commands.* And wherein, we may further inquire, con- sists this freedom of volition? Their answer is, in thorough understanding of the misdeed, and perfect consent of the will.f twice a year, thai is on birthdays and patron saints' days, they malie their offRrin^s, which amount to aconsiderable sum. — The mon^y of these otTerinss, or that which is ex- pended in plate, pictures, tapestry, chalices, and other rich furniture of the kind, is all applied to ihe use of the same college. The local rectors make use of it indis- criminately, which gives rise to endless offence, but they care lillle or nothing for the complaints of their pupils.] * Definition by Fr. Toledo: " Voluntarius recessus a reaula divina "' This principle they embraced, with the am- bition of propounding something novel, and with the anxious desire to accommodate them- selves to the common practices of life. With scholastic subtlety, and with a comprehensive view of the various occurring cases, they worked it out to the most revolting deduc- tions. According to their doctrine, it is enough only not to will tlie commission of sin as such: the sinner has the more reason to hope for pardon the less he thought of God in the per- petration of his evil deed, and the more vio- lent was the passion by which he felt himself impelled : custom, and even bad example, in- asmuch as they restrict the freedom of the will, avail in excuse. What a narrowing is this of the range of transgression ! Surely no one loves sin for its own sake. But, be- sides this, they admit other grounds of excuse of a different kind. Duelling, for instance, is by all means forbidden by the church : never- theless the Jesuits are of opinion, that if any one incur the risk of being deemed a coward, or of losing a place, or the favour of his sove- reign, by avoiding a duel, in that case he is not to be condemned if he fight.* To take a false oath were in itself a grievous sin : but, say the Jesuits, he only swears outwardly, without inwardly intending it, is not bound by his oath ; for he does not swear, but jests.f These doctrines are laid down in books that expressly profess to be moderate. Now that their day is past, who would seek to explore the further perversions of ingenuity to the an- nihilation of all morality, in which the pro- pounders of these doctrines vied, with literary emulation, in outdoing each other. But it cannot be denied, that the most repulsive tenets of individual doctors were rendered very dangerous through another principle of the Jesuits, namely, their doctrine of proba- bility. They maintained that, in certain cases, a man might act upon an opinion, of the truth of which he was not convinced, provided it was vindicated by an author of credit. J; They not only held it allowable to follow the most + Busembaum, Medulla theologiae moralis, lib. v. c. ii. dub. iii. expresses himself thus ; " Tria requirunlur ad opinio alicujus gravis autoris.' peccatum mortale (quod gratiam et amicitiam cum Deo solvit,) quorum si unum desit, fit veniale (quod ob suani levitatem gratiam el amicitiam non toUit:) 1. ex parte intellectus, plena advertentia et deliberatio; 2. ex parte volunlalis, perfeclus consensus; 3. gravitas materise." [Three things are requisite to mortal sin (which cuts off grace and friendship with God,) whereof if one be want- ing the sin becomes venial, (which by reason of its light- ness does not take away grace and friendship:) 1. on the part of the intellect, lull perception and deliberation; 2. on the part of the will, perfect consent; 3. gravity of the thing itself] *"Privanilus alioqui, ob suspicionem ignavise, digni- tate, officio vel favore principis." Busembaum, lib. iii. tract, iv. cap. i. dub. v. art. i. n. 6. i " Qui exterius tanlum juravit sine animo jurandi, non obligatur nisi forte ratione scandali. cum non jurave- rit sed luseril." (lib. iii. tract, ii. cap. ii. dub. iv. n. 8.) t Era. Si.: Aphorismi Confpssariorum s. v. dubium, " Potest quia facere quod probabili ratione vel auctoritate putallicere, eliamsi opposilimi tuliussit: sufficil autem THE JANSENISTS. 367 indulgent teachers, but they even counselled 1 adopted the stricter doctrines that had never it. Scruples of conscience were to be de- spised ; naj', the true way to get rid of them, was to follow the easiest opinions, even though tlieir soundness was not very certain.* How strongly did all this tend to convert the most inward and secret promptings of conscience into mere outward deed. In the manuals of the Jesuits all possible contingencies of life are treated of, nearly in the same way as is usual in the systems of civil law, and exam- ined with regard to their degree of veniality : one needs but to open one of these books, and regulate himself in accordance with what he finds there, without any conviction of his own mind, to be sure of absolution from God and the church. A slight turn of the thoughts unburthened from all guilt. With some sort of decency, the Jesuits themselves occasion- ally marvelled how easy the yoke of Christ was rendered by their doctrines. The Jansenists. All life must have been extinct in the cath- indced been lost in Loiivain, and conceived a vehement dislike to the Jesuits. Du Verger was a man of family and fortune : he took his friend with him to Bayonne. There they plunged deeply and unceasingly into repeated study of the works of St. Augustine, and im- bibed for that father's doctrines of grace and free will an enthusiasm that shaped the whole subsequent tenor of their lives.* Jansenius, who became professor in Louvain and bishop of Ypres, adopted rather the theo- retical course, du Verger, who was appointed to the abbey of St. Cyran, rather the practi- cal and ascetic, with a view towards reviving those doctrines in their full force. The book, entitled Augustinus, in which Jansenius elaborately and systematically un- folded his convictions, is highly deserving of note, not only for the bold front with which it met the Jesuits, on the ground of their dog- matic and moral tendencies, but also for the mode of its opposition, which consisted in its working out anew into living thoughts, the traditionary formulae of grace, sin, and for- olic church, if no opposition had been evoked I giveness. in it on the instant against such pernicious] Jansenius sets out from the principle of the doctrines, and all the causes and consequences nonfreedom of the human will ; laying it down in the state of society connected therewith. that it is tied and enthralled by the lusts after Most of the orders were already ill-disposed earthly things; that it cannot of its own to the Jesuits; the Dominicans on account of strength raise itself out of that condition; their dissent from the views of Thomas Aqui- nas ; the Capuchins and Franciscans, on ac- count of the exclusive power they arrogated to themselves in the missions to further Asia : at times they were opposed by the bishops, whose authority they narrowed ; at times by the parish clergy, on whose functions they en- croached ; in the universities too, at least in those of France and the Netherlands, adver- saries often rose up against them. But all these desultory efforts were not equivalent to that effective resistance which could only flow from more profound convictions, embraced with a fresh and lively spirit. For, after all, the moral doctrines of the Jesuits were in close keeping with their dog- matic notions. In the former, as well as in the latter, they gave great scope to the free- dom of the will. This was the very point upon which was directed the greatest resistance the Jesuits ever encountered. It arose in the following manner. During the years when the catholic theolo- gical world was intensely occupied with the controversy on the means of grace, two young men were studying at Louvain, Cornelius Janse, a Hollander, and Jean du Verger, from Gascony, who, with kindred convictions, that it needs the aid of grace, of grace which is not so much the forgiveness of sin, as the liberation of the soul from the bonds of lust.f And here his distinctive views presented themselves. He attributes the influx of grace to the higher and purer pleasure which the soul derives from heavenly things. The ef- fectual grace of the Saviour is nothing else, he says, than a spiritual delight, by which the will is moved to will and to do what God has decreed : it is the involuntary impulse im- pressed by God upon the will, by which man is made to take pleasure in good, and to strive after ii.\ He insists, again and again, that good must be done, not from fear of punish- ment, but from love for righteousness. From this point he next proceeds to the higher question. What is this righteousness? He answers, God himself. * Busembaum, lib. i. c. iii. " Remedia conscientiae scrupulosas sunt, 1. scrupulos contemnere, 4. assuefacere se ad sequendas sentenlias mitiores et minus etiam cenas." * Synopsis vitae Jansenii, prefixed to the Augustinus: " In Cantabriain rteinde raigravit, ubi erudiiissimorum viroruni consueiudine et fainiliari studioium coininunione in SS. Patrum et praesertim Augustini intelligentia mag- nos progressus fecisse, saepe testalus est." [He then re- moved to Gascony, where in the society and familiar stu- dious intercourse of very learned men, he has frequently testified that he made great progress in understanding the holy fathers, especially Augustine.] + Corn. Jansenii Augustinus, torn, iii.lib. i. c. ii. "Libe- ratio voluntatis non est peccati remissio, sed relaxatio qutedam deleciabilis vinculi concupiscentialis, cui in- nexus servit animus quoad per gratiam infusa ctelestiali dulcedine ad suprema diligenda transferatur." This is likewise Pascal's view of "this doctrine. "Dieu change le cneur de I'homme par une duoceur celeste qu'il y r6- pand." Les Provinciales, 1. xviii. torn. iii. p. 413. X Tom. iii. lib. iv. c. i. 368 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. We must not think of God as a corporeal being, nor under any material similitude, not even that of light. We must contemplate Him and love Him as the eternal truth, the fountain of all truth and wisdom, as righteous- ness, not in its acceptatitm as a quality of the soul, but as it comes before it as an idea, as a supreme inviolable rule. The rules for our conduct flow from the eternal law ; they are a reflection of its light : he who loves righ- teousness loves God himself* Man does not become good by bending his soul upon this good or that, but by fixing his eyes upon tlie unchangeable, indivisible, su- preme good, which is truth, which is God Himself Virtue is the love of God. And in this very love consists the liberation of the will : its ineffable sweetness extin- guishes the pleasures of our lusts ; there arises a voluntary and blissful necessity of not sin- ning, but of leading a good life,t the true free will, that is, a will freed from evil and filled with good. It is a characteristic of this work, deserving of admiration, with what a high degree of philosophic clearness the development of its dogmatic principles is followed out, even amidst the polemical zeal of a hostile discus- sion : its fundamental ideas are at once moral and religious, speculative and practical ; it opposes to the outward self-accommodating precepts of the Jesuit doctrines, strict require- ments of the inward man, the ideal of a sys- tem of action springing from the love of God. Now whilst Jansenius was engaged upon the completion of this work, his friend was already occupied with the endeavour to show forth in his own life, and practically to difliise among those about him, the ideas on which it was founded. St. Cyran, for so du Verger was now called, had made him a learned ascetic hermitage in the midst of Paris. Unweared in his study of the sacred scriptures, and of the fathers of the church, he strove to penetrate himself with their spirit. The peculiarity of the doc- trine in which he agreed with Jansenius, would of necessity lead him at once to the sacrament of penance. The penitential ordi- nances of the church were not sufficient for him : he was often heard to say, that the church had been purer at its commencement, as are streams nearer tlieir source ; that many a gospel truth was now obscure.J His de- mands, on the other hand, were extremely * Tom. iii. lib. v. c. iii. "Rpgulae vivendi et quasi lumina virluluin immutabilia et sempilerna non sum aliud quam lex aelerna, quae in ipsa Dei aelerna verilate splenilel, quam proinde drligendo non aliud dillgil nisi ipsura Deum seu veritalern el jusliliam ejus incommula- bilera, a qua promanat el ex cujus refulgenlia lucis fulget quicquid velul justum el recluiii approbanius." + Tom. iii. lib. vii. c. ix. " Voluntas felix, immulabilis el necessaria non peccandl recteque vivendi." t Extracts from his trial in Ruechlin : Geschichle von Ponroyal, i. p. 151. rigorous. To humble oneself, to endure, to depend on God, utterly to renounce the world,* and to devote oneself and all one's acts and aims to the love of God, that alone appeared to him Christianity. So profound was his apprehension of the necessity of in- ward conversion, that according to his doc- trine, grace must precede penance. " If God wills to rescue a soul, he begins from with- in : — is the heart once changed, then and not till then is true repentance felt, and all the rest follows: absolution can but betoken the first beam of grace : as a physician has but to follow the movements and inward workings of nature, so the physician of souls must fol- low the workings of grace." He often re- peats, that he had himself traversed the entire road from temptation and sin, to contrition, prayer, and exaltation. He communicated his feelings to but few, and always without many words, in a manner expressive of tran- quillity : but as his whole soul was filled with what he uttered, as he always waited a fit season and frame of mind both in himself and in those he addressed, the impression he made was irresistible ; his hearers involuntarily felt themselves transformed ; tears burst from their eyes before they suspected itf Very speedily some distinguished men attached themselves to him as decided proselytes : Ar- nauld d'Andilly, who was in close connexion with cardinal Richelieu and Anne of Austria, and was employed in the most important af- fairs ; his nephew, Le Maitre, who was ad- mired in those days as the first orator in par- liament, and who had the most brilliant ca- reer open to him, but now actually retired to a hermitage near Paris; Angelique Arnauld, to whom we have already alluded, and her nuns of Portroyal, attached themselves to St. Cyran with all the unbounded affection which pious women are wont to feel for their prophet. Jansenius died before he saw his book in print; St. Cyran was cast into prison, imme- diately after he had effected his first conver- sions, by Richelieu, who had a natural anti- pathy to efforts of such a character and such efficacy : but these mischances did not hinder the progress of their doctrines. The work of Jansenius gradually produced a general and profound impression, both from its intrinsic merit, and from its polemical boldness.| St. Cyran continued his career ♦ " S'humilier, souffrir et d^pendre de Dieu est touts la vie Chr6tienne." t M^moires pour servir ii I'histoire de Portroyal, par Mr- Fontaine, i p. 225. Racine: Hist, de Portroyal, p. 134. t Gerberon : Histoire du Jans6nisme, 63. " Leg th^o- logiens de Paris s'appliquerent lellemenl i l'6tudede I'Auguslin d'Ipres, ou il reconnoissoient celui d'Hippone, . . . qu'on commensoit a n'entendre plus parmi ceslh^- ologiens que les noms de Jansenius el de S. Auguslin." [Tlie theologians of Paris applied themselves to such a degree to the study of the Augustine of Ypres, in whom THE JANSENISTS. 369 of conversion even from within his prison walls. His unmerited sufferings, which he bore with great resignation, exalted him in the public eye : when he was set at liberty after the death of Richelieu, he was regarded as a saint, as a John the Baptist. He died indeed a few months after, ((Jet. 11, 1643,) but he had established a school which saw their gospel in his own and in his friends' doctrines: " his disciples," says one of them- selves, " went forth like young eagles under his wings; inheritors of his virtue and his piety, they transmitted to others what tiiey had received from him. Elijah left behind him Elisha to prosecute his work." If we seek to define the general relation in which the Jansenists stood to the dominant church party, it strikes us as manifestly ana logons to that of protestantism. They insist Pelagian notions for Augustin^an. Luther's mind had been aroused by St. Augustine, but he had immediately and unconditionally fall- en back on the primary source of knowledge, the scriptures, the word of God : in contrast with him, Catholicism had held fast by the entire system accumulated in the course of centuries ; the Jansenists sought to assert the creed of St. Augustine as that which had first comprised the earlier system, and laid the basis for the latter. Protestantism repudi- ates tradition, Catholicism clings to it, Jansen- ism seeks to purify it, to re-establish it in its primitive form, expecting thereby to regene- rate life and doctrine. Already there was gathered together round Le Maitre, in the hermitage of Portroyal des Champs, to which he had retired, an assem- blage of persons of no mean consideration, ed with the like zeal on purification of life, who held the principles we have described. It is not to be denied that the society was ori- ginally somewhat limited, consisting chiefly of members and friends of the Arnauld family. Le Maitre drew afler him his four brothers; their mother, who had instilled their spiritual feelings into their minds, was an Arnauld : St. Cyran's oldest friend, to whom he be- queathed his heart, was Arnauld d'Andilly, and he too at last joined the society ; the first important work on its behalf, was the pro- duction of the brother of d'Andilly, Antoine Arnauld. These first members were follow- ed by a great number of friends and relations. The convent too of Portroyal in Paris was al- most exclusively in the hands of the family. D'Andilly relates that his mother, who at last joined, was accompanied by twelve daughters and granddaughters.* We may mention in passing, that it was the elder Antoine Ar- nauld, from whom all the others we have mentioned were descended, by whose brilliant plaidoyer in the year 1594, the banishment of the Jesuits from Paris was chiefly decided. The aversion to the order seemed, as it were, hereditary in the family. But this narrow circle of friends was very rapidly and vastly extended. In the first place many joined it, attracted by no other kinship than that of sentiment. An influential preacher of Paris, Singliu, an adherent of St. Cyran, was particularly ac- tive in the cause. It was Singlin's strange peculiarity, that in common life lie expressed himself but with difficulty, but as soon as he_ mounted the pulpit, an overpowering flow of eloquence burst from his lips.f He sent those who adhered most zealously to him to Portroyal, where they were gladly wel- comed. They were young clergymen and scholars, substantial merchants, men of the best families, physicians already of considera- and strove no less eagerly to give a new as- pect to doctrine, by removing from it the in- terpolations of the schoolmen. But this is by no means sufficient, in my opinion, to warrant us in looking on them as a kind of uncon- scious protestants. The grand distinguishing point, historically considered, consists in this, that they willingly assented to a principle to which, from the very first, the protestants re- fused to be reconciled ; they held fast by those most eminent fathers of the Latin church, who had been abandoned in Germany as early as 15*23 — St. Ambrose, St. Augus- tine, St. Gregory, and added to them, some Greek fathers besides, above all St. Chrysos- tom : in the works of these fathers they be- lieved they possessed a pure and unvitiated tradition, from which St. Bernard in his day had never departed, but which after that " last of the fathers" had become obscured by the intrusion of the Aristotelic doctrines. We find them therefore far remote from that energetic zeal with which the protestants reverted directly to the doctrines of Holy Writ: their perceptive powers were satisfied with the first formations, which served for the basis of the latter system. They abide by the principle that the visible church, in spite of temporary darkness and deformity, is yet one in spirit, nay one in body with Christ, in- fallible, and imperishable : they adhere most earnestly to the episcopal hierarchy ; they live in the faith that St. Augustine had been inspired of God to communicate to the world in all its bearings that doctrine of grace which is the essence of the new covenant; in him, to their minds. Christian theology received its completion ; they wish to grasp this at the very root, to understand it in its very core, for many had been the instances of mistaking they recognized him of Hippo . . . that by and by no- thing was heard among ihem but the names of Jansenius and St. Augustine.] 47 * M6moires d'Arnauld d'Andilly, i. p. 341. t IV16moires de Fontaine, ii. p. 283. 372 POPES ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE 17TH CENTURY. superadded a question touching the limits of the papal authority : in their undeniable oppo- sition to the Roman see, the Jansenists still knew how to maintain the character of good catholics. This party was no longer to be put down. Attempts were occasionally made to that end on the part of the crown : formularies were issued in accordance with the bull of condem- nation, which were to be subscribed by all ecclesiastics, and even by schoolmasters and nuns. The Jansenists made no difficulty of condemning the five propositions, which, as we have mentioned, admitted of a heterodox interpretation ; they only refused to acknow- ledge, by an unconditional subscription, that they were contained in Jansenius, that they were the doctrines of their master. Such was the effect of their stedfastness, that their num- bers and their credit rose day by day ; ere long there were even among the bishops nume- rous champions of their opinions.* Torestore peace, at least outwardly, Clement IX. was constrained, in the year 1668, to de- clare himself content with such a mode of subscription as even a Jansenist could comply with. He was satisfied with a general con- demnation of the five propositions, without insisting that they had actually been put forth by Jansenius.f Now this in reality implied an essential concession on the part of the court of Rome : not only did it allow its claim to decide on matters of fact to fall to the ground, but it even acquiesced in seeing its * Letter from nineteen bishops to the pope, Dec. 1, 1GG7. "Novuin et inauditum apud nos nonnuUi dogma procude- nint, ecclesiae nempe decretisquibusquolidiana necreve- lata divinitus facta deciduntur,certam elinfallibilem con- stare verilatem." [Some persons have set up a new and unprecedented doctrine among us, to wit, that decrees de- ciding on every day matters of fact, not matters of divine revelation, are marked by certain and infallible truth.] This is, in fact, the recognized solution of the question of "droit" and "fait." t The last formulary of Alexander VIT. (15th Feb. 16G.5,) runs thus; " Je rejette et condamne sinc6rement les cinq propositions exiraitesdulivre de Cornelius Jansenius inti- tule Augustinus, et dans le sens du meme auteur, comme le saint si6ge aposlolique les a condamn6es par les susdi- tes constitutions." [I reject and condemn sincerely the five propositions extracted from the book of Cornelius Jan- senius, entitled 'Augustinus,' and in 1 he sense of the same author, as the holy apostolic see has condemned them by the aforesaid constitutions.] On the other hand, there is the II ore circumstantial declaration of peace: " Vous devez vousobligericondemnersinc6rement,pleinemenl, sans aucune reserve ni exception lous lessens que I'eglise et le pape out condamnds et coudamnent dans les cinq propositions." [You are to hold yourself bound to con- demn sincerely, fully, and without any reserve or excep- tion, all the senses which the church and the pope have condemned and do condemn in the five propositions.] A second article follows: " U^clarons que ce seroil faire injure i. I'eglise de couiprendreenire les sens condanm^s dans ces propositions la doctrine de St. Augustine el de St. Thomas, touchant la grace efficace par ellem^nie n6- cessaire a. loutes Its actions de la pi6t6 Chr6tieane et la predestination gratuite des eius." [We declare that it would be an insult to the church, to include within the meanings condemned in these propositions, the doctiine of St. Auirus ine and of St. Thomas, touching grace efficaci- ous of Itself, and necessary to all the actions of Christian piety, and touching the gratuitous predestination of the elect.] sentence of condemnation pronounced upon Jansenius remain null and void. From that period the party of St. Cyran and Jansenius rose more and more in strength and importance, tolerated by the curia, on a friendly footing with the royal court (the well known minister Pompone was a son of Andilly), and encouraged by some of the nobles. Its literary activity now wrought its full efi'ect upon the nation. But, simultaneously with the rise of the society, there had grown up a lively opposition to the Roman see ; the Jan- senists well knew, that, had matters gone as the curia intended, they could never have sub- sisted as a party. Relation of the Roman see to the temporal power. By this time there had likewise arisen in another quarter an opposition, to say the least of it, not less dangerous than that of the Jan- senists, and one that constantly increased in vehemence, and spread more Vvidely. The Roman see began, in the seventeenth century, to assert its jurisdictional preroga- tives, I know not whether with more vivacity and effect, but certainly with more system and unbending rigour. Urban VIII., who owed his elevation in part to the distinction he had acquired as a zealous champion of these claims,* established a special Congregation of Immunities. He entrusted to a few cardinals — who, as usual with their class, were in cor- respondence with the powers of Europe, and who, as young prelates, would hope to be pro- moted according to the zeal with v\hich they discharged the duty — the task of keeping a watchful eye upon all the encroachments of sovereigns upon the jurisdiction of the church. From that time the vigilance exercised was much keener and more regular, and the ad- monitions more urgent; official zeal and per- sonal interest co-operated ; the public spirit of the court regarded it as a proof of piety, to watch jealously over every item of those an- cient hereditary rights.f * Relatione de' iv ainbasciatori, 1625. " Professa sopra tutte le cose haver I'animo inflessibile e che la sua inde- pendenza non ammetta alcuna ragione degl' interessi de' principi. Ma quello in che preme con insistenza et a che tende I'impiego di lutto il suo spirito 6 di conservare e di accrescer la giurisditlione ecclesiaslica. Questo mede- sinio concetto fu sempre sostenuto dal pontefice nella sua minor fortuna, e ci6 6 stato anchegrandissimacausa della sua esaltatione." [He i)rofess( s above all things, inflexi- ble determination and independence, not to be swayed by any consideration of ihe inleresis of sovereigns. But what he most urgently insists on, and what he bends all the power of his mind to, is the conservation and the augmen- tation of the ecclesiastical Jurisdiction. This samelhought was always cherished by the pope when in lower station, and it likewise proved in a very great measure the cause of his elevation.] t Joh. Bapt. de Luca S. R. E. Cardinalis : Relatio curiae Romanae, 1G83. Disc. xvii. p. 109. " Etiam apud bonos et zelantes ecclesiaslicos remanet quaestio, an hujus congre- gationis erectio ecclesiasticae immunitati et jurisdiction! proficua vel praejudicialis fuerit, potissime quia bonus quidem sad forte indiscretus vel asper zelus aliquorum, RELATION OF THE ROMAN SEE TO THE TEMPORAL POWER. 373 But was it likely that the states would wil- lingly submit to this more strict supervision? The feeling of religious union, that had been kindled in the conflict with protestantism, was grown cold ; every effort of the nations was bent towards tlie attainment of internal strength and political compactness; the court of Ronie found itself involved in rancorous disputes with all the catholic states. Even the Spaniards at times made attempts to restrict the influential interfei'ence of Rome, as for instance in Naples, where they desired to introduce some civil assessors to the tribu- nal of the inquisition. The court of Rome rather hesitated about admitting the emperor's claim to the patriarchate of Aquileia, for fear he should use it for the purpose of acquiring a greater degree of ecclesiastical indepen- dence. The estates of the German empire sought in the election capitulations of 16.5-1 and 1658 to limit the jurisdiction of the nun- cios and of the curia by stricter provisions. Venice was incessantly in commotion con- cerning the influence of the court of Rome over the nomination to spiritual appointments in the country, the pensions and the arrogant pretensions of the nepotes: sometimes Genoa, sometimes Savoy found occasion to recal their ambassadors from Rome : but the most vehe- ment opposition to Rome, was that which it encountered from the French church, as might have been expected from the principle on which the restoration of the latter had been eftected.* There was no end to the cry of grievances set up by the nuncios, particularly as regarded the restrictions imposed on the spiritual jurisdiction : before they took a single step, appeals were lodged against them ; ques- tions of marriage were taken out of their hands under the pretence that there was abduction in the given case ; they were excluded from interference in criminal trials; clergymen were sometimes executed without having been previously degraded ; the king, of his own sole authority, issued edicts touching heresy and simony ; the tentlis to the crown had gradually become a permanent tax. The more appre- hensive retainers of the curia looked on these usurpations as harbingers of schism. qui circa initia earn regebant, aliqua produxil inconveni- enlia prsejuilicialia, aique asppritatis vel nimiuni exactae et exorbilanlis defensionis opinionem impressil apud secu- lares." [Il remains a question even among good and zeal- ous ecclesiastics, whether the establishment of this congre- gation has been advantageous or prejudicial to ecclesias- tical privilege and jurisdiction, especially because the honest but perhaps indiscreet or harsh zeal of some persons who had the direction of it in the beginning, produced some hurtful inconveniences, and conveyed to the minds of the laity an impression of harshness, or of too rigorous and ex- orbitant an assertion of right.] A very important confes- aion to be .made by a cardinal. * Relatione dcUa niintialura di Francladi Monsr- Scot- ti, IGll, 3 Aprile. He has a distinct section, Del impedl- menti dell i nuntiarura ordinaria: " Li gludici regj si pu6 dire che levino lutta la giurisdittione occl"- in Francia alii prelati." [It is a fict that the royal judges take the entire ecclesiastical jurisdiction in France out of the hands of the prelates.] The mutual bearing of the parties resulting from these disputes, was necessarily connected with other circumstinces besides, especially with the political altitude assumed by the court of Rome. Out of deference to Spain, neither Innocent nor Alexander ventured to recognize Portu- gal, which had separated from that monarchy, nor to grant canonical institution to the bishops nominated there. Almost the whole legiti- mate episcopacy of Portugal died out; church property was in great part assigned to the officers of the army ; king, clergy, and laity, lost the habit of their former submissiveness to Rome. But independently of this, the popes after Urban VIII. again inclined to the side of Spain and Austria. This need not excite surprise, since the su- perior strength of France so soon put on a character formidable to the general freedom of Europe. In addition to this, these same popes had owed their elevation to Spanish in- fluence, and both were personal enemies of Mazarin.* In Alexander this enmity display- ed itself with ever increasing force : he could not forgive the cardinal that he had allied himself with Cromwell, and long prevented peace with Spain from personal motives. Now the consequence of this was, that the opposition to the Roman see became more and more inveterate in France, and broke out from time to time into violent explosions. Severely was Alexander made to experience this ! A dispute which arose in Rome between the suite of the French ambassador de Crequy and the Corsican city guard, in which de Crequy was at last personally insulted, gave the king an opportunity of interfering in the quarrels of the Roman see with the houses of Este and Farnese, and finalfy of absolutely marching troops into Italy. The unfortunate pope en- deavoured to save himself by means of a secret protest: but he was obliged in the face of the world, to concede all the king's demands in the treaty of Pisa. The fondness of the popes for inscriptions in their honour is well known ; not a stone, it is said, did they suffer to be set in a wall without their cyphers. Alexander was compelled to endure the erection of a pyramid in one of the most frequented squares of his capital, the inscription on which was to perpetuate his humiliation. * Deone, Oltobre, 1644 : " Si sa veramente che 1' esclu- sione di Panfilio fatta da cardinali Frances! nel conclave non era volonti regia, n6 instanza del C'- Antonio, ma opera del C' Mazzarini emulo e poco ben affetto al C'- Panziroli, il quale prevedea che doveva aver gran pane in questo pontfficato." [It is known for certain the ex- clusion of the Panfilio, effected by the French cardinals in the conclave, was not in pursuance of the royal will, nor at the instance of cardinal Antonio, but was the work of cardinal Mazarin, the rival and enemy of cardinal Panzirolo, whohe foresaw was likely to play an important part in that pontificate.] As was actually ih e case. J74 POPES IN THE LATTER PART OF THE 17TH CENTURY. This act alone was sure greatly to degrade the dignity of the papacy. But furthermore, that dignity had already begun to decline from about the year 1660. The papal see had originated the peace of Vervins, and by its negotiations furthered it and brought it to a conclusion : it had been present by its ambassadors at the arrangement of the peace of Westphalia, but even then it had felt constrained to protest against the stipulations agreed on : lastly, it did not even ostensibly take any part in the peace of the Pyrenees ; the contracting parties avoided admitting its envoys to the conference ; scarce- ly was it thought of in the transaction.* How soon afterwards followed treaties of peace, in which papal fiefs were disposed of without so much as consulting the pope ! Transition to the later epochs of the papacy. It is by all means a most remarkable fact, and one that affords us an insight into the gen- eral course of human affairs, that at the mo- ment the papacy broke down in the execution of its plans for the renovation of its universal supremacy, it began likewise to fall into inter- nal decay. Everything pertaining to it had undergone a fundamental repair during the period of pro- gress and restoration. The doctrines of the church had been renovated, its privileges more strongly centralized, alliances had been form- ed with sovereigns, fresh life had been infused into the old orders, and new ones had been founded, the force of the ecclesiastical states had been firmly compacted, and converted into an instrument of church policy, the curia had been reformed morally and intellectually, and everything brought to bear on the one object of the restoration of the papal aiithority and of the catholic faith. This, as we have seen, was not a new cre- ation; it was a reanimation through the might of new ideas, which, abolishing some abuses, did but carry along with a fresh impulse the already existing elements of social life. Now undoubtedly a renovation of this sort is more exposed to the decay of the vivifying principle than is a radically new creation. The first check which the catholic restora- tion encountered befel it in France. The pa- pal authority could not force its way upon the beaten path ; it was doomed to see the growth and elevation of a church, catholic indeed, but not moulded under the influences it in- tended, and to be reduced to enter on a com- promise with that church. There followed other occurrences tending * Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato dfilla pace conclusa fra )e due corone, 1664, has at p. 120, " Osservaiioni sopra le cause per le quale si conclude la pace senza intervemo del papa." We learn hence that the bad feeling between the pope and Mazaria in those limes was mailer of noto- riety. to the same end : — violent internal dissensions arose, controversies upon the most important points of faith, and upon the relation of the spiritual to the temporal authority ; nepotism unfolded itself in the curia in a perilous man- ner ; the financial resources, instead of being wholly directed to their legitimate purpose, were rendered mainly subservient to the ad- vantage of single families. But Rome had still a grand and universal object, towards which it strode onwards with extraordinary good fortune. In this high en- deavour all contradictions were reconciled, the conflicts concerning doctrine and the tem- poral pretensions of the church were assuaged, the discords of the sovereign powers healed, the progress of the common enterprises sus- tained : the curia was the centre and the bea- con of the catholic world ; the work of conver- sion sped on the grandest scale. Yet we have seen how it came to pass, that the desired end was not reached, but that the aspiring church was, through dissensions with- in and resistance without, flung back upon itself. Thenceforth all the affairs of the state, and the whole internal condition of the papal do- minions likewise assumed another aspect. Devotedness is a feeling inseparable from the spirit of conquest and acquisition that aims at a great purpo.se ; it is incompatible with a narrow selfishness. The curia Vv^as now pos- sessed by the spirit of worldly enjoyment and of lucre. A society of annuitants sprung up, which thought itself fully entitled to the reve- nues of the state, and the proceeds of the ecclesiastical administration. Whilst they fatally abused their usurped rights, they still clung to it with the same zeal as though it were bound up with the very essence of the faith. This it was that provoked implacable resist- ance from opposite quarters. A doctrine came forth, which, originating from a new view of the profounder principles of religion, was condemned and persecuted by the Roman court, but could never be put down. The several states assumed a more independent position ; they emancipated them- selves from their subservience to the papal policy ; they challenged for themselves a right of absolute control over their own internal aflairs, that continually narrowed the influ- ence of the curia even in ecclesiastical mat- ters. On these two grand points hang all the subsequent history of the papacy. Epochs followed, in which, so far from mani- festing any spontaneous activity, it rather seem.s, while assailed now on this side and' now on that, to have been every moment oc- cupied with the sole thought how it might best defend itself. The attention of mankind is usually attract- LOUIS XIV. AND INNOCENT XI. 375 ed by energy and power, and it is only by I following^ out the efScient cause that the event can be understood ; nor does it come within the design of this worii to describe the later epochs of the papacy. Nevertheless they pre- sent an exceedingly remarkable spectacle ; and as we began with a review of the earlier ages, so we can hardly close the subject with- out making an attempt, though but a brief one, to survey the papacy likewise in its more re- cent stage. The first thing that presents itself to our notice is the attack on the part of the states. It was most intimately connected with the division of the catholic world into two hostile portions, the Austrian and the French party, which the pope was no longer in a condition to master or to appease. The political atti- tude assumed by Rome, determined the mea- sure of ecclesiastical devotedness which it encountered. We have already seen the manner in which this state of things began: let us now observe its further progress. Louis XIV. and Innocent XL However staunch a catholic was Louis XIV., it yet seemed intolerable to him that the Roman see should pursue an independent policy, nay, one that often ran counter to his own. Clement X. (1670 to 1676.) and his nephew Pauluzzi Altieri, inclined to the side of the Spaniards,* as had Innocent and Alexander, and if not Clement IX., at least his court and adherents. Louis XIV. revenged himself lor this by incessant inroads upon the spiritual power. He arbitrarily confiscated church property, oppressed various monastic orders, claimed the privilege of burthening the church livings with military pensions; he sought to extend to provinces in which it had never been in force, the right which had become so cele- brated under the name of regale, of appro- priating the revenues of vacant bishoprics, and filling up the benefices dependent upon them ; he inflicted the most severe wound on the Roman annuitants, by subjecting the remission of moneys to the court of Rome to a crippling supervision. f ♦ Morosini: Relatione di Francia, 1671. " Conosciula naturale pariialiii del card'' Altieri per la corona cattoli ca rende alia Xma- sospelta ogni sua atlione. II pontpfice presented considerato come un imasine del dominio che risiede veramenie nell' arbiirio del nipoie." [The known partiality of cardinal Altieri for the catholic crown ren- ders every action of his suspicious to the most Christian kins;. The present pope is considered but an effisy of the power of the see, which really resides in the will of his nephew.] t Instruttione per Mons"- Arcivegcovo di Patrasso, 1G74. " Questo fatto arrivato alia corte sicome eccitC) lo stupore e lo scandolo universale, cosi pervenulo alia notitia di N. Sre- mosse un estremo cordoglio nrdl'animodi S. Beatne-" [On this fact becoming known to the court, it excited universal amazement and scandal, and when it came to He continued the same course during the pontificate of Innocent XI., who on the whole pursued the same system of policy, but from him Louis encountered resistance. Innocent XL, of the house of Odescalchi of Como, had arrived in Rome in his twenty-fifth year, with sword and pistol, to settle himself in some secular employment, perhaps in the military service of Naples. The advice of a cardinal, who penetrated better into his cha- racter than he himself had done, induced him to enter on tlie career of the curia. This he did with so much devotedness and zeal, gra- dually winning for himself such a reputation for ability and good intentions, that during the conclave the people shouted his name under the porticoes of St. Peter, and public opinion was gratified, when he came forth from that church decked with the tiara (Sept. 21, 1676). He was a man who would summon his ser- vants to attend him, provided always they were quite at leisure ; one, of whom his con- fessor averred that he had never discovered anything in him which could sever the soul from God ; a gentle and placid being, whom yet the same conscientiousness that ruled his private life, now also impelled to fulfil the obligations of his office without fear or truck- ling. How vigorously did he grapple with the existing abuses, particularly those in the financial department. The out-goings had risen to 2,578,106 scudi, 91 baj. ; the incom- ings, dataria and spolia included, amounted to but 2,408,.500 scudi, 71 baj. ; so huge a deficit, 170,000 scudi yearly, threatened a public bankruptcy.* To Innocent XI. is undoubt- edly due the merit of having prevented mat- ters reaching that extreme. He forbore alto- gether from the practice of nepotism. He declared that he loved his nephew Don Livio, whose modesty deserved his love, but for that very reason he would not have him in the palace. He absolutely confiscated all the offices and revenues which before his time had been the perquisite of the pope's nephews. He did the same with many other places, the existence of which was more burthensome to the state. He abolished innumerable abuses and exemptions ; and when the state of the market at last made it practicable, he did not hesitate still further to reduce the interest on the monti from four to three per centf In a the ears of our lord the pope, it caused his holiness extreme affliction.] * Slato della camera nel presente ponteficato di Inno- cenzo XI. MS. (Bibl. Alb.) t In a MS. of 763 pages of the year 174.3, " Erettione et aggionte de' monti camerali," are to be found the decrees and briefs concerning this matter. In a brief of the year 1684 to the treasurer Negroni, Innocent first declares hia intention " d' andar liberando la camera del fnitto di 4 p. c. . . che in questi tempi 6 troppo rigoroso." [to relieve the camera of the burthen of interest at 4 per cent. — too oppressive in these times.] 