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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b376a71 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #61779 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61779) diff --git a/old/61779-8.txt b/old/61779-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c474816..0000000 --- a/old/61779-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,15660 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Crises in the History of the Papacy, by Joseph McCabe - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Crises in the History of the Papacy - -Author: Joseph McCabe - -Release Date: April 8, 2020 [EBook #61779] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRISES IN HISTORY OF THE PAPACY *** - - - - -Produced by deaurider, Graeme Mackreth and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - -_By Joseph McCabe_ - - - Peter Abélard - St. Augustine and His Age - A Candid History of the Jesuits - Crises in the History of the Papacy - - - - - Crises - - in the - - History of the Papacy - - - A Study of - - Twenty Famous Popes whose Careers and - whose Influence Were Important in the - Development of the Church and - in the History of the World - - - By - - Joseph McCabe - - Author of "Peter Abélard," "Life of Saint Augustine," etc. - - - G.P. Putnam's Sons - New York and London - The Knickerbocker Press - 1916 - - - - - Copyright, 1916 - - BY - - JOSEPH McCABE - - - The Knickerbocker Press, New York - - - - -PREFACE - - -Probably no religious institution in the world has had so remarkable -a history, and assuredly none has attracted so large and varied a -literature, as the Papacy. The successive dynasties of the priests -of ancient Egypt were, by comparison, parochial in their power and -ephemeral in their duration. The priests of Buddha, rising to an -autocracy in the isolation of Thibet or mingling with the crowd in -the more genial atmosphere of China or cherishing severe mysticisms -in Japan, offer no analogy to the Papacy's consistent growth and -homogeneous dominion. The religious leaders of the Jews, scattered -through the world, yet hardened in their type by centuries of -persecution, may surpass it in conservative antiquity, but they do -not remotely approach it in power and in historical importance. It -influences the history of Europe more conspicuously than emperors have -ever done, stretches a more than imperial power over lands beyond the -most fevered dreams of Alexander or Cćsar, and may well seem to have -made "Eternal Rome" something more than the idle boast of a patriot. - -Yet this conservative endurance has not been favoured by such a -stability of environment as has sheltered the lamas of Thibet or the -secular priests of the old Chinese religion. The Papacy has lived -through fifteen centuries of portentous change, though it seemed in -each phase to have connected itself indissolubly with the dominant -institutions and ideas of that phase. The Popes have witnessed, and -have survived, three mighty transformations of the face of Europe. They -had hardly issued from their early obscurity and lodged themselves in -the fabric of the old Roman civilization when this fell into ruins; but -they held firmly, amidst the ruins, the sceptre they had inherited. One -by one the stately institutions of the older world--the schools, the -law-courts, the guilds of craftsmen, the military system, the municipal -forms and commercial routes--disappeared in the flood of barbarism -which poured over Europe, but this institution, which seemed the least -firmly established, was hardly shaken and was quickly accepted by the -strange new world. A new polity was created, partly under the direction -of the Popes, and it was so entirely saturated by their influence that -religion gave it its most characteristic name. Then Christendom, as it -was called, passed in turn through a critical development, culminating -in the Reformation; and the Papacy begot a Counter-Reformation and -secured millions beyond the seas to replace the millions it had lost. -The third and last convulsion began with the work of Voltaire and -Rousseau and Mirabeau, and has grievously shaken the political theory -with which the Papacy was allied and the older religious views which -it had stereotyped. Yet today it has some 35,000,000 followers in the -three greatest Protestant countries, the lands of Luther, of Henry -VIII., and of the Puritan Fathers. - -It must seem a futile design to attempt to tell, with any intelligent -satisfaction, within the limits of a small volume the extraordinary -story of this institution. No serious historian now tries to command -more than a section of the record of the Papacy, and he usually -finds a dozen volumes required for the adequate presentment of that -section. Yet there is something to be said for such a sketch as I -propose to give. If we take four of the more important recent histories -of the Papacy--those of Father Grisar, Dr. Mann, Dr. Pastor, and Dr. -Creighton--we find that the joint thirty volumes do not cover the -whole period of Papal history even to the sixteenth century; and the -careful student will not omit to include in his reading the still -valuable volumes of Milman and of Dr. Langer. In other words, he must -study more than fifty volumes if he would have an incomplete account -of the development of the Papacy up to the time of the Reformation, -and more than that number if he would follow accurately the fortunes -of the Papacy since the days of Paul III. The history of the Papacy is -very largely the history of Europe, and this voluminous expansion is -inevitable. On the other hand, the general student of the history of -Europe and the general reader who seeks intellectual pleasure in "the -storied page" are not only repelled by such an array of tomes, but -they have no interest in a vast proportion of the matter which it is -incumbent on the ecclesiastical historian to record. One wants a view -of the Papacy in the essential lines of its development, and they are -usually lost, or not easily recognized, in the conscientiously full -chronicles. Is it possible to give a useful and informing account of -the _essential_ history of the Papacy in a small volume? - -The rare attempts to do this that have been made have failed from -one or other of two causes: they have either been written with a -controversial aim and therefore have given only the higher lights -or darker shades of the picture, or they have been mere summaries -of the larger works, mingling what is relevant and what is not -relevant from the developmental point of view. The design which -occurs to me is to write a study of the Papacy by taking a score of -the outstanding Popes--which means, in effect, a score of the more -significant or critical stages in the development of the Papacy--and -giving an adequate account of the work and personality of each. -The evolution of the Papacy has not, like the evolution of life in -general, been continuous. It has had periods of stagnation and moments -of rapid progress or decay. Of the first hundred Popes, scarcely a -dozen contributed materially to the making of the Papacy: the others -maintained or marred the work of the great Popes. It is the same with -the environment of the Papacy, which has influenced its fortunes -as profoundly as changes of environment have affected the advance -of terrestrial life. There have been long drowsy summers closed by -something like ice ages; there have been convulsions and strange -invasions, stimulating advance by their stem and exacting pressure. I -propose to select these more significant periods or personalities of -Papal history, and trust that the resultant view of the Papacy will -have interest and usefulness. The periods which lie between the various -Pontificates which I select will be compressed into a brief account of -their essential characters and more prominent representatives, so that -the work will form a continuous study of the Papacy. - -In the selection of a score of Popes out of more than two hundred and -fifty there is room for difference of judgment. The principle on which -I have proceeded is plain from the general aim I have indicated. The -story of the Papacy may fitly be divided into two parts: a period of -making and a period of unmaking. Taking the terms somewhat liberally, -one may say that the first period reaches from the second to the -fourteenth century, and that the subsequent centuries have witnessed an -increasing loss of authority, especially in the catastrophic movements -(from the Papal point of view) of the sixteenth and the nineteenth -centuries. A selection of significant Popes must, therefore, include -the great makers of the Papacy, the men whose vice or incompetence -brought destructive criticism upon it, and the men who have, with -varying fortune, sought to defend it against the inroads of that -criticism during the last four centuries. One must make a selection -neither of good Popes nor bad Popes, but of the Popes who, in either -direction, chiefly influenced the fortunes of the institution; and, -in order that no important phase may be omitted, a few men of no very -pronounced personality must be included. - -Regarded from this point of view, the history of the Papacy may be -compressed within limits which rather accentuate than obscure its -interest, and, at the same time, a very ample account may be given -of some of its more instructive phases. The first phase, before the -Bishop of Rome became a Pope, in the distinctive sense of the word, is -best illustrated by taking the bishopric of Callistus at the beginning -of the third century. The Roman bishopric was then one of several -"apostolic Sees," rarely claiming authority over other bishoprics, and -still more rarely finding such a claim acknowledged: thrown somewhat -into the shade by the vastly greater strength of the Eastern churches, -yet having an immense and as yet undeveloped resource in the tradition, -which was now generally accepted, that it had been founded by the two -princes of the apostles. There was, however, in three hundred years, no -Roman bishop sufficiently endowed to develop this resource, and the -fourth century still found the Roman See so little elevated that its -African neighbours disdainfully rejected its claim of authority. Then -the far-reaching change which followed the conversion of Constantine -bestowed on it a material splendour and a secular authority which -gave it a distinctive place in Christendom, and a study of the life -of Bishop Damasus shows us the extension of its prestige and the -exploitation of its tradition; while the founding of a rival imperial -city in the East and the obliteration of all other apostolic Sees -withdrew half of Christendom from Roman influence before its ecumenic -claim was fully developed. - -The fall of the western Roman Empire enfeebles the once powerful and -independent provincial bishops and gives a more spiritual outlook to -the successors of Peter who sit among the ruins of Rome. The life -of Leo the Great illustrates this concentration on religious power -amidst the autumnal decay of the more material power and of the wealth -which had inflated and secularized some of his predecessors. The -life of Gregory the Great marks the culmination of this development. -The material world seems to be nearing dissolution and the old Roman -spirit of organization, which is strong in Gregory I., is directed -to the creation of a moral and religious dictatorship. There are -still flickers of independence in remote bishoprics, and the East is -irrecoverably removed, but the disordered state of Christendom cries -for a master. Europe is young again, with a vicious impulsive youth, -and the rod of Rome falls healthily on its shoulders; and the paralysis -of civic government and land-tenure in Italy inevitably casts secular -functions and large possessions upon the one effective power that -survives. An elementary royalty begins to attach to the Papacy: the -function of ultimate tribunal in that violent world is imposed on it -almost by public needs: and, though Gregory is personally disdainful of -culture, the Church, and the monastic refuges it consecrates, preserve -for a wiser age to come some proportion of the wisdom of the dead age. - -With Hadrian I. a new phase opens. The possession and administration -of "patrimonies," or bequeathed estates, give place to the definite -political control of whole provinces, under the protection of a -powerful and conveniently remote King of the Franks. In the ninth -century, Nicholas I. consolidates and extends the new power, both as -temporal and spiritual ruler. The vice and violence of Europe still -justify or promote the growth of a great spiritual autocracy, and the -illiteracy of Europe--for culture has touched its lowest depth--permits -the imposition on it (in the "False Decretals," etc.) of an impressive -and fictitious version of the bases of Papal claims. Then Rome, which -has hitherto had singularly few unworthy men in the chair of Peter, -becomes gradually degraded to the level of its age, and the Papacy -passes into the darkness of the Age of Iron: which is fitly illustrated -by the Pontificate of John X. Gregory VII. shows its restoration to -spiritual ideals and the union of monastic severity with the Papal -tradition; and this steady creation of a machinery for dominating the -vice and violence of Europe is perfected in the extraordinary work of -Innocent III., who would, for its moral correction, make Europe the -United States of the Church and treat its greatest monarchs as satraps -of the Papacy. - -After Innocent, the Papacy degenerates. A renewed school-life, the -influence of the Moors, the evolution of civic life and prosperity, -and the rise of powerful kingdoms stimulate the intelligence of -Europe, while the political connexions in which the temporal power -entangles the Papacy lead to a degeneration which cannot escape the -more alert mind of the laity. During a long exile at Avignon the -Papal court learns soft ways and corrupt devices--illustrated by the -life of John XXII.--and the Great Schism which follows the return to -Rome causes a moral paralysis which permits the Pontificate of an -unscrupulous adventurer like John XXIII. The prosperous sensuality -of the new Europe infects an immense proportion of the clergy: war, -luxury, and display entail a vast expenditure, and the more thoughtful -clergy and laity deplore the increasing sale by the Popes of sacred -offices and spiritual privileges. The body of lay scholars and lawyers -grows larger and more critical, while the Papal Court sinks lower -and lower. The Papacy is fiercely criticized throughout Europe, and -the resentment of its moral complexion leads to a discussion of the -bases of its power. The earlier forgeries are discovered and the -true story of its human growth is dimly apprehended. The successive -Pontificates of Alexander VI., Julius II., and Leo X. exhibit this -dramatic development: a flat defiance by the Papal Court of the -increasing moral sentiment and critical intelligence of Europe. Men -are still so dominated by religious tradition that, apart from an -occasional heresy, they generally think only of "reform" and reforming -councils. When Luther strikes a deeper note of rebellion, the echo is -portentous, and neither reform, nor violence, nor persuasion succeeds -in averting the disruption of Christendom. In Paul III., we have the -last representative of the Papacy of the Renaissance wavering between -the grim menace of Germany and the unpleasantness of reform. In Sixtus -V. and Benedict XIV. we study two of the great efforts of the new -Papacy to preserve the remaining half of its territory. In Pius VII., -Pius IX., and Leo XIII. we see the Papacy meeting the successive waves -of the modern revolution. - - * * * * * - -In composing this sketch of Papal history, or, rather, study of its -critical phases, I have gratefully used the larger modern histories -to which I have referred. Dr. Ludwig Pastor's _History of the Popes -from the Close of the Middle Ages_[1] is, for the period it covers -(1300-1550), the most valuable of all Papal histories. The Catholic -author is not less courageous than scholarly, even if we must recognize -some inevitable bias of affection, and he has enriched our knowledge by -a most judicious and candid use of unpublished documents in the Secret -Archives of the Vatican. Dr. H.K. Mann's _Lives of the Popes in the -Middle Ages_,[2] which covers the ground from Gregory I. to Innocent -III., is based upon an ample knowledge of the original authorities, but -is much less candid and reliable, and seems to be intended only for -controversial purposes. Dr. Creighton's learned and judicious _History -of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome_[3] must be -corrected at times by the documents in Pastor. Father H. Grisar's -incomplete _History of Rome and the Popes in the Middle Ages_[4] is -a learned and moderate partisan study of the Papacy in the first -four centuries. The older works of Dr. J. Langer,[5] Dean Milman,[6] -Gregorovius,[7] and Ranke are by no means superfluous to the student, -though more recent research or judgment often corrects them. Less -extensive works will be noted in the course of each chapter, and I -owe much to industrious older authorities like Baronius, Tillemont, -Raynaldus, Mansi, etc. I have, however, had the original authorities -before me throughout. The earlier chapters are, indeed, based almost -entirely on the Latin or Greek sources, and, in the later chapters, -at every point which seemed to inspire differences of judgment I -have carefully weighed the original texts. For the later medićval -period, however, Creighton, Pastor, and Gregorovius have so generously -strengthened their works with quotations and references that, except -at a few points, I may direct the reader to their more comprehensive -studies. The narrow limits which are imposed by the particular purpose -of this work forbid either the constant quoting of passages or the -design of enlarging on some of the remarkable scenes to which it at -times refers. The severe condensation, after the first few chapters, -has entailed a labour only second to that of research, and I can only -trust that the abundance of fact will afford some compensation for the -lack of elegance. Happily the earlier controversial method of writing -Papal history has so far yielded to candid research that the points in -dispute--as far as fact is concerned--are comparatively few. Where they -occur--where grave and accepted historians of any school dissent--the -evidence is more liberally put before the reader. - - J.M. - - Christmas, 1915. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 1: English trans., 1891, etc.] - -[Footnote 2: Ten vols., 1902-1914.] - -[Footnote 3: Six vols., 2d ed., 1897.] - -[Footnote 4: English trans., 1911, etc.] - -[Footnote 5: _Geschichte der römischen Kirche_, 1881, etc.] - -[Footnote 6: _History of Latin Christianity._] - -[Footnote 7: _The City of Rome in the Middle Ages_, English trans., -1900, etc.] - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - Preface iii - - CHAPTER - - I.--St. Callistus and the Early Struggle 1 - - II.--St. Damasus and the Triumph 19 - - III.--Leo the Great, the Last Pope of Imperial Rome 38 - - IV.--Gregory the Great, the First Medićval Pope 55 - - V.--Hadrian I. and the Temporal Power 78 - - VI.--Nicholas I. and the False Decretals 101 - - VII.--John X. and the Iron Century 124 - - VIII.--Hildebrand 141 - - IX.--Innocent III.: The Papal Zenith 171 - - X.--John XXII.: The Court at Avignon 202 - - XI.--John XXIII. and the Great Schism 221 - - XII.--Alexander VI.: The Borgia-Pope 240 - - XIII.--Julius II.: The Fighting Pope 267 - - XIV.--Leo X. and the Dance of Death 285 - - XV.--Paul III. and the Counter-Reformation 310 - - XVI.--Sixtus V. and the New Church 330 - - XVII.--Benedict XIV.: The Scholar-Pope 351 - - XVIII.--Pius VII. and the Revolution 368 - - XIX.--Pius IX. 391 - - XX.--Leo XIII. 414 - - List of the Popes 443 - - Index 451 - - - - -Crises in the History of the Papacy - - - - -Crises in the History of The Papacy - - - - -CHAPTER I - -ST. CALLISTUS AND THE EARLY STRUGGLE - - -At the close of the second century after the birth of Christ the -Christian community at Rome still saw no human prospect of that -spiritual mastery of the world which they trusted some day to attain. -They lived, for the most part, in the Transtiberina, the last and least -reputable section of the great city, beyond the shelter of its walls. -In that squalid and crowded district between the Janiculus and the -Tiber dwelt the fishers and tanners and other poor workers; and the -Jews, and others who shunned the light, found refuge among their lowly -tenements. Near that early ghetto, from which they had issued, most of -the Christians lingered. Still they were a small community, and still -the might of Rome bade them crouch trembling at the gates, lost among -the tombs and gardens of the Vatican or the dense poverty at the foot -of the Janiculus. Across the river they would see, above the fringe -of wharves and warehouses, the spreading line of the Roman people's -palaces, from the Theatre of Pompey to the Great Circus: perhaps -they would hear the roar of the lions which might at any time taste -Christian flesh. Beyond these was the seething popular quarter of the -Velabrum, sending up to heaven at night a confused murmur and a blaze -of light at which the Christians would cross themselves; and on either -side of the Velabrum, the stern guardians of its superstition, were the -hills which bore the gold-roofed temple of Jupiter and the marble city -of the Cćsars. More than one hundred and fifty years had passed since -the death of Christ, yet his followers waited without the gates, little -heeded by the million citizens of Rome. - -The old gods were dying, it is true. In many a cool _atrium_ there -must have been some such discussion about the successor of Jupiter -as has been finely imagined by Anatole France; but assuredly not the -weirdest of the Syrian visionaries who abounded would have said that, -in a few centuries, those neglected fields beside the Neronian Circus -at the foot of the Vatican would become the centre of the world, and -that men and women would come from the farthest limits of the Empire to -kiss the bones of those obscure Christians. Men talked of the progress -of the cult of Mithra, which spread even to distant Eboracum, or the -success of the priests of Isis or of Cybele, but few thought about the -priests of Christ. Earlier in the century, Pliny had written to court -to say that he had found, spreading over his province, a sect named the -Christians, whose beliefs seemed to him "an immoderate superstition"; -though they had, he said, under pressure, abandoned their God in -crowds; and he had little doubt that he would extinguish the sect. Few -even of the Christians can have imagined that within two centuries -their cross would be raised above the proudest monuments of Rome, and -that the eagles of Jove and the rams of Mithra would lie in the dust. - -Toward the end of the second century the Roman Christians can hardly -have numbered twenty thousand. Dr. Döllinger estimates their number -at fifty thousand, but the letter of Bishop Cornelius, on which he -relies, belongs to a later date and is not accurately quoted by him.[8] -The Bishop says that, in his time, the Roman Church had forty-four -priests, fourteen deacons and subdeacons, and ninety-four clerics in -minor orders. The crowd of acolytes and exorcists must not be regarded -in a modern sense; most of them would never be priests. At that time, -there was not a single public chapel in Rome and it would be an -anachronism to regard each of the thirty or forty priests of Rome as a -rector in charge of more than a thousand souls. The Christians gathered -stealthily in the houses of their better-endowed brethren to receive -the sacred elements from poor glass vessels, and Tertullian blushes to -learn that they are found among the panders and gamblers who have to -bribe the officials to overlook their illegal ways.[9] The fact that -they supported fifteen hundred poor, sick, and widows need not surprise -us when we remember what an age of parasitism it was. At least a fourth -of the citizens of Rome lived on free rations and had free medical -service. There were, in fine, thirty years of development between the -time of Cornelius and the time of Callistus.[10] - -Yet, it was nearly a century and a half, tradition said, since Peter -and Paul had baptized crowds on the banks of the Tiber. One cannot -today add anything to the discussion of that tradition and I will very -briefly state the evidence. The First Epistle of Peter--which is not -undisputed--says[11]: "The Church that is in Babylon saluteth you," -and Babylon is very plausibly understood to mean Rome. Next, about the -year 96, Clement of Rome, writing to the Corinthians, speaks vaguely -of a "martyrdom" of Peter and Paul, and seems to imply that it took -place at Rome.[12] About the middle of the following century, we find -it believed in remote parts of the Church--by Papias in Hierapolis and -Dionysius at Corinth--that Peter had preached the Gospel at Rome.[13] -Ignatius of Antioch also seems to imply that Peter and Paul founded -the Roman community.[14] Irenćus and Tertullian and later writers know -even more about it--the later the writer, the more he knows--but the -historian must hesitate to use their works. There is a respectable -early tradition that Peter and Paul preached the Gospel at Rome and -suffered there some kind of martyrdom, during or after the Neronian -persecution. Peter is not called "bishop" of Rome by any writer earlier -than the third century, and the belief that he ruled the Roman Church -for twenty-five years seems to be merely the outcome of some fanciful -calculations of Anti-Pope Hippolytus. - -Of the earlier bishops, Linus and Anacletus (or Anencletus), we know -only the names.[15] Then a faint light is thrown on the metropolitan -Church by the letter of Clement, its third Bishop. We find an ordered -community, with bishop, priests, and deacons; perhaps we conceive it -more accurately if we say, with overseer, elders, and servants. Then -the mists thicken again and a line of undistinguished names is all that -we can discern until the consecration of Bishop Victor in the year 189. - -One would like to know more about Bishop Victor. He seems to have been -the first Pope, in the familiar sense of the word. "Pope" was, we -know, a common title of bishops until the sixth century, but Victor -is one of the makers of a distinctive Papacy. We shall, presently, -find Tertullian speaking, with his heaviest irony, of "the bishop of -bishops, the supreme pontiff," and, although he is probably referring -to Callistus, he is echoing the words of some other bishop. History -points to Victor, who peremptorily cut off the Eastern churches from -communion because they would not celebrate Easter when he did. They -were not much concerned, but Victor's premature assertion of leadership -marks the beginning of the Papacy. - -The Roman Church was wealthier than those of the East, or had a few -wealthy members in the city. It sent sums of money to more needy -communities and received flattering requests for advice. It was, -however, singularly lacking in intellectual distinction, and it -produced no scholar to refute the subtle Gnostics and fiery Montanists -who came to it. The waves of heresy which raged over the East broke -harmlessly on the Italian shore of Christendom. One must not imagine -that it was isolated from the East by difference of tongue. Until the -end of the third century, it was wholly Greek: more isolated from Rome -than from Corinth. Nor is it less inaccurate to say that the Latins -were more interested in administration than in speculation. There is -little trace of organization until the days of Callistus. One is more -disposed to conceive the Roman Church shivering in poverty amid the -wealth and culture of the metropolis. The disdainful language of the -intellectuals and the wonderful success of Stoicism in the second -century excluded it from the educated world; while its secrecy, its -stern abstinence from games and festivals, its scorn of the gods, and -the shadow of deadly illegality which brooded over it, made it less -successful in appealing to the people than the other Eastern religions. - -If, however, the Roman See made little impression in Rome, it made some -progress in the Church. As the fragments of Papias and Dionysius show, -Christians were saying, far away in the East, that it had been founded -by Peter; and the Gospels plainly made Peter the chief of the apostles. -The Roman See did not yet speak of having inherited the primacy of -Peter, and it had very little share in the prestige of Rome. It must -rise higher in the eyes of men, and at the end of the second century it -was rising. Marcia, the robust ex-slave who shared the brutal pleasures -of Commodus and was mistress of his harem of three hundred concubines, -had a grateful recollection of earlier Christian kindness, and she -secured peace and favour for the Church. Here it is that, for the first -time, a clear light falls upon the Christian community at Rome and upon -its bishops. - -In the year 217 (or 218), Bishop Callistus succeeded Bishop Zephyrin, -who had followed Victor. From the fourth century he has been counted -one of the greatest of the early Popes. Two of the historic cemeteries -bore his name, and there were a Church of St. Callistus (or Calixtus, -as the Latins sometimes misspell it) and a Square of St. Callistus -in the Trastevere district. Martyrologies honoured him as a witness -to the faith, and (probably from the seventh century) the _Acta_ of -his martyrdom, including a most impressive account of his virtues -and miracles, might be consulted in the archives of Sta. Maria in -Trastevere. From these materials, Moretti composed an eloquent -biography of the saint, and even the Bollandists, more discreetly, -and with disturbing hints that Christian scholars were saying naughty -things about the _Acta S. Callisti_, set their learned seal upon his -diploma of sanctity and martyrdom. - -Contemporary with Callistus, the saint and martyr, was Hippolytus, the -scholar and saint and martyr. They were the two shining jewels of the -Roman Church. The many works of Hippolytus had strangely disappeared, -and tradition was not even sure of which town he had been Bishop; but -there was evidence enough to connect him with the Roman Church and to -justify the claim that he was the Origen of the West. When, in 1551, -a broken marble statue of Hippolytus was discovered at Rome, it was -devoutly restored and set up in the Lateran Museum. And just three -hundred years afterwards, in 1851, there was given to the world a -lost work of the saintly scholar, from which it is plain that he was -the first Anti-Pope, and that the Pope whom he opposed and reviled -was Callistus. The first book of this work, the _Refutation of all -Heresies_ (sometimes called the _Philosophoumena_), had long been -known; the manuscript copy of Books IV. to X. was found in a monastery -on Mount Athos in 1842. Now that the true character of Hippolytus is -known, some doubt has been cast upon his scholarship, but it was -considerable for his age and environment. He was one of the very few -scholars of the Roman Church during several centuries, and one chapter -of his work throws an interesting light on the person of Callistus and -on a remarkable phase of the development of the Papacy. - -The controversy about the authorship of the book and about the charges -against Callistus has brought to bear upon that period all the -available light; and the modern student will probably find the truth -somewhere between the extremes held by the contending historians of -the nineteenth century.[16] De Rossi himself, indeed, while pretending -to support, entirely discredits the arguments with which Döllinger, in -his years of orthodoxy, sought to defend the impeccability of the Popes -and to prove the moral obliquity of all who opposed them. The Italian -archćologist, it is true, imputes to Hippolytus a malice which goes ill -with _his_ reputation for sanctity, but perhaps we shall be able to -extricate ourselves from this painful dilemma without grave detriment -to the character of either saint. - -Callistus was, in the days of Commodus, a slave of the Christian -Carpophorus, according to the _Liber Pontificalis_.[17] He was the -son of a certain Domitius who lived in the Transtiberina. The master -entrusted the slave with money to open a bank, and the faithful put -their savings into it, but it became known after a time that Callistus -had--to quote the text literally--"brought all the money to naught -and was in difficulties." He fled to the Port of Rome, whence, after -leaping into the sea in despair, he was brought back to the house of -Carpophorus and put in the _pistrinum_, the domestic mill in which -slaves expiated their crimes. The faithful, prompted by Callistus, -begged his release on the ground that he had money on loan and could -repay. He had no money, however, and he could think of nothing better -than to make a disturbance in the synagogue on the Sabbath, for which -the Jews took him before the Prefect Fuscianus[18] and described him as -a Christian. He was scourged and was sent to the silver or iron mines -of Sardinia--the Siberia of the Empire--from which few returned. But, -shortly afterwards, Marcia obtained the release of the Christians, and -although Bishop Victor had not included the name of Callistus in the -list, Callistus persuaded the eunuch to insert it. Victor, however, -reflecting on the hostility of his victims, sent him to live, on a -pension provided by the Church, at Antium. - -This narrative has been subjected to the most meticulous criticism, -as if it were something novel or important to accuse a Pope of having -committed certain indiscretions in his youth. It suffices to say that, -while Döllinger is, in the end, reduced to claiming that Hippolytus -was probably not in Rome at the time, the more learned De Rossi is -so impressed by the minuteness and (as far as it can be checked) the -accuracy of the account that he believes Hippolytus to have been a -deacon of the Church at the time and so to have had official knowledge -of the facts. The single point of any importance is open to a humane -interpretation. Did or did not Callistus embezzle the money? If he did, -how came he to be elected bishop? If he did not, how comes his sainted -rival to call him, as he does, a fraud and impostor? We may remember -that financial troubles of this kind are peculiarly open to opposite -interpretations. Hippolytus, Victor, and Carpophorus, it seems, took -the less charitable view; but it would not be unnatural for others to -persuade themselves, or be persuaded by Callistus, that he was merely -the victim of circumstances. - -Victor died in 198 and was succeeded by Zephyrin, "an ignorant and -illiterate man," says Hippolytus. Callistus, who had ceased to be a -slave when he was sentenced to penal servitude, was recalled to Rome -and, apparently, made first deacon (now called archdeacon) of the -Church. He was put in charge of a cemetery in the Appian Way which the -community had just secured, and this cemetery bears his name to this -day. Hippolytus, who was indignant, charges Callistus with ambition, -and says that Zephyrin was avaricious and open to bribes; which we may -humanely construe to mean that the able administration of Callistus -enabled the Bishop to live in some comfort. Nor need we despair of -finding a genial interpretation of his further charge, that the deacon -induced Zephyrin to meddle with questions of dogma, and then, behind -the Bishop's back, diplomatically sympathized with both the contending -parties. The truth is that the Latins were sorely puzzled by the -subtleties with which the Greeks were slowly and fiercely shaping the -dogma that the Father and Son were one nature, yet two persons, and -both Zephyrin and Callistus stumbled. - -Callistus is further described as assisting Zephyrin in the "coercion," -or, as others translate, the "organization" of the clergy, and this -point is of greater interest. As far as one can construe the barbarous -Latin of the _Liber Pontificalis_, Zephyrin decreed that the priests -were not to consecrate the communion for the people. The sacred -elements were to be brought to them, on glass patens, from the altar -at which the bishop said mass. Probably this is the "coercion" to -which Hippolytus refers, as the aim was, plainly, to emphasize the -subordination of the clergy. I would further venture to suggest, -against the learned Father Grisar, that this was also the occasion when -the sphere of the Roman bishop was divided into twenty-five _tituli_ -(or parishes). The _Liber Pontificalis_ describes how Urban I., the -successor of Callistus, substituted silver for glass vessels at the -altar, and expressly speaks of "twenty-five patens." - -We must conclude that Callistus was able as well as persuasive, and -we are not surprised to learn that, when Zephyrin died in 217 (or, -according to another account, 218) he was chosen Bishop. It was -customary, until long afterwards, to choose the bishop from the body of -deacons, but Hippolytus and his friends were indignant at the election -of the ex-slave, and a schism occurred. Hippolytus had the support of -the minority of precisians and correct believers: Callistus was the -favourite of the majority. Epithets of which the modern mind can hardly -appreciate the gravity were hurled from camp to camp. "Patripassian," -thundered Hippolytus; "Ditheist" retorted Callistus. It is quite clear -that the scholar set up a rival See at Rome. He says that Callistus, -when he was elected, "thought" that he had attained his ambition, and -this must mean that he claimed himself to be the true Bishop of Rome. -Later tradition, concealing the ugly schism, left the bishopric of -Hippolytus in the air, or placed it at the Port of Rome, twenty miles -away. But this picture of daily combats implies that both bishops were -in Rome, and the little flock was rent and agitated by the first Papal -schism. - -The dogmatic issue between the rivals cannot profitably be discussed -here. The Church was then in an early phase of the great Trinitarian -controversy, and, under Victor and Zephyrin, the Roman clergy had -favoured the simpler, or unitarian, view. Sabellius, who has given his -name to one form of unitarianism, was in Rome and was supported by the -deacon Callistus: indeed, his rival says that it was Callistus who -seduced Sabellius. However that may be, Callistus shrewdly perceived -he could not meet his learned opponent on that ground. He disowned -Sabellius, and soon lost himself in a maze of technical theology into -which I will not venture to follow him. To theologians I leave also the -discussion of the charge that Callistus favoured the rebaptizing of -converted heretics. - -It is the charges of a practical or disciplinary nature which best -illustrate the character of Callistus and make his Pontificate a -milestone in the history of the Papacy. When we have made every -possible allowance for exaggeration, they show that Callistus infused a -remarkable spirit of liberalism into the Christian discipline and made -smooth for the tender feet of the Romans the rough ways of his Church. - -The first charge is that Callistus admitted grave sinners to communion, -if they did penance. The ancient discipline is well known. Those who -committed one "mortal" sin after baptism could never again be admitted -to communion. They were the pariahs of the community, bearing in the -eyes of all the ineffaceable brand of their sin. There was as yet no -central power to define mortal sins, but sins of the flesh were, beyond -doubt, in that category, and, as such were not uncommon at Rome, a -rigorous insistence on the old discipline hampered the growth of the -Church. Callistus, with princely liberality, abolished it. "I hear," -says Tertullian, "that an edict has gone forth. The supreme Pontiff, -that is to say, the Bishop of Bishops, announces: I will absolve -even those who are guilty of adultery and fornication, if they do -penance."[19] So the narrow gates were opened a little wider to the -warm-blooded Romans, and the Church grew. - -But, while modern sentiment will genially applaud this act of the first -liberal Pope, the fifth charge in the indictment, which I take up next, -seems graver. The Greek text of Hippolytus is here particularly corrupt -and ambiguous, but the translation given by the Rev. J.M. Macmahon in -the _Ante-Nicene Library_ is generally faithful: - - For even also he permitted females, if they were unwedded and burned - with passion at an age at all events unbecoming [more probably, at a - seasonable age], or [and] if they were not disposed to overturn their - dignity through a legal marriage, that they might have whomsoever they - would choose as a bedfellow, whether a slave or free [freedman], and - that they, though not legally married, might consider such an one as a - husband.[20] - -The Bishop goes on to describe in technical language, which need not be -reproduced here, how the practice of abortion spread among Christian -ladies as a result of this license. - -The apparent gravity of the charge has, however, so far disappeared -since the days of Döllinger that we are now asked to admire the bold -and exalted charity of Callistus. He is, of course, referring to the -Roman law which forbade the widow or daughter of a senator, under -pain of losing her dignity of _clarissima_, to marry a free-born man -of lower condition; a slave or freedman she could not validly marry. -There cannot have been very many ladies of senatorial rank in the -Church at that time, seeing that, seventy years after the conversion -of Constantine, St. Augustine found "nearly the whole of the nobility" -still pagan.[21] There were, however, some, as the inscriptions in -the Catacombs show, and their position was painful. They must either -mate with a Christian slave or freedman, and be regarded by the law -and their neighbours as living in concubinage: or marry a free-born -Christian of low degree and thus forfeit their rank: or devote their -virginity or their widowhood to God. The Church was concerned that they -should not marry pagan senators, who would scoff at their superstitions -and would dissipate their fortunes. Callistus told them that he would -recognize as valid in conscience unions with slaves or freedmen -which the State did not countenance. The number of ladies to whom -the license extended must have been small, and Hippolytus evidently -exaggerates the occasional scandals which followed. The impartial -historian, however, will hardly regard the action of Callistus as a -humanitarian protest against caste-distinctions. Such distinctions were -maintained by the Church for centuries afterwards in its legislation -about the clergy, and, on the other hand, the measure was profitable to -the Church. In practice, indeed, these secret marriages would easily -lead to disorder. A Christian lady would, if she were to keep her union -secret, merely choose a "husband" among her slaves or freedmen, and -would be tempted to use illicit means when her "marriage" threatened to -be exposed too plainly to pagan eyes. - -The other charges against Callistus show a general policy of -liberality. He decreed that a bishop who was convicted of mortal sin -was not necessarily to be deposed: he permitted men who had been twice -or thrice married to become deacons or priests: he directed that "men -in orders" must not be disturbed if they married. Some writers think -that, in the latter case, he was referring only to men in minor orders, -but that would not have been a daring innovation. Hippolytus, in fact, -makes his policy and his character clearer by telling us, indignantly, -how Callistus searched the Scriptures for proof that the Church must -be wide enough to embrace both saints and sinners. There had been -clean and unclean animals in the ark: Christ had said that the tares -must grow up with the wheat: and so on. His reputation for liberality -spread so far in the Church that, while Tertullian grumbled in Africa, -a quaint Syrian charlatan named Alcibiades was attracted from the East -to Rome. He brought a mystic work, given to him by two angels of the -imposing height of ninety-six miles each, and he proclaimed that his -new form of baptism absolved even from certain gross sins which he very -freely and suggestively described. - -The Church grew during these years of peace, of able organization, and -of humanization. Callistus "made a _basilica_ beyond the Tiber"--the -_Liber Pontificalis_ says--and there is an interesting passage in the -_Historia Augusta_ which seems to refer to this first Christian chapel -at Rome. The biographer of Alexander Severus says (c. xliii.) that the -Emperor wished to give the Christians the right to have public chapels, -but his officials protested that "the temples would be deserted--all -Rome would become Christian." This is obviously a piece of later -Christian fiction. In a more plausible paragraph, however, Lampridius -tells us that the Christians occupied a "public place," to which the -innkeepers laid claim, and the Emperor decided that "it was better -for God to be worshipped there in some form than for the innkeepers -to have it." It is probable enough that this inn is the _taverna -meritoria_ (wine shop and restaurant) referred to by Dio Cassius[22]: -among the portents which accompanied the struggles of Octavian a -stream of oil had burst forth in this hostel in the Transtiberina. -We know from Orosius[23] that the Christians claimed the occurrence -in later years as a presage of the coming of Christ. The age, if not -the disputed ownership, of the place suggests a dilapidated, if not -deserted, building; and if we may in one detail trust that interesting -romance, the _Acta S. Callisti_, we have a picture of the Christians of -the third century meeting at last, under their enterprising Bishop, -in the upper or dining room of this humble old inn in the despised -Transtiberina. This was the high-water mark of a century and a half of -progress. - -Only one other act is authentically recorded of the brief rule of -Bishop Callistus: he directed his people to fast on three Sabbaths in -the year. This may seem inconsistent with his genial policy, but we -must remember that rigorists abounded at Rome and demanded sterner -ways. Callistus, apparently, merely sanctioned some slight traditional -observance and thus virtually relieved the faithful of others. - -It may be fascinating to conjecture what so enterprising a Pope would -have done with the ecclesiastical system if he had lived long enough, -but Callistus died, according to the best authorities, in the year 222, -four or five years after his consecration. He did not die a martyr. In -opening his account of the career of Callistus, the rival Bishop says: -"This man suffered martyrdom when Fuscianus was Prefect, and this was -the sort of martyrdom he suffered." It is inconceivable that Hippolytus -should use such language in Rome after the death of Callistus if the -Pope had really suffered for the faith. No Christian was executed at -Rome under Alexander Severus. We must suppose that after his death, if -not during his life, Callistus was applauded as a martyr because of his -banishment to Sardinia, and probably this gave rise to the legend of -his martyrdom, which first appears, as a bald statement, in the fourth -century. The _Acta S. Callisti_ may be traced to about the seventh -century, and may be a pious contribution to the rejoicing of the -faithful at the transfer of his bones to Sta. Maria in Trastevere.[24] -The recklessness with which the writer describes the gentle and -friendly Alexander Severus as a truculent enemy of the Christians was -noted even by medićval historians, and the narrative is now regarded -as, in the words of Döllinger, "a piece of fiction from beginning to -end." Yet Father Grisar[25] describes Callistus as a martyr. - -Hippolytus maintained his little schism under Urban I. and Pontianus, -while the orthodox community prospered in the sun of imperial favour. -Then the grim Maximinus succeeded Alexander on the throne, and the -clouds gather again over Christendom. We just discern Pope and -Anti-Pope, Pontianus and Hippolytus, passing together to the deadly -mines of Sardinia. Later legend generously reconciled the rivals and -gave to both of them the martyr's crown; but the authority is late and -worthless. In whatever manner he ended his career, Rome was too proud -of its one scholar to darken his memory, and the names of Hippolytus -and Callistus shone together in ecclesiastical literature until that -fateful discovery among the dusty parchments of the monks of Mount -Athos. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 8: It is preserved in Eusebius, _Ecclesiastical History_, -vi., 43.] - -[Footnote 9: _De Fuga a Persecutione_, xiii.] - -[Footnote 10: The number of interments in the Catacombs cannot very -well be regarded as evidence. Archćologists differ by millions in -estimating the number, and the populous Church after Constantine still -buried in the Catacombs, at least until the Pontificate of Damasus.] - -[Footnote 11: V., 13.] - -[Footnote 12: _Epistle_, v.] - -[Footnote 13: See Eusebius, ii., 15, and iii., 40, for the words of -Papias, and ii., 25, for the testimony of Dionysius.] - -[Footnote 14: _Letter to Romans_, iv.] - -[Footnote 15: Even the names and order are given differently in early -writers. I follow, as is now usual, the order given by Epiphanius -(xxvii., 6) and Irenćus.] - -[Footnote 16: Bunsen's four-volume _Hippolytus and his Age_ (1852) was -sharply attacked by Döllinger (_Hippolytus and Callistus_, English -translation, 1876) and more judiciously handled by G.B. de Rossi in his -_Bulletino di Archeologia Cristiana_ (1866, pp. 1-33). Milman (_History -of Latin Christianity_, vol. i.) and Ch. Wordsworth (_St. Hippolytus -and the Church of Rome_, 1853) supported Bunsen. The work itself is -translated in _The Ante-Nicene Library_, vol. vi.] - -[Footnote 17: This anonymous catalogue of the Popes, which I must often -quote, is a quaint mixture of accurate archives and inaccurate rumours. -The first part seems to have been written in the sixth century, and -it was continued as a semi-official record. See the Introduction to -Duchesne's edition.] - -[Footnote 18: Fuscianus was Prefect between the years 186 and 189, so -that we have an approximate date of these events.] - -[Footnote 19: _De Pudicitia_, i. Döllinger, on no apparent ground, -and against all probability, refers this to Zephyrin, and some older -writers think that the indignant Puritan is quoting an African bishop. -We must agree with De Rossi that Tertullian has Callistus in mind, -especially when we find Hippolytus saying that he was "the first" to do -this. An earlier attempt of an Eastern bishop might easily have escaped -Hippolytus.] - -[Footnote 20: Vol. vi., p. 346. This is a fair, if inelegant, rendering -of the Greek text given by Duncker and Schneidewin in their edition -of the _Refutation_, and it corresponds with the Latin translation -given by those editors and with De Rossi. Döllinger is alone in his -interpretation.] - -[Footnote 21: _Confessions_, viii., 2.] - -[Footnote 22: XLVIII.] - -[Footnote 23: VI., 18.] - -[Footnote 24: Neither this church nor the Basilica S. Callisti can -have been the original meeting-place, though the latter may have been -founded on it.] - -[Footnote 25: _History of Rome and the Popes in the Early Middle Ages_, -i,. 313.] - - - - -CHAPTER II - -ST. DAMASUS AND THE TRIUMPH - - -In the year 355, the Christians of the imperial city startled their -neighbours by a series of violent and threatening demonstrations. Armed -crowds of them filled the streets, and monks and sacred virgins hid -themselves from the riot. An inquiring pagan would have learned that -the Emperor Constantius, who had waded to supremacy through a stream -of blood, was attempting to force on their Bishop and themselves the -damnable heresy of Arius. A few weeks before, Constantius had sent -his eunuch with rich presents to Liberius, suavely asking him to -condemn a certain fiery Athanasius who resisted the heresy. Liberius -had courageously refused, and, when the eunuch had cunningly left the -gifts beside the tomb of St. Peter, the Bishop had had them cast out -of the church. When the exasperated eunuch had returned to the Emperor -at Milan, the Christian community had prepared for drastic action, and -it was presently known that the civic officials at Rome had received -orders to seize the Bishop and send him to Milan. The Christians -threatened resistance, and for a few days the city was enlivened by -their turbulence. At last, Liberius was dragged from his house at night -and taken to Milan; and, since he bravely resisted the Emperor to his -face, he was sent on to remote and inhospitable Thrace. Then the -clergy, and as many of the faithful as could enter, gathered in their -handsome new _basilica_ on the site of the Laterani Palace and swore -a great oath that they would know no other bishop as long as Liberius -lived. One, at least, of the clergy set out--no doubt amidst the cheers -of the people--to accompany his Bishop into exile; this was the deacon -Damasus, who was destined to be the next Pope of prominence in the -Roman calendar. - -The scene reminds us forcibly of the dramatic transformation which -had taken place since, a century before, Pope and Anti-Pope had been -sent in chains to the mines. For fifty years after that date the -_Liber Pontificalis_ is a necrology, a chronicle of gloomy life in -the Catacombs. Eleven Popes out of the thirteen who followed Urban I. -are--most of them wrongly--described as martyrs, and the record of -their actions shrinks to a few lines. At last, with Bishop Eusebius, -the chronicle brightens and lengthens; and then, under the name of -Silvester, it swells to thirty pages and glows with tokens of imperial -generosity. The darkest hour of the Church has suddenly changed into a -dazzling splendour. - -The historical revolution reflected in this early chronicle of the -Popes is well known. For eighty years after the death of Callistus, the -hope of the faithful was painfully strained. The Decian persecution -(249-251) sent some to the heroic death of the martyr, many to the -corrupt officials who sold false certificates of apostasy, and very -many back to the pagan temples. Then another schism and another -Anti-Pope appeared; and the alliance with St. Cyprian and the African -bishops, which had at first promised aid against the schismatics, ended -in a contemptuous repudiation by the African bishops of Rome's claim -to jurisdiction. The Valerian persecution dissolved the feud in blood, -and, then, forty years of peace enabled the Roman Christians to recover -and to extend their domain. Two or three small _basilicć_ were erected -or adapted. But, in the year 303, the new hope was chilled by the -dreaded summons of the persecutor, and, for the last time, stern-set -men and gentle maidens set out to face the headsman. Rome did not -suffer much in the next seven years of persecution, but one can imagine -the feelings of the faithful when they saw century thus succeed century -without bringing any larger hope even of a free place in the sun. And -then, in rapid succession, came the triumph of Constantine, the issue -of their charter of liberty (the Edict of Milan, 313), the imperial -profession of Christianity, the grant to the Christian clergy of the -privileges of Roman priests, and the building of large _basilicć_ -and scattering of gold and silver over their marble altars. Even the -transfer of the court to Constantinople hardly dimmed the new hope. -It remained "a new form of ambition to desert the altars," the pagans -murmured, and no one dare thwart the zeal of the clergy. - -So, by the year 355, when deacon Damasus makes an inglorious entrance -into history, Rome had a large Christian community and at least half -a dozen churches. But Christendom was now overcast by the triumph of -Arianism and an Arian Emperor, and the struggle put an insupportable -strain on the character of the faithful. At first, the prospect at Rome -was brave and inspiring. They would all be true to their martyr-bishop; -with that thrilling cry in his ears the deacon set out for Thrace. In a -very short time, he was back in Rome, having changed his mind: "fired -with ambition," his critics said. And, in another short time, the chief -deacon Felix, who also had taken the oath, listened to the Arian -court and became Bishop of Rome; and Damasus and most of the clergy -transferred their loyalty to him. Then, in two or three years, Liberius -grew tired of Thrace, and signed some sort of heretical formula, and -came back to Rome; and the bloody struggle of Pope and Anti-Pope led to -a train of sorrows which darken the life of St. Damasus. - -He had been born, probably at Rome, though his father is said to have -been a Spaniard, about the year 304.[26] The father had been a priest -in the service of the little _basilica_ of St. Lawrence in the city--I -am not impressed by Marucchi's contention that he was a bishop--and had -brought up Damasus in the same service. The mother Laurentia was pious: -the sister Irene consecrated her virginity to God. Damasus became, -and remained, a deacon, and was at least in his fiftieth year when he -turned his back upon the heroic road to Thrace. He was popular in the -new Christian Rome, which Jerome describes so darkly; envious folk -called him "the tickler of matrons' ears," and even worse. But we lose -sight of him again for ten years after his first appearance.[27] - -The events of those ten years are, however, important for the -understanding of Damasus and his Church, and must be briefly reviewed. -That the clergy had, in the presence of the people, sworn to be true to -Liberius, and that the majority of them broke their oath, is confirmed -by St. Jerome in his Chronicle. Jerome, a decisive authority, tells -also of the fall of Liberius, and this is also recorded by Athanasius, -who writes the whole story. When Felix consented to be made bishop, -the people were so infuriated that he had to be consecrated by the -Emperor's Arian bishops in the palace: a group of eunuchs nominally -representing the people, who raged without. Most of the clergy accepted -Felix, but a minority, with the mass of the people, refused to do so, -and, for two years, he gave his blessing to very thin congregations, -or to empty benches. Then the Emperor came to Rome, and an imposing -deputation of noble Christian ladies prevailed on him to recall -Liberius. The Great Circus provided a new sensation for its 400,000 -idlers when an imperial messenger announced that henceforward Liberius -and Felix would rule their respective flocks side by side in Rome. -"Two circus-factions, so two bishops," the pagan majority ironically -replied: but the Christian laity ominously thundered, "One God, one -Christ, one Bishop." So when Liberius, "overcome by the weariness of -exile and embracing the heretical perversity" (says St. Jerome in his -Chronicle), returned to Rome, he was received "as a conqueror." His -loyal flock, finely indifferent to the way in which he had purchased -his return, lined the route as men had done to welcome a triumphing -general in the old days. - -This must have been about the end of 357 or the beginning of 358, -and we shall not dwell on the scenes which followed. Felix and his -followers were driven out of the city. Getting reinforcements, -apparently, they returned and took possession of the Basilica Julii -in the Transtiberina; but the mass of the faithful, led by Christian -senators or officers, took the church by storm, and again swept them -out of Rome. The _Liber Pontificalis_ records that a number of the -clergy were slain in the battle, and, becoming hopelessly confused -between Pope and Anti-Pope, it awards these followers of Felix the -palm of martyrdom. But it appears that the Felicians were strong, and -for six years held several of the smaller churches; rival clerics and -laymen could not meet in the baths and streets without violent results. -However, Felix died in 365, and Liberius wisely adopted his clerical -supporters.[28] - -Damasus remains in decent obscurity during these years, and we may -assume that he repented his mistake, and renewed his allegiance to -Liberius. But Liberius followed his rival in the next year (366) and -the real career of Damasus opened. A well-known passage in the _Res -Gestć_ of the contemporary pagan Ammianus Marcellinus[29] tells how, by -that time, the Bishop of Rome scoured the city in a gorgeous chariot, -gave banquets which excelled those of the Emperor, and received the -smiles and rich presents of all the fine ladies of Rome; and the -querulous old soldier is not surprised, he says, that Damasus and his -rival Ursicinus (as the name runs in official documents) were "swollen -with ambition" for the seat, and stirred up riots so fierce that the -Prefect was driven out of Rome, and, after one fight, a hundred and -thirty-seven corpses were left on the floor of one of the "Christian -conventicles." Jerome,[30] Rufinus,[31] and other ecclesiastical -writers of the time place the fatal rioting beyond question, and we may -therefore, with a prudent reserve, follow the closer description given -in the _Libellus_. - -As soon as the death of Liberius became known, in September, 366, -the remnant of his original supporters met in the Basilica Julii, -across the river, and elected the deacon Ursicinus, who was at once -consecrated by a provincial bishop. It was an act of defiance to -Damasus, the popular candidate, whom they were determined to exclude. -Then, say these writers, Damasus gathered and bribed a mob, armed with -staves, and for three days there was a bloody fight for the possession -of the basilica. A week after the death of Liberius (or on October -1st), Damasus marched with his mob, now effectively reinforced by -gladiators, to the Lateran Basilica, and was consecrated there. After -this, he bribed the Prefect Viventius to expel seven priests of the -rival party, but the people rescued them and conducted them to the -Basilica Liberii, or Basilica Sicinini (now Sta. Maria Maggiore), in -the poor quarter across the river. In this chapel the rebels were -at worship in the early morning of October 26th when a crowd of -gladiators, charioteers, diggers (or guardians of the Catacombs), and -other ruffians (in the pay of Damasus, of course) fell on them with -staves, swords, and axes, and an historic fight ensued. The Damasians -stormed the barricaded door, fired the sacred building, mounted the -roof, and flung tiles on the Ursicinians. In the end the corpses of one -hundred and sixty--Ammianus was too modest--followers of Ursicinus, -of both sexes, lay on the floor of the blood-splashed chapel, and -Ursicinus and his chief supporters were sent into exile. - -Such is the tale of woe of the priests Faustinus and Marcellinus, and -there is no doubt whatever that for months the most savage encounters -desecrated the chapels and Catacombs of Rome. As to whether Damasus was -or was not elected in his Church of St. Lawrence in the city _before_ -the election of Ursicinus the authorities are not agreed; and it must -be left to the decision of the reader whether those who secured his -triumph were really a hired mob of gladiators and diggers or a troop of -pious and indignant admirers. Jerome, whose modern biographer, Amédée -Thierry,[32] plausibly contends that he was studying in Rome at the -time, expressly says that the followers of his patron Damasus were the -aggressors, and that many men and women were slain. Rufinus is more -favourable to the cause of Damasus, but he admits that the churches -were "filled with blood." - -The Emperor seems not to have been convinced by the report of the -triumphant faction, and in the following year he permitted Ursicinus -and his followers to return to Rome. But the trouble was renewed, and -the Anti-Pope was again banished. His obstinate admirers then met in -the Catacombs, and another fierce and fatal fight occurred in the -cemetery of St. Agnes, where the servants of Damasus surprised them. -It is clear that Damasus had the support of the wealthy and the favour -of the pagan officials, but his rival must have controlled a very -large, if not the larger, part of the people. The forces engaged, -and the growth of the Christian body, may be estimated from the fact -that, as Ammianus says, the Prefect Viventius was compelled to retire -to the suburbs. He was promptly replaced, in the attempt to control -the rioters, by the ruthless and impartial Maximinus, the Prefect of -the Food-distribution; and clerics and laymen were indiscriminately -put to the torture and punished. At length, in 368, one of the last of -the sober old Roman patricians, Prćtextatus, became Prefect, and put -an end to the riots. The reflections of Prćtextatus and Symmachus and -other cultivated pagans are not recorded, but we are told by St. Jerome -that, when Damasus endeavoured to convert the Prefect, he mischievously -replied: "Make me Bishop of Rome and I will be a Christian." - -Ursicinus went to din his grievances into the ears of provincial -bishops, and there seems to be good ground for the statement in the -_Libellus_ that some of these were indignant with Damasus. It is -at least clear that Damasus went on to obtain from the Emperor a -concession of the most far-reaching character. The imperial rescript -making this concession--one of the really important steps in the -history of the Papacy and of the Church--has strangely disappeared, -but we find the bishops of a later Roman synod (in 378 or 379) writing -to Gratian and Valentinian that, when Ursicinus was banished, the -Emperors had decreed that "the Roman bishop should have power to -inquire into the conduct of the other priests of the churches, and -that affairs of religion should be judged by the pontiff of religion -with his colleagues."[33] A later rescript of Gratian indicates that -the Bishop of Rome was to have five or seven colleagues with him in -these inquiries[34]; and further light is thrown on the matter by St. -Ambrose who observes[35] that, by a decree of Valentinian, a defendant -in a religious dispute was to have a judge of a fitting character (a -cleric) and of at least equal rank. Possibly the truculent impartiality -of Maximinus was the immediate occasion for asking this privilege, and -Valentinian would not find it unseemly that bishops should adjudicate -on these new types of quarrels. But we have in this last document -the germ of great historical developments. The clergy were virtually -withdrawn from secular jurisdiction; the spiritual court was set up in -face of the secular. Moreover, if defendants were to be judged only by -their equals, who was to judge the Bishop of Rome? - -Damasus at once used his powers. He convoked a synod at Rome, and we -may realize the enormous progress that the Church had made in fifty -years when we learn that ninety-three Italian bishops responded to his -summons. On a charge of favouring Arianism, which seems to cloak a -real charge of favouring Ursicinus, the bishops of Parma and Puteoli -were deposed by the synod, and they appealed in vain to the court. -Henceforward bishops--under the presidency of the Bishop of Rome--were -to judge bishops. The cultivated and courtly Auxentius of Milan was -next condemned, but he was too secure in the favour of the Empress to -do more than smile. Neither he nor his great successor, St. Ambrose, -acknowledged any authority over them on the part of the Roman bishop. - -From this synod, moreover, the bishops wrote to the Emperor to ask that -secular officials should be instructed to enforce their jurisdiction -and sentences, and we shall hardly be unjust if we suspect the direct -or indirect suggestion of Damasus in their further requests. They -asked that bishops might be tried _either_ by the Bishop of Rome _or_ -by a council of fifteen bishops, and that the Bishop of Rome himself -might, "if his case were not laid before an (episcopal) council," -defend himself before the Imperial Council.[36] This bold attempt of -the Roman bishop to judge all bishops, yet be judged by none, seems -to have displeased the Emperor, who may have consulted the Bishop of -Milan. We have, at least, no indication that the privilege was granted. -But the other points were granted, and instructions were issued to -the secular officers, in Gaul as well as in Italy, apprising them of -the juridical autonomy of the Church and of their duty to enforce its -decisions. Out of his troubles Damasus had won a most important step in -the making of the Papacy. - -Unfriendly critics might suggest that Damasus paid a price for these -powers. A curious passage in the historian Socrates[37] tells us that, -in the year 370, Valentinian decreed that every man might henceforward -marry two wives. The statement is often rejected as preposterous, -but we know that Valentinian had, shortly before, divorced his wife, -Severa, in favour of the more comely Justina, and it is probable enough -that he passed a law of divorce. The learned Tillemont blushes when -he finds no ecclesiastical protest at the time against this flagrant -return to pagan morals. - -However that may be, Damasus, from his palace by the Lateran Basilica, -continued to strengthen his new authority and to regulate the -disordered Church. Rome still harboured numbers of rebels, and they -seem to have caused him serious annoyance by a persistent charge that, -in earlier years, he had sinned with a Roman matron. A converted -and relapsed Jew was put forward as the chief witness to the charge, -and, when the young Emperor Gratian had failed to impress Rome by -his personal assurance that Damasus was innocent, a Roman synod of -forty-four bishops professed to investigate and dismiss the accusation. -Ursicinus was now, however, living at Milan, and it is not implausibly -suggested that his insistence made some impression on the puritanical -young Emperor. The case was submitted to the Council of Aquileia in -380, at which St. Ambrose presided, and the bishops declared the -innocence of Damasus and demanded the secular punishment of his -accusers, who were now scattered over Europe. The Roman rebels then -masked their hostility by joining an eccentric, though orthodox, sect -in the capital whose ascetic leader bore the name of Lucifer. On these -Luciferians in turn the hand of Damasus fell with ruthless severity. -Their renowned Macarius, the champion faster of the time outside the -Egyptian desert, was physically dragged into court and banished, and -the "police" pursued them from one secret meeting-place to another. -It is at this time that Faustinus and Marcellinus, who had joined the -rigorous sect, addressed their _Libellus_ to the Emperors. - -Over the remainder of Italy and over Gaul Damasus did not press the -virtual primacy which he had won from the imperial authorities, and the -later language of Leo and Gregory makes it advisable for us to grasp -clearly the situation in the fourth century. There was no question of -Papal supremacy. No important decision was reached by Damasus apart -from a synod, and the See of Milan was not regarded as subordinate in -authority to that of Rome; though St. Ambrose naturally expressed a -peculiar respect for the doctrinal tradition of a church that had been -founded by the great apostles. When the Spanish Priscillianists applied -to Italy for aid, they appealed, says Sulpicius Severus, "to the _two_ -bishops who had the highest authority at that time." When the great -struggle with the pagan senators over the statue of Victory took place -in 382, it was Ambrose who championed Christianity, Damasus merely -sending to him the Roman petition. But Damasus knew the theoretical -strength of his position, and knew, as a rule, when to enforce it. In -378, the Emperors severed Illyricum (Greece, Epirus, Thessaly, and -Macedonia) from the Western Empire. Damasus at once contrived that -its bishops should look not to the Eastern churches but to himself -for direction and support, and from that time onward the Bishop of -Thessalonica became the "Vicar" of the Bishop of Rome. - -We must leave this vague and imperfect primacy in the West, with its -secular foundations, and turn to the more interesting and adventurous -course of the diplomacy of Damasus in the East. The narrow limits -within which each of these sketches must be confined forbid me to -attempt to depict the extraordinary confusion of the Eastern Church. It -must suffice to say, in few words, that the struggle against paganism -was almost lost in the fiery struggle against heresy, and that the hand -of the Arian Valens smote the orthodox as violently and persistently -as the hand of any pagan emperor had done. The various refinements -of the Arian heresy, the lingering traces of old heresies, and the -vigorous beginnings of new heresies, rent each church into factions as -violent as those of Rome, and made each important See the theatre of -a truculent rivalry. Constantinople, or New Rome as it loved to call -itself, was the natural centre of the Eastern religious world, but it -was overshadowed by the Arian court and its growing pretensions were -watched by the apostolic churches of Antioch and Alexandria almost as -jealously as by Old Rome. The triumph over paganism had, before it was -half completed, given place to a dark and sanguinary confusion, from -the shores of the Euxine to the sands of the Thebaid. - -In 371 St. Basil appealed to Damasus for assistance. He sent the -deacon Dorotheus with a letter[38] asking the Italians to send to the -East visitors who might report to them the condition of the churches. -Damasus, not flattered by the lowliness of the embassy or by the -smallness of the request, and still much occupied in the West, merely -sent his deacon Sabinus. To a further impassioned appeal from Basil -he gave no clearer promise of aid, and Basil indignantly observed -that it was useless to appeal to "a proud and haughty man who sits on -a lofty throne and cannot hear those who tell him the truth on the -ground below."[39] Basil made further futile appeals to the West, -though not to Damasus, and at length, in 381, the Eastern bishops met -in the Council of Constantinople, discussed their own affairs, and, -in a famous canon, awarded the See of Constantinople a primacy in the -East. Shortly afterwards a synod was held in Italy, under Ambrose, -and it sent to the Emperor Theodosius a letter in which the concern -of the Italians was plainly expressed.[40] The bishops ask Theodosius -to assist in convoking an Ecumenical Council at Rome, and say that -"it seems not unworthy that they [the Eastern bishops] should submit -to the Bishop of Rome and the other Italian bishops"; though they "do -not claim any prerogative of judgment." It is interesting to note at -this stage how the Bishop of Rome does not yet stand apart from the -other Italian bishops or claim jurisdiction over the East. In a letter -written by Damasus somewhere about this time to certain oriental -bishops, there is question of "reverence for the Apostolic See" and -of the foundation of that See by Peter, but such language is rare and -premature, and is not implausibly ascribed to St. Jerome, who was then -at Rome.[41] To the Eastern emperor and to the Eastern patriarchs it is -not addressed. - -Theodosius ignored the request, and sanctioned the holding of another -Council at Constantinople. The Westerns had, in the meantime, announced -an Ecumenical Council at Rome for the summer of 382, and invited their -Eastern brethren. From one cause or other, the proceedings at Rome were -delayed, and, while the Italians still anxiously awaited the response -to their invitation, a letter came with the message that the Eastern -bishops had settled the questions in dispute, and they regretted that -they had not "the wings of a dove" in order that they might fly from -"the great city of Constantinople" to "the great city of Rome." The -letter is a model of polite and exquisite irony.[42] The statesmanship -of Damasus had hopelessly miscarried, and the Eastern and Western -branches of Christendom were farther than ever from uniting under his -presidency. - -A more intimate aspect of the character of Damasus is disclosed when -we consider the condition of the Roman clergy during his Pontificate. -It almost suffices to recall that an imperial rescript of the year 370 -forbade priests and monks to visit the houses of widows and orphans, -and declared that legacies to them were invalid. St. Jerome himself -deplores that there were solid reasons for thus depriving the clergy -of a privilege which every gladiator enjoyed, and that the law was -shamefully frustrated by donations.[43] Indeed, in 372, the law was -extended to nuns and bishops, and for nearly a hundred years the Roman -clergy bore the stigma which was implied by such a prohibition. - -Jerome's letters ruthlessly depict the condition of the Roman -community. Fresh from his austerities in the desert of Chalcidia, the -impulsive monk was as ready to denounce vice as to encourage virtue, -and evidences of singular laxity mingle with heroic virtue in his vivid -pages. On the one hand he directed, in the sobered palace of Marcella -on the Aventine, a group of noble dames in the practice of the most -rigorous piety and the cultivation of sacred letters. The populace even -threatened to fling him into the river, when the lovely and high-born -Blesilla terminated her austerities by a premature death, and even -Christian writers fiercely contested this introduction into Rome of -the ideals of the Egyptian desert. But, on the other hand, Jerome's -directions to his pupils incidentally betray that, beyond his little -school of virtue and learning, he saw nothing but sin and worldliness. -In plain and crude speech he warns his pupils to shun their Christian -neighbours and distrust the priests. Sombre as are many of the letters -which Seneca wrote in the days of Nero, not one of them can compare -with Jerome's lengthy letter to the gentle maiden Eustochium.[44] He -fills her virgin mind with a comprehensive picture of frailty and -frivolity, and tells her that she may regard, not as a Christian, -but as a Manichćan, any austere-looking woman whom she may meet on -the streets of Rome. He denounces "the new genus of concubines," the -"spiritual brothers and sisters," who share the same house, even the -same bed, and, if you protest, complain that you are evil-minded. -Eustochium is to avoid gatherings of Christian women, and must never be -alone with these clerics, who, exquisitely dressed, their hair curled -and oiled, their fingers glittering with rings, spend the livelong day -wheedling presents out of their wealthy admirers. I omit the graver -details given in this and other letters of the outraged monk. - -The impartial historian cannot regard with reserve the criticisms which -Ammianus passed on his pagan fellows and then literally accept Jerome's -more severe strictures on his fellow-Christians. There is exaggeration -on both sides. Yet no one now questions that the Christian community at -Rome, lay and clerical, had in the days of Damasus fallen far below its -ideals, and it is not pleasant that we find little or no trace of an -episcopal struggle against this corruption. It is sometimes said that -the rescript which prevented priests from inheriting was passed at the -request of the Pope. For this statement there is no historical ground -whatever, and it is in the highest degree improbable. It is clear that -prosperity had lowered the character of the Church, from its bishop -down to its grave-diggers; and the laments of St. Ambrose at Milan, -of St. Chrysostom at Antioch and Constantinople, and of St. Augustine -in Africa, indicate a general relaxation. The Roman world must pass -through another severe and searching trial before men like Leo I. and -Gregory I. arise in it. - -This conception of Damasus as a courtly and lenient prelate is not -materially modified when we regard his more strictly religious work. -He restored the Church of St. Lawrence, in which he and his father had -served: he built a tiny _basilica_--little more than a princely tomb -for himself, Marucchi believes--on the Via Ardeatina: he erected a new -baptistery at St. Peter's. These are not exceptionally impressive works -of piety in so prosperous an age. - -Damasus was an artist: not--if we judge him by his _Epigrams_--a man -of much inspiration, but one who perceived the value of art in the -service of religion. Jerome tells us that he wrote in prose and verse -on the beauty of virginity, but we know his very modest poetical talent -only from the surviving fifty or sixty inscriptions with which he -adorned the graves of the martyrs or the chapels.[45] He had a genuine -passion for the adornment and popularization of the Catacombs. They -were already falling into decay, and Damasus cleared the galleries, -made new air-shafts, and decorated the more important chambers with -marble slabs and silver rails. No doubt he did this in part with a view -to attracting the pagans, but there can be little doubt that he had a -strong personal sentiment for the work. - -With the assistance of Jerome, he also endeavoured to improve the -literary standard of the Church. Jerome revised the "Old Italian" -translation of the Bible; and it seems probable that the canon of -the Scriptures which has until recently been regarded as part of a -"Gelasian Decree" was composed by Jerome, under the authority of -Damasus, and promulgated by a Roman synod. The canon can hardly be due -to the pen which wrote the rambling and uncultivated list of books -which follows it; probably a later hand united the two and ascribed -them to Gelasius.[46] - -The eighteen years' Pontificate of Damasus came to a close in 384. He -is not in the line of heroic Popes. He was, at his elevation, in his -seventh decade of life and his remaining energy was largely spent in -struggling against the disastrous consequences of his election. He -succeeded rather by geniality of temper and the services of others than -by strong personal exertion. But he was lucky in his opportunities. -He had control of the new wealth of the Papacy, and the Emperors with -whom he had to deal were the indifferent or undiscerning Valentinian -and the pious and youthful Gratian. Hence he added materially to the -foundations of the medićval Papacy. One might almost venture to say -that the dogmatic Roman conception of a primacy inherited from Peter -dates from the scriptural discussions of Damasus and Jerome. They were -not the authors of that conception, but it would henceforward form the -essential part of the Papal attitude. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 26: His latest biographer, the learned Father Marucchi, says -305, but St. Jerome does not say that he was "eighty years old" at -death (in 384); he says, "nearly eighty." See Father Marucchi's _Il -Papa Damaso_ (1907) and _Christian Epigraphy_ (English trans. 1912), M. -Rade's _Damasus, Bischof von Rom_ (1882) is a little more critical.] - -[Footnote 27: The less flattering statements about Damasus are -generally taken from a certain _Libellus precum_, or petition, which -was presented to the Emperors by two hostile, though esteemed and -orthodox, priests about the year 384. The attack on Damasus is, -however, in a preface to the petition, which was probably not put -before the Emperors. We must make allowance for bitter hostility, -but we shall find some of their strangest statements confirmed by -the highest authorities. The _Libellus_ is reproduced in Migne's -_Patrologia Latina_, vol. iii.] - -[Footnote 28: The _Liber Pontificalis_, which gives these events, -first lets the schismatic Felix die in peace, and then introduces into -the series of Pontiffs a Felix II., saint and martyr! To this day the -fortunate Felix bears these honours in the liturgy. It was discovered, -in 1582, that the Anti-Pope Felix had been confused with a real saint -and martyr of that name, and the question of displacing him was debated -at Rome. But the miraculous discovery of an inscription in his favour -put an end to criticism. The genuine authorities are agreed that Felix -died comfortably in his house on the road to the Port of Rome.] - -[Footnote 29: XXVII., 3.] - -[Footnote 30: Year 369.] - -[Footnote 31: II., 10.] - -[Footnote 32: _Saint Jerome_, 1867.] - -[Footnote 33: Mansi, _Sacrorum Conciliorum Collectio_, iii., 625.] - -[Footnote 34: Mansi, iii., 628.] - -[Footnote 35: _Ep._, xxi.] - -[Footnote 36: Mansi, iii., 624.] - -[Footnote 37: IV., 26.] - -[Footnote 38: _Ep._, lxx.] - -[Footnote 39: _Ep._, ccxv.; see also _Ep._, ccxxxix. and cclxvi., for -violent language. All the letters of the Popes, up to Innocent III., -are in this work quoted from the Migne edition.] - -[Footnote 40: Mansi, iii., 631.] - -[Footnote 41: The letter is in Theodoret, _Ecclesiastical History_, v., -10.] - -[Footnote 42: Theodoret, v., 9.] - -[Footnote 43: _Ep._, lii.] - -[Footnote 44: _Ep._, xxii.] - -[Footnote 45: The best collection is Ihm's _Damasi Epigrammata_ (1895).] - -[Footnote 46: There is a third part of this "Gelasian Decree," which -assigns to the Papacy an absolute primacy derived from Peter. It is -improbable that this was due to Damasus. A letter hitherto ascribed -to Pope Sirianus (_Ep._, x. in Migne) has lately been claimed for -Damasus (Babut, _La plus ancienne décrétale_, 1904), but there is not -enough evidence to date it. It is a series of directions, better known -as _Canons of the Romans to the Bishops of Gaul_, on the subject of -clerical celibacy, fallen virgins, etc.] - - - - -CHAPTER III - -LEO THE GREAT, THE LAST POPE OF IMPERIAL ROME - - -During the half-century which followed the death of Damasus occurred -two of the decisive events in the transformation of the Roman Empire -into Christian Europe. Paganism was destroyed, and the Empire was -shattered. Jerome had, with rhetorical inaccuracy, described the great -temple of Jupiter as squalid and deserted in the days of Damasus. Now -it was in truth deserted, for the imperial seal was set on its closed -doors; and the same seal guarded the door of the temples of Isis and -Mithra. The homeless gods had sheltered for a time in the schools and -in patrician mansions, but these also had fallen with the Empire. The -southern half of Europe became a disordered, semi-Christian world, over -which poured from the northern forests fresh armies of barbarians. -The City of Man was wrecked; and it was not unnatural that the Papacy -should aspire to make its old metropolis the centre of the new City of -God. - -Two Popes of weak ability had followed Damasus, and witnessed, rather -than accomplished, the ruin of the old religion. It was Ambrose who -had directed the convenient youth of Gratian and Valentinian II., and -had dislodged the pagans and other rivals at the point of the spear. -Innocent I. (402-417) was a greater man: an upright priest, an able -statesman, a zealous believer in the divine right of Popes. Milman -has finely drawn him serenely holding his sceptre at Rome while the -Emperor cowered behind the fortifications at Ravenna. While Rome -tumbled in ruins about him, he continued calmly to tell the bishops -of Gaul and Spain and Italy what the "Apostolic See" directed them to -do. His puny yet bombastic successor, Zosimus, maintained the solitary -blunder, without the redeeming personality, of Innocent, and might -have wrecked the Papacy if he had not died within a year or so. The -worthier Boniface and still worthier Celestine restored Roman prestige -in some measure, and, in 440, after the edifying but undistinguished -Pontificate of Sixtus III., Leo the Great entered the chronicle. - -Leo, a Roman of Tuscan extraction, was the chief deacon of the Roman -Church, and corresponded with Cyril of Alexandria on Eastern affairs. -It was probably at his instigation that the learned Cassianus wrote his -treatise _On the Incarnation of Christ_. In 440, Leo was sent by the -Emperor to reconcile the generals Aetius and Albinus, who quarrelled -while the Empire perished. Sixtus died in his absence, and Leo was -unanimously elected to the Papacy. Toward the close of September he -returned to Rome, and glanced about the troubled world which he had now -to rule. - -The dogmatic Papal conception, which we find dawning in the mind -of Damasus and see very clear in the mind of Innocent I. and his -successors, reached its full development, on the spiritual side, in -the mind of Leo the Great. This development was inevitable. There were -Eastern, and even some Western, bishops who maintained, against Leo, -that the prestige of the Roman See was merely the prestige of Rome, -but the answer of the Papacy was easy and effective. In the Gospels -which Europe now treasured, Peter was the "rock" on which the Church -was built, and to him alone had been given the keys of the kingdom of -heaven. Had the Church lost its foundation when Peter died? Were the -keys buried beside the bones of Peter in that marble tomb at the foot -of the Vatican? There was, from the clerical point of view, logic in -the Roman bishop's claim to have inherited the princedom. Leo from -the first hour of his Pontificate was sincerely convinced of it. His -sermons are full of it. To him is committed "the care of all the -Churches": a phrase which he bequeaths to his successors. He is the new -type of Roman, blending the ideas of Jerome and Augustine. The wreck of -the City of Man matters little. What matters is that these Arian Goths -and Vandals are trampling on the City of God: that the churches of Gaul -and Spain and Italy and Africa and the East are in disorder, and the -successor of Peter must restore their discipline. He is so absorbed in -his divine duty that he does not notice how the circumstances favour -him. Every other lofty head in the Empire is bowed, and from the -seething and impoverished provinces hundreds are looking to the strong -man at Rome. - -His early letters are the letters of a Supreme Pontiff. The African -bishops, he hears, suffer dreadful disorders in their churches. -Elections to church-dignities are bought and sold: even laymen and -twice-married clerics become bishops. With serene indifference to -the earlier history of the African Church and its tradition of -independence, he peremptorily recalls the canons and insists on their -observance.[47] Fortunately for him, the long struggle against the -Donatists and the devastating onset of the Vandals have enfeebled, -almost annihilated, the African Church, and there is none to question -his authority. - -He hears that Anatolius has been made Bishop of Thessalonica, and -writes[48] to remind him that he is the "vicar" of the Roman bishop, -the successor of Peter, "on the solidity of which foundation the -Church is established." When, at a later date, Anatolius uses his -power harshly, he sternly rebukes him. And it is interesting to notice -what the discipline is on which he insists in this letter.[49] Even -subdeacons shall not marry, or, if they are married, shall not know -their wives. We are very far away from Callistus. - -Another aspect of Leo's character appears in his treatment of the -Manichćans at Rome: an interesting illustration of how he kept the -strength and serenity of the old Roman though lacking his culture. Leo -had a terribly sombre idea of the Manichćans. They lingered in obscure -corners of the metropolis, and met stealthily, just as Christians had -done two centuries earlier; and of them were told, as had been told -of the obscure Christians, dreadful stories. Leo conducted a great -inquisition in 444, and brought the Manichćan bishop, with his "elect," -to a solemn judgment before the clergy and nobles of Rome. There, he -says,[50] they all confessed that the violation of a girl of ten years -was part of their ritual. He called down upon them the secular arm, -and crushed them in Rome and Italy. What sort of a judicial process -was employed to elicit this extraordinary confession--so utterly at -variance with all that we know of the ascetic Manichćans--we are -not told. But we are painfully reminded of a similar declaration of -Augustine in his old age.[51] - -In Gaul, the Pope encountered one of the last opponents of Papal aims -in the West. The province was completely demoralized by the triumphant -barbarians and by the arrival of lax clergy from Africa. In a letter of -uncertain date,[52] Leo gives us a dark picture of the state of things -in the southern provinces, and this is more than confirmed in the work -of the Marseilles priest Salvianus, _De Gubernatione Dei_. Laymen -pose as bishops, Leo says: priests sleep with their wives, and marry -their daughters to men who keep concubines: monks serve in the army, -or marry: and so on. From this disordered world men were ever ready -to appeal to the authority of Rome, and, in 445, a Bishop Celidonius -came to complain of the harshness of his metropolitan, the austere and -saintly Hilary of Arles. Hilary followed his Bishop to Rome, and, when -Leo decided against him, the saint made use, says Leo,[53] of "language -which no layman even should dare to use and no priest to hear," and -then "fled disgracefully" from Rome. - -Again we are in a dilemma between two saints, and we must weigh as best -we can the letters of Leo against the biography of Hilary. It will be -found a general truth of early Papal history that the man who _appeals_ -to Rome is heard more indulgently than the opponent who did not appeal. -Hilary, who had deposed the Bishop in plain accordance with the rules, -resented Leo's conduct, and scoffed at his supposed supremacy. He -then apprehended violence, and stealthily left Rome for Gaul. Leo -thereupon--or after hearing new charges against Hilary--wrote to the -bishops of Vienne[54] that they were released from obedience to Hilary, -who was thenceforward to confine himself to Arles. Whether Hilary ever -submitted or no we have no certain knowledge, but the affair had an -important sequel. In the same year (449), an imperial rescript,[55] -confessedly obtained by Leo, confirmed the sentence, and added: - - We lay down this for ever, that neither the bishops of Gaul nor those - of any other province shall attempt anything contrary to ancient - usage, without the authority of the venerable man, the Pope of the - Eternal City. - -Even in the height of this quarrel other provinces were not neglected, -as a few letters of the year 447 amply show. The letter to the Spanish -Bishop Turribius of Astorga[56] is notable as the first explicit Papal -approval of the execution of a heretic. It is usual to point out that -the errors of Priscillian, the heretic in question, were believed to -include magical practices (then a legal and social crime) as well as -Manichćan and Gnostic tenets. But we must recognize one of the most -terrible principles of the Middle Ages, and something far more than -social zeal, in the following words of Leo: - - Although ecclesiastical mildness shrinks from blood-punishments, yet - it is aided by the severe decrees of Christian princes, since they who - fear corporal suffering will have recourse to spiritual remedies. - -Here is no reference to legal or social crimes, but to an error which -concerns the ecclesiastic. Similar letters, enforcing discipline in the -accents of an undisputed head of the Church, were sent to the bishops -of Sicily,[57] the bishop of Beneventum,[58] and the bishop of Aquileia. - -These quotations from the letters and sermons of Leo will suffice, -not only to show the untiring energy and lofty aim of the man, but -to convince us that the primacy of Rome in the West is now won. West -of the Adriatic, St. Hilary is the last great rebel against the Roman -conception. It is true that this spiritual supremacy is still, in part, -reliant on "the severe decrees of Christian princes," but the imperial -authority is fast fading into nothing, and in another generation the -Papal autocracy will stand alone. Leo was not ambitious. Something of -the instinctive masterliness of the older Roman may be detected in his -actions, but he was a profoundly religious man, seeking neither wealth -nor honours of earth, convinced at once that he discharged a divine -duty and exerted an authority of the most beneficent value to that -disordered Christendom. The calamities of Europe had changed the empty -glories of a Damasus into a power second only to that of Octavian. - -When we turn to the East we have not only a most valuable indication of -the evolution of Christendom into two independent and hostile Churches, -but an even more interesting revelation of subtle and unexpected shades -in the character of Leo. The great Pope, aided by the very calamities -of the time, fastens his primacy on Europe; and, with even mightier -exertions and the most tense use of all his resources, he proves that -an extension of that primacy to the East is for ever impossible. - -His friendly correspondence with Cyril of Alexandria was resumed in -the year 444, and, in the adjustment of their differences, Leo made -concessions. In the same year, Cyril died, and his successor Dioscorus -was addressed with the same recognition of equality. There are -differences in points of discipline, but Leo is content to say[59]: -"Since the blessed Peter was made chief of the apostles by the Lord, -and the Roman Church abides by his instructions, it is impossible to -suppose that his holy disciple Mark, who first ruled the Church of -Alexandria, gave it other regulations." Five years later, however, Leo -received from the East an appeal against the Bishop of Constantinople, -and a notable conflict began. - -In the unending struggle in the East over the nature of Christ, the -monks, a fierce and turbulent rabble living on the fringes of the great -cities, had been the most effective champions of orthodoxy, and great -was their excitement when the archimandrite (or abbot) of one of their -large monasteries outside Constantinople was accused of heresy. The -heresy is really diagnosed as such by the proper authorities, but it is -not superfluous for the historian to observe that the monk Eutyches was -godson of the most powerful eunuch at the court, and this eunuch was -detested by the virtuous Empress Pulcheria and by Flavian, the Bishop -of Constantinople. Eutyches was condemned by a synod in 448, and he -appealed to Leo. I have observed that the appealer--especially from -a province where Roman authority was disputed--always had a gracious -hearing at the Lateran. In February, 449, Leo wrote to Flavian[60] to -express his surprise that he had not sent a report of the proceedings -to Rome and that he had disregarded the appeal which the monk had made -from his sentence to Rome. However, since appeal _has_ been made to -Leo, "we want to know the reasons of your action, and we desire a full -account to be communicated to us." Flavian's reply[61] curtly described -the heresy and trusted that Leo would see the justice of the sentence. - -In the early summer, the Emperors of East and West issued a joint -summons to the bishops of Christendom to assemble in Council at -Ephesus, and Leo's letters indicate a feverish activity. His chief work -was to write a long dogmatic letter[62] on the nature of Christ--a -very able theological essay--to be read by his Legates at the Council. -Dioscorus of Alexandria presided over this imposing assembly of 360 -bishops and representative clergy, in the presence of two imperial -commissioners, the Papal Legates, and the patriarchs of Antioch and -Jerusalem, yet it has passed into Western ecclesiastical history -under the opprobrious title, given to it by Leo,[63] of "The Robbers' -Meeting." It is quite true that the sittings dissolved in brawls, and -monks and soldiers brandished their ominous weapons over the heads of -the bishops, but that was not unprecedented. The main fact was that -Dioscorus contemptuously refused to hear the Roman Legates, as Leo -says, and induced the Council to restore Eutyches and depose Flavian. -Deacon Hilary, one of the Legates, fled in terror of his life, and -unfolded these enormities to Leo, whose correspondence now became -intense and indignant. - -For a few months, Leo made strenuous efforts to redeem the prestige -of his See. We know, since 1882, that Flavian in turn appealed to -Rome, but Leo needed no new incentive. He wrote repeatedly to the -pious Pulcheria, to Theodosius, to his "vicar" in Thessalonica, and -to the monks, priests, and people of Constantinople. He knew the -situation well. Alexandria had defied Constantinople, but the case of -Constantinople was weakened by the division of court-factions and the -monkish support of Eutyches. It seemed an admirable occasion for Rome -to adjudicate, and Leo pressed Theodosius and Pulcheria[64] to summon -an Ecumenical Council at Rome. In the thick of the struggle (February, -450), Valentinian III. visited Rome with the court, and Leo, with tears -in his eyes, besought the Empress Galla Placidia to work for the Roman -Council. Galla Placidia knew no more than the monks about theology, and -was more concerned about her wayward daughter Honoria, but she urged -Pulcheria to ensure the holding of the Council at Rome. Presently there -came from Constantinople the news that Theodosius was dead, Pulcheria -was mistress of the court, the eunuch-godfather had been executed, the -monk exiled, and the Archbishop Flavian restored to his See. - -But the more agreeable aspect of this situation was soon darkened by -a report that the people of Constantinople had compelled Pulcheria -to contract a virginal marriage with Marcian, and the new Emperor -had summoned an Ecumenical Council in the East. Leo, for reasons -which we may understand presently, now made every effort to prevent -the holding of a Council,[65] but the Emperor would not endanger his -position by flouting the Eastern Church, and, on October 8th, some -six hundred bishops gathered at Chalcedon. Four Legates represented -Leo, and were awarded a kind of presidency of the Council. Leo's great -doctrinal letter was received with thunders of applause, and, when it -was speedily decided to condemn Dioscorus (who had gone the length of -excommunicating Leo), it was one of the Papal Legates who pronounced -the sonorous sentence. But all knew that these compliments were the -prelude to a very serious struggle. - -After the fourteenth session, the Papal Legates and imperial -commissioners affected to believe that the business of the day was -over. Later in the day, however, a fifteenth session was held, and the -two hundred bishops present framed the famous twenty-eighth canon of -the Council of Chalcedon. It runs: - - As in all things we follow the ordinances of the holy fathers and - know the recently read canon of the hundred and fifty bishops [of - the Council of Constantinople], so do we decree the same in regard - to the privileges of the most holy Church of Constantinople. Rightly - have the fathers conceded to the See of Old Rome its privileges on - account of its character as the Imperial City, and, moved by the same - considerations, the one hundred and fifty bishops have awarded the - like privileges to the most Holy See of New Rome.[66] - -This drastic restriction of the Roman bishop to the West, and -disdainful assurance that the prestige of the city of Rome was the -only basis of his primacy, was read in the next session, and the Papal -Legates were gravely disturbed. There can be very little doubt that, -as Hefele says, the Legates had abstained from the fifteenth session -because they knew that this canon would be discussed and passed. There -was no secrecy about it, and there was much in previous sessions that -led to it. Indeed, it is clear that Leo himself knew of the design, -and this probably explains his resistance, which has puzzled many, to -the holding of the Council. In the heat of the discussion, the Roman -Legate, Boniface, produced this instruction from Leo: "If any, taking -their stand on the importance of their cities, should endeavour to -arrogate anything to themselves, resist them with all decision."[67] -Bishop Eusebius of Dorylćum (the accuser of Eutyches) then said that -he had read the third canon of Constantinople to Leo at Rome some time -before the Council, and that Leo had assented to it. Leo afterwards -denied this, but we must assume that he merely denied having consented, -not the reading of the canon to him. It is quite clear that Leo -prepared his Legates for this discussion. - -It implies no reflection whatever on the character of Leo that he -should instruct his Legates diplomatically to obstruct the passing -of a canon which he regarded as contrary to a divine ordination. But -the next act of his Legates is more serious. Bishop Paschasinus, the -chief Legate, produced and read, in Latin, the sixth canon of the -famous Council of Nicća, and the Greeks were amazed to learn, when it -was translated, that it awarded the primacy to Rome. There is now no -doubt that this was a spurious or adulterated canon, and the feelings -of the Greeks, when they consulted the genuine canon, can be imagined. -The session closed in a weak compromise. The Legates were allowed to -protest that the twenty-eighth canon was passed in their absence, and -was injurious to the rights of their Bishop, "who presided over the -whole Church." The Greeks politely registered their protest, endorsed -the canon, and proceeded to indite a very Greek letter to the Roman -Bishop. They express to Leo[68] their deep joy at the successful -congress, their entire respect for "the voice of Peter," their loving -gratitude that, through his Legates, he had presided over them "as the -head over the members"; but they admit that one of their canons did -not commend itself to his Legates and they trust that he will at once -gratify their Emperor by endorsing it! Christendom was divided into two -parts. - -The sequel matters little. The Legates returned and declared that the -signatures to the canon had been extorted (as Leo afterwards wrote), -though this point had been raised in their presence by the imperial -commissioners, and its falsity put beyond dispute. To Marcian, to -Pulcheria, and to the new Bishop of Constantinople, Anatolius, Leo -wrote acrid letters, denouncing the miserable vanity and ambition -of Anatolius and the violation of the (spurious) canons of Nicća. -Marcian curtly requested him--almost ordered him[69]--to confirm the -results of the Council without delay, and Leo signed the doctrinal -decisions. There the matter ended. Rome affected to treat the famous -canon as invalid, and the East genially ignored the absence of Leo's -signature.[70] - -In the midst of his feverish efforts to defeat this Eastern rebellion, -Leo was summoned to meet the terrible King of the Huns, and the memory -of his triumph, gathering volume from age to age, has completely -obliterated his failure to dominate the Greeks. Italy, painfully -enfeebled by the Goths, now saw "the scourge of God" slowly descend -its northern slopes and prepare for a raid on the south. Leo and a -group of Roman officials met Attila on the banks of the Mincio, and the -ferocious King and his dreaded Huns meekly turned their backs on Italy -and retired to the East. Pen and brush and legend have embellished that -wonderful deliverance until it has become a mystery and a miracle, but -it was neither mystery nor miracle to the men who first made a scanty -record of it. Jornandes[71] following the older historian Priscus, -says that Attila was hesitating whether to advance on Rome or no at -the moment when Leo and his companions arrived; his officers were -trying to dissuade him, and were appealing to his superstition with a -reminder of the fate of Alaric after he had sacked Rome. Prosper merely -says in his _Chronicle_ that Leo was well received, and succeeded. -Idatius, Bishop of Aquć Flavić at the time, does not even mention Leo -in his _Chronicle_. The Huns, he says, were severely stricken by war, -by famine, and by some epidemic, and, "being in this plight, they made -peace with the Romans and departed."[72] But Rome at the time knew -nothing of these fortunate circumstances, and, in the delirious joy of -its deliverance, imagined the savage Hun shrinking in awe before its -venerable Bishop: kept on imagining, indeed, until some pious fancy of -the eighth century believed that the holy apostles had appeared beside -the Pope. - -When, a few years later (455) a fresh invasion threatened Rome--when -the vicious incompetence of the court amid all its desolation set afoot -another feud and brought the Vandals from Africa--Leo went out once -more to plead for the impoverished city. Genseric was not a savage; -the Vandals are libelled by the grosser implication we associate with -their name today. Yet he altered not one step of his onward course at -the petitions or the threats of the venerable Pontiff. To say that he -consented to refrain from slaying or torturing those who submitted, and -from firing the city, is merely to say that Leo failed to wring any -concession from the largely civilized Vandal. The aged Pontiff sadly -returned with his clergy, and for a whole fortnight had to listen in -the Lateran Palace to the shrieks of the women who were dragged from -their homes, and to receive accounts of the plundering of his churches. -The Church of St. Peter and, probably, the Lateran Church alone were -spared. And when the Vandal ships had sailed away with their thousands -of noble captives, including the Empress Eudoxia, and their mounds of -silver, bronze, and marble, Leo had to melt down the larger vessels of -the great _basilicas_ to find the necessary chalices for his priests. - -Ancestral feelings must have stirred unconsciously in the mind of -Leo when he beheld this second ravage of the city of his fathers, -but he at once resumed his Pontifical rule. On his return from the -north of Italy, he had found occasion to act once more in the East -as if the canon of the last Council were forgotten. Now the monks -of Palestine had asserted their unyielding zeal, had driven the -patriarch of Jerusalem from his seat, and had won to their cause -the romantic Empress Eudoxia (of the Eastern court) whose suspected -amours had brought on her a polite sentence of exile. Leo at once, -somewhat superfluously, called the pious Marcian's attention to the -ecclesiastical disorders in his kingdom, and, apparently at that -Emperor's request, wrote paternal admonitions to Eudoxia and to the -monks. It was gratifying to be able to report presently that the -disorders were at an end. - -Later (in 453) the monks of Cappadocia gave trouble; and the monks -and other supporters of the deposed Dioscorus at Alexandria entered -upon a far graver agitation, and murdered their new archbishop. The -pious Marcian, to make matters worse, died (457), and, by one of those -strange intrigues which disgraced the Eastern court, Leo the Isaurian, -an astute peasant, mounted the golden throne. On this man Leo's -diplomatic mixture of courtly language and high sacerdotal pretensions -made little impression. In spite of Leo's protests[73] he called -another General Council, and Leo had to be content to send Legates to -inform the assembled bishops what is "the rule of apostolic faith"; -which he again set forth in a long dogmatic epistle.[74] To the last -year, Leo maintained, serenely and unswervingly, his calm assumption -of jurisdiction over the East. Whether he wrote to the patriarch of -Antioch,[75] or the patriarch of Constantinople,[76] or the patriarchs -of Jerusalem and Alexandria, he spoke as if his sovereignty had never -been questioned. "The care of all the churches" lies on his shoulders. -He disdains diplomacy and argument. His tone is arrogant and dogmatic -in the highest degree, yet no man can read reflectively those long and -imperious epistles and not realize that he spoke, not as the individual -Leo, demanding personal prestige, but as the successor of Peter, -obeying a command which, he sincerely believed, Christ had laid upon -him. - -So the Papacy was built up. Leo went his way on November 10, 461, and -was buried, fitly, in the vestibule of St. Peter's. He had formulated -for all time the Papal conception that the successor of Peter had the -care of all the churches of the world. A bishop shall not buy his seat -in Numidia: a rabble of monks shall not rebel in Syria: a prelate -shall not harshly treat his clergy in Gaul, but the Bishop of Rome must -see to it. How that gaunt frame of duty was perfected in the next two -centuries, and how the prosperity of later times hid the austere frame -under a garment of flesh, is the next great chapter in the evolution of -the Roman Pontificate. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 47: _Ep._, xii.] - -[Footnote 48: _Ep._, vi.] - -[Footnote 49: _Ep._, xiv.] - -[Footnote 50: Sermon xvi.] - -[Footnote 51: See the author's _Saint Augustine and His Age_, p. 409.] - -[Footnote 52: _Ep._, clxvii.] - -[Footnote 53: _Ep._, x., 3.] - -[Footnote 54: _Ep._, x.] - -[Footnote 55: _Ep._, xi., in Migne.] - -[Footnote 56: _Ep._, xv.] - -[Footnote 57: XVI. and xvii.] - -[Footnote 58: XIX.] - -[Footnote 59: _Ep._, ix.] - -[Footnote 60: _Ep._, xxiii.] - -[Footnote 61: _Ep._, xxvi.] - -[Footnote 62: The "Tome of Leo," _Ep._, xxviii.] - -[Footnote 63: _Ep._, xcv.] - -[Footnote 64: _Ep._, xliii. and xlv.] - -[Footnote 65: _Ep._, lxxxii. and lxxxiii.] - -[Footnote 66: Hefele's _History of the Councils of the Church_, iii., -411.] - -[Footnote 67: Hefele, iii., 425.] - -[Footnote 68: _Ep._, xcviii.] - -[Footnote 69: _Ep._, cx.] - -[Footnote 70: In a letter which he wrote about the time (_Ep._, -ciii.) to the bishops of Gaul, Leo tells them that Dioscorus has been -condemned, and says that he encloses a copy of the sentence. The copy -appended to the letter is spurious, for it contains an allusion to -"the holy and most blessed Pope, head of the universal Church, Leo -... the foundation and rock of faith." But I do not think one can say -confidently that this is the actual document sent by Leo.] - -[Footnote 71: _De Rebus Geticis_, xlii.] - -[Footnote 72: The Chronicles of Prosper and Idatius are in Migne, vol. -li. Idatius adds that Attila was threatened (in his rear) by the troops -of Marcian, though we cannot trace such a movement of the Eastern -troops. It was enough that Attila believed it.] - -[Footnote 73: _Ep._, clxii.] - -[Footnote 74: CLXV.] - -[Footnote 75: CXLIX.] - -[Footnote 76: CLXX.] - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -GREGORY THE GREAT, THE FIRST MEDIĆVAL POPE - - -Seventeen Pontiffs successively ruled in the Lateran Palace during the -hundred and thirty years which separate the death of Leo I. and the -accession of Gregory I. The first seven were not unworthy to succeed -Leo, although one of them, Anastasius (496-498), is unjustly committed -to Dante's hell for his liberality.[77] - -During their tenure of office the Arian Ostrogoth Theodoric set up his -promising kingdom in Italy, and the stricken country partly recovered. -But the succeeding Popes were smaller-minded men, looking darkly on the -heresy of Theodoric and longing to see him displaced by the Catholic -Eastern Emperor. Their unfortunate policy was crowned by a betrayal of -Rome to the troops of Justinian; and its fruit was the establishment -on the throne of Peter, by the unscrupulous Theodora, of the sorriest -adventurer that had yet defiled it (Pope Vigilius), the reduction of -Italy to the state of a province of the corrupt and extortionate East, -and a lamentable dependence of the See of Rome on the whim of the -Byzantine autocrat. Seeing its increasing feebleness, a new and fiercer -tribe of the barbarians, the Lombards, poured over Italy; and it was a -city of ruins, a kingdom of desolation, a continent of anarchy, which -Gregory I. was, in the year 590, forced to undertake to control. - -At Rome the monuments of what was shudderingly called a pagan age were -falling, year by year, into the soil which would preserve them for a -more appreciative race. In Gregory's day, across the Tiber from the -old quarter, there were to be seen only the mouldering crowns of the -theatres and amphitheatres, the grass-girt ruins on the Capitol and -on the Palatine, and the charred skeletons of thousands of patrician -mansions on the more distant hills. Forty thousand Romans now trembled -where a million had once boasted their eternal empire. And, as one -sees in some fallen forest, a new life was springing up on the ruins. -Beside the decaying Neronian Circus rose the Basilica of St. Peter's, -to which strange types of pilgrims made their way under the modest -colonnade leading from the river. From the heart of the old Laterani -Palace towered the great Basilica of the Saviour (later of St. John) -and the mansion of the new rulers of the world. The temples were -still closed, and tumbling into ruins; for no one yet proposed to -convert into churches those abodes of evil spirits, which one passed -hurriedly at night. But on all sides churches had been built out of -the fallen stones, and monks and nuns trod the dismantled fora, and -new processions filed along the decaying streets. If you mounted -the hills, you would see the once prosperous Campagna a poisonous -marsh, sending death into the city every few years; and you would -learn that such was the condition of much of Italy, where the Lombard -now completed the work of Goth and Greek, and that from the gates of -Constantinople to the forests of Albion this incomprehensible brood of -barbarians was treading under foot what remained of Roman civilization. - -The book of what we call ancient history was closed: the Middle Age -was beginning. Gregory was peculiarly adapted to impress the world at -this stage of transition. His father, Gordianus, had been a wealthy -patrician, with large estates in Sicily and a fine mansion on the -Cćlian hill. De Rossi would make him a descendant of the great family -of the Anicii, but the deduction is strained. Gregory's mother was a -saint. He inherited vigour and administrative ability, and was reared -in the most pious and most credulous spirit of the time. He was put to -letters, and we are told that he excelled all others in every branch -of culture. Let us say, from his works, that--probably using the -writings of the Latin fathers as models--he learned to write a Latin -which Jerome would almost have pronounced barbarous, but which people -of the sixth century would think excellent, at times elegant. There -was very little culture left in Rome in Gregory's days.[78] About the -time when Gregory came into the world (540), Cassiodorus was quitting -it to found a monastic community on his estate, and he had the happy -idea of rescuing some elements of Roman culture from the deluge; -though to him culture meant Donatus and Martianus Capella rather than -the classics. He succeeded, too, in engaging the industry of the -Benedictine monks, to some extent, in copying manuscripts. Culture was, -happily, not suffered to die. In Rome, however, it sank very low, and, -for centuries, the Latin of the Papal clerks or the Popes is generally -atrocious. - -Gregory, in 573, was Prefect of Rome when it was beset by the Lombards. -The desolation which ensued may have finally convinced him that the -end of the world approached: a belief which occurs repeatedly in his -letters and sermons. In the following year, he sold his possessions, -built six monasteries in Sicily, converted his Roman mansion into the -monastery of St. Andrew, and, after giving the rest of his fortune -to the poor, began a life of stern asceticism and meditation on the -Scriptures. One day he saw some Anglo-Saxon slaves in the market, and -he set off to convert these fair, blue-eyed islanders to the faith. But -Pope Benedict recalled him and found an outlet for his great energy in -secretarial duties at the Lateran. - -Pelagius, who in 578 succeeded Benedict, sent Gregory to -Constantinople, to ask imperial troops for Italy, and he remained -there, caring for Papal interests, for about eight years. On its -pretentious culture he looked with so much disdain that he never -learned Greek,[79] while the general corruption of clerics and laymen, -and the fierce dogmatic discussions, did not modify his belief in a -coming dissolution. He maintained his monastic life in the Placidia -Palace, and began the writing of that portentous commentary on the -book of Job which is known as his _Magna Moralia_: a monumental -illustration of his piety, his imagination, and his lack of culture, -occupying about two thousand columns of Migne's quarto edition of his -works. He returned to Rome about the year 586, without troops, but -with the immeasurably greater treasure of an arm of St. Andrew and the -head of St. Luke. Amid the plagues and famines of Italy, he returned -to his terrible fasts and dark meditations, and awaited the blast of -the archangel's trumpet. An anecdote, told by himself, depicts his -attitude. One of his monks appropriated a few crowns, violating his vow -of poverty. Gregory refused the dying man the sacraments, and buried -him in a dunghill. He completed his commentary on Job, and collected -endless stories of devils and angels, saints and sinners, visions and -miracles; until one day, in 590, the Romans broke into the austere -monastery with the news that Pelagius was dead and Gregory was to be -his successor. He fled from Rome in horror, but he was the ablest man -in Italy, and all united to make him Pope. - -If these things do not suffice to show that Gregory was the first -medićval Pope, read his _Dialogues_, completed a few years later; no -theologian in the world to-day would accept that phantasmagoria of -devils and angels and miracles. It is a precious monument of Gregory's -world: the early medićval world. There is the same morbid, brooding -imagination in his commentary on the prophecies of Ezekiel, which he -found congenial; and in many passages of the forty sermons in which, -disdaining flowers of rhetoric and rules of grammar, he tells his -people the deep-felt, awful truths of his creed. - -Characteristic also is the incident which occurred during his temporary -guidance of the Church--while he awaited an answer to the letter in -which he had begged the Emperor to release him. A fearful epidemic -raged at Rome. Without a glance at the marshes beyond, from which -it came, Gregory ordered processions of all the faithful, storming -the heavens with hymns and litanies. The figure over the old tomb of -Hadrian (or the Castle of Sant' Angelo) at Rome tells all time how -an angel appeared in the skies on that occasion, and the pestilence -ceased. But the writers who are nearest to the time tell us that eighty -of the processionists fell dead on the streets in an hour, and the -pestilence went its slow course. - -Yet when we turn from these other-worldly meditations and other-worldly -plans to the eight hundred and fifty letters of the great Pope, we seem -to find an entirely different man. We seem to go back some centuries, -along that precarious line of the Anicii, and confront one of the -abler of the old patricians. Instead of credulity, we find a business -capacity which, in spite of the appalling means of communication, -organizes and controls, down to minute details, an estate which is -worth millions sterling and is scattered over half a continent. -Instead of self-effacement, we find a man who talks to archbishops -and governors of provinces as if they were acolytes of his Church, -and, at least on one occasion, tells the Eastern autocrat, before whom -courtiers shade their eyes, that he will not obey him. Instead of holy -simplicity, we find a diplomacy which treats with hostile kings in -defiance of the civil government, showers pretty compliments on the -fiery Brunichildis or the brutal Phocas, and spends years in combating -the pretensions of Constantinople. Instead of angelic meekness, we -find a warm resentment of vilification, an occasional flash of temper -which cows his opponent, a sense of dignity which rebukes his steward -for sending him "a sorry nag" or a "good ass" to ride on. We have, in -short, a man whose shrewd light-brown eyes miss no opportunity for -intervention in that disorderly world, from Angle-land to Jerusalem; -who has in every part of it spies and informers in the service of -virtue and religion, and who for fourteen years does the work of three -men. And all the time he is Gregory the monk, ruining his body by -disdainful treatment, writing commentaries on Ezekiel: a medium-sized, -swarthy man, with large bald head and straggling tawny beard, with -thick red lips and Roman nose and chin, racked by indigestion and then -by gout--but a prodigious worker. - -To compress his work into a chapter is impossible; one can only give -imperfect summaries and a few significant details. He had secretaries, -of course, and we are apt to forget that the art of shorthand writing, -which was perfectly developed by the Romans, had not yet been lost -in the night of the Middle Ages. Yet every letter has the stamp of -Gregory's personality, and we recognize a mind of wonderful range and -power. - -His episcopal work in Rome alone might have contented another man. -Soon after his election he wrote a long letter on the duties and -qualifications of a bishop, which, in the shape of a treatise entitled -_The Book of Pastoral Rule_, inspired for centuries the better bishops -of Europe. His palace was monastic in its severity. He discharged from -his service, in Rome and abroad, the hosts of laymen his predecessors -had employed, and replaced them with monks and clerics: incidentally -turning into monks and clerics many men who did not adorn the holy -state. He said mass daily, and used at times to go on horseback to -some appointed chapel in the city, where the people gathered to hear -his sermons on the gospels or on Ezekiel. Every shade of simony, every -pretext for ordination, except religious zeal, he sternly suppressed. -When he found that men were made deacons for their fine voices, he -forbade deacons to sing any part of the mass except the Gospel, and he -made other changes in the liturgy and encouraged the improvement of -the chant. Modern criticism does not admit the _Sacramentary_ and the -_Antiphonary_ which later ages ascribed to him, but he seems to have -given such impulse to reform that the perfected liturgy and chant of a -later date were attributed to him.[80] - -His motive in these reforms was purely religious; those who would -persuade us that Gregory I. had some regard for profane culture, at -least as ancillary to religious, forget his belief is an approaching -dissolution, and overlook the nature of profane culture. It was -indissolubly connected with paganism, and Gregory would willingly have -seen every Latin classic submerged in the Tiber; while his disdain of -Greek confirmed the already prevalent ignorance which shut the Greek -classics out of Europe, to its grave disadvantage, for many centuries. -Happily, many monks and bishops were in this respect less unworldly -than Gregory, and the greater Roman writers were copied and preserved. -Gregory's attitude toward these men is well known. He hears that -Bishop Desiderius of Vienne, a very worthy prelate, is lecturing on -"grammar" (Latin literature), and he writes to tell Desiderius that he -is filled with "mourning and sorrow" that a bishop should be occupied -with so "horrible" (_nefandum_) a pursuit.[81] It has been frivolously -suggested that perhaps Desiderius had been lecturing on the classics in -church, but Gregory is quite plain: the reading of the pagan writers is -an unfit occupation even for "a religious layman."[82] In the preface -to his _Magna Moralia_ he scorns "the rules of Donatus"; and so sore a -memory of his attitude remained among the friends of Latin letters that -Christian tradition charged him with having burned the libraries of the -Capitol and of the Palatine and with having mutilated the statues and -monuments of older Rome.[83] - -The work of Gregory in Rome, however, was not confined to liturgy -and discipline. The tradition of parasitism at Rome was not dead, -and, as there was now no _Prćfectus Annonć_ to distribute corn to the -citizens, it fell to the Church to feed them; and the Romans were now -augmented by destitute refugees from all parts. Gregory had to find -food and clothing for masses of people, to make constant grants to -their churches and to the monasteries, to meet a periodical famine, -and to render what miserable aid the ignorance of the time afforded -during the periodical pestilence. Occasionally he had even to control -the movements of troops and the dispatch of supplies; at least, in his -impatience of the apparent helplessness of the imperial government and -his determination to hold Catholic towns against the Lombards, he -undertook these and other secular functions. - -The control of the vast Papal income and expenditure might alone have -sufficed to employ a vigorous man. In Sicily, there were immense -estates belonging to the Papacy, and other "patrimonies," as they -were called, were scattered over Italy and the islands, or lay as far -away as Gaul, Dalmatia, Africa, and the East. Clerical agents usually -managed these estates, but we find Gregory talking about their mules -and mares and cornfields, and the wages and grievances of their slaves -and serfs, as familiarly as if he had visited each of them. It has been -estimated, rather precariously, that the Papacy already owned from -1400 to 1800 square miles of land, and drew from it an annual income -of from Ł300,000 to Ł400,000. Not a domestic squabble seems to have -happened in this enormous field but Gregory intervened, and his rigid -sense of justice and general shrewdness of decision command respect. -Then, there was the equally heavy task of distributing the income, -for the episcopal establishment cost little, and nothing was hoarded. -In sums of ten, twenty, or fifty gold pieces, in bales of clothing -and galleys of corn, in altar-vessels and the ransom of captives, the -stream percolated yearly throughout the Christian world, as far as the -villages of Syria. Monks and nuns were especially favoured. - -Within a few years, there spread over the world so great a repute -of Gregory's charity and equity that petitions rained upon Rome. -Here a guild of soap-boilers asks his intervention in some dispute: -there a woman who, in a fit of temper at the supposed infidelity of -her husband, has rushed to a nunnery and now wants to return home, -asks his indulgence, and receives it. From all sides are cries of -oppression, simony, or other scandal, and Gregory is aroused. Jews -appeal to him frequently against the injustice of their Christian -neighbours, and they invariably get such justice as the law allows. The -Zealots who have seized their synagogues (if of long standing--they -were forbidden by law to build new ones) must restore them, or pay for -them[84]; impatient priests who would coerce them into "believing" are -rebuked. There is only one weakness--a not unamiable weakness--in his -treatment of the Jews. Those who abandon their creed are to have their -rents reduced: to encourage the others, he says cheerfully.[85] For -the pagans, however, he has no mercy, as we shall see. He sanctions -compulsion and persecution with medićval frankness. It should be noted, -too, that, while he approved the manumission of slaves, he never -condemned the institution as such. Vast regiments of slaves worked -the Papal estates, though the ease, if not advantage, of converting -them into serfs must have been apparent. Still no slave could enter -the clergy--lest, as Leo the Great had declared, his "vileness" should -"pollute" the sacred order--and a special probation was imposed on -slaves if they wished to enter monasteries: a wise regulation this, for -many thought it an easy way to freedom. Still no slave could contract -marriage with a free Christian, as Gregory expressly reaffirms.[86] - -These details of his work will, however, be more apparent if we pass -from Rome to the provinces which he controlled, and observe the success -or failure of his intervention. It will at once be understood that his -intervention almost invariably means that there is an abuse to correct, -and, therefore, the world which we find reflected in Gregory's letters -is fearfully corrupt. The restless movements and destructive ways -of the barbarians had almost obliterated the older culture, and no -new system either of education or polity had yet been devised. The -influence of the East had been just as pernicious. The venality and -corruption of its officers had infected the higher clergy, and simony -prevailed from Gaul to Palestine. Over and over again Gregory writes, -in just the same words, to prelates of widely separated countries: "I -hear that no one can obtain orders in your province without paying -for them." The clergy was thus tainted at its source. Ambitious -laymen passed, almost at a bound, to bishoprics, and then maintained -a luxurious or vicious life by extorting illegal fees. The people, -who had been generally literate under the Romans, were now wholly -illiterate and helpless. But Gregory has his informants (generally -the agents in charge of the patrimonies) everywhere, and the better -clergy and the oppressed and the disappointed appeal to him; and a sad -procession of vice and crime passes before our eyes when we read his -letters. This anarchic world needed a supreme court more than ever; the -Papacy throve on its very disorders. - -Italy was demoralized by the settlement of the Arian Lombards over -the greater part of the country, and by their murderous raids in all -directions. Parts which remained Catholic were often so isolated from -Rome that a spirit of defiance was encouraged, and Gregory had grave -trouble. Milan, for instance, was in the hands of the Lombards, but -the Catholic clergy had fled to Genoa with their archbishop, and they -retained something of the independence of the Church of St. Ambrose. We -see that they must now have their selection of a bishop approved by -Gregory, and that the Pope often quietly reproves the prelate for his -indiscretions; but we find also that when, on a more serious occasion, -Gregory proposes to have Archbishop Constantius tried at Rome, the -latter acridly refuses. - -Ravenna, the seat of the Eastern Exarch, who is generally hostile to -Gregory, occasions some of his least saintly letters. He hears that -Archbishop John wears his pallium on forbidden occasions, and he -reproves John with an air of unquestioned authority.[87] John partly -disputes the facts, and partly pleads special privileges of Ravenna, -but Gregory finds no trace of such privileges and orders him to -conform.[88] Then he hears that John and the fine folk of the court are -poking fun at him, and his honest anger overflows[89]: "Thank God the -Lombards are between me and the city of Ravenna, or I might have had -to show how strict I can be." John dies, and we see that the clergy -of Ravenna must submit the names of two candidates to Gregory. He -rejects the Exarch's man, and chooses an old fellow-monk and friend, -Marinianus. But the new Archbishop is forced to maintain the defence of -the supposed privileges of Ravenna, and the dispute seems to reach no -conclusion during the life of Gregory. - -In the isolated peninsula of Istria, the spirit of independence has -gone the length of flat defiance, or schism, because the Papacy has -acquiesced in the endorsement by the Eastern bishops of the Three -Chapters: three chapters of a certain decree of Justinian. The schism -is of long standing, and when Gregory is made bishop he sends a troop -of soldiers to the patriarch of Aquileia, commanding that prelate and -his chief supporters to appear at Rome forthwith, "according to the -orders of the most Christian and most Serene lord of all." The use -of the Emperor's name seems to have been, to put it politely, not -strictly accurate, for when Bishop Severus appealed to Maurice, the -Emperor curtly ordered Gregory to desist. We have another indication -of the medićval aspect of Gregory's ideas when, in the following -year, he refused to contribute to the relief-fund for the victims of -a great fire at Aquileia. His monies were "not for the enemies of the -Church," he said. He went on to weaken the schism by other means, -partly by bribes, and when Maurice died in 602 and a friendly Exarch -was appointed, he at once urged physical force.[90] "The defence of -the soul is more precious in the sight of God than the defence of the -body," he enacted. He was legislating for the Middle Ages. - -His relations with the Lombards and the civil power reveal another side -of his character. Small Catholic towns, and even Rome, were constantly -threatened by the Lombards, yet Constantinople was unable to send -troops, and the Exarch remained inactive behind the marshes and walls -of Ravenna. Gregory indignantly turned soldier and diplomatist. He -appointed a military governor of Nepi, and later of Naples; and many of -his letters are to military men, stirring them to action and telling -of the dispatch of troops or supplies. In 592, the Lombards appeared -before Rome, and Gregory fell ill with work and anxiety. He then -purchased a separate peace from the Lombards[91] and there was great -anger at Ravenna and Constantinople. Gregory's sentiment was hardly one -of patriotism, which would not be consistent with his philosophy; he -was concerned for religion, as he was bound to be since the Lombards -were Arians. On the other hand, he acknowledges that if he makes a -separate peace with the Lombards, it will be disastrous for other parts -of the Empire[92]; and it is clear from the sequel that the Exarch had -a policy and was not idly drifting. - -A later legend, which some modern writers strangely regard as -credible,[93] makes Gregory meet the Lombard king outside Rome, and -strike a bargain. A bargain was certainly struck, but the angry Exarch -issued from Ravenna with his troops and cut his way to Rome, where his -conversation with the Pope cannot have been amiable. The Lombards were -back in 593, but were either bribed, or found Rome too strong to be -taken. They returned again in 595. Gregory now wrote to a friend in -Ravenna[94] that he proposed again to purchase peace, and the Emperor -Maurice seems to have written him a scalding letter. From Gregory's -indignant reply[95] we gather that Maurice called him "a fool," and -hinted that he was a liar and traitor. The government idea evidently -was that Gregory was a simple-minded victim of the cunning Lombards, -as is very probable; but we must take account of his sincere concern -for religion and his longing for peace. His policy of bribes would -have been disastrous. At Ravenna, some person posted on the walls a -sarcastic "libel" about his statesmanship, and another fiery letter -appears in Gregory's register. - -In other parts of Italy, he had grave ecclesiastical abuses to correct, -and some strange bishops are immortalized in his letters. In 599, he -had to issue a circular letter,[96] forbidding bishops to have women -in their houses, and ordering priests, deacons, and subdeacons to -separate from their wives. Sicily, controlled by his agents, gave -him little trouble, but his informers reported that in Sardinia and -Corsica the clergy and monks were very corrupt, and the pagans, who -were numerous, bribed the officials to overlook the practice of their -cult. The metropolitan at Cagliari was an intemperate and avaricious -man, and Gregory, after repeated warnings, summoned him to Rome; but -there is a curious mixture of indulgence and sternness in the Pope's -letters, and Januarius did not go to Rome or alter his wicked ways. As -to the pagans, Gregory, at first, merely urged the Archbishop to raise -the rents and taxes of those who would not abandon the gods.[97] When -this proved insufficient, he ordered physical persecution. If they were -slaves, they were to be punished with "blows and tortures"; if they -were free tenants, they were to be imprisoned. "In order," he says, in -entirely medićval language, "that they who disdain to hear the saving -words of health may at least be brought to the desired sanity of mind -by torture of the body."[98] - -With other provinces of the old Empire, his correspondence is mainly -directed to the correction of grave abuses. His letters to Spain show -that Papal authority was fully recognized there, and it is of interest -to find a Spanish bishop bemoaning, when Gregory urges that only -literate men shall be promoted to the priesthood, that they are too few -in number. Africa virtually defied his efforts to reform the Church. -The province had recovered a little under Byzantine rule, but its -bishops and civic officials took bribes from the Donatists.[99] They -refused to persecute the schismatics, when Gregory ordered them to do -so, and they defeated his attempt to break up their system of local -primacies.[100] He was compelled to leave them in their perverse ways. -The same condition of simony and clerical laxity prevailed generally -throughout the Roman-Teutonic world, and Gregory could do little more -than press for the election of good men to vacant bishoprics. - -The diplomatic side of his character appears in his relations -with Gaul, where the fiery and wilful Brunichildis was his chief -correspondent.[101] It is true that her graver crimes were committed -after Gregory's death, but he was particularly well informed, and one -cannot admire his references to her "devout mind" or appreciate his -belief that she was "filled with the piety of heavenly grace." When, -in 599, she asked the pallium for her obsequious Bishop Syagrius of -Autun, Gregory granted it: on condition that Syagrius convoked a synod -for the correction of abuses and that Brunichildis attacked paganism -more vigorously. When, on the other hand, the learned and devout Bishop -Desiderius of Vienne, who was hated by Brunichildis for his courage -in rebuking her, asked the pallium, Gregory found that there was no -precedent and refused. It is true that Brunichildis was generous to the -clergy and, in her way, pious; but Gregory must have known the real -character of the woman whose influence he sought to win. His sacrifice, -moreover, was futile. A few synods were held, but there is no trace -of any diminution of simony, drunkenness, and vice among the Frankish -priests and monks. - -His interest in the neighbouring island of Angle-land is well known. He -began, early in his Pontificate, to buy Anglo-Saxon youths and train -them for missionary work, but, in 596, he found a speedier way to -convert the islanders. The all-powerful Ethelbert was married to the -Christian Bertha, and Gregory's friendly relations with Gaul opened -the way to his court. He sent the historic mission of monks under -Augustine, and, in a few years, had the converted King transforming the -pagan temples into churches and driving his people into them. It was -Gregory who planned the first English hierarchy. - -The monks, who ought to have been Gregory's firmest allies in the -reform of Christendom, had already become an ignorant and sensual body, -sustaining the ideal of Benedict only in a few isolated communities, -and Gregory's efforts to improve them were not wholly judicious. He -insisted that they should not undertake priestly or parochial work, and -he forbade the bishops to interfere with their temporal concerns. There -can be little doubt that this tendency to free them from episcopal -control made for greater degeneration. Here again, also, we find a -curious illustration of his diplomatic liberality. As a rule he was -very severe with apostate monks, yet we find him maintaining through -life a friendly correspondence with a renegade monk of Syracuse. -Venantius had returned to his position of wealthy noble in the world, -and had married a noble dame. Gregory, it is true, urged him to return -to his monastery, but the amiability of his language is only explained -by the position and influence of the man. The last phase of this part -of Gregory's correspondence is singular. Venantius died, and left his -daughters to the guardianship of the Pope; and we find Gregory assuring -these children of sin that he will discharge "the debt we owe to the -goodness of your parents."[102] - -We have already seen that Gregory's relations with the eastern -Emperor were painful, and another episode must be related before we -approach Eastern affairs more closely. The Archbishop of Salona, who -was one of the typical lax prelates of the age and who had smiled at -Gregory's admonitions and threats, was removed by death, and the Pope -endeavoured to secure the election of the archdeacon, a rigorous priest -who had been the Pope's chief informer. Neither clergy nor laity, -however, desired a change in the morals of the episcopal palace, and -they secured from Constantinople an imperial order for the election of -their own favourite. Gregory alleged bribery and excommunicated the new -archbishop. When the Emperor ordered him to desist, he flatly refused, -and a compromise had to be admitted. In another town of the same -frontier province, Prima Justiniana, the Emperor proposed to replace -an invalid bishop with a more vigorous man, and Gregory refused to -consent.[103] - -A graver conflict had arisen in the East. Constantinople, with its -million citizens and its superb imperial palace, naturally regarded -its archbishop as too elevated to submit to Rome, and its ruling -prelate, John the Faster,--a priest who rivalled Gregory in virtue -and austerity,--assumed the title of "Ecumenical Bishop." Gregory -protested, but the Emperor Maurice, with his customary bluntness, -ordered the Pope to be silent. A few years later, however, some -aggrieved Eastern priests appealed to Rome, and Gregory wrote, in -entirely Papal language, to ask John for a report on their case. When -John lightly, or disdainfully, answered that he knew nothing about -it, the Pope lost his temper. He told his ascetic brother that it -would be a much less evil to eat meat than to tell lies: that he had -better get rid of that licentious young secretary of his and attend -to business: that he must at once take back the aggrieved priests: and -that, although he seeks no quarrel, he will not flinch if it is forced -on him.[104] John made a malicious retort, by inducing the Empress -Constantina to make a request for relics which Gregory was bound to -refuse. - -The priests were eventually tried at Rome. Whether Gregory's sentence -was ever carried out in the East, we do not know, but John took the -revenge of styling himself "Ecumenical Bishop" in his correspondence -with Gregory, and the Pope then tried to form a league with the -patriarchs of the apostolic Sees of Antioch and Alexandria against the -ambitious John. In his eagerness to defeat John, he went very near to -sharing the Papacy with his allies. Peter, he said, had been at Antioch -before Rome, and Mark was a disciple of Peter; therefore the three were -in a sense "one See."[105] He added that Rome was so far from aspiring -to the odious title that, although it had actually been offered to -the Popes by the Council of Chalcedon, neither Leo nor any of his -successors had used it.[106] - -To John himself Gregory sent a withering rebuke of his pride. To the -Emperor Maurice he described John as "a wolf in sheep's clothing," -a man who claimed a "blasphemous title" which "ought to be far from -the hearts of all Christians"! John may "stiffen his neck against the -Almighty," he says, but "he will not bend mine even with swords."[107] -He assured the Empress Constantina that John's ambition was a sure sign -of the coming of Anti-Christ.[108] - -Gregory's peculiar diplomacy only excited the disdain of the -subtler Greeks. His position is, in fact, so false--repudiating -as "blasphemous" a title which, the whole world knew, he himself -claimed in substance--that it has been suggested that he thought -the term "Ecumenical Bishop" meant "sole bishop." Such a suggestion -implies extraordinary ignorance at Rome, but there is no need to -entertain it. To his friends Anastasius of Antioch and Eulogius of -Alexandria, Gregory complained that the phrase was an affront, not to -_all_ bishops, but merely to the leading patriarchs, and the whole -correspondence shows that there was no misunderstanding. Gregory lacked -self-control. Anastasius of Antioch, though very friendly, ignored his -letters; Eulogius advised him to be quiet, and hinted that people might -suggest envy; the Emperor treated him with silent disdain. John died, -but his successor Cyriacus actually used the offensive title in telling -Gregory of his appointment. There was another outburst, and Maurice -impatiently begged the Pope not to make so much fuss about "an idle -name." Eulogius of Alexandria, who had some sense of humour, addressed -Gregory as "Universal Pope," saying gravely that he would obey his -"commands" and not again call any man "Universal Bishop." Possibly -Eulogius knew that Gregory had, a few years before, written to John of -Syracuse: "As to the Church of Constantinople, who doubts that it is -subject to the Apostolic See?"[109] Gregory protested in vain until the -close of his life. The Greeks retained their "blasphemous" title: the -Latins continued to assert their authority even over the Greek bishops. - -Toward the close of the year 602, the Emperor Maurice, now a stricken -old man of sixty-three, was driven from his throne by the brutal -Phocas; his five boys were murdered before his eyes and he was himself -executed. Phocas sent messengers to apprise Gregory of his accession. -We may assume that these messengers would give a discreet account -of what had happened and, possibly, bring an assurance of the new -Emperor's orthodoxy; and we do not know whether Gregory's assiduous -servants at Constantinople sent him any independent account. Yet, when -we have made every possible allowance, Gregory's letters to Phocas are -painful. The first letter[110] begins, "Glory be to God on high," and -sings a chant of victory culminating in, "Let the heavens rejoice and -the earth be glad." The bloody and unscrupulous adventurer must have -been himself surprised. Two months later, Gregory wrote again, hailing -the dawn of "the day of liberty" after the night of tyranny.[111] In -another letter he[112] saluted Leontia, the new Empress,--a fit consort -of Phocas,--as "a second Pulcheria"; and he commended the Church of St. -Peter's to her generosity. These two letters were written seven months -after the murders, and it is impossible to suppose that no independent -report had reached Gregory by that time. Nor do we find that, though he -lived for a year afterwards, he ever undid those lamentable letters. It -is the most ominous presage of the Middle Ages. - -Gregory died on March 12, 604. The racking pains of gout had been -added to his maladies, and plague and famine and Lombards continued -to enfeeble Italy He had striven heroically to secure respect for -ideals--for religion, justice, and honour--in that dark world on which -his last thoughts lingered. He had planted many a good man in the -bishoprics of Europe. He had immensely strengthened the Papacy, and a -strong central power might do vast service in that anarchic Europe. -Yet the historian must recognize that the world was too strong even -for his personality; simony and corruption still spread from Gaul to -Africa, and the ideas which Gregory most surely contributed to the -mind of Europe were those more lamentable or more casuistic deductions -from his creed which we have noticed. Within a year or so--to make the -best we can of a rumour which has got into the chronicles--the Romans -themselves grumbled that his prodigal charity had lessened _their_ -share of the patrimonies, and we saw that more bitter complaints -against him were current in the Middle Ages. Yet he was a great Pope: -not great in intellect, not perfect in character, but, in an age of -confusion, corruption, and cowardice, a mighty protagonist of high -ideals. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 77: Another of them, Gelasius (492-496), is, or was until -recently, regarded as the author of the first canon of Scriptures -and the first list of prohibited books. But this so-called "Gelasian -Decree" does not bear the name of Gelasius in some of the older -manuscripts, and is now much disputed. Father Grisar thinks that "we -may take it as certain that it did not emanate from him" (_History of -Rome and the Popes_, iii., 236). The canon is probably due to Damasus -(see p. 36) and the rather loosely written list of books which follows -it is ascribed to the later age of Hormisdas (514-523). Gelasius was an -able and vigorous Pope, and would hardly issue so poor a decree.] - -[Footnote 78: Lives of Gregory must be read with discretion. The best -and most ample source of knowledge is the stout volume of his letters, -but there are early biographies by Paul the Deacon and John the Deacon. -Paul wrote about 780, but his fairly sober sketch--into which miracles -have been interpolated--does not help us much. John wrote about a -century after this, and his fantastic and utterly undiscriminating work -is almost useless. The best biography of Gregory is the learned and -generally candid work of W.F.H. Dudden (_Gregory the Great_, 2 vols., -1905).] - -[Footnote 79: _Ep._, ix., 69.] - -[Footnote 80: See Dudden's _Gregory the Great_, i., 264-276.] - -[Footnote 81: _Ep._, vi., 54.] - -[Footnote 82: Dr. H.A. Mann (_The Lives of the Popes in the Early -Middle Ages_, 1902, etc.) would show that Gregory had a regard for -culture by quoting much praise of secular learning from the _Commentary -on the First Book of Kings_. This is not a work of Gregory at all. Even -the Benedictine editors of the Migne edition claim only that it was -written by an admirer who took notes of Gregory's homilies, and they -admit that it frequently departs from Gregory's ideas.] - -[Footnote 83: See John of Salisbury, _Polycraticus_, ii., 26. It is -difficult to conceive that so unflattering a tradition was entirely an -invention.] - -[Footnote 84: _Ep._, ix., 6, etc.] - -[Footnote 85: _Ep._, ii., 32.] - -[Footnote 86: _Ep._, vii., 1.] - -[Footnote 87: III., 56.] - -[Footnote 88: V., 11.] - -[Footnote 89: V., 15.] - -[Footnote 90: XIII., 33.] - -[Footnote 91: II., 46; v., 36.] - -[Footnote 92: V., 36.] - -[Footnote 93: It is first found in the unreliable Continuer of -Prosper's _Chronicle_, and seems to be founded on the meeting of Leo -and Attila. Neither Gregory nor Paul, the Deacon speaks of a meeting -with the Lombard king.] - -[Footnote 94: V., 36.] - -[Footnote 95: V., 40.] - -[Footnote 96: IX., ii.] - -[Footnote 97: IV., 26.] - -[Footnote 98: IX., 65.] - -[Footnote 99: I., 84.] - -[Footnote 100: I., 74.] - -[Footnote 101: See _Ep._, vii., 5, 50, 59 etc.] - -[Footnote 102: XI., 35.] - -[Footnote 103: XI., 47.] - -[Footnote 104: III., 53.] - -[Footnote 105: V., 43.] - -[Footnote 106: It is not true that the Council offered the title to Leo -I. It occurs only in petitions which two Eastern priests directed to -the Pope and the Council (Mansi, vi., 1006 and 1012), and the Council, -as we saw, decreed precisely the opposite. The only other place in -which we find it in some form is the spurious Latin version of the -sentence on Dioscorus to which I referred on p. 50.] - -[Footnote 107: V., 20.] - -[Footnote 108: V., 21.] - -[Footnote 109: IX., 12.] - -[Footnote 110: XIII., 31.] - -[Footnote 111: XIII., 38.] - -[Footnote 112: XIII., 39.] - - - - -CHAPTER V - -HADRIAN I. AND THE TEMPORAL POWER - - -Two centuries after the death of Gregory the Great we still find an -occasional prelate of rare piety, such as Alcuin, scanning the horizon -for signs of the approaching dissolution. Vice and violence had so far -triumphed that it seemed as if God must soon lower the curtain on the -human tragedy. But the successors of Gregory in the chair of Peter were -far from entertaining such feelings. From the heart of the threatening -north, another Constantine had come to espouse their cause, to confound -their enemies, and to invest the Papacy with a power that it had never -known before. The story of the Popes as temporal sovereigns had begun. - -Once more we must say that the development was an almost inevitable -issue of the circumstances. The Byzantine rule in Italy had never been -strong enough to restrain the Lombards, and the rise of the Mohammedans -in the farther East now made Constantinople less competent than ever -to administer and to defend its trans-Adriatic province. First the -city, then the duchy, of Rome fell under the care of the Popes, from -sheer lack of other administrators and defenders. We saw this in the -Pontificate of Gregory. Beyond the Roman duchy were the scattered -patrimonies, the estates given or bequeathed to the Papacy, and these -were often towns, or included towns. Here again the lack of secular -authority put all government in the hands of the Pope's agents. Then -the Eastern court successively adopted two heresies, Monothelitism and -Iconoclasm, and the dwindling respect of Rome for the Greeks passed -into bitter hostility. Imperial troops sacked the Lateran, dragged a -Pope (Martin I.) ignominiously to the East, and induced another Pope -(Honorius I.) to "subvert the immaculate faith" or, at least, to "allow -the immaculate to be stained."[113] On the whole, however, the Pontiffs -who succeeded Gregory were firm and worthy men. Rome began to shudder -between the fierce Lombard and the heretical Greek, and there slowly -grew in the Lateran Palace the design of winning independence of the -erratic counsels of kings. - -At this juncture, the name of Charles Martel blazed through the -Christian world, and Gregory III. and the people of Rome implored -him to take them under his protection. The Lombards were, however, -auxiliaries of Charles, and, as Duchesne suggests, Charles probably -resented Gregory's interference in secular affairs; the Pope had -recently encouraged the Lombard dukes who were in rebellion against -their king, and Liutprand had, in revenge, seized four frontier towns -of the Roman duchy. Gregory failed, but his amiable and diplomatic -successor, Pope Zachary, changed the Roman policy and made progress. He -lent Liutprand the use of the little Papal army to aid in suppressing -his dukes, and received the four towns and other "patrimonies." A -little later, the Exarch and the Archbishop of Ravenna asked Zachary -to intercede for them, and the genial Pope again saw and disarmed -the Lombard. The language of the _Liber Pontificalis_ is, at this -important stage, so barbarous--a sad reflection of Roman culture, for -it must have been written in the Lateran--that one often despairs of -catching its exact meaning, but it seems to me clear that it represents -Liutprand as giving the district of Cesena to the Papacy, and restoring -the exarchate of Ravenna to the city of Ravenna. Presently, however, we -shall find the Popes claiming the exarchate. - -The next step was the famous intervention of Rome in the affairs of -the Franks. Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, aspired to the throne of -Childeric III., and consulted the Papacy as to the moral aspect of his -design. The astute Pontiff went far beyond the terms of the request, -and "ordered" the Franks to make Pippin their monarch: an act which -founded the lucrative claim of Rome that she had conferred the kingdom -on the father of Charlemagne. Zachary's successor, Stephen II.,[114] -completed the work. He was hard pressed by the Lombard King Aistulph, -and, after a fruitless appeal to Constantinople, he went to France in -753 and implored Pippin to "take up the cause of the Blessed Peter -and the Republic of the Romans." This broke the last link with the -East, and Stephen secured the gratitude of Pippin and his dynasty by -anointing the King and his sons and pronouncing a dire anathema--which -he had assuredly no right to pronounce--on any who should ever dare to -displace the family of Pippin from the throne. And so Pippin swore a -mighty oath that he would take up the cause of the Blessed Peter, but -what he precisely engaged to do is one of the great controversies of -history. - -It is clear that Pippin was made "Patrician" of Rome. This had long -been the official title of the Byzantine Exarch in Italy, and it has -no definite meaning when it is transferred to Pippin and Charlemagne. -Probably this vagueness was part of the Roman plan. The Pope wanted -Pippin's army without his suzerainty. Moreover, in conferring on Pippin -the title which had belonged to the Exarch, it was probably implied -that the exarchate became part of "the cause of the Blessed Peter." -In point of fact, the _Liber Pontificalis_ goes on to say that Pippin -swore to win for Rome "the exarchate of Ravenna" as well as other -"rights and territories of the Republic." Later, in recording the life -of Hadrian I., the _Liber Pontificalis_ says that Stephen asked for -"divers cities and territories of the province of Italy, and the grant -of them to the Blessed Peter and his Vicars for ever." This part of -the work is, it is true, under grave suspicion of interpolation, but -the sentence I have quoted may pass. Pippin swore to secure for the -Popes, not only the Roman duchy, and "divers cities and territories" -which they claimed as "patrimonies," but also the exarchate of Ravenna, -to which they had no right whatever. As Hadrian I. repeatedly refers, -in his letters to Charlemagne, to this "Donation of Pippin," and in -one letter (xcviii.) says that it was put into writing, it is idle to -contest it.[115] - -Pippin crossed the Alps and forced Aistulph to yield, but as soon as -the Franks returned to their country the Lombard refused to fulfil -his obligations and again devastated Italy. No answer to the Pope's -desperate appeals for aid came from France and, in 756, when Rome was -gravely threatened, Stephen sent a very curious letter to Pippin.[116] -It is written in the name of St. Peter, and historians are divided -in opinion as to whether or no the Pope wished to impose on the -superstition of the French monarch and to induce him to think that it -was a miraculous appeal from the apostle himself. There is grave reason -to think that this was Stephen's design. The letter does not identify -the Pope with Peter, as apologists suggest; it speaks of Stephen as -a personality distinct from the apostolic writer, insists that it is -the disembodied spirit of Peter in heaven that addresses the King, and -threatens him with eternal damnation unless he comes to Rome and saves -"my body" and "my church" and "its bishop." As Pippin, who had ignored -the Pope's appeals so long, at once hurried to Italy on receiving this -letter, we may assume that he regarded it as miraculous. However that -may be, he crushed Aistulph and forced him to sign a deed abandoning -twenty-three cities--the exarchate, the adjacent Pentapolis, Comacchio, -and Narni--to the Roman See.[117] The representatives of the Eastern -court had hurried to Italy and had claimed this territory, but Pippin -bluntly told them that he had taken the trouble to crush Aistulph -only "on behalf of the Blessed Peter." Byzantine rule in Italy was -henceforth confined to Calabria in the south and Venetia and Istria in -the north. The Pope succeeded the Eastern Emperor by right of gift from -Pippin; and Pippin would, no doubt, claim that the provinces were his -to give by right of the sword. In point of fact, however, the Papacy -had claimed the exarchate on some previous title, and that title is -unsound. - -We may now pass speedily to the Pontificate of Hadrian. Aistulph -died in 756; Stephen III. in 757. The ten years' Pontificate of Paul -I. was absorbed in a tiresome effort to wring the new rights of -Rome from the new Lombard King, Didier, and the struggle led to the -severance of the Romans into Frank and Lombard factions: one of the -gravest and most enduring results of the secular policy of the Papacy. -When Paul died, the Lombard faction, under two high Papal officials -named Christopher and Sergius, led Lombard troops upon the opposing -faction (who had elected a Pope), crushed them in a brutal and bloody -struggle, and elected Stephen IV. Stephen was, however, not the Lombard -King's candidate, and Didier intrigued at Rome against the power of -Christopher and Sergius. He bribed the Papal chamberlain, Paul Afiarta, -and it is enough to say that before long Christopher and Sergius were -put in prison and deprived of their eyes. This was done at the Pope's -command; it was the price of the restoration by Didier of the cities he -still withheld.[118] - -Rome was still under the shadow of this brutal quarrel when, in the -year 772, Hadrian became Pope. He came of a noble Roman family, and, -having been left an orphan in tender years, he had been reared by a -pious uncle. Culture at Rome in the eighth century had sunk to its -lowest depth, and the letters of Hadrian, like all documents of the -time, are full of the grossest grammatical errors. In the school of -virtue and asceticism, however, he was a willing pupil. His fasts -and his hair-shirt attracted attention in his youth, and he was so -favourably known to all at the time of Stephen's death that he was at -once and unanimously elected. - -Didier pressed for the new Pope's friendship. Charlemagne had already -tired of his daughter, or no longer needed her dowry (the Lombard -alliance), and had ignominiously restored her to her father's court and -ventured upon a third matrimonial experiment. We do not find Hadrian -rebuking the Frank King, but he sent his chamberlain Afiarta to the -Lombard court, to arrange for the restoration of the cities ceded to -Rome and, presumably form an alliance with Didier. While Afiarta was -away, however, two things occurred which caused him to change his -policy. Carlomann died in France, and his share of the kingdom was -annexed by Charlemagne. Carlomann's widow then fled to the Lombard -court, and Didier pressed Hadrian to anoint her sons in defiance of -Charlemagne. When Hadrian hesitated, Didier invaded the Papal territory -and took several towns; while Afiarta, the Pope heard, was boasting -that he would bring Hadrian to Pavia with a rope round his neck. -Meantime, however, Afiarta's rivals at Rome informed the Pope that -Afiarta had had the blind prisoner Sergius murdered, and Hadrian was -shocked. He ordered the arrest of his chamberlain, and, in defiance of -his more lenient instructions, Afiarta was delivered to the secular -authorities at Ravenna and executed. - -Didier now set his forces in motion. Hadrian, hurriedly gathering -his troops for the defence of the duchy, appealed to Charlemagne and -threatened Didier with excommunication. It seems also that he made -efforts to secure other parts of Italy for the Papacy. Some professed -representatives of Spoleto, which was subject to Didier, came to Rome -to ask that their duchy might be incorporated in the Papal territory, -and their long Lombard hair was solemnly cropped in Roman fashion. We -shall find grave reason to doubt whether these men had an authentic -right to represent Spoleto, but from that moment the Popes claimed it -as part of their temporal dominion, Didier seems to have underrated -the power of the young French monarch. Both Hadrian and Charlemagne -(who offered Didier 14,000 gold _solidi_ if he would yield the disputed -cities) endeavoured to negotiate peacefully with him, but he refused -all overtures, and the Franks crossed the Alps and besieged him in -Pavia. - -Charlemagne remained before Pavia throughout the winter of 773-774, -and, when Holy Week came round, he went to Rome for the celebration -of Easter. Hadrian hurriedly arranged to meet his guest with honour, -though the account of his ceremonies makes us smile when we recall how -imperial Rome would have received such a monarch. Thirty miles from -Rome the civic and military officials, with the standards of the Roman -militia, met the conqueror; a mile from the city the various "schools" -of the militia, and groups of children with branches of palm and olive, -streamed out to meet the Franks, and accompanied them to St. Peter's. -The awe with which Charlemagne approached the old capital of the -world, and the feeling of the Romans when they gazed on the gigantic -young Frank, in his short silver-bordered tunic and blue cloak, with -a shower of golden curls falling over his broad shoulders, are left -to our imagination by the chronicler.[119] His one aim is to show how -the famous donation of temporal power was the natural culmination of -the piety of the Frankish monarch. He tells us how Charlemagne walked -on foot the last mile to St. Peter's: how, when he reached the great -church on Holy Saturday, he went on his knees and kissed each step -before he embraced the delighted Pope: how Frank bishops and warriors -mingled with the Romans, and how the vast crowd was thrilled by the -emotions of that historic occasion. He describes how Charlemagne -humbly asked permission to enter Rome, and spent three days in paying -reverence at its many shrines; and how, on the Wednesday, Pope and King -met in the presence of the body of Peter to discuss the question of the -Papal territory. - -In a famous passage, which has inspired a small library of -controversial writing, this writer of the life of Hadrian in the _Liber -Pontificalis_ affirms that Charlemagne assigned to St. Peter and his -successors for ever the greater part of Italy: in modern terms, the -whole of Italy except Lombardy in the north, which was left to the -Lombards, and Naples and Calabria in the south, where the Greeks -still lingered. The duchies of Beneventum and Spoleto, the provinces -of Venetia and Istria, and the island of Corsica, which were not at -the disposal of Charlemagne, are expressly included; and it is said -that one copy of the deed, signed by Charlemagne and his nobles and -bishops, was put into the tomb of St. Peter, and another copy was taken -to France. This is the basis of the claim of later Popes to the greater -part of Italy. - -But the suspicions of historians are naturally awakened when they -learn that both copies of this priceless document have disappeared: -that the only description of its terms is this passage of the _Liber -Pontificalis_, which was presumably written in the Papal chancellery: -and that the art of forging documents was extensively cultivated in -the eighth century. The famous "Donation of Constantine," a document -which makes the first Christian Emperor, when he leaves Rome, entrust -the whole Western Empire to Pope Silvester, is a flagrant forgery of -the time; indeed, most historians now conclude that it was fabricated -at Rome during the Pontificate of Hadrian. Certainly the Pope seems -to refer to it when, in 777, he writes to Charlemagne: "Just as in -the time of the Blessed Silvester, Bishop of Rome, the Holy Catholic -and Apostolic Roman Church was elevated and exalted by the most pious -Emperor Constantine the Great, of holy memory, and _he deigned to -bestow on it power in these western regions_."[120] - -The equally mendacious _Acta S. Silvestri_ was certainly known to -Hadrian, and we do not trace it earlier; and it is probable enough -that one or both of these documents were shown to Charlemagne. Some -historians believe that the "Fantuzzian Fragment" (a similarly false -account of the Donation of Pippin) belongs to the same inventive -period, and this is not unlikely. - -It cannot be questioned that Charlemagne renewed and enlarged his -father's donation, since Hadrian's letters to him repeatedly affirm -this. Immediately after his return to France, Hadrian reminds him that -he has confirmed Pippin's gift of the exarchate,[121] and, a little -later, he recalls that, when he was in Rome, he granted the duchy of -Spoleto to the Blessed Peter.[122] Spoleto did not, in point of fact, -pass under Papal rule, but we must conclude from the Pope's words that -Charlemagne in some way approved the action of Hadrian in annexing the -duchy, and in this sense enlarged the donation made by his father. -Beyond this single instance of Spoleto, however, the letters of Hadrian -do not confirm the writer of his life in the _Liber Pontificalis_ in -his description of the extent of Charlemagne's gift,[123] and their -silence supports the critical view. While he complains of outrages -in Istria and Venetia, while he occupies himself in a long series of -letters with the affairs of Beneventum, he makes no claim that these -provinces were given to him by Charlemagne. The whole story of the -Papacy during the life of Charlemagne is inconsistent with any but the -more modest estimate of the donation: that it was a vague sanction of -the Spoletan proceeding, in addition to confirming the Donation of -Pippin. - -The learned editor of the _Liber Pontificalis_, Duchesne, is convinced -that the first part of the life of Hadrian, which culminates in this -donation, was written by a contemporary cleric and must be regarded as -genuine. He suggests that, when Hadrian perceived the impracticability -of Charlemagne winning two thirds of Italy for the Roman See, he -released the monarch from his oath. This is inconsistent alike with -the character of Hadrian and the terms of his correspondence, and -recent historians generally regard the range ascribed to Charlemagne's -donation in the _Liber Pontificalis_ as either fictitious or enlarged -by later interpolations. The first part of Duchesne's study--the proof -that the early chapters of the life of Hadrian were written by a -contemporary--is convincing: the second part--that the Pope sacrificed -five or six great provinces because it was difficult at the time to get -them--has not even the most feeble documentary basis and is unlikely in -the last degree, to judge by the known facts. Either some later writer -during the Pontificate of Leo III. (or later) rounded the narrative of -the early years of Hadrian with this grandiose forgery, or the passage -which specifies the extent of the donation was interpolated in the -narrative. For either supposition we have ample analogy in the life of -the eighth century: for a Papal surrender of whole provinces we have -no analogy whatever, and there is not the faintest allusion to it in -Hadrian's forty-five extant letters to Charlemagne.[124] - -The life of Hadrian in the _Liber Pontificalis_ consists, as will -already have been realized, of two very distinct parts. The first is a -consecutive and circumstantial narrative of events up to the departure -of Charlemagne from Rome in the spring of 774. This seems to have been -written by an eye-witness, possibly a clerk in the Papal service; and -it seems equally probable that this contemporary narrative was rounded -by a later hand with a fictitious account of Charlemagne's conduct -on the Wednesday. Immediately afterwards, Charlemagne returned to -Pavia, conquered Didier, and carried him off to a French monastery. -This occurred in the second year of Hadrian's Pontificate, yet in the -_Liber Pontificalis_, the remaining twenty years are crushed into a few -chaotic paragraphs, and these are chiefly concerned with his lavish -decoration of the Roman churches. We turn to his letters, and from -these we can construct a satisfactory narrative and can obtain a good -idea of the writer's personality. - -Of the fifty-five extant letters of Hadrian no less than forty-five are -addressed to Charlemagne, and they are overwhelmingly concerned with -his temporal possessions. He is rather a King-Pope than a Pope-King. -For twenty years he assails Charlemagne with querulous, petulant, or -violent petitions to protect the rights of the Blessed Peter, and it -is not illiberally suspected that the lost replies of Charlemagne -contained expressions of impatience. The Pope's letters, with their -unceasing references to the Blessed Peter and all that he has done -for Charlemagne, are not pleasant reading, and the Frank King, whose -Italian policy seems to baffle his biographers, must have realized -that his position as suzerain of the Blessed Peter was delicate and -difficult. Hadrian on the other hand, found that the temporal rights -of his See left comparatively little time for spiritual duties and -laid a strain on his piety. Once in a few years he smites a heretic -or arraigns some delinquent prelate, but the almost unvarying theme -of his letters is a complaint that the Blessed Peter is defrauded of -his rights, and he is at times drawn into political intrigues which -do not adorn his character. We may recognize that his ambition was -as impersonal as that of Gregory the Great, yet the spectacle of his -plaints and manoeuvres is not one on which we can dwell with admiration. - -Charlemagne had scarcely returned to France when he received from -Hadrian a bitter complaint that Leo, Archbishop of Ravenna, had seized -the cities of the exarchate and was endeavouring to win those of the -Pentapolis.[125] Charlemagne did not respond; indeed Leo went in person -to the Frank court, and it is significant that after his return he was, -Hadrian says, more insolent and ambitious than ever. He cast out the -officials sent from Rome and, by the aid of his troops, took over the -rule of the exarchate. Charlemagne was busy with his Saxon war, and he -paid no attention to the Pope's piteous appeals.[126] Leo died in 777, -however, and his successor seems to have submitted to Rome. Charlemagne -had meantime visited Italy and may have intervened. - -The business which brought Charlemagne to Italy in 776 was more -serious. Arichis, Duke of Beneventum, one of the ablest and most -cultivated of the Lombards, who was married to a daughter of Didier, -was an independent sovereign. Hildeprand, Duke of Spoleto, who -had--in spite of the supposed annexation of Spoleto--chosen to regard -Charlemagne rather than Hadrian as his suzerain, was on good terms with -Arichis, and the Pope looked on their friendship with gloomy suspicion. -He reported to Charlemagne that they were conspiring against his -authority. Charlemagne's envoys were due at Rome, and Hadrian bitterly -complained to him that they had gone first to Spoleto and had "greatly -increased the insolence of the Spoletans," and had then, in spite of -all the Pope's protests, proceeded to Beneventum.[127] It is clear that -there was in Italy a strong feeling against the Papal expansion, and -that the occasional appeals for incorporation in the Roman territory -came from clerics. Spoleto remained independent, in spite of Hadrian's -claim that it had been promised to him; in fact, it was clearly the -policy of Charlemagne to leave these matters to local option, and he -can scarcely have made a definite promise to include Spoleto in his -"donation." - -In the following year, Hadrian sent more alarming news. Adelchis, a -son of Didier, had fled to the Greeks and was pressing them to assist -in overthrowing the Frank-Roman system. Hadrian said that Arichis and -Hildeprand, as well as Hrodgaud of Friuli and Reginald of Clusium, had -conspired with the Greeks, and he implored the King "by the living God" -to come at once. Charlemagne came, and chastised Hrodgaud, but he does -not seem to have found serious ground for the charges against the Dukes -of Spoleto and Beneventum. Presently, however, Hadrian was able to -announce more definitely a conspiracy against his rule; the Beneventans -and Greeks had captured some of his Campanian towns, and Tassilo, Duke -of Bavaria (son-in-law of Didier), had joined them. It is true that -Charlemagne was, at the time, busy in Saxony, but it is equally clear -that he was angry with the Pope and resented his efforts to secure -the two duchies. In 777, Hadrian wrote that he rejoiced to hear that -Charlemagne was at length coming; he sent him a long list, from the -Roman archives, of all the territories to which Rome laid claim, and -invited the Frank to be a second Constantine.[128] But Charlemagne came -not, and in his next letter Hadrian has to lament that the Frank has -committed the "unprecedented act" of arresting the Papal Legate for -insolence, and the Lombards are openly exulting in his humiliation.[129] - -There seems then to have been a long period without correspondence -between the two courts, or else it has not been thought judicious -to preserve the letters. In 781, however, Charlemagne came to Rome. -Tassilo was disarmed, and, as Charlemagne's daughter was betrothed -to the son of the Eastern Empress Irene, the Greeks must have been -pacified. The six years of peace which followed were, no doubt, used -by Hadrian in that princely decoration of the Roman churches of which -I will speak later and in some attention to ecclesiastical affairs. We -find him writing, in 785, to the bishops of Spain; though he seems to -have had little influence on the Spanish heresy which he denounced, -and it was left to the more vigorous attacks of Charlemagne.[130] In -786 he extended his pastoral care to England, which had not seen a -Roman envoy since the days of Gregory. His Legates were received with -honour, but they reported that the English Church was in a deplorable -condition.[131] King Offa made a princely gift for the maintenance -of lamps in St. Peter's (a euphemism of the Roman court) and for the -poor, and it is curious to read that Hadrian consented, at the King's -request, to make Lichfield a metropolitan see. - -The peace was broken in 787 by an active alliance of Arichis, Tassilo, -and the Greeks, and Charlemagne again set out for Italy. Arichis was -forced to pay the Franks a heavy annual tribute and give his sons as -hostages. The elder son and Arichis himself died soon afterwards, -and Hadrian again made lamentable efforts to secure the duchy. The -accomplished widow of Arichis, Adelperga, besought Charlemagne to -bestow it on her younger son, Romwald, and Hadrian begged him not to -comply. He trusted Charlemagne would not suspect him of coveting the -duchy himself[132]; but he refrained from suggesting an alternative -to the son of Arichis, and at length he boldly warned Charlemagne not -to "prefer Romwald to the Blessed Peter."[133] Other indications of -the building of the temporal power are not more edifying. We read that -representative inhabitants of Capua and other Beneventan cities have -sought incorporation in the Roman "republic"; and then we read that -the cities have been handed over to the Papacy without inhabitants--a -clear sign of the wishes of the majority--and that Romwald is assuring -his subjects, on the authority of Charlemagne, that they need not pass -under the authority of Rome unless they will. - -Charlemagne again ignored the Pope's efforts, and soon had the Spoletan -and Beneventan troops co-operating with his own against the Greeks. -Hadrian obtained no control over Spoleto and Beneventum, and the fact -that he does not charge Charlemagne with failing to keep faith with -the Blessed Peter casts further discredit on the supposed donation. In -Venetia and Istria he had no influence whatever, and his agents were -barbarously treated.[134] Corsica never enters his correspondence. -His power was confined to the Roman duchy, the exarchate, and the -Pentapolis; and even there it was much assailed. It is true that -in an hour of resolution he forbade Charlemagne to interfere in an -ecclesiastical election at Ravenna, and it was as master of Ravenna -that he gave Charlemagne the marbles and mosaics of the old palace. -But he complained bitterly that Charlemagne listened to his critics -in Ravenna,[135] and he had repeatedly to appeal to Frank authority -to enforce his sentences. To the end his letters to Charlemagne were -querulous and exacting. A few years before his death he heard that -Offa of England was proposing to Charlemagne to depose him, and he -protested, with more petulance than dignity, that he had been elected, -not by men, but by Jesus Christ.[136] - -This demoralizing concern for his temporal rights seems to have warped -Hadrian's religious temperament and to have left him little time -for purely spiritual duties. A single lengthy letter to Spain and a -legation to England are all that we have as yet related, and there is -little to add. His third exercise of jurisdiction was unfortunate. -Irene had restored the worship of images in the East and was eager -for a reconciliation with Western Christendom. She invited Hadrian -to preside at an Ecumenical Council. His reply was admirable in -doctrinal respects, but he annoyed the Greeks by at once claiming all -his patrimonies in the East and protesting against the title used by -Archbishop Tarasius. They retorted by suppressing part of his letter to -the Council of Nicća (787), at which his Legates presided, and ignored -both his requests. - -This, however, was only the beginning of fresh and grave trouble with -Charlemagne. The Greeks had annoyed him by cancelling the betrothal of -Constantine with his daughter Rotrud, and there is reason to suspect -that he already contemplated assuming the title of Emperor. There was, -at all events, a sore feeling in France, and when the findings of the -Council of Nicća reached that country, they were treated with disdain -and insult. Hadrian had, in his annoyance with the Greeks, refused to -give a formal sanction to their findings, but he had so far accepted -them as to issue from the Papal chancellery a Latin translation of the -_acta_ of the Council. We can readily believe that the translation -would be crude and inaccurate, but the quarrel was not based on these -fine shades of meaning. The French conception of the use of images -differed not only from that of the Greeks, but from that of Hadrian. -The northern prelates held that images were to be regarded only as -ornaments and as reminders of the saints they represented. In this -sense Charlemagne issued, in his own name (though we justly suspect -the authorship of Alcuin), the large work which is commonly known as -_The Caroline Books_. It scathingly attacked the Greek canons which had -been accepted by the Pope; it took no notice of Hadrian's doctrinal -letter to the Council; and, in defiance of the familiar Roman custom, -it denounced as sinful the practice of burning lights before statues -or paying them any kind or degree of worship. It contained assurances -of its loyalty to the Apostolic See, but Hadrian must have felt, when -at length some version or other of the work was sent to him (three -or four years after its publication), that it was an outrage on his -spiritual authority. But the book bore the name of Charlemagne, and in -his lengthy reply Hadrian prudently concealed his annoyance.[137] In -the same year (794) the Frank bishops held a synod at Frankfort and -resolutely maintained their position. Whether this synod followed or -preceded Hadrian's letter we cannot say, but the Franks continued for -years to reject the Roman doctrine.[138] - -Hadrian's biographer discreetly ignores these failures of his attempts -to assert his authority, and almost confines himself to the record of -his work in Rome itself. He restored and extended the walls, and added -no less than four hundred towers to their defences. He repaired four -aqueducts, and rebuilt, on a grander scale, the colonnade which ran -from the Tiber to St. Peter's. The interior of St. Peter's he decorated -with a splendour that must have seemed to the degenerate Romans -imperial. The choir was adorned with silver-plated doors, and, in part, -a silver pavement; while a great silver chandelier, of 1345 lights, -was suspended from its ceiling. Large statues of gold and silver were -placed on the altars, and the walls were enriched with purple hangings -and mosaics. Vestments of the finest silk, shining with gold and -precious stones, were provided for the clergy. To other churches, also, -Hadrian made liberal gifts of gold and silver statues, Tyrian curtains, -gorgeous vestments, and mosaics. The long hostility to images and -image-makers in the East had driven large numbers of Greek artists to -Italy, and the vast sums which the new temporal dominions sent to Rome -enabled Hadrian to employ them. After a long and profound degeneration -"the fine arts began slowly to revive."[139] For literary culture, -however, Hadrian did nothing; the attempt of some writers to associate -him with Charlemagne's efforts to relieve the gross illiteracy of -Europe is without foundation. - -In charity, too, the Pope was distinguished. He founded new deaconries -for the care of the poor, and at times of flood and fire he was one -of the first to visit and relieve the sufferers. But both his artistic -and his philanthropic work was almost restricted to Rome. He added a -few farms to those which his predecessors had planted on the desolate -Campagna, but the great and increasing resources of the Papacy were -chiefly used in laying the foundations of the material splendour -which would one day daze the eyes of Europe, and in paying soldiers -to protect it against his political rivals. It must be added that he -was one of the early founders of the Roman tradition of nepotism. He -appointed his nephew Paschalis to one of the chief Papal offices, and -the brutality of the man, which will appear presently, shows that the -promotion was not made on the ground of merit. - -His long Pontificate came to an end on December 25th (or 26th) in the -year 795, and it is an indication of the new position of the Papacy -that his successor at once sent to Charlemagne the keys of Rome and -of the tomb of St. Peter. We have the assurance of Eginhard that the -Frank monarch wept as one weeps who has lost a dear son or brother, -and he afterwards sent to Rome a most honouring epitaph of Hadrian, -cut in gold letters on black marble. The character of Charlemagne -and his inmost attitude toward the new Papacy he had created do not -seem to me to be sufficiently elucidated by any of his biographers, -but with that we are not concerned. He had deep regard for Hadrian, -in spite of the Pope's failings. The new royal state was too heavy -a burden for Hadrian I. to bear with dignity. One cannot doubt the -sincerity of his religion, his humanity, and his impersonal devotion to -what he conceived to be his duty. But it is equally plain that in the -first Pope-King the cares of earthly dominion enfeebled the sense of -spiritual duty and at times warped his character. It needed a great man -to pass without scathe through such a transformation. Hadrian I. was -not a great man. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 113: So the successor of Honorius, Leo II., wrote to the -Emperor. _Ep._, iii.] - -[Footnote 114: Stephen I., who was chosen at the death of Zachary, died -before consecration, and some historians decline to insert him in the -series.] - -[Footnote 115: Pippin repeated his oath at Quiercey, and the bargain -is sometimes described as the "Quiercey Donation." The "Fantuzzian -Fragment," an ancient document which professes to give the precise -extent of the donation, is full of errors and anachronisms, and is not -now trusted by any serious historian.] - -[Footnote 116: _Ep._, v.] - -[Footnote 117: This is sometimes called the "Donation of Aistulph," but -is really the completed Donation of Pippin. On this point the _Liber -Pontificalis_ is confirmed by the _Annals_ of Eginhard, in which we -read that Pippin gave the Roman See "Ravenna and the Pentapolis and -the whole exarchate belonging to Ravenna" (year 756), and by the later -letters of Hadrian I.] - -[Footnote 118: Writers who say merely that Stephen was "suspected of -complicity" must have overlooked the testimony of Hadrian himself in -the _Liber Pontificalis_. He tells the Lombard envoys that Stephen -assured him that, on Didier promising to return the cities, the Pope -"caused the eyes of Christopher and Sergius to be put out." Stephen's -character is further illustrated by his letter to the sons of Pippin -(_Ep._, iv.), when it was proposed that one of them should marry -Didier's daughter Hermingard. They were both married, but the Pope says -very little about the sin of divorce; it is the infamy of alliance with -the Lombards which he chiefly denounces. In point of fact, Charlemagne -divorced his wife and married Hermingard, and not a word further was -heard from Rome about this or any other of his peculiar domestic -arrangements.] - -[Footnote 119: The visit is described very fully in the _Liber -Pontificalis_.] - -[Footnote 120: _Ep._, lx. Some writers hold that this is merely an -allusion to the _Acta S. Silvestri_, another forgery of the time, but -the words which I have italicized point more clearly to the "Donation -of Constantine." For the literature of the controversy see Dr. A. -Solmi's _Stato e Chiesa_ (1901), pp. 12-13. It is now the general -belief that the "Donation" was fabricated at Rome, and probably in the -Lateran, between 750 and 781. Dr. Hodgkin (_Italy and her Invaders_, -vi.) has charitably suggested that perhaps the document was playfully -composed by some Papal clerk in his leisure hours and taken seriously -by a later generation, but apologists do not seem to grasp at this -straw.] - -[Footnote 121: _Ep._, lii.] - -[Footnote 122: _Ep._, lvii.] - -[Footnote 123: Dr. Mann (vol. i., part ii., p. 423) finds some -confirmation in "a passage of Hadrian's letter to Constantine and -Irene, read in the second session of the Seventh General Council." -This part of Hadrian's letter was not read in the Council. It is not -included in the letter in the Migne edition (vol. xcvi.), and in -Mansi (xii., 1072) it is explained that the latter part of Hadrian's -letter, in which the passage occurs, was not read to the Greeks. In -any case, the passage merely affirms that Charlemagne gave the Roman -See "provinces and cities and other territories," and this is quite -consistent with the more modest estimate of his donation. A letter -written by Leo III. to Charlemagne thirty years afterwards (when the -Papal description of the donation certainly existed), speaking of his -gift of the island of Corsica, is not conclusive.] - -[Footnote 124: See the dissertation appended to vol. vi. of Dr. -Hodgkin's _Italy and her Invaders_, where the author contends that a -late writer used the contemporary account of Hadrian's early years to -lead up to this fictitious donation. The hypothesis of interpolation -in a genuine narrative is urged by Dr. W. Martens in his _Die Römische -Frage_ (1881) and _Beleuchtung der neuesten Controversen über die R. -Frage_ (1898). Professor Th. Lindner (_Die sogenannten Schenkungen -Pippins, Karls des Grossen, und Otto's I. an die Päpste_, 1896) -suggests that Charlemagne intended only to secure the patrimonies in -the provinces named in the donation, but this is not consistent with -the language of the _Liber Pontificalis_, though it may very well -represent the actual intention of Charlemagne.] - -[Footnote 125: _Ep._, lii.] - -[Footnote 126: _Ep._, liii., liv., lv.] - -[Footnote 127: _Ep._, lvii.] - -[Footnote 128: _Ep._, lx.] - -[Footnote 129: _Ep._, lxii.] - -[Footnote 130: _Ep._, lxxxiii.] - -[Footnote 131: See the interesting letter of Bishop George, one of -Hadrian's Legates, in Jaffe's _Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum_, vi., -155, and compare _The Saxon Chronicle_.] - -[Footnote 132: _Ep._, xc.] - -[Footnote 133: _Ep._, xciii.] - -[Footnote 134: _Ep._, lxxxii.] - -[Footnote 135: _Ep._, xcviii.] - -[Footnote 136: _Ep._, xcvi.] - -[Footnote 137: Migne, vol. xcviii., col. 1247.] - -[Footnote 138: Alcuin afterwards wrote a very abject letter to the Pope -(_Ep._, xviii.), and this is sometimes represented as an expression of -regret, but he does not mention the image-question and plainly refers -to his general unworthiness. The Franks were convinced that the Pope -was wrong. See the _Acta_ of the Frankfort Council in Mansi, xiii., -864.] - -[Footnote 139: R. Cattaneo, _Architecture in Italy from the Sixth to -the Eleventh Century_ (1896).] - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -NICHOLAS I. AND THE FALSE DECRETALS - - -The coronation of Charlemagne by the Pope in the year 800 was also the -crowning of the new Papal system. The ambition for temporal power had -already disclosed the grave dangers which it brought. Soon after the -death of Hadrian I. the horrible spectacle was witnessed at Rome of -high Papal officials--one a nephew of the late Pope--attempting, on the -floor of a church, to cut out the eyes of their Pontiff; and the record -tells us that the Romans were so little moved by the charges brought -against him that they left it to a provincial noble to rescue Leo III. -Grave charges were also made against his successor, Stephen V., and -Charlemagne came to Rome to judge him. He politely acquitted Stephen, -and, on that historic Christmas morning of the year 800, he was -surprised and disconcerted by the Pope suddenly producing an imperial -crown and placing it on his head. - -It is well known that Charlemagne regarded this coronation with -distrust. The gifts of the Blessed Peter had a way of conferring more -power on the giver than on the receiver. In point of fact, when the -strong hand of the first Emperor was removed, and a brood of weaker men -came to squabble over the imperial heritage, Rome gained considerably. -The kingdoms of France, Germany, and Italy were carved out of the -Empire, but the spiritual realm was not exposed to any hereditary -division. It merely awaited the coming of another strong man to make -clear its power, and this revelation was reserved for Nicholas I. Of -the eight Popes who preceded him, only one, Leo IV., made a reputable -mark on history, and that rather as a strong and honest than as a -spiritual personality. Most of them were, like most of the Popes, -men of mediocre but respectable character. There is, however, some -degeneration in the Papal calendar--which is, until the end of the -ninth century, a more edifying record than many imagine--since two out -of the eight remain under suspicion of grave misconduct, and one was -a gouty _gourmand_; while occasional outbreaks of a violence not far -removed from barbarism betray that the new prosperity is not elevating -the character of the Romans. - -Nicholas, whose life in the _Liber Pontificalis_ was probably written -by his accomplished librarian Anastasius, was the son of a cultivated -Roman notary, and was carefully trained in letters. These official -panegyrics will not, however, impress the serious historian. The -Pope's letters show that the extent of his profane culture was merely -a stricter observance of the elementary rules of grammar than some of -his predecessors had displayed. In 853, a few years before Nicholas -began his Pontificate, Leo IV. had ordered the opening of schools in -each of the twenty parishes of Rome, but he complained that teachers -of the liberal arts were rare. The instruction given was mainly -religious, and it seems that on the ecclesiastical side the Pope's -culture was considerable. He had grown up in the devout service of the -Church, and successive Popes had promoted and loved him; so that, when -Benedict III. died, Nicholas was unanimously chosen to succeed him. -In the presence of the Emperor, Louis II., Nicholas, who had to be -dragged from a hiding-place in St. Peter's, was, on Sunday, April 24th, -consecrated and conducted by joyous crowds along the laurel-crowned -streets to the Lateran. Two days afterwards the Emperor entertained him -at dinner, and they were very cordial. When Louis set out for France, -Nicholas followed and had another festive dinner with him at his first -camp. Then the Pope, after kissing and embracing the Emperor, returned -to the Lateran and gravely mounted the Papal throne. - -Within the next few years men learned that a new type of Pontiff ruled -the Church, or the world. Nicholas I. conceived himself, in deepest -sincerity, to be the representative of God on earth: fancied himself -sitting on a throne so elevated that from its level all men--kings and -beggars, patriarchs and monks--were of the same size. He believed that -he was responsible to God for every immoral or irreligious movement -in "every part of the world," as he often said. He was convinced that -his words were "divinely inspired,"[140] and that disobedience to him -was disobedience to God. He was, by divine appointment, "prince over -all the earth."[141] Kings received their swords from him,[142] and -were as humbly subject as their serfs were to his moral and religious -authority. The most powerful prelates must obey his orders at once -or be deposed.[143] Not a council must be held in Europe without his -approval[144]: not a church must be built "without the commands of -the Pope"[145]: not a book of any importance must be published without -his authorization.[146] Nicholas was conscientious in small duties: he -kept lists of the blind and ailing poor to whom food had to be sent. -But his great feature was his treatment of the mighty. He lived on a -cloud-wrapt height, sending out the thunders of excommunication, on -gentle and simple, as no Pope had ever dared to do before. He left to -Louis the petty position of "emperor of men's bodies": _he_ occupied -the position of Jupiter. Europe was cowed by the impersonal arrogance -of his language. He was the greatest maker of the medićval Papacy.[147] - -Nicholas did a greater work than Hildebrand because the times permitted -him. He had to deal with the degenerate descendants of Charlemagne, not -with a powerful ruler. On the other hand, court-favour and prosperity -had made the leading prelates a feudal aristocracy, often arrogant -and avaricious; and the monks they threatened and the priests they -oppressed turned eagerly from them to the Roman court of appeal. -Princes chafed at the independence of their spiritual vassals, and -would depose them: bishops chafed at the interference of their -suzerains, and would assert the independence of the Church. A thousand -voices appealed to Rome. The fact that the _Forged Decretals_ were -not made at Rome or in the interest of Rome, but by the provincial -clergy in their own interest, gives us the measure of the age. And the -fact that such forgeries were at once received reminds us of another -favourable circumstance: the dense ignorance of the time. There was -culture in places, as the contemporary work of Scotus Erigena reminds -us, but to check these Papal claims one needed a knowledge of history, -and the true story of the development of the Church and the Papacy, as -we know it, was buried under a dense growth of legends and forgeries. -Hence the dogmatic Papal conception, partly based on such documents as -the _Donation of Constantine_ and the _Forged Decretals_, sank almost -unchallenged into the mind of Europe, and the Pope was now enabled to -dispense with the swords of princes and rely on religious threats. The -letters of Nicholas splutter anathemas from beginning to end. - -His first extant letter gives the Archbishop of Sens and his colleagues -a stern lesson on the prestige of the Papacy, as understood by Nicholas -I. The sixth letter peremptorily orders the great Hincmar of Rheims and -his colleagues, in language of the simplest arrogance, to excommunicate -at once, as he had directed, the Countess Ingeltrude. But within a -few years Nicholas was involved in such a mesh of correspondence with -offending princes and prelates that we must consider the chief causes -in succession. - -The Eastern Empire was then ruled by Michael the Drunkard, his mistress -Eudocia, and the Emperor's tutor in vice, his uncle Bardas. This pretty -trio deposed the saintly Ignatius from the See of Constantinople, -and put in his place the imperial secretary Photius, one of the most -accomplished scholars and least scrupulous courtiers of the East. The -better clergy protested, and the court sought the support of the Pope. -A glittering captain of the guards presented himself at Rome with a -set of jewelled altar-vessels and, no doubt, a diplomatic account -of the situation. But Nicholas at once rebuked the Emperor for his -"presumptuous temerity" in deposing Ignatius without the assent of -Rome, and sent legates to inquire into the matter; and he took prompt -occasion to demand the restoration of Papal rights and patrimonies in -the East.[148] The Eastern court must have gasped at this language. -However, the Pope's legates were suborned, and a Council held at -Constantinople (May, 861) confirmed the election of Photius. Nicholas -was not satisfied,[149] and at length he heard the truth from Ignatius. -He called a Council at Rome, ordered Michael to restore Ignatius,[150] -and threatened Photius with all the anathemas in the Papal arsenal if -he did not retire. - -Photius kept his place, and in 865 Michael wrote an abusive and -threatening letter to the Pope. We gather from the Pope's reply -that it expressed the greatest contempt and threatened that Greek -troops would come and make an end of them all. The lengthy reply of -Nicholas has some fine passages, but it argues too much where silence -would have been more dignified, and is at times petty and petulant -in hurling back the Emperor's foolish insults.[151] It received no -answer, and in November, 866, Nicholas wrote again. He was, he said, -sending legates to judge the case at Constantinople and would remind -Michael of the terrible things in store for those who disobeyed him; -as to that abusive letter, he says, if Michael does not take it -back, he will "commit it to eternal perdition, in a great fire, and -so bring the Emperor into contempt with all nations." He also sent -a very threatening letter to Photius. But the letters never reached -Constantinople. The legates were turned back at the frontier, and -Photius went on to publish a virulent tirade on the errors and -heresies of the Latins. This seems to have been beyond the resources of -the Lateran, and the scholars of France were entrusted with the defence -of the West. Ignatius was eventually restored, but Nicholas did not -live to see the issue, and the Eastern Church again drifted far away -from the Western. - -The anathema had proved ineffectual in the East, but Nicholas had -meantime begun to employ it with happier results in Europe. In spite -of the Puritanism of Louis I., the loose tradition of Charlemagne's -court lingered in France and Nicholas soon found it necessary to rebuke -aristocratic sinners. I have mentioned that in 860 he threatened the -Countess Ingeltrude with excommunication if she did not abandon her -gay vagabondage and return to her husband, the Count of Burgundy. Her -son Hucbert had claimed the attention of Benedict III., who tells us -that this high-born young abbot went about France with a lively troop -of actresses and courtesans, corrupted the most venerable nunneries, -and filled monasteries with his hawks and dogs and licentious -ladies.[152] Hucbert's sister, Theutberga, was wedded to Lothair of -Lorraine, brother of the Emperor Louis, who accused her of incest with -Hucbert before her marriage and proposed to divorce her and marry his -fascinating mistress Waldrada. Whether she was guilty or not we cannot -tell, as no proper trial was ever held. She claimed the hot-water -ordeal, and her champion was unscathed. Then Lothair won the support of -the chief prelates of his kingdom, and they obtained or extorted from -her a confession of guilt. They committed her to a nunnery and, in 862, -granted Lothair a divorce. - -Theutberga appealed to Rome, and Nicholas ordered that a general synod -should meet at Metz. In his most lordly manner the Pope directed -Charles the Bald and Louis of Germany (uncles of Lothair) to send -bishops to this synod, but they left the field to their nephew and, as -he bribed the Pope's legates, he secured a confirmation of the divorce -(June, 863). Nicholas set his lips with more than their usual sternness -when the archbishops of Cologne and Trčves arrived with this decision. -Summoning his own bishops to a council, he bluntly described the Metz -synod as "a brothel," annulled its decision, and excommunicated the -two archbishops. In language more imperious than any that had yet -issued from the Lateran, he declared that this was the decision of -the Vicar of Christ, and any man--he seems to refer pointedly to the -royal families--who ventured to dissent from this or any other Papal -pronouncement would incur the direst anathemas. - -Günther, the Archbishop of Cologne, fled in anger to the court of the -Emperor, and before long Louis was marching on Rome at the head of -his troops.[153] It was a critical moment for the Papal conception. -Nicholas ordered fasts and processions, and one of these processions, -headed by the large gold crucifix which was believed to contain a part -of the true cross, went out to St. Peter's, near which the imperial -troops were encamped. To the horror of the Romans, the soldiers fell -on the procession with their swords, and flung the precious cross into -the mud. Nicholas crossed the river secretly and remained in prayer in -St. Peter's, for forty-eight hours, without food. This was the world's -reply to his first tremendous assertion of authority, and the history -of Europe might have been altered if the imperial sword had on that -occasion prevailed over his spiritual threats. But the Papacy was -saved by one of those accidents which so deeply impressed the medićval -imagination. The man who had insulted the cross died suddenly, and -Louis himself became seriously ill. The Empress hurried to the Pope, -and in a short time the troops were marching northward. From that day -anathema becomes a mighty weapon in the hands of the Popes. - -Archbishop Günther was not so easily intimidated. He wrote a fierce -diatribe against Nicholas--this new "emperor of the whole world,"--had -a copy flung upon the tomb of the apostle, and departed for Lorraine. -But Nicholas now knew his power. He scolded Charles and Louis like -lackeys for not sending bishops to Metz; they held their swords from -St. Peter, and they must listen to a Pope who speaks from direct divine -revelation.[154] The two kings persuaded Lothair to disown Günther -and submit, and the legate Arsenius was sent to France. This legate -Arsenius, an arrogant and worldly Bishop, whose career ended in grave -scandal, delivered the Pope's orders at the courts of Charles, Louis, -and Lothair with a haughtiness even greater and less respectable than -that of Nicholas. He was obeyed at once, says Hincmar, who shudders at -the facile scattering of anathemas.[155] He then conducted Theutberga -to her husband and made the prince and his nobles swear on the most -sacred relics to respect her; and, after a final shower of "unheard-of -maledictions" (says Hincmar), he set out for Rome with the siren -Waldrada. - -There is grave reason to believe that the arrogant Bishop was bribed, -or otherwise corrupted, by Waldrada. She "escaped" in northern Italy -and returned to Lorraine; and the unhappy Theutberga now appealed to -Nicholas to release her and let Lothair marry Waldrada. To this noble -appeal Nicholas could have but one answer; for the claims of the human -heart he had no ear. She must remain in her husband's bed if it means -martyrdom. Lothair shall never marry that "whore" even if Theutberga -dies. There death compelled Nicholas to leave the romantic situation -of Lothair; and one reads, almost with a smile, that his successor, -Hadrian II., accepted Lothair's sworn declaration (supported by -many presents) that he had had no relations with Waldrada since the -prohibition, and admitted him and the Archbishop of Cologne to the holy -table. One must respect the great Pope's insistence on what he believed -to be a divine ordination, but the historians who represent him as -the champion of the human rights of an injured woman forget the final -martyrdom of Theutberga. - -One seems at first to find a more human note in the Pope's indulgence -toward Baldwin of Flanders. Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, had -been put under restraint by her father for misconduct, and in 860 she -eloped with the young Count of Flanders. Baldwin asked the Pope's -mediation, and he won from Charles forgiveness for the erring couple. -If, however, one reads his letter (_xxii._) carefully, one finds no -ground for the claim that he was "tender toward the penitent." He -plainly says that Baldwin had threatened to throw in his lot with the -Norman pirates if Charles persists in his threat of vengeance. There -is a nearer approach to sentiment in the Pope's effort to secure the -property of the widowed Helletrude, which had been seized by Lothair; -but we do not know the issue of his intervention in that case. - -If the new language of the Papacy fell with uncertain effect upon the -ears of kings and sinners, it did at least win a triumph among the -great prelates of Europe and raised the Roman See immeasurably above -them. The conflict with Hincmar of Rheims was the most notable and -successful struggle in which Nicholas engaged. Hincmar was the most -distinguished and one of the more worthy of the prelate-nobles who -had risen to wealth and power with the settlement of Europe. He was a -man of imperious temper and great ability, yet of sincere religious -feeling and concern for the prestige of the Gallic Church. One of his -suffragans, Rothrad of Soissons, incurred his dislike, and, when this -Bishop suspended one of his priests, who had been caught in adultery -and ignominiously mutilated by his parishioners, Hincmar reinstated -the man. When Rothrad not unnaturally remonstrated, he was deposed -by Hincmar and a jury of five bishops,[156] and he appealed to Rome. -In order to frustrate this appeal, Hincmar took a weak and improper -advantage of a letter written by Rothrad, saying that in this letter -the Bishop abandoned his appeal, and induced the King to forbid him -to go to Rome. Then, in a synod which met at Soissons, he had the -deposition confirmed and Rothrad sentenced to live in a monastery. - -Nicholas at once, in 863, wrote a severe letter to Hincmar, harshly -rebuking him for his want of respect for the Roman See and claiming -that the case ought to have been remitted to Rome whether Rothrad had -appealed or no.[157] In a second letter written shortly afterwards, he -threatened to depose Hincmar if he did not obey, or come to justify his -conduct at Rome, within thirty days.[158] He wrote in the same harshly -autocratic language to the King and to the other French prelates; if -his orders were not at once obeyed, he would punish everybody severely. -The greatest prelate-noble in Europe and the King himself submitted -almost without a struggle, and Rothrad went to Rome. Hincmar, it is -true, disdained to send witnesses and attempted in his letter to defend -his action, but the Pope went on his way as calmly and inexorably as -if he were dealing with a few refractory monks. On Christmas Eve, 864, -he preached a sermon on the case and announced that he had reinstated -Rothrad. The legate Arsenius was then about to set out for France on -the mission I have already described, and he took Rothrad with him to -the court of Charles. He took also a letter to Hincmar which began: "If -thou hadst any respect for the canons of the Fathers or the Apostolic -See, thou wouldst not have attempted to depose Rothrad without our -knowledge." I will consider later this covert reference to the _Forged -Decretals_. Rothrad was reinstated; and the language in which the -_Bertinian Annals_ describe the Pope's procedure shows the bitter -resentment it provoked in France. - -An incident that occurred in the course of the dispute shows--if proof -were necessary--that Nicholas acted on a sincere conviction of right. -In 863 Lothair appointed Archbishop Günther's brother, Hildwin, to -the See of Cambrai, and Hincmar rightly protested that the man was -unworthy. He appealed to Nicholas, and, although his appeal reached -the Pope at a time when he was threatening to depose Hincmar, and -that prelate still evaded his orders, Nicholas at once discharged a -shower of his menacing letters[159] in support of Hincmar and did not -rest until Lothair abandoned Hildwin. Warped as it was, at times, by -a too exalted conception of the authority of his See, Nicholas had, -nevertheless, a rigid sentiment of justice, and it was his supreme aim -to make that anarchic world bow to moral no less than ecclesiastical -law. - -He had not yet reached the end of his conflict with the great -representative of the prelate-nobles. Hincmar's predecessor, Ebbo, -had conferred orders after he had been deposed, and a council held -at Soissons in 853 had suspended these clerics from the exercise of -their functions. Benedict III. and Nicholas himself had expressed -a qualified approval of this council, but the _Forged Decretals_ -were now circulating in France, and one of the suspended clerics, -Wulfad,--possibly encouraged by the success of Rothrad,--appealed to -Rome. Once more Nicholas curtly ordered Hincmar either to reinstate -the clerics or to summon a new council, to which the Pope would send -legates, at Soissons. The council was held, and the French bishops -endeavoured by means of a compromise to save their own dignity yet -avoid a quarrel: they decided to reinstate the clerics as an act of -grace. This evasion drew from the Pope some of the sorriest letters -in his register. Not only in a most harsh and offensive letter to the -Archbishop,[160] but even in a letter to the bishops,[161] he accused -Hincmar of fraud, insisted that the _acta_ of the earlier Soissons -council had been submitted in a dishonest form to his "divinely -inspired" predecessor and himself, and, on the pretext that Hincmar was -wearing his pallium on improper occasions, threatened to punish his -"pride" and "vainglory" by a withdrawal of that distinction. He ordered -them to hold a new council. Nicholas died before the report of this -council reached Rome, and his indulgent successor exculpated Hincmar. -But the meekness with which those terrible letters were received is a -measure of the advance of the Papacy. - -A story that is told at length in the _Liber Pontificalis_ affords -another instance of this assertion of spiritual autocracy and its -encouragement by appeals from the provinces. The Pope was informed that -John of Ravenna abused his power; bishops complained that he quartered -himself and his expensive retinue on them for unreasonable periods and -made other exacting demands. When John received letters of remonstrance -and legates from Rome, he forbade his subjects to appeal to the Pope, -and strengthened his authority by falsifying the documents in his -archives: a crime at which the Roman Anastasius expresses the most -naďve surprise and indignation. When Nicholas summoned him to appear -before a Roman synod, John "boasted" that he was not subject to the -Bishop of Rome, and, when the synod excommunicated him, he appealed -to the Emperor. He then went, with the support of imperial legates, -to beard Nicholas in the Lateran, but the Pope astutely detached the -legates from him and he returned in concern to Ravenna. In this case -the prelate was unpopular and unjust, so that Nicholas had a good local -base for his authority. He went in person to Ravenna, and before long -men pointed the finger of scorn or of horror at their proud Archbishop -as he rode through the streets. The Emperor abandoned him, and in a few -months we find John at Rome, humbly submitting to the rod, placing the -written record of his penitence on the holy sandals of the Saviour. - -A remarkable extension of this authority is attempted in a letter -which Nicholas addressed to King Charles in 867. The dispute about -predestination which then agitated clerical Europe, and gave some -fallacious promise of a revival of intellect, had been submitted to -Nicholas in the early days of his Pontificate. Nicholas was, like -all the great Popes, a statesman and canonist, not a theologian. He -prudently remained silent, and let Franks and Germans belabour each -other with theological epithets. When, however, he heard that Charles -had invited the famous John Scotus Erigena, the subtlest thinker of the -early Middle Ages, to translate a supposed work of Denis the Areopagite -(_De Divinis Nominibus_), he reproved the King for issuing so important -a book without having submitted it to Rome.[162] We do not find that -Charles took any notice of his claim of censorship, or sent him a copy -of the book. It is a good illustration of the attitude of Rome that -a thinker like Scotus Erigena, in whose works we plainly recognize -the most advanced heresy that arose in Europe before the eighteenth -century, incurred so little censure. Nicholas merely complains that the -learned Irishman is rumoured to be not entirely sound in theology. - -Still bolder is the claim made in a letter in which Nicholas sought -to control the conversion of the Danes. No new national Church must -be founded without his authority, he says, since "according to the -sacred decrees even a new _basilica_ cannot be built without the -command of the Pope."[163] In this he outran not only the genuine, -but the forged, Decretals. He had in mind, no doubt, a decree of -Gelasius on the subject of church-building, but this merely forbade the -erection of a church, without authority, in the Roman diocese itself. -At the other extremity of Europe Nicholas made elaborate efforts to -bring the Bulgarians under his authority. He sent legates to King -Boris, and wrote a very long and curious reply to a large number of -questions--ranging from the most exalted points of faith to the wearing -of trousers by women--which the Bulgarians submitted to him. He did not -live to see the relapse of the deceitful and ambitious Slavs. - -These are the outstanding features of the voluminous correspondence -of Nicholas the Great. They bring before us the portrait of a man who -is raised above the disorder of his time, not so much by strength of -personality as by the exaltation of his sacerdotal creed. In a more -orderly Christendom Nicholas might have seemed an exemplary and not -greatly distinguished bishop, but chaos has ever been the native -element of such creative genius as he possessed. Since all men now -bowed in theory to the Christian ideal, their very disorders lent -authority to the Pope's anathemas. He hears that a set of young bishops -are devoted to hunting and even to less reputable pastimes, and his -scorn is irresistible.[164] He hears that the sons of Charles the Bald -have quarrelled with their royal father, and, though they are now -reconciled, "we direct that you present yourselves humbly at a synod to -be held in a place appointed by us, to which we will send legates of -the apostolic authority."[165] He has little time or inclination for -the material decoration of Rome. He restores St. Peter's and the Trajan -aqueduct; he organizes the distribution of charity; but his life-work -is the consolidation of the spiritual supremacy of the Popes. He is, -pre-eminently, the smiter of the powerful; and, in smiting them, he -strengthens the Papal arm. Fortunately for him and the Papacy, he has -to deal with a degenerate, ignorant, and superstitious generation: the -night of the Dark Age is drawing in--a night which is not disproved by -showing, as Maitland does, that there was a little lamp here and there. -And when we contemplate that world of murder, incest, rape, spoliation, -and monastic and priestly corruption which is reflected in the Pope's -letters, we feel that it was well for Europe to have such a master. - -On the other hand, we do assuredly find Nicholas, and each succeeding -great Pope, yielding to that most natural temptation of the moralist -and priest in face of grave disorder--acting on the unformulated -principle that the end sanctifies the means. The question whether -Nicholas relied on the _Forged Decretals_ has now been so fully -discussed that it is possible to give a precise answer; at least when -we consider certain passages in his letters which have been overlooked. -On the origin and spread of the Decretals I need only summarize -accepted results.[166] The collection originated in France about the -year 850, though it is still disputed whether it was composed in the -diocese of Tours or (as seems more probable) that of Rheims. It follows -from this origin that the forgery was perpetrated, not in the interest -of the Papacy, but of the bishops and lower clergy, to whom it gave -the right of appeal to a central authority against the (often unjust) -sentences of higher prelates and the aggression of lay nobles. The -book, however, is not merely concerned with questions of jurisdiction -and appeal. It is further agreed that, though the successor of -Nicholas, Hadrian II., certainly used the _Forged Decretals_, they were -little used by the Popes before the middle of the eleventh century; but -it is equally agreed that they were of immense service to the Papacy in -spreading a conviction of the antiquity of its most advanced claims and -in promoting the practice of appeal to it. - -The chief point in dispute is whether Nicholas knew and employed the -forgery, and with this I may deal more fully. The first letter in the -Pope's Register is a reply to Wenilo, Archbishop of Sens, in regard -to the deposition of a bishop. Servatus Lupus, the learned abbot of -Ferričres, had written on behalf of Wenilo--the letter is fortunately -preserved--to say that men were quoting a certain Decretal of Pope -Melchiades which reserved to the Papacy the deposition of bishops.[167] -This was evidently a quotation from the _Forged Decretals_, yet in -his reply Nicholas completely ignores the supposed Decretal on which -his opinion was expressly asked. Whether or no we may infer from this -silence that Nicholas was ignorant of the source of the quotation, -we may surely conclude that so industrious a canonist would make -immediate inquiries about this remarkable document, if he were not -already acquainted with it. Since, however, he made no reply to the -question whether the deposition of a bishop was reserved to the Papacy, -I infer that he was unaware of the existence of the Decretals; and this -is strongly confirmed by a letter which he wrote in 862. He tells King -Solomon of Brittany that a bishop may be deposed by twelve bishops, on -the evidence of seventy-two witnesses, and he refers to Pope Silvester -as the authority for this mythical ordinance.[168] In this he relies on -a spurious document, but a document _not_ contained in the Isidorean -collection. The main point is that he allows the local deposition of -bishops, and enjoins recourse to Rome only in case of dispute. He does -not yet seem to know the _Decretals_, but, as Hincmar had used them in -857 (possibly in 853), we can hardly imagine such a Pope as Nicholas -remaining long unaware of the existence in France of this strong -foundation of his authority; especially when, as I said, his attention -had been plainly drawn to it by Servatus Lupus. - -Then came the case of Rothrad,[169] and Nicholas, as we saw, wrote -to Hincmar that the case ought to have been remitted to Rome whether -Rothrad had appealed or no[170]; but it is clear that he is speaking -of a vague duty imposed by general respect for the Apostolic See, not -of a duty enforced by canonical obligation. If, he says, Hincmar were -"not disposed" to send the case to Rome (_si id agere noluisses_), he -ought at least to have respected Rothrad's actual appeal. But when we -come to 865, and the famous letter (lxxv.) which the Pope wrote to -Hincmar and his colleagues, Nicholas is quite clear. "Even if," he -says, "he [Rothrad] had not appealed to the Apostolic See, you had no -right to run counter to so many and such important decretal statutes -and depose a bishop without consulting us."