v. .^illiliiiilii it:' '' «if r.«*<»njtiiKi«ra:j' LIBRARY PRINCETON. N. J No. Case,-/19£)--^--:- No. Shelf, .Ss,^-^ _- No. Book, BX 955 .K54 1853 The Lives of the popes from A.D. 100 to A.D. 1853 y / THE LIVES OF THE POPES. FROM A. D. 100 TO A. 1>, 1858. REVISED BY DANIEL P. KIDDER. Jf^tD-lJork : PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS, 200 MULBERRY-STREET. 1853. 5( EDITOR^S PREFACE. TiiE jDresent work was originally published, in four small volumes, by the Religious Tract Society of London. On examination, it has been found well adapted to supply a previous lack in the current literatm'e of the age. We take pleasure in placing the work before American readers in a more convenient form than that of its first publication, and trust that it T\dll be extensively perused by young and old throughout our land. 'No nation ought to be better acquainted than ours with the history of the Popes, and the sys- tem of religion of which they are acknowledged heads; for none has more to fear from the move- ments of Romanists. Here, within a narrow compass, will be found what elsewhere can only be learned by consulting numerous volumes. The work is planned and exe- cuted in keeping with the spirit of the age. It will be found useful for reference, as well as for reading. "We trust that it is destined for extensive instruction and usefulness. New-Yokk, September f 1853. CONTENTS. PART I. FROM THE HISE OF THE ROMAX CHURCH TO THE AGfE OP GREGORY VII.— A. D. 100-1046. CHAPTER I. — Origin of the title of pope— First "bishops of Rome — Linus — Clement — Their simplicity and piety — How long these qualities were pre- served— Comparative unimportance of the Roman bishop)s — Ignatius of An- tioch — Polycarp of Smyrna — Anicetus — The martyrs and confessors — Fabi- Axrs — CoRXELius — Lucius Page 13 CHAPTER II. — Excessive homage paid to bishops — They become a priesthood — Growth of ihe Roman Church — Arrogance of Victor I. and of Stephen L — Temptations to the Roman bishops — Wealth of the Church — Benefits of persecution — Paul of Samosata — Constantine the Great — Results of his reign —Toleration — Patronage — Sylvester, the first patriarch of Rome — Injury to the spirituality of the Church 20 CHAPTER III. — Preeminence of the Roman bishops— Signs of corruption — — They seek to enlarge their powers — Mark — -Julius — Arian controversy — — Occasional admissions of the supremacy of Rome — Liberius — Contest with Felix — Damasus and Ursicinus 28 CHAPTER IV. — SiRicius enjoins celibacy — Restricts baptism to certain days — Introduction of several abuses — Monachism — Anthony the hermit — Pacho- mius the monk — Priestly assumptions of the clergy — Sanctioned by Chrysos- tom and others — Illustrated in Martin of Tours — Respect paid to saints and their relics — Decline of Paganism — Anastasius — Alaric and the Goths — De- generacy and immorality of the Romans — Sack of Rome — Innocent I. — The Goths professors of Christianity — Innocent's authority over foreign Churches 34 CHAPTER V. — ZosiMus — Pelagian controversy — Ccelestius and Pelagius appeal to the bishop of Rome — Augustine and the African Churches remonstrate — Zosimus changes sides — Baptismal regeneration — Boniface I. — Celestine — The clergy of France — Nestorian controversy — Celestine's arrogance — Coun- cil of Ephesus— Cyril — Storj' of Dalraatius 44 CHAPTER VI.— Sixtus III.— Story of Patrick— Leo the Great— His noble qualities — Theological labors — Haughtiness toward Hilary — Monophysite controversy — Dioscurus — Eutyches — Flavian — The " Council of Robbers '* — Flavian deposed — Contempt shown to Leo's advice 50 CHAPTER VII. — Leo's resentment — Invasion of southern Europe by the Huns — Attila — Battle of Chalons — Its effects on European history — Attila enters Italy — Leo becomes ambassador — Invasion of Italy by the Vandals — Leo again intercedes — Great wealth of the Roman Church — Fall of the Roman empire — Ascendency of the popes — Results of Leo's popedom — Corruptions multiplied — Antichrist manifested 56 CHAPTER VIII. — Hilary — Simplicius — Felix II. — Gelasius — Miserable state of Italy — Reign of Theodoric the Goth — Anastasius — Symmachus — HoRMisDAS — John L — Felix III. — Benedict the recluse founds a new order of monks — Its character — Boethius — Anarchy after Theodoric's death — Bon- iface II. — John IT. — .\gapetus — Reign of Justinian — Sylverius — Belisarius invades Italy — Tergiversation of the pope — Vigilius obtains office by simony — Historical obscurity of the age — Lombards invade Italy — Effects of fre- quent invasion 63 6 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX.— Pelagius I.— John III.— Benedict I.— Pelagius II.— Geeg- ORY I., styled the Great — His early life — Becomes pope — His qualifications for the oftice— His charitableness — Bebukes the bishop Natalis— His '• Eulcs" — Sends Augustine to convert the Anglo-Saxons— Success of the mission — In- dignation of the ancient British Churches— Deynoch of Bangor— Augustine's bigotry — Gregory aims at controlling the Spanish and French Churches — Al- ters the forms of '.vorship— Improves the singing — " Canon of the mass" — Sanctions the use of images — His superstitious tendencies — Letter to the Empress Constantina— His servility to monarchs Page 74 CHAPTER X.— Twenty-four popes, all of little note — Saeini anl's — Boniface III. — Boniface IV. — Deodatus — Bqniface V. — Honorius I. — Seveeinus— John IV. — Theodore I. — Martin I. — Eugene I. — Vitalian — Adeodatus — DoNus I. — Agathon — Leo II. — Benedict II. — John V. — Conon — Sergius I. — John VI. — Sisinius — Constantine — Steady increase of the power of the Church — Oppression of Martin I. by the emperor — Boniface III. styles him- self " universal bishop" — Church increases in wealth — Darkness of the age — Way paved for papal supremacy in Britain 85 CHAPTER XL — Rise and spread of Mohammedanism — Prevalence of image worship — Gregory II. — Leo the Isaurian — The iconoclasts — Image worship forbidden — Consequences at Constantinople — At Rome — Gregory's letter to the emperor — Separation of Rome and its territory from the Gieek empire — The pope's first essay at sovereignty 92 CHAPTER XII. — Incursions of the Lombards on the Roman district— Greg- ory III. — Zachary holds an interview with Liitprand — Interferes in the af- fairs of France — Charles Martel — Pepin — Stephen III. annoyed by the Lom- bards— Aided by Pepin — Lombards humbled — Pepin crowned by the pope — — The Lombards revolt — Stephen's letter to Pepin — Pepin returns and sub- dues the Lombards — Gives territory to the pope — The popedom a real sov- ereignty, and the " Church" no longer a spiritual body 98 CHAPTER XIII. — Early character of Charlemagne — Paul I. — Constantine — Stephen IV. advises Charlemagne to repudiate his wife — Resentment of her father — Adrian I. — Lombard incursions — Charlemagne visits Rome 104 CHAPTER XIV. — Adrian cultivates Charlemagne's friendship — The pseudo- isidorian Decretals and Donation of Constantine — Adrian's share in the image controversy — The Emperor Leo's death — The Empress Irene — Charlemagne again visits Rome— His patronage of the priesthood and interference with their liberties 109 CHAPTER XV. — Leo III. courts the favor of Charlemagne — Precariousness of his seat — Charlemagne's victories — Charlemagne's third visit to Rome — His coronation as emperor 1 14 CHAPTER XVI.— Charlemagne's death— Louis the Meek— Stephen V.— Pas- chal I. — Eugene II. — Valentine — Gregory IV. — Rebellion of Louis's sons — Sergius II. aims to make the papacy independent — The Saracens attack Rome — Leo IV. — His victory over the Saracens — Fabulous story of Pope Joan 117 CHAPTER XVII. — Nicholas I. — His arrogance to the Emperor Louis IL— Commencement of the "Great Schism" — Prohibits King Lothaire's divorce of Thietberg — Adrian II. also insists on Lothaire's submission — Abject cre- dulity of the age — Anarchical state of Europe — John VIII. — Charles the Bald leaves Italy to the pope — Martin II. — Adrian III. — Stephen VI. — Arnulf elected emperor — Guide crowned emperor by Stephen — Formosus crowns Arnulf — Stephen VII. — Schism between Romanus and Theodore — John IX. — Commencement of a reign of terror 122 CHAPTER XVIII. — Benedict IV. — Leo V. deposed and murdered by Chris- topher— The licentious Theodora and Marozia — Popes elected by them — Sergius III. — Anastasius III. — Lando— John X. murdered— Leo VI. — Stephen VIII — John XL and his brother Alberic— Alberic's popes — Leo VII. — Stephen IX. — Martin II. — Agapetus — John XII.'s profligacy — Otho the Great enters Italy — Leo VIII. — Benedict V.— John Xlll 1.30 CONTENTS. 7 CHAPTER XIX.— Death of Otho the Oreat— Renewal of anarchy in Italy— Benedict VI. murdered by Boniface VII. — Bonus II. — Benedict VII. and Boniface VIII. anti-popes — Crescentius supports Boniface — John XIV. — John XV. assumes the power of creating a saint — Gerbert and Arnulf— Gregohy V. and John XVI. antipopes — Gregory lays France under interdict — Sylvester II. — General panic at the approach of the year 1000 — Death of Otho III. Page 137 CHAPTER XX. — Struggles of Italian nobles for power — Their disunion — John XVII. — John XVIII.— Seegius IV. — The counts of Tusculum — Benedict VIII. — John XIX. offers to sell his office — Benedict IX. a monster of prof- ligacy— Sells the tiara to Gregory VI. — But it is claimed by Sylvester III. — Three popes at once — The Emperor Henry III. deposes them all at Sutri, and nominates Clement II. — General review 144 PART n. FROM THE AGE OF GREGORY VII. TO THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION.— A. D. 1046-1431. CHAPTER T. — Power of the papacy in the eleventh century — General mur- murs at the vices of the priesthood — Clement II. — Effects of the emperor's interference — Hildebrand's rising influence — Damasus II. — Imperial nomi- nation of Leo IX. — His election by the Romans — He aims at preventing si- mony, and enforcing celibacy among the clergy 153 CHAPTER II. — Origin of the Normans in Italy — The pope opposes them — Battle of Civitella — Victor II. — Death of the emperor — Duke Godfrey and his brother, Pope Stephen IX. — Nicholas II. — Papal election vested in the cardinals — Robert Guiscard espouses the papal cause — Efforts of the reformers —Ariald of Milan 160 CHAPTfiR III. — Alexander II. chosen by the reforming party — HonoeiusII. nominated by the Empress Agnes — Warfare of the popes — Seizure of the yoang Emperor Henry IV. — Alexander's subserviency to Hildebrand — Arro- gance of the latter — Papal sanction to the invasion of England by William the Conqueror — The young emperor's profligate habits— Disaffection of the nobles — Miracle of St. Remaclus — The emperor's companions excommuni- cated 169 CHAPTER IV. — Election of Hildebrand as Gregory VII. — His cautious policy — Strengthens papal relations in Italy — Conforms the Spanish liturgy to the Romish breviary — Interferes in French affairs — Watches the emperor — Hen- ry's quarrels with the Saxons — Gregory takes open measures for reforming the clergy 180 CHAPTER V. — Gregory remonstrates with the emperor — Disturbed state of Rome — Revolt* of Cencius— Gregory summons the emperor to a council — Henry's defiance — Saxon rebellion — The pope secretly foments it — The coun- cil condemns the emperor — Henry's passage of the Alps in winter — His wel- come in Italy — His penance in Canossa — Arrogance of Gregory 185 CHAPTER VI. — The emperor meditates revenge — Rudolf crowned as emperor — Gregory's caution — Berenger of Tours — The pope promotes a uniformity of liturgies— Rebuffed by William the Conqueror — Declares war against the em- peror— Imperial party elect an anti-pope — Battle of the Elster — Henry enters Italy — Captures Rome — Is crowned by the anti-pope — Gregory rescued by Robert Guiscard — Retreat to Salerno and there dies 195 CHAPTER VII.— Decided success of the papal party— Victor III.— Urban II. — System of penance gives rise to indulgences — And pilgrimages — Peter tho Hermit — Council of Clermont — First Crusade 204 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII.— Pabchal II.— Eevolt of the emperor's son— Death of Henry IV. — Anti-papal measures of the new emperor — Concessions of the pope — Revoked by a council — Gelasius II. — Calixtus II. — Treaty of Worms, and professed reconciliation of the emperors and popes Page 210 CHAPTER IX.— HoNORius II.— Innocent II.— Anacletus II.— St. Bernard and the early reformers, Abelard and Arnold of Brescia — Celestine II. — Lucius II. — Eugenius II. — Influence of Bernard in the second Crusade — In opposing the sectaries — Anastasius IV. — The English pope, Adrian IV. 216 CHAPTER X.— An interdict in Rome— Martyrdom of Arnold— The Emperor Barbarossa does homage to the pope — Origin of Guelfs and Ghibbelines— Alexander III. — Ineffectual struggles of Barbarossa, and final submission to the pope — Murder of Thomas a Becket — Timid policy of Henry II. of England — Papal arrogance and persecution — Lucius III. — Urban III. — Gregory VIII. — Clement III. — Celestine III. — A third Crusade — Foolish arrogance of Celestine 223 CHAPTER XI. — Noonday of papal power — Innocent III. — Persecution of her- etics— Origin of the Inquisition — Albigenses and Waldenses — New Crusades — Capture of Constantinople — Crusade of the children — Minority of the empe- ror— Papal policy — Pope forbids the marriage of the French king — Confers royal titles — And humiliates John, king of England 229 CHAPTER XII. — HoNORius III. — Another crusade — Mendicant orders estab- lished— St. Francis — St. Dominic — Gregory IX. — Pomp of his inauguration — Celestine IV. — Innocent IV. — His warlike temper and great power 239 CHAPTER XIIL— Thirst of the popes for temporal power— Alexander IV. — Turbulence of the barons — Urban IV. — Quarrels with Manfred of Naples — Clement IV. — Battle of GrandeUa — Termination of the struggle between popes and emperors — Gregory X. — His zeal for the crusades — Innocent V. — Adri- an V. — John XXI. — Nicholas III. — His crafty policy 246 CHAPTER XIV.— Martin IV.— The "Sicilian Vespers"— Honorius IV.— Nicholas IV. — Singular character of Celestine V. — His resignation — Bon- iface VIII. — Assumes the double crown— Gives away kingdoms — Quarrels with Philip the Fair — Institutes jubilees — Claims submission from Philip — Boniface suddenly captured — Dies Insane — Dante's allusions to him 254 CHAPTER XV. — Decay of papal authority — Benedict XI. — Clement V. — Re- moval of papal court to Avignon — Extermfnates the Templars — John XXII. — His avarice — Benedict XII. — His moderation and good intentions — Clem- ent VI. — His licentiousness — Rienzi the tribune — Joanna of Naples and the pope — Another jubilee 263 CHAPTER XVI. — Innocent VI. — Urban V. is persuaded by Petrarch to re- store the papal court to Rome — He fails — It is accomplished by Gregory XI. — Growth of corruption— Symptoms of popular discontent 272 CHAPTER XVII.— Commencement of the " Great Schism"— Urban VI.— His harshness and violent temper — Boniface IX. — His avarice — The indulgence- mongers — Innocent VII. — Gregory XII. — His perjury — The Council of Pisa elect Alexander V. — Three popes at once » 276 CHAPTER XVIII.— John XXIII. succeeds Alexander— The Council of Con- stance— All the popes set aside — Huss summoned before the council — His trial and martyrdom — That of Jerome of Prague — Election of Martin V.— Who dissolves the Council — His pontificate and death— General review. . 283 CONTENTS. 4) PART m. FROM THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION TO THE ROMANIST RE-ACTION.— A. D. 1431-1605. CHAPTER I. — Introductory remarks — Eugenius IV. — War with some of the baronial houses — Council of Basel — Council at Florence — Nicholas V. — Re- volt of the Porcari— Patronage of learning — Fall of Constantinople before the Turks — Attempt of the pope to revive a crusading spirit Page 293 CHAPTER II. — Calixtus III. — .ffineas Sylvius a backslider — Becomes pope as Pius II. — Attempts a crusade against the Turks, but fails — Paul II. — His vulgar frivolity — Sixths IV. — Conspiracy of the Pazzi — Advance of the Turks 299 CHAPTER III. — Innocent VIII. — His voluptuousness — His dependence on Lorenzo de' Medici — Persecution of the Waldenses — Alexander VI. — His monstrous and shocking profligacy — Invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. — Sa- vanorola, the Florentine reformer — Corruption in the Church at its hight — ■ Caesar Borgia's career and crimes 305 CHAPTER IV.— Pius III.— Julius II.— His warlike character— Conquers Ro- magna and expels Caesar Borgia — Opposes the French — Lays siege in person to Mirandula — Patronizes the arts — Bramante, architect of St. Peter's — Ra- phael— Michael Angelo — Death of Julius 311 CHAPTER v.— Accession of Leo X. — His popularity— His intellectual sensu- ality— Patronage of learning and the arts — Leo's pleasures— Infidelity reigns at Rome — Necessity for a reformation 317 CHAPTER VI.— Wars of Leo X.— Invasion of Louis XII.— Battle of Novara— League of Francis I. with Charles V. — Francis invades Italy — Conquers Milan — Meets Leo at Bologna — Their treaty — Abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction — Leo's cruelty to the duke d'Urbino — Conspiracy of the Petrucci 322 CHAPTER VII. — Outbreak of the Reformation — Sale of indulgences — Con- tempt of them in Germany — Luther resists Tetzel and denounces the corrup- tions of the Church — Leo indifferent, but the papal court alarmed — The elec- tor Frederic warned not to protect Luther — Interview of Luther and Miltitz — Luther advances — The pope denounces him in a bull 328 CHAPTER VIII.— Progress of the Reformation— Luther burns the bull— The emperor cites him to Worms — Luther's boldness — He is banished — Rescued and carried to the Wartburg — Leo's love of letters — Henry VIII. 's book on the sacraments- Leo expels the French from Milan — His death 335 CHAPTER IX. — Pontificate of Adrian VI. — His attempts at reform and re- trenchment— His contempt for the arts — Progress of the Reformation — Lu- ther returns to Wittemberg — Adrian's letter to the elector — Persecution com- mences— Diet of Nuremberg — Adrian's discomfiture in all his plans — His un- popularity— Death 340 CHAPTER X.— Pontificate of Clement VII.— Complicated state of afiairs— Further progress of the Reformation— Luther's Bible— Campeggio sows dis- sension in Germany— Italy the battle-field between Charles V. and Francis I. —Clement's tergiversation— Charles's indignation against Clement— Sack of Rome by Bourbon, A. D. 1527 346 CHAPTER XI. — Charles conciliates the pope — Progress of the Reformation alarms Clement — Diet of Spires — Check given to the reformers by the empe- ror— The Protest — Charles visits the pope — Diet of Augsburg — Melancthon's " Confession of Faith" — Papal reply— Charles's duplicity and hostile intentions to the Protestants — Clement quarrels with the emperor, and leagues himself with the reformers— Clement's death— His misfortunes deserved 355 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII.— Pontificate of Paul III.— His cautiousness— Influence of the Reformation in Italy — The " Oratory of Divine Love" — The Theatines — Con- tarini and Caraffa, the leaders of opposite parties — The continued strife of Charles V. and Francis I. — Paul promotes a peace — Contarini's hopes of a re- form disappointed — Ignatius Loyola establishes the order of Jesuits — Caraffa revives the Inquisition Page 365 CHAPTER XIII. — Francis again at war with the emperor — Fear of Francis and the Turks brings concessions to the Protestants from Charles — First sit- tings of the Council of Trent — Reform set aside for doctrinal discussions — Rule of faith embraces tradition — War between Charles and the Protestants — The pope first assists one, then the other — Pier Luigi, the pope's son, assas- sinated— Paul's disappointments, and death 376 CHAPTER XIV. — Pontificate of Julius III.— Julius a man of pleasure — Coun- cil of Trent resumes its sittings — The Real Presence — Increasing strength of the "reforming" party in the Church — Death of JuUus — MarcellusII. cho- sen by the " reformers " — Dies in a few weeks 381 CHAPTER XV.— Pontificate of Paul IV.— Reaction against the Reformation — Influence of position on the pope — His ambitious aims — His dislike of for- eigners in Italy — His struggle with the emperor — His violent temper — His nepotism — Battle of St. Quintin — Its effects on Italy, and on the pope.. 385 CHAPTER XVI. — Development of the Reaction — Paul turns to ecclesiastical affairs — Punishes his nephews — Reforms the administration — Promotes splen- dor in worship — Issues strict laws for the monks — Attends dihgently to the Inquisition — Barbarities of that institution — Losses of the papacy during Paul's reign 392 CHAPTER XVIL— Pontificate of Pius IV.— Pius naturally kind— Constrained to tread in the steps of Paul — His nephew, Carlo Borromeo — Final sittings of the Council of Trent — Divisions in the council — How healed — Its decrees strengthen the papacy — Close of this pontificate 398 CHAPTER XVIII.— Pontificate of Pius V.— Pius one of the high-church party — Self-denying habits — Reforms and retrenches — Reform of the clergy and monks — Then of the laity — Effect only external — Pius persecutes heretics — Duke Cosmo — Milan — State of religion in France — The Protestant party and the Guises — Catherine de' Medici — Battle of Jarnac — Advice of Pius to the French king — His hatred of England 4(>t CHAPTER XIX.— Pontificate of Gregory XIII.— Massacre of St. Bartholomew — Rejoicingsat.Rome — Gregory's exactions — The states of the Church plunged into anarchy — Gregory, worn out with mortification, dies — Sixtus V. — His remarkable character and genius — Early career — Begins his reign with acts of severity — Brings back peace and order — Gives countenance to all re- actionary movements — Roman reaction not reformation or religion — Influ- ence of the Reaction on literature and the arts — Si.xtus a thrifty pope — De- vises useful improvements in Rome— Instigates Philip of Spain to a war with England — The "Invincible Armada" — Success of the Reaction — In France — In Germany — The Reformation an established fact, and its ultimate tri- umph certain — Death of Sixtus V 409 CHAPTER XX. — Accession of Urban VII. — League of the Guises — Gregory XIV. — His efforts to reestablish the papal authority in France— Supports the army of the League — Innocent IX. discovers the same zeal in its behalf- Pontificate of Clement VIII. — His activity and industry in discharge of the duties devolving on him — Restoration of France to papal allegiance — Claims the city and state of Ferrara — Cesare d'Este : surrenders to the pope his crown and private estates — Contentions within the Church — Jesuits and Dominicans— Clement's dissimulation— Conclusion 419 CONTENTS. II PART IV. FROM THE ROMANIST REACTION TO POPE PIUS IX.— A. D. 1605-1853 CHAPTER I. — Striking change in the character of the popes after the Refor- mation— A new career commenced — Leo XI. — Paul V. — The JVundos — Op- position to papal claims at Venice — Conducted by Paolo Sarpi — Triumphant or a time — Jesuits quit Venice — Reconciliation between the pope and the re- ublic Page 429 CHAPTER II.— Jesuit successes — In Poland — In Germany — Rise of Jansenism in France — Jansenius and St. Cyran — Port Royal and Angelique Aruauld — Conversion of the Mere Angelique — Her firmness — Reform of Port Royal — Of Maubuisson — Doctrines of St. Cyran — Their spread thi'oughout France by Francois de Sales and Vincent de Paul — Outbreak of religious war in Germany — Battle of Weissberg — Death of Paul V. — His improvements at Rome 436 CHAPTER III. — Pontificate of Geegobt XV. — Jesuit persecution in Bohemia, Moravia, and Hungary — And in the Palatinate — Gregory's joy — Reason of these triumphs — College of the Pt-opaganda established — Jesuit successes in France — Decline of the Huguenot party — Attempts of the Jesuits in England — Favored by the Stuarts — Gregory's letter to Prince Charles — Success of the Jesuit missionaries in Brazil — China— Japan — India — Abyssinia 446 CHAPTER IV.— Pontificate of Urban VIII.— Urban's imperious and martial character — The Emperor Ferdinand's edicts of restitution in Germany — Riche- lieu's efforts to extinguish Protestantism— Capture of La Rochelle— Fail of the Huguenots — The emiieror's aim respecting the dukedom of Mantua — Ur- ban's jealous apprehensions — His treacherous policy — Commencement of "The Thirty Years' War "— Gustavus Adolphus's ^^cto^ies — Trials of Centini and Galileo — Port Royal under St. Cyran — St. CjTan imprisoned — The "■Augusti- nus'' of Jansenius — Pronounced heretical— Urbino added to the papal states — Urban seizes on Castro, but loses it again, and dies of vexation 452 CHAPTER v.— Pontificate of Innocent X.— Character of Donna Olympia, the pope's sister-in-law — Jealousies in the pope's household — The Jesuits and Jansenists in France — Innocent's bull against the Jansenists — Persecutions in Piedmont — Brutal massacres of the Waldenses — Remonstrances of the Protest- ant States of Europe — Chiefly of England — Devastation of Germany by "The Thirty Years' War" — The "Treaty of Westphalia" gives liberty to the Protestants — Christina of Sweden turns Catholic, and abdicates the Swedish crown — Death of Innocent X 467 CHAPTER VI. — Pontificate of Alexander VII.— Corruption of the papal court, and throughout the papal states — Alexander's vacillating character — In- crease of corruption — The pope's neglect of public aflairs — His quarrel witii Louis XIV. — Chastisement inflicted by the latter — Pontificate of Clement IX. — Decline of the pope's personal power, and growth of an aristocracy in Rome— Persecution of the Port Royalists— Protection of the Duchess de Lougueville— Candia taken by the Turks, and death of Clement — Pontificate of Clement 'X. — Progress of corruption in the papal government 478 CHAPTER VII. — Pontificate of Innocent XL — His independent character — Conduct of Louis XIV. toward ecclesiastical persons — His treatment of the Jansenists — Innocent interferes — Louis's resentment — Manifesto of the French clergy — Innocent abolishes the right of asylum in Rome — Quarrel with Louis's ambassador — Louis revokes the Edict of Nantes — Disastrous results to France — Innocent's joy — Opposition between the pope's secular and ecclesiastical interests 487 CHAPTER VIII.— Pontificate of Alexandek VIIL— His "Confession" of the conniptions of the government — Pontificate of Innocent XII. — Submission of the French bishops— The "Quietists" of France— Innocent's patriotism. 497 12 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX.— Pontificate of Clement XI. — His cautious character— War be- tween Louis XIV. and England and Austria— The pope joins Louis, and is chastised by the emperor — Quesnel's Moral Reflections — The Bull Unigenitus — Port Royal destroyed — Retributions— Misconduct of the Jesuit missionaries exposed Page 503 CHAPTER X.— Pontificate of Innocent XIII.— Of Benedict XIII.— Efforts of the pope to establish a Roman commerce — His moderation and attempts at reform— Pontificate of Clement XII.— Decline of papal power— Increasing corruptness of the government 510 CHAPTER XL— Pontificate of Benedict XIV.— His great abilities— Makes wise concessions to the king of Sardinia— To the emperor— To the king of Spain — His skill in government — The Jansenists the advocates of political and civil freedom — Jesuit misconduct in Portugal and Paraguay — Complaints made by Pombal — Bulls of Pope Benedict against the Jesuits — Death of Ben- edict XIV 513 CHAPTER XII.— Pontificate of Clement XIIL— Pursues an opposite policy to that of Benedict XIV. — Attempt of the Jesuits to murder the king of Portu- gal— Clement reluctantly assents to their trial — The Jesuits expelled from Portugal — Their critical position in France — Proposals of Louis XV. to Gen- eral Ricci — The Jesuits expelled from France, from Spain, and from Naples and Parma — The pope's indignation — Dies of grief 518 CHAPTER XIIL — Pontificate of Clement XIV. — His amiable character — Re- solves on conciliating the offended sovereigns — Suppresses the bull In Ccena Domini — His fear of the Jesuits — His general timidity — Grows unpopular — Impatience of the Spanish and French courts — Florida Blanca sent to Rome — Clement resolves on abolishing the Jesuits, and accomplishes it in 1773 — His mysterious illness and death — Was he pious? 524 CHAPTER XIV.— Pontificate of Pius VL— Magnificence of the new pope— At- tractiveness of Rome — Pontine Marshes drained — Disagreement of the pope with the emperor — Liberal measures of the Emperor Joseph II. — Dismay at Rome — Pius pays a visit to Vienna — Reforms of Scipio Ricci in Tuscany — Outbreak of the French Revolution — The pope submits to Napoleon — Is de- posed and dies in exile 532 CHAPTER XV.— Pontificate of Pirs VII.— Napoleon reconstructs the Romish Church in France — Ruin of papal authority there — Pliable temper of Pius VII. — He sets out for Paris — Meeting of Napoleon and Pius — Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon — Disappointment of the pope at receiving no recomi:>ense — The pope's temporal dominion infringed — His resistance — The States of the Church added to the French empire — The pontiff' seized and carried to Paris — Pius kept a prisoner in France — Makes concessions to Napoleon — Is set at liberty and returns to Rome — Reestablishment of the old abuses at Rome — The order of Jesuits restored in 1814 — Persecutions in Italy — Death of Pius VII 540 CHAPTER XVI.— Pontificate of Leo XII.— His worldly and dissipated life— He persecutes the Jews, and the liberal party — The victims of the Inquisition — Resentment of the pope's subjects — Leo's bull against the Bible Society — The priesthood courted — "Catholic Rehef Act" passed — Pontificate of Pius VIII. — Subserviency of the pope to Austria — Pontificate of Gregory XVI. — Revolt in the provinces — Austria quells the revolt — The old policy continued — Tyranny to the people — Subserviency to Austria — Romanism grows bolder in England — The "Anglican" movement — Death and character of Gregory XVI 551 CHAPTER XVII.— Pontificate of Pius IX.— Political amnesty— Reform delayed — Riots — French Revolution of 1848 — The pope grants a constitution — War between Austria and Charles Albert, king of Sardinia — The pope countenances the Sardinian king, and becomes very popular — Austria threatens to abandon the Church— The pope espouses the Austrian side, and becomes unpopular — • Assassination of Cardinal Rossi — Flight of the pope and proclamation of the republic — Restoration of Pius IX. by French arms — "Papal aggression" in England— Concluding remarks 560 *^, V-;?. THE LIVES OF THE POPES. PEOM THE RISE OF THE ROMAN CHURCH TO THE AGE OF GREGORY YH -A. D. 100-1046. CHAPTER I. THE FIRST BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CHURCH. A. D. 100-254. The Popes ! — How ominous is the name to the ear of every educated Protestant ! What a train of fantastic and strangely-assorted images, dismal, comic, and grand, sweeps rapidly through the mind at the very mention of the too familiar word ! All gorgeous emblems of pomp and power — the triple crown, the purple robe, and the gilded throne, followed in close succession by the uncouth and hideous symbols of bigotry and persecution — the gibbet, the wheel, the thumb-screw, and the rack ! What a tangled web must that be which interweaves such incongruous materials as these emblems and instruments of corruption, cruelty, and pride, with the pure, amiable, and meek religion of Jesus ! Nevertheless, it will be our aim, in the following narrative, to disengage from this web one conspicuously glittering thread that gathers up its contexture, and runs through it from the beginning to the end. The title of pope, or more correctly papa, was, in the earliest days of Christianity, spontaneously applied, by the 14 LIVES OF THE POi'ES. love and reverence of believers, to those who were " over them in the Lord," and whom they justly regarded as their spiritual fathers. It was the common distinction of the presbyters and bishops from all the other members of the Church, who styled each other, in the same spirit of Christian simplicity and affection, " brethren " and " sis- ters," and received new converts into their communion, as new members into a family, with a fraternal kiss. Not till the eleventh century was the title of pope claimed by the bishop of Rome as his exclusive right. From that time, however, it has been generally employed to distinguish the Roman bishop from all others holding the episcopal office in the Christian Church, and has been applied to such as preceded the above-named epoch, as well as to those who have more lately occupied the papal chair. The bishops of Rome did not attain, during the first two centuries, to any high degree of preeminence over their brethren; and there is, therefore, considerable doubt re- specting the very names of some who then sustained the pastorate of the Church which apostohcal labors had culti- vated, though not planted, in the metropolis of the world. It is believed, however, that Linus, mentioned by Paul when writing from Rome to Timothy, (2 Tim. iv, 21,) and Clem- ent, (Phil, iv, 3,) whom the same apostle designates his " fellow-laborers " during the time of his imprisonment at Rome, were among the first who presided over the infant Church. In those days of primitive simplicity, there were few honors or emoluments attached to the office of a bishop, whatever of moral dignity it possessed. Revered for his character, and supported by the voluntary offerings of the devout, the bishop shared with his fellow-Christians in the privations and sufferings to which most of the Churches were subjected during the reigns of the persecuting empe- rors. He endeared himself to the people by his soHcitude for both their temporal and spiritual welfare, and justly FIRST BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CHURCH. 15 earned the honorable name of "father," by his assiduous zeal for the prosperity and happiness of his charge. In times of contagious and pestilential sickness, he often risked his own life that he might give consolation to the dying, in which noble example he was followed by the Christians generally, to the utter amazement of their pagan observers ; for the latter, in visitations of the plague, would remorse- lessly abandon their dearest friends, casting them half-dead into the streets, and leaving their bodies unburied. It is pleasing to observe that this genuine spirit of Chris- tianity continued to display itself, at least in some Churches, till far into the third century ; for we then find Cyprian, the renowned bishop of Carthage, on occasion of a dreadful pes- tilence, exhorting his Church to the performance of similar acts of charity. The pagans had, according to their habit, forsaken the sick and dying, and the streets were strewed with dead bodies. Cyprian called the members of his Church together, and, after commending them for the care they had taken of each other, said further, " But if we do good only to our own we do no more than the publicans and heathens. If we are the children of God, who makes his sun to rise and sends his rain on the just and the unjust alike, we must show it by our actions, striving to be per- fect as our Father in heaven is perfect ; blessing those that curse us, and doing good to them who despitefully use us." Animated by such generous words, the members of the Church quickly divided the work among them. The rich gave their money, the poor their labor, and in a short time the streets were cleared of their ghastly incumbrances, and the city was set free from the plague. The city of Rome was far from being the most important center of Christianity in those early times. Antioch espe- cially, and many other eastern cities, took precedence of it as places of Christian resort ; and the authority of the Chm'ch of Antioch, in questions of doctrine or discipline, was highly esteemed, even before the Roman Church could 16 LIVES OF THE POPES. be said to have been thoroughly established. The earHer bishops of Rome, therefore, occupy no prominent place in the history of the Church. The devout or the cunning imagination of monks has spun many wonderful fables re- specting them out of the fragile thread of tradition; but none of these stories are worthy of credit or attention. The very names of the bishops, during the first century after the apostolic age, are uncertain ; for in those days of fiery trial they rapidly succeeded each other. Though many of them sealed their testimony with their blood, they are not so dis- tinguished even in the annals of martyrdom as the pastors of some other Chiu-ches. It is from the history of some who are better known to us than those who held the epis- copate at Rome, that we learn how ardent was the love of the " truth as it is in Jesus," how simple and blameless the manner of life, how unassuming the deportment and con- versation, and how steadfast the adherence to the ordinances of Christ, which distinguished the bishops of the primitive age. Of such cotemporary bishops, Ignatius, the second bishop of the Church at Antioch, is among the worthiest of men- tion. In that fierce persecution which the Emperor Trajan set on foot in the year 106, to sweep with misery and ruin the whole Roman empire, the Church at Antioch was se- verely tried. Its faithful and devoted pastor was dragged away to Rome, to become a principal actor and sufferer in an encounter with wild beasts — one of those tragical enter- tainments with which the emperors sought to gratify the savage taste of the citizens. The long voyage must have seemed all the longer from the cruel suspense in which the poor captive was held ; but Ignatius was fortified with a zeal and fidelity which bade defiance to personal sufferings, and he busied himself to the last in promoting the welfare of the Church During his journey to Rome he was strictly guarded by a band of soldiers, who treated him with such cruelty that he wrote, in metaphorical language, "From FIRST BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CHURCH, it Syria to Rome I am contending with wild beasts by land and by sea, being tied to ten leopards." Yet, forgetful of his tormentors and the gloomy prospect before him, he pre- served such admirable serenity of mind as to write, while traveling, seven long letters of valuable advice to the bishops and members of as many Asiatic Churches, in which he only refers to his own persecutions as a ground of rejoicing and hope. Of like character was Polycarp, bishop of the Church of Smyrna, who closed a long life of Christian service with martyrdom in the year 167. " He always taught," says Irenaeus, as quoted by Eusebius, " what he had himself learned from the apostles, what the Church had handed down, and what is the only true doctrine." His zeal for the truth was strikingly displayed in his treatment of Mar- cion, whose daring speculations had stirred up angry pas- sions and created divisions in many Churches. On meeting him after the lapse of several years, during which the friendly intercourse of their youth had been suspended, the natural amiableness of Polycarp was overcome by his stern regard for purity of doctrine, and, to Marcion's salutation, *' Dost thou remember me, Polycarp ?" the aged bishop replied, *' Yes, I remember the first-horn of Satan P* Polycarp had reached the age of ninety, when he was called to set his Church an example of constancy amid bitter persecutions. Many of the Christians of Smyrna had endured the vengeance of the civil power for not acknowl- edging the emperor as the only lord. The Jews and pa- gans, who were animated with the same spirit of hatred to the Christians, were only infuriated by this partial gratifi- cation of their spite. They loudly demanded that the pun- ishment awarded to a few should be visited on all, and called for a general massacre of Christians, and first of their leader and bishop. Polycarp was hurried to the tribunal of the proconsul; but so venerable and majestic was his aspect as he stood calmly before it, that both magistrates 18 LIVES OF THE POPES. and people were awed into silence, and a long pause ensued before the former could collect himself sufficiently to speak. At length the proconsul urged him to swear by the genius of the emperor, expecting to find what he thought so trivial a request instantly complied with. *' Swear," said he ; " curse Christ, and I release thee !" Looking on his judge with a steadfast countenance, the aged saint replied: "Six- and-eighty years have I served him, and he has done me nothing but good, and how could I curse him, my Lord and my Saviour ?" The proconsul threatened to throw him to the wild beasts ; but threats were in vain — his firmness was un- movable. Then, amid the yells and execrations of the mul- titude, Polycarp was dragged to the funeral pile, which had been hastily heaped up by the people. The shops and the baths were ransacked by the Jewish and pagan mob for the wood and straw necessary for fuel. The martyr was fast- ened to the stake ; and just as the fire was lighted, and the flames began to rise, he breathed his last prayer : *' Lord, almighty God, Father of thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have received from thee the knowledge of thyself, I praise thee that thou hast judged me worthy of this day and hour, to take part in the number of thy wit- nesses, and in the cup of thy Christ !" It is to the honor of Anicetus, the tenth bishop of the Church of Rome, that he called Polycarp his 'personal ac- quaintance and friend. This is all that we know of him ; but in the absence of more direct information, it is only fair to conclude, from the character of his cotemporaries, that he and the other early bishops of Rome bore an equally honorable testimony to the truth, and were as faithful and devoted to the cause of the Redeemer as the bishops of Antioch and Smyrna. With regard to a few of them, indeed, we may speak with some confidence ; for history records, though briefly, their suflierings in behalf of religion. In the seventh perse- cution, which fell upon the Church in the reign of the Em- FIRST BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN CHURCH. 19 peror Decius, one of its first victims was the Roman bishop Fabianus, who dared to continue boldly preaching the gos- pel, when many of his brethren forsook their flocks till the fierceness of the storm should be spent. This was in the year 252 ; and when, two years later, Gallus, the successor of Decius, renewed the persecution of Christians, the next bishop of the Roman Church, Cornelius, was first banished, and soon afterward condemned to death. Lucius, also, who had the courage to succeed him in these tempestuous times, became his follower likewise in banishment and mar- tyrdom. Few of the bishops of this period enjoyed a long tenure of authority ; and, indeed, so unsettled was the state of society, that it would be difficult to decide whether the imperial or the episcopal chair was the more uncertain and unsafe. Emperors were nominated and dethroned at the caprice of the praetorian guards, and bishops wei*e always the first mark for vengeance when the cruel spirit of pagan- ism was excited to persecute the Church. The very perils of the times, however, tended to bring into exercise the graces of the tine followers of Christ. Men were required to be decided for God, and amid the fires of persecution faith was tried and purified. Does the reader ask. What were the principles which sustained these early martyrs of the Church ? The reply is not difficult to give. The love of Christ constrained them. They overcame all by their faith in the blood of the Lamb. They had counted the cost of their profession ; and, animated by the Holy Spirit's strength, they reckoned not their lives dear unto them, so that they might finish their course with joy. 20 LIVES OF THE POPES. CHAPTER II. DEGENERACY OF THE ROMAN BISHOPS IN THE NICENE AGE. A. D. 254-325. The undeserved sufferings and heroic endurance of the first bishops secured for them the reverential and zealous at- tachment of the Church ; but the very admiration for these primitive confessors, which was so naturally inspired in the breasts of their followers, proved the germ from which were afterward developed, in such baneful abundance, the fruits of corrupt doctrine and worldly aggrandizement — fruits which were poisonous to those who first tasted them, and became widely destructive to the best interests of mankind. So liable are even our noblest feelings, veneration and grat- itude, to be perverted and abused. It is astonishing to observe how rapidly, even in times so stormy and apparently ungenial, the Church grew and mul- tiplied ; and how, as its branches spread, the daily increasing opportunities of gaining power and wealth gradually in- snared men, and led those who, in defending the truth against violent opposition were ready to sacrifice their lives, to make their spiritual office a source of secular advantage. It has been well said, that "the evils which were so fear- fully developed a century later under the sunshine of impe- rial favor had reached a bold height even while the martyrs were still bleeding." Not without abundant cause had the apostolic warning been given — " the mystery of iniquity doth already work." The time had arrived when the Antichrist foretold in prophecy should commence to exert its baneful influence on the souls of men, " with all deceivableness of un- righteousness." Accordingly we shall now, as we descend the stream of ecclesiastical history, watch the gradual mode in which the Church of Rome manifested, both by acts and spirit, that this appalling designation was emphatically her own. ROMAN BISHOPS IN THE NICENE AGE. 2t The Roman Church, from various causes, grew faster than many others. Situated in the metropolis and mart of the world, it was daily visited by Christians from all parts of the east and west, many of whom took up their abode in the city or its environs, and joined the communion of the Church. By the middle of the third century it already rivaled its elder sisters of Jerusalem and Antioch in magni- tude and influence. It numbered at that time no fewer than forty-six presbyters, with one hundred and six inferior officers. The authority of the bishop of such a Church must needs have been great, and we can hardly be sur- prised if even the pious men who then held the office were sometimes betrayed into arbitrary and oppressive measures. One of the first who distinguished himself in this unholy manner was Victor, who presided over the Church A. D. 185, in the reign of the Emperor Commodus. A contro- versy had arisen between the Churches of the east and those of the west, respecting the proper time of the year for commemorating the resurrection of the Saviour; and Victor was so far carried away by zeal for his own practice that he pronounced his opponents to be heretics, and even proceeded to excommunicate all who did not follow the rule which he prescribed. His arrogance and want of charity were, however, severely rebuked by Irenaeus and other co- temporary bishops, who were far from acknowledging the supreme authority of any particular Church. The same spirit of assumption and pride discovered itself yet more ofiensively in the behavior of Stephen, the suc- cessor of that Bishop Lucius who was martyred under Va- lerian. The Churches of Asia, about the year 256, adopted a regulation in reference to baptism, which Stephen wholly disapproved ; and, not content with absolutely refusing com- pliance with the decision of a synod held at Carthage, which confirmed the Asiatic custom, the Roman bishop boldly set up the authority of his own, in opposition to that of the universal Church ; and carried his blind, unchristian zeal so 22 LIVKS OF THE POPES. far as to excommunicate all the Churches of Asia Minor. Nor did he hesitate to employ the most disgracefully abus- ive language toward a man far superior to himself — the ex- cellent Cyprian, bishop of the Carthaginian Church. He afterward refused to give audience to the bishops who waited upon him as a deputation from the synod, and strictly forbade his Church to show them any hospitality, or re- ceive them into their houses as guests ! From these instances it is very easy to perceive that even during the early days of Christianity the professors of relig- ion, and its very teachers and exemplars, were exposed to great temptations, before which they sometimes fell. These temptations were of course greatly multiplied to the bishop as the Church imder his care grew larger and richer. The smaller communities, formed in neighboring villages and towns, were regarded as offshoots of the parent tree. Over these some presbyter of the elder Church was ap- pointed as a subordinate bishop, and thus the influence and importance of the superior bishop were necessarily increased, and the inducements, or at least the opportunities for abus- ing his power were greatly multiplied. Moreover, in the third and fourth centuries, when vehe- ment controversies on various questions of faith and order began to agitate the Church, and conferences and synods were of more frequent occurrence, a new danger presented itself in the spirit of rivalry which sprang up for the seat of presidency in these august assemblies. As the choice of the synods, also, not unfrequently fell upon the bishop of Rome, in consequence of the importance of his Church, some color was given to the claim which the Roman bishops afterward preferred to precedence over all other bishops whatsoever. Thus, in Italy over neighboring Churches, and throughout the world over Churches of longer standing than his own, did the Bishop of Rome gradually acquire an influ- ence that eventually became supreme. In unholy pride and imchristian deshe of preeminence are to be found, therefore. ROMAN BISHOPS IN THE NICENE AGE. 23 the root of this great apostasy from the faith. The repeated exhortations of the apostle were forgotten, that " nothing should be done m strife or vainglory," but that " m lowli- ness of mind each should esteem other better than them- selves." The mind that was in Christ Jesus was evidently wanting ; and, as might have been expected, envying and strife followed, confusion and every evil work. The causes of corruption, however, just enumerated, though -quite sufficient to make a priesthood ambitious and arrogant, were by no means all that combined to taint the purity of the Roman, as well as other primitive Churches. Even in the days of persecution, the Churches in large cities began to accumulate wealth. Many who died in the faith bequeathed property to the Christian community which they had joined, for the relief of its poorer members, and for the general expenses of the Chm'ch. As an avowal of faith in Christ generally excluded the convert from all intercourse with his pagan relatives, and as the regulations of the prim- itive Churches rigorously exacted simplicity of life from all members, it was no uncommon thing for large sums of money to be thus dedicated to pious and charitable uses. About the year 150, as we learn from Tertullian, a Chris- tian stranger coming from Asia Minor to reside in Rome, immediately made over his property, amounting to two himdred thousand sesterces, or about sixteen hundred pounds sterlmg, to the bishop of the Roman Church for the benefit of his flock. Such gifts grew larger and more numerous when the laws of proscription were repealed, and the persecuting spirit of the imperial government gave place to a milder policy. In the year 259 the Church of Rome was in possession of buildings, cemeteries, and lands; and many Churches had by that time erected splendid edifices for the worship of God. So abundant were the contribu- tions poured into the treasury of the metropolitan Church of Italy, that no fewer than fifteen hundred widows were supported out of its funds, beside the regular maintenance 24 LIVES OF THE POPES. of its bishop, presbyters, and many other officers. The revenue of so large an estabhshment must even then have been very considerable; and so rapid was its increase, that, in a few years, the management of it became an object of avaricious cupidity and vehement unhallowed strife. To the bishop in every Church the control of its funds had been generally committed from early times ; and these rulers would indeed have exhibited a wonderful exemption from the common frailties of humanity, if they had in every case continued proof against the temptations to personal aggrandizement which were thus strewn in their path. Accordingly, we find that when a long period of tranquillity had been enjoyed by the Churches, a persecution was really beneficial, sifting them of ungodly professors, purifying the lives of their members, and awakening their bishops to the solemn responsibility of their office. Thus Cyprian, writing about the year 250, respecting the terrific persecu- tion just begun by the Emperor Decius, and which threat- ened apparently to exterminate Christianity from the earth, says : " The Lord would prove his people, and, because the divinely-prescribed regimen of life has become disturbed in the long season of peace, a divine judgment has been sent to reestabhsh our fallen, I might almost say, slumbering faith. Forgetting what behevers did in the times of the apostles, and what they should always be doing, Christians have labored with insatiable desire to increase their earthly possessions, and many of the bishops, who, by precept and example, should have guided others, have neglected their divine calling, to engage in worldly concerns." Cyprian's lamentation is fully justified by the accounts we have received of some of the bishops of that age. It would not, indeed, be strictly just to cite Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, as a specimen of his class, for he was unanimously excommunicated in a council assembled for the purpose of investigating his character ; but then, the principal groimd of this sentence was his erroneous doctrine, ROMAN BISHOPS IN THE NICENE AGE. 25 and not his ungodly and unscriptural life. In the latter he was too closely resembled by many of his brethren. Of this Paul, then, it is told that he erected a throne in the midst of his church, on which he seated himself, with all the pomp of a magistrate, desiring to be considered a civil as much as a rehgious ruler. Sometimes he would screen himself with curtains from the gaze of the assembly, after the custom of the judicial officers ; and on coming forth he expected, and even commanded, the people to applaud him by clapping their hands, as they would an actor in the the- ater. In passing through the streets of Antioch he was al- ways attended by a multitude of followers, and in every gesture and action discovered intolerable pride. Although born and reared in extreme poverty, Paul had contrived to amass enormous wealth, and constantly indulged in the most luxurious style of living. Sad indeed was the change that had already passed upon the Churches of Christ, when it was possible thus early for a bishop to become so utterly unlike his divine Master. It is plain that the seeds of cor- ruption were already sown, and only waited for a genial season to spring up in the rankest and most destructive lux- uriance. With the advent of Constantine to the throne of the em- pire this season was introduced. That extraordinary man had the penetration to discover what had been hidden from all his forerunners — that Christianity was fast driving idola- try out of the civilized world. He saw that to oppose it would be futile, perhaps perilous ; and although probably without much value for it in his heart, he resolved to em- ploy it as an instrument for strengthening his own hands, and renovating the decaying energies of the empire. He observed that idolatry was uninfluential even with those who professed it, but that Christianity, on the contrary, exercised a potent sway over the minds of its adherents ; and he de- termined to make the new power subservient to his political ends. His sagacity was displayed as much in the means he 2 26 LIVES OF THE POPES. adopted as in the object he pursued. As he gi-adually en- larged his share in the vast dominions of Rome, by victories over his competitors for power, he extended a degree of toleration and favor to the Christians which no former em- peror would have dared to concede, even if he had wished to do so. He thus engaged the Christian subjects of the empire in his cause, and led them very heartily to wish him success. Prayers were publicly offered in the churches when any great battle was at hand, or any struggle in prog- ress between Constantine and his rivals, that victory might attend the arms of the " Chiistians' friend." Constantine was already recognized as a champion of the faith. At length his enemies were silenced, either by conquest or by death, and Constantine sat securely on the throne of the Roman empire. He had never expressly avowed him- self a Christian, yet it was among his first concerns to pro- mote the prosperity of the Christian cause. In conjunction with Licinius, who then shared in the imperial power, he had previously granted a free toleration of all religions, in- cluding the Christian. He now, however, directly favored the professed believers in Christ. In a law of the year 319 he publicly stigmatized idolaters as slaves to superstition. " They who are desirous," said the edict, " of being slaves to their superstition, have liberty for the exercise of their worship ; we do not forbid the rites of an antiquated usage to be performed in the open light." At the same time the emperor acknowledged that all his victoiies had proceeded only from the " supreme and holy God, Lord of the uni- verse." He also caused a group of waxen figures to be publicly exhibited before the windows of the imperial pal- ace in his new city of Constantinople, representing himself beneath the protection of the cross, trampling under foot the dragon of idolatrous superstition. Constantine next ventured to give the Christians proofs of his special regard. He had awarded them justice — he now began to show partiality. He courted the favor of the ROMAN BISHOPS IN THE NICENE AGE. 2t bishops, inviting them to reside in the impeiial palace, and giving them large sums of money for the erection of edi- fices, the purchase of lands, and the support of the poor of their flocks. He preferred Christians to the high offices of State, even appointing them governors over provinces. He at last so far hazarded an encroachment upon the feeling in favor of the old religion, which, of course, still lingered among the less enlightened, as to overturn the idols by vio- lence, and despoil the temples of their treasures. The lat- ter he either treinsferred to Christian places of worship, or appropriated to the uses of the State. He next proceeded to interfere in the internal affairs of the Church. Desirous that there should be among the ministers of religion the same gradation of ranks as existed among the officers of State, he assumed the power of arranging them into patri- archs, exarchs, metropolitans, and archbishops — the ancient and scriptural title of bishop being thus made the lowest of a series. He nominated the bishops of his four greatest cities, Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople, the patriarchs of the empire ; taking care also that their reve- nues should be adequate to support with dignity, and even splendor, the rank which he had conferred. This new arrangement of ranks was formally sanctioned by the Council of Nice, A. D. 325 ; and by it Sylvester, then Bishop of Rome, was appointed the primate over all the sees of Italy, and, with more limited powers, over those also of northern Africa, with the islands of the Mediterra- nean. His spiritual authority was made, agreeably to Con- stantine's plan, commensurate with the civil authority of the vicar of Rome. But although the outward prosperity of Christianity could not but appear to be advanced by the patronage it received from the emperor, it is still with many a serious question, whether the injury done to its spirituality did not greatly deduct from, and even overbalance the apparent advantage. The clergy had been more than men had they successfully 28 LIVES OF THE POPES. withstood the temptations which now multiplied around them. Dazzled by imperial munificence and favor, and so- licited by innumerable opportunities of acquiring both wealth and power, it is not to be wondered at that they often became the pliant instruments of the monarch's will. Yet it fills us with sadness to see some of them so cai-ried away by servihty, or an excess of gratitude, as to receive a humiliating check from Constantino himself. A bishop, who was present at his court when the thirtieth anniversary of his reign was celebrated, congratulated the emperor that he was " appointed by God the ruler over all in this world, and destined to reign with the Son of God in the world to come f" Constantino, shocked at the profanity of the speech, admonished the bishop to refrain from such sinful adula- tion, and rather to pray for him that he might be '•' deemed worthy to be a servant of God, both in this world and in the next." How effectually, we may add in conclusion, do the transactions recorded in this chapter warn not only Churches, but individuals, to take heed to the divine coun- sel : " Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John ii, 15. CHAPTER in. ARROGANT PRETENSIONS AND WORLDLY SPIRIT OF THE BISHOPS OF ROME — A. D. 325-385. The Bishop of Rome now enjoyed advantages which be- longed to the bishop of no other see in the universal Church. The direct authority with which he was invested over the most ancient and wealthy part of the empire was, of course, the principal of these ; but many others conspired to increase his dignity, and to make his influence paramount, at least over the Churches of the west. By donations and PRETENSIONS AND SPIRIT OF THE ROMAN BISHOPS. 29 legacies he had become possessed of large landed estates, some of them situated beyond the limits of his diocese, and in all such places his importance was necessarily increased. It was admitted, also, to be not the least of his claims to universal deference, that he presided over a Church which had, according to tradition, been honored by the martyr- dom of the apostles Peter and Paul, and which still re- tained their supposed tombs. With that self-esteem, there- fore, which usually outstrips general opinion, the Roman bishops already began to entertain the idea that, as succes- sors and representatives of Peter, they were entitled to the sovereign guidance of the whole Church of Christ. Filled with this unscriptm*al notion, and fired with unholy ambition, they were not slow to improve the advantages which their position conferred. Their large revenues they employed, not merely for the welfare of the Church, but also in such a way as to advance their own greatness, and diflfuse around themselves an air of state and splendor. The vestments of the clergy were studiously and symbolically adorned with a variety of colors, and with large figures of the cross. The mode of conducting divine worship no longer wore the aspect of primitive simplicity, but was burdened and made pompous with processions, priestly ceremonies, and contrivances to produce effect. Lighted tapers, golden and silver vases, with other gaudy and imposing pageants, were introduced into the worship of God — sorry substitutes for that spiritual vitahty which was so fast vanishing from the services of the Church. With a like mixture of motive, the influence of the clergy over the laity was promoted by the establishment of hospitals and orphan-houses out of the funds of the Church. Even buildings for public conve- nience, such as bridges, were sometimes undertaken by the bishop's direction, and at the Church's expense. Not con- tent with thus assuming to himself the character of a secu- lar magistrate, rather than that of a spiritual guide, the ruler of the Church too frequently vied with the first ofi&cers 30 LIVES OF THE POPES. of State in the pomp of his equipage and the luxury of his table. Candidates for the Roman bishopric made unheard- of efforts to obtain it, "knowing," says a pagan writer of that day, "that this once obtained, they would over- flow with gifts from the wealthy matrons, would ride in sumptuous carriages, be elegantly appareled, and have banquets prepared for them surpassing the festivities of kings." To Sylvester and Mark, in whose time these important and detrimental alterations mostly occurred, but of whose personal character history leaves us in doubt, Julius suc- ceeded as the now powerful Bishop of Rome. That he fully entered into the spirit of his office, as it was then con- stituted, is evident from an incident which took place in the reign of Constans, the son of Constantine the Great. The controversy between Arius and Athanasius, respecting the true nature of Christ, was then agitating the whole Chris- tian world, though it raged with most fierceness among the Churches of the east. Athanasius's enemies had so far suc- ceeded as to eject him from his bishopric of Alexandria, which he was employing the most strenuous efforts to re- gain. Aiming at some satisfactory solution of the question, a council of Asiatic bishops assembled at Sardica, in the year 347, and taking the appeal of Athanasius into consid- eration, resolved, " That whenever a bishop who is deposed asserts that injustice has been done him, the synod which condemned him shall write to the Roman bishop, who shall nominate judges to renew the investigation ; and no other person shall be appointed to fill the place of the deposed bishop without the concurrence of the Roman bishop." This synod of Sardica, therefore, expressly admitted the supreme authority of the Bishop of Rome. But although it was no unusual thing, nor indeed unnat- ural, for the weaker party, in the vehement and sometimes persecuting strifes of that controversial age, to seek the aid of the powerful bishop of the metropolitan Church, yet the PRETENSIONS AND SPIRIT OF THE ROMAN BISHOPS. 31 Churches in general were far from conceding to Rome the supremacy which she sought; for on the leaders of both parties in this Arian controversy sending delegates to Ju- lius, each hoping to secure his support, he, thinking to turn it to his own advantage, entreated them to refer the matter to a synod, which he would himself convene, and over which he would preside. But the bishops in general took alarm at so bold an attempt to establish a judicial authority at Rome, and told the encroaching prelate that he was not to suppose that because he ruled a larger and wealthier Church, he was therefore of greater consequence than any other bishop. The history of Liberius, who succeeded Julius, affords melancholy proof of the spiritual decay which had fallen on the Church. Constantius, the emperor, was a zealous Arian, and when the Council of Milan had confirmed the judgment of the eastern Churches by pronouncing a sen- tence of deposition on the champion of orthodoxy, Athana- sius, he sent messengers to those bishops who were absent from the council, commanding them to subscribe the sen- tence which it had passed. Among the absentees was the Bishop of Rome, whose absence had been intentional, and who now steadfastly refused to commit an act which his conscience condemned. The emperor, pretending it was his duty to execute the decrees of the Church, banished Liberius forthwith to some city in Thrace, and by under- hand means procured an Arian presbyter, Felix, to be elected to the see. Liberius went into exile, and was fol- lowed in his banishment by the sympathies and prayers of the whole Roman Church. The emperor himself conde- scended to show some respect by sending him money to defray the expenses of his journey. This money Liberius indignantly returned, with the sar- castic message, that the emperor and his eunuchs might possibly want the money to pay their soldiers and their subservient bishops. So great was the danger of his being 32 LIVES OF THE POPES. rescued by the people, that he was removed in the night with all imaginable secrecy and dispatch. When his ban- ishment became known the city was thrown into universal uproar. The clergy bound themselves by a solemn oath never to acknowledge the intruder Felix, and for two years they continued to absent themselves from the churches, and led the devotions of the people in private places of worship. At the end of that time the emperor visited Rome, and was instantly besieged by a prodigious multitude of matrons, many of whom were wealthy and noble, and had arrayed themselves for the occasion in magnificent and costly attire. These, with one voice and loud lamentations, implored the restoration of their venerable bishop. Constantius continued unmoved, and Liberius would doubtless have remained in perpetual exile, had he not him- self proved faithless to the principles for which he had en- dured so much suffering and loss. In better and purer times, a Christian bishop would have counted it a distin- guished privilege to suffer for the truth, and the day of his martyrdom would have been celebrated as a second birth- day. A melancholy change had, however, taken place, under the influence of a worldly spirit. When the Arian creed, which the Council of Sirmium composed, was pre- sented to Liberius for his signature, he basely consented to subscribe what his judgment utterly condemned. He was then permitted to return to Rome, to enjoy, if he could, after so disgraceful a recreancy to conscience, the honors of the bishopric. But as Felix, the emperor's favorite, could on no account be displaced, it was decided that he and Liberius should conjointly hold the see. This division of prelatical power was altogether offensive to the citizens of Rome. They assembled in the streets and public places, shouting, " One God, one Christ, one bishop !" and the se- dition and confusion were not appeased till many of both parties had been cruelly murdered. Felix himself, with the emperor's consent, was at last expelled from the city. PRETENSIONS AND SPIRIT OF THE ROMAN BISHOPS. 33 It is evident that the true spirit of Christianity must have greatly passed from the Church before events Hke these could occur among its accepted members, and under the express sanction of their bishops. The animosities thus excited did not quickly subside ; but when, by the death of Liberius, a new election became needful, they broke out with fresh and even aggravated violence. One party chose Damasus, and the other Ursicinus, to be their sphitual head, and the passions of the whole pop- ulace soon became engaged in the struggle. Damasus was a proud man, and it is doubtful if either of the candidates had any real title to the Christian name. Former bishops, in similar circumstances, had been known to surrender everything rather than be guilty of promoting strife and schism ; but these not only permitted but encouraged their followers to contend, until much blood was shed and many lives were lost. The party of Damasus came with armsp and attacked their opponents in the church of the Basihca, and the walls which usually resounded with the melody of sacred praise now echoed the shrieks and groans of dying men. One hundred and thirty-seven bodies were left dead on the pavement of this strange and unmeet battle-field. Damasus triumphed, and his rival left the city. ^ Not much was to be expected from an episcopate so un- scripturally and inhumanly won. The short career of Damasus was disgraced by an edict which the rapacity of the clergy compelled a reluctant emperor to enact against them. This edict forbade ecclesiastics to receive any gift, legacy, or inheritance, at the hands of devout women; so early was the influence of the Roman priesthood over the female sex found liable to abuse, and perceived to be an injury and nuisance to society. The clergy were obliged, according to custom, to publish this decree from all the pulpits of the city, and thus they very appropriately became the heralds of their own infamy, proclaiming that they, a professedly Christian ministry, were unworthv to possess 34 LIVES OF THE POPES. a privilege not denied to pagan priests or tlie most dissolute of the laity. It may, however, be mentioned, as perhaps a redeeming feature in the government of Damasus, that he retained as his secretary the celebrated and really learned Jerome, one of the most renowned of the so-called "Fa- thers of the Church," and supported and defended him with the fidelity of true friendship. This much then may be recorded to his credit. But 0 ! how totally unlike was the spirit of Damasus to that which breathed in the apostle Paul, when, in the review of his ministerial labors, he could with holy confidence exclaim : "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said. It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts xx, 33-35. CHAPTER IV. INTRODUCTION OF VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS CELIBACY, MON- ACHISM, SAINT- WORSHIP.-^-A. D. 385-417. Many corrupt doctrines and anti-scriptural practices had by this time taken deep root in the Church, for the foster- ing of which the Bishops of Rome must be held largely, though not wholly responsible. The east was the indige- nous soil of most of these poisonous plants ; but it will be the eternal disgrace of the Romish priesthood, that they quickly transplanted and diligently cultured them at home and throughout the west. I SiRicius, who succeeded Damasus in 385, favored yery strongly the ascetic spirit which had been introduced from Egypt and Palestine. Tlie custom early sprang up in Asia for bishops to live unmarried, and, if previously married, to divorce their wives and lead thenceforth a single life.) INTRODUCTION OF VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS. 35 Celibacy was regarded as a more holy condition than mat- rimony, and thus a practice was established in direct oppo- sition to the apostolic precept, that a bishop should be " the husband of one wife." This error was now beginning to infect the western Churches — a melancholy symptom that the Scriptural view of salvation by faith only was grad- ually yielding to the soul-destroying doctrine of justification by works, penances, and rites. So zealous was Siricius in behalf of this innovation, that he actually issued a decree to all the bishops under his su- perintendence, prohibiting them from continuing in the married state, and from entering upon it if single. The Spanish bishops were, however, still independent enough to resist this law, and they persisted for some time longer in the ancient and Scriptural custom. On the detestable nature of the* system thus adopted by the Roman See, en- larged comment is here unnecessary; it is repugnant to every maxim of sound social policy, and has been the fer- tile source of vice, crime, and misery. Nor is it less op- posed to Scripture than to the welfare of the community. " Forbidding to many " is expressly declared by an inspired writer to be a " doctrine of devils." Siricius was the author of another divergence from the practice of the apostles in reference to the ordinance of baptism, which he enjoined upon his clergy to administer at no other time, except in peculiar cases, than the festivals of Easter and Pentecost, which he evidently regarded as seasons preeminently sacred. These facts are but suggestions rather than examples of the innumerable corruptions that now began to overspread the Church. Our narrative has occasionally stepped aside from the direct pathway marked out for it, and which is often quite bare, in these scantily-reported times, of well- authenticated facts, to glean from the field of cotemporary history such incidents as may serve to illustrate the features of the age, and thereby help to indicate the character of the Papacy itself. Such a divergence seems justified here 36 LIVES OF THE POPES. by the much greater prominence given by the annalists of the fourth century to other Churches and ecclesiastics than to the Church of Rome and its bishops. Monachism, and the undue elevation of the priestly office, were the master-evils of this period. The foimer origina- ted in the deserts of Egypt, about the year 300. A Chris- tian named Anthony, residing at Coma, a village of Central Egypt, had parted with all his estates to the poor or to the Church, and betook himself to the solitude of the desert, for quiet contemplation of the works and perhaps the word of God. Here he supported himself in a frugal and ab- stemious way, upon the fruit of the date palm, or the pro- duce of the soil, which he cultivated with his own hands. His abode was a rude grotto or cave, formed by nature. The self-denial, rare holiness, and profound wisdom of this recluse were soon borne abroad on the wings of fame, and ere long he was surrounded by many disciples, some de- sirous of profiting by his instruction and example, others emulous of his renown, and all dwelling likewise in caves, and placing themselves beneath his paternal control. The pattern thus set by Anthony was improved by Pachomius, a like-minded man, who instituted the custom of living apart from the world in cloisters or monasteries. On an island of the Nile, Tabenne, he founded a society of monks, which, during his lifetime, numbered three thousand, and afterward seven thousand members. These employed them- selves in labors of various kinds, chiefly weaving baskets from the osiers of the Nile, or cultivating the soil. In later times handicraft trades of all sorts were introduced ; the monastery resembled a manufacturing town, but the pro- duce was always sent for sale to Alexandria or elsewhere. The immediate object professed to be sought in this unnat- ural mode of life was spiritual perfection, which was sup- posed to be intimately connected with the practices of ce- libacy and retirement from the world. It led, however, much more directly to spiritual pride, to morbid fanaticism. INTRODUCTION OF VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS. 37 which degraded human nature, as in the case of Simeon Stylites ; and too often to gross sensuaHty, in which their concealment from the world enabled these monks to indulge without fear of discovery. It is indeed humiliating, and calculated to teach us with what caution we must receive the opinions of even excellent men, to find these monastic institutions extolled by a Chfysostom and a Jerome, by the latter of whom they were first introduced and established at Rome. The Christianity which thus retreated to the rock, the desert, and the cloister, instead of manfully con- tending with the trials, and occupying itself in the duties of fife, proved itself to be false, unreal, and altogether at variance with the spirit of Christ. The Saviour expressly foretold his disciples that in the world tribulation awaited them. Instead, however, of counsehng a flight from it into the caves of the earth, or a burial in monastic solitude, he animates his followers to conflict by the encouraging an- nouncement— "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Well does a modern writer observe, respecting the Christians of that age, that " fascinated, deluded, and still more blinded by the deepening shades of error, they forgot almost entirely the emotions of a true repentance, of a cordial faith, and of a cheerful obedience ; and in the rugged path of gratuitous afflictions and unnatural mortifi- cations, pursued a spectral resemblance of piety, unsubstan- tial and cold as the mists of night." — Taylor's Natural His- tory of Enthusiasm,^' p. 191. The rapid growth of a spirit tending to the undue eleva- tion of the priestly office, has been already partially dis- played in the ever-increasing assumptions of the Roman bishops. It was, however, equally conspicuous, sometimes more so, in other Churches. The notion that the ministers of religion were a hoher class of men than ordinary Chris- tians was zealously inculcated by the clergy themselves, and as readily received by the people, who had already begun to trust to the priest as an effectual mediator with Heaven. 38 LIVES OF THE POPES. Even Chrysostom, the " golden-tongued," at this time bishop of Constantinople, with all his zeal for Christ, and profoundly-humble Aiews of himself, could speak of the Christian ministry as invested with powers and functions which never can belong to mortal men. He described the sacerdotal act as possessing something of that fearful om- nipotence and sovereign authority which attach only to the doings of Him who "openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth;" "for," said he, "as to the priests are committed all spiritual births, so, through their virtue only, are the fires of hell escaped, and the crown of glory secured." If really conscientious men entertained such extravagant views, it could only be expected that in- dividuals of a proud and ambitious character, or who min- gled with their devoutness some desire of worldly applause, should push theu* pretensions as far as the credulity or the patience of their followers would permit. The history of Martin, the bishop of Tours, is very in- structive on this point, and shows also the strides which the Church had already made toward rivaling the power of kings. When Maximus ascended the imperial throne by the too-beaten path of usurpation and bloodshed, he promptly received the fawning adulation of a whole crowd of bishops. But Martin of Tours stood aloof from the court, refusing, as he said, " to eat bread with a man who had deprived one emperor of his throne and another of his life." At length, howevei*, he was persuaded to relent, and, to the joy of the new emperor, who well knew the value to a usurper of priestly support, repaired to the royal banquet. The tables were crowded with guests of the highest rank, and among them the brother and imcle of Maximus himself. Between these reclined one of Martin's presbyters, he him- self occupying a seat next the emperor. During supper, according to custom, a servant presented a goblet of wine to the emperor, who desired it to be ofFei-ed first to the bishop, but expecting, of course, that from the hands of INTRODUCTION OF VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS. 39 Martin it would pass to his own. Martin, however, when he had drunk of the cup, handed it to his presbyter, not deeming any one present equally worthy to drink after him- self. Maximus and his officers, we are told, had the mag- nanimity or the prudence to bear this expression of contempt without discovering resentment. Martin afterward frequently visited the palace, where he was always a welcome guest, at least to the empress. This lady not only hung upon his lips for instruction, but, in imita- tion of the penitent mentioned in the Gospels, literally bathed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. Un- mindful of her royal rank, she would lie prostrate before him, until, by the emperor's intercession, she had obtained i the bishop's permission to wait upon him at table as a menial servant. When Martin could no longer resist her importunities, the empress prepared the table and the couch, superintended the preparation of his food, and while he ate stood at a respectful distance, like a slave, or mixed and presented the wine with the profoundest humil- ity. When the bishop's meal was ended, she reverently collected the crumbs, deeming them of higher worth than the delicacies of a royal feast. Not content with paying so much honor to their teacher/ during life, the Christians of this age displayed a still greater veneration for the tombs, relics, and embalmed re- mains of martyrs and saints. The presumed sepulchers of the apostles Peter and Paul were visited at Rome by all classes, from the slave and pauper to consuls, generals, nobles, and emperors. The bodies of early confessors were exhumed, and transfeiTcd to cities whither the strangers of I the world resorted, such as Constantinople and Rome. A dream was reported to have revealed the resting-place of Stephen, the first martyr ; and the grave being found, the { precious remains were transported in solemn procession to a church erected for the purpose on the summit of Mount i Zion. Miraculous effects were attributed to these sacred 4ft LIVES OF THE POPES. relics. A drop of blood, or the scrapings of a bone, were believed to possess a divine and healing virtue. Many fab- ulous tales were invented, and many spurious relics were palmed off as genuine. In the cathedral of Tours the bones of a malefactor were adored instead of those of a saint, until the imposture was discovered ; and then the same love of the marvelous gave credence to the story that the bishop, Martm, had extorted a confession of the fraud from the lips of the dead man. Thus the superstition and follies of paganism were pass- ing over to Christianity, while paganism itself was rapidly on the decline. The ancient religion discovered no further symptoms of life than the power which it yet retained of tainting and corrupting the new. Its priesthood, its tem- ples, its worship, were fast vanishing away. Hitherto, in- deed, idolatry had been tolerated ; but under the later em- perors many laws had been passed tending to discourage it, and the last edict of Theodosius inflicted on it a deadly wound. " It is our will and pleasure," says the emperor in that decree, " that none of our subjects, however exalted or humble his rank, shall presume in any place to worship an inanimate idol by the sacrifice of a guiltless victim." Sac- rifice and divination are declared to be high treason, and crimes to be expiated only by death. Few, therefore, re- mained who ventured to avow a preference for the religion of their fathers ; and multitudes, without either faith or knowledge, became unworthy professors of Christianity. Encouraged by the smiles of princes, the bishops proceeded in many cases to oppress those who yet favored the elder institution, resolving to exterminate from their dioceses the last traces of idolatry, by means as imjustifiable as the resolution itself was praiseworthy. They marched at the head of a rabble of priests, monks, and soldiers, to destroy idols and temples, and forcibly to eject the pagan priest- hood who clung to the altars. In the height of their zeal they destroyed what might well have been spared ; and the INTRODUCTION OF VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS. 41 magnificent library of Alexander, together with many a splendid edifice, the trophy of Grecian skill, was ruthlessly swept into obhvion. What share in these acts of barbarism was taken by Anastasius, who, in 398, succeeded Siricius in the bishop- ric of Rome, history has not recorded ; but in all probability he was too much occupied in providing for his own safety to encroach much on the liberties of others. The fifth century opened with dark omens to the stability of the Roman empire. The death of the Emperor Theodosius, and the imbecility of his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, who divided his dominions between them, opened great and tempting opportunities to the enemies of Rome to at- tempt her destruction. The Gothic tribes, driven from their Scythian homes, fierce by nature, and grown fiercer by the checks which they had received from Theodosius, had long hung like a cloud upon the northern frontiers, and now descended in thunder on the crowded cities of the south. Their leader, Alaric, was endowed with all those gifts that qualify for the command and subjugation of men. For a few years he was baffled in his aims by the courage and skillful tactics of Stilicho, the general of Honorius ; but the jealousy and mistrust of this vain and foolish emperor induced him to cause the murder of the only man who could ward off ruin from the State. Alaric soon appeared at the gates of Rome, and now the degenerate citizens could only withstand their assailants with bribes and prayers. Luxury and sensuality had reached their utmost height within the walls of the western metropolis. The stately mansions of the nobles almost warranted the hyperbole of the poet Claudian, who said that Rome contained a multi- tude of palaces, and that each palace was equal to a city. Although they were destitute of many modem conveniences of life, (for it has been as truly as humorously observed that the emperors of Rome had neither glass to their Avin- dows nor shirts to their backs,) yet in the pomp and splen- 42 LIVES OF THE POPES. dor, both of their furniture and their apparel, the Romans of that period far surpassed the most wealthy nation of the present day. " Our modern nobles," said a cotemporary historian, "measure their rank and consequence by the height of their chariots, and the weighty magnificence of their dress. Their long robes of silk and purple float in the wind, and as they are agitated by art or accident, discover the under-garments, the rich tunics embroidered with curi- ous figures. Followed by a train of fifty servants, and tear- ing up the pavement, they move along the streets with the same impetuous speed as if they traveled with post-horses, and this example is boldly imitated by the matrons and ladies. Sometimes, indeed, these heroes undertake more arduous achievements ; they visit their estates in the coun- try, and procure themselves, by the toil of their slaves, the amusements of the chase. If at any time, but more espe- cially on a hot day, they have courage to sail in their painted galleys from the Lake Avernus to their elegant villas on the sea-coast, they compare their expeditions to the marches of Caesar and Alexander. Yet, should a fly presume to settle on the silken folds of their gilded um- brellas, should a sunbeam penetrate through some un- guarded and imperceptible chink, they deplore their intol- erable hardships." — Amm. Marcell., lib. xiv, 6 ; xxviii, 4. A people so sunken in efl"eminacy and sloth were not very formidable to the sturdy warriors of the north. Ho- norius had retreated to Ravenna, a place much stronger by its natural defenses than Rome. The senate sent a deputa- tion to Alaric, with a message, that if he exacted harsh con- ditions he might drive them to despair, and would then find them an innumerable host of well-discipHned foes. " The thicker the hay the easier it is mowed," was the contempt- uous reply of the Gothic king. He demanded all their gold and silver, all their precious movables, and all their foreign slaves. " What then will you leave us ?" asked the help- less Romans. *' Your lives'' was the concise reply. INTRODUCTION OF VARIOUS SUPERSTITIONS. 43 The city itself was thus spared for the present : but the following year, A. D. 410, Alaric again appeared before its walls, enraged at some insults offered his subjects by the creatures of Honorius ; and the gate being treacherously opened, his army entered at midnight, to begin such a work of spoliation and savage cruelty as Rome had not witnessed since Romulus laid its foundations, eleven hundred and sixty-three years before. Innocent was now bishop of the Church, and his pres- ence had some influence in mitigating the horrors of the calamity. The sack of the city continued only for six days, and, besides the comparative shortness of this period, sev- eral instances of moderation distinguished the conduct of Alaric, which may perhaps be properly ascribed to the re- spect he felt for the bishop, as at least the representative of the Christian religion. He manifested the profoundest regard for the clergy and the places of worship ; and when Innocent, who had fled with his royal master to Ravenna, came upon an embassy to conciliate the conqueror, Alaric courteously directed that he should be guarded on his re- turn by a detachment of Gothic soldiers. The Goths were by no means wholly an idolatrous people at this time. On the contrary, Christianity had made con- siderable progress among them. Already they had their own bishops, and the Scriptures translated into their own tongue. A copy of the Gospels in the Gothic language, supposed by some to be the original written by Ulphilas, the translator, is still preserved in the University of Upsal, and is called the " silver manuscript," because it is written in letters of silver on a purple groimd. When the Goths became a settled people, and fixed their habitations in Ger- many, Italy, Spain, and France, they generally adopted the religion of the people whom they had subdued. Thus it was that the ecclesiastical institutions in these several coun- tries were comparatively unaffected by the great political and social revolutions that were taking place. The power 44 LIVES OF THE POPES. of the bishops continued unimpaired, or rather, perhaps, it was increased by the superstitious veneration which the more ignorant Goths felt for men who laid claim to such superior sanctity and learning. The authority of the Ro- man bishop, or patriarch, also, was still undisputed by the Churches of the west, and Innocent exercised it in several instances, although on questions of little importance. A difference of opinion, for example, having arisen among the Spanish bishops respecting the fasting-days, which, now that fasting was regarded as a meritorious service, had be- come very frequent. Innocent took upon himself to decide that Saturday as well as Friday should be observed for this purpose. CHAPTER V. THE CONTROVERSIAL AGE FREQUENT APPEALS TO THE ROMAN BISHOP. — A. D. 417-432. On the accession of Zosimus to the patriarchate, in. 4 17, matters of far greater moment were referred to the tribunal of Rome. The controversy which sprang up in the African Church between Augustine and Pelagius, respecting the freedom of the human will, and the necessity of divine grace to secure the salvation of the soul, had created much bitterness of feeling. The doctrines of Pelagius had been strongly condemned by the Churches of Northern Africa, over which Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, exercised a paramount influence. Pelagius, therefore, resolved to ap- peal to the Patriarch of Rome, and in the autumn of 416 his disciple and coadjutor, Ccelestius, crossed over to Italy for the purpose of pleading their cause against the African clergy. On bringing the matter before the new bishop, a man probably of eastern descent and education, Ccelestius found it hard to convince him that the subject in dispute THE CONTROVERSIAL AGE. 45 was one of much consequence. However, the eloquence of the pleader, combined with the indifference of the judge, produced a decision in favor of Pelagius. Zosimus wrote to the African bishops, reproaching them for misunder- standing or misrepresenting a good and orthodox Christian. He also showed the imperious spirit which had already taken possession of the Roman Church, by decreeing that unless a successful accuser of Coelestius and Pelagius should appear in Rome within two months, no one for the future should presume to question their orthodoxy. The pretensions thus set up by Rome were not yet, how- ever, tamely admitted. The African bishops, influenced by Augustine, protested against the patriarch's decision, and affirmed that he had been deceived by Coelestius. They then drew up nine canons, which directly contradicted the doctrines of Pelagius, and proceeded to make exertions at the imperial court to get their views sanctioned by the civil power. Zosimus was too undecided in his own convictions to maintain his ground against this array of opposition, and commanded Coelestius to appear again to undergo a fresh examination. Coelestius foresaw the result, and hastily fled from Rome ; upon which Zosimus gave sentence against him, and issued a circular letter, denouncing Coelestius and Pe- lagius as heretics, and declaring the doctrines of Augustine and the African bishops to be the doctrine of the whole Church. Devoid of all shame at his temporizing pohcy, notwithstanding the suddenness of his own recantation, and in spite of the palpable fallibility of his own judgment, the Roman patriarch required all the bishops of the west to subscribe the same declaration, and many who refused were deprived of their office, and banished from their Churches. So tyrannical was the spirit that already ruled at Rome. Long after the death of Zosimus, and indeed through both the episcopates of his successors, Boniface and Celes- tine, the Pelagian heresy continued to cause a great de- gree of agitation, especially among the western Churches. 46 LIVES OF THE POPES. Nevertheless, Boniface found leisure to attempt the exten- sion of his influence over the Christian world — a matter generally of much greater consequence to the bishops of Rome than the settlement of theological truth. He assert- ed that the new Churches established in the countries to the east of Italy belonged to his jurisdiction, rather than to that of the Patriarch of Constantinople. The success which attended these efforts was but partial, but in this jealousy between the two metropolitan bishops we may discern the origin of that great schism which ultimately rent asundei the Roman and Greek Churches. Celestine, who followed Boniface in 423, found ample occupation in nicely steering his course through that bois- terous sea of controversy which now overflowed the world. Although the creed of Augustine had been adopted by the Roman bishop, it was far from obtaining general accept- ance, and was stoutly rejected by most of the clergy of France. These held their course midway between Pela- gius and Augustine; and their chief advocate, Cassian, ab- bot of Marseilles, taught the unscriptural doctrine, that while human nature is corrupt, and needs divine grace to renew and make it holy, yet that all, without exception, will eventually receive that grace, and be saved- by its puri- fying power. The controversy was tedious, and the oppo- nents of Cassian at length resorted to the method, now growing common, of appealing to the Roman tribunal. Celestine published his decision in 431, in a letter addressed to the bishops of France. In that letter he complains that presbyters should presume to agitate foolish and curious questions in opposition to their bishops, and rebukes the latter for not maintaining their superior authority. He clearly enough enforces that capital doctrine of Rome, the necessity of complete subordination among the inferior func- tionaries of the Church ; but his sentiments on the point in dispute are so vaguely expressed that we need not be sur- prised at their producing no effect. The agitation of these THE CONTROVERSIAL AGE. 47 subtile questions did not subside till many changes had taken place, both in the empire and in the Church. The position which the Roman See now assumed in rela- tion to those of Constantinople and Alexandria, is clearly illustrated by the behavior of C destine during the Nestorian controversy, which in his time convulsed the whole society of the east. Nestorius, a man of greater probity than prudence, was transferred, late in life, from a cloister near Antioch to the patriarchal throne of Constantinople, for only by so lofty a title can the grandeur of that bishopric in the fifth century be properly expressed. Long before this, diflferences of opinion had arisen in the east respecting the true nature of Christ — some contending that there was a perfect union in him of the human and divine natures ; others, that the two natures were separate, and that Christ differed from other men in being enriched by the indwelHng of the Deity. The clergy of Alexandria, and throughout Egypt, maintained the former view, but, goveraed by the feverish passion for doing honor to saints and martyrs, they distinguished the , Virgin Mary as the mother of God. This phrase became I the battle-cry of the party, because the use of it gave par- / ticular offense to their opponents, who asserted that, al- though Mary was the mother of Christ, she could in no sense be styled the mother of God. To the latter party belonged Nestorius when he was elevated to the See of Con- stantinople, and he immediately began to employ his high influence for the suppression of what he regarded as the erroneous doctrine and blasphemous practice of the Alex- andrian theologians. But in this attempt he met with the fiercest opposition : for the Alexandrian view had already become popular in many Churches of the east ; and Cyiil, the lordly and as- piring Bishop of Alexandria, openly denounced Nestorius as a heretic, who disparaged the real divinity of the Saviour. At length. the controversy grew so hot that it was evident 48 LIVES OF THE POPES. one party or the other must be crushed. Cyiil, bent on humbhng Nestorius, and perhaps jealous of his greater weight in the councils of the east, resolved to obtain the aid of the Roman patriarch. He accordingly addressed a letter to Celestine, containing a very unfair report of the course pursued by Nestorius, and written in so flattering a style as to be tolerably sure of success. Cyril professed to leave the whole matter in the hands of the Roman bishop, and besought his interference on the ground that this only could harmonize the unhappy dissensions of the Church. Celestine was already unfavorably disposed toward his eastern rival in patriarchal dominion, because of the bold and independent attitude which Nestorius ever maintained in relation to Rome, and therefore seized with avidity the opportunity thus offered him of humbhng his brother pre- late before the whole Church. With an arrogance hardly equaled by any of his predecessors, but which was unhap- pily destined to become characteristic of the Roman See, he actually decreed, that if Nestorius did not send to Rome a written recantation of his errors within ten days of his re- ceiving the sentence, he should be excommunicated from the Church, and no longer recognized as patriarch. The execution of this presumptuous decree, as if to aggravate the insult, he committed to Cyril. To compose the various strifes of the Church, and the Nestorian schism among the rest, the Emperor Theodo- sius II. issued an order, A. D. 430, for a general council of bishops to assemble at Ephesus. The Egyptian clergy mustered in large numbers, and the partisans of Nestorius were probably intimidated by the declining popularity of their leader, whose impetuosity and imprudence had raised him many enemies in the Constantinopolitan court. Celes- tine did not attend the council himself, but he gave orders to it to follow in all respects the directions of Cyril. Thus the current had set in strongly against the eastern patriarch ; so that when Nestorius arrived at Ephesus he was filled THE CONTROVERSIAL AGE. 49 with dismay, and, believing that his very hfe was in jeop- ardy, he demanded from the civil magistrate a guard of soldiers to defend his person and his house. It was of course an easy matter for Cyril to obtain from a council so composed whatever decision he wished for, and Nestorius was formally and quickly deposed. But when the circumstances were made known to the emperor, he was so satisfied of the unfairness of all the proceedings that he refused to ratify its decision. Cyril then had recourse to artifice, resolving at all hazards to accomplish the down- fall of his enemy. There was living in Constantinople a monk, named Dal- matius, who had acquired great renown for his sanctity, having never once quitted his cell for the space of forty- eight years. The emperor himself had sometimes visited him, to receive his advice or his exhortations. The opinions of this monk had always been opposed to the doctrine of Nestorius, and he was in the habit of saying to his disciples : " Take heed, my brethren ; for an e\i\ beast has come into this city, and he may hurt some of you with his doctrines." This man appeared to Cyril a very proper instrument to aid him in his purpose. He therefore wrote an account of the proceedings of the council, and the emperor's refusal to ratify them, and, inclosing the document in a hollow reed, sent it by the hands of a beggar to the cell of the recluse. Such a missive, addressed to such a man, was as a spark of fire falling on gunpowder. Dalmatius received the mes- sage as a summons from Heaven. He straightway forsook his cell, and was soon surrounded by a multitude of monks and abbots, who came forth from cave and cloister to save the Church from impending ruin, in the continued govern- ment of a heretical bishop. Brandishing flaming torches, and chanting strains breathing the most indignant and hos- tile spirit, this procession of priests advanced to the impe- rial palace. Admitted to the emperor's presence, Dalma- tius boldly demanded of the monarch to whom he would 3 50 LIVES OF THE POPES. give ear — to the six thousand bishops of the whole Chris- tian Church, or to one godless man ? Wearied by impor- tunities, if not awed by priestly assumptions, the emperor at length consented that the partisans of Cyril should come to Constantinople and plead their cause before himself. Dalmatius and his followers then marched in triumph to a Church, where the news of his success was received by the people with loud shouts of " Anathema to Nestorius !" The untiring enmity of Cyril soon afterward wholly tri- umphed, and Nestorius was commanded to return to his cloister — a decree which was regarded as a victory no less by the Patriarch of Rome, who rejoiced in the humiliation of a powerful rival, than by Cyril himself, to whose perse- verance and artifice it was principally due. CHAPTER VI. AGE OF LEO THE GREAT MISSION OF PATRICK "COUNCIL OF ROBBERS." A. D. 432-449. Of Sixtus III., who in 432 succeeded Celestine, history makes but slight mention. An event happened, however, in connection with the Roman Church, during his life, and partly during his episcopate, of more than ordinary interest to the English reader. This was the mission of Patrick, since canonized as the tutelary saint of his adopted country, to convert the idolaters of Ireland. The Irish, like the ancient Britons, adhered to the super- stitions of Druidism ; and the horrid rites of their worship, such as the sacrifices of children to Com-cruach, the Mo- loch of Ireland, continued in use to a much later period among them than in Britain. It was about the year 403, when Patrick was sixteen years of age, that he was seized by pirates upon the coast of France, or, as some say, Scot- land, and carried away captive to Ireland, Sold as a slave AGE OF LEO THE GREAT. 51 to a native chieftain, Patrick became the herdsman of his flocks. In his soHtary rambles through forests and over mountains, the instructions which he had received in child- hood from his pious father, the deacon of a Church, proved suitable and impressive themes for reflection. He felt that his captivity was designed to be a blessing to his soul, by bringing him to a thorough faith in the Redeemer, and through this into fellowship with God. Escaping, after some years, from his bondage, he found his way back to his native land. Here his thoughts often reverted to the idolatrous and cruel rites he had so frequently witnessed with abhoiTence in Ireland. In dreams by night, and in meditations by day, the conviction thrust itself upon him, that he was called to attempt the rescue of the poor benighted race among whom he had dwelt from a spiritual thraldom, of which his own captivity was only a feeble type. About the same time Celestine had appointed a Roman presbyter, named Pallu- dius, to proceed to Ireland, for the purpose of gathering together and instructing those scattered professors of Chris- tianity who had been converted by occasional intercourse with French or British Christians, and who were largely tinctured with Pelagian views. Palludius, however, died without accomplishing much, and now Patrick, who had made his desires known at Rome, was commissioned to succeed him. Patrick landed at Dubhn, which was even then a port of considerable repute, in 432, the year of Sixtus's acces- sion. Conversant with the language and manners of the people, and earnest in his work, his success was even be- yond his hopes. A chieftain shortly became a convert, and proved a faithful auxiliary and a powerful protector to his teacher. In a large barn belonging to this chief Patrick preached to crowded audiences every day, and his disciples rapidly increased. Large concourses of people were also assembled in the open air by the sound of the drum. At 52 LIVES OF THE POPES. the approach of Easter, the zealous missionary deteiinined on a pubhc celebration of the ceremonies which in that age were usually observed at this festival. It was the time of year when the princes of the whole kingdom assembled in council at the ancient city of Tara. On Easter-eve, a pagan festival was also to be kept, and it was a law that no fires should be lighted on that night till the great fire in the pal- ace of Tara was kindled. But early in this eventful evening the flames of a large fire were beheld by the astonished princes ascending from the hill of Tara. It was the pas- chal-fire, lighted by the hands of Patrick. Inquiry was in- stantly made, and the Christian apostle was summoned into the royal presence, where he gladly availed himself of so good an occasion for denouncing the cruel superstitions of the Druids, and preaching, it may be hoped, salvation only by Christ. Patrick continued his labors in Ireland for more than thirty years, founding many Churches, and giving an im- pulse also to civilization and learning, which led to the Irish taking rank, some centuries later, with the most enlightened of the European nations. Although many, indeed most of the legends of this remarkable man, are doubtless to be re- jected as utterly unworthy of belief, he is certainly among the few who deserve a place in the great catalogue of saints, which veneration, superstition, and priestcraft, have con- jointly compiled. Sixtus III. did not live to witness the final success of Patrick's labors in Ireland ; for, in 440, we find Leo I. oc- cupying the patriarchal, or as it may now fitly be called, the papal chair of Rome. Leo, called afterward the Great, was a man admirably adapted to the troublous times in which his lot was cast. He was, indeed, a far greater man in all quahties of intellect than any of his predecessors. His will was imperious, yet his passions were kept under control. His understanding was capacious, and his inven- tion of resources equal to all emergencies. , With these AGE OF LEO THE GREAT. 53 commanding powers, he set himself to work with great en- ergy to enlarge those boundaries which had circumscribed the authority and crippled the domination of his forerun- ners. He was the first boldly to assert that the Bishop of Rome was the only primate of the universal Church, and based his assertion on our Lord's address to the apostle Peter, " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church." The pretensions of the Patriarch of Constanti- nople to be accounted his equal in dignity he scouted as a profane usurpation. Himself the first of a series of pontifical laborers, who appeared at intervals to build up and con- solidate the papal edifice, Leo may be said to have laid the foundation of that supremacy to which the popedom ulti- mately attained. The age of Leo was eminently one of turbulence and strife. To the empires, both the eastern and the western, but particularly the latter, innumerable omens foreboded a speedy dissolution. In the Church, the fever of contro- versy raged with unprecedented violence, leaving when it passed away the seeds of many diseases, which continued to infect the ecclesiastical system down to the Reformation. The western Churches were still agitated by the conten- tions that sprang out of Pelagianism and its numerous oflf- shoots. In these controversies, Leo, who was a profound theologian, took a very conspicuous part ; and the work generally ascribed to his pen', on "The Calling of all Na- tions," is not only to be regarded as a masterpiece of log- ical skill, but must also receive the praise of having greatly allayed the fierce animosities that prevailed. But if some of Leo's exertions were directed to the pro- motion of peace among the Churches under his care, he displayed, on the other hand, so determined a resolution to increase the authority of his see, that he excited the most angry and indignant reflections fi-om many of his brethren in office. When, for instance, Hilary, Archbishop of Aries, had suspended, by the consent of a synod, the Bishop Ce- 54 LIVES OF THE POPES. lidon from all his episcopal functions, the latter resolved on appealing to Leo, and, to receive a favorable hearing, lost no time in proceeding to Rome. His appeal was success- ful, for he so deceived the Roman patriarch that the de- cree of Hilary was reversed. Hilary hastened to Rome to make a personal representation of the case, but finding the mind of Leo too far prejudiced in Celidon's favor to allow any hope of altering his decision, the archbishop intimated his intention of returning immediately to Aries. At this Leo was incensed, interpreting Hilary's withdrawal from Rome as signifying a resolution to act independently of his authority. He therefore caused, the archbishop to be im- prisoned, saying, *' He who dares to dispute the primacy of Peter will find himself wholly unable to lessen that dig- nity ; but, puffed up by the spirit of his own pride, he will plunge himself deep into hell." Thus Leo presumed to exclude from the kingdom of heaven any one who refused to submit to the spiritual domination of the Pope. Nor were Leo's attempts to aggrandize the papal power confined to the Churches of the west. The east was now on fire with the monophysite heresy, or the doctrine that Christ's nature was absolutely one ; and Leo interfered, in the hope of quenching the flames. Nestorius, Cyril, and Dalmatius had, indeed, disappeared from the stage of con- troversy and of life, but other actors had taken their va- cant posts. Dioscurus represented Cyril at Alexandria, and Eutyches was the successor of Dalmatius at Constantinople. Flavian, who had been elevated to the throne of Nestorius, attempted to moderate the vehemence of the contending parties, but with very indifferent success. The emperor, Theodosius II., favored the Alexandrian party, and caused a second council to be convened at Ephesus, for the express purpose of condemning all who refused to subscribe to their creed. He took great care that none should be admitted to the council who would be likely to thwart his design. Even Flavian, patriarch of the imperial city, whose position AGE OF LEU THE GREAT. 55 seemed almost to entitle him to the favor of his prince, was compelled to attend this council, not as its president, nor even to vote in its decisions, but as a petitioner at its bar. To complete the iniquity of the plot, Dioscurus was made president, and, as in the former council, the chief accuser was constituted the judge. The acts of this council were such as might be expected, and earned for it from Leo the just appellation of " The Council of Robbers," a name which has adhered to it ever since. The cathedral in which they met was surrounded with troops of soldiers at the beck of Dioscurus. If any of the bishops dared to commence a defense of the two-fold nature of the Redeemer, he was stopped by loud and un- dignified shouts, full of acrimony and rage. " He is a ISTes- torius ! He has cut asunder Christ, let him be cut asunder ! Burn him, burn him alive !" were some of the cries of this theological mob. In the end, all the bishops who refused to sign the Alexandrian, or monophysite creed, were sen- tenced to be instantly deposed. When Flavian's name was included, some ventured to remonstrate. " Do you mean to raise a sedition ?" cried the furious Dioscurus — " Where are the soldiers f Forthwith the cathedral was filled by the swarms of soldiers and monks who had hitherto besieged the doors, armed with staves, chains, and swords. The trembling bishops hid themselves behind the altar and un- der the benches, and soon consented to sign a hlanTc paper, w^hich was afterward filled with Flavian's sentence of depo- sition. It is said that Flavian himself was reviled, buffeted, and trampled upon by his brother Bishop of Alexandria, and died the third day after, from the wounds and bruises he had received. To this " Council of Robbers " Leo had sent by deputies the copy of an elaborate epistle, which he had previously addressed to Flavian, respecting the true doctrine of Christ's nature ; but although the legates made several attempts to have the letter read, the bishops were too far committed to 56 LIVES OF THE POPES. a diflferent creed, and too infuriated by party rage, to listen to a document which eventually became a standard of or- thodoxy on this subject. Amid such controversies it could not be expected that the spirit of genuine Christianity could flourish. The fruits of love, joy, and peace, long-suffering and gentleness, which mark the true believer, disappeared amid the bitterness of theological rancor; an unholy zeal was substituted for true conversion of heart. Those too who ought to have been examples to the flock became em- inent only for their ungodliness. To professors of such a character in every age, — to all, in short, who substitute de- pendence on any form of creed, however accurate, for a liv- ing faith in the righteousness of the Saviour, may appropri- ately be recalled the solemn warning of our Lord : " Many will say to me in that day. Lord, Lord, have we not proph- esied in thy name ? . . . . And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." CHAPTER VII. AGE OF LEO THE GREAT BARBARIAN INVASIONS CORRUP- TIONS MULTIPLIED. A. D. 449-461. The indignation of Leo knew no bounds when he heard of the infamous decrees of this infamous assembly. He de- nounced its theological decisions as heretical, declared that an unpardonable insult had been offered the Roman Church, and refused to acknowledge the new Patriarch of Constan- tinople, until he had assented to and signed the letter which he had himself addressed to his predecessor on the topic of debate. Although the Emperor Theodosius, fearful of a rupture between the eastern and western Churches, called another council at Chalcedon (the modern Scutari), at which he invited the Roman patriarch to attend, Leo thought it not consistent with his dignity to be present in person ; but AGK OF LEO THE GREAT. 5*7 he sent legates, and by their influence the letter which he had formerly addressed to Flavian was accepted as the basis of the creed of the universal Church. The doctrine of Leo is still embodied in the second article of the Church of England, and is in accordance with the views almost unanimously entertained by evangelical Christendom. Di- oscurus and his associates received at this council a just retribution for their cruelty to Flavian, being severally de- posed from the offices they had held in the Church. While ecclesiastics were waging this bitter strife of words, the empire was reeling under the fearful shocks of a new and indomitable foe. The Goths and their alhes, indeed, were no longer hostile, but had quietly settled for the pres- ent in the western and northern parts of Europe. New kingdoms had sprung up, and the descendants of Alaric and his followers now sat upon thrones which they had erected for themselves, and governed a partly civilized peo- ple, established between the Rhine and the sea. But the Roman empire was destined to be assailed by many such savage hordes. " Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar Has Scythia breathed the living cloud of war ; And, where the deluge burst, with sweepy sway Their arms, their kings, their gods, were roU'd away. As oft have issued, host impelling host, The blue-eyed myriads from the Baltic coast. The prostrate south to the destroyer yields Her boasted titles and her golden fields : With grim delight the brood of winter view A brighter day, and heavens of azure hue ; Scent the new fragrance of the breathing rose, And quaff the pendent vintage as it grows." — Gray. Nations fiercer than the Goths had now paused for a while, in their march from the northeast, to found a king- dom on the plains of Hungary, till, their borders becoming too strait for them, they looked with eager eyes upon the fertile plains that lay beyond the Alps. The leader of the 3* 58 LIVES OF THE POPES. Huns was Attila, whose relentless cruelty in war entitled him to the dreadful name of " The Scourge of God." He was in person a finished example of the Calmuc Tartar race to which he belonged. His head was large, his complexion swarthy, his eyes small and sunken, his nose flat, his body short, square, broad-shouldered, of ungainly appearance, but of enormous strength. The fierce rolling of his eyes indicated the wild passions that possessed his soul. Such physical endowments were well adapted to give him su- premacy among the savage tribes he led. He was, beside, of royal birth, so that the influence he enjoyed over the Huns was unbounded. For a long time that barbarous people, dangerous both as friends and as foes, had been kept in a sort of alliance with Rome, by the payment of large presents, from year to year, which Attila regarded as nothing less than tribute. On one occasion, when the presents were not forthcoming at the appointed time, he sent an ambassador to the emperor with the insolent mes- sage, "Attila, my lord, and thy lord, commands thee to provide a palace for his immediate acceptance." So much rudeness was the inevitable precursor of aggression. For a time the evil day was deferred, but an occasion at length off'ered which brought the Huns into direct collision with the fast declining, yet still colossal power of Rome. A dispute had occurred between two Gothic princes set- tled in France, in which one of them sought the aid of At- tila, the other the support of the emperor. The plains of Champagne, which extend more than fifty miles in every direction from the ancient city of Chalons, were the ap- pointed battle-field, and toward this the combatants moved all the forces they could command. Here were assembled, under Attila, all the barbarians of Scythia who had lately passed into Europe, Huns, Rugians, Franks, Burgundians, and the rest ; while the settled and more ancient population of Europe raUied around the standard of ^tius, the Roman general. It was a memorable epoch, on which the Chris- AGE OF LEU THE GKEAT. 59 tian cannot look back without intense interest, though much saddened by the view which it affords him of the degrada- tion of humanity when unvisited by the gospel. At the issue of this great conflict it is impossible not to feel grati- tude and joy, much as we may deplore and execrate the horrors of the conflict itself. The struggle between ^tius and Attila was the crisis of civilization and barbarism. Had the Scythian prevailed, the tide of barbarism must have overflowed all Europe, sweeping away every trace of ancient refinement. Christianity herself would have received a staggering, though not a mortal blow. But, happily, it was otherwise ordained. On the day of battle Attila behaved like an infuriated lion. " I, myself," said he, " will hurl the first spear, and the wretch shall die who refuses to follow my example." But the personal prowess of one man was of little avail. His comparatively undisciplined hordes at length gave way before the caution and military skill of -<^tius and Theodoric, his Gothic ally. The number of the slain in this awful bat- tle, " unparalleled in all ages," said the warriors themselves, "for its fierce, various, obstinate, and bloody encounters," is differently estimated ; some stating it at one hundred and sixty-two thousand, and others as many as three hundred thousand. It was at least so disastrous as to compel the retirement of Attila ; and the battle of Chalons decided that the nations already settled in Europe, and partly Christianized, should retain their possessions, and that the established institutions of society should not be rudely swept into oblivion by one devastating hurricane. But though repulsed at Chalons, Attila was far from being crushed, and in the year 452 he resolved on crossing the Alps, and invading Italy itself. The enervated Ital- ians, quite unable to cope with so fierce an enemy, either fled before him or yielded at discretion. Aquileia, Padua, Milan, Pavia, submitted to pillage and rapine, thankful at such a cost to save their walls and roofs from the flames. 60 LIVES OF THE POPES. Many wealthy families flying before the invader took refuge, with what property they could carry, on a number of small islands lying at the head of the Adriatic Gulf, and here formed themselves into a new community, which eventually became the prosperous republic of Venice. It need hardly be said that Leo could not look on all these disastrous events as an unmoved spectator. The in- habitants of Rome now trembled for their own safety, and to conciliate the conqueror the emperor dispatched the Roman patriarch to gain the best terms he could ; a mis- sion which Leo readily undertook. He had been bred in courts, and, in addition to his other gifts, was endowed with all a statesman's talent. He soon succeeded in prevailing on Attila to withdraw from Italy, though not till the bar- barian had received Honoria, the emperor's sister, in mar- riage, with an immense sum of money as her dowry. The invasion of the Huns was followed, ere long, by the assaults of the Vandals, under Genseric, a leader second only to Attila in courage and daring ambition. But this time the tide of barbarious invasion set in from the south. Nearly twenty years had elapsed since Boniface, the Ro- man general in the African provinces, had revolted from his allegiance, and invited the Vandals, who had already overspread Spain, to cross the Straits of Gibraltar, and aid him in his rebellion. The Spaniards beheld with joy the departure of their ruthless spoilers ; and the Vandals hast- ened not so much to help Boniface, as to enrich themselves with the acquisition of a fair and fertile country. The seven provinces of Northern Africa, stretching from Tangier to Tripoli, had long been reckoned among the most valuable possessions of Rome — its storehouse in seasons of famine, and the ample receptacle of its redundant population. By the prowess of Genseric the provinces were soon wrested from the enfeebled Roman arms, while the flourishing vine- yards and stately edifices which had long adorned them were recklessly laid waste and destroyed by his savage followers. AGE OF LEO THE GREAT. 61 And now that the ravages of Attila had weakened, al- most to helplessness, the imperial government, Genseric re- solved to extend his conquests and depredations to the mother country. Rapidly constructing a navy, he shipped a large army of Vandals and Moors across the Mediterra- nean, and anchored at the mouth of the Tiber, in the spring of 455. Advancing upon the defenseless capital, he was met by an unarmed procession of the inhabitants, headed by the Pontiflf Leo, clothed in the priest-like robes of his of- fice. Leo had little hope of succeeding this time in entire- ly averting the vengeance of the assailant ; but his impo- sing appearance and persuasive eloquence softened the bar- barian's heart, and the Vandal king promised to spare both the city and its inhabitants the horrors of fire and sword. But the houses of the citizens were remorselessly pillaged, and, for fourteen days and nights, rapacity, avarice, and lust, raged with unchecked fury. The churches afibrded the richest booty to the spoilers, and after their departure Leo himself caused six silver vases, the gift of Constantine, each of a hundred pounds' weight, to be melted down to repair the losses sustained — an evidence at once of the enormous wealth already acquired by the Roman Church, and of the immense booty which the barbarians must have secured. Genseric also carried back with him to Africa the gold and silver vessels, including the seven-branched candlestick, which Titus had saved in the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem. Although Leo was thus a witness of the humiliations to which the Roman empire was subjected in its decay, he did not hve to behold its final rum. He died in 461, after holding the papal ojfice for the unusually long period of twenty-one years. Very singular and very instructive is the spectacle of a Church rising to greater power amid the decline and the dying throes of the mightiest empire this world has ever seen. Each abstraction of authority from the secular gov- 62 LIVES OF THE POPES. eminent contributed to increase and strengthen that of the spiritual. As the emperors sank, the popes rose, first to great influence, and then to absolute dominion. And never was man better fitted than Leo the Great to take advan- tage of such a crisis. He attended, in turn, to all the de- mands upon his energies. He checked refractory bishops, and controlled or dictated to pusillanimous sovereigns. His eagle eye at once scanned the horizon, and attentively watched the region beneath his feet. Careful to maintain his claims of spiritual supremacy at Alexandria and Con- stantinople, he at the same time took pains to consolidate and perfect the system of papal jurisdiction and authority nearer home. In particular, he so altered the terms on which penitent offenders niight be readmitted to the bosom of the Church, as to enlarge almost indefinitely the limits of priestly power. It had been customary, from an early age, for backsliders and excommunicated persons to acknowledge their offenses in public, and in public to undergo the long and painful penances, lasting sometimes for years, which were the condition of their reentrance to the Church. But Leo introduced the practice of private confession to the priest alone, whose judgment and will thenceforth became the sole tribunal of transgressors. Penances imposed in private might as privately be discharged. The wholesome check of public opinion was utterly destroyed. An avaricious priest might be bribed into collusion with crime ; an ambi- tious priest might tyrannize at will over the wounded and tender conscience. The tremendous pov^er which this change threw into the hands of the priesthood, and the perilous temptations to which it exposed them, have often been descanted on, and Leo has not improperly been said to have laid in this institution the great corner-stone of the entire papal fabric. * The Roman Church had now undergone such changes, in both its spiritual and its temporal aspect, that it can AGE OF LEO THE GREAT. 6^ hardly be recognized with propriety as a Christian com- munion, or be identified in any of its features with that simple-minded and faithful band of disciples to whom the apostle of the Gentiles addressed his most elaborate epistle, and from whom it derived its origin. In its long conflicts with paganism, it had, indeed, succeeded in exterminating the old idolatry, but not in eradicating the superstitions which idolatry had so thickly sown. On the contrary, these corruptions were, in many instances, grafted upon Scriptural ordinances, and were thus perpetuated by the Church itself. In their eagerness to multiply converts, the Roman bishops early lost the true idea of conversion, and substituted for it a merely nominal change of faith. They no longer demanded of candidates for baptism some satis- factory evidence of a heart renewed by the Spirit of God, but were content with a verbal adoption of the orthodox creed, and a promise to conform to the regulations of the Church. This fearful corruption paved the way for a mul- titude of othei-s, and led to the sanction of many heathenish customs, for the sake of conciliating those to whom they were familiar habits. Thus, prayers were offered in behalf of the dead ; and with the singular inconsistency of a religion derived from opposite sources, prayers were also presented to the dead. The intercessions of glorified saints and martyrs, and espe- cially of the Virgin Mary, were sought for in profane con- junction with the intercessions of him who is alone appointed as the *' Mediator between God and men." Pagan temples, instead of being destroyed, were converted into Christian churches ; the altars of Moloch were changed into the al- tars of Christ ; and even the heathen statues and festivals were continued under some new name, being now often employed to commemorate the fame of a fabulous saint instead of a fabulous divinity. Not all of these abuses, however, owed their birth to a pagan parentage ; manv of them sprang from the natural 64 LIVKS OF THE POPES. tendencies of the human heart, or originated in the Jewish predilections of the primitive Church. To the former may be ascribed that veneration of saints and martyrs, which degenerated ere long into an absurd superstition, a rever- ence for places, pictures, images, relics, and days. To Jewish notions must be attributed the construction of churches on the plan of the ancient temple, having a " sanctuary," a '' most holy place," and an " altar ;" and finally, the designation of the Lord's supper by the name of the " Christian sacrifice." Other errors combined with the foregoing to destroy the apostolic purity and simplicity of worship. Baptism was regarded as synonymous with spiritual regeneration ; the Lord's supper was believed to convey the very nature of Christ to the soul of the partaker; and purgatorial fires were supposed to perfect, in another world, the spiritual purifications which had only been begun in this. Thus the germs of all those corruptions in doctrine which have given the Papacy its " bad eminence" in history, were already beginning to be developed when Leo the Great occupied the papal throne. The control which the Pope now exer- cised over other bishops; the firm grasp which the new mode of confession gave the priesthood upon the minds of the laity ; the imposing splendor and pomp of the public services of rehgion, united with the other elements of de- formity already portrayed, concurred to give the Roman hierarchy those hideous features of The Antichrist, which grew more and more revolting as ages rolled away. Proph- ecy had now in part received its fulfillment ; there had come a falling away, and the man of sin had been revealed — " the son of perdition ; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." THE GOTHIC PERIOD. 