376 POPES IN THE LATTER PART OF THE 17TH CENTURY. few years he actually succeeded in raising the public income to no insignificant excess above the expenditure. With the same resolute spirit, this pope now withstood the attacks of Louis XIV. Two Jansenist bishops, who opposed the extension of the regale before mentioned, were harassed and persecuted by the court on that account; the bishop of Pamiers was re- duced for a while to subsist on charity. They appealed to the pope, and Innocent did not delay to espouse their cause.* Once, twice, he admonished the king not to give ear to flatterers, not to lay hands on the liberties of the church ; and bade him be- ware, lest he should cause the fountains of Divine grace to dry up for his kingdom. Receiving no answer, he repeated his admoni- tions a third time, but now he added that he would not content himself with mere admo- nitions, but would employ every instrument of that power which God had put into his hands. No danger, no storm should appal him; his glory was in the cross of Christ.f It had always been a maxim of the French court to use the papal power as a check upon its clergy, and to employ the latter to restrict the influence of the former. But never did a sovereign hold his clergy in more perfect command than did Louis XIV. The addresses they presented to him on ceremonial occa- sions breathe a spirit of submissiveness that has never been equalled. " We hardly ven- ture," they say, " to make requests, for fear of setting a limit to your majesty's zeal for the church. The unhappy privilege of sta- ting grievances, is now transformed into the delightful necessity of praising our benefac- tor."f The prince of Conde gave it as his opinion, that if the king were of a mind to pass over to the protestant church, the clergy would follow him with all speed. At any rate the clergy stood by their king against the pope without scruple ! year after year they put forth more decided declarations in favour of the royal authority. At last ensued the convocation of 1682. "It was summoned and dissolved," says a Venetian ambassador, " at the convenience of the king's minister's, and guided by their suggestions."^ The four articles it drew up have ever since been regarded as the manifesto of the Galilean liberties. The first three reiterated princi- * Racine: Hisloire EecWsiaslique, x. p. 328. t Brief of ihe 27th Dec. 1679. i Remonirance du clere6 de France (assemble a St. Germain en Laye en 1' ann6e, 1680) faile au roi le 10 juil- let par rill"«- el r^vwi^' J Bapi. Adheimar de Blonleil de Grienan. M6m. du clerg6, lorn. xiv. p. 787. ftoscarini: Relatione di Francia, 1681. "Con non dissimile dipendenza segue 1' ordine ecclco- le massiine e 1' inieresse della corte, come 1' ha fallo conoscere 1' as- sembleasopra le vertonze della regalia, uuiia, diretla e disciolta secondo le convenienze ed ispiralioni del minis- tero politico, Provenendo della mano del re 1' esallatioiie e forluna de' soggelii che lo coiupongono, dominati sem- pre da nuove pretensione e speranze, si grorgono piu atlac- cati alia compiacenze del monarca che gli siessi secolari." pies asserted before, — the independence of the secular power as regarded the spiritual, the superiority of councils over the pope, and the inviolability of the Galilean usages. But the fourth is particularly remarkable, since it limits even the spiritual authority of the pope. " Even in questions of faith the pope's decision is not incapable of amendment, so long as it has not received the assent of the church." We see that the two national authorities supported each other. The king was emancipated from the interference of the pope's temporal power, the clergy from the unconditional authority of his spiritual power. It was the opinion of contemporaries, that though France was still within the pale of the catholic church, yet its foot was on the thresh- hold to depart from out it. The king exalted the propositions above mentioned into a sort of articles of faith, or symbolical book. The teaching in all schools was to be in con- formity therewith ; no one was to obtain a degree in the faculties of law or theology who did not swear to those propositions. But the pope too had his weapon. The king advanced to episcopal offices the authors of the declaration, and the members of the convocation, in preference to all other candi- dates. Innocent refused to grant them spiri- tual institution. They might enjoy the reve- nues of their sees, but they received no ordinations, and could not exercise one spi- ritual function of episcopacy. The quarrel became more complicated from the fact, that at this juncture Louis XIV., chiefly for the purpose of evincing his perfect orthodoxy, proceeded to his cruel extirpation of the Huguenots. He thought thereby to render a great service to the catholic church. It has also been alleged that pope Innocent was privy and consenting to the design :* but in reality this was not the case. The Roman court would now have nothing to do with a conversion effected by armed apostles : "Christ had not employed that method ; men should be led but not dragged into the tem- ple."t Still fresh dissensions constantly arose. The French ambassador entered Rome in the year 1687, with so strong a retinue, not less than a couple of squadrons of cavalry, that it would not have been easy to dispute his claim to the right of asylum, to which the ambassa- dors in those days pretended, not only for * Bonamici, Vita Innocentii in Lebrat: Magazin viii. p. 98, and Lebrel's note "Also ist es nicht zu widerspre- chen," &c. tVenier: Relatione di Francia, 1689. "Nell' opera tentata nella conversion degli Ugonotli dlspiacque al re, non ripoitar dal pontefice lode che sperava, riceve il papa in mala parte che fosse intrapresa senza sua panicipa- tione et eseguila con i noti rigori, . . . publicando che non fosse propria fare niisssioni d' apostoli arinati, e che questo motodo nuovo non fosse il niigliore, giiiche Uhrislo non se n' era servito per convertire il mondo: in oltre parve ini- poiluno il tempo di guadagnar gli eretici all' ora che erano piu boUenti le coutroversie col papa." LOUIS XIV. AND INNOCENT XI. 377 their palaces, but likewise for the neighboiir- ing streets, althouirh the pope had solemnly repealed the privilege. Willi armed force he braved the pope in his own capital. "They come with horses, and with chariots," said Innocent, •' but we will walk in the name of the Lord." He pronounced the censure of the church upon the ambassador; the church of San Luigi, at which that functionary had been present at a solemn high mass, was laid under an interdict.* Upon this the king had recourse on his part to the most extreme steps. He appealed to a general council, caused Avignon to be taken possession of, and the nuncio to be shut up in St. Olon. It was thought he had in view to create archbishop Harlai, who had sanctioned, if not prompted all these steps, patriarch of France. To such a length had matters gone : the French ambassador excommunicated in Rome, the papal nuncio in France forcibly detained ; thirty-five French bishops without canonical institution ; a papal territory seized by the king : here was schism in fact already broken out. Notwithstanding all this, Innocent XL did not yield a foot. If we ask on what he relied in this trying emergency, it was not on any effect of his censure in France, not on the might of his apostolic dignity ; but it was above all things on that general resistance which had been aroused by the enterprises of Louis XIV. which threatened the freedom of Europe in its very being : in this the pope likewise joined. He aided Austria in its Turkish war to the utmost of his ability :f the prosperous issue of that undertaking placed the vviiole party, and the pope with it, in a new position. It can hardly indeed be proved that Inno- cent, as it has been alleged, was in direct alliance with William III., and was person- ally cognizant of his designs upon England. | But we may with unhesitating coniidence assert that his ministers were privy to them. ♦ " Legatio marcliionis Lavartlini Romam ejusque cum Romano pomifice dissiilium, 1G97." A refutation of La- vaiJin, which Investigates this atfair with much dispas- sionate judgment: it belongs to the series of excellent political papers which werecalled forth in Germany, the_ Netlierlands, Spain, and Italy, by the assumptions of Louis XIV. t Relaliene di Roma di Giov. Lando, 1689. The sub- sidies are here computed at two millions of scudi. $ This assertion is made in the M6moires sur le r6gne de Frederic i. roi de Priisse, par lecomte de Dohna, p. 78. It is slated that the letters passed through queen Chris- tina's hands to his father, "qui les fesoit passer par le comt6 de Lippe, d'oii un certain Paget les portoit k la Haye" [who forwarded ihern through the county of Lippe, whence one Paget carried them to the Hague]. In spile of these details, we nuist doubt the fact, when we consi- der, that during all this period queen OhrisUna was at variance with the pope. Her position with regard to the pope, as set forth ni her correspondence, makes me think it impossible that the pope, who once said of her with a shrug, "e una donda," [she is a woman,] would have trusted her with such a secret. There may, for all that, have been secret despatches from Rome. 48 The pope was only told that the prince of Orange was to have the command on the lihine, and to defend the rigiits of the empire, and of the church against Louis XIV,; to this object he promised considerable subsidies. But his secretary of state, count Cassoni, had by the end of the year 16S7, positive intelli- gence that the plan of the English malcontents was to dethrone king James, and to transfer the crown to the princess of Orange. The count was ill-served : the French had got hold of a traitor in his household. It was from the papers which that man had an opportunity of inspecting in his master's most secret cabinet, that the courts of France and England de- rived their first knowledge of those plans. Strange complication ! It was at the court of Rome that the threads of a machination were destined to meet, which had for its aim and its result, to liberate protestantism in the West of Europe from the last great danger that threatened it, and to secure the English throne for ever to that creed.* Even, as we said before, though Innocent XI. knew noth- ing of this whole scheme, still it is undeni- able that he adhered to an opposition based for the most part on protestant resources, and urged by protestant impulses. His resistance to the candidate for the archbishopric of Co- logne favoured by France, was in the interest of that opposition, and was the main incentive to the outbreak of war. A war, however, which, as regarded France, turned out very favourable to the papal prin- ciple. If the pope by his policy promoted protestantism, the protestants in their turn, whilst maintaining the European balance against " the exorbitant power" of France, were thereby co-operating to compel that power to assent to the spiritual pretensions of the papacy. It is true Innocent XL did not live to wit- ness that consummation ; but the very first ambassador who appeared in Rome after his death (August 10, 16S9,) abandoned the claim to the right of asylum; the king's bearing was changed; he restored Avignon, and be- gan to negotiate. This was the more necessary, inasmuch as the new pope, Alexander VIII., however widely he departed in other respects from the strict example of his predecessor, in this point * Little notice has been taken, (though it is decisive upon the subject), of the Lettre ecrile par le C'' d'Etr^ps, ainbassadeur exlraord. de Louis XIV. k M. de Louvois, IS Dec. 11)87. Giuvres de Louis XIV. torn. vi. p. 497. It shows how early James II. was informed of the projects on fool. Young lord Norfolk, who was incognito in Ronie, instantly dispatched a courier to him. Mackintosh (His- tory of the Revolution, ii. 157) is of opinion that James was convinced by ihe first week in May, 1688, of the prince's designs upon England. But, as early as the 10th orlllhofMarch, he had said to the papal nuncio, " il principe aver in principal mira 1' Inghilteira" [that the prince's chief aim was England]. (Leltera di Monsieur d'Adda, ibid. p. 346.) His misfortune was that he did not conade in himself. 878 THE POPES SUBSEQUENTLY TO THE 17TH CENTURY. at least adhered firmly to Innocent's princi- ples. Alexander proclaimed anew the reso- lutions of 1682* to be invalid and void, null and of no effect, not binding, even though backed by theforceofan oalh ; declaring that, day and night, he thought on them with a heart full of bitterness, and lifted up his eyes with tears and sobs. After the early death of Alexander VIII. the French strained every effort to procure the election of a pope of pacific temper and disposed to a reconciliation ;f such an one they obtamed in the person of Antonio Pigna- telli,— Innocent XII. (July 12, 1691.) But this pope, too, was little disposed in any respect to compromise the dignity of the Roman see ; and just as little had he any ur- gent motive for so doing, since the allied arms plied Louis XIV., with such formidable energy. Negotiations were carried on for two years. Innocent more than once rejected the formuliB proposed to him by the French clergy. At last they were forced to declare, that all that had been discussed and determined in the as- sembly, should be looked on as not discussed and not determined : " prostrate at the feet of your holiness we profess our unspeakable sorrow for the same."| It was not till this absolute recantation that Innocent granted them canonical institution. Peace was restored only on these conditions. * "In diclis comiliis anni 1682, tam circa extensionem juris regalise quani circa declaralionem de proteslate ec- clesiastica aclorum ac eliam omnium el singulorum man- datorum, arrestomm, confirmalionum, declarationum, epislolarum, ediclorum, decretorum quavis auclorilate sive ecclesiastica sive etiani laicali editorum, necnon ali- orum quomodolibet pisjudicialuiu prsefatorum in regno supradicioquandocunque et a quibusvis et ex quacunque causa el quovis modo factorum et gesiorum ac inde secu- torum quoiumcunque lenores. 4lhAug. 16S0." Cocquel. ix. p. 33. t Domenico Contarini : Relatione di Roma, 1696 : " Te- nendosi questa volia da Francesi bisogno d' un papa fa- cile e d' anirao assai rlmesso, e clie poiesse facilraenie esser indotlo a modificare la bolla falta nell' agonia di Alessand'.o VIII. sopra le proposilioni dell' assembleadel clero del anno 168i, diedero mano alia elellione di esso." J It has, indeed, been asserted, and Petitol among others (Notice sur Portioyal, p. 240) is of opinion, that this letter was an invention of the Jansenists, " pour r6- pandre du ridicule et de I'odieux sur les nouveaux ^v6- ques; [to cast ridicule and odium on the new bishops;] but, in the first place, no other formula was ever produced by the opposite parly; secondly, the above has always been acknowledged, at least indirectly, by the Roman writers, as, for instance, by Novaes, Storia de' Pontefici, torn. xi. p. 117 ; lastly, it was at the very time universally regarded, and even at court, as indisputably genuine. Domenico Con anni says, " Poco dopo fu preso per mano da Francesi il negolio delle chiese di Francia proponendo diverse formule di dichiarazione, . . . materia venlildta fier il corso di due anni e conclusa ed aggiustata con quella etlera scrittada vescovi al papa che si e difusa in ogni parte." [Shortly afterwards the French took in hand the affair of the churches of their country, and proposed various forms of declaration, . . . the atfair was under discussion for the space of two years, and was concluded and adjusted by means of that letter from tlie bishops to the pope, which has been made jiublic in all quarters.] Now this is the very formula in question. None other has ever been made known. Daunou too, (Essai histo- rique sur la puissance lemporelle des papes, ii. p. 196,) gives this letter as authentic. J^ouis XIV. wrote to the pope that he re- tailed his orders respecting the observance of he four articles. Thus do we see that the Roman see once more stood fast upon its pre- rogatives, in opposition to the most powerful of monarchs. But was it not in itself a grievous disad- vantage, that assertions so decidedly hostile had enjoyed a validity legally authorized by the government? They had been proclaimed with noisy ostentation, as though they had been decrees of the empire ; their retraction was made privately, in the quietest way, in the form of letters, and that only on the part of individuals who were particularly in need of the favour of the court of Rome. Louis XIV. permitted this; but we must not believe that he recalled the four articles, though the matter was sometimes looked on in that light in Rome. At a much later period he would not endure that the Roman court should re- fuse institution to the adherents of the four articles. He declared that he had only re- voked the obligation of teaching them ; but it was just as little reasonable that any one should be prohibited from acknowledging them.* There is also another observation we have to make. It was by no means by its own strength the Roman court had maintain- ed its ground, but only in consequence of a great political combination, only by reason of the fact that France had been forced gene- rally to retreat within narrower limits. What then would be the result should this state of things change, — should it come to pass that there was no longer any one to protect the see of Rome against the aggressive party'! The Spanish succession. The extinction of the Spanish line of the * The king's words, in his letter to Innocent XII., Ver- sailles, loth Sept. 1693, are: "J'ai donn6 les ordres n6- cessaires afin cite les choses contenues dans mon 6dil du 22 Mars, 1682, louchant la declaration faite par le clerg6 de France (i quoi les conjonctures pass6es m'avoyent oblig^) ne soyent pas observ^es." [I have given the necessary orders, to the end that the matters contained in my edict of the 22nd March, 1682, touching the declara- tion made by the clergy of France, (to which past con- junctures had compelled me,) be not observed.] In a let- ter of the 7th of July, 1713, madeknowit to us by Anaud, (Historie du Pape Pie Vll. 1836, torn. ii. p. 16,) it is said: " On lui (au Pape C16ment XI.) a suppos6, contre la v6ril6, que j'ai contrevenu i I'engageraent pris pas la lettre que j'ecrivis d. son pr6d6cesseur, car je n'ai oblig6 personne i soutenir contre sa propre opinion les propositions du clerg6 de France ; mais il n'est pas juste que j'emp^che mes sujets de dire et de soutenir leurs sentiments sur une mati^re qu'il est libra de soutenir de part et d'autre:" [It has been insinuated to him, contrary to the truth, that I have contravened the engagement entered into by the letter I wrote to his predecessor, for I have not obliged any one to maintain, contrary to his own opinion, the pro- positions of the clergy of France; but it is not just thai I should hinder my subjects from expressing and main- taining their senlimenis on an open question.] Wo see that even in his latter years, Louis XIV. was not quite so devoted a Romanist as is commonly supposed. He says decidedly, "Je ne puis admettre aucun expedient." [I cannot admit any compromise.] THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 379 house of Austria was an event of the greatest importance for the papacJ^ On the antagonism in which the Spanish monarchy stood with regard to Franco, which determined the general character of European politics, rested also in the last result the free- dom and independence of the papal see : for a century and a half the principles of the Spaniards had kept the ecclesiastical states at peace. Whatever might be the upshot, it was in any case perilous, that a state of things with which every habit of existence was bound up, should be put in jeopardy. But it was still more perilous that a dispute prevailed concerning the succession to the crown, threatening to create a general war, — a war which in that case would be chiefly fought out in Italy. The pope himself could hardly avoid the necessity of adopting one party or another, even though he could not flatter himself with the prospect of contributing any thing essential to the triumph of the cause he should espouse. I find it stated,* that Innocent XII., who was now reconciled to France, had counselled Charles H. of Spain to declare the French prince his heir, and that this advice of the holy father had been the chief among the causes that conduced to the drawing up of that will on which so much depended. At any rate the Roman see abandoned the anti-French policy which it had pursued al- most uninterruptedly since the times of Urban VIII. : it may possibly have regarded it as the more trifling change, and the lesser evil, if the whole monarchy devolved without partition on a prince of a house which then showed itself so pre-eminently catholic. Cle- mentXI., Gianfranc Albani, elected November 16, 1700, publicly lauded the resolution of Louis XIV. to accept the inheritance. He addressed a letter of congratulation to Philip v., and granted him subsidies raised upon ec- clesiastical property, just as if no doubt sub- sisted as to his rights.t Clement XI. might be looked on as a perfect and genuine repre- * Morosini : Relatione di Roma, 1707. " Se il papa ab- bia avulo mano o participatione nel lestamenlo di Carlo II., io non ardiru d' asserirlo ; n6 6 facile di peneirare il vera con sicurezza. Bensl addurro solo due laiii. L'uno che qupslo arcano, non si sa con verili, fu espuslo in un manifesto uscito alle stampe in Roaia ne' prinii niesi del niio ingresso all' anibasciata, all' ora che dall' uno el' al- tro panito si tratlava la guerra non menu con 1' armi che con le carte. L'allrociie il papa non s' astenne di far publici eloga al Christmo. d'essersi ritiralo dal partaggio, ricevendo la monarchia intiera per il nepole.'' [I will not pretend to affirm whether or not the pope had hand or pan in the will uf Charles II., nor is il easy to arrive with certainly at the truth. I will cite, however, but two facts. The one is that this secret was published, whether with truth or not is not If nown, in a manifesto which issued from the Roman press in the first months of my embassy, at the time when war was actually waged between tlie two parties. The other fact is, that the pope did not abstain from publicly eulogizing the most Christian king, because he had discountenanced the partition of Spain, and ac- cepted the monarchy entire for his npphew.] tBuder: Leben und Thaten Clemens XI. torn. i. p. 148. sentative of the Roman court, which he had never quitted ; affability, literary talent, and an irreproachable life, had won him universal popularity.* He had contrived greatly to in- gratiate himself with the three last popes, difl'erent as they were in character, and to render himself indispensable to them. He won his way upwards by tried, practical, yet never formidable, talents. If, as he once said, he had been able to give good advice as car- dinal, but as pope knew not how to serve him- self, this may be taken as an indication that he felt himself better qualified to seize and carry out a given impulse, than to conceive an original resolution and to carry it into ef- fect. In taking up, for instance, the jurisdic- tional question with renewed vigour imme- diately on his accession, he only followed the bent of public opinion and the interests of the curia. In like manner he was a believer in the fortune and might of the great king. He did not doubt that Louis XIV. would be tri- umphant in the end. The Venetian ambassa- dor avers, that he could not conceal his joy and satisfaction at the progress made by the French arms in relation to the German and Italian enterprize against Vienna in the year 170;^, which promised to be final and decisive. But the fortune of war changed at that mo- ment. The king's German and English an- tagonists, with whom Innocent XI. had con- nected himself, but from whom Clement XI. had gradually estranged himself, achieved unprecedented victories: the imperial troops, in conjunction with those of Prussia, poured down on Italy; they were not disposed to show forbearance to a pope whose conduct was so ainbiguous ; the old pretensions of the imperial power, which had not been thought of since the days of Charles V., awoke again. We will not enter upon all the bitter ani- mosities in which Clement XI. became in- volved.! At last the imperialists assigned him a term within which he was to accept their proposals for peace, among which the most important was, the recognition of the Austrian claimant to the Spanish throne. In vain the pope looked round for help. He waited till the appointed day, January 15, 1709, after the lapse of which, should he come *Erizzo: Relatione di Roma, 1702. " Infatti pareva euli la delizia di Roma, e non eravi ministro regie n6 natione che non credesse tutto suo il cardinale Albani. Tanto bene," he adds, "sapeva fingere alTelti e variare linguaggio con tutti. [In fact, he appeared the darling of Rome, and there was not a royal minister or nation that was not certain of engrossing all cardinal Albani's good- will. So well did heknow how to assume the appearance of sympathy, and to adapt his language to every one.] ■f For instance, those respecting the troops quartered in Parma and Piacenza, where the clergy were compelled to furnish contributions of war. "Accord avec les d6- put^s du due et de la ville de Plaisance, 11 d6c. 1706. art. ix. que pour soulager I'^tat tous les particuliers, quoique tres privil^gi^s, contribueroient i. la susdite somme." This the pope would not submit to. The imperial claims were thereupon re-asserled with increased vehemence. Contred^claralion de I'empereur, in Lamberty, v. 85. 380 THE POPES SUBSEQUENTLY TO THE 17TH CENTURY. to no decision, the imperialists had threatened to overrun his capital and his dominious. It was not till the last hour of that day, eleven o'clock, p. M., that he gave his signature. He had formerly congratulated Philip V. : he now found himself compelled to acknowledge his rival Charles III., as the catholic king.* This event not only gave a severe blow to the authority of the papal see as umpire, but even despoiled it of its freedom and independ- ence. I'he French ambassador left Rome, declaring it was no longer the seat of the church.f The whole aspect of European affairs was changed. It was, after all, protestant Eng- land that had finally decided the destiny of the Spanish and catholic monarchy; what further influence could the pope exercise over the movements of general policy? By the peace of Utrecht, Sicily and Sar- dinia,— countries which he regarded as his own fief, — were consigned to new sovereigns without his being so much as consulted. J The convenience of the great powers super- seded the infallible decision of the chief pastor of the church. Nay, a peculiar misfortune befel the papal see in this crisis. It had always been one of the foremost aims of its policy to possess influence over the Italian states, to assert as far as possible an indirect sovereignty over them. But now, not only had German Austria, while almost at open war with the pope, made good its footing in Italy, but the duke of Savoy too had attained to royal power, and a great augmentation of his possessions, in defi- ance of the pope's opposition. And so it went on in other instances. In order to appease the dispute between the houses of Bourbon and Austria, the allied powers acceded to the wi.sh of the queen of Spain, that they should grant Parma and Piacenza to one of her sons. For two centu- ries the feudal suzerainty of the popes over that duchy had never been questioned ; the dukes had received it as a fief, and paid tri- bute : but now that this right assumed a new importance, now that it was foreseen that the male line of the house of Farnese would soon become extinct, it was no longer respected. The emperor assigned the country as a fief to an infant of Spain. Notliing remained for the pope but to put forth protests which no one heeded. 5 The peace between the two houses was, however, but momentary. In the year 1733, * The conditions, which were at first kept secret, were made known by a letter from the Austrian ambassador to the Duke of Marlboroush. Lambeny, v. 24-2. t Lettre du mar^chal Thesse au pape, 12 juillet, 1709. t For proofs of the ambisruous conduct of the duke of Savoy, see Lafitau, Vie de (/lemenl XI. loin. ii. p. 78. % " Protestatio nomine sedis aposloliise emissa in con- vemu Catneracensi, in Roussei : Supplement au corps diplomat. Ue Dumont, iii. ii. p. 173. the Bourbons revived their pretensions to Na- ples, which was in the hands of Austria; and the Spanish ambassador offered palfrey and tribute to the pope. Clement XH. would now have been glad to leave matters as they stood ; he nominated a commission of cardinals, which decided in favour of the imperial claims. But on this occasion too the fortune of war was contrary to the judgment of the pope : the Spanish arms were victorious. Ere long Cle- ment was forced to grant investiture of Na- ples and Sicily to that same infant whom he had beheld with such mortification take pos- sessions of Parma. The final result of all these straggles was truly not very difl^erent from what the Roman court had originally contemplated; the house of Bourbon spread over Spain and a great part of Italy : but under what widely differ- ent circumstances had all this taken place from those anticipated in the first instance ! Sentence in the great strife had been pro- nounced by England ; it was in open contra- diction to the papal see that the Bourbons had forced their way into Italy; that separation of the provinces which it was sought to avoid, had taken place, and filled Italy and the states of the church unceasingly with hostile arms. The temporal authority of the papal see was thereby annihilated even in its immediate neighbourhood. Hence would necessarily ensue a great re- action upon the controversies touching the ecclesiastical rights of Rome, which were so intimately connected with the course of poli- tical events. How severely had Clement XL already been made to feel this! More than once his nuncio was sent out of Naples: in Sicily the clergy in the interests of Rome were once seized in a body, and transported to the ecclesiastical states;* an intention was displayed in all the Italian states, of admitting none but natives to eccle- siastical dignities;! in Spain too the nuncia- ture was closed,! and Clement XI. at one time thought it would be necessary to cite Alberoni tlie prime minister of Spain before the inquisition. Year after year these differences became more serious. The court of Rome possessed not the force and inward energy requisite to hold together those who owned its faith. " I cannot deny," says the Venetian ambas- sador Mocenigo, 1737, " there is something unnatural in seeing all the catholic govern- 571. Buder, Leben and Thaten Clemens XL torn. iii. p. f We learn from Lorenzo Tiepolo, Relatione di Roma, 1712, that the imoerialists in Naples as well as in Milan, had it in view "che Ii beneficii ecclesiastici siano sola- nienle dati a national!, colpo di non picciolo danna alia tone di Roiiia se si effectuasse." t Saa Felipe, Contributions to the history of Spain, iii. 214. THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 381 ments engaged in such violent altercations with the Roman court, that no means of re- conciliation can be thought of, but such as wouk! be fatal to the vitality of that court. Whether it proceed, as i?o many suppose, from the difi'usiun of more enlightened views, or from the disposition to tyrannize over the weak, certain it is that the sovereigns of Europe are making rapid progress towards stripping the Roman see of all its temporal rights.*" In those days a man needed but to open his eyes and behold what was passing round him in Rome, to be convinced that every thing was in jfopardy unless peace was concluded. The memory of Benedict X. (Prospero Lam- bertina, 1740 — 1758,) is blessed, because he re- solved on making the indispensable concessions. It is well known how little Benedict XIV. suffered himself to be dazzled or made over- weening by the imposing greatness of his dignity. lie did not forego his good-humour- ed jocularity or his Bolognese wit because he was pope. He would get up from busi- ness, join his courtiers, utter some fancy that had crossed his mind while at work, and then go back to his desk.f His mind was ever lixed on essentials. He cast a bold and com- prehensive glance over the relations of the papa! see to the European powers, and dis- cerned what it was possible to hold, what ne- cessary to surrender. He was too sound a canonist and likewise too thoroughly a pope to suffer himself to be carried too far in the latter course. The most extraordinary act of his pontifi- cate, was the concordat which he concluded in the year 1753 with Spain. He brought himself to renounce the right of collation to the smaller benefices in that country, which the curia still retained, though it was now ve- hemently contested. But was the court to be deprived, without any compensation, of the large sums it had hitherto drawn from that source ! Was the papal authority once for all to abandon its influence over individuals'! Benedict hit upon the following expedient to escape from these difficulties; fifty-two of the benefices in question were specially reserved for the pope's nomination, " that he might therewith reward those Spanish ecclesiastics who should earn a claim to them by their vir- tue, purity, learning, or services to the Roman see.J;" The pecuniary value of the loss sus- * Aluise Mocenigo IV. Relatione di Roma, 16 April, 1737. (Appendix, No. 162.) t Relnuone di F. Venier di Roma, 1714: "Ascesso il papa al uoiio di S. Pieiro, non Beppe cambiare I'indole sua. Egli era di temperariienlo aff'abile, insieme vivace, e vi restj: spargeva fin da prelalo li suoi discorsi con giocosi sdli, ed ancor li conserva: dolalo di cuore aperlo e sincero trascurO sempre ogn' una di quelle arli die si chiamano romanesche." t " Accio non meno S. S'i. che i suoi successor! abbiano il modo di provedere e premiare quegli ecclesiaslici che per prubita e per illibatezza de'cosuinii o per iiisigne lel- leraiura or per servizi prestili alia S. sede se ne rende- ranno meiilevoli." (VVords of the Concordat, quoted in the Report of the English Committee, 1816, p. 317.) tained by the curia, was computed, and found to amount to 34,300 scudi yearly. The king engaged to pay down a sum of 1,143,330 scudi, the interest of which at three percent, would be equal to the above amount of loss. Gold, the universal rectifier, proved its con- ciliatory power even in ecclesiastical affairs. With most of the other courts too Benedict XIV. concluded treaties containing conces- sions. The right of patronage already pos- sessed by the king of Portugal was extended, and the title of Most Faithful was conferred upon him, in addition to the other spiritual honours and privileges he had acquired. The Sardinian court, doubly displeased because the concessions it had obtained in auspicious moments had been revoked under the last pontificate, was appeased by the instructions tantamount to concordats of the years 1741 and 1750.* In Naples, where, under the pa- tronage of the imperial government, and par- ticularly by the exertions of Gaetano Argento, a school of law had been established, which made it its chief study to contest the jurisdic- tional rights of the church, and which vehe- mently combated the pretensions of the pope,f Benedict XIV. permitted the rights of the nunciature to be curtailed in no small degree, and the clergy compelled to contribute their share to the public charges. To the imperial court he conceded that diminution of the num- ber of appointed holidays, which made so great a noise at the time, for whereas the pope had simply granted permission to work on those days, the imperial court did not scruple to em- ploy force and make it compulsory. Thus the catholic courts became once more reconciled to their ecclesiastical head ; once more peace was restored. But could it be fairly supposed that every- thing was fully and finally settled ] Could it be hoped that the strife between church and state, which seems almost identified with an inward necessity of Catholicism, could have been set at rest by such slight compromises'? These could give content but for the moment that had called them forth. Already the up- heaved deep was giving token of other and far more violent storms. Altered state of Europe. Internal ferments. Suppression oj the order of Jesuits. The greatest change had taken place, not only in Italy and the south of Europe, but in the entire condition of the political world. Where were now the days in which the papacy might entertain the hope, and not without reason, of once more subjecting Eu- rope and the world to its sway 1 * Risposta alls nolizie dimandaie intorno alia giuris- dittione ecclesiaslica nello stato di S. M'a. Turino, 5 Marzo, 1816. Ibid. p. 250. t Giannoae : Storia di Napoli, vi. 387. 382 THE POPES SUBSEQUENTLY TO THE 17TH CENTURY. Amoncr the five great powers, that as early as the eighteenth century determined the policy of Europe, there were three anticath- olic. We mentioned the attempts made by the popes in earlier times, to master Russia and Prussia through Poland, and England through France and Spain. Those same three nations were now among the great ruling powers of the world, nay, we may fearlessly assert that they had the preponderance over the catholic section of Europe. It was not sim.ply that one dogmatic system had triumphed over another, that the protest- ant had put down the catholic theology ; the conflict was no longer waged on this field : but the change had been brought about by those internal national evolutions, the main features of which we have already noticed : the anti- catholic states displayed a general superiority over the catholic ; the monarchical and united spirit of tlie Russians had triumphed over the discordant and factious aristocracy of Poland; the industry, the practical sense, and the nautical skill of the English, over the indo- lence of the Spaniards, and the vacillating policy of the French, ever contingent upon the accidental changes in their domestic af- fairs ; the energetic organization and military discipline of Prussia, over the principles of a federative monarchy, such as was then exhi- bited in Austria. But though this superiority was in no re- spect the result of religion, still it could not but react on church affairs. In the first place because religious parties rose with the rise of states. Russia, for in- stance, arbitrarily established Greek bishops in the united provinces of Poland ;* the ele- vation of Prussia gradually revived among the Germans a sense of independence and strength, such as they had long ceased to feel ; the more decided became the naval supremacy of protestant England, the more were the catholic missions cast into the shade, and stinted of that efficacy which they had once derived from the force of political influ- ence. Nor was this all. So late as in the latter half of the seventeenth century, when Eng- land was bound to the policy of France, Rus- sia virtually severed from the rest of Europe, and the power of the house of Brandenburg but in its infancy, the catholic powers, France, Spain, Austria, and Poland, divided even as they were, had ruled the European world. The conviction how vastly all this was changed must, I think have gradually forced its way into the minds of the catholic powers, and obliterated the proud consciousness of a politico-religious vitality, unrestricted by any superior force. The pope was now aware that he no longer stood at the liead of the powers that swayed the world. * Kulhi^re: Hisloire de I'anarchie de Pologne, i. 181. But lastly, would not the thought arise, whence came this change 1 Every defeat, every check, will call forth on the part of the vanquished, if they do not despair, an inter- nal revolution, an imitation and a rivalry of the triumphant foe. The strictly monarchi- cal, military, and commercial tendencies of the anti-catholic nations now insinuated them- selves into the catholic states. As it is now plain and unquestionable that the inferiority into which they had fallen was connected with their ecclesiastical constitution, the movement of the public mind was first di- rected to that point. But here it came in contact with other mighty ferments, which had meanwhile seized on faith and opinion within the pale of Catho- licism. The Jansenist controversies, of which we have noticed the commencement, were re- newed from the beinning of the eighteenth century with redoubled vehemence. They began from the highest places. The confes- sor of the king of France, who was usually a Jesuit, and the archbishop of Paris, were wont to exercise paramount influence in the supreme spiritual council of the nation. From that assembly la Chaise and Harlai had in strict unanimity directed the measures of the crown against the papacy. Their successors, le Tellier and Noailles, were not on so good an understanding with each other. Slight diversities of opinion may have been the first occasion of their dis-union ; — the stricter adherence of the one to the Jesuit or Molinist notions, and the tolerant leaning of the other towards those of the Jansenists; — gradually, however, a total rupture ensued between them, and the rent spread from the king's cabinet throughout the whole body of the na- tion. The confessor succeeded not only in maintaining himself in power, and gaining over the king, but even in inducing the pope to have recourse to the bull Unigenitus, con- demning the Jansenist doctrines of sin, grace, justification and the church, even in their more mitigated form, in some instances ver- batim as their partizans professed to find them in St. Augustine, and in far wider extension than in the five propositions before mentioned.