[171] The French prelates -had complained that such Decretals were not found in their collection: -the Dionysian collection given to Charlemagne by Hadrian in 774. It -does not matter, Nicholas replies, whether they have them or not; -all Decretals approved at Rome are to be respected. And he makes it -perfectly clear that he is referring, not to genuine Decretals which -may not be in the Dionysian collection, but to the Isidorean. They -make use of these Decretals themselves, he says, when it suits their -purpose; we know that Hincmar had done so, and possibly Nicholas had -learned this from Rothrad. But he makes it still plainer that he is -not referring to Decretals in the Roman archives, but to the Isidorean -forgeries, when he says that he is thinking of the Decretals of -"ancient" (_prisci_) Pontiffs, not merely those of Gregory and Leo; and -he leaves no room whatever for doubt when he includes letters written -by the Popes in "the times of the pagan persecutions." - -We must not, however, exaggerate the Pope's reliance on this imposture. -M. Roy has made a careful analysis of the letters of Nicholas, and he -maintains that only four of his quotations are from spurious Decretals: -that three of these are not in the Isidorean collection: and that the -one which is common to Nicholas and pseudo-Isidore had already been in -circulation before the imposture was published.[172] - -Father de Smedt further points out that Nicholas made no use of -Isidorean Decretals which would, especially in his conflict with -Photius, have been useful to him, and that, when he does use documents -which are in the Isidorean collection, he gives their genuine words -or assigns them to their real authors. These are generally valid -claims, but they do not conflict with my conclusion. Nicholas plainly -endeavoured to use the _Forged Decretals_, but he had a learned and -acute antagonist in Hincmar and he dare not quote them individually or -in their crude Isidorean form. One is almost reminded of the smiles -of Roman augurs when one considers these two great ecclesiastical -statesmen, using a forged document or watching with complacency the use -of it, yet checking each other when it affects their own interests. -There is no answer to Milman's sober charge that Nicholas saw the -spread of the work and did not protest. He knew well the contents of -the Roman archives--he had a number of scribes studying them--and he -must have known as well as we do that there were no genuine Decretals -before the time of Gelasius. - -The analysis made by M. Roy must be supplemented by that of J. -Richterich,[173] from which it appears beyond question that Nicholas -made a very extensive use of spurious documents; as we have found Roman -officials doing from the fourth century. Father de Smedt[174] "does -not altogether deny" that, as Hinschius says, Nicholas sometimes, in -quoting genuine Decretals, alters their meaning in accordance with the -Isidorean. Roy himself has to admit that Nicholas goes far beyond the -words and meaning of Gelasius in saying that no church may be built -without the Pope's permission.[175] He goes equally beyond genuine -precedent in claiming that no bishop can be deposed without his -authority; hitherto there had been only the vague understanding that -"grave cases" were reserved to the Pope. He advances equally beyond -precedent in claiming that no council can be held without his sanction. -Roy[176] calls this "a pseudo-Isidorean principle," and says that -Nicholas nowhere asserted it. But Nicholas plainly asserts it in _Ep._, -xii., and is just as plainly straining a vague early claim of Pope -Gelasius.[177] - -We must conclude that, however beneficent may have been the spiritual -centralization which Nicholas so ably elaborated, and however -impersonal and religious his aim may have been, he proceeded at times -on principles which no cause can sanctify: principles which it was -dangerous to bequeath to less spiritual successors. He died in 867, -after nine and a half years of heroic work for his ideal: a type of -ecclesiastical statesman that it needs a peculiarly balanced judgment -to appreciate. The pleasures and thrills of the world he despised, and -it would be a deep injustice to conceive him as other than entirely -indifferent to the personal prestige of his position. His personality -was entirely merged in his office: he was, indeed, not a personality, -but the vicar of a greater personality. The phrase which too often -in Hadrian's letters is a mere artifice for obtaining wealth and -power--"the Blessed Peter"--was to him the expression of a living and -awful reality. If the Papacy did not tower above all the other thrones -in Christendom, the intention of Christ was made void. Nicholas would -have it realized. In that spirit he added strength to the frame of -the Papal system. The historian must do justice to his aim and to the -salutary tendency of his moral control of Europe; he must be no less -candid in denouncing the sentiment that the end justifies the means. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 140: _Ep._, lxxxiii., xcii., and cviii.] - -[Footnote 141: _Ep._, lxv.] - -[Footnote 142: _Ep._, lxxix.] - -[Footnote 143: _Ep._, vi.] - -[Footnote 144: _Ep._, xii.] - -[Footnote 145: _Ep._, cxxxv.] - -[Footnote 146: _Ep._, cxv.] - -[Footnote 147: An excellent analysis of his ideas is given in Dr. -A. Greinacher's _Die Anschaungen des Papstes Nikolaus I. über das -Verhältniss von Staat und Kirche_ (1909).] - -[Footnote 148: _Ep._, iv.] - -[Footnote 149: _Ep._, xii. and xiii.] - -[Footnote 150: _Ep._, xlvi.] - -[Footnote 151: _Ep._, lxxxvi.] - -[Footnote 152: _Ep._, ii.] - -[Footnote 153: The best account is in the _Annals of St. Berlin_, in -the _Monumenta Germanić Historica_, vol. i.] - -[Footnote 154: _Ep._, lxxxiii.] - -[Footnote 155: It is, at least, generally believed that Hincmar wrote -this part of the _Bertinian Annals_.] - -[Footnote 156: _Bertinian Annals_, year 865.] - -[Footnote 157: _Ep._, xxxiii.] - -[Footnote 158: _Ep._, xxxiv.] - -[Footnote 159: XLI., xlii., and xliii.] - -[Footnote 160: CVIII.] - -[Footnote 161: CVII.] - -[Footnote 162: _Ep._, cxv.] - -[Footnote 163: _Ep._, cxxxv.] - -[Footnote 164: _Ep._, cxxvii.] - -[Footnote 165: _Ep._, xxxix.] - -[Footnote 166: The famous collection which bears the name of Isidorus -Mercator contains about sixty spurious Decretals in the first part, -covering the first three centuries, and about thirty in the third -part; the second part contains the canons of councils. The author -makes an adroit use of older documents, and his work is largely a -mosaic of genuine fragments (of Papal letters, chronicles, etc.) so -pieced together and ante-dated as to father later developments of -Papal authority on the earlier Popes. The best edition is that of P. -Hinschius (1863), and the best survey of recent study is the article -"Pseudoisidor" in Herzog's _Real-Encyclopädie für Protestantische -Theologie_. There is a useful chapter in _The Age of Charlemagne_ -(1898), by C.L. Wells. The ablest Catholic study of the relation of -Nicholas to the collection is Jules Roy's _Saint Nicholas_ (1901). See -also _Les Fausses Décrétales_ (1879), of Father Ch. de Smedt. On the -general question of the Pope's use of spurious documents see the able -Old Catholic work of J. Richterich, _Papst Nikolaus I._ (1903).] - -[Footnote 167: See _Ep._, cxxx., of Servatus Lupus.] - -[Footnote 168: _Ep._, xxv.] - -[Footnote 169: It is not easy to regard Rothrad as the author of the -forgery, as he was not deposed until 862. A more probable source -of origin is the group of clerics ordained by Ebbo and suspended -by Hincmar in 853. Even this seems too late, however, as such a -compilation was not the work of a day. But it is very probable that -Rothrad took the book to Rome, if it were not already there.] - -[Footnote 170: _Ep._, xxxiii.] - -[Footnote 171: The modern writers who have contended that these _tot et -talia decretalia statuta_ are not the Isidorean Decretals seem not to -have read the whole letter.] - -[Footnote 172: _Saint Nicholas_, Appendix II. (followed by Dr. Mann, -vol. iii.). See also F. Rocquain's _La Papauté au Moyen Âge_ (1881). -Hefele (bd. iv., p. 292) admits that Nicholas relied on the forgery.] - -[Footnote 173: _Papst Nikolaus I._ (1903).] - -[Footnote 174: P. 116.] - -[Footnote 175: _Epp._, lxxxii. and cxxxv.] - -[Footnote 176: P. 131.] - -[Footnote 177: _Ep._, lxv.] - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -JOHN X. AND THE IRON CENTURY - - -The next great stride in the development of the Papacy is taken by -Gregory VII., the true successor of Nicholas I. and Gregory I. Europe -seemed, indeed, entirely prepared for that last development of the -Papal system which we connect with the name of Hildebrand, and a -student of its essential growth may be tempted to pass at once from -the ninth to the eleventh century. But to do so would be to omit one -of the most singular phases of the story of the Papacy and leave in -greater obscurity than ever one of its most interesting problems. How -comes it that a Century of Iron, as Baronius has for ever branded the -tenth century, falls between the work of Nicholas and the still greater -work of Gregory? May we trust those modern writers who contend that -the devout father of ecclesiastical history was gravely unjust to the -Papacy, and that we may detect the play of a romantic or a malicious -imagination in the familiar picture of Theodora and Marozia controlling -the chair of Peter and investing their lovers or sons with the robes of -the Vicar of Christ? Some consideration must be given to this phase, -and it will be convenient to take John X. as its outstanding and -characteristic figure. - -I have already observed that few really unworthy men sat in the chair -of Peter until the close of the ninth century. Among the hundred -Popes who preceded Nicholas I. there had been, it is true, few men of -commanding personality, but there had been still less men of ignoble -character. They had been, on the whole, men whose real mediocrity is -not obscured by the fulsome praises of their official panegyrists, yet, -for the most part, men of blameless life. In the ninth century we see a -gradual deterioration. Hadrian II. tries, with equal sincerity though -less personality, to play the great part of Nicholas, and it is from no -fault of character that he fails to coerce princes and prelates. John -VIII. plays a not ignoble human part during the calamitous decade of -his Pontificate, though there is more soldierly ardour than religious -idealism in his defence of the Papacy. After him, in quick succession, -come five Popes of little-known character, and then we have that famous -Stephen VI. who digs the half-putrid body of a predecessor, Formosus, -from its grave and treats it with appalling outrage. In the gloom -which now descends on Rome, we follow with difficulty the passionate -movements of the rival parties, but we know that after Formosus there -were nine Popes in eight years (896-904). With Sergius III. (904-911), -the Century of Iron fitly opens, and his name and that of John X., who -became Pope in 914, are chiefly associated with the names of Theodora -and Marozia. - -The general causes of this deterioration are easily assigned. In that -age of violent character, uncontrolled by culture, a multiplication -of small princedoms was sure to lead to bloody rivalries. To this the -dissolution of the Empire of Charlemagne and the feebleness of his -descendants had led, especially in Italy, where the weakness of a -sacerdocracy--that is to say, its liability, if not obligation, to -use temporal resources for religious rather than military and civic -purposes--soon became apparent. The Papacy had the further weakness -that, being nominally independent yet unable to defend itself, it was -ever on the watch for another Pippin--a monarch who would protect it -and not govern it--and it dangled its tawdry imperial crown before the -eyes of the kings of Italy, France, and Germany, to say nothing of -the smaller princes of Italy. Hence arose the factions which rent a -degraded Rome. We must remember, too, that this was a fresh period of -invasion and devastation: the waves of Saracen advance lapped the walls -of Rome from the south and the fierce Hungarians reached it from the -north. - -These general causes of decay are substantial, yet we must not be -too easily contented with them. Some day a subtler or more candid -science will tell the whole story of the making of the Middle Ages. I -need note only that the disorder existed in Rome, and often burst its -bonds, long before the time of Stephen VI. Even under Hadrian I. we saw -relatives and friends of the Pope promoted to high office, yet in the -end betraying characters of revolting brutality. We remember also a -certain legate of Nicholas I., Bishop Arsenius, who handled anathemas -with such consummate ease. This man's nephew abducted the daughter -of Pope Hadrian II., and, when he was pursued, murdered her and the -Pope's wife. There was some taint in the blood--or the brain--of this -new Roman aristocracy which gathered round the Lateran. Under John -VIII., the strongest successor of Nicholas, they broke into appalling -disorders. "Their swinish lust," says one of the most conservative and -most reticent of recent writers on the Popes, speaking of the leading -Papal officials of the time, "was only second to their cruelty and -avarice."[178] Hadrian II. had the widow of one of these officials -whipped naked through the streets of Rome, and had another official -blinded. Under Stephen VI. and Sergius III. these corrupt Roman -families come into clearer light, and the domination of Theodora and -Marozia is merely one episode in this lamentable development, which -has been recorded more fully because of the piquancy of this feminine -ascendancy in a nominal theocracy. - -The period with which we are concerned really opens with Pope Formosus, -a not unworthy man, who looked for support to Arnulph of Germany. -The Italian faction, which looked to Guido of Spoleto and Adalbert -of Tuscany, regarded this "treachery" with the bitterest rancour -and imprisoned the Pope. One of the leaders of this section was the -deacon (later Pope) Sergius. Arnulph came to Rome, and swept the -Tuscan-Spoletan faction, including Sergius, out of the city. Formosus -died in 896, his gouty successor followed him within a fortnight, and -Stephen VI. was elected. As soon as Arnulph had left Rome, the Pope -surrendered to the Italian faction, and the Lateran witnessed that -ghastly outrage of the trial of the mouldering corpse of Formosus: -on the nominal charge of having exercised his functions after being -deposed and having passed from another bishopric to that of Rome. There -seems to be some lack of sense of moral proportion in historians who, -knowing these far graver things, make elaborate efforts to disprove -the love-affairs of one or two Popes of the period. Three not unworthy -Popes filled, and soon quitted, the Roman See after Stephen. The last -of these, Leo V., was dethroned and imprisoned by the cardinal-priest -Christopher, who seized the Papacy. Sergius and his friends in exile -now entered into correspondence with the dissatisfied Romans, mastered -the city with an army, and threw Christopher in turn into a dungeon. -This was the rise to power of Sergius III.; the beginning of what has -been called, with more vigour than accuracy, the Pornocracy.[179] - -With the weakening of the Empire, the Roman nobles had wrested from -the Popes the political control of the city, and we gather from the -titles assigned to them that there was a debased restoration of -the old republican forms. The head of one of the leading families, -Theophylactus, is described as Master of the Papal Wardrobe, Master of -the Troops, Consul, and Senator. His wife, Theodora, called herself -the Senatrix: their elder and more famous daughter Marozia is named -the Patricia. The family belonged, of course, to the Tuscan-Spoletan -faction which triumphed with Sergius. Culture had now fallen so low at -Rome that there is no writer of the time able or willing to leave us a -portrait of these remarkable ladies; the nearest authority, the monk -Benedict of Soracte, is so far from artistic feeling that it would be -literally impossible to write a grosser and more barbarous Latin than -he does. From some documents of the time it appears that there were -ladies of this great family who could not write their names, and we -may presume that this was their common condition. But it is uniformly -stated that they were women of great beauty and ambition: it is certain -that Marozia was the mother of John XI., and that she put him on the -Papal throne: and it is claimed that Sergius was the father of John -XI., and that John X. was the lover of Theodora. - -These stories of amorous relations would not in themselves deserve -a severe historical inquiry, but they have been made a test of the -accuracy or inaccuracy of our authorities. The older ecclesiastical -historians admitted them without demur. In the pages of Baronius -Theodora is "that most powerful, most noble, and most shameless whore" -and Sergius is the lover of that "shameless whore" Theodora. Pagi -and Mansi reproduce these words, and they are complacently prefixed -to the collection of John's letters in the Migne edition.[180] More -recent writers like Duchesne and Dr. W. Barry admit the charge -against Sergius; but the learned Muratori boldly questioned the whole -tradition, and various modern Italian writers have attempted to support -his case.[181] - -The claim that we have discovered, since the days of Baronius, new -documents which materially alter the evidence, must at once be set -aside. Of the Formosian writers of the time whose pamphlets have been -recovered, the priest Auxilius throws no light on this subject and -the grammarian Vulgarius is unreliable. We have letters and poems in -which Vulgarius hails Pope Sergius as "the glory of the world" and -"the pillar of all virtue," and professes a profound regard for the -matchless virtue and the "immaculate bed" of Theodora.[182] The fact -is that Vulgarius had previously indicted Sergius in lurid terms and -had been significantly summoned to Rome by that vigorous Pontiff. -His charges of murder and outrage then changed into the most fulsome -flattery, to which we cannot pay the slightest regard. His earlier -charges are more serious, as, writing only six years after the events, -he appeals to the still fresh recollection in the minds of the Romans -that Sergius had had his two predecessors murdered in prison.[183] - -We have no serious reason to differ from Baronius. Liutprand, Bishop -of Cremona, is the chief accuser. As servant of the court of Berengar -II. and then of Otto I., he often visited Rome in the first half of -the tenth century, and he knew the city well during the Pontificate -of John XI., the son of Marozia. He says that Theodora, "a shameless -whore," was all-powerful at Rome: that she was the mistress of John -X., whom she promoted to the See of Ravenna and then to that of Rome: -that her daughters Marozia and Theodora were more shameless than she: -and that John XI. was the son of Sergius and Marozia.[184] Liutprand -would hardly scruple to reproduce gossip, and he is often wrong, so -that one reads him with caution. Yet his statement about Sergius is -so far confirmed that so careful a writer on the Popes as Duchesne is -compelled to accept it.[185] - -Benedict of Soracte, a very meagre and confused chronicler, gives -Marozia a dark character in his _Chronicle_.[186] Her son Alberic -was, he says, born out of wedlock: presumably before she married the -father, Alberic I. Flodoard, the most respectable chronicler of the -time, tells us in his _Annals_ (year 933) that John XI. was the son of -Marozia and the brother of Alberic II.; but neither there nor elsewhere -does he mention the father, and the omission is significant. Flodoard, -a deeply religious monk, under personal obligations to the Papacy, was -not the man to repeat scandalous Roman gossip; yet in his long poetic -history of the Papacy he brands Marozia as an incestuous woman united -to an adulterer, and he describes John XI., whom he disdains, as so -puny a thing that we can scarcely conceive him as a son of the vigorous -Alberic.[187] Lastly, the one-line notice of John XI. in the _Liber -Pontificalis_ says that he was "the son of Sergius III." We do not know -when or by whom this was written, but recent attempts to represent -it as an echo of Liutprand have failed. We must agree with Duchesne -that it is a distinct testimony and "more authoritative" than that of -Liutprand. - -I have analyzed afresh the original evidence on this not very important -point merely in order to show the futility of recent attempts to -rehabilitate the age of John X. Pope Sergius, the chief ecclesiastic -of the Italian faction to which John belonged, was a violent and -unscrupulous man. He resigned a bishopric, and returned to the rank of -deacon, in order that he might have a better chance of the Papacy. He -was Anti-Pope to John IX. in 898, and was excommunicated and driven -from Rome; and he forced his way back at the point of the sword. The -charge that he was responsible for the death of his two predecessors -cannot be disregarded, and he certainly dealt violently with his -opponents. The charge of loose conduct is not more serious than these -things, and it rests on strong evidence. - -To this party John X. belonged. His early career is not very plain, -but he appears first as a deacon at Bologna. He was chosen to succeed -Bishop Peter of that city, but, before he was consecrated, Archbishop -Kailo of Ravenna died, and John passed to Ravenna and occupied its -See. Nine years later, in 914, he was elected Bishop of Rome. It was -scarcely thirty years since his party had foully treated the body of -Formosus, partly on the charge of passing from another bishopric to -that of Rome. One naturally suspects ambition in John and powerful -influence in his favour at Rome. We know, in fact, that he was on -excellent terms with Theophylactus and Theodora,[188] and no one now -doubts that they secured his election. We are therefore not wholly -surprised, considering the age, when Liutprand assures us that he was a -charming man, and that Theodora, meeting him during one of his missions -to Rome, conceived a passion for him. - -It is neither possible nor profitable to linger over the subject, and -the impartial student will probably neither assent to nor dissent -from this unconfirmed statement of the Bishop of Cremona. Liverani -ridicules it on the ground that Theodora must have been far from young, -since her daughter Marozia married Albert of Camerino about the year -915. It is curious to find a native of Italy, where girls are often -mature at twelve, and were in the old days often mothers at thirteen, -raising such an objection. Theodora may quite well have been still in -her thirties in 915. I would, however, rather call attention to the -moral condition of Europe at the time. The pious Bishop of Verona, -Ratherius, gives us an extraordinary picture of the life of some of -his episcopal colleagues.[189] They rush through their mass in the -morning, don gorgeous dresses and gold belts, and ride out to hunt on -horses with golden bridles: they return at night to rich banquets, with -massive goblets of good wine, and dancing girls for company, and dice -to follow: and they retire, too often with their companions, to beds -that are inlaid with gold and silver and spread with covers and pillows -of silk. Bishop Atto of Vercelli gives us a corresponding picture of -the lives of the lower clergy and their wives and mistresses.[190] -The proceedings of the Council of Troslé, in the year 909, confirm -and enlarge this remarkable picture.[191] Assuredly no historian who -knows the tenth century will find the charges against Sergius and John -implausible. - -Whatever may be their value, John was no idle voluptuary. He found the -Saracens still devastating southern Italy and he helped, in 915, to -form a great league against them. When the Duke of Capua led out his -troops, and the Spoletans and Beneventans fell into line at last, and -even the Greeks sent a fleet, the Roman militia was marshalled, and -John rode at their head beside the fiery young Alberic of Camerino. -He was not the first of the many fighting Popes: John VIII. had built -a Papal navy and dealt the Saracens some shrewd blows. But John X. -was the first Pope to take the field in person, and we lament that -the wretched scribes of the time have left us no portrait of the -consecrated warrior. We know from his letters that he exposed himself -on the field, and from the chronicles that he fired the troops. The -Saracens were at last pinned in their camp on a hill near the mouth of -the Garigliano, and, after a long blockade, were annihilated. - -John and the Marquis Alberic enjoyed a splendid ovation at Rome, and -it was probably at this date that the hand of Marozia was bestowed on -Alberic. But the victory had its price. John had to surrender some of -his patrimonies to the Duke of Gaeta and to confer the imperial crown -on King Berengar for his assistance. When Berengar came to Rome, and -promised to maintain all the rights and properties of the Papacy as -other Emperors had done, and received the crown from the hand of the -Pope, it must have seemed that a brighter day had dawned at last on -Italy. But the restless factions murmured, and in a few years Rudolph -II. of Burgundy was invited to come and seize the crown. Berengar -brought the half-civilized Hungarians to his aid, and a fresh trail of -blood and fire marred the face of Italy. He lost, and was assassinated -(924); but Rudolph, who won only the crown of Italy, was not left long -in peaceful possession of it, and the next movement of Italian politics -shows John in a singular situation at Rome. - -An earlier chapter of this history was enlivened by the amours of -Lothair of Lorraine and Waldrada. They left behind them an illegitimate -daughter, Bertha, who had all the spirit and more than the ambition -of her mother. There were many women of commanding personality (and, -usually, little scruple) in the early Middle Ages, and the story -of Theodora and Marozia must not be regarded as very exceptional. -Bertha made vigorous efforts to win Italy for her favourite son, -Hugh of Provence, and, when she died in 925, his sister, Irmengard, -a fascinating woman who maintained the domestic tradition, won the -bishops and nobles of Lombardy for him by an unsparing use of her -charms. He was presently invited to come and drive the Burgundians out -of Italy. John X. joined in the invitation and went to Mantua to meet -him. - -It is recorded that the Pope made some obscure bargain with him at -Mantua, and there can be little doubt that he asked Hugh's aid against -Marozia. Theophylactus and Theodora were dead, and Marozia was at -deadly feud with the Pope. Her first husband seems to have died about -925, and she had married Guido of Tuscany. Whether her quarrel with -John began before her marriage we do not know, but Liutprand tells -us that she and Guido wanted to depose the Pope. Both Liutprand and -Benedict[192] make the cause of the quarrel clear. John had called -his brother Peter to his side at Rome, and the power he gave to his -brother, and therefore withdrew from the lay nobles, infuriated his -earlier supporters. He turned, as so many Popes had done, to a distant -prince, and his career soon came to a close. - -The chronicle is crude and meagre, but it suggests elementary and -unbridled passions. "The Marquis Peter," says Benedict, "so infuriated -the Romans that he was compelled to leave the city." He fortified -himself in Horta and summoned the dreaded Hungarians to his aid: than -which there could hardly be a graver crime in an Italian of the time. -They came in large numbers and trod the life out of the Roman province. -When Peter concluded that his opponents were sufficiently weakened, he -returned to Rome and gathered troops about him. There must have been -sombre days in the city in that year 928. One day, however, when it was -observed that few of Peter's men had accompanied him to the Lateran, a -band of Marozia's followers burst into the palace and laid him dead at -the Pope's feet. John himself was taken from the palace and imprisoned, -and he died in prison in the following year (929). Whether he was -murdered or died a natural death is uncertain.[193] - -Such was the not unnatural termination of one of the longest -Pontificates in the history of Rome, and we have no reason to suppose -that, if we had fuller narratives than those I have quoted, they would -redeem the character of John X. His desertion of Bologna for Ravenna, -and his transfer to Rome within twenty years of the time when his -party had foully treated a dead man for just such an irregularity: -his alliance with the unscrupulous house of Theophylactus: his quite -superfluous appearance on the battlefield: his easy distribution of -royal and imperial crowns: and, above all, the maintenance of his -unprincipled brother in the teeth of deadly hostility, sufficiently -indicate his character. He was an accomplished adventurer. He writes -a very good Latin for the period, and may well have been a charming -and handsome and brave man. It is recorded that he richly decorated -the Lateran Palace. But he was a child of his age, and the historian -finds it easier to respect the sad and sincere reflection of the older -ecclesiastical writers--that Christ then slumbered in the tossing -barque of Peter--than the strained efforts of a few modern writers to -convince us that the chosen Pope of an aristocracy which they depict in -the darkest colours was merely the victim of calumny. - -The little Pontifical work which John did during his fourteen years -as Pope does not dispose us to alter this estimate. The score of -his letters which survive generally relate to privileges of abbeys -or prelates which he was asked to grant or confirm. He gave support -to the monks of Fulda,[194] of St. Gall,[195] and of Cluny.[196] He -sent legates on a vague mission to Spain and granted a pallium to the -Bishop of Hamburg, who was converting the far north. He intervened -in the religious troubles of Dalmatia, at the invitation of the -local prelates, and wrote them many letters[197] for the regulation -(or Romanization) of their Slav liturgy and discipline. Even to -Constantinople, which had one of its rare moods of affection for Rome, -he sent legates to assist the Greeks in obliterating the effects of -their latest quarrel. - -His work in Bulgaria is not wholly clear, or it might be interesting. -King Simeon quarrelled with the Eastern Church and turned to Rome, -and John naturally encouraged him. He sent legates to Bulgaria, and -we learn from a letter of Innocent III., long afterwards, that they -presented Simeon with a golden crown from John. It looks as if the -Pope gave Simeon some kind of imperial rank, but he did not secure the -adhesion to Rome of the Bulgarian Church. - -A few letters to France and Germany are hardly more instructive. -Heribert of Vermandois seized the person of Charles the Simple, and, -when he was threatened with excommunication, hoodwinked the Pope. -Heribert then, in 925, conferred the rich See of Rheims on his -five-year-old son, and John--either in order to secure the release -of the King or dreading worse things--acquiesced.[198] In Germany -John sent his brother to assist in the restoration of discipline at -the Synod of Altheim (916). A few years later he summoned Herimann, -Archbishop of Cologne, and Hilduin and Richer, rival bishops of Ličge, -to the bar of Rome. But in this apparent assertion of authority he was -really acting under pressure of the Emperor Berengar, and the sequel is -not flattering. There was a complicated quarrel about the bishopric of -Ličge, and, when the litigants refused to come to Rome, John laid down -a principle which would have seemed to Nicholas I. or Gregory VII. an -outrage. He rebuked Herimann on the ground of "an ancient custom that -none save the King, to whom the sceptre is divinely committed, shall -confer a bishopric on any cleric." - -These letters, a poor record of official work for so long a Pontificate -and in so disordered a world, do not alter our impression of John. Rome -shared the gloom which lay over Europe, and it is foolish to suppose -that the degenerate nobles who ruled the Papacy would put on its throne -a man who would rebuke their vices or resent their domination. Indeed, -it will be useful to follow the lamentable story a little further, as -an introduction to the revival which culminates in Gregory VII. - -Marozia crowned her adventurous life in 932 by marrying the -step-brother of her late husband--the licentious Hugh of Provence whom -John had helped to put on the throne of Italy. In the preceding year -she had put in the chair of Peter her son, John XI., a mere shadow -of a Pope. But the disgusted Romans flew to arms, imprisoned John -and Marozia, and sent the brutal Hugh flying for his life. Alberic -II. then controlled the city and the Papacy for twenty years, and a -series of obscure, though apparently not unworthy, men were appointed -to discharge the scanty spiritual duties which Popes could or would -perform in that darkest of the dark ages. Alberic bequeathed his -power to his illegitimate son Octavian, and compelled the nobles and -clergy to swear to make him Pope at the next vacancy. John XII., as -he called himself, proved the worst Pope yet recorded: more at home -in the helmet than the tiara, and more expert in the cultivation than -in the suppression of vice. When his own sword proved incapable of -securing his rights, he summoned Otto I., with the customary bribe of -the imperial crown. Otto at length deposed him, after six years of -scandalous abuse of the Papacy, and he disappears from history in a -singular legend; he died, it was said, of a blow on the temples given -him by the devil--possibly in the person of the injured husband--during -one of his amorous adventures. - -Ten Popes and Anti-Popes, generally men of no distinction either in -vice or virtue, succeeded each other in the next thirty years. The -factions at Rome became more and more violent, and Europe sank deeper -and deeper into the corruption from which Gregory VII. would endeavour -to rouse it. The Iron Century closed, oddly enough, with the appearance -on the Papal throne of one of the first scholars of Christian Europe, -the famous Gerbert (Silvester II.), but his brief and premature -Pontificate made no impression on that dark age. Under Sergius IV. -the Roman faction was at length destroyed, but the counts of Tusculum -now dragged the unhappy Papacy to a lower depth. Two sons of the -first Count, Benedict VIII. and John XIII., successively purchased -the votes of the electors, and, by their venality and violence, added -fresh stains to the Papal chronicle. The third son of the Count then -placed his own youthful offspring in the chair of Peter, and, under -the name of Benedict IX., this youth degraded it with crimes and -vices so well authenticated that even the most resolute apologist -cannot challenge the indictment. Pope Victor III., a few years later, -shudders to mention the "murders and robberies and nameless vices" of -Benedict,[199] and his vague charges, supported by Raoul Glaber and -other authorities, suggest that the Lateran Palace must have recalled -to the mind of any sufficiently informed Roman some of the scenes -which had been witnessed in Nero's Golden House in the lowest days of -paganism. At length, after being twice expelled from Rome, he wearied -of the Papacy--one authority says that he wished to marry--and sold it -to his uncle John Gratian for one or two thousand pounds of gold. By -this time there was a certain young Hildebrand studying in the Lateran -School, and the story of his life will tell us the sequel of this -extraordinary chapter of Papal history. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 178: Dr. Mann, iii., 285.] - -[Footnote 179: Inaccurate because, however many lovers Theodora and -Marozia may have had, they were certainly not courtesans.] - -[Footnote 180: See Baronius, year 912, and Mansi, xviii., 314 and 316.] - -[Footnote 181: Barry's _Papal Monarchy_ (1902), pp. 146 and 150. For -criticism of the tradition see F. Liverani's study of John X. in vol. -ii. of his _Opere_ (1858) and P. Fedele's "Ricerche per la Storia da -Roma e del Papato nel Secolo X." in the _Archivi della R. Societŕ -Romana di Storia Patria_ (vols. xxxiii. and following). Dr. Mann -follows these critics in his chapters on Sergius and John (vol. iv.).] - -[Footnote 182: Published by E. Dümmler in his _Auxilius und Vulgarius_ -(1866), pp. 139-146. Dr. Mann (iv., 139 and 141) thinks it incredible -that if Theodora were a vicious woman any man should write thus; but -two pages later he recollects that Vulgarius has accused Pope Sergius -of murdering his two predecessors, and he advises us to place no -reliance on the word of such a "wretched sycophant."] - -[Footnote 183: _De Causa Formosiana_, c. 14.] - -[Footnote 184: _Antapodosis_, ii., 48.] - -[Footnote 185: In the notes to his edition of the _Liber Pontificalis_.] - -[Footnote 186: C. 29.] - -[Footnote 187: _De Christi Triumphis apud Italiami_, xii., 7.] - -[Footnote 188: See a letter from him at Ravenna to them in Liverani, -_Opere_, iv., 7.] - -[Footnote 189: _Prćloquia_, v., 7.] - -[Footnote 190: _Ep._, ix.] - -[Footnote 191: Mansi, xviii., 263.] - -[Footnote 192: _Antapodosis_, iii., 43; _Chronicon_, c. 29.] - -[Footnote 193: Benedict merely records his death. Flodoard (_Annals_, -year 929) says that "some attributed his death to violence, but the -majority to grief." Liutprand (iii., 43) affirms that he was smothered -with a pillow.] - -[Footnote 194: _Ep._, ii.] - -[Footnote 195: _Ep._, iv.] - -[Footnote 196: _Ep._, xiv.] - -[Footnote 197: Published by Liverani, iv., 76-79.] - -[Footnote 198: Flodoard, _Ecclesić Remensis Historia_, iv., 20.] - -[Footnote 199: _Dialogues_, bk. iii.] - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -HILDEBRAND - - -The historian might almost venture to say that the Papacy was not -evolved, but created. It has assuredly, in its varying fortunes, -reflected as faithfully as any other institution the changes of -its human environment, yet for each new adaptation to favouring -circumstances it has had to await the advent of a great Pope. Seven -men, one might say, created the Papacy: Gelasius I., Leo I., Gregory -I., Hadrian I., Nicholas I., Gregory VII., and Innocent III. Each one -of these deepened the foundations and enlarged the fabric of the great -religious principality. They have had illustrious successors, and, in -some respects, the frame of the Papacy has been further strengthened; -but, on the whole, the last five hundred years have been filled with a -mighty and unavailing struggle against disintegration. - -Of the seven men I have enumerated Gregory VII., or Hildebrand as -historians still like to call him, was the most romantic and the -most singularly creative. He was born about the year 1025, of humble -parents, in a Tuscan village near Sovana. An uncle of his was abbot -of a monastery on the Aventine at Rome, and young Hildebrand was at -an early date sent to be educated under his direction. We recognize -in this accident the chief clue to the personality and achievements -of Gregory VII. A century earlier a group of monks at Cluny had -reformed their ways, and their stricter ideas had slowly spread from -one isolated monastery to another. The monastery of St. Mary on the -Aventine was one of these rare centres of sincere asceticism, and in -it the boy would hear talk of the appalling degradation which had come -over the Church of Christ. It seems, however, very doubtful whether he -ever made the vows of a monk. He certainly wore the monk's habit, and -no epithet is more common on the lips of his opponents than "vagabond -monk"; while, on the other hand, his admirers accept the monastic -title, and justify the "vagabondage," by various unreliable stories -about his connexion with the Benedictines. But he never describes -himself as a monk, and he is not so described in the most reliable -documents. The point is of slight importance, since Hildebrand -certainly adopted the sentiments of the monastic reformers, and I will -not linger over the extensive and conflicting evidence.[200] Gregory's -fiery and aggressive nature would not suffer him to contemplate the -triumph of evil from the remote impotence of a monastery, but he -learned his lesson from monks and would rely on them throughout life. - -He went also to the Lateran School, where John Gratian, whom we -described in the last chapter as buying the Papacy from his nephew -Benedict IX., was a teacher. Gratian marked the ecclesiastical promise -of the dark and ill-favoured little Tuscan, and, when he bought the -title of Gregory VI., made him one of his _capellani_: at that time a -body of lay officials. The work suited Hildebrand, who was even more -of a soldier than a monk. The road to Rome was lamentably beset by -brigands; the houses of many of the nobles in the city itself were, in -fact, little better than the fortified dens of wealthy banditti, and -the crowds of pilgrims might have their gifts torn from their hands at -the very steps of Peter's altar. So Hildebrand organized a militia and -made some impression on the robbers. - -Gregory VI. was a more religious man than his purchase of the See would -suggest. He was conspicuous for chastity at a time when, a caustic -contemporary said, it was regarded at Rome as an angelic virtue. There -is every reason to believe that he bought the Roman See with the best -of intentions. Unhappily, Benedict IX. exhausted his treasury and -returned to claim his dignity; while another faction of the Romans -set up a pretender under the name of Silvester II. Gregory ruled his -flock--there was very little Papal ruling of the _world_ in those -days--from Sta. Maria Maggiore: Silvester controlled St. Peter's and -the Papal mansion on the Vatican: Benedict held the Lateran. This -squalid spectacle must have sunk deep into the soul of the young -reformer. But there were religious men in Rome, and the virtuous Henry -III. was summoned from Germany. The remedy was almost as humiliating -as the disorder. Henry scattered the rivals and, observing that there -was no member of the Roman clergy fit to occupy the See, he put into it -one of his German bishops, with the title of Clement II. - -Hildebrand went with his patron, in the King's train, to Germany, but -the more rigorous climate soon made an end of John Gratian. It is said, -but is by no means certain, that Hildebrand then went to Cluny for -a time. It is at all events certain that in 1049, the Roman climate -having killed two German Popes in two years, Hildebrand returned to -Italy in the train of Bishop Bruno. Under the name of Leo IX. this -handsome, stately, and deeply religious Pontiff spent the next six -years in a devoted effort to reform the Church. The magnitude of his -task may be measured by that appalling indictment of clerical and -monastic vice, the _Book of Gomorrha_, which Peter Damiani wrote under -Leo IX., and with his cordial approval. Leo visited the chief countries -of Europe, but he could make little impression on that stubborn age -and he died almost broken-hearted. Under him Hildebrand served his -apprenticeship. He became a cardinal-subdeacon, a guardian of St. -Peter's, and rector of the monastery of St. Paul: in which, to his -fine disgust, he found women serving the monks. He went also as legate -to France, where he dealt leniently with and learned to esteem the -chief heretic of the age, Bérenger. Hildebrand had little insight into -character and less into speculative theology. To the end of his life he -befriended Bérenger. - -Leo died in 1055, and Hildebrand was sent to ask Henry III. to choose a -successor. Henry in turn died in 1056, and, as the Roman See was again -vacant in the following year and the Romans were emboldened to choose -their own Pope, Hildebrand was sent to conciliate the Empress Agnes. -We must not exaggerate his influence at this time, but undoubtedly the -new Pope, Stephen X., and his fanatical Cardinal, Peter Damiani--both -monks of the reforming school,--regarded him as one of their most -ardent lieutenants. Indeed from that time we trace the adoption at -Rome of a policy which is clearly due to Hildebrand. The Papacy began -to look to the Normans, who had conquered southern Italy, to save it -from the overlordship of the German court, and to wage a stern war -against simony and clerical incontinence. Hildebrand, who had a strange -fascination for pious women, easily won the Empress Agnes, but she was -surrounded or controlled by simoniacal prelates and nobles. Rome must -once more change its suzerain, or its sword-bearer. - -In the campaign for enforcing celibacy on the clergy the monastic -reforming school provided fresh allies. There was in the city of -Milan a young priest named Anselm of Baggio, who had studied under -Lanfranc at Bec. This enthusiast for the new ideas began a notable -campaign against clerical marriage, and, when his archbishop genially -transferred him to the remote bishopric of Lucca, he left his gospel in -charge of two other enthusiasts named Ariald and Landulph. It must be -recollected that clerics did not at that time take any vow of chastity, -and there were only a few disciplinary decrees of earlier Popes to -curtail their liberty. Most of the priests of every country were -legally married, though in some places the law of celibacy was enforced -and they simply had mistresses. Against both wives and mistresses a -furious campaign was now directed by the Patarenes.[201] The vilest -names were showered on the unhappy wives and children: the priests, -who said that they would rather desert their orders than their wives, -were torn from the altars: the most lamentable excesses in the cause -of virtue were committed in the churches. Hildebrand, and afterwards -Damiani, were sent to enforce what is described as the "pacifying -policy" of Rome, and we read that Milan approached the verge of civil -war. - -While Hildebrand was still inflaming the enthusiasts of the north, -Stephen X. died, and the party opposed to the Puritans at Rome at once -elected a Pope of their own school. The young subdeacon now plainly -showed his character and masterfulness. He persuaded the virtuous -archbishop of Florence to accept the title of Nicholas II., begged a -small army from the Duke of Tuscany, entered Rome at the head of his -soldiers, and swept "Benedict X." and his supporters out of the city. -The cause of virtue was to be sustained, at whatever cost: the key-note -of his life was sounded. We may also confidently see the action of -Hildebrand in a very important decision of a Lateran synod held under -Nicholas that year (1059). In future the choice of a Pope was to be -confined to the cardinal-bishops, who would submit their decision to -the cardinal-priests and deacons.[202] The rest of the clergy and -the people were merely to signify their assent by acclamation, and -the decree contains a vague expression of respect for "the rights of -the Emperor." A sonorous anathema was laid on any who departed from -this decree; and I may add at once that Hildebrand, who was probably -its author, entirely ignored it in making the next Pope and in his -own election. It was the first phase in the struggle with the Empire. -The German court was distracted by the intrigues of rival prelates to -secure the control of the Empress and her son, while the Papacy now had -the support of the Norman Richard of Capua (whom Hildebrand induced -to swear fealty to the Papacy), the troops of Tuscany, and the staves -of the Patarenes. The German court replied by refusing to acknowledge -Nicholas II. - -Hildebrand rose to the rank of deacon, then of archdeacon: the -straightest path to the Papacy. Had he willed, he could have become -Pope in 1061, when Nicholas died, but the time was not ripe for his -colossal design. The anti-Puritans now sought alliance with the German -court against him, but he summoned a band of Normans and, with the aid -of their spears, put Anselm of Lucca on the Papal throne: completely -ignoring the decree of 1059. The anti-Puritans of Rome and Lombardy -now united with the Imperialists, and Bishop Cadalus of Parma was -made Anti-Pope. The war of words which followed was disdainfully left -by Hildebrand to Damiani, who, in a page of almost indescribable -invective, assures us that Cadalus was "the stench of the globe, the -filth of the age, the shame of the universe," and that his episcopal -supporters were better judges of pretty faces than of Papal candidates. -The Imperialist Bishop Benzo of Albi, a genial Epicure who united an -equal power of invective with a more polished culture, retorted heavily -on the "vagabond monks" (Damiani and Hildebrand). At last it came to -blows, and Hildebrand acted. Cadalus descended on Rome with German -and Lombard troops: Hildebrand summoned the Normans, and a fierce -battle was waged for the tiara under the very shadow of St. Peter's. -Then Godfrey of Tuscany appeared on the scene with his army, and the -decision was remitted to a synod at Augsburg. Hildebrand was content, -for a revolution had occurred at the German court, and Damiani was sent -to win the verdict at Augsburg by the ingenious expedient of being -himself counsel for both sides. - -The way was now rapidly prepared for the Pontificate of Hildebrand. -Godfrey of Tuscany died, and his pious widow Beatrice and still more -impressionable daughter Mathilda were prepared to put their last -soldier at his disposal. The Patarenes were reinforced by the knight -Herlembald (whose lady-love had been seduced by a priest), and were -dragging the married priests from their churches and destroying -their homes in many parts of north Italy. At Florence the monks of -Vallombrosa lent their fiery aid, even against the troops, and one -of their number passed unscathed through the ordeal of fire before -an immense concourse of people. In the south Robert Guiscard was -expelling the last remnants of the Saracens and founding a powerful -Norman kingdom. All these forces marched under banners blessed and -presented by the Pope. One banner advanced by the side of the ferocious -Herlembald: one shone at the head of the Norman troops in Calabria: -one was seen in the ranks of William of Normandy when he made his -successful raid upon England.[203] - -Alexander closed his short and earnest Pontificate on April 21, 1073. -Hildebrand, in his capacity of archdeacon, took stringent measures for -the preservation of order, or the coercion of the Imperialist faction; -yet, when the voice of the people demanded that _he_ should be Pope, -his troops made no effort to secure an election according to the decree -of 1059. He was conducting the funeral service over the remains of -Alexander, on April 22d, when the cry, "Hildebrand bishop," was raised. -He protested, but Cardinal Hugh Candidus, one of the most versatile -clerical politicians of the time and afterwards the Pope's deadly -enemy, stood forth and insisted that the cry was just. Hildebrand -was seized and conducted, almost carried, to the church of St. Peter -in Chains, where he was enthroned, as he afterwards wrote to Abbot -Didier,[204] by "popular tumult." It is not certain, but is entirely -probable, that he sought the imperial ratification. We may conclude -that he did this, since, when he was consecrated on June 30th, the -Empress Agnes and the imperial representative in Italy were present. - -In the letters which Gregory issued to his friends throughout Europe -immediately after his election he observes that the strain and anxiety -have made him ill. We can well believe that when the hour arrived for -him to mount the throne of Peter, instead of standing behind it, he -felt a grave foreboding. No man had ever yet ascended that throne with -so portentous an idea of its prestige and responsibility, and no Pope -had ever confronted a more disordered Christendom. There had been good -men at the Lateran for thirty years, yet in the eyes of Hildebrand they -must have seemed idle, timid, and ineffective. A Pope must wear out -his body and lay down his life in the struggle with triumphant evil: -must smite king or prelate or peasant without a moment's hesitation: -must use every weapon that the times afforded--excommunication or -imprecation, the spear of the Norman or the sword of the Dane, the -staff of the ignorant fanatic or the tender devotion of woman. "The -Blessed Peter on earth," as Hildebrand called himself, had a right to -implicit obedience from every man on earth, on temporal no less than -on spiritual matters. Kings were of less consequence than the meanest -priests. If kings and dukes resisted his grand plan of making the whole -of Christendom "pure and obedient," why not make their kingdoms and -duchies fiefs of the Holy See, to be bestowed on virtuous men? Why not -make Europe the United States of the Church, governed despotically by -the one man on earth who was "inspired by God"? If anathemas failed, -there were swords enough in Europe to carry out his plan. That, -literally, was the vision which filled the feverish imagination of -Gregory VII. when he looked down from his throne over the world. - -It was the dream of a soldier-monk, unchecked by understanding of men -or accurate knowledge of history. Such reformers as Cardinal Damiani -and Abbot Didier resented Gregory's aims and procedure: they were -most appreciated by women like the Countess Mathilda. Hildebrand -is said to have been a learned man, but we have cause to take with -reserve medićval compliments of this kind. He knew the Bible well, -and was steeped in the congenial atmosphere of the Old Testament. He -knew Church-history and law well: as they were told at the Lateran. -Döllinger has shown that his principal lieutenants in the work of -reform--Bishop Anselm of Lucca (a second Anselm), Bishop Bonitho, and -Cardinal Deusdedit--were unscrupulous in their use of historical and -canonical documents, and that Gregory relied on these as well as on -the older forgeries.[205] I am, however, chiefly concerned with the -limitations of his knowledge, and will observe only that his letters, -written in robust and inelegant Latin, give no indication of culture -beyond this close acquaintance with very dubious history and law. The -Arab civilization had by this time enkindled some intellectual life -in Europe: men were not far from the age of Abélard. But in this new -speculative life Gregory had no share. If we find him, with apparent -liberality, acquitting Bérenger in 1049 and 1079, we must ascribe it -rather to incapacity and disinclination for speculative matters. - -This restriction and inaccuracy of culture strengthened Gregory in -his peculiar ideal, and it was much the same with his poor judgment -of character, which brought many a disaster on him. Probably men -like Hildebrand and Damiani enjoyed a physical debility in regard -to sex-life, and sincerely failed to realize that the abolition of -clerical marriage would inevitably lead to worse evils. The ideal they -worked for--the establishment of a spiritual army dead to every human -affection, and therefore incorruptible--was magnificent but impossible. -Similarly, in the campaign against simony, Gregory never realized -the roots of the evil. Bishops were politicians, the supporters or -thwarters of the counsels of princes; intellectual culture was, in -fact, almost confined to bishops and abbots, and their advice was -(apart from their wealth, their troops, and their feudal duties) needed -as much as that of unlettered soldiers. Hence princes had a real and -deep interest in their appointment. The intrigue for political power -at that very time of the great prelates of Germany was notorious. If -Gregory had at least confined his strictures to simony in the strict -sense, he might have had some prospect of success, for his cause was -obviously just. But by his attack on "investiture"[206] he would take -away from princes the control of some of their most powerful, and often -most mischievous, vassals. - -Yet, instead of seeking to deprive bishops and abbots of wealth and -troops and political influence, Hildebrand wanted them to have more. -He encouraged Anselm of Lucca to lead the Tuscan troops; he proposed -in person to lead the Christian armies against the Turks. Throughout -life he called for more men and more money, and he never hesitated -an instant to set swords flying if he could gain his religious aim -by that means. He was as warlike as a full-blooded Norman. Bishop -Mathew calls him "truculent," and reminds us how, before he became -Pope, Abbot Didier wanted to punish an abbot, who had gouged out the -eyes of some of his monks for their sins, but Hildebrand protected the -man and afterwards made him a bishop. Didier and Damiani were equally -shocked at his political activity. He scorned the distinction between -spiritual and temporal things--except when he was endeavouring to keep -laymen in their proper place--and argued repeatedly that, if a Pope had -supreme power in matters of religion, he very clearly had it in the -less important concerns of earth: if a Pope could open and close the -gates of heaven, he could most assuredly open and close the gates of -earthly kingdoms. He went so far as to say that "all worldly things, -be they honours, empires, kingdoms, principalities, or duchies," he -could bestow on whomsoever he wished.[207] On this ground he, as we -shall see, grasped the flimsiest pretexts for claiming a kingdom as a -fief of the Roman See, relying often on forged or perverted texts, and -he quite clearly aimed at bringing all the countries in Christendom -under the feudal lordship of the Papacy, to be bestowed for "obedience" -and withdrawn for "disobedience" at the will of the Pope. I do not -admit that he was ambitious, even ambitious for his See. He believed -that this sacerdocracy was willed by God and was the only means of -maintaining religion and morality in Europe. But there were human -aspects of these questions which Gregory ignored, and his bitter and -numerous opponents retorted that he was a fool or a fanatic. - -This ideal did not merely grow in Gregory's mind in the heat of his -combats. It is seen in his earliest letters. Before he was consecrated -he wrote to remind "the Princes of Spain" that that country belonged -to the Roman See; that the Popes had never abandoned their right to -it, even when it was held by the Moors: and that the kings who were -now wresting it from the Moors held their kingdoms "on behalf of St. -Peter" (_ex parte S. Petri_) and on condition that they rendered feudal -military service when summoned to do so.[208] A few weeks later he -wrote to Duke Godfrey, referring to Henry IV.: "If he returns hatred -for love, and shows contempt for Almighty God for the honour conferred -on him, the imprecation which runs, 'Cursed is he that refraineth his -sword from blood,' will not, with God's help, fall on _us_."[209] In -June he told Beatrice and Mathilda that he would resist the King, -if necessary, "to the shedding of blood."[210] In the same month he -compelled Landulph of Benevento and Richard of Capua to swear fealty -to the Roman See. In November he told Lanfranc, the greatest prelate -of England, that he was astounded at his "audacity" (_frons_) in -neglecting Papal orders.[211] In December he wrote to a French bishop -that if King Philip did not amend his ways he would smite the French -people with "the sword of a general anathema" and they would "refuse to -obey him further."[212] A remarkable record for the first nine months -of his Pontificate. - -I shall not in the least misrepresent his work if I dismiss -other matters briefly and enlarge on his attempts to realize his -sacerdocratic ideal: especially his struggle with Henry IV. His -campaign against simony and clerical incontinence fills the whole -period of his Pontificate, but cannot be described in detail. Year by -year his handful of Italian bishops--remoter bishops generally ignored -his drastic orders to come to Rome--met in Lenten synods at Rome, held -their lighted candles while he read the ever-lengthening list of the -excommunicated, and shuddered at his vigorous imprecations. Then his -legates went out over Europe, but few prelates were willing or able to -promulgate the decrees they brought, and the campaign succeeded only -where it could rely on the staves of the Patarenes or the swords of -the Pope's allies. Other episcopal functions, such as settlements of -jurisdiction, occupy a relatively small part of his correspondence. It -is enough to say that his eye ranged from Lincoln to Constantinople, -from Stockholm to Carthage. - -In Italy, his chief concern was to concentrate the southern States -under his lead and form a military bulwark against the northerners. -The Roman militia was strengthened: the petty princes of Benevento -and Capua were persuaded that their shrunken territories were safer -from the aggressions of Robert Guiscard if they paid allegiance to -St. Peter: Mathilda of Tuscany did not even need to be persuaded to -hold her troops at his disposal. It would be safe to say that Italy -alone would have wrecked Gregory's policy but for the lucky accident -of Tuscany passing to the pious Mathilda. She clung to Gregory so -tenaciously that his opponents affected to see a scandal in the -association. - -The chief thorn in his side was Robert Guiscard, who had founded a -kingdom in southern Italy and refused to do homage. He laid waste the -territory of the Pope's allies, and smiled at the anathema put on him. -Gregory, as usual, turned to the sword. The Eastern Emperor had asked -aid against the Turks, and Gregory summoned all Christian princes -to contribute troops. He would lead the army in person, he said: -supported by the aged Beatrice and the tender Mathilda. The northern -princes smiled, and the plan of a crusade came to naught. But it was -not merely concern for Constantinople which made Gregory dangerously -ill when his plan miscarried. Historians generally overlook his letter -to William of Burgundy,[213] in which he plainly states that he wants -the troops for the purpose of intimidating--if not conquering--Robert: -"perhaps," he says, they may afterwards proceed to the East. He was -still more irritated when Robert himself entered into an alliance with -Constantinople. Gregory angrily wrote to ask the King of Denmark to -send his son with an army and wrest the south of Italy from the "vile -heretics" who held it.[214] - -He was similarly thwarted in nearly every country in Europe, and his -anathemas were terrible to hear. I have already referred to his haughty -language to Lanfranc, yet the English bishops continued, year after -year, to ignore the imperious summons to attend his Roman synods. -In 1079 Gregory wrote to Lanfranc that he understood that the King -prevented them from coming, and was surprised that the "superstitious -love" or fear of any man should come between him and his duty.[215] -Lanfranc still evaded, almost fooled, him, and, when Gregory threatened -to suspend him, affected to be engaged in examining the claims of an -Anti-Pope whom Henry IV. had set up. With William himself Gregory was -bitterly disappointed. When, in 1080, he ordered the King to collect -the arrears of Peter's Pence and acknowledge his feudal obligations to -Rome, William somewhat contemptuously replied that he would forward the -money, but would pay allegiance to no man. Gregory was so angry that -he told his legates that the money was no use without the "honour."[216] - -The bishops of France were equally deaf to his annual summons to his -Lenten synods and his orders that they should punish their King. He -threatened, not only to pronounce an interdict, but that he would -"endeavour _in every way_ to take the kingdom of France from him."[217] -A similar threat of military action was sent to Spain. King Alphonso of -Leon married a relative, and Gregory wrote to the abbot of Cluny that -if the King did not obey his orders and dismiss her he would "not think -it too great a trouble to go ourselves to Spain and concert severe and -painful action [evidently military action] against him."[218] This -policy of promoting or blessing invasions and usurpations was carried -out in the case of smaller kingdoms. King Solomon was ejected from -Hungary and appealed to Rome. Gregory blessed the usurper (who craftily -promised to be a good son of the Church) and told Solomon that he had -deserved the calamity by receiving his kingdom, which had been given to -St. Peter by the earlier King Stephen, at the hand of Henry IV.[219] -Then Ladislaus of Hungary seized Dalmatia and sought to strengthen -his position by paying fealty to the Pope for it; so that, when the -Dalmatians attempted to recover their independence, Gregory denounced -them as "rebels against the Blessed Peter."[220] Lastly, when the -Russian king was displaced by his brothers, and promised to acknowledge -the feudal supremacy of Rome if he were restored, Gregory induced -Boleslaus of Poland to restore him. - -If this kind of procedure incurred the censure of Gregory's great -friend and successor, Abbot Didier, we can easily understand the -violent language of his opponents. These are usually writers of the -Lombard-German faction, and we must now endeavour to disentangle from -the contradictory narratives of the partisan writers the truth about -his relations with Henry IV. The facts I have hitherto given are taken -from the authentic letters of Gregory. - -Henry IV. was a boy at the time of his father's death, and it is -beyond dispute that the prelates and nobles who quarrelled for power -shamefully neglected, or consciously misdirected, his education. When -he came to the throne he was a wilful, loose-living, and imperious -young man, forced into marriage with a woman whom he disliked. -Exhortations to abandon simony and avoid evil companions fell lightly -on such ears, and, as we saw, Gregory's early letters threatened war. -Five of Henry's favourites were under sentence of excommunication, -yet the young King would not part with them. Gregory turned to the -bishops, but they flatly refused to allow his legates to call a synod -in Germany, and his excommunication of the Archbishop of Hamburg only -embittered them. Suddenly, however, before the end of 1073, Gregory was -delighted to receive a most humble and submissive letter from Henry, -and legates were sent to absolve him. - -The cause of this action of the imperious young King gives us at once a -most important clue to what is called the later triumph of Gregory at -Canossa. The popular impression that that famous scene represented a -triumph of spiritual power over the passions of man is wholly wrong. -It was an episode in a political struggle. Henry's kingdom embraced -Saxony and Swabia; and the Saxons cherished a sombre memory of their -recent incorporation, while Rudolph of Swabia had a mind to make profit -by the troubles of his suzerain and astutely courted the favour of the -Pope. Gregory could not fail to grasp the situation, and his struggle -against Henry is a series of attempts by the Pope to foment and take -advantage of Henry's difficulties with his vassals, ending in the -complete triumph of the King. - -Henry's submission in 1074 meant that there was a dangerous rebellion -in Saxony. The King did not, in fact, part entirely with his -excommunicated favourites, and the anathema on them was renewed at -the synod of 1075, which also laid a heavy censure on "any emperor, -duke, marquis, count, or any temporal lord, or any secular person -whatsoever," who claimed the right of investiture. Henry remained -friendly: the Saxon war dragged on. In October Henry was sending -legates to Rome to confer with the Pope, who had hinted at compromise -on the subject of investitures. But the Saxon rebellion suddenly -came to an end, and three legates were now sent with a less pleasant -message: probably a peremptory claim of the imperial crown. Henry had -not only a united Germany, but a strong party in Lombardy. Herlembald -was killed, and the Patarenes held in check. Moreover, the recalcitrant -bishops were now joined by the Archbishop of Ravenna (who had been -hastily excommunicated by Gregory for not attending the Lenten synod) -and Cardinal Hugh Candidus. Elated with this support, the young King -acted wilfully. He sent one of his excommunicated nobles to Lombardy, -crushed the Patarenes, and set up a third Archbishop of Milan, -Tedald.[221] - -Gregory was alarmed at this combination and at first temporized. -He invited Tedald to come to Rome for a polite discussion of his -claims; he sent Henry a "doubtful blessing" and would compromise on -investitures and consider his further demands, if he abandoned the -excommunicated nobles.[222] But he gave Henry's envoys, to whom he -handed the letter, a verbal message of a more drastic nature. He -threatened to depose Henry for his "horrible crimes," and there is -good reason to suppose that these "crimes" were, in part at least, the -slanderous fictions of Henry's enemies.[223] Both were men of fiery -and indiscreet impulses, and this impolitic act of Gregory kindled the -conflagration. - -Meantime a remarkable experience befell Gregory at Rome, and it is -not unlikely that he held Henry responsible for it; though it is -practically certain that Henry was wholly innocent. The increasing -difficulties of the Pope encouraged the anti-Puritans at Rome, and -one of them, Cenci, a notorious bandit, burst into the church of Sta. -Maria on the Esquiline while Gregory was saying midnight mass there -on Christmas day (1075). His men scattered the attendants, and one of -them struck the Pope with a sword, causing a wound on the forehead. -Gregory was stripped of his sacerdotal robes, thrust on a horse behind -one of the soldiers, and hurried to Cenci's fortified tower. Some -noble matron was taken with him--one of the strangest circumstances of -the whole mysterious episode--and she bound his wounds as he lay in -the tower, while Cenci threatened to kill him unless he handed over -the keys of the Papal treasury. It is fairly clear that the motive was -robbery. Meantime the bells and trumpets had spread the alarm through -Rome, and the militia beset the tower and relieved the Pope. This -remarkable picture of a winter's night in the capital of Christendom -ends with Gregory, who cannot have been severely wounded, calmly -returning to the altar and finishing his mass. - -Henry's envoys had left Rome before Christmas, and it is therefore a -mistake to suppose that the message they brought from Gregory had any -reference to the violence of Cenci. They reached the court at Goslar on -January 1, 1076, and we can easily believe that they would not moderate -the offensiveness of the oral message. Gregory had a deliberate policy -of preferring oral to written messages. There may at times have been -an advantage in this, but in the present instance it was gravely -imprudent. Henry's friends urged him to avenge the insult, and three -weeks later a synod of twenty-six German bishops, with a large number -of abbots, met at Worms and declared Gregory deposed. The irregularity -of his election, the despotism of his conduct, and what was described -as his scandalous association with women, were the chief reasons -assigned for this action. The decree was sent to the insurgent bishops -of north Italy, who met in council and endorsed it, and a priest of -the church of Parma volunteered to serve the sentence on Gregory. He -reached Rome at a moment when Gregory was presiding at a large synod -in the Lateran Palace, and boldly read the sentence to the assembled -bishops. Lay nobles drew their swords upon the audacious priest, but -Gregory restrained them and bade them hear the words of Henry. His -intemperate and insulting letter--so intemperate that the Pope could -easily remain calm and dignified--could receive only one reply. The -King and all his supporters were excommunicated, and Gregory issued a -not unworthy letter "To All Christians"[224] informing them that the -subjects of King Henry of Germany were released from their allegiance. - -There can be no doubt that Henry IV. had merited a sentence of -excommunication, and it is a nice point whether a King could continue -to rule his territory when he was thus cut off from communication with -his subjects. We may, at all events, gravely question whether the -Pope was either politic or just in going on formally to depose the -King, and, as the news of this unprecedented action spread through -Christendom, even religious prelates shook their heads. Throughout the -rest of his life Gregory had repeatedly to defend his conduct, not -against the partisans of Henry, but against some of his own supporters. -His chief apology is contained in a letter to the Bishop of Metz[225] -and is invalid and illogical. He relies on a forged letter of St. -Peter, and he appeals to the excommunication of Theodosius by St. -Ambrose and the "deposition" of Childeric by Pope Zachary in 753; the -former was in no sense a precedent, and in the latter case the Pope -merely confirmed the design of Pippin and the Franks. There was no -precedent whatever for deposition, and Gregory is severely censured -even by modern writers for not observing the canonical forms in his -excommunication of Henry.[226] - -Gregory at once prepared for war. The Duchess Beatrice died in April, -and the devoted Mathilda, who was so pointedly insulted, though not -named, in her royal cousin's manifesto, put the troops of Tuscany at -the Pope's disposal. Gregory also tried to reconcile the Normans with -each other and weld them into a common army for the defence of Rome. -But his chief reliance was on the Germans themselves. He knew well, -when he excommunicated Henry, that the embittered Saxons would leap -with joy at the fresh pretext of rebellion, and the intriguing Swabians -would secretly welcome the censure. Henry found himself very soon on -the road to Canossa. He summoned two councils in rapid succession, but -their defiance of the Pope brought him little pleasure when he noted -the small number of his supporters. Saxony threw off his yoke at once, -and prelates and nobles began to fall away from his cause. Gregory -pressed his advantage with fiery energy, showering letters upon the -German clergy and people, and in the middle of October a large body of -the nobles and prelates (chiefly Saxon and Swabian) met at Tribur, near -Darmstadt, to consider the position of the kingdom. Two Papal legates -and Rudolph of Swabia presided, and Henry watched the proceedings from -the other side of the river. - -From this stage onward we are compelled to consult the contemporary -chroniclers, and it is almost impossible to disentangle the truth from -their contradictory and mendacious statements. It is clear that for -seven days the Diet held long debate on the situation. Undoubtedly -they wished to depose Henry, but, apparently, they were unwilling to -recognize in the Pope this dangerous power of deposing kings, and the -Diet seems to have ended with an injunction to Henry to make peace -with the Pope. According to the monk Lambert of Hersfeld, who seems -to have gathered into his _Chronicle_ all the wild cloister-gossip -of the time, the Diet decided that, according to the "Laws of the -Palace,"--there were no such laws at that time,--Henry forfeited his -crown if he remained excommunicated a year and a day, and commanded -him to retire into private life at Spires until Gregory should come to -Germany and decide the case. The Gregorian writer, Bishop Bonitho,[227] -contrives in this instance to improve on Lambert; he tells us that, -if Henry submitted, the nobles would accompany him to Rome, where he -would receive the imperial crown, and they would then sweep the Normans -out of south Italy. One suspects that in this the Bishop of Sutri is -betraying a design of Gregory which was certainly not endorsed by the -Diet. - -The most authentic evidence is the _Promissio_ (or Letter of Apology) -which, at the dictation of the Diet, Henry submitted to the Pope.[228] -He expressed regret for any affront he may have put on the dignity of -the Pope, promised obedience on spiritual matters, and declared that -on certain other grave matters he would vindicate his innocence. When -this short and dry letter was eventually handed to the Pope by one of -the chief prelates of Germany, Gregory was outraged to find that its -concluding sentence ran: "But it befitteth thy Holiness not to ignore -the things repeated about thee which bring scandal on the Church, but -to remove this scruple from the public conscience and provide in thy -wisdom for the tranquillity of the Church and the kingdom." Gregorian -writers insist that this was added by Henry to the draft approved by -the Diet, but this is by no means certain. Henry was not a broken man. -He had a considerable force with him, and Rudolph of Swabia evidently -found that it would be no easy task to displace him. The edict which -Henry published at the same time, declaring that he had been misled -when he obtained a censure of the Pope, gives one the same impression. -He had still a powerful following, and it was agreed to avert civil -war by reconciliation and by inviting Gregory to preside at a Diet at -Augsburg. - -Gregory, in spite of the advice of his friends (except Mathilda, who -spurred him on), at once set out for the north. His impetuous journey -was, however, arrested in the north of Italy by the news that the -German nobles had failed to send an escort for him, and that Henry -himself was crossing the Alps with a large army. Mathilda persuaded him -to retire to her impregnable fortress of Canossa, and there, about the -end of January, Henry enacted his historic part of penitent. - -Here the chroniclers are hopelessly discordant, and the full -picturesque narrative of Lambert of Hersfeld, on which some historians -still implicitly rely, has been riddled by modern critics.[229] It -is clear that Henry wished to keep the Pope out of Germany, and he -there-fore hastily crossed the Alps in the depth of winter. It is -clear that a "vast army" (in the words of Lambert himself) gathered -about him in rebellious Lombardy, but he pushed on with a few followers -(incidentally admitted by Lambert) to Canossa. It is clear that -Gregory, on the other hand, was desperately bent on presiding over -a council in Germany, and shocked his friends by his obstinacy in -refusing to be reconciled[230]; he had condemned Henry without trial, -but he would not absolve him without trial. And, obviously inaccurate -as the narrative of Lambert is,[231] it seems to me certain that Henry -went through the form of penance on the icy platform before the gate of -Canossa. In the letter written immediately afterwards to the nobles and -prelates of Germany,[232] Gregory describes Henry as doing penance for -three days, in bare feet and woollen robe, before the gates. However -impolitic and irritating it was for Gregory to write such a letter, Dr. -Dammann seems to me to fail to impeach its genuineness. Indeed in his -great speech to the Roman synod of 1080, when he excommunicated Henry a -second time, Gregory says that in 1076 Henry came to him "in confusion -and humiliation" at Canossa to ask absolution. - -Thus the scene which has ever since impressed the imagination of Europe -is in substance authentic; though we are by no means compelled to -think that Henry literally stood in the snow for three whole days. But -the common interpretation of the scene is quite false. It was not a -spiritual triumph, but a political pseudo-triumph. In reality, it was -Henry who triumphed; and one can imagine him jesting merrily afterwards -about his bare feet and coarse robe of penitence. He promised to amend -his ways, and then proceeded to make a tour of Italy in light-hearted -confidence and with all his old wilfulness. He refused to interfere -when a Papal Legate was thrown into prison at Piacenza; and he refused -to provide Gregory with an escort when the Germans invited the Pope to -come and preside at their new Diet.[233] Gregory soon realized that the -war had merely passed into a new and more difficult phase, and we must -follow it swiftly to its tragic end in the utter defeat of the Pope. - -Gregory sent two Legates to the Diet of Forchheim on March 13th, where, -with their consent, Rudolph of Swabia was declared King of Germany. -The Papal Legates exacted that he should not claim the succession for -his family--apparently Germany was to be the next fief of the Roman -See--and should abandon investiture. When Henry pressed the Pope to -excommunicate Rudolph, he replied that he had not yet heard Rudolph's -case--an "unworthy subterfuge," Bishop Mathew justly remarks--and -Henry set out for Germany. In the three-years struggle which followed, -the Pope adopted a policy which few historians hesitate to condemn. -He sent Legates repeatedly, claiming that he alone was the judge: -that "if the See of the Blessed Peter decides and judges heavenly -and spiritual things, how much the more shall it judge things earthly -and secular."[234] He even promised the crown to whichever of the -combatants should respect his Legates: a remarkable test of the justice -he promised to administer. He evidently hoped that Rudolph would win, -but feared that the victory _might_ fall to Henry; and, above all, he -desired to judge the princes of the earth. At last the Saxons in turn -began to abuse him. His Legates, they said, were offering his verdict -to the highest bidder--assuredly without his knowledge--and his policy -was unintelligible. Bishops were saying that the Papacy had become "the -tail of the Church." - -At the Lenten synod of the year 1080 representatives of both princes -came before Gregory and his bishops, and the great decision was taken. -Henry was found guilty of "disobedience," and, after a long and -eloquent speech, Gregory excommunicated him once more and confirmed -Rudolph in the kingdom of Germany. Bishop Bonitho[235] tells us that -Henry had sent an ultimatum: if Gregory did not at once condemn -Rudolph he would appoint another Pope. This is, apparently, the real -inspiration of the synod and of Gregory's fiery speech.[236] Henry's -partisans retorted by excommunicating Gregory and consecrating Guibert -of Ravenna as Anti-Pope, and, as Rudolph fell in battle in October, -the Gregorian cause was in a lamentable plight. Gregory had, in his -extremity, overlooked all the crimes of Robert Guiscard--"for the -present" he quaintly said in the treaty--and made an alliance with -him, but Robert was still engaged in the East, and Henry's troops -made great havoc in Mathilda's dominions. Yet Gregory repeated his -excommunication of the King, and wrote letters all over Europe to -defend his action and obtain money and troops. - -Several years passed in this indecisive warfare, Henry wearing down the -Tuscan troops and cutting off supplies from Rome. At length, toward -the end of March, 1084, the Romans, weary of the long siege, opened -their gates to Henry, and Gregory shut himself in the impregnable -fortress of Sant' Angelo. From the windows, for two dreary months, -Gregory had to watch the progress of the victorious Imperialists and -the triumph of the Anti-Pope, Clement III. In May he was elated by the -message that Henry had fled and Robert Guiscard was marching to Rome -with a large force. But his joy was brief. A brawl with the Romans -let loose the half-barbaric Normans, and the city was visited with -one of the most pitiless raids in its eventful history. Thousands of -the Romans were sold into slavery: sacred virgins and matrons were -savagely raped: large districts of the city were burned to the ground. -For this the infuriated Romans cast the whole blame on the Pope, and -he was forced to retire with Robert. In penury and impotence he rode -into the abbey of Monte Cassino, where Abbot Didier would hardly fail -to remind him that they who appeal to the sword are apt to perish by -the sword, and then on to Salerno. Surrounded by the shrunken remains -of his supporters he made a last appeal to the Christian world to -espouse his cause, and he feebly cast forth his last anathemas. But -the fight was lost, and he wearily drew his last breath on May 25, -1085. "I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in -exile," he said. It was not wholly true. He was exiled by the people of -Rome, whose devastated homes made them heap curses on his iron policy. -History honours the purity of his ultimate aim, the heroism with which -he pursued it, the greatness, with all its defects, of his character; -it sternly condemns the means he employed, the tortuous and dangerous -character of his reasoning, the appalling claim that kingdoms were toys -in his hand. He failed; but he had, in reality, so strengthened the -frame of the Papacy that it would take an earthquake to shake it. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 200: The two ablest recent writers on Hildebrand, the Right -Reverend Dr. A.H. Mathew (_The Life and Times of Hildebrand_, 1910) -and Dr. W. Martens (_War Gregor VII. Mönch?_, 1891, and _Gregor VII._, -2 vols. 1894--an invaluable study), hold that he never took the vows. -The chief biography of Hildebrand on the Catholic side is now the Abbé -O. Delarc's _Grégoire VII. et la Réforme de l'Église au XI sičcle_ -(3 vols., 1889). Slight but excellent sketches will be found in F. -Roquain's _La Papauté au moyen âge_ (1881) and _Hildebrand and His -Times_ (1888) by W.R.W. Stephens. Older writers like Voigt, Gfrörer, -Villemain, and Bowden are now of little use. The original authorities -are as numerous as they are unreliable. The partisans of Gregory -(chiefly Bonitho and Donizo) are scarcely more scrupulous than the -partisans of Henry (Benzo, Benno, Guido, etc.), or those of Rudolph -(Lambert, Berthold, Bruno, etc.). Fortunately we have a large number of -Gregory's letters, and, as usual, I rely chiefly on these.] - -[Footnote 201: The reformers of Milan worked chiefly among the poor, -especially in the "old-clothes quarter," or _Pataria_. Hence the name -of the party.] - -[Footnote 202: The word "cardinal" occurs occasionally in early -ecclesiastical literature in its literal meaning of "important," and -is applied to clerics of various orders. After the fifth century it -is restricted at Rome to the first priests of each of the _tituli_ -(quasi-parishes) into which the city was divided. They numbered -twenty-eight in the eleventh century. In the course of time the name -was also given to the seventeen leading deacons of Rome and the seven -suburbicarian bishops.] - -[Footnote 203: In this last case we have the assurance of Hildebrand -himself that he dictated the Papal policy. Years afterwards he wrote -to William (_Ep._, vii., 23) that, when the Norman envoys came to -ask Papal approval of his design, it was generally censured as an -unjustifiable raid, and Hildebrand alone induced Pope Alexander to send -the Normans a banner: on condition, he adds, that William secured the -payment of Peter's Pence by the reluctant English and in other ways -promoted the interests of Rome. But even William did not dream that his -acceptance of the banner made England, in Hildebrand's opinion, a fief -of the Roman See!] - -[Footnote 204: _Ep._, i., 1.] - -[Footnote 205: _Das Papstthum_ (1892), ch. ii., § 2. See also F. -Roquain's _La Papauté au moyen âge_. Roquain observes, leniently, that -Gregory was "not entirely exempt from reproach in the use of means to -attain his ends" (p. 127) and fell into "excesses unworthy of his great -soul" (p. 131). In his famous letter to the Bishop of Metz (viii., -21) Gregory omits an essential part of a passage which he quotes from -Gelasius and materially alters its meaning. When we further find him -writing (ix., 2) that "even a lie that is told for a good purpose in -the cause of peace is not _wholly_ free from blame," we fear that he -was not far from the maxim that the end justifies the means.] - -[Footnote 206: The secular ruler had long been accustomed to bestow the -crozier and ring on his nominee for a bishopric, and this was known as -"investiture." The practice undoubtedly led to much simony and to the -appointment of unworthy men, but, as the event proved, a compromise was -possible.] - -[Footnote 207: Speech to the Roman synod of the year 1080 (Migne, vol. -cxlviii., col. 816). Compare _Ep._, viii., 21.] - -[Footnote 208: _Ep._, i., 7.] - -[Footnote 209: _Ep._, i., 9.] - -[Footnote 210: I., 11.] - -[Footnote 211: I., 31.] - -[Footnote 212: I., 35.] - -[Footnote 213: I., 46.] - -[Footnote 214: II., 51.] - -[Footnote 215: VI., 30.] - -[Footnote 216: VII., 1.] - -[Footnote 217: II., 5 and 32.] - -[Footnote 218: VIII., 2.] - -[Footnote 219: In both statements of fact Gregory was wrong. Stephen -had merely accepted a consecrated banner from the Anti-Pope Silvester -II.; and Solomon had voluntarily chosen Henry as his suzerain.] - -[Footnote 220: VIII., 4.] - -[Footnote 221: There was a Gregorian archbishop in exile. The actual -prelate may not have been zealous enough for Henry.] - -[Footnote 222: Iii., 10.] - -[Footnote 223: A good deal of controversy has been expended on the -question whether Gregory did or did not threaten at this stage to -depose Henry. Gregory's letter xxvi. (not in his Register, but of -undoubted authenticity) to "the German People" expressly admits, or -boasts, that he did. For further evidence see Dr. Martens, _Gregor -VII._, i., 86-91.] - -[Footnote 224: iii., 6.] - -[Footnote 225: Viii., 21.] - -[Footnote 226: See C. Mirbt's special study of the conflict, _Die -Absetzung Heinrichs IV._ (1888), p. 103.] - -[Footnote 227: _Liber ad Amicum_, 1. viii.] - -[Footnote 228: A translation may be read in Delarc, iii., 252.] - -[Footnote 229: One recent student, Dr. Albert Dammann (_Der Sieg -Heinrichs IV. in Kanossa_, 1907 and 1909), goes to the other extreme, -and concludes that Henry blockaded Canossa with a large army and -compelled the Pope to withdraw his censure, without a single act of -penance.] - -[Footnote 230: _Ep._, iv., 12.] - -[Footnote 231: For instance he describes a dramatic scene in which -Henry shrinks from receiving the sacred host, whereas Gregory says -(_Ep._, iv., 12) that he admitted Henry to communion. His story is full -of contradictions.] - -[Footnote 232: Iv., 12.] - -[Footnote 233: Gregorian writers said afterwards that Henry's royal -dignity was not restored at Canossa. In point of fact he actually -signed his promise of reform as "king" and he refused to take an oath -on the express ground that the word of a king of Germany sufficed. -Gregory made no complaint on this score until years afterwards, though -Henry resumed his royal character the moment he left Canossa.] - -[Footnote 234: Iv., 24.] - -[Footnote 235: Bk. ix.] - -[Footnote 236: It may be read in Migne, vol. cxlviii., col. 816. It -includes the imprecation on Henry, "May he gain no victory as long as -he lives," and again asserts that all honours and powers are at the -disposal of the Pope.] - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -INNOCENT III.: THE PAPAL ZENITH - - -That Papal policy or ideal of which we have traced the development in -the minds of the greater Popes attains its fullest expansion during the -Pontificate of Innocent III. Historians usually assign the year 1300 as -the date of the culmination of the Papal system, but it had in reality -attained its full stature under Innocent III. It did indeed make its -last impressive display of world-power under Boniface VIII., but there -had been no material contribution to its frame since the death of -Innocent, and the thirteenth century had fostered the growth of the -influences which were destined to undo it. In the fourteenth century -came the demoralizing residence in Avignon and the Great Schism: in -the fifteenth century the renaissance of culture and development of -civic life, which enfeebled the Popes and strengthened their subjects, -were completed: in the sixteenth century Luther and Calvin smote the -colossus. Innocent III. is the last great maker of the Papacy. - -The work of the eighteen Popes who occupied the throne between the -death of Gregory VII. and the election of Innocent might not ineptly -be described in a line: they sought, and failed, to wield the heavy -weapons of Hildebrand. In virtue of the falsified letters, canons, -charters, and chronicles which were now accepted throughout Europe, -they proclaimed that they had the disposal of earthly kingdoms no -less than of seats in heaven, and they thus brought on themselves -a century of strife in which only the stronger men could find much -time for strictly Pontifical duties. They were men of sober life and, -generally, high character, yet the very nature of their ideal involved -such struggles that the Papacy had to await a fortunate conjunction of -circumstances before the ideal could be realized. The conflict with -Henry IV. continued until, his two sons having been persuaded to rebel -against him and his second wife encouraged to besmirch his reputation, -before the assembled prelates of Christendom, with charges as foul as -they were feeble in evidence, he, in 1097, quitted Italy for ever. Then -Urban II., who was responsible for this gross travesty of spiritual -justice, cleared Rome by means of Norman swords and rallied Christendom -about him by a declaration of the First Crusade. But so tainted a -legacy of peace could not last. Henry V. proved more exacting than his -father, and another prolonged struggle absorbed the energy of the Popes -until the fifty years' war over investiture was settled by a compromise -at Worms in 1122.[237] - -Bernard of Clairvaux, rather than the successive Popes, was the -spiritual master of Europe in the comparative peace after Worms. -During nearly the whole of the second half of the twelfth century the -Papacy was distracted by the incessant revolts of the Romans. The -streets, even the churches, of Rome were stained with blood, year after -year, and the Popes repeatedly fled. The rise of Frederic Barbarossa -complicated the struggle, and the Popes had little opportunity to -exercise the powers they had won, without thinking of any extension of -their claims. At last, in 1198, the Papacy once more fell to a man of -commanding personality and was lifted to the zenith of its power. - -Lothario de'Conti di Segni was born about the year 1160. His father -was Count Trasimondo of Segni: his mother belonged to the noble -Roman family of the Scotti, which included several cardinals of the -anti-Imperialist school. After receiving an elementary education at -Rome, he was sent to Paris for theology, and to Bologna for law. The -scholastic movement was now stimulating Europe and creating great -schools; indeed Pope Alexander III. had, though not from cultural -motives, fostered the movement by favouring the activity of free -teachers. Profane letters were, however, still little cultivated. -Lothario took a degree in the liberal arts, but he was soon wholly -absorbed in theology and canon law; the correct and virile Latin of his -letters is very far from the classical models. Under the Pontificate of -his maternal uncle, Clement III., he returned to Rome a young man of -the most ascetic character and most finished ecclesiastical culture. -He was made a canon of St. Peter's, and, in his twenty-ninth year, a -cardinal of the Roman Church. - -The Pontificate of Clement ended, apparently, the long struggle of -the Popes and the Romans. The Roman nobles were as turbulent as ever, -but one finds a more respectable element of dissension in the city -at this time. The democratic ideas of that brilliant and too little -appreciated thinker, Arnold of Brescia, had taken root in Rome, and -a Republic, with a Senate of fifty-six members, had been established -in the Capitol. Hadrian IV. had blighted this premature experiment -by an interdict in 1155, but the struggle continued and the Popes -lived little in the capital until the year 1188. Clement, a courtly -and diplomatic Roman, made peace with his countrymen, and damped the -democratic ardour by a shower of gold and of ecclesiastical favours. -The Papacy resumed the government of the city, and the nominal power -of the Senate was allowed to pass into the hands of one man, "the -Senator." Clement died in 1190, and, as his successor, Celestine III., -was a member of the Orsini family, which was bitterly hostile to the -Scotti, there was no room in the Lateran for Lothario Conti. Nepotism -was now so far accepted in the Papal palace that we shall find Innocent -himself following the tradition. The leisure was fortunate in one -respect, as Lothario used it for the purpose of writing a book, _On -Contempt of the World_, which gives us a most interesting revelation -of his innermost thoughts at the time when he became Pope. The book -is a distillation of the extreme monastic views of the time; it is -full of fables, and it depicts man as the very vilest thing in a world -which was made solely for the disdain of the ascetic. It was from this -morbidly tinted sanctuary that Lothario Conti surveyed the life of his -time, which he was soon summoned to rule. In September, 1197, Henry -VI., who had duly incurred the imperial legacy of excommunication, died -and left his kingdom to his baby-boy Frederic: and on January 8, 1198, -Lothario Conti, in the prime of life and the most sombre stage of his -meditations, became Innocent III. - -Although he occupied the Papal throne only eighteen years, we have more -than five thousand letters, or parts of letters, dispatched by him to -all parts of Christendom: more than five hundred of them were written -in the first year of his Pontificate. Their range stretches from -Ireland and Scandinavia to Cairo and Armenia. In that vast territory -nothing of importance happened in which he did not intervene; and -there was hardly a prince or baron whom he did not excommunicate, or -any leading country which he did not place under interdict. His ideal -was that of Gregory VII.: the Papal States of Europe--he wanted to add -nearer Asia--trembling under the Roman rod. Writing to the Emperor of -Constantinople he elaborated his famous conception of earthly empire as -the moon, shining faintly by light borrowed from the spiritual power. -The Papal theory had reached its culmination, and we may proceed at -once to attempt to compress the portentous activity of Innocent III. -into a few compartments.[238] - -One naturally inquires first how this spiritual autocrat confronted -the democratic faction at Rome. At the outset he showed a little of -the accommodating temper which he always held in reserve behind his -profession of rigour. His attendants flung showers of coin on the -greedy people when he first passed between them, and, reluctantly, -and on the lowest known scale, he distributed the backsheesh with -which each incoming Pope had to win the smiles of every official in -the Palace and the city. There were murmurs, and they increased when -he proceeded to compel the Prefect (who was understood to represent -the Empire) and the Senator (who represented the Romans) to take -oaths of allegiance to himself. By this stroke he expelled the last -bit of reality out of the "free commune" of Rome, and cast off the -last trace of an imperial yoke. He abolished the Noble Guard and the -lay officials of the Palace: he deposed the judges appointed by the -Senator and appointed less corrupt men: he drove the money-changers -and merchants out of the Lateran courtyard, stamped on the parasites -who fed on foreign pilgrims, and drew up a strict tariff of fees for -the Papal services. He was by no means indifferent to money, as his -fighting policy demanded enormous sums. No Pope could be keener on -Peter's Pence, and no abbot or bishop dare approach him with a gift not -proportionate to his wealth. But it is almost superfluous to say that -he was a man of the most rigorous sentiment of justice, and, as long as -he lived, the more selfish kind of rapacity at Rome was repressed. - -The nobles who led the democratic party, chiefly Giovanni Pierleone -and Giovanni Capocci, looked with concern on his tendency and, when -he put a Papal governor over the Maremma and the Sabina, instead of -the one appointed by the Senate, they pressed the Romans to see that -their privileges were being stolen. In 1200 Innocent extricated himself -from a difficult situation. Vitorchiano was threatened by Viterbo -and declared itself a Papal fief. As Viterbo also was part of the -patrimony, and the Romans hated it, Innocent was perplexed. The Romans -took the field in spite of him, and won; but, as he happened to be -saying mass at the time of the victory, it was ingeniously ascribed -to his prayers. In the following year, however, there was more serious -trouble. Two small provincial nobles took possession of some estates -on the Campagna, and, when Innocent ordered them to restore, they said -that they held them of the democratic leaders, Pierleone and Capocci. -There was an outcry, but Innocent sent his troops to lay waste the -properties of the two nobles in the grimmest medićval manner, and, in -an eloquent speech at Rome, completely vanquished his critics. Then in -1202, during his customary summer absence, the feud of the Scotti and -the Orsini broke out with frightful violence, and in the following year -the antagonism to the Pope reached its height. - -Innocent had, for his own protection, greatly enriched his brother -Ricardo, and Ricardo had purchased the mortgages on the estates of one -of the democrats, Oddo Poli. As far as we can see, Ricardo acted with -legal correctness, but Rome was soon aroused by the sight of Poli and -his friends coming naked to church, as a symbol of the "spoliation," -and democratic rhetoric rose to white heat. There was a popular rising; -Ricardo's towering mansion was burned, and Innocent himself had to -fly to Ferentino (May, 1203). The Romans restored their Senate, and -swore to have no more of this Papal nepotism and despotism, but from -his retreat Innocent fostered the intestine quarrels of the victorious -people, and before long the city was in a state of murderous anarchy. -The two hundred mansions of its wealthier citizens were, and had been -for ages, real fortresses, and during the whole summer of 1203 their -castellated walls were lined with archers, and bands issued forth, -with all the engines of war, to assault and burn the fortress of some -neighbour. It still remains for some historian of the Papacy to -explain this chronic violence and vice in the centre of Christendom -during so many centuries. The trouble ended in the Pope resuming the -government of the city, and his rule was further disturbed only by one -of these popular revolts, in 1208. - -We do not fully appreciate the strength of Innocent unless we realize -how, while his eyes wandered over the globe, Rome itself demanded so -much attention. But he was not merely concerned with its misconduct. He -organized the work of charity in the city and did something to promote -its commerce. He built a foundling hospital, trusting to reduce the -infanticide which he found so common at Rome, and was very generous -to the churches and the clergy. From his time the Popes began to use -more and more the Palace beside St. Peter's, which he enlarged and -fortified, and he spent large sums in adorning other churches and -enhancing the splendour of the worship. But these and the other Roman -reforms I have mentioned are the mere incidents of his domestic life, -so to say. His work was the ruling of the world, and assuredly we -must recognize a mind of high quality and prodigious energy when we -read the volumes of letters that poured from the Lateran during those -eighteen years, and imagine the vast crowds that came from every part -of the world to do homage, to ask counsel, and to report the minutest -circumstances of their abbeys or bishoprics or principalities. - -Italy alone might have absorbed a weaker man during his earlier years. -Papal rule was acknowledged--in the manner we have seen--only in the -immediate neighbourhood of the city. Over the south and Sicily the -widow of Henry VI. ruled in the name of her child: in the north were -the leagues of free cities, and the isolated free cities, which had -won independence: and the whole country apart from these was falling -into the hands of the German generals whom Henry VI. had left there at -his death. Innocent, like all the Popes after Hadrian, believed in the -Donation of Constantine, to say nothing of the Donations of Pippin and -Charlemagne and Otto and Mathilda. Italy belonged almost entirely to -the Papacy, and must be recovered. Some historians hail Innocent as a -great apostle of the "Italia Una" ideal, and he sometimes presses on -particular towns "the interests of the whole of Italy." It is, however, -absurd to associate his feeling with the later ideal of Italian unity. -He cared for the unity of Italy only in the sense that the Pope was to -be its unique ruler. Those Germans--he scorns them--must be driven out. -Those free cities, always at war with each other, must be persuaded -that the Papal seal will be their best protection. Even that kingdom of -Naples and Sicily must somehow pass under Rome; in spite of the fact -that Innocent had solemnly accepted the guardianship of the young king. - -It is commonly said that the German generals in Italy, like Markwald -of Anweiler, were ferocious adventurers eager only to carve little -principalities for themselves out of the helpless country. This is -the partisan version left us by Innocent's anonymous biographer. They -were, with German troops, guarding the Empire for the successor of -Henry VI.; they acknowledged Philip of Swabia; and Innocent was at a -later date "warned" by an influential group of German prelates and -nobles not to interfere with them. But Innocent had several advantages. -Henry VI. had treated Italy with barbarity, and numbers of cities -threw off the German yoke when he died; on the other hand, Markwald -and his colleagues were under standing sentence of excommunication -for occupying Papal fiefs like Tuscany. Innocent began by sending men -and money to the revolted cities, and inviting them to put themselves -under Rome's sacred banner. He travelled through central Italy in 1198, -and received the allegiance of many towns. Markwald, the chief enemy, -was driven to the south, and Innocent pressed the southerners to rise -against him. - -Here the Pope had the familiar advantage of Papal policy--a woman on -the throne--and he made a use of it that cannot very well be defended. -Henry's Norman widow, Constance, was not unwilling to break her -connection with Germany, and she seems to have had little appreciation -of the political meaning of making Sicily a fief of the Roman See. She -was very ill and distracted, and no doubt felt that she was consulting -the interest of her son in putting him and the kingdom (of Sicily and -Naples) under Papal charge. She did indeed hesitate when Innocent -told her the price of his protection. Sicily was to sacrifice all the -privileges which William I. had wrung from the Papacy, to pay an annual -tribute to Rome, and to render feudal service whenever required.[239] -But Constance was forced to yield, and she died soon afterwards -(November 27, 1198), appointing Innocent the guardian of her son and -allotting him an annual fee of thirty thousand gold pieces. - -Innocent accepted the guardianship of Frederic, and historians comment -severely on his next step. In spite of all his fiery letters to the -southern clergy and people--even to the Saracens[240]--inciting them to -resist the Germans, Markwald made considerable progress. Then there -came to Rome a certain French adventurer named Walter de Brienne, who -had married a daughter of Tancred of Sicily. Tancred had, on resigning -Sicily, retained Lecce and Tarentum, and Walter claimed these as his -wife's inheritance. Whether or no Innocent had actually promoted -the marriage and invited Walter to Italy[241] we cannot confidently -say, but it was assuredly dangerous to let such a man get a footing -in southern Italy; it was probable enough that he would eventually -claim the whole kingdom taken from Tancred. However Innocent blessed -and financed his enterprise, on the formal condition that he would -respect the rights of Frederic, and soon had a French troop waging more -effective war upon the Germans. The struggle ceased with the death of -Markwald in 1202, and of Walter in 1205, and Innocent then pressed a -design of marrying the young Frederic to Constanza of Aragon. For the -time Frederic's rights were respected, but there can be no doubt that -these early years spent amidst intrigue and treachery contributed to -the development of his anti-clerical spirit. - -There was, in fact, a good deal of anti-clericalism growing in Italy. -The development of civic and communal life and the comparative -enlightenment which was spreading turned many critical eyes on the -Roman system. Heresy descended the Alps and found favour in the free -cities; even, at times, in Papal cities. I have described how Viterbo -was crushed by the Roman troops. Innocent intervened in its favour, -after its defeat, and he was then outraged to learn that Viterbo was, -like many other cities, appointing heretics (the Cathari) to high -places. He spent the summer of 1207 in Viterbo, and enforced very -stringent rules for the repression of heresy. These laws were extended -to all the Papal dominions, but we shall see the Pope's attitude -more clearly when we deal with the crusade against the Albigensians. -Innocent was not less emphatic in denouncing the incessant wars of -the rival cities, and his correspondence is largely occupied with his -endeavours to secure their feudal allegiance to Rome. - -A graver problem, in the solution of which his character is often -obscured, was presented by the struggle of Ghibellines (or followers -of Philip of Swabia) and Guelphs (supporters of Otto of Brunswick) -for the imperial crown. Frederic, the son and heir of Henry, being -still a boy of tender years, his uncle Duke Philip of Swabia desired -to keep the crown securely in the Hohenstauffen family by wearing it -himself. Otto of Brunswick also made a fantastic claim to it, got -himself proclaimed Emperor at Cologne in 1198, and sought the support -of the Pope. Innocent undoubtedly favoured from the start the baseless -claim of Otto. The Papacy had come to regard the Hohenstauffens -almost as hereditary foes, and Philip actually lay under sentence of -excommunication for holding the territory bequeathed by Mathilda to the -Papacy; while Otto flattered the Pope by professions of loyalty and -docility. But Philip had the better prospect, if there was an appeal -to the sword, and Innocent refused for some years to commit himself. -He summoned Philip to surrender the Italian prisoners and the Papal -provinces taken by Henry, and sent the Bishop of Sutri to absolve him -if he complied. To his extreme annoyance the not very clear-headed -Bishop gave Philip an unconditional absolution--for which Innocent -promptly imprisoned the Bishop for life in a monastery--and thus -surrendered the Pope's chance of profiting by the situation. - -The rivals appealed to the sword, and Innocent bitterly complained that -Philip did not ask his arbitration.[242] He alone, he declared to the -princes and prelates of Germany, was the judge of such high causes: -to which the princes and prelates replied, in very firm and dignified -language, that they would have no Papal interference in the secular -concerns of Germany.[243] As the war proceeded, Innocent made it clear -that he favoured Otto. He warned the German prelates not to choose -an Emperor on whom he could not bestow the crown, and in a letter to -the Eastern Emperor he afterwards boasted that he alone kept Philip -from the throne. But the war went in favour of Philip, and even when, -in 1200, both men sent representatives to Rome, Innocent would not -commit himself to more than an eloquent proof that priests were exalted -above kings.[244] At the beginning of the following year, however, he -declared openly for Otto. He sent Cardinal Pierleone to Germany with -the Bull _Interest Apostolicć Sedis_, in which he drew up a violent -and unjust indictment of Philip and awarded the crown to the loyal -and virtuous Otto. The Bull is painfully casuistic, and would have -been better if it had stopped at the bold declaration that the Papacy -had created the Empire and could bestow it according to its pleasure. -While, for instance, it charges Philip with treachery to the interests -of his young nephew, it exonerates all others from the oath of fidelity -to Henry's son on the ground that an oath to an unbaptized infant was -invalid.[245] The imperial crown was, in plain terms, allotted in the -interests of the Church, in defiance of the wishes of the majority of -the German nation. Otto hastened to swear that he would defend the -Papal possessions (including Sicily), and was proclaimed by a Papal -Legate in Cologne cathedral on July 3, 1201. - -Innocent now sent out a flood of letters on behalf of his candidate, -but the result was irritating. Philip of France roughly refused to -recognize Otto; and a letter signed by two German archbishops, ten -bishops, and other clerics and nobles, sternly rebuked the Pope for -his "audacity" in meddling with things which did not concern him.[246] -Innocent's Legates vainly scattered threats of excommunication in -Germany. Hardly a single prelate recognized Otto, and, after seven -years of the most brutal civil warfare, he was driven out of the -country. We are not impressed by the Pope's feverish protests that he -was not responsible for this desolation. In 1208, however, Philip, who -had been reconciled with Rome in the previous year, was assassinated, -and Otto, with Innocent's approval, mounted the throne. To the intense -indignation of the Pope, the new Emperor at once cast his oaths of -fidelity to the wind and told Innocent to confine himself to spiritual -matters. He annexed Tuscany and Spoleto, in spite of all the Pope's -entreaties and threats, and was about to march against Naples and -Apulia when Innocent launched against him a sentence of excommunication -and deposition. Otto was, for the time, an excellent ruler: he had -been educated in the English ideas of government. But he had refused -to be subservient to the clergy, and the German prelates now summoned -Frederic from Sicily. Innocent approved the election of Frederic as -easily as he had approved that of Philip and of Otto, but he did not -live to see how that Emperor in turn defied the Papacy and scorned its -political pretensions.[247] - -Next in interest and importance were Innocent's relations with -England. With Richard the Lion-Heart the Pope maintained a friendly -correspondence, nor did he annoy the English prelates by any -inconvenient censure of the condition of the English Church. In 1199 -John Lackland succeeded his brother, and Innocent was even more -indulgent to that barbarous and unscrupulous monarch. Into the death -of Prince Arthur he made no indiscreet inquiry; he confirmed the -dissolution of John's marriage, and, for his shameful theft of the love -of the betrothed of the Count de la Marche, imposed on him only the -light and useful penance of a general confession and the equipment of a -hundred knights for Palestinian service. During the war which followed -he made earnest efforts to mediate, though even these were at times -marred by his temporizing policy and his determination not to alienate -the kings. When the bishops of Normandy, after the capture of that -province by Philip, asked him how they were to adjust their allegiance, -he weakly replied that Philip seemed to rely on some claim which he -could not understand and they must judge for themselves.[248] At length -a famous quarrel about the archbishopric of Canterbury drew him into a -stern and triumphant conflict with John. - -The Archbishop, a worldly-minded courtier of the familiar type, died in -1205, and the Canterbury monks, who claimed the right of nomination, -met hastily, by night, without awaiting the royal license to proceed to -an election, and nominated their sub-prior Reginald. They sent Reginald -at once to Rome, enjoining on him the strictest secrecy until he was -consecrated, but the monk made a parade of his high condition as soon -as he reached the continent and there was great indignation in England. -The Chapter, which disputed the arrogant claim of the monks, elected -the Bishop of Norwich, and many of the monks, alarmed at their action -or disgusted with their sub-prior, joined in the election. Sixteen -monks accompanied the second deputation to Rome, and they supported the -declaration of the Court and the Church that Reginald's election was -invalid. As, however, the Bishop of Norwich was one of the indulgent -prelates, Innocent casuistically annulled both elections and imposed -Stephen Langton on the English. John furiously protested that the Pope -had insulted his state and threatened to withdraw the English Church -from his jurisdiction; shrewdly reminding the Pope that he received -more money from England than from any other country. - -John seems to have misunderstood the earlier complaisance of the Pope. -Innocent was not the man to yield to a threat of financial loss, and -he at once consecrated Langton and laid England under an interdict. -For some years the affrighted people saw the doors of their churches -closed against them and imagined the jaws of a medićval hell gaping -wide for their souls. There was no Christian marriage for their sons -and daughters, no Christian burial for their aged; and only to dying -persons could the consoling sacrament be administered. In his fury -John drove priests and prelates out of his kingdom, but his cruel -and extortionate government had lost him the compensating strength -of the affection of his people. In 1211 he was forced to seek terms, -and a Papal Legate reached England. Between the arrogance of Legate -Pandolpho and the passion of the King the negotiation failed, and -John was deposed by the Pope. England, Rome repeated, had been a fief -of the Apostolic See since William the Conqueror; it was now open to -any Christian monarch to invade and possess it. This was a direct -invitation to Philip of France to renew those horrors of warfare -which Innocent had so eloquently denounced,[249] and, to the intense -mortification of the French King, John abjectly submitted (1213). He -even handed to the proud Legate a solemn declaration that England -and Ireland were fiefs of the Apostolic See, and that he would pay -a thousand marks a year for vassalage. The clergy were recalled and -compensated, the interdict was raised, and Legate Pandolpho stalked the -land with the insufferable air of a conqueror. - -If, however, this conflict gives an honourable prominence to the -sterner qualities of Innocent, its sequel no less illustrates the -weakness which seemed inseparable from the Papal policy, even when it -was embodied in a lofty character. Pandolpho behaved so wantonly in -resettling the clergy that he presently fell foul of the high-minded -Langton: John behaved with a ferocity which drove nobles and commoners -to the step of rebellion. Yet Innocent maintained his mischievous -Legate against Langton, and laid a Papal malediction on the just -aspirations of the people. He rebuked the barons for their "nefarious -presumption" in taking arms against a vassal of the Roman See; he -denounced Magna Charta as a devil-inspired document, and forbade "his -vassal" to accede to its unjust demands. He excommunicated the barons -when they refused to lay down their arms, and suspended Langton when -that prelate refused, on the ground that it was dictated by false -representations, to promulgate his sentence. When the barons offered -the crown to Louis, son of Philip of France, he issued an anathema -against Louis; and in 1216 he issued a sentence of excommunication -against Philip himself for encouraging his son. He died before his -sombre use of his spiritual weapons, in a carnal cause, was completed. -He had, within ten years, raised Papal power in England to its supreme -height and then dealt it a blow from which it would never recover. It -is futile to plead that he was ill informed on the situation. He knew -John, and he knew Langton; he ought to have known Pandolpho. In point -of fact, there is no reason to think that he was radically misinformed. -His whole action is plainly inspired by the interest, as he conceived -it, of the Papacy.[250] - -I must dismiss very briefly his relations with other Christian -countries. Philip of France had, like John of England, discarded his -wife and married a woman he loved. But the Papal microscope refused, -in his case, to discover the remote affinity which, Philip said, made -his first marriage void, and an interdict was laid on his kingdom. The -terrified priests and people tore Philip from the arms of Agnes de -Meran, the mother of three of his children, and forced him to submit. -Only under the later pressure of his conflicts with Otto and John did -Innocent discover that there was sufficient _prima facie_ evidence -to spend several years in negotiation about a divorce, and, by an -extraordinary use of his high powers, he declared the children of Agnes -legitimate. - -In Spain and Portugal, Innocent found irregular marriages almost as -numerous as regular, and his interventions show the same unedifying -mixture of priestly rigour and political compromise. Sacerdotal -legislation had by this time surrounded marriage with a portentous -series of obstacles--forbidden degrees of spiritual and carnal -affinity--which sacerdotal power alone could remove, yet the isolated -princes of the Peninsula were compelled to marry constantly into each -other's families and did not always ask the costly blessing of the -Papacy. That this legislation did not improve the sex-morals of Europe, -which were at least no better than they had been in pagan times, is -well known. Spain was particularly lax, having contracted the gaiety of -neighbouring Provence, and her kings may have felt that where unwedded -love was so genially tolerated, these academic restraints on wedded -love might be disregarded. - -Innocent placed the kingdoms of Leon and Castile under an interdict -because the King of Leon had married his cousin, Berengaria of Castile, -and, when the court of Leon ignored his censures, he predicted that -there would be a horrible issue of the unhallowed union. Its first -fruit was St. Ferdinand; but Berengaria nervously retired after a -few years and left the King to bear his excommunication with Spanish -dignity. The King of Castile soon obtained the removal of the -interdict, on the ground that it favoured the growth of heresy, but -he was then threatened with excommunication because he permitted the -Jews to become rich while the Church was poor. Pedro of Aragon was more -fortunate. In the course of a journey to Rome he married the wife of -the Count de Comminges, and the Pope at once accepted her assurance -that the Count had two wives living when he married her, and blessed -the union. Pedro, it should be added, swore fealty and an annual -subsidy of two hundred gold pieces to the Pope. The King of Navarre -incurred an interdict for allying himself with the Moors. All that one -can seriously put to the credit of Innocent is that he greatly aided -the unification of Spain by spurring its kings to a common crusade -against the Moors; if we may assume that the crusade favoured the -progress of civilization in the country. Sancho of Portugal also felt, -and disdained, the touch of the Papal whip. When Innocent complained of -his oppression of the clergy, he threatened--in a letter which Innocent -describes as the most insolent ever written to a Pope--to strip his -corrupt priests of all their wealth. Innocent at once temporized, but a -dangerous illness and fit of repentance soon put Sancho and the kingdom -of Portugal at his feet. At his death Sancho left the kingdom wholly -subject to Rome and the clergy, though it was not many years before the -quarrels of his children again drew upon it the spiritual blight of an -interdict. - -It would be tedious to describe in detail all the similar interventions -of the Pope in other countries. He refused to let Marie of Brabant -marry the Emperor Otto, and refused to dissolve the marriage of the -King of Bohemia; indeed, he sternly rebuked the King of Bohemia for -receiving his crown at the hands of Philip of Swabia. In Hungary he -scolded Prince Endre for rebelling against his brother, and he raised -Bulgaria to the rank of a kingdom, on condition that it recognized -Roman supremacy. He claimed, in a word, to be the king of kings, the -temporal as well as religious master of Europe. But we shall more -clearly appreciate the qualities of his character and shades of his -standard of action if we examine more fully his connection with the -Fourth Crusade and the crusade against heresy. - -Tripoli, Antioch, and a few small Palestinian towns were all that -remained of the European conquests from the Saracen, and Innocent's -constant correspondence with the Christian prelates who lingered in the -East made him eager, from the beginning of his Pontificate, to inspire -Europe to make one more grand attempt to rescue the holy places. For -several years he sought, by letters and Legates, to fire the Christian -princes, to divert the swords of France and England to the breast of -the Mohammedan, and to melt the cold calculations of Venice. But the -memory of the last colossal failure--of all the blood and treasure -that had been expended on the stubborn task--was too fresh in Europe. -In vain he promised, to all who took the cross, a sure entry into -Paradise, and hinted not obscurely at the damnation which awaited -those who refused. Thin bands of zealots responded to the call, and a -larger multitude were induced to take the cross by Innocent's princely -declaration that the earthly debts of all who joined the Crusade would -be cancelled, and the Jews would be forced to forswear their legitimate -interest. The knights of Europe, to his fiery indignation, still wasted -their spears on each other, or continued the more pleasant pastimes of -the chase and the tournament. Innocent, in a flood of eloquent letters, -taxed the clergy, confiscated the funds of erratic monks, and forbade -the lay nobles to wear costly furs or eat costly dinners or indulge in -tournaments. There were murmurs that the Christians of the East needed -no aid, since they were on excellent terms with the Saracens, as the -Pope was painfully aware; and that the only sure effect of Crusades -was to increase the power and the wealth of the Papacy which organized -them. Even the clergy and the monks refused the subsidies he demanded, -and he was compelled to sanction a practice which would in time prove -the most terrible and destructive abuse of the medićval Papacy: the -penance imposed on confessing sinners was to take the form of a -money-contribution. To this day the indulgences which are sold in Spain -trace their origin to the Crusades, as the printed _bula_ declares. - -At length, in the year 1200, Baldwin of Flanders and a few bishops and -nobles formed the nucleus of a Crusade, and the astute Venetians were -invited to provide for the transport of an army. In the spring of 1202 -the streams of soldiers and priests converged upon Venice, and an army -of 23,000 assembled for the fourth assault on the Saracens. But the -Pope's joy was soon overcast, and the Crusade proved to be the second -most lamentable occurrence of his Pontificate. - -When the army assembled near Venice, it was discovered that neither -the soldiers nor the Pope had money enough to pay their passage to -the East. Venice had by that time fully developed its hard commercial -spirit, and its famous blind Doge proposed to remit the debt if -the Crusaders would, on their way, retake Zara (in Dalmatia) from -the Hungarians for the Venetians. Innocent made the most violent -opposition, but the Venetians, disdaining his threats, compelled the -impoverished soldiers to consent, and on October 8th they set sail, -under threat of excommunication, to begin their Crusade by the shedding -of Christian blood. They took Zara, and incurred excommunication; but -Innocent could not reconcile himself to the complete failure of his -grand plan. He withdrew the censures they had so flagrantly defied, and -admitted, or stated, that they had acted under "a sort of necessity." -They were to make some vague "satisfaction" for their misdeed, and -push on, with clean souls, to the East. The Venetians alone were -not relieved of the censure, but, though knights of a more tender -conscience were painfully perplexed to find themselves in the same -galleys with excommunicated men, the Venetians showed no concern. They -had another check in reserve for the Pope. - -Before they left Italy, Alexis Comnenus had arrived from Constantinople -to ask their aid in restoring his father to the throne he had just -lost, and they were disposed to assist him. One could not, of course, -expect the Pope to show the same concern for the blood of schismatics -as for the blood of the Hungarians, yet his consent to this fatal and -lamentable enterprise is a stain on his record. The sordid squabble of -the Comneni family did not deserve the sacrifice of a single knight, -and the part of Isaac Comnenus was espoused by the Crusaders and the -Pope only because the young Alexis promised money and provisions to the -troops and the subjection of the Greek Church to the Lateran. The issue -is well known. The Crusaders took Constantinople, sacked the city, and -desecrated the churches with a brutality that must have shocked the -Saracens; and they then settled down to divide its territory between -themselves and the Venetians. The letters which Innocent sent, as -the successive news arrived, are painful reading. He must blame their -excesses, he says at first, but, after all, these outrages had been -merited by the sins of the Greeks; let the Crusaders inform him that -the submission of the Greek Church has been secured. At last they send -him, for his confirmation, a treaty from which he learns that they -have arranged all the affairs, spiritual as well as secular, of the -new Empire without consulting him, and he writes more warmly. To the -outrage they have committed he is still almost insensible; it is their -audacity in ruling the new Church--in permitting the hated Venetians to -select a Patriarch--which excites his anger. - -The last phase of the enterprise caused him grave distress. Instead of -proceeding to the East, the Latins set up an Empire and several petty -princedoms, and the Greeks disdainfully watched their quarrels and -awaited their own opportunity. Monks and priests were summoned from -France, but the people were secretly wedded to their old religion and -the new Church was a hollow sham. For years Innocent had to maintain -a fretful correspondence, settling quarrels about jurisdiction -and property, and scolding his Crusaders for their oppression and -spoliation of the clergy. But it is needless to recount all the details -of that historic failure. The weariness of Innocent may be appreciated -from the fact that in 1213 he naďvely wrote to the Khalipha himself, -beseeching him "in all humility" to restore to the Christians the land -which they had not the courage or the interest to win by the sword. - -The crusade against the Albigensians was more successful, and even -more lamentable, and I need do no more here than elucidate Innocent's -relation to that monstrous crime. The degradation of morals and of -religious practice, the corruption of the clergy, and the stupendous -claims of the Papacy, had already provoked in Europe the beginnings -of protest. A somewhat modified form of Christianity's old rival, -Manichćism, had lingered in the East and had in time mingled with the -austere Christianity of the Pauline Epistles. From the Eastern Empire -it had spread to Bulgaria, and from there, in the thirteenth century, -it passed rapidly over Europe, assimilating all the anti-clerical and -anti-ritualist feeling which the corruption of the time inspired. In -one or other form it obtained considerable strength in Switzerland, -Piedmont, and the south of France, and it was fast gathering recruits -in Italy and Spain. The light-living princes of Languedoc had little -inclination to persecute; nor would they think that, if one might -sing ribald contempt of the ecclesiastical system in the tavern and -the monastery, this disdain was less respectable in the mouths of a -generally sincere and upright body of fanatics. - -In the first year of his Pontificate Innocent sent two Cistercian -monks, Guy and Renier, to convert the heretics and incite the civil -and religious authorities to enforce the law. Of corporal persecution -he assuredly did not dream at that time, and indeed his letters made -it clear that he preferred persuasion to coercion of any kind. The -monks failed either to convert the heretics or to induce the bishops -and princes of the south of France to persecute (by confiscation and -exile), and they were replaced by the more vigorous monk-legates, -Pierre de Castelnau and Raoul, to whom the resolute Abbot Arnold of -Citeaux was afterwards added. Their powers set aside all ordinary -episcopal jurisdiction, and, in pursuance of their policy of displacing -lax and reluctant prelates, they put the fanatical Foulques of -Marseilles in the bishopric of Toulouse. For eight years these -energetic apostles worked almost in vain among the heretics. Apparently -at the suggestion of St. Dominic, who was just entering the history of -Europe, the Pope directed them to raise a corps of Cistercian monks who -should live and preach on the model of the coming mendicant friars, -but even this device made little impression on the heretics or the -light-living Catholics. Arnold and Foulques, in particular, became -desperate, and the lamentable policy of persecution began to grow in -their minds and that of the Pope. - -The principle of persecution had, as we saw, been established in the -Lateran centuries before, and the only thing that restrained Innocent -from applying it, in its bloodless form, was the refusal of the secular -rulers to co-operate. Raymond of Toulouse was too healthily Epicurean -to favour either the sombre creed of the heretics or the more sombre -creed of the persecutor. Apologetic writers speak with horror of the -number of his wives and fair friends, but we do not find that his -conduct in this regard, or the similar conduct of other princes and -prelates, attracted the attention of the Pope. When, however, he -slighted a sentence of excommunication and still refused to persecute -his excellent but unorthodox subjects, he received a withering -letter.[251] "Who does he think he is?" the Pope asks scornfully, -to disobey one before whom the greatest monarchs of the earth bow. -Let him cease to "feed on corpses like a vulture"--to break a lance -with his neighbours--and obey the Legates, or the Pope will invite a -more powerful prince to displace him. As early as November 17, 1207, -Innocent bade the King of France, the Duke of Burgundy, and other -nobles, prepare for an expedition to Toulouse; and the privileges of -Crusaders were promised to all who joined it. - -Raymond was more moved by the political threat than by the spiritual -censures, but there was sullen anger amongst his followers, and on -January 15, 1208, the Legate Pierre de Castelnau was assassinated. -There is not a tittle of evidence to incriminate Raymond, and it is in -the highest degree improbable that he would thus open the gates to his -greedy neighbours, but Innocent chose to believe that he had directed -the murder. Without trial, he declared that Raymond had forfeited the -allegiance of his subjects, and his dominions might be seized by any -Christian prince. He spurred Philip of France--who must have been -flattered to find himself now described as "exalted amongst all others -by God"--to the attack.[252] He addressed a fiery summons to "all -the nobles and people of France" to "avenge this terrible insult to -God."[253] Philip wanted Toulouse, but he overreached himself in making -terms and he dreaded England. There were, however, plenty of nobles -willing to lead their men to the plunder of prosperous Provence, and -the clergy had become seriously alarmed at the spread of the heresy in -France. A vast army, joyous at the rich prospect of loot, converged -upon the southern State. Innocent III. knew better than we know the -forces he had set in motion. The end sanctified the means. - -The next phase was pitiful: the issue is one of the most horrible pages -of medićval history. Raymond sent representatives to Rome to offer -submission, and the Pope and his Legates were embarrassed and behaved -abominably. When Raymond justly complained of the bitterness of Arnold -of Citeaux, the Pope sent a peaceful notary from the Lateran; giving -the man secret instructions to take no step without the directions -of Arnold, who was to be in the background, and writing to Arnold -that this Legate Milo is to be only "the bait to conceal the hook of -thy sagacity." Arnold, meanwhile, went to organize the crusade, for -they intended to impose on Raymond terms which seemed impossible. The -helpless Raymond licked the dust: he was stripped and scourged, he had -to surrender seven of his chief castles as hostages, and he was forced -to promise to lead the troops against his own subjects. Innocent sank -deeper into his awful policy. In an amazing letter to his Legates[254] -he reminded them of the words of Paul (II. Corinthians, xii., 16); -"Being crafty, I caught you with guile." They were to affect to regard -the repentance of Raymond as sincere, and, "deceiving him by prudent -dissimulation, pass to the extirpation of the other heretics." In -other words, they were to crush Raymond's chief nobles and then, if -he winced, crush him. Raymond did not wince, yet the army, with Abbot -Arnold as Captain General, moved southward to that historic butchery of -the Albigensians. - -The modern plea that Innocent could not arrest the avalanche is as -wanton as the idea that he was moved by "social considerations." A -sentence of excommunication, promulgated by Arnold of Citeaux, would -have reduced the army to impotent proportions. Innocent would not -disappoint Arnold and Foulques, and those who had responded to his -summons; and he felt more sure of success this way. After the first two -months of butchery and seizure of cities, he sent his blessing to the -ambitious de Montfort. He was, however, superior to his Legates. The -ferocious Arnold made every effort to goad Raymond to rebellion, and at -last excommunicated him again on the plea that he had not fulfilled his -promises. Innocent tried--rather tamely--to restrain Arnold, refused to -confiscate Raymond's castles (as Arnold demanded) until he had a just -trial, and received him courteously at Rome. At last, utterly revolted -by the baseness of the Legates, Raymond winced. He was denounced to -Rome, was confronted with terms which no man with a spark of honour -could accept, and, when he refused, was excommunicated: the Pope -confirming the sentence. Raymond's dominions were transferred to "the -Blessed Peter," and de Montfort was to levy an annual tax--on which -Innocent is painfully insistent--for the Papacy. - -Two years butchery of men, women, and children had not yet broken the -spirit of the Albigensians, and at the beginning of 1213, the Legates -and Simon were dismayed to hear from Innocent that the crusade was -over, and the troops had better proceed against the Saracens; that -Raymond had not yet been legally convicted of heresy and murder, and -had not therefore forfeited his fief; that, in any case, Raymond's -sons, rather than Simon de Montfort, were his natural successors. Two -Bulls (January 17 and 18, 1213) and four letters in quick succession -apprised the miserable group that Innocent--largely owing to the -intervention of Pedro of Aragon--at length appreciated their misconduct -or had the courage to consult his better feelings. Unhappily, his -courage did not last long. They stormed Rome with their remonstrances, -and Innocent yielded. As, moreover, the King of Aragon failed in -his attempt to reduce them by arms, the cause of Raymond was utterly -lost and his territory was made over to Rome. To the end Innocent -wavered between his more humane feeling and the policy he had so -long countenanced. He refused to confirm the appointment of Simon as -sovereign (under Rome) of the whole territory, and when Arnold (who was -now Archbishop of Narbonne) quarrelled with Simon over the title of -Duke of Narbonne, he supported Arnold. At the Lateran Council, which -was to decide the issue, he made a plea for leniency to Raymond and -justice to his heirs, but he yielded to the truculent priests, and the -unhappy prince was cast aside with an annual pension of four hundred -marks. Innocent did not live to see the arrogant Arnold excommunicate -de Montfort, and the two Raymonds return and win back much of their -estate. - -_Causa causć est causa causati_, the schoolmen used to say. The Pope -who maintained Arnold of Citeaux, Foulques of Marseilles, and Simon de -Montfort in their positions when their characters were fully revealed, -and the whole of Europe knew the atrocities they committed, bears the -guilt of the massacre of the Albigensians. - -The fourth Lateran Council was his last work, and one of the most -important Councils of the Middle Ages. He summoned all the bishops, -abbots, and priors of Christendom to come, on November 1, 1215, to -discuss the reform of the Church, the suppression of heresy, and the -recovery of Palestine. A vast audience listened to his opening sermon -on November 11th, and for nineteen days they framed laws against -heretics, Jews, and schismatics: vainly thundered against the vice, -sensuality, and rapacity of the clergy: reduced the forbidden degrees -of kindred (in marriage) to four--since there were only four humours in -the body: imposed on all Christians a duty of confessing at least once -a year: and fixed the next Crusade for June 1, 1216. But Innocent, if -he marked with pride the contrast of that gorgeous assemblage to the -little group of Christians who had met in an inn in the Transtiberina -a thousand years earlier, cannot have been content. Not a single -Greek had responded to his summons: grave murmurs at his hard policy -and despotic action arose in the Council itself: half the prelates, -at least, were unfit to impose reforming measures on their priests: -and the ghastly mockery of his last Crusade gave little hope for the -future. He did not even appreciate the new forces for good which were -rising. He had coldly received, if not actually discouraged, Dominic -and Francis. His ideal was power: of love he knew nothing. He flung -himself ardently into the preparation for the new war on the Saracens, -and died, on June 16, 1216, with the call to arms on his lips. He -sacrificed himself nobly in the interest of his high ideal, and was one -of the greatest makers of the Papacy, but he sacrificed also much that -men inalienably prize, and he began the unmaking of the Papacy. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 237: The clergy were to be free to elect their bishop, -though in Germany the election had to take place in the presence of -the Emperor or his representatives; this was a virtual retention of -the imperial veto. Investiture with ring and crozier was replaced by a -touch with the royal sceptre.] - -[Footnote 238: Fortunately, his work is little complicated by dispute, -since his letters are so abundant. There is a contemporary life or -panegyric (_Gesta Innocentii Tertii_), but it must be read with -caution. Of modern biographies the great work of Achille Luchaire (6 -vols., 1904-8) has superseded all others; though, as it scarcely ever -indicates its authorities, the less discriminating work of Hurter -is still useful. In English there is a good, but rather affected, -sketch by C.H.C. Pirie-Gordon, _Innocent the Great_ (1907). Milman is -particularly good on Innocent III.] - -[Footnote 239: _Ep._, i., 410.] - -[Footnote 240: ii., 226.] - -[Footnote 241: This is affirmed in the contemporary _Chronique d'Ernoul -et de Bernard le Trésorier_, ch. xxx.] - -[Footnote 242: _Ep._, ii., in the Register, "On the Affairs of the -Empire": Migne, col. ccxvi.] - -[Footnote 243: _Ep._, xiv.] - -[Footnote 244: Xviii.] - -[Footnote 245: The _Deliberatio_, or essential part of the Bull, is -given in Migne's "Register of Imperial Concerns," no. xxix. See also -the decretal _Venerabilem Fratrem_, no. lxii.] - -[Footnote 246: Lxi.] - -[Footnote 247: See R. Schwemer, _Innocenz III. und die Deutsche Kirche -während des Thronstreites von 1198-1208_ (1882), and E. Englemann, -_Phillip von Schwaben und Innocenz III._ (1896).] - -[Footnote 248: _Ep._, viii., 7.] - -[Footnote 249: _Ep._, vi., 163.] - -[Footnote 250: See E. Gütschow, _Innocenz III. und England_ (1904).] - -[Footnote 251: X., 69.] - -[Footnote 252: Xi., 28.] - -[Footnote 253: Xi., 29.] - -[Footnote 254: Xi., 232.] - - - - -CHAPTER X - -JOHN XXII.: THE COURT AT AVIGNON - - -In maintaining that the power of the Papacy waned after the Pontificate -of Innocent III., I do not mean that there was such visible decay as -even the most acute contemporary observer might have detected. The -thirteenth century must have seemed to the statesmen of the time to -strengthen the Papacy. The Dominican and Franciscan friars, quickly -recognized by Innocent's successors, impressed on Europe the duty of -implicit obedience. The great canonists began to make an imposing -body of law out of the decrees of the Popes. Art developed in close -association with religious sentiment. The hereditary feud with the -Hohenstauffens ended, fifty years after the death of Innocent, with -the complete overthrow of the son and grandson of Frederic II. Yet -most historians now recognize that the thirteenth century was, for the -Papacy, a period of slow and subtle decay. The mighty struggle with -Frederic, Manfred, and Conradin exhausted the high-minded, but not -heroic, successors of Innocent, and it ended only when, by summoning -Philip of Anjou, they substituted French for German predominance and -inaugurated another exacting period of conflict. The alternative was a -period of comparative impotence and flabby parasitism. Into this the -Papacy passed; and, unfortunately for it, the degeneration occurred -just when the eyes of Europe were growing sharper. It was the date of -the early renaissance of culture, inspired by the Moors: it was a rich -period of civic development and prosperity: it was the time when castes -of keen-eyed lay lawyers and scholars were growing. Arms were yielding -to togas in the work of restricting the growth of the Papacy. - -Boniface VIII. (1294-1303) is the last great representative of the -Papal ideal in its earlier and more austere medićval form. His Bull -_Clericis laicos_ (1296) which declared all clerical and monastic -property in the world to be under his protection and sternly bade -secular rulers respect it, was one of the last Olympic fulminations; -and it was defeated by England and France. Then, in 1300, he declared -the Jubilee; and some historians see in that prostration of Christendom -at the feet of the Papacy the last notable expression of its -world-power. Men said at the time--I am not pressing it as fact--that -Boniface was so exalted by the spectacle that he put on the imperial -crown and sandals. No one questions that the Papacy decayed from that -year. Under the banner of Papal absolutism Boniface made war on the -great Ghibelline family of the Colonnas, and on Philip the Fair and his -lawyers, and he ignominiously fell. The blameless and gentle Dominican, -Benedict XI., who succeeded him, could not sustain for more than a -few months the struggle he had inherited, and the Gascon Clement V. -then inaugurated what has been too forcibly called "the Babylonian -Captivity." - -After a secret compact with Philip, after a complete sacrifice of -his ideals, and after the distribution of much French gold among -the cardinals, he obtained the tiara (1305). In 1309 he settled at -Avignon, basely surrendered the Templars (after an appalling travesty -of justice) to the cupidity of the King, and settled down, in the -company of his sister and niece and dear friend the Countess of -Talleyrand-Périgord, to a life of sensuous luxury and the accumulation -of wealth. He died on March 12, 1314, leaving 1,078,800 florins (about -Ł500,000) nearly the whole of which went to his family and friends, and -the cardinals gathered anxiously to choose his successor. - -Clement had died near Carpentras, about fifteen miles from Avignon, and -the cardinals met in the episcopal palace of that town. The austere -Gregory X. had decreed in 1274 that the cardinal electors should be -walled into their chamber (or Conclave) until they had chosen a Pope, -and the twenty-three princes of the Church prepared for a desperate -encounter in their isolated quarters. There were six Italians, eager to -tell a pitiful story of the ruin of Rome and the patrimonies because of -the absence of the Pope from Italy. But there were nine Gascons--three -of them nephews of Clement, all creatures of Clement--and, as two -of the eight French cardinals supported the Gascons, they made a -formidable majority and demanded an Avignon Pope: in fact, a Gascon -Pope. Day followed day in angry discussion, and the cries of the -infuriated followers of the Gascon cardinals without grew louder and -louder. At last, on July 23d, there came a thundering on the doors, and -the terrified cardinals, breaking through the wall, fled from the town -and dispersed. For two years, to the grave scandal of Christendom, they -refused to agree on a place of meeting, until at last Philip of Valois -enticed them to Lyons, entrapped them into a monastery, and told them -that they were prisoners until they made a Pope. - -Under these auspices Jacques de Cahors, Cardinal of Porto, became John -XXII. He was a little, dry, bilious old man of seventy-two: but an able -lawyer and administrator, and a man of wonderful vigour for his age. -In his case the more careful research of modern times and the opening -of the Vatican Archives have tended to give him, in some respects, a -more honourable position in history than he had hitherto occupied. The -reader will hardly find him morally and spiritually attractive, but he -had a remarkable and powerful personality, and he achieved more than -has been supposed. His "Register" in the Vatican Archives contains -65,000 letters. Most of these are very brief notes written by the Papal -clerks, but there are many of interest and they enable us at times to -correct the anecdotists of his age. He had virulent enemies, and they -must be read with reserve.[255] - -Jacques d'Euse, of Cahors, is said by unfriendly writers of the time -to have been the son of a cobbler (or, according to others, a tailor). -As he had relatives in good positions, and received a good schooling, -this is probably a legend. But his early life is obscure. He studied -under the Dominicans of Cahors, and then attended the lectures at -Montpellier and at Paris. The story of Ferretti di Vicenza, that he -went with a trading uncle to Naples and became tutor to the sons of -Charles II., does not harmonize with these facts, and we must therefore -reject the further charge that he obtained his bishopric by forging a -letter in the name of Charles. He seems rather to have taught civil law -for a long period at Cahors, and then at Toulouse, where he earned the -friendship of the Bishop, St. Louis, and was thus brought to the notice -and favour of the Bishop's father, the King of Naples. Charles secured -the bishopric of Fréjus for him in 1300, and made him his Chancellor in -1307. When Charles died, his son Robert continued the patronage and got -for him the bishopric of Avignon. Clement V. found him a useful man and -pliant lawyer. It was he who did the most accommodating research for -Clement in the suppression of the Templars, and he was rewarded with a -red hat in 1312. He was a sober man, liking good solid fare and regular -ways, and kept his energy and ambition in his eighth decade of life. - -Robert of Naples pressed his candidature for the Papacy when Clement -died, and the Gascons adopted him. He won the vote of Cardinal -Orsini--this statement of his critics is confirmed by later events--by -professing a most determined intention to transfer the Papacy to Rome. -The anecdotists say that he swore never to mount a horse until he was -established at the Lateran; and, after a gorgeous coronation-ceremony -at Lyons on September 5th, he at once proceeded _by boat_ to Avignon. -The Italian cardinals left him in disgust, and he promptly promoted -ten new cardinals, of whom nine were French (and three, including -his nephew, from Cahors). Of his later seventeen cardinals, thirteen -were French, three Italian, and one Spanish. The Papacy was fixed at -Avignon. - -The little town which Clement had chosen as the seat of the Papacy -had the advantage, in John's eyes, of being separated from Philip's -territory by the Rhone and being under the suzerainty of Robert of -Naples. It was still a small, poorly built town. Clement had found the -Dominican monastery large enough for his Epicurean establishment. John -returned at first to his old episcopal palace, but the great rock on -which the Papal Palace now stands soon inspired his ambition and he -began assiduously to nurse the Papal income. Much of Clement's money -had been removed and stored by his clever and unscrupulous nephew, the -Viscount Bertrand de Goth, who would not easily disgorge it. After -a time John asserted his spiritual power, and summoned the Viscount -to present an account. Three times the noble ignored his summons, -and then, when John was about to proceed against him, he judiciously -distributed some of the money among the cardinals and had the case -postponed. At length he rode boldly into Avignon to give his account. -He had, he explained, with a most insolent air of simplicity and -candour, received 300,000 florins from his uncle. This sum was destined -to be used in the next Crusade, and he had sworn on the Gospels not to -yield it for any other purpose. John was baulked and was compelled to -compromise. They agreed to divide the money, and a receipt preserved -at the Vatican shows that 150,000 florins were all he obtained of -Clement's huge fortune. Clement had left only 70,000 florins directly -to his successor, and half of this had to go to the cardinals. All the -rest Clement regarded as private fortune and distributed among his -friends and servants. - -John turned to the organization of the Papal income, and his success -in this direction is notorious. Villani says in his _Florentine -History_[256] that at his death John left a fortune of 25,000,000 -florins[257] in coin and jewels. Villani is hostile, but he affirms -that he had this information from his brother, who was one of the -bankers appointed to appraise the sum. Other chroniclers give different -figures. It happens, however, that John's ledgers are still preserved -in the Vatican archives, and as in this case they completely refute -the anti-Papal chroniclers--a point certainly to be carefully noted -by the historian--they have been published.[258] Some of the ledgers -are "missing," but there are general statements (tallying with the -separate ledgers), and from these it appears that the entire income of -the Papacy during the eighteen years of John's Pontificate was about -four and a half million florins (or about Ł120,000 a year), and that -the greater part of this was spent on the Italian war. There is an -expenditure of nearly three millions under the humorous heading of -"Wax, and certain extraordinary expenses," and the items show that the -Italian campaign to recover the Papal estates absorbed most of this. At -the same time the ledgers do not quite confirm the edifying tradition -of John's sober and simple life. His table and cellar cost (in modern -terms) nearly Ł3000 a year; his "wardrobe" nearly Ł4000 a year: and -his officials and staff about Ł15,000 a year. Immense sums seem to -have been given to relatives--there is one item of 72,000 florins paid -to his brother Peter for certain estates--and we know that in 1339 he -began to build the famous Papal Palace. - -In sum, the editors of John's accounts conclude that the Papal -treasury would, at his death, have shown a deficit of 90,000 florins -but for a loan of half a million from his private purse; and that -the total amount left behind by him (besides his valuable library of -1028 volumes, his collection of 329 jewelled rings, etc.) was only -about 800,000 florins. It is true that, in spite of the businesslike -appearance of the ledgers, we must not take this as a statement of -the Pope's entire estate. Vast sums were collected which did not pass -through Avignon, but went straight to the Legate in Italy (and possibly -elsewhere). Moreover, the "private purse" of the Pope is an interesting -and obscure part of his system. It was discovered at his death that he -had a secret "little chamber," over one of the corridors, into which a -large part of the income went. There are historical indications that -he diverted to his private account large sums for military and special -political purposes. He did not foresee how Clement VI. would genially -dissipate it, with the words: "My predecessors did not know how to -live." This account was not entered in books, and we have to be content -with the assurance that he left at his death rather less than a million -florins in all. - -Yet an income of--if we make allowance for the unrecorded -sums--something like Ł200,000 a year, at a time when the patrimonies -were mostly alienated, was enormous, and there is no reason to doubt -the statement of all historians that it came largely from tainted -sources. John's fiscal policy is a stage in the degeneration of the -Papacy. Clement IV. had, in 1267, reserved to the Pope the income -of the benefices of clerks who died at Rome, and Boniface VIII. had -enlarged this by including all who died within a two days' journey of -Rome. John extended the law throughout the Church and demanded three -years' revenue for each that fell vacant. By his Bull _Execrabilis_ he -ordered all clerks (except his cardinals) who held several benefices -to select one and surrender the rest to the Apostolic See. He -created bishoprics--he made six out of the bishopric of Toulouse--by -subdividing actual sees (on the plea, of course, that the duties would -be better discharged), and by an astute system of promotions he, when -a see fell vacant, contrived to move several men and secure the "first -fruits" on their appointments: a vacant archbishopric, for instance, -would be filled by a higher bishop, the higher bishopric by a lower -bishop, and so on. It was possible to put a complexion of reform on -all these measures, but clergy and laity muttered a charge of avarice. -Then there were the incomes from kingdoms and duchies (England, Aragon, -Portugal, Naples, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and Spoleto) which owed -an annual tribute, the yield of the surviving patrimonies, the taxes -on dispensations and grants, and a certain beginning of the sale of -indulgences which, unfortunately, we cannot closely ascertain. - -John was not wholly immersed in finance and insensible of higher -duties. He created universities at Cahors and Perugia, regulated the -studies at Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris, and even (as we shall see) -concerned himself with the state of the East. But the only council -we trace under his control (held at St. Ruf, in 1326) was almost -entirely concerned with ecclesiastical property and immunities, and his -correspondence is, in effect, almost wholly fiscal and political. He -greatly enlarged the Rota (or legal and business part of the Curia), -and filled it with a cosmopolitan staff of clerks, to deal with this -large and lucrative side of his affairs. It is pleaded that the Papacy -could not discharge its duties without this wealth and power; and it -must seem unfortunate that the acquisition and maintenance of the -wealth and power left so little time for the duties they were to enable -the Pope to discharge. - -Watered by this stream of gold, Avignon flourished. John was generous -to his family and his cardinals: palaces began to rise above the lowly -roofs of the town: a gay and coloured life filled its streets. A Papal -household costing Ł25,000 a year would of itself make an impression. We -know Avignon best in the later and even richer days of Benedict XII. -and Clement VI. who followed John. Not far away, even in the days of -John, dwelt a writer who was destined to immortality, and he passed -scathing criticisms on Avignon. Petrarch is a rhetorician and poet, as -well as a fierce opponent of the Avignon Papacy, but one cannot lightly -disregard his assurance that Papal Avignon was "Babylon," "a living -hell," and "the sink of all vices."[259] He is chiefly describing -Avignon under Clement VI., but he says that it is only a change "from -bad to worse" since John's days. - -An episode that occurred soon after John's elevation is, perhaps, -more convincing than Petrarch's fiery rhetoric, since its features -were determined in a legal process. Hugues Géraud, a favourite of -Clement V., had obtained from that Pope the bishopric of Cahors, -paying the Papal tax of a thousand florins for it. He proceeded to -make his possession as lucrative as possible and live comfortably on -the revenue his clerks extorted for him. John's townsfolk appealed to -him, as soon as he settled in Avignon, and he summoned the Bishop to -his court. Hugues Géraud sealed the lips of his priests by an oath of -silence, but, of course, a Pope could undo that seal, and the inquiry -revealed enormities on the part of the Bishop. Toward the close of the -inquiry certain men were arrested bringing mysterious packages into -the town. They had with them various poisons and certain little wax -images concealed in loaves. The Bishop and his chief clerks were at -once arrested, and, although the Papal officials used torture to open -their lips, the substance of their story seems reliable. Fearful of the -issue, Hugues Géraud had applied to a Jew at Toulouse, and to others, -for these poisons and wax images. It was proved in court that members -of the Papal household, including a cardinal, were bribed to facilitate -the poisoning, and that the wax images, which were not effective -without the blessing of some prelate, were actually blessed by the -Archbishop of Toulouse. The Archbishop pleaded that he had no suspicion -of the awful purpose of these images--familiar as they were in the -Middle Ages--but he soon fled from Toulouse, and it is conjectured that -he had hoped that the death of the Pope would save his diocese (and -income) from the threatened dismemberment.[260] - -Some of these images had already been smuggled into Avignon and the -Bishop and his archpriest had, in the well-known medićval manner, -set up one of them as representative of the Pope's nephew, Cardinal -Jacques de Via, and stabbed it in the belly and legs with silver -styles, while the wicked Jew repeated the suitable imprecations. John -XXII. fully shared the views of his age in regard to these magical -practices, and we can imagine how he and others were confirmed in -that belief when, in the course of the trial, Jacques de Via sickened -and died. The trial came to a speedy conclusion. The Bishop of Cahors -was dragged by horses through the town and burned at the stake: his -numerous clerical and lay accomplices were adequately punished: and -John spurred the Inquisitors to a deadly campaign against magicians -throughout the country. Some of the cardinals were involved in this or -a similar plot, but John shrewdly disarmed them with gold rather than -make powerful enemies. - -These details will suffice to make clear the state of the clergy and -laity at the close of a century which some writers appraise as one of -profound inspiration, and we must go on to consider the large policy -which John's wealth was intended to support. The central theme is, -once more, the political struggle with the Emperor--the undying curse -which temporal power had brought with it--but we cannot understand this -aright unless we first regard a spiritual struggle of great interest. - -The followers of Francis of Assisi had branched into the customary -parties of rigourists and liberals. On the one hand were the great -body of the friars, living in large comfortable monasteries, raising -a stupendously rich church over the bones of their ascetic founder. -On the other hand were the faithful minority, the genuinely ascetic, -casting withering reproaches on the liberals, assimilating much of the -mystic and--we may justly say--protestant feeling which was growing -in Europe. There were bloody conflicts as well as highly seasoned -arguments. The "Spirituals" and "Fratricelli" could not but regard -the wealth and sensuality of the higher clergy as an apostasy from -the Christian ideal, and they had become one of the most pronounced -"protestant" sects of the time and were anathematized repeatedly by the -Popes. During the Papal vacancy the Spirituals had prospered and become -more strident. Christendom had apostatized, and they were the heralds -of a new religion, revealed to Francis of Assisi. This arrogant Papacy -and priesthood must disappear before true religion can flourish. - -In the spring of 1317 John condemned them, and, when they still -preached revolt, summoned about sixty of them to Avignon. They used -very plain speech and received a very plain reply. The Papacy had now -discovered that persistent or "contumacious" disobedience amounted to -heresy, and the Inquisitors belonged to the rival Dominican order. So -several sons of St. Francis were burned at the stake--four were burned -at Marseilles on May 7, 1318--and many were cast into prison. But John -went too far. He ordered the Franciscan authorities to consider whether -absolute poverty was the genuine basis of their rule, and they decided -that it was: in the sense of a Bull (_Exiit qui seminat_) of Nicholas -III., which allowed them "the use" of things without the actual -"ownership." John revoked the Bull, and in a Decretal of December 8, -1322 (_Ad Conditorem_), declared that this was impossible nonsense. -When the friars retorted that such poverty had actually been practised -by Christ and his Apostles, John consulted the learned doctors of -Paris and, in the Decretal _Cum inter nonnullos_ (November 12, 1323), -pronounced this thesis heretical. The "Spirituals" were now reinforced -by abler men, who fled to Italy and joined the anti-Papal campaign of -Louis of Bavaria. Michael de Cesena, the General of the Order, nailed -to the door of Pisa cathedral a document in which he impeached John for -heresy. William of Ockham, the English friar, one of the most acute -of the later schoolmen, and others, discharged a shower of invectives -which would have made the fortune of a sixteenth-century Reformer. -John was "Anti-Christ," the "Dragon with Seven Heads," and so on. They -induced Louis of Bavaria to declare John's Decretals heretical, and -fought shoulder to shoulder with the learned Paris doctors, Marsiglio -of Padua and Jean of Jandun, whose _Defensor Pacis_ (1324) was a -crushing indictment of the Papal pretensions and vindication of the -secular power. All over Italy and Germany there was a fierce scrutiny -of the bases of the Papal claims. The Reformation was commencing, two -centuries before Luther. - -The spiritual struggle had thus merged in the political struggle, -owing to the common opposition to John XXII., and this must now be -considered. Frederic of Austria and Louis of Bavaria were both chosen -King of the Romans, and, as neither had had the full number of votes, -there was the not unfamiliar struggle for recognition. They disregarded -John's summons to his tribunal, took to the sword, and Frederic was -beaten and imprisoned in 1322. John coldly acknowledged Louis's letter -announcing his victory; unquestionably he from the first wanted the -imperial crown to pass to France and the imperial rule to vanish from -Italy. Then Louis invaded Italy, and John declared war. - -Italy already gave the Pope concern. The Ghibellines, or Imperialists, -had grown powerful in the Pope's absence, and their chief leader, -Matteo Visconti of Milan, a ruthless and exacting ruler, was "Imperial -Vicar" in the country. When Visconti, in defiance of the Pope's -commands, gave aid to the Ghibellines of Genoa, John, who claimed -to represent the Empire during the "vacancy," withdrew his title of -Vicar and awarded it to Robert of Naples. Robert went to consult John -at Avignon, and a campaign followed. Cardinal Bertrand de Poyet--who -was, says Petrarch, so much like John "in face and ferocity"[261] -that one could easily credit the rumour that he was John's son--was -sent to direct the Papal cause and to denounce the Viscontis to the -Inquisition. Matteo was found guilty of heresy (or contumacious refusal -to abandon the title of Vicar), and he and his son were charged with -oppression of the clergy (which is plausible enough) and with a quaint -and amusing mixture of magic and other devilry.[262] Possibly John -relied more confidently on the troops of Philip of Valois and Henry -of Austria, whom he successively summoned to Italy; but they retired -almost without a blow. Matteo repented and died, but his sons and their -associates continued the war. - -At this juncture Louis conquered Frederic and sent word to the Legate -to keep his troops out of imperial territory. When the Legate refused, -he joined the Ghibellines and drew from John a vigorous denunciation. -He was to abandon the "heretics" and come to Avignon for the -examination of his claim to the Empire. Louis, retorting (under the -inspiration of the friars) that there were heretics at Avignon as well -as in Italy, went his way, and John turned to France. Charles the Fair, -the new King, had discovered that, when Clement V. had authorized his -marriage with Blanche of Burgundy, a remote godmothership had been -overlooked, and he was in the painful position of living with one to -whom he was not validly married. John declared the marriage void, -allowed Charles to marry another lady, and was soon in conference with -Charles and with Robert of Naples. Germany took alarm at this plain -hint of an intention to make Charles Emperor; the Italian spiritual war -upon the Pope was vigorously repeated in that country, and the Diet of -Ratisbon rejected John's authority and called for a General Council. - -Louis, in 1326, became reconciled with Frederic of Austria and was -recognized in Germany as sole Emperor, but John had gone too far to -withdraw, or was too deeply involved with Charles of France and Robert -of Naples. In alliance with the Ghibellines, Louis made a triumphant -tour over Italy, and on April 18, 1328, to the immense joy of his -throng of rebel supporters, solemnly declared, in St. Peter's, that -"James of Cahors" was guilty of heresy and treason.[263] Friar Peter -of Corbara was substituted for him, with the name of Nicholas V., and -Rome exulted in the restoration of the Papacy. But the drama ended as -it had often ended before. Louis oppressed the country and alienated -his supporters; and before the end of the year Friar Peter was, with a -halter round his neck, at the Pope's feet in Avignon and Louis was back -in Germany. John refused to compromise honourably with Louis, and the -agitation against the Papacy in Germany, whither all the rebels had now -gone, was more bitter than ever. - -The next phase of the struggle is not wholly clear. John of Bohemia -intervened and overran Italy. It seems probable that the Pope had -nothing to do with this invasion, and at first suspected that John -was in league with Louis; but that, as John made progress and had -friendly communication with Avignon, the Pope began to hope that the -new development offered him a stronger King of Italy (under Papal -suzerainty) than Robert and a less oppressive protector than Philip VI. -of France.[264] Philip and John visited the Pope at Avignon, and it -was announced that John was to be recognized as King of part of Italy. -The curious alliance of the three reveals some miscalculation. Philip -must have trusted that John of Bohemia would work for him, but the Pope -had assuredly no idea of abandoning his claim to Italy. The issue was -singular. The Italians, in face of this alliance, united under Robert -of Naples and overcame the Papal and Bohemian troops. John had, as part -of the campaign, announced his intention of transferring the Papal -Court to Bologna, and the Legate actually began to erect a palace for -him. When the Bolognese realized that John had no serious intention of -coming, they joined the Imperialists and cast out the Legate and his -troops. It is said that the collapse of his costly Italian campaign -weighed so heavily on the Pope that he did not leave his palace during -the year of life which still remained. - -John's relations with other countries are not of great interest. He -was almost the master, rather than the slave, of the three French -monarchs who ruled during his Pontificate, and some of his letters -paternally chide them for such defects as talking in church. In -letters to Edward of England he tried to reconcile that monarch with -Robert Bruce, and he begged more humane treatment of the Irish, who -had appealed for his intervention. In Poland he excommunicated the -Teutonic knights for taking Danzig and Pomerania from King Ladislas. -His eye wandered even farther afield. He was genuinely interested in -the fate of Christians in the East, and sent a mission to the Sultan, -who sharply dismissed it. No Pope had, in a sense, a wider horizon, -for John not only sent friars to preach in Armenia and Persia, but -actually appointed a Legate for India, China, and Thibet. Yet his -ruling of the Christian world was singularly slender in comparison with -that of his great predecessors. His energy was absorbed in fiscal and -political matters. In co-operation with Philip he sent a fleet against -the Saracens, and it won a victory, but the Crusade he announced on -July 26, 1333, never went beyond that naval success. On the other hand, -when the Pastoureaux, a wild rabble, marched over France proclaiming a -popular Crusade, John excommunicated them for taking the cross without -his permission; of their appalling treatment of the Jews he made no -complaint, nor did he move when the lepers of France were brutally -persecuted on some superstitious charge of the time. He was oppressive -to the Jews, and ordered the burning of the Talmud. - -He has, in fine, the distinction of putting forward a doctrine which -his Church condemns as heretical. Preaching on All Saints' Day in 1331, -he suggested that probably the saints did not enjoy the direct vision -(or Beatific Vision) of God in heaven, and would not do so until after -the Day of Judgment. There is no doubt whatever that he held this as -an opinion, though he made no effort to impose it on others; beyond -a certain liberality in bestowing benefices on clerics who supported -him. There was a violent agitation in France. The Dominican friars and -the universities strongly opposed the view, and, when the General of -the Franciscan Order thought it advantageous to support the Pope, the -King of France swore that he would not have his realm sullied by the -heresy. This agitation, and John's correspondence with Philip VI., -make it quite clear that the Pope held the heresy, as an opinion. A -few days before he died, however, he wrote a Bull--at least, such a -Bull was published by his successor--endorsing the received doctrine -and declaring that he had put forward his theory only "by way of -conference." - -He died on December 4, 1334, bowed with age and saddened by the -failure of his work. A more complete study of his letters than has -yet been made may in some measure enlarge our knowledge of his -properly Pontifical action, but there can be little doubt that money -and politics chiefly engrossed his attention. The chief interest of -his Pontificate is the light it throws on the preparation for the -Reformation. John's fiscal policy, however much open to censure, was -unselfish; but he opened to his even less religious successors the road -to disaster. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 255: For the letters see _Lettres de Jean XXII._ (2 vols., -1908 and 1912), edited by Arnold Fayen: a selection of 3653 letters, -generally business notes of little importance. Various short lives of -John are given in Baluze's _Vitć Paparum Avenionensium_, vol. ii., -and there are censorious allusions to him in G. Villani's _Historie -Florentine_: a contemporary but biassed work. Bertrandy's _Recherches -sur l'origine, l'élection, et le couronnement de Jean XXII._ (1854) -is valuable for his early years, as well as Dr. J. Asal's _Die Wahl -Johann's XXII._ (1910). V. Verlaque's _Jean XXII._ (1883), is foolishly -partisan, and declares John "one of the greatest successors of St. -Peter." Sectional studies will be noticed in the course of the chapter.] - -[Footnote 256: Xi., 20.] - -[Footnote 257: The gold florin is estimated at about ten shillings of -English money.] - -[Footnote 258: _Die Einnahmen der Apostolischer Kammer unter Johann -XXII._ (1910), by Dr. Emil Göller, and _Die Ausgaben der Apostolischer -Kammer unter Johann XXII._ (1911), by K.H. Shäfer.] - -[Footnote 259: See, especially, the book of his letters "Sine titulo," -most of which contain appalling invectives on the Popes and cardinals -and clergy. _Epistola_ xviii, is a classical picture of vice, even -among the elderly clergy. Its chief defect is to associate the name of -tolerably respectable Babylon with such a picture.] - -[Footnote 260: See a full (and conservative) analysis of the evidence -in E. Abbe's _Hugues Géraud_ (1904). I am entirely ignoring the gossipy -chroniclers of the time, whom Milman too frequently follows.] - -[Footnote 261: _Ep._ xvii. of the book "Sine titulo."] - -[Footnote 262: See Michel, "Le Procčs de Matteo et de Galeazzo -Visconti," in _Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire_, xxix. (1909), -and H. Otto, "Zur Italienischen Politik Johanns XXII.," in _Quellen -und Forschungen aus Italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken_, Bd. xix. -(1911).] - -[Footnote 263: Baluze, ii., 512; and a later indictment, p. 522.] - -[Footnote 264: See the essay on John's policy, by H. Otto, quoted -above.] - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -JOHN XXIII. AND THE GREAT SCHISM - - -The next important stage in the devolution of the Papacy is the Great -Schism, the spectacle of which moved the increasing body of cultivated -laymen and the better clergy to examine critically the bases of the -Papal claims and seek an authority which should control the wanton -conduct of the Popes. The essential mischief of the long stay of the -Papal Court at Avignon is obscured when it is called a Babylonian -Captivity. Few of the Popes were servile to France, and it was not -France that detained them on the banks of the Rhone. The gravest -consequences of their voluntary exile were, that the isolation from -their Italian estates led them to pursue a corrupt and intolerable -fiscal policy: that the College of Cardinals degenerated and became -less scrupulous in the choice of a Pope: and, especially, that the -rival ambition of French and Italian cardinals to control the Papacy -led to an appalling schism. This phase will be best illustrated by an -account of the antecedents and the remarkable Pontificate of John XXIII. - -The return of the Papal Court to Rome was mainly due to political -causes. Clement VI. (1342-1352), whose voluptuous indolence ignobly -crowned the fiscal system of John XXII., was followed by three Popes -who at least desired reform. The third of these, Gregory XI., was too -weak or resourceless to curb the ruthless action of his Legates in -Italy, and the sight of wild Breton mercenaries and hardly less wild -English adventurers (of Hawkwood's infamous company) spreading rape and -rapine under the Papal banner, disgusted the cities and states of the -Peninsula. Under the lead of Florence, they proceeded to affirm and -establish the independence of Italy. It was this threat, rather than -the romantic rebukes of a young nun (Catherine of Siena), which drew -Gregory XI., in 1376, from the safe and luxurious palace-fortress at -Avignon. A month after his arrival at Rome the Breton hirelings under -Cardinal Robert of Geneva committed a frightful massacre at Cesena, and -Gregory was almost driven back to Avignon by the storm which ensued. -But he died on March 27, 1378, and the cardinals met nervously at Rome -to choose a successor. - -The din of the bloody encounter of Gascon, Breton, and Roman troops -in the streets reached the cardinals in the privacy of the Conclave. -One day, indeed, the armed Romans burst into the sacred chamber, and -brandished their weapons before the eyes of the terrified French -cardinals. Yet it is generally agreed that there was not such -compulsion as to invalidate the election, and Urban VI. became the -legitimate head of the Church. In the circumstances a delicate and -tactful policy was required, and the austere Neapolitan, of humble -birth, who secured the tiara was in this respect the least fitted of -the cardinals. He violently and vituperatively denounced the wealth -and luxury of his colleagues, and he alienated Italians no less than -French by the grossness of his manners. Within a few months the French -cardinals retired to Fondi, discovered that the election was invalid -on account of intimidation, and set up Robert of Geneva, a ruthless -soldier and entirely worldly-minded priest, as Anti-Pope, with the -title of Clement VII. So the schism began, and Christendom split into -two bitterly hostile "obediences." Clement retired to Avignon, and -preyed on France more avariciously than John XXII. had done: Urban's -impetuous rudeness wrapped Italy in a flame of war once more. In 1389 -another Neapolitan, Boniface IX., succeeded Urban, and it is during -his Pontificate that there came upon the scene Baldassare Cossa, the -unscrupulous adventurer who became John XXIII. - -Cossa was a Neapolitan, and is said by his hostile contemporary -Dietrich von Nieheim to have been a pirate in his youth.[265] Many -recent historians reject this statement, but as it is certain and -admitted that Cossa's two brothers were condemned to death for piracy -by Ladislaus of Naples, and it is clear that in his youth Cossa took -some part in the Angevin-Neapolitan war, it is not improbable that -Baldassare was himself engaged in raiding the Neapolitan commerce. He -was born about 1368, of a noble but impoverished Neapolitan house, -and he seems to have been known to the Neapolitan Pope. In his early -twenties he forsook the army or the sea, for which alone he was -qualified, and went to study law at Bologna. In 1392 Boniface made him -Archdeacon at Bologna: in 1396 he was summoned to the office of Private -Chamberlain at Rome, and his career began. - -He was a typical Neapolitan--dark-eyed, keen-witted, of very robust -frame and very frail moral instincts--and the Pope needed such men. -During the first seven years of his Pontificate Boniface was kept in -check by the older cardinals, but, as they died, he sought money by -fair or foul means for the recovery of Italy. France and Spain sent -their gifts to Avignon, and England and Germany were not generous. -Benefices, from the highest to the lowest, were sold daily, and the -"first fruits" were demanded in advance. As the system developed, -spies were employed over Italy and Germany to report on the health of -aged beneficiaries, and there was a sordid traffic in "expectations." -Baldassare Cossa, the chief instrument of this gross simony, had -various scales of payment, and the purchaser of the "expectation" -of a benefice might find it sold over him to a higher bidder for a -"preference." A Jubilee had been announced for the year 1390, and -Boniface got the fruits of it, but this did not deter him from reaping -another golden harvest from a Jubilee in 1400. As, moreover, many -pilgrims, especially in Germany and Scandinavia, were deterred from -coming to Rome by the bands of robbers and ravishers who infested the -Papal estates, Boniface generously enacted that Germans might obtain -the same pardon by visiting certain shrines nearer home and paying to -Papal agents the cost of a journey to Rome. - -These simoniacal practices are established and admitted, quite apart -from the testimony of Dietrich. We must, indeed, admit the evidence -of Dietrich when he tells us that he saw these Papal agents spread -their silk curtains and unfold their Papal banners in the churches of -Germany, and heard them declare to the ignorant people that St. Peter -himself had not greater power than they. We may also easily believe -his assurance that many of the German clergy denounced this traffic in -indulgences[266] and that it brought enormous sums to the Papacy. But -the precise sums, and the romantic stories, which Dietrich gives on -hearsay, especially in regard to Cossa, must be regarded with reserve. -He says that Cossa, when Legate at Bologna, arrested one of these -monk-agents returning to Rome with his bags of gold and relieved him; -and that the monk hanged himself in despair. These are fragments of -foolish rumour. We cannot deal so summarily with his statement that -the Chamberlain had his percentage of the profits and let it grow in -the hands of the usurers; and that he extorted money from prelates -by mendaciously representing that Boniface was angry with them and -offering to mediate. All that we can say with confidence is that Cossa -was the chief instrument of the Pope's nefarious system, and that, -although he had no private means, he amassed an enormous fortune. The -Council of Constance established this charge against him, as we shall -see. - -In 1402, Cossa became Cardinal-deacon of St. Eustace--the Council of -Constance found that he bought that dignity--and in the following year -he was made Legate at Bologna. We cannot control Dietrich's statement -that the Pope wished to put an end to a scandalous _liaison_ of -Cossa's at Rome. It is not improbable, and would not be very unusual -at Rome, but the fact is that he knew Bologna and was a soldier, and -Boniface needed a soldier-legate in the north. In a very short time -Cossa won Bologna from the Milanese troops and made it a prosperous -and profitable Papal possession. He fortified it and restored its -institutions, even establishing a university of a very liberal -character. But he ruled it with an iron hand and ground it with taxes. -Even its gamblers and prostitutes had to pay the tithe of their -earnings, and the grumblers who constantly revolted or attempted to -assassinate Cossa were mercilessly punished. Dietrich boldly accuses -him of violating two hundred maids and matrons of the city, but we -can do no more than suspect that there must have been some foundation -for so large a repute. Again the Council of Constance sustains the -substance of the charge. - -Boniface died on September 29, 1404, and Cossa was not present at the -Conclave. He had constantly to lead his troops against external as well -as internal enemies. The new Pope, Innocent VII., spent two futile -years in dreams of peace, and in November, 1406, the See again fell -vacant. Christendom now clamoured for an end of the scandalous schism, -and, when Gregory XII., an ascetic and worn old cardinal, assumed the -tiara, he was greeted as "an angel of light." He thanked God, with -tears in his eyes, that he was chosen to end the schism; if he could -not get mules or galleys, he would go on foot to meet Benedict XIII. -(who had succeeded Clement at Avignon) and resign together with him. -And within a few months Christendom witnessed the still more odious -spectacle of the two Popes, both men of advanced years and great piety, -straining every nerve to avoid each other and evade resignation. They -were to meet at Savona, but, as Leonardo quaintly says, "whenever there -was question of their meeting, one would, as if he were a land animal, -not approach the coast, and the other, as if he were an aquatic animal, -would not leave the sea." Benedict reached Savona; Gregory could not -be driven beyond Lucca. The best that can be said for him is that he -was ruled by greedy relatives. At last, on a pretext provided by his -supporter Ladislaus of Naples, Gregory fled back to Rome and refused to -listen to any further counsel of resignation. - -Christendom, in disgust, now called for a General Council. France -disowned Benedict and, when he excommunicated the King, tore his Bull -in halves and ordered his arrest. He fled to Perpignan and Gregory to -Venice, and the cardinals began to negotiate with the princes for the -holding of the Council of Pisa. Cardinal Cossa, who had disdainfully -taken down the arms of Gregory XII. at Bologna, and who was in league -with Florence against Naples, took the lead in the new movement. When -Gregory excommunicated him, he burned the Bull in the market-place. -When Ladislaus of Naples advanced against Pisa, he united his troops -to those of Florence and scattered the southerners. When Benedict's -representatives asked for a safe-conduct through Italy, he said: -"If you come to Bologna, with or without a safe-conduct, I'll burn -you." So the Council met at Pisa, deposed Benedict and Gregory, and, -in effect, set up a third Pope, Alexander V. The situation being -without precedent, there was no canonical basis for such a Council, -and no executive to enforce the Council's decisions. Benedict and -Gregory--the one under the protection of Spain and the other with the -support of Naples, Rimini, and part of Germany--continued to fulminate -against each other, and a third discharge of anathemas only distracted -Christendom the more. - -Cardinal Cossa set out once more at the head of his troops, and, with -the aid of Louis of Anjou and the Florentines, swept the Neapolitan -troops southward and opened Rome for Alexander. But that feeble and -aged Anti-Pope never reached the Lateran. He died at Bologna on May 4, -1410, and Louis of Anjou (representing the French influence) and the -Florentines urged on the cardinals the election of Cossa himself. At -midnight on May 17th, the expectant crowd at Bologna was informed that -the cardinals had come to an agreement, and an hour later Baldassare -Cossa, or John XXIII., stepped forth in the scarlet mitre and spotless -robes of a Vicar of Christ. There are chroniclers who say that he had -bribed the electors, and chroniclers who say that he had bullied them. -The first charge is not unlikely, as bribery was now becoming common -enough on the eve of or during a Conclave, but we cannot check these -rumours. Dietrich von Nieheim admits that Cossa nominated another -cardinal for the tiara, and the Council of Constance did not impeach -the regularity of his election. He was chosen because of his vigour and -military ability. Such was the condition of the Papacy that none seemed -to care that he was "a complete failure and worthless in spiritual -matters." - -He must have been at that time about forty-three years old: a tall, -spare, soldierly-looking man, with large nose and piercing dark grey -eyes under bushy eyebrows. After devoting a few days to the customary -festivities, he set about the work of enabling Louis of Anjou to -displace Ladislaus on the throne of Naples and thus destroy Gregory's -main support. It may have been in deference to the feeling of some of -the cardinals that he first summoned Benedict and Gregory to resign -and asked his bitter enemy Ladislaus--the man who had condemned his -brothers--to pay the arrears of sixty thousand ducats which he owed -to the Roman See. All three contemptuously refused to recognize him, -and, as Ladislaus presently destroyed the fleet of Louis of Anjou and -advanced against the Papal troops, the prospect was uncertain. John -feverishly sought allies and funds. He conciliated England, where -the call for a real Ecumenical Council to depose the three Popes was -already heard, by suppressing an obnoxious Bull of Boniface IX. and -by other graces, and he contrived--after the blunders of his legates -had roused fierce opposition--to get a good deal of money from France. -Spain still supported Benedict. - -The uncertain element was Germany, where, at the time, the outstanding -figure was Sigismund of Hungary. Sigismund had stood aloof from the -Council of Pisa. For some years he had diverted all money from the -Papal agents to his own pockets, because Boniface had recognized -Ladislaus, and he detested the French, who had had much to do with the -Council at Pisa. His support was of material importance to John, as -owing to the death of Rupert the day after John's election, he became -the chief candidate for the Empire. To John's delight, Sigismund now -sent ambassadors to do homage, and an agreement was reached. The Pope -was to validate the appropriation by Sigismund of church-moneys and -influence the Electors in his favour, and Sigismund would support John -against Ladislaus.[267] But there was still an element of danger and -uncertainty. Sigismund had sworn to end the Papal schism, and he was -known to be favourable to the summoning of another and more weighty -council. Moreover, John, who was a poor diplomatist, made a serious -blunder. The elected monarch became, by law of the Empire, King of -the Romans without any Papal confirmation; the _imperial_ crown and -title alone were given by the Pope. Yet John, seeking to magnify his -authority, persisted in addressing Sigismund until the anxious days of -the Council of Constance, as "Elected to be King." - -I may tell very briefly the sequence of events in Italy. After a year -at Bologna, John proceeded to Rome and flung his troops upon the -Neapolitans. They won the important battle of Rocca Secca, but, owing -to the incompetence of the Papal legate who held supreme command, they -failed to follow up the success and Ladislaus recovered. In the next -few months John heard with increasing alarm that Louis of Anjou had -returned in despair to France: that the ablest Papal commander, Sforza, -had transferred his services to Naples: that Malatesta of Rimini, the -only other supporter of Gregory, was winning success in the north: -and that the Neapolitans were marching against Rome. He levied taxes -on the churches and citizens of Rome until they became restless. He -petulantly had an effigy of Sforza hanged on a gallows at Rome. He -pressed the sale of indulgences so flagrantly, and by such repellent -agents, that the reformers of Bohemia burned his Bull in the streets. -He excommunicated Ladislaus and proclaimed a crusade against him; and -not a prince in Europe stirred. - -Now seriously concerned, John offered to recognize Ladislaus as King -of Naples if he would abandon Gregory, and that monarch at once basely -deserted his Pope. He ordered the stubborn old man to quit Gaeta, and -it is said that the people of Gaeta, who had grown fond of him, had to -pay his passage to his last refuge, the lands of the Lord of Rimini. -Ladislaus was made Gonfaloniere of the Church, and the Pope promised -him 120,000 ducats. But so onerous a peace could not endure. After some -mutual charges in the spring of 1413 the Neapolitan troops approached -Rome. The Romans assured John that they would eat their children rather -than surrender, but, when they saw the Pope and cardinals secure their -own position by crossing the river, they opened the gates and admitted -the Neapolitans. Their warrior-Pope, surrounded by cardinals who wept -for the treasures they had abandoned in Rome, fled to the north, and at -length reached Florence. Even here the citizens were afraid to admit -him. They assigned him the bishop's palace outside the walls, and from -this lowly centre John continued his sale of benefices and indulgences. - -One other event will complete the record of John's Pontificate, before -we begin the story of his undoing. The abuses of the Roman Curia -had excited, or encouraged, various hostile movements. There were -Lollards in England, and followers of Hus and Jerome of Prague in -Bohemia. These vague and unimportant movements--from the Papal point -of view--were left to local prelates, but the growing Christian demand -for another General Council was disquieting. The Council of Pisa had -put itself above the Popes, and grave doctors at many universities -argued that a council must effect that reform of the Church which -Popes refused to effect. Probably John XXIII. did not appreciate the -full significance of this Conciliar movement, but he did see that -there was grave danger that a Council would depose him, as well as -Benedict and Gregory, unless he controlled it. He, therefore, in 1412, -announced that a General Council would be held at Rome, and he reminded -prelates that the Council of Pisa had enjoined this. But only a few -French and Italian prelates responded to his summons, and a strange -accident increased his uneasiness. One day, when all were assembled -in St. Peter's, a screech owl issued from a dark corner and perched -opposite the Pope. John reddened and perspired, as he gazed into the -uncanny eyes of the bird, and at last he left his seat and broke up the -sitting. It was there again at the next sitting, and was killed only -after a great commotion. A strange form for the Holy Ghost, the mockers -said; a dreadful omen for the Pope, said others. Reforms were promised, -and the works of Wyclif were condemned, but the Council was too small -to have effect and it was prorogued until December 1, 1413. - -Meantime John was driven to the north, and from Florence he appealed -to Sigismund. Many eyes were turned to Sigismund from various parts -of Europe, and that singular monarch took quite seriously the high -function which was thrust upon him of saving and reforming Christendom. -He was a man of considerable ability, though it was apt to take the -form of cunning rather than statesmanship, but his narrow cupidity, -his notorious license in morals, and his general indifference to -principle made him an incongruous instrument for the reform of the -Church. He at once informed John that the state of the Church was to -be submitted to a General Council, and a struggle ensued between the -two as to whether it should be held south or north of the Alps. We have -the reliable assurance of Leonardo, John's secretary at the time, that -the Pope proposed to send two cardinals with full powers to treat, -which they were to show to Sigismund, and with secret instructions -restricting them. John told this design, with great complacency, to -his secretary,[268] though he did not carry it out. The Papal legates -met Sigismund at Como in the autumn and were pleased to think that -they made an impression on him, but John was dismayed to learn that, -on October 30th, the King of the Romans issued a proclamation to the -effect that a General Council would be held, under his presidency, at -Constance, on All Saints' Day, 1414. - -John is described as stricken with fear and grief at the prospect of -a council outside Italy, but Sigismund was inflexible. They spent two -months together at Piacenza and Lodi, and the Pope must have penetrated -the King's design. He already leaned to the plan of deposing the three -Popes and electing another. John was compelled, on December 9th, to -issue a Bull convoking the Council, and he then went to Bologna to -await the attack of the Neapolitans. There, about the middle of August, -he received the welcome news that Ladislaus had been poisoned by -the father of one of his mistresses. He proposed to break faith with -Sigismund and disavow the Council, but the cardinals restrained him -from taking this wild step, and on October 1st he set out for the -north, sadly, with a troop of six hundred horse. He had for some time -wavered between gloomy apprehensions of a mysterious fate which pursued -him and buoyant confidence in his wealth and power. - -The last words of his friends at Bologna must have recurred to him -again and again as he passed up the autumnal valley of the Adige and -entered the snows of the Tirol. He would not return a Pope, they said. -In the Arlberg Pass his carriage was overturned, and he exclaimed, as -he lay in the snow: "Here I lie, in the name of the devil, and I would -have done much better to stop at Bologna." He remained for some days at -Meran with Duke Friedrich, whom he made captain-general of the Papal -troops, with a salary of six thousand ducats a year. It was well to -make a friend of this powerful and discontented vassal of Sigismund. -At last, on October 27th, his troops turned the crest of the last low -hills before Constance, and he gazed down on the hollow between the -guardian mountains. "A trap for foxes," he is said to have muttered. On -the following day he rode into Constance, on his richly harnessed white -horse, under a canopy of cloth of gold, and occupied the episcopal -palace. - -For three weeks the snowy roads down the mountain-sides from all -directions discharged gay streams of princes and prelates, bishops -and abbots, theologians and lawyers, thieves and prostitutes, bankers -and acrobats, upon the sleepy old town, until it seemed to burst with -a ravening multitude. Something between fifty and a hundred thousand -visitors had to be housed and entertained, and it is reported by grave -observers that more than a thousand prostitutes flocked to Constance -in the days of the Council.[269] There were, in the course of time, -twenty-nine cardinals, thirty-three archbishops, a hundred and fifty -bishops, a hundred and thirty-four abbots, and a hundred doctors -of law and divinity: among the latter a certain pale and thin man, -Master John Hus, who did not suspect that he had come to be tried on -a capital charge. But the Emperor was late--he was crowned at Aachen -on November 8th--so the first sitting of the Council, on November 5th, -was adjourned to the 16th, and then until the new year. Meantime the -thousands of entertainers did their duty, and the city rang day and -night with revelry, and a crowd speaking thirty different languages -filled the streets and overflowed on to the roofs and into the sheds -and even the empty tubs of Constance. - -On Christmas morning, two hours after midnight, Emperor Sigismund made -a stately entrance from the Lake and a vast crowd attended John's -midnight mass. Then the struggle began. John's money circulated freely, -yet the view that he must be deposed with the other two was gaining -ground. He was gouty and his vigour was prematurely undermined, but he -fought for his tiara. Envoys came to represent Benedict and Gregory, -and he objected to their being received with honour; he was overruled. -He held that none less in rank than a bishop or abbot should vote, -and that the voting should be by heads, not nations; and again he -was overruled, and his Italian prelates would be outvoted. Then some -anonymous Italian put into circulation a memoir on his crimes and -vices, and he was greatly alarmed. To avoid scandal, however,--for -John admitted some of the accusations,--it was suppressed, but it was -decided that he must abdicate. After some evasive correspondence, he -promised to abdicate "if and when Peter de Luna and Angelo Corario" did -the same, and on March 7th he was compelled to embody the formula in a -Bull. He became ill and desperate, and there were rumours that he was -about to fly. Sigismund put guards at all the gates, but refused to -imprison him as the English, headed by the fiery Bishop of Salisbury, -demanded. - -On March 20th, Duke Friedrich of Tirol drew all Constance to a grand -tournament outside the city, and in the midst of it he was noticed -to receive a message and leave the ground. Presently it was learned -that the Pope, disguised as a groom, had slipped out of the gate on -a poor horse, with two companions, and Friedrich had joined them at -Schaffhausen. Sigismund sternly forbade the dissolution of the Council, -laid a heavy punishment on his vassal, and sent some of the cardinals -to see John. The Pope declared that he had left solely on account of -his illness; he would abdicate and not interfere with the Council, but -the cardinals must join him at once or be excommunicated. The Council, -now led by the great Gerson and other strong French doctors, ignored -the Pope, and declared that it had, direct from Christ, a power to -which Popes must bow. As Sigismund's troops were after them, John and -Friedrich fled farther, and at last John quarrelled with his supporter -and fled in disguise across the Black Forest to Freiburg. He arrived -within reach of Burgundy, whose Duke was friendly, and he demanded -better terms. He would resign on condition that he was appointed -Perpetual Legate for the whole of Italy, with a pension of 30,000 -florins; the alternative in his mind seems to have been a court at -Avignon under the protection of the Duke of Burgundy. - -The end of his adventures is well known. The burghers of Freiburg -refused to protect him and he fled to Breisar, where the envoys of -the Council came to press for his resignation. He put on his rough -disguise once more, and made off with a troop of Austrian cavalry, but -Friedrich, to obtain a mitigation of his own sentence, betrayed him. -For several days he miserably resisted the pressure of the envoys, -weeping and wailing piteously, and on May 2d the Council summoned him -to appear before it within nine days to answer charges of heresy, -schism, simony, and immorality. On the seventh day a troop of horse -came for him, but he was ill and irresolute. On May 14th the patience -of the Council was exhausted; it suspended him from office and ordered -the public trial of the charges which had already been examined and -on which a mass of evidence had been taken. Two days later the great -assembly of prelates and doctors drew up the appalling indictment, in -seventy-two articles, of Baldassare Cossa. In the main the charges -referred to those acts of simony, bribery, corruption, and tyranny -which I have recounted, but it should be added that he was described as -"addicted to the flesh, the dregs of vice, a mirror of infamy" (art. -6), and "guilty of poisoning, murder, and persistent addiction to vices -of the flesh" (art 29). The worst charges of Dietrich were solemnly -endorsed by the gravest lawyers and priests of Europe. - -John lay, prostrate and in tears, in an inn at Rudolphzell. He wished -to submit a defence, but a few friendly cardinals advised him to -submit, and when, on May 26th, he heard that the Council had endorsed -the indictment, he made no further resistance. He was deposed on the -29th and accepted the sentence with words of humility and repentance. -A few days later the wretched man was consigned to the castle of -Gottlieben, and then to a castle at Mannheim. There was, in the -following year, a futile attempt to rescue him, and he was confined in -the castle of Heidelberg, where he remained three years, with a cook -and two chaplains of his once magnificent establishment, composing -verses on the vanity of earthly things. The hollow words of his -consecration-ceremony, _Sic transit gloria mundi_, had for him assumed -a terrible reality. - -How Gregory resigned, and Benedict retired with his tawdry court to a -rocky fortress of his, and the Council burned John Hus and appointed a -new Pope, may be read in history.[270] Martin left Cossa in Heidelberg, -but in the spring of 1419 his keeper was heavily bribed and he was -allowed to escape to Italy. It must have moved many when, as Martin -officiated at the altar in Florence cathedral, the familiar figure of -Baldassare Cossa broke from the throng and knelt humbly at his feet. -He was restored to the rank of cardinal, and, apart from a foolish -attempt, a few months later, to form a Lombard league against the -Emperor, he lived peacefully in the house of Cosmo de' Medici until his -death in December (1419). He was buried with pomp by the Republic, and -the fine monument which Cosmo raised in the Baptistery shows that some -appreciable qualities must have been united with his undisputed vices. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 265: _Historia de Vita Papć Joannis XXIII._, which must be -cited with reserve, as the author had a bitter quarrel with John and -is often inaccurate. See C. Hunger, _Zur Geschichte Papst Johanns -XXIII._ (1876). More reliable are the references in the _Commentarii -rerum suo tempore in Italia gestarum_ (in Muratori, _Rerum Italicarum -scriptores_, xix.), of Leonardo of Arezzo, at one time John's -secretary. Leonardo's temperate verdict, that John was "a great man -in temporal things, but a complete failure and unworthy in spiritual -things," is endorsed by all. Exhaustive bibliographies will be found in -E.J. Kitto's excellent works, _In the Days of the Councils_ (1908), and -_Pope John the Twenty-third and Master John Hus of Bohemia_ (1910).] - -[Footnote 266: As in modern Spain, the word "traffic" or "sale" would -be resented. The theory is that you give an alms to the Church and -the Church grants the indulgence. The amount of the alms is fixed -according to the grace required: there are four different _bulas_ in -Spain today. It is hardly necessary to add that the agents did not -officially sell the pardon of sins, but the remission of the punishment -due in Purgatory for such sins as were confessed. Nevertheless we have -the official assurance of the Council of Constance (art. 20) that John -XXIII. "sold absolution both from punishment and guilt," and there are -other indications of this grave abuse.] - -[Footnote 267: We learn from later letters of the Pope that he worked -for Sigismund in Germany, especially when a rival "King of the Romans" -was elected. See the evidence in Dr. J. Schwerdfeger's _Papst Johann -XXIII. und die Wahl Sigismunds zum römischen König_ (1895).] - -[Footnote 268: _Commentarii_, p. 928.] - -[Footnote 269: The clergy had, of course, large troops of lay -followers, and numbers of lay doctors attended the Council, but we -have seen often enough the moral state of the clergy themselves in -the Middle Ages. A picturesque summary of the chroniclers is given by -Kitto, _Pope John the Twenty-third and Master John Hus of Bohemia_. See -also H. Blumenthal's _Die Vorgeschichte des Constanzer Concils_ (1897) -and, for the proceedings, H. Finke's _Acta Concilii Constantiensis_ -(1896), and H. von der Hardt's _Magnum OEcumenicum Constantiense -Concilium_ (1696, etc.).] - -[Footnote 270: I have not dwelt on Hus, as the Pope had little to do -with him. For some time, thinking to please the Emperor, John protected -Hus from his rabid opponents. The shameful ensnarement of Hus seems to -have been done without John's approval, and he was deposed before the -trial of Hus began.] - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -ALEXANDER VI., THE BORGIA-POPE - - -Three grave issues had been laid before the Council of Constance: the -repression of heresy, the ending of the Schism, and the reform of -the Church "in head and members." In the third year of their labours -the prelates and doctors put an end to the Schism and elected Martin -V.; and the new Pope soon put an end to the Council before it could -reform the Church. Martin was a Colonna of high ideals and considerable -ability; but he was not well disposed to this democratic method of -reform by Council, nor was he strong enough to sacrifice Papal revenue -by suppressing the worst disorder, the Papal fiscal system. He returned -to Rome, and the task of restoring the city and the Papal estates -demanded such resources that he dare not abandon the corrupt practices -of the Curia. - -Two worthy and able Pontiffs followed Martin, and equally failed -to bring about a reform. Eugenius IV., an austere, though harsh -and autocratic, Venetian, found that his attempts to recover Papal -territory and curb the Conciliar party would not permit him to reform -the financial system. The reformers forced on him the Council of -Basle in 1431, but its renewal of the Schism and creation of a last -Anti-Pope, when he resisted its proposals, discredited the Conciliar -movement. Reform must come from without: Popes and cardinals could -not effect it, and in the prevailing creed there was no canonical -basis for the action of a Council in defiance of them. Nicholas V., -a quiet man of letters, crowned the financial and political work -of his two predecessors with a great artistic restoration. He left -politics to Ćneas Sylvius and opened the gates of Rome to the fairer -form of the Renaissance. Greek artists and scholars were now pouring -into Italy--Constantinople fell to the Turks during this Pontificate -(1453)--and fostering the growth of the Humanist movement. Rome began -to assume its rich mantle of medićval art, and the Papacy seemed to -smile once more on a docile and prosperous Christendom. - -But the restoration had been accomplished by an evasion of reform, -and the new culture was sharpening the pens of critics. One of these -inquisitive scholars, Lorenzo Valla, was actually declaring that the -"Donation of Constantine" was a forgery. Many denounced, in fiery prose -or with the cold cynicism of the epigram, the luxury and vice of the -higher clergy. Heresy hardened in Bohemia, and, among the stricter -ranks of the faithful, men like Nicholas of Cusa, John Capistrano, and -Savonarola were raising ideals which, if they rebuked the laity, far -more solemnly rebuked the clergy. And just at this critical period -the Papacy entered upon a development which ended in the enthronement -of Alexander VI., Julius II., and Leo X.; the Reformation inevitably -followed. - -At the death of Nicholas V., the Orsini and Colonna cardinals came to a -deadlock in their struggle for the Papacy, and a neutral and innocuous -alternative was sought in Alfonso Borgia (or, in Spanish style, Borja), -a Spanish canonist of some scholarly distinction. Calixtus III., as he -named himself, was a gouty valetudinarian who lay abed most of the day -in pious conversation with friars. He very properly disdained the new -art and culture, and saved the Papal funds to meet the advancing Turks. -He had, however, one weakness, which was destined to prove very costly -to the Papacy. There was a tradition of nepotism at Rome, and Calixtus -had nephews. While he was Bishop of Valencia, his sister Isabella -had come to him from Xativa, their native place, with her two sons, -Pedro Luis and Rodrigo. When, in 1455, he became Pope, he sent Rodrigo -to study at Bologna and enriched him with benefices. Pedro Luis was -reserved for a lay career, and Juan Luis Mila, son of another sister, -was sent with Rodrigo to Bologna. - -At this time Rodrigo Borgia was in his twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth -year: an exceptionally handsome young Spaniard, with the most charming -Spanish manners, and with rich sensuous lips and an eye for maidens -which escaped his uncle's notice. He and his cousin were, within a -year, made cardinals. In December (1456) he was appointed legate for -the March of Ancona, and in the following May he was, in spite of the -murmurs of the cardinals, promoted to the highest and most lucrative -office at the Court, the Vice-Chancellorship. His elder brother became -Duke of Spoleto, Gonfaloniere of the Papal army, and (in 1457) Prefect -of Rome. Other needy Spaniards came over the sea in droves, and the -disgusted Romans were soon ousted from the best positions. In 1458, -however, Calixtus fell ill, and was reported to be dead; and the Romans -chased the "Catalans" out of the city. Rodrigo at first retired with -his more hated brother, but he courageously returned on August 6th, -just in time to witness the actual death of his uncle. - -Ćneas Sylvius mounted the throne, under the name of Pius II., but -the Humanists looked in vain for favour to that genial diplomatist, -traveller, and _littérateur_. He had reached a gouty and repentant -age, and his one pre-occupation was to stir a lethargic Christendom -to a crusade against the Turks. Cardinal Rodrigo had been useful to -him, reserving a vacant benefice for him now and again, so he kept -his place and continued to win for himself wealthy bishoprics and -abbeys. For a moment, in 1460, Rodrigo trembled. Pius had sent him to -direct the building of a cathedral at Siena, and the Pope startled his -Vice-Chancellor with a stern letter. Rodrigo and another cardinal, the -Pope heard, had entertained a number of very frivolous young ladies for -five hours in a private garden. They had excluded the parents of these -girls, and there had been "dances of the most licentious character" and -other things which "modesty forbids to recount." It was the talk of the -town.[271] From the kind of dances and women which Alexander had in -the Vatican long afterwards we can imagine the things which startled -Siena. Rodrigo urged that there had been exaggeration, but the Pope, -while admitting the possibility of this, again sternly bade him mind -his behaviour. - -The long discussion of the morals of Alexander VI. has, in fact, -now ended in entire agreement that by the year 1460, at least, he -was openly immoral. The Papal and other documents relating to his -children--at least six in number--which have been found in the Vatican -archives and in the private archives of the Duke of Ossuna show an -extraordinary laxity at Rome. There is a Bull of Sixtus IV., dated -November 5, 1481, legitimizing the birth of Pedro Luis Borgia, "son -of a cardinal-deacon and an unmarried woman"; he is described as "a -young man," and was probably born about 1460. There is the marriage -contract of Girolama Borgia, dated 1482, which refers to the "paternal -love" of the Vice-Chancellor; she must then have been at least thirteen -years old. There is a document, dated October 1, 1480, dispensing from -the bar of illegitimacy Cćsar Borgia, "son of a cardinal-bishop and a -married woman"; and he is described as in his sixth year, or born about -1475. There is a deed of gift of Rodrigo to Juan Borgia, "his carnal -son," whose birth must fall either in 1474 or 1476. There are documents -referring to the celebrated Lucrezia, whose birth is generally put -in 1478, and to Jofre Borgia, who was born about 1480; and there are -documents from which we have--as we shall see later--the gravest -reason to conclude that the Pope had a son in 1497 or 1498, when he -approached his seventieth year. Except that a few hesitate, in face of -the strongest evidence, to admit the last child, no serious historian -of any school now questions these facts, and the evidence need not be -examined in detail.[272] - -At least four of these children were born of Vannozza (or Giovannozza) -dei Catanei, a Roman lady who was the Cardinal's mistress from about -1460 to 1486. The story that she was an orphan entrusted to his care -and seduced by him is not reliable. Nothing is confidently known about -her early years, but her epitaph has been discovered, and it honours -her, not only for her "signal probity and great piety," but because -she was the mother of Cćsar, Juan, Jofre, and Lucrezia Borgia. Pedro -Luis and Girolama may have been born of an earlier mistress, but it is -not at all certain. Vannozza, who married three times, is constantly -mentioned, by the ambassadors, as Borgia's mistress. She had a handsome -mansion near the Cardinal's palace and the Vatican, and she entertained -there and in her country house long after Borgia became Pope and -replaced her by a younger mistress. - -These monuments of parentage are almost the only evidences of the -existence of Cardinal Borgia under Pius II. and Paul II. In 1471 a -pious and learned Franciscan friar, Sixtus IV., assumed the tiara, -and it is an indication of the strange temper of the times that under -such a man the Papal Court became more corrupt than ever.[273] Sixtus -vigorously restored the secular rule of the Papacy and encouraged the -artistic and cultural development, but his nepotism was shameless -and profoundly harmful. One of the nephews whom he drew from the -obscurity of a Franciscan monastery and made a prince of the Church -was Pietro Riario, who spent 260,000 ducats,[274] and within two years -of his promotion wore out his life in the most flagrant dissipation. -His immense palace, with its magnificent treasures, its five hundred -servants in scarlet silk, and its prodigious banquets, was the home of -every species of vice; and it is said that his chief mistress, Tiresia, -flaunted eight hundred ducats' worth of pearls on her embroidered -slippers. Another nephew was the sterner, though also immoral, Cardinal -Giuliano della Rovere--also brought from a monastery--whom we shall -know as Julius II. Other cardinals promoted by the friar-Pope were -equally notorious for their indulgence and for the unscrupulous quest -of money to sustain it. - -From the Bulls of Sixtus which I have quoted, it is clear that he was -acquainted with the vices of Borgia, yet he sent him as legate to -Spain, to excite interest in the crusade, in the spring of 1472. In -spite of some compliments, it does not appear that Borgia did more than -impress his countrymen with his display and gallantry, and he returned -toward the close of 1473 and built one of the most stately palaces -in the rich quarter which was now rising round the Vatican. When -Sixtus died, in 1484, he made a resolute effort to get the tiara. The -dispatches of the ambassadors who now represented the northern States -at the Vatican afford us a valuable means of checking the chroniclers, -and they put it beyond question that Borgia and Giuliano della Rovere -entered upon a corrupt rivalry for the Papacy. Giuliano was now a -tall, serious-looking man of forty: reserved in speech and brusque in -manners, a good soldier and most ambitious courtier. Although he was -known to have children, he kept a comparatively sober household and -reserved his wealth for special occasions of display and for bribery. -Borgia was his senior by thirteen years, but he had the buoyancy, -gaiety, and sensuality of a young man. He, too, kept a moderate table -and gambled little, but his amours were notorious and one could not -please him better than by providing a ballet of handsome women. To -these wealthy "up-starts" the haughty Orsini and Colonna were bitterly -opposed, and the announcement of the death of Sixtus let loose a flood -of passion. The splendid mansion of Count Riario, another nephew of -the late Pope, was sacked, the Orsini entrenched themselves on Monte -Giordano, and the other cardinals filled their halls with armed men. - -In the Conclave it was soon apparent that neither Rodrigo nor Giuliano -could command the necessary two thirds of the votes, and they agreed to -adopt Cardinal Cibň, a Genoese noble who had outburned the passions of -youth before he entered the service of the Church. During the night of -August 28-29, when the supporters of Cardinal Barbo (who seemed to be -sure of election) had confidently retired to their cells, Rodrigo and -Giuliano, by intrigue and bribery, secured a majority for Cibň.[275] He -became Innocent VIII. the next morning, and during the eight years of -his amiable and futile Pontificate the College of Cardinals steadily -sank. Innocent's natural son was drawn from his decent obscurity and -made one of the richest and fastest nobles of Rome; and women were -hardly safe even in their own homes when Franceschetto Cibň roamed the -streets at night, with his cut-throats, in one of his wine-flushed -moods. He took so ardently to the new cardinalitial pastime of gambling -that in one night he lost 100,000 ducats to Cardinal Riario. Cardinal -la Balue left at his death a fortune of 100,000 ducats. Cardinal -Ascanio Sforza, brother of the ruler of Milan, was the leading -sportsman of Roman society. Cardinal Lorenzo Cibň owed his red hat -to the fortunate circumstance that he was an illegitimate son of the -Pope's brother. Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, who was one day to be -Leo X., had received the tonsure in his eighth year and the title -of cardinal in his fourteenth. Cardinals Savelli, Sclafenati, and -Sanseverino were members of the fast and luxurious group. Each cardinal -maintained a large palace, with hundreds of gay-liveried servants and -ready swordsmen, and the wealthier seem to have studied with care the -pages in which Macrobius describes the exquisite or colossal banquets -of the older pagans. Each--apart from the minority of grave and -virtuous cardinals--had his faction in the city, and, as carnival -time approached, they were engrossed for weeks in the preparation of -the superb cars and brilliant troops of horse by which each sought to -prove his superior fitness for the chair of Gregory I. and Gregory VII. -Innocent VIII. smiled; and the thunders gathered beyond the Alps. - -The state of Rome was in accord with the state of the Sacred College. -We may hesitate to believe Infessura when he tells us that, if -criminals were by some chance arrested, they bought their liberty at -the Vatican; but we have in Burchard's Diary a sombre, incidental -indication of the condition of Rome. There is in modern literature some -tendency to look with indulgent eye on the coloured gaiety of late -medićval Rome, but--to say nothing of the ideals which the cardinals -professed--the insecurity of life and property and the widespread -brutality show that this license was far removed from genuine Humanism. -Some years later, when Rodrigo's son Juan was murdered, a boatman -said, when they asked why he had not reported seeing a body cast into -the river, that it was not customary to have any inquiry made into a -nightly occurrence of that kind. Rodrigo Borgia, the Vice-Chancellor, -paid no heed to this condition of the city. He added year by year to -the long list of his bishoprics and emoluments, and prepared to renew -the struggle for the tiara. He lost, or discarded, Vannozza when she -married her third husband in 1486 and entered upon a more sordid and -equally notorious _liaison_. His cousin, Adriana Orsini, had charge -of a young orphan, Giulia Farnese, a very beautiful, golden-haired -girl. She married Adriana's son, Orso Orsini, in 1489--her fifteenth -year--and at the same time became the Cardinal's mistress. Adriana -was rewarded with a considerable influence and the charge of the young -Lucrezia Borgia.