65 CHAPTER VIIL THE GOTHIC PERIOD CALAMITIES WHICH BEFELL THE ITALIAN CITIES. — A. D. 475-568. The immediate successors of Leo were not men of any- considerable note. Hilary, Simplicius, Felix II., and Gelasius, followed faithfully in the track which the gen- ius of Leo had marked out for the elevation of the Roman See, so far as their abilities enabled them. But they had fallen on evil days. The Goths, having settled themselves in Spain and France, had converted those ancient members of the empire into independent kingdoms. Next, looking with sinister eye upon the Italian plains, they ingratiated themselves with the feeble emperors, and from being their allies soon found means of becoming their masters. The story of the quarrels between the Goths and the Romans would be tedious, and is not intimately connected with our present theme. It will be enough to bear in mind, that from the year 475 may be dated the entire subversion of the ancient empire, and the commencement of a new but short-lived dynasty. Odoacer, a rude Gothic soldier, held his court at Rome. The Goths were professedly Christians ; but, being of the Arian party, they had little sympathy with the Roman Church, and but little veneration for the established institu- tions of the people they had subdued. It taxed all the in- genuity of the popes in these difficult times to maintain their position at home, and they had not much leisure to attend to the foreign relations of the Church. Still, when opportunity oiTered, they manifested unabated jealousy of the rival claims of the eastern patriarch, and Pope FeHx II. and Acacius of Constantinople mutually excommunicated each other. At home, the fast declining state of commerce 66 LIVES OF THE POPES. and agriculture, the perpetual apprehension of pillage from their Gothic tyrants, and the rapid decrease of the popula- tion, all tended to diminish the revenues of the Church. Gelasius deplored that in his time some of the districts of Italy, formerly the most fertile and populous, were reduced almost to desolation. So lamentable a state of affairs, in so lovely a region, at once aroused the compassion and tempted the cupidity of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, whose kingdom was then seated on the banks of the Danube. Theodoric had re- ceived a liberal education at the court of Constantinople, and he now proposed to the eastern emperor, Zeno, to con- quer Italy for him, and to hold it as his deputy. The em- peror was eager to accept the offer, and indeed it is conjec- tured by some that he suggested the enterprise. Theo- doric obtained an easy conquest, and although nominally holding his authority from the eastern court, he succeeded in establishing a really independent kingdom on the banks of the Tiber, which continued to subsist to the time of the Emperor Justinian. Under the reign of Theodoric Italy somewhat revived, and the national enjoyment of prosperity left the popes more leisure for the prosecution of their designs to aggran- dize the Church which they governed. We know little of Anastasil's II. or of Symmachus, but their successors in the popedom appear to have given Theodoric some share of that uneasiness which the ambition of aspiring Church- men has so often occasioned to civil nilers. Theodoric never interfered in the internal affairs of the Church, but, anxious for a real unity between his own kingdom and the eastern empire, he did his utmost to heal the breach which the jealousy of the rival patriarchs had opened, each of them aiming at universal supremacy. The Pope Hormisdas was too haughty to make any concessions whatever to the 'Constantinopolitan bishop ; but on the accession of John I. to the popedom, Theodoric sent him on a special mission to THE GOTHIC PERIOD. 6*7 the imperial capital, to effect, if possible, a union. John, however, displayed the same arrogant spirit, and even de- manded that in the public assemblies a loftier throne should be erected for him than for his brother patriarch, Epiphanius. Theodoric was so incensed when informed of his insolence, that on his returning to Rome he threw him into prison, and kept him there till his death. The popedom of Felix III. is rendered more remarkable than those which just preceded or followed it, by the fame of a man who far surpassed the pontiffs of his time, both in excellence of character and in activity of life. This was Benedict, a native of Norcia, in Italy, who founded the order of monks which still exists under his name. The monastic mode of life had now spread into the west, and both there and in the east was generally perverted to pur- poses of licentiousness and fraud. To remedy these abuses, and to transform the monastery into a school for the Church, were the objects to which Benedict devoted his life. When yet quite a youth he forsook his home, and took up his abode in a solitary cave, where he remained for some years, subsisting always on the coarsest and scantiest fare. He thus gained a great reputation for sanctity, so that multi- tudes flocked to him, to learn in those perilous times — when all they possessed might be taken away at a stroke — how they might still be happy, though under the hard pressure of poverty. Even the rich and the powerful visited him, and many begged him to take charge of their sons, that he might give them suitable instruction. At length he was enabled to found twelve cloisters, in each of which he placed twelve monks under a superior. To these, and to all the other cloisters which he afterward established, he prescribed those rules of hfe which gave the Benedictine order so great a name for holiness, and made it for ages so influential in every country in Europe. The object of these rules was to create a self-denying, watchful, meek, and devout demeanor. Too much stress, however, 68 LIVES OF THE POPES. was laid on the mere outward appearance ; and hence it often came to pass that the head bowed down, the eyes fixed on the earth, and the oft-repeated form of self-accu- sation and condemnation, were the accompaniments of real pride of heart and resolute indulgence in sin. The Bene- dictine rules were, nevertheless, admirably adapted to pro- duce a race of men who should zealously promote, in all circumstances and times, the interests of the Roman See. Capable of enduring much bodily fatigue, devoted to their creed and their Church with an ardor only second to that which they felt for their order, the disciples of Benedict have ever been among the laborious and successful mis- sionaries employed by the popes of Rome. Cotemporary with Benedict was a man of a very dif- ferent class, the learned and celebrated Boethius, who may be justly regarded as the last visible star in the thickly- clouded night that was now setting in upon the mind of Italy. During a long and laborious life, Boethius enjoyed the esteem of the Gothic king Theodoric, and effected something toward diffusing a love of literature and science among his barbarous subjects. But the zeal of Theodoric for the Arian doctrines led him at last to suspect Boethius of plotting against his government, and he stained his repu- tation, and disgraced the close of a prosperous reign, by cruelly putting to death one of his best and noblest ser- vants, together with his venerable relative, the patrician Symmachus. Theodoric died in the year 526, and left a grandson, in his minority, as the heir to his kingdom. Many quarrels ensued between the various branches of his family, and the Gothic power was so rapidly weakened, that the Italian crown became a tempting and promising prize to the gener- ally wakeful eye of foreign ambition. The popes who governed the Church during this un- settled period are totally unworthy of remembrance. Boni- face II. was elected by only a part of the Roman clergy THE GOTHIC PERIOD. 69 in 530, and his rival, Dioscurus, appears to have had an equal share of the suffrages usually sought. But Boniface was secured in his seat by the suspiciously sudden death of Dioscurus, which ended the dispute, and the di\ided allegiance of the Church, about a month after the election had been made. In two years Boniface was no more, and John II. obtained the papal office upon payment of a large sum of money to the young Athalaric, the intemperate and spendthrift successor of Theodoric. John enjoyed his pur- chase little longer than his predecessor had done ; and Agapetus, who followed him, sat on the unsteady throne only a few months. There can be httle doubt that Syl- VERius, the next pontiff, gained the tiara by the same un- worthy means as John II. had employed ; for the Gothic prince, Theodatus, by whose influence he was supported, was a man of the most insatiable avarice, and would un- questionably have disposed of the seat to his own pecuniary advantage. But the pontificate of Sylverius was signalized by events of more than ordinary interest, which fix our attention upon him with somewhat greater curiosity than we can possibly feel respecting those who preceded him. The Emperor Justinian was now the ruler of the eastern empire, and the wisdom of his legislative acts, together with the general prosperity of his reign, produced a histo- rian, Procopius, whose writings throw some lustre over an age which would otherwise have been almost impenetrably obscure, so rapidly was the light of literature vanishing away from the ill-fated nations of Europe. Very early in Justinian's protracted reign his renowned general, Belisarius, had undertaken to rescue the provinces of Africa from that Vandal horde, which, under the name of governing, infested and ravaged them without mercy. This enterprise was crowned with complete success; and having reduced Africa to the allegiance of his sovereign, Belisarius next turned his eyes upon Italy, now groaning under the oppression of Gothic rulers. The successors of Theodoric had quite for- VO LIVES OF THE POPES. gotten his engagement to hold his crown by favor of the eastern court. They did not even affect submission to the emperor, and under their selfish and tyrannical rule the country was reduced to a condition nearly as wretched as at the period of Theodoric's invasion. When Belisarius appeared, then, on the coast of Italy, he was hailed by many as a deliverer, and among these was Sylverius the Pope. After a tedious campaign in Sicily and the south, the Greek general advanced upon Rome in the spring of the year 537. The Goths retreated to the open fields, feeling themselves unable to sustain the siege of the city, and Sylverius, at the head of his clergy, wel- comed the conqueror within the walls. It was now the invader's turn to be besieged. The city was rapidly sur- rounded by the Gothic troops, and the siege continued from March to November. Although every precaution had been taken by Belisarius that his fertile genius and lengthened experience could devise, the hardships of so long a blockade were excessively severe ; and the scarcity and unwholesome- ness of their food, with the prevalence of contagious dis- eases, at last provoked an impatient and murmuring spirit among the citizens, who had now learned of how little con- sequence it was whether their masters bore a Latin or a Gothic name. It was natural that Sylverius, both for his own sake and for that of the people who looked to him as their friend and guide, should wish to put an end to the sufferings this contest produced. But the means he employed bespeak the immorality of the age, and show that the Pope himself was not a whit superior to the rest. He had given his allegiance to the emperor to save himself from trouble — the same motive now induced him to transfer it once more to the Goths. He caused a letter to be conveyed to the Gothic king, Vitiges, offering to open privately the gate ad- joining the Lateran church, and so to admit his troops. This letter was intercepted by a soldier in Belisarius's army, THE GOTHIC PERIOD. 7l and Sylverius was forthwith summoned into the presence of the general whom he had plotted to betray. His own handwriting convicted him, and defense was in vain. He was immediately stripped of his robes, clad in the habit of a monk, and placed on board a vessel bound for the east. This vessel conveyed him to a desolate island on the coast of Asia Minor, near the town of Patara. He soon after- ward died there, either by starvation, or, as some say, by the hand of an assassin. The next pontiflf, Vigilius, was nominated by Belisarius, and the clergy, who were commanded to go through the forms of an election, were in no condition to refuse. Vigihus had purchased the honor with a bribe of two hundred pounds' weight of gold. A seat so disgracefully obtained was not hkely to be very safely or very worthily held. Vigilius was the servile creature of the imperial court, and, except in one or two instances, always complied with its man- dates. After the departure of Behsarius, the Goths revolted against the weak and oppressive commanders who took his place, and Vigilius, still courting the favor of the emperor, entreated that an efficient force might be sent to compel submission and preserve tranquillity. Anticipating a siege from the Goths, he purchased with the revenues of the Church large quantities of corn to provision the city, and was gratified at last, if the enslavement of his country could afford him any matter for joy, by beholding the triumphant entry mto Rome of the general Narses, who completed the work which Belisarius had begun, wholly subverting and destroying the Gothic dominion, and restoring Italy, for a brief space, to its former position as an appendage of the eastern empu*e. But the same year that beheld the subjugation of Italy- witnessed also the humiliation of Vigilius. The Emperor Justinian was fond of theological studies, and interfered much in the controversies of the Church. A chief reason for his confirming the choice of Belisarius in making Vigilius 72 LIVES OF THE POPES. a pope, was the expectation that so unprincipled a man would readily become an instrument for his own designs. Justinian was intent on fixing the orthodox faith according to a creed of his own ; and in pursuance of his object he summoned Vigilius to Constantinople, that he might in- fluence by his presence some obstinate ecclesiastics. The emperor had issued an edict, under the title of " The Three Chapters," in which he anathematized Theodore, Theodoret, and Ibas, three leading controversialists upon the long- disputed point, the nature of the Saviour's person. To this edict he hoped to obtain the sanction of the whole Church, and with this view it was that he sought the Pon- tiflp's aid. Vigilius was quite indifferent to the controversy itself ; but he knew that a large proportion of the western and north African Churches was decidedly opposed to the edict, and he therefore ventured to petition the emperor that he would refer the matter to a general council. He even bound himself by an oath, that when the assembly met he would do all in his power to forward the emperor's views. But the council was not to be coerced, and Vigilius, surprised at their firmness, fancied they were strong enough to support him in asserting the independence of the Church from all imperial control. His oath was wholly forgotten, and he wrote to the emperor desiring him to revoke the offensive edict. But he had greatly overrated his own importance and the strength of the bishops. Justinian, incensed at his behaviour, ordered him to be instantly seized ; and though Vigilius fled to the sanctuary of a church, he was dragged from the very altar, and imprisoned in his own house. He shortly after consented to do all that the emperor commanded, and was then suffered to return to Italy. He died on the voyage, in the year 555. The general condition of Italy after the reign of Justinian, and the character of the popes who more immediately suc- ceeded Vigilius, are subjects involved in deep obscurity. We are now fairly embarked on the " sunless sea " of the THE GOTHIC PERIOD. 73 dark ages. Literature was nowhere cultivated, Justinian himself had closed the schools of Athens, which had feebly- survived till then, though hardly shedding around a gleam of that splendor with which they had anciently enlightened the world. Very few undertook to chronicle the events of the age, and those few are of doubtful credibihty. Cer- tain, however, it is, that in consequence of the difficulty which the emperors of the east experienced in defending their dominions from foreign invasion, they left Italy very much at the mercy of the Gothic or Vandal tribes that still dwelt between the Alps and the Danube. The representative of the imperial authority, the Exarch of Ravenna, had little influence beyond the neighborhood of that city. In some towns, the Goths, in others, the more ancient inhabitants, retained the governing power ; and those petty principali- ties began to arise which afterward divided between them the whole of Italy. Under these circumstances, the fair regions of the south became a tempting bait to the poor and hardy barbarians beyond the Alps. The most power- ful of these, a Vandal race, known as Longobards, or Lom- bards, from the immense beards which they wore, made an irruption into Italy in the year 568, led by their warlike chief, Alboin. Meeting with trifling resistance, they settled in the spacious plain watered by the Po, and which still retains from them the name of Lombardy. They afterward established their power throughout the peninsula, and held it for the most part till the days of Charlemagne. In all the calamities which the cities of Italy were thus doomed to endure, the ancient metropolis bore its full pro- portion. Frequently did the senate and clergy send to Constantinople for aid, and as often did they find their suit rejected, through the growing incapacity of the eastern em- pire to defend its own frontier. But the revenues of the popes, and of the priesthood generally, suffered much less than those of secular landlords: for all the combatants who strove for mastery on the Italian fieldvS — Visigoths, Ostro- 4 74 LIVES OF THE POPES. goths, Greeks, and Lombards — were professed Cliristians ; and though the barbarian tribes were mostly of the Arian persuasion, yet even they manifested respect for the oflfice and estates of the Roman bishop. Amid the darkening shades which had enveloped society at this period, religion had largely suffered. All the great truths of the gospel had, more or less, disappeared from the spiritual horizon, and the inventions of men, by which their place was supplied, only added to the increasing gloom. Repentance toward God, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,, and the renewing operations of the Holy Spuit, were no longer the doctrines dwelt upon by those who professed themselves the ministers of the everlasting gospel. The beneficial influence which pure religion exerts upon a com- munity being thus withdrawn,^ the arts disappeared,, litera- ture died away, and the social system itself became disor- ganized. So intimate is the connection between evangelical truth faithfully dispensed and the prosperity of nations; and so closely does national decay follow the diffusion of Romish error. CHAPTER IX. GREGORY THE GREAT A. D. 568-604. The close of the sixth century may be regarded as the time when the fortunes of the " eternal city " reached their low- est ebb, and just at that crisis a man was raised to the pope- dom peculiarly qualified to restore and advance them. The population of Rome was rapidly declining ; the inhabitants who remained dwelt in perpetual alarm from the frequent ravages of the Lombards ; the stately edifices, so long its glory, were fast moldering with decay ; the suiTOunding countr}^ was left uncultivated until it changed into a fetid GREGORY THE GREAT. 75 morass, wlien Gregory the Great, and the first of his name, ascended the papal chair.* Gregory was descended from an ancient patrician house, and was bom at Rome a httle earher than the middle of the sixth century. The first years of his manhood were spent in the public service, in which he exercised the office of Roman praetor. On reaching, however, the meridian of hfe, he became, though far from being unambitious, dis- gusted with the ordinary objects of human pursuit, and retired into a convent, devoting at the same time all his property to the uses of the Church. His statesmanlike habits peculiarly fitted him for pohtical aflfairs, and he was soon drawn from the seclusion he had chosen, and sent by Pope Pelagius II. on a special embassy to the court of Constantinople. Returning to Rome, he once more made the convent his home ; and it was during this period that, walking one day in the market-place, he noticed some young slaves from England exhibited for sale, with whose fair com- plexions and beautiful features he was so charmed that he eagerly inquired from what country they came. Being told that they were Angles ^ he observed, *' They would not be Angles, but angels, if only they were Christians." The in- cident operated so powerfully upon his mind that he was from that day constantly brooding over a project for con- verting the native land of these fair-haired youths — a land from which Christianity was now driven by the Saxon inva- sion to the fastnesses of Scotland and Wales. In the year 589 Pelagius died, and the clergy of Rome were unanimous in electing the Abbot Gregory as his suc- cessor. Gregory seems not to have desired the honor, for he promptly declined it ; and to avoid its being thrust upon "' Four pontiffs intervened between Vigilius and Gregory the Great — Pelagius I., John III., Bekedict I., and Pelagius II. ; but so little is known of them, beyond their uninteresting squabbles with the emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople, that their names would only encumber the narrative. 76 LIVES OF THE POPES. him fled into the country, and concealed himself in a wood. Being discovered, he was brought to Rome to be formally installed ; but he still persisted in declining the office, and sent letters to the Emperor Maurice, begging that the elec- tion might be negatived. The probability is, that he had a higher view than most of his brethren of the immense responsibility that, in the existing state of Rome, would at- tach to him, as respected both its ecclesiastical and politi- cal welfare. Once possessed of the popedom, however, none of the pretended successors of St. Peter knew better than Greg- ory how to improve his position for the increase of his power. Yet in fairness it must be admitted, that he sought not to aggrandize himself, but directed all his efforts to what he regarded as the good of his country and his Church. In him the patriot and the priest seemed always contending for mastery. Admirably fitted for the troublous times in which he lived, he by turns conciliated the Lom- bards, whose growing power was now the dread of Rome, and stimulated the Exarch of Ravenna to as sturdy a de- fense of the imperial territory as the inferior force at his command would justify him in attempting. The finances of the citizens were greatly impoverished by the frequent sieges which they had been compelled to sustain ; and Greg- ory supported out of the patrimony of the Church many of the decayed nobles and well-born matrons of Rome, be- side three thousand virgins, and many of the provincial bishops, whom the rough hand of war had driven from their homes. He was sensitively alive to the duty, or the policy, of maintaining the poor; and it. is said, that once hearing that a beggar had perished in the street, he bitterly accused himself of the neglect which permitted it, and, by way of penance, interdicted himself from the exercise for several days of his sacerdotal functions. As long as Greg- ory lived, the sick and the helpless had their wants promptly and tenderly supplied, and he would never sit down to his GREGOllY THE GREAT. 77 own repast till he had sent away dishes from his table suited to the wants of his needy pensioners. Not only was Gregory conscious of his position as the first citizen of Rome ; he was equally diligent in upholding his primacy in the Church ; and the clergy had now so greatly degenerated that he was constrained to adopt a strict, and even a severe superintendence. The Bishop Natalis, of Salona in Dalmatia, had been guilty of gross sensuahty, and had utterly neglected the duties of his office. He had enriched his relatives with presents of the gold and silver vessels belonging to the Church, and had wasted much of its revenue in luxurious banqueting. Gregory sharply reproved him, and threatened him with suspension from office. Natalis had the audacity to defend his ex- cesses by alleging that he followed the example of Christ, who was called "a gluttonous man." When charged, too, with forsaking the study of the Scriptures, he replied with the efifrontery of hardened hypocrisy, that he " trusted to the illumination of the Holy Spirit." Gregory, however, insisted on his reforming his life, and exposed the fallacy, or rather the impudence of his arguments ; but it does not appear that he was deposed. Such an incident as this re- veals very clearly the awful depravity of the professed spiritual guides of that age, and the daring perversion of Scripture doctrines by NataMs would not seem to indicate any great respect for the understanding or the theological attainments of the Pope. Gregory was evidently a very zealous, though we can hardly consider him a very enlightened man. He could at least, however, perceive that the immorality and indolence of the clergy were altogether destructive of their influence over their flocks ; and this appears to have been an urgent motive with him to attempt a reformation. For this pur- pose he composed his "Rules for the Pastoral Office," which continued to exert a beneficial influence many years after his death. In these rules he says, exhorting his brethren 78 LIVES OF THE FOPES. to be full of good works, " Let not the bishop think that reading and preaching alone will suffice. Let his hands be bountiful, let him lend to the needy, let him consider the wants of others as his own ; for without such qualities the name of bishop is but a vain and empty title." He incul- cates on them also a careful and economic management of the estates bequeathed to the Church, in which particular he himself set so excellent an example, that his books of accounts were preserved three hundred years in the library of the Lateran as models of pontifical economy. In the disjointed state of political afifairs during the whole lifetime of Gregory, many opportunities occurred of ex- tending the primacy of Rome over other Churches beside those of Italy ; and Gregory, always ambitious for the pa- pacy, if not for himself, did not fail to profit by every such occasion. His project of sending missionaries to England, formed before his attaining the pontifical dignity, was among the fiirst to be carried into execution. In the year 596 he dispatched Augustine, with forty assistant monks, to effect the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. Conversion, in the dialect of Rome, signified nothing more than proselytism ; and it was sanguinely hoped, that by influencing the chiefs to renounce idolatry their subjects would soon be converted in a mass. This was not, indeed, as is well known, the first introduc- tion of Christianity into Britain, whose inhabitants were among the earliest of Europeans to receive the gospel, and probably derived their knowledge of it from eastern Chris- tians. Churches had been established in the island for cen- turies, but in the fierce and protracted struggle with the Anglo-Saxons most of these had disappeared. Some still existed in the mountainous regions of the west and north, but they exerted little influence on the new population of the country. The hatred which ever bums in the breast of the oppressed against their oppressors, and the contempt which conquerors usually feel for those whom they have GREGORY THE GREAT. 79 enslaved, were no doubt among the principal reasons why the ancient inhabitants did not communicate the gospel to their heathen masters. It was, therefore, not the British, but the Anglo-Saxon race which the Roman missionaries came to convert. The success of Augustine and his brethren was even be- yond their expectation. Landing on the Isle of Thanet, they applied to Ethelbert, the King of Kent, for permission to preach in his kingdom. Ethelbert had married a Chris- tian princess, and was, therefore, not unfavorably disposed toward his uninvited guests. Yet so ignorant was he of the nature of their errand, that he insisted that their first inte^^dew with him should take place in the open air, lest he should fall a victim to their magical arts. Augustine's eloquence, however, soon inspired the king with confidence, and Etlielbert then granted to the missionaries an old ruin- ous church at Canterbury, dedicated to St. Martin, and which had existed from the time of the Romans, as their first station for preaching the gospel. Ere long, the king yielded to the arguments of Augustine or the persuasions of his wife, and his baptism was followed by that of many of his subjects, no fewer than ten thousand being thus nominally received into the Church on a single occasion. In considering an event so intimately connected with the history of England, it is not out of place to observe, that the reception of the rite of baptism under the circumstan- ces we have recorded must have been, in the vast majority of instances, an empty and an impious form. Such, however, continues to the present day to be the false and unscrip- tural practice of Roman missionaries among heathen nations. The external sign is substituted for the inward operation of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, and man claims the glory of a work which it is the prerogative of God alone to per- form. Gregory was overjoyed at the success of his mission, and needed no solicitations to send a reinforcement of preachers, 80 LIVES OF THE POPES. all of whom were monks. He next divided the whole island into two archbishoprics, appointing Augustine to be Archbishop of London, and constituting York the metropoli- tan city of the north when Christianity should have penetrated so far. As London had not yet, however, embraced the new religion, and was not within the domains of Ethelbert, Augustine made Canterbury his abode and see. In the true spirit of Roman arrogance, Augustine as- sumed to himself the right of governing all the Churches in Britain, whether planted by the recent laborers or existing from earlier times. But the ancient British Churches were indignant at such an encroachment on their independence and liberties. "We are all prepared," said Deynoch, Abbot of Bangor, on one occasion, " to hearken to the Church of God, to the Pope of Rome, and to every pious Christian, so as to manifest to all, according to their several stations, perfect charity, and to uphold and aid them both by word and deed. What other duty we can owe to him whom you call pope, or father of fathers, we do not know ; but this we are ready to exercise toward him and every other Christian." This independence by no means pleased Augustine, and he was heard to say to his Anglo-Saxon followers : " Well, then, since they will not own the Anglo- Saxons as brethren, or allow us to make known to them the way of life, they must regard them as enemies, and look for revenged The horrible spirit which dictated such a speech is too apparent to need comment, and shows how little of real Christianity the Roman missionaries mingled with their zeal for the advancement of the Papal See. In the contests which the new Church thus waged with the old, the influence of Augustine and his followers with the Saxon kings generally enabled them to triumph ; and although the British Churches long persevered in maintain- ing their freedom, they gradually became absorbed in the Anglican hierarchy ; and, long before the Norman invasion, those who ventured to dissent from the Roman forms of GREGORY THE GREAT. 81 worship were only to be found in the extreme parts of the island. During the pontificate of Gregory, the Spanish Church also became subjected to the primacy of Rome. Before this period the Goths, who had estabhshed their power in Spain, were of the Arian party ; but on their king Recka- red professing his belief in the doctrine of the Trinity, the bishops in a body requested the Pope to undertake the su- pervision of their aflfairs — a request with which Gregory was only too happy to comply. He attempted, moreover, to obtain the subjection of the French clergy, but in this he could only partly succeed. Nevertheless, he formed allian- ces with the French princes, nobles, and bishops ; and, con- sidering their Church as subject to his inspection, did not hesitate to interfere on many occasions both with advice and with admonition. It was, perhaps, the zeal of Gregory, for multiplying nominal converts to Christianity, that led him to introduce alterations in the forms of worship, which were so exagger- ated by succeeding pontiffs as to change the solemn service of God into a ridiculous show. Observing the influence which the harmonies of music and the beauties of painting and sculpture exerted upon the minds of the Lombards and other half- civilized tribes, he resolved to employ the arts as handmaids to religion. He took great pains to improve the singing in the church, himself conducting the musical edu- cation of the youths who formed the choir. The sofa on which he reclined while thus instructing the choristers was shown in Rome as a relic so late as the ninth century, and the " Gregorian Chant " still commemorates both the name and skill of its composer. By his exertions the entire ser- vice of the Roman Church was reduced to a complete and regular form ; the communion was administered in a more imposing manner, accompanied with a magnificent assem- blage of pompous ceremonies ; and he personally officiated till the last days of his life, in what was now called " the 82 LIVES OF THE POPES. canon of the mass," the full performance of which contin- ued above three hours. He moreover descended to the minutest details of Church order, regulating the number and method of the processions, the calendar of the festi- vals, and the changes of sacerdotal robes. When it was represented to him that the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and of the saints, were placed in many churches to be worshiped, he declared that though they were certainly not to be regarded as objects of worship, they might very properly be used to instruct the ignorant, and to stimulate devotion. Having been requested by a hermit to send him an image of Christ, and some other figures of a similar kind, the Pontiff gave him an image of our Saviour, with others of Mary and of the apostles Peter and Paul, and in a letter accompanying them expressed his approbation of the request, and explained what was the right use of them, and how they might be made serviceable to the cause of religion. Experience, however, has abundantly shown how futile were the distinctions which Gregory made, and that when such unlawful aids to devotion are found need- ful, the spirit of devotion is itself rapidly degenera- ting into a base superstition. The observation of a his- torian is both sagacious and true, that " by a slow though inevitable progression the honors of the original were transferred to the copy ; the devout Christian prayed before the image of the saint ; and the pagan rites of genu- flexion, luminaries, and incense again stole into the Catholic Church." By such ceremonies as these the senses may be impressed, but the heart, the seat of devotion, can never be truly changed. To kindle aright the affections in di\dne worship, the apostolic practice must be followed : — " We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." A sense of pardon through a Saviour's blood, and the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, form the true springs of heart-felt devotion. GiKKGOilV liiE UKKAT. 83 Gregory seems to have been a devout believer in the miracles which the monks of that age pretended to work. On being requested by the Empress Constgntina to send to Constantinople, as a suitable relic to enrich her new Church of St. Paul's, the head of that apostle, buried at Rome, or at least some portion of his body, he excuses himself on the ground of the imminent peril which would attend so sacrilegious a transfer.* *' My predecessor," he says, " un- dertook to make some repairs near the tomb of St, Law- rence. As they were digging, without knowing precisely where the venerable body was placed, they happened to open his sepulcher. The monks engaged on the work, though they did not presume to touch the body, yet only because of having seen it, all died in ten days. It is, there- fore, the custom of the Romans, when they give any relics, not to venture to touch any portion of the body, but sim- ply to place a piece of linen in a box very near it, which, when it is withdrawn, will work as many prodigies as the bodies themselves. For, in the time of St. Leo, some Greeks doubting the virtue of such rehcs, that Pope called for a pair of scissors, and on his cutting the linen, true blood flowed from the incision. But what shall I say respecting the bodies of the holy apostles, when it is a known fact, that at the time of their martyrdom a number of the faith- ful came from the east to claim them, who succeeded in carrying them out as far as the catacombs, but were then unable to move farther, being stopped and dispersed by a terrific storm of thunder and lightning. The napkin, too, which you wished to be sent with the body, cannot be touched any more than the body itself can be approached. Yet, that your pious desires may not be wholly disappoint- ed, I will hasten to send you some part of tliose chains which St. Paul wore on his neck and hands, if indeed I can succeed in getting off any filings from them. For since many continually solicit as a blessing some portion of those filings, a priest stands by v/ith a file, and sometimes it hap- 84 LIVES OF THE POPES. pens that portions fall off from the chains suddenly, and at other times the file is long drawn over them, and yet noth- ing can be scraped off." Who can suppose that Gregory was himself the dupe of " these lying wonders ?" — deceptions discreditable alike to his own intellect, and to the Church over which he presided. A more serious charge than even that of pandering to superstition is alleged against Gregory. Yet his subser- vient and fawning attitude toward the emperors, which is the crime referred to, must in all probability be attributed to his almost fanatical zeal for the aggrandizement of his Church, and affords a memorable example of the wretched maxim, now so long sanctioned in the code of Romish morals, " that it is lawful to do evil that good may come." Eager to withstand the assumption of the eastern patriarch, who laid claim to the title of " Universal Bishop," Gregoiy wrote to the Emperor Maurice, earnestly entreating his inter- position. In 602, however, Maurice was deposed, and the usurper Phocas possessed himself of the eastern empire, inhumanly slaughtering, in his ambitious and traitorous march to power, the emperor, the whole royal family, and multitudes beside. The Pope, who formerly flattered Maurice, became now equally servile to Phocas. " Let the heavens rejoice," he writes, " and let the earth be glad ; for your illustrious deeds let the people of every realm, hitherto so vehemently afflicted, now be filled with joy. May the necks of your enemies be subdued to the yoke of your supreme control." The language employed throughout this epistle is that of base adulation, and it is impossible to blame the censure pronounced by a writer, that "the joyful applause with which Gregory salutes the fortune of the assassin, has sullied with indelible disgrace the character of the saint." Gregory was, indeed, no saint, but he was greatly superior in the tone of his morals to the majority of the popes ; and he labored with an energy, a perseverance, and a sincerity POWER OF THE POPES STEALTHILY INCREASED. 85 worthy of a better cause, to strengthen and consolidate the power of the Church. If Leo the Great laid the corner- stone of the papal edifice, it may be said with equal truth that Gregory the Great erected the frame-work of that stupendous fabric of superstition, fraud, and impiety. CHAPTER X. A DARK CENTURY POWER OF THE POPES STEALTHILY INCREASED. A. D. 604-715. The long interval of more than a century from the first to the second Gregory is a dreary waste in history, and although the pontifical chair received no fewer than four- and-twenty occupants during that period, hardly one of them is worthy of particular attention. A rapid summary may comprise nearly all that is desirable to record concern- ing these ephemeral pontiffs. Sabinianus obtained the pontificate in 604, and, in his brief possession of it for a year and a half, contrived to secure universal hatred and lasting execration by his avarice and extortion. After the lapse of a year, during which there was no election, Boniface III. received the triple- crown, but only to lose it by death in a few months. Boni- face IV., his successor, was more successful in the dura- tion of his power, and so distinguished himself by the happy conception of converting the ancient Pantheon, in which the statues of all the gods were placed, into a church dedicated to all the saints, that he was himself enrolled by a grateful priesthood among that doubtfully sacred band. Deodatus next bore the papal crown, but in the same year transmitted it to Boniface V., whose genius for priestcraft suggested that the Church might augment her power by appointing all sacred edifices to be sanctuaries from the 86 LIVES OF THE POPES. pursuit of justice ; thus throwing her protecting aegis over every criminal, however stained with guilt. The longer popedom of Honorius I. was spent in angry and tedious controversies with the eastern Church ; and his successor, Severinus, did not in consequence obtain the tiara except on condition of maintaining the creed then prevalent at the imperial court. John IV. and Theodore I. were engaged in the same disputes ; and the stubborn resistance of Mar- tin I. to his royal master's will cost him his miter and his life. The struggle was continued by Eugenius I. for two short years ; but on the accession of Vitalian to the popedom, the zeal or the bigotry of the eastern court appeared to re- lax, and under the mask of friendship the Emperor Con- stans II. paid a personal visit to Rome. Never, however, had the gates of the city admitted a more relentless foe. He stripped the pedestals of their bronze statues, the churches of their treasures, and the Pantheon of its costly ornaments; and having destroyed more works of ait, and committed greater depredations than all the Goths and Vandals of former days, he contemptuously left the Pope and his clergy to mourn over their irreparable losses. Of Adeodatus, Donus I., Agathon, and Leo II., we only know that they carried on fierce contests with the Arch- bishop of Ravenna, for refusing to acknowledge their su- premacy, which were terminated in the pontificate of Leo by mutual concessions, the archbishop agreeing to receive the pallium at the hands of the Pope, and the Pontiff to bestow it without the customary fee. Neither Benedict II., John V., nor CoNON, lived a whole year after their assuming the triple-crown. Sergius I. next gained the popedom by forcibly driving out his competitors, and bribing the deputy of the emperor. Yet his reign was remarkably long, last- ing nearly twelve years, but leaving, nevertheless, a memory not worth preserving. John VI. and John VII. have bequeathed us only their names ; and the month's reign of SisiNius, with the image -championship of Constantine, POWER OF THE POPES STEALTHILY INCREASED. 87 who succeeded him in 708, are the only other events re- corded on this blank page of papal history. It is difficult to decide whether pity, scorn, or indigna- tion, should predominate as we survey the character of this long pontifical array. Certainly admiration and envy would be wholly out of place. It is pitiable to see men eager for honors which were not only sure to be short-lived, but which could be enjoyed but at the sacrifice of independence and peace of mind ; it is detestable to witness them now cringing to the powerful, now cruel and haughty to the weak ; and it justly awakens our profoundest horror, that for a whole century (alas ! for many centuries !) the spiritual rulers of Christendom should be themselves the most strik- ing patterns of corruption, irreligion, and vice. The circumstances of Italy during this period were, on the whole, favorable to the maintenance of the power which the popes had already organized ; and those who were not solely intent on the enjoyment of the ease and grandeur which then- position conferred, devoted a portion of their energies to increase the privileges and revenues of the see. Although the Lombards were masters of nearly all Italy, they never became possessed of Rome ; and as the eastern empire declined, the exarch residing at Ravenna exercised a constantly diminishing control over the affairs of the papal city. Still the Pope acknowledged the emperor as his sovereign, and the emperor sometimes chose to impose his mandates on the Pope. Thus, when Martin I. stood forth as the opponent of the Monothelite party,* then dominant at Constantinople, the Emperor Cons tans II., a violent parti- san, was so incensed that he sent secret instructions to the exarch to capture the Pope, and bring him by force into '"' The Monothelite controversy was one of those metaphysical disputes which so vehemently agitated the theologians of the first ages. As the Monophysites taught that Christ's nahire was one and undivided, so the Monothelites contended for the simple unity of his ivill 88 LIVES OF THE POPES. Greece. In executing this command, the exarch was obliged, however, to proceed with the greatest caution, for in Rome the Pope's influence was undoubtedly greater than the emperor's. Arriving on Saturday, he allowed the Sun- day to pass over, dreading the multitudes which would then assemble at the churches. Early on the Monday, fearing that his design had been anticipated, he sent to the Pope, announcing his apprehensions that armed men were con- cealed in the church of the Lateran, where Martin lay ill, and that he and his followers would be stoned, as it was known that he came with a message expressive of the emperor's displeasure. Martin ordered the servants of the exarch to be shown every part of the building, and as soon as that officer knew that he had nothing to fear, he pressed into the church with an armed band of followers, and, hav- ing read the order of the emperor, informed Martin that he was deposed, and that he was immediately to prepare for his journey to Constantinople. But even then it was found necessary to hurry the Pope's departure at midnight, and the gates of Rome were closed and carefully guarded till the Pontiff", attended only by a few servants, was safely embarked on board a ship instantly bound for the east. For the most part, however, the popes were not disturbed by such foreign interference, and their authority, therefore, gradually increased. Over the inferior clergy it had long been paramount, and Gregory the Great had so extended it in this direction, that no bishop was now regarded as duly installed unless his election had received the sanction of the Pope. Although Gregory had contended so hotly against the title of "universal bishop" being appropriated by the patriarch of Constantinople, or indeed by any bishop what- soever, and to mark his disgust at such presumption had called himself servus servorum, the servant of servants, yet one of his earliest successors, Boniface III., adopted the very title which his predecessor had condemned ; and from that time to the present the Pope has constantly united POWER OF THE POPES STEALTHILY INCREASED. 89 these contradictory epithets in his style of address, which is • thus happily illustrative at once of the hypocrisy and the arrogance of the papacy. In the course of this seventh century, the popes also made considerable accessions to their landed estates, which they pompously and ludicrously designated the " patrimony of St. Peter" — that Peter who forsook his " patrimony" of a boat and fishing-net to become a "fisher of men." The extreme ignorance and superstition which everywhere pre- vailed gave the priesthood vast influence over the popular mind, and many a Lombard chief, as well as Roman citizen, thought that he amply atoned at death for the sins of a licentious and turbulent life, by disinheriting his family to enrich a monastery or endow a church. Thus the most fertile districts, and the most prosperous cities of Italy, gradually passed into the hands of the episcopal and monastic clergy, over whom the Pope had nearly absolute sway, besides receiving by far the largest share of such munificent bequests. Within the civic boundaries, and soon within the limits of Italy, the PontilSf thus became not only the wealthiest, but in all respects the most influential noble. Civil, and even ciiminal ofibnses, were often referred to his decision, and all the ofl5cers of the city were placed under his ins'pection, and were removable at his pleasure. While the popes were so rapidly striding toward the establishment of an independent sovereignty, they frequently neglected altogether the spiritual welfare of their flock. Indeed, to expect a pious example or pious instruction from such men as we have described, could only belong to an ignorant and superstitious age. But the age we are now treating of was one of the darkest the world has ever seen. Learning concealed herself from mankind, and the few studious men that might here and there be found in the cloisters, confined their researches to the writings of Augus- tine or Gregory, and their compositions to homilies badly compiled from these works, or the still more unprofitable 90 LIVES OF THE POPES. relation of absurd stories about relics and miracles. Re- ligion was burdened with a multitude of ceremonies and foiTns, pilgrimages and penances, from which it never escaped till the Reformation ; and a popular substitute for even that debased kind of rehgion was a superstitious reverence for the priesthood, who carefully inculcated that their prayers for the sinner were of much greater consequence than the sinner's prayer for himself. The dense ignorance of the clergy themselves may be imagined from the fact, that at the councils of bishops it Avas no unusual thing for the signatures appended to the canons to be written by one bishop for many, the formula in each running thus : " A. B., bishop of , having affirmed that he is unable to write, I, whose name is underwritten, have subscribed for him." Gloomy, however, as this period is, an occurrence took place in it of deep interest to the people of England. This was nothing less than the commencement of a practice which paved the way for the supremacy of the Roman See over the bishops and clergy of Britain. In 668 the Pontiff Vitalian consecrated to the archbishopric of Canterbury one Theodore, a native of Tarsus, in Cilicia, but in other respects little more like the apostle Paul than the rest of his breth- ren. Theodore was a man of considerable learning, and brought with him into England a valuable library of Greek and Latin authors, among which were the poems of Homer. He soon estabhshed schools for the education of both clergy and laity, and thus gave a slight impulse to learning, though so slight that Alfred the Great, at his accession, could find very few priests north of the Humber who were able to trans- late the Latin service into the vulgar tongue, and south of the Thames not one. Theodore was also a devoted servant of the Pope, and it took him not long to discover that, how- ever rapid, almost to a miracle, the success of Augustine and his followers had been, there were still many irregu- larities, chiefly in forms and discipline, which a faithful son of Rome must seek to rectify. Foremost of these was the POWER OF THE POPES STEALTHILY INCREASED. 91 form of the tonsure. While the Roman priests wore their hair round the temples, in imitation of a crown of thorns, they were horror-struck at the clergy of Britain, who, ac- cording to the custom of the eastern Church, shaved it from their foreheads in the form of a crescent; and Theodore himself, who wore the eastern tonsure at the time of his being called to the primacy, was obliged to wait for four months before entering on his functions, that his hair might grow so as to be shaven in the orthodox, that is, the Roman mode. He now endeavored to induce the British clergy to conform in this and other respects to the ritual of Rome ; and, in a council convened at Hertford in the year 673, he so eflFectually urged his cause, that the bishops consented to the canons he had brought from Rome, and a complete agreement was established with the Papal See, both in wor- ship and faith. Triumphant in obtaining conformity, Theodore's next object was to secure entire subjection to Rome. He there- fore asserted his right to the primacy of all England, and proceeded to re-arrange the dioceses of the north which belonged to Wilfred, Archbishop of York. The latter, no less servile to the Pope, and equally bent on personal ag- grandizement, immediately appealed to Rome, and the Pon- tijQf, perhaps as a reward for setting so loyal an example, pronounced Wilfred's claim to be just. This practice of appealing to the Pope as supreme arbiter in ecclesiastical disputes, became more and more common, till the papal authority was as paramount in Britain as in other parts of the west. 92 LIVES OF THE POPES. CHAPTER XI. MOHAMMEDANISM AND THE IMAGE CONTROVERSY THEIR EFFECTS ON THE PAPACY. A. D. 609-730. Barren of events as was the western world during the sev- enth century, a new power had arisen in the east, which was destined to make all Europe tremble, and which bore an aspect of determined hostility to the establishment of a papal throne. In the year 609 Mohammed proclaimed himself the founder of a new religion. For thirteen years he persisted, in spite of much opposition and persecution, especially from the people of his own tribe, in preaching his new doctrines. Like many reformers, however, he was more popular abroad than at home, and when, in the year 622, he fled for safety to Medina, he suddenly found him- self at the head of a large and devoted band of disciples. Mohammed now began to display the vices which pros- perity and power are so apt to develop. At first he was content to punish those only who had previously persecuted himself or his followers, and withstood his doctrine. But ere long he conceived the idea of spreading, by violence and compulsion, the rehgion of which he styled himself the prophet. "Diflferent prophets," said he, "have been sent by God to illustrate . his different attributes — Moses, his providence ; Solomon, his wisdom, majesty, and glory ; Jesus Christ, his righteousness, omniscience, and power. None of these attributes, however, have been suflScent to enforce conviction, and even the miracles of Moses and Je- sus have been received with unbelief. I, therefore, the last of the prophets, have been sent with the swordT From the first publication of this manifesto, the sword of Mohammed and his successors was never sheathed till it had established a vast empire, comprising extensive por- tions of Asia, Africa, and Europe, A religion to be propa- MOHAMMEDANISM AND THE IMAGE CONTROVERSY. 93 gated by conquest was exactly suited to the fierce charac- ter of the Arab tribes, and they promptly enlisted under the banners of Omar, Khaled, and Mohammed's other chief captains. The Asiatic provinces, for which Heraclius, em- peror of the east, and Khosru, king of Persia, had so long contended, were among the first to fall under the dynasty of the caliphs of Bagdad. Victory followed victory ; Per- sia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, submitted in rapid succes- sion to their Saracen invaders. In twelve years they re- duced to obedience thirty-six thousand cities, towns, or castles, destroyed four thousand temples, or churches, and built fourteen hundred mosques, dedicated to the religion of their founder. They did not stay their progress till they had subjugated the Moors, and brought all Africa, from Alexandria to Tangier, under their lordly sway. It is only too probable a conjecture, that one reason why Mohammed chose to fabricate for himself a new and mot- ley creed rather than adopt Christianity, from which he borrowed so many of his cardinal doctrines, was, that the Christianity he looked upon was so corrupted as not to recommend itself to the judgment of a penetrating but iUiterate mind. He was, doubtless, able to perceive that it must have degenei-ated greatly from the sublime and simple teachings of Him who came, according to Mohammed's own declaration, to proclaim God's righteousness, omnis- cience, and power. One of the earliest charges brought against the Christians by the Arabian impostor, or reformer, as he is variously designated, was that of idolatry, arising from the universal prevalence among them of the worship of relics and images of the saints. We have seen that Gregory the Great rather encouraged than opposed the worship of images and the adoration of the Virgin. In the east, moreover, to which, of course Mohammed's knowledge was confined, these practices had become popular much sooner than in the west. But in the dark century that fol- lowed the death of Gregory, the adherents of the Pope 94 LIVES OF THE POPES. eagerly adopted all the superstitious customs of their eastern brethren, and image-worship was now univers- ally regarded as an essential part of the orthodox re- ligion. Such was the state of Christendom when Gregory II. assumed the robes of the pontificate, in the year 715. He was a native of Rome, and possessed considerable patriotic spirit — a feature which the calamities in store for the city were well calculated to develop. In daring conceptions, resolute decision, and energetic action, he bore a close re- semblance to his predecessor of the same name, and was not unlike him in his zeal for enlarging the Church's boun- daries, and in upholding the traditional forms of religion. Events soon occurred which gave occasion for the dis- play of all these qualities. In 7 17 Leo the Isaurian mount- ed the throne of the east. He was of barbarous extraction, and had passed his early life among the mountaineers of his native province in Asia Minor. There also it is not un- likely that he mingled much with the followers of Moham- med, and thus contracted a dislike to the idolatrous prac- tice of image- worship, so prevalent among his subjects when he came to the throne. At this time a sect had arisen in the empire which sought to restore the Christian worship to its primiti^^e simplicity, aiming in the first place to abolish the adoration of pictures and statues. From Leo these iconoclasts /or image-break- ers, received much countenance and aid, at first in secret, and in the twelfth year of his reign by open and avowed support. The emperor then issued an edict, commanding all images to be removed from the altars and chancels of the churches, and placed at such a height that while they continued visible to the eye, they should be too remote to inspire superstitious veneration. But this measure, as might have been expected, proved wholly ineffectual in altering the habits of the people. By another edict, therefore, Leo proscribed images altogether, commanded them to be re- MOHAMMEDANISM AND THE IMAGE CONTROVERSY. 95 moved from all clmrclies in his dominions, and the niches they had occupied to be filled up with cement. So peremptory an interference with the customs of the Church was sure to arouse a fierce opposition both from clergy and laity. When the officers of the emperor pro- ceeded to put the edict in force, they met with the most determined resistance. An image of the Saviour had long stood above the gateway of the imperial palace at Constan- tinople, and this was directed to be the first taken down. A ladder was planted against the wall, and some soldiers mounted it to demolish the figure ; but a crowd of women, who had assembled to witness the sacrilege, cried out for an assault, and the ladder was so furiously shaken, that the soldiers were dashed from the summit, and were killed by the violence of their fall on the pavement of the street. Similar scenes occun'ed in almost every city of the em- pire. The islands of the Archipelago, in which monasteries were innumerable, and images universally regarded as sa- cred, boldly armed a fleet of boats and galleys, which steered direct for Constantinople to dethrone the impious emperor. This rebellion itself was, indeed, quickly quelled, but the bitter spirit of rehgious strife was not so easily hushed, and the image controversy continued for many years to vex the professed believers in Christ, without at- taining any decisive or useful result. Upon the arrival of the imperial edict in Rome, it threw the whole city into tumult. From the time of Gregory the Great the popes had been the most zealous promoters of the practice now prohibited ; and the emperor's authority, which had long been waning in Rome, was not likely to be implicitly acknowledged in a matter so nearly touching the gains of the priesthood. The Gregory who now ruled the Church was prompt and daring m his measures. He strictly forbade compli- ance with the royal decree, and wrote letters to the empe- ror, in which he fearlessly used the harshest language of &6 LIVES OF THE POPES. rebuke, and even extolled the rebellious act of the populace in Constantinople in murdering the spoilers of the conse- crated statues. "You accuse the Catholics of idolatry," wrote the haughty Pope, " and by the accusation you be- tray your own impiety and ignorance. To this ignorance we are compelled to adapt the grossness of our style and argument. The first elements of sacred learning are enough to confute you ; and were you to enter a grammar-school, and avow yourself the enemy of our worship, the simple and pious children would be provoked to throw their horn- books at your head. You assault us, tyrant, with a mili- tary array. Unarmed and defenseless, we can only implore the Christ, the Prince of the heavenly host, that he will send unto you a devil for the destruction of your body and the salvation of your soul. You say, with foolish arrogance, * I will dispatch my orders to Rome ; I will break in pieces the image of St. Peter ; and Gregory, like his predecessor Martin, shall be transported in chains to the foot of the im- perial throne.' But we are not reduced to risk our safety on the event of a combat. Incapable as you are of defend- ing your Roman subjects, the maritime situation of the city may, perhaps, expose it to your depredations ; but we can remove to the first fortress of the Lombards, and then — you may pursue the winds. The barbarians have submitted to the yoke of the gospel, while you alone are deaf to the voice of the shepherd. These pious barbarians are kindled into rage ; they thirst to avenge the persecutions of the east. Abandon your rash and fatal enterprise ; reflect, tremble, and repent! If you persist, we are innocent of the blood that will be spilt in the contest ; may it fall on your own head !" This angry, vehement, and unchristian epistle was soon followed up by corresponding actions. Indeed, Gregory had no alternative ; for after such a treasonable defiance submission would have been certain death. He therefore boldly armed the citizens, and in pastoral letters admon- MOHAMMEDANISM AND THE IMAGE CONTROVERSY. 97 ished the Italians generally of their duty, and summoned them into the field. The entire exarchate was convulsed with revolt, and the Venetians and Lombards promised their assistance in defense of holy images and the Pope. The people threw down the statues of Leo from their ped- estals, and even declared themselves willing to create a new and orthodox emperor, and with fleet and army t6 conduct him to the palace at Constantinople. Leo on his part was by no means inactive. Expeditions were fitted out, and several assaults were made upon Rome, in which some Italians were found ready to assist. A deci- sive battle was at last fought under the walls of Ravenna, in which the arms of the emperor experienced a signal defeat, and the waters of the Po were said to be so deeply tinged with blood that its fish were unfit to be eaten for several months. The people, overjoyed with their triumph, ap- pointed an annual feast to perpetuate the worship of images and the expulsion of the Greek tyrant ; while the Pontiff called together a synod of ninety-three bishops, which fer- vently denounced the heresies of the iconoclasts, and, by excommunicating as heretics all who departed from the tra- ditions of the fathers, placed the ban of the Church upon the emperor himself. From this period the eastern emperors never regained their authority in Rome. The citizens were left to choose their own magistrates, and elect their own senate ; but though they revived the forms of the ancient constitution, it was impossible to recall to existence the spirit of freedom with which that constitution had been instinct. Requiring a government of firmness and stability, and unable to sup- ply the want from among themselves, the citizens naturally looked to their bishop for guidance and control, and tacitly consented to his assuming the position of chief magistrate or prince of the city. Thus, in the year 730, the founda- tion was laid for the temporal sovereignty of the Pope ; the title of Dominus was added to that of Servus Servorum ; 5 98 LIV^S OF THE POPES. and the humble successor of the "fisherman" was trans- formed into Our Lord the Pope. But the sweets of Hbertj are seldom unmingled ; and although Rome was now freed from subjection to the em- peror, it became all the more exposed to the attacks of the Lombard king's, whose domain comprehended most of the regions adjacent to the city. This defenseless condition soon attracted the attention of Liitprand, the reigning king,, who, in the hope of adding Rome to bis possessions, quickly assembled his troops beneath her venerable walls. Gregory, now sovereign as well as bishap, was filled with deep anxiety for the safety of his native city, and at first sent for help to Charles Martel, the heroic defender of France from Saracenic invasion. Eventually the Pope found that the more legitimate weapon of persuasion might be wielded as successfully as the sword ; and Liitprand, moved by his eloquent entreaties, withdrew his forces from the neighborhood, and then, entering the city alone, went devoutly to St. Peter's, and there offered his sword and dagger, his cuirass and mantle, his silver cross and crown of gold, on the tomb of the apostle. CHAPTER XII. STRUGGLE OF THE POPES WITH THE LOMBARDS THE POPE- DOM BECOMES A SOVEREIGNTY. A. D. 730-754. The now divided and defenseless state of Italy, combined with the ambitious character of the Lombard king, rendered the papal throne a very insecure possession, notwithstand- ing the submission and homage of Liitprand. The next pontiff, Gregory IIL, found considerable difficulty in main- taining his ground against this warlike and aspiring prince, and had recourse to the stratagem of fomenting discords among the Lombards themselves. THE POPEDOM BECOMES A SOVEREIGNTY. 99 In 741 Zachary ascended the papal tlirone, and finding Liitprand bent on hostilities, in consequence of the support given by his predecessor to some rebellious nobles, he re- solved to disarm the king by showing a pacific and friendly disposition. Under his directions, the Romans joined their force with the Lombards to reduce the rebels to obedience ; and Liitprand, in return, entered into cordial relations with the Pope, and promised the restoration to the Roman State of certain cities which had been captured in the recent wars. This promise not being immediately performed, Zachary was fearful of some deception, and decided on paying a personal visit to Pavia, the Lombard metropolis. Leaving Rome with a splendid retinue of bishops and priests, he quickly announced his arrival to Liitprand, who, though earnestly dissuaded by his officers, determined to give him a friendly reception. Zachary, with great ceremony and pomp, entered the presence of the Lombard chief and used all his eloquence to persuade him to restore the captured cities. Forgetting that his own motives were altogether selfish and worldly, he reminded Liitprand of the vanity of all temporal grandeur, and of the awful account which must hereafter be given for all acts of violence and robbery. The fears of the king were so excited by this cunning dis- course that he cried out in a loud voice : "The cities are no longer mine. As they properly belong to the apostle Peter, I hereby restore them to Zachary his successor. He made a present, at the same time, to the Pope of several large estates in various parts of Italy, and tlie successfiil Pontiff returned joyfully to Rome, escorted to the banks of the Po by the soldiers of Lutprand. The entire pohcy of Zachary was peaceful ; and, though he did not forget to advance as much as possible the tem- poral interests of his see, Italy was on the whole much in- debted to his efforts for the maintenance of order in a very turbulent age. Yet it was Zachary who first set the ex- ample of papal interference in the affairs of neighboring 100 LIVES OF THE POPES. States — a practice wliich was so heartily followed by his successors as to render the Pope a political nuisance to Europe. The occasion of this step was the troubled con- dition of France. Charles Martel, who, by his decisive victory at the battle of Poictiers in 732, had rolled back the tide of Saracenic invasion, which threatened to overwhelm the west as it had already done the east, had further enhanced his claims to the gratitude of posterity by giving to France a strong in- stead of an imbecile government. He had set aside the impotent and idiotic Merovingian line of princes, and, though not daring to assume the name of king, had transmitted the real sovereignty to his own son, Pepin, with the general ap- proval of the nation. But in effecting this sweeping and highly necessary re- form, Charles had earned the bitter hatred of the clergy, since he had not scrupled to levy a tax on their rich estates, which from the days of Constantine the Great had been exempt from such burdens. For this application of their property the priesthood never forgave him, and both in their writings and their harangues pitilessly consigned his soul, without hope of release, to the dungeons of the eter- nally lost. By proclaiming this from every pulpit in the land, they hoped to terrify all future rulers who might meditate similar encroachments. So effectually did these fierce declamations alarm the superstitious son and successor of Charles, that he used every imaginable means to soothe the anger of the clergy and conciliate their support ; and to effect this object he, in 751, besought the aid of the Pope. Though virtually possessed of the sovereign power, he had never yet dared to assume the title of king. A youth of the Merovingian race still bore that nominal honor, by the name of Childeric III., and as he was now arriving at years of manhood, (a rare occurrence in that degenerate house,) Pepin thought it safer to set him wholly aside, and THE POPEDOM BECOMES A SOVEREIGNTY. 101 to ascend the throne in person. But this he dared not at- tempt without the consent of the clergy ; and to secure their good-will he determined to stoop so low as to ask the Pope's permission to the step he contemplated taking. " Is it not lawful," said Pepin's messenger to Zachary, " for a valiant and warlike people to dethrone a pusillani- mous and indolent monarch, and to substitute in his place one who is worthy to rule ?" The Pontiff well knew the importance of so powerful an ally as Pepin promised to be, and, governed evidently by this selfish consideration, re- plied : " It is meet that he who possesses the real power and government of the State should also be acknowledged king." This valuable piece of service was amply recompensed by Pepin to Zachary's successor in the popedom, Ste- phen III., who commenced his reign in 752. The Lom- bards still continued to agitate the duchies of northern Italy by their ambitious projects, and Astolph, the present king, not content with the sovereignty of the region in which the Lombards had settled unopposed, aimed now at appropriating Ravenna and its subject territory, still gov- erned by the exarch of the eastern emperor. In the course of his depredations he threatened and even laid siege to Rome ; and the Pontiff Stephen, looking around for help in the emergency, bethought himself of the Frankish king. Apprehensive, however, that his cry from a distance would hardly be heard, the Pope resolved on a personal visit to France, and in the winter season set out on his journey across the Alps. In the town of Pontyon he was met by Pepin, who saluted him both with kindness and with rev- erence, probably knowing that in doing homage to the head of the Church he was securing the best guarantee for his own possession of the crown. On meeting the Pontiff, Pe- pin alighted from his horse, bowed down his face to the ground, and then walked in all humiUty by the side of Ste- phen, holding the bridle of his horse, and performing all the functions of an esquire. 102 LIVES OF THE POPES. But next day it was the Pope's turn to be humble. In a private interview, he told the king the melancholy situa- tion of Rome, and falling on his knees, implored him, with prayers and tears, to lead his intrepid warriors across the Alps, to the discomfiture of the Lombards, and the deliv- erance of the apostolic city. Pepin hearkened to his peti- tion, and Stephen joyfully repassed the Alps, not as a sup- pliant, but as a conqueror, at the head of a French army, led by the king in person. The result can be easily fore- seen. Astolph was compelled to raise the siege of Rome to defend his own metropohs, Pavia, and Pepin finally ex- torted from him a solemn promise to restore all the estates of the Roman Church. The visit of the Pontifi" to France had been rendered fur- ther remarkable by the pubhc and stately performance of the ceremony of coronation, which Pepin had not till then found time to attend to. The celebration took place in the monastery of St. Denis, to which all the nobility of France thronged for the spectacle. To the other rites of the ser- vice, Stephen on this occasion added that of anointing the kincr, after the manner of the ancient Jews. He then solemnly placed the diadem on the head of Pepin, who pledged himself in return to be the ever faithful guardian of the Roman See. The promise which Pepin had extorted from the Lom- bards was violated almost as soon as the French monarch had turned on his homeward march. Instead of restoring the possessions of the Church, Astolph commenced new aggressions, and Stephen hastily dispatched messengers to recall the king, beseeching him, in a letter full of passion- ate entreaty, not to forsake the city which he had sworn to protect. In this letter the Pope wrote under the name and character of Peter the apostle. The writer says, that though dead in body he still lives in spirit, and expects in- stant obedience from all who venerate him as the founder of the Roman Church. He says that the Virgin, the an- THE POPEDOM BECOMES A (SOVEREIGNTY. 103 gels, the saints, the martyrs, and all the host of heaven unanimously urge the request, and will confess the obliga- tion. He promises, riches, victory, and paradise, if Pepin will make the attempt ; but denounces eternal perdition if he shall suflfer the apostolic city, temple, and tomb, to fall into the hands of the Lombards. Whether Pepin regarded this letter as actually dictated by the glorified apostle, or whether, as is more hkely, he considered it as a rhetorical appeal from the Pope himself, he immediately complied with its request. His march was as rapid, and his victory as decisive on this as on the for- mer occasions. He moreover entirely humbled the power of the Lombard king, and wrested from him some of his fairest provinces, conferring them on the Pope, as the inal- ienable patrimony of St. Peter's successors. The document which formally conveyed to the Pope the whole territory which had previously belonged to the emperor, and the keys of the several cities contained in that district, were devoutly laid by the French king upon the tomb of the apostle, and Pepin hoped by such superstitious and obsequious reverence for the Church to expiate the crimes of a blood-stained hfe. Not the least melancholy part of this spectacle is the at- titude assumed by the Pope, who is seen, as the professed head of the Church, inculcating such degrading supersti- tions for his own selfish and mercenary ends. Thus, then, it came to pass that the comparatively nom- inal sovereignty which was grasped by Gregory IL, when he revolted from his allegiance to the Emperor Leo, was now converted by the arms of Pepin into a real and sub- stantial dominion. From this time the popes take their place in history among the sovereigns of Europe — a place which they occupy at the present day, though after many and wonderful mutations, both in the amount of their power and the extent of their domains. But although the popes had changed their real character, and had become civil instead of spiritual rulers, they by no means relinquished 104 LIVES OF THE POPES. their spiritual pretensions. Well knowing the influence of religious rites in governing mankind, they still retained the forms, the names, and the observances appertaining to a Church. They called their officers a priesthood, and their subjects their spiritual children. And in palming this gross imposition on the world, the Pontiff of Rome never received more powerful or effectual aid than when Pepin stooped to accept at his hands the crown of the French kingdom. By this act he sanctioned the claim of the Roman bishop to universal supremacy, and gave color to the arrogant assertion which was made by later pontiffs, of precedence and even lordship over merely temporal monarchs. CHAPTER XIII. CHARLEMAGNE DEFENDS THE POPES FROM THE LOMBARDS. A. D. 754-774. The possessions which the Pope had so suddenly acquired were not long uninterruptedly enjoyed, and the lustre of his new diadem grew dim beneath the overshadowing can- opy of that mighty empire which was erected by Pepin's famous son, the Emperor Charlemagne. Although Pepin left three sons, the whole of his dominions remained, by the death of the two brothers, in the hands of Charles, by the time the latter was twenty-six years of age. This young king was of majestic appearance, his height being nearly seven feet, and his strength proportioned to so great a stat- ure. Sprung from a warlike race, he even surpassed his sires in the endowments which qualify for the subjugation and government of mankind. His first years, however, were more worthily employed than in a career of bloodshed and conquest. Under the direction of the most learned clergy that could be attracted to his court, he studied various languages, becoming quite CHARLEMAGNE DEFENDS THE POPES. 105 proficient in Latin, and not meanly skilled in Greek ; and gained as much knowledge as his instructors could bestow in the natural sciences and general literature of that illiter- ate age. Throughout the life of Charlemagne, it continued to be one of the best features in his character, that he en- couraged learning of every sort, both by patronage and by example. The eminent English scholar, Alcuin, was his special favorite ; and in the years of repose that followed his successful wars, he took great dehght in gathering around him all men of genius and talent, so that his court presented a striking and illustrious contrast to those of co- temporary monarchs. But while Charlemagne was pursuing this peaceful and studious course of life, events were occurring in Italy which paved the way for his invasion of that country, and the commencement of his warlike career. On the death of Paul I. in 766, whose popedom was only marked by perpetual quarrels with the Lombards, the papal throne was occupied a whole year by a person named Const ANTiNE, whom the Romanist historians, for the most part, pass over in discreet silence, lest the opposition of popes, all infallible, should become too apparent. Constan- tine seems to have been elected by the suflFrages of a large party of both clergy and laity, and in all probability had as legitimate a title to the chair as any of his predecessors. But the image controversy was still rife, and the new Pope took the unpopular side, advocating very earnestly the disuse of images altogether. The clergy, offended at the innovation, but miable to restrain the Pope, resolved on dethroning him, and sought, not the votes of the people, but the swords of their Lombard neighbors. By their aid Constantine was forcibly deposed, and, ha\ang been cruelly deprived of sight, was shut up in a convent. A furious defender of images was elected his successor, imder the title of Stephen IV., but so much in opposition to the will of a large party that he could only maintain his 106 LIVES OF THE POPES. seat by the help of the Lombards, until the leaders of the insurrection were taken and incapacitated for future revolt, according to the barbarous practice of the age, by having their eyes put out. Either to gratify revengeful passions, or to support at all costs the appearance of infallibility, Stephen next summoned a council of provincial bishops to assemble in the Lateran church, which abrogated all the decrees of Constantine, deposed all the bishops whom he had ordained, annulled all his baptisms and chrisms, and, according to some historians, actually sentenced him to be ignominiously scourged, and then put to death — a decree which was executed by burning him in the nave of the church ! Stephen IV. appears to have been one of that basest class of men to whose breasts even gratitude is a stranger. The services of the Lombards had placed him in power, and one of his earliest actions was to requite them by advising the young French monarch to repudiate an aUiance which he had formed with the daughter of their king — a step which ultimately led to their ruin by the invasion of a French army, commanded by Charlemagne in person. Rather in compliance with his mother's wish than from any personal inclination, Charlemagne had been wedded in his youth to the daughter of Desider, the Lombard king — a match not more repugnant to his own taste than it was offensive to the Pontiff, who dreaded the great influence it would give to his Lombard neighbors. As soon as the young prince was possessed of sovereign power he deter- mined to divorce his wife, and the Pope very readily pro- nounced that his marriage ought not to be regarded as vahd; "for," said the wily priest, "it would be arrant folly in the Franks to contaminate their noble race with the perfidious infected blood of the Lombards, who have brought leprosy* into Italy, and who do not deserve to be reckoned among nations. Having promised to St. Peter to ^ The Pope here alludes to the Arian heresy. CHARLEMAGNE DEFENDS THE POPES. lOT be friends of his friends, and enemies to his enemies, the Franks ought to shun the alliance of the Lombards, who are the deadly enemies of Rome." Stephen even ventured to conclude his epistle by threatening the French king with excommunication if he spurned this advice, reminding him that it proceeded from St. Peter, on whose tomb the letter was written. Charlemagne was, of course, not backward to comply with a mandate which, whether he sought it or not, was certainly highly congenial to his own wishes. But Desider, the Lombard chief, very deeply resented the insulting and ungrateful language of the Pope, and inflicted a not un- merited chastisement by harassing his life with perpetual threats of invasion, and by making frequent predatory in- cursions on the estates of the Church. Thus the pontifi- cate of Stephen IV., which had commenced on his own part in bloodshed and cruelty, was retributively ordained to be passed in violence inflicted on him by the hands of others. The enmity of the Lombards still continued to show itself after the accession of Adrian I., who received the tiara in '772. The following year, Desider, mindful of his former injuries, endeavored to force the Pope to anoint and consecrate two nephews of Charlemagne, residing in Italy, to the sovereignty of France, and on Adrian's refusal re- newed his hostilities with Rome. Adrian urged Charle- magne to undertake the quarrel ; and he feeling himself partly involved, and perhaps not sorry to have so plausible an excuse for invasion, quickly crossed the Alps, and be- sieged Desider in his capital of Pa\ia, continuing the block- ade for nearly a year. It is said, that at the approach of the French army the Lombard king stood upon the battlements, eagerly search- ing with his eyes for his daring assailant; and that at length perceiving Charlemagne, mounted on an iron-clad charger, clothed in armor from head to foot, and conspic- 108 LIVES OF THE POPES. uous by his stature amid the surrounding throng, he was struck with such amazement at his awful aspect, that he exclaimed in a dejected tone : " Let us descend and hide ourselves beneath the earth from the angry glance of such a powerful foe !" On receiving the submission of the king, Charlemagne sentenced him to be imprisoned for hfe in the monastery of Corvey, and then proceeded in triumph to Rome, where the grateful acknowledgments of the Pope and the citizens awaited him. Arriving for the first time in view of the walls and towers of the far-famed city on Easter-eve, 774, he was received with all the honors which had been formerly paid to the imperial exarch. No sooner was Adrian informed of his approach than he dispatched a company of magistrates and nobles, who, having met the young conqueror at the dis- tance of thirty miles from Rome, conducted him in great state to her gates. The Flaminian Way was hned for a whole mile by troops of citizens, arranged under the Greek, Lombard, Roman, or Saxon banners, according to their re- spective nations. The soldiers were under arms, and bands of children waved branches of trees, and sung patriotic hymns in honor of their great deliverer. The clergy and nobles formed themselves into a procession, preceded by large decorated crosses and ensigns of the saints. As soon as these emblems met the eye of Charlemagne, he alighted from his horse, and proceeded on foot to the stairs of the Vatican, whose steps he devoutly kissed. In the portico, Adrian awaited him, and leading him to St. Peter's shrine, the Pontiff there publicly proclaimed Charlemagne to be " King of Italy and Patrician of Rome ;" the latter title be- ing given in the middle ages to foreign princes who pro- tected the Roman See. Charlemagne, upon his part, promised to confirm the grant of territory made by Pepin to the Pope, and engaged to fulfill all the purposes of his illustrious father for the welfare of the Church. INFLUENCE OF CHARLEMAGNE ON THE PAPACY. 109 CHAPTER XIV. THE FORGED "DECRETALS" AND "DONATION" INFLUENCE OF CHARLEMAGNE ON THE PAPACY. A. D. 774r-795. Adrian soon felt that the conquest of the Lombards by Charlemagne had delivered him from a troublesome, but comparatively harmless foe, to give him in exchange a pa- tronizing and powerful master. He therefore sought very assiduously to secure the friendship of Charlemagne, and succeeded in obtaining from that great monarch several marks of personal esteem. But the French king was more anxious to use the clergy as his instruments in governing, than to enrich them or invest them with independent power. Many years elapsed before Charlemagne gave any substan- tial fulfillment of his promise respecting the Roman territory, and many letters were written by the Pope urging the com- pletion of the contract. It was in the hope of deciding the mind of Charlemagne on this subject, that Adrian I. perpetrated that enormous deception* which has, ever since its discovery, made his memory as hateful to truth as that of the vilest popes. In the retirement of the Vatican, some monk or bishop was employed to forge the famous documents known as the Decretals, and the Donation of Constantine — "those two magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the popes." By the former, all ecclesiastical disputes, occur- ring in any part of the world, were ultimately referred to ^ In ascribing this deception to Adrian, it is not meant to be inferred that he was the author, directly or indirectly, of the p.teu- do-Isidorian decretals, though even this is far from impossible. The authorship is unknown, and probably belongs to no single indi- vidual ; but that the popes were at the bottom of it, and that Adrian was the first to publish them to the world, are facts tolerably pat- ent from the Codex Carolinus, epist. 49, et aliis. 110 LIVES OF THE POPES. the Bishop of Rome; and by the latter, Constantine the Great is represented as resigning to the popes, on betaking himself to his new eastern metropolis, the full and per- petual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the west. Appealing to these documents as authentic in one of his letters to Charlemagne, Adrian founds on them his claim to the fulfillment of the promise given by both himself and his father, regarding it no longer as a favor, but only as a partial restitution of a right which the Greek princes had for centuries usurped. So great was the credulity of the age, that the fictitious instruments to which Adrian then appealed were enrolled, without opposition or distrust, among the decrees of the canon law, and Adrian was by no means the only pope who had the effrontery to palm them on the world as the genuine production of the devout Isi- dore of Seville. But besides caring for the temporal welfare of his see, Adrian's mind was much troubled by the image contro- versy, which still agitated the east, and in which he upheld the cause of idolatry as zealously as his predecessors. The emperor, Leo IV., espoused the side of the iconoclasts with hereditary spirit ; but his influence was much neutralized by the exertions of his wife, the empress Irene, who, an Athe- nian by birth, was imbued with national prejudices in favor of image worship. She had generally contrived to conceal her own fondness of images from the emperor's knowledge ; but it happened that at a time when his anger was so in- flamed against the orthodox or idolatrous party that he had put some of them to death, he found in his wife's bed two images which she had secretly worshiped. Indignant and resentful, the emperor was taking measures for her trial, perhaps her death, when suddenly, in attempting to place upon his head a crown consecrated by his wife to the crucifix, his skin became covered with pustules wherever the crown touched it, and a burning fever succeeding, he died in a few hours. INFLUENCE OF CHARLEMAGNE ON THE PAPACY. Ill After thus murdering her husband, Irene, who was as ambitious as she was profligate and cruel, seized on the reins of power, governing in the name of her son Constan- tine, who was yet a youth. Her zeal for image worship was now unrestrained, and her first step was to court the assistance of the Pope to aid her in utterly exterminating the iconoclast sect. To the disgrace of Adrian, he con- sented to abet the plots of this wicked woman, whose share in her husband's death he entirely overlooked, pretending even to believe that his shocking end was miraculously awarded him as a punishment for his opposition to the or- thodox practice of the Church. A council was convened by Irene, which met at Nice in the year ^81, and with the concurrence of Adrian's legates it unanimously decreed, that the worship of images was agreeable to Scripture and reason, as well as to the fathers and councils of the Church. Very justly have the acts of this council been pronounced "a curious monument of superstition and ignorance, of falsehood and folly." Images of the cross were thenceforth to be consecrated, and put on all the vessels and vestments employed in the worship of God ; they were to adorn also the' walls of houses, and to ornament the public ways. Especially it was decreed, that images of Christ, the Virgin Mary, the angels, and the saints, should be regarded as sacred ; and if any should teach otherwise, or dare to throw away books or pictures bearing the painted cross, or the effigies of these holy personages, or treat with contempt the relics of martyrs, they should fall under the censures and punishments of the Church. Ofienders in holy orders, it was added, should be deposed, and all others excommu- nicated from the rites of religion. The same year that this council was held, Charlemagne paid a second visit to Rome, when his son Pepin was christened by the Pope. But though Adrian had gained some influence with the king, it was not adequate to ob- tain his countenance to the spread of idolatry in the Church. 112 LIVES OF THE POPES. The clergy of France were, perhaps, as superstitious, and as bent on reducing the laity to subjection as those of Italy or the east, but their object was attained by other means. While the Greeks and Italians worshiped the images, the French and Germans adored the relics of the saints, and the popes found it as profitable to enrich their treasury by selUng in France bones taken from the catacombs, as to en- hance their power at home by exalting the sacredness of consecrated statues and pictures. Charlemagne, however, was endowed with an intellect which rose superior to these superstitions, and on receiving from Adrian the decrees of the Nicean Council, he placed them in the hands of the learned Alcuin and others, with directions to draw up a confutation of their errors, which was afterward published in the name of the king, and known as the " Carolinian Book." In 794 he further convoked an assembly at Frankfort of three hundred bish- ops of the west, by whom the decrees of the eastern coun- cil were unanimously rejected, and supreme contempt ex- pressed for the idolatrous practices which those decrees sanctioned and enjoined. These decisive steps of the Frankish king were a source of great annoyance to Adrian, but he thought it wise to cloak his mortification, and in various letters endeavored to prove that there was no real opposition between the Frank- fort and Nicean decrees. In truth, the Pope felt that the friendship of Charle- magne was becoming every day more essential to the strength and safety of the Roman See, of which as patrician he was the sworn protector. In all his conquests, the king made it a condition on which he spared the lives and prop- erty of the. conquered, that they should profess the Chris- tian faith. The whole Saxon nation, with the valiant Witi- kind at their head, after carrying on for years a desperate and sanguinary conflict, were at last compelled by Charle- magne to submit to baptism. By a process like this, the INFLUENCE OP CHARLEMAGNE ON THE PAPACY. 113 warlike kins: became one of the most successful missionaries of a Church which only asked for nominal converts. Moreover, while Charlemagne was able thus greatly to add to the dignity and influence of the Pope and the priest- hood, he was, on the other hand, equally competent and not indisposed to Hmit their power and regulate their func- tions. He regarded them as the teachers and civilizers of mankind, and though he often intrusted them with magiste- rial offices, it was simply because he thought them more capable than others of discharging such offices with ability. In several ecclesiastical assemblies he laid down new and stringent regulations for the internal order of the Church. He forbade the clergy to carry arms, to keep falcons, dogs, or jesters ; but knowing their unconquerable love of the chase, he permitted them to retain this amusement on con- dition of their converting the skins of the animals they killed into binding for books, which he hoped by these means to render more common. Moderation, decency, and gravity of behavior were enjoined upon all priests, and the monks were obliged to find employment in the fields and schools. Such proofs of an independent spirit caused Charle- magne to be feared and courted at the same time by the crafty and aspiring Pontiflf; and with so much prudence and policy did Adrian I. conduct all his intercourse with the king, that upon his death, which took place on Christ- mas-day, YQo, Charlemagne expressed very profound grief, and composed an epitaph in Latin verse, breathing both respect and aflfection. The vices of Adrian's character were of a kind that often conceal themselves from cotemporary observers to become apparent to the eyes of posterity. 114 LIVES OF THE POPES. CHAPTER XV. CHARLEMAGNE THE EMPEROR HIS REGULATIONS FOR THE CLERGY. A. D. 795-814. Leo III., who next ascended the papal throne, was as careful as his predecessor to cultivate the regards of the powerful Charlemagne. One of his first acts was to send the banner of Rome, with the keys of St. Peter, to the Frank king, requesting that some nobleman might be de- puted to receive the oath of allegiance. Charlemagne com- phed with the request, but also expressed his intention of visiting Rome in person. Until this visit was paid, the seat of the new Pontiff ap- pears to have been somewhat insecure. The relatives of the late Pope, from some unknown cause, exhibited a vio- lent dislike to Leo, and even conspired against his life. In the year 799, as Leo was one day riding through the city in some religious procession, followed by a long train of priests, and chanting the liturgy, he was suddenly attacked by two of these relatives of Adrian — one a canon, the other a sacristan — aided by a body of armed associates, who threw him from his horse, and dragging him through the streets into a neighboring convent, were about most cruelly to mutilate him by putting out his eyes aad cutting out his tongue, when the Pope's party breaking in rescued him from their hands. It would seem, from the conspirators being only sentenced to perpetual exile, that there had been some provocation on the part of the Pope ; but whether this be so or no, the' view here disclosed of the moral state of the priesthood in that age is alike melancholy and re- volting. In the year 800 the invincible Charlemagne had com- pleted his career of conquest. Italy had submitted to his sway ; the Saxons, Thuringians, Avars, and a multitude of CHARLEMAGNE'S REGULATIONS FOR THE CLERGY. 115 smaller barbarous tiibes between the Rhine and the Elbe, had been subdued and brought under a uniform system of government and laws. The far-seeing genius of Charle- magne had perceived that unity was the want, and anarchy the tendency of the age ; and the wars he engaged in were undertaken less in a spirit of ambition than with a settled purpose to avert, perhaps by the only means within his reach, the danger which threatened society. The system of polity he estabhshed, since known as the feudal, was that which already existed among his own nation ; and though certainly unfavorable to the hberty of the governed, was well adapted to give strength to the arm of the governor — an alteration which seems to have been just then essential to the growth of civilization. Had the hostile tribes which Charlemagne united under one head continued much longer divided, Europe would most hkely have relapsed into the barbarism from which it had partially emerged since the settlement of the Franks and Goths. • The consequences of such a relapse are too dismal to contemplate ; for there was no fountain of rehgion or literature in Italy, Greece, or the world, from which the regions parched with drought might be replenished and refreshed. By the armies of Charlemagne the power of the Moham- medan, or Saracenic Moors, was also broken at Roncesvalles and elsewhere, so that his authority was now acknowledged throughout the entire west, and he even entered into a treaty with Irene, the empress of the east, which defined the limits of their respective dominions, and divided all Europe between them. In all these successes Charlemagne had received much assistance from the Roman pontiffs, whose emissaries some- times prepared the way for his victories, but more frequently followed in his track, and instilled the principles of obe- dience and fidelity. It was said that " God had given two swords wherewith to govern the world, the one to the Pope, the other to the emperor ;" and Charlemagne was not un- 116 LIVES OF THE POPES. grateful for the support thus afforded him, nor slow to recompense the service. It was he who first set the ex- ample of compelling the payment of tithes to the clergy, which had before been a voluntary offering; he also at- tached vast estates to abbeys and churches in various parts of his empire ; he gave the clergy entire jurisdiction over their own body, with great influence in all civil affairs ; and finally, he resolved that on exchanging the regal for the imperial crown, he would receive it at the hands of the Pontiff himself, that each might thus gain honor by confer- ring it on the other. On the 24th day of November, in the year 800, Charle- magne made his entry into Rome, being met beyond the walls by Pope Leo III. Seven days after, an assembly was convoked, consisting of the French and Roman nobles, abbots, and prelates, before whom Leo appeared, to answer certain charges brought against him by the party who had before attempted his 'life. But this was no season for a rigorous investigation of the facts, and Charlemagne will- ingly accepted the declaration of the Pope that he was guiltless of the crimes alleged. In return for so important a favor, Leo prepared due honors for his illustrious guest. On Christmas-day, Charle- magne appeared at the service of the mass in St. Peter's ; and, to gratify the people, he wore on the occasion the cos- tume of the Roman patrician. When mass was concluded, the Pontiff approached Charlemagne, who was kneeling before the altar, and first anointing him, then placed on his head a golden crown. Instantly the lofty roof echoed to the shouts of the vast assembly, both clergy and people exclaiming, " Long life and victory to Charles, most pious Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific emperor of the Romans !" The Pope was then the first to perform the act of homage. Thus was the western empire revived, after an interval of more than three centuries ; for from this period Charle- EFFECTS OF CHARLEMAGNE'S POLICY. Il7 magne dropped his former titles, assuming those with which the people had greeted him on the day of his coronation. From this time, also, the popes were permitted to exercise the temporal sovereignty of Rome and its territory, though still acknowledging subordination to Charlemagne and his successors — a fact expressed in the coinage issuing from the papal mint, by the Pontiff's name being inserted on one side of the coin, and that of the emperor on the other. CHAPTER XVI. EFFECTS OF CHARLEMAGNE'S POLICY THE POPES AIM AT INDEPENDENCE. A. D. 814-858. As long as Charlemagne lived to control and restrain the pontiffs, the alterations he had effected were probably bene- ficial, at least to the temporal interests of the Roman people. Although he had greatly elevated the power and increased the revenues of the Pope, his vigorous arm was able not only to keep them in subjection to himself, but also to oblige them to the active performance of what he regarded as their duty. There was a visible improvement in both the intellectual and the moral character of the clergy during the reign of this emperor. But when, in the year 814, the cathedral of Aix-la-Cha- pelle received the remains of the mighty Charlemagne, and the crown descended to his son, Louis the Meek, it soon became apparent that the popes were now endowed with powers which would prove injurious to themselves, and make them a terror even to kings, and a pest to society at large. Louis inherited none of the qualities of his father's master-mind, and the pontiffs were not slow to discover the defect. In 816 Stephen V. succeeded to the papal chair; and so secure did he feel in the emperor's indolence, that he did 118 LIVES OF THE POPES. not even think it necessary to ask the imperial sanction, which Adrian I. had made indispensable to the validity of an election. His judgment had not deceived him ; for on Stephen's visiting the emperor at Orleans, shortly after his consecration, Louis saluted him with all kind- ness and respect, notwithstanding the indignity he had received. Stephen survived his election little more than seven months, and was followed by Paschal I., who thought he could not do better than imitate the independent example of his predecessor, and did it with equal impunity. But of him, and of Eugene II. and Valentine, who quickly suc- ceeded in the enjoyment of the short-lived pontifical power, nothing worthy of narration is known, except perhaps that Valentine is said to have been the first to receive, on his accession to the tiara, the homage of the senate and people in the abject and disgusting ceremony of kissing the foot. The memory of Gregory IV., who began his pontificate in 828, is rendered odious, chiefly by the part he took in the parricidal wars of the sons of the Emperor Louis, with the view of efifectino: that monarch's dethronement. The weak Louis exhibited so much partiality for his youngest son, Charles, as to arouse the jealousy of the two elder. Lothaire, the eldest, was to succeed to the imperial title, with Italy and the Rhine country for his domain ; but even he grew apprehensive that his father's fondness for Charles would interfere with his future rights, and he therefore joined with his next brother in a conspiracy against Louis. The wary Pontiff, perceiving the incapacity of the emperor, and prog- nosticating his fall, espoused the cause of the undutiful sons. Happily the sword was not appealed to ; but in the negotiations which decided the dispute, Gregory, as the ambassador of the unfilial conspirators, performed the trai- torous office of demanding from Louis a formal recognition of their claims, and submission to their authority. Nor was he content until the dishonored king had also done penance, EFFECTS OF CHARLEMAGNE'S POLICY. 119 in the monastery of Soissons, by kneeling on a hair- cloth and reading a paper, in which he accused himself of theft, perjury, and murder. The brief reign of Sergius — (Sergius IL, who succeeded Gregory in 844) — was troubled, as that of his predecessor had been, by the predatory incursions of the Saracens. In 846 a fleet of these armed marauders dared to sail up the Tiber almost as far as the walls of the city. They left Rome itself untouched, but could not depart till they had violated the reputed sanctity of St. Peter's church, which then stood without the gates. Looking with fierce and in- tolerant hate on what they too truly regarded as the idola- trous worship of the Christians, they stripped the church of its images and rich ornaments, and carried off in triumph the silver altar-piece. The Romans, trembling for their homes and their lives, implored the aid of the Franks ; but the force sent was far too feeble to give effectual protection, and the question began to be mooted, if it would not be wise for the ancient metropohs to offer once more its alle- giance to the Greek emperor. In the midst of these troubles Pope Sergius died, and was immediately followed in the seat of power by a man well adapted for the crisis, and who was chosen by the acclamations of the people, not at all because of his moral worth, but because he seemed the best qualified to defend the city in its present distress. This was Leo IV., who, without waiting for the consent of the emperor, set himself at once to discharge the func- tions of his office, at least as a temporal prince. He took the promptest measures to replenish the exhausted treas- ury, caused the walls to be repaired wherever they were broken down or decayed, built fortifications on the banks of the Tiber, and threw iron chains across from side to side, to hinder the ascent of an enemy's fleet. It was very soon found that all these precautions were needful. The Saracens returned in greater force, and 120 LIVES OF THE POPES. threatened not a mere invasion, but conquest and dominion. But Leo had obtained timely assistance from the Greeks, and a naval conflict took place at the mouth of the Tiber. A tempest aided the Italians, scattering and destroying a great part of the hostile fleet, which had no harbor ofi'ering it refuge from the violence of the sea. Many who escaped the waves were mercilessly put to the sword, and the re- mainder were employed in their captivity to restore the edifices they had helped to destroy. Of the spoils of this victory Leo devoted a considerable part to the service of the Church. Thirteen Arabian bows, of pure and massive silver, were hung as ornaments and trophies around the altar of St. Peter's ; four thousand pounds' weight of silver was reserved to replace the silver vessels used in divine service ; and a single plate of gold, embossed with portraits of the Pope and the emperor, and encircled with pearls, weighed no less than two hundred and sixteen pounds. Leo did not, however, expend all his booty in vain displays of splendor. He labored more than most of his predecessoi-s to beautify and strengthen the city. In particular, he surrounded the Vatican hill with walls and towers, that the shrine of St. Peter might be no more exposed to the insults and ravages of Saracen or other invaders ; and the district thus permanently inclosed within the civic boundary has ever since, in memory of its founder, been distinguished as the Leonine city. It is as successor to Leo that many historians have placed the fabulous female pontiff, Joan. The reality of her existence, though certainly not an impossible occurrence, is exceedingly improbable, as the annalist of the popes, Anastasius, who lived at this very time, omits even to men- tion her name, nor can it be found in any writer for nearly two centuries afterward. The probability is, that the sur- passing and altogether monstrous profligacy of the popes who filled up the interval, had so prepared the public mind for the reception of the tale, that it was no sooner invented THE EFFECTS OF CHARLEMAGNE'S POLICY. 121 than it met with ready behef, and has in consequence been confidently repeated by most writers not seeking their in- formation at those fountains of authentic history, cotempo- rary records. The papacy has crimes enough to answer for, without our swelhng the catalogue unnecessarily; and how- ever plausible the story of Pope Joan may appear, it is the duty alike of Christian charity and of historic truthfulness to reject it, unless established on the surest evidence.* The pontificate of Benedict III. claims just a passing notice, for the evidence afforded, in the circumstances of his election, of the dependence of the papacy at this time upon the imperial crown. The election of Benedict having been violently opposed by a party who would have conferred the office on another priest, both the claimants appealed to the emperor. The decision from the imperial court was at first in opposition to Benedict, who was thrown into prison. But shortly afterward this judgment was reversed, and Benedict was transferred from a dungeon to the throne of the Church. " As those who give credence to the story may think it unfair to suppress the narrative entirely, it shall be given in the words of Menzel, the German historian : " Pope John VIII. is said to have been a German, named Jutta, or Gerberta, who was born at Ingel- heim, and received an excellent education from her father, a man of deep learning. Becoming enamored of a monk at Fulda, she disguised herself in male attire, took the oath of celibacy, and joined her lover in his monastery. They subsequently traveled together as far as Greece, and Jutta appeared at Athens in the character of a public teacher. Here her lover died. She, however, gradually rose from one dignity to another, and was finally elected Pope, when she took another lover. During her pregnancy, ac- cording to the legend, an angel promised her forgiveness for her crime if she would consent to publish her shame before the as- sembled people ; and she was accordingly delivered during a great and solemn procession, '' and immediately died. 6 122 LIVES OF THE POPES. V CHAPTER XVII. THE POPES GROW MORE ARROGANT THE «♦ GREAT SCHISM" COMMENCED, A. D. 858-900. Nicholas I., who commenced his papal reign in 858, was a man of remarkable character, and his history exhibits in bold relief the danger of investing a priesthood with secular power. We have already seen that the ambitious pontiffs were of two sorts ; one, whose bent of mind led them to seek the spiritual — the other, the temporal exaltation of the Roman See ; and as Leo IV. was a fair example of the latter class, so was Nicholas I. of the former. Taking his stand on the forged Decretals and Donation, which had been urged with so much vehemence against Charlemagne by Pope Adrian, Nicholas deliberately re- solved to exalt the tiara above miter and crown, and boldly taught the doctrine that the Pope^s authority should be paramount over every other. Although indebted for his election to the friendly, perhaps servile influence of the Emperor Louis II., who was then residing in Rome, and who graced the ceremony of consecration by his presence, the haughty priest so successfully exercised his arts upon the monarch's superstitious nature, as to cause him to set the example to future emperors of humbly leading on foot the horse of the Pontiff, holding the bridle for as great a distance as a strong man might hurl a spear; which thus became a form, not of eom-tesy, as when Pepin received the Pope for his guest at Pontyon, but one of custom, and even obligation. The first public measure of Nicholas was an act of inter- ference with the affairs of the eastern Church, with which the popes had in some degree renewed their intercourse after the favors conferred by the Greek emperor upon THE GREAT SCHISM COMMENCED. 123 Leo IV. The emperor now reigning had deposed the patriarch Ignatius, and elevated Photius, a man of great learning and superior talents, to the primacy of the Greek Church. The deposed Ignatius appealed to the Pope, and Nicholas, perhaps jealous of Photius, perhaps flattered by the appeal, or, what is still more likely, vexed at the con- tinued withdrawal from Roman jurisdiction of the provinces to the east of the Adriatic, insisted on his risfht to reg-u- late the succession of all bishops, both in the east and in the west. Nicholas further excommunicated Photius — a compliment which the patriarch returned by anathematiz- ing the Pope. Thus was laid the foundation of the lasting schism between the Greek and Latin Churches ; for these ambitious rivals for universal supremacy, Nicholas and Photius, were never reconciled, and the strife between the two sects ended, some generations later, in a mutual and absolute renunciation of fellowship. Bishops and monarchs were alike compelled to humble themselves before the imperious spirit of the haughty priest who now swayed the scepter of the Roman Chm'ch. The princes of the age were weak and superstitious, and the popes seldom lost any opportunities for asserting the authority of the popedom, and trying to establish its su- premacy over all merely secular powers. Nicholas was succeeded in 867 by Adrian IL, who soon discovered a temper fully in harmony with that of his predecessor. The King of Lorraine, Lothaire IL, was still under the censure of the Church for divorcing his wife Thiet- berg ; but hoping that by a change of pontiffs the prospects of his suit were brightened, he ventured to sue once more for permission to appear in Rome, and to plead his own cause. With Adrian he urged also that he deserved this favor for his faithful exertions to drive back the Saracens from the papal domains. Adrian permitted the visit, but resolved on duly humbling the visitor ; and when Lothaire arrived in Rome, he found himself regarded and treated as 124 LIVES OF THE POPES. a criminal rather than as a king. Presenting himself at St. Peter's, no priest was in attendance to receive him, and alone with his followers he knelt at the tomb of the apostle. On entering the rooms near to the church, which were fixed for his abode, he found them not even cleanly swept. The next day was Sunday, and Lothaire attended the services of the church; but although a monarch was among its worshipers, and when their interest required it the popes were never slow to do homage to these august and rare visitors, Adrian carefully abstained from taking any part in the ceremonies of the mass. On the following day, an explanation took place, and the Pope consented to receive the apologies of the king, but at the same time insisted on his submitting to a public humilia- tion. Inviting Lothaire and his court to a solemn com- munion, the Pontiff thus addressed the king : " If thou art innocent of the crimes laid to thy charge, and heartily in- tendest to refrain from such crimes in future, approach and receive the sacrament of redemption, which shall be to thee the pledge of the remission of thy sins, and of eternal sal- vation. But if otherwise, beware of taking tliis sacrament, lest that which the Lord hath prepared as a remedy for his faithful servants, be converted into a chastisement for thee." In like manner Adrian addressed each of the nobles who partook of the sacrament, warning them that to be accom- plices in Lothaire's guilt would expose them to a similar retribution. " And the king," says the credulous chronicler, ''and every one of them, knowing himself to be guilty, took the communion with a rash boldness, and every one of them died by a judgment from Heaven before the first day of the next year !"* So imposing had the arrogant and fallacious claims of the pontiffs now become, that posterity is amazed to see these men, for the most part commonplace, and often con- '-■ Hincmar, in his " Annals of St. Bertin," quoted by Sismondi, " Fall of the Roman Empire," vol. ii, p. 148. THE GKEAT SCHISM COMMENCED. 125 temptible, regarded as almost omnipotent by the supersti- tious generation amid which they hved and reigned. The threat of the Pope Adrian was construed by the undoubting creduhty of the age to be the immediate cause of a sickness which soon afterward befell Lothaire, and terminated his life. The Pontiff took good care to profit by the event ; for he announced it in due form to the several monarchs of Europe, assuring them it was an awful lesson of Providence to the kings of the earth, inculcating on them the duty of implicit submission to the Church. The vast empire which Charlemagne had consolidated out of the various tribes and clans inhabitino- central and western o Europe, was now again divided into factions among his de- scendants ; the title of emperor still belonging, however, to the possessor of the territory watered by the Rhine. There arose continual and bloody conflicts between these degener- ate and feeble princes. The disorders and contentions which prevailed among all the European states, gave occasion to the popes for greatly increasing their influence, as they often became the last arbiters of quarrels which the sword was unable to decide. In availina: himself of this advan- tage, the successor of Adrian, John VIII., greatly dis- tinguished himself, displaying to excess that greedy lust of power and proud spirit of domination, by which the occu- pants of the papal chair have rendered themselves odious to mankind. Charles the Bald, one of the last surviving descendants of Charlemagne, although wholly incapable of defending his possessions, was not the less desirous of enlarging them ; and while actually paying tribute to the Northmen, who ascended without resistance the Seine and the Loire, laying waste the very heart of the country, he plotted an invasion of Italy, to extend his already unprotected frontier. In this design he was abetted by Pope John, who foresaw that so weak and unprincipled a man might easily be turaed into a creature of his own. In the year 875 Charles 126 LIVES OF THE POPES. hastened to Rome, on the death of Emperor Louis II., and was solemly crowned as emperor by the Pontiff, during the service of high-mass on Christmas-day. The Pope then wrote to the feudal barons assembled at Pavia, to discuss the imperial succession, and exhorted them to unite in favor of Charles, saying, "We have elected him; we have ap- proved him, with the consent of our brethren the bishops.'* And so influential was this choice, that at an assembly of bishops and nobles held three years later in the same ancient city, the power which the Pope thus insolently claimed of disposing of the imperial crown was acknowl- edged by the synod in these words, addressed to Charles : " Since the divine favor, through the merits of the holy apostles, and of their vicar Pope John, has raised you to the empire, we unanimously elect you, according to the will of the Holy Ghost, for our protector and lord." For such valuable support the Pontiff expected of course to receive an adequate return ; and, as if the humiliation of receiving his crown at the hands of the Pope were not suf- ficiently degrading, Charles further consented to place the government of Italy under his control — a power which John and his successors most shamelessly abused. From this period the popes made no secret of their pre- tensions to a supreme authority over both civil and rehgious affairs. They declared that the empire itself had been transferred by their decree from the Greeks to the French, and that the ceremony of consecration which they per- formed was an act of power and bestowment. It was on this flimsy pretense that they afterward grounded their claim to transfer the imperial crown again, first to the Ital- ians and then to the Germans. As for Italy, John plainly expected to govern it without the slightest means of defending it from foreign encroach- ments. He looked to the Emperor Charles for all neces- sary succor ; and when, toward the close of his pontificate, the Saracens menaced Rome with a siege, he wrote letters THE GREAT SCHISM COMMENCED. 127 to that monarch, reminding him of his obligation, and em- ploying argument that savors much more of the sovereign master than of the subject and dependent. " The hea- then," says he, " overwhelm us with such a multitude of evils, that nothing comparable to it can be found in the memory of man. The remnant of the people have retreated within the walls of the holy city ; there they struggle against inexpressible poverty and want, while the whole re- gion beyond the walls is laid waste and reduced to a soH- tude. There remains to us but one evil to fear — and may God avert that from us ! — the loss and iiiin of Rome itself.'* Then, anticipating excuses from the beleaguered Charles, the Pope reminds him that the power that conferred the crown could also take it away, bidding him remember the hands that had given him the empire, " lest, if driven to despair, we should change our opinion^ John died in 883, and the two next years each supplied the world with a pope ; but neither Martin II. nor Adrian III. have left any record behind them. One in- cident in the life of their successor, Stephen VI., is worthy of being preserved. Stephen was raised to the pontificate at a momentous period in the history of Europe. The empire of Charle- magne was rapidly falling to pieces through the singular incapacity of his descendants, and an entire reconstruction of the European political system seemed requisite. At last, the extreme imbecility and indolence of Charles the Fat compelled the German barons to assemble in diet, and elect a prince who should be able both to govern and to de- fend them. Their choice fell upon Aniulf, Duke of Bava- ria. But the setting aside of the directly legitimate succes- sion was not hkely to be accomphshed by the vote of an assembly, however powerful it might be, or however impe- rious the necessity that demanded the step. The extrac- tion of Arnulf was considered by many as tainted, although he was of royal descent ; and accordingly rivals sprang up 128 LIVES OF THE POPES. in almost every direction, some contending for the personal independence of the empire, and some for the imperial crown itself. Among the latter were Guido, Duke of Spo- leto, and Berengar, Duke of Friuli, between whom a battle was fought, which decided Guido's superiority, and by con- sequence secured to him the support of the Pontilff, at least so long as the Italian house should be able to withstand the German claimant of the crown. Amulf, however, had at present enough to do without crossing the Alps ; the dan- ger of a German invasion appeared tolerably remote ; and Stephen, therefore, crowned Guido as King of Lombardy and Emperor Augustus. But Stephen's brief tenure of papal power had not long been closed by death before his successor, Formosus, find- ing the Italian nobles unmanageable, requested Amulf to come to his aid ; and although he had already crowned Lambert, Guido's son, with the imperial diadem, he did not scruple now to salute the German prince as the rightful emperor, hoping to secure to himself a powerful and valua- ble ally. Amulf marched into Italy at the head of a strong army, and after some opposition from the nobles, whom he treated as rebellious vassals, he took Rome by storm, the Italians having shut the gates against him in spite of the Pope. His enemies being thus silenced, Arnulf was pubhcly crowned by the Pontiflf as Emperor of the West. Formosus, in 897, was succeeded by Stephen YIL, who immediately began to manifest the most implacable hostility to the very memory of his predecessor. It was no unusual thing for contentions to exist between the connections of a deceased and reigning pope, and it generally happened that when the newly -elected Pontiff took possession of the Vat- ican, he found that palace plundered of all its valuable or- naments and furniture. But the rancorous and revengeful spirit of Stephen YII. cannot be accounted for on any such ordinary grounds, nor is it possible now to discover the cause, though he tried to justify himself by the pretense that the THE GREAT SCHISM COMMENCED. 129 late Pontifif was an usurper, who had been excommunicated by Pope John VIII. Stephen, not content with revihng the memory of the deceased Pope, caused the body of Formosus to be dragged from its tomb, that it might formally receive a sentence of deposition. The body was carried into the presence of a council of Italian bishops, convened for the occasion, and by these inhuman wretches the inanimate form was mock- ingly arrayed in the rich vesture and ornaments which it had worn when endued with life. They then placed it in horrible state upon the papal throne, Stephen, the living Pontiff, now advanced, and demanded of his lifeless brother : " Wherefore, 0 Bishop of Porto, hast thou carried thy am- bition so far as to usurp the See of Rome ?" On receiving no reply, this grave assembly passed sentence of deposition, and the condemned corpse, being stripped of its robes, was brutally beheaded and deprived of three fingers, and then ordered to be cast contemptuously into the Tiber. This ridiculous and disgusting farce was the prelude to proceedings of greater consequence. Stephen published an edict, in which Formosus was pronounced an usurper, and all the acts and decrees of his pontificate were uncon- ditionally annulled — at the hazard, it should seem, of creat- ing thereby a rather serious breach in the much-vaunted chain of regular and unbroken succession. The revolting behavior of Stephen soon met with just retribution ; for, as might be expected, the friends of Formosus could set no bounds to their indignation, and raising an insurrection in the city, they broke into the Pope's abode, and hurrying him to a dungeon, strangled him without even the prelimi- nary form of a trial. In the disturbances which ensued, two popes, Romanus and Theodore, were elected to the chair, and were super- seded in the same year by John IX., whose honors were almost equally short-lived, as he died about the close of the ninth century. 6* 130 LIVES OF THE POPES. And now commenced a scene of fierce discord, base and treacherous outrage, and unblushing licentious profligacy, which has had no parallel in. the history of Christendom, nor, perhaps, in the history of the world. It is summarily described by Hallam as comprehending *' a series of revo- lutions and crimes, in which six popes were -deposed, two murdered, one mutilated. Frequently two, or even three competitors, among whom it is not always possible by any genuine criticism to distinguish the true shepherd, drove each other alternately from the city. A few respectable names appear thinly scattered through this darkness ; and sometimes, perhaps, a pope who had acquired estimation by his private virtues, may be distinguished by some en- croachment on the rights of princes or the privileges of na- tional Chmxhes. But in general the pontiffs of that age had neither leisure nor capacity to perfect the great system of temporal supremacy, and looked rather to a vile profit from the sale of episcopal confirmations, or of exemptions to monasteries." — [Middle Ages, vol. ii, p. 531.) CHAPTER XVIII. LICENTIOUSNESS OF THE POPES INTERFERENCE OF OTHO THE GREAT. A. D. 900-973. It is, perhaps, well that the annals of the times now to be reviewed are so meager as to relieve both the historian and the reader of the painful necessity of contemplating a scene of iniquity and vice, in which even the better characters are distinguishable from the rest only by being engaged in a less flagitious order of crime. Most of the popes of the tenth century must be passed over in silence, and those whom the continuity of this narrative obliges us to con- sider shall be described with as much brevity and decent reserve as fidelity to truth will permit. LICENTIOUSMESS OF THE POPES. 131 During the first quarter of the tenth century, Italy was a prey to the factions of the feudal chiefs, who were now rising into importance, and among whom the popes strove, generally in vain, to maintain an independent sovereignty over the city and territory of Rome. In order to accom- plish this they never hesitated to favor the claims, whether good or bad, of the most powerful party. Thus Pope Benedict IV. abused the functions of his office ; and when, in 901, Louis, King of Provence, defeated his rival pretend- ers to the Italian crown, and came to Rome to be installed, Benedict consecrated him both as emperor and as king of Italy, In the following year, Benedict fell into the hands of the hostile Duke of Friuli, who had aimed at possessing the crown, and whose right was just as good as that of Louis. The Pope on this occasion paid the penalty of his subservience by being violently put to death. Leo v., who next assumed the tiara, was still more unfor- tunate, for in less than three months he was deposed by the plots of his own chaplain, Christopher, and probably ended his career in a Roman dungeon. Christopher ascended the blood-stained steps of the throne, but was in his tm-n driven from power, after holding it a few months. His expulsion was effected by a revolt of the citizens, who, in these times of anarchy and crime, became the ready tools of any daring and wealthy noble who would pay them well. Adelbert, Duke of Lucca, was one of the most powerful of the Italian nobles, and obtained predominant influence at Rome through the aid of the licentious Theodora, a Roman lady of fortune. At her instigation, he placed in the va- cant chair of the papacy Sergius, one of her paramours, and the third pope of that name. Little is known of Ser- gius, and what is known redounds only to his dishonor and that of the Roman See. His connection with Marozia, the daughter of Theodora, and the equal of her mother in .every vice, brands his name with eternal infamy. For a 132 LIVES OF THE POPES. few years lie continued in power, and then fell, more likely by violence than otherwise, to make way for new favorites. Anastasius III. and Lando arose, at the bidding of these infamous women, to the dangerous post of honor, and both died so suddenly as to excite suspicion of foul play. Another lover of Theodora's succeeded as John X., whose tenure of office and of her favor was more protracted. Yet, although his pontificate endured for the extraordinary period of twelve years, its history relates almost exclusively to domestic intrigues and broils. It is said, indeed, that John united with the Dukes of Benevento and Naples to oppose the Saracens ; and that their joint eflforts were so successful, that these fierce invaders were utterly swept from the Italian shores for many years : but what share in these feats of arms was borne by the priestly voluptuary under consideration is left to our conjectures. Certain it is, that though he died a violent death, it was not on the field of patriotic conflict. His end was in keeping with his life. The wanton daughter of Theodora was provoked to jealousy by the slights she imagined she received from the Pontiff, and by the greater attention which he had paid to her mother than to herself ; and imputing her loss of influ- ence over John to the remonstrances of his brother Peter, she resolved, with all the madness of infuriated jealousy, to accomplish the destruction of both. She, therefore, incited her husband Guido, Duke of Tuscany, a man as dissolute and reckless as herself, to execute the plot which her own ingenuity had devised. The appointed day arrived ; the Pope and his brother were both known to be enjoying the luxurious repose of the Lateran palace, when Guido, at the head of his soldiers, broke suddenly in upon their seclusion, and first killing Peter in the Pontiff's presence, dragged John himself to prison, where he was speedily dispatched. Two other equally miserable victims were exalted to the popedom by the vile Marozia and her husband, in order to LICENTIOUSNESS OF THE POPES. 133 be quickly destroyed. One of these creatures, Leo VI., was pope seven months ; the next, Stephen VIIL, for somewhat more than a year. Both of them probably died by poison or the dagger. On the death of Duke Guido, Marozia married Hugh, king of Burgundy, who had now triumphed over all the other pretenders to the crown of Italy, and was, therefore, recognized as its king, though the yoke of a transalpine sovereign was very impatiently borne by the feudal chiefs of Lombardy. Hugh was as licentious as his wife ; both indulged their guilty passions without restraint, and as they gave to the papal chair what occupants they pleased, we may be sure that the qualification for the popedom would not now be piety, or even morality or learning, but a con- geniality of taste and habits in sensuality and vice. The power of Marozia at Rome being now at its height, she gave the tiara, in 931, to her son Octavian, who acknowledged Pope Sergius III. as his father, and who was then just twenty years of age. The young Pontiff, who assumed the name of John XI., was not destined, however, long to occupy the seat in which he had been placed by such unlawful and polluted, though powerful hands. Ma- rozia's son by the first marriage, Alberic, was incensed at her new alliance, and sympathized with the Italian nobles in regarding the intrusion of a foreign prince as an insult and degradation. To please his mother, he nevertheless attended the nuptial banquet, but conducted himself so haughtily toward his new father, that Hugh gave him a blow on the cheek. Alberic no longer restrained his indig- nation, and turning to the nobles around him, " Romans !" exclaimed he, " once you were the masters of the world, and these Burgundians the most abject of your slaves. They now reign, these voracious and brutal savages, and my injuiy is the commencement of your servitude." The banquet was now turned into a conspiracy, and a revolution was shortly effected. Marozia was thrown into prison; 134 LIVES OF THE POPES. Hugh and his Burgundians expelled the city ; and Alberic assumed the government of Rome under the ancient title of consul, permitting his brother John still, however, to con- duct the management of ecclesiastical affairs. But even this curtailed dignity was not long allowed him, for after being closely watched for a couple of years, this unfortu- nate Pope died in prison, not without suspicion of having suffered violence. The new government established by Alberic continued for more than twenty years, but without any visible im- provement in the character of the papacy. The pontiffs successively raised to office during that period were ap- pointed by Alberic, and appear to have been chosen for their readiness to become his servile instruments. Of such men as Leo VII., Stephen IX., Martin III., and Agape- Tus, history has absolutely nothing but their names to record. On the death of the latter, in the year 956, Alberic con- sidered his son Octavian, then eighteen years of age, mature enough for the pontifical dignity, and accordingly designa- ted him pope by the name of John XII. This profligate youth surpassed, if it were possible to surpass, his prede- cessors in his utter disregard, not merely of religion, but of the commonest forms of morality. Truth, honor, decency — were all shamefully defied. Hardly a vice could be named or imagined of which he was not guilty. The gold and silver vessels belonging to St. Peter's were given as presents to his mistresses and other companions in sensual pleasures ; the female pilgrims who visited Rome were de- coyed to the Lateran and ruined ; the treasures of the see were squandered away in gambling of every kind ; the very show of divine worship was abandoned altogether, or inde- cently hunied through ; and the audacious Pope did not scruple publicly to invoke the pagan deities, and mockingly to drink at his revels to the health of the devil. Such was the character of Pope John XII., as portrayed LICENTIOUSNESS OF THE POPES. 