* This was the final decision of the whole con- trovery agitated by Molina; after such length- * The M^moires secrets sur la buUe Unigenitus, i. p. 123, pourtray the first impression it produced. "Les uns publioienl qu'on y altaquoit de front les premiers princi- pes de la foi et de la morale ; les aulres qu'on y condam- noit les sentiments el les expressions des saints pftres; d'autres qu'on y enlevoit a la charity sa preeminence et sa force ; d'autres qu'on leur arrachoit des mains le pain celeste des ^critures ;— les noiiveaux r^unis a. I'^glise se disoient tromp6s," &c. &c. [Some gave it out that the bull contained an open attack on the first principles of faith and morals; others that it condemned the senti- ments and expressions of the holy fathers ; others that it aimed at divesting charity of its pre-eminence and its force ; others that it tore the heavenly bread of the Scrip- tures from their hands;— the lately reconciled with the church declared themselves deceived, &c. &c.] ALTERED STATE OF EUROPE. ened hesitation, the Roman see at last unam- biguously sided with the Jesuits. It thereby succeeded in gaining to its side that powerful order, which thenceforth most vigorously de- fended the ultramontane doctrines and the pretensions of the papal autiiority, a thing, which, as we have seen, it had by no means invariably done before. The see of Rome succeeded likewise in maintaining a good understanding with the French government, which had indeed provoked this decision ; ere long preferment was bestowed exclusively on those who submitted to the bull. But the most serious opposition likewise started up from the other side ; on the part of the learned, who adhered to St. Augustine, on that of the orders, who clung to Thomas Aquinas, on that of the parliaments, which beheld in every act of the Roman Court a fresh attack upon the Gallican rights. The Jansenists now at length stood forth as earnest champions of those liberties ; with more and more boldness they propounded doctrines concerning the church, at variance with those of Rome; nay, they even proceeded to work out their princi- ples under the protection of a protestant gov- ernment ; an archiepiscopal church arose at Utrecht, catholic in its general tenour, but maintaining a complete independence of Rome, and which waged incessant war against the ultramontane principles of the the Jesuits. It would be well worth while to investigate the development, propagation, and influence of these opinions throughout Europe. In France the Jansenists were ha- rassed, persecuted, and excluded from office ; but, as commonly happens, this did not hurt their cause in the main ; during the persecu- tions with which they were visited, a large part of the public declared in their favour. Well would it have been for them had they not by their superstitious extravagance brought discredit even on their sound doctrines. But at any rate their life and doctrine were in close keeping with a pure morality, and a profounder faith, and this everywhere told in their favour. We mark their tracks in Vien- na and Brussels, in Spain and Portugal, and throughout all Italy. Their doctrines over- spread all Christendom, sometimes openly, oftener in secret. Undoubtedly this schism in the clergy was one of the causes that prepared the way for the progress of still more dangerous opinions. It is an ever memorable phenomenon, what an influence the efforts of Louis XIV. in reli- gious matters had upon the French mind, nay, on that of Europe in general. He had strained despotism to the utmost, he had violated divine and human laws, in order to root out protest- antism, and annihilate in France even the shadow of dissent; he had made it his whole endeavour to give his kingdom a perfectly orthodox catholic complexion. But no sooner were his eyes closed than his whole system was dashed down. The pent up spirit rushed forth with irrepressible impetuosity. Disgust at the conduct of Louis XIV. was the immediate parent of opinions at open war with Catholicism, nay, with all positive reli- gions whatever. From year to year these opinions gained inward strength and outward diffusion. The kingdoms of Southern Europe were based on the most intimate union of church and state. In those very kingdoms there arose a cast of thought, which developed antipathy to the church and to religion, into a system affecting all notions of God and his world, all political and social principles, all sciences, — a literature of opposition, which took captive the minds of men, and bound them in indissoluble bonds. It is manifest how little accordance there was between these tendencies : the reforming principle was in its nature monarchical, which cannot be said of the philosophical, which very soon set itself no less against the state than against the church ; the Jansenist principle clung to convictions that were indifl^erent if not hateful to both the others : yet after all, they all three co-operated to the one end. They promoted that spirit of innovation, which spreads the more contagiously the less it has a definite aim, and the more it lays claim to the whole future, and which daily imbibes fresh strength from the abuses in the existing order of things. This spirit now invaded the catholic church. It generally originated, consciously or unconsciously, from what has been called the philosophy of the eighteenth century ; the Jansenist theories gave it an ecclesiastical form and bearing ; its activity was prompted by the wants of states, and by the events of the moment. In every country and at every court two parties arose, of which the one waged war on the curia and the estab- lished constitution and doctrine, the other strove to uphold things as they were, and to maintain the prerogatives of the universal church. The latter was particularly represented by the Jesuits, whose order appeared as the main bulward of the ultramontane principles: upon it therefore was the violence of the storm first directed. Suppression of the order of the Jesuits. The Jesuits were still very powerful in the eighteenth century, chiefly, as in former times, because they were confessors of the great and of princes, and the education of youth was under their guidance ; their enterprizes, whether pertaining to religion, though these were not plied with the same energy as of old, or to commerce, still embraced the whole world. They now adhered unswervingly to the doctrines of ecclesiastical orthodoxy and 384 THE POPES SUBSEQUENTLY TO THE 17TH CENTURY. subordination : whatever was at variance with these, whether actual unbelief, Jansen- ist notions, or reforming tendencies, all alike fell with them under the same condemnation. The first attack made on them was in the domain of thought and literature. It cannot be denied that they opposed to the multitude and vigour of their assailants rather a stubborn tenacity to doctrines once adopted, indirect influence over the great and anathematizing zeal, than the genuine weapons of intellectual warfare. It is almost incomprehensible that neither ihey themselves nor any of their col- leagues in faith, produced a single original and effective book in defence of their cause, whilst the works of their antagonists inun- dated the world, and fixed the character of public opinion. But after they had been once defeated in the field of doctrine, of science, and of intel- lect, it was impossible for them long to main- tain their hold of power. In the middle of the eighteenth century, during the struggle of these two tendencies, reforming ministers came to the helm in al- most all the catholic states ; in France, Choi- seul,* in Spain Wall and Squillace, in Naples Tanucci, in Portugal Carvalho ; all of them men who had made it the great aim of their lives to bring down the ascendancy of the church and its principles. In them the eccle- siastical opposition obtained representatives and power ; their personal position was found- ed upon it ; open warfare was the more una- voidable, since the Jesuits obstructed them by personal counteraction, and by their influence in the highest circles. The first thought did not go the length of contemplating the extinction of the order ; it was intended at first only to exclude them from courts, and to strip them of their credit, and if possible of their wealth. It was thought that the aid even of the Roman court could be obtained to that end. Even there the schism that rent the catholic world had in a measure presented itself; there was a more rigid and a milder party; Benedict XIV., who represented the latter, had long been dissatis- fied with the Jesuits : he had often loudly condemned their conduct in the missions.f After Carvalho, amidst all the turbulence of faction in the Portuguese court, and in defi- ance of the Jesuits, who sought his downfall, had finally proved lord and master of the powers of state, and even of the royal will, he * In the appendix to the Memoirs of Mad. du Hausset, there is a treatis<^, Ue la desi ruction des Jesuiies en France, in wliich Clioiseursdislilie to the Jesuits is traced 10 the circumstance, that the general of the order had once given him to understand in Rome, that he was ac- nuainled with what had been spoken at a supper in Paris. But this is a tale that has been repeated in numerous forms, and which can scarcely be thought of much weiglil. The causes lay so newhat deeper. t When he was yet only bishop Lamberiini. Memoires du pfere Norbert, ii. 20. urged the pope to a reform of the order.* He put forward, as might be expected, that point in their case which was most obnoxious to cen- sure, namely, the mercantile spirit of the society, by which, moreover, he was greatly inconvenienced in his commercial projects. The pope did not hesitate to entertain the pro- posal. At Carvalho's suggestion he entrusted a friend of that minister's — cardinal Saldanha, a Portuguese — with the visitation of the order. A decree was soon issued by that visiter, strongly reprobating the traffic of the Jesuits, and empowering the royal officers to confiscate all commercial effects belonging to those eccle- siastics. A similar attack had also been by this time made on the society in France. The bank- ruptcy of a commercial house in Martinique connected with father Lavalette, which brought in its train a great number of other failures, occasioned the sufferers to appeal to the tribunals, which took the matter up very warmly.f Had Benedict XIV. lived longer, it is very probable that he would not have gone so far as to abolish the order, but that he would have gradually subjected it to a thorough and radi- cal reform. But Benedict died just at this crisis. A man of opposite disposition, Clement XIII., came forth from the conclave, as pope, July 6, 1758. Clement was pure in soul and in purpose ; he prayed much and fervently ; his highest ambition was to obtain canonization. At the same time he cherished the belief, that all the pretensions of the papacy were sacred and inviolable ; he complained bitterly that some of them had been allowed to drop ; he was re- solved to make no concessions ; — nay, he was fully possessed with the conviction, that, by stedfast pertinacity, every thing might yet be retrieved, and the tarnished lustre of Rome once more restored. J He beheld in the Jesuits the most faithful champions of the papal see and of religion ; he approved of them as they were, and thought they needed no reform. In all this he was confirmed by those about him, who shared in his devotions. But as matters now stood, his determination could have no other effect than that of exas- perating the rancour of the assailants, and exposing the Roman see to share their attacks in common with the Jesuits. In Portugal the Jesuits were implicated, whether justly or not there is no clearly ascer- taining, in the judicial proceedings arising out * A Jesuit view of this strife of factions is very vividly given in a history of the Jesuits in Portugal, translated by Murr from an llalian manuscript. t Vie priv6e de Louis XV. iv. p. 88. i Collection of the most remarkable works relating to the suppression of the Jesuits, 1773, i. p. 211. How strongly public opinion was against it, may be seen in Winkel- mann'8 letters. SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 385 of an attempt on the king's life.* Blow follow- ed blow; and at last they were banished with merciless violence, and actually transported to the coasts of the Ecclesiastical States. Meanwhile, in France, the above-mentioned trial had placed them within the gripe of the parliaments, by which they had all along been detested. Their business was debated with great noise and ostentation ; and at last the entire body of the society was condemned to make good Lavalette's engagements. Nor was this all. The unlimited authority of the general of the order, which was incompatible with the laws of the realm, was objected anew to the Jesuits as a crime, and was made a ground for questioning the legality of their existence in general. Louis XV, would fain have saved the order. It was with no view to its destruction, but to protect it as far as possible, and only because he was forced to it by the public voice, tiie sentences of the tribunals, and the majority of his council, that he proposed to the general to nominate a vicar in France.f Had there been a man like Aquaviva at the head of the order, undoubtedly some expedi- ent, some conciliatory course, would have been devised even at this moment. But the society had now the most inflexible of men for its chief, Lorenzo Ricci, who felt nothing but the injustice that befel it. He replied, that so essential an alteration of the constitution was not within his power. Application was made to the pope ; Clement XIII. made answer, that this constitution had been too fully sanctioned by the holy council of Trent, and by so many decrees of his predecessors, to allow of his changing it.f They rejected every modifica- tion. Ricci's whole mind was expressed in the words, — " Sint ut sunt, aut non siiit." The result was, that they ceased to be. On the 6th of August, 1762, the parliament of Paris pronounced the suppression of the Je- suits in France. It is true the pope in consis- tory declared this decree null and void;^ but * In the sentence pronounced on the 12th of. January, 1759, the chief stress was laid on certain " legal presump- tions" against "the corrupt members of the society of Jesus." The principal of these are, their ambition to get possession of the reins of government, (§ 2.5,) their arro- gance before the treasonable act, their downcast bearing after its failure (§ 26) ; lastly, and certainly a far graver charge, their close connection with the chief culprit, Mascarenhas, with whom they had formerly quarrelled. Father Costa was alleged to have said, that in committing regicide, "a man would not be guilty even of a venial siH." (§4.) But, on the other hanil, it has been remarked, that the confessions on which these charges were founded, had been extorted by the rack, and that the documents belonging to the trial are, on the whole, full of marks of precipitation and of informalities. The sentence can certainly never be justified in a judicial point of view. Compare Von Olfers, on the attempt to assassinate the king of Portugal, Sept. 3, l~o8. Berlin, 1789. t Letter from Praslen, 16 Jan. 1762, in Flassan : Histoire de la diplo natie francaise. vi. 498. The whole statement is very instructive. t Narrativeof the Jesuits in Wolf, Geschichte derjesui- ten, iii. 365. This book is only useful as regards the sup- pression of the order. § " Protesiatein ipsam Jesu Christi in terris vicario ejus 49 matters were already gone so far, that he did not venture to publish the allocution in which his sentence was delivered. The movement now spread irresistibly through the countries under the Bourbon sway. Charles III. of Spain was persuaded that it was a scheme of the Jesuits to raise his brother Don Luis to the throne in his stead.* Upon this he took all necessary measures with that determined taciturnity which distinguished his whole character, and had the houses of the Jesuits throughout Spain all closed on the same day. The example was followed with- out delay in Naples and Parma. All in vain did the pope admonish, beseech, and conjure. At last he made one more ex- periment. When the duke of Parma went the length of prohibiting all recourse to the Roman tribunals, and all bestowal of the bene- fices in the duchy on others than natives, the pope nerved himself to issue a monitorium, pronouncing the censure of the church upon his feudatory, the duke ;t thus once more ven- turing on retaliation. But the worst conse- quences ensued : the duke replied in a manner the mightiest sovereigns in former centuries would not have dared to attempt, and all the Bourbons made common cause with him. Avignon, Benevento, and Pontecorvo were seized by them. The hostility of the Bourbon courts, thus roused, did not end here : from persecuting the Jesuits, they proceeded directly to attack the papal see. To whom could the pope turn "! All the Italian states, Genoa, Modena, and Venice, took part against him. He cast his eyes once more on Austria, and wrote to the empress, Maria Theresa, that she was his only consola- tion on earth ; he besought her that she would not suffer his old age to be the victim of vio- lence. The empress returned him the answer that had once been given by Urban VIII. to the emperor Ferdinand, that the affair was one of state policy, not of religion, and that she should do amiss to interfere in it. The spirit»of Clement XIII. was broken. In the beginning of the year 1769, the ambassa- unicetributam sibi temerearroganleslotiussocietatiscom- pagem in Gallico regno dissolvant," &c. Daunou gives this document. * Letter from the French ambassador quoted in Lebrel's History of the bull In Coena Domini, iv. 205, from the Italian work Delle cagionidell' espulsionede' Gesuiti. A Relatione al conte di Permian, 1767, 7 Apr. (MS. in the Brera) affirms that the Jesuits had some presentiment of their fate. " Non fu senza forte motivoche poco prima di detta espulsione diinandarono al re la confirmo de' loro privilegi e del loro instiluto, il che solamenle in oggi si 6 sapulo." [It was not without strong motives, that shortly before the said expulsion, they peUtioned the king for a confirmation of their privileges and of their in tilution, a fact which did not come out till the present times.] They had concealed their money and their papers. Charles III. however considered the advantage gained by the crown so great, that after the success of the measure, he cried out, that he had conquered a new world. t Bona : Sloria d' Italia, torn. xiv. p. 147. 386 THE POPES SUBSEQUENTLY TO THE 17TH CENTURY. dors of the Bourbon courts came forward one after the other, — first the Neapolitan, then the Spanish, and lastly the French, — with demands for the irrevocable suppression of the whole order* On the 3rd of Feb. the pope called a consistory, in which he seemed dispos- ed at least to take the matter into consideration. But he was not destined to undergo such deep humiliation, being seized on the evening before the meeting with convulsions, which carried him off! The attitude assumed by the courts was too threatening, their influence too mighty, to fail of carrying all before them in the conclave that ensued, and conferring the triple crown on such a man as they needed. Of all the cardinals, Lorenzo Ganganelli was, without doubt, the mildest and most moderate. In his youth one of his teachers said of him, it was no wonder if he loved music, since every thing in his own nature was harmony. f He grew up in the same temper, in innocent intercourse with his fami- liars, retirement from the world, and solitary study that led him deeper and deeper into the mysteries of true theology. In like manner as he turned from Aristotle to Plato, who better satisfied his soul, so did he quit the schoolmen for the fathers of the church, and these for the holy scriptures, which he em- braced witli the fervour of a soul convinced of the revelation of the Word, and from which he imbibed that calm and pure enthusiasm which sees God in all things, and devotes itself to the service of its neighbour. His religion was not zeal, persecution, lust of sway, po- lemical violence, but peace, lowliness, and in- ward understanding. IVom his heart he abhorred the incessant wrangling of the papal see with the catholic governments, which shook the foundations of the church. His moderation was not weakness, nor the off"- spring of necessity, but spontaneous and cor- dial. Out of the bosom of religion arose a tone of thought, which however different in its origin * Continuazione degli annali d' Italia di Muralori, xiv. I,p.l97. f Anf'dilotli rigiiardanli lafaniigliae I'oppredi Clemente XIV. in iheLetiere pd allreOpere di Ganganelli ; Firenze, 1829. As rpgarils these works and letters tliemselves, they may possibly be interpolated ; but, in the main, I believe Ihem to be genuine: 1st, because the defence of them in Ringraliarnento deU' ediiore all' autor dell' Anno Litera- rio, is on the whole natural and satisfactory, though an unjustifiable use had been made of them before their pub- lication; 2ndly, because trustworthy persons, e. g. car- dinal Bernis, aver that they had seeii the originals; the real collector was the Florentine man of letters, Lauri ; accordingto a letter of the Abb^ Bellegarde in Potter's Vie de Ricci, i. p. 328, those who jjossessed the originals and granted the copies confirmed their authenticity: 3rdly, because they bear the stamp of originality, of a peculiar turn of thought, unvarying under all circumstances of life, such as no falsifier couUl have invented. There is indivi- dual life in them. Least of all can tliese letters have been the production of Caracciolo. One needs but reiid his Vie de Cleihent XIV. tn be assured how far are all his remariis below the the level of those of Clement XIV. All that is good in this work is but a reflection of Ganganelli 's spirit. from the worldly tendencies of courts, yet in other respects coalesced with them. Ganganelli's election was effected chiefly by the Bourbons, and more immediately upon the proposal of the Spanish and French car- dinals. He took the name of Clement XIV. The Roman curia, as already mentioned, was broken like the other courts into two par- ties ; the Zelanti, who strove to uphold all ancient privileges, and the party of the crown- ed heads, the Regalisti, who thought the wel- fare of the church best promoted by a wise spirit of concession : this party now rose to power in the person of Ganganelli, and the same change took place in Rome which had already occurred in all the sovereign courts. Ganganelli began with prohibiting the read- ing of the bull, In Coena Domini ; he also enlarged the concessions which Benedict XIV. had made to the king of Sardinia, and which his successors had refused to recognize : on the very day of his accession he declared that he would send a nuncio to Portugal ; he sus- pended the monitorium against Parma ; and then he applied himself most earnestly to the affair of the Jesuits. A commission of car- dinals was appointed, the archives of the pro- paganda searched through, and the arguments on either side deliberately weighted. Clement XIV. was unfavourably predisposed with re- gard to the order. He belonged to that of the Franciscans, which had always been at war with the Jesuits, particularly in the mis- sions: he was an adherent of the Augustinian and Thorn ist theology, so utterly at variance with that of the society ; nor was he altoge- tiier free from Jansenist notions. Then there were the numerous charges against the Je- suits, which could not be argued away, and, above all, the impossibility of restoring peace to the church in any other way. His sentence was pronounced on the 21st of July, 1773. " Inspired by the Divine Spirit, as we trust, urged by the duty of restoring concord to the church, convinced that the society of Jesus can no longer effect those purposes for which it was founded, and moved by other motives of prudence and wise government, which we keep locked in our own breast, we abolish and annul the society of Jesus, its offices, houses, and institutions."* This was a step of immense importance. In the first place, as regarded the relation of the catholic church to the protestants. It was to combat the latter tiiat the society had been originally founded and constituted in all its parts (its theology even was principally .shaped in opposition to that of Calvin), and this was tiie character which the Jesuits had renewed and confirmed for themselves at the close of the seventeenth century, during the persecutions of the Huguenots. But this con- ♦ ContiBuazioae degli annali, torn. xiv. P. ii., p. 107. JOSEPH II. 387 flict was now at an end ; the most sedulous self-delusion could no lonj^er flatter itself with the hope of any essential advantages to be gained ' in that way : the anti-catholic states possessed an unquestionable superiority in the great political relations of Europe, and tiic catholic states sought rather to approximate to them than to draw them over to their own side. In this, it strikes me, lay the principal and the deepest cause of the suppression of the order. It was an institution of war, and was no longer suitable to a time of peace. Since it now refused to yield a hair's breadth, and doggedly rejected every reform, much as it needed it on other grounds besides, it in fact pronounced its own doom. It is a mo- mentous fact that the papal see had no power to sustain an order that was established ex- pressly to wage war on protestantism, that a pope abandoned it, and that too of his own free impulse. This event had the most immediate effect on the catholic countries. The Jesuits were assailed and overthrown chiefly in consequence of their defending the supremacy of the Ro- man see in its strictest acceptation ; but when Rome now abandoned the order, it gave up at the same time the strict idea of supremacy and its consequences. The efforts of the op- position were signally victorious. The de- struction at one blow, without the least warn- ing, of the society which made the instruction of youth its special business, and which was still engaged in it to so great an extent, could not but occasion a convulsion of the catholic world to its very basis, even to where new generations are formed.* The outworks be- ing carried, a still more vigorous assault by the victorious party would necessarily follow. The agitation increased from day to day, de- sertion from the church spread more and more ; what was to be looked for now that the commotion affected even Austria, the very realm whose existence and might were most intimately connected with the results of the catholic efforts in the epoch of the church's restoration ] Joseph II. It was the actuating principle of Joseph II. to combine without control in his own hands all the powers of the monarchy ; how then should he have sanctioned the interference of Rome, or the connexion between his subjects and the pope] Whether he was more surrounded by Jansenists or by infidelsf (undoubtedly they here too, as in the attack on the Jesuits, made * Montbarey : M^moires, i. p. 225. + To ihia may be aliributed what was bpUeved by Van Swieten, But that there existeJ in Vii^nna very proiiii- nent Janseiiist leiulfncies is evidencpd by tlip Ufcof Fess- ler: Riickblicke auf seine Siebzigjahris;!'. Pilgerschafl, p. 74, 78, and oLhi^r passages. Couipare Schlozer's Staals- anzeigeo, i.!^. 33, p. 113. common cause), he waged an incessant and and exterminating war on all surviving insti- tutions calculated to maintain the external unity of the church. Out of more than two thousand convents he left only about seven hundred in existence : of the congregations of nuns, those only of more immediate utility found favour in his sight; and even those which he spared he severed from their con- nexion with Rome. He regarded the papal dispensations in the light of foreign goods, and would not suffer money to go out of the country in exchange for them ; and he public- ly declared himself the administrator of the temporalities of the church. Pius VI. the successor of Ganganelli, was soon impelled to look to the impression he hoped to make on the emperor, in a personal interview, as to the only means of restraining him from the most extreme steps, perhaps even in regard to doctrine. Pius went to Vienna, and it cannot be denied that his gentleness and his noble gracious pre- sence had some influence. Joseph not- withstanding, pursued his course in the main without wavering. The monastery in which he had solemnly taken leave of the pope, immediately after the holy father's de- parture received notice of suppression. Pius VI. was obliged in the end to make up his mind to surrendering to the emperor the nomination to the episcopal sees even of Italy. Thus did the anti-papal efforts force their way into Italy from Austria likewise. Leo- pold, who, as far as we judge, was himself tinctured with Jansenism, reformed the church- es of Tuscany, without any reference to the see of Rome : at no great distance from the capitol of Christendom, the synod of Pistoja published in its decrees a complete manifesto of the Union of Galilean and Jansenist princi- ples, rvaples, which was also closely allied with this party, through Queen Caroline, ob- literated the last traces of feudal connexion with the see of Rome. The German church, too was indirectly act- ed on by the proceedings of the emperor. The spiritual electors, aft;er so long a period of harmony with Rome, began at last to oppose it. They were actuated by twofold motives of interest; — as sovereigns who desired to put an end to the drain of money from their dominions, and as spiritual dignitaries anxious to renovate their own authority.* . According to their declaration of Ems, " written," says a Roman prelate, "with a pen dipped in the gall of Paolo Sarpi," the Roman primate was for the future to content himself with the rights he had enjoyed in the first centuries ot Christianity. + The labours of the German * Compare the Coblentz article for the year 1769 in the journal DfUIsche Bliitler fiir Proiestanten und Katholi- ken. Hpidelbprsr, 1839, part i, p. 39. f Bartoloininfo Pacta: Memorie storiche sul di lui sog- gioino iu Gerniania, p. S3. 388 THE POPES SUBSEQUENTLY TO THE 17TH CENTURY. canonists had admirably prepared the way for these proceedings ; and besides these there were other jurists who waged war on the whole constitution of the catholic church in Germany, the political power and the civil administration of its hierarchy.* A lively spirit of innovation had seized both the learn- ed and the laity. The lower clergy and the bishops, the bishops and the archbishops, the latter and the pope, were all at mutual vari- ance. Every thing there, as elsewhere, fore- boded change. The French Revolution. But before the first steps to it were taken, before Joseph had carried out his reforms, the most tremendous explosion burst forth from the deeply fermenting elements of society in Fran^ie. It is obvious that the disputes of the clergy among themselves, the collision of two hostile parties on all occasions of religion, the inca- pacity of the dominant party to hold its ground in the domain of thought and literature, and the general aversion it not undeservedly brought down on itself, contributed inwnensely towards evolving that event which shaped the destinies of modern times, namely, the French revolution. The spirit of opposition that had arisen out of the discordant bosom of Catholi- cism had become more and more consolidated. Step by step it won its way forward ; and in the tempestuous times of 1769 it obtained possession of power, — a power that deemed itself summoned utterly to destroy the old world, and to create a new : in the universal ruin that consequently befel the most Chris- tian realm, one of the most violent blows was necessarily dealt to the ecclesiastical consti- tution. Every thing concurred; financial embar- rassment, the interest of individuals and of municipalities, indifference or hatred towards the established religion: at last a member even of the higher clergy proposed to recog- nize in the nation, that is, in the temporal authority, and more immediately in the nation- al assembly, the right of disposing of church property. Till then that property had been regarded as belonging not solely to the French, but likewise to the universal church, and the pope's consent had been held necessary to every alienation thereof But how remote were the times, how obsolete the ideas, from which had originated notions of this kind. After a short debate, the assembly asserted its own right to dispose of church property, that is, to alienate it, and that with more unconditional authority than had been * E. g. FriPcUich Carl von Mospr, Uebpr die RpgierunR dp,r gpisUichpn Slaalen in Dpulschland, 1787. His grand proposition (p. llJl) is, thai "IhP Lharaclers of prince and bishop shall be again separated from each other." contemplated in the first proposal. The con- fiscation of ecclesiastical estates, which was not a moment delayed, rendering the longer subsistence of existing arrangements impossi- ble, it was necessary to proceed forthwith to a new one, such as that effected in the civil constitution of the clergy. The principles of the revolutionized state were applied to ec- clesiastical things :* popular election sup- planted the system of nomination appointed by concordat, and salaries the independence conferred by the possession of real estates; all diocesans were changed, the orders were sup- pressed, vows were repealed, the connexion with Rome severed. The attempt of a Car- thusian to vindicate the sole supremacy of the catholic religion, had the effect only of hast- ening these resolutions against it. Th*^ whole body of the clergy was constrained to pledge itself to the new system by solemn oaths. It cannot be denied that this course of things was effected with the co-operation of the French Jansenists, and with the consent and approbation of those of other countries. They saw with pleasure that the might of Babal, as in their hatred they called the Ro- man curia, was dealt so severe a blow, that the clergy from which they had endured so many persecutions was overthrown. Even their theoretical principles tended to the same end, for they held that " by wresting their wealth from the clergy, you compel them to become really deserving."! The Roman court flattered itself for a mo- ment with the hope of seeing these move- ments checked by a reaction from within, with which the pope took every means of co- operating. He rejected the new constitution, censured the bishops who had sworn to it, and endeavoured by exhortation and praise to confirm the still numerous party that oppos- ed it; at last, he went the length of ex- communicating the most influential and dis- tinguished members of the constitutional clergy. But all was in vain; the revolutionary ten- dencies prevailed ; the civil war, which was chiefly kindled by religious motives, turned out to the advantage of the innovators. For- tunate had it been for the pope if matters had rested there; if France had torn nothing from him besides herself But meanwhile that general war had brok- en out which was fated to transform so thor- oughly the whole aspect of affairs in Europe. With that resistless fury, compounded of * Quite systematically, according to the doctrine of the old historians of the church. " Tola ecclesiarum distri- butio ad forniam imperii facta est." Camus: Opinion sur leprojel de constitution du clerg^, 31 Mai, 17S0. t Letlprs of Gianni, and some other abb^s in Potter, Vie de Ricci, il. p. 31.j. Wolf: Geschichte der Katholis- chen Kirche unler Pius VI. has at book vii. p. 3;, a chap- tor on the pari taken by the Jansenists in forming the new constitution ; it is however very weakly executed. THE TIMES OF NAPOLEON. 389 enthusiasm, rapacity, and terror which had been engendered in intestine strife, the revo- lutionary power poured like a torrent beyond the limits of France. It transformed after its own model every country it touched; Belgium, Holland, and Rhenish Germany ; which latter was the chief seat of the ecclesiastical constitution : the campaign of 1796 made it master of Italy : revolutionary states rose in every direction, and ere long the pope was threatened in his own dominions, and in his very capital. He had, without any really active partici- pation, ranged himself on the side of the coa- lition, armed only with his spiritual weapons. But it was in vain he pleaded this his neutra- lity.* His territories were overrun, his sub- jects stimulated to insurrection : impractica- ble contributions and concessions were de- manded of him, such as had never been exacted of any of his predecessors.f Nor was this all. The pope was not an enemy like any other. During the war he had even taken courage to repudiate the Jansenist and Galilean doctrines of Pistoja by the bull, "Auctorum fidei." The unyieldmg attitude he had assumed, and his condemnatory briefs, had still a great effect on the internal econo- my of France : the French now demanded the repeal of these, and the recognition of the ;ivil constitution, as the price of peace. But Pius VI. was not to be moved to this. Such compliance would have seemed to him an abandonment of the very ground of faith, and treason to his ofRce.f He replied to the proposals, that " having invoked God's aid, and inspired as he believed by the Divine Spirit, he refused to accede to those propo- sals." For a moment the revolutionary authorities seemed to acquiesce — an accommodation was devised without these conditions — but it was only for a moment. From the intention of severing themselves from the pope, they had already advanced to the thought of entirely crushing him. The directory found the go- vernment of priests in Italy incompatible with its own. On the very first occasion afforded by a chance commotion among the populace, Rome was invaded, and the Vatican invested. Pius VI. besought his enemies to let him, an old man of eighty, die as he had lived on that spot. He was answered that he might as well die in one place as another. His apart- ments were plundered before his eyes ; he * Aulhentische Geschichte des franzosischen Revolu- lionskrieses in Italien, 1796. The pope had declared that religion forebade a resistance which might occasion the shedding of blood. t In the M^moirps Hisloriques et Philosophiques sur Pie VI. el son ponlificat, lorn. ii. the loss endured by the Roman stale is calculated at 220,000 livres. tMeinoria dirella al principe della pace in Tavanle : Fasti di Pio VI. torn. iii. p. 335. "S. SantitSl rimase stor- dita, veggendo che si cercava ditraviare la sua conscien- za per dare un colpo il piu funesto alia religioae." was deprived of even the most trifling neces- saries ; the ring he wore was pulled from his finger: at last he was carried to France, where he died Aug. 1799. It might well seem, indeed, as though there was an end forever to the papal power. 'J'hose hostile tendencies with regard to the church, the rise and progress of which we have marked, had now reached a pitch that encouraged such an anticipation. The times of Napoleon. But events occurred that prevented this consummation. The chief result of the hostility experienced by the papacy at the hands of the revolution- ary power was, that the rest of the European states, whatever might otherwise be their disposition towards the papal see, now be- came its protectors. The death of Pius VI. occurred exactly at a period when the coali- tion was again victorious. This made it pos- sible for the cardinals to assemble in San Georgio at Venice, and proceed to the elec- tion of a pope, Pius VII. (March 13, 1800.) It is true that, shortly afterwards, the revo- lutionary arms were again triumphant, and achieved the decided superiority in Italy ; but that power had at this moment itself un- dergone a vast change. After passing through so many metamorphoses, engendered by the pressing contingencies of that stormy period, it began to lean towards monarchy. A des- pot arose, who was filled with the idea of a new universal empire, and who (the point of most importance for our present considera- tion,) beholding the universal chaos around him, and taught by his experience of the East, felt asswed that his project needed, be- sides many other forms of the old states, in the very first place, unity of religion and hie- rarchical subordination. Upon the very battle field of Marengo, Na- poleon deputed the bishop of Vercelli to enter on negociations with the pope for the re-es- tablishment of the catholic church. This was a proposal which, though ex- tremely enticing, was yet attended with much danger. The re-establishment of the catholic church in France, and of its connection with the pope, was only to be effected at the cost of extraordinary concessions. Pius VII. made up his mind to these. He recognized at once the secularization of church property, — a loss of four hundred mil- lions of francs in real estates ; his motives be- ing, as he expressed himself, that fresh trou- bles would break out were he to refuse ; that, rather than this should occur, he was disposed to go the utmost lengths allowable by religion. He consented to a new organization of the French clergy, which was now salaried and nominated by the government; and he was 390 THE POPES SUBSEQUENTLY TO THE 17TH CENTURY. well pleased that the right of canonical insti- tution sJiould be restored to him in the same extent as enjoyed by former popes, and with- out limit to the right of the veto.* That which no one but a little before could have expected, now actually took place, — the restoration of Catholicism in France, and the renewed subjection of that country to the spi- ritual authority. The pope was delighted " that the churches were purified from profa- nations, the altars reared again, the banner of the cross unfurled anew, lawful pastors set over the people, and so many souls that had wandered from the right way brought back to unity, and reconciled to themselves and to God." " How many motives," he cried, " for joy and thankfulness !" But was it indeed to be supposed, that with the conclusion of the concordat of 1801 was effected an intimate union between the an- cient ecclesiastical authority and the revolu- tionary state 1 Concessions were mutually made ; but, in spite of them, each party remained firm to its principles. The restorer of the catholic religion in France immediately afterwa-rds became the chief agent in the final overthrow of the stately edifice of the German church, and the transfer of its possessions and its sovereign powers to temporal princes, whether to pro- testant or catholic, indifferently. Huge was the amazement of the court of Rome. " He- resy, according to the old decretals, entailed loss of property, but now the church must en- dure to see its own possessions parted out among heretics."! Meanwhile a concordat was likewise pro- jected for Italy upon the model of that ob- tained by France ; and there too the pope was forced to assent to the sale of church pro- perty, and to abandon the nomination to be- nefices to the temporal authority. Nay, so many new partial clauses and restrictions were annexed to this concordat, that Pius VII., under these circumstances, refused to publish it. J But it was in France itself that Napoleon most vigorously asserted the rights of the state in opposition to those of the church : he regarded the declaration of 1682 as a funda- mental law of the realm, and caused it to be expounded in the schools; he would suffer no religious vows, and no monks ; the regula- tions respecting marriage which were laid down in his Code Civile were at variance with the catholic principles of the sacrament- * Letteraapostolica in forma di breve, in Pistolesi : Vi ta di Pio VII. loin. i. p. 143, wilh a thorough collation of the vaiialions inlhe several publications of the document in France. t Instruction to a nuncio at Vienna, unfortunately with- out date, but apparently of the year 18U3, in Daunuu: Es- fiai ii. p. 318. % Coppi : Annali d'ltalia, torn. iii. p. 120. al nature of the institution ; the organic arti- cles which he added from the very first to the concordat, were utterly anti-Roman. When the pope, notwithstanding all this, resolved, at the emperor's request, to cross the Alps, and give his coronation the religi- ous sanction of the holy oil, his motive was, that he flattered himself, whatever counte- nance the aspect of France gave to such a hope, that he should be able " to accomplish something for the advantage of the catholic church, and to complete the work begun."* In entertaining these hopes, he relied on the effect of personal intercourse. He took with him the letter of Louis XIV. to Innocent XII., to convince Napoleon that even Louis had suffered the declaration of 1662 to fall to the ground. In the first remonstrance, written in Italian, which he delivered in Paris, he formally combated that same declaration, and he endeavoured to free the new concordat from the restrictions of the organic articles.! Nay, his purpo.-es and his expectations went still further. He set forth, in a circumstan- tial memorial, the wants of the pontificate, with all the losses it had sustained within the- last fifty years, and urged the emperor toibl- low the example of Charlemagne, and restore the provinces which had been occupied. J At so high a rate did he estimate the services he had rendered the revolutionary monarchy. But how grievously did he find himself de- ceived. In the very ceremony of the coro- nation an expression of melancholy was ob- served to overspread his countenance. Of all he desired and intended, neither then nor subsequently did he obtain the small- est portion. On the contrary, this was the very moment in which the emperor's designs became first disclosed in their full extent. The constituent assembly had sought to detach itself from the pope, the directory had desired his destruction. Bonaparte's plan was to sustain him, but at the same time to hold him in subjection, and to make him the tool of his own omnipotence. He caused proposals, if we are rightly in- formed, to be made at that very time to the pope, that he should remain in France, aud reside in Avignon or in Paris. The pope is said to have answered, that he had executed in due form his act of abdica- tion, and deposited it at Palermo, beyond the reach of the French decrees, provisionally, * Allocutio habita in consislorio, 29 Oct. 1804, in Italian : Pistolesi, Vita di Pio VII. torn. i. p. 193. t Extrait du Rapport de Mr. Portales, in Arlaud, Pie VII. t. ii. p. 11. t Printed in Artaud, p. 31. Compare Napoleon's letter of July 22, 1807. " Le pape s'est donn6 la peine de venir k mon couronnemenl. J'ai' r^connu dans celte d-marche uii saint pr61al ; iiiais il voulait que je lui c^dasse Us le- gations." Bigr.on, Hisioire do France sous Napoldon; Deuxi6me 6por|Uc, i. p. 1-38. [The pope toolt the trouble to couie tomy co.'onttion. In this act I recognize a holy prelate ; but he wished me to cede him the legations.] THE TIMES OF NAPOLEON. 391 against the contingency of his being impri- soned. Nowhere at that moment could the pope have found protectien but under the sway of the British navy. The pope was indeed suffered to return to Rome, and left in the same independence as he had previously enjoyed ; but from that hour he became involved in the most vexa- tious perplexities. Napoleon very soon declared, without fur- ther circumlocution, that, like his predeces- sors of the second and third dynasty, he was the oldest son of the church, who bore the sword for its protection, and could not suffer that it should be in communion with heretics and schismatics, liive the Russians and the English. He was particularly fond of re- garding himself as the successor of Charle- magne, though the moral he drew from that belief was very different from that contem- plated by the court of Rome. He assumed that the Ecclesiastical States were donations from Charlemagne to the pope ; and that such a gift entailed the duty of not departing from the policy of the empire ; nor, indeed, would he permit the pope so to do.