[276] - -The death of Innocent on July 25, 1492, led to fierce intrigue and -passionate encounters. There were more than two hundred murders in Rome -during the fourteen days before the Conclave, for which twenty-two -cardinals were, on August 6th, immured in the Sistine Chapel. Giuliano -della Rovere had spoiled his prospect by too patent a use of his -influence on Innocent VIII., and Borgia set himself to win the next -most important rival, Ascanio Sforza. Historians sometimes smile at -the statement of Infessura, that four mule-loads of silver passed from -Borgia's palace to that of Sforza, but it is not improbable. For some -centuries there had been a custom (abolished a few years later by Leo -X.) of sacking the palace of the cardinal who was elected Pope, and it -was not unusual to take precautions. Borgia may have sent the silver on -this pretext, as Infessura suggests, and he would hardly expect it to -be returned. It is, in fact, now certain that Sforza was bribed with -gifts far more valuable than Borgia's table silver; Borgia offered, -and afterwards gave him, his splendid palace, the Vice-Chancellorship, -the bishopric of Erlan (worth 10,000 ducats a year), and other -appointments. The sober Cardinal Colonna accepted the abbey of Subiaco -(or 2000 ducats a year). Eleven cardinals seem to have sold their -votes, and Borgia already had three supporters and his own vote. He -secured his majority and hastily retired behind the altar, where Papal -vestments of three sizes were laid out, and the genial Romans presently -roared their greetings to Alexander VI.[277] - -Rome and Italy then sustained their parts in the comedy. Alexander, -although now sixty years old, was a vigorous and capable man, and some -advantage would be expected from his Pontificate. But one's sense of -humour is excited when one reads in Burchard's Diary, or in the letter -(reproduced by Thuasne) written by the General of the Camaldolite -monks, the description of the rejoicings at Rome. After the coronation -at St. Peter's on August 27th, Alexander received, on the steps of the -great church, the greetings of the orators who represented the northern -cities. One wonders what was the countenance of the massed prelates -and nobles when the Genoese orator read: "Thou art so adorned with the -glory of virtue, the merit of discipline, the holiness of thy life ... -that we must hesitate to say whether it is more proper to offer thee to -the Pontificate or to offer that most sacred and glorious dignity to -thee." And, as Alexander passed in stately procession to the Lateran, -he read on the triumphal arches which adorned the route, such maxims -as "Chastity and Charity," and "Great was Rome under Cćsar, now is she -most great. Alexander the Sixth reigns: Cćsar was a man, this is a God." - -I make no apology for inserting these apparently trivial details in so -condensed a narrative. They, most of all, illumine the next momentous -phase of the history of the Papacy. In that year, 1492, a little -German boy, named Martin Luther, sat at his books in the remote town -of Mansfeld. - -Infessura records that Alexander opened his Pontificate with large -promises and small instalments of reform. He was going to improve the -condition of Rome and the Church, to pacify Italy, and to check the -Turks; he would remove his children from Rome and reduce the number of -sinecures at the Curia. He did, in fact, make a drastic beginning of -the administration of justice, and even appointed certain hours during -which he would himself hear grievances. Possibly he had a sincere mood -of reform; though we are not disposed to be charitable when we recall -the appalling levity with which, a few years later, after the murder of -his son, he returned to vicious ways. Whatever his initial mood was, he -soon entered upon courses which made his Pontificate one of the most -degraded in the annals of the Papacy. Modern research has discredited -some of the most romantic crimes attributed to him, but it leaves on -his memory an indictment which no eager search for good qualities can -materially lessen. - -He sustained the scandal of his personal conduct until the end of -his life, and I will dismiss it briefly. During the first four -years of his Pontificate, the youthful Giulia Orsini was his chief -_favorita_--others are occasionally mentioned with that title by the -ambassadors--and she was known to the wits of Rome as "the Spouse -of Christ." She and Adriana Orsini and Girolama (the Pope's elder -daughter) are described as "the heart and eyes of Alexander," and -suitors had to seek their favour. When Giulia's brother Alexander -received the red hat (Sept. 20, 1493), Rome gave the future Pope--who -was by no means without personal merit--the name of "The Petticoat -Cardinal." When her daughter Laura was born in 1497, the Pope was -generally believed to be the father; though that remains a mere rumour. -Pucci, in one of his dispatches, gives us a quaint picture. Giulia -lived in Lucrezia's palace, apart from her husband, and, when the -ambassador called one day in 1493, she dressed her long golden hair in -his presence, and insisted that he must see the baby; and he remarks -that the baby was "so very like the Pope that one can readily believe -he was the father." Giulia was an almost indispensable figure for some -years at the domestic (and even greater than domestic) festivities in -the Vatican, laughing with the cardinals at the prurient comedies and -still more prurient dances which enlivened the sacred palace.[278] - -The last child attributed to him, though not accepted by all the -authorities, seems to have been born in 1496 (his sixty-sixth year). -There is a document dated September 1, 1501, legitimizing a certain -Juan Borgia, but there are two versions of this document.[279] The -first version describes him as the child of Cćsar Borgia: the second -says that he was born "not of the said Duke, but of us [Alexander] and -the said married woman." Creighton made the singular suggestion that -possibly Alexander was giving prestige to an illegitimate offspring -of his son, but it is now agreed that the second version is the more -authentic; it was to be kept in reserve for some grave dispute of his -rights. The distinguished Venetian Senator Sanuto tells us[280] that, -according to letters received from the Venetian ambassador at Rome -and from private persons, the Pope had, about this time, a child by a -married Roman lady, with the connivance of her father, and that the -angry husband slew his father-in-law and stuck his head on a pole, -with the inscription: "Head of my father-in-law, who prostituted his -daughter to the Pope." These concurrent testimonies are grave. Most -historians now rightly reject the charge that Alexander was intimate -with his daughter Lucrezia, since it rests only on bitterly hostile -Neapolitan gossip; but we cannot so easily set aside the persistent -statements of the ambassadors that a new _favorita_ appears at the -Vatican from time to time. These were sometimes ladies of Lucrezia's -suite. - -Lucrezia, a merry, childish-looking, golden-haired girl, with her -father's high spirits and constant smile, is not likely to have -remained virtuous in such surroundings, but there is no serious -evidence of incest. Before her father's election she was betrothed -to a Spanish youth of moderate family, but her father cancelled the -espousals and married her, at the Vatican, in 1493, to Giovanni Sforza. -She was then, it is calculated, fifteen years old. Twelve cardinals -and a hundred and fifty of the great ladies of Rome attended the -wedding; and some of the prettier ladies remained to sup with the Pope -and cardinals, and applaud the loose comedies he provided. Giulia and -Lucrezia were present. When the Pope's policy estranged him from Milan, -he forced Lucrezia's husband to swear that the marriage had not been -consummated, and dissolved it. It seems probable that Giovanni, in -revenge, then put into circulation the suggestion of incest. Lucrezia -married Alfonso of Naples, who was murdered by her brother in 1500. -She then married the son of the Duke of Ferrara: and there is perhaps -no more terrible indictment of the Papal Court under Alexander than -the fact that, when his daughter was removed from it to Ferrara, -she earned, and kept until her death, a just repute for virtue and -benevolence. - -These marriages introduce us to Alexander's political activity, on -which some recent historians have passed a somewhat lenient judgment. -Apart, however, from the treachery and brutality with which his aims -were often enforced, we shall find that at his death he left the -Papacy almost landless and impoverished, and we must conclude that his -chief objects were his personal security and the aggrandizement of his -children. - -At the time of Alexander's accession, the duchy of Milan was improperly -held by Lodovico Sforza, brother of the Cardinal Ascanio, who sought -to convert his temporary regency into a permanent sovereignty. In -this ambition he had the support of France, while Ferrante of Naples -endeavoured to enforce the claim of the rightful Duke, Giovanni -Galeazzo. Alexander's indebtedness to Ascanio bound him at once to -the Sforzas, and the imprudence of Ferrante in helping his commander, -Virginio Orsini, to purchase from the nephew of the late Pope certain -towns which Alexander regarded as Papal fiefs, gave him an occasion -for animosity. Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere was implicated in this -sale, and when the Pope angrily rebuked him, he fled to Ostia and -fortified that commanding town. Alarmed at this cohesion of his enemies -and the support of their designs by Florence, Alexander entered into -a counter-league with Milan, Venice, Siena, Ferrara, and Mantua, and -married his daughter to Giovanni Sforza. Ferrante, however, appealed -to Spain, submitting (with the support of Cardinal della Rovere) that -the corrupt election and profligate life of Alexander demanded the -attention of a General Council, and the Pope sought a compromise. The -matter of the towns in Romagna was adjusted, Alexander's son Jofre was -betrothed to an illegitimate daughter of Alfonso of Calabria, and his -younger son, Juan, Duke of Gandia, was wedded to a Spanish princess. -Cćsar was destined for the Church and was made a cardinal on September -20, 1493. As Alexander had sworn before his election not to create -new cardinals, and now calmly absolved himself from his promise and -promoted several, the hostile cardinals again angrily deserted him. - -Ferrante died on January 27, 1494, and the Pope had to confront a -delicate problem. France, instigated by Milan, pressed a claim to -the kingdom of Naples, and Alfonso II. demanded the investiture in -succession to Ferrante. Charles of France refused to be consoled with -the Golden Rose which Alexander sent him in refusing to recognize his -claim to Naples, and he threatened a General Council or a separation -of the French Church. When Alexander proceeded to take Ostia by force, -driving Cardinal Giuliano to France, and sent Cćsar to crown Alfonso -at Naples, the French monarch announced that he would lead his army -into Italy in order to recover Naples, to reform the Church, and to -conquer the Turks. The latter purpose furnished the Pope with a pretext -for a disgraceful move. Djem, the brother of the Sultan Bajazet, had -been enjoying the dissipations of Rome since 1489, and Bajazet paid -the Papacy 40,000 ducats a year to keep his younger brother in this -gilded captivity. Since Alexander's accession, Bajazet had refused -to pay the fee, and the Pope now wrote to the Sultan to say that the -King of France was coming to seize Djem and make him the pretext for -a war on the Turks; Bajazet must at once send 40,000 ducats to enable -him to resist the French. The Sultan sent the money, but his and the -Pope's envoy were captured by Cardinal della Rovere's brother, and were -relieved of the money and the Sultan's letter. When this letter was -published, Christendom learned with horror that the Sultan had offered -its Pope 300,000 ducats if he would have Djem assassinated.[281] - -Of the war which followed little need be said. As the victorious French -advanced, Alexander tremblingly vacillated. At one moment he imprisoned -the pro-French cardinals, and then released them; and at another moment -he packed his treasures for flight, and then decided to meet the French -King. Alfonso bewailed that the Pope's arm was too weak or too cowardly -to launch an anathema against the invader. In the end the Pope met and -disarmed Charles. To the intense disgust of Giuliano della Rovere, -who had come with the King in expectation of the tiara, he persuaded -Charles that an Italian, even in the chair of Peter, could hardly -be expected to lead a saintly life; and to the equal indignation of -Alfonso he, while refusing to recognize Charles's claim to the throne -of Naples, abandoned the Neapolitan alliance and gave his son Cćsar as -a hostage of his good behaviour. With similar treachery to the Sultan -he abandoned Djem to Charles, yet stipulated that the yearly 40,000 -ducats should still go to the Papal treasury.[282] - -Charles took Naples, and soon learned that the versatile Pope had, -behind his back, entered into a league against him with Maximilian of -Germany, Ferdinand of Spain, Venice, and Lodovico Sforza. Alexander -prudently quitted Rome when the French King returned, and flung after -him a feeble threat of anathema, as he was cutting his way through the -allies. But by the aggrandizement of his family he made an evil use -of the peace which followed. Cćsar was made legate for Naples and his -nephew Juan legate for Perugia; and to his favourite son Juan, Duke of -Gandia, he assigned the important Papal fief of the duchy of Benevento, -to be held by him and his heirs for ever. Even loyal cardinals grumbled -at the scandal, while the outspoken and more distant critics spread in -every country the story of his private life. Alexander, delivered from -the menace both of France and Naples, cast aside all restraint. But his -gaiety was soon darkened by a grave tragedy, and it is, perhaps, the -most precise and most damning characterization of the man to record -that even this appalling catastrophe, occurring near the close of his -seventh decade of life, did not disturb for more than a few months the -licentious course of his conduct. - -On June 14, 1497, Vannozza gave a banquet to her sons and a few -friends in the suburbs. Cćsar and Juan returned to the city together, -and were joined by a masked man who had for some weeks been seen in -communication with the young Duke. Juan left his brother with a light -hint that he had an assignation, and the same night he was murdered and -his body thrown into the Tiber. We are as far as contemporaries were -from identifying the murderer. That it was Cćsar Borgia few serious -historians now believe. That suggestion did not arise until nine -months after the murder, and the motives alleged are not convincing. -It is more plausibly claimed that the Sforzas and the Orsini adopted -this means of striking at the heart of the Pontiff, but it is equally -possible that Juan incurred the penalty of some dangerous seduction. -I am concerned only with Alexander. Appalled by this sudden clouding -of his prosperity, the Pope summoned his cardinals and announced with -tears that he would remove his children from Rome and abandon his -corrupt ways. Six cardinals were at once appointed to draw up a scheme -of Church-reform, and the draft of a Bull, which is still to be seen -in the Vatican archives, shows with what devotion Cardinals Costa and -Caraffa and their colleagues applied themselves to the long-desired -task. But before the end of the year Alexander had returned to his -vices and abandoned the idea of reform. He informed the cardinals -that he wished to release Cćsar from membership of their College, in -order that he might be free to contract an exalted marriage and pursue -his ambition; and it was then (December, 1497) that he brought about -the shameless divorce of Lucrezia from Giovanni Sforza. The Vatican -chambers resumed their nightly gaiety. - -The Orsini and the Colonna now buried their ancient and deadly feud and -united with Naples, and the demand for a General Council was ominously -echoed in Germany and Spain. Alexander sought at first a counterpoise -in Naples, and wished to marry Cćsar and Lucrezia into the family of -Alfonso. After some hesitation, and with marked reluctance, Alfonso -II. gave his natural son Alfonso to Lucrezia, but he refused, in -spite of the political advantage, to degrade his daughter Carlotta -by a marriage with Cćsar. It is not immaterial to observe that Cćsar -had, like four other cardinals of the Church, contracted the "French -disease" which was then so fiercely punishing the vice of Italy. It -happened that at that time Louis XII. sought a divorce, and, at first -in the hope of bringing pressure on Naples, Cćsar, after resigning the -cardinalate on August 17th, was sent to gratify and impress the French -Court. Even Giuliano della Rovere, who lived quietly at Avignon, was -induced to enter the intrigue. Carlotta and her father still disdained -the connexion, but Louis offered Cćsar his young and beautiful niece, -Charlotte d'Albret, and the counties of Valentinois and Diois. They -were married on May 22d (1499), and the Papal policy entered upon a new -phase. - -The Papacy and Venice, preferring their selfish interests to the -welfare of Italy, allied themselves with France, and for the hundredth -time an invading army descended upon the plains of Lombardy. Spain and -Portugal were now angrily threatening to have the Pope--who, with equal -warmth, accused Isabella herself of unchastity--tried by a General -Council for his scandalous actions, and he and Cćsar formed the design -of establishing, with the aid of the French, a strong principality -for Cćsar in central Italy. The Neapolitan alliance was discarded, -and Bulls were issued to the effect that the Lords of Rimini, Pesaro, -Imola, Faenza, Forli, Urbino, and Camerino had failed to discharge -their feudal duties to the Papacy and had forfeited their fiefs. The -victorious progress of Cćsar in these territories was checked for a -time by a revolt at Milan, but that city was retaken by the French in -1500. The successful Jubilee of 1500, which at one time drew 100,000 -pilgrims to Rome, filled the coffers and helped to exalt the spirit -of the Pope. His character, indeed, seemed to become more buoyant and -defiant as his age advanced. During that year he had a narrow escape -from death, owing to the fall of the roof of the Sala de' Pape, and -Lucrezia's husband was cut to pieces in his chamber by the soldiers, -and at the command, of Cćsar. These events hardly dimmed the joy of -the Pope. Cćsar received the Golden Rose and was made Gonfaloniere -of the Church; and he was permitted to appropriate a large share of -the Jubilee funds and to exact large sums from the cardinals whom -the Pope promoted in 1500. Meantime, the ambassadors relate, Giulia -Orsini retained her influence over the seventy-year old Pope, and other -_favorite_ made a transient appearance at the Vatican. - -The next two years were employed in the establishment of Cćsar's power -in Romagna and the reduction of the Pope's personal enemies. Louis of -France and Ferdinand of Spain drew up their famous, or infamous, scheme -for the partition of Naples, and Alexander conveniently discovered -for them, and proclaimed in a Bull, that Federigo of Naples had, by -an alliance with the Turks, become a traitor to Christendom. The -fall of Naples involved the ruin of the Colonna, and they and the -Savelli were condemned to lose their estates for rebellion against -the Holy See. From part of these estates the Pope formed the duchy of -Sermoneta for Lucrezia's two-year-old son, Rodrigo, and the duchy of -Nepi was bestowed on his own infant son Juan. Alexander next turned -his attention to Ferrara, and, when Venice and Florence forbade him -to attack it, he arranged a marriage of the widowed Lucrezia with -the Duke's son Alfonso: overcoming the abhorrence of the proud Este -family by the influence of Louis XII. and by a grant to the Duke of all -Church-dues in Ferrara for three years. From Ferrara, when it fell to -his sister, Cćsar would have a comparatively easy march on Bologna, if -not Florence. - -So the year 1501 ended in such rejoicings as the fortune of the Borgia -family inspired. At the date October 11, 1501, Burchard dispassionately -notes in his diary that the Pope was unable to attend to his spiritual -duties, but was not prevented from enjoying, in the Vatican, a -"chestnut dance" and other performances of fifty nude courtesans whom -Cćsar introduced.[283] Lucrezia, whose purity some recent writers -are eager to vindicate, was present with her father and brother. On -December 30th she was married. Alexander gave her the finest set of -pearls in Europe and 100,000 ducats; and for a week Rome enjoyed such -spectacles and bull-fights as had not been seen for years. Within the -Vatican such comedies as the _Menćchmi_ of Plautus were enacted before -the Pope and his family and cardinals. Even tolerant Italy now broke -into caustic criticisms, and Cćsar replied vigorously by the daggers of -his followers. The Pope genially urged him to let men talk. - -The last phase is, in its way, not less repulsive. By heartless -treachery and brilliant fighting Cćsar spread his sway over central -Italy and Alexander watched and spurred his progress. The Pope's -attendants had to endure unaccustomed fits of anger and abuse when his -son did not advance rapidly enough. He treacherously arrested Cardinal -Orsini; and the Cardinal's aged mother, who was ejected from her -palace, had to send to the Pope (by Orsini's mistress) a magnificent -pearl which Alexander coveted before she was allowed to provide her -son with decent food. Cardinal Orsini died, and his property was -confiscated. Cardinal Michiel died, and his fortune of 150,000 ducats -was appropriated. The College of Cardinals trembled and the famous -legend of the Borgia poison spread over Italy.[284] Nine new cardinals, -mostly of unworthy character, were created and are said to have paid -130,000 ducats for the dignity, and 64,000 ducats were raised by -inventing new offices in the Curia. Alexander, although seventy-two -years old, was in robust health, and looked forward to years of -pleasure under the protection of his victorious son. And one night in -the unhealthy heat of August (the 5th or 6th) he and Cćsar sat late -at supper with Cardinal Adriano da Corneto. Romance has it that the -poisoned wine they intended for their host was served to them: modern -history is content with the known malaria of an autumn night.[285] On -August 18th Alexander died, and both Cćsar and Cardinal Adriano were -seriously ill. - -Of other actions of Alexander his connexion with Savonarola alone -demands some consideration, and it must be treated briefly. On July -25, 1495, Alexander, in friendly terms, summoned Savonarola to Rome -to give an account of the prophetic gifts he claimed. Alexander was -very tolerant of criticisms of his vices, except where they might -provoke kings to summon a council, and it is probable that he wished -to silence the politician rather than the preacher; Savonarola -vigorously supported the idea of an alliance of Florence with France, -which the Pope opposed. Savonarola evaded the summons to Rome, and -the Pope suspended him from preaching and endeavoured to destroy his -authority by joining the San Marco convent to the Lombard Congregation. -Savonarola defeated the Pope on the latter point, and on February 11, -1496, he returned to his pulpit, in defiance of the Pope's order and -at the command of the Signoria of Florence. In explanation of his act -he urged that Alexander's Brief was based on false information and -invalid, and he denounced Roman corruption more freely than ever. -Alexander, in November, directed that a new congregation should be -formed out of the Roman and Tuscan convents,[286] and when Savonarola -and his monks again defeated the project, the Pope had recourse to -secular measures. - -A mind like that of the exalted and feverish preacher was not likely -to escape error and exaggeration in such circumstances, and his -opponents in Florence made progress. Alexander now offered the coveted -possession of Pisa to the Signoria if they would desert Savonarola -and the idea of a French alliance. The monk was forbidden by the -authorities to preach, and his defiance of the Signoria as well as the -Papacy led to disorders of which the Pope took advantage to publish a -sentence of excommunication (June 18, 1497). Alexander had meantime -again listened to entreaties of delay and inquiry, but when he heard -that the monk defied his anathema he said that the sentence must take -its course. Up to this point the Pope had, in view of the very strong -support which Savonarola had at Florence, proceeded with moderation, -though we may resent the insincerity of his attack; it was not the -prophecies, but the policy and the puritanism, of Savonarola which -interested him. He complained bitterly to the Florentine ambassadors of -Savonarola's attacks on himself and the cardinals, and was, as always, -alarmed by the monk's demand of a General Council. However, the monk, -not realizing the progress made by his enemies, struck a louder note -of defiance, and on the plea of the public disorders to which he gave -rise, he was arrested and put on trial. Alexander willingly granted -the authorities a tithe on the ecclesiastical property at Florence -when they announced the arrest. The sensitive monk was, by torture, -driven into some vague disavowal of his supernatural pretensions, and -he and two other friars were, on May 23, 1498, hanged by the Florentine -authorities as "heretics, schismatics, and contemners of the Holy -See." The sentence, however corruptly obtained, was technically just, -since in the legislation of the time contumacious defiance of the -Papacy implied heresy; but the respective positions of Savonarola and -Alexander VI. in the history of religious progress are a sufficient -monument to the bravery and inflexibility of the great Florentine -puritan. - -There are few good deeds to be put in the scale against the crimes and -vices of Alexander VI. He made a considerable, though futile, effort -to rouse Christendom against the advancing Turks. He fortified Sant' -Angelo, and engaged Pinturicchio to decorate the Vatican apartments. -He pressed the propagation of the faith in the New World, ordered the -examination and authorization of printed books, endeavoured to check -heresy in Bohemia, and vigorously defended the rights of the Church -in the Netherlands. These things cannot alter our estimate of his -character. He was a selfish voluptuary of--in view of his position--the -most ignoble type; he countenanced and employed fraud, treachery, and -crime; and the condition in which we shall soon find the Papacy will -show that his policy had not the redeeming merit of effecting the -security of the institution over which he ignominiously presided. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 271: The letter is given in Raynaldus, _Annales -Ecclesiastici_, year 1460, n. 31, and is translated in Bishop Mathew's -_Life and Times of Rodrigo Borgia_ (1912), p. 35. It is misrepresented -in Baron Corvo's _Chronicles of the House of Borgia_ (1901, p. 64). -The chief apologist for Alexander, A. Leonetti (_Papa Alessandro VI._, -1880), made the easy suggestion that the letter was a forgery, but -Cardinal Hergenroether found the original in the Vatican archives. -See the able essay by Comte H. de L'Épinois (another Catholic writer) -in the _Revue des Questions Historiques_ (April 1, 1881), p. 367. He -shows, by the use of original documents, that the apologetic efforts -of Ollivier, Leonetti, and a few others, are futile. Of these efforts -the leading Catholic historian of the Papacy, Dr. L. Pastor, observes: -"In the face of such a perversion of the truth, it is the duty of the -historian to show that the evidence against Rodrigo is so strong as to -render it impossible to restore his reputation" (_The History of the -Popes_, ii., 542).] - -[Footnote 272: The decisive documents, from the archives of the Duke of -Ossuna, are published by Thuasne in his edition of Burchard's _Diarium_ -(Appendix to vol. iii.). Dr. Pastor (ii., 453) has a good summary -of them, and there is other evidence in the _Lucrezia Borgia_ of -Gregorovius. See also the essay of Comte H. de L'Épinois, quoted above, -and "Don Rodrigo de Borja und seine Söhne," by C.R. von Höfler, in the -_Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften_, Bd. 73. -The chief original authorities are J. Burchard (_Diarium_, edited by -Thuasne, 3 vols., 1884) and S. Infessura (_Diario_, in Muratori, iii.), -and the despatches of the Italian ambassadors at Rome. Burchard and -Infessura are gossipy and hostile, and must be controlled. Recent works -on the Borgias are too apt to reproduce lightly the romantic statements -of later Italian historians or contemporary Neapolitan enemies. The -work of Bishop Mathew, to which I have referred, is less judicious than -his volume on Hildebrand. Bishop Creighton's _History of the Papacy_ -is rather too indulgent to Alexander and needs supplementing by the -documents in Pastor and Thuasne.] - -[Footnote 273: M. Brosch, the scholarly author of a study of Julius -II. (_Papst Julius II._, 1878), observes that research in the Rovere -archives has discovered no trace of the Paolo Riario who is assigned -as the father of Sixtus's nephews, and concludes that they were his -natural sons. But Paolo Riario is expressly mentioned in the funeral -oration on Cardinal Pietro Riario, and is more fully described in Leone -Cobelli's _Cronache Forlivesi_. There is no sound reason to impeach the -chastity of this Pope, as even Creighton does.] - -[Footnote 274: The gold ducat is estimated at about ten shillings of -English money, but probably this does not express its full purchasing -power.] - -[Footnote 275: See the dispatches quoted in Thuasne's Burchard, vol. -ii.] - -[Footnote 276: I may repeat that I am not reproducing disputed -statements, or relying on uncertain chronicles, in these chapters. The -evidence may be examined in Thuasne, Pastor, L'Épinois, Creighton, -Gregorovius, and von Reumont (_Geschichte der Stadt Rom_, 3 vols., -1867-8).] - -[Footnote 277: See the evidence in Thuasne (ii., 610), L'Épinois (pp. -389-91), and Pastor (v., 382). A writer in the _American Catholic -Quarterly Review_ (1900, p. 262) observes: "That Borgia secured his -election through the rankest simony is a fact too well authenticated to -admit a doubt."] - -[Footnote 278: Again I may refer to the convenient summaries of the -evidence in Pastor (v., 417), L'Épinois (398), Gregorovius (Appendix, -no. 11, etc.), and Creighton (iv., 203).] - -[Footnote 279: There are copies, reproduced by Gregorovius, in the -archives at the Vatican, at Modena, and at Ossuna.] - -[Footnote 280: _Diarii_ (ed. F. Stefani), i., 369.] - -[Footnote 281: Alexander said that the letter published was a forgery, -and some historians have sought to prove this by internal evidence. It -is the general feeling of recent authorities that the letter is, at -least in substance, genuine. See Creighton (iv., Appendix 9) and Pastor -(v., 429).] - -[Footnote 282: Djem died shortly afterwards, and it was rumoured that -Alexander had earned the 300,000 ducats by administering a slow poison -before he left Rome. But the better authorities tell us that the -weakened and dissolute youth contracted a chill and died of bronchitis.] - -[Footnote 283: _Diarium_, iii., 167. The details of this dance, -which Burchard describes, and of the orgy which followed, may not -be translated. It is absurd to question Burchard's evidence on this -matter; he was then Master of Ceremonies at the Papal Court and -describes every move of the Pope. The Papal servants took part in the -performance, and he could easily learn the details. The Florentine and -other ambassadors speak of Cćsar repeatedly introducing these women -into the Vatican at night.] - -[Footnote 284: There is, as Pastor and Creighton admit, grave reason to -think that Orsini and Michiel were poisoned, but charges of this kind -are difficult to check, and certainly there is a good deal of romance -in the Borgia legend. The death-rate of cardinals under Alexander was -not more than normal. See Baron Corvo's _Chronicles of the House of -Borgia_ (1901), and R. Sabatini's _Life of Cesare Borgia_ (1911).] - -[Footnote 285: The poison theory is not mentioned by Burchard or the -chief ambassadors, and is positively advanced only by Neapolitan or -later writers. No historian seems now to entertain it. Alexander's -illness, which lasted thirteen days, followed a course more consistent -with malaria, and the very rapid decomposition of his body, which seems -to have impressed Lord Acton, is not inexplicable at that season.] - -[Footnote 286: Savonarola was head of the Tuscan Congregation of the -Dominican Order, and these proposals--which were inspired by jealous -colleagues at Rome--aimed at putting him under a new and hostile -jurisdiction.] - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -JULIUS II.: THE FIGHTING POPE - - -The single merit which sober historians award to Alexander VI. is that, -in forming a powerful principality for his son in central Italy, he was -re-establishing the States of the Church and ensuring the protection -of the Papacy. The course of events after his death prevents us from -acknowledging this claim, and Alexander himself must have been well -aware that Cćsar Borgia would, if his State endured, protect the Papacy -only on condition that he might continue to dominate it. He told -Machiavelli that he had made ample preparation to secure his position -at the death of his father, but his own illness wrecked his plans. This -is untrue. He was quite able to direct his servants and at his father's -death they began to enforce his blustering policy. Some forced their -way, at the point of the dagger, to the Papal treasury, and carried off -the money and plate left by the Pope: leaving his enormous debts to his -successor. Others sought to intimidate the cardinals. But Cćsar's power -in the North at once began to crumble, his enemies gathered in force -from all sides, and he was defeated. The cardinals would not assemble -until his troops, and those of France, Spain, and Venice, withdrew from -Rome. - -The chief contest in the Conclave, which began on September 16th, lay -between the French Cardinal D'Amboise and Giuliano della Rovere, who -returned from Avignon. Neither could secure the necessary majority, -and Cardinal Piccolomini, nephew of Pius II., was chosen to occupy the -throne until a stronger man could prevail. The more luxurious cardinals -may have smiled at the rejoicing with which reformers greeted the -aged and virtuous Pius III., for they knew that he suffered from an -incurable malady. He died, in fact, ten days after his coronation, or -on October 18th, and the struggle was renewed. Giuliano della Rovere -now pushed his ambition with equal energy and unscrupulousness. He -promised Cćsar Borgia, who controlled the extensive Spanish vote, that -he would respect his possessions and make him Gonfaloniere of the -Church[287]; he distributed money among the cardinal-voters; he agreed -to the capitulation that whoever was elected should summon a council -for the purpose of reform within two years, and should not make war on -any Power without the consent of two thirds of the cardinals. He worked -so well that the Conclave, which met on October 31st, was one of the -shortest in the history of the Papacy. Within three hours the sealed -window was broken open and the election of Julius II. was announced. - -We have in the last chapter followed the romantic early career of -Giuliano della Rovere. He was born on December 5, 1443, at Albizzola, -near Savona, of a poor and obscure family. His uncle, being first a -professor and then General of the Franciscan Order, sent him to be -educated in one of the monasteries of that Order. Some historians -strangely doubt whether he actually took the religious vows, but it -was assuredly not the custom of the friars to keep young men in their -monasteries to the age of twenty-eight unless they were members of -the fraternity. At that age (in 1471) Fra Giuliano and his cousin Fra -Pietro heard that their uncle had become Sixtus IV., and they were -raised to the cardinalate. - -Giuliano did not emulate the vices which carried off his younger cousin -within two years. He "lived much as the other prelates of that day -did," says Guicciardini, in a sober estimate of his character, and his -three known daughters confirm the great historian of the time; but -he kept a comparatively moderate palace and spent money on a refined -patronage of art and culture. He displayed some military talent when -he commanded the Papal troops in Umbria in 1474, and afterwards served -as Legate in France (1476) and the Netherlands (1480). He, as we saw, -maintained his position after his uncle's death by corruptly ensuring -the election of Innocent VIII. and exercising a paramount influence -over that Pontiff. His power inflamed the animosity of his rivals, and -at the accession of Alexander VI. he was driven from Italy. From his -quiet retreat in Avignon he instigated the French monarch to invade -Italy and depose Alexander, and, when Alexander gracefully disarmed -Charles, Giuliano returned in disgust to Avignon. It is true that -in 1499 he rendered some service to Alexander, in connexion with -Cćsar's marriage, but he felt it safer to remain in Avignon until -the announcement of Alexander's death recalled his many enemies to -Rome.[288] - -In 1503, at the date of his election, Julius II. had long outlived his -early irregularities, and had no personal vices beyond a fiery temper -and a taste for wine which his enemies magnified into a scandal. The -familiar portrait by Raphael brings him closer to us than any of the -Pontiffs whom we have yet considered. He was then in his sixtieth year, -with a scanty sprinkling of grey locks on his massive head, and with an -aspect of energy and determination which must have been lessened by the -long white beard he grew in later life. Though troubled--like most of -the Popes of this period--with gout, he was still erect and dignified, -and the cardinals, who had hardly seen him for ten years, can have had -little suspicion of the volcanic fires which were concealed by his -habitual silence and quiet enjoyment of culture. They soon learned -that they had created a master, and they lamented that he united the -manners of a peasant with the vigour of a soldier. He consulted none, -and he lavished epithets on those who lingered in the execution of his -commands. Yet this brusque and abusive soldier was destined, not merely -to place the Papal States on a surer foundation than ever, but to do -far more even than Leo X. for the artistic enhancement of Rome. - -The supreme aim which Julius held in view from the beginning of -his Pontificate was the restoration of the Papal possessions, but I -may dismiss first the actions or events which have a more personal -relation. He heard or said mass daily, and paid a strict regard to -his ecclesiastical duties. He reorganized the administration of the -city and the Campagna, suppressed disorder, purified the tribunals, -reformed the coinage, and in many other respects corrected the vices of -his predecessor, whom he had loathed. These _marańas_ (half-converted -Spanish Jews), as he called the Borgias, had fouled Italy with their -presence. He improved the Papal table, which had been singularly -poor under Alexander, but the vicious parasites whom Alexander had -encouraged now shrank from the Vatican. At first he indulged the -characteristic Papal weakness, nepotism. At his first Consistory -(November 29, 1503) two of the four cardinals promoted were members -of his family--his uncle and nephew--and two years later he married -his natural daughter Felicia to one of the Orsini, his niece Lucrezia -to one of the Colonna, and his nephew Niccolň della Rovere to Giulia -Orsini's daughter Laura. One cannot say, as some historians do, -that he was no nepotist; though one may admit that, in the words of -Guicciardini, "he did not carry nepotism beyond due bounds." To the -obligations he had contracted in bargaining for the Papacy he was quite -unscrupulously blind, and, although he issued a drastic Bull against -simony in 1505 (January 14th), his grand plans imposed on him such an -expenditure that he even increased the sale of offices and indulgences -until the annual income of the Papacy rose to 350,000 ducats. - -Julius at once made it plain that he was not only determined to -recover the Papal States, but would override any moral obligation or -sentimental prejudice in the pursuit of his object. The treasury was -empty, and he had contracted, at the price of several Spanish votes, -to respect the person and possessions of Cćsar Borgia. But Venice had -encouraged the petty lords of Romagna to recover the places which Cćsar -had wrested from them, and itself had designs on some of the towns. -Grasping the pretext that the whole of Romagna was thus in danger, -Julius summoned Cćsar to surrender the remaining strongholds to the -Church. When Cćsar refused, he found himself a prisoner of the Pope, -instead of Gonfaloniere of his troops, and he seems to have been dazed -by the sudden collapse of his brilliant fortune. Spain withdrew the -Spanish mercenaries from Cćsar's service, Venice occupied Faenza and -Rimini, and most of his towns cast off their enforced allegiance. -After a futile struggle with the Pope the fallen prince surrendered to -Julius his three remaining towns--Cesena, Forli, and Bertinoro--and was -allowed to retire to Naples. There, at the treacherous instigation of -the Pope,[289] he was arrested and sent to Spain. He escaped from Spain -two years afterwards, and died in 1507, fighting in a petty war on a -foreign soil. - -Venice, now at the height of her power and flushed with wealth and -conquest, paid little heed when, in the winter of 1503-4, Julius made -repeated demands for the restoration of the places she had seized in -Romagna. She had, she said, not taken them from the Church, and the -Church would, if she restored them, hand them to some other "nephew." -The Venetian ambassador at Rome seems to have miscalculated entirely -the energy of the Pope, and Venice probably thought that her support -of his candidature and his lack of troops and resources promised a -profitable compromise; nor can we wonder if statesmen failed at times -to see the justice of the Roman contention, that seizure by the sword -was a legitimate title in princes who gave cities to the Church but -wholly invalid in princes who took them from the Church. Venice offered -to pay tribute for the towns which had been Papal fiefs. This Julius -sharply refused, and he appealed to France, Spain, and the Emperor to -assist him. Toward the close of the year (September 22, 1504) Louis -and Maximilian concluded an agreement at Blois to join Julius against -Venice, but a quarrel destroyed the compact, and Julius had again to -deal with Venice. The Venetians surrendered all but Faenza and Rimini, -and Julius, with a protest that the retention of these towns was -unjustified, resumed amicable relations with them. - -The Pope's next move has won the admiration of many historians, though -it has prompted so liberal a judge as Creighton to exclaim that "his -cynical consciousness of political wrong-doing" is "as revolting as -the frank unscrupulousness of Alexander VI." During the period of -disintegration of the Papal States the Baglioni had mastered Perugia -and the Bentivogli had taken possession of Bologna. Julius had at his -accession confirmed the position at Bologna, but in the spring of -1506 he resolved to recover both cities. France and Spain hesitated -to lend their aid for this project, and on August 26th he impetuously -ended the slow negotiations by sending a peremptory order to France -to assist him and setting out at the head of his troops. With only -five hundred horse--though he had sent on an envoy to engage Swiss -mercenaries--Julius and nine of his cardinals set out on the long -march to Perugia. At Orvieto his anxiety found some relief. Giampaolo -Baglione, realizing the force which the Pope would eventually command, -came to surrender Perugia, and at the beginning of September Julius -sang a solemn mass in the Franciscan convent at Perugia which had -once been his home. His energy was now fully aroused, in spite of -the discouragement of the word sent by Louis XII. It is said that he -already talked of leading his valiant troops against the Turks when -he had settled the affairs of Italy. He crossed the hills, in bleak -early-winter weather, in spite of gout, at the head of his 2500 men, -and boldly sent on to Bentivoglio a sentence of excommunication and -interdict. Bentivoglio--more deeply moved by the approach of 4000 -French soldiers--fled, and, again without striking a blow, the Pope -entered Bologna in triumph on November 11th.[290] After spending five -months in the reorganization of government he returned to Rome on March -28th (1507) and enjoyed a magnificent ovation. It may give a juster -idea of his mental power to add that he had already (on April 18, 1506) -laid the first stone of the new St. Peter's designed on so vast a scale -by Bramante. - -Three months after his return to Rome Julius had fresh and grave reason -for anxiety. France and Spain had composed their differences, and in -June of that year Ferdinand was to sail from Naples to meet the French -King at Savona. Julius moved down to Ostia to greet him, and must have -been profoundly disturbed when the galley conveying Ferdinand and -his young French wife passed the port without a word. He would hear -that the two Kings held long and secret conferences at Savona, and -that among the five cardinals with them was D'Amboise, Louis's chief -minister, who still hungered for the tiara of which Julius had robbed -him. There had for some time been bad news from France. Louis was -reported as saying: "The Rovere are a peasant family; nothing but the -stick on his back will keep the Pope in order." Julius sent Cardinal -Pallavicino to Savona, but he was not admitted to the counsels of the -monarchs. It was rumoured that they meditated the reform of the Church: -which meant a council and an inquiry into the election of Julius II. - -Papal diplomacy, which, when Papal interests were endangered, never -considered "Italian independence," for a moment now dictated an -alliance with the Emperor-elect, Maximilian, who had himself proposed -to come to Rome for his coronation. There are vague indications that -that dreamy monarch already entertained the idea of uniting the tiara -with the imperial crown on his own head.[291] However that may be, -Julius sent Cardinal Carvajal to dissuade him from coming to Rome, -to bring about an alliance of the Christian Powers against the Turks -(which would disarm Ferdinand and Louis as regards Julius), and to -enter into a special alliance with France and Germany against Venice. -The Papal envoy Aretini told the Venetian envoy that, when the danger -to Italy from an alliance of Louis and Maximilian was pointed out, -Julius exclaimed: "Perish the whole of Italy provided I get my -way."[292] The proposal was, at all events, treacherous; for both -Julius and Maximilian had treaties of peace with Venice. But the age of -which Machiavelli has codified the guiding principles was insensible -to considerations of political honesty. Maximilian attacked Venice and -was defeated, because she had the support of France. Then France was -poisoned against the prosperous Republic, and the League of Cambrai was -formed on December 10, 1508: Maximilian, Louis, and Ferdinand entered -into a secret alliance for the destruction of Venice, and the Pope, as -well as the Kings of England and Hungary, were invited to join in the -act of brigandage. - -It is clear that Julius hesitated for some months to join the League; -though his hesitation was probably due to some anxiety at the prospect -of seeing the victorious armies of France and Germany in Italy once -more. He tried to induce the Venetians to restore Faenza and Rimini -to him and merit his protection. When they refused, he joined the -League (March 23d) and put his spiritual censure on the Venetians. -The campaign occupied only a few weeks, and the vast territory of the -Republic was divided among the conquerors, the Pope receiving Ravenna -and Cervia as well as Faenza and Rimini. But the ill fortune and -anxiety of Venice promised him further gains if he would break faith -with his allies and deal separately with the Republic. To preserve the -remnants of their territory the Venetians approached the Pope. At first -he exacted formidable sacrifices, and, when they refused and importuned -him, he went to his palace at Civita Vecchia to enjoy the rest, if not -the pleasures, which Roman gossip so darkly misrepresented.[293] He -perceived, however, that the annihilation of Venice would endanger his -own security, and in time he accepted the evacuation of Romagna and the -abandonment of the Venetian exercise of authority over the clergy. - -Louis XII. learned with great indignation in the summer of 1509 that -Julius had not only withdrawn from the League of Cambrai, but was now -endeavouring to form a league with Venice, Ferdinand, Maximilian, and -Henry VIII. against himself. Henry and Maximilian refused to join, but -Julius engaged fifteen thousand Swiss and added these to the Papal and -Venetian troops. As the Duke of Ferrara was leagued with the French -against Venice, and refused to follow the Pope's political example, -Julius issued against him an anathema which a writer of the time -describes as making his hair stand on end, and resolved to add Ferrara -to the growing Papal States. In August he set out once more, dressed in -simple rochet, with the troops, and made the tiring march to Bologna. -There his great plans nearly came to a premature end. The Swiss failed -him, and the French appeared in force before Bologna, where he lay -seriously ill and greatly disedifying his attendants by the vehemence -of his rage. No doubt his threats of suicide, which are recorded, -were merely vague and rhetorical expressions of his despair. He saved -himself, however, by a deceptive negotiation with the French commander -until his reinforcements arrived, and, as his health recovered, his -vigorous resolution became almost ferocious. The long white beard in -Raphael's portrait of him reminds us how, at this time, he swore that -he would not shave again until he had driven the French from Italy. -Louis was now taking practical steps toward the summoning of a General -Council, and the temper of the Pope was terrible to witness. In the -depth of winter, not yet wholly recovered from his long fever, he -rejoined the troops, sharing the hardships of camp-life and stormily -scolding his generals for their slowness. He never led troops on the -field, but he interfered in the placing of artillery and more than once -exposed himself to fire. At the capitulation of Mirandola he shocked -his cardinals by ordering that any foreign soldiers found in the town -should be put to the sword. - -He spent some months thus passing from town to town, infusing his fiery -energy into the troops, but his successes and his personal conduct of -the war inflamed the indignation of the French King. Louis not only -sent reinforcements to his army, but he, with his adherent cardinals, -arranged for the holding of a General Council on Italian soil. _Perdam -Babylonis Nomen_ ("I will erase the very name of Babylon") was the -terrible motto he now placed on his medals. In quick succession the -Pope learned that the Bentivogli had recovered Bologna and derisively -broken into fragments the magnificent statue of Julius which Michael -Angelo had erected: that his favourite Cardinal Alidosi had been -assassinated by his (the Pope's) nephew and commander the Duke of -Urbino; and that Louis and Maximilian, with the seceded cardinals, had -announced a General Council of the Church at Pisa and summoned Julius -II. to appear before it. - -The attendants who marched by the Pope's closed litter, as he returned -to Rome on June 26, 1511, concluded from his unrestrained sobs and -groans that his power, if not his life, approached its end. His health -was ruined and his troops were scattered. But there was an energy -mightier than that of Hildebrand in his worn frame, and with some -improvement in his condition he raised his head once more. He had in -the spring created eight new cardinals, to replace the seceders, and -he now announced that a _real_ Ecumenical Council would assemble at -the Lateran on April 19, 1512. That was his answer to Pisa, and to -the Papal aspirations of the Cardinal of Rouen and the Emperor-elect. -He again fell dangerously ill--so ill that his death was confidently -expected. Election-intrigue filled the corridors of the Vatican, and -a band of democrats held a meeting in the Capitol and decided, at his -death, to restore the republican liberty of Rome. In a few weeks the -terrible old man rose from his bed, thin and white but with unbroken -energy, and scattered the intriguers. He anathematized the schismatical -cardinals, and announced (October 4th) that he had formed a Holy League -with Ferdinand of Spain and Venice for the defence of the Church; -Maximilian was presently induced to join the League, and before the end -of 1511 Henry VIII. was persuaded, by a promise of assistance in his -designs on France, to give it his adhesion. Only three months before -Julius had apparently lain at the point of death, his new possessions -utterly ruined. Now he once more commanded the situation. The -schismatical Council of Pisa, which opened on November 1st, turned out -a puny French _conciliabulum_, with fourteen bishops and five abbots to -represent the universal Church. - -The campaign which began in January need not be followed in detail. -After a series of varying engagements the French won a crushing victory -at Ravenna, and there was panic at Rome. The cardinals demanded peace -with France, but Giulio de' Medici, cousin of Cardinal Giovanni, who -had been captured by the French, now came to describe the exhausted -condition of the French army, and Julius resolved to prosecute the war. -He opened his General Council at the Lateran on May 3rd, and had at -least the satisfaction of seeing seventy Italian bishops respond to his -summons. Then, covering his preparations by a pretence of considering -the terms which Louis XII. offered him, he engaged further troops, -fired his commanders, and induced Maximilian to withdraw the four -thousand Tirolese mercenaries from the French ranks. In a few weeks -the French were driven out of Italy, the schismatics were forced to -transfer their discredited Council to French soil, and the Pope found -himself master of Bologna, Ravenna, Rimini, Cesena, Parma, Piacenza, -and Reggio. In appraising Julius as founder of the Papal States one -must bear in mind the history of this remarkable period. In October, -1511, Julius was stricken and apparently ruined; by the summer of 1512 -he was master of the richest provinces of Italy. But he had not left -Rome, and his personal action at this juncture was slight in comparison -with those tremendous earlier exertions which had ended in disastrous -failure. - -Julius was far from satisfied, and his conduct in the hour of victory -was at the low political level of the time. He assisted the Medici to -impose themselves again on Florence, and the Sforza to recover Milan. -He then made a lamentable effort to secure Ferrara. The Duke came to -Rome, under a safe-conduct of the Papal General Fabrizio Colonna, -and of the Spanish ambassador, to plead that he had acted only in -honourable discharge of his engagements to France, Julius had approved -the safe-conduct, but when the Duke refused to surrender his territory -to the Church, the Pope affected to discover that he had committed -crimes not covered by the safe-conduct and detained him. The Colonna -redeemed the credit of Italy by cutting their way through the Papal -guards and restoring Alfonso, after romantic adventures, to his duchy. -When the poet Ariosto was afterwards sent by Alfonso to make peace -with the Pope, he had to fly for his life; Julius, in one of his now -frequent outbursts of violence, threatened to have him thrown into the -sea. - -To the end Julius pursued his tortuous diplomacy. Neither Spain nor -Germany wished to see any increase of his power, and he was forced to -abandon his designs on Ferrara. He then disrupted his Holy League, -and made a fresh alliance with Maximilian against Venice and to the -disadvantage of Spain. Julius was concerned about the growing power -of Spain in Italy; and we shall hardly be unjust if we suspect that, -as Alexander VI. had done, he dreamed of adding Naples to the Papal -dominion. But he never entirely recovered his health, and his great -schemes were closed by death on February 20, 1513. He was neither -a great soldier nor a great statesman. There is no indication that -his interference in the military operations was useful, and, as I -pointed out, the one permanently successful campaign was fought -while he directed an ecclesiastical Council at Rome. In the sphere -of politics and diplomacy he relied on cunning and deceit rather -than statesmanship, and, if he had not represented a spiritual power -to which the nations were bound to return in the end, he would have -been mercilessly crushed. He had, also, little ability to organize -such possessions as he obtained, and his career is marred by violent -outbursts and acts of treachery and cruelty. It is sometimes said that -he was the greatest Pope since Innocent III. One imagines the shade -of that great spiritual ruler shuddering; and one is disposed to agree -with Guicciardini that, if Julius was great, a new meaning must be put -on the word. He had wonderful energy, and by good fortune his aim was -finally attained. - -In view of this strenuous campaign for the recovery of the Papal -States, we can expect only a slender record of strictly Pontifical -work. Julius attended to the propagation of the faith in the new lands -beyond the seas, and he impelled the Inquisitors to check the spread -of heresy. That he restrained the Spanish Inquisition, and supported -its exclusion from Naples, was not due to humane feeling, but to its -exorbitant claims of independent authority. He forbade duelling, and -endowed a college of singing for the maintenance of the Papal Choir. -His Lateran Council was, of course, a political expedient, but there -is evidence that when death closed his career Julius was turning more -seriously to plans of reform. In spite of his own Bull against simony, -the Curia remained as corrupt as ever, and money was raised in all the -evil ways known to it. It is, however, curious and creditable to have -to place one great reform to the merit of Julius. He passed so drastic -a decree against corruption at Papal elections that the rivals who -gathered in Rome after his death did not dare to employ bribery. - -Julius is probably most deserving of esteem for his artistic work. The -literary parasites who swarmed about his successor have associated the -glory of late medićval Rome with the name of Leo X., but discriminating -research is convincing historians that Leo did not even sustain the -great work of his predecessor. The bold scheme which Julius adopted -was due to his artists rather than to his own inspiration, yet he has -the distinction--no mean distinction for one immersed, as he was, in -an exacting policy--of reflecting at once the vast ideas which were -put before him. The new St. Peter's which he was compelled to think of -building was not intended at first to be of great dimensions, but he -accepted Bramante's design of a church far larger even than the St. -Peter's of today, and, in spite of his costly wars, he enabled the -architect to employ 2500 workers. He accepted Bramante's designs for a -new Vatican and for the Cortile di Damaso. He engaged Michael Angelo to -carve a princely marble tomb for himself--his one great luxury--and, -when his interest was transferred to the less selfish task of building -St. Peter's, he set the artist to the execution of his immortal work -on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. Michael Angelo made also, as I have -noted, a great statue of Julius at Bologna, but this was destroyed at -the return of the Bentivogli. There were many quarrels between the two -men, but Michael Angelo found in Julius a manliness and a greatness of -conception, if not a feeling for art, the lack of which he bitterly -criticized in Leo X. - -Cristoforo Romano, Sansovino, Perugino, Signorelli, Pinturicchio, -and other great artists were enlisted in the work of making the -ecclesiastical quarter of Rome the artistic centre of the world. Some -of the finest of the old Greek sculptures which were then being sought -in the rubbish of medićval Italy were bought for the Belvidere, and -painters of distinction were richly encouraged. New frescoes and new -tombs were ordered in the churches of Rome; the walls and aqueducts -were repaired; handsome new streets were laid out; and the cardinals -and wealthier citizens were moved to co-operate with the Pontiff in his -plans for the exaltation of Rome. We may deplore that the money for -these plans was largely obtained by the sale of spiritual offices and -indulgences, and we must resent the fact that money obtained by these -means was diverted to the purposes of war. But the magnificence of -the design and the generosity with which Julius prosecuted it as long -as he lived seem to be a more solid and enduring merit than his good -fortune--for in the decisive stage it was little more--in recovering -a rich dominion which would but serve to enhance the frivolity of his -successor. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 287: Burchard, _Diarium_, iii., 293.] - -[Footnote 288: Guicciardini's _Storia d'Italia_ and Burchard's -_Diarium_ are the chief authorities, supplemented by the dispatches -of the Italian ambassadors. There is a slight and somewhat antiquated -biography by M.A.J. Dumesnil (_Histoire de Jules II._, 1873) and an -abler study by M. Brosch (_Papst Julius II._, 1878). J.F. Loughlin -has a candid account, chiefly based on Brosch, of his early career in -_The American Catholic Quarterly Review_. Special treatises will be -noticed in the course of the chapter, but there is little dispute about -the facts I give. Full references will be found in the very ample, -if somewhat lenient, study of Dr. Pastor (vi.), and in the works of -Creighton, Gregorovius, and von Reumont.] - -[Footnote 289: Pastor (vi., 244) quotes from the Vatican archives a -letter in which Julius urges the Spanish commander at Naples to arrest -Cćsar.] - -[Footnote 290: The date was fixed by the astrologers, but Burchard -says that, in order to show his contempt for their science, Julius -unceremoniously entered the town on the previous day. He acted more -probably from sheer impatience. More than one event during his -Pontificate, including his coronation on November 26, 1503, was -arranged by the astrologers.] - -[Footnote 291: See A. Schulte, _Kaiser Maximilian I. als Kandidat für -den Papstlichen Stuhl_ (1906). The point is disputed.] - -[Footnote 292: Quoted by Brosch, p. 333.] - -[Footnote 293: Priuli (_Diario_, ii., 102) says that Romans spoke of -his "Ganymedes."] - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -LEO X. AND THE DANCE OF DEATH - - -When Julius II. made his last survey of the world in which he had -played so vigorous a part, he must have concluded that he had placed -the Papacy on a foundation more solid than any that had yet supported -it. The Conciliar movement, its most threatening enemy in the mind of -the Popes, had been discredited by the failure of its latest effort -and by the naked ambitions of those who supported it. The princes -of the world had proved less stubborn than in the days of the early -Emperors, and the Papacy had now a broad and strong base of secular -power. The new culture had been, to a great extent, wooed and won by -the Pope's princely patronage of art and embellishment of Rome; and the -Inquisition, in one form or other, could silence the intractable. There -was still, among the dour and distant northerners, much cavilling at -the avarice and luxury of Rome, but, if the succeeding Popes used the -Lateran Council to ensure some measure of reform, it would diminish; -it had, in any case, not yet proved dangerous. Neither Julius nor any -other had the least suspicion that the Papacy was within five years of -the beginning of an appalling catastrophe. - -We have, however, seen that the opinions which were to bring about -that catastrophe had long been diffused in Europe, and a particular -conjunction of circumstances might at any time convert them into -rebellious action. For more than a century, there had been a critical -scrutiny of the bases of Papal power, and to a large extent the Papacy -had escaped the consequences by a greater liberality toward rulers and -by sharing with them the wealth it extracted from the people. France -maintained the Pragmatic Sanction, which Rome detested, and other -countries gave rather the impression of federation than of abject -submission to a spiritual autocracy. Moreover, while the pressure -of the central power was eased, doctrinal rebellion seemed to make -little progress. Lollardism was extinct, Hussitism confined to a sect, -Savonarolism murdered. Yet the Reformation was coming, and we see now -that Luther was but the instrument of its deliverance. - -It is impossible here to discuss all the causes of the Reformation, -and a few considerations will suffice for my purpose. Printing had -been invented and printed sheets were being circulated. Men were now -reading--which provokes independent reflection--rather than sitting -at the feet of oracular schoolmen. Among the books which poured out -from the press, moreover, the Bible--in spite of a popular fallacy on -that subject--occupied an important place, even in the vernacular. -Further--and this was most important of all--the last great extension -of the Papal fiscal system, the granting of indulgences for money, was -in one important respect based on a novel speculation of the schoolmen -and was not supported by Biblical Christianity. The realization of this -stimulated men to get behind the fences of Decretals and scholastic -speculations, and to claim a reform which should be something more than -the substitution of a good Pope for a bad Pope. Finally the renewed -corruption of the Papal Court under Leo X. set this psychological -machinery in conscious motion. - -Twenty-five cardinals were enclosed in the Sistine Chapel on March -4th for the election of the new Pope. Wealth was now of no direct -avail, for all accepted the Bull of Julius condemning bribery. Some of -the poorer cardinals, knowing that their votes were not marketable, -had tried to secure the treasure (about 300,000 ducats) left by -Julius, but the keeper of Sant' Angelo had been incorruptible. Yet we -must not emphasize the absence of bribery: there is such a thing as -gratitude for favours to come. For nearly a week the enclosed cardinals -discussed and negotiated. It is confidently stated that, while the -older cardinals were, as usual, divided in allegiance to several -of their body, the younger cardinals stood aloof and were secretly -resolved to elect Giovanni de' Medici. Cardinal Giovanni lay abed in -his little cell--imagine the Sistine Chapel containing thirty-one -bedrooms--suffering from fistula. A surgeon was with him in the -Conclave, and his condition was unpleasantly felt in the sealed room. -A close friend of his, Bernardo Dovizo, or Bibbiena as he was commonly -called, canvassed for him, and assured the cardinals of his liberal and -grateful disposition, his high origin, and his peaceful intentions. -He was only thirty-seven years of age, but the older cardinals may -have concluded that his malady compensated for his youth. At the first -scrutiny, on March 10th, he was elected, and he took the name of Leo X. - -The earlier life of Leo X. has been told in the previous chapters. -The second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, born on December 11, 1475, -he was thrust into the ranks of the clergy at the age of seven, he -received the title of cardinal at the age of fourteen, and he was -openly admitted to the Sacred College two years later. He had received -a stimulating education from the Humanist scholars of Florence, and -amidst the dissipations of Rome he remained a sober and diligent -scholar. He retired to Florence under Alexander VI., and, when his -family were driven from power and repeatedly failed to recover it, -he travelled in Germany, the Netherlands, and France. Under Julius -II., he found some favour and became Legate for Bologna and Romagna. -He was captured by the French at the fatal battle of Ravenna, but -he made his escape on their retreat from Italy, and soon afterwards -became the chief representative of his house on their restoration to -Florence. His public record was, therefore, slight, and his time had -been mainly devoted to the cultivation of letters and the enjoyment -of art, especially music. His interests were so well known that on -one of the triumphal arches erected for his coronation it was boldly -announced that Venus (Alexander) and Mars (Julius) had now made way for -Minerva; which a more discerning neighbour had modified by erecting -an assurance that Venus lived for ever. It was, and is, believed that -his life before he became Pope was free from irregularity. In spite of -three fasts a week and a strenuous devotion to the chase, he was an -abnormally fat man, and his pale, puffy face was not improved by his -large myopic eyes, which saw little without the aid of a glass. But -his unfailing smile, his charming manners, his ready wit, his prodigal -generosity, and his unalterable love of peace and sunshine promised a -genial contrast to the reign of his predecessor, and Rome gave him a -princely welcome. - -There are three chief aspects of the Pontificate of Leo X. which it -is material to consider, and, although it is difficult entirely -to separate them, it is convenient to attempt this. There is his -political--or more correctly his diplomatic--action, which, though, -in that Machiavellian age, it seemed only a degree worse than was -customary, impresses the modern mind as almost revolting in its studied -duplicity. There is his personal life, which inspired the reformers -with volumes of vituperation, while modern writers seem able to regard -it without much sentiment. And there is the Pontifical activity which -culminates in the struggle with Luther. His relation to medićval art is -less important than is commonly supposed. - -Medićval Italy was no place for a prince of peace, and Leo soon found -that, if he were to avoid the sword, he must follow a crooked course. -He sincerely loathed the clash of swords. He loved jewels and music -and comedies and books; he wanted to spend the Papal treasury in -surrounding himself with pretty things and flashes of wit--and he thus -spent the whole of Julius's 300,000 ducats in two years. But France -and Venice thirsted for revenge and sought his support; while the -envoys of Milan, Spain, England, and the Empire claimed his blessing, -and his ducats, for the opposite side. While, however, in the actual -condition of Italy, the Papal States were safe, a victory of France and -Venice would bring perils. Leo secretly joined the Holy League against -France, and secretly paid for the service of 45,000 Swiss mercenaries. -The policy turned out well. France was driven back, and the leaders of -the schismatical cardinals, Carvajal and Sanseverino, came to Rome, -and humbly accepted Leo's obedience. France repudiated the schism, and -Venice, after a desultory struggle, was pacified. - -Leo found some time for domestic matters, of which two may be noted -here. On September 23d (1513) he created four cardinals, of whom three -were relatives and one a literary friend. Bernardo Bibbiena (or Dovizo) -had, as I said, promoted his interest in the Conclave, and at earlier -times, and was an accomplished literary man; he was also entirely -devoid of moral sentiment, composed the most indecent comedy that was -enacted at the Vatican, and was a genius at organizing festivities. -Innocenzo Cibň, son of Innocent VIII.'s natural son Franceschetto and -Leo's sister Maddalena, was a youth who seemed eager to emulate the -scandalous repute of his father. Giulio de' Medici, cousin of the Pope, -had already received a Papal dispensation from illegitimacy, and the -quiet and delicate youth was advanced a little nearer to the Papacy. -Lorenzo Pucci, lastly, was quite a distinguished canonist, and a -relative of Leo; he was also expert in pushing the sale of indulgences -and very solicitous about his own commission. - -Leo then regarded the fortunes of the chief lay members of his family. -His brother Giuliano, a highly cultivated man of thirty-four, was too -much softened by vice and indulgence to carry out the Medici policy -at Florence. This policy, embodied in a paper of instructions which -there is good reason to ascribe to Leo himself, was entrusted to the -Pope's nephew Lorenzo, a vigorous young sportsman. Giuliano was made -a Baron of Rome and commander of the Papal army--Leo remarking that -he trusted there would be no demand upon his military talent--and it -was so confidently rumoured that the Pope proposed to make him King -of Naples that Ferdinand was alarmed and had to be reassured. It is -still disputed whether Leo really had this intention, or whether he -merely proposed to make a small principality in central Italy for his -worthless brother; nor, in view of the secrecy and duplicity of the -Pope's methods, is the point ever likely to be settled on a documentary -basis. It seems consistent both with the course of events and with -Leo's character to suppose that he kept both alternatives in mind, -but that nepotism was not the _first_ principle of his policy: his -fundamental idea was the maintenance of his own luxurious security.[294] - -In this pleasant promotion of his friends and relatives and their -innumerable followers, in the prodigal encouragement of the artists, -musicians, poets, and jewellers who flocked to Rome from all parts, -Leo spent two years which were only slightly clouded by the rapid -exhaustion of the Papal treasury. Meantime, however, the political -situation had once more claimed his impatient attention, and we may -for the moment confine ourselves to that interesting aspect of his -work. Louis, disgusted with the Papacy, approached Ferdinand of Spain -and was prepared to abandon to him his claims on Milan, Genoa, and -Naples. This prospect of the enclosure of Papal territory in a Spanish -vice threw the Pope into a fit of diplomatic activity. He secretly -negotiated with Venice and Florence and Ferrara, and sent a legate -to England to help to reconcile Henry VIII with Louis. He trusted -to induce these Powers to form a league with him for the purpose of -driving the Spaniards out of Italy, and aimed at securing Naples for -his brother.[295] In October the French King married Mary Tudor, and -the Spanish spectre was laid. But, with the unvarying logic of Papal -politics, the fear of Spain was succeeded by a fear of France, and the -Pope had recourse to the kind of diplomacy which is characteristic of -him, and in which, we are assured, he took great pleasure. He made a -secret treaty with Spain for the defence of Italy, and a secret treaty -of alliance with Louis against Spain.[296] He encouraged Louis, who -held out to him the prospect of Naples, to attack Italy, and secretly -promised to assist Milan and the Emperor against the French if Louis -did attack Italy, which he thought improbable. He thus, he thought, -secured a principality for Giuliano, whichever side won. "When you have -made a league with one man," he used to say, "there is no reason why -you should cease to negotiate with his opponent." - -This policy, it is recorded, cost Leo sleepless nights, though not on -account of moral scruples. Louis pressed him for a definite alliance -against Milan, and he tried to evade it by pleading that it was -not meet for Christian princes to engage in warfare while the Turk -threatened Europe. The death of Louis in January (1515) made matters -worse, as his successor, Francis I., determined with all the vigour -and ambition of youth to press the French claims. Leo kept a legate -negotiating with Francis, and we learn from the Legate's letters that -he offered an alliance on condition that Naples should be surrendered -to Giuliano. In the meantime (February 1st), he secretly approved of -the league of Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Milan, and Genoa against -France, and stipulated that he should have Parma, Piacenza, Modena, and -Reggio; he would pay 60,000 ducats a month to the league, and would -induce Henry VIII.--partly by making Wolsey a cardinal--to join it. -In July he secretly signed the league, yet continued his deceptive -correspondence with France. We have still the document in which Leo, -after joining the league, offered an alliance to Francis on condition -that he renounced his claim to Parma and Piacenza, made peace with -Spain with a view to meeting the Turks, and surrendered his claim to -Naples "in favour of the Holy See or of a third person approved by the -Holy See."[297] - -During the campaign which followed, Leo wavered according to the news -he received. When the French took Milan, he made peace with them; they -were to respect the position of the Medici at Florence, and Leo was -to renounce the Papal claim to Parma and Piacenza. He had, however, a -more creditable object in view than the interest of his family. He met -Francis at Bologna, and there can be no doubt that they then agreed to -substitute a Concordat for the Pragmatic Sanction of 1438. For the -promise of a tithe on his clergy, Francis surrendered their Gallican -privileges, and became, as he thought, the real ally of the Pope. Leo -ordered the Swiss to refrain from attacking the French in Milan, and -listened approvingly to the King's designs on Naples. Within three -months, however, the Emperor Maximilian led a body of Swiss troops, in -the pay of Henry VIII., to an attack on Milan, and Leo was summoned -by Francis to dispatch troops in accordance with their agreement. -Carefully retarding the levy of his troops so that they should not -arrive in time, and keeping a legate by the side of Maximilian, Leo -awaited the result. The expedition failed, and he sought favour with -the exasperated Francis by revealing to him that Henry VIII. had -secretly paid the Swiss, and by sending once more an insincere command -that the Swiss must not dare to attack an ally of the Papacy. He sought -to retain the favour of Maximilian by reminding him that he had sent -him two hundred Papal horse under Mark Antonio Colonna; and to Francis -he protested that Colonna had acted without permission. He then assured -Francis that he had sent a legate to induce Maximilian to make peace -with France, and he gave secret instructions to the legate that such a -peace would not be to the interest of the Papacy. - -This is the admitted framework of that diplomacy which Roscoe contrives -to dress in such opulent phrases, and it was a policy that Leo never -altered. His next step was to seize the duchy of Urbino for his nephew -Lorenzo: a step which, after all his apologies, Dr. Pastor admits to -have "something repulsive about it." The Duke of Urbino (nephew of -Julius II.) had, in spite of his feudal obligations, refused to attack -the French at the command of the Pope, and seems to have discussed -with Francis the duplicity of the Pope's procedure. Yet his liberality -to the Medici in the days of misfortune had been such that Giuliano -earnestly joined with Francis I. in imploring Leo to overlook his -conduct. Leo harshly refused, and, to the disgust of many, the duchy -was subdued and given to Lorenzo. I may conclude this matter by -recounting that in 1517 the exiled Duke recovered his territory, and -the long struggle for his ejection cost the Papal treasury, according -to Guicciardini, 800,000 ducats. - -A fresh anxiety clouded the Pope's pleasures when he heard that France, -Spain, Germany, and Switzerland had formed an alliance, and that -Francis I. and Charles V. (who succeeded Ferdinand on January 23d) -were virtually to divide northern and central Italy between them. This -project was abandoned, but in the following year an even more serious -event alarmed the Pope. The younger cardinals who had pressed his -election were generally aggrieved. Fast and luxurious as most of them -were, they had expected a larger pecuniary gratitude on Leo's part, -and they observed with annoyance that his relatives and his literary -admirers secured the greater part of his lavish gifts. In 1517, one -of these worldly young cardinals, Petrucci, conceived a particular -animosity against Leo, on account of some injustice done to his -brother, and there is little room for doubt that he spoke and thought -of having the Pope assassinated. Whether or no we trust the romantic -story told by Guicciardini and Giovio, that the surgeon who attended -the Pope was to poison his wound, we can hardly accept the opposite -rumour, that the whole conspiracy was invented by the Pope or his -brother in order to secure money. Petrucci was not offered the option -of a fine; and Cardinals Riario and Sauli confessed that they knew of -the plot. After a dramatic period of inquiry and incrimination Petrucci -was, in spite of the protests of cardinals and ambassadors, strangled -in his prison, and the flesh of his guilty servants was torn from their -bones with red-hot pincers. Cardinal Riario paid 150,000 ducats for his -release, and the less wealthy Cardinal Sauli 25,000. Cardinals Soderini -and Castellesi fled, when they were impeached, and their property and -that of Cardinal Petrucci was seized. - -These events caused the gravest scandal throughout Christendom. -Cardinal Riario was the Dean of the Sacred College, and many preferred -to think that the plot was an invention for the purpose of securing -funds rather than that the cardinals had sunk so low. The dilemma was -painful, but we can have little doubt that Leo, at least, was convinced -of the reality of the plot. Instead of proceeding with greater -caution, however, he went on to give a fresh ground of criticism. -In a Consistory which he held on June 26th, he told the cardinals -that he was going to add no less than twenty-seven members to their -college. Their stormy protests increased his determination, and on -July 1st he promoted thirty-one cardinals. The rumour at once spread -through Christendom, and is in substance undoubted, that most of the -new cardinals paid large sums of money for the dignity; Sanuto makes -individual payments rise as high as 30,000 ducats. Some of them were -men of low character, and others were either related to, or had lent -money to, the Pope. - -We may, however, conclude the political consideration before we discuss -these domestic matters. Maximilian induced the Diet of Augsburg to -elect his grandson Charles as his successor to the imperial title, -and, as a Bull of Julius II. enacted that the investiture of the -kingdom of Naples reverted to the Papacy if its holder became King of -Rome, the Pope was pressed to give a dispensation from this Bull. Leo -pleaded that his "honour" was at stake; but he secretly negotiated with -Francis (who bitterly opposed the dispensation) and with Charles, and -bargained shamelessly for his refusal or consent. In the end Francis -(out of funds raised in the name of a crusade) gave Lorenzo de' Medici -100,000 ducats "for services rendered," and promised a further sum of -100,000 to the Pope. It is an equally undisputed fact that on January -20, 1519, Leo, Lorenzo, and Francis entered into an alliance; the Pope -and his nephew were to promote the interests of Francis, and the French -King was to protect the Papal States and the estates of the Medici -family, and to admit the claims of the Church at Milan. It is, perhaps, -the choicest example of Leo's diplomacy--"unparalleled double-dealing," -Dr. Pastor calls it--that he secretly drew up a similar treaty with -Spain and signed it a fortnight after he had signed the preceding -(February 6th). - -In the meantime Leo heard that Maximilian had died on January 12th, -and he confronted, or evaded, the situation in his distinctive way. He -informed his German legate that Charles was already too powerful, and -that either Frederic of Saxony (whom he wished to induce to surrender -Luther) or Joachim of Brandenburg (a docile noble) ought to have -the imperial title. Hearing, however, that these candidates had no -prospect, he adopted Francis I. and urged him to defeat Charles. His -policy at this stage is not wholly clear, and it is possible that at -first he pitted Francis against Charles in the hope of making profit -from one or the other. In time he seems seriously to have adopted -Francis. He, on March 12th, offered the red hat to the Electors of -Trčves and Cologne, and proposed (on the 14th) to make the Archbishop -of Mayence (a disreputable prelate) permanent legate for Germany; -and he then, on May 4th, issued a Brief to the effect that if three -Electors agreed in their choice the election should be valid. His -schemes were shaken for a moment by the premature death of Lorenzo, -which moved him, in a nervous hour, to exclaim that henceforward he -belonged, "not to the house of Medici, but to the house of God." -But his associates were not kept long in suspense. He attempted to -incorporate Urbino in the Papal States, and, when Francis objected that -Urbino belonged to Lorenzo's surviving child (and her French mother), -the Pope began to abandon France. He was just in time to approve -Charles and promise a dispensation in regard to Naples before that -prince was elected to be Emperor. - -But the consciousness of his long opposition to Charles weighed upon -him, and in September he again made a secret treaty with Francis I.; he -would refuse the crown of Naples to Charles and would promote French -interests by secular and spiritual weapons in return for the French -King's aid against Charles and against "insubordinate vassals." Vassals -of Leo X. cannot easily have kept pace with the remarkable policy of -their feudal lord, but we are hardly reconciled to the Pope's mingled -greed and nepotism. He secured Perugia and some of the smaller places -in Ancona and Umbria, and made an unsuccessful attempt to get Ferrara. -During all this time, he listened amiably to German proposals for -an alliance, and in the first months of 1521 he again duped the two -monarchs. In January--and it was repeated in March and April--he gave -the representatives of Charles a written assurance that he had no -engagements to the disadvantage of that monarch and would not incur any -within three months; in the same month (January) he agreed to secure -for Francis, for the purpose of an attack on Naples, a free passage -through the Swiss lines, and to receive in return Ferrara and a strip -of Neapolitan territory. - -By this time, however, the shadow of Luther had fallen on the -Papal Court. The magnitude of the danger in Germany was by no -means appreciated, but Leo was eager to get Luther to Rome and -must conciliate the Emperor. In May, hearing that the French were -approaching the Swiss and the Duke of Ferrara, he formed an alliance -with Charles and prepared to use all his forces to drive his former -ally out of Italy. The campaign opened successfully, but Leo did not -live to see the issue and profit by it. He caught a chill as he sat at -an open window in November watching the popular rejoicing, and died on -December 1st, at the age of forty-two. Both the leading authorities, -Giovio and Guicciardini, accept the current belief that either the Duke -of Ferrara or the late Duke of Urbino had had him poisoned, but it is -now generally recognized that the recorded symptoms of his seven days' -illness point rather to malaria. - -This admitted career of duplicity will not dispose us to expect a -domestic atmosphere of virtue and piety at the Vatican, and it is -singular that any historian has affected to find such. That Leo heard -or said mass daily, and was attentive to his ceremonious obligations, -is not, in that age, inconsistent with impropriety of conduct. His -lavish charity was a becoming part of his habitual liberality, and his -weekly fasts were rather intended to reduce the flesh than to subdue -it. On the other hand, some of the frivolous remarks attributed to him -have not the least authority. When the Venetian ambassador ascribes to -him the saying, "Let us enjoy the Papacy now that God has given it to -us," we may or may not have a mere popular rumour, though the phrase -is at least a correct expression of Leo's ideal; but that the Pope -ever mockingly attributed his good fortune to "the fable about Jesus -Christ" is not stated until long after his death, and then only by an -English controversialist, the ex-Carmelite Bale. Whether Leo was or was -not addicted to sins of the flesh is not a grave matter of historical -inquiry, but the evidence seems to me conclusive that, at least in his -Pontifical days, he was irregular.[298] - -The character of life at the Vatican and in Rome under Leo X. was, -indeed, such as to prevent us from imputing any moral scruples to the -Pope. Leo spent, on the lowest estimate, five million ducats in eight -years, and left debts which are variously estimated at from half a -million to a million ducats. He must have spent nearly Ł300,000 per -year, and in order to make his official income of about 400,000 ducats -meet this strain he created and sold superfluous offices--they were -estimated at 2150 at this death,--pressed the sale of indulgences and -the exaction of fees and first-fruits, and borrowed large sums at -exorbitant rates of usury; several of his bankers and friends were -ruined at his death. A very large proportion of this money went in -gifts to literary men and scholars. Leo was a royal spendthrift of the -most benevolent and thoughtless nature. All the scribblers of Italy -flocked to Rome, and money was poured out without discrimination as -long as it lasted. Yet letters and scholarship actually decayed owing -to the recklessness of the payments. "The splendour of the Leonine -age, so often and so much belauded, is in many respects more apparent -than real," says Dr. Pastor, who has several valuable chapters on -Leo's relation to letters and art. The Roman University, which the -Pope at first supported with great liberality, was suffered to decay, -and great artists were not always encouraged. Ariosto was treated -harshly, and, while Rafael and his pupils were richly employed, Michael -Angelo was little used. Leo did not adequately appreciate sculpture -or architecture, and even the building of St. Peter's made very -little progress during his Pontificate. It is true that the state of -the Papal finances was the chief reason for the neglect of the great -architectural and educational plans of his predecessors. The check to -the sale of indulgences--brought about by Cardinal Ximenes in Spain -as well as by Luther in Germany--was felt severely at Rome.[299] -But we read that to the end Leo spent prodigious sums on musicians, -decorators, goldsmiths, and jewellers. An inventory in the Vatican -archives values at 204,655 ducats the jewels he left behind. - -It was, in fact, not so much the discriminating promotion of art and -culture as a princely luxuriousness that absorbed Leo's funds. He was -temperate at table. The cardinals and wealthier Romans continued to -enjoy the senselessly rich banquets which they seem to have copied from -the most decadent pages of Roman history. Cardinal Cornaro is noted as -giving a dinner of sixty-five courses on silver dishes. Banker Chigi, -a useful friend of Leo, had his valuable plate thrown into the river -after one choice banquet; and on the occasion of his marriage with his -mistress (whose finger was held by Leo to receive the ring) he brought -luxuries, even live fish, from the ends of Europe. Banker Strozzi gave -rival banquets, at which cardinals fraternized with courtesans. Leo -approved, and sometimes attended, these banquets (at Chigi's palace), -but was personally temperate. He had only one meal each day, and -fasting fare on three days in each week, but he spent immense sums on -musicians and trinket-makers, and many of his pleasures were in the -grossest taste of the time. Men of prodigious appetite--one of them a -Dominican friar--were brought to his table to amuse him and his guests -by their incredible gluttony. The Pope bandied verses with half-drunken -poetasters and patronized the coarsest buffoons as well as the keenest -wits. When he went to his country house at Magliana for a few weeks' -hunting--in which he displayed extraordinary vigour--he took a troop -of his poets, buffoons, musicians, and other parasites. At Carnival -time he entered into the wild gaiety of Rome; and comedies of the most -licentious character were staged before him. Ariosto's _Suppositi_ -(in which Cardinal Cibň took a part), Machiavelli's _Mandragola_, -and Bibbiena's _Calandria_ alternated with Terence and Plautus. The -_Calandria_, written by Cardinal Bibbiena, Leo's chief favourite, the -frescoes of whose bathroom seem to have been like those on certain -rooms in Pompeii today, is a comedy of thin wit and unrestrained -license; the Pope had it presented in the Vatican for the entertainment -of Isabella d'Este. - -Such was the Pope who presided over the Lateran Council for the reform -of the Church, and the historian will hardly be expected to enlarge -at any length on its labours. Julius had initiated the council in -order to checkmate France and the schismatical cardinals, and it -continued its thinly attended sittings, at wide intervals, for four -years. Some seventy or eighty Italian bishops attended, and they -issued some admirable counsels to the clergy to improve their lives, -condemned heretical writings, and voiced the sincere wish that some -Christian prince would arrest the advance of the Turks. A committee -of the council drew up a stringent and comprehensive scheme for the -reform of Church-abuses, but this was lost amid the vehement wrangles -of monks, bishops, and cardinals. In the end (1514) a very slender -reform-bill was issued; nor were the clergy disposed to comply with -this when they noticed that, in the following year, Leo himself -bestowed a bishopric, and soon afterwards the cardinalate, upon the -boy-son of Emmanuel of Portugal, and granted to the father a large -share of the proceeds of the issue of indulgences. The council also -forbade the printing of books without approbation, and encouraged the -spread of banks or pawn-shops (Monti di Pietŕ) for the poor. On March -16, 1517, Leo, in spite of the murmurs of the reformers and the revolt -in Germany, brought to a close his almost futile council. He had no -desire whatever for reform, and even the measures which were passed -were not enforced. The reforming prelates were deeply saddened by his -levity, and, before the close of the council, Gianfrancesco Pico della -Mirandola drew up in their name an appalling indictment of the state of -the Church and predicted that the refusal to remedy it would bring on -them a heavy judgment. - -The one work of the Council in which the Pope took a lively interest -was the granting of a Concordat to France. The Gallican sentiments of -the French prelates and doctors had been embodied in the Pragmatic -Sanction (1438), and Rome had not ceased to protest against this -cession to local councils of the powers it claimed. By the Concordat of -1516 the King and the Pope virtually divided these powers between them; -the King had the right of nomination to bishoprics and abbeys, the Pope -received the "first-fruits" (Annates). The Concordat was signed by Leo -on September 16, 1516, but was not published until 1518, when it caused -fierce indignation at the universities and among the clergy. - -Leo had dismissed the reformers of the Lateran Council, and in the -spring of 1517, the very year in which Martin Luther nailed his -challenge on the door of the castle-church at Wittenberg, turned with -relief to his corrupt court. There had, as we saw, long been an outcry -in Germany against the corruption of a very large proportion of the -clergy and against the Papal fiscal system, yet Leo had light-heartedly -maintained the disorders. In 1514 he had, in order to secure the votes -of two Electors, conferred the Archbishopric of Mayence upon a young -and worldly noble, Albert of Brandenburg, and had (for a payment of -24,000 ducats) permitted him still to retain the sees of Magdeburg -and Halberstadt. In order to recover the 24,000 ducats, which he had -borrowed on the security of a share in the sale of indulgences, the -unscrupulous prelate pressed the traffic eagerly, and some of the more -enlightened German clergy protested. There were already princes, such -as the Elector of Saxony, who refused to allow the Papal envoys in -their dominions, and there were writers, like Ulrich von Hutten, who -violently assailed their procedure. Leo, however, failed to appreciate -the gravity of the situation and proposed to raise large sums, -ostensibly for the building of St. Peter's, by granting indulgences. - -I have already explained that, though John XXIII. undoubtedly sold -absolution "from guilt and from penalty," as the Council of Constance -established, the indulgence was, properly speaking, a remission of the -punishment due to sins which had been duly confessed. In earlier Papal -practice, the indulgence was the commutation into a money-payment of -the penance for sin imposed by the Church, but, as the doctrine of -Purgatory developed, the indulgence came to be regarded as a remission -of the punishment due in Purgatory. Two questions had then arisen on -which the schoolmen had exercised their ingenuity: on what ground could -the Church claim to remit this punishment, and whether the indulgence -could be extended to the dead who were actually suffering in Purgatory? -The schoolmen found a satisfactory answer to both questions. Then -Boniface IX. decreed that an indulgence might be earned by a payment of -money to the Church (the price of a voyage to Rome), and the way was -opened for the later abuse. In their commercial zeal the Papal envoys -and preachers undoubtedly represented that souls were delivered from -the fire of Purgatory when the coin rang in their collecting boxes. - -The Dominican monk Tetzel, who in 1517 was sent to preach the -indulgence as Albert of Brandenburg's sub-commissary, was more zealous -than scrupulous in his representations, and people of Wittenberg, -who had crossed the frontier in order to profit by the indulgence, -came home with unedifying reports of his sermons. Martin Luther, -then a professor at the Wittenberg University, heard these reports -with disdain. There was no defined doctrine of the Church on the -subject, and more than one divine had felt, like Luther, that this -apparent traffic was as enervating to real piety as it was in itself -distasteful. A man of intense and stormy spiritual experience, he -sternly combated all that seemed to encourage "sloth" in religious -life; his was the more arduous religion of St. Paul and St. -Augustine. Conscious, therefore, that the whole practice was based on -comparatively recent speculations of the schoolmen, which he had a -right to dispute, he challenged Tetzel to justify his "lying fables -and empty promises." A war of pamphlets ensued, and, as his opponents -naturally appealed to the language in which the Popes had announced -indulgences, Luther was compelled to slight the words of the Popes and -appeal to the declarations of Councils and the teaching of Scripture. -He was still orthodox; the language he used had been heard in the -Church for two centuries, and in that age one would as soon have -thought of claiming impeccability as infallibility for the Popes. - -At the beginning of 1518 it was reported to Rome that the agitation -raised by the robust professor was seriously interfering with the -indulgences, and Leo, encouraged by the angry Dominicans, directed -his superiors to restrain him. When they failed, he summoned Luther -to Rome. The monk, knowing how such trials ended at Rome, appealed to -the Elector of Saxony and to Maximilian. The appeal to the Emperor, -however, fell at a time when the Papal favour was sought for Charles, -and Maximilian encouraged the Pope to take action. Leo ordered Luther -to present himself at once before the Papal Legate and prepare for -trial at Rome. On the other hand Frederic of Saxony insisted that -Luther should be examined in Germany, and the Pope dreaded to irritate -an Elector on the eve of an imperial election. Legate Cajetan was -therefore empowered to see the rebel at Augsburg, and a series of -futile conferences took place on October 12th-14th. Luther wished -to argue and justify his thesis: Cajetan was instructed merely to -demand his submission. Luther insisted that he should be tried by the -learned doctors of Basle, Freiburg, Louvain, and Paris: the legate was -charged to assert the Papal authority. On October 18th Luther departed -in disgust for Wittenberg; and his temper was not improved by the -discovery that Leo had, on August 23d, directed the legate, in case of -obstinacy, to declare him heretical. He appealed to a General Council. - -Luther was still within the limits of orthodox sentiment and practice, -and the protection of the Elector embarrassed the Pope. A more -diplomatic envoy, Karl von Militz, a Papal chamberlain, was sent to -Germany, and some months were spent in amiable correspondence. Luther -promised to be silent if his opponents would keep silence, and wrote -a respectful letter to the Pope; to which Leo made a gracious reply. -But the truce was little more than a diplomatic regard for Papal -interests during the period of the imperial election, and the policy -of silence soon proved impossible for both sides. Ulrich von Hutten and -other critics encouraged Luther to assail the Papal authority, and the -exaggerations of his opponents reacted on the growth of his mind. By -the end of 1519 he seems to have concluded, with some firmness, that -the Papal system was an unwarranted addition to primitive Christianity, -and a formidable movement supported his ideas. - -In January (1520) Luther's case was submitted to a commission of -theologians at Rome, and the Elector was summoned to compel him to -retract. Frederic refused, and in June Leo signed the Bull _Exsurge -Domine_; Luther was to be excommunicated if he did not submit within -sixty days, and the secular authorities would incur an interdict if -they did not surrender him. It is not of material interest to quarrel -with the Pope's procedure: to point out that the disappointed Cajetan -was one of the heads of the commission of inquiry, and that Luther's -vehement opponent Eck was one of the two legates entrusted with the -publication of the Bull. Rome demanded submission; and, if Luther -had submitted, some other German would before long have instituted -the Reformation. Europe was ripe for schism, and it may be doubted -whether even a reform of the Church would have long prevented the -growth of a body of men holding the Reformers' view of the bases of -Papal authority. On December 10th (1520) Luther publicly burned the -Bull. Even this act was not without orthodox precedent, but Luther -was constantly advancing. He was summoned before the Diet of Worms in -April (1521), and he then stated that the word of neither Popes nor -Councils would condemn him; he must be judged by reason and Scripture. -But the political situation, which casts its shadow throughout on the -development, was now modified. Charles obtained his wish of an alliance -with the Papacy against France. This alliance was signed on May 8th: on -the 12th the Diet issued the Edict of Worms. Luther was, in accordance -with the Pope's second Bull,[300] declared a heretic. He retreated to -the Wartburg under the protection of Frederic, and the gravest phase of -the struggle opened.[301] - -Leo died in December, as I have stated, leaving to his successor -the terrible legacy of his frivolity in face of a grave calamity. -In his last two years he apprehended, to some extent, the magnitude -of the German trouble, but he plainly proposed to answer the just -demand of reform only by the burning of a few heretics. His entirely -dishonourable diplomacy and his costly indulgence of tastes which ill -befitted a successor of Leo I. imposed the last unendurable burden on -the patience of Europe. For him the Papacy was a principality, and the -religious nature of its financial sources makes more contemptible the -use to which he put his wealth. Even that artistic splendour which -casts a glow over the Papacy before the breaking of the great storm -owed to him comparatively little. The middle or secular phase of the -development of the Papacy came to an end in the tawdry luxuries and -unscrupulous measures of a Pope who has been treated with singular -favour at the bar of Catholic history. - - -FOOTNOTE: - -[Footnote 294: F. Nitti, _Leo X. e la sua politica_ (1892), seeks to -defend Leo against the charge of excessive nepotism. He strains the -evidence at times, and quite admits that duplicity was the essential -feature of the Pope's policy. See also his _Documenti ed osservazioni -riguardanti la politica di Leone X._ (1893). A biography of Leo was -written by the contemporary Bishop of Nocera, Paolo Giovio, but this -_Vita Leonis X._ is the work of a courtier. Guicciardini (_Storia -d'Italia_), Sanuto (_Diarii_), and Bembo (_Opere_) are more critical, -and the letters of the Roman ambassadors are valuable. P. de Grassis, -Master of Ceremonies at the Papal Court under Julius and Leo, wrote a -_Diary of Leo X._, but there seems to be some reluctance to publish -it. The work published by Armellini (_Il diario di Leone X._, 1884) is -merely a discreet compendium of it. Fabroni's _Leonis X. Vita_ is too -ancient (1797), and _The Medici Popes_ (1908) by H.M. Vaughan, is an -excellent popular work. Roscoe's stately _Life and Pontificate of Leo -X._ (1805) is too flattering to its hero and is discredited in places -by more recent research.] - -[Footnote 295: Sanuto, _Diarii_, xviii.] - -[Footnote 296: Guicciardini, xii. There is a copy of his Spanish treaty -in the State archives at Florence.] - -[Footnote 297: The instruction is reproduced by Nitti, p. 61. As the -document adds that Leo will not allow any prince, "even were it his -own brother," to hold "both the head and the tail of Italy" (Milan and -Naples), Nitti and Pastor claim that it shows that nepotism was not the -key-note of Leo's policy. It seems strange that, in view of all his -admitted duplicity, they can take seriously this phrase of the Pope's. -We may admit, however, that the security of the Papal States was the -Pope's first consideration.] - -[Footnote 298: Dr. Pastor (viii., 81) is here less candid than usual. -He says that "Giovio passes over the whole truth of the accusations -brought against the moral conduct of Leo X.," whereas the Bishop of -Nocera devotes several very curious pages to the subject (lib. iv., -pp. 96-99 in the 1551 edition of the _Vita Leonis X._) and ends with -a reminder that we can never be quite sure about the secrets of the -chamber and an assurance that Leo was at all events less guilty than -other Italian princes. The courtly writer seems to me convinced that -Leo was addicted to unnatural vice. Vaughan, on the other hand, is -wrong in saying that Giovio alone mentioned these vices. Guicciardini -(lib. xvi., c.v., p. 254, in the 1832 edition of the _Storia -d'Italia_), in the course of a sober characterization of Leo, says that -he was generally believed to be chaste before his election, but he was -"afterwards found to be excessively devoted to pleasures which cannot -be called decent."] - -[Footnote 299: It is sometimes pointed out, rather in the way of merit, -that Leo received less than some of his predecessors by the issue of -indulgences. It was not from want of will on his part.] - -[Footnote 300: _In Coena Domini_, March 28th.] - -[Footnote 301: The situation in England does not call for consideration -in this chapter. Henry VIII. wrote against Luther and, in presenting -his book to the Pope, requested a title analogous to that of "the most -Catholic King." By a Bull of October 26, 1521, Henry received the title -of "Defender of the Faith," which his successors retain.] - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -PAUL III. AND THE COUNTER-REFORMATION - - -The period immediately following the death of Leo X. is known as -that of the Counter-Reformation. The name which has clung to the -great religious schism of the sixteenth century still indicates how -essentially it was, in its origin, a protest against the corruption of -the medićval Church. The reform of dogma was an afterthought; and the -Reformation would probably have proved one more futile and academic -criticism of the medićval growth of doctrine if it had not primarily -appealed to the very general resentment against the practices of the -Curia and contempt for the unworthy lives of so large a proportion -of the clergy and regulars. The situation, indeed, offers a romantic -aspect to the historian. If a strong and entirely religious man, like -Cardinal Carafa, had succeeded Leo X., it might have been possible, -by a notable improvement in practice, to disarm a very effective -proportion of the followers of the Reformers and thus to put back for -a century or two the doctrinal revision. Unhappily for the Papacy, Leo -X. had filled the Sacred College with men of his own disposition, and -thirty years were wasted in fruitless efforts at compromise. In those -thirty years, the hesitating criticisms of Luther crystallized into a -settled creed which no persuasion could dissolve and no persecution -could obliterate. - -Hadrian VI., who followed Leo, spent two unhappy years (1521-3) in a -pitiable and wholly vain attempt to save the authority of the Popes -in northern Europe. Sprung from a pious working-class family of the -Low-lands, and retaining his simple tastes and stern religious idealism -in the evil atmosphere of the higher clergy, he sincerely resented the -vices and frivolity of the cardinals. Rome itself now ridiculed so -fiercely the contrast between their pretensions and their lives that -the worldly cardinals were unable to put into power a man like Leo X., -and the learned, venerable, and more or less disdained Hadrian VI. -shuddered to find himself at the helm on so stormy a sea. He was not -the type of man to save the Church. With simple fidelity, he at once -made it clear that the debased policy of his predecessor was abandoned; -but he had not the strength to control the crowd of discontented -cardinals and prelates, or to frame and carry through a consistent -scheme of reform. He was concerned, too, about the financial loss which -would be caused by a thorough reform, and the traffic in benefices -and indulgences was merely moderated instead of being abolished. The -curtailment was in itself a confession that the system was corrupt, -and the Reformers scoffed at Hadrian's invitation to return on such a -basis, while orthodox Catholics deplored the candour of the admission. -Between these antagonistic and weighty forces the slender energy of the -well meaning Pontiff was exhausted in two years. - -The Pontificate of Clement VII. (1523-34) was a compromise; he was -a Medicean Pope (Giulio de' Medici), a patron of art and letters, -but a man of sober taste and regular life. It was a compromise, too, -between a keen intelligence and a flabby will--a sagacious perception -of the danger and a complete lack of the virility needed to avert -it--and eleven further years of impotence permitted the Reformation -to take deep and indestructible root in Germany. Clement VII. was, -in fact, largely absorbed in the unending political struggle. After -some vacillation he allied himself with France against Charles V., -and Charles won. Rome had to endure one of the most cruel and most -prolonged pillages in its history, and the Pope was for seven months -imprisoned in Sant' Angelo. He made peace with Charles, but he had -little satisfaction in contemplating the imperial shadow which lay over -fallen Italy, while the Turks came ever nearer and no Christian monarch -would advance against them. In these circumstances, Protestantism -became a creed and spread over the north. Henry VIII. married Anne -Boleyn and became the "defender" of a new faith; and the revolt spread -to Switzerland and Scandinavia. The scanty measures of reform passed -by Clement were regarded with disdain by the dissenters, and the -artistic Renaissance itself never recovered from the sack of Rome and -the overrunning of Italy. It was left to the founders of new religious -congregations, especially the Oratorians, Theatines, and Barnabites, -and to the reformers of the older orders, to lay the foundations of the -Counter-Reformation. - -Clement died on September 25, 1534, and the College of Cardinals, which -had almost become the curse of the Church, met to elect a successor. -Few of these cardinals, even now, grasped with any intelligence the -grave situation of their Church. It was, indeed, feared that, while -the reform was spreading rapidly in the north, the Conclave would be -wrecked by the conflict of the French and Imperialist partisans. The -struggle was so menacing that a politically neutral cardinal was -forced upon the College, and the graver need of the Church--the need of -a Pontiff of the most sincere and spontaneous religion, as well as of -large mind and inflexible will--was almost unnoticed. - -Alessandro Farnese, who now became Paul III.,[302] was a man of high -intelligence, fine culture, and great will-power; but he had neither -the immaculate record and deep piety which were needed to impress the -Reformers nor the political decision which might have compensated -for these defects. However much the historian may appreciate the -difficulties of the Papacy, he cannot but recognize that the idea of -compromising with the Reformers had at least since 1520 been futile. -Paul III. had, it is true, no idea of compromise: the dissenters -were to surrender every doctrinal and disciplinary claim, or to be -extinguished. The great European schism could now have been remedied -by no man. But a reform of the Church on other than doctrinal matters -might have done much to arrest the spread of Protestantism, and on -this Paul compromised. His policy was a reflection of his personality; -he was a son of the Renaissance Church, and feebly--in spite of his -admitted strength of will--he endeavoured to retain certain pleasant -features of the vicious _ancien régime_ with which to soften the -asperity of the new ideal which was forced upon him. He was in a sense -a Papal Louis XVIII. - -We remember Paul as the brother of Alexander VI's doll-like mistress, -Giulia Farnese. Born on February 29, 1468, he had received early -instruction in the new culture from Pomponio Leto at Rome, and had -spent his youth in that seminary of the Humanists, the splendid palace -of Lorenzo de' Medici at Florence, and then at Pisa University. His -wealth was far inferior to the nobility of his descent, and it was -not until his young sister had attracted the eye of the voluptuous -Pope that he was promoted to the cardinalate (September 20, 1493). -In 1502, he was appointed legate for the March of Ancona, and the -more comfortable establishment he could now afford to maintain -included a mistress. Four children--Pier Luigi, Paolo, Costanza, and -Ranuccio--were born in his palace between 1502 and 1509; and the eldest -son and Costanza were familiar figures in Roman society during his -later Pontificate. - -The more minute inquirer will find the documents transcribed from the -Vatican archives, relating to these children, in Pastor.[303] His -mistress died at an early age in 1513, and Alessandro (now forty-five -years old) is described as moderating his irregularities and as -devoting some attention to his bishopric of Parma. Papal historians -observe with pride that his irregularities entirely ceased in 1519, -when he was ordained priest. The friend of his youth, Leo X., cordially -included him in his generous patronage, and he was able to build the -Farnese palace and to cultivate ambition. In 1523, he made an effort -to secure the tiara, but at the Conclave the cardinals had not the -courage to present to the Reformers as Pontiff the father of four -children. He stifled his lament that Clement VII. had "robbed him of -ten years of the Papacy," and became as amiable a friend of that Pope -as he had been of his five predecessors; and amidst the fierce clash -of political passion he retained a diplomatic neutrality. He shared -Clement's bitter days in Sant' Angelo, yet did not quarrel with the -Imperialists. - -These characteristics marked Alessandro for the throne; and they at -the same time ensured that his struggle with Protestantism would be -entirely futile. He was now sixty-seven years old, and we easily -picture him from Titian's wonderful portrait; frail and worn in flesh -and stooping with age; yet his penetrating eyes and large bald dome of -a forehead indicated a great energy of will and force of intellect. -He was essentially a diplomat, and the cardinals, absorbed for the -most part in the political troubles, did not reflect that the rapier -of diplomacy was the last weapon with which to meet the stout staves -of the northerners. He was an excellent listener, a sparing and -deliberate talker, a most skilful postponer of crucial decisions; a -"_vas dilationis_," the Roman wits said, parodying the description of a -greater Paul. - -Dr. Pastor thinks that the reforming cardinals--of whom there were now -many--had much confidence in his disposition to reform. If they had, -their trust is in the main another tribute to his diplomatic skill. He -had no idea of reforming the Curia and the Church further than might be -exacted of him by unpleasant circumstances. - -Shrewd observers must quickly have observed that Paul III. remained -at heart a Farnese. His son, Pier Luigi, visited him in Rome soon -after his election. Pier Luigi had become a military adventurer, a -feeble emulator of Cćsar Borgia, and by taking arms in the Imperialist -service, had incurred excommunication under Clement. Paul is said to -have received his son in secret and directed him to keep away from -Rome. There was to be no open nepotism. But in a few weeks Pier Luigi -was back in Rome and was observed to have plenty of money. Paul was -crowned on November 3d (1534) and announced his intention to reform the -Church. On, December 18th he bestowed the cardinalate on two of his -nephews, Guido Sforza and Alessandro Farnese. Sforza was a youth of -seventeen; Alessandro was a fourteen-year old pupil at Bologna, yet he -received, besides the red hat, the governorship of Spoleto and such a -number of profitable benefices that he was soon able to outshine some -of the more ostentatious cardinals; and in the next year he was made -Vice-Chancellor. Both he and Sforza were notoriously immoral. Pier -Luigi was made Gonfaloniere, Commander of the Papal troops, and Duke -of Castro; and proportionate benefits were showered on all friends and -connexions of the Farnese family. - -It would not be history to dwell on the "obstinacy" of the Reformers -and to fail to emphasize these very pertinent and entirely undisputed -facts; but I will dismiss in few words this aspect of Paul's character. -Nepotism was one of his most persistent traits, and we shall repeatedly -find his direction of Papal policy perverted by a care for the worldly -advancement of his family. He was equally unable and unwilling to -break with the gayer tradition of the Borgia-Medici court. He loved -pageantry and comedy, encouraged the merry riot of the carnival, -favoured astrologers, buffoons, and pseudo-classical poets, and liked -to dine with fair women. It is, perhaps, not much to say that his -private life--at the age of seventy--was irreproachable; but it is not -immaterial to observe that he gave an indulgent eye to the conduct of -the looser cardinals. Instead of sternly attempting to crush that -large body of loose and luxurious cardinals to whom, in the first -place, we may trace the catastrophe of the Church, he added, at each -promotion, a few to their number. Of the seventy-one cardinals he -promoted during his Pontificate the great majority were good men; but -a few were of such a character that their election was, in the actual -situation of the Church, unpardonable. - -These little personal details must be considered first if we are to -understand aright the attitude of Paul III. toward reform and the -reforming council. From the first he assured his visitors that he -intended to reform the Church. Before the end of 1534, he appointed -two reform commissions--one on morals and the other on Church offices; -though he chilled the zeal of the more ardent cardinals by enjoining -them to take into account the circumstances. In the spring of 1535, he -prosecuted Cardinal Accolti for grave abuse of his position of legate, -but compromised for a fine of 59,000 scudi. The Reformers of Germany -had from the first appealed to a council, and Paul declared himself -in favour of a council; but he insisted that it must be summoned by -him, presided over by his legates, and held in Italy; and this not -only the princes of the Schmalkaldic League but the three monarchs -concerned emphatically refused. Charles V. saw that such a council -would be--as Paul III. well knew--utterly useless as an instrument of -reconciliation; Francis I. did not want reconciliation at all, since -it would give to Charles command of a united Germany; and Henry VIII., -who accepted the title of Head of the English Church in 1534, and in -the following year initiated his policy of bloody persecution, had done -with Rome. In fact, instead of giving all the negotiations about a -council, I would point out that there never was the slightest hope by -such a means of ending the schism. Each side was absolutely convinced -of the truth of its formulas, and very few, least of all the Pope, -thought that compromise was possible or desirable. Luther was quite -willing to attend a council, even in Italy; but merely in order to -convince the Church of its errors and abominations. The Pope wanted -a council merely in order to formulate Catholic doctrine in clear -official terms and thus to provide a standard for the condemnation and -extermination of the heretics. No Pope could think otherwise. - -Paul at length ventured to announce "to the city and the world" that a -general council would be held at Mantua on the 23d of May, 1537; but -when the Duke of Mantua directed the Pope to send an army to protect -his council, the design was abandoned. A Bull next announced that the -council would meet at Vicenza on May 1, 1538; but as only five prelates -had arrived there when, on May 12th, the three Papal Legates made their -imposing entry--after waiting in nervous hope some distance away--that -project, also, was abandoned. I would not agree that Paul did not -sincerely want a council, but during the first ten years the council he -wanted was an impossibility. - -Meantime, the idea of reform by commissions was sustaining the -half-desperate hopes of the better cardinals at Rome. In February, -1537, the commission drew up so sound and true and large a scheme of -reform that the anti-reformers successfully pleaded that it would -injure the Church to publish it, and it remains "a scrap of paper" in -the Vatican Archives. After much discussion, Paul decided to begin -with the reform of the Dataria (an office of the Court which yielded -more than 50,000 ducats a year, nearly half the entire income, to the -Papal exchequer in connexion with the issue of graces, privileges, -dispensations, etc.), and a further long discussion ensued. The -discussion lasted some three years, without practical issue, and it -was not until the end of 1540 that a few obvious reforms could be -carried in some of the departments of the Curia. Characteristic is the -story of one of these reforms. Pressed by the sterner cardinals, who -wrote grave letters to each other on the Pope's conduct, to put an end -to the scandal of non-resident prelates (absentee landlords), Paul -summoned eighty of them, who were living in comfort at Rome, to return -to their dioceses. There was terrible alarm. But they successfully -pleaded that they could not live on the mere incomes of their sees, -and they remained in Rome. Paul had to be content with discharging a -few officials, directing the clergy to reform their lives and their -sermons, and encouraging the new religious congregations: among which -was a certain very small community, calling itself the "Company of -Jesus," which seemed to him, when it first appeared in Rome, eccentric -and of very doubtful value to the Church. - -In the meantime, Paul had successfully maintained the political -neutrality which he had from the first contemplated. Francis and -Charles both sought alliance with him, and he tried instead to -reconcile them and avert war. It is to his credit that when Charles, -perceiving his weakness, offered, as the price of alliance, the -marquisate of Novara to Pier Luigi and a principality in Naples to -Pier's son Ottavio, Paul still refused. But the fact that in 1536 he -received Charles with great pomp at Rome irritated Francis, and war -broke out.[304] In view of the advances of the Turks, Paul went in -person to Nice, in the spring of 1538, and reconciled the two monarchs, -but his nepotism again mars the merit of this work. He arranged that -his grandson Ottavio, a boy of thirteen, should marry the Emperor's -natural daughter, Margaret of Austria, a girl-widow of sixteen, who -hated the boy; and their connubial arrangements added, for many years, -to the scandal or the gaiety of Rome. Paul was also severely blamed for -the unscrupulous way in which he wrested the duchy of Camerino from -the Varani and gave it to Ottavio. When Francis violently objected to -this virtual alliance, Paul married his granddaughter Vittoria to a -French prince. Nor were the Reformers pleased when they learned that, -in return for the Emperor's natural daughter, the Pope had granted -to Charles the right to publish indulgences in Spain, and had given -him other privileges which would yield him a million ducats a year of -Church money; and that neither Francis nor Charles would help Italy to -face the Turks. - -The unchecked advance of the Turk had, indirectly, another grave -disadvantage for the Papacy. Charles needed the united forces of his -dominions to meet the Turks, and the Protestants profited by his need. -Whatever may be said about the amiable intentions of Paul III., at an -earlier date, he now plainly designed to crush the followers of the -Reformers in the field. He sent his grandson, Cardinal Alessandro -Farnese, to the courts of Francis and of Charles, and the instructions -which he gave him, as well as the letters of the Cardinal himself, -show that he sought, not only their support of his Italian council, -but the co-operation of the monarchs against the Turks and the -Protestants.[305] Both refused, and Charles, in spite of the Pope's -vehement objections, consented to the holding of another conference or -discussion with the representatives of the Protestants. The conference -took place at Hagenau on June 12th, and had, of course, no result, but -a fresh attempt was made at Worms in January 1541, and Paul sent Bishop -Campeggio and four theologians to meet the Protestant divines. It is -needless to discuss the Colloquy in detail, since such experiments -never had the least prospect of success, but the next conference is of -some interest. - -Some of the German princes, like the Duke of Bavaria, had no wish to -see a religious reconciliation, since their ambition had a larger -chance of success in a disunited Empire; and Francis I. was only too -eager to support these princes.[306] Other vassals of the Emperor were -irreconcilable Protestants. But there were on both sides a few men of -a moderate disposition, who believed that a round-table conference -might still secure religious peace, if not the old unity. Charles V. -was of this opinion, and he made it a test of the Pope's sincerity that -he should co-operate in a last attempt. Cardinal Contarini, a man of -impressive character and considerable ability, was sent as legate, and -for some time before the opening of the Diet of Ratisbon, he zealously -endeavoured to find the dogmatic formulć which had some prospect of -common acceptance. Charles had begged the Pope to confer large powers -of concession on his legate, but we now know that Paul gave him but -slender authority, couched in the vaguest of language.[307] If any -attempt were made to settle important points of doctrine, he was to -protest and leave the Diet. In a later instruction, he warned Contarini -not to allow the Emperor to suspect that Rome favoured the use of force -rather than persuasion, and to say, in regard to the proposal that the -Papacy should send 50,000 scudi for the purpose of bribing influential -Protestants, that such a design seemed neither decent nor safe, but -that the 50,000 scudi would be sent "for distribution," if, and when, -a reconciliation was effected.[308] It is plain that Paul foresaw -the complete failure of the Colloquy--we must remember that success -depended entirely on _concession_ and no Pope could make a concession -on doctrine--and intended to make the failure a ground for an appeal to -arms. - -The Diet opened on April 27, 1541, and in a few weeks Contarini and -his friends announced with sincere joy that they had reached a common -formula on so delicate a topic as justification. This agreement had -been reached by the Papal Legate accepting a semi-heretical formula, -which Rome afterwards rejected. But the futility of the proceedings -soon became apparent. When they went on to discuss transubstantiation -and penance, priestly celibacy and monastic vows, the antagonism became -acute, and the Colloquy ended in disorder. The Pope rejected all the -formulas approved by his Legate, and wrote him, on June 10th, that -he was sending the 50,000 scudi, and would send a larger sum if the -Catholics found it necessary to draw the sword against the heretics. -Some of the stricter cardinals at Rome, such as Carafa and Toledo, were -now convinced that force was necessary. - -In September (1541) the Pope met the Emperor at Lucca. Charles insisted -that the council, whatever form it took, must be held in Germany, -but Paul pleaded that he wished to preside in person and that his -age forbade so lengthy a journey. We shall hardly be unjust if we -regard these pleas as pretexts. The forthcoming council was, in the -Pope's view,--an inevitable view,--to be a canonical gathering for -the stricter definition of the doctrines already rejected by the -Reformers; when that council had formulated the faith, the secular -powers must deal with any who dissented from it. Paul still fought -for the holding of the council in Italy, where he could overwhelm the -Protestant envoys, but as it became entirely certain that not a single -Protestant would come to Italy, he spoke of Cambrai, Metz, and other -alternatives, and at length consented to Trent. Still there was much -friction, and many were not yet convinced that the Pope sincerely -desired a reform-council. Francis I. angrily exclaimed that this -council seemed to be an imperial concern, and he refused to publish -the Bull of Convocation. Charles, on the other side, was annoyed to -find that in the Bull he was put on a level with that perfidious ally -of the infidel, Francis I., and he threatened to keep his German -prelates from going to Trent. But the Pope energetically overbore -all opposition, and the historic Council of Trent was announced for -November 1st. In the meantime (July, 1542), the Pope reconstituted -the Inquisition in Italy and put it under the control of the more -fanatical cardinals like Carafa. It was empowered to imprison heretics, -confiscate their goods, and (with the use of the secular arm) to put -them to death. Dr. Pastor deplores that the Vatican authorities still -refuse to allow access to the records of the Roman Inquisition, so that -we are very imperfectly acquainted with its work. - -The Papal Legates arrived at Trent with great pomp, on November 22d, -three weeks after the appointed date, yet not a single bishop had -appeared. Six weeks later the arrival of two bishops gave them a -slender satisfaction, but by the end of March not more than a dozen -bishops--and these mostly Italians--had reached the seat of the -council. Neither Germans nor French would come, and the Italians -thought it prudent not to arrive in a body so as to give to the council -a national complexion. In the summer, Paul went to confer with Charles -at Parma, but the issue of their conference was a bitter disappointment -for the Catholic reformers. Paul proposed to suspend the opening of -the council and to transfer it from Trent, and begged the Emperor to -bring about a compromise with France, by yielding Milan to the Pope's -nephew, Ottavio. Charles refused to assent, and Paul, on his own -account, suspended the council and began to look to Francis I. for the -aggrandizement of his family. - -The events which followed make the historian wonder that any have -attempted to clear the character of Paul III. of disgraceful nepotism -and insincerity. Charles V. sought alliance with Henry VIII., and Paul -sent his nephew, Cardinal Farnese, to the Court of Francis I. In that -grave crisis of the Church's fortunes, we have the Catholic Emperor -in alliance with Henry VIII., the most Catholic King in alliance -with the Turks, and the Pope seeking, with a notoriety which gave -great scandal, the enrichment of his illegitimate children and other -relatives. Vittoria Farnese, the Pope's granddaughter, was betrothed -to the Duke of Orleans, and the Pope promised her, from the patrimony -of St. Peter, the duchies of Parma and Piacenza as her dowry. Charles -angrily threatened to invade Rome, and the Spanish and German envoys -at the Vatican used language which had rarely been heard in the Papal -chambers. It is put to the credit of the Pope only that he refused -still to disown or condemn Charles, as Francis demanded, and that he -earnestly sought to reconcile the monarchs. In September, his efforts -bore fruit in the Peace of Crespy. Yet we must recall that, as all -acknowledge, Paul was in part concerned for the security of his family -in refusing to incur the hostility of Charles; and we know that a -secret clause of the Treaty of Crespy compelled Francis and Charles -to unite for the purpose of destroying the Protestants as well as the -Turks. - -It was also stipulated at Crespy that the council should at last -begin its labours, and Paul announced that it would open at Trent -on March 25, 1545. But the attempt was again abortive, and only two -bishops greeted the Papal Legates on the appointed date. The Catholic -monarchs did not believe that the Pope was sincere, and the Protestants -were violently opposed to a council on the orthodox Catholic lines. -Cardinal Farnese was sent to induce the Emperor to send his German -bishops, and we now find Charles leaning more decidedly to the plan -of coercion and war. Cardinal Farnese writes in high spirits to his -uncle that Charles is, in alliance with the Papacy, about to make -war on the Protestants; and it is unhappily characteristic that he -adds that this alliance may turn to the great profit of the Farnese -family.[309] In fact, the Cardinal returned to Rome with all speed, in -disguise, and Paul promised 100,000 ducats and 12,000 men for the war, -besides granting Charles a half-year's income of the Spanish Church and -permission to raise 500,000 ducats by the sale of monastic property. -The eagerness of the Pope at this adoption of a design he had so long -cherished may be judged from the fact that his courier to Charles left -Rome on June 16th and reached Worms by the 23d. Charles, however, had -begun to waver in his brave resolution, and the war was postponed; but -the advancement of the Farnesi was not forgotten. The duchies of Parma -and Piacenza were now given to Pier Luigi, and the Pope met the violent -protests of the cardinals with a statistical "proof" that the duchies -were of less value than a few small places which his son surrendered -to the Holy See. The annoyance of the reforming prelates was complete -when the Pope issued a medal representing a naked Ganymede leaning on -an eagle and watering the lily which was the emblem of the Farnese -family.[310] - -Charles would not consent to the removal of the council to Bologna, -and it was at length opened at Trent on December 13, 1545, with an -attendance of four archbishops and twenty-one bishops. The first -session was purely formal, and the second session (January 7th) was -occupied by a violent discussion on procedure. The Emperor feared that -a formulation of Catholic doctrines would close the door of the Church -definitively against the Germans, and he insisted that the reform -of morals and discipline must come first. Paul feared that, if the -question of reform came first, the council would almost resolve itself -into a trial of the Papacy; and there is good ground to think that, -on the other hand, he wanted the doctrines in dispute formulated as a -preliminary step to the more drastic condemnation of the Reformers. -The conflict ended in compromise: each sitting of the council was to -consider both doctrine and reform. The correspondence of the legates -with the Pope[311] shows how vehemently Paul fought for his plan, and -it was only at their very grave and emphatic assurance that reform must -proceed--that deeds, not Bulls, were wanted, as they put it--that he -agreed to the compromise. - -The fathers of the council, who, at the end of June, had risen in -number to about sixty, had held two further sessions, and had discussed -only a few dogmas and measures of reform when their labours were again -suspended by the outbreak of the religious war. The Protestants had -naturally refused to attend the Papal council, and had continued to -spread their faith in the north. Paul, therefore, urged Charles to -carry out his design of repressing them by arms, and in June (1546) -a secret treaty was signed by Charles V., the Duke of Bavaria, -Ferdinand I., and the Pope uniting their forces for an attack upon the -Schmalkaldic dissenters. In order to prevent Charles from again losing -his resolution, the Pope dishonourably communicated this treaty to the -Protestants, nor was Charles less angry with Paul for representing to -France, Poland, and Venice that the impending struggle was a religious -crusade in which any Catholic people might assist. It was the policy -of Charles to place his enterprise on purely secular grounds. There -was again grave friction between Charles and the Pope, and the Farnesi -mingled with the graver issues a petulant complaint that Charles had -done so little for them. - -The Protestants, however, were badly organized and were soon defeated. -Paul bitterly complained that Charles would not follow up his victory -by initiating a policy of persecution in south Germany, and would not, -when Henry VIII. died (1547), join forces with Francis I. for the -invasion of England; and another fiery quarrel ensued. The prelates -at Trent conceived that they were menaced by the distant and subdued -Protestants, and Paul quickly availed himself of the apprehension -to demand a removal to Italy. Charles went so far as to threaten to -confiscate the whole of the property of the Church in Germany, but a -convenient epidemic broke out at Trent and Paul removed the council to -Bologna. Another year was spent in discussion as to the validity of the -transfer, and the rumour that the Pope secretly desired to frustrate -the work of reform once more gained ground. This is, as I explained, a -half-truth. But so little reform was actually achieved during the life -of Paul that I need not deal further here with the Council of Trent. - -The year 1648 was filled with the acrid conflict of Pope and Emperor. -Paul drew nearer to France, and Rome, believing that at length the -Pope was about to abandon his policy of neutrality, prepared once -more for invasion. Charles made no descent on Italy, but he now took -a step which seemed to the Pope almost as scandalous an outrage. He -issued his famous Interrim: a document which enacted that, until the -points in dispute were settled by a council, priests might marry, the -laity might communicate from the chalice, and vague and conciliatory -interpretations might be put on the doctrines of the Church. In spite -of the intrigues of France, Paul wearily maintained his negotiations -with Charles, and, to the last, pressed the ambitions of his family. In -October (1549), however, his favourite grandson rebelled against his -decision in regard to Parma, and the aged Pope abandoned the unhappy -struggle. He died on November 10th of that year. - -In spite of the efforts of some recent historians, the character of -Paul does not stand out with distinction in the Papal chronicle. His -lamentable nepotism mars his whole career, and his real reluctance to -press the work of reform did grave injury to his Church. He belonged -essentially to the earlier phase of the Papacy, and it is apparent -that, if he could have extirpated Protestantism by the sword, the -Papacy would have returned to the more decent levities of the days of -Leo X. As it was, he did comparatively little for either culture or -religion. He very cordially employed Michael Angelo and Sangallo, and -showed a concern for the antiquities and the monuments of Rome. He had -ability, power, and taste; but he had not that fiery will for reform -and that deep religious faith which were needed in that hour of danger. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 302: For the valuable letters of the Italian ambassadors at -the time of the Conclave see _L'Elezione del Papa Paolo III._ (1907) -by P. Accame. An almost contemporary biography of Paul is given in the -_Vitć et Res Gestć Romanorum Pontificum_ of Ciaconius.] - -[Footnote 303: XI., 19-20.] - -[Footnote 304: See, for this aspect of Paul's Pontificate, an article -by L. Cardauns, "Paul III., Karl V., und Franz I.," in _Quellen und -Forschungen aus Italienischen Archiven_, Bd. XI., Heft I., pp. 147-244. -The writer holds that an alliance with Charles was advisable with a -view to crush Protestantism. There is certainly much evidence that Paul -wished to discover which of the rival monarchs would do most for his -children, yet he assuredly had a sincere desire for neutrality.] - -[Footnote 305: See _Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland_, edited by W. -Friedensberg, V. 140 and 59. Many useful documents will also be found -in H. Loemmer's _Monumenta Vaticana historiam ecclesiasticam sćculi -XVI. illustrantia_, 1861.] - -[Footnote 306: See the report of the Venetian ambassador in _Le -Relazioni degli ambasciatori Veneti_, edited by C. Alberi, 1st series.] - -[Footnote 307: E. Dietrich, _Kardinal Contarini_ (1885), p. 565.] - -[Footnote 308: This curious side-light on the history of the -Reformation is given, in a document reproduced from the secret archives -of the Vatican, by Dr. Pastor (xi., 431).] - -[Footnote 309: Farnese's letter to the Pope is reproduced by A. von -Druffel, _Karl V. und die Römische Kurie_, ii., 57.] - -[Footnote 310: It is described in A. Armand, _Les Médailleurs -Italiens_, i., 172.] - -[Footnote 311: See Pallavicini's _Istoria del Consilio di Trento_, bks. -vi. and vii.] - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -SIXTUS V. AND THE NEW CHURCH - - -The Council of Trent, which had been convoked with the formal aim of -healing the great schism of Christendom, hardened that schism and made -it irremediable. I have already observed how natural it was that the -Papacy should refuse to make open confession of its decay, and in some -degree surrender its authority, by permitting the Church to reform, -not only its members, but its head. The inevitable conception of the -Popes was to retain the work of reform in their own hands and to use -the council, if council there must be,--we have seen that Popes had -reason to look with suspicion on councils,--to secure an agreement on -doctrinal standards by which the Inquisitors might judge, and secular -princes might exterminate, heretics. They miscalculated the power of -the northern rebels and the chances of an unselfish cohesion of the -Catholic princes against them. Nearly half of Europe adopted a new -version of the Christian faith, and, when the Thirty Years' War finally -proved the indestructibility of that creed, the task of the Papacy -was narrowed to the ruling and reforming of southern Europe and the -spiritual conquest of the new worlds which had appeared beyond the -seas. For this fourth phase of Papal development--the period from the -consolidation of the Reformation to the first outbreak of Modernism in -the French Revolution--the Pontificates of Sixtus V. and Benedict XIV. -are the most illuminating and significant. - -Even the failure of Paul III. did not entirely banish from the Vatican -the levity which had been the immediate cause of its disaster. Julius -III. (1550-1555) at first resumed, somewhat reluctantly, the sittings -of the Council of Trent, but he again suspended its work in 1552 -and entered upon a period of luxurious ease and frivolous enjoyment -which deeply shocked the graver cardinals. At his death the fiery -Neapolitan reformer, Cardinal Carafa, who had dictated the more -severe decisions of Paul III., received the tiara, and he spent four -energetic years (1555-1559) in a relentless attack upon heresy in -Catholic lands. He made vigorous use of the Inquisition, which Paul -III. had (largely at the instigation of St. Ignatius) set up in Rome, -and he published a complete Index of Prohibited Books.[312] But his -reforms, his heresy-hunts, and his hostility to Spain were enforced -with such harshness that the Romans almost cursed his memory when his -short Pontificate came to an end. It is a singular illustration of the -tenacity of abuses at Rome that even the austere Carafa was a nepotist, -and the nephews he favoured were of so unworthy a character that they -were executed--though one of them was a cardinal--by his successor. - -Pius IV. (1559-65) was a more persuasive reformer: a Milanese of lowly -origin but of some distinction in canonical scholarship. He guided to -their close the labours of the Council of Trent,[313] and on January -26, 1564, put the Papal seal on the precise formulation of the Roman -creed. Pius V. (1565-72) brought to the Papal throne the austere ideals -of a sincere Dominican monk. He was not content with persecuting the -Italians who criticized the Papacy; he did much to reform the Papal -Court and the city. Gregory XIII. (1572-85), a scholarly Pope, mingled -in strange proportion the virtues and vices of his predecessors. -His name survives honourably in the Gregorian Calendar, and he did -more than any other Pope to encourage the spread of that network of -Jesuit colleges throughout southern Europe which proved so effective a -hindrance to the advance of Protestantism; but the _Te Deum_ he sang -over the foul "St. Bartholomew Massacre" (1572) and the condition of -infuriated rebellion in which he left the Papal States at his death -betray his defects. The Papal income had fallen considerably since the -loss of England and north Germany and Scandinavia, yet Gregory wished -to pay heavy subsidies to the militant Catholic princes. He imposed -such taxes, and aroused such fierce anger by seizing estates after -disputing the title-deeds of the owners, that Italy almost slew him -with its hatred. - -In these circumstances the famous Sixtus V. mounted the Papal throne. -Felice Peretti had been born at Grottamare, in the March of Ancona, on -December 13, 1521. The unwonted vigour of his character is traced by -some to the Dalmatian blood of his ancestors, who, in the preceding -century, had fled before the Turks to Italy. They had preserved their -robust health, and attained no fortune, by work on the soil, and there -is not the least improbability in the tradition--which some recent -writers resent--that Felice at one time tended his father's swine.[314] -But at the age of nine he was sent to the friary at Montalto, where -he had an uncle, and he proved a good student. He became so excellent -a preacher that he was summoned to give the Lenten Sermons at Rome in -1552, and he attracted the notice of St. Ignatius and St. Philip Neri, -and of some of the graver cardinals. After presiding over one or two -convents of his Order, he was put in charge of the friary at Venice in -1556, and was in the next year made Counsellor to the Inquisition. His -ardent nature and strict ideals caused him to use his powers with such -harshness that both his brethren and the Venetian government attacked -him. He was forced several times to retire, and in 1560 Rome was -definitively compelled to withdraw him. - -The fact that he had been thwarted by lax brethren and by an (from -the Roman point of view) irreligious government commended the fiery -monk still further to his reformer-friends. He received a chair at the -Sapienza (Roman University) and was made Counsellor to the Holy Office. -In 1565 Cardinal Buoncompagni was sent on a mission to Spain, and, -apparently to the Cardinal's disgust, the learned friar was included -in his train. The sincerely religious temper of Sixtus V. makes it -difficult for some of his biographers to understand his very original -character. In spite of his virtue he was quite clearly ambitious,--one -must live in the ecclesiastical world to realize how the ambition of -power and the ambition to do good fuse with each other in the clerical -mind,--he had an atrocious temper, and he retained what higher-born -prelates would call the rudeness of a peasant. He quarrelled with -Buoncompagni, and, as the mission was never really discharged, he had -no opportunity to distinguish himself. However, the new Pope (for whose -election Buoncompagni returned prematurely to Rome) was the friendly -Dominican colleague, Pius V. Padre Montalto was made Vicar Apostolic -over the Franciscan Order--the General having died--and he made a -drastic effort to reform the reluctant friars and nuns (1566-1568). For -this he received the red hat (1570) and was entrusted with the task of -editing the works of St. Ambrose. - -Unhappily for the ambitious cardinal-monk, Pius V. died in 1572, and -Cardinal Buoncompagni ascended the throne and took the name of Gregory -XIII. He withdrew the pension which Pius had assigned to Felice, and -for the next thirteen years the Cardinal had to live in retirement -and comparative poverty. In this again the very original character -of Peretti reveals itself. One might expect that so stern a monastic -reformer would retire to a friary when the Papal Court no longer -required his presence, but he retired, instead, to his very comfortable -palace and garden on the Esquiline. He had brought his sister Camilla -and her son Francesco to live in this palace, and even romance and -tragedy entered the friar's home. Francesco had married a beautiful -and light-minded Roman girl, and her brother, Paolo Orsini, murdered -Francesco in order to set her free for a nobler lover. The uncle could -get no redress under Gregory XIII. He curbed his anger, quietly bent -over his books, and watched the rising storm in Italy which was to -close Gregory's reign. - -Gregory died on April 10, 1585, and Cardinal Montalto was enclosed with -his colleagues in the Sistine Chapel on April 21st for the making of -a new Pope. He was in his sixty-fourth year, and his more malicious -biographer would have us believe that he disguised his robustness -under a pretence of decrepit age in order to deceive the cardinals. -The fact seems to be that he waited quietly, and without taking sides, -in his cell until the factions had worn themselves out and the hour -had come for choosing a man who had not been regarded as _papabile_. -Most assuredly he deceived the cardinals, though not by any dishonest -artifice. For three days the Medici and Colonna and Farnese, and the -French and Spanish factions, fought their traditional battle, and not -one of the aspirants could get a majority. Then one or two cardinals -bethought themselves of this quiet Cardinal Montalto, who had lived -away on the Esquiline with his rustic sister for so many years, and who -would surely be grateful to any for elevating him to the throne. They -visited Montalto and found him humbly and gratefully disposed: they -intrigued nervously and rapidly in the little colony: and presently -cardinals rushed to do homage to the former swineherd and applaud -the Pontificate of Sixtus V. He was duly grateful, for a few days. -Lucrative appointments were at once divided amongst his friends and -supporters; though some fear seized men when one of the cardinals -ventured to bring before the new Pope the murderer of his nephew, and -Sixtus, in sombre and terrible accents, bade the Orsini go and rid -himself of his cut-throats. He was crowned on May 1st, and he lost -little time in applying himself to the drastic schemes of reform which -he had, apparently, matured in his peaceful garden on the Esquiline. - -Yet the first act of the reformer betrays a defect and compels us to -deal at once with the chief irregularity of his conduct. After the -unhappy nepotism of Paul IV., that ancient and disreputable practice -had been severely condemned, yet we find it flagrantly and immediately -revived by Sixtus himself. It was, as we shall see, an essential -part of his scheme to reform the College of Cardinals, and he would -presently enact that no one should be raised to the cardinalate under -the age of twenty-one, and no man with a son or grandson should attain -the dignity. Yet within a fortnight of his coronation he announced -that his grand-nephew, Alexander Peretti, a boy of thirteen, would -be raised to the Sacred College, and another young grand-nephew was -appointed Governor of the Borgo of St. Peter's and Captain of the Papal -Guard. Their sisters were similarly enriched by noble alliances in -later years. This grave impropriety is not excused by references to -the ambition and determination of the Pope's sister Camilla; indeed, -the wealth which that lady now obtained, and the notoriety with which -she invested it in Rome, rather increased the Pope's guilt. He was -assuredly not less strong of will than she. The defect shows how deeply -rooted the evil was at Rome, when so resolute a reformer yields to it -within a few years of the Protestant convulsion of Europe. - -With this single concession to the older traditions, however, Sixtus -turned energetically to the work of reform. The condition of the -Papal States under Gregory XIII. had become scandalous. The leading -officials sold the lesser offices to corrupt men, and these in turn -recovered their money by receiving bribes to overlook crime. Brigandage -of the most licentious character spread over Italy, and even Roman -nobles supported bands of swordsmen who would with impunity rid them -of an inconvenient husband, force the doors of a virtuous woman's -house, or relieve the pilgrim of his money. A law prohibiting the use -of firearms had been passed, but it had become the fashion to ignore -law and police. The picture which Sixtus himself gives us in his early -Bulls is amazing when we recall that, only a few years before, the -future of the Church had depended in no small measure on the morals of -Rome and Italy. - -Sixtus had no cause to spare the memory of his predecessor, and he -turned with truculence to the remedy of this disorder. Before the end -of April he had four young men belonging to high Roman families hanged -on gibbets, like common murderers, for carrying firearms in spite of -the decree. At the Carnival he erected two gibbets, one at each end -of the Corso, to intimidate roysterers from the use of the knife. On -April 30th he, in his Bull _Hoc Nostri_, enacted the most drastic -punishment for brigands and all who should support or tolerate them; -and on June 1st he caused the Roman government to put a price on their -heads. The nobles of Rome, who had included these picturesque criminals -in their suites, were ordered, under the direst penalties, to yield or -dismiss them, and even cardinals were threatened with imprisonment if -they retained servants of that character. Such was the amazement of -Rome that the wits are said to have dressed the statue of St. Peter -for a journey and put into its mouth the reply, when St. Paul was -supposed to ask the meaning of his travelling costume, that he feared -that Sixtus was about to prosecute him for cutting off the ear of the -high-priest's servant. From Rome the terror spread throughout the Papal -States. Thousands--including renegade monks and mothers who prostituted -their daughters--were executed or slain, and the bands fled to neutral -territory. Thither the merciless hand of the Pope pursued them, and a -few liberal concessions to the other Italian Powers induced them to -fling back the banditti upon the arms of the Papal troops or the knives -of those who sought blood-money. - -That Sixtus pursued this very necessary campaign with absolute -truculence and a disdain of delicacy in the use of means cannot be -questioned, but, though the fact does not adorn his character, we know -too well the licentious condition of Italy to waste our sympathy on -his victims. The most stubborn and audacious outlaws fell in a few -years before his attack. At Bologna, for instance, the Pepoli and the -Malvezzi had for years sustained one of those terrible feuds which had -so long disgraced the central State of Christendom. They laughed at -Papal injunctions. Sixtus had Count Pepoli treacherously seized, tried -(in his absence) at Rome, and decapitated. His followers, and those of -the Malvezzi, scattered in alarm, and Bologna was not merely relieved -of oppressive criminals, but was adorned with new buildings and -enriched with educational institutions by the triumphant Pope. Later, -in order to extinguish the embers of animosity, he promoted one of the -Pepoli to the cardinalate. The feuds of the Gaetani, the Colonna, and -other old families were similarly trodden out, or healed by marriages -with grand-nieces of the Pope, and Italy became more sober and more -prosperous than it had been for ages. Unhappily, the reform died with -Sixtus and anarchy returned. - -This campaign occupied a few years, but it had no sooner been launched -than Sixtus produced other of the plans he had prepared in his secluded -palace. I have shown how deeply the corruption of the College of -Cardinals affected the religious history of Europe, and Sixtus began -very quickly to reform it. It was, perhaps, not his misunderstood -promise of gratitude to the cardinals who had elected him, but -some feeling of incongruity with his own conduct in promoting his -boy-nephews, which restrained him for a time. However that may be, he -turned to the problem in the second year of his Pontificate, and his -Bull _Postquam Verus_[315] laid down severe rules for the sustained -improvement of the College. The number of cardinals was restricted to -seventy (as is still the rule); illegitimates, and men who had sons and -grandsons to favour, were excluded; and a cleric must have attained -an age of at least twenty-two years before he could be promoted. In -order to distribute and expedite the work of administration, he further -divided the cardinals into fifteen "congregations" (some of which -already existed), such as those of the Inquisition, of Public Works, of -the Vatican Press, and so on. - -We can hardly doubt that in this division he had an ulterior aim. -The earlier procedure had been for the Pope to lay a question before -the whole body of the cardinals and discuss it with them. Sixtus -continued to do this, but the cardinals soon found that, although he -desired discussion, he turned fiery eyes, and even showered rough and -offensive epithets, on any who opposed his plans. He was essentially -an autocrat, and the impetuosity which was inseparable from so robust -a character made him an unpleasant autocrat. The advantage to him -of splitting the cardinals into small groups was that, on any grave -question, he had merely to take account of the consultative opinion of -a few cardinals. His more admiring biographers record that he rarely -dissented from the conclusions of his congregations; in point of fact, -he decided grave issues before consulting them, or made his will -unmistakably clear to them. His own promotions were generally sound, -though he at times strained his regulations in favour of a friend. But -he greatly improved the College of Cardinals, and made an admirable -effort to exclude from it nationalist influences. - -We must not, on the other hand, suppose that these congregations of -cardinals count in any degree--except as the mere executive of his -will--in the great work of his Pontificate. His own teeming brain and -iron will are the sole sources of the mighty achievements of those five -years. He had studied the Papal problem on all sides and was prepared -at once to remedy a disorder or design a new structure. Agriculture -and industry were feeble and unprosperous throughout the Papal States. -Ruinous taxation, lawless oppression, and the ease with which one -obtained one's bread at the innumerable monasteries, had demoralized -the country and ruined the Papal treasury. Sixtus had some of the -qualities of an economist--we still possess the careful account book he -kept in his days of monastic authority--and he was especially concerned -to nurse the Papal income in view of certain grandiose plans which he -seems to have held in reserve, so that he applied himself zealously to -this problem. It is generally agreed that his work here is a singular -compound of shrewdness and blundering. By his restoration of public -security he lifted a burden from agriculture, and he made special -efforts to encourage the woollen industry and the silk industry.[316] -He, at great cost, brought a good supply of water, from an estate -twenty miles away, to Rome, and by this means and by the cutting of -new roads re-established some population on the hills, which had -long been almost deserted. We find Camilla speculating profitably in -this extension of the city, but the more important point is that the -population of Rome rose in five years from 70,000 to 100,000; still, -however, only one tenth of the population of Imperial Rome. The Pope -also gave a water-supply to Civita Vecchia and drained its marshes; -and he spent--with very little result in this case--200,000 ducats in -draining the marshes at Terracina, which he personally inspected in -1588. - -Yet the admiration which his biographers bestow on his finance is -misplaced. It seems to have been chiefly in his native March of -Ancona that he granted relief from the heavy taxes and imposts of his -predecessor; the Papal States generally were still ruinously taxed, -even in the necessaries of life. His hoarding of specie, partly for -excellent but partly for visionary purposes, injured commerce; and -such measures as his prohibition of the sale of landed property to -foreigners were short-sighted. The rise of the Papal income, which -enabled him to store 4,500,000 scudi (about 8,000,000 dollars) in five -years, besides spending large sums on public works, was chiefly due to -deplorable methods. The income from the issue of indulgences had now -fallen very low--it had not wholly ceased, as some say, since they -are still issued in Spain--and little money came from Spain or France. -The fixed Papal income had fallen to 200,000 scudi a year, and in the -expenditure of this the friar-pope made an economy of 140,000 scudi a -year by reducing table-charges, dismissing superfluous servants, and -(as is often forgotten) giving to other servants church-benefices so -that they needed no salary. The result was still far too small for the -creation of a fund, and Sixtus sold honours and offices as flagrantly -as any Pope had done since Boniface IX. He sold positions which had -never been sold before, and he created new marketable titles. He -debased the coinage and imposed a tax on money-lenders. He carried -to a remarkable extent the new Papal system of _Monti_.[317] He -withdrew offices which Gregory XIII. had sold, and transferred them to -higher bidders; and he must have known how the officials would recoup -themselves. - -By these means he raised his hoard, which seems to have been gathered -for some visionary grand campaign against the Protestants and the -Turks. We at once recall Julius II., but it is a comparison which -the work of Sixtus V. cannot sustain; he was not so great a ruler as -Julius, and he fell on less prosperous times. I must add, however, -that part of his reserve fund was destined for practical uses. In 1586 -famine and Turks and pirates caused grave distress in Italy. Sixtus did -not even then abolish his heavy taxes on the necessaries of life and -the means of distributing them, but he bought 100,000 crowns' worth of -corn in Sicily, fixed the price of flour and punished unjust dealers, -and set about collecting a fund of a million scudi to meet such -emergencies. He was not economist enough to see the roots of the evil, -and fair, fertile Italy continued to suffer under the unhappy Papal -system. - -The Pope's tenderness to the Jews was part of his crude financial -policy. A Portuguese Jew, who had fled from the Inquisition, was -his chief fiscal adviser, and Sixtus interpreted in the most genial -manner the current teaching of theologians, that, since the Jews -were irreparably damned on a greater count, they might lend money at -interest, and the Papacy might tax their wealth. Baron Huebner, in a -moment of unusual candour, corrects some of the less discriminating -biographers: Sixtus, he says, "protected the Jews in order to exploit -them."[318] Pius V. had expelled the Jews from all parts of the -Papal States except Rome and the March of Ancona, and Sixtus, by his -constitution _Hebrćorum Gens_, cancelled the restriction and ordered -Christians to treat the Jews and their synagogues with respect. We -feel that interest led Sixtus on to a more human feeling. He dispensed -the unhappy Jews from wearing the odious yellow dress which Christian -princes and prelates imposed on them, and for a few years, in that one -corner of Europe, they enjoyed the life of human beings. - -Sixtus was less lenient to the Jesuits than to the Jews. The primitive -fervour of the Society was already dimmed by prosperity or perverted -by casuistry, and complaints came to Rome from all parts. Having -been a Franciscan monk, Sixtus was not well disposed toward the new -congregation, which had aroused the hostility of the older religious -bodies. He used to observe, in his grim, meditative way: "Who are -these men who make us bow our heads at the mention of their name?" He -referred to the Catholic practice of inclining the head at the mention -of the name of Jesus, but he disliked the whole constitution of the -Society and resented the privileges it had won from his predecessors. -A prolonged quarrel of the worldly and degenerate Jesuits of Spain -with General Acquaviva gave him an opportunity to intervene, and he -ordered an inquiry into their rules. In 1590 he announced that he would -alter the name and the constitutions of the Society. Acquaviva stirred -such Catholic monarchs as were docile to his brethren to petition the -Pope in their favour, but Sixtus was not prepared to listen to the -suggestions, in ecclesiastical affairs, of worldly princes. Acquaviva -then persuaded Cardinal Carafa, to whom the inquiry had been entrusted, -to prolong his inquiry, and it became a race between the failing energy -of the Pope and the intrigues of the Jesuits. Rome witnessed the -contest with the interest it had once bestowed on the chariot-races -of the Blues and the Greens. The inquiry was transferred to other -prelates, and, when these also were suborned, Sixtus peremptorily -ordered Acquaviva to request that the name of the Society should be -changed. The petition was reluctantly made, the Bull authorizing the -change of name was drafted and--Sixtus V. died before he put his name -to it. In the circumstances it was inevitably whispered that Jesuit -poison had ended the Pope's life, but the legend was as superfluous as -it was familiar.[319] - -The rest of the Pope's administrative work must be briefly recorded -before we pass to the consideration of his political activity. He -attempted to restrict the prodigality of the Romans in dress, food, -funeral and wedding expenses, etc., but this sumptuary legislation[320] -was not enforced. He found general and disgraceful laxity in the -convents of nuns, and enacted a death-penalty against offenders: the -same penalty he, with his habitual truculence, imposed for cheating at -cards or dice. He directed the police to cleanse Rome of prostitutes -and astrologers, reformed the prisons,[321] made provision for widows -and orphans, pressed the redemption of captives,[322] and constructed -ten galleys for the defence of the Italian coast against the Turks -and pirates. He cleared of debt the Roman University (Sapienza) and -restored it to its full activity. He engaged Fontana to crown St. -Peter's with its long-deferred cupola, and threw such energy into the -work that he almost completed in twenty-two months a task which the -builders expected to occupy ten years. He, with equal vigour, set up -the obelisks in front of St. Peter's, reconstructed the Lateran Palace -in part, and restored the columns of Trajan and Antoninus; though, in -a naďve desire to express the triumph of Christianity over Paganism, -he put statues of Peter and Paul on the ancient Roman pedestals.[323] -He also set up a press in the Vatican Library, which he restored and -decorated, and from this he issued the Latin version of the Bible -which the Council of Trent had ordered, as well as the works of St. -Ambrose and St. Bonaventure. - -The magnitude of this domestic program and the vigour of the -sexagenarian Pope are enhanced when we further learn that his brief -Pontificate was, as usual, occupied with grave political problems. -With German affairs the Papacy had now little concern, but we must -record that Sixtus permitted some of the Catholic bishops to allow -the laity to communicate in both kinds. To England he devoted more -attention, though his violent and undiplomatic methods only made -worse the position of the Catholics in that country. Mary Stuart -contrived to write to him, after she had been condemned, and he spoke -of Elizabeth to the cardinals as "the English Jezabel." He urged Henry -III. to intercede for Mary and himself wrote a defence of her. When -she was executed, he spurred Philip I. in his designs against England -and promised him 500,000 florins when his fleet reached England and -a further half million when the Spaniards occupied London. When an -English spy was detected at Rome, Sixtus ordered his tongue to be cut -out and his hand struck off before he was beheaded. In defiance of -his own decree he bestowed the cardinalate on William Allen, and he -directed Allen to translate (for distribution in England) the Bull in -which he enumerated the dark crimes of Elizabeth, renewed the sentence -of excommunication against her, and declared her subjects released from -their allegiance. These measures, which only increased the sufferings -of the Catholics, betray again the limitation of the Pope's vigorous -intelligence, and, when the Armada sank, he turned from Spain to France -and realized the futility of his policy. - -The chief political problem was, however, the attitude of Rome toward -the rival Catholic Powers, Spain and France, and the less important -action of Sixtus in Venice (which, as a bulwark against the Protestant -north, he sought, in spite of his old grievances, to conciliate), Savoy -(where he compelled the Duke to refrain from appointing bishops), -Besançon (where he forced upon the reluctant chapter a friar-friend -whom he had made Archbishop), Belgium (where he demanded a truce -between the University and the Jesuits), and Switzerland (where he -attempted in vain to restrain the secular authorities), need not be -considered at length. The French problem, complicated by the ambition -of Spain, might have given anxious hours to a more astute statesman -than Sixtus, and we shall hardly expect a man with so little subtlety -to reach a distinguished solution of it. - -The ineptness of Catherine de' Medici and the folly and profligacy -of her diseased son, Henry III., had brought France to a dangerous -pass. Henry of Guise coveted the throne, under a pretence of zeal for -the Church: Henry of Navarre grimly awaited his natural succession -to it: and Philip of Spain dreamed of annexing France, as well as -England, to his swollen dominion. The Spanish representative at Rome, -Count Olivarez, who nourished a secret disdain of the peasant-Pope, -urged Sixtus to eliminate Henry of Navarre from the competition by -excommunication, for having relapsed to the Protestant creed, and, -on September 5, 1585, Sixtus issued against him and the Prince of -Condé the Bull _Ab Immenso_. Henry of Navarre retorted cheerfully -that the Pope was himself a heretic, and Henry III. angrily drove the -Pope's new Nuncio from France; to which Sixtus retorted by expelling -from Rome Henry's representative, the Marquis Pisani. To the great -delight of Philip and the Catholic League, Henry III., feeble and -distracted, humbly submitted, and was compelled to put pressure on -the remaining Protestants. Sixtus, in fact, promised Henry a Spanish -army from the Netherlands to assist in coercing the Huguenots, and -urged him to co-operate with Philip and with the League (under Guise). -In his exclusive, and entirely natural, concern for the orthodoxy of -the country, Sixtus failed to understand in any degree its peculiar -political condition or the utterly selfish designs of Guise and of -Philip. He was impelling the country toward civil war. - -In 1587 the Germans invaded France, and Henry of Navarre in turn -confronted the troops of the League. Some small initial victories of -the League led the Pope to congratulate the Duke of Guise in the most -extravagant language, and it was only the fear of exasperating Philip -that restrained him from bestowing on the Duke's son the hand of one -of his grand-nieces. One cannot suppose that Sixtus failed to see that -Guise had ambition, but he showed little penetration of character in -admonishing the Duke to recover Paris for Henry III. and to assist that -monarch to set up the Inquisition in France and exterminate heresy. -The Nuncio's letters show that he was, under the Pope's instructions, -absorbed in a futile effort to reconcile the Duke and the King, and it -is said that Sixtus angrily advised the effeminate monarch either to -make a friend of Guise or to destroy him. Even Henry III. showed more -appreciation of the political situation. - -Sixtus turned impatiently toward Spain and encouraged the designs of -Philip. On July 15, 1588, he signed a treaty with the League and Spain, -and the new alliance promised the complete eradication of heresy from -France. The failure of the Armada and the Pope's habitual distrust of -Philip clouded the alliance for a time, but Henry III. was not willing -to accept the Pope's terms for a transfer of his affections. Sixtus -was especially eager to have the decrees of the Council of Trent -published in France. To this the Gallican clergy objected, and Henry -himself declared that he would publish them only "salvis juribus regis -et regni": a phrase which Sixtus, to use his own words, "cursed." Even -when, to the Pope's extreme anger, Henry had the Duke and the Cardinal -of Guise assassinated, Sixtus remained too irresolute to derive -advantage from the King's remorse or apprehension, though the Spaniards -and the League gained ground at Rome. Henry III., indeed, entered into -alliance with the Protestant Henry against the League, and Sixtus was -content to issue a fresh threat of excommunication against the Huguenot. - -But the assassination of the King in August (1589) simplified the -situation, and Sixtus definitely allied himself with Spain and the -League against Henry IV.: a very natural, but equally impolitic, -decision. Venice recognized Henry, and the Pope at first recalled -his Nuncio from Venice and then, hearing the success of the new -King, ordered him to return. Sixtus was beginning to appreciate the -situation, and, when the Duke of Luxemburg came to Rome to tell of -Henry's willingness to reconsider his religious position, he was -amiably received. The Spaniards made a last violent struggle, and even -threatened to arraign the Pope for heresy before a General Council, but -Sixtus now saw his way clearly. Throughout the year 1590 he braved the -threats of the Spaniards and watched the progress of Henry IV., but -the struggle against Spaniards and Jesuits was too exacting for a man -of his years and he succumbed to fever on August 24th. - -Sixtus must unhesitatingly be included among the great Popes, but it is -perplexing to read, as one often does, that he was "one of the greatest -of the Popes." The work he accomplished in five years is far greater -than most of the Popes achieved, or would have achieved, in twenty -years, and at least the greater part of his reform-work in Rome and -Italy was of considerable value. Yet even here we must not overlook his -defects: he transgressed his own regulations when he would gratify his -affections, he enforced reforms with harshness and violence, and he -greatly lessened the value of his economic work by hoarding a vast sum -for the purpose (apparently) of conducting a visionary grand campaign -against Turks and heretics. His political attitude was, as I have -shown, injudicious and irresolute. Both in character and statesmanship -he falls far short of the greater Popes, and it is, perhaps, some -indication of the evil plight of the Church that Sixtus V. should be -the ablest man it could produce in a century of grave and persistent -danger. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 312: See Dr. G.H. Putnam's _Censorship of the Church of Rome_ -(2 vols., 1907), i., 168.] - -[Footnote 313: See, besides the work of Pallavicini already quoted, -Paolo Sarpi's _Istoria del Concilio Tridentino_.] - -[Footnote 314: It is, however, true that the hostile Italian -biographer, Gregorio Leti (_Vita di Sisto Quinto_, 3 vols., 1693), -who tells this must be read with discretion; and we must use equal -discretion in reading Tempesti's _Storia della Vita e Geste di Sisto -V._ (1754), which is inspired by a contrary determination to praise -Sixtus. I need recommend only the full and generally judicious -biography of Sixtus which we owe to Baron de Hübner (_Sixte Quint_, -3 vols., 1870), remarking that in it the panegyrical tendency is -more conspicuous than the critical. For a smaller biography M.A.J. -Dumesnil's _Histoire de Sixte-Quint_ (1869) is excellent.] - -[Footnote 315: December 5, 1586.] - -[Footnote 316: Bull _Quum Sicut_, May 28, 1586. Bull _Quum Alias_, -December 17, 1585.] - -[Footnote 317: Recent Popes had established what was, in effect, a -system of life assurance. A large money-payment secured an income for -life out of the proceeds of certain taxes. Sixtus multiplied these -_Monti_ (as the funds were called) in order to obtain a large sum of -money at once, and he thus mortgaged the resources of the Holy See. -Ranke, whose chapters on Sixtus are amongst his best, heavily censures -the Pope's finance.] - -[Footnote 318: I., 349.] - -[Footnote 319: See the author's _Candid History of the Jesuits_ (1913), -pp. 110-113.] - -[Footnote 320: Bull _Cum Unoquoque_, January 1, 1586.] - -[Footnote 321: Bull _Qugć Ordini_, 1589.] - -[Footnote 322: Bull _Cum Benigno_, 1585.] - -[Footnote 323: This edifying mood of the Pope might have been fatal to -the ancient Roman remains if he had enjoyed a lengthy Pontificate. When -the cardinals timidly curbed his iconoclasm, he replied that he would -destroy the uglier of the pagan monuments and restore the remainder. -Among these "uglier" monuments were the Septizonium of Severus, the -surviving part of which he actually demolished, and the tomb of Cćcilia -Metella!] - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -BENEDICT XIV.: THE SCHOLAR-POPE - - -The seventeen Popes who occupied the Vatican between Sixtus V. and -Benedict XIV. do not call for individual notice. With common integrity -of life and general mediocrity of intelligence they guarded and -administered their lessened inheritance. A few fragments of the lost -provinces were regained--Ferrara and Urbino were reunited to the -Papal States, and Protestantism was crushed in southern Germany and -Poland--but the general situation was unchanged. The Papal conception -of European life, the conviction that heresy must and would be only a -temporary diversion of the minds of men, was definitely overthrown, -and the Church of Rome became one of various flourishing branches of -the Christian Church. The interest of the historian passes from the -personalities of the Popes to the movements of thought which herald or -prepare the next great revolution. - -In regard to that specific development of European thought which we -call the birth of science we are, perhaps, apt to misread its earlier -stages because we find it in its final stage so destructive of old -traditions. The Popes of the seventeenth century are too much flattered -when they are credited with a distinct perception of the menace of -science and a resolute opposition to it. Properly speaking, they had -no attitude toward "science," but, as the history of science and the -fortune of such men as Giordano Bruno, Galilei, and Vesalius show, -they resented and hampered departures from the stock of traditional -learning.[324] On the other hand, the period we are considering was -marked by the phenomenal material success and the moral degeneration of -the greatest force the Counter-Reformation had produced--the Society of -Jesus. The Jesuits did far more than the Papacy to arrest the advance -of Protestantism and to conquer new lands for the Church, but the -diplomatic principles inherited from their founder and the desperate -exigencies of a stubborn war led them into a pernicious casuistry, -while prosperity led to such relaxation as it had produced in the -old religious bodies. In politics the new age was characterized by -the decay of Spain and "the Empire," and the rise of France, and the -increased power of France led to a revival of the old Gallic defiance, -within orthodox limits, of the Papacy, culminating in the famous -"Declaration of the Gallican Clergy" (1682), and to the powerful lay -movements which gathered round Pascal and the Jansenists or Voltaire -and the philosophers. Benedict XIV. mounted the Papal throne in the -height of these developments, and his attitude of compromise makes him -one of the most singular and interesting Popes of the new era. - -Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini was born at Bologna, of good family, on -March 31, 1675. At the age of thirteen he entered the Clementine -College at Rome, and with the advance of years he became a very -industrious student of law--canon and civil--and history. He took -degrees in theology and law, and was incorporated in the Roman system -as Consultor to the Holy Office, Canon of St. Peter's, and Prelate -of the Roman Court. Successive Popes made the indefatigable scholar -Archbishop of Theodosia _in partibus_, Archbishop of Ancona and -Cardinal (1728), and Archbishop of Bologna (1731). Lambertini was a -rare type of prelate. He did not, as so many high-born prelates did, -relieve the tedium of the clerical estate with the hunt, the banquet, -and the mistress. His episcopal duties were discharged with the most -rigorous fidelity, his clergy were sedulously exhorted to cultivate -learning and virtue, and his leisure was devoted to the composition -of erudite treatises on _The Beatification of the Servants of God_, -_The Sacrifice of the Mass_, _The Festivals of Our Lord Jesus Christ_, -and _Canonical Questions_. Yet the Cardinal-Archbishop was no ascetic -in spirit, and there was much gossip about his conversation. He loved -Tasso and Ariosto as much as juridical writings. He liked witty -society, and his good stories circulated beyond the little group of his -scholarly friends. President de Brosses visited him at Bologna in 1739, -the year before he became Pope, and wrote of him: - - A good fellow, without any airs, who told us some very good stories - about women (_filles_) or about the Roman court. I took care to commit - some of them to memory and will find them useful. He especially liked - to tell or to hear stories about the Regent and his confidant Cardinal - Dubois. He used to say, "Tell me something about this Cardinal del - Bosco." I ransacked my memory, and told him all the tales I knew. His - conversation is very pleasant: he is a clever man, full of gaiety and - well read. In his speech he makes use of certain expletive particles - which are not cardinalitial. In that and other things he is like - Cardinal Camus; for he is otherwise irreproachable in conduct, very - charitable, and very devoted to his archiepiscopal duties. But the - first and most essential of his duties is to go three times a week to - the Opera.[325] - -Lambertini's liberty and joviality of speech did not, in spite of his -strict virtue and most zealous administration, commend him to the more -severe cardinals, and when Clement XII. died, on February 6, 1740, -he was not regarded as a candidate for the Papacy. But the struggle -of French, Spanish, and Austrian partisans continued for six months -without prospect of a settlement, and in the intolerable heat of the -summer the cardinals cast about, as usual, for an outsider. Lambertini -had humorously recommended himself from time to time. He used to say, -President de Brosses reports: "If you want a good fellow (_coglione_--a -particularly gross word) choose me."[326] The Emperor Joseph II., who -did not want an inflexible Pope, supported his candidature, and he was -assuredly the most distinguished of the cardinals to whom the wearied -voters now looked. He was elected on August 17th, and he took the name -of Benedict XIV. - -He was now sixty-five years old: a round, full-faced, merry little -man, with piercing small eyes and an obstinate resolution to live at -peace with the world. A few years later,[327] he describes his daily -life to his friend Cardinal Tencin. He rises early and takes a cup of -chocolate and a crust. At midday he has a soup, an entrée, a roast, -and a pear: on "fast" days he reduces himself to a _pot-au-feu_ and a -pear, but it does not agree with him to observe the law of abstinence -from meat, and he advises the cardinals to follow his example. In -the evening he takes only a glass of water with a little cinnamon, -and he retires very late. He works hard all day and feels that he is -justified in seeking relief in sprightly conversation. Indeed, when -one surveys the vast published series of Benedict's Bulls (some of -which are lengthy and severe treatises), rescripts, works, and letters, -one realizes that his industry was phenomenal. When he had to condemn -some volume of the new sceptical literature which was springing up -in Europe, he read it himself three times and reflected long on it. -His interest ranged from England, whose political affairs he followed -closely, to the mountains of Syria and the missions of China. Every -branch of Papal administration had his personal attention. He thought -little of the cardinals, and often pours genial irony on them in his -innumerable letters. Of his two predecessors, Benedict XIII. "had -not the least idea of government," and Clement XII. "passed his life -in conversation," and "it is with the oxen from this stable [the -cardinals promoted by them] that we have to work today."[328] In -finance, politics, administration, liturgy, and all other respects he -had inherited a formidable task, and he discharged it in such wise that -he died at peace with all except his Roman reactionaries. The Catholic -rulers deeply appreciated him. Frederick of Prussia had a genial regard -for him. Horace Walpole celebrated his virtues in Latin verse, and -one of the Pitts treasured a bust of him. Voltaire, through Cardinal -Acquaviva, presented his _Mahomet_ to him in 1746, and the amiable -Pope, quite innocent of the satire on Christianity, wrote to tell -Voltaire how he had successfully defended his Latin verses.[329] - -Benedict's immediate predecessor, Clement XII., an elderly -disciplinarian whose strength was not equal to his pretensions, had -left the internal and foreign affairs of the Quirinal--the Popes now -dwelt chiefly in that palace--in a condition of strain and disorder, -nor was Benedict's Secretary of State, Cardinal Valenti, the man -to relieve the Pope of the work of reform. Choiseul, who was then -the French representative at Rome, describes Valenti as very able -but very lazy: a man of great charm, especially to ladies, and easy -morals. Yet the treasury was empty, and the finances were shockingly -disorganized. Although Clement XII. had introduced the lottery to -support his extravagant expenditure, the Papal income in 1739 fell -short of the expenses by 200,000 crowns a year, and the Camera owed -between fifty and sixty million crowns--President de Brosses says -380,000,000 francs--to the _Monti_, or funds out of which the Popes -paid life-incomes. Smuggling was so general, even among ambassadors and -cardinals, that half the Papal revenue was lost. Cardinals Acquaviva -and Albani each granted immunity from excise to four thousand traders: -so Benedict wrote to Tencin in 1743. A third of the population of Rome -consisted of ecclesiastics who lived on the Papal system, and a third -were foreigners of no greater financial value; while the natives could -so easily obtain food at the innumerable monasteries, or by begging, -that there was little incentive to industry. - -Benedict XIV. had no financial capacity, but the desperate and ever -worsening condition of the treasury spurred him to work. He restricted -the immunities from excise, cut down the extravagant payment of the -troops, and severely curtailed the number of his servants. In a few -years he had a surplus, which he divided among the impoverished nobles. -He then reduced the taxes, had new factories built, and encouraged the -introduction of new methods into agriculture. His zeal in suppressing -"usury" was not so fortunate, but he restored the Papal finances to -such a degree that he could at length indulge his cultural tastes. -Sandini gives a list of the monuments he restored at Rome--including -the new façade with which he disfigured Sta. Maria Maggiore--and we -know from his letters that he was assiduous in collecting classical -statues and fine books for the Roman galleries and libraries. He -founded four academies at Rome--for the study of Roman history and -antiquities, Christian history and antiquities, the history of the -Councils, and liturgy--and once in each week presided, at the Quirinal, -over a sitting of each academy. To the Roman university (Sapienza) he -added chairs of chemistry, mathematics, and art, and he pressed in -every way the higher education of the clergy. In 1750 he appointed -a woman teacher, Maria Gaetana d'Agnesi, of mathematics at Bologna -University, and wrote her a gracious letter commending the ambition of -her sex. - -Jansenists and philosophers were now fiercely exposing the weaknesses -of Papal culture, and Benedict, who freely criticized the errors of -his predecessors, attempted some revision of the mass of legends which -had been accepted by the Church. In 1741 he appointed a commission to -revise the Breviary, but the extensive alterations they proposed to -make in the lives of the saints alarmed the reactionaries. On April -26, 1743, we find Benedict wearily complaining to Tencin of the -difficulty of reform: "There is now all over the world such a disdain -of the Holy See that--I will not say the protest of a bishop, a city, -or a nation--but the opposition of a single monk is enough to thwart -the most salutary and most pious designs."[330] The French clergy had -been compelled in 1680 and 1736 to issue more critical editions of -the Breviary, and Benedict wished to provide one for the universal -Church. But the bigots were too strong for the Pope and the scheme -of reform lies in the dust of the Vatican archives, while the Roman -Breviary still contains legends of the most remarkable character. In -reforming the Martyrology (1748) the Pope was more successful, and -he published a new Ceremonial for Bishops (1752). He also published -an indult permitting any diocese that cared to reduce the number of -Church-festivals. The number of days on which men rested from work -had become a scandal, and many complaints had reached the Holy See. -Benedict's indult was gradually adopted by entire nations. - -Of far greater interest is Benedict's attitude toward what we may call -foreign affairs, and in this we discover again the more genial side -of his character. Those who had known the different aspects of the -Pope's personality--the punctilious learning of the ecclesiastic and -the _bonhomie_ of the man--must have wondered how he would confront -the hereditary problems of the Papacy. Benedict at once made it plain -that his policy would be one of deliberate and judicious compromise. -Anxious though he was, especially in view of the Italian ambitions of -Maria Theresa, about his temporal possessions, he placed his spiritual -power and responsibility in the foreground, and on temporal matters he -made more concessions than any Pope of equal wit and will had ever -made. He was, he told Tencin, "the mortal enemy of secrets and useless -mysticism." For disguised Jesuits and intriguing Nuncii he had no -employment. He took court after court, with which his predecessor had -embroiled the Papacy, and came to an agreement which almost invariably -satisfied them; and in the war of the Spanish succession, when Spanish -and Austrian troops in turn violated his territory, he remained -strictly neutral. - -The chief problem in France was the conflict of the Jesuits and the -Jansenists, which was complicated by a revival of the Gallican spirit -that put difficulties in the way of Papal interference. The Bull -_Unigenitus_, with which Clement XI. had sought to extinguish the -controversy, had increased the disorder, and the zealots pressed the -Pope to intervene. Parlement would have resented his interference, and -it was not until 1755, when the Assembly of the Clergy failed to find a -solution, that Louis XV. asked the Pope to make a further declaration. -The credit of his moderate Encyclical[331] is not wholly due to him. -The French asked him to refrain from pressing the _Unigenitus_ as a -standard of faith and merely to demand external respect for it. This -agreed with the Pope's moderate disposition, but the Jesuits and -other zealots at Rome were enraged, and Choiseul--without Benedict's -knowledge, of course--made extensive use of bribery to win the College -of Cardinals. Benedict's letters reflect his weariness between the -antagonistic parties and frequently express that he is willing to -respect Gallican susceptibilities to any extent short of a surrender of -the faith. A draft of the Encyclical was submitted to the French court -before it was published. Both the Jesuits and the lawyers attacked it, -but the Parlement was won to the King by an attempt on his life and the -Jesuits soon found all their energy needed to defend their existence. - -With Spain the Pope concluded one of the most remarkable Concordats in -Papal history. There had gradually been established a custom by which -the Papacy appointed to all benefices which fell vacant during eight -months of the year, and the bishops and their chapters appointed to -vacant benefices during the remaining third of the year. The court had -the right of appointment only to benefices in Granada and the Indies. -As a natural result, Spanish ecclesiastics crowded to Rome, and it -was estimated that the Dataria derived from them about 250,000 crowns -a year. Spain resented the arrangement, but the clerical population -of Rome clung tenaciously to it. Benedict in 1751 entered into secret -negotiations with Spain, and contrived to keep them secret until 1753, -when he startled and irritated Rome by publishing his famous Concordat. -By this he granted the Spanish King the right to nominate to all except -fifty-two benefices in Spain and America. The cardinals bitterly -complained that they had not been consulted, while the officials -deplored the abandonment of Papal prestige and the cessation of so much -profitable employment. Benedict had, however, made a shrewd bargain -with Ferdinand VI. The King had to pay a capital sum of 1,143,330 -crowns, which, at an interest of three per cent., would cover the -yearly loss to the Curia. At a later date the Pope released the Spanish -Infanta from the dignity of cardinal, yet permitted him to retain a -large part of his clerical income. - -A similar agreement ended the long friction with Portugal and (in 1740) -gave John V. the right to present to all the episcopal sees and abbeys -in his dominions; and in 1748 the Pope further gratified the King with -the title of _Fidelissimus_. The King of Sardinia received, soon after -Benedict's succession, the title of Vicar of all the Papal fiefs in -his dominions and the right, for an annual payment of 2000 crowns, to -gather their revenues. Naples, in turn, was pacified, after many years -of dangerous friction. There had been stern quarrels about jurisdiction -over the clergy, and by a Concordat of the year 1741 Benedict consented -to the creation of a supreme court, with an equal number of clerical -and lay judges and an ecclesiastical president, for the trial of such -cases. With Venice the Pope was less successful. The decaying Republic -had a standing quarrel with Austria about the patriarchate of Aquileia; -Austria, which possessed part of the territory, would not acknowledge -the authority of the Venetian patriarch. Benedict appointed a Vicar for -the Austrian section, and Venice, ever ready to flout Papal orders, -drove the Nuncio from the city. The Pope thereupon divided the province -into two archbishoprics, but Venice still angrily protested and the -dispute remained unsettled at Benedict's death. - -Austria gave the Pope his most anxious hours. The joy of Rome at the -fidelity of southern Germany was in the eighteenth century clouded by -the growth of a spirit akin to Gallicanism: the spirit which would -presently be known as Febronianism. Charles VI. had in 1740 left the -Empire to his elder daughter, Maria Theresa, and Spain had contested -the succession in the hope of winning for itself the provinces of -Lombardy and Tuscany. In the war which followed Benedict took no side, -but the conflicting armies devastated his territory and approached -very near to Rome. His letters to Tencin reflect his distress and -anxiety, no less than his helplessness. When the war was over, he sent -a representative to the conference at Aix-la-Chapelle, where his rights -were endangered by the contest of the two ambitious queens; Elizabeth -of Spain was the last of the Farnese and was disposed to claim for her -son the principality which Paul III. had wantonly conferred on his son -Pier Luigi. The chief question that interested the Papacy was whether -Don Philip should receive the investiture of Parma and Piacenza from -Rome or the Empress, and Benedict had the satisfaction of seeing it -virtually settled in favour of Rome. On Paul III. himself, and other -nepotist Popes, Benedict passes a very severe judgment in his letters. -For his part he severely excluded his relatives from Rome, and when a -young son of his nephew came to study at the Clementine College, he -took care that the boy should receive no particular favour. - -It is one of the remarkable features of Benedict's Pontificate that -he won considerable respect even in the Protestant lands. Englishmen, -perhaps, did not know, as we know from the Pope's letters, how deeply -he sympathized with the exiled Stuarts. "James III." lived for some -time at Rome on a pension provided by France, Spain, and the Papacy, -and Benedict had often to relieve the financial embarrassment of the -foolish and extravagant prince. His second son became Cardinal York, -and, in conferring the dignity on him, Benedict declared that he would -be pleased to withdraw it if ever Providence recalled him to the throne -of his fathers. In spite of these amiable sympathies, Benedict was -much appreciated by cultivated Englishmen, and in 1753 he reconstituted -and enlarged the English hierarchy. - -With Frederic of Prussia, also, he had friendly relations. He was the -first Pope to recognize the title of "King of Prussia" assumed in 1701 -by the Electors of Brandenburg, and in this again he overruled the -opposition of the cardinals. In 1744 Frederic begged the Pope to make -Scatfgoch, a Breslau canon whom the King liked, coadjutor to the Bishop -of Breslau. Scatfgoch talked with scandalous license about religion and -morals; it was said at Rome that he dipped his crucifix into his wine -to give the Saviour the first drink. Benedict, to Frederic's anger, -refused; but three years later, when the bishop died, and the Nuncio -reported the conversion of the canon, the Pope gratified Frederic by -making him bishop. Frederic permitted the erection of a Catholic chapel -at Berlin. - -The new Catholic world beyond the seas made more than one claim on the -untiring Pope. Immediately after his election we find him sending a -Vicar Apostolic to settle the troubles of the Maronites of Syria, and -in 1744 he reconciled and regulated the affairs of the Greek Melchites -of Antioch. In the farther East a fierce controversy still raged, both -in China and India, regarding the heathen rites and practices which the -Jesuit missionaries permitted their native converts to retain. Clement -XI., Innocent XIII., and Benedict XIII. had successively employed him, -when he was an official of the Curia, to prepare a verdict on these -"Chinese and Malabar rites," but it was reported that the Jesuits -still defied the orders of the Popes. In his private letters to -Tencin, Benedict sternly condemns the "tergiversations" of the Jesuit -missionaries, but in his Papal pronouncements he is more cautious. His -Bulls _Ex Quo Singulari_,[332] which puts an end to the trouble in -China, and _Omnium Solicitudinum_,[333] which condemns the practices -in Malabar (India), are scholarly and severe treatises. They hardly -mention the Jesuits, but they leave no loophole for those casuistic -missionaries. From the other side of the globe Benedict received -complaints that Christians were still enslaving the American natives, -on the pretext of converting them, and he renewed the prohibition -issued by Paul III. and Urban VIII. - -From all quarters of the globe Benedict received heated complaints -about the Jesuits. They permitted the worship of ancestors in China, -and closed their eyes to Hindu charms and amulets in India. They -conducted great commercial enterprises in North and South America, -and struggled bitterly against the bishops in England. France accused -them of intensifying the domestic strife of its Church, and Spain and -Portugal brought grave charges against them. But Benedict XIV. seems -to have dreaded the overweening and doomed Society. Even his private -letters are singularly free from direct allusions to them, and more -than one Jesuit scholar was employed by him on tasks of importance. His -friend Cardinal Passionei, a worldly cardinal, of easy ways, who spent -his days in luxurious ease at Frascati, often urged him to reform the -Society, but it was not until the last year of his life that he took -any step in that direction. Portugal was now approaching its great -struggle with the Jesuits, and Benedict, on April 1, 1758, directed -Cardinal Saldanha to inspect and report upon the condition of the -Jesuit houses and colleges in that country. He died a month later, -unconscious of the great revolution which the Catholic Powers were -preparing to force on the Papacy. - -Of the isolated ecclesiastical acts of Benedict it is impossible to -give here even a summary. No Pope since the great Pontiffs of the -early Middle Ages had enriched his Church with so much (from the -Papal point of view) sound legislation: none had had so scientific a -command of ecclesiastical affairs or united with it so indefatigable -an industry. His Bull _Magnć Nobis Admirationis_[334] prescribes, -in the case of mixed marriages, the rules which are enforced in the -Church today. He forbade monks to practise surgery or dispense drugs; -though Europe would have been more completely indebted to him in this -respect if he had not made an exception in favour of the atrocious drug -known as "theriac" and the foolish compound which went by the name of -"apoplectic balsam." He condemned Freemasonry,[335] though his decree -was not enforced. But one must glance over the thirteen volumes of his -_Bullarium_ and the seventeen volumes of his religious and liturgical -works if one would realize his massive industry and devotion to his -duties. - -In the spring of 1758 his robust constitution yielded to the ravages -of gout, labour, and anxiety, and he died on May 3d. He was not, -as some say, "the idol of Rome." The cardinals felt the disdain of -them which he often expresses in his letters, and many of the clergy -regarded him as too severe on them and too pliant to the laity. Neither -was he a genius. Clearness of mind, immense industry, and sober ways -are the sources of his output. His works are not read today even by -ecclesiastics, and it is ludicrous to represent them as his title -to immortality. Yet Benedict XIV. was a great Pope: a wise ruler of -the Church at a time when once more, unconsciously, it approached a -world-crisis. The magnitude of the change which was taking place in -Europe he never perceived, but his policy was wise in the measure -of his perception, and his geniality of temperament, united to so -wholehearted a devotion to his duty, won some respect for the name -of Pope in lands where it had been for two hundred years a thing of -contempt. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 324: Modern research has easily settled that Galilei was -not physically ill-treated, and that there was probably no intention -to carry out the formal threat of torture. But this refutation of the -excesses of the older anti-Papal historians leaves the serious part of -the indictment intact. Galilei was forbidden by the Holy Office in 1616 -to advance as a positive discovery his view of the earth's position. -In 1632, to the great indignation of Urban VIII., he disregarded this -prohibition, which he thought a dead letter, and was condemned by the -Inquisition as "vehemently suspected of heresy." The crime against -culture is not materially lessened by the fact that the Inquisition -lodged the astronomer in its most comfortable rooms.] - -[Footnote 325: _Lettres familičres_ (1858), i., 250-1. The President -was in Rome during the conclave in the following year and repeated that -Lambertini was "licentious in speech but exemplary in conduct" (ii., -399). On a later page (439) he frankly describes the Pope as "indecent -in speech." There is a passage in one of the Pope's later letters -to Cardinal Tencin which may illustrate his censure. Benedict tells -the Cardinal that he has bought a nude Venus for his collection, and -finds that the Prince and Princess of Württemberg have, with a diamond -ring, scratched their names on a part of the statue which one may not -particularize as plainly as the Pope does (_Correspondance de Benoît -XIV._, ii., 268).] - -[Footnote 326: _Lettres familičres_, ii., 439.] - -[Footnote 327: September 29, 1745.] - -[Footnote 328: Letter to Tencin August 1, 1753 (ii., 282).] - -[Footnote 329: The correspondence is reproduced in Artaud de Montor's -_Histoire des Souverains Pontifes_ (1849), vii., 79. Benedict was -severely censured by the pious, and he declared to Cardinal Tencin that -he "did not find it clear that Voltaire was a stranger to the faith" -(i., 246). The biography of Benedict, one of the most interesting -of the Popes, is still to be written. F.X. Kraus, in his edition -of Benedict's letters, reproduces fragments of a pretentious Latin -biography by a contemporary, Scarselli, and M. Guarnacci has a sketch -in his _Vitć Pontificum Romanorum_ (1751, vol. ii., col. 487-94). -These relate only to his earlier years. A. Sandini (_Vitć Pontificum -Romanorum_, 1754) has only three pages on Benedict, and the anonymous -_Vie du Pape Benoît XIV._ (1783--really written by Cardinal Caraccioli) -is not critical. The biographical sketches in Artaud de Montor and -Ranke are quite inadequate. But the biographer has now a rich material -in Benedict's Bulls (complete _Bullarium_, 13 vols., 1826 and 1827), -works (chief edition, 17 vols., 1839-1846, and three further works -edited by Heiner in 1904), and letters. Of the latter the best editions -are those of F.X. Kraus (_Briefe Benedicts XIV. an den Canonicus Pier -Francesco Peggi_, 1884), Morani ("Lettere di Benedetto XIV. all' -arcidiacono Innocenzo Storani" in the _Archivio Storico per le Marche -e per l'Umbria_, 1885), Fresco ("Lettere inedite di Benedetto XIV. al -Cardinale Angelo Maria Querini" in the _Nuovo Archivio Veneto_, 1909, -tomo xviii., pp. 5-93, and xix., pp. 159-215), "Lettere inedite di -Benedetto XIV. al Cardinale F. Tamburini" in the _Archivio della R. -Societŕ Romana di Storia Patria_, vol. xxxiv. (1911), pp. 35-73, and E. -de Heeckeren (_Correspondance de Benoît XIV._, 2 vols., 1912).] - -[Footnote 330: I., 49.] - -[Footnote 331: _Ex omnibus Christiani orbis_, Oct. 16, 1756. It -prescribes silence on the disputed issues and leaves it to confessors -to determine whether their penitents are so wilfully rebellious against -the Bull _Unigenitus_ as to be excluded from the sacraments.] - -[Footnote 332: July 1, 1742.] - -[Footnote 333: September 12, 1744.] - -[Footnote 334: June 29, 1748.] - -[Footnote 335: March 18, 1751.] - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -PIUS VII. AND THE REVOLUTION - - -Benedict XIV. had maintained Papal power and prestige in his Catholic -world by prudent concessions to a European spirit which he recognized -as having definitely emerged from its medićval phase. His successors -for many decades lacked his penetration; though one may wonder if, -without sacrificing essential principles of the Papal scheme, they -could have advanced farther along the path of concession to a more and -more exacting age. However that may be, they generally clung to the -autocratic principles of the Papacy, and as a consequence they ceased -to be the leaders of their age and became little more than corks tossed -on heaving waters. Not until Leo XIII. do we find a Pope with a human -quality of statesmanship. In the intervening Pontificates the barque -of Peter drifted on the wild and swollen waters, pathetically bearing -still a flag which bore the legend of ruler of the waves. - -Clement XIII. (1758-1769) and Clement XIV. (1769-1774) were -occupied with the problem of the Jesuits. One by one the Catholic -Powers--Portugal, France, Naples, and Spain--swept the Jesuits from -their territory, with a flood of obloquy, and then made a collective -demand on the Pope for the suppression of the Society. Clement XIII. -had made a futile effort to assert the old dictatorial power; and -Catholic nations had retorted by seizing part of the diminished Papal -States. France had occupied Avignon and Vennaissin, and Naples had -taken Benevento and Pontecorvo. The bewildered Pope found peace in -the grave, and the Powers ensured the election of a man who did not -regard the suppression of the Society as an impossibility. For four -years Ganganelli, Clement XIV., resisted or restrained the pressure of -the Catholic Powers, but in 1773 the famous Bull _Dominus ac Redemptor -Noster_ disbanded the most effective force of the Counter-Reformation, -plainly endorsing the charge against it of corruption.[336] - -Pius VI. (1775-1798) came vaguely to realize that there was some deep -malady in the world which, in bewildering impotence, he contemplated. -The hostility to the Jesuits had been a symptom; nor was the symptom -more intelligible to so unskilful a physician when the Protestant -rulers of Russia and Prussia protected the Jesuits, while the Catholic -Powers sternly restrained his wish to restore the Society. Vaguely, -also, he realized that there was a deeper infidelity in the world; that -the "philosophers" of France and Spain and Italy and the "illumined -ones" of Germany were a new thing under the sun; and that the -traditions of the Papacy did not help in dealing with such "Catholic" -statesmen as Pombal, Aranda, Tanucci, and Choiseul. He had not even -the traditional remedy of finding support in the "Roman Empire." Under -Joseph II. and Kaunitz, Austria had developed a rebellious spirit -which rivalled the most defiant phases of Gallicanism.[337] - -Pius visited Vienna, and trusted that his handsome and engaging -presence would reconcile the Emperor to his large pretensions, but -the visit was fruitless and the vanity of the Pope was bruised. At -least the mass of the people were faithful, Pius thought. Then there -came the terrible disillusion of the French Revolution, and resounding -echoes of its fiery language in Italy and Spain. Pius made his last -blunder--though the most natural course for him to take--by allying -himself with Austria and England against the Revolution, and the shadow -of Napoleon fell over Italy. Napoleon shattered the Austrian forces -and compelled the Pope to sacrifice Avignon and Venaissin, to lose the -three Legations (Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna), and to pay out of his -scanty income 30,000,000 lire. In the following year, 1798, the French -inspired a rebellion at Rome. The Romans set up once more feeble images -of their ancient "Consuls" and "Ćdiles," and the aged Pope was dragged -from point to point by the French dragoons until he expired at Valence -on August 29, 1798. General Bonaparte had said, contemptuously, that -the Papacy was breaking up. There were those who asked if Pius VI. was -the last Pope. - -But a new act of the strange European drama was opening. Bonaparte was -in Egypt, brooding over iridescent dreams of empire, and the treaty of -Campo Formio which he had concluded before leaving had given Venice -(as well as Istria and Dalmatia) to Austria. To Venice, accordingly, -forty-six of the scattered and impoverished cardinals made their way, -for the purpose of electing a new Pope, and the Conclave was lodged -in the abbey of San Giorgio on November 30th. The history of the -Papal Conclaves has inspired a romantic and caustic narrative,[338] -and the account of the Conclave of 1798-1799 is not one of the least -interesting. Austria, which had occupied the northern Papal provinces, -and Naples, which had succeeded the French in the south and was now -"guarding" Rome, did not desire the election of a Pope who would claim -his full temporal dominion. Against them was the solid nucleus of -conservative and rigid cardinals, and on the fringe of the struggle -were the unattached cardinals, some of whom had a lively concern about -this General Bonaparte who had just returned from Egypt. The statesman -of the College was Cardinal Consalvi, a very able and accomplished -son of a noble Pisan family. Consalvi, as a good noble and churchman, -loathed the Revolution, but, when the struggle of voters had lasted -three or four months and the two chief parties had reached a deadlock, -he listened to the suggestion of Cardinal Maury that the mild "Jacobin" -Cardinal Chiaramonti would be the best man to elect. Bonaparte had -spoken well of Chiaramonti, and Austria would not resent the election -of a lowly-minded Benedictine monk. Whether or no Consalvi suspected -that Maury was (at least in part) working for a personal reward, he -took up the intrigue, and on March 24th Chiaramonti became Pius VII. -They had put an aged and timid monk at the helm on such a sea. - -Barnaba Luigi Chiaramonti was born at Cesena, of a small-noble family, -on August 14, 1742. He entered the Benedictine Order at the age of -sixteen and distinguished himself in his studies. As he was distantly -related to Pius VI., who was a flagrant nepotist, he easily earned -promotion at Rome. He taught theology and was titular abbot of San -Callisto. In time he became Bishop of Tivoli, then Bishop of Imola and -Cardinal. He was administering his diocese with due zeal, and more than -ordinary gentleness, when the storm of the French invasion broke upon -Italy. He was not a politician. He advised his people to submit to the -Cisalpine Republic set up by the French, and mediated for them with -General Augereau when some of them rebelled. But, when the Austrians -came in turn, he advised the people to submit to their "liberators," -and, when the French returned, the magistrates of Imola charged him -with treachery and he had to plead on his own behalf. However, his -colleagues affected to regard him as a Jacobin, and his easy attitude -toward the French and the temporal power won him the tiara. He was -crowned in San Giorgio on March 21st. - -Austria had refused the use of San Marco for the ceremony, because -it was nervously anxious to discourage ideas of royalty in the new -Pope, and its representative in the Sacred College, Cardinal Hrzan, -urged Pius to go from Venice to Vienna, and to make Cardinal Flangini -(a Venetian) his Secretary of State. Pius quietly refused, and chose -Consalvi. In quick succession the Austrian ambassador offered him the -territory they had taken from Lombardy, without the Legations, and then -two out of the three Legations (they keeping Romagna), but Consalvi -prompted him to refuse, and he set out for Rome. The Austrians would -not suffer him to pass through the Papal territory they held, and he -had to proceed by boat to Pesaro. But the news that the Neapolitans had -retired from Rome, and that the Austrians (chastened by Napoleon) now -offered him the three Legations they were unable to keep, cheered the -Pontiff on his journey and he entered Rome in triumph.[339] - -Consalvi, whose firm hand guides that of the Pope during most of his -Pontificate, began at once to put in order the chaotic affairs of the -Papacy. The treasury was empty, though the four resplendent tiaras -had been stripped of their jewels, the taxes were insupportable, and -the coinage was shamefully debased. Consalvi removed some of the -taxes--though he was forced to restore them at a later date--and, at -a cost of 1,500,000 scudi, called in the adulterated coin. He turned -with vigour to the affairs of Germany, where the princes who were -dispossessed of their territory on the left bank of the Rhine by -the Treaty of Lunéville[340] proposed to recoup themselves from the -ecclesiastical estates on the right bank.[341] But every other interest -was soon overshadowed by the relations of Napoleon to Rome, and the -story of Pius VII. is almost entirely the story of those singular and -tragic relations. - -Napoleon had re-entered Italy, and won Marengo, before Pius reached -Rome. But experience in the East and consideration of his growing -ambition had made Voltaireanism seem to him impolitic, and he now sent -a representative to treat with the new Pope as respectfully as if he -commanded 200,000 men. They would co-operate in restoring religion -in France. Pius timidly expressed some concern at the Mohammedan -sentiments Bonaparte had so recently uttered in Egypt, but he and the -cardinals assented to the proposal, and Archbishop Spina was sent to -Paris in November (1800). In view of Napoleon's demands--that the old -hierarchy of 158 bishops should be reduced to sixty, that a certain -proportion of the Republican (constitutional) bishops should be -elected together with a proportion of the emigrant royalists, that no -alienated church-property should be restored, and that Christianity -should not be established as "the religion of France"--Spina found that -his powers were inadequate, and Napoleon sent Cacault to Rome with -the draft of a Concordat (March, 1501). Pius and his cardinals shrank -from so formidable a sacrifice, and would negotiate, in time-honoured -Roman fashion. But ancient customs did not impress Bonaparte. Cacault -reported in May that the Concordat was to be signed in five days, -whether it killed the bewildered Pope or no (as Consalvi said it -would), or France would set up its Church without his aid. As a -compromise, Cacault suggested that Consalvi should accompany him to -Paris, and the Quirinal had faith in its great diplomatist. Even -Consalvi, however, was nervous and almost powerless before the studied -violence of Napoleon, and his diplomatic movements were constantly met -with a brusque declaration that Napoleon would detach France, if not -Catholic Europe, from the Papacy if the Concordat were not quickly -signed.[342] - -The attitude of Napoleon was not merely despotic. Although France was -still overwhelmingly Catholic, as writers on the revolutionary excesses -often forget, an important minority, including most of Napoleon's -higher officers, were bitterly anti-clerical and opposed any attempt -to restore the Church. Napoleon, who felt that the religious sentiment -of the majority must be dissociated from the emigrants and bound up -once more with a national Church, would have preferred to dispense with -Rome and proceed on extreme Gallican principles. But Catholic sentiment -would not acquiesce in so violent a procedure, and Napoleon realized -the vast gain it would be to him to win the cosmopolitan influence of -the Pope. This feeble and timid monk, he thought, needed intimidation, -and of that art Napoleon was a master. After a final twenty-four hours' -sitting on July 13th-14th, the draft was passed by Consalvi. After a -further struggle, and some further modification, it satisfied both -parties, and Consalvi sent it, with some satisfaction, to Rome for the -Pope's signature. The new bishops were to be nominated by Napoleon -and instituted by the Pope, and the Catholic faith was to be declared -"the religion of the majority." Freethinkers resented the whole -negotiation: Gallicans deplored that the power of the clergy had been -divided between the Pope and the Consul: Royalists abroad protested -bitterly against the required resignation of the old bishops. Pius felt -that this miraculous restoration of the Church was worth the price. He -signed the Concordat and blessed the restorer of the faith. - -But the Pope and Consalvi obtained a further insight into Napoleon's -character when the Concordat was made public on Easter Sunday (1802). -With it were associated, as if they were part of the agreement, -certain "Organic Articles" of the most Gallican description. No Bull -or other document from Rome could be published in France, no Nuncio -or Legate exercise his functions, and no Council be held, without -the authorization of the secular authorities. All seminary-teachers -were to subscribe to the famous principles of 1682, and in case the -higher clergy violated those or the laws of the Republic the Council -of State might sit in judgment on them. Pius made a futile protest, -when he read the seventy-six lamentable articles, but Napoleon soon -had the Pope smiling over a gift of two frigates to the Papal navy; -and Pius laicised Talleyrand and raised five French bishops, including -Napoleon's half-uncle Fesch, to the cardinalate. A similar Concordat -was forced by Napoleon on the Cisalpine Republic in 1803, and Naples -was compelled to return Benevento and Pontecorvo. The first phase ended -in smiles. - -Cardinal Caprara was sent as legate to Paris, and his experiences -moderated the Pope's satisfaction. He was quite unable to resist the -election of the constitutional bishops (the clergy who had adhered -to the Republican Constitution, which Rome severely and naturally -condemned) and he could not wring from them a formal acknowledgment of -their errors. But these matters were soon thrust out of mind by fresh -events in France. On May 18, 1804, Napoleon was elected Emperor, and -he invited Pius to come to Paris to crown him. There was a natural -hesitation at Rome to flout the Bourbons and their allies by such a -recognition of Napoleon, but the long delay was not in substance due -to that political scruple; nor was it in any serious degree due, as -some writers say, to the recent execution of the Duc d'Enghien, which -appears little in Papal documents. Consalvi persuaded the Pope to -bargain with Napoleon: to stipulate for the abolition of the Organic -Articles, the punishment of the constitutional clergy, and the return -of the three Legations. As before, the diplomacy of Consalvi was -boisterously swept aside by Napoleon, and on November 2d the aged -Pope set out for Paris. Not a single definite promise had been made, -and it seems, from later language of the Pope, that either he or -Consalvi regarded the journey with grave distrust. Pius left behind -him a document authorizing the cardinals to choose a successor, in -case Napoleon violently detained him in France. We may ascribe this -foresight to Consalvi, as throughout these earlier years Pius appears -to be merely the agent of the wishes of the cardinals. - -Napoleon must have noted with satisfaction the ease with which his -constant trickery escaped the Pope's eye. On November 25th he, in -hunting dress, with studied casualness, met the Pope on the open -road at Fontainebleau, arranged that he should himself sit on the -right in their joint carriage, and drove him into Paris by night. -Every detail had been carefully planned with a view to the avoidance -of paying unnecessary honour to the Pope. Pius noticed nothing, and -wrote enthusiastically to Italy of Napoleon's goodness and zeal for -religion; and indeed the enthusiasm of the faithful Catholics of Paris, -when they found a venerable Pope blessing them from the balconies of -the Tuileries, might well seem to him to indicate a triumph after -the dark decade that had passed. Disillusion came slowly. Josephine, -who now knew that she was threatened with divorce, confided to the -Pope that there had been no church-celebration of her marriage with -Napoleon, and Pius refused to crown them until it took place. Napoleon -thundered, but the Pope had a clear principle and the difficulty was -met by trickery. Cardinal Fesch was permitted by the Pope to marry them -without witnesses, and Napoleon pointed out to friends that he was -taking part in the ceremony without internal consent. On the following -day, December 2d, the coronation took place at Notre Dame, and Napoleon -at one stroke annihilated the prestige of the Pope by crowning himself -and Josephine with his own hands. - -Another wave of disdain of the Pope passed through foreign lands: "A -puppet of no importance," said even Joseph de Maistre. Pius remained -gentle and patient. He had still to win the reward of his sacrifices: -to induce the Emperor to restore the Papal States, to modify the -Organic Articles, to abolish the law of divorce, enforce the observance -of Sunday, and reintroduce the monastic orders. The cardinals had drawn -up a pretty program. Napoleon suavely refused every proposition, and -sent one of his officers to suggest that Pius would do well to settle -at Avignon, and have a palace at Paris. Pius, now thoroughly alarmed, -refused emphatically to stay in France, and disclosed that he had -arranged to give him a successor if he were detained. And Pius returned -to give the cardinals a roseate account of the resurrection of religion -in France and the goodness of the Emperor. When he refused, shortly -afterwards, to crown Napoleon King of Italy at Milan, there were those -who admired his firmness. It is more likely that he acted on the advice -of the disappointed cardinals. - -Up to this point Pius VII. had given no indication of personality. -One must, of course, appreciate that the restoration of the Church in -France would seem to him an achievement worth large sacrifices, yet -his childlike joy in Napoleon's insincere caresses, his utter failure -to detect the true aims and the trickery of the Emperor, and the -entire lack of plan or efficacy in his protests, must have convinced -Napoleon, as they convinced hostile Royalists, that he was a mere -puppet. He cannot possibly have had the measure of ability with which -Cardinal Wiseman would endow him. The same conclusion is forced on us -by a consideration of the second part of his relations with Napoleon. -Isolated from his abler cardinals, he, like a child, bemoans his -inability to form his judgment, and stumbles from error to error. But -ten years of defeat have taught him that he is dealing with an enemy -of religion, and he reveals a certain greatness of character in his -resistance. - -In the spring of 1805 the Emperor asked the Pope to dissolve, or -declare null, the marriage which his brother Jerome had contracted -in America with a Miss Paterson, a Protestant. Pius was eager to do -so, if ecclesiastical principles yielded the slightest ground for -such an act, but, after a long examination, he was obliged to refuse. -Napoleon began to speak of him as a fool. The summer brought war with -Austria once more, and in October the French troops marched through the -Papal States on their way to Naples, and occupied Ancona. When Pius -protested (November 13, 1805), the Emperor scornfully replied--after -an interval of two months--that if its Papal owners were not able or -willing to fortify Ancona, he must occupy it: that the Pope and the -cardinals prostituted religion by their friendly relations with English -and Russian enemies of France: and that he would respect the Pope's -spiritual sovereignty, and expected from him respect for the Emperor's -political sovereignty.