1S5 by the Romanists themselves ; and yet the unblushing ef frontery of Rome still calls on us to believe that this wretch was a legitimate successor, and during his life the only one on earth, of the self-denying Peter and Paul ; and that sac- raments administered by his polluted hands could them- selves convey grace to the receiver. Surely common-sense alone would serve to suggest, that were the fiction of sacra- mental grace as true as it is false, the channel through which the grace comes should at least be untaintedly pure. Meantime, a new yoke of servitude for poor, sunken, and priest-defiled Italy was in course of preparation. Otho the Great had now reunited the German nations, which had fallen into confusion after the death of Charlemagne ; and he next proceeded to lay hands on Italy, which was ill able to resist invasion. Invited by the Pope, who found himself incapable of ruling the ambitious Italian nobles, Otho marched across the Alps, and without much difficulty suc- ceeded in reaching the papal metropolis. The Pontiff soon found that he had obtained a master where he expected to find a friend ; for Otho compelled the reluctant John both to acknowledge him as the lawful emperor of the west, inclusive of Italy, and with his own hands to perform the ceremony of coronation. He completed the series of humil- iations by causing the Romans to swear that they would never more elect a pope without first ascertaining the impe- rial pleasure. ISTo sooner had the emperor departed from Rome, than John declared that the oath taken by himself, the clergy, and the people, was utterly null and void, and retracted all the promises which he had so lately given. The news of this treachery overtook Otho before he had reached the great mountain barrier, and he immediately returned to inflict chastisement on the faithless Pope. Feeling that his life was not safe among so false a people, he commanded his sword-bearer never to quit his side, lest he should be assaulted and murdered even at the foot of the altar. Con- 136 LIVES OF THE POPES. yoking a council of the clergy, he ordered them to depose the Pope, on the ground of many of his profligate acts, which were fully exposed and clearly proved. John's as- sociates in revolt were severely punished, and the Pope him- self, thus disgraced, soon afterward ended his scandalous life by a horrible, but retributive death; for, being taken in adultery, he was killed on the spot by the injured and exasperated husband. On the degradation of John, the emperor appointed Leo VIII. to be his successor ; but the nomination was so dis- pleasing to the citizens of Rome, that, in defiance of the imperial mandate, they proceeded to elect a pontiff* of their own choice, named Benedict V. The emperor again hast- ened back, and reducing the city by famine, compelled the clergy to accept Leo, and sentenced Benedict to perpetual exile. Leo died two years after, when John XIII. was raised, by imperial command, to the papal chair. Against this appointment also the Romans rebelled, and boldly im- prisoned the emperor's nominee. Otho once more marched upon the contumacious city, and this time made a signal example of several leading revolters. The prefect was mounted naked on an ass, whipped through the city, and then thrown into a dungeon ; thirteen of the most deter- mined were hanged, and many others were either mutilated or banished from Rome. John was restored to power, and retained it till 9*72. His character is little known, but no very favorable glimpse of it is given in his introducing the absurd practice of baptizing and consecrating the hells of cathedrals and churches — a ceremony which has ever since been regarded by the superstitious devotees of Rome as a certain charm to preserve the sacred edifice from the approach of evil spirits. STRIFES OF RIVAL POPES. 137 CHAPTER XIX. STRIFES OF RIVAL POPES. VAIN EFFORTS AT REFORM IN THE CHURCH. A. D. 973-1003. The death of Otho the Great in 9*73 was the signal for new disturbances in Italy, which resulted in disastrous conse- quences to the Pontiff, Benedict VI. Led by their priests, the citizens of Rome broke out into revolt against the impe- rial authority. Especially indignant that a pope had been imposed upon them without their consent being even asked, they chose a cardinal named Francone as their leader, and at his instigation hurried Benedict to the castle of St. Angelo, where he was presently strangled. Francone was hastily elected to fill his place, and he forth- with ascended the papal throne with the title of Boni- face VII. The career of Boniface was throughout worthy of its commencement. His licentiousness and cruelty were such, that the same hands that carried him to the throne were in a few months again lifted for his expulsion from power. But though driven from the city, he still claimed the su- preme ecclesiastical authority, and his title was acknowl- edged by some of the clergy. Meanwhile others stepped into the vacant seat. First Donus, of whom nothing fur- ther is known, and then Benedict VII. obtained the covet- ed but dangerous honor. The city was kept in a continual state of uproar, by pretenders to the civil as well as the ec- clesiastical magistracy. Crescentius, a son of the aban- doned Theodora, seized the opportunity to attempt a restoration of the republic, and styled himself its first consul. The adherents of Crescentius supported the pretensions of the exiled Boniface to the popedom, while another faction contended for Benedict, who was in actual possession of the office. The providence of God thus most righteously and 138 LIVES OF THE POPES. instructively ordained that the popes should themselves be- come the instruments of exposing to the derision and scorn of the world their ridiculous and impious assertion of infal- lible wisdom. The opposition between the rival " heads of the Church " was absolute. The pope of one party was the anti-pope of another. What one authority decreed, the other strictly forbade. Benedict excommunicated Boniface, and Boniface anathematized Benedict. To quell these angry tumults, the emperor Otho II. hast- ened in person to Rome, and his presence there produced at least temporary order. Crescentius was pardoned, but the banishment of his associate or creature, Boniface, was confirmed. Benedict VII. sat on the papal throne in un- alarmed security, but in undignified dependence, for the brief remainder of his hfe. Dying in 984, Benedict was succeeded, at the imperial command, by the chancellor of the empire, John XIV. But the early death of the emperor gave new courage to the faction of Crescentius and Boniface. The latter re- turned to Rome, and seizing on his rival, not only ejected him from the power, but caused him immediately to be put to death. In a few months, however, his own possession of ofl&ce was ended and the clamor of his party silenced by the stem and peremptory fiat of the " last enemy," and Boniface VII. left the undesirable prize of the tiara to be struggled for by other competitors. John XV. was the successful aspirant, and low as the real authority of the popes had now sunk, he contrived to display as much as the mightiest of his predecessors, the arrogance inherent in the papacy. Saint-worship had, by this time, become the universal practice of Christendom. The Virgin Mary, with a host of Church heroes and hero- ines, known and unknown, claimed an equal or even a larger share than the Saviour of the world in the prayers of professed Christians; and the priesthood found the canonization of new saints to be as lucrative a source of STRIFES OF THE RIVAL POPES. 139 revenue as they formerly had the discovery of fabulous reUcs. But greatly as this custom of canonizing the dead had come into vogue, and much as it had already been abused by designing priests, no pontiff had yet assumed to himself the power and right of enlarging the calendar at will. This innovation was reserved for an age of unequaled credulity and superstition, and John XV. was the daring and success- ful originator of the crime. In the year 993 this Pope held a synod at Rome, in which one Udlaric was formally and solemnly enrolled in the catalogue of saints. The ground of the procedure was a traditionary and legendary account of Udlaric's life, (in- cluding some most absm-d and incredible tales,) which was presented to the Pope by the Bishop of Augsburg, and which John pretended impUcitly to believe. He forthwith issued a decree, enjoining on all Christians the due veneration of the newly-installed saint, expressed in the following terms : "John, servant of the servants of God, to all archbishops, bishops, and abbots, greeting and apostolical benediction. Having convened an assembly at our palace of the Lateran on the last day of January, in which John the most holy Pope was sitting, and the bishops and clergy standing, the most reverend Lintolph, Bishop of Augsburg, said, ' Most holy bishop, give me leave to read in your presence the book which I hold in my hand, respecting the life and miracles of Udlaric, formerly bishop of my diocese.' The book having been read, we hereby resolve and ordain that the memory of Udlaric shall be honored with pious affection and sincere devotion, because we ought to honor and show respect to the relics of martyrs and confessors, in order to adore Him whose martyrs and confessors they are. It is, therefore, our pleasure that the memory of Udlaric be con- secrated to the honor of the Lord, that it may serve to cel- ebrate his praise forever." The pretensions of the papacy were thus, as we see, ad- 140 LIVES OF THE POPES. vanced more insolently than ever at a period when her corruptions and entirely unscriptural character were reach- ing their height. But the conduct of the pontiffs had now been so long and so constantly an outrage, not only on Christianity, but on humanity itself, that there were many in all countries, and not a few even of the clergy, who be- gan to dispute the authority of the Pope, and to desire some kind of reform in matters of rehgion. This feeling displayed itself in France during the pontifi- cate of John XV. ; and the boldest denouncer of the pa- pacy was himself a Churchman, destined to become after- ward a pope. This was Gerbert, a man so renowned for his learning in the physical sciences that the vulgar thought him a magician; but so esteemed by Hugh Capet, then king of France, that he appointed him president of the ca- thedral school of Rheims. Now it happened that the Arch- bishop of Rheims had offended the king, and the latter, wishing both to humble the archbishop and to flatter the Pope, besought John's interposition. The PontiflF, however, delayed taking measures so long, that the king grew indig- nant, and summoned a synod of the French clergy to ad- judicate in the affair. In this synod many bold speeches were uttered respecting the character of the papacy. Ar- nulf, a friend of Gerbert's, referring to the recent popes, exclaimed, " Is it, then, settled, that to such shameful brutes, destitute of all knowledge, both secular and sacred, the clergy, distinguished through the world for wisdom and purity, are submissively to bow ? For what do we take him who sits, blazing with purple and gold, on a lofty throne? If, devoid of love, he is puffed up with knowl- edge, then is he Antichrist sitting in the temple of God. If he is wanting in both knowledge and charity, he sits in that temple like a statue — an idol ; and to seek a decision from such an one is like askinsf counsel of a block of stone. Much better were it to seek advice where we might expect to find the fullest understanding of the divine word — of the STRIFES OF THE RIVAL POPES. 141 bishops of Belgium and Germany — than in a city where everything is venal, and where judgment is pronounced ac- cording to the amount of the bribe. How shall any of the Roman clergy, among whom hardly a man will be found who can either write or read, pretend to teach what he has not himself learned ?" This synod assumed to itself the right of deposing the archbishop, and appointed Gerbert to succeed him. But Pope John would by no means admit that such power was vested in the synod, and pronounced the deposition invalid, suspending from their functions all the bishops who had voted. Gerbert now felt it his duty to interfere, and writ- ing to a brother bishop, who seemed disposed to coincide with the Pope, he pleaded thus in vindication of the synod : ** Why do our opponents urge that we ought to have waited for the decision of the Pope ? Can they show that the judgment of the Roman bishop is greater than the judg- ment of God ? The first Roman bishop said, * It is better to hearken unto God than unto men.' Shall we, then, give up this right of deposing our bishops, and with it the power of punishing even the most guilty ? I say, and persist in it, that if the Pope himself has committed a sin against his brother, and having been often reminded of it, do not listen to the Church, he must, by the command of God, be con- sidered as a heathen and a publican ; for the more exalted the station one occupies, the deeper is his fall." It is gratifying thus to see that, even in the darkest age, there were some who could perceive and dared to speak the truth ; but the time for attempting a reform in the pa- pacy had not yet arrived ; and when it came, the utter failure of the attempt only made more apparent than ever the viciousness of the principles upon which the whole sys- tem was based. In truth, the very men, such as Gerbert and Arnulf, who desired a reform, knew not what it was that was required. Their own minds were so largely im- bued with the popular notion, that the established forms of 142 LIVES OF THE POPES. religion, in government, discipline, and worship, were es- sential to the existence of the Church of Christ, that the really spiritual nature of Christianity altogether escaped them. The great doctrines of the gospel, that "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight ;" that " all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ;" that " the righteousness of God without the law is manifested . . . even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe " — of these and many other important truths they knew little or nothing, and were therefore quite unprepared to sweep away the huge and stifling mass of rubbish be- neath which Rome had entombed the fair form of the Chris- tian religion. The Pontifi^, Gregory V., who was raised to the pope- dom by Otho in 997, lived only two years to enjoy the honor. Yet in that brief interval he gave abundant proof to the world, that however abject, morally and politically, the papacy may become, it will never relinquish its claims to universal supremacy in the Church. The king of France had just then married a lady who stood within the pro- hibited line of relationship. Gregory publicly declared that the marriage was null and void. At first, the king defied the arrogant priest ; but Gregory knew his powers, and boldly proceeded to pronounce the monarch an excom- municate person, and his kingdom under the interdict of the Church. The astonished prince beheld himself immediately deserted by all his subjects, and his court converted into a solitude. Two faithful domestics alone remained with him ; and even these, fearful of spiritual infection, superstitiously avoided his touch, and threw into the fire vessels which he used in eating and drinking. Under circumstances so strin- gent the king was compelled to submit ; and by dismissing his bride obtained the pardon of the Pope. On Gregory's death, the Emperor Otho, still hoping to secure some beneficial changes in the state of the Church, STRIFES OF THE RIVAL POPES. 143 appointed his preceptor, the learned Gerbert, to succeed him, under the title of Sylvester II. The earlier career of this remarkable man might justify us in expecting that his advent to power would commence a new era in the his- tory of the Roman Church ; but if he had not previously changed his sentiments concerning the papacy, he had at least learned the corrupt policy of silence ; and on becom- ing Pope, instead of instituting reforms, he studiously up- held all the vices of the Roman See. Perhaps, also, he found hindrances over which he could exercise no control, as well as temptations which he had not the moral strength to resist. Among other difficulties with which Sylvester, had he been ever so desirous of interfering with established usages, would have had to contend, was one of a most singular and extraordinary character ; this was the panic-stricken state of society on the approach of the year 1000 of the Christian era. A belief was prevalent throughout Europe that in that year the awful predictions contained in the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse were destined to be accom- plished, and that the generation then living would witness the final judgment of the world. So great was the excite- ment, and so extravagant the consequent fanaticism, that the wheels of commerce stood still, tradesmen forsook their merchandise, students their books, and multitudes, resign- ing their estates into the hands of the Church, retired into convents, to prepare with due solemnity for the expected event. So sudden and vast an accession of wealth must have greatly strengthened the power of the bishops and clergy throughout Europe ; and had Sylvester been ever so strongly inclined to introduce beneficial alterations, it is probable he would have utterly failed at so unpropitious a time. His life was, however, so shortly terminated, that he had little opportunity of displaying either his genius or his in- tentions. He died in 1003 ; and the death of Otho III., 144 LIVES OF THE POPES. at almost the same time, occasioned an entire revolution in Italian ajQfairs, and changed into a phase yet darker, if pos- sible, the foul and lowering aspect of the Roman Church. CHAPTER XX. HEIGHT OF ANARCHY IN THE STATE, AND PROFLIGACY IN THE CHURCH. A. D. 1003-1046. Degenerate as were the Italians of the middle ages, com- pared with their renowned and warlike ancestors, the spirit of liberty had never wholly departed, and had, perhaps, received new life from the admixture of the Lombard and Gothic population with the ancient inhabitants of the land. The yoke of a transalpine emperor was always felt to be galling, and a moment of weakness in the imperial govern- ment was sure to be seized for erecting the standard of independence. Such an occasion presented itself on the death of Otho III., when the Germans were much divided in the choice of a successor ; and Henry II., who was eventu- ally elected, found full occupation for many years in sup- pressing the factions of his rivals. Left thus to themselves, the nobles of Italy recommenced those struggles for freedom which had ceased since the time of Otho I., and nothing but internal disorganization could have prevented Italy from acquiring an independent sovereign of its own. But many causes combined to hinder this desirable result. The feudal system had taught the nobles independence of each other, and now they were more eager for individual greatness than anxious for their country's welfare. The policy of Otho I. had also been directed to the dissolving of the bonds of connection be- tween these powerful nobles, whose imion would have made them formidable to the safety of the empire. To humble the barons and the bishops, he had given charters of free- HEIGHT OF PROFLIGACY IN THE CHURCH. 145 dom to many cities, and even permitted them to surround themselves with walls and fortifications. Each of these, thus transformed into a petty state, was selfishly expending for its own aggrandizement the resources that ought to liave been devoted to the common weal. "Venice was com- mencing, with all the ardor of youth, her career of com- merce and conquest. Naples and other sea-ports strength- ened their own power in their efibrts to resist the piratical Saracens and Normans. Florence, Milan, Pavia, and other inland -towns, had built up their walls, and armed a militia to repel the attacks of the Hungarians. So that, although Ardoin, the Marquis of Ivrea, on being elected king by some of the northern nobles, was able to maintain the title and style of a monarch for some years, he never gained the support of the nation, and his forces were easily routed when the new emperor found leisure, in the year 1014, to quit his German dominions and march into Italy. But although Henry II. then enjoyed the honor of being crowned before a Roman assembly, and by pontifical hands, he did not greatly interfere in ecclesiastical matters, which •were thus abandoned for a long time to the unscrupulous selfishness of a venal priesthood. The popes who ruled Rome in this interval of discord were all of them the mere nominees and creatures of such nobles or popular leaders as held for the moment the predominant power in this miserable and distracted city. Whatever genius or ability they had was, doubtless, exhausted in their endeav- or to maintain some shadow of authority in the midst of domestic squabbles. It need occasion us no sort of regret that history records nothing but the names of John XVII., John XVIII., and Sergius IV., the last of whom died in 1012. The power of the counts of Tusculum, a barony in the neighborhood of the city, was now paramount at Rome, and the next occupants of the papal chair were accordingly taken from among their partisans. The first of these was 7 140 LIVES OF THE POPES. Benedict VIII., whose reign was distracted by domestic quarrels, and by frequent invasions of the Greeks and Saracens. Dying in 1024, he was succeeded by his brother, who was also of the Tusculan party. John XIX., as the new Pontiff was styled, had never been a priest at all ; but being senator and Duke of Rome, it was easy for him to seize on an office which, though sacred in name, had long ceased to be so in fact. Yet it was necessary to gain over the clergy, and this was quickly accomplished by extensive and unblushing bribeiy. An office so obtained was not likely to be esteemed for its own sake, and this soon appeared in John^s conduct re- specting it. He only valued the popedom for the worldly advancement which it promised him, and if it did not answer this end it would hardly cost hnn a sigh to part with it for a better prize. The authority of the popes was daily on the decline ; and so uncertain a remuneraticwi, held on such dangerous terms, quickly induced the mercenary Pontiff to form the design of selling his office to the highest bidder ; and he accordingly entered into engagements with the Greek emperor, Basil, to transfer to the Greek patriarch the title of " Universal Bishop," on condition of receiving a large sum of money in return. A visit of the Emperor Conrad II. to Rome, in 1026, was in all probabihty the cause of this eno-ao-ement remaining unfulfilled. The disorders of Italy brought across the Alps that worthy successor of Otho the Great ; and after the ceremony of coronation had been per- formed, Conrad laid down such stringent regulations, both for the nobles and the clergy, as insured the return of order, at least for a season. On the death of John, in 1033, the counts of Tusculum, still in the ascendant, had the audacity to elevate to the vacant chair a boy of theu own family, not twelve years of age, to whom they gave the name of Benedict IX. It is hard, indeed, to determine to which of the titles ordinarily chosen by the popes should be awarded precedence for HEIGHT OF PROFLIGACY IN THE CHURCH. 14V baseness of reputation ; but, perhaps, in the person of this monster, the name of Benedict has attained to that dis- graceful preeminence. As soon as Benedict had arrived on the vfl'ge of manhood, he recklessly plunged into every species of debauchery and crime. No expenditure was too lavish, no act was too daring, that would serve to gratify his passions. All that has been related of John XII. might be repeated of Benedict IX., and still the whole would not be told. The former was a voluptuary, the latter was a voluptuary and a tyrant. To licentiousness he added ungovernable fury and anger, and committed several mur- ders with his own hands. The chroniclers of the age, wearied or disgusted with their task, are fain to sum up the catalogue of his enormities in few words, by declaring that the details are too horrible to narrate. Used as the Romans were to base and profligate pontiflTs, their indignation was at length aroused by the unparalleled vileness of Pope Benedict ; and excited by his repeated and wanton acts of cruelty, they raised an insurrection, and ejected him by force from the city. His powerful alliances, however, enabled him to return, and perhaps he might much longer have continued to pollute society by his per- nicious example, but that his passions were turned in a direction which led him eventually to vacate the papal chair. Becoming enamored of the beautiful daughter of an Italian noble, he formally demanded her in marriage. Her father pretended to be willing, but said he could only con- sent on condition that Benedict would abdicate his office, hoping that the throne of the Church would thus fall into his own hands, and that he might seat on it whom he pleased. But Benedict, though in nowise reluctant to part with the tiara, was determined to make the sacrifice a source of pecuniary profit. He therefore selected a priest, named Gratianus, who had acquired considerable reputation in Rome for being more than usually religious, and whose rep- 148 LIVES OF THE POPES. utation had proved so advantageous as greatly to enrich him, and to him, for a suitable price, he sold the supreme headship of the Church. It is not unlikely, also, that the party, now growing into importance, who wished ftr re- forms in the Church, aided John Gratianus to purchase the office, in the hope that he would become their instrument in accomplishing those reforms. At all events, Gratianus, by his own confession, bought the triple-crown, and Bene- dict consecrated with his blood-stained hands this hopeful successor of the apostles by the title of Gregory VI. But Benedict was yet doomed to disappointment. The father of his intended bride, mortified at the failure of his own schemes, refused to part with his daughter, and assum- ing that the papacy was still vacant, nominated another John, Bishop of Sabina, under the name of Sylvester III. And now Benedict, enraged at the trick that had been played him, resolvefl to retain the supreme power in the Church. He therefore continued his abode in the Lateran, and still styled himself the most holy Pope. Thus the world be- held, with some astonishment, three pontiffs at once, living in different palaces, and officiating at different altars in the papal city — Benedict performing the priestly functions at the Lateran, Gregory in St. Peter's, and Sylvester in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore ; '' the afflicted Church," to use the language of the times, " wedded at once to three hus- bands, witnessed the celebration of as many rival masses in the metropolis of Christendom." But these spiritual combatants by no means confined themselves to spiritual weapons. Each summoned his par- tisans to his aid, and Rome was filled with brawls, rob- beries, and murders. Swords were crossed in battle over the tombs of the apostles and martyrs, and the offerings which the devout still occasionally brought to the shrines of the saints were no sooner deposited than they were greedily carried off by one party or another. In these bloody affrays Gregory particularly distinguished HEIGHT OF PROFLIGACY IN THE CHURCH. 149 himself; for he was an unlettered man, and probably- thought what was afterward said by Pope Julius II., that a sword was better than a book. But the party who sup- ported his pretensions, feeling somewhat scandahzed by the military character of their spiritual chief, adopted the singular expedient of making the Archbishop of Amalfi his deputy in all spiritual offices ; so that while the bishop was performing mass for the Pope, Gregory might uninter- ruptedly wield the sword in defense of the bishop. The eyes of all lovers of peace were now anxiously directed to the Emperor Henry HI., whose power alone seemed competent to settle those disputes, and Henry was himself desirous of terminating broils so disgraceful to the name of religion. In the autumn of 1046 he arrived at Pavia, where he was entertained by Boniface, Margrave of Tuscany, with a magnificence and splendor that dazzled and surprised him. Proceeding to Sutri, a town about thirty miles northward of Rome, he there convened a council of bishops and clergy. At this council, Gregoiy presented himself, in the hope of receiving the imperial sanction to his claim of the popedom. He was compelled, however, to confess that his claim rested on no better ground than that of simony, and he and his rivals received one sentence of deposition. The emperor entered Rome on the twenty-third of De- cember, and the day following he held in St. Peter's an assembly of the clergy and people of Rome, whom he com- manded to proceed in his presence to elect a new pontiff. But they, on the contrary, entreated the emperor to accept the office of Roman patrician ; and promised that, as in former days, they would abide by his choice in the selec- tion of a pope. This, probably, was just what Henry in- tended ; and forthwith assuming the green mantle, golden circlet, and ring, which formed the patrician costume, he took the hand of Suidger, Bishop of Bamberg, who had followed him from Germany, and leading hhn up to 4he 150 LIVES OF THE POPES. papal chair, invited the assembly to do homage to Pope Clement II. Next day, being Christmas-day, the new Pontiff received in public the tiara and purple robe, and im- mediately afterward placed the iron-crown on the head of his imperial patron. Henry set out, a few days later, on his return to Ger- many, taking in his train the three deposed popes, and also a friend of Gregory's — a man who was destined afterward to play a more remarkable part than any of them in the papal drama. This was Hildebrand, afterward Pope Greg- ory VII. With these events this portion of our narrative properly ends. We have now traced the papacy from its rise to the close of the first cycle in its sin-stained and melancholy course. We have seen a Christian ministry, designed by its divine founder to instruct and purify the world, receive the first element of corruption at Jewish fountains, and, in- sensibly transforming itself into a priesthood, establish a spiritual despotism over the Churches of Christ. We have seen that, in their eagerness to extend their influence and dominion, they lost sight of the true idea of conversion, and accepted a mere outward profession of Christianity, that might be enforced by the sword or bought with a bribe, in place of the Scriptural evidences of a heart renewed by the Spirit of the living God. We have seen them, growing yet' more deeply intoxicated by the love of power, courting the favor of monarchs on the one hand, and pandering to the superstitions of the people on the other. We have seen that, from becoming; the subordinate and occasional admin- istrators of civil power in an age when they were almost the only persons capable of exercising it, they took occa- sion, on the decline of the empire, to assert an independent sovereignty, and to found a kingdom of their own. We have seen how the sphitual authority, which at the first was the same among all bishops, was gradually increased by- the Bishops of Constantinople and Rome, until, in the HEIGHT OF PROFLIGACY IN THE CHURCH. 151 schism which divided them, the latter laid claim to the uni- versal supremacy of the Church. And, finally, we have seen how, from this period, when the Church ceased to be a spiritual community, and when the Bishop of Rome be- came much less the minister of religion, either true or false, than a temporal sovereign, ecclesiastics forgot their sacred functions in the eager pursuit of wealth and rule, and the popes themselves became eminent only for worldliness and ambition, which at length degenerated into an excess of profligacy, voluptuousness, and crime, that renders the pages of history inscribed with their names the blackest of the entire volume. With the progress of corruption in manners, the corrup- tion of doctrine kept pace. In the prurient spirit of con- troversy which distinguished the early fathers of the Church, the abstruse question of the intermediate state of the soul between death and the resurrection gave rise to the notion of a purgatory, or purifying fire, of which the priesthood of Rome have made such a profitable use. The fierce dis- putes respecting the nature of Christ, which arose from the same spirit, originated, or at least gave effectual prevalence to the honor paid to the Virgin Mary, and led to her event- ual designation, as absurd as it is impious, the queen of heaven. When pastors became priests prayer ceased to be communion with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and was changed into the intercession of a holy few on behalf of the sinful many. When mere profession was mistaken for conversion, the performance of vain ceremonies took the place of the sincere homage of the heart, and a reliance upon those outward rites was substituted for a trust in the atonement of Christ. The efficacy of that atonement once forgotten, the door was wide open for the wretched con- trivances of men to establish their own merit. Hence self- mortifying practices, fasts, pilgrimages, and penances, were rapidly multiplied, and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper were transmuted in the hands of the priest- 152 LIVES OF THE POPES. hood into infallible means of grace. The baptism which they administered could alone regenerate the soul — the bread which they blessed conveyed to the recipient the very nature of Christ. And when the Bishops of Rome changed the public acknowledgment of sin into a confession whispered in the ear of a priest, the sluices were unstopped for the foul and desolating flood of sacerdotal despotism, scandalous morals, purchased absolutions, indulgences, in- terdicts, and all the other accompaniments of priestly domin- ation, which swept away the last landmarks of the ancient and apostolic faith. The' papacy had lain for long years . on a couch of de- generate pleasures. Emaciated, haggard, and wan, she had become to the world a spectacle of mingled astonish- ment, horror, and disgust. But the time had now arrived when, laying aside the aspect of enfeebled and paralyzed age, she sprang with new life upon the world ; and in fairer guise and with firmer attitude than ever, boldly claimed and triumphantly won the renewed homage and allegiance of mankind. The particulars of this wonderful metamor- phosis and apparent renovation, it must be left for future pages to explain. Ktt SU0ltJy» FHOM THE AGE OE GEEGOEY VH. TO THE DAWN OF THE EEFOE- MATION-A. D. 1046-1431. CHAPTER I. EFFORTS OF THE ROMAN PRIESTHOOD TO REFORM THEMSELVES. A. D. 104e-1052. History affords us few instances of renovated empires. Theii' progress from decay to ruin is usually more certain than their advance from incipient vigor to dominant matur- ity. The power of resisting decay is indeed very unequal ; but even the old Roman empire, long as it struggled for existence, fell at last beneath the inevitable pressure of time. The papal power affords, however, a remarkable exception to the general rule. From a state of inanition that threatened instant death, it arose again to astonish the world by its might, and to win even a greater dominion. The secret of its strength lay in the moral weakness of mankind. It had already paralyzed by its touch the minds of men. As rehgion is the strongest motive to high and noble deeds, so is superstition, or the perversion of rehgion, the most powerful chain wherewith to bind and fetter the soul. The authority that wields it and rivets it upon our moral nature may securely exult in the slavish subserviency and degrading thraldom of its victims. In the middle ages superstition had its mightiest hold on the European mind, binding and swathing into helpless subjection all the insti- tutions of society. The pope's was the hand that held and tightened at will the cords of bondage ; and we shall ac- cordingly see, in the further progress of om" narrative, how • 7* 154 LIVES OF THE POPES, the Pontiff's power increased with the strengthening of su- perstition, and how it rapidly decHned when superstition relaxed its grasp at the bidding of advancing civilization, and above all of reviving religion. The eleventh century opened amid general murmurs of discontent at the profligacy and impiety of the clergy. Too faithfully copying the example of their papal head, the in- ferior orders of the priesthood bought and sold the sacred office without the faintest attempt at secrecy, or the least discovery of shame ; using it when purchased not at all for the benefit of souls, but to their lasting injury, by making it merely an instrument to worldly and licentious ends. " The world," says a witness of their own, " lay in wicked- ness ; holiness had disappeared, justice had perished, and truth had been buried ; Simon Magus lorded it over the Church, whose bishops and priests were devoted to luxury and vice." To check these growing evils had been the main concern of the Emperor Henry III., when, at the Council of Sutri, in 1046, he deposed the three rival popes, Benedict IX., Gregory VI., and Sylvester III., appointing in their stead his faithful subject and hearty coadjutor in ecclesiastical reform, Pope Clement II. Neither Henry, however, nor Clement, nor any other influ- ential leader of that age, appears to have had a just view of the reform that was really wanting. Religion had, in truth, already fled away in disgust from the society that called itself The Church, and had taken refuge in the sequestered valleys of Piedmont and the south of France ; and she was not to be lured back to the busy world by men who would either keep her in intolerable bondage to secular control, as the emperors designed, or compel her to become the mere handmaid of priestly ambition, as Clement and the reform- ing clergy would have made her. Neither the imperial party nor the reforming Churchmen seemed aware of the sad truth, that religion herself would stand aloof equally EFFORTS OF THE rRlESTHOOD TO REFORM. 165 from both, shocked at the presumption of the one and the hypocrisy of the other. The fundamental error on both sides was the prevalent mistake of the age — the supposing that religion consisted in the formal discharge of sacerdotal functions by a peculiar class of men, rather than in a vital and soul-subduing faith in the great High-Priest, the Divine Redeemer of mankind. The immediate effect of Henry's interference at the Council of Sutri, was to throw a great accession of power into the hands of the emperor. It was settled that for the future no pontiff should regard himself as duly installed until the emperor's consent to the election had been given ; and the imperial prerogative in ecclesiastical affairs was in various ways greatly enlarged. To the reforming party among the clergy such results were only less distasteful than the rude anarchy and lawless immorality w^hich it replaced. The restraints imposed by the emperor were a yoke too grievous to be borne, and they panted for the entire emancipation of the priesthood from secular control. They saw, also, that to make the influence of their order permanently secure, a vigorous re- form was requisite among themselves of all abuses that di- minished the veneration of the vulgar and gave occasion for scandal. This party had confidently hoped that Greg- ory VI., their own partisan, would have receivedHhe pope- dom at the emperor's hands ; and when Gregory was sent into exile, Hildebrand, the real leader of the movement, accompanied him, to await, in the retirement of the abbey of Cluni, a more favorable time for cariying their plans into effect. Hildebrand, whose powerful intellect and determined en- ergy imparted new life to the papacy when it was quiver- ing in the throes of death, and a life so vigorous that the repeated shocks it has since sustained have not yet sufficed to destroy it, was a man of low origin, but trained from childhood for the priestly office, and endowed with a tem- 156 LIVES OF THE POPES. perament that made such training exactly congenial to his soul. " He was," says one of his annalists, " a monk from his boyhood," and his career throughout was one of abstinence, bodily mortification, and rigid self-command. In the mon- astery of Cluni, HHdebrand's strict monastic habits gave him great popularity among the fraternity, who showed their appreciation of his genius by electing him to the office of prior. Here he continued for two years, pa- tiently awaiting the events which his sagacity confidently predicted, and which were to prepare the way for the ac- complishment of his own vast designs. The short reign of Clement 11. was by no means one of ease. Beside all his other sources of discomfort, the Tus- culan faction were still actively sowing the seeds of discon- tent in the hearts of the Roman populace, and plotting for the restoration of Benedict IX. It is not unlikely that to their machinations the Roman priesthood were indebted for the early removal of their chief, as the death of Clement took place in 1047, and so suddenly as to give much color to the suspicion that it was procured by the administration of poison. Another German bishop was selected by the emperor to occupy the dangerous post, by the title of Damasus II. ; but his tenure of power was yet more brief than that of his forerunners. In less than a month the office was again va- cant ; and upon Henry the embarrassing task once more devolved of finding a suitable successor. After much deliberation, the emperor resolved on calling a council, and to leave the choice of a new pontiflf to the wisdom of that assembly. This council was held at Worms, in the winter of 1048, and Hildebrand, the prior of Cluni, both attended it and bore a prominent part in its proceed- ings. His arguments succeeded in securing the election of Bruno, Bishop of Toul, a man of fair reputation, but whose easy and pliable disposition rendered him well adapted to the purposes of the subtile Hildebrand, and whose con- EFFORTS OF THE PRIESTHOOD TO REFORM. 157 nection with the imperial family assured his proving accept- able to the emperor. Bruno was accordingly appointed by Henry to the papal dignity, under the designation of Pope Leo IX. Sympathizing with the views of the reformers, and nerved by the daring spirit of Hildebrand to so bold a deed as put- ting a slight on the emperor, Leo resolved not to assiune the pontifical style and ofifice until he should receive the gift at the hands of the Roman clergy and people, whom the reforming party professed to regard as the only proper constituents of the Roman bishopric. Accompanied by his strong-minded associate, the prior of Cluni, Leo proceeded to Rome, not with the usual pomp of a pontiff entering on possession of his see, but in the simple guise of a pilgrim, on foot, and without attendants. But the influence which Hildebrand had already acquired in Rome, made the hazard of such a step much rather apparent than real. By his cautious intrigues, the affair was so skillfully managed, that the pilgrim visitor no sooner appeared in Rome, and an- nounced to the assembled citizens that it was only from them that he would accept of the dignity which the em- peror had offered, than the city rang with acclamations of ready acknowledgment and joyful greeting. And so, in February, 1049, Leo received the doubly- confirmed honor, and rewarded at the same time the zeal of Hildebrand, by raising him to the rank of cardinal, and investing him with the offices of sub-deacon of Rome, abbot of St. Paul's, and keeper of the treasury and altar of St. Peter. The main result which Hildebrand and his party now hoped to achieve was the strengthening and consolidation of the priesthood into a distinct and superior caste. But it was clear to the sagacious mind of their leader, that as long as the present habits of the clergy continued, such a hope was visionary and vain. Superstitious as the people were, it was impossible for them not to deride and despise claims to sanctity put forth by men whose practices were 158 LIVES OF THE POPES. the scandal and chief disgrace of their age. To rear the stupendous fabric which Hildebrand's imagination had al- ready designed, it was requisite to prepare the materials. To strengthen "the Church," it was first of all necessary to reform the clergy. And in Leo IX. Hildebrand found a most useful instru- ment for the execution of his plans. Severely ascetic in his own habits of life, himself a victim to that strange and la- mentable superstition which leads men to think that they shall propitiate a God of love by " voluntary humiUty " and self-inflicted tortures, Leo, though naturally timid, was pre- pared to dare much in order to stem the tide of voluptu- ousness which had rushed in upon the Church. Personally familiar with those inventions of a deranged pietism — beds of bare eart.h, pillows of stone, shirts of rough hair, and midnight vigils — Leo looked with as stern an eye as Hilde- brand himself on the luxurious indulgences of his eccle- siastical brethren. Two sins in particular he regarded as crying for swift judgment and relentless extermination. These were the open traffic of the clergy in sacred offices, and their general lapse into the supineness and pleasures of married life. Respecting the former no comment is required. No ex- cuse will be pretended by any for so manifestly worldly an abuse of an institution that ought ever to be looked on with reverence, and only upheld by hands of unstained purity. But the latter wears a different aspect. The Church of Rome opened a wide inlet for crime, when she pronounced that to be dishonorable in the clergy which the apostle had unconditionally declared to be " honorable in ally For- bidden to marry, the priesthood generally disobeyed either the letter or the spirit of the prohibition. And as the obli- gations which wedded life involves were felt by the vicious to be irksome, it was far more common to keep the letter of the law and still violate its spirit, than to risk the dangers of a formal and legal marriage. EFFORTS OF THE PRIESTHOOD TO REFORM. 159 Cunibert, Bishop of Turin, had, on the other hand, given permission to his clergy to marry, and even Hildebrand's party were constrained to admit that the diocese was greatly superior to others in the purity and intelligence of its spirit- ual guides. But the celibacy of the priesthood was an essential part of Hildebrand's scheme for strengthening and aggrandizing the order ; for how could they be suffi- ciently wedded to each other, and theh party interests pur- sued at the expense of society, if permitted to entangle themselves with society by matrimonial ties ? The simple Leo thought celibacy virtuous — the subtile Hildebrand knew it to be expedient ; and so, with one motive or an- other, the whole band of reformers, with the Pope and the cardinal at their head, set themselves to denounce and pro- hibit both simony and marriage as crimes of an equal dye. Engrossed with this project, hardly a month had passed away since his instalment in office, before the new Pontiff commenced a \igorous onslaught upon the twin- corruptions of the Church. In April, 1049, Leo summoned a council at Rome, and plainly announced his intention of suspending all prelates guilty of siraoniacal practices. He was shame- lessly met by the assertion, that this measure would be de- structive of the whole Church, as none could be found who were not culpable to a greater or less degree. And so true was the statement, that Leo found himself obliged to mod- erate his zeal, or, at least, to limit its exercise. Yet, during the three following years, the Pope held councils in many different cities, both Italian and transalpine, and in all of them simony and marriage were the special objects of his indignation, censure, and punishment. But, in the year 1052, the labors of Leo were turned in another direction ; and we behold the austere and ascetic priest transformed into the anned and aggressive wamor. It is the natural consequence, righteously retributive, of the Roman bishop's blending the two incongruous characters of a spiritual and a secular chief, that he is often compelled 160 LIVES OF THE POPES. to be inconsistent with himself ; and Leo, who, at the synod of Rheims, in 1049, had enacted that the clergy should never bear arms in war, was found, four years later, lead- ing in person a hostile expedition against the Norman settlers in the south. No spectacle is more pitiable than that of an apparently sincere man vainly struggling to arrive at truth. And this seems to have been the condition of Leo and a large por- tion of the reforming party in the Church. They had closed the Scriptures, and trusted with blind confidence to the counsels of fathers and popes. And without the guid- ance of that word which is a " lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path," no wonder that at every step they plunged deeper in the mire. Their very efforts at reform were violations of the divine commands, and naturally in- volved them in grosser conniption than ever. CHAPTER XL THE PSEUDO-REFORMATION DEVELOPED HILDEBRAND'S TACTICS. A. D. 105^1061. The mighty Charlemagne, it is said, shed tears on one oc- casion, as he beheld the ships of the Northmen sailing past the coast of France, and predicted that those bold mariners would some day quit their Scandinavian wilds to assail, and perhaps overturn the empire he had labored so hard to es- tablish. This prediction had been long since fulfilled in part, and the Normans had established a strong kingdom in France itself, when their adventurous spirit tempted them, in the eleventh century, to visit new scenes, and to acquire, if possible, new possessions in the Italian peninsula, Tancred, whose chivalry is immortalized in Tasso's "Je- rusalem Delivered," had sent forth twelve valiant sons to win laurels and rewards still more substantial on this classic. THE PSEUDO-REFORMATION DEVELOPED. 161 but ill-fated soil. Lower Italy was in a most unsettled state, and furnished the best field in the world for the prowess of soldiers of fortune. The Lombard chiefs dwelt on their castled heights ; the more ancient inhabitants governed themselves in petty civic repubhcs ; and the piratical Sara- cens had established more than one flourishing sea-port, from which they could issue at pleasure to molest and de- spoil their neighbors. With such an accumulation of com- bustible elments, it is no wonder that southern Italy was perpetually involved in the flames of civil war. It was in one of these affrays, in the year 1016, that some Norman pilgrims from the Holy Land, tarrying for a time at Bari, so distinguished their valor in the aid they gave to the citizens, as to receive an earnest invitation to bring over from Normandy a strong company of their coun- trymen, to dwell in lasting alliance with the natives ; and it was in response to this, or a similar invitation, that the sons of Tancred, among whom Robert Guiscard and William of the Iron Arm are especially eminent, took up their abode in Italy. They shortly became so prosperous as to estab- lish an independent government, the metropolis of which was Melfi, and the first prince William of the Iron Arm. It did not, however, belong to Norman genius to culti- vate the arts of peace ; and the warlike habits which at first made them welcome in Italy, soon proved them her most ter- rible scourge. Tidings at length reached the ear of the Pope of the outrages they openly committed, and, what no doubt chiefly provoked him, of the injuries inflicted on the estates of the churches and abbeys by their marauding expeditions. Resolved to rid Italy of so dangerous a guest, Leo hast- ened across the Alps to the emperor, and implored the assistance of German discipline and arms. But Henry was fully occupied in quelling the revolts of his own subjects, and was unwilling to undertake the settlement of so remote, and to him so uninteresting a quarrel. Nevertheless, at the earnest entreaty of the Pontiff", he furnished him with a 162 LIVES OF THE POPES. guard of seven hundred Germans. This insignificant army- was increased, but not strengthened, by the adhesion of a multitude of Itahans, who flocked to the standard of the Pope in his progress from Mantua to Beneventum ; and with such a promiscuous array Leo took the field in the spring of 1053. The Normans were at first desirous of conciliating their spiritual chiefs, and oflfered to hold the lands they had ac- quired as humble vassals of the Roman See. But the Pon- tiflF, confiding in his large army, spurned all conditions of peace except the total and absolute relinquishment of all their estates. To this they gave an unhesitating refusal, and Leo, issuing from the gates of Civitella, gave instant signal for battle. The conflict was soon over. The " rabble rout," which Leo had gathered around him, fled at the first assault, leaving the handful of German allies to cope alone with the enemy. But although they disdained to flee, these auxil- iaries were unequal to so hard a task as conquering. They were quickly cut down, and Leo himself fell into the hands of the \ictorious Normans. Whether from pohcy or from superstition, the conquerors treated their priestly assailant with as much consideration as if he had been their constant friend. It is true that they detained him for a time as a captive, but their deportment toward him was of the most courteous and respectful kind, and, kissing his feet, they implored in the same breath, pardon for their sinful victory and his paternal benediction. But Leo was not to be conrforted by kindness ; he pined away with grief, disappointment, and perhaps remorse. He but just survived the day of his release, and having been escorted with all honor into Rome, died on the 19 th of April, 1054. The battle of Civitella threatened to be a serious, if not a disastrous blow to the papal interests, but the skill of Hil- debrand converted it into a signal advantage. The nine THE PSEUDO-REFORMATION DEVELOPED. 163 months' intercourse which the captivity of Leo enabled the cardinal to hold with the Norman leaders, convinced him that they possessed the very qualities of which the Roman See was soon to feel the want — courage and address in war, combined with profound veneration for priestly authority. By Hildebrand's policy the Normans were prevailed on to enter into special friendship with the papal party, and al- though unquestionable conquerors, both to hold their terri- tories of Calabria, Apulia, and Sicily, as fiefs of the Church, and to acknowledge the supreme Pontiflf as lord paramount of all their domains. The dying Leo had confided the care of the see to Hilde- brand until his successor should be elected, and the reform- ing party were anxious that the cardinal should himself assume the tiara. But he patiently awaited a more propi- tious time, and for the present preferred obtaining permis- sion from the clergy to proceed, as their ambassador, to the imperial court, and to recommend whom he chose for the emperor's confirmation. Nor did he discover less depth of policy on this occasion than when he procured the election of Leo; while his perfect self-rehance, and his ease in gaining the mastery over other minds, were never more conspicuously seen. On arriving in Henry's presence, he implored that Geb- hard, a German bishop, both a personal friend of the em- peror, and his staunch adherent in all his struggles with the encroaching papacy, might be nominated the successor of Leo. Henry knew not what to do. He was unwilling to lose the presence of so useful a counselor, and probably he dreaded the influence which the wily Hildebrand might ac- quire over him ; yet the deserts of Gebhard were undenia- ble, nor was the emperor loth to reward them, though he would greatly have preferred choosing his own method, and not one so full of peril to himself. Neither was the bishop at all anxious for the honor thus thrust upon him ; but for every excuse Hildebrand had a sufficient reply, and 164 LIVES OF THE POPES. at length Gebhard became Pope, under the title of Vic- tor II. Hildebrand had not overreckoned his powers. At his bidding Victor engaged, at the Council of Florence, in 1056, to pursue the reforming policy commenced by his prede- cessor. He held many councils and synods during his short pontificate, and the decrees of all of them were di- rected against simony and marriage, those effectual barri- ers to ecclesiastical ambition. Toward the close of the year 1056 he was summoned to the imperial court, where he arrived just in time to close the eyes of the emperor in death — an event which threw the states of the empire into direful confusion, and prepared the way for the struggle between priestly and royal sovereignty, which Hildebrand had so long foreseen and daily expected. Victor received from the dying monarch the charge of the young prince, and promised very carefully to guide his infant mind ; but the friendly Pontiff was himself snatched away by death in the following year. In one of the visits of Pope Leo IX. to the court of Henry III. he had brought away with him into Italy two illustrious guests, whose fortunes were after- ward united in a singular manner with those of the papacy. These were Godfrey, Duke of Lorraine, and Fred- eric his brother, both of them exiled by the emperor for revolting against his authority. Godfrey continued un- changed by adversity, and sought in exile to achieve, by both his military and his political skill, the wealth and the station of which he had been disappointed at home. Even- tually he became the most powerful prince of Northern Italy, by his marriage with Beatrice, the rich margravine of Tuscany. His brother Frederic, more pacific or more superstitious, was persuaded, no doubt by the master-spirit that then guided the Roman Church, to take orders, and so became Archdeacon and Chancelor of Rome. Thenceforth the princely Frederic held a high place in the THE PSEUDO-REFORMATION DEVELOPED. 165 esteem of the Roman court ; his pliant disposition, no less than his royal connections, JStting him exactly for the purposes of the sagacious Hildebrand. And when the death of Victor opportunely occurred, Frederic was in- stantly elevated to the papal chair, and, without ques- tion, through Hildebrand's influence, although the subtile cardinal had skillfully contrived to be personally absent at the time. Stephen IX., for so the new Pontiff was called, had no sooner assumed the tiara than he duly rewarded the pope- maker of the age, by conferring upon him the title of car- dinal-archdeacon, and appointing him legate at the impe- rial court. Hildebrand, having secured the tranquillity of the papal throne in Italy, at least for the present, by seat- ing upon it a man whose powerful relationships would sufficiently protect him from domestic foes, set forth for the German court, to reconnoiter the ground, to ascertain for himself the exact position of parties, and to forward, by his personal presence, the great scheme of ecclesiastical ag- grandizement and imperial humiliation which he had so carefully matured, and thus far so cautiously, yet so perse- veringly and successfully worked out. The genius of this statesman-priest quickly compelled the submission of the gentle Agnes, the empress-mother, who was appointed regent of the empire during the young- Henry's minority. Not capable of fathoming his ultimate designs, or of resisting the commanding energy of his will, Agnes meekly yielded to the counsels of Hildebrand, even in suggestions that with the most unsuspecting would seem adapted to awaken mistrust. But while thus prudently feeling his way and making sure his progress at the imperial court, the unwelcome news reached the cardinal legate that Stephen IX. was no more, having expired after a brief reign of eight months. The same letters bore tidings of violent and successful ef- forts put forth by the counts of Tusculum to seat upon the I 166 LIVES OF THE POPES. papal throne one of their own partisans. Resolved at all hazards to baffle a party whose object was the very reverse of his own, and who would certainly restore all the corrupt practices which he had largely purged from the priesthood, Hildebrand promptly recommended the regent empress to nominate Gerard, Bishop of Florence, to the Roman See, who would be as sure of Duke Godfrey's support as even Pope Stephen had been. Agnes willingly consented ; and, guarded by Godfrey's soldiers, Gerard entered Rome early in 1059, and took possession of the Vatican without the le^st opposition. Nicholas II. was the title which Gerard thenceforth as- sumed, and his brief pontificate was distinguished by some highly important events. Both in its ecclesiastical and its political relations the papal power received large augment- ation. The reforming party in the Church professed to aim at the reestablishment of primitive practice in all matters of disciphne and order. It was on this ground that they advocated the enforcement of celibacy and the punish- ment of simony. The same principle would have led them to defend the election of the pope, and of bishops in general, by the suffrages of the people. We have seen, indeed, that when it suited their ends they actually pleaded this doctrine, and maintained the right of the Romans to elect their own pontiff without appealing to the emperor. But their real object was to establish the authority of the priesthood on an independent basis, removed from the in- terference of either the emperor on the one hand, or of the people on the other. The obtrusion of the latter had been most offensively felt in the steps lately taken by the popu- lace at the instioration of the counts of Tusculum ; and Hil- debrand saw that the present occasion was highly favorable for the commencement of a new line of policy, that should prevent such obtrusions for the future: Against the people he would certainly be supported by the strong arm of God- THE PSEUDO-REFORMATION DEVELOPED. 167 frey, and the imperial court might just now be easily cir- cumvented by guile. A council was accordingly convened in the Lateran church, at which it was formally enacted that the election of the " Bishop of the Roman universal Church " should hence- forth be vested with the five-and-thirty cardinal bishops and presbyters who resided in the city and territory of Rome, and who composed the college of cardinals. Mention was indeed made in the canon both of the emperor and of the people, but in such terms as precluded either the one or the other from exercising any effectual control over the election. Whatever sentiments may have been held at the imperial court respecting this audacious procedure, no no- tice was taken of it at the time. The character of the Empress Agnes was too timid, and the young emperor was altogether too immature, to allow of any resentment being discovered ; and so the vast consequences which lay en- folded in this unjustifiable piece of policy were left to dis- close themselves as the progress of events should open the way. By a new alliance with the increasingly powerful Robert Guiscard, the Norman duke of Apulia, Pope Nicholas also strengthened himself against any possible revolt of the peo- ple, and the principal occasion of such revolt was soon af- terward removed, when Robert marched at the head of his warriors against the strong-holds of those independent and turbulent nobles who had so long disputed with the clergy and the emperor the right of nominating the popes. One by one these baronial castles were leveled with the ground, their owners killed in battle or driven into exile, and the undisputed sovereignty of central Italy was finally left in the hands of the supreme head of the Church. While these political events tended to consolidate the power of the priesthood, Hildebrand zealously persevered in his labors at reforming the order itself, which process he 168 LIVES OF THE POPES. well knew could alone give security to its new acquisitions. It was perfectly natural that the reforming party, insidious as were their real objects, should enlist on their side what- ever of sincere piety yet existed in the nominal Church. And it is gratifying to think that during the pontificate of Nicholas II. there were some the motives of whose ardor in the cause of reformation are beyond suspicion. Such was Ariald, a priest of Milan, who raised his voice with invinci- ble courage against the gross corruptions of the clergy in that city. He accused, and alas! he could justly accuse, the entire body of mercenary traffic in sacred things. Even the Archbishop of Milan had purchased his office with a large sum of money. The zeal and eloquence of Ariald soon created him a party, and the whole city of Milan was quickly divided into factions, and engaged in a hot contest, the majority of the laity siding with Ariald, and the clergy indignantly denying, not the charges alleged against them, but the right of their accuser to interfere with their time-honored customs. Both parties at length eagerly, and, as the sequel proves, rashly, invoked the decision of the Pope. No request could have been more welcome to Hildebrand, who promptly em- braced every opportunity of extending the authority of the Roman See over every other diocese. Legates were speed- ily sent, and a sweeping reformation was begim. All priests convicted of simony were obliged to do penance, and not a few were deprived of their livings. But the true purpose of the reforming party was quickly discovered to be very different from what they so ostenta- tiously professed. This invitation of papal arbitration by the inhabitants of Milan was straightway interpreted by the Roman legates as a confession of papal supremacy, and the Church of Milan, which had boasted of its independence, even from the days of the great Ambrose, its primitive bishop, was to be henceforth enrolled among the subject Churches of the Roman See. STRUGGLE OF THE POPES WITH THE EMPERORS. 169 Nicholas died in 1061, and the struggle between the sec- ular and the ecclesiastical, the imperial and the papal par- ties, which had so long been approaching, now began in good earnest. The clouds had long been gathering black- ness, and the tempest burst in fierce hurricanes upon both sides of the Alps. It was an ill omen for the reforaiing party, that they did not scruple to employ any method of artifice or deceit. The principle that the end justifies the means had virtually become already the law of the Roman Church. Pretending to seek reform, they really aimed at aggrandizement ; and, professing to be most pure, they secretly countenanced cor- ruption of the worst kind. How could any real reformation be efi'ected by men who themselves possessed so Uttle of the spirit of their great Master, and who so utterly forgot that ministers especially are bound to show themselves " patterns of good works ; in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned ?" CHAPTER III. STRUGGLE OF THE POPES WITH THE EMPERORS, CAUTIOUSLY COMMENCED fcy HILDEBRAND. A. D. 1061-1073. Anxious, before proceeding to the election of a new pon- tiff, to ascertain how far they might presume on the for- bearance of the German court, the papal party dispatched thither a confidential presbyter, whose instructions were to obtain the consent of the empress regent to the election of a successor to Nicholas by the mere vote of the college of cardinals. But the empress, apprised now of the intentions of the party, had grown indignant at their audacity. She firmly refused to see the envoy, and, finding all endeavors to gain an audience fruitless, in less than a week he set out on his return. 8 170 LIVES OF THE POPES. Defeated in this attempt to soothe the court into compli- ance, Hildebrand's daring spirit now resolved on open op- position. Convoking the cardinals, he proposed to them that Anselm da Badagio should be elected Pope ; and as all were unanimous in agreement, Anselm forthwith assumed the style and functions of supreme Pontiff, under the title of Alexander II. The Empress Agnes had also summoned a council im- mediately on the departure of the envoy ; and the prelates who met at Basle, in obedience to the mandate, elected Cadalous, Bishop of Parma, who was acknowleged by the whole imperial party as the true and proper Pope, by the title of HoNORius 11. In the spring of the following year, the pretensions of the two claimants to apostolical succession were put to the test, not, however, by an arbitration, or a council, or any other peaceful and Scriptural means. These professed ministers of peace and chieftains in the Church of Christ were content to employ "carnal" rather than "spiritual" weapons, and resolved to decide their claims by an appeal to the sword rather than to the word of God. Early in the year, therefore, Honorius hastened to Rome, attended by an army of Germans, whose commission it was to establish their leader by main force in the "Apostolic See." On arriving before the walls of Rome they found the city filled with the troops of Alexander. A bloody battle ensued outside the gates, in which Honorius was the victor, driving back his rival to the shelter of the city. Yet their strength was so equal that they were both compelled to wait for fresh resources before renewing the strife. In the meantime the duke of Tuscany had approached the scene of conflict ; and, conscious of superior might, per- emptorily enjoined a truce on the combatants, and com- manded both pretenders to retire, each to his own diocese, and there await the final decision of their claims, which he would shortly bring in person from the imperial court. STRUGGLE OF THE TOPES WITH THE EMPERORS. l7l With tliis injunction both Alexander and Honorius prom- ised to comply. Honorius was confident that judgment would go in his favor, and Alexander trusted, though less hopefully, in the skill of his great leader, Hildebrand. The prospects of the papal party were indeed gloomy, but the genius of its wonderful chief did not quail before the storm, however tremendous it might be, that now threatened to overturn all his designs, and utterly ruin his cause. The papal historians impute the successful and extraordinary turn which events now took to a singular coincidence, or to the concurrent ambitious aims of other men; but the impartial student of Hildebrand's charac- ter and life will hardly hesitate to ascribe it to his wide- spread influence, his unscrupulous boldness, his practiced strategy. Hanno, the Archbishop of Cologne, was a man of fear- less coui-age and restless ambition. There is no I'eason to question the statement that he aimed at swaying the polit- ical councils of the empire, and that he was jealous of the greater authority and confidence which the Empress Agnes reposed in the Bishop of Augsburg ; but it is certain that he sympathized with the papal or reforming party in the Church, and the qualities just alluded to would make him all the more suited to be the instrument of their designs at so critical a juncture as the present. It was during the suspension of hostilities between Ho- norius and Alexander that Hanno invited the young em- peror, then twelve years of age, with his mother and the whole court, to keep the feast of Pentecost at his palace at Nimeguen. The royal party had reached Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, and, in the company of the archbishop, rested there awhile from the fatigues of the journey. A banquet was prepared, and during the festivities of the evening Hanno talked of a sumptuous galley which he had recently had built, so richly embellished with gilding, carved work, and tapestry, as to surpass every vessel of its kind. He l72 LIVES OF THE POPES. then politely inquired if the young prince would not hke to inspect this triumph of art, which lay at anchor near the bank of the river. Henry, with boyish curiosity, readily complied, and was immediately conducted on board. No sooner had he embarked than the signal was given; the rowers bent sturdily to their task, and the boat was swiftly urged against the stream in the direction of Cologne. Some way had been made before the treacherous purpose of his kidnappers burst on the young emperor's mind ; but on guessing their intent, with characteristic bravery, he plunged into the river, hoping to gain the nearest bank, and so es- cape from their hands. But a stronger swimmer than him- self was at his heels, and, easily recaptured, he was carried in triumph to Cologne. The affairs of the empb-e were now in the hands of the archbishop ; and, with all other matters of state, the question of the succession to the papacy must be referred to his decision. It does not appear that any advocate of Honorius was permitted to appear before the archbishop's tribunal. Da- miani, a zealous partisan of Hildebrand, conducted the whole business in the form of a discussion respecting the relative claims of the two pretenders to the papal chair. The discussion in such hands could have but one termina- tion. It ended, of course, with the triumphant establish- ment of Alexander's right, and Hanno immediately ratified the decision by a formal sentence in his favor. Godfrey himself accepted this sentence as the decree of the imperial court, and Alexander accordingly marched back to Rome under the protection of the duke. But the Pon- tiff's power was still inadequate to overturn the opposition of his rival. Honorius had seized on the castle of St. An- gelo, and in that fortress he continued for six years, dis- puting on every occasion his opponent's title to the pope- dom. The decrees of Alexander were also disregarded by a large portion of the clergy ; and, indeed, the whole of the priesthood, according to the complaint of one of their num- STRUGGLE OF THE POPES WITH THE EMPERORS. 1*73 ber, were much more intent upon the various pursuits of ambition and avarice than on mere ecclesiastical questions, and were more interested in the pleadings of legal advo- cates than in providing their flocks with the bread of eter- nal life. This interval of suspense was ended in 1067, when Arch- bishop Hanno called a council at Mantua, and summoned both the contending parties to appear and receive a final settlement of their claims. Alexander attended, well know- ing the feeling of Hanno in his favor, and willing, for the sake of the advantage, to overlook the anomaly of a sov- ereign Pontiff appealing at the tribunal of an inferior pre- late. But Hononus, equally aware of Hanno's views, de- clined to be present imless he were honored with the presidency of the council. Alexander was, therefore, for- mally pronounced by that assembly to be the rightful Pon- tiff, and from that time he retained undisturbed possession of the see. The pontificate of Alexander was a mere continuation of Hildebrand's policy ; for in the hands of that man the Pope was only an instrument. So complete was the mastery which the cardinal had acquired in all the councils of the Church, that even his own party began to complain of his oppressive and overbearing rule. One of the most stead- fast and eminent of his partisans was that Damiani who had so successfully pleaded the cause of Alexander before Hanno. But zealous as he was for the independent or reforming party, he could not brook the imperious spirit of their leader. He withdrew altogether from public life, and, to ilijrease the chagrin of Hildebrand at losing so powerful an ally, he now turned his satirical pen against his former associate and friend, inditing verses whose epigrammatic point and witty truthfulness soon bore them to the lips of the people. Some of these still commemorate at once the bitterness of the feud, and the might of that gigantic spirit which then ruled the destinies of Rome. Ridiculing the 1*74 LIVES OF THE POPES. meek subserviency of Alexander to his chief adviser, Dami- ani said: — " Papam rite colo, sed te prostratus adoro, Tu facis hunc dominum, te facit ille Deum." Which may be rendered : — Before the Pope I bend the knee, But must prostrate fall to thee ; Thou mad'st him sovereign Pontiff here, Therefore as God he 11 thee revere. And when exposing to the Romans the arrogance of Hilde- brand's behavior, he indignantly advised them : — *' Vivere vis Romae : clara deprome voce, Plus domino Papae quam domino pareo Papse." Wilt thou live quietly in Rome ? Then loudly swear to sing, " More than my lord the Pope, 1 11 honor the Pope's king." So little of true humility and genuine Christian spirit, ac- cording to the testimony of his own partisans, did that cel- ebrated man discover, whom the Church of Rome regards as one of her chief benefactors, and numbers among her greatest saints. The state of affairs had now become so critical as to tax all the firmness, and demand all the audacity of even Hil- debrand. In Italy, Alexander was no sooner seated on an undisputed throne, than the public quiet was disturbed by the depredations of the Normans. Apulia and Sicily were already subject to these mterlopers, and now they sought to push their conquests to the gates of Rome. In this ex- tremity the Pope sought for aid from Godfrey, the Duke of Tuscany, and his veteran skill and courage drove backithe invaders, and established peace in the neighborhood of Rome. But a war of parties still raged in nearly every city. The stiife which Ariald's zeal had kindled in Milan was not extinguished by his violent death, and the flames of dissension were rapidly spreading throughout Italian society. STRUGGLE OF THE POPES WITH THE EMPERORS. ll5 But-, baffled for a season at home, Hildebrand meditated fresh conquests for the Chm'ch abroad, and the history of England afifords an instance of the boldness with which he attempted encroachments. It was during the pontificate of Alexander II. that William the Conqueror undertook the invasion of England. Before commencing the enterprise, he sent the renowned Lanfranc, afterward Archbishop of Canterbury, with other ambassadors, to Rome, in the hope of obtaining the sanction of the Pope. Under the Saxon nile, England had not been so obsequious to the Roman See as accorded with papal notions of fitness, and Hilde- brand urged vehemently that William should receive the full countenance of the Church. The Norman duke was quite ready, upon his part, with flattering promises, and even engaged to hold his conquests as a fief of the Pope, and to send an annual tribute to Rome. Lanfranc accordingly returned with a papal bull author- izing the expedition, and bearing in addition a consecrated banner and a precious ring, containing, as was pretended, one of the hairs of the apostle Peter, Armed with these sacred defenses, the conqueror set sail for Britain, and, in the autumn of 1066, commenced his victorious career by gaining the battle of Hastings. Although the subjugation of England was not completed for several years, William very early rewarded the aged Lanfranc with the primacy of Canterbury. And now, ever watchful for the interests of Rome, the wily Hildebrand a\ailed himself of Lanfranc's known devotion to the papal power to extend that power in England. The custom of receiving the pallium in person from the Pope had long been discontinued by English archbishops, but when the an- nouncement of Lanfranc's elevation reached the Pontiff, joined with the request that the pallium might be trans- mitted as usual, a reply was sent that the ancient practice must be inviolably maintained ; but that if Lanfranc would undertake a journey to Rome, he should be welcomed with 176 LIVES OF THE POPES. all honor, and the investiture be formally made. Accord- ingly, the old archbishop, accompanied by his brother, of York, proceeded to the papal city, and by this act prepared the way for the further encroachments which Hildebrand had in contemplation. But it was in Germany that the aims of the reforming party were most distinctly seen, as it was against the impe- rial power that Hildebrand directed his most powerful blows. From the hands of Hanno, the young emperor had passed into those of Adelbert, Archbishop of Bremen, and here he experienced a wholly new manner of life. Hanno was austere, Adelbert was lenient and concihatory. The prince was now surrounded with companions just suit- ed to his taste, and was suffered to indulge freely every sensual* passion. Henry soon became profligate, and as profligate habits are expensive, he became rapacious and tyrannical as well. He utterly neglected business, except when he interfered in it to obtain the means of pursuing his pleasures. Whether this deterioration of Henry's charac- ter was artfully sought by Hildebrand and his party or not, it certainly proved most serviceable to their ends. The nobles of the empire soon began to complain of their sovereign's dissipated habits. Henry only laughed to scorn their remonstrances and prayers. The Saxons, who more especially groaned at his exactions, took up arms to avenge themselves. Henry laid upon them yet heavier burdens. The imperial supremacy was evidently falling to pieces. The feudal system, which had created, was now destroying it. The nobles had grown too powerful to be kept in sub- jection ; they had long been petty princes — they now as- pired to be independent monarchs. All this was very ob- vious to the keen eye of the sagacious Hildebrand, and he took his measures accordingly. At the earnest entreaties of his nobles, but quite in oppo- sition to his own wish, Henry had married the Princess Ber- tha of Susa, an amiable, but not a personally attractive STRUGGLE OF THE POPES WITH THE EMPERORS. 1*77 woman. His aversion for lier rapidly increased, and at length lie sought a divorce. This was not, however, to be obtained, except with the consent of his nobles and by the permission of the Church, and neither of these could be gained. An assembly of the imperial barons was convened at Worms, in 1069. By that assembly the question of the divorce was transferred to a council to be held at Mentz in the ensuing autumn. Hildebrand heard of the scheme, and resolved to give the young emperor his first lesson of the empire's destined subjection to the Church. When the council was assembled, and the question of divorce fully opened, a papal legate appeared, and to Henry's utter consternation, peremptorily forbade the con- templated measure. He declared that if Henry persisted in contending with the laws of the Church, no pontifical hands should ever consecrate him to the throne of the empire. A muiTQur of approbation ran through the assembly, and Henry, seeing that his cause was lost, departed in haste and in wrath. It was hardly to be expected, when prelates and monks did not scruple to sell benefices to the highest bidder, that a licentious and reckless young prince should hesitate to employ similar means for replenishing his frequently ex- hausted exchequer. And Henry made little scruple at conferring the most dignified offices in the Church, and the choicest monastic estates, on those who were liberal in sup- plying his pecuniary wants. The sums given in this way by Churchmen were so vast as to be called by the chroni- clers of the times, *' mountains of gold" and " rivers of money." The riches of Croesus and Tantalus were said to have reverted to men who had taken on themselves the vows of poverty and the scandal of the cross. Among the rapacious Churchmen who sought to ben- efit by Henry's prodigality, was the Archbishop Hanno, the emperor's first guardian, and the pretended reformer of 178 LIVES OF THE POPES. ecclesiastical abuses. With Henry's permission, he had seized on the monastery of Malmedy, in the neighborhood of Liege, and deaf to the remonstrances of the legal pos- sessor, the Abbot of Stablo, he vowed that he would not relinquish the prize, even though St. Remaclus himself, the founder of the abbey, should rise from the tomb to de- mand it. Hanno forgot, in the utterance of such words, that he lived in an age when miracles were multiplied at will. In the following spring the city of Liege was honored with an imperial visit, and great were the banqueting and carousal. The nobles assembled in great numbers, and among them at the royal table Hanno occupied the place at Henry's right hand. In the height of their festivity, the doors suddenly flew open, and a procession of monks entered, solemnly bearing a coffin. At their head was the Abbot of Stablo, who, bidding his followers to pause before the emperor, and place their precious burden on the table, exclaimed : " Behold ! St. Remaclus has arisen from the tomb, to de- mand restitution of his rights !" The guests were all thrown into confusion, the queen burst into a passion of tears, and the emperor and arch- bishop hastily escaped from the scene. But the rumor swiftly spread that St. Remaclus had arisen from his tomb, and the banqueting room was soon thronged by a crowd of superstitious devotees. Miracles were rapidly worked. The sick touched the coffin, and their disorders instantly ceased ; the blind received sight, and the lame began to walk. The popular enthusiasm rose so high, that Henry and the archbishop no longer dared to resist the claim of the abbot, who triumphantly bore back to their resting- place the potent relics with which he had won the field, chanting at the head of his monks the psean of victory and the praises of St. Remaclus. The scandal of this ridiculous mummery and priestly im- posture was by no means so great in the eyes of either the STRUGGLE OF THE POPES WITH THE EMPERORS. l79 people or the Pope as that of the violence of Archbishop Hanno ; and as Henry's share in such transactions was often repeated, by personal interference with ecclesiastical aflfairs, and by the countenance which he gave to simoniacal prac- tices on the part of the clergy, the time seemed at length fully ripe for papal interposition, the more so as such inter- position might now be safely ventured. The general disaf- fection of Henry's subjects, and the popular feeling in favor of the reforming movement, had greatly diminished, both in Germany and in Italy, the hazard of affronting the imperial power. A council was therefore held at Rome, in 1073, at which sentence of excommunication was passed upon several of Henry's companions, and a letter was dispatched, which summoned the emperor himself to appear before the Pontiff, and answer to the charges of simony and other offenses which had been alleged against him. This was the last public act of Pope Alexander's life, for in the following month he died, and the summons thus daringly issued con- sequently fell to the ground. But the lips that had dicta- ted the summons still breathed ; the genius that had planned the entire conflict, which was to secure the independence of the priesthood, was as vigorous as ever. Five popes had died since this fictitious reformation, this real usurpation, had commenced ; but Hildebrand, the pope-maker, still lived, and displayed in a green old age all the energy and boldness of his youth. 180 LIVES OF THE POPES. CHAPTER IV. GREGORY VII. *. HIS MEASURES TO ESTABLISH THE INDEPEND- ENCE OF THE PAPACY. A. D. 1073-1075. Three days were appointed to be solemnly devoted to fast- ing and prayer before the election of a new PontiflP. But the very next day to that of Alexander's death, events took place which decided the choice of his successor. Hilde- brand's tactics were as politic on this as on former moment- ous occasions, and the promptitude and secrecy with which his plans were carried into effect demonstrate the para- mount influence he had acquired. In the church of the Lateran there was a numerous gathering of both clergy and laity, to assist at the funeral obsequies of the deceased Pontiff. The subdued cadences of the priests who chaunted the ser\ice were the only sounds that broke the solemn stillness of the place, when suddenly, from every part of the assembly, a cry rang through the edifice, and echoed from the vaulted roof, that Hildebrand was the Pope of the people's choice. Hildebrand flew to the pulpit, and by his vehement gesticulations seemed to implore that a restraint might be put upon these passionate and disorderly emotions. But his entreaties were in vain. The people would not be pacified until the cardinals announced that Hildebrand was the choice of the conclave as well as of the people. Then, arrayed in the scarlet robe, and crowned with the tiara, Hildebrand was presented to the crowd, who renewed their shouts and aclamations as Pope Gregory VII. arose to pronounce over their bended heads his pater- nal benediction. When the news of this election reached the German court, the emperor dispatched an envoy to learn the reason of such an unusual proceeding. It was by no means the INDEPENDENCE OF THE PAPACY. 181 new PontiflF's desire to provoke the hostility of Henry, over whom he rather hoped to acquire that influence which had been invariably yielded him by others. He therefore re- ceived the messenger with great respect, assured him that the election was altogether contrary to his personal wishes, and declared that he still awaited the confirmation of the sovereign. With this feigned submission the thoughtless Heniy, who knew httle of Gregory's real character, was very well content, and the gorgeous ceremonies of the con- secration were soon afterward celebrated in due form. And now Gregoiy was at full liberty to pursue the am- bitious career he had so long ago marked out, and had hitherto pursued with so much caution and self-restraint. Resolved to strengthen the Church, by which he understood the priesthood, reformation and independence of secular con- trol were the two objects he kept steadily in view — the first as preparatory to the second. The great truth that religion ought not to be in bondage, ought not to be either bribed or coerced into subjection, was firmly apprehended by Gregory, and for this he is entitled to all praise. But in his hands this truth was in danger of being perverted into error, as pernicious as that which it opposed ; for Greg- ory would not scruple to bring both coercion and bribery into the service of religion. He did not perceive that both are essentially immoral, and inevitably subvert all truly re- ligious principle, whether employed for or against that sacred cause. It was his determination, at all costs, to res- cue the clergy from their vassalage to the feudal barons and kings; and beginning by asserting his own independence as Pope, he proceeded to secure that of his order by enforc- ing with stem rigor the enactment against simony and mar- riage which had been sanctioned by his predecessors. His first efforts were directed to the consolidation of papal power in Italy. Soon after his consecration he un- dertook a journey, which proved a sort of visitation to all the provinces of the south. Passing from city to city, he 182 LIVES OF THE POPES. inquired into all abuses, and contracted new relations with the local authorities. Entering the territory of the Nor- mans, he attempted also to bring into subjection the haughty Guiscard, who had now completed his conquest of Sicily. But this attempt was futile ; Robert was as haughty and unbending as Gregory himself. The Pontiff next turned his attention to the condition of the Church abroad, and as in his eyes the unity of the Church depended on a uniformity of ritual and a sameness of forms, he sought to effect such changes in foreign Churches as should assimilate them to that of Rome. The liturgy of the Spanish Church had hitherto be<3n composed in the Spanish tongue, but Gregory made diligent, and in the end successful at- tempts to have it conformed to the Roman Breviary. He even claimed the Spanish territory as a fief of the Roman See ; but the claim wa's probably misunderstood, or treated with ridicule by the Spanish princes, as they did not deign a reply. France was the next country to feel the effects of the new pontifical election. PhiUp of France, like all the other monarchs of his age, had been accustomed to sell the high posts of dignity in the Church without scruple or shame. And now, on the clergy of Macon choosing Landric for their bishop, Philip declined putting him in possession till he had received the customary present. Confiding, how- ever, in the energy of their new Pontiff, the clergy repre- sented the grievance at Rome, and Gregory promptly ap- plied himself to the task of redressing their wrongs. He wrote to the French king, sharply rebuking his interference in ecclesiastical affairs, and insisting on the immediate installation of the bishop. He even threatened to lay France under an interdict if his demands were despised. To the Archbishop of Lyons he sent a peremptory com- mand, to consecrate the newly-chosen prelate without ref- erence to the monarch's will. " And if you neglect this," said the doughty Pope, " let that person come to Rome, and by God's grace we will consecrate him ourselves." INDEPENDENCE OF THE PAPACY. 188 But the emperor was by far the chief antagonist of papal domination. The imperial supremacy established by Charlemagne, and confinned by Otho the Great, was still acknowledged by the princes of Germany ; and although the greatly-increased power of these princes indicated that they would not long continue to be mere subjects, the blow had yet to be struck that should degrade the emperor to the level of an ordinary king, and make the Pope indisputably the first of European potentates. It was from Saxony that the first omens appeared that threatened the integrity of the empire. Henry's hatred to his Saxon subjects almost resembled infatuation. It had been wickedly nourished in his youthful mind by his priestly guardians, for their own selfish or malicious pur- poses. He added oppression to oppression, wrung from them their hard-won wealth, and trampled on their liberties, till the patience of the Saxons was quite exhausted, and they desperately rose in revolt. But, heedless of all danger, the young emperor only mocked at their rage. The Saxon chiefs assembled at the gates of Goslar, where Henry was residing, and demanded an immediate heaiing of their com- plaints. Henry was playing a game at hazard when the deputation presented their request, and he scornfully bade them begone, and wait till he had finished his game. Such contempt was not to be borne, and the warriors departed, breathing deep threats of vengeance. All Saxony was quickly in arms, and Henry was astonished and alarmed at hearing that sixty thousand men, led by Rudolf of Suabia, were on their march to besiege him in Goslar. He had no regular troops, and it was quite doubtful, in the present discontented state of the people, whether an army could possibly be raised. Henry shut himself up in the castle of Hartzburg ; and, on escaping thence, fled on foot through dense forests and pathless wilds from his enraged and relentless foes. Fatisfue and want, and harassing cares, soon induced a disorder which 184 LIVES OF THE POPES. was only subdued by the inherent vigor of his constitution. In this miserable plight the forlorn monarch entered the city of Worms. The faithful citizens pitied their fallen king, and in beholding his calamities lost sight of his faults. They rallied around him, and shut their gates on his fierce pursuers. The tide of fortune had turned in his favor, but Henry knew not how to profit by the advantage. He merely made peace with the Saxons, promising that they should be unmolested for the future. To all these movements in Germany, Gregory steadfastly directed his discerning eye. He foresaw the struggle that was impending between Henry and his vassal chieftains, and well knew how to convert it to the interests of the Roman Church. Expecting that Rudolf of Suabia would yet become a competitor with Henry for the imperial crown, he wrote him a friendly epistle, expressive of his wish that the temporal power should ever be in league and amity with the head of the Church. To the emperor he also ad- dressed admonitions to refrain from simony and sacrilege, and all warlike expeditions, until the papal legates should have investigated the state of affairs. And in return, the Pontifif received a letter from Henry, who now began to feel his doubtful position, "full," as Gregory said, "of sweet- ness and obedience." The letter, in fact, expressed Henry's regret for the follies of his youth, and sohcited the Pope's friendly counsel and powerful aid. Early in 1074 the Pope summoned a council at Rome, for the further prosecution of his design of reforming, or, as we might more truly say, of aggrandizing the priest- hood. This council forbade, not merely the marriages of priests, but the continuance of the marriage tie wherever it subsisted. The clergy were to put away their wives, and none of the laity were to receive the rites of religion at the hands of a wedded priest. The news of this decree threw all Germany into an uproar. There the sacred bond of marriage had been contracted by multitudes of priests. GREGORY VII. AND HENRY IV. 185 who now flatly refused to dissolve them. In vain did the Archbishop of Mentz endeavor to enforce the decree. He soon found that the attempt could only be made at the hazard of his life. The same resistance was offered in France. The Archbishop of Rouen, who published the decree, was pelted with stones by his own clergy, and was compelled to seek safety in flight. Not one whit, however, did the sagacious and imperturbable Pontiff abate the sever- ity of his demands. He knew that he must conquer ; for he had read the characters of men, and understood the signs of the times. With more than regal majesty he wrote to the prelates of Germany and France, insisting on their prosecuting the work of reformation at any imagina- ble risk and toil. " Because there is no possibility," he said, " of evading the judgment of the great Judge of all, we entreat and warn you not to let the prophetic malediction come upon your heads, in which it is written, * Cursed is the man who keepeth back his sword from blood ;' that is, as you well know, who withholds the word of preaching from the censure of carnal men. Ye, brethren, yourselves are in fault." CHAPTER y. CONTEST OF GREGORY VII. WITH THE EMPEROR HENRY IV. THE PAPAL TRIUMPH. A. D. 1075-1077. The *' sweetness and obedience" of the young emperor did not last many months. Prosperity had returned to him, and he now indulged his passions and his whims unappalled by the threats of the Ch\irch. His companions, who had been excommunicated by the Pope, were reinstated in fa- vor, and that simony which Gregory detested beyond all things except marriage, was openly practiced by Henry 186 LIVES OF THE POPES. himself, and by all the nobles of the empire. Abbeys and churches were sold to the highest bidder, or given away with indiscriminate and wanton levity. Accustomed to preach to kings as well as to subjects, Gregory did not hesitate to address long and earnest remon- strances, not unmingled with threatenings, to the German court. Reciting Henry's numerous offenses, the Pontiff said : " It seems to us passing strange that thou inditest so often devout epistles, and pourest forth by the mouth of thy leg- ates such expressions of humility, and yet exhibitest thy- self by thine actions as most intractable." Gregory does not seem to have suspected that Henry had learned in his own school the arts of duplicity and statecraft. Wearied out at length by the disregard which Henry showed to his admonitions, the Pope sent legates toward the close of 10*75, commanding Henry's speedy appearance at a Roman synod to answer his many accusers. But in December of that year an event happened Avhich threatened to put a sudden end to Gregory's career, and which strikingly illus- trates the rudeness of the times. Right royal as was the Pontiflf's attitude, and menacing as was his tone to even kingly foes, he does not appear to have held undisputed sway in his own city of Rome. No- bles fortified their houses into castles, and issued forth with their retainers to pillage the weak, or revenge an insult, as in cities of less importance. One of these turbulent chief- tains was Cencius, who had a personal spite against Greg- ory, because of certain rebukes which he had received from the Pontiff for his licentious and lawless life. It was mid- night on Christmas-eve, and the Pope, with his clergy, was celebrating high-mass in the spacious church of Santa Ma- ria Maggiore. The worshipers were few, for the night was tempestuous and dark, so that the church had a gloomy and deserted appearance. The Pope was in the act of dis- tributing the consecrated wafer to the laity, when Cencius and a band of ruffians dashed into the church. With clam- GREGORY VII. AND HENRY IV. 18Y orous shouts they dragged, the Pontiff from the altar. In the scuflSe that ensued Gregory was wounded in the fore- head by the cut of a sword. Stripped of his robes, he was hurried away to the fortress in which Cencius dwelt, and left there till he could be safely removed to a greater dis- tance ; for the populace had now been aroused, and were hastening to the fortress with fierce yells and threats of vengeance. Hasty efforts were made for defense ; but bat- tering engines were brought to the assault, and it soon be- came certain that the rescue would be effected, or all the inmates of the tower in which Gregory was confined be involved in one common ruin. Gregory was not unattended in his distress. A devoted female had followed him to the tower, and now chafed his chilled feet and stanched his bleeding: wound. The rockinof of the tower beneath the shocks of the catapult at length made Cencius aware of his danger, and throwing himself at Gregory's feet, he im- plored pardon for his crime. Throughout the entire scene Gregory had maintained the most unshaken dignity and serenity, and he now assured the wretched man of his hearty forgiveness and protection. The tower was just then broken open ; Cencius escaped, and the Pontiff was carried back in triumph to the church, that he might con- clude the service so rudely internipted. The year had turned, but it was still the Christmas festi- val, and the emperor was celebrating the festivities with his court at Goslar. A deputation was announced as freshly arrived from Rome, and the legates of Gregory were ushered into Henry's presence. They acquainted the emperor that a synod was to be held at Rome in the ap- proaching Lent, and in the name of the Pontiff cited him to appear, warning him that excommunication would be the penalty of disobedience. Henry's ire was aroused by so audacious a message, and driving the legates from the court, loaded with every spe- cies of insult, he immediately summoned a council of Ger- 188 LIVES OF THE POPES. man bishops to decide on a fit punishment for the daring and rebellious Hope. The council was held at Worms, and the prelates, forward to gratify their monarch, and very in- dignant at Gregory's innovations respecting simony and marriage, unanimously agreed that he should be no longer Pope, and a document, abjuring their allegiance, was signed by all present, and afterward by the bishops of Lombardy. Roland, a priest of Parma, undertook the perilous office of bearing the tidings to Rome. It was now the second week in Lent, and a synod of more than a hundred prelates was assembled beneath the richly-sculptured and gilded roof of the Lateran. Gregory sat at their head. The synod were expecting some mention to be made of the imperial defaulter, when the priest Roland presented himself before the throne of the Pontiflf. In a fierce and vehement tone he thus addressed the Pope : — *' The king and the united bishops of Germany and Italy transmit to thee this command — * Descend without delay from the throne of St. Peter ; abandon the usurped gov- ernment of the Roman Church ; to such honors none must aspire without the choice of the people and the sanction of the emperor.' " Then, turning to the conclave, he said, " To you, brethren, it is commanded, that at the feast of Pentecost ye present yourselves before the king my master, to receive a pope and father from his hands. This pretend- ed pastor is a ravenous wolf." A moment's pause, and a loud cry of indignation rang through the crowded aisles. The courageous Roland hard- ly escaped with his life ; but Gregory, in the midst of the tumult, remained calm and unmoved. Reading aloud the letters from the emperor which Roland had brought, he then addressed the assembly, chiefly to caution them against undue haste. Before the synod broke up, how- ever, the decisive blow was struck, and as Hemy had ab- jured the Pope, the Pope now excommunicated Hemy, pronouncing him henceforth interdicted from the enjoyment GREGORY VII. AND HENRY IV. 189 of the imperial throne, and absolving all Christians from their oaths and allegiance to one who was himself now bound by a solemn anathema in the name of the holy St. Peter. Thus was openly commenced that quarrel between the feudal and the papal sovereignties, between the secular and the spiritual dominions, which was destined to reverse the positions of the Pope and emperor, and to give the papacy a long and triumphant career of supreme domination in Europe. So little, however, did Henry understand the momentous character of the crisis, that he did not address himself to its exigencies with a tithe of his natural energy. He was more affected at first by the dangers which now threatened him again from Saxony, and it was in seeking to avert these that his eyes were opened to the far greater perils that were gathering on the other side of the Alps. Saxony was once more kindling into revolt ; for Henry's hatred to the Saxon race had tempted him to break the promises he had made to respect their rights, and govern them with kindness and good will. Hoping to quell the rebelhon before it attained much strength, he summoned his vassals, and hastened with a small force across the Saxon frontier. But he had wofuUy underrated the urgency of the occasion. Whether sympathizing with their Saxon fellow-subjects, or awed by the interdict of the Pope, which hung black with mysterious terrors over Henry's head, from one cause or another his nobles fell away in rapid succession, and the emperor had the mortification to see his forces dwindling down as snow melts in the sunshine. The Saxons also flew to arms with one consent, and Henry was compelled to retreat in disappointment and shame. Gregory's measures were not so ill-judged. Well know- ing the disaffection that prevailed among the barons of the empire, especially in Saxony, he addressed to the prelates and princes a letter of advice, pointing out to them that this was the moment for electing a new sovereign. In this 190 LIVES OF THE POPES. letter, after insisting that Henry, if still permitted to reign, must be brought to obedience to the Church, that he mighit " henceforth think of the holy Church, not as of a bond- maid subject to his will, but as of a mistress set over him," Gregory proceeds to advise that " if the king shall not be turned in his heart to God, let a person be selected for the government of the kingdom who shall pledge himself to observe all the points we have mentioned, as well for the maintenance of religion as the weal of the empire." Such counsel was welcome to the haughty and indignant princes, and they accordingly assembled for conference at Tribur, in the autumn of 1076, For seven days did their discussions continue ; legates from Rome, bishops from Ger- many, and barons from the whole empire, but especially Saxony, all taking an eager and excited part. Henry him- self was not present. Not daring to appear, he remained a few miles distant at Oppenheim, and thence sent repeated messages, inquiring the progress of the debate, and making humble propositions, which he trusted would conciliate his offended and too powerful vassals. The legates of- Gregory were men wisely chosen and well-trained for their task. With subtile arguments and eloquent appeals they overcame all the loyal scruples and hesitating fears which had weight with any of the nobles, and the council finally resolved that Henry's continuance in power should solely depend on his reconcilement to the head of the Church. " If the sun should go down on him still an excommunicated person on the 23d of February, 1077, his crown was to be transferred to another." Until then he was to dwell in unostentatious retirement at Spires. Unwelcome as this sentence was, the development of the feudal system had now made the emperor so completely dependent on his nobles, that Henry had no choice but to submit. That system, which in its youth had given the emperor absolute dominion over the estates and lives of his vassals, in its maturity divided the power among a multi- GREGORY VII. AND HENRY IV. 191 tude of nobles, each a petty sovereign, with whose collective might no emperor could contend, and whose several forces might be brought to combine against him almost as readily as for him. Reduced to this sad necessity, Henry endured with a chafing spirit his solitude and the anxieties of suspense for two weary months ; but his impatient soul could bear it no longer, and seeing no other way of obtain- ing relief, he determined on a personal visit to the Pope, to beseech the pardon and favor of the Church. It was the depth of winter, a winter of such extreme se- verity that the Rhine was frozen over from November to April, and the road to Italy was, in those days, a bare track, often winding through mountain passes, blocked up at this season with snow, and sometimes scaling the very ridges of the Alps, from which the snow never departs. But Henry's impetuosity could brook no delay. Retinue he had none, save one faithful friend, and his yet more faithful wife, who bore a babe in her bosom. His path lay through hostile regions, and he had to purchase a passage from their sovereigns by the sacrifice of vast estates. As he entered the defiles of the Alps, peasants preceded him, and cleared away the snow and ice, which accumulated so much upon the heights as to occasion both difficulty and danger. The descent was still worse. The whole moun- tain side was one vast sheet of ice, where hardly the chamois could find a footing. The emperor himself, on hands and knees, slowly and painfully made his way from crag to crag. Not seldom the treacherous path failed them, and men were rolled headlong into the deep abysses of snow. The queen and her infant son were let down in the skins of slaughtered beasts, by means of ropes. And thus, amid hardships which royalty rarely knows, the journey was ac- complished, and the imperial pilgrim found himself early in January, 107*7, on the Italian side of the Alps. No sooner was it noised abroad that the emperor had arrived than his Italian subjects hastened to give him wel- 192 LIVES OF THE POPES. come. In the north of Italy Gregory's name was hated for the rigor of his enactments respecting the clergy, and it was hoped that the emperor's visit would put a stop to his daring encroachments. Now again, therefore, Henry was surrounded by zealous friends, who, if they dared not fight for him, would at least give him liberal entertainment. But no time was to be lost in festivities. The decisive day was rapidly approaching, when the empire would either be con- firmed in his possession or become the prize of a long and bloody strife. Gregory was proceeding for that very pur- pose through Tuscany to Augsburg, where the diet was to be held that should define and settle the future relations of the emperors and the popes. Hearing of Henry's ap- proach and of the general welcome he had received, Greg- ory retired to the castle of Canossa to await the arrival of his royal visitor. Canossa was the favorite residence of the '' Great Countess " Matilda, who had succeeded to the Tus- can duchy of her mother, Beatrice, and her father-in-law, Duke Godfrey. Over the mind of this extraordinary wo- man the genius of Hildebrand had obtained a complete mastery, and her devotion to his interests was undoubtedly one of the principal causes of his great success. She was herself a scholar and a warrior, the most powerful princess of Italy, and the most faithful adherent of the papacy in all its diversified fortunes. To Canossa Henry accordingly directed his steps, at- tended now by a train of Italian followers. Arrived before the fortress, he solicited an immediate audience, first of the Countess Matilda and then of the Pontiff. By the first his request was granted, but neither his own royal character nor the intercessions of Matilda could prevail on the stem Gregory to admit Henry to his presence. Message after message did the emperor dispatch, expressed in the hum- blest tone, and offering the most ample atonement, but not for many days would Gregory listen to a syllable of his petition. Henry was just reduced to the verge of despair, GREGORY VII. AND HENRY IV. 193 and a longer delay might have driven him to indignation and defiance, when he received the announcement that he should obtain absolution on one condition alone — his de- livering up into the hands of the Pope his crown, scepter, and other symbols of royalty, and confessing himself un- worthy to bear the name of king. These arrogant terms were not, however, insisted on even by the audacious Hil- debrand, and probably they would not have been complied with even by the abject and crest-fallen Henry ; but it was inexorably demanded that he should do penance in the castle-yard before he should receive the pardon of the Pope. It was toward the end of January, and winter had laid his icy hand on all the scene, when Henry, attired in the white woolen robe of a penitent, entered the gates of the fortress. His followers regarded him with strange and, con- flicting emotions, in which pity strove with ridicule, and contempt with anger. But whatever emotions filled the breast of Gregory, they were not expressed that day. The rising sun found Henry at his post, and the setting sun still left him there, faint with fatigue and hunger, and bursting with a vexation and anger which he dared not express. A second day and a third witnessed a repetition of the same barbarities ; and the sovereign of vast kingdoms servilely submitted to cruelties which the most despotic tyrant would now hesitate to inflict on the \'ilest malefactor ; and to crown all, it was at the hands of one who called himself the vicar of Christ, the chief representative on earth of the " meek and lowly " Jesus. On the evening of the third day, Henry's fortitude was quite overcome, and taking refuge in an adjacent chapel, he there fell on his knees before the Countess Matilda, and besought her, with sobs and tears, to intercede in his be- half. This time her entreaties prevailed, and Henry was permitted to appear before the now triumphant and exult- ing Pope. The gates of the castle were thrown open, and the royal penitent stood in the presence of the haughty 9 194 LIVES OF THE POPES. Gregory, " from the terrible glance of whose countenance," we are told, " the eye of every beholder recoiled as from the lightning." The one was youthful, tall, and graceful ; the other was aged, decrepit, and austere. It was the sub- mission of the physical to the intellectual, and still more of the secular to the sacerdotal, that was then ratified for ages to come ; and Henry and Gregory were fit types of the new era. Henry promised to submit to the Pontiff's judgment respecting the imperial crown, and even to resign that crown if Gregory's decision should be adverse. He engaged to be guided by the Pope's counsel in all his future acts ; and to abstain, till his judgment should be given, from any use of his royal prerogative. Then, and not till then, did Gregory pronounce the absolution. But even in this act of assumed clemency the Pope dis- covered his resolution to trample on his fallen foe. Hold- ing in his hands the consecrated wafer, " Behold !" he ex- claimed, fixing his fierce eye on the jaded countenance of the emperor, " behold the body of the Lord ! Be it this day the witness of my innocence. May the almighty God now free me from the suspicion of the guilt of which I have been accused by thee and thine, if I be really innocent ! May he this day smite me with sudden death if I be really guilty !" Looking up to heaven, he then broke and ate the bread. Turning again to Henry, he said, " If now thou also art conscious of innocence, and assured that the charges brought against thee are false, free the Church from scan- dal and thyself from suspicion. Take, as an appeal to Heaven, this body of the Lord!" This challenge Henry was, of course, unable to accept. He submitted in silence to the haughty speeches of the Pope, meditating in his heart a swift and ample revenge. When, at length, the monarch retired from the presence of Gregory, and quitted the castle of Canossa, he repaired to the camp of his Italian followers, who had now greatly multiplied, and who anx- iously awaited the issue of the strange transactions that GERMAN CIVIL WAR. 195 were taking place within tlie fortress. Sympathizing with the indignation of Henry, they also felt and expressed their contempt for the emperor himself, who ought, in their esti- mation, to have treated a pope with as little ceremony as his father had done at the Council of Sutri. They either forgot or did not know how crippled Henry's German re- sources had become by numerous divisions ; and that, in fact, a crisis had arrived in the history of the empire, wliich not even the genius of Henry III. could have longer de- layed. But if we may pity Henry, how strongly must we repro- bate the conduct of the Pope ! Is this a bishop of the Chris- tian Church ? Is this a disciple of Christ ? Whatever may have been the sincerity and the zeal of Gregory in the cause which he adopted, the unbounded arrogance he displayed is too clear a proof that of the spirit and genius of Chris- tianity he knew absolutely nothing. In him the passions of the unrenewed heart were displayed in their most devel- oped and even exaggerated forms. Yet this is the man whom Rome adores ! Well has it been said, that Greg- ory VII. was the most complete and finished example of the spirit and nature of the papacy itself ! CHAPTER VI. RENEWAL OF THE CONTEST BETWEEN GREGORY Vll. AND HENRY IV. GERMAN CIVIL WAR AND PAPAL USURPATIONS DEATH OF GREGORY VII. A. D. 1077-1085. Animated alike by the reproaches and the promises of his Itahan subjects, the emperor resolved on swiftly avenging himself for the insolence of Gregory. For this pm-pose he immediately invested the castle of Canossa with aniied troops. By the aid, however, of his faithful friend, the 196 LIVES OF THE POIES. Countess Matilda, the Pontiff escaped from the hands of the besiegers, and retreated in safety to Rome. The time had now expired for the settlement of Henry's tenure of the imperial crown, and though he had received absolution, the sentence of deposition had not been revoked. Neither did the nobles of Germany at all desire that it should be ; for, assembling at Forcheim in March, 1077, they elected Rudolf of Suabia as emperor ; and the legates of the Pope not only acceded to the choice, but actually crowned Ru- dolf in the new cathedral of the city of Mentz. When the news of this transaction was brought to Greg- ory he cautiously refrained from adopting either side. He foresaw that a stiiiggle must take place between Rudolf and Henry, and he determined that, issue as it might, the event should be subservient in some way to the interests of the Roman See. Recognizing both the rivals as kings, he bade both to lay down their arms, and await his own ar- rival in Germany, when he would make a just decision. But this cautious line of conduct was perfectly unintelligible to Rudolf's partisans. It was at the instigation of Gregory himself that they had elected a new sovereign. The papal legates had ratified the choice by placing the crown on his head ; and the followers of Rudolf, therefore, naturally ex- pected the Pontiff's counsel and aid in the struggle they had commenced, and the more so because Rudolf was in favor of those very measures which Gregory so zealously urged for the reformation and aggrandizement of the clergy. But though Gregory, doubtless, wished well to the cause of the revolted nobles, he also saw that its success was doubtful ; so that if veracity and faithfulness commanded, ambition far more loudly forbade him to link his own for- tunes and those of the Roman Church with the uncertain destiny of Rudolf. That the Pope had sagaciously discerned the signs of the times in this as in all other instances, was abundantly proved by the events of the following year. Upon Henry's return GERMAN CIVIL WAR. 197 into Germany he found himself once more the object of popular regard. Whether from pity of their monarch's misfortunes, or a revived sentiment of loyalty, or a dislike to the pretensions of Rudolf, multitudes flocked to the standard of Henry, and the emperor soon saw in his camp the principal nobles and prelates of the empire, together with an army of twelve thousand men. The horrors of the civil war, thus meanly promoted by the Pontiflf, continued for several years without either Rudolf or Henry gaining any dedded advantage. Rudolf was in the position of a revolter, who has influence enough to disturb remote prov- inces, but not strength to subvert the government ; Hemy in that of a sovereign, who can maintain his own regal title in the heart of his empire, but too weak to preserve his authority at its extreme limits. Both parties appealed to the Pope, for both desired the aid which papal anathemas could then give to the basest cause, and Gregory leaned to the one side or the other exactly as policy required. While this conflict was going forward in Germany, Greg- ory spent the comparative leisure allowed him by the inter- val of suspense in attending to the discipline of the clergy, and in endeavorinof to streno^then the influence of the Ro- man Church in distant countries. It was at this time that the celebrated Berenger, Archdeacon of Tours, was brought before a council to answer for his heresy in denying the doctrine of transubstantiation. For nearly thirty years had Berenger zealously contended, in opposition to the ortho- dox creed of the Romanists, that the bread and wine used at the Lord's Supper continued to be bread and wine after their consecration by the priest. But Berenger was far more of the schoolman than the Christian, and rather a theologian than a martyr for truth. As often as he was brought into peril for his really Scriptural doctrine his for- titude always gave way, and he recanted his " errors." On the present occasion, he stood before a judge who cared little about the matter, and whose private opinions rather 198 LIVES OF THE POPES. favored Berenger's views. Gregory's whole soul was ab- sorbed in what appeared to him of much gteater conse- quence than the disputes of polemics — the struggle between the priestly and the secular powers. Still it would not have been seemly for a pontiff to countenance heresy, and he therefore insisted, though with comparative forbearance of manner, on Berenger's renouncing as falsehood what both of them believed to be the truth. Berenoer made a declaration, that he believed the bread and the wine, " through the mysrery of prayer, and through the words of our Redeemer, to be converted into the true, proper, and life-giving body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord." This satisfied his bigoted persecutors, and he was then allowed to depart unmolested. To the end of his days, however, he continued to teach what he really believed, and to deny the doctrine which he here pretended to ac- cept. Of such weight is compulsory confession ! Gregoiy also renewed his efforts to establish a uniform liturgy throughout the Churches of the West. The Bohe- mians had hitherto used their native language, the Sclavo- nian, in all the services of religion. At Hildebrand's sug- gestion, Alexander II. had prohibited the practice, and now the regulation he had originated as cardinal, he en- forced as supreme Pontiff. And before the end of the eleventh century — long, very long before Gregory's influ- ence had died away — the Latin liturgy was generally received among the Churches that acknowledged the Pope's authority. But Gregory's success was not uniform. In attempting similar encroachments in England he met with a decided and stern rebuff. The great " Conqueror," who then wielded the sceptre, was not disposed to stoop even to the Pope, and he finally resolved that the priesthood of his kingdom should be under his own exclusive control. When, there- fore, Gregory sent a legate to demand of William the per- formance of homage for his kingdom, and payment of the GERMAN CIVIL WAR. 199 tribute called " Peter's pence,"* he received the following irreverent reply : " Thy legate, Hubert, holy father, hath called on me in thy name, to take the oath of fealty to thee and thy successors, and to exert myself in enforcing the more regidar payment of the duties paid of old by my pre- decessors to the Church of Rome. The one request I have granted, the other I have refused. Homage to thee I have not, and I do not choose to do. I owe it not on my own account, nor do I find that it has been done by those before me. So much of the money in question as is collected Hu- bert will lay before thee, and that which we have yet to collect shall be sent thee at a convenient season." The chagi'in of the haughty Gregory at this epistle may be easily conceived. He expressed it by recalling his leg- ate from England, and directing him not to regard the money, which, without the homage, was not worthy to be received. But what he lost abroad he more than retrieved at home. The prompt and strenuous support which Gregory received from the " Great Countess " Matilda, was ample compensa- tion for the lack of, at the best, the constrained assistance of distant and grumbling alhes. She not only supplied sol- diers and money, sympathy and counsel, but completed her life-long devotion to the Roman See by transferring a large portion of her Tuscan patrimony to Gregory and his suc- cessors forever, and which still counts among the most valuable estates of "the Church." The year 1080 brought with it some important results in the conflict between the Pope and the emperor. The par- tisans of Rudolf had gradually diminished, until it was evi- dently necessary to strike some decisive blow to save his cause from absolute ruin. Once more, therefore, messen- " " Peter's pence " was a tax invented by the popes, by which a penny was gathered from every house in those kingdoms which acknowledged papal supremacy. A capital method at once to se- cure allegiance and fill the " treasury of St. Peter !" 200 LIVES OF THE POPES. gers were dispatched to Rome, who earnestly entreated that Gregory would no longer delay to avow himself the associate and patron of the king whom his own legates had crowned. This time their entreaties prevailed. It is not likely that the politic and unscrupulous Gregory would adopt a cause which he knew to be failing, and it is, there- fore, probable that for once he was deceived by over- colored statements of Rudolf's prospects. Summoning a council of prelates, and other dignified clergy, he laid be- fore them Rudolf's petition, and then solemnly pronounced an anathema upon Henry, with a sentence of deposition from the imperial throne. " I give, grant, and concede," were the Pontiff's arrogant terms, " that Rudolf may rule and defend the German empire. Upon all who adhere to him I pronounce the absolution of their sins, and bestow upon them blessings in this world, and in that which is to come." The supposition that Gregory was misled by false re- ports is confirmed by the excess of folly into which he was on this occasion betrayed ; so gross was it in itself, and so totally unlike his usual demeanor, that except it sprang from a decided misconception of Rudolf's position, we can only ascribe it to the imbecility of age. On the Sunday which followed the synod, he solemnly foretold from the altar, that Henry would either be dead or deposed ere three months had passed away ; and so confident of this did Greg- ory feel, that he transmitted to Rudolf a golden diadem, bearing an inscription, which united in one sentence, as by a bond of amity, the names of the Pontiff and the future emperor. On the news reaching Henry that the Pope had now openly declared war against him, he instantly took vigorous measures for self-defense. He was no longer a thoughtless boy. Calamity had done something to instruct him, though it seems also to have soured his temper. He now deter- mined to meet Gregory's excommunication by counter an- GEKMAN CIVIL WAR. 201 athemas, and resolved that the deposition of the emperor should be followed by as formal a deposition of the Pope. Guibert, Archbishop of Ravenna, had long been at the head of the anti-papal party in the north of Italy. He and his associates still kept ahve the dissensions in Milan, which began with Leo IX. 's prohibition of clerical marriages. Against Guibert, in particular, had Gregory leveled the bolts of excommunication and anathema ; but supported by imperial favor, the archbishop still maintained his ground. To this man the emperor now turned, resolving to elevate him without delay to the papal throne. A council of about thirty prelates, but with a large concourse of nobles, assem- bled for this purpose at Brixen in the Tyrol, and decreed that " the insolent Hildebrand " was to be forthwith de- graded and dethroned, and that Guibert, under the title of Clement III., should occupy the vacant chair. A few months were spent by Henry in preparing for a blow equally decisive against his rebellious vassal, the Saxon Rudolf. That chief had encamped with a considera- ble army on the banks of the Elster, with a marsh in the foreground to protect him from a sudden assault. On Henry's arriving at this point, he lost no time in compassing the marsh, and commencing the attack on the flanks of Ru- dolf 's arm}^ A furious battle ensued, in which the imperial forces were entirely defeated, and the monarch only saved himself by escaping across the river, in which many of his soldiers were drowned. But the victory of the Saxons was purchased at a cost that made it worse than a defeat. Ru- dolf himself was slain, and with his death ended all rivalry for the imperial crown. The same sun that witnessed the battle of the Elster, beheld also a conflict in Italy between Henry's forces and those of the Countess Matilda ; and there Matilda suf- fered as signal an overthrow as Henry himself had re- ceived in Germany. The Pontiff was now driven to other quarters for aid, and he hastened to obtain it, for he well 9* 202 LIVES OF THE POPJBS. knew the emperor would lose no time in punishing his nu- merous oflFenses. Henry crossed the Alps early in the following spring ; but the rude German warfare of that age did not permit him to capture so strongly fortified a place as Rome in the brief space of a modem siege. For three whole years he hovered about the banks of the Tiber or the Po, now seiz- ing a fortress, now gaining a town, and now suffering a partial defeat. By this harassing process, however, the patience of the Italians was gradually worn out ; and in the year 1084 he sat down before the metropohs, with the hope of soon becoming its master. During this interval of tedious suspense, the Pontiff's behavior was in no wise altered. He never condescended to make advances to the emperor, nor ever dreamed of a single concession. On the contrary, at the diminished synods which he could yet assemble within the walls, he repeatedly excommunicated Henry, with Guibert his ally, and the whole mass of their partisans. So much firmness and constancy, even in a questionable cause, extort admi- ration from the most reluctant, and compel us to believe that, however arrogant and unjustifiable were his assump- tions, he was at least sincere and earnest in the cause he had espoused. In March, 1084, the emperor effected an entrance, and the populace, wearied by Gregory's obstinate resistance, hailed the triumph of Henry as a deliverance rather than a disgrace. Gregory shut himself up in St. Angelo, and Henry at last enjoyed the greatest ambition of his life, in receiving the imperial diadem in the Church of St. Peter, and at the hands of Clement III., a pope of his own appointment. Meanwhile, succor was approaching for the imprisoned Gregory. Robert Guiscard, whose life had been spent in camps, had at length found leisure to attend to his Pontiff's petitions ; and at the head of a powerful army, containing in its ranks a host of Saracens, was marching to the deliv- GEliMAN CIYli. WAK. 203 efance of Rome. Appalled at the tidings, Henry hastily- departed for Germany, pretending that an absence of four yeai-s made his retm-n a necessary duty. Left to take their own course, the Romans decided on shutting their gates against the terrible Nomians, and defending their city as liege subjects of the empire. But to Guiscard's veteran troops, the capture of Rome was no such labor as it had proved to the Germans. He took it in a few days ; and, meeting with a stubborn resistance after his entrance, he gave license to his soldiers to plunder, burn, and slay without restraint. By this savage procedure, the fiercest passions were excited, and a horrible and bloody scene ensued. Gregory beheld, with impotent dismay, his o^^ti partisan and protector becoming the worst enemy of his cause. When the carnage was over, and the Normans, having indulged to satiety their lust, avarice, and cruelty, had taken fheir departure, the Pontiff found that instead of being reverenced as formerly, with a homage little short of what is due only to God, he was now regarded with uni- versal disgust. The Romans attributed to him their mis- fortunes and suffering3, and could scarcely tolerate his presence. The unhappy old man fled hastily to Salerno, and there, borne down by the weight of years and heart- broken by the calamities of his old age, he expired on the 25th of May, 1085. His end was in perfect keeping with his hfe. He earnestly and repeatedly besought his friends to continue the policy he had begun. Being asked to ab- solve, ere he died, the multitude on whom he had pro- nounced the censures of the Church, he sternly replied, " With the exception of Henry, styled the king, and of Guibert, the usurper, and of those who abet their designs, I absolve and bless all men who unfeignedly believe me to possess the power as the representative of St. Peter and St. Paul." His last words were significant of the mortified pride of his soul: "I have loved justice," he murmured. 