* The pope was astonished at the suggestion, that he was to regard the enemies of another as his own. He replied that he was the com- mon pastor, the father of all, the servant of peace ; that the mere request filled him with horror: " it became him to be an Aaron, the prophet of God, — not an Ishmael, whose hand was against every man, and every man's hand against him." But Napoleon went straightforward to his mark. He caused Ancona and Urbino to be occupied, and after the rejection of his ulti- matum, wherein, among other things, he claimed the right of nominatmg a third of the cardinals, he marched his troops upon Rome. The cardinals who were not obsequious to him were dismissed, the pope's secretary of state twice. But when all this failed to have any effect on Puis VH., even his person was not spared ; he too was carried away from his palace and his capital. A senatus consultum was then passed, declaring the incorporation of the ecclesiastical states witii the French empire. The temporal sovereignty was de- clared incompatible with the exercise of spi- * Schoell's Archives historiques et poliliques, (Paris, 1819,) conlain in tlie second and third volumes, a Precis des contestations qui ont 6u lieu enire le Saint Si^ge et Napoleon Buouaparie, acco.npagn^e d'un grand nombre de pieces officirUes. The correspondence, which is here- given in its full extent, reaches from the 13lh of Novem- ber, 1805, to the 17th oi'May, 1808. Nevertheless, in Big- non, Histoire de France depuis la paix de Tilsit, 1838, i. ch. 3, p. 125, we meet with the following passage: "Les publications faites depuis 1815 nese composentgu6re que fle pieces dont la date commence en 1808." And again : "Jusqu'a present son caract6re (de Pie VII.) n'esl pas Buffisamment connu. On ne le connaitra bien qu'en I'appr^ciant d'aprfes ses acles." In fact, however, these acts had been already published. Bignoa has added but little to the documents given by Schoell. ritual privileges; the pope was for the future formally to pledge himself to the four princi- ples of the Galilean church ; he was to draw his income from real estates, almost as a feu- datory of the empire ; the state would take upon itself all the expenses of the college of cardinals.* According to this plan, it is evident the whole power of the church would have been subjected to the empire, and placed, at least indirectly, in the hands of the emperor. But how would it be possible to obtain, what was nevertheless indispensable, the con- sent of the pope to this degradation ! Pius VH. had availed himself of his last moment of freedom to pronounce sentence of excommu- nication. He refused canonical institution to the bishops appointed by the emperor. Na- poleon was not so thoroughly master of his clergy as not to feel the effects of this, now from one quarter now from another, above all on the side of Germany. But this very resistance served at last to overcome the pope's determination. Its con- sequences were far more painlul to the spi- ritual ruler, who sympathized with the internal condition of the church, than to the temporal, for whom spiritual things were no more than an instrument of power, themselves indif- ferent. In Savona, whither the pope had been brought, he was lonely, thrown back upon himself, and without an adviser. Through the earnest and almost exaggerated represen- tations made him of the confusion in the church, produced by his refusal to grant insti- tution, the amiable old man was actually prevailed on, though with sore grief and reluctance, virtually to renounce the right in question. For what else was it than an act of renunciation when he agreed that it should devolve on the metropolitans, whenever he himself should defer the exercise of it longer than six months upon any other grounds than personal unworthiness 1 He abjured the right that in fact constituted his last weapon. And this was not all that was exacted of him. He was hurried to Fontainebleau with an impatient haste that aggravated his bodily infirmities: there he was beset with fresh importunities, and the most urgent demands that he should fully restore the peace of the church. At last, so far was he wrought on, that he gave way on the remaining, the deci- sive points. He consented to reside in France, and acquiesced in the most essential provi- sions of the senatus consultum before men- tioned. The concordat of Fontainebleau (Jan. 25, 1813,) was framed on ^the preliminary condition that he should not return to Rome.f * Thibaudeau : Histoire de la France et de Napoleon ; Empire, torn. v. p. 221. f Bart. Pacca : Memorie storiche del minislero de' due viaggi in Francia, &c. p. 323. Historisch-polilische Zeit- Bchrift, i. iv. 642. 392 THE POPES SUBSEQUENTLY TO THE 17TH CENTURY, The autocrat of the revolution had now actually achieved what no catholic sovereign before him had ever ventured even to contem- plate seriously. The pope agreed to become subject to the French empire. His authority would have become forever a tool in the hands of the new dynasty; it would have served to secure obedience at home, and to keep in a dependent position the yet unsub- dued catholic states. In these respects the papacy would have fallen back to the position in which it had stood under the German em- perors in the plenitude of their power, parti- cularly under the Salic emperor Henry HI. But it would have been loaded with far hea- vier chains. There was something hostile to the church principle in the power that had now mastered the pope ; it was at bottom but another metamorphosis of that spirit of oppo- sition to the church which had unfolded itself in the eighteenth century, and which was so strongly possessed by a disposition to actual infidelity. To this hostile power would the papacy have been subjected and made vassal. But once again as formerly, these extreme anticipations were destined not to be fulfilled. The Restoration. The empire, of which the pope was now to constitute the hierarchical centre, was still involved in dubious warfare with invincible foes. In the solitude of his imprisonment the pope received no accurate intelligence of the mighty vicissitudes of the strife. At the very moment when, after such lengthened resist- ance, he at last gave way. Napoleon had already broken down in his last grand enter- prize against Russia, and his power had been shaken to its base by all the inevitable conse- quences of that mischance. Already Europe caught up the almost abandoned hope of libe- rating herself When the pope, to whom, on his submission, a few cardinals were allowed access, was informed of the state of things, he too felt his confidence revive ; he felt every step of the allied powers to be an act of libe- ration for himself When Prussia rose in prompt obedience to the king's call, Pius VII. gathered courage to revoke the concordat extorted from him ; when the congress of Prague had assembled, he ventured to look beyond the boundaries of the empire that held him captive, and to re- mind the emperor of Austria of his rights. After the battle of Leipsig his confidence had risen so much, that he rejected the offer made him of partially restoring his dominions; and when the allies had crossed the Rhine, he would enter into no further negociations till he had been fully reinstated. Events followed each other with the utmost rapidity ; when the allies took Paris, the pope was already arrived at the confines of the ecclesiastical states, and on the 24th of May, 1814, he entered Rome again. A new age was begun for the world, and a new era for the Roman see. The last score of years have derived their character and tenour from the strife between the revolutionary tendencies which still pos- sessed such strong hold on men's minds, and the ideas to which the old states now went back after their triumph, with double zeal as to their primitive bases ; in this struggle it is plain that the %ipreme spiritual head of the catholic church must occupy an important position. He was first backed by the idea of temporal legitimacy, though in truth it was urged more by the party of his ecclesiastical opponents, than by his adherents and followers in faith. It was the victory of the four great allied powers, three of which were anti-catholic, over that one which thought to make its own capital the centre of Catholicism, that set the pope free, and enabled him to return to Rome. It was to the three anti-catholic monarchs alone, who were then assembled in London, that the pope's wish to recover the entire states of the church was first submitted. How often in former days had the resources of those states been strained to effect the des- truction of protestantism whether in England or in Germany, and to propagate the Roman catholic doctrine in Russia or in Scandinavia : and now it was to the interference of the rulers of those anti-catholic countries that the pope was to owe his restoration to his domi- nions. In the allocution in which Pius VII. communicated to the cardinals the happy results of his negociations, he expressly extols the services of the sovereigns " not belonging to the Roman church ; the emperor of Russia, who had taken his rights into consideration with extraordinary attention ; as also the king of Sweden, and the prince regent of England, as well as the king of Prussia, who had de- clared in his favour, throughout the whole course of the negociations."* Differences of creed were for the moment forgotten ; politi- cal considerations alone were regarded. We have often already had occasion to no- tice similar tendencies in the course of the last century and a half We have seen what were the states from which Innocent XI. received aid and support in his differences with Louis XIV. When the doom of the Jesuits was pronounced by the Bourbon courts, they found favour and protection in the North, m Russia and Prussia ; the seizure of Avignon and Benevento by those courts in the year 1758, caused a political commotion in Eng- land. Rut never did this mutual bearing of ♦ N6 possiamo non fare un gran conto dei merili verso di noi di Federigo (Guil.) re di Prussia, il cui iiupegno fu conslantemenie in nosiro favore nel decorso tuuo della iraltative de' nosiri aftari. Allocution of tlie 4lh of Sept. 1815, in Pistoleei, ii. p. 144. THE RESTORATION. 393 parties display itself more strikingly than in the events last detailed. Now that the pope had once again attained a free and independent position among the sovereigns of Europe, he could devote his thoughts without interruption to the restora- tion of spiritual obedience. His reinstate- ment of the Jesuits, the first great act that marked the renewal of his functions, put it beyond a doubt that he hoped to be able to exercise his spiritual authority, not subject to the restrictions of the latter part of the eigh- teenth century, but after the manner of his earlier predecessors. And indeed could there ever have been a more favourable or inviting moment for such a project? The restored governments of Southern Europe instantly repented of their former refractoriness, be- lieving that they had thereby unchained the spirit that had wrought their own downfall. They now beheld in the pope their natural ally, and they hoped through the influence of the spiritual power, more easily to subdue the domestic enemies by whom they found them- selves surrounded. The king of Spain be- thought him of his title of catholic king, and declared that he would merit it ; he recalled the Jesuits whom his grandfather had so jealously banished ; he renewed the tribunal of the nuncio, and edicts of the grand inquisitor were once more read in Spain. In Sardinia new bishoprics were established ; convents were restored in Tuscany ; Naples, after some repugnance, assented to a concordat, by which the Roman curia acquired a very powerful di- rect influence over the clergy of the kingdom. In France, meanwhile, the chamber of 1815 regarded the welfare of the nation as identi- fied with the restoration of the ancient French church, " that work," as an orator expressed himself, "of heaven, of time, of kings, and of forefathers ;" but the point which was chiefly dwelt on, was the necessity of restoring to the clergy their influence over the state, the community, families, public life, and public education ; and no thought was given to the liberties which the Galilean church had in former days either enjoyed de facto or ex- pressly reserved : by the new concordat which was projected, it would have been placed in a state of dependence on Rome unknown to former times. It was impossible in the nature of things, that such decided proceedings should at once be victorious over the spirit that had been developed in the Romanic nations with far other scope and tendencies. The old antipa- thies to the hierarchy started up in France with loud war-cries against the new concor- dat ; the legislative power was here consti- tuted in a manner that forbade all hope of carrying out the plan of 1815. The tyranni- cal acts of Ferdinand's rule in Spain aroused an equally vehement reaction ; a revolution 50 broke out which, whilst it combated the abso- lute king, who was incapable of resistance, displayed at the same time a decided anticle- rical tendency. One of the first measures of the new cortes, was the expulsion of the Je- suits ; enactments soon followed for the sup- pression of old orders, the secularization of their possessions, and their application to the extinction of the national debt. Similar movements instantly took place in Italy ; they made their way into the ecclesiastical states, which were filled with the same elements of disquiet ; on one occasion the Carbonari had actually fixed the day for a general rising in the states of the church. But the restored sovereigns once more re- ceived support and aid from the great powers that had achieved the last victories, and the revolutions were stifled. This time, indeed, the anti-catholic states took no direct part in these acts of repression ; but some of them were at least not hostile to them, and by others they were approved. Meanwhile in the non-catholic realms them- selves, Catholicism had attained to new orga- nization. Positive religion, of whatever de- nomination, was held to be the best support of civil allegiance. Care was everywhere taken to arrange the dioceses anew, to estab- lish bishoprics and archbishoprics, and to found catholic seminaries and schools. How wholly different an aspect did the catholic church system assume in the Prussian provinces, formerly incorporated in the French empire, from that it had worn under the latter yoke. The desultary efforts of ecclesiastical opposi- tion to the ancient regulations of the Roman church, found no.countenance in the protest- ant states. On the other hand, the court of Rome concluded treaties equally with the protestant as with the catholic governments, and found it necessary to allow the former influence in the choice of bishops : that influ- ence was at times actually exerted in pro- moting the most zealous churchmen to the highest posts. It would almost have seemed as though the strife of creeds had forever ceased in the higher political regions; and day by day it was seen to die away in civil life. Protestant literature devoted a respect- ful attention to ancient catholic institutions, which in earlier times it would have found impossible. It proved nevertheless that these anticipa- tions of peace were too bold and hasty. On the contrary, the strict catholic princi- ple, which clings to, and is represented by Rome, became subsequently involved in more or less keen and deliberate conflict with the protestant governments. It achieved a great victory in England in the year 1329. During the wars of the revolution the gov- ernment of England, for a century exclusively 394 CONCLUSION. protestant, had made approaches to the see of Rome. Phis VI [. had been elected under the auspices of the coalition victories of 1799, in which England had borne so conspicuous a part. We have mentioned how that the pope subsequently also rested on English support, and could not be moved to any acts of hostility against that country. Neither could the English nation any longer see, as they had done before, the necessity of making a depen- dence in point of religion upon the pope a ground of exclusion from all purely political rights, and from all qualification for public functions. Pitt had already felt and expressed this ;* still, as might be expected, the habit of adhering firmly to tried principles of the constitution longopposed an invincibleobstacle to every change. At last, however, the spirit of the age, which is averse to all exclusive privileges, asserted its strength on this ques- tion. Hence in Ireland, so pre-eminently catholic, politico-religious associations, and acts of lawlessness and turbulence prevailed to such a degree, that at last the great gene- ral, then at the head of the government, who had victoriously withstood so many foes, was obliged to declare that he could not carry on the government without this concession. Ac- cordingly, the oaths were repealed or modi- fied, to which alone the protestant interest had ascribed its safety in the times of the restoration and of the revolution in England. How often had Lord Liverpool declared, that if this measure were carried, England would no longer be a protestant state : even though no importantconsequences should immediately follow it, still it was impossible to foresee to what future events it might give rise.f Never- theless, the measure was passed, the hazard was encountered. A still more brilliant and more unexpected triumph was immediately after obtained in Belgium. The kingdom of the Netherlands, from the moment of its foundation, gave tokens of an animosity between north and south, that threatened its destruction, and which from the very first had fastened chiefly on ecclesi- astical matters. The protestant king adopted * " Mr. Pitl is convinced," he says in his letter of the 31st Jan. 1801, to George III., " that the grounds on which the laws of exclusion now remaining were founded, have long been nirrowed,— thai those principles formerly held by the catholics, which made them be considered as poli- tically dangerous, have been for a course of time gradu- ally declining,— thai the political circumstances under which the exclusive laws originated, arising from the con- flicting power of hostile and nearly balanced sects, . . . and a division in Europe between catholic and protestant powers, are no longer applicable to the present stale of things." t Speech of Lord Liverpool, May 17, 18.'5. "Where was the danger of having a popish king or a popish chan- cellor, if alllhe other executive officers might acknow- ledge the jjope. ... It was said,— that a catholic might be prime minister, and have the whole patronage of the church and stale at his dis;;os il. ... If the bill were to pass. Great Britain would be no longer a proiesiani state." the ideas of Joseph II. : in that spirit he established schools and universities, and ad- ministered generally his share in the spiritual power. The opposition set up against hira educational institutions in a contrary spirit, and with deliberate purpose applied itself to the most extreme eftbrts in favour of hierarch- ical principles. A liberal catholic party sprang up, which taking its stand in this country, as in England, on the common rights of man, grew every day bolder in its preten- sions, and extorted first concessions, such as liberation from the government schools, and finally, when a favourable opportunity pre- sented itself, wholly threw off the hated yoke, and succeeded in founding a kingdom in which the priests have again attained to distinguish- ed political importance. The most decidedly liberal ideas are just what best promote their interest. The low electoral qualification, which admits even the humbler classes in town and country, whom they can easily in- fluence, to a share in public affairs, enables them to control the elections : through the elections they rule the chambers, and through the chambers the kingdom. They are to be seen in Brussels, as in Rome, in the public promenades, in good case and full of preten- sion ; they enjoy their victory. In neither of these events did the Roman court, so far as we are aware, take a directly active part, however advantageous they have proved to its authority. . In a third, however, the dispute between the catholic church and Prussia, it has actively interfered. In that country the tendencies of the protestant state and of the catholic hierarchy, which seemed in some sort to have coalesced since the res- toration, but which had subsequently for a long time become mutually estranged, have broken with each other in the most systematic manner, and engaged in a conflict that de- servedly attracts the attention of the world, and is pregnant with the most important con- sequences. The pope, in conjunction with the two archbishops of the empire, has stood up against an ordinance of the king ; the ob- ject of which was the regulation, in a reli- gious point of view, of the family relations of the mixed population. He has found willing instruments and powerful support in the midst of Germany. Thus we see the catholic hierarchical prin- ciple has once more come forth in great strength against the ])rotestant governmentg, and in this it has been greatly aided by the political opposition to which it is the nature of our age decidedly to incline. Matters have not thriven so well with the pope in the countries of his own creed. The revolution of July in France could not be regarded in any other light than that of a defeat of the partizans of the hierarchy. The religious zeal of Charles X. was what chiefly THE RESTORATION. 395 led to his overthrow. Parties had risen to power in Spain and Portugal, which have re- sumed the efforts of the revolutionary cortes. Movements similar in their orij^in have taken place at the foot of the Vatican, and their suppression has been wholly effected by for- eign force. It cannot be alleged that the Roman see has contributed much towards suppressing the revohitionary spirit. Nowhere has it been able to put it down by its own unassisted strength. But before having yet attained to firm and stable sovereignty within the domain of its own church, it has found means to place itself in a warlike attitude upon the confines of protestantism. There it would have coalesced with the legitimate powers, and with ancient institutions of Europe. Here it has found its best allies in the ideas of the times, and in liberal opinions. Its position and its policy continually oscillate between these great forces, as formerly they did in the time of Napoleon. Whither this state of things may lead, the future alone can tell. If we fix our eyes exclusively on the efforts of the partizansof the hierarchy and of their antagonists, we may be disposed to dread the outbreak of new and fierce strife, the convul- sion of the world, and the revival of ancient animosities in all their former rancour. If, on the other hand, we cast a glance upon the mental activity that characterizes the age, this fear must vanish. Few, indeed, are they who are now disposed to re-establish the do- minion of priesthood in the full sense of the word. Such an attempt would perhaps expe- rience the most vehement resistance in the inveterately catholic countries of the Roman group. Neither will the protestants ever again return to the hardness and bigoted ran- cour of the old system. We see the pro- founder spirits on either side with more and more knowledge, penetration, and freedom from the narrow bondage of church forms, going back to the everlasting principles of genuine religion, — that which dwells in the inner man. Impossible it is that this can re- main barren of result. The more perfect apprehension of the spiritually and absolutely true which lies at the bottom of all forms, and which can by none of them be expressed in its entire import, must at last harmonize all enmities. High above all antagonizing prin- ciples— this trust we cannot tbrego — still towers the unity of an unalloyed, and there- fore no less assured, consciousness of the being of a God. THE END OF THE HISTORY. APPENDIX. LIST OF MANUSCRIPTS MADE USE OP IN THE COMPOSITION OP THE FOREGOING WORK, WlTH EXTRACTS AND CRITICAL REMARKS. SECTION L PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 1. Ad S. D"^ Nostrum Pontificem Maximum Nicolaum V. conformalio curie romane loquentis edita per E. S. oralorem Jo- seph. B. doctorem cum humili semper recommendatione. (1453.) — Bibl. Vatic, nr.. 3618. [The address of the Roman court to his holiness, Pope Nicholas V., edited and dedicated with profound hu- mility by Doctor Joseph B. orator of the Holy Church.] A lament over the well-known conspiracy of Stephen Porcari, which does not exactly furnish any more accurate information on the subject, but which nevertheless sets before us some important points in the position of things. For instance, it states the principal intention of Nicholas V. in the buildings he erected. " Arces fortificat muris turrimque superbam Extruit . . . ne quisque tyrannus ab alma Quemque armis valeat papain depellere Ro- ma." [He walls fortresses, and piles up a proud castle .... that no armed tyrant may ever avail to drive a pope from dear and venerated Rome.] Many a time had former popes been forced to quit their capital. Nicholas built that he might be able to defend himself against domestic and foreign foes. Again he exhibits the state of Rome as com- pared with that of other Italian cities. ". . . . Si tu perquiris in omnibus illam (lib- ertatem) Urbibus Italise, nullam mihi crede profecto Invenies urbem quae sic majore peromnem Libertate modumquam nunctua Romafruatur. Omnis enim urbs dominis et hello et pace coacta Prsestita magna suisdurasque gravata gabellas Solvit, et interdum propria m desperat habere Justitiam, atque ferox violentia civibus ipsis Saepe fit, ut popuhis varie vexatus ab illis Fasce sub hoc onerum pauper de divite fiat; Attua Roma sacro nee prsestita nee similem vim Nee grave vectigal nee pondera cogitur uUa Solvere pontifici ni humiles minimasque gabel- las: Praetereahicdominustribuitjustissimusalmam Justitiam cuicunque suam, violentaque nu{li Infert: hie populum prisco de paupere ditem Efficit, et placida Romam cum pace gubernat." [Seek if you will through all the cities of Italy, in none assuredly will you find your own Rome surpassed in the enjoyment of liberty of every kind. For all the others are cruelly taxed by their rulers in times of peace as well as of war; justice is sometimes des- paired of, and violence is frequently committed by the burghers themselves, so that the har- assed people sink under their manifold bur- thens from affluence to poverty. But your Rome suffers no such exactions or violence, nor is it forced to pay to its holy pontiff any exorbitant tribute, but merely very moderate and trifling duties. There, too, the most just of lords dispenses equity to all, and wrongs none, and makes a once needy people wealthy, and governs Rome in peace and contentment.] The author blames the Romans for their as- pirations after the freedom of ancient Rome. And indeed the fact is undeniable, and it is one that greatly contributed to the territorial acquisitions of the church, that the papal sway was milder than that of the rulers of other cities of Italy. Our author caimot pardon the resistance of the burghers to that church, from which they derived so much spiritual and temporal wealth : " Quibus auri copia grandis Argentique ferax asternaque vita salusque Provenit, ut nulli data gratia tam ardua genti." [There is poured on them a plenteous abun- dance of gold and silver, besides eternal life and salvation ; so that they are blessed above every other people.] The pope is counselled to increase his fortifications still more, and never to go to St. Peter's without 300 armed attendants ; at the same time to strive to win 398 APPENDIX. the love of the inhabitants, and toFuccour the poor, especially those of gentle blood, "vitam qui mend;care rubescunt ;" [who blush to beg their bread ;] . . . Succtirre volentibus artes Exercere bonas, quibus inclyta Roma nites- cat;" [give countenance and support to those who are willing to exercise laudable arts, and thereby to enhance the lustre of Rome;] an advice it was hardly necest^ary to give Nicholas V. This little work is mentioned in the Vita Nicolai V. a Dominico Georgio conscripta Ro- mse, 1742, p. 130. 2. Inslructiones datst the said duke should kill him ; and when the pope went to visit him the duke did not go with hiin except once, and then he said, what is not done at dinner will be done at supper. Now one day, it was the 17th of August, he entered the chamber, the sick man being already risen, and turned out the married sister: iMichiele name in at his call and strangled the said youth. . . . The pope loves and is in great fear of the duke, his son, who is twenty-seven years of age, of a very hanlsome person, tall and well made, and surpassing king Ferandin [Ferdi- nand, the last king of .Naples, who was reck- oned very handsome]; he killed six wild bulls fighting with the lance on horseback, and he cleft the head of one at the first stroke, a feat which astonished all Rome. He is most roy- al, nay prodigal ; and the pope is displeased with him for this. Moreover he slew M. Peroto under the pope's mantle, so that his blood spirted in the pope's face, which M. Peroto was the pope's favourite. Likewise he murdered his brother, the duke of Gandea, and had him thrown into the Tiber. — All Rome trembles at this duke lest he assassinate them.] Roscoe has endeavoured, in his life of Leo X. to clear the memory of Lucretia Borgia of the scandalous imputations with which it has been loaded. He has set off against the charges brought against the earlier period of her life favourable testimonies concerning her later years. The German translator of his work is not however convinced, his opinion being that she altered her conduct for the the better. The report before us is also re- markable for the favourable testimony it bears to the character of Lucretia in the early part of her life. It says, " Lucrezia la qual e sa- via e liberal." Caesar Borgia was rather her enemy than her lover. He took from her Sermoneta which had been given her by the pope, saying she was a woman, and could not ke^-p possession of it: "e donna, non lo potr^ mantenir." 4. Among the numerous documents given in the fifth volume of Sanulo, the following appears to me the most important: " Questo e il successo de la morte di papa Alexandro VI. " Hessendo el C datario dno Arian da Cor- neto stato richiesto dal pontefice cliel voleva venir a cena con lui insieine con el duca Val- entinos a la sua vigua et portar la cena cum S. S^a, si imagino esso cardinal questo invito esser sta ordinailo per darli la morte per via di veneno per aver il duca li soi danari e ben- 400 APPENDIX. eficii, per esser sta concluso per il papa ad ogni modo di privarlo di vita per aver il suo peculio, come ho ditto, qual era grande, e procurando a la sua salute penso una sola cosa poter esser la via di la sua salute. E mando captato tpio (tempo) a far a saper al schalcho del pontefice chel ge venisse a par- lar, con el qual havea domestichezza. El qual venuto da esso cd', se tirono tutti do in uno loco secreto, dove era preparato due. Xm. d'oro, e per esso c' fo persuaso ditto schalcho ad acetarli in dono e galderli per suo amor. El qual post multa li accepto, e li oferse etiam il resto di la sua fuculta, perche era richissi- nio card', a ogni suo comando, perche li disse chel non poteva galder detta laculta se non per suo mezo, dicendo: vui conoscete certo la condition del papa, et io so chel ha deliberato col duoha Valentinos ch' io mora e questo per via di esso scalcho per morte ven«nosa, pre- gandolo di gratia che voia haver pieta di lui e donarli la vita. Et dicto questo, esso scal- cho li dichiari il modo ordinate de darli il veneno a la cena, e si mosse a compassione promettendoli di preservarlo. II modo era chel dovea apresentar dapoi la cena tre scha- tole di confecion in laola, uno al papa, una al d'o card' et una al ducha, et in quella del card' si era il veneno. E cussi messe ditto card' ordine al prefato scalcho del modo che dovea servar, e tar che la scutola venenata, dovea aver esso card', di quella il papa man- zasse e lui si atosegaria e moriria. E cussi venuto il pontefice a la cena al zorno dato I'hordine col ducha perditto, el prefato c' se li butto a li piedi brazzandoli ei strettissima- mente baxandoli, con atfectuosissime parole supplicando a S. S'a, dicendo, mai di quelli piedi si leveria si S. Beat, non li concedesse una gratia. Interrogato del pontefice, qual era facendo instanza, se levasse suso, esso c' respondeva chel voleva aver in gratia el di- manderia et haver la promessa di fargela da S. Sia. Hor dapio molta persuasion, il papa stete assai admirativo vedendo la perseveran- tia del d^o c'e e non si voler levar, e li prom- isse di exaudirlo: al qual card' sublevato disse: patre santo, non e conveniente che venendo il signer a caxe del servo suo, do- vesse al servo parimente confrezer (I) con el suo signer, e perho la gratia el dimandava era questa zusta e honesta che lui servo dovesse servir a la mensa di S. S^a, e il papa li fece la gratia. E andato a cena al hora debita di meter la confecion in tavola, fo per il scalcho posto la confezion avenenata ne la scutola se- condo el primo ordine li havea dato il papa, et il C hessendo chiaro in quella non vi esser vcnen li fece la crcdenza di dicta scatola e masse la venenata avante il papa, e S. S. fidandosi del suo scalcho e per la credenza li fece esso cl, judico in quella non esser veneno e ne manzo allegramente, e del altra, chel papa fusse avenenata si credeva e non era, manzo ditto c'. Hor al hora solita a la qual- ita del veneno sua S''' comenzo a sentirlo e cussi sen'e morto: el card', che pur haveva paura, se medicine e voniito, e non have mal alcnno ma non senza difficulta. Valete." [This is the way pope Alexander VI. came by his death. The cardinal datary Arian da Corneto hav- ing been graciously informed by the pope that he intended to visit him at his vineyard, with the duke of Valentinos, to sup with him, and that his holiness would bring the supper with him ; the cardinal conceived that the invitation was made with a view to put him to death by poison, so that the duke might have his money and preferments; it bemg resolved on by the pope by all means to de- prive him of life in order to get possession of his property, as I have said, which was great. Casting about how he might preserve himself, he saw but one way of safety. He sent be- times to desire the pope's carver, with whom he was intimate, to come and speak with him, and on his arrival the two retired to a secret place, where were provided 10,000 gold du- cats, which the said carver was prevailed on by the cardinal to accept and keep for his sake. The former accepted them after many words, and the cardinal offered him moreover all the rest of his means to command, he be- ing exceedingly rich, for he said he could not keep the same except through the said car- ver's aid, adding, " You know certes the pope's character, and I know that he has planned with the duke Valentinos to compass my death by poison at your hand," wherefore he besought him to have pity on him, and spare his life. Thereupon the carver declared to him the mode appointed for administering poison to him at supper, and yielded to com- passion, promising to save him. The manner was, that he was to present after supper three boxes of lozenge confectionary, one to the pope, one to the said cardinal, and one to the duke, and in that of the cardinal was the poison. So the cardinal directed the afore- said carver how he should serve them, and cause that the pope should eat of the drugged box intended for the cardinal, and so poison himself and die. Accordingly the pope being come on the appointed day to supper, with the aforesaid duke, the cardinal threw him- self at his feet, embracing them closely, and kissing them, intreating his holiness with most affectionate words, saying that he would never rise from that posture if his holiness did not grant him a favour. The pontiff questioning him and urging him to rise, the cardinal persisted in his suit, and pressed his holiness to promise he would grant it. After much entreaty the pope, no little surprised at the steadfastness with which the cardinal re- fused to rise, gave him his promise. There- upon the cardinal stood up and said, " Holy PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 401 Father, it is not meet that when the master comes to the house of the servant, the servant should eat as an equal with his master :" the favour he begn;ed, tlierefore, was the reason- able and honourable one, that he the servant should wait on his holiness at table, which favour the pope granted. Sapper having been served, when the time was come to set on the confectionary, the poisoned confection was put into the box by tlie carver according to the pope's original order, and the cardinal being aware in which box there was no poi- son, tasted the same, and set the poisoned one before the pope, and his holiness, trusting to his carver, and seeing the cardinal tasting, thought there was no poison therein, and ate of it heartily, while the cardinal ate of the other which the pope thought was poisoned, and which was not so. In due time then, after tlie kind of the poison, his holiness be- gan to feel its effects, and in suchwise died thereof: the cardinal, who was somewhat alarmed, physicked and vomited himself, and took no hurt though he escaped not without difficulty. Farewell.] This, if not autJientic, is at all events a very remakable account of Alexander's death ; the best perhaps of all that have come down to us. 5. Sommario di la relatione di S. Polo Ca- pello, venuto orator di Roma, fatta in collegio 1510. [Summary of P. Capello's report of his embassy to Rome, delivered before the college, 1510.] After the great mischances that befel the Venetians through the league of Cambray, they soon managed to win over pope Julius II. again to their side. Polo Capello acquaints us with some points hitherto unknown respecting the manner in which this happened. The pope was alarmed at the results that might ensue from a pro- jected meeting between Maximilian and the king of France. " Dubitando perche fo ditto 11 re di Romani et il re di Francia si volcano abboccar insieme et era certo in suo danno." For a while he called on the Venetians to give up those towns which by the stipulations of the league were to pass into the possession of the German king : but when he saw how badly Maximilian's enterprize succeeded, he did not urge the matter any further. He entertained a very mean opinion of Maximi- lian. " E una bestia," he said " merita piu presto esser rezudo ch'a rezer altri." [He is a stupid animal, fitter to be governed tlian to govern others.] On the other hand it was reckoned highly to the honour of the Vene- tians, whose name had been looked on in Rome as extinguished, that they stood their ground. The pope gradually made up his mind to grant them absolution. I 51 Capello had a high respect for the pope's personal qualities. " E papa sapicntissimo, e niun pol intrinsechamento con lui, e si conseja con pochi, imo con niuno." [Fie is a very wise pope, he relies implicitly on no one, and takes council with few or none.] Cardinal Castel de Rio had only a very indirect influ- ence over him: " parlando al papa dira una cosa, qual dita il papa poi considerera aquel- la." [lie mentions" a matter in conversation with the pope, leaving it to the latter to re- flect upon it subsequently.] Just then the cardinal was adverse to the Venetians, but the pope concluded a treaty with them. Ca- pello states that he was very well supplied with money, having, perhaps, 700,000 scudi, if not a million in his treasury. 6. Sommario di la relatione di Domenego di Trivixan, venuto orator di Roma, in pregadi 1510. [Domenego di Trivisan's report to the pregadi of his embassy to Rome, 1510.] Trivisan continues to the senate the report made by Capello to the collegio ; with this difference, however, that while the latter de- velopes the secret motives, the former con- tents himself with a general sketch. But even this is worthy of note. He corroborates his colleague's estimate of the pope's treasure, but adds that the pope has destined the money for a war against the infidels. " II papa e sagaze praticho : ha mal vecchio galico e gota, tamen e prosperoso, fa gran fadicha: niun pol con lui: aide tutti, ma fa quelle li par. — E tenuto e di la bocha e di altro per voler viver piu moderatamente." (Does this mean he had himself said he would be more moderate for the future — in drink perhaps ?) " A modo di haver quanti danari il vole : perche come vacha un beneficio, non li da si non a chi (a) officio e quel officio da a un altro, si che tocca per esso assai danari ; ed e divenudo li officii sensari piu del solito in Roma." [The pope is a man of practical sa- gacity ; he labours under morbus gallicus of long standing, and the gout ; he is strong for all that, and goes through a great deal of ex- ertion : no one has influence over him ; he listens to every one, but does what he thinks fit. . . . He has a way of procuring as much money as he pleases ; for when a benefice becomes vacant, he bestows it only on such an one as already holds an office, which office he gives to some one else ; so that offices are be- come procurers more tlian commonly in Rome] ■/. e. procurers of benefices. " II papa a entrada due. 200,000 di ordinario, et extraordinario si dice 150 ni." [The pope has 200,000 ducats ordinary, and 150,000 du- cats extraordinary revenue,] that is, the popes have usually so much : " ma questo a di do terzi piu di extraordinario e di ordinario ancora 402 APPENDIX. I'entrade :" [but this pope has two-thirds more both ordinary and extraordinary:] so that he must have had nearly a million. This he ex- plains thus : " Soleano pagare il censo carlini X al ducato a la chiesia era ingannata ; era carlini XIIIJ el due, vole paghino quello con- vien, eta fatto una stampa nova che val X el due. e son boni di arzento, del che amiora da X a XIII^ la intrada del papa, et diti carlini novi si chiamano juli." [The taxes used to be paid at the rate of ten carlini the ducat, by which the church was defrauded : the ducat was worth thirteen and a half carlini ; and the pope determining that what was just should be paid, caused a new coinage to be struck of pieces, ten to the ducat, of good silver: the pope's income has been benefitted thereby in the proportion of thirteen and a half to ten ; and the said new carlini are called giuli.] Here we see the origin of the present current coin ; for it was not till recent times that the present paoli superseded the name and use of the giuli. The carlini, which were the com- mon'coin of exchange, had become so deterio- rated as to occasion serious loss to the exche- quer. Julius II. issued good coin for the sake of his treasury. " Item e misero : a pocha spesa. Si acorda col suo maestro di caxa : li da el mexe per le spexe due. 1500 e non piu. Item fa la chiexia di S. Piero di novo, cosa bellissima, per la qual a posta certa cruciata, et un solo frate di S. Francesco di quello habia racoltoditti frati per il mondo li porto in una bota due. 27 m. si che per questo tocca quanti danari el vuol. A data a questa fabrica una parte de I'intrada di S. M. di Loreto e tolto parte del vescovado di Recanati." [Item, he is penurious ; he spends little. He contracts with his house-steward, giving him 1500 ducats for the month's ex- penditure, and no more. Item, he is construct- ing anew the church of St. Peter, a very beautiful work ; and for this he has appointed a certain crusade, and a single Franciscan friar brought him in one sum 27,000 ducats, col- lected by the brethren of the order throughout the world ; so that he gets as much money as he chooses. He has devoted to this edifice part of the income of S. M. di Loreto, and taken away part of the bishopric of Recanati.] 