[343] On February 13, (1806) Napoleon wrote more -explicitly. The Pope must close his harbours against the English, expel -from Rome all representatives of the enemies of France, get rid of -his bad counsellors (Consalvi), and remember that Napoleon is Emperor -of Rome.[344] Pius, after consulting the cardinals, replied that the -"Roman Emperor" was at Vienna, and that the Papacy would not be drawn -into a war between France and England. To the French representative -in Rome the Pope used a very firm language; he would die rather than -yield on what he conceived as a matter of principle. When, some time -afterwards, Napoleon annexed Naples, and the Papacy protested that it -was a Papal fief, Napoleon rightly gave Consalvi the credit for the -opposition and forced him to resign. He had in 1802 restored Benevento -and Pontecorvo to Rome: he now gave the former to Talleyrand and the -latter to Bernadotte. - -It must seem an idle practice to seek apologies for Napoleon's -conduct, but we do well to conceive that each man was justified in his -procedure. Napoleon was wrong only in his pretexts and his methods. -He was no orthodox Catholic, and had no illusions about the sacred -origin of the temporal power. If the Pope chose to be a king, he -submitted to the laws of kings. The Papacy undoubtedly thwarted the -work of the Emperor in Italy and aided his enemies. Cardinal Pacca says -in his Memoirs that Pius wrote him that he "risked everything for the -English."[345] Common opposition to Napoleon brought about a remarkable -approach of Rome and England, and the Quirinal had hopes of advantage -for the Church in England. The Papal ports were of great service to the -English fleet, and therefore of great disservice to the French. - -Pius VII. seems never to have realized the elementary fact that -Napoleon was not a Christian. He relied too long on the orthodox -fiction that, because the Pope was the successor of Peter in spiritual -matters, any _temporal_ power taken from him was taken from "The -Blessed Peter." Napoleon did not share that illusion, and it is -singular that he waited so long before consolidating his Italian -kingdom by absorbing the Papal States. The year 1807, when Napoleon -was busy with Prussia, passed in recriminations. Pius would, he said, -show them that the substitution of Cardinal Casoni as his Secretary -of State for Consalvi made no difference. He seemed to be finding his -personality, but there were fiery cardinals like Pacca still with him. - -In January, 1808, Napoleon ordered General Miollis to occupy Rome, and -presently he expelled from Rome all cardinals who were not subjects -of the Papal States. Pius, during the night, had a protesting poster -fixed on the walls. On April 2d Napoleon annexed Urbino, Ancona, -Macerata, and Camerino: on the foolish pretext (among others) that -Charlemagne had bestowed those provinces on the Papacy for the good -of Catholicism, not for the profit of its enemies. Pius sent a long -and dignified protest to all bishops in his dominions and broke off -diplomatic relations with France. Gabrielli had succeeded Casoni in -counselling Pius, and the French now made the singular mistake of -arresting Gabrielli and substituting Pacca--a fiery and inflexible -opponent of Napoleon. In August Pacca came into violent collision with -the French and they went to arrest him. He summoned the Pope, and Pius -personally conducted him to the protection of the Quirinal. In the -solitude of the Quirinal they prepared for the last step and drafted -an excommunication of Napoleon.[346] At length on June 10, 1809, they -received Napoleon's declaration that the Papal States were incorporated -in his Empire, and the Bull of excommunication (_Quum Memoranda_) was -issued. It did not name Napoleon, and it was at once suppressed by -the French, but General Miollis considered that a conditional order -for the arrest of the Pope, which Napoleon had sent, now came into -force. At three in the morning of July 6th the troops broke into the -Quirinal. When General Radet and his officers reached the Audience -Chamber, they found the Pope sitting gravely at a table, with a group -of cardinals on either side. For several minutes the two groups gazed -on each other in tense silence, and at length Radet announced that -the Pope must abdicate or go into exile. Taking only his breviary and -crucifix, the Pope entered the carriage at four o'clock, and he and -Pacca were swiftly driven through the silent streets, and on the long -road to Savona. They found that they had between them only the sum of -twenty-two cents, and they laughed. - -Pius reached Savona on August 16th (1809), and was lodged in the -episcopal palace. He refused the 50,000 francs a year and the carriages -offered by Napoleon. He refused to walk in Savona, and spent the day -in a little room overlooking the walls, or walking in the scanty -garden of the house. He had no secretary and his aged hands trembled, -but pious Catholics conspired to defeat his guardians (or corrupt his -guardians) and his letters and directions went out stealthily over -Europe. His cardinals were removed to Paris, and when Napoleon divorced -Josephine and married Marie Louise (April 1, 1810), only thirteen -out of the twenty-seven cardinals refused to attend the ceremony. -Pius still declined to enter into Napoleon's plans. Metternich sent -an Austrian representative to argue with him, but the Pope would not -yield his temporal power, and he demanded his cardinals. Cardinals -Spina and Caselli, of the moderate party, were sent to persuade him, -but the mission was fruitless. Napoleon, who was sorely harassed by -the Pope's refusal to institute the new bishops, tried to act without -him, and made Maury Archbishop of Paris. Pius sent a secret letter to -the Vicar Capitular of Paris, declaring that the appointment was null, -and Napoleon angrily ordered a search of his rooms and the removal of -books, ink, paper, and personal attendants. - -At last, in June, 1811, the strategy of Napoleon succeeded. The -Archbishop of Tours and three other bishops presented themselves at -Savona with the terrible news that Napoleon had summoned a General -Council at Paris and expected the bishops to remedy the desperate -condition of the French Church--there were twenty-seven bishops -awaiting institution--independently of the Pope. Pius still refused -to submit, but day after day the prelates and the Count de Chabrol -harrowed him with descriptions of the appalling results of his -obstinacy, and on the tenth day they hastened to Paris with the news -that Pius had consented on the main point: he would institute the -bishops within six months, or, if he failed to do so, the Archbishop -would have power to institute them. - -What really happened at Savona is the only serious controversy in -the life of Pius VII., and this controversy is based entirely on the -reluctance of Catholic writers to admit that the Pope erred. The usual -theory, based on the work of D'Haussonville,[347] is that Pius fell -into so grave a condition, mentally and physically, that he can hardly -be regarded as responsible. Recent and authoritative Catholic writers -have given a different defence. H. Welschinger[348] seems to suggest -that Pius was drugged by his medical attendant, but he goes on to make -this fantastic suggestion superfluous by claiming that Pius did not -consent at all, either orally or in writing. Father Rinieri, on the -other hand, scorns the theory of temporary insanity, holds that the -Pope deliberately assented, and claims that the consent was perfectly -justified because it was conditional; the Pope agreed _if_, as the -bishops said, his concession would lead to peace and his restoration -to liberty. These theories destroy each other, and are severally -inadmissible. Welschinger, to exonerate the Pope from weakness, assumes -that the Archbishop of Tours lied; for that prelate wrote at once to -Paris that they had "drawn up a note in His Holiness's room, and he had -accepted it," and on his duplicate of the note he wrote: "This note, -drawn up in His Holiness's room, and in a sense under his directions, -was approved and agreed to."[349] Indeed, when Welschinger himself -quotes the Pope saying, in his fit of repentance, "Luckily I _signed_ -nothing," we gather that Pius _orally_ assented. Rinieri, on the other -hand, is wrong in making the Pope's assent strictly conditional; the -last clause of the note merely states that the Pope is assured that -good results will follow. And both writers are at fault when they lay -stress on the fact that the note was a mere draft of an agreement. -Unless the four bishops lied, Pius VII., under great importunity and -predictions of disaster, and in a very poor state of health, consented -to a principle which was utterly inconsistent with Papal teaching. - -Later events put this beyond question, and make all these speculations -ridiculous. It is unquestioned that when, on the following morning, -Pius asked for the bishops and learned that they had gone, he fell -into a fit of remorse and despair which brought him near to the brink -of madness. It is equally unquestioned that Napoleon's council drew up -a decree in the sense of the famous Savona note and that on September -20th Pius signed it. Napoleon had been dissatisfied with the Pope's -_oral_ consent and his retractation (which the Emperor concealed), and -had tried to bully the council into a declaration independently of the -Papacy. When he failed, he assured them of the Pope's consent and they -passed the decree. Eight bishops and five cardinals took it to Savona, -and the Pope subscribed to it. The only plausible defence of Pius is -that he _granted_ or delegated the power to the archbishops, instead -of merely declaring that the archbishops possessed it. But the Pope's -acute remorse shows that he had not deliberately meant this. - -Napoleon, however, saw that his scheme had failed in this respect, and -he kept the Pope at Savona while he set out on the Russian campaign. -After a time the Emperor, alleging that British ships hovered about -Savona, ordered the removal of the Pope to Fontainebleau, and he was -transferred with such secrecy and discomfort that he almost died in -crossing Mont Cenis. At Fontainebleau he maintained his quiet, ascetic -life: even afforded the spectacle of a Pope mending his own shirts. -The thirteen "black" cardinals--the men who opposed Napoleon and were -stripped of their red robes and sent into exile--could not approach -him, and he paid little attention to Napoleon's courtiers. In December -(1812) Napoleon was back from his terrible failure, but he still sought -to bluff the aged Pope. In a genial New-Year letter he proposed that -Pius should settle at Paris and have two million francs a year: that he -would in future permit the Catholic rulers to nominate two thirds of -the cardinals: and that the thirteen black cardinals should be censured -by the Pope and gracefully pardoned by the Emperor. Pius hesitated; -and on the evening of January 18th, when Napoleon suddenly burst into -his room and embraced him, the old tears of childlike joy stood in his -eyes once more. Napoleon remained and put before him a new Concordat, -sacrificing the demands he had made in his letter, but demanding the -abdication of the temporal power and six months' limit for the Papal -institution of bishops. Harrowing pictures of the Pope's condition and -the pressure put on him by Napoleonic prelates are drawn by pious pens. -But the fact is not disputed that on January 25th the "martyr-Pope" -signed the Concordat and sacrificed the temporal power. - -When Pacca and Consalvi and the black cardinals, who were now set at -liberty, arrived at Fontainebleau, they shuddered at his surrender, -but they could not upbraid the pale, worn, distracted Pontiff. He -acknowledged his "sin," as he called it, and asked their advice. By -one vote--fourteen against thirteen--the stalwarts decided that he -must retract and defy Napoleon, and a remarkable week followed. They -drafted a new Concordat, and the Pope wrote a few lines each day, which -were taken away in Pacca's pocket to the rooms of Cardinal Pignatelli, -who lived outside. The Emperor's spies were defeated, and he had a -last burst of rage when the new Concordat was put before him. But the -Allies were closing round the doomed adventurer. As they approached, he -offered Pius half the Papal States, and made other futile proposals. -In January, 1814, Pius was conveyed to Savona: on March 17th he was -informed that he was free. Napoleon had fallen. - -Consalvi was dispatched to join in the counsels of the Allies, and -Pacca, who took his place, set himself joyously to obliterate every -trace of the Revolution and Napoleon. Monasteries were re-opened, -schools and administrative offices restored to the clergy, the -Inquisition re-established, the Jews thrust back into the Ghetto: even -these new French practices of lighting streets at night and vaccinating -people were abolished. Above all things the Society of Jesus must be -restored. Pius had in 1801 recognised the Society in Russia[350] and -in 1804 he granted it canonical existence in the two Sicilies. The -appalling experience of the last twenty-five years had now swept the -last trace of liberalism out of the minds of Catholic monarchs, and -on August 17, 1814, the Bull _Sollicitudo Omnium_ restored the Society -throughout the world; though Portugal rejected it and France dared not -carry it out. A few months later Rome trembled anew, when it heard -that Napoleon had left Elba and Murat marched across the Papal States -to support him. Pius fled from Rome, rejecting all the overtures of -Napoleon and Murat, but the Hundred Days were soon over and reaction -reigned supreme. Pius never lost his quaint appreciation of Napoleon. -Mme. Letitia, the brothers Lucien and Louis, and Fesch lived in honour -at Rome, and, when the mother complained that the English were killing -her son at St. Helena, Pius earnestly begged Consalvi to intercede -for him. At Napoleon's death in 1821 he directed Fesch to conduct a -memorial service. - -Meantime Consalvi had won back the Papal States (except Avignon and -Venaissin and a strip of Ferrara) at the Vienna Congress, and had -returned to moderate the excesses of the reactionary Pacca. Consalvi -had no liberal sentiments, but he had intelligence. At least half of -the educated Italians were Freethinkers, and the secret society of -the _Carbonari_ spread over the country, ferociously combatted by the -orthodox _Sanfedisti_. Italy entered on what the wits called the long -struggle of the "cats" and the "dogs": a rife period for brigands. -Consalvi, in spite of Pacca and the _Zelanti_, compromised. He retained -many of the Napoleonic reforms, though, when the Spanish revolution of -1820 had its revolutionary echoes all over Italy, he drew nearer to the -Holy Alliance for the bloody extirpation of liberalism. Rome prospered -once more, and artists and princes flocked to it, but Pius VII. must -have felt in his last years that the soil of Europe still heaved and -shuddered. - -The relations of the Quirinal[351] with other countries were restored -in some measure, in face of stern opposition. A new Concordat with -France was signed in 1817, but the Legislative Assembly refused to -pass it and it did not come into force before the death of Pius. -Spain set up a régime of truculent orthodoxy under the sanguinary -rule of Ferdinand, and the Revolution of 1820 was crushed for him -by the French. Austria made no new Concordat and retained much of -the Febronian temper. Prussia signed a favourable Concordat in 1821. -Bavaria came to an agreement in 1817, but the liberals defeated it; -and Naples and Sardinia were ruled in the spirit of the Holy Alliance. -William I. sought a Concordat for the Netherlands, though without -result: England endeavoured to bring about an agreement in regard to -the Irish bishops, which was defeated by the Irish: and the dioceses of -Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Richmond, and Cincinnati -were set up in America. - -I do not enter into closer detail, as we recognize in all this work -the hand of Consalvi rather than of Pius. The aged Pope continued to -rejoice over every symptom, or apparent symptom, of religious recovery, -and to miscalculate his age. Even the revolution of 1820 failed to -shake orthodox security and led only to a more truculent persecution -of the new spirit. Pius had now passed his eightieth year and could -not be expected to see what neither Metternich nor Consalvi could see. -In the summer of 1823 he fell into his last illness. As he sank, men -noticed that he was murmuring "Savona, Fontainebleau," but he died -praying quietly on August 17th. It was a strange fate that put Barnaba -Luigi Chiaramonti on a throne in such an age. Whatever church-lore he -may have had, he confronted the problems of his age with dim and feeble -intelligence, and he was at times, when there was no Pacca or Consalvi -to guide him, induced to make concessions which are not consistent with -the fond title of "martyr-Pope." He was a good Bishop of Imola. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 336: It is not true that Clement abstained from passing -judgment on the Society; nor, on the other hand, need we regard -seriously the statement that he was poisoned by the ex-Jesuits. See the -author's _Candid History of the Jesuits_, pp. 355 and 368.] - -[Footnote 337: In Austria the movement was called Febronianism, as -it had begun with a work (_De Statu Ecclesić_) published in 1763 by -Johann von Hontheim under the pseudonym of "Febronius." Hontheim -had learned Gallican sentiments at Louvain. Joseph II. had wisely -and firmly adopted the chief principles of the school: religious -toleration, restriction of the interference of the Popes, and control -of ecclesiastical property.] - -[Footnote 338: Petrucelli della Gattina's _Histoire diplomatique des -Conclaves_, 4 vols., 1864-6.] - -[Footnote 339: The chief source of our knowledge of the earlier years -of Pius is the sketch of his life by Artaud de Montor. Cardinal Wiseman -(another eulogist) covers the ground in the early chapters of his -_Recollections of the Last Four Popes_ (1858). Dr. E.L.T. Henke's -_Papst Pius VII._ (1860) is an excellent impartial study, while D. -Bertolotti's _Vita di Papa Pio VII._ (1881) is less scholarly, and Mary -Allies' _Pius the Seventh_ is rather a tract than an historical study. -The Pope's relations with Napoleon (after the coronation) are minutely, -though far from impartially, studied in H. Welschinger's _Le Pape et -l'Empereur_ (1905) and Father Ilario Rinieri's _Napoleone e Pio VII._ -(2 vols., 1906): both make some use of unpublished documents. See also -F. Rinieri's _Il Concordato tra Pio VII. e il Primo Console_ (1902). -The Pope's Bulls are in the _Bullarii Romani Continuatio_ (ed. Barberi, -vols. xi.-xv). Contemporary documents abound, and one need mention only -the Memoirs of Consalvi, Pacca, and Talleyrand, and the _Correspondance -de Napoleon I._ Special studies will be quoted later. Dr. F. Nielsen's -_History of the Papacy in the Nineteenth Century_ (2 vols., 1906) is -the best recent study of the period of Pius VII. to Pius IX.; it is -scholarly and impartial.] - -[Footnote 340: February 9, 1801.] - -[Footnote 341: This Pius entirely failed to prevent. See Father Leo -Koenig's _Pius VII.: Die Sakularisation und das Reichskonkordat_ -(1904).] - -[Footnote 342: Consalvi's Memoirs are naturally prejudiced, and not -reliable. Theiner's _Histoire des deux Concordats_ (1869) and Séché's -_Les Origines du Concordat_ (1894) are carefully documented.] - -[Footnote 343: _Correspondance de Napoleon I._, xi., 642.] - -[Footnote 344: _Ibid._, xii., 477.] - -[Footnote 345: _Memorie_, i., 68.] - -[Footnote 346: Pacca relates that the English sent a friar to say that -they had a frigate ready to take away the Pope and his secretary. Such -were the relations of Rome and England.] - -[Footnote 347: _L'Église Romaine et le Premier Empire_, 5 vols., -1868-1870.] - -[Footnote 348: _Le Pape et l'Empereur_ (1905), pp. 177-196.] - -[Footnote 349: _See_ Rinieri, pp. 165 and 166.] - -[Footnote 350: By the Brief _Catholicć Fidei_, March 7, 1801.] - -[Footnote 351: Almost the only mention of the Vatican at this period is -that in 1807 Pius had it prepared for the reception of Napoleon!] - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -PIUS IX. - - -In spite of the grave condition of the Catholic world, the -ill-concealed spread of liberal ideas among the educated, and the -spurts of rebellion throughout Europe, the cardinals met the new -danger with as little wisdom as their predecessors had confronted the -Reformation. The three Conclaves which were held within eight years -of the death of Pius VII. were marred by the old wrangles of parties -and ambitions of individuals, and they issued in the election of -entirely unsuitable Popes. The Papacy allied itself with the monarchs -in an effort to stifle the growing modern spirit, and imitated their -unscrupulous methods. Leo XII. and Gregory XVI., at least, left behind -them records at which modern sentiment shudders. Yet they showed as -little appreciation as Louis XVIII. or Charles X. of the irresistible -development through which Europe was passing, and there seem to be -whole centuries of evolution between their acts and announcements and -those of Leo XIII. - -Cardinal della Ganga, who became Leo XII. at the death of Pius, was -a deeply religious and narrow-minded man who achieved much moral and -social reform in his dominions, yet his death in 1829 was, says Baron -Bunsen, hailed at Rome "with indecent joy." His despotic Puritan -measures angered his subjects, and his gross injustice to the Jews -and fierce persecution of the Carbonari and Liberals fed the growing -Italian hatred of the Papacy. Pius VIII. (1829-30) was a milder -_Zelante_ and had won--a singular distinction for a Pope in such -a crisis--some repute in canon law and numismatics. He was nearly -seventy years old, and his Secretary of State, the disreputable Albani, -was over eighty. The revolutionary movement of 1830 completed his -afflictions, and a Roman wag proposed as his epitaph: "He was born: he -wept: he died."[352] Then came the longer Pontificate of Gregory XVI., -the chief events of which will pass before us as we review the earlier -career of Pius IX. Gregory was a pious, narrow-minded Camaldulese -monk. Like his predecessor, he was well versed in canon law and as ill -fitted as a man could be to rule in the nineteenth century. He left -the repression of the rebels to his Secretary of State Lambruschini, -and said his beads, and ate sweetmeats at merry little gatherings of -cardinals, while Young Italy marched nobly to the scaffold and its -brilliant writers opened the eyes of the world to the foul condition of -the Papal States. - -Gregory died on June 1, 1846, dimly foreseeing an age of revolution, -and reform was now the great issue before the Conclave. The late Pope's -supporters put forward the truculent Lambruschini, but from the first -Cardinal Mastai-Ferretti was conspicuous in the voting, and on the -second day of the Conclave he was elected by thirty-seven out of fifty -votes. It was useless any longer to ignore that appalling indictment of -abuses, corruption, and incompetence which the Italian writers were -circulating throughout Europe. The cardinals chose a reformer: a man -who was at times described even as a Liberal. - -Giovanni Maria Gianbattista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro -Mastai-Ferretti--the name reflects the piety of his mother--was then -fifty-four years old. He had been born at Sinigaglia on May 13, 1792, -of parents who belonged to the small provincial nobility. He was sent -to school at Volterra, and he is variously described by fellow-pupils -who took opposite sides in the fierce conflict of his later years as -a pale, pure little angel of marvellous industry, and as a sickly, -epileptic little idler with the reputation, Trollope says, of being -"the biggest liar in the school."[353] He seems to have been a -delicate, handsome, undistinguished pupil of proper character. His -virtuous mother wished him to become a priest, and he received the -tonsure at Volterra in 1809. In October he was sent to continue his -studies at Rome, and for some months he lived in the Quirinal, in -charge of an uncle who was a canon of St. Peter's. They were related -to Pius VII. and were favoured. The French invasion of 1810 drove -them back to Sinigaglia, and Giovanni was summoned for service in -the Noble Guard of the Viceroy of Italy. His epileptic tendency was -successfully pleaded for exemption, and he returned to Rome in 1814. -It seems, however, that he was not deeply religious, and he applied -for service in the Papal Guard rather than for orders.[354] His fits -closed the military service of the Pope against him, and, on the letter -of the law, should equally exclude him from the clergy. He became very -depressed and morose, but Pius VII. strained the regulations in favour -of his young relative. He was to receive ordination on condition that -he never said mass without an assistant. In 1819 he became a priest, -and made the small progress which a distant relative of the Pope might -expect. In 1823 he accompanied a Papal representative to Chile, and -the voyage probably strengthened his constitution. Pius VII. died -during his absence from Rome, but as Giovanni's protector, Cardinal -della Ganga, became Pope, he returned to favour at Rome. He received -a canonry, the administration of the Hospital of St. Michael, and (in -1827) the archbishopric of Spoleto. - -It is clear that the young Archbishop did excellent work at Spoleto, -and we must read with discretion the statements of his less -temperate critics. His predecessor had been idle and worthless, and -Mastai-Ferretti applied himself with zeal, judgment, and success to -the reform of clergy and laity. In 1829 Leo XII., his patron, died, -and Pius VIII. entered upon his short and futile Pontificate. Gregory -XVI., who succeeded him, at once met the blasts of the Revolution of -1830. The outbreak at Rome was suppressed, but the revolutionaries -captured Bologna and brought about a dangerous agitation throughout -Italy. Mastai-Ferretti is said to have been compelled to fly from -Spoleto, but his actions and attitude at this time are not wholly -clear. Austrian troops suppressed the Revolution, and Gregory entered -upon that truculent crusade against the Liberals and their claims which -diverted England from its new alliance with the Papacy and even shocked -Metternich. When the Austrians compelled him to take the Secretaryship -of State from Cardinal Bernetti, he bestowed it on the more intemperate -Cardinal Lambruschini, and the struggle with the Carbonari and the -Young Italians continued. In his Encyclical _Mirari Vos_ (August 15, -1832) Gregory pledged the Papacy to a stern refusal of the democratic -reforms which the new Europe demanded. - -Mastai-Ferretti had meantime (February 16, 1832) been removed to the -bishopric of Imola: a more profitable see and a recognized path to -higher honours. His amiable and conciliatory character inclined him -to meet the more moderate Liberals with ease, though he does not seem -to have made any profound study of the political development of his -time. When Cardinal Lambruschini condemned scientific associations, -the Bishop of Imola is reported to have commented that he saw no -inconsistency between science and religion. On these safe and innocuous -expressions the Bishop won a repute for "Liberalism" among the more -reactionary members of the Curia, and Gregory XVI. long hesitated to -raise him to the cardinalate. He was an exemplary bishop, and in the -reform of education and of philanthropic institutions he performed -no slight social service, which may have attracted the esteem of the -more moderate Liberals. He was admitted to the Sacred College on -December 14, 1840, and continued for six years to direct his diocese -and encourage those temperate reforms which most of his colleagues -were too indolent or too prejudiced to favour. The condition of the -Church was again becoming critical. The Carbonari were weakened and -dispersed in Italy, but Mazzini had begun to lead "the Youth of Italy" -to a more open and more heretical attack on Austria and the Papacy, -while high-minded and humanitarian priests like Gioberti, Ventura, and -Rosmini in Italy, and Lamennais in France, were, in varying degrees, -looking to a Catholic Liberalism to ease the pressure of the growing -popular revolt. Gregory XVI. and his advisers regarded the entire -Liberal movement, in every shade, as a sinful and temporary aberration. -They passed the most drastic laws for its suppression: the prisons of -Italy were distended with their victims: yet their orthodox militia, -the Sanfedisti, had to wage a perpetual and bitter struggle against the -spreading revolt. - -We who look back on this painful travail of the birth of democracy -are at times unduly impatient with idealists who failed to recognize -its promise at the time. Not merely ecclesiastical statesmen, but -heterodox observers and sons of the people like Carlyle, looked upon -the new movement as an emanation from the pit, a menace to society. -But most biographers pass to the opposite extreme when they conceive -Pius IX. as judiciously studying the demands of the age, realizing that -a moderate measure of democracy and liberty was just and inevitable, -and then renouncing his Liberal faith when he saw the excesses of the -democrats. For this there is no documentary support. Pius was amiable, -accessible, and anxious to please all: he was neither a statesman nor -an economist, and had not a firm judgment of the European situation. -He was disposed to see justice in the semi-Liberalism of Gioberti or -Ventura, and disposed the next day to listen to the Mephistophelean -counsels of Metternich. Europe was to him a world in which a large -number of thoughtful people demanded reforms which were consistent -with the political and religious supremacy of the Papacy, and he was -disposed to favour and indulge them. He failed to realize, until 1848, -that the firm and consistent demands of the new age were inconsistent -with Papal supremacy. But he clearly disliked the medićval policy of -the Curia and he was regarded with hope by the reformers within the -fold. It was they who greeted his election in June, 1846. The more -radical Italians did not want a reforming Pope, because they did not -want a Papacy. - -Pius was crowned on June 21st, and at once turned to what he would -regard as "democratic" measures. He gave dowries to a thousand poor -girls, and decreed that all pledges in the Monte di Pietŕ which were -less in value than two lire should be returned to their owners. On July -16th he declared a general amnesty of political prisoners, and the -Romans flocked to the Quirinal to cheer their handsome and courageous -Pope, and demonstrations of joy resounded throughout Italy. The amnesty -was in reality conditional: the released prisoners and returning exiles -were to promise not again to "disturb the public order." However, -there was at the time no severe application of the condition, and -Pius continued in his reforming mood. That he had no serious leaning -to Liberalism he made abundantly clear to the more thoughtful before -the end of the year. On November 9th he issued an Encyclical in which -he condemned Bible Societies, secret political societies, critics -of the Church, license of the press, and so on.[355] The Radicals -still mingled with the crowds below his balcony and flattered him. -Some, no doubt, had the idea that he might be induced to go farther; -but Mazzini and others have revealed that they astutely used these -demonstrations to educate the people in larger demands and provoke -a more serious revolt. Pius threw open his garden to the public on -certain days, opened night schools and Sunday schools, re-opened the -Accademia dei Lincei (for the promotion of science), and discussed -plans of railways for Italy. He was in a patriarchal mood which came -near to social idealism. Journals multiplied, and clubs became active: -especially the Circolo Romano, which gradually came under the influence -of a prosperous and very radical publican from the Trastevere, Angelo -Brunetti, nicknamed "little Cicero" (Ciceruacchio) for his demagogic -eloquence. The dreamy Christian Liberals, Gioberti and Ventura, gave -the not very penetrating Pope the idea that he was going to make a -model State of Papal Italy and, through it, to lead the world on the -new upward path. - -The Radicals encouraged the clouds of incense which obscured the Pope's -vision, and he listened gravely to the requests for representative -government. On April 19, 1847, he proposed a Consulto di Stato: a -council composed of laymen from the various provinces--all carefully -selected by the clergy and gravely reminded that their business was -merely to offer suggestions. In July he formed a Civic Guard for Rome: -in November he inaugurated a scheme of municipal administration for -Rome: and at the close of December he formed a ministry--of cardinals -and other clerical dignitaries. By this time, however, Pius had -become perplexed and suspicious. Cardinal Gizzi, his Secretary of -State, resigned, the Gregorian cardinals frowned, and the Austrians -complained of his concessions. There was a banquet in Rome to Cobden, -and there was a very noisy and triumphant banquet to Ciceruacchio. The -Pope forbade popular demonstrations, yet he perceived daily that his -concessions did nothing to appease the popular appetite. The Italians -demanded elected, lay officers. - -To make matters worse for the Pope the Austrians advanced against the -Papal States. The difference was adjusted, but from the summer of -1847 hostility to Austria increased rapidly, and the people demanded -an efficient Papal army to resist them. When, on February 8th, the -news came of the third French Revolution, the agitators, who had now -complete influence, became bolder. Ciceruacchio himself, supported by -the Liberal Princes Corsini and Borghese, saw the Pope, and demanded -war on Austria and democratic institutions. At sight of the massive and -resolute crowds which supported them, the Pope promised a lay ministry -and a more efficient army; but on the following day he, addressing the -crowd in patriarchal terms, complained of the excessive demands of a -"minority" among them and protested that the Papacy needed no war on -Austria, as the Catholic Powers would protect it. The Radical leaders -saw his weakness, and under their steady pressure he began to make his -famous concessions to democracy. A new ministry, with lay nobles in -most of the positions, was formed in March, the Jesuits were advised -to leave Rome, the ancient walls and restrictions of the Ghetto were -abolished, and a constitution was granted. The members of the Lower -Chamber were to be elected, but the College of Cardinals would have -a veto on the proceedings of both houses, and they could not discuss -ecclesiastical or "mixed" affairs: a very grave restriction in a -theocratic State. - -The Radicals now concentrated the people on the cry of war with -Austria, and on that issue the Pope fell. The Papal troops had crossed -the frontier in support of the Sardinians, and, as Pius refused to -declare war, the Austrians treated them as brigands. The meetings -in Rome became more and more violent, the new ministry resigned, -and, as Pius still refused to declare war, a second ministry handed -in its resignation. The summer and autumn of 1848 passed in this -struggle. Pius insisted that war was not consistent with his religious -character, and all Rome united in opposing him. In November, at the -suggestion of Rosmini, the Pope ordered Pellegrino Rossi to form a -new ministry. Rossi, a friend of Napoleon III., was hated by the -Radicals, and his dream of a union of Italian princes under the Pope's -direction conflicted with their plan of a united and free Italy. He was -assassinated on November 15th, and on the following day a vast crowd, -partly armed, marched to the Quirinal and peremptorily laid down their -claims. In the confusion a prelate at one of the windows was shot, and -the Pope, seeing the Roman Guard mingling with the crowd, abjectly -surrendered, and retired to disavow his concession and prepare for -flight. The situation was very grave, and the action of the Pope was -far from heroic. It is not a maxim of the higher morality that you may -evade an angry crowd by making promises that you do not intend to -fulfil, or that you may afterwards discover that such promises were -void. - -The sequel is well-known. With the assistance of the foreign -ambassadors the Pope, disguised as a simple priest, fled to Gaeta. -So great was his concern that when the King of Naples, warned of his -flight, came the next day and inquired for the Pope, the officials -at Gaeta were quite unaware that Pius had been amongst them for -twenty-four hours. The cardinals gathered about him, and he appealed -to the Catholic Powers to restore his authority and suppress the -rebels. It is not an entirely accurate analysis to say that the Pope's -"Liberalism" now ended, and he became a reactionary. He had been duped -by the Radicals and had never understood his subjects. A feeble and -carefully controlled lay representation, with neither legislative nor -executive power, was not a part of the Liberal creed. Pius IX. was -never a Liberal. He was from the first unwilling to surrender the -absolute authority of the clergy, to grant freedom of discussion, to -abolish the monstrous growth of clerical officialdom, or to apply a -fitting proportion of the income of the Papal States to their effective -military defence. When he saw that even moderate Liberals demanded -these things, he recognized that he had never been in agreement with -them, and that his own half-measures were of no value. He now further -recognized that the advanced Liberals had captured his people, and -he turned, quite logically, to a policy of oppression. There was no -material change of his political faith. - -From Gaeta he appointed a "governing commission" (under a cardinal) -for Rome, and, when the people refused it and set up a Republic, he -placidly entrusted his case to France, Spain, Naples, and Sardinia, -and devoted himself to the preparation of the dogma of the Immaculate -Conception of Mary. Rosmini was still with him, urging compromise -with the democrats, but the somewhat unscrupulous Cardinal Antonelli, -who now became Secretary of State, astutely destroyed the influence -of the reformer, and confirmed Pius in his attitude of defiance and -repression. Even when the French troops--apparently thinking that they -could seduce the Romans to admit them in peace and could then compel -the Pope to adopt a conciliatory policy--crushed the Roman Republic, -and re-opened the gates to the Pope, Pius did not hasten to return. On -September 4th he left Gaeta for Portici, and it was not until April 12, -1850, that he returned to the Quirinal. The crowd ironically applauded -_Pio Nono Secondo_. - -The Pope had replied to the French appeals for a promise of reform that -it was not consistent with his dignity to make promises under apparent -pressure, but he had consented to the creation of new political -institutions. From Portici he promised a new Consiglio di Stato, a -Consiglio dei Ministri, and a Consulta di Stato. These were wholly -under clerical control, and the elections for the District Councils, -the only bodies which were to have free popular representatives, were -soon suppressed. But there is little need to dwell on the second -phase of Papal government under Pius IX. Cardinal Antonelli and the -Jesuits had a paramount influence, and the dream of enlightenment and -self-government was roughly dissipated. Between 1850 and 1855 the -Roman Council alone passed ninety sentences of death, and the prisons -were again thickly populated; while the disorders of finance and -administration, and the appalling illiteracy of the people in an age -of advancing education, were scrupulously maintained. The scandal -which in later years followed the death of Antonelli--the spectacle of -his natural daughter struggling for his vast fortune, though he was a -son of the people--sufficiently disclosed the character of that able -and indelicate minister, while the Jesuits were not unmindful that -the first act of the revolution had been to expel them. They had sent -some of their abler representatives to Gaeta, and from that time they -had a deep influence on the ecclesiastical policy of the Pope, while -Antonelli ruled the Papal States and offered what Lord Clarendon called -a "scandal to Europe." Within little over a year of the Pope's return -there were more than 8000 political prisoners in the Papal jails, -while the ignorant people were oppressed by heavy taxes and an army of -clerical officials. - -It is probable that Pius IX. had no clearer perception of the state -of Europe and Italy after the revolution of 1849 than he had had in -the earlier years. He devoted his attention to spiritual matters and -listened, in temporal concerns, to the suave assurances of Antonelli. -This pacified Europe was to be weaned from its bad dreams by a cult of -the Sacred Heart, devotion to the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and so -on. His first important act (September 29, 1850) was to re-establish -the hierarchy in England, to the great alarm and anger of the English -Protestants. England had quickly lost its passing sympathy with the -Papacy, and English travellers took home dreadful accounts of the -condition of the Papal States. The Pope does not seem to have been -acquainted either with the disgust of the English at the state of -his dominion or with the fact that the apparent restoration of the -old faith in England meant little more than a vast immigration from -famine-stricken Ireland. - -He then applied himself to securing the dogma of the Immaculate -Conception of Mary. From Gaeta in 1849, while Mazzini and his -colleagues ruled Rome and Antonelli struggled with the representatives -of the rival Catholic Powers for his restoration, Pius had sent out -some five hundred letters to the bishops of the world, inviting their -opinion on the doctrine. It had long passed the stage of being a -disputed academic thesis, and most of the replies were favourable. -The Jesuits, who had become the special protagonists of the doctrine, -fostered the native piety of the Pope, and on December 8, 1854, it -became a dogma of the Church.[356] - -In 1857 made a tour of the Italian provinces. His chief purpose was to -visit the Holy House of Loretto, but the intriguers of the Quirinal -used the opportunity to enhance the Pope's illusion that only a few -negligible fanatics quarrelled with the Papal government. In the -previous year the diplomatists assembled at the Congress of Paris had -censured that government in the most violent terms and demanded reform. -It is hardly likely that their comments were put before the Pope, and -care was taken that his reception in the provinces should flatter -his genial love of popularity. Inconvenient petitioners were refused -access to him, and the clergy and more devout laity greeted him with -applause. Gregorovius, who was then in Rome, notes in his _Diary_ that -Pius returned to the Quirinal full of joy; and a few years later the -inhabitants of these provinces would vote, by an overwhelming majority, -for the abolition of the Papal government. - -In the following year the graver development of Italian politics -began. Napoleon III., whose protection of the corrupt Papal system -had infuriated the Liberals, met Cavour secretly at Plombičres and -agreed, in case of attack by Austria, to help the King of Sardinia in -his ambition; his reward would be the provinces of Nice and Savoy. The -attempt by Orsini in the following January to assassinate Napoleon did -not help the diplomatists of the Vatican, as Cavour plausibly urged -that the tyranny of the Papal States was responsible for the rebels who -were scattered over Europe, and the struggle for the unity of Italy -went on from year to year. The war between Sardinia and Austria broke -out in the spring of 1859, and Austria was defeated at Magenta and -retired from the Legations. These provinces were resolutely opposed -to a return of clerical government, and Cavour, whose monarch was not -yet prepared for war on the Papacy, sent one representative after -another to persuade the Pope to permit the appointment of lay rulers of -Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and Romagna, under his suzerainty. Antonelli -and Pius refused to make the least concession to the rebels, nor were -the provincials disposed to assent to such a settlement. After some -months of insurgence and bloody repression, a plebiscite was organized -in the Legations (March 11, 1860) and an overwhelming majority voted -for incorporation in the kingdom of Sardinia. In spite of the Pope's -fulminations, Sardinia accepted the vote, and Napoleon received Nice -and Savoy as the price of his acquiescence. - -Dismayed and perplexed by the futility of his appeals to the Catholic -Powers and of the spiritual censures at his disposal, the Pope now -invited volunteers, and crowds of undisciplined Irish and French -Catholics came to swell the little Papal army and fall with truculent -piety on the rebellious districts. Garibaldi, on the other hand, -forced the halting designs of Cavour, and, with the cry of "Rome or -Death," flung his irregular troops into the struggle. After a vain -effort at peaceful settlement, Cavour, "in the interest of humanity," -sent the Sardinian regulars into the Papal States, and the Pope's -forces were destroyed in September at Castel Fidardo (in sight of the -Holy House of Loretto) and Ancona. A plebiscite was organized in Umbria -and the Marches, and there is no serious ground to question that the -figures published express the sentiment of the provinces. In Umbria -99,075 voted for Victor Emmanuel and 380 for the Pope: in the Marches -133,783 voted for Sardinia and 1212 for Rome. A large allowance for -abstentions does not alter the significance of these figures. - -Pius still protected, by a conviction that the plebiscite had been -fraudulent, his illusion that only a disreputable minority resented his -beneficent government, and the diplomacy of the Quirinal during the -next ten years was the least enlightened that could have been devised -for securing the slender remaining territory. Many cardinals, and even -Antonelli, came to see that a recognition of Victor Emmanuel as King -of Italy would be the wiser course, but Pius, supported by the Jesuits -(who had founded their _Civiltŕ Cattolica_, as an organ of Papal -sentiment, in 1850), obstinately refused to temporize. He would have -no negotiation with "the robbers," the excommunicated rebels against -God. He retained--or the French troops still retained for him--only -Rome and the Roman district, and proclaimed that he relied on Catholic -Europe to restore his full rights. Years were spent in vain efforts -to induce him to surrender his temporal power, or to recognize Victor -Emmanuel as his "Vicar" in the kingdom of Italy, and in the meantime -the Italian aspiration for Rome as a capital grew stronger, and the -Pope's obstinate retention of his temporal possessions was easily -represented in an unfavourable light throughout Europe. The cardinals -were not indifferent to the offer of 10,000 scudi a year and seats in -the Italian Senate; and Antonelli was won by a promise of 3,000,000 -scudi and rich gifts for his family. There can be little doubt that -the rapid development of anti-clericalism in Italy during the sixties, -and the growing disdain of Rome in England and France, would have been -materially checked if the Pope had been more sagacious. He dreamed that -the Catholic world still shared the crusading fervour of the Middle -Ages, and he was insensible of the selfish motives of France, Naples, -and Austria. - -In the midst of the negotiations he committed the grave blunder of -issuing his Encyclical _Quanta Cura_ (December 8, 1864) with the famous -accompanying Syllabus, or list of eighty condemned propositions. There -is no need to analyze here that medićval indictment of the modern -spirit. Many of the propositions are now commonplaces in the mind of -every educated Catholic, and it is precisely their boast that--to use -some of the condemned words--the Catholic Church may be reconciled -with "progress, liberty, and the new civilization." The pages of the -_Civiltŕ Cattolica_ sufficiently indicate who were the Pope's unhappy -inspirers. In brief, the document convinced Europe that Rome insisted -on being driven off the path of progress at the point of the bayonet, -and in 1866 the French evacuated Rome, leaving the Pope only 2000 -mercenary soldiers, who were to don his uniform. When Garibaldi made -his third impulsive inroad--the second, in 1862, had been arrested by -the Piedmontese--in October, 1867, the French arrested him, but the -war of 1870 gave Italy its opportunity. On September 20, 1870, the -Italian troops entered the breach in the Roman walls, and the long -and romantic story of the temporal power of the Popes was over. By -the Law of Guarantees (May 15, 1871) Italy granted the Pope sovereign -rights, with an annual income of 3,250,000 lire and an extension of -extraterritorial rights to certain Roman palaces. By a final error Pius -refused to acknowledge his position, set up the melodramatic fiction -of "the Prisoner of the Vatican," and, by forbidding Catholics to -take part in the elections of the new kingdom, allowed Italy to drift -farther and farther away from his spiritual control.[357] - -Meantime the famous Vatican Council had crowned his more purely -ecclesiastical work. The idea of summoning the whole Christian world -to a second and greater Trent, of healing religious dissensions and -uniting religious forces against modernism, had dazzled the imagination -of the Pope at Gaeta. His advisers encouraged him, and in 1865 he -appointed a commission to discuss the subject. In 1867, when his heart -was uplifted by the great gathering at Rome for the celebration of -the (supposed) eighteenth centenary of the martyrdom of St. Peter, he -announced the council, and in the following year (June 28, 1868) the -Bull _Ćterni Patris_ invited all Christians--heretic and schismatic, -as well as orthodox--to the Vatican Council of 1869. It was opened on -December 8th, when 719 members assembled from the Catholic world. - -The great issue--the one issue that may be discussed here--was the -question of defining the infallibility of the Pope. Here again the -Jesuits ardently supported the wish of Pius IX., and a struggle had -taken place in the Catholic world for some years. It was known that -such devout and influential priests as Newman in England, Bishop -Dupanloup and Archbishop Darboy in France, and Bishop Ketteler -and Cardinal Schwarzenberg and Döllinger in Germany, opposed the -definition, and the greatest care was taken in selecting members of the -council whose position did not make them entitled to sit in it. When -Newman was proposed from England, Manning (an enthusiastic supporter -of the Papal policy) and the Jesuits defeated the project, as Purcell -has since established in his life of Manning. When, however, the -seven hundred members of the council had assembled, it was realized -that between one hundred and fifty and two hundred voters regarded -a definition of infallibility as inopportune, and the procedure and -control of the council were diplomatically arranged. What Newman called -"the aggressive, insolent faction" of the Infallibilists strained every -nerve to destroy the opposition. They drew up a petition to the Pope, -and Pius was deeply annoyed to find that little over four hundred names -appeared at its foot; and of the signatories the majority were prelates -who lived at Rome in dependence on the Quirinal. - -But the familiar story need not be told again in detail. The debates -were prolonged into the broiling summer, in spite of the remonstrances -of the northerners, and the Pope's indignation at the minority was -freely expressed. When, on July 13th, the vote was taken, 451 voted -"Aye," 62 voted a qualified "Aye" (_Placet juxta modum_), and 88 voted -in opposition. Pius wavered, and was disposed to listen to counsels of -compromise, but the majority pressed, and the stormy debate continued. -The Inopportunists were reduced to silence, and at the final vote, on -July 18th, only two voted against the project; though many abstained -from voting. Time has thrown a strange light on that historic struggle. -On the one hand, it has transpired that the definition was drawn up in -such terms that the controversialist could plausibly accommodate it -with the known blunders of earlier Popes, and few followed the spirited -revolt of Döllinger: on the other hand, the Papacy has from that day to -this made no use of its infallibility, in an age of perplexing doubts, -and the ardour of the Infallibilists has cooled. - -During the following years the Pope sank once more into depression -as the situation in Italy engendered grave troubles. Bible Societies -and Protestant churches appeared in Italy, even in Rome, and Pius -vainly denounced the monstrosity. Bishops dare not apply to the -Italian government for their appointments, and had to remain without -incomes and palaces. The Jesuits were expelled, and in 1872 a law -of dissolution menaced the 8151 members of religious houses in Rome -and the provinces. Bavaria refused to publish the Bull _Pastor -Ćternus_, and its struggle with the Church extended to Prussia and -culminated in the long and bitter Kulturkampf (1872-1887). In France -the anti-clerical Liberals gained from year to year on the Catholic -reaction which had followed the Commune of 1871, and Gambetta's -battle-cry rallied the old forces in alarming numbers. In 1876 -(November 6th) Antonelli died, and the grave scandal which disclosed -his irregularities gave joy to the enemies of the Papacy. A last gleam -of consolation came to the Pope in 1877, when the Catholic world -held a magnificent celebration, on June 3d, of his episcopal jubilee. -But the aged Pope saw no retreat of the disastrous forces he had -encountered, and, after the longest and most calamitous rule in Papal -history, he died on February 7, 1878. - -Little need be added in regard to his relations with other countries -than France and Italy. The record is one of both successes and failures -which were misunderstood at Rome: to the modern historian it is the -record of the lapse of millions from the Roman allegiance. In the -United States forty-four new dioceses were established between 1847 and -1877, yet the American prelates of the time bitterly lament the loss -of hundreds of thousands of scattered Catholic immigrants. In England -the Romeward movement within the English Church came to an end long -before the death of Pius, and the Church made no numerical progress -in excess of births and immigration. In Holland the hierarchy was -peacefully restored, but in Switzerland there was such tension that the -Internuncio was expelled in 1874. Russia severed relations with Rome in -1860: Württemberg (1861) and Baden (1859) signed Concordats with Rome, -but found it impossible to maintain them: and the new German Empire -was, as I said previously, involved by Bismarck and Falk in a bitter -struggle with Rome. - -The relations with Catholic countries were little more satisfactory. -Sardinia had mortally offended the Quirinal long before the struggle -for Italian unity began: by a long series of anti-clerical measures -it abolished tithes, laicised education and marriage, expelled the -religious orders and confiscated their property, gave freedom of -worship to Protestants, and dealt summarily with hostile bishops. -Austria had signed in 1855 (August 18th) a Concordat which was -favourable to the Church, but the young Francis Joseph, whose education -had been carefully directed in the clerical interest, was forced by -the storm of opposition to deviate from it. It was abolished in 1870, -and four years later laws were passed which the Vatican regarded as -anti-clerical. Spain maintained, through its various revolutions, a -consistent docility, and was the only country on which the dying eyes -of the Pope could dwell with satisfaction. It contracted a favourable -Concordat on March 16, 1851, which was supplemented in 1859. Portugal -signed a favourable Concordat in 1857. In Latin America on the other -hand, the Church suffered grave reverses. Costa Rica and Guatemala -(1852), Haiti (1860), Nicaragua (1861), and San Salvador, Honduras, -Venezuela, and Ecuador (1862) signed satisfactory Concordats, but -Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina entered upon -anti-clerical ways, and the spirit of revolt against the clergy was -spreading throughout Southern and Central America. Not since the days -of Leo X. had the Church suffered such grave and widespread defection. - -In estimating the character of Pius IX. and his relation to these -losses the modern historian has little difficulty. The exaggerations -of both his critics and his panegyrists are patent. He was a -sincerely religious and zealous man, but the hope once entertained -of his canonization (or, at least, beatification) was as absurd -as the malevolent attacks on his character from the other side. -His intellectual quality must be similarly judged: he had little -penetration, no breadth of mind, no power to read aright the symptoms -of his age. In considering the fatal obstinacy with which he refused -all accommodation in regard to his temporal power, we must carefully -bear in mind his religious views, and not merely dwell on his slight -capacity for diplomacy or statesmanship. So grave a surrender could -not be commended by a few years of revolution except to a man of -greater insight and foresight than Pius IX. In sum, he would in years -of peace and piety have made an excellent and undistinguished steward -of the Papal heritage, but he was very far from having the greatness -of mind which the circumstances of the Church required, and the vast -organization over which he so long presided emerged still further -weakened from its second historical crisis. It had fought Protestantism -and lost: it had fought Democracy and Progress and lost. It remained -for a wiser Pope to initiate the policy of accommodation. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 352: During his twenty-months' Pontificate, in 1829, Catholic -Emancipation was carried in England. But the Quirinal's share was -confined to rejoicing. Consalvi, however, had "worked incessantly" for -it, and had been much aided by the Duchess of Devonshire. See his words -in Artaud's _Histoire du Pape Léon XII._, i., 171.] - -[Footnote 353: The contradiction is characteristic of the literature -on Pius IX. Most of it was written before or just after his death and -is fiercely partisan. Petruccelli della Gattina's _Pie IX._ (1866) -is the chief and least reliable of the hostile biographies: T.A. -Trollope's _Story of the Life of Pius IX._ (2 vols., 1877) is one of -the most temperate of the anti-Papal works and still has some use: F. -Hitchman's _Pius the Ninth_ (1878) is slighter but equally moderate. -Such studies as those of Shea, Maguire, Dawson, Wappmannsperger (2 -vols.), Stepischnegg (2 vols.), Pougeois (6 vols.), and Freiherr von -Helfert are equally prejudiced on the Catholic side. The best study -of the character and work of Pius is Dr. F. Nielsen's _Papacy in -the Nineteenth Century_ (2 vols., 1906), a temperate (perhaps not -sufficiently critical) and scholarly work. Bishop G.S. Pelczar's -_Pio IX. e il suo Pontificato_ (3 vols., Italian translation 1909) -is learned but fulsome and undiscriminating. Father R. Ballerini's -incomplete study (published as _Les premičres pages du Pontificat -du Pape Pie IX._, 1909) has no distinction. For special aspects see -D. Silvagni, _La Corte e la Societŕ Romana_ (1885), and Count von -Hoensbroech's _Rom und das Zentrum_ (1910), and works quoted hereafter.] - -[Footnote 354: Ballerini and Helfert deny this but Pelczar and Nielsen -make it clear. The graver statement of the hostile biographers--that he -spent his youth in dissipation--rests on no respectable evidence.] - -[Footnote 355: _Lettres Apostoliques de Pie IX._, p. 177.] - -[Footnote 356: The original documents relating to the Pope's actions -will be found in the _Acta Pii Noni_, _Acta Sanctć Sedis_, and -_Discorsi del Summo Pontefice Pio IX_. (1872-8).] - -[Footnote 357: In the plebiscite which was taken in the city of Rome -40,785 voted for incorporation and forty-six for the Pope: in the -city and province 133,681 voted for incorporation and 1507 against. -Naturally, the minority is not fully represented, as many refused to -vote.] - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -LEO XIII. - - -When Leo XIII. mounted the Pontifical throne, the Papacy had had three -quarters of a century of disastrous experience of the reactionary -policy. The Restoration of 1815 had seemed to inaugurate for Rome a -new period of prosperity. The touching experiences of Pius VII. and -the widely recognized need of combating by religious influence the new -spirit of revolt disposed the monarchs of Europe, and a large part of -their subjects, to regard the successor of Peter with respect. He had -been their ally in resisting Napoleon: he was their ally in restoring -feudalism. England moderated its rude tradition of "the Scarlet Woman." -The Tsar of the Russias felt that Romanism was a large element in the -spiritual renaissance he contemplated. Louis XVIII. remembered how -altar and throne had fallen together. Ferdinand of Spain drowned the -revolt in blood. Austria reconsidered its Febronianism. Italy seemed -incapable of rebellion. - -But the revolutionary wave had retired only to come back with greater -effect, and from 1830 to 1850 the face of Europe was transformed. The -Popes almost alone defied the spirit to which monarchs bowed, and they -stood almost alone amid their ruins. England returned to its disdain: -Russia and Switzerland angrily broke off relations with the Vatican: -Germany was engaged in what the Vatican regarded as a formidable -effort to crush Catholicism in the new Empire. Austria was sullen and -weakened. France was rapidly passing into its third and final revolt -against Catholicism. Spain was forced into an alliance with the growing -Liberals against the Carlists. Italy was overwhelmingly opposed to the -Papacy on what the Papacy declared to be a sacred and vital issue, and -was honeycombed with Rationalism. Belgium was almost dominated by a -Liberal middle class. The South American republics were falling away -in succession. The two most profoundly Catholic peoples, Ireland and -Poland, were ruined, and their children were scattered and seduced. -Thus would any penetrating cardinal have interpreted the situation -of the Church in 1878; yet, if his penetration were great enough, he -would see that there was a tendency among this Liberal middle class, -which now dominated Europe, to seek once more an alliance with religion -against the deeper social heresies which were appearing. Would the new -Pope prove subtle enough to grasp that opportunity and save the Church? -His "infallibility" would avail little: he would be unwise to emphasize -it. He must be a diplomatist and a rhetorician. - -The new Pope, Leo XIII., was nearly sixty-eight years old, and had -had a better education in the history of the nineteenth century than -most of the Italian cardinals had. Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi -Pecci was born on March 2, 1810, at Carpineto. His first lesson, in -the country mansion, would be to hear his father. Colonel Pecci, and -his very pious mother, a Tertiary of the Franciscan Order, talk of the -Napoleonic nightmare that had just passed away. From the age of eight -to fourteen he was under the care of the Jesuits at Viterbo, and, as -it was represented to him that the younger sons in so large a family -had to look to the Church for their income, after some hesitation, he -allowed them to tonsure him, at the age of eleven.[358] In 1824 his -mother died, and he went to study, still under the Jesuits, at the -Collegio Romano at Rome. He had conspicuous ability and high character, -and besides improving his Latin--he already wrote Latin poems--he -studied philosophy, mathematics, chemistry, and astronomy. He attracted -attention, as clever boys attract the attention of the clergy, and -was directed toward the clerical career. He must enter the "Academy -for Noble Ecclesiastics," said one prelate; and, with the aid of his -brothers, he drew up a genealogical tree to prove that his father, the -easy-going colonel of Carpineto, was descended from the medićval Pecci -of Siena. The Academy did not pronounce his proof valid--the connexion -is probable enough--but, on his merits, and in view of his important -patrons, admitted him among the nobles of Anagni (1831). - -Joachim--he had called himself Vincenzo until 1832--took a degree in -theology, and told his brothers that he was going to illumine their -ancient family. He still loved to take a flintlock musket over the -hills during his holidays, but he indulged in no dissipations and -became pale and thin over the books which were to help his ambition. -His father died in 1836, and it is in his naďve letters to his -brothers that we discover the human elements ignored by his eloquent -biographers.[359] He begins to follow politics, in the most ardent -Papal spirit. Cardinal Pacca, the intransigeant, recommended the -pale, slim young cleric to Gregory XVI., and in 1837 he was appointed -domestic prelate. Cardinal Sala also befriended the young Monsignore, -and he went from one small office to another. Sala pointed out that for -further advancement he must become a priest, and he became a priest -(December 31, 1837); but his letters make it clear that he entered the -priesthood in a mood of such exalted piety that Sala feared he was -about to quit the world and become a Jesuit. - -About a month after his ordination (February 2, 1838) he was appointed -Apostolic Delegate (Civil Governor) of Benevento, where the brigandage -which disgraced the Papal States was particularly rabid. In three -years, with the aid of a skilful chief of police, he almost suppressed -brigandage and smuggling, and did much for the province. His progress -was not so heroically triumphant as the biographers represent. In his -letters to his brothers he complains that his predecessor has robbed -the treasury and they must help him: that his ninety-seven ducats -a month do not enable him to have the fine horses and carriage he -needs: and, later (in 1839), that the clerics at Rome are plotting -to cheat him of the higher promotion which he deserves. In 1841 the -Pope transferred him to Perugia, and he did good work in reforming -education, founding a bank for small traders, and so on. - -In January, 1843, his real education began. He was appointed Nuncio at -Brussels and was made titular Archbishop of Damietta. Able as he was, -the promotion to so important an office was premature. Of French (or -any languages but Latin and Italian) he knew not a syllable until he -set out, and with the modern thought which was then current in Brussels -he was acquainted only by means of the version of it given by Pius IX. -in the Syllabus, of which he fully approved. His handsome presence and -amiable ways carried him far. There is an almost boyish expression on -his face at this period: on the long, thin, smiling face and bright -eyes and soft sensuous mouth. King Leopold, a Protestant, liked him, -and allowed the young archbishop to attract him to religious functions -and persuade him of the importance of religion in appeasing social -ambitions. Pecci, in turn, could not contemplate the gas-lit streets, -the railways, the postal system, etc., of Belgium, without realizing -that the Papal States would have to admit _something_ of this modern -thought. But he was for a safe modernism, consistent with the _Quanta -Cura_ and the Syllabus. He was suave to all: even to the rebellious -Gioberti, who was then giving Italian lessons in Brussels. To this -period of his career belongs the good story of a naughty Liberal -marquis, who ventured to offer him a pinch of snuff from a box which -was adorned with a nude Venus, and the Archbishop is said to have taken -it and asked: "Madame la marquise?" Secretly, however, he urged the -Catholics to organize a struggle against the Liberals. The Liberals -wanted a compromise on the school-question, and, when the Nuncio -assisted in defeating it, the Premier Deschamps wrote contemptuously -to Rome that they would like a Nuncio who was a "statesman." As, -about the same time, the bishopric of Perugia fell vacant and the -Perugians asked for their former Delegate, Gregory recalled Pecci. His -disappointment--which he plainly expresses in his letters--was softened -only by the Pope's assurance that the transfer would be regarded as -"equal to promotion to a nunciature of the first class"; in other -words, he remained on the path to the cardinalate, as he desired.[360] - -From Brussels he brought a warm testimonial written by King Leopold, -and he spent a month in London (where he had an interview with the -Queen) and some weeks in Paris. He reached Rome in May (1846), to -find Gregory dying, and he witnessed the election of Pius IX., and, -at Perugia, applauded the early "liberalism" of the Pope. Perugia had -a large share of the advanced thinkers who now overran Italy, and -the Bishop would assuredly become more closely acquainted with their -ideas. From his later encyclicals, however, one must suppose that he -never made a profound study of their claims, either on the intellectual -or the social side. Of philosophy he had only the medićval version -given him in the Collegio Romano and the Sapienza, and of economics -or sociology he knew nothing. Such science as he knew--the elements -of chemistry and astronomy--was easily reconcilable with religion, -and this gave him an apparently liberal attitude toward science. On -the other hand, he had genuine sympathies and he felt that the new -aspirations of the working class were not to be met with a sheer -rebuff.[361] The ideas of Gioberti and Ventura appealed to him. Even -when Gioberti had fallen out of favour at the Quirinal, Archbishop -Pecci, when he passed through Perugia in 1848, gave him hospitality in -his palace. Henri des Houx affirms that he heard on good authority that -for this Pius IX. suspended the Archbishop from pontifical duties for -several weeks. Later, he incurred suspicion by permitting a memorial -service at the death of Cavour. It is admitted by the leading Catholic -biographers that he was in bad odour at the Quirinal. The promised -cardinal's hat was withheld for eight years[362] and his great ability -was wasted on a provincial bishopric. The slight is ascribed to the -jealousy of Cardinal Antonelli, and his advance after the Secretary's -death confirms the suspicion. - -It is, however, plain that Pecci was a most excellent Bishop, and that -he was no more "Liberal" than Pius IX. in his first year. He strictly -organized the work and education of the clergy, restored the seminary -and built a College of St. Thomas, founded many schools, churches, and -hospitals, brought Brothers of Mercy and nuns from Belgium, and opened -a branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He left a fine record of -religious-social work, and the orthodox poor loved him. Yet we must -set aside the exaggerations of biographers. Pecci cherished the purely -Papal ideal and was out of touch with the majority of his people. In -1859, when a group of rebels set up a "Provisional Government" at -Perugia, he nervously shut himself in his palace for two days and, -without a protest, allowed the ferocious Swiss Guard sent by Antonelli -to wear themselves out in an orgy of slaughter and pillage. A few -months later Sardinia expelled the Papal troops, and, when a plebiscite -was taken, 97,000 voted for incorporation in the kingdom of Sardinia, -and only 386 voted against. The Archbishop protested emphatically -and consistently against the seizure of the Pope's temporal power, -and, when the hated laws of Sardinia were successively applied to -Perugia (on civil marriage, the suppression of the religious orders, -military service for clerics, etc.), he continued to protest in the -warmest language. In 1862 he suspended three priests who adopted the -Italian cause, and was cited before the civil tribunal; but the case -was allowed to lapse. We know that he was carefully watched from the -Quirinal, and that he had an informant of his own at the Curia,[363] -but his pronouncements and letters make it abundantly clear that he -never swerved from the strict Papal conception of contemporary thought -and politics. - -Antonelli died in December, 1876, and (as is ignored by most of his -biographers) Pecci very shortly went to live at Rome--long before he -was appointed Chamberlain. He had an able coadjutor in the bishopric, -and he pleaded his age and increasing weakness. He lived in the modest -Falconieri Palace, and trusted to get a suburbicarian bishopric. To -his annoyance, two which fell vacant in the next few weeks were given -by Pius to others, but at length, in August, the Pope appointed him -Camerlengo (Chamberlain). In that capacity he had, the following -February, to tap the dead Pope on the forehead with a hammer and to -arrange the Conclave. He was not widely known at Rome, and few foresaw -his elevation to the throne. It is, in fact, probable that Pius IX. -had made him Camerlengo, not in order to exclude him from the Papacy, -but because he was not likely to be required for it. Since Alexander -VI. no Chamberlain had been elected Pope. There were, however, shrewd -observers who predicted his rise, and little surprise was expressed -when, after the third scrutiny, on February 20th, he secured forty-four -out of the sixty-one votes. We may set aside romantic speculations -about the Conclave. A few cardinals perceived that the Church needed -in its ruler just such a combination of clear intelligence, broad -knowledge, and diplomatic temper as Cardinal Pecci possessed, and -he was sufficiently sound on Papal politics to disarm the more -conservative. It is not impossible that waverers reflected as they -gazed on the worn white frame of the cardinal, that, whatever policy he -adopted, Leo XIII. would not long rule the Church. - -The Liberal press had recalled his friendship with Gioberti and his -permission of a service in memory of Cavour, but Leo quickly reassured -the more rigid cardinals. The crowd gathered in the great square -to receive the blessing of the new Pope, yet hour followed hour -without his making an appearance. R. de Cesare shows that the Italian -Government was prepared, not only to preserve order, but to render -military honours if he appeared on the balcony. The intransigeant -cardinals opposed it, and four hours later he gave the blessing inside -St. Peter's. Similarly with his coronation. It is untrue that the -Italian Government refused to take measures to preserve order if he -were, as was usual, crowned in St. Peter's. On the advice of the more -conservative cardinals he chose to be crowned in semi-privacy in the -Sistine Chapel on March 3d.[364] Indeed when, on February 22d, he had -been compelled to go to his late palace for his papers, he crossed -Rome in the utmost secrecy. He would, like Pius, have "no truck with -the robbers." To the Kaiser, the Tsar, and the Swiss President he had -written on the day of his election to say that he looked forward to -more friendly relations, but in his first Consistory, on March 28th, he -assured the cardinals that there would be no reconciliation with Italy, -and on April 28th he issued his first Encyclical, _Inscrutabile_, in -which, besides asserting the claim of the temporal power, he described -Europe, in more graceful terms than Pius, yet in the same spirit, as -filled with a "pestilential virus" and nearing death unless it speedily -took the antidote of Papal obedience. There was to be no truck with -"the new civilization" also. - -Yet Leo XIII. has passed into contemporary history as the great -"reconciler of differences," in Carlyle's phrase: the man who, by a -superb diplomacy and a fortunate conjunction of character and genius, -rescued the Church from the dangerous position in which Pius IX. had -left it and raised it to a higher level of prestige and power. The -historian must make allowance for contemporary enthusiasm. Probably -most rulers of ability and character have left that impression among -the generation which witnessed their death. Leo, moreover, as befitted -a temperate and high-minded man, excited no bitter opposition. All -the current biographies of him are from Catholic pens: few of them -even pretend to have the candour and balance of historical writers. -Leo's story is still to be written. It suffices here to remark that -the forces he most fiercely combated--Socialism and Rationalism--made -during his Pontificate a progress out of all proportion to the increase -of population: that the Church of Rome actually decreased, if we take -account of the growth of population: and that "modernism" within the -Church became the customary attitude of cultivated Catholics. Among -the most potent facts of his Pontificate are the facts that France, to -retain which he made grave sacrifices, was entirely lost to the Church: -that Italy, which he defied, has established its position with absolute -security and abandoned its creed to a remarkable extent: that Portugal, -Spain, and Spanish-America have witnessed a similar spread of revolt: -that in England, Germany, and America there has been no progress other -than increase by births and immigration: that Leo's effort to check -Socialism by a Christian social zeal failed and was almost abandoned by -him in his later years: and that his attempt to impose St. Thomas of -Aquinas on modern thought and his design of directing modern Scriptural -research have only embarrassed the scholars of his Church. He was one -of the great men of his great age, the ablest Pope in three hundred -years: but he failed. He made no impression whatever on what he called -the "diseases" of modern thought and life, and he left his Church -numerically weaker--in proportion to the increase of population--than -he found it.[365] - -His policy in Italy is almost invariably described as being -conciliatory without sacrificing the Papal claim. We cannot regard -as entirely amiable a policy of reminding the Italian monarchy -and statesmen, every few years, that they are sacrilegious and -excommunicated thieves, and it is surely now clear that Leo erred in -maintaining the attitude of Pius and forbidding Catholics to take -part in the elections. The _Catholic Encyclopćdia_ imputes to him the -remarkable expectation that the revolutionary elements in Italy would, -if not checked by the Catholic vote, win power at the polls and the -government would seek the aid of the Vatican; and the writer describes -this as a miscalculation which Pius X. was obliged to correct.[366] -Indeed the one wise move on the part of Leo XIII. in regard to -Italy is either suppressed or discussed with strained scepticism by -Catholic writers. During the first few years after his coronation Leo -continued to protest against the wickedness of the world in general -and of Italy in particular. In 1881 he had a singular and unpleasant -proof of the resentment of Rome. On July 13th the remains of Pius IX. -were transferred to the Church of St. Lawrence, where he wished to -be buried, and, the government feeling that a public ceremony would -lead to disorder, the translation was to be secret and nocturnal. But -the "secret" was carefully divulged before the hour, and a vast crowd -of the faithful assembled to do homage to the Papa-Re. The rougher -anti-clericals were thus stimulated to make an unseemly protest, and -Leo took occasion again to protest to the Catholic Powers that his -position was intolerable. - -On April 24, 1881, the Pope urged the Catholic Associations to enter -the field of municipal politics, and in the following year he, in the -Encyclical _Etsi nos_ (February 5th), and on the occasion of the death -of Garibaldi (June 2d), again made severe attacks upon Italy. The -friction increased. In July (1882) Leo had to protest that bishops, -not recognizing the government, received no incomes or palaces, and -that monks and nuns who endeavoured to evade the law of suppression -were hardly treated. Then a dismissed employee of the Vatican brought -an action against the Pope in the Italian court, and though the action -was dismissed, the court claimed jurisdiction, and Leo made a heated -protest to France and Austria. In 1884 the Propaganda was compelled to -invest its money in Italian funds, and the Pope, after the customary -protest, set up a number of procurators in foreign countries to whom -the faithful might send their offerings. In 1886 the anti-clerical -campaign became more violent; tithes were abolished, and many Italian -Catholics began to desire reconciliation. Italy entered into the Triple -Alliance with Austria and Germany, and henceforward appeals to the -"Catholic" Powers were obviously futile. France itself had by this -time an anti-clerical government and majority, and German and Austrian -Catholics bitterly resented the Italian attack on the Triple Alliance. - -In February, 1887, Cardinal Jacobini, the Secretary of State, died, and -Cardinal Rampolla entered upon his famous career. Leo openly directed -the new Secretary to insist on the restoration of the temporal power, -and ordered that the Rosary be recited nightly in the churches of -Rome. But in the course of that year there was a change in the Vatican -policy, though, since it was unsuccessful, it is usually concealed or -called into question. Crispi himself revealed, a few years later, that -there were negotiations for a settlement between the Vatican and the -Quirinal, and that France, irritated by the Triple Alliance, threatened -to put greater pressure on its Church unless the Pope withdrew from the -negotiations.[367] Mgr. de T'Serclaes virtually admits the fact, and -conjectures that Crispi wanted Italy to have a share in the approaching -celebration of the Pope's Jubilee. We have no right to question -Crispi's assurance that France intervened, and that the Vatican -was willing to hear of compromise. The Papal authorities, however, -concealed the unsuccessful offer and returned to the earlier attitude. -The Pope's sacerdotal Jubilee was celebrated in 1888 with immense -rejoicings, and the anti-clericals retorted with fresh legislation. In -1889 a statue of Giordano Bruno was erected at Rome. It is said that -Leo XIII. spent the hours of the demonstration in tears at the foot of -the altar, and that he had some idea of leaving Rome. The gates of the -Vatican were carefully watched, and there was great excitement in Rome -when it was announced that he had actually passed over a few yards of -Roman territory--to visit the studio of a sculptor near the Vatican. -But the Pope clung to his theory of being imprisoned in the Vatican, -and the remaining years were like the earlier: anathema on one side, -disdain and defiance on the other. When he died, the laity of Rome -itself had become so largely anti-clerical that Catholic Deputies to -the Chamber did not care to be seen going to mass, and in the north -Socialism was advancing at a remarkable pace. - -In Germany, on the other hand, Leo won considerable success, though -his biographers describe it inaccurately. The _Kulturkampf_ was at its -height when Leo was elected, and he at once wrote a firm and courteous -letter to the Emperor, trusting that peace would be restored. In his -cold and ironical reply (evidently written by Bismarck) the Emperor -observed that there would be peace when the Pope directed the clergy -to obey the laws, and Leo retorted (April 17, 1878) that the laws -were inconsistent with the Catholic conscience. But circumstances -favoured the Pope. Two attempts were made to assassinate the Emperor, -and he directed Bismarck to see that rebellious impulses in the young -were checked by religious education. It seems clear that the Emperor -had begun to dislike the struggle with the Church, and by this time -Bismarck himself must have seen that persecution had led only to the -better organization and greater energy of the Catholics, while his -policy was threatened from another side by the rapid advance of Social -Democracy. The Papal Nuncio at Munich, Mgr. Aloisi-Masella, was invited -to Berlin. He was instructed from Rome to decline the invitation, and -Bismarck arranged a "wayside inn" meeting at Kissingen. As Bismarck -insisted on the government retaining a veto on all ecclesiastical -appointments, the negotiations broke down, and little progress was made -when they were resumed by the Vienna Nuncio and Prince von Reuss. - -In the following year Falk, the framer of the famous May Laws, -resigned, and the Vatican resumed its efforts. On February 24, 1880, -the Pope informed the Archbishop of Cologne that the government might -have a restricted veto on the ordinations of priests if it would -grant an amnesty--eight out of twelve bishops were still in exile or -prison--and modify the laws. Bismarck refused, but there was some -relaxation of the laws. In 1881 several bishops were appointed, and in -1882 Bismarck voted funds for a German representative at the Vatican. -It was, however, at once discovered that the bargain put the Pope in a -dilemma. Bismarck demanded that Leo should direct the Alsatian clergy -to submit, but, though the Pope promised that he would "see to it," -he dared not interfere. In 1884 diplomatic relations were formally -restored. Several bishops returned from exile, and episcopal incomes -were restored; but the amnesty was not extended to the Archbishop of -Cologne and the Archbishop of Gnesen and Posen, and Catholic students -were not allowed to go to Louvain, Rome, or Innspruck. - -In 1885 Bismarck made a further step by inviting the Pope to mediate -between Germany and Spain in their quarrel for the possession of the -Caroline Islands. It is said that Bismarck was entrapped into this -by a Catholic journalist announcing that Spain was about to make the -invitation. However that may be, the invitation flattered the Vatican, -and the two rebellious archbishops were "persuaded" by the Pope to -resign. The German Catholics were now beginning to murmur against the -Pope, and the negotiations proceeded slowly, but in 1886 Bismarck -bluntly denounced the May Laws, and it was proposed to modify them. -Shortly afterwards, however, it appeared that the Pope had conveyed -an impression that he would pay a high price (besides the veto on -priests) for the surrender. The Centre Party opposed Bismarck's new -law of military service, and he appealed to Rome. Rampolla, through -the Bavarian Nuncio, directed the Catholic members to desist, but, -to the equal dismay of the Chancellor and the Pope, they refused to -obey and caused a dissolution of the Reichstag. Their leader, Baron -Frankenstein, replied to the Bavarian Nuncio that they took orders -from Rome only in ecclesiastical matters.[368] Bismarck, in his anger, -got copies of the letters and published them. What followed we can -only gather from the sequel. The Centre withdrew its opposition, -the military law was passed, and the May Laws were modified. German -Liberals beheld the strange spectacle of the Iron Chancellor, in the -Reichstag, indignantly denying that the Pope was a "foreign power," who -ought not to intervene in German affairs. - -No further concessions were won from Germany--the Jesuits are still -excluded--but since 1887 the Church in that country has enjoyed -comparative peace and prosperity. William II. acceded to the throne -in 1888, and from the first he insisted on friendly relations with -Rome. On three occasions (1888, 1893, and 1903) he visited Leo at the -Vatican. Bismarck retired in 1890, after a final defeat by the Centre -Party. The money due to the bishops (whose incomes had been suspended) -now amounted to more than Ł400,000, and Bismarck invited the Pope to -compromise in regard to it. Leo refused; the government must settle the -matter with the Catholics of Germany, he said. In the later debate in -the Reichstag the Minister of Worship heatedly denounced the Pope for -duplicity, but the Centre had its way and the whole sum was restored -to the bishops. It is further claimed, though without documentary -evidence, that the Emperor's visit to the Vatican in 1893 was for -the purpose of urging the Pope to order the members of the Centre to -support the new military laws. In the sequel the Catholic members were -divided and the laws passed. But documents on these recent events -will not reach the eye of this generation, and we cannot be sure how -far the _Kulturkampf_ was abandoned as a reward for Papal support of -Germany's military policy. On the other hand, the alliance in hostility -to Socialism has proved a failure. The Catholic vote at the polls fell, -during Leo's Pontificate, from 27.9 per cent. of the total vote to 19.7 -(in 1903): the Social Democratic vote increased nearly tenfold.[369] - -In France the policy of the Pope was correct and particularly -unsuccessful. A few years after the fall of the Papal States the number -of professing Catholics in France arose to about thirty millions in -a nation of thirty-six millions; and the sincerity of a very large -proportion may be judged from the fact that nearly two thirds of the -Papal income from Peter's Pence (which rose to nearly half a million -sterling a year) came from French Catholics. Yet when Leo died, the -professing Catholics had fallen to about six millions in a population -of thirty-nine millions. We must beware of ascribing this failure to -Leo XIII., though undoubtedly he never exhibited a sound knowledge -or statesmanlike grasp of the situation in France. That country was -developing along anti-clerical lines, and no Pope or prelate could -have diverted it. Leo was absorbed in the superficial struggle of -royalists and republicans until the serious development had proceeded -too far. In the later seventies the anti-clericals began to assert -their rapidly growing power and influence legislation. The Jesuits -were again expelled, and education further withdrawn from Catholic -control. The Pope followed the development in helpless concern until -October 22, 1880, when, at the demand of the French faithful, he passed -his censure. The Republican authorities paid no heed and in 1883 Leo -sent a protest to President Grévy. In a cold and indifferent reply the -President pointed out that the Catholic clergy could expect little -favour from a Republican institution which they constantly attacked, -and the Pope's attention was forcibly drawn to the royalist agitation -which divided the Church and fed the anti-clerical campaign against -it. We must conclude that Leo, like so many Catholics, miscalculated -the recuperating power of royalism, besides fearing to offend a -powerful section of the clergy and laity, as he still hesitated to -direct Catholics to submit to the Republic. For a time he trusted -that the democratic movement headed by the Comte de Mun would bring -relief, but it increased the confusion, and on February 16, 1892, Leo -issued his famous Encyclical, urging the French Catholics to submit -to the Republic and assail only its anti-clerical laws. The royalists -sulked: in one diocese the Peter's Pence offerings fell from Ł60,000 to -Ł35,000. Even the Panama Scandal in 1893 failed to yield any advantage, -and the Church completed its series of blunders by adopting the crusade -against Dreyfus. In his later years Leo could but helplessly look on -while Waldeck-Rousseau and Combes disestablished and debilitated the -Church. Even within the Church he was compelled to witness an immense -advance of the "Americanism" which he detested.[370] - -In Belgium the political circumstances were more favourable to the -plans of the Vatican. In the summer of 1879 the Liberals passed a law -for the secularization of the elementary schools, and the Catholics -complained that the Pope, who blamed the violence of their language, -failed to discharge his office with due severity. In point of fact, Leo -was working so diplomatically, assuring the King that the clergy must -respect the civil authority and separately encouraging the clergy to -resist "iniquitous" laws, that the government at length publicly taxed -him with duplicity and withdrew its representative from Rome. In 1885, -however, the Catholics returned to power, and, enjoying the advantage -of a division of the hostile forces (Liberals and Socialists), -established a lasting influence in the country. - -Austria, on the other hand, proved unsatisfactory to the Vatican. From -the day of its alliance with Italy the Roman officials looked with -annoyance on Austria, and the consistent tone of Mgr. de T'Serclaes' -references to it reflect the Vatican attitude. A letter which the Pope -wrote to the bishops of Hungary in 1886, urging them to resist the new -and unecclesiastical laws in regard to marriage and education, was -construed as a wish to cause trouble in Austria, or between Austria and -Italy, and the same murmurs arose when Leo urged the Austrian clergy -to resist further Liberal laws in 1890. The laws were carried, and -the protests of the Pope were disregarded. In Spain the Pope was more -fortunate, as he curbed the disposition of the clergy to adopt the -ill-fated Carlist cause.[371] Portugal remained outwardly faithful, and -a Concordat granted by the King in 1886 permitted the Pope to effect a -much needed reform in the ecclesiastical administration of India. Some -advantages were won, also, in Switzerland, where the older hostility -was checked, and the Church prospered. - -The relations of the Vatican with Russia were singular, and gave rise -to bitter complaint among the Catholic subjects of the Tsar. To the -amiable letter in which Leo announced his election the Tsar gave a cold -and discouraging reply. In 1879, however, the attempt on the Tsar's -life gave Leo an opportunity to insinuate his belief that only Catholic -influence could curb these criminal impulses; and when Alexander II was -assassinated in 1883, he approached his successor with more success. In -the succeeding years of diplomatic intercourse the repression of the -Catholic Poles was partly relieved; but no concession was made when the -Pope presented to the Tsar the petition of the Ruthenian Catholics in -1884, or when he deprecated the exile of the Bishop of Wilna in 1885. -In 1888, however, Russia approached the Vatican through Vienna, and the -negotiations have given rise to acute controversy. The Poles murmured -that the Pope was disposed to betray their national interests in order -to please France by obliging its virtual ally, Russia. How far the Pope -was preparing to enforce on the Poles the Russian demands--for a more -extensive use of the Russian language in Poland and for a surrender -of the offspring of mixed marriages--and to what extent he realized -the true designs of Russia, cannot be confidently determined. It is -clear only that he meditated concession, and the suspicion that he thus -sought a political advantage in France is not implausible. - -A similar complaint arose among that other shattered Catholic nation, -the Irish. The Parnellite movement of the eighties, it was said, was -used by him as a means of accommodating and conciliating England; -and there is little room for doubt that this design influenced his -policy. It was one of the general lines of his campaign in Europe to -persuade rulers that the power of his Church would be their greatest -guarantee of docility. In 1881 he warned Archbishop McCabe that the -disturbances of public order in Ireland were not to be favoured, and he -made the hint more explicit in the following year. In 1883 he gravely -disturbed the Irish Catholics by issuing a drastic condemnation of the -Parnell Testimonial Fund and forbidding the clergy to work for it; -while Errington was amiably received at the Vatican. The disturbance -became graver, and in 1885 Leo summoned the Irish bishops to Rome. Even -their representations failed to disturb his policy, and on April 13, -1888 (after a Roman envoy, Mgr. Persico, had been sent on the quaint -mission of studying the situation in Ireland), a decree of the Holy -Office condemned the "Plan of Campaign." So loud were the murmurs at -this invasion of the political rights of the Irish that an Encyclical -(_Sćpe Nos_) had to be dispatched on June 24 to secure the submission -of the bishops. We may at least discover some penetration in the Pope's -confidence that Ireland would not permanently resent the abuse of his -authority. - -The advantage gained in England was slight. The broad stream of -immigration from Ireland since 1840, which had given the illusion of -a rapid growth of Catholicism, and the more slender stream which is -associated with the Oxford Movement, had materially lessened, and a -period of loss had begun (in proportion to the increase of population). -For nearly two decades the Pope was content with domestic measures like -the regulation of the conflicts between monks and bishops (May 8, 1881) -and the establishment of an hierarchy in India. On April 20, 1895, -he took a bolder step, and in the Encyclical _Ad Anglos_ invited the -English people to renew their ancient allegiance to Rome. Undismayed -by the absence of a response, he, on September 13, 1896, issued the -famous Encyclical _Apostolicć Curć_, in which he assailed the validity -of orders in the English Church. The brisk controversy which ensued -does not concern us; but we may assume that, from the figures at the -disposal of the Vatican, the Pope would sadly realize, when the century -drew to a close, that the Catholic Church in England had not increased, -beyond the natural growth by births and immigration, during his long -and laborious Pontificate. - -In the United States Leo had a thorny task. With his keen scent for -Socialistic insurgence against constituted authority, he proposed, -in 1887, to condemn the 730,000 American Catholic workers who were -incorporated in the "Knights of Labour." Cardinal Gibbon defended -them, and a grudging toleration was issued from Rome. In 1893 the Pope -sought to improve his relations with the Republic by taking a handsome -part in the fourth centenary of the discovery of America, but by that -time a grave struggle had begun to rend the cosmopolitan Church in -the States. Americans naturally resented the Germanism of the German -Catholic schools, and in 1892 Archbishop Ireland consented to hand over -to the School Board some of these elementary schools, on condition -that the Catholic teachers were retained and hours were assigned for -religious instruction. The Germans and the Ultramontanes raised the cry -that Ireland and Gibbon were favouring the "godless schools" of the -Republic, and denounced the plan to Rome. Again the Cardinal and the -Archbishop won a grudging _tolerari posse_ ("may be tolerated in the -circumstances") but a fierce agitation went on in the American Church, -and the Pope's representative, Mgr. Satolli, was vigorously opposed by -the more American prelates. - -In 1896 it was believed that Satolli was instrumental in securing the -removal of Mgr. Keane from the rectorship of the Catholic University at -Washington, and when an intriguing German professor was dismissed by -the University authorities and Rome demanded his restoration. Cardinal -Gibbon forced the Pope to withdraw the demand. The ultras then--with -the persistent aid of the Jesuits and their _Civiltŕ Cattolica_ at -Rome--attacked a biography of Father Hecker, of which an American -translation had been published with warm recommendations from Ireland -and Gibbon. A Roman prelate authorized the printing of a scathing -attack on the book, and, although Rampolla protested that neither he -nor the Pope was involved in the authorization, the American prelates -took up a menacing attitude. At this juncture Leo, whose repeated -counsels to lay the strife had been disregarded, wrote his famous -letter on Americanism to Cardinal Gibbon (January 22d, 1899). Piquant -stories are told of the sentiments expressed by the American prelates, -but these the historian cannot as yet control. The struggle ended in a -compromise. The book was not condemned, but quietly withdrawn, and the -American prelates generally disavowed the principles to which the Pope -gave the name of Americanism. - -These are but feeble summaries of the vast diplomatic activity which -absorbed the long days of the venerable Pontiff, and one must leave -almost unnoticed other important actions. In 1885 he negotiated with -the Chinese government for the representative of the Celestial Empire -at Rome, but the French, rightly suspecting an intrigue on the part of -Germany to strengthen its influence in the Far East, forced him to -desist. He had the satisfaction of closing a schism in the Armenian -Church (1878), and secured favourable measures in some of the Balkan -States and a few of the South American republics. He restored the -Borgia Rooms in the Vatican (1897), created a modern observatory out -of the old Gregorian observatory of the sixteenth century (1888), -formed a Reference Library of 30,000 volumes at the Vatican, and opened -the Vatican archives to scholars (1883).[372] Frail, worn to a pale -shade of his former self, the devoted Pope maintained to the end his -formidable struggle against a seceding world. Rising at six in the -morning--often having summoned his secretary to the bedside during the -night--he said his mass and heard a mass said by his chaplain. Then -after a cup of chocolate or goat's milk, he began the long day's work -with Rampolla, or impressed his innumerable visitors with his piercing -dark eyes and translucent features. At two he dined--soup, eggs (rarely -meat), and a little claret--and then, after a nap or a drive in the -gardens, returned to work until his simple supper at ten. After that -the journals of the world, carefully marked, were read to him; and the -burning lamp told of his ceaseless thinking and praying until after -midnight. Fortunately he did not, like so many Popes, lack financial -resources. The Papal income before 1870 had been about Ł130,000, and -the Italian government had offered to pay this. When Pius IX. refused -the offer, his income was swollen by voluntary gifts to Ł400,000 -a year, and he left nearly a million and a quarter sterling to his -successor. In addition to this large income Leo received vast sums -on the occasion of his Sacerdotal Jubilee in 1888 and his Episcopal -Jubilee in 1893: the presents (besides Peter's Pence) in 1888 were -valued at Ł2,000,000 by the Vatican authorities, and in 1893 the money -offered amounted to Ł1,600,000. - -The chief means by which the Pope created in his followers the illusion -of triumphant statesmanship was the Encyclical. A most assiduous -student of Latin from his boyhood, he raised the ecclesiastical tongue -to a level it had rarely touched and impressed the world with his -literary scholarship. A Roman prelate once described to me how he would -linger over the composition, toying with his pen and saying to his -secretary: "What _is_ that word that Sallust uses?" His style was an -attempt to combine the graceful lucidity of Sallust and the opulence of -Cicero. The literary merit of his Encyclicals was so great that even -generally informed men at times overlooked the inadequacy of their -content: an inadequacy which is seen at once when we reflect that the -great Encyclicals which dealt with the socio-political questions of the -hour are not consulted by any non-Catholic authority on such questions. -The attack upon Socialism which runs through his writings provoked only -the smiles of his opponents and did not check the large secessions of -French, German, and Italian Catholics to Socialism. A second principal -theme was the duty of submission to authority, and the Pope's analysis -of authority, on the basis of St. Thomas, belongs to the pre-scientific -stage of sociology. A third general theme is that Catholicism made -the civilization of Europe, and that that civilization is perishing -because of its apostasy. In this argument the Pope not only gravely -misunderstood the age in which he lived, but betrayed an historical -conception of the social evolution of Europe which belongs essentially -to the more backward seminaries.[373] - -The chief Encyclicals, which were at one time claimed as masterly -expositions of eternal principles, have already passed out of even -Catholic circulation. _Quod Apostolici_ (December 28, 1878) is a -vigorous attack on Socialism, on familiar lines. _Ćterni Patris_ -(August 4, 1879) imposed the philosophy of St. Thomas, the opportunist -character of which the Pope never perceived, on the modern Catholic -world.[374] _Arcanum_ (February 14, 1880) asserted the strict Catholic -ideal of indissoluble marriage, and had no influence on the increasing -concession of divorce. _Diuturnum_ (June 29, 1881), written after -the assassination of the Tsar, argued that these outrages naturally -followed the abandonment of the true faith; it did not include an -examination of the cruelties of the Russian authorities. _Humanum -Genus_ (April 20, 1884) condemned Freemasonry. _Immortale Dei_ -(November 19, 1885) dealt, in Scholastic vein, with the constitution of -States and the foundations of authority, and is a fine exposition of -medićval thought on the subject. _In Plurimis_ (May 8, 1888) condemned -slavery in Europe. _Libertas_ (June 20, 1888) is another Scholastic -dissertation on liberty, leading to an attack on the modern claims of -freedom of thought, worship, and expression. _Rerum Novarum_ (May 15, -1891) is the most famous of the Pope's utterances on social questions. -The organization of the Catholic workers in Italy, France, and America, -and the concern about the condition of the workers (really about the -growth of Socialism) which Bismarck and William II. had hypocritically -conveyed to the Pope, moved him to formulate his views on social -questions. The only points of relative importance are that a Pope at -last consented to bless the efforts of the workers to obtain better -conditions (with strict regard to private property and submission -to authority), and that he pleaded for a "sufficient wage"; but the -seeming boldness of this latter truism was undone a few weeks later, -when the Archbishop of Malines wrote to ask if an employer sinned -against justice in giving a wage which would support the worker but -not his family, and the Pope nervously directed Cardinal Zigliara -to reply (anonymously) that such an employer would not sin against -justice, though "possibly against charity and natural equity."[375] -_Providentissimus Deus_ (November 18, 1893), which sought to promote -biblical studies, caused Catholic scholars to groan in despair; it -proclaimed the inerrancy of the Old Testament.[376] _Apostolicć Curć_ -(September 13, 1896) condemned Anglican orders, and led to a prolonged -controversy in England. _Graves de communi_ (January 18, 1901) shows -the later enfeeblement of the Pope's social zeal. He still approves -Christian democracy, and demands justice in the industrial world, but -he stresses alms-giving as a social solution and urges particular -concentration on religious effort.[377] - -The great Pope struggled on until his ninth decade of life had opened. -He died on July 20, 1903, leaving his sternly contested inheritance to -less skilful hands, marking, with his dying eyes, the onward progress -of all the forces he had hailed as disastrous and the advance of -"Americanism" (or Modernism) within the Church. His failure must not -blind us to the greatness of his personality. He united intellectual -breadth and penetration with a high character and a lofty devotion -to his work. His weakness was the antiquated and restricted nature -of his knowledge and his inheritance of an untenable position. The -concessions he made to his age were too tardy, too grudging, and often -too obviously opportunist. With equal readiness he wrote a letter of -recommendation of a work of canon law (by Marianus de Luca) which -advocated the execution of heretics, and he blessed the republics -of France and America. But the great theme of his life was that -civilization was perishing because it had shaken off the allegiance of -Rome, and he lived to see the world "rounding onward to the light" and -departing ever farther from its old traditions. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 358: In a letter to his brother Charles, July 3, 1837, he -remarks that he has entered the clergy "in order to carry out the -wishes of his father." Catholic lives of Leo XIII., which abound, must -be read with discretion. They are even more tendentious than lives -of Pius IX., and the best of them--by Mgr. de T'Serclacs (2 vols., -1894), L.K. Goetz (1899), J. de Narfon (1899), Mgr. B. O'Reilly (1903), -and P.J. O'Byrne (1903)--are very unreliable. Mr. Justin McCarthy's -short _Pope Leo XIII._ (1896) is a summary of these, and shares their -defects. With them should be read _Joachim Pecci_ (1900) by Henri des -Houx, for the period before his election, and _Le Conclave de Léon -XIII._ (1887) by Raphael de Cesare: both Catholic writers, but more -candid and discriminating. See also Boyer d'Agen, _La Jeunesse de Léon -XIII._ (1896) and _Monsignor Joachim Pecci_ (1910) and works to be -mentioned hereafter.] - -[Footnote 359: These are chiefly reproduced in the works of Boyer -d'Agen.] - -[Footnote 360: See the documents in Henri des Houx, pp. 166-7, and -Mgr. de T'Serclaes, vol. i., pp. 127-132. Most biographers grossly -misrepresent his "promotion." Rome plainly decided that he was not -suitable for a nunciature.] - -[Footnote 361: His episcopal pronouncements are given in _Scelta di -Atti episcopali del Cardinale G. Pecci_ (1879).] - -[Footnote 362: He was made cardinal on December 19, 1853.] - -[Footnote 363: Mgr. Cataldi, whom he afterwards made his master of -ceremonies. H. des Houx (p. 329) observes that, when Cataldi died, his -papers were put under seal by Leo's orders and his letters have never -been published.] - -[Footnote 364: See de Cesare, pp. 138-144.] - -[Footnote 365: The losses of the Church are analyzed by the author, and -Catholic authority is quoted in most cases, in _The Decay of the Church -of Rome_ (2d ed. 1910). In France alone the loss was about 25,000,000. -His Papal pronouncements are collected in _Leonis XIII. P.M. Acta_ (17 -vols., 1881-1898), _SS. D.N. Leonis XIII. allocutiones_, etc. (8 vols., -1887-1910), and _Discorsi del Summo Pontefice Leone XIII._ (1882).] - -[Footnote 366: Article "Leo XIII."] - -[Footnote 367: _Contemporary Review_, 1891 (vol. lx., 161).] - -[Footnote 368: See the documents relating to the episode in T'Serclaes, -i., 425.] - -[Footnote 369: On the relations of Rome and the Centre compare Count -von Hoensbroech's _Rom und das Zentrum_ (1910). There are also curious -details in the same writer's _Fourteen Years a Jesuit_ (Engl. trans. -1911).] - -[Footnote 370: See E. Barbier, _Le Progrčs du libéralisme Catholique -en France sous le Pape Léon XIII._ (1907) and A. Houtin, _Histoire du -Modernisme Catholique_ (1913).] - -[Footnote 371: See M. Tirado y Rojas, _Leon XIII. y Espańa_ (1903), for -details in regard to Spain.] - -[Footnote 372: We have on earlier pages seen that parts of the archives -are still reserved, even from ecclesiastics. On the general question -see G. Buschdell, _Das Vatikanische Archiv und die Bedeutung seiner -Erschliessung durch Papst Leo XIII._ (1903).] - -[Footnote 373: An English translation of the chief Encyclicals has been -issued by Wynne in America (1902). For other work see _Poems, Charades, -Inscriptions of Leo XIII._ (1902, ed. Henry).] - -[Footnote 374: The injunction was not, of course, literally obeyed. At -Louvain University, where Leo believed that he had established Thomism -in its purest form, Mgr. (now Cardinal) Mercier gave us little of -St. Thomas, and not one priest in a thousand ever opens the pages of -Aquinas. At Rome Leo set up a Thomist Academy at a cost of Ł12,000 to -himself.] - -[Footnote 375: See Mgr. de T'Serclaes, ii., 107-111.] - -[Footnote 376: I speak from personal recollection, being a professor in -a seminary at the time. Leo went on to form a Biblical Commission, of -which my liberal professor, Fr. David Fleming, became secretary. The -first decision it was his duty to sign was that Moses was the author -of the Pentateuch! For the later doubts and despair of Leo see the -very interesting details in A. Houtin's _La Question Biblique au XIX. -sičcle_ (2d ed., 1902) and _La Question Biblique au XX. sičcle_ (2d -ed., 1906).] - -[Footnote 377: In the _Encyclopćdia Britannica_ ("Leo XIII.") it is -said that the Pope in 1902 advises the workers to turn aside from -social zeal and concentrate on the interests of the Papacy. This seems -to be inaccurate. His pronouncements of that year are of the same -tenor as the Encyclical _Graves de communi_. See _Sanctissimi D.N. -Leonis XIII. Allocutiones_, etc., vol. viii., pp. 65-78 and 181-2. The -Americans have issued an English translation of the chief Encyclicals.] - - - - -LIST OF THE POPES[378] - - - Peter 67 - Linus 67-79 - Anacletus 79-90 - Clement 90-99 - Evaristus 99-107 - Alexander I. 107-116 - Sixtus I. 116-125 - Telesphorus 125-136 - Hyginus 136-140 - Pius I. 140-154 - Anicetus 154-165 - Soter 165-174 - Eleutherius 174-189 - Victor 189-198 - Zephyrinus 198-217 - Callistus I. 217-222 - Urban I. 222-230 - Pontianus 230-235 - Anterus 235-236 - Fabian 236-250 - Cornelius 251-253 - Lucius I. 253-254 - Stephen I. 254-257 - Sixtus II. 257-258 - Dionysius 259-268 - Felix I. 269-274 - Eutychian 275-283 - Caius 283-296 - Marcellinus 296-304 - Marcellus 308-309 - Eusebius 309 - Melchiades 311-314 - Silvester I. 314-335 - Marcus 336 - Julius I. 337-352 - Liberius 352-366 - Damasus I. 366-384 - Siricius 384-398 - Anastasius I. 398-401 - Innocent I. 402-417 - Zozimus 417-418 - Boniface I. 418-422 - Celestine I. 422-432 - Sixtus III. 432-440 - Leo I. 440-461 - Hilarius 461-468 - Simplicius 468-483 - Felix II. 483-492 - Galasius I. 492-496 - Anastasius II. 496-498 - Symmachus 498-514 - Hormisdas 514-523 - John I. 523-526 - Felix III. 526-530 - Boniface II. 530-532 - John II. 533-535 - Agapetus I. 535-536 - Silverius 536-538 - Vigilius 538-555 - Pelagius I. 556-561 - John III. 561-574 - Benedict I. 575-579 - Pelagius II. 579-590 - Gregory I. 590-604 - Sabinianus 604-606 - Boniface III. 607 - Boniface IV. 608-615 - Deusdedit 615-618 - Boniface V. 619-625 - Honorius I. 625-638 - Severinus 638-640 - John IV. 640-642 - Theodore I. 642-649 - Martin I. 649-655 - Eugene I. 654-657 - Vitalian 657-672 - Adeodatus 672-676 - Donus 676-678 - Agatho 678-681 - Leo II. 682-683 - Benedict II. 684-685 - John V. 685-686 - Conon 686-687 - Sergius I. 687-701 - John VI. 701-705 - John VII. 705-707 - Sisinnius 708 - Constantine 708-715 - Gregory II. 715-731 - Gregory III. 731-741 - Zachary 741-752 - Stephen II. 752 - Stephen II. (III.) 752-757 - Paul I. 757-767 - Stephen III. (IV.) 768-772 - Hadrian I. 772-795 - Leo III. 795-816 - Stephen IV. (V.) 816-817 - Paschal I. 817-824 - Eugene II. 824-827 - Valentine 827 - Gregory IV. 827-844 - Sergius II. 844-847 - Leo IV. 847-855 - Benedict III. 855-858 - Nicholas I. 858-867 - Hadrian II. 867-872 - John VIII. 872-882 - Marinus I. (or Martin II.) 882-884 - Hadrian III. 884-885 - Stephen V. (VI.) 885-891 - Formosus 891-896 - Boniface VI. 896 - Stephen VI. (VII.) 896-897 - Romanus 897 - Theodore II. 897 - John IX. 898-900 - Benedict IV. 900-903 - Leo V. 903 - Christopher 903-904 - Sergius III. 904-911 - Anastasius III. 911-913 - Lando 913-914 - John X. 914-928 - Leo VI. 928 - Stephen VII. (VIII.) 928-931 - John XI. 931-936 - Leo VII. 936-939 - Stephen VIII. (IX.) 939-942 - Marinus II. (Martin III.) 942-946 - Agapetus II. 946-955 - John XII. 955-964 - Leo VIII. 963-965 - Benedict V. 964-965 - John XIII. 965-972 - Benedict VI. 973-974 - Benedict VII. 974-983 - John XIV. 983-984 - Boniface VII. 984-985 - John XV. 985-986 - Gregory V. 986-996 - John XVI. 997-998 - Silvester II. 999-1003 - John XVII. 1003 - John XVIII. 1003-1009 - Sergius IV. 1009-1012 - Benedict VIII. 1012-1024 - John XIX. 1024-1032 - Benedict IX. 1032-1045 - Gregory VI. 1045-1046 - Clement II. 1046-1047 - Damasus II. 1048 - Leo IX. 1049-1054 - Victor II. 1055-1057 - Stephen IX. (X.) 1057-1058 - Benedict X. 1058-1059 - Nicholas II. 1059-1061 - Alexander II. 1061-1073 - Gregory VII. 1073-1085 - Victor III. 1087 - Urban II. 1088-1099 - Paschal II. 1099-1118 - Gelasius II. 1118-1119 - Callistus II. 1119-1124 - Honorius II. 1124-1130 - Innocent II. 1130-1143 - Celestine II. 1143-1144 - Lucius II. 1144-1145 - Eugene III. 1145-1153 - Anastasius IV. 1153-1154 - Hadrian IV. 1154-1159 - Alexander III. 1159-1181 - Lucius III. 1181-1185 - Urban III. 1185-1187 - Gregory VIII. 1187 - Clement III. 1187-1191 - Celestine III. 1191-1198 - Innocent III. 1198-1216 - Honorius III. 1216-1227 - Gregory IX. 1227-1241 - Celestine IV. 1241 - Innocent IV. 1243-1254 - Alexander IV. 1254-1261 - Urban IV. 1261-1264 - Clement IV. 1265-1268 - Gregory X. 1271-1276 - Innocent V. 1276 - Hadrian V. 1276 - John XXI.[379] 1276-1277 - Nicholas III. 1277-1280 - Martin IV. 1281-1285 - Honorius IV. 1285-1287 - Nicholas IV. 1288-1292 - Celestine V. 1294 - Boniface VIII. 1294-1303 - Benedict XI. 1303-1304 - Clement V. 1305-1314 - John XXII. 1316-1334 - Benedict XII. 1334-1342 - Clement VI. 1342-1352 - Innocent VI. 1352-1362 - Urban V. 1362-1370 - Gregory XI. 1370-1378 - Urban VI. 1378-1389 - [Clement VII. 1378-1394] - Boniface IX. 1389-1404 - [Benedict XIII. 1394-1424] - Innocent VII. 1404-1406 - Gregory XII. 1406-1415 - Alexander V. 1409-1410 - John XXIII. 1410-1415 - Martin V. 1417-1431 - Eugene IV. 1431-1447 - Nicholas V. 1447-1455 - Callistus III. 1455-1458 - Pius II. 1458-1464 - Paul II. 1464-1471 - Sixtus IV. 1471-1484 - Innocent VIII. 1484-1492 - Alexander VI. 1492-1503 - Pius III. 1503 - Julius II. 1503-1513 - Leo X. 1513-1521 - Hadrian VI. 1522-1523 - Clement VII. 1523-1534 - Paul III. 1534-1549 - Julius III. 1550-1555 - Marcellus II. 1555 - Paul IV. 1555-1559 - Pius IV. 1559-1565 - Pius V. 1566-1572 - Gregory XIII. 1572-1585 - Sixtus V. 1585-1590 - Urban VII. 1590 - Gregory XIV. 1590-1591 - Innocent IX. 1591 - Clement VIII. 1592-1605 - Leo XI. 1605 - Paul V. 1605-1621 - Gregory XV. 1621-1623 - Urban VIII. 1623-1644 - Innocent X. 1644-1655 - Alexander VII. 1655-1667 - Clement IX. 1667-1669 - Clement X. 1670-1676 - Innocent XI. 1676-1689 - Alexander VIII. 1689-1691 - Innocent XII. 1691-1700 - Clement XI. 1700-1721 - Innocent XIII. 1721-1724 - Benedict XIII. 1724-1730 - Clement XII. 1730-1740 - Benedict XIV. 1740-1758 - Clement XIII. 1758-1769 - Clement XIV. 1769-1774 - Pius VI. 1775-1799 - Pius VII. 1800-1823 - Leo XII. 1823-1829 - Pius VIII. 1829-1830 - Gregory XVI. 1831-1846 - Pius IX. 1846-1878 - Leo XIII. 1878-1903 - Pius X. 1903-1914 - Benedict XV. 1914- - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[Footnote 378: I include Peter, as is usual, though it must be recalled -that no writer calls him "bishop" of Rome until the third century, and -it cannot be regarded as _proved_ that he ever visited Rome. The date -of his death, and the succeeding dates until the third century, and -many later, are conjectural and disputed.] - -[Footnote 379: On account of some confusion in medićval chronicles, a -spurious "John XV." was inserted in the list of Popes. Hence John XXI. -was really John XX., but the names of the later Popes are so fixed that -it seems better, as is usually the case, to skip from John XIX. to John -XX.] - - - - -INDEX - - - A - - Accolti, Cardinal, 317 - - Acquaviva, Cardinal, 356, 357 - - Acquaviva, General, 344 - - _Acta S. Callisti_, 7, 17 - - _Acta S. Silvestri_, 87, 88 - - _Ad Anglos_, 435 - - Adelchis, 93 - - Adelperga, 94 - - Adriano da Corneto, 263 - - Ćneas, Sylvius, 241, 243 - - _Ćterni Patris_, 408, 440 - - Afiarta, Paul, 83, 84 - - African Church, Rome and the, 20, 40, 70 - - Agnes, the Empress, 145, 147, 150 - - Agnes de Meran, 188 - - Aistulph, 80-3 - - Albani, Cardinal, 357, 392 - - Alberic of Camerino, 131, 133, 139 - - Albert of Brandenburg, 304 - - Albigensians, massacre of the, 194-200 - - Alcuin, 78, 97 - - Alexander, II., 147, 149 - - Alexander, III., 173 - - Alexander V., 228 - - Alexander VI., 242-66 - - Alexander Severus, 16 - - Alexis, Comnenus, 193 - - Alfonso of Leon, 157 - - Alfonso II. of Naples, 254, 256, 259 - - Alidosi, Cardinal, 278 - - Allen, Cardinal, 246 - - Altheim, Synod of, 138 - - Ambrose, St., 30, 31, 35, 38 - - America, the Papacy and, 389, 411, 412, 436 - - Americanism, 432, 437 - - Ammianus Marcellinus, 24 - - Anastasius, 75, 102 - - Anatolius of Thessalonica, 41 - - Anselm of Baggio, 145 - - Anselm of Lucca, 147, 150, 152 - - _Antiphonary_, the, 62 - - Antonelli, Cardinal, 402-3, 407, 410 - - _Apostolicć Curć_, 436 - - Aretini, 275 - - Ariald, 145 - - Arianism, 19, 21, 31 - - Arichis, 92, 93, 94 - - Ariosto, 281, 301, 302 - - Arnold of Brescia, 174 - - Arnold of Citeaux, 195, 198, 199 - - Arnulph, 127 - - Arsenius, Legate, 109, 112, 126 - - Art in medićval Rome, 266, 282-4 - - Astrology at Rome, 274 - - Attila, 50-1 - - Atto of Vercelli, 133 - - Austria expelled from Italy, 399, 405 - - Auxentius, 28, 37 - - Auxilius, 129 - - Avignon, the Popes at, 203-22 - - - B - - Baglione, G., 274 - - Bajazet, the Sultan, 256 - - Baldwin of Flanders, 110, 192 - - Baluze, S., 205 - - Barbarossa, Frederic, 173 - - Barry, Dr. W., 129 - - Basil, St., 32 - - Basilica Julii, 24, 25 - - Basilica Liberii, 25 - - Basilica Sicinini, 25 - - Basle, Council of, 240 - - Beatific Vision, John XXII. and the, 219 - - Beatrice of Tuscany, 148, 163 - - Benedict III., 103, 107, 113 - - Benedict IX., 140, 143 - - Benedict X., 146 - - Benedict XI., 203 - - Benedict XIII., 227, 238 - - Benedict XIV., 353-67 - - Benedict of Soracte, 128, 130, 135 - - Benedictines, the, and the classics, 58 - - Bentivoglio, 274, 278 - - Benzo, Bishop, 142, 147 - - Berengar, King, 130, 134 - - Berengaria of Castile, 189 - - Bérenger, 144 - - Bernard, of Clairvaux, 172 - - Bernetti, Cardinal, 395 - - Bertha of Lorraine, 134 - - _Bertinian Annals_, the, 112 - - Bertrand de Goth, 207 - - Bertrand de Poyet, 216 - - Bibbiena, Cardinal, 287, 290, 303 - - Bible, early translation of the, 36 - - Bismarck and Leo XIII., 428-30 - - Bonaparte, Jerome, 379 - - Boniface I., 39 - - Boniface VIII., 203, 209 - - Boniface IX., 223, 224 - - Bonitho, Bishop, 142, 151, 164, 168 - - _Book of Gomorrha_, 144 - - _Book of Pastoral Rule_, 61 - - Borgia, Cćsar, 244, 258, 260, 263, 267, 272 - - Borgia, Jofre, 244, 256 - - Borgia, Juan, 244, 256, 258 - - Borgia, Lucretia, 244, 250, 254, 255, 260, 262 - - Borgia, Pedro Luis, 244 - - Borgia, Rodrigo, 261 - - Borgia Family, the, 242 - - Borgia Rooms, the, 438 - - Boris, King, 116 - - Bramante, 283 - - Breviary, reform of the, 358-9 - - Brosch, M., 246, 269 - - Brosses, President de, 353, 354 - - Bruce, Robert, 219 - - Brunetti, A., 398 - - Brunichildis, Gregory and, 71 - - Brussels, Leo XIII. at, 418-9 - - Bulgaria and the Papacy, 137, 191 - - Buoncompagni, Cardinal, 333, 334 - - Burchard, J., 245, 249, 262 - - - C - - Cacault, 374 - - Cadalus, Bishop, 147 - - Cajetan, Legate, 307 - - _Calandria_, the, 303 - - Calixtus III., 242 - - Callistus, Pope, 6-18 - - Cambrai, League of, 276, 277 - - Canon of Scripture, early, 36, 55 - - Canossa, Henry IV. at, 163, 165-7 - - Capocci, Giovanni, 176, 177 - - Caprara, Cardinal, 376 - - Caraffa, Cardinal, 259 - - Carbonari, the, 388, 395 - - Cardinal, the title, 146 - - Cardinalate, reform of the, 339 - - Cardinals in the fifteenth century, 248 - - Carlism, the Vatican, 433 - - Carlomann, 84 - - _Caroline Books_, the, 97 - - Caroline Islands, the, 429 - - Carpophorus, 8 - - Carvajal, Cardinal, 275, 289 - - Cassiodorus, 58 - - Catacombs, the, 3, 26, 36 - - Cataldi, Mgr., 421 - - Cathari, the, 182 - - Catherine of Siena, 222 - - Cavour, 405, 406 - - Celestine I., 39 - - Celestine III., 174 - - Celibacy of the clergy, 145-6, 152, 155 - - Celidonius, 42 - - Cenci, 160 - - Censorship, early claims of, 55, 115 - - Cesena, massacre of, 222 - - Chabrol, Count de, 384 - - Chalcedon, Council of, 47-9, 74 - - Charlemagne, 84, 85-6, 90-97, 99, 101 - - Charles Martel, 79 - - Charles the Bald, 108, 109, 115, 116 - - Charles the Simple, 137 - - Charles II., 206 - - Charles V., 295, 297, 298, 307, 319-28 - - Charles VI., 362 - - Charles VIII., 256-8 - - Chigi, the banker, 302 - - China, Jesuits in, 364 - - China, Leo XIII., and, 457 - - Choiseul, 357, 360 - - Christianity, early condition of, 1-3 - - Christopher, Pope, 128 - - Cibň, Franceschetto, 248 - - Cibň, Innocenzo, 290 - - _Civiltŕ Cattolica_, the, 406 - - Clement I., 4, 5 - - Clement III., 169, 173 - - Clement IV., 209 - - Clement V., 203, 206, 217 - - Clement VI., 209, 221 - - Clement VII., 223, 311-2 - - Clement XI., 360 - - Clement XII., 354, 355, 357 - - Clement XIII., 368 - - Clement XIV., 368, 369 - - Colonna, M.A., 294 - - _Commentary on the First Book of Kings_, 63 - - Comminges, Count de, 190 - - Conciliar Movement, the, 227, 232, 240 - - Concordat with Napoleon, 374-6, 387 - - Conradin, 202 - - Consalvi, Cardinal, 371, 372, 375, 377, 387-9 - - Constance, Council of, 234-8, 240 - - Constance of Sicily, 180 - - Constantine, 21 - - Constantinople, Council of, 32, 33, 48, 49 - - Constantinople, Fall of, 241 - - Constantinople taken by the Latins, 193, 194 - - Constantius, 19, 23 - - Constanza of Aragon, 181 - - Contarini, Cardinal, 322 - - Conti family, the, 173 - - Conti, Ricardo, 177 - - Cornaro, Cardinal 302 - - Cornelius, Pope, 3 - - Costa, Cardinal, 259 - - Counter-Reformation, the, 310 - - Crespy, Peace of, 325 - - Crispi, 426 - - Crusade, the Fourth, 191-4 - - Culture, early decay of, 57, 62-3, 84 - - Cyprian, St., 20 - - Cyriacus, 75 - - Cyril of Alexandria, 39, 44 - - - D - - D'Agnesi, Maria Gaetana, 358 - - Damasus, 21-37 - - D'Amboise, Cardinal, 268, 275 - - Damiani, Peter, 144, 145, 147, 151 - - Dammann, Dr. A., 165 - - Declaration of the Gallican Clergy, 352 - - Delarc, O., 142 - - Desiderius of Vienne, 62, 71 - - Deusdedit, Cardinal, 151 - - _Dialogues_ of Gregory the Great, 59 - - Didier, Abbot, 149, 153, 169 - - Didier, King, 83-5, 90 - - Dietrich von Nieheim, 223, 225 - - Dio Cassius, 16 - - Dionysian Decretals, the, 120 - - Dioscorus of Alexandria, 44-6 - - Discipline of the early Church, 13 - - Divorce in the early Church, 29 - - Djem, Prince, 256, 257 - - Döllinger, Dr., 3, 8, 9, 13, 151, 409 - - Dominic St., 196, 201 - - _Dominus ac Redemptor Noster_, 369 - - Donation of Constantine, 87, 241 - - Dovizo, Bernardo, 287, 290 - - Duchesne, Mgr., 89, 130, 131 - - Dümmler, E., 129 - - Dupanloup, 409 - - - E - - Eastern Church, Rome and the, 31-3, 44-50, 73-6, 105-6 - - Ebbo of Rheims, 113, 119 - - Edict of Milan, 21 - - Eginhard, 82, 99 - - Elizabeth of Spain, 363 - - Encyclicals of Leo XIII., 439, 440 - - Endre, Prince, of Hungary, 190 - - England and the Papacy, 58, 71, 94, 148, 185-8, 219, 229, 309, 312, 346, - 363, 381, 411, 435-6 - - Ephesus, Council of, 46 - - _Epigrams of Damasus_, 36 - - Erigena, John Scotus, 115 - - Ethelbert, 72 - - _Etsi Nos_, 425 - - Eudocia, 105 - - Eudoxia, the Empress, 52 - - Eugenius IV., 240 - - Eulogius, 75 - - Eusebius, Pope, 20 - - Eusebius of Dorylćum, 48 - - Eustochium, Jerome's letter to, 34-5 - - Eutyches, 45, 46 - - _Ex Quo Singulari_, 365 - - _Execrabilis_, 210 - - _Exsurge, Domine_, 308 - - - F - - Fantuzzian Fragment, the, 81, 88 - - Farnese, Alessandro, 316, 321, 325, 326 - - Farnese, Giulia, 249, 252, 253, 254 - - Farnese, Vittoria, 325 - - Febronianism, 362, 370 - - Fedele, P., 129 - - Felicia, daughter of Julius II., 271 - - Felix, Anti-Pope, 23, 24 - - Ferdinand of Spain, 275, 276, 291 - - Ferdinand VI., 361 - - Ferrante of Naples, 255 - - Ferrara and Julius II., 281 - - Fesch, Cardinal, 378 - - Flavian, 45-7 - - Flodoard, 131, 136 - - Fontana, 345 - - _Forged Decretals_, the, 104, 105, 117-22 - - Forgeries of Middle Ages, 87, 88 - - Formosus, 125, 127, 132 - - Foulques of Marseilles, 196, 198 - - France and the Papacy, 42, 71, 79-87, 97, 157, 188, 194-200, 219, 256-8, - 276-8, 289, 304, 347, 360-1, 400-2, 431-2 - - France, Anatole, 2 - - Francis I., 292, 293, 295, 297, 317 - - Francis, St., 201, 202 - - Francis Joseph I., 412 - - Frankenstein, Baron, 429 - - Frankfort, Synod of, 97 - - Fratricelli, the, 214 - - Frederic the Great, 356, 364 - - Frederic of Saxony, 307, 308 - - Frederic of Sicily, 180, 182, 185 - - Freemasonry, Benedict XIV. and, 366 - - Friedrich of Tirol, 234, 236, 237 - - Fuscianus, 9 - - - G - - Gabrielli, Cardinal, 382 - - Gaeta, flight to, 401 - - Galilei, Galileo, 352 - - Galla Placidia, 47 - - Garibaldi, 405, 406, 407 - - Gattina, Petrucelli della, 371, 393 - - "Gelasian Decree," the, 36, 37, 55 - - Gelasius I., 37, 55, 115 - - Gerbert, 139 - - Germany and the Papacy, 108-9, 158-69, 182-5, 215-8, 229, 411, 427-30 - - Gfrörer, 142 - - Ghibellines, the, 182, 216 - - Gibbon, Cardinal, 436, 437 - - Gioberti, 397, 418, 420 - - Giovio, Paolo, 291, 300 - - Gizzo, Cardinal, 399 - - Glaber, Raoul, 140 - - Godfrey of Tuscany 148 - - Grassis, P. de, 291 - - Gratian, the Emperor, 27, 38 - - Gratian, John, 140, 143 - - Great Schism, the, 221-3 - - Gregory I., 57-77 - - Gregory III., 79 - - Gregory VII., 141-70 - - Gregory X., 204 - - Gregory XI., 222 - - Gregory XII., 226, 227, 231 - - Gregory XIII., 332, 334 - - Gregory XVI., 392, 395, 396 - - Grévy, President, 432 - - Grisar, Father, 11, 18 - - Guelphs, the, 182 - - Guibert of Ravenna, 168 - - Guido of Spoleto, 127 - - Guiscard, Robert, 148, 155, 168, 169 - - Guise, Duke of, 347, 348, 349 - - Günther, 108, 109 - - Guy, the Cistercian, 195 - - - H - - Hadrian I., 81, 83, 84-100 - - Hadrian II., 110, 118, 125, 126, 127 - - Hadrian IV., 174 - - Hadrian VI., 311 - - Hecker, Father, 437 - - Helletrude, 111 - - Henry III. (Germany), 143, 144 - - Henry IV. (Germany), 154, 158-69 - - Henry V. (Germany), 172 - - Henry VI. (Germany), 178, 179 - - Henry III. (France), 346, 347, 349 - - Henry IV. (France), 347, 348, 349, 350 - - Henry VIII. (England), 277, 279, 292, 293, 294, 309 - - Heribert of Vermandois, 137, 138 - - Herimann of Cologne, 138 - - Herlembald, 148, 159 - - Hermingard, 84 - - Hilary, St., and the Papacy, 42 - - Hildebrand. _See_ Gregory VII. - - Hildeprand, 92, 93 - - Hildwin, 112 - - Hincmar of Rheims, 105, 111-13, 119, 120 - - Hippolytus, 7, 8, 11, 12, 17 - - _Historia Augusta_, the, 16 - - Hodgkin, Dr., 88, 90 - - Hohenstauffens, the, 182, 202 - - Honorius I., 79 - - Hontheim, Johann von, 370 - - Hormisdas, 55 - - Hrodgaud, 93 - - Hrzan, Cardinal, 372 - - Hübner, Baron de, 333, 343 - - Hucbert, 107 - - Hugh Candidus, Cardinal, 149, 159 - - Hugh of Provence, 138, 139 - - Hugues Géraud, 211, 212 - - Hungarians in Italy, the, 135 - - Huns, St. Leo and the, 50 - - Hus, John, 232, 235, 238 - - Hutten, Ulrich von, 305, 308 - - - I - - Ignatius of Antioch, 4 - - Ignatius of Constantinople, 105-7 - - Ignatius of Loyola, 331, 333 - - Image-worship, quarrel about, 97 - - Immaculate Conception, the, 403-4 - - Index of Prohibited Books, the first, 55 - - Indulgences, origin of the Spanish, 192 - - Indulgences, traffic in, 225, 231, 284, 301, 305 - - Infallibility, struggle over, 409-10 - - Infessura, S., 245, 250 - - Ingeltrude, 107 - - Innocent I., 38, 39 - - Innocent III., 137, 141, 171-201 - - Innocent VII., 226 - - Inquisition, the, at Rome, 324, 331 - - _Inscrutabile_, 423 - - _Interest Apostolicć Sedis_, 183 - - Investiture-struggle, the, 152, 172 - - Ireland, Archbishop, 436 - - Ireland, Leo XIII. and, 434-5 - - Irene, the Empress, 94, 96 - - Irmengard, 135 - - Isaac Comnenus, 193 - - Italy, Unification of, 405-7 - - - J - - Jacobini, Cardinal, 426 - - Jacques de Via, 213 - - James III., 363 - - Jansenists, the, 360-1 - - Jean of Jandun, 215 - - Jerome, St., 22, 23, 27, 34, 36 - - Jerome of Prague, 232 - - Jesuits, the, 343, 352, 360, 364, 365, 369, 387-8, 399, 402-3 - - Jews, John XXII. and the, 219 - - Jews, the Papacy and the, 65 - - Jews, Sixtus V. and the, 343 - - John VIII., 125, 126, 133 - - John IX., 131 - - John X., 126-38 - - John XI., 128, 130, 131, 138 - - John XII., 139 - - John XXII., 205-20 - - John XXIII., 221-39 - - John of Bohemia, 218 - - John Capistrano, 241 - - John the Faster, 73-4 - - John Lackland and the Papacy, 185-8 - - John of Ravenna, 114 - - Joseph II., 355, 369, 370 - - Josephine, divorce of, 378, 383 - - Judith, 110 - - Julius II., 246, 247, 250, 255, 257, 268-84 - - Julius III., 331 - - - K - - Kailo of Ravenna, 132 - - Keane, Mgr., 437 - - Kitto, E.J., 223, 235 - - Knights of Labour, the, 436 - - Kulturkampf, the, 427-30 - - - L - - La Balue, Cardinal, 248 - - Ladislaus of Hungary, 157 - - Ladislaus of Naples, 223, 227 - - Lambert of Hersfeld, 164, 166 - - Lambruschini, Cardinal, 392 - - Landulph, 145 - - Lanfranc, 154, 156 - - Langton, Stephen, 186-7, 188 - - Languedoc, heresy in, 195 - - Lateran basilica, the, 20, 25, 56 - - Lateran Council, the Fourth, 200 - - Lateran Council, the Fifth, 280, 282, 303 - - League, the Catholic, 347, 348 - - Leo I., 39-54 - - Leo II., 79 - - Leo III., 101 - - Leo IV., 102 - - Leo V., 127 - - Leo IX., 144 - - Leo X., 248, 250, 287-309 - - Leo XII., 391 - - Leo XIII., 415-42 - - Leo the Isaurian, 53 - - Leonardo of Arezzo, 223, 227 - - Leonetti, A., 243 - - Leontia, the Empress, 76 - - L'Épinois, H. de, 243, 245 - - Leti, Gregorio, 333 - - _Liber Pontificalis_, the, 8, 11, 24, 80, 87-9 - - Liberius, 19, 22, 23 - - Liverani, P., 129, 132 - - Lollards, the, 232 - - Lombards, the, in Italy, 56, 66, 68, 79, 92-3 - - Lothair of Lorraine, 107, 109, 110 - - Lottery, the Papal, 357 - - Louis of Anjou, 228, 229, 230 - - Louis of Bavaria, 215, 216, 217 - - Louis II., 103, 107-9 - - Louis VIII., 188 - - Louis XII., 260, 261, 274, 277-8, 291 - - Louis XVIII., 414 - - Luchaire, Achille, 175 - - Luciferians, the, 30 - - Luitprand, Bishop, 130, 132, 136 - - Luitprand, King, 79 - - Lunéville, Treaty of, 374 - - Luther, Martin, 252, 299, 306-9 - - - M - - Macarius, 30 - - Magic, John XXII. and, 212 - - Magna Charta denounced by Innocent III., 188 - - _Magna Maralia_, 59, 63 - - Malabar Rites, the, 364 - - Malatesta of Rimini, 230 - - _Mandragola_, 303 - - Manfred, 202 - - Manichćans, the, 41, 43 - - Manichćism, 195 - - Manning, Cardinal, 409 - - Marcia, 6 - - Marcian, 47, 50 - - Maria Theresa, 362 - - Marie of Brabant, 190 - - Markwald of Anweiler, 179, 180, 181 - - Marozia, 128-32, 135-6, 138, 139 - - Marriage, the Papacy and, 188, 189, 190 - - Marsiglio of Padua, 215 - - Martens, Dr. W., 142, 160 - - Martin I., 79 - - Martin V., 240 - - Martyrology, reform of the, 359 - - Mary Stuart, 346 - - Mathew, Dr., A.H., 142, 153, 167, 243 - - Mathilda of Tuscany, 148, 150, 155, 163, 165 - - Matteo Visconti, 216 - - Maurice, the Emperor, 68, 69, 73-6 - - Maury, Cardinal, 371 - - Maximilian, the Emperor, 273, 275, 276, 277, 294 - - Maximinus, 27 - - May Laws, the, 428, 429 - - Mazzini, 396, 398, 404 - - Medici, Catherine de', 347 - - Medici, Cosmo de', 239 - - Medici, Giuliano de', 290, 292 - - Medici, Giulio de', 290 - - Medici, Lorenzo de' (nephew of Leo X.), 290, 297, 298 - - Melchiades, 118 - - _Menćchmi_, the, 262 - - Mercier, Cardinal, 440 - - Michael, Angelo, 283, 301, 329 - - Michael de Cesena, 215 - - Michael the Drunkard, 105, 106 - - Michiel, Cardinal, 263 - - Militz, Karl von, 307 - - Milo, the Legate, 198 - - Miollis, General, 381 - - Mirandola, G.P. della, 304 - - Modernism, 432, 437, 442 - - Montfort, Simon de, 199, 200 - - Monti di Pietŕ, 303 - - Morality in the early Church, 33-5, 66 - - - N - - Napoleon I. and the Papacy, 370, 374-88 - - Napoleon III., 400, 405 - - Nepotism at the Vatican, 174, 244-60, 271, 290, 291, 315, 316, 320, 331 - - Newman, Cardinal, 409 - - Nicća, Council of, 96 - - Nicholas I., 102-23 - - Nicholas II., 146, 147 - - Nicholas V., 217, 241 - - Nicholas of Cusa, 241 - - Nielsen, Dr. F., 373, 393 - - Normans and the Papacy, 145, 147, 169 - - - O - - Ockham, William of, 215 - - Offa, 94, 96 - - Olivarez, Count, 347 - - Organic Articles, the, 376, 377 - - Orsini, the, 174, 177 - - Orsini, Adriana, 249, 252 - - Orsini, Cardinal B., 263 - - Orsini, Giulia, 249, 252, 253, 254 - - Orsini, Laura, 253, 271 - - Orsini, Paolo, 334 - - Orsini, Virginio, 255 - - Otto I., 139 - - Otto of Brunswick, 182, 183, 184 - - Oxford Movement, the, 435 - - - P - - Pacca, Cardinal, 381-2, 387 - - Pagi, 129 - - Pallavicino, Cardinal, 275 - - Pandolpho, the Legate, 187, 188 - - Papal supremacy, evolution of, 5, 30-1, 37, 39, 44, 48, 53, 67, 74-6, 103 - - Parnellism 434-5 - - Paschasinus, 49 - - _Pastor Ćternus_, 410 - - Pastoureaux, the, 219 - - Patarenes, the, 145, 148, 159 - - Patrimonies, the Papal, 64, 79 - - Paul at Rome, 4 - - Paul I., 83 - - Paul II., 246 - - Paul III., 252, 313-29, 363 - - Paul IV., 331 - - Pedro of Aragon, 190, 199 - - Pelagius, Pope, 58 - - Pepoli, Count, 338 - - Peretti, Alexander, 336 - - Peretti, Camilla, 334, 341 - - Peretti, Francesco, 334 - - Persecution, the Papacy and, 43, 70, 196 - - Persico, Mgr., 435 - - Perugino, 283 - - Peter at Rome, 4 - - Peter, brother of John X., 135 - - Peter of Carbara, 217 - - Petrarch, 211, 216 - - Petrucci, Cardinal, 295 - - Philip II., 186, 187, 188, 198 - - Philip III., 203, 207 - - Philip VI., 217, 220 - - Philip of Anjou, 202 - - Philip Neri, St., 333 - - Philip of Suabia, 179, 182-4 - - Phocas, the Emperor, 76 - - Photius, 105, 106 - - Pierleone, Cardinal, 183 - - Pierleone, Giovanni, 176, 177 - - Pierre de Castelnau, 195, 197 - - Pignatelli, Cardinal, 387 - - Pinturicchio, 266, 283 - - Pippin, Donation of, 80-3 - - Pirie-Gordon, C.H.C., 175 - - Pisa, Council of, 228, 229 - - Pisa, second Council of, 278, 279 - - Pius II., 243 - - Pius III., 268 - - Pius IV., 331 - - Pius V., 332, 334 - - Pius VI., 369, 372 - - Pius VII., 371-90 - - Pius VIII., 392 - - Pius IX., 393-413, 425 - - Plebiscites in Italy, 405, 406, 408 - - Pliny, 2 - - Poles, the Vatican, the, 434 - - Poli, Oddo, 177 - - Pontianus, 18 - - Pragmatic Sanction, the, 286, 294, 304 - - Primacy, idea of the, 6, 30, 37, 39, 40, 48 - - Priscillianists, the, 31 - - Pucci, Lorenzo, 290 - - Pulcheria, 46, 47 - - - Q - - _Quanta Cura_, 407 - - Quiercey Donation, the, 81 - - - R - - Rampolla, Cardinal, 426, 429 - - Raphael, 301 - - Ratherius, Bishop, 133 - - Ratisbon, Diet of, 322 - - Ravenna and the Papacy, 67, 68 - - Raymond of Toulouse, 196-9 - - Raynaldus, 243 - - Reformation, the, 286, 304-9, 312, 317-30 - - Reformation, foregleams of the, 215, 232, 241, 286 - - Reginald of Canterbury, 186 - - Renaissance, the, 241 - - Renier, the Cistercian, 195 - - _Rerum Novarum_, 441 - - Revolution, the French, 370, 372 - - Riario, Cardinal, 296 - - Riario, Pietro, 246 - - Richard the Lion-Heart, 185 - - Robert of Geneva, 222, 223 - - Robert of Naples, 216, 217 - - Romwald, 94-5 - - Roquain, F., 142, 151 - - Roscoe, W., 291 - - Rosmini, A., 400, 402 - - Rossi, G.B. de, 8, 9, 13 - - Rossi, Pellegrino, 400 - - Rothrad of Soissons, 111-12, 119 - - Rotrud, 96 - - Roy, Jules, 120, 121 - - Rudolph II., of Burgundy, 134 - - Rudolph of Suabia, 159, 163, 165, 167, 168 - - - S - - Sabellius, 12 - - _Sacramentary_, the, 62 - - St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, 332 - - Sta. Maria Maggiore, 25 - - St. Peter's, building of, 274, 283 - - Sala, Cardinal, 417 - - Saldanha, Cardinal, 365 - - Sancho of Portugal, 190 - - Sanfedisti, the, 388, 396 - - Sangallo, 329 - - Sanseverino, Cardinal, 289 - - Sant' Angelo, Castle of, 60 - - Sanuto, M., 253, 291 - - Satolli, Mgr., 437 - - Sauli, Cardinal, 296 - - Savona, Pius VII. at, 383-5 - - Savonarola and Alexander VI., 264-5 - - Scatfgoch, Bishop, 364 - - Schmalkaldic League, the, 327, 328 - - Schwemer, R., 185 - - Sergius III., 125, 127, 128, 129, 131 - - Sergius IV., 139 - - Servatus Lupus, 118 - - Severus, Bishop, 68 - - Sforza, Cardinal Ascanio, 248, 250 - - Sforza, Giovanni, 254, 259 - - Sforza, Lodovico, 255, 258 - - Sigismund of Hungary, 229-30, 232-8 - - Silvester I., 20 - - Silvester II., 139, 143, 157 - - Simeon of Bulgaria, 137 - - Simony at Rome, 210, 224-5, 250, 268, 301 - - Sirianus, Pope, 37 - - Sixtus III., 39 - - Sixtus IV., 244, 246 - - Sixtus V., 332-50 - - Slaves, the Papacy and the, 65 - - Socialism and the Vatican, 424, 427, 428, 431, 441 - - _Sollicitudo Omnium_, 388 - - Solomon of Brittany, 119 - - Solomon of Hungary, 157 - - Spain and the Papacy, 70, 154, 157, 189-90, 260, 347-9, 361 - - Spina, Archbishop, 374 - - Spirituals, the, 214 - - Stephen I., 80 - - Stephen II., 80-2 - - Stephen III., 83 - - Stephen IV., 83 - - Stephen V., 101 - - Stephen VI., 125, 126, 127 - - Stephen X., 145, 146 - - Stephens, W.R.W., 142 - - Strozzi, the banker, 302 - - Stuarts, the Vatican and the, 363 - - Sulpicius Severus, 31 - - Syagrius, Bishop, 71 - - Syllabus, the, 407 - - - T - - Talleyrand, 376, 380 - - Talleyrand-Périgord, Countess, 204 - - Talmud, condemnation of the, 219 - - Tancred of Sicily, 181 - - Tarasius, 96 - - Tassilo, 93 - - Tedald, 160 - - Templars, suppression of the, 203 - - Temporal power, beginning of the, 78-83, 86-90, 95 - - Tencin, Cardinal, 354, 355 - - Tertullian, 5, 13 - - Tetzel, 306 - - Teutonic Knights, the, 219 - - Theodora of Rome, 128, 129-32 - - Theodora, the Empress, 56 - - Theodoric, 55 - - Theodosius, 32, 33 - - Theophylactus, 128, 132 - - Theutberga, 107, 110 - - Thomas Aquinas, philosophy of, 440 - - Three Chapters, the, 67 - - Transtiberina, the, 1, 16 - - Trent, Council of, 323-8, 330, 331-2 - - Troslé, Council of, 133 - - Turribius of Astorga, 43 - - - U - - _Unigenitus_, 360 - - Urban I., 11, 18 - - Urban II., 172 - - Urban VI., 222 - - Urban VIII., 352 - - Urbino, Duchy of, 294, 295, 298 - - Ursicinus, Anti-Pope, 25-7 - - - V - - Valens, 31 - - Valenti, Cardinal, 357 - - Valentinian I., 27, 29, 37 - - Valentinian II., 38 - - Valla, Lorenzo, 241 - - Vandals, Leo and the, 51-2 - - Vannozza dei Catanei, 245 - - Vatican, the, 178 - - Vatican Council, the, 408-10 - - Vatican, early state of the, 1, 2 - - Vatican Library, the, 438 - - Venantius and Gregory the Great, 72 - - Venice and the Papacy, 272-3, 275-6 - - Ventura, P., 397 - - Victor I., 5, 9 - - Victor III., 140 - - Victor Emmanuel I., 406 - - Vienna Congress, the, 388 - - Villani, 208 - - Viventius, 25, 27 - - Voltaire, 356 - - Vulgarius, 129, 130 - - - W - - Waldeck-Rousseau, 432 - - Waldrada, 107, 109, 110 - - Walpole, Horace, 356 - - Walter de Brienne, 181 - - Wenilo of Sens, 118 - - William II. and the Papacy, 430 - - William of Burgundy, 156 - - William the Conqueror, 148, 156 - - Wiseman, Cardinal, 379 - - Worms, Diet of, 308 - - Wulfad, 113 - - Wyclif, 232 - - - X - - Ximenes, Cardinal, 301 - - - Y - - York, Cardinal, 363 - - Young Italians, the, 395, 396 - - - Z - - Zachary I., 79, 80 - - Zara, the taking of, 192, 193 - - Zelanti, the, 388 - - Zephyrin, Pope, 6, 10 - - Zigliara, Cardinal, 441 - - Zosimus, 39 - - - - -The Censorship _of_ the Church _of_ Rome and its Influence upon the -Production and the Distribution _of_ Literature - -_A Study of the History of the Prohibitory and Expurgatory Indexes, -together with some Consideration of the effects of Protestant -Censorship and of Censorship by the State_ - -By GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM, LITT.D. - -_Author of "Authors and Their Public in Ancient Times," "Books and -Their Makers in the Middle Ages," "The Question of Copyright," etc._ - - Two Volumes, 8vo, cloth Net, $5.00 - - -This treatise presents a schedule of the Indexes issued by the Church, -together with a list of the more important of the decrees, edicts, -prohibitions, and briefs having to do with the prohibition of specific -books, from the time of Gelasius I., 567 A.D., to the issue in 1900 of -the latest Index of the Church under Leo XIII. - - "The work impresses me as admirable. I wish to congratulate you upon - the singular wisdom, breadth, and thoroughness with which you have - accomplished a delicate and difficult task."--_From Bishop Potter of - New York._ - - "I have read this treatise with the deepest pleasure.... It is a work - of remarkable erudition, and so far as I have perused its pages, I - find it to have been written with rare large-mindedness and historic - impartiality.... The difficult task has been accomplished in a most - masterly manner."--_From Archbishop Ireland of St. Paul._ - - "Dr. Putnam is one of the most wonderful men in America. He was a - soldier in the Civil War. He has been a leading publisher for more - than a generation. To him more than any other man is due the measure - of American Copyright that we now enjoy. The marvel is that with - all his business and public work, Dr. Putnam has found time to make - himself a most thorough and accurate scholar. The present volume - treats of a subject that is largely misunderstood, and that is of - first importance in the history of literature and of the Church. - The author writes in an entirely dispassionate spirit."--_London - Chronicle._ - - - _Send for Descriptive Circular_ - G.P. Putnam's Sons - NEW YORK LONDON - - - - -A Candid History of the Jesuits - -By Joseph McCabe - -Author of "Twelve Years in a Monastery," "Modern Rationalism" - -_8o. $3.50_ - - -It is curious that no writer addressing English-speaking readers, -has ever attempted a systematic history of the Jesuits. Probably -no religious body ever had so romantic a history, or inspired such -deadly hatred. On the other hand, histories of the famous society are -almost always too prejudiced, either for or against, to be reliable. -Mr. McCabe has attempted in this book to give the facts impartially, -and to enable the inquirer to form an intelligent idea of the history -and character of the Jesuits from their foundation to the present -day. Every phase of their remarkable story--including the activity -of political Jesuits and their singular behavior on the foreign -missions--is carefully studied, and the record of the Jesuits in -England is very fully examined. - - - G.P. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Crises in the History of the Papacy - -Author: Joseph McCabe - -Release Date: April 8, 2020 [EBook #61779] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRISES IN HISTORY OF THE PAPACY *** - - - - -Produced by deaurider, Graeme Mackreth and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - - - - - - -<p class="ph4"><span class="u"><i>By Joseph McCabe</i></span></p> - - -<p style="margin-left: 30%;"> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Peter Abélard</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">St. Augustine and His Age</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">A Candid History of the Jesuits</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Crises in the History of the Papacy</span><br /> -</p> - - - - - -<p class="ph2" style="margin-top: 15em;">Crises</p> - -<p class="ph3">in the</p> - -<p class="ph1">History of the Papacy</p> - -<p class="ph4">A Study of</p> - -<p class="ph4">Twenty Famous Popes whose Careers and -whose Influence Were Important in the -Development of the Church and -in the History of the World</p> - -<p class="ph5">By</p> - -<p class="ph4">Joseph McCabe</p> - -<p class="ph5">Author of "Peter Abélard," "Life of Saint Augustine," etc.</p> - -<p class="ph4" style="margin-top: 10em;">G.P. Putnam's Sons</p> -<p class="ph5">New York and London<br /> -The Knickerbocker Press<br /> -1916</p> - - - - - - -<p class="ph6" style="margin-top: 15em;"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1916</p> - -<p class="ph6">BY</p> - -<p class="ph5">JOSEPH McCABE</p> - -<p class="ph6">The Knickerbocker Press, New York</p> - - - - - - - - - -<p class="ph2" style="margin-top: 10em;"><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</a></p> - - -<p class="drop">P<span class="uppercase">robably</span> no religious institution in the world has had so remarkable -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span>a history, and assuredly none has attracted so large and varied a -literature, as the Papacy. The successive dynasties of the priests -of ancient Egypt were, by comparison, parochial in their power and -ephemeral in their duration. The priests of Buddha, rising to an -autocracy in the isolation of Thibet or mingling with the crowd in -the more genial atmosphere of China or cherishing severe mysticisms -in Japan, offer no analogy to the Papacy's consistent growth and -homogeneous dominion. The religious leaders of the Jews, scattered -through the world, yet hardened in their type by centuries of -persecution, may surpass it in conservative antiquity, but they do -not remotely approach it in power and in historical importance. It -influences the history of Europe more conspicuously than emperors have -ever done, stretches a more than imperial power over lands beyond the -most fevered dreams of Alexander or Cćsar, and may well seem to have -made "Eternal Rome" something more than the idle boast of a patriot.</p> - -<p>Yet this conservative endurance has not been favoured by such a -stability of environment as has sheltered the lamas of Thibet or the -secular priests of the old Chinese religion. The Papacy has lived -through fifteen centuries of portentous change, though it seemed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span> in -each phase to have connected itself indissolubly with the dominant -institutions and ideas of that phase. The Popes have witnessed, and -have survived, three mighty transformations of the face of Europe. They -had hardly issued from their early obscurity and lodged themselves in -the fabric of the old Roman civilization when this fell into ruins; but -they held firmly, amidst the ruins, the sceptre they had inherited. One -by one the stately institutions of the older world—the schools, the -law-courts, the guilds of craftsmen, the military system, the municipal -forms and commercial routes—disappeared in the flood of barbarism -which poured over Europe, but this institution, which seemed the least -firmly established, was hardly shaken and was quickly accepted by the -strange new world. A new polity was created, partly under the direction -of the Popes, and it was so entirely saturated by their influence that -religion gave it its most characteristic name. Then Christendom, as it -was called, passed in turn through a critical development, culminating -in the Reformation; and the Papacy begot a Counter-Reformation and -secured millions beyond the seas to replace the millions it had lost. -The third and last convulsion began with the work of Voltaire and -Rousseau and Mirabeau, and has grievously shaken the political theory -with which the Papacy was allied and the older religious views which -it had stereotyped. Yet today it has some 35,000,000 followers in the -three greatest Protestant countries, the lands of Luther, of Henry -VIII., and of the Puritan Fathers.</p> - -<p>It must seem a futile design to attempt to tell, with any intelligent -satisfaction, within the limits of a small volume the extraordinary -story of this institution. No serious historian now tries to command -more than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span> a section of the record of the Papacy, and he usually -finds a dozen volumes required for the adequate presentment of that -section. Yet there is something to be said for such a sketch as I -propose to give. If we take four of the more important recent histories -of the Papacy—those of Father Grisar, Dr. Mann, Dr. Pastor, and Dr. -Creighton—we find that the joint thirty volumes do not cover the -whole period of Papal history even to the sixteenth century; and the -careful student will not omit to include in his reading the still -valuable volumes of Milman and of Dr. Langer. In other words, he must -study more than fifty volumes if he would have an incomplete account -of the development of the Papacy up to the time of the Reformation, -and more than that number if he would follow accurately the fortunes -of the Papacy since the days of Paul III. The history of the Papacy is -very largely the history of Europe, and this voluminous expansion is -inevitable. On the other hand, the general student of the history of -Europe and the general reader who seeks intellectual pleasure in "the -storied page" are not only repelled by such an array of tomes, but -they have no interest in a vast proportion of the matter which it is -incumbent on the ecclesiastical historian to record. One wants a view -of the Papacy in the essential lines of its development, and they are -usually lost, or not easily recognized, in the conscientiously full -chronicles. Is it possible to give a useful and informing account of -the <i>essential</i> history of the Papacy in a small volume?</p> - -<p>The rare attempts to do this that have been made have failed from -one or other of two causes: they have either been written with a -controversial aim and therefore have given only the higher lights -or darker shades of the picture, or they have been mere summaries -of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> the larger works, mingling what is relevant and what is not -relevant from the developmental point of view. The design which -occurs to me is to write a study of the Papacy by taking a score of -the outstanding Popes—which means, in effect, a score of the more -significant or critical stages in the development of the Papacy—and -giving an adequate account of the work and personality of each. -The evolution of the Papacy has not, like the evolution of life in -general, been continuous. It has had periods of stagnation and moments -of rapid progress or decay. Of the first hundred Popes, scarcely a -dozen contributed materially to the making of the Papacy: the others -maintained or marred the work of the great Popes. It is the same with -the environment of the Papacy, which has influenced its fortunes -as profoundly as changes of environment have affected the advance -of terrestrial life. There have been long drowsy summers closed by -something like ice ages; there have been convulsions and strange -invasions, stimulating advance by their stem and exacting pressure. I -propose to select these more significant periods or personalities of -Papal history, and trust that the resultant view of the Papacy will -have interest and usefulness. The periods which lie between the various -Pontificates which I select will be compressed into a brief account of -their essential characters and more prominent representatives, so that -the work will form a continuous study of the Papacy.</p> - -<p>In the selection of a score of Popes out of more than two hundred and -fifty there is room for difference of judgment. The principle on which -I have proceeded is plain from the general aim I have indicated. The -story of the Papacy may fitly be divided into two parts: a period of -making and a period of unmaking. Taking the terms somewhat liberally, -one may say that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> first period reaches from the second to the -fourteenth century, and that the subsequent centuries have witnessed an -increasing loss of authority, especially in the catastrophic movements -(from the Papal point of view) of the sixteenth and the nineteenth -centuries. A selection of significant Popes must, therefore, include -the great makers of the Papacy, the men whose vice or incompetence -brought destructive criticism upon it, and the men who have, with -varying fortune, sought to defend it against the inroads of that -criticism during the last four centuries. One must make a selection -neither of good Popes nor bad Popes, but of the Popes who, in either -direction, chiefly influenced the fortunes of the institution; and, -in order that no important phase may be omitted, a few men of no very -pronounced personality must be included.</p> - -<p>Regarded from this point of view, the history of the Papacy may be -compressed within limits which rather accentuate than obscure its -interest, and, at the same time, a very ample account may be given -of some of its more instructive phases. The first phase, before the -Bishop of Rome became a Pope, in the distinctive sense of the word, is -best illustrated by taking the bishopric of Callistus at the beginning -of the third century. The Roman bishopric was then one of several -"apostolic Sees," rarely claiming authority over other bishoprics, and -still more rarely finding such a claim acknowledged: thrown somewhat -into the shade by the vastly greater strength of the Eastern churches, -yet having an immense and as yet undeveloped resource in the tradition, -which was now generally accepted, that it had been founded by the two -princes of the apostles. There was, however, in three hundred years, no -Roman bishop sufficiently endowed to develop this resource, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> -fourth century still found the Roman See so little elevated that its -African neighbours disdainfully rejected its claim of authority. Then -the far-reaching change which followed the conversion of Constantine -bestowed on it a material splendour and a secular authority which -gave it a distinctive place in Christendom, and a study of the life -of Bishop Damasus shows us the extension of its prestige and the -exploitation of its tradition; while the founding of a rival imperial -city in the East and the obliteration of all other apostolic Sees -withdrew half of Christendom from Roman influence before its ecumenic -claim was fully developed.</p> - -<p>The fall of the western Roman Empire enfeebles the once powerful and -independent provincial bishops and gives a more spiritual outlook to -the successors of Peter who sit among the ruins of Rome. The life -of Leo the Great illustrates this concentration on religious power -amidst the autumnal decay of the more material power and of the wealth -which had inflated and secularized some of his predecessors. The -life of Gregory the Great marks the culmination of this development. -The material world seems to be nearing dissolution and the old Roman -spirit of organization, which is strong in Gregory I., is directed -to the creation of a moral and religious dictatorship. There are -still flickers of independence in remote bishoprics, and the East is -irrecoverably removed, but the disordered state of Christendom cries -for a master. Europe is young again, with a vicious impulsive youth, -and the rod of Rome falls healthily on its shoulders; and the paralysis -of civic government and land-tenure in Italy inevitably casts secular -functions and large possessions upon the one effective power that -survives. An elementary royalty begins to attach to the Papacy: the -function of ultimate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> tribunal in that violent world is imposed on it -almost by public needs: and, though Gregory is personally disdainful of -culture, the Church, and the monastic refuges it consecrates, preserve -for a wiser age to come some proportion of the wisdom of the dead age.</p> - -<p>With Hadrian I. a new phase opens. The possession and administration -of "patrimonies," or bequeathed estates, give place to the definite -political control of whole provinces, under the protection of a -powerful and conveniently remote King of the Franks. In the ninth -century, Nicholas I. consolidates and extends the new power, both as -temporal and spiritual ruler. The vice and violence of Europe still -justify or promote the growth of a great spiritual autocracy, and the -illiteracy of Europe—for culture has touched its lowest depth—permits -the imposition on it (in the "False Decretals," etc.) of an impressive -and fictitious version of the bases of Papal claims. Then Rome, which -has hitherto had singularly few unworthy men in the chair of Peter, -becomes gradually degraded to the level of its age, and the Papacy -passes into the darkness of the Age of Iron: which is fitly illustrated -by the Pontificate of John X. Gregory VII. shows its restoration to -spiritual ideals and the union of monastic severity with the Papal -tradition; and this steady creation of a machinery for dominating the -vice and violence of Europe is perfected in the extraordinary work of -Innocent III., who would, for its moral correction, make Europe the -United States of the Church and treat its greatest monarchs as satraps -of the Papacy.</p> - -<p>After Innocent, the Papacy degenerates. A renewed school-life, the -influence of the Moors, the evolution of civic life and prosperity, -and the rise of powerful kingdoms stimulate the intelligence of -Europe, while the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> political connexions in which the temporal power -entangles the Papacy lead to a degeneration which cannot escape the -more alert mind of the laity. During a long exile at Avignon the -Papal court learns soft ways and corrupt devices—illustrated by the -life of John XXII.—and the Great Schism which follows the return to -Rome causes a moral paralysis which permits the Pontificate of an -unscrupulous adventurer like John XXIII. The prosperous sensuality -of the new Europe infects an immense proportion of the clergy: war, -luxury, and display entail a vast expenditure, and the more thoughtful -clergy and laity deplore the increasing sale by the Popes of sacred -offices and spiritual privileges. The body of lay scholars and lawyers -grows larger and more critical, while the Papal Court sinks lower -and lower. The Papacy is fiercely criticized throughout Europe, and -the resentment of its moral complexion leads to a discussion of the -bases of its power. The earlier forgeries are discovered and the -true story of its human growth is dimly apprehended. The successive -Pontificates of Alexander VI., Julius II., and Leo X. exhibit this -dramatic development: a flat defiance by the Papal Court of the -increasing moral sentiment and critical intelligence of Europe. Men -are still so dominated by religious tradition that, apart from an -occasional heresy, they generally think only of "reform" and reforming -councils. When Luther strikes a deeper note of rebellion, the echo is -portentous, and neither reform, nor violence, nor persuasion succeeds -in averting the disruption of Christendom. In Paul III., we have the -last representative of the Papacy of the Renaissance wavering between -the grim menace of Germany and the unpleasantness of reform. In Sixtus -V. and Benedict XIV. we study two of the great efforts of the new -Papacy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span> to preserve the remaining half of its territory. In Pius VII., -Pius IX., and Leo XIII. we see the Papacy meeting the successive waves -of the modern revolution.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>In composing this sketch of Papal history, or, rather, study of its -critical phases, I have gratefully used the larger modern histories -to which I have referred. Dr. Ludwig Pastor's <i>History of the Popes -from the Close of the Middle Ages</i><a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> is, for the period it covers -(1300-1550), the most valuable of all Papal histories. The Catholic -author is not less courageous than scholarly, even if we must recognize -some inevitable bias of affection, and he has enriched our knowledge by -a most judicious and candid use of unpublished documents in the Secret -Archives of the Vatican. Dr. H.K. Mann's <i>Lives of the Popes in the -Middle Ages</i>,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> which covers the ground from Gregory I. to Innocent -III., is based upon an ample knowledge of the original authorities, but -is much less candid and reliable, and seems to be intended only for -controversial purposes. Dr. Creighton's learned and judicious <i>History -of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome</i><a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> must be -corrected at times by the documents in Pastor. Father H. Grisar's -incomplete <i>History of Rome and the Popes in the Middle Ages</i><a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> is -a learned and moderate partisan study of the Papacy in the first -four centuries. The older works of Dr. J. Langer,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Dean Milman,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> -Gregorovius,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> and Ranke are by no means superfluous to the student, -though more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> recent research or judgment often corrects them. Less -extensive works will be noted in the course of each chapter, and I -owe much to industrious older authorities like Baronius, Tillemont, -Raynaldus, Mansi, etc. I have, however, had the original authorities -before me throughout. The earlier chapters are, indeed, based almost -entirely on the Latin or Greek sources, and, in the later chapters, -at every point which seemed to inspire differences of judgment I -have carefully weighed the original texts. For the later medićval -period, however, Creighton, Pastor, and Gregorovius have so generously -strengthened their works with quotations and references that, except -at a few points, I may direct the reader to their more comprehensive -studies. The narrow limits which are imposed by the particular purpose -of this work forbid either the constant quoting of passages or the -design of enlarging on some of the remarkable scenes to which it at -times refers. The severe condensation, after the first few chapters, -has entailed a labour only second to that of research, and I can only -trust that the abundance of fact will afford some compensation for the -lack of elegance. Happily the earlier controversial method of writing -Papal history has so far yielded to candid research that the points in -dispute—as far as fact is concerned—are comparatively few. Where they -occur—where grave and accepted historians of any school dissent—the -evidence is more liberally put before the reader.</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 35%;"> -J.M. -</p> - - - -<p style="margin-left: 5%;">Christmas, 1915.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> English trans., 1891, etc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Ten vols., 1902-1914.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Six vols., 2d ed., 1897.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> English trans., 1911, etc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Geschichte der römischen Kirche</i>, 1881, etc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>History of Latin Christianity.</i></p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>The City of Rome in the Middle Ages</i>, English trans., -1900, etc.</p></div></div> - - - - -<p class="ph2">CONTENTS</p> - - -<table summary= "toc" width="70%"> -<tr><td></td><td></td><td><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> -<tr><td></td><td><a href="#PREFACE"><span class="smcap">Preface</span></a></td> <td align="right"> iii</td> </tr> - -<tr><td align="right"><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td></td><td></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">I.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">St. Callistus and the Early Struggle</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> -</tr> -<tr><td align="right">II.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">St. Damasus and the Triumph</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">III.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Leo the Great, the Last Pope of -Imperial Rome</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">IV.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Gregory the Great, the First Medićval -Pope</a></span> </td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">V.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Hadrian I. and the Temporal Power</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">VI.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Nicholas I. and the False Decretals</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">VII.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">John X. and the Iron Century</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Hildebrand</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">IX.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Innocent III.: The Papal Zenith</a></span> </td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">X.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">John XXII.: The Court at Avignon</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">XI.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">John XXIII. and the Great Schism</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">XII.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Alexander VI.: The Borgia-Pope</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_240">240</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">XIII.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">Julius II.: The Fighting Pope</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">XIV.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">Leo X. and the Dance of Death</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">XV.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">Paul III. and the Counter-Reformation</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_310">310</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">XVI.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">Sixtus V. and the New Church</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_330">330</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">XVII.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">Benedict XIV.: The Scholar-Pope</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_351">351</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">XVIII.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">Pius VII. and the Revolution</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_368">368</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">XIX.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">Pius IX.</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_391">391</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right">XX.</td><td>—<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">Leo XIII.</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_414">414</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td></td><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#LIST_OF_THE_POPES378">List of the Popes</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_443">443</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td></td><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></span></td> <td align="right"><a href="#Page_451">451</a></td></tr> -</table> - - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> -<p class="ph2">Crises in the History of the Papacy</p> - - - - - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></p> - -<p class="center">ST. CALLISTUS AND THE EARLY STRUGGLE</p> - - -<p class="drop">A<span class="uppercase">t</span> the close of the second century after the birth of Christ the -Christian community at Rome still saw no human prospect of that -spiritual mastery of the world which they trusted some day to attain. -They lived, for the most part, in the Transtiberina, the last and least -reputable section of the great city, beyond the shelter of its walls. -In that squalid and crowded district between the Janiculus and the -Tiber dwelt the fishers and tanners and other poor workers; and the -Jews, and others who shunned the light, found refuge among their lowly -tenements. Near that early ghetto, from which they had issued, most of -the Christians lingered. Still they were a small community, and still -the might of Rome bade them crouch trembling at the gates, lost among -the tombs and gardens of the Vatican or the dense poverty at the foot -of the Janiculus. Across the river they would see, above the fringe -of wharves and warehouses, the spreading line of the Roman people's -palaces, from the Theatre of Pompey to the Great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> Circus: perhaps -they would hear the roar of the lions which might at any time taste -Christian flesh. Beyond these was the seething popular quarter of the -Velabrum, sending up to heaven at night a confused murmur and a blaze -of light at which the Christians would cross themselves; and on either -side of the Velabrum, the stern guardians of its superstition, were the -hills which bore the gold-roofed temple of Jupiter and the marble city -of the Cćsars. More than one hundred and fifty years had passed since -the death of Christ, yet his followers waited without the gates, little -heeded by the million citizens of Rome.</p> - -<p>The old gods were dying, it is true. In many a cool <i>atrium</i> there -must have been some such discussion about the successor of Jupiter -as has been finely imagined by Anatole France; but assuredly not the -weirdest of the Syrian visionaries who abounded would have said that, -in a few centuries, those neglected fields beside the Neronian Circus -at the foot of the Vatican would become the centre of the world, and -that men and women would come from the farthest limits of the Empire to -kiss the bones of those obscure Christians. Men talked of the progress -of the cult of Mithra, which spread even to distant Eboracum, or the -success of the priests of Isis or of Cybele, but few thought about the -priests of Christ. Earlier in the century, Pliny had written to court -to say that he had found, spreading over his province, a sect named the -Christians, whose beliefs seemed to him "an immoderate superstition"; -though they had, he said, under pressure, abandoned their God in -crowds; and he had little doubt that he would extinguish the sect. Few -even of the Christians can have imagined that within two centuries -their cross would be raised above the proudest monuments of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> Rome, and -that the eagles of Jove and the rams of Mithra would lie in the dust.</p> - -<p>Toward the end of the second century the Roman Christians can hardly -have numbered twenty thousand. Dr. Döllinger estimates their number -at fifty thousand, but the letter of Bishop Cornelius, on which he -relies, belongs to a later date and is not accurately quoted by him.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> -The Bishop says that, in his time, the Roman Church had forty-four -priests, fourteen deacons and subdeacons, and ninety-four clerics in -minor orders. The crowd of acolytes and exorcists must not be regarded -in a modern sense; most of them would never be priests. At that time, -there was not a single public chapel in Rome and it would be an -anachronism to regard each of the thirty or forty priests of Rome as a -rector in charge of more than a thousand souls. The Christians gathered -stealthily in the houses of their better-endowed brethren to receive -the sacred elements from poor glass vessels, and Tertullian blushes to -learn that they are found among the panders and gamblers who have to -bribe the officials to overlook their illegal ways.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> The fact that -they supported fifteen hundred poor, sick, and widows need not surprise -us when we remember what an age of parasitism it was. At least a fourth -of the citizens of Rome lived on free rations and had free medical -service. There were, in fine, thirty years of development between the -time of Cornelius and the time of Callistus.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> - -<p>Yet, it was nearly a century and a half, tradition said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> since Peter -and Paul had baptized crowds on the banks of the Tiber. One cannot -today add anything to the discussion of that tradition and I will very -briefly state the evidence. The First Epistle of Peter—which is not -undisputed—says<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>: "The Church that is in Babylon saluteth you," -and Babylon is very plausibly understood to mean Rome. Next, about the -year 96, Clement of Rome, writing to the Corinthians, speaks vaguely -of a "martyrdom" of Peter and Paul, and seems to imply that it took -place at Rome.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> About the middle of the following century, we find -it believed in remote parts of the Church—by Papias in Hierapolis and -Dionysius at Corinth—that Peter had preached the Gospel at Rome.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> -Ignatius of Antioch also seems to imply that Peter and Paul founded -the Roman community.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Irenćus and Tertullian and later writers know -even more about it—the later the writer, the more he knows—but the -historian must hesitate to use their works. There is a respectable -early tradition that Peter and Paul preached the Gospel at Rome and -suffered there some kind of martyrdom, during or after the Neronian -persecution. Peter is not called "bishop" of Rome by any writer earlier -than the third century, and the belief that he ruled the Roman Church -for twenty-five years seems to be merely the outcome of some fanciful -calculations of Anti-Pope Hippolytus.</p> - -<p>Of the earlier bishops, Linus and Anacletus (or Anencletus), we know -only the names.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Then a faint<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> light is thrown on the metropolitan -Church by the letter of Clement, its third Bishop. We find an ordered -community, with bishop, priests, and deacons; perhaps we conceive it -more accurately if we say, with overseer, elders, and servants. Then -the mists thicken again and a line of undistinguished names is all that -we can discern until the consecration of Bishop Victor in the year 189.</p> - -<p>One would like to know more about Bishop Victor. He seems to have been -the first Pope, in the familiar sense of the word. "Pope" was, we -know, a common title of bishops until the sixth century, but Victor -is one of the makers of a distinctive Papacy. We shall, presently, -find Tertullian speaking, with his heaviest irony, of "the bishop of -bishops, the supreme pontiff," and, although he is probably referring -to Callistus, he is echoing the words of some other bishop. History -points to Victor, who peremptorily cut off the Eastern churches from -communion because they would not celebrate Easter when he did. They -were not much concerned, but Victor's premature assertion of leadership -marks the beginning of the Papacy.</p> - -<p>The Roman Church was wealthier than those of the East, or had a few -wealthy members in the city. It sent sums of money to more needy -communities and received flattering requests for advice. It was, -however, singularly lacking in intellectual distinction, and it -produced no scholar to refute the subtle Gnostics and fiery Montanists -who came to it. The waves of heresy which raged over the East broke -harmlessly on the Italian shore of Christendom. One must not imagine -that it was isolated from the East by difference of tongue. Until the -end of the third century, it was wholly Greek: more isolated from Rome -than from Corinth. Nor is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> it less inaccurate to say that the Latins -were more interested in administration than in speculation. There is -little trace of organization until the days of Callistus. One is more -disposed to conceive the Roman Church shivering in poverty amid the -wealth and culture of the metropolis. The disdainful language of the -intellectuals and the wonderful success of Stoicism in the second -century excluded it from the educated world; while its secrecy, its -stern abstinence from games and festivals, its scorn of the gods, and -the shadow of deadly illegality which brooded over it, made it less -successful in appealing to the people than the other Eastern religions.</p> - -<p>If, however, the Roman See made little impression in Rome, it made some -progress in the Church. As the fragments of Papias and Dionysius show, -Christians were saying, far away in the East, that it had been founded -by Peter; and the Gospels plainly made Peter the chief of the apostles. -The Roman See did not yet speak of having inherited the primacy of -Peter, and it had very little share in the prestige of Rome. It must -rise higher in the eyes of men, and at the end of the second century it -was rising. Marcia, the robust ex-slave who shared the brutal pleasures -of Commodus and was mistress of his harem of three hundred concubines, -had a grateful recollection of earlier Christian kindness, and she -secured peace and favour for the Church. Here it is that, for the first -time, a clear light falls upon the Christian community at Rome and upon -its bishops.</p> - -<p>In the year 217 (or 218), Bishop Callistus succeeded Bishop Zephyrin, -who had followed Victor. From the fourth century he has been counted -one of the greatest of the early Popes. Two of the historic cemeteries -bore<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> his name, and there were a Church of St. Callistus (or Calixtus, -as the Latins sometimes misspell it) and a Square of St. Callistus -in the Trastevere district. Martyrologies honoured him as a witness -to the faith, and (probably from the seventh century) the <i>Acta</i> of -his martyrdom, including a most impressive account of his virtues -and miracles, might be consulted in the archives of Sta. Maria in -Trastevere. From these materials, Moretti composed an eloquent -biography of the saint, and even the Bollandists, more discreetly, -and with disturbing hints that Christian scholars were saying naughty -things about the <i>Acta S. Callisti</i>, set their learned seal upon his -diploma of sanctity and martyrdom.</p> - -<p>Contemporary with Callistus, the saint and martyr, was Hippolytus, the -scholar and saint and martyr. They were the two shining jewels of the -Roman Church. The many works of Hippolytus had strangely disappeared, -and tradition was not even sure of which town he had been Bishop; but -there was evidence enough to connect him with the Roman Church and to -justify the claim that he was the Origen of the West. When, in 1551, -a broken marble statue of Hippolytus was discovered at Rome, it was -devoutly restored and set up in the Lateran Museum. And just three -hundred years afterwards, in 1851, there was given to the world a -lost work of the saintly scholar, from which it is plain that he was -the first Anti-Pope, and that the Pope whom he opposed and reviled -was Callistus. The first book of this work, the <i>Refutation of all -Heresies</i> (sometimes called the <i>Philosophoumena</i>), had long been -known; the manuscript copy of Books IV. to X. was found in a monastery -on Mount Athos in 1842. Now that the true character of Hippolytus is -known, some doubt has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> been cast upon his scholarship, but it was -considerable for his age and environment. He was one of the very few -scholars of the Roman Church during several centuries, and one chapter -of his work throws an interesting light on the person of Callistus and -on a remarkable phase of the development of the Papacy.</p> - -<p>The controversy about the authorship of the book and about the charges -against Callistus has brought to bear upon that period all the -available light; and the modern student will probably find the truth -somewhere between the extremes held by the contending historians of -the nineteenth century.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> De Rossi himself, indeed, while pretending -to support, entirely discredits the arguments with which Döllinger, in -his years of orthodoxy, sought to defend the impeccability of the Popes -and to prove the moral obliquity of all who opposed them. The Italian -archćologist, it is true, imputes to Hippolytus a malice which goes ill -with <i>his</i> reputation for sanctity, but perhaps we shall be able to -extricate ourselves from this painful dilemma without grave detriment -to the character of either saint.</p> - -<p>Callistus was, in the days of Commodus, a slave of the Christian -Carpophorus, according to the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i>.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> He was the -son of a certain Domitius<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> who lived in the Transtiberina. The master -entrusted the slave with money to open a bank, and the faithful put -their savings into it, but it became known after a time that Callistus -had—to quote the text literally—"brought all the money to naught -and was in difficulties." He fled to the Port of Rome, whence, after -leaping into the sea in despair, he was brought back to the house of -Carpophorus and put in the <i>pistrinum</i>, the domestic mill in which -slaves expiated their crimes. The faithful, prompted by Callistus, -begged his release on the ground that he had money on loan and could -repay. He had no money, however, and he could think of nothing better -than to make a disturbance in the synagogue on the Sabbath, for which -the Jews took him before the Prefect Fuscianus<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> and described him as -a Christian. He was scourged and was sent to the silver or iron mines -of Sardinia—the Siberia of the Empire—from which few returned. But, -shortly afterwards, Marcia obtained the release of the Christians, and -although Bishop Victor had not included the name of Callistus in the -list, Callistus persuaded the eunuch to insert it. Victor, however, -reflecting on the hostility of his victims, sent him to live, on a -pension provided by the Church, at Antium.</p> - -<p>This narrative has been subjected to the most meticulous criticism, -as if it were something novel or important to accuse a Pope of having -committed certain indiscretions in his youth. It suffices to say that, -while Döllinger is, in the end, reduced to claiming that Hippolytus -was probably not in Rome at the time, the more learned De Rossi is -so impressed by the minuteness and (as far as it can be checked) the -accuracy of the account<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> that he believes Hippolytus to have been a -deacon of the Church at the time and so to have had official knowledge -of the facts. The single point of any importance is open to a humane -interpretation. Did or did not Callistus embezzle the money? If he did, -how came he to be elected bishop? If he did not, how comes his sainted -rival to call him, as he does, a fraud and impostor? We may remember -that financial troubles of this kind are peculiarly open to opposite -interpretations. Hippolytus, Victor, and Carpophorus, it seems, took -the less charitable view; but it would not be unnatural for others to -persuade themselves, or be persuaded by Callistus, that he was merely -the victim of circumstances.</p> - -<p>Victor died in 198 and was succeeded by Zephyrin, "an ignorant and -illiterate man," says Hippolytus. Callistus, who had ceased to be a -slave when he was sentenced to penal servitude, was recalled to Rome -and, apparently, made first deacon (now called archdeacon) of the -Church. He was put in charge of a cemetery in the Appian Way which the -community had just secured, and this cemetery bears his name to this -day. Hippolytus, who was indignant, charges Callistus with ambition, -and says that Zephyrin was avaricious and open to bribes; which we may -humanely construe to mean that the able administration of Callistus -enabled the Bishop to live in some comfort. Nor need we despair of -finding a genial interpretation of his further charge, that the deacon -induced Zephyrin to meddle with questions of dogma, and then, behind -the Bishop's back, diplomatically sympathized with both the contending -parties. The truth is that the Latins were sorely puzzled by the -subtleties with which the Greeks were slowly and fiercely shaping the -dogma that the Father<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> and Son were one nature, yet two persons, and -both Zephyrin and Callistus stumbled.</p> - -<p>Callistus is further described as assisting Zephyrin in the "coercion," -or, as others translate, the "organization" of the clergy, and this -point is of greater interest. As far as one can construe the barbarous -Latin of the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i>, Zephyrin decreed that the priests -were not to consecrate the communion for the people. The sacred -elements were to be brought to them, on glass patens, from the altar -at which the bishop said mass. Probably this is the "coercion" to -which Hippolytus refers, as the aim was, plainly, to emphasize the -subordination of the clergy. I would further venture to suggest, -against the learned Father Grisar, that this was also the occasion when -the sphere of the Roman bishop was divided into twenty-five <i>tituli</i> -(or parishes). The <i>Liber Pontificalis</i> describes how Urban I., the -successor of Callistus, substituted silver for glass vessels at the -altar, and expressly speaks of "twenty-five patens."</p> - -<p>We must conclude that Callistus was able as well as persuasive, and -we are not surprised to learn that, when Zephyrin died in 217 (or, -according to another account, 218) he was chosen Bishop. It was -customary, until long afterwards, to choose the bishop from the body of -deacons, but Hippolytus and his friends were indignant at the election -of the ex-slave, and a schism occurred. Hippolytus had the support of -the minority of precisians and correct believers: Callistus was the -favourite of the majority. Epithets of which the modern mind can hardly -appreciate the gravity were hurled from camp to camp. "Patripassian," -thundered Hippolytus; "Ditheist" retorted Callistus. It is quite clear -that the scholar set up a rival See at Rome. He says that Callistus, -when he was elected, "thought"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> that he had attained his ambition, and -this must mean that he claimed himself to be the true Bishop of Rome. -Later tradition, concealing the ugly schism, left the bishopric of -Hippolytus in the air, or placed it at the Port of Rome, twenty miles -away. But this picture of daily combats implies that both bishops were -in Rome, and the little flock was rent and agitated by the first Papal -schism.</p> - -<p>The dogmatic issue between the rivals cannot profitably be discussed -here. The Church was then in an early phase of the great Trinitarian -controversy, and, under Victor and Zephyrin, the Roman clergy had -favoured the simpler, or unitarian, view. Sabellius, who has given his -name to one form of unitarianism, was in Rome and was supported by the -deacon Callistus: indeed, his rival says that it was Callistus who -seduced Sabellius. However that may be, Callistus shrewdly perceived -he could not meet his learned opponent on that ground. He disowned -Sabellius, and soon lost himself in a maze of technical theology into -which I will not venture to follow him. To theologians I leave also the -discussion of the charge that Callistus favoured the rebaptizing of -converted heretics.</p> - -<p>It is the charges of a practical or disciplinary nature which best -illustrate the character of Callistus and make his Pontificate a -milestone in the history of the Papacy. When we have made every -possible allowance for exaggeration, they show that Callistus infused a -remarkable spirit of liberalism into the Christian discipline and made -smooth for the tender feet of the Romans the rough ways of his Church.</p> - -<p>The first charge is that Callistus admitted grave sinners to communion, -if they did penance. The ancient discipline is well known. Those who -committed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> one "mortal" sin after baptism could never again be admitted -to communion. They were the pariahs of the community, bearing in the -eyes of all the ineffaceable brand of their sin. There was as yet no -central power to define mortal sins, but sins of the flesh were, beyond -doubt, in that category, and, as such were not uncommon at Rome, a -rigorous insistence on the old discipline hampered the growth of the -Church. Callistus, with princely liberality, abolished it. "I hear," -says Tertullian, "that an edict has gone forth. The supreme Pontiff, -that is to say, the Bishop of Bishops, announces: I will absolve -even those who are guilty of adultery and fornication, if they do -penance."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> So the narrow gates were opened a little wider to the -warm-blooded Romans, and the Church grew.</p> - -<p>But, while modern sentiment will genially applaud this act of the first -liberal Pope, the fifth charge in the indictment, which I take up next, -seems graver. The Greek text of Hippolytus is here particularly corrupt -and ambiguous, but the translation given by the Rev. J.M. Macmahon in -the <i>Ante-Nicene Library</i> is generally faithful:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>For even also he permitted females, if they were unwedded and burned -with passion at an age at all events unbecoming [more probably, at a -seasonable age], or [and] if they were not disposed to overturn their -dignity through a legal marriage, that they might have whomsoever they -would choose as a bedfellow, whether a slave or free [freedman],<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> and -that they, though not legally married, might consider such an one as a -husband.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p></blockquote> - -<p>The Bishop goes on to describe in technical language, which need not be -reproduced here, how the practice of abortion spread among Christian -ladies as a result of this license.</p> - -<p>The apparent gravity of the charge has, however, so far disappeared -since the days of Döllinger that we are now asked to admire the bold -and exalted charity of Callistus. He is, of course, referring to the -Roman law which forbade the widow or daughter of a senator, under -pain of losing her dignity of <i>clarissima</i>, to marry a free-born man -of lower condition; a slave or freedman she could not validly marry. -There cannot have been very many ladies of senatorial rank in the -Church at that time, seeing that, seventy years after the conversion -of Constantine, St. Augustine found "nearly the whole of the nobility" -still pagan.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> There were, however, some, as the inscriptions in -the Catacombs show, and their position was painful. They must either -mate with a Christian slave or freedman, and be regarded by the law -and their neighbours as living in concubinage: or marry a free-born -Christian of low degree and thus forfeit their rank: or devote their -virginity or their widowhood to God. The Church was concerned that they -should not marry pagan senators, who would scoff at their superstitions -and would dissipate their fortunes. Callistus told them that he would -recognize as valid in conscience unions with slaves or freedmen -which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> State did not countenance. The number of ladies to whom -the license extended must have been small, and Hippolytus evidently -exaggerates the occasional scandals which followed. The impartial -historian, however, will hardly regard the action of Callistus as a -humanitarian protest against caste-distinctions. Such distinctions were -maintained by the Church for centuries afterwards in its legislation -about the clergy, and, on the other hand, the measure was profitable to -the Church. In practice, indeed, these secret marriages would easily -lead to disorder. A Christian lady would, if she were to keep her union -secret, merely choose a "husband" among her slaves or freedmen, and -would be tempted to use illicit means when her "marriage" threatened to -be exposed too plainly to pagan eyes.</p> - -<p>The other charges against Callistus show a general policy of -liberality. He decreed that a bishop who was convicted of mortal sin -was not necessarily to be deposed: he permitted men who had been twice -or thrice married to become deacons or priests: he directed that "men -in orders" must not be disturbed if they married. Some writers think -that, in the latter case, he was referring only to men in minor orders, -but that would not have been a daring innovation. Hippolytus, in fact, -makes his policy and his character clearer by telling us, indignantly, -how Callistus searched the Scriptures for proof that the Church must -be wide enough to embrace both saints and sinners. There had been -clean and unclean animals in the ark: Christ had said that the tares -must grow up with the wheat: and so on. His reputation for liberality -spread so far in the Church that, while Tertullian grumbled in Africa, -a quaint Syrian charlatan named Alcibiades was attracted from the East -to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> Rome. He brought a mystic work, given to him by two angels of the -imposing height of ninety-six miles each, and he proclaimed that his -new form of baptism absolved even from certain gross sins which he very -freely and suggestively described.</p> - -<p>The Church grew during these years of peace, of able organization, and -of humanization. Callistus "made a <i>basilica</i> beyond the Tiber"—the -<i>Liber Pontificalis</i> says—and there is an interesting passage in the -<i>Historia Augusta</i> which seems to refer to this first Christian chapel -at Rome. The biographer of Alexander Severus says (c. xliii.) that the -Emperor wished to give the Christians the right to have public chapels, -but his officials protested that "the temples would be deserted—all -Rome would become Christian." This is obviously a piece of later -Christian fiction. In a more plausible paragraph, however, Lampridius -tells us that the Christians occupied a "public place," to which the -innkeepers laid claim, and the Emperor decided that "it was better -for God to be worshipped there in some form than for the innkeepers -to have it." It is probable enough that this inn is the <i>taverna -meritoria</i> (wine shop and restaurant) referred to by Dio Cassius<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>: -among the portents which accompanied the struggles of Octavian a -stream of oil had burst forth in this hostel in the Transtiberina. -We know from Orosius<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> that the Christians claimed the occurrence -in later years as a presage of the coming of Christ. The age, if not -the disputed ownership, of the place suggests a dilapidated, if not -deserted, building; and if we may in one detail trust that interesting -romance, the <i>Acta S. Callisti</i>, we have a picture of the Christians of -the third century meeting at last, under their enterprising<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> Bishop, -in the upper or dining room of this humble old inn in the despised -Transtiberina. This was the high-water mark of a century and a half of -progress.</p> - -<p>Only one other act is authentically recorded of the brief rule of -Bishop Callistus: he directed his people to fast on three Sabbaths in -the year. This may seem inconsistent with his genial policy, but we -must remember that rigorists abounded at Rome and demanded sterner -ways. Callistus, apparently, merely sanctioned some slight traditional -observance and thus virtually relieved the faithful of others.</p> - -<p>It may be fascinating to conjecture what so enterprising a Pope would -have done with the ecclesiastical system if he had lived long enough, -but Callistus died, according to the best authorities, in the year 222, -four or five years after his consecration. He did not die a martyr. In -opening his account of the career of Callistus, the rival Bishop says: -"This man suffered martyrdom when Fuscianus was Prefect, and this was -the sort of martyrdom he suffered." It is inconceivable that Hippolytus -should use such language in Rome after the death of Callistus if the -Pope had really suffered for the faith. No Christian was executed at -Rome under Alexander Severus. We must suppose that after his death, if -not during his life, Callistus was applauded as a martyr because of his -banishment to Sardinia, and probably this gave rise to the legend of -his martyrdom, which first appears, as a bald statement, in the fourth -century. The <i>Acta S. Callisti</i> may be traced to about the seventh -century, and may be a pious contribution to the rejoicing of the -faithful at the transfer of his bones to Sta. Maria in Trastevere.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> -The recklessness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> with which the writer describes the gentle and -friendly Alexander Severus as a truculent enemy of the Christians was -noted even by medićval historians, and the narrative is now regarded -as, in the words of Döllinger, "a piece of fiction from beginning to -end." Yet Father Grisar<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> describes Callistus as a martyr.</p> - -<p>Hippolytus maintained his little schism under Urban I. and Pontianus, -while the orthodox community prospered in the sun of imperial favour. -Then the grim Maximinus succeeded Alexander on the throne, and the -clouds gather again over Christendom. We just discern Pope and -Anti-Pope, Pontianus and Hippolytus, passing together to the deadly -mines of Sardinia. Later legend generously reconciled the rivals and -gave to both of them the martyr's crown; but the authority is late and -worthless. In whatever manner he ended his career, Rome was too proud -of its one scholar to darken his memory, and the names of Hippolytus -and Callistus shone together in ecclesiastical literature until that -fateful discovery among the dusty parchments of the monks of Mount -Athos.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> It is preserved in Eusebius, <i>Ecclesiastical History</i>, -vi., 43.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>De Fuga a Persecutione</i>, xiii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> The number of interments in the Catacombs cannot very -well be regarded as evidence. Archćologists differ by millions in -estimating the number, and the populous Church after Constantine still -buried in the Catacombs, at least until the Pontificate of Damasus.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> V., 13.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Epistle</i>, v.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> See Eusebius, ii., 15, and iii., 40, for the words of -Papias, and ii., 25, for the testimony of Dionysius.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Letter to Romans</i>, iv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Even the names and order are given differently in early -writers. I follow, as is now usual, the order given by Epiphanius -(xxvii., 6) and Irenćus.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Bunsen's four-volume <i>Hippolytus and his Age</i> (1852) was -sharply attacked by Döllinger (<i>Hippolytus and Callistus</i>, English -translation, 1876) and more judiciously handled by G.B. de Rossi in his -<i>Bulletino di Archeologia Cristiana</i> (1866, pp. 1-33). Milman (<i>History -of Latin Christianity</i>, vol. i.) and Ch. Wordsworth (<i>St. Hippolytus -and the Church of Rome</i>, 1853) supported Bunsen. The work itself is -translated in <i>The Ante-Nicene Library</i>, vol. vi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> This anonymous catalogue of the Popes, which I must often -quote, is a quaint mixture of accurate archives and inaccurate rumours. -The first part seems to have been written in the sixth century, and -it was continued as a semi-official record. See the Introduction to -Duchesne's edition.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Fuscianus was Prefect between the years 186 and 189, so -that we have an approximate date of these events.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>De Pudicitia</i>, i. Döllinger, on no apparent ground, -and against all probability, refers this to Zephyrin, and some older -writers think that the indignant Puritan is quoting an African bishop. -We must agree with De Rossi that Tertullian has Callistus in mind, -especially when we find Hippolytus saying that he was "the first" to do -this. An earlier attempt of an Eastern bishop might easily have escaped -Hippolytus.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Vol. vi., p. 346. This is a fair, if inelegant, rendering -of the Greek text given by Duncker and Schneidewin in their edition -of the <i>Refutation</i>, and it corresponds with the Latin translation -given by those editors and with De Rossi. Döllinger is alone in his -interpretation.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>Confessions</i>, viii., 2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> XLVIII.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> VI., 18.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Neither this church nor the Basilica S. Callisti can -have been the original meeting-place, though the latter may have been -founded on it.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>History of Rome and the Popes in the Early Middle Ages</i>, -i,. 313.</p> - -</div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></p> - -<p class="center">ST. DAMASUS AND THE TRIUMPH</p> - - -<p class="drop">I<span class="uppercase">n</span> the year 355, the Christians of the imperial city startled their -neighbours by a series of violent and threatening demonstrations. Armed -crowds of them filled the streets, and monks and sacred virgins hid -themselves from the riot. An inquiring pagan would have learned that -the Emperor Constantius, who had waded to supremacy through a stream -of blood, was attempting to force on their Bishop and themselves the -damnable heresy of Arius. A few weeks before, Constantius had sent -his eunuch with rich presents to Liberius, suavely asking him to -condemn a certain fiery Athanasius who resisted the heresy. Liberius -had courageously refused, and, when the eunuch had cunningly left the -gifts beside the tomb of St. Peter, the Bishop had had them cast out -of the church. When the exasperated eunuch had returned to the Emperor -at Milan, the Christian community had prepared for drastic action, and -it was presently known that the civic officials at Rome had received -orders to seize the Bishop and send him to Milan. The Christians -threatened resistance, and for a few days the city was enlivened by -their turbulence. At last, Liberius was dragged from his house at night -and taken to Milan; and, since he bravely resisted the Emperor to his -face, he was sent on to remote and inhospitable Thrace.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> Then the -clergy, and as many of the faithful as could enter, gathered in their -handsome new <i>basilica</i> on the site of the Laterani Palace and swore -a great oath that they would know no other bishop as long as Liberius -lived. One, at least, of the clergy set out—no doubt amidst the cheers -of the people—to accompany his Bishop into exile; this was the deacon -Damasus, who was destined to be the next Pope of prominence in the -Roman calendar.</p> - -<p>The scene reminds us forcibly of the dramatic transformation which -had taken place since, a century before, Pope and Anti-Pope had been -sent in chains to the mines. For fifty years after that date the -<i>Liber Pontificalis</i> is a necrology, a chronicle of gloomy life in -the Catacombs. Eleven Popes out of the thirteen who followed Urban I. -are—most of them wrongly—described as martyrs, and the record of -their actions shrinks to a few lines. At last, with Bishop Eusebius, -the chronicle brightens and lengthens; and then, under the name of -Silvester, it swells to thirty pages and glows with tokens of imperial -generosity. The darkest hour of the Church has suddenly changed into a -dazzling splendour.</p> - -<p>The historical revolution reflected in this early chronicle of the -Popes is well known. For eighty years after the death of Callistus, the -hope of the faithful was painfully strained. The Decian persecution -(249-251) sent some to the heroic death of the martyr, many to the -corrupt officials who sold false certificates of apostasy, and very -many back to the pagan temples. Then another schism and another -Anti-Pope appeared; and the alliance with St. Cyprian and the African -bishops, which had at first promised aid against the schismatics, ended -in a contemptuous repudiation by the African<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> bishops of Rome's claim -to jurisdiction. The Valerian persecution dissolved the feud in blood, -and, then, forty years of peace enabled the Roman Christians to recover -and to extend their domain. Two or three small <i>basilicć</i> were erected -or adapted. But, in the year 303, the new hope was chilled by the -dreaded summons of the persecutor, and, for the last time, stern-set -men and gentle maidens set out to face the headsman. Rome did not -suffer much in the next seven years of persecution, but one can imagine -the feelings of the faithful when they saw century thus succeed century -without bringing any larger hope even of a free place in the sun. And -then, in rapid succession, came the triumph of Constantine, the issue -of their charter of liberty (the Edict of Milan, 313), the imperial -profession of Christianity, the grant to the Christian clergy of the -privileges of Roman priests, and the building of large <i>basilicć</i> -and scattering of gold and silver over their marble altars. Even the -transfer of the court to Constantinople hardly dimmed the new hope. -It remained "a new form of ambition to desert the altars," the pagans -murmured, and no one dare thwart the zeal of the clergy.</p> - -<p>So, by the year 355, when deacon Damasus makes an inglorious entrance -into history, Rome had a large Christian community and at least half -a dozen churches. But Christendom was now overcast by the triumph of -Arianism and an Arian Emperor, and the struggle put an insupportable -strain on the character of the faithful. At first, the prospect at Rome -was brave and inspiring. They would all be true to their martyr-bishop; -with that thrilling cry in his ears the deacon set out for Thrace. In a -very short time, he was back in Rome, having changed his mind: "fired -with ambition," his critics said. And, in another short time, the chief -deacon Felix,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> who also had taken the oath, listened to the Arian -court and became Bishop of Rome; and Damasus and most of the clergy -transferred their loyalty to him. Then, in two or three years, Liberius -grew tired of Thrace, and signed some sort of heretical formula, and -came back to Rome; and the bloody struggle of Pope and Anti-Pope led to -a train of sorrows which darken the life of St. Damasus.</p> - -<p>He had been born, probably at Rome, though his father is said to have -been a Spaniard, about the year 304.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> The father had been a priest -in the service of the little <i>basilica</i> of St. Lawrence in the city—I -am not impressed by Marucchi's contention that he was a bishop—and had -brought up Damasus in the same service. The mother Laurentia was pious: -the sister Irene consecrated her virginity to God. Damasus became, -and remained, a deacon, and was at least in his fiftieth year when he -turned his back upon the heroic road to Thrace. He was popular in the -new Christian Rome, which Jerome describes so darkly; envious folk -called him "the tickler of matrons' ears," and even worse. But we lose -sight of him again for ten years after his first appearance.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> - -<p>The events of those ten years are, however, important for the -understanding of Damasus and his Church, and must be briefly reviewed. -That the clergy had, in the presence of the people, sworn to be true to -Liberius, and that the majority of them broke their oath, is confirmed -by St. Jerome in his Chronicle. Jerome, a decisive authority, tells -also of the fall of Liberius, and this is also recorded by Athanasius, -who writes the whole story. When Felix consented to be made bishop, -the people were so infuriated that he had to be consecrated by the -Emperor's Arian bishops in the palace: a group of eunuchs nominally -representing the people, who raged without. Most of the clergy accepted -Felix, but a minority, with the mass of the people, refused to do so, -and, for two years, he gave his blessing to very thin congregations, -or to empty benches. Then the Emperor came to Rome, and an imposing -deputation of noble Christian ladies prevailed on him to recall -Liberius. The Great Circus provided a new sensation for its 400,000 -idlers when an imperial messenger announced that henceforward Liberius -and Felix would rule their respective flocks side by side in Rome. -"Two circus-factions, so two bishops," the pagan majority ironically -replied: but the Christian laity ominously thundered, "One God, one -Christ, one Bishop." So when Liberius, "overcome by the weariness of -exile and embracing the heretical perversity" (says St. Jerome in his -Chronicle), returned to Rome, he was received "as a conqueror." His -loyal flock, finely indifferent to the way in which he had purchased -his return, lined the route as men had done to welcome a triumphing -general in the old days.</p> - -<p>This must have been about the end of 357 or the beginning of 358, -and we shall not dwell on the scenes which followed. Felix and his -followers were driven<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> out of the city. Getting reinforcements, -apparently, they returned and took possession of the Basilica Julii -in the Transtiberina; but the mass of the faithful, led by Christian -senators or officers, took the church by storm, and again swept them -out of Rome. The <i>Liber Pontificalis</i> records that a number of the -clergy were slain in the battle, and, becoming hopelessly confused -between Pope and Anti-Pope, it awards these followers of Felix the -palm of martyrdom. But it appears that the Felicians were strong, and -for six years held several of the smaller churches; rival clerics and -laymen could not meet in the baths and streets without violent results. -However, Felix died in 365, and Liberius wisely adopted his clerical -supporters.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> - -<p>Damasus remains in decent obscurity during these years, and we may -assume that he repented his mistake, and renewed his allegiance to -Liberius. But Liberius followed his rival in the next year (366) and -the real career of Damasus opened. A well-known passage in the <i>Res -Gestć</i> of the contemporary pagan Ammianus Marcellinus<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> tells how, by -that time, the Bishop of Rome scoured the city in a gorgeous chariot, -gave banquets which excelled those of the Emperor, and received the -smiles and rich presents of all the fine ladies of Rome; and the -querulous old soldier is not surprised, he says, that Damasus and his -rival Ursicinus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> (as the name runs in official documents) were "swollen -with ambition" for the seat, and stirred up riots so fierce that the -Prefect was driven out of Rome, and, after one fight, a hundred and -thirty-seven corpses were left on the floor of one of the "Christian -conventicles." Jerome,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> Rufinus,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> and other ecclesiastical -writers of the time place the fatal rioting beyond question, and we may -therefore, with a prudent reserve, follow the closer description given -in the <i>Libellus</i>.</p> - -<p>As soon as the death of Liberius became known, in September, 366, -the remnant of his original supporters met in the Basilica Julii, -across the river, and elected the deacon Ursicinus, who was at once -consecrated by a provincial bishop. It was an act of defiance to -Damasus, the popular candidate, whom they were determined to exclude. -Then, say these writers, Damasus gathered and bribed a mob, armed with -staves, and for three days there was a bloody fight for the possession -of the basilica. A week after the death of Liberius (or on October -1st), Damasus marched with his mob, now effectively reinforced by -gladiators, to the Lateran Basilica, and was consecrated there. After -this, he bribed the Prefect Viventius to expel seven priests of the -rival party, but the people rescued them and conducted them to the -Basilica Liberii, or Basilica Sicinini (now Sta. Maria Maggiore), in -the poor quarter across the river. In this chapel the rebels were -at worship in the early morning of October 26th when a crowd of -gladiators, charioteers, diggers (or guardians of the Catacombs), and -other ruffians (in the pay of Damasus, of course) fell on them with -staves, swords, and axes, and an historic fight ensued. The Damasians -stormed the barricaded door, fired the sacred building, mounted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> the -roof, and flung tiles on the Ursicinians. In the end the corpses of one -hundred and sixty—Ammianus was too modest—followers of Ursicinus, -of both sexes, lay on the floor of the blood-splashed chapel, and -Ursicinus and his chief supporters were sent into exile.</p> - -<p>Such is the tale of woe of the priests Faustinus and Marcellinus, and -there is no doubt whatever that for months the most savage encounters -desecrated the chapels and Catacombs of Rome. As to whether Damasus was -or was not elected in his Church of St. Lawrence in the city <i>before</i> -the election of Ursicinus the authorities are not agreed; and it must -be left to the decision of the reader whether those who secured his -triumph were really a hired mob of gladiators and diggers or a troop of -pious and indignant admirers. Jerome, whose modern biographer, Amédée -Thierry,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> plausibly contends that he was studying in Rome at the -time, expressly says that the followers of his patron Damasus were the -aggressors, and that many men and women were slain. Rufinus is more -favourable to the cause of Damasus, but he admits that the churches -were "filled with blood."</p> - -<p>The Emperor seems not to have been convinced by the report of the -triumphant faction, and in the following year he permitted Ursicinus -and his followers to return to Rome. But the trouble was renewed, and -the Anti-Pope was again banished. His obstinate admirers then met in -the Catacombs, and another fierce and fatal fight occurred in the -cemetery of St. Agnes, where the servants of Damasus surprised them. -It is clear that Damasus had the support of the wealthy and the favour -of the pagan officials, but his rival must have controlled a very -large, if not the larger, part of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> people. The forces engaged, -and the growth of the Christian body, may be estimated from the fact -that, as Ammianus says, the Prefect Viventius was compelled to retire -to the suburbs. He was promptly replaced, in the attempt to control -the rioters, by the ruthless and impartial Maximinus, the Prefect of -the Food-distribution; and clerics and laymen were indiscriminately -put to the torture and punished. At length, in 368, one of the last of -the sober old Roman patricians, Prćtextatus, became Prefect, and put -an end to the riots. The reflections of Prćtextatus and Symmachus and -other cultivated pagans are not recorded, but we are told by St. Jerome -that, when Damasus endeavoured to convert the Prefect, he mischievously -replied: "Make me Bishop of Rome and I will be a Christian."</p> - -<p>Ursicinus went to din his grievances into the ears of provincial -bishops, and there seems to be good ground for the statement in the -<i>Libellus</i> that some of these were indignant with Damasus. It is -at least clear that Damasus went on to obtain from the Emperor a -concession of the most far-reaching character. The imperial rescript -making this concession—one of the really important steps in the -history of the Papacy and of the Church—has strangely disappeared, -but we find the bishops of a later Roman synod (in 378 or 379) writing -to Gratian and Valentinian that, when Ursicinus was banished, the -Emperors had decreed that "the Roman bishop should have power to -inquire into the conduct of the other priests of the churches, and -that affairs of religion should be judged by the pontiff of religion -with his colleagues."<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> A later rescript of Gratian indicates that -the Bishop of Rome was to have five or seven colleagues with him in -these inquir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>ies<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a>; and further light is thrown on the matter by St. -Ambrose who observes<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> that, by a decree of Valentinian, a defendant -in a religious dispute was to have a judge of a fitting character (a -cleric) and of at least equal rank. Possibly the truculent impartiality -of Maximinus was the immediate occasion for asking this privilege, and -Valentinian would not find it unseemly that bishops should adjudicate -on these new types of quarrels. But we have in this last document -the germ of great historical developments. The clergy were virtually -withdrawn from secular jurisdiction; the spiritual court was set up in -face of the secular. Moreover, if defendants were to be judged only by -their equals, who was to judge the Bishop of Rome?</p> - -<p>Damasus at once used his powers. He convoked a synod at Rome, and we -may realize the enormous progress that the Church had made in fifty -years when we learn that ninety-three Italian bishops responded to his -summons. On a charge of favouring Arianism, which seems to cloak a -real charge of favouring Ursicinus, the bishops of Parma and Puteoli -were deposed by the synod, and they appealed in vain to the court. -Henceforward bishops—under the presidency of the Bishop of Rome—were -to judge bishops. The cultivated and courtly Auxentius of Milan was -next condemned, but he was too secure in the favour of the Empress to -do more than smile. Neither he nor his great successor, St. Ambrose, -acknowledged any authority over them on the part of the Roman bishop.