204 LIVES OF THK POPES. "and hated miquity, and therefore I die in exile." And so he breathed out his spirit. We must do Gregory the justice to remember that his ambition was devoid, as much as that passion can be, of all sordid selfishness. It was the aggrandizement of the Church, and not of himself, that he sought. But when this abatement is made, it is sufficient to place the character of this greatest of the popes by the side of that of his divine Master, to convince us that the true spirit of Christianity had altogether passed from the system which now usurped its name. CHAPTER VII. IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS OF GREGORY VII. URBAN COM- MENCES THE CRUSADES. A. D. 1085-1099. 9 The years immediately following the death of Gregoiy were not filled with events of a momentous nature. The papal party had carried their eflforts as far as the state of society would at present admit. They had indeed gained a de- cisive victory, but were not yet in a position to enjoy the advantages of their success. The victory was a moral one — one of opinion. They had won the world to approve of their object, and henceforward the emperor was looked on as far inferior to the pope. In truth, the imperial power was dwindled to a petty sovereignty, while the influence of the PontiflF was felt in all the courts of Europe. By his legates, who were established at all of these courts, he made known his will ; and so widely spread was the sway of the priesthood, so completely did it embrace all ranks in society, that few monarchs dared treat with contempt the advice of a papal legate. As yet, however, the true state of public opinion, and the real might which the popes had acquired, was only IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS OF GREGOKY VII. 205 partially discovered. The emperor continued for some years to contend against the growing evil, and a series of anti-popes disturbed Italy by the struggles which they carried on, when both Gregory and Guibert were laid in their graves. Victor III., who followed Gregory, was a man of con- siderable learning; but his bookish habits adapted him far more for the cloisters of Monte Cassino, which he reluctantly left, than for a prominent position in pubHc life. After his consecration, he hurried back to his convent in great trepi- dation, and Rome was left in the possession of Guibert and his partisans for nearly two years, at the end of which Vic- tor died. In 1088, Otho, the Bishop of Ostia, and a per- sonal friend of the Countess Matilda, succeeded to the papal throne by the title of Urban II. He had been edu- cated at Cluni, and afterward trained for ecclesiastical life, under the superintendence of Gregory, and was both de- sirous and capable of prosecuting the plans of his instruc- tor. The policy of Gregory, both within and without the Church, was as vigorously pursued as the troubled state of the times would permit. At the Council of Placenza, held in 1095, it was decreed that no ecclesiastic should receive any Church dignity at the hands of a layman ; that no prince should confer the investiture ; that celibacy was bind- ing on the priesthood ; and that transubstantiation was the orthodox doctrine respecting the Lord's Supper, — decisions, all of them tending to the aggrandizement of the Church, and the furtherance of papal domination. The multitudes that now began to attend at the papal councils, sufficiently attest the growing influence of the priest- hood over the popular mind. The Council of Placenza was so large that it could only be held in the open air ; and that of Clermont, which was summoned in the same year, numbered two hundred bishops, four thousand of the infe- rior clergy, and more than thirty thousand of all ranks of the laity. But the occasion which brought such multitudes 206 LIVES OF THE POPES. together at the Council of Clermont demonstrates yet more clearly that the twelfth centiiry was to open a new era to the world, the triumph of a corrupted religion, and the reign over nearly all Europe, not so much of feudal mon- archs as of popish priests. From the age of Leo the Great, the system of private confession to priests had tended much to increase the influence of that order, and as the morals of society degenerated during the " dark ages," and in the large commixture of barbarian with civilized nations, that influence greatly advanced ; for penances were appointed, of so painful a natm*e, and of such enormous magnitude, that for some crimes a whole life might be wearily worn away before the sin was expiated, according to the priestly code. Interrogating the penitent respecting his minutest secrets, the priest not only compelled him to account for his words, actions, and thoughts, but also prescribed the terms of his acceptance with God. To every sin some penance was allotted, which might last from forty days to seven years ; so that the remark of a shrewd but sarcastic writer is obviously true, that " in those times of anarchy and vice, a modest sinner might easily incur a debt of three hundred years." Thus the penances of the longest life were far from ade- quate, and it was to meet this difficulty that the ingenious but unscriptural system of indulgences was invented. The poor might compound for their penances by severe bodily mortifications ; the rich by the payment of fines. A year's penance was taxed to the former at three thousand lashes, and to the latter at four pounds sterling. But other means of commutation were employed ; and military service in defense of the Pope, or a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, was often preferred to a voluntaiy infliction of stripes. In the eleventh century, these pilgrimages had greatly multiplied ; and a journey to Jerusalem was naturally held to be more efficacious than a visit to the shrine of any mere martyr or saint. The Christian turns away in IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS OF GREGORY VII. 207 mingled hoiTor and disgust from the perverted notions of atonement that meet him at every step as he traverses this gloomy period, and blesses God that the blood of Christ alone has abundant power to cleanse him from all sin. From such a pilgrimage there returned to Italy, in the year 1093, a man of singular character and eccentric ap- pearance. He was popularly known by the name of Peter the Hermit. This pilgrim came bearing letters from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, complaining of the grievous abuses which devout pilgrims endured at the hands of the new masters of Syria, the Ottoman Turks. But Peter himself was a far more eflBcient pleader than the aged patriarch. With bare head and naked feet, his emaciated and haggard form clothed in a coarse garment, riding on an ass, and holding in his hands a huge crucifix, he passed through the villages and cities, haranguing the people wherever they could be gathered together, and passionately imploring their immediate assistance in behalf of his afflicted brethren, and in defense of the sacred relics which had been sacrilegiously snatched from the Christian hands alone entitled to guard them. At length the orator found his way to the Pope, and was received by Urban with the greatest possible respect. The times were undoubtedly favorable to Peter's enterprise, and indeed the design was by no means new. Sylvester H. had ardently wished to deliver the Holy Land from the yoke of the Saracens, and Urban's own patron and ex- emplar, Gregoiy, had very seriously entertained the thought of rescuing it from the far more oppressive dominion of the Turks. He had even made arrangements for the pur- pose, when he was compelled to set them aside, that he might contest more important matters with his domestic foe, the emperor. But the emperor was now fully engaged in maintaining his own crown against rebellious vassals ; and, in the generally disorganized state of society through- 208 LIVES OF THE POPES. out Europe, the pupil of Gregory saw, as Gregory himself had formerly seen, a favorable opportunity for uniting, un- der papal guidance, the conflicting nations, and for taking advantage of that reverence for the priesthood which per- vaded western Europe, to make more imperious than ever the supremacy of the papal throne. The enterprise which Peter suggested was the very thing to accomplish these subtle purposes. The warlike spirit was more developed in France than elsewhere, and indeed Germany was yet hostile to papal rule, so that Urban naturally turned to the former for aid in his great design. First sending Peter (himself a French- man) on his mission of arousing the passions of the people, the Pontiff announced at the Council of Placenza that he would shortly hold another at Clermont, in the province of Auvergne, expressly to lay before the clergy and nobility of France the duty of undertaking a religious war. It was in 1095 that this " monster " council was convened. Peo- ple flocked to it from all parts of France, and even Germany. So great was the multitude that they could not be sheltered within the limits of Clermont. The neighboring towns and villages were filled with strangers, and the poorest were obliged to dwell in tents, or to sleep in the open air. The square used for the market was the place of meeting, and a platform was erected in the center as a throne for the Pontiff and his attendant prelates. Next to Urban sat Pe- ter the Hermit, clad in his grotesque and uncouth garb, and expressing in his wan and meager countenance the passions that devoured his soul. Peter first harangued the assembly, and then the Pope himself rose to address them, in terms somewhat less fever- ish, but still violently impassioned. The wrongs of the pilgrims, the outrages of the infidels, the sacredness of the holy sepulcher and all the adjacent region, the duty, merit, and honor of the enterprise, were all vividly and pathetically set forth; and then — most conclusive argument of all — IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS OF GREGORY VII. 209 a general absolution, plenary indulgence for all sins whatso- ever, was offered by the Pontiflf to every volunteer in this Heaven-appointed mission. Urban ceased, but the voice of the crowds around him soon broke the silence. First in a murmur, and then in a shout swelling louder and louder, the cry arose : ** God wills it!" "God wills it!" "God mdeed wills it," re- sponded the Pontiff; "let this be your watch-word and battle-cry ; and let the cross, a red, a bloody cross, be the badge upon your shoulders, and the emblem on your shields and banners !" The effect of these pontifical appeals was quickly seen. Everywhere the warlike spirit of the age received a religious direction, and a stronger because a sacred impulse. Unholy, because "carnal" weapons were made bare in defense of what was imagined to be the kingdom of Christ ; a kingdom from which the Saviour had too clearly departed, when it resorted to such weapons for its defense. The prospect of a full remission of all crimes, by means of adventures so congenial to their taste, incited innumera- ble desperadoes to assume the badge of the cross. Rob- bers, incendiaries, homicides, joined themselves by thousands to the ranks of the crusaders. Fanaticism and hypocrisy, lust and avarice, strangely urged their several votaries to pursue one path ; and all under the sacred and now wofully profaned name of Christian zeal. Not a few also were tempted by the tyranny of their feudal lords to abandon certain slavery at home in search of freedom or a grave in foreign lands. The Pontiff was earnestly entreated to put himself at the head of this motley array ; but Urban wisely decided that his presence was required at home, and committed the charge of this first armament — which, ere it reached the walls of Jerusalem, had lost by fatigue, famine, and battle, more than a million of men, women, and children, and still numbered forty thousand fighting men — to Godfrey of 210 LIVES OF THE POPES. Bouillon, the devout and valiant hero of Tasso*s " Jerusalem Delivered," and who, in. the poet's eyes, " Burns with a lioly zeal to chase From Zion's wall the pagan's impions race : Yet, while religious fires his breast inflame, Despises worldly empire, wealth, and fame." — Book i, 61. The short remainder of Urban's pontificate was employed in efforts to strengthen the relations of the papacy with the various princes of Italy, especially the Normans ; and in carrying out, by the decrees of successive councils, the plans of Gregory for the isolation and aggrandizement of the priesthood. The Pontiflf died in the month of July, 1099, just as the crusaders under Godfrey were triumphantly breaking through the ramparts of Mount Zion.* CHAPTER VIII. DEATH OF HENRY IV. IMPERIAL RIGHT OF INVESTITURE RE- LINQUISHED BY HENRY V. A. D. 1099-1122. The renowned abbey of Cluni now gave another of its in- mates, another of the disciples of Gregory, to the papal throne. This monk, named Rainer, assumed the title of Paschal II., and having very reluctantly consented to guide the affairs of the Church in these troubled times, set himself, as vigorously as his weak mind would allow, to carry out the designs of his great master. The spirit of Gregory thus lived and reigned at Rome for nearly half a century after his actual death. The Emperor Henry IV. still continued under the inter- dict which Gregory had pronounced, and his hostility to the papal claims was as vehement as ever. One of Pas- chal's first measures was to renew the sentence of excom- *See "The Crusades," No. 451 of Sunday School and Youth's Library. IMPERIAL RIGHT OF INVESTITURE. 211 munication against him, and he further decreed that the right of investiture should no more be exercised by any layman, including the emperor himself. This decree might have proved as harmless to Henry as the thunders of the Vatican have often been, had not Paschal followed it up by as base an act as any that can be found in these sad annals of perfidy and crime. The young son of the em- peror, Prince Henry, had broken out into revolt against his aged father, although he had bound himself by a solemn oath that, on condition of succeeding to the crown at his father's death, he would be a peaceful and obedient son. Knowing the importance of papal aid in his treasonable at- tempt, the prince applied to the Pope for the remission of his oath, cunningly promising to support all the Church's rights ; ^nd Paschal, tempted by so dazzling a bait, released him from the obligation of his sacred and filial vow. In vain did the emperor protest against the ingratitude of his son. Though still supported by many of the nobles, he was abandoned by the majority, and these went over to the prince, who thus commenced his rebellious career under the most shining auspices. Battles were fought without any decisive result, and a conference between the aged monarch and his graceless son was finally held at Coblentz. Struck to the heart at the sight of his ungrateful child, the emperor threw himself at his feet, exclaiming, ** My son, my son ! if I am to be punished by God for my crimes, at least stain not thine honor, for it is unseemly in a son to sit in judg- ment over his father's sins." The prince pretended contrition, but shortly afterward caused his father to be seized and imprisoned at Bingen, where he was required by the Arch- bishops of Mentz and Cologne to give up the crown-jewels. The gray-headed man, finding entreaties useless, placed on his person the jewels once worn by Charlemagne, and then appearing in state before the prelates, defied them to touch the ornaments worn by the ruler of the world. He was, nevertheless, cruelly stripped of the insignia of royalty, and 21-2' LIVKS OF THE POPES. eventually compelled to sign his abdication in favor of his son. So low did he fall in his last days, that he was un- gratefully thrust from the door by the very minions whom he had formerly enriched, and was obliged to part with portions of his apparel to provide himself with necessary food. He closed his eventful career in 1106, and from his death -bed sent his sword and ling to his hard-hearted son in token of forgiveness. The vengeance of the papacy fol- lowed him even in the grave ; his body was disinterred from the consecrated ground in which it had been laid by his friends, and not till 1111 was the interdict removed, and his remains suffered finally to repose in the Cathedral of Spires. The Pontiflf gained nothing, however, by his base espousal of the cause of the rebellious prince. That prince, now Henry V., was more determined than his father to assert the imperial right of investiture with crosier and ring. He appointed several bishops, in due form, to vacant sees, and gave to an excommunicated monk the government of an important abbey. Such direct opposition to canonical law provoked all the ire of the Roman See, and new proscrip- tions and louder threats were the immediate result. Henry scornfully smiled at these fulminations, and resolved to visit Rome with an army, and so settle the question by force. In 1110, the emperor crossed the Alps with a formidable warlike array, for his popularity in Germany enabled him to command the assistance of many powerful vassals who had treated his father with contempt. The Pope was alarmed at his approach, and began to think of conciliatory measures. At last, he decided on proposing such reasonable terms, that one is astonished they should ever have ema- nated from a pontifical head, and is convinced that they could not except from the influence of fear. Paschal pro- posed that the Church should abandon all the endowments which the emperors had ever conferred from the days of Charlemagne, and that Henry should on his part relinquish IMPERIAL RIGHT OF INVESTITURE. 213 all right of interference in the management of the Church. To the emperor this proposal was agreeable enough, and he peacefully entered Rome to ratify the 'treaty, and then to receive the imperial crown at the hands of the Pope. He reverentially kissed the feet of the Pontiff at the thresh- old of the Vatican, and entered the Church of St, Peter with him hand-in-hand. But here discussions arose that boded ill for the continuance of amity. The bishops were dissatisfied at the concessions of the Pope, and the emperor would rather demand more than accept less. A dispute, a scuffle, and a battle, were the successive results. The Pope was stripped of his robes, bound with cords, and car- ried off in triumph to prison. The strife continued until the pavement of the church was drenched with the blood of the combatants. In confinement the wavering Paschal agreed under oath to all the emperor's demands, and Henry, having been hastily crowned in St. Peter's, left Rome, supposing the question of investiture to be finally settled. But the Italian bishops viewed the conduct of their leader with indignation, and in a council afterward held, Paschal revoked all that he had conceded, and declared the grant extorted by Henry to be "null and void, because contrary to the will of the Holy Spirit and the authority of the canons." Of such force are papal promises and vows ! But even this would hardly appease the wrath of the mortified priesthood. Pro- vincial synods declared the concessions of the Pope to be " wicked and detestable," and for some years it appeared quite uncertain if the unfortunate Paschal would retain his unenviable seat. Upon his return to Germany, the emperor found too much occupation at home, in quelling the revolts of his vassals, to attend immediately to transalpine affairs. But, in 1115, Matilda, the " Great Countess," died, leaving her Tuscan estates to the Pope. Henry now, therefore, hastened to Italy, chiefly to secure possession of those lands for himself, regarding them as a fief of the empiie, 214 LIVES OF THE POPES. and partly to be recrowned at Rome. Paschal fled before him, and the ceremony of coronation was now more solemnly, but not so canonically performed by a Portu- guese archbishop, who chanced to be in Rome — the only prelate who could be persuaded to accept the honor. On Henry's retirement from Rome, Paschal returned, but only just in time to breathe his last. He has been compared to Gregory, but they were alike only in their fortunes and their ambition. Gregory's genius overtopped that of the timorous Paschal by Alpine heights. Fearful of delay, the papal party immediately elected a successor ; and John of Gaeta, a monk of Monte Cassino, ascended the throne of the Church as Gelasius II. The im- perial party was, howev^er, too strong even in Rome not to dispute the election, and by them the Portuguese prelate, who had crowned Henry, was proclaimed by the title of Gregory VIII. For the present they succeeded, and drove Gelasius from Rome. After many wanderings and much suffering, this unhappy pontiff died in 1119. Grown more politic by experience, the indomitable disciples of Gregory now elected a prelate of great distmction, and nearly related to the emperor, but whose vehement advocacy of their tenets assured them of his constancy to their cause. Assuming the title of Calixtus II., the new pontiff began his career by pronouncing a sentence of excommunication upon the emperor, and stimulating the rebellious vassals of the empire to persevere in their revolt. Not till he had done this did he leave his archbishopric in France, to take possession of his new and loftier honors. As he passed from city to city, he had convincing, and to him most gratifying evidence, that tlie tide of popular opinion had now fully turned in favor of papal independence. In every place he was saluted by the applause of the people, while magistrates and nobles escorted him on his journey with more than royal state. At Rome he was received in the same spirit, for the citizens of all ranks, wearied with domestic brawls, were IMPERIAL RIGHT OF INVESTITURE. 215 hopeful that so distinguished a man would not only dignify his own seat, but bring peace and comfort to their distracted homes. The anti-pope of the imperial party, Gregory VIII., who had hitherto occupied the Vatican, and presided over the ecclesiastical affairs of at least one-half of Christendom, now fled hastily in despair. But he was quickly pursued, and, when overtaken, was ignominiously brought back to Rome. He was seated on a camel with his face toward the tail, clothed in the skin of a newly- slain sheep, in mock imitation of the pontifical robes, and after parading the streets amid the insults of the mob and the triumph of his opponents, was immured in a convent for the rest of his hfe. The emperor, Henry V., appears to have been fully aware of the growing strength of the papacy, and he ac- cordingly made proposals for reconciliation, which Calixtus was too wise to reject. To ratify these proposals, the emperor met the Pontiff's legates in the city of Worms in 1122. Great preparations were made for so important an occasion. So extensive was the interest excited by the termination of a struggle that had caused so much dissen- sion and bloodshed, that multitudes flocked to the city, and pavilions were erected for the interview on the plain be- tween the city and the Rhine, where Charlemagne, in former days, had held the diets of the empire, and given laws alike to soldier, layman, and priest. In the presence of this vast concourse, Henry signed a declaration that he renounced forever from that day the imperial claims of supremacy over the Church ; " resigning to God, to his holy apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and to the holy CathoUc Church, all investiture by ring and cro- zier, and leaving to all Churches the liberty of canonical election and free consecration." The legates, on behalf of the Pope, signed a document, " granting to his beloved son, Henry, that the election of bishops and abbots should be made in the royal presence, and that the person elected 216 LIVES OP THE POPES. might be admitted to the civil dignities of his office by the dehvery of a scepter, and for this might perform homage." The emperor was then formally absolved and released from the papal interdict, and the convention broke up, as we are told, amid general rejoicings. The very tone of this treaty is sufficient to indicate the altered relations now occupied by the principal parties con- cerned. It is the emperor who resigns, it is the Pontiflf who grants. And though concessions were apparently made on both sides, it must be remembered that the emperor con- ceded what he had inherited from Charlemagne, but the Pope only the most extravagant part of claims which had never been heard of till the last few years. CHAPTER IX. POPE AND ANTI-POPE ABELARD AND ARNOLD OF BRESCIA ST. BERNARD AND THE SECOND CRUSADE. A. D. 1122-1155. Pope Calixtus II. died soon after the conclusion of these long-continued disputes, and was succeeded by Hono- Rius II., whose short pontificate was much disturbed by the tumults of civil war, mainly excited by the Normans of the South, and which resulted in no addition to the power of the papacy, if its influence was not materially weakened. On the death of Honorius, in 1130, a furious contest once more commenced for the honors of the popedom. One of the expedients devised by Hildebrand, and exe- cuted in the pontificate of Nicholas II., for the consolida- tion of papal power, was the limiting the right of election to the college of cardinals. But it was now to be shown that even the conclave could be divided against itself. One party elected the Cardinal Gregory, under the title of In- nocent II., while the rest supported the claims of Peter, the son of a Roman prince, who assumed the name of ST. BERNARD AND THE SECOND CRUSADE. 21 7 Anacletus II. And thus Rome was once more favored with a divided sovereignty in both Church and State. Each of the popes found supporters abroad as well as at home. The Norman duke, Roger, took part with Anacletus, who, in return, crowned him at Palermo as King of Sicily and Apulia. The Emperor Lothaire espoused the opposite side, and Innocent, fleeing from Italy, was received with pontifi- cal honors at the imperial court, and recompensed the fa- vor by crowning Lothaire as king of the Romans, in the city of Liege. It was owing, however, to the influence of the famous St. Beraard, whose reputation was then rapidly rising in France, that Innocent proved so successful. The election of Anacletus was undoubtedly as legal as that of his rival; but Bernard, regarding Innocent as the better man, used his most strenuous exertions to have him ac- knowledged as pope. His efibrts prevailed, first with the French king, and with a council of French prelates, con- vened at Etampes ; and afterwards with Henry L, King of England, who was then on a visit to his estates in Normandy. Anacletus, notwithstanding, maintained his position in Italy ; and the emperor, partly to prove his sincerity in In- nocent's cause, but still further incited by ambition, made repeated expeditions through that unhappy country, filling it with all the horrors of continual war. The death of An- acletus, in 1138, terminated the strife, and left Innocent in undisputed possession of the coveted prize ; but a rivalry of such long endurance — a brace of popes, both canonically chosen, both issuing bulls and conferring episcopal offices — would appear to damage rather seriously (if so weak a cause could suffer damage at all) the absurd pretense of di- rect apostolical succession. The only remarkable incidents in the brief remainder of Innocent's reign were the perse- cutions carried on against those two celebrated men, pio- neers of the advancing spirit of inquiry, Abelard, and his pupil, Arnold of Brescia. 10 218 LIVES OF THE POPES. Romantic as were tlie events of Abelard's early life, they had not prevented his devoting himself with unconquerable ardor to the pursuit of learning. And when, afterward, he commenced lecturing at St. Denis, the youth of France crowded around him, astonished at the boldness with which he handled doctrines which had hitherto been re- ceived with implicit credit, because sanctioned by the au- thority of the fathers. The vehemence with which he at- tacked the monastic orders for their licentious habits, had already aroused vindictive feelings in that class of the clergy, when his free expression of new opinions gave umbrage to that sedater portion of whom St. Bernard was the repre- sentative. That remarkable man, whose piety was tainted by a nar- row and fanatical spirit, openly accused Abelard of hereti- cal teaching, and when challenged to a public disputation, considered he had advanced quite satisfactory evidence of the charge, when he had placed the doctrines of his oppo- nent by the side of those of the fathers. The discrepancy, indeed, was apparent, although it was not quite so obvious to an impartial judge that truth necessarily inclined to the patristic side. But Abelard saw in this procedure the in- tention of Bernard against him. He was not to dispute, but to plead. And as if this indication of a resolution to crush him were not enough, he was called to plead before an assembly that was neither a fair nor a legal court of judgment. The influence of Bernard was plainly para- mount, and fearing a summary sentence of condemnation, Abelard hastily arose and departed, exclaiming : " I appeal to the Pope." But Bernard's authority was great also with the Pontiff, and eventually Abelard thought it more safe to be reconciled to his powerful antagonist, and retire from public hfe. He entered the monastery of Cluni, and, after three years of conventual solitude, mortification, and obedi- ence, peacefully expired. Abelard's disciple, Arnold of Bres- cia, was not so easily silenced. His fiery spirit longed to ST. BERNARD AND THE SECOND CRUSADE. 219 propagate the truths which Abelard had taught ; and Ar- nold had, moreover, gained a much truer insight than his master into the nature of the gospel. He not only ex- posed without fear the vices of the clergy, but he preached the necessity of "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" as the only way of a sinner's ac- ceptance, the only safe ground of hope. Baptism was nothing, the Lord's supper was nothing, he truly said, with- out that li\'ing faith which unites the soul of man to Christ the Son of God. Returninor to France after a long; ab- sence, just at the time that Abelard was so hotly attacked, he instantly embraced the cause of his former teacher, and the zealous but bigoted Bernard, therefore, denounced him to Pope Innocent as " Abelard's chief armor-bearer and herald." Arnold was obliged to flee, and found a refuge for the present amid the mountains of Switzerland, in the city of Zurich. In the midst of these exciting commotions, Innocent died, and was succeeded by Celestine II., whose pacific dispo- sition promised to bring back quiet to the troubled times ; but, to the infinite regret of all who sighed for the return of peace, he died after a five months' reign. Neither did Lucius IL, who followed Celestine, restore harmony to society. Soon after this pontiff's accession, Arnold forsook his asylum in Switzerland, and boldly pre- senting himself in Rome, commenced a series of public and powerful assaults upon the corrupt lives of the priesthood. It is singular that in this point he and his great enemy, Bernard, were entirely one. The language of both, in de- nouncing the vices of the age, was strong and even violent. But there were wide differences between them in other respects. Arnold's views were far more Scriptural, and therefore more heretical, than Bernard's ; and Bernard was zealous for all the papal institutions, while Arnold exclaimed against the institutions themselves as much as against their abuses. Arnold's eloquence was successful in arousing a 220 LIVES OF THE POPES. spirit of revolt among the Roman people against the usurpa- tions of the priesthood. They resolved that the clergy should be restricted to their spiritual functions, and be- sought the Emperor Conrad to come to Rome, and, by assuming the sovereignty of Italy, to restore the integrity of the empire. They concluded their letter to Conrad with these words, " Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to the priests the things that are the priests' ; as Christ commanded, and as Peter paid tribute." It was not likely that the proud priesthood of Rome would quietly submit, while the power they had so pain- fully acquired was forcibly snatched from their hands. Pope Lucius gathered a body of armed men to quell the revolt which Arnold and his party had stirred up, and in one of the affrays that followed was himself struck upon the head by a stone, and died shortly afterward from the effects of the blow. To the now vacant chair, a friend and disciple of Beraard was next elevated by the unanimous choice of the conclave. He assumed the title of Eugenius III. ; and, fearful of dwell- ing in Rome until the present excitement should have sub- sided, he immediately fled to Viterbo. Through the whole of his pontificate the influence of Arnold continued to pre- vail with the Roman citizens, and thus Eugenius was seldom able to reside in the proper metropohs of his see. This cir- cumstance, however, did not hinder his being acknowledged as Pope, or his exercising the functions of his office. And as the Abbot Bernard was a great favorite with Eugenius, the Pontiff called him to his side, and was guided by his coimsels in nearly all the public acts of his reign. The disturbances of Italy were now destined to be for- gotten for a time, in the overwhelming greatness of a calamity which affected all Christendom. News came from the Holy Land that the entire fruits of the first crusade were unhappily lost, and that a new expedition was indispensable to retrieve the honor of the cross, and to protect pilgrims ST. BERNARD AND THE SECOND CRUSADE. 221 in tlieir visit to the sacred shrine of the Redeemer. The first crusaders, having captured Jerusalem, had established a sovereignty there, with a view of preserving to Christians the treasures they had won. But the enervating climate and intercourse of the east soon engendered a degenerate spirit, and the next generation wholly lost what it cost their fathers so much labor and bloodshed to gain. The city of Edessa had fallen into the hands of the Saracens, and thirty thousand Christians had perished before the walls, the re- mainder passing under the shameful yoke of an infidel bondage. Roused by such woful tidings, the enthusiastic Bernard undertook to become the Hermit Peter of a second crusade. The Pope engaged heartily in the cause, and only waited the cooperation of the Christian kings to bless their banners, and bestow, like Urban, a plenary absolution on all who risked their lives in so sacred an expedition. By the enthusiasm and energy of Bernard, the princes of Europe were quickly incited to the task. Louis VIL of France, the abbot's own sovereign, was the first to give his consent. The independent dukes of Bohemia and Turin, and many nobles of less note on either side of the Alps, followed his example ; and finally, the Emperor Conrad reluctantly went with the stream, and marshaled an army of seventy thousand men for an adventure which his own strong intellect scarcely approved. The result of the enterprise was dolefully dis- astrous. Three hundred thousand men, with a large number of women of noble rank, who had foimed themselves into an Amazonian phalanx to protect Eleanor, the queen of Louis, set forth on a journey through countries unable and unwill- inof to furnish them with food. Multitudes died of famine on the way, and when the wasted remains of this vast army arrived in Palestme, so dispirited were they by their fatigues, and so divided among themselves by petty jealousies, that they returned home as speedily as possible, without having struck one effectual blow. 222 LIVES OF THE POPES. Soon after this mortifying event, the Pontiflf, who had sanctioned the enterprise, died. Eugenius appears to have been a very sincere disciple of Bernard, and anxious, hke him, to reform the manners of the clergy, and consolidate the papal power. But it was during his pontificate, and with his concurrence^ that Bernard commenced his vehe- ment declamations against the sectaries, who now grew veiy numerous, and whose increase, however conducive to the interests of vital religion, was so opposed to Bernard's idea of the necessary unity of the visible Church, that this well- meaning, and even great man, was too often hurried by his impetuous zeal to the very verge of persecution. The successor of Eugenius was Anastasius IV., whose short and turbulent reign is not worthy of much remark. His whole efforts were directed to gain and keep possession of the city of Rome, which still refused allegiance to the pontiffs in temporal things. By foreign aid, he succeeded in his object, and then at the end of a year left his seat and his quarrels to another. The heir to so undesirable an in- heritance was this time an Englishman ; the only English- man who ever sat upon the throne of Rome. His original name was Nicholas Breakspeare, and his early manhood was passed in the abbey of St. Albans. By his intrepid spirit and winning address he had attracted the attention of Pope Eugenius, who had made him his legate at the court of Denmark. Elevated to the papal throne in 1154, he assumed the title of Adrian IV., and resolutely pre- pared to hazard everything for the mastery of Rome, and the attainment of the other objects of papal ambition. Arnold of Brescia still governed the Roman citizens by his eloquent tongue. At his suggestion, they had elected a senate of fifty-six citizens for the management of their cvnl affairs, and while still acknowledging the Pope as the head of the Church, they declined to accept him as their king. But Adrian determined to effect by stratagem what he could not accomplish by force. Pretending entire satisfac- ARROGANCE OF THE POPES. 223 tion with the present arrangement, he confined himself for iiearly a year to his ecclesiastical duties. But on a cardinal being either killed or wounded in some street affray, he promptly laid an interdict on the entire city; and attribu- ting the unhappy occurrence to some of Arnold's associates, refused to withdraw the sentence until that powerful foe to papal domination, that advocate of popular freedom and of Scriptural religion, should be expelled with his whole party from the city. CHAPTER X. MARTYRDOM OF ARNOLD ARROGANCE OF THE POPES ADRIAN IV. AND ALEXANDER III. A. D. 1155-1198. An interdict in Rome, at the very heart of the papal sys- tem, was an unprecedented event, and produced all the excitement and horror that Adrian desired. The suspension of priestly offices was deemed by the superstitious and priest-ridden Romans to be the very withdrawment of divine grace, and the consignment of their souls to inevitable per- dition. Alas ! they had been sedulously kept ignorant of the great truth that the only efficient Priest is always ac- cessible ; and that while He alone is " able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him," he also " ever liveth to make intercession for them." With cries and tears the terrified populace besieged the gates of the Vati- can, and to gain at any price the pardon of the Pope, they blindly consented to the sacrifice of their truest friend, the patriot and reformer Arnold. Then, and not till then, did Adrian relent ; and then did the people of Rome expose the full depth of the moral degradation to which supersti- tion had sunk them. For having first ungratefully banished their benefactor, they now flocked from every quarter to receive the blessing of their betrayer and their foe. The 224 LIVES OF THE POPES. Pope marclied in procession through the streets of the city, and was everywhere greeted by the clamorous plaudits of his deluded victims. The great Frederic Barbarossa had now succeeded to the imperial throne. By prompt and energetic coercion he had chastised, and for the present subdued, the fast- multiplying revolts among the vassals of the empire, and was in direct march for Italy, intending to bestow similar favors on his undutiful liegemen in Lombardy. Hoping to find sympa- thy for their misfortunes and for their cause in so noble and patriotic a spirit as Barbarossa's, the partisans of Arnold met the emperor on his journey, and appealed to him for aid, telling him that their efforts were inspired by the re- membrance of the ancient Roman name. But Barbarossa was too thorough a German to feel sympathy even with a patriotic Italian party. "Ancient Rome," he contemptu- ously replied, "and ancient Roman virtue no longer dwell with you, her perfidious and effeminate children, but with us, her hardy and true-hearted sons !" One object of Barbarossa's in this expedition to Italy was to receive the crown of the empire at the hands of the Pope. And to so petty an ambition, wholly unworthy of so great a soul as Frederic's, the magnanimous Arnold was doomed to fall a victim. The Pope represented to the em- peror that Arnold was the chief promoter of sedition within the papal domains ; and to afford Adrian a moment's ma- lignant pleasure, the monarch consented to the death of a man who might have become his most efficient ally against pontifical aggressions. Arnold was sought out, and when dragged from his place of retreat was ruthlessly " Butclier'd to make a Roman holiday," after the approved papal fashion of an auto da fe. Surrounded by the very men whom he had liberated from political thraldom, and whom he had incited ' by his eloquence to seek also religious freedom, the noble ARROGANCE OF THE POPES. 225 reformer and patriot was burned to death within sight of the city which he had constitutionally governed for the last ten years. And that the fickle Romans might not after- ward worship as a saint and a martyr the man whom they now abandoned to his fate, Adrian took the truly priest-like precaution of scattering his ashes on the waves of the Tiber. It might be said of Arnold, as it has been of Wiclif, whose ashes were treated with similar contempt, that he thus became the heritage and property of every nation whose shores are washed by the tides of the sea. Between the proud emperor and the yet prouder Pope a contest almost immediately ensued, each claiming more homage than the other was disposed to concede. It had already become a custom for sovereigns who visited the Pope to hold his stirrup when he mounted his horse. This token of submission was demanded by Adrian before he would consent to place the crown on the head of Barba- rossa. For two days Frederic resisted the demand, but at length reluctantly yielded. He held the stirrup as Adrian placed his foot in it, and then received the pontifical kiss of peace, and was crowned in due form. This dispute is a slight indication of the state of feeling subsisting between the emperor and the Pope. From the days of Gregory VII. and Henry IV. the struggle for absolute supremacy had never ceased ; nor had the treaty of Calixtus II. with Henry V. diminished the jealousy which seemed hereditary in these rival powers. In the time of Barbarossa and Adrian these animosities gave rise to factions ; the independent barons, counts, and margraves, ranging themselves under the Guelfic or Ghibbeline banners, as their predilections directed them, or more frequently according to the favor they regarded themselves as receiving from the emperor or from the Pope. The papal party was called Guelfic, from the ducal family of the Guelfs, who had taken up the old Saxon quarrel against the emperor, and were therefore generally found in alhance with the Pope ; and the imperial 10* 226 LIVES OF THE POISES. party styled themselves Gliibbelines, because this was the name of the last and most considerable possession added to the imperial estates. Henceforth the names of Guelf and Ghibbeline will occupy an important place in the his- tory of the Popes. Alexander III. was the immediate successor of Adrian ; but as it was known, from his character, that he would strenuously uphold, hke his predecessor, the privileges of the Church, the imperialists elected another PontiflF, by the title of Victor III. Alexander was compelled to seek ref- uge in France, and there most of his long pontificate was passed. It was the firm detennination of the Emperor Frederic to control the growing spirit of insubordination against imperial rule, whether he discovered it among his vassals in Germany, or in the Pope himself. Many years were spent in the prosecution of this object, and Italy was visited by four hostile armies under the warhke emperor's command. For a long time the policy of Frederic kept the family of the Guelf s in close and friendly alliance. They marched under his standards, and fought by his side. But in his fourth Italian expedition Barbarossa was taken ill at Chiavenna. Taking advantage of his illness, Henry the Lion, the principal chieftain of the Guelfic house, ap- proached the couch on which the emperor was lying, and announced his intention of abandoning the imperial cause, except upon conditions which it would have been disgrace- ful for Frederic to have granted. In vain did the emperor represent the danger to himself of so great a secession, and even, falling upon the ground, embrace the knees of the cruel Guelf. Henry withdrew with all his forces, and from that period the cause of the Pope and of the Guelf was one and the same. One spirit of enmity to the emperor was a sufficient bond of union. In this predicament the em- «^ peror sought a reconciliation with the Pope. An interview took place between them at Venice, in llYV ; and it is re- lated that when the emperor kissed the feet of the Pontiff AllKObANCE OF TUE POPES. 227 tlie Pope placed his feet on the bold warrior's neck, apostrophizing himself in the language of Scripture, " Thou shalt tread upon the adder and the lion !" whereupon the emperor indignantly rephed : " Not unto thee but unto St. Peter be this honor !" It is conclusive evidence of the strong hold which the priesthood had now gained on the minds of men, that Al- exander, though an exile from Rome, should have been able to contend even against sovereigns with absolute success. To Henry II. of England he displayed the same spirit of arrogance as he had shown to Barbarossa. Henry had dis- carded the hypocritical and impudent Thomas a Becket from one of the numerous offices w^hich he held, and had taken measures for repressing the crimes of the priesthood, which filled every mouth with scandal. For these just and honorable proceedings a Becket had the audacity to excom- municate the king, and denounce against him all those fierce maledictions which Rome only has the effrontery to forge and fulminate. The king's indignant partisans shortly af- terward murdered a Becket while he stood at the altar of his church, in all the grandeur of sacerdotal array. The crime was imputed to Henry, and the Pope Alexander was about to lay the entire kingdom under interdict, when his wrath was appeased by messengers, who promised, on behalf of the English monarch, the most entire submission to the papal law. It was this Pontiflf also who first gi'atified the pride of the Roman clergy, by parading the streets of Rome, having his horse led by two powerful monarchs, Henry of England and Louis of France, who reverently held the bridle while the Pope rode to his habitation ; exhibiting a spectacle which, though the priests pronounced it "most grateful to God, to angels, and to men," will be regarded by most men as offensive to God and degrading to humanity. The vain arrogance of Alexander III. was, however, in some measure redeemed by his zeal for the promotion of learning. When, toward the close of his reign, he found himself firmly estab- 228 LIVES OF THE POPES. lished on his seat, and could safely dwell in Rome, he sought out and rewarded men of a studious disposition, and took considerable pains to advance the intellectual culture of the Italian priesthood. Yet it was he who sanctioned the per- secution of Peter Waldo, the Lyonese reformer ; and his persecution was chiefly instigated by Waldo's having caused the sacred Scriptures to be translated into French. So in- stinctively fearful is the Romish owl of the clear daylight of gospel truth ; so completely does the spirit of caste tend to pervert even a cultivated mind ; and, that of priestly caste in particular, to extinguish the very feelings of hu- manity, and to silence the most audible dictates of the judg- ment and the conscience. The names of Lucius III., Urban III., Gregory VIII., Clement III., and Celestine III., which rapidly follow one another, are little else than names in the records of his- tory. The periods during which they successively swayed the sceptral crosier of Rome was altogether only sixteen years, and was chiefly distinguished by another crusading expedition, in which Frederic Barbarossa led the way, and lost his life in attempting to ford a swollen stream ; and in which also Richard Coeur de Lion, of England, performed those romantic exploits which have made his memory so famous and lasting. Celestine III., however, gave a strik- ing proof of the increasing arrogance of the papacy, which deserves recording. According to custom, the Pope was performing the ceremony of coronation for the Emperor Henry YL, with all the usual solemnities. On the mon- arch's bending his knee before the Pope, the proud priest rudely kicked off" the crown which he had just placed on the emperor's head, to show that he could with equal ease confer crowns and take them away : an instance of audacity to which history hardly furnishes a single parallel. To such a perfect contradiction had the popes arrived of the example of Him whom they pretended to represent, and who emphat- ically said : " Learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart !'* I THE PAPACY UNDER INNOCENT III. 229 CHAPTER XL DOMINATION OF THE PAPACY UNDER INNOCENT III. A. D. 1198-1216. We have now entered on the "noonday" of papal power, which may be regarded as extending over the thirteenth century, or with more exactness from the reign of Innocent HI. to that of Boniface VIII. Innocent III. was elected by the unanimous voice of the cardinals, in 1198, and his pontificate lasted for eight- een years. So great was the ability, and so remarkable was the success of this Pontiff, that no name in papal an- nals demands so high a place, with the exception of that of Innocent's great prototype, Gregory VII. Between Greg- ory and Innocent there was much in common, both in char- acter and career, but the apparent achievements of the lat- ter as far surpassed those of the foiTner as the effects of the builder's toil are more ob^aous than those of the architect ; for it was Innocent's aim to carry out to completion the designs of his great predecessor, and for doing this he had more signal advantages. Both of them, indeed, had full play for their genius during the minority of an emperor ; but Gregory mounted the papal throne in old age, while Inno- cent commenced his pontifical reign in the very prime and vigor of manhood, ha^dng only just attained his thirty-sev- enth year. Innocent evidently entered on his task with a settled res- olution to make the papal authority paramount and supreme both over the clergy of the whole Church, and over the monarchs of the world. His was no ordinary ambition. It was the exact image as it was the progeny of Hildebrand's. His first object was to direct the strong religious, or rather superstitious feeling of the age, in channels that would ren- der it subservient to papal domination. He therefore de- 230 LIVES OF THE 1 OPEd. nounced the censures of the Church upon heretics on the one hand, and against infidel Turks on the other. The spirits of persecution and fanaticism were invoked to aid the popedom in enslaving mankind. Six trusty ecclesiastics were dispatched to the south of France to ascertain the pre- cise tenets and character of the sectaries that abounded there as well as in the valleys of Piedmont. From this odious em- ployment of spying into private affairs, and the most secret opinions, these priests received the name of Inquisito)'s, a word which has since become justly infamous in papal his- tory. They found that a people had resided in those districts for many generations, in all probability for centuries, who, without formally separating themselves from the Romish Church, had perseveringly testified against her growing cor- ruptions. Whence they originally sprang was a mystery to all, though the tongue of slander had not failed to report a con- nection between their creed and that of the ancient Mani- cheans. The single point of resemblance, however, was in the severe morality of their lives. Paulicians, Catharists (or Puri- tans), Albigenses, and Waldenses, were only a few of the names by which these sectaries were known. They met in the night-time, with closed doors, and in a chamber lighted by lamps. They devoutly studied the Scriptures, and sought the divine blessing in extemporaneous prayer. If a novice were introduced to the society, the members gathered round him in a circle, when the president, or pastor, holding a copy of the Gospels in his hand, first addressed him with fit exhortations, and then gave him the fraternal kiss. Each member afterward saluted the novice in turn, who was then affectionately commended to God, and formally received as a brother. With these simple rites of worship they united a genuine Christian spirit, so that even their bitter enemy, the Abbot Bernard, had confessed that they were excellent members of society. Some of them, doubtless, held errors of a comparatively harmless kind, but the only marvel is that, in so dark and corrupt an age, a community could be THE PAPACY UNDER IKXOOENT III. 231 anywhere found whose creed and practice were so exempt from blame. Their zeal in perusing the Scriptures was their talisman of safety. But these reformers, admirable as they were, could effect little or nothing openly to stem the wide-rolling tide of iniquity. Living in isolated compa- nies, and belonging almost wholly to the poorer class, their contempt for masses and images, fastings and penances, and other superstitions of the Church, only roused against them the vindictive malice and powerful persecutions of a worldly priesthood. The Pope was resolved on wholly ex- terminating a race who were secretly undermining the very foundations of the papal structure. To give color to the dark design he called it a Crusade, and promised to all nobles and princes who would take arms in the cause for only forty days, seats of honor in paradise, and the full remission of their sins. " We exhort you," said this bull of Innocent's, " to destroy the wicked heresy of the Albigenses, and do this with more rigor than you would use toward the Saracens themselves. Persecute them with a strong hand, deprive them of house and land, and put true Roman Catholics in their places." With a cruel exactness were these fierce orders obeyed. Animated by the hope alike of temporal and eternal gain, multitudes of fanatics rushed to the field of rapine and blood. The cities in which Albigenses were known to re- side were devoted to destiniction. Beziers, Carcassone, and a number of other places were taken by storm, and the in- habitants put to the sword, without distinction of sex, or age, or rank. The forty days appointed were found far too brief a space for the direful work. The " crusade " lasted indeed as long as Albigenses or heretics of any name could be discovered in France. No fewer than a million of lives are said to have been sacrificed, and thousands who escaped the sword were compelled to flee from the homes of their childhood, and endure the horrors of poverty, with perhaps new forms of persecution in a foreign land. By this inhu- 232 LIVES OF THE POPES. man persecution of the followers of Christ, Rome gave ad- ditional proof that she bore the mark of Antichrist, being " drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Rev. xvii, 6. From the heretics, Pope Innocent turned to the infidels. His powerful mind was not slow to perceive the immense impulse which was given by crusading expeditions to the growth of superstition, and the vast influence thus accruing to the priesthood. Several crusades were accordingly un- dertaken by his instigation and aid. Indeed, every year of his pontificate witnessed a new emigration of fanatical ad- venturers, who hoped to purchase salvation by imperiling their lives in defense of the sepulcher and the cross. The popes never wanted a fit agent to serve as an incendiary for this object, and in the person of a repentant debauchee named Fulk, Innocent III. found a preacher of sufficient enthusiasm and energy to rouse the too torpid passions of the people. Imitating Peter and Bernard, this man trav- ersed the cities of Italy, France, and Germany, and suc- ceeded in engaging in the cause many of the second-rate princes, with vast masses of the lower orders. But just as the armament was on the point of receiving the Pope's blessing, and starting on its career, certain Greeks arrived in Italy, as delegates from the Greek emperor, entreating that the force might be employed in the first place to res- cue him from a dungeon into which he had been thrust by the treason and cruelty of a brother. Count Baldwin, of Flanders, who had assumed the office of general to the cru- saders, received the delegates with much favor ; for his ob- jects were plunder and military fame, quite as much as the honor of the cross. The offers of the Greek emperor were moreover very alluring ; for he pledged himself to support the crusading army and fleet for a whole year, and to reward them in addition with a gift of two hundred thousand silver marks. In a few days the entire expedition embarked for Constantinople. THE PAPACY UNDER INNOCENT III. 233 On hearing of its altered destination, tlie Pontiff was overcome with vexation and rage. In the height of his an- ger, he placed the whole crusade under excommunication, and forbade any other to join so impious a band. Reck- less, however, of his rage, the crusaders continued steadfast in their purpose, and after taking Constantinople, remained in the east of Europe for two years without one contest with the Mohammedan foe. The tale of this Greek war is a lamentable recital of cruelties, barbarism, bloodshed, and lust. The splendid architectural relics of the Roman em- pire were heedlessly defaced or destroyed, or at the least carried off as a part of the spoil. The tomb of the famed Justinian was broken open, and even his body stripped of its royal attire. The four bronze horses that now adorn the square of St. Mark in Venice, were part of the booty of this war ; and while the Italians plundered Constantinople of its wealth to enrich their own cities, the less polished crusaders from France broke statues of the finest marble into atoms, and melted down into money or utensils of base use the precious colossal bronzes that had been saved from the wreck of ancient Rome, and preserved in the new me- tropolis. But the atrocities of this war, although exercised against art, against humanity, even against his own interdict, were all mitigated in the eyes of the Pontiff by the amount of wealth and influence which it conferred on Italy, and chiefly on himself. His excommunication was soon with- drawn, and even his blessing solemnly pronounced. The real purpose of the expedition, however, had been entirely thwarted, and the crusaders of the Fifth Crusade returned to their homes richer rather than hoHer in the esteem of that superstitious generation. In the year 1212 the crusading mania had probably reached its height, and it was then that the almost incred- ible " Crusade of the Children" took place. Two hypo- critical priests, in league, it is said, with the Saracens, preach- ed throughout France that the Holy City would only be 234 LIVES OF THE POPES. given by God into the innocent hands of young children. Whether Innocent III. encouraged the wild design is not recorded, but he certainly applauded the enthusiasm which it kindled. *' These children," said he, '' are a reproach to us of riper age. While they hurry to the defense of Pal- estine, we are asleep." And if to be surpassed in the race of fanaticism can be a reproach, he spoke undeniable truth ; for these beardless warriors flocked in crowds from all parts of France, and both banks of the Rhine. A boy of Cologne, named Nicholas, undertook the leadership of seven thousand, and led them across the Alps to the walls of Genoa, when so many had perished by fatigue and hun- ger, that the remainder were persuaded to settle in that city, or else to return to their homes. But the fate of an- other army, amounting to about thirty thousand child i-cn, of both sexes, was much more calamitous and doleful. Two Marseillaise merchants, engaged by the wretclied priests who had stirred up this strange enthusiasm, invei- gled the youthful multitude to embark in ships which they had prepared for the purpose, and which steered, as soon as under way, not for the shores of Palestine, but to the coast of Africa. Some of these vessels were wrecked by a tempest, and the whole of their passengers were drowned ; but others reached the place of destination, and in accord- ance with the original design for which they had been en- trapped, the poor children, many of whom were of noble blood, were sold into perpetual slavery to the exulting Sar- acens. The disastrous results of these various enterprises had not yet, however, shaken the confidence of men in the goodness of the cause ; and so greatly had they contribu- ted to swell the authority of the popes in foreign lands, as well as to enrich their treasury, that Innocent III. now dared to assume supreme dominion over all countries what- soever ; and though former pontiffs had perhaps been equally arrogant in their pretensions, none had so successfully main- tained them. THE PAPACY UNDER INNOCENT III. 235 About the same time that Innocent ascended the papal throne, the imperial crown had passed to Frederic II., the infant grandson of the great Barbarossa. But neither was the young emperor able to assert his title, nor was the Pon- tiff inclined to wage war in his defense ; so that for the present Germany was embroiled in civil war by the con- tests of two pretenders, who sought and obtained, by turns, the countenance and sanction of the Pope. In 1215 Fred- eric, whose early life had been spent in Italy, under the guardianship of Innocent, was invited by his German sub- jects to assume the imperial crown ; and with the Pope's reluctant assent, he crossed the Alps for that purpose. His right was still disputed, and thus the divided state of Germany, combined with the regard which Frederic per- sonally felt for his guardian, caused the war-cry of Guelf and Ghibbeline to be unheard during Innocent's lifetime, and left him unassailed by the hereditary and most power- ful foe of papal pretensions. Enjoying such singular ad- vantages. Innocent well knew how to turn them to account. Almost immediately on assuming the tiara he had declared, with especial reference to sovereigns, that "it was not fit ^ that any man should be invested with authority who did not serve and obey the Holy See." On another occasion he asserted, that " as the sun and the moon are placed in ^ the firmament, the greater as the light of the day and the lesser of the night, so are there two powers in the Church, the 'pontifical^ which, as having the charge of souls, is the greater ; and the royal, which is the lesser, and to which only the bodies of men are intrusted." One of the earhest examples he gave of his resolution to enforce these lofty pretensions was his interference with the marriage of Phil- ippe Auguste, the King of France. That monarch, for some unknown cause, had divorced his wife, a Danish prin- cess. The act had received the express permission of Pope Celestine III. ; but, nevertheless, Innocent revoked the license, and insisted on the king's restoring the queen 236 LIVES OF THE POPES. to her conjugal rights. Philippe naturally demurred to this imperious judgment, but he was soon brought to teraas by the imposition of a terrible interdict. All the rites of religion were suspended — marriages were unsolemnized — the dead remained unburied. The French king was no coward, but he found it most compatible with prudence to bend before the storm, and he complied with the papal mandate. While he sturdily contended for mastery with the chief potentate of Europe, this haughty Pope was condescending and patronizing to those of inferior note. Three vassal lords had made themselves wholly independent of their feudal chiefs, and on these the Pontiff graciously conferred the title and insignia of royalty. These princes of pontifical manu- facture were Primislaus, Duke of Bohemia ; John, Duke of Bulgaria and Wallachia ; and Peter II., of Aragon. But the most despotic act of Innocent's whole pontificate was, undoubtedly, his claim of fealty from King John, the weak and wicked monarch of England. John's eflfeminacy had already excited the ambitious hopes of the French king, who looked with hungry eyes on the English estates in Normandy ; and his cruelty had sown broadcast the seeds of rebellion among his baronial vassals, when his pride brought him into collision with the subtile and determined Pope. The archbishopric of Canterbury had become vacant, and John had nominated one of his favorites to the see, and sent him to Rome to receive the Pontiff's confirmation of the gift. But Innocent chose to elevate another to the post, and Stephen Langton, the object of his choice, was obediently recognized by the Canterbury chapter as the canonically-appointed archbishop. The king's wrath was unbounded. He immediately dispatched an armed band to drive the monks from their home, and expel them from the land. Entering the cloisters with drawn swords, these knights exclaimed, '^ Begone, you traitors, or we will set fire to these walls, and burn you and your convent together.'* THE PAPACY UNDER INNOCENT III. 237 All that were not too infirm fled into Flanders, and their effects were confiscated to the crown. For this outrage, Pope Innocent determined to receive the most ample satisfaction. He threatened to lay the kingdom under interdict if John persisted in refusing his demands. The interdict was in fact imposed, and it continued a whole year without reduc- ing the king to submission. The deadliest thunder-bolt of all was then hurled from the papal arsenal. In 1213, Innocent pronounced sentence of deposition on John, and formally handed over his king- dom to Philippe, the French king, with the promise of full remission of his sins, if he should succeed by the valor of his arms in rescuing the British islands from the infidel hands of their sovereign. Philippe hardly needed any other incentive than what his own ambition supplied, and he soon raised a considerable army to invade the English shores. But now John's obstinate spirit discovered its innate cowardice, and he earnestly craved a reconciliation with the Pope. A legate, named Pandulph, was accordingly sent, and by him a treaty was drawn up, and a pubhc ceremony contrived, as creditable to his own astuteness, as they were both degrading to the honor of the Enghsh king. The scene of papal triumph took place in the church of the Templars, at Dover. There John, surrounded by his nobles, bent humbly on his knees before the legate, and took the same oath of fealty to the Pope as vassals always took to their lords. He then placed in Pandulph's hands a charter, by which he surrendered to the Pontiff the king- doms of England and Ireland, and engaged to hold them forever as fiefs of the Holy See. He further promised an annual tribute of a thousand silver marks. As a token of his sincerity, he then placed the royal crown in the legate's hands, together with a sum of money. Pandulph con- temptuously trampled the gold beneath his feet, and after re- tainins: the diadem for a few minutes, returned it with an air of condescension. Great was the rejoicing of the priesthood ^ H- V 238 LIVES OF THE POPES. at this scene, so humiliating to all temporal sovereigns, and so glorious, as they esteemed it, to their spiritual head. This was one of the last, as it was certainly one of the greatest, of the proud Innocent's triumphs. He died in 1216. In this brief account of his life, it has been neces- sary to omit many, and to touch lightly upon all the events of his remarkable career. His efforts were not much less laborious or successful to control the priesthood and bring them under complete subjection to the Pope, and to curb the pride and power of monarchs and nobles. It was Inno- cent who imposed the first tax upon ecclesiastics, which re- ceived the name of the Saladin tax, because it was levied under pretence of furnishing the means for a great crusade, when that renowned warrior, Saladin, held Jerusalem under his power. It was Innocent who first dared to set aside the bishop elected by a chapter for a nominee of his own, as in the case of Stephen Langton. It was Innocent who first dispensed with canonical usages in cases of marriage and divorce, superseding them by special rules of his own. And it was Innocent who first authorized the digestion of all former papal bulls and letters, receipts and synodal de- crees, into a regular code, which henceforth was known by the name of the Canon Law. So that from the days of Innocent III. we must date the most prosperous period of papal Rome, and the establishment of that wide-spread tyranny by which the papacy has kept in base thraldom the intellects and the souls of men. THE MENDICANT ORDERS. 239 CHAPTER XII. THE MENDICANT ORDERS : ST. DOMINIC AND ST. FRANCIS PAPAL POMP GUELF AND GHIBBELINE. A. D. 1216-1254:. Innocent's sun had gone down in splendor, and the radiance gilded the rising of his successor, Honorius III. In the last months of his life. Innocent had convened a general assembly of the clergy, and the Fourth Lateran Council was so magnificently attended, as to attest the universal homage or fear which was felt toward the Pontiff. All the prin- cipal monarchs of Europe were represented there ; and many of the inferior princes attended in person. The Patriarch of Constantinople, for the first time since the schism, joined his brethren of the west, brought, however, much more by the policy of his sovereign than by a spirit of reconciliation ; the Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem were also present, with more than four hundred bishops and eight hundred abbots and priors ; and of the inferior clergy, such a multi- tude that they could not possibly be numbered. By this assembly the doctrine of transubstantiation was for the first time authoritatively fixed as the orthodox doctrine of the Church ; and every subordinate question being settled, a decree was ordained that all Europe should once more hasten to the rescue of the Holy Land, and a sixth crusade be forthwith commenced. Honorius announced, the very day following his election, that the death of Innocent would by no means affect the plans of the pontifical government. He accordingly gave orders for the crusade to be immediately preached through- out Germany, Hungary, and the adjacent countries. A cardinal, Robert de Cour^on, accepted the post of inflaming the minds of the people, and though far inferior to Bernard in genius^ and to Peter the Hermit in enthusiasm, he met 240 LIVES OF THE POPES. with considerable success in France, Austria, and Hungary. Women and children, the old, the blind, and lame, as well as warriors of stalwart frame, flocked to his standard, while the wealthy contributed money, and Philippe Auguste gave the fortieth-part of his entire annual revenue. The crusaders had now learned by experience that a voyage to Palestine was less perilous than a march, and as soon as the vast multitude could be embarked, they set sail for Cy- prus, and then for Ptolemais, the modern St. Jean d'Acre. In 1220, the Emperor Frederic II. having seated himself ^ firmly on his throne, resolved on visiting Italy, and receiving in ancient form the papal coronation. Honorius, however, exhibited great reluctance to comply with Frederic's desire. The emperor, he thought, was too independent and ambi- tious, and he jealously wished to guard against his becom- ing more powerful. But on Frederic's engaging to favor the cause of the crusades, and even to raise an army for the purpose in his German dominions, Honorius yielded, and the emperor had the satisfaction of being crowned in the metropolis of Christendom. His promise respecting the crusade Frederic faithfully kept, but the result was disap- pointing, if not to himself at least to the Pope, for the army he had gathered was destroyed by a raging pestilence be- fore the troops had time to quit their native land. But by far the most important event of this pontificate was the establishment of the Mendicant orders, or the begging friars of St. Dominic and St. Francis. This insti- tution appears to have originated in some spirit of reform. The clergy's wealth and depravity caused them, of course, to neglect their spiritual functions. Man cannot be without the forms of religion ; and the purpose of the founders of these new orders was to supply to the people the rites of religion which their professed pastors neglected to minis- ter. By the fierce Dominic, (who was one of the six inquisi- tors appointed by Innocent III.,) and by the enthusiastic, but almost insane Francis, the corruptness of the clergy and THE MENDICANT ORDERS. 241 the monks was deemed the sole cause of the irreligion of the times. They, therefore, established with the Pope's permission new orders of monks, to whom it should be ex- pressly forbidden to accumulate property, and whose whole livelihood was to depend on the alms of the faithful. The begging friars soon became, indeed, as corrupt as the rest ; but while this shows the great mistake in judgment com- mitted by Dominic and Francis, it does not impeach their motives. The virtue of courage in preaching their doc- trines these men undoubtedly possessed. Impelled by a hardly rational zeal, Francis went on a mission to the Mus- sulmans of Egypt, and gaining access to the presence of the Soldan, exhorted that fierce tyrant to become a Christian. His death was occasioned by his severe self-mortification, and after his death five wounds were found on his body, which he had himself inflicted, in imitation of the wounds left by the nails of the cross on the person of our Saviour. Of Dominic also, Dante says, that he was devoted to Christ's service by his mother : — " She was inspired to name him of his Owner, Whose he was wholly ; and so called him Dominic. The loving minion of a Christian faith, The hallowed wrestler, gentle to his own, And to his enemies terrible. " " ''-* Forth on his great apostleship he fared, Like torrent bursting from a lofty vein ; And dashing 'gainst the stocks of heresy. Smote fiercest where resistance was most stout." Par., Cant. xii. The new order of preachers soon became popular. Their attire was mean, and a cord encircled their waist to denote the subjection in which they kept their bodies. Traveling from place to place, they preached in the public streets, and administered the communion from a portable altar. Their denunciations of the secular clergy made their ser- mons the more palatable to the people, who, blinded as they were by superstition, could not escape seeing the 11 242 LIVES OF THE POPES. ridiculous opposition between the professions and the prac- tice of their priests. In a few years, the begging friars were welcomed to every hearth, and while the parish churches were well-nigh deserted, crowds hung on the lips of these rude instructors. Gregory IX. succeeded Honorius in 1227. He was a re- lation of Innocent III., and inherited all that Pontiff's pride. In an account given by a cotemporary of the life of this Pope, there is a description of the pomp and ceremonial of his inauguration, that well illustrates the degree of gran- deur and state assumed by the " Sovereign Pontiffs " of the thirteenth century. After robing himself in the pallium and other robes of his office, he said mass at St. Peter's, and then marched at the head of a long train of prelates to the palace of the Lateran, all glittering with gold and jew- els. On the following Easter Sunday he celebrated mass at Santa Maria Maggiore, and returned with a crown on his head. On Monday, having said mass at St. Peter's, he assumed a double crown, mounted a richly-caparisoned horse, and, surrounded by the cardinals in their purple vestments, paraded the city. The streets were spread with rich tapestry, brocaded with gold and silver, the most gor- geous productions of the Indian and Egyptian looms, and so highly scented as to perfume the air. The people chanted hymns, and their songs were accompanied by the sound of trumpets. The judges and officers shone in gilded robes and silken caps. A countless multitude in procession carried palm branches and flowers, and the Greeks and Jews celebrated the Pope's praise, each in his own tongue. On one side of his horse, and holding his bridle, walked the Senator of Rome ; on the other side, the Prefect dis- charged the same office. And thus was he conducted to the palace of the Lateran. Between this Pope and the Emperor Frederic II. there was perpetual enmity. Soon after his accession, the Pon- tiff urged Frederic to ' fulfill his promise of aiding in the THE MENDICANT ORDERS. 243 crusades. The emperor renewed his promise, but was pre- vented from speedy action by an attack of illness. Not improbably, also, he was adverse to the task. The hasty Pope, discrediting the story of his illness, anathematized him as a traitor to the Church. The emperor felt it no longer needful to dissemble that hatred to the papacy which he had always secretly cherished. "This blood- sucker," said he, " deceives with her honeyed words. She sends her ambassadors, wolves in sheep's clothing, to every land, not to sow the word of God, but to fetter liberty, to disturb peace, and to extort gold." And to give sensible effect to his animosity, he caused his emissaries to stir up such a sedition in Rome that Gregory was obliged to flee. The papal historians retahate on the German monarch for his hard words about the Pope, by charging him with tyran- nical cruelty, and even with such barbarity as putting his captives to death by inclosing them in leaden shrouds in which they were horribly burned. Even Dante gives cur- rency to this story. Describing the Hypocrites who are groaning out their never-ending sufferings in the sixth chasm of hell, he says " Cloaks had they on — " " '-^ '■'' Outside, -with dazzling gold they glitter'd bright, Inside, with ponderous lead were they so lined That Frederic's cloaks compared to them were light." Infern., Cant, xxiii. But Dante revered the papacy while he hated the popes. In 1228 the emperor performed his promise, and a large ex- pedition of Germans set sail for Egypt, which had become the chief point of attack with crusaders, as being the head- quarters of Saracenic strength. Gregory had now an oppor- tunity of discovering if the rescue of the Holy Land were really so dear to his soul as he ostentatiously professed. Had he been sincere he would doubtless have released the em- peror from the excommunication he had pronounced. But so fierce was his personal hostility to Frederic, that he now .i 244 LIVES OF THE POPES. actually repeated the sentence, and included the whole army that had followed him to the east. He further sent messages to the Patriarch of Jerusalem not to hold commu- nion with the anathematized emperor. And although Fred- eric succeeded in his enterprise, and triumphantly placed the crown of Jerusalem on his own head, the only reward which the Pope's servile vassals would bestow on their de- liverer were ungrateful insults, and intrigues against his life. During the emperor's absence Italy was distracted by continual conflicts between his adherents and those of the Pope. The cities of northern Italy now began to range themselves under the hostile banners. Milan was inhabited by Guelfs, Pisa by Ghibbelines, and many of the cities, like Florence, were divided against themselves. In such places the rancor of party strife was exasperated by personal ani- mosity. On Frederic's return from the east, his veteran soldiers poured down the Alps into Lombardy, and quickly established his preeminence in the north and south. The city of Rome itself was closely invested by the imperial forces when Gregory died, in 1241, at the advanced age of ninety. Celestine IV. died within a few days of his election, and was followed by the cardinal Sinibaldo, who was chosen by the cardinals in the hope of concihating the emperor, because he had formerly been his friend. Sinibaldo assumed the title of Innocent IV. The very name which he selected, however, seemed to indicate a spirit of enmity to imperial rule ; and when Frederic was congratulated on the choice that had been made, he shook his head and observed, " Instead of remaining my friend, he will become my ene- my. No pope can be a Ghibbehne." Nor was the empe- ror deceived. Innocent soon showed himself his implacable foe ; for, escaping to Lyons, he there summoned his cardi- nals around him, and renewed the anathemas pronounced upon the emperor by Gregory in yet severer terms. The assembled prelates turned their torches and candles toward the ground and extinguished them, while Innocent ex- THE MENDICANT ORDERS. 245 claimed, "So may the emperor's glory and prosperity vanish forever !" It was at this Council of Lyons that the Pope first conferred the red habit on the cardinals, as a sign that it was ever their duty to shed their blood in de- fense of the Church. At this council, also, Innocent solemnly pronounced Frederic to be deposed from his throne, and another was nominated in his place. But this farce produced no other effect than that of invoh^ng Italy and Germany in quarrels and bloodshed during the whole life of the reigning empe- ror. Frederic continued to be acknowledged by all the sovereigns of Europe, and when the news was brought him of the Pope's extreme sentence, he scornfully bade all his crowns to be placed before him, and then exclaimed, " I still possess them all, and no pope shall deprive me of them." The Pope's hostility was, however, sufficiently potent to add vehemence to the strife between Guelf and Ghibbeline ; and Frederic's life was worn out in the fatigues and reverses of a military life, until death ended his earthly troubles in 1250. When Innocent received the welcome tidings of the emperor's death his joy knew no bounds. " Let the heav- ens rejoice, and let the earth be glad," were his words to the clergy of Sicily, "for the tempest and the thunder which have so long threatened your heads are changed by the death of that man into refreshing breezes and fertilizing dews." The death of Frederic had removed the chief obstacle to Innocent's ambition. He forthwith prepared to bring into subjection the whole south of Italy ; nor did he cease until he had seized upon Naples, and compelled Manfred, the son of Frederic, and the real heir to the throne, to lead his horse by the bridle as he crossed the Garigliano. But this Pontiff's aspiring course was cut short by death in 1254, and he expired in the well-grounded conviction that he died the most powerful prince who had ever filled " the throne of St. Pet^r." 246 LIVES OF THE POPES. CHAPTER XIII. POLITICAL AMBITION OF THE PAPACY THE POPE RANKED AMONG- EUROPEAN SOVEREIGNS. A. D. 1254-1281. It is evident that the main object of papal cupidity had quite changed since the days of Gregory VII. It was his chief aim to free the Church from the domination of a sec- ular power ; and he and his immediate successors were not imwilling to sacrifice mere temporal estates in order to gain this paramount end. Their object was to establish the spiritual supremacy of the Pope. But the crusades had fully accomplished this end ; and the quarrels of Inno- cent IV. were the fruits not of spiritual, but of temporal ambition. It was no longer the Church of Rome, but the court of Rome, that sought to establish and increase its do- minion. And with such a perfect disregard of all Christian or even moral obligations did Innocent pursue this end, that the expressions of the Sultan of Egypt in reply to a letter of Innocent's seem fully justified : *' We have received your epistle, and hstened to your envoy. He has spoken to us of Jesus Christ, whom we know better than you know, and whom we honor more than you honor .'" Surely the osten- tatious "vicar of Christ upon earth" must have blushed as he perused this rebuke of the Mussulman chief ! Alexander IV., the next occupant of the papal throne, was a man of like disposition with Innocent, but without his abilities. His whole pontificate was a scene of turbu- lence. The Lombard cities had been for some years perse- cuted by Eccelino, a powerful noble of the Ghibbehne party. The atrocious cruelties of this tyrant rendered his name a by-word in Italy for many generations. The citi- zens of Rome had sought to protect themselves from such usurpations, which now began to grow common with the overgrown baronial chieftains, by committing the govern - POLITICAL AMBITION OF THE PAPACY. 247 ment of their city to a noble of another city, (not being able to trust their own,) who was styled Senator of Rome, and inherited the powers which had formerly been vested in the senate. The senator at the time was Brancaleone, a virtuous Bolognese noble, who was so resolute in the en- forcement of order, that he razed to the ground no fewer than one hundred and forty citadels within the walls of Rome, which were occupied by ringleaders of sedition. He even exercised his authority against the Pontiflf himself, by compelling him to dwell quietly within the proper lim- its of his see. It was thus that in the ambition of the feu- dal lords, and the still more aspiring spirit of the popes, those factions originated in northern Italy which paved the way for the fall of the numerous free republics that had preserved their liberties, under nominal subjection to the emperor, for several centuries. But the chief transaction of Alexander's pontificate was his attempt to repeat the subjugation of Naples and Sicily to the papal yoke. To eflfect this he waged war almost incessantly with Manfred, the reigning prince, but was eventually defeated by that noble's courage and warlike skill. On the whole Alexander added nothing to the power or dignity of the papal office, while the corruptness of the clergy steadily increased. He died in 1257. The rapidly-growing power of Manfred greatly alarmed the Guelfic party, and led them to look to France for suc- cor. Louis IX., now the king of that country, was so de- voted to the interests of the Church that he has been can- onized as a saint, and it was not unreasonable to expect that so faithful an auxiliary would render efficient help in the present emergency. It was probably with a view of increasing the sympathy of France for the prosperity of the papal power that the Patriarch of Jerusalem, a French- man by birth, was now elected to the pontifical dignity. The new Pontiflf, Urban IV., well understandm^^he grounds of his elevation, commenced his reign by undis- 248 LIVES OF THE POPES. guised acts of hostility toward the quarter from which dan- ger was apprehended. He first of all summoned Manfred of Naples to appear before his tribunal, to answer for the many crimes with which he stood charged. Upon Man- fred's refusal, the Pope next excommunicated him, and then wrote to the French court, desiring assistance to com- pel " this usurper " to descend from the throne. To make the temptation irresistible, he solemnly pronounced sentence of deposition on Manfred, and conferred the crown upon Charles of Anjou, brother of the French king, on condition of his undertaking the expedition. On this palpably unjust and unwarrantable procedure of the Pontiff's did the house of Anjou base their claim to the Neapolitan crown ; and in defense of such a shadowy title was Italy tormented by many French invasions, and repeatedly deluged with the blood of her bravest sons. But while Charles of Anjou was making preparations for the mvasion of Naples Pope Urban died. Yet, that the plans of his pontificate might be steadily followed up, the conclave elected another Frenchman in his room, who as- sumed the title of Clement IV. Soon after the new elec- tion Charles of Anjou entered Italy, and on passing through Rome was cordially welcomed by the Pontiff, who crowned him in St. Peter's as King of the Sicihes. The question between Charles and Manfred was decided a few weeks later at the battle of Grandella, near Benevento, when Man- fred defended his cause with the noblest valor, but finding the day going against him, threw himself at last despair- ingly into the thickest of the fray, and quickly fell covered with wounds. Charles, with the bigotry and cruelty char- acteristic of his nature, refused the dead warrior an honor- able burial, on the pretence of heresy ; but his humaner sol- diers, touched by the gallantry and beauty of their fallen foe, cast each of them a stone upon his body, which was, by this means, buried beneath a hillock, still known by the natives ais The Rock of Roses. The cold-hearted Pope, POLITICAL AMBITION OF THE PAPACY. 249 however, sternly bade the Bishop of Cosenza to exhume the body, because it was laid in Church land; and so Dante makes the shade of Manfred exclaim : — •' Cosenza's shepherd, by Pope Clement sent To hunt me down, — had he but read aright The Holy Scriptures, for his guidance lent, My bones had still their former bed possessed, Near Benevento, at the bridge's head ; And, guarded by the mound, had been at rest." Purg., Cant. iii. In the wars which Charles was obliged to wage perpet- ually, in order to retain possession of his ill-gotten territory, he received constant aid from Clement IV., who has left behind him a disgraceful name for worldly ambition and wanton cruelty. His last act was one of his worst ; it was to countenance the Neapolitan king in his sanguinary treat- ment of the Emperor Conradin, Barbarossa's last descend- ant, who was captured when asserting in battle his right to the crown of the Sicilies. He was dragged by his blood- thirsty victor to the market-place of Naples, and there be- headed on a scafifold as a traitor to the realm. Conradin was so youthful that his fate excited the pity of even the French soldiers who had taken him ; and when the touch- ing cry escaped him — " 0, my mother, how dreadful is the grief that awaits thee for my fate!" a shout of indigna- tion arose from the crowd of spectators. But the tyrant's vindictive spirit was not to be mollified, and the emperor's wife, sister, and children, with nearly all the Ghibbehnes that could be seized, shared his unhappy fate. It may be hoped that the statement is true, that Clement felt so much remorse for the part he had borne in this outrageous crime that his end was greatly hastened by sorrow. Thus terminated the long struggle between the popes and the emperors, which, commenced by Hildebrand and Henry IV., had continued, with scarcely an intermission, for more than two centuries. The Pope had gained a com- 11* 250 LIVES OF THE POPES. * plete victory. Aided much by that devotion to papal au- thority which the crusades had generally diffused, but much more by the intestine divisions of the empire, arising naturally from the feudal system, the pontiffs had at length triumphantly succeeded in trampling under foot the success- ors of Charlemagne. Henceforth Germany was no longer united under a single head. "Emperors," indeed, there were, but the empire had ceased to exist, and the German rulers became mere puppets of the Pope. To avert the danger of one prince in Germany rising to predominant power, these princes all consented to accept the Pontiff's nominee, and style him emperor, that so no real monarch might control or thwart them in following their own ambi- tious aims. By the death of Clement IV. a vacancy was created not easily supplied. The mutual jealousy of the conclave, every member of which now aspired to the tiara, occa- sioned a contest which lasted for nearly three years ; but at length, in 1272, they agreed to elect Theobald, a native of Placenza, who assumed the title of Gregory X. The new Pontiff had recently returned from the Holy Land ; in- deed at the time of his election he was yet absent, and he so deeply sympathized with the oppression endured by the Christian inhabitants of that country, that his first effort, was to excite once more a crusade in their defense. His earnestness in the cause alone gave him success, for the motives of the popes in stirring up a crusading spirit now began to be better understood, so clearly had these expe- ditions brought advantage and emolument only to them. But Gregory's evident sincerity attached some value to ar- guments intrinsically worthless. His impassioned appeals to the European monarchs prevailed, and the kings of France, England, Aragon, and Sicily, agreed to engage in the enterprise. A more active, because a more interested ally, was Rudolf, the new emperor, who offered to com- mand the expedition. Rudolf, although only a petty count POLITICAL AMBITION OF THE PAPACY. 251 and mere military adventurer, had been raised to the impe- rial throne by the mutual consent of the Pope and the barons of Germany, partly because of his warlike habits, which insured his sturdy opposition to the ambition of other Gei-man princes, and partly because, as a hearty Guelf, he was a safe instrument for the Pope. He had agreed, if elected, to yield unconditional obedience to the Roman See, to renounce all claim upon Italy, and to enter into alliance with the house of Anjou. And that he might further be deprived of any pretext for a visit to Rome, Gregory hastened in person to Lausanne, and there, re- ceiving the rich prize of an emperor's homage, bestowed upon him the far cheaper benedictions of the Church. During Gregory's pontificate, a council was held in the city of Lyons, in which the Pope's first object was to for- ward his projected cnisad^. He also enacted various de- crees for regulating the election of bishops, for the man- agement of the lower ranks of the clergy, and for check- ing the growth of the mendicant orders, which already be- gan to displa}^ an unnily and turbulent spirit. But the most remarkable decree of this council was that for the proper election of popes, by which it was ordained that the cardinals should be shut up in one chamber, which they were not to leave until their choice was finally made. If in three days tliey had not arrived at a decision, their food was to be limited to a single dish at each meal, and, after the fifteenth day, they were to receive nothing but bread, wine, and water. These regulations have continued, with but slight modifications, to the present day, and have proved so efficacious, that for nearly six hundred years there have been but few instances of a long-disputed election. In returning from this council, Gregory passed through the cities of Tuscany, and anxious that no domestic dissen- sions should interfere with this darling project of uniting all parties in another crusade, he spared no pains to har- monize the fierce strifes between Guelf s and Ghibbelines, 252 LIVES OF THE POPES. whicli in every part of Northern Italy grew more intensely bitter, now that the unquestionable triumph of the Pope caused them to assume a local rather than a political char- acter. In this good design, however, he met with but in- different success. The passions which had been constantly fed with fresh fuel for successive generations, were not to be quenched in a day. Florence feigned submission, and then immediately renewed its quarrels, for which the indig- nant Pontiff laid it under an interdict. But Gregory himself gave a singular proof soon afterward of the levity with which the papal censures were now employed. Being com- pelled to cross the Arno by the bridge of Florence, he re- stored his benediction to the city while he traveled through it, and excommunicated it again as soon as he had passed the gates ; " because," says the historian, " it was not de- cent for a Pope to pass through a city under interdict." The preparations for Gregory's crusade were all complete ; but *' before one galley had departed, or, perhaps, one soldier embarked," the Pontiff fell sick and died. " From that moment," says Sismondi, " the kings into whom he had inspired his enthusiasm renounced their chivalrous proj- ects ; the Greeks returned to their schisms, and the Catho- lics, divided afresh, turned against each other those arms which they had consecrated to the deliverance of Pales- tine." Innocent V. succeeded Gregory, but died immediately after his consecration. Adrian V., his successor, died be- fore that ceremony could be performed ; and John XXI., who followed next, was killed about three months after his election by the falling in of the roof of his apartment. Nicholas III. is, therefore, the next Pontiff of whose life we have anything to record. He ascended the throne in 1211, and, short as was his reign, proved, by his consum- mate artifice and policy, that he was well quahfied for a post which was now become notorious for the grasping am- bition and unscrupulous craftiness of its occupants. The POLITICAL AMBITION OF THE PAPACY. 253 tyrant of Naples, Charles of Anjou, had been promoted to that crown in the hope of his continuing a staunch defender of the Church. The same expectation had led to his being appointed vicar-general of the Roman See. But the unbounded rapaciousness of that prince developed itself anew as new opportunities arose, and he now laid claim to the government of Tuscany and Lombardy, as protector of the estates belonging to the Church. Nicholas, how- ever, with the most refined diplomacy, played off the Em- peror Rudolf against Chai-les, and then Charles against the Emperor. He incited Rudolf to threaten an invasion of Italy, to recover to imiyerial rule the ancient fiefs of the empire on the south of the Alps, taking care to make him first of all promise to restore to the Church all the lands which had been bequeathed to her from the days of Con- stantine the Great to those of the Countess Matilda. Then, while the Neapolitan king trembled at the threatened ven- geance, the wily Pontiff engaged to avert it on condition of Charles's renouncing his claims upon any part of Italy lying north of the boundaries of Naples. It was, therefore, by this cunning and fraudulent procedure that the popes be- came enrolled among the sovereigns of Europe ; for, until the time of Nicholas III., the Pontiff had always been in the anomalous position of a titular monarch without a fixed territory — of a ruler without any defined population of subjects whom he might indisputably claim to rule. The brief reign of Nicholas III. thus becomes an import- ant epoch in the history of the papacy. It lasted hardly three years, but he contrived in so short a period to place the popedom on that lofty eminence to which it had al- ways aspired ; and, at the same time, and by the same step, to prepare the way for its future decline. For no sooner had the Pope taken his place among ordinary sov- ereigns, than he began to lose that moral power which he had formerly exercised over all who professed the Chris- tian faith. Christ's sole vicar upon earth, and the great 254 LIVES OF THE POPES. head of the universal Church, gradually sank in general es- teem, till he came to be regarded as merely the second-rate sovereign of a petty Italian State. CHAPTER XIV. THE PAPACY CULMINATES AND DECLINES UNDER POPE BONIFACE VIII. A. D. 1281-1303. To Nicholas succeeded Martin IV., whose pontificate is made revoltingly memorable by the tragical event known in history as the " Sicilian Vespers." The cruelty of Charles of Anjou had provoked among the Sicihans a spirit of deadly revenge, which broke out at last in the most aw- ful of all forms. On the evening of Easter Monday, 1282, while the citizens of Palermo were moving m procession to hear the vesper service, a young maiden of rank and beauty was insulted by one of Charles's French soldiers. The Sicilians seized the moment of excitement to avenge them- selves for all former provocations. While the vesper-bell was yet tolling, a massacre of the French began, which did not cease in Palermo till every Frenchman had been slaughtered ; and, spreading from that city to the rest of the island, included among its victims no fewer than eight thousand, before the demon of revenge was satiated with blood. Of Martin himself it is enough to know that he was a confederate and ally of the execrable Charles, and that he bore such inveterate enmity to the German nation, that he did not hesitate to say openly that " he wished Germany were a pond full of fish, and he a pike, that he might swal- low them all !" Such was now the spirit of the men who still blasphemously dared to call themselves " Christ's ^^cars upon earth." O sacred name of the meek and lowly Jesus, how hast thou been abused ! HoNORius IV, and Nicholas IV. were neither of them THE PAPACY CULMINATES A^'D DECLINES. 255 extraordinary men, nor did their pontificates produce any- very remarkable events. The one reigned only three, and the other but four years ; for the popedom had now be- come so rich a prize that old age and decrepitude were re- garded by the conclave as the most desirable qualifications for the post. None but the most aged were elected, with a view of shortly renewing the election. Celestine V., however, who wore the tiara during the year 1294, is worthy of some notice, not indeed for the events of his brief reign, but for the singularity of his character. The cardinals had been for some time divided respecting the choice of a successor to Nicholas lY., when one of their number announced that Peter, the hermit of Murrone, had received a solemn revelation from heaven, while bowing at midnight before the altar, announcing that some awful ca- lamity would happen unless their election was made within the four following months. The mention of the hermit's name introduced a discussion of his character. His auster- ity and self-denying manner of life, his numerous virtues, and his fame for miraculous powers, were all recounted. At length, notwithstanding the mocking sneers of Benedict of Gaeta, the cardinals resolved that no better pontiflF could be found than Pietro da Murrone. The deputation who waited upon him abandoned their steeds at the town of Sulmone, and commenced on foot their ascent of the moun- tain MuiTone, on the side of which the hermit's solitaiy abode was fixed. The path was rugged, the scene deso- late and bleak. The embassy foimd Peter in his cell, a natural cave in the hill-side, and not being allowed to enter, communicated their business throug^h an iron-latticed win- dow. The old man listened in astonishment. His wan and furrowed countenance flushed strangely at the news, and his emaciated frame trembled violently, and at last sunk upon the flooring of his cave. After spending a few mo- ments in prayer, he replied, " I accept the pontificate : I dare not resist the will of God, or be wanting to the Church 256 LIVES OF THE POPES. in her necessity." He then hastened to quit his cell, and shortly afterward descended the lonely mountain where he had dwelt so many years, riding on an ass, the bridle being held by two princes — the kings of Sicily and Hungary. Arrived at Rome, he was greeted by the conclave, and assumed the title of Celestine V. But this transition from a cell to a palace, from solitude to the active business of the pontificate, was too sudden and too vast a change for Celestine's intellect to bear. Natu- rally of weak understanding, wholly uncultivated by study, and as simple as a child in the manners of the world, he became the butt of Roman ridicule, instead of an object of veneration and homage. His simplicity tempted and re- warded deception, and he was guilty of the most extraor- dinary errors in the discharge of his easiest duties. Under the subtile influence of the Sicilian king, he took up his abode at Naples in preference to Rome, and it was a natu- ral complaint of the Romans that he should prefer bemg entertained as a guest to reigning as a monarch. And when, at length, at Charles of Anjou's request, Celestine added seven Frenchmen at once to the college of cardinals, the murmurs of the priesthood could no longer be restrained, and they gave open expression to their displeasure. To Celestine himself the honors of the popedom had been only a grievous burden, and its business an irksome task. He sighed for the quiet solitude of his hermitage, and even had a cell constructed in the midst of his palace, whither he might occasionally retire for meditation and prayer ; so that he was quite prepared for the suggestion of the Cardinal Benedict of Gaeta, that he had better resign a post for which he was so obviously unfitted. With far greater joy did he relinquish the tiara than he had felt in assuming it, and after only five months of power he quitted the papal throne, to spend the remainder of his days in his beloved solitude. But grateful as the resignation of Celestine was to the THE PAPACY CULMINATES AND DECLINES. 257 cardinals, it was regarded as shameful by all who thought the spiritual duties of the popedom of more consequence than its temporal advantages, and its honor of greater mo- ment than its emoluments. Dante has indignantly placed the recreant Celestine in his imaginary hell among the spirits who, stung by wasps and hornets, are condemned to follow forever, in giddy whirl, the movements of an incessantly revolving flag — « o o o tt When some of these I recognized, I saw And knew the shade of him who to base fear Yielding, abjured his high estate." Infern., Cant. iii. The persuasions of Benedict of Gaeta had not been dis- interested. In fact, he had only removed Celestine to make way for himself, and he now ascended the papal throne with the title of Boniface YIII. In him the spirit of Gregory YII. and of Innocent III. hved once again. Arrogant and auda- cious as either, he was more selfish and avaricious than both. He was just the man to strain the pretensions of the papacy beyond all endurable limits ; and this he so eflfectually ac- complished, that it is from the days of Boniface VIII. that we trace the gradual decay of the papal power. Boniface commenced his pontificate by asserting his right to adjudi- cate in all matters whatsoever in every part of the world. Albert, of Austria, had slain his competitors for the impe- rial crown, and thereupon sent to the Pope for the custom- ary confirmation. Boniface replied to the messenger by putting the crown upon his head, and exclaiming, "It is I who am Caesar — it is I who am emperor !" And from that time it became usual for the pontiflFs to wear a double crown, indicating their temporal as well as spiritual supremacy, until the conceit of a later pope added a third diadem to the bauble. There seemed literally no limits to the arrogance of Boni- face. As if he were more than human, he pretended to give and take away crowns and scepters by the mere ex- 258 LIVES OF THE POPES. pression of Lis ■will. Sardinia and Corsica he bestowed on James of Aragon ; Hungary, on the grandson of Charles of Anjou. The crown of Scotland he asserted to be his, and imperiously ordered the English conqueror of that coun- try, Edward I., to withdraw his troops. These ridiculous pretensions were fruitful indeed only of discord ; but they show to what a degree this Pope was prepared to indulge his monstrous appetite for power. On the decline of the empire, the French monarch had found himself by far the most potent in Europe ; and Philip the Fair, who now occupied the throne, was not disposed to submit to the offensive dictation and absurd claims set up by Pope Boniface YIII. The jealousies of these two men soon led to a quarrel, the results of which secured to the French nation some lasting protection from the encroach- ments of the Pope, and at the same time discovered to the world the essential weakness of the papacy, notwithstand- ing its boastful and swaggering demeanor. This quaiTel prepared the way for a series of struggles, which eventually brought about the great Reformation. Boniface had heard that the king had levied taxes on the clergy of his realm, as well as on the laity — an act which the Pope regarded as a presumptuous infringement of his rights. He therefore pronounced sentence of excommunication upon all who should afterward exact such impositions, and even against all who should pay them. To this bull Philip replied by an edict forbidding the export of any money or jewels from France, thereby preventing the Pope from obtaining the tribute which the French clergy were in the habit of sending. It was, probably, through lack of supplies, owing to this edict, that Boniface invented a new method of replenishing the papal exchequer. The year 1300 was at hand, and Boniface bethought him that the plenary indulgences which had formerly been bestowed on crusaders might, now that the crusading spirit was wholly extinct, be conferred, with great profit to himself, on all who should, once in a hundred THE PAPACY CULMINATES AND DECLINES. 259 years, make a pilgrimage to Rome. The jubilee was there- fore proclaimed. So great was the success of this ingenious conception, that no fewer than two hundred thousand foreigners were estimated to be in the city at one time, by an eye-witness of the scene ; and as many as two millions were said to have visited Rome in the course of the year. The oflferings of so many superstitiously devout strangers at the various shrines of the city were so large a source of revenue, that we need not be surprised that the jubilee came ultimately to be celebrated every twenty-fifth year. The only wonder is, that the fertile invention of the pon- tifical genius did not discover some excellent reason for re- newing it yet oftener. In 1301 the French king took another step which offended the Pope, who regarded it as a slight, if not an insult to himself. A bishop had committed treason, and had therefore been imprisoned, and Philip wrote to the Pontiff desiring that the culprit might be suspended from office. Boniface immediately published a bull, convening all the clergy of France to an assembly at Rome, and re- plying to the king by insisting that the bishop should be instantly released, because no layman, not even a king, had power to incarcerate a priest. " God," said the imperious Pope, " has set me over the nations and kingdoms, to root out and pull down, to build and to plant in his name. I give you to know that you are our subject both in spirituals and temporals." The king contemptuously replied to this nonsense, " We give your foolship to know that in tem- porals we are subject to no man." The bull of Pope Boni- face was publicly burned in the city of Paris, and Philip immediately convoked a parliament, before which he laid the whole question between himself and the Pope. The barons took part with their king ; and even the clergy felt that they owed a divided allegiance, and petitioned the Pope to be exempted from attending his projected assembly. But the Pope would not listen to their prayer. He rebuked 260 LIVES OF THE POPES. them for their faithlessness and cowardice, and urged them to hasten to his presence. A few of the clergy complied ; and in the council which followed, Boniface issued another bull, in which he asserted that there was but one head of the Church, namely, Peter, and Peter's successor ; that in the power of the chief are two swords, the spiritual and the material, the one to be used by the Church and the other for it ; the former in the hand of the priest, the latter in the hand of the soldier, but at the nod and sufferance of the priest; and that, "therefore, we declare, define, and pro- nounce, that it is absolutely essential to the salvation of every human being that he be subject to the Roman Pon- tiff." To this audacious bull Boniface appended a sentence of excommunication against all kings, emperors, or others, who should hinder those who desired to present themselves before the Roman See. Such astounding assumptions as these could only be met by a full and unqualified denial. But the king of France hesitated awhile before he decided in what way the denial could best be enforced. At last he resolved on having recourse to stratagem, and determined to surprise the Pon- tiff in his own dominions. Boniface had excited much hostility toward himself in Rome by his harsh treatment of the ancient and noble family of Colonna, whose posses- sions he had seized, and one of whom, Sciarra Colonna, he had compelled to take refuge in France. This Colonna, in conjunction with De Nogaret, an eminent French civilian, undertook the hazardous task of punishing Boniface for his presumptuous and insolent behavior. Proceeding to Italy, they first procured the services of a troop of armed men, and then hastened to Anagni, the birth- place and usual residence of the Pope. There, Boniface was preparing to issue, within a few days, another bull, declaring that, " as Christ's vicar, he had power to govern kings with a rod of iron, and to dash them in pieces hke a potter's vessel." But his dream of ambition was suddenly THE PAPACY CULMINATES AND DECLINES. 261 broken when he heard the horsemen of Colonna and No- garet galloping through the streets of Anagni, and shout- ing, " Success to the king of France ! Death to Pope Boni- face !" The intruders easily became masters of the pon- tifical palace, and gained admission to the presence of the Pope. Boniface was not destitute of courage, and like Gregory VII. he could sustain adversity with composure and dignity. " Since I am betrayed," said he, " I will at least die like a Pope. Then clothing himself in his official vestments, placing the tiara on his head, and grasping in his hands the keys and the crosier, he seated himself in the pontifical chair. In this posture, Colonna and Nogaret found him when they burst into his apartment, and they were so far awed by his venerable aspect, (he was now eighty-six years of age,) that they laid no violent hands on his person, but contented themselves with keeping him in close confinement. Nogaret and Colonna remained longer at Anagni than prudence would have suggested. The in- habitants of the town were in the course of a few days incited by the cardinals to attempt a rescue, and the attempt succeeded. The French intruders were either expelled or killed, and Boniface was restored to freedom. But so proud a spirit as his could not brook the insult it had received. Like Gregory VII. he pined away with a broken heart, but in Boniface this excess of grief produced insanity. He hurried to Rome, panting for revenge ; but his passion overpowered his reason, and he was soon in- capable of any active exertion. His countenance grew haggard, his mouth was continually white with foam, and he gnashed his teeth in obstinate silence. He refused all food, and was too restless to sleep, so that his strength rapidly declined. Findmg himself near death, he insisted on his attendants quitting the room. That haughty spirit would have no human witness of its death-agony. And when at length, apprehensive of the awful reality, they burst into the apartment, they found him dead, cold, and 262 LIVES OF THE POPES. stiff. In his hands he still grasped his staff, which bore the evident marks of his teeth, and was covered with foam. His white locks were stained with blood, and his head was closely wrapped in the covering of the bed, so that it was concluded by all that he had died a violent death. What can possibly teach more affectingly than these death-throes of the wretched Boniface how indispensable for peace in the dying hour is the renewed nature which the gospel exhorts us to seek ? In Boniface, the natural passions of the heart continued uncurbed and rampant to the end, and a death of horror was the result. Had he spent but a tithe of the labor which he lavished upon schemes of worldly ambition in a sincere effort to know that Saviour whom he pretended to serve, he might have borne the pressure of adversity with calmness, and in his dying hour might have rolled that heaviest burden of all — the burden of his sins — upon Him who " suffered, the Just for the un- just," and who said, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It was, happily for the world, the mistake of Boniface to misunderstand the times in which he lived. When he engaged in the struggle with Philip the Fair, it was without duly calculating the strength of his foe. Apparently, the authority of the popedom was greater than ever when Boni- face ascended the throne ; but in truth it was already much undermined by the advancing labors of civilization. It was the age of Dante, who held the torch to that noble band of literary pioneers whose toils prepared the way for the overthrow of papal domination. No wonder, then, that Dante himself was an object of hatred to Boniface. The spite of the Pontiff caused the poet to be banished from his beloved Florence, and Dante makes frequent allusion to the proud and avaricious Pope in the course of his great poem. Boniface was still alive when the " Divine Comedy" was composed, so that he could not with propriety be included among the wretches of whose miseries the poet makes him- THE POI'ES RESIDE AT AVIGNON. 263 self in the allegory a personal eye-witness. But his coming fate is foreshadowed when the seer represents himself as accosted in the third gulf of hell by Pope Nicholas III., who mistakes him for Boniface, just arrived at these abodes of torment. The writhing and gasping Nicholas exclaims, •• Already standest there? Already standest there, 0 Boniface ! So early dost thou surfeit with the wealth For which thou fearedst not in guile to take The lovely lady,--' and then mangle her V Infer n.^ Cant. xix. Elsewhere the poet styles Boniface " Chief of the New Pharisees," and indeed it was a common saying respecting this unhappy Pontiff, that he " gained the popedom like a fox, lived in it like a lion, and died like a dog." Powerful as was the scepter of the Church when held in his hands, and fully as he developed the true spirit of the papacy, not even Rome has dared to include Boniface VIII. among the number of her saints. CHAPTER XV. THE POPES RESIDE AT AVIGNON, AND GROW AVARICIOUS. A. D. 1303-1350. *' There is," says the philosophical Hallam, " a spell wrought by uninterrupted good fortune which captivates men's un- derstandings, and persuades them, against reasoning and analogy, that violent power is immortal and irresistible. The spell is broken by the first change of success." Very strikingly is the truth of this remark illustrated in the his- tory of the popes who followed Boniface VIII. From that Pontiff's reign the decline of papal power can be distinctly traced. He had truly " strained his authority to a higher «♦ The Church. 264 LIVES OF THE POPES. pitch than any had done before him," and the reaction which set in upon his death proves how really baseless was the vast edijfice which his predecessors and himself had taken such unwearied pains to construct. Without founda- tion in justice, the sole creation of superstition, it began to dissolve away like a palace of enchantment as soon as the charm was dispelled. And, beside the growing influence of literature, the successful violence of Philip, an excommu- nicated prince, in imprisoning, insulting, and eventually de- priving of life the mightiest potentate in Christendom, or, indeed, on earth, was enough to undeceive mankind, and very quickly produced the most disastrous results to the papac)^ Benedict XL, who succeeded Boniface, immediately sought to conciliate the French king. Of his own accord he rescinded the sentence of excommunication under which that monarch lay, and would doubtless have proceeded fur- ther in the same direction but for his sudden death, which took place only nine months after his election. It was said that he died by poison, and that the king of France bribed two cardinals to commit the murder. Without vouching for the truth of this statement, the popular estimation of the priestly and royal character of that age is sufiiciently disclosed by the existence of such a report. Philip the Fair had now enough influence in the conclave to secure the election of a Pope wholly favorable to his own views. The admission, by Celestine V., of so many French subjects into that body, had given to French interests a very decided preponderance, and at the suggestion of Philip, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Bertrand de Got, was the next occupant of the papal throne. Clement V., which was the title assumed by the new Pope, had not obtained his elevation without first promising important concessions to the king of France. He also performed his promise with greater fidelity than so simoniacal a proceeding might have justified PhiKp in expecting. The bulls of Boniface were wholly withdrawn, and several privileges were surren- THE POPES RESIDE AT AVIGNON. 265 dered, which gratified the pride, if they did not really strengthen the position of the French king. But the most important of these advantages consisted in the resolution to which Clement came of not crossing the Alps to take up his abode at Rome. He resided chiefly at Avignon, and the example of Clement was followed by his successors for no less than seventy years. This period has been called by Romanist writers, " The Babylonish Captivity of the Church." One of Clement's first public acts was to sum- mon a council at Lyons ; and the cardinals, however reluc- tant, were compelled, by their vows of obedience, to repair to a foreign city, instead of issuing the decrees of the Church from what they regarded as its true metropolis. The can- ons of this council reveal at once the deplorable state of morals prevailing among the clergy, and the inefficient, in- deed the only half-earnest attempts which were made to reform them. The superior orders were unmolested in their vicious practices and worldly pursuits. Even the lowest class were but faintly admonished, and their more flagitious immoralities gently suppressed. How could a Pontifi" who did not scruple to enrich and indulge himself venture to reprove others, or insist on an effectual reform ? The greatest stain upon the character of Clement is the aid which he gave to King Philip in his destruction of the " Templars." That order of knights, which had originated in the crusades, and had been organized for the purpose of defending the " Temple," or, in other phrase, the Church of the Sepulcher, at Jerusalem, had now become so power- ful and wealthy as to endanger the authority of the sover- eigns of Europe. Half monk, half soldier, the Templar had a double claim upon the reverence of the people, and, like all other classes of the clergy, generally employed his whole influence for his own aggrandizement and that of his order. The Templars who resided in France had often given off'ense to the monarch, particularly by their opposi- tion to his repeated debasement of the coinage, and Philip 12 266 LIVES OF THE POPES. was now bent on their utter extermination. Clement be- came his too willing confederate, tempted by the immense wealth which the Templars possessed. Plausible accusa- tions were not wanting against men who combined in one character the cunning of the monk with the licentiousness of the soldier. Charges of a monstrous and incredible kind were fabricated, and all the horrors of the " Inquisition " were directed against these victims of avarice rather than of justice. At the instigation of the Pope, the sovereigns of other countries united with Philip in this crusade of ven- geance ; and in England and Spain, as well as in France, the estates of the Templars were confiscated, the order itself abolished by law, and multitudes were put to a cruel death. Many were buraed at the stake, and the grand- master of the order, De Molay, together with the knight- commander of Normandy, was among the last of them who underwent this barbarous sentence, being put to this horrid death on one of the islands of the Seine in the year 1314. Clement shortly afterward died, leaving immense wealth. The moment it was known that he was dead, all the in- mates of the palace rushed vnth one consent to the treasury ; and, so eager were they in their search, that they quite forgot their deceased master. The lights surroimding his bed were thrown down, and set fire to the furniture, and even to the body as it lay in state. The flames were ex- tinguished ; but so completely had the palace been sacked of its wardrobe that no better covering than an old cloak was left to shroud the blackened corpse of the richest pope that had yet governed the Church. Italy and Germany were now wholly distracted by the strife between the Guelfs and Ghibbelines — a strife not so much of parties as of factions. The kings of UsTaples strove with the emperors of Germany ; throughout Lom- bardy, Tuscany, and the other northern and central prov- inces of Italy, city strove with city, and cities were divided against themselves. John XXII., who took the chair THE POPES RESIDE AT AVIGNON. 267 "which Clement's death had left vacant, therefore followed the example of his predecessor, and chose to thunder forth the threatenings of the Church from the secure asylum of Avignon, rather than from the more splendid but less tran- quil halls of the Vatican. The lust of wealth had now grown to be the predomi- nant vice of the popes, and was manifestly the chief char- acteristic of this Pontiff. Sprung from a low origin, he had raised himself from rank to rank, until he reached the highest and most lucrative post in the Church. And when once amved at the pontifical chair he abandoned himself without restraint to the love of " filthy lucre." He zeal- ously promoted the sale of indulgences both to clergy and people, aflSxing a specific price to every possible sin. A deacon or sub-deacon might thus be absolved for murder by the payment of twenty crowns, and a bishop for three hundred livi-es ; so cheap in comparison of gold was the estimate now set on human life, and so far had avarice tri- umphed over religion and morality in the hearts of the venal priesthood. From the clergy especially, because over them he had more direct control, did John seek to extort contri- butions to the papal treasury. He laid taxes on the sev- eral orders of priests, permitted them to compound with money for the discharge of their official duties, and inge- niousl}'- contrived, when a see became vacant, to make it the occasion of some half-dozen translations, that from each bishop thus promoted he might receive the customary fee. For a moment, however, the attention of the Pontiff was diverted from these mercenary aims to the struggle now pending for the imperial throne between Louis of Bavaria and Frederic of Austria. John refused to confirm either of the pretenders, asserting in a bull that " God had confided the empu'e of the earth as well as that of heaven to the sovereign pontiflF." Eventually, Frederic was defeated and taken prisoner, and Louis was acknowledged in Germany as the rightful emperor. But in Italy the Guelfs had 268 LIVES OF THE POPES. gained advantages over tlie Ghibbelines, and Louis, whose claims the latter supported against the King of Naples, hastened across the Alps to the aid of his partisans. At Milan he was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, and, advancing to Rome, the ceremony of coronation was there repeated with still greater pomp and solemnity. To retaliate upon the hostile Pontiff, the emperor now resolved to appoint a new pope, and gave to a friendly ecclesiastic the name of Nicholas V. The end of the contest was, that neither the Pope nor the emperor gained much advantage, though the preponderance was in favor of the latter. The anti-pope Nicholas was not accepted by the world ; and it is said that, going to Avignon to implore pardon, he was put in chains, and imprisoned for life. But the emperor convened a council at Milan, which pronounced Pope John guilty of heretical depravity; so that Louis now dared to tread in the footsteps of Philip the Fair, and even call in question the infallibility of the Pope. These political quar- rels of the Pontiff, however, occupied only brief intervals of time. His life was mostly passed in amassing treasure, and he seems to have devoted considerable attention to that delusion of the age, alchemy, with the same object in view. In the money which he issued from the papal mint, he counterfeited the florins of Florence, and yet to prevent com- petition with himself he published several edicts against alchemists and adulterators of coin. When, at length, in the year 1334, death snatched him from his cherished pelf, it was found that he even surpassed in riches his like-minded predecessor, Clement the Fifth. Another Frenchman succeeded to the popedom, with the title of Benedict XII. Like John, he was of low extrac- tion, and although he had by some means attained a cardi- nal's hat, he was regarded as the least eminent of the en- tire college. The mutual jealousies of the conclave, and not their wish to promote Benedict, led to his election. Meaning to throw away their votes, they each of them THE POPES RESIDE AT AVIGNON.. 269 voted for Benedict as the least likely to succeed ; and so little was he ambitious or expectant of the honor that, on hearing he was chosen, he reproached his brethren for hav- ing elected " an ass." Doubtless it was this comparatively modest disposition that rendered Benedict XII. quite a pamgon of vii'tue among the popes of that corrupt age. Although he dared not attempt, and perhaps had not the genius to devise inno- vations on the established system of governing the Church, he made some eflforts to improve the working of that sys- tem. Unlike his predecessor, he refused to grant dispen- sations to the indolent clergy, and dismissed from the papal court a multitude of idlers, who preferred the splendor and the vices of Avignon to the labors of their parishes. The pomp of the court was also somewhat diminished ; investi- gations into the condition of the monasteries, and of the clergy in general, were commenced ; literature was encour- aged ; and it is not among the least of Benedict's praises that he entertained, at Avignon, the poet Petrarch — that great reviv^er of learning in Em'ope, and the most popular poet of his age. But along with these commendable efforts, which, however abortive they proved for checking the tide of corruption, are still sufiScient proofs that Benedict was far better than the majority of his class, there were other deeds of a very questionable nature, evincing that either the sys- tem was too bad to be mended, or that, diverse as the pon- tiffs may appear in some respects, they all held the same radical errors. Benedict died in 1342. Clement VI., who succeeded, was of a character more in accordance with the ordinaiy pontifical type. Fond of ease and splendor, he entirely passed his short career in the gayety and voluptuousness which had now become the prominent features of papal state. But Clement carried these vices to more than the usual heifjht. He was both licentious himself and encouraged it in others. His com- panions were the most abandoned people he could find ; and 2*70 LIVES OF THE POPES. SO eager was he to enrich his own relatives, that, however dissolute they might be, if they pleased him, a cardinal's hat, a bishopric, or a baronial estate was their certain reward. About the time that Clement received the tiara, the Ro- man citizens had arisen at the instigation of a patriotic ple- beian, named Rienzi, and either expelled the turbulent and tyrannical nobles, or else obliged them to submit to whole- some laws. Rienzi, like another Arnold, was constituted chief magistrate, assuming the popular and ancient title of Tribune. On the accession of Pope Clement, the Romans deputed a number of their leaders, among whom were Rienzi and Petrarch, to wait upon the Pontiflf, and request certain favors at his hands. They urged him to return forthwith to Rome, offered him the oflSce of senator, with the govern- ment of the city, and begged him to appoint the jubilee, held first by Boniface VIII., to be renewed at the fiftieth year, which was now approaching. The deputation was graciously received, and those of its requests were granted which tended to benefit the papacy ; while the first, which was supremely important to the Roman people, and the most obviously binding on the Pope, was decidedly refused. While Rome was distracted by the animosities of its nobles, Naples was thrown into confusion by the crimes of its monarch ; and the latter city as well as the former pre- ferred its accusations at the tribunal of the Pope. Joanna, the Queen of Naples, was charged with having been ac- cessory to the murder of her husband, who had been de- coyed from liis bed in the dead of night, and being seized by assassins at the door of his chamber, was first strangled, and then suspended by a silken cord from the balcony of his palace. The citizens, indignant at the deed, clamored loudly for justice, and Joanna was obliged to undertake a journey in person to Avignon to vindicate her cause ; for, loose as were the morals of Clement VI., he was too politic to allow so notorious a crime to pass without rebuke. By enforcing the semblance of justice — and he cared for noth- THE POPES RESIDE AT AVIGNON. 