7. Siimmario de la relatione di S. Marin Zorzi, do(or,venrito orator di cor te, fata in prrgadi a di 17 Marzo 1517. [Suunnary of doctor Marin Zorzi's report of his em- bassy to t!ie court of Rome, &.c.] Marin Zorzi was chosen ambas?ador to the court of Leo X. on the 4th of January, 1514, and on his declining the appointment, he was chosen again on the 25th of the same month. ]f it be true that orders were given him with reference to the expedition of Francis I., as I'aruta says (lib. iii. p. 109) he could notliave set out for Rome till the beginning of the year 1515. His report concerns that period. It is of the more importance, inasmuch as he proposes to make known in it what he had not ventured to communicate by letter. " Referira," says the summary which appears to have been written afterwards, "di quelle cose che non a scritto per sue lettere, perche multa occurrunt que non sunt scribenda." These points relate chiefly to the pope's negotiations with Francis I., with which even Paruta was not acquainted, and of which, as far as I am aware, we have here the best ac- count. Mention has occasionally been made of a supposed desire of Leo X. to procure a crown for his brother ; but how that was to have been effected has never been made clearly apparent. Zorzi asserts that Leo at this time proposed to the king of France, " che del reame di Napoli saria bon tuorlo di man di Spagnoli e darlo al magnifico Juliano suo fradello ;" [that it would be well to wrest the kingdom of Naples from the Spaniards, and give it to his brother Giu- liano the magnificent;] adding, "e sopra questo si fatichoe assai, perche el non si con- tentava di esser ducha so fradello, ma la volea far re di Napoli : il christianissimo re li aria dato il principato di Taranto e tal terre : ma il papa non volse, e sopra questo venneno di- versi orator! al papa, mons^ di Soglie e di Borsi, et il papa diceva: quando il re vol far questo acordo, saremo con S. M. Hor si stette sopra queste pratiche : il ch'^io re havendo il voler che'l papa non li saria contra, delibero di venir potente, etcussi venne : et il papa subito si ligo con I'imperator, re catholico, re de Inghilterra e Sguizzari." [And he took no little pains on this subject, because he was not content with having his brother a duke, but he wished to make him king of Naples : the most Christian king would have given liim the principality of Tarento and certain territories, but the pope would not agree, and thereupon divers ambas- sadors came to the pope, Monsignor di Soglie and Monsignor di Borsi, and the pope said, " If the king is willing to make this arrangement, we will be for his majesty." Matters now remained on this footing: his most Christian majesty having- a desire that the pope should not be against him, thought of commg to Italy in strength, and he did so : but the pope sud- denly allied himself with tiie emperor, the catholic king, the king of England, and the Swiss.] I have already given in the text or in the notes the notices relating to the time of the campaign. How strongly the pope was inclined in secret against the French, is plain from the fact, not only that he testified displeasure against the Venetians for the decided bias they manifested to the French with regard to Maximilian's PERIOD TO THE COUJVCIL OF TRENT. 403 enterprise of the following year ; — " O che materia," he said, " a fatto questo senate a las- sar le vostre gente andar a Milano, andar con Frances!, aver passa 8 fiumi, o che pericolo e questo !" [What good lias the senate done in causing your troops to march to Milan, to join the French, and cross eight rivers; or what danger is tliisl] — but also that he secretly sup- pofted Maximilian. " II papa a questo subito niando zente in favor del imperador e sotto man discendo : M. Ant. Colonna e libero capi- tano a soldo del imperador." [The pope on this suddenly sent troops in support of the em- peror, sa3ang privily, M. Ant. Colonna is a free captain in the pay of the emperor.] Mean- while the ratification of the treaty of Bologna was delayed. The king sent ambassador after ambassador to demand it. At last the pope sent his own envoy to France, and the treaty was sealed. Francis I. had soon an opportunity to revenge himself The pope encountered an unexpect- ed resistance on the part of the duke of Urbino. Zorzi asserts : " II re non si tien satisfacto del papa : e contento Francesco Maria prosperi." [TJie king is not satisfied with the pope : he is glad at tlie success of Francesco Maria.] He then describes the pope more minutely. " A qualche egritudine interior de repletion e catarro ed altra cosa, non licet dir, videl. in fistula. E horn da ben e liberal molto, non vor- ria faticha s'il potesse far di mancho, ma per questi soi si tuo faticha. E ben suo nepote e astuto e apto a far cosse non come Valentino ma pocho mancho." [He suffers from some internal plethora, and from catarrh, and ano- ther disorder not to be named, viz. in fistula. He is a good man and very liberal : he would not give himself much trouble if he could help, but he does so for the sake of his relations. And truly his nephew is shrewd and apt to accomplish his ends, not in the same degree as Valentino, but little less.] He alludes to Lorenzo Medici. He affirms positively what others deny (Vittori for instance), that Lorenzo de' Medici himself had entertained strong de- signs upon Urbino. He says, that Julian, only two days before his death, had entreated the pope to spare Urbino, where he had met with so much kindness after his banishment from Florence. The pope would not give way, but said, " Non e da parlar deste cose." [These are matters not to be talked of] "Questo feva perche de altra parte Lorenzin li era at- torno in volerli tuor il stato." [This he did, being pressed on the other hand by Lorenzo, who coveted possession of that state.] Among the counsellors of the pope, he first mentionsGiuliode' Medici, afterwards Clement VII., of whose talents, however, he does not make so much account as others : " E hom da ben, hom di non molte facende, benche adcsso il manegio di la corte e in le sue mani, che prima era in S. M^- in Portego." [He is a good man, of no great practical abilities, though at present the chief direction of the court of Rome is in his hands ; he was for- merly at the court of Portugal.] Next he mentions Bibbiona, whom he considers inclin- ed to the Spaniard.s, he being enriched by Spanish benefices ; and lastly Lorenzo — "qual a animo gaiardo" [a stirring spirit.] Lorenzo's name leads him to speak of Flor- ence. He says a word or two about the con- stitution, but adds : " Hora non si serva piu ordine : quel ch' el vol (Lorenzin) e fatto. Tamen Firenze e piu francesse che altrimente, e la parte contraria di Medici non pol far altro, ma non li place questa cosa." [At present all order is violated : whatever Lorenzo wills is done. Florence, however, is rather French than otherwise : the party opposed to the Medici do not like this, but they cannot help it.] The militia had been diminished. The revenue amounted, 1st, from the duties at the gates and in the city to 74,000 ducats; 2ndly, from the towns subject to Florence to 120,000 ducats ; 3dly, from tlie balzello, a kind of tithe, a direct tax, to 160,000 ducats. This brings him to the revenues of the pope, which he esUmates on the whole at 420,000 ducats; and so he reverts to the pope's expen- diture and his personal character. " E docto in humanita e jure canonicho, et sopra tutto musico excellentissimo, equando el canta con qualche uno, li fa donar 100 e piu ducati : e per dir una cosa che si dimentico, il papa trahe air anno di vacantie da due. 60,000 e piu, ch'e zercha due. 8000 al mese, e questi li spende in doni, in zuogar a primier di che molto si di- letta." [Heislearne in polite letters, and in canon law, and above all he is an excellent musician; and when he sings with any one, he makes him a present of a hundred ducats or more. One thing I forgot to mention. The pope derives yearly from vacancies 60,000 du- cats and upwards, which is about 8000 (?) ducats a month, «ind this money he spends in presents and in playing at primero, of which he is very fond.] ^ Our author, as we perceive, gives his details very graphically, with great naivete and con- versational ease. He brings his personages with all their sayings and doings bodily before us. 8. Somrnario de la relatione di Marco Minio, ritornalo da corte, 1520 Zugno, — Sanuto torn, xxviii. [Summary of the report of Marco Minio's embassy to Rome.; June, 1520.] Marco Minio was Zorzi's successor: his report is unfortunately very short. He begins with the papal revenues, which he finds'inconsiderable. " II papa a intrada per il papato pocha : son tre sorle de intrade : d'annate traze all' anno 100m due, male an- nate consistorial, ch'e episcopati e abbatie, la 404 APPENDIX. naita e de cardinali ; di officj traze all' anno 60ni. ; di composition 60ni. Non a contadi (contante), perclie e liberal, non sa tenir da- nari, poi li Fiorentini e soi parenti non li lassa niai aver un soldo, e diti Fiorenf.ini e in gran odio in corte, perche in ogni cosa e Fioren- tini. II papa sta neutral fra Spagna e Franza ; ma lui orator tien pende da Spagna, perche e sta pur niesso in caxa da Spagnoli, etiam as- umpto al papato. II cardinal di Medici suo nepote, qual non e legitimo, a gran poter col papa: e horn di gran rnanegio; a grandissima autorita, tamen non fa nulla se prima non di- manda al papa di cose di conto : hora si ritrova a Firenze a governar quella citta : il cardinal Bibbiena e appresso assa del papa, ma questo Medici fa il tutto." [The pope derives little income from the papacy : the revenues are of three kinds : from the annates he draws yearly 100,000 ducats ; but of the consistorial an- nates, which arise out of the bishoprics and abbeys, the half belongs to tlie cardinals ; he draws 60,000 ducats annually from offices, and 60,000 from compositions. He has no ready money ; because he is liberal and cannot keep it. Then the Florentines and his relations never leave him a penny. And the said Flo- rentines are in great odium at court, because they thrust themselves into every thing. The pope stands neutral between Spain and France : but it is the ambassador's opinion that he in- clines to Spain, because he owes the establish- ment of his fortune to the Spaniards, and even his advancement to the papacy. Cardinal Medici, his nephew, who is not legitimate, has great influence with the pope : he is a man of great ability in business :] — his reputation we see had risen since Zorzi's time — [he posses- ses very great authority, nevertheless he does nothing in affairs of importance without first consulting the pope. At present he resides at Florence as governor of that city. Cardinal Bibbiena is in considerable esteem with the pope, but this Medici does efery thing.] The ambassador assures his countrymen of the tolerably fair disposition of the pope to- wards them. He was not indeed inclined to see Venice greater than she was ; but for no earthly consideration would he see her pe- rish. 9. Diario de Sebastiano de Branca de Telini. —Barber. Bibl. n. 1103. [Diary of Se- bastiano de Branca de Telini.] It contains sixty-three leaves, and reaches from the 22nd of April, 1494, to 1513, in Leo's time. It is certainly not to be com- pared with Burcardus ; and as the author knew very little of what was passing, it is not even of use as a check on that writer. Telini saw only what every body else saw. Thus he describes the entrance of Charles VIII. into Italy, whose army he estimates at from thirty to forty thousand men. He thinks the king the ugliest man he had ever beheld ; his troops, on the contrary, the handsomest people in the world ; " la piu bella gente non fu vista mai." We must not believe him lite- rally : he is fond of expressing himself in this fashion. (He tells us that as much as 300 ducats had been paid for a horse.) CsBsar Borgia is the most cruel man that ever lived. Alexander's times were distin- guished for cruelty, scarcity, and high taxa- tion. " Papa Alessandro gittao la data a tutti li preti e a tutti li officiali per tre anni e tutte le chiese di Roma e fora di Roma .... per fare la cruciata contro il Turco, e poi la dava alio figliuolo per fare meglio la guerra." [Pope Alexander assigned the revenues for three years of all the priests, and all the pub- lic functionaries, and all the churches within and without Rome, for a war against the Turks ; and then he gave the proceeds to his son for the better waging of the war.] Ac- cording to him, Csesar Borgia gave audience to no one but his executioner, Michilotto. All his servants were sumptuously clad " vestiti di broccado d'oro e di velluto fino alle calze : se ne facevano le pianelle e le scarpe:" [dressed in gold brocade and velvet to their heels : their shoes and slippers were made of the same stuff]. He is a great admirer of Julius II. " Non lo fece mai papa quello che have fatto papa Julio." [No pope ever did what pope Julius did.] He enumerates the towns he conquered ; alleging, however, that by his wars he caused the death of ten thousand men. Leo came next. He began with promises, " che i Romani fossero fianchi di gabella, ed officii e beneficii che stanno nella cittade di Roma fossero dati alii Romani : ne fecero grand' allegrezze per Roma" [that the Ro- mans should be free from taxes, and that the offices and benefices within the city should be conferred on Romans ; whereby he aflbrded great delight to Rome]. Sometimes private individuals figure in his pages : we are made acquainted, lor instance, with the boldest and most celebrated of pro- curators: "Benio Moccaro, il piu terribile upmo (the most powerful, the most tyranni- cal), che mai fusse stato in Roma per un huo- mo privato in Roma." He lost his life through the Orsini. Even in this otherwise insignificant work the spirit of the times and the spirit of the several administrations are imaged, — the pe- riods of terror, of conquest, and of quiet, under Alexander, Julius, and Leo. There are other diaries, for instance, that of Cola Colleine, 1521 — 1561, which contain nothing of impor- tance. 10. Vita Leonis X Ponfificis Maxiini per Franciscum Novellum Romanum, J. V. Prqfessorem. — Bibl. Barberini. PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 405 "Alii," says the author, "longe melius et hffic et alia mihi incognita referre, et descri- bere poterunt." By all means. His little work is perfectly insignificant. 11. QiKBilam historica qiice. ad notitiam tem- poriirn pertinent jmntificatuum Leonis X. Adriana VI. dementis VII. Ex libris notariorum sub iisdem pnntijicibvs. {Abridged by Felix Contellorius.) — Bibl. Burberini, 48 leaves. [Certain historical particulars pertaining to the pontificates of Leo X., Adrian VL, and Clement VII. From the books of the notaries under tiie same popes.] Short notices of the contents of papal in- struments : for instance, " Leo X. assignat contessinae de Medicis de Rodulfis ejus sorori due. 285 auri de camera ex introitibus doha- narum pecudum persolvendos." [Leo X. as- signs to his sister the countess de' Medici de' Rodolfii 285 gold ducats from the treasury, chargeable upon the dogana of cattle.] I have here and there made use of these data. The following extract from a brief of June 9, 1529, is perhaps the most interesting, as detailing personal incidents of an affecting character, which have hitherto escaped no- tice : — " Certain precious articles belonging to the papal see were given in pledge to Ber- nardo Bracchi. In the time of the conquest, Bracchi thought it advisable to bury these in a garden. He made the fact known only to one individual, a certain Hieronymo Bacato of Florence, so that, should any mischance befal himself, the secret might at least be in some one's keeping. Bracchi was soon afterwards seized by the Germans and cruelly used. Hieronymo, now believing that his friend had died under the torture, was induced by a similar anxiety to impart the secret to a third person. But this last was not so dis- creet. The Germans heard of the hidden treasure, and, by dint of fresh and severer tortures, forced Bracchi at last to indicate the place of concealment. To save the valua- bles, Bracchi made himself answerable for the payment of 10,000 ducats. Hieronymo look- ed on himself as a traitor, and killed himself for shame and vexation." 12. Sommario di la relation fatta in pregadi per S. Aluixe Gradenigo, venuto orator di Roma 1523 Mazo. — Sanuto tom. xxxiv. [Summary of Aluise Gradenigo's report of his embassy to Rome, &-c.] He speaks first of the cit)^ which he finds enlarged within a short period by about ten thousand houses; next of the constitution — the conservatori claimed precedence of the am- bassadors, which the latter disputed ; then of the cardinals. Giulio Medici had risen still higher in reputation. "Horn di summa auto- rita e richo cardinale, era il primo appresso Leon, horn di gran ingegno e cuor : il papa (Leone) feva quelle lui voleva." [A wealthy and highly influential cardinal; he was the first with pope Leo, a man of great under- stfinding and heart: pope Leo did whatever he desired.] He pourtrays Leo X. : " Di sta- tura grandissima, testa molto grossa, havea bellissima man: bellissimo parlador : prometea assa ma non atendea. ... II papa si serviva molto con dimandar danari al imprestido, ven- deva poi li officii, impegnava zoie, raze del pa- pato e fino li apostoli per aver danaro." [A man of very lofty stature, with a very large head, and beautiful hands : a very fine speak- er : he promised fairly, but did not keep his promises. . , The pope had very frequent recourse to borrowing ; besides which, he sold offices, and pledged jewels and heir-looms of the papacy, and the very apostles, to get mo- ney.] He estimates the temporal revenues of Rome at 300,000, the ecclesiastical at 100,000 ducats. He regards Leo's policy as thoroughly anti- French. If it ever appeared otherwise, it was the effect of dissimulation. " Fenzeva esso amico del re di Francia." But at that period he was the open and midisguised ene- my of France, for which Gradenigo gives the following reason : — " Disse che mr di Lutrech et mr de I'Escu havia ditto che'l voleva che le recchia del papa fusse la major parte res- tasse di la so persona." Does this mean that Lutrech and I'Escu had said that nothing should be left of the pope but his ears ] A very coarse and vulgar joke assuredly, which Leo took much amiss. Upon receiving news of the conquest of Milan, Leo is stated to have said, "that but half the fight was won," Leo left the papal treasury so exhausted, that it was necessary to employ in his obse- quies the wax-candles that had been provided tor those of cardinal St. Georgio, who had died shortly before. The ambassador waited the arrival of Adrian VI. He describes the moderate and rational habits of life of that pope, and observes that he had maintained at first an attitude of neutrality. " Disse : il papa per opinion soa, ancora che '1 sia dipendente del imperador, e neutral, ed a molto a cuor di far la trieva per atender a le cose del Turco, e questo si judica per le sue operation cotidiane come etiam per la mala contentezza del vicere di Napoli, che venne a Roma per far dichiarar il papa impe- rial, e S. S^^^ non volse, ondo si parti senza conclusion. II papae molto intento a le cose di Hungaria e desidera si fazi la impresa con- tra infideli, dubita che '1 Turco non vegni a Roma, pero cerca di unir li principi christian! e far la paxe universal, saltern trieve per tre anni." [He said that in his opinion the pope, though he be dependent on the emperor, is 406 APPENDIX. neutral ; and he has it much at heart to effect a truce to attend to the affairs of the Turk, and this is indicated by his daily operations, as also by the discontent of tlie viceroy of Naples, who visited Rome to engage the pope to declare himself tor the emperor, which his holiness would not do, and the viceroy re- turned without effecting any thing. The pope is very intent on the affairs of Hungary, and is eager for an enterprize against the infidels : he is apprehensive lest the Turk make a descent on Rome ; and therefore he wishes the Christian sovereigns to make uni- versal peace, or at least a truce for three years.] 13. Sununario del viazo di oralori nostri an- dono a Roma a dar la obedientia a -papa Hadriano VI. [Summary, &c. of liie journey of our ambassadors to Rome, to tender allegiance to pope Adrian VI.] Tlie only report that possesses the interest of a narrative of travels, and which also ad- verts to works of art. The ambassadors describe the flourishing condition of Ancona, and the fertility of the March : they were hospitably received in Spello by Oratio Baglione ; thence they pro- ceeded to Rome. They describe an entertainment given them by a fellow-countryman, cardinal Cornelio. Their account of the music at table is worthy of note: "A la tavola vennero ogni sorte de nuisici, che in Roma si atrovava, li pifari ex- cellenti di continue sonorono, ma eravi clavi- cembani con voce dentro mirabilissima, liuti e quatro violoni." [At table there were mu- sicians of every kind to be found in Rome ; excellent flute-players performed continually ; and there were harpsichords, most admirably accompanied with the voice, lutes, and tour violins.] Grimani, too, gave them an enter- tainment : "Poi disnar venneno alcuni musici, tra li quali una donna brutissima che canto in liuto mirabilmente." [The dinner was attended by some musicians, among whom was a very loathsome woman, who sang admirably to the lute.] They next visited the churches. In Santo Croce workmen were putting some ornaments on the doors . . "alcuni arnesi e volte di al- cuno porte di una preda raccolta delle anti- caglio;" [some ornaments and arches of doors selected from the spoils of antiquity,] every little stone which was wrought there deserved in their opinion to be set in gold, and worn on the finger. In the Pantheon an altar was in course of erection, at its foot the tomb of Ra- phael. They were shown ornaments, said to be of gold, as pure as the Rhenish giilden. They fancy, were this true, pope Leo would not have left them there. They admire the columns, larger than those of their own St, Mark. " Sostengono un coperto in col mo, el qual e di alcune travi di metallo." [They sustain an entire roof, consisting of some beams of metal.] They express their admiration of the objects of antiquity with great naivete. I know not whether this book is likely to fall into the hands of antiquarians. The following descrip- tion of the colossal statutes is at any rate very striking: — "Monte Cavallo e ditto perche alia summita del colle benissimo habitato vie una certa machina de un pezo di grossissimo muro, sopra uno di cantoni vi e uno cavallo di pietra par de Istria molto antique e della ve- tusta corroso e sopra I'altro uno altro, tutti doi dal mezo inanzi zoe testa, coUo, zampe, spalle e mezo il dorso : appresso di quelli stanno due gran giganti, huomini due fiate maggiore del naturale, ignudi, che con un brazzo li tengono : le figure sono bellissime, proportionate e di la medesima pietra di ca- valli, bellissimi si i cavalli come gli huomeni, sotto una di quali vi sono bellissime letterc majuscule che dicono opus Fidie e sotto I'altro opus Praxitelis." [Monte Cavallo is so called, because at the summit of that very well-peo- pled hill there is a certain structure, a part of a very huge wall (a rude base), on one of the corner-stones of which there is a horse of stone, apparently Istrian, very old and decayed by time, and on the other corner another, both of them forepart halves, — that is, head, neck, legs, shoulders, and half the back : be- side them stand two great giants, men twice the natural size, naked, holding the horses with one arm. These figures are very beau- tiful, proportioned to and of the same stone as the horses ; the horses, too, are as beautiful as the men, and under one of them is in- scribed, in very handsome capital letters, " Opus Phidise," and under the other, " Opus Praxitelis."] They visit the capitol, where, among other fine figures, they discover " uno villano di bronzo che si cava un spin da un pe, fatto al natural rustico modo : par a cui lo mira voglia lamentarsi di quel spin, cosa troppo excellente" [a peasant in bronze, tak- ing a thorn out of his foot, made in the natu- ral rustic manner : you think as you look at him he wants to complain of the thorn, — an exceedingly fine work]. In the Belvidere their great object of attraction was the Laocoon. Hitherto the German lansquenets have been frequently charged with having rendered necessary the restoration of one of the arms of that noble work of art: we find, however, from our travellers, that it was wanting even before the sack of the city. " Ogni cosa e Integra, salvoche al Laocoonte gli manca il brazzo destro." [Every thing is entire, except that the Laocoon wants the right arm.] They are enchanted with admi- ration. They say of the whole group, " Non gli manca che lo spinto." [It wants nothing PERIOD OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 407 but the breath of life.] Their description of the boys is very good. " L'lmo volendosi tirare dal rabido serpente con il suo brazello da una gamba ne potendosi per modo alcana ajutar, sta con la faccia lacrimosa cridando verso il padre e tenendolo con I'aJtra mano nel sinistro brazzo. Si vede in sti puttini doppio dolore, I'uno per vedersi la morte a lui propinqiia, I'altro perche il padre non lo puol ajutare e si languisce." [One of them en- deavouring to free one leg from the folds of the tierce serpent with his little arm, and not being able in any way to help himself, stands with his tearful face turned beseechingly to his father, whose left arm he holds with the other hand. A two-fold grief is depicted in these lads : that of the one who sees his death at hand, and that of the other who sees that his tiither cannot help him, and whose strength fails him.] They add, that at tlie meeting between the pope and king Francis at Bologna, the latter solicited this work of his holiness; but the latter would not rob his Belvidere of it, and had a copy of it made for the king. The boys were already finished. But if the maestro were to live for five hundred years, and to spend a himdred of them on the work, he could never equal the original. They fell in with a young Flemish artist in the Belvi- dere who had made two statues of the pope. They next proceed to speak of the latier, and of the court. Tiie most important infor- mation they give is, that cardinal di Volterra, who had hitherto kept down the Medici, had been tlirown into prison because letters of his had been got hold of, in which he had encou- raged king Francis to make an immediate descent on Italy, as he could never have a j better opportunitj*. This enabled the JMedici to rise again. The imperial ambassador, Sessa, supported them. It is very possible that this incident may have decided the change in Adrian's policy. 14. Clrmeiitis VII. P. 3/. conclave et creatio. — Bi.hl. Barb. 4. 70 leaves. [Conclave and election of Pope Clement VII.] The following remark appears on the title , — " Hoc conclave sapit sty 1 urn Joh. Bapt. Sangse civis Romani, qui fuit Clementi VII ab epistolis." [This conclave savours of the style of Giovan-Battista Sanga, citizen of Rome, who was epistolary secretary to Cle- ment VII.] But this conjecture may be re- jected without hesitation. Anotlier MS. in the Barberini library, with the title, "Via- nesii Albergati Bononiensis commentarii re- rum sui teniporis," contains nothing besides this conclave. It constitutes the first part of the commentarii, of which, however, no con- tinuation is to be found. We may assume that the conclave above-mentioned is the work of Vianesio Albergati. But who was he 1 Mazzuchelli names sev- eral Albergati, but not this one. The following story is told in a letter of Girolamo Negro. A Bolognese gave pope Adrian to understand tliat he had an impor-, taut secret to impart to him, but he had not money to defray the cost of the journey to Rome. Messer Vianesio, a friend and favour- ite of the Medici, interceded for Iiim, and was told at last by the pope that he might advance the twenty-four ducats the Bolognese required, and they should be repaid him. Vianesio did so, and his man arrived. He was introduced to the pope with the utmost secrecy. " Holy father," said he, " if you would conquer the Turks, you must equip a great armament both by sea and land." Not a word more had he to say. " Per Deum !" cried the highly incensed pope the next time he saw Messer Vianesio, " that Bolognese of yours is a great swindler ; but it shall be at your cost that he has cheat- ed me." Vianesio never got back his twent}'- four ducats. This Vianesio is propably our author; for he says, in the little work before us, that he had mediated between the Medici and the pope : " me etiam internuncio." He was well acquainted with Adrian, whom he had already known in Spain. He has erected, however, to his memory the least flattering monument that can be. It serves to show us the full intensity of the hatred with which Adrian inspired the Ita- lians. "Si ipsius avaritiam, crudelitatem, et principatus adminislrandi inscitiam considera- bimus, barbarorumque quos secum adduxerat asperam feramque naturam, merito inter pes- simos pontifices referendus est." [If we con- sider his avarice, his cruelty, his ig'norance of the arts of government, and the rude and savage nature of the barbarians he brought with him, he is justly to be classed among the worst popes.] He is not ashamed to relate the most miserable lampoons against the dead pope: one, for instance, in which he is com- pared first to an ass, and then to a wolf, — " post paulo faciem induit lupi acrem," — nay, at last, to Caracalla and Nero. But if we look for proofs, we find that the poor pope is even justified by what Vianesio relates. Adrian had a room in the Torre Borgia, the key of which he always carried about him, and which went under the name of the sanc- tum sanctorum. This was opened with great curiosity after his death. As he had received much, and spent nothing-, it was supposed that his treasures would be found in the secret chamber; but nothing was discovered there but books and papers, a couple of rings be- longing to Leo X., and scarcely any money. It was confessed at last, " male partis optima usum fuisse" [that he had made an excellent use of wealth ill-gotten]. j The complaints made by the author re- specting the procrastination of business may 408 APPENDIX. have more truth in them. The pope was in the habit of saying, " Cogitabimus, videbi- mus." [We shall consider, we shall see.] He would refer, to be sure, to his secretary ; but the latter, after long delay, would in re- turn refer to the auditorc di camera. This vja.s a well-meaning man, but one who never got through with any thing, and only bewil- dered himself with his own excessive industry. " Niinia ei nocebatdiligentia." People went back from him once more to Adrian, who again said, "Cogitabinms, videbimus." On the other hand, he highly extols the Medici and Leo X,, that pope's kindness, and the security enjoyed under him : he also praises liis public works. I collect from our author's remarks that Raphael's Arazzi were originally intended for the Sixtine chapel. " Quod quidem sacel- lum Julius II opera Michaelis Angeli pingen- di sculpendique scientia clarissimi adrnirabili exornavit pictura, quo opere nullum absolutius extare aetate nostra plerique judicant; moxque Leo X ingenio Raphaelis Urbinatis architecti et pictoris celeberrimi auleis auro purpuraque intextis insignivit, qua? absolutissimi operis pulchritudine omnium oculostenent." [Which chapel Julius II. adorned with admirable paintings by the hand of Michael Angelo, a most renowned painter and sculptor, and it is the general opinion that no works of more perfect excellence exist in our day : subse- quently Leo X. decked the chapel with hang- ings wrought with gold and brilliant colours, after the designs of Raphael of Urbino, a very famous architect and painter; the beauty of these most exquisite specimens of art fasci nates every beholder.] 15. Instruttione al Card^ Rev^"<> di Farnese, che fu poi Paul III, quando ando legato alV Imprc Carlo V doppo il sacco di Ro- ma. [Instruction to cardinal Farnese, afterwards Paul III., on his proceeding as legate to the court of the emperor Charles V. after the sack of Rome.] I found this instruction first in the Corsini library, No. ^67, and afterwards procured a copy m the handwriting of the middle of the sixteenth century. This document was known to Pallavicini, who mentioned it in the Istoria del Concilio di Trento, lib. ii. c. 13. Nevertheless, as we shall show in the following chapter, he has made less use of it than his words import. He has collected his narrative from other sources. As this instruction is highly important, not only as regards the aflairs of the papacy, but also with respect to the whole policy of Europe at so interesting a period, and con- tains many weighty particulars not to be found elsewhere, I have thought it expedient to print it entire. No extract would satisfy the instructed reader. A few more pagea will be well devoted to it. The pope had issued a brief in June, 1-526, in which he shortly enumerated his complaints against the emperor, and the latter made a very spirited reply in 1.526. The state paper which then appeared under the title, " Pro divo Carlo V. . . apologetici libri . . ." (in Goldast's Politica Impenalia, p. 984,) contains a circumstantial refutation of the pope's asser- tions. The instructions before us is attached to this paper. It will be found to consist of two distinct parts : one, in which the pope is spoken of in the third person, drawn up per- haps by Giberto, or some other confidential minister of the pope,* and of the highest im- portance with reference to past occurrences, both under Leo and Clement ; the other and smaller part, which begins with the words : " Per non entrare in le cause per le quali fummo constretti," in which the pope speaks in the first person, and which was perhaps composed by himself Both are shaped with a view to justify the proceedings of the court of Rome, and to exhibit, on the other hand, the conduct of the viceroy of Naples in par- ticular in the worst possible light. It must be confessed that we ought in fairness to be in possession of the answer made by the im- perial court. " lilmo Rev'no Signore. Nella difficulta della provincia che e toccata alle mani di V. S. Ill™a e Rma^ tanto grande quanto ella stes- sa conosce, et nella recordatione della somma et estrema miseria della quale siamo, penso che non sara se non di qualche rilevamento a quella, haver quella informatione che si pud di tutte I'attioni che sono accadute tra N. Signore e la M.^^ Cesarea et in esse conoscere che V. S, R"ia va a prencipe del quale S^ Si^^ et la casa sua e piu benemerita che nessun altra che ne per li tempi passati ne per li pre- sent! si possa ricordare : et se qualche offen- sione e nata in quest' ultimo anno, non e causata ne da alienatione che S'^ S^^ havessi fatto della solita volunta et amore verso sua Maestra o per disegni particular! d'aggraudire i suoi o altri o per abbassare le reputatione o stato suo, ma solo per necessita di non com- portare d'esser oppresso da chi haveva et aut- torita et forze in Italia, et per molte prove che sua Be havessi fatto per nuntii, lettere, messi et lagati, non era mai stato possible trovarci remedio. " La Sii di N. Signore da che comincio a esser tale da poter servir la corona di Spagna et la casa della Maesta Cesarea, il che fu dal * [It will be seen, however, that the writer occasionally lapses into the use of the first person : whether he does so in momentary forgetfulness of an assumed character, or because he feels so lively an interest in his subject as to identify himself with the person whose cause he pleads.— TUANSLATOR.] PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 409 principio del pontificato della S'-^' M'''*di Le- one 6U0 iVatello, con el quale poteva quanto ogn'urio sa et la M^^ sua lia provato, fii seui- pre di tanto studio et servitii della parte Spagnuolo et iniperiale die uon si potra im- merar beneficio o gratia o sodisfattione di co- sa alcuua die questa parte in ogni tempo habbi ricevutadalla Siii M'"'='- di Leone et del- la chiesa, nella quale non solo N. Signore stando in minoribus non si sia trovato o non ad versa rio o consentiente solo, ma ancora aut- tore, indrizzatore et conduttore del tutto. Et per toccare quelle cose die sono di piu im- portantia solamente : la lega che si fece il se- condo et terzo anno della Sia M'"'a di Leone per adversare alia venuta prima che fece il cliris- tianissimo re Francesco passu tutta per niano di S. S'^'^, et ella ando in persona legato per trovarsi in tatto con gli altri. Dove essendo riusciti lidisegni diversamente da quelle che s'era imaginato, et constretto papa Leone a fare quelli accordi che pote con el chr"io, il cardinale de Medici hebbe quella cura di con- servare il papa Spagnuolo die ogn'uno di quelli che all' hora vi si trovorono posson render testimonio, et uso tutta I'auttorita che haveva col papa sue fratello, che la volunta et estremo desiderio che el christianissimo haveva di seguir la vittoria et passar con tanto esercito et favore nel regno, fussi ralfrenato lior con una scusa et hor con un altra, et tra le altre che se essendo il re catolico vecchio et per rinfermila gia a gli ultimi anni S. M"^^ aspettasse I'occasione della morte sua, nel qual tempo I'impresa riuscirebbe senza diffi- culta alcana. Et succedendo assai presto doppo questi ragionamenti la morte del re cat- tolico, che credo non ci fusse un mese di tem- po, con quant' arte et fatica fussi necessario reprimere I'instantiagrande che el christian- issimo ne faceva, ne sarebber testimonio lo lettere di propria inano di S^- M^'^, se questi soldati, che tra le altre cose hanno ancor sac- cheggiato tutte le scritture, o ci le rendesse- ro over le mandassero all' imperatore. Et queste cose con molte altre, che tutte erano in preparar quieta e stabile la heredita et suc- cessione della persona hora dell' imperatore et in assicurarlo etiam vivents I'avo de maes- trati di Spagna, tutte faceva el cardinale de Medici non per private commodo suo alcuno, anzi direttumente contro Futile particulare, non havendo rendita alcuna di moinento se non nel dominio di Francia, et non procuran- do mai d 'haver ristoro in quel di 8pagna. " Successe la morte dell' imperatore Mas- similiano, et essendo Leone inclinato alia parte dei christianissimo per quella dignita et opponendosi alii conati dell Al'^ Cesarea d'hora, non passo il termine dell' elettione che el cardinal de Medici condusse il papa a non contra venirvi, e doppo fatta I'elettione ad approvarla, assolverlo dalla simonia, dal per- giuro, che non poteva, essendo re di Napoli, 52 si come vuole la constitutione di papa . . . ., procurar d'essero imperatore, rinvestirlo et darli di nuovo il regno di Napoli : in che non so — se I'affettion grande et Toppionione nella quale el cardinal de Medici era entrato della bonta, prudentia et religione della Mii^ sua, non lo scusasse — se fusse piu o il servilio, che puo molto apertamente dire d'haver fatto grandissimo alia M^a sua, overo il dcservitio latto al fratello cioe al papa et alia chiesa, favorendo et nutrendo una potentia tanto grande e da considerare die un di da questo fiume poteva erumpere unadevastatione et ol- traggio si grande come hora e seguito. Ma vedendo il cardinale queste due potenze di Spagna et Francia divise di sorte che mala- mente non contrapesando I'una coll' altra si poteva sperar pace, ando prima con questo di- segno d'aggiunger tanta auttorita et forze al redi Spagna che essendo uguale al christian- issimo dovessi haver rispetto di venire a guer- ra, et se pur la disgratia portasse che non si potesse far dimeno, essendo I'oppinione d'an- teporre il re di Spagna al christmo, Spagna fussi in modo ferma et gagliarda che attac- candosi in un case simile a quella parte si potesse sperarne buon esito ct certa vittoria. Et questo lo provassi con altro che a parole, se forte le cose sopradette fusser cosi oscure che havesser bisogno di piu apertafede: ne farEi testimonio la conclusa lega con Cesare contra Francia, et tanto dissimili le conditioni che si promettevano da un lato a quelle dell' altro, che non solo Leone non doveva venire a legarsi coll' imperatore, essendo in sua li- berta et arbitrio d'elegger quel che piu face- va per lui, ma essendo legato doveva fare og- ni opera per spiccarsene. Et per mostrar brevemente esser con etfetto quanto io dico, I'imperatore si trovava in quel tempo che Le- one fece lega seco, privo d'ogni auttorita, nerv'O, amici et reputatione, havendo perduto in tutto I'obbedienza in Spagna per la rebel- lione di tutti i populi, essendo tornato dalla dieta che sua Mi^ haveva fatta in Vorniatia, escluso d'ogni conclusion buona d'ajuti et di favori che si fussi proposto d'ottenere in essa, havendo la guerra gia mossa ne suoi paesi in due lati, in Fiandra per viadi Roberto della Marca et in Navarra, il qual regno gia era tutto andato via et ridottosi all' obbedienza del re favorito da i Francesi: li Suizzeri poco in- anzi s'eron di nuovo allegati col christianissi^ mo con una nuova conditione d'obbligarsi al- ia defensione dellostato di Milano, che el re possedeva, cosa che mai per inanzi non have- von voluto fare: et il ser"'" re d'Anglia, nel quale forse I'imperatore faceva fondamento per il parentado tra loro et per la nemista na- turale con Francia, mostrava esser per star a veder volentieri, come comprobo poi con li ef- fetti, non si movendo a dar pure un minimo ajuto all' imperatore per molta necessita in che lo vedessi et per niolta inslanlia che gli 410 APPENDIX. ne fusse fatta, salvo doppo la morte di Leone. II christianissimo all' incontro, oltre la poten- tia orande unita da se etla pronta uniono che haveva con I'lllma Signoria et che haveva questa nuova lianza de Suizzeri, si trovava tanto piu superior nel resto quanto li caiisano la potentia sua et la facevano maggiore li molti et infiniti disordini ne quali dico di so- pra che I'imperatore si trovava. Le speranze et propositioni dei premii et comodita del suc- cesso et prosperitn che le cose havessero ha- vuto eron molto diverse: il christianissimo voleva dar di primo colpo Ferrara alia chiesa inanzi che per sua M^'^ si tacessi altra impre- sa, poi neir acquisito del regno di Napoli Sa M^^ chrislianissima, per non venire a i parti- cular!, dava tante comodfta alia chiesa circa ogni cosa che gli tornava di piu comodo piu utilita et sicurta assai, che non sarebbe stato ee ce I'havesse lassato tutto ; in quest' altra banda non era cosa nessuna se non proposito di metter lo stato di Milano in Italiani et far ritornar Parma et Piacenza alia chiesa : et nondimeno, essendo et la facilita dell' impre- ea in una parte et nell' altra il pericolo cosi ineguale et aggiungendovisi ancora la dispa- rita de i guadagni si grande, potette tanto la volunta del cardinale de Medici appresso al papa, et appresso a S. S. Rev^a I'oppinione della bonta et religione della Maesta Cesarea, che mettendosi nella deliberatione che era necessaria di tare o in un luogo o in un altro questa imaginazione inanzi agli occhi, non voile dar parte della vista all' altro consiglio ne altro esamine se non darsi in tutto et per tutto a quelJa parte donde sperava piu frutti d'animo santo et christiano che da qualsivog- lia altri premii che temporalmente havesser potuto pervenire per altra via. Et che sia vero chi non ha visto che non essendo suc- cesse le cose in quel principio come si spera- va, et essendo consumati i danari che per la prima portion sua la M'^ Cesarea haveva da- to, et vedendo male il modo che si facessi provisione per piu, la S^a M^ia di Leone per sua parte et S. tS. Rev'i^a molto piu per la sua non manco mettervi la sustantia della patria sua et di quanti amici et servitori che haves- si et per I'ultimo la persona sua propria, del- la quale conobbe I'importantia et il trutto che ne scgui. " Mori in quelle papa Leone, et benche S. S. Reyma si trovasse nemico tutto il mondo, perche quclli che haveva ofteso dalla parte francesG tutti s'eron levati contro lo stato et dignita sua temporale et spirituale, gli altri della parte dell' Impre parte non lo volsero ajutare, parte gli furon contrarii, come V. S. Reyma et ogn'uno sa molto bene, non dimeno ne il pericolo o oflertc grandi dei primi ne I'ingrattitudine o sdegno dci secondi bastoro- no mai tanto che lo facesser muovere pur un minimo punto della volunta sua, parendoli che sicome ranimo di Cesare et roppinion d'esso era stato scapo et objetto, cosi quello dovessi esser sua guida : et non si potendo imaginar che questo nascessi dall' animo suo ne potendo per il tempo breve suspicarlo, volse piu presto comportar ogni cosa che mu- tarsi niente, anzi come se fussi stato il contra- rio, di nessuna cura tenne piu conto che di fare un papa buono parimente per la M^^ sua come per la chiesa : et che I'oppinione anzi certezza fussi che non sarebbe quasi stato dift'erenza a far papa Adriano o I'lmp^'e stesso, ogn'uno lo sa, sicome ancora e notissimo che nessuno fu piu auttore et conduttore di quella creatione che'l cardinale de Medici. " Hor qui fu il luogo dove il card's de Me- dici hebbe a far prova, se'l giudicio el quale S. S. haveva fatto della M^-^ Cesarea gli rius- civa tale quale S. S. Rev^a s'era imaginato, perche inanzi Tombra et indrizzo dell Sia M'''a di Leone haveva fatto che nou si veniva a fare esperienza d'altro, et I'animo di S. S. tutto occupato a servir la M'''^ sua, non have- va pensato di distraherlo in cura sua o disuoi particulari, ne era cosi avido o poco prudente che s'imaginasse i premii corrispondenti ai meriti, anzi in questo parevad'haver perfetta- mente servito et meritato assai, non havendo objetto nessun tale et essendosi rimesso in tutto e per tutto alia discrettione et liberalita sua. E vero che trovandosi piu di due anni quasi prima che la M^^ sua non pensava ne credeva poter ricever tanto beneficio et servi- tio dalla casa de Medici, haver promesso per scritto di sua mano et disegnato et tenuto a tale instantia separatamente da quella uno stato nel regno di Napoli di VI m. scudi et una moglie con stato in dote di X m. pur pro- messo a quel tempo per uno dei nipoti di pa- pa Leone et di S. S. Rma, et non essendosi mai curati d'entrare in possesso del primo ne venir a effetto del secondo per parerli d'haver tutto in certissimo deposito in mano di sua Maest^, morto papa Leone et non essendo ri- masto segno alcuno di bene verso la casa de Medici, che gli facessi ricordo d'haver havuto tanto tempo un papa, se non questo, mandando S. S. Rma alia M^^ Cesarea a farli riverenza et dar conto di se, dette commissioni dell' es- peditione di questa materia, che se ne facessi la speditione, la consignatione et li privilegii et venisse all' eft'etto. Ma successe molto di- versamente da quello che non solo era I'op- pinion nostra ma d'ogn'uno : perche in canibio di vedere che si pensasse a nuovi premii et grattitudine per li quali si conoscesse la re- cognitione de beneficii fatti alia Mi^ sua, et la casa de Medici si consolasse vedendo non haver fatto molta perdita nella morte di Le- one, si messe difficolta tale nell' espeditione delle cose dette non come si fusse tratiato di uno stato gia stabilito et debito per conto mol- to diverse et inferiore ai meriti grandi che s'erono aggiunti, prima di disputare, non al- tr'monti che se la casa de Medici gli fusse PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 411 stata nemica, facendo objettioni di sorte che ancorche fusse stata in quel termine, non si devevon fare, perche la fede ct quel che s'c una volta promesso si vuol servare in ogni tempo: pure si replico et mostro il torto che si riceveva talmente che in cambio di sperar piu o di havere almeno interamente quello che era promesso d'uno stato di XVI m. scu- di, VI di Sa Mt^ propria et X m. di dote che si doveva dare, si risolvette in tre : nel qual tempo essendo il cardinaledo Medici bene in- formato di tutto, se S. S. Rma- non si mosse dalla devotione di S» M"^^ perseverando non come trattato ut supra ma come se fusse stato remunerate a satieta, si potrebbe dire che I'havessi fatto per forza, essendo la potenza deir imperatore fermata di sorte che non pote- va far altro, overo per mancarii partito con altri prencipi, overo per trovarsi in qualche gran necessita nella quale fusse piu pronto prestar ajuto all' imperatore che ad altri : ma chi si ricorda dello stato di quel tempi, che e facile essendo assai fresca la memoria, conos- cera che I'esercito e parte imperiale in Italia per el nuovo soccorso che i Francesi havean rnandato reparando I'esercito et forze loro con I'lllma Sig'''^, era in grandissimo pericolo, et in mano d'alcuno era piu in Italia, per I'op- portunita del stato amici parenti dependentie denari et gente, che del cardinale de Medici far cader la vittoria in quella parte dove gli fusse parso a S. S. R'na salda nella volunta verso I'imperatore, cercavono opprimerlo, non solo poteva* sperare ajuto dalli Cesarei, ma essi male haverebbon fatto i fatti loro se da S. S. I\nia non havesser ricevuto ogni sorte di ajuto tanto ad acquistar la vittoria quanto a mantenerla, essendosi spogliato fino all' ossa et se et la patria per pagare una grossa impo- sitione che fu imposla per contribuire et pa- gar I'essercito et tenerlo unite. Direi volen- tieri, connumerando tutti i beneficii, officii et meriti infiniti del cardinale de Medici et di casa sua, qualche amorevol demostratione o specie di grattitudine che S^ M^^ havessi usa- to inverso di loro, cosi per dire il vero come per scusare in questo modo questa persever- antia mai interrotta per alcun accidente ver- so Sa M"^^ et difenderla da chi la volessi chia- mare piu tosto ostinatione che vero giudicio, ma non vi essendo niente non lo posso far di nuovo, salvo se non si dicesse che in cambio di XXII m. sc. d'entrata perduti in Francia ga M^^gli ordino sopra Toledo una pensione di X m. sc, dei quali ancora in parte ne resta creditore. E vero che nelle lettere che 8=^ M^-^ scriveva in Italia a tutti li suoi ministri etora- tori et capitani gli faceva honorifica mentione di S. S. R'"a, et cometteva che facessin capo a quella et ne tenessero gran conto per insino a commetterli che se dio disponesse della S^a- Mria d'Adriano, non attendessero a far papa [* Qy. non solo non poteva ?