</p> - -<p>From this synod, moreover, the bishops wrote to the Emperor to ask that -secular officials should be instructed to enforce their jurisdiction -and sentences, and we shall hardly be unjust if we suspect the direct -or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> indirect suggestion of Damasus in their further requests. They -asked that bishops might be tried <i>either</i> by the Bishop of Rome <i>or</i> -by a council of fifteen bishops, and that the Bishop of Rome himself -might, "if his case were not laid before an (episcopal) council," -defend himself before the Imperial Council.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> This bold attempt of -the Roman bishop to judge all bishops, yet be judged by none, seems -to have displeased the Emperor, who may have consulted the Bishop of -Milan. We have, at least, no indication that the privilege was granted. -But the other points were granted, and instructions were issued to -the secular officers, in Gaul as well as in Italy, apprising them of -the juridical autonomy of the Church and of their duty to enforce its -decisions. Out of his troubles Damasus had won a most important step in -the making of the Papacy.</p> - -<p>Unfriendly critics might suggest that Damasus paid a price for these -powers. A curious passage in the historian Socrates<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> tells us that, -in the year 370, Valentinian decreed that every man might henceforward -marry two wives. The statement is often rejected as preposterous, -but we know that Valentinian had, shortly before, divorced his wife, -Severa, in favour of the more comely Justina, and it is probable enough -that he passed a law of divorce. The learned Tillemont blushes when -he finds no ecclesiastical protest at the time against this flagrant -return to pagan morals.</p> - -<p>However that may be, Damasus, from his palace by the Lateran Basilica, -continued to strengthen his new authority and to regulate the -disordered Church. Rome still harboured numbers of rebels, and they -seem to have caused him serious annoyance by a persistent charge that, -in earlier years, he had sinned with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> Roman matron. A converted -and relapsed Jew was put forward as the chief witness to the charge, -and, when the young Emperor Gratian had failed to impress Rome by -his personal assurance that Damasus was innocent, a Roman synod of -forty-four bishops professed to investigate and dismiss the accusation. -Ursicinus was now, however, living at Milan, and it is not implausibly -suggested that his insistence made some impression on the puritanical -young Emperor. The case was submitted to the Council of Aquileia in -380, at which St. Ambrose presided, and the bishops declared the -innocence of Damasus and demanded the secular punishment of his -accusers, who were now scattered over Europe. The Roman rebels then -masked their hostility by joining an eccentric, though orthodox, sect -in the capital whose ascetic leader bore the name of Lucifer. On these -Luciferians in turn the hand of Damasus fell with ruthless severity. -Their renowned Macarius, the champion faster of the time outside the -Egyptian desert, was physically dragged into court and banished, and -the "police" pursued them from one secret meeting-place to another. -It is at this time that Faustinus and Marcellinus, who had joined the -rigorous sect, addressed their <i>Libellus</i> to the Emperors.</p> - -<p>Over the remainder of Italy and over Gaul Damasus did not press the -virtual primacy which he had won from the imperial authorities, and the -later language of Leo and Gregory makes it advisable for us to grasp -clearly the situation in the fourth century. There was no question of -Papal supremacy. No important decision was reached by Damasus apart -from a synod, and the See of Milan was not regarded as subordinate in -authority to that of Rome; though St. Ambrose naturally expressed a -peculiar respect for the doctrinal tradition of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> a church that had been -founded by the great apostles. When the Spanish Priscillianists applied -to Italy for aid, they appealed, says Sulpicius Severus, "to the <i>two</i> -bishops who had the highest authority at that time." When the great -struggle with the pagan senators over the statue of Victory took place -in 382, it was Ambrose who championed Christianity, Damasus merely -sending to him the Roman petition. But Damasus knew the theoretical -strength of his position, and knew, as a rule, when to enforce it. In -378, the Emperors severed Illyricum (Greece, Epirus, Thessaly, and -Macedonia) from the Western Empire. Damasus at once contrived that -its bishops should look not to the Eastern churches but to himself -for direction and support, and from that time onward the Bishop of -Thessalonica became the "Vicar" of the Bishop of Rome.</p> - -<p>We must leave this vague and imperfect primacy in the West, with its -secular foundations, and turn to the more interesting and adventurous -course of the diplomacy of Damasus in the East. The narrow limits -within which each of these sketches must be confined forbid me to -attempt to depict the extraordinary confusion of the Eastern Church. It -must suffice to say, in few words, that the struggle against paganism -was almost lost in the fiery struggle against heresy, and that the hand -of the Arian Valens smote the orthodox as violently and persistently -as the hand of any pagan emperor had done. The various refinements -of the Arian heresy, the lingering traces of old heresies, and the -vigorous beginnings of new heresies, rent each church into factions as -violent as those of Rome, and made each important See the theatre of -a truculent rivalry. Constantinople, or New Rome as it loved to call -itself, was the natural centre of the Eastern religious world, but it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> -was overshadowed by the Arian court and its growing pretensions were -watched by the apostolic churches of Antioch and Alexandria almost as -jealously as by Old Rome. The triumph over paganism had, before it was -half completed, given place to a dark and sanguinary confusion, from -the shores of the Euxine to the sands of the Thebaid.</p> - -<p>In 371 St. Basil appealed to Damasus for assistance. He sent the -deacon Dorotheus with a letter<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> asking the Italians to send to the -East visitors who might report to them the condition of the churches. -Damasus, not flattered by the lowliness of the embassy or by the -smallness of the request, and still much occupied in the West, merely -sent his deacon Sabinus. To a further impassioned appeal from Basil -he gave no clearer promise of aid, and Basil indignantly observed -that it was useless to appeal to "a proud and haughty man who sits on -a lofty throne and cannot hear those who tell him the truth on the -ground below."<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> Basil made further futile appeals to the West, -though not to Damasus, and at length, in 381, the Eastern bishops met -in the Council of Constantinople, discussed their own affairs, and, -in a famous canon, awarded the See of Constantinople a primacy in the -East. Shortly afterwards a synod was held in Italy, under Ambrose, -and it sent to the Emperor Theodosius a letter in which the concern -of the Italians was plainly expressed.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> The bishops ask Theodosius -to assist in convoking an Ecumenical Council at Rome, and say that -"it seems not unworthy that they [the Eastern bishops] should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> submit -to the Bishop of Rome and the other Italian bishops"; though they "do -not claim any prerogative of judgment." It is interesting to note at -this stage how the Bishop of Rome does not yet stand apart from the -other Italian bishops or claim jurisdiction over the East. In a letter -written by Damasus somewhere about this time to certain oriental -bishops, there is question of "reverence for the Apostolic See" and -of the foundation of that See by Peter, but such language is rare and -premature, and is not implausibly ascribed to St. Jerome, who was then -at Rome.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> To the Eastern emperor and to the Eastern patriarchs it is -not addressed.</p> - -<p>Theodosius ignored the request, and sanctioned the holding of another -Council at Constantinople. The Westerns had, in the meantime, announced -an Ecumenical Council at Rome for the summer of 382, and invited their -Eastern brethren. From one cause or other, the proceedings at Rome were -delayed, and, while the Italians still anxiously awaited the response -to their invitation, a letter came with the message that the Eastern -bishops had settled the questions in dispute, and they regretted that -they had not "the wings of a dove" in order that they might fly from -"the great city of Constantinople" to "the great city of Rome." The -letter is a model of polite and exquisite irony.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> The statesmanship -of Damasus had hopelessly miscarried, and the Eastern and Western -branches of Christendom were farther than ever from uniting under his -presidency.</p> - -<p>A more intimate aspect of the character of Damasus is disclosed when -we consider the condition of the Roman clergy during his Pontificate. -It almost suffices to recall that an imperial rescript of the year 370 -forbade<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> priests and monks to visit the houses of widows and orphans, -and declared that legacies to them were invalid. St. Jerome himself -deplores that there were solid reasons for thus depriving the clergy -of a privilege which every gladiator enjoyed, and that the law was -shamefully frustrated by donations.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> Indeed, in 372, the law was -extended to nuns and bishops, and for nearly a hundred years the Roman -clergy bore the stigma which was implied by such a prohibition.</p> - -<p>Jerome's letters ruthlessly depict the condition of the Roman -community. Fresh from his austerities in the desert of Chalcidia, the -impulsive monk was as ready to denounce vice as to encourage virtue, -and evidences of singular laxity mingle with heroic virtue in his vivid -pages. On the one hand he directed, in the sobered palace of Marcella -on the Aventine, a group of noble dames in the practice of the most -rigorous piety and the cultivation of sacred letters. The populace even -threatened to fling him into the river, when the lovely and high-born -Blesilla terminated her austerities by a premature death, and even -Christian writers fiercely contested this introduction into Rome of -the ideals of the Egyptian desert. But, on the other hand, Jerome's -directions to his pupils incidentally betray that, beyond his little -school of virtue and learning, he saw nothing but sin and worldliness. -In plain and crude speech he warns his pupils to shun their Christian -neighbours and distrust the priests. Sombre as are many of the letters -which Seneca wrote in the days of Nero, not one of them can compare -with Jerome's lengthy letter to the gentle maiden Eustochium.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> He -fills her virgin mind with a comprehensive picture of frailty and -frivolity, and tells her that she may regard, not as a Christian,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> -but as a Manichćan, any austere-looking woman whom she may meet on -the streets of Rome. He denounces "the new genus of concubines," the -"spiritual brothers and sisters," who share the same house, even the -same bed, and, if you protest, complain that you are evil-minded. -Eustochium is to avoid gatherings of Christian women, and must never be -alone with these clerics, who, exquisitely dressed, their hair curled -and oiled, their fingers glittering with rings, spend the livelong day -wheedling presents out of their wealthy admirers. I omit the graver -details given in this and other letters of the outraged monk.</p> - -<p>The impartial historian cannot regard with reserve the criticisms which -Ammianus passed on his pagan fellows and then literally accept Jerome's -more severe strictures on his fellow-Christians. There is exaggeration -on both sides. Yet no one now questions that the Christian community at -Rome, lay and clerical, had in the days of Damasus fallen far below its -ideals, and it is not pleasant that we find little or no trace of an -episcopal struggle against this corruption. It is sometimes said that -the rescript which prevented priests from inheriting was passed at the -request of the Pope. For this statement there is no historical ground -whatever, and it is in the highest degree improbable. It is clear that -prosperity had lowered the character of the Church, from its bishop -down to its grave-diggers; and the laments of St. Ambrose at Milan, -of St. Chrysostom at Antioch and Constantinople, and of St. Augustine -in Africa, indicate a general relaxation. The Roman world must pass -through another severe and searching trial before men like Leo I. and -Gregory I. arise in it.</p> - -<p>This conception of Damasus as a courtly and lenient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> prelate is not -materially modified when we regard his more strictly religious work. -He restored the Church of St. Lawrence, in which he and his father had -served: he built a tiny <i>basilica</i>—little more than a princely tomb -for himself, Marucchi believes—on the Via Ardeatina: he erected a new -baptistery at St. Peter's. These are not exceptionally impressive works -of piety in so prosperous an age.</p> - -<p>Damasus was an artist: not—if we judge him by his <i>Epigrams</i>—a man -of much inspiration, but one who perceived the value of art in the -service of religion. Jerome tells us that he wrote in prose and verse -on the beauty of virginity, but we know his very modest poetical talent -only from the surviving fifty or sixty inscriptions with which he -adorned the graves of the martyrs or the chapels.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> He had a genuine -passion for the adornment and popularization of the Catacombs. They -were already falling into decay, and Damasus cleared the galleries, -made new air-shafts, and decorated the more important chambers with -marble slabs and silver rails. No doubt he did this in part with a view -to attracting the pagans, but there can be little doubt that he had a -strong personal sentiment for the work.</p> - -<p>With the assistance of Jerome, he also endeavoured to improve the -literary standard of the Church. Jerome revised the "Old Italian" -translation of the Bible; and it seems probable that the canon of -the Scriptures which has until recently been regarded as part of a -"Gelasian Decree" was composed by Jerome, under the authority of -Damasus, and promulgated by a Roman synod. The canon can hardly be due -to the pen which wrote the rambling and uncultivated list of books -which fol<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>lows it; probably a later hand united the two and ascribed -them to Gelasius.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p> - -<p>The eighteen years' Pontificate of Damasus came to a close in 384. He -is not in the line of heroic Popes. He was, at his elevation, in his -seventh decade of life and his remaining energy was largely spent in -struggling against the disastrous consequences of his election. He -succeeded rather by geniality of temper and the services of others than -by strong personal exertion. But he was lucky in his opportunities. -He had control of the new wealth of the Papacy, and the Emperors with -whom he had to deal were the indifferent or undiscerning Valentinian -and the pious and youthful Gratian. Hence he added materially to the -foundations of the medićval Papacy. One might almost venture to say -that the dogmatic Roman conception of a primacy inherited from Peter -dates from the scriptural discussions of Damasus and Jerome. They were -not the authors of that conception, but it would henceforward form the -essential part of the Papal attitude.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> His latest biographer, the learned Father Marucchi, says -305, but St. Jerome does not say that he was "eighty years old" at -death (in 384); he says, "nearly eighty." See Father Marucchi's <i>Il -Papa Damaso</i> (1907) and <i>Christian Epigraphy</i> (English trans. 1912), M. -Rade's <i>Damasus, Bischof von Rom</i> (1882) is a little more critical.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> The less flattering statements about Damasus are -generally taken from a certain <i>Libellus precum</i>, or petition, which -was presented to the Emperors by two hostile, though esteemed and -orthodox, priests about the year 384. The attack on Damasus is, -however, in a preface to the petition, which was probably not put -before the Emperors. We must make allowance for bitter hostility, -but we shall find some of their strangest statements confirmed by -the highest authorities. The <i>Libellus</i> is reproduced in Migne's -<i>Patrologia Latina</i>, vol. iii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> The <i>Liber Pontificalis</i>, which gives these events, -first lets the schismatic Felix die in peace, and then introduces into -the series of Pontiffs a Felix II., saint and martyr! To this day the -fortunate Felix bears these honours in the liturgy. It was discovered, -in 1582, that the Anti-Pope Felix had been confused with a real saint -and martyr of that name, and the question of displacing him was debated -at Rome. But the miraculous discovery of an inscription in his favour -put an end to criticism. The genuine authorities are agreed that Felix -died comfortably in his house on the road to the Port of Rome.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> XXVII., 3.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Year 369.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> II., 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Saint Jerome</i>, 1867.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Mansi, <i>Sacrorum Conciliorum Collectio</i>, iii., 625.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Mansi, iii., 628.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xxi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Mansi, iii., 624.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> IV., 26.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lxx.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, ccxv.; see also <i>Ep.</i>, ccxxxix. and cclxvi., for -violent language. All the letters of the Popes, up to Innocent III., -are in this work quoted from the Migne edition.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Mansi, iii., 631.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> The letter is in Theodoret, <i>Ecclesiastical History</i>, v., -10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Theodoret, v., 9.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xxii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> The best collection is Ihm's <i>Damasi Epigrammata</i> (1895).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> There is a third part of this "Gelasian Decree," which -assigns to the Papacy an absolute primacy derived from Peter. It is -improbable that this was due to Damasus. A letter hitherto ascribed -to Pope Sirianus (<i>Ep.</i>, x. in Migne) has lately been claimed for -Damasus (Babut, <i>La plus ancienne décrétale</i>, 1904), but there is not -enough evidence to date it. It is a series of directions, better known -as <i>Canons of the Romans to the Bishops of Gaul</i>, on the subject of -clerical celibacy, fallen virgins, etc.</p> - -</div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></p> - -<p class="center">LEO THE GREAT, THE LAST POPE OF IMPERIAL ROME</p> - - -<p class="drop">D<span class="uppercase">uring</span> the half-century which followed the death of Damasus occurred -two of the decisive events in the transformation of the Roman Empire -into Christian Europe. Paganism was destroyed, and the Empire was -shattered. Jerome had, with rhetorical inaccuracy, described the great -temple of Jupiter as squalid and deserted in the days of Damasus. Now -it was in truth deserted, for the imperial seal was set on its closed -doors; and the same seal guarded the door of the temples of Isis and -Mithra. The homeless gods had sheltered for a time in the schools and -in patrician mansions, but these also had fallen with the Empire. The -southern half of Europe became a disordered, semi-Christian world, over -which poured from the northern forests fresh armies of barbarians. -The City of Man was wrecked; and it was not unnatural that the Papacy -should aspire to make its old metropolis the centre of the new City of -God.</p> - -<p>Two Popes of weak ability had followed Damasus, and witnessed, rather -than accomplished, the ruin of the old religion. It was Ambrose who -had directed the convenient youth of Gratian and Valentinian II., and -had dislodged the pagans and other rivals at the point of the spear. -Innocent I. (402-417) was a greater man: an upright priest, an able -statesman, a zealous believer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> in the divine right of Popes. Milman -has finely drawn him serenely holding his sceptre at Rome while the -Emperor cowered behind the fortifications at Ravenna. While Rome -tumbled in ruins about him, he continued calmly to tell the bishops -of Gaul and Spain and Italy what the "Apostolic See" directed them to -do. His puny yet bombastic successor, Zosimus, maintained the solitary -blunder, without the redeeming personality, of Innocent, and might -have wrecked the Papacy if he had not died within a year or so. The -worthier Boniface and still worthier Celestine restored Roman prestige -in some measure, and, in 440, after the edifying but undistinguished -Pontificate of Sixtus III., Leo the Great entered the chronicle.</p> - -<p>Leo, a Roman of Tuscan extraction, was the chief deacon of the Roman -Church, and corresponded with Cyril of Alexandria on Eastern affairs. -It was probably at his instigation that the learned Cassianus wrote his -treatise <i>On the Incarnation of Christ</i>. In 440, Leo was sent by the -Emperor to reconcile the generals Aetius and Albinus, who quarrelled -while the Empire perished. Sixtus died in his absence, and Leo was -unanimously elected to the Papacy. Toward the close of September he -returned to Rome, and glanced about the troubled world which he had now -to rule.</p> - -<p>The dogmatic Papal conception, which we find dawning in the mind -of Damasus and see very clear in the mind of Innocent I. and his -successors, reached its full development, on the spiritual side, in -the mind of Leo the Great. This development was inevitable. There were -Eastern, and even some Western, bishops who maintained, against Leo, -that the prestige of the Roman See was merely the prestige of Rome, -but the answer of the Papacy was easy and effective. In the Gospels -which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> Europe now treasured, Peter was the "rock" on which the Church -was built, and to him alone had been given the keys of the kingdom of -heaven. Had the Church lost its foundation when Peter died? Were the -keys buried beside the bones of Peter in that marble tomb at the foot -of the Vatican? There was, from the clerical point of view, logic in -the Roman bishop's claim to have inherited the princedom. Leo from -the first hour of his Pontificate was sincerely convinced of it. His -sermons are full of it. To him is committed "the care of all the -Churches": a phrase which he bequeaths to his successors. He is the new -type of Roman, blending the ideas of Jerome and Augustine. The wreck of -the City of Man matters little. What matters is that these Arian Goths -and Vandals are trampling on the City of God: that the churches of Gaul -and Spain and Italy and Africa and the East are in disorder, and the -successor of Peter must restore their discipline. He is so absorbed in -his divine duty that he does not notice how the circumstances favour -him. Every other lofty head in the Empire is bowed, and from the -seething and impoverished provinces hundreds are looking to the strong -man at Rome.</p> - -<p>His early letters are the letters of a Supreme Pontiff. The African -bishops, he hears, suffer dreadful disorders in their churches. -Elections to church-dignities are bought and sold: even laymen and -twice-married clerics become bishops. With serene indifference to -the earlier history of the African Church and its tradition of -independence, he peremptorily recalls the canons and insists on their -observance.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> Fortunately for him, the long struggle against the -Donatists and the devastating onset of the Vandals have enfeebled, -almost annihilated,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> the African Church, and there is none to question -his authority.</p> - -<p>He hears that Anatolius has been made Bishop of Thessalonica, and -writes<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> to remind him that he is the "vicar" of the Roman bishop, -the successor of Peter, "on the solidity of which foundation the -Church is established." When, at a later date, Anatolius uses his -power harshly, he sternly rebukes him. And it is interesting to notice -what the discipline is on which he insists in this letter.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> Even -subdeacons shall not marry, or, if they are married, shall not know -their wives. We are very far away from Callistus.</p> - -<p>Another aspect of Leo's character appears in his treatment of the -Manichćans at Rome: an interesting illustration of how he kept the -strength and serenity of the old Roman though lacking his culture. Leo -had a terribly sombre idea of the Manichćans. They lingered in obscure -corners of the metropolis, and met stealthily, just as Christians had -done two centuries earlier; and of them were told, as had been told -of the obscure Christians, dreadful stories. Leo conducted a great -inquisition in 444, and brought the Manichćan bishop, with his "elect," -to a solemn judgment before the clergy and nobles of Rome. There, he -says,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> they all confessed that the violation of a girl of ten years -was part of their ritual. He called down upon them the secular arm, -and crushed them in Rome and Italy. What sort of a judicial process -was employed to elicit this extraordinary confession—so utterly at -variance with all that we know of the ascetic Manichćans—we are -not told. But we are painfully reminded of a similar declaration of -Augustine in his old age.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> - -<p>In Gaul, the Pope encountered one of the last opponents of Papal aims -in the West. The province was completely demoralized by the triumphant -barbarians and by the arrival of lax clergy from Africa. In a letter of -uncertain date,<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> Leo gives us a dark picture of the state of things -in the southern provinces, and this is more than confirmed in the work -of the Marseilles priest Salvianus, <i>De Gubernatione Dei</i>. Laymen -pose as bishops, Leo says: priests sleep with their wives, and marry -their daughters to men who keep concubines: monks serve in the army, -or marry: and so on. From this disordered world men were ever ready -to appeal to the authority of Rome, and, in 445, a Bishop Celidonius -came to complain of the harshness of his metropolitan, the austere and -saintly Hilary of Arles. Hilary followed his Bishop to Rome, and, when -Leo decided against him, the saint made use, says Leo,<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> of "language -which no layman even should dare to use and no priest to hear," and -then "fled disgracefully" from Rome.</p> - -<p>Again we are in a dilemma between two saints, and we must weigh as best -we can the letters of Leo against the biography of Hilary. It will be -found a general truth of early Papal history that the man who <i>appeals</i> -to Rome is heard more indulgently than the opponent who did not appeal. -Hilary, who had deposed the Bishop in plain accordance with the rules, -resented Leo's conduct, and scoffed at his supposed supremacy. He -then apprehended violence, and stealthily left Rome for Gaul. Leo -thereupon—or after hearing new charges against Hilary—wrote to the -bishops of Vienne<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> that they were released from obedience to Hilary, -who was thenceforward to confine himself to Arles. Whether Hilary ever -submitted or no we have no certain know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>ledge, but the affair had an -important sequel. In the same year (449), an imperial rescript,<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> -confessedly obtained by Leo, confirmed the sentence, and added:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>We lay down this for ever, that neither the bishops of Gaul nor those -of any other province shall attempt anything contrary to ancient -usage, without the authority of the venerable man, the Pope of the -Eternal City.</p></blockquote> - -<p>Even in the height of this quarrel other provinces were not neglected, -as a few letters of the year 447 amply show. The letter to the Spanish -Bishop Turribius of Astorga<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> is notable as the first explicit Papal -approval of the execution of a heretic. It is usual to point out that -the errors of Priscillian, the heretic in question, were believed to -include magical practices (then a legal and social crime) as well as -Manichćan and Gnostic tenets. But we must recognize one of the most -terrible principles of the Middle Ages, and something far more than -social zeal, in the following words of Leo:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>Although ecclesiastical mildness shrinks from blood-punishments, yet -it is aided by the severe decrees of Christian princes, since they who -fear corporal suffering will have recourse to spiritual remedies.</p></blockquote> - -<p>Here is no reference to legal or social crimes, but to an error which -concerns the ecclesiastic. Similar letters, enforcing discipline in the -accents of an undisputed head of the Church, were sent to the bishops -of Sicily,<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> the bishop of Beneventum,<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> and the bishop of Aquileia.</p> - -<p>These quotations from the letters and sermons of Leo will suffice, -not only to show the untiring energy and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> lofty aim of the man, but -to convince us that the primacy of Rome in the West is now won. West -of the Adriatic, St. Hilary is the last great rebel against the Roman -conception. It is true that this spiritual supremacy is still, in part, -reliant on "the severe decrees of Christian princes," but the imperial -authority is fast fading into nothing, and in another generation the -Papal autocracy will stand alone. Leo was not ambitious. Something of -the instinctive masterliness of the older Roman may be detected in his -actions, but he was a profoundly religious man, seeking neither wealth -nor honours of earth, convinced at once that he discharged a divine -duty and exerted an authority of the most beneficent value to that -disordered Christendom. The calamities of Europe had changed the empty -glories of a Damasus into a power second only to that of Octavian.</p> - -<p>When we turn to the East we have not only a most valuable indication of -the evolution of Christendom into two independent and hostile Churches, -but an even more interesting revelation of subtle and unexpected shades -in the character of Leo. The great Pope, aided by the very calamities -of the time, fastens his primacy on Europe; and, with even mightier -exertions and the most tense use of all his resources, he proves that -an extension of that primacy to the East is for ever impossible.</p> - -<p>His friendly correspondence with Cyril of Alexandria was resumed in -the year 444, and, in the adjustment of their differences, Leo made -concessions. In the same year, Cyril died, and his successor Dioscorus -was addressed with the same recognition of equality. There are -differences in points of discipline, but Leo is content to say<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a>: -"Since the blessed Peter was made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> chief of the apostles by the Lord, -and the Roman Church abides by his instructions, it is impossible to -suppose that his holy disciple Mark, who first ruled the Church of -Alexandria, gave it other regulations." Five years later, however, Leo -received from the East an appeal against the Bishop of Constantinople, -and a notable conflict began.</p> - -<p>In the unending struggle in the East over the nature of Christ, the -monks, a fierce and turbulent rabble living on the fringes of the great -cities, had been the most effective champions of orthodoxy, and great -was their excitement when the archimandrite (or abbot) of one of their -large monasteries outside Constantinople was accused of heresy. The -heresy is really diagnosed as such by the proper authorities, but it is -not superfluous for the historian to observe that the monk Eutyches was -godson of the most powerful eunuch at the court, and this eunuch was -detested by the virtuous Empress Pulcheria and by Flavian, the Bishop -of Constantinople. Eutyches was condemned by a synod in 448, and he -appealed to Leo. I have observed that the appealer—especially from -a province where Roman authority was disputed—always had a gracious -hearing at the Lateran. In February, 449, Leo wrote to Flavian<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> to -express his surprise that he had not sent a report of the proceedings -to Rome and that he had disregarded the appeal which the monk had made -from his sentence to Rome. However, since appeal <i>has</i> been made to -Leo, "we want to know the reasons of your action, and we desire a full -account to be communicated to us." Flavian's reply<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> curtly described -the heresy and trusted that Leo would see the justice of the sentence.</p> - -<p>In the early summer, the Emperors of East and West<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> issued a joint -summons to the bishops of Christendom to assemble in Council at -Ephesus, and Leo's letters indicate a feverish activity. His chief work -was to write a long dogmatic letter<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> on the nature of Christ—a -very able theological essay—to be read by his Legates at the Council. -Dioscorus of Alexandria presided over this imposing assembly of 360 -bishops and representative clergy, in the presence of two imperial -commissioners, the Papal Legates, and the patriarchs of Antioch and -Jerusalem, yet it has passed into Western ecclesiastical history -under the opprobrious title, given to it by Leo,<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> of "The Robbers' -Meeting." It is quite true that the sittings dissolved in brawls, and -monks and soldiers brandished their ominous weapons over the heads of -the bishops, but that was not unprecedented. The main fact was that -Dioscorus contemptuously refused to hear the Roman Legates, as Leo -says, and induced the Council to restore Eutyches and depose Flavian. -Deacon Hilary, one of the Legates, fled in terror of his life, and -unfolded these enormities to Leo, whose correspondence now became -intense and indignant.</p> - -<p>For a few months, Leo made strenuous efforts to redeem the prestige -of his See. We know, since 1882, that Flavian in turn appealed to -Rome, but Leo needed no new incentive. He wrote repeatedly to the -pious Pulcheria, to Theodosius, to his "vicar" in Thessalonica, and -to the monks, priests, and people of Constantinople. He knew the -situation well. Alexandria had defied Constantinople, but the case of -Constantinople was weakened by the division of court-factions and the -monkish support of Eutyches. It seemed an admirable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> occasion for Rome -to adjudicate, and Leo pressed Theodosius and Pulcheria<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> to summon -an Ecumenical Council at Rome. In the thick of the struggle (February, -450), Valentinian III. visited Rome with the court, and Leo, with tears -in his eyes, besought the Empress Galla Placidia to work for the Roman -Council. Galla Placidia knew no more than the monks about theology, and -was more concerned about her wayward daughter Honoria, but she urged -Pulcheria to ensure the holding of the Council at Rome. Presently there -came from Constantinople the news that Theodosius was dead, Pulcheria -was mistress of the court, the eunuch-godfather had been executed, the -monk exiled, and the Archbishop Flavian restored to his See.</p> - -<p>But the more agreeable aspect of this situation was soon darkened by -a report that the people of Constantinople had compelled Pulcheria -to contract a virginal marriage with Marcian, and the new Emperor -had summoned an Ecumenical Council in the East. Leo, for reasons -which we may understand presently, now made every effort to prevent -the holding of a Council,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> but the Emperor would not endanger his -position by flouting the Eastern Church, and, on October 8th, some -six hundred bishops gathered at Chalcedon. Four Legates represented -Leo, and were awarded a kind of presidency of the Council. Leo's great -doctrinal letter was received with thunders of applause, and, when it -was speedily decided to condemn Dioscorus (who had gone the length of -excommunicating Leo), it was one of the Papal Legates who pronounced -the sonorous sentence. But all knew that these compliments were the -prelude to a very serious struggle.</p> - -<p>After the fourteenth session, the Papal Legates and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> imperial -commissioners affected to believe that the business of the day was -over. Later in the day, however, a fifteenth session was held, and the -two hundred bishops present framed the famous twenty-eighth canon of -the Council of Chalcedon. It runs:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>As in all things we follow the ordinances of the holy fathers and -know the recently read canon of the hundred and fifty bishops [of -the Council of Constantinople], so do we decree the same in regard -to the privileges of the most holy Church of Constantinople. Rightly -have the fathers conceded to the See of Old Rome its privileges on -account of its character as the Imperial City, and, moved by the same -considerations, the one hundred and fifty bishops have awarded the -like privileges to the most Holy See of New Rome.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p></blockquote> - -<p>This drastic restriction of the Roman bishop to the West, and -disdainful assurance that the prestige of the city of Rome was the -only basis of his primacy, was read in the next session, and the Papal -Legates were gravely disturbed. There can be very little doubt that, -as Hefele says, the Legates had abstained from the fifteenth session -because they knew that this canon would be discussed and passed. There -was no secrecy about it, and there was much in previous sessions that -led to it. Indeed, it is clear that Leo himself knew of the design, -and this probably explains his resistance, which has puzzled many, to -the holding of the Council. In the heat of the discussion, the Roman -Legate, Boniface, produced this instruction from Leo: "If any, taking -their stand on the importance of their cities, should endeavour to -arrogate anything to themselves, resist them with all decision."<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> -Bishop Eusebius of Dory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>lćum (the accuser of Eutyches) then said that -he had read the third canon of Constantinople to Leo at Rome some time -before the Council, and that Leo had assented to it. Leo afterwards -denied this, but we must assume that he merely denied having consented, -not the reading of the canon to him. It is quite clear that Leo -prepared his Legates for this discussion.</p> - -<p>It implies no reflection whatever on the character of Leo that he -should instruct his Legates diplomatically to obstruct the passing -of a canon which he regarded as contrary to a divine ordination. But -the next act of his Legates is more serious. Bishop Paschasinus, the -chief Legate, produced and read, in Latin, the sixth canon of the -famous Council of Nicća, and the Greeks were amazed to learn, when it -was translated, that it awarded the primacy to Rome. There is now no -doubt that this was a spurious or adulterated canon, and the feelings -of the Greeks, when they consulted the genuine canon, can be imagined. -The session closed in a weak compromise. The Legates were allowed to -protest that the twenty-eighth canon was passed in their absence, and -was injurious to the rights of their Bishop, "who presided over the -whole Church." The Greeks politely registered their protest, endorsed -the canon, and proceeded to indite a very Greek letter to the Roman -Bishop. They express to Leo<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> their deep joy at the successful -congress, their entire respect for "the voice of Peter," their loving -gratitude that, through his Legates, he had presided over them "as the -head over the members"; but they admit that one of their canons did -not commend itself to his Legates and they trust that he will at once -gratify their Emperor by endorsing it! Christendom was divided into two -parts.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> - -<p>The sequel matters little. The Legates returned and declared that the -signatures to the canon had been extorted (as Leo afterwards wrote), -though this point had been raised in their presence by the imperial -commissioners, and its falsity put beyond dispute. To Marcian, to -Pulcheria, and to the new Bishop of Constantinople, Anatolius, Leo -wrote acrid letters, denouncing the miserable vanity and ambition -of Anatolius and the violation of the (spurious) canons of Nicća. -Marcian curtly requested him—almost ordered him<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a>—to confirm the -results of the Council without delay, and Leo signed the doctrinal -decisions. There the matter ended. Rome affected to treat the famous -canon as invalid, and the East genially ignored the absence of Leo's -signature.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p> - -<p>In the midst of his feverish efforts to defeat this Eastern rebellion, -Leo was summoned to meet the terrible King of the Huns, and the memory -of his triumph, gathering volume from age to age, has completely -obliterated his failure to dominate the Greeks. Italy, painfully -enfeebled by the Goths, now saw "the scourge of God" slowly descend -its northern slopes and prepare for a raid on the south. Leo and a -group of Roman officials met Attila on the banks of the Mincio, and the -ferocious King and his dreaded Huns meekly turned their backs on Italy -and retired to the East. Pen and brush and legend have embellished that -won<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>derful deliverance until it has become a mystery and a miracle, but -it was neither mystery nor miracle to the men who first made a scanty -record of it. Jornandes<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> following the older historian Priscus, -says that Attila was hesitating whether to advance on Rome or no at -the moment when Leo and his companions arrived; his officers were -trying to dissuade him, and were appealing to his superstition with a -reminder of the fate of Alaric after he had sacked Rome. Prosper merely -says in his <i>Chronicle</i> that Leo was well received, and succeeded. -Idatius, Bishop of Aquć Flavić at the time, does not even mention Leo -in his <i>Chronicle</i>. The Huns, he says, were severely stricken by war, -by famine, and by some epidemic, and, "being in this plight, they made -peace with the Romans and departed."<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> But Rome at the time knew -nothing of these fortunate circumstances, and, in the delirious joy of -its deliverance, imagined the savage Hun shrinking in awe before its -venerable Bishop: kept on imagining, indeed, until some pious fancy of -the eighth century believed that the holy apostles had appeared beside -the Pope.</p> - -<p>When, a few years later (455) a fresh invasion threatened Rome—when -the vicious incompetence of the court amid all its desolation set afoot -another feud and brought the Vandals from Africa—Leo went out once -more to plead for the impoverished city. Genseric was not a savage; -the Vandals are libelled by the grosser implication we associate with -their name today. Yet he altered not one step of his onward course at -the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> petitions or the threats of the venerable Pontiff. To say that he -consented to refrain from slaying or torturing those who submitted, and -from firing the city, is merely to say that Leo failed to wring any -concession from the largely civilized Vandal. The aged Pontiff sadly -returned with his clergy, and for a whole fortnight had to listen in -the Lateran Palace to the shrieks of the women who were dragged from -their homes, and to receive accounts of the plundering of his churches. -The Church of St. Peter and, probably, the Lateran Church alone were -spared. And when the Vandal ships had sailed away with their thousands -of noble captives, including the Empress Eudoxia, and their mounds of -silver, bronze, and marble, Leo had to melt down the larger vessels of -the great <i>basilicas</i> to find the necessary chalices for his priests.</p> - -<p>Ancestral feelings must have stirred unconsciously in the mind of -Leo when he beheld this second ravage of the city of his fathers, -but he at once resumed his Pontifical rule. On his return from the -north of Italy, he had found occasion to act once more in the East -as if the canon of the last Council were forgotten. Now the monks -of Palestine had asserted their unyielding zeal, had driven the -patriarch of Jerusalem from his seat, and had won to their cause -the romantic Empress Eudoxia (of the Eastern court) whose suspected -amours had brought on her a polite sentence of exile. Leo at once, -somewhat superfluously, called the pious Marcian's attention to the -ecclesiastical disorders in his kingdom, and, apparently at that -Emperor's request, wrote paternal admonitions to Eudoxia and to the -monks. It was gratifying to be able to report presently that the -disorders were at an end.</p> - -<p>Later (in 453) the monks of Cappadocia gave trouble;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> and the monks -and other supporters of the deposed Dioscorus at Alexandria entered -upon a far graver agitation, and murdered their new archbishop. The -pious Marcian, to make matters worse, died (457), and, by one of those -strange intrigues which disgraced the Eastern court, Leo the Isaurian, -an astute peasant, mounted the golden throne. On this man Leo's -diplomatic mixture of courtly language and high sacerdotal pretensions -made little impression. In spite of Leo's protests<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> he called -another General Council, and Leo had to be content to send Legates to -inform the assembled bishops what is "the rule of apostolic faith"; -which he again set forth in a long dogmatic epistle.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> To the last -year, Leo maintained, serenely and unswervingly, his calm assumption -of jurisdiction over the East. Whether he wrote to the patriarch of -Antioch,<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> or the patriarch of Constantinople,<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> or the patriarchs -of Jerusalem and Alexandria, he spoke as if his sovereignty had never -been questioned. "The care of all the churches" lies on his shoulders. -He disdains diplomacy and argument. His tone is arrogant and dogmatic -in the highest degree, yet no man can read reflectively those long and -imperious epistles and not realize that he spoke, not as the individual -Leo, demanding personal prestige, but as the successor of Peter, -obeying a command which, he sincerely believed, Christ had laid upon -him.</p> - -<p>So the Papacy was built up. Leo went his way on November 10, 461, and -was buried, fitly, in the vestibule of St. Peter's. He had formulated -for all time the Papal conception that the successor of Peter had the -care of all the churches of the world. A bishop shall not buy his seat -in Numidia: a rabble of monks shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> not rebel in Syria: a prelate -shall not harshly treat his clergy in Gaul, but the Bishop of Rome must -see to it. How that gaunt frame of duty was perfected in the next two -centuries, and how the prosperity of later times hid the austere frame -under a garment of flesh, is the next great chapter in the evolution of -the Roman Pontificate.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, vi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xiv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Sermon xvi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> See the author's <i>Saint Augustine and His Age</i>, p. 409.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, clxvii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, x., 3.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, x.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xi., in Migne.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> XVI. and xvii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> XIX.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, ix.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xxiii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xxvi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> The "Tome of Leo," <i>Ep.</i>, xxviii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xcv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xliii. and xlv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lxxxii. and lxxxiii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Hefele's <i>History of the Councils of the Church</i>, iii., -411.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Hefele, iii., 425.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xcviii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, cx.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> In a letter which he wrote about the time (<i>Ep.</i>, -ciii.) to the bishops of Gaul, Leo tells them that Dioscorus has been -condemned, and says that he encloses a copy of the sentence. The copy -appended to the letter is spurious, for it contains an allusion to -"the holy and most blessed Pope, head of the universal Church, Leo -... the foundation and rock of faith." But I do not think one can say -confidently that this is the actual document sent by Leo.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> <i>De Rebus Geticis</i>, xlii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> The Chronicles of Prosper and Idatius are in Migne, vol. -li. Idatius adds that Attila was threatened (in his rear) by the troops -of Marcian, though we cannot trace such a movement of the Eastern -troops. It was enough that Attila believed it.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, clxii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> CLXV.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> CXLIX.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> CLXX.</p></div></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></p> - -<p class="center">GREGORY THE GREAT, THE FIRST MEDIĆVAL POPE</p> - - -<p class="drop">S<span class="uppercase">eventeen</span> Pontiffs successively ruled in the Lateran Palace during the -hundred and thirty years which separate the death of Leo I. and the -accession of Gregory I. The first seven were not unworthy to succeed -Leo, although one of them, Anastasius (496-498), is unjustly committed -to Dante's hell for his liberality.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> - -<p>During their tenure of office the Arian Ostrogoth Theodoric set up his -promising kingdom in Italy, and the stricken country partly recovered. -But the succeeding Popes were smaller-minded men, looking darkly on the -heresy of Theodoric and longing to see him displaced by the Catholic -Eastern Emperor. Their unfortunate policy was crowned by a betrayal of -Rome to the troops of Justinian; and its fruit was the establishment -on the throne of Peter, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> the unscrupulous Theodora, of the sorriest -adventurer that had yet defiled it (Pope Vigilius), the reduction of -Italy to the state of a province of the corrupt and extortionate East, -and a lamentable dependence of the See of Rome on the whim of the -Byzantine autocrat. Seeing its increasing feebleness, a new and fiercer -tribe of the barbarians, the Lombards, poured over Italy; and it was a -city of ruins, a kingdom of desolation, a continent of anarchy, which -Gregory I. was, in the year 590, forced to undertake to control.</p> - -<p>At Rome the monuments of what was shudderingly called a pagan age were -falling, year by year, into the soil which would preserve them for a -more appreciative race. In Gregory's day, across the Tiber from the -old quarter, there were to be seen only the mouldering crowns of the -theatres and amphitheatres, the grass-girt ruins on the Capitol and -on the Palatine, and the charred skeletons of thousands of patrician -mansions on the more distant hills. Forty thousand Romans now trembled -where a million had once boasted their eternal empire. And, as one -sees in some fallen forest, a new life was springing up on the ruins. -Beside the decaying Neronian Circus rose the Basilica of St. Peter's, -to which strange types of pilgrims made their way under the modest -colonnade leading from the river. From the heart of the old Laterani -Palace towered the great Basilica of the Saviour (later of St. John) -and the mansion of the new rulers of the world. The temples were -still closed, and tumbling into ruins; for no one yet proposed to -convert into churches those abodes of evil spirits, which one passed -hurriedly at night. But on all sides churches had been built out of -the fallen stones, and monks and nuns trod the dismantled fora, and -new processions filed along the decaying streets. If you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> mounted -the hills, you would see the once prosperous Campagna a poisonous -marsh, sending death into the city every few years; and you would -learn that such was the condition of much of Italy, where the Lombard -now completed the work of Goth and Greek, and that from the gates of -Constantinople to the forests of Albion this incomprehensible brood of -barbarians was treading under foot what remained of Roman civilization.</p> - -<p>The book of what we call ancient history was closed: the Middle Age -was beginning. Gregory was peculiarly adapted to impress the world at -this stage of transition. His father, Gordianus, had been a wealthy -patrician, with large estates in Sicily and a fine mansion on the -Cćlian hill. De Rossi would make him a descendant of the great family -of the Anicii, but the deduction is strained. Gregory's mother was a -saint. He inherited vigour and administrative ability, and was reared -in the most pious and most credulous spirit of the time. He was put to -letters, and we are told that he excelled all others in every branch -of culture. Let us say, from his works, that—probably using the -writings of the Latin fathers as models—he learned to write a Latin -which Jerome would almost have pronounced barbarous, but which people -of the sixth century would think excellent, at times elegant. There -was very little culture left in Rome in Gregory's days.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> About the -time when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> Gregory came into the world (540), Cassiodorus was quitting -it to found a monastic community on his estate, and he had the happy -idea of rescuing some elements of Roman culture from the deluge; -though to him culture meant Donatus and Martianus Capella rather than -the classics. He succeeded, too, in engaging the industry of the -Benedictine monks, to some extent, in copying manuscripts. Culture was, -happily, not suffered to die. In Rome, however, it sank very low, and, -for centuries, the Latin of the Papal clerks or the Popes is generally -atrocious.</p> - -<p>Gregory, in 573, was Prefect of Rome when it was beset by the Lombards. -The desolation which ensued may have finally convinced him that the -end of the world approached: a belief which occurs repeatedly in his -letters and sermons. In the following year, he sold his possessions, -built six monasteries in Sicily, converted his Roman mansion into the -monastery of St. Andrew, and, after giving the rest of his fortune -to the poor, began a life of stern asceticism and meditation on the -Scriptures. One day he saw some Anglo-Saxon slaves in the market, and -he set off to convert these fair, blue-eyed islanders to the faith. But -Pope Benedict recalled him and found an outlet for his great energy in -secretarial duties at the Lateran.</p> - -<p>Pelagius, who in 578 succeeded Benedict, sent Gregory to -Constantinople, to ask imperial troops for Italy, and he remained -there, caring for Papal interests, for about eight years. On its -pretentious culture he looked with so much disdain that he never -learned Greek,<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> while the general corruption of clerics and laymen, -and the fierce dogmatic discussions, did not modify his belief in a -coming dissolution. He maintained his monastic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> life in the Placidia -Palace, and began the writing of that portentous commentary on the -book of Job which is known as his <i>Magna Moralia</i>: a monumental -illustration of his piety, his imagination, and his lack of culture, -occupying about two thousand columns of Migne's quarto edition of his -works. He returned to Rome about the year 586, without troops, but -with the immeasurably greater treasure of an arm of St. Andrew and the -head of St. Luke. Amid the plagues and famines of Italy, he returned -to his terrible fasts and dark meditations, and awaited the blast of -the archangel's trumpet. An anecdote, told by himself, depicts his -attitude. One of his monks appropriated a few crowns, violating his vow -of poverty. Gregory refused the dying man the sacraments, and buried -him in a dunghill. He completed his commentary on Job, and collected -endless stories of devils and angels, saints and sinners, visions and -miracles; until one day, in 590, the Romans broke into the austere -monastery with the news that Pelagius was dead and Gregory was to be -his successor. He fled from Rome in horror, but he was the ablest man -in Italy, and all united to make him Pope.</p> - -<p>If these things do not suffice to show that Gregory was the first -medićval Pope, read his <i>Dialogues</i>, completed a few years later; no -theologian in the world to-day would accept that phantasmagoria of -devils and angels and miracles. It is a precious monument of Gregory's -world: the early medićval world. There is the same morbid, brooding -imagination in his commentary on the prophecies of Ezekiel, which he -found congenial; and in many passages of the forty sermons in which, -disdaining flowers of rhetoric and rules of grammar, he tells his -people the deep-felt, awful truths of his creed.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> - -<p>Characteristic also is the incident which occurred during his temporary -guidance of the Church—while he awaited an answer to the letter in -which he had begged the Emperor to release him. A fearful epidemic -raged at Rome. Without a glance at the marshes beyond, from which -it came, Gregory ordered processions of all the faithful, storming -the heavens with hymns and litanies. The figure over the old tomb of -Hadrian (or the Castle of Sant' Angelo) at Rome tells all time how -an angel appeared in the skies on that occasion, and the pestilence -ceased. But the writers who are nearest to the time tell us that eighty -of the processionists fell dead on the streets in an hour, and the -pestilence went its slow course.</p> - -<p>Yet when we turn from these other-worldly meditations and other-worldly -plans to the eight hundred and fifty letters of the great Pope, we seem -to find an entirely different man. We seem to go back some centuries, -along that precarious line of the Anicii, and confront one of the -abler of the old patricians. Instead of credulity, we find a business -capacity which, in spite of the appalling means of communication, -organizes and controls, down to minute details, an estate which is -worth millions sterling and is scattered over half a continent. -Instead of self-effacement, we find a man who talks to archbishops -and governors of provinces as if they were acolytes of his Church, -and, at least on one occasion, tells the Eastern autocrat, before whom -courtiers shade their eyes, that he will not obey him. Instead of holy -simplicity, we find a diplomacy which treats with hostile kings in -defiance of the civil government, showers pretty compliments on the -fiery Brunichildis or the brutal Phocas, and spends years in combating -the pretensions of Constantinople. Instead<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> of angelic meekness, we -find a warm resentment of vilification, an occasional flash of temper -which cows his opponent, a sense of dignity which rebukes his steward -for sending him "a sorry nag" or a "good ass" to ride on. We have, in -short, a man whose shrewd light-brown eyes miss no opportunity for -intervention in that disorderly world, from Angle-land to Jerusalem; -who has in every part of it spies and informers in the service of -virtue and religion, and who for fourteen years does the work of three -men. And all the time he is Gregory the monk, ruining his body by -disdainful treatment, writing commentaries on Ezekiel: a medium-sized, -swarthy man, with large bald head and straggling tawny beard, with -thick red lips and Roman nose and chin, racked by indigestion and then -by gout—but a prodigious worker.</p> - -<p>To compress his work into a chapter is impossible; one can only give -imperfect summaries and a few significant details. He had secretaries, -of course, and we are apt to forget that the art of shorthand writing, -which was perfectly developed by the Romans, had not yet been lost -in the night of the Middle Ages. Yet every letter has the stamp of -Gregory's personality, and we recognize a mind of wonderful range and -power.</p> - -<p>His episcopal work in Rome alone might have contented another man. -Soon after his election he wrote a long letter on the duties and -qualifications of a bishop, which, in the shape of a treatise entitled -<i>The Book of Pastoral Rule</i>, inspired for centuries the better bishops -of Europe. His palace was monastic in its severity. He discharged from -his service, in Rome and abroad, the hosts of laymen his predecessors -had employed, and replaced them with monks and clerics: incidentally -turning into monks and clerics many men who did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> adorn the holy -state. He said mass daily, and used at times to go on horseback to -some appointed chapel in the city, where the people gathered to hear -his sermons on the gospels or on Ezekiel. Every shade of simony, every -pretext for ordination, except religious zeal, he sternly suppressed. -When he found that men were made deacons for their fine voices, he -forbade deacons to sing any part of the mass except the Gospel, and he -made other changes in the liturgy and encouraged the improvement of -the chant. Modern criticism does not admit the <i>Sacramentary</i> and the -<i>Antiphonary</i> which later ages ascribed to him, but he seems to have -given such impulse to reform that the perfected liturgy and chant of a -later date were attributed to him.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p> - -<p>His motive in these reforms was purely religious; those who would -persuade us that Gregory I. had some regard for profane culture, at -least as ancillary to religious, forget his belief is an approaching -dissolution, and overlook the nature of profane culture. It was -indissolubly connected with paganism, and Gregory would willingly have -seen every Latin classic submerged in the Tiber; while his disdain of -Greek confirmed the already prevalent ignorance which shut the Greek -classics out of Europe, to its grave disadvantage, for many centuries. -Happily, many monks and bishops were in this respect less unworldly -than Gregory, and the greater Roman writers were copied and preserved. -Gregory's attitude toward these men is well known. He hears that -Bishop Desiderius of Vienne, a very worthy prelate, is lecturing on -"grammar" (Latin literature), and he writes to tell Desiderius that he -is filled with "mourning and sorrow" that a bishop should be occupied -with so "horrible" (<i>nefandum</i>) a pursuit.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> It has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> been frivolously -suggested that perhaps Desiderius had been lecturing on the classics in -church, but Gregory is quite plain: the reading of the pagan writers is -an unfit occupation even for "a religious layman."<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> In the preface -to his <i>Magna Moralia</i> he scorns "the rules of Donatus"; and so sore a -memory of his attitude remained among the friends of Latin letters that -Christian tradition charged him with having burned the libraries of the -Capitol and of the Palatine and with having mutilated the statues and -monuments of older Rome.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> - -<p>The work of Gregory in Rome, however, was not confined to liturgy -and discipline. The tradition of parasitism at Rome was not dead, -and, as there was now no <i>Prćfectus Annonć</i> to distribute corn to the -citizens, it fell to the Church to feed them; and the Romans were now -augmented by destitute refugees from all parts. Gregory had to find -food and clothing for masses of people, to make constant grants to -their churches and to the monasteries, to meet a periodical famine, -and to render what miserable aid the ignorance of the time afforded -during the periodical pestilence. Occasionally he had even to control -the movements of troops and the dispatch of supplies; at least, in his -impatience of the apparent helplessness of the imperial government and -his determination to hold Catholic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> towns against the Lombards, he -undertook these and other secular functions.</p> - -<p>The control of the vast Papal income and expenditure might alone have -sufficed to employ a vigorous man. In Sicily, there were immense -estates belonging to the Papacy, and other "patrimonies," as they -were called, were scattered over Italy and the islands, or lay as far -away as Gaul, Dalmatia, Africa, and the East. Clerical agents usually -managed these estates, but we find Gregory talking about their mules -and mares and cornfields, and the wages and grievances of their slaves -and serfs, as familiarly as if he had visited each of them. It has been -estimated, rather precariously, that the Papacy already owned from -1400 to 1800 square miles of land, and drew from it an annual income -of from Ł300,000 to Ł400,000. Not a domestic squabble seems to have -happened in this enormous field but Gregory intervened, and his rigid -sense of justice and general shrewdness of decision command respect. -Then, there was the equally heavy task of distributing the income, -for the episcopal establishment cost little, and nothing was hoarded. -In sums of ten, twenty, or fifty gold pieces, in bales of clothing -and galleys of corn, in altar-vessels and the ransom of captives, the -stream percolated yearly throughout the Christian world, as far as the -villages of Syria. Monks and nuns were especially favoured.</p> - -<p>Within a few years, there spread over the world so great a repute -of Gregory's charity and equity that petitions rained upon Rome. -Here a guild of soap-boilers asks his intervention in some dispute: -there a woman who, in a fit of temper at the supposed infidelity of -her husband, has rushed to a nunnery and now wants to return home, -asks his indulgence, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> receives it. From all sides are cries of -oppression, simony, or other scandal, and Gregory is aroused. Jews -appeal to him frequently against the injustice of their Christian -neighbours, and they invariably get such justice as the law allows. The -Zealots who have seized their synagogues (if of long standing—they -were forbidden by law to build new ones) must restore them, or pay for -them<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a>; impatient priests who would coerce them into "believing" are -rebuked. There is only one weakness—a not unamiable weakness—in his -treatment of the Jews. Those who abandon their creed are to have their -rents reduced: to encourage the others, he says cheerfully.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> For -the pagans, however, he has no mercy, as we shall see. He sanctions -compulsion and persecution with medićval frankness. It should be noted, -too, that, while he approved the manumission of slaves, he never -condemned the institution as such. Vast regiments of slaves worked -the Papal estates, though the ease, if not advantage, of converting -them into serfs must have been apparent. Still no slave could enter -the clergy—lest, as Leo the Great had declared, his "vileness" should -"pollute" the sacred order—and a special probation was imposed on -slaves if they wished to enter monasteries: a wise regulation this, for -many thought it an easy way to freedom. Still no slave could contract -marriage with a free Christian, as Gregory expressly reaffirms.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a></p> - -<p>These details of his work will, however, be more apparent if we pass -from Rome to the provinces which he controlled, and observe the success -or failure of his intervention. It will at once be understood that his -intervention almost invariably means that there is an abuse to correct, -and, therefore, the world which we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> find reflected in Gregory's letters -is fearfully corrupt. The restless movements and destructive ways -of the barbarians had almost obliterated the older culture, and no -new system either of education or polity had yet been devised. The -influence of the East had been just as pernicious. The venality and -corruption of its officers had infected the higher clergy, and simony -prevailed from Gaul to Palestine. Over and over again Gregory writes, -in just the same words, to prelates of widely separated countries: "I -hear that no one can obtain orders in your province without paying -for them." The clergy was thus tainted at its source. Ambitious -laymen passed, almost at a bound, to bishoprics, and then maintained -a luxurious or vicious life by extorting illegal fees. The people, -who had been generally literate under the Romans, were now wholly -illiterate and helpless. But Gregory has his informants (generally -the agents in charge of the patrimonies) everywhere, and the better -clergy and the oppressed and the disappointed appeal to him; and a sad -procession of vice and crime passes before our eyes when we read his -letters. This anarchic world needed a supreme court more than ever; the -Papacy throve on its very disorders.</p> - -<p>Italy was demoralized by the settlement of the Arian Lombards over -the greater part of the country, and by their murderous raids in all -directions. Parts which remained Catholic were often so isolated from -Rome that a spirit of defiance was encouraged, and Gregory had grave -trouble. Milan, for instance, was in the hands of the Lombards, but -the Catholic clergy had fled to Genoa with their archbishop, and they -retained something of the independence of the Church of St. Ambrose. We -see that they must now have their selec<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>tion of a bishop approved by -Gregory, and that the Pope often quietly reproves the prelate for his -indiscretions; but we find also that when, on a more serious occasion, -Gregory proposes to have Archbishop Constantius tried at Rome, the -latter acridly refuses.</p> - -<p>Ravenna, the seat of the Eastern Exarch, who is generally hostile to -Gregory, occasions some of his least saintly letters. He hears that -Archbishop John wears his pallium on forbidden occasions, and he -reproves John with an air of unquestioned authority.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> John partly -disputes the facts, and partly pleads special privileges of Ravenna, -but Gregory finds no trace of such privileges and orders him to -conform.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> Then he hears that John and the fine folk of the court are -poking fun at him, and his honest anger overflows<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a>: "Thank God the -Lombards are between me and the city of Ravenna, or I might have had -to show how strict I can be." John dies, and we see that the clergy -of Ravenna must submit the names of two candidates to Gregory. He -rejects the Exarch's man, and chooses an old fellow-monk and friend, -Marinianus. But the new Archbishop is forced to maintain the defence of -the supposed privileges of Ravenna, and the dispute seems to reach no -conclusion during the life of Gregory.</p> - -<p>In the isolated peninsula of Istria, the spirit of independence has -gone the length of flat defiance, or schism, because the Papacy has -acquiesced in the endorsement by the Eastern bishops of the Three -Chapters: three chapters of a certain decree of Justinian. The schism -is of long standing, and when Gregory is made bishop he sends a troop -of soldiers to the patriarch of Aquileia, commanding that prelate and -his chief supporters to appear at Rome forthwith,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> "according to the -orders of the most Christian and most Serene lord of all." The use -of the Emperor's name seems to have been, to put it politely, not -strictly accurate, for when Bishop Severus appealed to Maurice, the -Emperor curtly ordered Gregory to desist. We have another indication -of the medićval aspect of Gregory's ideas when, in the following -year, he refused to contribute to the relief-fund for the victims of -a great fire at Aquileia. His monies were "not for the enemies of the -Church," he said. He went on to weaken the schism by other means, -partly by bribes, and when Maurice died in 602 and a friendly Exarch -was appointed, he at once urged physical force.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> "The defence of -the soul is more precious in the sight of God than the defence of the -body," he enacted. He was legislating for the Middle Ages.</p> - -<p>His relations with the Lombards and the civil power reveal another side -of his character. Small Catholic towns, and even Rome, were constantly -threatened by the Lombards, yet Constantinople was unable to send -troops, and the Exarch remained inactive behind the marshes and walls -of Ravenna. Gregory indignantly turned soldier and diplomatist. He -appointed a military governor of Nepi, and later of Naples; and many of -his letters are to military men, stirring them to action and telling -of the dispatch of troops or supplies. In 592, the Lombards appeared -before Rome, and Gregory fell ill with work and anxiety. He then -purchased a separate peace from the Lombards<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> and there was great -anger at Ravenna and Constantinople. Gregory's sentiment was hardly one -of patriotism, which would not be consistent with his philosophy; he -was concerned for religion, as he was bound to be since the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> Lombards -were Arians. On the other hand, he acknowledges that if he makes a -separate peace with the Lombards, it will be disastrous for other parts -of the Empire<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a>; and it is clear from the sequel that the Exarch had -a policy and was not idly drifting.</p> - -<p>A later legend, which some modern writers strangely regard as -credible,<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> makes Gregory meet the Lombard king outside Rome, and -strike a bargain. A bargain was certainly struck, but the angry Exarch -issued from Ravenna with his troops and cut his way to Rome, where his -conversation with the Pope cannot have been amiable. The Lombards were -back in 593, but were either bribed, or found Rome too strong to be -taken. They returned again in 595. Gregory now wrote to a friend in -Ravenna<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> that he proposed again to purchase peace, and the Emperor -Maurice seems to have written him a scalding letter. From Gregory's -indignant reply<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> we gather that Maurice called him "a fool," and -hinted that he was a liar and traitor. The government idea evidently -was that Gregory was a simple-minded victim of the cunning Lombards, -as is very probable; but we must take account of his sincere concern -for religion and his longing for peace. His policy of bribes would -have been disastrous. At Ravenna, some person posted on the walls a -sarcastic "libel" about his statesmanship, and another fiery letter -appears in Gregory's register.</p> - -<p>In other parts of Italy, he had grave ecclesiastical abuses to correct, -and some strange bishops are immortalized in his letters. In 599, he -had to issue a circular letter,<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> forbidding bishops to have women -in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> houses, and ordering priests, deacons, and subdeacons to -separate from their wives. Sicily, controlled by his agents, gave -him little trouble, but his informers reported that in Sardinia and -Corsica the clergy and monks were very corrupt, and the pagans, who -were numerous, bribed the officials to overlook the practice of their -cult. The metropolitan at Cagliari was an intemperate and avaricious -man, and Gregory, after repeated warnings, summoned him to Rome; but -there is a curious mixture of indulgence and sternness in the Pope's -letters, and Januarius did not go to Rome or alter his wicked ways. As -to the pagans, Gregory, at first, merely urged the Archbishop to raise -the rents and taxes of those who would not abandon the gods.<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> When -this proved insufficient, he ordered physical persecution. If they were -slaves, they were to be punished with "blows and tortures"; if they -were free tenants, they were to be imprisoned. "In order," he says, in -entirely medićval language, "that they who disdain to hear the saving -words of health may at least be brought to the desired sanity of mind -by torture of the body."<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> - -<p>With other provinces of the old Empire, his correspondence is mainly -directed to the correction of grave abuses. His letters to Spain show -that Papal authority was fully recognized there, and it is of interest -to find a Spanish bishop bemoaning, when Gregory urges that only -literate men shall be promoted to the priesthood, that they are too few -in number. Africa virtually defied his efforts to reform the Church. -The province had recovered a little under Byzantine rule, but its -bishops and civic officials took bribes from the Donatists.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> They -refused to persecute the schismatics, when Gregory ordered them to do -so, and they defeated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> his attempt to break up their system of local -primacies.<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> He was compelled to leave them in their perverse ways. -The same condition of simony and clerical laxity prevailed generally -throughout the Roman-Teutonic world, and Gregory could do little more -than press for the election of good men to vacant bishoprics.</p> - -<p>The diplomatic side of his character appears in his relations -with Gaul, where the fiery and wilful Brunichildis was his chief -correspondent.<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> It is true that her graver crimes were committed -after Gregory's death, but he was particularly well informed, and one -cannot admire his references to her "devout mind" or appreciate his -belief that she was "filled with the piety of heavenly grace." When, -in 599, she asked the pallium for her obsequious Bishop Syagrius of -Autun, Gregory granted it: on condition that Syagrius convoked a synod -for the correction of abuses and that Brunichildis attacked paganism -more vigorously. When, on the other hand, the learned and devout Bishop -Desiderius of Vienne, who was hated by Brunichildis for his courage -in rebuking her, asked the pallium, Gregory found that there was no -precedent and refused. It is true that Brunichildis was generous to the -clergy and, in her way, pious; but Gregory must have known the real -character of the woman whose influence he sought to win. His sacrifice, -moreover, was futile. A few synods were held, but there is no trace -of any diminution of simony, drunkenness, and vice among the Frankish -priests and monks.</p> - -<p>His interest in the neighbouring island of Angle-land is well known. He -began, early in his Pontificate, to buy Anglo-Saxon youths and train -them for missionary work, but, in 596, he found a speedier way to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> -convert the islanders. The all-powerful Ethelbert was married to the -Christian Bertha, and Gregory's friendly relations with Gaul opened -the way to his court. He sent the historic mission of monks under -Augustine, and, in a few years, had the converted King transforming the -pagan temples into churches and driving his people into them. It was -Gregory who planned the first English hierarchy.</p> - -<p>The monks, who ought to have been Gregory's firmest allies in the -reform of Christendom, had already become an ignorant and sensual body, -sustaining the ideal of Benedict only in a few isolated communities, -and Gregory's efforts to improve them were not wholly judicious. He -insisted that they should not undertake priestly or parochial work, and -he forbade the bishops to interfere with their temporal concerns. There -can be little doubt that this tendency to free them from episcopal -control made for greater degeneration. Here again, also, we find a -curious illustration of his diplomatic liberality. As a rule he was -very severe with apostate monks, yet we find him maintaining through -life a friendly correspondence with a renegade monk of Syracuse. -Venantius had returned to his position of wealthy noble in the world, -and had married a noble dame. Gregory, it is true, urged him to return -to his monastery, but the amiability of his language is only explained -by the position and influence of the man. The last phase of this part -of Gregory's correspondence is singular. Venantius died, and left his -daughters to the guardianship of the Pope; and we find Gregory assuring -these children of sin that he will discharge "the debt we owe to the -goodness of your parents."<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a></p> - -<p>We have already seen that Gregory's relations with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> the eastern -Emperor were painful, and another episode must be related before we -approach Eastern affairs more closely. The Archbishop of Salona, who -was one of the typical lax prelates of the age and who had smiled at -Gregory's admonitions and threats, was removed by death, and the Pope -endeavoured to secure the election of the archdeacon, a rigorous priest -who had been the Pope's chief informer. Neither clergy nor laity, -however, desired a change in the morals of the episcopal palace, and -they secured from Constantinople an imperial order for the election of -their own favourite. Gregory alleged bribery and excommunicated the new -archbishop. When the Emperor ordered him to desist, he flatly refused, -and a compromise had to be admitted. In another town of the same -frontier province, Prima Justiniana, the Emperor proposed to replace -an invalid bishop with a more vigorous man, and Gregory refused to -consent.<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> - -<p>A graver conflict had arisen in the East. Constantinople, with its -million citizens and its superb imperial palace, naturally regarded -its archbishop as too elevated to submit to Rome, and its ruling -prelate, John the Faster,—a priest who rivalled Gregory in virtue -and austerity,—assumed the title of "Ecumenical Bishop." Gregory -protested, but the Emperor Maurice, with his customary bluntness, -ordered the Pope to be silent. A few years later, however, some -aggrieved Eastern priests appealed to Rome, and Gregory wrote, in -entirely Papal language, to ask John for a report on their case. When -John lightly, or disdainfully, answered that he knew nothing about -it, the Pope lost his temper. He told his ascetic brother that it -would be a much less evil to eat meat than to tell lies: that he had -better get<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> rid of that licentious young secretary of his and attend -to business: that he must at once take back the aggrieved priests: and -that, although he seeks no quarrel, he will not flinch if it is forced -on him.<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> John made a malicious retort, by inducing the Empress -Constantina to make a request for relics which Gregory was bound to -refuse.</p> - -<p>The priests were eventually tried at Rome. Whether Gregory's sentence -was ever carried out in the East, we do not know, but John took the -revenge of styling himself "Ecumenical Bishop" in his correspondence -with Gregory, and the Pope then tried to form a league with the -patriarchs of the apostolic Sees of Antioch and Alexandria against the -ambitious John. In his eagerness to defeat John, he went very near to -sharing the Papacy with his allies. Peter, he said, had been at Antioch -before Rome, and Mark was a disciple of Peter; therefore the three were -in a sense "one See."<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> He added that Rome was so far from aspiring -to the odious title that, although it had actually been offered to -the Popes by the Council of Chalcedon, neither Leo nor any of his -successors had used it.<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> - -<p>To John himself Gregory sent a withering rebuke of his pride. To the -Emperor Maurice he described John as "a wolf in sheep's clothing," -a man who claimed a "blasphemous title" which "ought to be far from -the hearts of all Christians"! John may "stiffen his neck against the -Almighty," he says, but "he will not bend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> mine even with swords."<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> -He assured the Empress Constantina that John's ambition was a sure sign -of the coming of Anti-Christ.<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></p> - -<p>Gregory's peculiar diplomacy only excited the disdain of the -subtler Greeks. His position is, in fact, so false—repudiating -as "blasphemous" a title which, the whole world knew, he himself -claimed in substance—that it has been suggested that he thought -the term "Ecumenical Bishop" meant "sole bishop." Such a suggestion -implies extraordinary ignorance at Rome, but there is no need to -entertain it. To his friends Anastasius of Antioch and Eulogius of -Alexandria, Gregory complained that the phrase was an affront, not to -<i>all</i> bishops, but merely to the leading patriarchs, and the whole -correspondence shows that there was no misunderstanding. Gregory lacked -self-control. Anastasius of Antioch, though very friendly, ignored his -letters; Eulogius advised him to be quiet, and hinted that people might -suggest envy; the Emperor treated him with silent disdain. John died, -but his successor Cyriacus actually used the offensive title in telling -Gregory of his appointment. There was another outburst, and Maurice -impatiently begged the Pope not to make so much fuss about "an idle -name." Eulogius of Alexandria, who had some sense of humour, addressed -Gregory as "Universal Pope," saying gravely that he would obey his -"commands" and not again call any man "Universal Bishop." Possibly -Eulogius knew that Gregory had, a few years before, written to John of -Syracuse: "As to the Church of Constantinople, who doubts that it is -subject to the Apostolic See?"<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> Gregory protested in vain until the -close of his life. The Greeks retained their "blasphemous" title: the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> -Latins continued to assert their authority even over the Greek bishops.</p> - -<p>Toward the close of the year 602, the Emperor Maurice, now a stricken -old man of sixty-three, was driven from his throne by the brutal -Phocas; his five boys were murdered before his eyes and he was himself -executed. Phocas sent messengers to apprise Gregory of his accession. -We may assume that these messengers would give a discreet account -of what had happened and, possibly, bring an assurance of the new -Emperor's orthodoxy; and we do not know whether Gregory's assiduous -servants at Constantinople sent him any independent account. Yet, when -we have made every possible allowance, Gregory's letters to Phocas are -painful. The first letter<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> begins, "Glory be to God on high," and -sings a chant of victory culminating in, "Let the heavens rejoice and -the earth be glad." The bloody and unscrupulous adventurer must have -been himself surprised. Two months later, Gregory wrote again, hailing -the dawn of "the day of liberty" after the night of tyranny.<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> In -another letter he<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> saluted Leontia, the new Empress,—a fit consort -of Phocas,—as "a second Pulcheria"; and he commended the Church of St. -Peter's to her generosity. These two letters were written seven months -after the murders, and it is impossible to suppose that no independent -report had reached Gregory by that time. Nor do we find that, though he -lived for a year afterwards, he ever undid those lamentable letters. It -is the most ominous presage of the Middle Ages.</p> - -<p>Gregory died on March 12, 604. The racking pains of gout had been -added to his maladies, and plague and famine and Lombards continued -to enfeeble Italy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> He had striven heroically to secure respect for -ideals—for religion, justice, and honour—in that dark world on which -his last thoughts lingered. He had planted many a good man in the -bishoprics of Europe. He had immensely strengthened the Papacy, and a -strong central power might do vast service in that anarchic Europe. -Yet the historian must recognize that the world was too strong even -for his personality; simony and corruption still spread from Gaul to -Africa, and the ideas which Gregory most surely contributed to the -mind of Europe were those more lamentable or more casuistic deductions -from his creed which we have noticed. Within a year or so—to make the -best we can of a rumour which has got into the chronicles—the Romans -themselves grumbled that his prodigal charity had lessened <i>their</i> -share of the patrimonies, and we saw that more bitter complaints -against him were current in the Middle Ages. Yet he was a great Pope: -not great in intellect, not perfect in character, but, in an age of -confusion, corruption, and cowardice, a mighty protagonist of high -ideals.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Another of them, Gelasius (492-496), is, or was until -recently, regarded as the author of the first canon of Scriptures -and the first list of prohibited books. But this so-called "Gelasian -Decree" does not bear the name of Gelasius in some of the older -manuscripts, and is now much disputed. Father Grisar thinks that "we -may take it as certain that it did not emanate from him" (<i>History of -Rome and the Popes</i>, iii., 236). The canon is probably due to Damasus -(see p. 36) and the rather loosely written list of books which follows -it is ascribed to the later age of Hormisdas (514-523). Gelasius was an -able and vigorous Pope, and would hardly issue so poor a decree.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Lives of Gregory must be read with discretion. The best -and most ample source of knowledge is the stout volume of his letters, -but there are early biographies by Paul the Deacon and John the Deacon. -Paul wrote about 780, but his fairly sober sketch—into which miracles -have been interpolated—does not help us much. John wrote about a -century after this, and his fantastic and utterly undiscriminating work -is almost useless. The best biography of Gregory is the learned and -generally candid work of W.F.H. Dudden (<i>Gregory the Great</i>, 2 vols., -1905).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, ix., 69.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> See Dudden's <i>Gregory the Great</i>, i., 264-276.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, vi., 54.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> Dr. H.A. Mann (<i>The Lives of the Popes in the Early -Middle Ages</i>, 1902, etc.) would show that Gregory had a regard for -culture by quoting much praise of secular learning from the <i>Commentary -on the First Book of Kings</i>. This is not a work of Gregory at all. Even -the Benedictine editors of the Migne edition claim only that it was -written by an admirer who took notes of Gregory's homilies, and they -admit that it frequently departs from Gregory's ideas.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> See John of Salisbury, <i>Polycraticus</i>, ii., 26. It is -difficult to conceive that so unflattering a tradition was entirely an -invention.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, ix., 6, etc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, ii., 32.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, vii., 1.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> III., 56.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> V., 11.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> V., 15.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> XIII., 33.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> II., 46; v., 36.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> V., 36.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> It is first found in the unreliable Continuer of -Prosper's <i>Chronicle</i>, and seems to be founded on the meeting of Leo -and Attila. Neither Gregory nor Paul, the Deacon speaks of a meeting -with the Lombard king.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> V., 36.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> V., 40.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> IX., ii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> IV., 26.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> IX., 65.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> I., 84.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> I., 74.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> See <i>Ep.</i>, vii., 5, 50, 59 etc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> XI., 35.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> XI., 47.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> III., 53.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> V., 43.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> It is not true that the Council offered the title to Leo -I. It occurs only in petitions which two Eastern priests directed to -the Pope and the Council (Mansi, vi., 1006 and 1012), and the Council, -as we saw, decreed precisely the opposite. The only other place in -which we find it in some form is the spurious Latin version of the -sentence on Dioscorus to which I referred on p. 50.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> V., 20.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> V., 21.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> IX., 12.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> XIII., 31.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> XIII., 38.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> XIII., 39.</p></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></p> - -<p class="center">HADRIAN I. AND THE TEMPORAL POWER</p> - - -<p class="drop">T<span class="uppercase">wo</span> centuries after the death of Gregory the Great we still find an -occasional prelate of rare piety, such as Alcuin, scanning the horizon -for signs of the approaching dissolution. Vice and violence had so far -triumphed that it seemed as if God must soon lower the curtain on the -human tragedy. But the successors of Gregory in the chair of Peter were -far from entertaining such feelings. From the heart of the threatening -north, another Constantine had come to espouse their cause, to confound -their enemies, and to invest the Papacy with a power that it had never -known before. The story of the Popes as temporal sovereigns had begun.</p> - -<p>Once more we must say that the development was an almost inevitable -issue of the circumstances. The Byzantine rule in Italy had never been -strong enough to restrain the Lombards, and the rise of the Mohammedans -in the farther East now made Constantinople less competent than ever -to administer and to defend its trans-Adriatic province. First the -city, then the duchy, of Rome fell under the care of the Popes, from -sheer lack of other administrators and defenders. We saw this in the -Pontificate of Gregory. Beyond the Roman duchy were the scattered -patrimonies, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> estates given or bequeathed to the Papacy, and these -were often towns, or included towns. Here again the lack of secular -authority put all government in the hands of the Pope's agents. Then -the Eastern court successively adopted two heresies, Monothelitism and -Iconoclasm, and the dwindling respect of Rome for the Greeks passed -into bitter hostility. Imperial troops sacked the Lateran, dragged a -Pope (Martin I.) ignominiously to the East, and induced another Pope -(Honorius I.) to "subvert the immaculate faith" or, at least, to "allow -the immaculate to be stained."<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> On the whole, however, the Pontiffs -who succeeded Gregory were firm and worthy men. Rome began to shudder -between the fierce Lombard and the heretical Greek, and there slowly -grew in the Lateran Palace the design of winning independence of the -erratic counsels of kings.</p> - -<p>At this juncture, the name of Charles Martel blazed through the -Christian world, and Gregory III. and the people of Rome implored -him to take them under his protection. The Lombards were, however, -auxiliaries of Charles, and, as Duchesne suggests, Charles probably -resented Gregory's interference in secular affairs; the Pope had -recently encouraged the Lombard dukes who were in rebellion against -their king, and Liutprand had, in revenge, seized four frontier towns -of the Roman duchy. Gregory failed, but his amiable and diplomatic -successor, Pope Zachary, changed the Roman policy and made progress. He -lent Liutprand the use of the little Papal army to aid in suppressing -his dukes, and received the four towns and other "patrimonies." A -little later, the Exarch and the Archbishop of Ravenna<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> asked Zachary -to intercede for them, and the genial Pope again saw and disarmed -the Lombard. The language of the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i> is, at this -important stage, so barbarous—a sad reflection of Roman culture, for -it must have been written in the Lateran—that one often despairs of -catching its exact meaning, but it seems to me clear that it represents -Liutprand as giving the district of Cesena to the Papacy, and restoring -the exarchate of Ravenna to the city of Ravenna. Presently, however, we -shall find the Popes claiming the exarchate.</p> - -<p>The next step was the famous intervention of Rome in the affairs of -the Franks. Pippin, Mayor of the Palace, aspired to the throne of -Childeric III., and consulted the Papacy as to the moral aspect of his -design. The astute Pontiff went far beyond the terms of the request, -and "ordered" the Franks to make Pippin their monarch: an act which -founded the lucrative claim of Rome that she had conferred the kingdom -on the father of Charlemagne. Zachary's successor, Stephen II.,<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> -completed the work. He was hard pressed by the Lombard King Aistulph, -and, after a fruitless appeal to Constantinople, he went to France in -753 and implored Pippin to "take up the cause of the Blessed Peter -and the Republic of the Romans." This broke the last link with the -East, and Stephen secured the gratitude of Pippin and his dynasty by -anointing the King and his sons and pronouncing a dire anathema—which -he had assuredly no right to pronounce—on any who should ever dare to -displace the family of Pippin from the throne. And so Pippin swore a -mighty oath that he would take up the cause of the Blessed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> Peter, but -what he precisely engaged to do is one of the great controversies of -history.</p> - -<p>It is clear that Pippin was made "Patrician" of Rome. This had long -been the official title of the Byzantine Exarch in Italy, and it has -no definite meaning when it is transferred to Pippin and Charlemagne. -Probably this vagueness was part of the Roman plan. The Pope wanted -Pippin's army without his suzerainty. Moreover, in conferring on Pippin -the title which had belonged to the Exarch, it was probably implied -that the exarchate became part of "the cause of the Blessed Peter." -In point of fact, the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i> goes on to say that Pippin -swore to win for Rome "the exarchate of Ravenna" as well as other -"rights and territories of the Republic." Later, in recording the life -of Hadrian I., the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i> says that Stephen asked for -"divers cities and territories of the province of Italy, and the grant -of them to the Blessed Peter and his Vicars for ever." This part of -the work is, it is true, under grave suspicion of interpolation, but -the sentence I have quoted may pass. Pippin swore to secure for the -Popes, not only the Roman duchy, and "divers cities and territories" -which they claimed as "patrimonies," but also the exarchate of Ravenna, -to which they had no right whatever. As Hadrian I. repeatedly refers, -in his letters to Charlemagne, to this "Donation of Pippin," and in -one letter (xcviii.) says that it was put into writing, it is idle to -contest it.<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a></p> - -<p>Pippin crossed the Alps and forced Aistulph to yield,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> but as soon as -the Franks returned to their country the Lombard refused to fulfil -his obligations and again devastated Italy. No answer to the Pope's -desperate appeals for aid came from France and, in 756, when Rome was -gravely threatened, Stephen sent a very curious letter to Pippin.<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> -It is written in the name of St. Peter, and historians are divided -in opinion as to whether or no the Pope wished to impose on the -superstition of the French monarch and to induce him to think that it -was a miraculous appeal from the apostle himself. There is grave reason -to think that this was Stephen's design. The letter does not identify -the Pope with Peter, as apologists suggest; it speaks of Stephen as -a personality distinct from the apostolic writer, insists that it is -the disembodied spirit of Peter in heaven that addresses the King, and -threatens him with eternal damnation unless he comes to Rome and saves -"my body" and "my church" and "its bishop." As Pippin, who had ignored -the Pope's appeals so long, at once hurried to Italy on receiving this -letter, we may assume that he regarded it as miraculous. However that -may be, he crushed Aistulph and forced him to sign a deed abandoning -twenty-three cities—the exarchate, the adjacent Pentapolis, Comacchio, -and Narni—to the Roman See.<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> The representatives of the Eastern -court had hurried to Italy and had claimed this territory, but Pippin -bluntly told them that he had taken the trouble to crush Aistulph -only "on behalf of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> Blessed Peter." Byzantine rule in Italy was -henceforth confined to Calabria in the south and Venetia and Istria in -the north. The Pope succeeded the Eastern Emperor by right of gift from -Pippin; and Pippin would, no doubt, claim that the provinces were his -to give by right of the sword. In point of fact, however, the Papacy -had claimed the exarchate on some previous title, and that title is -unsound.</p> - -<p>We may now pass speedily to the Pontificate of Hadrian. Aistulph -died in 756; Stephen III. in 757. The ten years' Pontificate of Paul -I. was absorbed in a tiresome effort to wring the new rights of -Rome from the new Lombard King, Didier, and the struggle led to the -severance of the Romans into Frank and Lombard factions: one of the -gravest and most enduring results of the secular policy of the Papacy. -When Paul died, the Lombard faction, under two high Papal officials -named Christopher and Sergius, led Lombard troops upon the opposing -faction (who had elected a Pope), crushed them in a brutal and bloody -struggle, and elected Stephen IV. Stephen was, however, not the Lombard -King's candidate, and Didier intrigued at Rome against the power of -Christopher and Sergius. He bribed the Papal chamberlain, Paul Afiarta, -and it is enough to say that before long Christopher and Sergius were -put in prison and deprived of their eyes. This was done at the Pope's -command; it was the price of the restoration by Didier of the cities he -still withheld.<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> - -<p>Rome was still under the shadow of this brutal quarrel when, in the -year 772, Hadrian became Pope. He came of a noble Roman family, and, -having been left an orphan in tender years, he had been reared by a -pious uncle. Culture at Rome in the eighth century had sunk to its -lowest depth, and the letters of Hadrian, like all documents of the -time, are full of the grossest grammatical errors. In the school of -virtue and asceticism, however, he was a willing pupil. His fasts -and his hair-shirt attracted attention in his youth, and he was so -favourably known to all at the time of Stephen's death that he was at -once and unanimously elected.</p> - -<p>Didier pressed for the new Pope's friendship. Charlemagne had already -tired of his daughter, or no longer needed her dowry (the Lombard -alliance), and had ignominiously restored her to her father's court and -ventured upon a third matrimonial experiment. We do not find Hadrian -rebuking the Frank King, but he sent his chamberlain Afiarta to the -Lombard court, to arrange for the restoration of the cities ceded to -Rome and, presumably form an alliance with Didier. While Afiarta was -away, however, two things occurred which caused him to change his -policy. Carlomann died in France, and his share of the kingdom was -annexed by Charlemagne. Carlomann's widow then fled to the Lombard -court, and Didier pressed Hadrian to anoint her sons in defiance of -Charlemagne. When Hadrian hesitated, Didier invaded the Papal territory -and took several towns; while Afiarta, the Pope heard,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> was boasting -that he would bring Hadrian to Pavia with a rope round his neck. -Meantime, however, Afiarta's rivals at Rome informed the Pope that -Afiarta had had the blind prisoner Sergius murdered, and Hadrian was -shocked. He ordered the arrest of his chamberlain, and, in defiance of -his more lenient instructions, Afiarta was delivered to the secular -authorities at Ravenna and executed.</p> - -<p>Didier now set his forces in motion. Hadrian, hurriedly gathering -his troops for the defence of the duchy, appealed to Charlemagne and -threatened Didier with excommunication. It seems also that he made -efforts to secure other parts of Italy for the Papacy. Some professed -representatives of Spoleto, which was subject to Didier, came to Rome -to ask that their duchy might be incorporated in the Papal territory, -and their long Lombard hair was solemnly cropped in Roman fashion. We -shall find grave reason to doubt whether these men had an authentic -right to represent Spoleto, but from that moment the Popes claimed it -as part of their temporal dominion, Didier seems to have underrated -the power of the young French monarch. Both Hadrian and Charlemagne -(who offered Didier 14,000 gold <i>solidi</i> if he would yield the disputed -cities) endeavoured to negotiate peacefully with him, but he refused -all overtures, and the Franks crossed the Alps and besieged him in -Pavia.</p> - -<p>Charlemagne remained before Pavia throughout the winter of 773-774, -and, when Holy Week came round, he went to Rome for the celebration -of Easter. Hadrian hurriedly arranged to meet his guest with honour, -though the account of his ceremonies makes us smile when we recall how -imperial Rome would have received such a monarch. Thirty miles from -Rome the civic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> and military officials, with the standards of the Roman -militia, met the conqueror; a mile from the city the various "schools" -of the militia, and groups of children with branches of palm and olive, -streamed out to meet the Franks, and accompanied them to St. Peter's. -The awe with which Charlemagne approached the old capital of the -world, and the feeling of the Romans when they gazed on the gigantic -young Frank, in his short silver-bordered tunic and blue cloak, with -a shower of golden curls falling over his broad shoulders, are left -to our imagination by the chronicler.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> His one aim is to show how -the famous donation of temporal power was the natural culmination of -the piety of the Frankish monarch. He tells us how Charlemagne walked -on foot the last mile to St. Peter's: how, when he reached the great -church on Holy Saturday, he went on his knees and kissed each step -before he embraced the delighted Pope: how Frank bishops and warriors -mingled with the Romans, and how the vast crowd was thrilled by the -emotions of that historic occasion. He describes how Charlemagne -humbly asked permission to enter Rome, and spent three days in paying -reverence at its many shrines; and how, on the Wednesday, Pope and King -met in the presence of the body of Peter to discuss the question of the -Papal territory.</p> - -<p>In a famous passage, which has inspired a small library of -controversial writing, this writer of the life of Hadrian in the <i>Liber -Pontificalis</i> affirms that Charlemagne assigned to St. Peter and his -successors for ever the greater part of Italy: in modern terms, the -whole of Italy except Lombardy in the north, which was left to the -Lombards, and Naples and Calabria in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> the south, where the Greeks -still lingered. The duchies of Beneventum and Spoleto, the provinces -of Venetia and Istria, and the island of Corsica, which were not at -the disposal of Charlemagne, are expressly included; and it is said -that one copy of the deed, signed by Charlemagne and his nobles and -bishops, was put into the tomb of St. Peter, and another copy was taken -to France. This is the basis of the claim of later Popes to the greater -part of Italy.</p> - -<p>But the suspicions of historians are naturally awakened when they -learn that both copies of this priceless document have disappeared: -that the only description of its terms is this passage of the <i>Liber -Pontificalis</i>, which was presumably written in the Papal chancellery: -and that the art of forging documents was extensively cultivated in -the eighth century. The famous "Donation of Constantine," a document -which makes the first Christian Emperor, when he leaves Rome, entrust -the whole Western Empire to Pope Silvester, is a flagrant forgery of -the time; indeed, most historians now conclude that it was fabricated -at Rome during the Pontificate of Hadrian. Certainly the Pope seems -to refer to it when, in 777, he writes to Charlemagne: "Just as in -the time of the Blessed Silvester, Bishop of Rome, the Holy Catholic -and Apostolic Roman Church was elevated and exalted by the most pious -Emperor Constantine the Great, of holy memory, and <i>he deigned to -bestow on it power in these western regions</i>."<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> - -<p>The equally mendacious <i>Acta S. Silvestri</i> was certainly known to -Hadrian, and we do not trace it earlier; and it is probable enough -that one or both of these documents were shown to Charlemagne. Some -historians believe that the "Fantuzzian Fragment" (a similarly false -account of the Donation of Pippin) belongs to the same inventive -period, and this is not unlikely.</p> - -<p>It cannot be questioned that Charlemagne renewed and enlarged his -father's donation, since Hadrian's letters to him repeatedly affirm -this. Immediately after his return to France, Hadrian reminds him that -he has confirmed Pippin's gift of the exarchate,<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> and, a little -later, he recalls that, when he was in Rome, he granted the duchy of -Spoleto to the Blessed Peter.<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> Spoleto did not, in point of fact, -pass under Papal rule, but we must conclude from the Pope's words that -Charlemagne in some way approved the action of Hadrian in annexing the -duchy, and in this sense enlarged the donation made by his father. -Beyond this single instance of Spoleto, however, the letters of Hadrian -do not confirm the writer of his life in the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i> in -his description of the extent of Charlemagne's gift,<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> -and their silence supports the criti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>cal view. While he complains of -outrages in Istria and Venetia, while he occupies himself in a long -series of letters with the affairs of Beneventum, he makes no claim -that these provinces were given to him by Charlemagne. The whole story -of the Papacy during the life of Charlemagne is inconsistent with any -but the more modest estimate of the donation: that it was a vague -sanction of the Spoletan proceeding, in addition to confirming the -Donation of Pippin.</p> - -<p>The learned editor of the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i>, Duchesne, is convinced -that the first part of the life of Hadrian, which culminates in this -donation, was written by a contemporary cleric and must be regarded as -genuine. He suggests that, when Hadrian perceived the impracticability -of Charlemagne winning two thirds of Italy for the Roman See, he -released the monarch from his oath. This is inconsistent alike with -the character of Hadrian and the terms of his correspondence, and -recent historians generally regard the range ascribed to Charlemagne's -donation in the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i> as either fictitious or enlarged -by later interpolations. The first part of Duchesne's study—the proof -that the early chapters of the life of Hadrian were written by a -contemporary—is convincing: the second part—that the Pope sacrificed -five or six great provinces because it was difficult at the time to get -them—has not even the most feeble documentary basis and is unlikely in -the last degree, to judge by the known facts. Either some later writer -during the Pontificate of Leo III.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> (or later) rounded the narrative of -the early years of Hadrian with this grandiose forgery, or the passage -which specifies the extent of the donation was interpolated in the -narrative. For either supposition we have ample analogy in the life of -the eighth century: for a Papal surrender of whole provinces we have -no analogy whatever, and there is not the faintest allusion to it in -Hadrian's forty-five extant letters to Charlemagne.<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a></p> - -<p>The life of Hadrian in the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i> consists, as will -already have been realized, of two very distinct parts. The first is a -consecutive and circumstantial narrative of events up to the departure -of Charlemagne from Rome in the spring of 774. This seems to have been -written by an eye-witness, possibly a clerk in the Papal service; and -it seems equally probable that this contemporary narrative was rounded -by a later hand with a fictitious account of Charlemagne's conduct -on the Wednesday. Immediately afterwards, Charlemagne returned to -Pavia, conquered Didier, and carried him off to a French monastery. -This occurred in the second year of Hadrian's Pontificate, yet in the -<i>Liber Pontificalis</i>, the remaining twenty years are crushed into a few -chaotic paragraphs, and these are chiefly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> concerned with his lavish -decoration of the Roman churches. We turn to his letters, and from -these we can construct a satisfactory narrative and can obtain a good -idea of the writer's personality.</p> - -<p>Of the fifty-five extant letters of Hadrian no less than forty-five are -addressed to Charlemagne, and they are overwhelmingly concerned with -his temporal possessions. He is rather a King-Pope than a Pope-King. -For twenty years he assails Charlemagne with querulous, petulant, or -violent petitions to protect the rights of the Blessed Peter, and it -is not illiberally suspected that the lost replies of Charlemagne -contained expressions of impatience. The Pope's letters, with their -unceasing references to the Blessed Peter and all that he has done -for Charlemagne, are not pleasant reading, and the Frank King, whose -Italian policy seems to baffle his biographers, must have realized -that his position as suzerain of the Blessed Peter was delicate and -difficult. Hadrian on the other hand, found that the temporal rights -of his See left comparatively little time for spiritual duties and -laid a strain on his piety. Once in a few years he smites a heretic -or arraigns some delinquent prelate, but the almost unvarying theme -of his letters is a complaint that the Blessed Peter is defrauded of -his rights, and he is at times drawn into political intrigues which -do not adorn his character. We may recognize that his ambition was -as impersonal as that of Gregory the Great, yet the spectacle of -his plaints and manœuvres is not one on which we can dwell with -admiration.</p> - -<p>Charlemagne had scarcely returned to France when he received from -Hadrian a bitter complaint that Leo, Archbishop of Ravenna, had seized -the cities of the exarchate and was endeavouring to win those of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> -Pentapolis.<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> Charlemagne did not respond; indeed Leo went in person -to the Frank court, and it is significant that after his return he was, -Hadrian says, more insolent and ambitious than ever. He cast out the -officials sent from Rome and, by the aid of his troops, took over the -rule of the exarchate. Charlemagne was busy with his Saxon war, and he -paid no attention to the Pope's piteous appeals.<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> Leo died in 777, -however, and his successor seems to have submitted to Rome. Charlemagne -had meantime visited Italy and may have intervened.</p> - -<p>The business which brought Charlemagne to Italy in 776 was more -serious. Arichis, Duke of Beneventum, one of the ablest and most -cultivated of the Lombards, who was married to a daughter of Didier, -was an independent sovereign. Hildeprand, Duke of Spoleto, who -had—in spite of the supposed annexation of Spoleto—chosen to regard -Charlemagne rather than Hadrian as his suzerain, was on good terms with -Arichis, and the Pope looked on their friendship with gloomy suspicion. -He reported to Charlemagne that they were conspiring against his -authority. Charlemagne's envoys were due at Rome, and Hadrian bitterly -complained to him that they had gone first to Spoleto and had "greatly -increased the insolence of the Spoletans," and had then, in spite of -all the Pope's protests, proceeded to Beneventum.<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> It is clear that -there was in Italy a strong feeling against the Papal expansion, and -that the occasional appeals for incorporation in the Roman territory -came from clerics. Spoleto remained independent, in spite of Hadrian's -claim that it had been promised to him; in fact, it was clearly the -policy of Charlemagne to leave these matters to local option,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> and he -can scarcely have made a definite promise to include Spoleto in his -"donation."</p> - -<p>In the following year, Hadrian sent more alarming news. Adelchis, a -son of Didier, had fled to the Greeks and was pressing them to assist -in overthrowing the Frank-Roman system. Hadrian said that Arichis and -Hildeprand, as well as Hrodgaud of Friuli and Reginald of Clusium, had -conspired with the Greeks, and he implored the King "by the living God" -to come at once. Charlemagne came, and chastised Hrodgaud, but he does -not seem to have found serious ground for the charges against the Dukes -of Spoleto and Beneventum. Presently, however, Hadrian was able to -announce more definitely a conspiracy against his rule; the Beneventans -and Greeks had captured some of his Campanian towns, and Tassilo, Duke -of Bavaria (son-in-law of Didier), had joined them. It is true that -Charlemagne was, at the time, busy in Saxony, but it is equally clear -that he was angry with the Pope and resented his efforts to secure -the two duchies. In 777, Hadrian wrote that he rejoiced to hear that -Charlemagne was at length coming; he sent him a long list, from the -Roman archives, of all the territories to which Rome laid claim, and -invited the Frank to be a second Constantine.<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> But Charlemagne came -not, and in his next letter Hadrian has to lament that the Frank has -committed the "unprecedented act" of arresting the Papal Legate for -insolence, and the Lombards are openly exulting in his humiliation.<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a></p> - -<p>There seems then to have been a long period without correspondence -between the two courts, or else it has not been thought judicious -to preserve the letters. In 781, however, Charlemagne came to Rome. -Tassilo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> was disarmed, and, as Charlemagne's daughter was betrothed -to the son of the Eastern Empress Irene, the Greeks must have been -pacified. The six years of peace which followed were, no doubt, used -by Hadrian in that princely decoration of the Roman churches of which -I will speak later and in some attention to ecclesiastical affairs. We -find him writing, in 785, to the bishops of Spain; though he seems to -have had little influence on the Spanish heresy which he denounced, -and it was left to the more vigorous attacks of Charlemagne.<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> In -786 he extended his pastoral care to England, which had not seen a -Roman envoy since the days of Gregory. His Legates were received with -honour, but they reported that the English Church was in a deplorable -condition.<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> King Offa made a princely gift for the maintenance -of lamps in St. Peter's (a euphemism of the Roman court) and for the -poor, and it is curious to read that Hadrian consented, at the King's -request, to make Lichfield a metropolitan see.</p> - -<p>The peace was broken in 787 by an active alliance of Arichis, Tassilo, -and the Greeks, and Charlemagne again set out for Italy. Arichis was -forced to pay the Franks a heavy annual tribute and give his sons as -hostages. The elder son and Arichis himself died soon afterwards, -and Hadrian again made lamentable efforts to secure the duchy. The -accomplished widow of Arichis, Adelperga, besought Charlemagne to -bestow it on her younger son, Romwald, and Hadrian begged him not to -comply. He trusted Charlemagne would not suspect him of coveting the -duchy himself<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a>; but he re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>frained from suggesting an alternative -to the son of Arichis, and at length he boldly warned Charlemagne not -to "prefer Romwald to the Blessed Peter."<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> Other indications of -the building of the temporal power are not more edifying. We read that -representative inhabitants of Capua and other Beneventan cities have -sought incorporation in the Roman "republic"; and then we read that -the cities have been handed over to the Papacy without inhabitants—a -clear sign of the wishes of the majority—and that Romwald is assuring -his subjects, on the authority of Charlemagne, that they need not pass -under the authority of Rome unless they will.</p> - -<p>Charlemagne again ignored the Pope's efforts, and soon had the Spoletan -and Beneventan troops co-operating with his own against the Greeks. -Hadrian obtained no control over Spoleto and Beneventum, and the fact -that he does not charge Charlemagne with failing to keep faith with -the Blessed Peter casts further discredit on the supposed donation. In -Venetia and Istria he had no influence whatever, and his agents were -barbarously treated.<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> Corsica never enters his correspondence. -His power was confined to the Roman duchy, the exarchate, and the -Pentapolis; and even there it was much assailed. It is true that -in an hour of resolution he forbade Charlemagne to interfere in an -ecclesiastical election at Ravenna, and it was as master of Ravenna -that he gave Charlemagne the marbles and mosaics of the old palace. -But he complained bitterly that Charlemagne listened to his critics -in Ravenna,<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> and he had repeatedly to appeal to Frank authority -to enforce his sentences. To the end his letters to Charlemagne were -querulous and exacting.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> A few years before his death he heard that -Offa of England was proposing to Charlemagne to depose him, and he -protested, with more petulance than dignity, that he had been elected, -not by men, but by Jesus Christ.<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a></p> - -<p>This demoralizing concern for his temporal rights seems to have warped -Hadrian's religious temperament and to have left him little time -for purely spiritual duties. A single lengthy letter to Spain and a -legation to England are all that we have as yet related, and there is -little to add. His third exercise of jurisdiction was unfortunate. -Irene had restored the worship of images in the East and was eager -for a reconciliation with Western Christendom. She invited Hadrian -to preside at an Ecumenical Council. His reply was admirable in -doctrinal respects, but he annoyed the Greeks by at once claiming all -his patrimonies in the East and protesting against the title used by -Archbishop Tarasius. They retorted by suppressing part of his letter to -the Council of Nicća (787), at which his Legates presided, and ignored -both his requests.</p> - -<p>This, however, was only the beginning of fresh and grave trouble with -Charlemagne. The Greeks had annoyed him by cancelling the betrothal of -Constantine with his daughter Rotrud, and there is reason to suspect -that he already contemplated assuming the title of Emperor. There was, -at all events, a sore feeling in France, and when the findings of the -Council of Nicća reached that country, they were treated with disdain -and insult. Hadrian had, in his annoyance with the Greeks, refused to -give a formal sanction to their findings, but he had so far accepted -them as to issue from the Papal chancellery a Latin translation of the -<i>acta</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> of the Council. We can readily believe that the translation -would be crude and inaccurate, but the quarrel was not based on these -fine shades of meaning. The French conception of the use of images -differed not only from that of the Greeks, but from that of Hadrian. -The northern prelates held that images were to be regarded only as -ornaments and as reminders of the saints they represented. In this -sense Charlemagne issued, in his own name (though we justly suspect -the authorship of Alcuin), the large work which is commonly known as -<i>The Caroline Books</i>. It scathingly attacked the Greek canons which had -been accepted by the Pope; it took no notice of Hadrian's doctrinal -letter to the Council; and, in defiance of the familiar Roman custom, -it denounced as sinful the practice of burning lights before statues -or paying them any kind or degree of worship. It contained assurances -of its loyalty to the Apostolic See, but Hadrian must have felt, when -at length some version or other of the work was sent to him (three -or four years after its publication), that it was an outrage on his -spiritual authority. But the book bore the name of Charlemagne, and in -his lengthy reply Hadrian prudently concealed his annoyance.<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> In -the same year (794) the Frank bishops held a synod at Frankfort and -resolutely maintained their position. Whether this synod followed or -preceded Hadrian's letter we cannot say, but the Franks continued for -years to reject the Roman doctrine.<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> - -<p>Hadrian's biographer discreetly ignores these failures of his attempts -to assert his authority, and almost confines himself to the record of -his work in Rome itself. He restored and extended the walls, and added -no less than four hundred towers to their defences. He repaired four -aqueducts, and rebuilt, on a grander scale, the colonnade which ran -from the Tiber to St. Peter's. The interior of St. Peter's he decorated -with a splendour that must have seemed to the degenerate Romans -imperial. The choir was adorned with silver-plated doors, and, in part, -a silver pavement; while a great silver chandelier, of 1345 lights, -was suspended from its ceiling. Large statues of gold and silver were -placed on the altars, and the walls were enriched with purple hangings -and mosaics. Vestments of the finest silk, shining with gold and -precious stones, were provided for the clergy. To other churches, also, -Hadrian made liberal gifts of gold and silver statues, Tyrian curtains, -gorgeous vestments, and mosaics. The long hostility to images and -image-makers in the East had driven large numbers of Greek artists to -Italy, and the vast sums which the new temporal dominions sent to Rome -enabled Hadrian to employ them. After a long and profound degeneration -"the fine arts began slowly to revive."<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> For literary culture, -however, Hadrian did nothing; the attempt of some writers to associate -him with Charlemagne's efforts to relieve the gross illiteracy of -Europe is without foundation.</p> - -<p>In charity, too, the Pope was distinguished. He founded new deaconries -for the care of the poor, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> at times of flood and fire he was one -of the first to visit and relieve the sufferers. But both his artistic -and his philanthropic work was almost restricted to Rome. He added a -few farms to those which his predecessors had planted on the desolate -Campagna, but the great and increasing resources of the Papacy were -chiefly used in laying the foundations of the material splendour -which would one day daze the eyes of Europe, and in paying soldiers -to protect it against his political rivals. It must be added that he -was one of the early founders of the Roman tradition of nepotism. He -appointed his nephew Paschalis to one of the chief Papal offices, and -the brutality of the man, which will appear presently, shows that the -promotion was not made on the ground of merit.</p> - -<p>His long Pontificate came to an end on December 25th (or 26th) in the -year 795, and it is an indication of the new position of the Papacy -that his successor at once sent to Charlemagne the keys of Rome and -of the tomb of St. Peter. We have the assurance of Eginhard that the -Frank monarch wept as one weeps who has lost a dear son or brother, -and he afterwards sent to Rome a most honouring epitaph of Hadrian, -cut in gold letters on black marble. The character of Charlemagne -and his inmost attitude toward the new Papacy he had created do not -seem to me to be sufficiently elucidated by any of his biographers, -but with that we are not concerned. He had deep regard for Hadrian, -in spite of the Pope's failings. The new royal state was too heavy -a burden for Hadrian I. to bear with dignity. One cannot doubt the -sincerity of his religion, his humanity, and his impersonal devotion to -what he conceived to be his duty. But it is equally plain that in the -first Pope-King the cares of earthly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> dominion enfeebled the sense of -spiritual duty and at times warped his character. It needed a great man -to pass without scathe through such a transformation. Hadrian I. was -not a great man.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> So the successor of Honorius, Leo II., wrote to the -Emperor. <i>Ep.</i>, iii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> Stephen I., who was chosen at the death of Zachary, died -before consecration, and some historians decline to insert him in the -series.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> Pippin repeated his oath at Quiercey, and the bargain -is sometimes described as the "Quiercey Donation." The "Fantuzzian -Fragment," an ancient document which professes to give the precise -extent of the donation, is full of errors and anachronisms, and is not -now trusted by any serious historian.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, v.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> This is sometimes called the "Donation of Aistulph," but -is really the completed Donation of Pippin. On this point the <i>Liber -Pontificalis</i> is confirmed by the <i>Annals</i> of Eginhard, in which we -read that Pippin gave the Roman See "Ravenna and the Pentapolis and -the whole exarchate belonging to Ravenna" (year 756), and by the later -letters of Hadrian I.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> Writers who say merely that Stephen was "suspected of -complicity" must have overlooked the testimony of Hadrian himself in -the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i>. He tells the Lombard envoys that Stephen -assured him that, on Didier promising to return the cities, the Pope -"caused the eyes of Christopher and Sergius to be put out." Stephen's -character is further illustrated by his letter to the sons of Pippin -(<i>Ep.</i>, iv.), when it was proposed that one of them should marry -Didier's daughter Hermingard. They were both married, but the Pope says -very little about the sin of divorce; it is the infamy of alliance with -the Lombards which he chiefly denounces. In point of fact, Charlemagne -divorced his wife and married Hermingard, and not a word further was -heard from Rome about this or any other of his peculiar domestic -arrangements.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> The visit is described very fully in the <i>Liber -Pontificalis</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lx. Some writers hold that this is merely an -allusion to the <i>Acta S. Silvestri</i>, another forgery of the time, but -the words which I have italicized point more clearly to the "Donation -of Constantine." For the literature of the controversy see Dr. A. -Solmi's <i>Stato e Chiesa</i> (1901), pp. 12-13. It is now the general -belief that the "Donation" was fabricated at Rome, and probably in the -Lateran, between 750 and 781. Dr. Hodgkin (<i>Italy and her Invaders</i>, -vi.) has charitably suggested that perhaps the document was playfully -composed by some Papal clerk in his leisure hours and taken seriously -by a later generation, but apologists do not seem to grasp at this -straw.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lvii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> Dr. Mann (vol. i., part ii., p. 423) finds some -confirmation in "a passage of Hadrian's letter to Constantine and -Irene, read in the second session of the Seventh General Council." -This part of Hadrian's letter was not read in the Council. It is not -included in the letter in the Migne edition (vol. xcvi.), and in -Mansi (xii., 1072) it is explained that the latter part of Hadrian's -letter, in which the passage occurs, was not read to the Greeks. In -any case, the passage merely affirms that Charlemagne gave the Roman -See "provinces and cities and other territories," and this is quite -consistent with the more modest estimate of his donation. A letter -written by Leo III. to Charlemagne thirty years afterwards (when the -Papal description of the donation certainly existed), speaking of his -gift of the island of Corsica, is not conclusive.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> See the dissertation appended to vol. vi. of Dr. -Hodgkin's <i>Italy and her Invaders</i>, where the author contends that a -late writer used the contemporary account of Hadrian's early years to -lead up to this fictitious donation. The hypothesis of interpolation -in a genuine narrative is urged by Dr. W. Martens in his <i>Die Römische -Frage</i> (1881) and <i>Beleuchtung der neuesten Controversen über die R. -Frage</i> (1898). Professor Th. Lindner (<i>Die sogenannten Schenkungen -Pippins, Karls des Grossen, und Otto's I. an die Päpste</i>, 1896) -suggests that Charlemagne intended only to secure the patrimonies in -the provinces named in the donation, but this is not consistent with -the language of the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i>, though it may very well -represent the actual intention of Charlemagne.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, liii., liv., lv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lvii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lx.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lxii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lxxxiii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> See the interesting letter of Bishop George, one of -Hadrian's Legates, in Jaffe's <i>Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum</i>, vi., -155, and compare <i>The Saxon Chronicle</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xciii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lxxxii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xcviii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xcvi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> Migne, vol. xcviii., col. 1247.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> Alcuin afterwards wrote a very abject letter to the Pope -(<i>Ep.</i>, xviii.), and this is sometimes represented as an expression of -regret, but he does not mention the image-question and plainly refers -to his general unworthiness. The Franks were convinced that the Pope -was wrong. See the <i>Acta</i> of the Frankfort Council in Mansi, xiii., -864.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> R. Cattaneo, <i>Architecture in Italy from the Sixth to -the Eleventh Century</i> (1896).</p></div></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></p> - -<p class="center">NICHOLAS I. AND THE FALSE DECRETALS</p> - - -<p class="drop">T<span class="uppercase">he</span> coronation of Charlemagne by the Pope in the year 800 was also the -crowning of the new Papal system. The ambition for temporal power had -already disclosed the grave dangers which it brought. Soon after the -death of Hadrian I. the horrible spectacle was witnessed at Rome of -high Papal officials—one a nephew of the late Pope—attempting, on the -floor of a church, to cut out the eyes of their Pontiff; and the record -tells us that the Romans were so little moved by the charges brought -against him that they left it to a provincial noble to rescue Leo III. -Grave charges were also made against his successor, Stephen V., and -Charlemagne came to Rome to judge him. He politely acquitted Stephen, -and, on that historic Christmas morning of the year 800, he was -surprised and disconcerted by the Pope suddenly producing an imperial -crown and placing it on his head.</p> - -<p>It is well known that Charlemagne regarded this coronation with -distrust. The gifts of the Blessed Peter had a way of conferring more -power on the giver than on the receiver. In point of fact, when the -strong hand of the first Emperor was removed, and a brood of weaker men -came to squabble over the imperial heritage, Rome gained considerably. -The kingdoms of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> France, Germany, and Italy were carved out of the -Empire, but the spiritual realm was not exposed to any hereditary -division. It merely awaited the coming of another strong man to make -clear its power, and this revelation was reserved for Nicholas I. Of -the eight Popes who preceded him, only one, Leo IV., made a reputable -mark on history, and that rather as a strong and honest than as a -spiritual personality. Most of them were, like most of the Popes, -men of mediocre but respectable character. There is, however, some -degeneration in the Papal calendar—which is, until the end of the -ninth century, a more edifying record than many imagine—since two out -of the eight remain under suspicion of grave misconduct, and one was -a gouty <i>gourmand</i>; while occasional outbreaks of a violence not far -removed from barbarism betray that the new prosperity is not elevating -the character of the Romans.</p> - -<p>Nicholas, whose life in the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i> was probably written -by his accomplished librarian Anastasius, was the son of a cultivated -Roman notary, and was carefully trained in letters. These official -panegyrics will not, however, impress the serious historian. The -Pope's letters show that the extent of his profane culture was merely -a stricter observance of the elementary rules of grammar than some of -his predecessors had displayed. In 853, a few years before Nicholas -began his Pontificate, Leo IV. had ordered the opening of schools in -each of the twenty parishes of Rome, but he complained that teachers -of the liberal arts were rare. The instruction given was mainly -religious, and it seems that on the ecclesiastical side the Pope's -culture was considerable. He had grown up in the devout service of the -Church, and successive Popes had pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>moted and loved him; so that, when -Benedict III. died, Nicholas was unanimously chosen to succeed him. -In the presence of the Emperor, Louis II., Nicholas, who had to be -dragged from a hiding-place in St. Peter's, was, on Sunday, April 24th, -consecrated and conducted by joyous crowds along the laurel-crowned -streets to the Lateran. Two days afterwards the Emperor entertained him -at dinner, and they were very cordial. When Louis set out for France, -Nicholas followed and had another festive dinner with him at his first -camp. Then the Pope, after kissing and embracing the Emperor, returned -to the Lateran and gravely mounted the Papal throne.</p> - -<p>Within the next few years men learned that a new type of Pontiff ruled -the Church, or the world. Nicholas I. conceived himself, in deepest -sincerity, to be the representative of God on earth: fancied himself -sitting on a throne so elevated that from its level all men—kings and -beggars, patriarchs and monks—were of the same size. He believed that -he was responsible to God for every immoral or irreligious movement -in "every part of the world," as he often said. He was convinced that -his words were "divinely inspired,"<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> and that disobedience to him -was disobedience to God. He was, by divine appointment, "prince over -all the earth."<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> Kings received their swords from him,<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> and -were as humbly subject as their serfs were to his moral and religious -authority. The most powerful prelates must obey his orders at once -or be deposed.<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> Not a council must be held in Europe without his -approval<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a>: not a church must be built "without the commands of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> -the Pope"<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a>: not a book of any importance must be published without -his authorization.<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> Nicholas was conscientious in small duties: he -kept lists of the blind and ailing poor to whom food had to be sent. -But his great feature was his treatment of the mighty. He lived on a -cloud-wrapt height, sending out the thunders of excommunication, on -gentle and simple, as no Pope had ever dared to do before. He left to -Louis the petty position of "emperor of men's bodies": <i>he</i> occupied -the position of Jupiter. Europe was cowed by the impersonal arrogance -of his language. He was the greatest maker of the medićval Papacy.<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a></p> - -<p>Nicholas did a greater work than Hildebrand because the times permitted -him. He had to deal with the degenerate descendants of Charlemagne, not -with a powerful ruler. On the other hand, court-favour and prosperity -had made the leading prelates a feudal aristocracy, often arrogant -and avaricious; and the monks they threatened and the priests they -oppressed turned eagerly from them to the Roman court of appeal. -Princes chafed at the independence of their spiritual vassals, and -would depose them: bishops chafed at the interference of their -suzerains, and would assert the independence of the Church. A thousand -voices appealed to Rome. The fact that the <i>Forged Decretals</i> were -not made at Rome or in the interest of Rome, but by the provincial -clergy in their own interest, gives us the measure of the age. And the -fact that such forgeries were at once received reminds us of another -favourable circumstance: the dense ignorance of the time. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> was -culture in places, as the contemporary work of Scotus Erigena reminds -us, but to check these Papal claims one needed a knowledge of history, -and the true story of the development of the Church and the Papacy, as -we know it, was buried under a dense growth of legends and forgeries. -Hence the dogmatic Papal conception, partly based on such documents as -the <i>Donation of Constantine</i> and the <i>Forged Decretals</i>, sank almost -unchallenged into the mind of Europe, and the Pope was now enabled to -dispense with the swords of princes and rely on religious threats. The -letters of Nicholas splutter anathemas from beginning to end.</p> - -<p>His first extant letter gives the Archbishop of Sens and his colleagues -a stern lesson on the prestige of the Papacy, as understood by Nicholas -I. The sixth letter peremptorily orders the great Hincmar of Rheims and -his colleagues, in language of the simplest arrogance, to excommunicate -at once, as he had directed, the Countess Ingeltrude. But within a -few years Nicholas was involved in such a mesh of correspondence with -offending princes and prelates that we must consider the chief causes -in succession.</p> - -<p>The Eastern Empire was then ruled by Michael the Drunkard, his mistress -Eudocia, and the Emperor's tutor in vice, his uncle Bardas. This pretty -trio deposed the saintly Ignatius from the See of Constantinople, -and put in his place the imperial secretary Photius, one of the most -accomplished scholars and least scrupulous courtiers of the East. The -better clergy protested, and the court sought the support of the Pope. -A glittering captain of the guards presented himself at Rome with a -set of jewelled altar-vessels and, no doubt, a diplomatic account -of the situation. But Nicholas at once rebuked the Emperor for his -"presumptuous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> temerity" in deposing Ignatius without the assent of -Rome, and sent legates to inquire into the matter; and he took prompt -occasion to demand the restoration of Papal rights and patrimonies in -the East.<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> The Eastern court must have gasped at this language. -However, the Pope's legates were suborned, and a Council held at -Constantinople (May, 861) confirmed the election of Photius. Nicholas -was not satisfied,<a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> and at length he heard the truth from Ignatius. -He called a Council at Rome, ordered Michael to restore Ignatius,<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a> -and threatened Photius with all the anathemas in the Papal arsenal if -he did not retire.</p> - -<p>Photius kept his place, and in 865 Michael wrote an abusive and -threatening letter to the Pope. We gather from the Pope's reply -that it expressed the greatest contempt and threatened that Greek -troops would come and make an end of them all. The lengthy reply of -Nicholas has some fine passages, but it argues too much where silence -would have been more dignified, and is at times petty and petulant -in hurling back the Emperor's foolish insults.<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> It received no -answer, and in November, 866, Nicholas wrote again. He was, he said, -sending legates to judge the case at Constantinople and would remind -Michael of the terrible things in store for those who disobeyed him; -as to that abusive letter, he says, if Michael does not take it -back, he will "commit it to eternal perdition, in a great fire, and -so bring the Emperor into contempt with all nations." He also sent -a very threatening letter to Photius. But the letters never reached -Constantinople. The legates were turned back at the frontier, and -Photius went on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> to publish a virulent tirade on the errors and -heresies of the Latins. This seems to have been beyond the resources of -the Lateran, and the scholars of France were entrusted with the defence -of the West. Ignatius was eventually restored, but Nicholas did not -live to see the issue, and the Eastern Church again drifted far away -from the Western.</p> - -<p>The anathema had proved ineffectual in the East, but Nicholas had -meantime begun to employ it with happier results in Europe. In spite -of the Puritanism of Louis I., the loose tradition of Charlemagne's -court lingered in France and Nicholas soon found it necessary to rebuke -aristocratic sinners. I have mentioned that in 860 he threatened the -Countess Ingeltrude with excommunication if she did not abandon her -gay vagabondage and return to her husband, the Count of Burgundy. Her -son Hucbert had claimed the attention of Benedict III., who tells us -that this high-born young abbot went about France with a lively troop -of actresses and courtesans, corrupted the most venerable nunneries, -and filled monasteries with his hawks and dogs and licentious -ladies.<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> Hucbert's sister, Theutberga, was wedded to Lothair of -Lorraine, brother of the Emperor Louis, who accused her of incest with -Hucbert before her marriage and proposed to divorce her and marry his -fascinating mistress Waldrada. Whether she was guilty or not we cannot -tell, as no proper trial was ever held. She claimed the hot-water -ordeal, and her champion was unscathed. Then Lothair won the support of -the chief prelates of his kingdom, and they obtained or extorted from -her a confession of guilt. They committed her to a nunnery and, in 862, -granted Lothair a divorce.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> - -<p>Theutberga appealed to Rome, and Nicholas ordered that a general synod -should meet at Metz. In his most lordly manner the Pope directed -Charles the Bald and Louis of Germany (uncles of Lothair) to send -bishops to this synod, but they left the field to their nephew and, as -he bribed the Pope's legates, he secured a confirmation of the divorce -(June, 863). Nicholas set his lips with more than their usual sternness -when the archbishops of Cologne and Trčves arrived with this decision. -Summoning his own bishops to a council, he bluntly described the Metz -synod as "a brothel," annulled its decision, and excommunicated the -two archbishops. In language more imperious than any that had yet -issued from the Lateran, he declared that this was the decision of -the Vicar of Christ, and any man—he seems to refer pointedly to the -royal families—who ventured to dissent from this or any other Papal -pronouncement would incur the direst anathemas.</p> - -<p>Günther, the Archbishop of Cologne, fled in anger to the court of the -Emperor, and before long Louis was marching on Rome at the head of -his troops.<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a> It was a critical moment for the Papal conception. -Nicholas ordered fasts and processions, and one of these processions, -headed by the large gold crucifix which was believed to contain a part -of the true cross, went out to St. Peter's, near which the imperial -troops were encamped. To the horror of the Romans, the soldiers fell -on the procession with their swords, and flung the precious cross into -the mud. Nicholas crossed the river secretly and remained in prayer in -St. Peter's, for forty-eight hours, without food. This was the world's -reply to his first tremendous assertion of author<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>ity, and the history -of Europe might have been altered if the imperial sword had on that -occasion prevailed over his spiritual threats. But the Papacy was -saved by one of those accidents which so deeply impressed the medićval -imagination. The man who had insulted the cross died suddenly, and -Louis himself became seriously ill. The Empress hurried to the Pope, -and in a short time the troops were marching northward. From that day -anathema becomes a mighty weapon in the hands of the Popes.</p> - -<p>Archbishop Günther was not so easily intimidated. He wrote a fierce -diatribe against Nicholas—this new "emperor of the whole world,"—had -a copy flung upon the tomb of the apostle, and departed for Lorraine. -But Nicholas now knew his power. He scolded Charles and Louis like -lackeys for not sending bishops to Metz; they held their swords from -St. Peter, and they must listen to a Pope who speaks from direct divine -revelation.<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> The two kings persuaded Lothair to disown Günther -and submit, and the legate Arsenius was sent to France. This legate -Arsenius, an arrogant and worldly Bishop, whose career ended in grave -scandal, delivered the Pope's orders at the courts of Charles, Louis, -and Lothair with a haughtiness even greater and less respectable than -that of Nicholas. He was obeyed at once, says Hincmar, who shudders at -the facile scattering of anathemas.<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> He then conducted Theutberga -to her husband and made the prince and his nobles swear on the most -sacred relics to respect her; and, after a final shower of "unheard-of -maledictions" (says Hincmar), he set out for Rome with the siren -Waldrada.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> - -<p>There is grave reason to believe that the arrogant Bishop was bribed, -or otherwise corrupted, by Waldrada. She "escaped" in northern Italy -and returned to Lorraine; and the unhappy Theutberga now appealed to -Nicholas to release her and let Lothair marry Waldrada. To this noble -appeal Nicholas could have but one answer; for the claims of the human -heart he had no ear. She must remain in her husband's bed if it means -martyrdom. Lothair shall never marry that "whore" even if Theutberga -dies. There death compelled Nicholas to leave the romantic situation -of Lothair; and one reads, almost with a smile, that his successor, -Hadrian II., accepted Lothair's sworn declaration (supported by -many presents) that he had had no relations with Waldrada since the -prohibition, and admitted him and the Archbishop of Cologne to the holy -table. One must respect the great Pope's insistence on what he believed -to be a divine ordination, but the historians who represent him as -the champion of the human rights of an injured woman forget the final -martyrdom of Theutberga.</p> - -<p>One seems at first to find a more human note in the Pope's indulgence -toward Baldwin of Flanders. Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, had -been put under restraint by her father for misconduct, and in 860 she -eloped with the young Count of Flanders. Baldwin asked the Pope's -mediation, and he won from Charles forgiveness for the erring couple. -If, however, one reads his letter (<i>xxii.</i>) carefully, one finds no -ground for the claim that he was "tender toward the penitent." He -plainly says that Baldwin had threatened to throw in his lot with the -Norman pirates if Charles persists in his threat of vengeance. There -is a nearer approach to sentiment in the Pope's effort to secure the -property<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> of the widowed Helletrude, which had been seized by Lothair; -but we do not know the issue of his intervention in that case.</p> - -<p>If the new language of the Papacy fell with uncertain effect upon the -ears of kings and sinners, it did at least win a triumph among the -great prelates of Europe and raised the Roman See immeasurably above -them. The conflict with Hincmar of Rheims was the most notable and -successful struggle in which Nicholas engaged. Hincmar was the most -distinguished and one of the more worthy of the prelate-nobles who -had risen to wealth and power with the settlement of Europe. He was a -man of imperious temper and great ability, yet of sincere religious -feeling and concern for the prestige of the Gallic Church. One of his -suffragans, Rothrad of Soissons, incurred his dislike, and, when this -Bishop suspended one of his priests, who had been caught in adultery -and ignominiously mutilated by his parishioners, Hincmar reinstated -the man. When Rothrad not unnaturally remonstrated, he was deposed -by Hincmar and a jury of five bishops,<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a> and he appealed to Rome. -In order to frustrate this appeal, Hincmar took a weak and improper -advantage of a letter written by Rothrad, saying that in this letter -the Bishop abandoned his appeal, and induced the King to forbid him -to go to Rome. Then, in a synod which met at Soissons, he had the -deposition confirmed and Rothrad sentenced to live in a monastery.</p> - -<p>Nicholas at once, in 863, wrote a severe letter to Hincmar, harshly -rebuking him for his want of respect for the Roman See and claiming -that the case ought to have been remitted to Rome whether Rothrad had -appealed or no.<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a> In a second letter written shortly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> afterwards, he -threatened to depose Hincmar if he did not obey, or come to justify his -conduct at Rome, within thirty days.<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a> He wrote in the same harshly -autocratic language to the King and to the other French prelates; if -his orders were not at once obeyed, he would punish everybody severely. -The greatest prelate-noble in Europe and the King himself submitted -almost without a struggle, and Rothrad went to Rome. Hincmar, it is -true, disdained to send witnesses and attempted in his letter to defend -his action, but the Pope went on his way as calmly and inexorably as -if he were dealing with a few refractory monks. On Christmas Eve, 864, -he preached a sermon on the case and announced that he had reinstated -Rothrad. The legate Arsenius was then about to set out for France on -the mission I have already described, and he took Rothrad with him to -the court of Charles. He took also a letter to Hincmar which began: "If -thou hadst any respect for the canons of the Fathers or the Apostolic -See, thou wouldst not have attempted to depose Rothrad without our -knowledge." I will consider later this covert reference to the <i>Forged -Decretals</i>. Rothrad was reinstated; and the language in which the -<i>Bertinian Annals</i> describe the Pope's procedure shows the bitter -resentment it provoked in France.</p> - -<p>An incident that occurred in the course of the dispute shows—if proof -were necessary—that Nicholas acted on a sincere conviction of right. -In 863 Lothair appointed Archbishop Günther's brother, Hildwin, to -the See of Cambrai, and Hincmar rightly protested that the man was -unworthy. He appealed to Nicholas, and, although his appeal reached -the Pope at a time when he was threatening to depose Hincmar, and -that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> prelate still evaded his orders, Nicholas at once discharged a -shower of his menacing letters<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a> in support of Hincmar and did not -rest until Lothair abandoned Hildwin. Warped as it was, at times, by -a too exalted conception of the authority of his See, Nicholas had, -nevertheless, a rigid sentiment of justice, and it was his supreme aim -to make that anarchic world bow to moral no less than ecclesiastical -law.</p> - -<p>He had not yet reached the end of his conflict with the great -representative of the prelate-nobles. Hincmar's predecessor, Ebbo, -had conferred orders after he had been deposed, and a council held -at Soissons in 853 had suspended these clerics from the exercise of -their functions. Benedict III. and Nicholas himself had expressed -a qualified approval of this council, but the <i>Forged Decretals</i> -were now circulating in France, and one of the suspended clerics, -Wulfad,—possibly encouraged by the success of Rothrad,—appealed to -Rome. Once more Nicholas curtly ordered Hincmar either to reinstate -the clerics or to summon a new council, to which the Pope would send -legates, at Soissons. The council was held, and the French bishops -endeavoured by means of a compromise to save their own dignity yet -avoid a quarrel: they decided to reinstate the clerics as an act of -grace. This evasion drew from the Pope some of the sorriest letters -in his register. Not only in a most harsh and offensive letter to the -Archbishop,<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a> but even in a letter to the bishops,<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a> he accused -Hincmar of fraud, insisted that the <i>acta</i> of the earlier Soissons -council had been submitted in a dishonest form to his "divinely -inspired" predecessor and himself, and, on the pretext that Hincmar was -wearing his pallium on improper occasions, threatened to punish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> his -"pride" and "vainglory" by a withdrawal of that distinction. He ordered -them to hold a new council. Nicholas died before the report of this -council reached Rome, and his indulgent successor exculpated Hincmar. -But the meekness with which those terrible letters were received is a -measure of the advance of the Papacy.</p> - -<p>A story that is told at length in the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i> affords -another instance of this assertion of spiritual autocracy and its -encouragement by appeals from the provinces. The Pope was informed that -John of Ravenna abused his power; bishops complained that he quartered -himself and his expensive retinue on them for unreasonable periods and -made other exacting demands. When John received letters of remonstrance -and legates from Rome, he forbade his subjects to appeal to the Pope, -and strengthened his authority by falsifying the documents in his -archives: a crime at which the Roman Anastasius expresses the most -naďve surprise and indignation. When Nicholas summoned him to appear -before a Roman synod, John "boasted" that he was not subject to the -Bishop of Rome, and, when the synod excommunicated him, he appealed -to the Emperor. He then went, with the support of imperial legates, -to beard Nicholas in the Lateran, but the Pope astutely detached the -legates from him and he returned in concern to Ravenna. In this case -the prelate was unpopular and unjust, so that Nicholas had a good local -base for his authority. He went in person to Ravenna, and before long -men pointed the finger of scorn or of horror at their proud Archbishop -as he rode through the streets. The Emperor abandoned him, and in a few -months we find John at Rome, humbly submitting to the rod, placing the -written record of his penitence on the holy sandals of the Saviour.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> - -<p>A remarkable extension of this authority is attempted in a letter -which Nicholas addressed to King Charles in 867. The dispute about -predestination which then agitated clerical Europe, and gave some -fallacious promise of a revival of intellect, had been submitted to -Nicholas in the early days of his Pontificate. Nicholas was, like -all the great Popes, a statesman and canonist, not a theologian. He -prudently remained silent, and let Franks and Germans belabour each -other with theological epithets. When, however, he heard that Charles -had invited the famous John Scotus Erigena, the subtlest thinker of the -early Middle Ages, to translate a supposed work of Denis the Areopagite -(<i>De Divinis Nominibus</i>), he reproved the King for issuing so important -a book without having submitted it to Rome.<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> We do not find that -Charles took any notice of his claim of censorship, or sent him a copy -of the book. It is a good illustration of the attitude of Rome that -a thinker like Scotus Erigena, in whose works we plainly recognize -the most advanced heresy that arose in Europe before the eighteenth -century, incurred so little censure. Nicholas merely complains that the -learned Irishman is rumoured to be not entirely sound in theology.</p> - -<p>Still bolder is the claim made in a letter in which Nicholas sought -to control the conversion of the Danes. No new national Church must -be founded without his authority, he says, since "according to the -sacred decrees even a new <i>basilica</i> cannot be built without the -command of the Pope."<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> In this he outran not only the genuine, -but the forged, Decretals. He had in mind, no doubt, a decree of -Gelasius on the subject of church-building, but this merely forbade the -erection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> of a church, without authority, in the Roman diocese itself. -At the other extremity of Europe Nicholas made elaborate efforts to -bring the Bulgarians under his authority. He sent legates to King -Boris, and wrote a very long and curious reply to a large number of -questions—ranging from the most exalted points of faith to the wearing -of trousers by women—which the Bulgarians submitted to him. He did not -live to see the relapse of the deceitful and ambitious Slavs.</p> - -<p>These are the outstanding features of the voluminous correspondence -of Nicholas the Great. They bring before us the portrait of a man who -is raised above the disorder of his time, not so much by strength of -personality as by the exaltation of his sacerdotal creed. In a more -orderly Christendom Nicholas might have seemed an exemplary and not -greatly distinguished bishop, but chaos has ever been the native -element of such creative genius as he possessed. Since all men now -bowed in theory to the Christian ideal, their very disorders lent -authority to the Pope's anathemas. He hears that a set of young bishops -are devoted to hunting and even to less reputable pastimes, and his -scorn is irresistible.<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> He hears that the sons of Charles the Bald -have quarrelled with their royal father, and, though they are now -reconciled, "we direct that you present yourselves humbly at a synod to -be held in a place appointed by us, to which we will send legates of -the apostolic authority."<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> He has little time or inclination for -the material decoration of Rome. He restores St. Peter's and the Trajan -aqueduct; he organizes the distribution of charity; but his life-work -is the consolidation of the spiritual supremacy of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> Popes. He is, -pre-eminently, the smiter of the powerful; and, in smiting them, he -strengthens the Papal arm. Fortunately for him and the Papacy, he has -to deal with a degenerate, ignorant, and superstitious generation: the -night of the Dark Age is drawing in—a night which is not disproved by -showing, as Maitland does, that there was a little lamp here and there. -And when we contemplate that world of murder, incest, rape, spoliation, -and monastic and priestly corruption which is reflected in the Pope's -letters, we feel that it was well for Europe to have such a master.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, we do assuredly find Nicholas, and each succeeding -great Pope, yielding to that most natural temptation of the moralist -and priest in face of grave disorder—acting on the unformulated -principle that the end sanctifies the means. The question whether -Nicholas relied on the <i>Forged Decretals</i> has now been so fully -discussed that it is possible to give a precise answer; at least when -we consider certain passages in his letters which have been overlooked. -On the origin and spread of the Decretals I need only summarize -accepted results.<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> The collection originated in France about the -year 850, though it is still disputed whether it was composed in the -diocese of Tours or (as seems more probable) that of Rheims. It follows -from this origin that the forgery was perpetrated, not in the interest -of the Papacy, but of the bishops and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> lower clergy, to whom it gave -the right of appeal to a central authority against the (often unjust) -sentences of higher prelates and the aggression of lay nobles. The -book, however, is not merely concerned with questions of jurisdiction -and appeal. It is further agreed that, though the successor of -Nicholas, Hadrian II., certainly used the <i>Forged Decretals</i>, they were -little used by the Popes before the middle of the eleventh century; but -it is equally agreed that they were of immense service to the Papacy in -spreading a conviction of the antiquity of its most advanced claims and -in promoting the practice of appeal to it.</p> - -<p>The chief point in dispute is whether Nicholas knew and employed the -forgery, and with this I may deal more fully. The first letter in the -Pope's Register is a reply to Wenilo, Archbishop of Sens, in regard -to the deposition of a bishop. Servatus Lupus, the learned abbot of -Ferričres, had written on behalf of Wenilo—the letter is fortunately -preserved—to say that men were quoting a certain Decretal of Pope -Melchiades which reserved to the Papacy the deposition of bishops.<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a> -This was evidently a quotation from the <i>Forged Decretals</i>, yet in -his reply Nicholas completely ignores the supposed Decretal on which -his opinion was expressly asked. Whether or no we may infer from this -silence that Nicholas was ignorant of the source of the quotation, -we may surely conclude that so industrious a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>canonist would make -immediate inquiries about this remarkable document, if he were not -already acquainted with it. Since, however, he made no reply to the -question whether the deposition of a bishop was reserved to the Papacy, -I infer that he was unaware of the existence of the Decretals; and this -is strongly confirmed by a letter which he wrote in 862. He tells King -Solomon of Brittany that a bishop may be deposed by twelve bishops, on -the evidence of seventy-two witnesses, and he refers to Pope Silvester -as the authority for this mythical ordinance.<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> In this he relies on -a spurious document, but a document <i>not</i> contained in the Isidorean -collection. The main point is that he allows the local deposition of -bishops, and enjoins recourse to Rome only in case of dispute. He does -not yet seem to know the <i>Decretals</i>, but, as Hincmar had used them in -857 (possibly in 853), we can hardly imagine such a Pope as Nicholas -remaining long unaware of the existence in France of this strong -foundation of his authority; especially when, as I said, his attention -had been plainly drawn to it by Servatus Lupus.</p> - -<p>Then came the case of Rothrad,<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> and Nicholas, as we saw, wrote -to Hincmar that the case ought to have been remitted to Rome whether -Rothrad had appealed or no<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a>; but it is clear that he is speaking -of a vague duty imposed by general respect for the Apostolic See,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> not -of a duty enforced by canonical obligation. If, he says, Hincmar were -"not disposed" to send the case to Rome (<i>si id agere noluisses</i>), he -ought at least to have respected Rothrad's actual appeal. But when we -come to 865, and the famous letter (lxxv.) which the Pope wrote to -Hincmar and his colleagues, Nicholas is quite clear. "Even if," he -says, "he [Rothrad] had not appealed to the Apostolic See, you had no -right to run counter to so many and such important decretal statutes -and depose a bishop without consulting us."<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a> The French prelates -had complained that such Decretals were not found in their collection: -the Dionysian collection given to Charlemagne by Hadrian in 774. It -does not matter, Nicholas replies, whether they have them or not; -all Decretals approved at Rome are to be respected. And he makes it -perfectly clear that he is referring, not to genuine Decretals which -may not be in the Dionysian collection, but to the Isidorean. They -make use of these Decretals themselves, he says, when it suits their -purpose; we know that Hincmar had done so, and possibly Nicholas had -learned this from Rothrad. But he makes it still plainer that he is -not referring to Decretals in the Roman archives, but to the Isidorean -forgeries, when he says that he is thinking of the Decretals of -"ancient" (<i>prisci</i>) Pontiffs, not merely those of Gregory and Leo; and -he leaves no room whatever for doubt when he includes letters written -by the Popes in "the times of the pagan persecutions."</p> - -<p>We must not, however, exaggerate the Pope's reliance on this imposture. -M. Roy has made a careful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> analysis of the letters of Nicholas, and he -maintains that only four of his quotations are from spurious Decretals: -that three of these are not in the Isidorean collection: and that the -one which is common to Nicholas and pseudo-Isidore had already been in -circulation before the imposture was published.<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a></p> - -<p>Father de Smedt further points out that Nicholas made no use of -Isidorean Decretals which would, especially in his conflict with -Photius, have been useful to him, and that, when he does use documents -which are in the Isidorean collection, he gives their genuine words -or assigns them to their real authors. These are generally valid -claims, but they do not conflict with my conclusion. Nicholas plainly -endeavoured to use the <i>Forged Decretals</i>, but he had a learned and -acute antagonist in Hincmar and he dare not quote them individually or -in their crude Isidorean form. One is almost reminded of the smiles -of Roman augurs when one considers these two great ecclesiastical -statesmen, using a forged document or watching with complacency the use -of it, yet checking each other when it affects their own interests. -There is no answer to Milman's sober charge that Nicholas saw the -spread of the work and did not protest. He knew well the contents of -the Roman archives—he had a number of scribes studying them—and he -must have known as well as we do that there were no genuine Decretals -before the time of Gelasius.</p> - -<p>The analysis made by M. Roy must be supplemented by that of J. -Richterich,<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a> from which it appears beyond<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> question that Nicholas -made a very extensive use of spurious documents; as we have found Roman -officials doing from the fourth century. Father de Smedt<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a> "does -not altogether deny" that, as Hinschius says, Nicholas sometimes, in -quoting genuine Decretals, alters their meaning in accordance with the -Isidorean. Roy himself has to admit that Nicholas goes far beyond the -words and meaning of Gelasius in saying that no church may be built -without the Pope's permission.<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a> He goes equally beyond genuine -precedent in claiming that no bishop can be deposed without his -authority; hitherto there had been only the vague understanding that -"grave cases" were reserved to the Pope. He advances equally beyond -precedent in claiming that no council can be held without his sanction. -Roy<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> calls this "a pseudo-Isidorean principle," and says that -Nicholas nowhere asserted it. But Nicholas plainly asserts it in <i>Ep.</i>, -xii., and is just as plainly straining a vague early claim of Pope -Gelasius.<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a></p> - -<p>We must conclude that, however beneficent may have been the spiritual -centralization which Nicholas so ably elaborated, and however -impersonal and religious his aim may have been, he proceeded at times -on principles which no cause can sanctify: principles which it was -dangerous to bequeath to less spiritual successors. He died in 867, -after nine and a half years of heroic work for his ideal: a type of -ecclesiastical statesman that it needs a peculiarly balanced judgment -to appreciate. The pleasures and thrills of the world he despised, and -it would be a deep injustice to conceive him as other than entirely -indifferent to the personal prestige of his position. His personality -was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> entirely merged in his office: he was, indeed, not a personality, -but the vicar of a greater personality. The phrase which too often -in Hadrian's letters is a mere artifice for obtaining wealth and -power—"the Blessed Peter"—was to him the expression of a living and -awful reality. If the Papacy did not tower above all the other thrones -in Christendom, the intention of Christ was made void. Nicholas would -have it realized. In that spirit he added strength to the frame of -the Papal system. The historian must do justice to his aim and to the -salutary tendency of his moral control of Europe; he must be no less -candid in denouncing the sentiment that the end justifies the means.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lxxxiii., xcii., and cviii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lxv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lxxix.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, vi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, cxxxv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, cxv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> An excellent analysis of his ideas is given in Dr. -A. Greinacher's <i>Die Anschaungen des Papstes Nikolaus I. über das -Verhältniss von Staat und Kirche</i> (1909).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, iv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xii. and xiii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xlvi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lxxxvi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, ii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> The best account is in the <i>Annals of St. Berlin</i>, in -the <i>Monumenta Germanić Historica</i>, vol. i.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lxxxiii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> It is, at least, generally believed that Hincmar wrote -this part of the <i>Bertinian Annals</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> <i>Bertinian Annals</i>, year 865.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xxxiii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xxxiv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> XLI., xlii., and xliii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> CVIII.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> CVII.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, cxv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, cxxxv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, cxxvii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xxxix.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> The famous collection which bears the name of Isidorus -Mercator contains about sixty spurious Decretals in the first part, -covering the first three centuries, and about thirty in the third -part; the second part contains the canons of councils. The author -makes an adroit use of older documents, and his work is largely a -mosaic of genuine fragments (of Papal letters, chronicles, etc.) so -pieced together and ante-dated as to father later developments of -Papal authority on the earlier Popes. The best edition is that of P. -Hinschius (1863), and the best survey of recent study is the article -"Pseudoisidor" in Herzog's <i>Real-Encyclopädie für Protestantische -Theologie</i>. There is a useful chapter in <i>The Age of Charlemagne</i> -(1898), by C.L. Wells. The ablest Catholic study of the relation of -Nicholas to the collection is Jules Roy's <i>Saint Nicholas</i> (1901). See -also <i>Les Fausses Décrétales</i> (1879), of Father Ch. de Smedt. On the -general question of the Pope's use of spurious documents see the able -Old Catholic work of J. Richterich, <i>Papst Nikolaus I.</i> (1903).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> See <i>Ep.</i>, cxxx., of Servatus Lupus.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xxv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> It is not easy to regard Rothrad as the author of the -forgery, as he was not deposed until 862. A more probable source -of origin is the group of clerics ordained by Ebbo and suspended -by Hincmar in 853. Even this seems too late, however, as such a -compilation was not the work of a day. But it is very probable that -Rothrad took the book to Rome, if it were not already there.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xxxiii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> The modern writers who have contended that these <i>tot et -talia decretalia statuta</i> are not the Isidorean Decretals seem not to -have read the whole letter.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> <i>Saint Nicholas</i>, Appendix II. (followed by Dr. Mann, -vol. iii.). See also F. Rocquain's <i>La Papauté au Moyen Âge</i> (1881). -Hefele (bd. iv., p. 292) admits that Nicholas relied on the forgery.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> <i>Papst Nikolaus I.</i> (1903).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> P. 116.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> <i>Epp.</i>, lxxxii. and cxxxv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> P. 131.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, lxv.</p></div></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></p> - -<p class="center">JOHN X. AND THE IRON CENTURY</p> - - -<p class="drop">T<span class="uppercase">he</span> next great stride in the development of the Papacy is taken by -Gregory VII., the true successor of Nicholas I. and Gregory I. Europe -seemed, indeed, entirely prepared for that last development of the -Papal system which we connect with the name of Hildebrand, and a -student of its essential growth may be tempted to pass at once from -the ninth to the eleventh century. But to do so would be to omit one -of the most singular phases of the story of the Papacy and leave in -greater obscurity than ever one of its most interesting problems. How -comes it that a Century of Iron, as Baronius has for ever branded the -tenth century, falls between the work of Nicholas and the still greater -work of Gregory? May we trust those modern writers who contend that -the devout father of ecclesiastical history was gravely unjust to the -Papacy, and that we may detect the play of a romantic or a malicious -imagination in the familiar picture of Theodora and Marozia controlling -the chair of Peter and investing their lovers or sons with the robes of -the Vicar of Christ? Some consideration must be given to this phase, -and it will be convenient to take John X. as its outstanding and -characteristic figure.</p> - -<p>I have already observed that few really unworthy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> men sat in the chair -of Peter until the close of the ninth century. Among the hundred -Popes who preceded Nicholas I. there had been, it is true, few men of -commanding personality, but there had been still less men of ignoble -character. They had been, on the whole, men whose real mediocrity is -not obscured by the fulsome praises of their official panegyrists, yet, -for the most part, men of blameless life. In the ninth century we see a -gradual deterioration. Hadrian II. tries, with equal sincerity though -less personality, to play the great part of Nicholas, and it is from no -fault of character that he fails to coerce princes and prelates. John -VIII. plays a not ignoble human part during the calamitous decade of -his Pontificate, though there is more soldierly ardour than religious -idealism in his defence of the Papacy. After him, in quick succession, -come five Popes of little-known character, and then we have that famous -Stephen VI. who digs the half-putrid body of a predecessor, Formosus, -from its grave and treats it with appalling outrage. In the gloom -which now descends on Rome, we follow with difficulty the passionate -movements of the rival parties, but we know that after Formosus there -were nine Popes in eight years (896-904). With Sergius III. (904-911), -the Century of Iron fitly opens, and his name and that of John X., who -became Pope in 914, are chiefly associated with the names of Theodora -and Marozia.</p> - -<p>The general causes of this deterioration are easily assigned. In that -age of violent character, uncontrolled by culture, a multiplication -of small princedoms was sure to lead to bloody rivalries. To this the -dissolution of the Empire of Charlemagne and the feebleness of his -descendants had led, especially in Italy, where the weakness of a -sacerdocracy—that is to say, its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> liability, if not obligation, to -use temporal resources for religious rather than military and civic -purposes—soon became apparent. The Papacy had the further weakness -that, being nominally independent yet unable to defend itself, it was -ever on the watch for another Pippin—a monarch who would protect it -and not govern it—and it dangled its tawdry imperial crown before the -eyes of the kings of Italy, France, and Germany, to say nothing of -the smaller princes of Italy. Hence arose the factions which rent a -degraded Rome. We must remember, too, that this was a fresh period of -invasion and devastation: the waves of Saracen advance lapped the walls -of Rome from the south and the fierce Hungarians reached it from the -north.</p> - -<p>These general causes of decay are substantial, yet we must not be -too easily contented with them. Some day a subtler or more candid -science will tell the whole story of the making of the Middle Ages. I -need note only that the disorder existed in Rome, and often burst its -bonds, long before the time of Stephen VI. Even under Hadrian I. we saw -relatives and friends of the Pope promoted to high office, yet in the -end betraying characters of revolting brutality. We remember also a -certain legate of Nicholas I., Bishop Arsenius, who handled anathemas -with such consummate ease. This man's nephew abducted the daughter -of Pope Hadrian II., and, when he was pursued, murdered her and the -Pope's wife. There was some taint in the blood—or the brain—of this -new Roman aristocracy which gathered round the Lateran. Under John -VIII., the strongest successor of Nicholas, they broke into appalling -disorders. "Their swinish lust," says one of the most conservative and -most reticent of recent writers on the Popes, speaking of the leading -Papal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> officials of the time, "was only second to their cruelty and -avarice."<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a> Hadrian II. had the widow of one of these officials -whipped naked through the streets of Rome, and had another official -blinded. Under Stephen VI. and Sergius III. these corrupt Roman -families come into clearer light, and the domination of Theodora and -Marozia is merely one episode in this lamentable development, which -has been recorded more fully because of the piquancy of this feminine -ascendancy in a nominal theocracy.</p> - -<p>The period with which we are concerned really opens with Pope Formosus, -a not unworthy man, who looked for support to Arnulph of Germany. -The Italian faction, which looked to Guido of Spoleto and Adalbert -of Tuscany, regarded this "treachery" with the bitterest rancour -and imprisoned the Pope. One of the leaders of this section was the -deacon (later Pope) Sergius. Arnulph came to Rome, and swept the -Tuscan-Spoletan faction, including Sergius, out of the city. Formosus -died in 896, his gouty successor followed him within a fortnight, and -Stephen VI. was elected. As soon as Arnulph had left Rome, the Pope -surrendered to the Italian faction, and the Lateran witnessed that -ghastly outrage of the trial of the mouldering corpse of Formosus: -on the nominal charge of having exercised his functions after being -deposed and having passed from another bishopric to that of Rome. There -seems to be some lack of sense of moral proportion in historians who, -knowing these far graver things, make elaborate efforts to disprove -the love-affairs of one or two Popes of the period. Three not unworthy -Popes filled, and soon quitted, the Roman See after Stephen. The last -of these, Leo V., was dethroned and imprisoned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> by the cardinal-priest -Christopher, who seized the Papacy. Sergius and his friends in exile -now entered into correspondence with the dissatisfied Romans, mastered -the city with an army, and threw Christopher in turn into a dungeon. -This was the rise to power of Sergius III.; the beginning of what has -been called, with more vigour than accuracy, the Pornocracy.<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a></p> - -<p>With the weakening of the Empire, the Roman nobles had wrested from -the Popes the political control of the city, and we gather from the -titles assigned to them that there was a debased restoration of -the old republican forms. The head of one of the leading families, -Theophylactus, is described as Master of the Papal Wardrobe, Master of -the Troops, Consul, and Senator. His wife, Theodora, called herself -the Senatrix: their elder and more famous daughter Marozia is named -the Patricia. The family belonged, of course, to the Tuscan-Spoletan -faction which triumphed with Sergius. Culture had now fallen so low at -Rome that there is no writer of the time able or willing to leave us a -portrait of these remarkable ladies; the nearest authority, the monk -Benedict of Soracte, is so far from artistic feeling that it would be -literally impossible to write a grosser and more barbarous Latin than -he does. From some documents of the time it appears that there were -ladies of this great family who could not write their names, and we -may presume that this was their common condition. But it is uniformly -stated that they were women of great beauty and ambition: it is certain -that Marozia was the mother of John XI., and that she put him on the -Papal throne: and it is claimed that Sergius was the father of John -XI., and that John X. was the lover of Theodora.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> - -<p>These stories of amorous relations would not in themselves deserve -a severe historical inquiry, but they have been made a test of the -accuracy or inaccuracy of our authorities. The older ecclesiastical -historians admitted them without demur. In the pages of Baronius -Theodora is "that most powerful, most noble, and most shameless whore" -and Sergius is the lover of that "shameless whore" Theodora. Pagi -and Mansi reproduce these words, and they are complacently prefixed -to the collection of John's letters in the Migne edition.<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> More -recent writers like Duchesne and Dr. W. Barry admit the charge -against Sergius; but the learned Muratori boldly questioned the whole -tradition, and various modern Italian writers have attempted to support -his case.<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id="FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a></p> - -<p>The claim that we have discovered, since the days of Baronius, new -documents which materially alter the evidence, must at once be set -aside. Of the Formosian writers of the time whose pamphlets have been -recovered, the priest Auxilius throws no light on this subject and -the grammarian Vulgarius is unreliable. We have letters and poems in -which Vulgarius hails Pope Sergius as "the glory of the world" and -"the pillar of all virtue," and professes a profound regard for the -matchless virtue and the "immaculate bed" of Theodora.<a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> The fact -is that Vulgarius had previously indicted Sergius in lurid terms and -had been significantly summoned to Rome by that vigorous Pontiff. -His charges of murder and outrage then changed into the most fulsome -flattery, to which we cannot pay the slightest regard. His earlier -charges are more serious, as, writing only six years after the events, -he appeals to the still fresh recollection in the minds of the Romans -that Sergius had had his two predecessors murdered in prison.<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a></p> - -<p>We have no serious reason to differ from Baronius. Liutprand, Bishop -of Cremona, is the chief accuser. As servant of the court of Berengar -II. and then of Otto I., he often visited Rome in the first half of -the tenth century, and he knew the city well during the Pontificate -of John XI., the son of Marozia. He says that Theodora, "a shameless -whore," was all-powerful at Rome: that she was the mistress of John -X., whom she promoted to the See of Ravenna and then to that of Rome: -that her daughters Marozia and Theodora were more shameless than she: -and that John XI. was the son of Sergius and Marozia.<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> Liutprand -would hardly scruple to reproduce gossip, and he is often wrong, so -that one reads him with caution. Yet his statement about Sergius is -so far confirmed that so careful a writer on the Popes as Duchesne is -compelled to accept it.<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a></p> - -<p>Benedict of Soracte, a very meagre and confused chronicler, gives -Marozia a dark character in his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span><i>Chronicle</i>.<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> Her son Alberic -was, he says, born out of wedlock: presumably before she married the -father, Alberic I. Flodoard, the most respectable chronicler of the -time, tells us in his <i>Annals</i> (year 933) that John XI. was the son of -Marozia and the brother of Alberic II.; but neither there nor elsewhere -does he mention the father, and the omission is significant. Flodoard, -a deeply religious monk, under personal obligations to the Papacy, was -not the man to repeat scandalous Roman gossip; yet in his long poetic -history of the Papacy he brands Marozia as an incestuous woman united -to an adulterer, and he describes John XI., whom he disdains, as so -puny a thing that we can scarcely conceive him as a son of the vigorous -Alberic.<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a> Lastly, the one-line notice of John XI. in the <i>Liber -Pontificalis</i> says that he was "the son of Sergius III." We do not know -when or by whom this was written, but recent attempts to represent -it as an echo of Liutprand have failed. We must agree with Duchesne -that it is a distinct testimony and "more authoritative" than that of -Liutprand.</p> - -<p>I have analyzed afresh the original evidence on this not very important -point merely in order to show the futility of recent attempts to -rehabilitate the age of John X. Pope Sergius, the chief ecclesiastic -of the Italian faction to which John belonged, was a violent and -unscrupulous man. He resigned a bishopric, and returned to the rank of -deacon, in order that he might have a better chance of the Papacy. He -was Anti-Pope to John IX. in 898, and was excommunicated and driven -from Rome; and he forced his way back at the point of the sword. The -charge that he was respon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>sible for the death of his two predecessors -cannot be disregarded, and he certainly dealt violently with his -opponents. The charge of loose conduct is not more serious than these -things, and it rests on strong evidence.</p> - -<p>To this party John X. belonged. His early career is not very plain, -but he appears first as a deacon at Bologna. He was chosen to succeed -Bishop Peter of that city, but, before he was consecrated, Archbishop -Kailo of Ravenna died, and John passed to Ravenna and occupied its -See. Nine years later, in 914, he was elected Bishop of Rome. It was -scarcely thirty years since his party had foully treated the body of -Formosus, partly on the charge of passing from another bishopric to -that of Rome. One naturally suspects ambition in John and powerful -influence in his favour at Rome. We know, in fact, that he was on -excellent terms with Theophylactus and Theodora,<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id="FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a> and no one now -doubts that they secured his election. We are therefore not wholly -surprised, considering the age, when Liutprand assures us that he was a -charming man, and that Theodora, meeting him during one of his missions -to Rome, conceived a passion for him.</p> - -<p>It is neither possible nor profitable to linger over the subject, and -the impartial student will probably neither assent to nor dissent -from this unconfirmed statement of the Bishop of Cremona. Liverani -ridicules it on the ground that Theodora must have been far from young, -since her daughter Marozia married Albert of Camerino about the year -915. It is curious to find a native of Italy, where girls are often -mature at twelve, and were in the old days often mothers at thirteen, -raising such an objection. Theodora may quite well have been still in -her thirties in 915. I would, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> rather call attention to the -moral condition of Europe at the time. The pious Bishop of Verona, -Ratherius, gives us an extraordinary picture of the life of some of -his episcopal colleagues.<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a> They rush through their mass in the -morning, don gorgeous dresses and gold belts, and ride out to hunt on -horses with golden bridles: they return at night to rich banquets, with -massive goblets of good wine, and dancing girls for company, and dice -to follow: and they retire, too often with their companions, to beds -that are inlaid with gold and silver and spread with covers and pillows -of silk. Bishop Atto of Vercelli gives us a corresponding picture of -the lives of the lower clergy and their wives and mistresses.<a name="FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> -The proceedings of the Council of Troslé, in the year 909, confirm -and enlarge this remarkable picture.<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_191_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a> Assuredly no historian who -knows the tenth century will find the charges against Sergius and John -implausible.</p> - -<p>Whatever may be their value, John was no idle voluptuary. He found the -Saracens still devastating southern Italy and he helped, in 915, to -form a great league against them. When the Duke of Capua led out his -troops, and the Spoletans and Beneventans fell into line at last, and -even the Greeks sent a fleet, the Roman militia was marshalled, and -John rode at their head beside the fiery young Alberic of Camerino. -He was not the first of the many fighting Popes: John VIII. had built -a Papal navy and dealt the Saracens some shrewd blows. But John X. -was the first Pope to take the field in person, and we lament that -the wretched scribes of the time have left us no portrait of the -consecrated warrior. We know from his letters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> that he exposed himself -on the field, and from the chronicles that he fired the troops. The -Saracens were at last pinned in their camp on a hill near the mouth of -the Garigliano, and, after a long blockade, were annihilated.</p> - -<p>John and the Marquis Alberic enjoyed a splendid ovation at Rome, and -it was probably at this date that the hand of Marozia was bestowed on -Alberic. But the victory had its price. John had to surrender some of -his patrimonies to the Duke of Gaeta and to confer the imperial crown -on King Berengar for his assistance. When Berengar came to Rome, and -promised to maintain all the rights and properties of the Papacy as -other Emperors had done, and received the crown from the hand of the -Pope, it must have seemed that a brighter day had dawned at last on -Italy. But the restless factions murmured, and in a few years Rudolph -II. of Burgundy was invited to come and seize the crown. Berengar -brought the half-civilized Hungarians to his aid, and a fresh trail of -blood and fire marred the face of Italy. He lost, and was assassinated -(924); but Rudolph, who won only the crown of Italy, was not left long -in peaceful possession of it, and the next movement of Italian politics -shows John in a singular situation at Rome.</p> - -<p>An earlier chapter of this history was enlivened by the amours of -Lothair of Lorraine and Waldrada. They left behind them an illegitimate -daughter, Bertha, who had all the spirit and more than the ambition -of her mother. There were many women of commanding personality (and, -usually, little scruple) in the early Middle Ages, and the story -of Theodora and Marozia must not be regarded as very exceptional. -Bertha made vigorous efforts to win Italy for her favourite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> son, -Hugh of Provence, and, when she died in 925, his sister, Irmengard, -a fascinating woman who maintained the domestic tradition, won the -bishops and nobles of Lombardy for him by an unsparing use of her -charms. He was presently invited to come and drive the Burgundians out -of Italy. John X. joined in the invitation and went to Mantua to meet -him.</p> - -<p>It is recorded that the Pope made some obscure bargain with him at -Mantua, and there can be little doubt that he asked Hugh's aid against -Marozia. Theophylactus and Theodora were dead, and Marozia was at -deadly feud with the Pope. Her first husband seems to have died about -925, and she had married Guido of Tuscany. Whether her quarrel with -John began before her marriage we do not know, but Liutprand tells -us that she and Guido wanted to depose the Pope. Both Liutprand and -Benedict<a name="FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> make the cause of the quarrel clear. John had called -his brother Peter to his side at Rome, and the power he gave to his -brother, and therefore withdrew from the lay nobles, infuriated his -earlier supporters. He turned, as so many Popes had done, to a distant -prince, and his career soon came to a close.</p> - -<p>The chronicle is crude and meagre, but it suggests elementary and -unbridled passions. "The Marquis Peter," says Benedict, "so infuriated -the Romans that he was compelled to leave the city." He fortified -himself in Horta and summoned the dreaded Hungarians to his aid: than -which there could hardly be a graver crime in an Italian of the time. -They came in large numbers and trod the life out of the Roman province. -When Peter concluded that his opponents were sufficiently weakened, he -returned to Rome and gathered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> troops about him. There must have been -sombre days in the city in that year 928. One day, however, when it was -observed that few of Peter's men had accompanied him to the Lateran, a -band of Marozia's followers burst into the palace and laid him dead at -the Pope's feet. John himself was taken from the palace and imprisoned, -and he died in prison in the following year (929). Whether he was -murdered or died a natural death is uncertain.<a name="FNanchor_193_193" id="FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a></p> - -<p>Such was the not unnatural termination of one of the longest -Pontificates in the history of Rome, and we have no reason to suppose -that, if we had fuller narratives than those I have quoted, they would -redeem the character of John X. His desertion of Bologna for Ravenna, -and his transfer to Rome within twenty years of the time when his -party had foully treated a dead man for just such an irregularity: -his alliance with the unscrupulous house of Theophylactus: his quite -superfluous appearance on the battlefield: his easy distribution of -royal and imperial crowns: and, above all, the maintenance of his -unprincipled brother in the teeth of deadly hostility, sufficiently -indicate his character. He was an accomplished adventurer. He writes -a very good Latin for the period, and may well have been a charming -and handsome and brave man. It is recorded that he richly decorated -the Lateran Palace. But he was a child of his age, and the historian -finds it easier to respect the sad and sincere reflection of the older -ecclesiastical writers—that Christ then slumbered in the tossing -barque of Peter—than the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> strained efforts of a few modern writers to -convince us that the chosen Pope of an aristocracy which they depict in -the darkest colours was merely the victim of calumny.</p> - -<p>The little Pontifical work which John did during his fourteen years -as Pope does not dispose us to alter this estimate. The score of -his letters which survive generally relate to privileges of abbeys -or prelates which he was asked to grant or confirm. He gave support -to the monks of Fulda,<a name="FNanchor_194_194" id="FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a> of St. Gall,<a name="FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a href="#Footnote_195_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a> and of Cluny.<a name="FNanchor_196_196" id="FNanchor_196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> He -sent legates on a vague mission to Spain and granted a pallium to the -Bishop of Hamburg, who was converting the far north. He intervened -in the religious troubles of Dalmatia, at the invitation of the -local prelates, and wrote them many letters<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id="FNanchor_197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_197_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> for the regulation -(or Romanization) of their Slav liturgy and discipline. Even to -Constantinople, which had one of its rare moods of affection for Rome, -he sent legates to assist the Greeks in obliterating the effects of -their latest quarrel.</p> - -<p>His work in Bulgaria is not wholly clear, or it might be interesting. -King Simeon quarrelled with the Eastern Church and turned to Rome, -and John naturally encouraged him. He sent legates to Bulgaria, and -we learn from a letter of Innocent III., long afterwards, that they -presented Simeon with a golden crown from John. It looks as if the -Pope gave Simeon some kind of imperial rank, but he did not secure the -adhesion to Rome of the Bulgarian Church.</p> - -<p>A few letters to France and Germany are hardly more instructive. -Heribert of Vermandois seized the person of Charles the Simple, and, -when he was threatened with excommunication, hoodwinked the Pope. -Heri<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>bert then, in 925, conferred the rich See of Rheims on his -five-year-old son, and John—either in order to secure the release -of the King or dreading worse things—acquiesced.<a name="FNanchor_198_198" id="FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_198_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> In Germany -John sent his brother to assist in the restoration of discipline at -the Synod of Altheim (916). A few years later he summoned Herimann, -Archbishop of Cologne, and Hilduin and Richer, rival bishops of Ličge, -to the bar of Rome. But in this apparent assertion of authority he was -really acting under pressure of the Emperor Berengar, and the sequel is -not flattering. There was a complicated quarrel about the bishopric of -Ličge, and, when the litigants refused to come to Rome, John laid down -a principle which would have seemed to Nicholas I. or Gregory VII. an -outrage. He rebuked Herimann on the ground of "an ancient custom that -none save the King, to whom the sceptre is divinely committed, shall -confer a bishopric on any cleric."</p> - -<p>These letters, a poor record of official work for so long a Pontificate -and in so disordered a world, do not alter our impression of John. Rome -shared the gloom which lay over Europe, and it is foolish to suppose -that the degenerate nobles who ruled the Papacy would put on its throne -a man who would rebuke their vices or resent their domination. Indeed, -it will be useful to follow the lamentable story a little further, as -an introduction to the revival which culminates in Gregory VII.</p> - -<p>Marozia crowned her adventurous life in 932 by marrying the -step-brother of her late husband—the licentious Hugh of Provence whom -John had helped to put on the throne of Italy. In the preceding year -she had put in the chair of Peter her son, John XI., a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> mere shadow -of a Pope. But the disgusted Romans flew to arms, imprisoned John -and Marozia, and sent the brutal Hugh flying for his life. Alberic -II. then controlled the city and the Papacy for twenty years, and a -series of obscure, though apparently not unworthy, men were appointed -to discharge the scanty spiritual duties which Popes could or would -perform in that darkest of the dark ages. Alberic bequeathed his -power to his illegitimate son Octavian, and compelled the nobles and -clergy to swear to make him Pope at the next vacancy. John XII., as -he called himself, proved the worst Pope yet recorded: more at home -in the helmet than the tiara, and more expert in the cultivation than -in the suppression of vice. When his own sword proved incapable of -securing his rights, he summoned Otto I., with the customary bribe of -the imperial crown. Otto at length deposed him, after six years of -scandalous abuse of the Papacy, and he disappears from history in a -singular legend; he died, it was said, of a blow on the temples given -him by the devil—possibly in the person of the injured husband—during -one of his amorous adventures.</p> - -<p>Ten Popes and Anti-Popes, generally men of no distinction either in -vice or virtue, succeeded each other in the next thirty years. The -factions at Rome became more and more violent, and Europe sank deeper -and deeper into the corruption from which Gregory VII. would endeavour -to rouse it. The Iron Century closed, oddly enough, with the appearance -on the Papal throne of one of the first scholars of Christian Europe, -the famous Gerbert (Silvester II.), but his brief and premature -Pontificate made no impression on that dark age. Under Sergius IV. -the Roman faction was at length destroyed, but the counts of Tusculum -now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> dragged the unhappy Papacy to a lower depth. Two sons of the -first Count, Benedict VIII. and John XIII., successively purchased -the votes of the electors, and, by their venality and violence, added -fresh stains to the Papal chronicle. The third son of the Count then -placed his own youthful offspring in the chair of Peter, and, under -the name of Benedict IX., this youth degraded it with crimes and -vices so well authenticated that even the most resolute apologist -cannot challenge the indictment. Pope Victor III., a few years later, -shudders to mention the "murders and robberies and nameless vices" of -Benedict,<a name="FNanchor_199_199" id="FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_199_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> and his vague charges, supported by Raoul Glaber and -other authorities, suggest that the Lateran Palace must have recalled -to the mind of any sufficiently informed Roman some of the scenes -which had been witnessed in Nero's Golden House in the lowest days of -paganism. At length, after being twice expelled from Rome, he wearied -of the Papacy—one authority says that he wished to marry—and sold it -to his uncle John Gratian for one or two thousand pounds of gold. By -this time there was a certain young Hildebrand studying in the Lateran -School, and the story of his life will tell us the sequel of this -extraordinary chapter of Papal history.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> Dr. Mann, iii., 285.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> Inaccurate because, however many lovers Theodora and -Marozia may have had, they were certainly not courtesans.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> See Baronius, year 912, and Mansi, xviii., 314 and 316.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> Barry's <i>Papal Monarchy</i> (1902), pp. 146 and 150. For -criticism of the tradition see F. Liverani's study of John X. in vol. -ii. of his <i>Opere</i> (1858) and P. Fedele's "Ricerche per la Storia da -Roma e del Papato nel Secolo X." in the <i>Archivi della R. Societŕ -Romana di Storia Patria</i> (vols. xxxiii. and following). Dr. Mann -follows these critics in his chapters on Sergius and John (vol. iv.).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> Published by E. Dümmler in his <i>Auxilius und Vulgarius</i> -(1866), pp. 139-146. Dr. Mann (iv., 139 and 141) thinks it incredible -that if Theodora were a vicious woman any man should write thus; but -two pages later he recollects that Vulgarius has accused Pope Sergius -of murdering his two predecessors, and he advises us to place no -reliance on the word of such a "wretched sycophant."</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> <i>De Causa Formosiana</i>, c. 14.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> <i>Antapodosis</i>, ii., 48.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> In the notes to his edition of the <i>Liber Pontificalis</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> C. 29.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> <i>De Christi Triumphis apud Italiami</i>, xii., 7.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> See a letter from him at Ravenna to them in Liverani, -<i>Opere</i>, iv., 7.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> <i>Prćloquia</i>, v., 7.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, ix.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> Mansi, xviii., 263.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> <i>Antapodosis</i>, iii., 43; <i>Chronicon</i>, c. 29.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a><a href="#FNanchor_193_193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> Benedict merely records his death. Flodoard (<i>Annals</i>, -year 929) says that "some attributed his death to violence, but the -majority to grief." Liutprand (iii., 43) affirms that he was smothered -with a pillow.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a><a href="#FNanchor_194_194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, ii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a><a href="#FNanchor_195_195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, iv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a><a href="#FNanchor_196_196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xiv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a><a href="#FNanchor_197_197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> Published by Liverani, iv., 76-79.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a><a href="#FNanchor_198_198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> Flodoard, <i>Ecclesić Remensis Historia</i>, iv., 20.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a><a href="#FNanchor_199_199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> <i>Dialogues</i>, bk. iii.</p></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></p> - -<p class="center">HILDEBRAND</p> - - -<p class="drop">T<span class="uppercase">he</span> historian might almost venture to say that the Papacy was not -evolved, but created. It has assuredly, in its varying fortunes, -reflected as faithfully as any other institution the changes of -its human environment, yet for each new adaptation to favouring -circumstances it has had to await the advent of a great Pope. Seven -men, one might say, created the Papacy: Gelasius I., Leo I., Gregory -I., Hadrian I., Nicholas I., Gregory VII., and Innocent III. Each one -of these deepened the foundations and enlarged the fabric of the great -religious principality. They have had illustrious successors, and, in -some respects, the frame of the Papacy has been further strengthened; -but, on the whole, the last five hundred years have been filled with a -mighty and unavailing struggle against disintegration.</p> - -<p>Of the seven men I have enumerated Gregory VII., or Hildebrand as -historians still like to call him, was the most romantic and the -most singularly creative. He was born about the year 1025, of humble -parents, in a Tuscan village near Sovana. An uncle of his was abbot -of a monastery on the Aventine at Rome, and young Hildebrand was at -an early date sent to be educated under his direction. We recognize -in this accident the chief clue to the personality and achievements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> -of Gregory VII. A century earlier a group of monks at Cluny had -reformed their ways, and their stricter ideas had slowly spread from -one isolated monastery to another. The monastery of St. Mary on the -Aventine was one of these rare centres of sincere asceticism, and in -it the boy would hear talk of the appalling degradation which had come -over the Church of Christ. It seems, however, very doubtful whether he -ever made the vows of a monk. He certainly wore the monk's habit, and -no epithet is more common on the lips of his opponents than "vagabond -monk"; while, on the other hand, his admirers accept the monastic -title, and justify the "vagabondage," by various unreliable stories -about his connexion with the Benedictines. But he never describes -himself as a monk, and he is not so described in the most reliable -documents. The point is of slight importance, since Hildebrand -certainly adopted the sentiments of the monastic reformers, and I will -not linger over the extensive and conflicting evidence.<a name="FNanchor_200_200" id="FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_200_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a> Gregory's -fiery and aggressive nature would not suffer him to contemplate the -triumph of evil from the remote impotence of a monastery, but he -learned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> his lesson from monks and would rely on them throughout life.</p> - -<p>He went also to the Lateran School, where John Gratian, whom we -described in the last chapter as buying the Papacy from his nephew -Benedict IX., was a teacher. Gratian marked the ecclesiastical promise -of the dark and ill-favoured little Tuscan, and, when he bought the -title of Gregory VI., made him one of his <i>capellani</i>: at that time a -body of lay officials. The work suited Hildebrand, who was even more -of a soldier than a monk. The road to Rome was lamentably beset by -brigands; the houses of many of the nobles in the city itself were, in -fact, little better than the fortified dens of wealthy banditti, and -the crowds of pilgrims might have their gifts torn from their hands at -the very steps of Peter's altar. So Hildebrand organized a militia and -made some impression on the robbers.</p> - -<p>Gregory VI. was a more religious man than his purchase of the See would -suggest. He was conspicuous for chastity at a time when, a caustic -contemporary said, it was regarded at Rome as an angelic virtue. There -is every reason to believe that he bought the Roman See with the best -of intentions. Unhappily, Benedict IX. exhausted his treasury and -returned to claim his dignity; while another faction of the Romans -set up a pretender under the name of Silvester II. Gregory ruled his -flock—there was very little Papal ruling of the <i>world</i> in those -days—from Sta. Maria Maggiore: Silvester controlled St. Peter's and -the Papal mansion on the Vatican: Benedict held the Lateran. This -squalid spectacle must have sunk deep into the soul of the young -reformer. But there were religious men in Rome, and the virtuous Henry -III. was summoned from Germany. The remedy was almost as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> humiliating -as the disorder. Henry scattered the rivals and, observing that there -was no member of the Roman clergy fit to occupy the See, he put into it -one of his German bishops, with the title of Clement II.</p> - -<p>Hildebrand went with his patron, in the King's train, to Germany, but -the more rigorous climate soon made an end of John Gratian. It is said, -but is by no means certain, that Hildebrand then went to Cluny for -a time. It is at all events certain that in 1049, the Roman climate -having killed two German Popes in two years, Hildebrand returned to -Italy in the train of Bishop Bruno. Under the name of Leo IX. this -handsome, stately, and deeply religious Pontiff spent the next six -years in a devoted effort to reform the Church. The magnitude of his -task may be measured by that appalling indictment of clerical and -monastic vice, the <i>Book of Gomorrha</i>, which Peter Damiani wrote under -Leo IX., and with his cordial approval. Leo visited the chief countries -of Europe, but he could make little impression on that stubborn age -and he died almost broken-hearted. Under him Hildebrand served his -apprenticeship. He became a cardinal-subdeacon, a guardian of St. -Peter's, and rector of the monastery of St. Paul: in which, to his -fine disgust, he found women serving the monks. He went also as legate -to France, where he dealt leniently with and learned to esteem the -chief heretic of the age, Bérenger. Hildebrand had little insight into -character and less into speculative theology. To the end of his life he -befriended Bérenger.</p> - -<p>Leo died in 1055, and Hildebrand was sent to ask Henry III. to choose a -successor. Henry in turn died in 1056, and, as the Roman See was again -vacant in the following year and the Romans were emboldened to choose -their own Pope, Hildebrand was sent to concili<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>ate the Empress Agnes. -We must not exaggerate his influence at this time, but undoubtedly the -new Pope, Stephen X., and his fanatical Cardinal, Peter Damiani—both -monks of the reforming school,—regarded him as one of their most -ardent lieutenants. Indeed from that time we trace the adoption at -Rome of a policy which is clearly due to Hildebrand. The Papacy began -to look to the Normans, who had conquered southern Italy, to save it -from the overlordship of the German court, and to wage a stern war -against simony and clerical incontinence. Hildebrand, who had a strange -fascination for pious women, easily won the Empress Agnes, but she was -surrounded or controlled by simoniacal prelates and nobles. Rome must -once more change its suzerain, or its sword-bearer.