27 1 ing more — he would at once be humbling a monarch, and gaining a reputation for virtue, both luxuries vs^hich a pope would not readily forego. When Joanna appeared at Avig- non, she found it easy to satisfy the pliable Pontiflf, although so clear was the evidence that she was privy to the murder, that she could only plead she was under the influence of sorcery. That wretched plea, however, was amply suffi- cient when she oflfered the Pontiflf the full possession of the city of Avignon, which belonged to her as Countess of Pro- vence, at the cheap price of thirty thousand florins. Thus the queen returned to Naples with a very seasonable supply for her pressing emergencies, and the Pope added an im- portant city to the patrimony of St. Peter, without troubling himself with the thought that it was "the price of blood." The jubilee which Clement had promised the Romans was celebrated in the year 1350. It was proclaimed a year beforehand, in a bull which declared that the Church possessed an " infinite treasure of merits, the dispensation of which was confided to the Pope." To receive a share of this precious wealth, multitudes resorted to Rome. During a severely inclement winter, the roads of Italy were thronged with travelers, who were sometimes compelled to sleep by the way-side, and were always exposed to the pil- lage of freebooters, and the extortions of the inhabitants. The streets of Rome presented for months the spectacle of a vast moving multitude, a tide incessantly flowing and inex- haustibly renewed. The churches were crowded, the houses of the citizens were converted into inns, the prices of pro- visions were artificially raised, and the Romans, not content with the natural increase of wealth produced by an influx of more than a million visitors, tried every expedient which the ingenuity of avarice could demise, to impoverish their guests and enrich themselves. It is hard to decide which should excite the greater disgust, the lying hypocrisy of the bull which authorized the jubilee, or the sordid passions and reckless immorahty which accompanied its celebration. 272 LIVES OF THE POPES. CHAPTER XVI. THE POPES AT AVIGNON THEIR RETURN TO ROME PE- TRARCH, WICLIF, AND CHAUCER. A. D. 1350-1378. To Clement succeeded Innocent VI., a man of kindred spirit witli Clement's predecessor, Benedict XII. His rep- utation at the time of his election was unstained, yet the crime which he committed to attain the tiara shows that his moral sentiments were not very refined. Upon oath, he agreed that the pontifical power should be placed under certain limitations ; but on gaining the crown he forfeited his oath, and set the agreement at defiance. Innocent's whole history is that of a weak man, whose good intentions are subverted by what he considers the duties of his posi- tion. In private, he repressed vice, yet he could be guilty of gross iniquity in his public capacity. He frowned on the extravagant splendor and the avaricious greed of the clergy, setting a pattern of moderation in his own expendi- ture ; yet, when he fancied the interests of the Church were involved, he could be as grasping as a Boniface VIII. or a John XXII., and actually followed the example which the latter had first set, of demanding that half of the reve- nues of all vacant benefices should be reserved for the pa- pal treasury. A character composed of such contrary qualities could not engage in great transactions, and the papacy was transmitted by Innocent to his successor in much the same plight as he found it. That successor was Urban V., who commenced his pon- tifical career in 1362. The most remarkable event of his reign was his attempt to transfer the papal court from Avignon to Rome. To four pontiffs in succession had the patriotic Petrarch addressed his earnest petition that they would return to their proper see. Eloquently had he de- THEIR RETURN TO ROME. 273 scribed the destitute condition of Rome, and tlie evil results to the whole Church of papal non-residence. But as yet his appeals had been in vain. John XXII., Benedict XII., and Clement VI., had listened to the eloquent orator ; but were all of them either without the power, or devoid of inclination to comply with his entreaties. At length, in 1369, Urban V. resolved to make the experiment ; turning a deaf ear, for once, to the command of the French mon- arch, and the solicitations of the cardinals, who, now mostly Frenchmen, dreaded the change as a sort of exile ; and in the words of a somewhat severe, but very acute historian, " were attached to the language, manners, and climate of Avignon, to their stately palaces, above all, to the wines of Burgundy." By the Italians, Urban was welcomed with joy, and every imaginable demonstration of gladness was made on his arrival. The emperor of Germany held the bridle of his horse as he entered the city of Rome, and approached the Church of St. Peter's. Queen Joanna of Naples, the Emperor John of Constantinople, and the king of Cyprus, all paid him visits of homage and friendship ; and it was probably on this occasion that Urban transformed the double into the triple crown, still worn by the popes, and symbolical, it is said, of the three provinces which compose the States of the Chuixh. But Rome was not comparable to Avignon in the eyes of the cardinals. Her baronial pal- aces had been laid in ruins by a century of domestic feuds. The whole city had a desolate and dismantled aspect ; and the services reqmred of the clergy were necessarily more frequent and more burdensome at home than abroad, in the metropolis of the Church than in a distant province. So that, after three years' absence from France, Pope Urban returned to Avignon, and soon afterward died, without hav- ing accomplished anything that eflPectually strengthened or weakened the papal chair. Although Gregoky XI., who succeeded Urban, was 12* 274 LIVES OF THE POPES. also a native of France, yet several motives combined to induce him to accomplish what his predecessor had only at- tempted. Avignon was no longer a secm*e retreat. A set of lawless banditti were in possession of the district in which the city stood, and showed especial resolution to make the wealth of churchmen their prey. Italy was also clamorous for the return of her spiritual chief. A female fanatic, who has since been canonized under the title of Saint Catharine of Sienna, visited the Pope, and pretending to have had a revelation from heaven, exhorted him to re- member the duty which he owed to the tomb of the apos- tles, and the chair of his mighty predecessors. Whether the persuasions of mere superstition would have been ef- fectual with Gregory cannot certainly be known, as he soon afterward received intelligence that the Italians were in actual revolt against his legates ; that they were resolved on electing a pope of their own unless he speedily returned ; and that they had already made proposals for that pur- pose to a monk in Monte Cassino. This intelligence at once decided the Pontiff's course, and he lost no time in remov- insT his whole establishment to Rome. The papal court, therefore, finally forsook Avignon in ISVZ. On arriving in Rome, Gregory applied himself with energy to the work of harmonizing the feuds which had so long subsisted and of extinguishing the glowing embers of rebellion which had been kindled by the absence of any confessedly supreme authority. But far greater troubles were in store for the papacy than those of mere domestic sedition. A spirit of disaflfec- tion had been engendered by the gross corruptions of the clergy that was spreading through all countries, and found its most congenial home in the noblest souls. In Italy, the writings of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and a host of their disciples, had given a suppressed utterance to this discon- tent in allegorical language, which soon found clearer ex- pression on the lips of the people. In Germany, the Beg- THEIR RETURN TO ROME. 2V.$ hards and Lollards were parties that had arisen from the necessities of the times to supply by voluntaiy exertions the posts abandoned by the corrupt and indolent priest- hood. In England, the same professions of zeal were yet made by the mendicant friars ; but these orders, instead of fulfilling theu' professions, proved at last the most sordid and hypocritical of all. Carrying with them the Pope's authority, they entered whatever parishes they pleased, usurped the pulpit and the office of the priest, and so drain- ed the purses of the people, that they well deserved the name which they received of *' the pope's beadles and tax- gatherers," It was the insolence and depravity of these men that first aroused the indignation of our great reformer Wiclif, and the poet Chaucer, and led them to inveigh so vehe- mently against the growing corruptions of the Church. Wiclif had been sent by King Edward III., at the head of a deputation, to the court of Gregory XI., before it had quitted Avignon, and he had there seen a yet profuser dis- play of the vices of the priesthood. He brought back with him a rooted determination to oppose these evils in England, and to enlighten the people by translating the Scriptures into the English tongue. Chaucer also had gone abroad. He had visited Italy, and had there made the friendship of Petrarch and Boccaccio, whose sentiments and style, both on literary and religious topics, he transferred to his own writings. Wiclif declaimed from the pulpit, and in his lecture -room at Oxford, against the degeneracy of the Church ; and growing bolder as he found his doctrine pop- ular, at last went the length of denouncing the Pope as " that Antichrist, the proud, worldly priest of Rome, the most cursed of clippers and purse-kervers," (cut- purses.) Chaucer was less declamatory, but more satirical. He makes one of the mendicant friars confess, in "The Pardonere's Tale," by what impostures he deluded the peo- ple, and defrauded them of their wealth : — 276 LIVES OF THE POPES. " By this gaude I wonnen yere by yere An hundred mark, since I was pardonere. •'t? ■»»? >rf -^ *rf Of avarice and of swiche cursednesse Is all my preaching for to make hem free To yeve hir pens, and namely unto me ; For mine entente is not but for to winne, And nothing for correction of sinne/' Thus the labors of both Chaucer and Wiclif were directed to the same end, and alike conducted to effect the moral reform of the people, and the overthrow of papal tyranny. While these great men, both in Italy and in England, were zealously pursuing the noble objects they had pro- posed to themselves, the PontiflF Gregory became painfully convinced that Rome was no pleasant residence to one ac- customed to ease and safety. The Florentines were becom- ing a warlike people; and, in their zeal for liberty, they made war upon all the tyrannical nobles of Italy, especially directing their hostility against Rome, because of the treat- ment they had received from the papal legates. Gregory was already beginning to repent of his migration to Italy, when he suddenly died, in 13 7 8. CHAPTER XVII. THE GREAT WESTERN SCHISM. A. D. 1378-1410. ^ A REMARKABLE period in the history of the popes com- mences with the death of Gregory XI. The election of a successor was a matter of so much difficulty, that eventually two were chosen by the contending parties. Thus the great western schism was created, which lasted for fifty years ; and by which the authority of the popes was greatly diminished, the necessity of a reformation made more ap- THE GREAT WESTERN SCHISM. 211 parent, and all even of its plausibility taken away from the ridiculous claim for papal infallibility. Of the sixteen cardi- nals who assembled in conclave to elect a new pontiff, twelve were Frenchmen ; and it was their ardent desire to promote another of their countrymen, in order that the court might be once more transferred to Avignon. Aware of this dis- position, the Roman people gathered tumultuously around their place of meeting, and shouted loudly, " A Roman, a Roman for pope, or at least an Italian !" And when they found the conclave unwilhng to proceed under terror of their threats, they burst rudely into the chamber. The cardinals, now percei\dng that there was no escape, elected a NeapoH- tan, the Archbishop of Bari, by the title of Urban VI. The populace were content; but the behavior of the new pontiff soon gave displeasure to that body which had elevated him to the chair. Zealous for reform, and sternly harsh in his temper. Urban vehemently denounced the vices of the Church, and in full consistory charged the cardinals themselves with urging on the general corruption. One he accused of being a sacrilegious thief; another, he called a fool ; and the whole body he restricted to the use at their meals of only a single dish. The French cardinals disguised their anger, but took the first opportunity, imder pretence of the summer heats, of withdrawing from Rome : retiring to Anagni, they plotted measures for resistance. The result of their conference was the election of another pope, who, assuming the name of Clement VII., imme- diately hastened to Avignon, and thence thundered forth bulls and excommunications against Urban, which the latter as liberally returned. The monarchs of France, Savoy, and Naples espoused the cause of Clement, while the rest of Europe continued obedient to the spiritual government of Urban. Both issued bulls and decretals ; both conferred livings and sees; so that not only much confusion was created for a time, but, as the schism continued for half a century, if there had ever existed a connected chain of or- 2lS LIVES OF THE POPES. dained piiests from the days of the apostles, it must now be inevitably broken. Urban exercised his divided authority with as much despotism as Boniface VIII. could have used. Indeed, to that pontiff he has often been compared. He resembled him m arrogant and insufferable pride, and in violence of temper, which in Urban amounted to frenzy. He spent httle of his time in Rome, having a long-nurtured attach- ment for the kingdom of Naples, of which he was a subject by birth. But his haughty temper would not permit him to live at peace even here. Quarreling with the Queen Joanna, Urban invited Charles of Durazzo to take the crown, and performed the ceremony of coronation when Charles passed through Rome at the head of his Hungarian troops. Joanna was conquered and put to death ; and then the proud pontiff denounced Charles as a traitor to the holy see, because he had not performed all the conditions of investi- ture. Charles, however, marched an army against Nocera, where Urban resided ; and every day the angry pope might be seen parading the walls, and, at the sound of a bell, dis- charging his impotent anathemas against the king and his troops encamped before the town. Some cardinals who, having long adhered to his cause, began at last to chafe under the caprice and obstinacy of the Pontiff, were the next objects of his vengeance. While residing at Nocera, he caused them to be seized, imprisoned, and tortured ; and the historian reflects with just indignation on the hypocrisy and cruelty of the tyrant, " who could walk in his garden and recite his breviary, while he heard from an adjacent chamber the groans of his victims on the rack." On leav- ing Nocera, he took these cardinals with him in chains, and on arriving at Genoa had them privately executed. Some say that they were thrown iuto the sea in sacks ; others, that they were strangled in prison. Urban ended his career in 1389. After the death of Pope Urban, it was generally hoped THE GREAT WESTERN SCHISM. 279 and expected that all parties would unite in acknowledging Clement, who still held his coui't at Avignon, and received the homage of a considerable part of the Church. But the schism was not destined to terminate so soon. The car- dinals assembled at Rome elected another Neapohtan, who assumed the tiara with the title of Boniface IX., and re- commenced with fresh vigor the strife with the rival pontiff. Boniface was so illiterate, that even his panegyrists confess that he was unskillful in writing, and not proficient m any- one branch of learning. But he was amply endowed with the cunning of avarice, a far more essential accomphshment in a pope of those days. One of his first measures was to announce a jubilee for the year 1390, which was to reem- every thirty-three years, and be entirely distinct from the jubilee already established. Notwithstanding the divided allegiance of Christendom, multitudes were foimd to flock to Rome to obtain absolution for their sins. Boniface next granted to the cities of Cologne and Magdeburgh the power of holding similar festivals, to the manifest disparagement of Rome as the shrine of universal pilgrimage, although to his own present and peculiar advantage. But as neither of these means sufficiently satisfied the cupidity of the Pope, he afterward sent friars throughout all countries, offering plenary indulgences to all who would buy. When one of these indulgence-mongers entered a city, he first displayed at the window of his residence a flag, emblazoned with the arms of the Pope, and the keys of the Church. He then placed tables in the cathedral church by the side of the altar, covering them with rich cloths, after the manner of the bankers, to receive the purchase-money from those who bought his profane and blasphemous wares. And if any of the local clergy ventured to exclaim against this unjust infringement of their own rights, or possibly against the immorality of the proceeding altogether, these audacious monks did not hesitate to anathematize and excommunicate them like the Pope himself. 280 LIVES OF THE POPES. Scandalized by a schism which had given rise to so much animosity, and had fostered the worst vices of the age, many leading members of the priesthood, both in France and Italy, began to devise means for reestablishing unity. So earnestly did the university of Paris take up the subject, and so heartily were they favored by their sovereign, that the anti-Pope Clement was so violently alarmed as to be taken with a fit of apoplexy, of which he almost suddenly died in the year 1394. But the cardinals resident at Avignon were in nowise disposed to make concessions, or even to comply with the mandate of their monarch, who desired them to refrain for the present from electing another pontiff. Meeting in full conclave, they hastened to a de- cision, and chose one of their own number to the high office, under the title of Benedict XIII. But when Benedict, re- fusing to listen to the admonitions of his sovereign, asserted that he was the true and only Pope, and would maintain his authority in spite of any king, duke, or count, Charles invested the city of Avignon with troops of soldiers, and kept Benedict a close prisoner in his own house for nearly four years. Meantime, the partisans of Boniface were growingly anxious that some reconciliation should take place. So strongly did a feehng in this direction manifest itself in Germany, that the citizens of Rome began to tremble lest they should lose their spiritual father, still more dreading the loss of the emoluments that might be expected from the approaching jubilee in 1400. They therefore besieged the Pontiff with prayers that he would be steadfast, and assured him that from them he should meet with unalterable devotion. Boniface replied, " Take courage, my children ; rest assured that I will continue to be Pope ; and however I may play off the king of France and the emperor of Germany against each other, / will never submit to the will of either." In the year 1403 Boniface died, and, at almost the same time, the anti-Pope Benedict escaped from his THE GREAT WESTERN SCHISM. 281 confinement by disguising himself in the garb of a menial. He had no sooner regained his liberty than he reasserted his claim to the papal dignity, and with his rising assurance his party began to rally once more around him. On the death of Pope Boniface the Italian conclave elected another native of Italy, who bore the name of In- nocent VII. ; but the occurrences of his short pontificate, which lasted only two years, require no narration, as they had no material influence on the cun-ent of events. In 1406 Gregory XII. ascended the papal throne, hav- ing first bound himself by oath, in common with the whole conclave, to resign all pretensions to his seat if the welfare of the Church should require it. The ripe age of seventy seemed a sufficient guarantee for the utter extinction in Gregory of mere selfish aims and worldly views. But alas for papal veracity ! The Pontiflf was hardly seated in the chair before he gave proof that neither promise nor oath would be sacred in the eyes of a pope, when the prize of power was to be secured.- After his escape from surveil- lance, Benedict had apparently laid aside all his ambitious purposes. He steadily professed to desire nothing so much as the union of the contending parties in the Church. An agreement was consequently entered into between the two Pontififs to hold a meeting in which the difierences of their several parties should be composed. The meeting was to be held at Savona, and Benedict was faithful to his promise, and presented himself at the appointed time. But Greg- ory, the aged and honorable Gregory, could not be pre- vailed on by the most earnest and repeated solicitations to fulfill his oath. The partisans of Gregory, indeed, accuse Benedict of equal insincerity, and say that Savona was not the place of appointment mutually agreed on. One of these writers, who seems very honestly to deplore the schism, condemns both the Pontiffs alike. " If one Pope advances,'* says he, " the other retreats ; the one appears an animal fearful of the land, the other a creature apprehensive of the 282 LIVES OF THE POPES. water. And thus, for a short remnant of life and power, will these aged priests endanger the peace and salvation of the Christian world." But the business of reconciliation had proceeded too far to be abandoned now, and it was therefore seriously taken up by the cardinals of both colleges, who resolved to call a general council of the Church, to assemble at Pisa, in 1409. At this council both the Pontiffs were deposed, and a new one was elected, in the person of Peter, Cardinal of Milan, who forthwith assumed the title of Alexander V., and by acknowledging whom, as the rightful successor of Peter, the Romanist writers virtually confess the paramount authority of a general council. Yet the two deposed Pon- tiflfs by no means resigned their pretensions. Benedict re- sided in Spain, and still received the homage of that portion of Christendom. Gregory, however, was compelled to es- cape from his enemies by taking the disguise of a mer- chant. Hastening across the Alps he was kindly received by the king of Hungary, and continued to be treated as the true Pontiff by most of the German race. Thus three Popes once more divided between them the sovereignty of the Church; but this time there was no master spirit like Hildebrand's to educe strength out of weakness. The di- vision was a real peril to the papacy, and the consequences were felt ere the century had fully expired. Alexander's career was very brief, yet it was distinguished by one circumstance very important in the eyes of a Prot- estant. In the hope of reconcihng all parties, he solemnly decreed that the benefices which had been held under either of the rival Pontiffs should be confirmed to their possessors, and that all censures and excommunications should be an- nulled. So that two distinct claims of apostolical succession were recognized by this Pontiff, notwithstanding the anath- emas which had been heaped on each other by the rival Popes, and under which hundreds, if not thousands, of the priesthood had both lived and died. It is hard to conceive COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 283 how Romanists themselves can, in the face of such facts, attach much importance to either direct succession or to papal denunciations. The weakness of Alexander's character caused him to fall entirely under the guidance of one of the cardinals, Bal- tazzar Cossa, a man of singular qualities ; by birth a noble, by training and taste a soldier, and by profession a priest. To the machinations of this daring and ambitious man the Pontifif's death is ascribed, which took place by poison in the year 1410. CHAPTER XYIII. COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE MARTYRDOM OF HUSS AND JEROME END OF THE SCHISM. A. D. 1410-1431. Notwithstanding his suspicious connection with the cause of Alexander's death, Baltazzar Cossa, to the astonishment of the world, was immediately chosen successor to the popedom, under the title of John XXIII. His notorious licentiousness, and his avowed incHnation for a military life, were comparatively shght disquahfications in the esteem of men who chiefly desired energy and determination of char- acter. These latter were qualities that would afford some hope, in spite of many drawbacks, of a settlement of the strifes which had so long distracted the Church. Indeed, one of the cardinals said openly that " the Church had be- come so bad that a good pope would be out of his sphere, and that she could be only ruled by miscreants." On the dissolution of the Council of Pisa it had been ar- ranged that another should be called in three years, and John therefore shortly summoned a general council, which the Emperor Sigismund insisted should assemble at Con- stance, very much in opposition to the Pontiff's secret wish. This Council of Constance assembled in November, 1414, 284 LIVES OF THE POPES. and continued its sessions for the space of four years. The Emperor Sigismund acted in it a very conspicuous part, which he commenced by making his entrance into Con- stance by torch-light, and so riding to the church, where, with the imperial crown on his head, he served as deacon to the Pope while reading mass. The number and import- ance of the members of this council made it rather appear the states-general of Europe than a mere ecclesiastical assembly. The four greatest European nations, the German, the French, the Italian, and the English, were all fully repre- sented there. Almost all the great vassals of the empire, and ambassadors of all the sovereigns who professed Chris- tianity, were also present, even including those of Russia and Greece. Of spiritual dignitaries, beside Pope John and the legates of the anti-popes Gregory and Benedict, there were three patriarchs, thirty-three cardinals, forty-seven archbishops, one hundred and twenty-four abbots, eighteen hundred priests, and an innumerable crowd of monks. So large a concourse made it necessary to enact sumptuary laws for the occasion. The Pope was restricted to the use of twenty horses, and each of the cardinals to ten ; yet, not- withstanding these regulations, no fewer than thirty thou- sand horses are said to have been maintained for that im- mense and august assembly. The first object of the council was to settle the question of the popedom. They could not, indeed, but acknowledge that John was the legitimate Pope ; but as this was not admitted by a considerable part of Christendom, they judged it desirable that they should repeat the measures of the Council of Pisa, and have the whole question referred to their authority. With this view they required the im- mediate abdication of all pontifical functions and claims from each of the three popes, Gregory, Benedict, and John. The legate of Gregory expressed his master's willingness to submit providing his competitors did the same. John per- sonally acquiesced in the decision, though not without COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 285 discovering much mortification and disappointment. But the legate of Benedict stoutly refused to make the least concession. The jealousies of these three claimants of the tiara ex- hausted many tedious months ; and, in the hope of concili- ating Benedict, the Emperor Sigismund took a personal journey to Perpignan, where that Pontiff dwelt. To occupy the interval the council turned its attention to other matters, and in particular to the heresies which had lately sprung up in Bohemia. The queen of Richard II. of England was a Bohemian princess, and her residence in England had brought her into contact with the disciples and doctrines of Wiclif. After the death of her husband she had re- turned to Bohemia, carrying with her the writings of that great reformer; and these fell into the hands, and, under the blessing of the Holy Spirit, changed the heart of John Huss, who, although of obscure origin, had raised himself by his talents to a professor's chair at Prague, and had been chosen confessor to the queen. Roused by the doctrines of Wiclif, Huss soon began to preach openly against the corruptions of the Church, and many of the students in the university adopted his tenets. A spirit of reform was excited among the people, and on some Englishmen painting upon the wall of an inn a picture representing Christ on the one side, meek, and lowly, and poor, entering Jerusalem mounted on an ass ; and the Pope on the other, proudly prancing on a high-mettled steed, and glittering in purple and gold, the populace came in crowds to the inn, eager to see the sight. The writings and preaching of Huss at length created so much agitation, and so much hostility to the priests, that Pope John XXIII. had cited him to appear at Rome as soon as he had ascended the throne, a citation which Huss had refused to obey. The Council of Constance now repeated the citation, and acknowl- edging its authority, Huss immediately complied, first obtain- ing, however, a safe-conduct from the Emperor Sigismund. 286 LIVES OF THE POPES. On arriving in Constance, Huss was thrown into prison, and immured in a narrow dungeon on the banks of the Rhine, where the common sewers emptied themselves. The pestilential atmosphere speedily engendered a fever. He suffered many other indignities and hardships, but at last was summoned to appear before the council, and answer to the accusations preferred against him. As Huss entered the assembly a solar eclipse darkened the air. Addressing the emperor he thanked him for the safe-conduct he had granted. The blood rushed to the face of the monarch, who made no reply, well knowing that the fate of the re- former was already decided. The Spaniards had clamored loudly for the death of the heretic, and it was of the first importance to conciliate them in order to secure unanimity in the election of a pope. An emperor's word, and the life of an innocent man, were slight sacrifices to policy, when the craft of the priesthood was in danger. The articles of accusation were read. Huss was charged with nothing immoral in practice or unscriptural in doctrine, but he was accused of " being tainted with the leprosy of the Waldenses ; of asserting that the Pope is on a level with the bishops ; that there is no purgatory ; that prayers for the dead are a vain device of sacerdotal avarice ; that images ought not to be worshiped," with some other kin- dred doctrines, too familiar to Protestant ears to need repeti- tion. Huss offered to speak, but his voice was silenced by the clamor of the council, and the command of its president, who ordered him simply to recant. Passages were read from his writings, commenting on the criminal lives of the priesthood, which excited vociferous laughter from those who should have hung down their heads in shame. At length Huss explicitly refused to recant, " except he were better instructed by the council." But it was no part of the council's intention to instruct, and they finally sentenced him to suflfer as a heretic. Sigismund, seated on his throne, presided over the coun- COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 287 cil that condemned Huss to death. The martyr was first deprived of all the vestments and insignia of the offices he held, and then crowned with a paper cap, an ell in height, on which three devils were painted, and this inscription : "The archheretic." The noble confessor calmly observed, " Christ wore a crown of thorns." The elector of the Pal- atinate headed the procession to the place of execution, where Huss was bound to the stake, the misguided popu- lace heaping up the fuel. On seeing a peasant engaged in this task, the Christian sufferer exclaimed with true com- passion, " 0 sacred simphcity !" a touching counterpart of his Di\ine Master's, " They know not what they do." The pile was kindled, and the martyr's voice was heard singing a psalm until he was stifled by the flames. His execution took place on his forty-second birthday, and on the 6 th of July, 1415. One of the most faithful and attached friends of Huss was Jerome Faulfisch, commonly known as Jerome of Prague. The doctrines which Huss taught from the pulpit, Jerome inculcated, and it is said with greater eloquence, from his chair in the university. He was accordingly des- tined to tread in his companion's footsteps. Summoned to Constance, his resolution at first forsook him, and he recant- ed, but he soon entreated to be heard again, when he boldly retracted the recantation which only his fears had extorted. Condemned like Huss to the stake, Jerome suffered with equal constancy, and when the executioner would have kindled the fagots behind his back, he bade him do it be- fore his face ; " for had I dreaded fire," exclaimed the cour- ageous Christian, " I should not have been here." This tragical event followed the former in less than a year. With such awful displays of the malevolence of bigotry did the Council of Constance beguile the time until the three contending Pontiffs could be brought to submission. The emperor's visit to Benedict had proved very unsatisfac- tory. He found him deaf to all remonstrances, and reso- 288 LIVES OF THE POPES. lute not to abandon tlie bark of St. Peter, the helm of which, he said, had been confided to him by God. Al- though seventy-eight years old, Benedict argued his own cause before the emperor and an assembly of nobles and doctors of the Church, for seven successive hours, and with such fervid impetuosity as to fill his audience with amaze- ment. John also soon repented of the concessions he had made, and quitting Constance in military disguise, escaped to the castle of Fribourg, where the duke of Austria en- gaged to protect him. But the tide of fortune had turned in favor of the coun- cil, and of its efforts to establish peace. Benedict's friends deserted him one after another, and John's protector be- trayed his guest into the hands of the emperor. John was brought before the council, and charged with the most monstrous crimes, almost any one of which would have brought a common offender to the scaffold, and to none of these charges did he offer denial or defense. His humble deportment probably saved him from death, but he was solemnly deposed from the popedom, and spent many sub- sequent years in prison. The sentence of deposition was also pronounced upon the absent Benedict, and the abdica- tion of Gregory was formally registered. The council then proceeded to the election of a new pontiff. Otho Colonna, a member of that noble Roman house, and Cardinal-deacon of St. George, was the unanimous choice of the college, which had first been carefully recomposed, so that there should be an equal number of representatives in it of each nation belonging to the council. The new Pontiff assumed the title of Martin V. The first duty which devolved on Martin was to preside over the remaining sessions of the council, which now turned its attention to the general condition of the Church. There was a party in it that sincerely desired a general reforma- tion ; and well knowing that the weight of the papacy was always thrown into the scale of cori-uption, they had stren- COUNCIL OF CONSTAN'CE. 289 uously deprecated the election of a new pope until the nec- essary reform should at least have been commenced. De- feated in this by the election of Martin V., they gave up the cause as a lost one ; for though a committee of refoi'm was appointed, and their plans for regulating the conduct of the clergy, and restraining the acknowledged abuses of indul- gences and dispensations, were approved by the council, in filling up the vacant popedom that assembly had cast away the only opportunity they had of carrying such plans into effect. The reformation was indefinitely postponed. The actually efifective decrees of the Council of Con- stance were rather new impulses to the march of error than checks to its progress. One of its canons restricted the laity to the use of bread only in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, at the same time confessing, with truly popish ef- frontery, that it was a deviation from the practice of the primitive Church. The power that dares to set itself in such defiant opposition to the commands of Christ cannot possibly be cleared from the brandmark of the Antichrist, whose coming was announced by the inspired pen of the apostles. Another of its decrees was as barefaced a viola- tion of the commonest rules of morality. Referring to the base treachery of the emperor in breaking his compact with Huss, respecting the safe-conduct, the council adopted the principle of the act, affirming that, because of his heresy, Huss was unworthy of any privilege, and that no faith or promise ought to be kept with him to the prejudice of the Catholic religion. We cannot wonder that " No faith with heretics" should have become the watch-word of a party whose teachers and leaders could solemnly ordain it as a principle of morals, not hesitating to put evil for good, and darkness for hght. Martin V., as was foreseen, took the earliest occasion of dissolving an assembly which claimed an authority para- mount to his own ; and the Council of Constance — the most memorable that had been held for ages — was accordingly 13 290 LIVES OF THE POPES. dismissed in the spring of 1418. Before it separated, how- ever, it decreed that another general council should be called in five years, a second seven years later, and that afterward they should recur every ten years — a decree which the Pontiff took good eare should never come into operation. The pontificate of Martin was chiefly occupied in attempts to recover possession of the States of the Church, which, in the long absence of the popes, had been the prey of every invader ; of the Hungarians first, and then of the Neapoli- tans. In these attempts he succeeded, and then devoted himself to the amassing of wealth and the aggi-andizement of his family. He was also the first" Pontiff who resumed the royal prerogative of coining money, after it had been exercised by the senate c^* the' senator for nearly three hun- dred years, and in the series of extant papal coins the image and superscription of Martin V. is the first in order. The reforming party were far fi'om content with the re- sults of the Council of Constance, and anxiously looked for- ward to the meeting of another general council, by which the abuses of the Church should be thoroughly discussed, and some effectual remedies applied. But Martin was too politic to permit any such opportunity of undermining the authority of the popedom. In compliance with the htter of the decrees of the former council, he summoned another in 1423, but fixed its place of assembly at Pavia, knowing that their jealous and well-founded apprehensions of papal influence would quite deter the transalpine clergy from at- tending. He summoned another at Basil, in 1431 ; but be- fore its proceedings commenced the Pontiff himself had passed away from the stage of human life. A second cycle in the history of the Romish Church and its pontiffs has now passed before lis. We have yet, in- deed, to see to what a depth of depravity and corruption COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 291 the current of events was now bearing the Pope. But ah-eady we can perceive the symptoms of coming reform. While the darkness is thickening there are occasional corus- cations of light ; and the bright, although somewhat mete- oric career of an Arnold, a Huss, a Jerome, and a Wiclif, proclaim the advancing dawn of the reformation. One obvious lesson to be learned from the foregoing nar- rative, and applicable alike to individuals, nations, and sys- tems, is the utter futility of a mere outward reformation. Such was the reformation of the Church attempted by Gregory the Seventh. It soon became apparent that noth- ing was accomphshed beyond an exchange of vices. Am- bition, which wore the cloak of sanctity in Gregory and in his immediate successors, became undisguised and rampant arrogance and pride in Adrian IV., Alexander III., and Innocent III. ; and ultimately brought back the priesthood (as we shall hereafter see) to the very same point of cor- ruption from which the pseudo-reformation had started, when the avarice, licentiousness, and cruelty of a Bene- dict IX. discovered their hideous features once again in Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII. , and Alexander VI. A second truth which this history suggests is the ab- surdity of the claim set up hy the Romanist for the unity and infallibility of his Church. The anti-popes, who thun- dered their curses against the popes, were often as fully entitled to do so, by canonical law, as the accepted pontiffs themselves. Twice were the rival claims so nicely balanced that nothing less than a general council could settle the strife. Popes have thus belied one another while alive ; and perhaps as often have the decrees of a deceased pon- tiff been repealed or contradicted by the decrees of his suc- cessor. One other fact important to be noted is, that new ex- crescence of the papal system which disgraces its second era — tlie plenary absolution of sins hy indulgences and jubi- lees. The great want of the human soul is the forgiveness 292 LIVES OF THE POPES. of its sins. It is the deepest want of humanity. For this ** the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain to- gether." For this the Divine Redeemer is the " Desu'e of all nations." Richly in his word has he provided for this want of the human family. " Repentance and remission of sins " are the great truths of the gospel. The Saviour's invitations are still addressed to the children of men — " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink " — "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest " — rest by faith in his atoning sacrifice from the stings of a guilty conscience — rest by an interest in his justifying righteousness from the claims of a violated law — rest by the indwelhng of his regenerating Spirit (freely im- parted to all who seek it aright) from the debasing bond- age of sin and corruption. Such is the gospel provision. Woe to that system which has dared to corrupt the fountain of divine truth, and which has presumed to mock the crav- ing of man for the forgiveness of sin, by supplying him with the polluted streams of human inventions, instead of the " living waters " — to tantalize and deceive him with cun- ninof devices and fraudulent mummeries ! Human nature may thus be abused and deluded for a time, but God's righteous providence will discover the foul imposture, and the impostors themselves will become a by-word and re- proach. And the hour of discovery was now at hand. Ere lona: the voice was to be heard that should shake the world, as with the blast of a trumpet, and announce that popes are nothing, priests nothing — that beside the name of Jesus " there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." KXi ®|irL FEOM THE DAWN OF THE REFORMATION TO THE ROMANIST REACTION -A. D. 1431-1605. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS PONTIFICATES OF UGENIUS IV. AND NICHOLAS V. A. D. 1431-1455. No empire, of ancient or modern times, has experienced such marvelous and varied vicissitudes as those which have befallen the empire of the Roman Church. Born in obscurity and reared in adversity, that Church nev- ertheless succeeded in climbing to a loftier throne, and grasping the scepter of a more absolute dominion, than either a Xerxes or an Alexander could boast. Pretending to despise mere worldly gains, she cunningly turned the channels of riches toward herself, and emptied them with- out scruple into the reservoirs of her own wealth. When the day of her humiliation had arrived, and her intolerable arrogance and selfishness provoked fierce vengeance from the indignant world, she did not, like other empires, fall beneath the violent blow. Just for a moment she reeled and recoiled, but it was only to gather new strength and return to her former position. When the German thought to bind her with imperial ordinances and laws, she proudly snapped asunder these "withes of the Philistines," and pro- claimed herself superior to all secular control. When the Albigensian Christians hoped to undermine her authority by laying bare her corruptness to the gaze of the world, she was able, and did not shrink from commanding fire and sword to destroy the presumptuous heretics, and set her 294 LIVES OF THE POPES. free from their annoying and dangerous scrutiny. When the French king, Philip the Fair, resentful of her lordly assumptions, dared to degrade and imprison one of her haughtiest pontiflFs, and so tampered with the cardinals that they were content to endure a base capti\ity at Avignon, submitting their high functions to the unhallowed rule of a mere temporal sovereign, there was still vigor enough left in " the Churcli " to wipe oflF the ignominy and retrieve the disaster. She brought back her chieftains from their " Babylon of bondage," and in spite of schisms within, and new forms of hostility without, engendered by the learning that was now diffusing itself all around, she reestablished them on their ancient throne, and reinvested them with no mean share of their ancient power. And although in the century we are now, in these his- torical sketches, approaching, a heavier shock was given to the Roman Church than she had ever sustained before, we shall find that, notwithstanding her manifest degeneracy, her strength was far from exhausted. Within herself she yet possessed the means of resisting all her foes, and of once again inducing a large portion of the human family to yield her a devoted allegiance. The Reformation, which wrested from Rome the two richest provinces of her empire, was succeeded by a reaction, which at least checked the prog- ress of her ruin, and established on a firmer basis than ever the authority she still retained. To a Roman Catholic, this momentous era in the history of his Chmxh is fraught with the most painful and humiliating, as well as some of the most triumphant reminiscences of her whole eventful career. To us, the collisions between Rome and the Protestant Churches in the sixteenth century are far more interesting than all the other struggles of the papal Church, and they will therefore detain us a proportionable time. It will be manifest, as this narrative proceeds, that much of Rome's wonderful vitality is attributable to the characters of the men who successively occupied her throne. But we EUGENIUS IV. AND NICHOLAS V. 295 shall assuredly find that while some great men impressed the stamp of their greatness upon the age in which they hved, and on the institutions they governed, it was a Greater than any human hand that secretly and potently directed the current of events, making even the selfish papal imposture subservient to the highest and most glorious designs. Again and again are we taught the profound truthfulness of the declaration, that " the Most His^h ruleth in the kino-dom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men^ The pontificate of Eugenius IY., who succeeded Martin Y. in 1431, was distracted by the dissensions which prevailed both in the Church and in the secular dominions of the Pope. A war broke out between Eugenius and some of the baronial houses of Rome, in the vicissitudes of which the lat- ter were well-nigh destroyed, and the Pontiflf was once com- pelled to flee from Rome and seek safety in a neighborino- city. But the proceedings in the Council of Basel, con- vened by his predecessor, rendered ih^ pontificate of Euge- nius so excessively stormy. That council boldly declared its superiority to papal mandates, and would not even ad- mit the Pope's legates until they had sworn obedience to all its decrees. It then hastened to enact statutes abolish- ing annates, reservations, and other lucrative but tyrannical prerogatives of the popedom. To such daring innovations no pontiff could be expected to submit, and least of all Eugenius, who was as proud and passionate as he was ignorant and weak. He summoned a new council at Flor- ence ; whereupon the Council of Basel elected a new Pope, and all the fierceness of the former schism was revived. The contest between these rival Popes and councils was rapidly rising, and would soon have endangered the unity of the Church, if the death of Eugenius, in 1447, had not given an opportunity for choosing a successor to the tiara in whom all parties could unite. With the accession of Nicholas Y. a season of com- 296 LIVES OF THE POPES. parative peace was ushered in. This Pontiff had raised himself from rank to rank in the Church chiefly by his studious and hterary habits. On being recommended to Eugenius IV., he had at once received a cardinal's hat ; but there it seemed probable that his exaltation would cease, as many other members of the college were powerful by their connections, while he was only the son of a physician. By an accident, however, their votes united in him, and he commenced his pontificate with promises of establishing peace and promoting learning. The latter part of his engagement he fulfilled ; the former was beyond his power. The love of liberty which Petrarch had infused into the Roman people, and which Rienzi's brilliant though short career had so largely developed, had not yet become extinct. They often rebelled against the tyranny of the popes, but were not steadfast enough to succeed in throwing off their yoke. In the interval that elapsed between the death of Eugenius and the election of Nicholas, a noble and honor- able Roman, Stefano Porcari, urged his countrymen to oblige the new Pontiff to promise and secure to them con- stitutional liberty. The fickle or frivolous temper of the people prevented his success, and Nicholas therefore as- sumed the tiara with a deep-rooted prejudice against Por- cari, and with such unlimited power, that he banished him almost immediately to the city of Bologna. Porcari, however, found frequent opportunities of escap- ing to Rome, where he stirred up his partisans to attempt a general revolt. Nicholas, hearing of the plot, became apprehensive that his life was in peril, and, from being mild and confiding, grew timid and ferocious. He stained his hands with the blood of the imprudent Porcari, whose sentiments were patriotic and noble, but whose judgment was heated and rash. The patriot was sentenced without trial, and, together with nine of his confederates, was hanged from the battlements of St. Angelo. This cruel transaction was followed by continual acts of severity and injustice ; so EUGENIUS IV. AND NICHOLAS V. 297 that the reign of Nicholas, although peaceful m relation to other states, was one of perpetual cabals and terror at home. The revolt of Porcari was the last effervescence of the repubhcan spirit in Rome, which has continued till the present century in resigned submission to pontifical rule. In the year 1452 the Emperor Frederic III. alarmed the citizens by a visit, but his intentions were wholly pacific. His only request was that he might receive the honor of coronation from papal hands ; and this was the last instance of a German emperor crossing the Alps for so servile and unnecessary a pm-pose. When free from those alarms which had transformed a naturally amiable disposition into one of a suspicious and even tyrannical kind, Nicholas employed himself in pursuits ^hich were as useful to the world as they were cono-enial to his own taste. In his encouragement of learning, he was as splendidly munificent as his own friend and early patron Cosmo de' Medici, the "pater patri^" of Florence. Tlie papal court was crowded with men of letters who were fostered with his bounty. He founded the Vatican library, and contributed to its stores above five thousand manu- scripts, which were collected at his expense, and in part by his own research. A greater number of the Greek classics were translated into Latin by his command than in all the five centuries preceding his elevation. His patronage of the arts was equally generous. The remarkable monuments of the metropolis were preserved and cherished by his enthu- siastic admiration; the churches were repaired and em- bellished; and the erection of many superb structures attested at once the magnificence of his spirit and the re- finement of his taste. Happy should we be to record of so noble a mind that it gave evidence also of havino- been purified by the grace of God ; but alas ! this, the crowning virtue, without which all others are comparatively worthless, was the only one of which Nicholas appeared to be destitute. He had not learned to forsake all and follow Christ 13* 298 LIVES OF THE POPES. From "his literary pursuits, the Pontiff was suddenly called off by the appalling announcement that Constantinople had fallen into the hands of the Ottoman Turks. With the gradual decay of the Greek empire, the insolence and encroachments of this warlike people had kept equal pace. In vain had the Emperor Constantine Palaeologus sought to propitiate the young and ambitious Sultan Mohammed II. Certain of the weakness of the Greeks, (or, as they still chose to be called, the Romans,) Mohammed coolly trans- ported his troops across the Bosphorus, and erected a fortress on its western shore. Issuing thence, with all the munitions of war, in the summer of 1453, he encamped before the walls of Constantinople, and took it, after an obstinate resistance of fifty- three days. In this siege, the artillery of ancient and modern times were combined both in the assault and the defense, thus marking in a singular manner the stage at which the progress of ci\alization had arrived. The '' Greek fire" and the cross-bow were used by the besieged, together with the rude hand-gun, and per- haps the arquebus ; while in the camp of the besiegers, the catapult and battering-ram stood side-by-side with the large cannons contrived for the express occasion by the Turks. Mohammed is said to have constructed a cannon by which a ball of six hundred pounds' weight was driven the dis- tance of a mile, falling then with such force as to sink a fathom deep in the ground. By this mingled species of artillery, a breach was at last effected in the stubborn walls of the city; and in the conflict that ensued, the unhappy emperor finally fell. A large part of Europe thus passed into Ottoman hands, and the beautiful church of San Sophia was forthwith transformed into a Mohammedan mosque. Apprehensive that the success of the conqueror would tempt him to extend his ravages, and perhaps even to aim at the capture of 'the more ancient metropolis of the Roman em- pire, the Pope endeavored to revive among the faithful the crusading spirit of former days. In Germany, the eloquence ALARM OF TURKISH INVASION. 299 of ^neas Sj^lvius was employed to inflame the people ; but with Yery indifferent results. In Italy, a hermit named Simonet was more successful. By his earnestness and ac- tivity he prevailed on the Italian cities to suspend their quarrels, and unite in the common cause. But ere the in- tended armament could be prepared, Nicholas was taken dangerously ill, and after much suffering expired. His con- fessions are fraught with instruction to the worldly and am- bitious. " Gladly," said he, " would I resign the pontificate if I dared, and become once more Thomas of Sarzana. Under that simple name I had more enjoyment in a single day than any year has since afforded me." CHAPTER II. ALARM OF TURKISH INVASION CONSPIRACY OF THE PAZZI. A. D. 1455-14:84:. The successor of Nicholas was Alphonso Borgia, a Span- iard, and who assumed, with the tiara, the title of Calix- Tus III. His short reign of three years produced no re- markable event; and his name might be passed over in silence but for the '' bad eminence " it has reached throug-h the infamous life of Roderic Borgia, who was either his nephew or his son. Of that infamy Calixtus III. justly deserves a share, for he basely used the pontificate for the mere purpose of advancing his nephew, and other equally depraved relatives, to seats of wealth and power. On them he exhausted the papal treasures, and diverted to family aggrandizement the riches that he had sworn to use for the good of a vast community. A little before his death, Calixtus received a deputation from Germany, complaining of papal exactions, and JEneas Sylvius, formerly the emperor's but now the Pope's secre- tary, forgetful of his obligations to the German nation, took 300 LIVES OF THE POPES. this occasion of flattering the Pontiff by stoutly opposing the claims of the delegates. He advocated, with his usual skill and eloquence, the demands of the Pope upon the Ger- man bishops, and was rewarded by immediate elevation to the purple. It is difficult to believe that this was the same man who, at the Council of Basel, had so zealously con- tended that the authority of a council was superior to that of a pope, and that the latter was " rather to be regarded as the vicar of the Church than as the vicar of Christ." But such is the alchemy of ambition — the transmuting power of selfish worldliness. Perhaps it was the advanced age, as much as the high reputation of ^neas Sylvius, that recommended him to the college as the most eligible successor to Calixtus III. on the demise of the latter. Be this as it may, he received a majority of their votes, and immediately adopted the title of Pius II. Had the times been equally favorable, it is probable that the career of Pius II. would have closely re- sembled that of Nicholas Y. The new Pontiff was a man of the same tastes, but of even greater abilities and loftier distinction. His poems, letters, and orations, still attest the brilliancy of his genius. On attaining the popedom, his success in diplomacy and his elaborate historical composi- tions had already established his character for extensive learning, and especially for a just knowledge of mankind. But his talents were destined to be henceforth employed in a direction which rendered them far less useful to the world than they might otherwise have proved. The nearer approach of the Turks to the shores of the Adriatic had thoroughly aroused the fears of the Pope, and decided him to neglect no means of stirring up Christian opposition to the march of the infidel. With this object in view, he summoned a council at Mantua, which was largely attended by Italian bishops, and more reluctantly and meagerly by representatives from the other nations of Eu- rope. At this council, the Pope exerted all his eloquence ALARM OF TURKISH INVASION. 301 to awaken the fears and inflame the zeal of princes and people for the sacred cause. To all appearance he pre- vailed. The council promised assistance, but separated to forgfet their promise. It was at this council that Pius took occasion to recant and reprobate sentiments respecting the popedom which he had held in his earlier days " An exe- crable abuse," said he, " unheard of in ancient times, has gained footing in our days, of presuming to appeal from the Pontiff of Rome, the vicar of Jesus Christ, to a council ; a practice which every man instructed in law must regard as contrary to the holy canons, and prejudicial to the Chris- tian repubhc." In an edict subsequently published, he de- clared that his own defense of such a sentiment at the Council of Basel was owing to ignorance. " Wherefore," he added, *' despise those opinions, reject them, and follow that which I now proclaim to you. Believe me now that I am old, rather than when I spoke as a youth ; pay more regard to the sovereign Pontiff than to the individual ; re- ject ^neas, receive Pius." It has been well observed, that " if this change in opinion had been a change to a wiser and better opinion, and not to one so obviously coincident with the Pontiff's personal advancement, the sincerity of his professions might possibly have been beheved." As the case actually stands, there can hardly be a doubt that the Pontiff well knew that it was ^neas Sylvius who was right, and Pius II. who was wrong. There was real sincerity, however, in the Pope's dread or hatred of the Turks. Fmding the princes of Europe too busily engaged in putting down domestic seditions to think much of a distant foe, Pius resolved to rebuke their remiss- ness by setting them an example in person. " If they will not attend when we say, Go;' exclaimed he, "they per- haps may if we say. Come. We will ourselves march against the Turks ; not that we propose to draw the sword ; but, after the example of Moses, we shall stand on some lofty galley or mountain's brow, and, holding the eucharist 302 LIVES OF THE POPES. before our eyes, implore Christ to grant safety and victory to our contending forces." In the summer of 1464, Pius, although suffering severely from illness and the infirmities of age, actually set out to join a considerable body of troops lying at Ancona. He was borne on a litter, and was con- veyed by slow journeys to the place of rendezvous. On arriving at Ancona he found a multitude of ill-armed and ill-disciplined soldiers, who seemed to have little enthusiasm in the great cause they had espoused. Disappointment and mortification, in all probability, hastened his end, and on the 12th of August Pope Pius II. expired. Paul II., a Venetian, was immediately elected to be the next wearer of the tiara. In early life he had been a mer- chant, and had not turned his thoughts to study until his uncle, or father. Pope Eugenius IV., had unexpectedly attained the popedom, and so given an ambitious direction to his desires. In entering upon office, he solemnly pledged himself to continue the enterprise of the late Pope against the Turks ; but he soon made it evident that there were other objects much nearer his heart. Carefully conciliating the cardinals by granting them various favors, among which was the childish one of permitting them to wear miters made of silk, and to adorn their horses with scarlet trappings, he ventured to employ the treasures which had been gathered by his predecessors for the Turkish crusade, in rewarding the persecutors of the Hussites in Bohemia ; so that the sufferings of that unhappy people were greatly aggravated, and the flames of dvil war raged with renewed fury. At home, Paul displayed himself as the enemy of all learning, and the patron of w^^tever was frivolous and low. He delighted in shows and Spectacles, and his biographer indignantly describes a general racing amusement which was devised for the pleasure of this venerable Pontiff. "All raced — old men, middle-aged men, young men, and Jews ; the latter, however, were well drenched before they started. ALARM OF TURKISH INVASION. 303 that they might not run so fast. Horses raced, mares, asses, and buffaloes ; and at all this racing the populace were so much amused, that they could hardly keep on their feet for laughing. The Pope took his station at the church of St, Marco, and after the race was over, he rewarded all, down to the little boys, covered as they were with dirt and per- spiration, with a carlino apiece." Even in these contemptible sports the wanton cruelty of this Pope's temper discovered itself in his usage of the Jews; and the memory of Paul is rendered not merely despicable, but hateful, by his persecution of learned men, whose learning alone made them odious and suspicious in his eyes. His grasping ambition, moreover, led him to seek, by the most disgraceful means, to subjugate the district of Rimini, and he was thus brought into collision with the rising house of the Medici, of which the " Magnificent Lo- renzo" was then the chief representative. Paul died in 14*71, too early to reap the advantage of an alteration which he had characteristically made, by which the jubilees were to recur every twenty-fifth year. SixTus IV., the successor of Paul, commenced his pon- tificate by professing to adopt the policy of Pius II. He loudly demanded that the decrees of the Mantuan council against the Turks should be carried into eflfect ; and promised indulgences to all who would join in the crusade. But find- ing that his exhortations were coldly received Sixtus quickly grew apathetic in the cause, and resigned himself entirely to those schemes of selfish and criminal aggrandizement which now continually disgraced the papal chair. Lorenzo de' Medici was at this time the absolute ruler of Florence, and on many accounts the most remarkable man of his day. His mercantile successes had excited the envy of another Florentine family, the Pazzi, who removed from Florence to Rome that they might not be offended by the greatness or pride of their rival. This enmity led ultimately to veiy tragical results, in which Sixtus IV. was deeply involved. 304 LIVES OF THE POPES. The Pontiff had several illegitimate sons, whom to enrich and advance was his most anxious concern. He had seized on the estates of one of the nobles of Romagna, intending to confer them on one of these children, Giuliano della Ro- vere, when Lorenzo interfered on behalf of the injured man. That he might further insure the tranquillity of Italy against the ambitious designs of the Pope, De' Medici united Florence in a solemn league with the states of Milan and Venice. The wrath of Sixtus at these measures knew no bounds, and he now engaged the Pazzi, whose hostility to the Medici was no secret, to become the instrument of his vengeance. A plot was soon contrived for the assas- sination of Lorenzo's whole family, in which the Arch- bishop of Pisa engaged also to bear a part. With the most atrocious and revolting coolness was this plot matured. The assassination was fixed for a Sunday, when high-mass would be celebrated at the church of San Reparata at Flor- ence ; and when the brothers, Lorenzo and Giuliano de* Medici, were almost sure to be present. At the commence- ment of the service Giuhano had not arrived, and one of the Pazzi hastened to his house, and, pretending a return of old friendhness, besought him to accompany him to mass. He even placed his aims around his victim, as if playfully to draw him to the church, but really to feel if he wore any kind of armor beneath his dress. Giuliano was persuaded, and soon filled his usual station by his brother's side near to the high altar. All things were now ready; and the conspirators gathered around the unconscious brothers. At the moment that the priest raised the consecrated wafer the assassins rushed on their victims. Giuliano fell, pierced with wounds ; but Lorenzo, having received only a slight scar in the neck, stood on his defense till help was pro- cured, and the murderers either dispatched on the spot or safely secured. It was then found that the Archbishop of Pisa had gone in the meantime to the palace of the Medici, intending to seize on the government. In this attempt he CLIMAX OF THEIR CORRUPTION. 805 was baffled, and so enraged were the people that, without waiting for the form of a trial, or even divesting him of his official robes, they hung the archbishop at one of the win- dows of the palace — a fate which some of the Pazzi shared. The Pope did not conceal his chagrin at the failure of the plot ; and immediately declared war against Lorenzo, placing Florence under the censure of the Church. For two years did this man fill northern Italy with bloodshed and terror ; but the news that the Turkish conqueror had at last reached Italy, and had actually taken Otranto, brought the frenzied Pontiff to his senses, and compelled at least a temporary peace between the conflicting states. But Six- tus passed the remainder of his life in the indulgence of the same passions, and the pursuit of the same ends. To ag- grandize his worthless relatives, and gratify his fierce ani- mosities, he shrank from no crime, and his last emotion was one of regret that he was compelled to leave Italy at peace. He died in 1484. CHAPTER III. THE PAPACr REACHES ITS CLIMAX OF CORRUPTION SAVAN- OROLA THE BORGIAS. A. D. 1484-1503. Innocent VIII. was the next link in this papal chain of ig- nominy, crime, and horror. And although he proved him- self as feeble and indolent as his predecessor had been headstrong and restless, yet his tastes were of the same kind, and his reign was as prejudicial to the welfare of the world. He had spent a dissipated life, and his most earn- est wish was to enrich the seven children whom he pub- licly acknowledged as the results of his various amours. During the pontificate of Innocent, extortion, unblushing venality, and open debauchery were the reproach of the papal court. Innocent was not adapted by nature for warlike pursuits ; yet so eager was he to increase his power 306 LIVES OF THE POPES. and wealth that, when the barons of Naples, groaning un- der the iron yoke of their tyrannical princes, offered to place the kingdom under the immediate government of the Pope, he instantly countenanced the revolt, although he lay under many obligations to Ferdinand, the reigning king. The struggle was unsuccessful ; and, alarmed at the ap- proach of Ferdinand to the Roman territoiy, Innocent sought the good offices of Lorenzo de' Medici to effect a rec- onciliation between himself and the Neapolitan king. From this Lorenzo acquired unbounded ascendency over the weak Pontiff; and to his talents and genius is to be ascribed the temporary repose which Italy now enjoyed. Lorenzo did not, however, use his influence solely for his country's good. His measures were often dictated by mere policy and am- bition, and he did not lose any opportunity of advancing his own family. One of his daughters was now married to a natural son of the Pope, and another child, Giovanni, was admitted at the ridiculous age of thirteen into the college of cardinals. But the most disgraceful event of Innocent's reign was the impulse which he gave to the sanguinary persecutions of the Waldenses of Piedmont. The bull which he issued for this purpose exhorts "all bishops, together with the princes of France," to take up arms against that innocent people, and to " tread them under foot as venomous ad- ders." The response to this bull was as fierce and savage as its bigoted authors could have desired. The inhabitants of the valleys were hunted to the mountain caves to which they fled for refuge, and the mouths of the caverns were stopped up with large piles of wood which were immedi- ately set on fire. Among the crowds thus cruelly suffo- cated were four hundred infants in their cradles or at their mothers' breasts. Multitudes of both sexes, and of all ages, were hurled over the rocks and dashed in pieces ; and alto- gether three thousand thus perished at the hands of their brutal persecutors. CLIMAX OF THEIR CORRUPTION. 307 y Roderic Borgia was the successor of Innocent, in 1492, and on assuraina: the tiara he took the name of Alexan- DER VI. He was the son of Pope Calixtus III,, and the fit successor of Sixtus IV. and Innocent VIII. In his character we find at last the extreme limit of papal de- pravity, and in his history we seem to fathom the lowest abyss of human baseness. If murder, incest, adulteiy, re- lentless cruelty, and shameless perfidy never before met in a single individual, in the life of this Pope they all found a place, and that with frequent repetition. " He entered on his office," says a cotemporary writer, " with the meek- ness of an ox, but he administered it with the fierceness of a lion." His intellectual qualities, which were not despica- ble, were far more than counterbalanced by his vices, and, indeed, were merely the instruments of the latter. A Ro- manist historian testifies that '* in his manners he was most shameless ; wholly divested of sincerity, decency, and truth ; without fidelity or rehgion ; immoderate in avarice ; insatia- ble in ambition ; more than barbarous in cruelty ; passion- ately eager, by any means whatsoever, to exalt his children, some of whom were as detestable as their father." The life of such a man can be but a mere catalogue of crimes, and it could only gratify a prurient curiosity to give a mi- nute account of the deeds of this monster in human form. The early part of Alexander's pontificate was disturbed by an invasion of Italy by the French, under Charles VIII., who laid claim to the throne of Naples. The French monarch passed through Tuscany and sat down before the walls of Rome : but Alexander, who had hitherto vigorously opposed the object of the invader, now thought it best to adopt a conciliatory policy; and receiving Charles in due state, entertained him for a month before he renewed his march. The expedition of the French monarch ended in his making a nominal conquest of Naples, and in his suffer- ing the loss of almost his entire army by their ungoverna- ble hcentiousness and their harassing travel. But the re- 308 LIVES OF THE POPES. suits of this invasion were to be felt in Italy for many years to come. To ecclesiastical affairs Alexander paid just so much at- tention as sufficed to advance his own worldly interests, or to aid in the indulgence of his lusts. He cloaked, yet scarcely concealed his abandoned habits beneath the vail of his priestly office, and abused that office in the most shock- ing manner for the purpose of swelling the revenues of the papal treasury. The priesthood found their account in pandering to the superstitions of the people. Indulgences for all sorts of sins were never so eagerly bought, and the clergy were never so zealous in promoting their sale as now that they were encouraged by the example of the ecclesias- tical chief. To Alexander VI. belongs the shame of being the first Pope who officially declared that souls supposed to be expiating in the fires of purgatory their transgressions and crimes on earth could be released by the will of the Church ; and that papal indulgences would thus avail, not only the purchaser himself, but also those deceased rela- tions of whose happiness he might entertain doubts. It was only to be expected that so mercenary and pro- fane an abuse of all sacred and holy things should arouse the indignation of truly devout men. Among these, the reformer of Florence, Girolamo Savanorola, was the most conspicuous and daring. He did not hesitate to denounce from the pulpit all the vices of the time, and even rebuked his patron, Lorenzo de' Medici, for the countenance he gave to the corrupt morals of the people. It would be too much to affirm that Savanorola was a reformer of the same class with Luther and Calvin, yet his efforts were prompted by the same convictions as theirs, and, in proportion to his knowledsre of the truth, were directed to the same ends. His strong political feelings, however, diverted him from that singleness of aim by which these other reformer were distinguished. To the vehement excitements of party must also be ascribed that decidedly fanatical complexion which CLIMAX OF THEIR CORRUPTION. 309 the conduct of Savanorola eventually assumed. It was great matter of rejoicing to the corrupt priesthood to find that their enemy had suffered himself to fall into this trap ; and it must be equally a cause of regret to sincere Chris- tians, that the memory of so bold a reformer should be tarnished by delusions and extravagances so gross. In- dignant at the tyranny of the Medici, Savanorola proposed the expulsion of that family, and the formation of a repub- lic, of which Jesus Christ should be the head. A coin still exists which was struck by his ordei-s, bearing on one side the Florentine fieur-de-lis, with the motto : " The Senate and people of Florence," and on the other a cross, with the words, "Jesus Christ our king." Proceedings so rash soon exposed Savanorola to the malicious designs of his foes. The fickle populace were induced to give him up to the em- issaries of the Pope, and these soon finished his career by condemnins: him to die the death of a heretic. He was burned in the streets of Florence, and, that no relics might be preserved, his ashes were thrown into the Amo. The offices of the Church were, now more than ever, regarded as mere secular property. They were bought and sold without shame; and all orders, from pope to priest, kept up the disgraceful traffic. " What a spectacle," says a Roman prelate of that time, "is this desolation of the Churches ! All the flocks are abandoned by their shep- herds ; they are given over to the care of hirelings !" A bishopric was the prize, not of the worthiest, but of the richest ; it belonged to him who was best able to purchase it. The owners of Church dignities bestowed them without pausing to inquire whether their favorites possessed either piety or good morals. The Pope, beyond them all, was intent on enriching his own family, and his profligate sons held the highest and most lucrative offices it was in his power to confer. The favorite son of Alexander VI. was Caesar Borgia, a son, the very image of his sire. Although holding a seat 310 LIVES OF THE POPES. in the college of cardinals, he had no relish for ecclesias- tical life. Possessed of great courage and considerable mil- itary skill, Caesar turned soldier, and employed force to give effect to the machinations of his father. Their united aim was to destroy as many as they could of the Romanese no- bles, and seize on their estates ; so that when the popedom should depart from the family, the house of Borgia should still be among the greatest in Italy. In pursuance of this policy, Caesar Borgia first captm^ed the city of Piombino ; then marched against the duke of Urbino, and driving him forth, took possession of his duchy, containing four cities, and thirty fortified places. He finally attacked the States of Camerino, which he also reduced to subjection, after treacherously putting to death the heirs of Giulio di Ya- rano, the lord of that territory. From one stroke of ambi- tion he proceeded to another, until the Pontiff proposed to the college to confer on him the title of King of Romagna and Urabria. It was certainly not the crimes of Borgia that prevented this proposal from being adopted, for his public outrages had been surpassed by the enormities of his earlier life, and he yet retained his cardinal's hat. He was even accused, and not without reason, of having murdered his own broth- er, the duke of Gandia. The two brothers had been to the house of their mother Vanozza to sup, and left together at a late hour. Next morning the duke of Gandia was missing, and some fishermen dragging the Tiber, found his body, pierced with nine wounds, while its dress and orna- ments were untouched. Jealousy of his brother's titles and prospective honors are supposed to have incited Caesar to the deed. But, though not restrained from elevating Borgia to roy- alty by any sense of his real demerits, the cardinals were prevented by a more potent argument ; for the death of the Pontiff himself occurred while the question was held in debate. The end of Alexander VI. was a meet sequel to THE WARS OF JULIUS II. 311 bis life. Borgia and the Pope had plotted to poison a rich cardinal, that they might lay hands on his wealth. The whole body of cardinals were therefore invited to a ban- quet, and among the wines provided was one bottle of poi- son carefully prepared and set apart. But the Pope and his son coming in before supper, called for some wine, and a servant presented them by mistake with the bottle con- taining the poison. Borgia had largely diluted his wine, and, being young and vigorous, he recovered under the use of proper antidotes ; but Alexander died the same evening, — a remarkable example of divine retribution !* CHAPTER IV. PIUS III. THE WARS OF JULIUS II. HIS PATRONAGE OF ART. A. D. 1503-1513. To the monster of depravity whose life we have briefly sketched in the foregoing chapter, succeeded Pius III. He was the nephew of Pius II., that ^neas Sylvius who acted so important a part in the Council of Basel. The new Pontiff inherited some of his uncle's nobler qualities, and, indeed, was so esteemed for his virtue that great hopes were formed of him. But although the possession of a character of such rare excellence was a good argument for the elevation of the new Pontiff, it was by no means the real ground of his election. Behind this plausible pre- '■' The cotemporary historian, Guicciardini, declares that " all Kome rushed to St. Peter's with incredible delight to behold his corpse, nor was there any man who could satiate his eyes with gazing on that serpent, which, by his unbounded ambition, his pestiferous perfidy, his frightful cruelties of all kinds, his mon- strous lust, his unheard-of avarice, and his unscrupulous traflBck- ing with things sacred and profane, had impoisoned the whole world !" 312 LIVES OF THE POPES. tense, the Cardinal della Rovere, whose influence had decided the conclave, concealed other motives of a purely selfish nature. That cardinal, who, it will be remembered, was deeply implicated with Sixtus IV. in the conspiracy of the Pazzi, and whose hands were therefore stained with the blood of a murdered man, was secretly plotting the attain- ment of the tiara for himself, and, because the time was not yet fully ripe, supported the pretensions of Pius III., an infirm and sickly old man, who was not likely to hold his dignities inconveniently long. In fact, Pius died a month after his exaltation ; and whether his end was occa- sioned by poison, as rumor averred, or by a natural decay, the event was, unquestionably, the most opportune that could have happened for the wily and subtile Cardinal della Rovere. He had by this time gained over the whole col- lege to his interest, and the obsequies of the late Pope were no sooner over than Giuliano della Rovere was chosen his successor. Julius II. was the title the new Pontiff assumed ; to indi- cate, as some say, his preference for the regal and military to the ecclesiastical character. Ambitious, bold, reckless, and grasping, Julius had little sympathy with the sensual vices of Alexander VI., and yet the aspect of tlie papacy was in no degree improved. The whole ten years of this pontificate were devoted to frauds and stratagems, and deeds of violence and injustice. The Pope's first eflfort was to appropriate some of the cities of Romagna, and incorporate them with the states of the Church. To accomplish this purpose he seized on Caesar Borgia, who had conquered these cities in the life- time of his father, and had placed in them creatures of his own, to keep and govern them for him. The Pope then announced to these governors that he would give liberty to their leader only when they should have resigned their authority, with the keys of their cities, into the hands of liis envoys. By these summary measures, he quickly sue- THE WARS OF JULIUS II. 313 ceeded in delivering himself from a dangerous subject, (for Borgia instantly quitted Rome forever,) and likewise in considerably enlarging the papal domains. The success of his first enterprise emboldened Julius to proceed. The Venetians, the French, and many of the petty sovereignties of Italy, were in turn the objects of pontifical envy or revenge. The Pope had a two-fold inten- tion— to free Italy from foreign encroachments, and to secure to the popedom a decided preeminence among the peninsular powers. Jealousy of the Venetian republic, which was at this time in the zenith of her glory, induced him to join in the league of Cambray, in which the French, German, and Spanish monarchs combined their forces with those of Julius to humble the mistress of the sea. But speedily growing alarmed at the successes of the League, and apprehensive that the French might thus become sole lords of northern Italy, the Pontiflf changed his policy, was reconciled to the Venetians, and declared war against the French. In all these operations, moreover, the Pope took an active personal part. As if loving the tumultuous camp more than the tranquil palace, he clothed himself in panoply of steel, put himself at the head of his army, and, despising all danger, was often found foremost in the fray. In conducting hostilities against the French, Julius, although suffering from illness, had proceeded with some troops to Bologna, and that city being wholly unprepared for defense, he had, on its being attacked by the enemy, a nar- row escape from falling into their hands. But his policy was equal to his courage, and he continued to delude the French general with promises and fair speeches, until strong reinforcements arrived and his safety was insured. Not long after this, we find the energetic and impetuous old man assailing the city of Mirandula, and heedlessly ex- posing his person to every conceivable peril. Amid frosts and storms, in the depth of winter, he marched at the head of his forces, directed with his own bands the planting of 14 314 LIVES OF THE POPES. the artillery, braved the hottest fire of the enemy, and when a breach in the wall was effected, was the first to mount the scaling-ladder, sword in hand, and to enter the captm'ed city. Had the energetic qualities thus exhibited by the Pontiff been employed in a worthier cause, and been animated by right principles, the name of Julius II. might well have commanded our admiration. But, alas! he was stained with vice. His courage and boldness were made the serv- ants of a base ambition, and they often degenerated into rashness and rage, scarcely to be distinguished from mad- ness. His insolence and tyranny was so excessive, that the cities of Italy dreaded to fall into his hands ; and when, in one of the numerous vicissitudes of war, the city of Bologna was on one occasion surprised and captured by his an- tagonists, the inhabitants were so delirious with joy that they rushed in a mass to the great square, in which stood a noble statue of the Pontiff which Michael Angelo had founded in brass, and, regardless of its high merit as a mas- terpiece of art, indignantly hurled it from its pedestal, and dragged it about the streets with every demonstration of hatred and contempt. Ambition has many forms of development, and in Julius II. it discovered itself in another mode, far less objectionable than these attitudes of menace and deeds of cruelty. The revival of literature had brought with it the renewed cultiva- tion of the arts ; and, imitating the conduct of Lorenzo do* Medici, most of the sovereigns of Italy had become patrons of the painters, architects, and sculptors which that age of genius produced in such numbers. The zeal which the Pope felt for aggrandizing the patrimony of the Church, added to his private ambition, rendered him a munificent patron of all sorts of artists. By their aid he determined so to decorate and enrich the metropolis of the Church, as to make Rome the pride of Italy, and the admiration of the world. The reimi of Julius IT. wns, therefore, notwith- THE WARS OF JULIUS II. 316 standing the fact that he was a man of little taste and even of savage propensities, distinguished for the prosperity of the arts. The architect Bramante was an especial favorite with Julius, by whose orders he executed the great task of unit- ing the Belvedere with the Vatican, thus giving to the whole the aspect of an imposing and stupendous mass of building, almost without a rival. It was the same architect and the same Pontiff who commenced the cathedral of St. Peter's, and it has been declared by competent judges that, had their design been fully carried out, that triumph of art would have been made yet more astonishing for beauty and majesty than it actually is. Besides Bramante, the Pope patronized the painter Raphael, whom he invited to leave Florence and settle at Rome. During the reign of Julius, Raphael was largely employed in adorning the walls and ceilings of the Vatican with frescoes, which are to this day the wonder of mankind. But the brightest star in all this constellation of genius was unquestionaly Mchael Angelo, whose powers seemed equally adapted for bearing away the palm either in paint- ing,' architecture, or sculptm-e. Hearing of his marvelous skill, Julius sent for him to Rome, and instructed him to design a mausoleum that should perpetuate for ages the fame of the Julian pontificate. In this design the mighty master seemed even to surpass himself, and it is confidently asserted that, had it been properly executed, it would have wholly eclipsed every similar edifice of ancient and modern times. Its dimensions were so large that it could not be contained in the old church of St. Peter, and on this account it was that Julius resolved to erect the new cathedral on a nobler scale. The temper of the Pope and that of his favorite artist were not unlike. Both were independent and choleric, and it is related that Angelo, feehng oflfended at some want of respect shown him on a certain occasion, determined on 316 LIVES OF THE POPES. selling his goods and departing altogether from Rome ; he had, in fact, estabhshed himself once more in Florence, when messages came from the Pope desiring his return. After many refusals, Angelo at last made his appearance again in the Vatican, and the interview between himself and Julius is highly characteristic of the latter. " What then !" said Julius, with an angry look, " instead of coming to seek us, thou wast determined that we should come to seek thee !" A bishop in attendance endeavored to apolo- gize for the artist. *' Who told thee to interfere ?" ex- claimed the Pope, at the same time dealing the prelate a hearty blow with his staff. Then bidding Michael Angelo to kneel, he gave him his benediction in due form, and re- ceived him once more into favor. Another anecdote is told which equally illustrates this Pontiff's character. He had given directions to Angelo to make his statue in bronze. The clay model was soon finished and shown to the Pope. His attitude was the very expression of majesty, but its face wore so terrible a frown that Julius himself demanded, "Am I uttering a blessing or a curse V Michael Angelo replied, that he had intended to represent him pronouncing an admonition, and inquired if he would have a book placed in one of his hands. " Give me a sword P' answered the fierce Pontiff — "I know nothing of books." It is clear enough from all this that Julius II. had little of the ecclesiastical character, even as it then prevailed, and of that of piety he gave no traces whatever. The unre- generate heart showed itself without disguise in him. The natural passions were unchecked — were indulged and ex- hibited even to excess ; indeed the chief use that Julius made of his ecclesiastical position was to arm himself against his foes with spiritual in addition to carnal weapons. Excommunications, interdicts, and all similar fulminations were freely put in requisition; and their power was not yet so far gone but that the enemies of Julius trembled before him. CHARACTER OF LEO X.. 81*1 The moral aspect of the Roman Church continued un- changed throughout this pontificate. Its abuses were fur- ther multiphed, and a little company of cardinals, who were disgusted at the profligacy of the court, and who attempted, to hold a council for the reformation of the Church, soon found that, abandoned both by the Pope and the people, having neither the sanction of the one nor the confidence of the other, their labors were wholly in vain. It was not from such a quarter that reformation, now so urgently called for, was to proceed. The death of Juhus II., which occurred in 1513, was in mournful harmony with his life, and strongly reminds one of the death of Pope Boniface VIII. Even on his dying bed, Julius could not lay aside his schemes of ambition, or the fierce invectives of his violent tongue. " Out of Italy, French ! Out, Alphonso of Este !" he shouted with all the energy he could command ; and whether we regard these expressions as the eflfects of delirium, or with Mr. Roscoe, as only signs of " the ruling passion strong in death," they give unequivocal and lamentable proof that Pope Julius II. died as he had lived, a man of unsubdued arrogance and of unrestrained malignant passions. How strongly should such an example impress upon the reader the necessity of those influences of the Holy Spirit, without which a man cannot see the kingdom of heaven ! CHAPTER V. LEO X. HIS CHARACTER AND MANNER OF LIFE STATE OF SOCIETY. A. D. 1513. No contrast can be stronger than is presented between the character of the turbulent Julius and that of his mild and almost slothful successor. The choice of the conclave fell, after seven days' deliberation and party- plotting, upon Gio- 318 LIVES OF THE POPES. vanni de' Medici, second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. The Medici had known painful reverses since the death of Lorenzo. They had been expelled from Florence, and had lost most of their power and much of their wealth. It was only by obser-^ing the most politic course of beha\aor that they were enabled to maintain among the jealous princes of Italy a position at all worthy of their hereditary greatness. But no disposition could have been better adapted for such trying circumstances than that of Giovanni de' Medici ; and it was probably his conciliatory and polite, if not amia- ble demeanor, that now secured him the high dignity to which he had secretly aspired from his earhest youth. The accession of De' Medici to the tiara as Leo X. aflford- ed real joy to those who desired repose from the turmoils of war, and who sighed for the uninterrupted cultivation of letters and the arts. Better aspirations than these could hardly be said to exist at that period in Italy. There were few who desired the amendment of morals, or the restora- tion of pure religion ; perhaps there were none who knew by what means alone such changes could be produced. The Bible was either a sealed or a neglected book. It was, however, in peaceful and enlightened pursuits that the new Pontiff had passed his life ; and it was ex- pected, not unjustly, that he would distinguish his reign by the most generous patronage of all learned and ingenious men. Among the inscriptions that adorned the tiiumphal arches and the palaces of Rome on the day of Leo's coro- nation, was one that expressed this feeling in pithy and striking phrase. Alluding to the debaucheries of Alexan- der VL, and the warlike habits of Julius II., it contrasted wnth these the mild and studious disposition of the new Pontiff, in the following lines : — " Once Venus ruled ; next Mars usurped the throne ; Now Pallas calls these favored seats her own." Leo, however, did not combine with his love for literature and art any desires for the establishment of purity in the CHARACTER OF LEO X. 319 Roman Church ; even had he done so, however, that vast organization of fraud and wickedness had now gone to moral decay, beyond the reach of any restorative influence that a pope could employ, however excellent he might him- self have been. It was not, as we shall see, to be regener- ated at all ; and whatever amendment in morals it was des- tined to receive, the first impulse required to be given wholly from beyond its own borders. The life of Leo X. was one of intellectual sensuality, which, though widely removed from the debasing habits of his immediate predecessors, was not a whit more fevorable to the prevalence of " pure and undefiled religion." Reared by his father amid relics of ancient art, saved from the gen- eral wreck of Greece and imperial Rome, he had been ac- customed to revere the wisdom and genius of heathen sages far more profoundly than the deepest inspirations of the apostles and of the Son of God. At the time when he assumed the pontificate, the tendency of the age, of which he was the true offspring, had reached its culminating point. The homage for antiquity had attained its greatest height, and was producing its proper fruits in inciting men to emu- late in writings composed in their own mother-tongue, the ancient mode?s of philosophy and wit. Artists and sculptors also were weary of merely coipying the ancients, and hence we find a Raphael and an Angelo embodying religious con- ceptions, drawn from the faith or the superstitions of their time, in forms as purely beautiful and sublime as any that emanated from the schools of Greece. Leo was the patron both of those who delighted in imi- tating the ancients, and of those who strove after originality in their labors. His education and taste perhaps inclined him most to the former ; and he rewarded with the highest favor those who excelled in Latin composition. He could himself write and speak that language with Ciceronian ele- gance, and an improvisatore of Latin hexameters needed no other recommendation to his esteem than his possession of 320 LIVES OF THE POPES. that art. But Leo also encouraged the attempts of Bembo and others to give correctness and dignity to the native Italian, and every effort at original writing in that tongue was rewarded with his cordial approval. "Ariosto," we are told, "was among the acquaintances of his youth. Machiavelli composed more than one of his works expressly for him. His halls, galleries, and chapels were filled by Raphael with the rich ideals of human beauty, and with the purest expression of life in its most varied forms. He was a passionate lover of music — a more scientific practice of which was just then becoming diflPused throughout Italy ; the sounds of music were daily heard floating through the palace, Leo himself humming the airs that were per- formed."— Ranke, Book I., Chap, ii, 3. With these intellectual enjoyments, Leo blended others of a yet lighter kind ; for his life was one of worldly pleas- ure, and he paid little heed to the most pressing exigencies of either Church or State. The autumn he would pass in the country, hawking at Viterbo, hunting the stag at Cor- neto, or fishing in the lake of Bolsena. His favorite rural residence was Malliano, where he would surround himself with improvisatori, and other men of light and agreeable talents, (down to the jester and buffoon,) who aided in making the hours — those precious deposits — pass, as he thought, pleasantly away. In the winter Leo mostly kept his court in Rome, where men of learning and genius were always welcome, and where a round of gay and costly festivities relieved the fatigue which his occasional attention to public concerns might create. No expenditure was found too lavish when the question was one of amusements, theaters, presents, or marks of favor. There was high jubilee when it was known that Giuliano de' Medici meant to settle with his young wife in Rome. " Here," writes Cardinal Bibbiena to him, " we lack nothing but a court with ladies !" — Ranke, Book I, Chap, ii, 3. CHARACTER OF LEO X. 321 Amid all this merry-making it would have been hard in deed for thoughts of reforming the Church to have entered the Pontiff's mind. In truth, the Church was not in a state very different from that which a man like Leo would have naturally preferred to any other. Had it been an easy task — had there been no vexation and trouble involved in bringing about the change — he might perhaps have en- deavored to repress open immorality in the priesthood, and would have insisted that a teacher of others should be possessed of some learning himself. The open vices of the clergy might have received some rebuke, and the shame- ful ignorance that generally prevailed might have been par- tially removed. Although he might not have cared more than his predecessors whether doctors in theology had ever read a single page of the Bible, he would at least have thought it decent that the priests should be able to read the mass with tolerable correctness. But even to effect such seemly alterations as these Leo X. was destitute of the requisite energy. They would doubtless have met with his approbation, but to originate them was more than he had courage to attempt. No wish, however, for the establish- ment of spiritual religion and vital godliness could ever have entered his mind ; for in these he was quite wanting himself. Indeed, it is only too probable that, like most of the literati of his age, he was no believer at all in the sol- emn verities of holy writ. It is affirmed of him that he once exclaimed: "This Christianity! how profitable a farce it has proved to us !" It is certain that Leo was surrounded by men who held every conceivable shade of infidel and skeptical opinions, from the avowed and unblushinsf atheist to the secret doubter. The most awful declarations of Scripture fur- nished matter for the jesting and mockery of the gay court- iers who attended the Pope, Even the priests were wont to boast to each other, in their revelries, how they deluded the people, by only pretending to transubstantiate the bread 14* 322 LIVES OF THE POPES. and wine in the mass, saying, instead of the usual formula, '*Panis es et panis manehis,^'' " Vinum es et vinum mane- his" — " Bread thou art and bread thou shalt remain ;'* "Wine thou art and wine thou shalt abide." One who was not at all likely to be a severe censor of vice, but •who was endowed with a keen foresight of social changes, the renowned Machiavelli, observed that "the greatest symptoms of the approaching ruin of Christianity," (by which he meant Roman Catholicism,) "is that the nearer the nations are to the capital of Christendom, the less do we find in them of a real Christian spirit. The crimes and scandalous example of the court of Rome are the cause of Italy having lost all principles of piety and all religious feelings. Indeed, we Italians have chiefly to thank the Church and the priests for having become a nation of im- pious persons and cut-throats." — Machiavelli, Disser- tation on First Decade of Livy. The depravity of the Romish Church had, indeed, reached its highest chmax ; but the same Divine Providence which, in a former age, had raised up an Arnold, a Wiclif, a Jerome, and a Huss, had now prepared a remedy for the gigantic evils with which the papal system had oppressed the world. CHAPTER VI. WARS OF LEO X. WITH FRANCE AND URBINO CONSPIRACY OF CARDINALS. A. D. 1513-1517. Desperate as was the moral state of the Church, and loud as was the call for a thorough reform — a call to which ut- terance had been given with more or less distinctness ever since the Council of Constance — it was not to ecclesiastical matters that Leo X. first gave his attention. He had hardly ascended the throne when Italy was thrown into alarm at the news of another French invasion bv the WAR.S OF LEO X. 323 annies of King Louis XII. Ever since the expedition of Charles VIII. the French had laid claim to the duchy of Milan, and the \dgorous efforts of Julius II. to preserve Italy from foreign encroachments have already passed before us in review. The death of that redoubtable Pontiff seems to have encouraged the French monarch to renew the attempt to wrest the Milanese territory from Maximihan Sforza, who now held the scepter of that duchy. Sforza turned an imploring eye to the Pope, who, although no mihtary genius, saw clearly enough the demands of the crisis. Leo first of all attempted to draw the emperor and the king of England into a league of defense for Italy ; but finding that succors arrived but tardily from these remote quarters, he engaged at his own expense a numereus body of Swiss mercenaries, which he added to all the force that could possibly be raised within the Italian borders. In the battle of Novara, which was fought June 6, 1513, the question of French occupancy was decided for the present ; for, after a dreadful conflict, the Smss and Italians came off wholly victorious, and Louis XII. was glad to purchase peace on the most humiliating terms. The death of Louis XIL, in 1515, completely changed, however, the aspect of affairs. Francis I., his successor, was ardent and aspiring. He burned above all to achieve for himself the reputation of a warrior, and therefore lost no time in asserting his right to the duchy of Milan. But Francis was not devoid of prudence, and he accordingly commenced operations by laboring to eflfect a union be- tween himself and those other monarchs who were likely to obstruct his designs. He succeeded in contracting an alli- ance with Henry VIIL of England — with the archduke, soon to be the Emperor Charles V. — and with the Vene- tian senate. So formidable a league against the quiet of central Italy made the Pontiff tremble ; and his cautious temper induced him to refrain alike from opposing so strong 324 LIVES OF THE POPES. a confederacy, and from giving countenance to their plans, until he should be more certain of the probable results. He resolved, therefore, for the present to leave Milan to its fate. After some temporizing, however, Leo found it to be quite necessary that he should take a decided part in the approaching contest. Siding, therefore, with those who aimed at keeping the too powerful French out of Italy, he united his arms with those of the Swiss, the Emperor Max- imilian, and Ferdinand of Aragon. The details of this struggle may be rapidly told. Fran- cis made his appearance in Italy at the head of a powerful army, comprising the flower of French chivalry, expecting to be joined there by his Venetian allies. But his progress was disputed at every step by the brave Swiss, who were eager to repeat the achievements of Novara. At Marig- nano the allied armies met the intruders in full force. In a hard-fought battle the French proved themselves more than a match for the combined strength of the Italians, Spaniards, and Swiss. It was toward evening when these last commenced the attack with their wonted impetuosity, and, breaking the French lines, would, perhaps, have car- ried all before them had not the darkness of night inter- rupted the combat. All that night both armies continued under arms, waiting impatiently for the dawn, that the work of carnage might begin afresh. When day broke, it was seen that Francis had reorganized his forces. He led the vanguard in person, and inspired his soldiers with such enthusiasm that they fought with great courage, and in the end gained a decisive victory. Francis was now imdisputed master of Milan, and the politic Leo hastened forthwith to conciliate a foe who, if further exasperated, might inflict injury even on the sacred domains of the Church. But the French king was content with his present conquests, and, receiving the Pope's am- bassadors with the greatest cordiality, proposed a personal ( WARS OF LEO X. 325 interview between himself and Leo, for the purpose of strengthening the ties of their friendship. The meeting was arranged to be held at Bologna, and thither both the potentates proceeded, attended by a large concourse of followers of all kinds. At Bologna, Francis performed homage to the Pope, according to custom, by kissing Leo's hand and foot ; and the Pontifif insisted, on his part, that the king should keep his head covered, although contrary to the usual etiquette. This visit of Francis to Leo lasted for some weeks, and the time was not wholly exhausted in tom-naments and other festivities; many really important transactions, which deeply affected the welfare of both France and Italy, took place between the two princes. Among these was the abolition of the Pragmatic Sanc- tion, an ancient covenant between the popes and the monarchs of France, through which the French Churches had enjoyed a singular independence of papal control. It was now agreed that all the powers of the Pope should be transferred to the king, who should henceforth present to all vacant sees, and adjudicate in all ecclesiastical affairs, with a merely nominal subjection to the supremacy of the Pope. The French clergy remonstrated in vain against this arrange- ment, by which they had gained a master who had full power to compel obedience, in exchange for one whose will might very often be safely set at naught. The independence of the French Church was thus destroyed ; and although the growing insolence of prelates had rendered the step quite essential to the repose of France, it will be hard to excul- pate the Pope and the king (with whom it was a mere question of policy, and who acted throughout the business in direct opposition to all their professed convictions of papal supremacy) from the charge so vehemently urged against them, of buying and selling the spiritual interests of the people. It was also at this Bologna conference that Francis, so- licitous to please the English king, obtained for his ambitious 326 LIVES OF THE POPES. servant, Wolsey, a cardinal's hat as compensation for the loss of a bishopric in France which Francis desired for a friend of his own. Relieved from the terrors of foreign invasion, Leo had leisure to undertake some long-cherished designs for the aggrandizement of his own family. For such selfish aims the popes had now become notorious, and the ambitious Medici were not likely to let slip an opportunity so favorable as the present, when one of their house swayed the potent scepter of the Church. Leo's aflfections were chiefly directed to his nephew Lorenzo, and he now resolved to obtain for that nephew a lasting position among the sovereigns of Italy. In a state of society so depraved as that of the Italians in the sixteenth century, it was no difficult matter for a Pope to charge any of liis neighbors with some crimes of a very serious nature. The duchy of Urbino seemed to Leo the most desirable pos- session for his relative, and he therefore immediately pro- ceeded to accuse its duke of having formerly, with his own hands, assassinated a cardinal in the streets of Ravenna. For this crime, which indeed was not denied, the duke was now summoned to answer before the papal tribunal. An instant refusal to obey the citation furnished a plausible pretext for the employment of force, and a civil war ensued, which, if it did not deluge Italy with blood, like the wars of Charles VIII. and Louis XII., kept the central states em- broiled for a long time in continual discord. The Pope appears to especial disadvantage in the whole of this affair. As cupidity prompted and injustice com- menced it, so did cruelty and treachery signalize its prose- cution and its close. Tlie duchess of Urbino obtained audience of Leo, and forcibly urged how great would be the scandal, how monstrous the ingratitude, if Lorenzo, whom, when an infant, she had caressed in her arms, should now rise up against his benefactors, and repay their kind- ness with persecution and robbery. But her entreaties and WARS OP LEO X. 327 tears were all in vain : ambition had effectually steeled the heart of the Pope against the claims of justice, and even the voice of pity. The spoliation was decided on ; and so far did Leo cany his harshness, that when, after Urbino had been seized and its duke sent into exile, the latter humbly petitioned to be at least set free from ecclesiastical censures, the Pope sternly refused to grant even this cheap favor, which the poor duke sincerely believed to be neces- sary for the salvation of his soul. But cruelty goes not unpunished. It often meets a rec- ompense even in the present life ; and although this action of Leo's was quite at variance with the usual tenor of his life, yet it was destined to receive retribution. In the course of the contest with Urbino, many wholly unoffending families were, of course, involved in the ruin so indiscrimin- ately dealt out by the violent hands of war. Among these was the family of the Petrucci, which had been de- prived by the Pope of their government of Sienna, and expelled altogether from that city. But one of the Petrucci was in the sacred college, and Cardinal Petrucci now medi- tated a deadly revenge against the destroyer of his house. At first, he declared he would not hesitate to assassinate the Pontiff wherever he might chance to meet him ; but as soon as the paroxysm of his anger had subsided he took other measures, and secretly formed a conspiracy for taking away his life by poison. Still the fierce passions that raged within him could ill brook the delay necessary to accom- plish his object, and he often gave utterance to his wrath in a manner so public that he was at last obliged to escape from Rome, to avoid the consequences of his imprudence. To Leo's dismay it was now found that the conspiracy had been joined in by a considerable number of the cardinals, and he instantly caused such as he suspected to be appre- hended and committed to prison. Petrucci himself was inveigled to Rome by the sacred promise of a safe-conduct, a promise only made to be shamefully broken. After bit- 328 LIVES OF THE POPES. terly reproaching the guilty cardinals for their treachery, Leo sentenced Petrucci and some inferior confederates to be strangled in prison, and the other chief conspirators were heavily fined. The peace of the Pontiff's life could not, however, be restored by judicial punishments. Treason might still, for aught he knew, be working in secret, and Leo was now condemned to experience the miserable torment of always fearing an unknown and invisible foe. To relieve himself of these miseries he resolved on largely augmenting the number of cardinals, hoping thus to be assured that the majority of the college would be his grateful and faithful adherents. At one time, he promoted thirty-one persons to this much-coveted honor, some of whom were his own relatives, others his personal friends, and the remainder in- dividuals of eminence in connection with the courts of France, Germany, Portugal, and Spain. By this politic step he greatly advanced his influence abroad, and secured more firmly the bonds of peace and safety at home. CHAPTER VII. PONTIFICATE OF LEO X. OUTBREAK OF THE P.EFORMATION THE OPPOSITION OF ROME. A. D. 1517-1520. It is somewhat remarkable that Leo X., who longed for nothing so much as the quiet enjoyment of life, should have been allowed less repose than most of his predecessors. No sooner had he hushed the storms of political and do- mestic strife than fearful indications appeared of a far more fierce and protracted ecclesiastical war. The Reformation now began to gather its forces, and already sounded from behind the Alps the loud clarion of battle. For ages it had been the common practice of the popes to replenish their treasury, whenever it was deeply drained, OUTBREAK OF THE REFORMATION. 329 by means of indulgences. For the promulgation of these, the shghtest occasion or excuse was eagerly seized. Thus, when Julius II. determined on erecting the new cathedral of St. Peter's, it furnished an excellent pretext for the sale of indulgences. And as the completion of this edifice was a slow and tedious work, extending over a space of many years, the same source of revenue continued open long after Julius was laid in the tomb. The lavish expenditure of Leo X. made such resources peculiarly needful and accept- able to him, and we have evidence, if we may so term it, of one of the best purposes to which these funds were devoted, in a curious document yei extant, — a letter from Leo to his commissioner of indulgences, requiring a hundred and forty ducats to effect the purchase of a manuscript of the thirty- third book of Livy. The sale of indulgences had thus become an authorized and regular branch of clerical duties. It was a traflSc chiefly monopolized, however, by the Begging Friars, an order which, originally pretending to superior sanctity, had now grown to be the most dissolute and venal of all, and the members of which were even the moral pestilence of the unhappy neighborhood they chose to infest. Wander- ing from town to town, they everywhere oJSfered their in- dulgences for sale in the most public places, and with un- blushing effrontery exaggerated the sufficiently impudent claims of the impious indulgence itself. There was no sin, they affirmed, however awful it might be, for which the in- dulgence would not secure an ample pardon. Nay ! men might thus purchase a complete absolution from all crimes whatever that they might yet intend to commit. All would be pardoned, and that without the disagreeable necessity of repentance. Relatives who were groaning in purgatory might thus be set free, and "the very moment," said one of the indulgence-sellers, ''that the purchase-money chinks at the bottom of the strong box, these souls escape from their torments, and soar to heaven." For the paltry 330 LIVES OF THE POPES. sum of twelve groats, they were reminded, a man could deliver his father out of purgatory ; and for eight ducats he might commit murder without fear of eternal retribution.* But the labors of Dante and Petrarch, of Reuchlin and Erasmus, had not been so utterly lost as to leave the world quite in the same darkness as of old respecting these blas- phemous pretensions. The seller of indulgences now often encountered the laughter of an unbelieving audience, and sometimes received a severer and not undeserved chastise- ment. Especially in Germany had the bonds of supersti- tion been loosened by that spirit of free inquiry into every sort of doctrine to which the revival of letters had given birth. In Germany, also, it was not felt, so strongly as in Italy, that it was for the interest of the priesthood to uphold absurd dogmas which in their hearts men had wholly ceased to believe. There was a spirit rising in Germany that could not endure the loathsome mixture of arrogance, hy- pocrisy, and blasphemy of which an indulgence-seller was composed; and this spirit pervaded the universities and monasteries, as well as the cities and towns. Already had Luther, preacher in the town church of Wittenberg, and professor of theology in its university, awakened great attention to the paramount authority of the Scriptures, and especially to the Scriptural, but then novel and ill-understood doctrine of the sinner's justification by faith alone in the atonement of Christ. Already he had gathered around him a promising phalanx of ardent young men, who looked up to him with reverence as a revealer of new truth, and in whose hearts was kindled a holy zeal akin to his own. But at present Luther still retained the profoundest re- spect for the Pope, and for all the ancient institutions of the Roman Church. He groaned over the flagrant abuses^ " See further details of this monstrous traffic in Merle D'Au- bigne's " History of the Reformation," book iii, who cites Luth-er's Theses, Tetzel's Anti-Theses, and Miiller's Reliq. iii, p. 264. OUTBREAK OF THE REFORMATION. 331 of the times, but persuaded himself that these abuses were not tolerated by the Pope, and needed only to be exposed to be removed. To this very task he was now addressing himself with all the stupendous energy of his soul ; and when, in 1516, he heard that Tetzel, one of the most noto- rious and impudent of the indulgence-mongers, had ven- tured to approach Wittenberg, hawking his blasphemous certificates for the salvation of souls, and proclaiming their virtues in the most extravagant and shocking terms, Luther burned with indignation, and he passionately exclaimed : " If God permit, I will knock a hole in his drum !" How his threat was fulfilled, and what dissensions were created in Germany by the bold stand which the reformer made for a purer creed and worship, it is beside our pres- ent purpose minutely to record. We have here chiefly to do with the ultimate results of his labors, and their direct effects on Italy and the popedom. Nevertheless, the noble reformer himself must occasionally pass across the scene. Luther's boldest stroke was his affixing -to the doors of Wittenberg church the famous ninety-five theses or prop- ositions, in which he distinctly impugned the authority of the indulgences. These theses were copied and spread abroad with wonderful rapidity. " It was as if angels had carried them," said his disciples afterward. In a fortnight, they were talked of throughout Germany ; and in a month, had reached the confines of Christendom, both east and west. The Emperor Maximilian saw that the bold innova- tor might one day assist him against the Pope, -as Savan- orola had formerly aided Charles VIIL, and he exclaimed, " Take care of that monk, Luther ; the time may come when we shall have need of him !" And even the Pontiff was not displeased with the theses. He estimated them by their literaiy merit, and regarding them as proofs of an original and independent mind : " This friar Martin," said he, " is a very fine genius, and all that is said against him is mere monkish jealousy." 332 LIVES OF THE POPES. But if the Pope was indifferent to the " German squab- ble," (for so Leo had styled it,) the cardinals and priests thought it worthy of more serious notice. The censor of the papal court, Prierias, undertook to reply to the theses, which he did in a treatise abounding with adulation of the Pope, and violent abuse and threatenings for the " barba- rous" and daring monk. He contemptuously asks, " Has this Luther an iron nose or a brazen head, so that it cannot be broken ?" He insinuates, that if Luther should " re- ceive a good bishopric he would be ready to preach up the indulgences which he now chose to blacken." And he in- timates that the Pope " can employ the secular arm to con- strain those who depart from the faith." Such was the spirit with which the rising Reformation was met in the metropolis of Christendom. Rome soon began to bestir herself with considerable en- ergy. Early in 1518 the Cardinal Rovere addressed a let- ter to Luther's sovereign and protector, the Elector Fred- eric, cautioning him that his friendship for the reformer was suggesting suspicions at Rome of his being himself heretic- ally disposed. A little later, the Emperor Maximilian, wishing to ingratiate himself with the Pope, wrote to Leo, offering his services to carry into effect whatever measures might be resolved on for checking the growth of the heresy. Leo was now roused to action, and he forthwith issued a summons citing Luther to appear personally in Rome within the space of sixty days. A letter was also dispatched to the Elector Frederic, warning him against Luther's heresy, and seeking to detach him altogether from the reformer's cause. The order for Luther's appearance in Rome was soon afterward changed for another to proceed to Augs- burg, to meet the Cardinal Gaeta, the Pope's legate at the imperial court, and be by him examined respecting the doc- trines he held. Here, for the present, the court of Rome seemed disposed to rest in its opposition to the German Reformation. OUTBREAK OF THE REFORMATION. 333 Other matters enofrossed the Pontiff's attention. On the one hand, the Ottoman Turks were making new inroads on western Europe, and the Itahans began to apprehend an attack on their own peninsula. To avert so tremendous an evil, Leo strove to unite the European powers in a confed- eracy to resist the infidel foe, and hoped, by exciting anew the ci-usading spirit, to restore that deference for the papacy which was too evidently on the decline. On the other hand, important political changes were taking place beyond the Alps, which might seriously affect the welfare of Italy. The feeble old Emperor Maxiraihan died in 1518, and a struggle ensued between Francis I. and the Archduke Charles for the imperial crown, in which the latter was the victor. Charles had now become the great- est potentate of Europe, and indeed the most powerful that Europe had seen since the days of Charlemagne. The crowns of the Empire, of Spain, the Sicilies, and the Neth- erlands, all reposed on his head ; so that to his movements the eyes of all sovereigns were of course anxiously turned. But the excitement of these events having passed away, the Pope again directed his attention to the dissensions of the German Church. Still hoping to conciliate Luther, he dispatched a Saxon nobleman, of courteous manners and consummate address, Charles Miltitz, to endeavor to prevail on the reformer to publish a retractation of his heretical doc- trines. But Luther had gone too far to retract, and had gained a much larger number of disciples than people at Rome imagined. Miltitz was astonished to observe, as he proceeded to Wittenberg, innumerable tokens of the strong hold which the doctrines of the reformer had already taken on the minds of the lower classes. " Tmly,*' said he to Luther, " I would not undertake to carry you out of Ger- many, if I had at my command an army of twenty-five thousand men !" Nor was this mere flattery; it was sober sense. The youth of Germany, attracted by Luther's fame, and by sympathy with the tiTiths he taught, were 334 LIVES OF THE POPES. flocking to tlie University of Wittenberg by hundreds. " Our city," wrote Luther, ** can hardly receive all who arrive here." And it was not to Wittenberg, nor even to Germany, that this movement was confined. The age was ripe for revolt against effete superstitions, and from Switz- erland, from Bohemia, and even from Italy, Luther re- ceived letters, vehemently urging him to proceed boldly in the course he had commenced. And Luther himself was less disposed than ever to retract. The fierce opposition he had met with from German doctors and priests, had led him to a deeper study of the history of the Roman Church. New hght broke daily on his mind, re- vealing the utter dissimilarity between the papal imposture and primitive Christianity. Until now he had reverenced the authority of the Pope, but we find him at this period writing to a friend : " I am studying the decretals of the pon- tiflPs, and (let me whisper in your ear) I am not sure whether the Pope be Antichrist himself, or only his apostle, to such a degree has Christ been perverted and sacrificed." At a disputation wliich he held shortly afterward at Leipsic, he openly impugned the primacy of the Pope ; and in a very few months he became satisfied that the mass was not the Lord's supper, and that celibacy was not binding on the clergy. The blandishments of Miltitz were consequently em- ployed to no purpose ; and Rome began to meditate severer measures for the extermination of the dangerous heresy. The Pontifi" himself was, in all probability, averse to the adoption of these ulterior steps. It was also very doubtful how far the new emperor could be depended on for carry- ing into effect the decrees of the Church. But the dictates of prudence were overruled by the clamors of bigotry ; for Luther's rival and enemy. Dr. Eck, had industriously pois- oned the minds of all the cardinals, and on the 15tli of June, 1520, the famous bull was sent forth by which the doctrines of the reformer were officially condemned, and his person handed over to the vengeance of the secular power. PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 886 CHAPTER VIII. PROGRESS OF REFORMATION LUTHER IMPRISONED DEATH OF LEO X. A. D. 1520, 1521. The reception of the papal bull in Germany was not calcu- lated to inspire reassurance at the court of Rome. At Leipsic, its publication was forbidden by authority of the duke. At Erfurt, the students tore in pieces the copies that were sent, and threw the fragments into the river, ex- claiming, *' It is a bull ; let it swim !" At Wittenberg, a public meeting was called by Luther, and a large bonfire being lighted, the reformer cast into it, in the presence of an assembly of doctors, professors, students, and citizens, the volumes of the canon law, the decretals, and other pa- pal statutes ; and then holding aloft the Pope's bull, and solemnly pronouncing these words, '' Whereas thou hast grieved the Lord's holy ones, may the everlasting fire grieve and consume thee," he committed that also to the flames, amid shouts of approbation from the concourse of spec- tators. So bold a defiance of Rome's most terrible fulminations at once stimulated the zeal of Luther's partisans, and infu- riated the malice of his foes. The legates of the Pope now applied to the young emperor, and implored him to put in prompt execution the decrees of the bull. But Charles V. was too cautious to commit himself to any course that might possibly, at the very beginning of his reign, embroil him with several states of his empire. He said he would consult the Elector Frederic, the oldest and wisest of the German princes, and be guided by his counsel. The advice of the elector, who had always been partial to the reformer, and whose convictions were now inclined more than ever to the side of Scriptural truth, was, that before Luther was delivered over to the vengeance of Rome he should be al- 336 LIVES OF THE POPES. lowed to plead his own cause before impartial judges. In accordance with this counsel, Charles summoned the reform- er to present himself before the diet of the empire, just then about to be held in the city of Worms. All circumstances seemed to combine to attract an un- usual concourse of princes, prelates, and nobles, to this memorable diet. The accession of a new and powerful mon- arch to the imperial throne; the well-known jealousies between Charles, Francis I., and the Pope; and the religious excitement rising higher and higher in all coun- tries, united to swell the numbers of this august assem- bly. It is beside our present purpose to relate its proceed- ings in detail ; they may be found in all biographies of Luther, and histories of the Reformation. Luther, in spite of repeated friendly warnings and entreaties to the contrary, did not fail to appear, and was met before the diet by his implacable enemy and eloquent accuser, the legate Ale- ander. The excitement was intense when Luther entered the as- sembly to make his defense. The hall was crowded to excess, and the reformer was well-nigh exhausted by the heat before he was suffered to begin. Then, first in Ger- man, and afterward in Latin, he explained the steps he had taken, the motives which had guided him, and the reasons why he could not possibly retract. Being then desired to give a clear and precise answer to the question, whether he would or would not retract, he firmly and deliberately re- plied, " Unless fully convinced by the testimony of Scrip- ture, I neither can nor will retract anything. Here I stand," he continued, as if reflecting on his solitary, for- lorn, and helpless position ; " I can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen." One would have expected that so manly an assertion of the rights of conscience would have commanded the admi- ration of the entire assembly ; and on many it did not fail to make a very deep impression. But the emperor's edu- PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION". 