— Translator.] altri che S. S. Rma; donde nasceva che tutti facevano nei negotii loro capo a J'iorenza et communicavano le tiiccnde, et quando s'hav- eva a trattar di danari o altra sorte d'ajuti, a nessuno si ricorreva con piu fiducia che a S. S. R'^a^ favorendola gagliardamente contro la mala dispositione di papa Adriano per triste informationi ingeste da Volterra che mostrava haver di S. Sri^: nelle quai cose, non facendo ingiuria al buon animo che Cesare potesse havere con el cardinale, diro bene che S^ jy^u si governava prudentissimamente in volere che si mantenessi una persona di tanta aut- torito in Italia, la quale per poca recognitione che gli fussi stata fatta non si era mai mutato un pelo del solito suo, et non possendo succe- cere, cosi in questo come negli altri stati, che rnutando la forma et regimento se ne fusse potuto sentire evidentissimi frutti et commo- dita che faceva sua Maesta stando integro in Fiorenza el cardinale de Medici. " Morto Adriano fu il cardinale create papa, dove ancorche i ministri et altri dependent! da Cesare havesser gagliarda commissione, parte si portoron come volsero, et alcuni che air ultimo desceseropoi a favorir la sua elet- tione ilprimo protesto che essi volsero fu che non intendevono per niente che S. S"-^ conos- cesse I'opera loro ad instantia dell' impera- tore, ma che lo facevono per mera dispositione privata. Et nondimeno fatto papa ritenne S. S^'"- la medesima persona del cardinal de Med- ici, quanto comportava una union tale insieme con la dignita nella quale dio I'haveva posto : et se in pesar queste due parti, del debito del pontefice et dell' aftettion verso I'imperatore, S. S'-^ non s'havesse lassato vincere et fatto pesar piu 1' ultima, forse che il mondo sarebbe piu anni fa in pace et non patiremmo hora queste calamita. Perche trdvandosi nel tem- po che Sa S"^^ fu papa, due esserciti gagliardi in Lombardia, di Cesare et del christianisso, et il prime oppresso da molte difficulta di po- tersi mantenere, se N. S. non I'ajutava, come fece con lassar le genti ecclesiastiche et Flo- rentine in campo, con darli tante decime nel regno che ne cavavano 80 m. scudi, et farli dar contributioni di Fiorenza, et S^ S'-^ anco- ra privatamente denari et infinite altre sorti d'ajuti, forse quella guerra havrebbe havuto altro esito et piu moderate et da sperar fine ai travagli et non principo a nuove et maggi- ori tribulationi, alle quali sperando N. S. tan- to ritrovar forma quanto oltre all' auttorita ordinaria che credeva haver coll' imperatore et per consigliarlo bene ci haveva ancora ag- giunto queste nuove dimostrationi, senza le quali non havrebbe potuto vincere, perche et me n'ero scordato senz' esse mai la Signoria faceva unir I'esercito suo, non solo non fu dato luogo alcuno al suo consiglio, die dissuadeva di passare in Francia con I'esercito, anzi in molte occorentie si comincio a mostrare di tenere un poco conto di S^ S^i^, et favorir Fer- 412 APPENDIX. rara in dispreggio di quella, et, in cambio di lodarsi et ringTatiarla di quanto liaveva fatto per loro, querelarsi di quel clie non s'cra flvtto a voglia loro, non misurando prima che tutto si facessi per mera dispositione senza obbligo alciino, el poi, se ben ce ne fussero stati infi- niti, che molto maggior doveva esser quello che tirava Sa Santita a fare il debito suo con dio che con rimperatore. " L'esito che hebbe la guerra di Francia mostro se el consiglio di N. Sig^e era buono, che venendo el christianissimo adosso all' esercito Cesareo ch'era a Marsiglia, lo cos- trinse a ritirarsi, di sorte e'l re seguiva con celerita, che prima fu entralo in IVIilano ch' essi si potesser provedere, et fu tanto terrore in quella giornata del vicere, secondo che I'hn- omo di S. a^^ che era presso a S. Ecczagcrisse, che non sarebbe stato partito quale S. iSigno- ria non avessi accettato dal re, et prudente- mente : vedendosi in estrema rovina se la Ventura non I'havessi ajutato con fare che el christianissimo andasse a Pavia etnon a Lodi, dove non era possibile stare con le genti che vi s'eron ridotte. Hora le cose si trovavano in questi termini et tanto peggiori quanto sem- pre in casi cosi subiti 1 huomo s'imagina, el N. S. in malissima intelligentia co! chrmo et poca speranza di non haver a sperar se non male da S^ M"^^ et rimanerli odiatoin infinite, essendosi governala come diro appresso con quella verita che debbo et sono obbligato in qualsivoglia luogo che piu potessi stringere a dirladi quel che io mi reputi al presente. " Falto che fu N. Sig^e papa, mando el christianissimo di mandar subito messi a sup- plicare a S. S^'\ che come dio I'haveva posta in luogo sopra tutti, coi ancora si volessi met- ier sopra se stessa et vincer le passioni qnali gli potesser esser rimaste odi troppa aft'ettione verso rimperatore o di troppo mala volunta verso di lui, et chi rimarebbe molto obbligato a dio et a S. Si^ se tenessi ogn'uno ad un seg- no, interponendosi a far bene, ma non metten- dosi a favorir I'una parte contro I'altra : et se pure per suoi interessi o disegni S. B^e gjndi- casse bisognarliuno appoggio particulare d'un prencipe, qual poteva havere meglio del suo, che naturalmente et a figliolo della chiesa et non emuio, desiderava et era'solito operar gran- dczza di essa etnon diminutione, et quanto alia volunta poi da ])erKona a persona, gli fareb- be ben partiti tali che S. Si'^ conoscei^ebbe che molto piu ha guadagnato in firsi conosccre quanto meritavaoffcndendo et deservcndo lui, che adjutando et favorendo I'imperatore, ven- endo in particnlari gramli. " Nostro Signore accettava la prima parte d'essere amorcvole a tutti, et bcnclie poi con li efl(3tti depondessi piu dall' imperatore, oltre alia inclinazione lo facova ancora con certissi- nia speranza di poter tanto con I'imperatoro che lacilmente lassandosi Sua M^'^ Cesarca governare et muovere, a Sua S^^ non fussi per essere si grave quello che offendeva el chris- tianissimo, quanto gli sarebbe comodo poi in facilitare et adjutare gli accordi che se haves- sero havuto a fare in la pace. Ma succedendo altrimenti et facendo il re, mentre che I'esser- cito Cesarea era a Marsiglia, resokuione di venire in Italia, mando credo da Azais (Aix) un corriere con la carta bianca a N. Sig^e per mezzo del sig''^ Alberto da Carpi non capitula- toine favorevole et amplissimi mandati el con una dimostration d'animo tale che certo I'ha- verebbe possuto mandare al proprio imperatore, perche di voler lo stato di Milano in poi era contenlo nel reslo di riporsi in tutto et per tuttoalla volunlaet ordine di Nostro Signore : et non oslante questo Sua Santita non si volse risolver mai se non quando non la prima ma la seconda volta fu certa della presa di Milano et hebbe lettere dall' huomo suo, che tutto era spacciato et che el vicere non lo giudicava al- trimenti. Mettasi qulasivoglia o amico o ser- vitore o fratello o padre o I'imperatore raed- esimo in questo luogo, et vegga in queslo sub- ito et ancora nel seguente, che cosa havria potuto fare per beneficio suo che molto meg- lio S. S^i^ non habbia fatto! dico meglio: per- che son certo che quelli da che forse S. M"-^ ha sperato et spera miglior volunta poiche si Irovano obbligati, havrebber voluto tenere al- tro conto dell' obbligo che non fece la S. S'^ ; la quale havendo riposto in man sua far ces- sar I'arme per iar proseguir la guerra nel reg- no di Napoli et infiniti altri comodi et publici et privati, non s'cra obligata ad altro in favor deir christianissimo se non a farli acquistar quello che gia I'esercito di Cesare teneva per perduto et in reprimerlo di non andare inanzi a pigliare il regno di Napoli, nel quale non pareva che fust-i per essere molta difficulta. Et chi vuol farsi hello per li eventi successi al contrario, deve ringratiare dio che miracolosa- mente et per piacerli ha voluto cosi, et non attribuir nulla a se, el riconoscer che'l papa fece quella capitulazione per conservar se et rimperatore et non per mala volonta. Per- che trovando poi per sua disgralia el re diffi- culta nell' impresa per haverla presa altri- menti di quel che si doveva, N. S^e lo lasso due mesi d'intorno a Pavia senza dar un sos- piro di favore alle cose sue, et benche questo fusse assai beneficio delli Spagnuoli, non manco ancora far per loro, dandoli del suo stato tulle le comodita che potevon disegnare, non mancando d'interporsi per metier accordo quante era possibile tra loro: ma non vi es- sendo ordine et sollecitando il re, che N. Sig- nore si scoprisse in favor suo per farli acquis- tare tanto piu facilmente lo stato di Milano, et instando ancora che i Fiorentini facessero il medesimo, a che parimente come S. S^^ er- ono obbligati, fece opera di evitare I'haversi ascoprire ne dare ajuto alcuno, salvo di darli passo et vetlovaglia per el suo stato a una parte dell' esercito, clie sua M'^ voleva man- PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 413 dare nel regno per far diversione et ridur piu facilmente all' accortlo gV impcriali. Oh chc gran servitio fu questo ai Frances!, conccdend- oli cosa la quale era in tacolta loro di torsela, ancorche non glie I'havesse voluto dare, tro- vandosi disarmato et parendo per troppo strano che havendo latto una lega con S. ^l'■'^ cliris- tianissinia non I'havendo voluto servir d'altro, gli neoasse quello che non poteva, et una publicatione d'una concordia finta, come fu quella che si dette fuora all' hora per dare un poco di pastura a quella M^'^ et fare che di manco mal animo comportasse che S. S^^ non osservasse ad unguem la capitulatione : et se si vorra dire il vero, el cliristianissimo fu piu presto deservito che servito di quella separa- tione dell esercito, perche furono le genti in- terteniite tanto in Siena et di poi in questo di Roma, che I'imperiali hebber tempo in Lcm- bardia di far la prova che fccero a Pavia : la qual ottenuta, qualche ragione voleva che I'imperatore ne i suoi agenti ne huomo al mondodi quella parte si tenesse offeso da Sua S''^ 0 pensassi altro che farli servitio o pia- cere, se la religione non li moveva et il se- guitare gli esempii degli altri proncipi, li quali non solo non hanno ofFeso i papi che si sono stati a vedere, ma quando hanno ottenuto vittoria contro quelle parte con la quale la chiesa si fussi adherita, gli hanno havuti in somma adherenza e riverenza e posto termine alia vittoria sua in chiederli perdono, honorar- ia et servirla. Lasciamo stare la religione da canto et mettiamo il papa et la chiesa in luogo di Moscovita, dove si trovo mai che a persona et stato che non ti occupa nienle di quello a che la ragione vuole, tu possa pre- tendere] anzi havendo una contmuata me- nioria d'haver tanti anni col favore, ajuto et sustantia sua et particularmente della persona ottenuto tante vittorie : et se hora si era ad- herito col re, lo fece in tempo nel quale non potendo ajutare se ne altri, gli parve d'havere una occasione divina di poter col mezzo dei nemici fare quel medisimo effetto, non gli dan- do piu di quello che o la forza loro o I'impo- tentia dell' imperatore gli concedeva, et poi quando el corso della vittoria si fermo per i Francesi, haverla piu tosto arenata che ajuta- ta a spignere inanzi: che inhumanita inaudi- ta, per non usar piu grave termine, fu quella, come se appunto non vi fusse stata alcuna di qneste raggioni o fussero state al contrario, subito ottenuta la vittori in Pavia et fattoprigi- one il re, cercare di tar pace con gli altri, dei quali mcritamente potevasi presumere d'es- sere stati offesi, alia chiesa et alia persona del papa subito indir la guerra et mandarli uno esercito adosso ! Ogl' imperial! havevon ve- duti i capito i della lega con el chr o non gli havevon veduti. Havendo gli visti, come siam certi, essendo andate in man loro tutte le scritture di S. M^^, dovevon produrli, et mostrando oft'ensione in essi o nel tempo che furon conclusi overo nei particulari di cosa che fusse in pregiudicio alia M'"^ Cesarea, giustificar con essi quello che contavano, se giustiticatione alcuna pero vi potesse essere bastante. Non gli havendo visti, perche usar tale iniquita contra di . . . .1 Maneinscrip- tis non havendo visto costa tale ne in fatto non havendolo provato, non havevon sentito offen- sione alcuna, Ne resto N. Sig^e per poco animo o per non potere, perche se I'ha dell* animo odel potere essi in loro beneficio I'ha- vevon provanto tanto tempo et dei primo I'eta, non glien' haveva potuto levar niente et del secondo la dignita glien' haveva aggiunto as- sai, ne anche perche S. S^'^ havessi intercette alcune lettere di questi sig" nelle quali si vedeva che stavano gonfi et aspettavano occa- sione di vendicarsi della ingiuria che non rice- verono da S. S^i^, ma per non reputar niente tutte queste cose, respetto alia giustitia et al dovere et buon animo della M^^ Cesarea, sen- za participation della quale non penso mai che si mettesse a tentare cosa alcuna, et non pos- sendo mai persuaders! che S. M^*^ fusse per comportarlo. Pero accadde tutto il contrario, che subito senza dimora alcuna fecer passare I'esercito in quel della chiesa et constrinser S. Sii^ a redimer la vexatione con 100 m. sc. et col far una lega con loro : la quale man- dandosi in Spagna, la demostratione che S. M^^ ne fece d'haverlo a male fu che se in essa si conteneva qualche cosa che fus- se in beneficio di N. Sig^e et della chi- esa, non la volse ratificare, non ostante che quanto fu fatto in Italia, fussi con li mandati amplissimi della M^^ sua, et tra le altre cose v'era la reintegratione dei sali dello stato di Milano che si pigliasser dalla chiesa, et la restitution di Reggio, di che non volse far nulla. Havendo N. Sigre veduto gabbarsi tante volte et sperando serapre che le cose deir imperatore, ancorche alia presentia par- essero altrimenti, in eftetto poi fussero per riuscire migliori et havendo sempre visto rius- cirli il contrario, comincio a dare arecchie, con tante prove che ne vedeva, a chi glie I'haveva sempre detto et perseverava che la Mt^ sua tendessi alia oppressione di tutta Italia et volersene far sig^e assoluto, parendoli strano che senza un' objetto tale S. M'-'-^ si governasse per se et per li suoi di qua della sorte che faceva : et trovandosi in questa sus- pettione et mala contentezza di veder che non gli era osservato ne fede ne promessa alcuna, gli pareva che gli fusse ben conveniente adhe- rire alia amicilia et pratiche di coloro li quali ha- vessero una causa commune con la santita sua et fusser per trovar modi da difendersi da una violentia tale che si teneva : et essendo tra le altre cose proposto che disegnando Ce- sare levar di stato el duca di Milano et far- sene padrone et havendo tanti indicii che questo era piu che certo non si doveva perder tempo per anticipar di fare ad altri quel che 414 APPENDIX. era disegnato di fare a noi, S. S^^ non poteva recusare di seguitare il camino di chi come dico era nella fortuna commune. Et di qui nacque che volendosi il regno di Francia, la S. S"'>- di Venetia et il resto di Italia unire insieme per rilevamento delli stati et salute commune, N. S. dava intentione di non recu- sare d'essere al medesimo che gli altri s'offe- rivono : et confe^ssa ingenuamente che essen- doli proposto in nome et da parte del marchesc di Pescara che egli come mal contento dell' imperatore et come Italiano s'offeriva d'essere in questa compagnia quando s'avesse a venire a fatti, non solamente non lo ricuso, ma ha- vendo sperato di poterlo havere con effetti, gli haverebbe fatto ogni partito, perche essen- do venuto a termine di temer dello stato et salute propria, pensava che ogni via che se gli fusse otferta da potere sperare ajuto non era da rifiutare. Hora egli e morto et dio sa la verita et con che animo governo questa cosa. E ben vero et certo questo che simile partic- ulare fu messo a N. Signore in siio nome : et mandando S. S^^ a dimandarnelo, non solo non lo ricuso, ma torno a confermare egli stesso quel che per altri mezzi gli era stato fatto intendere: et benche le partiche procedesser di questa sorte, dio sa se N. Signore ci anda- va piu tosto per necessita che per elettione : et di cio possono far testimonio molte lettere scritte in quel tempo al nuntio di S. St^^ ap- presso I'imperatore, per le quali se gli ordi- nava che facesse intendere alia M^^ Sa li mali modi et atti a rovinare il mondo che per quella si tenevano, et che per amor di dio volesse pigliarla per altra via, non essendo possibile che Italia, ancorche si ottenesse, si potesse tenere con altro che con amore et con una certa forma la quale fusse per contentare gli animi di tutti in universale. Et non gio- vandoniente, anzi scoprendosi S. M^^ in quel che si dubitava, d'impatronirsi dello stato di Milano sotto il pretesto di Girolamo Morone et che il duca si fusse voluto ribellare a S. Mi^, perseverava tuttavia in acconciarla con le buone, descendendo a quel che voleva S. Mt^ se ella non voleva quel che piaceva alia StJ^ Sua, purche lo stato di Milano res- tasse nel duca, al quale effetto si erano fatte tutte le guerre in Italia; in che S. S^^ hebbe tanto poca ventura die andando lo spaccio di questa sua volunta all' imperatore in tempo che S. Alti voleva accordarsi col christianis- simo, rifiuto far I'accordo: et polendo, se ac- cettava prima I'accordo con il papa, far piu yantaggio et poi piu fermo quel del christian- issimo, rifiuto far I'accordo con N. Sio-nore, per fare, che quanto faceva con il re'' fusse tanto piu [comodo] vanociuanto non lo volendo il re osservare era per haver de campagni mal contenti, con li quali unendosi fusse per ten- ere manco conto della M^^^ Sua : et non e pos- sibile imaginarsi donde procedesse tanta alienatione dell' imperatore di volere abbrac- ciare il papa : non havendo ancora con effetto sentita offesa alcuna di S. S"-^, havendo man- date legato suo nipote per honorarlo et prati- care queste cose accioche conoscesse quanto gli erano a cuore, facendoli ogni sorte di pia- cere, et tra gli altri concedendoli la dispensa del matrimonio, la quale quanto ad unire I'amicitia et intelligentia di quel regni per ogni caso a cavargli denari delle dote et ha- ver questa successione era della importanza, che ogn' uno sa, et tamen non si movendo S. M^^ niente, costrinse la S. S^^ a darsi a chi ne la pregava, non volendo I'imperatore sup- plicarlo, et a grandissimo torto accettarlo : et avenne che stringendosi N. Signore con il christianissimo et con I'altri prencipi et po- tentati a fare la lega per commune difensione et precipuamente per far la pace universale, quando I'imperatore lo seppe, volse poi unirsi con N. Signore et mandando ad offrirgli per il sig''e Don Ugo di Moncada non solo quel che S. S'^ gli haveva addimandato et impor- tunato, ma quel che mai haveva sperato di po- tere ottenere. Et se o la M''^ S. si vuol dif- endere o calumniare N. Sig""e, che conceden- doli per il sigre Don Ugo quanto dissi di sopra, non I'havesse voluto accettare, non danni la S^^ S., la quale mentre che fu in sua potesta, gli fece istanza di contentarsi di manco assai, ma incolpi il poco gudicio di colore che quan- to e tempo et e per giovare non vogliono con- sentire a uno et vengono fuori d'occasioni a voler buttar cento : . . . , non essendo (se non ?) con somma giustificatione cio in tempo, die sua M"^^ negasse d'entrare in lega con honeste conditioni et che la imprese riuscis- sero in modo difficili che altrimenti non si potesse ottenere I'intento commune. Et chi dubitassi che I'impresa del regno non fusse stata per essere facile, lo puo mostrare I'esito di Frusolone et la presa di tanie terre, consi- derando massime che N. Sig^e poteva man- dare nel principio le medesime genti, ma non eron gia atti ad havere nel regno in un subito tante preparationi quante stentorono ad ha- vere in molti messi con aspettare gli ajuti di Spagna. Et mentre non manca nell' inimici- tia esseramico et voler usar piu presto ufficia di padre, minacciando che dando (offendendo?) e procedendo con ogni sincerita et non man- cando di discendere ancora ai termini sotto della dignita sua in fare accordo con Colon- nesi sudditi suoi per levare ogni suspettione et per non mandar mai il ferro tanto inanzi che non si potessi tirandolo in dietro sanar facilmente la piaga, fu ordinata a S. S^^ quel- la traditione, che sa ogn' uno et piu sene parla tacendo, non si potendo esprimere, nella quale e vero che S. M^^ non ci dette ordine ne con- senso, ne mostro almeno gran dispiacere et non fece maggior dimostration, parendo che I'armata e tutti li preparatorii che potessi mai fare I'imperatore non tendessino ad altro che a voler vendicare la giustitia che N. Sigi^^ PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 415 haveva fatta contro i Colonnesi di rovinarli quattro castelli. Non voglio disputar della tregiia fatta qui in castello questo septembre per il sigt'e Don Ugo, se teneva o non teneva : ma I'assolutione dei Colonnesi non teneva gia in modo N. Sig'"'' che essendo suoi sudditi non gli potessi etdovessi castigare. Et se quanto air osservantia poi della tregua tra N. Sign's et rimperatore fussi stato modo da potersi fidare, si sarebbe osservata d'avvanzo, benclie N. Sigfe non fusse mai el primo a romperla : ma non gli essendo osservata ne qui ne in Lombardia, dove nel tempo della tregua calan- do XII mila lanzichineche vennero nella terra della chiesa, et facendosi dalle bande di qua el poggio che si poteva, et sollecitandosi el vicere per lettere del consigliodi Napoli, che furono intercette, che S. S^ia- accelerassi la venuta per trovare il papa sprovisto et fornir quel che al primo colpo non si haveva potuto fare, non pote N. Sig''^ mancare a se stesso di mandare a tor gente in Lombardia, le quali, ancorche venissero a tempo di far fattione nel regno, non volse che si movesser dei confini — et la rovina de luoghi dei Colonnesi fu piu per I'inobbedienza di non haver voluto alloggiare che per altro — et similmente di dar licentia a Andrea Doria di andare ad impedir quell' amata della quale S. S^'^ haveva tanti riscon- tri che veniva alia sua rovina. Non si puo senza nota di S. St^^ di poca cura della salute et dignita sua dir, con quante legittime occa- sioni costretto non abbandonassi mai tanto tempo I'amore verso I'imperatore, e dipoiche comincio a esservi qualche separatione, quante volte non solo essendoli offerti ma andava cer- cando i modi di tornarvi, ancorche etdi questo primo proposito et di quest' altre reconcilia- tioni gliene fussi seguito male. Ecco che mentre le cose son piu ferventi che mai, viene el padre generale dei Minori, al quale haven- do N. Sigre nel principio della guerra andan- do in Spagna dette buone parole assai dell' animo suo verso I'imperatore et mostratoli quali sariano le vie per venire a una pace universale, la M'-^ sua lo rimando indietro con commissioni a parole tanto ample quanto si poteva desiderare, ma in effetto poi durissime : pur desiderando N. Signore d'uscirne et ven- ire una volta a chiarirsi facie ad faciem con I'imperatore, se vi era modo o via alcuno di far pace, disse di si et accetto per le migliori del mondo queste cose che rimp'"e voleva da sua santita et quello che la M''^ sua voleva dare : et volendo venire alio stringere et bis- ognando far capo col vicere, il quale si ti'ova- va anch' esso arrivato a Gaetta nel medesimo tempo con parole niente inferior! di quelle che el generale haveva detto, queste condi- tioni crescevano ogn' hora et erano infinite et insoportabile da potersi fare. Con tutto cio niente premeva piu a N. Signore che esser costretto a far solo accordo con 1' imperatore in Italia, perche la causa che moveva a farlo, etiam con grandissimo danno et vergogna sua, era I'unione et pace in Italia et il potere an- dare air imperatore, et se la Signoria di Ve- netia non gli consentiva, questo non poteva occorrere, et per praticare il consenso loro, stando il vicere a Frusolone, si fece la sospen- sione dell' armi otto giorni, Ira quali potesse venire la risposta di Venetia, et andando con esse il signer Cesare Fieramosca, non fu pri- ma arrivato la che gia essendosi alle mani et liberate Frusolone dall' assedio non si pote far niente : nel qual maneggio e certo che N. Signore ando sinceramente et cosi ancora il revmo legato, ma trovendosi gia I'inimici a posta et con I'armi in mano, non era possibile di trattare due cose diverse in un tempo me- desimo. Si potrebbe maravigliarsi che doppo I'aver provato I'animo di questa parte et res- tarsi sotto con inganno, danno et vergogna, hora volens et sciens, senza necessita alcuna, libero dalla paura del perdere, sicuro di gua- dagnare, non sapendo che amicitia acquistassi, essendo certo della alienatione et nemicitia di tutto il mondo et di quel principali che di cuore amano la St^^ sua, andasse a buttarsi in una pace o tregua di questa sorte. Ma havendo sua Si^ provato che non piaceva a dio che si fa- cessi guerra — perche ancorche havessi fatto oo-ni prova per non venire ad arme et di poi essendovi venuto con tanti vantaggi, il non haver havuto se non tristi successi non si puo attribuire ad altro, venendo la povera christi- anita afflitta e desolate in modo insofFribile ad udirsi da noi medesimi, che quasi eravamo per lassar poca fatica al Turco di fornirla di rovinare — giudicava che nessun rispetto hu- mane dovessi, per grand che fusse, valer tanto che havessi a rimuovere la S^^ sua da cercar pace in compagnia d'ogn'uno, non possendola haver con altri, farsela a se stessa, et mas- sime che in questa pensieri tornorno a interpor- visi di quelli avvisi et nuove dell' animo et volunta. di Cesare disposto a quello che suol muovere la S. S'^ mirabilmente, havendo ha- vuto nel medesimo tempo lettere di man pro- pria di S. Mta per via del Sigi'e Cesare et per Paolo di Arezzo di quella sorte che era ne- cessario, vedendo che d'accordarsi il papa col imperatore fusse per seguirne la felicita del mondo overo imaginarsi che uomo del mondo non potessi mai nascer di peggior natura che I'imperatore se fusse andato a trovare questa via per rovhiare il papa, la qual fussi indegnis- sima d'ogni vilissimo uomo et non del mag- giore che sia tra christiani, ma absit che si possa imaginar tal cosa, ma si reputa piu tes- te che dio I'habbia parmessa per recognition nostra et per dar campo alia M'-^ sua di mos- trar piu pieta, piu bonta e fede et darli luogo d'assettare il mondo piu che fusse mai conces- so a principe nato. Essendo venute in mano di questi soldati tutte le scritture, tra I'altre gli sara capitate una nuova capitulatione, che fece N. Sre cinque o sei di al piu prima che 416 APPENDIX. seguisse la perdita di Roma, per la quale ri- tornando S. Si^i per unirsi con la lega et con- sentondoa niolte couditione che erano in pre- giudicio della M^'^ Cesarea, non penso che alcuno sia per volersene valere contro N. S^e di quelli della parte di Cesare, perche non lo polrebbon fare senze scoprir piu i difetti et mancamenti loro, li quali dato che si potessi concedere che non si fussi potuto ritrar i3or- bone dal propositio suo di voler venire alia ro- vina del papa, certo e che eron tanti aitri in quel campo di lanti et uomini d'anne et per- sone principali che havrebbono obbedito a i commandamenti dell' imperatore se gli fusse- ro stati fatti di buona sorte, et privato Bor- bone d'una siinil parte, restava pocco atto a proseguire el disegno suo. Et dato che ques- to non si fusse possuto tare, benche non si pos- sa essere escusazione alcuna che vagli, come si giustirichera che havendo N. Sig''^ adempito tutte le condition! della capilulazione fatta col vicere, sicome V. S. R'"* potria ricordarsi et vedere rileggendo la copia di essa capilula- zione, che portera seco, che domandando S. S^'^ air incontro che se li osservasse il pagamento dei fanti et degli uomini d'arme, che ad ogni richiesta sua se li erano obbligati, non ne fussi state osservato niente, si che non essendo state corrisposto in nessuna parte a N. Sig^e in quella capilulazione da un canto facendosi conto qnello che si doveva, dall' altro non se ]i dando li ajuti che si doveva, non so con che animo possa mettersi a voler calunniare la S'i^ S. d'una cosa fatta per rnera necessita indutta da loro et tardata tanto a fare, che fu la rovina di sua Beattitudine, e pigliare occa- sione di tenersi offesi da noi. Dalla deliberatione che N. Signore fece deir andata sua all' imperatore in tempo che nessuno posseva suspicare che si movessi per altro che per zelo della salute de christiani, essendo venuta quella inspiratione subito che si hebbe nuova della morte del re d'Ungheria et della perdita del regno, non lo negheranno li nemici proprii, havendo Sa S^^ consultato e rosoluto in concistoro due o tre di inanzi I'en- trata di Colonnesi in Roma; ne credo che sia alcuno si grosso che pensi si volessi fare quel tutto di gratia coll' imperatore prevedendo forse quella tempesta, perche non era tale che ee si fussi luivuto tre liore di tempo a saperlo, non die tre di, non si fusse con un minimo suono (sforzo!) potuto scacciare. Lc condition! che el padre generale di S. Francesco jiorto a N. Sig'Q furon queste : la prima di voler pace con »' Siii, else per caso aia venuta sua trovasse le cose di Sa S^^ et della chiesa rovinato, che era contento si riduccssero luttc al pristino stato et in Italia darebbc pace ad ogn'uno, non essendo d'animo suo volere ne per se ne per suo fratello per un palino, anzi lassar ogn' un in possesso di quello in che si trovava tanto tempo fa : la differentia del duca di Alilano si vedessi in jure da giu- dici da deputarsi per S^ St^ et Sa S^^, et ve- nendo da assolversi si restituisse, dovendo esser condennato si dessi a Borbone, et Pran- cia sarebbe contento far I'accordo a danari, cosa che non haveva voluto far fin qui, et la somnia nominava la medesima che'l christian- issimo haveva mandate a offerire cioe due millioni d'oro: le quali conditioni N. Sig""" accetto subito secondo che il generale ne puo far testimonio, et le sottoscrisse di sua mano, ma non furono gia approvate per gli altri, li quali V. S. sa quanto gravi et insoportabili petitioni gli aggiunsero. Mora non essendo da presumere se non che la M''^ Cesarea di- cesse da dovero et con quella sincerita che conviene a tanto prencipe, et vedendosi per queste propositioni et ambasciate sue cosi moderate animo et inolto benigno verso N. Sigre, in tanto che la M^^ sua non sapeva qual fussi quello di S^^ S'^^ in verso se et che si stimava I'armi sue essere cosi poteiitissime in Italia per li lanzichineche et per I'armata mandata che in ogni cosa havessi ceduto, non e da stimare se non che quando sara, informato die se la M^'^ sua mando a mostrar buon animo non fu trovato interiore quel di N. Sig'e, et che alle forze sue era tal resistentia che S* Santita piu tosto fece beneficio a S^ M^'^ in depor I'armi, che lo ricevessi, come ho detto di sopra et e chiarissimo, et che tutte la rovi- na seguita sta sopra la fede et nome di sua Mi^, nella quale N. Sig^e si e confiualo, vorra non solamente esser simile a se, quando an- dera sua sponte a desiderar bene, et offerirsi parato rilarne a N. Sig''e et alia chiesa, ma ancora aggiunger tanto piu a quella naturale disposition sua quanto ricerca il volere evitare questo carico et d'ignominioso, che (non) sarebbe per essere (dal) passarsene di leg- giero, voltarlo in gloria perpetua, facendola tanto piu chiara et stabile per se medesima quanto altri hanno cercato come suoi ministri deprimerla et oscurarla. Et gli effetti che bisognerebbe tar per questo tanto privatamente verso la chiesa et restauration sua quanto i beneficii che scancellassero le rovine in Italia et tutta la christianita, estimando piu essere imperatore per pacihcarla che qualsivoglia altro emolumento, sara molto facile a trovarli, purche la disposilione et giudicio di volere et conoscere il vero bene dove consiste vi sia. Per non entrare in le cause per le quali fummo costretti a pigliar I'armi, per essere cosa che ricercarebbe piu tempo, si verra solamente a dire che non le pigliammo mai per odio o mala volunta che havessimo contra i'lmperatore, o per ambitione di far piu grande lo stato nostro o d'alcuno de nostri, ma solo per necessita nella quale ci pareva che fusse posta la liberta et stato nostro et delli com- inuni stati d'ltalia, et per far constare a tutto il mondo el all' imperatore che se si cercava d'opprimerci, noi non potevama ne dovevamo PERIOD TO THE COUxNCIL OF TRENT. 417 comportarlo senza far ognisforzo di difenderci, in tanto che sua M''^, se haveva quell' animo del quale mai dubitavamo, intendosse che le cose non erano per riuscirli cosi facilmente come altri forse gli haveva dato ad intendere, overo se noi ci fussimo gabbati in questa oppi- nione che Si* M^'^ intendessi a farci male, et questi sospetti ci fusser nati piu per modi dei ministri che altro, facendosi S. M^^ Cesarea intendere esser cosi da dovero, si venisse a una buona pace et amicitia non solo tra noi particularmente et S. M'^, ma in compagnia degli altri prencipi o sig""' con li quali erava- mo colligati non per altro efFetto che sola- inente per difenderci dalla villania che ci fusse fatta o per venir con conditioni honeste et ragionevoli a mettere un' altra volta pace infra la misera christianita : et se quando Don Ugo venne S. M^^^ ci havesse mandato quelle resolution! le quali honestissimamente ci pa- revan necessarie per venir a questo, ci have- rebbe N. Sig''" Iddio fatto la piu felice gratia che si potessi pensare, che in un medesimo di quasi che si presero I'armi si sarebbon deposte. Et che sia vero quel che diciamo che habbiamo havuto sempre in animo, ne puo far testimo- nio la disporiitione in che ci trovo il generale di S. Francisco, con el quale communciando noi hora e un' anno, che era qui per andare in Spagna, le cause perche noi et gli altri d'ltalia havevamo da star mal contenti dell' imperatore, et dandogli carico che da nostra parte I'esponesse tutle a quella, con farli in- tendere che se voleva attendere ai consigli et preghiere nostre, le quali tutte tendevano a laude et servitio di dio et beneficio cosi suo come nostro, ci troverebbe sempre di quella amorevolezza che ci haveva provato per inan- zi, et essendosi di la alquanii mesi rimanda- toci il detto generale da S. M'^ con rispon- derci humanissimamente che era contenta, per usar delle sue parole, accettar per coman- damento quello che noi gli havevamo, man- dato a consigliare : et per dar certezza di cio, portava tra I'altre risolutioni d'esser coutento di render li figliuoli del christianissimo con quel riscatto et taglia che gli era stata offerta da S. M''^, cosa che sin qui non haveva voluto mai fare : oltre che prometteva che se tutta Italia per un mode di dire a quell' hora che'l generale arrivassi a Roma, fussi in suo potere, era contenta, per far buggiardo chi I'havesso voluto calunniare che la volessi occupare, di restituir tutto nel suo pristino state et mostrar che in essa ne per se ne per il ser"'° suo fra- tello non ci voleva un palmo di piu di quello che era solito di possidervi anticamenle la corona di Spagna : et perche le parole s'ac- compagnasser con i fatti, portava di cio am- plissuno mandato in sua persona da poter risolvo tutto o con Don Ugo o con el vicere, se al tempo che ci capitava, in Italia fussi arrivato. Quanto qui fussi il nostro contento, non si potrebbe esprimere, e ci pareva un' 53 hora mill' anni venire all' effetto di qualche sorte d'accordo generale di posar I'arme. Et sopragiungendo quasi in un medesimo tempo il vicere et mandandoci da San Steffano, dove prima prese porto in questo mare, per el co- mandante Pignalosa a dire le miglio parole del mondo et niente differenti da quanto ci haveva detto el generale, rendemmo gratie a iddio che il piacere che havevamo preso per I'ambasciata del generale non fusse per ha- vere dubbio alcuno, essendoci confermato il medesimo per il signor vicere, il quale in farci intendere le commissioni dell' impera- tore ci confortava in tutto, et pur ci mandava certificare che nessuno potrebbe trovarsi con migliore volunta di mettersi ad eseguirle. Hora qualmente ne succedesse il contrario, non bisogna durare molta fatica in dirlo, non essendo alcun che non sappia le durissime, insoportabili et ignominiose conditione che ne furono dimandate da parte del vicere, non ha- vendo noi posta dimora alcuna in mandarlo a pregare che non si tardasse a venire alia con- ditione di tanto bene. Et dove noi pensavamo ancora trovar meglio di quel che ne era stato detto, essendo I'usanzadi farsi sempre riservo delle migliori cose per farle gustare piu gra- tamente, non solo ci riusci di non trovare niente del proposto, ma tutto il contrario, et prima : non havere fede alcuna in noi, come se nessuno in verita possa produrre testimonio in contrario, et per sicurta domandarci la migliore et piu importante parte dello stato nostro et della S^^^ di Fiorenza, dipoi somma di denari insoportabile a chi havesse havuto i monti d'oro, non che a noi, che ogn'uno sapeva che non havevamo un carlino ; volere che con tanta ignominia nostra, anzi piu dell' impera- tore, restituissimo coloro che contra ogni debito humane et divino, con tanta tradizione, ven- nero ad assalire la persona di N. Signore, saccheggiare la chiesa di San Pietro, il sacro palazzo; stringerne senza un minimo rispetto a volere che ci obbligassimo strettamente di piu alia M^^ Cesarea, sapendo tutto il mondo quanto desiderio ne mostrammo nel tempo che eravamo nel piu florido stato che fussimo mai, et, per non dire tutti gli altri particular!, vo- lere che soli facessimo accordo, non lo potendo noi fare, se volevamo piu facilmente condurre a fine la pace universale per la quale voleva- mo dare questo principio. Et cosi non si po- tendo il vicere rimuoversi da queste sue dimande tanto insoportabili et venendo senza niuna causa ad invader lo stato nostro, haven- do noi in ogni tempo et quel pochi mesi inanzi lasciato stare quello dell' imperatore nel regno di Napoli, accadde la venuta di Cesare Fiera- mosca: il quale trovando il vicere gia nello stato della chiesa, credemmo che portasse tali commissioni da parte dell' imperatore a S. Sria che se si fossero eseguite, non si sareb- bero condotte le cose in questi termini. Et mentre S. S'^^ volse fare due cose assai con- 418 APPENDIX. trarie insieme, una mostrare di non haver fatto male ad esser venuto tanto inanzi overo non perdere le occasion! che gli pareva ha- vere di guadagnare il tutto, Taltra di obbedire alii comandamenti dell' imperatore, quali erano che in oa:ni inodo si tacesse accordo, non successe all' hora ne I'lino ne I'altro : — perche S. S^'a si trovo gabbata, che non po- tette fare quello che si pensava, et tornando il signor Cesare con patti di far tregua per otto di, fintanto che venisse risposta se la Sigria di Venetia vi voleva entrare, quando arrive in campo, trovo gli eserciti alle mani et non si ando per all' hora piu inanzi : salvo che non ostante questo siiccesso et conoscendo certo che stassimo sicurissimi in Lombardia et in Toscana per le buone provisioni et infinita gente di guerra che vi era di tutta la lega, et che le cose del reame non havessero rimedio alcuno come I'esperientia Thaveva comiuciato a dnnostrave, mai deponemmo dall' animo nostro il desiderio et procuratione delia pace. Et in esser successe le cose cosi bene verso noi, non havevamo altro contento se non poter mostrare che se desideravamo pace, era per vero giudicio et buona volunta nostra et non per necessita, et per mostrare all' imperatore che, Be comando con buono animo, come crediamo, al padre generale che ancorche tutto fusse preso a sua devotione si restituisse, che quel che ella si imaginava di fare quando il caso havesse portato di esserlo, noi essendo cosi in fatto lo volevamo eseguire. A questo nostro desiderio ci aggiunseroun ardore estremo piu lettere scritte di mano dell' imperatore, tra I'altre due che in ultimo havemmo da Cesare Fioramosca et da Paolo di Arezzo nostro ser- vitore, le quali sono di tal tenore che non ci pareria havere mai errato se in fede di quelle lettere sole non solo havessimo posto tutto il mondo ma I'anima propria hi manodi S. M^^: tanto ci scongiura che voglianio dar credito alle parole che ne dice, et tutte esse parole sono piene di quella satisfattione di quelle promesse et queli' ajuto che noi a noi non lo desideravamo migliore. Et come in trattare la pace, finche non eravamo sicuri che corris- pondenza s'era per havere, non si rimetteva niente delle provisioni della guerra, cosi ci sforzavamo chiarirci bene essendo due capi in Italia, Borbone et il signore vicere, s'era bi- sogno trattare con un solo et quello sarebbe rato per tutti, overo con tutti, due particular- mente : accioche se ci fusse avenuto quel che c, la colpa che c data d'altra sorte ad altri, non fusse stata a noi di poca prudentia ; et havendo trovato che questa faculta di contrat- tare era solo nel vicere, ce ne volemmo molto ben chiarire et non tanto che fussi cosi come in eft'etto il generale, il signor Cesare, il vicere proprio, Paulo d'Arezzo et Borbone ne dicevono, ma intender daJ detto Borbone non una volta ma inille et da diverse persone se I'era per obbedirlo, et proposto di voler fare accordo particularmente con lui et recusando et affermando, che a quanto appuntarebbe el vicere non farebbe replica alcuna. Hora fu facil cosa et sara sempre ad ogn'uno adom- brar con specie di virtii un suo disegno, et non lo potendo condurre virtuosamente ne all' aperta, tirarlo