</p> - -<p>In the campaign for enforcing celibacy on the clergy the monastic -reforming school provided fresh allies. There was in the city of -Milan a young priest named Anselm of Baggio, who had studied under -Lanfranc at Bec. This enthusiast for the new ideas began a notable -campaign against clerical marriage, and, when his archbishop genially -transferred him to the remote bishopric of Lucca, he left his gospel in -charge of two other enthusiasts named Ariald and Landulph. It must be -recollected that clerics did not at that time take any vow of chastity, -and there were only a few disciplinary decrees of earlier Popes to -curtail their liberty. Most of the priests of every country were -legally married, though in some places the law of celibacy was enforced -and they simply had mistresses. Against both wives and mistresses a -furious campaign was now directed by the Patarenes.<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id="FNanchor_201_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_201_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> The vilest -names<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> were showered on the unhappy wives and children: the priests, -who said that they would rather desert their orders than their wives, -were torn from the altars: the most lamentable excesses in the cause -of virtue were committed in the churches. Hildebrand, and afterwards -Damiani, were sent to enforce what is described as the "pacifying -policy" of Rome, and we read that Milan approached the verge of civil -war.</p> - -<p>While Hildebrand was still inflaming the enthusiasts of the north, -Stephen X. died, and the party opposed to the Puritans at Rome at once -elected a Pope of their own school. The young subdeacon now plainly -showed his character and masterfulness. He persuaded the virtuous -archbishop of Florence to accept the title of Nicholas II., begged a -small army from the Duke of Tuscany, entered Rome at the head of his -soldiers, and swept "Benedict X." and his supporters out of the city. -The cause of virtue was to be sustained, at whatever cost: the key-note -of his life was sounded. We may also confidently see the action of -Hildebrand in a very important decision of a Lateran synod held under -Nicholas that year (1059). In future the choice of a Pope was to be -confined to the cardinal-bishops, who would submit their decision to -the cardinal-priests and deacons.<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id="FNanchor_202_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_202_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a> The rest of the clergy and -the people were merely to signify their assent by acclamation, and -the decree contains a vague expression of respect for "the rights of -the Emperor." A sonorous anathema<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> was laid on any who departed from -this decree; and I may add at once that Hildebrand, who was probably -its author, entirely ignored it in making the next Pope and in his -own election. It was the first phase in the struggle with the Empire. -The German court was distracted by the intrigues of rival prelates to -secure the control of the Empress and her son, while the Papacy now had -the support of the Norman Richard of Capua (whom Hildebrand induced -to swear fealty to the Papacy), the troops of Tuscany, and the staves -of the Patarenes. The German court replied by refusing to acknowledge -Nicholas II.</p> - -<p>Hildebrand rose to the rank of deacon, then of archdeacon: the -straightest path to the Papacy. Had he willed, he could have become -Pope in 1061, when Nicholas died, but the time was not ripe for his -colossal design. The anti-Puritans now sought alliance with the German -court against him, but he summoned a band of Normans and, with the aid -of their spears, put Anselm of Lucca on the Papal throne: completely -ignoring the decree of 1059. The anti-Puritans of Rome and Lombardy -now united with the Imperialists, and Bishop Cadalus of Parma was -made Anti-Pope. The war of words which followed was disdainfully left -by Hildebrand to Damiani, who, in a page of almost indescribable -invective, assures us that Cadalus was "the stench of the globe, the -filth of the age, the shame of the universe," and that his episcopal -supporters were better judges of pretty faces than of Papal candidates. -The Imperialist Bishop Benzo of Albi, a genial Epicure who united an -equal power of invective with a more polished culture, retorted heavily -on the "vagabond monks" (Damiani and Hildebrand). At last it came to -blows, and Hildebrand acted. Cadalus de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>scended on Rome with German -and Lombard troops: Hildebrand summoned the Normans, and a fierce -battle was waged for the tiara under the very shadow of St. Peter's. -Then Godfrey of Tuscany appeared on the scene with his army, and the -decision was remitted to a synod at Augsburg. Hildebrand was content, -for a revolution had occurred at the German court, and Damiani was sent -to win the verdict at Augsburg by the ingenious expedient of being -himself counsel for both sides.</p> - -<p>The way was now rapidly prepared for the Pontificate of Hildebrand. -Godfrey of Tuscany died, and his pious widow Beatrice and still more -impressionable daughter Mathilda were prepared to put their last -soldier at his disposal. The Patarenes were reinforced by the knight -Herlembald (whose lady-love had been seduced by a priest), and were -dragging the married priests from their churches and destroying -their homes in many parts of north Italy. At Florence the monks of -Vallombrosa lent their fiery aid, even against the troops, and one -of their number passed unscathed through the ordeal of fire before -an immense concourse of people. In the south Robert Guiscard was -expelling the last remnants of the Saracens and founding a powerful -Norman kingdom. All these forces marched under banners blessed and -presented by the Pope. One banner advanced by the side of the ferocious -Herlembald: one shone at the head of the Norman troops in Calabria: -one was seen in the ranks of William of Normandy when he made his -successful raid upon England.<a name="FNanchor_203_203" id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_203_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> - -<p>Alexander closed his short and earnest Pontificate on April 21, 1073. -Hildebrand, in his capacity of archdeacon, took stringent measures for -the preservation of order, or the coercion of the Imperialist faction; -yet, when the voice of the people demanded that <i>he</i> should be Pope, -his troops made no effort to secure an election according to the decree -of 1059. He was conducting the funeral service over the remains of -Alexander, on April 22d, when the cry, "Hildebrand bishop," was raised. -He protested, but Cardinal Hugh Candidus, one of the most versatile -clerical politicians of the time and afterwards the Pope's deadly -enemy, stood forth and insisted that the cry was just. Hildebrand -was seized and conducted, almost carried, to the church of St. Peter -in Chains, where he was enthroned, as he afterwards wrote to Abbot -Didier,<a name="FNanchor_204_204" id="FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a> by "popular tumult." It is not certain, but is entirely -probable, that he sought the imperial ratification. We may conclude -that he did this, since, when he was consecrated on June 30th, the -Empress Agnes and the imperial representative in Italy were present.</p> - -<p>In the letters which Gregory issued to his friends throughout Europe -immediately after his election he observes that the strain and anxiety -have made him ill. We can well believe that when the hour arrived for -him to mount the throne of Peter, instead of standing behind it, he -felt a grave foreboding. No man had ever yet ascended that throne with -so portentous an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>idea of its prestige and responsibility, and no Pope -had ever confronted a more disordered Christendom. There had been good -men at the Lateran for thirty years, yet in the eyes of Hildebrand they -must have seemed idle, timid, and ineffective. A Pope must wear out -his body and lay down his life in the struggle with triumphant evil: -must smite king or prelate or peasant without a moment's hesitation: -must use every weapon that the times afforded—excommunication or -imprecation, the spear of the Norman or the sword of the Dane, the -staff of the ignorant fanatic or the tender devotion of woman. "The -Blessed Peter on earth," as Hildebrand called himself, had a right to -implicit obedience from every man on earth, on temporal no less than -on spiritual matters. Kings were of less consequence than the meanest -priests. If kings and dukes resisted his grand plan of making the whole -of Christendom "pure and obedient," why not make their kingdoms and -duchies fiefs of the Holy See, to be bestowed on virtuous men? Why not -make Europe the United States of the Church, governed despotically by -the one man on earth who was "inspired by God"? If anathemas failed, -there were swords enough in Europe to carry out his plan. That, -literally, was the vision which filled the feverish imagination of -Gregory VII. when he looked down from his throne over the world.</p> - -<p>It was the dream of a soldier-monk, unchecked by understanding of men -or accurate knowledge of history. Such reformers as Cardinal Damiani -and Abbot Didier resented Gregory's aims and procedure: they were -most appreciated by women like the Countess Mathilda. Hildebrand -is said to have been a learned man, but we have cause to take with -reserve medićval compliments of this kind. He knew the Bible well, -and was steeped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> in the congenial atmosphere of the Old Testament. He -knew Church-history and law well: as they were told at the Lateran. -Döllinger has shown that his principal lieutenants in the work of -reform—Bishop Anselm of Lucca (a second Anselm), Bishop Bonitho, and -Cardinal Deusdedit—were unscrupulous in their use of historical and -canonical documents, and that Gregory relied on these as well as on -the older forgeries.<a name="FNanchor_205_205" id="FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a> I am, however, chiefly concerned with the -limitations of his knowledge, and will observe only that his letters, -written in robust and inelegant Latin, give no indication of culture -beyond this close acquaintance with very dubious history and law. The -Arab civilization had by this time enkindled some intellectual life -in Europe: men were not far from the age of Abélard. But in this new -speculative life Gregory had no share. If we find him, with apparent -liberality, acquitting Bérenger in 1049 and 1079, we must ascribe it -rather to incapacity and disinclination for speculative matters.</p> - -<p>This restriction and inaccuracy of culture strengthened Gregory in -his peculiar ideal, and it was much the same with his poor judgment -of character, which brought many a disaster on him. Probably men -like Hildebrand and Damiani enjoyed a physical debility in regard -to sex-life, and sincerely failed to realize that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> the abolition of -clerical marriage would inevitably lead to worse evils. The ideal they -worked for—the establishment of a spiritual army dead to every human -affection, and therefore incorruptible—was magnificent but impossible. -Similarly, in the campaign against simony, Gregory never realized -the roots of the evil. Bishops were politicians, the supporters or -thwarters of the counsels of princes; intellectual culture was, in -fact, almost confined to bishops and abbots, and their advice was -(apart from their wealth, their troops, and their feudal duties) needed -as much as that of unlettered soldiers. Hence princes had a real and -deep interest in their appointment. The intrigue for political power -at that very time of the great prelates of Germany was notorious. If -Gregory had at least confined his strictures to simony in the strict -sense, he might have had some prospect of success, for his cause was -obviously just. But by his attack on "investiture"<a name="FNanchor_206_206" id="FNanchor_206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a> he would take -away from princes the control of some of their most powerful, and often -most mischievous, vassals.</p> - -<p>Yet, instead of seeking to deprive bishops and abbots of wealth and -troops and political influence, Hildebrand wanted them to have more. -He encouraged Anselm of Lucca to lead the Tuscan troops; he proposed -in person to lead the Christian armies against the Turks. Throughout -life he called for more men and more money, and he never hesitated -an instant to set swords flying if he could gain his religious aim -by that means.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> He was as warlike as a full-blooded Norman. Bishop -Mathew calls him "truculent," and reminds us how, before he became -Pope, Abbot Didier wanted to punish an abbot, who had gouged out the -eyes of some of his monks for their sins, but Hildebrand protected the -man and afterwards made him a bishop. Didier and Damiani were equally -shocked at his political activity. He scorned the distinction between -spiritual and temporal things—except when he was endeavouring to keep -laymen in their proper place—and argued repeatedly that, if a Pope had -supreme power in matters of religion, he very clearly had it in the -less important concerns of earth: if a Pope could open and close the -gates of heaven, he could most assuredly open and close the gates of -earthly kingdoms. He went so far as to say that "all worldly things, -be they honours, empires, kingdoms, principalities, or duchies," he -could bestow on whomsoever he wished.<a name="FNanchor_207_207" id="FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a> On this ground he, as we -shall see, grasped the flimsiest pretexts for claiming a kingdom as a -fief of the Roman See, relying often on forged or perverted texts, and -he quite clearly aimed at bringing all the countries in Christendom -under the feudal lordship of the Papacy, to be bestowed for "obedience" -and withdrawn for "disobedience" at the will of the Pope. I do not -admit that he was ambitious, even ambitious for his See. He believed -that this sacerdocracy was willed by God and was the only means of -maintaining religion and morality in Europe. But there were human -aspects of these questions which Gregory ignored, and his bitter and -numerous opponents retorted that he was a fool or a fanatic.</p> - -<p>This ideal did not merely grow in Gregory's mind in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> the heat of his -combats. It is seen in his earliest letters. Before he was consecrated -he wrote to remind "the Princes of Spain" that that country belonged -to the Roman See; that the Popes had never abandoned their right to -it, even when it was held by the Moors: and that the kings who were -now wresting it from the Moors held their kingdoms "on behalf of St. -Peter" (<i>ex parte S. Petri</i>) and on condition that they rendered feudal -military service when summoned to do so.<a name="FNanchor_208_208" id="FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_208_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a> A few weeks later he -wrote to Duke Godfrey, referring to Henry IV.: "If he returns hatred -for love, and shows contempt for Almighty God for the honour conferred -on him, the imprecation which runs, 'Cursed is he that refraineth his -sword from blood,' will not, with God's help, fall on <i>us</i>."<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id="FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_209_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a> In -June he told Beatrice and Mathilda that he would resist the King, -if necessary, "to the shedding of blood."<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id="FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_210_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a> In the same month he -compelled Landulph of Benevento and Richard of Capua to swear fealty -to the Roman See. In November he told Lanfranc, the greatest prelate -of England, that he was astounded at his "audacity" (<i>frons</i>) in -neglecting Papal orders.<a name="FNanchor_211_211" id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_211_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a> In December he wrote to a French bishop -that if King Philip did not amend his ways he would smite the French -people with "the sword of a general anathema" and they would "refuse to -obey him further."<a name="FNanchor_212_212" id="FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_212_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a> A remarkable record for the first nine months -of his Pontificate.</p> - -<p>I shall not in the least misrepresent his work if I dismiss -other matters briefly and enlarge on his attempts to realize his -sacerdocratic ideal: especially his struggle with Henry IV. His -campaign against simony and clerical incontinence fills the whole -period of his Pontificate, but cannot be described in detail. Year by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> -year his handful of Italian bishops—remoter bishops generally ignored -his drastic orders to come to Rome—met in Lenten synods at Rome, held -their lighted candles while he read the ever-lengthening list of the -excommunicated, and shuddered at his vigorous imprecations. Then his -legates went out over Europe, but few prelates were willing or able to -promulgate the decrees they brought, and the campaign succeeded only -where it could rely on the staves of the Patarenes or the swords of -the Pope's allies. Other episcopal functions, such as settlements of -jurisdiction, occupy a relatively small part of his correspondence. It -is enough to say that his eye ranged from Lincoln to Constantinople, -from Stockholm to Carthage.</p> - -<p>In Italy, his chief concern was to concentrate the southern States -under his lead and form a military bulwark against the northerners. -The Roman militia was strengthened: the petty princes of Benevento -and Capua were persuaded that their shrunken territories were safer -from the aggressions of Robert Guiscard if they paid allegiance to -St. Peter: Mathilda of Tuscany did not even need to be persuaded to -hold her troops at his disposal. It would be safe to say that Italy -alone would have wrecked Gregory's policy but for the lucky accident -of Tuscany passing to the pious Mathilda. She clung to Gregory so -tenaciously that his opponents affected to see a scandal in the -association.</p> - -<p>The chief thorn in his side was Robert Guiscard, who had founded a -kingdom in southern Italy and refused to do homage. He laid waste the -territory of the Pope's allies, and smiled at the anathema put on him. -Gregory, as usual, turned to the sword. The Eastern Emperor had asked -aid against the Turks, and Gregory summoned all Christian princes -to contribute troops.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> He would lead the army in person, he said: -supported by the aged Beatrice and the tender Mathilda. The northern -princes smiled, and the plan of a crusade came to naught. But it was -not merely concern for Constantinople which made Gregory dangerously -ill when his plan miscarried. Historians generally overlook his letter -to William of Burgundy,<a name="FNanchor_213_213" id="FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_213_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a> in which he plainly states that he wants -the troops for the purpose of intimidating—if not conquering—Robert: -"perhaps," he says, they may afterwards proceed to the East. He was -still more irritated when Robert himself entered into an alliance with -Constantinople. Gregory angrily wrote to ask the King of Denmark to -send his son with an army and wrest the south of Italy from the "vile -heretics" who held it.<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id="FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a></p> - -<p>He was similarly thwarted in nearly every country in Europe, and his -anathemas were terrible to hear. I have already referred to his haughty -language to Lanfranc, yet the English bishops continued, year after -year, to ignore the imperious summons to attend his Roman synods. -In 1079 Gregory wrote to Lanfranc that he understood that the King -prevented them from coming, and was surprised that the "superstitious -love" or fear of any man should come between him and his duty.<a name="FNanchor_215_215" id="FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_215_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a> -Lanfranc still evaded, almost fooled, him, and, when Gregory threatened -to suspend him, affected to be engaged in examining the claims of an -Anti-Pope whom Henry IV. had set up. With William himself Gregory was -bitterly disappointed. When, in 1080, he ordered the King to collect -the arrears of Peter's Pence and acknowledge his feudal obligations to -Rome, William somewhat contemptuously replied that he would forward the -money, but would pay allegiance to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> no man. Gregory was so angry that -he told his legates that the money was no use without the "honour."<a name="FNanchor_216_216" id="FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_216_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a></p> - -<p>The bishops of France were equally deaf to his annual summons to his -Lenten synods and his orders that they should punish their King. He -threatened, not only to pronounce an interdict, but that he would -"endeavour <i>in every way</i> to take the kingdom of France from him."<a name="FNanchor_217_217" id="FNanchor_217_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_217_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> -A similar threat of military action was sent to Spain. King Alphonso of -Leon married a relative, and Gregory wrote to the abbot of Cluny that -if the King did not obey his orders and dismiss her he would "not think -it too great a trouble to go ourselves to Spain and concert severe and -painful action [evidently military action] against him."<a name="FNanchor_218_218" id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_218_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> This -policy of promoting or blessing invasions and usurpations was carried -out in the case of smaller kingdoms. King Solomon was ejected from -Hungary and appealed to Rome. Gregory blessed the usurper (who craftily -promised to be a good son of the Church) and told Solomon that he had -deserved the calamity by receiving his kingdom, which had been given to -St. Peter by the earlier King Stephen, at the hand of Henry IV.<a name="FNanchor_219_219" id="FNanchor_219_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_219_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a> -Then Ladislaus of Hungary seized Dalmatia and sought to strengthen -his position by paying fealty to the Pope for it; so that, when the -Dalmatians attempted to recover their independence, Gregory denounced -them as "rebels against the Blessed Peter."<a name="FNanchor_220_220" id="FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_220_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a> Lastly, when the -Russian king was displaced by his brothers, and promised to acknowledge -the feudal supremacy of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> Rome if he were restored, Gregory induced -Boleslaus of Poland to restore him.</p> - -<p>If this kind of procedure incurred the censure of Gregory's great -friend and successor, Abbot Didier, we can easily understand the -violent language of his opponents. These are usually writers of the -Lombard-German faction, and we must now endeavour to disentangle from -the contradictory narratives of the partisan writers the truth about -his relations with Henry IV. The facts I have hitherto given are taken -from the authentic letters of Gregory.</p> - -<p>Henry IV. was a boy at the time of his father's death, and it is -beyond dispute that the prelates and nobles who quarrelled for power -shamefully neglected, or consciously misdirected, his education. When -he came to the throne he was a wilful, loose-living, and imperious -young man, forced into marriage with a woman whom he disliked. -Exhortations to abandon simony and avoid evil companions fell lightly -on such ears, and, as we saw, Gregory's early letters threatened war. -Five of Henry's favourites were under sentence of excommunication, -yet the young King would not part with them. Gregory turned to the -bishops, but they flatly refused to allow his legates to call a synod -in Germany, and his excommunication of the Archbishop of Hamburg only -embittered them. Suddenly, however, before the end of 1073, Gregory was -delighted to receive a most humble and submissive letter from Henry, -and legates were sent to absolve him.</p> - -<p>The cause of this action of the imperious young King gives us at once a -most important clue to what is called the later triumph of Gregory at -Canossa. The popular impression that that famous scene represented a -triumph of spiritual power over the passions of man is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> wholly wrong. -It was an episode in a political struggle. Henry's kingdom embraced -Saxony and Swabia; and the Saxons cherished a sombre memory of their -recent incorporation, while Rudolph of Swabia had a mind to make profit -by the troubles of his suzerain and astutely courted the favour of the -Pope. Gregory could not fail to grasp the situation, and his struggle -against Henry is a series of attempts by the Pope to foment and take -advantage of Henry's difficulties with his vassals, ending in the -complete triumph of the King.</p> - -<p>Henry's submission in 1074 meant that there was a dangerous rebellion -in Saxony. The King did not, in fact, part entirely with his -excommunicated favourites, and the anathema on them was renewed at -the synod of 1075, which also laid a heavy censure on "any emperor, -duke, marquis, count, or any temporal lord, or any secular person -whatsoever," who claimed the right of investiture. Henry remained -friendly: the Saxon war dragged on. In October Henry was sending -legates to Rome to confer with the Pope, who had hinted at compromise -on the subject of investitures. But the Saxon rebellion suddenly -came to an end, and three legates were now sent with a less pleasant -message: probably a peremptory claim of the imperial crown. Henry had -not only a united Germany, but a strong party in Lombardy. Herlembald -was killed, and the Patarenes held in check. Moreover, the recalcitrant -bishops were now joined by the Archbishop of Ravenna (who had been -hastily excommunicated by Gregory for not attending the Lenten synod) -and Cardinal Hugh Candidus. Elated with this support, the young King -acted wilfully. He sent one of his excommunicated nobles to Lombardy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> -crushed the Patarenes, and set up a third Archbishop of Milan, -Tedald.<a name="FNanchor_221_221" id="FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a></p> - -<p>Gregory was alarmed at this combination and at first temporized. -He invited Tedald to come to Rome for a polite discussion of his -claims; he sent Henry a "doubtful blessing" and would compromise on -investitures and consider his further demands, if he abandoned the -excommunicated nobles.<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id="FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a> But he gave Henry's envoys, to whom he -handed the letter, a verbal message of a more drastic nature. He -threatened to depose Henry for his "horrible crimes," and there is -good reason to suppose that these "crimes" were, in part at least, the -slanderous fictions of Henry's enemies.<a name="FNanchor_223_223" id="FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_223_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> Both were men of fiery -and indiscreet impulses, and this impolitic act of Gregory kindled the -conflagration.</p> - -<p>Meantime a remarkable experience befell Gregory at Rome, and it is -not unlikely that he held Henry responsible for it; though it is -practically certain that Henry was wholly innocent. The increasing -difficulties of the Pope encouraged the anti-Puritans at Rome, and -one of them, Cenci, a notorious bandit, burst into the church of Sta. -Maria on the Esquiline while Gregory was saying midnight mass there -on Christmas day (1075). His men scattered the attendants, and one of -them struck the Pope with a sword, causing a wound on the forehead. -Gregory was stripped of his sacerdotal robes, thrust on a horse behind -one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> soldiers, and hurried to Cenci's fortified tower. Some -noble matron was taken with him—one of the strangest circumstances of -the whole mysterious episode—and she bound his wounds as he lay in -the tower, while Cenci threatened to kill him unless he handed over -the keys of the Papal treasury. It is fairly clear that the motive was -robbery. Meantime the bells and trumpets had spread the alarm through -Rome, and the militia beset the tower and relieved the Pope. This -remarkable picture of a winter's night in the capital of Christendom -ends with Gregory, who cannot have been severely wounded, calmly -returning to the altar and finishing his mass.</p> - -<p>Henry's envoys had left Rome before Christmas, and it is therefore a -mistake to suppose that the message they brought from Gregory had any -reference to the violence of Cenci. They reached the court at Goslar on -January 1, 1076, and we can easily believe that they would not moderate -the offensiveness of the oral message. Gregory had a deliberate policy -of preferring oral to written messages. There may at times have been -an advantage in this, but in the present instance it was gravely -imprudent. Henry's friends urged him to avenge the insult, and three -weeks later a synod of twenty-six German bishops, with a large number -of abbots, met at Worms and declared Gregory deposed. The irregularity -of his election, the despotism of his conduct, and what was described -as his scandalous association with women, were the chief reasons -assigned for this action. The decree was sent to the insurgent bishops -of north Italy, who met in council and endorsed it, and a priest of -the church of Parma volunteered to serve the sentence on Gregory. He -reached Rome at a moment when Gregory was presiding at a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> large synod -in the Lateran Palace, and boldly read the sentence to the assembled -bishops. Lay nobles drew their swords upon the audacious priest, but -Gregory restrained them and bade them hear the words of Henry. His -intemperate and insulting letter—so intemperate that the Pope could -easily remain calm and dignified—could receive only one reply. The -King and all his supporters were excommunicated, and Gregory issued a -not unworthy letter "To All Christians"<a name="FNanchor_224_224" id="FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a> informing them that the -subjects of King Henry of Germany were released from their allegiance.</p> - -<p>There can be no doubt that Henry IV. had merited a sentence of -excommunication, and it is a nice point whether a King could continue -to rule his territory when he was thus cut off from communication with -his subjects. We may, at all events, gravely question whether the -Pope was either politic or just in going on formally to depose the -King, and, as the news of this unprecedented action spread through -Christendom, even religious prelates shook their heads. Throughout the -rest of his life Gregory had repeatedly to defend his conduct, not -against the partisans of Henry, but against some of his own supporters. -His chief apology is contained in a letter to the Bishop of Metz<a name="FNanchor_225_225" id="FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_225_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a> -and is invalid and illogical. He relies on a forged letter of St. -Peter, and he appeals to the excommunication of Theodosius by St. -Ambrose and the "deposition" of Childeric by Pope Zachary in 753; the -former was in no sense a precedent, and in the latter case the Pope -merely confirmed the design of Pippin and the Franks. There was no -precedent whatever for deposition, and Gregory is severely censured -even by modern writers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> for not observing the canonical forms in his -excommunication of Henry.<a name="FNanchor_226_226" id="FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_226_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a></p> - -<p>Gregory at once prepared for war. The Duchess Beatrice died in April, -and the devoted Mathilda, who was so pointedly insulted, though not -named, in her royal cousin's manifesto, put the troops of Tuscany at -the Pope's disposal. Gregory also tried to reconcile the Normans with -each other and weld them into a common army for the defence of Rome. -But his chief reliance was on the Germans themselves. He knew well, -when he excommunicated Henry, that the embittered Saxons would leap -with joy at the fresh pretext of rebellion, and the intriguing Swabians -would secretly welcome the censure. Henry found himself very soon on -the road to Canossa. He summoned two councils in rapid succession, but -their defiance of the Pope brought him little pleasure when he noted -the small number of his supporters. Saxony threw off his yoke at once, -and prelates and nobles began to fall away from his cause. Gregory -pressed his advantage with fiery energy, showering letters upon the -German clergy and people, and in the middle of October a large body of -the nobles and prelates (chiefly Saxon and Swabian) met at Tribur, near -Darmstadt, to consider the position of the kingdom. Two Papal legates -and Rudolph of Swabia presided, and Henry watched the proceedings from -the other side of the river.</p> - -<p>From this stage onward we are compelled to consult the contemporary -chroniclers, and it is almost impossible to disentangle the truth from -their contradictory and mendacious statements. It is clear that for -seven<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> days the Diet held long debate on the situation. Undoubtedly -they wished to depose Henry, but, apparently, they were unwilling to -recognize in the Pope this dangerous power of deposing kings, and the -Diet seems to have ended with an injunction to Henry to make peace -with the Pope. According to the monk Lambert of Hersfeld, who seems -to have gathered into his <i>Chronicle</i> all the wild cloister-gossip -of the time, the Diet decided that, according to the "Laws of the -Palace,"—there were no such laws at that time,—Henry forfeited his -crown if he remained excommunicated a year and a day, and commanded -him to retire into private life at Spires until Gregory should come to -Germany and decide the case. The Gregorian writer, Bishop Bonitho,<a name="FNanchor_227_227" id="FNanchor_227_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_227_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> -contrives in this instance to improve on Lambert; he tells us that, -if Henry submitted, the nobles would accompany him to Rome, where he -would receive the imperial crown, and they would then sweep the Normans -out of south Italy. One suspects that in this the Bishop of Sutri is -betraying a design of Gregory which was certainly not endorsed by the -Diet.</p> - -<p>The most authentic evidence is the <i>Promissio</i> (or Letter of Apology) -which, at the dictation of the Diet, Henry submitted to the Pope.<a name="FNanchor_228_228" id="FNanchor_228_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_228_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a> -He expressed regret for any affront he may have put on the dignity of -the Pope, promised obedience on spiritual matters, and declared that -on certain other grave matters he would vindicate his innocence. When -this short and dry letter was eventually handed to the Pope by one of -the chief prelates of Germany, Gregory was outraged to find that its -concluding sentence ran: "But it befitteth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> thy Holiness not to ignore -the things repeated about thee which bring scandal on the Church, but -to remove this scruple from the public conscience and provide in thy -wisdom for the tranquillity of the Church and the kingdom." Gregorian -writers insist that this was added by Henry to the draft approved by -the Diet, but this is by no means certain. Henry was not a broken man. -He had a considerable force with him, and Rudolph of Swabia evidently -found that it would be no easy task to displace him. The edict which -Henry published at the same time, declaring that he had been misled -when he obtained a censure of the Pope, gives one the same impression. -He had still a powerful following, and it was agreed to avert civil -war by reconciliation and by inviting Gregory to preside at a Diet at -Augsburg.</p> - -<p>Gregory, in spite of the advice of his friends (except Mathilda, who -spurred him on), at once set out for the north. His impetuous journey -was, however, arrested in the north of Italy by the news that the -German nobles had failed to send an escort for him, and that Henry -himself was crossing the Alps with a large army. Mathilda persuaded him -to retire to her impregnable fortress of Canossa, and there, about the -end of January, Henry enacted his historic part of penitent.</p> - -<p>Here the chroniclers are hopelessly discordant, and the full -picturesque narrative of Lambert of Hersfeld, on which some historians -still implicitly rely, has been riddled by modern critics.<a name="FNanchor_229_229" id="FNanchor_229_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_229_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a> It -is clear that Henry wished to keep the Pope out of Germany, and he -there-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>fore hastily crossed the Alps in the depth of winter. It is -clear that a "vast army" (in the words of Lambert himself) gathered -about him in rebellious Lombardy, but he pushed on with a few followers -(incidentally admitted by Lambert) to Canossa. It is clear that -Gregory, on the other hand, was desperately bent on presiding over -a council in Germany, and shocked his friends by his obstinacy in -refusing to be reconciled<a name="FNanchor_230_230" id="FNanchor_230_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_230_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a>; he had condemned Henry without trial, -but he would not absolve him without trial. And, obviously inaccurate -as the narrative of Lambert is,<a name="FNanchor_231_231" id="FNanchor_231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a> it seems to me certain that Henry -went through the form of penance on the icy platform before the gate of -Canossa. In the letter written immediately afterwards to the nobles and -prelates of Germany,<a name="FNanchor_232_232" id="FNanchor_232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a> Gregory describes Henry as doing penance for -three days, in bare feet and woollen robe, before the gates. However -impolitic and irritating it was for Gregory to write such a letter, Dr. -Dammann seems to me to fail to impeach its genuineness. Indeed in his -great speech to the Roman synod of 1080, when he excommunicated Henry a -second time, Gregory says that in 1076 Henry came to him "in confusion -and humiliation" at Canossa to ask absolution.</p> - -<p>Thus the scene which has ever since impressed the imagination of Europe -is in substance authentic; though we are by no means compelled to -think that Henry literally stood in the snow for three whole days. But -the common interpretation of the scene is quite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> false. It was not a -spiritual triumph, but a political pseudo-triumph. In reality, it was -Henry who triumphed; and one can imagine him jesting merrily afterwards -about his bare feet and coarse robe of penitence. He promised to amend -his ways, and then proceeded to make a tour of Italy in light-hearted -confidence and with all his old wilfulness. He refused to interfere -when a Papal Legate was thrown into prison at Piacenza; and he refused -to provide Gregory with an escort when the Germans invited the Pope to -come and preside at their new Diet.<a name="FNanchor_233_233" id="FNanchor_233_233"></a><a href="#Footnote_233_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> Gregory soon realized that the -war had merely passed into a new and more difficult phase, and we must -follow it swiftly to its tragic end in the utter defeat of the Pope.</p> - -<p>Gregory sent two Legates to the Diet of Forchheim on March 13th, where, -with their consent, Rudolph of Swabia was declared King of Germany. -The Papal Legates exacted that he should not claim the succession for -his family—apparently Germany was to be the next fief of the Roman -See—and should abandon investiture. When Henry pressed the Pope to -excommunicate Rudolph, he replied that he had not yet heard Rudolph's -case—an "unworthy subterfuge," Bishop Mathew justly remarks—and -Henry set out for Germany. In the three-years struggle which followed, -the Pope adopted a policy which few historians hesitate to condemn. -He sent Legates repeatedly, claiming that he alone was the judge: -that "if the See of the Blessed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> Peter decides and judges heavenly -and spiritual things, how much the more shall it judge things earthly -and secular."<a name="FNanchor_234_234" id="FNanchor_234_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_234_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a> He even promised the crown to whichever of the -combatants should respect his Legates: a remarkable test of the justice -he promised to administer. He evidently hoped that Rudolph would win, -but feared that the victory <i>might</i> fall to Henry; and, above all, he -desired to judge the princes of the earth. At last the Saxons in turn -began to abuse him. His Legates, they said, were offering his verdict -to the highest bidder—assuredly without his knowledge—and his policy -was unintelligible. Bishops were saying that the Papacy had become "the -tail of the Church."</p> - -<p>At the Lenten synod of the year 1080 representatives of both princes -came before Gregory and his bishops, and the great decision was taken. -Henry was found guilty of "disobedience," and, after a long and -eloquent speech, Gregory excommunicated him once more and confirmed -Rudolph in the kingdom of Germany. Bishop Bonitho<a name="FNanchor_235_235" id="FNanchor_235_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_235_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a> tells us that -Henry had sent an ultimatum: if Gregory did not at once condemn -Rudolph he would appoint another Pope. This is, apparently, the real -inspiration of the synod and of Gregory's fiery speech.<a name="FNanchor_236_236" id="FNanchor_236_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_236_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a> Henry's -partisans retorted by excommunicating Gregory and consecrating Guibert -of Ravenna as Anti-Pope, and, as Rudolph fell in battle in October, -the Gregorian cause was in a lamentable plight. Gregory had, in his -extremity, overlooked all the crimes of Robert Guiscard—"for the -present" he quaintly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> said in the treaty—and made an alliance with -him, but Robert was still engaged in the East, and Henry's troops -made great havoc in Mathilda's dominions. Yet Gregory repeated his -excommunication of the King, and wrote letters all over Europe to -defend his action and obtain money and troops.</p> - -<p>Several years passed in this indecisive warfare, Henry wearing down the -Tuscan troops and cutting off supplies from Rome. At length, toward -the end of March, 1084, the Romans, weary of the long siege, opened -their gates to Henry, and Gregory shut himself in the impregnable -fortress of Sant' Angelo. From the windows, for two dreary months, -Gregory had to watch the progress of the victorious Imperialists and -the triumph of the Anti-Pope, Clement III. In May he was elated by the -message that Henry had fled and Robert Guiscard was marching to Rome -with a large force. But his joy was brief. A brawl with the Romans -let loose the half-barbaric Normans, and the city was visited with -one of the most pitiless raids in its eventful history. Thousands of -the Romans were sold into slavery: sacred virgins and matrons were -savagely raped: large districts of the city were burned to the ground. -For this the infuriated Romans cast the whole blame on the Pope, and -he was forced to retire with Robert. In penury and impotence he rode -into the abbey of Monte Cassino, where Abbot Didier would hardly fail -to remind him that they who appeal to the sword are apt to perish by -the sword, and then on to Salerno. Surrounded by the shrunken remains -of his supporters he made a last appeal to the Christian world to -espouse his cause, and he feebly cast forth his last anathemas. But -the fight was lost, and he wearily drew his last breath on May 25, -1085. "I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in -exile," he said. It was not wholly true. He was exiled by the people of -Rome, whose devastated homes made them heap curses on his iron policy. -History honours the purity of his ultimate aim, the heroism with which -he pursued it, the greatness, with all its defects, of his character; -it sternly condemns the means he employed, the tortuous and dangerous -character of his reasoning, the appalling claim that kingdoms were toys -in his hand. He failed; but he had, in reality, so strengthened the -frame of the Papacy that it would take an earthquake to shake it.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a><a href="#FNanchor_200_200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> The two ablest recent writers on Hildebrand, the Right -Reverend Dr. A.H. Mathew (<i>The Life and Times of Hildebrand</i>, 1910) -and Dr. W. Martens (<i>War Gregor VII. Mönch?</i>, 1891, and <i>Gregor VII.</i>, -2 vols. 1894—an invaluable study), hold that he never took the vows. -The chief biography of Hildebrand on the Catholic side is now the Abbé -O. Delarc's <i>Grégoire VII. et la Réforme de l'Église au XI sičcle</i> -(3 vols., 1889). Slight but excellent sketches will be found in F. -Roquain's <i>La Papauté au moyen âge</i> (1881) and <i>Hildebrand and His -Times</i> (1888) by W.R.W. Stephens. Older writers like Voigt, Gfrörer, -Villemain, and Bowden are now of little use. The original authorities -are as numerous as they are unreliable. The partisans of Gregory -(chiefly Bonitho and Donizo) are scarcely more scrupulous than the -partisans of Henry (Benzo, Benno, Guido, etc.), or those of Rudolph -(Lambert, Berthold, Bruno, etc.). Fortunately we have a large number of -Gregory's letters, and, as usual, I rely chiefly on these.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a><a href="#FNanchor_201_201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> The reformers of Milan worked chiefly among the poor, -especially in the "old-clothes quarter," or <i>Pataria</i>. Hence the name -of the party.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a><a href="#FNanchor_202_202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> The word "cardinal" occurs occasionally in early -ecclesiastical literature in its literal meaning of "important," and -is applied to clerics of various orders. After the fifth century it -is restricted at Rome to the first priests of each of the <i>tituli</i> -(quasi-parishes) into which the city was divided. They numbered -twenty-eight in the eleventh century. In the course of time the name -was also given to the seventeen leading deacons of Rome and the seven -suburbicarian bishops.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a><a href="#FNanchor_203_203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> In this last case we have the assurance of Hildebrand -himself that he dictated the Papal policy. Years afterwards he wrote -to William (<i>Ep.</i>, vii., 23) that, when the Norman envoys came to -ask Papal approval of his design, it was generally censured as an -unjustifiable raid, and Hildebrand alone induced Pope Alexander to send -the Normans a banner: on condition, he adds, that William secured the -payment of Peter's Pence by the reluctant English and in other ways -promoted the interests of Rome. But even William did not dream that his -acceptance of the banner made England, in Hildebrand's opinion, a fief -of the Roman See!</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a><a href="#FNanchor_204_204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, i., 1.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a><a href="#FNanchor_205_205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> <i>Das Papstthum</i> (1892), ch. ii., § 2. See also F. -Roquain's <i>La Papauté au moyen âge</i>. Roquain observes, leniently, that -Gregory was "not entirely exempt from reproach in the use of means to -attain his ends" (p. 127) and fell into "excesses unworthy of his great -soul" (p. 131). In his famous letter to the Bishop of Metz (viii., -21) Gregory omits an essential part of a passage which he quotes from -Gelasius and materially alters its meaning. When we further find him -writing (ix., 2) that "even a lie that is told for a good purpose in -the cause of peace is not <i>wholly</i> free from blame," we fear that he -was not far from the maxim that the end justifies the means.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a><a href="#FNanchor_206_206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> The secular ruler had long been accustomed to bestow the -crozier and ring on his nominee for a bishopric, and this was known as -"investiture." The practice undoubtedly led to much simony and to the -appointment of unworthy men, but, as the event proved, a compromise was -possible.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a><a href="#FNanchor_207_207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> Speech to the Roman synod of the year 1080 (Migne, vol. -cxlviii., col. 816). Compare <i>Ep.</i>, viii., 21.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208_208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, i., 7.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a><a href="#FNanchor_209_209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, i., 9.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a><a href="#FNanchor_210_210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> I., 11.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a><a href="#FNanchor_211_211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> I., 31.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a><a href="#FNanchor_212_212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> I., 35.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a><a href="#FNanchor_213_213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> I., 46.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a><a href="#FNanchor_214_214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> II., 51.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a><a href="#FNanchor_215_215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> VI., 30.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216_216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> VII., 1.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a><a href="#FNanchor_217_217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> II., 5 and 32.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218_218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> VIII., 2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a><a href="#FNanchor_219_219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> In both statements of fact Gregory was wrong. Stephen -had merely accepted a consecrated banner from the Anti-Pope Silvester -II.; and Solomon had voluntarily chosen Henry as his suzerain.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a><a href="#FNanchor_220_220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> VIII., 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221_221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> There was a Gregorian archbishop in exile. The actual -prelate may not have been zealous enough for Henry.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a><a href="#FNanchor_222_222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> Iii., 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a><a href="#FNanchor_223_223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> A good deal of controversy has been expended on the -question whether Gregory did or did not threaten at this stage to -depose Henry. Gregory's letter xxvi. (not in his Register, but of -undoubted authenticity) to "the German People" expressly admits, or -boasts, that he did. For further evidence see Dr. Martens, <i>Gregor -VII.</i>, i., 86-91.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a><a href="#FNanchor_224_224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> iii., 6.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a><a href="#FNanchor_225_225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> Viii., 21.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a><a href="#FNanchor_226_226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> See C. Mirbt's special study of the conflict, <i>Die -Absetzung Heinrichs IV.</i> (1888), p. 103.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_227_227" id="Footnote_227_227"></a><a href="#FNanchor_227_227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> <i>Liber ad Amicum</i>, 1. viii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_228_228" id="Footnote_228_228"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228_228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> A translation may be read in Delarc, iii., 252.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_229_229" id="Footnote_229_229"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229_229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> One recent student, Dr. Albert Dammann (<i>Der Sieg -Heinrichs IV. in Kanossa</i>, 1907 and 1909), goes to the other extreme, -and concludes that Henry blockaded Canossa with a large army and -compelled the Pope to withdraw his censure, without a single act of -penance.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_230_230" id="Footnote_230_230"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230_230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, iv., 12.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_231_231" id="Footnote_231_231"></a><a href="#FNanchor_231_231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> For instance he describes a dramatic scene in which -Henry shrinks from receiving the sacred host, whereas Gregory says -(<i>Ep.</i>, iv., 12) that he admitted Henry to communion. His story is full -of contradictions.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_232_232" id="Footnote_232_232"></a><a href="#FNanchor_232_232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> Iv., 12.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_233_233" id="Footnote_233_233"></a><a href="#FNanchor_233_233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> Gregorian writers said afterwards that Henry's royal -dignity was not restored at Canossa. In point of fact he actually -signed his promise of reform as "king" and he refused to take an oath -on the express ground that the word of a king of Germany sufficed. -Gregory made no complaint on this score until years afterwards, though -Henry resumed his royal character the moment he left Canossa.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_234_234" id="Footnote_234_234"></a><a href="#FNanchor_234_234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> Iv., 24.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_235_235" id="Footnote_235_235"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235_235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> Bk. ix.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_236_236" id="Footnote_236_236"></a><a href="#FNanchor_236_236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> It may be read in Migne, vol. cxlviii., col. 816. It -includes the imprecation on Henry, "May he gain no victory as long as -he lives," and again asserts that all honours and powers are at the -disposal of the Pope.</p></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></p> - -<p class="center">INNOCENT III.: THE PAPAL ZENITH</p> - - -<p class="drop">T<span class="uppercase">hat</span> Papal policy or ideal of which we have traced the development in -the minds of the greater Popes attains its fullest expansion during the -Pontificate of Innocent III. Historians usually assign the year 1300 as -the date of the culmination of the Papal system, but it had in reality -attained its full stature under Innocent III. It did indeed make its -last impressive display of world-power under Boniface VIII., but there -had been no material contribution to its frame since the death of -Innocent, and the thirteenth century had fostered the growth of the -influences which were destined to undo it. In the fourteenth century -came the demoralizing residence in Avignon and the Great Schism: in -the fifteenth century the renaissance of culture and development of -civic life, which enfeebled the Popes and strengthened their subjects, -were completed: in the sixteenth century Luther and Calvin smote the -colossus. Innocent III. is the last great maker of the Papacy.</p> - -<p>The work of the eighteen Popes who occupied the throne between the -death of Gregory VII. and the election of Innocent might not ineptly -be described in a line: they sought, and failed, to wield the heavy -weapons of Hildebrand. In virtue of the falsified<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> letters, canons, -charters, and chronicles which were now accepted throughout Europe, -they proclaimed that they had the disposal of earthly kingdoms no -less than of seats in heaven, and they thus brought on themselves -a century of strife in which only the stronger men could find much -time for strictly Pontifical duties. They were men of sober life and, -generally, high character, yet the very nature of their ideal involved -such struggles that the Papacy had to await a fortunate conjunction of -circumstances before the ideal could be realized. The conflict with -Henry IV. continued until, his two sons having been persuaded to rebel -against him and his second wife encouraged to besmirch his reputation, -before the assembled prelates of Christendom, with charges as foul as -they were feeble in evidence, he, in 1097, quitted Italy for ever. Then -Urban II., who was responsible for this gross travesty of spiritual -justice, cleared Rome by means of Norman swords and rallied Christendom -about him by a declaration of the First Crusade. But so tainted a -legacy of peace could not last. Henry V. proved more exacting than his -father, and another prolonged struggle absorbed the energy of the Popes -until the fifty years' war over investiture was settled by a compromise -at Worms in 1122.<a name="FNanchor_237_237" id="FNanchor_237_237"></a><a href="#Footnote_237_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a></p> - -<p>Bernard of Clairvaux, rather than the successive Popes, was the -spiritual master of Europe in the comparative peace after Worms. -During nearly the whole of the second half of the twelfth century the -Papacy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> was distracted by the incessant revolts of the Romans. The -streets, even the churches, of Rome were stained with blood, year after -year, and the Popes repeatedly fled. The rise of Frederic Barbarossa -complicated the struggle, and the Popes had little opportunity to -exercise the powers they had won, without thinking of any extension of -their claims. At last, in 1198, the Papacy once more fell to a man of -commanding personality and was lifted to the zenith of its power.</p> - -<p>Lothario de'Conti di Segni was born about the year 1160. His father -was Count Trasimondo of Segni: his mother belonged to the noble -Roman family of the Scotti, which included several cardinals of the -anti-Imperialist school. After receiving an elementary education at -Rome, he was sent to Paris for theology, and to Bologna for law. The -scholastic movement was now stimulating Europe and creating great -schools; indeed Pope Alexander III. had, though not from cultural -motives, fostered the movement by favouring the activity of free -teachers. Profane letters were, however, still little cultivated. -Lothario took a degree in the liberal arts, but he was soon wholly -absorbed in theology and canon law; the correct and virile Latin of his -letters is very far from the classical models. Under the Pontificate of -his maternal uncle, Clement III., he returned to Rome a young man of -the most ascetic character and most finished ecclesiastical culture. -He was made a canon of St. Peter's, and, in his twenty-ninth year, a -cardinal of the Roman Church.</p> - -<p>The Pontificate of Clement ended, apparently, the long struggle of -the Popes and the Romans. The Roman nobles were as turbulent as ever, -but one finds a more respectable element of dissension in the city -at this time. The democratic ideas of that brilliant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> and too little -appreciated thinker, Arnold of Brescia, had taken root in Rome, and -a Republic, with a Senate of fifty-six members, had been established -in the Capitol. Hadrian IV. had blighted this premature experiment -by an interdict in 1155, but the struggle continued and the Popes -lived little in the capital until the year 1188. Clement, a courtly -and diplomatic Roman, made peace with his countrymen, and damped the -democratic ardour by a shower of gold and of ecclesiastical favours. -The Papacy resumed the government of the city, and the nominal power -of the Senate was allowed to pass into the hands of one man, "the -Senator." Clement died in 1190, and, as his successor, Celestine III., -was a member of the Orsini family, which was bitterly hostile to the -Scotti, there was no room in the Lateran for Lothario Conti. Nepotism -was now so far accepted in the Papal palace that we shall find Innocent -himself following the tradition. The leisure was fortunate in one -respect, as Lothario used it for the purpose of writing a book, <i>On -Contempt of the World</i>, which gives us a most interesting revelation -of his innermost thoughts at the time when he became Pope. The book -is a distillation of the extreme monastic views of the time; it is -full of fables, and it depicts man as the very vilest thing in a world -which was made solely for the disdain of the ascetic. It was from this -morbidly tinted sanctuary that Lothario Conti surveyed the life of his -time, which he was soon summoned to rule. In September, 1197, Henry -VI., who had duly incurred the imperial legacy of excommunication, died -and left his kingdom to his baby-boy Frederic: and on January 8, 1198, -Lothario Conti, in the prime of life and the most sombre stage of his -meditations, became Innocent III.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> - -<p>Although he occupied the Papal throne only eighteen years, we have more -than five thousand letters, or parts of letters, dispatched by him to -all parts of Christendom: more than five hundred of them were written -in the first year of his Pontificate. Their range stretches from -Ireland and Scandinavia to Cairo and Armenia. In that vast territory -nothing of importance happened in which he did not intervene; and -there was hardly a prince or baron whom he did not excommunicate, or -any leading country which he did not place under interdict. His ideal -was that of Gregory VII.: the Papal States of Europe—he wanted to add -nearer Asia—trembling under the Roman rod. Writing to the Emperor of -Constantinople he elaborated his famous conception of earthly empire as -the moon, shining faintly by light borrowed from the spiritual power. -The Papal theory had reached its culmination, and we may proceed at -once to attempt to compress the portentous activity of Innocent III. -into a few compartments.<a name="FNanchor_238_238" id="FNanchor_238_238"></a><a href="#Footnote_238_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a></p> - -<p>One naturally inquires first how this spiritual autocrat confronted -the democratic faction at Rome. At the outset he showed a little of -the accommodating temper which he always held in reserve behind his -profession of rigour. His attendants flung showers of coin on the -greedy people when he first passed between them, and, reluctantly, -and on the lowest known scale, he distributed the backsheesh with -which each incoming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> Pope had to win the smiles of every official in -the Palace and the city. There were murmurs, and they increased when -he proceeded to compel the Prefect (who was understood to represent -the Empire) and the Senator (who represented the Romans) to take -oaths of allegiance to himself. By this stroke he expelled the last -bit of reality out of the "free commune" of Rome, and cast off the -last trace of an imperial yoke. He abolished the Noble Guard and the -lay officials of the Palace: he deposed the judges appointed by the -Senator and appointed less corrupt men: he drove the money-changers -and merchants out of the Lateran courtyard, stamped on the parasites -who fed on foreign pilgrims, and drew up a strict tariff of fees for -the Papal services. He was by no means indifferent to money, as his -fighting policy demanded enormous sums. No Pope could be keener on -Peter's Pence, and no abbot or bishop dare approach him with a gift not -proportionate to his wealth. But it is almost superfluous to say that -he was a man of the most rigorous sentiment of justice, and, as long as -he lived, the more selfish kind of rapacity at Rome was repressed.</p> - -<p>The nobles who led the democratic party, chiefly Giovanni Pierleone -and Giovanni Capocci, looked with concern on his tendency and, when -he put a Papal governor over the Maremma and the Sabina, instead of -the one appointed by the Senate, they pressed the Romans to see that -their privileges were being stolen. In 1200 Innocent extricated himself -from a difficult situation. Vitorchiano was threatened by Viterbo -and declared itself a Papal fief. As Viterbo also was part of the -patrimony, and the Romans hated it, Innocent was perplexed. The Romans -took the field in spite of him, and won; but, as he happened to be -saying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> mass at the time of the victory, it was ingeniously ascribed -to his prayers. In the following year, however, there was more serious -trouble. Two small provincial nobles took possession of some estates -on the Campagna, and, when Innocent ordered them to restore, they said -that they held them of the democratic leaders, Pierleone and Capocci. -There was an outcry, but Innocent sent his troops to lay waste the -properties of the two nobles in the grimmest medićval manner, and, in -an eloquent speech at Rome, completely vanquished his critics. Then in -1202, during his customary summer absence, the feud of the Scotti and -the Orsini broke out with frightful violence, and in the following year -the antagonism to the Pope reached its height.</p> - -<p>Innocent had, for his own protection, greatly enriched his brother -Ricardo, and Ricardo had purchased the mortgages on the estates of one -of the democrats, Oddo Poli. As far as we can see, Ricardo acted with -legal correctness, but Rome was soon aroused by the sight of Poli and -his friends coming naked to church, as a symbol of the "spoliation," -and democratic rhetoric rose to white heat. There was a popular rising; -Ricardo's towering mansion was burned, and Innocent himself had to -fly to Ferentino (May, 1203). The Romans restored their Senate, and -swore to have no more of this Papal nepotism and despotism, but from -his retreat Innocent fostered the intestine quarrels of the victorious -people, and before long the city was in a state of murderous anarchy. -The two hundred mansions of its wealthier citizens were, and had been -for ages, real fortresses, and during the whole summer of 1203 their -castellated walls were lined with archers, and bands issued forth, -with all the engines of war, to assault and burn the fortress of some -neighbour. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> still remains for some historian of the Papacy to -explain this chronic violence and vice in the centre of Christendom -during so many centuries. The trouble ended in the Pope resuming the -government of the city, and his rule was further disturbed only by one -of these popular revolts, in 1208.</p> - -<p>We do not fully appreciate the strength of Innocent unless we realize -how, while his eyes wandered over the globe, Rome itself demanded so -much attention. But he was not merely concerned with its misconduct. He -organized the work of charity in the city and did something to promote -its commerce. He built a foundling hospital, trusting to reduce the -infanticide which he found so common at Rome, and was very generous -to the churches and the clergy. From his time the Popes began to use -more and more the Palace beside St. Peter's, which he enlarged and -fortified, and he spent large sums in adorning other churches and -enhancing the splendour of the worship. But these and the other Roman -reforms I have mentioned are the mere incidents of his domestic life, -so to say. His work was the ruling of the world, and assuredly we -must recognize a mind of high quality and prodigious energy when we -read the volumes of letters that poured from the Lateran during those -eighteen years, and imagine the vast crowds that came from every part -of the world to do homage, to ask counsel, and to report the minutest -circumstances of their abbeys or bishoprics or principalities.</p> - -<p>Italy alone might have absorbed a weaker man during his earlier years. -Papal rule was acknowledged—in the manner we have seen—only in the -immediate neighbourhood of the city. Over the south and Sicily the -widow of Henry VI. ruled in the name of her child:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> in the north were -the leagues of free cities, and the isolated free cities, which had -won independence: and the whole country apart from these was falling -into the hands of the German generals whom Henry VI. had left there at -his death. Innocent, like all the Popes after Hadrian, believed in the -Donation of Constantine, to say nothing of the Donations of Pippin and -Charlemagne and Otto and Mathilda. Italy belonged almost entirely to -the Papacy, and must be recovered. Some historians hail Innocent as a -great apostle of the "Italia Una" ideal, and he sometimes presses on -particular towns "the interests of the whole of Italy." It is, however, -absurd to associate his feeling with the later ideal of Italian unity. -He cared for the unity of Italy only in the sense that the Pope was to -be its unique ruler. Those Germans—he scorns them—must be driven out. -Those free cities, always at war with each other, must be persuaded -that the Papal seal will be their best protection. Even that kingdom of -Naples and Sicily must somehow pass under Rome; in spite of the fact -that Innocent had solemnly accepted the guardianship of the young king.</p> - -<p>It is commonly said that the German generals in Italy, like Markwald -of Anweiler, were ferocious adventurers eager only to carve little -principalities for themselves out of the helpless country. This is -the partisan version left us by Innocent's anonymous biographer. They -were, with German troops, guarding the Empire for the successor of -Henry VI.; they acknowledged Philip of Swabia; and Innocent was at a -later date "warned" by an influential group of German prelates and -nobles not to interfere with them. But Innocent had several advantages. -Henry VI. had treated Italy with barbarity, and numbers of cities -threw off the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> German yoke when he died; on the other hand, Markwald -and his colleagues were under standing sentence of excommunication -for occupying Papal fiefs like Tuscany. Innocent began by sending men -and money to the revolted cities, and inviting them to put themselves -under Rome's sacred banner. He travelled through central Italy in 1198, -and received the allegiance of many towns. Markwald, the chief enemy, -was driven to the south, and Innocent pressed the southerners to rise -against him.</p> - -<p>Here the Pope had the familiar advantage of Papal policy—a woman on -the throne—and he made a use of it that cannot very well be defended. -Henry's Norman widow, Constance, was not unwilling to break her -connection with Germany, and she seems to have had little appreciation -of the political meaning of making Sicily a fief of the Roman See. She -was very ill and distracted, and no doubt felt that she was consulting -the interest of her son in putting him and the kingdom (of Sicily and -Naples) under Papal charge. She did indeed hesitate when Innocent -told her the price of his protection. Sicily was to sacrifice all the -privileges which William I. had wrung from the Papacy, to pay an annual -tribute to Rome, and to render feudal service whenever required.<a name="FNanchor_239_239" id="FNanchor_239_239"></a><a href="#Footnote_239_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a> -But Constance was forced to yield, and she died soon afterwards -(November 27, 1198), appointing Innocent the guardian of her son and -allotting him an annual fee of thirty thousand gold pieces.</p> - -<p>Innocent accepted the guardianship of Frederic, and historians comment -severely on his next step. In spite of all his fiery letters to the -southern clergy and people—even to the Saracens<a name="FNanchor_240_240" id="FNanchor_240_240"></a><a href="#Footnote_240_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a>—inciting them to -resist<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> the Germans, Markwald made considerable progress. Then there -came to Rome a certain French adventurer named Walter de Brienne, who -had married a daughter of Tancred of Sicily. Tancred had, on resigning -Sicily, retained Lecce and Tarentum, and Walter claimed these as his -wife's inheritance. Whether or no Innocent had actually promoted -the marriage and invited Walter to Italy<a name="FNanchor_241_241" id="FNanchor_241_241"></a><a href="#Footnote_241_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a> we cannot confidently -say, but it was assuredly dangerous to let such a man get a footing -in southern Italy; it was probable enough that he would eventually -claim the whole kingdom taken from Tancred. However Innocent blessed -and financed his enterprise, on the formal condition that he would -respect the rights of Frederic, and soon had a French troop waging more -effective war upon the Germans. The struggle ceased with the death of -Markwald in 1202, and of Walter in 1205, and Innocent then pressed a -design of marrying the young Frederic to Constanza of Aragon. For the -time Frederic's rights were respected, but there can be no doubt that -these early years spent amidst intrigue and treachery contributed to -the development of his anti-clerical spirit.</p> - -<p>There was, in fact, a good deal of anti-clericalism growing in Italy. -The development of civic and communal life and the comparative -enlightenment which was spreading turned many critical eyes on the -Roman system. Heresy descended the Alps and found favour in the free -cities; even, at times, in Papal cities. I have described how Viterbo -was crushed by the Roman troops. Innocent intervened in its favour, -after its defeat, and he was then outraged to learn that Viterbo was, -like many other cities, appointing heretics (the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> Cathari) to high -places. He spent the summer of 1207 in Viterbo, and enforced very -stringent rules for the repression of heresy. These laws were extended -to all the Papal dominions, but we shall see the Pope's attitude -more clearly when we deal with the crusade against the Albigensians. -Innocent was not less emphatic in denouncing the incessant wars of -the rival cities, and his correspondence is largely occupied with his -endeavours to secure their feudal allegiance to Rome.</p> - -<p>A graver problem, in the solution of which his character is often -obscured, was presented by the struggle of Ghibellines (or followers -of Philip of Swabia) and Guelphs (supporters of Otto of Brunswick) -for the imperial crown. Frederic, the son and heir of Henry, being -still a boy of tender years, his uncle Duke Philip of Swabia desired -to keep the crown securely in the Hohenstauffen family by wearing it -himself. Otto of Brunswick also made a fantastic claim to it, got -himself proclaimed Emperor at Cologne in 1198, and sought the support -of the Pope. Innocent undoubtedly favoured from the start the baseless -claim of Otto. The Papacy had come to regard the Hohenstauffens -almost as hereditary foes, and Philip actually lay under sentence of -excommunication for holding the territory bequeathed by Mathilda to the -Papacy; while Otto flattered the Pope by professions of loyalty and -docility. But Philip had the better prospect, if there was an appeal -to the sword, and Innocent refused for some years to commit himself. -He summoned Philip to surrender the Italian prisoners and the Papal -provinces taken by Henry, and sent the Bishop of Sutri to absolve him -if he complied. To his extreme annoyance the not very clear-headed -Bishop gave Philip an uncondi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>tional absolution—for which Innocent -promptly imprisoned the Bishop for life in a monastery—and thus -surrendered the Pope's chance of profiting by the situation.</p> - -<p>The rivals appealed to the sword, and Innocent bitterly complained that -Philip did not ask his arbitration.<a name="FNanchor_242_242" id="FNanchor_242_242"></a><a href="#Footnote_242_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a> He alone, he declared to the -princes and prelates of Germany, was the judge of such high causes: -to which the princes and prelates replied, in very firm and dignified -language, that they would have no Papal interference in the secular -concerns of Germany.<a name="FNanchor_243_243" id="FNanchor_243_243"></a><a href="#Footnote_243_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a> As the war proceeded, Innocent made it clear -that he favoured Otto. He warned the German prelates not to choose -an Emperor on whom he could not bestow the crown, and in a letter to -the Eastern Emperor he afterwards boasted that he alone kept Philip -from the throne. But the war went in favour of Philip, and even when, -in 1200, both men sent representatives to Rome, Innocent would not -commit himself to more than an eloquent proof that priests were exalted -above kings.<a name="FNanchor_244_244" id="FNanchor_244_244"></a><a href="#Footnote_244_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a> At the beginning of the following year, however, he -declared openly for Otto. He sent Cardinal Pierleone to Germany with -the Bull <i>Interest Apostolicć Sedis</i>, in which he drew up a violent -and unjust indictment of Philip and awarded the crown to the loyal -and virtuous Otto. The Bull is painfully casuistic, and would have -been better if it had stopped at the bold declaration that the Papacy -had created the Empire and could bestow it according to its pleasure. -While, for instance, it charges Philip with treachery to the interests -of his young nephew, it exonerates all others from the oath of fidelity -to Henry's son on the ground that an oath<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> to an unbaptized infant was -invalid.<a name="FNanchor_245_245" id="FNanchor_245_245"></a><a href="#Footnote_245_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a> The imperial crown was, in plain terms, allotted in the -interests of the Church, in defiance of the wishes of the majority of -the German nation. Otto hastened to swear that he would defend the -Papal possessions (including Sicily), and was proclaimed by a Papal -Legate in Cologne cathedral on July 3, 1201.</p> - -<p>Innocent now sent out a flood of letters on behalf of his candidate, -but the result was irritating. Philip of France roughly refused to -recognize Otto; and a letter signed by two German archbishops, ten -bishops, and other clerics and nobles, sternly rebuked the Pope for -his "audacity" in meddling with things which did not concern him.<a name="FNanchor_246_246" id="FNanchor_246_246"></a><a href="#Footnote_246_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a> -Innocent's Legates vainly scattered threats of excommunication in -Germany. Hardly a single prelate recognized Otto, and, after seven -years of the most brutal civil warfare, he was driven out of the -country. We are not impressed by the Pope's feverish protests that he -was not responsible for this desolation. In 1208, however, Philip, who -had been reconciled with Rome in the previous year, was assassinated, -and Otto, with Innocent's approval, mounted the throne. To the intense -indignation of the Pope, the new Emperor at once cast his oaths of -fidelity to the wind and told Innocent to confine himself to spiritual -matters. He annexed Tuscany and Spoleto, in spite of all the Pope's -entreaties and threats, and was about to march against Naples and -Apulia when Innocent launched against him a sentence of excommunication -and deposition. Otto was, for the time, an excellent ruler: he had -been educated in the English ideas of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> government. But he had refused -to be subservient to the clergy, and the German prelates now summoned -Frederic from Sicily. Innocent approved the election of Frederic as -easily as he had approved that of Philip and of Otto, but he did not -live to see how that Emperor in turn defied the Papacy and scorned its -political pretensions.<a name="FNanchor_247_247" id="FNanchor_247_247"></a><a href="#Footnote_247_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a></p> - -<p>Next in interest and importance were Innocent's relations with -England. With Richard the Lion-Heart the Pope maintained a friendly -correspondence, nor did he annoy the English prelates by any -inconvenient censure of the condition of the English Church. In 1199 -John Lackland succeeded his brother, and Innocent was even more -indulgent to that barbarous and unscrupulous monarch. Into the death -of Prince Arthur he made no indiscreet inquiry; he confirmed the -dissolution of John's marriage, and, for his shameful theft of the love -of the betrothed of the Count de la Marche, imposed on him only the -light and useful penance of a general confession and the equipment of a -hundred knights for Palestinian service. During the war which followed -he made earnest efforts to mediate, though even these were at times -marred by his temporizing policy and his determination not to alienate -the kings. When the bishops of Normandy, after the capture of that -province by Philip, asked him how they were to adjust their allegiance, -he weakly replied that Philip seemed to rely on some claim which he -could not understand and they must judge for themselves.<a name="FNanchor_248_248" id="FNanchor_248_248"></a><a href="#Footnote_248_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> At length -a famous quarrel about the archbishopric of Canterbury<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> drew him into a -stern and triumphant conflict with John.</p> - -<p>The Archbishop, a worldly-minded courtier of the familiar type, died in -1205, and the Canterbury monks, who claimed the right of nomination, -met hastily, by night, without awaiting the royal license to proceed to -an election, and nominated their sub-prior Reginald. They sent Reginald -at once to Rome, enjoining on him the strictest secrecy until he was -consecrated, but the monk made a parade of his high condition as soon -as he reached the continent and there was great indignation in England. -The Chapter, which disputed the arrogant claim of the monks, elected -the Bishop of Norwich, and many of the monks, alarmed at their action -or disgusted with their sub-prior, joined in the election. Sixteen -monks accompanied the second deputation to Rome, and they supported the -declaration of the Court and the Church that Reginald's election was -invalid. As, however, the Bishop of Norwich was one of the indulgent -prelates, Innocent casuistically annulled both elections and imposed -Stephen Langton on the English. John furiously protested that the Pope -had insulted his state and threatened to withdraw the English Church -from his jurisdiction; shrewdly reminding the Pope that he received -more money from England than from any other country.</p> - -<p>John seems to have misunderstood the earlier complaisance of the Pope. -Innocent was not the man to yield to a threat of financial loss, and -he at once consecrated Langton and laid England under an interdict. -For some years the affrighted people saw the doors of their churches -closed against them and imagined the jaws of a medićval hell gaping -wide for their souls. There was no Christian marriage for their sons -and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> daughters, no Christian burial for their aged; and only to dying -persons could the consoling sacrament be administered. In his fury -John drove priests and prelates out of his kingdom, but his cruel -and extortionate government had lost him the compensating strength -of the affection of his people. In 1211 he was forced to seek terms, -and a Papal Legate reached England. Between the arrogance of Legate -Pandolpho and the passion of the King the negotiation failed, and -John was deposed by the Pope. England, Rome repeated, had been a fief -of the Apostolic See since William the Conqueror; it was now open to -any Christian monarch to invade and possess it. This was a direct -invitation to Philip of France to renew those horrors of warfare -which Innocent had so eloquently denounced,<a name="FNanchor_249_249" id="FNanchor_249_249"></a><a href="#Footnote_249_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> and, to the intense -mortification of the French King, John abjectly submitted (1213). He -even handed to the proud Legate a solemn declaration that England -and Ireland were fiefs of the Apostolic See, and that he would pay -a thousand marks a year for vassalage. The clergy were recalled and -compensated, the interdict was raised, and Legate Pandolpho stalked the -land with the insufferable air of a conqueror.</p> - -<p>If, however, this conflict gives an honourable prominence to the -sterner qualities of Innocent, its sequel no less illustrates the -weakness which seemed inseparable from the Papal policy, even when it -was embodied in a lofty character. Pandolpho behaved so wantonly in -resettling the clergy that he presently fell foul of the high-minded -Langton: John behaved with a ferocity which drove nobles and commoners -to the step of rebellion. Yet Innocent maintained his mischievous -Legate against Langton, and laid a Papal malediction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> on the just -aspirations of the people. He rebuked the barons for their "nefarious -presumption" in taking arms against a vassal of the Roman See; he -denounced Magna Charta as a devil-inspired document, and forbade "his -vassal" to accede to its unjust demands. He excommunicated the barons -when they refused to lay down their arms, and suspended Langton when -that prelate refused, on the ground that it was dictated by false -representations, to promulgate his sentence. When the barons offered -the crown to Louis, son of Philip of France, he issued an anathema -against Louis; and in 1216 he issued a sentence of excommunication -against Philip himself for encouraging his son. He died before his -sombre use of his spiritual weapons, in a carnal cause, was completed. -He had, within ten years, raised Papal power in England to its supreme -height and then dealt it a blow from which it would never recover. It -is futile to plead that he was ill informed on the situation. He knew -John, and he knew Langton; he ought to have known Pandolpho. In point -of fact, there is no reason to think that he was radically misinformed. -His whole action is plainly inspired by the interest, as he conceived -it, of the Papacy.<a name="FNanchor_250_250" id="FNanchor_250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_250_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a></p> - -<p>I must dismiss very briefly his relations with other Christian -countries. Philip of France had, like John of England, discarded his -wife and married a woman he loved. But the Papal microscope refused, -in his case, to discover the remote affinity which, Philip said, made -his first marriage void, and an interdict was laid on his kingdom. The -terrified priests and people tore Philip from the arms of Agnes de -Meran, the mother of three of his children, and forced him to submit.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> -Only under the later pressure of his conflicts with Otto and John did -Innocent discover that there was sufficient <i>prima facie</i> evidence -to spend several years in negotiation about a divorce, and, by an -extraordinary use of his high powers, he declared the children of Agnes -legitimate.</p> - -<p>In Spain and Portugal, Innocent found irregular marriages almost as -numerous as regular, and his interventions show the same unedifying -mixture of priestly rigour and political compromise. Sacerdotal -legislation had by this time surrounded marriage with a portentous -series of obstacles—forbidden degrees of spiritual and carnal -affinity—which sacerdotal power alone could remove, yet the isolated -princes of the Peninsula were compelled to marry constantly into each -other's families and did not always ask the costly blessing of the -Papacy. That this legislation did not improve the sex-morals of Europe, -which were at least no better than they had been in pagan times, is -well known. Spain was particularly lax, having contracted the gaiety of -neighbouring Provence, and her kings may have felt that where unwedded -love was so genially tolerated, these academic restraints on wedded -love might be disregarded.</p> - -<p>Innocent placed the kingdoms of Leon and Castile under an interdict -because the King of Leon had married his cousin, Berengaria of Castile, -and, when the court of Leon ignored his censures, he predicted that -there would be a horrible issue of the unhallowed union. Its first -fruit was St. Ferdinand; but Berengaria nervously retired after a -few years and left the King to bear his excommunication with Spanish -dignity. The King of Castile soon obtained the removal of the -interdict, on the ground that it favoured the growth of heresy, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> -he was then threatened with excommunication because he permitted the -Jews to become rich while the Church was poor. Pedro of Aragon was more -fortunate. In the course of a journey to Rome he married the wife of -the Count de Comminges, and the Pope at once accepted her assurance -that the Count had two wives living when he married her, and blessed -the union. Pedro, it should be added, swore fealty and an annual -subsidy of two hundred gold pieces to the Pope. The King of Navarre -incurred an interdict for allying himself with the Moors. All that one -can seriously put to the credit of Innocent is that he greatly aided -the unification of Spain by spurring its kings to a common crusade -against the Moors; if we may assume that the crusade favoured the -progress of civilization in the country. Sancho of Portugal also felt, -and disdained, the touch of the Papal whip. When Innocent complained of -his oppression of the clergy, he threatened—in a letter which Innocent -describes as the most insolent ever written to a Pope—to strip his -corrupt priests of all their wealth. Innocent at once temporized, but a -dangerous illness and fit of repentance soon put Sancho and the kingdom -of Portugal at his feet. At his death Sancho left the kingdom wholly -subject to Rome and the clergy, though it was not many years before the -quarrels of his children again drew upon it the spiritual blight of an -interdict.</p> - -<p>It would be tedious to describe in detail all the similar interventions -of the Pope in other countries. He refused to let Marie of Brabant -marry the Emperor Otto, and refused to dissolve the marriage of the -King of Bohemia; indeed, he sternly rebuked the King of Bohemia for -receiving his crown at the hands of Philip of Swabia. In Hungary he -scolded Prince Endre for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> rebelling against his brother, and he raised -Bulgaria to the rank of a kingdom, on condition that it recognized -Roman supremacy. He claimed, in a word, to be the king of kings, the -temporal as well as religious master of Europe. But we shall more -clearly appreciate the qualities of his character and shades of his -standard of action if we examine more fully his connection with the -Fourth Crusade and the crusade against heresy.</p> - -<p>Tripoli, Antioch, and a few small Palestinian towns were all that -remained of the European conquests from the Saracen, and Innocent's -constant correspondence with the Christian prelates who lingered in the -East made him eager, from the beginning of his Pontificate, to inspire -Europe to make one more grand attempt to rescue the holy places. For -several years he sought, by letters and Legates, to fire the Christian -princes, to divert the swords of France and England to the breast of -the Mohammedan, and to melt the cold calculations of Venice. But the -memory of the last colossal failure—of all the blood and treasure -that had been expended on the stubborn task—was too fresh in Europe. -In vain he promised, to all who took the cross, a sure entry into -Paradise, and hinted not obscurely at the damnation which awaited -those who refused. Thin bands of zealots responded to the call, and a -larger multitude were induced to take the cross by Innocent's princely -declaration that the earthly debts of all who joined the Crusade would -be cancelled, and the Jews would be forced to forswear their legitimate -interest. The knights of Europe, to his fiery indignation, still wasted -their spears on each other, or continued the more pleasant pastimes of -the chase and the tournament. Innocent, in a flood of eloquent letters, -taxed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> the clergy, confiscated the funds of erratic monks, and forbade -the lay nobles to wear costly furs or eat costly dinners or indulge in -tournaments. There were murmurs that the Christians of the East needed -no aid, since they were on excellent terms with the Saracens, as the -Pope was painfully aware; and that the only sure effect of Crusades -was to increase the power and the wealth of the Papacy which organized -them. Even the clergy and the monks refused the subsidies he demanded, -and he was compelled to sanction a practice which would in time prove -the most terrible and destructive abuse of the medićval Papacy: the -penance imposed on confessing sinners was to take the form of a -money-contribution. To this day the indulgences which are sold in Spain -trace their origin to the Crusades, as the printed <i>bula</i> declares.</p> - -<p>At length, in the year 1200, Baldwin of Flanders and a few bishops and -nobles formed the nucleus of a Crusade, and the astute Venetians were -invited to provide for the transport of an army. In the spring of 1202 -the streams of soldiers and priests converged upon Venice, and an army -of 23,000 assembled for the fourth assault on the Saracens. But the -Pope's joy was soon overcast, and the Crusade proved to be the second -most lamentable occurrence of his Pontificate.</p> - -<p>When the army assembled near Venice, it was discovered that neither -the soldiers nor the Pope had money enough to pay their passage to -the East. Venice had by that time fully developed its hard commercial -spirit, and its famous blind Doge proposed to remit the debt if -the Crusaders would, on their way, retake Zara (in Dalmatia) from -the Hungarians for the Venetians. Innocent made the most violent -opposition, but the Venetians, disdaining his threats, compelled the -im<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>poverished soldiers to consent, and on October 8th they set sail, -under threat of excommunication, to begin their Crusade by the shedding -of Christian blood. They took Zara, and incurred excommunication; but -Innocent could not reconcile himself to the complete failure of his -grand plan. He withdrew the censures they had so flagrantly defied, and -admitted, or stated, that they had acted under "a sort of necessity." -They were to make some vague "satisfaction" for their misdeed, and -push on, with clean souls, to the East. The Venetians alone were -not relieved of the censure, but, though knights of a more tender -conscience were painfully perplexed to find themselves in the same -galleys with excommunicated men, the Venetians showed no concern. They -had another check in reserve for the Pope.</p> - -<p>Before they left Italy, Alexis Comnenus had arrived from Constantinople -to ask their aid in restoring his father to the throne he had just -lost, and they were disposed to assist him. One could not, of course, -expect the Pope to show the same concern for the blood of schismatics -as for the blood of the Hungarians, yet his consent to this fatal and -lamentable enterprise is a stain on his record. The sordid squabble of -the Comneni family did not deserve the sacrifice of a single knight, -and the part of Isaac Comnenus was espoused by the Crusaders and the -Pope only because the young Alexis promised money and provisions to the -troops and the subjection of the Greek Church to the Lateran. The issue -is well known. The Crusaders took Constantinople, sacked the city, and -desecrated the churches with a brutality that must have shocked the -Saracens; and they then settled down to divide its territory between -themselves and the Venetians. The letters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> which Innocent sent, as -the successive news arrived, are painful reading. He must blame their -excesses, he says at first, but, after all, these outrages had been -merited by the sins of the Greeks; let the Crusaders inform him that -the submission of the Greek Church has been secured. At last they send -him, for his confirmation, a treaty from which he learns that they -have arranged all the affairs, spiritual as well as secular, of the -new Empire without consulting him, and he writes more warmly. To the -outrage they have committed he is still almost insensible; it is their -audacity in ruling the new Church—in permitting the hated Venetians to -select a Patriarch—which excites his anger.</p> - -<p>The last phase of the enterprise caused him grave distress. Instead of -proceeding to the East, the Latins set up an Empire and several petty -princedoms, and the Greeks disdainfully watched their quarrels and -awaited their own opportunity. Monks and priests were summoned from -France, but the people were secretly wedded to their old religion and -the new Church was a hollow sham. For years Innocent had to maintain -a fretful correspondence, settling quarrels about jurisdiction -and property, and scolding his Crusaders for their oppression and -spoliation of the clergy. But it is needless to recount all the details -of that historic failure. The weariness of Innocent may be appreciated -from the fact that in 1213 he naďvely wrote to the Khalipha himself, -beseeching him "in all humility" to restore to the Christians the land -which they had not the courage or the interest to win by the sword.</p> - -<p>The crusade against the Albigensians was more successful, and even -more lamentable, and I need do no more here than elucidate Innocent's -relation to that monstrous crime. The degradation of morals and of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> -religious practice, the corruption of the clergy, and the stupendous -claims of the Papacy, had already provoked in Europe the beginnings -of protest. A somewhat modified form of Christianity's old rival, -Manichćism, had lingered in the East and had in time mingled with the -austere Christianity of the Pauline Epistles. From the Eastern Empire -it had spread to Bulgaria, and from there, in the thirteenth century, -it passed rapidly over Europe, assimilating all the anti-clerical and -anti-ritualist feeling which the corruption of the time inspired. In -one or other form it obtained considerable strength in Switzerland, -Piedmont, and the south of France, and it was fast gathering recruits -in Italy and Spain. The light-living princes of Languedoc had little -inclination to persecute; nor would they think that, if one might -sing ribald contempt of the ecclesiastical system in the tavern and -the monastery, this disdain was less respectable in the mouths of a -generally sincere and upright body of fanatics.</p> - -<p>In the first year of his Pontificate Innocent sent two Cistercian -monks, Guy and Renier, to convert the heretics and incite the civil -and religious authorities to enforce the law. Of corporal persecution -he assuredly did not dream at that time, and indeed his letters made -it clear that he preferred persuasion to coercion of any kind. The -monks failed either to convert the heretics or to induce the bishops -and princes of the south of France to persecute (by confiscation and -exile), and they were replaced by the more vigorous monk-legates, -Pierre de Castelnau and Raoul, to whom the resolute Abbot Arnold of -Citeaux was afterwards added. Their powers set aside all ordinary -episcopal jurisdiction, and, in pursuance of their policy of displacing -lax and reluctant prelates, they put the fanatical Foulques<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> of -Marseilles in the bishopric of Toulouse. For eight years these -energetic apostles worked almost in vain among the heretics. Apparently -at the suggestion of St. Dominic, who was just entering the history of -Europe, the Pope directed them to raise a corps of Cistercian monks who -should live and preach on the model of the coming mendicant friars, -but even this device made little impression on the heretics or the -light-living Catholics. Arnold and Foulques, in particular, became -desperate, and the lamentable policy of persecution began to grow in -their minds and that of the Pope.</p> - -<p>The principle of persecution had, as we saw, been established in the -Lateran centuries before, and the only thing that restrained Innocent -from applying it, in its bloodless form, was the refusal of the secular -rulers to co-operate. Raymond of Toulouse was too healthily Epicurean -to favour either the sombre creed of the heretics or the more sombre -creed of the persecutor. Apologetic writers speak with horror of the -number of his wives and fair friends, but we do not find that his -conduct in this regard, or the similar conduct of other princes and -prelates, attracted the attention of the Pope. When, however, he -slighted a sentence of excommunication and still refused to persecute -his excellent but unorthodox subjects, he received a withering -letter.<a name="FNanchor_251_251" id="FNanchor_251_251"></a><a href="#Footnote_251_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a> "Who does he think he is?" the Pope asks scornfully, -to disobey one before whom the greatest monarchs of the earth bow. -Let him cease to "feed on corpses like a vulture"—to break a lance -with his neighbours—and obey the Legates, or the Pope will invite a -more powerful prince to displace him. As early as November 17, 1207, -Innocent bade the King<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> of France, the Duke of Burgundy, and other -nobles, prepare for an expedition to Toulouse; and the privileges of -Crusaders were promised to all who joined it.</p> - -<p>Raymond was more moved by the political threat than by the spiritual -censures, but there was sullen anger amongst his followers, and on -January 15, 1208, the Legate Pierre de Castelnau was assassinated. -There is not a tittle of evidence to incriminate Raymond, and it is in -the highest degree improbable that he would thus open the gates to his -greedy neighbours, but Innocent chose to believe that he had directed -the murder. Without trial, he declared that Raymond had forfeited the -allegiance of his subjects, and his dominions might be seized by any -Christian prince. He spurred Philip of France—who must have been -flattered to find himself now described as "exalted amongst all others -by God"—to the attack.<a name="FNanchor_252_252" id="FNanchor_252_252"></a><a href="#Footnote_252_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a> He addressed a fiery summons to "all -the nobles and people of France" to "avenge this terrible insult to -God."<a name="FNanchor_253_253" id="FNanchor_253_253"></a><a href="#Footnote_253_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a> Philip wanted Toulouse, but he overreached himself in making -terms and he dreaded England. There were, however, plenty of nobles -willing to lead their men to the plunder of prosperous Provence, and -the clergy had become seriously alarmed at the spread of the heresy in -France. A vast army, joyous at the rich prospect of loot, converged -upon the southern State. Innocent III. knew better than we know the -forces he had set in motion. The end sanctified the means.</p> - -<p>The next phase was pitiful: the issue is one of the most horrible pages -of medićval history. Raymond sent representatives to Rome to offer -submission, and the Pope and his Legates were embarrassed and be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>haved -abominably. When Raymond justly complained of the bitterness of Arnold -of Citeaux, the Pope sent a peaceful notary from the Lateran; giving -the man secret instructions to take no step without the directions -of Arnold, who was to be in the background, and writing to Arnold -that this Legate Milo is to be only "the bait to conceal the hook of -thy sagacity." Arnold, meanwhile, went to organize the crusade, for -they intended to impose on Raymond terms which seemed impossible. The -helpless Raymond licked the dust: he was stripped and scourged, he had -to surrender seven of his chief castles as hostages, and he was forced -to promise to lead the troops against his own subjects. Innocent sank -deeper into his awful policy. In an amazing letter to his Legates<a name="FNanchor_254_254" id="FNanchor_254_254"></a><a href="#Footnote_254_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a> -he reminded them of the words of Paul (II. Corinthians, xii., 16); -"Being crafty, I caught you with guile." They were to affect to regard -the repentance of Raymond as sincere, and, "deceiving him by prudent -dissimulation, pass to the extirpation of the other heretics." In -other words, they were to crush Raymond's chief nobles and then, if -he winced, crush him. Raymond did not wince, yet the army, with Abbot -Arnold as Captain General, moved southward to that historic butchery of -the Albigensians.</p> - -<p>The modern plea that Innocent could not arrest the avalanche is as -wanton as the idea that he was moved by "social considerations." A -sentence of excommunication, promulgated by Arnold of Citeaux, would -have reduced the army to impotent proportions. Innocent would not -disappoint Arnold and Foulques, and those who had responded to his -summons; and he felt more sure of success this way. After the first two -months of butchery and seizure of cities, he sent his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> blessing to the -ambitious de Montfort. He was, however, superior to his Legates. The -ferocious Arnold made every effort to goad Raymond to rebellion, and at -last excommunicated him again on the plea that he had not fulfilled his -promises. Innocent tried—rather tamely—to restrain Arnold, refused to -confiscate Raymond's castles (as Arnold demanded) until he had a just -trial, and received him courteously at Rome. At last, utterly revolted -by the baseness of the Legates, Raymond winced. He was denounced to -Rome, was confronted with terms which no man with a spark of honour -could accept, and, when he refused, was excommunicated: the Pope -confirming the sentence. Raymond's dominions were transferred to "the -Blessed Peter," and de Montfort was to levy an annual tax—on which -Innocent is painfully insistent—for the Papacy.</p> - -<p>Two years butchery of men, women, and children had not yet broken the -spirit of the Albigensians, and at the beginning of 1213, the Legates -and Simon were dismayed to hear from Innocent that the crusade was -over, and the troops had better proceed against the Saracens; that -Raymond had not yet been legally convicted of heresy and murder, and -had not therefore forfeited his fief; that, in any case, Raymond's -sons, rather than Simon de Montfort, were his natural successors. Two -Bulls (January 17 and 18, 1213) and four letters in quick succession -apprised the miserable group that Innocent—largely owing to the -intervention of Pedro of Aragon—at length appreciated their misconduct -or had the courage to consult his better feelings. Unhappily, his -courage did not last long. They stormed Rome with their remonstrances, -and Innocent yielded. As, moreover, the King of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> Aragon failed in -his attempt to reduce them by arms, the cause of Raymond was utterly -lost and his territory was made over to Rome. To the end Innocent -wavered between his more humane feeling and the policy he had so -long countenanced. He refused to confirm the appointment of Simon as -sovereign (under Rome) of the whole territory, and when Arnold (who was -now Archbishop of Narbonne) quarrelled with Simon over the title of -Duke of Narbonne, he supported Arnold. At the Lateran Council, which -was to decide the issue, he made a plea for leniency to Raymond and -justice to his heirs, but he yielded to the truculent priests, and the -unhappy prince was cast aside with an annual pension of four hundred -marks. Innocent did not live to see the arrogant Arnold excommunicate -de Montfort, and the two Raymonds return and win back much of their -estate.</p> - -<p><i>Causa causć est causa causati</i>, the schoolmen used to say. The Pope -who maintained Arnold of Citeaux, Foulques of Marseilles, and Simon de -Montfort in their positions when their characters were fully revealed, -and the whole of Europe knew the atrocities they committed, bears the -guilt of the massacre of the Albigensians.</p> - -<p>The fourth Lateran Council was his last work, and one of the most -important Councils of the Middle Ages. He summoned all the bishops, -abbots, and priors of Christendom to come, on November 1, 1215, to -discuss the reform of the Church, the suppression of heresy, and the -recovery of Palestine. A vast audience listened to his opening sermon -on November 11th, and for nineteen days they framed laws against -heretics, Jews, and schismatics: vainly thundered against the vice, -sensuality, and rapacity of the clergy: reduced the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> forbidden degrees -of kindred (in marriage) to four—since there were only four humours in -the body: imposed on all Christians a duty of confessing at least once -a year: and fixed the next Crusade for June 1, 1216. But Innocent, if -he marked with pride the contrast of that gorgeous assemblage to the -little group of Christians who had met in an inn in the Transtiberina -a thousand years earlier, cannot have been content. Not a single -Greek had responded to his summons: grave murmurs at his hard policy -and despotic action arose in the Council itself: half the prelates, -at least, were unfit to impose reforming measures on their priests: -and the ghastly mockery of his last Crusade gave little hope for the -future. He did not even appreciate the new forces for good which were -rising. He had coldly received, if not actually discouraged, Dominic -and Francis. His ideal was power: of love he knew nothing. He flung -himself ardently into the preparation for the new war on the Saracens, -and died, on June 16, 1216, with the call to arms on his lips. He -sacrificed himself nobly in the interest of his high ideal, and was one -of the greatest makers of the Papacy, but he sacrificed also much that -men inalienably prize, and he began the unmaking of the Papacy.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_237_237" id="Footnote_237_237"></a><a href="#FNanchor_237_237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> The clergy were to be free to elect their bishop, -though in Germany the election had to take place in the presence of -the Emperor or his representatives; this was a virtual retention of -the imperial veto. Investiture with ring and crozier was replaced by a -touch with the royal sceptre.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_238_238" id="Footnote_238_238"></a><a href="#FNanchor_238_238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> Fortunately, his work is little complicated by dispute, -since his letters are so abundant. There is a contemporary life or -panegyric (<i>Gesta Innocentii Tertii</i>), but it must be read with -caution. Of modern biographies the great work of Achille Luchaire (6 -vols., 1904-8) has superseded all others; though, as it scarcely ever -indicates its authorities, the less discriminating work of Hurter -is still useful. In English there is a good, but rather affected, -sketch by C.H.C. Pirie-Gordon, <i>Innocent the Great</i> (1907). Milman is -particularly good on Innocent III.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_239_239" id="Footnote_239_239"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239_239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, i., 410.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_240_240" id="Footnote_240_240"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240_240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> ii., 226.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_241_241" id="Footnote_241_241"></a><a href="#FNanchor_241_241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> This is affirmed in the contemporary <i>Chronique d'Ernoul -et de Bernard le Trésorier</i>, ch. xxx.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_242_242" id="Footnote_242_242"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242_242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, ii., in the Register, "On the Affairs of the -Empire": Migne, col. ccxvi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_243_243" id="Footnote_243_243"></a><a href="#FNanchor_243_243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, xiv.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_244_244" id="Footnote_244_244"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244_244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> Xviii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_245_245" id="Footnote_245_245"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245_245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> The <i>Deliberatio</i>, or essential part of the Bull, is -given in Migne's "Register of Imperial Concerns," no. xxix. See also -the decretal <i>Venerabilem Fratrem</i>, no. lxii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_246_246" id="Footnote_246_246"></a><a href="#FNanchor_246_246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> Lxi.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_247_247" id="Footnote_247_247"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247_247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> See R. Schwemer, <i>Innocenz III. und die Deutsche Kirche -während des Thronstreites von 1198-1208</i> (1882), and E. Englemann, -<i>Phillip von Schwaben und Innocenz III.</i> (1896).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_248_248" id="Footnote_248_248"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248_248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, viii., 7.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_249_249" id="Footnote_249_249"></a><a href="#FNanchor_249_249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i>, vi., 163.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_250_250" id="Footnote_250_250"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250_250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> See E. Gütschow, <i>Innocenz III. und England</i> (1904).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_251_251" id="Footnote_251_251"></a><a href="#FNanchor_251_251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> X., 69.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_252_252" id="Footnote_252_252"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252_252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> Xi., 28.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_253_253" id="Footnote_253_253"></a><a href="#FNanchor_253_253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> Xi., 29.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_254_254" id="Footnote_254_254"></a><a href="#FNanchor_254_254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> Xi., 232.</p></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></p> - -<p class="center">JOHN XXII.: THE COURT AT AVIGNON</p> - - -<p class="drop">I<span class="uppercase">n</span> maintaining that the power of the Papacy waned after the Pontificate -of Innocent III., I do not mean that there was such visible decay as -even the most acute contemporary observer might have detected. The -thirteenth century must have seemed to the statesmen of the time to -strengthen the Papacy. The Dominican and Franciscan friars, quickly -recognized by Innocent's successors, impressed on Europe the duty of -implicit obedience. The great canonists began to make an imposing -body of law out of the decrees of the Popes. Art developed in close -association with religious sentiment. The hereditary feud with the -Hohenstauffens ended, fifty years after the death of Innocent, with -the complete overthrow of the son and grandson of Frederic II. Yet -most historians now recognize that the thirteenth century was, for the -Papacy, a period of slow and subtle decay. The mighty struggle with -Frederic, Manfred, and Conradin exhausted the high-minded, but not -heroic, successors of Innocent, and it ended only when, by summoning -Philip of Anjou, they substituted French for German predominance and -inaugurated another exacting period of conflict. The alternative was a -period of comparative impotence and flabby parasitism. Into this the -Papacy passed;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> and, unfortunately for it, the degeneration occurred -just when the eyes of Europe were growing sharper. It was the date of -the early renaissance of culture, inspired by the Moors: it was a rich -period of civic development and prosperity: it was the time when castes -of keen-eyed lay lawyers and scholars were growing. Arms were yielding -to togas in the work of restricting the growth of the Papacy.</p> - -<p>Boniface VIII. (1294-1303) is the last great representative of the -Papal ideal in its earlier and more austere medićval form. His Bull -<i>Clericis laicos</i> (1296) which declared all clerical and monastic -property in the world to be under his protection and sternly bade -secular rulers respect it, was one of the last Olympic fulminations; -and it was defeated by England and France. Then, in 1300, he declared -the Jubilee; and some historians see in that prostration of Christendom -at the feet of the Papacy the last notable expression of its -world-power. Men said at the time—I am not pressing it as fact—that -Boniface was so exalted by the spectacle that he put on the imperial -crown and sandals. No one questions that the Papacy decayed from that -year. Under the banner of Papal absolutism Boniface made war on the -great Ghibelline family of the Colonnas, and on Philip the Fair and his -lawyers, and he ignominiously fell. The blameless and gentle Dominican, -Benedict XI., who succeeded him, could not sustain for more than a -few months the struggle he had inherited, and the Gascon Clement V. -then inaugurated what has been too forcibly called "the Babylonian -Captivity."</p> - -<p>After a secret compact with Philip, after a complete sacrifice of -his ideals, and after the distribution of much French gold among -the cardinals, he obtained the tiara (1305). In 1309 he settled at -Avignon, basely surren<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>dered the Templars (after an appalling travesty -of justice) to the cupidity of the King, and settled down, in the -company of his sister and niece and dear friend the Countess of -Talleyrand-Périgord, to a life of sensuous luxury and the accumulation -of wealth. He died on March 12, 1314, leaving 1,078,800 florins (about -Ł500,000) nearly the whole of which went to his family and friends, and -the cardinals gathered anxiously to choose his successor.</p> - -<p>Clement had died near Carpentras, about fifteen miles from Avignon, and -the cardinals met in the episcopal palace of that town. The austere -Gregory X. had decreed in 1274 that the cardinal electors should be -walled into their chamber (or Conclave) until they had chosen a Pope, -and the twenty-three princes of the Church prepared for a desperate -encounter in their isolated quarters. There were six Italians, eager to -tell a pitiful story of the ruin of Rome and the patrimonies because of -the absence of the Pope from Italy. But there were nine Gascons—three -of them nephews of Clement, all creatures of Clement—and, as two -of the eight French cardinals supported the Gascons, they made a -formidable majority and demanded an Avignon Pope: in fact, a Gascon -Pope. Day followed day in angry discussion, and the cries of the -infuriated followers of the Gascon cardinals without grew louder and -louder. At last, on July 23d, there came a thundering on the doors, and -the terrified cardinals, breaking through the wall, fled from the town -and dispersed. For two years, to the grave scandal of Christendom, they -refused to agree on a place of meeting, until at last Philip of Valois -enticed them to Lyons, entrapped them into a monastery, and told them -that they were prisoners until they made a Pope.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> - -<p>Under these auspices Jacques de Cahors, Cardinal of Porto, became John -XXII. He was a little, dry, bilious old man of seventy-two: but an able -lawyer and administrator, and a man of wonderful vigour for his age. -In his case the more careful research of modern times and the opening -of the Vatican Archives have tended to give him, in some respects, a -more honourable position in history than he had hitherto occupied. The -reader will hardly find him morally and spiritually attractive, but he -had a remarkable and powerful personality, and he achieved more than -has been supposed. His "Register" in the Vatican Archives contains -65,000 letters. Most of these are very brief notes written by the Papal -clerks, but there are many of interest and they enable us at times to -correct the anecdotists of his age. He had virulent enemies, and they -must be read with reserve.<a name="FNanchor_255_255" id="FNanchor_255_255"></a><a href="#Footnote_255_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a></p> - -<p>Jacques d'Euse, of Cahors, is said by unfriendly writers of the time -to have been the son of a cobbler (or, according to others, a tailor). -As he had relatives in good positions, and received a good schooling, -this is probably a legend. But his early life is obscure. He studied -under the Dominicans of Cahors, and then attended the lectures at -Montpellier and at Paris. The story of Ferretti di Vicenza, that he -went with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> trading uncle to Naples and became tutor to the sons of -Charles II., does not harmonize with these facts, and we must therefore -reject the further charge that he obtained his bishopric by forging a -letter in the name of Charles. He seems rather to have taught civil law -for a long period at Cahors, and then at Toulouse, where he earned the -friendship of the Bishop, St. Louis, and was thus brought to the notice -and favour of the Bishop's father, the King of Naples. Charles secured -the bishopric of Fréjus for him in 1300, and made him his Chancellor in -1307. When Charles died, his son Robert continued the patronage and got -for him the bishopric of Avignon. Clement V. found him a useful man and -pliant lawyer. It was he who did the most accommodating research for -Clement in the suppression of the Templars, and he was rewarded with a -red hat in 1312. He was a sober man, liking good solid fare and regular -ways, and kept his energy and ambition in his eighth decade of life.</p> - -<p>Robert of Naples pressed his candidature for the Papacy when Clement -died, and the Gascons adopted him. He won the vote of Cardinal -Orsini—this statement of his critics is confirmed by later events—by -professing a most determined intention to transfer the Papacy to Rome. -The anecdotists say that he swore never to mount a horse until he was -established at the Lateran; and, after a gorgeous coronation-ceremony -at Lyons on September 5th, he at once proceeded <i>by boat</i> to Avignon. -The Italian cardinals left him in disgust, and he promptly promoted -ten new cardinals, of whom nine were French (and three, including -his nephew, from Cahors). Of his later seventeen cardinals, thirteen -were French, three Italian, and one Spanish. The Papacy was fixed at -Avignon.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> - -<p>The little town which Clement had chosen as the seat of the Papacy -had the advantage, in John's eyes, of being separated from Philip's -territory by the Rhone and being under the suzerainty of Robert of -Naples. It was still a small, poorly built town. Clement had found the -Dominican monastery large enough for his Epicurean establishment. John -returned at first to his old episcopal palace, but the great rock on -which the Papal Palace now stands soon inspired his ambition and he -began assiduously to nurse the Papal income. Much of Clement's money -had been removed and stored by his clever and unscrupulous nephew, the -Viscount Bertrand de Goth, who would not easily disgorge it. After -a time John asserted his spiritual power, and summoned the Viscount -to present an account. Three times the noble ignored his summons, -and then, when John was about to proceed against him, he judiciously -distributed some of the money among the cardinals and had the case -postponed. At length he rode boldly into Avignon to give his account. -He had, he explained, with a most insolent air of simplicity and -candour, received 300,000 florins from his uncle. This sum was destined -to be used in the next Crusade, and he had sworn on the Gospels not to -yield it for any other purpose. John was baulked and was compelled to -compromise. They agreed to divide the money, and a receipt preserved -at the Vatican shows that 150,000 florins were all he obtained of -Clement's huge fortune. Clement had left only 70,000 florins directly -to his successor, and half of this had to go to the cardinals. All the -rest Clement regarded as private fortune and distributed among his -friends and servants.</p> - -<p>John turned to the organization of the Papal income, and his success -in this direction is notorious. Villani<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> says in his <i>Florentine -History</i><a name="FNanchor_256_256" id="FNanchor_256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a> that at his death John left a fortune of 25,000,000 -florins<a name="FNanchor_257_257" id="FNanchor_257_257"></a><a href="#Footnote_257_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a> in coin and jewels. Villani is hostile, but he affirms -that he had this information from his brother, who was one of the -bankers appointed to appraise the sum. Other chroniclers give different -figures. It happens, however, that John's ledgers are still preserved -in the Vatican archives, and as in this case they completely refute -the anti-Papal chroniclers—a point certainly to be carefully noted -by the historian—they have been published.<a name="FNanchor_258_258" id="FNanchor_258_258"></a><a href="#Footnote_258_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a> Some of the ledgers -are "missing," but there are general statements (tallying with the -separate ledgers), and from these it appears that the entire income of -the Papacy during the eighteen years of John's Pontificate was about -four and a half million florins (or about Ł120,000 a year), and that -the greater part of this was spent on the Italian war. There is an -expenditure of nearly three millions under the humorous heading of -"Wax, and certain extraordinary expenses," and the items show that the -Italian campaign to recover the Papal estates absorbed most of this. At -the same time the ledgers do not quite confirm the edifying tradition -of John's sober and simple life. His table and cellar cost (in modern -terms) nearly Ł3000 a year; his "wardrobe" nearly Ł4000 a year: and -his officials and staff about Ł15,000 a year. Immense sums seem to -have been given to relatives—there is one item of 72,000 florins paid -to his brother Peter for certain estates—and we know that in 1339 he -began to build the famous Papal Palace.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> - -<p>In sum, the editors of John's accounts conclude that the Papal -treasury would, at his death, have shown a deficit of 90,000 florins -but for a loan of half a million from his private purse; and that -the total amount left behind by him (besides his valuable library of -1028 volumes, his collection of 329 jewelled rings, etc.) was only -about 800,000 florins. It is true that, in spite of the businesslike -appearance of the ledgers, we must not take this as a statement of -the Pope's entire estate. Vast sums were collected which did not pass -through Avignon, but went straight to the Legate in Italy (and possibly -elsewhere). Moreover, the "private purse" of the Pope is an interesting -and obscure part of his system. It was discovered at his death that he -had a secret "little chamber," over one of the corridors, into which a -large part of the income went. There are historical indications that -he diverted to his private account large sums for military and special -political purposes. He did not foresee how Clement VI. would genially -dissipate it, with the words: "My predecessors did not know how to -live." This account was not entered in books, and we have to be content -with the assurance that he left at his death rather less than a million -florins in all.</p> - -<p>Yet an income of—if we make allowance for the unrecorded -sums—something like Ł200,000 a year, at a time when the patrimonies -were mostly alienated, was enormous, and there is no reason to doubt -the statement of all historians that it came largely from tainted -sources. John's fiscal policy is a stage in the degeneration of the -Papacy. Clement IV. had, in 1267, reserved to the Pope the income -of the benefices of clerks who died at Rome, and Boniface VIII. had -enlarged this by including all who died within a two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> days' journey of -Rome. John extended the law throughout the Church and demanded three -years' revenue for each that fell vacant. By his Bull <i>Execrabilis</i> he -ordered all clerks (except his cardinals) who held several benefices -to select one and surrender the rest to the Apostolic See. He -created bishoprics—he made six out of the bishopric of Toulouse—by -subdividing actual sees (on the plea, of course, that the duties would -be better discharged), and by an astute system of promotions he, when -a see fell vacant, contrived to move several men and secure the "first -fruits" on their appointments: a vacant archbishopric, for instance, -would be filled by a higher bishop, the higher bishopric by a lower -bishop, and so on. It was possible to put a complexion of reform on -all these measures, but clergy and laity muttered a charge of avarice. -Then there were the incomes from kingdoms and duchies (England, Aragon, -Portugal, Naples, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, and Spoleto) which owed -an annual tribute, the yield of the surviving patrimonies, the taxes -on dispensations and grants, and a certain beginning of the sale of -indulgences which, unfortunately, we cannot closely ascertain.</p> - -<p>John was not wholly immersed in finance and insensible of higher -duties. He created universities at Cahors and Perugia, regulated the -studies at Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris, and even (as we shall see) -concerned himself with the state of the East. But the only council -we trace under his control (held at St. Ruf, in 1326) was almost -entirely concerned with ecclesiastical property and immunities, and his -correspondence is, in effect, almost wholly fiscal and political. He -greatly enlarged the Rota (or legal and business part of the Curia), -and filled it with a cosmopolitan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> staff of clerks, to deal with this -large and lucrative side of his affairs. It is pleaded that the Papacy -could not discharge its duties without this wealth and power; and it -must seem unfortunate that the acquisition and maintenance of the -wealth and power left so little time for the duties they were to enable -the Pope to discharge.</p> - -<p>Watered by this stream of gold, Avignon flourished. John was generous -to his family and his cardinals: palaces began to rise above the lowly -roofs of the town: a gay and coloured life filled its streets. A Papal -household costing Ł25,000 a year would of itself make an impression. We -know Avignon best in the later and even richer days of Benedict XII. -and Clement VI. who followed John. Not far away, even in the days of -John, dwelt a writer who was destined to immortality, and he passed -scathing criticisms on Avignon. Petrarch is a rhetorician and poet, as -well as a fierce opponent of the Avignon Papacy, but one cannot lightly -disregard his assurance that Papal Avignon was "Babylon," "a living -hell," and "the sink of all vices."<a name="FNanchor_259_259" id="FNanchor_259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_259_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> He is chiefly describing -Avignon under Clement VI., but he says that it is only a change "from -bad to worse" since John's days.</p> - -<p>An episode that occurred soon after John's elevation is, perhaps, -more convincing than Petrarch's fiery rhetoric, since its features -were determined in a legal process. Hugues Géraud, a favourite of -Clement V., had obtained from that Pope the bishopric of Cahors, -paying the Papal tax of a thousand florins for it. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> proceeded to -make his possession as lucrative as possible and live comfortably on -the revenue his clerks extorted for him. John's townsfolk appealed to -him, as soon as he settled in Avignon, and he summoned the Bishop to -his court. Hugues Géraud sealed the lips of his priests by an oath of -silence, but, of course, a Pope could undo that seal, and the inquiry -revealed enormities on the part of the Bishop. Toward the close of the -inquiry certain men were arrested bringing mysterious packages into -the town. They had with them various poisons and certain little wax -images concealed in loaves. The Bishop and his chief clerks were at -once arrested, and, although the Papal officials used torture to open -their lips, the substance of their story seems reliable. Fearful of the -issue, Hugues Géraud had applied to a Jew at Toulouse, and to others, -for these poisons and wax images. It was proved in court that members -of the Papal household, including a cardinal, were bribed to facilitate -the poisoning, and that the wax images, which were not effective -without the blessing of some prelate, were actually blessed by the -Archbishop of Toulouse. The Archbishop pleaded that he had no suspicion -of the awful purpose of these images—familiar as they were in the -Middle Ages—but he soon fled from Toulouse, and it is conjectured that -he had hoped that the death of the Pope would save his diocese (and -income) from the threatened dismemberment.<a name="FNanchor_260_260" id="FNanchor_260_260"></a><a href="#Footnote_260_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a></p> - -<p>Some of these images had already been smuggled into Avignon and the -Bishop and his archpriest had, in the well-known medićval manner, -set up one of them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> as representative of the Pope's nephew, Cardinal -Jacques de Via, and stabbed it in the belly and legs with silver -styles, while the wicked Jew repeated the suitable imprecations. John -XXII. fully shared the views of his age in regard to these magical -practices, and we can imagine how he and others were confirmed in -that belief when, in the course of the trial, Jacques de Via sickened -and died. The trial came to a speedy conclusion. The Bishop of Cahors -was dragged by horses through the town and burned at the stake: his -numerous clerical and lay accomplices were adequately punished: and -John spurred the Inquisitors to a deadly campaign against magicians -throughout the country. Some of the cardinals were involved in this or -a similar plot, but John shrewdly disarmed them with gold rather than -make powerful enemies.</p> - -<p>These details will suffice to make clear the state of the clergy and -laity at the close of a century which some writers appraise as one of -profound inspiration, and we must go on to consider the large policy -which John's wealth was intended to support. The central theme is, -once more, the political struggle with the Emperor—the undying curse -which temporal power had brought with it—but we cannot understand this -aright unless we first regard a spiritual struggle of great interest.</p> - -<p>The followers of Francis of Assisi had branched into the customary -parties of rigourists and liberals. On the one hand were the great -body of the friars, living in large comfortable monasteries, raising -a stupendously rich church over the bones of their ascetic founder. -On the other hand were the faithful minority, the genuinely ascetic, -casting withering reproaches on the liberals, assimilating much of the -mystic and—we may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> justly say—protestant feeling which was growing -in Europe. There were bloody conflicts as well as highly seasoned -arguments. The "Spirituals" and "Fratricelli" could not but regard -the wealth and sensuality of the higher clergy as an apostasy from -the Christian ideal, and they had become one of the most pronounced -"protestant" sects of the time and were anathematized repeatedly by the -Popes. During the Papal vacancy the Spirituals had prospered and become -more strident. Christendom had apostatized, and they were the heralds -of a new religion, revealed to Francis of Assisi. This arrogant Papacy -and priesthood must disappear before true religion can flourish.</p> - -<p>In the spring of 1317 John condemned them, and, when they still -preached revolt, summoned about sixty of them to Avignon. They used -very plain speech and received a very plain reply. The Papacy had now -discovered that persistent or "contumacious" disobedience amounted to -heresy, and the Inquisitors belonged to the rival Dominican order. So -several sons of St. Francis were burned at the stake—four were burned -at Marseilles on May 7, 1318—and many were cast into prison. But John -went too far. He ordered the Franciscan authorities to consider whether -absolute poverty was the genuine basis of their rule, and they decided -that it was: in the sense of a Bull (<i>Exiit qui seminat</i>) of Nicholas -III., which allowed them "the use" of things without the actual -"ownership." John revoked the Bull, and in a Decretal of December 8, -1322 (<i>Ad Conditorem</i>), declared that this was impossible nonsense. -When the friars retorted that such poverty had actually been practised -by Christ and his Apostles, John consulted the learned doctors of -Paris and, in the Decretal <i>Cum inter nonnullos</i> (November<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> 12, 1323), -pronounced this thesis heretical. The "Spirituals" were now reinforced -by abler men, who fled to Italy and joined the anti-Papal campaign of -Louis of Bavaria. Michael de Cesena, the General of the Order, nailed -to the door of Pisa cathedral a document in which he impeached John for -heresy. William of Ockham, the English friar, one of the most acute -of the later schoolmen, and others, discharged a shower of invectives -which would have made the fortune of a sixteenth-century Reformer. -John was "Anti-Christ," the "Dragon with Seven Heads," and so on. They -induced Louis of Bavaria to declare John's Decretals heretical, and -fought shoulder to shoulder with the learned Paris doctors, Marsiglio -of Padua and Jean of Jandun, whose <i>Defensor Pacis</i> (1324) was a -crushing indictment of the Papal pretensions and vindication of the -secular power. All over Italy and Germany there was a fierce scrutiny -of the bases of the Papal claims. The Reformation was commencing, two -centuries before Luther.</p> - -<p>The spiritual struggle had thus merged in the political struggle, -owing to the common opposition to John XXII., and this must now be -considered. Frederic of Austria and Louis of Bavaria were both chosen -King of the Romans, and, as neither had had the full number of votes, -there was the not unfamiliar struggle for recognition. They disregarded -John's summons to his tribunal, took to the sword, and Frederic was -beaten and imprisoned in 1322. John coldly acknowledged Louis's letter -announcing his victory; unquestionably he from the first wanted the -imperial crown to pass to France and the imperial rule to vanish from -Italy. Then Louis invaded Italy, and John declared war.</p> - -<p>Italy already gave the Pope concern. The Ghibel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>lines, or Imperialists, -had grown powerful in the Pope's absence, and their chief leader, -Matteo Visconti of Milan, a ruthless and exacting ruler, was "Imperial -Vicar" in the country. When Visconti, in defiance of the Pope's -commands, gave aid to the Ghibellines of Genoa, John, who claimed -to represent the Empire during the "vacancy," withdrew his title of -Vicar and awarded it to Robert of Naples. Robert went to consult John -at Avignon, and a campaign followed. Cardinal Bertrand de Poyet—who -was, says Petrarch, so much like John "in face and ferocity"<a name="FNanchor_261_261" id="FNanchor_261_261"></a><a href="#Footnote_261_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a> -that one could easily credit the rumour that he was John's son—was -sent to direct the Papal cause and to denounce the Viscontis to the -Inquisition. Matteo was found guilty of heresy (or contumacious refusal -to abandon the title of Vicar), and he and his son were charged with -oppression of the clergy (which is plausible enough) and with a quaint -and amusing mixture of magic and other devilry.<a name="FNanchor_262_262" id="FNanchor_262_262"></a><a href="#Footnote_262_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a> Possibly John -relied more confidently on the troops of Philip of Valois and Henry -of Austria, whom he successively summoned to Italy; but they retired -almost without a blow. Matteo repented and died, but his sons and their -associates continued the war.</p> - -<p>At this juncture Louis conquered Frederic and sent word to the Legate -to keep his troops out of imperial territory. When the Legate refused, -he joined the Ghibellines and drew from John a vigorous denunciation. -He was to abandon the "heretics" and come to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> Avignon for the -examination of his claim to the Empire. Louis, retorting (under the -inspiration of the friars) that there were heretics at Avignon as well -as in Italy, went his way, and John turned to France. Charles the Fair, -the new King, had discovered that, when Clement V. had authorized his -marriage with Blanche of Burgundy, a remote godmothership had been -overlooked, and he was in the painful position of living with one to -whom he was not validly married. John declared the marriage void, -allowed Charles to marry another lady, and was soon in conference with -Charles and with Robert of Naples. Germany took alarm at this plain -hint of an intention to make Charles Emperor; the Italian spiritual war -upon the Pope was vigorously repeated in that country, and the Diet of -Ratisbon rejected John's authority and called for a General Council.</p> - -<p>Louis, in 1326, became reconciled with Frederic of Austria and was -recognized in Germany as sole Emperor, but John had gone too far to -withdraw, or was too deeply involved with Charles of France and Robert -of Naples. In alliance with the Ghibellines, Louis made a triumphant -tour over Italy, and on April 18, 1328, to the immense joy of his -throng of rebel supporters, solemnly declared, in St. Peter's, that -"James of Cahors" was guilty of heresy and treason.<a name="FNanchor_263_263" id="FNanchor_263_263"></a><a href="#Footnote_263_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a> Friar Peter -of Corbara was substituted for him, with the name of Nicholas V., and -Rome exulted in the restoration of the Papacy. But the drama ended as -it had often ended before. Louis oppressed the country and alienated -his supporters; and before the end of the year Friar Peter was, with a -halter round his neck, at the Pope's feet in Avignon and Louis was back -in Germany.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> John refused to compromise honourably with Louis, and the -agitation against the Papacy in Germany, whither all the rebels had now -gone, was more bitter than ever.</p> - -<p>The next phase of the struggle is not wholly clear. John of Bohemia -intervened and overran Italy. It seems probable that the Pope had -nothing to do with this invasion, and at first suspected that John -was in league with Louis; but that, as John made progress and had -friendly communication with Avignon, the Pope began to hope that the -new development offered him a stronger King of Italy (under Papal -suzerainty) than Robert and a less oppressive protector than Philip VI. -of France.<a name="FNanchor_264_264" id="FNanchor_264_264"></a><a href="#Footnote_264_264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a> Philip and John visited the Pope at Avignon, and it -was announced that John was to be recognized as King of part of Italy. -The curious alliance of the three reveals some miscalculation. Philip -must have trusted that John of Bohemia would work for him, but the Pope -had assuredly no idea of abandoning his claim to Italy. The issue was -singular. The Italians, in face of this alliance, united under Robert -of Naples and overcame the Papal and Bohemian troops. John had, as part -of the campaign, announced his intention of transferring the Papal -Court to Bologna, and the Legate actually began to erect a palace for -him. When the Bolognese realized that John had no serious intention of -coming, they joined the Imperialists and cast out the Legate and his -troops. It is said that the collapse of his costly Italian campaign -weighed so heavily on the Pope that he did not leave his palace during -the year of life which still remained.</p> - -<p>John's relations with other countries are not of great interest. He -was almost the master, rather than the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> slave, of the three French -monarchs who ruled during his Pontificate, and some of his letters -paternally chide them for such defects as talking in church. In -letters to Edward of England he tried to reconcile that monarch with -Robert Bruce, and he begged more humane treatment of the Irish, who -had appealed for his intervention. In Poland he excommunicated the -Teutonic knights for taking Danzig and Pomerania from King Ladislas. -His eye wandered even farther afield. He was genuinely interested in -the fate of Christians in the East, and sent a mission to the Sultan, -who sharply dismissed it. No Pope had, in a sense, a wider horizon, -for John not only sent friars to preach in Armenia and Persia, but -actually appointed a Legate for India, China, and Thibet. Yet his -ruling of the Christian world was singularly slender in comparison with -that of his great predecessors. His energy was absorbed in fiscal and -political matters. In co-operation with Philip he sent a fleet against -the Saracens, and it won a victory, but the Crusade he announced on -July 26, 1333, never went beyond that naval success. On the other hand, -when the Pastoureaux, a wild rabble, marched over France proclaiming a -popular Crusade, John excommunicated them for taking the cross without -his permission; of their appalling treatment of the Jews he made no -complaint, nor did he move when the lepers of France were brutally -persecuted on some superstitious charge of the time. He was oppressive -to the Jews, and ordered the burning of the Talmud.</p> - -<p>He has, in fine, the distinction of putting forward a doctrine which -his Church condemns as heretical. Preaching on All Saints' Day in 1331, -he suggested that probably the saints did not enjoy the direct vision -(or Beatific Vision) of God in heaven, and would not do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> so until after -the Day of Judgment. There is no doubt whatever that he held this as -an opinion, though he made no effort to impose it on others; beyond -a certain liberality in bestowing benefices on clerics who supported -him. There was a violent agitation in France. The Dominican friars and -the universities strongly opposed the view, and, when the General of -the Franciscan Order thought it advantageous to support the Pope, the -King of France swore that he would not have his realm sullied by the -heresy. This agitation, and John's correspondence with Philip VI., -make it quite clear that the Pope held the heresy, as an opinion. A -few days before he died, however, he wrote a Bull—at least, such a -Bull was published by his successor—endorsing the received doctrine -and declaring that he had put forward his theory only "by way of -conference."</p> - -<p>He died on December 4, 1334, bowed with age and saddened by the -failure of his work. A more complete study of his letters than has -yet been made may in some measure enlarge our knowledge of his -properly Pontifical action, but there can be little doubt that money -and politics chiefly engrossed his attention. The chief interest of -his Pontificate is the light it throws on the preparation for the -Reformation. John's fiscal policy, however much open to censure, was -unselfish; but he opened to his even less religious successors the road -to disaster.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_255_255" id="Footnote_255_255"></a><a href="#FNanchor_255_255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> For the letters see <i>Lettres de Jean XXII.</i> (2 vols., -1908 and 1912), edited by Arnold Fayen: a selection of 3653 letters, -generally business notes of little importance. Various short lives of -John are given in Baluze's <i>Vitć Paparum Avenionensium</i>, vol. ii., -and there are censorious allusions to him in G. Villani's <i>Historie -Florentine</i>: a contemporary but biassed work. Bertrandy's <i>Recherches -sur l'origine, l'élection, et le couronnement de Jean XXII.</i> (1854) -is valuable for his early years, as well as Dr. J. Asal's <i>Die Wahl -Johann's XXII.</i> (1910). V. Verlaque's <i>Jean XXII.</i> (1883), is foolishly -partisan, and declares John "one of the greatest successors of St. -Peter." Sectional studies will be noticed in the course of the chapter.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_256_256" id="Footnote_256_256"></a><a href="#FNanchor_256_256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> Xi., 20.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_257_257" id="Footnote_257_257"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257_257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> The gold florin is estimated at about ten shillings of -English money.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_258_258" id="Footnote_258_258"></a><a href="#FNanchor_258_258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> <i>Die Einnahmen der Apostolischer Kammer unter Johann -XXII.</i> (1910), by Dr. Emil Göller, and <i>Die Ausgaben der Apostolischer -Kammer unter Johann XXII.</i> (1911), by K.H. Shäfer.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_259_259" id="Footnote_259_259"></a><a href="#FNanchor_259_259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> See, especially, the book of his letters "Sine titulo," -most of which contain appalling invectives on the Popes and cardinals -and clergy. <i>Epistola</i> xviii, is a classical picture of vice, even -among the elderly clergy. Its chief defect is to associate the name of -tolerably respectable Babylon with such a picture.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_260_260" id="Footnote_260_260"></a><a href="#FNanchor_260_260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> See a full (and conservative) analysis of the evidence -in E. Abbe's <i>Hugues Géraud</i> (1904). I am entirely ignoring the gossipy -chroniclers of the time, whom Milman too frequently follows.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_261_261" id="Footnote_261_261"></a><a href="#FNanchor_261_261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> <i>Ep.</i> xvii. of the book "Sine titulo."</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_262_262" id="Footnote_262_262"></a><a href="#FNanchor_262_262"><span class="label">[262]</span></a> See Michel, "Le Procčs de Matteo et de Galeazzo -Visconti," in <i>Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire</i>, xxix. (1909), -and H. Otto, "Zur Italienischen Politik Johanns XXII.," in <i>Quellen -und Forschungen aus Italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken</i>, Bd. xix. -(1911).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_263_263" id="Footnote_263_263"></a><a href="#FNanchor_263_263"><span class="label">[263]</span></a> Baluze, ii., 512; and a later indictment, p. 522.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_264_264" id="Footnote_264_264"></a><a href="#FNanchor_264_264"><span class="label">[264]</span></a> See the essay on John's policy, by H. Otto, quoted -above.</p></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></p> - -<p class="center">JOHN XXIII. AND THE GREAT SCHISM</p> - - -<p class="drop">T<span class="uppercase">he</span> next important stage in the devolution of the Papacy is the Great -Schism, the spectacle of which moved the increasing body of cultivated -laymen and the better clergy to examine critically the bases of the -Papal claims and seek an authority which should control the wanton -conduct of the Popes. The essential mischief of the long stay of the -Papal Court at Avignon is obscured when it is called a Babylonian -Captivity. Few of the Popes were servile to France, and it was not -France that detained them on the banks of the Rhone. The gravest -consequences of their voluntary exile were, that the isolation from -their Italian estates led them to pursue a corrupt and intolerable -fiscal policy: that the College of Cardinals degenerated and became -less scrupulous in the choice of a Pope: and, especially, that the -rival ambition of French and Italian cardinals to control the Papacy -led to an appalling schism. This phase will be best illustrated by an -account of the antecedents and the remarkable Pontificate of John XXIII.</p> - -<p>The return of the Papal Court to Rome was mainly due to political -causes. Clement VI. (1342-1352), whose voluptuous indolence ignobly -crowned the fiscal system of John XXII., was followed by three Popes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> -who at least desired reform. The third of these, Gregory XI., was too -weak or resourceless to curb the ruthless action of his Legates in -Italy, and the sight of wild Breton mercenaries and hardly less wild -English adventurers (of Hawkwood's infamous company) spreading rape and -rapine under the Papal banner, disgusted the cities and states of the -Peninsula. Under the lead of Florence, they proceeded to affirm and -establish the independence of Italy. It was this threat, rather than -the romantic rebukes of a young nun (Catherine of Siena), which drew -Gregory XI., in 1376, from the safe and luxurious palace-fortress at -Avignon. A month after his arrival at Rome the Breton hirelings under -Cardinal Robert of Geneva committed a frightful massacre at Cesena, and -Gregory was almost driven back to Avignon by the storm which ensued. -But he died on March 27, 1378, and the cardinals met nervously at Rome -to choose a successor.</p> - -<p>The din of the bloody encounter of Gascon, Breton, and Roman troops -in the streets reached the cardinals in the privacy of the Conclave. -One day, indeed, the armed Romans burst into the sacred chamber, and -brandished their weapons before the eyes of the terrified French -cardinals. Yet it is generally agreed that there was not such -compulsion as to invalidate the election, and Urban VI. became the -legitimate head of the Church. In the circumstances a delicate and -tactful policy was required, and the austere Neapolitan, of humble -birth, who secured the tiara was in this respect the least fitted of -the cardinals. He violently and vituperatively denounced the wealth -and luxury of his colleagues, and he alienated Italians no less than -French by the grossness of his manners. Within a few months the French -cardinals retired to Fondi,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> discovered that the election was invalid -on account of intimidation, and set up Robert of Geneva, a ruthless -soldier and entirely worldly-minded priest, as Anti-Pope, with the -title of Clement VII. So the schism began, and Christendom split into -two bitterly hostile "obediences." Clement retired to Avignon, and -preyed on France more avariciously than John XXII. had done: Urban's -impetuous rudeness wrapped Italy in a flame of war once more. In 1389 -another Neapolitan, Boniface IX., succeeded Urban, and it is during -his Pontificate that there came upon the scene Baldassare Cossa, the -unscrupulous adventurer who became John XXIII.</p> - -<p>Cossa was a Neapolitan, and is said by his hostile contemporary -Dietrich von Nieheim to have been a pirate in his youth.<a name="FNanchor_265_265" id="FNanchor_265_265"></a><a href="#Footnote_265_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a> Many -recent historians reject this statement, but as it is certain and -admitted that Cossa's two brothers were condemned to death for piracy -by Ladislaus of Naples, and it is clear that in his youth Cossa took -some part in the Angevin-Neapolitan war, it is not improbable that -Baldassare was himself engaged in raiding the Neapolitan commerce. He -was born about 1368, of a noble but impoverished Neapolitan house, -and he seems to have been known to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> the Neapolitan Pope. In his early -twenties he forsook the army or the sea, for which alone he was -qualified, and went to study law at Bologna. In 1392 Boniface made him -Archdeacon at Bologna: in 1396 he was summoned to the office of Private -Chamberlain at Rome, and his career began.</p> - -<p>He was a typical Neapolitan—dark-eyed, keen-witted, of very robust -frame and very frail moral instincts—and the Pope needed such men. -During the first seven years of his Pontificate Boniface was kept in -check by the older cardinals, but, as they died, he sought money by -fair or foul means for the recovery of Italy. France and Spain sent -their gifts to Avignon, and England and Germany were not generous. -Benefices, from the highest to the lowest, were sold daily, and the -"first fruits" were demanded in advance. As the system developed, -spies were employed over Italy and Germany to report on the health of -aged beneficiaries, and there was a sordid traffic in "expectations." -Baldassare Cossa, the chief instrument of this gross simony, had -various scales of payment, and the purchaser of the "expectation" -of a benefice might find it sold over him to a higher bidder for a -"preference." A Jubilee had been announced for the year 1390, and -Boniface got the fruits of it, but this did not deter him from reaping -another golden harvest from a Jubilee in 1400. As, moreover, many -pilgrims, especially in Germany and Scandinavia, were deterred from -coming to Rome by the bands of robbers and ravishers who infested the -Papal estates, Boniface generously enacted that Germans might obtain -the same pardon by visiting certain shrines nearer home and paying to -Papal agents the cost of a journey to Rome.</p> - -<p>These simoniacal practices are established and ad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>mitted, quite apart -from the testimony of Dietrich. We must, indeed, admit the evidence -of Dietrich when he tells us that he saw these Papal agents spread -their silk curtains and unfold their Papal banners in the churches of -Germany, and heard them declare to the ignorant people that St. Peter -himself had not greater power than they. We may also easily believe -his assurance that many of the German clergy denounced this traffic in -indulgences<a name="FNanchor_266_266" id="FNanchor_266_266"></a><a href="#Footnote_266_266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a> and that it brought enormous sums to the Papacy. But -the precise sums, and the romantic stories, which Dietrich gives on -hearsay, especially in regard to Cossa, must be regarded with reserve. -He says that Cossa, when Legate at Bologna, arrested one of these -monk-agents returning to Rome with his bags of gold and relieved him; -and that the monk hanged himself in despair. These are fragments of -foolish rumour. We cannot deal so summarily with his statement that -the Chamberlain had his percentage of the profits and let it grow in -the hands of the usurers; and that he extorted money from prelates -by mendaciously representing that Boniface was angry with them and -offering to mediate. All that we can say with confidence is that Cossa -was the chief instrument of the Pope's nefarious system, and that, -although he had no private means, he amassed an enormous fortune.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> The -Council of Constance established this charge against him, as we shall -see.</p> - -<p>In 1402, Cossa became Cardinal-deacon of St. Eustace—the Council of -Constance found that he bought that dignity—and in the following year -he was made Legate at Bologna. We cannot control Dietrich's statement -that the Pope wished to put an end to a scandalous <i>liaison</i> of -Cossa's at Rome. It is not improbable, and would not be very unusual -at Rome, but the fact is that he knew Bologna and was a soldier, and -Boniface needed a soldier-legate in the north. In a very short time -Cossa won Bologna from the Milanese troops and made it a prosperous -and profitable Papal possession. He fortified it and restored its -institutions, even establishing a university of a very liberal -character. But he ruled it with an iron hand and ground it with taxes. -Even its gamblers and prostitutes had to pay the tithe of their -earnings, and the grumblers who constantly revolted or attempted to -assassinate Cossa were mercilessly punished. Dietrich boldly accuses -him of violating two hundred maids and matrons of the city, but we -can do no more than suspect that there must have been some foundation -for so large a repute. Again the Council of Constance sustains the -substance of the charge.</p> - -<p>Boniface died on September 29, 1404, and Cossa was not present at the -Conclave. He had constantly to lead his troops against external as well -as internal enemies. The new Pope, Innocent VII., spent two futile -years in dreams of peace, and in November, 1406, the See again fell -vacant. Christendom now clamoured for an end of the scandalous schism, -and, when Gregory XII., an ascetic and worn old cardinal, assumed the -tiara, he was greeted as "an angel of light." He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> thanked God, with -tears in his eyes, that he was chosen to end the schism; if he could -not get mules or galleys, he would go on foot to meet Benedict XIII. -(who had succeeded Clement at Avignon) and resign together with him. -And within a few months Christendom witnessed the still more odious -spectacle of the two Popes, both men of advanced years and great piety, -straining every nerve to avoid each other and evade resignation. They -were to meet at Savona, but, as Leonardo quaintly says, "whenever there -was question of their meeting, one would, as if he were a land animal, -not approach the coast, and the other, as if he were an aquatic animal, -would not leave the sea." Benedict reached Savona; Gregory could not -be driven beyond Lucca. The best that can be said for him is that he -was ruled by greedy relatives. At last, on a pretext provided by his -supporter Ladislaus of Naples, Gregory fled back to Rome and refused to -listen to any further counsel of resignation.</p> - -<p>Christendom, in disgust, now called for a General Council. France -disowned Benedict and, when he excommunicated the King, tore his Bull -in halves and ordered his arrest. He fled to Perpignan and Gregory to -Venice, and the cardinals began to negotiate with the princes for the -holding of the Council of Pisa. Cardinal Cossa, who had disdainfully -taken down the arms of Gregory XII. at Bologna, and who was in league -with Florence against Naples, took the lead in the new movement. When -Gregory excommunicated him, he burned the Bull in the market-place. -When Ladislaus of Naples advanced against Pisa, he united his troops -to those of Florence and scattered the southerners. When Benedict's -representatives asked for a safe-conduct through Italy, he said: -"If you come to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> Bologna, with or without a safe-conduct, I'll burn -you." So the Council met at Pisa, deposed Benedict and Gregory, and, -in effect, set up a third Pope, Alexander V. The situation being -without precedent, there was no canonical basis for such a Council, -and no executive to enforce the Council's decisions. Benedict and -Gregory—the one under the protection of Spain and the other with the -support of Naples, Rimini, and part of Germany—continued to fulminate -against each other, and a third discharge of anathemas only distracted -Christendom the more.</p> - -<p>Cardinal Cossa set out once more at the head of his troops, and, with -the aid of Louis of Anjou and the Florentines, swept the Neapolitan -troops southward and opened Rome for Alexander. But that feeble and -aged Anti-Pope never reached the Lateran. He died at Bologna on May 4, -1410, and Louis of Anjou (representing the French influence) and the -Florentines urged on the cardinals the election of Cossa himself. At -midnight on May 17th, the expectant crowd at Bologna was informed that -the cardinals had come to an agreement, and an hour later Baldassare -Cossa, or John XXIII., stepped forth in the scarlet mitre and spotless -robes of a Vicar of Christ. There are chroniclers who say that he had -bribed the electors, and chroniclers who say that he had bullied them. -The first charge is not unlikely, as bribery was now becoming common -enough on the eve of or during a Conclave, but we cannot check these -rumours. Dietrich von Nieheim admits that Cossa nominated another -cardinal for the tiara, and the Council of Constance did not impeach -the regularity of his election. He was chosen because of his vigour and -military ability. Such was the condition of the Papacy that none seemed -to care<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> that he was "a complete failure and worthless in spiritual -matters."</p> - -<p>He must have been at that time about forty-three years old: a tall, -spare, soldierly-looking man, with large nose and piercing dark grey -eyes under bushy eyebrows. After devoting a few days to the customary -festivities, he set about the work of enabling Louis of Anjou to -displace Ladislaus on the throne of Naples and thus destroy Gregory's -main support. It may have been in deference to the feeling of some of -the cardinals that he first summoned Benedict and Gregory to resign -and asked his bitter enemy Ladislaus—the man who had condemned his -brothers—to pay the arrears of sixty thousand ducats which he owed -to the Roman See. All three contemptuously refused to recognize him, -and, as Ladislaus presently destroyed the fleet of Louis of Anjou and -advanced against the Papal troops, the prospect was uncertain. John -feverishly sought allies and funds. He conciliated England, where -the call for a real Ecumenical Council to depose the three Popes was -already heard, by suppressing an obnoxious Bull of Boniface IX. and -by other graces, and he contrived—after the blunders of his legates -had roused fierce opposition—to get a good deal of money from France. -Spain still supported Benedict.</p> - -<p>The uncertain element was Germany, where, at the time, the outstanding -figure was Sigismund of Hungary. Sigismund had stood aloof from the -Council of Pisa. For some years he had diverted all money from the -Papal agents to his own pockets, because Boniface had recognized -Ladislaus, and he detested the French, who had had much to do with the -Council at Pisa. His support was of material importance to John, as -owing to the death of Rupert the day after John's election,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> he became -the chief candidate for the Empire. To John's delight, Sigismund now -sent ambassadors to do homage, and an agreement was reached. The Pope -was to validate the appropriation by Sigismund of church-moneys and -influence the Electors in his favour, and Sigismund would support John -against Ladislaus.<a name="FNanchor_267_267" id="FNanchor_267_267"></a><a href="#Footnote_267_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a> But there was still an element of danger and -uncertainty. Sigismund had sworn to end the Papal schism, and he was -known to be favourable to the summoning of another and more weighty -council. Moreover, John, who was a poor diplomatist, made a serious -blunder. The elected monarch became, by law of the Empire, King of -the Romans without any Papal confirmation; the <i>imperial</i> crown and -title alone were given by the Pope. Yet John, seeking to magnify his -authority, persisted in addressing Sigismund until the anxious days of -the Council of Constance, as "Elected to be King."</p> - -<p>I may tell very briefly the sequence of events in Italy. After a year -at Bologna, John proceeded to Rome and flung his troops upon the -Neapolitans. They won the important battle of Rocca Secca, but, owing -to the incompetence of the Papal legate who held supreme command, they -failed to follow up the success and Ladislaus recovered. In the next -few months John heard with increasing alarm that Louis of Anjou had -returned in despair to France: that the ablest Papal commander, Sforza, -had transferred his services to Naples: that Malatesta of Rimini, the -only other supporter of Gregory, was winning success in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> the north: -and that the Neapolitans were marching against Rome. He levied taxes -on the churches and citizens of Rome until they became restless. He -petulantly had an effigy of Sforza hanged on a gallows at Rome. He -pressed the sale of indulgences so flagrantly, and by such repellent -agents, that the reformers of Bohemia burned his Bull in the streets. -He excommunicated Ladislaus and proclaimed a crusade against him; and -not a prince in Europe stirred.</p> - -<p>Now seriously concerned, John offered to recognize Ladislaus as King -of Naples if he would abandon Gregory, and that monarch at once basely -deserted his Pope. He ordered the stubborn old man to quit Gaeta, and -it is said that the people of Gaeta, who had grown fond of him, had to -pay his passage to his last refuge, the lands of the Lord of Rimini. -Ladislaus was made Gonfaloniere of the Church, and the Pope promised -him 120,000 ducats. But so onerous a peace could not endure. After some -mutual charges in the spring of 1413 the Neapolitan troops approached -Rome. The Romans assured John that they would eat their children rather -than surrender, but, when they saw the Pope and cardinals secure their -own position by crossing the river, they opened the gates and admitted -the Neapolitans. Their warrior-Pope, surrounded by cardinals who wept -for the treasures they had abandoned in Rome, fled to the north, and at -length reached Florence. Even here the citizens were afraid to admit -him. They assigned him the bishop's palace outside the walls, and from -this lowly centre John continued his sale of benefices and indulgences.</p> - -<p>One other event will complete the record of John's Pontificate, before -we begin the story of his undoing. The abuses of the Roman Curia -had excited, or encour<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>aged, various hostile movements. There were -Lollards in England, and followers of Hus and Jerome of Prague in -Bohemia. These vague and unimportant movements—from the Papal point -of view—were left to local prelates, but the growing Christian demand -for another General Council was disquieting. The Council of Pisa had -put itself above the Popes, and grave doctors at many universities -argued that a council must effect that reform of the Church which -Popes refused to effect. Probably John XXIII. did not appreciate the -full significance of this Conciliar movement, but he did see that -there was grave danger that a Council would depose him, as well as -Benedict and Gregory, unless he controlled it. He, therefore, in 1412, -announced that a General Council would be held at Rome, and he reminded -prelates that the Council of Pisa had enjoined this. But only a few -French and Italian prelates responded to his summons, and a strange -accident increased his uneasiness. One day, when all were assembled -in St. Peter's, a screech owl issued from a dark corner and perched -opposite the Pope. John reddened and perspired, as he gazed into the -uncanny eyes of the bird, and at last he left his seat and broke up the -sitting. It was there again at the next sitting, and was killed only -after a great commotion. A strange form for the Holy Ghost, the mockers -said; a dreadful omen for the Pope, said others. Reforms were promised, -and the works of Wyclif were condemned, but the Council was too small -to have effect and it was prorogued until December 1, 1413.</p> - -<p>Meantime John was driven to the north, and from Florence he appealed -to Sigismund. Many eyes were turned to Sigismund from various parts -of Europe, and that singular monarch took quite seriously the high<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> -function which was thrust upon him of saving and reforming Christendom. -He was a man of considerable ability, though it was apt to take the -form of cunning rather than statesmanship, but his narrow cupidity, -his notorious license in morals, and his general indifference to -principle made him an incongruous instrument for the reform of the -Church. He at once informed John that the state of the Church was to -be submitted to a General Council, and a struggle ensued between the -two as to whether it should be held south or north of the Alps. We have -the reliable assurance of Leonardo, John's secretary at the time, that -the Pope proposed to send two cardinals with full powers to treat, -which they were to show to Sigismund, and with secret instructions -restricting them. John told this design, with great complacency, to -his secretary,<a name="FNanchor_268_268" id="FNanchor_268_268"></a><a href="#Footnote_268_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a> though he did not carry it out. The Papal legates -met Sigismund at Como in the autumn and were pleased to think that -they made an impression on him, but John was dismayed to learn that, -on October 30th, the King of the Romans issued a proclamation to the -effect that a General Council would be held, under his presidency, at -Constance, on All Saints' Day, 1414.</p> - -<p>John is described as stricken with fear and grief at the prospect of -a council outside Italy, but Sigismund was inflexible. They spent two -months together at Piacenza and Lodi, and the Pope must have penetrated -the King's design. He already leaned to the plan of deposing the three -Popes and electing another. John was compelled, on December 9th, to -issue a Bull convoking the Council, and he then went to Bologna to -await the attack of the Neapolitans. There, about the middle of August, -he received the welcome news that Ladislaus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> had been poisoned by -the father of one of his mistresses. He proposed to break faith with -Sigismund and disavow the Council, but the cardinals restrained him -from taking this wild step, and on October 1st he set out for the -north, sadly, with a troop of six hundred horse. He had for some time -wavered between gloomy apprehensions of a mysterious fate which pursued -him and buoyant confidence in his wealth and power.</p> - -<p>The last words of his friends at Bologna must have recurred to him -again and again as he passed up the autumnal valley of the Adige and -entered the snows of the Tirol. He would not return a Pope, they said. -In the Arlberg Pass his carriage was overturned, and he exclaimed, as -he lay in the snow: "Here I lie, in the name of the devil, and I would -have done much better to stop at Bologna." He remained for some days at -Meran with Duke Friedrich, whom he made captain-general of the Papal -troops, with a salary of six thousand ducats a year. It was well to -make a friend of this powerful and discontented vassal of Sigismund. -At last, on October 27th, his troops turned the crest of the last low -hills before Constance, and he gazed down on the hollow between the -guardian mountains. "A trap for foxes," he is said to have muttered. On -the following day he rode into Constance, on his richly harnessed white -horse, under a canopy of cloth of gold, and occupied the episcopal -palace.</p> - -<p>For three weeks the snowy roads down the mountain-sides from all -directions discharged gay streams of princes and prelates, bishops -and abbots, theologians and lawyers, thieves and prostitutes, bankers -and acrobats, upon the sleepy old town, until it seemed to burst with -a ravening multitude. Something between fifty and a hundred thousand -visitors had to be housed and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> entertained, and it is reported by grave -observers that more than a thousand prostitutes flocked to Constance -in the days of the Council.<a name="FNanchor_269_269" id="FNanchor_269_269"></a><a href="#Footnote_269_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a> There were, in the course of time, -twenty-nine cardinals, thirty-three archbishops, a hundred and fifty -bishops, a hundred and thirty-four abbots, and a hundred doctors -of law and divinity: among the latter a certain pale and thin man, -Master John Hus, who did not suspect that he had come to be tried on -a capital charge. But the Emperor was late—he was crowned at Aachen -on November 8th—so the first sitting of the Council, on November 5th, -was adjourned to the 16th, and then until the new year. Meantime the -thousands of entertainers did their duty, and the city rang day and -night with revelry, and a crowd speaking thirty different languages -filled the streets and overflowed on to the roofs and into the sheds -and even the empty tubs of Constance.</p> - -<p>On Christmas morning, two hours after midnight, Emperor Sigismund made -a stately entrance from the Lake and a vast crowd attended John's -midnight mass. Then the struggle began. John's money circulated freely, -yet the view that he must be deposed with the other two was gaining -ground. He was gouty and his vigour was prematurely undermined, but he -fought for his tiara. Envoys came to represent Benedict and Gregory, -and he objected to their being received with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> honour; he was overruled. -He held that none less in rank than a bishop or abbot should vote, -and that the voting should be by heads, not nations; and again he -was overruled, and his Italian prelates would be outvoted. Then some -anonymous Italian put into circulation a memoir on his crimes and -vices, and he was greatly alarmed. To avoid scandal, however,—for -John admitted some of the accusations,—it was suppressed, but it was -decided that he must abdicate. After some evasive correspondence, he -promised to abdicate "if and when Peter de Luna and Angelo Corario" did -the same, and on March 7th he was compelled to embody the formula in a -Bull. He became ill and desperate, and there were rumours that he was -about to fly. Sigismund put guards at all the gates, but refused to -imprison him as the English, headed by the fiery Bishop of Salisbury, -demanded.</p> - -<p>On March 20th, Duke Friedrich of Tirol drew all Constance to a grand -tournament outside the city, and in the midst of it he was noticed -to receive a message and leave the ground. Presently it was learned -that the Pope, disguised as a groom, had slipped out of the gate on -a poor horse, with two companions, and Friedrich had joined them at -Schaffhausen. Sigismund sternly forbade the dissolution of the Council, -laid a heavy punishment on his vassal, and sent some of the cardinals -to see John. The Pope declared that he had left solely on account of -his illness; he would abdicate and not interfere with the Council, but -the cardinals must join him at once or be excommunicated. The Council, -now led by the great Gerson and other strong French doctors, ignored -the Pope, and declared that it had, direct from Christ, a power to -which Popes must bow. As Sigismund's troops were after them, John<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> and -Friedrich fled farther, and at last John quarrelled with his supporter -and fled in disguise across the Black Forest to Freiburg. He arrived -within reach of Burgundy, whose Duke was friendly, and he demanded -better terms. He would resign on condition that he was appointed -Perpetual Legate for the whole of Italy, with a pension of 30,000 -florins; the alternative in his mind seems to have been a court at -Avignon under the protection of the Duke of Burgundy.</p> - -<p>The end of his adventures is well known. The burghers of Freiburg -refused to protect him and he fled to Breisar, where the envoys of -the Council came to press for his resignation. He put on his rough -disguise once more, and made off with a troop of Austrian cavalry, but -Friedrich, to obtain a mitigation of his own sentence, betrayed him. -For several days he miserably resisted the pressure of the envoys, -weeping and wailing piteously, and on May 2d the Council summoned him -to appear before it within nine days to answer charges of heresy, -schism, simony, and immorality. On the seventh day a troop of horse -came for him, but he was ill and irresolute. On May 14th the patience -of the Council was exhausted; it suspended him from office and ordered -the public trial of the charges which had already been examined and -on which a mass of evidence had been taken. Two days later the great -assembly of prelates and doctors drew up the appalling indictment, in -seventy-two articles, of Baldassare Cossa. In the main the charges -referred to those acts of simony, bribery, corruption, and tyranny -which I have recounted, but it should be added that he was described as -"addicted to the flesh, the dregs of vice, a mirror of infamy" (art. -6), and "guilty of poisoning, murder, and persistent addiction to vices -of the flesh" (art 29). The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> worst charges of Dietrich were solemnly -endorsed by the gravest lawyers and priests of Europe.</p> - -<p>John lay, prostrate and in tears, in an inn at Rudolphzell. He wished -to submit a defence, but a few friendly cardinals advised him to -submit, and when, on May 26th, he heard that the Council had endorsed -the indictment, he made no further resistance. He was deposed on the -29th and accepted the sentence with words of humility and repentance. -A few days later the wretched man was consigned to the castle of -Gottlieben, and then to a castle at Mannheim. There was, in the -following year, a futile attempt to rescue him, and he was confined in -the castle of Heidelberg, where he remained three years, with a cook -and two chaplains of his once magnificent establishment, composing -verses on the vanity of earthly things. The hollow words of his -consecration-ceremony, <i>Sic transit gloria mundi</i>, had for him assumed -a terrible reality.</p> - -<p>How Gregory resigned, and Benedict retired with his tawdry court to a -rocky fortress of his, and the Council burned John Hus and appointed a -new Pope, may be read in history.<a name="FNanchor_270_270" id="FNanchor_270_270"></a><a href="#Footnote_270_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a> Martin left Cossa in Heidelberg, -but in the spring of 1419 his keeper was heavily bribed and he was -allowed to escape to Italy. It must have moved many when, as Martin -officiated at the altar in Florence cathedral, the familiar figure of -Baldassare Cossa broke from the throng and knelt humbly at his feet. -He was restored to the rank of cardinal, and, apart from a foolish -attempt, a few months later, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> form a Lombard league against the -Emperor, he lived peacefully in the house of Cosmo de' Medici until his -death in December (1419). He was buried with pomp by the Republic, and -the fine monument which Cosmo raised in the Baptistery shows that some -appreciable qualities must have been united with his undisputed vices.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_265_265" id="Footnote_265_265"></a><a href="#FNanchor_265_265"><span class="label">[265]</span></a> <i>Historia de Vita Papć Joannis XXIII.</i>, which must be -cited with reserve, as the author had a bitter quarrel with John and -is often inaccurate. See C. Hunger, <i>Zur Geschichte Papst Johanns -XXIII.</i> (1876). More reliable are the references in the <i>Commentarii -rerum suo tempore in Italia gestarum</i> (in Muratori, <i>Rerum Italicarum -scriptores</i>, xix.), of Leonardo of Arezzo, at one time John's -secretary. Leonardo's temperate verdict, that John was "a great man -in temporal things, but a complete failure and unworthy in spiritual -things," is endorsed by all. Exhaustive bibliographies will be found in -E.J. Kitto's excellent works, <i>In the Days of the Councils</i> (1908), and -<i>Pope John the Twenty-third and Master John Hus of Bohemia</i> (1910).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_266_266" id="Footnote_266_266"></a><a href="#FNanchor_266_266"><span class="label">[266]</span></a> As in modern Spain, the word "traffic" or "sale" would -be resented. The theory is that you give an alms to the Church and -the Church grants the indulgence. The amount of the alms is fixed -according to the grace required: there are four different <i>bulas</i> in -Spain today. It is hardly necessary to add that the agents did not -officially sell the pardon of sins, but the remission of the punishment -due in Purgatory for such sins as were confessed. Nevertheless we have -the official assurance of the Council of Constance (art. 20) that John -XXIII. "sold absolution both from punishment and guilt," and there are -other indications of this grave abuse.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_267_267" id="Footnote_267_267"></a><a href="#FNanchor_267_267"><span class="label">[267]</span></a> We learn from later letters of the Pope that he worked -for Sigismund in Germany, especially when a rival "King of the Romans" -was elected. See the evidence in Dr. J. Schwerdfeger's <i>Papst Johann -XXIII. und die Wahl Sigismunds zum römischen König</i> (1895).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_268_268" id="Footnote_268_268"></a><a href="#FNanchor_268_268"><span class="label">[268]</span></a> <i>Commentarii</i>, p. 928.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_269_269" id="Footnote_269_269"></a><a href="#FNanchor_269_269"><span class="label">[269]</span></a> The clergy had, of course, large troops of lay -followers, and numbers of lay doctors attended the Council, but we -have seen often enough the moral state of the clergy themselves in -the Middle Ages. A picturesque summary of the chroniclers is given by -Kitto, <i>Pope John the Twenty-third and Master John Hus of Bohemia</i>. See -also H. Blumenthal's <i>Die Vorgeschichte des Constanzer Concils</i> (1897) -and, for the proceedings, H. Finke's <i>Acta Concilii Constantiensis</i> -(1896), and H. von der Hardt's <i>Magnum Œcumenicum Constantiense -Concilium</i> (1696, etc.).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_270_270" id="Footnote_270_270"></a><a href="#FNanchor_270_270"><span class="label">[270]</span></a> I have not dwelt on Hus, as the Pope had little to do -with him. For some time, thinking to please the Emperor, John protected -Hus from his rabid opponents. The shameful ensnarement of Hus seems to -have been done without John's approval, and he was deposed before the -trial of Hus began.</p></div></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p> - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></p> - -<p class="center">ALEXANDER VI., THE BORGIA-POPE</p> - - -<p class="drop">T<span class="uppercase">hree</span> grave issues had been laid before the Council of Constance: the -repression of heresy, the ending of the Schism, and the reform of -the Church "in head and members." In the third year of their labours -the prelates and doctors put an end to the Schism and elected Martin -V.; and the new Pope soon put an end to the Council before it could -reform the Church. Martin was a Colonna of high ideals and considerable -ability; but he was not well disposed to this democratic method of -reform by Council, nor was he strong enough to sacrifice Papal revenue -by suppressing the worst disorder, the Papal fiscal system. He returned -to Rome, and the task of restoring the city and the Papal estates -demanded such resources that he dare not abandon the corrupt practices -of the Curia.</p> - -<p>Two worthy and able Pontiffs followed Martin, and equally failed -to bring about a reform. Eugenius IV., an austere, though harsh -and autocratic, Venetian, found that his attempts to recover Papal -territory and curb the Conciliar party would not permit him to reform -the financial system. The reformers forced on him the Council of -Basle in 1431, but its renewal of the Schism and creation of a last -Anti-Pope, when he resisted its proposals, discredited the Conciliar -move<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>ment. Reform must come from without: Popes and cardinals could -not effect it, and in the prevailing creed there was no canonical -basis for the action of a Council in defiance of them. Nicholas V., -a quiet man of letters, crowned the financial and political work -of his two predecessors with a great artistic restoration. He left -politics to Ćneas Sylvius and opened the gates of Rome to the fairer -form of the Renaissance. Greek artists and scholars were now pouring -into Italy—Constantinople fell to the Turks during this Pontificate -(1453)—and fostering the growth of the Humanist movement. Rome began -to assume its rich mantle of medićval art, and the Papacy seemed to -smile once more on a docile and prosperous Christendom.</p> - -<p>But the restoration had been accomplished by an evasion of reform, -and the new culture was sharpening the pens of critics. One of these -inquisitive scholars, Lorenzo Valla, was actually declaring that the -"Donation of Constantine" was a forgery. Many denounced, in fiery prose -or with the cold cynicism of the epigram, the luxury and vice of the -higher clergy. Heresy hardened in Bohemia, and, among the stricter -ranks of the faithful, men like Nicholas of Cusa, John Capistrano, and -Savonarola were raising ideals which, if they rebuked the laity, far -more solemnly rebuked the clergy. And just at this critical period -the Papacy entered upon a development which ended in the enthronement -of Alexander VI., Julius II., and Leo X.; the Reformation inevitably -followed.</p> - -<p>At the death of Nicholas V., the Orsini and Colonna cardinals came to a -deadlock in their struggle for the Papacy, and a neutral and innocuous -alternative was sought in Alfonso Borgia (or, in Spanish style, Borja), -a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> Spanish canonist of some scholarly distinction. Calixtus III., as he -named himself, was a gouty valetudinarian who lay abed most of the day -in pious conversation with friars. He very properly disdained the new -art and culture, and saved the Papal funds to meet the advancing Turks. -He had, however, one weakness, which was destined to prove very costly -to the Papacy. There was a tradition of nepotism at Rome, and Calixtus -had nephews. While he was Bishop of Valencia, his sister Isabella -had come to him from Xativa, their native place, with her two sons, -Pedro Luis and Rodrigo. When, in 1455, he became Pope, he sent Rodrigo -to study at Bologna and enriched him with benefices. Pedro Luis was -reserved for a lay career, and Juan Luis Mila, son of another sister, -was sent with Rodrigo to Bologna.</p> - -<p>At this time Rodrigo Borgia was in his twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth -year: an exceptionally handsome young Spaniard, with the most charming -Spanish manners, and with rich sensuous lips and an eye for maidens -which escaped his uncle's notice. He and his cousin were, within a -year, made cardinals. In December (1456) he was appointed legate for -the March of Ancona, and in the following May he was, in spite of the -murmurs of the cardinals, promoted to the highest and most lucrative -office at the Court, the Vice-Chancellorship. His elder brother became -Duke of Spoleto, Gonfaloniere of the Papal army, and (in 1457) Prefect -of Rome. Other needy Spaniards came over the sea in droves, and the -disgusted Romans were soon ousted from the best positions. In 1458, -however, Calixtus fell ill, and was reported to be dead; and the Romans -chased the "Catalans" out of the city. Rodrigo at first retired with -his more hated brother, but he cour<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>ageously returned on August 6th, -just in time to witness the actual death of his uncle.</p> - -<p>Ćneas Sylvius mounted the throne, under the name of Pius II., but -the Humanists looked in vain for favour to that genial diplomatist, -traveller, and <i>littérateur</i>. He had reached a gouty and repentant -age, and his one pre-occupation was to stir a lethargic Christendom -to a crusade against the Turks. Cardinal Rodrigo had been useful to -him, reserving a vacant benefice for him now and again, so he kept -his place and continued to win for himself wealthy bishoprics and -abbeys. For a moment, in 1460, Rodrigo trembled. Pius had sent him to -direct the building of a cathedral at Siena, and the Pope startled his -Vice-Chancellor with a stern letter. Rodrigo and another cardinal, the -Pope heard, had entertained a number of very frivolous young ladies for -five hours in a private garden. They had excluded the parents of these -girls, and there had been "dances of the most licentious character" and -other things which "modesty forbids to recount." It was the talk of the -town.<a name="FNanchor_271_271" id="FNanchor_271_271"></a><a href="#Footnote_271_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a> From the kind of dances and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> women which Alexander had in -the Vatican long afterwards we can imagine the things which startled -Siena. Rodrigo urged that there had been exaggeration, but the Pope, -while admitting the possibility of this, again sternly bade him mind -his behaviour.</p> - -<p>The long discussion of the morals of Alexander VI. has, in fact, -now ended in entire agreement that by the year 1460, at least, he -was openly immoral. The Papal and other documents relating to his -children—at least six in number—which have been found in the Vatican -archives and in the private archives of the Duke of Ossuna show an -extraordinary laxity at Rome. There is a Bull of Sixtus IV., dated -November 5, 1481, legitimizing the birth of Pedro Luis Borgia, "son -of a cardinal-deacon and an unmarried woman"; he is described as "a -young man," and was probably born about 1460. There is the marriage -contract of Girolama Borgia, dated 1482, which refers to the "paternal -love" of the Vice-Chancellor; she must then have been at least thirteen -years old. There is a document, dated October 1, 1480, dispensing from -the bar of illegitimacy Cćsar Borgia, "son of a cardinal-bishop and a -married woman"; and he is described as in his sixth year, or born about -1475. There is a deed of gift of Rodrigo to Juan Borgia, "his carnal -son," whose birth must fall either in 1474 or 1476. There are documents -referring to the celebrated Lucrezia, whose birth is generally put -in 1478, and to Jofre Borgia, who was born about 1480; and there are -documents from which we have—as we shall see later—the gravest -reason to conclude that the Pope had a son in 1497 or 1498, when he -approached his seventieth year. Except that a few hesitate, in face of -the strongest evidence, to admit the last child, no serious historian -of any school now questions these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> facts, and the evidence need not be -examined in detail.<a name="FNanchor_272_272" id="FNanchor_272_272"></a><a href="#Footnote_272_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a></p> - -<p>At least four of these children were born of Vannozza (or Giovannozza) -dei Catanei, a Roman lady who was the Cardinal's mistress from about -1460 to 1486. The story that she was an orphan entrusted to his care -and seduced by him is not reliable. Nothing is confidently known about -her early years, but her epitaph has been discovered, and it honours -her, not only for her "signal probity and great piety," but because -she was the mother of Cćsar, Juan, Jofre, and Lucrezia Borgia. Pedro -Luis and Girolama may have been born of an earlier mistress, but it is -not at all certain. Vannozza, who married three times, is constantly -mentioned, by the ambassadors, as Borgia's mistress. She had a handsome -mansion near the Cardinal's palace and the Vatican, and she entertained -there and in her country house long after Borgia became Pope and -replaced her by a younger mistress.</p> - -<p>These monuments of parentage are almost the only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> evidences of the -existence of Cardinal Borgia under Pius II. and Paul II. In 1471 a -pious and learned Franciscan friar, Sixtus IV., assumed the tiara, -and it is an indication of the strange temper of the times that under -such a man the Papal Court became more corrupt than ever.<a name="FNanchor_273_273" id="FNanchor_273_273"></a><a href="#Footnote_273_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a> Sixtus -vigorously restored the secular rule of the Papacy and encouraged the -artistic and cultural development, but his nepotism was shameless -and profoundly harmful. One of the nephews whom he drew from the -obscurity of a Franciscan monastery and made a prince of the Church -was Pietro Riario, who spent 260,000 ducats,<a name="FNanchor_274_274" id="FNanchor_274_274"></a><a href="#Footnote_274_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a> and within two years -of his promotion wore out his life in the most flagrant dissipation. -His immense palace, with its magnificent treasures, its five hundred -servants in scarlet silk, and its prodigious banquets, was the home of -every species of vice; and it is said that his chief mistress, Tiresia, -flaunted eight hundred ducats' worth of pearls on her embroidered -slippers. Another nephew was the sterner, though also immoral, Cardinal -Giuliano della Rovere—also brought from a monastery—whom we shall -know as Julius II. Other cardinals promoted by the friar-Pope were -equally notorious for their indulgence and for the unscrupulous quest -of money to sustain it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> - -<p>From the Bulls of Sixtus which I have quoted, it is clear that he was -acquainted with the vices of Borgia, yet he sent him as legate to -Spain, to excite interest in the crusade, in the spring of 1472. In -spite of some compliments, it does not appear that Borgia did more than -impress his countrymen with his display and gallantry, and he returned -toward the close of 1473 and built one of the most stately palaces -in the rich quarter which was now rising round the Vatican. When -Sixtus died, in 1484, he made a resolute effort to get the tiara. The -dispatches of the ambassadors who now represented the northern States -at the Vatican afford us a valuable means of checking the chroniclers, -and they put it beyond question that Borgia and Giuliano della Rovere -entered upon a corrupt rivalry for the Papacy. Giuliano was now a -tall, serious-looking man of forty: reserved in speech and brusque in -manners, a good soldier and most ambitious courtier. Although he was -known to have children, he kept a comparatively sober household and -reserved his wealth for special occasions of display and for bribery. -Borgia was his senior by thirteen years, but he had the buoyancy, -gaiety, and sensuality of a young man. He, too, kept a moderate table -and gambled little, but his amours were notorious and one could not -please him better than by providing a ballet of handsome women. To -these wealthy "up-starts" the haughty Orsini and Colonna were bitterly -opposed, and the announcement of the death of Sixtus let loose a flood -of passion. The splendid mansion of Count Riario, another nephew of -the late Pope, was sacked, the Orsini entrenched themselves on Monte -Giordano, and the other cardinals filled their halls with armed men.</p> - -<p>In the Conclave it was soon apparent that neither<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> Rodrigo nor Giuliano -could command the necessary two thirds of the votes, and they agreed to -adopt Cardinal Cibň, a Genoese noble who had outburned the passions of -youth before he entered the service of the Church. During the night of -August 28-29, when the supporters of Cardinal Barbo (who seemed to be -sure of election) had confidently retired to their cells, Rodrigo and -Giuliano, by intrigue and bribery, secured a majority for Cibň.<a name="FNanchor_275_275" id="FNanchor_275_275"></a><a href="#Footnote_275_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a> He -became Innocent VIII. the next morning, and during the eight years of -his amiable and futile Pontificate the College of Cardinals steadily -sank. Innocent's natural son was drawn from his decent obscurity and -made one of the richest and fastest nobles of Rome; and women were -hardly safe even in their own homes when Franceschetto Cibň roamed the -streets at night, with his cut-throats, in one of his wine-flushed -moods. He took so ardently to the new cardinalitial pastime of gambling -that in one night he lost 100,000 ducats to Cardinal Riario. Cardinal -la Balue left at his death a fortune of 100,000 ducats. Cardinal -Ascanio Sforza, brother of the ruler of Milan, was the leading -sportsman of Roman society. Cardinal Lorenzo Cibň owed his red hat -to the fortunate circumstance that he was an illegitimate son of the -Pope's brother. Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici, who was one day to be -Leo X., had received the tonsure in his eighth year and the title -of cardinal in his fourteenth. Cardinals Savelli, Sclafenati, and -Sanseverino were members of the fast and luxurious group. Each cardinal -maintained a large palace, with hundreds of gay-liveried servants and -ready swordsmen, and the wealthier seem to have studied with care the -pages in which Macrobius describes the exquisite or colossal banquets -of the older<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> pagans. Each—apart from the minority of grave and -virtuous cardinals—had his faction in the city, and, as carnival -time approached, they were engrossed for weeks in the preparation of -the superb cars and brilliant troops of horse by which each sought to -prove his superior fitness for the chair of Gregory I. and Gregory VII. -Innocent VIII. smiled; and the thunders gathered beyond the Alps.</p> - -<p>The state of Rome was in accord with the state of the Sacred College. -We may hesitate to believe Infessura when he tells us that, if -criminals were by some chance arrested, they bought their liberty at -the Vatican; but we have in Burchard's Diary a sombre, incidental -indication of the condition of Rome. There is in modern literature some -tendency to look with indulgent eye on the coloured gaiety of late -medićval Rome, but—to say nothing of the ideals which the cardinals -professed—the insecurity of life and property and the widespread -brutality show that this license was far removed from genuine Humanism. -Some years later, when Rodrigo's son Juan was murdered, a boatman -said, when they asked why he had not reported seeing a body cast into -the river, that it was not customary to have any inquiry made into a -nightly occurrence of that kind. Rodrigo Borgia, the Vice-Chancellor, -paid no heed to this condition of the city. He added year by year to -the long list of his bishoprics and emoluments, and prepared to renew -the struggle for the tiara. He lost, or discarded, Vannozza when she -married her third husband in 1486 and entered upon a more sordid and -equally notorious <i>liaison</i>. His cousin, Adriana Orsini, had charge -of a young orphan, Giulia Farnese, a very beautiful, golden-haired -girl. She married Adriana's son, Orso Orsini, in 1489—her fifteenth -year—and at the same time be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>came the Cardinal's mistress. Adriana -was rewarded with a considerable influence and the charge of the young -Lucrezia Borgia.<a name="FNanchor_276_276" id="FNanchor_276_276"></a><a href="#Footnote_276_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a></p> - -<p>The death of Innocent on July 25, 1492, led to fierce intrigue and -passionate encounters. There were more than two hundred murders in Rome -during the fourteen days before the Conclave, for which twenty-two -cardinals were, on August 6th, immured in the Sistine Chapel. Giuliano -della Rovere had spoiled his prospect by too patent a use of his -influence on Innocent VIII., and Borgia set himself to win the next -most important rival, Ascanio Sforza. Historians sometimes smile at -the statement of Infessura, that four mule-loads of silver passed from -Borgia's palace to that of Sforza, but it is not improbable. For some -centuries there had been a custom (abolished a few years later by Leo -X.) of sacking the palace of the cardinal who was elected Pope, and it -was not unusual to take precautions. Borgia may have sent the silver on -this pretext, as Infessura suggests, and he would hardly expect it to -be returned. It is, in fact, now certain that Sforza was bribed with -gifts far more valuable than Borgia's table silver; Borgia offered, -and afterwards gave him, his splendid palace, the Vice-Chancellorship, -the bishopric of Erlan (worth 10,000 ducats a year), and other -appointments. The sober Cardinal Colonna accepted the abbey of Subiaco -(or 2000 ducats a year). Eleven cardinals seem to have sold their -votes, and Borgia already had three supporters and his own vote. He -secured his majority and hastily retired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> behind the altar, where Papal -vestments of three sizes were laid out, and the genial Romans presently -roared their greetings to Alexander VI.<a name="FNanchor_277_277" id="FNanchor_277_277"></a><a href="#Footnote_277_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a></p> - -<p>Rome and Italy then sustained their parts in the comedy. Alexander, -although now sixty years old, was a vigorous and capable man, and some -advantage would be expected from his Pontificate. But one's sense of -humour is excited when one reads in Burchard's Diary, or in the letter -(reproduced by Thuasne) written by the General of the Camaldolite -monks, the description of the rejoicings at Rome. After the coronation -at St. Peter's on August 27th, Alexander received, on the steps of the -great church, the greetings of the orators who represented the northern -cities. One wonders what was the countenance of the massed prelates -and nobles when the Genoese orator read: "Thou art so adorned with the -glory of virtue, the merit of discipline, the holiness of thy life ... -that we must hesitate to say whether it is more proper to offer thee to -the Pontificate or to offer that most sacred and glorious dignity to -thee." And, as Alexander passed in stately procession to the Lateran, -he read on the triumphal arches which adorned the route, such maxims -as "Chastity and Charity," and "Great was Rome under Cćsar, now is she -most great. Alexander the Sixth reigns: Cćsar was a man, this is a God."</p> - -<p>I make no apology for inserting these apparently trivial details in so -condensed a narrative. They, most of all, illumine the next momentous -phase of the history of the Papacy. In that year, 1492, a little -German<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> boy, named Martin Luther, sat at his books in the remote town -of Mansfeld.</p> - -<p>Infessura records that Alexander opened his Pontificate with large -promises and small instalments of reform. He was going to improve the -condition of Rome and the Church, to pacify Italy, and to check the -Turks; he would remove his children from Rome and reduce the number of -sinecures at the Curia. He did, in fact, make a drastic beginning of -the administration of justice, and even appointed certain hours during -which he would himself hear grievances. Possibly he had a sincere mood -of reform; though we are not disposed to be charitable when we recall -the appalling levity with which, a few years later, after the murder of -his son, he returned to vicious ways. Whatever his initial mood was, he -soon entered upon courses which made his Pontificate one of the most -degraded in the annals of the Papacy. Modern research has discredited -some of the most romantic crimes attributed to him, but it leaves on -his memory an indictment which no eager search for good qualities can -materially lessen.</p> - -<p>He sustained the scandal of his personal conduct until the end of -his life, and I will dismiss it briefly. During the first four -years of his Pontificate, the youthful Giulia Orsini was his chief -<i>favorita</i>—others are occasionally mentioned with that title by the -ambassadors—and she was known to the wits of Rome as "the Spouse -of Christ." She and Adriana Orsini and Girolama (the Pope's elder -daughter) are described as "the heart and eyes of Alexander," and -suitors had to seek their favour. When Giulia's brother Alexander -received the red hat (Sept. 20, 1493), Rome gave the future Pope—who -was by no means without personal merit—the name of "The Petticoat -Cardinal." When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> her daughter Laura was born in 1497, the Pope was -generally believed to be the father; though that remains a mere rumour. -Pucci, in one of his dispatches, gives us a quaint picture. Giulia -lived in Lucrezia's palace, apart from her husband, and, when the -ambassador called one day in 1493, she dressed her long golden hair in -his presence, and insisted that he must see the baby; and he remarks -that the baby was "so very like the Pope that one can readily believe -he was the father." Giulia was an almost indispensable figure for some -years at the domestic (and even greater than domestic) festivities in -the Vatican, laughing with the cardinals at the prurient comedies and -still more prurient dances which enlivened the sacred palace.<a name="FNanchor_278_278" id="FNanchor_278_278"></a><a href="#Footnote_278_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a></p> - -<p>The last child attributed to him, though not accepted by all the -authorities, seems to have been born in 1496 (his sixty-sixth year). -There is a document dated September 1, 1501, legitimizing a certain -Juan Borgia, but there are two versions of this document.<a name="FNanchor_279_279" id="FNanchor_279_279"></a><a href="#Footnote_279_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a> The -first version describes him as the child of Cćsar Borgia: the second -says that he was born "not of the said Duke, but of us [Alexander] and -the said married woman." Creighton made the singular suggestion that -possibly Alexander was giving prestige to an illegitimate offspring -of his son, but it is now agreed that the second version is the more -authentic; it was to be kept in reserve for some grave dispute of his -rights. The distinguished Venetian Senator Sanuto tells us<a name="FNanchor_280_280" id="FNanchor_280_280"></a><a href="#Footnote_280_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a> that,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> -according to letters received from the Venetian ambassador at Rome -and from private persons, the Pope had, about this time, a child by a -married Roman lady, with the connivance of her father, and that the -angry husband slew his father-in-law and stuck his head on a pole, -with the inscription: "Head of my father-in-law, who prostituted his -daughter to the Pope." These concurrent testimonies are grave. Most -historians now rightly reject the charge that Alexander was intimate -with his daughter Lucrezia, since it rests only on bitterly hostile -Neapolitan gossip; but we cannot so easily set aside the persistent -statements of the ambassadors that a new <i>favorita</i> appears at the -Vatican from time to time. These were sometimes ladies of Lucrezia's -suite.</p> - -<p>Lucrezia, a merry, childish-looking, golden-haired girl, with her -father's high spirits and constant smile, is not likely to have -remained virtuous in such surroundings, but there is no serious -evidence of incest. Before her father's election she was betrothed -to a Spanish youth of moderate family, but her father cancelled the -espousals and married her, at the Vatican, in 1493, to Giovanni Sforza. -She was then, it is calculated, fifteen years old. Twelve cardinals -and a hundred and fifty of the great ladies of Rome attended the -wedding; and some of the prettier ladies remained to sup with the Pope -and cardinals, and applaud the loose comedies he provided. Giulia and -Lucrezia were present. When the Pope's policy estranged him from Milan, -he forced Lucrezia's husband to swear that the marriage had not been -consummated, and dissolved it. It seems probable that Giovanni, in -revenge, then put into circulation the suggestion of incest. Lucrezia -married Alfonso of Naples, who was murdered by her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> brother in 1500. -She then married the son of the Duke of Ferrara: and there is perhaps -no more terrible indictment of the Papal Court under Alexander than -the fact that, when his daughter was removed from it to Ferrara, -she earned, and kept until her death, a just repute for virtue and -benevolence.</p> - -<p>These marriages introduce us to Alexander's political activity, on -which some recent historians have passed a somewhat lenient judgment. -Apart, however, from the treachery and brutality with which his aims -were often enforced, we shall find that at his death he left the -Papacy almost landless and impoverished, and we must conclude that his -chief objects were his personal security and the aggrandizement of his -children.</p> - -<p>At the time of Alexander's accession, the duchy of Milan was improperly -held by Lodovico Sforza, brother of the Cardinal Ascanio, who sought -to convert his temporary regency into a permanent sovereignty. In -this ambition he had the support of France, while Ferrante of Naples -endeavoured to enforce the claim of the rightful Duke, Giovanni -Galeazzo. Alexander's indebtedness to Ascanio bound him at once to -the Sforzas, and the imprudence of Ferrante in helping his commander, -Virginio Orsini, to purchase from the nephew of the late Pope certain -towns which Alexander regarded as Papal fiefs, gave him an occasion -for animosity. Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere was implicated in this -sale, and when the Pope angrily rebuked him, he fled to Ostia and -fortified that commanding town. Alarmed at this cohesion of his enemies -and the support of their designs by Florence, Alexander entered into -a counter-league with Milan, Venice, Siena, Ferrara, and Mantua, and -married his daughter to Giovanni Sforza. Ferrante, however, appealed -to Spain, sub<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>mitting (with the support of Cardinal della Rovere) that -the corrupt election and profligate life of Alexander demanded the -attention of a General Council, and the Pope sought a compromise. The -matter of the towns in Romagna was adjusted, Alexander's son Jofre was -betrothed to an illegitimate daughter of Alfonso of Calabria, and his -younger son, Juan, Duke of Gandia, was wedded to a Spanish princess. -Cćsar was destined for the Church and was made a cardinal on September -20, 1493. As Alexander had sworn before his election not to create -new cardinals, and now calmly absolved himself from his promise and -promoted several, the hostile cardinals again angrily deserted him.</p> - -<p>Ferrante died on January 27, 1494, and the Pope had to confront a -delicate problem. France, instigated by Milan, pressed a claim to -the kingdom of Naples, and Alfonso II. demanded the investiture in -succession to Ferrante. Charles of France refused to be consoled with -the Golden Rose which Alexander sent him in refusing to recognize his -claim to Naples, and he threatened a General Council or a separation -of the French Church. When Alexander proceeded to take Ostia by force, -driving Cardinal Giuliano to France, and sent Cćsar to crown Alfonso -at Naples, the French monarch announced that he would lead his army -into Italy in order to recover Naples, to reform the Church, and to -conquer the Turks. The latter purpose furnished the Pope with a pretext -for a disgraceful move. Djem, the brother of the Sultan Bajazet, had -been enjoying the dissipations of Rome since 1489, and Bajazet paid -the Papacy 40,000 ducats a year to keep his younger brother in this -gilded captivity. Since Alexander's accession, Bajazet had refused -to pay the fee, and the Pope now wrote to the Sultan to say that the -King of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> France was coming to seize Djem and make him the pretext for -a war on the Turks; Bajazet must at once send 40,000 ducats to enable -him to resist the French. The Sultan sent the money, but his and the -Pope's envoy were captured by Cardinal della Rovere's brother, and were -relieved of the money and the Sultan's letter. When this letter was -published, Christendom learned with horror that the Sultan had offered -its Pope 300,000 ducats if he would have Djem assassinated.<a name="FNanchor_281_281" id="FNanchor_281_281"></a><a href="#Footnote_281_281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a></p> - -<p>Of the war which followed little need be said. As the victorious French -advanced, Alexander tremblingly vacillated. At one moment he imprisoned -the pro-French cardinals, and then released them; and at another moment -he packed his treasures for flight, and then decided to meet the French -King. Alfonso bewailed that the Pope's arm was too weak or too cowardly -to launch an anathema against the invader. In the end the Pope met and -disarmed Charles. To the intense disgust of Giuliano della Rovere, -who had come with the King in expectation of the tiara, he persuaded -Charles that an Italian, even in the chair of Peter, could hardly -be expected to lead a saintly life; and to the equal indignation of -Alfonso he, while refusing to recognize Charles's claim to the throne -of Naples, abandoned the Neapolitan alliance and gave his son Cćsar as -a hostage of his good behaviour. With similar treachery to the Sultan -he abandoned Djem to Charles, yet stipulated that the yearly 40,000 -ducats should still go to the Papal treasury.<a name="FNanchor_282_282" id="FNanchor_282_282"></a><a href="#Footnote_282_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p> - -<p>Charles took Naples, and soon learned that the versatile Pope had, -behind his back, entered into a league against him with Maximilian of -Germany, Ferdinand of Spain, Venice, and Lodovico Sforza. Alexander -prudently quitted Rome when the French King returned, and flung after -him a feeble threat of anathema, as he was cutting his way through the -allies. But by the aggrandizement of his family he made an evil use -of the peace which followed. Cćsar was made legate for Naples and his -nephew Juan legate for Perugia; and to his favourite son Juan, Duke of -Gandia, he assigned the important Papal fief of the duchy of Benevento, -to be held by him and his heirs for ever. Even loyal cardinals grumbled -at the scandal, while the outspoken and more distant critics spread in -every country the story of his private life. Alexander, delivered from -the menace both of France and Naples, cast aside all restraint. But his -gaiety was soon darkened by a grave tragedy, and it is, perhaps, the -most precise and most damning characterization of the man to record -that even this appalling catastrophe, occurring near the close of his -seventh decade of life, did not disturb for more than a few months the -licentious course of his conduct.</p> - -<p>On June 14, 1497, Vannozza gave a banquet to her sons and a few -friends in the suburbs. Cćsar and Juan returned to the city together, -and were joined by a masked man who had for some weeks been seen in -communication with the young Duke. Juan left his brother with a light -hint that he had an assignation, and the same night he was murdered and -his body<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> thrown into the Tiber. We are as far as contemporaries were -from identifying the murderer. That it was Cćsar Borgia few serious -historians now believe. That suggestion did not arise until nine -months after the murder, and the motives alleged are not convincing. -It is more plausibly claimed that the Sforzas and the Orsini adopted -this means of striking at the heart of the Pontiff, but it is equally -possible that Juan incurred the penalty of some dangerous seduction. -I am concerned only with Alexander. Appalled by this sudden clouding -of his prosperity, the Pope summoned his cardinals and announced with -tears that he would remove his children from Rome and abandon his -corrupt ways. Six cardinals were at once appointed to draw up a scheme -of Church-reform, and the draft of a Bull, which is still to be seen -in the Vatican archives, shows with what devotion Cardinals Costa and -Caraffa and their colleagues applied themselves to the long-desired -task. But before the end of the year Alexander had returned to his -vices and abandoned the idea of reform. He informed the cardinals -that he wished to release Cćsar from membership of their College, in -order that he might be free to contract an exalted marriage and pursue -his ambition; and it was then (December, 1497) that he brought about -the shameless divorce of Lucrezia from Giovanni Sforza. The Vatican -chambers resumed their nightly gaiety.</p> - -<p>The Orsini and the Colonna now buried their ancient and deadly feud and -united with Naples, and the demand for a General Council was ominously -echoed in Germany and Spain. Alexander sought at first a counterpoise -in Naples, and wished to marry Cćsar and Lucrezia into the family of -Alfonso. After some hesitation, and with marked reluctance, Alfonso -II. gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> his natural son Alfonso to Lucrezia, but he refused, in -spite of the political advantage, to degrade his daughter Carlotta -by a marriage with Cćsar. It is not immaterial to observe that Cćsar -had, like four other cardinals of the Church, contracted the "French -disease" which was then so fiercely punishing the vice of Italy. It -happened that at that time Louis XII. sought a divorce, and, at first -in the hope of bringing pressure on Naples, Cćsar, after resigning the -cardinalate on August 17th, was sent to gratify and impress the French -Court. Even Giuliano della Rovere, who lived quietly at Avignon, was -induced to enter the intrigue. Carlotta and her father still disdained -the connexion, but Louis offered Cćsar his young and beautiful niece, -Charlotte d'Albret, and the counties of Valentinois and Diois. They -were married on May 22d (1499), and the Papal policy entered upon a new -phase.