337 cation had lamentably unfitted him for rightly appreciating Luther's noble protest against debasing superstitions and priestly imposture. Charles was a blind follower of the popes, and he therefore finally decreed that the reformer should instantly depart from Worms, and not be found within the bounds of the empire after the lapse of twenty days. Luther departed, confidently intrusting himself and his cause to the gracious protection of that God who had so manifestly "set him for the defense of the gospel." And God quickly appeared in his behalf. The life of his serv- ant was eagerly sought by misguided and evil-minded men ; but there was more work for him yet to accomplish, and so his life was preserved. As Luther leisurely journeyed to Wittenberg, passing through the wood of Altenstein, he was suddenly surprised by a band of armed men in masks, who placed him on a horse brought for that purpose, and riding rapidly through by-paths in the woods, conducted him to a castle called the Wartburg, surrounded on all sides by the dense Thuringian forests ; a place of refuge which the reformer, in after days, was wont to denominate his "Patmos." This rescue had been barely efifected in time to save the life of Luther ; for on his quitting Worms, the papal legate had influence enough to procure a decree from the emperor, by which the reformer's writings were sentenced to be burned, his adherents to be seized and imprisoned, and Lu- ther himself to be brought in sure custody to the imperial presence, from whence it was intended, no doubt, he should only depart to grace an auto-da-fe. Delivered for the present from the great disturber of ec- clesiastical lethargy and corruption, Leo X. had leisure to indulge more thoroughly in those pursuits of literature, taste, and ambition, that were the most grateful aliment of his mind. It may be recorded in his praise, that he gath- ered around him, and liberally rewarded, such men of gen- 15 338 LIVES OF THE POPES. ius and learning as Italy then contained ; but few of these have left names that claim our highest veneration. The whole character of that age bears the stamp of the German, rather than the Italian intellect. It was the energy of a Luther, the consecrated lore of a Melancthon, the polished wit of an Erasmus, which then gave impulse and direction to the thoughts and opinions of the world, much more than the frivolous jesting or refined pedantry of the infidel eccle- siastics who thi-onged the halls of the Vatican. Yet the zeal of the Pontiff in collecting ancient manuscripts, which he purchased at almost any price, to enrich the Laurentian library ; his efforts also to increase the stores of the Vatican libraiy ; and his discriminating taste in the patronage of artists and sculptors, among the crowds of whom the tow- ering forms of a Raphael and an Angelo are particularly conspicuous, constitute a fair claim in behalf of Leo X. to the gratitude of mankind; and though they can form no justification, may be accepted as some sort of com- pensation for his encouragement of ribald poets and buf- foons. Among other suitors for literary honors at the hands of Pope Leo X., was one of singular character and pretensions. The writings of Luther had called forth a host of replies, and none of these excited so much curiosity, or won such general applause, as that of King Henry VIII. of England. This ambitious young monarch, in his eagerness for all sorts of distinction, and influenced by the vanity which the flattery of his courtiers had inspired, had determined on entering the lists of theological debate with the now world-famed monk of Wittenberg. The " Defense of the Seven Sac- raments" which he produced is more remarkable for zeal than for learning or talent, but by the popish party it was extolled for the latter as much as for the former. It was presented to the Pope Avith great ceremony, and was re- ceived by him in full consistory. The reward which Henry coveted v/as also granted after some demur, and a papal PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 339 bull authorized the English king to style himself the " De- fender of the Faith." Thus the king of England, to his great satisfaction, was at last placed on a perfect equality "with the " Most Christian" monarch of France, and the " Catholic" sovereign of Spain. While Leo was thus diligently establishing his title to be regarded as the patron of letters and the arts, he was not inattentive to political affairs. The occupation of Milan by the French had always been a cause of sore vexation to his mind, and whatever apparent amity existed between him and Francis I., was only a politic cover to secret dislike. He seized the first opportunity of breaking the compact be- tween them. Uniting the forces of "the Church" with those of the emperor, he entered on regular hostilities to- ward the close of 1521, in the hope of expelling the French altogether from the Italian soil, and once more obtaining the States of Parma and Piacenza, of which his treaty with Francis had deprived him. It had long been the practice of the princes of Italy, in their frequent wars with each other, to engage the services of the Swiss mountaineers, whose valor was strangely com- bined with a mercenary spirit, which led them to sell their life-blood to the best paymaster, whoever he might be. On this occasion, the Pontiff was the highest bidder ; and upon the French retiring into the city of Milan, the allies, strength- ened by the Swiss auxiliaries, made a vigorous and success- ful assault, compelling the French to surrender at discre- tion, and to promise the immediate withdrawal of their whole force from Italy. Leo was at his country-seat of Malliano when the news of this victory reached him. Exultation at so signal a tri- umph threw him mto the greatest excitement. The ene- mies of Italy were vanquished ; Parma and Piacenza again sparkled among the brightest gems in the papal diadem. During the whole night he paced to and fro in his cham- ber, alternately gazing on the festivities which were com- 340 LIVES OF THE POPES. menced by his retainers in honor of the event, and which he could see from his window, and reflecting on the glori- ous career that now seemed open to his ambition. On the morrow, Leo returned to Rome, to give directions for the public celebration of the triumph ; but on that very- day he was seized with a fatal illness, and amid excrucia- ting suJGferings of body, and still more distressing mental agitation — without hope to cheer him, and without faith in the atoning blood of Christ to sustain him — he expired in the course of a few hours. He was only forty-seven years of age, and had reigned but eight years. CHAPTER IX. PONTIFICATE OF ADRIAN VI. A. D. 1521-1523, The choice of a successor to the deceased Pope was a mo- mentous affair ; and had the cardinals been chiefly concerned for the welfare of the Church, they would (as Merle D'Au- bigne justly remarks) have chosen for such troubled times a Gregory VII. or an Innocent III. But the members of the conclave were, as usual, too busy in pursuing their own separate interests to think of the public good ; and thus the providence of God employed them to forward, unconsciously, the great work of the Reformation. Unable for several days to agree, it at last happened that a sufficient number of votes fell upon a man whom none of them really desired to elect, Adrian of Utrecht, formerly a professor at Lou- vain, and then tutor to Charles V. Contrary to their hopes, Adrian accepted the tiara, and, contrary to usage, assumed the popedom without changing his name. Adrian VI. was a perfect contrast in character to Leo X. His gravity was so great that it is said he never laughed, a faint smile being his nearest approach to mirth. His habits were severely studious, abstemious, and correct ; PONTIFICATE OF ADRIAN VI. 341 tliere can be no question that lie was heartily zealous for the welfare of the Roman Church. The Dutch were in raptures that one of their countrymen should be chosen to fill the chair of St. Peter, and the Romans were willing to suppress their mortification at the rigid manners of the new Pontiff, in consideration of the five thousand benefices which he had it in his power to bestow. Adrian determined to set an example in his own person of the deportment which he thought befitting the priestly office. On approaching Rome, he alighted from his car- riage, and entered the city with bare legs and feet, intend- ing to impress on the citizens, and especially on the clergy, the duties of humility and self-denial. That he was only laughed at for his pains by the volatile Romans we may be quite sure ; and that such a show of humility bordered very nearly on affectation, if not on hypocrisy itself, even charity is obliged to suspect. On taking possession of the Vatican, Adrian determined to continue his former domestic habits. His old housekeeper still provided his frugal and sohtary meals in the halls which had so lately been crowded with guests and servants, and where luxurious banquets had been daily prepared at an enormous cost. In all matters of refinement and taste, the new Pope was equally a contrast to the old. On being shown that noble group of statuary, the Laocoon, which Julius II. had pur- chased at a great price from those who had recovered it from amid ruins, Adrian coldly remarked : " These are the idols of the pagans !" The frescoes of Raphael he de- noimced in the same ascetic or barbarous spirit as ** merely useless ornaments." As for poets, he would not have them so much as named in his presence. It is true that the poets of Leo X'.'s court were not worthy of much esteem, but Adrian would have treated an Ariosto and an An*etino with an equal amount of contempt. Great changes had occurred in Germany since the im- prisonment of Luther in the Wartburg. The seed which 342 LIVES OF THE POPES. he had sown had had tune to grow, and was now bringing forth its earhest fruits. The reformer had hitherto ab- stained from urging any alterations in the forms of worship, or in the public discipline of the Church. But it was soon perceived by his disciples that the great truths which their master taught were wholly incompatible with the customs and forms authorized by the Church. The celibacy of the clergy, so productive of immorality, was the first of these customs to be attacked. Some of the reforming priests dared to break their vows, and entered into matrimonial bonds. The monasteries were the next object of assault. It was declared that monastic vows were contrary to the spirit of Scripture and injurious to society. Thirteen Au- gustinian monks at Wittenberg at once forsook their mon- astery and abandoned the dress of their order. One of them even ventured to marry, and petitioned to be admitted as a burgess. Soon afterward, the mass was publicly de- nounced from the pulpit by Carlstadt, and at his instigation the university and council of Wittenberg decreed that the Lord's supper, administered in a Scriptural manner, should be substituted for that absurd and superstitious rite. All Germany was now on fire with a spirit of inquiry. Theological discussions were held at the fireside, in the mar- ket-place, and in the halls of justice. The vices of the pa- pacy became increasingly apparent, and Luther threw oil upon the flames by pouring forth treatise after treatise from his secure hiding-place in the Thuringian woods. In fact, the reformer began to be alarmed at his own success, and trembled lest the zeal of his disciples should outstrip their prudence. That there was danger of this was quite evi- dent, and it caused him the most serious concern. Some had used violence in destroying images and in preventing the priests from saying mass in the churches. Others pre- tended to a direct inspiration from heaven, and were begin- ning to be carried away by that spirit of fanaticism which seldom fails to appear in times of religious awakening. PONTIFICATE OF ADRIAN VI. 343 Fearful lest his own labors should thus lose their reward, and the great work of reformation be hindered by these extravagances, Luther resolved on quitting his secluded and secure abode, and presenting himself once more on the open arena of conflict. Finding no obstacle opposed to his design, he forsook the Wartburg, and the pulpits of Wit- tenberg again resounded with the earnest appeals that had before roused the sleeping soul of the people. Their suc- cess was as striking as ever. Fanaticism was exorcised, and the Reformation, again directed in a safe and Scriptural channel, pursued its course with greater speed than before. The consternation and wrath which these movements excited among the adherents of Rome can scarcely be de- scribed. It was one of Adrian's first measures to write to the Elector Frederic, sternly rebuking him for harboring and befriending such pestilent disturbers of the Church as Luther and his associates. In this letter, the elector is charged with destroying the unity of the Church, and in- troducino* the demon of strife into the fold of Christ. " If O Christian peace has fled from the Church — if the shout of war resounds from east to west — if an universal battle be at hand — for all this it is thou, even thou, who art to blame !" Proceeding to accuse Luther of all monstrous crimes, and to vilify him with the coarsest epithets, the Pontifi" pro- nounces a sentence of utter condemnation, but in a strain so rhetorical as to leave some doubt whether it is Luther or Frederic at whom the bolt is hurled. *' Of what punish- ment, what martyrdom then, thinkest thou we shall judge you deserving ? In the name of Almighty God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose representative I am upon earth, I declare that thou shalt be punished in this world, and be plunged into eternal fire in that which is to come ! Repent, and be converted ! The two swords are suspended above thy head — the sword of the empire and the sword of the popedom !" This last menace of the Pontifi" was not wholly without 344 LIVES OF THE POPES. meaning. The princes of that age were generally far too willing to lend themselves to deeds of persecution in the sacred name of religion; and, except where his political interests interfered, Charles V. did not rank behind the most ardent of them in slavish devotion to the Church. The inferior rulers, electors, dukes, and counts, stimulated by the Pope, and sanctioned by the emperor, were eager to slake their thirst in the blood of the heretic Lutherans. No time was lost. The work of slaughter, confiscation, and imprisonment was forthwith begun, and the Netherlands branded themselves with ignominy by sending the first of this new band of martyrs to the stake. At Brussels, three youthful monks, who had renounced their vows, were seized, manacled, torn from their homes, and after a hasty trial publicly burned to death. In December, 1522, the diet of the empire assembled at Nuremberg ; and Adrian, full of zeal against the reformers, dispatched a faithful legate to be his representative in the council. It was at Luthe^r that the legate aimed his most powerful blows. " This gangrened member," said he to the nobles, ** must be separated entirely from the main body. As your fathers executed Huss and Jerome, so do you go forth and gain a magnificent victory over this in- fernal dragon." But although there were not wanting in the diet princes who fully sympathized with the legate, the majority shud- dered at his address. They entered on the consideration of the manifest abuses of the papacy ; which Luther had so thoroughly laid bare, and passed resolutions which strikingly discovered the dechne of papal influence. No fewer than eighty grievances were specified, and the answer returned to the Pope's message concluded with these words : ** If these grievances be not redressed within a set time, we shall think of other means of escape from so many oppres- sions and sufferings." The Pope did not, however, expect to heal all the dis- PONTIFICATE OF ADRIAN VI. 345 orders of the Church by merely extirpating the heretics. He was too moral a man himself not to feel disgust at the vices and profligacy which everywhere prevailed, and among no class so much as the clergy. Adrian, also, was too earnest in desiring the welfare of the Church not to give expression to his disgust. In fact, the very legate who demanded the exemplary punishment of all heresy, was also charged with the Pontiff's confession that the accusations of Luther against the papacy were undoubtedly just. " We are well aware," he said, " that for many years past several abuses and abominations have found place even beside the holy chair. From the head the malady has passed down into the limbs ; from the Pope it has extended to the prelates ; we are all gone astray, there is none that hath done rightly, no not one. We would fain reform this Roman court whence proceeds so many evils ; the whole world desires this, and for this object we consented to ascend the throne of the pontiffs." But if, on the one hand, Adrian met vsdth disappointment in his efforts to check the spread of heresy, he was quite as unsuccessful on the other in accomplishing the reforms of his own devising. Where, indeed, was he to make a be- ginning with the least prospect of ever achieving a thorough reformation ? So long had corruption been permitted to grow — so inextricably had its fibers now entwined them- selves about the very roots of the Church, that to eradicate the one was inevitably to destroy the other. On all sides the Pope met with the most resolute resistance. At the least step toward reform, he was assailed with volleys of reproaches, warnings, menaces, and prayers. And, too probably, Adrian himself was not quite sincere in his re- forming projects. If he had been, he would surely have regarded Luther's exposure of abuses as at the worst the rough treatment of a friendly hand. He would have thought it deserving of praise rather than censure. And so, evi- dently, Luther himself believed ; for on translating into 15* -346 LIVES OF THE POPES. German one of the pontifical mandates, in which it was said " the cure must proceed step by step," the reformer sar- castically added, " with an interval of some ages between each step." Moreover, Adrian was personally unpopular among his Italian subjects. His abstemious habits and severe looks gave him no favor with a people accustomed to gayety, luxury, and uncontrolled license of manners. Wholly un- used to business, the secular affairs of the popedom did not prosper in his hands ; so that while Adrian himself often mur- mured, " I would much rather serve God in my provostry of Louvain than be Pope at Rome," the Romans grumbled at his parsimony and his taxes, and heartily wished his popedom at an end. The gratification of their wishes was not long deferred, for, in September, 1523, Adrian died ; and although there is no solid ground for supposing that he expired by a violent death, the citizens in the night-time crowned his physician's gate with garlands of flowers, and inscribed over the top, "To the liberator of his COUNTRY !" CHAPTER X. pontificate of clement VII. TO the sack of ROME. A. D. 1523-1527. So numerous and determined were the intrigues of the dif- ferent parties in the conclave, that two months had almost slipped awaj^ ere they could fix on a successor to the chair. At last, the influence of the cardinal Giulio de' Medici pre- vailed. Having secured the prize, he assumed the title of Clement VII. This Pontiff was in many respects well suited for the post he had gained. He had long been familiar with politi- cal affairs, and the popedom was now at least as much a political as an ecclesiastical dignity. He was gifted with PONTIFICATE OF CLEMEJST VII. 847 quick discernment in the most perplexing difiBculties, and his assiduity in attending to business was admirable when compared with the remissness of his predecessors. To Adrian's respect for morals and religion he made Uttle pre- tension, but his zeal for the prosperity of the priesthood, and of the whole hierarchical system which now usurped the name of the Church, was quite as ardent; while his taste for literature and the arts was far more decided, and in accordance with the demands of the age. Yet, notwith- standing these propitious qualities in his character, Clement's was destined to be one of the most disastrous and unfor- tunate reigns the popedom had hitherto experienced. The state of pubhc affairs had, indeed, never been so complicated as at the time when Clement assimied the tiara. On all sides problems presented themselves, for the solu- tfon of which no single mind could possibly be adequate. To secure the temporal power of the popedom amid the conflicting strifes of the sovereigns who now disputed the soil of Italy, and to maintain the institutions of the Church when German reformers and Turkish invaders, sanctioned by the voice of indignant humanity, Avere threatening their demolition — these, indeed, were herculean labors, even had they been demanded at long intervals ; but to be required all at once and of the same man was enough to overwhelm the strongest mind, and baffle the most skillful genius. It was the state of the Church to wliich Clement first directed his attention. The Reformation had now made con- siderable progress in nearly all the countries beyond the Alps ; it was not without advocates even in Italy ; for the revival of letters, the close attention that was paid to the editing and printing of rare and valuable manuscripts, and the mtercourse which for these purposes was opened be- tween the learned men of Italy and other countries, had created more liberal modes of thinking, and had directed the minds of many to the corrupted state of religion. Ec- clesiastics, zealous enough in behalf of their order, were 348 LIVES OF THE POPES. generally the writers of commentaries on tlie Scriptures, and, from the mere love of learning, devoted themselves to the elucidation of the Greek and Hebrew texts, and thus largely assisted in diffusing truths which had few charms for their own minds. Very justly does M'Crie observe that, " in surveying this portion of history, it is impossible not to admire the arrangements of Providence, when we perceive monks and bishops, cardinals and popes, active in forging and polishing those weapons which were soon to be turned against themselves, and which they afterward would fain have blunted, and labored to decry as unlawful and impoisoned." — History of the Reformation in Italy, p. 51. But it was on the posture of religious affairs in Germany that the eyes of Clement VII. were most attentively bent. Luther having escaped, as we have seen, from his prison in the Wartburg, was now in Wittenberg, denouncing once more the sloth and avarice of the priests, and restraining the forward zeal of his too enthusiastic disciples. In all things he was successful. The Reformation moved rapidly onward, yet with a steady and certain step. From city it advanced to city, from province to province. In Nu- remberg, Frankfort, and Hamburg, with many other Ger- man towns; in Zurich and other cities of Switzerland, the popish forms of worship had been abolished by author- ity (for in those days perfect liberty of conscience was un- derstood by none) ; the gospel was preached by faithful and godly men ; the Scriptures were expounded without slavish reference to the fathers or the theologians of " the Church ;" and the idolatrous service of the mass was exchanged for the ordinance of the Lord's supper, administered in a Scriptural way. But the greatest triumph of all was the publication of the sacred Scriptures themselves in the popular tongue. Luther had employed much of his leisure in the AVartburg in translating the New Testament into German; and at PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT Vll. S40 Paris the same work was performed by Lefevre, an en- lightened doctor of the Sorbonne ; so that the French, Ger- man, and Swiss nations had now, all of them, the opportu- nity of judging for themselves between the reformers and the priests. Thus all Germany and Switzerland, with not a small part of France, had been thrown into the greatest agitation. In some places the priests were assaulted in the performance of their oflfices ; in others the images of the saints were broken to pieces ; and in all the fever of religious contro- versy was raging with daily increasing strength. In February, 1524, a diet of the empire was to be held at Nuremberg, and the Pope resolved on sending to it a legate who should urge the immediate interposition of imperial authority to check these alarming innovations. The Cardi- nal Campeggio, who was chosen for this office, was a states- man of singular talent, and possessed of all the arts of Italian finesse. On appearing in the assembly, he boldly demanded that the decree of the Diet of Worms against the reformers should be forthwith put in execution. But the German barons and princes were now too much inter- ested in the cause of reform to listen to such a demand. After much altercation, it was decided that the whole busi- ness should be put off to a subsequent diet. Other diets were in fact held, and the religious dissen- sions of the empire were seriously weighed ; but the politi- cal system of the age was in so disjointed a state that nothing could be effected; and, finally, in August, 1526, the Diet of Spires decreed that for the present each state should act according to its own discretion. Thus was lib- erty of conscience formally conceded to the Protestant party, which accordingly dates its historical existence from that memorable epoch. But all this interval of suspense to the court of Rome had been dihgently improved by Clement VII. and the innumerable emissaries he was able to employ. Campeg- 350 LIVES OF THE POPES. gio did his best to sow the seeds of animosity (he cared not whether pohtical or ecclesiastical) among the German princes, and, by skillfully stirring up all latent bigotry, he succeeded in leaguing together a powerful band of Catholic nobles, who bound themselves to support on all occasions the interests of the Church. In Bavaria and Austria simi- lar exertions were made, and the Pope himself wrote to the emperor, to warn him that the stability of the empire was no less at stake than the prosperity of the Church. If the emperor had not been so intent on his own ambi- tious projects he might have lent an attentive ear to the voice of the Pope. But Charles's whole resources were already engaged. A struggle was now at hand between himself and the king of France, on which depended the continuance of his power in Italy, and even his preeminence in the councils of Europe. The duchy of Milan had been both won and lost by Francis I., who was now resolved to make an eflfort that should not only retrieve his former dis- asters, but place the whole of Italy in his power. To accomplish this object Francis led an army in person across the Alps, to meet the forces which, under the Con- stable Bourbon (who had basely deserted his own sovereign to serve a hostile prince) and the Spanish General Pescara, defended the emperor's dominions in Italy. For three months did the French king lay siege to the well-fortified city of Pavia, thus allowing the imperialist generals ample time to gather and consolidate their strength ; and, in a battle that was fiercely fought beneath the walls of the town, the French army was utterly defeated, and Francis himself taken prisoner. He was immediately carried cap- tive into Spain ; and the year 1525 is memorable in history, not only for the great and decisive battle of Pavia, but for the strange reveree which caused a powerful French sover- eign to languish out an autumn and a winter in a dreary Spanish dungeon. It was only by entering into a treaty involving the great- PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT VII. 351 est sacrifices that Francis was able to regain his liberty. By a solemn oath, he bound himself to relinquish all his claims to Italy, beside stripping himself of extensive prov- inces beyond the Alps. But the Pope was by no means willing that the emperor should be left to do as he listed on the Itahan soil. He was not only jealous of the emper- or's growing influence, but indignant that by his interven- tion the States of Ferrara had been delivered from the grasp of the Church. Francis had therefore no sooner returned to his own dominions than Clement established a league between himself, the Venetians, the duke of Milan, and the French king, to expel the imperial forces from Italy, and to place the Milanese crown upon Sforza's head. This league was infamously ratified by the Pope's giving a full absolution to Francis I. for the violation of the treaty he had formerly entered into with Charles, and which, although unfairly and ungenerously extorted by the latter under cir- cumstances which left no option of refusal, was neverthe- less rendered additionally binding by the sanctity of a solemn oath. Such was the sort of morality then prevalent in Rome, and to which the chief bishop of her degenerate Church did not scruple to set the seal of his authority and name. The emperor's indignation at the treachery of the Pope cotild hardly be kept within bounds. He even forgot, or purposely laid aside, his hereditary devotion to the Roman Chui-ch. His letters to the German Catholic princes, who were depending upon his aid in withstanding the progress of reform, now counseled moderation and conciliation, in- stead of breathing, as before, the hot breath of persecution and hatred. For a while the refonners were allowed to proceed in peace. Charles even beat up for recruits in the reforming districts of Germany, knowing that he should not want for soldiers when the people were told that they were going to fight against the Pope. " Tell them," said he, " that they are going to march against the Turks ; every one will know what Turks are meant." 352 LIVES OF THE POPES. A new Italian war accordingly broke out, but the vigor of the conflicting States seemed already exhausted. The months wore heavily away, and there was still no prospect of any settlement of the strife. The forces of the league were neither of one mind nor in good spirits ; and the em- peror's numerous army, commanded by Bourbon, was com- pelled to draw its daily supplies from the unhappy land it was engaged to conquer. Neither did the PontiflF act with the decision and promptitude which so urgent a crisis de- manded. Suspicious even of his allies, and seeing dangers on every hand, he knew not what course to pursue, and by his vacillation and supineness lost the only opportunity af- forded him of maintaining his position. Impetuous Bourbon could not long be contented with such unsatisfactory warfare. Nor would his fierce soldiers, a promiscuous and unmanageable horde of Germans, Span- iards, and Italians, be restrained much longer from the rich booty offered by the pillage of Italian cities. They loudly demanded to be marched on Florence, or even Rome ; and Bourbon at last, yielding to their entreaties and their men- aces, determined on the daring exploit of laying siege to the papal metropolis itself, thus intending to punish the Pope for his desertion of the imperial cause. Great was the dismay of the Pontiff at the approach* of so formidable a foe. His presence of mind wholly forsook him, and he neglected the plainest precautions for the de- fense of the city. With thirty thousand citizens able to bear arms, who wore swords at their sides, and used them often in their street quarrels, the Pope could only contrive to muster a force of five hundred men. By turns he threatened and entreated ; sent messengers to the approach- ing foe, and then recalled them ; and at last found himself fortified by no better defenses than spiritual denunciations, which, though always abundant in the papal arsenals, availed little against an enemy who ridiculed his priestly pretensions, and eagerly thirsted for rapine and bloodshed. PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT VII. 353 On the 6th of May, 1527, the imperial city of the west was destined to fall once more before the fierce assault of a northern foe. The soldiers of Bourbon were impatient for battle, and before the sun had dispersed the mists which vailed the illustrious capital, the scaling-ladders were planted and the attack commenced. Bourbon himself was the first to mount the ladder, clothed in a white vesture, which made his tall commanding figure a conspicuous mark. He quickly paid the penalty of his bravery or rashness. One of the first bullets fired by the citizens who guarded the walls pierced his side, and he was carried off lifeless to the camp. But his followers were only infuriated by the fall of their leader, and rushing forward in crowds, soon captured the devoted city. A scene of carnage and robbery ensued which baffles description. The Pope, in an agony of de- spair, shut himself up in the castle of St. Angelo, and help- lessly waited the result. The picture given us of the Pontiff during this contest is not very creditable to either his humanity ©r his professions of religion. He employed his favorite artist, Benvenuto Cellini, as engineer in defending the castle against its assail- ants. Cellini himself expresses the disgust which he felt at his new occupation. Describing the deadly skill with which he succeeded in marking and slaughtering the enemy, he says : " My drawing, my elegant studies, and my taste for music, all vanished before this butchering business, and if I were to give a particular account of all the exploits I performed in this infernal employment I should astonish the world." Yet Clement, the vicar of Christ, the holy father of the Church, would daily walk on the ramparts, and when he saw his cannon doing most execution would give utterance to his delight in terms that it makes the mind shudder to reflect on. A well-aimed ball had cut a Spanish colonel into two pieces, and on the Pope's express- ing his admiration of the exploit, Cellini says : " Falling upon my knees, I entreated his holiness to absolve me from 354 ' LIVES OF THE POPES. the guilt of homicide, and hkewise from other crimes which I had committed in the service of the Church. The Pope, hfting up his hands, and making the sign of the cross over me, said that he blessed me, and gave me his absolution for all the homicides that I had ever coramitted or ever should commit, in the service of the apostolic Church^ The victorious army was inflamed with other passions beside those which a rude soldiery always exhibits. Both the Spaniards and the Germans thirsted for revenge ; for Clement had branded the former as infidels, the latter as heretics. Each after his own fashion was now resolved to retaliate on the Pope. Whatever articles were esteemed' holy, whatever edifices were superstitiously revered, became special objects of attack with the German soldiers. Chal- ices, pyxes, all silver and golden ornaments belonging to the churches, were unceremoniously swept into the knap- sacks of the conquerors. The garments of the priests, and even those of the Pope himself, Avere paraded in the streets by servants and camp-boys in rough and boisterous ridicule. A soldier dressed himself one day in all the state robes of the Pontiff", placed the triple-crown on his head, and sur- rounded by others attired in the scarlet costume of cardi- nals, and mounted on asses, went in procession through the streets of the city, receiving on all hands mock homage from the German soldiery. The revenge of the Spaniards was of a deeper and more sanguinary kind. Nothing could restrain their fury. Even priests and prelates were put to death by them ; they spared neither rank, sex, nor age. The pillage of the city, and these scenes of bloodshed and cruel oppression, lasted for ten days. Every house, church, and tomb was ransacked for plunder. Even the jeweled ring, which the corpse of Julius II. still wore on his finger, was.carried off". Thousands of victims miserably perished, and the booty amounted to no less than ten millions of golden crowns. The city which Leo X. had taken such pains to adorn and enrich, and which PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT VII. 355 liad now begun under pontifical rule to rival the splendors of its imperial prime, was in a few hours despoiled of all its wealth, and in some parts presented to the weeping gaze of the devotee the sad aspect of a dismantled and desolate ruin. No sack of the city under the Goths or Vandals had been equal to this. The unhappy Pope, besieged in the castle of St. An- gelo, was reduced to the severest straits. In the hope of being speedily delivered by the troops of the league, he refused to surrender, and was at last compelled, through the failure of supplies, to subsist on asses' flesh. His hopes also were cruelly disappointed, for the forces of the league were commanded by the Duke D'Urbino, who seized the present opportunity of wreaking his revenge upon the house of the Medici. Marching his army sufficiently near to raise the poor Pontiff's hopes to the highest pitch — so near, in fact, that the glistening of the lances could be seen from the parapet of the castle — he then suddenly withdrew, pretending that his strength was inadequate to cope with so powerful a foe. Clement only obtained his liberty at last by paying a large sum for ransom, which he unscrupu- lously raised by the sale of benefices and other offices ; and he was even then kept a prisoner at large until he had sur- rendered to the emperor all the important citadels and towns belonging to the Church. CHAPTER XI. PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT VII. AFTER THE SACK OF ROME. A. D. 1527-1534. All papal Europe was indignant at the insults thus heaped on its spiritual chief. The emperor, though secretly re- joicing at his double triumph over two of the greatest sov- ereigns of the age, Francis and Clement, considered it pru- 356 LIVES OF THE POPES. dent to disguise his joy, and pretended that the treatment of the Pope had not met with his approval. And as all Italy was now beneath his feet, he determined to secure the alliance of the Pope by granting him unusual concessions. The Pontiff acted with equal duplicity. Concealing his resentment from Charles, he accepted all the overtures of his imperial master, while still belonging to the league con- federated against him, thus deceiving all parties alike. There were several motives that prompted iim to this course. On the one hand, his patriotism was cooled by the conduct of his own subjects. They treated him with open contempt, scoffed at his illegitimate birth, and expressed delight at his misfortunes, although their own country was involved in the same calamities. They declared that " he was no longer Pope ;" and Clement bitterly retorted, that " he would rather be the emperor's footman than the butt of his people's scorn." On the other hand, the Pontiff saw clearly that nothing but an alliance with Charles would effectually stave off the perils that now environed the pa- pacy. The Reformation had made great progress during these Italian wars. The forms of divine service had been sim- plified and arranged in new order in most German churches. Luther had published the mass in the German tongue, and the clergy were arrayed in habits of plain black and white. Throughout Saxony the churches had been remodeled ac- cording to the views of the reformed, and had also been stripped of their ornaments. In many districts, a formal and periodical visitation of the Churches was undertaken at the bidding of the princes by the leading reformers, in which they suppressed convents and other popish institu- tions, established unity of doctrine, and dismissed from their oflEices all priests who were convicted of scandalous living. The Refonnation had now assumed a definite and organized form. Nor was it in Germany alone that events like these por- PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT VII. 357 tended the rising storm. In England the Lutheran doc- trines found ready acceptance, and the king himself was evidently declining in his reverence for the Pope. Even in Italy there were unmistakable symptoms of defection from papal rule. The German soldiers of Bourbon had boasted of the freedom from priestly sway enjoyed in their native land ; -and the seeds of truth which they sowed found a prepared soil in a region where full liberty of opinion, even to licentiousness, had now long been indulged. Pope Clement himself wrote: "With heartfelt grief have we learned that in diflferent parts of Italy the pestiferous heresy of Luther prevails, not only among the laity, but even among the ecclesiastics and the regular clergy ; so that some by their conversation, and others by what is worse, their public preaching, infect numbers with their disease, to the no small injury of the Catholic faith." Influenced by these views, the Pontiflf made all haste to be reconciled to the emperor, and Charles himself was not backward in accepting his proposals; for a danger now menaced western Europe, which made it highly important that all parties should be united. The Turks were making rapid progress in conquest, and had already pitched their tents beneath the walls of Vienna. An army of two hundred and j&fty thousand victorious veterans, breathing Mussulman vengeance against Christians of all sects, might well excite the profound est anxieties. Luther and the Pope both agreed to preach a new crusade ; and the emperor, desirous of com- posing the Italian dissensions, readily concluded a private treaty with Clement, by which he confirmed the Pontiff in all his former possessions, promised to reestablish the power of the Medici in Florence, and engaged hereafter to support the Church in all her struggles with schismatic reformers. But even before this treaty was fully concluded the' reformers had struck a blow which awakened new fears in the breast of the Pope, while it aroused the indignation of the emperor, against whose authority it was directly aimed. 358 LIVES OF THE POPES. At a diet of the empire held in the city of Spires in 1529, the emperor had commissioned his brother Ferdinand to announce that the decree of the former diet, which had allowed liberty of action to all states in matters of religion, was now absolutely annulled by imperial command. This act of despotic power was seconded by a decree of the present diet, (which was either awed by the boldness of the emperor, or cajoled by the arts of the papal legates,) pro- hibiting the reformers from making any further innovations, and especially from abolishing the mass, before the meeting of a general council. Against a decree so subversive of religious liberty, and so hostile to the diffusion of truth, six sovereign princes of Germany and fourteen free cities were found faithful and brave enough to record a solemn protest. " We protest before God," was their noble and truly Christian language, "that we, for ourselves and our people, neither consent nor adhere, in any manner whatsoever, to the proposed de- cree, in anything that is contrary to God, to his holy word, to our riofht conscience, and to the salvation of the soul." Thenceforth the reformers of all shades were known as Protestants, and the Reformation had received a name. The alliance between the emperor and the Pope was rati- fied in the year 1530, when the former was paying a visit to his Italian subjects. Charles was received in Italy with great apprehension and distrust. His name had been con- nected in the minds of the Italians only with oppression, persecution, and cruelty, and they naturally dreaded the approach of such a master to their shores. But Charles carefully acted his part, and, anxious to conciliate, charmed his new subjects by his graceful carriage and his generous behavior. Proceedinor from Genoa to Bolog^na at the head of twenty-five thousand men, the emperor was there greeted by the Pope, who received in return the most humble salu- tations from the conquering chief. Charles kissed the PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT VII. 359 Pontiflf's foot, and was then conducted to a palace adjoin- ing that of Clement. A door-way was opened in the wall w^hich divided the two palaces, and the intercourse of the sovereigns was soon established on a friendly and familiar footing. In compliance with Clement's earnest request, the power of the Medici was now forcibly reestablished in Florence ; and the Pope's fondest desires were all satisfied, except in the case of Ferrara. This duchy the emperor steadily refused to transfer from the duke, its rightful owner ; a refusal which Clement could neither forgive nor forget. The Pontiff, however, efifectually succeeded in prej- udicing the young emperor's mind against the Protestant cause ; and when Charles had received the ancient honor of coronation amid general rejoicings and festivities, he left Italy for Germany, with the firm resolution of putting down, at all risks, the dangerous innovations in religion which the reformers had introduced. It is beside our purpose to give a particular account of the celebrated Diet of Augsburg, which immediately took place, as the Pontifi" was only represented there in the per- son of his legate ; but the events of that diet, altogether so memorable, and so influential on the destinies of the pope- dom, must not be wholly overlooked. Nor can the public acts of the legate Campeggio be regarded in any other light than as the pubhc acts of Pope Clement VII. himself. Both Reformers and Romanists had anxiously expected the meeting of this assembly, the former hoping to have liberty of conscience guaranteed, the latter to see it anni- hilated forever. In the midst of a magnificent court, with such pomp and splendor as had never before been witnessed in Germany,* Charles seated himself at the head of the diet, and reluctantly prepared himself to listen to dry theological discussions. Much to the annoyance of the Romanists, the Reformers were allowed, after a sort, to *•"* The imperial robes alone, all blazing with diamonds and pearls, were said to be worth 20,000 ducats !— about $200,000. 360 LIVES OF THE POPES. plead their own cause. An elaborate exposition of their doctrines, since known as the " Confession of Augsburg," had been drawn up by Melancthon, and was now read in the audience of the emperor and all the chief princes and prelates of the empire. This " Confession" was swiftly transmitted to Rome, and in sixteen days a message came from the Pope, earnestly insisting that there should be no discussion, that the decrees of the Diet of Worms should be fully carried out, and those of the more recent Diet of Spires as absolutely revoked. The emperor, nevertheless, commanded the Romanist doctors to prepare a refutation of the Confession ; for if its doctrines should remain undisputed, how, with any decency, could its framers and abettors be punished ? The refuta- tion was accordingly drawn up — " a feeble production," we are told by a candid writer — and was also publicly read. And thus ended the farce of discussion. The legate Campeggio now whispered in the emperor's ear the steps that were necessary for the suppression of heresy and the due protection of the Church. His sugges- tions were truly popish; they breathed nothing but ven- geance and cruelty. "Let the emperor and the well- afFected princes," said the legate, "form a league. Let promises and threats be unsparingly used. If threatenings should fail, proceed to confiscate the property of all Prot- estants, from the elector down to the burgess. The mas- tery once obtained, let inquisitors be sent, who shall punish heretics without mercy, shall burn all their books, and shall send back to their convents all monks who have escaped, there to be treated according to the rules of their order. And if any should still obstinately persist in this diabolical way, let his majesty put hand to fire and sword, and destroy to the very roots the cursed and poisonous plant." To these fierce suggestions from the Pope's ambassador the emperor was unable, and perhaps unwilling, to give effect. But the final decree of this imperial diet was quite PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT VII. 361 severe enough to alarm and exasperate tlie Protestant party. It forbade them to preach, print, or in any way pubhsh their doctrines ; and, while holding out the hope that a general council would shortly be called to settle all religious disputes, commanded them before next spring to come to accommodation with the Catholic Church. Next spring ! The spring was the time for bringing armies into the field and commencing campaigns. It was plainly the emperor's intention to decide this question of religious faith and a free conscience by the sword. The Protestants, however, continued firm. " We deny," they courageously said, " the emperor's power to command in matters of faith." And so these conflicting parties sepa- rated, to meet again upon a very different field, a field of carnage and blood. But this was not to be just yet. While the Protestant confederates were concerting their measures at Smalcald, the Pope was engaged in a business which threatened to raise up other, and perhaps more pow- erful enemies to the papal domination. Henry VIII. of England had been desirous ever since 1527 to be divorced from his queen, Catherine of Aragon, who was aunt to the emperor. As long as the success of Charles in his Italian wars was at all doubtful, the Pope had feigned per- fect willingness to comply, but nevertheless sent his confi- dential legate Campeggio to England to delay the matter until his true position should be ascertained. The successes of the emperor had now bound Clement to him hand and foot, and he therefore issued a brief, forbidding Henry to divorce Catherine upon pain of excommunication from the bosom of the Church. The duplicity of Clement's charac- ter, combined with the real perplexities of his position, caused this affair to be protracted through several years ; and innumerable messages and messengers passed to and fro between the Roman and English courts, without any satisfactory conclusion being reached. The Pope, however, inwardly groaned at his irksome and 16 362 LIVES OF THE POPES. degrading bondage to Charles. He bitterly resented tlie separation of Ferrara from the states of the Church, and chafed whenever he thought of the general council which the emperor had promised to the Protestants. When Charles, too, on revisiting Italy in 1532, after his conquest of the Turks, besought Clement to delay no longer a meas- ure so needful for the peace of the empire, his patience was quite exhausted, and, though he still counterfeited friend- ship, he secretly meditated revenge. Charles had no sooner left Italy than the Pope entered into communication with the king of France, and acquainted him with his feeling^s. Francis was delia;hted to see that at length there was some prospect of dissolving that alliance between the Pope and the emperor, which alone had pre- vented him from holding possession of Milan; and he eagerly invited the Pontiff to a personal meeting, when their measures could be carefully and conjointly laid. Clem- ent, equally ardent, actually ventured on a voyage by sea for the purpose, and, in the autumn of 1533, met Francis at Marseilles. It was then agreed that Francis should use all his influence with the Protestant party, and, by offering to furnish the supplies of money, should induce them to attack the emperor on the side of Austria. This extraordi- nary compact was then sealed by the marriage of the king's second son, Henry, to Catherine de' Medici, daughter to a cousin of the Pope. In this alliance we may see the strange embairassment into which the Pontiff was brought by holding under one crown both spiritual and temporal jurisdiction. His relig- ious ties and animosities would have leagued him with the emperor against the Protestants ; his political exigencies brouofht him into alliance with Francis and the Protestants against the emperor. Stimulated by the French king, Philip of Hesse, the most warlike of the Protestant princes, commenced a war with Austria, in which his success was beyond his most sanguine hopes. It was attended, too. PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT VII. 363 by the most important religious results. Thus the immedi- ate consequence of the Pope's political ambition was the rapid spread of the reformed opinions ; so that Wirtemberg, the Palatinate, and several other German States, now fol- lowed the example of Saxony, and " in a few years the Reformation of the Church extended through the whole of Lower Germany, and had permanently established its seat in Upper Germany." — Ranke, Book I., chap. iii. Yet at the very time that Clement was thus indirectly waging war with the emperor, he openly professed to be his ally. In the question of Henry VIII. 's divorce, he suf- fered himself to be wholly guided by the will of Charles, and, in 1533, published the bull which excommunicated the English king. In the spring of 1534 the English par- liament enacted that papal supremacy should cease to be acknowledged in the British Isles ; and thus, the same year which saw Germany promoting and establishing the Ref- ormation, witnessed also the final separation of England f]*om the dominion of the Pope. This calamitous year for the papacy was also the year of Clement's death, Clement has been pronounced by Ranke, not without reason, " the most ill-fated Pontiff that ever sat upon the papal throne." His misfortunes arose chiefly, no doubt, from the violent commotions of the age ; but it is also manifest that they were often occasioned by his own utter destitution of principle and honor. He entered into the most solemn treaties without the intention of keeping them, and violated the most sacred promises and oaths without hesitation. Of his thorough truthlessness a striking proof is given by the gossiping Cellini, who, from his artistic skill, was a great favorite with the Pope. Cellini had been commissioned by Clement to design and execute a magnificent golden chalice to hold the sacramental wine in the pontifical processions. His progress was some- what slow, and the Pope, who, like all the Medici, was pas- sionately fond of the arts, began to grow impatient to see 364 LIVES OF THE POPES. the chalice. He ordered it to be sent for his inspection ; but Celhni, who was well acquainted with Clement's char- acter, refused to part with it until he had been paid. Per- suasion and menaces proved equally unavailing, and at last Clement sent the governor of the exchequer to say, that if the work were put in a box and carried to the palace, he would engage upon his ivord to return it without even opening the box ; but that he desired this because his honor was at stake, as he had so often expressed a resolution to get possession of the chalice. "To these words," says Benvenuto, *' I answered, smiling, that I would very readily put my work into his hands in the manner he required, be- cause I was desirous to know Avhat dependence could be placed on the word of a Pope. I therefore gave it to the governor sealed up in the manner required. The governor having carried the box to his holiness sealed up as above, the Pope, after turning it over several times, as I was after- ward informed by the governor, asked the latter if he had seen the work. He answered that he had, and it had been sealed up in his presence, adding that it appeared to him a very extraordinary performance. Upon which the Pope said : * You may tell Benvenuto that Roman pontiflPs have authority to loose and bind things of much greater import- ance than this ;' and, while uttering these words, he, with an angry look, opened the box, taking off the cord and seal." Benvenuto adds that, when the chalice was returned to him for completion, and the Pope's message had been delivered, he loudly exclaimed : " I thank Heaven that I am now able to set a just value on the word of God's vice- gerent." Who can wonder that Clement VH. was mistrusted by all the monarchs of his age, or that the papacy itself should have fallen into such deep contempt, when profanity and falsehood were thus shamelessly indulged in by a Pontiff on an occasion so pitifully frivolous ? PONTIFICATE OF PAUL III. 365 CHAPTER XII. PONTIFICATE OF PAUL III., TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE JESUITS AND THE INQUISITION. A. D. 1534-1543. The Cardinal Farnese was the next successful candidate for the chair of St. Peter, and on commencing his pontificate assumed the title of Paul III. His moral character was very similar to that of his immediate predecessors, and was marked by most of the faults which distinguished Italian society at that period. His early hfe had been passed in voluptuous pleasures, mingled with the cultivation of a taste for refined and intellectual pursuits. In the gardens and museums of Lorenzo de' Medici he had learned by the side of Leo X. to appreciate the relics of ancient genius and art. He had both the vices and the virtues, if we can so term them, of that demoralized and sensual, but pohshed circle of men who were entertained in the palaces of Lo- renzo the Mao^nificent. The claims of Paul to the popedom were based rather on the nobility of his blood than on any real qualification for the conduct of affairs at so critical a time. He had felt keen disappointment when Adrian lY., and still more when Clement YII. was elected to the papal chair. He thought he had at least a better title to the honor than a second scion of the Medician stock. But notwithstanding his chagrin, he had conducted himself so prudently that he offended no party, and even in that age of fierce partisanship in both politics and religion, it would have been hard to tell, when Paul III. ascended the papal throne, to what side in any controversy his temper was likely to incline. This extreme cautiousness, which was, indeed, the most remarkable feature in his character, still made itself promi- nent after his elevation. He carefully examined his position before ever proceeding to act, and thoughtfully weighed 366 LIVES OF THE POPES. every word before pronouncing a decision. Thus Paul III. skillfully steered his course between the Spanish rocks and the French quicksands, between heretical Protestant eddies and orthodox Romish shallows, and continued, notwith- standing all difficulties, to accumulate honors and wealth for the Farnese family. Although destitute of religious principle himself, Paul's sagacity had not failed to perceive that the tendency of the age was decidedly against that languid indiflferency which had prevailed for centuries past, and he anxiously watched for opportunities of enlisting the spirit of religious earnest- ness in the service of the papal see. The reformed opin- ions had made considerable progress even in Italy ; and in every city and town, in the universities and monasteries, among the nobility and prelacy, there were many to be found who held some of the truths developed by the Ger- man reformers. But in Italy all men shuddered at the bare idea of a revolt against the papacy, and the utmost that even the enlightened Itahans either hoped for or desired was the prevalence of a somewhat purer gospel in the pulpit, and the removal of all flagrant and palpable abuses in the discipline of the clergy. The desire, however, to give greater vitality and energy to their degenerate Church became a bond of sympathy and union between some of the most illustrious Italians of that period. Hence had arisen the " Oratory of Divine Love," an association of learned men, who met for prayer and mutual edification. A little later, the Order of the Theatines was instituted by the same class of men, for the purpose of giving more public expression to their sentiments and views. They took a rigorous vow of poverty ; they visited the sick in the hospitals; they preached in all churches with an unwonted fervor ; and they undertook to train the rising priesthood to severer habits of morality and self-denial. United, however, as they were in these pur- suits, there was a wide difference of character between PONTIFICATE OF PAUL III. 36*7 them ; some burning with zeal for the exaltation of the pa- pacy and the suppression of heretics, others strongly in- clining to Protestant doctrines and usages. It was this class of men that the new Pontiff desired to engage in his service, and one of his earliest and best meas- ures was to strengthen the papacy by adding to the con- clave a few of these ardent spirits. Gaspar Contarini, an aristocratic Venetian, was the first to receive the honor, and none could be more astonished than himself when the news was conveyed to him. He was wholly devoid of personal ambition, and was desirous rather of privately spreading ti-uth than of encountering the difficulties and temptations which beset a public and exalted station. At his sugges- tion, the cai'dinal's hat was afterward conferred upon the fiery-spirited Caraffa, the elegant Sadolet, Pole, the associ- ate of Wolsey in the legatine judgment on Henry VIII. 's divorce, and some others equally eminent for their abilities and zeal. But neither Paul's circumstances nor his disposition per- mitted him to proceed hastily with any reform of the Church. He was naturally too cautious to take ill-advised steps, and at present the political condition of Italy de- manded his chief care. For a time, all plans of ecclesiastical reforms were placed in total abeyance. It was the continual rivalry of the emperor and Francis that chiefly absorbed the attention of the Pope. The rest- less king of France had again entered Italy at the head of a large army, and on his route to Milan had laid waste the territories of the duke of Savoy, who was related to the emperor by marriage. Eagerness to retain Milan in his own power, vanity at his recent exploits among the pirati- cal states of Africa, and perhaps resentment at the treat- ment his relative had received, determined Charles to oppose Francis in person, and in 1536 he passed through Rome for that purpose. Halting for a few days in the pa- pal city, he called together the consistory, and harangued 368 LIVES OF THE POPES. the Pope and his clergy on the indignities he had sustained from the ambition and faithlessness of Francis. Growing warm in his invectives, he at last challenged the French king to a single combat, by which all their quarrels should be decided. "Let us contend," he shouted, "man to man, with what arms he pleases to choose, in our shirts, on an island, a bridge, or aboard a galley moored in a river. Let the duchy of Burgundy be his stake, and that of Milan be mine ; and when this struggle is ended, let the united forces of Germany, Spain, and France, be employed to humble the power of the Turks, and to extirpate heresy out of Christendom." The emperor, despite his anger, had skillfully touched a tender string in the pontifical breast. It was indeed Paul's most ardent wish to see these quarrels terminated between potentates who might then become dutiful and devoted sons of the Church. He recommended peace, and offered his services to procure it ; but Charles was too much in- flamed by ambition and revenge to listen to such proposals at present. The war therefore continued to rage, and for a whole year Italy and the south of France were convulsed by the alarms and ciiielties ever attendant on the steps of this dread persecutor of the human race. But by the end of that time Charles's finances were exhausted, without any decided or signal success ha^nng been gained, and he was not unwilling to accept the Pope's mediation in proposing and arranging the articles of a peace. The three potentates, Charles, Francis, and the Pope, proceeded to Nice for the purpose of conference ; but on their arrival there the two disputants refused to see each other, and it seemed certain that they would never come to terms. Paul, however, was so zealous in the afi'air that his energy at length gained a complete triumph, though not until he had threatened to leave Nice if some arrangement were not effected. A truce of ten years was agreed upon ; PONTIFICATE OF PAUL III. 369 and although the monarchs would not meet to sign the treaty, yet a short time afterward, when Charles was driven by stress of weather into a French port, Francis received him with all possible gallantry and politeness, and the em- peror accepted his hospitality with every appearance of sincerity and good-will. Paul did not forget his own interest in thus securing the peace of Christendom. The emperor engaged to marry his natural daughter, Margaret of Austria, to Ottavio Farnese, the Pope's grandson, and transferred to his son, Pier Luigi, the entire government of the tenitory of No vara. Francis, not to be behindhand, promised to give the duke of Vendome, a prince of royal blood, in marriage to Vittoria, the Pontiff's granddaughter ; so that the house of Farnese now bid fair to rival in wealth and influence that of the Medici. But while these momentous events were agitating the pohtical world, the men who were more mindful of religion than of politics, and who cared more for the Church than for the State, had industriously sought to promote the ec- clesiastical changes which they thought needful for the wel- fare of the Chm-ch. The Theatines were becoming daily more active, and on every occasion were urging the Pope to the adoption of measures which should give their views a practical and complete expression. Since, however, the Theatines themselves were divided into two parties, the one inclined to Protestant opinions, and the other chiefly solicitous to strengthen the hierarchy, and, like their prototypes in the days of Gregory VII., ex- pecting to effect this by conceding in the first place certain articles of reform, we need not be surprised that from the same body two opposite movements should arise. Of the former class the chief representative was Gaspar Contarini, and Giovanni Caraffa was the most prominent leader of the latter. Ever since his elevation to the conclave, Contarini had made it his labor to seek a real reform of the prevalent 16* 3*70 LIVES OF THE TOPES. abuses, both in discipline and doctrine. He had composed various treatises on the subject, and had submitted them to the Pope ; but the wary temper of Paul, allowing him to do nothing from principle, but consenting to whatever seemed most expedient, had almost extinguished the hopes of the zealous reformer. At last Paul affected to think that the happy moment had arrived. On a bright cheerful day in November, 1538, Contarini journeyed, he tells us, with the Pontiff to Ostia. " On the way thither, this our good old man made me sit beside him, and talked with me alone about our projected reforms. He told me that he had by him the little treatise I had written on the subject, and that he had read it in his morning hours. I had already given up all hope, but he now spoke to me with such Christian feeling that my hopes have been wakened anew. I now believe that God will do some great thing, and not permit the gates of hell to prevail against his Holy Spirit." But Contarini was again doomed to disappointment. A few petty reforms in the details of administration were effected, and there the matter ended. The doctrine and discipline, the essential corruptions of Rome, continued un- altered ; and, although there were some at Rome who, fretted with perpetual strife, were willing to concede much to the Protestants for the sake of healing the unsightly breach in the Church, (and for this purpose Contarini was actually appointed by Paul as his legate in a conference held at Ratisbon between the contending parties,) yet, when their differences came to be discussed, it was soon manifest that the time for reconciliation had quite gone by. The reformers of Rome were a very small minority, and neither the Pope nor the conclave would assent to the Protestant demands. With the most eager desire, for the Church's own sake, to succeed, Contarini was obliged to desist, and it became daily more evident that it was not from his branch of the Theatine order that the Romish P02JTIFICATE OF PAUL III. 37 1 Church was destined to receive an infusion of new strength. Among the Theatines of Venice, in the year 1538, was a man of extraordinary character. He was a Spaniard of noble descent, and had formerly served in the Spanish army during the wars of Charles V. As a soldier, none could surpass him for courage and gallantry ; his ardor had more of the spirit of chivalry than of ordinary military life. Burn- ing for fame, he emulated the daring exploits ascribed by the writers of romance to their favorite heroes, and his chief model and pattern among them was the renowned Amadis of Gaul. Cut short in his warlike career by incurable wounds re- ceived at the siege of Pampeluna, Ignatius Loyola (for it is of him we speak) revolved projects for achieving a splendid fame in far different pursuits. From boyhood, a sort of religious enthusiasm had mingled itself with his zeal for a soldier's life, and now he fancied that he had been arrested by Providence in his worldly course, to win a loftier re- nown in the field of spiritual warfare. He conceived of Christ as a king who had resolved to subjugate all unbe- lievers, and whose camp, pitched at Jerusalem, was op- posed to that of Satan, whose headquarters were at Baby- lon. He imagined that whosoever would fight beneath the banners of Christ must be fed with the same food, must be clad in similar attire, must endure the same hard- ships and vigils, and, according to the measure of his deeds, would be admitted to share in the victory and the reward. In conformity with this notion of spiritual knighthood, Loyola devoted himself to the service of Christ, after the manner in which knights-errant commenced their perilous career. All night he watched before a picture of the virgin, kneeling or standing, and reciting prayers, with a pilgrim's staff in his hands, and while his rehnquished weapons and armor were suspended on the walls. Next day he gave 3*72 LIVES OF THE POPES. away his knightly dress, and assuming the coarse garb of a hermit, set off on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. We shall not follow him in all his wanderings. We find him ere long at Paris, studying theology ; practicing austere penances to manifest the entire and absolute devotion of his body and soul to the service of Christ ; and drawing under his influence, as a strong and enthusiastic will often does, minds that were otherwise far superior to his own. Of these companions the most remarkable were Francis Xavier, afterward the missionary to India, and Lainez, the chief organizer of the system to which Loyola had given birth. With these, and a few others, Ignatius formed a solemn league, vowing to live in poverty, and to devote their days to what seemed the most arduous and dangerous of all re- ligious undertakings — the conversion of the Saracens. It was on this very enterprise that Loyola and his friends had proceeded as far as Venice, when the Theatines of that city attracted their attention, and made them hesitate in their course. In this order, Loyola saw that zeal and self- denial were combined with that complete devotion to supe- rior authority which he, bred in camps, regarded as the first of all virtues. Becoming intimate with Caraff'a, Igna- tius took up his abode in the convent, and served in the hospitals which Caraffa superintended. He now perceived that as eastern adventures were made impossible for him by a variety of circumstances, his proper course would be to adopt the rules of the Theatines for himself and his com- pany, with such modifications as his own judgment might direct. *'In pursuit of this conviction," says Ranke, "he took priest's orders, with all his companions ; and after forty days of prayer he began to preach in Vicenza, together with three others of his society. On the same day, and at the same hour, they appeared in different streets, mounted on stones, waved their hats, and with loud cries exhorted the people to repentance." PONHFICATii OF PAUL 111. 373 In the year 1540 Loyola and his associates visited Rome. On leaving Venice, they determined to journey by different roads, and in prospect of their separation, they established rules for a fixed conformity of life even when apart. As strangers might possibly inquire their profession, they re- solved, as a company of soldiers takes the name of its cap- tain, to call themselves the Company of Jesus, in accord- ance with their leader's old military propensities, and in token of its being their intention to make war as soldiers against the legions of Satan. On arriving in Rome, Ignatius presented himself to the Pope, and fully described to him the objects embraced by the society he had formed. Although the extreme caution of Paul made him suspicious at first, he soon found that he had here such materials of usefulness to the papacy as were seldom to be met with. Elsewhere there were heresy and insubordination ; here there was blind devotion to papal in- terests, for obedience was with Loyola a cardinal virtue, and formed the basis of his entire system. On all sides the Pontiff saw a selfish worldliness which constantly led to divisions and desertion ; here there was self-denying energy, willing to dedicate itself without reserve to papal authority, and swearing to perform whatever the reigning Pontiff should command — " to go forth into all lands, among Turks, heathen, or heretics, wherever he might please to direct, without hesitation or delay, without question, con- dition, or reward." By such flattering terms Paul was quickly won ; and though at first he gave his sanction to their institute with certain restrictions, in the course of three years the Society of Jesus was absolutely and un- conditionally established as a branch of the papal system. Nor was Paul III. willing to wait until the aid of these new allies could be effectually rendered, before taking active steps for the suppression of heresy, at least in the papal States. Conversing one day with the Cardinal Caraffa, he inquired, '* What remedy could be devised for the schis- 3*74 LIVES OF THE POPES. matic propensities that were becoming so alarmingly prev- alent ?" The cardinal replied, that " the only certain cure was a thoroughly searching Inquisition.^' The ancient Inquisition, instituted as we have seen in the days of Innocent III. by the fierce and fanatical Dominic, had long since fallen to decay. It was the restoration of this terrible engine that Caraffa now urgently counseled. "As St. Peter," exclaimed he, ''subdued the heresiarchs in no other place but Rome, so must the successors of Peter destroy all the heresies of the whole world in Rome." The proposal of CarafFa was strenuously supported by Loyola, and the Pope gave directions forthwith for the re- vival of the Inquisition. And what were the faults which this terrible instrument was designed to extirpate or punish ? Not crimes against humanity and morals, but presumed errors in judgment, and avowed differences in faith ! The papal metropolis was at this time a foul sink of all species of immorality. Mm*- der was committed in broad day ; bravoes were hired for trifling sums to put to death unhappy offenders against the dignity or the caprice of a cardinal or a bishop. The Pope's own illegitimate son, Pier Luigi, was one of the most law- less and abandoned in a lawless and abandoned State. From the sovereign Pontiff to the meanest citizen, all were depraved and vicious, and scarcely thought it needful to preserve even the forms of decorum in the resolute pursuit of their ends. Thus the murderer and the adulterer, the cheat and the slanderer, were suffered to sin on with impu- nity ; but should any thoughtful and sincere man presume to question the infallibility of the Pope in matters of relig- ious faith, or openly to censure the flagrant vices of the priesthood, the Inquisition straightway seized him, and, what- ever his character or rank, threw him into prison, confiscated liis estates, and finally took away his life. So eager was Caraffa to carry into effect the new powers intrusted to his care, that he caused his own house to be PONTIFICATE OF PAUL III. 875 fitted up with rooms for the officers, and prisons for the ac- cused. Dungeons, chains, bolts, locks, blocks, and thumb- screws, were quickly heaped together. In a short time the agents of the Inquisition were in every Italian city ; and so rigorous were their proceedings, that a cotemporary writer exclaims in despair : " Scarcely is it possible to be a Chris- tian and die quietly in one's bed." Colleges were broken up ; convents were strictly searched ; literary men were carefully watched ; booksellers were prohibited from sell- ing books that had not been previously examined ; and an index was now first made out of heretical books, which the deluded people were enjoined neither to purchase nor to read. Yery soon the work of bloodshed began in good earnest. In Rome, the auto-da-fe blazed at regular inter- vals before the church of Santa Maria della Minerva. In Venice, the heretic was carried beyond the lagoons in a boat which was always attended by a second. On amving in the open sea, a plank was laid between the boats, and the condemned man being placed on it, the rowers pulled in opposite directions, and the waves closed over their vic- tim forever. Thus the first utterances of sincere faith in this age of hollow pretensions to rehgion were gagged by the strong arm of the Pope, and persecution and dismay boldly as- serted their dominion wherever his influence could send them. It were only an insult to the reader to point out the discrepancy between a Chmxh so governed and the Church of Jesus Christ. 376 LIVES OF THE POPES. CHAPTER XIII. PONTIFICATE OF PAUL III. AFTER THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE JESUITS. A. D. 1543-1 550. While Paul III. was thus intent on strangling the Protest- antism of Italy in its cradle, and those future foes of the Reformation — the Jesuits — were steadily maturing their strength and preparing for a deadly conflict, the Protestants of Germany were rapidly gaining accessions to their cause, and were not a little aided in this by political events. Those ambitious rivals, Francis I. and Charles V., could not long maintain the concord which seemed so happily commenced at Nice, and in less than four years all Europe was once more ringing with the harsh din of war. Christendom was scandalized at the sight of a professedly Christian monarch, the French king, entering into alliance with that inveterate enemy of the faith, the Sultan of Turkey. Francis ap- peared indeed to have no alternative, for his ambition and waywardness had ahenated from him all the princes to whom he might else have appealed for help. He therefore prepared to invade the Milanese possessions of the emperor on the side of Piedmont, while Sultan Solyman marched a vast army into Hungary, with which he hoped to reach Italy, and perhaps even Rome. To withstand so formidable a. league, Charles saw that it was needful to consolidate without delay all the force of the empire ; and as religion was always with him the mere instrument of policy, he determined on gaining over the Protestant princes, although he was certain of incurring thereby the severest displeasure of the Pope. At the Diet of Spires, held in 1544, the emperor accord- ingly agreed that no further proceedings should be taken against the Protestant party, that they should be allowed PONTIFICATE OF PAUL III. 3*77 the free exercise of their religion, and that a general coun- cil should be speedily summoned to reestablish if possible the broken peace of the Church. The Protestant princes were so gratified with these remarkable concessions that they took the field with a numerous army, resolved on up- holding the integrity of the empire against the united power of Francis and the Grand Turk. The hostilities which ensued produced no further eflfects than those of devastating some of the fairest provinces of Italy and France, and impoverishing the imperial treasury. Both parties were at length wearied* with the struggle, and toward the close of the year Charles and Francis con- cluded a peace, the conditions of which seemed to promise a permanent alliance between these powerful monarchs. The duke of Orleans was to marry the emperor's daughter or niece, Francis was to renounce forever his designs against Milan, and both sovereigns were to join in making war against the common enemy, the Turk. And now the time drew near for a more systematic and desperate onset against the transalpine reformation. Re- peatedly urged by the emperor, and himself alarmed at the rapid growth of the schism in the Church, the Pope could at last do no other, however reluctantly, than summon the general council which had so long been demanded in vain. Innumerable objections had been made, and obstacles thrown in the way, both by Clement YII. and by Paul III. ; and so long as half Europe was distracted by war it was not possible to convene a large number of the clergy. Now, however, the council was actually summoned ; the bishops of the empire received Charles's peremptory orders to at- tend it; and in December, 1545, the famous Council of Trent, the last council of the Romish Church, commenced those deliberations which were destined to so many years' wearisome protractions, and afterward to influence so largely the history and character of the papacy for successive ages. No delegates whatever were sent by the Protestants to 378 LIVES OF THE POPES. this council. They probably felt, as they justly might, that there was no room to hope for a reconciliation between themselves and the hierarchy of Rome. But the excuse which they gave to the emperor was, that they could not admit the Pope's authority to call a council of the whole Church, in which he was only one among a multitude of bishops ; and that no fairness could be expected from an assembly convened under papal influence, presided over by papal legates, and held in a city closely bordering on the papal dominions. The decisions of the Council of Trent were, therefore, wholly uninfluenced by the arguments of Protestant theologians. The emperor had urged that the subject of reform in discipline should be considered first of all, as it was obvi- ously needful to convince the w^orld that so august an as- sembly would by no means connive at the crying abuses of the Church. But this was altogether opposed to the views of the Pope, who was only desirous of applying a check to the spread of sentiments that menaced his supremacy, and dreaded beyond all things a searching inquiry into the abuses on which the papacy fattened and throve. The council, therefore, decided that the two subjects, discipline and doctrine, should be considered side by side, and took such good care to give the latter precedence, that in effect the former was wholly neglected. In settling the rule of faith, which was the first subject of discussion, the council agreed that the traditions of the Church were to be resfarded with all the reverence due to Holy Scripture itself; thus overturning at a stroke the foundation of all the Protestant doctrines, and we may add the foundation of all consistent and truthful theology. After this, it was easy to decide that the sinner is not justi- fied through faith in the atonement of Christ alone ; and the gate was thrown wide open for the undue elevation of the sacraments recognized in Scripture, the introduction of others unwarranted by the word of God, and the triumph- PONTIFICATE OF PAUL III. 3*79 ant reestablishment of a dominant and tyrannizing priest- hood. While the council was thus busily regulating the creed of future generations, the emperor and the Pope were re- volving new political schemes. Never was the crafty dis- simulation of Charles V., or the unscrupulous worldliness of Paul III., more thoroughly discovered than in the meas- ures they now adopted. Pretending only friendship and amity, the emperor was growing daily more jealous of the increasing strength of the Protestants, and was secretly de- vising means for their overthrow. At length he boldly threw oflf the mask, and openly declared war against the confederacy of Smalcald. In this enterprise he was warmly assisted by the Pope, who furnished his full proportion both of troops and money. The success of these warlike operations exceeded the most sanguine expectations of the allied potentates. Ger- many was quickly reduced to submission; the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse were taken captive by the imperial forces ; and Charles found himself in a position to dictate what terms he pleased to the Protestant party. But now the Pontiff became alarmed at the advancing power of the emperor. Germany once at his feet, the States of Italy would soon have no independence remain- ing, and the Church, that is to say, her territorial posses- sions, would be wholly at the mercy of a secular prince. Dismayed at this prospect more than at the most Avoful schisms or heresies, Paul withdrew all his forces from the emperor's army, and at the same time removed the council from Trent to Bologna, that no steps might be taken in the direction of weakening the papal pi-erogative. He further wrote to Francis I., exhorting him to "succor those who were still holding out against the emperor, and were not yet overborne." Once more the Pope felt that his cause was one with that of the Protestants, and for the moment he heartily wished them success. So completely did polit- 380 LIVES OF THE POPES. ical considerations overbalance the most serious questions of religion with the pontiffs of that age ! The Pope's animosity toward the emperor was fully par- ticipated in and more recklessly displayed by the Pontiff's favorite son. Pier Luigi Farnese. That lawless and dissi- pated man had long aimed at making himself sole master of Parma and Placentia, a project which the emperor stoutly opposed as a gross alienation of Church property for the aggrandizement of the Farnese, and not less as tending to diminish his own influence in Italy by multiplying the num- ber of her independent princes. Enraged at the emperor's opposition, Pier Luigi urged all the Italian powers to com- mence hostihties against Charles, and carried his enmity to such a pitch as to excite against himself the personal hatred of all who espoused the emperor's cause. Five nobles of Placentia at last entered into a secret league to rid their city by one blow of an usurper's tyranny, and so to recom- mend themselves to Charles's favor. Their plot succeeded. They murdered the depraved Farnese in his own palace, and then made themselves masters of the city. Incensed at the emperor's estrangement, mortified at his own loss of power, and stung to madness by the death of his favorite son, there was no act of hostility which Paul would not gladly have undertaken, had not dread of the imperial vengeance restrained him. But Paul's was a na- ture, as Ranke justly observes, " that great reverses render spiritless, feeble, and vacillating." His cup of bitterness was not yet full. Despairing of keeping the duchy of Placentia for his own house, Paul now resolved on restoring it to the Church, and so at least wrenching it from the grasp of the emperor. But here he met with opposition where he least expected it — from his own grandsons. These young men had long cherished the hope, indeed the expectation, of making that duchy their own, and they now resolutely opposed its restoration to the Church. Paul was astounded at meeting with resistance JULIUS III. AND MARCELLUS II. 381 from those who, while he sought their advancement, had always professed implicit submission to his will. His only consolation in this new misfortune was the thought that at least Alexander Farnese remained faithful to him, and would not despise his authority. But when at length the unhappy old man discovered that Alexander also was privy to their design, and had aided them in their plot, his heart was com- pletely broken, and he refused all sympathy and comfort. Summoning the Cardinal Alexander to his presence, he vio- lently rated him for his ungrateful conduct ; and, becoming more enraged as he spoke, he tore his nephew's cap from his hand, and dashed it to the ground. So vehement an agitation of mind was more than his feeble and tottering frame could bear. He was eighty-three years of age, and nature reeling under the rude shock she had received, he fell dangerously ill, and expired in a few days. Most pitiable old man ! Who would envy him his power or the splendor of his state, coupled with a life v»'hich had been, not a blessing, but a curse to the world — a remorse- ful conscience, a rebellious progeny — and must it not be feared, the tremendous consummation of a soul unsaved ? CHAPTER XIV. PONTIFICATES OF JULIUS III. AND MARCELLUS II. A. D. 1550-1555. The influence of the deceased Pope was still felt in the con- clave. The cardinals whom he had raised to the purple were naturally devoted to his interests, and his grandson Ottavio Farnese now leagued these together to secure the election of one who should still favoi* the views of the Far- nese house. The Cardinal de Monte was the successful candidate, and it is said that he himself decided the waver- ing minds of his partisans by promising to make them all 382 LIVES OF THE POPES. his confidants and friends. He assumed the title of Julius in remembrance of Julius II., of whose court he had been the chamberlain. Julius III. was already nearly seventy years of age, yet by no means weary of the pleasures and dissipations then prevalent in Rome. He immediately conciliated the Far- nese by conceding to Ottavio the duchy of Parma, and then, announced his determination to keep up a firm alliance with the emperor through the whole of his popedom. In pur- suance of this resolution, he gave orders for the general council to be reassembled at Trent; and the German bishops, now hopeful of some kind of reform, attended in considera- ble numbers. The Protestants, also, made some attempt to unite with it ; but finding all just and equitable terms sternly refused them, they at length finally withdrew, and the coun- cil proceeded to build on the foundation which they had laid in the former pontificate. They now determined that the real preseyice of Christ in the sacramental bread and wine was the true doctrine of the Church ; that the host ought, therefore, to be adored ; and that auricular con- fession was an indispensable prerequisite for communion. Left wholly to themselves, the anti-Protestant party had now a clear course, (for the German bishops who wished for reform proved a small minority of the whole,) and could at pleasure give the sanction of a formal decree to doctrines and practices which had hitherto been rather sufiered than ordained. But they were soon again interrupted in their labors. Ottavio Farnese, dissatisfied that Placentia was not joined with Parma under his rule, and eager to abridge the im- perial power in Italy, had solicited the aid of Henry II., Francis's successor on the throne of France. French troops soon appeared in Parma and Mirandola, and the ancient feuds were renewed with all the more visfor because of the repose which had been allowed them. The Pope united his forces with those of the emperor, while Henry II. sought JULIUS III. AND MARCELLUS II. 383 the help of the German Protestants. So formidable did this league between France and Germany appear to both the emperor and the Pope, that while Julias gave instant orders for the suspension of the council, lest the reforming bishops should seize the opportunity to urge their plans, exclaiming, as he did so, " Never could we have believed that God would so visit us !" Charles was glad to purchase a peace by giving liberty to the princes whom he had lately led about captive in triumph, and by making large promises of religious freedom and peace to the Protestant party. Always more given, as we are assured by his cotempo- raries, to enjoy himself than to govern his States, Julius passed the remainder of his days in those inglorious pleas- ures which had now become characteristic of the* papal court. Possessing a considerable share of that eleefant taste which the Medici and other noble families had so assidu- ously cultivated, Julius busied himself in erecting a palace, which yet stands at the Porta del Popolo, and is known as the villa of Paipa Giulio. The designing and building of this edifice, with the laying out of its spacious gardens, were his most serious avocations. His amusements resem- bled those of his namesake and favorite exemplar, Julius II., and mingled gross coarseness and sometimes blasphemy with a boisterous levity. After spending a few years in this vain and disreputable manner, Julius III. died in 1555. The party which we have hitherto seen identified with the Theatines and the Jesuits had now gathered considera- ble strength within the conclave itself. In distinction from the worldly party, which was exactly represented by Juhus II., Leo X., and Clement VII., this might be called the Church party, because of their more devoted zeal to the interests of the Church, and the vigorous line of action they adopted. At their head stood Cardinal CarafFa, whom we have already seen originating the Inquisition, and vehe- mently opposing any attempts to conciliate the Protestants. By his influence one of the same party, Marcello Cervini, 384 LIVES OF THE POPES. was now promoted to tlie papal throne ; and lie, like Ad- rian VL, preferred to retain his original name. Marcellus II. assumed the tiara amid the approbation of the whole Catholic world, and the most sanguine hopes of his own party. " If ever it be possible," said an observer, ** for the Church to extinguish heresy, to reform abuses, to compel purity of life, to heal its divisions, and once again be united, it is by Marcellus that this will be brought about." Vain hope ! Had Marcellus been spared for years he would have found all this beyond his power. It must be admitted, however, that the few days of life allowed him were diligently improved, and in such a way as to answer the sanguine expectations of his friends. In his disinter- ested z^eal for the Church, and his abhorrence of the selfish policy of his predecessors, he forbade any of his kindred to approach the capital. He vigorously retrenched the expen- diture of the court, and devised measures for repressing many ecclesiastical abuses. His first public act was to enforce the solemn observance of the rites of worship, which it had hither- to been the custom to hurry over with the most indecent haste. But in the midst of these contemplated alterations, which would doubtless have greatly promoted the real strength of the Roman Church, and have been eventually directed in full force against so-called Protestant heresies, Marcellus was suddenly taken off by the hand of death. He died on the twenty-second day of his pontificate. It has been the fashion with those who desire a reputa- tion for candor to lavish high praises on Marcellus. Ranke joins in the anthem, but does not cite a particle of evidence to prove that the Pope was a truly pious man. That he was a zealous supporter of the papal system there can be no doubt ; but of the wide difference between this and be- ing a Christian the present work has afforded but too many illustrations. The popedom of Marcellus, also, was too brief to permit us to form any accurate judgment of his character from his deeds. PONTIFICATE OF PAUL IV. 385 CHAPTER XV. PONTIFICATE OF PAUL IV. TO THE BATTLE OF ST. QUINTIN. A. D. 1555-1557. For centuries the policy of the popes and of the whole Roman court had been that of expediency, worldliness, and self-indulgence. The tide had now fairly turned, and a re- action had set in. Under the former regime, the spiritual influence of the Church had rapidly dwindled away ; but a party had now arisen that undertook to restore it — a party called into existence by the just clamors of the world, and by the dangerous rivalry of a Protestant Church. Under Paul III. this party had matured its plans, and col- lected its munitions of war, its Jesuits, and its Inquisition. In raising Marcellus to the popedom they discovered their readiness to assume the reins of power, and they now pre- pared to launch the thunders they had so silently and se- cretly forged. The hand, also, that had raised Marcellus to the throne now grasped the tiara for itself, and Giovanni Piero Caraffa came forth from the conclave bearing the title of Paul IV. To a pontiff of High-Church propensities, the rival, and sometimes conflicting claims, of his secular and his spiritual offices must have often proved bewildering. Desirous of being a potent sovereign in the councils of Europe, and also of increasing the influence of the Romish Church in every land, he would often find it vexatiously embarrassing to keep both ends in view. On Paul IV. these difficulties produced a very striking effect. His ascension to the throne was hailed by the Church party with acclamations of un- feigned joy, for they reasonably thought that a Churchman so zealous, a cardinal so austerely devout, would most effi- ciently work out their scheme of papal aggrandizement. But so entirely was the balance of Caraffa's mind upset by 17 3S6 LIVES OF THE POPES. the novel circumstances of his position, that for a long time he almost lost sio^ht of those defects which he had been ac- customed all his life to bemoan, in his eagerness to extend the temporal domains of the Church, A worldly spirit quite overcame the superstitious and bigoted spirit which usually governed him. " How would your hohness wish to be served ?" was the question addressed to him by his chamberlain. " As becomes a great prince !" was the haughty reply. And in this mood did Paul continue throughout the first half of his pontificate. His coronation was celebrated with unusual pomp, and to* the foreiofn ambassadors who came to cono^ratulate him on his accession he behaved with supercilious hauteur, " thun- dering in their ears that he was superior to all princes, that he would admit none of them on a footing of famiharity, and that he had ample power either to bestow kingdoms or to take them away.'* These sublime pretensions, worthy of Hildebrand him- self, Paul soon set himself to enforce. Although nearly eighty years old, his deep-set eyes still retained all the fire of his youth, his tall spare form seemed instinct with en» ergy, and his walk was yet firm and quick. He was one of those men who are born to command, and whose impe- rious will, when once opposed, must either break forth in vengeful fury on the adversary, or roll back its burning tide on its unhappy possessor. There can be no doubt that Paul sincerely intended on his accession to commence a reformation of the Church, ac- cording to his poor notions of what reformation was. As for doctrine, he wished for none other than that already taught ; but he desired that a far difibrent manner of life should be adopted by the clergy, so that their influence over the laity might be maintained and increased. In his first bull he vowed that he would make it his " first care that the reform of the universal Church and of the Roman court be at once entered on." He appointed also a con- PONTIFICATE OF PAUL IV- 387 gregation for the promotion of reforms, and sent two monks into Spain, with full powers to reestablish good discipline in all the convents of that kingdom. Especially did he breathe veno-eance as^ainst heretics, whether Protestant or others. The Inquisition, which he had been the means of reconstructing under Paul III., was now set upon a broader and firmer basis ; and so zealous was the Pontiff for its success, that whatever other business he neglected, and al- though he often forgot the meetings of the consistory, he never throughout his reign once missed attending the Thurs- day meetings of the holy office. But a surprising change came over the new Pontiff's mind as soon as his attention was turned to political ques- tions. Like Julius II., Paul was a patriotic Italian, and he had always viewed with jealousy the growing power of the emperor in Naples and Milan. He was old enough to re- member the independence of Italy, prior to the invasion of Charles VIII. ** Then,'^ he would say, " our country was a well-tuned instrument ; Naples and Milan, Venice and the States of the Church were strings of delightful accord ; but now that harmony is broken, and all through the base machinations of those lost and accursed spuits, Alfonso of Aragon and Ludovico Sforza of Milan." To this dislike of all foreign interference in Italian affairs, was joined in the mind of Paul a fierce personal hatred to the emperor. Charles knew well the character of the proud Caraffa. He had once expelled him from the Council of Naples, and had decreed that he should never hold office in that kingdom. He had now openly complained that a cardinal so hostile to himself had been raised to the pope- dom. And the imperialists in Italy, aware of their royal master's indignation, began immediately to plot and cabal, and even dared to begin hostihties, by carrying off from the harbor of Civita Vecchia some ships which they claimed as their own. An outrage like this was all that was needed to kindle to 388 LIVES OF THE POPES. a flame the fire which was ah-eady smouldering in the bosom of Paul. Always intemperate of speech, he gave the most vehement expression to his wrath. Sitting at table "he would drmk much more than he would eat, his beverage being a strong, brisk, black wine, " so thick that one might almost cut it," called mangiaguerra, or champ-the-war. Then, heated with his fiery potations, he would continue for hours declaiming against the emperor, and declaring that " Charles wanted to finish him by a kind of mental fever, but that he would nevertheless contend with him in open fight, and with the help of France would yet free Italy from the tyranny of Spain. French princes should ere long sit on the thrones of Naples and Milan, and he would sweep away from the Italian soil that scum of the world, that evil generation of Jews and Moors, those schis- matics and heretics accursed of God, the Spaniards. The time was coming for the emperor Charles and his son. King Philip, to receive the punishment of their crimes, and he himself would inflict it. God would support him in this, and the promise would receive its fulfillment : ' Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder ; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot.' " These ravings, wild as they may seem, were accompanied by corresponding deeds. The avowed imperialists, from the cardinal to the monk or serf, were all put under arrest. If they fled, their property was seized and confiscated to the State. The Pope next entered into negotiation with France, and secured the alliance of the duke of Ferrara. In a formal process of law, he roundly threatened both Charles and Philip with excommunication, and to release their subjects from their oaths of allegiance. All necessary preparations were made for a general war, and Italy seemed doomed to witness new scenes of carnasfe and ruin. But this absorption of the Pontiff" 's whole soul in political affairs led to other actions equally at variance with his pro- fessed principles and the tenor of his foi-mer life. None PONTIFICATE OF PAUL IV. 389 among the cardinals had so unsparingly denounced the pon- tifical vice of nepotism as had Cardinal Caraffa. Yet even to this weakness was Paul IV. now seen to abandon him- self as thoroughly as any of his predecessors. He had one nephew, Carlo Caraffa, who had passed all his days amid the excesses and vices of camps. Paul himself had often declared of him, that " his arm was dyed in blood up to the elbow." Yet this man did he now promote to the rank of cardinal, and to the responsible position of chief coun- selor and confidant in all his political intrigues. " Never," he now averred, " had the papal seat possessed a more ef- ficient servant." He made over to this favorite by far the greater part of all the administration, both in ecclesiastical and civil aflfairs. The arts by which Carlo had so won upon the esteem of the Pope were soon adopted by the rest of the family. They, like their worthy pattern, now vowed vengeance against Spain and the emperor, and put on the grimaces of a devotion which in their hearts they derided and detested. Carlo carried his hypocrisy so far as to contrive that the Pope should sometimes surprise him in the attitude of prayer before a crucifix, and apparently overwhelmed with agonies of penitent grief. Deceived by such pretenses, the aged Pope surrendered himself almost implicitly to the guidance of his nephews. Declaring that the Colonnas were " incorrigible rebels against God and the Church," he divided among his family the whole possessions of that noble and ancient house, making the elder of his nephews duke of Palliano, and the younger marquis of Montebello. The Caraflfas now in- dulged the most ambitious hopes ; they thought of inter- marrying with ducal and even royal houses ; and when one of them uttered some jest about a child's jeweled cap, the mother of the nephews exclaimed : " This is no time to be talking of caps but of crowns.^^ The war with the emperor had now commenced in good 390 LIVES OF THE POPES. earnest. On the imperial side the duke of Alva com- manded, having obtained, beside the alliance of several Itahan nobles, the valuable services of Marc Antonio Col- onna, one of the best soldiers of his age, and whose ani- mosities were now passionately directed against the Pope, because of the late aggressions on his house. Paul also sought to strengthen himself by alliances. The French king sent him ten thousand foot, with a less numer- ous but very brilliant body of cavalry. The most efficient, however, of all the soldiers in the PontiflF's army were Germans and Protestants ! It is even said that Carlo Ca- raffa established a very close intimacy with that great Protestant leader, the Margrave Albert of Brandenburg. Nay, Paul went further, and solicited the aid of the sultan himself, imploring him to throw his troops in full force upon the Two Sicilies while this war was going forward. So little did the religious scruples of even a bigoted and so- called reforming Pontiff interfere with the prosecution of his worldly designs ! So ready was even a Paul IV. to sacrifice his spiritual duties to his temporal ambition ! No great decisive battle was fought on Italian ground throughout the whole of this contest. The duke of Alva stood mostly on the defensive, for he well knew that the Neapolitans would not revolt so long as he could retain the attachment of the leading barons ; and this he secured by favors, bribes, and promises. He had ample resources for all this ; and beside foreign contributions, he seized all the ecclesiastical revenues on their passage to Rome, and poured them right gleefully into his military chest. Even the gold and silver of the churches, and the consecrated bells of the city of Benevento, did this devout Catholic de- vote to the purposes of war. He quickly invested all the country round about Rome, and it would have been easy for him, if so minded, to have speedily terminated the struggle. But it was on the frontiers of France and the Nether- PO^fTIFICATE OF PAUL IV. 891 lands that this conflict was to be decided. Charles knew that the Pontiff had no power but such as he borrowed from his alUes, and it was therefore against France, the chief of these aUies, that he once more directed his arms. The battle of St. Quintfn, fought on St. Lawrence's day, 1557, gave a complete voctory to the imperial banner. The French army was so utterly routed, and the havoc so ruin- ous to France, that the battle of St. Quintin has been classed with those of Cressy and Agincourt. While only eighty men fell on the imperial side, the French lost four thousand, including their best generals and the flower of their nobility. Exultation was as clamorous on the one side, as the wailing of woe and despair upon the other. Philip of Spain, in an ecstasy of joy, vowed to build, in honor of St. Lawrence, a monastery, a church, and a pal- ace ; all which he soon afterward combined in one plan, designing the great palace of the Escurial, still the most magnificent in Europe, in the form of a gridiron, in memory of its patron saint; (St. Lawrence is said to have been roasted to death on a gridiron.) The French monarch, Henry II., shut himself up in Paris ; and all France trem- bled lest the enemy should immediately march upon that capital, which was just then so ill -fortified and defenseless, that it must have fallen an easy prey. In this emergency the French troops were hastily with- drawn from Italy. The duke of Guise, who commanded them, declared that " no chains would now avail to keep him there," and hurried with all his forces to the aid of his embarrassed sovereign, leaving the Pontiff to fight his own battles. All Rome was now in alarm. The imperialist forces were rapidly approaching the walls, and the citizens were once more threatened with conquest and plunder. Lights were kept burning in the windows and streets for many successive nights with the absurd notion of scaring away the invaders ; and the people, heartily wishing the Pope in 392 LIVES OF THE POPES. Ms grave, besieged him with entreaties and demands that the Spanish army should be forthwith admitted, that they might escape the horrors of a siege. Not till the last moment did Paul relent from his mortal hostihty to the Spaniards. But when he did consent to en- ter into treaty with the conqueror, he received far more fa- vorable terms than he had any right to expect. All that had been taken from the Church was readily restored, and the duke of Alva, coming to Rome, kissed with profound reverence the foot of his conquered foe, saying that he had never feared the face of man so much as he did that of the PontiflP. Thus the vehement resentments and determined hostility of Paul IV. were all thrown away. Baffled in every effort, he henceforth abandoned the struggle, and cared little for political affairs during the remainder of his life. CHAPTER XVI. PONTIFICATE OF PAUL IV. DEVELOPMENT OF THE REACTION. A. D. 1557-1559. But the remainder of Paul's life was not inactively spent. Finding it was useless to think of ejecting the imperial power from Italy, he turned again to his original designs for reforming the clergy, extirpating heresy, and by every means strengthening the papal rule over the consciences of men. To the accomplishment of these objects he found, how- ever, a great obstacle where he least expected it, and the manner of his removing that out of his path was highly characteristic of this energetic and resolute old man. As long as his whole mind was occupied with political and military matters, he had found his nephews, and especially Cardinal Caraffa, so useful, indeed so essential, to his schemes, that DEVELOPMENT OF THE REACTION. 393 he could only think of them with the highest regard. In his view they were the very choicest and most dutiful sons of the Church. But now, on turning his attention to re- forms of the Church and to its general condition, his ears were saluted with loud murmurs respecting the conduct of these nephews, who were, in truth, leading most abandoned lives, and deceiving the aged Pope with the grossest arti- fices of hypocrisy. Entering one day very suddenly the apartments of the cardinal, who professed to be ill, Paul found him conversing with some people of the worst char- acter, and in a moment perceived the whole meaning of the rumors he had heard. *' I there saw things," he afterward said, " that opened a wide field before me." A searching investigation followed, which disclosed enor- mities that were hardly credible to the Pontiff's ears. Agitated with vexation and rage, the old man shut himself up in his chamber, refused all food, and was unable to sleep ; a fever almost consumed him. But at length he resolved that the reforms he had contemplated when he ascended the throne should immediately commence, and should begin with his own kindred. He deprived his neph- ews of all their offices, and condemned them with their families to perpetual exile. The mother of the nephews, now seventy years of age, fell at the PontiflF's feet as he entered his palace entreating for them, but he rudely re- pulsed her. The young wife of one of them hastened to Rome, hoping to prevail with the Pope although others had failed ; but on reaching the city she found her own palace closed against her, and that orders had been given to all innkeepers to refuse her admission. The night was rainy and cold, but none dared give her shelter, and she wan- dered through the streets in distress, till an innkeeper, in an obscure quarter which the Pope's orders had not reached, permitted her to lodge beneath his roof. From this time the Pontiff would hold no intercourse with any of his kindred. Their very names were forbidden to be 17* 394 LIVES OF THE POPES. mentioned in his presence. Paul seemed to forget that he had connections of any kind in the world, and, old as he was, devoted himself with untiring energy to the task he had set himself to perform. Having thus commenced the reform in the highest places, he carried it out consistently to the very lowest. All secu- lar offices whatsoever were transferred to other hands, for it was taken for granted that the administrators of them had hitherto been corrupt. No excuses and no delays were allowed. If the new governor of a town arrived at mid- night, he instantly summoned the officers, and arrested his predecessor. Not only were officers changed ; alterations of the utmost importance were made in the system of con- ducting affairs. Economy, punctuality, and dispatch, were required of all, and the Pope endeavored to acquire for himself a high reputation for justice by establishing a chest, the key of which he only kept, and in which all complaints that the people desired to make might be deposited for his private perusal. With equal rigor a similar reform was extended to all ecclesiastical posts. Service was ordered to be performed with more care in all churches. Pomp was added to the ceremonial, and magnificence to the edifices of worship. "■ To Paul IV.," says Ranke, " we are indebted for the rich ornaments of the Sistine Chapel, and for the solemn repre- sentation of the Holy Sepulcher." Protestant readers will hardly recognize the obligation, and will not think much more highly of Paul, because he strove to attain that " ideal of the Catholic service of the altar, full of dignit}'-, devotion, and splendor, which ever floated before his eyes." To a simple and Scriptural faith such vain pomps are rather hin- drances than aids to devotion. Among the monks, also, a more strict discipline was now introduced, and those especially who, like Luther, had deserted their monasteries, were hunted out and expelled from the papal states. To the priesthood all begging and DEVELOi'MENT OF THE REACTION. 395 coUectinsf of alms for masses was forbidden, and Paul had a medal struck in his own honor, representing Christ driving the mone3'^-changers out of the temple. His efforts to strengthen the hold which the Church still possessed on the superstitions of the people were unremitting, and he boasted that there was no longer any need of a council, as he allowed no day to pass by without the promulgation of some edict for the purifying of the Church. But what a miserable purity was that which cared not how unregener- ate and depraved the heart might be, provided the forms of the ritual were decently observed ! Yet this is the high- est form of purity ever aspired to by Rome. Above all things the Inquisition occupied the anxious thoughts of the PontiflF. It was Caraffa, it will be borne in mind, who urged Paul III. to revive this cruel institu- tion, and he now followed up his original designs with all the energy and fierceness of his nature. He subjected new classes of offense to its jurisdiction, and barbarously author- ized the employment of torture for the detection of accom- plices. "The Inquisition," said Paul, "is the only means of destroying heresy, and the only fort of the apostolic see." In that he spoke the truth, and weak indeed must be the cause that needs such defenses ! How terrible, too, were the munitions and machinery of this infamous "fort!" The first proceeding was to seize the suspected man without notice, and often in the dead of night. Hurried away from the embraces of his family, who felt that they were bidding him a final farewell, he was immersed in a dark cell, sometimes under the bed of a river, at others beneath the sujBfocating roof of a garret, and where the furniture consisted of but two pots of water, one for washing, and the other to allay his feverish thirst. On being summoned to trial, the prisoner was conducted, bare- headed, and with naked legs and feet, to a large subterra- neous chamber, far out of hearing from all inhabited apart- ments, and there confronted with his judges, tormentors. 396 LIVES OF THE POPES. and executioners. At the upper end he saw a huge crucifix, beneath which sat the grand inquisitor, at the head of the table, surrounded by his assistants. He then underwent a searching examination as to his birth, education, and man- ner of hfe, and if he persisted in asserting his innocence of the crimes alleged against him, he was handed over to the executioner. This officer, dressed in a black gown and cowl, which entirely enveloped his features, except where his eyes glared through two holes cut for the purpose, si- lently took charge of the prisoner, and calmly proceeded to his task of cruelty and blood. Three kinds of torture were employed — the pulley, the rack, and the fire. By the pulley, the sufferer was raised some yards from the ground, his feet being shackled and loaded with great weights. While suspended in the air, stripes were inflicted, and the pulley being suddenly slipped, the wretched man swiftly descended, and was often made insensible by the violence of the shock. In torture by the racTc the victim was stretched on his back in a wooden trough, having a bar across the middle upon which the back of his body was laid. His arms and legs were then tightly bound with cords, which were drawn tighter by screws till they cut the sufferer to the very bone. Beside this, a thin cloth was often placed over his face, and water was dropped from a height into his mouth, so that the cloth gradually sank down to the throat, and produced the very agonies of a suffocating death. To these refined de- vices of cruelty was yet added another, if the man continued obdurate — ^the torture by fire. Here the feet were slowly roasted, and when the cries of the poor victim rose highest, a screen was interposed for a moment, but only that the pain might be increased when the screen should be again withdrawn. When all torture was in vain, and to extort a confession seemed impossible, the obstinate offender was handed over to the managers of the auto-da-fe. Of the extreme publicity I DEVELOPMENT OF THE REACTION. 397 and pomp, the cruelty and blasphemy connected with these horrid executions, it is unnecessary to speak here; nor would the doleful tragedies of the Inquisition have been at all alluded to, but that no account of Paul the Fourth's pontificate could be complete without it. To such inhu- manities, masked under the fair guise of rehgion, he now devoted his days ; and a more melancholy spectacle it is surely impossible to contemplate than that of an old man, bending under the weight of more than eighty years, dis- tracting: his brains to find new modes of torturing his fel- low-creatures, or fiendishly gloating over the horrors of an auto-da-fe ; and all this in the name of that Saviour whose gospel is so utterly opposed to violence as a means of dis- seminating its truths. Absorbed in these pursuits, Paul forgot all his schemes of political ambition. His sole object now was to dififuse a rigid austerity among the clergy, in which he was powerfully aided by the ardent zeal and subtile labors of the Jesuits ; and to root out every weed of heresy, for which purpose he organized and matured the system of the Inquisition. At length, in 1559, he was laid prostrate by disease. Calling his cardinals around his bed, he bade them pray for his soul, and take earnest heed of the holy see and of the In- quisition. With these admonitions on his lips, the proud and implacable Pontiff breathed his last. Notwithstanding the zealous exertions of Paul IV. in behalf of the Church, the papal influence suffered enormous losses during his reign. His haughty behavior had quite alienated the English nation ; and his animosity against the emperor's son, Philip II. of Spain, who, by virtue of his marriage with Queen Mary, was also king of England, had brought the royal family and the aristocracy to sympathize with the movement that had long been going forward among the people. " At the close of Paul's pontificate," observes Ranke, " Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, had wholly forsaken the Roman See ; Germany was almost 398 LIVES OF THE POPES. entirely Protestant ; Poland and Hungary were in a fierce tumult of opinion ; Geneva was as important a center for the schismatics of Latin descent as Wittenberg was for those of the German race; while numbers were already gathering beneath the banners of Protestantism in the Netherlands and France." And not the least instructive lesson connected with this is the obvious fact that all the injuries thus sustained by the popedom were mainly pro- duced by its own blind and obstinate persistence in its un- righteous and truth-destroying policy. So God in his good providence had graciously arranged it. On the other hand, there were now within the papacy indubitable signs of returning strength. Paul had infused more decency and more ^^gor into all administrations, both ecclesiastical and secular. There was much less to shock the moral sense of mankind in the new deportment of the Roman priesthood ; and helped by the stealthy Jesuits, who were daily increasing, and by the strong arm of the In- quisition, it was yet possible for the papacy to maintain its position, if not to retrieve its losses. CHAPTER XVII. PONTIFICATE OF PIUS IV. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. A. D. 1559-1565. The successor of Paul IV. was a man of so opposite a character that it seemed for a time doubtful whether the course of events would continue in the same channel. But it seldom happens that a single individual, however exalted his position, can materially affect, much less withstand or alter, the prevalent spirit of his age ; and the new Pope was no exception to the rule. Plus IV. could not boast of noble descent. Althoug-h a Medici by name, he had no connection with the illustrious THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 399 Florentine house that had already placed two of its mem- bers on the papal throne. His father was a tax-gatherer at Milan, whose resources were so small that he was scarcely- able to educate his sons. The elder of these, by his reck- less daring, and a conscience that shrank not at any crime, (for he was in truth a mere bravo,) had gained the friend- ship of the notorious Pier Luigi Farnese, and by marrying that prince's wife's sister, was enabled to advance his brother Giovanni, hitherto a practitioner of the law, to the high rank of cardinal. By Paul IV. the Cardinal Medici had been held in ex- treme dishke. His low birth, his love of sensual indulgence, his aversion to all harshness and cruelty, aroused the spleen of the vehement and zealous Paul ; but perhaps it was the possession of these very quahties, combined with his liberal promises, that secured him the favor of the conclave, as they had already made him the idol of the people, who called him " The Father of the Poor." Animated by these dispositions, Pius, on ascending the tlirone, resolved that his reign should not be disgraced by the strifes and agitations which had marked that of his pre- decessor. He was bent on having, if possible, an easy and pleasant life ; and observing that the ambition of former popes had thrown them upon seas of trouble, ahenating from the Church those princes who were naturally disposed to give it their strongest support, he deteimined that no such ambition should tempt him to forsake a policy of peace and conciliation. It had been the full conviction of Paul IV. that a pope was created for the subjugation of emperors and kings ; and it was thus that he plunged himself and the Church into so many wars and calamities. "Thereby," would Pius IV. often say, " did we lose England — England, that might have been retained with perfect ease. Thus, too, has Scotland been torn from us ; and during the wars excited by Paul's severities the doctrines of Germany made their way into France." 400 LIVES OF THE POPES. If he had been left wholly to himself, therefore, the new Pontiff would probably have led a life like that of Leo X. He would have interfered as Httle as possible with others, and would only have demanded to be allowed to enjoy himself without interruption. But the current of opinion had now fully set in for reforming (after the Roman fashion) and invigorating the Church, and especially defending it against heretical assaults. Moreover, one of the Pope's own nephews. Carlo Borromeo, to whom he intrusted the chief conduct of affairs, was strongly tinctured with the prevailing views. Of this man his contemporaries — not perhaps the best judges of morality or of religion — speak in the highest language of applause. " In so far as we know," says one, *' he is without spot or blemish. So re- ligious a life, and so pure an example, leave the most exact- ing nothing to demand. It is greatly to his praise, that in the bloom of youth, nephew to a pope whose favor he entirely possesses, and living in a court where every kind of pleasure invites him to its enjoyment, he yet leads so exemplary a life." Of any praise justly due to him we have no right and no wish to defraud him ; but one thing is certain, that the Roman Catholic Church would never have canonized this Borromeo for purity and piety, if he had not been equally distinguished for zeal in defense of her forms, her supremacy, and even her vices. Under the guidance of this man, the public policy of Pius IV. very nearly resembled that of his forerunner. In- deed, his first act was one of severe justice toward the the nephews of Paul. Although that Pope had banished them from Rome, they had still continued their criminal practices in other parts of Italy, and on the death of their uncle they had returned to Rome, hoping that their past misconduct would be either forgotten or overlooked. But a strict investigation was now set afoot. They were accused of the most detestable crimes — robberies^ forgeries, and assassinations. At the close of a long day's trial, the Pon- THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 401 tiff condemned both the duke and the cardmal, and the sen- tence of death was immediately put in execution. There was now a general outcry that the sittings of the council at Trent ought to be speedily resumed. The French were even threatening to convoke a national council, which might possibly have led to a schism. Averse as the popes always were to the intrusion of inferior prelates on what they regarded as their own exclusive province, the jurisdic- tion of the whole Church, Pius found it was absolutely necessary to convene such a council at the present time. He had no decent pretext for refusing it ; and so, put- ting a good face on the matter, he declared, "We de- sire this council ; we wish it earnestly, and we would have it to be universal. Let what requires reformation be re- formed, even though it be our own person, or our own affairs." In the year 1562 the Council of Trent did, therefore, re- sume its sittings. It was fully seventeen years since the assembly had been first convened, and how altered was now the state of the world, as well as that of the Romish Church ! There could now be no more any hope of a universal coun- cil, not even of the western Churches. The Protestants were irrecoverably gone. All that could be hoped for was to reconcile those prelates, who, without seceding, had yet exhibited much dissatisfaction with the papal see ; to bind in a closer league the forces that were yet left ; and to as- sume an attitude of hostility and aggression toward heresy of every kind. All this the council still might, and in fact did accomplish. But it was no easy task. There were points on which a union seemed impossible. The German bishops wanted a reform of the Pope's own deportment, and in the manage- ment of his court. They demanded that the choice of the Pontiff should not rest so exclusively with the conclave. " How is it possible," they very justly and forcibly urged, " that the cardinals should elect a good pope, seeing that 402 LIVES OF THE POPES. they themselves are not good ?" The French required that the cup should be given to the laity, that the communion services should be translated into the spoken tongue, and that there should be both preaching and singing in the French language — all Lutheran and therefore heretical in- novations in the eyes of Rome. Some contended for the marriage of the clergy, and others maintained that every bishop derived his authority directly from God, and that it was not merely dependent upon the will of the Pope. Thus a council from which heretics were rigorously ex- cluded was still far from being in perfect harmony. The strife ran higher from day to day. One party flung the charge of heresy in the face of another, and received it back again with double force. Even out of the assembly the contest was carried on, sometimes producing actual blows and shedding of blood. The cries of " Italy ! Italy ! Spain ! Spain !" were the party watch-words, which echoed inces- santly through the streets of Trent. The Pope declared that it was high time to terminate such scandalous quarrel- ing, and such fruitless discussion, and resolved to effect his purpose by secretly treating with the sovereigns of these refractory bishops, rather than with the council itself. So completely had religion now become the instrument of State polic}^ that the Pope knew he should most effectually influ- ence the council, and so, forsooth, decide what should be the creed of the Church, by appealing to the emperor of Germany and the kings of France and Spain ! Cardinal Morone was appointed by Pius to discharge this difficult mission, which required neither theological knowledge nor eminent piety, but extraordinary address and diplomatic skill — qualities with which Morone appears to have been sin- gularly endowed. Proceeding first to the court of the emperor, now Ferdi- nand I., the cardinal exerted all his skill to soothe the irri- tation of that sovereign, and to convince him of the Pontiff's willingness to do all that was requisite for the good of the THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 403 Church. In short, Morone succeeded with all the sover- eigns, who forthwith sent instructions to their bishops and other servants in the council to maintain a good under- standing with the papal legates. Obstacles having been thus removed, the council very rapidly disposed of its busi- ness. Articles on which there was still a difference were purposely expressed with ambiguity ; the privileges of the clergy were confirmed ; some partial attempts were made at reform ; a stricter discipline was established ; laws against heretics were renewed with greater severity than ever ; care was taken that the rising priesthood should be suitably trained, and especially inured to habits of implicit obedience and austere self-command. But no steps whatever were taken to promote the study of the Scriptures, or the preach- ing of a purer doctrine. The council did not separate until the prelates had all bound themselves by a solemn confession of faith, to " ac- knowledge the Roman Church as mother and mistress of all Churches," to " obey faithfully the Roman bishop, the successor of St. Peter and ^^car of Jesus Christ," and to receive and to anathematize all things as they are received and anathematized by the Council of Trent.* And thus an assembly, which met for the express purpose of limiting and restraining the papal power, had actually confirmed and extended it, and placed it on a firmer basis than before. Beside these advantages, another equally important had been gained. The papacy was no longer in direct opposi- tion to the sovereiomties of the world. It now claimed them as allies, and could henceforth reckon upon their assistance in all its struggles and ambitious aims. Thus Romanism was once more assuming a bold and domineering attitude, and the Pope of Rome concentrated in himself all the powers and energies of the Church. Pius IV. felt that the great task of his life was accom- '' Vide Pope Pius's Creed — Le Plat's Decreta et Canones, Appen- dix, p. 22, 404 LIVES OF THE POPES. plished when the Council of Trent was thus successfully- brought to a close. If, before that time, he had been dis- posed to self-indulgence, he now became more voluptuous than ever. He neglected religious service, and addicted himself excessively to the pleasures of the table. He in- creased the splendor of his court, gave sumptuous enter- tainments, and erected magnificent buildings. Strict Church- men were much scandalized at the gayety of the Pope ; some of the more fanatical even plotted against his life ; and the whole reforming party rejoiced when, in 1565, his death delivered them from what they felt as a hbel on their reputation, and an insurmountable check to all their efforts. CHAPTER XVin. PONTIFICATE OF PIUS V. PROGRESS OP THE REACTION. A. D. 1565-1572. The strength of the High-Church party was now sufficiently matured to enable them to select a pope from among them- selves. Their leader. Carlo Borromeo, advocated the claims of Michele Ghisleri, Cardinal of Alessandria, whose fitness for the office, he said, was proclaimed by his " piety, irre- proachable life, and devout spirit." This choice was ap- proved by the whole party ; and they who, during the reign of Pius IV., had maintained a sullen silence, were now filled with the highest hope. " To Rome — to Rome !" wrote one of them; " God has wakened up for us our fourth Paul again." Pius V. was really a man of very similar character to Paul IV. From his youth he had displayed a marvelous zeal in behalf of the papal authority and against all so- called heresy. Invested with the office of inquisitor, he exercised his functions so rigorously that even sincere Ro- manists hated his name. He was more than once assailed PONTIFICATE OF PIUS V, 405 by the peasantry with volleys of stones, and was often obliged to steal secretly from the neighborhoods in which his tyrannies had been committed. In his private life Ghisleri was self-denying, abstemious, and austere. On becoming a cardinal he had told his do- mestics that they must fancy themselves in a monastery ; and on rising to the popedom he relaxed nothing of his mo- nastic severity, continued his fasts as exactly as ever, and still retained the coarse shirt which he had worn when only a monk. We are not disposed to doubt such a man's sin- cerity in the opinions and views he advanced, but we may justly censure the opinions themselves, and the means he adopted to give them effect. The reformation of the papal court was now commenced in good earnest. The expenditure was the first thing to be reduced. Pius V. wanted little for himself, and, although he made his nephew Bonelli a cardinal, he allowed him a very moderate stipend, and would not allow him to be vis- ited even by his own father. All bishops and archbishops were stiictly prohibited from leaving their dioceses, and parish priests were enjoined, under the heaviest penalties, both to remain at home and to be diligent in discharging their duties. The regulations for monks and nuns were equally stringent. Fifty thousand of them are said to have been absent from their monasteries, wandering about Italy. They were commanded to return instantly, and the rules prescribed for their daily life were so much more rigid than before that " some fell into a sort of desperation, and others fled the cloisters altogether." The laity were next attended to. By one of his bulls Pius forbade any physician to visit any patient confined to his bed more than three days without receiving a certificate that the sick man had confessed his sins anew. By an- other, he decreed that the rich should be punished for blas- phemy and Sabbath-breaking by heavy fines, while those who had no property to mulct were punished for these 406 LIVES OF THE POrES. offenses by being made to stand at the church-door a whole day with the hands tied behind the back ; if guilty of the offense a second time, they were whipped through the city ; and if a third time they offended, they had their tongue bored through and were sent to the galleys. That such laws should produce a change in men's man- ner of life was to be expected, but it is equally obvious that such a change could have nothing sincere or durable about it. In a short time there was a wonderful reform of exter- nal life in Rome ; but the hollowness of such a reformation did not escape the thoughtful and discerning. " In Rome," said one observer of these events, "matters proceed in a fashion very unlike what we have hitherto seen. Men have become a great deal better, or at least they have put on the appearance of being so^ The extirpation of what he deemed heresy was a darling pursuit of Pius V. His treaties with the various States of Italy were almost exclusively occupied with this topic. Duke Cosmo, -of Florence, gave up to him without hesita- tion all who had been condemned by the Inquisition. Car- nesecchi was one of the most eminent of those men of letters who had embraced Protestant views ; and, although of noble blood, and connected with the reigning house, he was surrendered to the Roman inquisitors, and suffered death at the stake. For such ready devotion to papal in- terests Cosmo was not unrewarded, and Pius V., overlook- ing his gross immorality, and wholly disregarding the rights of the people, crowned him grand duke of Tuscany, in re- turn for that species of piety which in the eyes of the Pope infinitely outweighed every other order of merit. But it was Milan that beyond all other Italian States ex- hibited a strict conformity to the new ecclesiastical spirit. The archbishop of this see was Carlo Borromeo, who, having now retired from Rome, devoted himself so zealously to the duties of his bishopric, that he was cited as a pattern of episcopal virtue, and ultimately attained to a place in the PONTIFICATE OF PIUS V. 407 calendar itself. He was incessantly occupied in the visita- tion of his diocese, traversing it in every direction. The remotest villages, the highest mountains, the most secluded valleys, wherever inhabitants were found, were all alike known and cared for. " Yet," says one of his encomiasts, " the most efficient result of his labors was perhaps the se- verity of discipline to which he held his clergy, and which they in their turn enforced upon the people." It was by no means enough, however, for Pope Pius V. that Italy was once more restored to the papacy ; he sought triumphs abroad as well as at home. In Portugal he was secure of victor}'- through the influence of the Jesuits, who had so surprisingly increased as to be able now to control all the policy of the government. In Spain the same end was effected by the aid of King PhiUp, and the bigoted res- olution with which he supported the tyranny of the Inqui- sition. " One auto-da-fe followed another till every germ of the hated belief was extirpated." In France, also, Pius did his utmost, and letters still extant, which he wrote on the subject, give painful evidence of the raahgnity with which he regarded every form of the so-called heretical faith. France was just then the battle-field of the hostile creeds. The Protestants had greatly increased through the preach- ing of Calvin and Beza, and under the fostering care of Margaret of Valois, Q.ueen of Navarre. Although perse- cuted as in other countries, often dispersed when assembled for worship, and not seldom brought to torture and the stake, their numbers still multiplied until they had become a very formidable party in the State. At their head stood the prince of Conde and Admiral Coligny, beside many other persons high in rank and of notable worth. The Catholic party was led by the Guises, the most powerful family in France, who aimed at nothing less than governing the throne itself. But in this object they found themselves thwarted by the crafty, licersHons, and cruel 408 LIVES OF THE POPES. Catharine de' Medici, mother of the king, who, as Charles IX. was still a youth, was also the regent of France. Catharine, resolving in any case to hold the scepter in her own hands, leaned sometimes to the Guises and the Catholics, and at other times to the Protestants and Conde. But the repeated acts of violence and persecution committed by the former drove the Protestants at length to open resentment, and the nation was soon divided into two hostile camps, from which Catharine could no longer hold aloof. Thus pressed, she decided for the Guises, and a long and bloody civil war en- sued, in which each party was triumphant in turn. Pope Pius could hardly be an indiflferent spectator of the strife, and we find him both aiding the Catholics with money, and hounding them on to deeds of the direst cruelty. When the battle of Jarnac, in 1569, gave the Catholics triumphant predominance, and power to do as they listed, the Pope wrote to the king, saying : " You ought with all diligence and care to take advantage of the opportunity which this victory oflfers you, for pursuing and destroying all the enemies which still remain ; for tearing up entirely all the roots, and even the smallest fibers of roots of so ter- rible and confirmed an evil. For, unless radically extir- pated, they will be found to shoot out again, and the mis- chief will reappear when you least expect it." To Catharine he wrote in the same strain, imploring her to pursue the enemies of the Catholic religion " until they are all massa- cred, for it is only by the entire extermination of the heretics that the Catholic worship can be restored." It is easy to see from these letters that if Pius V. was not actually privy to the design which was even then en- tertained by the infamous Catharine and her depraved and besotted son, of cutting oflF the Protestants at one blow, this was nevertheless a project which would have met with his hearty concurrence ; and it is hard to avoid the suspicion that the first thought of so terrible a "massacre" as that of St. Bartholomew had its origin, not in Paris, but in Rome. GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. 