con fallacia, come — venghi donde si voglia, ci par esser a termine che non sappiamo indovinar donde procedeva — ci par che si sia state fatto a noi, li quali si vede che tutte le diligentie che si possono usare di non esser gabbati, sono state usate per noi, et tanto che qualche volta ci pareva d' esser superstitiosi et di meritarne reprehensione : perche haven- do el testimonio, et di lettere et di bocca dell' imperatore, del buon animo sue et che Borbone obbedirebbe al vicere, et a cautela dando S. M^^ lettere nuove a Paulo sopra questa obbe* dientia al vicere dirette a esso Borbone, et facendosi el trattato con el poter si ampio di S. JVP*^ che doveva bastare, et havendo Bor- bone mostrato di remettersi in tutto nel vicere, et contentandosi poi esso di venire in poter nostro, fu una facilta tanto grande a tirarci alio stato ove siamo che non sappiamo gia che modo si potra piu trovare al mondo di credere alia semplice fede d'un private gentil huome, essendovi qui intervenute molte cose e riuscito a questo modo. Et per non cercare altro che fare i fatti proprii, era molto piu lecito et facile a noi, senza incorrer non solo in infamia di non servator di fede ma ne anche d'altro, usar dell' occasione che la fortuna ci haveva portato di starsi sicurissimo in Lombardia come si stava che mai veniva Borbone inanzi, se I'esercito della lega non si fusse raffreddato per la stretta prattica anzi conclusion della pace, et valuto di quella commodita seguitar la guerra del reame et da due o tre fortezze in poi levarlo tutto, e di poi andare appresso in altri luoghi, dove si fosse potuto far danno et vergogna all' imperatore, et stando noi saldi in campagnia dei confederati rendre tutti li disegni suoi piu difficili. Ma parendoci che el servitie di die et la niLsera christianita ricercasse pace, ci proponemmo a deporre ogni grande acquisto o vittoria che fussimo stati per havere, et offen- der tutti li prencipi christiani et Italiani, senza saper quodammodo che haver in mano, ma assai pensavamo d'havere se I'animo dell' im- peratore era tale come S. M^'^ con tante evi- dentie si stbrzava darci ad intendere. Et molto poco stimavamo I'oflfensione degli altri pren- cipi christiani, li quali di li a molto poco ci sarebber restati molto obligati se si fusse seg- uito quello che tanto amplamente S. M'-^ ci ha con argument! replicate, che sarebbe, accor- dandosi noi sece, per rimettere in nostra mano la conclusion della pace etassenso con 1! pren- cipi christiani. Et se alcuno volesse pensare che fussimo andati con altro objetto, cestui conoscendoci non puo piu mostrare in cosa al- cuna malignita sua: non ci conoscendo et facendo diligentia di sapere le attioni della vita PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 419 nostra, Iroverii che e molto consentiente che noi non habbiamo iriai desiderato se non bene et operate virtuosamente et a quel fine post- posto onrni altro interesse. Et se hora ce n'e successo male, ricevendo di mano di N. Sign's Dio quanto g'iiistamente gVi place con og'ni hu- milta, non e che dagli huomini non riceviamo gfrandissimo torto et da quelli massime che, se ben fino a un certo termine posson coprirsi con la forza et con la disobbedienza d' altri — benche qiiando s'havesse a disciitere, si trova- rebbe da dire assai — liora et un pezzo fa et per honor loro et per quel che sono obbligati secondo dio et secondo il mondo si potrebber portare altrimenti di quel che fanno. Noi siamo en- trati nel trattato poi fatto a Fiorenza con quelli di Borbone per mano del sign's vicere et dipoi non osservato, perche non vogliamo parer d'haver tolto assuntodi fare il male contra chi e stato causa di trattarci cosi, li quali dio giu- dichi con el suo giusto giudicio ; doppo la mi- sericordia del quale verso di noi et della sua chiesa non superiamo in altro che nella reli- gione, fede et viru dell' imperatore, che essen- doci noi condotti dove siamo per I'opinione che havevamo di esso, con el frutto che s'aspetta a tal parte ci ritragga et ponga tanto piu alto quanto siamo in basso. Dalla cui M^'^ aspet- tiamo della ignominia et danni patiti infinita- mente quella satisfattione che S. M"-^ ci puo dare eguale alia grandezza sua et al debito, se alcuna se ne potesse mai trovare al mondo che bastasse alia minima parte. Non entraremo esprimendo i particolari a torre la gratia dei concetti, che doviam sperare che havra et che ci mandera a proporre : diciamo che metten- doci al piu basso grade di quel che si possi domandare et che e per esser piu presto ver- gogna a S. M^^ a non conceder piuet a noi a non domandare che parer duro a farlo, che da S. M'^ dovrebber venire queste provision! : " Che la persona nostra, el sacro colleggio et la cort,e dello stale tutto temporale et spiri- tuale siamo restituiti in quel grade ch'era quando furon fatte I'indutie col sig^ vicere, et non ci gravare a pagare un denaro dell' obbli- gato. " Et se alcuno sentendo questo si burlera di noi, rispondiarao che se le cose di sopra son vere, et si maraviglia che ci acquietiamo di questo, ha gran raggione ; ma se gli paresse da dovero strano, consideri con che bonta lo giudica o verso Cesare o verso noi : se verso Cesare, consideri bene che ogni volta che non si promette di S. M^^ e questo e molto piu, che lo fa gia partecipe di tutto quel male che qui e passato : ma se verso noi, diciamo che iniquamente ci vuole detrarre quelle che nessune mai ardirebbe di far buonarnente. Ne si deve guardare che siamo qui, ma si bene come ci siamo, et che e pur meglio far con virtii et giudicio quelle che finalmente el tempo in ogni modo ha da portare, se non in vita nostra, in quella d'altri." [Most illustrious and most reverend signor, Seeing the difficulty of the province which has fallen to your lot., the vastnessef which is well known to you, and considering the utmost extreme of misery in which we stand, I think it cannot but prove seme alleviation of the former, to possess whatever information can be afibrded respecting all the transactions that have passed between our lord the pope and his imperial majesty ; and of the latter to know that you, most reverend sir, are about to visit a monarch en whom his holiness and his house have more claims of gratitude than any other house that can be named, whether of past or present times : and if some cause of ottence has arisen within this last year, it has not sprung either from any falling ofi' on the part of his holiness from his accustomed good- will and love towards his imperial majesty, or from any special designs for the aggrandize- ment of his own retainers or ethers, or with a view to impair the reputation or the power and dignity of his imperial majesty ; but solely from the necessity of not submitting to be oppressed by those in power and authority in Italy, and from the manifold proofs his holiness had acquired, through nuncios, letters, envoys, and legates, that no remedy could possibly be found. [From the time when his holiness first began to be able to serve the crown of Spain and his imperial majesty's house, which was from the beginning of the pontificate of his brother Leo of holy memory, — his great influence with whom every one knows, and his imperial ma- jesty has proved by experience, — his holiness was always so zealously subservient to the Spanish and imperial interests, that no one advantage, favour, or gratification can be named, which those interests ever enjoyed at the hands of Leo of holy memory, or of the church, wherein our lord the pope, being in minoribus, was not, I will not say merely not adverse or consenting, but even the origina- tor, the director, and manager of the whole. And to mention only those things which are of superior importance : — the league which was effected in the second and third years of the reign of Lee of holy memory, to oppose the first descent made by the most Christian king of France, passed entirely through the hands of his holiness, who went in person, as legate, and met the other parties. Measures after this turning out differently from what had been expected, and pope Leo being compelled to make what terms he could with the most Christian king, cardinal de Medici took that care to keep the pope in the interest of Spain, to which all who were present at the time can bear testimony ; and he exerted all the weight he possessed with the pope his brother, to the end that the most Christian king's wish and extreme desire to follow up his victory, and to enter the kingdom with so great an army, and 420 APPENDIX. under such favourable auspices, should be bridled now by one excuse, now by another : whereof one was, that the Catholic king- being old, and by reason of his ill iiealth now near the close of his years, his majesty should wait the opportunity of his death, at which time the enterprise would succeed without any diffi- culty. And the death of the Catholic king- taking place very speedily after these sug-ges- tions, — within less than a month I believe, — what skill and pains were necessary to repress the great ardour with which the event inspir- ed the most Christian king, would be testified by the letters written by his majesty's own hand, if the soldiers, who have pillaged with other things all the pope's papers, would either return tliem or send them to the emperor. And all these things, with many others, which all tended to put on a quiet and stable basis the hereditary succession of the individual now emperor, and to secure him the magistracies of Spain, even in the lifetime of his grand- father,— all these cardinal de Medici did, not for any private advantage of his own, but even in direct opposition to his own interests ; he not having any income of consequence save what he derived from the realm of France, and never seeking any equivalent in that of of Spain. [The emperor Maximilian died, and Leo being inclhied to favour the pretensions of the most Christian king to the imperial dignity, and being hostile to those of his present impe- rial majesty, before the election took place cardinal de Medici induced the pope not to oppose the present emperor; and after the election was over he prevailed on him to sanc- tion it, and to absolve the emperor from simony and from perjury, in so far as being king of Naples he could not, in accordance with the papal constitutions, seek to become emperor ; and he made the pope re-invest his imperial majesty in the kingdom of Naples. In all this — if the great affection entertained by the cardinal de Medici, and the opinion he had conceived of the goodness, prudence, and piety of his majesty, did not excuse him,— I know not which was the greater, the service he may openly declare himself to have most largely rendered to his imperial majesty, or the ill service done to his own brother, that is, to the pope and the church, in thus favouring and fostering a power so great, and one which gave reason to apprehend that one day the swollen river migiit burst forth with such a torrent of devastation and outrage as hath now occurred But the cardinal seeing those two powers of Spain and France divided in such sort, that un- less the one were equipoised against the other, peace was hardly to be e-xpeetcd, his first care was so to strengthen the hands of the king of Spain, that being on an equality with the most Christian king, he should scruple to engage in war ; and that if unfortunately that event could not be prevented, from the prevalence of a desire to make the king of Spain superior to the most Christian, Spain should be so firm and vigorous, that, in case of attack, it might hope for a prosperous result and certain vic- tory. And this at least — if perad venture the matters above-named demand more palpa- ble evidence — this at least he proved other- wise than by mere words. Bear witness the league concluded with the emperor against France, whilst so different were the advan- tages offered by the respective sides, that not only Leo ought not to have allied himself with the emperor, being free to choose the side most for his own interest, but even had he been allied with him he should have used every effort to break off" the connexion. And to show briefly that all things were actually as I have stated, at tlie time Leo concluded his alliance with the emperor, the latter was destitute of all influence, force, friends, and reputation : he had wholly lost the allegiance of Spain through the rebellion of all the pro- vinces : he had retired from the diet held by his majesty in Worms, disappointed of all his hopes of aid and service from the same :* war had already broken out in his dominions in two quarters, — in Flanders through Robert de la Marc, and in Navarre, which kingdom was already wholly lost and reduced under the sway of the king favoured by the French :-|- the Swiss had shortly before entered into a fresh alliance with the most Christian king, and bound themselves by a new stipulation to the defence of Milan, which was in the king's possession, — a thing they had never before consented to do : and the most serene king of England, on whom the emperor counted, per- haps in consideration of the relationship be- tween them and the national enmity of Eng- land to France, showed a disposition to look on inactively ; and so he actually did, not stir- ring to afford the slightest assistance to the emperor, however pressing his need, and how- ever urgent his entreaties, till after the death of Leo. The most Christian king, on the other hand, in addition to his vast united resources, his prompt union with the most illustrious signory, and his new alliance with the Swiss, was the more powerful in proportion as his strength was absolutely and relatively aug- mented by the numerous and infinite perplexi- ties in which, I repeat, the emperor was invol- ved. The hopes and promises of advantage, and reward from the success of the respective sides were very different : the most Christian king was willing at once to bestow Ferrara on the church before his majesty engaged in * Manifestly incorrect. Succour was voted the empo- ror at Worms to the extent of 20,000 infantry and 4000 cavalry. f A chronological error. The treaty with the emperor was ratified on'the Sth of May : Du Mont, IV. iii. 07. Il was not till the 20th the French arrived at Fampeluna: Garebay, xxx. 523. PERIOD TO THE COUIVCIL OF TRENT. 421 any other enterprize; and on arcquirinq- tlie kingdom of Naples his most Christian ma jesty (not going into particulars) offered such ad- vantat^es to the church in every respect, that it could not have been more to its profit and security, had the whole kingdon been given up to it ; whereas, on the other side, there was nothing except a proposal to place Milan in Italian hands, and to recover Parma and Piacenza to the church :* yet, notwithstand- ing all this — notwithstanding the facility of the enterprize on the one hand, and on the other the very disproportionate danger, and the vast disparity of the gains to be derived from either side, — so much did the wishes of cardinal de Medici avail with tiie pope, and so much was the latter convinced of the goodness and piety of his imperial majesty, that when it was suggested that somewhere or other visible evidence should be given of the truth of those fond fancies, he would not listen to any counsel, or go into any inquiry, but cast himself with might and main into that cause from which he hoped to derive more fruits of holy Christian spirit than from any rewards of a temporal nature that might have accrued to him by other means. And who is there but has seen and knows it to be true, that when things at first turned out con- trary to expectation, and when the money advanced by his imperial majesty as his first contribution was spent, and the prospect of procuring more looked ill, Leo of holy mem- ory on his part, and the cardinal de Medici still more on his, failed not to come forward with the means of his country, and of all his friends and dependants, and finally with his own person, of which he knew the importance and the effect it produced ] [At this juncture pope Leo died ; and though the cardinal found all the world his enemy, because all those he had offended on the French side were arrayed against his tempo- ral and spiritual fortune and dignity ; while on the imperial side none would help him, and some were against him, as you, most reverend sir, and every one well know : nev- ertheless, neither the danger, nor the great offers of the one party, nor the ingratitude or scorns of the other, ever availed to move him a jot from his determination, which he thought should be his guide, as the mind of the em- peror and the opinion conceived of his char- acter had been his mark and object : and as he could not imagine that the character im- puted to his imperial majesty was the creation of his own mind, and the short time did not enable him to take up such a suspicion, he was ready to endure every thing rather than change his conduct in the least degree. Ac- * Totally incorrect. The I3th article of tlie treaty en- gages the emperor to aid against Ferrara : " Promiltit Cesa M'ls omnem vim, omnem potentiani, ut ea (Ferraria) apo- atolicae sedi recuperetur." cordingly, just as though matters had been the reverse of what they were, there was no- thing to which he more sedulously applied himself than to the election of a pope equally desirable for his majesty and for the church : and every one knows that the opinion amount- ed to all but certainty that it would be almost the same thing whether Adrian or the empe- ror himself were made pope, and equally noto- rious is it that no one had a greater share in originating and carrying through this election than had cardinal de Medici. [Now was the time for cardinal de Medici to make trial whether the judgment he had formed of his imperial majesty turned out to be well founded ; because up to that time, shaded by the patronage of Leo of holy mem- ory, he had not been exposed to feel the dif- ference of fortune, and being wholly engrossed with his desire to serve his majesty, he had never thought of diverting his attention to his own or his friends' interests, nor was he so covetous or so importunate as to think of rewards corresponding to his merits. Thus he must be admitted to have rendered his ser- vices in a perfect spirit, and to have well de- served, since he had no mercenary object in view, and relied wholly and solely on the em- peror's discretion and liberality. It is true that, whereas two years before, almost before his majesty had any idea of the possibility of his receiving such essential services from the house of Medici, his majesty had promised in writing, under his own hand and in other ways, in reply to various solicitations, an estate in the kingdom of Naples of six thousand scudi, and a wife with a dowry of ten thou- sand scudi for one of the nephews of pope Leo and of the cardinal; and they never caring to enter into possession of the former, or to effect the latter, thinking themselves fully secured by his majesty's promise they held in their hands when pope Leo died, (and save which promise, no token of advantage remained to the house of Medici to remind it that it had so long had a pope among its members,) the car- dinal did then, on sending to present his re- spects to the emperor and to give an account of himself to his imperial majesty, give direc- tions for the carrying out of this matter, and for the ratification of the said grants and privi- leges. But the event turned out far differ- ently, not only from our own* expectation, but from that of every one else : for, instead of its appearing that thought was given to new rewards whereby might be evinced a sense of the services rendered his majesty, and the house of Medici might have the con- solation of seeing that it had not lost much by the death of pope Leo, such difficulties were thrown in the way, as though the mat- ♦ [The writer here slides into the uBe of the iirst per- son.— Translator.] 422 APPENDIX. ter in hand were not the fulfilment of an en- gagement already fixed, and one very inade- quate to repay the services for which it was contracted. Disputes were raised, just as if the house of Medici were a hostile one, and objections thrown out that even in that case would have been unjustifiable, because plight- ed faith and a promise once made must be kept under all circumstances. Replies, how- ever, were made, and the injustice done was pointed out in such sort, that, instead of a hope being encouraged of having more, or at least the whole, of what was promised, — namely, the value of sixteen thousand scudi (six from his majesty, and ten by way of dow- er), the thing dwindled down to three thou- sand. Upon cardinal de Medici being at that time fully informed of the whole matter, had he not been moved by his devotion to his ma- jesty to persevere, not in accordance with the above treatment, but as though he had been remunerated to satiety, it might be said that he had been forced to do so, the emperor's power being so absolute that he could not do otherwise, or because of his (the cardinal's) lack of interest with other potentates, or be- cause of some pressing necessity of his own which made him more ready to lend his aid to the emperor than to others. But whoever will call to mind the then existing state of things, which is easy enough, they being fresh in memory, will admit that the imperial army and cause in Italy were in extreme peril, by reason of the accession of strength the French arms had received through their alliance with the most illustrious signory ; and furthermore, that there was no one in Italy more capable, by his position, friends, relations, dependents, money, and men, than was cardinal de Medici, to incline the victory to whichever side he pleased. Stedfast as was the cardinal in his attachment to the em- peror's cause, not only could he not hope for aid from the imperialists, in case his downfall was sought, but the latter would even have prospered badly had they not received from the cardinal every possible aid, both towards obtaining and towards maintaining the victo- ry, he having stripped himself and his coun- try bare to pay a large levy, to enable the army to subsist and hold together.* Whilst reckoning up all the benefits and infinite meritorious services rendered by the cardinal de Medici and his house, I would fain name every kindly demonstration, every show of gratitude, evinced in return by his imperial majesty. This I would do both for the sake of truth and by way of excusing such perse- vering devotion to his majesty never inter- rupted by any accident, and defendino- it * rXhe style of the original, which is involvod and perplexed throughout. Is here particularly un'Tainmaii- cal and obscure. The above is the beat ^(te.s-.s the irans- Ulor can make at the writer's meaning.— Translator ] against the objections of such as might be inclined to regard it rather as obstinacy than as the result of sound judgment. But there being nothing of the kind, I cannot alter the fact, and have nothing to say, except that, in in exchange for twenty-two thousand scudi yearly income lost in France, his majesty ap- pointed the cardinal a pension from Toledo of ten thousand scudi, part of which is still unpaid. It is true that, in all the letters his majesty wrote to his ministers, and ambassa- dors, and captains in Italy, he made honoura- ble mention of the cardinal, and enjoined them to correspond wilh him and hold him in great esteem, to the extent of assuring him, that if God should dispose of Adrian of holy memory, they would not think of having any one but himself for pope. Hence it came to pass that, in their affairs of business, they all applied to Florence and reported their proceedings : and when questions of money or of other assist- ance were to be solved, there was no one to whom they addressed themselves with more confidence than to the cardinal, strongly sup- porting him against the ill-will of pope Adrian, which he had conceived on account of inju- rious information he had got from Volterra respecting the said cardinal. With regard to these transactions, without prejudice to the good intentions the emperor may have enter- tained towards the cardinal, I must say that the emperor acted with consummate prudence in wishing to uphold a person of so much weight in Italy, one who, little as had been the gratitude shown him, had never swerved a jot from his wonted course. Neither was it possible, whether as regarded this or the other states, that any change in the existing order of things should have permitted his majesty to reap such manifest advantages as accrued to him in consequence of the firm and secure position of cardinal de Medici in Florence. [Adrian being dead, the cardinal was cre- ated pope. And here, though the ministers and other dependents of the emperor had strict orders given them, some acted according to their own pleasure, and some, who consented at last to support him, protested in the very first instance that they would by no means have his holiness attribute what they did to the emperor's injunctions, but simply to their own private feelings. Nevertheless, on be- coming pope, his holiness still continued to be cardinal de Medici, as far as such an union of characters was suited to the dignity to which God had raised him. And if, in weigh- ing these two claims, — that of his duty as pope, and that of his affection to the emperor, — his holiness had not suffered the latter to preponderate, perhaps the world would several years ago have been at peace, and we should not to-day be labouring under our present calamities. For, there being at the tune his PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 423 holiness was made pope two strong armies in Lombardy, — that of the emperor and that of the most Christian king, — and the former labouring under numerous difficulties, and being unable to keep his ground, had it not been for the aid of our lord the pope, who recruited it with Roman and Florentine troops, granted it tithes from the kingdom which realized eighty thousand scudi, and caused contributions to be made to it from Florence, besides money and infinite other aids afforded it by his holiness individually; but for this, I say, perhaps the war would have had a different, a more moderate issue, and there would have been reason, perhaps, to look for an end of troubles, and not for a beginning of fresh and greater tribulations. And his holiness moreover * added those new demonstrations, without which the emperor could not have conquered, because — a point I forgot to state — without them the signory could never have combined its army : but not only was no regard paid to the advice he gave against passmg with the army into France, but in many occurrences it began to appear that little account was made of his holiness, and Ferrara began to be favoured to his prejudice, and instead of praise and grati- tude for what he had done for them, they be- gan to complain of every thing that had not been done according to their wishes, not con- sidering that every thing performed by him had proceeded from sheer good-will, and not from any obligation ; and furtherfore, that even if his obligations to the cause had been infinite, much greater ought that to have been by which his holiness was bound to do his duty to God than to the emperor. [The issue of the French war showed whether or not his holiness had given good advice. For his most Christian majesty com- ing down on the imperial army, which lay at Marseilles, compelled it to retreat, and pur- sued it with such speed that it had entered Milan quite unexpectedly ; and such was the terror of the viceroy on that day, as reported by his holiness's ministers at his excellency's court, that there were no terms he would not have accepted from the king, and with rea- son, seeing that he was utterly undone if chance had not favoured him, by inducing his most Christian majesty to go to Pavia and not to Lodi, where it was not possible to keep his ground with the forces collected there. Such was the existing aspect of things ; and as much worse apparently, as imagination al- ways makes sudden contingencies appear, and his holiness was on the worst terms with his most Christian majesty, and had little to hope but ill of his majesty, and to be infinite- * [The translator has here omitted a lino or two of the original, from which he despaired of extracting any intel- ligible meaning.] ly hated by him, his holiness having conduct- ed himself in the way I shall hereafter state with as much truth as I should be bound to observe under any circumstances that miffht more cogently demand it of me than those in which 1 consider myself at present. [When our lord the pope was elected the most Christian king immediately set to' sup- plicate his holiness, that as God had placed him in a position above all, so in like manner he should place himself above himself, and conquer the passions that might lurk in 'him whether of too great affection towards the emperor, or of too great aversion to him, the king: adding, that he would hold himself deeply bound to God and his holiness if he treated all parties alike, interposino- to do good, but not interfering to favour one party agamst another. If, however, his holiness's intentions or purposes should make him feel the necessity of a special support in some prince, where could his holiness find a better than in him, who by nature, and as a son of the church and not its rival, desired, and was wont to labour for its aggrandizement, not its diminution ! and then, as regarded proofs of good-vyill between man and man, he would make him such conditions as would convince his hohness that he had gained much more by making known his worth in acting offensively and injuriously towards him, the king, than in aiding and favouring the emperor. [Our lord the pope adopted the first propo- sal, namely, that he should deal lovingly with all : and though the result rested rather with the emperor, he did so with alacrity, and with the confident hope that his imperial majesty would so ;readily yield to his guidance, that his holiness should not have so much to de- precate what offended his most Christian ma- jesty, as he should be gratified by facilitating and aidmg the arrangements to be adopted in adjusting a peace. But things turning out otherwise, and the king resolving to enter Ita y whilst the imperial army was in Mar- seilles, he sent from Aix I think,— a courier with carte blanche to our lord, through the medium of signer Alberto da Carpi, with fa- vourable stipulations, most ample terms, and a display of his intentions, such as he might certainly have sent to the emperor himself: for except that he claimed Milan, in all other matters he was content to defer absolutely to he decision of his holiness. Notwithstanding his, his hohness would not make up his mind till he had not once, but twice, had certain intelligence of the capture of Milan, and re- ceived letters from his agent that all was ir- retrievable, and that the viceroy did not think otherwise. Let any friend, or servant, or brother, or father, or the emperor himself, tancy himself m this situation, and see in this emergency, and again in the following one, what he could have done for the emperor's 424 APPENDIX. benefit that the pope did not do much better. The pope having gotten into his hands the means of stopping the war in the Icingdom of Naples, and infinite other advantages public and private, was not bound to any thing else in favour of his most Christian majesty except to acquire what the imperial army already gave up for lost, and to hinder him from going forth to seize the kingdom of Naples, — an at- tempt whicli seemed to threaten no great dif- ficulty. And whoever has a mind to vaunt upon the strength of the events that turned out otherwise, ought to thank God, who de- termined it so miraculously and of his own good pleasure, and should attribute nothing therein to himself, and own that the pope made that capitulation to preserve himself and the emperor, and not with a bad intention. For the king, unluckily for him, finding the enterprise prove difficult, because he had not set about it as he ought, the pope left him a couple of months at Pavia without a breath in favour of his cause ; and though this was no small benefit conferred on the Spaniards, he failed not to do more for them, giving them all the assistance they could ask from his territories, and not failing by his interpo- sition to effect concord between them as far as possible ; but disorder prevailing, and the king pressing to have our lord declare in his favour, so as to facilitate his conquest of Mi- lan, and urging likewise that the Florentines should do the same, as they were bound equally with the pope, his holiness laboured to avoid having to declare himself, or to give him any aid, save only allowing passage through his dominions, and provisions for a part of the army which his majesty wished to send into the kingdom to cause a diversion, and thereby more easily reduce the imperial- ists to come to terms. Oh ! but this was a mighty service rendered to the French ! — yielding to them what they were able to ex- tort if refused them, the pope being disarmed, and the notion appearing altogether too ab- surd, that, having made a league with his most Christian majesty, and having been un- willing to serve him in any thing else, he should deny him that which he could not withhold, and the publication of a feigned concord like that then promulgated by giving a little provision to his majesty, and contriv- ing tliat he should endure with less ill-will that his holiness did not observe the capitula- tion to the very letter. And, to say the truth, his most Christian majesty was rather preju- diced than served by this partition of his ar- my; for the forces were so delayed in Siena and in the Roman territory, that the imperi- alists had time in Lombardy to achieve the victory of Pavia. This being obtained, what reason was there why the emperor, or his agents, or any one in the world, of whatever party, should entertain angry feelings against his holiness, or should think of any thing but to do him service or pleasure, even though he were not moved thereto by motives of reli- gion and by the example of other monarchs, who not only never offended popes who re- mained neutral, but even when they were victorious over the party to which the church had adhered, always treated Ihe pope with the utmost submissivene.«!s and reverence, and closed their victories with intreating his par- don, honouring and serving him '] Let us put religion for the present out of the question, and suppose the pope and the church trans- ported to Muscovy, and then tell me. What right canst thou possibly have to make any charge against a person or a state that usurps nothing, to which thou hast a reasonable claim J But the case is still stronger, when it is remembered that for a long series of years favour, aid, and means, particularly personal, were afforded, whereby such great victories were obtained. And if the pope did then adhere to the king, he did so at a time when, not being able to help himself or others, it seemed to him that he had a divine oppor- tunity to produce that same effect through the instrumentality of the enemy ; for he gave him nothing but what the enemy's own strength or the emperor's weakness secured him ; and he managed so, that when the ca- reer of victory was closed for the Fi'ench, it would appear that he had rather retarded it than helped it forward. What unheard-of inhumanity was it, not to use a harsher ex- pression, just as if none of these reasons ex- isted, or as if they had been quite the reverse, immediately after the victory of Pavia and the capture of the king, to make overtures of peace to the other states that might justly be supposed to have offended, and suddenly to declare war upon the church and the person of the pope, and to send an army against him ! Either the imperialists had seen the articles of the league with his most Christian majesty, or they had not seen them. Sup- posing them to have seen them, as we are certain they did, since all his majesty's pa- pers fell into their hands, tht^ ought to pro- duce them, and by pointing out what there was in them to take offence at, either with regard to the time when they were conclud- ed, or to any particulars prejudicial to his im- perial majesty, make them serve in justifica- tion of their own allegations, if indeed they furnished any sufficient justification. Sup- posing them not to have seen them, why act so iniquitously against ....'? But having neither discovered any thing of the kind in written documents, nor experienced it in fact, they had no cause of offence. It was not for want of spirit, or for want of power, that our lord tlie pope forbore ; for that he possesses both, they had long experienced to their own benefit, and age could not have deprived him PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 425 in any respect of the former, and his dignity had given him a considerable increase of the latter. Nor yet was it because his holiness had intercepted some letters of those gentle- men, wherein it seemed that they were puff- ed up, and waited opportunity to revenge themselves for the injury they had not received from his holiness : but it was, without the slightest reference to all these things, solely in consideration of the justice, the duty, and the good disposition of his imperial majesty; without whose participation it was never sup- posed that any thing could be attempted, and of whom his holiness could never persuade himself that his majesty would sanction what was done. But every thing turned out quite the reverse ; for suddenly, without the least delay, the army was marched into the domin- ions of the church, and his holiness was con- strained to buy off the vexation with a sum of 100,000 scudi, and to make a league with them. Upon the said league being reported in Spain, the proof his majesty gave of his disapprobation of these proceedings was his declaration, that if there was contained in the league any thing favourable to our lord and the church, he would not ratify it, notwith- standing that all that had passed in Italy had been done with his majesty's full and express commands ; and among the clauses were the restoration of the proceeds of Milan, which had been taken from the church, and the res- titution of Reggio, of which he would not hear at all. Our lord having found himself so often deceived, and having ever hoped, in spite of appearances, that matters would turn out better on the emperor's part, whereas the contrary had invariably been the case, at length began, with so many evident proofs before him, to hearken to those who had al- ways persisted in affirming that his imperial majesty aimed at the oppression of all Italy, and at making himself absolute master of the country : and indeed it appeared strange to his holiness, that without such an object, his majesty should govern by himself and by his officers in the manner he did. Entertaining this suspicion, and discontented at seeing that no faith or promise was kept with him, it seemed to the pope very proper that he should unite in friendship and in proceedings with those who had a common cause with his holi- ness, and who would have to find means of defending themselves against such violence as was practised. And it being suggested, among other things, that the emperor pur- posed to depose the duke of Milan, and to make himself master of that state, and nu- merous indications fully establishing the truth of this surmise, it was thought that not a mo- ment should be lost in anticipating the de- signs against us, and retorting them on their devisers ; nor could his holiness refuse to fol- low the course adopted by those whose cause, 54 as I said, was identified with his own. Hence it followed, that when France, Venice, and the rest of Italy, proposed to combine tor the relief of the states, and for the common weal, the pope expressed his intention of not being behindhand with the rest. And he candidly confesses, that when it was made known to him, in the name and on the part of the mar- quis of Pescara, that he offered, as malcon- tent with the emperor and as an Italian, to take part in the combination when matters were ripe for action, not only did his holiness not refuse the offer, but hoping actually to possess his aid, he would have given him eve- ry encouragement ; for being driven to fear for his own state and well-being, he thought he ought not to reject any means of safety that fell in his way. Pescara is now dead, and God knows the truth and with what in- tentions he conducted himself in this matter. Thus much, at all events, is certain, that such a proposition was sent in his name to his ho- liness ; and when his holiness sent to question him on the subject, so far from denying it, he personally confirmed what had been stated by others in his name. And though such pro- ceedings took place, God knows that his holi- ness was led into them more by necessity than by choice; testimony whereof will be found in many letters written at the time to his holiness's nuncio at the imperial court, di- recting that his majesty's attention should be drawn to the ruinously bad system he was pur- suing, and that he should be intreated for the love of God to adopt a different course ; foras- much as it was not possible that Italy, though won, should be retained otherwise than by love, and by a certain system which should serve to satisfy the general mind. But all being of no avail, and his majesty putting an end to all doubts that had subsisted as to his intentions to seize on the state of Milan, under cover of the name of Girolamo Morone, and upon the pretext that the duke had been disposed to re- bel against his imperial majesty, still the pope persisted in trying fair means, and was ready to meet the emperor's wishes if the emperor would not meet his; if so, the duke might be left in possession of Milan, that having been the cause of all the wars in Italy. So little was the pope's success on this score, that on this desire of his being communicated to the emperor, at the time his imperial majesty was disposed to come to terms with the most Chris- tian king, he refused to comply with it. And whereas if his imperial majesty had first agreed with the pope, he might have acquired more advantage, and afterwards established a more sokd treaty with the most Christian king, his refusal to agree with his holiness served but to make all his arrangements with the king the more futile;* inasmuch as the * [See the Italian supra. I have not adopted Ranke's(?) suggealion of interpolating the word " comodo," ihinJi- 426 APPENDIX, king, not being inclined to observe them, would find himself linked with discontented associates, and would make the less account of his imperial majesty. It is impossible to conceive whence sprang so great an aversion on the emperor's part to embrace the pope : he had never yet, in fact, received any offence from his holiness, who had sent his nephew as legate to do him honour, and to treat of these matters, so that he might know how much the pope had them at heart; and who had sought to gratify him in every way,— among others, in granting the matrimonial dispensation, which, as every one knows, was of import- ance towards drawing closer the bonds of friendship and good intelligence between the two kingdoms, and, at any rate, as a means of procuring the emperor money by way of dowry, and the succession to the crown.