</p> - -<p>The Papacy and Venice, preferring their selfish interests to the -welfare of Italy, allied themselves with France, and for the hundredth -time an invading army descended upon the plains of Lombardy. Spain and -Portugal were now angrily threatening to have the Pope—who, with equal -warmth, accused Isabella herself of unchastity—tried by a General -Council for his scandalous actions, and he and Cćsar formed the design -of establishing, with the aid of the French, a strong principality -for Cćsar in central Italy. The Neapolitan alliance was discarded, -and Bulls were issued to the effect that the Lords of Rimini, Pesaro, -Imola, Faenza, Forli, Urbino, and Camerino had failed to discharge -their feudal duties to the Papacy and had forfeited their fiefs. The -victorious progress of Cćsar in these territories was checked for a -time by a revolt at Milan, but that city was retaken by the French in -1500. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> successful Jubilee of 1500, which at one time drew 100,000 -pilgrims to Rome, filled the coffers and helped to exalt the spirit -of the Pope. His character, indeed, seemed to become more buoyant and -defiant as his age advanced. During that year he had a narrow escape -from death, owing to the fall of the roof of the Sala de' Pape, and -Lucrezia's husband was cut to pieces in his chamber by the soldiers, -and at the command, of Cćsar. These events hardly dimmed the joy of -the Pope. Cćsar received the Golden Rose and was made Gonfaloniere -of the Church; and he was permitted to appropriate a large share of -the Jubilee funds and to exact large sums from the cardinals whom -the Pope promoted in 1500. Meantime, the ambassadors relate, Giulia -Orsini retained her influence over the seventy-year old Pope, and other -<i>favorite</i> made a transient appearance at the Vatican.</p> - -<p>The next two years were employed in the establishment of Cćsar's power -in Romagna and the reduction of the Pope's personal enemies. Louis of -France and Ferdinand of Spain drew up their famous, or infamous, scheme -for the partition of Naples, and Alexander conveniently discovered -for them, and proclaimed in a Bull, that Federigo of Naples had, by -an alliance with the Turks, become a traitor to Christendom. The -fall of Naples involved the ruin of the Colonna, and they and the -Savelli were condemned to lose their estates for rebellion against -the Holy See. From part of these estates the Pope formed the duchy of -Sermoneta for Lucrezia's two-year-old son, Rodrigo, and the duchy of -Nepi was bestowed on his own infant son Juan. Alexander next turned -his attention to Ferrara, and, when Venice and Florence forbade him -to attack it, he arranged a marriage of the widowed Lucrezia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> with -the Duke's son Alfonso: overcoming the abhorrence of the proud Este -family by the influence of Louis XII. and by a grant to the Duke of all -Church-dues in Ferrara for three years. From Ferrara, when it fell to -his sister, Cćsar would have a comparatively easy march on Bologna, if -not Florence.</p> - -<p>So the year 1501 ended in such rejoicings as the fortune of the Borgia -family inspired. At the date October 11, 1501, Burchard dispassionately -notes in his diary that the Pope was unable to attend to his spiritual -duties, but was not prevented from enjoying, in the Vatican, a -"chestnut dance" and other performances of fifty nude courtesans whom -Cćsar introduced.<a name="FNanchor_283_283" id="FNanchor_283_283"></a><a href="#Footnote_283_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a> Lucrezia, whose purity some recent writers -are eager to vindicate, was present with her father and brother. On -December 30th she was married. Alexander gave her the finest set of -pearls in Europe and 100,000 ducats; and for a week Rome enjoyed such -spectacles and bull-fights as had not been seen for years. Within the -Vatican such comedies as the <i>Menćchmi</i> of Plautus were enacted before -the Pope and his family and cardinals. Even tolerant Italy now broke -into caustic criticisms, and Cćsar replied vigorously by the daggers of -his followers. The Pope genially urged him to let men talk.</p> - -<p>The last phase is, in its way, not less repulsive. By heartless -treachery and brilliant fighting Cćsar spread his sway over central -Italy and Alexander watched and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> spurred his progress. The Pope's -attendants had to endure unaccustomed fits of anger and abuse when his -son did not advance rapidly enough. He treacherously arrested Cardinal -Orsini; and the Cardinal's aged mother, who was ejected from her -palace, had to send to the Pope (by Orsini's mistress) a magnificent -pearl which Alexander coveted before she was allowed to provide her -son with decent food. Cardinal Orsini died, and his property was -confiscated. Cardinal Michiel died, and his fortune of 150,000 ducats -was appropriated. The College of Cardinals trembled and the famous -legend of the Borgia poison spread over Italy.<a name="FNanchor_284_284" id="FNanchor_284_284"></a><a href="#Footnote_284_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a> Nine new cardinals, -mostly of unworthy character, were created and are said to have paid -130,000 ducats for the dignity, and 64,000 ducats were raised by -inventing new offices in the Curia. Alexander, although seventy-two -years old, was in robust health, and looked forward to years of -pleasure under the protection of his victorious son. And one night in -the unhealthy heat of August (the 5th or 6th) he and Cćsar sat late -at supper with Cardinal Adriano da Corneto. Romance has it that the -poisoned wine they intended for their host was served to them: modern -history is content with the known malaria of an autumn night.<a name="FNanchor_285_285" id="FNanchor_285_285"></a><a href="#Footnote_285_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a> On -August 18th Alexander died,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> and both Cćsar and Cardinal Adriano were -seriously ill.</p> - -<p>Of other actions of Alexander his connexion with Savonarola alone -demands some consideration, and it must be treated briefly. On July -25, 1495, Alexander, in friendly terms, summoned Savonarola to Rome -to give an account of the prophetic gifts he claimed. Alexander was -very tolerant of criticisms of his vices, except where they might -provoke kings to summon a council, and it is probable that he wished -to silence the politician rather than the preacher; Savonarola -vigorously supported the idea of an alliance of Florence with France, -which the Pope opposed. Savonarola evaded the summons to Rome, and -the Pope suspended him from preaching and endeavoured to destroy his -authority by joining the San Marco convent to the Lombard Congregation. -Savonarola defeated the Pope on the latter point, and on February 11, -1496, he returned to his pulpit, in defiance of the Pope's order and -at the command of the Signoria of Florence. In explanation of his act -he urged that Alexander's Brief was based on false information and -invalid, and he denounced Roman corruption more freely than ever. -Alexander, in November, directed that a new congregation should be -formed out of the Roman and Tuscan convents,<a name="FNanchor_286_286" id="FNanchor_286_286"></a><a href="#Footnote_286_286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a> and when Savonarola -and his monks again defeated the project, the Pope had recourse to -secular measures.</p> - -<p>A mind like that of the exalted and feverish preacher <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>was not likely -to escape error and exaggeration in such circumstances, and his -opponents in Florence made progress. Alexander now offered the coveted -possession of Pisa to the Signoria if they would desert Savonarola -and the idea of a French alliance. The monk was forbidden by the -authorities to preach, and his defiance of the Signoria as well as the -Papacy led to disorders of which the Pope took advantage to publish a -sentence of excommunication (June 18, 1497). Alexander had meantime -again listened to entreaties of delay and inquiry, but when he heard -that the monk defied his anathema he said that the sentence must take -its course. Up to this point the Pope had, in view of the very strong -support which Savonarola had at Florence, proceeded with moderation, -though we may resent the insincerity of his attack; it was not the -prophecies, but the policy and the puritanism, of Savonarola which -interested him. He complained bitterly to the Florentine ambassadors of -Savonarola's attacks on himself and the cardinals, and was, as always, -alarmed by the monk's demand of a General Council. However, the monk, -not realizing the progress made by his enemies, struck a louder note -of defiance, and on the plea of the public disorders to which he gave -rise, he was arrested and put on trial. Alexander willingly granted -the authorities a tithe on the ecclesiastical property at Florence -when they announced the arrest. The sensitive monk was, by torture, -driven into some vague disavowal of his supernatural pretensions, and -he and two other friars were, on May 23, 1498, hanged by the Florentine -authorities as "heretics, schismatics, and contemners of the Holy -See." The sentence, however corruptly obtained, was technically just, -since in the legislation of the time contumacious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> defiance of the -Papacy implied heresy; but the respective positions of Savonarola and -Alexander VI. in the history of religious progress are a sufficient -monument to the bravery and inflexibility of the great Florentine -puritan.</p> - -<p>There are few good deeds to be put in the scale against the crimes and -vices of Alexander VI. He made a considerable, though futile, effort -to rouse Christendom against the advancing Turks. He fortified Sant' -Angelo, and engaged Pinturicchio to decorate the Vatican apartments. -He pressed the propagation of the faith in the New World, ordered the -examination and authorization of printed books, endeavoured to check -heresy in Bohemia, and vigorously defended the rights of the Church -in the Netherlands. These things cannot alter our estimate of his -character. He was a selfish voluptuary of—in view of his position—the -most ignoble type; he countenanced and employed fraud, treachery, and -crime; and the condition in which we shall soon find the Papacy will -show that his policy had not the redeeming merit of effecting the -security of the institution over which he ignominiously presided.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_271_271" id="Footnote_271_271"></a><a href="#FNanchor_271_271"><span class="label">[271]</span></a> The letter is given in Raynaldus, <i>Annales -Ecclesiastici</i>, year 1460, n. 31, and is translated in Bishop Mathew's -<i>Life and Times of Rodrigo Borgia</i> (1912), p. 35. It is misrepresented -in Baron Corvo's <i>Chronicles of the House of Borgia</i> (1901, p. 64). -The chief apologist for Alexander, A. Leonetti (<i>Papa Alessandro VI.</i>, -1880), made the easy suggestion that the letter was a forgery, but -Cardinal Hergenroether found the original in the Vatican archives. -See the able essay by Comte H. de L'Épinois (another Catholic writer) -in the <i>Revue des Questions Historiques</i> (April 1, 1881), p. 367. He -shows, by the use of original documents, that the apologetic efforts -of Ollivier, Leonetti, and a few others, are futile. Of these efforts -the leading Catholic historian of the Papacy, Dr. L. Pastor, observes: -"In the face of such a perversion of the truth, it is the duty of the -historian to show that the evidence against Rodrigo is so strong as to -render it impossible to restore his reputation" (<i>The History of the -Popes</i>, ii., 542).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_272_272" id="Footnote_272_272"></a><a href="#FNanchor_272_272"><span class="label">[272]</span></a> The decisive documents, from the archives of the Duke of -Ossuna, are published by Thuasne in his edition of Burchard's <i>Diarium</i> -(Appendix to vol. iii.). Dr. Pastor (ii., 453) has a good summary -of them, and there is other evidence in the <i>Lucrezia Borgia</i> of -Gregorovius. See also the essay of Comte H. de L'Épinois, quoted above, -and "Don Rodrigo de Borja und seine Söhne," by C.R. von Höfler, in the -<i>Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften</i>, Bd. 73. -The chief original authorities are J. Burchard (<i>Diarium</i>, edited by -Thuasne, 3 vols., 1884) and S. Infessura (<i>Diario</i>, in Muratori, iii.), -and the despatches of the Italian ambassadors at Rome. Burchard and -Infessura are gossipy and hostile, and must be controlled. Recent works -on the Borgias are too apt to reproduce lightly the romantic statements -of later Italian historians or contemporary Neapolitan enemies. The -work of Bishop Mathew, to which I have referred, is less judicious than -his volume on Hildebrand. Bishop Creighton's <i>History of the Papacy</i> -is rather too indulgent to Alexander and needs supplementing by the -documents in Pastor and Thuasne.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_273_273" id="Footnote_273_273"></a><a href="#FNanchor_273_273"><span class="label">[273]</span></a> M. Brosch, the scholarly author of a study of Julius -II. (<i>Papst Julius II.</i>, 1878), observes that research in the Rovere -archives has discovered no trace of the Paolo Riario who is assigned -as the father of Sixtus's nephews, and concludes that they were his -natural sons. But Paolo Riario is expressly mentioned in the funeral -oration on Cardinal Pietro Riario, and is more fully described in Leone -Cobelli's <i>Cronache Forlivesi</i>. There is no sound reason to impeach the -chastity of this Pope, as even Creighton does.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_274_274" id="Footnote_274_274"></a><a href="#FNanchor_274_274"><span class="label">[274]</span></a> The gold ducat is estimated at about ten shillings of -English money, but probably this does not express its full purchasing -power.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_275_275" id="Footnote_275_275"></a><a href="#FNanchor_275_275"><span class="label">[275]</span></a> See the dispatches quoted in Thuasne's Burchard, vol. -ii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_276_276" id="Footnote_276_276"></a><a href="#FNanchor_276_276"><span class="label">[276]</span></a> I may repeat that I am not reproducing disputed -statements, or relying on uncertain chronicles, in these chapters. The -evidence may be examined in Thuasne, Pastor, L'Épinois, Creighton, -Gregorovius, and von Reumont (<i>Geschichte der Stadt Rom</i>, 3 vols., -1867-8).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_277_277" id="Footnote_277_277"></a><a href="#FNanchor_277_277"><span class="label">[277]</span></a> See the evidence in Thuasne (ii., 610), L'Épinois (pp. -389-91), and Pastor (v., 382). A writer in the <i>American Catholic -Quarterly Review</i> (1900, p. 262) observes: "That Borgia secured his -election through the rankest simony is a fact too well authenticated to -admit a doubt."</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_278_278" id="Footnote_278_278"></a><a href="#FNanchor_278_278"><span class="label">[278]</span></a> Again I may refer to the convenient summaries of the -evidence in Pastor (v., 417), L'Épinois (398), Gregorovius (Appendix, -no. 11, etc.), and Creighton (iv., 203).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_279_279" id="Footnote_279_279"></a><a href="#FNanchor_279_279"><span class="label">[279]</span></a> There are copies, reproduced by Gregorovius, in the -archives at the Vatican, at Modena, and at Ossuna.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_280_280" id="Footnote_280_280"></a><a href="#FNanchor_280_280"><span class="label">[280]</span></a> <i>Diarii</i> (ed. F. Stefani), i., 369.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_281_281" id="Footnote_281_281"></a><a href="#FNanchor_281_281"><span class="label">[281]</span></a> Alexander said that the letter published was a forgery, -and some historians have sought to prove this by internal evidence. It -is the general feeling of recent authorities that the letter is, at -least in substance, genuine. See Creighton (iv., Appendix 9) and Pastor -(v., 429).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_282_282" id="Footnote_282_282"></a><a href="#FNanchor_282_282"><span class="label">[282]</span></a> Djem died shortly afterwards, and it was rumoured that -Alexander had earned the 300,000 ducats by administering a slow poison -before he left Rome. But the better authorities tell us that the -weakened and dissolute youth contracted a chill and died of bronchitis.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_283_283" id="Footnote_283_283"></a><a href="#FNanchor_283_283"><span class="label">[283]</span></a> <i>Diarium</i>, iii., 167. The details of this dance, -which Burchard describes, and of the orgy which followed, may not -be translated. It is absurd to question Burchard's evidence on this -matter; he was then Master of Ceremonies at the Papal Court and -describes every move of the Pope. The Papal servants took part in the -performance, and he could easily learn the details. The Florentine and -other ambassadors speak of Cćsar repeatedly introducing these women -into the Vatican at night.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_284_284" id="Footnote_284_284"></a><a href="#FNanchor_284_284"><span class="label">[284]</span></a> There is, as Pastor and Creighton admit, grave reason to -think that Orsini and Michiel were poisoned, but charges of this kind -are difficult to check, and certainly there is a good deal of romance -in the Borgia legend. The death-rate of cardinals under Alexander was -not more than normal. See Baron Corvo's <i>Chronicles of the House of -Borgia</i> (1901), and R. Sabatini's <i>Life of Cesare Borgia</i> (1911).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_285_285" id="Footnote_285_285"></a><a href="#FNanchor_285_285"><span class="label">[285]</span></a> The poison theory is not mentioned by Burchard or the -chief ambassadors, and is positively advanced only by Neapolitan or -later writers. No historian seems now to entertain it. Alexander's -illness, which lasted thirteen days, followed a course more consistent -with malaria, and the very rapid decomposition of his body, which seems -to have impressed Lord Acton, is not inexplicable at that season.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_286_286" id="Footnote_286_286"></a><a href="#FNanchor_286_286"><span class="label">[286]</span></a> Savonarola was head of the Tuscan Congregation of the -Dominican Order, and these proposals—which were inspired by jealous -colleagues at Rome—aimed at putting him under a new and hostile -jurisdiction.</p></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></p> - -<p class="center">JULIUS II.: THE FIGHTING POPE</p> - - -<p class="drop">T<span class="uppercase">he</span> single merit which sober historians award to Alexander VI. is that, -in forming a powerful principality for his son in central Italy, he was -re-establishing the States of the Church and ensuring the protection -of the Papacy. The course of events after his death prevents us from -acknowledging this claim, and Alexander himself must have been well -aware that Cćsar Borgia would, if his State endured, protect the Papacy -only on condition that he might continue to dominate it. He told -Machiavelli that he had made ample preparation to secure his position -at the death of his father, but his own illness wrecked his plans. This -is untrue. He was quite able to direct his servants and at his father's -death they began to enforce his blustering policy. Some forced their -way, at the point of the dagger, to the Papal treasury, and carried off -the money and plate left by the Pope: leaving his enormous debts to his -successor. Others sought to intimidate the cardinals. But Cćsar's power -in the North at once began to crumble, his enemies gathered in force -from all sides, and he was defeated. The cardinals would not assemble -until his troops, and those of France, Spain, and Venice, withdrew from -Rome.</p> - -<p>The chief contest in the Conclave, which began on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> September 16th, lay -between the French Cardinal D'Amboise and Giuliano della Rovere, who -returned from Avignon. Neither could secure the necessary majority, -and Cardinal Piccolomini, nephew of Pius II., was chosen to occupy the -throne until a stronger man could prevail. The more luxurious cardinals -may have smiled at the rejoicing with which reformers greeted the -aged and virtuous Pius III., for they knew that he suffered from an -incurable malady. He died, in fact, ten days after his coronation, or -on October 18th, and the struggle was renewed. Giuliano della Rovere -now pushed his ambition with equal energy and unscrupulousness. He -promised Cćsar Borgia, who controlled the extensive Spanish vote, that -he would respect his possessions and make him Gonfaloniere of the -Church<a name="FNanchor_287_287" id="FNanchor_287_287"></a><a href="#Footnote_287_287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a>; he distributed money among the cardinal-voters; he agreed -to the capitulation that whoever was elected should summon a council -for the purpose of reform within two years, and should not make war on -any Power without the consent of two thirds of the cardinals. He worked -so well that the Conclave, which met on October 31st, was one of the -shortest in the history of the Papacy. Within three hours the sealed -window was broken open and the election of Julius II. was announced.</p> - -<p>We have in the last chapter followed the romantic early career of -Giuliano della Rovere. He was born on December 5, 1443, at Albizzola, -near Savona, of a poor and obscure family. His uncle, being first a -professor and then General of the Franciscan Order, sent him to be -educated in one of the monasteries of that Order. Some historians -strangely doubt whether he actually took the religious vows, but it -was assuredly not the custom of the friars to keep young men in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> -monasteries to the age of twenty-eight unless they were members of -the fraternity. At that age (in 1471) Fra Giuliano and his cousin Fra -Pietro heard that their uncle had become Sixtus IV., and they were -raised to the cardinalate.</p> - -<p>Giuliano did not emulate the vices which carried off his younger cousin -within two years. He "lived much as the other prelates of that day -did," says Guicciardini, in a sober estimate of his character, and his -three known daughters confirm the great historian of the time; but -he kept a comparatively moderate palace and spent money on a refined -patronage of art and culture. He displayed some military talent when -he commanded the Papal troops in Umbria in 1474, and afterwards served -as Legate in France (1476) and the Netherlands (1480). He, as we saw, -maintained his position after his uncle's death by corruptly ensuring -the election of Innocent VIII. and exercising a paramount influence -over that Pontiff. His power inflamed the animosity of his rivals, and -at the accession of Alexander VI. he was driven from Italy. From his -quiet retreat in Avignon he instigated the French monarch to invade -Italy and depose Alexander, and, when Alexander gracefully disarmed -Charles, Giuliano returned in disgust to Avignon. It is true that -in 1499 he rendered some service to Alexander, in connexion with -Cćsar's marriage, but he felt it safer to remain in Avignon until -the announcement of Alexander's death recalled his many enemies to -Rome.<a name="FNanchor_288_288" id="FNanchor_288_288"></a><a href="#Footnote_288_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p> - -<p>In 1503, at the date of his election, Julius II. had long outlived his -early irregularities, and had no personal vices beyond a fiery temper -and a taste for wine which his enemies magnified into a scandal. The -familiar portrait by Raphael brings him closer to us than any of the -Pontiffs whom we have yet considered. He was then in his sixtieth year, -with a scanty sprinkling of grey locks on his massive head, and with an -aspect of energy and determination which must have been lessened by the -long white beard he grew in later life. Though troubled—like most of -the Popes of this period—with gout, he was still erect and dignified, -and the cardinals, who had hardly seen him for ten years, can have had -little suspicion of the volcanic fires which were concealed by his -habitual silence and quiet enjoyment of culture. They soon learned -that they had created a master, and they lamented that he united the -manners of a peasant with the vigour of a soldier. He consulted none, -and he lavished epithets on those who lingered in the execution of his -commands. Yet this brusque and abusive soldier was destined, not merely -to place the Papal States on a surer foundation than ever, but to do -far more even than Leo X. for the artistic enhancement of Rome.</p> - -<p>The supreme aim which Julius held in view from the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>beginning of -his Pontificate was the restoration of the Papal possessions, but I -may dismiss first the actions or events which have a more personal -relation. He heard or said mass daily, and paid a strict regard to -his ecclesiastical duties. He reorganized the administration of the -city and the Campagna, suppressed disorder, purified the tribunals, -reformed the coinage, and in many other respects corrected the vices of -his predecessor, whom he had loathed. These <i>marańas</i> (half-converted -Spanish Jews), as he called the Borgias, had fouled Italy with their -presence. He improved the Papal table, which had been singularly -poor under Alexander, but the vicious parasites whom Alexander had -encouraged now shrank from the Vatican. At first he indulged the -characteristic Papal weakness, nepotism. At his first Consistory -(November 29, 1503) two of the four cardinals promoted were members -of his family—his uncle and nephew—and two years later he married -his natural daughter Felicia to one of the Orsini, his niece Lucrezia -to one of the Colonna, and his nephew Niccolň della Rovere to Giulia -Orsini's daughter Laura. One cannot say, as some historians do, -that he was no nepotist; though one may admit that, in the words of -Guicciardini, "he did not carry nepotism beyond due bounds." To the -obligations he had contracted in bargaining for the Papacy he was quite -unscrupulously blind, and, although he issued a drastic Bull against -simony in 1505 (January 14th), his grand plans imposed on him such an -expenditure that he even increased the sale of offices and indulgences -until the annual income of the Papacy rose to 350,000 ducats.</p> - -<p>Julius at once made it plain that he was not only determined to -recover the Papal States, but would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> override any moral obligation or -sentimental prejudice in the pursuit of his object. The treasury was -empty, and he had contracted, at the price of several Spanish votes, -to respect the person and possessions of Cćsar Borgia. But Venice had -encouraged the petty lords of Romagna to recover the places which Cćsar -had wrested from them, and itself had designs on some of the towns. -Grasping the pretext that the whole of Romagna was thus in danger, -Julius summoned Cćsar to surrender the remaining strongholds to the -Church. When Cćsar refused, he found himself a prisoner of the Pope, -instead of Gonfaloniere of his troops, and he seems to have been dazed -by the sudden collapse of his brilliant fortune. Spain withdrew the -Spanish mercenaries from Cćsar's service, Venice occupied Faenza and -Rimini, and most of his towns cast off their enforced allegiance. -After a futile struggle with the Pope the fallen prince surrendered to -Julius his three remaining towns—Cesena, Forli, and Bertinoro—and was -allowed to retire to Naples. There, at the treacherous instigation of -the Pope,<a name="FNanchor_289_289" id="FNanchor_289_289"></a><a href="#Footnote_289_289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a> he was arrested and sent to Spain. He escaped from Spain -two years afterwards, and died in 1507, fighting in a petty war on a -foreign soil.</p> - -<p>Venice, now at the height of her power and flushed with wealth and -conquest, paid little heed when, in the winter of 1503-4, Julius made -repeated demands for the restoration of the places she had seized in -Romagna. She had, she said, not taken them from the Church, and the -Church would, if she restored them, hand them to some other "nephew." -The Venetian ambassador at Rome seems to have miscalculated entirely -the energy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> of the Pope, and Venice probably thought that her support -of his candidature and his lack of troops and resources promised a -profitable compromise; nor can we wonder if statesmen failed at times -to see the justice of the Roman contention, that seizure by the sword -was a legitimate title in princes who gave cities to the Church but -wholly invalid in princes who took them from the Church. Venice offered -to pay tribute for the towns which had been Papal fiefs. This Julius -sharply refused, and he appealed to France, Spain, and the Emperor to -assist him. Toward the close of the year (September 22, 1504) Louis -and Maximilian concluded an agreement at Blois to join Julius against -Venice, but a quarrel destroyed the compact, and Julius had again to -deal with Venice. The Venetians surrendered all but Faenza and Rimini, -and Julius, with a protest that the retention of these towns was -unjustified, resumed amicable relations with them.</p> - -<p>The Pope's next move has won the admiration of many historians, though -it has prompted so liberal a judge as Creighton to exclaim that "his -cynical consciousness of political wrong-doing" is "as revolting as -the frank unscrupulousness of Alexander VI." During the period of -disintegration of the Papal States the Baglioni had mastered Perugia -and the Bentivogli had taken possession of Bologna. Julius had at his -accession confirmed the position at Bologna, but in the spring of -1506 he resolved to recover both cities. France and Spain hesitated -to lend their aid for this project, and on August 26th he impetuously -ended the slow negotiations by sending a peremptory order to France -to assist him and setting out at the head of his troops. With only -five hundred horse—though he had sent on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> an envoy to engage Swiss -mercenaries—Julius and nine of his cardinals set out on the long -march to Perugia. At Orvieto his anxiety found some relief. Giampaolo -Baglione, realizing the force which the Pope would eventually command, -came to surrender Perugia, and at the beginning of September Julius -sang a solemn mass in the Franciscan convent at Perugia which had -once been his home. His energy was now fully aroused, in spite of -the discouragement of the word sent by Louis XII. It is said that he -already talked of leading his valiant troops against the Turks when -he had settled the affairs of Italy. He crossed the hills, in bleak -early-winter weather, in spite of gout, at the head of his 2500 men, -and boldly sent on to Bentivoglio a sentence of excommunication and -interdict. Bentivoglio—more deeply moved by the approach of 4000 -French soldiers—fled, and, again without striking a blow, the Pope -entered Bologna in triumph on November 11th.<a name="FNanchor_290_290" id="FNanchor_290_290"></a><a href="#Footnote_290_290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a> After spending five -months in the reorganization of government he returned to Rome on March -28th (1507) and enjoyed a magnificent ovation. It may give a juster -idea of his mental power to add that he had already (on April 18, 1506) -laid the first stone of the new St. Peter's designed on so vast a scale -by Bramante.</p> - -<p>Three months after his return to Rome Julius had fresh and grave reason -for anxiety. France and Spain had composed their differences, and in -June of that year Ferdinand was to sail from Naples to meet the French<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> -King at Savona. Julius moved down to Ostia to greet him, and must have -been profoundly disturbed when the galley conveying Ferdinand and -his young French wife passed the port without a word. He would hear -that the two Kings held long and secret conferences at Savona, and -that among the five cardinals with them was D'Amboise, Louis's chief -minister, who still hungered for the tiara of which Julius had robbed -him. There had for some time been bad news from France. Louis was -reported as saying: "The Rovere are a peasant family; nothing but the -stick on his back will keep the Pope in order." Julius sent Cardinal -Pallavicino to Savona, but he was not admitted to the counsels of the -monarchs. It was rumoured that they meditated the reform of the Church: -which meant a council and an inquiry into the election of Julius II.</p> - -<p>Papal diplomacy, which, when Papal interests were endangered, never -considered "Italian independence," for a moment now dictated an -alliance with the Emperor-elect, Maximilian, who had himself proposed -to come to Rome for his coronation. There are vague indications that -that dreamy monarch already entertained the idea of uniting the tiara -with the imperial crown on his own head.<a name="FNanchor_291_291" id="FNanchor_291_291"></a><a href="#Footnote_291_291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a> However that may be, -Julius sent Cardinal Carvajal to dissuade him from coming to Rome, -to bring about an alliance of the Christian Powers against the Turks -(which would disarm Ferdinand and Louis as regards Julius), and to -enter into a special alliance with France and Germany against Venice. -The Papal envoy Aretini told the Venetian envoy that, when the danger -to Italy from an alliance of Louis and Maximil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>ian was pointed out, -Julius exclaimed: "Perish the whole of Italy provided I get my -way."<a name="FNanchor_292_292" id="FNanchor_292_292"></a><a href="#Footnote_292_292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a> The proposal was, at all events, treacherous; for both -Julius and Maximilian had treaties of peace with Venice. But the age of -which Machiavelli has codified the guiding principles was insensible -to considerations of political honesty. Maximilian attacked Venice and -was defeated, because she had the support of France. Then France was -poisoned against the prosperous Republic, and the League of Cambrai was -formed on December 10, 1508: Maximilian, Louis, and Ferdinand entered -into a secret alliance for the destruction of Venice, and the Pope, as -well as the Kings of England and Hungary, were invited to join in the -act of brigandage.</p> - -<p>It is clear that Julius hesitated for some months to join the League; -though his hesitation was probably due to some anxiety at the prospect -of seeing the victorious armies of France and Germany in Italy once -more. He tried to induce the Venetians to restore Faenza and Rimini -to him and merit his protection. When they refused, he joined the -League (March 23d) and put his spiritual censure on the Venetians. -The campaign occupied only a few weeks, and the vast territory of the -Republic was divided among the conquerors, the Pope receiving Ravenna -and Cervia as well as Faenza and Rimini. But the ill fortune and -anxiety of Venice promised him further gains if he would break faith -with his allies and deal separately with the Republic. To preserve the -remnants of their territory the Venetians approached the Pope. At first -he exacted formidable sacrifices, and, when they refused and importuned -him, he went to his palace at Civita Vecchia to enjoy the rest, if not -the pleasures, which Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> gossip so darkly misrepresented.<a name="FNanchor_293_293" id="FNanchor_293_293"></a><a href="#Footnote_293_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a> He -perceived, however, that the annihilation of Venice would endanger his -own security, and in time he accepted the evacuation of Romagna and the -abandonment of the Venetian exercise of authority over the clergy.</p> - -<p>Louis XII. learned with great indignation in the summer of 1509 that -Julius had not only withdrawn from the League of Cambrai, but was now -endeavouring to form a league with Venice, Ferdinand, Maximilian, and -Henry VIII. against himself. Henry and Maximilian refused to join, but -Julius engaged fifteen thousand Swiss and added these to the Papal and -Venetian troops. As the Duke of Ferrara was leagued with the French -against Venice, and refused to follow the Pope's political example, -Julius issued against him an anathema which a writer of the time -describes as making his hair stand on end, and resolved to add Ferrara -to the growing Papal States. In August he set out once more, dressed in -simple rochet, with the troops, and made the tiring march to Bologna. -There his great plans nearly came to a premature end. The Swiss failed -him, and the French appeared in force before Bologna, where he lay -seriously ill and greatly disedifying his attendants by the vehemence -of his rage. No doubt his threats of suicide, which are recorded, -were merely vague and rhetorical expressions of his despair. He saved -himself, however, by a deceptive negotiation with the French commander -until his reinforcements arrived, and, as his health recovered, his -vigorous resolution became almost ferocious. The long white beard in -Raphael's portrait of him reminds us how, at this time, he swore that -he would not shave again until he had driven the French from Italy. -Louis was now taking practical steps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> toward the summoning of a General -Council, and the temper of the Pope was terrible to witness. In the -depth of winter, not yet wholly recovered from his long fever, he -rejoined the troops, sharing the hardships of camp-life and stormily -scolding his generals for their slowness. He never led troops on the -field, but he interfered in the placing of artillery and more than once -exposed himself to fire. At the capitulation of Mirandola he shocked -his cardinals by ordering that any foreign soldiers found in the town -should be put to the sword.</p> - -<p>He spent some months thus passing from town to town, infusing his fiery -energy into the troops, but his successes and his personal conduct of -the war inflamed the indignation of the French King. Louis not only -sent reinforcements to his army, but he, with his adherent cardinals, -arranged for the holding of a General Council on Italian soil. <i>Perdam -Babylonis Nomen</i> ("I will erase the very name of Babylon") was the -terrible motto he now placed on his medals. In quick succession the -Pope learned that the Bentivogli had recovered Bologna and derisively -broken into fragments the magnificent statue of Julius which Michael -Angelo had erected: that his favourite Cardinal Alidosi had been -assassinated by his (the Pope's) nephew and commander the Duke of -Urbino; and that Louis and Maximilian, with the seceded cardinals, had -announced a General Council of the Church at Pisa and summoned Julius -II. to appear before it.</p> - -<p>The attendants who marched by the Pope's closed litter, as he returned -to Rome on June 26, 1511, concluded from his unrestrained sobs and -groans that his power, if not his life, approached its end. His health -was ruined and his troops were scattered. But there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> was an energy -mightier than that of Hildebrand in his worn frame, and with some -improvement in his condition he raised his head once more. He had in -the spring created eight new cardinals, to replace the seceders, and -he now announced that a <i>real</i> Ecumenical Council would assemble at -the Lateran on April 19, 1512. That was his answer to Pisa, and to -the Papal aspirations of the Cardinal of Rouen and the Emperor-elect. -He again fell dangerously ill—so ill that his death was confidently -expected. Election-intrigue filled the corridors of the Vatican, and -a band of democrats held a meeting in the Capitol and decided, at his -death, to restore the republican liberty of Rome. In a few weeks the -terrible old man rose from his bed, thin and white but with unbroken -energy, and scattered the intriguers. He anathematized the schismatical -cardinals, and announced (October 4th) that he had formed a Holy League -with Ferdinand of Spain and Venice for the defence of the Church; -Maximilian was presently induced to join the League, and before the end -of 1511 Henry VIII. was persuaded, by a promise of assistance in his -designs on France, to give it his adhesion. Only three months before -Julius had apparently lain at the point of death, his new possessions -utterly ruined. Now he once more commanded the situation. The -schismatical Council of Pisa, which opened on November 1st, turned out -a puny French <i>conciliabulum</i>, with fourteen bishops and five abbots to -represent the universal Church.</p> - -<p>The campaign which began in January need not be followed in detail. -After a series of varying engagements the French won a crushing victory -at Ravenna, and there was panic at Rome. The cardinals demanded peace -with France, but Giulio de' Medici, cousin of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> Cardinal Giovanni, who -had been captured by the French, now came to describe the exhausted -condition of the French army, and Julius resolved to prosecute the war. -He opened his General Council at the Lateran on May 3rd, and had at -least the satisfaction of seeing seventy Italian bishops respond to his -summons. Then, covering his preparations by a pretence of considering -the terms which Louis XII. offered him, he engaged further troops, -fired his commanders, and induced Maximilian to withdraw the four -thousand Tirolese mercenaries from the French ranks. In a few weeks -the French were driven out of Italy, the schismatics were forced to -transfer their discredited Council to French soil, and the Pope found -himself master of Bologna, Ravenna, Rimini, Cesena, Parma, Piacenza, -and Reggio. In appraising Julius as founder of the Papal States one -must bear in mind the history of this remarkable period. In October, -1511, Julius was stricken and apparently ruined; by the summer of 1512 -he was master of the richest provinces of Italy. But he had not left -Rome, and his personal action at this juncture was slight in comparison -with those tremendous earlier exertions which had ended in disastrous -failure.</p> - -<p>Julius was far from satisfied, and his conduct in the hour of victory -was at the low political level of the time. He assisted the Medici to -impose themselves again on Florence, and the Sforza to recover Milan. -He then made a lamentable effort to secure Ferrara. The Duke came to -Rome, under a safe-conduct of the Papal General Fabrizio Colonna, -and of the Spanish ambassador, to plead that he had acted only in -honourable discharge of his engagements to France, Julius had approved -the safe-conduct, but when the Duke re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>fused to surrender his territory -to the Church, the Pope affected to discover that he had committed -crimes not covered by the safe-conduct and detained him. The Colonna -redeemed the credit of Italy by cutting their way through the Papal -guards and restoring Alfonso, after romantic adventures, to his duchy. -When the poet Ariosto was afterwards sent by Alfonso to make peace -with the Pope, he had to fly for his life; Julius, in one of his now -frequent outbursts of violence, threatened to have him thrown into the -sea.</p> - -<p>To the end Julius pursued his tortuous diplomacy. Neither Spain nor -Germany wished to see any increase of his power, and he was forced to -abandon his designs on Ferrara. He then disrupted his Holy League, -and made a fresh alliance with Maximilian against Venice and to the -disadvantage of Spain. Julius was concerned about the growing power -of Spain in Italy; and we shall hardly be unjust if we suspect that, -as Alexander VI. had done, he dreamed of adding Naples to the Papal -dominion. But he never entirely recovered his health, and his great -schemes were closed by death on February 20, 1513. He was neither -a great soldier nor a great statesman. There is no indication that -his interference in the military operations was useful, and, as I -pointed out, the one permanently successful campaign was fought -while he directed an ecclesiastical Council at Rome. In the sphere -of politics and diplomacy he relied on cunning and deceit rather -than statesmanship, and, if he had not represented a spiritual power -to which the nations were bound to return in the end, he would have -been mercilessly crushed. He had, also, little ability to organize -such possessions as he obtained, and his career is marred by violent -outbursts and acts of treachery and cruelty. It is sometimes said that -he was the greatest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> Pope since Innocent III. One imagines the shade -of that great spiritual ruler shuddering; and one is disposed to agree -with Guicciardini that, if Julius was great, a new meaning must be put -on the word. He had wonderful energy, and by good fortune his aim was -finally attained.</p> - -<p>In view of this strenuous campaign for the recovery of the Papal -States, we can expect only a slender record of strictly Pontifical -work. Julius attended to the propagation of the faith in the new lands -beyond the seas, and he impelled the Inquisitors to check the spread -of heresy. That he restrained the Spanish Inquisition, and supported -its exclusion from Naples, was not due to humane feeling, but to its -exorbitant claims of independent authority. He forbade duelling, and -endowed a college of singing for the maintenance of the Papal Choir. -His Lateran Council was, of course, a political expedient, but there -is evidence that when death closed his career Julius was turning more -seriously to plans of reform. In spite of his own Bull against simony, -the Curia remained as corrupt as ever, and money was raised in all the -evil ways known to it. It is, however, curious and creditable to have -to place one great reform to the merit of Julius. He passed so drastic -a decree against corruption at Papal elections that the rivals who -gathered in Rome after his death did not dare to employ bribery.</p> - -<p>Julius is probably most deserving of esteem for his artistic work. The -literary parasites who swarmed about his successor have associated the -glory of late medićval Rome with the name of Leo X., but discriminating -research is convincing historians that Leo did not even sustain the -great work of his predecessor. The bold scheme which Julius adopted -was due to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> artists rather than to his own inspiration, yet he has -the distinction—no mean distinction for one immersed, as he was, in -an exacting policy—of reflecting at once the vast ideas which were -put before him. The new St. Peter's which he was compelled to think of -building was not intended at first to be of great dimensions, but he -accepted Bramante's design of a church far larger even than the St. -Peter's of today, and, in spite of his costly wars, he enabled the -architect to employ 2500 workers. He accepted Bramante's designs for a -new Vatican and for the Cortile di Damaso. He engaged Michael Angelo to -carve a princely marble tomb for himself—his one great luxury—and, -when his interest was transferred to the less selfish task of building -St. Peter's, he set the artist to the execution of his immortal work -on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. Michael Angelo made also, as I have -noted, a great statue of Julius at Bologna, but this was destroyed at -the return of the Bentivogli. There were many quarrels between the two -men, but Michael Angelo found in Julius a manliness and a greatness of -conception, if not a feeling for art, the lack of which he bitterly -criticized in Leo X.</p> - -<p>Cristoforo Romano, Sansovino, Perugino, Signorelli, Pinturicchio, -and other great artists were enlisted in the work of making the -ecclesiastical quarter of Rome the artistic centre of the world. Some -of the finest of the old Greek sculptures which were then being sought -in the rubbish of medićval Italy were bought for the Belvidere, and -painters of distinction were richly encouraged. New frescoes and new -tombs were ordered in the churches of Rome; the walls and aqueducts -were repaired; handsome new streets were laid out; and the cardinals -and wealthier citizens were moved to co-operate with the Pontiff in his -plans for the exaltation of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> Rome. We may deplore that the money for -these plans was largely obtained by the sale of spiritual offices and -indulgences, and we must resent the fact that money obtained by these -means was diverted to the purposes of war. But the magnificence of -the design and the generosity with which Julius prosecuted it as long -as he lived seem to be a more solid and enduring merit than his good -fortune—for in the decisive stage it was little more—in recovering -a rich dominion which would but serve to enhance the frivolity of his -successor.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_287_287" id="Footnote_287_287"></a><a href="#FNanchor_287_287"><span class="label">[287]</span></a> Burchard, <i>Diarium</i>, iii., 293.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_288_288" id="Footnote_288_288"></a><a href="#FNanchor_288_288"><span class="label">[288]</span></a> Guicciardini's <i>Storia d'Italia</i> and Burchard's -<i>Diarium</i> are the chief authorities, supplemented by the dispatches -of the Italian ambassadors. There is a slight and somewhat antiquated -biography by M.A.J. Dumesnil (<i>Histoire de Jules II.</i>, 1873) and an -abler study by M. Brosch (<i>Papst Julius II.</i>, 1878). J.F. Loughlin -has a candid account, chiefly based on Brosch, of his early career in -<i>The American Catholic Quarterly Review</i>. Special treatises will be -noticed in the course of the chapter, but there is little dispute about -the facts I give. Full references will be found in the very ample, -if somewhat lenient, study of Dr. Pastor (vi.), and in the works of -Creighton, Gregorovius, and von Reumont.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_289_289" id="Footnote_289_289"></a><a href="#FNanchor_289_289"><span class="label">[289]</span></a> Pastor (vi., 244) quotes from the Vatican archives a -letter in which Julius urges the Spanish commander at Naples to arrest -Cćsar.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_290_290" id="Footnote_290_290"></a><a href="#FNanchor_290_290"><span class="label">[290]</span></a> The date was fixed by the astrologers, but Burchard -says that, in order to show his contempt for their science, Julius -unceremoniously entered the town on the previous day. He acted more -probably from sheer impatience. More than one event during his -Pontificate, including his coronation on November 26, 1503, was -arranged by the astrologers.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_291_291" id="Footnote_291_291"></a><a href="#FNanchor_291_291"><span class="label">[291]</span></a> See A. Schulte, <i>Kaiser Maximilian I. als Kandidat für -den Papstlichen Stuhl</i> (1906). The point is disputed.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_292_292" id="Footnote_292_292"></a><a href="#FNanchor_292_292"><span class="label">[292]</span></a> Quoted by Brosch, p. 333.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_293_293" id="Footnote_293_293"></a><a href="#FNanchor_293_293"><span class="label">[293]</span></a> Priuli (<i>Diario</i>, ii., 102) says that Romans spoke of -his "Ganymedes."</p></div></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p> - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></p> - -<p class="center">LEO X. AND THE DANCE OF DEATH</p> - - -<p class="drop">W<span class="uppercase">hen</span> Julius II. made his last survey of the world in which he had -played so vigorous a part, he must have concluded that he had placed -the Papacy on a foundation more solid than any that had yet supported -it. The Conciliar movement, its most threatening enemy in the mind of -the Popes, had been discredited by the failure of its latest effort -and by the naked ambitions of those who supported it. The princes -of the world had proved less stubborn than in the days of the early -Emperors, and the Papacy had now a broad and strong base of secular -power. The new culture had been, to a great extent, wooed and won by -the Pope's princely patronage of art and embellishment of Rome; and the -Inquisition, in one form or other, could silence the intractable. There -was still, among the dour and distant northerners, much cavilling at -the avarice and luxury of Rome, but, if the succeeding Popes used the -Lateran Council to ensure some measure of reform, it would diminish; -it had, in any case, not yet proved dangerous. Neither Julius nor any -other had the least suspicion that the Papacy was within five years of -the beginning of an appalling catastrophe.</p> - -<p>We have, however, seen that the opinions which were to bring about -that catastrophe had long been diffused<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> in Europe, and a particular -conjunction of circumstances might at any time convert them into -rebellious action. For more than a century, there had been a critical -scrutiny of the bases of Papal power, and to a large extent the Papacy -had escaped the consequences by a greater liberality toward rulers and -by sharing with them the wealth it extracted from the people. France -maintained the Pragmatic Sanction, which Rome detested, and other -countries gave rather the impression of federation than of abject -submission to a spiritual autocracy. Moreover, while the pressure -of the central power was eased, doctrinal rebellion seemed to make -little progress. Lollardism was extinct, Hussitism confined to a sect, -Savonarolism murdered. Yet the Reformation was coming, and we see now -that Luther was but the instrument of its deliverance.</p> - -<p>It is impossible here to discuss all the causes of the Reformation, -and a few considerations will suffice for my purpose. Printing had -been invented and printed sheets were being circulated. Men were now -reading—which provokes independent reflection—rather than sitting -at the feet of oracular schoolmen. Among the books which poured out -from the press, moreover, the Bible—in spite of a popular fallacy on -that subject—occupied an important place, even in the vernacular. -Further—and this was most important of all—the last great extension -of the Papal fiscal system, the granting of indulgences for money, was -in one important respect based on a novel speculation of the schoolmen -and was not supported by Biblical Christianity. The realization of this -stimulated men to get behind the fences of Decretals and scholastic -speculations, and to claim a reform which should be something more than -the substitution of a good Pope for a bad Pope. Finally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> the renewed -corruption of the Papal Court under Leo X. set this psychological -machinery in conscious motion.</p> - -<p>Twenty-five cardinals were enclosed in the Sistine Chapel on March -4th for the election of the new Pope. Wealth was now of no direct -avail, for all accepted the Bull of Julius condemning bribery. Some of -the poorer cardinals, knowing that their votes were not marketable, -had tried to secure the treasure (about 300,000 ducats) left by -Julius, but the keeper of Sant' Angelo had been incorruptible. Yet we -must not emphasize the absence of bribery: there is such a thing as -gratitude for favours to come. For nearly a week the enclosed cardinals -discussed and negotiated. It is confidently stated that, while the -older cardinals were, as usual, divided in allegiance to several -of their body, the younger cardinals stood aloof and were secretly -resolved to elect Giovanni de' Medici. Cardinal Giovanni lay abed in -his little cell—imagine the Sistine Chapel containing thirty-one -bedrooms—suffering from fistula. A surgeon was with him in the -Conclave, and his condition was unpleasantly felt in the sealed room. -A close friend of his, Bernardo Dovizo, or Bibbiena as he was commonly -called, canvassed for him, and assured the cardinals of his liberal and -grateful disposition, his high origin, and his peaceful intentions. -He was only thirty-seven years of age, but the older cardinals may -have concluded that his malady compensated for his youth. At the first -scrutiny, on March 10th, he was elected, and he took the name of Leo X.</p> - -<p>The earlier life of Leo X. has been told in the previous chapters. -The second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, born on December 11, 1475, -he was thrust into the ranks of the clergy at the age of seven, he -received the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> title of cardinal at the age of fourteen, and he was -openly admitted to the Sacred College two years later. He had received -a stimulating education from the Humanist scholars of Florence, and -amidst the dissipations of Rome he remained a sober and diligent -scholar. He retired to Florence under Alexander VI., and, when his -family were driven from power and repeatedly failed to recover it, -he travelled in Germany, the Netherlands, and France. Under Julius -II., he found some favour and became Legate for Bologna and Romagna. -He was captured by the French at the fatal battle of Ravenna, but -he made his escape on their retreat from Italy, and soon afterwards -became the chief representative of his house on their restoration to -Florence. His public record was, therefore, slight, and his time had -been mainly devoted to the cultivation of letters and the enjoyment -of art, especially music. His interests were so well known that on -one of the triumphal arches erected for his coronation it was boldly -announced that Venus (Alexander) and Mars (Julius) had now made way for -Minerva; which a more discerning neighbour had modified by erecting -an assurance that Venus lived for ever. It was, and is, believed that -his life before he became Pope was free from irregularity. In spite of -three fasts a week and a strenuous devotion to the chase, he was an -abnormally fat man, and his pale, puffy face was not improved by his -large myopic eyes, which saw little without the aid of a glass. But -his unfailing smile, his charming manners, his ready wit, his prodigal -generosity, and his unalterable love of peace and sunshine promised a -genial contrast to the reign of his predecessor, and Rome gave him a -princely welcome.</p> - -<p>There are three chief aspects of the Pontificate of Leo X. which it -is material to consider, and, although<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> it is difficult entirely -to separate them, it is convenient to attempt this. There is his -political—or more correctly his diplomatic—action, which, though, -in that Machiavellian age, it seemed only a degree worse than was -customary, impresses the modern mind as almost revolting in its studied -duplicity. There is his personal life, which inspired the reformers -with volumes of vituperation, while modern writers seem able to regard -it without much sentiment. And there is the Pontifical activity which -culminates in the struggle with Luther. His relation to medićval art is -less important than is commonly supposed.</p> - -<p>Medićval Italy was no place for a prince of peace, and Leo soon found -that, if he were to avoid the sword, he must follow a crooked course. -He sincerely loathed the clash of swords. He loved jewels and music -and comedies and books; he wanted to spend the Papal treasury in -surrounding himself with pretty things and flashes of wit—and he thus -spent the whole of Julius's 300,000 ducats in two years. But France -and Venice thirsted for revenge and sought his support; while the -envoys of Milan, Spain, England, and the Empire claimed his blessing, -and his ducats, for the opposite side. While, however, in the actual -condition of Italy, the Papal States were safe, a victory of France and -Venice would bring perils. Leo secretly joined the Holy League against -France, and secretly paid for the service of 45,000 Swiss mercenaries. -The policy turned out well. France was driven back, and the leaders of -the schismatical cardinals, Carvajal and Sanseverino, came to Rome, -and humbly accepted Leo's obedience. France repudiated the schism, and -Venice, after a desultory struggle, was pacified.</p> - -<p>Leo found some time for domestic matters, of which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> two may be noted -here. On September 23d (1513) he created four cardinals, of whom three -were relatives and one a literary friend. Bernardo Bibbiena (or Dovizo) -had, as I said, promoted his interest in the Conclave, and at earlier -times, and was an accomplished literary man; he was also entirely -devoid of moral sentiment, composed the most indecent comedy that was -enacted at the Vatican, and was a genius at organizing festivities. -Innocenzo Cibň, son of Innocent VIII.'s natural son Franceschetto and -Leo's sister Maddalena, was a youth who seemed eager to emulate the -scandalous repute of his father. Giulio de' Medici, cousin of the Pope, -had already received a Papal dispensation from illegitimacy, and the -quiet and delicate youth was advanced a little nearer to the Papacy. -Lorenzo Pucci, lastly, was quite a distinguished canonist, and a -relative of Leo; he was also expert in pushing the sale of indulgences -and very solicitous about his own commission.</p> - -<p>Leo then regarded the fortunes of the chief lay members of his family. -His brother Giuliano, a highly cultivated man of thirty-four, was too -much softened by vice and indulgence to carry out the Medici policy -at Florence. This policy, embodied in a paper of instructions which -there is good reason to ascribe to Leo himself, was entrusted to the -Pope's nephew Lorenzo, a vigorous young sportsman. Giuliano was made -a Baron of Rome and commander of the Papal army—Leo remarking that -he trusted there would be no demand upon his military talent—and it -was so confidently rumoured that the Pope proposed to make him King -of Naples that Ferdinand was alarmed and had to be reassured. It is -still disputed whether Leo really had this intention, or whether he -merely proposed to make a small principality in central Italy for his -worthless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> brother; nor, in view of the secrecy and duplicity of the -Pope's methods, is the point ever likely to be settled on a documentary -basis. It seems consistent both with the course of events and with -Leo's character to suppose that he kept both alternatives in mind, -but that nepotism was not the <i>first</i> principle of his policy: his -fundamental idea was the maintenance of his own luxurious security.<a name="FNanchor_294_294" id="FNanchor_294_294"></a><a href="#Footnote_294_294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a></p> - -<p>In this pleasant promotion of his friends and relatives and their -innumerable followers, in the prodigal encouragement of the artists, -musicians, poets, and jewellers who flocked to Rome from all parts, -Leo spent two years which were only slightly clouded by the rapid -exhaustion of the Papal treasury. Meantime, however, the political -situation had once more claimed his impatient attention, and we may -for the moment confine ourselves to that interesting aspect of his -work. Louis, disgusted with the Papacy, approached Ferdinand of Spain -and was prepared to abandon to him his claims on Milan, Genoa, and -Naples. This prospect of the enclosure of Papal territory in a Spanish -vice threw the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> Pope into a fit of diplomatic activity. He secretly -negotiated with Venice and Florence and Ferrara, and sent a legate -to England to help to reconcile Henry VIII with Louis. He trusted -to induce these Powers to form a league with him for the purpose of -driving the Spaniards out of Italy, and aimed at securing Naples for -his brother.<a name="FNanchor_295_295" id="FNanchor_295_295"></a><a href="#Footnote_295_295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a> In October the French King married Mary Tudor, and -the Spanish spectre was laid. But, with the unvarying logic of Papal -politics, the fear of Spain was succeeded by a fear of France, and the -Pope had recourse to the kind of diplomacy which is characteristic of -him, and in which, we are assured, he took great pleasure. He made a -secret treaty with Spain for the defence of Italy, and a secret treaty -of alliance with Louis against Spain.<a name="FNanchor_296_296" id="FNanchor_296_296"></a><a href="#Footnote_296_296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a> He encouraged Louis, who -held out to him the prospect of Naples, to attack Italy, and secretly -promised to assist Milan and the Emperor against the French if Louis -did attack Italy, which he thought improbable. He thus, he thought, -secured a principality for Giuliano, whichever side won. "When you have -made a league with one man," he used to say, "there is no reason why -you should cease to negotiate with his opponent."</p> - -<p>This policy, it is recorded, cost Leo sleepless nights, though not on -account of moral scruples. Louis pressed him for a definite alliance -against Milan, and he tried to evade it by pleading that it was -not meet for Christian princes to engage in warfare while the Turk -threatened Europe. The death of Louis in January (1515) made matters -worse, as his successor, Francis I., determined with all the vigour -and ambition of youth to press the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> French claims. Leo kept a legate -negotiating with Francis, and we learn from the Legate's letters that -he offered an alliance on condition that Naples should be surrendered -to Giuliano. In the meantime (February 1st), he secretly approved of -the league of Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Milan, and Genoa against -France, and stipulated that he should have Parma, Piacenza, Modena, and -Reggio; he would pay 60,000 ducats a month to the league, and would -induce Henry VIII.—partly by making Wolsey a cardinal—to join it. -In July he secretly signed the league, yet continued his deceptive -correspondence with France. We have still the document in which Leo, -after joining the league, offered an alliance to Francis on condition -that he renounced his claim to Parma and Piacenza, made peace with -Spain with a view to meeting the Turks, and surrendered his claim to -Naples "in favour of the Holy See or of a third person approved by the -Holy See."<a name="FNanchor_297_297" id="FNanchor_297_297"></a><a href="#Footnote_297_297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a></p> - -<p>During the campaign which followed, Leo wavered according to the news -he received. When the French took Milan, he made peace with them; they -were to respect the position of the Medici at Florence, and Leo was -to renounce the Papal claim to Parma and Piacenza. He had, however, a -more creditable object in view than the interest of his family. He met -Francis at Bologna, and there can be no doubt that they then agreed to -substitute a Concordat for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> Pragmatic Sanction of 1438. For the -promise of a tithe on his clergy, Francis surrendered their Gallican -privileges, and became, as he thought, the real ally of the Pope. Leo -ordered the Swiss to refrain from attacking the French in Milan, and -listened approvingly to the King's designs on Naples. Within three -months, however, the Emperor Maximilian led a body of Swiss troops, in -the pay of Henry VIII., to an attack on Milan, and Leo was summoned -by Francis to dispatch troops in accordance with their agreement. -Carefully retarding the levy of his troops so that they should not -arrive in time, and keeping a legate by the side of Maximilian, Leo -awaited the result. The expedition failed, and he sought favour with -the exasperated Francis by revealing to him that Henry VIII. had -secretly paid the Swiss, and by sending once more an insincere command -that the Swiss must not dare to attack an ally of the Papacy. He sought -to retain the favour of Maximilian by reminding him that he had sent -him two hundred Papal horse under Mark Antonio Colonna; and to Francis -he protested that Colonna had acted without permission. He then assured -Francis that he had sent a legate to induce Maximilian to make peace -with France, and he gave secret instructions to the legate that such a -peace would not be to the interest of the Papacy.</p> - -<p>This is the admitted framework of that diplomacy which Roscoe contrives -to dress in such opulent phrases, and it was a policy that Leo never -altered. His next step was to seize the duchy of Urbino for his nephew -Lorenzo: a step which, after all his apologies, Dr. Pastor admits to -have "something repulsive about it." The Duke of Urbino (nephew of -Julius II.) had, in spite of his feudal obligations, refused to attack -the French at the command of the Pope, and seems to have dis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>cussed -with Francis the duplicity of the Pope's procedure. Yet his liberality -to the Medici in the days of misfortune had been such that Giuliano -earnestly joined with Francis I. in imploring Leo to overlook his -conduct. Leo harshly refused, and, to the disgust of many, the duchy -was subdued and given to Lorenzo. I may conclude this matter by -recounting that in 1517 the exiled Duke recovered his territory, and -the long struggle for his ejection cost the Papal treasury, according -to Guicciardini, 800,000 ducats.</p> - -<p>A fresh anxiety clouded the Pope's pleasures when he heard that France, -Spain, Germany, and Switzerland had formed an alliance, and that -Francis I. and Charles V. (who succeeded Ferdinand on January 23d) -were virtually to divide northern and central Italy between them. This -project was abandoned, but in the following year an even more serious -event alarmed the Pope. The younger cardinals who had pressed his -election were generally aggrieved. Fast and luxurious as most of them -were, they had expected a larger pecuniary gratitude on Leo's part, -and they observed with annoyance that his relatives and his literary -admirers secured the greater part of his lavish gifts. In 1517, one -of these worldly young cardinals, Petrucci, conceived a particular -animosity against Leo, on account of some injustice done to his -brother, and there is little room for doubt that he spoke and thought -of having the Pope assassinated. Whether or no we trust the romantic -story told by Guicciardini and Giovio, that the surgeon who attended -the Pope was to poison his wound, we can hardly accept the opposite -rumour, that the whole conspiracy was invented by the Pope or his -brother in order to secure money. Petrucci was not offered the option -of a fine; and Cardinals Riario and Sauli confessed that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> they knew of -the plot. After a dramatic period of inquiry and incrimination Petrucci -was, in spite of the protests of cardinals and ambassadors, strangled -in his prison, and the flesh of his guilty servants was torn from their -bones with red-hot pincers. Cardinal Riario paid 150,000 ducats for his -release, and the less wealthy Cardinal Sauli 25,000. Cardinals Soderini -and Castellesi fled, when they were impeached, and their property and -that of Cardinal Petrucci was seized.</p> - -<p>These events caused the gravest scandal throughout Christendom. -Cardinal Riario was the Dean of the Sacred College, and many preferred -to think that the plot was an invention for the purpose of securing -funds rather than that the cardinals had sunk so low. The dilemma was -painful, but we can have little doubt that Leo, at least, was convinced -of the reality of the plot. Instead of proceeding with greater -caution, however, he went on to give a fresh ground of criticism. -In a Consistory which he held on June 26th, he told the cardinals -that he was going to add no less than twenty-seven members to their -college. Their stormy protests increased his determination, and on -July 1st he promoted thirty-one cardinals. The rumour at once spread -through Christendom, and is in substance undoubted, that most of the -new cardinals paid large sums of money for the dignity; Sanuto makes -individual payments rise as high as 30,000 ducats. Some of them were -men of low character, and others were either related to, or had lent -money to, the Pope.</p> - -<p>We may, however, conclude the political consideration before we discuss -these domestic matters. Maximilian induced the Diet of Augsburg to -elect his grandson Charles as his successor to the imperial title,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> -and, as a Bull of Julius II. enacted that the investiture of the -kingdom of Naples reverted to the Papacy if its holder became King of -Rome, the Pope was pressed to give a dispensation from this Bull. Leo -pleaded that his "honour" was at stake; but he secretly negotiated with -Francis (who bitterly opposed the dispensation) and with Charles, and -bargained shamelessly for his refusal or consent. In the end Francis -(out of funds raised in the name of a crusade) gave Lorenzo de' Medici -100,000 ducats "for services rendered," and promised a further sum of -100,000 to the Pope. It is an equally undisputed fact that on January -20, 1519, Leo, Lorenzo, and Francis entered into an alliance; the Pope -and his nephew were to promote the interests of Francis, and the French -King was to protect the Papal States and the estates of the Medici -family, and to admit the claims of the Church at Milan. It is, perhaps, -the choicest example of Leo's diplomacy—"unparalleled double-dealing," -Dr. Pastor calls it—that he secretly drew up a similar treaty with -Spain and signed it a fortnight after he had signed the preceding -(February 6th).</p> - -<p>In the meantime Leo heard that Maximilian had died on January 12th, -and he confronted, or evaded, the situation in his distinctive way. He -informed his German legate that Charles was already too powerful, and -that either Frederic of Saxony (whom he wished to induce to surrender -Luther) or Joachim of Brandenburg (a docile noble) ought to have -the imperial title. Hearing, however, that these candidates had no -prospect, he adopted Francis I. and urged him to defeat Charles. His -policy at this stage is not wholly clear, and it is possible that at -first he pitted Francis against Charles in the hope of making profit -from one or the other. In time he seems seriously to have adopted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> -Francis. He, on March 12th, offered the red hat to the Electors of -Trčves and Cologne, and proposed (on the 14th) to make the Archbishop -of Mayence (a disreputable prelate) permanent legate for Germany; -and he then, on May 4th, issued a Brief to the effect that if three -Electors agreed in their choice the election should be valid. His -schemes were shaken for a moment by the premature death of Lorenzo, -which moved him, in a nervous hour, to exclaim that henceforward he -belonged, "not to the house of Medici, but to the house of God." -But his associates were not kept long in suspense. He attempted to -incorporate Urbino in the Papal States, and, when Francis objected that -Urbino belonged to Lorenzo's surviving child (and her French mother), -the Pope began to abandon France. He was just in time to approve -Charles and promise a dispensation in regard to Naples before that -prince was elected to be Emperor.</p> - -<p>But the consciousness of his long opposition to Charles weighed upon -him, and in September he again made a secret treaty with Francis I.; he -would refuse the crown of Naples to Charles and would promote French -interests by secular and spiritual weapons in return for the French -King's aid against Charles and against "insubordinate vassals." Vassals -of Leo X. cannot easily have kept pace with the remarkable policy of -their feudal lord, but we are hardly reconciled to the Pope's mingled -greed and nepotism. He secured Perugia and some of the smaller places -in Ancona and Umbria, and made an unsuccessful attempt to get Ferrara. -During all this time, he listened amiably to German proposals for -an alliance, and in the first months of 1521 he again duped the two -monarchs. In January—and it was repeated in March and April—he gave -the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> representatives of Charles a written assurance that he had no -engagements to the disadvantage of that monarch and would not incur any -within three months; in the same month (January) he agreed to secure -for Francis, for the purpose of an attack on Naples, a free passage -through the Swiss lines, and to receive in return Ferrara and a strip -of Neapolitan territory.</p> - -<p>By this time, however, the shadow of Luther had fallen on the -Papal Court. The magnitude of the danger in Germany was by no -means appreciated, but Leo was eager to get Luther to Rome and -must conciliate the Emperor. In May, hearing that the French were -approaching the Swiss and the Duke of Ferrara, he formed an alliance -with Charles and prepared to use all his forces to drive his former -ally out of Italy. The campaign opened successfully, but Leo did not -live to see the issue and profit by it. He caught a chill as he sat at -an open window in November watching the popular rejoicing, and died on -December 1st, at the age of forty-two. Both the leading authorities, -Giovio and Guicciardini, accept the current belief that either the Duke -of Ferrara or the late Duke of Urbino had had him poisoned, but it is -now generally recognized that the recorded symptoms of his seven days' -illness point rather to malaria.</p> - -<p>This admitted career of duplicity will not dispose us to expect a -domestic atmosphere of virtue and piety at the Vatican, and it is -singular that any historian has affected to find such. That Leo heard -or said mass daily, and was attentive to his ceremonious obligations, -is not, in that age, inconsistent with impropriety of conduct. His -lavish charity was a becoming part of his habitual liberality, and his -weekly fasts were rather intended to reduce the flesh than to subdue -it. On the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> other hand, some of the frivolous remarks attributed to him -have not the least authority. When the Venetian ambassador ascribes to -him the saying, "Let us enjoy the Papacy now that God has given it to -us," we may or may not have a mere popular rumour, though the phrase -is at least a correct expression of Leo's ideal; but that the Pope -ever mockingly attributed his good fortune to "the fable about Jesus -Christ" is not stated until long after his death, and then only by an -English controversialist, the ex-Carmelite Bale. Whether Leo was or was -not addicted to sins of the flesh is not a grave matter of historical -inquiry, but the evidence seems to me conclusive that, at least in his -Pontifical days, he was irregular.<a name="FNanchor_298_298" id="FNanchor_298_298"></a><a href="#Footnote_298_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a></p> - -<p>The character of life at the Vatican and in Rome under Leo X. was, -indeed, such as to prevent us from imputing any moral scruples to the -Pope. Leo spent, on the lowest estimate, five million ducats in eight -years, and left debts which are variously estimated at from half a -million to a million ducats. He must have spent nearly Ł300,000 per -year, and in order to make his official income of about 400,000 ducats -meet this strain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> he created and sold superfluous offices—they were -estimated at 2150 at this death,—pressed the sale of indulgences and -the exaction of fees and first-fruits, and borrowed large sums at -exorbitant rates of usury; several of his bankers and friends were -ruined at his death. A very large proportion of this money went in -gifts to literary men and scholars. Leo was a royal spendthrift of the -most benevolent and thoughtless nature. All the scribblers of Italy -flocked to Rome, and money was poured out without discrimination as -long as it lasted. Yet letters and scholarship actually decayed owing -to the recklessness of the payments. "The splendour of the Leonine -age, so often and so much belauded, is in many respects more apparent -than real," says Dr. Pastor, who has several valuable chapters on -Leo's relation to letters and art. The Roman University, which the -Pope at first supported with great liberality, was suffered to decay, -and great artists were not always encouraged. Ariosto was treated -harshly, and, while Rafael and his pupils were richly employed, Michael -Angelo was little used. Leo did not adequately appreciate sculpture -or architecture, and even the building of St. Peter's made very -little progress during his Pontificate. It is true that the state of -the Papal finances was the chief reason for the neglect of the great -architectural and educational plans of his predecessors. The check to -the sale of indulgences—brought about by Cardinal Ximenes in Spain -as well as by Luther in Germany—was felt severely at Rome.<a name="FNanchor_299_299" id="FNanchor_299_299"></a><a href="#Footnote_299_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a> -But we read that to the end Leo spent prodigious sums on musicians, -decorators, goldsmiths, and jewellers. An inventory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> in the Vatican -archives values at 204,655 ducats the jewels he left behind.</p> - -<p>It was, in fact, not so much the discriminating promotion of art and -culture as a princely luxuriousness that absorbed Leo's funds. He was -temperate at table. The cardinals and wealthier Romans continued to -enjoy the senselessly rich banquets which they seem to have copied from -the most decadent pages of Roman history. Cardinal Cornaro is noted as -giving a dinner of sixty-five courses on silver dishes. Banker Chigi, -a useful friend of Leo, had his valuable plate thrown into the river -after one choice banquet; and on the occasion of his marriage with his -mistress (whose finger was held by Leo to receive the ring) he brought -luxuries, even live fish, from the ends of Europe. Banker Strozzi gave -rival banquets, at which cardinals fraternized with courtesans. Leo -approved, and sometimes attended, these banquets (at Chigi's palace), -but was personally temperate. He had only one meal each day, and -fasting fare on three days in each week, but he spent immense sums on -musicians and trinket-makers, and many of his pleasures were in the -grossest taste of the time. Men of prodigious appetite—one of them a -Dominican friar—were brought to his table to amuse him and his guests -by their incredible gluttony. The Pope bandied verses with half-drunken -poetasters and patronized the coarsest buffoons as well as the keenest -wits. When he went to his country house at Magliana for a few weeks' -hunting—in which he displayed extraordinary vigour—he took a troop -of his poets, buffoons, musicians, and other parasites. At Carnival -time he entered into the wild gaiety of Rome; and comedies of the most -licentious character were staged before him. Ariosto's <i>Suppositi</i> -(in which Cardinal Cibň took a part), Machiavelli's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> <i>Mandragola</i>, -and Bibbiena's <i>Calandria</i> alternated with Terence and Plautus. The -<i>Calandria</i>, written by Cardinal Bibbiena, Leo's chief favourite, the -frescoes of whose bathroom seem to have been like those on certain -rooms in Pompeii today, is a comedy of thin wit and unrestrained -license; the Pope had it presented in the Vatican for the entertainment -of Isabella d'Este.</p> - -<p>Such was the Pope who presided over the Lateran Council for the reform -of the Church, and the historian will hardly be expected to enlarge -at any length on its labours. Julius had initiated the council in -order to checkmate France and the schismatical cardinals, and it -continued its thinly attended sittings, at wide intervals, for four -years. Some seventy or eighty Italian bishops attended, and they -issued some admirable counsels to the clergy to improve their lives, -condemned heretical writings, and voiced the sincere wish that some -Christian prince would arrest the advance of the Turks. A committee -of the council drew up a stringent and comprehensive scheme for the -reform of Church-abuses, but this was lost amid the vehement wrangles -of monks, bishops, and cardinals. In the end (1514) a very slender -reform-bill was issued; nor were the clergy disposed to comply with -this when they noticed that, in the following year, Leo himself -bestowed a bishopric, and soon afterwards the cardinalate, upon the -boy-son of Emmanuel of Portugal, and granted to the father a large -share of the proceeds of the issue of indulgences. The council also -forbade the printing of books without approbation, and encouraged the -spread of banks or pawn-shops (Monti di Pietŕ) for the poor. On March -16, 1517, Leo, in spite of the murmurs of the reformers and the revolt -in Germany, brought to a close his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> almost futile council. He had no -desire whatever for reform, and even the measures which were passed -were not enforced. The reforming prelates were deeply saddened by his -levity, and, before the close of the council, Gianfrancesco Pico della -Mirandola drew up in their name an appalling indictment of the state of -the Church and predicted that the refusal to remedy it would bring on -them a heavy judgment.</p> - -<p>The one work of the Council in which the Pope took a lively interest -was the granting of a Concordat to France. The Gallican sentiments of -the French prelates and doctors had been embodied in the Pragmatic -Sanction (1438), and Rome had not ceased to protest against this -cession to local councils of the powers it claimed. By the Concordat of -1516 the King and the Pope virtually divided these powers between them; -the King had the right of nomination to bishoprics and abbeys, the Pope -received the "first-fruits" (Annates). The Concordat was signed by Leo -on September 16, 1516, but was not published until 1518, when it caused -fierce indignation at the universities and among the clergy.</p> - -<p>Leo had dismissed the reformers of the Lateran Council, and in the -spring of 1517, the very year in which Martin Luther nailed his -challenge on the door of the castle-church at Wittenberg, turned with -relief to his corrupt court. There had, as we saw, long been an outcry -in Germany against the corruption of a very large proportion of the -clergy and against the Papal fiscal system, yet Leo had light-heartedly -maintained the disorders. In 1514 he had, in order to secure the votes -of two Electors, conferred the Archbishopric of Mayence upon a young -and worldly noble, Albert of Brandenburg, and had (for a payment of -24,000 ducats) per<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>mitted him still to retain the sees of Magdeburg -and Halberstadt. In order to recover the 24,000 ducats, which he had -borrowed on the security of a share in the sale of indulgences, the -unscrupulous prelate pressed the traffic eagerly, and some of the more -enlightened German clergy protested. There were already princes, such -as the Elector of Saxony, who refused to allow the Papal envoys in -their dominions, and there were writers, like Ulrich von Hutten, who -violently assailed their procedure. Leo, however, failed to appreciate -the gravity of the situation and proposed to raise large sums, -ostensibly for the building of St. Peter's, by granting indulgences.</p> - -<p>I have already explained that, though John XXIII. undoubtedly sold -absolution "from guilt and from penalty," as the Council of Constance -established, the indulgence was, properly speaking, a remission of the -punishment due to sins which had been duly confessed. In earlier Papal -practice, the indulgence was the commutation into a money-payment of -the penance for sin imposed by the Church, but, as the doctrine of -Purgatory developed, the indulgence came to be regarded as a remission -of the punishment due in Purgatory. Two questions had then arisen on -which the schoolmen had exercised their ingenuity: on what ground could -the Church claim to remit this punishment, and whether the indulgence -could be extended to the dead who were actually suffering in Purgatory? -The schoolmen found a satisfactory answer to both questions. Then -Boniface IX. decreed that an indulgence might be earned by a payment of -money to the Church (the price of a voyage to Rome), and the way was -opened for the later abuse. In their commercial zeal the Papal envoys -and preachers undoubtedly represented that souls were de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>livered from -the fire of Purgatory when the coin rang in their collecting boxes.</p> - -<p>The Dominican monk Tetzel, who in 1517 was sent to preach the -indulgence as Albert of Brandenburg's sub-commissary, was more zealous -than scrupulous in his representations, and people of Wittenberg, -who had crossed the frontier in order to profit by the indulgence, -came home with unedifying reports of his sermons. Martin Luther, -then a professor at the Wittenberg University, heard these reports -with disdain. There was no defined doctrine of the Church on the -subject, and more than one divine had felt, like Luther, that this -apparent traffic was as enervating to real piety as it was in itself -distasteful. A man of intense and stormy spiritual experience, he -sternly combated all that seemed to encourage "sloth" in religious -life; his was the more arduous religion of St. Paul and St. -Augustine. Conscious, therefore, that the whole practice was based on -comparatively recent speculations of the schoolmen, which he had a -right to dispute, he challenged Tetzel to justify his "lying fables -and empty promises." A war of pamphlets ensued, and, as his opponents -naturally appealed to the language in which the Popes had announced -indulgences, Luther was compelled to slight the words of the Popes and -appeal to the declarations of Councils and the teaching of Scripture. -He was still orthodox; the language he used had been heard in the -Church for two centuries, and in that age one would as soon have -thought of claiming impeccability as infallibility for the Popes.</p> - -<p>At the beginning of 1518 it was reported to Rome that the agitation -raised by the robust professor was seriously interfering with the -indulgences, and Leo, encouraged by the angry Dominicans, directed -his superiors to re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>strain him. When they failed, he summoned Luther -to Rome. The monk, knowing how such trials ended at Rome, appealed to -the Elector of Saxony and to Maximilian. The appeal to the Emperor, -however, fell at a time when the Papal favour was sought for Charles, -and Maximilian encouraged the Pope to take action. Leo ordered Luther -to present himself at once before the Papal Legate and prepare for -trial at Rome. On the other hand Frederic of Saxony insisted that -Luther should be examined in Germany, and the Pope dreaded to irritate -an Elector on the eve of an imperial election. Legate Cajetan was -therefore empowered to see the rebel at Augsburg, and a series of -futile conferences took place on October 12th-14th. Luther wished -to argue and justify his thesis: Cajetan was instructed merely to -demand his submission. Luther insisted that he should be tried by the -learned doctors of Basle, Freiburg, Louvain, and Paris: the legate was -charged to assert the Papal authority. On October 18th Luther departed -in disgust for Wittenberg; and his temper was not improved by the -discovery that Leo had, on August 23d, directed the legate, in case of -obstinacy, to declare him heretical. He appealed to a General Council.</p> - -<p>Luther was still within the limits of orthodox sentiment and practice, -and the protection of the Elector embarrassed the Pope. A more -diplomatic envoy, Karl von Militz, a Papal chamberlain, was sent to -Germany, and some months were spent in amiable correspondence. Luther -promised to be silent if his opponents would keep silence, and wrote -a respectful letter to the Pope; to which Leo made a gracious reply. -But the truce was little more than a diplomatic regard for Papal -interests during the period of the imperial election, and the policy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> -of silence soon proved impossible for both sides. Ulrich von Hutten and -other critics encouraged Luther to assail the Papal authority, and the -exaggerations of his opponents reacted on the growth of his mind. By -the end of 1519 he seems to have concluded, with some firmness, that -the Papal system was an unwarranted addition to primitive Christianity, -and a formidable movement supported his ideas.</p> - -<p>In January (1520) Luther's case was submitted to a commission of -theologians at Rome, and the Elector was summoned to compel him to -retract. Frederic refused, and in June Leo signed the Bull <i>Exsurge -Domine</i>; Luther was to be excommunicated if he did not submit within -sixty days, and the secular authorities would incur an interdict if -they did not surrender him. It is not of material interest to quarrel -with the Pope's procedure: to point out that the disappointed Cajetan -was one of the heads of the commission of inquiry, and that Luther's -vehement opponent Eck was one of the two legates entrusted with the -publication of the Bull. Rome demanded submission; and, if Luther -had submitted, some other German would before long have instituted -the Reformation. Europe was ripe for schism, and it may be doubted -whether even a reform of the Church would have long prevented the -growth of a body of men holding the Reformers' view of the bases of -Papal authority. On December 10th (1520) Luther publicly burned the -Bull. Even this act was not without orthodox precedent, but Luther -was constantly advancing. He was summoned before the Diet of Worms in -April (1521), and he then stated that the word of neither Popes nor -Councils would condemn him; he must be judged by reason and Scripture. -But the political situation, which casts its shadow throughout<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> on the -development, was now modified. Charles obtained his wish of an alliance -with the Papacy against France. This alliance was signed on May 8th: on -the 12th the Diet issued the Edict of Worms. Luther was, in accordance -with the Pope's second Bull,<a name="FNanchor_300_300" id="FNanchor_300_300"></a><a href="#Footnote_300_300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a> declared a heretic. He retreated to -the Wartburg under the protection of Frederic, and the gravest phase of -the struggle opened.<a name="FNanchor_301_301" id="FNanchor_301_301"></a><a href="#Footnote_301_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a></p> - -<p>Leo died in December, as I have stated, leaving to his successor -the terrible legacy of his frivolity in face of a grave calamity. -In his last two years he apprehended, to some extent, the magnitude -of the German trouble, but he plainly proposed to answer the just -demand of reform only by the burning of a few heretics. His entirely -dishonourable diplomacy and his costly indulgence of tastes which ill -befitted a successor of Leo I. imposed the last unendurable burden on -the patience of Europe. For him the Papacy was a principality, and the -religious nature of its financial sources makes more contemptible the -use to which he put his wealth. Even that artistic splendour which -casts a glow over the Papacy before the breaking of the great storm -owed to him comparatively little. The middle or secular phase of the -development of the Papacy came to an end in the tawdry luxuries and -unscrupulous measures of a Pope who has been treated with singular -favour at the bar of Catholic history.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_294_294" id="Footnote_294_294"></a><a href="#FNanchor_294_294"><span class="label">[294]</span></a> F. Nitti, <i>Leo X. e la sua politica</i> (1892), seeks to -defend Leo against the charge of excessive nepotism. He strains the -evidence at times, and quite admits that duplicity was the essential -feature of the Pope's policy. See also his <i>Documenti ed osservazioni -riguardanti la politica di Leone X.</i> (1893). A biography of Leo was -written by the contemporary Bishop of Nocera, Paolo Giovio, but this -<i>Vita Leonis X.</i> is the work of a courtier. Guicciardini (<i>Storia -d'Italia</i>), Sanuto (<i>Diarii</i>), and Bembo (<i>Opere</i>) are more critical, -and the letters of the Roman ambassadors are valuable. P. de Grassis, -Master of Ceremonies at the Papal Court under Julius and Leo, wrote a -<i>Diary of Leo X.</i>, but there seems to be some reluctance to publish -it. The work published by Armellini (<i>Il diario di Leone X.</i>, 1884) is -merely a discreet compendium of it. Fabroni's <i>Leonis X. Vita</i> is too -ancient (1797), and <i>The Medici Popes</i> (1908) by H.M. Vaughan, is an -excellent popular work. Roscoe's stately <i>Life and Pontificate of Leo -X.</i> (1805) is too flattering to its hero and is discredited in places -by more recent research.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_295_295" id="Footnote_295_295"></a><a href="#FNanchor_295_295"><span class="label">[295]</span></a> Sanuto, <i>Diarii</i>, xviii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_296_296" id="Footnote_296_296"></a><a href="#FNanchor_296_296"><span class="label">[296]</span></a> Guicciardini, xii. There is a copy of his Spanish treaty -in the State archives at Florence.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_297_297" id="Footnote_297_297"></a><a href="#FNanchor_297_297"><span class="label">[297]</span></a> The instruction is reproduced by Nitti, p. 61. As the -document adds that Leo will not allow any prince, "even were it his -own brother," to hold "both the head and the tail of Italy" (Milan and -Naples), Nitti and Pastor claim that it shows that nepotism was not the -key-note of Leo's policy. It seems strange that, in view of all his -admitted duplicity, they can take seriously this phrase of the Pope's. -We may admit, however, that the security of the Papal States was the -Pope's first consideration.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_298_298" id="Footnote_298_298"></a><a href="#FNanchor_298_298"><span class="label">[298]</span></a> Dr. Pastor (viii., 81) is here less candid than usual. -He says that "Giovio passes over the whole truth of the accusations -brought against the moral conduct of Leo X.," whereas the Bishop of -Nocera devotes several very curious pages to the subject (lib. iv., -pp. 96-99 in the 1551 edition of the <i>Vita Leonis X.</i>) and ends with -a reminder that we can never be quite sure about the secrets of the -chamber and an assurance that Leo was at all events less guilty than -other Italian princes. The courtly writer seems to me convinced that -Leo was addicted to unnatural vice. Vaughan, on the other hand, is -wrong in saying that Giovio alone mentioned these vices. Guicciardini -(lib. xvi., c.v., p. 254, in the 1832 edition of the <i>Storia -d'Italia</i>), in the course of a sober characterization of Leo, says that -he was generally believed to be chaste before his election, but he was -"afterwards found to be excessively devoted to pleasures which cannot -be called decent."</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_299_299" id="Footnote_299_299"></a><a href="#FNanchor_299_299"><span class="label">[299]</span></a> It is sometimes pointed out, rather in the way of merit, -that Leo received less than some of his predecessors by the issue of -indulgences. It was not from want of will on his part.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_300_300" id="Footnote_300_300"></a><a href="#FNanchor_300_300"><span class="label">[300]</span></a> <i>In Cœna Domini</i>, March 28th.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_301_301" id="Footnote_301_301"></a><a href="#FNanchor_301_301"><span class="label">[301]</span></a> The situation in England does not call for consideration -in this chapter. Henry VIII. wrote against Luther and, in presenting -his book to the Pope, requested a title analogous to that of "the most -Catholic King." By a Bull of October 26, 1521, Henry received the title -of "Defender of the Faith," which his successors retain.</p> - -</div></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p> - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></p> - -<p class="center">PAUL III. AND THE COUNTER-REFORMATION</p> - - -<p class="drop">T<span class="uppercase">he</span> period immediately following the death of Leo X. is known as -that of the Counter-Reformation. The name which has clung to the -great religious schism of the sixteenth century still indicates how -essentially it was, in its origin, a protest against the corruption of -the medićval Church. The reform of dogma was an afterthought; and the -Reformation would probably have proved one more futile and academic -criticism of the medićval growth of doctrine if it had not primarily -appealed to the very general resentment against the practices of the -Curia and contempt for the unworthy lives of so large a proportion -of the clergy and regulars. The situation, indeed, offers a romantic -aspect to the historian. If a strong and entirely religious man, like -Cardinal Carafa, had succeeded Leo X., it might have been possible, -by a notable improvement in practice, to disarm a very effective -proportion of the followers of the Reformers and thus to put back for -a century or two the doctrinal revision. Unhappily for the Papacy, Leo -X. had filled the Sacred College with men of his own disposition, and -thirty years were wasted in fruitless efforts at compromise. In those -thirty years, the hesitating criticisms of Luther crystallized into a -settled creed which no persuasion could dissolve and no persecution -could obliterate.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p> - -<p>Hadrian VI., who followed Leo, spent two unhappy years (1521-3) in a -pitiable and wholly vain attempt to save the authority of the Popes -in northern Europe. Sprung from a pious working-class family of the -Low-lands, and retaining his simple tastes and stern religious idealism -in the evil atmosphere of the higher clergy, he sincerely resented the -vices and frivolity of the cardinals. Rome itself now ridiculed so -fiercely the contrast between their pretensions and their lives that -the worldly cardinals were unable to put into power a man like Leo X., -and the learned, venerable, and more or less disdained Hadrian VI. -shuddered to find himself at the helm on so stormy a sea. He was not -the type of man to save the Church. With simple fidelity, he at once -made it clear that the debased policy of his predecessor was abandoned; -but he had not the strength to control the crowd of discontented -cardinals and prelates, or to frame and carry through a consistent -scheme of reform. He was concerned, too, about the financial loss which -would be caused by a thorough reform, and the traffic in benefices -and indulgences was merely moderated instead of being abolished. The -curtailment was in itself a confession that the system was corrupt, -and the Reformers scoffed at Hadrian's invitation to return on such a -basis, while orthodox Catholics deplored the candour of the admission. -Between these antagonistic and weighty forces the slender energy of the -well meaning Pontiff was exhausted in two years.</p> - -<p>The Pontificate of Clement VII. (1523-34) was a compromise; he was -a Medicean Pope (Giulio de' Medici), a patron of art and letters, -but a man of sober taste and regular life. It was a compromise, too, -between a keen intelligence and a flabby will—a sagacious per<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>ception -of the danger and a complete lack of the virility needed to avert -it—and eleven further years of impotence permitted the Reformation -to take deep and indestructible root in Germany. Clement VII. was, -in fact, largely absorbed in the unending political struggle. After -some vacillation he allied himself with France against Charles V., -and Charles won. Rome had to endure one of the most cruel and most -prolonged pillages in its history, and the Pope was for seven months -imprisoned in Sant' Angelo. He made peace with Charles, but he had -little satisfaction in contemplating the imperial shadow which lay over -fallen Italy, while the Turks came ever nearer and no Christian monarch -would advance against them. In these circumstances, Protestantism -became a creed and spread over the north. Henry VIII. married Anne -Boleyn and became the "defender" of a new faith; and the revolt spread -to Switzerland and Scandinavia. The scanty measures of reform passed -by Clement were regarded with disdain by the dissenters, and the -artistic Renaissance itself never recovered from the sack of Rome and -the overrunning of Italy. It was left to the founders of new religious -congregations, especially the Oratorians, Theatines, and Barnabites, -and to the reformers of the older orders, to lay the foundations of the -Counter-Reformation.</p> - -<p>Clement died on September 25, 1534, and the College of Cardinals, which -had almost become the curse of the Church, met to elect a successor. -Few of these cardinals, even now, grasped with any intelligence the -grave situation of their Church. It was, indeed, feared that, while -the reform was spreading rapidly in the north, the Conclave would be -wrecked by the conflict of the French and Imperialist partisans. The -struggle was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> so menacing that a politically neutral cardinal was -forced upon the College, and the graver need of the Church—the need of -a Pontiff of the most sincere and spontaneous religion, as well as of -large mind and inflexible will—was almost unnoticed.</p> - -<p>Alessandro Farnese, who now became Paul III.,<a name="FNanchor_302_302" id="FNanchor_302_302"></a><a href="#Footnote_302_302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a> was a man of high -intelligence, fine culture, and great will-power; but he had neither -the immaculate record and deep piety which were needed to impress the -Reformers nor the political decision which might have compensated -for these defects. However much the historian may appreciate the -difficulties of the Papacy, he cannot but recognize that the idea of -compromising with the Reformers had at least since 1520 been futile. -Paul III. had, it is true, no idea of compromise: the dissenters -were to surrender every doctrinal and disciplinary claim, or to be -extinguished. The great European schism could now have been remedied -by no man. But a reform of the Church on other than doctrinal matters -might have done much to arrest the spread of Protestantism, and on -this Paul compromised. His policy was a reflection of his personality; -he was a son of the Renaissance Church, and feebly—in spite of his -admitted strength of will—he endeavoured to retain certain pleasant -features of the vicious <i>ancien régime</i> with which to soften the -asperity of the new ideal which was forced upon him. He was in a sense -a Papal Louis XVIII.</p> - -<p>We remember Paul as the brother of Alexander VI's doll-like mistress, -Giulia Farnese. Born on February<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> 29, 1468, he had received early -instruction in the new culture from Pomponio Leto at Rome, and had -spent his youth in that seminary of the Humanists, the splendid palace -of Lorenzo de' Medici at Florence, and then at Pisa University. His -wealth was far inferior to the nobility of his descent, and it was -not until his young sister had attracted the eye of the voluptuous -Pope that he was promoted to the cardinalate (September 20, 1493). -In 1502, he was appointed legate for the March of Ancona, and the -more comfortable establishment he could now afford to maintain -included a mistress. Four children—Pier Luigi, Paolo, Costanza, and -Ranuccio—were born in his palace between 1502 and 1509; and the eldest -son and Costanza were familiar figures in Roman society during his -later Pontificate.</p> - -<p>The more minute inquirer will find the documents transcribed from the -Vatican archives, relating to these children, in Pastor.<a name="FNanchor_303_303" id="FNanchor_303_303"></a><a href="#Footnote_303_303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a> His -mistress died at an early age in 1513, and Alessandro (now forty-five -years old) is described as moderating his irregularities and as -devoting some attention to his bishopric of Parma. Papal historians -observe with pride that his irregularities entirely ceased in 1519, -when he was ordained priest. The friend of his youth, Leo X., cordially -included him in his generous patronage, and he was able to build the -Farnese palace and to cultivate ambition. In 1523, he made an effort -to secure the tiara, but at the Conclave the cardinals had not the -courage to present to the Reformers as Pontiff the father of four -children. He stifled his lament that Clement VII. had "robbed him of -ten years of the Papacy," and became as amiable a friend of that Pope -as he had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> of his five predecessors; and amidst the fierce clash -of political passion he retained a diplomatic neutrality. He shared -Clement's bitter days in Sant' Angelo, yet did not quarrel with the -Imperialists.</p> - -<p>These characteristics marked Alessandro for the throne; and they at -the same time ensured that his struggle with Protestantism would be -entirely futile. He was now sixty-seven years old, and we easily -picture him from Titian's wonderful portrait; frail and worn in flesh -and stooping with age; yet his penetrating eyes and large bald dome of -a forehead indicated a great energy of will and force of intellect. -He was essentially a diplomat, and the cardinals, absorbed for the -most part in the political troubles, did not reflect that the rapier -of diplomacy was the last weapon with which to meet the stout staves -of the northerners. He was an excellent listener, a sparing and -deliberate talker, a most skilful postponer of crucial decisions; a -"<i>vas dilationis</i>," the Roman wits said, parodying the description of a -greater Paul.</p> - -<p>Dr. Pastor thinks that the reforming cardinals—of whom there were now -many—had much confidence in his disposition to reform. If they had, -their trust is in the main another tribute to his diplomatic skill. He -had no idea of reforming the Curia and the Church further than might be -exacted of him by unpleasant circumstances.</p> - -<p>Shrewd observers must quickly have observed that Paul III. remained -at heart a Farnese. His son, Pier Luigi, visited him in Rome soon -after his election. Pier Luigi had become a military adventurer, a -feeble emulator of Cćsar Borgia, and by taking arms in the Imperialist -service, had incurred excommunication under Clement. Paul is said to -have received his son<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> in secret and directed him to keep away from -Rome. There was to be no open nepotism. But in a few weeks Pier Luigi -was back in Rome and was observed to have plenty of money. Paul was -crowned on November 3d (1534) and announced his intention to reform the -Church. On, December 18th he bestowed the cardinalate on two of his -nephews, Guido Sforza and Alessandro Farnese. Sforza was a youth of -seventeen; Alessandro was a fourteen-year old pupil at Bologna, yet he -received, besides the red hat, the governorship of Spoleto and such a -number of profitable benefices that he was soon able to outshine some -of the more ostentatious cardinals; and in the next year he was made -Vice-Chancellor. Both he and Sforza were notoriously immoral. Pier -Luigi was made Gonfaloniere, Commander of the Papal troops, and Duke -of Castro; and proportionate benefits were showered on all friends and -connexions of the Farnese family.</p> - -<p>It would not be history to dwell on the "obstinacy" of the Reformers -and to fail to emphasize these very pertinent and entirely undisputed -facts; but I will dismiss in few words this aspect of Paul's character. -Nepotism was one of his most persistent traits, and we shall repeatedly -find his direction of Papal policy perverted by a care for the worldly -advancement of his family. He was equally unable and unwilling to -break with the gayer tradition of the Borgia-Medici court. He loved -pageantry and comedy, encouraged the merry riot of the carnival, -favoured astrologers, buffoons, and pseudo-classical poets, and liked -to dine with fair women. It is, perhaps, not much to say that his -private life—at the age of seventy—was irreproachable; but it is not -immaterial to observe that he gave an indulgent eye to the conduct of -the looser cardinals. Instead of sternly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> attempting to crush that -large body of loose and luxurious cardinals to whom, in the first -place, we may trace the catastrophe of the Church, he added, at each -promotion, a few to their number. Of the seventy-one cardinals he -promoted during his Pontificate the great majority were good men; but -a few were of such a character that their election was, in the actual -situation of the Church, unpardonable.</p> - -<p>These little personal details must be considered first if we are to -understand aright the attitude of Paul III. toward reform and the -reforming council. From the first he assured his visitors that he -intended to reform the Church. Before the end of 1534, he appointed -two reform commissions—one on morals and the other on Church offices; -though he chilled the zeal of the more ardent cardinals by enjoining -them to take into account the circumstances. In the spring of 1535, he -prosecuted Cardinal Accolti for grave abuse of his position of legate, -but compromised for a fine of 59,000 scudi. The Reformers of Germany -had from the first appealed to a council, and Paul declared himself -in favour of a council; but he insisted that it must be summoned by -him, presided over by his legates, and held in Italy; and this not -only the princes of the Schmalkaldic League but the three monarchs -concerned emphatically refused. Charles V. saw that such a council -would be—as Paul III. well knew—utterly useless as an instrument of -reconciliation; Francis I. did not want reconciliation at all, since -it would give to Charles command of a united Germany; and Henry VIII., -who accepted the title of Head of the English Church in 1534, and in -the following year initiated his policy of bloody persecution, had done -with Rome. In fact, instead of giving all the negotiations about a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> -council, I would point out that there never was the slightest hope by -such a means of ending the schism. Each side was absolutely convinced -of the truth of its formulas, and very few, least of all the Pope, -thought that compromise was possible or desirable. Luther was quite -willing to attend a council, even in Italy; but merely in order to -convince the Church of its errors and abominations. The Pope wanted -a council merely in order to formulate Catholic doctrine in clear -official terms and thus to provide a standard for the condemnation and -extermination of the heretics. No Pope could think otherwise.</p> - -<p>Paul at length ventured to announce "to the city and the world" that a -general council would be held at Mantua on the 23d of May, 1537; but -when the Duke of Mantua directed the Pope to send an army to protect -his council, the design was abandoned. A Bull next announced that the -council would meet at Vicenza on May 1, 1538; but as only five prelates -had arrived there when, on May 12th, the three Papal Legates made their -imposing entry—after waiting in nervous hope some distance away—that -project, also, was abandoned. I would not agree that Paul did not -sincerely want a council, but during the first ten years the council he -wanted was an impossibility.</p> - -<p>Meantime, the idea of reform by commissions was sustaining the -half-desperate hopes of the better cardinals at Rome. In February, -1537, the commission drew up so sound and true and large a scheme of -reform that the anti-reformers successfully pleaded that it would -injure the Church to publish it, and it remains "a scrap of paper" in -the Vatican Archives. After much discussion, Paul decided to begin -with the reform of the Dataria (an office of the Court which yielded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> -more than 50,000 ducats a year, nearly half the entire income, to the -Papal exchequer in connexion with the issue of graces, privileges, -dispensations, etc.), and a further long discussion ensued. The -discussion lasted some three years, without practical issue, and it -was not until the end of 1540 that a few obvious reforms could be -carried in some of the departments of the Curia. Characteristic is the -story of one of these reforms. Pressed by the sterner cardinals, who -wrote grave letters to each other on the Pope's conduct, to put an end -to the scandal of non-resident prelates (absentee landlords), Paul -summoned eighty of them, who were living in comfort at Rome, to return -to their dioceses. There was terrible alarm. But they successfully -pleaded that they could not live on the mere incomes of their sees, -and they remained in Rome. Paul had to be content with discharging a -few officials, directing the clergy to reform their lives and their -sermons, and encouraging the new religious congregations: among which -was a certain very small community, calling itself the "Company of -Jesus," which seemed to him, when it first appeared in Rome, eccentric -and of very doubtful value to the Church.</p> - -<p>In the meantime, Paul had successfully maintained the political -neutrality which he had from the first contemplated. Francis and -Charles both sought alliance with him, and he tried instead to -reconcile them and avert war. It is to his credit that when Charles, -perceiving his weakness, offered, as the price of alliance, the -marquisate of Novara to Pier Luigi and a principality in Naples to -Pier's son Ottavio, Paul still refused. But the fact that in 1536 he -received Charles with great pomp at Rome irritated Francis, and war -broke<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> out.<a name="FNanchor_304_304" id="FNanchor_304_304"></a><a href="#Footnote_304_304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a> In view of the advances of the Turks, Paul went in -person to Nice, in the spring of 1538, and reconciled the two monarchs, -but his nepotism again mars the merit of this work. He arranged that -his grandson Ottavio, a boy of thirteen, should marry the Emperor's -natural daughter, Margaret of Austria, a girl-widow of sixteen, who -hated the boy; and their connubial arrangements added, for many years, -to the scandal or the gaiety of Rome. Paul was also severely blamed for -the unscrupulous way in which he wrested the duchy of Camerino from -the Varani and gave it to Ottavio. When Francis violently objected to -this virtual alliance, Paul married his granddaughter Vittoria to a -French prince. Nor were the Reformers pleased when they learned that, -in return for the Emperor's natural daughter, the Pope had granted -to Charles the right to publish indulgences in Spain, and had given -him other privileges which would yield him a million ducats a year of -Church money; and that neither Francis nor Charles would help Italy to -face the Turks.</p> - -<p>The unchecked advance of the Turk had, indirectly, another grave -disadvantage for the Papacy. Charles needed the united forces of his -dominions to meet the Turks, and the Protestants profited by his need. -Whatever may be said about the amiable intentions of Paul III., at an -earlier date, he now plainly designed to crush the followers of the -Reformers in the field.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> He sent his grandson, Cardinal Alessandro -Farnese, to the courts of Francis and of Charles, and the instructions -which he gave him, as well as the letters of the Cardinal himself, -show that he sought, not only their support of his Italian council, -but the co-operation of the monarchs against the Turks and the -Protestants.<a name="FNanchor_305_305" id="FNanchor_305_305"></a><a href="#Footnote_305_305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a> Both refused, and Charles, in spite of the Pope's -vehement objections, consented to the holding of another conference or -discussion with the representatives of the Protestants. The conference -took place at Hagenau on June 12th, and had, of course, no result, but -a fresh attempt was made at Worms in January 1541, and Paul sent Bishop -Campeggio and four theologians to meet the Protestant divines. It is -needless to discuss the Colloquy in detail, since such experiments -never had the least prospect of success, but the next conference is of -some interest.</p> - -<p>Some of the German princes, like the Duke of Bavaria, had no wish to -see a religious reconciliation, since their ambition had a larger -chance of success in a disunited Empire; and Francis I. was only too -eager to support these princes.<a name="FNanchor_306_306" id="FNanchor_306_306"></a><a href="#Footnote_306_306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a> Other vassals of the Emperor were -irreconcilable Protestants. But there were on both sides a few men of -a moderate disposition, who believed that a round-table conference -might still secure religious peace, if not the old unity. Charles V. -was of this opinion, and he made it a test of the Pope's sincerity that -he should co-operate in a last attempt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> Cardinal Contarini, a man of -impressive character and considerable ability, was sent as legate, and -for some time before the opening of the Diet of Ratisbon, he zealously -endeavoured to find the dogmatic formulć which had some prospect of -common acceptance. Charles had begged the Pope to confer large powers -of concession on his legate, but we now know that Paul gave him but -slender authority, couched in the vaguest of language.<a name="FNanchor_307_307" id="FNanchor_307_307"></a><a href="#Footnote_307_307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a> If any -attempt were made to settle important points of doctrine, he was to -protest and leave the Diet. In a later instruction, he warned Contarini -not to allow the Emperor to suspect that Rome favoured the use of force -rather than persuasion, and to say, in regard to the proposal that the -Papacy should send 50,000 scudi for the purpose of bribing influential -Protestants, that such a design seemed neither decent nor safe, but -that the 50,000 scudi would be sent "for distribution," if, and when, -a reconciliation was effected.<a name="FNanchor_308_308" id="FNanchor_308_308"></a><a href="#Footnote_308_308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a> It is plain that Paul foresaw -the complete failure of the Colloquy—we must remember that success -depended entirely on <i>concession</i> and no Pope could make a concession -on doctrine—and intended to make the failure a ground for an appeal to -arms.</p> - -<p>The Diet opened on April 27, 1541, and in a few weeks Contarini and -his friends announced with sincere joy that they had reached a common -formula on so delicate a topic as justification. This agreement had -been reached by the Papal Legate accepting a semi-heretical formula, -which Rome afterwards rejected. But the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> futility of the proceedings -soon became apparent. When they went on to discuss transubstantiation -and penance, priestly celibacy and monastic vows, the antagonism became -acute, and the Colloquy ended in disorder. The Pope rejected all the -formulas approved by his Legate, and wrote him, on June 10th, that -he was sending the 50,000 scudi, and would send a larger sum if the -Catholics found it necessary to draw the sword against the heretics. -Some of the stricter cardinals at Rome, such as Carafa and Toledo, were -now convinced that force was necessary.</p> - -<p>In September (1541) the Pope met the Emperor at Lucca. Charles insisted -that the council, whatever form it took, must be held in Germany, -but Paul pleaded that he wished to preside in person and that his -age forbade so lengthy a journey. We shall hardly be unjust if we -regard these pleas as pretexts. The forthcoming council was, in the -Pope's view,—an inevitable view,—to be a canonical gathering for -the stricter definition of the doctrines already rejected by the -Reformers; when that council had formulated the faith, the secular -powers must deal with any who dissented from it. Paul still fought -for the holding of the council in Italy, where he could overwhelm the -Protestant envoys, but as it became entirely certain that not a single -Protestant would come to Italy, he spoke of Cambrai, Metz, and other -alternatives, and at length consented to Trent. Still there was much -friction, and many were not yet convinced that the Pope sincerely -desired a reform-council. Francis I. angrily exclaimed that this -council seemed to be an imperial concern, and he refused to publish -the Bull of Convocation. Charles, on the other side, was annoyed to -find that in the Bull he was put on a level with that perfidious ally -of the infidel,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> Francis I., and he threatened to keep his German -prelates from going to Trent. But the Pope energetically overbore -all opposition, and the historic Council of Trent was announced for -November 1st. In the meantime (July, 1542), the Pope reconstituted -the Inquisition in Italy and put it under the control of the more -fanatical cardinals like Carafa. It was empowered to imprison heretics, -confiscate their goods, and (with the use of the secular arm) to put -them to death. Dr. Pastor deplores that the Vatican authorities still -refuse to allow access to the records of the Roman Inquisition, so that -we are very imperfectly acquainted with its work.</p> - -<p>The Papal Legates arrived at Trent with great pomp, on November 22d, -three weeks after the appointed date, yet not a single bishop had -appeared. Six weeks later the arrival of two bishops gave them a -slender satisfaction, but by the end of March not more than a dozen -bishops—and these mostly Italians—had reached the seat of the -council. Neither Germans nor French would come, and the Italians -thought it prudent not to arrive in a body so as to give to the council -a national complexion. In the summer, Paul went to confer with Charles -at Parma, but the issue of their conference was a bitter disappointment -for the Catholic reformers. Paul proposed to suspend the opening of -the council and to transfer it from Trent, and begged the Emperor to -bring about a compromise with France, by yielding Milan to the Pope's -nephew, Ottavio. Charles refused to assent, and Paul, on his own -account, suspended the council and began to look to Francis I. for the -aggrandizement of his family.</p> - -<p>The events which followed make the historian wonder that any have -attempted to clear the character of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> Paul III. of disgraceful nepotism -and insincerity. Charles V. sought alliance with Henry VIII., and Paul -sent his nephew, Cardinal Farnese, to the Court of Francis I. In that -grave crisis of the Church's fortunes, we have the Catholic Emperor -in alliance with Henry VIII., the most Catholic King in alliance -with the Turks, and the Pope seeking, with a notoriety which gave -great scandal, the enrichment of his illegitimate children and other -relatives. Vittoria Farnese, the Pope's granddaughter, was betrothed -to the Duke of Orleans, and the Pope promised her, from the patrimony -of St. Peter, the duchies of Parma and Piacenza as her dowry. Charles -angrily threatened to invade Rome, and the Spanish and German envoys -at the Vatican used language which had rarely been heard in the Papal -chambers. It is put to the credit of the Pope only that he refused -still to disown or condemn Charles, as Francis demanded, and that he -earnestly sought to reconcile the monarchs. In September, his efforts -bore fruit in the Peace of Crespy. Yet we must recall that, as all -acknowledge, Paul was in part concerned for the security of his family -in refusing to incur the hostility of Charles; and we know that a -secret clause of the Treaty of Crespy compelled Francis and Charles -to unite for the purpose of destroying the Protestants as well as the -Turks.</p> - -<p>It was also stipulated at Crespy that the council should at last -begin its labours, and Paul announced that it would open at Trent -on March 25, 1545. But the attempt was again abortive, and only two -bishops greeted the Papal Legates on the appointed date. The Catholic -monarchs did not believe that the Pope was sincere, and the Protestants -were violently opposed to a council on the orthodox Catholic lines. -Cardinal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> Farnese was sent to induce the Emperor to send his German -bishops, and we now find Charles leaning more decidedly to the plan -of coercion and war. Cardinal Farnese writes in high spirits to his -uncle that Charles is, in alliance with the Papacy, about to make -war on the Protestants; and it is unhappily characteristic that he -adds that this alliance may turn to the great profit of the Farnese -family.<a name="FNanchor_309_309" id="FNanchor_309_309"></a><a href="#Footnote_309_309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a> In fact, the Cardinal returned to Rome with all speed, in -disguise, and Paul promised 100,000 ducats and 12,000 men for the war, -besides granting Charles a half-year's income of the Spanish Church and -permission to raise 500,000 ducats by the sale of monastic property. -The eagerness of the Pope at this adoption of a design he had so long -cherished may be judged from the fact that his courier to Charles left -Rome on June 16th and reached Worms by the 23d. Charles, however, had -begun to waver in his brave resolution, and the war was postponed; but -the advancement of the Farnesi was not forgotten. The duchies of Parma -and Piacenza were now given to Pier Luigi, and the Pope met the violent -protests of the cardinals with a statistical "proof" that the duchies -were of less value than a few small places which his son surrendered -to the Holy See. The annoyance of the reforming prelates was complete -when the Pope issued a medal representing a naked Ganymede leaning on -an eagle and watering the lily which was the emblem of the Farnese -family.<a name="FNanchor_310_310" id="FNanchor_310_310"></a><a href="#Footnote_310_310" class="fnanchor">[310]</a></p> - -<p>Charles would not consent to the removal of the council to Bologna, -and it was at length opened at Trent on December 13, 1545, with an -attendance of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> four archbishops and twenty-one bishops. The first -session was purely formal, and the second session (January 7th) was -occupied by a violent discussion on procedure. The Emperor feared that -a formulation of Catholic doctrines would close the door of the Church -definitively against the Germans, and he insisted that the reform -of morals and discipline must come first. Paul feared that, if the -question of reform came first, the council would almost resolve itself -into a trial of the Papacy; and there is good ground to think that, -on the other hand, he wanted the doctrines in dispute formulated as a -preliminary step to the more drastic condemnation of the Reformers. -The conflict ended in compromise: each sitting of the council was to -consider both doctrine and reform. The correspondence of the legates -with the Pope<a name="FNanchor_311_311" id="FNanchor_311_311"></a><a href="#Footnote_311_311" class="fnanchor">[311]</a> shows how vehemently Paul fought for his plan, and -it was only at their very grave and emphatic assurance that reform must -proceed—that deeds, not Bulls, were wanted, as they put it—that he -agreed to the compromise.</p> - -<p>The fathers of the council, who, at the end of June, had risen in -number to about sixty, had held two further sessions, and had discussed -only a few dogmas and measures of reform when their labours were again -suspended by the outbreak of the religious war. The Protestants had -naturally refused to attend the Papal council, and had continued to -spread their faith in the north. Paul, therefore, urged Charles to -carry out his design of repressing them by arms, and in June (1546) -a secret treaty was signed by Charles V., the Duke of Bavaria, -Ferdinand I., and the Pope uniting their forces for an attack upon the -Schmalkaldic dissenters. In order to prevent Charles from again losing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> -his resolution, the Pope dishonourably communicated this treaty to the -Protestants, nor was Charles less angry with Paul for representing to -France, Poland, and Venice that the impending struggle was a religious -crusade in which any Catholic people might assist. It was the policy -of Charles to place his enterprise on purely secular grounds. There -was again grave friction between Charles and the Pope, and the Farnesi -mingled with the graver issues a petulant complaint that Charles had -done so little for them.</p> - -<p>The Protestants, however, were badly organized and were soon defeated. -Paul bitterly complained that Charles would not follow up his victory -by initiating a policy of persecution in south Germany, and would not, -when Henry VIII. died (1547), join forces with Francis I. for the -invasion of England; and another fiery quarrel ensued. The prelates -at Trent conceived that they were menaced by the distant and subdued -Protestants, and Paul quickly availed himself of the apprehension -to demand a removal to Italy. Charles went so far as to threaten to -confiscate the whole of the property of the Church in Germany, but a -convenient epidemic broke out at Trent and Paul removed the council to -Bologna. Another year was spent in discussion as to the validity of the -transfer, and the rumour that the Pope secretly desired to frustrate -the work of reform once more gained ground. This is, as I explained, a -half-truth. But so little reform was actually achieved during the life -of Paul that I need not deal further here with the Council of Trent.</p> - -<p>The year 1648 was filled with the acrid conflict of Pope and Emperor. -Paul drew nearer to France, and Rome, believing that at length the -Pope was about to abandon his policy of neutrality, prepared once -more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> for invasion. Charles made no descent on Italy, but he now took -a step which seemed to the Pope almost as scandalous an outrage. He -issued his famous Interrim: a document which enacted that, until the -points in dispute were settled by a council, priests might marry, the -laity might communicate from the chalice, and vague and conciliatory -interpretations might be put on the doctrines of the Church. In spite -of the intrigues of France, Paul wearily maintained his negotiations -with Charles, and, to the last, pressed the ambitions of his family. In -October (1549), however, his favourite grandson rebelled against his -decision in regard to Parma, and the aged Pope abandoned the unhappy -struggle. He died on November 10th of that year.</p> - -<p>In spite of the efforts of some recent historians, the character of -Paul does not stand out with distinction in the Papal chronicle. His -lamentable nepotism mars his whole career, and his real reluctance to -press the work of reform did grave injury to his Church. He belonged -essentially to the earlier phase of the Papacy, and it is apparent -that, if he could have extirpated Protestantism by the sword, the -Papacy would have returned to the more decent levities of the days of -Leo X. As it was, he did comparatively little for either culture or -religion. He very cordially employed Michael Angelo and Sangallo, and -showed a concern for the antiquities and the monuments of Rome. He had -ability, power, and taste; but he had not that fiery will for reform -and that deep religious faith which were needed in that hour of danger.</p> - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_302_302" id="Footnote_302_302"></a><a href="#FNanchor_302_302"><span class="label">[302]</span></a> For the valuable letters of the Italian ambassadors at -the time of the Conclave see <i>L'Elezione del Papa Paolo III.</i> (1907) -by P. Accame. An almost contemporary biography of Paul is given in the -<i>Vitć et Res Gestć Romanorum Pontificum</i> of Ciaconius.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_303_303" id="Footnote_303_303"></a><a href="#FNanchor_303_303"><span class="label">[303]</span></a> XI., 19-20.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_304_304" id="Footnote_304_304"></a><a href="#FNanchor_304_304"><span class="label">[304]</span></a> See, for this aspect of Paul's Pontificate, an article -by L. Cardauns, "Paul III., Karl V., und Franz I.," in <i>Quellen und -Forschungen aus Italienischen Archiven</i>, Bd. XI., Heft I., pp. 147-244. -The writer holds that an alliance with Charles was advisable with a -view to crush Protestantism. There is certainly much evidence that Paul -wished to discover which of the rival monarchs would do most for his -children, yet he assuredly had a sincere desire for neutrality.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_305_305" id="Footnote_305_305"></a><a href="#FNanchor_305_305"><span class="label">[305]</span></a> See <i>Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland</i>, edited by W. -Friedensberg, V. 140 and 59. Many useful documents will also be found -in H. Loemmer's <i>Monumenta Vaticana historiam ecclesiasticam sćculi -XVI. illustrantia</i>, 1861.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_306_306" id="Footnote_306_306"></a><a href="#FNanchor_306_306"><span class="label">[306]</span></a> See the report of the Venetian ambassador in <i>Le -Relazioni degli ambasciatori Veneti</i>, edited by C. Alberi, 1st series.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_307_307" id="Footnote_307_307"></a><a href="#FNanchor_307_307"><span class="label">[307]</span></a> E. Dietrich, <i>Kardinal Contarini</i> (1885), p. 565.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_308_308" id="Footnote_308_308"></a><a href="#FNanchor_308_308"><span class="label">[308]</span></a> This curious side-light on the history of the -Reformation is given, in a document reproduced from the secret archives -of the Vatican, by Dr. Pastor (xi., 431).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_309_309" id="Footnote_309_309"></a><a href="#FNanchor_309_309"><span class="label">[309]</span></a> Farnese's letter to the Pope is reproduced by A. von -Druffel, <i>Karl V. und die Römische Kurie</i>, ii., 57.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_310_310" id="Footnote_310_310"></a><a href="#FNanchor_310_310"><span class="label">[310]</span></a> It is described in A. Armand, <i>Les Médailleurs -Italiens</i>, i., 172.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_311_311" id="Footnote_311_311"></a><a href="#FNanchor_311_311"><span class="label">[311]</span></a> See Pallavicini's <i>Istoria del Consilio di Trento</i>, bks. -vi. and vii.</p></div></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span></p> - - - - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a></p> - -<p class="center">SIXTUS V. AND THE NEW CHURCH</p> - - -<p class="drop">T<span class="uppercase">he</span> Council of Trent, which had been convoked with the formal aim of -healing the great schism of Christendom, hardened that schism and made -it irremediable. I have already observed how natural it was that the -Papacy should refuse to make open confession of its decay, and in some -degree surrender its authority, by permitting the Church to reform, -not only its members, but its head. The inevitable conception of the -Popes was to retain the work of reform in their own hands and to use -the council, if council there must be,—we have seen that Popes had -reason to look with suspicion on councils,—to secure an agreement on -doctrinal standards by which the Inquisitors might judge, and secular -princes might exterminate, heretics. They miscalculated the power of -the northern rebels and the chances of an unselfish cohesion of the -Catholic princes against them. Nearly half of Europe adopted a new -version of the Christian faith, and, when the Thirty Years' War finally -proved the indestructibility of that creed, the task of the Papacy -was narrowed to the ruling and reforming of southern Europe and the -spiritual conquest of the new worlds which had appeared beyond the -seas. For this fourth phase of Papal development—the period from the -consolida<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>tion of the Reformation to the first outbreak of Modernism in -the French Revolution—the Pontificates of Sixtus V. and Benedict XIV. -are the most illuminating and significant.</p> - -<p>Even the failure of Paul III. did not entirely banish from the Vatican -the levity which had been the immediate cause of its disaster. Julius -III. (1550-1555) at first resumed, somewhat reluctantly, the sittings -of the Council of Trent, but he again suspended its work in 1552 -and entered upon a period of luxurious ease and frivolous enjoyment -which deeply shocked the graver cardinals. At his death the fiery -Neapolitan reformer, Cardinal Carafa, who had dictated the more -severe decisions of Paul III., received the tiara, and he spent four -energetic years (1555-1559) in a relentless attack upon heresy in -Catholic lands. He made vigorous use of the Inquisition, which Paul -III. had (largely at the instigation of St. Ignatius) set up in Rome, -and he published a complete Index of Prohibited Books.<a name="FNanchor_312_312" id="FNanchor_312_312"></a><a href="#Footnote_312_312" class="fnanchor">[312]</a> But his -reforms, his heresy-hunts, and his hostility to Spain were enforced -with such harshness that the Romans almost cursed his memory when his -short Pontificate came to an end. It is a singular illustration of the -tenacity of abuses at Rome that even the austere Carafa was a nepotist, -and the nephews he favoured were of so unworthy a character that they -were executed—though one of them was a cardinal—by his successor.</p> - -<p>Pius IV. (1559-65) was a more persuasive reformer: a Milanese of lowly -origin but of some distinction in canonical scholarship. He guided to -their close the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> labours of the Council of Trent,<a name="FNanchor_313_313" id="FNanchor_313_313"></a><a href="#Footnote_313_313" class="fnanchor">[313]</a> and on January -26, 1564, put the Papal seal on the precise formulation of the Roman -creed. Pius V. (1565-72) brought to the Papal throne the austere ideals -of a sincere Dominican monk. He was not content with persecuting the -Italians who criticized the Papacy; he did much to reform the Papal -Court and the city. Gregory XIII. (1572-85), a scholarly Pope, mingled -in strange proportion the virtues and vices of his predecessors. -His name survives honourably in the Gregorian Calendar, and he did -more than any other Pope to encourage the spread of that network of -Jesuit colleges throughout southern Europe which proved so effective a -hindrance to the advance of Protestantism; but the <i>Te Deum</i> he sang -over the foul "St. Bartholomew Massacre" (1572) and the condition of -infuriated rebellion in which he left the Papal States at his death -betray his defects. The Papal income had fallen considerably since the -loss of England and north Germany and Scandinavia, yet Gregory wished -to pay heavy subsidies to the militant Catholic princes. He imposed -such taxes, and aroused such fierce anger by seizing estates after -disputing the title-deeds of the owners, that Italy almost slew him -with its hatred.</p> - -<p>In these circumstances the famous Sixtus V. mounted the Papal throne. -Felice Peretti had been born at Grottamare, in the March of Ancona, on -December 13, 1521. The unwonted vigour of his character is traced by -some to the Dalmatian blood of his ancestors, who, in the preceding -century, had fled before the Turks to Italy. They had preserved their -robust health, and attained no fortune, by work on the soil, and there -is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> not the least improbability in the tradition—which some recent -writers resent—that Felice at one time tended his father's swine.<a name="FNanchor_314_314" id="FNanchor_314_314"></a><a href="#Footnote_314_314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a> -But at the age of nine he was sent to the friary at Montalto, where -he had an uncle, and he proved a good student. He became so excellent -a preacher that he was summoned to give the Lenten Sermons at Rome in -1552, and he attracted the notice of St. Ignatius and St. Philip Neri, -and of some of the graver cardinals. After presiding over one or two -convents of his Order, he was put in charge of the friary at Venice in -1556, and was in the next year made Counsellor to the Inquisition. His -ardent nature and strict ideals caused him to use his powers with such -harshness that both his brethren and the Venetian government attacked -him. He was forced several times to retire, and in 1560 Rome was -definitively compelled to withdraw him.</p> - -<p>The fact that he had been thwarted by lax brethren and by an (from -the Roman point of view) irreligious government commended the fiery -monk still further to his reformer-friends. He received a chair at the -Sapienza (Roman University) and was made Counsellor to the Holy Office. -In 1565 Cardinal Buoncompagni was sent on a mission to Spain, and, -apparently to the Cardinal's disgust, the learned friar was included -in his train. The sincerely religious temper of Sixtus V.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> makes it -difficult for some of his biographers to understand his very original -character. In spite of his virtue he was quite clearly ambitious,—one -must live in the ecclesiastical world to realize how the ambition of -power and the ambition to do good fuse with each other in the clerical -mind,—he had an atrocious temper, and he retained what higher-born -prelates would call the rudeness of a peasant. He quarrelled with -Buoncompagni, and, as the mission was never really discharged, he had -no opportunity to distinguish himself. However, the new Pope (for whose -election Buoncompagni returned prematurely to Rome) was the friendly -Dominican colleague, Pius V. Padre Montalto was made Vicar Apostolic -over the Franciscan Order—the General having died—and he made a -drastic effort to reform the reluctant friars and nuns (1566-1568). For -this he received the red hat (1570) and was entrusted with the task of -editing the works of St. Ambrose.</p> - -<p>Unhappily for the ambitious cardinal-monk, Pius V. died in 1572, and -Cardinal Buoncompagni ascended the throne and took the name of Gregory -XIII. He withdrew the pension which Pius had assigned to Felice, and -for the next thirteen years the Cardinal had to live in retirement -and comparative poverty. In this again the very original character -of Peretti reveals itself. One might expect that so stern a monastic -reformer would retire to a friary when the Papal Court no longer -required his presence, but he retired, instead, to his very comfortable -palace and garden on the Esquiline. He had brought his sister Camilla -and her son Francesco to live in this palace, and even romance and -tragedy entered the friar's home. Francesco had married a beautiful -and light-minded Roman girl, and her brother, Paolo Orsini, murdered -Francesco in order to set her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> free for a nobler lover. The uncle could -get no redress under Gregory XIII. He curbed his anger, quietly bent -over his books, and watched the rising storm in Italy which was to -close Gregory's reign.</p> - -<p>Gregory died on April 10, 1585, and Cardinal Montalto was enclosed with -his colleagues in the Sistine Chapel on April 21st for the making of -a new Pope. He was in his sixty-fourth year, and his more malicious -biographer would have us believe that he disguised his robustness -under a pretence of decrepit age in order to deceive the cardinals. -The fact seems to be that he waited quietly, and without taking sides, -in his cell until the factions had worn themselves out and the hour -had come for choosing a man who had not been regarded as <i>papabile</i>. -Most assuredly he deceived the cardinals, though not by any dishonest -artifice. For three days the Medici and Colonna and Farnese, and the -French and Spanish factions, fought their traditional battle, and not -one of the aspirants could get a majority. Then one or two cardinals -bethought themselves of this quiet Cardinal Montalto, who had lived -away on the Esquiline with his rustic sister for so many years, and who -would surely be grateful to any for elevating him to the throne. They -visited Montalto and found him humbly and gratefully disposed: they -intrigued nervously and rapidly in the little colony: and presently -cardinals rushed to do homage to the former swineherd and applaud -the Pontificate of Sixtus V. He was duly grateful, for a few days. -Lucrative appointments were at once divided amongst his friends and -supporters; though some fear seized men when one of the cardinals -ventured to bring before the new Pope the murderer of his nephew, and -Sixtus, in sombre and terrible accents, bade the Orsini go and rid -himself of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> his cut-throats. He was crowned on May 1st, and he lost -little time in applying himself to the drastic schemes of reform which -he had, apparently, matured in his peaceful garden on the Esquiline.</p> - -<p>Yet the first act of the reformer betrays a defect and compels us to -deal at once with the chief irregularity of his conduct. After the -unhappy nepotism of Paul IV., that ancient and disreputable practice -had been severely condemned, yet we find it flagrantly and immediately -revived by Sixtus himself. It was, as we shall see, an essential -part of his scheme to reform the College of Cardinals, and he would -presently enact that no one should be raised to the cardinalate under -the age of twenty-one, and no man with a son or grandson should attain -the dignity. Yet within a fortnight of his coronation he announced -that his grand-nephew, Alexander Peretti, a boy of thirteen, would -be raised to the Sacred College, and another young grand-nephew was -appointed Governor of the Borgo of St. Peter's and Captain of the Papal -Guard. Their sisters were similarly enriched by noble alliances in -later years. This grave impropriety is not excused by references to -the ambition and determination of the Pope's sister Camilla; indeed, -the wealth which that lady now obtained, and the notoriety with which -she invested it in Rome, rather increased the Pope's guilt. He was -assuredly not less strong of will than she. The defect shows how deeply -rooted the evil was at Rome, when so resolute a reformer yields to it -within a few years of the Protestant convulsion of Europe.</p> - -<p>With this single concession to the older traditions, however, Sixtus -turned energetically to the work of reform. The condition of the -Papal States under Gregory XIII. had become scandalous. The leading<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> -officials sold the lesser offices to corrupt men, and these in turn -recovered their money by receiving bribes to overlook crime. Brigandage -of the most licentious character spread over Italy, and even Roman -nobles supported bands of swordsmen who would with impunity rid them -of an inconvenient husband, force the doors of a virtuous woman's -house, or relieve the pilgrim of his money. A law prohibiting the use -of firearms had been passed, but it had become the fashion to ignore -law and police. The picture which Sixtus himself gives us in his early -Bulls is amazing when we recall that, only a few years before, the -future of the Church had depended in no small measure on the morals of -Rome and Italy.</p> - -<p>Sixtus had no cause to spare the memory of his predecessor, and he -turned with truculence to the remedy of this disorder. Before the end -of April he had four young men belonging to high Roman families hanged -on gibbets, like common murderers, for carrying firearms in spite of -the decree. At the Carnival he erected two gibbets, one at each end -of the Corso, to intimidate roysterers from the use of the knife. On -April 30th he, in his Bull <i>Hoc Nostri</i>, enacted the most drastic -punishment for brigands and all who should support or tolerate them; -and on June 1st he caused the Roman government to put a price on their -heads. The nobles of Rome, who had included these picturesque criminals -in their suites, were ordered, under the direst penalties, to yield or -dismiss them, and even cardinals were threatened with imprisonment if -they retained servants of that character. Such was the amazement of -Rome that the wits are said to have dressed the statue of St. Peter -for a journey and put into its mouth the reply, when St. Paul was -supposed to ask the meaning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> of his travelling costume, that he feared -that Sixtus was about to prosecute him for cutting off the ear of the -high-priest's servant. From Rome the terror spread throughout the Papal -States. Thousands—including renegade monks and mothers who prostituted -their daughters—were executed or slain, and the bands fled to neutral -territory. Thither the merciless hand of the Pope pursued them, and a -few liberal concessions to the other Italian Powers induced them to -fling back the banditti upon the arms of the Papal troops or the knives -of those who sought blood-money.</p> - -<p>That Sixtus pursued this very necessary campaign with absolute -truculence and a disdain of delicacy in the use of means cannot be -questioned, but, though the fact does not adorn his character, we know -too well the licentious condition of Italy to waste our sympathy on -his victims. The most stubborn and audacious outlaws fell in a few -years before his attack. At Bologna, for instance, the Pepoli and the -Malvezzi had for years sustained one of those terrible feuds which had -so long disgraced the central State of Christendom. They laughed at -Papal injunctions. Sixtus had Count Pepoli treacherously seized, tried -(in his absence) at Rome, and decapitated. His followers, and those of -the Malvezzi, scattered in alarm, and Bologna was not merely relieved -of oppressive criminals, but was adorned with new buildings and -enriched with educational institutions by the triumphant Pope. Later, -in order to extinguish the embers of animosity, he promoted one of the -Pepoli to the cardinalate. The feuds of the Gaetani, the Colonna, and -other old families were similarly trodden out, or healed by marriages -with grand-nieces of the Pope, and Italy became more sober and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> more -prosperous than it had been for ages. Unhappily, the reform died with -Sixtus and anarchy returned.</p> - -<p>This campaign occupied a few years, but it had no sooner been launched -than Sixtus produced other of the plans he had prepared in his secluded -palace. I have shown how deeply the corruption of the College of -Cardinals affected the religious history of Europe, and Sixtus began -very quickly to reform it. It was, perhaps, not his misunderstood -promise of gratitude to the cardinals who had elected him, but -some feeling of incongruity with his own conduct in promoting his -boy-nephews, which restrained him for a time. However that may be, he -turned to the problem in the second year of his Pontificate, and his -Bull <i>Postquam Verus</i><a name="FNanchor_315_315" id="FNanchor_315_315"></a><a href="#Footnote_315_315" class="fnanchor">[315]</a> laid down severe rules for the sustained -improvement of the College. The number of cardinals was restricted to -seventy (as is still the rule); illegitimates, and men who had sons and -grandsons to favour, were excluded; and a cleric must have attained -an age of at least twenty-two years before he could be promoted. In -order to distribute and expedite the work of administration, he further -divided the cardinals into fifteen "congregations" (some of which -already existed), such as those of the Inquisition, of Public Works, of -the Vatican Press, and so on.</p> - -<p>We can hardly doubt that in this division he had an ulterior aim. -The earlier procedure had been for the Pope to lay a question before -the whole body of the cardinals and discuss it with them. Sixtus -continued to do this, but the cardinals soon found that, although he -desired discussion, he turned fiery eyes, and even showered rough and -offensive epithets, on any who opposed his plans. He was essentially -an autocrat,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> and the impetuosity which was inseparable from so robust -a character made him an unpleasant autocrat. The advantage to him -of splitting the cardinals into small groups was that, on any grave -question, he had merely to take account of the consultative opinion of -a few cardinals. His more admiring biographers record that he rarely -dissented from the conclusions of his congregations; in point of fact, -he decided grave issues before consulting them, or made his will -unmistakably clear to them. His own promotions were generally sound, -though he at times strained his regulations in favour of a friend. But -he greatly improved the College of Cardinals, and made an admirable -effort to exclude from it nationalist influences.</p> - -<p>We must not, on the other hand, suppose that these congregations of -cardinals count in any degree—except as the mere executive of his -will—in the great work of his Pontificate. His own teeming brain and -iron will are the sole sources of the mighty achievements of those five -years. He had studied the Papal problem on all sides and was prepared -at once to remedy a disorder or design a new structure. Agriculture -and industry were feeble and unprosperous throughout the Papal States. -Ruinous taxation, lawless oppression, and the ease with which one -obtained one's bread at the innumerable monasteries, had demoralized -the country and ruined the Papal treasury. Sixtus had some of the -qualities of an economist—we still possess the careful account book he -kept in his days of monastic authority—and he was especially concerned -to nurse the Papal income in view of certain grandiose plans which he -seems to have held in reserve, so that he applied himself zealously to -this problem. It is generally agreed that his work here is a singular -compound of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> shrewdness and blundering. By his restoration of public -security he lifted a burden from agriculture, and he made special -efforts to encourage the woollen industry and the silk industry.<a name="FNanchor_316_316" id="FNanchor_316_316"></a><a href="#Footnote_316_316" class="fnanchor">[316]</a> -He, at great cost, brought a good supply of water, from an estate -twenty miles away, to Rome, and by this means and by the cutting of -new roads re-established some population on the hills, which had -long been almost deserted. We find Camilla speculating profitably in -this extension of the city, but the more important point is that the -population of Rome rose in five years from 70,000 to 100,000; still, -however, only one tenth of the population of Imperial Rome. The Pope -also gave a water-supply to Civita Vecchia and drained its marshes; -and he spent—with very little result in this case—200,000 ducats in -draining the marshes at Terracina, which he personally inspected in -1588.</p> - -<p>Yet the admiration which his biographers bestow on his finance is -misplaced. It seems to have been chiefly in his native March of -Ancona that he granted relief from the heavy taxes and imposts of his -predecessor; the Papal States generally were still ruinously taxed, -even in the necessaries of life. His hoarding of specie, partly for -excellent but partly for visionary purposes, injured commerce; and -such measures as his prohibition of the sale of landed property to -foreigners were short-sighted. The rise of the Papal income, which -enabled him to store 4,500,000 scudi (about 8,000,000 dollars) in five -years, besides spending large sums on public works, was chiefly due to -deplorable methods. The income from the issue of indulgences had now -fallen very low—it had not wholly ceased, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> some say, since they -are still issued in Spain—and little money came from Spain or France. -The fixed Papal income had fallen to 200,000 scudi a year, and in the -expenditure of this the friar-pope made an economy of 140,000 scudi a -year by reducing table-charges, dismissing superfluous servants, and -(as is often forgotten) giving to other servants church-benefices so -that they needed no salary. The result was still far too small for the -creation of a fund, and Sixtus sold honours and offices as flagrantly -as any Pope had done since Boniface IX. He sold positions which had -never been sold before, and he created new marketable titles. He -debased the coinage and imposed a tax on money-lenders. He carried -to a remarkable extent the new Papal system of <i>Monti</i>.<a name="FNanchor_317_317" id="FNanchor_317_317"></a><a href="#Footnote_317_317" class="fnanchor">[317]</a> He -withdrew offices which Gregory XIII. had sold, and transferred them to -higher bidders; and he must have known how the officials would recoup -themselves.</p> - -<p>By these means he raised his hoard, which seems to have been gathered -for some visionary grand campaign against the Protestants and the -Turks. We at once recall Julius II., but it is a comparison which -the work of Sixtus V. cannot sustain; he was not so great a ruler as -Julius, and he fell on less prosperous times. I must add, however, -that part of his reserve fund was destined for practical uses. In 1586 -famine and Turks and pirates caused grave distress in Italy. Sixtus did -not even then abolish his heavy taxes on the necessaries<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> of life and -the means of distributing them, but he bought 100,000 crowns' worth of -corn in Sicily, fixed the price of flour and punished unjust dealers, -and set about collecting a fund of a million scudi to meet such -emergencies. He was not economist enough to see the roots of the evil, -and fair, fertile Italy continued to suffer under the unhappy Papal -system.</p> - -<p>The Pope's tenderness to the Jews was part of his crude financial -policy. A Portuguese Jew, who had fled from the Inquisition, was -his chief fiscal adviser, and Sixtus interpreted in the most genial -manner the current teaching of theologians, that, since the Jews -were irreparably damned on a greater count, they might lend money at -interest, and the Papacy might tax their wealth. Baron Huebner, in a -moment of unusual candour, corrects some of the less discriminating -biographers: Sixtus, he says, "protected the Jews in order to exploit -them."<a name="FNanchor_318_318" id="FNanchor_318_318"></a><a href="#Footnote_318_318" class="fnanchor">[318]</a> Pius V. had expelled the Jews from all parts of the -Papal States except Rome and the March of Ancona, and Sixtus, by his -constitution <i>Hebrćorum Gens</i>, cancelled the restriction and ordered -Christians to treat the Jews and their synagogues with respect. We -feel that interest led Sixtus on to a more human feeling. He dispensed -the unhappy Jews from wearing the odious yellow dress which Christian -princes and prelates imposed on them, and for a few years, in that one -corner of Europe, they enjoyed the life of human beings.</p> - -<p>Sixtus was less lenient to the Jesuits than to the Jews. The primitive -fervour of the Society was already dimmed by prosperity or perverted -by casuistry, and complaints came to Rome from all parts. Having -been a Franciscan monk, Sixtus was not well disposed toward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> the new -congregation, which had aroused the hostility of the older religious -bodies. He used to observe, in his grim, meditative way: "Who are -these men who make us bow our heads at the mention of their name?" He -referred to the Catholic practice of inclining the head at the mention -of the name of Jesus, but he disliked the whole constitution of the -Society and resented the privileges it had won from his predecessors. -A prolonged quarrel of the worldly and degenerate Jesuits of Spain -with General Acquaviva gave him an opportunity to intervene, and he -ordered an inquiry into their rules. In 1590 he announced that he would -alter the name and the constitutions of the Society. Acquaviva stirred -such Catholic monarchs as were docile to his brethren to petition the -Pope in their favour, but Sixtus was not prepared to listen to the -suggestions, in ecclesiastical affairs, of worldly princes. Acquaviva -then persuaded Cardinal Carafa, to whom the inquiry had been entrusted, -to prolong his inquiry, and it became a race between the failing energy -of the Pope and the intrigues of the Jesuits. Rome witnessed the -contest with the interest it had once bestowed on the chariot-races -of the Blues and the Greens. The inquiry was transferred to other -prelates, and, when these also were suborned, Sixtus peremptorily -ordered Acquaviva to request that the name of the Society should be -changed. The petition was reluctantly made, the Bull authorizing the -change of name was drafted and—Sixtus V. died before he put his name -to it. In the circumstances it was inevitably whispered that Jesuit -poison had ended the Pope's life, but the legend was as superfluous as -it was familiar.<a name="FNanchor_319_319" id="FNanchor_319_319"></a><a href="#Footnote_319_319" class="fnanchor">[319]</a></p> - -<p>The rest of the Pope's administrative work must be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> briefly recorded -before we pass to the consideration of his political activity. He -attempted to restrict the prodigality of the Romans in dress, food, -funeral and wedding expenses, etc., but this sumptuary legislation<a name="FNanchor_320_320" id="FNanchor_320_320"></a><a href="#Footnote_320_320" class="fnanchor">[320]</a> -was not enforced. He found general and disgraceful laxity in the -convents of nuns, and enacted a death-penalty against offenders: the -same penalty he, with his habitual truculence, imposed for cheating at -cards or dice. He directed the police to cleanse Rome of prostitutes -and astrologers, reformed the prisons,<a name="FNanchor_321_321" id="FNanchor_321_321"></a><a href="#Footnote_321_321" class="fnanchor">[321]</a> made provision for widows -and orphans, pressed the redemption of captives,<a name="FNanchor_322_322" id="FNanchor_322_322"></a><a href="#Footnote_322_322" class="fnanchor">[322]</a> and constructed -ten galleys for the defence of the Italian coast against the Turks -and pirates. He cleared of debt the Roman University (Sapienza) and -restored it to its full activity. He engaged Fontana to crown St. -Peter's with its long-deferred cupola, and threw such energy into the -work that he almost completed in twenty-two months a task which the -builders expected to occupy ten years. He, with equal vigour, set up -the obelisks in front of St. Peter's, reconstructed the Lateran Palace -in part, and restored the columns of Trajan and Antoninus; though, in -a naďve desire to express the triumph of Christianity over Paganism, -he put statues of Peter and Paul on the ancient Roman pedestals.<a name="FNanchor_323_323" id="FNanchor_323_323"></a><a href="#Footnote_323_323" class="fnanchor">[323]</a> -He also set up a press in the Vatican Library, which he restored and -decorated,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> and from this he issued the Latin version of the Bible -which the Council of Trent had ordered, as well as the works of St. -Ambrose and St. Bonaventure.</p> - -<p>The magnitude of this domestic program and the vigour of the -sexagenarian Pope are enhanced when we further learn that his brief -Pontificate was, as usual, occupied with grave political problems. -With German affairs the Papacy had now little concern, but we must -record that Sixtus permitted some of the Catholic bishops to allow -the laity to communicate in both kinds. To England he devoted more -attention, though his violent and undiplomatic methods only made -worse the position of the Catholics in that country. Mary Stuart -contrived to write to him, after she had been condemned, and he spoke -of Elizabeth to the cardinals as "the English Jezabel." He urged Henry -III. to intercede for Mary and himself wrote a defence of her. When -she was executed, he spurred Philip I. in his designs against England -and promised him 500,000 florins when his fleet reached England and -a further half million when the Spaniards occupied London. When an -English spy was detected at Rome, Sixtus ordered his tongue to be cut -out and his hand struck off before he was beheaded. In defiance of -his own decree he bestowed the cardinalate on William Allen, and he -directed Allen to translate (for distribution in England) the Bull in -which he enumerated the dark crimes of Elizabeth, renewed the sentence -of excommunication against her, and declared her subjects released from -their allegiance. These measures, which only increased the sufferings -of the Catholics, betray again the limitation of the Pope's vigorous -intelligence, and, when the Armada sank, he turned from Spain to France -and realized the futility of his policy.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span></p> - -<p>The chief political problem was, however, the attitude of Rome toward -the rival Catholic Powers, Spain and France, and the less important -action of Sixtus in Venice (which, as a bulwark against the Protestant -north, he sought, in spite of his old grievances, to conciliate), Savoy -(where he compelled the Duke to refrain from appointing bishops), -Besançon (where he forced upon the reluctant chapter a friar-friend -whom he had made Archbishop), Belgium (where he demanded a truce -between the University and the Jesuits), and Switzerland (where he -attempted in vain to restrain the secular authorities), need not be -considered at length. The French problem, complicated by the ambition -of Spain, might have given anxious hours to a more astute statesman -than Sixtus, and we shall hardly expect a man with so little subtlety -to reach a distinguished solution of it.</p> - -<p>The ineptness of Catherine de' Medici and the folly and profligacy -of her diseased son, Henry III., had brought France to a dangerous -pass. Henry of Guise coveted the throne, under a pretence of zeal for -the Church: Henry of Navarre grimly awaited his natural succession -to it: and Philip of Spain dreamed of annexing France, as well as -England, to his swollen dominion. The Spanish representative at Rome, -Count Olivarez, who nourished a secret disdain of the peasant-Pope, -urged Sixtus to eliminate Henry of Navarre from the competition by -excommunication, for having relapsed to the Protestant creed, and, -on September 5, 1585, Sixtus issued against him and the Prince of -Condé the Bull <i>Ab Immenso</i>. Henry of Navarre retorted cheerfully -that the Pope was himself a heretic, and Henry III. angrily drove the -Pope's new Nuncio from France; to which Sixtus retorted by expelling -from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> Rome Henry's representative, the Marquis Pisani. To the great -delight of Philip and the Catholic League, Henry III., feeble and -distracted, humbly submitted, and was compelled to put pressure on -the remaining Protestants. Sixtus, in fact, promised Henry a Spanish -army from the Netherlands to assist in coercing the Huguenots, and -urged him to co-operate with Philip and with the League (under Guise). -In his exclusive, and entirely natural, concern for the orthodoxy of -the country, Sixtus failed to understand in any degree its peculiar -political condition or the utterly selfish designs of Guise and of -Philip. He was impelling the country toward civil war.</p> - -<p>In 1587 the Germans invaded France, and Henry of Navarre in turn -confronted the troops of the League. Some small initial victories of -the League led the Pope to congratulate the Duke of Guise in the most -extravagant language, and it was only the fear of exasperating Philip -that restrained him from bestowing on the Duke's son the hand of one -of his grand-nieces. One cannot suppose that Sixtus failed to see that -Guise had ambition, but he showed little penetration of character in -admonishing the Duke to recover Paris for Henry III. and to assist that -monarch to set up the Inquisition in France and exterminate heresy. -The Nuncio's letters show that he was, under the Pope's instructions, -absorbed in a futile effort to reconcile the Duke and the King, and it -is said that Sixtus angrily advised the effeminate monarch either to -make a friend of Guise or to destroy him. Even Henry III. showed more -appreciation of the political situation.</p> - -<p>Sixtus turned impatiently toward Spain and encouraged the designs of -Philip. On July 15, 1588, he signed a treaty with the League and Spain, -and the new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> alliance promised the complete eradication of heresy from -France. The failure of the Armada and the Pope's habitual distrust of -Philip clouded the alliance for a time, but Henry III. was not willing -to accept the Pope's terms for a transfer of his affections. Sixtus -was especially eager to have the decrees of the Council of Trent -published in France. To this the Gallican clergy objected, and Henry -himself declared that he would publish them only "salvis juribus regis -et regni": a phrase which Sixtus, to use his own words, "cursed." Even -when, to the Pope's extreme anger, Henry had the Duke and the Cardinal -of Guise assassinated, Sixtus remained too irresolute to derive -advantage from the King's remorse or apprehension, though the Spaniards -and the League gained ground at Rome. Henry III., indeed, entered into -alliance with the Protestant Henry against the League, and Sixtus was -content to issue a fresh threat of excommunication against the Huguenot.</p> - -<p>But the assassination of the King in August (1589) simplified the -situation, and Sixtus definitely allied himself with Spain and the -League against Henry IV.: a very natural, but equally impolitic, -decision. Venice recognized Henry, and the Pope at first recalled -his Nuncio from Venice and then, hearing the success of the new -King, ordered him to return. Sixtus was beginning to appreciate the -situation, and, when the Duke of Luxemburg came to Rome to tell of -Henry's willingness to reconsider his religious position, he was -amiably received. The Spaniards made a last violent struggle, and even -threatened to arraign the Pope for heresy before a General Council, but -Sixtus now saw his way clearly. Throughout the year 1590 he braved the -threats of the Spaniards and watched the progress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> of Henry IV., but -the struggle against Spaniards and Jesuits was too exacting for a man -of his years and he succumbed to fever on August 24th.</p> - -<p>Sixtus must unhesitatingly be included among the great Popes, but it is -perplexing to read, as one often does, that he was "one of the greatest -of the Popes." The work he accomplished in five years is far greater -than most of the Popes achieved, or would have achieved, in twenty -years, and at least the greater part of his reform-work in Rome and -Italy was of considerable value. Yet even here we must not overlook his -defects: he transgressed his own regulations when he would gratify his -affections, he enforced reforms with harshness and violence, and he -greatly lessened the value of his economic work by hoarding a vast sum -for the purpose (apparently) of conducting a visionary grand campaign -against Turks and heretics. His political attitude was, as I have -shown, injudicious and irresolute. Both in character and statesmanship -he falls far short of the greater Popes, and it is, perhaps, some -indication of the evil plight of the Church that Sixtus V. should be -the ablest man it could produce in a century of grave and persistent -danger.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_312_312" id="Footnote_312_312"></a><a href="#FNanchor_312_312"><span class="label">[312]</span></a> See Dr. G.H. Putnam's <i>Censorship of the Church of Rome</i> -(2 vols., 1907), i., 168.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_313_313" id="Footnote_313_313"></a><a href="#FNanchor_313_313"><span class="label">[313]</span></a> See, besides the work of Pallavicini already quoted, -Paolo Sarpi's <i>Istoria del Concilio Tridentino</i>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_314_314" id="Footnote_314_314"></a><a href="#FNanchor_314_314"><span class="label">[314]</span></a> It is, however, true that the hostile Italian -biographer, Gregorio Leti (<i>Vita di Sisto Quinto</i>, 3 vols., 1693), -who tells this must be read with discretion; and we must use equal -discretion in reading Tempesti's <i>Storia della Vita e Geste di Sisto -V.</i> (1754), which is inspired by a contrary determination to praise -Sixtus. I need recommend only the full and generally judicious -biography of Sixtus which we owe to Baron de Hübner (<i>Sixte Quint</i>, -3 vols., 1870), remarking that in it the panegyrical tendency is -more conspicuous than the critical. For a smaller biography M.A.J. -Dumesnil's <i>Histoire de Sixte-Quint</i> (1869) is excellent.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_315_315" id="Footnote_315_315"></a><a href="#FNanchor_315_315"><span class="label">[315]</span></a> December 5, 1586.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_316_316" id="Footnote_316_316"></a><a href="#FNanchor_316_316"><span class="label">[316]</span></a> Bull <i>Quum Sicut</i>, May 28, 1586. Bull <i>Quum Alias</i>, -December 17, 1585.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_317_317" id="Footnote_317_317"></a><a href="#FNanchor_317_317"><span class="label">[317]</span></a> Recent Popes had established what was, in effect, a -system of life assurance. A large money-payment secured an income for -life out of the proceeds of certain taxes. Sixtus multiplied these -<i>Monti</i> (as the funds were called) in order to obtain a large sum of -money at once, and he thus mortgaged the resources of the Holy See. -Ranke, whose chapters on Sixtus are amongst his best, heavily censures -the Pope's finance.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_318_318" id="Footnote_318_318"></a><a href="#FNanchor_318_318"><span class="label">[318]</span></a> I., 349.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_319_319" id="Footnote_319_319"></a><a href="#FNanchor_319_319"><span class="label">[319]</span></a> See the author's <i>Candid History of the Jesuits</i> (1913), -pp. 110-113.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_320_320" id="Footnote_320_320"></a><a href="#FNanchor_320_320"><span class="label">[320]</span></a> Bull <i>Cum Unoquoque</i>, January 1, 1586.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_321_321" id="Footnote_321_321"></a><a href="#FNanchor_321_321"><span class="label">[321]</span></a> Bull <i>Qugć Ordini</i>, 1589.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_322_322" id="Footnote_322_322"></a><a href="#FNanchor_322_322"><span class="label">[322]</span></a> Bull <i>Cum Benigno</i>, 1585.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_323_323" id="Footnote_323_323"></a><a href="#FNanchor_323_323"><span class="label">[323]</span></a> This edifying mood of the Pope might have been fatal to -the ancient Roman remains if he had enjoyed a lengthy Pontificate. When -the cardinals timidly curbed his iconoclasm, he replied that he would -destroy the uglier of the pagan monuments and restore the remainder. -Among these "uglier" monuments were the Septizonium of Severus, the -surviving part of which he actually demolished, and the tomb of Cćcilia -Metella!</p></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a></p> - -<p class="center">BENEDICT XIV.: THE SCHOLAR-POPE</p> - - -<p class="drop">T<span class="uppercase">he</span> seventeen Popes who occupied the Vatican between Sixtus V. and -Benedict XIV. do not call for individual notice. With common integrity -of life and general mediocrity of intelligence they guarded and -administered their lessened inheritance. A few fragments of the lost -provinces were regained—Ferrara and Urbino were reunited to the -Papal States, and Protestantism was crushed in southern Germany and -Poland—but the general situation was unchanged. The Papal conception -of European life, the conviction that heresy must and would be only a -temporary diversion of the minds of men, was definitely overthrown, -and the Church of Rome became one of various flourishing branches of -the Christian Church. The interest of the historian passes from the -personalities of the Popes to the movements of thought which herald or -prepare the next great revolution.</p> - -<p>In regard to that specific development of European thought which we -call the birth of science we are, perhaps, apt to misread its earlier -stages because we find it in its final stage so destructive of old -traditions. The Popes of the seventeenth century are too much flattered -when they are credited with a distinct perception of the menace of -science and a resolute opposition to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> it. Properly speaking, they had -no attitude toward "science," but, as the history of science and the -fortune of such men as Giordano Bruno, Galilei, and Vesalius show, -they resented and hampered departures from the stock of traditional -learning.<a name="FNanchor_324_324" id="FNanchor_324_324"></a><a href="#Footnote_324_324" class="fnanchor">[324]</a> On the other hand, the period we are considering was -marked by the phenomenal material success and the moral degeneration of -the greatest force the Counter-Reformation had produced—the Society of -Jesus. The Jesuits did far more than the Papacy to arrest the advance -of Protestantism and to conquer new lands for the Church, but the -diplomatic principles inherited from their founder and the desperate -exigencies of a stubborn war led them into a pernicious casuistry, -while prosperity led to such relaxation as it had produced in the -old religious bodies. In politics the new age was characterized by -the decay of Spain and "the Empire," and the rise of France, and the -increased power of France led to a revival of the old Gallic defiance, -within orthodox limits, of the Papacy, culminating in the famous -"Declaration of the Gallican Clergy" (1682), and to the powerful lay -movements which gathered round Pascal and the Jansenists or Voltaire -and the philosophers. Benedict XIV. mounted the Papal throne in the -height of these developments, and his attitude of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> compromise makes him -one of the most singular and interesting Popes of the new era.</p> - -<p>Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini was born at Bologna, of good family, on -March 31, 1675. At the age of thirteen he entered the Clementine -College at Rome, and with the advance of years he became a very -industrious student of law—canon and civil—and history. He took -degrees in theology and law, and was incorporated in the Roman system -as Consultor to the Holy Office, Canon of St. Peter's, and Prelate -of the Roman Court. Successive Popes made the indefatigable scholar -Archbishop of Theodosia <i>in partibus</i>, Archbishop of Ancona and -Cardinal (1728), and Archbishop of Bologna (1731). Lambertini was a -rare type of prelate. He did not, as so many high-born prelates did, -relieve the tedium of the clerical estate with the hunt, the banquet, -and the mistress. His episcopal duties were discharged with the most -rigorous fidelity, his clergy were sedulously exhorted to cultivate -learning and virtue, and his leisure was devoted to the composition -of erudite treatises on <i>The Beatification of the Servants of God</i>, -<i>The Sacrifice of the Mass</i>, <i>The Festivals of Our Lord Jesus Christ</i>, -and <i>Canonical Questions</i>. Yet the Cardinal-Archbishop was no ascetic -in spirit, and there was much gossip about his conversation. He loved -Tasso and Ariosto as much as juridical writings. He liked witty -society, and his good stories circulated beyond the little group of his -scholarly friends. President de Brosses visited him at Bologna in 1739, -the year before he became Pope, and wrote of him:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>A good fellow, without any airs, who told us some very good stories -about women (<i>filles</i>) or about the Roman court. I took care to commit -some of them to memory and will find<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> them useful. He especially liked -to tell or to hear stories about the Regent and his confidant Cardinal -Dubois. He used to say, "Tell me something about this Cardinal del -Bosco." I ransacked my memory, and told him all the tales I knew. His -conversation is very pleasant: he is a clever man, full of gaiety and -well read. In his speech he makes use of certain expletive particles -which are not cardinalitial. In that and other things he is like -Cardinal Camus; for he is otherwise irreproachable in conduct, very -charitable, and very devoted to his archiepiscopal duties. But the -first and most essential of his duties is to go three times a week to -the Opera.<a name="FNanchor_325_325" id="FNanchor_325_325"></a><a href="#Footnote_325_325" class="fnanchor">[325]</a></p></blockquote> - -<p>Lambertini's liberty and joviality of speech did not, in spite of his -strict virtue and most zealous administration, commend him to the more -severe cardinals, and when Clement XII. died, on February 6, 1740, -he was not regarded as a candidate for the Papacy. But the struggle -of French, Spanish, and Austrian partisans continued for six months -without prospect of a settlement, and in the intolerable heat of the -summer the cardinals cast about, as usual, for an outsider. Lambertini -had humorously recommended himself from time to time. He used to say, -President de Brosses reports: "If you want a good fellow (<i>coglione</i>—a -particularly gross word) choose me."<a name="FNanchor_326_326" id="FNanchor_326_326"></a><a href="#Footnote_326_326" class="fnanchor">[326]</a> The Emperor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> Joseph II., who -did not want an inflexible Pope, supported his candidature, and he was -assuredly the most distinguished of the cardinals to whom the wearied -voters now looked. He was elected on August 17th, and he took the name -of Benedict XIV.</p> - -<p>He was now sixty-five years old: a round, full-faced, merry little -man, with piercing small eyes and an obstinate resolution to live at -peace with the world. A few years later,<a name="FNanchor_327_327" id="FNanchor_327_327"></a><a href="#Footnote_327_327" class="fnanchor">[327]</a> he describes his daily -life to his friend Cardinal Tencin. He rises early and takes a cup of -chocolate and a crust. At midday he has a soup, an entrée, a roast, -and a pear: on "fast" days he reduces himself to a <i>pot-au-feu</i> and a -pear, but it does not agree with him to observe the law of abstinence -from meat, and he advises the cardinals to follow his example. In -the evening he takes only a glass of water with a little cinnamon, -and he retires very late. He works hard all day and feels that he is -justified in seeking relief in sprightly conversation. Indeed, when -one surveys the vast published series of Benedict's Bulls (some of -which are lengthy and severe treatises), rescripts, works, and letters, -one realizes that his industry was phenomenal. When he had to condemn -some volume of the new sceptical literature which was springing up -in Europe, he read it himself three times and reflected long on it. -His interest ranged from England, whose political affairs he followed -closely, to the mountains of Syria and the missions of China. Every -branch of Papal administration had his personal attention. He thought -little of the cardinals, and often pours genial irony on them in his -innumerable letters. Of his two predecessors, Benedict XIII. "had -not the least idea of government," and Clement XII. "passed his life -in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> conversation," and "it is with the oxen from this stable [the -cardinals promoted by them] that we have to work today."<a name="FNanchor_328_328" id="FNanchor_328_328"></a><a href="#Footnote_328_328" class="fnanchor">[328]</a> In -finance, politics, administration, liturgy, and all other respects he -had inherited a formidable task, and he discharged it in such wise that -he died at peace with all except his Roman reactionaries. The Catholic -rulers deeply appreciated him. Frederick of Prussia had a genial regard -for him. Horace Walpole celebrated his virtues in Latin verse, and -one of the Pitts treasured a bust of him. Voltaire, through Cardinal -Acquaviva, presented his <i>Mahomet</i> to him in 1746, and the amiable -Pope, quite innocent of the satire on Christianity, wrote to tell -Voltaire how he had successfully defended his Latin verses.<a name="FNanchor_329_329" id="FNanchor_329_329"></a><a href="#Footnote_329_329" class="fnanchor">[329]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span></p> - -<p>Benedict's immediate predecessor, Clement XII., an elderly -disciplinarian whose strength was not equal to his pretensions, had -left the internal and foreign affairs of the Quirinal—the Popes now -dwelt chiefly in that palace—in a condition of strain and disorder, -nor was Benedict's Secretary of State, Cardinal Valenti, the man -to relieve the Pope of the work of reform. Choiseul, who was then -the French representative at Rome, describes Valenti as very able -but very lazy: a man of great charm, especially to ladies, and easy -morals. Yet the treasury was empty, and the finances were shockingly -disorganized. Although Clement XII. had introduced the lottery to -support his extravagant expenditure, the Papal income in 1739 fell -short of the expenses by 200,000 crowns a year, and the Camera owed -between fifty and sixty million crowns—President de Brosses says -380,000,000 francs—to the <i>Monti</i>, or funds out of which the Popes -paid life-incomes. Smuggling was so general, even among ambassadors and -cardinals, that half the Papal revenue was lost. Cardinals Acquaviva -and Albani each granted immunity from excise to four thousand traders: -so Benedict wrote to Tencin in 1743. A third of the population of Rome -consisted of ecclesiastics who lived on the Papal system, and a third -were foreigners of no greater financial value; while the natives could -so easily obtain food at the innumerable monasteries, or by begging, -that there was little incentive to industry.</p> - -<p>Benedict XIV. had no financial capacity, but the desperate and ever -worsening condition of the treasury spurred him to work. He restricted -the immunities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> from excise, cut down the extravagant payment of the -troops, and severely curtailed the number of his servants. In a few -years he had a surplus, which he divided among the impoverished nobles. -He then reduced the taxes, had new factories built, and encouraged the -introduction of new methods into agriculture. His zeal in suppressing -"usury" was not so fortunate, but he restored the Papal finances to -such a degree that he could at length indulge his cultural tastes. -Sandini gives a list of the monuments he restored at Rome—including -the new façade with which he disfigured Sta. Maria Maggiore—and we -know from his letters that he was assiduous in collecting classical -statues and fine books for the Roman galleries and libraries. He -founded four academies at Rome—for the study of Roman history and -antiquities, Christian history and antiquities, the history of the -Councils, and liturgy—and once in each week presided, at the Quirinal, -over a sitting of each academy. To the Roman university (Sapienza) he -added chairs of chemistry, mathematics, and art, and he pressed in -every way the higher education of the clergy. In 1750 he appointed -a woman teacher, Maria Gaetana d'Agnesi, of mathematics at Bologna -University, and wrote her a gracious letter commending the ambition of -her sex.</p> - -<p>Jansenists and philosophers were now fiercely exposing the weaknesses -of Papal culture, and Benedict, who freely criticized the errors of -his predecessors, attempted some revision of the mass of legends which -had been accepted by the Church. In 1741 he appointed a commission to -revise the Breviary, but the extensive alterations they proposed to -make in the lives of the saints alarmed the reactionaries. On April -26, 1743, we find Benedict wearily complaining to Tencin of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> -difficulty of reform: "There is now all over the world such a disdain -of the Holy See that—I will not say the protest of a bishop, a city, -or a nation—but the opposition of a single monk is enough to thwart -the most salutary and most pious designs."<a name="FNanchor_330_330" id="FNanchor_330_330"></a><a href="#Footnote_330_330" class="fnanchor">[330]</a> The French clergy had -been compelled in 1680 and 1736 to issue more critical editions of -the Breviary, and Benedict wished to provide one for the universal -Church. But the bigots were too strong for the Pope and the scheme -of reform lies in the dust of the Vatican archives, while the Roman -Breviary still contains legends of the most remarkable character. In -reforming the Martyrology (1748) the Pope was more successful, and -he published a new Ceremonial for Bishops (1752). He also published -an indult permitting any diocese that cared to reduce the number of -Church-festivals. The number of days on which men rested from work -had become a scandal, and many complaints had reached the Holy See. -Benedict's indult was gradually adopted by entire nations.</p> - -<p>Of far greater interest is Benedict's attitude toward what we may call -foreign affairs, and in this we discover again the more genial side -of his character. Those who had known the different aspects of the -Pope's personality—the punctilious learning of the ecclesiastic and -the <i>bonhomie</i> of the man—must have wondered how he would confront -the hereditary problems of the Papacy. Benedict at once made it plain -that his policy would be one of deliberate and judicious compromise. -Anxious though he was, especially in view of the Italian ambitions of -Maria Theresa, about his temporal possessions, he placed his spiritual -power and responsibility in the foreground, and on temporal matters he -made more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> concessions than any Pope of equal wit and will had ever -made. He was, he told Tencin, "the mortal enemy of secrets and useless -mysticism." For disguised Jesuits and intriguing Nuncii he had no -employment. He took court after court, with which his predecessor had -embroiled the Papacy, and came to an agreement which almost invariably -satisfied them; and in the war of the Spanish succession, when Spanish -and Austrian troops in turn violated his territory, he remained -strictly neutral.</p> - -<p>The chief problem in France was the conflict of the Jesuits and the -Jansenists, which was complicated by a revival of the Gallican spirit -that put difficulties in the way of Papal interference. The Bull -<i>Unigenitus</i>, with which Clement XI. had sought to extinguish the -controversy, had increased the disorder, and the zealots pressed the -Pope to intervene. Parlement would have resented his interference, and -it was not until 1755, when the Assembly of the Clergy failed to find a -solution, that Louis XV. asked the Pope to make a further declaration. -The credit of his moderate Encyclical<a name="FNanchor_331_331" id="FNanchor_331_331"></a><a href="#Footnote_331_331" class="fnanchor">[331]</a> is not wholly due to him. -The French asked him to refrain from pressing the <i>Unigenitus</i> as a -standard of faith and merely to demand external respect for it. This -agreed with the Pope's moderate disposition, but the Jesuits and -other zealots at Rome were enraged, and Choiseul—without Benedict's -knowledge, of course—made extensive use of bribery to win the College -of Cardinals. Benedict's letters reflect his weariness between the -antagonistic parties and frequently express that he is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> willing to -respect Gallican susceptibilities to any extent short of a surrender of -the faith. A draft of the Encyclical was submitted to the French court -before it was published. Both the Jesuits and the lawyers attacked it, -but the Parlement was won to the King by an attempt on his life and the -Jesuits soon found all their energy needed to defend their existence.</p> - -<p>With Spain the Pope concluded one of the most remarkable Concordats in -Papal history. There had gradually been established a custom by which -the Papacy appointed to all benefices which fell vacant during eight -months of the year, and the bishops and their chapters appointed to -vacant benefices during the remaining third of the year. The court had -the right of appointment only to benefices in Granada and the Indies. -As a natural result, Spanish ecclesiastics crowded to Rome, and it -was estimated that the Dataria derived from them about 250,000 crowns -a year. Spain resented the arrangement, but the clerical population -of Rome clung tenaciously to it. Benedict in 1751 entered into secret -negotiations with Spain, and contrived to keep them secret until 1753, -when he startled and irritated Rome by publishing his famous Concordat. -By this he granted the Spanish King the right to nominate to all except -fifty-two benefices in Spain and America. The cardinals bitterly -complained that they had not been consulted, while the officials -deplored the abandonment of Papal prestige and the cessation of so much -profitable employment. Benedict had, however, made a shrewd bargain -with Ferdinand VI. The King had to pay a capital sum of 1,143,330 -crowns, which, at an interest of three per cent., would cover the -yearly loss to the Curia. At a later date the Pope released the Spanish -Infanta from the dignity of cardinal, yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> permitted him to retain a -large part of his clerical income.</p> - -<p>A similar agreement ended the long friction with Portugal and (in 1740) -gave John V. the right to present to all the episcopal sees and abbeys -in his dominions; and in 1748 the Pope further gratified the King with -the title of <i>Fidelissimus</i>. The King of Sardinia received, soon after -Benedict's succession, the title of Vicar of all the Papal fiefs in -his dominions and the right, for an annual payment of 2000 crowns, to -gather their revenues. Naples, in turn, was pacified, after many years -of dangerous friction. There had been stern quarrels about jurisdiction -over the clergy, and by a Concordat of the year 1741 Benedict consented -to the creation of a supreme court, with an equal number of clerical -and lay judges and an ecclesiastical president, for the trial of such -cases. With Venice the Pope was less successful. The decaying Republic -had a standing quarrel with Austria about the patriarchate of Aquileia; -Austria, which possessed part of the territory, would not acknowledge -the authority of the Venetian patriarch. Benedict appointed a Vicar for -the Austrian section, and Venice, ever ready to flout Papal orders, -drove the Nuncio from the city. The Pope thereupon divided the province -into two archbishoprics, but Venice still angrily protested and the -dispute remained unsettled at Benedict's death.</p> - -<p>Austria gave the Pope his most anxious hours. The joy of Rome at the -fidelity of southern Germany was in the eighteenth century clouded by -the growth of a spirit akin to Gallicanism: the spirit which would -presently be known as Febronianism. Charles VI. had in 1740 left the -Empire to his elder daughter, Maria Theresa, and Spain had contested -the succession<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> in the hope of winning for itself the provinces of -Lombardy and Tuscany. In the war which followed Benedict took no side, -but the conflicting armies devastated his territory and approached -very near to Rome. His letters to Tencin reflect his distress and -anxiety, no less than his helplessness. When the war was over, he sent -a representative to the conference at Aix-la-Chapelle, where his rights -were endangered by the contest of the two ambitious queens; Elizabeth -of Spain was the last of the Farnese and was disposed to claim for her -son the principality which Paul III. had wantonly conferred on his son -Pier Luigi. The chief question that interested the Papacy was whether -Don Philip should receive the investiture of Parma and Piacenza from -Rome or the Empress, and Benedict had the satisfaction of seeing it -virtually settled in favour of Rome. On Paul III. himself, and other -nepotist Popes, Benedict passes a very severe judgment in his letters. -For his part he severely excluded his relatives from Rome, and when a -young son of his nephew came to study at the Clementine College, he -took care that the boy should receive no particular favour.</p> - -<p>It is one of the remarkable features of Benedict's Pontificate that -he won considerable respect even in the Protestant lands. Englishmen, -perhaps, did not know, as we know from the Pope's letters, how deeply -he sympathized with the exiled Stuarts. "James III." lived for some -time at Rome on a pension provided by France, Spain, and the Papacy, -and Benedict had often to relieve the financial embarrassment of the -foolish and extravagant prince. His second son became Cardinal York, -and, in conferring the dignity on him, Benedict declared that he would -be pleased to withdraw it if ever Providence recalled him to the throne -of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> fathers. In spite of these amiable sympathies, Benedict was -much appreciated by cultivated Englishmen, and in 1753 he reconstituted -and enlarged the English hierarchy.</p> - -<p>With Frederic of Prussia, also, he had friendly relations. He was the -first Pope to recognize the title of "King of Prussia" assumed in 1701 -by the Electors of Brandenburg, and in this again he overruled the -opposition of the cardinals. In 1744 Frederic begged the Pope to make -Scatfgoch, a Breslau canon whom the King liked, coadjutor to the Bishop -of Breslau. Scatfgoch talked with scandalous license about religion and -morals; it was said at Rome that he dipped his crucifix into his wine -to give the Saviour the first drink. Benedict, to Frederic's anger, -refused; but three years later, when the bishop died, and the Nuncio -reported the conversion of the canon, the Pope gratified Frederic by -making him bishop. Frederic permitted the erection of a Catholic chapel -at Berlin.</p> - -<p>The new Catholic world beyond the seas made more than one claim on the -untiring Pope. Immediately after his election we find him sending a -Vicar Apostolic to settle the troubles of the Maronites of Syria, and -in 1744 he reconciled and regulated the affairs of the Greek Melchites -of Antioch. In the farther East a fierce controversy still raged, both -in China and India, regarding the heathen rites and practices which the -Jesuit missionaries permitted their native converts to retain. Clement -XI., Innocent XIII., and Benedict XIII. had successively employed him, -when he was an official of the Curia, to prepare a verdict on these -"Chinese and Malabar rites," but it was reported that the Jesuits -still defied the orders of the Popes. In his private letters to -Tencin, Benedict sternly condemns the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> "tergiversations" of the Jesuit -missionaries, but in his Papal pronouncements he is more cautious. His -Bulls <i>Ex Quo Singulari</i>,<a name="FNanchor_332_332" id="FNanchor_332_332"></a><a href="#Footnote_332_332" class="fnanchor">[332]</a> which puts an end to the trouble in -China, and <i>Omnium Solicitudinum</i>,<a name="FNanchor_333_333" id="FNanchor_333_333"></a><a href="#Footnote_333_333" class="fnanchor">[333]</a> which condemns the practices -in Malabar (India), are scholarly and severe treatises. They hardly -mention the Jesuits, but they leave no loophole for those casuistic -missionaries. From the other side of the globe Benedict received -complaints that Christians were still enslaving the American natives, -on the pretext of converting them, and he renewed the prohibition -issued by Paul III. and Urban VIII.</p> - -<p>From all quarters of the globe Benedict received heated complaints -about the Jesuits. They permitted the worship of ancestors in China, -and closed their eyes to Hindu charms and amulets in India. They -conducted great commercial enterprises in North and South America, -and struggled bitterly against the bishops in England. France accused -them of intensifying the domestic strife of its Church, and Spain and -Portugal brought grave charges against them. But Benedict XIV. seems -to have dreaded the overweening and doomed Society. Even his private -letters are singularly free from direct allusions to them, and more -than one Jesuit scholar was employed by him on tasks of importance. His -friend Cardinal Passionei, a worldly cardinal, of easy ways, who spent -his days in luxurious ease at Frascati, often urged him to reform the -Society, but it was not until the last year of his life that he took -any step in that direction. Portugal was now approaching its great -struggle with the Jesuits, and Benedict, on April 1, 1758, directed -Cardinal Saldanha to inspect and report upon the condition of the -Jesuit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> houses and colleges in that country. He died a month later, -unconscious of the great revolution which the Catholic Powers were -preparing to force on the Papacy.</p> - -<p>Of the isolated ecclesiastical acts of Benedict it is impossible to -give here even a summary. No Pope since the great Pontiffs of the -early Middle Ages had enriched his Church with so much (from the -Papal point of view) sound legislation: none had had so scientific a -command of ecclesiastical affairs or united with it so indefatigable -an industry. His Bull <i>Magnć Nobis Admirationis</i><a name="FNanchor_334_334" id="FNanchor_334_334"></a><a href="#Footnote_334_334" class="fnanchor">[334]</a> prescribes, -in the case of mixed marriages, the rules which are enforced in the -Church today. He forbade monks to practise surgery or dispense drugs; -though Europe would have been more completely indebted to him in this -respect if he had not made an exception in favour of the atrocious drug -known as "theriac" and the foolish compound which went by the name of -"apoplectic balsam." He condemned Freemasonry,<a name="FNanchor_335_335" id="FNanchor_335_335"></a><a href="#Footnote_335_335" class="fnanchor">[335]</a> though his decree -was not enforced. But one must glance over the thirteen volumes of his -<i>Bullarium</i> and the seventeen volumes of his religious and liturgical -works if one would realize his massive industry and devotion to his -duties.</p> - -<p>In the spring of 1758 his robust constitution yielded to the ravages -of gout, labour, and anxiety, and he died on May 3d. He was not, -as some say, "the idol of Rome." The cardinals felt the disdain of -them which he often expresses in his letters, and many of the clergy -regarded him as too severe on them and too pliant to the laity. Neither -was he a genius. Clearness of mind, immense industry, and sober ways -are the sources of his output. His works are not read today even by -ecclesiastics, and it is ludicrous to represent them as his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> title -to immortality. Yet Benedict XIV. was a great Pope: a wise ruler of -the Church at a time when once more, unconsciously, it approached a -world-crisis. The magnitude of the change which was taking place in -Europe he never perceived, but his policy was wise in the measure -of his perception, and his geniality of temperament, united to so -wholehearted a devotion to his duty, won some respect for the name -of Pope in lands where it had been for two hundred years a thing of -contempt.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_324_324" id="Footnote_324_324"></a><a href="#FNanchor_324_324"><span class="label">[324]</span></a> Modern research has easily settled that Galilei was -not physically ill-treated, and that there was probably no intention -to carry out the formal threat of torture. But this refutation of the -excesses of the older anti-Papal historians leaves the serious part of -the indictment intact. Galilei was forbidden by the Holy Office in 1616 -to advance as a positive discovery his view of the earth's position. -In 1632, to the great indignation of Urban VIII., he disregarded this -prohibition, which he thought a dead letter, and was condemned by the -Inquisition as "vehemently suspected of heresy." The crime against -culture is not materially lessened by the fact that the Inquisition -lodged the astronomer in its most comfortable rooms.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_325_325" id="Footnote_325_325"></a><a href="#FNanchor_325_325"><span class="label">[325]</span></a> <i>Lettres familičres</i> (1858), i., 250-1. The President -was in Rome during the conclave in the following year and repeated that -Lambertini was "licentious in speech but exemplary in conduct" (ii., -399). On a later page (439) he frankly describes the Pope as "indecent -in speech." There is a passage in one of the Pope's later letters -to Cardinal Tencin which may illustrate his censure. Benedict tells -the Cardinal that he has bought a nude Venus for his collection, and -finds that the Prince and Princess of Württemberg have, with a diamond -ring, scratched their names on a part of the statue which one may not -particularize as plainly as the Pope does (<i>Correspondance de Benoît -XIV.</i>, ii., 268).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_326_326" id="Footnote_326_326"></a><a href="#FNanchor_326_326"><span class="label">[326]</span></a> <i>Lettres familičres</i>, ii., 439.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_327_327" id="Footnote_327_327"></a><a href="#FNanchor_327_327"><span class="label">[327]</span></a> September 29, 1745.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_328_328" id="Footnote_328_328"></a><a href="#FNanchor_328_328"><span class="label">[328]</span></a> Letter to Tencin August 1, 1753 (ii., 282).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_329_329" id="Footnote_329_329"></a><a href="#FNanchor_329_329"><span class="label">[329]</span></a> The correspondence is reproduced in Artaud de Montor's -<i>Histoire des Souverains Pontifes</i> (1849), vii., 79. Benedict was -severely censured by the pious, and he declared to Cardinal Tencin that -he "did not find it clear that Voltaire was a stranger to the faith" -(i., 246). The biography of Benedict, one of the most interesting -of the Popes, is still to be written. F.X. Kraus, in his edition -of Benedict's letters, reproduces fragments of a pretentious Latin -biography by a contemporary, Scarselli, and M. Guarnacci has a sketch -in his <i>Vitć Pontificum Romanorum</i> (1751, vol. ii., col. 487-94). -These relate only to his earlier years. A. Sandini (<i>Vitć Pontificum -Romanorum</i>, 1754) has only three pages on Benedict, and the anonymous -<i>Vie du Pape Benoît XIV.</i> (1783—really written by Cardinal Caraccioli) -is not critical. The biographical sketches in Artaud de Montor and -Ranke are quite inadequate. But the biographer has now a rich material -in Benedict's Bulls (complete <i>Bullarium</i>, 13 vols., 1826 and 1827), -works (chief edition, 17 vols., 1839-1846, and three further works -edited by Heiner in 1904), and letters. Of the latter the best editions -are those of F.X. Kraus (<i>Briefe Benedicts XIV. an den Canonicus Pier -Francesco Peggi</i>, 1884), Morani ("Lettere di Benedetto XIV. all' -arcidiacono Innocenzo Storani" in the <i>Archivio Storico per le Marche -e per l'Umbria</i>, 1885), Fresco ("Lettere inedite di Benedetto XIV. al -Cardinale Angelo Maria Querini" in the <i>Nuovo Archivio Veneto</i>, 1909, -tomo xviii., pp. 5-93, and xix., pp. 159-215), "Lettere inedite di -Benedetto XIV. al Cardinale F. Tamburini" in the <i>Archivio della R. -Societŕ Romana di Storia Patria</i>, vol. xxxiv. (1911), pp. 35-73, and E. -de Heeckeren (<i>Correspondance de Benoît XIV.</i>, 2 vols., 1912).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_330_330" id="Footnote_330_330"></a><a href="#FNanchor_330_330"><span class="label">[330]</span></a> I., 49.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_331_331" id="Footnote_331_331"></a><a href="#FNanchor_331_331"><span class="label">[331]</span></a> <i>Ex omnibus Christiani orbis</i>, Oct. 16, 1756. It -prescribes silence on the disputed issues and leaves it to confessors -to determine whether their penitents are so wilfully rebellious against -the Bull <i>Unigenitus</i> as to be excluded from the sacraments.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_332_332" id="Footnote_332_332"></a><a href="#FNanchor_332_332"><span class="label">[332]</span></a> July 1, 1742.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_333_333" id="Footnote_333_333"></a><a href="#FNanchor_333_333"><span class="label">[333]</span></a> September 12, 1744.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_334_334" id="Footnote_334_334"></a><a href="#FNanchor_334_334"><span class="label">[334]</span></a> June 29, 1748.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_335_335" id="Footnote_335_335"></a><a href="#FNanchor_335_335"><span class="label">[335]</span></a> March 18, 1751.</p></div></div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span></p> - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a></p> - -<p class="center">PIUS VII. AND THE REVOLUTION</p> - - -<p class="drop">B<span class="uppercase">enedict</span> XIV. had maintained Papal power and prestige in his Catholic -world by prudent concessions to a European spirit which he recognized -as having definitely emerged from its medićval phase. His successors -for many decades lacked his penetration; though one may wonder if, -without sacrificing essential principles of the Papal scheme, they -could have advanced farther along the path of concession to a more and -more exacting age. However that may be, they generally clung to the -autocratic principles of the Papacy, and as a consequence they ceased -to be the leaders of their age and became little more than corks tossed -on heaving waters. Not until Leo XIII. do we find a Pope with a human -quality of statesmanship. In the intervening Pontificates the barque -of Peter drifted on the wild and swollen waters, pathetically bearing -still a flag which bore the legend of ruler of the waves.</p> - -<p>Clement XIII. (1758-1769) and Clement XIV. (1769-1774) were -occupied with the problem of the Jesuits. One by one the Catholic -Powers—Portugal, France, Naples, and Spain—swept the Jesuits from -their territory, with a flood of obloquy, and then made a collective -demand on the Pope for the suppression of the Society. Clement XIII. -had made a futile effort<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> to assert the old dictatorial power; and -Catholic nations had retorted by seizing part of the diminished Papal -States. France had occupied Avignon and Vennaissin, and Naples had -taken Benevento and Pontecorvo. The bewildered Pope found peace in -the grave, and the Powers ensured the election of a man who did not -regard the suppression of the Society as an impossibility. For four -years Ganganelli, Clement XIV., resisted or restrained the pressure of -the Catholic Powers, but in 1773 the famous Bull <i>Dominus ac Redemptor -Noster</i> disbanded the most effective force of the Counter-Reformation, -plainly endorsing the charge against it of corruption.<a name="FNanchor_336_336" id="FNanchor_336_336"></a><a href="#Footnote_336_336" class="fnanchor">[336]</a></p> - -<p>Pius VI. (1775-1798) came vaguely to realize that there was some deep -malady in the world which, in bewildering impotence, he contemplated. -The hostility to the Jesuits had been a symptom; nor was the symptom -more intelligible to so unskilful a physician when the Protestant -rulers of Russia and Prussia protected the Jesuits, while the Catholic -Powers sternly restrained his wish to restore the Society. Vaguely, -also, he realized that there was a deeper infidelity in the world; that -the "philosophers" of France and Spain and Italy and the "illumined -ones" of Germany were a new thing under the sun; and that the -traditions of the Papacy did not help in dealing with such "Catholic" -statesmen as Pombal, Aranda, Tanucci, and Choiseul. He had not even -the traditional remedy of finding support in the "Roman Empire." Under -Joseph II. and Kaunitz, Austria had developed a rebellious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> spirit -which rivalled the most defiant phases of Gallicanism.<a name="FNanchor_337_337" id="FNanchor_337_337"></a><a href="#Footnote_337_337" class="fnanchor">[337]</a></p> - -<p>Pius visited Vienna, and trusted that his handsome and engaging -presence would reconcile the Emperor to his large pretensions, but -the visit was fruitless and the vanity of the Pope was bruised. At -least the mass of the people were faithful, Pius thought. Then there -came the terrible disillusion of the French Revolution, and resounding -echoes of its fiery language in Italy and Spain. Pius made his last -blunder—though the most natural course for him to take—by allying -himself with Austria and England against the Revolution, and the shadow -of Napoleon fell over Italy. Napoleon shattered the Austrian forces -and compelled the Pope to sacrifice Avignon and Venaissin, to lose the -three Legations (Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna), and to pay out of his -scanty income 30,000,000 lire. In the following year, 1798, the French -inspired a rebellion at Rome. The Romans set up once more feeble images -of their ancient "Consuls" and "Ćdiles," and the aged Pope was dragged -from point to point by the French dragoons until he expired at Valence -on August 29, 1798. General Bonaparte had said, contemptuously, that -the Papacy was breaking up. There were those who asked if Pius VI. was -the last Pope.</p> - -<p>But a new act of the strange European drama was opening. Bonaparte was -in Egypt, brooding over iridescent dreams of empire, and the treaty of -Campo Formio which he had concluded before leaving had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> given Venice -(as well as Istria and Dalmatia) to Austria. To Venice, accordingly, -forty-six of the scattered and impoverished cardinals made their way, -for the purpose of electing a new Pope, and the Conclave was lodged -in the abbey of San Giorgio on November 30th. The history of the -Papal Conclaves has inspired a romantic and caustic narrative,<a name="FNanchor_338_338" id="FNanchor_338_338"></a><a href="#Footnote_338_338" class="fnanchor">[338]</a> -and the account of the Conclave of 1798-1799 is not one of the least -interesting. Austria, which had occupied the northern Papal provinces, -and Naples, which had succeeded the French in the south and was now -"guarding" Rome, did not desire the election of a Pope who would claim -his full temporal dominion. Against them was the solid nucleus of -conservative and rigid cardinals, and on the fringe of the struggle -were the unattached cardinals, some of whom had a lively concern about -this General Bonaparte who had just returned from Egypt. The statesman -of the College was Cardinal Consalvi, a very able and accomplished -son of a noble Pisan family. Consalvi, as a good noble and churchman, -loathed the Revolution, but, when the struggle of voters had lasted -three or four months and the two chief parties had reached a deadlock, -he listened to the suggestion of Cardinal Maury that the mild "Jacobin" -Cardinal Chiaramonti would be the best man to elect. Bonaparte had -spoken well of Chiaramonti, and Austria would not resent the election -of a lowly-minded Benedictine monk. Whether or no Consalvi suspected -that Maury was (at least in part) working for a personal reward, he -took up the intrigue, and on March 24th Chiaramonti became Pius VII. -They had put an aged and timid monk at the helm on such a sea.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span></p> - -<p>Barnaba Luigi Chiaramonti was born at Cesena, of a small-noble family, -on August 14, 1742. He entered the Benedictine Order at the age of -sixteen and distinguished himself in his studies. As he was distantly -related to Pius VI., who was a flagrant nepotist, he easily earned -promotion at Rome. He taught theology and was titular abbot of San -Callisto. In time he became Bishop of Tivoli, then Bishop of Imola and -Cardinal. He was administering his diocese with due zeal, and more than -ordinary gentleness, when the storm of the French invasion broke upon -Italy. He was not a politician. He advised his people to submit to the -Cisalpine Republic set up by the French, and mediated for them with -General Augereau when some of them rebelled. But, when the Austrians -came in turn, he advised the people to submit to their "liberators," -and, when the French returned, the magistrates of Imola charged him -with treachery and he had to plead on his own behalf. However, his -colleagues affected to regard him as a Jacobin, and his easy attitude -toward the French and the temporal power won him the tiara. He was -crowned in San Giorgio on March 21st.</p> - -<p>Austria had refused the use of San Marco for the ceremony, because -it was nervously anxious to discourage ideas of royalty in the new -Pope, and its representative in the Sacred College, Cardinal Hrzan, -urged Pius to go from Venice to Vienna, and to make Cardinal Flangini -(a Venetian) his Secretary of State. Pius quietly refused, and chose -Consalvi. In quick succession the Austrian ambassador offered him the -territory they had taken from Lombardy, without the Legations, and then -two out of the three Legations (they keeping Romagna), but Consalvi -prompted him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> to refuse, and he set out for Rome. The Austrians would -not suffer him to pass through the Papal territory they held, and he -had to proceed by boat to Pesaro. But the news that the Neapolitans had -retired from Rome, and that the Austrians (chastened by Napoleon) now -offered him the three Legations they were unable to keep, cheered the -Pontiff on his journey and he entered Rome in triumph.<a name="FNanchor_339_339" id="FNanchor_339_339"></a><a href="#Footnote_339_339" class="fnanchor">[339]</a></p> - -<p>Consalvi, whose firm hand guides that of the Pope during most of his -Pontificate, began at once to put in order the chaotic affairs of the -Papacy. The treasury was empty, though the four resplendent tiaras -had been stripped of their jewels, the taxes were insupportable, and -the coinage was shamefully debased. Consalvi removed some of the -taxes—though he was forced to restore them at a later date—and, at -a cost of 1,500,000 scudi, called in the adulterated coin. He turned -with vigour to the affairs of Germany, where the princes who were -dispossessed of their territory on the left bank of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> the Rhine by -the Treaty of Lunéville<a name="FNanchor_340_340" id="FNanchor_340_340"></a><a href="#Footnote_340_340" class="fnanchor">[340]</a> proposed to recoup themselves from the -ecclesiastical estates on the right bank.<a name="FNanchor_341_341" id="FNanchor_341_341"></a><a href="#Footnote_341_341" class="fnanchor">[341]</a> But every other interest -was soon overshadowed by the relations of Napoleon to Rome, and the -story of Pius VII. is almost entirely the story of those singular and -tragic relations.</p> - -<p>Napoleon had re-entered Italy, and won Marengo, before Pius reached -Rome. But experience in the East and consideration of his growing -ambition had made Voltaireanism seem to him impolitic, and he now sent -a representative to treat with the new Pope as respectfully as if he -commanded 200,000 men. They would co-operate in restoring religion -in France. Pius timidly expressed some concern at the Mohammedan -sentiments Bonaparte had so recently uttered in Egypt, but he and the -cardinals assented to the proposal, and Archbishop Spina was sent to -Paris in November (1800). In view of Napoleon's demands—that the old -hierarchy of 158 bishops should be reduced to sixty, that a certain -proportion of the Republican (constitutional) bishops should be -elected together with a proportion of the emigrant royalists, that no -alienated church-property should be restored, and that Christianity -should not be established as "the religion of France"—Spina found that -his powers were inadequate, and Napoleon sent Cacault to Rome with -the draft of a Concordat (March, 1501). Pius and his cardinals shrank -from so formidable a sacrifice, and would negotiate, in time-honoured -Roman fashion. But ancient customs did not impress Bonaparte. Cacault -reported in May that the Concordat was to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> signed in five days, -whether it killed the bewildered Pope or no (as Consalvi said it -would), or France would set up its Church without his aid. As a -compromise, Cacault suggested that Consalvi should accompany him to -Paris, and the Quirinal had faith in its great diplomatist. Even -Consalvi, however, was nervous and almost powerless before the studied -violence of Napoleon, and his diplomatic movements were constantly met -with a brusque declaration that Napoleon would detach France, if not -Catholic Europe, from the Papacy if the Concordat were not quickly -signed.