409 At England the Pontiflf could only shake his hand in powerless menaces. Queen Elizabeth had now desisted from that weak coquetting with Rome which disgraced the the early part of her reign, and was employing measures of very questionable severity against those who adhered to the ancient faith. Pius returned her hostilities with a bull of excommunication ; and, to the discredit of that age it must be recorded, that the man who dared to give it pub- lication, by affixing it to the Bishop of London's palace gate, was first tortured at the rack and then put to death. For the loss of England Pius breathed his last sigh. He never ceased grieving over it, and contriving schemes for the recovery of the treasure, until death terminated his illusions in 1572. CHAPTER XIX. PONTIFICATES OF GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. SUCCESS OF THE REACTION. A. D. 1572-1590. The successor of Pius was a man who would gladly have lived an easy, jovial kind of hfe, if the spirit of the times would have suffered it. But under the jealous eyes of in- quisitors and Jesuits, even a Pontifi" was not master of his own movements ; so that Hugo Boncompagno, on ascending the papal throne, was obliged to appear circumspect and grave, and even to counterfeit sympathy with the prevalent sentiments of the age. No sooner had Gregory XIII. assumed the tiara, than an opportunity was taken by the leading officers of the court, Jesuits and cardinals, of warn- ing him not to deviate from the track marked out by his pre- decessors ; and so completely did they awe, perhaps pai-a- lyze the mind of the old man, now past his seventieth year, that he dared not attempt the enriching of his own family, (although he had a son on whom he doted,) nor even the 18 410 LIVES OF THE POPES. gratification of his own tastes. Not more than three months of Gregory's popedom had elapsed when the world was startled from its repose, and petrified with horror, at a tragedy which has had no equal in ancient and modern times — a tragedy in which the new Pontiff bore no unim- portant part. When Catharine de' Medici and the impotent Charles IX. proposed a peace to the Protestants, or Hu- guenots, of France, it was with the deliberate design to inveigle them into their power, and slaughter them at will. For this purpose they feigned a wish to ratify their friend- ship by a marriage between the king's sister and the young prince of Navarre. An ofier so advantageous, and promis- ing such auspicious results to religion, completely deluded the leaders of the Huguenot party, and in a few months the king and queen of Navarre, with all their court, the Prince de Conde, and Admiral Coligny, with all the Huguenots of distinction, were assembled within the walls of the French metropolis, and lodged chiefly in the palaces of the royal family itself. All the heads of the Protestant party were thus gathered in Paris by the beginning of August, 1572, and the 24th of that month, being St. Bartholomew's-day, was fixed by the royal party as the day of sacrifice, when a hecatomb of innocent victims should be ofiered to the Moloch of re- vengeful bigotry. With the particulars of that awful massacre we need not stain these pages. They are written in dismal characters upon the annals of the French nation, and in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. And as it cannot be proved that the pontiffs had any direct share in it, we are bound to throw the vail of charity over those parts of their conduct which excite our suspicions. But if Charles IX. was haunted to his dying day by the blood- stained specters of those he had so ruthlessly murdered, so also ought Gregory XIII. to have been stung with remorse at the remembrance of the cruelties which were prompted by Roman bigotry, and which he himself had, consciously or GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. 411 unconsciously, helped to perpetrate. The slaughter of seventy thousand unofiending and unresisting victims, some bent with age and venerable with hoary locks, others too young to have even lisped the prayers of a heretical Church, ought surely to have weighed heavy on his conscience, and might well have driven him to pass the remainder of his days in penitence and self-reproach. On the contrary, however, the news of the direful mas- sacre which dyed the rivers of France with blood, and filled the world with fear, was received at Rome with loud dem- onstrations of joy. Having been expected, it took none of the papal court by surprise. " The king of France has Icept Ms word,''' said the Cardinal Alessandrian ; and the cardinal of Lorraine, the eldest of the Guises, questioned the messenger for further particulars, to see if all that had been intended had actually taken place. Worst of all, the Pope decreed that there should be public rejoicings to cele- brate the event ; high-mass was performed with every cir- cumstance of pomp and splendor ; and ere the waihng of the widows and orphans of France, crying to Heaven for vengeance, had died away, the solemn strains of the Te Deum arose from the choir of St. Peter's, thanking God for the accomplishment of the most monstrous crime which history records. Nay, so unblushing was the effronteiy of the Pope, that he caused a medal to be struck in memory of the deed, bearing on one side the likeness of his own face, and on the other an effigy of the destroying angel, surmounted by the inscription, " Huguenotorum strages" — The slaughter of the Huguenots. A reign so wickedly begun was not likely to proceed in peace. As Gregory pursued throughout a policy of rigid persecution and insatiable exaction, so he reaped the fruits in a most unquiet and agitated reign. It was his exactions in particular, however, which brought down this just retri- bution. In seeking to replenish his treasury, which the extravagance and dishonesty of most of his predecessors 412 LIVES OF THE POPES. had deeply drained, the happy thought struck Gregory that many of the feudal estates and castles held by the Italian barons must ere this have lapsed to the sovereign, either by failure in the line of inheritance or by forfeiture of the tenure. Lawyers were straightway set to work ; flaws in the deeds of possessions were diligently searched out ; and a system of wholesale plunder was begun, under the venerable names of equity and law. Castle after castle, estate after estate, were wrested from families which had held them for generations and even centuries. The privileges and charters of the cities were with equal recklessness taken away, and their revenues appropriated by the Pope. Such flagrant and daring spoliation could only set society in an uproar. *'The Pope is a thief!" "To arms! — to arms !" were the cries which rang through the land ; and very soon the whole country was filled with armed men, plundering or resisting plunder. The old factions were re- vived, and the forgotten watch-words, " Guelph" and " Ghib- beline," were heard again. A population that had been industrious and prosperous was suddenly transformed into a mass of roving banditti ; and a region which had lately smiled with gardens, vineyards, and happy homes, now assumed the grim aspect of a battle-field. Atrocious bar- barities soon grew out of such vehement party strife, and the public fountains were often seen garnished with the heads of those who had been taken prisoners and afterward slain. The efibrts of Gregory to extinguish the flame he had lighted proved utterly in vain. At home, his resources were exhausted ; and the neighboring states, incensed at the exactions he had also laid upon them, only derided his misfortunes. Thus did he wear away thirteen weary years, and died unlamented in 1585. To Gregory succeeded Pope Sixtus V., whose bold character and distinguished genius have given him a prom- inent place in the history of his age. By his talent and industry he had raised himself from the lowest class in GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. 413 society to the most honorable posts in the Church. His father, Peretti, was only a gardener, and could not afford to give him any education; but when, by the favor of an uncle, the young Felix Peretti had mastered the rudiments, he was quite capable of achieving all the rest without aid from others. When only a monk, he had attracted the attention of Ghisleri, afterward Pius V., and through that Pontiff's patronage, Peretti attached himself zealously to the rigid party in the Church, so laboring in the cause that he had well earned before he obtained it the hat which dis- tinguished him as Cardinal Montalto. At the time of Pope Gregory's death, Montalto appeared to have but little chance of the tiara. Others in the con- clave had far more influence than he. In order to procure success, he has been accused of using means unworthy of his high fame. He feigned, say his enemies, to be an infirm and prematurely old man, tormented with a consumptive cough ; he entreated to be left alone in his cell to spend his remaining days in solitude and prayer, and affirmed that he had lost all relish for the world or worldly honors. But if such artifices were not too gross to deceive the astute col- lege of cardinals, it will be readily admitted by every generous mind that they were too mean and contemptible to be practiced by the haughty and daring Montalto. Elevated to the popedom, Sixtus resolved that it should be his first care to bring back peace to the distracted towns and villages of Italy. To effect this he determined on striking terror into the hearts of the evil-doers ; and four young men having been taken with rifles in their hands — an offense condemned by law — they were immediately sentenced to death. The next day was the day of the Pope's coronation, and so favorable an occasion was seized by the friends of the young men, who hoped that Six- tus would pardon them. "While I live every criminal must die," was the stern reply; and the bodies of the young men, suspended on a gallows at the bridge of St. 414 LIVES OF THE POPES. Angelo, saluted the eye of the Pope as he went to be crowned. Similar instances of severity followed, and the terror of the Pope's name soon spread far and near. On decrees being issued that all barons and magistrates should clear their castles and towns of banditti, it was almost universally done ; and when it was further ordained that the price set on the head of a bandit should be paid, not out of the pub- lic funds, but by the outlaw's relations, the whole popula- tion felt itself enlisted in the cause of order and peace. No day passed without an execution ; over all parts of the country, in field and wood, stakes were erected, on each of which stood the head of an outlaw. No governor was ac- ceptable to Sixtus who did not supply him largely with these barbarous trophies. "His demand was ever for heads." Harsh as these measures were they proved successful. In the year 1586 the foreign ambassadors arriving at Rome delighted the Pope by assuring him ** that in every part of his States through which their road had led they had trav- eled in perfect peace and security." Sixtus was greatly aided in these successes by his friendly connections with other princes. Gregory XIII. had contrived to offend nearly every State and monarch in Italy, and their territo- ries had consequently been places of refuge to all the dis- turbers of peace who were driven beyond the Roman bor- ders. But Sixtus V. assiduously cultivated the good-will of all neighboring potentates, and accordingly received many proofs of regard from the Venetians, the Milanese, and the king of Naples. Successful in appeasing domestic feuds, Sixtus next pro- ceeded to seek the commercial welfare of his country. He drained several of the marshes at the foot of the Apennines. The Chiana of Orvieto and the Pontine marshes were par- ticularly improved by his labors. To promote an Italian silk manufacture, the Pontiff decreed that mulberry- trees GREGORY XIII. AND SIXTUS V. 41^ should be planted throughout the States of the Church, five on every rubbis of land in every field and wood, and on all hills, and in every valley. Wherever com was not growing these trees were to find a place. In ecclesiastical matters Sixtus continued the policy of the party he had joined, although his natural disposition made him much more of a sovereign than a priest. He insisted, how- ever, that the manners of the clergy should be gov- erned by decorum ; and the cardinals who, a century before, would have buckled on their armor for the field, now led a comparatively learned life in the seclusion of the cloister. Yet with all this change in manners there is no reason to think that there was any advance in piety or even in moral- ity. The apjMarance of these qualities was necessary to success, but as the most eager struggle after worldly great- ness was mingled everywhere with the eflfbrt to promote them, the reality of either was almost impossible. The highest offices were open to all, and the path by which they were to be reached was that of dissimulation. Pre- tended devotion to the Church, even to rank bigotry, vrith a ready blindness to all immorality that was not scandalous, were the best passports to favor and honor. It could not but ensue that there should be hollowness, hypocrisy, treachery, ambition, and avarice, flourishing on all sides. The clergy still found it to their interest to favor the most superstitious errors among the people, for superstition is the chain with which priestcraft binds and leads captive the souls of men. Accordingly, now that the age was " re- ligious," miracles began to be revived. An image of the Virgin was heard to speak in the church of San Silvestro, and the event produced so powerful an impression upon the people that the region around the church, hitherto neg- lected and desolate, was presently covered with dwellings. In the Rione de' Monti a miraculous image of the Virgin appeared in a haystack, and the inhabitants of the neigh- 416 LIVES OF THE POPES. borhood, considering it a special token of divine regard, rose in arms to prevent its removal. This passion for miracle- mongering once kindled it soon spread to other countries, and the world was again filled with degrading superstitions. As the " religious " spirit was thus communicated to all things the fine arts began to be afibcted. Tasso wrote his "Jerusalem Delivered," for no classic or heathen subject would now win an audience, as in the days of Leo X. The Caracci and other painters drew ideals of Christ and of the saints, full of devout and pensive feeling. Music received a new direction, and from this period is to be dated that exquisite adaptation of hannony to the sense of words pre- sented in the service of the Romish Church. This conquest of the arts, and rendering them tributary to Rome, greatly aided in promoting the reaction which had now so thor- oughly set in against the deep tide of the Reformation. The finances of the Church were from the first an object of great solicitude with Sixtus V. By rigid economy and dexterous management he accumulated a large amount of treasure, (as much, say some, as four millions and a half of silver scudi,) which he carefully preserved in the castle of San Angelo. This treasure was only to be touched on special emergencies. It might be used for a war against the Turks, for the conquest of the Holy Land, for recover- ing some conquered Catholic province, or in case of famine or invasion. So much wealth, however, enable Sixtus V. to undertake many useful public works, and he spent large sums in im- proving or beautifying the metropolitan city. The want of water was severely felt by the inhabitants of the Quirinal and Terminal hills, and Sixtus conferred a real obligation on the city when he constructed the Aqua Felice, an aque- duct by which he brought water from a distance of twenty- two miles. Sixtus himself greatly exulted in this achieve- ment, and felt a just and worthy flush of triumph when he saw the bright stream diffiising its wealth through his own GREGORY XIII. AND 8IXTUS V. 4l7 gardens, and when he placed by the side of the fountain the statue of Moses fetching water from the rock by the potent touch of his staff. In surveying the relations of Rome with foreign States Sixtus was concerned, like his predecessors, to see so fair a province as England wholly severed from the Roman Church. He fully entered into the crusading spirit of Pius Y., and was overjoyed when at last he succeeded in rousing Philip of Spain to undertake an aggressive expedi- tion. It was in 158Y that this armament, styled the "In- vincible Armada," equipped at an enormous expense and protected by a Pope's blessing, set sail for the British coast. Sixtus had promised the Spanish king a million of his silver scudi as soon as the first English sea-port was taken. Pru- dent Pontiff ! Yet more faith in his own benison, and less carefulness for his purse, would have better comported with his profession. The result of that expedition is well known. God himself appeared to defend the last asylum of the re- formed faith. Before the Armada had touched the land a violent storm arose, and a fleet of one hundred and thirty ships was completely broken up, most of the vessels either founderinof at sea or returninsf home in a shattered and miserable plight. But though this enterprise wholly failed, yet Sixtus V. lived to see the entire success of the reaction commenced under Paul IV., so far at least as respected the checking the further progress of the Reformation, and the restoring of a large part of the alienated countries to the bosom of the Roman Church. In France the reformed religion had received a great blow by the Huguenot massacre. Still the Protestants were powerful, and seemed so essential to the preservation of a due balance of interests in the realm that Henry III. often favored rather than oppressed them. This soon roused the ire of the priesthood ; a spirit of disloyalty was encour- aged ; and, eventually, a fanatic named Clement found ac- cess to the king's private chamber and there stabbed him 13* 418 LIVES OF THE POPES. with a poniard. Sixtus did not conceal his delight at the perpetration of this crime. " It is surely the hand of God," he exclaimed, " who thus signifies that he will not forsake either France or his own Church !" In Germany the Reformation was, perhaps, more com- plete than anywhere else ; but even here it began now to meet with serious disasters. The Roman party had rallied ; the increased vigor infused into the hierarchy had inspired it with boldness. And although the Inquisition could find no home in the countries watered by the Rhine and Elbe, yet the Jesuits could do the work of proselytism both more surely and more quietly. Stealthily they crept from city to city, openly avowing their mission only where they were sure of the protection of a Roman Catholic prince. Their schools were acknowledged to be the best for the training of youth ; and while their skillful address gave them access to innumerable familieSjtheir unscrupulous consciences permitted them to use the most questionable and even immoral means to reclaim wanderers to the fold of the Pope. Moreover, while the Protestants were divided into Lutherans and Cal- vinists, the Romanists were all united, and thoroughly intent on the work of reconversion. Thus we find at this period Roman Catholic bishops in Germany pubhcly reviving cus- toms that had long been regarded as superstitious, and had sunk into contempt. The streets were again filled with processions ; the vesper and matin bells were daily rung ; relics were once more collected and laid in pompous shrines; monasteries were reoccupied, and new churches for Roman Catholic worship were built. One bishop alone is said to have founded three hundred, which the traveler may still distinguish by their tall and pointed spires. But although Rome had been compelled to tighten her hold on her remaining possessions, and had even regained some that were well-nigh gone, there was much, as we have seen, that was irrecoverably lost. Her universal empire was no more. Her dominion over the souls of men had FROM SIXTUS V. TO CLEMENT VIII. 41f received a fatal blow. Doubtless she had strength enough to rally for a time, but though her decline may be lingering, it must ever be dated from the day of her mortal struggle with Luther. Action and reaction appear to be the eternal law of progression. And thus the temporary revival of the papal power can only be another step to its ultimate disso- lution. Pope Sixtus V. died in 1590. The successes he had en- joyed had induced him to cherish the wildest designs. He would unite all Christian nations to conquer the Turks ; he would capture the Holy Land ; he would cut through the desert that divides the Mediterranean from the Red Sea, and so restore the commerce of ancient times ; or, he would hew the sepulcher of Christ out of its solid rock, and care- fully wrapping it round, would bring it to Italy. Success had intoxicated his mind. At the hour of his death an awful storm burst over Rome, and the superstitious people, hating the Pope for his heavy taxation, and, marveling at his glory, said that Sixtus had made a contract with the devil, by whose aid he had risen from step to step, and that the stipulated period having expired, his soul had been carried away in a tempest. CHAPTER XX. FROM SIXTUS V. TO CLEMENT VIII. THE RECOVERY OF FRANCE TO THE PAPACY. A. D. 1590-1605. The policy pursued by Sixtus V. toward the close of his life had rendered him, as we have seen, exceedingly un- popular. This unpopularity had extended to zealous Ro- manists abroad as well as at home. At a period when the Romish Church was putting forth every energy to recover her lost possessions and destroy the work of the Reforma- tion, the supreme Pontiff seemed chiefly intent on schemes 420 LIVES OF THE POPES. of personal aggrandizement, or at best on projects of a mere worldly kind. Instead of following up the efforts of Greg- ory XIII., and securing the great advantages which the atrocious massacre of St. Bartholomew had placed within his reach — instead of utterly crushing, as he might, the Protestant party in France, or at least lending a vigorous support to the League which the Guises had there formed against Henry IV., Sixtus had manifestly inclined to favor the new king, whose bravery and many noble qualities ex- cited his highest admiration. It so happened, therefore, that notwithstanding the earnest solicitations of the Jesuits, enforced by all the influence and authority of the Spanish court, Sixtus had always wavered between conflicting judg- ments, and had altogether refrained from active interference in the affairs of France to the day of his death. With the zealous Church party it consequently became now a point of the greatest importance to choose a succes- sor whose fidelity to the Church should be beyond suspicion or doubt; and, after a stormy debate, the conclave elected one who had been a personal antagonist of the late Pontiff, the Cardinal Giovanni Castagna. Urban VII., however, as Castagna chose to be called, did not live long enough to gratify his adherents by any signal proof of his attachment to the Church. He died in twelve days' time after his election, and the struggles of the conclave recommenced. But a second time the contest issued in giving the tiara to a member of the Jesuit party, the strength of which was now well-nigh invincible. Gregory XIV., the successful candidate, lost no time in justifying the reliance which had been placed on him. From the first he resolved that his utmost exertions should be employed to reestablish the papal authority in France. Writing to the princes of the League, he said, " Continue to persevere, and make no halt until you have attained the end of your course. Inspired by God, we have come to your assistance. First, we send you money, and that more than FROM SIXTUS V. TO CLEMENT VIII. 421 we can afford ; next, we dispatch our nuncio, Landriano, whose efforts shall bring back all who have deserted from your banners ; and, lastly, we send you our dear son and nephew, Ercole Sfondrato, with cavalry and mfantry to de- fend you by force of arms. Should you yet require more, we will provide you with that also." In fact, the new Pontiff was heartily bent on that which now seemed of paramount importance to the Jesuit and High-Church party — the recovery of France to the alle- giance of the Pope. To this object, which he regarded as a new crusade, and one of the greatest exigency, Greg- ory was determined to apply all the treasures, if they were needed, which had been so carefully hoarded by Sixtus V. For several months in succession he sent fifteen thousand scudi each month to support the army of the League ; and he would doubtless have exhausted all the resources of his treasury in what he considered so holy a cause, had not death unexpectedly cut short his bigoted and sanguinary career. Innocent IX., who succeeded Gregory, belonged to the same party, and discovered as much zeal as his predeces- sor in behalf of its views ; but age and infirmity unfitted him for his office, and prevented his engaging with activity in the fierce conflicts then disturbing the world. Even his audiences were held as he reclined upon a couch ; and in less than two months he left the toils and the honors of the popedom to another. By the election of Clement VIII., in 1592, the papal chair received an occupant of longer continuance, the Car- dinal Aldobandrino, to whom the possession fell, being as yet in the prime of life. His origin was comparatively ob- scure, and it was only by the force of a powerful genius, and by the most diligent industry, that he had risen to so exalted a post in the Roman Catholic Church. On becom- ing Pope ne retained his laborious habits, and dispatched the diversified business of his new office with exemplary 422 LIVES OF THE POPES. punctuality. Early in the morning he gave directions to his ministers, and disposed of affairs on hand, and in the after- noon he held audiences of all those who wished for his aid. His knowledge of the details of business was so large and exact, that he often enlightened his ministers themselves in their own particular departments. So active and industrious was his disposition, that when asked, "In what he took most pleasure," he replied, " In everything or nothing." ISTo one could accuse Clement of self-indulgence, or in- deed of self-seeking in any way. It is true that this was not wholly meritorious. It was no longer possible for popes to act like those who immediately preceded the Reforma- tion. The time for such abuses of the papal office had gone by. The Pope must now attend to all the onerous duties of his two-fold dignity, as the sovereign of a State, and the bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Gross neglect of these duties would inevitably have been punished by the total abandonment of his supporters, of the laity as well as the priesthood — both of his subjects and his brethren. So that while by no means mattentive to the multifarious con- cerns of the popedom, Clement chose, either from inchna- tion or from pohcy, to be punctiliously observant of the rites of religion. He duly confessed and celebrated mass, and in every way labored hard for at least the reputation of piety and virtue. Like his predecessors, Clement early directed his atten- tion to the affairs of France, where Henry IV. was still maintaining a severe struggle with the princes of the League, and was scarcely able, in face of so powerful a con- federacy, to maintain his sovereignty intact. Henry, whose religion was wholly of a political nature — that is, was ever made by him the instrument of political ends — was now strongly inclined to conform to the Romish faith. He hoped in this way to conciliate the good-will of the nation, which was still, by a large majority, subject to Ihe control of the priests. Had Henry been a conscientious Protestant I FROM SIXTUS V. TO CLEMENT VIII. 423 he might, perhaps, have effected as much toward Protest- antizing France, as had already been accomphshed in En- gland. It is certain, at least, that a powerful and numer- ous body in the State who were heartily Protestant looked up to him as their leader; and how much could be per- formed under such circumstances, in those days of despotic monarchy, by a resolute and determined prince, we see abundantly demonstrated in the history of our own Henry VIII. Rut, alas ! base passions are too frequently a stronger stimulus than any sense of duty ; and thus the English monarch succeeded where the French king so lamentably failed. During the popedom of Sixtus Y. Henry IV. had shown symptoms of a disposition to recant his Protestant profes- sion ; but Sixtus placed so little faith in his promises, and was so apprehensive of his insincerity, that he gave him very little encouragement to persevere. Clement VIII. also felt how dangerous it would be to the welfare of Ro- manism in France, if, after being admitted to the bosom of the papal Church, Henry should in a few months return to the ranks he had deserted. Influenced by these views, the Pope received a messenger whom Henry had sent upon this errand in a very guarded manner ; and it was not until there was evidently no other alternative for the French monarch but that of becoming a Catholic or abdicating his crown — not until the Jesuits in France had done their work so surely that there was a moral certainty of Henry's continuing faithful to his new vows — that Clement would consent to receive him to the Romish communion, and to give him absolution for all his past heresies. In process of time, however, these conditions were ful- filled ; for, in 1593, Henry succeeded in winning over to his cause the principal leaders of the League, and to accom- plish this did not hesitate basely to sacrifice his party and his faith. The tide of fortune immediately turned in his favor ; the whole nation submitted to his authority, (for, 424 LIVES OF THE POPES. bereft of their political leaders, the sincere Protestants were far too weak to continue the struggle,) and, in 1595, the Pope's acceptance of his fealty, and the ratification of his apostasy from the reformed faith, were celebrated m the cathedral of St. Peter. The Pontiff sat upon a lofty throne, surrounded by his cardinals, all attired in their most splen- did robes. Henry's petition was then read aloud, while his representative, a French nobleman, threw himself at the feet of the Pope in a posture of profound humility. Touch- mo- him with a light wand, Clement pronounced his abso- lution, and then bade him arise. Thus far had the Jesuits successfully carried their enter- prise of counteracting the effects of the Reformation. The recovery of France was the greatest of their triumphs. To lose France would have been the severest blow possible to the papacy, excepting, perhaps, the loss of Spain. These two powers had ever been Rome's firmest and most im- portant aUies, and when there was danger of both of them abandoning the Church, the Jesuits alone undertook to re- claim them. They had accomplished the task in Spain by the terrible Inquisition, and in France by the more subtile means of State intrigue and private education. Great was the glorying of the order, and great it well might be, over these rich trophies of their sagacity, their courage, and their perseverance. Would that such noble quahties had been devoted to a holy cause, and not to the enslaving of the mind and the eternal perdition of the soul ! France being safely restored to allegiance, the Pontiff found leisure to attend to the secular and more domestic affairs of the popedom, and, in the course he adopted, be- trayed that unscrupulously tyrannical bias which has so generally characterized the popes, and which disgraced Clement as much as any of his predecessors. The city and State of Ferrara had been ruled for many generations by the noble family of Este ; and although the pontiffs, particularly Julius II., had often laid claim to PROM 8IXTUS V. TO CLEMENT YIII. 425 their possessions as an ancient fief of the Church, they had been able notwithstanding to maintain their rights until now. Under the two Alfonsos, Ferrara had become the resort of literature and science. Ariosto, Boiardo, and Tasso, have all sung of the beauty, the gayety, and the re- finement which abounded at the court -of Alfonso I., and which continued in almost equal measure during the reign or his son Alfonso II. At the death of the latter, in 1597, he bequeathed his crown to Cesare d'Este, a near relative ; and now that the direct line of succession was extinct, the papal court resolved on renewing its claims to the estate. Cesare was unhappily in no position to make effectual re- sistance. His rights were incontestable, but he was himself comparatively unkfiown, even to his own subjects, and the princes who might have aided him were overawed by the menaces of the Pope. Driven almost to despair, the new duke appealed at length to Henry IV., believing that if he could obtain it, the support of so renowned a warrior would prove of greater force than even papal denunciations, and would inspire his timid friends with courage to undertake his cause. But Henry was just then too anxious to concil- iate the court of Rome to interfere in the matter, and the unhappy Cesare was ultimately glad to save himself from excommunication and the spiritual censures of the Church by surrendering to the Pope both his crown and his private estates. In May, 1598, Clement entered Ferrara to take possession of the government, and Ferrara, deprived of its court, its sovereign, and its metropolitan title, was reduced to the rank of a provincial town. The popedom of Clement was not, however, destined to enjoy an unruffled course of prosperity. Not long after this important accession to both his power and wealth, his peace was disturbed by contentions within the Church it- self. A fierce theological controversy broke out between the Jesuits and the Dominicans, into which, as supreme Pontiff, Clement was compelled to enter. His behavior on 42§ LIVES OF THE POPES. this occasion did not, as we shall see, redound much more to his honor than in the affair of Ferrara. At the commencement of their existence as a distinct order, the Jesuits had adopted the theological doctrines of Thomas Aquinas, who is known in the Roman Church by the name of the "Ang.ehcal Doctor." Of these doctrinal views the Dominicans had always been regarded as the author- ized expositors, and the Jesuits made no pretensions at first to dispute with them this honorable prerogative. They were not then so intent on exalting themselves as on ser- ving the papacy, by diflfusing far and wide whatever was accepted by the Church as the orthodox creed. But in the marvelous stride made by the new order to the chief seats of rank and riches, a spirit of haughty impatience took the place of their former zealous humility. The Jes- uits could not readily brook the assumption of any out of their own order to be their teachers and guides. They found, moreover, or asserted that they found, the Domini- can doctrines a great hindrance in their contests with Prot- estants ; and with that disregard of mere truth which has made them odiously proverbial, they determined on reject- ing doctrines which, whether true or false, impeded their triumphant march. Aquinas had taught, and the Domini- cans stoutly maintained the very doctrine which Calvin placed in the forefront of his creed, " that some are pre- destined to eternal blessedness, and others to eternal dam- nation." This identity of view between a portion of the Romanist and an important portion of the Protestant Churches greatly interfered with those indiscriminate and fierce assaults which the Jesuits were wont to make upon the entire Protestant faith. They found themselves some- times in an unpleasantly false position, as antagonists of un- compromising hostility to Protestantism in every shade and form, yet pledged to the support of some of the very doc- trines which Protestants themselves maintained. They re- solved, therefore, without demur, to alter their creed ; and FROM SIXTUS V. TO CLEMENT VIII. 427 forthwitli adopting the doctrine of free-will, they urged this with all their accustomed vehemence and boldness. But sitfth a departure from ancient precedent and from the authority of the Church, inflamed to the fiercest ani- mosity that spirit of jealousy which the Dominicans had already begun to feel toward the Jesuits. A controversy commenced between them, which was ultimately referred to the Pope, who held no fewer than sixty-five meetings, and was present at thirty- seven disputations, in the vain hope of reconciling the bitter disputants. Clement's mind was secretly inclined to the ancient and more orthodox opinions; and had he been governed by no other consideration than a regard for what he held to be true, his decision would doubtless have been clearly given in their favor. But Clement had learned, like too many of the popes, the art of dissembling, and expediency was the motive which mostly directed his actions. The Jesuits were now the spiritual army of the Church. To their prowess was she indebted for recovering her lost possessions, and by their aid alone could she hope to extend or preserve her authority. Fearful of offending so powerful a body ; over- awed also by the threat which they now distinctly uttered — a threat always harsh to pontifical ears — of summoning a general council of the Church, Clement silently abandoned the cause which his judgment approved, and on various excuses abstained from pronouncing a definitive sentence. The feebleness and vacillation of the Pontiff, produced by advancing age, were rapidly bringing on disturbances, both in the Church and the State, which he was unable to con- trol, when he was released from the cares of his office, and called to his final account, in 1605. The century through which we have just passed is in some respects the most eventful and momentous in the annals of the Romish Church. At its commencement, she 428 LIVES OF THE POPES. was fast declining in the esteem of the world, because of the monstrous depravity of her clergy, from the Pope to the priest. When Luther and the first reforml^s openly denounced her corruptions they found willing and attentive hearers. The doom of the papacy seemed to be close at hand. It is not the express object of this work to exhibit all the causes which prevented so desirable a consummation, but some of the most efl&cient means which were employed, the labors of the Jesuits and the outward reformation of the clergy, have come within its scope, and have passed before the reader's review. The course of the " man of sin" was not yet fully run, and the time has not even now arrived for the perfect understanding of that " mystery of iniquity." The sixteenth century beheld him withered, and drooping, and ready to die ; it also witnessed his partial restoration to strength. But it further saw a large portion of the human family emancipated from the bondage in which he had held them for ages, and manfully asserting their right to search the Scriptures for themselves. Liberty of conscience, and the independency of private judgment, are emphatically heir-looms of the German reformers, which, in spite of their errors, will ever endear their names to the heart of the Christian. Viewing the enslaving system in which they had been trained, we should not be so much surprised at the defects or mistakes with which they may be chargeable, as at the amount of Scriptural and essential truth which they were enabled to embrace and uphold. It must ever be remembered that it was out of the Church of Rome that these venerated teachers of our faith sprang. So from dark caverns do clear streams of water leap forth, at the bidding of the Almighty, to refresh and enliven the earth. KXt |0tttt|» FROAI THE ROXANIST REACTION TO POPE PIUS THE NINTH. A. D. 1605-1853. CHAPTER I. PONTIFICATES OF LEO XI. AND PAUL V. THE JESUITS IN VENICE. A. D. 1605-1607. From the commencement of the reaction which followed so swiftly on the great Reformation, the character of the Roman pontiffs underwent a remarkable change. Men of activity and energy, not mere men of pleasure, were now chosen to steer through troubled waters the "bark of St. Peter." Attention was paid not only to the personal influence, but also the personal qualities of a candidate for the tiara. Hardly would a Leo X., much less an Alexander VI., have now succeeded in winning the suffrages of the conclave. To this marked alteration in the character of the popes may in a great degree be ascribed the success of the re- action. The world was by no means prepared for so vast a revolution as that of throwino^ off altogether the su- premacy of the Pope. Still it was sufficiently enlightened to perceive that the teachers of Christianity ought not to be the foremost in breaking its precepts. But, thanks to Luther, this fault was mended. There was at least a re- gard for outward propriety among those who claimed to sit in the seat of the apostles. The name of priest was no longer, as it had been, a by-word of reproach for gross covetousness, immorality, and irreligion. At least the sem- 430 LIVES OF THE POPES. hlance of the virtues opposed to these vices was a^umed ; nor would it be fair to deny to some of the pontiffs the meed of praise for self-denying zeal and rigid integrity, although coupled, for the most part, with a fierce bigotry which horribly caricatured the fair features of religion. With the Jesuits in her van, and the Inquisition in her rear, the Romish Church had started afresh in a victorious career of delusion and priestcraft. By the end of the sixteenth century much territory which had seemed lost was wholly regained. France, with some of the German States, had returned to allegiance to the Pope, and the march of Protestantism was, to all appearance, triumphantly repressed — but in appearance alone. Who can effectually hinder the progress of truth ? If aught seems to hinder it, is not the hindrance converted by the infinite wisdom of the Most High into the means of its surer and wider conquests ? Although, therefore, the downfall of Rome was arrested when it appeared most imminent, it was only deferred in order that the stupendous power of that superstition which had so enslaved men's minds might be the better under-^ stood, that we might not be tempted to underrate the mischievous potency of error, that yet a purer form of truth might be arrayed against the monster, and that its ultimate destruction might be the more complete, the more instructive to the world, the more advantageous to the Church. For a while, therefore, we shall see the papacy rearing its head like some tall tree, loftily and proudly as ever. But we may also perceive, in spite of its flourishing aspect, indubitable marks of decay. These we shall find widening and deepen- ing from generation to generation, growing daily more appar- ent and more fatal, until, weakened by its own corrupt- ness, scathed by the rough hands of both friends and foes, it is stripped and shattered amid the storms of a revolu- tionary age ; and if left still standing, left only a headless trunk, the seared and blasted relic of its strength, attesting PONTIFICATES OF LEO XI. AND PAUL V. 431 indeed its ancient grandeur, but likewise publishing the just and awful retributions of an almighty and holy God. The first Pope of the seventeenth century, and who, in 1605, ascended the throne left vacant by the death of Clem- ent VIII., held his honors but a very short period. Be- longing to the Medici family, he very naturally assumed the title of Leo XL ; but the title was scarcely adopted be- fore death discrowned and disrobed its owner. After a reign of only twenty-six days, Leo XL died, oppressed, it was said, by the great weight of responsibility suddenly im- posed upon him. Party spirit ran so high in the conclave that all were prepared to contest the ensuing election with the utmost vehemence. They carried the struggle to such a pitch that they could only arrive at the needful degree of concord by relinquishing all their candidates, and choosing a man who belonged to no party, and to whom, therefore, both Span- iards and Frenchmen were willing to* give their votes. The object of their choice was the Cardinal Borghese. Paul Y. had raised himself from a very humble station by his ability and industry as an ecclesiastical lawyer. The quiet pursuit of his occupation, and his habit of remaining buried among books and papers, had secured him from the enmity of those who might otherwise have accounted him a rival. That he should be chosen to the highest dig- nity of the Church might well have excited his own aston- ishment, and actually led him to imagine that he owed it to the special favor and direct interposition of the Holy Spirit. Impressed with this conviction, his whole deportment now underwent a sudden and striking change. He resolved on elevating the character of the papacy by his own example, and by rigorously enforcing the laws of the Church. Per- haps it was partly a fanatical bent of mind, and partly his former studies in canonical law, that induced him to attach a higher value to the papal office than even his predeces- 432 LIVES OF THE POPES. sors had done. He declared that as he had been raised to this post not by men but by the will of God, he was in duty bound to guard all the prerogatives of the Church, and that he would rather risk his life than be found unfaith- ful to so high a trust. To uphold these prerogatives in foreign States, and es- pecially where they were in danger of attack from the prevalence of Protestant sentiments, recent popes had adopt- ed the method of sending agents to foreign courts, whom they called nuncios, and whose duty it was to watch over the interests of the papal see. Already had these appoint- ments occasioned jealousies and disputes in numerous States ; but, on the accession of Paul V., the impertinences of the functionaries in question were intolerably aggravated, as the high pretensions of the Pope were quickly commu- nicated to his subordinates in office. And to such a pitch were these petensions pushed, that the Pontiff even asserted that none but himself had right to control or regulate the intercourse between the Catholics and Protestants of any nation whatever. Although these extravagances were productive of much inconvenience to the Italian States, they were hardly thought of sufficient importance to justify a quarrel with the Pope. But in Venice the interference of the nuncio proceeded to such lengths as to rouse the indignation of the republic, and fierce disputes were the result. First of all, the Venetians were obstructed in their commercial pursuits ; their fisher- ies and other establishments on the Po were rudely dis- turbed, so that they were obliged to protect them with armed vessels, and even to seize on certain subjects of the Pope by way of reprisal. Then the prosperity of the Ve- netian press, which had raised itself to distinguished emi- nence in the early part of the preceding century, was sedu- lously diminished by incessant prohibitions of books at the papal court. These prohibitions were so multiplied as both to prove very vexatious to the free spirit of Venice, and PONTIFICATES OF LEO XL AND PAUL V. 433 very injurious to her trade. All Protestant books, all writings that reflected on the clergy, all works that departed from Rome's standards of orthodoxy, even the entire pro- ductions of any author who had once incurred censure, were included m the prohibited list. And so far was the mean spirit of commercial jealousy indulged, that those richly ornamented missals and breviaries for which Venice was so renowned, were put out of request by the alterations which were continually and purposely made at Rome, and with which only the Roman booksellers could become im- mediately conversant. The Venetians had long been cherishing on these ac- counts a secret disgust at the much-abused power of Rome. They now determined to retaliate on the Pope by enacting severe laws for the control of the clergy, and restraining the erection and endowment of new churches. Rome's arrogant priestly spirit promptly took the alarm. The pens of Bellarmine, Baronius, and other eminent Jes- uits, were put in instant requisition to denounce such pro- fane usurpations, and never were papal pretensions swelled to a greater height than by these men — the very men who most candidly confess and strongly deplore the vices of the papacy in her former days. " It is for the priest," said they, "to judge the emperor, not the emperor the priest ; it would be absurd for the sheep to pretend to judge the shepherd. So also the clergyman is exempt from all bur- dens, whether on person or property ; he belongs to the family of Christ," Starting from so false a conception of the relations ap- pointed in Scripture between a pastor and his flock, it was easy for them to ariive at such unscriptural conclusions. If they had recognized the truth which our Saviour so dis- tinctly proclaimed respecting all believers — " All ye are brethren ;" if they had not been seduced by a selfish regard for their caste to arrogate exclusively to the clergy those titles and privileges which belong to all believers alike, they 19 434 LIVES OF THE TOPES. would not have rushed into such tyrannical and utterly- monstrous doctrines as those we have cited. Venice also had learned doctors, and she opposed to Baronius and Bellarmine the acute Paolo Sarpi. The view which he took, though not altogether Scriptural, was yet so evidently grounded on Scripture that his enemies stigma- tized him as a Protestant at heart. But the calumny was unhappily false. Paolo Sarpi read mass, like a faithful papist, every day of his life. In conducting this controversy Sarpi drew a most just dis- tinction between secular and spiritual authority. *' Tempo- ral government," said he, " belongs to the prince ; spirit- ual government to the Pope. The prince judges every man, and may demand tribute from all. In all things the clergy owe him an equal obedience with the laity. The Pope's jurisdiction, on the other hand, is exclusively spiritual. Did Christ exercise a temporal jurisdiction ? Neither to St. Peter, nor to his successors, could he have transferred M'hat he did not claim for himself." While theologians were carrying on this polemical war the Venetians elected a new doge, Leonardo Donato, who was the leader of the party most opposed to Rome, and whose chief advocate was Paolo Sarpi. Confident that reconciliation was now out of the question, Paul V. re- solved to have recourse to those once potent weapons, cen- sures and excommunications. In April, 1606, a sentence of excommunication was formally pronounced in the Vati- can upon the doge, the senate, and the whole government of Venice. That it might lack none of the terrors of an- cient denunciations, Paul especially referred to the most omnipotent of his predecessors, particularly Innocent III. ; and in imitation of the stern promptitude of those exem- plars, he allowed only a few days' interval for recantation and submission, after the lapse of which, all churches, con- vents, and chapels in the Venetian territory were to be laid under interdict, and prohibited from performing divine ser? PONTIFICATES OF LEO XI. AND PAUL V. 435 vice. The Venetian clergy were ordered to announce this decree from their pulpits, to affix a copy of it to the church-doors, and to execute all its provisions to the last tittle, under pain of the heaviest penalties, both divine and human. But though the papacy thus proved that it had lost none of its resolution or arrogance, it found to its sore disappoint- ment that times had vastly changed. The clergy of Venice, almost to a man, resolved on obeying the doge rather than the Pope. The foiiner issued a short proclamation, calmly declaring that the republic would maintain her soverign au- thority, and that she " acknowledged no superior in worldly things but God alone." She desired her faithful clergy to continue in the discharge of their functions, and all, with the insignificant exception of the Jesuits, Theatines, and Capuchins, proceeded just as before in the daily perform- ance of the rites of the Church. The Jesuits were strangely perplexed. They begged advice from their general, but he, equally astounded, refer- red the matter to the Pope. Paul Y. sternly replied that this was a case in which no compromise, no " mental reser- vations," would be allowed. They must either comply with the interdict, or, shaking the dust from their feet, quit Venice never to return. They promptly obeyed ; and em- barking in their boats, took refuge in the papal dominions. The churches thus left vacant were easily supplied with priests, and the festival of Corpus Christi soon occurring, it was solemnized with extraordinary pomp, and a more than commonly numerous procession. Venice stoutly main- tained her independence in spite of the Pontiflf. Paul V. was absolutely enraged at this daring resistance of papal authority, but he knew not how to avenge himself. Sometimes he thought of war, and these thoughts were re- ciprocated by the republic. The latter even went so far as to sohcit the aid of Henry IV. of France, and could that have been obtained, would probably have been the first to 436 LIVES OF THE POPES. commence hostilities. The Pope also applied to Philip of Spain for help ; but neither Henry nor Philip was disposed to draw sword in a quarrel which would undoubtedly have blazed into a war between Protestants and Catholics through- out the world. Eventually recourse was had to the milder arts of diplo- macy. Venice received the legates of the Pope, and Paul again hoped to succeed in reestablishing papal authority in that State without any diminution of its ancient vigor. And virtually they did succeed. It was rather pride than principle that had engaged the republic in the quarrel. And so well did the Pontiff know this, that although the haughty Venetians would only consent to pass a vague res- olution that "the republic would conduct herself hence- forth with her accustomed piety," Paul readily accepted it as implying a promise, that assertions would no more be made of a right to interfere in the affairs of the Church. CHAPTER II. PONTIFICATE OF PAUL V. JESUIT SUCCESSES AND RISE OP JANSENISM. A. D. 1607-1621. From her recent struggles, the papacy had doubtless suf- fered a severe check in her hasty march to overtake the power she had formerly enjoyed, but at the same time the value of her best servants, the Jesuits, and their capacity for yet greater achievements had been rendered more appar- ent. The popes had now been twice brought into collision with the growing spirit of independence in the European na- tions. In the first instance, she waged battle with the na- tional spirit of France under Henry IV., and in the second, with that of Venice under Leonardo Donato and Paolo Sarpi. The Jesuits were the authors of both conflicts. In the former they triumphed, and were themselves received JESUIT SUCCESSES AND RISE OF JANSENISM. 437 into special favor by the monarch whom they had subdued. In the latter their success was less apparent, for they them- selves were banished ; yet they succeeded in compelling even haughty Venice to retract the proud assertion of her sovereign rights over clergy as well as laity. Nor was this only in southern Europe that these inde- fatigable servants of the papacy had exercised their talents. In Germany, Sweden, and Poland, they had made vigorous attempts to regain what the Reformation had taken away, and in Russia to establish, for the first time, the spiritual su- premacy of the Pope. In Sweden and Russia they failed ; but in Poland the spirit of religious strife was thoroughly roused, and gross cruelties were inflicted on the Protestant party. A nobleman, riding in his carriage, perceived an aged evangelical minister, named Barkou, approaching from the opposite direction. He instantly gave orders to his. coachman to drive over the venerable man, who was ac- cordingly struck down, and died of the injuries he received. This is only a solitary example of the persecution which broke out in Poland at Jesuit instigation. In some of the German States, the progress of the Jesuits was yet more remarkable. Animated by a zeal worthy of a better cause, and admirably trained to the task of beguil- ing the simple-minded, they made converts on every side. Studying the art of oratory with diligence, they contrived to fill their churches with eager listeners, while those of the Protestants were comparatively empty. Their skill also in controversy usually insured them the victory in all disputa- tions ; and if they ever met with a Protestant given to ar- guing and proud of his Biblical learning, to whose judgment his more ignorant neighbors looked up with respect, the Jesuits marked him for their prey, and by their superior talents generally insured success. The converts to popery were bound by the most sacred vows to be faithful to their profession, and, under the guidance, of the Jesuits, numbers now went on pilgrimage, or joined in Catholic processions, 438 LIVES OF THE TOPES. who a short time before had been the most zealous and talkative Protestants. With the emperor the Protestants of Germany were still carrying on the warfare which Luther had so bravely com- menced nearly a century before. The empire was ruled nominally by the aged Rodolph II., but really by the Arch- duke Ferdinand, who appeared willing and even desirous to grant some concessions to the Protestant party. But the Jesuits, fully aware of the importance of the crisis, dis- patched one of their most faithful emissaries to the impe- rial court, to plead with the archduke in behalf of the Romish Church. He used language so strong as to move, if not to alarm, the superstitious Ferdinand. "Let there be no alienation of Church property," said the Jesuit ; " let there be no imperial confirmation and establishment of that devilish sect of Luther, or of that still worse one of Calvin." Overawed, if not convinced, Ferdinand hesitated to proceed in the path he had taken, and at the following diet of 1608, the dissatisfied Protestants withdrew in a body, and the in- tegrity and unity of the empire seemed destroyed forever. Both parties began to marshal their forces, and it was evident that the quarrel would only be settled by a war. Meanwhile a great alteration was taking place in the relig- ious spirit of society in France. The decline of Protest- antism in that country appears to have been the birth -time of a new form of Romanism, which has not inaptly been styled at once the Calvinism and the Methodism of the Romish Church. The restoration of France to the bosom of the papacy had not wholly extinguished the pure light of the Huguenot confession ; and when Henry IV. had ac- complished that act, he still secured to the Protestants the full right and liberty of worship by the Edict of Nantes. Yet the system called Jansenism cannot be directly traced to Protestant influence, although it is highly probable that the one owed its existence to the other. Like Protestantism itself, Jansenism seems to have dwelt vaguely in many JESUIT SUCCESSES AND KISE OF JANSENISM. 439 minds before it assumed a distinct and definite form. Among the most distinguished of its first teachei'S were Jansenius,bish- op of Ypres, from whom it derives its name ; M. de St. Cyran, and the Mere Angelique Arnauld of the convent of Port Royal. So early as the last years of the sixteenth century, the two friends, then quite young, Jansenius and St. Cyran, were pursuing their studies together at the University of Louvain. There they pondered together the deep truths revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and deplored the corrupt condition of the Church, to which, nevertheless, they re- mained devotedly attached. The influence they exerted on society was wholly of a private nature for many years. St. Cyran took up his abode at Paris, and " by his simple, mortified air, his humble garb, the holiness of his demeanor, and his native dignity of manner," struck with astonishment the gay courtiers who thronged a metropolis which was re- garded, even then, as the most profligate in Europe. Jan- senius still continued his studies at Louvain, and for several years the world knew little about him until after his eleva- tion to the see of Ypres. The abbey of Port Royal was destined to become the chief citadel of the new and more evangelical opinions taught by Jansenius and St. Cyran. Angelique Ar- nauld, at the early, but not then uncommonly early, age of ten years, had been appointed superior of that abbey, standing in a richly wooded valley at about twenty miles distance from Paris. Great was the rejoicing at this ap- pointment among the nuns of Port Royal. They had long been accustomed to a free and fashionable life, totally un- observant of the rules of their order ; and they saw in the youthfulness of their abbess the promise of a long term of such enjoyment as luxurious banquets, constant visiting, and public masquerades are capable of affording. Nor was the young Angelique at all averse to the prospect of spending her life among such gay companions, and in a continual round of worldly pleasures. 440 LIVES OF THE POPES. But in the year 1608, when the Mere Angehque was just seventeen years of age, a Capuchin monk, who had learned the truth as it is in Jesus, and was just then about to quit the Romish communion, passed a day at Port Royal, and was permitted to preach. His sermon was of the most faithful kind, expatiating on the exceeding " sinfulness of sin," and on the power and blessings of true religion. He did not omit, also, to point out the peculiar advantage, as he considered, of a conventual life for enabling females to escape from the perils of the world, and to devote them- selves unreservedly to God. The sermon produced a powerful effect on the youthful abbess ; and in an illness of some months' duration, which immediately afterward befell her, she so profited by reflec- tion and the study of the Scriptures, that she arose from her couch an entirely altered character. The whole deportment of the Mere Angelique, under the new bias she had now received, was visibly changed, and in the eyes of the gay nuns she seemed like another person. There is reason to hope, from the accounts given of her, that, although still a Romanist, and probably without di- recting her thoughts to the differences which divide Prot- estants and Romanists in modes of worship and Church discipline, she had received those vital truths which form the real basis of Protestantism, and been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. She appears to have had a very sincere faith in the atonement of the one great High-Priest, and a very ardent attachment to his cause. Although displayed under Romish modes, her piety was apparently of the de- voutest order ; and the devoutness of her life made her an object of persecution and hatred even to those with whom she had once been the greatest favorite. Angelique Arnauld determined that the convent she gov- erned should now be brought to the condition which con- ventual life professes to create. Her nuns, she resolved, should be absolutely excluded from the world, and should JESUIT SUCCESSES AXD RISE OF JANSENISM. 441 devote themselves wliolly to occupations of a useful and religious kind. And although in effecting this change she expected to encounter opposition, her character was natu- rally too firm and decided to allow her to desist on such grounds. To her it was a plain duty, and therefore must be performed. Her steadfastness was very shortly put to a severe and painful trial. A nun was about to be " professed ;" and at such sea- sons it had always been the practice at Port Royal to invite many visitors to witness the ceremony. The event was re- garded as festive rather than solemn. But on this occasion the Mere Angelique peremptorily forbade the admission of visitors into the interior of the house. The nuns loudly munnured at this restraint of their liberties; but the im- movable abbess turned a deaf ear to all their complaints, and resolutely persevered with her plans. But when among the visitors her own venerated father appeared the scene assumed another aspect. A conflict arose in the mind of Angelique between her sense of duty and her filial afiection. M. Arnauld was a stem man, and when at the wicket of the convent he was met by his daugh- ter, and received from her the strange intelligence that even he was not to pass farther than the Httle parlor at the side of the gate, he could scarcely suppress his indignation. To him the long-neglected rules of the convent seemed obsolete and ridiculous, and in a tone of paternal authority he com- manded Angelique to unbar the gates and admit him and his family in the usual way. Pale, and trembling with agi- tation, the firm abbess still refused, until, her father's choler increasing, he loaded her with the harshest epithets and the heaviest upbraidings, threatening at the same time to depart, and to see her no more forever. Handing his family into their carriages, he was about to quit the place, when Ange- lique, overcome with excitement, fell senseless on the floor. This incident softened her father. He saw that there were motives at work in her mind which he could not com- 442 LIVES OF THE POPES. prehend, and he left her in a kinder mood. From the day of that severe trial the course of the abbess was compara- tively smooth. Her constancy was evidently unconquerable, and her plans were less vehemently opposed. The reform of the convent was proceeded with for five years with but little interruption, until its aspect was entirely changed, and its community became, as we are assured, a pattern of piety, charity, industry, self-denial, regularity, and every good work. From reforming her own convent the Mere Angelique passed to the reformation of others. In 1619 she was in- vited to superintend the monastery of Maubuisson, whose abbess had lately been expelled^ for her dissolute life. Here she showed the same resolute determination to effect her object as she had discovered at Port Royal. The nuns were living in total disregard of their vows ; cards, games of chance, and theatrical amusements were their principal employments. In the magnificent gardens of the monas- tery, or on the terrace of the lake which supplied it with fish, they were often met by the monks of Pontoise Abbey, with whom they spent their summer evenings in gay con- versation and dancing. These also were but " the begin- nings of their excesses ;" the remainder must not here be told. Yet, by indefatigable toil and perseverance, the ab- bess of Port Royal succeeded in giving quite a new face to the state of aflfairs in that convent. The fame of Angelique Arnauld was thus diffused throughout all France, and she was solicited to undertake the reformation of many different convents of the order of Citeaux, to which Port Royal belonged. She became, it is declared by her biographers, a blessing to the whole order, and to French society in general. It was almost inevitable that minds so congenial as those of Mere Angelique and St. Cyran should be brought into mutual acquaintance. Before either of them had attained to their greatest height of fame St. Cyran became the con- JESUIT SUCCKSSliS AND Kl.SE OJb' JANSENISM. 443 fessor and spiritual director of the inmates of Port Royal, and gave deeper intensity than ever to the dispositions he found prevalent there. By Jansenius and St. Cyran the Holy Scriptures were acknowledged as the only safe and infallible guide ; and, discarding the lives of saints and the histories of pretended miracles, which form so staple a part of the literature of convents, they taught their follow- ers to imbue their minds with the spirit of the " oracles of God." They inculcated the necessity of a change of heart no less plainly than Luther and Calvin, and perhaps even with a leaning to the clearer doctrine of the latter. " When it is the will of God to save a soul," said St. Cyran, " the work is commenced from within ; when the heart is once changed then is true repentance first experienced ; all else follows." And Pascal, his disciple, declared that " God changes the heart of man by a celestial sweetness which he pours over it." Practical religion they defined to be culti- vating humility and patience, depending wholly on God, and utterly renouncing the world. Blending some senti- ments of a Romish cast with those which they had drawn from the pure fountains of truth, these men, nevertheless, were the means of spreading true religion around them to a marvelous degree. And if any should marvel that such men should continue in the Church of Rome, let them con- sider that Rome did not persecute them as she did Luther. Jt is persecution, for the most part, that drives men to secession ; and the wonder is not so much that they should have remained in that corrupt communion, as that so cor- rupt a society should ever have produced such devoted and pious men. It was not in Port Royal alone that these sentiments were taught. There were many in France during the pontificate of Paul V. who thought it possible to ingraft true piety upon the corrupt stock of the papacy. This was the time when Francois de Sales and Vincent de Paul penetrated to the remotest and most secluded corners of France, preach- 444 LIVES OF THE POPES. ing in an earnest and thorouglily devotional spirit, if not always inculcating pure Scriptural doctrine. Everywhere they established their Congregations of Mission and Sister- hoods of Mercy, seeking to revive that spirit of piety which they saw only too clearly was almost extinct. We even trace at this period some evidences of kindred sentiments prevaihng in Italy and Spain. But, important as these movements were, and though they occasioned some excitement in France and particular districts of other countries, they were almost unnoticed by the court of Rome. The papacy was become too secular to be awake to the spiritual symptoms of society. These must be further developed, and must even have a direct influence on the organized institutions of the Church, ere the Pope will deign to consider them. Paul V. was solely intent on political affairs, which, indeed, were assummg a truly serious aspect. The refusal of the Archduke Ferdinand to concede to the Protestants of Germany full hberty of faith and wor- ship, had given umbrage to a very powerful body m the empire, and one which it was highly dangerous to offend. The heads of this discontented party often gathered together at the court of Heidelberg, whose prince, the Elector Frederic V., had already discovered quahties which marked him out as the chieftain of their forces, and gave presages of a distinction at which he did not actually arrive. In these assembhes many plans were devised for the vindication of Protestant rights ; but none of them seemed thoroughly feasible, until the Bohemians, revolting from the tyrannical sway of Austria, offered the crown of their kingdom to the Elector Frederic. This offer appeared to open the path at once to Frederic's ambition, and to the liberation of the Protestants from Cathohc oppression. In the month of August, 1619, Frederic received the Bohe- mian crown, and he instantly declared war against the em- peror, as head of tliB Austrian house. JESUIT SUCCESSES AND RISE OF JANSENISM. 445 But the Catholic party in Germany were well prepared for the emergency. They were even more strongly united than the Protestants, whose theological differences proved very unfavorable to hearty cooperation. Maximilian of Bavaria, the king of Spain, and the Pope, all hastened to the assistance of Ferdinand, who also succeeded in gaining over to his cause the elector of Saxony, whose Lutheran views had filled him with an utter hatred of the Calvinistic Protestants. It was this unnatural alHance, may we not rather say those unnatural jealousies between brethren in faith, that decided the fate of the war. A brief campaign, and a single battle fought at Weiss- berg, in 1620, put an end to the hopes of the Elector Frederic, and ruined the prospects of the Protestants, so far as they expected to realize them by political means. Other contests, begun in the same spirit in France and Switzerland, had the same disastrous termination. In Swit- zerland, indeed, the struggle bore rather the stamp of mas- sacre than that of war. The Catholics rose suddenly upon the Protestants without provocation. At break of day, ringing the church-bells, they lay in wait, and when the Protestants rushed out of their dwellings at the sound, they were fallen upon in a mass and savagely cut to pieces. " The wild moimtains," say the historians, " resounded witli the shrieks of the murdered, and were feai'fully lighted up by the flames of their solitary dweUings." These shocking deeds excited an unholy joy in Rome, like that which followed the slaughter of the Huguenots. "What feelings of humanity will not bigotry stifle ! A pro- cession was appointed to celebrate the victory of Weissberg, and the destruction of the heretics. In the midst of the procession Paul V. was struck with a fit of apoplexy, from the effects of which he died in the course of a few days. One favorable feature of this Pontiff's character was well developed in the progress of his protracted reign. With that love of art and that patriotic pride which had marked 446 LIVES OF THE POPES. Sixtus V. and some other of the popes, Paul V. exercised much care in embelhshing the metropolis of the papal Church. He completed the cathedral of St. Peter in all the colossal magnitude, if not the perfect beauty, of the original designs ; and as Sixtus V. had given Rome the Aqua Fehce, so Paul V. brought water from five-and-thirty miles dis- tance, through the aqueduct called Aqua Paohna. Just opposite to the ** Moses" and fountains of Sixtus, the Aqua Paolina bursts forth in four powerful streams, and supplying the numerous fountains which enliven the aspect of Rome, make the slopes of the hills, which would otherwise be only a melancholy scene of ruins, a smiling garden of verdure and fruitful trees. Yet this laborious magnificence but poorly redeems the political aggressions, the bigoted cruelties, and the neglect of real religion, which disfigured the whole pon- tificate of Paul Y. CHAPTER in. PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY XV. THE JESUITS IN EUROPE ANt) THE EAST. A. D. 1621-1623. The succeeding Pontiff, Qregory XY., fully sympathized with his predecessor, both in his political and in his religious views. Although destitute of Paul's energy, and, indeed, from his far advanced age and increasing feebleness, in- capable of much personal toil, yet by means of his nephew, the Cardinal Ludovisio, he vigorously carried on the policy which had already proved so successful in reestablishing the fortunes of the Romish Church. The victory gained by the emperor at Weissberg was a triumph of the deepest moment to the papacy ; and one of Gregory's first measures was a mission to Ferdinand, who had now succeeded Ro- dolph on the imperial throne, beseeching him to follow up the blow with immediate efforts for the restoration through- PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY XV. 447 out Gtermany of the Catholic religion. For this purpose he oflfered to supply large pecuniary aid from the treasury of the Church, and although it would greatly impoverish himself, leaving him, as he said, "scarcely sufficient to live on," he would give him an annual subsidy of twenty thousand scudi, and a donation at once of two hundred thousand. Armed with the imperial authority, the Jesuits now boldly commenced the work of compelling a general and pubhc recantation of Protestantism in all the States of the empire. In Bohemia they changed the ritual and service, banished the Protestant clergy, closed the churches on that day which had always been solemnly kept in memory of John Huss, quartered soldiers at the houses of those who were so obstinate as not to recant at the first bidding ; and all this, as they themselves said, " to the end that vexations might enlighten the dull Bohemian intellect." So audacious had this bigoted and persevering order become ! And so successfully did they pursue their detestable vocation, that in the course of a few years the country of the earliest great reformer was entirely recovered to the dominions of the Pope. Similar results were witnessed also in Moravia and Hun- gary ; and when finally, in 1623, the palatine electorate was transferred at the behest of the emperor from Protestant hands to those of an ardent papist, Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, the transport of the Pope knew no bounds, " Thy letter, O son," writes Gregory to the duke, who had in- formed him of the event, " has filled our breast with a stream of delight, grateful as heavenly manna. At length may the daughter of Zion shake the ashes from her head, and clothe herself in the garments of joy !" These changes may well appear astonishing to those who are accustomed to believe in the power of truth, not only to hold the authority it has once acquired, but even to win its way eventually to universal dominion. But it is worthy of observation, that these national conversions to Rome were 44,8 LIVES OF THE POPES. not produced by appeals to the judgment of men, but simply to their fears. If a prince were converted, his sub- jects, by a ridiculous, and yet too sadly necessary conse- quence, were converted too. Even in becoming Protestants, men had too frequently become moved by the same pro- cess. Whole nations, it is true, had assumed the Protestant name, yet the change was oftener brought to pass by the will of a few potent individuals than by the convictions of the entire nation. Protestantism never had, in fact, pene- trated the masses of the population. And when we re- member, moreover, that most of these reconversions were effected literally at the point of the sword, we shall not wonder that merely nominal Protestants were induced, with comparative ease, to become merely nominal Catholics. Such has generally been the nature of the conversions on which Rome has so plumed herself ; for to retain the hold so obtained, which would seem to be the chief difficulty, she very confidently relies upon her marvelous skill in in- fluencing the superstition of the heart. It was to increase the number of these conversions, and promote to the utmost the favorable turns which events had now taken, that Gregory XV. at this time established the College of the Propaganda. Missionary efforts had been made, it is true, from the time of the first Jesuits, and some of that order, as Xavier, in India, had been eminently suc- cessful. But a congregation of cardinals was now set apart for the exclusive work of superintending the missions of the Church. They met once every month in the presence of the Pontiff, and exactly suited as the institution was to the spirit of the times, it rapidly grew in prosperity and splen- dor, and exerted a powerful influence in the changes which were then occurring in all parts of the world. The labors of the Jesuit missionaries were hardly less productive of results in France and the Netherlands than in Bohemia and Germany. In France, it became so evi- dent that the tide of political favor would go only with the PONTIFICATE OF GKlflGOKV XV. 449 adherents of the Pope, that the degenerate Huguenot nobles abandoned their brethren, one after the other, in the most rapid succession. Fprtresses, hitherto held by the Prot- estants, were given up by their governors almost as if in emulation of each other ; and while the zeal of the Jesuits was redoubled, that of the evangelical leaders grew daily more cold. A Franciscan, preaching in the city of Foix, is said to have converted the whole city ; the Protestant church was torn down, and the preacher banished from the town ; and to increase the wretchedness of their poor vic- tim, the triumphant papists sent a trumpeter to hunt him from place to place, and proclaim everywhere his name and his religion. Even the learned were carried away by the current, and pretended to be convinced by the arguments of the Jesuits, although no doubt much rather swayed by the prospect of favor ; and so decided was the triumph of the papal emissaries that this must be regarded as the period when the Protestant faith in France was virtually destroyed. In England, also, the Pope was not without hopes of a corresponding measure of success. It is well known that the royal house of Stuart was inclined to the Romish com- munion, and James I., who now occupied the throne, had given unequivocal signs of a disposition to treat with the Pope. The Roman Catholics were still numerous and pow- erful, especially in the north, and James himself was thor- oughly imbued with dishke to the Puritan party, their most hearty opponents. Had it not been for the Gunpowder Plot, which had revived in 1604 the national antipathy to everything popish, he would probably have avowed his sen- timents more distinctly than he actually did. Even after that event he did not hesitate to declare that he regarded the Church of Rome as " the true Church, and the mother of all others, and the Pope as the true head of the Church, the superior bishop." It was this leaning toward Roman- ism, also, in all probability, that induced him to seek a Spanish princess as the consort of his son. 450 LIVES OF THE POPES. Gregory XV. was so delighted at the prospect opened to him in England, that on this last-named project coming to his ears, he wrote a letter to Prince Charles, expressing his hope " that the ancient seed of Christian piety which had of old time borne fruit in English kings, would now once more revive in him ; certainly he would in no case, desiring as he did to marry a Catholic maiden, resolve on oppressing the Catholic Church." Prince Charles replied he would not only take no hostile steps against the Roman Church, but that he " would rather seek to bring things to such a state that we may all unite in one faith and one Church." Had the English people been of the same mind as their sovereign, or did the progress of real relig- ion depend entirely or even greatly upon the wdll of mon- archsand princes, similar changes would doubtless have fol- lowed in England as had been already witnessed in France, and Protestantism would at all events have ceased to be the national confession. But happily the work w^as too widely and deeply wrought in England to be easily effaced ; multitudes who were quite removed from the temptations of court influence were thoroughly imbued with the love of Scriptural truth, and the Reformation had been "carried by Puritan zeal and self-denial far beyond the possibility of recall. But if the labors of the Jesuits were baffled in England, they were recompensed with astonishing success in other parts of the world. With the earliest discoveries ^hat were made in America by the Spaniards and Portuguese, a zealous spirit for converting the native tribes had sprung up in Rome ; and since the establishment of the Jesuit order, the work of proselytism had gone forward with mar- velous speed. In the pontificate of Gregory XY. the Romish Church in South America possessed five archbish- oprics, twenty-seven bishoprics, four hundred monasteries, with parish churches and chapels innumerable. Magnifi- cent cathedrals had been built, and colleges estabhshed, in PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY XV. 451 "which the Jesuits taught the natives grammar, with the hberal arts. They undertook also to instruct them in sow- ing, reaping, planting trees, and building houses. All this gave them unbounded power, and fully won for them the affections of the people. In China, India, Japan, and Abyssinia, their triumphs, if not equally vast, were even more wonderful, as they were gained in the face of determined opposition. In all these countries their arts were still the same. Yielding pliably to all circumstances — " ever keeping," as one of them expressed it, *' near the shore while navigating a tempestuous ocean" — skillfully siding only wdth the pros- perous parties in the various States they visited — winning way for their creed by making themselves serviceable in politics, literature, science, medicine, and even war — by adopting all conceivable expedients proper and improper — they continued to obtain nominal converts in multitudes. In India they conciliated the Mogul emperors, and induced Brahmins to attend their churches ; in China they received permission to build Roman Catholic churches in five prov- inces of the empire ; in Japan they baptized more than three hundred thousand natives ; and in Abyssinia they persuaded the emperor himself to tender his faithful allegi- ance to the Pope. Well may we exclaim with the admiring Ranke : " How comprehensive ! how unbounded was this activity !" And well will it be for the cause of the Re- deemer when Protestant zeal and wisdom, not with Jesu- itical cunning, but with pure Christian simplicity and be- nevolence, shall learn to imitate the efforts of the Roman Propaganda. The dominion of the Romish Church was now far more extensive, territorially considered, than at any former period of her history. For the possessions she had totally lost in Europe, she was more than compensated by her new ac- quisitions in remote parts of the globe. But, nevertheless, her real power was vastly diminished, and there cannot be 452 LIVES OF THE POPES. a question that she would gladly have gone back to the condition of former times. The world could not now be persuaded to render that blind obedience to the Church which had made the popes so despotic in the days of the crusades. And, moreover, the seeds of corruption had al- ready abundantly brought forth their fruit, and in the Ref- omiation of the sixteenth century a ruinous attack had been made upon the constitution of the Romish Church, which might indeed be repulsed for a time, but the effect of which could never be wholly recovered. If there was yet a groov- ing enlargement of the limbs which seemed to betoken health, there was notwithstanding a fatal malady at the heart ; and so, from the days of Gregory XV. to the pres- ent, amid many mutations and with many interruptions, the course of the papacy has unquestionably been that of pro- gressive decline. CHAPTER IV. PONTIFICATE OF URBAN VIII. THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR JESUITS AND JANSENISTS. A. D. 1623-1644. In 1623 Urban VIII., of the Florentine house of Barberini, succeeded the decrepit and timid Gregory, and immedi- ately began to prosecute with renewed ardor the plans which had been so ably carried out for more than half a century. A change of pontiffs by no means implied, at this period, a change of ecclesiastical policy. The policy of the Romish Church had, in the main, continued unaltered since the days of the fourth Paul, of inquisitorial memory. From the policy of former times it differed chiefly in forbidding the Pontiff from acting solely for his own personal ends, and in stimulating the priesthood to greater activity and more con- summate hypocrisy. In a word it was the Jesuit spirit that pervaded the entire system ; the genius of Caraffa and Loy- PONTIFICATE OF URBAN VIII. 453 ola still ruled in the councils of Rome ; and, as regarded the Pontiff, the form of government had become less des- potic and more constitutional — less for the individual, but more for the order. The character of the new Pontiff was, however, too de- cided not to make itself distinctly perceptible in the mode which he adopted of carrying out the policy of the Church. Urban was as yet only fifty-five years of age, and seemed to bear in his mind a presentiment of the protracted reign he was destined to enjoy. Essentially a worldly-minded man, and belonging to that class of pontiflfs who sought the temporal rather than the spiritual prosperity of the papacy, he earnestly devoted himself to plans and operations by which the States of the Church might be made an import- ant sovereignty among the dynasties of 'Europe. "Clem- ent VIIL," says Ranke, " was most commonly found occu- pied with the works of St. Bernard ; Paul V. with the writings of the holy Justinian of Venice ; but on the table of Urban VIIL lay the newest poems, or draughts and plans of fortifications. For it was the opinion of Urban that the papal States ought to be rendered more formidable by its own arms and strength, and not to be so continually dependent on the armies of foreign princes. He accordingly repaired and enlargfed the old fortresses and built new ones, constructed bulwarks for his capital city out of the precious relics of ancient art that in a manner consecrate the dust of Rome ; turned the lower parts of the Vatican into an arsenal, and filled the once peaceful streets with riotous crowds of sol- diery. This disposition to acquire and maintain dominion by martial means discovered itself even in the Pontiff's per- sonal demeanor. No pope was ever more peremptoiy than Urban VIIL in the assertion of his opinions. Woe to the man who presumed to contradict him ; his cause was infal- libly lost. So capricious and yet so determined was his 454 LIVES OF THE POPES. behavior, that if a favor were asked of him it was impossi- ble to conjecture what would be his reply, a Yes or a No. The very first year of Urban's pontificate was marked by new successes on the part of the Romish Church. The Emperor Ferdinand now showed himself the most devoted, and, indeed, bigoted disciple that the popes had for cen- turies seen on the throne of the empire. It was strange that a man who had once thought of concessions to the Protestants should now be so inveterately opposed to them. Led blindfold by the Jesuits, he resolved on restoring Ger- many, at whatever cost, to the fold of the papacy. To ef- fect this he issued an edict in Austria, Bohemia, Carinthia, Carniola, and Styria, declaring that " after six months from the date of the edict, he would not longer tolerate any per- son, even though of knightly or noble rank, who should not in all things conform to the Roman Catholic Church." By crafty political movements he also contrived to bring such principal seats of Protestantism as Brandenburg and Meek-' lenburg into his power, and there he again established the Romish hierarchy in all its splendor and wealth. Through- out the imperial dominions edicts were now poured like rain, and the property of Protestants was everywhere con- fiscated for the use of " the Church." " The emperor con- ceived the idea," says a papal nuncio, " of bringing back all Germany to the rule prescribed by the treaty of Augs- burg ;" and all the benefices in North Germany and multi- tudes of churches in various other parts were actually re- stored, by mere force, to the Romish party. Nor were those trusty servants of the papacy, the Jesu- its, neo;'lectful of the interests of the Church in France. There they at once urged renewed persecutions of the Hu- guenots, and stirred up the national spirit against Protestant England. Cardinal Berulle, in France, and Olivarez, the chief minister of Spain, entered heartily into this latter proj- ect. The cardinal busied himself in making calculations how the trading vessels of England might be captured on PONTIFICATE OF URBAN VIII. 455 the French coast, and how the English fleets might be burned in their own harbors. It was, in all probability, this determination to attack England that provoked Charles I. and his favorite, the duke of Buckingham, to commence the war by an assault on France. This assault was made, and the result, whatever may have been Buckingham's intentions, and he ostenta- tiously professed zeal for the Protestant cause, was most dis- astrous to the Protestants of France. Failing in his descent upon the Isle of Rhe, Buckingham returned to England, and while making preparations for a second expedition was de- stroyed by the hand of an assassin. Richelieu, the French minister, delivered from his chief antagonist, now wreaked his vengeance on those whom Buckingham had professed to aid. La Rochelle, a strongly fortified citadel, was the principal fortress of the Huguenot party, and to this for- tress Richelieu laid siege, with a firm resolution to capture it. He succeeded, and all the other Huguenot towns soon afterward fell into his hands ; so that the power of the party was now utterly extinguished, and Romanism triumphed again throughout the whole kingdom of France. But an event happened almost at the same moment which gave an important check to the sweeping triumphs of the Romish Church, and which brought out once more in striking relief the everlasting, and, for the world's wel- fare, the happy opposition of interests between the secular and the spiritual government of the popes. The dukedom of Mantua having become vacant by the death of Vicenza II., the lawful successor to the throne, Charles de Nevers, was vehemently opposed by both the Austrian and the Spanish sovereigns, with the hope that a prince more nearly allied to themselves, and less dependent upon France, might be placed upon the throne. But the Pope viewed the matter with other eyes. To him the pre- ponderance of Austrian and Spanish influence in Northern Italy seemed already too large. He dreaded to see the 456 LIVES OF THE POPES. authority of the emperor in Milan extending itself over Mantua ; and when he saw that Ferdinand was resolved to contest it with the sword, Urban lost no time, though it should provoke the emperor to turn heretic, in seeking the powerful interference of France. The French army was just then engaged in the reduction of La Rochelle ; but so eager was the Pope to preserve his temporal independence, that, forgetting the importance of crushing the Huguenots, he besought Richelieu to hasten with assistance to the new duke of Mantua. ** An expedi- tion for the relief of Mantua," he expressly declared, " would be quite as pleasing to God as the beleaguering of that chief bulwark of the Huguenots ;" meaning, of course, that the scepter of the popedom was as sacred in the sight of God as its crosier — a doctrine which not a few of the popes have zealously espoused. Thus Urban was well content that the triumphs of the Romish faith should be arrested in full career ; that the two principal Roman Catholic powers of Europe, Austria and France, should be brought into fierce collision ; and that the heretics should for a while have rest and impunity, so that he might be unmolested in the exer- cise of his secular prerogatives. Although the French were unable to eflfect much by their own arms, and were restrained from sending forces across the Alps by the fear of a new rising of the Hugue- nots, still it was in reliance on the good-v/ill and (if it should prove needful) the active cooperation of France, that Gus- tavus Adolphus, the chivalrous King of Sweden, now be- gan that long conflict with Austria known as "The Thirty Years' War," and entered on that career of victorious warfare by which, eventually, he completely checked the rapid march of the emperor to despotic power. The aUi- ance between himself and the French king was formally laid before the Pope, and received his entire approbation. The undoubted devotion of Ferdinand to the Romish faith, and the certainty that his increasing authority would always PONTIFICATE OF URBAX VIII. 457 be at the service of the Romisli Church, were considera- tions without a feather's weight in the mind of Urban com- o pared with the dread he felt of being- echpsed in power, and perhaps coerced in hberty, as an Itahan sovereign. He gladly consented, therefore, that the great champion of Protestantism should begin the havoc of war on German ground; and having sanctioned, in 1630, the treaty be- tween Gustavus and Louis XIII. , he had the satisfaction of witnessing its first fruits in the following year, when the great victory of Leipzig gave the Swedish conqueror a com- plete triumph over Tilly and the imperial armies. It was not the vexatious defeat of his armies so much as the wily arts of the Jesuits which induced Ferdinand at this time to renounce his demands in relation to the duchy of Mantua. These skillful tacticians conducted their measures so dexterously, that while they obliged the emperor to be the pliant instrument of papal policy throughout Germany, by enforcing edicts of restitution and confiscation, which gave or restored churches and estates of incalculable value to the Romish priesthood, they also effectually prevented his becoming too powerful in Italy, where he might be tempted to encroach upon the papacy, by secretly playing oflF as-ainst him both French Roman Catholics and Swedish Protestants. The Jesuits were in reality the allies of both Richelieu and Gustavus Adolphus ; and so completely was the emperor duped that he not only relinquished his claims upon Mantua, but consented to dismiss his greatest general, the Bavarian Wallenstein, and even to disband the mighty army which Wallenstein had raised and equipped. As soon as the light broke on the treacherous policy pursued by the Pope and his Jesuitical agents, the astonish- ment and disgust of all Roman Catholic Europe was loudly expressed. The emperor, by his ambassadors, bitterly complained that Urban had first prevailed on him to pro- voke his Protestant subjects by the decrees of restitution, and then, worse than forsaking him, had even encouraged 20 458 LIVES OF THE POPES. his adversaries. He now earnestly implored the Pontiff to show that his sympathies were really with his devoted and faithful son, and affirmed that it would then be easy to drive the Swedish conqueror out of Germany, as his whole force did not outnumber thirty thousand men. But Urban was immovable as a rock. He distinctly re- fused to cooperate with Ferdinand, and, adding irony to desertion, replied that " with thirty thousand men Alexan- der conquered the world." Zealous Roman Catholics were amazed and scandalized at the behavior of their " holy father.'* " The Pope," they cried, " is cold and rigid as ice. The king of Sweden has more zeal for his Lutheranism than the Pope for the only true and saving Catholic faith." The Spanish court was moved to send a deputation of remonstrance, as it had f(?rmerly done on a similer occasion to Sixtus V. But it might as well have been a quiet spectator of the quarrel. Urban received the ambassadors with even greater severity than his haughty predecessor. He peremptorily refused to listen to any pleading, and would only allow the remon- strance to be placed before him in writing. There can be little doubt, however, that the issue of Urban's treacherous and deceitful policy was very contrary to his hopes. He had expected that Gustavus would soon be wearied of conquest, and hoped that when he had im- posed some wholesome restraints on the emperor, and re- stored to the Romish Church all the ecclesiastical benefices which victory had thrown into his hands, he would return home well content with the laurels he had won. But these vain expectations were soon undeceived. Gustavus marched rapidly from conquest to conquest ; and even his premature and calamitous death, at the battle of Llitzen, in 1632^ hardly stayed the progress of his all-conquering troops. For sixteen Aveary years did the war continue to rage, with every possible variety of fortune, until both Germany and Sweden were utterly exhausted. PONTIFICATE OF URBAN VIII. 459 From this lingering and long-protracted contest we turn for a space to catch a glimpse, afibrded us by the records of that age, of the intellectual and moral condition of pon- tificall)'--governed Italy. The year 1633 was made memorable at Rome by two remarkable trials in the courts of law, one of which has become imperishably incorporated with papal history. A belief in magic and sorcery was one of the universal delusions of that half- enlightened period. Even the great Wallenstein, a man of gigantic intellect, retained an accom- plished astrologer at his court, and never ventured on a battle or a march without first consulting the stars. In Rome this prevalent superstition received a very tragical direction. A company of dissatisfied men having resolved on destroying the Pontiff, their ringleader, Centini, a nephew of one of the cardinals, had recourse to magical arts with a view of accomplishing his purpose. He intended to mur- der Urban, and then to place his own uncle, the cardinal, on the throne of the Church. The plot was, however, dis- covered, and as the judges themselves implicitly beheved in the virtue of magic, the crime was made capital. Centini was beheaded, others of the consphators were burned, and the rest were sent to the galleys. But the trial of Galilei Galileo, the renowned astronomer, was a far more remarkable event. Galileo had long since incurred the hatred of the Jesuits for aiding in their expul- sion from his native city of Padua. His subsequent labors in the field of science, the benefits he had conferred on the world by his invention of the telescope, and the wonderful discoveries he had made by its aid, were all as nothing in the eyes of these professed friends of learning when com- pared with the injuries he had done to their " order" in the political squabbles of a provincial town. They only waited theu' opportunity to take ample revenge. In the year 1633 they therefore denounced him to the Inquisition as a teacher of heretical doctrines, inasmuch as 460 LIVES OF THE POPES. he taught that the earth moved round the sun, and not the sun round the earth. The illustrious philosopher, then seventy years of age, was immediately cited to Rome. Galileo had formerly received proofs of regard from Pope Urban, and he accordingly indulged the hope of having a speedy and honorable acquittal. But unfortunately for him, in a recent work, entitled, *-'A Dialogue on the Ptolemaic .and Copernican Systems," he had given great offense to the PontiJff. Three fictitious persons conduct the dialogue — Salviati, a Copernican ; Sagredo, a banterer on the same side ; and Simplicio, a Ptolemaist, who gets much the worst both by jokes and argument. The Pope fancied that he was the person held up to ridicule in the last character, as some arguments he had himself used were put into Simplicio's mouth. Exasperated by this imaginary insult. Urban had little disposition just then to screen a man whose genius he unquestionably admired. After a detention of some months, Galileo was finally brought before the Inquisition to receive sentence ; and although we cannot give the whole of that memorable de- cree, we must afibrd space for a sample : — " By the desire of his holiness and of the lords cardinals, the two propositions of the stability of the sun and the mo- tion of the earth are qualified by the Theological Qualifiei's : (1.) The proposition that the sun is in the center of the world and immovable from its place is absurd, philosoph- ically false, and formally heretical ; because it is expressly contrary to the Holy Scriptures. (2.) The proposition that the earth is not the center of the world, nor immovable, but that it moves, and has also a diurnal motion, is absurd, philosophically false, and, theologically considered, at least erroneous in faith. . . . We, therefore, decree that the 'Dialogues' of Galilei Galileo be prohibited by edict; we condemn him to the prison of this office during pleasure ; and order him for the next three weeks to repeat once a week the seven penitential psalms." PONTIFICATE OF URBAN VIII. 461 This ludicrous, and yet disgraceful, sentence was far lighter than it would have been if Galileo had not engaged to abjure his own doctrine in the following terms : " With a sincere heart and unfeigned faith I abjure, curse, and de- test the said errors and heresies, and I swear that I will never in future say or assert anything verbally, or in writing, which may give rise to a similar suspicion against me." It is an instructive illustration of the uselessness and folly of such extorted recantations and compulsorily enforced creeds, that Galileo should have immediately broken the promise that he gave. On rising from his knees, after solemnly taking this oath, he whispered in the ear of a friend, " E pur se muove .-'" And yet it moves ! During those years of the German wars, the attention of Urban was also drawn away to the semi-Protestant doings of the Jansenists in France. The abbey of Port Royal was now occupied by St. Cyran himself, and the numerous dis- ciples he had gained ; the nuns who had previously inhabit- ed it having previously withdrawn, and fixed their residence at Port Royal de Paris. St. Cyran and his felloAv recluses, among whom were some distinguished members of the Ar- nauld family, brothers of the Mere Angelique — Le Maistre, Le Sericourt, Claude Lancelot, and others eminent for birth and talents, did not bind themselves by monastic vows, yet their life was strictly of the monastic kind. With their own hands they drained the marshes around Port Royal, and cleared them from reeds and other aquatic plants which grew rankly in the swampy soil. In a short time, instead of a pestilence-breathing morass, a clear and beautiful lake reflected the blue skf and the neighboring wood-crowned heights. The gardens and walks were put in order, and the abbey itself repaired ; and then this new society, daily increasing, devoted itself to its primary tasks of devout meditation and Iroorious study. St. Cyran directed them to make the Bible their chief companion, and so well under- stood its worth that he used to say, " A modern bishop has 462 LIVES OF THE POPES. declared that he would go to the ends of the earth with St. Augustine, but I, for my part, would rather go there with the Bible." St. Cyran's objects were social as well as religious. He seems to have aimed at furnishing the world with a model of really Christian society, that he might show how the world would live if it were wholly governed by Chris- tian principles. He forgot, however, as a Romish priest would be likely to do, that the law of celibacy, which, of course, prevailed at Port Royal, was a grand element in his scheme which can never be found in social life ordered throughout by New Testament doctrines and precepts. Aiming, in conformity with his leading idea, to develop the talents of all the brotherhood, St. Cyran employed some in manual labor, others in the practice of surgery and physic, for the good of the fraternity and the neighborhood, while the rest were occupied in visiting the poor, preaching the gospel, attending the confessionals, or educating the young. The fame of this new and singular community spread quickly far and wide. Noblemen of the highest rank en- treated that their children might be admitted to its schools, and persons of the first ability offered their services in the work of education. Among the chief of these precep- tors were De Saci, Claude Lancelot, Nicolle, and Fontaine ; and Tillemont the historian, Racine the poet, and Pascal the controversialist and philosopher, were numbered among the pupils. St. Cyran himself was not permitted to see the remarka- ble success that attended his plans. Port Royal was scarcely established as an educational institution before it excited the jealousy of the lynx-eyed Jesuits, who had hith- erto regarded the important field of education as exclusively their own. It was easy for them to find^rounds of accu- sation against St. Cyran, whose creed affl whose practice were both so essentially different from theirs, and an outcry of heresy was accordingly raised. The great minister, Car- PONTIFICATE OF URBAN VIII. 463 dinal Richelieu, was only too ready to lend an car to the charge, for he had already felt considerably mortified that some overtures he had made to St. Cyran, with a view of making the vast influence of the Jansenists subservient to his own political designs, had been seen through and re- pulsed. St. Cyran was, therefore, sent to the prison of Vincennes, and there he lingered in sickness and solitude until Richelieu's death, which was soon afterward followed by his own, in the year 1643. In the mean time Jansenius also had died, and it was onlv after his death that the ofreat work of his lifetime saw the light. For twenty years had he occupied himself in studying the works of St. Augustine, the whole of which he had read through ten times, and some parts as many as thirty. Immediately after his death, the result of his la- bors, the renowned " AugustiniLS,''^ was given to the world, in which he successfully shows that the doctrines and sys- tem of the Jesuits are completely opposed to those of the greatest of the fathers. The rage of the Jesuits, already kindled by secret reports and by the novel proceedings at Port Royal, now broke out into fierce flames. Hoping at once to exterminate their foes, they applied directly to the Pope, and demanded that Bishop Jansenius should be forthwith numbered among her- etics, and his writings be proscribed. But where was the heresy ? Jansenius had never quitted the Romish Church, and at death had bequeathed his work to the judgment and revision of the Pope, in language as submissive or servile as ev^en a Jesuit could wish. "I sub- mit its contents," said he, in a letter to Urban, "implicitly to your decision, approving, condemning, advancing, or re- tracting, whatever shall be prescribed by the thunder of the apostolic see." It was hardlv enous^h, in all reason, that Jansenius should merely have dared to differ from the Jesuits to insure his condemnation. Even papal fondness had not yet endowed 464 LIVES OF THE POPES. these faithful and petted servants of the Church with the attribute of infalUbihty. But they were not to be baffled thus in pursuit of their prey. They soon discovered in Jansenius's work a sufficient ground for condemnation. They found a certain passage in which the bishop affirms a statement of Augustine to be true and Scriptural, although the same view had already been condemned at Rome. It would have been indecent to have arraigned the saint for impugning papal infallibility, but against the bishop a sen- tence was easily obtained. In the year 1642 Urban VIII. issued a general condemnation of the writings of Jansenius as being heretical and false. Here, for the present, the contest ceased, and the Jesuits flattered themselves that they had succeeded in crushing a very dangerous foe. The threatening aspect of affairs in Germany and France did not deter Pope Urban from eagerly pursuing his own interests at home. It was during his pontificate that the duchy of Urbino was added to the papal States. The aged Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere was hopeful of being succeeded in the throne by his only son. But this son was a profligate debauchee, who amused himself by day in driv- ing chariots about the streets after the manner of Nero, and by night in theatrical entertainments and the most degrad- ing excesses. - After a night of debauch he was found dead in his bed, and his broken-hearted father dying soon after without heirs, the Pope took possession. This event en- riched the popes with a valuable line of sea-coast territory, containing seven towns and three hundred castles. But more intently than the prosperity of the tiara did Urban VIII. seek the enrichment of his own house. Ever since the days of Sixtus V. it had been the invariable prac- tice of the pontiff's to provide handsomely for their kindred. The self-denying spirit which distinguished the first popes of the reaction had passed wholly away, and the Aldo- brandini received their patents of nobility wdth their wealth from their relative Clement VIII., the Borghesi from Paul V., PONTIFICATE OF UEBAN VIII.' 465 and now Urban's kinsmen, the Barberini, took their place among the richest and most powerful of the Roman aris- tocracy. During the reign of Urban VIII. the enormous sura of one hundred and fifty millions of scudi is said to have gone into the hands of the Barberini, and a writer of the time says, " The palaces, the vineyards, the pictures, the statues, the wrought silver and gold, and the precious stones which were heaped on the house, are of greater amount than can be believed or expressed." During his long pontificate Urban elevated no fewer than forty- eight of his favorites to the purple of the Church, and his nephew and grand-nephews were placed in all the highest seats of emolument and power. Rapacity and covetousness are always, however, limited by the eternal and inevitable laws of God. It was not pos- sible that the greed and arrogance of papal nepotism should forever be unmurmuringly endured ; and when at last, urged onward by his nephews. Urban YIII. seized on Cas- tro, the most productive com district in the duchy of Par- ma, the duke's resentment was passionately aroused, and without waiting to parley, he marched an army across the papal frontier. For this attack the Pope was wholly unprepared.. Not- withstanding the sums he had expended in raising militia, in storinor his arsenals, in erectinsr and fortifvins: castles, the progress of the duke was entirely unchecked. Town after town fell into his hands without resistance, and the Pope's militia, instead of opposing him, so completely avoided his troops, that he marched through the country without gaining one glimpse of them. Had he pleased to appear before Rome he might doubtless have obtained all that he could have demanded or wished. As it was, a single skirmish concluded the war. In this petty conflict one of the Pope's nephews, Cardinal Antonio, was saved only by the fleetness of his horse ; and the fright- ened Pontiff, in order to conciliate the duke, now yielded all 20* 466 LIVES OF THE FOrES. that lie asked, restored Castro to his possession, and revoked the sentence of excommunication, with which, in pontifical fashion, the struggle on the papal side had been commenced. Although he had lost nothing by this war, the humilia- tion he had undergone produced a powerful effect on the haughty mind of Urban VIII. His health ^dsibly declined, and his interest in public affairs seemed wholly extinguished. His conscience also appears to have troubled him in his last days, and to have suggested that he had been more careful of his family than became the head of the Church. To hush the qualms of conscience he summoned a council of his friends., and proposed to them his doubts. But they, as might have been expected, easily exonerated the Pope, and relieved his apprehensions. They decided that "as his nephews had made so many enemies it was but just they should have the means of maintaining their dignity after the Pope's de- cease." Such is the morality of Rome ! Injustice and oppres- sion may indeed be reprehensible, but on no account are the nephews of a pope to suffer the just punishment of these crimes ! But men who were themselves fattening on tyranny and extortion, were little likely to be severe in their judgment. Urban sank beneath the load of disappointment and re- morse thus suddenly laid upon him. When called upon to sign the peace of Castro, he was so overcome with distress as to fall into a swoon, and a iew days' illness terminated his earthly career. When dying, he prayed not for pardon or for a penitent spirit, but " that Heaven would avenge him on the godless princes who had forced him into so calamitous a war." Urban died as he had lived. No meek and lowly spirit like that of Jesus ; no i-epentance on account of sin ; no gratitude to the Saviour for the shedding of that precious blood which " cleanseth from all sin ;" no evidence whatever even of faith in Christ. This "successor of the apostles," this " vicar upon earth," this " head of the only true Church," was proud, worldly, and avaricious in his life — malicious and revengeful in his death. He died July 29th, 1644. PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT X. 467 CHAPTER V. PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT X. MASSACRE OF THE WAL- DENSES. A. D. 1644-1655. The nephews of Pope Urban had brought into the conclave no fewer than forty-eight partisans ; but their very multi- tude seems to have baffled their efforts to direct the next election. The successful candidate, Cardinal Pamfili, was by no means the man of their choice, and soon showed him- self quite hostile to their interests. Innocent X. Avas already seventy-two years of age, and although retaining much bodily vigor and aptitude for busi- ness, was of so weak a mind as to be easily governed in his declining manhood. His cheerful temper and affable man- ners formed a pleasant contrast to the proud reserve of Urban VHI. ; yet his favor was capricious ; he was suspi- cious of all around him, and in a moment of displeasure would dismiss his most faithful servants. But a yet greater fault was his submissiveness to his own sister-in-law, Olvm- pia Maidalchina Pamfili, a wicked and unscrupulous woman, whose sole object appears to have been to aggrandize her family by any and every means. In consequence of this resolution on the part of Donna Olympia, Rome was distracted during the first years of In- nocent's reign by the rivalry of the Barberini and the Pam- fili, the former struggling to hold, and the latter to obtain the wealth and power accruing from the resources of the Church. Taking advantage of the general indignation at the unbounded exactions of the preceding pontificate. Inno- cent determined on calling the nephew^s of Urban to ac- count for the administration of the finances during the war of Castro. Alarmed at the prospect of a strict investiga- tion, and perhaps a compulsory surrender of their ill-gotten gains, the Barberini fled precipitately from Home, the Car- dinal Antonio leading the way. 468 LIVES OF THE POPES. And now that the principal obstacle to the advancement of the Pamfili was removed, and it had become a question how they might best enrich themselves out of the already exhausted exchequer of the State, the poor old Pope was harassed by brawls and contentions in his own family. Donna Olympia, his sister-in-law, exerted all the energy of her character to secure the promotion of her own children. At first she designed that her son Camillo should assume the office of cardinal nephew, that is, prime minister to the Pope. But Camillo was of weak capacity, wholly ungifted for public affairs, and an opportunity offering of marrying him to the richest heiress in all Rome, one of the Aldo- brandini, he abandoned the cleiical order, and prided him- self on driving the finest equipage in the Corso, and giving the most luxurious banquets that even Rome had lately seen. The office of cardinal nephew being, therefore, still vacant, Donna Olympia undertook to fulfill it, and her in- fluence over the Pope soon became so apparent that her favor was more sougfht after than that of the Pontiff him- self. " To her ambassadors paid their first visit on arriv- ing in Rome ; cardinals placed her portrait in their apart- ments, as is customary with those of sovereigns ; foreign courts sought to conciliate her favor with presents." Court- iers, and all who sought posts of honor or profit, brought their first bribes to her, and it was even asserted that " from all the inferior offices she exacted a monthly contri- bution." Riches flowed apace into her coffers ; she estab- lished a great household, gave sumptuous feasts and theat- rical entertainments, purchased new estates, and married her daughters into the oldest and wealthiest of the Roman families. Yet all this prosperity was not without its bitterness. The young wife of Camillo Pamfili was as ambitious a wo- man as Donna Olympia herself, and ere long a jealousy sprang up between these rivals, the mother-in-law and PO^■TIFICATE OF INNOCENT X. 469 daugliter-in-law, which quickly burned to a fiercer hatred than the feeble Innocent could either extinguish or allay. Leaning first to the one and then to the other, the weak old man rather added fuel to the flames, and it soon be- came obvious that both of these women could not remain near the person of the Pope. At length an occurrence took place which precipitated Donna Olympia from the pinnacle she had gained. A youth, whom she had herself recommended to the notice of the Pope, Camillo Astalli, had so won upon his affections, that Innocent resolved on confiding to him, as cardinal nephew, the supreme administration of affairs. The elevation of Astalli was announced by the firing of cannon from the castle of St. Angelo. But all parties took offense at the measure, and most of all Donna Olympia, whose loud complaints at being supplanted led to her dis- missal from the presence of the Pope, and the readmission to the palace of her rival daughter-in-law with her husband. Still, however, the papal family was in confusion. Dis- putes took place between the two nephews, Pamfili and As- talli, and Donna Olympia was recalled '' to keep the house in order." "The crafty old woman," writes a cotemporary observer, " has mounted in a short time from the extremity of disgrace to the height of favor," Astalli himself fell by her intrigues, for refusing to share some of the gifts which she was in the habit of extorting from all who sought her patronage. It would not be fair to charge upon so manifestly weak an old man as Innocent X. all the enormities that were per- petrated in the pontifical name during his reign. In fact, the personal character of the Pope had long ceased to have any material and decisive influence on the conduct of the Romish Church. A pope of more than ordinary vigor might add a little more venom to the sting of persecution, or might contend a shade more successfully with the em- peror, or with the French and Spanish courts for papal 4*70 LIVES OF THE POPES. prerogatives ; but even an Urban VIII. could, as we have seen, effect little more. Whoever might be Pope, the Jesuits were the real rulers of papal policy. Ever active and encroaching, they still diligently prosecuted their task of conquering Europe to the dominion of superstition and priestcraft. In France they carried on as fiercely as at first their struggle with the Jan- senists. Beside the wars of the Fronde, and those in which the great Conde distinguished himself by driving the youthful Louis XIV. from his own metropolis, France was distracted by a controversy which reached every house, and often divided famihes into hostile parties. The Jesuits ac- cused their antagonists of heresies which the Jansenists in vain disclaimed, and in 1654 the former gained an addi- tional triumph by the aid of Pope Innocent X. Hitherto the Jansenists had evaded the bull of Urban VIII. by declaring that they did not hold the heresies which it denounced, and that these heresies were not even to be found in the great text-book of their party, the " Au- gustinus" of Jansenius. Now, however, the Jesuits obtained a bull from Innocent, declaring that these heresies were certainly contained in that book. This gave the contro- versy a new and singular form. The Jansenists denied the authority of the Pope to pronounce in such a case, and re- fused to admit his infallibility in judging of matters of fact. They still upheld that infallibility in all doctrinal judgments or questions of faith ; but where supernatural faculties were plainly unnecessary, they held that the Pope, like other men, was liable to err. Thus they parried for a time the deadly thrust of their foes. But if thwarted in France, the industrious Jesuits, invet- erate enemies to evangelical religion wherever they found it, soon discovered on the Italian side of the Alps a field which would amply repay their toil. The evangelical Churches of Piedmont had greatly revived and multiplied since the dawn of the Reformation. From the city of Ge- PONTIFICATE OF INKOCENT X. 47l neva the disciples of Calvin had gone forth in every direc- tion, conjQrming and enlightening the faith of the Waldenses, who had now been permitted for some generations to live in the peaceable occupation of their valleys, and in the ex- ercise of their ancestral forms of worship. To these quiet abodes of humble and Scriptural piety the envious Jesuits now directed theii' eyes. The present duke of Savoy was a bigoted disciple of Rome, and seemed to his fanatical counselors an admirable instrument wherewith they might make the experiment of uprooting by sheer force the " heresy" which had planted itself so firmly in the valleys of his kingdom. In January, 1655, an order went forth in the name of the duke, com- manding all heads of families, of whatsoever rank, occupy- ing estates in these valleys, to quit their homes ivithin three clays, and remove beyond his dominions under pain of death, unless they chose to adopt the Romish faith and worship. This cruel edict was rendered yet more so by the season chosen for putting it in force, which was the depth of win- ter. It was obviously a mere impossibility for thousands of families to take their aged and infirm, their sick and help- less, with their new-born babes, and convey them in so short a time over mountains whose passages were all blocked up with ice and snow. Had they forsaken their homes, and left behind them all their eftects, it would still have been impossible ; and the edict was manifestly noth- ing less than a sentence of death hypocritically or fanatic- ally pronounced in the name of religion. The remonstrances of the poor Waldenses were de- nounced as the murmurings of rebels against the just authority of their sovereign ! An army of six thousand men was im- mediately marched upon them, which committed all the sav- age atrocities that ever disgraced a bloody war. This, however, was worse than any war — it was a horrible mas- sacre. The unhappy victims fled from their long peaceful homes to the rugged and snow-covered mountains ; but they 4*72 LIVES OF THE I'OPES. were hunted out of every retreat. In Villaro and Bobbio, and many other places, the passes were blocked up, and multitudes hemmed in on every side were slaughtered at once. In one village, the soldiers mercilessly tortured and slew about a hundred and fifty women and children, chop- ping oflf the heads of some, and dashing out the brains of others against the rocks. In another, they hung youths of fifteen to the branches of the trees, or nailed them to the tmnks by their feet, their heads hanging downward. Sir Samuel Morland, an eye-witness, relates that " a mother was hurled down a mighty rock, with her little infant in her arms ; and three days afterward was found dead with the lit- ■ tie child alive, but fast clasped between the arms of the dead mother, which were cold and stiff, insomuch that those who found them had much ado to get the young child out.'* As for their dweUings, when they had been plundered of all that was worth saving, they were set on fire ; and from the valleys of the Alps the ascending flames and smoke of a vast sacrifice to the Moloch of bigotry mingled with the cries of the persecuted, the tortured, the dying, to the all- seeing, just, and holy God. All Europe rang with the accounts of this inhuman mas- sacre, and the Protestant States were not backward in ex- pressing their indignation. Remonstrances were addressed to the duke of Savoy in rapid succession, and foremost among them in time, and most earnest and emphatic in its language, was that of the government of England. The heart of Milton, who was then secretary to the council of State, had been deeply aflfected by the narratives of this persecution, perhaps touched the more keenly from his familiarity with the scene of its transaction, and burning with indignant compassion, he had penned on the occasion that immortal sonnet : — *' Avenge, 0 Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold," etc. . PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT X. 4*73 The Protector Cromwell, also, " rose like a lion out of his place," and at his command Milton wrote to the duke of Savoy, passionately pleading in behalf of the persecuted Piedmontese. "These things," says that noble letter, *' when they were related to us, we could not choose but be touched with extreme grief and compassion for the suf- ferings and calamities of this afflicted people. Now in re- gard we must acknowledge ourselves linked together not only by the same tie of humanity, but by joint com- munion of the same religion, we thought it impossible for us to satisfy our duty to God, to brotherly chanty, or our profession of the same religion, if we should only be affected with a bare sorrow for the misery and calamity of our breth- ren, and not contribute all in our endeavors to relieve and succor them in their unexpected adversity as much as in us lies. Therefore, in a great measure, we must earnestly be- seech and conjure your royal highness, that you would call back to your thoughts the moderation of your most serene predecessors, and the liberty by them granted and con- firmed from time to time to their subjects, the Yaudois." Nor did England confine her sympathy to " bare sor- row," or even earnest remonstrance. Contributions were made throughout the whole country in behalf of those families that had escaped the sword, but were yet wander- ing in nakedness and want ; and the whole product of En- glish liberality was not much less than forty thousand pounds, of which the Protector contributed two thousand out of his own private purse. Yet it is saddening to reflect how ineffectual were all the entreaties and petitions addressed to the hard hearts of the Jesuits, and the slavish bigotry of the duke and his wife. They pretended, indeed, to relent ; but at the end of two years, Sir S. Morland declares : " It is my misfortune that I am compelled to leave this people where I found them, among the potsherds, with sackcloth and ashes spread under them, and lifting up their voice with weeping, in the 474 LIVES OF THE POPES. words of Job, * Have pity on us, have pity on us, O ye our friends ; for the hand of God hath touched us !' " Nor vras it Piedmont alone that lay groaning at this time beneath the knotted scourge of Jesuitical bigotry. Ger- many had likewise suffered, although in another form, from their meddling malice, and " the thirty years' war," stirred up by their artifices, had been brought to a conclusion amid the shrieks and wailings of the whole empire. " The mis- ery of Germany," says Schiller, ''had risen to such a height that all clamorously vociferated for peace. The plains, which formerly had been thronged with a happy and in- dustrious population, where nature had lavished her choicest gifts, and plenty and prosperity had reigned, were now a wild and desolate wilderness. The fields, abandoned by the laborious husbandman, lay waste and uncultivated ; for no sooner had the young crops given the promise of a smiling harvest, than a single march destroyed the labors of a year, and blasted the last hope of an afflicted peas- antry. Burned castles, wasted fields, villages in ashes, were to be seen extending far and wide on all sides. The towns groaned under the hcentiousness of undisciplined and plundering garrisons, and the crowding together of men in camps and quarters — want upon one side and ex- cess on the other — occasioned contagious distempers, which were more fatal than the SAvord. Under the shelter of an- archy and impunity every vice flourished, and men became as wild as the country." Schiller s Historij of the Thirty Years' War, book v. Utterly exhausted by this long-protracted struggle, the Protestants and the Roman Catholics terminated the strife in 1648 by the treaty of Westphalia, which guaranteed to the Protestants of Germany an equality of civil and political rights. The Calvinists, or the Reformed, were included with the Lutherans, and Protestants and Roman Catholics were to have an equal number of seats in the diet, the im- perial chamber, and the Auhc council. The edicts of resti- PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT X. 4*75 tution issued by Ferdinand were revoked, and to pay the expenses of the war many bishoprics were secularized and abbeys were sold. Thus at last was a final check given to the aggressions of the papacy in Germany, as well as to the ambitious designs of the German emperor. " By these events," says Ranke, " limits were imposed at once and forever to the extension of Catholicism, which has now its appointed and definite bounds. That universal conquest, formerly pro- jected, could never more be seriously contemplated." But the untiring Jesuits, if defeated in one sphere, soon create another. Far beyond the bounds of Italy, or even of Germany, did the web-like meshes of their Society now extend. It seems more in harmony with the fictions of ro- mance than with the sober truth of history, that the coun- try which had lately sent forth the warrior-king, Gustavus, to be the champion of the Protestant faith, should give her next monarch, and that the only daughter of Gustavus, to be a convert to popery and a devotee of the Romish Church. Yet such was the strange metamorphosis undergone by Christina of Sweden. Christina, left an infant at her father's death, had been carefully and conscientiously educated by the Chancellor Oxenstiem, who governed the kingdom after the death of the great Gustavus. Her natural character, combined with the masculine training she received, gave a very singular complexion to all her habits and modes of thought. So learned did she become that she deduced arguments from Plato which astonished even Descartes. She read daily many pages in the histories of Tacitus, and fairly puzzled her instructors by her inquiries on metaphysical and relig- ious topics. To all this she added a self-will that brooked no control, and contemptuously spumed at all ordinary rules. She had not long assumed the sovereign authority before the war-drained treasury of Sweden was scarcely able, out of its poverty, to provide for even the daily maintenance of the royal household, and the queen presently conceived strong 4*76 LIVES OF THE POPES. disgust for a position wliich could only be meanly sustained. Her chagrin was heightened by the endless bickerings of the two leading classes of the clergy, the Lutherans and the Calvinists, and by the stern severity with which she was herself treated by many of them, which only kindled resentment where it was intended to produce obedience. With these feelings Christina readily listened to the jests and skeptical insinuations of her physician Bourdelot, a gos- siping French abbe, who soon filled her mind with painful doubts respecting religion. Longing for certainty, as the heart ever does, yet indisposed to make the Bible itself the object of careful study, by which course alone her doubts could have been safely resolved, Christina was in a very favorable state to become the prey of the Jesuits, who were not wanting even at her court. The interpreter of the Portuguese ambassador at Stock- holm was a Jesuit named Macedo, and he soon made dis- covery of the queen's unsettled opinions. In conversation with him Christina did not hesitate to avow the decided sympathy which she felt with the Roman Catholic Church. " A Catholic," she would say, " has the consolation of be- lieving as so many noble spirits have believed for sixteen hundred years ; of belonging to a religion attested by mil- lions of martyrs, confirmed by millions of miracles — above all, which has produced so many admirable \drgins, who have risen above the frailties of their sex, and consecrated themselves to God." These wild and visionary notions do not raise our esteem for the judgment of the young queen. It is quite plain that her judgment was bewildered and her imagination inflamed by the mere charm of antiquity, and the vaunting but base- less pretensions of the Romish Church. She stayed not to inquire if this was truly the unchanged religion of apostolic times, or if the miracles boasted by Rome were genuine or false ; and, for the rest, she had always declaimed against marriage, and when pressed for her reasons did not hesitate PONTIFICATE OF IXNOCEKT X. 4YY to declare that it was because she would not submit to be governed. Other Jesuits were secretly invited to Stockholm, and eventually the queen resolved on publicly professing the Romish faith, and, as a necessary preliminary, on abdicating a crown which was entailed on Protestant heirs, and which h.ad greatly lost value in her eyes by becoming poor. On the 24th of June, 1654, this rare occurrence of a royal ab- dication took place before the whole Swedish court and parhament, who were filled with sorrow at losing the last scion of the illustrious house of Vasa. The aged Count Brahe even refused to take the crown from her head — that crown which he had himself placed there only three years before. The queen lifted it off with her own hands, and then attiring herself in a plain white dress, she received the ])arting address of the Estates. The speaker of the estate of peasants was deeply aflfected. Kneeling down before the queen, he took her hand, and kissed it repeatedly. Then bursting into tears, he silently wiped them away, and, unable to speak a word, turned his back on her majesty and walked away to his place. Christina took her departure immediately afterward for that Elysium of her imagination, the land governed by popes ; and her subsequent life was spent, not at all credit- ably, for the most part at Rome, but sometimes in other cities of Europe, where her presence was rendered unwel- come by the strange and lawless freaks she chose to commit. While these extraordinary events were occurring in Sweden, the aged Innocent X. was fast sinking into the arms of death. Worn out by the contentions of his family, he had grown more and more fretful and capricious, until January, 1655, when he finally sank beneath the double load of vexation and old age. So selfish were even those relatives he had most favored, that not one of them would defray the expenses of his funeral, and for three days the corpse lay entirely neglected. 