* Nevertheless, his imperial majesty, totally unmoved by these considerations, forced his holiness to give himself up to those who sought his alliance. And now, when the pope entered into a league with the most Christian king, and with the other princes and potentates, for the common defence, and prin- cipally to effect an universal peace, the em- peror, on learning it, was then willing to unite with the pope, and sent to offer him, through Signor Don Ugo di Moncada, not only what his holiness had urgently demanded and intreated, but even what he had never hoped he could possibly obtain. And if his majesty will urge in his own defence, or in aspersion of his holiness, that when the offer was made to the latter through Signor Don Ugo as afore- said, he would not accept it, let him not lay the blame on his holiness, who, while it was in his own power, offered to content himself with little enough; but let him blame the want of judgment of those who, when the op- portunity is in their hand, will not consent to one, and come forward to bid a hundred out of season. The pope was perfectly justified in acting thus at a tmie when his majesty re- fused to enter into a league upon honourable conditions, and when the enterprises in hand were turning out in such a manner that there seemed hardly a possibility of not arriving at the common object. Now if any one suppose that the enterprise against the kingdom was not likely to prove easy, the contrary will ap- pear from the issue of Frusolone, and from the conquest of so many territories, especially when it is considered that his holiness could have sent the same forces thither in the be- ginning, whilst they were not in a condition in the kingdom suddenly to make such great preparations as they hardly obtained in many ing the passage makes belter sense without it. — Translator.] • We see thai the lai se of Portugal to the crown of Spain was thought of in 1525. months with waiting aid from Spain. And whilst his holiness failed not even in hostility to be a friend, and to be willing to act rather as a father, threatening rather than hurting, and proceeding with all sincerity, and not failing to descend even to terms below his dig- nity, in entering into arrangements with the Colonnas, his own subjects, so that he might remove every ground of suspicion, and never thrust the steel so far forward that he could not on drawing it back easily heal the wound ; even then that treason was devised against his holiness, which is known to every one, and the unutterable guilt of which silence can best express, wherein it is true that if his majesty was not acting and consenting, at least he showed no great displeasure at it; for it seemed that the armament and all the prepara- tions the emperor could ever make had no other object than to take vengeance for the justice the pope had inflicted on the Colonnas, by ruining four of their castles. I will not dispute about the truce made this September in the castle by Signor Don Ugo, or inquire whether it was observed or not; but the ab- solution of the Colonnas did not so tie up the pope's hands that he could not and ought not to punish them, they being his own subjects. And if there had been any possibility of re- lying on the observance of the truce between our lord and the emperor, it would have been observed on our lord's part, though he was never the first to break it: but as it was not observed either here or in Lombard)^ from whence, whilst the truce was still unexpired, twelve thousand lansquenets entered the ter- ritories of the church, whilst those in that quarter did their very worst, — and the vice- roy of Naples wrote letters, which were in- tercepted, wherein he besought the signory to hasten the arrival of their forces, so as to catch the pope unprepared, and complete what had been lefiuneft'ected at the first blow, — our lord could not so far fail of what was due to him- self as not to send and procure forces from Lombardy ; and though these arrived in time to cause a diversion within the kingdom of Naples, he would not allow them to quit the frontiers,^-the ruin of the castles of the Col- onnas was more owing to their disobedience in refusing to harbour the troops than to any thing else, — and likewise the pope gave leave to Andrew Doria logo and intercept that fleet, of which his holiness had had such frequent intelligence that it was designed for his de- struction. It is impossible, without passing censure on his holiness for his little regard to his own welfare and dignity, to tell, in despite of how many urgent legitimate occasions, he never for so long a time abandoned his love for the emperor ; and after there began to be some division between them, how often he not merely waited to be offered, but went out of his way to seek means of accommodation, PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 427 though no g'ood had come to him either of the first propositions or of the subsequent reconcil- iations. Now while matters were in a more violent condition than ever, comes the father- general of the Minorites, to whom, on his going to Spain, at the beginning of the war, our lord the pope having strongly expressed his good feelings towards the emperor, and pointed out to him what would be the course of proceeding towards obtaining an universal peace, his majesty sent him back with com- missions in terms as ample as could be desired, but which afterwards proved actually ex- tremely hard. For when our lord desired to go, and have for once an explanation face to face with the emperor, to see if there were any possible means of arriving at peace, he agreed with the greatest alacrity to those things which the emperor desired of his holi- ness, and accepted what his majesty was pleased to grant ; and when he wished to come to a positive arrangement, and found it necessary to treat with the viceroy, who like- wise had arrived at the same time in Gaetta with no less large offers than those the general had made, those conditionsswelled continually till they surpassed all possibility of execution or endurance. Yet with all this there was nothing so much afflicted the pope as his being constrained to make terms alone with the em- peror in Italy ; because, what induced him to do so, even to his own very great loss and disgrace, was the effecting of union and peace in Italy, and the being able to go along with the emperor : but this could not be if Venice were not a consenting party ; wherefore, to obtain the consent of the signory, the viceroy being at Frusolone, a suspension of arms was agreed on for eight days, in which time a re- ply might be had from Venice ; and Signore Cesare Fieramosca, being the bearer of it, did not arrive till hostilities had been actually re- sumed, and Frusolone freed from siege, so that nothing could be done. In the whole of this negociation it is certain that his holiness acted sincerely, and so too did the most reve- rend legate ; but the enemy being already at their post, and with arms in their hands, it was not possible to deal with two different things at the same time. It might excite sur- prise, that after the pope had made trial of the disposition of the party, and had been cheated and left in the lurch, injured and in- sulted, he should now thrust himself upon a peace or a truce of this sort, and that too de- liberately, and with his eyes open, without any necessity, urged by no fear of loss, se- cure of gaining, not knowing what friendship he might acquire, but certain of alienating and exciting the hostility of everybody, and of those especially who loved his holiness in their hearts. But his holiness having proved that God was not pleased there should be war, (tor to nothing else can be attributed the fact, that whereas his holiness had made every ef-M fort to avoid war, yet, after it had actually commenced with such advantages on his side, it nevertheless ended most disastrously, un- happy Christendom being afflicted and desola- ted by ourselves in a manner too horrible to think of, as if we had a mind to leave little for the Turks to do towards completing its ruin,) he deemed that no human consideration, however important, ought to avail to hinder his holiness from seeking peace in company with every one, and from making it by him- self if he could not have it in conjunction with others. In these views he was especial- ly confirmed by the receipt of news represent- ing the emperor as disposed to what is wont to move his holiness in a wonderful degree; for his holiness had received at that time through Signore Cesare and through Paolo di Arezzo, letters under his majesty's hand of that kind that was necessary, seeing that an agreement between the pope and the emperor promised to be a blessing to the world, whilst it would be impossible to conceive the exist- ence of a worse man than the emperor would be if he had devised this way of ruinino- the pope, — a scheme which would have been most unworthy of the basest of men, much more of the greatest among Christians. But far be all possible imaginings of any such thing, and rather let it be thought that God had permit- ted it to prove us, and to give his majesty an opportunity of displaying more piety, good- ness, and faith, and more fully controlling the destinies of the world, than ever was granted to any sovereign born. All the pope's papers having fallen into the hands of the soldiers, they will have carried off among others a new capitulation made by his holiness five or six days at most before the downfal of Rome, in which if he again united himself with the league, and consented to many conditions pre- judicial to his imperial majesty, I do not think that this can be cast up against his holiness by any of the emperor's partisans ; for they could not do so without exposing their own faults and failings : for, supposing it were true that there was no restraining Bourbon from his purpose of seeking the pope's destruction, certain it is that there were many others en- gaged in the war, both infantry and men at arms, and principal personages, who would have obeyed the emperor's commands had they been properly conveyed to them; and had Bourbon been deprived of such support, he would have been in no very good condition for prosecuting his design. And supposing that it had not been possible to do this, though no valid excuse for not doing it can be offered, what justification can be offered for the fact that when his holiness had fulfilled all the conditions of the capitulation made with the viceroy, (as you, most reverend Sir, may satisfy yourself by reading over the copy of the capita- 428 APPENDIX. Ration which you will take with you,) and when his holiness demanded in return the payment of the infantry and men-at-arrns who had bound themselves to every request of his, nothing' of the sort was done : so that his holiness, having- met with nothing like reciprocity in the exe- cution of this capitulation, — on the one hand, things having been done that ought not, and on the other, aid having been withheld that ought to have been afforded, — I know not how any of the party can think of vilifying his holi- ness for a thing done through sheer necessity induced by themselves, and which his holiness 60 long delayed to do, that it proved his ruin: I know not, I say, how they can catch at this as a ground of quarrel against ns. [The very enemies of his holiness will not deny that he announced his intention of making advances to the emperor at a time when no one could suspect that he was moved by anything else than by zeal for the welfare of Christians ; tiie suggestion having occurred immediately on receipt of the news of the king of Hungary's death and the loss of the kingdom, and his holiness having discussed and terminated the matter in consistory two or three days before the entry of the Col- onnas into Rome. Nor do I suppose that any one will be gross enough to believe that the pope was led to show all this favour to the emperor by his foresight forsooth of that storm ; for it was not of such a kind that had it been known three hours beforehand, not to say three days, it might not have been quelled with a very little noise. [The conditions conveyed to our lord by the father-general were these : first, the em- peror desired peace with his holiness, and if by chance on the arrival of the father-general, he should find the affairs of his holiness and of the church ruined, the emperor was con- tent that all things should be restored to their first condition, and that peace should be granted to every one in Italy, he having no desire for a hand's breadth of ground there either for himself or his brother, but to leave every one in possession of wliat was his of old : the duke of Milan's affair was to be tried judicially by judges appointed by his holiness and his majesty, and if he were acquitted, he should be restored; if condemned, his territo- ries siiould be given to Bourbon ; and France would be content to grant money, a thing it had not before been willing to do ; and the sum he named was the same as that the most Christian king had sent to offer, that is, two millions of gold. These conditions the pope accepted as soon as ever he was able to sub- stantiate their validity, and subscribed them under his hand ; but tliey were not approved by the others, who, as you, most reverend Sir, are aware, added intolerable demands. Now, since it cannot be presumed but that his im- perial majcoty dealt in earnest, and witli that sincerity which becomes so great a monarch ; and these his propositions and embassies evincing so much moderation and kindness of feeling towards our lord, whilst his majesty was not aware what was his holiness's dispo- sition towards him, and whilst he thought that his arms were so omnipotent in Italy through his lansquenets and the fleet sent hither, that they had carried all before them, it is not to be supposed but that, when he shall be informed that if his majesty sent the pope testimonies of his good-will, they were fully reciprocated on the part of his holiness, and that his forces encourtered such resist- ance here that his holiness, in laying down his arms rather conferred a benefit on his im- perial majesty than received one, as I have before said, and as is most clear, and that all the subsequent calamities rest on the faith and name of his majesty, in whom our lord confided : in that case the emperor will not only see that it will be like himself if he shall spontaneously show kindness and evince a readiness to make reparation to his holiness and the church, but he will even seek to in- crease that his natural disposition in propor- tion as he wishes to escape this obloquy, and by an easy transition to convert the ignominy that would otherwise attend him into perpe- tual glory,* made so much the more illustri- ous and stable by himself, as others, such as his ministers, have sought to sink and obscure it. And the acts which it would be necessary to do to this end for the church individually, and for its restoration, as well as the benefits which would efface the disasters of Italy, and of all Christendom, supposing the emperor to look more to their pacification than to any oth- er emolument, will be easily discovered pro- vided the disposition and the judgment to wish for and to know wherein consists what is truly for the general good be present. [Not to enter into the causes whereby we were compelled to take up arms, a subject which would occupy too much time, we shall only say, that we never took them up from hatred or ill-will towards the emperor, or from ambition to aggrandize our state, or that of any one belonging to us, but solely from the necessity in which it seemed to us were placed our liberty and our state, and the liber- ties of the states of Italy in general, and to prove to the world and to the emperor him- self if he sought to oppress us, that we conld not and would not endure it without making every effort in our own defence ; insomuch that his majesty, if he was of that mind, which we never doubted, might understand that matters were not likely to succeed with * [The passage in the original is obscure ; but I think it intelligible in a different meaning from that which would he put upon it by Ranke's suggested addition of two words. See the Italian supra.— Translator.] PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 429 him so easily as others, perhaps, had given him to suppose : or if we were deceived in thus supposing that his majesty intended us mischief, and if those suspicions should prove to have risen rather from the conduct of min- isters than from any other cause; that tlicn, upon his majesty's giving us full assurance of this, good peace and friendship might en- sue not only between us in particular and his majesty, but embracing also those other sov- ereigns and signers with whom we had been leagued for no other end than to defend our- selves from the villany done us, or once more to bring about peace in wretched Christen- dom upon honourable and reasonable condi- tions. And if when Don Ugo came hither, his majesty had communicated to us those conditions which in all honour appeared to him necessary thereto, we should have deem- ed it the greatest blessing that God could be- stow on us, that one day should behold as it were the taking up and the laying down of arms. And that what we state to have al- ways been the purpose of our mind was truly 60, appears from the disposition in which we were found by the general of the Franciscans, to whom we communicated a year ago, when he was here on his way to Spain, the grounds which we and the other sovereigns of Italy had to be dissatisfied with the emperor, and charged him on our part to lay all these be- fore his majesty, and to give him to under- stand that if he was willing to attend to our counsels and prayers, which all tended to the praise and service of God, and to his own benefit as well as ours, he would always find on our part that friendship he had before made proof of; and when the said general was sent back to us again some months afterwards, he brought us his majesty's most courteous reply, that he was content (to use his own words) to accept as commands the counsels we had sent him : and to give assurance of this, he stated among other resolutions, that he was content to release the sons of his most Chris- tian majesty for the ransom that had been offered him by his majesty, a thing that till then he had never been willing to do. In addition to which he promised, that if all Italy was in his power, as it was the fashion to say at the time the general was in Rome, he was content, in order to give the lie to those who sought to slander him by imputing to him an intention of keeping possession of it, to restore everything there to its pristine state, and to show, that neither for himself nor for his most serene brother, he desired one hand's-breadth of territory in that country beyond what had belonged of old to the crown of Spain. And that his words might be accompanied by facts, the general was furnished with the most am- ple authority to arrange every thing either with Don Ugo, or with the viceroy, if he should have arrived in Italy when he came here. How great was our satisfaction here, it is impossible to describe ; and an hour ap- peared to us a thousand years in our impa- tience to come to some sort of general agree- ment to lay down arms. And when the vice- roy arrived nearly at the same time, and sent to us from San Steffano, where he first put into port in these seas, by the commandant Pignalosa, the fairest possible words, in no respect different from what had been uttered by the general, we rendered thanks to God that the pleasure we had received from the general's embassy was not to be alloyed by any doubt, the same being confirmed to us by the viceroy, who comforted us in every re- spect by making known to us the emperor's commission, and further assured us that no one could feel more alacrity than himself to give it effect. How totally all this was re- versed in fact, there needs no great effort to tell ; for there is no one who does not know the exceedingly harsh, intolerable, and igno- minious conditions that were demanded on the viceroy's part, we having made no delay in praying him to hasten to state the conditions attached to such welcome promises. And whereas we expected to hear still better news than had yet been told us, it being always usual to keep back the best things for the last, to make them taste more gratefully, not only were we disappointed of finding any- thing of what we had been led to expect, but we met with the very contrary ; as firstly, we found that no faith whatever was placed in us, as if no one in truth could offer any favoura- ble testimony for us in that respect; and that there was demanded of us by way of security the best part of our state and of the signory of Florence, and then a sum of money, intol- erable to one who possessed mountains of gold, much more to us who, as every one was aware, had not a carlino ; that it was required, to our great disgrace, and to the still greater disgrace of the emperor, that we should reinstate those who, in violation of every duty human and divine, had come so treasonably to assail the person of our lord the pope, and to sack the church of St. Peter and the sacred palace; and that it was insist- ed on without the least respect, that we should further stringently bind ourselves to his impe- rial majesty, all the world knowing how much voluntary zeal to that effect we displayed at the time when most of all we were in a flour- ishing condition : and, not to go into all other particulars, that it was required that we should make terms apart and alone, which we could not do if we were disposed to facili- tate the conclusion of the general peace for which we, were willing to make this begin- ning. And there being no possibility of mov- ing the viceroy from these his intolerable de- mands, and he actually invading our territo- ries without any cause, though we at all times 430 APPENDIX. and during the few previous months had for- borne to molest those of the emperor in the kingdom of Naples, the arrival of Cesare Fi- eramosca took place in the interim ; and whereas he found the viceroy already in the state of the church, we believe that he was the bearer of such orders on the emperor's part to his excellency, that if they had been obeyed, things would not have been brought to such a pass. And whilst his excellency strove to do at once two very opposite things, — the one being to show that he had not done ill in going so far, or not to lose the opportunity he thought he had of winning the whole prize ; the other being to obey the em- peror's commands, which were, that an agree- ment should by all means be come to; — the consequence was, that neither the one nor the other has come to pass to this hour : for his excellency found he was deceived and could not do what he intended ; and Signer Cesare coming forward with proposals for a truce of eight days, till an answer should be received as to whether the signory of Venice would join in the arrangement, when he ar- rived on the ground he found the armies actu- ally engaged, and so to this day the matter never went any further ; except that notwith- standing this event, and knowing for certain that we were most secure in Lombardy and in Tuscany, by reason of the satisfactory pre- parations there, and the vast number of troops of the whole league in those parts, and know- ing too that there was no remedy whatever for the affairs of the kingdom, as experience had begun to demonstrate, we never abandon- ed our longing desire and our efforts for peace. And the sole gratification we derived from the fact that events had turned out so prosperously for ourselves was, that it enabled us to show that if we desired peace it was from sound judgment and of our own good will, not from necessity ; and to demonstrate to the emperor that if he was sincere, as we believed, in his instructions to the father- general, purporting that even if everything were at his absolute disposal matters should be restored to their primitive state, we who were actually in the condition in which he supposed himself to be, were ready to do what he had purposed on his part. This in- tention of ours was rendered still more in- tense by letters written with the emperor's hand, among which were the last two we re- ceived through Cesare Fieramosca, and Paolo di Arezza, our servant, which are of such tenour that, relying on those letters alone, we should have seemed safely warranted in placing the whole world, and even our very Boul, in the emperor's hands; so earnestly did his majesty conjure us to believe his words, which were full of such satisfaction, such promises and assurances of aid, that we could not have desired anything better. And as in treating for peace, we never desisted from preparations for war, so long as we were un- certain what reciprocity should be shown us, so there being two chiefs in Italy, Bourbon and the viceroy, we took pains to understand clearly whether it was necessary to treat with but one of them, and if his decisions should be binding on both, or with both separately ; so that if what has happened should occur, we should not be as chargeable with lack of prudence as others are with faults of a differ- ent kind. Now, finding that the viceroy had the sole power of treating with us, v/e wished to have this put in the clearest light, and not to trust simply to the declarations of the father- general, Signor Cesare, the viceroy himself, Paulod'Arezzo, and Bourbon, but to understand from the said Bourbon, not once but a thousand times, and through divers persons, if he was dis- posed to obey, and if he would refuse to make any reply touching what concerned the vice- roy, should it be proposed to treat with himself individually. Now it was easy for him, as it is for everybody, to cloak over his designs with a show of virtue, and to effect by fraud what he could not do honestly and openly, as (come it whence it might, fraud we think there was, though we cannot tell whence it proceeded) seems to have been done by us, who it is manifest used all possible diligence to avoid being deceived; so much so, indeed, that at times we seemed to be superstitious and deserving of censure. For since we had warranty both by letters and by word of mouth from the emperor of his good feeling, and that Bourbon would obey the viceroy, and since by way of precaution his majesty had given fresh letters lo Paulo, touching this obedience to the viceroy, directed to the said Bourbon, and the whole negociation was con- ducted with such ample powers from his ma- jesty as ought to have sufficed, and Bourbon had expressed his readiness to submit in every respect to the viceroy, and the latter was af- terwards content to put himself into our power, so strongly did every thing tend towards be- guiling us into the condition in which we are placed, that I know not, taking all the cir- cumstances into consideration, how it would be humanly possible to find more reasons than we had for trusting the simple faith of a pri- vate gentleman. But to speak only of our own proceedings, it was much more lawful and easy for us, without incurring the infamy of breach of faith or any other disgrace, to use the opportunity presented by fortune to hold ourselves perfectly secure in Lombardy, (which we were to such a degree that Bour- bon would never have advanced if the army of the league had not cooled in consequence of the earnest prosecution of the negotiations for peace,) and to avail ourselves of that ad- vantage to follow up the war in Naples, seize the whole kingdom except two or three for- PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 431 tresses, press on then to other places where the emperor might have sustained loss and discredit, and in strict union with the confede- rates render all his designs more difficult. But whereas it seemed to us that God's ser- vice and unhappy Christendom required peace, we purposed to forego every great acquisi- tion or victory we might have had, and to of- fend all the Christian and Italian princes, without at all knowing what we were to look to get, but thinking we should come off well enough if the emperor's mind were such as his majesty had endeavoured by so many proofs to make it appear. And we made very little account of offending the other Christian princes, who would very soon have been un- der great obligations to us if that had ensued which his majesty had so strongly assured us of, — namely, that if we came to terms with him, he would put into our hands the conclu- sion of peace and agreement with the Chris- tian princes. And if any one should be in- clined to think that we acted with other views, nothing could exceed the malignity of such a person, supposing him to know us; should he not know us, and should he take the pains to acquaint himself with our life and conduct, he will find on all hands that our desires have been invariably worthy and our conduct virtuous, and that to such motives we have postponed every other interest ; and if we have nevertheless been unfortunate, though we receive at the hands of God with all humility whatever he is pleased to inflict, still are we most grievously wronged by men, and above all by those who, (though up to a certain time they may shelter themselves by force and by the disobedience of others, whilst if reason were to be heard there would be enough to say against them) ought now and for some time past, to have acted difi'erentiy both for their own honour and in considera- tion of what they owe to God and the world. We entered into the treaty afterwards made at Florence with Bourbon's people through the mediation of the viceroy, and which was not observed, because we did not wish to seem as though we cherished the design of doing ill to those who had been the cause of our being thus treated, whom we leave to the just judg- ment of God : from his mercy to us and to his church let us hope only in the piety, the faith, and the virtue of the emperor, that since we have been brought to our present condition through the opinion we entertained of him, he will treat us accordingly, and exalt us in proportion as we are now brought low. Let us look to his majesty for such satisfaction for the infinite contumely and injuries we have sustained, as may accord with his greatness and with the justice of the case, if indeed it be possible that any amends can be equiva- lent to the least part of our wrongs. We spontaneous grace of the suggestions which we cannot but think will occur to him, and which he will send and offer us. Only let us say, that putting at the very lowest what can be asked, and which it would rather be a dis- grace for his majesty not to grant and for us not to ask, than the performance thereof would be difficult, his majesty ought to com- ply with these terms : — [That we, our own person, the sacred col- lege and the court, be restored in all tempo- ralities and spiritualities to that fooling on which we stood at the time the preliminaries were entered into with the viceroy, and that we be not burthened with the payment of one penny. [And if any one on hearing this shall jeer us, let us answer, that if the things above stated are true, and it moves wonder that we are appeased with this, this may well be and with reason: but if it appear to him truly strange, let him consider what kindness he shows in thus judging, whether to the empe- ror or to ourselves : for the emperor — let him ponder well that so often as this and much more is not promised on his majesty's part, he is thereby made an accomplice in all the wrong that has been done here : for ourselves — let us say that this is a mere perfidious at- tempt to insinuate slanderously, what no one would ever venture to assert openly. It is not enough to take heed that we stand, but likewise how we stand ; and better is it assur- edly that we do at the prompting of virtue and judgment that which time most certainly will at last bring about, in the life-time of others, if not in our own.] 16. Sommario delV isloria d' Italia dalV anno 1512 insino a 1527 scritto da Francesco Vettori. [Summary of the history of Italy from 1512 to 1527, written by Francesco Vettori.] A most remarkable little work by a sensi- ble man, the friend of Machiavel and Guicci- ardini, and one profoundly versed in the affairs of the house of Medici, and of all the rest of Italy. I found it in the Corsini library in Rome, but I was only allowed to make ex- tracts from it ; otherwise I would have it printed as it highly deserves to be. The plague of the year 1527 having driven Francesco Vettori from Florence, he writes his survey of recent events at his villa. He directs his attention chiefly to Floren- tine matters. His way of thinking nearly re- sembles that of his friends above-mentioned. Speaking of the form of government given to his native city in the year 1512, which was such as to make cardinal Medici, afterwards Leo X., all-powerful (" si ridusse la citta,che non si facea se non quanto volea il card' de will not descend to particulars, to take off" the I Medici,") he adds, people to be sure call this 432 APPENDIX. tyranny ; but for his own part he knows no state, ancient or modern, whether monarchy or republic, which had not some tinge of ty- ranny. "Tutte quelle republiche e princi- pati de' quali io ho cognitione per historia o che io ho veduto mi pare che sentino della tirannide." If the example of France or of Venice is objected to him, he answers, that in France the nobility have the preponderance in the state, and are in the enjoyment of the benefices; whilst in Venice three thousand men are seen ruling over more than one hundred thousand, not always with justice ; and he lays it down that there is no difference between a king and a tyrant, except that a good ruler deserves to be called a king, and a bad one a tyrant. In spite of the close relation in which he stood to both the popes of the house of Medici, he is little convinced of the Christianity of the papal power. " Chi considera bene la legge evangelica, vedra i pontefici, ancora che tenghino il nome di vicario di Christo, haver indutto una nova religione, che non ve n'e altro di Christo che il nome : il qual co- manda la poverta e loro vogliono la richezza, comanda la humilta e loro vogliono la super- bia, comanda la obedientia e loro vogliono co- mandar a ciascuno." [Whoever carefully considers the law of the gospel will perceive that the popes, though they bear the name of Christ's vicar, have introduced a new religion, which has nothing in it of Christ but the name. Christ enjoins poverty, and they de- sire riches ; he enjoins humility, and they de- sire pride ; he enjoins obedience, and they desire to command every one.] It is plain how much this secularity, and its opposition to the spiritual principle, prepared the way for protestantism. Vettori ascribes the election of Leo, above all, to the opinion generally entertained of his good-nature. Two terrible popes had reigned consecutively, and the world had had enough of them. Medici was chosen. " Havea sa- puto in modo sirnulare che era tenuto di ottimi costumi." [He had managed appearances so skilfully, that he passed for a man of excel- lent moral conduct.] This election was chiefly due to the exertions of Bibbiena, who knew the inclinations of all the cardinals, and had the art to prevail upon them in the teeth of their own interests. " Condusse fuori del con- clave alcuni di loro a promettere, e nel con- clave a consentire a detta elettione contra tutte le ragioni." He gives a very full and satisfactory ac- count of the expedition of Francis I. in the year 151.5, and of the bearing of Leo X. dur- ing that period. That it had no worse conse- quences for the pope, he attributes especially to the dexterity of Tricarico, who entered the French camp at the moment the king was mounting his horse to oppose the Swiss at Marignano, and who conducted the subse- quent negociations with consummate pru- dence. He next speaks of the revolt of Urbino. I have already mentioned* the reasons Vettori assigns for Leo's conduct. " Leone disse, che se non privava il duca dello state, el quale si era condotto con lui e preso danari et in su I'ardore della guerra era convenuto con li nemici ne pensato che era suo subdito ne ad altro, che non sarebbe si piccolo barone che non ardisse di fare il medesimo o peggio : e che havendo trovato il ponteficato in riputa- tione Io voleva mantenere. Et in verita vo- lendo vivere i pontefici come sono vivuti da molte diecine d'anni in qua, il papa non poteva lasciare il delitto del duca impunito." Vettori wrote also a separate life of Lo- renzo de' Medici. He praises him more than does any other author: he sets his govern- ment of Florence in a new and peculiar light. The contents of the biography and of the sum- mary before us are supplementary each of the other. He treats likewise of the election for em- peror, which occurred in this period, and says that Leo backed the king of France only be- cause he was aware before hand that the Ger- mans would not elect him. He calculated, according to Vettori, that Francis I., fbr the sake of preventing the election of Charles, would give his interest to some German prince. I meet with the unexpected assertion, which I do not indeed desire to have received impli- citly, that the king did actually at last en- deavour to promote the election of Joachim of Brandenburg. "II re . . . haveva volto ilfa- vore suo al marchese di Brandenburg, uno delli electori, et era contento che li danari prometteva a quelli electori che eleggevano lui, dargli a quelli che eleggevano dicto mar- chese." At all events, the conduct of Joachim, with regard to the election, was very extra- ordinary. This whole history, strangely per- verted as it has been, both intentionally and unintentionally, certainly deserves to be duly elucidated. f Vettori regards Leo's league with Charles as, bej ond conception, imprudent. " La mala fortuna di Italia Io indusse a fare quelle che nessuno uomo prudente avrebbe facto." He lays the blame of it particularly on the per- suasions of Geronimo Adorno. He takes no notice of the natural considerations influenc- ing the house of Medici. He relates some particulars of the pope's death which I have incorporated in the text. He does not believe he was poisoned. " Fu detto che mori di veneno, e questo quasi sempre si dice delli uomini grandi e maxime quando muojono di malattie acute." In his opinion, * Supra, page 40. 1 1 have since endeavoured in my German history to ;ome nearer the truth. (Note to the 2d edition.) PERIOD TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 433 the wonder rather was that Leo had lived so long. He confirms the fact, that Adrian at first refused to do any thing against the French : it was not till after the receipt of an urgent letter from the emperor that he consented to do some little in that way. It would carry us too far if we were to re- peat all the remarks made in this work on the further course of events. It is remarkable, even in the passages in which the author only expresses his own sentiments : in these, as already observed, he is near a kin to Machia- vel. He had just as bad an opinion of man- kind. " Quasi tutti gli uomini sono adulatori e dicono volontieri quello che piaccia agli uomini grandi, benche sentino altrimenti nel cuore." [Almost all men are flatterers, and readily say what may please great men, though in their hearts they think differently.] The violation of the treaty of Madrid by Francis I. he pronounces the finest and no- blest thing that had been done for many centuries. " Francesco," he says, " fece una cosa molta conveaiente, a promettere assai con animo di non observare, per potersi tro- vare a difendere la patria sua." [Francis did very properly in promising what he was pretty well resolved not to perform, so that he might thereby be placed in a condition to defend his country.] This is a view of the subject wor- thy of the " Principe." But Vettori claims kindred on other grounds besides with the great authors of that age. The work before us is full of originality and talent, and is the more attractive from its brevity. The author sets down no more than he actually knows ; but that is truly impor- tant. It would require a more minute exami- nation to do justice to his merits. 17. Sommario di la relatione di S. Marco Foscari venulo orator del sormno pontfjice a di 2 Marzo 1526. — Sanuto, vol. xli. [Summary of the report of iMarco Foscari's embassy to the pope, &c.] Marco Foscari was engaged in the embassy that tendered- allegiance to Adrian. Heap- pears to have remained in Rome from that time till 1526. He says something of Adrian's times; but his authority, with respect to those of Clement Vli., is of the more weight, since he had con- stant and animated intercourse with that pope, in consequence of the close connexion then existing between Venice and the see of Rome. He thus portrays Clement. " Horn pru- dente e savio, ma iongo a risolversi, e di qua vien le sue operation varie. Discorre ben, vede tutto, ma e molto timido ; niun in mate- ria di state pol con lui, aide tutti e poi fa quello li par : homo justo et homo di dio : et in signatura, dove intravien tre cardinal! e 55 tre referendarii, non fara co.«!a in pregiuditio di altri, e come el segna qualche supplication, non revocha piu, come feva papa Leon. Ques- to non vende beneficii, no li da per symonia, non tuo officii con dar beneficii per venderli, come feva papa Leon e li altri, ma vol tutto passi rectamente. Non spende, non dona, ne tuol quel di altri : onde e reputa mixero. E qualche murmuration in Roma, etiam per causa del cardinal Armelin, qual truova molte invention per trovar danari in Roma e fa met- ter nove angarie e fino a chi porta tordi a Roma et altre cose di manzar . . . E conti- nentissimo, non si sa di alcuna sorte di luxu- ria che usi. . . . Non vol buffoni, non musici, non va a cazare. Tutto il suo piacere e di rasonar con inzegneri e parlar di aque." [A prudent and sage man, but slow to resolve, whence proceeds the changeableness of his proceedings. He reasons well, sees every thing, but is very timid : no one has influence over him in matters of state : he hears all, and then does what seems fit to himself. He is a just and a godly man ; and in the signa- tura, in which three cardinals and three re- ferendarii take part, he will not do any thing to the prejudice of the others; and when he affixes his signature to any petition, he never revokes, as pope Leo used to do. This pope does not sell benefices, nor does he bestow them simoniacally : he does not exchange be- nefices for offices, that he may sell the latter, as pope Leo and the others have done, but he wislieg that every thing should take place legitimately. He does not spend, nor make presents, nor take what belongs to others ; hence he is reputed penurious. There is some murmuring in Rome likewise on account of cardinal Armelin, who has devised many expedients for raising money by imposing new duties, even to the extent of imposing a toll on those who bring thrushes and other eatables into Rome. . . . He is extremely con- tinent ; he is not known to indulge in any kind of luxury. . . . He is not fond of comedians nor of musicians, nor does he hunt. His only recreation is in discoursing with engineers, and talking about water-works.] He then proceeds to speak of his advisers. The pope allowed his nephew no influence ; even Giberto had not much power in affairs of state : " il papa lo aide, ma poi fa al suo modo." He also states that Giberto — " devo- to e savio" [a pious and wise man] — was for the French, and Schomberg — " libero nel suo parlar [free with his tongue] — for the empe- ror. Zuan Foietta was another strong adhe- rent of the emperor's; he had been less frequent in his attendance on the pope since the latter had entered into an alliance with France. Foscarini makes mention also of the pope's two secretaries, Jac. Salviati and Fr. Vizardini (Guicciardini), the latter of whom he esteems the abler man, but wholly French. 434 APPENDIX. It is worthy of note that the pope did not stand much better with the French than with the imperialists. He was well avvarg what he had to expect from them. It was only with Venice he felt himself truly allied. " Conosce, se non era la Signoria nostra, saria ruinado e caza di Roma." [He knows that but for our signory he would be ruined and driven out of Rome.] They strengthened each other in their schemes for the advantage of Italy, and felt their honour involved in them. The pope was proud that he had hindered Venice from coming to terms with the emperor : on the other hand, our ambassador positively asserts that it was he himself by whose means Italy had become free ; that the pope had actually resolved to recognise Bourbon as duke of JVJilan ; but that he, Foscari, had so earnestly dissuaded him against doing so, that he aban- doned his purpose. He corroborates the fact, not hinted at in the foregoing instruction, that the pope would only on certain conditions grant the emperor the dispensation that was necessary to his marriage : the emperor, however, contrived to obtam it without the conditions. There is one thing particularly remarkable with regard to this relation. W^hen orders were given at a later period that the ambas- sadors should made and send in their reports in writing, Marco Foscari did so too. It is striking how much weaker the second report is than the first. The latter was deliver- ed immediately after the events had occur- red, and while they were still fresh and vivid in the memory ; afterwards so many other great events had occurred, that the recollec- tions of the first had become obscured. This shows how much we owe on this score to the diligence of the indefatigable Sanuto. This is the last report, a knowledge of which I have derived from his chronicle. Others fol- low, which have been preserved in copies made and revised by their authors. 18. Relatione riferita nel consiglio di pre- gadi per il clarissimo Gaspar Contarini, ritornalo ambascialore del papa Clemente VII. e dal i?/ij9''« Carlo V., Marzo 1.52.'l Informationi politiche XXV- — Berlin Li- brary. [Gaspar Contarini's report of his embassy to (Jlement VII. and Charles V. i.arch, 1530.] This is the same Gaspar Contarini of whom we have had occasion to speak in terms of such high praise in our history. After liaving already fulfilled an embassy to (-harles V. (his report of this embassy is exceedingly rare: 1 have only seen one copy of it in the Albani library in Rome,) he was appointed ambassador to the pope in 1528, before the latter had returned to Rome after so many misfortunes and so protracted an ab- sence. He accompanied his holiness from Viterbo to Rome, and from Rome to Bologna, to attend the coronation of the emperor. He took part in the negociations carried on in the latter city. He gives an account of all he witnessed in Viterbo, Rome, and Bologna : the only thing we have to find fault with is, that his narra- tive is so brief. Contarini's embassy took place at the im- portant period in which the pope was