<a name="FNanchor_342_342" id="FNanchor_342_342"></a><a href="#Footnote_342_342" class="fnanchor">[342]</a></p> - -<p>The attitude of Napoleon was not merely despotic. Although France was -still overwhelmingly Catholic, as writers on the revolutionary excesses -often forget, an important minority, including most of Napoleon's -higher officers, were bitterly anti-clerical and opposed any attempt -to restore the Church. Napoleon, who felt that the religious sentiment -of the majority must be dissociated from the emigrants and bound up -once more with a national Church, would have preferred to dispense with -Rome and proceed on extreme Gallican principles. But Catholic sentiment -would not acquiesce in so violent a procedure, and Napoleon realized -the vast gain it would be to him to win the cosmopolitan influence of -the Pope. This feeble and timid monk, he thought, needed intimidation, -and of that art Napoleon was a master. After a final twenty-four hours' -sitting on July 13th-14th, the draft was passed by Consalvi. After a -further struggle, and some further modification, it satisfied both -parties, and Consalvi sent it, with some satisfaction, to Rome for the -Pope's signature.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> The new bishops were to be nominated by Napoleon -and instituted by the Pope, and the Catholic faith was to be declared -"the religion of the majority." Freethinkers resented the whole -negotiation: Gallicans deplored that the power of the clergy had been -divided between the Pope and the Consul: Royalists abroad protested -bitterly against the required resignation of the old bishops. Pius felt -that this miraculous restoration of the Church was worth the price. He -signed the Concordat and blessed the restorer of the faith.</p> - -<p>But the Pope and Consalvi obtained a further insight into Napoleon's -character when the Concordat was made public on Easter Sunday (1802). -With it were associated, as if they were part of the agreement, -certain "Organic Articles" of the most Gallican description. No Bull -or other document from Rome could be published in France, no Nuncio -or Legate exercise his functions, and no Council be held, without -the authorization of the secular authorities. All seminary-teachers -were to subscribe to the famous principles of 1682, and in case the -higher clergy violated those or the laws of the Republic the Council -of State might sit in judgment on them. Pius made a futile protest, -when he read the seventy-six lamentable articles, but Napoleon soon -had the Pope smiling over a gift of two frigates to the Papal navy; -and Pius laicised Talleyrand and raised five French bishops, including -Napoleon's half-uncle Fesch, to the cardinalate. A similar Concordat -was forced by Napoleon on the Cisalpine Republic in 1803, and Naples -was compelled to return Benevento and Pontecorvo. The first phase ended -in smiles.</p> - -<p>Cardinal Caprara was sent as legate to Paris, and his experiences -moderated the Pope's satisfaction. He was quite unable to resist the -election of the constitu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span>tional bishops (the clergy who had adhered -to the Republican Constitution, which Rome severely and naturally -condemned) and he could not wring from them a formal acknowledgment of -their errors. But these matters were soon thrust out of mind by fresh -events in France. On May 18, 1804, Napoleon was elected Emperor, and -he invited Pius to come to Paris to crown him. There was a natural -hesitation at Rome to flout the Bourbons and their allies by such a -recognition of Napoleon, but the long delay was not in substance due -to that political scruple; nor was it in any serious degree due, as -some writers say, to the recent execution of the Duc d'Enghien, which -appears little in Papal documents. Consalvi persuaded the Pope to -bargain with Napoleon: to stipulate for the abolition of the Organic -Articles, the punishment of the constitutional clergy, and the return -of the three Legations. As before, the diplomacy of Consalvi was -boisterously swept aside by Napoleon, and on November 2d the aged -Pope set out for Paris. Not a single definite promise had been made, -and it seems, from later language of the Pope, that either he or -Consalvi regarded the journey with grave distrust. Pius left behind -him a document authorizing the cardinals to choose a successor, in -case Napoleon violently detained him in France. We may ascribe this -foresight to Consalvi, as throughout these earlier years Pius appears -to be merely the agent of the wishes of the cardinals.</p> - -<p>Napoleon must have noted with satisfaction the ease with which his -constant trickery escaped the Pope's eye. On November 25th he, in -hunting dress, with studied casualness, met the Pope on the open -road at Fontainebleau, arranged that he should himself sit on the -right in their joint carriage, and drove him into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> Paris by night. -Every detail had been carefully planned with a view to the avoidance -of paying unnecessary honour to the Pope. Pius noticed nothing, and -wrote enthusiastically to Italy of Napoleon's goodness and zeal for -religion; and indeed the enthusiasm of the faithful Catholics of Paris, -when they found a venerable Pope blessing them from the balconies of -the Tuileries, might well seem to him to indicate a triumph after -the dark decade that had passed. Disillusion came slowly. Josephine, -who now knew that she was threatened with divorce, confided to the -Pope that there had been no church-celebration of her marriage with -Napoleon, and Pius refused to crown them until it took place. Napoleon -thundered, but the Pope had a clear principle and the difficulty was -met by trickery. Cardinal Fesch was permitted by the Pope to marry them -without witnesses, and Napoleon pointed out to friends that he was -taking part in the ceremony without internal consent. On the following -day, December 2d, the coronation took place at Notre Dame, and Napoleon -at one stroke annihilated the prestige of the Pope by crowning himself -and Josephine with his own hands.</p> - -<p>Another wave of disdain of the Pope passed through foreign lands: "A -puppet of no importance," said even Joseph de Maistre. Pius remained -gentle and patient. He had still to win the reward of his sacrifices: -to induce the Emperor to restore the Papal States, to modify the -Organic Articles, to abolish the law of divorce, enforce the observance -of Sunday, and reintroduce the monastic orders. The cardinals had drawn -up a pretty program. Napoleon suavely refused every proposition, and -sent one of his officers to suggest that Pius would do well to settle -at Avignon, and have a palace at Paris.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> Pius, now thoroughly alarmed, -refused emphatically to stay in France, and disclosed that he had -arranged to give him a successor if he were detained. And Pius returned -to give the cardinals a roseate account of the resurrection of religion -in France and the goodness of the Emperor. When he refused, shortly -afterwards, to crown Napoleon King of Italy at Milan, there were those -who admired his firmness. It is more likely that he acted on the advice -of the disappointed cardinals.</p> - -<p>Up to this point Pius VII. had given no indication of personality. -One must, of course, appreciate that the restoration of the Church in -France would seem to him an achievement worth large sacrifices, yet -his childlike joy in Napoleon's insincere caresses, his utter failure -to detect the true aims and the trickery of the Emperor, and the -entire lack of plan or efficacy in his protests, must have convinced -Napoleon, as they convinced hostile Royalists, that he was a mere -puppet. He cannot possibly have had the measure of ability with which -Cardinal Wiseman would endow him. The same conclusion is forced on us -by a consideration of the second part of his relations with Napoleon. -Isolated from his abler cardinals, he, like a child, bemoans his -inability to form his judgment, and stumbles from error to error. But -ten years of defeat have taught him that he is dealing with an enemy -of religion, and he reveals a certain greatness of character in his -resistance.</p> - -<p>In the spring of 1805 the Emperor asked the Pope to dissolve, or -declare null, the marriage which his brother Jerome had contracted -in America with a Miss Paterson, a Protestant. Pius was eager to do -so, if ecclesiastical principles yielded the slightest ground for -such an act, but, after a long examination, he was obliged to refuse. -Napoleon began to speak of him as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> a fool. The summer brought war with -Austria once more, and in October the French troops marched through the -Papal States on their way to Naples, and occupied Ancona. When Pius -protested (November 13, 1805), the Emperor scornfully replied—after -an interval of two months—that if its Papal owners were not able or -willing to fortify Ancona, he must occupy it: that the Pope and the -cardinals prostituted religion by their friendly relations with English -and Russian enemies of France: and that he would respect the Pope's -spiritual sovereignty, and expected from him respect for the Emperor's -political sovereignty.<a name="FNanchor_343_343" id="FNanchor_343_343"></a><a href="#Footnote_343_343" class="fnanchor">[343]</a> On February 13, (1806) Napoleon wrote more -explicitly. The Pope must close his harbours against the English, expel -from Rome all representatives of the enemies of France, get rid of -his bad counsellors (Consalvi), and remember that Napoleon is Emperor -of Rome.<a name="FNanchor_344_344" id="FNanchor_344_344"></a><a href="#Footnote_344_344" class="fnanchor">[344]</a> Pius, after consulting the cardinals, replied that the -"Roman Emperor" was at Vienna, and that the Papacy would not be drawn -into a war between France and England. To the French representative -in Rome the Pope used a very firm language; he would die rather than -yield on what he conceived as a matter of principle. When, some time -afterwards, Napoleon annexed Naples, and the Papacy protested that it -was a Papal fief, Napoleon rightly gave Consalvi the credit for the -opposition and forced him to resign. He had in 1802 restored Benevento -and Pontecorvo to Rome: he now gave the former to Talleyrand and the -latter to Bernadotte.</p> - -<p>It must seem an idle practice to seek apologies for Napoleon's -conduct, but we do well to conceive that each man was justified in his -procedure. Napoleon was wrong only in his pretexts and his methods. -He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> was no orthodox Catholic, and had no illusions about the sacred -origin of the temporal power. If the Pope chose to be a king, he -submitted to the laws of kings. The Papacy undoubtedly thwarted the -work of the Emperor in Italy and aided his enemies. Cardinal Pacca says -in his Memoirs that Pius wrote him that he "risked everything for the -English."<a name="FNanchor_345_345" id="FNanchor_345_345"></a><a href="#Footnote_345_345" class="fnanchor">[345]</a> Common opposition to Napoleon brought about a remarkable -approach of Rome and England, and the Quirinal had hopes of advantage -for the Church in England. The Papal ports were of great service to the -English fleet, and therefore of great disservice to the French.</p> - -<p>Pius VII. seems never to have realized the elementary fact that -Napoleon was not a Christian. He relied too long on the orthodox -fiction that, because the Pope was the successor of Peter in spiritual -matters, any <i>temporal</i> power taken from him was taken from "The -Blessed Peter." Napoleon did not share that illusion, and it is -singular that he waited so long before consolidating his Italian -kingdom by absorbing the Papal States. The year 1807, when Napoleon -was busy with Prussia, passed in recriminations. Pius would, he said, -show them that the substitution of Cardinal Casoni as his Secretary -of State for Consalvi made no difference. He seemed to be finding his -personality, but there were fiery cardinals like Pacca still with him.</p> - -<p>In January, 1808, Napoleon ordered General Miollis to occupy Rome, and -presently he expelled from Rome all cardinals who were not subjects -of the Papal States. Pius, during the night, had a protesting poster -fixed on the walls. On April 2d Napoleon annexed Urbino, Ancona, -Macerata, and Camerino: on the foolish pretext (among others) that -Charlemagne had bestowed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> those provinces on the Papacy for the good -of Catholicism, not for the profit of its enemies. Pius sent a long -and dignified protest to all bishops in his dominions and broke off -diplomatic relations with France. Gabrielli had succeeded Casoni in -counselling Pius, and the French now made the singular mistake of -arresting Gabrielli and substituting Pacca—a fiery and inflexible -opponent of Napoleon. In August Pacca came into violent collision with -the French and they went to arrest him. He summoned the Pope, and Pius -personally conducted him to the protection of the Quirinal. In the -solitude of the Quirinal they prepared for the last step and drafted -an excommunication of Napoleon.<a name="FNanchor_346_346" id="FNanchor_346_346"></a><a href="#Footnote_346_346" class="fnanchor">[346]</a> At length on June 10, 1809, they -received Napoleon's declaration that the Papal States were incorporated -in his Empire, and the Bull of excommunication (<i>Quum Memoranda</i>) was -issued. It did not name Napoleon, and it was at once suppressed by -the French, but General Miollis considered that a conditional order -for the arrest of the Pope, which Napoleon had sent, now came into -force. At three in the morning of July 6th the troops broke into the -Quirinal. When General Radet and his officers reached the Audience -Chamber, they found the Pope sitting gravely at a table, with a group -of cardinals on either side. For several minutes the two groups gazed -on each other in tense silence, and at length Radet announced that -the Pope must abdicate or go into exile. Taking only his breviary and -crucifix, the Pope entered the carriage at four o'clock, and he and -Pacca were swiftly driven through the silent streets, and on the long -road to Savona. They found that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> they had between them only the sum of -twenty-two cents, and they laughed.</p> - -<p>Pius reached Savona on August 16th (1809), and was lodged in the -episcopal palace. He refused the 50,000 francs a year and the carriages -offered by Napoleon. He refused to walk in Savona, and spent the day -in a little room overlooking the walls, or walking in the scanty -garden of the house. He had no secretary and his aged hands trembled, -but pious Catholics conspired to defeat his guardians (or corrupt his -guardians) and his letters and directions went out stealthily over -Europe. His cardinals were removed to Paris, and when Napoleon divorced -Josephine and married Marie Louise (April 1, 1810), only thirteen -out of the twenty-seven cardinals refused to attend the ceremony. -Pius still declined to enter into Napoleon's plans. Metternich sent -an Austrian representative to argue with him, but the Pope would not -yield his temporal power, and he demanded his cardinals. Cardinals -Spina and Caselli, of the moderate party, were sent to persuade him, -but the mission was fruitless. Napoleon, who was sorely harassed by -the Pope's refusal to institute the new bishops, tried to act without -him, and made Maury Archbishop of Paris. Pius sent a secret letter to -the Vicar Capitular of Paris, declaring that the appointment was null, -and Napoleon angrily ordered a search of his rooms and the removal of -books, ink, paper, and personal attendants.</p> - -<p>At last, in June, 1811, the strategy of Napoleon succeeded. The -Archbishop of Tours and three other bishops presented themselves at -Savona with the terrible news that Napoleon had summoned a General -Council at Paris and expected the bishops to remedy the desperate -condition of the French Church—there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> were twenty-seven bishops -awaiting institution—independently of the Pope. Pius still refused -to submit, but day after day the prelates and the Count de Chabrol -harrowed him with descriptions of the appalling results of his -obstinacy, and on the tenth day they hastened to Paris with the news -that Pius had consented on the main point: he would institute the -bishops within six months, or, if he failed to do so, the Archbishop -would have power to institute them.</p> - -<p>What really happened at Savona is the only serious controversy in -the life of Pius VII., and this controversy is based entirely on the -reluctance of Catholic writers to admit that the Pope erred. The usual -theory, based on the work of D'Haussonville,<a name="FNanchor_347_347" id="FNanchor_347_347"></a><a href="#Footnote_347_347" class="fnanchor">[347]</a> is that Pius fell -into so grave a condition, mentally and physically, that he can hardly -be regarded as responsible. Recent and authoritative Catholic writers -have given a different defence. H. Welschinger<a name="FNanchor_348_348" id="FNanchor_348_348"></a><a href="#Footnote_348_348" class="fnanchor">[348]</a> seems to suggest -that Pius was drugged by his medical attendant, but he goes on to make -this fantastic suggestion superfluous by claiming that Pius did not -consent at all, either orally or in writing. Father Rinieri, on the -other hand, scorns the theory of temporary insanity, holds that the -Pope deliberately assented, and claims that the consent was perfectly -justified because it was conditional; the Pope agreed <i>if</i>, as the -bishops said, his concession would lead to peace and his restoration -to liberty. These theories destroy each other, and are severally -inadmissible. Welschinger, to exonerate the Pope from weakness, assumes -that the Archbishop of Tours lied; for that prelate wrote at once to -Paris that they had "drawn up a note in His Holiness's room, and he had -accepted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> it," and on his duplicate of the note he wrote: "This note, -drawn up in His Holiness's room, and in a sense under his directions, -was approved and agreed to."<a name="FNanchor_349_349" id="FNanchor_349_349"></a><a href="#Footnote_349_349" class="fnanchor">[349]</a> Indeed, when Welschinger himself -quotes the Pope saying, in his fit of repentance, "Luckily I <i>signed</i> -nothing," we gather that Pius <i>orally</i> assented. Rinieri, on the other -hand, is wrong in making the Pope's assent strictly conditional; the -last clause of the note merely states that the Pope is assured that -good results will follow. And both writers are at fault when they lay -stress on the fact that the note was a mere draft of an agreement. -Unless the four bishops lied, Pius VII., under great importunity and -predictions of disaster, and in a very poor state of health, consented -to a principle which was utterly inconsistent with Papal teaching.</p> - -<p>Later events put this beyond question, and make all these speculations -ridiculous. It is unquestioned that when, on the following morning, -Pius asked for the bishops and learned that they had gone, he fell -into a fit of remorse and despair which brought him near to the brink -of madness. It is equally unquestioned that Napoleon's council drew up -a decree in the sense of the famous Savona note and that on September -20th Pius signed it. Napoleon had been dissatisfied with the Pope's -<i>oral</i> consent and his retractation (which the Emperor concealed), and -had tried to bully the council into a declaration independently of the -Papacy. When he failed, he assured them of the Pope's consent and they -passed the decree. Eight bishops and five cardinals took it to Savona, -and the Pope subscribed to it. The only plausible defence of Pius is -that he <i>granted</i> or delegated the power to the archbishops, instead -of merely declaring that the archbishops possessed it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> But the Pope's -acute remorse shows that he had not deliberately meant this.</p> - -<p>Napoleon, however, saw that his scheme had failed in this respect, and -he kept the Pope at Savona while he set out on the Russian campaign. -After a time the Emperor, alleging that British ships hovered about -Savona, ordered the removal of the Pope to Fontainebleau, and he was -transferred with such secrecy and discomfort that he almost died in -crossing Mont Cenis. At Fontainebleau he maintained his quiet, ascetic -life: even afforded the spectacle of a Pope mending his own shirts. -The thirteen "black" cardinals—the men who opposed Napoleon and were -stripped of their red robes and sent into exile—could not approach -him, and he paid little attention to Napoleon's courtiers. In December -(1812) Napoleon was back from his terrible failure, but he still sought -to bluff the aged Pope. In a genial New-Year letter he proposed that -Pius should settle at Paris and have two million francs a year: that he -would in future permit the Catholic rulers to nominate two thirds of -the cardinals: and that the thirteen black cardinals should be censured -by the Pope and gracefully pardoned by the Emperor. Pius hesitated; -and on the evening of January 18th, when Napoleon suddenly burst into -his room and embraced him, the old tears of childlike joy stood in his -eyes once more. Napoleon remained and put before him a new Concordat, -sacrificing the demands he had made in his letter, but demanding the -abdication of the temporal power and six months' limit for the Papal -institution of bishops. Harrowing pictures of the Pope's condition and -the pressure put on him by Napoleonic prelates are drawn by pious pens. -But the fact is not disputed that on January 25th the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> "martyr-Pope" -signed the Concordat and sacrificed the temporal power.</p> - -<p>When Pacca and Consalvi and the black cardinals, who were now set at -liberty, arrived at Fontainebleau, they shuddered at his surrender, -but they could not upbraid the pale, worn, distracted Pontiff. He -acknowledged his "sin," as he called it, and asked their advice. By -one vote—fourteen against thirteen—the stalwarts decided that he -must retract and defy Napoleon, and a remarkable week followed. They -drafted a new Concordat, and the Pope wrote a few lines each day, which -were taken away in Pacca's pocket to the rooms of Cardinal Pignatelli, -who lived outside. The Emperor's spies were defeated, and he had a -last burst of rage when the new Concordat was put before him. But the -Allies were closing round the doomed adventurer. As they approached, he -offered Pius half the Papal States, and made other futile proposals. -In January, 1814, Pius was conveyed to Savona: on March 17th he was -informed that he was free. Napoleon had fallen.</p> - -<p>Consalvi was dispatched to join in the counsels of the Allies, and -Pacca, who took his place, set himself joyously to obliterate every -trace of the Revolution and Napoleon. Monasteries were re-opened, -schools and administrative offices restored to the clergy, the -Inquisition re-established, the Jews thrust back into the Ghetto: even -these new French practices of lighting streets at night and vaccinating -people were abolished. Above all things the Society of Jesus must be -restored. Pius had in 1801 recognised the Society in Russia<a name="FNanchor_350_350" id="FNanchor_350_350"></a><a href="#Footnote_350_350" class="fnanchor">[350]</a> and -in 1804 he granted it canonical existence in the two Sicilies. The -appalling experience of the last twenty-five years had now swept the -last trace of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> liberalism out of the minds of Catholic monarchs, and -on August 17, 1814, the Bull <i>Sollicitudo Omnium</i> restored the Society -throughout the world; though Portugal rejected it and France dared not -carry it out. A few months later Rome trembled anew, when it heard -that Napoleon had left Elba and Murat marched across the Papal States -to support him. Pius fled from Rome, rejecting all the overtures of -Napoleon and Murat, but the Hundred Days were soon over and reaction -reigned supreme. Pius never lost his quaint appreciation of Napoleon. -Mme. Letitia, the brothers Lucien and Louis, and Fesch lived in honour -at Rome, and, when the mother complained that the English were killing -her son at St. Helena, Pius earnestly begged Consalvi to intercede -for him. At Napoleon's death in 1821 he directed Fesch to conduct a -memorial service.</p> - -<p>Meantime Consalvi had won back the Papal States (except Avignon and -Venaissin and a strip of Ferrara) at the Vienna Congress, and had -returned to moderate the excesses of the reactionary Pacca. Consalvi -had no liberal sentiments, but he had intelligence. At least half of -the educated Italians were Freethinkers, and the secret society of -the <i>Carbonari</i> spread over the country, ferociously combatted by the -orthodox <i>Sanfedisti</i>. Italy entered on what the wits called the long -struggle of the "cats" and the "dogs": a rife period for brigands. -Consalvi, in spite of Pacca and the <i>Zelanti</i>, compromised. He retained -many of the Napoleonic reforms, though, when the Spanish revolution of -1820 had its revolutionary echoes all over Italy, he drew nearer to the -Holy Alliance for the bloody extirpation of liberalism. Rome prospered -once more, and artists and princes flocked to it, but Pius VII. must -have felt in his last years that the soil of Europe still heaved and -shuddered.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span></p> - -<p>The relations of the Quirinal<a name="FNanchor_351_351" id="FNanchor_351_351"></a><a href="#Footnote_351_351" class="fnanchor">[351]</a> with other countries were restored -in some measure, in face of stern opposition. A new Concordat with -France was signed in 1817, but the Legislative Assembly refused to -pass it and it did not come into force before the death of Pius. -Spain set up a régime of truculent orthodoxy under the sanguinary -rule of Ferdinand, and the Revolution of 1820 was crushed for him -by the French. Austria made no new Concordat and retained much of -the Febronian temper. Prussia signed a favourable Concordat in 1821. -Bavaria came to an agreement in 1817, but the liberals defeated it; -and Naples and Sardinia were ruled in the spirit of the Holy Alliance. -William I. sought a Concordat for the Netherlands, though without -result: England endeavoured to bring about an agreement in regard to -the Irish bishops, which was defeated by the Irish: and the dioceses of -Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Richmond, and Cincinnati -were set up in America.</p> - -<p>I do not enter into closer detail, as we recognize in all this work -the hand of Consalvi rather than of Pius. The aged Pope continued to -rejoice over every symptom, or apparent symptom, of religious recovery, -and to miscalculate his age. Even the revolution of 1820 failed to -shake orthodox security and led only to a more truculent persecution -of the new spirit. Pius had now passed his eightieth year and could -not be expected to see what neither Metternich nor Consalvi could see. -In the summer of 1823 he fell into his last illness. As he sank, men -noticed that he was murmuring "Savona, Fontainebleau," but he died -praying quietly on August 17th. It was a strange fate that put Barnaba -Luigi Chiara<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>monti on a throne in such an age. Whatever church-lore he -may have had, he confronted the problems of his age with dim and feeble -intelligence, and he was at times, when there was no Pacca or Consalvi -to guide him, induced to make concessions which are not consistent with -the fond title of "martyr-Pope." He was a good Bishop of Imola.</p> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_336_336" id="Footnote_336_336"></a><a href="#FNanchor_336_336"><span class="label">[336]</span></a> It is not true that Clement abstained from passing -judgment on the Society; nor, on the other hand, need we regard -seriously the statement that he was poisoned by the ex-Jesuits. See the -author's <i>Candid History of the Jesuits</i>, pp. 355 and 368.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_337_337" id="Footnote_337_337"></a><a href="#FNanchor_337_337"><span class="label">[337]</span></a> In Austria the movement was called Febronianism, as -it had begun with a work (<i>De Statu Ecclesić</i>) published in 1763 by -Johann von Hontheim under the pseudonym of "Febronius." Hontheim -had learned Gallican sentiments at Louvain. Joseph II. had wisely -and firmly adopted the chief principles of the school: religious -toleration, restriction of the interference of the Popes, and control -of ecclesiastical property.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_338_338" id="Footnote_338_338"></a><a href="#FNanchor_338_338"><span class="label">[338]</span></a> Petrucelli della Gattina's <i>Histoire diplomatique des -Conclaves</i>, 4 vols., 1864-6.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_339_339" id="Footnote_339_339"></a><a href="#FNanchor_339_339"><span class="label">[339]</span></a> The chief source of our knowledge of the earlier years -of Pius is the sketch of his life by Artaud de Montor. Cardinal Wiseman -(another eulogist) covers the ground in the early chapters of his -<i>Recollections of the Last Four Popes</i> (1858). Dr. E.L.T. Henke's -<i>Papst Pius VII.</i> (1860) is an excellent impartial study, while D. -Bertolotti's <i>Vita di Papa Pio VII.</i> (1881) is less scholarly, and Mary -Allies' <i>Pius the Seventh</i> is rather a tract than an historical study. -The Pope's relations with Napoleon (after the coronation) are minutely, -though far from impartially, studied in H. Welschinger's <i>Le Pape et -l'Empereur</i> (1905) and Father Ilario Rinieri's <i>Napoleone e Pio VII.</i> -(2 vols., 1906): both make some use of unpublished documents. See also -F. Rinieri's <i>Il Concordato tra Pio VII. e il Primo Console</i> (1902). -The Pope's Bulls are in the <i>Bullarii Romani Continuatio</i> (ed. Barberi, -vols. xi.-xv). Contemporary documents abound, and one need mention only -the Memoirs of Consalvi, Pacca, and Talleyrand, and the <i>Correspondance -de Napoleon I.</i> Special studies will be quoted later. Dr. F. Nielsen's -<i>History of the Papacy in the Nineteenth Century</i> (2 vols., 1906) is -the best recent study of the period of Pius VII. to Pius IX.; it is -scholarly and impartial.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_340_340" id="Footnote_340_340"></a><a href="#FNanchor_340_340"><span class="label">[340]</span></a> February 9, 1801.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_341_341" id="Footnote_341_341"></a><a href="#FNanchor_341_341"><span class="label">[341]</span></a> This Pius entirely failed to prevent. See Father Leo -Koenig's <i>Pius VII.: Die Sakularisation und das Reichskonkordat</i> -(1904).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_342_342" id="Footnote_342_342"></a><a href="#FNanchor_342_342"><span class="label">[342]</span></a> Consalvi's Memoirs are naturally prejudiced, and not -reliable. Theiner's <i>Histoire des deux Concordats</i> (1869) and Séché's -<i>Les Origines du Concordat</i> (1894) are carefully documented.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_343_343" id="Footnote_343_343"></a><a href="#FNanchor_343_343"><span class="label">[343]</span></a> <i>Correspondance de Napoleon I.</i>, xi., 642.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_344_344" id="Footnote_344_344"></a><a href="#FNanchor_344_344"><span class="label">[344]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, xii., 477.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_345_345" id="Footnote_345_345"></a><a href="#FNanchor_345_345"><span class="label">[345]</span></a> <i>Memorie</i>, i., 68.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_346_346" id="Footnote_346_346"></a><a href="#FNanchor_346_346"><span class="label">[346]</span></a> Pacca relates that the English sent a friar to say that -they had a frigate ready to take away the Pope and his secretary. Such -were the relations of Rome and England.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_347_347" id="Footnote_347_347"></a><a href="#FNanchor_347_347"><span class="label">[347]</span></a> <i>L'Église Romaine et le Premier Empire</i>, 5 vols., -1868-1870.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_348_348" id="Footnote_348_348"></a><a href="#FNanchor_348_348"><span class="label">[348]</span></a> <i>Le Pape et l'Empereur</i> (1905), pp. 177-196.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_349_349" id="Footnote_349_349"></a><a href="#FNanchor_349_349"><span class="label">[349]</span></a> <i>See</i> Rinieri, pp. 165 and 166.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_350_350" id="Footnote_350_350"></a><a href="#FNanchor_350_350"><span class="label">[350]</span></a> By the Brief <i>Catholicć Fidei</i>, March 7, 1801.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_351_351" id="Footnote_351_351"></a><a href="#FNanchor_351_351"><span class="label">[351]</span></a> Almost the only mention of the Vatican at this period is -that in 1807 Pius had it prepared for the reception of Napoleon!</p></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a></p> - -<p class="center">PIUS IX.</p> - - -<p class="drop">I<span class="uppercase">n</span> spite of the grave condition of the Catholic world, the -ill-concealed spread of liberal ideas among the educated, and the -spurts of rebellion throughout Europe, the cardinals met the new -danger with as little wisdom as their predecessors had confronted the -Reformation. The three Conclaves which were held within eight years -of the death of Pius VII. were marred by the old wrangles of parties -and ambitions of individuals, and they issued in the election of -entirely unsuitable Popes. The Papacy allied itself with the monarchs -in an effort to stifle the growing modern spirit, and imitated their -unscrupulous methods. Leo XII. and Gregory XVI., at least, left behind -them records at which modern sentiment shudders. Yet they showed as -little appreciation as Louis XVIII. or Charles X. of the irresistible -development through which Europe was passing, and there seem to be -whole centuries of evolution between their acts and announcements and -those of Leo XIII.</p> - -<p>Cardinal della Ganga, who became Leo XII. at the death of Pius, was -a deeply religious and narrow-minded man who achieved much moral and -social reform in his dominions, yet his death in 1829 was, says Baron -Bunsen, hailed at Rome "with indecent joy." His despotic Puritan -measures angered his subjects, and his gross<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> injustice to the Jews -and fierce persecution of the Carbonari and Liberals fed the growing -Italian hatred of the Papacy. Pius VIII. (1829-30) was a milder -<i>Zelante</i> and had won—a singular distinction for a Pope in such -a crisis—some repute in canon law and numismatics. He was nearly -seventy years old, and his Secretary of State, the disreputable Albani, -was over eighty. The revolutionary movement of 1830 completed his -afflictions, and a Roman wag proposed as his epitaph: "He was born: he -wept: he died."<a name="FNanchor_352_352" id="FNanchor_352_352"></a><a href="#Footnote_352_352" class="fnanchor">[352]</a> Then came the longer Pontificate of Gregory XVI., -the chief events of which will pass before us as we review the earlier -career of Pius IX. Gregory was a pious, narrow-minded Camaldulese -monk. Like his predecessor, he was well versed in canon law and as ill -fitted as a man could be to rule in the nineteenth century. He left -the repression of the rebels to his Secretary of State Lambruschini, -and said his beads, and ate sweetmeats at merry little gatherings of -cardinals, while Young Italy marched nobly to the scaffold and its -brilliant writers opened the eyes of the world to the foul condition of -the Papal States.</p> - -<p>Gregory died on June 1, 1846, dimly foreseeing an age of revolution, -and reform was now the great issue before the Conclave. The late Pope's -supporters put forward the truculent Lambruschini, but from the first -Cardinal Mastai-Ferretti was conspicuous in the voting, and on the -second day of the Conclave he was elected by thirty-seven out of fifty -votes. It was useless any longer to ignore that appalling indictment of -abuses,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> corruption, and incompetence which the Italian writers were -circulating throughout Europe. The cardinals chose a reformer: a man -who was at times described even as a Liberal.</p> - -<p>Giovanni Maria Gianbattista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro -Mastai-Ferretti—the name reflects the piety of his mother—was then -fifty-four years old. He had been born at Sinigaglia on May 13, 1792, -of parents who belonged to the small provincial nobility. He was sent -to school at Volterra, and he is variously described by fellow-pupils -who took opposite sides in the fierce conflict of his later years as -a pale, pure little angel of marvellous industry, and as a sickly, -epileptic little idler with the reputation, Trollope says, of being -"the biggest liar in the school."<a name="FNanchor_353_353" id="FNanchor_353_353"></a><a href="#Footnote_353_353" class="fnanchor">[353]</a> He seems to have been a -delicate, handsome, undistinguished pupil of proper character. His -virtuous mother wished him to become a priest, and he received the -tonsure at Volterra in 1809. In October he was sent to continue his -studies at Rome,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> and for some months he lived in the Quirinal, in -charge of an uncle who was a canon of St. Peter's. They were related -to Pius VII. and were favoured. The French invasion of 1810 drove -them back to Sinigaglia, and Giovanni was summoned for service in -the Noble Guard of the Viceroy of Italy. His epileptic tendency was -successfully pleaded for exemption, and he returned to Rome in 1814. -It seems, however, that he was not deeply religious, and he applied -for service in the Papal Guard rather than for orders.<a name="FNanchor_354_354" id="FNanchor_354_354"></a><a href="#Footnote_354_354" class="fnanchor">[354]</a> His fits -closed the military service of the Pope against him, and, on the letter -of the law, should equally exclude him from the clergy. He became very -depressed and morose, but Pius VII. strained the regulations in favour -of his young relative. He was to receive ordination on condition that -he never said mass without an assistant. In 1819 he became a priest, -and made the small progress which a distant relative of the Pope might -expect. In 1823 he accompanied a Papal representative to Chile, and -the voyage probably strengthened his constitution. Pius VII. died -during his absence from Rome, but as Giovanni's protector, Cardinal -della Ganga, became Pope, he returned to favour at Rome. He received -a canonry, the administration of the Hospital of St. Michael, and (in -1827) the archbishopric of Spoleto.</p> - -<p>It is clear that the young Archbishop did excellent work at Spoleto, -and we must read with discretion the statements of his less -temperate critics. His predecessor had been idle and worthless, and -Mastai-Ferretti applied himself with zeal, judgment, and success to -the reform of clergy and laity. In 1829 Leo XII., his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> patron, died, -and Pius VIII. entered upon his short and futile Pontificate. Gregory -XVI., who succeeded him, at once met the blasts of the Revolution of -1830. The outbreak at Rome was suppressed, but the revolutionaries -captured Bologna and brought about a dangerous agitation throughout -Italy. Mastai-Ferretti is said to have been compelled to fly from -Spoleto, but his actions and attitude at this time are not wholly -clear. Austrian troops suppressed the Revolution, and Gregory entered -upon that truculent crusade against the Liberals and their claims which -diverted England from its new alliance with the Papacy and even shocked -Metternich. When the Austrians compelled him to take the Secretaryship -of State from Cardinal Bernetti, he bestowed it on the more intemperate -Cardinal Lambruschini, and the struggle with the Carbonari and the -Young Italians continued. In his Encyclical <i>Mirari Vos</i> (August 15, -1832) Gregory pledged the Papacy to a stern refusal of the democratic -reforms which the new Europe demanded.</p> - -<p>Mastai-Ferretti had meantime (February 16, 1832) been removed to the -bishopric of Imola: a more profitable see and a recognized path to -higher honours. His amiable and conciliatory character inclined him -to meet the more moderate Liberals with ease, though he does not seem -to have made any profound study of the political development of his -time. When Cardinal Lambruschini condemned scientific associations, -the Bishop of Imola is reported to have commented that he saw no -inconsistency between science and religion. On these safe and innocuous -expressions the Bishop won a repute for "Liberalism" among the more -reactionary members of the Curia, and Gregory XVI. long hesitated to -raise him to the cardinalate. He was an exemplary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> bishop, and in the -reform of education and of philanthropic institutions he performed -no slight social service, which may have attracted the esteem of the -more moderate Liberals. He was admitted to the Sacred College on -December 14, 1840, and continued for six years to direct his diocese -and encourage those temperate reforms which most of his colleagues -were too indolent or too prejudiced to favour. The condition of the -Church was again becoming critical. The Carbonari were weakened and -dispersed in Italy, but Mazzini had begun to lead "the Youth of Italy" -to a more open and more heretical attack on Austria and the Papacy, -while high-minded and humanitarian priests like Gioberti, Ventura, and -Rosmini in Italy, and Lamennais in France, were, in varying degrees, -looking to a Catholic Liberalism to ease the pressure of the growing -popular revolt. Gregory XVI. and his advisers regarded the entire -Liberal movement, in every shade, as a sinful and temporary aberration. -They passed the most drastic laws for its suppression: the prisons of -Italy were distended with their victims: yet their orthodox militia, -the Sanfedisti, had to wage a perpetual and bitter struggle against the -spreading revolt.</p> - -<p>We who look back on this painful travail of the birth of democracy -are at times unduly impatient with idealists who failed to recognize -its promise at the time. Not merely ecclesiastical statesmen, but -heterodox observers and sons of the people like Carlyle, looked upon -the new movement as an emanation from the pit, a menace to society. -But most biographers pass to the opposite extreme when they conceive -Pius IX. as judiciously studying the demands of the age, realizing that -a moderate measure of democracy and liberty was just and inevitable, -and then renouncing his Liberal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> faith when he saw the excesses of the -democrats. For this there is no documentary support. Pius was amiable, -accessible, and anxious to please all: he was neither a statesman nor -an economist, and had not a firm judgment of the European situation. -He was disposed to see justice in the semi-Liberalism of Gioberti or -Ventura, and disposed the next day to listen to the Mephistophelean -counsels of Metternich. Europe was to him a world in which a large -number of thoughtful people demanded reforms which were consistent -with the political and religious supremacy of the Papacy, and he was -disposed to favour and indulge them. He failed to realize, until 1848, -that the firm and consistent demands of the new age were inconsistent -with Papal supremacy. But he clearly disliked the medićval policy of -the Curia and he was regarded with hope by the reformers within the -fold. It was they who greeted his election in June, 1846. The more -radical Italians did not want a reforming Pope, because they did not -want a Papacy.</p> - -<p>Pius was crowned on June 21st, and at once turned to what he would -regard as "democratic" measures. He gave dowries to a thousand poor -girls, and decreed that all pledges in the Monte di Pietŕ which were -less in value than two lire should be returned to their owners. On July -16th he declared a general amnesty of political prisoners, and the -Romans flocked to the Quirinal to cheer their handsome and courageous -Pope, and demonstrations of joy resounded throughout Italy. The amnesty -was in reality conditional: the released prisoners and returning exiles -were to promise not again to "disturb the public order." However, -there was at the time no severe application of the condition, and -Pius continued in his reforming mood. That he had no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> serious leaning -to Liberalism he made abundantly clear to the more thoughtful before -the end of the year. On November 9th he issued an Encyclical in which -he condemned Bible Societies, secret political societies, critics -of the Church, license of the press, and so on.<a name="FNanchor_355_355" id="FNanchor_355_355"></a><a href="#Footnote_355_355" class="fnanchor">[355]</a> The Radicals -still mingled with the crowds below his balcony and flattered him. -Some, no doubt, had the idea that he might be induced to go farther; -but Mazzini and others have revealed that they astutely used these -demonstrations to educate the people in larger demands and provoke -a more serious revolt. Pius threw open his garden to the public on -certain days, opened night schools and Sunday schools, re-opened the -Accademia dei Lincei (for the promotion of science), and discussed -plans of railways for Italy. He was in a patriarchal mood which came -near to social idealism. Journals multiplied, and clubs became active: -especially the Circolo Romano, which gradually came under the influence -of a prosperous and very radical publican from the Trastevere, Angelo -Brunetti, nicknamed "little Cicero" (Ciceruacchio) for his demagogic -eloquence. The dreamy Christian Liberals, Gioberti and Ventura, gave -the not very penetrating Pope the idea that he was going to make a -model State of Papal Italy and, through it, to lead the world on the -new upward path.</p> - -<p>The Radicals encouraged the clouds of incense which obscured the Pope's -vision, and he listened gravely to the requests for representative -government. On April 19, 1847, he proposed a Consulto di Stato: a -council composed of laymen from the various provinces—all carefully -selected by the clergy and gravely reminded that their business was -merely to offer suggestions. In July he formed a Civic Guard for Rome: -in Novem<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span>ber he inaugurated a scheme of municipal administration for -Rome: and at the close of December he formed a ministry—of cardinals -and other clerical dignitaries. By this time, however, Pius had -become perplexed and suspicious. Cardinal Gizzi, his Secretary of -State, resigned, the Gregorian cardinals frowned, and the Austrians -complained of his concessions. There was a banquet in Rome to Cobden, -and there was a very noisy and triumphant banquet to Ciceruacchio. The -Pope forbade popular demonstrations, yet he perceived daily that his -concessions did nothing to appease the popular appetite. The Italians -demanded elected, lay officers.</p> - -<p>To make matters worse for the Pope the Austrians advanced against the -Papal States. The difference was adjusted, but from the summer of -1847 hostility to Austria increased rapidly, and the people demanded -an efficient Papal army to resist them. When, on February 8th, the -news came of the third French Revolution, the agitators, who had now -complete influence, became bolder. Ciceruacchio himself, supported by -the Liberal Princes Corsini and Borghese, saw the Pope, and demanded -war on Austria and democratic institutions. At sight of the massive and -resolute crowds which supported them, the Pope promised a lay ministry -and a more efficient army; but on the following day he, addressing the -crowd in patriarchal terms, complained of the excessive demands of a -"minority" among them and protested that the Papacy needed no war on -Austria, as the Catholic Powers would protect it. The Radical leaders -saw his weakness, and under their steady pressure he began to make his -famous concessions to democracy. A new ministry, with lay nobles in -most of the positions, was formed in March, the Jesuits were advised -to leave Rome, the ancient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> walls and restrictions of the Ghetto were -abolished, and a constitution was granted. The members of the Lower -Chamber were to be elected, but the College of Cardinals would have -a veto on the proceedings of both houses, and they could not discuss -ecclesiastical or "mixed" affairs: a very grave restriction in a -theocratic State.</p> - -<p>The Radicals now concentrated the people on the cry of war with -Austria, and on that issue the Pope fell. The Papal troops had crossed -the frontier in support of the Sardinians, and, as Pius refused to -declare war, the Austrians treated them as brigands. The meetings -in Rome became more and more violent, the new ministry resigned, -and, as Pius still refused to declare war, a second ministry handed -in its resignation. The summer and autumn of 1848 passed in this -struggle. Pius insisted that war was not consistent with his religious -character, and all Rome united in opposing him. In November, at the -suggestion of Rosmini, the Pope ordered Pellegrino Rossi to form a -new ministry. Rossi, a friend of Napoleon III., was hated by the -Radicals, and his dream of a union of Italian princes under the Pope's -direction conflicted with their plan of a united and free Italy. He was -assassinated on November 15th, and on the following day a vast crowd, -partly armed, marched to the Quirinal and peremptorily laid down their -claims. In the confusion a prelate at one of the windows was shot, and -the Pope, seeing the Roman Guard mingling with the crowd, abjectly -surrendered, and retired to disavow his concession and prepare for -flight. The situation was very grave, and the action of the Pope was -far from heroic. It is not a maxim of the higher morality that you may -evade an angry crowd by making promises that you do not intend to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> -fulfil, or that you may afterwards discover that such promises were -void.</p> - -<p>The sequel is well-known. With the assistance of the foreign -ambassadors the Pope, disguised as a simple priest, fled to Gaeta. -So great was his concern that when the King of Naples, warned of his -flight, came the next day and inquired for the Pope, the officials -at Gaeta were quite unaware that Pius had been amongst them for -twenty-four hours. The cardinals gathered about him, and he appealed -to the Catholic Powers to restore his authority and suppress the -rebels. It is not an entirely accurate analysis to say that the Pope's -"Liberalism" now ended, and he became a reactionary. He had been duped -by the Radicals and had never understood his subjects. A feeble and -carefully controlled lay representation, with neither legislative nor -executive power, was not a part of the Liberal creed. Pius IX. was -never a Liberal. He was from the first unwilling to surrender the -absolute authority of the clergy, to grant freedom of discussion, to -abolish the monstrous growth of clerical officialdom, or to apply a -fitting proportion of the income of the Papal States to their effective -military defence. When he saw that even moderate Liberals demanded -these things, he recognized that he had never been in agreement with -them, and that his own half-measures were of no value. He now further -recognized that the advanced Liberals had captured his people, and -he turned, quite logically, to a policy of oppression. There was no -material change of his political faith.</p> - -<p>From Gaeta he appointed a "governing commission" (under a cardinal) -for Rome, and, when the people refused it and set up a Republic, he -placidly entrusted his case to France, Spain, Naples, and Sardinia, -and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> devoted himself to the preparation of the dogma of the Immaculate -Conception of Mary. Rosmini was still with him, urging compromise -with the democrats, but the somewhat unscrupulous Cardinal Antonelli, -who now became Secretary of State, astutely destroyed the influence -of the reformer, and confirmed Pius in his attitude of defiance and -repression. Even when the French troops—apparently thinking that they -could seduce the Romans to admit them in peace and could then compel -the Pope to adopt a conciliatory policy—crushed the Roman Republic, -and re-opened the gates to the Pope, Pius did not hasten to return. On -September 4th he left Gaeta for Portici, and it was not until April 12, -1850, that he returned to the Quirinal. The crowd ironically applauded -<i>Pio Nono Secondo</i>.</p> - -<p>The Pope had replied to the French appeals for a promise of reform that -it was not consistent with his dignity to make promises under apparent -pressure, but he had consented to the creation of new political -institutions. From Portici he promised a new Consiglio di Stato, a -Consiglio dei Ministri, and a Consulta di Stato. These were wholly -under clerical control, and the elections for the District Councils, -the only bodies which were to have free popular representatives, were -soon suppressed. But there is little need to dwell on the second -phase of Papal government under Pius IX. Cardinal Antonelli and the -Jesuits had a paramount influence, and the dream of enlightenment and -self-government was roughly dissipated. Between 1850 and 1855 the -Roman Council alone passed ninety sentences of death, and the prisons -were again thickly populated; while the disorders of finance and -administration, and the appalling illiteracy of the people in an age -of advancing education, were scrupulously main<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span>tained. The scandal -which in later years followed the death of Antonelli—the spectacle of -his natural daughter struggling for his vast fortune, though he was a -son of the people—sufficiently disclosed the character of that able -and indelicate minister, while the Jesuits were not unmindful that -the first act of the revolution had been to expel them. They had sent -some of their abler representatives to Gaeta, and from that time they -had a deep influence on the ecclesiastical policy of the Pope, while -Antonelli ruled the Papal States and offered what Lord Clarendon called -a "scandal to Europe." Within little over a year of the Pope's return -there were more than 8000 political prisoners in the Papal jails, -while the ignorant people were oppressed by heavy taxes and an army of -clerical officials.</p> - -<p>It is probable that Pius IX. had no clearer perception of the state -of Europe and Italy after the revolution of 1849 than he had had in -the earlier years. He devoted his attention to spiritual matters and -listened, in temporal concerns, to the suave assurances of Antonelli. -This pacified Europe was to be weaned from its bad dreams by a cult of -the Sacred Heart, devotion to the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and so -on. His first important act (September 29, 1850) was to re-establish -the hierarchy in England, to the great alarm and anger of the English -Protestants. England had quickly lost its passing sympathy with the -Papacy, and English travellers took home dreadful accounts of the -condition of the Papal States. The Pope does not seem to have been -acquainted either with the disgust of the English at the state of -his dominion or with the fact that the apparent restoration of the -old faith in England meant little more than a vast immigration from -famine-stricken Ireland.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span></p> - -<p>He then applied himself to securing the dogma of the Immaculate -Conception of Mary. From Gaeta in 1849, while Mazzini and his -colleagues ruled Rome and Antonelli struggled with the representatives -of the rival Catholic Powers for his restoration, Pius had sent out -some five hundred letters to the bishops of the world, inviting their -opinion on the doctrine. It had long passed the stage of being a -disputed academic thesis, and most of the replies were favourable. -The Jesuits, who had become the special protagonists of the doctrine, -fostered the native piety of the Pope, and on December 8, 1854, it -became a dogma of the Church.<a name="FNanchor_356_356" id="FNanchor_356_356"></a><a href="#Footnote_356_356" class="fnanchor">[356]</a></p> - -<p>In 1857 made a tour of the Italian provinces. His chief purpose was to -visit the Holy House of Loretto, but the intriguers of the Quirinal -used the opportunity to enhance the Pope's illusion that only a few -negligible fanatics quarrelled with the Papal government. In the -previous year the diplomatists assembled at the Congress of Paris had -censured that government in the most violent terms and demanded reform. -It is hardly likely that their comments were put before the Pope, and -care was taken that his reception in the provinces should flatter -his genial love of popularity. Inconvenient petitioners were refused -access to him, and the clergy and more devout laity greeted him with -applause. Gregorovius, who was then in Rome, notes in his <i>Diary</i> that -Pius returned to the Quirinal full of joy; and a few years later the -inhabitants of these provinces would vote, by an overwhelming majority, -for the abolition of the Papal government.</p> - -<p>In the following year the graver development of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> Italian politics -began. Napoleon III., whose protection of the corrupt Papal system -had infuriated the Liberals, met Cavour secretly at Plombičres and -agreed, in case of attack by Austria, to help the King of Sardinia in -his ambition; his reward would be the provinces of Nice and Savoy. The -attempt by Orsini in the following January to assassinate Napoleon did -not help the diplomatists of the Vatican, as Cavour plausibly urged -that the tyranny of the Papal States was responsible for the rebels who -were scattered over Europe, and the struggle for the unity of Italy -went on from year to year. The war between Sardinia and Austria broke -out in the spring of 1859, and Austria was defeated at Magenta and -retired from the Legations. These provinces were resolutely opposed -to a return of clerical government, and Cavour, whose monarch was not -yet prepared for war on the Papacy, sent one representative after -another to persuade the Pope to permit the appointment of lay rulers of -Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and Romagna, under his suzerainty. Antonelli -and Pius refused to make the least concession to the rebels, nor were -the provincials disposed to assent to such a settlement. After some -months of insurgence and bloody repression, a plebiscite was organized -in the Legations (March 11, 1860) and an overwhelming majority voted -for incorporation in the kingdom of Sardinia. In spite of the Pope's -fulminations, Sardinia accepted the vote, and Napoleon received Nice -and Savoy as the price of his acquiescence.</p> - -<p>Dismayed and perplexed by the futility of his appeals to the Catholic -Powers and of the spiritual censures at his disposal, the Pope now -invited volunteers, and crowds of undisciplined Irish and French -Catholics came to swell the little Papal army and fall with truculent -piety on the rebellious districts. Garibaldi, on the other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> hand, -forced the halting designs of Cavour, and, with the cry of "Rome or -Death," flung his irregular troops into the struggle. After a vain -effort at peaceful settlement, Cavour, "in the interest of humanity," -sent the Sardinian regulars into the Papal States, and the Pope's -forces were destroyed in September at Castel Fidardo (in sight of the -Holy House of Loretto) and Ancona. A plebiscite was organized in Umbria -and the Marches, and there is no serious ground to question that the -figures published express the sentiment of the provinces. In Umbria -99,075 voted for Victor Emmanuel and 380 for the Pope: in the Marches -133,783 voted for Sardinia and 1212 for Rome. A large allowance for -abstentions does not alter the significance of these figures.</p> - -<p>Pius still protected, by a conviction that the plebiscite had been -fraudulent, his illusion that only a disreputable minority resented his -beneficent government, and the diplomacy of the Quirinal during the -next ten years was the least enlightened that could have been devised -for securing the slender remaining territory. Many cardinals, and even -Antonelli, came to see that a recognition of Victor Emmanuel as King -of Italy would be the wiser course, but Pius, supported by the Jesuits -(who had founded their <i>Civiltŕ Cattolica</i>, as an organ of Papal -sentiment, in 1850), obstinately refused to temporize. He would have -no negotiation with "the robbers," the excommunicated rebels against -God. He retained—or the French troops still retained for him—only -Rome and the Roman district, and proclaimed that he relied on Catholic -Europe to restore his full rights. Years were spent in vain efforts -to induce him to surrender his temporal power, or to recognize Victor -Emmanuel as his "Vicar" in the kingdom of Italy, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> in the meantime -the Italian aspiration for Rome as a capital grew stronger, and the -Pope's obstinate retention of his temporal possessions was easily -represented in an unfavourable light throughout Europe. The cardinals -were not indifferent to the offer of 10,000 scudi a year and seats in -the Italian Senate; and Antonelli was won by a promise of 3,000,000 -scudi and rich gifts for his family. There can be little doubt that -the rapid development of anti-clericalism in Italy during the sixties, -and the growing disdain of Rome in England and France, would have been -materially checked if the Pope had been more sagacious. He dreamed that -the Catholic world still shared the crusading fervour of the Middle -Ages, and he was insensible of the selfish motives of France, Naples, -and Austria.</p> - -<p>In the midst of the negotiations he committed the grave blunder of -issuing his Encyclical <i>Quanta Cura</i> (December 8, 1864) with the famous -accompanying Syllabus, or list of eighty condemned propositions. There -is no need to analyze here that medićval indictment of the modern -spirit. Many of the propositions are now commonplaces in the mind of -every educated Catholic, and it is precisely their boast that—to use -some of the condemned words—the Catholic Church may be reconciled -with "progress, liberty, and the new civilization." The pages of the -<i>Civiltŕ Cattolica</i> sufficiently indicate who were the Pope's unhappy -inspirers. In brief, the document convinced Europe that Rome insisted -on being driven off the path of progress at the point of the bayonet, -and in 1866 the French evacuated Rome, leaving the Pope only 2000 -mercenary soldiers, who were to don his uniform. When Garibaldi made -his third impulsive inroad—the second, in 1862, had been arrested by -the Piedmontese—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span>in October, 1867, the French arrested him, but the -war of 1870 gave Italy its opportunity. On September 20, 1870, the -Italian troops entered the breach in the Roman walls, and the long -and romantic story of the temporal power of the Popes was over. By -the Law of Guarantees (May 15, 1871) Italy granted the Pope sovereign -rights, with an annual income of 3,250,000 lire and an extension of -extraterritorial rights to certain Roman palaces. By a final error Pius -refused to acknowledge his position, set up the melodramatic fiction -of "the Prisoner of the Vatican," and, by forbidding Catholics to -take part in the elections of the new kingdom, allowed Italy to drift -farther and farther away from his spiritual control.<a name="FNanchor_357_357" id="FNanchor_357_357"></a><a href="#Footnote_357_357" class="fnanchor">[357]</a></p> - -<p>Meantime the famous Vatican Council had crowned his more purely -ecclesiastical work. The idea of summoning the whole Christian world -to a second and greater Trent, of healing religious dissensions and -uniting religious forces against modernism, had dazzled the imagination -of the Pope at Gaeta. His advisers encouraged him, and in 1865 he -appointed a commission to discuss the subject. In 1867, when his heart -was uplifted by the great gathering at Rome for the celebration of -the (supposed) eighteenth centenary of the martyrdom of St. Peter, he -announced the council, and in the following year (June 28, 1868) the -Bull <i>Ćterni Patris</i> invited all Christians—heretic and schismatic, -as well as orthodox—to the Vatican Council of 1869. It was opened on -December 8th, when 719 members assembled from the Catholic world.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span></p> - -<p>The great issue—the one issue that may be discussed here—was the -question of defining the infallibility of the Pope. Here again the -Jesuits ardently supported the wish of Pius IX., and a struggle had -taken place in the Catholic world for some years. It was known that -such devout and influential priests as Newman in England, Bishop -Dupanloup and Archbishop Darboy in France, and Bishop Ketteler -and Cardinal Schwarzenberg and Döllinger in Germany, opposed the -definition, and the greatest care was taken in selecting members of the -council whose position did not make them entitled to sit in it. When -Newman was proposed from England, Manning (an enthusiastic supporter -of the Papal policy) and the Jesuits defeated the project, as Purcell -has since established in his life of Manning. When, however, the -seven hundred members of the council had assembled, it was realized -that between one hundred and fifty and two hundred voters regarded -a definition of infallibility as inopportune, and the procedure and -control of the council were diplomatically arranged. What Newman called -"the aggressive, insolent faction" of the Infallibilists strained every -nerve to destroy the opposition. They drew up a petition to the Pope, -and Pius was deeply annoyed to find that little over four hundred names -appeared at its foot; and of the signatories the majority were prelates -who lived at Rome in dependence on the Quirinal.</p> - -<p>But the familiar story need not be told again in detail. The debates -were prolonged into the broiling summer, in spite of the remonstrances -of the northerners, and the Pope's indignation at the minority was -freely expressed. When, on July 13th, the vote was taken, 451 voted -"Aye," 62 voted a qualified "Aye" (<i>Placet juxta modum</i>), and 88 voted -in opposi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span>tion. Pius wavered, and was disposed to listen to counsels of -compromise, but the majority pressed, and the stormy debate continued. -The Inopportunists were reduced to silence, and at the final vote, on -July 18th, only two voted against the project; though many abstained -from voting. Time has thrown a strange light on that historic struggle. -On the one hand, it has transpired that the definition was drawn up in -such terms that the controversialist could plausibly accommodate it -with the known blunders of earlier Popes, and few followed the spirited -revolt of Döllinger: on the other hand, the Papacy has from that day to -this made no use of its infallibility, in an age of perplexing doubts, -and the ardour of the Infallibilists has cooled.</p> - -<p>During the following years the Pope sank once more into depression -as the situation in Italy engendered grave troubles. Bible Societies -and Protestant churches appeared in Italy, even in Rome, and Pius -vainly denounced the monstrosity. Bishops dare not apply to the -Italian government for their appointments, and had to remain without -incomes and palaces. The Jesuits were expelled, and in 1872 a law -of dissolution menaced the 8151 members of religious houses in Rome -and the provinces. Bavaria refused to publish the Bull <i>Pastor -Ćternus</i>, and its struggle with the Church extended to Prussia and -culminated in the long and bitter Kulturkampf (1872-1887). In France -the anti-clerical Liberals gained from year to year on the Catholic -reaction which had followed the Commune of 1871, and Gambetta's -battle-cry rallied the old forces in alarming numbers. In 1876 -(November 6th) Antonelli died, and the grave scandal which disclosed -his irregularities gave joy to the enemies of the Papacy. A last gleam -of consolation came to the Pope in 1877,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> when the Catholic world -held a magnificent celebration, on June 3d, of his episcopal jubilee. -But the aged Pope saw no retreat of the disastrous forces he had -encountered, and, after the longest and most calamitous rule in Papal -history, he died on February 7, 1878.</p> - -<p>Little need be added in regard to his relations with other countries -than France and Italy. The record is one of both successes and failures -which were misunderstood at Rome: to the modern historian it is the -record of the lapse of millions from the Roman allegiance. In the -United States forty-four new dioceses were established between 1847 and -1877, yet the American prelates of the time bitterly lament the loss -of hundreds of thousands of scattered Catholic immigrants. In England -the Romeward movement within the English Church came to an end long -before the death of Pius, and the Church made no numerical progress -in excess of births and immigration. In Holland the hierarchy was -peacefully restored, but in Switzerland there was such tension that the -Internuncio was expelled in 1874. Russia severed relations with Rome in -1860: Württemberg (1861) and Baden (1859) signed Concordats with Rome, -but found it impossible to maintain them: and the new German Empire -was, as I said previously, involved by Bismarck and Falk in a bitter -struggle with Rome.</p> - -<p>The relations with Catholic countries were little more satisfactory. -Sardinia had mortally offended the Quirinal long before the struggle -for Italian unity began: by a long series of anti-clerical measures -it abolished tithes, laicised education and marriage, expelled the -religious orders and confiscated their property, gave freedom of -worship to Protestants, and dealt summarily with hostile bishops. -Austria had signed in 1855<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> (August 18th) a Concordat which was -favourable to the Church, but the young Francis Joseph, whose education -had been carefully directed in the clerical interest, was forced by -the storm of opposition to deviate from it. It was abolished in 1870, -and four years later laws were passed which the Vatican regarded as -anti-clerical. Spain maintained, through its various revolutions, a -consistent docility, and was the only country on which the dying eyes -of the Pope could dwell with satisfaction. It contracted a favourable -Concordat on March 16, 1851, which was supplemented in 1859. Portugal -signed a favourable Concordat in 1857. In Latin America on the other -hand, the Church suffered grave reverses. Costa Rica and Guatemala -(1852), Haiti (1860), Nicaragua (1861), and San Salvador, Honduras, -Venezuela, and Ecuador (1862) signed satisfactory Concordats, but -Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina entered upon -anti-clerical ways, and the spirit of revolt against the clergy was -spreading throughout Southern and Central America. Not since the days -of Leo X. had the Church suffered such grave and widespread defection.</p> - -<p>In estimating the character of Pius IX. and his relation to these -losses the modern historian has little difficulty. The exaggerations -of both his critics and his panegyrists are patent. He was a -sincerely religious and zealous man, but the hope once entertained -of his canonization (or, at least, beatification) was as absurd -as the malevolent attacks on his character from the other side. -His intellectual quality must be similarly judged: he had little -penetration, no breadth of mind, no power to read aright the symptoms -of his age. In considering the fatal obstinacy with which he refused -all accommodation in regard to his temporal power, we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> must carefully -bear in mind his religious views, and not merely dwell on his slight -capacity for diplomacy or statesmanship. So grave a surrender could -not be commended by a few years of revolution except to a man of -greater insight and foresight than Pius IX. In sum, he would in years -of peace and piety have made an excellent and undistinguished steward -of the Papal heritage, but he was very far from having the greatness -of mind which the circumstances of the Church required, and the vast -organization over which he so long presided emerged still further -weakened from its second historical crisis. It had fought Protestantism -and lost: it had fought Democracy and Progress and lost. It remained -for a wiser Pope to initiate the policy of accommodation.</p> - - - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_352_352" id="Footnote_352_352"></a><a href="#FNanchor_352_352"><span class="label">[352]</span></a> During his twenty-months' Pontificate, in 1829, Catholic -Emancipation was carried in England. But the Quirinal's share was -confined to rejoicing. Consalvi, however, had "worked incessantly" for -it, and had been much aided by the Duchess of Devonshire. See his words -in Artaud's <i>Histoire du Pape Léon XII.</i>, i., 171.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_353_353" id="Footnote_353_353"></a><a href="#FNanchor_353_353"><span class="label">[353]</span></a> The contradiction is characteristic of the literature -on Pius IX. Most of it was written before or just after his death and -is fiercely partisan. Petruccelli della Gattina's <i>Pie IX.</i> (1866) -is the chief and least reliable of the hostile biographies: T.A. -Trollope's <i>Story of the Life of Pius IX.</i> (2 vols., 1877) is one of -the most temperate of the anti-Papal works and still has some use: F. -Hitchman's <i>Pius the Ninth</i> (1878) is slighter but equally moderate. -Such studies as those of Shea, Maguire, Dawson, Wappmannsperger (2 -vols.), Stepischnegg (2 vols.), Pougeois (6 vols.), and Freiherr von -Helfert are equally prejudiced on the Catholic side. The best study -of the character and work of Pius is Dr. F. Nielsen's <i>Papacy in -the Nineteenth Century</i> (2 vols., 1906), a temperate (perhaps not -sufficiently critical) and scholarly work. Bishop G.S. Pelczar's -<i>Pio IX. e il suo Pontificato</i> (3 vols., Italian translation 1909) -is learned but fulsome and undiscriminating. Father R. Ballerini's -incomplete study (published as <i>Les premičres pages du Pontificat -du Pape Pie IX.</i>, 1909) has no distinction. For special aspects see -D. Silvagni, <i>La Corte e la Societŕ Romana</i> (1885), and Count von -Hoensbroech's <i>Rom und das Zentrum</i> (1910), and works quoted hereafter.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_354_354" id="Footnote_354_354"></a><a href="#FNanchor_354_354"><span class="label">[354]</span></a> Ballerini and Helfert deny this but Pelczar and Nielsen -make it clear. The graver statement of the hostile biographers—that he -spent his youth in dissipation—rests on no respectable evidence.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_355_355" id="Footnote_355_355"></a><a href="#FNanchor_355_355"><span class="label">[355]</span></a> <i>Lettres Apostoliques de Pie IX.</i>, p. 177.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_356_356" id="Footnote_356_356"></a><a href="#FNanchor_356_356"><span class="label">[356]</span></a> The original documents relating to the Pope's actions -will be found in the <i>Acta Pii Noni</i>, <i>Acta Sanctć Sedis</i>, and -<i>Discorsi del Summo Pontefice Pio IX</i>. (1872-8).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_357_357" id="Footnote_357_357"></a><a href="#FNanchor_357_357"><span class="label">[357]</span></a> In the plebiscite which was taken in the city of Rome -40,785 voted for incorporation and forty-six for the Pope: in the -city and province 133,681 voted for incorporation and 1507 against. -Naturally, the minority is not fully represented, as many refused to -vote.</p></div></div> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a></p> - -<p class="center">LEO XIII.</p> - - -<p class="drop">W<span class="uppercase">hen</span> Leo XIII. mounted the Pontifical throne, the Papacy had had three -quarters of a century of disastrous experience of the reactionary -policy. The Restoration of 1815 had seemed to inaugurate for Rome a -new period of prosperity. The touching experiences of Pius VII. and -the widely recognized need of combating by religious influence the new -spirit of revolt disposed the monarchs of Europe, and a large part of -their subjects, to regard the successor of Peter with respect. He had -been their ally in resisting Napoleon: he was their ally in restoring -feudalism. England moderated its rude tradition of "the Scarlet Woman." -The Tsar of the Russias felt that Romanism was a large element in the -spiritual renaissance he contemplated. Louis XVIII. remembered how -altar and throne had fallen together. Ferdinand of Spain drowned the -revolt in blood. Austria reconsidered its Febronianism. Italy seemed -incapable of rebellion.</p> - -<p>But the revolutionary wave had retired only to come back with greater -effect, and from 1830 to 1850 the face of Europe was transformed. The -Popes almost alone defied the spirit to which monarchs bowed, and they -stood almost alone amid their ruins. England returned to its disdain: -Russia and Switzerland angrily broke off<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span> relations with the Vatican: -Germany was engaged in what the Vatican regarded as a formidable -effort to crush Catholicism in the new Empire. Austria was sullen and -weakened. France was rapidly passing into its third and final revolt -against Catholicism. Spain was forced into an alliance with the growing -Liberals against the Carlists. Italy was overwhelmingly opposed to the -Papacy on what the Papacy declared to be a sacred and vital issue, and -was honeycombed with Rationalism. Belgium was almost dominated by a -Liberal middle class. The South American republics were falling away -in succession. The two most profoundly Catholic peoples, Ireland and -Poland, were ruined, and their children were scattered and seduced. -Thus would any penetrating cardinal have interpreted the situation -of the Church in 1878; yet, if his penetration were great enough, he -would see that there was a tendency among this Liberal middle class, -which now dominated Europe, to seek once more an alliance with religion -against the deeper social heresies which were appearing. Would the new -Pope prove subtle enough to grasp that opportunity and save the Church? -His "infallibility" would avail little: he would be unwise to emphasize -it. He must be a diplomatist and a rhetorician.</p> - -<p>The new Pope, Leo XIII., was nearly sixty-eight years old, and had -had a better education in the history of the nineteenth century than -most of the Italian cardinals had. Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi -Pecci was born on March 2, 1810, at Carpineto. His first lesson, in -the country mansion, would be to hear his father. Colonel Pecci, and -his very pious mother, a Tertiary of the Franciscan Order, talk of the -Napoleonic nightmare that had just passed away. From the age<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> of eight -to fourteen he was under the care of the Jesuits at Viterbo, and, as -it was represented to him that the younger sons in so large a family -had to look to the Church for their income, after some hesitation, he -allowed them to tonsure him, at the age of eleven.<a name="FNanchor_358_358" id="FNanchor_358_358"></a><a href="#Footnote_358_358" class="fnanchor">[358]</a> In 1824 his -mother died, and he went to study, still under the Jesuits, at the -Collegio Romano at Rome. He had conspicuous ability and high character, -and besides improving his Latin—he already wrote Latin poems—he -studied philosophy, mathematics, chemistry, and astronomy. He attracted -attention, as clever boys attract the attention of the clergy, and -was directed toward the clerical career. He must enter the "Academy -for Noble Ecclesiastics," said one prelate; and, with the aid of his -brothers, he drew up a genealogical tree to prove that his father, the -easy-going colonel of Carpineto, was descended from the medićval Pecci -of Siena. The Academy did not pronounce his proof valid—the connexion -is probable enough—but, on his merits, and in view of his important -patrons, admitted him among the nobles of Anagni (1831).</p> - -<p>Joachim—he had called himself Vincenzo until 1832—took a degree in -theology, and told his brothers that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> was going to illumine their -ancient family. He still loved to take a flintlock musket over the -hills during his holidays, but he indulged in no dissipations and -became pale and thin over the books which were to help his ambition. -His father died in 1836, and it is in his naďve letters to his -brothers that we discover the human elements ignored by his eloquent -biographers.<a name="FNanchor_359_359" id="FNanchor_359_359"></a><a href="#Footnote_359_359" class="fnanchor">[359]</a> He begins to follow politics, in the most ardent -Papal spirit. Cardinal Pacca, the intransigeant, recommended the -pale, slim young cleric to Gregory XVI., and in 1837 he was appointed -domestic prelate. Cardinal Sala also befriended the young Monsignore, -and he went from one small office to another. Sala pointed out that for -further advancement he must become a priest, and he became a priest -(December 31, 1837); but his letters make it clear that he entered the -priesthood in a mood of such exalted piety that Sala feared he was -about to quit the world and become a Jesuit.</p> - -<p>About a month after his ordination (February 2, 1838) he was appointed -Apostolic Delegate (Civil Governor) of Benevento, where the brigandage -which disgraced the Papal States was particularly rabid. In three -years, with the aid of a skilful chief of police, he almost suppressed -brigandage and smuggling, and did much for the province. His progress -was not so heroically triumphant as the biographers represent. In his -letters to his brothers he complains that his predecessor has robbed -the treasury and they must help him: that his ninety-seven ducats -a month do not enable him to have the fine horses and carriage he -needs: and, later (in 1839), that the clerics at Rome are plotting -to cheat him of the higher promotion which he deserves. In 1841 the -Pope transferred him to Perugia, and he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> did good work in reforming -education, founding a bank for small traders, and so on.</p> - -<p>In January, 1843, his real education began. He was appointed Nuncio at -Brussels and was made titular Archbishop of Damietta. Able as he was, -the promotion to so important an office was premature. Of French (or -any languages but Latin and Italian) he knew not a syllable until he -set out, and with the modern thought which was then current in Brussels -he was acquainted only by means of the version of it given by Pius IX. -in the Syllabus, of which he fully approved. His handsome presence and -amiable ways carried him far. There is an almost boyish expression on -his face at this period: on the long, thin, smiling face and bright -eyes and soft sensuous mouth. King Leopold, a Protestant, liked him, -and allowed the young archbishop to attract him to religious functions -and persuade him of the importance of religion in appeasing social -ambitions. Pecci, in turn, could not contemplate the gas-lit streets, -the railways, the postal system, etc., of Belgium, without realizing -that the Papal States would have to admit <i>something</i> of this modern -thought. But he was for a safe modernism, consistent with the <i>Quanta -Cura</i> and the Syllabus. He was suave to all: even to the rebellious -Gioberti, who was then giving Italian lessons in Brussels. To this -period of his career belongs the good story of a naughty Liberal -marquis, who ventured to offer him a pinch of snuff from a box which -was adorned with a nude Venus, and the Archbishop is said to have taken -it and asked: "Madame la marquise?" Secretly, however, he urged the -Catholics to organize a struggle against the Liberals. The Liberals -wanted a compromise on the school-question, and, when the Nuncio -assisted in defeating it, the Premier Deschamps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span> wrote contemptuously -to Rome that they would like a Nuncio who was a "statesman." As, -about the same time, the bishopric of Perugia fell vacant and the -Perugians asked for their former Delegate, Gregory recalled Pecci. His -disappointment—which he plainly expresses in his letters—was softened -only by the Pope's assurance that the transfer would be regarded as -"equal to promotion to a nunciature of the first class"; in other -words, he remained on the path to the cardinalate, as he desired.<a name="FNanchor_360_360" id="FNanchor_360_360"></a><a href="#Footnote_360_360" class="fnanchor">[360]</a></p> - -<p>From Brussels he brought a warm testimonial written by King Leopold, -and he spent a month in London (where he had an interview with the -Queen) and some weeks in Paris. He reached Rome in May (1846), to -find Gregory dying, and he witnessed the election of Pius IX., and, -at Perugia, applauded the early "liberalism" of the Pope. Perugia had -a large share of the advanced thinkers who now overran Italy, and -the Bishop would assuredly become more closely acquainted with their -ideas. From his later encyclicals, however, one must suppose that he -never made a profound study of their claims, either on the intellectual -or the social side. Of philosophy he had only the medićval version -given him in the Collegio Romano and the Sapienza, and of economics -or sociology he knew nothing. Such science as he knew—the elements -of chemistry and astronomy—was easily reconcilable with religion, -and this gave him an apparently liberal attitude toward science. On -the other hand, he had genuine sympathies and he felt that the new -aspirations of the working class<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> were not to be met with a sheer -rebuff.<a name="FNanchor_361_361" id="FNanchor_361_361"></a><a href="#Footnote_361_361" class="fnanchor">[361]</a> The ideas of Gioberti and Ventura appealed to him. Even -when Gioberti had fallen out of favour at the Quirinal, Archbishop -Pecci, when he passed through Perugia in 1848, gave him hospitality in -his palace. Henri des Houx affirms that he heard on good authority that -for this Pius IX. suspended the Archbishop from pontifical duties for -several weeks. Later, he incurred suspicion by permitting a memorial -service at the death of Cavour. It is admitted by the leading Catholic -biographers that he was in bad odour at the Quirinal. The promised -cardinal's hat was withheld for eight years<a name="FNanchor_362_362" id="FNanchor_362_362"></a><a href="#Footnote_362_362" class="fnanchor">[362]</a> and his great ability -was wasted on a provincial bishopric. The slight is ascribed to the -jealousy of Cardinal Antonelli, and his advance after the Secretary's -death confirms the suspicion.</p> - -<p>It is, however, plain that Pecci was a most excellent Bishop, and that -he was no more "Liberal" than Pius IX. in his first year. He strictly -organized the work and education of the clergy, restored the seminary -and built a College of St. Thomas, founded many schools, churches, and -hospitals, brought Brothers of Mercy and nuns from Belgium, and opened -a branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He left a fine record of -religious-social work, and the orthodox poor loved him. Yet we must -set aside the exaggerations of biographers. Pecci cherished the purely -Papal ideal and was out of touch with the majority of his people. In -1859, when a group of rebels set up a "Provisional Government" at -Perugia, he nervously shut himself in his palace for two days and, -without a protest, allowed the ferocious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span> Swiss Guard sent by Antonelli -to wear themselves out in an orgy of slaughter and pillage. A few -months later Sardinia expelled the Papal troops, and, when a plebiscite -was taken, 97,000 voted for incorporation in the kingdom of Sardinia, -and only 386 voted against. The Archbishop protested emphatically -and consistently against the seizure of the Pope's temporal power, -and, when the hated laws of Sardinia were successively applied to -Perugia (on civil marriage, the suppression of the religious orders, -military service for clerics, etc.), he continued to protest in the -warmest language. In 1862 he suspended three priests who adopted the -Italian cause, and was cited before the civil tribunal; but the case -was allowed to lapse. We know that he was carefully watched from the -Quirinal, and that he had an informant of his own at the Curia,<a name="FNanchor_363_363" id="FNanchor_363_363"></a><a href="#Footnote_363_363" class="fnanchor">[363]</a> -but his pronouncements and letters make it abundantly clear that he -never swerved from the strict Papal conception of contemporary thought -and politics.</p> - -<p>Antonelli died in December, 1876, and (as is ignored by most of his -biographers) Pecci very shortly went to live at Rome—long before he -was appointed Chamberlain. He had an able coadjutor in the bishopric, -and he pleaded his age and increasing weakness. He lived in the modest -Falconieri Palace, and trusted to get a suburbicarian bishopric. To -his annoyance, two which fell vacant in the next few weeks were given -by Pius to others, but at length, in August, the Pope appointed him -Camerlengo (Chamberlain). In that capacity he had, the following -February, to tap the dead Pope on the forehead with a hammer and to -arrange the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> Conclave. He was not widely known at Rome, and few foresaw -his elevation to the throne. It is, in fact, probable that Pius IX. -had made him Camerlengo, not in order to exclude him from the Papacy, -but because he was not likely to be required for it. Since Alexander -VI. no Chamberlain had been elected Pope. There were, however, shrewd -observers who predicted his rise, and little surprise was expressed -when, after the third scrutiny, on February 20th, he secured forty-four -out of the sixty-one votes. We may set aside romantic speculations -about the Conclave. A few cardinals perceived that the Church needed -in its ruler just such a combination of clear intelligence, broad -knowledge, and diplomatic temper as Cardinal Pecci possessed, and -he was sufficiently sound on Papal politics to disarm the more -conservative. It is not impossible that waverers reflected as they -gazed on the worn white frame of the cardinal, that, whatever policy he -adopted, Leo XIII. would not long rule the Church.</p> - -<p>The Liberal press had recalled his friendship with Gioberti and his -permission of a service in memory of Cavour, but Leo quickly reassured -the more rigid cardinals. The crowd gathered in the great square -to receive the blessing of the new Pope, yet hour followed hour -without his making an appearance. R. de Cesare shows that the Italian -Government was prepared, not only to preserve order, but to render -military honours if he appeared on the balcony. The intransigeant -cardinals opposed it, and four hours later he gave the blessing inside -St. Peter's. Similarly with his coronation. It is untrue that the -Italian Government refused to take measures to preserve order if he -were, as was usual, crowned in St. Peter's. On the advice of the more -conservative cardinals he chose to be crowned in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span> semi-privacy in the -Sistine Chapel on March 3d.<a name="FNanchor_364_364" id="FNanchor_364_364"></a><a href="#Footnote_364_364" class="fnanchor">[364]</a> Indeed when, on February 22d, he had -been compelled to go to his late palace for his papers, he crossed -Rome in the utmost secrecy. He would, like Pius, have "no truck with -the robbers." To the Kaiser, the Tsar, and the Swiss President he had -written on the day of his election to say that he looked forward to -more friendly relations, but in his first Consistory, on March 28th, he -assured the cardinals that there would be no reconciliation with Italy, -and on April 28th he issued his first Encyclical, <i>Inscrutabile</i>, in -which, besides asserting the claim of the temporal power, he described -Europe, in more graceful terms than Pius, yet in the same spirit, as -filled with a "pestilential virus" and nearing death unless it speedily -took the antidote of Papal obedience. There was to be no truck with -"the new civilization" also.</p> - -<p>Yet Leo XIII. has passed into contemporary history as the great -"reconciler of differences," in Carlyle's phrase: the man who, by a -superb diplomacy and a fortunate conjunction of character and genius, -rescued the Church from the dangerous position in which Pius IX. had -left it and raised it to a higher level of prestige and power. The -historian must make allowance for contemporary enthusiasm. Probably -most rulers of ability and character have left that impression among -the generation which witnessed their death. Leo, moreover, as befitted -a temperate and high-minded man, excited no bitter opposition. All -the current biographies of him are from Catholic pens: few of them -even pretend to have the candour and balance of historical writers. -Leo's story is still to be written. It suffices here to remark that -the forces he most fiercely com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span>bated—Socialism and Rationalism—made -during his Pontificate a progress out of all proportion to the increase -of population: that the Church of Rome actually decreased, if we take -account of the growth of population: and that "modernism" within the -Church became the customary attitude of cultivated Catholics. Among -the most potent facts of his Pontificate are the facts that France, to -retain which he made grave sacrifices, was entirely lost to the Church: -that Italy, which he defied, has established its position with absolute -security and abandoned its creed to a remarkable extent: that Portugal, -Spain, and Spanish-America have witnessed a similar spread of revolt: -that in England, Germany, and America there has been no progress other -than increase by births and immigration: that Leo's effort to check -Socialism by a Christian social zeal failed and was almost abandoned by -him in his later years: and that his attempt to impose St. Thomas of -Aquinas on modern thought and his design of directing modern Scriptural -research have only embarrassed the scholars of his Church. He was one -of the great men of his great age, the ablest Pope in three hundred -years: but he failed. He made no impression whatever on what he called -the "diseases" of modern thought and life, and he left his Church -numerically weaker—in proportion to the increase of population—than -he found it.<a name="FNanchor_365_365" id="FNanchor_365_365"></a><a href="#Footnote_365_365" class="fnanchor">[365]</a></p> - -<p>His policy in Italy is almost invariably described as being -conciliatory without sacrificing the Papal claim.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span> We cannot regard -as entirely amiable a policy of reminding the Italian monarchy -and statesmen, every few years, that they are sacrilegious and -excommunicated thieves, and it is surely now clear that Leo erred in -maintaining the attitude of Pius and forbidding Catholics to take -part in the elections. The <i>Catholic Encyclopćdia</i> imputes to him the -remarkable expectation that the revolutionary elements in Italy would, -if not checked by the Catholic vote, win power at the polls and the -government would seek the aid of the Vatican; and the writer describes -this as a miscalculation which Pius X. was obliged to correct.<a name="FNanchor_366_366" id="FNanchor_366_366"></a><a href="#Footnote_366_366" class="fnanchor">[366]</a> -Indeed the one wise move on the part of Leo XIII. in regard to -Italy is either suppressed or discussed with strained scepticism by -Catholic writers. During the first few years after his coronation Leo -continued to protest against the wickedness of the world in general -and of Italy in particular. In 1881 he had a singular and unpleasant -proof of the resentment of Rome. On July 13th the remains of Pius IX. -were transferred to the Church of St. Lawrence, where he wished to -be buried, and, the government feeling that a public ceremony would -lead to disorder, the translation was to be secret and nocturnal. But -the "secret" was carefully divulged before the hour, and a vast crowd -of the faithful assembled to do homage to the Papa-Re. The rougher -anti-clericals were thus stimulated to make an unseemly protest, and -Leo took occasion again to protest to the Catholic Powers that his -position was intolerable.</p> - -<p>On April 24, 1881, the Pope urged the Catholic Associations to enter -the field of municipal politics, and in the following year he, in the -Encyclical <i>Etsi nos</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> (February 5th), and on the occasion of the death -of Garibaldi (June 2d), again made severe attacks upon Italy. The -friction increased. In July (1882) Leo had to protest that bishops, -not recognizing the government, received no incomes or palaces, and -that monks and nuns who endeavoured to evade the law of suppression -were hardly treated. Then a dismissed employee of the Vatican brought -an action against the Pope in the Italian court, and though the action -was dismissed, the court claimed jurisdiction, and Leo made a heated -protest to France and Austria. In 1884 the Propaganda was compelled to -invest its money in Italian funds, and the Pope, after the customary -protest, set up a number of procurators in foreign countries to whom -the faithful might send their offerings. In 1886 the anti-clerical -campaign became more violent; tithes were abolished, and many Italian -Catholics began to desire reconciliation. Italy entered into the Triple -Alliance with Austria and Germany, and henceforward appeals to the -"Catholic" Powers were obviously futile. France itself had by this -time an anti-clerical government and majority, and German and Austrian -Catholics bitterly resented the Italian attack on the Triple Alliance.</p> - -<p>In February, 1887, Cardinal Jacobini, the Secretary of State, died, and -Cardinal Rampolla entered upon his famous career. Leo openly directed -the new Secretary to insist on the restoration of the temporal power, -and ordered that the Rosary be recited nightly in the churches of -Rome. But in the course of that year there was a change in the Vatican -policy, though, since it was unsuccessful, it is usually concealed or -called into question. Crispi himself revealed, a few years later, that -there were negotiations for a settlement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> between the Vatican and the -Quirinal, and that France, irritated by the Triple Alliance, threatened -to put greater pressure on its Church unless the Pope withdrew from the -negotiations.<a name="FNanchor_367_367" id="FNanchor_367_367"></a><a href="#Footnote_367_367" class="fnanchor">[367]</a> Mgr. de T'Serclaes virtually admits the fact, and -conjectures that Crispi wanted Italy to have a share in the approaching -celebration of the Pope's Jubilee. We have no right to question -Crispi's assurance that France intervened, and that the Vatican -was willing to hear of compromise. The Papal authorities, however, -concealed the unsuccessful offer and returned to the earlier attitude. -The Pope's sacerdotal Jubilee was celebrated in 1888 with immense -rejoicings, and the anti-clericals retorted with fresh legislation. In -1889 a statue of Giordano Bruno was erected at Rome. It is said that -Leo XIII. spent the hours of the demonstration in tears at the foot of -the altar, and that he had some idea of leaving Rome. The gates of the -Vatican were carefully watched, and there was great excitement in Rome -when it was announced that he had actually passed over a few yards of -Roman territory—to visit the studio of a sculptor near the Vatican. -But the Pope clung to his theory of being imprisoned in the Vatican, -and the remaining years were like the earlier: anathema on one side, -disdain and defiance on the other. When he died, the laity of Rome -itself had become so largely anti-clerical that Catholic Deputies to -the Chamber did not care to be seen going to mass, and in the north -Socialism was advancing at a remarkable pace.</p> - -<p>In Germany, on the other hand, Leo won considerable success, though -his biographers describe it inaccurately. The <i>Kulturkampf</i> was at its -height when Leo was elected, and he at once wrote a firm and courteous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> -letter to the Emperor, trusting that peace would be restored. In his -cold and ironical reply (evidently written by Bismarck) the Emperor -observed that there would be peace when the Pope directed the clergy -to obey the laws, and Leo retorted (April 17, 1878) that the laws -were inconsistent with the Catholic conscience. But circumstances -favoured the Pope. Two attempts were made to assassinate the Emperor, -and he directed Bismarck to see that rebellious impulses in the young -were checked by religious education. It seems clear that the Emperor -had begun to dislike the struggle with the Church, and by this time -Bismarck himself must have seen that persecution had led only to the -better organization and greater energy of the Catholics, while his -policy was threatened from another side by the rapid advance of Social -Democracy. The Papal Nuncio at Munich, Mgr. Aloisi-Masella, was invited -to Berlin. He was instructed from Rome to decline the invitation, and -Bismarck arranged a "wayside inn" meeting at Kissingen. As Bismarck -insisted on the government retaining a veto on all ecclesiastical -appointments, the negotiations broke down, and little progress was made -when they were resumed by the Vienna Nuncio and Prince von Reuss.</p> - -<p>In the following year Falk, the framer of the famous May Laws, -resigned, and the Vatican resumed its efforts. On February 24, 1880, -the Pope informed the Archbishop of Cologne that the government might -have a restricted veto on the ordinations of priests if it would -grant an amnesty—eight out of twelve bishops were still in exile or -prison—and modify the laws. Bismarck refused, but there was some -relaxation of the laws. In 1881 several bishops were appointed, and in -1882 Bismarck voted funds for a German representa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span>tive at the Vatican. -It was, however, at once discovered that the bargain put the Pope in a -dilemma. Bismarck demanded that Leo should direct the Alsatian clergy -to submit, but, though the Pope promised that he would "see to it," -he dared not interfere. In 1884 diplomatic relations were formally -restored. Several bishops returned from exile, and episcopal incomes -were restored; but the amnesty was not extended to the Archbishop of -Cologne and the Archbishop of Gnesen and Posen, and Catholic students -were not allowed to go to Louvain, Rome, or Innspruck.</p> - -<p>In 1885 Bismarck made a further step by inviting the Pope to mediate -between Germany and Spain in their quarrel for the possession of the -Caroline Islands. It is said that Bismarck was entrapped into this -by a Catholic journalist announcing that Spain was about to make the -invitation. However that may be, the invitation flattered the Vatican, -and the two rebellious archbishops were "persuaded" by the Pope to -resign. The German Catholics were now beginning to murmur against the -Pope, and the negotiations proceeded slowly, but in 1886 Bismarck -bluntly denounced the May Laws, and it was proposed to modify them. -Shortly afterwards, however, it appeared that the Pope had conveyed -an impression that he would pay a high price (besides the veto on -priests) for the surrender. The Centre Party opposed Bismarck's new -law of military service, and he appealed to Rome. Rampolla, through -the Bavarian Nuncio, directed the Catholic members to desist, but, -to the equal dismay of the Chancellor and the Pope, they refused to -obey and caused a dissolution of the Reichstag. Their leader, Baron -Frankenstein, replied to the Bavarian Nuncio that they took orders<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span> -from Rome only in ecclesiastical matters.<a name="FNanchor_368_368" id="FNanchor_368_368"></a><a href="#Footnote_368_368" class="fnanchor">[368]</a> Bismarck, in his anger, -got copies of the letters and published them. What followed we can -only gather from the sequel. The Centre withdrew its opposition, -the military law was passed, and the May Laws were modified. German -Liberals beheld the strange spectacle of the Iron Chancellor, in the -Reichstag, indignantly denying that the Pope was a "foreign power," who -ought not to intervene in German affairs.</p> - -<p>No further concessions were won from Germany—the Jesuits are still -excluded—but since 1887 the Church in that country has enjoyed -comparative peace and prosperity. William II. acceded to the throne -in 1888, and from the first he insisted on friendly relations with -Rome. On three occasions (1888, 1893, and 1903) he visited Leo at the -Vatican. Bismarck retired in 1890, after a final defeat by the Centre -Party. The money due to the bishops (whose incomes had been suspended) -now amounted to more than Ł400,000, and Bismarck invited the Pope to -compromise in regard to it. Leo refused; the government must settle the -matter with the Catholics of Germany, he said. In the later debate in -the Reichstag the Minister of Worship heatedly denounced the Pope for -duplicity, but the Centre had its way and the whole sum was restored -to the bishops. It is further claimed, though without documentary -evidence, that the Emperor's visit to the Vatican in 1893 was for -the purpose of urging the Pope to order the members of the Centre to -support the new military laws. In the sequel the Catholic members were -divided and the laws passed. But documents on these recent events -will not reach the eye of this generation, and we cannot be sure how -far the <i>Kulturkampf</i> was abandoned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span> as a reward for Papal support of -Germany's military policy. On the other hand, the alliance in hostility -to Socialism has proved a failure. The Catholic vote at the polls fell, -during Leo's Pontificate, from 27.9 per cent. of the total vote to 19.7 -(in 1903): the Social Democratic vote increased nearly tenfold.<a name="FNanchor_369_369" id="FNanchor_369_369"></a><a href="#Footnote_369_369" class="fnanchor">[369]</a></p> - -<p>In France the policy of the Pope was correct and particularly -unsuccessful. A few years after the fall of the Papal States the number -of professing Catholics in France arose to about thirty millions in -a nation of thirty-six millions; and the sincerity of a very large -proportion may be judged from the fact that nearly two thirds of the -Papal income from Peter's Pence (which rose to nearly half a million -sterling a year) came from French Catholics. Yet when Leo died, the -professing Catholics had fallen to about six millions in a population -of thirty-nine millions. We must beware of ascribing this failure to -Leo XIII., though undoubtedly he never exhibited a sound knowledge -or statesmanlike grasp of the situation in France. That country was -developing along anti-clerical lines, and no Pope or prelate could -have diverted it. Leo was absorbed in the superficial struggle of -royalists and republicans until the serious development had proceeded -too far. In the later seventies the anti-clericals began to assert -their rapidly growing power and influence legislation. The Jesuits -were again expelled, and education further withdrawn from Catholic -control. The Pope followed the development in helpless concern until -October 22, 1880, when, at the demand of the French faithful, he passed -his censure. The Republican authorities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> paid no heed and in 1883 Leo -sent a protest to President Grévy. In a cold and indifferent reply the -President pointed out that the Catholic clergy could expect little -favour from a Republican institution which they constantly attacked, -and the Pope's attention was forcibly drawn to the royalist agitation -which divided the Church and fed the anti-clerical campaign against -it. We must conclude that Leo, like so many Catholics, miscalculated -the recuperating power of royalism, besides fearing to offend a -powerful section of the clergy and laity, as he still hesitated to -direct Catholics to submit to the Republic. For a time he trusted -that the democratic movement headed by the Comte de Mun would bring -relief, but it increased the confusion, and on February 16, 1892, Leo -issued his famous Encyclical, urging the French Catholics to submit -to the Republic and assail only its anti-clerical laws. The royalists -sulked: in one diocese the Peter's Pence offerings fell from Ł60,000 to -Ł35,000. Even the Panama Scandal in 1893 failed to yield any advantage, -and the Church completed its series of blunders by adopting the crusade -against Dreyfus. In his later years Leo could but helplessly look on -while Waldeck-Rousseau and Combes disestablished and debilitated the -Church. Even within the Church he was compelled to witness an immense -advance of the "Americanism" which he detested.<a name="FNanchor_370_370" id="FNanchor_370_370"></a><a href="#Footnote_370_370" class="fnanchor">[370]</a></p> - -<p>In Belgium the political circumstances were more favourable to the -plans of the Vatican. In the summer of 1879 the Liberals passed a law -for the secularization of the elementary schools, and the Catholics -complained that the Pope, who blamed the violence of their lan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span>guage, -failed to discharge his office with due severity. In point of fact, Leo -was working so diplomatically, assuring the King that the clergy must -respect the civil authority and separately encouraging the clergy to -resist "iniquitous" laws, that the government at length publicly taxed -him with duplicity and withdrew its representative from Rome. In 1885, -however, the Catholics returned to power, and, enjoying the advantage -of a division of the hostile forces (Liberals and Socialists), -established a lasting influence in the country.</p> - -<p>Austria, on the other hand, proved unsatisfactory to the Vatican. From -the day of its alliance with Italy the Roman officials looked with -annoyance on Austria, and the consistent tone of Mgr. de T'Serclaes' -references to it reflect the Vatican attitude. A letter which the Pope -wrote to the bishops of Hungary in 1886, urging them to resist the new -and unecclesiastical laws in regard to marriage and education, was -construed as a wish to cause trouble in Austria, or between Austria and -Italy, and the same murmurs arose when Leo urged the Austrian clergy -to resist further Liberal laws in 1890. The laws were carried, and -the protests of the Pope were disregarded. In Spain the Pope was more -fortunate, as he curbed the disposition of the clergy to adopt the -ill-fated Carlist cause.<a name="FNanchor_371_371" id="FNanchor_371_371"></a><a href="#Footnote_371_371" class="fnanchor">[371]</a> Portugal remained outwardly faithful, -and a Concordat granted by the King in 1886 permitted the Pope to -effect a much needed reform in the ecclesiastical administration of -India. Some advantages were won, also, in Switzerland, where the older -hostility was checked, and the Church prospered.</p> - -<p>The relations of the Vatican with Russia were singu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span>lar, and gave rise -to bitter complaint among the Catholic subjects of the Tsar. To the -amiable letter in which Leo announced his election the Tsar gave a cold -and discouraging reply. In 1879, however, the attempt on the Tsar's -life gave Leo an opportunity to insinuate his belief that only Catholic -influence could curb these criminal impulses; and when Alexander II was -assassinated in 1883, he approached his successor with more success. In -the succeeding years of diplomatic intercourse the repression of the -Catholic Poles was partly relieved; but no concession was made when the -Pope presented to the Tsar the petition of the Ruthenian Catholics in -1884, or when he deprecated the exile of the Bishop of Wilna in 1885. -In 1888, however, Russia approached the Vatican through Vienna, and the -negotiations have given rise to acute controversy. The Poles murmured -that the Pope was disposed to betray their national interests in order -to please France by obliging its virtual ally, Russia. How far the Pope -was preparing to enforce on the Poles the Russian demands—for a more -extensive use of the Russian language in Poland and for a surrender -of the offspring of mixed marriages—and to what extent he realized -the true designs of Russia, cannot be confidently determined. It is -clear only that he meditated concession, and the suspicion that he thus -sought a political advantage in France is not implausible.</p> - -<p>A similar complaint arose among that other shattered Catholic nation, -the Irish. The Parnellite movement of the eighties, it was said, was -used by him as a means of accommodating and conciliating England; -and there is little room for doubt that this design influenced his -policy. It was one of the general lines of his campaign in Europe to -persuade rulers that the power of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span> Church would be their greatest -guarantee of docility. In 1881 he warned Archbishop McCabe that the -disturbances of public order in Ireland were not to be favoured, and he -made the hint more explicit in the following year. In 1883 he gravely -disturbed the Irish Catholics by issuing a drastic condemnation of the -Parnell Testimonial Fund and forbidding the clergy to work for it; -while Errington was amiably received at the Vatican. The disturbance -became graver, and in 1885 Leo summoned the Irish bishops to Rome. Even -their representations failed to disturb his policy, and on April 13, -1888 (after a Roman envoy, Mgr. Persico, had been sent on the quaint -mission of studying the situation in Ireland), a decree of the Holy -Office condemned the "Plan of Campaign." So loud were the murmurs at -this invasion of the political rights of the Irish that an Encyclical -(<i>Sćpe Nos</i>) had to be dispatched on June 24 to secure the submission -of the bishops. We may at least discover some penetration in the Pope's -confidence that Ireland would not permanently resent the abuse of his -authority.</p> - -<p>The advantage gained in England was slight. The broad stream of -immigration from Ireland since 1840, which had given the illusion of -a rapid growth of Catholicism, and the more slender stream which is -associated with the Oxford Movement, had materially lessened, and a -period of loss had begun (in proportion to the increase of population). -For nearly two decades the Pope was content with domestic measures like -the regulation of the conflicts between monks and bishops (May 8, 1881) -and the establishment of an hierarchy in India. On April 20, 1895, -he took a bolder step, and in the Encyclical <i>Ad Anglos</i> invited the -English people to renew their ancient allegiance to Rome.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span> Undismayed -by the absence of a response, he, on September 13, 1896, issued the -famous Encyclical <i>Apostolicć Curć</i>, in which he assailed the validity -of orders in the English Church. The brisk controversy which ensued -does not concern us; but we may assume that, from the figures at the -disposal of the Vatican, the Pope would sadly realize, when the century -drew to a close, that the Catholic Church in England had not increased, -beyond the natural growth by births and immigration, during his long -and laborious Pontificate.</p> - -<p>In the United States Leo had a thorny task. With his keen scent for -Socialistic insurgence against constituted authority, he proposed, -in 1887, to condemn the 730,000 American Catholic workers who were -incorporated in the "Knights of Labour." Cardinal Gibbon defended -them, and a grudging toleration was issued from Rome. In 1893 the Pope -sought to improve his relations with the Republic by taking a handsome -part in the fourth centenary of the discovery of America, but by that -time a grave struggle had begun to rend the cosmopolitan Church in -the States. Americans naturally resented the Germanism of the German -Catholic schools, and in 1892 Archbishop Ireland consented to hand over -to the School Board some of these elementary schools, on condition -that the Catholic teachers were retained and hours were assigned for -religious instruction. The Germans and the Ultramontanes raised the cry -that Ireland and Gibbon were favouring the "godless schools" of the -Republic, and denounced the plan to Rome. Again the Cardinal and the -Archbishop won a grudging <i>tolerari posse</i> ("may be tolerated in the -circumstances") but a fierce agitation went on in the American Church, -and the Pope's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span> representative, Mgr. Satolli, was vigorously opposed by -the more American prelates.</p> - -<p>In 1896 it was believed that Satolli was instrumental in securing the -removal of Mgr. Keane from the rectorship of the Catholic University at -Washington, and when an intriguing German professor was dismissed by -the University authorities and Rome demanded his restoration. Cardinal -Gibbon forced the Pope to withdraw the demand. The ultras then—with -the persistent aid of the Jesuits and their <i>Civiltŕ Cattolica</i> at -Rome—attacked a biography of Father Hecker, of which an American -translation had been published with warm recommendations from Ireland -and Gibbon. A Roman prelate authorized the printing of a scathing -attack on the book, and, although Rampolla protested that neither he -nor the Pope was involved in the authorization, the American prelates -took up a menacing attitude. At this juncture Leo, whose repeated -counsels to lay the strife had been disregarded, wrote his famous -letter on Americanism to Cardinal Gibbon (January 22d, 1899). Piquant -stories are told of the sentiments expressed by the American prelates, -but these the historian cannot as yet control. The struggle ended in a -compromise. The book was not condemned, but quietly withdrawn, and the -American prelates generally disavowed the principles to which the Pope -gave the name of Americanism.</p> - -<p>These are but feeble summaries of the vast diplomatic activity which -absorbed the long days of the venerable Pontiff, and one must leave -almost unnoticed other important actions. In 1885 he negotiated with -the Chinese government for the representative of the Celestial Empire -at Rome, but the French, rightly suspecting an intrigue on the part of -Germany to strengthen its in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span>fluence in the Far East, forced him to -desist. He had the satisfaction of closing a schism in the Armenian -Church (1878), and secured favourable measures in some of the Balkan -States and a few of the South American republics. He restored the -Borgia Rooms in the Vatican (1897), created a modern observatory out -of the old Gregorian observatory of the sixteenth century (1888), -formed a Reference Library of 30,000 volumes at the Vatican, and opened -the Vatican archives to scholars (1883).<a name="FNanchor_372_372" id="FNanchor_372_372"></a><a href="#Footnote_372_372" class="fnanchor">[372]</a> Frail, worn to a pale -shade of his former self, the devoted Pope maintained to the end his -formidable struggle against a seceding world. Rising at six in the -morning—often having summoned his secretary to the bedside during the -night—he said his mass and heard a mass said by his chaplain. Then -after a cup of chocolate or goat's milk, he began the long day's work -with Rampolla, or impressed his innumerable visitors with his piercing -dark eyes and translucent features. At two he dined—soup, eggs (rarely -meat), and a little claret—and then, after a nap or a drive in the -gardens, returned to work until his simple supper at ten. After that -the journals of the world, carefully marked, were read to him; and the -burning lamp told of his ceaseless thinking and praying until after -midnight. Fortunately he did not, like so many Popes, lack financial -resources. The Papal income before 1870 had been about Ł130,000, and -the Italian government had offered to pay this. When Pius IX. refused -the offer, his income was swollen by voluntary gifts to Ł400,000<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> -a year, and he left nearly a million and a quarter sterling to his -successor. In addition to this large income Leo received vast sums -on the occasion of his Sacerdotal Jubilee in 1888 and his Episcopal -Jubilee in 1893: the presents (besides Peter's Pence) in 1888 were -valued at Ł2,000,000 by the Vatican authorities, and in 1893 the money -offered amounted to Ł1,600,000.</p> - -<p>The chief means by which the Pope created in his followers the illusion -of triumphant statesmanship was the Encyclical. A most assiduous -student of Latin from his boyhood, he raised the ecclesiastical tongue -to a level it had rarely touched and impressed the world with his -literary scholarship. A Roman prelate once described to me how he would -linger over the composition, toying with his pen and saying to his -secretary: "What <i>is</i> that word that Sallust uses?" His style was an -attempt to combine the graceful lucidity of Sallust and the opulence of -Cicero. The literary merit of his Encyclicals was so great that even -generally informed men at times overlooked the inadequacy of their -content: an inadequacy which is seen at once when we reflect that the -great Encyclicals which dealt with the socio-political questions of the -hour are not consulted by any non-Catholic authority on such questions. -The attack upon Socialism which runs through his writings provoked only -the smiles of his opponents and did not check the large secessions of -French, German, and Italian Catholics to Socialism. A second principal -theme was the duty of submission to authority, and the Pope's analysis -of authority, on the basis of St. Thomas, belongs to the pre-scientific -stage of sociology. A third general theme is that Catholicism made -the civilization of Europe, and that that civilization is perishing -because of its apostasy. In this argument the Pope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span> not only gravely -misunderstood the age in which he lived, but betrayed an historical -conception of the social evolution of Europe which belongs essentially -to the more backward seminaries.<a name="FNanchor_373_373" id="FNanchor_373_373"></a><a href="#Footnote_373_373" class="fnanchor">[373]</a></p> - -<p>The chief Encyclicals, which were at one time claimed as masterly -expositions of eternal principles, have already passed out of even -Catholic circulation. <i>Quod Apostolici</i> (December 28, 1878) is a -vigorous attack on Socialism, on familiar lines. <i>Ćterni Patris</i> -(August 4, 1879) imposed the philosophy of St. Thomas, the opportunist -character of which the Pope never perceived, on the modern Catholic -world.<a name="FNanchor_374_374" id="FNanchor_374_374"></a><a href="#Footnote_374_374" class="fnanchor">[374]</a> <i>Arcanum</i> (February 14, 1880) asserted the strict Catholic -ideal of indissoluble marriage, and had no influence on the increasing -concession of divorce. <i>Diuturnum</i> (June 29, 1881), written after -the assassination of the Tsar, argued that these outrages naturally -followed the abandonment of the true faith; it did not include an -examination of the cruelties of the Russian authorities. <i>Humanum -Genus</i> (April 20, 1884) condemned Freemasonry. <i>Immortale Dei</i> -(November 19, 1885) dealt, in Scholastic vein, with the constitution of -States and the foundations of authority, and is a fine exposition of -medićval thought on the subject. <i>In Plurimis</i> (May 8, 1888) condemned -slavery in Europe. <i>Libertas</i> (June 20, 1888) is another Scholastic -dissertation on liberty, leading to an attack on the modern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> claims of -freedom of thought, worship, and expression. <i>Rerum Novarum</i> (May 15, -1891) is the most famous of the Pope's utterances on social questions. -The organization of the Catholic workers in Italy, France, and America, -and the concern about the condition of the workers (really about the -growth of Socialism) which Bismarck and William II. had hypocritically -conveyed to the Pope, moved him to formulate his views on social -questions. The only points of relative importance are that a Pope at -last consented to bless the efforts of the workers to obtain better -conditions (with strict regard to private property and submission -to authority), and that he pleaded for a "sufficient wage"; but the -seeming boldness of this latter truism was undone a few weeks later, -when the Archbishop of Malines wrote to ask if an employer sinned -against justice in giving a wage which would support the worker but -not his family, and the Pope nervously directed Cardinal Zigliara -to reply (anonymously) that such an employer would not sin against -justice, though "possibly against charity and natural equity."<a name="FNanchor_375_375" id="FNanchor_375_375"></a><a href="#Footnote_375_375" class="fnanchor">[375]</a> -<i>Providentissimus Deus</i> (November 18, 1893), which sought to promote -biblical studies, caused Catholic scholars to groan in despair; it -proclaimed the inerrancy of the Old Testament.<a name="FNanchor_376_376" id="FNanchor_376_376"></a><a href="#Footnote_376_376" class="fnanchor">[376]</a> <i>Apostolicć Curć</i> -(September 13, 1896) condemned Anglican orders, and led to a prolonged -controversy in England. <i>Graves de communi</i> (January<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span> 18, 1901) shows -the later enfeeblement of the Pope's social zeal. He still approves -Christian democracy, and demands justice in the industrial world, but -he stresses alms-giving as a social solution and urges particular -concentration on religious effort.<a name="FNanchor_377_377" id="FNanchor_377_377"></a><a href="#Footnote_377_377" class="fnanchor">[377]</a></p> - -<p>The great Pope struggled on until his ninth decade of life had opened. -He died on July 20, 1903, leaving his sternly contested inheritance to -less skilful hands, marking, with his dying eyes, the onward progress -of all the forces he had hailed as disastrous and the advance of -"Americanism" (or Modernism) within the Church. His failure must not -blind us to the greatness of his personality. He united intellectual -breadth and penetration with a high character and a lofty devotion -to his work. His weakness was the antiquated and restricted nature -of his knowledge and his inheritance of an untenable position. The -concessions he made to his age were too tardy, too grudging, and often -too obviously opportunist. With equal readiness he wrote a letter of -recommendation of a work of canon law (by Marianus de Luca) which -advocated the execution of heretics, and he blessed the republics -of France and America. But the great theme of his life was that -civilization was perishing because it had shaken off the allegiance of -Rome, and he lived to see the world "rounding onward to the light" and -departing ever farther from its old traditions.</p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_358_358" id="Footnote_358_358"></a><a href="#FNanchor_358_358"><span class="label">[358]</span></a> In a letter to his brother Charles, July 3, 1837, he -remarks that he has entered the clergy "in order to carry out the -wishes of his father." Catholic lives of Leo XIII., which abound, must -be read with discretion. They are even more tendentious than lives -of Pius IX., and the best of them—by Mgr. de T'Serclacs (2 vols., -1894), L.K. Goetz (1899), J. de Narfon (1899), Mgr. B. O'Reilly (1903), -and P.J. O'Byrne (1903)—are very unreliable. Mr. Justin McCarthy's -short <i>Pope Leo XIII.</i> (1896) is a summary of these, and shares their -defects. With them should be read <i>Joachim Pecci</i> (1900) by Henri des -Houx, for the period before his election, and <i>Le Conclave de Léon -XIII.</i> (1887) by Raphael de Cesare: both Catholic writers, but more -candid and discriminating. See also Boyer d'Agen, <i>La Jeunesse de Léon -XIII.</i> (1896) and <i>Monsignor Joachim Pecci</i> (1910) and works to be -mentioned hereafter.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_359_359" id="Footnote_359_359"></a><a href="#FNanchor_359_359"><span class="label">[359]</span></a> These are chiefly reproduced in the works of Boyer -d'Agen.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_360_360" id="Footnote_360_360"></a><a href="#FNanchor_360_360"><span class="label">[360]</span></a> See the documents in Henri des Houx, pp. 166-7, and -Mgr. de T'Serclaes, vol. i., pp. 127-132. Most biographers grossly -misrepresent his "promotion." Rome plainly decided that he was not -suitable for a nunciature.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_361_361" id="Footnote_361_361"></a><a href="#FNanchor_361_361"><span class="label">[361]</span></a> His episcopal pronouncements are given in <i>Scelta di -Atti episcopali del Cardinale G. Pecci</i> (1879).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_362_362" id="Footnote_362_362"></a><a href="#FNanchor_362_362"><span class="label">[362]</span></a> He was made cardinal on December 19, 1853.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_363_363" id="Footnote_363_363"></a><a href="#FNanchor_363_363"><span class="label">[363]</span></a> Mgr. Cataldi, whom he afterwards made his master of -ceremonies. H. des Houx (p. 329) observes that, when Cataldi died, his -papers were put under seal by Leo's orders and his letters have never -been published.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_364_364" id="Footnote_364_364"></a><a href="#FNanchor_364_364"><span class="label">[364]</span></a> See de Cesare, pp. 138-144.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_365_365" id="Footnote_365_365"></a><a href="#FNanchor_365_365"><span class="label">[365]</span></a> The losses of the Church are analyzed by the author, and -Catholic authority is quoted in most cases, in <i>The Decay of the Church -of Rome</i> (2d ed. 1910). In France alone the loss was about 25,000,000. -His Papal pronouncements are collected in <i>Leonis XIII. P.M. Acta</i> (17 -vols., 1881-1898), <i>SS. D.N. Leonis XIII. allocutiones</i>, etc. (8 vols., -1887-1910), and <i>Discorsi del Summo Pontefice Leone XIII.</i> (1882).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_366_366" id="Footnote_366_366"></a><a href="#FNanchor_366_366"><span class="label">[366]</span></a> Article "Leo XIII."</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_367_367" id="Footnote_367_367"></a><a href="#FNanchor_367_367"><span class="label">[367]</span></a> <i>Contemporary Review</i>, 1891 (vol. lx., 161).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_368_368" id="Footnote_368_368"></a><a href="#FNanchor_368_368"><span class="label">[368]</span></a> See the documents relating to the episode in T'Serclaes, -i., 425.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_369_369" id="Footnote_369_369"></a><a href="#FNanchor_369_369"><span class="label">[369]</span></a> On the relations of Rome and the Centre compare Count -von Hoensbroech's <i>Rom und das Zentrum</i> (1910). There are also curious -details in the same writer's <i>Fourteen Years a Jesuit</i> (Engl. trans. -1911).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_370_370" id="Footnote_370_370"></a><a href="#FNanchor_370_370"><span class="label">[370]</span></a> See E. Barbier, <i>Le Progrčs du libéralisme Catholique -en France sous le Pape Léon XIII.</i> (1907) and A. Houtin, <i>Histoire du -Modernisme Catholique</i> (1913).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_371_371" id="Footnote_371_371"></a><a href="#FNanchor_371_371"><span class="label">[371]</span></a> See M. Tirado y Rojas, <i>Leon XIII. y Espańa</i> (1903), for -details in regard to Spain.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_372_372" id="Footnote_372_372"></a><a href="#FNanchor_372_372"><span class="label">[372]</span></a> We have on earlier pages seen that parts of the archives -are still reserved, even from ecclesiastics. On the general question -see G. Buschdell, <i>Das Vatikanische Archiv und die Bedeutung seiner -Erschliessung durch Papst Leo XIII.</i> (1903).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_373_373" id="Footnote_373_373"></a><a href="#FNanchor_373_373"><span class="label">[373]</span></a> An English translation of the chief Encyclicals has been -issued by Wynne in America (1902). For other work see <i>Poems, Charades, -Inscriptions of Leo XIII.</i> (1902, ed. Henry).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_374_374" id="Footnote_374_374"></a><a href="#FNanchor_374_374"><span class="label">[374]</span></a> The injunction was not, of course, literally obeyed. At -Louvain University, where Leo believed that he had established Thomism -in its purest form, Mgr. (now Cardinal) Mercier gave us little of -St. Thomas, and not one priest in a thousand ever opens the pages of -Aquinas. At Rome Leo set up a Thomist Academy at a cost of Ł12,000 to -himself.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_375_375" id="Footnote_375_375"></a><a href="#FNanchor_375_375"><span class="label">[375]</span></a> See Mgr. de T'Serclaes, ii., 107-111.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_376_376" id="Footnote_376_376"></a><a href="#FNanchor_376_376"><span class="label">[376]</span></a> I speak from personal recollection, being a professor in -a seminary at the time. Leo went on to form a Biblical Commission, of -which my liberal professor, Fr. David Fleming, became secretary. The -first decision it was his duty to sign was that Moses was the author -of the Pentateuch! For the later doubts and despair of Leo see the -very interesting details in A. Houtin's <i>La Question Biblique au XIX. -sičcle</i> (2d ed., 1902) and <i>La Question Biblique au XX. sičcle</i> (2d -ed., 1906).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_377_377" id="Footnote_377_377"></a><a href="#FNanchor_377_377"><span class="label">[377]</span></a> In the <i>Encyclopćdia Britannica</i> ("Leo XIII.") it is -said that the Pope in 1902 advises the workers to turn aside from -social zeal and concentrate on the interests of the Papacy. This seems -to be inaccurate. His pronouncements of that year are of the same -tenor as the Encyclical <i>Graves de communi</i>. See <i>Sanctissimi D.N. -Leonis XIII. Allocutiones</i>, etc., vol. viii., pp. 65-78 and 181-2. The -Americans have issued an English translation of the chief Encyclicals.</p></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span></p> - - -<p class="ph2"><a name="LIST_OF_THE_POPES378" id="LIST_OF_THE_POPES378">LIST OF THE POPES</a><a name="FNanchor_378_378" id="FNanchor_378_378"></a><a href="#Footnote_378_378" class="fnanchor">[378]</a></p> - - -<table summary="popes" width="35%"> -<tr><td>Peter</td> <td align="right">67</td></tr> -<tr><td>Linus</td> <td align="right">67-79</td></tr> -<tr><td>Anacletus</td> <td align="right">79-90</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement</td> <td align="right">90-99</td></tr> -<tr><td>Evaristus</td> <td align="right">99-107</td></tr> -<tr><td>Alexander I.</td> <td align="right">107-116</td></tr> -<tr><td>Sixtus I.</td> <td align="right">116-125</td></tr> -<tr><td>Telesphorus</td> <td align="right">125-136</td></tr> -<tr><td>Hyginus</td> <td align="right">136-140</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pius I.</td> <td align="right">140-154</td></tr> -<tr><td>Anicetus</td> <td align="right">154-165</td></tr> -<tr><td>Soter</td> <td align="right">165-174</td></tr> -<tr><td>Eleutherius</td> <td align="right">174-189</td></tr> -<tr><td>Victor</td> <td align="right">189-198</td></tr> -<tr><td>Zephyrinus</td> <td align="right">198-217</td></tr> -<tr><td>Callistus I.</td> <td align="right">217-222</td></tr> -<tr><td>Urban I. </td><td align="right">222-230</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pontianus</td> <td align="right">230-235</td></tr> -<tr><td>Anterus</td> <td align="right">235-236</td></tr> -<tr><td>Fabian</td> <td align="right">236-250</td></tr> -<tr><td>Corneliu</td> <td align="right">251-253</td></tr> -<tr><td>Lucius I.</td> <td align="right">253-254</td></tr> -<tr><td>Stephen I.</td> <td align="right">254-257</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span>Sixtus II.</td> <td align="right">257-258</td></tr> -<tr><td>Dionysius</td> <td align="right">259-268</td></tr> -<tr><td>Felix I.</td> <td align="right">269-274</td></tr> -<tr><td>Eutychian</td> <td align="right">275-283</td></tr> -<tr><td>Caius</td> <td align="right">283-296</td></tr> -<tr><td>Marcellinus</td> <td align="right">296-304</td></tr> -<tr><td>Marcellus</td> <td align="right">308-309</td></tr> -<tr><td>Eusebius</td> <td align="right">309</td></tr> -<tr><td>Melchiades</td> <td align="right">311-314</td></tr> -<tr><td>Silvester I.</td> <td align="right">314-335</td></tr> -<tr><td>Marcus</td> <td align="right">336</td></tr> -<tr><td>Julius I.</td> <td align="right">337-352</td></tr> -<tr><td>Liberius</td> <td align="right">352-366</td></tr> -<tr><td>Damasus I.</td> <td align="right">366-384</td></tr> -<tr><td>Siricius</td> <td align="right">384-398</td></tr> -<tr><td>Anastasius I.</td> <td align="right">398-401</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent I.</td> <td align="right">402-417</td></tr> -<tr><td>Zozimus</td> <td align="right">417-418</td></tr> -<tr><td>Boniface I.</td> <td align="right">418-422</td></tr> -<tr><td>Celestine I.</td> <td align="right">422-432</td></tr> -<tr><td>Sixtus III.</td> <td align="right">432-440</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo I.</td> <td align="right">440-461</td></tr> -<tr><td>Hilarius</td> <td align="right">461-468</td></tr> -<tr><td>Simplicius</td> <td align="right">468-483</td></tr> -<tr><td>Felix II.</td> <td align="right">483-492</td></tr> -<tr><td>Galasius I.</td> <td align="right">492-496</td></tr> -<tr><td>Anastasius II.</td> <td align="right">496-498</td></tr> -<tr><td>Symmachus</td> <td align="right">498-514</td></tr> -<tr><td>Hormisdas</td> <td align="right">514-523</td></tr> -<tr><td>John I.</td> <td align="right">523-526</td></tr> -<tr><td>Felix III.</td> <td align="right">526-530</td></tr> -<tr><td>Boniface II.</td> <td align="right" >530-532</td></tr> -<tr><td>John II.</td> <td align="right">533-535</td></tr> -<tr><td>Agapetus I.</td> <td align="right">535-536</td></tr> -<tr><td>Silverius</td> <td align="right">536-538</td></tr> -<tr><td>Vigilius</td> <td align="right">538-555</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pelagius I.</td> <td align="right">556-561</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span>John III.</td> <td align="right">561-574</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict I.</td> <td align="right">575-579</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pelagius II.</td> <td align="right">579-590</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory I.</td> <td align="right">590-604</td></tr> -<tr><td>Sabinianus</td> <td align="right">604-606</td></tr> -<tr><td>Boniface III.</td> <td align="right">607</td></tr> -<tr><td>Boniface IV.</td> <td align="right">608-615</td></tr> -<tr><td>Deusdedit</td> <td align="right">615-618</td></tr> -<tr><td>Boniface V.</td> <td align="right">619-625</td></tr> -<tr><td>Honorius I.</td> <td align="right">625-638</td></tr> -<tr><td>Severinus</td> <td align="right">638-640</td></tr> -<tr><td>John IV.</td> <td align="right">640-642</td></tr> -<tr><td>Theodore I.</td> <td align="right">642-649</td></tr> -<tr><td>Martin I.</td> <td align="right">649-655</td></tr> -<tr><td>Eugene I.</td> <td align="right">654-657</td></tr> -<tr><td>Vitalian</td> <td align="right">657-672</td></tr> -<tr><td>Adeodatus</td> <td align="right">672-676</td></tr> -<tr><td>Donus</td> <td align="right">676-678</td></tr> -<tr><td>Agatho</td> <td align="right">678-681</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo II.</td> <td align="right">682-683</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict II.</td> <td align="right">684-685</td></tr> -<tr><td>John V.</td> <td align="right">685-686</td></tr> -<tr><td>Conon</td> <td align="right">686-687</td></tr> -<tr><td>Sergius I.</td> <td align="right">687-701</td></tr> -<tr><td>John VI.</td> <td align="right">701-705</td></tr> -<tr><td>John VII.</td> <td align="right">705-707</td></tr> -<tr><td>Sisinnius</td> <td align="right">708</td></tr> -<tr><td>Constantine</td> <td align="right">708-715</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory II.</td> <td align="right">715-731</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory III.</td> <td align="right">731-741</td></tr> -<tr><td>Zachary</td> <td align="right">741-752</td></tr> -<tr><td>Stephen II.</td> <td align="right">752</td></tr> -<tr><td>Stephen II. (III.)</td> <td align="right">752-757</td></tr> -<tr><td>Paul I.</td> <td align="right">757-767</td></tr> -<tr><td>Stephen III. (IV.)</td> <td align="right">768-772</td></tr> -<tr><td>Hadrian I.</td> <td align="right">772-795</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo III.</td> <td align="right">795-816</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span>Stephen IV. (V.)</td> <td align="right">816-817</td></tr> -<tr><td>Paschal I.</td> <td align="right">817-824</td></tr> -<tr><td>Eugene II.</td> <td align="right">824-827</td></tr> -<tr><td>Valentine</td> <td align="right">827</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory IV.</td> <td align="right">827-844</td></tr> -<tr><td>Sergius II.</td> <td align="right">844-847</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo IV.</td> <td align="right">847-855</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict III.</td> <td align="right">855-858</td></tr> -<tr><td>Nicholas I.</td> <td align="right">858-867</td></tr> -<tr><td>Hadrian II.</td> <td align="right">867-872</td></tr> -<tr><td>John VIII.</td> <td align="right">872-882</td></tr> -<tr><td>Marinus I. (or Martin II.)</td> <td align="right">882-884</td></tr> -<tr><td>Hadrian III.</td> <td align="right">884-885</td></tr> -<tr><td>Stephen V. (VI.)</td> <td align="right">885-891</td></tr> -<tr><td>Formosus</td> <td align="right">891-896</td></tr> -<tr><td>Boniface VI.</td><td align="right" > 896</td></tr> -<tr><td>Stephen VI. (VII.)</td> <td align="right">896-897</td></tr> -<tr><td>Romanus</td> <td align="right">897</td></tr> -<tr><td>Theodore II.</td> <td align="right">897</td></tr> -<tr><td>John IX.</td> <td align="right">898-900</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict IV.</td> <td align="right">900-903</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo V.</td> <td align="right">903</td></tr> -<tr><td>Christopher</td> <td align="right">903-904</td></tr> -<tr><td>Sergius III.</td> <td align="right">904-911</td></tr> -<tr><td>Anastasius III.</td> <td align="right">911-913</td></tr> -<tr><td>Lando</td> <td align="right">913-914</td></tr> -<tr><td>John X.</td> <td align="right">914-928</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo VI.</td> <td align="right">928</td></tr> -<tr><td>Stephen VII. (VIII.)</td> <td align="right">928-931</td></tr> -<tr><td>John XI.</td> <td align="right">931-936</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo VII.</td> <td align="right">936-939</td></tr> -<tr><td>Stephen VIII. (IX.)</td> <td align="right">939-942</td></tr> -<tr><td>Marinus II. (Martin III.)</td><td align="right"> 942-946</td></tr> -<tr><td>Agapetus II.</td> <td align="right">946-955</td></tr> -<tr><td>John XII.</td> <td align="right">955-964</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo VIII.</td> <td align="right">963-965</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict V.</td> <td align="right">964-965</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span>John XIII.</td> <td align="right">965-972</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict VI.</td> <td align="right">973-974</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict VII.</td> <td align="right">974-983</td></tr> -<tr><td>John XIV.</td> <td align="right">983-984</td></tr> -<tr><td>Boniface VII.</td> <td align="right">984-985</td></tr> -<tr><td>John XV.</td> <td align="right">985-986</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory V.</td> <td align="right">986-996</td></tr> -<tr><td>John XVI.</td> <td align="right">997-998</td></tr> -<tr><td>Silvester II.</td> <td align="right">999-1003</td></tr> -<tr><td>John XVII.</td> <td align="right">1003</td></tr> -<tr><td>John XVIII.</td> <td align="right">1003-1009</td></tr> -<tr><td>Sergius IV.</td> <td align="right" >1009-1012</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict VIII.</td> <td align="right">1012-1024</td></tr> -<tr><td>John XIX.</td> <td align="right">1024-1032</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict IX.</td> <td align="right">1032-1045</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory VI.</td> <td align="right">1045-1046</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement II.</td> <td align="right">1046-1047</td></tr> -<tr><td>Damasus II.</td> <td align="right">1048</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo IX.</td> <td align="right" >1049-1054</td></tr> -<tr><td>Victor II.</td> <td align="right">1055-1057</td></tr> -<tr><td>Stephen IX. (X.)</td> <td align="right">1057-1058</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict X.</td> <td align="right">1058-1059</td></tr> -<tr><td>Nicholas II.</td> <td align="right">1059-1061</td></tr> -<tr><td>Alexander II.</td> <td align="right">1061-1073</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory VII.</td> <td align="right">1073-1085</td></tr> -<tr><td>Victor III.</td> <td align="right">1087</td></tr> -<tr><td>Urban II.</td> <td align="right">1088-1099</td></tr> -<tr><td>Paschal II.</td> <td align="right">1099-1118</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gelasius II.</td> <td align="right">1118-1119</td></tr> -<tr><td>Callistus II.</td> <td align="right">1119-1124</td></tr> -<tr><td>Honorius II.</td> <td align="right">1124-1130</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent II.</td> <td align="right">1130-1143</td></tr> -<tr><td>Celestine II.</td> <td align="right">1143-1144</td></tr> -<tr><td>Lucius II.</td> <td align="right">1144-1145</td></tr> -<tr><td>Eugene III.</td> <td align="right">1145-1153</td></tr> -<tr><td>Anastasius IV.</td> <td align="right">1153-1154</td></tr> -<tr><td>Hadrian IV.</td> <td align="right">1154-1159</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span>Alexander III.</td> <td align="right">1159-1181</td></tr> -<tr><td>Lucius III.</td> <td align="right">1181-1185</td></tr> -<tr><td>Urban III.</td> <td align="right">1185-1187</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory VIII.</td> <td align="right">1187</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement III.</td> <td align="right">1187-1191</td></tr> -<tr><td>Celestine III.</td> <td align="right">1191-1198</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent III.</td> <td align="right">1198-1216</td></tr> -<tr><td>Honorius III.</td> <td align="right">1216-1227</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory IX.</td> <td align="right">1227-1241</td></tr> -<tr><td>Celestine IV.</td> <td align="right">1241</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent IV.</td> <td align="right">1243-1254</td></tr> -<tr><td>Alexander IV.</td> <td align="right">1254-1261</td></tr> -<tr><td>Urban IV.</td> <td align="right">1261-1264</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement IV.</td> <td align="right">1265-1268</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory X.</td> <td align="right">1271-1276</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent V.</td> <td align="right">1276</td></tr> -<tr><td>Hadrian V.</td> <td align="right">1276</td></tr> -<tr><td>John XXI.<a name="FNanchor_379_379" id="FNanchor_379_379"></a><a href="#Footnote_379_379" class="fnanchor">[379]</a></td> <td align="right">1276-1277</td></tr> -<tr><td>Nicholas III.</td> <td align="right">1277-1280</td></tr> -<tr><td>Martin IV.</td> <td align="right">1281-1285</td></tr> -<tr><td>Honorius IV.</td> <td align="right">1285-1287</td></tr> -<tr><td>Nicholas IV.</td> <td align="right">1288-1292</td></tr> -<tr><td>Celestine V.</td> <td align="right">1294</td></tr> -<tr><td>Boniface VIII.</td> <td align="right">1294-1303</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict XI.</td> <td align="right">1303-1304</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement V.</td> <td align="right">1305-1314</td></tr> -<tr><td>John XXII.</td> <td align="right">1316-1334</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict XII.</td> <td align="right">1334-1342</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement VI.</td> <td align="right">1342-1352</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent VI.</td> <td align="right">1352-1362</td></tr> -<tr><td>Urban V.</td> <td align="right">1362-1370</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory XI.</td> <td align="right">1370-1378</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span>Urban VI.</td> <td align="right">1378-1389</td></tr> -<tr><td>[Clement VII.]</td> <td align="right">1378-1394</td></tr> -<tr><td>Boniface IX.</td> <td align="right">1389-1404</td></tr> -<tr><td>[Benedict XIII.]</td> <td align="right">1394-1424</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent VII.</td> <td align="right">1404-1406</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory XII.</td> <td align="right">1406-1415</td></tr> -<tr><td>Alexander V.</td> <td align="right">1409-1410</td></tr> -<tr><td>John XXIII.</td> <td align="right">1410-1415</td></tr> -<tr><td>Martin V.</td> <td align="right">1417-1431</td></tr> -<tr><td>Eugene IV.</td> <td align="right">1431-1447</td></tr> -<tr><td>Nicholas V.</td> <td align="right">1447-1455</td></tr> -<tr><td>Callistus III.</td> <td align="right">1455-1458</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pius II.</td> <td align="right">1458-1464</td></tr> -<tr><td>Paul II.</td> <td align="right">1464-1471</td></tr> -<tr><td>Sixtus IV.</td> <td align="right">1471-1484</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent VIII.</td> <td align="right">1484-1492</td></tr> -<tr><td>Alexander VI.</td> <td align="right">1492-1503</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pius III.</td> <td align="right">1503</td></tr> -<tr><td>Julius II.</td> <td align="right">1503-1513</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo X.</td> <td align="right">1513-1521</td></tr> -<tr><td>Hadrian VI.</td> <td align="right">1522-1523</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement VII.</td> <td align="right">1523-1534</td></tr> -<tr><td>Paul III.</td> <td align="right">1534-1549</td></tr> -<tr><td>Julius III.</td> <td align="right">1550-1555</td></tr> -<tr><td>Marcellus II.</td> <td align="right">1555</td></tr> -<tr><td>Paul IV.</td> <td align="right">1555-1559</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pius IV.</td> <td align="right">1559-1565</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pius V.</td> <td align="right">1566-1572</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory XIII.</td> <td align="right">1572-1585</td></tr> -<tr><td>Sixtus V.</td> <td align="right">1585-1590</td></tr> -<tr><td>Urban VII.</td> <td align="right">1590</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory XIV.</td> <td align="right">1590-1591</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent IX.</td> <td align="right">1591</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement VIII.</td> <td align="right">1592-1605</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo XI.</td> <td align="right">1605</td></tr> -<tr><td>Paul V.</td> <td align="right">1605-1621</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory XV.</td> <td align="right">1621-1623</td></tr> -<tr><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span>Urban VIII.</td> <td align="right">1623-1644</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent X.</td> <td align="right">1644-1655</td></tr> -<tr><td>Alexander VII.</td> <td align="right">1655-1667</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement IX.</td> <td align="right">1667-1669</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement X.</td> <td align="right">1670-1676</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent XI.</td> <td align="right">1676-1689</td></tr> -<tr><td>Alexander VIII.</td> <td align="right">1689-1691</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent XII.</td> <td align="right">1691-1700</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement XI.</td> <td align="right">1700-1721</td></tr> -<tr><td>Innocent XIII.</td> <td align="right">1721-1724</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict XIII.</td> <td align="right">1724-1730</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement XII.</td> <td align="right">1730-1740</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict XIV.</td> <td align="right" >1740-1758</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement XIII.</td> <td align="right">1758-1769</td></tr> -<tr><td>Clement XIV.</td> <td align="right">1769-1774</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pius VI.</td> <td align="right">1775-1799</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pius VII.</td> <td align="right">1800-1823</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo XII.</td> <td align="right">1823-1829</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pius VIII.</td> <td align="right">1829-1830</td></tr> -<tr><td>Gregory XVI.</td> <td align="right">1831-1846</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pius IX.</td> <td align="right">1846-1878</td></tr> -<tr><td>Leo XIII.</td> <td align="right">1878-1903</td></tr> -<tr><td>Pius X.</td> <td align="right">1903-1914</td></tr> -<tr><td>Benedict XV.</td> <td> 1914-</td></tr> -</table> - - - - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_378_378" id="Footnote_378_378"></a><a href="#FNanchor_378_378"><span class="label">[378]</span></a> I include Peter, as is usual, though it must be recalled -that no writer calls him "bishop" of Rome until the third century, and -it cannot be regarded as <i>proved</i> that he ever visited Rome. The date -of his death, and the succeeding dates until the third century, and -many later, are conjectural and disputed.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_379_379" id="Footnote_379_379"></a><a href="#FNanchor_379_379"><span class="label">[379]</span></a> On account of some confusion in medićval chronicles, a -spurious "John XV." was inserted in the list of Popes. Hence John XXI. -was really John XX., but the names of the later Popes are so fixed that -it seems better, as is usually the case, to skip from John XIX. to John -XX.</p></div></div> - - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span></p> - -<p class="ph2"><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX">INDEX</a></p> - - -<p style="margin-left: 5em;"> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">A</span><br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Accolti, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Acquaviva, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Acquaviva, General, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Acta S. Callisti</i>,<a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Acta S. Silvestri</i>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Ad Anglos</i>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Adelchis, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Adelperga, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Adriano da Corneto, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ćneas, Sylvius, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Ćterni Patris</i>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Afiarta, Paul, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">African Church, Rome and the, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Agnes, the Empress, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Agnes de Meran, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Aistulph, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>-3</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Albani, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Alberic of Camerino, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Albert of Brandenburg, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Albigensians, massacre of the, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>-200</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Alcuin, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Alexander, II., <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Alexander, III., <a href="#Page_173">173</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Alexander V., <a href="#Page_228">228</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Alexander VI., <a href="#Page_242">242</a>-66</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Alexander Severus, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Alexis, Comnenus, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Alfonso of Leon, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Alfonso II. of Naples, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Alidosi, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Allen, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Altheim, Synod of, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ambrose, St., <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">America, the Papacy and, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Americanism, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ammianus Marcellinus, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Anastasius, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Anatolius of Thessalonica, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Anselm of Baggio, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Anselm of Lucca, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Antiphonary</i>, the, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Antonelli, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>-3, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Apostolicć Curć</i>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Aretini, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ariald, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Arianism, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Arichis, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ariosto, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Arnold of Brescia, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Arnold of Citeaux, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Arnulph, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Arsenius, Legate, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Art in medićval Rome, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>-4</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Astrology at Rome, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Attila, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>-1</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Atto of Vercelli, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Austria expelled from Italy, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Auxentius, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Auxilius, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Avignon, the Popes at, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>-22</span><br /> - -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">B</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Baglione, G., <a href="#Page_274">274</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bajazet, the Sultan, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Baldwin of Flanders, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Baluze, S., <a href="#Page_205">205</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Barbarossa, Frederic, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Barry, Dr. W., <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Basil, St., <a href="#Page_32">32</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Basilica Julii, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Basilica Liberii, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Basilica Sicinini, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Basle, Council of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></span><br /> - -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Beatific Vision, John XXII. and the, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Beatrice of Tuscany, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Benedict III., <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Benedict IX., <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Benedict X., <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Benedict XI., <a href="#Page_203">203</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Benedict XIII., <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Benedict XIV., <a href="#Page_353">353</a>-67</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Benedict of Soracte, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Benedictines, the, and the classics, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bentivoglio, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Benzo, Bishop, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Berengar, King, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Berengaria of Castile, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bérenger, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bernard, of Clairvaux, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bernetti, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bertha of Lorraine, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Bertinian Annals</i>, the, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bertrand de Goth, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bertrand de Poyet, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bibbiena, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bible, early translation of the, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bismarck and Leo XIII., <a href="#Page_428">428</a>-30</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bonaparte, Jerome, <a href="#Page_379">379</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Boniface I., <a href="#Page_39">39</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Boniface VIII., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Boniface IX., <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bonitho, Bishop, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Book of Gomorrha</i>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Book of Pastoral Rule</i>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Borgia, Cćsar, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Borgia, Jofre, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Borgia, Juan, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Borgia, Lucretia, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Borgia, Pedro Luis, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Borgia, Rodrigo, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Borgia Family, the, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Borgia Rooms, the, <a href="#Page_438">438</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Boris, King, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bramante, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Breviary, reform of the, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>-9</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Brosch, M., <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Brosses, President de, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bruce, Robert, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Brunetti, A., <a href="#Page_398">398</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Brunichildis, Gregory and, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Brussels, Leo XIII. at, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>-9</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Bulgaria and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Buoncompagni, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Burchard, J., <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">C</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cacault, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cadalus, Bishop, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cajetan, Legate, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Calandria</i>, the, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Calixtus III., <a href="#Page_242">242</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Callistus, Pope, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>-18</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cambrai, League of, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Canon of Scripture, early, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Canossa, Henry IV. at, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>-7</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Capocci, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Caprara, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Caraffa, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Carbonari, the, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cardinal, the title, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cardinalate, reform of the, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cardinals in the fifteenth century, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Carlism, the Vatican, <a href="#Page_433">433</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Carlomann, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Caroline Books</i>, the, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Caroline Islands, the, <a href="#Page_429">429</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Carpophorus, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Carvajal, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cassiodorus, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Catacombs, the, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cataldi, Mgr., <a href="#Page_421">421</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cathari, the, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Catherine of Siena, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cavour, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Celestine I., <a href="#Page_39">39</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Celestine III., <a href="#Page_174">174</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Celibacy of the clergy, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>-6, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Celidonius, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cenci, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Censorship, early claims of, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cesena, massacre of, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Chabrol, Count de, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Chalcedon, Council of, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>-9, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>-6, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>-97, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Charles Martel, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Charles the Bald, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Charles the Simple, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Charles II., <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Charles V., <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>-28</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Charles VI., <a href="#Page_362">362</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Charles VIII., <a href="#Page_256">256</a>-8</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Chigi, the banker, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">China, Jesuits in, <a href="#Page_364">364</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">China, Leo XIII., and, <a href="#Page_457">457</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Choiseul, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Christianity, early condition of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>-3</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Christopher, Pope, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cibň, Franceschetto, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cibň, Innocenzo, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Civiltŕ Cattolica</i>, the, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Clement I., <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Clement III., <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Clement IV., <a href="#Page_209">209</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Clement V., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Clement VI., <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Clement VII., <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>-2</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Clement XI., <a href="#Page_360">360</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Clement XII., <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Clement XIII., <a href="#Page_368">368</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Clement XIV., <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Colonna, M.A., <a href="#Page_294">294</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Commentary on the First Book of Kings</i>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Comminges, Count de, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Conciliar Movement, the, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Concordat with Napoleon, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>-6, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Conradin, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Consalvi, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>-9</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Constance, Council of, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>-8, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Constance of Sicily, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Constantine, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Constantinople, Council of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Constantinople, Fall of, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Constantinople taken by the Latins, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Constantius, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Constanza of Aragon, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Contarini, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Conti family, the, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Conti, Ricardo, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cornaro, Cardinal <a href="#Page_302">302</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cornelius, Pope, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Costa, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Counter-Reformation, the, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Crespy, Peace of, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Crispi, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Crusade, the Fourth, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-4</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Culture, early decay of, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>-3, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cyprian, St., <a href="#Page_20">20</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cyriacus, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Cyril of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">D</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">D'Agnesi, Maria Gaetana, <a href="#Page_358">358</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Damasus, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>-37</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">D'Amboise, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Damiani, Peter, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Dammann, Dr. A., <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Declaration of the Gallican Clergy, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Delarc, O., <a href="#Page_142">142</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Desiderius of Vienne, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Deusdedit, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Dialogues</i> of Gregory the Great, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Didier, Abbot, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Didier, King, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>-5, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Dietrich von Nieheim, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Dio Cassius, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Dionysian Decretals, the, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Dioscorus of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>-6</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Discipline of the early Church, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Divorce in the early Church, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Djem, Prince, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Döllinger, Dr., <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Dominic St., <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Dominus ac Redemptor Noster</i>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Donation of Constantine, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Dovizo, Bernardo, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Duchesne, Mgr., <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Dümmler, E., <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Dupanloup, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">E</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Eastern Church, Rome and the, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>-3, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>-50, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>-6, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-6</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ebbo of Rheims, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Edict of Milan, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Eginhard, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Elizabeth of Spain, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Encyclicals of Leo XIII., <a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Endre, Prince, of Hungary, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">England and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>-8, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, -<a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>-6</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ephesus, Council of, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Epigrams of Damasus</i>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Erigena, John Scotus, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ethelbert, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Etsi Nos</i>, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Eudocia, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Eudoxia, the Empress, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Eugenius IV., <a href="#Page_240">240</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Eulogius, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></span><br /> - -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Eusebius, Pope, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Eusebius of Dorylćum, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Eustochium, Jerome's letter to, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>-5</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Eutyches, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Ex Quo Singulari</i>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Execrabilis</i>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Exsurge, Domine</i>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">F</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fantuzzian Fragment, the, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Farnese, Alessandro, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Farnese, Giulia, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Farnese, Vittoria, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Febronianism, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fedele, P., <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Felicia, daughter of Julius II., <a href="#Page_271">271</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Felix, Anti-Pope, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ferdinand of Spain, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ferdinand VI., <a href="#Page_361">361</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ferrante of Naples, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ferrara and Julius II., <a href="#Page_281">281</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fesch, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Flavian, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-7</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Flodoard, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fontana, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Forged Decretals</i>, the, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>-22</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Forgeries of Middle Ages, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Formosus, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Foulques of Marseilles, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">France and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>-87, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>-200, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>-8, -<a href="#Page_276">276</a>-8, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>-1, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>-2, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>-2</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">France, Anatole, 2</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Francis I., <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Francis, St., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Francis Joseph I., <a href="#Page_412">412</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Frankenstein, Baron, <a href="#Page_429">429</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Frankfort, Synod of, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fratricelli, the, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Frederic the Great, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Frederic of Saxony, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Frederic of Sicily, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Freemasonry, Benedict XIV. and, <a href="#Page_366">366</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Friedrich of Tirol, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fuscianus, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">G</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gabrielli, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_382">382</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gaeta, flight to, <a href="#Page_401">401</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Galilei, Galileo, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Galla Placidia, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Garibaldi, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gattina, Petrucelli della, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">"Gelasian Decree," the, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gelasius I., <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gerbert, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Germany and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>-9, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>-69, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>-5, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>-8, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>-30</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gfrörer, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ghibellines, the, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gibbon, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gioberti, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>, <a href="#Page_420">420</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Giovio, Paolo, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gizzo, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_399">399</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Glaber, Raoul, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Godfrey of Tuscany <a href="#Page_148">148</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Grassis, P. de, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gratian, the Emperor, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gratian, John, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Great Schism, the, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-3</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gregory I., <a href="#Page_57">57</a>-77</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gregory III., <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gregory VII., <a href="#Page_141">141</a>-70</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gregory X., <a href="#Page_204">204</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gregory XI., <a href="#Page_222">222</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gregory XII., <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gregory XIII., <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Gregory XVI., <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Grévy, President, <a href="#Page_432">432</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Grisar, Father, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Guelphs, the, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Guibert of Ravenna, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Guido of Spoleto, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Guiscard, Robert, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Guise, Duke of, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Günther, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Guy, the Cistercian, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">H</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hadrian I., <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-100</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hadrian II., <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hadrian IV., <a href="#Page_174">174</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hadrian VI., <a href="#Page_311">311</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hecker, Father, <a href="#Page_437">437</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Helletrude, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Henry III. (Germany), <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></span><br /> - -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Henry IV. (Germany), <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>-69</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Henry V. (Germany), <a href="#Page_172">172</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Henry VI. (Germany), <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Henry III. (France), <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Henry IV. (France), <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Henry VIII. (England), <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Heribert of Vermandois, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Herimann of Cologne, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Herlembald, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hermingard, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hilary, St., and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hildebrand. <i>See</i> Gregory VII.</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hildeprand, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hildwin, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hincmar of Rheims, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>-13, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hippolytus, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Historia Augusta</i>, the, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hodgkin, Dr., <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hohenstauffens, the, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Honorius I., <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hontheim, Johann von, <a href="#Page_370">370</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hormisdas, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hrodgaud, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hrzan, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hübner, Baron de, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hucbert, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hugh Candidus, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hugh of Provence, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hugues Géraud, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hungarians in Italy, the, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Huns, St. Leo and the, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hus, John, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Hutten, Ulrich von, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ignatius of Antioch, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ignatius of Constantinople, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-7</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ignatius of Loyola, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Image-worship, quarrel about, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Immaculate Conception, the, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>-4</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Index of Prohibited Books, the first, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Indulgences, origin of the Spanish, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Indulgences, traffic in, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Infallibility, struggle over, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>-10</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Infessura, S., <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ingeltrude, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Innocent I., <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Innocent III., <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>-201</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Innocent VII., <a href="#Page_226">226</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Inquisition, the, at Rome, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Inscrutabile</i>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Interest Apostolicć Sedis</i>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Investiture-struggle, the, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ireland, Archbishop, <a href="#Page_436">436</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ireland, Leo XIII. and, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>-5</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Irene, the Empress, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Irmengard, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Isaac Comnenus, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Italy, Unification of, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>-7</span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">J</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Jacobini, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Jacques de Via, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">James III., <a href="#Page_363">363</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Jansenists, the, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>-1</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Jean of Jandun, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Jerome, St., <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Jerome of Prague, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Jesuits, the, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>-8, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>-3</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Jews, John XXII. and the, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Jews, the Papacy and the, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Jews, Sixtus V. and the, <a href="#Page_343">343</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John VIII., <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John IX., <a href="#Page_131">131</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John X., <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-38</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John XI., <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John XII., <a href="#Page_139">139</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John XXII., <a href="#Page_205">205</a>-20</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John XXIII., <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-39</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John of Bohemia, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John Capistrano, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John the Faster, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>-4</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John Lackland and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>-8</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">John of Ravenna, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Joseph II., <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Josephine, divorce of, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Judith, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Julius II., <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>-84</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Julius III., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">K</span><br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Kailo of Ravenna, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Keane, Mgr., <a href="#Page_437">437</a></span><br /> - -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Kitto, E.J., <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Knights of Labour, the, <a href="#Page_436">436</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Kulturkampf, the, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>-30</span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">L</span><br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">La Balue, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ladislaus of Hungary, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ladislaus of Naples, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lambert of Hersfeld, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lambruschini, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Landulph, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lanfranc, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Langton, Stephen, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>-7, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Languedoc, heresy in, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lateran basilica, the, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lateran Council, the Fourth, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lateran Council, the Fifth, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">League, the Catholic, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leo I., <a href="#Page_39">39</a>-54</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leo II., <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leo III., <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leo IV., <a href="#Page_102">102</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leo V., <a href="#Page_127">127</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leo IX., <a href="#Page_144">144</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leo X., <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>-309</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leo XII., <a href="#Page_391">391</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leo XIII., <a href="#Page_415">415</a>-42</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leo the Isaurian, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leonardo of Arezzo, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leonetti, A., <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leontia, the Empress, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">L'Épinois, H. de, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Leti, Gregorio, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Liber Pontificalis</i>, the,<a href="#Page_8"> 8</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>-9</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Liberius, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Liverani, P., <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lollards, the, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lombards, the, in Italy, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>-3</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lothair of Lorraine, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lottery, the Papal, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Louis of Anjou, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Louis of Bavaria, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Louis II., <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>-9</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Louis VIII., <a href="#Page_188">188</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Louis XII., <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>-8, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Louis XVIII., <a href="#Page_414">414</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Luchaire, Achille, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Luciferians, the, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Luitprand, Bishop, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Luitprand, King, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Lunéville, Treaty of, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Luther, Martin, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>-9</span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">M</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Macarius, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Magic, John XXII. and, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Magna Charta denounced by Innocent III., <a href="#Page_188">188</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Magna Maralia</i>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Malabar Rites, the, <a href="#Page_364">364</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Malatesta of Rimini, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Mandragola</i>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Manfred, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Manichćans, the, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Manichćism, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Manning, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Marcia, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Marcian, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Maria Theresa, <a href="#Page_362">362</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Marie of Brabant, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Markwald of Anweiler, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Marozia, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>-32, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-6, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Marriage, the Papacy and, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Marsiglio of Padua, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Martens, Dr. W., <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Martin I., <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Martin V., <a href="#Page_240">240</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Martyrology, reform of the, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Mary Stuart, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Mathew, Dr., A.H., <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Mathilda of Tuscany, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Matteo Visconti, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Maurice, the Emperor, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>-6</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Maury, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_371">371</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Maximilian, the Emperor, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Maximinus, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">May Laws, the, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Mazzini, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Medici, Catherine de', <a href="#Page_347">347</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Medici, Cosmo de', <a href="#Page_239">239</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Medici, Giuliano de', <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Medici, Giulio de', <a href="#Page_290">290</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Medici, Lorenzo de' (nephew of Leo X.), <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Melchiades, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Menćchmi</i>, the, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Mercier, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_440">440</a></span><br /> - -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Michael, Angelo, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Michael de Cesena, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Michael the Drunkard, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Michiel, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Militz, Karl von, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Milo, the Legate, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Miollis, General, <a href="#Page_381">381</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Mirandola, G.P. della, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Modernism, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_442">442</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Montfort, Simon de, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Monti di Pietŕ, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Morality in the early Church, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>-5, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">N</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Napoleon I. and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>-88</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Napoleon III., <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nepotism at the Vatican, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>-60, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Newman, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nicća, Council of, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nicholas I., <a href="#Page_102">102</a>-23</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nicholas II., <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nicholas V., <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nicholas of Cusa, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nielsen, Dr. F., <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Normans and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">O</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ockham, William of, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Offa, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Olivarez, Count, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Organic Articles, the, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Orsini, the, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Orsini, Adriana, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Orsini, Cardinal B., <a href="#Page_263">263</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Orsini, Giulia, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Orsini, Laura, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Orsini, Paolo, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Orsini, Virginio, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Otto I., <a href="#Page_139">139</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Otto of Brunswick, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Oxford Movement, the, <a href="#Page_435">435</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">P</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pacca, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>-2, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pagi, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pallavicino, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pandolpho, the Legate, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Papal supremacy, evolution of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>-1, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a> <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>-6, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Parnellism <a href="#Page_434">434</a>-5</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Paschasinus, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Pastor Ćternus</i>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pastoureaux, the, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Patarenes, the, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Patrimonies, the Papal, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Paul at Rome, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Paul I., <a href="#Page_83">83</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Paul II., <a href="#Page_246">246</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Paul III., <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>-29, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Paul IV., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pedro of Aragon, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pelagius, Pope, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pepoli, Count, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Peretti, Alexander, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Peretti, Camilla, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Peretti, Francesco, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Persecution, the Papacy and, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Persico, Mgr., <a href="#Page_435">435</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Perugino, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Peter at Rome, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Peter, brother of John X., <a href="#Page_135">135</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Peter of Carbara, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Petrarch, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Petrucci, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Philip II., <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Philip III., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Philip VI., <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Philip of Anjou, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Philip Neri, St., <a href="#Page_333">333</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Philip of Suabia, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>-4</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Phocas, the Emperor, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Photius, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pierleone, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pierleone, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pierre de Castelnau, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pignatelli, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pinturicchio, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pippin, Donation of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>-3</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pirie-Gordon, C.H.C., <a href="#Page_175">175</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pisa, Council of, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pisa, second Council of, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pius II., <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pius III., <a href="#Page_268">268</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pius IV., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pius V., <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pius VI., <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pius VII., <a href="#Page_371">371</a>-90</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pius VIII., <a href="#Page_392">392</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pius IX., <a href="#Page_393">393</a>-413, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Plebiscites in Italy, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pliny, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></span><br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Poles, the Vatican, the, <a href="#Page_434">434</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Poli, Oddo, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pontianus, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pragmatic Sanction, the, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Primacy, idea of the, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Priscillianists, the, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pucci, Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Pulcheria, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Q</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Quanta Cura</i>, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Quiercey Donation, the, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">R</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Rampolla, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Raphael, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ratherius, Bishop, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ratisbon, Diet of, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ravenna and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Raymond of Toulouse, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-9</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Raynaldus, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Reformation, the, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>-9, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>-30</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Reformation, foregleams of the, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Reginald of Canterbury, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Renaissance, the, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Renier, the Cistercian, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Rerum Novarum</i>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Revolution, the French, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Riario, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Riario, Pietro, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Richard the Lion-Heart, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Robert of Geneva, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Robert of Naples, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Romwald, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-5</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Roquain, F., <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Roscoe, W., <a href="#Page_291">291</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Rosmini, A., <a href="#Page_400">400</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Rossi, G.B. de, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Rossi, Pellegrino, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Rothrad of Soissons, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>-12, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Rotrud, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Roy, Jules, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Rudolph II., of Burgundy, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Rudolph of Suabia, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">S</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sabellius, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Sacramentary</i>, the, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sta. Maria Maggiore, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">St. Peter's, building of, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sala, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Saldanha, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_365">365</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sancho of Portugal, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sanfedisti, the, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sangallo, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sanseverino, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sant' Angelo, Castle of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sanuto, M., <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Satolli, Mgr., <a href="#Page_437">437</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sauli, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Savona, Pius VII. at, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>-5</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Savonarola and Alexander VI., <a href="#Page_264">264</a>-5</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Scatfgoch, Bishop, <a href="#Page_364">364</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Schmalkaldic League, the, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Schwemer, R., <a href="#Page_185">185</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sergius III., <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sergius IV., <a href="#Page_139">139</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Servatus Lupus, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Severus, Bishop, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sforza, Cardinal Ascanio, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sforza, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sforza, Lodovico, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sigismund of Hungary, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>-30, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>-8</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Silvester I., <a href="#Page_20">20</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Silvester II., <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Simeon of Bulgaria, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Simony at Rome, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>-5, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sirianus, Pope, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sixtus III., <a href="#Page_39">39</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sixtus IV., <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sixtus V., <a href="#Page_332">332</a>-50</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Slaves, the Papacy and the, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Socialism and the Vatican, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Sollicitudo Omnium</i>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Solomon of Brittany, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Solomon of Hungary, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Spain and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-90, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>-9, <a href="#Page_361">361</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Spina, Archbishop, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Spirituals, the, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Stephen I., <a href="#Page_80">80</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Stephen II., <a href="#Page_80">80</a>-2</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Stephen III., <a href="#Page_83">83</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Stephen IV., <a href="#Page_83">83</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Stephen V., <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br /> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Stephen VI., <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Stephen X., <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Stephens, W.R.W., <a href="#Page_142">142</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Strozzi, the banker, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Stuarts, the Vatican and the, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Sulpicius Severus, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Syagrius, Bishop, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Syllabus, the, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">T</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Talleyrand, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Talleyrand-Périgord, Countess, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Talmud, condemnation of the, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Tancred of Sicily, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Tarasius, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Tassilo, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Tedald, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Templars, suppression of the, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Temporal power, beginning of the, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>-83, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>-90, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Tencin, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Tertullian, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Tetzel, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Teutonic Knights, the, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Theodora of Rome, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>-32</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Theodora, the Empress, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Theodoric, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Theodosius, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Theophylactus, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Theutberga, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Thomas Aquinas, philosophy of, <a href="#Page_440">440</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Three Chapters, the, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Transtiberina, the, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Trent, Council of, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>-8, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>-2</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Troslé, Council of, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Turribius of Astorga, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">U</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Unigenitus</i>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Urban I., <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Urban II., <a href="#Page_172">172</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Urban VI., <a href="#Page_222">222</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Urban VIII., <a href="#Page_352">352</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Urbino, Duchy of, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ursicinus, Anti-Pope, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>-7</span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">V</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Valens, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Valenti, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Valentinian I., <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Valentinian II., <a href="#Page_38">38</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Valla, Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Vandals, Leo and the, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>-2</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Vannozza dei Catanei, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Vatican, the, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Vatican Council, the, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>-10</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Vatican, early state of the, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Vatican Library, the, <a href="#Page_438">438</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Venantius and Gregory the Great, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Venice and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>-3, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>-6</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ventura, P., <a href="#Page_397">397</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Victor I., <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Victor III., <a href="#Page_140">140</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Victor Emmanuel I., <a href="#Page_406">406</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Vienna Congress, the, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Villani, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Viventius, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Voltaire, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Vulgarius, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">W</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Waldeck-Rousseau, <a href="#Page_432">432</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Waldrada, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Walpole, Horace, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Walter de Brienne, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Wenilo of Sens, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">William II. and the Papacy, <a href="#Page_430">430</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">William of Burgundy, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">William the Conqueror, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Wiseman, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_379">379</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Worms, Diet of, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Wulfad, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Wyclif, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">X</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ximenes, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Y</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">York, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Young Italians, the, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Z</span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Zachary I., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Zara, the taking of, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Zelanti, the, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Zephyrin, Pope, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Zigliara, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></span><br /> - -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Zosimus, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></span><br /> -</p> - - - - - - - - -<p class="ph2" style="margin-top: 15em;">The Censorship <i>of</i> the Church <i>of</i> Rome -and its Influence upon the Production and the Distribution <i>of</i> -Literature</p> - -<p><i>A Study of the History of the Prohibitory and Expurgatory Indexes, -together with some Consideration of the effects of Protestant -Censorship and of Censorship by the State</i></p> - -<p>By GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM, LITT.D.</p> - -<p><i>Author of "Authors and Their Public in Ancient Times," "Books and -Their Makers in the Middle Ages," "The Question of Copyright," etc.</i></p> - -<p> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Two Volumes, 8vo, cloth Net, $5.00</span><br /> -</p> - - -<p>This treatise presents a schedule of the Indexes issued by the Church, -together with a list of the more important of the decrees, edicts, -prohibitions, and briefs having to do with the prohibition of specific -books, from the time of Gelasius I., 567 <span class="smcap">A.D.</span>, to the issue in -1900 of the latest Index of the Church under Leo XIII.</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>"The work impresses me as admirable. I wish to congratulate you upon -the singular wisdom, breadth, and thoroughness with which you have -accomplished a delicate and difficult task."—<i>From Bishop Potter of -New York.</i></p> - -<p>"I have read this treatise with the deepest pleasure.... It is a work -of remarkable erudition, and so far as I have perused its pages, I -find it to have been written with rare large-mindedness and historic -impartiality.... The difficult task has been accomplished in a most -masterly manner."—<i>From Archbishop Ireland of St. Paul.</i></p> - -<p>"Dr. Putnam is one of the most wonderful men in America. He was a -soldier in the Civil War. He has been a leading publisher for more -than a generation. To him more than any other man is due the measure -of American Copyright that we now enjoy. The marvel is that with -all his business and public work, Dr. Putnam has found time to make -himself a most thorough and accurate scholar. The present volume -treats of a subject that is largely misunderstood, and that is of -first importance in the history of literature and of the Church. -The author writes in an entirely dispassionate spirit."—<i>London -Chronicle.</i></p></blockquote> - - -<p> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;"><i>Send for Descriptive Circular</i></span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">G.P. Putnam's Sons</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">NEW YORK LONDON</span><br /> -</p> -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span></p> - - - -<p class="ph2">A Candid History of the Jesuits</p> - -<p>By Joseph McCabe</p> - -<p>Author of "Twelve Years in a Monastery," "Modern Rationalism"</p> - -<p><i>8<sup>o</sup>. $3.50</i></p> - - -<p>It is curious that no writer addressing English-speaking readers, -has ever attempted a systematic history of the Jesuits. Probably -no religious body ever had so romantic a history, or inspired such -deadly hatred. On the other hand, histories of the famous society are -almost always too prejudiced, either for or against, to be reliable. -Mr. McCabe has attempted in this book to give the facts impartially, -and to enable the inquirer to form an intelligent idea of the history -and character of the Jesuits from their foundation to the present -day. Every phase of their remarkable story—including the activity -of political Jesuits and their singular behavior on the foreign -missions—is carefully studied, and the record of the Jesuits in -England is very fully examined.</p> - - -<p> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">G.P. Putnam's Sons</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">New York London</span><br /> -</p> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crises in the History of the Papacy, by -Joseph McCabe - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRISES IN HISTORY OF THE PAPACY *** - -***** This file should be named 61779-h.htm or 61779-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/7/7/61779/ - -Produced by deaurider, Graeme Mackreth and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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