478 LIVES OF THE POPES. CHAPTER VI. PONTIFICATES OF ALEXANDER VII., CLEMENT IX., AND CLEM- ENT X. SYMPTOMS OF DECLINE. A. D. 1655-1676. To Innocent succeeded Alexander VII., who, as Cardinal Chigi, had gained a high reputation in Rome for disin- terestedness and integrity. "This time," said one of the cardinals, " we must seek an honest man." " If you want an honest man," replied a second, " there stands one." Car- dinal Chigi was accordingly chosen ; for this time the de- ceased Pope had left behind him no nephew or party to influence the election. An "honest man" was indeed especially requisite just now, (although it ought to seem strange that any other should ever have obtained the office of bishop,) for the temporal affairs of the popedom had fallen into a deplorable state. The greed and ambition, the extravagance, luxury, and pomp of successive pontiffs, with the cormorant-like rapacity of their kindred, had burdened the papal see with debts so enormous, that the ordinary revenue was wholly swallowed up in order to meet them. Extortion and bribery were unblushingly practiced in every department of both State and Church. Magistrates paid large sums of money for their posts, and recompensed themselves by taking bribes from those whose causes they adjudged. Thus, in- justice and oppression were never anywhere more rife than in the States of the Church at this period. A cardinal describing the condition of affairs to Alexander soon after his accession, declared that "the oppressions exceed those inflicted on the Israelites in Egypt. People, not conquered by the sword, but subject to the holy see, are more inhu- manly treated than the slaves in Syria and Africa. Desti- tute of silver, or copper, or linen, or furniture to satisfy the SYMPTOMS OF DECLINE. 479 avarice of the commissaries, they will next be obliged to sell themselves as slaves to pay the burdens laid on them by the chambers. " Who," he exclaims, " can witness these things without tears of soitow ?" For a time it seemed as if the new Pope would really accomplish all that was expected of him. He commenced his pontificate by strictly forbidding all his relatives ever to appear at Rome. The people applauded his self-denying magnanimity, and cotemporary writers declared it to be *' heroic." But Alexander was a man of infirm purposes. He had rather yielded to popular opinion than been governed by any determination of his own judgment, and he was quite as susceptible of new impulses in another direction. Yery soon the birds of prey set up a clamor which startled and alarmed him. The cardinals and priests who had access to him, assured him that it was not seemly for a Pope to allow his relatives to starve. Besides, would it not be far nobler to exercise due restraint upon his connections when they were gathered around him, than thus to abandon them altoQfether ? And the Jesuit Olivia went further still, even • maintaining that the Pontiff was guilty of moral sin in not calling his nephews to Rome. " Foreign ambassadors," he said, " would never have so much confidence in a mere minister as in a near relative of the Pope." Easy as it may be to find plausible excuses for the bad actions of another, it is far easier to employ them as pretexts to justify a course we are ourselves inclined to adopt. The "honest" Alexander quickly yielded to the subtile persuasions of this Jesuit adviser, and saw that it was his duty to enrich his family. And having called them to Rome, he even surpassed his predecessors in lavishing lucrative offices and choice revenues on his kinsfolk, extend^ ing his patronage not only to relatives, but to those who could claim no further connection with him than that of being natives of the same town. "The imposts of the Barberini," 480 LIVES OF THE POPES. says one of his biographers, " have exhausted the country ; the avarice of Donna Olympia has drained the court ; some amelioration was hoped for from the virtues of Alexander VIL, but now all Sienna has poured itself over the States of the Church, and is sucking the last drops of their strength." Alexander VII. was, in truth, too weak a man to inter- fere with effect in any of the proceedings of his creatures. Once installed in their offices, he left them to themselves. His own disposition was inclined to self-indulgence, and he took little active part in the administration. He would be absent for months together at his country-seat, where busi- ness was never mentioned, and when he was in Rome it was difficult to obtain audience of him for public affairs. "I served," says Giacomo Quirini, " during forty-two months with Pope Alexander, and I perceived that he had merely the name of Pope, not the command of the papacy. Of those qualities which distinguished him when cardinal, vivacity of intellect, power of discrimination, decision in difficult cases, and facility of expression, not a trace could be found ; business was entirely set aside. He thought only of passing his life in undisturbed repose." Happily for the Pontiflf the powers of Europe were so thoroughly occupied at home — France in the wars of the Fronde, and England in the commotions that followed the civil wars — that they left him very much in that state of repose which he loved. One incident, however, annoyed him, as it brought out into vexatious conspicuousness the vast decline which had taken place in the influence wielded by the popedom since the rise of France and England to the position of first-rate powers. No monarch of that age was more aspiring, or resolute in asserting his dignit}'^ than the then youthful Louis XIV. of France ; and although a zealous papist, he was far more devoted to his own and his nation's glor}- than to the spiritual authorit}^ of Rome. The assumptions of the Roman Church in his kingdom were more than he could calmly SYMPTOMS OF DECLINE. 481 tolerate, and he even disputed the precedence in matters of ceremony and etiquettes which the popes had ever claimed, and which other Roman Catholic sovereiorns had always been ready to concede. In the year 1659 the Duke De Crequi, ambassador of Louis at the papal court, received a pubHc insult in the streets of Rome. Louis demanded that an apology should be given by the Pontiff; but Alexander, feeling that it would be a deep humiliation for a sovereign of his proud pretensions to stoop so low, made perpetual delays and excuses, until the incensed monarch of France marched an army into Italy, and plainly signified his intention to inflict chastisement on the Pope. Sensible of his own real weak- ness, the Pontiff now consented to make ample amends for the injury done. He was forced not only to apologize, but even to permit a pyramid to be erected in Rome, on which an inscription recorded, for the benefit of future ages, the exemplary punishment which papal arrogance had for once received. For a Pope no greater degradation could have been de- vised more mortifying and painful than this. So notoiious were the pontifi"s for their love of inscriptions in their own praise, that the Romans used to say, "Wherever a stone can be placed in a wall the Pope will have his name inscribed upon it." And now, in one of the most public thoroughfares of Rome, was Alexander YIL compelled to perpetuate his own humiliation by the means which other pontiffs had chosen to immortalize their fame. Trifling as this incident was in itself, it marked a vast revolution in the public opinion of Europe, and in the political, perhaps we may say, the religious relations sustained by the Pope. To the weak Alexander succeeded, in 1667, the Cardinal Rospigliosi, who assumed the title of Clement IX. Between the deceased Pope and the new one there were several points of resemblance, at least as to personal char- acter. Both were men of negative rather than of positive 21 482 LIVES OF THE TOPES. virtues. Clement IX. possessed, we are told, "all those moral qualities that consist in the absence of faults — blame- lessness of life, diffidence, and moderation." But these are not exactly the qualities suitable for a prince, or which were calculated just then to advance the interests of the pope- dom. What Alexander VII. promised, but failed to accomplish, Clement IX., however, actually performed, at least for his own pontificate. He abolished, or rather discontinued, the practice, so inveterate with the popes, of promotrng- their own kindred to the first offices in the State. It is true, that he enriched them, and permitted them to found a new family in Rome ; but he selected none of them to be his prime councilors, or to conduct the administration of pub- lic affairs. Yet even this change is attributable much more to the real decline of papal power than to any self-denying virtue in the mind of Clement IX. The wealthy houses which had been established in Rome by successive pontiffs, had at length grown into a distinct class of society by means of frequent intermarriage. They constituted, in fact, the ctristocracy of the papal States. The English reader of the histories of that age is struck with the tendency just then exhibited throughout Europe to the aristocratic forms of government. Despotic power, as seen in the old monarch- ies, was fast expiring ; and in England by the wars of the Commonwealth, in France by those of the Fronde, in Ger- many and in Sweden by the efforts of the nobles, aristocra- cies were created which were destined for a long time to have a predominant share in the government of States. And now we perceive this tendency discovering itself like- wise in Italy ; and the decline of the Pope's personally des- potic power is nearly coeval with those last efforts made by the house of Stuart to reestablish a despotism in our own country. In the last pontificate an institution had commenced SYMPTOMS OF DECLINE. 483 which brought the governing power into the hands of the nobles. This institution was essentially a " cabinet," but called the congregazione di stato, to which, in the absence of a papal nephew, all matters of business might be in- trusted. One of these ministers controlled the ecclesiastical offices in general ; a second attended to the department of foreign affairs ; a third .managed the monastic orders ; and to a fourth was committed the decision of theological questions. As Clement IX. had no nephew to invest with the func- tions of government, so neither did he make any alteration in this division of duties. He confirmed the appointments of most whom he found in office ; he did not persecute the relations of previous popes ; he did not favor his own towns- men, the Pistoians, who were, therefore, grievously disap- pointed ; nor did he strive to aggrandize his own family. On the contrary, he calmly surrendered himself to the pre- vailing spirit, and unresistingly permitted the tiara to be stripped of some of its most brilliant appendages. Thus we see that while the sovereign States of Europe were assuming an independent and even defiant attitude toward the papacy ; while France and Spain, and even Venice and Genoa often opposed the interferences of Rome ; while even in Portugal itself, always priest-ridden, the habit of submissiveness was beginning to be abandoned by king, clergy, and people ; and while monarchs ventured to form treaties of peace like that of " Westphalia," or that of the " Pyrenees," without consulting the Pope, or caring for his express disapprobation — the personal authority of the Pontiff was at the same time declining in Rome. It is abundantly evident that the papal power had received a mortal Wow, which might indeed be slow in operation, but which was nevertheless mortal. The battle of the Refor- mation had not been fought in vain, even in Italy. Meanwhile the persecution of the Jansenists in France had continued with occasional intermissions. The Jansen- 484 LIVES OF THE POPES. ists denied that the charge of heresy was just. The doc- trines denounced by the Jesuits were not, they averred, to be found in the writinors of their leader. The Jesuits had already repHed by obtaining a bull from Rome, which de- clared that those heresies were certainly there. In vain did the Jansenists reiterate their denial ; and in vain also did the " Provincial Letters " of Pascal make head against the running tide. Armed with an edict procured from Louis XIY., the Jesuits expelled the nuns from Port Royal de Paris, and the aged Angelique Arnauld, exhausted by a persecution of twenty-five years, sank beneath the blow, and shortly afterward died. From Port Royal des Champs, likewise, all the novices and scholars were carried away, that they might not be tainted with the heresies of the learned and pious De Saci, Pascal, and Arnauld. The remarkable conversion of the celebrated duchess of Longueville, sister to the great Conde, produced a tempo- rary change, a brief respite for the persecuted sect. This singular woman, whose life had been spent in revolts, in- trigues, and heroic adventures of all sorts, repaired at last to Port Royal, and there, it is said, gave evidence of a genuine conversion to God. She deplored, with bitter tears, the widely-extended evils her ambition had occa- sioned, and now devoted the whole of her immense estates to the service of humanity and religion. On the accession of Pope Clement IX. the duchess, who had formerly honored him with her friendship, made a per- sonal appeal in behalf of the afflicted Jansenists. Yielding to her petition, Clement accepted the declarations of the alleged heretics that they did not hold the doctrines im- puted to them. Now, therefore, the prison doors were opened, the Jansenists, who had lurked in concealment, again appeared abroad without fear, and Port Royal was favored with a new era of prosperity. The recent persecu- tion had given publicity, and had won a kindly feeling for the views of the recluses, and multitudes resorted to them SVMPTOMS OF DECLINE. 485 from all parts of France for instruction and edification. Considerable sums were expended in enlarging the monas- tery and gardens, and as the abbey had been formerly famous for its learning, it now became doubly so on ac- coimt of its magnitude and wealth, and the number of nohle inmates it contained. " And still," we are assured by its eulogists, " although so many rich, so many noble, so many learned were called, still Port Royal stood a bright example of unfeigned humility and self-abasement, of self- denial and charity, daily taking up the cross, and following a crucified Lord." A strange phenomenon, it must be con- fessed, in the midst of the Romish Church ! Beside the affairs of the Jansenists, the attention of the Roman court, during the brief pontificate of Clement IX., was chiefly directed to a war which the Turks were once more carrying on with the island of Candia. This island had long been regarded as a kind of outpost to Christen- dom, and had accordingly been eyed with envy for ages by the Ottoman power. On the decline of the Venetian re- public, to which the island was tributary, the Turks re- solved on gaining possession of it themselves. The Euro- pean sovereigns had quite lost the crusading spirit of olden times ; the Pope was the only one of them who would come to the rescue, and the force of the Venetians and of the Pope combined were wholly unequal to the emergency. The disaster which befell the " Christian " army so affect- ed the mind of Clement that he died of grief in De- cember, 1668, and in the following year the catastrophe he feared took place — Candia fell into the hands of the Turks. The cardinals were very much divided respecting a suc- cessor, and disputed for nine months without arriving at any decision. They then resolved, for the sake of an inter- val of repose, to choose one whose age and infirmities would insure a speedy renewal of the contest, and, as each party hoped, the gratification of its own aims. Cardinal 486 LIVES OF THE POPES. ^mil Altieri, already eighty years old, was tlie candidate thus doubtfully honored. Clement X. was too old and feeble to exert any influ- ence on the current of public affairs. As a man, he was regarded as amiable and upright, and had he been younger, he might perhaps have done something toward stemming the frightful torrent of corruption which was rolling un- checked over every department of the papal domains. The most profligate excess, the most unprincipled selfish- ness, were now triumphant in Rome. To such a height did all who were concerned in the government, or had pub- lic offices of any kind, carry their extravagance, and sup- port it by the spoliation of public property, that the con- clave itself began to fear a universal bankruptcy. The nobles became poorer every day, even while recklessly ap- propriating the treasures of the State. Evidently, unless remedial measures should be adopted, a crisis of national ruin was at hand. But where was the vi^or or the virtue to be found that should work out an efficient remedy ? An edict was passed declaring the pursuit of commerce incom- patible with the dignity of nobility ; but the degenerate nobles only scofl'ed at the edict, and heedlessly rushed on- ward to the gulf of destruction. All this was much favored by the circumstances of the times. Italy was just then entirely undisturbed by foreign interference, and enjoyed a quiet repose, very unusual for that unhappy land. The emperor was busily engaged in coerc- ing his Hungarian subjects ; Louis XIV. was at war with the Low Countries — a conflict which also kept Holland and Spain in full occupation ; and Charles 11. of England was only intent on running his mad career of licentiousness, ex- travagance, and sin. Had the papal government been imbued with the spirit of religion, or had it only been honest and up- right, this season of repose might manifestly have been turned to the advantage of the Pope's subjects, and indeed to that of all Italy. But by the corrupt and altogether irrelig- PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT XI. 487 ious Romans the opportunity was only abused. The car- dinals took their pleasure, exhausted in their revels the treasures of the State, and thus tranquilly awaited the time which should promote one of them to the sovereignty of what still bore the name of the Roman Church. Nor had they long to wait. Clement X. died in 1676. CHAPTER VII. PONTIFICATE OF INNOCENT XI. REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. A. D. 1676-1689. By the accession of Innocent XI. the Church of Rome and her temporal estates received a ruler of quite a different order. Benedetto Odescalchi, of Como, had entered Rome in his twenty-fifth year, furnished with sword and pistols, intend- ing to devote himself to a military life. But a friendly cardinal discerning his true character, warmly advised him to adopt the ecclesiastical profession, or to enter in some way into the service of the Roman court. He accepted the advice, and in the employments he received acquitted him- self so well, that he rapidly rose from post to post, until the sacred college itself welcomed him to its ranks. And so popular had he become by this time with the Roman citizens, that during the sitting of the conclave, the air resounded with the cry of " Odescalchi !" and shouts of applause greeted him when, as Pontiff elect, he came forth adorned with the tiara. The qualities which had secured him such popularity were carried by the new Pope to the discharge of his new functions. Zeal for the Roman Church, attempered by a patriotism that would not suffer his native land to be over- burdened even for the glory of the papacy ; extraordinary firmness and diligence in business, combined with gentle 488 LIVES OF THE POPES. and amiable manners — these were the rare virtues which now, to the astonishment of the world, shone forth in a Pope of Rome. But even this constellation of excellence would not avail to bring back the papacy to a healthy, honorable, and pros- perous state. Whatever a Pontiff could do, however. Inno- cent was resolved to attempt. He commenced his career with a vigorous attack upon the abuses that had so long prevailed. He would suffer no nephew or other relative to enrich himself at the public expense. And for himself he expressed a resolution to die no richer than he was. "I am not the master^ he would say, " but the administrator of the Holy See. When I became a cardinal I began to be poor, and now that I am Pope I shall be a beggar." The Romans had been too far corrupted by the long 'growth of hereditary vices to appreciate, or even patiently to tolerate these innovations on papal usages. They vehe- mently inveighed against the meanness of the Pope, and declared that he was incapable of rising to the true dignity of a sovereign. Lampoons and satires, and violent decla- mations, breathing hot defiance, poured forth from the press ; and one scurrilous writer even ventured to say, " I do not find a more wicked monster in all ancient annals, nor one who, clothed in hypocrisy, more deeply dyed with blood his beak and winsfs." For all this huge outcry the Pope steadfastly pursued the course he had marked out. As the expenditure of the government was actually beyond its income, he ordered a reduction of from four to three per cent, in the interest hitherto paid out of the public revenue to the monti, or funded stocks. So bold a step naturall}'^ enraged the car- dinals and noble families by whom these monti were held ; but to all complaints Innocent turned a deaf ear, and in due course of time had the satisfaction of seeing the exchequer in a solvent condition. In his intercourse with foreign princes this Pontiff showed PONTIFICATE OF lIsNOOENT XI. 489 a similar spirit of independence. The court of Paris had long been hostile to Roman claims, as was abundantly shown in the affairs of the ambassador Crequi ; and Louis XIV. had always practiced the policy of restraining rather than indulging the clergy of his kingdom. It was his in- violable maxim that all interests, whether social or ecclesias- tical, should bow to his sovereign will, and he exercised an luisparing despotism on those who presumed to dispute it. The clergy and the monastic orders were especially the objects of his mistrust. Here he confiscated their estates, there he loaded their benefices with military fines, and on every occasion of a benefice or a see falling vacant, he in- sisted on the ancient custom of regale, or the right of the sovereign to receive the revenues and appoint a successor. But of all the clergy the Jansenists had to bear the heav- iest strokes of the rod. The Jesuits were favored by Louis, and it often happened that the pleadings of a Bossuet, or a Bourdaloue, or even of Madame de Maintenon herself, screened others from the penalties of royal visitation, in or- der that these imposts might fall upon the Jansenists with double weight. On some of them the burden had fallen very oppressively. The Bishop of Pamiers, a Jansenist> was actually reduced to live upon alms. At length the Jansenists appealed to the court of Rome, and Innocent was too bold and zealous not to adopt their cause ; for even if prone to heretical opinions, they were still his clergy. Writing in no very obsequious strain to the French king. Innocent admonished him " to lend no ear to flatterers, and to refrain from any more touching the property, or restrain- ing the liberties of the Church, lest the wrath of God should visit him, and dry up the fountains of grace within his kingdom." As this threatening language plainly pointed to an interdict, the proud sovereign to whom it was ad- dressed disdained even to reply. A second and a third time Innocent repeated his admonitions, and then finding that Louis still maintained an obstinate silence, he declared that 21* 490 LIVES OF THE POPES. he would write no more, but would have recourse to other measures, and would use every means in his power to com- pel the French monarch to comply. " He would suffer," he said, " no danger, no storm to appal him ; he beheld his glory in the cross of Christ." To Louis XIV. this vehement and menacing tone was merely an empty noise. He was secure of the obedience of his clergy, and could laugh scornfully at the puny wrath of a petty second-rate prince. So entirely, indeed, were the great majority of the clei-gy obsequious to his will, that the prince of Conde did not scruple to affirm, that " if it pleased the king to go over to the Protestant Church, the clergy would be the first to follow him." Instead, therefore, of replying to the papal fulminations, Louis convened an assembly of prelates in 1682, for the purpose of further restraining the papal prerogatives, and defining with exact bounds the duties and rights of the clerical order. By this convocation four articles were agreed to, which have ever since been regarded as the man- ifesto of French independence of papal control. The first of t]jese articles asserted that the Pope had no right to in- terfere in the temporal affairs of other princes ; the second, that the authority of councils was superior to that of popes, as had already been declared by the Council of Constance ; the third, that the usages of the Galhcan Church should continue to be unalterably observed ; and the fourth, the most remarkable of all, that " even in questions of faith the decision of the Pope is not infallible or incapable of amend- ment, unless subsequently sanctioned by the consent of the Church." From the days of Francis I. the French Church had as- serted its independence of Rome in all matters of chief mo- ment to itself; but here, under Louis XIV., we find it boldly shaking off all the shackles of the papacy, save the acknowledgment of spiritual supremacy ; which last, more- over, would be little more than a name, encroached on as PONllFlUATi: OF INNOCENT XI. 491 it was by such novel conditions. Indeed it was the opinion of many that although France yet stood within the pale of the Romish Church, it stood just on the threshold, as if in readiness to step beyond it. And it is now well known that not only Bossuet and other leading French theologians deeply sympathized with many Protestant opinions, but Louis XIY. himself was often occupied in devising a scheme for the reconcihation of the Gallican and Lutheran Churches. But Louis's thoroughly irreligious character, and the levity and general want of earnestness that pervaded the French nation at that time, prevented that scheme ever taking effect, or even any approach to it being attempted. Innocent XL, feehng at last his own helplessness, re- frained from threatening, and contented himself with using such weapons as he had left. He refused, for instance, to grant institution to all bishops appointed by Louis, and no fewer than thirty-five bishops were unable to exercise a sin- gle function of their office, although they were in possession of all its emoluments and honors. While Innocent and Louis were animated with such feel- ings, an event occurred which was adapted to exasperate to tlie highest pitch the animosity they mutually cherished. Among other reforms which Innocent XI. resolved to accomplish, was that of the abuses arising out of class-priv- ileges, which had grown up in Rome as elsewhere. By an ancient usage, the ambassadors of foreign courts residing at Rome had in common with the Roman nobility the right of asylum, or sanctuary, not only within the walls of their palaces, but reaching even to the contiguous squares and streets. To those quarters did disturbers of the peace in nightly brawls, or even malefactors and criminals of the deepest dye, flee from the pursuit of justice, and within those precincts no officer of justice dared to follow them. There also plots for defrauding the revenue or for promot- ing sedition were securely carried on. To these dangerous abuses the present vigilant Pope was determined to put an 492 LIVES OF THE POPES. end by abolishing the privilege altogether. He accordingly- decreed that no new ambassador should be acknowledged at the papal court who did not wholly renounce these im- munities, both for himself and his successors. All the States that were in the habit of sending ambas- sadors to Rome demurred at this very reasonable determi- nation; but the death of D'Etrees, the ambassador of France, and the appointment of the marquis of Lavardin in his room, brought the question to an issue. Louis instructed Lavardin *' to maintain at Rome all the rights and the full dignity of France ;" and in order to support this dignity he gave him a numerous retinue of military and naval offi- cei-s, sufficient to frighten and overawe the Pope even in his own capital. Lavardin's entry into Rome under this escort resembled the march of a hostile general rather than the peaceable visit of an ambassador. Surrounded by whole squadrons of cavalry, he could easily have maintained his privilege of asylum against any force that Innocent could bring. The Pontiff, therefore, had recourse to his spiritvxtl armory. " They come with horses and chariots," said Innocent, " but we will walk in the name of the Lord." Pronouncing the censures of the Church upon the impious Lavardin, he laid the church of St. Louis, in which the ambassador had at- tended a solemn mass, under an interdict. For a year and a half Lavardin continued at Rome with- out even obtaining admission to the Pontiff's presence. He then returned to France, filled with chagrin at the uncon- querable firmness of Innocent; and Louis, to punish the Pope, laid violent hands on Avignon and its territory still belonging to Rome, and shut up the papal nuncio at Paris in a dungeon. The French king would doubtless have proceeded to more extreme measures, but that he had now found full employ- ment for his energies in the universal hostility which his in- satiable ambition had provoked among the European pow- rOlNlIFICATE OF INNOCENT XI. 493 ers. And Innocent, perceiving that his future safety de- pended on the continuance of this hostihty, employed all his genius in fomenting it, and urging it to open demon- strations. It is strange, and yet true, that notwithstanding this per- petual opposition between Rome and France, the Pontift' had hardly another prince in Europe so devoted to the Ro- mish faith as was Louis XIV . Louis was, in reality, a bigot. He seems to have tried to make amends for his unscrupu- lous hcentiousness and numerous other vices, by displaying extraordinary zeal in behalf of the established religion. As he oppressed the Jansenists because they differed a few shades from the orthodox sects, so did he persecute the Protestants with unrelenting bitterness, and appeared, in- deed, to be bent on their utter extermination. When Henry IV., in 1598, deserted the Huguenot party, he had deemed it necessary, and only fair to his former friends, to secure them full liberty in all matters of religion. This freedom was guaranteed to them by the celebrated Edict of Nantes ; under which, had the Protestants been content with mere liberty, the cause of evangelical religion might still have prospered in France. But, unhappily, it was not entirely a question of religion with the Huguenots ; they coveted power ; and the elements of discord thus lay only smoldering for a time, to burst out again into flames as fierce as the first. The former struggle had made the Protestants a political party in the State, and they yet strove to maintain that position, succeeding in doing so until the taking of Rochelle by Cardinal Richelieu. Their political insubordination had brought upon them severe persecution even from Richelieu and Mazarin, men who cared very little, if at all, for mere rehgious distinctions. But Louis XIV. was a man of a different stamp. To the despotic spirit of those ministers he added zeal for the faith and foiTns of the Romish Church, by which, like many other really bad men, he endeavored to soothe the anxiety 494 LIVES OF THE POPES. of a guilty conscience ; and thus, throughout his contest with Innocent XI., he still proved himself a devoted Ro- manist by cruelly oppressing the Protestant party in France. The Edict of Nantes was still the strongest bulwark of Protestant freedom, and it so stood in the way of the harsh measures which Louis wished to adopt that he determined on abohshing its power. His first step was to employ per- sons to interpret its provisions in a manner wholly contrary to its spirit. Thus, while nominally in their former position, the Protestants were really robbed of their only charter and safeguard. The work of persecution commenced. Prot- estants were at first declared inadmissible to the higher ofl&ces of State, and by degrees the prohibition was extended to all offices whatsoever. Then the " Chamber of the Edict," a court to which all differences between Catholics and Protestants were referred, was arbitrarily suppressed ; next, some churches were closed ; and, finally, restrictions were laid on the public worship practiced by the Huguenots. These measures succeeded at least in causing a multitude of wealthy families to emigrate. Many Protestants sought more hospitable shores ; and those whose attachment to their native land was too strong to permit them to think of exile prepared for an open resistance. Then commenced the infamous " Dragonades." A strong line of troops, em- bracing an extensive area, was drawn around the revolted district, and the circle was gradually contracted, until the Protestants, hunted like wild beasts, fell into the snare of the hunter, and were savagely tortured or slain, according to the caprice of their inhuman butchers. At length, in October, 1685, the Edict of Nantes was al- together revoked, and the poor mantle of protection, al- ready worn threadbare, Avas dragged from the backs of the Protestants. All toleration was denied ; their ministers were ordered to quit France within fifteen days ; and, while bribes were offered to converts, the severest punishments were denounced against refractory heretics. PONTIFICATE OF IxNNOCENT XL 495 The perpetrators of cruelties are often doomed, in the just providence of God, to outwit themselves, and these cruelties of Louis produced results that to him were at the least most unwelcome. The banished pastors were quickly followed by their flocks ; and England, Holland, Germany, and America, were overflowed with refugees from France — to her a signal loss, to them as great an advantage. Some of the best manufactures in silk, so carefully cherished by the French government, had been in the hands of the Hu- guenots, and these now fell to decay ; while no fewer than three hundred thousand of the most moral, quiet, and loyal of the French population were forever lost to the ungrate- ful country which had driven them forth. Alarmed at such unlooked-for disasters, Louis gave or- ders to stop this vast emigration, if needful, by main force. Strong guards were placed at every frontier pass, in all cities and towns, on the highways, and at every ford and ferry. The refugees were forcibly arrested in their flight, and if persistent in heresy, were brutally thrust into pnson. Some perished in the dungeons, others were sent to the galleys ; so that, beside the multitudes gone into exile, great numbers — numbers altogether unknown — of faithful subjects, the best and most useful citizens of France, were prematurely destroyed ; and energies which would have been used to the vast profit of the nation, were extin- guished in the darkness of death. Louis the Fourteenth's government was weaker, and not stronger, in consequence of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. So ruinous is evermore the short-sighted policy of bigotry ! It would be gratifying to be able to state of a Pontiff who exhibited so many good points of character as Innocent XL, that he vehemently condemned these barbarous and impol- itic cruelties. But, alas ! when shall the dark demon of persecution be exorcised from the Vatican ? The Pope sent a congratulatory letter to Louis XIV. on this dolefully tragical occasion ; a triumphal ode instead of a dirge, ap- 496 LIVES OF THE POPES. plauding it as an "illustrious proof" of Louis's "inbred piety !" " The Catholic Church," says Innocent, " shall most assuredly record in her sacred annals a work of such devotion toward her, and celebrate your name in never- dying praises." But Innocent was hardly sincere in the gratitude he pro- fessed. In secret he trembled far more at the overgrown and despotically used power of Louis than at all the here- sies of the Huguenots ; and thus we find him, in the last years of his pontificate, actually siding with Protestants against his "devoted" and "pious" son! The royal house of Stuart in England was just then in a very critical position. James 11. had kindled the resent- ment of his subjects by his manifestly popish predilections, and his evident design to restore popery as the established rehgion. With these predilections and designs Innocent was exactly acquainted, and had so far availed himself of the occasion as to send a nuncio to England, who resided openly in London. Four Roman Catholic bishops were also consecrated at the Chapel Royal, and Romish ecclesi- astics appeared at court in the habits of their orders ; while the Jesuits formed a college in the Savoy, and more than a dozen monks were always entertained at St. James's. And yet, notwithstanding the brilliant prospects thus opened to the papacy in England, we find Innocent afford- ing political aid to the very prince whose avowed object it was to destroy these prospects, and render Protestantism in England secure and safe forever ! The banner of Wil- liam, Prince of Orange, when he invaded the British Isles, bore the inscription : " The Protestant Religion and the Liberties of England." Yet, because, while assailing James, the prince of Orange was also making war upon Louis, the head of the Romish Church sent him subsidies, and wished him God-speed ! " Strange complication !" says Ranke. " At the court of Rome were combined the threads of that alliance which ALEXANDER VIII. AND INNOCENT XII. 497 had for its aim and result the liberation of Protestantism from the last great danger by which it was threatened in Western Europe." Who can thoughtfully consider this fact, which is yet only one of a series of such facts carefully noted in this history, and then fear lest the Roman apostasy should ever entirely regain her lost supremacy ? How plain it is that she is even doomed by God to accomplish her own destruction ! " The Lord reigneth : the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved : he shall judge the people righteously." The pontificate and life of Innocent XI. terminated in 1689, closing a most eventful reign, although it lasted but thirteen years. CHAPTER yill. PONTIFICATES OF ALEXANDER VIII. AND INNOCENT XII. FURTHER TOKENS OF DECLINE. A. D. 1689-1700. The conclave were now nearly unanimous in placing the tiara on the head of the Cardinal Ottoboni, who had in fact been the chief administrator of papal affairs throughout the previous reign. Alexander VIII. was already eighty years old, and the short period which had yet to elapse before he should de- scend to the tomb was unmarked by many noteworthy events. Before arriving at his final honors he appears to have created many enemies, and imhappily it is chiefly from these that we have accounts of his character. If we may credit a document found in the archives of the Vatican, entitled " The Confession of Alexander VIIL," a full his- tory of this Pontiff would show how popes of even a fair reputation, and of far superior morals to many, have been carried away by the inherent vices of the papacy, which render it almost, perhaps quite, impossible, for a pontiff to 498 LIVES OF THE POPES. be thoroughly honest. In this "confession," affirmed to have been made to a Jesuit priest in the last moments of Alexander's life, the Pope laments that he " knowingly and deliberately promoted unsuitable and unworthy, nay, prof- ligate men ; had thoughts of nothing but enriching his own kindred ; and had, moreover, permitted justice and mercy to be sold, even in the very palace." Ranke treats this " confession" as " one of the satirical writings of the time." Yet if so, satire is for the most part only truth grotesquely presented. And an eye-witness of Pope Alexander's deportment, even while praising the Pon- tiff because he was " easy of access, gentle, compassionate, pliable, and considerate toward princes," expresses his as- tonishment that this Pope should be made a mark for in- vective " because he showed affection to his kindred, was more disposed to intrust important charges to them than to others, and wished to provide for them with a certain lib- erality." The probability is that Alexander's conscience was not entirely hardened, and that in his last moments he sincerely lamented allowing himself to be carried away by the current of customary vice. The principal feature in Alexander's pontificate was the steady opposition he maintained to the encroachments of Louis XIV. On all possible occasions he discovered this hostility, and only just before his death he issued a bull, declaring that the decrees of the French convocation in 1682, which asserted the independence of the Gallican Church, were " vain, invalid, null, and void, having no power to bind even when enforced by an oath." " Day and night," says he, " have I thought of them with bitter- ness of heart, and lifting my eyes to heaven with tears and sighs." Doubtless few subjects of reflection can be more painful to a conscientious pope than the loss of many of his spiritual subjects, so happily escaped from the thraldom of papal despotism. Alexander died in 1691. At the ensuing election, the French party in the con ALEXANDER VIII. AND INNOCENT XII. 499 clave made the most determined efforts to obtain a pontiflf who should be favorable to the views of their royal master ; and they thought that in the quiet and peace-loving An- tonio Pignatelli they found the character they sought. After a struggle of five months, Pignatelli was elected, and in memory of Innocent XL, to whom he had owed his first advancement, he assumed the same title, and moreover, to the great disappointment of the French, adopted his policy. Innocent XII. "labored," we are told, " to imitate Pope Innocent XI. ;" and accordingly, when that band of French clergy appointed to vacant bishoprics by Louis XI Y. ap- plied to the new Pontiff for the " institution' which had hitherto been constantly denied them, he again refused to compromise the dignity of the papal see by any departure from canonical rule. Great was the disappointment in France, and loud the remonstrances which were forwarded to Rome. But Innocent continued firm in his decision, and eventually the French bishops, despairing of ever other- wise obtaining an acknowledgment of their dignity or per- mission to exercise their functions, fully humbled them- selves at the footstool of the Pope. *' Casting ourselves," said they, " at the feet of your holiness, we profess our un- speakable grief for what has been done." They further declared that the decrees of 1682 should be regarded as o not having any legal force. This surprising humiliation of the French clergy to the Italian Pontiflf is not, however, to be ascribed to any ad- vance of power on the part of the Roman See. It is wholly attributable to the political diflBculties which, at the close of the seventeenth century, inthralled and fettered the proud monarch of France. The ambitious designs of Louis XIV. had then become so very apparent as to arouse the jealousy of all the Euro- pean courts ; and, guided by the genius of William, Prince of Orange, they had so successfully conducted their warlike operations against him as greatly to mortify his pride. 500 LIVES OF THE POPES. Those great generals and statesmen, Turenne, Conde, Col- bert, and Louvois, who had adorned and strengthened the first era of his reign, were all now dead ; and Louis was compelled to see that the chief lustre of his glory had passed away. Under these circumstances he was unwilling to perpetuate his hostility with the Pope, lest his authority at home should be weakened by the disaflfection of the clergy, at a time when he needed the full benefit of all the resources his kingdom possessed. It is instructive, however, to mark with what unyielding pertinacity the papacy adheres to resolutions once adopted. In vain may even a powerful monarch like Louis XIV. at- tempt to overawe the infallible Church. Nothing short of absolute force will divert her from her aim ; nothing what- ever will change her purposes. Her plans have often in- deed been kept in abeyance for a time, but they only await a fit opportunity. And thus the decrees of Inno- cent XL, ineffectually repeated by Alexander YIIL, were, in more auspicious days, carried into effect by Inno- cent XII. The pontificate of Innocent, notwithstanding this appar- ent triumph, abundantly discovered that the fortunes of Rome were growing every day more dependent on the po- litical relations of other States. In this pontificate, the tiara and crosier no longer stem the current of European events, or, as they had often done, direct its course ; they float lightly upon the stream, turning hither and thither with all its winding eddies. If Louis XIV. is depressed, the papacy may enjoy a short respite from coercion, but another ruler and oppressor is quickly found. In 1692 Louis surrenders her some liberties, and fondly imagining herself wholly free, she puts on the gleefulness of a bride ; in 1697 the Emperor Leopold I. ambitiously seeks to re- vive all the ancient grandeur of the empire, and Rome straightway clothes herself in mourning apparel. In that year the emperor boldly declared that the pos- ALEXANDER VIII. AND INNOCENT XII. 501 sessions of the Pope were mere fiefs of the empire, and caused an edict to be placarded in Rome, pronouncing the Pontiff to be a rebel unless within a fixed time he applied for investiture. It need occasion no surprise that this claim met with a successful resistance. Powerful as the emperor was in comparison witli the Pope, he could not reestablish an authority which had been extinct for ages, and against which all Europe would have protested. The Pope ob- tained sympathy from the French and several other gov- ernments, and the emperor was at last dissuaded from urging his absolute pretensions. But the fact of their being urged at all sufficiently discovers the real weakness of the popedom ; and the politic, but circuitous method by which they were repelled is another illustration of its decline. How fallen indeed from the lofty throne of Gregory the Seventh and of Innocent the Third ! A controversy which had long agitated France was about this time brouijht for decision before the tribunal of the Pope. This was the famous controversy respecting " Quiet- ism," which had long engaged in theological strife the elo- quent pens of Fenelon and Bossuet. The writings of Madame Guion* had first of all given celebrity to the views of the Quietists, and the impetuosity with which they were attacked by the " Eagle of Meaux " had brought to their defense, out of his contemplative and beloved retire- ment, the amiable Bishop of Cambray. " That God ought to be loved with a disinterested rather than with a grateful affection," and " that communion with him is never perfect except when it escapes from the formality of words," were some of the leading doctrines which the Quietists advanced, and which, however difficult they may be of apprehension, or even questionable in their tendency, seem hardly to de- * Some of Madame Guion's hymns have been translated by the poet Cowper. Whatever opinion may be formed of some of her doctrines, it cannot be doubted by those who have read her mem- oirs that she was a lady of the deepest piety. 502 LIVES OF THE POPES. serve the epithets appHed to them by Bossuet as " mon- strous and diabohcal." But Bossuet was high in favor, both at Versailles and Rome, and he accordingly procured, first the imprisonment of Madame Guion in the Bastile, and then, in 1699, a sentence from the Pope that Fenelon's defense of the system was of a heterodox tenor. With the readers of this narrative, however, a papal sentence will have lost by this time most of its weight ; and in truth there is no doubt that whether the system called Quietism be erroneous or right, the Quietists themselves included the larger portion of the really pious and devout who were to be found at that time in France. It was for the most part the same spirit and the same party that contended at once with Jansenism and Quietism. ■ In his management of secular affairs. Innocent XII. es- tablished a fair title to the laurels of a patriot. He did not, like Alexander VIII., attempt to enrich himself and his house from the impoverished exchequer of the States, but diligently applied himself to the task of first increasing the revenue, and then employing it in works of public utility. On the ruins of the ancient Antium he built the modern sea-port town of Port d'Anzo, and in Rome he constructed aqueducts, courts of justice, and hospitals. But the de- praved mind of that generation could neither understand nor tolerate the virtue of patriotism. Because Innocent departed from the time-honored precedent of enriching his kindred, he was vehemently assailed with abuse by the car- dinals and clergy in general. Those hungry cormorants were greatly dissatisfied at seeing a new precedent estab- lished, to which perhaps they might themselves be com- pelled to conform. And thus, by a vitiated and demoral- ized people, Innocent XII. was severely blamed for that which constitutes perhaps his sole title to our praise. PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT XI. 603 CHAPTER IX. PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT XI. FALL OF PORT ROYAL. A. D. 1700-1721. A NEW century introduces to us a new pope. Innocent XII. died in September, A. D. IVOO ; and before the end of the year the Cardinal Albani succeeded to the tiara, and com- menced a long and important pontificate. Gianfranceso Albani, Pope Clement XI., was the unani- mous choice of the conclave, and in reality stood the high- est among the cardinals for merit. The learninor and talent which alone had raised him to the seat of power, had for- merly obtained for him the patronage of the clever but eccentric and profligate Christina of Sweden, when she kept court at Rome. His affable and yet wary deportment to- ward both equals and inferiors had greatly ingratiated him with all classes of the Romans, although some of his co- temporaries ventured to insinuate that his popular qualities were only the result of a careful study to avoid giving offense. " Clement XL," says Ranke, " might be consid- ered the very creation and true representative of the court of Rome, which he had never quitted." A bland behavior, and a silent, watchful, and cautious course of conduct, have ever been the highest recommendations and surest titles to advancement at the court of Rome. Sad evidence that the religion which inculcates simplicity and sincerity as the chief ornaments of character have no great influence there ! It was a critical moment foi' Europe when Clement XI. ascended the papal throne. Charles II. of Spain, the last descendant of the Austrian house, had died just a fortnight before ; and already, amid the stillness which portended the coming tempest of war, the rumbling of distant thun- der might be heard. Louis XIV. was resolved at all haz- ards that his grandson, Philip V,, whom he had skillfully 504 LIVES OF THE POPES. contrived to place on the vacant throne, should keep pos- session of the prize. The other European monarchs, espe- cially those of England and Austria, were equally deter- mined to check the insatiable ambition of the Bourbons ; and preparations were commenced on all hands for a gen- eral and decisive war. Presuming on the large resources and the singular good fortune of "the great king," the Pope ventured on the hardy step of espousing his cause. In a letter to Louis he expressed his pleasure that the latter had refused to accept less than the entire and undivided kingdom of Spain for his grandson, although there were other claimants equally entitled to a share, and between whom, indeed, the allied sovereigns who were in the field against Louis proposed to divide it. Clement even proceeded so far as to promise subsidies in aid of the French designs. For a time the forward and rash confidence of the Pontifif seemed justified by events. The French arms were quite successful in an expedition against Vienna, and Clem- ent found it impossible, however imprudent, to conceal the satisfaction he felt. But reverses soon followed. The duke of Marlborough's victories over the largest armies of France on the battle-fields of Blenheim, Ramillies, and Donauwerth, and the astounding capture of Gibraltar, completely changed the aspect of the scene, and humbled the arrogance of Louis. Unhappy Italy had been regarded for too many ages as the natural prey of the neighboring kingdoms, not to sufifer greatly during this protracted and bloody war. And, al- though Clement XI. had not openly joined either of the contending parties, yet his well-known partiality for the French brought down upon the papal States all the ire of the emperor. Not only did the Austrian army commit great depredations in its passage through the papal territory to Naples ; the Emperor Joseph I. thought the present an ad- mirable occasion for once more reviving the old imperial claims. He took pleasure in mortifying the Pope by re- PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT XI. 505 uniting to the empire a number of the fiefs on which the pontiffs had laid their greedy hands, and he insisted on Clement's acknowledging his brother, the Archduke Charles, as the rightful successor to the throne of Spain, under pen- alty of suffering yet greater and more painful losses. By every means in his power — by stratagems and delays, by entreaties and even threats — did the Pope strive to es- cape or evade the humiliating command. Eagerly, but vainly, he looked on all sides for assistance. On the day appointed by the empei'or for his final decision, and after which, if he refused consent, his capital was to be attacked by a hostile force, he waited till eleven o'clock at night in the vain hope that some escape might be found, and then, with sadness and reluctance, signed the required acknowl- edgment. No sooner had the deed been accomplished than the French ambassador indignantly quitted Rome, declaring it was no lonofer the seat of the Church. To what straits do we here see the proud Bishop of Rome reduced ! How low had the papacy sunk before the in- creasing might of the European sovereigns ! He who was wont to be regarded as the supreme arbiter of peace and war was beaten, like a tennis ball, from hand to hand. Ev^en the political independence of the papacy was virtually gone. It existed only by sufi'erance. Although the French ambassador had departed in high dudgeon, it was to France that the Pope's eyes were still most hopefully and anxiously directed. The astonishing growth of that nation in power and wealth since the acces- sion of Louis XIV., together with the talent and learning of the clergy who flourished during his reign, had rendered the Galilean Church, in spite of its pretensions to independ- ence, the fairest province of the papacy, and the brightest jewel in the papal diadem. It was natural, therefore, that Clement should be loth to lose France, and that the relig- ious condition of that country should attract his profoundest concern. 22 506 LIVES OF THE POPES. And just now there were special reasons for that concern. The strife between the Jesuits and the Jansenists had broken out afresh. Quesnel's translation of the New Testament, with annotations, [Heflexions Morales,) was the spark that had rekindled the fire. In his notes attached to the sacred text Quesnel had expressed, in elegant and even fascinating language, the leading doctrines of the Jansenist sect ; that is, all those doctrines of grace which gave the Jansenists so powerful a hold on Protestant sympathies. The Jesuits were greatly incensed at this bold reiteration of sentiments which had been once and again condemned, and immedi- ately applied both to the French king and to the Pope for the suppression of Quesnel's book. Clement displayed in this business the cautious and not vei7 sincere character which his eulogists so highly admire. In the first year of his pontificate he had himself met with the " Moral Reflections," and had expressed in ardent terms his pleasure in the perusal. The Abbe Renaudot relates, that being then in Rome he went one day to see the Pope, who was himself learned and fond of learned society. He found Clement studiously reading father Quesnel's book. On seeing Renaudot enter the apartment, the Pope said, in a kind of rapture : '' Here is a most excellent book ! We have nobody at Rome who is capable of writing in this manner ; I wish I could engage the author to reside here !'^ But the request of Louis and the Jesuits was not to be slighted by a pontiff for a mere qualm of conscience ; and accordingly the bull known as the bull Unigenitus was is- sued, which condemned in broad and sweeping terms all the errors of the Jansenists and Quietists. No fewer than one hundred and one heretical propositions were discovered by the keen eyes of the Jesuits in the book of Quesnel, and were condemned by that Pope who had once read them with so much approbation and delight ! As specimens of the doctrines taught by the Jansenists, and now openly censured by the Pope, we may select a, few PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT XI. 507 from the condemned propositions. One of them is this : " It is useful and necessary at all times, in all places, and for every kind of persons, to stud}^ and know the spirit, piety, and mysteries of the Holy Scriptures." Others of them run thus: "The reading of the Holy Scriptures is for all." — " Sunday ought to be hallowed by Christians by reading books of devotion, and especially the Holy Scriptures." — " To snatch the New Testament from the hands of Chris- tians, or to keep it shut from them by taking away from them the means of understanding it, is to close the mouth of Christ ao-ainst them." Such were the doctrines now con- demned by the head of the Romish Church, as '^ false, scan- dalous, impious, blasphemous, and heretical.''^ Rome never has and never will tolerate the free reading of the Scrip- tures : and this alone is sufficient to annihilate her claims to be a true Church of Jesus Christ — of him who said, " Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eter- nal life ; and they are they which testify of me." Taking prompt advantage of the storm which they had so successfully raised, the Jesuits now resolved on the total destruction of the detested convent of Port Royal. The Archbishop of Paris, De Noailles, reluctantly consented at the royal bidding to give the necessary orders, and in July, 1Y09, the recluses were all driven from their much-loved home — some of them, overwhelmed by a calamity too heavy for their infirm age, dying on the way from the abbey to the places appointed for their abode. In the following year the abbey itself was pillaged of all that was valuable, and its walls were then leveled with the ground. Finally, in the year 17 11, the bodies of those who had been buried there were disinterred, and inhumanly broken to pieces with the most disgusting indecency and brutality, the mangled fragments being hastily heaped together, and hidden from siffht in one common OTave. It is said that the Archbishop Be ISToailles afterward vis- ited the spot, and was so affected at the sad scene of ruin 508 LIVES OF THE POPES. as to exhibit the most violent remorse. As lie looked at the devastated burial-ground, which once had contained the remains of many holy sei^ants and confessors of Christ, the sight seemed to fill him with despair. " 0 !" he cried, *' all these dismantled stones will rise against me in the day of judgment ! 0 ! how shall I bear the vast, the heavy load?" Not without meet retribution do such crimes as those of the Jesuits and Louis XIV. pass away. The monarch who had done his utmost, and too fatally, to subvert and de- stroy all vital religion in France, in both the Roman Cath- ohc and the Protestant Churches; who had signed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and given over the Hu- guenots to persecution ; who had decreed the imprisonment of Madame Guion, the banishment of Quesnel and Fenelon, and the destruction of Port Royal — was destined to reap his reward in the decay of his own power while yet living, and, after his death, in the wild hurricane of the French revolution, in the public execution of his descendants, in the total departure of the scepter from his house, and, may we not say, in the everlasting infamy which darkens the meretricious glory of his name ? And so also were the Jesuits punished ; eventually with condign disgrace, and in some degree almost immediately. *• Scarcely was the triumph of the Jesuits complete," says an enthusiastic admirer of Port Royal, "when, like the thunder of divine indignation, a stroke burst upon them from a distant quarter, which shook their credit to the very foundation. Scarcely had they unjustly destroyed the chil- dren of God to obtain unrivaled influence, when the whole of that influence was blasted by a foreign hand." Complaints had been made for many years by the Do- minican and Franciscan missionaries in China that the sur- prising successes of the Jesuits there in making converts were entirely owing to the tricks and frauds which they employed, and the corruptions with which they adulterated PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT XI. 509 the gospel to make it acceptable to the heathen. The in- fluence of the Jesuits at Rome had hitherto prevented these complaints receiving very serious attention. But now the accusations were preferred by parties too powerful to be disregarded, and a mass of evidence was produced which proved that the Jesuits, for the sake of increasing their own credit and power, had winked at many superstitions and heathenish customs, and in some cases had openly sanctioned and countenanced the most infamous practices of idolatry. Comoelled to take notice of these charc^es, Clement XI. issued a bull, condemning all such conduct, and forbidding the Chinese converts any longer to practice the idolatrous rites of paying divine honors to their deceased parents, and to their great lawgiver Confucius. The authority of the Pope was of course too insignificant in China to alter the course pursued by the Jesuits, and the Romish congregations there continued to be nothing better than a mere caricature of Christian Churches ; but in Europe the power of the order was greatly diminished by this terrible exposure of their deceits, and they sank forever in the estimation of all honest and enlio-htened men. O Clement XI. died in 1 721. He had acquired the reputa- tion of being a prudent Pope ; for his deportment was sober and well-regulated, his attention to the public rites of religion rigid and constant, and his visits to churches and hospitals unusually frequent. With all this, however, it is impossible to recognize real piety in a Pontiff who seems to have had the fear of man before his eyes much more than the fear of God, and whose behavior was always politic and time-serving rather than truthful and just. 510 LIVES OF THE POPES. CHAPTER X. PONTIFICATES OF INNOCENT XIII., BENEDICT XIII., AND CLEMENT XII. ADVANCES OF DECAY. A. D. 1721-1740. The election of Innocent XIII. gave abundant proof of the dependent state into which the papacy had fallen. Cardinal Paulucci had been first proposed, but the imperial ambassador declared that his master would never acknowl- edge Paulucci as pope, and that Cardinal Conti would be a more acceptable choice. The obsequious conclave thereupon unanimously agreed that Conti should receive the tiara. Innocent's age was already very advanced, and his feeble health prevented his taking an active part in the business of government. He gave audience to but few, and treated even these with the impatience and querulousness of old age, rather than with the dignity befitting a sovei-eign. " The ambassador of Malta," wrote an eye-witness, " will long remember how the Pontiff, after a somewhat impetu- ous entreaty for assistance, gave him his blessing on the spot, and rang the bell for his departure." But if Innocent's age and infirmities incapacitated him for active business, they at least saved him from doing much harm. He did not restore, any more than his predecessor, the nepotism of former days, and his relations, who had hoped great things at his accession, were completely and bitterly disappointed. The emperor, who had so warmly promoted his election, also continued friendly throughout his short and uneventful reign, which closed in 1724. Of Benedict XIIL, who succeeded Innocent, we have also on the whole tolerably favorable accounts. It was happy for him that he had fallen on quiet times, with little either to stimulate or provoke him. The great conflicts of the eighteenth century, social and religious, had not yet com- INNOCENT XIII., BENEDICT XIH., AND CLEMENT XII. 511 menced. Except in Germany and England, there was little activity of mind, or, at all events, little freedom of discus- sion. Central Italy also was beginning to turn her attention to trade and commerce, and the records of Benedict's pon- tificate are mostly occupied with describing the decline of Venetian prosperity, and the efforts of the papal govern- ment to estabhsh a productive commerce at home. In this direction, however, no great amount of success was possible for such a people as the Romans. The consti- tution of the papal States, the incurable abuses which pre- vailed, the listless habits of the aristocracy — in a word, the demoralized condition of Roman society, tended powerfully to repress the activities of commerce. The popes might, and did, build sea-port towns, like St. Michael and Ripa, in the hope of attracting a lucrative trade ; but what trade of im- portance could ever be carried on by a people who found pleasure in a life of mere enjoyment, without any other object of desire than the luxury of doing nothing ? For his own part, the Pope set a better example, but to little or no purpose. Benedict was simple in his habits, living almost as frugally as a hermit in his cell ; he disliked the pomp and magnificence which former pontifl:s had ostentatiously paraded before the world, and he endeavored to correct the morals of the clergy by calling an express council in the church of the Lateran. It is even said that he meditated a grand scheme for uniting together all the communities which called themselves Christian — the Ro- mish, Greek, Lutheran, and Calvinist. But his very enter- tainment of such a thought suggests to us that Benedict's mind was enfeebled by the natural imbecilities of age. He died, eighty-two years old, in 1730. Clement XII., like his predecessor, was old and infirm at the time of his election, and neither the political nor the ecclesiastical events of his reign possess much interest for the modern reader. So entirely had the papacy been robbed of that influence, once so predominant in the councils 512 LIVES OF THE POPES. of Europe, that it now had less weight among them than many a third-rate power. A petty struggle with the em- peror for the duchies of Parma and Placentia, in which the latter imposed compliance rather than obtained a victory, and an offer to mediate between the little republic of Genoa and the Corsicans, were the most important occurrences which marked the popedom of Clement. Such were now the might- iest efforts of the once universally-feared Roman pontiff ! Unpleasant embarrassments were also beginning to be felt from a deficiency of revenue. Clement tried, as former pontiffs had done, the expedient of state-lotteries, but the only result was to precipitate the pubhc ruin. The im- morality of these measures seemed to infect the whole ad- ministration. All the officers of government displayed an incurable corruptness. Breaches of trust and general dis- honesty were the order of the day. The papal expenditure far exceeded its income, and with no prospect of being in- creased ; for not only had the emperor succeeded in wrest- ing from the Pontiff some of his fairest and richest domains, but even Portugal and Spain, always hitherto devotedly faithful to Rome, now ventured to suspend their annual tribute, and discovered an evident inclination still further to follow the example of Austria and France, in withdrawing from the Pope the patronage of all benefices, and vesting them in their own sovereigns. Clement XII. died early in 1Y40, and the year was nearly closed before a successor was chosen. On the one hand, the conclave were alive to the urgent necessity of electing a man whose energy and abihty should do some- thing toward retrieving the state of affairs ; on the other hand, they were too sensible of their own weakness to risk giving offense to the neighboring courts. At length they fixed on a man who was at least unlikely to be offensive, as he had never in his life been engaged in diplomatic affairs either as ambassador or nuncio. This was Prospero Lam- bertini, a native of Bologna. PONTIFICATE OF BE^ EDICT XIV. 613 CHAPTER XI. PONTIFICATE OF BENEDICT XIV. PAPAL CONCESSIONS THE JESUITS THREATENED. A. D. 1740-1758. Benedict XIV. had spent his whole life in the study of canon law, and in discharging those offices of the Roman court in which his studies fitted him to be employed. He was of a frank, open disposition, and would never, we are told, " practice any of those arts which are called Roman- esque," in which Clement XI. had so greatly excelled. This candor and sincerity still attended him as Pope, and, united with a cheerful temper, made him more an object of love than reverence. He was apt at conversation, and indulged the habit of seasoning his discourse with witty jests. Often, even after he became Pope, would he rise from his occupa- tion when some merry fancy had occurred to him, and whispering it in his broad Bolognese dialect to such mem- bers of the court as were in attendance, return to his desk enjoying the mirth his facetiousness had caused. So thoroughly laborious and studious, however, was the new Pontiff, that he had little occasion for counselors, and those whom he most employed were such as were well qualified to execute his behests, and to attend to the details of plans which he himself had sketched out. " With a bold and comprehensive glance," says Ranke, " he made himself master of the relations in which the papal see was placed to the powers of Europe, discerning clearly what it was possible to retain, and what must be abandoned." And no sooner was he seated on the throne than he found occasion to employ this useful faculty. It was doubtless well for the safety of the Roman court that it now pos- sessed a head that understood the peculiarity of the times. Benedict's whole genius was engrossed throughout his pon- tificate in making such timely and appropriate concessions 22* 514 LIVES OF THE POPES. as would stave off the perils which threatened entire de- struction to the papacy. The first step taken in this direction was a measure for conciliating the king of Sardinia. The right of appointing to certain abbeys and other benefices had long been a dis- puted point between the popes and the house of Savoy. Benedict at once conceded the whole, and by thus grace- fully submitting to a considerable loss of revenue and power, secured the good-will of the Sardinian monarch. So also to the king of Portugal he granted a large extension of the right of patronage, and even in Naples he consented to re- strictions on the papal prerogative, and suffered the clergy to be included in the public taxation. When complaints reached him from Austria that the multitude of holidays interfered with the industry of the people, Benedict not only permitted a reduction of the number, but did not inter- fere when the emperor proceeded so far as to exact labor on those days even from persons who were themselves dis- posed to abide by the custom of the Church and the teach- ing of the priests. Sometimes, also, the Pontiff contrived yet more skillfully to pluck the flower from the nettle, by making his conces- sions in the form of a bargain. When the king of Spain demanded the right of appointing to all benefices in his dominions, Benedict assented with a small reservation, on condition of receiving an annual payment from the Spanish treasury equal to the sum formerly paid by the clergy. If we were not accustomed by this time to the spectacle of a pontiff basely bartering away his pretended spiritual supremacy for gold ; if we did not know that the claim itself is but a mere pretense, and that many of the pontiffs themselves have only cared for it as a source of worldly advantage, we might be struck with horror at this transac- tion. Horrible and detestable it would be were the claim a just one. As it is, however, we do not affect horror at the conduct of Benedict. Regarding him as a successor to a PONTIFICATE OF liENEDICT XIV. 515 mighty usurpation, which had for ages haughtily maintained its claim to certain temporal prerogatives in all the earth, Tve rather admire the wise sagacity which discovered that the time for such demands had wholly passed away, and the conciliatory moderation which distinguished Benedict above so many of his predecessors. By these large concessions the revenue of the papal State was of course considerably reduced. Yet so skillfully did Benedict economize his resources, that he not only silenced all murmuring on this score, but entitled himself to a place among the most munificent patrons of art and science, the most generous benefactors and embellishers of modem Rome. He repaired churches, constructed fountains, dug out antiquities, and engaged himself generally in works cal- culated to improve and enrich the people. By steadfastly pursuing this disinterested course to the end of life, and do- ing nothing to aggrandize his own family, he secured peace and plenty throughout his pontificate, and his reign was long remembered as the last period of unalloyed happiness which the country had enjoyed. This tranquillity of the papal States was not, however, the common lot of the Roman Catholic Church. S)^mptoms were manifesting themselves throughout Europe of some great approaching convulsion. The struggle between the Jansenists and the Jesuits had now assumed a much wider form than in days of old. The cause of the oppressed Jansenists was everywhere espoused by the learned, who revered the authority of Augustine ; and it soon likewise became the cause of the orders, whose jealousy of the Jes- uits daily increased ; while in France it was adopted by the parliaments, which regarded every act of the Pope's as an infringement of Galilean rights. In every country, therefore, the Jansenists stood forth as the advocates of liberty, whether religious or political ; while the Jesuits were justly considered the main bulwark of despotism both in Church and State. At the same time 516 LIVES OF THE POPES. the skeptical philosophy of the eighteenth century, which opposed itself to all revealed religion, but most of all to any that was dogmatically and violently imposed, was beginning to exert its powerful and fatal influence. Voltaire, the great apostle of that deistical philosophy, had already been twice imprisoned in the Bastile for the freedom with which he dared to satirize the despotic measures of Louis XV. and his Jesuit advisers. And although there was nothing in com- mon between this party and the Jansenists but the antipathy they both felt to the Jesuits, yet this alone was strong enough to induce them to unite their forces in one desper- ate assault on that proud, powerful and dangerous order. As it was in Portugal that the Jesuits had attained their first success, and had longest held their absolute dominion alike over the government and the confessional ; so was it arranged in the providence of God that Portugal should first of all witness their humiliation and fall. The sovereign of that country, Joseph I., had chosen for his prime minis- ter the marquis de Pombal, a statesman of great energy and heroical darino^ and who had learned from his vouth to detest the machinations of the Jesuits. So early as 1751 Pombal had issued a decree, restraining and limiting the action of the Inquisition, and had thereby drawn upon him- self the wrath of the whole order by which the office of the Inquisition was exclusively conducted. In revenge for this interference of Pombal's, the Jesuits set themselves to oppose every measure of his administration. When, for instance, he created a wine-company for the purpose of increasing the production of that staple article of Portu- guese trade, the Jesuits, themselves extensive wine-mer- chants, raised an insurrection of the people, declaring, among other things, that the wines of the new company were not fit for the celebration of the mass. And when the terrible earthquake of Lisbon took place in 1756, they openly ascribed it to the wrath of God at the impiety of Pombal and his supporters. PONTIFICATE OF BENEDICT XIV. 6l7 But the greatest provocation given by the Portuguese Jesuits was their daring to carry on a rebellious war against their own monarch in the missions of Paraguay. There they designed to establish a government of their own, so that they might continue without interruption or control their lucrative commerce with the natives. They had already laid the foundation of such a government by leaguing together more than thirty towns, containing a pop- ulation of one hundred thousand souls. And now, with these important resources, they ventured to dispute the will of their lawful sovereign, and waged war with Portugal from the year 1754 to 1757. Entreaties and threatenings proving of no avail, and wea- ried out at last with these daring acts of treason and revolt ; perceiving, moreover, that the root of the mischief was the practice so long and so successfully used by the Jesuits, of trading wherever they pretended to convert, Pombal re- solved on making an appeal to the Pope against the entire order, while he himself struck a yet more decisive blow against them at home. Both these designs were forthwith accomplished, for at Lisbon he banished the king's confessor, who was a Jesuit, giving directions that no Jesuit should thenceforth approach the court without 'express permission, and at Rome he made strong representations and complaints of the crimes committed by the order in Paraguay, and of the factious intrigues with which they disturbed the peace and prosperity of Portugal. Benedict XIV. was by no means attached to the Jesuits ; indeed, he has been accused of Jansenist predilections. He had already enacted bulls against the devotion to worldly pursuits, and particularly to trade, displayed by the mis- sionaries of the Roman Church ; and in one of them had specified the Jesuits by name, forbidding them *' to make slaves of the Indians, to sell them, barter or give them away, to separate them from their wives and children, to rob them of their property, or transport them from their 518 LIVES OF THE POPES. native soil." He now repeated these prohibitions, and ap- pointed Cardinal Saldanha, the Patriarch of Lisbon, to make a thorough investigation into the state of the order in Por- tugal. This was the last public act of Benedict XIV., who died in May, 1758 ; and the cardinals, now fully awakened to the perils that threatened the papacy, observing how the tone of foreign courts grew daily more and more dicta- torial, and alarmed at the concessions made by the late pon- tiff, elected as his successor Carlo Rezzonico, a man of en- tirely opposite character and contrary opinions. But this change in their policy had now come too late. CHAPTER Xn. PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT XIII. JESUITS EXPELLED FROM PORTUGAL, FRANCE, AND SPAIN. A. D. 1758-1769. Clement XIII. was a Venetian by birth, and although des- titute of talent, had gained a high reputation at Rome by his attention to the rites of religious worship. He prayed much, and with apparent fervor ; he was very zealous for the prosperity of the Romish Church ; he sought the char- acter of a saint, and his higlfest ambition was to obtain the glory of canonization. On his accession to the papal throne, Clement resolved that, far from the ignoble concessions of his predecessors, he would surrender none, not even the meanest of his pre- rogatives. He flattered himself that by earnest persever- ance, those which had been so weakly sacrificed might yet be regained, and the diminished splendor of Rome be raised to its ancient lustre. This was the task he set himself to ac- complish, but neither his own genius nor the circumstances of the age permitted Clement XIII. to realize his hopes. With the dislike which Benedict XIV. had discovered to PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT XIII. 519 the Jesuits, Clement XIII. had no manner of sympathy. He regarded them, on the contrary, as the principal sup- porters and most faithful servants of the holy see. He neither saw the necessity for reforming the order, nor would he ever listen to suggestions on the subject. And in all these feelings and views he was strongly seconded by the majority of the cardinals then resident at Rome. Entertaining such decided opinions and resolves, the dis- may of the Pontiff may be imagined when, in April 1759, he received a communication from Portugal expressing the resolution of the king to expel the Jesuits from his domin- ions. The charges brought against them, however, were of too serious a character, and too well supported by evidence, to be treated with levity, or rebutted with contempt. The marquis of Pombal's reforms had long ago excited the resentment of the nobles, and the restraints he had im- posed on the Jesuits had led them to sympathize in the hostility of the order. To humble, and if possible to de- stroy the oflfensive minister, they determined on aiming a blow at the sovereign himself. In the autumn of 1758, therefore, as the king was returning home in his carriage at a late hour of the night, he was assailed by armed assas- sins, and shots were fired, which pierced his person in sev- eral places. On full investigation, this crime was traced to the heads of several noble families, and the Jesuits were also discovered to be among their abettors and instigators. Upon the guilty nobles the law was allowed to take its proper course, and they were executed with all the fright- ful cruelties of those times. But, respecting the Jesuits, it was needful to be more cautious, and out of deference to the Pope, a memorial was first of all forwarded to Rome, setting forth again their numerous crimes both in Portugal and America, and asking the Pontiff's consent to the de- struction of an order whose " dangerous excesses, immod- erate licenses, and infamous outrages, fill all Europe with scandal and disgrust." 520 UVES OF THE POPES. Quite at a loss how to proceed, Clement XIII. delayed his answer for several months, and then reluctantly signi- fied his consent to the king's judicially trying all the eccle- siastics implicated in the above conspiracy, but begged him, at the same time, to use all moderation and mercy ; above all, " to avoid shedding the blood of those devoted to the service of God." But so much lenity appeared to the Portuguese minister exceedingly ill-timed, and not at all consistent with the safety of the State. He therefore resolved on the execu- tion of the malefactor-priests, and on the condign punish- ment of the whole order. Malagrida, the chief Jesuit con- spirator, was strangled and burned in a solemn auto-da-fe, and a decree was issued for the immediate expulsion of the order from all the Portuguese dominions. In a few days the vessels, both of the royal and merchant navy, were filled with these priests, and conveyed them to the coast of Italy. While Europe stood astonished at the boldness of this deed, there were other monarchs almost prepared to follow the example of Joseph I., for in every kingdom the Jesuits were suspected and hated by a large proportion of the peo- ple. In France especially, that dislike to all religions which was daily becoming more apparent, directed itself most intensely and most justly against the Jesuits, as the inveterate oppressors of both the intellects and the hearts of men. The turn of the French Jesuits came next ; and, much to the chagrin of Pope Clement, without long delay. Louis XV., the weak and licentious king of France, was governed with almost absolute authority by his mistress, Madame de Pompadour, and his favorite, the duke de Choi- seul. Both of these cherished a vehement detestation of the Jesuits ; the former, because the king's confessor, with singular severity in a Jesuit, had refused him the sacrament unless he would dismiss his mistress ; and the latter, be- cause he feared the political effects which the intriguing PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT XIII. 521 habits of the order might produce. But Louis himself was too superstitious, and too much inchiied to pay hom- age to the priesthood, (as a sort of compensation to his conscience for the debaucheries he committed,) to have ever consented to the expulsion of the Jesuits, if his favorites had not found means to work upon his /ears. They represented to him, for this purpose, that the par- liaments of the nation generally were exasperated against the Jesuits. Nor was the statement unfounded in truth. Disclosures had lately been made of the trading specula- tions carried on by the order, which had led to the trial of father Lavalette, the banking-priest of Martinique, and to the exposure of the whole Jesuit system. A topic so ex- citing instantly became the engrossing topic of conversation in every circle. Pamphlets on both sides poured forth from the press. ** Nothing," says St. Priest, "was talked of but probabilism, surrenders of conscience, obsolete max- ims, and mental reservation." De Choiseul and Pompadour earnestly warned the king to beware of a new Fronde. The people were provoked, they said, and it would be nec- essary either to silence them forcibly by aboHshing the par- liaments, or to satisfy them by suppressing the Jesuits. The former was too dangerous an experiment, however tempting to the despotic disposition of a Bourbon, and the latter course was therefore adopted. Still anxious in no way to irritate the Pope, Louis first of all proposed to Lorenzo Ricci, general of the order, that a vicar should be appointed to reside in France, a deputy of the general himself, and whose residence within the king- dom would render him, in some degree, amenable to the national government. To this mild and reasonable propo- sal, the general bluntly replied, " Sint ut sunt, aut non sint,^' — " Let them be as they are, or not be any longer." Application was next made to the Pope, but his character- istic answer was, that " he could not venture to chanare a constitution which had been distinctly approved by the holy 522 LIVES OF THE POPES. Council of Trent." The ultimate result of all this obstinacy was, of course, the downfall of the Jesuits. In IV 64 the entire order was expelled from all the soil of France. In Spain the humiliations and chastisements of the order, as if in retribution for their former cruelties to the Protest- ants of that country, were even more painful and degrading than elsewhere. Here they had been maintained in all honor up to the very moment of their fall. The stroke came upon them like a clap of thunder. Charles III. had detected their conspiracies, which had led to an insurrec- tion in Madrid ; and having silently and secretly, for a whole year, prepared his revenge, poured it out in one day on all the Jesuits in his dominions. He only reproached himself, he said, for having been too lenient to so dangerous a body; and then, drawing a deep sigh, he added, " I have learned to know them too well." On the Vth of April, 1767, on the same day and at the same hour, in Spain, in the north and south of Africa, in Asia and America, the alcaids of all towns opened the dis- patches which they had received from Madrid. These dis- patches ordered them, on pain of death, within twenty-four hours to enter all the establishments of the Jesuits, to take possession of their property, and send them away to the places specified, giving to each man only a breviary, a purse, and some apparel. Nearly six thousand priests, of all ages and conditions, including many who were old and infirm, were stowed away in the holds of the ships, and so were sent adrift on the ocean. Sent adrift — for at the command of the stern General Ricci, Italy rejected them ; they were repulsed from Civita Vecchia, Leghorn, and Genoa ; and after six months' wandering on the high seas, worn out with fatigue, and decimated by the scythe of death, between three and four thousand found a wretched asylum on the barren island of Corsica. So secretly had their expulsion been managed, that no notice of it was given even to the Pope, who, when he re- PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT XIII. 623 ceived the news, was violently agitated, and shed a torrent of tears. But the power of the papacy had sunk too low to allow of any effectual resistance to the will of France and Spain ; and had the humiliation of the Church termi- nated here, Clement XIII. would doubtless have submitted in silence. But when Naples, and even the insignificant duchy of Parma, dared to follow the example which had been set them, his wrath could not be restrained. He in- stantly issued a bull, declaring the style and title of the duke of Parma to be forfeited and extinct forever. Little did the unhappy Clement dream of the storm he was bringing upon his own head. He seems to have quite overlooked the connection of the duke of Parma with both the French and Spanish houses. The cause of the latter was immediately espoused by both these courts, and their troops proceeded forthwith to occupy Avignon, Benevento, and Pontecorvo ; and they demanded, in explicit terms, no less than the total abolition of the Society of the Jesuits, and the secularization of its members. This sudden and unexpected blow was too much for the Pontiff to bear. On receiving it, his fortitude was quite overcome ; he seemed stupefied, and remained altogether speechless. Nor did he ever recover from the shock. A slight cold still further weakened him, and in a few days Clement XIII. was numbered with the dead. He was a pope, as St. Priest well says, who belonged rather to the twelfth century, and who was lost and bewildered in the eighteenth. He struggled, uselessly enough, with the mighty tide of events. He did his utmost to retard the inevitable decline of the papal power, but not understand- ing that it ?^as inevitable, his measures rather hastened than delayed it. 524 LIVES OF THE POPES. CHAPTER XIII. PONTIFICATE OF CLEMENT XIV. FALL OF THE JESUITS. A. D. 1769-1774. The menacing attitude of the European courts was now more than ever alarming to the conclave ; and they were exceedingly anxious that the Pontiff elected should be one who, by his amenity, would be likely to preserve what was yet left to the popedom, rather than by his obstinacy pro- voke its total destruction. They had learned at length that the policy of Benedict XIV. was more suitable to the times than that of Clement XIII. They chose, therefore, the amiable Lorenzo Ganganelli. Clement XIV., as Ganganelli determined to be styled, was of very humble origin ; some say the son of a country surgeon, others of a laborer. In early life he had entered a monastery of the Franciscan order, and there devoted himself most sedulously to every department of learning. Few pontiffs have embraced so wide a scope in their stud- ies as did Ganganelli, or so equally disciphned every faculty of the mind. With this he also associated a disposition so gentle and mild that one of his masters said of him, while yet a youth, " that it was no wonder if he loved music, seeing that everything in his own character was harmony." Yet Ganganelli was not devoid of ambition. He had from his boyhood a presentiment that he was destined to a high station, and delighted to speak often of Sixtus V., who had risen from keeping swine in the Sabine fields to a pon- tifical and regal chair. Indeed, it has been said, " That no one ever bore the stamp of Sixtus V. so strongly impressed upon his character as GanganelH." Nor was he wholly free from that habit of dissimulation which seems indigenous or endemic in Rome. When Clem- ent XIII. gave Ganganelli the cardinal's hat, he threw him- FALL OF THE JESUITS. 525 self at the Pontiff's feet, beseeching him to bestow it on one more worthy ; yet so much did he in his heart exult in his rapid accumulation of honors, that when he became Pontiff he could not refrain from pointing out a stone on which he had once stood near the porch of the Vatican, to see the cortege of his predecessor pass by, and exclaiming, " See ! from that stone I was driven ten years ago." The new Pontiff's first care was to propitiate the hostile courts. It has, indeed, been said that the piice of his elec- tion was an implied promise to the court of Spain that he would abolish the order of Jesuits. At all events, he ven- tured on a step hitherto unprecedented in the annals of the popedom — the suppression of a bull. He ordered that the bull In Coena Domini, always pre^^ously read with great ceremony before the congregations once every year on the Thursday of Holy Week, should be read no more. Great was the astonishment of Rome at so daring a measure, but Ganganelli well knew that he was only treading the path marked out for him by the spirit of the age, and in which the sovereigns of Portugal and Spain had already trodden before him. This bull. In Coena Domini, originally promulgated by Pius Y., is one of those arrogant assertions of absolute su- premacy by which the pontijQfs in other days were wont to overawe the minds of rebelhous kings. It pronounces sen- tence of excommunication on all bishops, magistrates, and others, who shall venture to propose a future council ; and denounces awful anathemas upon all kings and their officers who should dare to compel the clergy to pay tribute to the State ; and, in general, upon all who offer any opposition to the discipline ordained by the Council of Trent. So offensive was the bull to even Roman Catholic monarchs, that the reading of it had been forbidden by most of the sovereigns of Europe so early as the year 1*767. It was with more deliberation and caution that Clement advanced to his greatest achievement, the suppression of 526 LIVES OF THE POPES. the order of Jesuits. Not indeed that he entertained a par- ticle of attachment toward them. None knew better than he the villany of their practices, or the true desert of their crimes. But he had doubts, natural enough to a Roman Catholic, of the propriety of acting so directly in defiance of all former popes. Still more he seems to have feared to reverse the decrees of a council ; and as the Jesuits loudly boasted that their order was specially approved and sanc- tioned by the Council of Trent, Clement gave directions for that matter to be thoroughly investigated. Most of all, however, the Pope dreaded the secret in- triofues and machinations of those subtile, darinof, and evil- minded men ; for they did not hesitate to whisper atrocious threats, which reached his ears, and evidently wrought upon his mind the effect they wished. His natural gayety of disposition disappeared, his health declined, he wore an anxious countenance, lived more retired than ever, and would only be served at table by old Francesco, a monk who had been his attendant in his early days. The picture given by St. Priest of Clement's character at this time is evidently drawn by an unfriendly hand. It represents him as timid to cowardice, making perpetual and even mean excuses to the sovereigns of Europe for so long delaying the measure which they expected at his hands, and as acting in a manner altogether unworthy of the high reputation he has acquired. But no one who carefully reads the letters of Ganganelli, believing them to be au- thentic, (which there is no reason whatever to doubt,) can admit that this is a fair account of Clement's beha\dor. Undoubtedly he was cautious and timid, but he was not too timid to take a step eventually which he might have avoided if he had pleased, and his extreme caution was largely the result of a conscientious desire to do nothing contrary to his view of the duties and responsibilities of his office. It would appear that Clement hesitated between a desire FALL OF THE JESUITS. 62^ to reform the Jesuit order, and a secret conviction that re- form was impossible, and that to restore peace to the Church and the world it was necessary to abolish it altogether. It is certain that he greatly feared the consequences of this latter step, and would willingly have deferred it at least until the death of its general, Lorenzo Ricci. Tormented by apprehensions of unknown danger on the one hand, and teased on the other by incessant complaints from the courts of France and Spain, he lost all peace of mind, and regret- ted the day which had advanced him to the papal chair. Quite unlike Sixtus V., his favorite pattern, in the contex- ture of his mind, Ganganelli, with all his excellences, was unfitted to steer the vessel of the papacy through the tem- pestuous seas on which she was now thrown. " Alas !" exclaimed he one day to Cardinal Bernis, " I was not born to occupy a throne. Pardon a poor monk the faults which he has contracted in solitude. I believe it to be impossible for a monk to throw oflf entirely the spirit that attaches to the cowl." In spite of the esteem in which Clement was personally and deservedly held, his situation in relation to the great business for which he had been elevated to the tiara became worse and worse. Proofs were not wanting, mdeed, of the respect felt for his character. Portugal consented on this ground alone to receive a nuncio from Rome ; and when the prelate Conti appeared at Lisbon he was received in the Tagus by the royal galley, manned by seventy rowers in splendid dresses, amid the shouts of multitudes who Hned the banks of the river. But respect shown to the individual was a poor compensation for contempt thrown on the dig- nity he held ; and the honors paid to Conti were more than counterbalanced in the eyes of the Romans by the degra- dation they felt when the king of Naples gave orders to remove all the rare and invaluable statues which for more than a century had adorned the Farnese palace, and the duke of Tuscany, following the example, stripped the Villa 528 LIVES OF THE POPES. de' Medici of its most precious relics of ancient art, and con- veyed them to Florence. The Pope fell into disgrace with his own subjects, and all his moderation as a ruler, and his self-denial as a prince, could not save him from the raillery of the fickle populace. The Jesuits also took advantage of his temporizing policy, and determined so to work on his fears as to prevent his taking any step even toward reforming their order. They spread reports that France and Spain no longer desired their destruction, and that Austria would certainly revenge it. They raised up a prophetess, a peasant girl of Valen- tano, who predicted the rapid approach of the Pontiff's death. Although Clement might have despised the proph- ecy, he knew too well that they who conceived and pub- lished it would have little scruple to effect its fulfillment. Meantime, the courts of Charles III. and Louis XV. grew impatient at the long delay of the Pontiff in executing their wishes ; and Charles sent an ambassador to Rome of spe- cial qualifications for the task to which he was deputed, of terrifying Clement into compliance. This envoy, Florida Blanca, had already discovered great zeal in suppressing the Jesuits, and when the latter heard that he had arrived in Rome they justly guessed at the nature of his errand, and felt that a serious blow was impending. Clement him- self was alarmed at his coming, for he dreaded being hur- ried into a step which he might afterward deplore as pre- cipitate. Introduced to the presence of the Pope, Florida Blanca laid before him a plan for the total abolition of the Jesuits, accompanying it with dark hints of the measures which Spain would adopt unless her requests were compHed with. Clement felt that he could not, like his predecessors, be peremptory in his refusal. He merely entreated that the king would wait until the death of father Ricci, the general of the order. " No, holy father," replied the envoy, "it is by extracting the tooth that the pain is stopped. I conjure FALL OF THE JESUITS, 629 your holiness to beware lest the king, my master, should come to approve the project already adopted by more than one court, of suppressing all religious orders whatsover." "Ah!" rejoined Clement, "I have long seen that this was the object at which they were aiming ; but they are seeking still more — the ruin of the Catholic Church. Schism, and even heresy, perhaps, are in the secret thought of the sover- eigns." But when Blanca supported his arguments by suggesting a mercenary motive, and promised the Pope that if he would consent Avignon and Benevento should be im- mediately restored, Clement's virtuous indignation was aroused, and he replied with courage : " Remember that a Pope governs the Church, but does not traffic in his au- thority." How rare an instance, the reader of these mem- oirs will perhaps exclaim, of pontifical virtue ! Delay was no longer possible. The inevitable hour had come ; and Clement, having resolved on the step, was now only solicitous to take it in such a manner as to avert the dreadful consequences he feared — popular tumult and insurrection, and plots against his own life. He wished, he said, to announce the thunder-bolt by some flashes of light- ning. He therefore caused actions at law to be laid aofainst the society — a measure hitherto without example — by which their debts, their bad administration of schools, and their other offenses were unmasked to public view ; and the citizens of Rome were amazed to find that the revered and immaculate Jesuits were among the most selfish and im- moral of men. Having thus prepared the public mind, Clement advanced to the great and painful duty of decreeing the abolition of the order. On the 21st of July, 1773, the brief, Dominus ac Redemptor, made its appearance. " Inspired, as we trust," runs the document, " by the Divine Spirit ; impelled by the duty of restoring concord to the Church ; convinced that the Society of Jesus can no longer effect the purposes for which it was founded ; and moved by other reasons of 23 530 LIVES OF THE POPES. prudence and State policy, which we retain concealed in our own hearts, we do extirpate and abolish the Society of Jesus, its offices, houses, and institutions." Ricci, the general, was conducted to prison, stripped of all marks of his dig- nity, and clad as a simple monk. The houses of the order were occupied by armed soldiers, and seals put upon all their effects ; the schools, churches, and confessionals, hith- erto supplied by Jesuits, were placed under the care of Capuchins. In a few days the dissolution was complete. Contrary to the apprehensions of Clement, all this was accomplished without tumult or resistance. Even in Rome the measure seemed to be popular. In truth the world had been too long expecting it to be taken by surprise, and the crimes of the Jesuits had been too thoroughly exposed for their fall to excite much compassion. Clement was de- lighted at his success, and his deportment resumed the air of cheerfulness which was natural to him. He indulged his taste for the fine arts, made researches in the suburbs of Rome, the bed of the Tiber, and the Campagna, and so collected those master-pieces of art which have since re- ceived the name of the Pio-Clementine Museum. His pri- vate life was always simple to abstemiousness, and so far he was not in esteem with the Roman nobles ; but his kind, polite, and sometimes jocular afifability, won upon all hearts, and, united with his unquestionable morality and apparent piety, gave him much favor even in the eyes of 'Protestants. But woe to the man, be he peasant or prince, priest or pontiflf, who dares to affi'ont the Jesuits ! In less than a year after the abolition of the order, Clement, the heathful, strong, and comparatively youthful Pontiff, was suddenly seized with a most mysterious disease. On rising one day from table, he felt an internal shock, followed by great cold. From that hour his strength declined; his voice, which had been full and sonorous, was quite lost in a singular hoarseness ; an inflammation in his throat compelled him to keep his mouth constantly open ; vomitings, and feebleness FALL OF THE JESUITS. 531 in his limbs, rendered him unable to take his usual exercise, and his sleep was incessantly broken by sharp pains. With this melancholy change in his health came a strange, but not unnatural alteration in his character. He grew restless, capricious, and passionate. Poniards and poisons were continually before his eyes. His sleep was disturbed by horrible phantoms. He thought that the judgments of God were upon him ; and amid sobbings which choked his utterance he would cry, " Mercy ! mercy ! I have been compelled !" For six months this torture continued ; then, for a moment, his intellect became clear and unclouded as ever, and, although conscious that he perished the victim of Jesuit malignity, he peacefully and calmly expired, Septem- ber 22, 1774. No doubt whatever exists, notwithstanding the denials of the Jesuits, that Clement XIV. was poisoned. His most intimate friend Bernis, as well as Scipio Ricci, a rela- tion of the Jesuit general, testified that the symptoms which preceded his death, and the appearance of the body after- ward, (much too disgusting for description here,) gave in- dubitable evidence of the presence of one of those slow poisons so often mentioned in the annals of Italian crime. The piety of Clement had too monkish a complexion to appear thoroughly healthful, yet there is good reason for hoping that it was real. His attachment to the word of God was so ardent and devout, that, all Romanist and Pope as he was, he could say, " The Gospels contain the religion of Christ, and are so plain that the meanest capacity can comprehend them." In counseling a friend respecting his reading, he observes : " The first book which I put at the head of your library is the gospel. It is right that a work which forms the principle and basis of religion should be the basis of your reading." Speaking of saint- veneration, he elsewhere says, " Suflfer not the piety of the faithful to be nourished by false legends, and kept up by trifling cere- monies. But take care that they recur continually to Jesus 532 LIVES OF THE POPES. Christ, as to our only Mediator, and only to honor the saints as belonging to him." — Letters of Pope Clement XIV. passim. How strangely do sentiments like these sound in our ears as coming from the lips of a pope ! If, however, on the one hand, it is gratifying to know that divine grace can surmount the disadvantages of even a Romanist education, it is no less instructive, on the other, to mark the sad fate of Clement XIV., to observe the violent tempest which arose as soon as he was called to assume the helm of the papacy, and to note the conflict in his own mind between educational prejudices and Scriptural convictions. CHAPTER XIV. PONTIFICATE OF PIUS VI. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AT ROME, AND THE POPE IN BONDS. A. D. 1774-1799. In the eyes of the Romans, the grand fault of Clement XIV. had been his dislike of all pomp and parade. He was not sufficiently a prince to gratify their pride. They were therefore resolved that his successor should make amends for this defect. Nevertheless, it was a hundred and thirty-eight days before they came to a decision ; for it was requisite that the object of their choice should be acceptable to the foreign courts. By the support of France and Spain, Cardinal Braschi was the successful candidate ; and even in his mode of accepting the honor, he discovered tli« predominant feature of his character. We need not ascribe it to simplicity or to a strange presentiment of the calamities that were to befall him, that he threw himself oa his knees before the whole conclave, as soon as his name was pronounced, and with tearful eyes exclaimed, " Vener- able fathers, your assembly is at an end, but how unhappy for me is the result !" THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AT ROME. 533 Pius VI. commenced his reign under the brightest auspices then possible to a pontiff. Rome was filled with rejoicings, for the new pope was precisely a man after the hearts of the people. In dignity of deportment, in mag- nificent profusion of hospitality, in majestic conceptions of his own importance as head of the Catholic Church, he presented a strong contrast to his simple-minded prede- cessor. "This," said the excitable Romans, "is truly the pontiff king ! How nobly does he assume the two-fold character !" Pius was of lofty stature ; the expression of his face was august, yet pleasant ; not a wrinkle blemished his features, and they were still animated with a slight color ; his forehead was bald, but a few white locks escaped from the tiara to shade his temples and his neck. When the Romans beheld this stately figure advancing to take possession of the Vatican, their admiration burst forth into rapturous shouts. He walked wrapped in a garment of white, spangled with gold, and a golden hammer glittered in his hand. He strikes the sacred door — it falls : a thousand arms are raised to demolish it, and the people rush over its ruins. At length, followed by a long procession, he seats himself upon his throne. In all this he is attended by the shouts of the admiring populace. One exclaims, " How beautiful he is !" Another replies, " Not less holy than he is beautiful." — >S'^. Priest. Untroubled by foreign interference, now that Europe had been appeased by the sacrifice of the Jesuits, Pius VI. spent the first years of his pontificate in executing those projects of magnificence and gi-andeur which have always been so acceptable to the citizens of Rome, and have shed a terres- trial kind of lustre on so many of her rulers. In Pope Pius the spirit of Leo X. seemed to be revived, so intent was he on adding to those rich treasures of ancient and modern art already possessed by Rome. The museum which he had commenced in the Vatican when acting as apostolic treasurer to Pope Clement XIV. he now diligently enlarged. Statues 534 LIVES OF THE POPES. were collected from the ruins of Antium, Prseneste, and the villa of Tibur. " Immense halls opening on to the grand landscape of the Roman Campagna, lined with jasper and paved with mosaics, were raised to receive these treasm-es. The eye loses itself in the perspective of galleries, staircases, and porticoes, which are as rich as they are numerous. The Apollo and the Laocoon, till then thrown aside in an obscure corner, were placed in arched recesses at each end of a vast rotunda, skillfully lighted, and kept constantly cool by the play of fountains. By such improvements, as grandly conceived as they were lavishly executed, did Pius VI. raise the Vatican to a degree of magnificence, which renders the pontifical abode the greatest palace, museum, and temple in the world." Attracted by the brilliancy of the new pontificate, strangers flocked to Rome from all quarters of the world. They came not now, however, on pious pilgrimages, but wholly bent on pleasure. "Among the various motives that drew people from all parts of Europe," says St. Priest, "religion was the only one excluded." But though Pius knew this perfectly well, he was none the less gratified. He caused the papal chapel to be thrown open to Protest- ants during the performance of high-mass, and courteously received the homage which was thus paid him by heretical admirers. Among the numerous and notable visitors at Rome during this period were many of the princes of Europe ; the heir of the Russian empire, the king of Eng- land's brothers, the mother of King Louis Philippe, the sovereigns of Tuscany and Naples, Gustavus III. of Sweden, and the Emperor Joseph II. But the noblest of all this pontiff's achievements was unquestionably his attempt, and partial success, in draining the Pontine Marshes. This district, lying southward of Rome, and bordering on the sea, abounds with poetical asso- ciations, which, one would have thought, must forever have saved it from ruinous neglect. Here stood Laurentum, Ar- THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AT ROME. 635 dens, Lavinium, and Antium ; here were the villas of Rome's proudest and wealthiest nobles in the days of im- perial grandeur ; here, of old, were temples, and mansions, and towns, in the midst of the loveliest scenery that even Italy could supply. Yet Pius found it an arid waste, the only objects breaking the monotony being here and there a few arches of a ruined aqueduct, the shaft of a broken pillar, or the rude hut of the fisherman or charcoal-burner. In the rainy season, moreover, the streams from the mountains converted the whole plain into a vast marsh, whence it de- rived its name. Pius drained a large portion of this region, and made it both capable of tillage and fit for habitation. By the side of a canal he also constructed a road forty miles long, and adorned it with double rows of trees. In Italy, therefore, Pius VI. acquired glory ; but not even he could stay the decline of a decayed institution, and as soon as he commenced intercourse with foreign princes his glory was doomed to an eclipse. His earliest reverse, too, occurred on a side from which it was least expected — from the house of Austria. In 1Y80 Maria Then-esa, the illustrious mother of the em- peror, died, and Joseph II., delivered from her masculine and energetic control, determined on measures which her zealous attachment to Rome had always steadfastly opposed. Joseph had learned from the philosophers of France to de- spise the pretensions of the Romish Church, and although still professing to be a faithful Roman Catholic, he resolved on reforming the abuses of the priesthood within his own dominions, and on compressing within the narrowest limits the prerogatives of the Pope. Had his plans been as care- fully and cautiously carried out as they were liberally and wisely devised, vast benefits must have accrued ; but un- happily the emperor was rash, precipitate, and unbending. Depending, as he manifestly did, on the influence of Maria Theresa for any continuance of his authority in Aus- tria, it might seem certain that Pope Pius would greatly 636 LIVES OF THE POPES. deplore the death of that queen. From whatever cause, however, it is certain that he did not discover grief on the occasion ; and that he not only forbade the performance of a funeral service in the Vatican, (an invariable custom on the death of a Roman Catholic sovereign,) but even pro- hibited the formality of a court-mourning. Behavior so impolitic was sm-e to be noticed at the imperial court, and to widen the breach of sympathy which already existed. ** It matters little to me," said the emperor, " whether the Bishop of Rome is polite or rude." In fact, Joseph rejoiced at it, as he thus appeared to be acting from recent provocation instead of long-meditated intention, when he issued edict after edict, tolerating all kinds of religious worship ; removing all disabilities on ac- count of religion ; permitting mixed marriages ; declaring papal bulls to be of no effect without imperial sanction ; suppressing multitudes of monasteries, so that out of two thousand not more than seven hundred remained ; with many other ordinances of a similar nature. So extensive and thorough a reform was not only calculated to astonish and terrify Rome ; it was evidently too sudden and sweep- ing to be borne, and entitles Joseph II. to the appellation he has received of avant-courrier to the French Revolution. To us, indeed, these decrees appear altogether justifiable and right ; but the vastly different character of those times made them seem to eye-witnesses the result of a rashness bordering on madness. At Rome the conduct of the emperor excited both horror and dismay. Of all the European nations, Austria was the only one that had hitherto continued faithful to the Pope ; and now from this very quarter had come the heaviest blow the popedom had sustained since the days of the Reforma- tion. Earnest and vehement were the remonstrances ad- dressed by the papal nuncio to the emperor. Was the Church to be deprived at a stroke of both her authority and her wealth? Were her revenues from Austria — her THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AT ROME. 537 ecclesiastical dues, her income from dispensations, anathe- mas, indulgences, and reconciliations — to be lost forever? To these questions the emperor gave either the most frigid and repulsive replies, or else preserved an unconquera- ble silence. Hopeless, at length, of moving the emperor by negotia- tions at a distance, Pius VI. resolved on the unexampled step of paying a visit in person to the imperial court. He first ascertained that such a visit would not be displeasing to Joseph ; and then, in spite of the dissuasions of the whole sacred college, he set out for Vienna, indulging the hope that his great powers of persuasion might succeed where the formal soUcitations of dispatches had utterly failed. Popes had not yet lost the esteem of the German people, howsoever they were disparaged and mortified by their princes, and the journey of Pius VI. thus became a contin- uous ovation. The towns through which he passed re- ceived him with a kind of idolatry. Prelates and nobles, and an envoy of the king of Spain, greeted him on the way. At Vienna the enthusiasm of the people rose to an aston- ishing height. They flocked into the metropolis from the most distant provinces, until apprehensions were expressed of a famine, and from twenty to thirty thousand persons thronged the Pope's carriage as he passed along the streets, or crowded the space beneath the windows of his palace, entreating his benediction. The emperor himself, not to seem behind in courtesy, received him with every appear- ance of veneration, and assigned him the apartments in the imperial palace which had lately been occupied by Maria Theresa. Yet, though welcomed with all this excess of homage and outward demonstration of joy, the Pope did not gain a single boon of importance by his visit. He soon learned that the Emperor Joseph was not likely to change his mind, and that papal supremacy was totally banished (at least for 23* 538 LIVES OF THE POPES. the present) beyond the bounds of the empire. Even dur- ing his stay in Vienna, the restrictions on the clergy were increased, and the Pontiff's eyes were saluted, as he trav- ersed the city, by placards on the walls proclaiming the detestable edicts. So little had the courtesy or the eloquence of Pius suc- ceeded in conciliating the emperor, that he soon had the mortification of learning that the spirit of reform had crossed the Alps, and that even in Italy bold measui'es were in progress for circumscribing the papal power. The Bishop of Pistoia, Scipio Ricci, had received instructions from the Duke of Tuscany to commence a searching examination and reform of all convents and benefices throughout the Austro- ItaUan domains. Although the Pontiff and Ricci had once been on the happiest terms of friendship, yet the Jansenist views of the latter, and his firm resolution to check the immoralities of the clergy, at whatever cost of scandal to the holy see, caused the Pope so much irritation that he abused Ricci as a fanatic, a liar, a calumniator, and a fo- menter of sedition against the vicar of Christ. There can be no doubt that Ricci's procedures gave good ground for alarm to the Pope. The immorality of the Itahan clergy was notorious. Not in Tuscany alone, but in Rome itself, their vices were proverbial, and were toler- ated by all. The Pope's most intimate friend, Cardinal Bernis, lived in open and unblushing concubinage ; and the law of celibacy was, as it ever has been, the prolific source of crime. The efforts of Ricci to promote reform were, therefore, sure to excite scandal by bringing hidden sins to light, and, worse than all, by suppressing useless or in- famous convents, to stop the tide of wealth which flowed thence into the papal treasury. Ricci was therefore stig- matized as a heretic, was compelled to resign his bishopric, and might think himself happy that he lived in days when the dungeons of the Inquisition and the horrors of the stake were no longer to be feared. THE FRENCH KE\ OLL'TlON AT ROME. 539 But in the last decade of the eighteenth century every minor event, however interesting, was lost and forgotten in the all-absorbing drama of the French Revolution. It was very evident that the flames of that great conflagration were spreading toward Rome ; and with trembling excitement did the PontiflF watch their gradual approach. He had been forsaken by Austria, but he now justly feared far greater calamities from France. The emperor had at least shown him personal respect ; but from fierce revolutionists, indignant at priestcraft, and from a soldier of fortune like Napoleon, no soothsayer could predict the treatment that the Church and her chieftain might receive. The countries bordering on France — Holland, Belgium, and the upper Rhine-land of Germany — were quickly rev- olutionized, and in each of them the principle of revolution was carried into ecclesiastical affairs. Piece by piece the Church of Rome lost her most valued and cherished pos- sessions. Her day of doom seemed to draw nigh. In 1796, Napoleon crossed the Alps and entered Austrian Italy, and his rapid victories in that region struck terror into the heart of the Pope. Pius prepared to make such feeble resistance as his resources permitted ; but before his troops were half ready, Napoleon was master of Bologna, and another day would have seen him at the very gates of Rome. In swift haste an envoy was dispatched to lay the tiara at the feet of the conqueror ; and Rome was spared at the price of twenty millions of francs and a hundred of her finest works of art. When the victories of Areola and Rivoli had put all Italy in Napoleon's power, even these hard terms w^ere made harder. A French garrison was stationed at Ancona, and within a few months the Apollo Belvidere, the Laocoon, the Transfiguration of Raphael, and the St. Jerome of Domenichino, were placed on the banks of the Seine. Impoverished by the rapacity of the French soldiery at Ancona, who did not scruple to carry off" diamonds and 540 LIVES OF THE POPES. jewels whenever money was not to be found, the Italian nobles prevailed on the Pope, in 1*797, to seek the protec- tion of the Austrian general, Provera. But for this ill-advised step the aged Pontiff paid a heavy penalty. Berthier, the French commander, marched rapidly on Rome ; entering that city, he proclaimed a republican government, and then at the head of his soldiers appeared at the gate of the Vat- ican. The Pope was dragged from the altar at which he was kneeling ; the apartments he occupied were stripped before his eyes, and even the rings which adorned his hands were rudely drawn from his fingers. He bore these indignities with the courage of a really magnanimous mind, and that fully comported with the majesty he had displayed in his more prosperous days. " I am prepared," he ex- claimed, " for every species of disgrace. As supreme Pon- tiff, I am resolved to die in the exercise of all my power. You may employ force, for you can do so ; but though you may be masters of my body, you are not so of my soul." Removed from Rome, Pius VI. remained for a year in a convent near Florence ; from thence he was carried across the Alps in a litter to Briancon in France, and finally to Va- lence, where he died in 1799, in the eighty-second year of his age. We may admire the grandeur of character and pity the calamities of Pius VI., but his slight regard for morality or religion prevents our revering his memory. CHAPTER XV. PONTIFICATE OF PIUS VII. THE PAPACY HUMBLED AND EN- SLAVED, AND RESTORED. A. D. 1799-1823. Low as the popedom had fallen in the pontificate of Pius VI., it was destined to sound a yet lower depth in that of his successor. Pius VI. had at least maintained the dignity of his position throughout his misfortunes ; but under the THE PAPACY. HUMBLED. 541 next pontiff the Romish Church was doomed to become the mere slave of a victorious soldier. Exiled from Rome, the conclave, only thirty -five in number, assembled at Venice, and among them there was none who, by nobility of birth and his influence at foreign courts, appeared so eligible for the doubtful honor as Chiaramonti, who was accordingly chosen. Pius VII. was already experienced in worldly affairs, and had labored with some success to ingratiate himself both with the house of Austria and with the young conqueror, who even then seemed to hold in his hands the destinies of France. His policy amid the conflict of European powers was to contiuue entirely neutral, at least until he should see on which side the scale would fall. Not that he was at all indiff'erent to the result ; his opinions and wishes were in- deed, as we shall presently see, of a very decidedly des- potic complexion. The storm of the French revolution had everywhere beat pitilessly on ecclesiastical institutions, and in France had wholly swept them away. When, therefore, Napoleon began in the year 1800 to aspire to the imperial dignity, and engaged himself in constructing anew the organic forms of society out of the scattered elements around him, he anxiously considered how he might best reconstruct the outward edifice of the Church, which he regarded in the light of a preservative of social order. To use it as an in- strument of government was his only intention ; for at heart he cared for no Church, being simply a deist. " I was a Mohammedan in Egypt," he used to say — " here I will be- come a Catholic for the good of the people. I am no be- liever in particular creeds ; but as to the idea of a God — look to the heavens, and say who made them .^" Guided by such views. Napoleon could not long hesitate what form of religion to adopt. True, much that belonged to popery he utterly despised, and his own preferences in- clined to the Lutheran or the reformed mode of worship. But knowing that almost all the religious sentiment yet ex- 642 LIVES OF THE POPES. isting in France was decidedly popish, he concluded that it was better to adopt a religion which many were at- tached to, and none would seriously oppose, than one which would excite bigoted opposition without conciHa- ting any ardent support. In all this he acted as mere worldly politicians would approve; and if the papacy in consequence obtained a moment's respite from destruction, it was not at all because her authority had revived, but be- cause she was useful as a statesman's tool. Napoleon now made proposals to enter into a concordat with the new Pope, who, by the changeful fortunes of war, was by this time installed in the halls of the Vatican. Pius VII. had before this secretly acknowledged to Louis XVIII. that he regarded him as the legitimate monarch of France. Yet he was not so punctilious in matters of con- science as to permit this to interfere with his now giving a like acknowledgment to Napoleon. His only objections re- ferred to the enormous sacrifices which Bonaparte required from him as head of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the concordat was ratified, and the Roman Catholic religion was once more proclaimed as that of the French nation. Ten archbishops and fifty bishops werQ assigned to the re- public, who were all to be natives of France. The arch- bishops were to receive a salary of 15,000 francs (£600) a year, and bishops 10,000 francs, or £400. All these dig- nitaries, moreover, were to be elected or deposed solely by the ruler of France. This was all that now remained to the popedom of those vast possessions which they had held for ages in the coun- try of Charlemagne and Louis the Ninth, her most devoted and faithful sons ! In the revolution no fewer than a hun- dred and forty-six sees, besides monasteries and benefices without number, had been totally lost. Who could calcu- late the wealth which had formerly belonged to the clergy, or measure their enormous landed estates ? All now was gone ; and if the restoration of order brought back the es- i THE PAPACY HUMBLED. 543 tablishment of Catholicism, and gave once more a hierarchy to France, it was an establishment shorn of its glories, a hierarchy despoiled of its riches and power, and bound by indissoluble chains, not to the Pontiff, but to the national chief. Well may Chateaubriand style Pius VII. the " true Pontiff of tribulation." It cost him, doubtless, many a pang to yield to such hard conditions ; but how many of his predecessors, the Gregories, the Bonifaces, and the In- nocents, would have perished a hundred times rather than have yielded ! To bend pliably, to accommodate himself to circumstances, was the genius and policy of Pius VII., and as he now stooped to the conquering Bonaparte, so when, in 1V9Y, he was Bishop of Imola, had he sided with the victorious republicans. " Yes, ray dear brethren," said he, ** be good Christians and you will make excellent republicans. The moral virtues make good dem- ocrats. The first Christians were animated with the spirit of democracy. God favored the labors of Cato of Utica, and of the illustrious republicans of Rome." When this truckling and supple spirit has taken the place of the hero- ism of ancient popes, it is not very dangerous to predict that the days of the papacy are numbered. So completely was the Pope humbled before the con- queror of Europe that he could refuse him no request. He felt that Napoleon was his master, and when, there- fore, that bold adventurer determined to exchange the title of first consul for that of emperor, he found little difficulty in obtaining from Pius the honor of a papal cor- onation. For this purpose, in November, 1804, Pius VIL set out on his journey to France. Napoleon met the Pontiff near Fontainebleau. The em- peror was on horseback ; the Pope in his traveling carriage. Both alighted, and after embraces and congratulations, the emperor entered the Pope's carriage, and they rode ami- cably together to Fontainebleau. On arriving in Paris, the Pontiff received every possible mark of respect, and was 544 LIVES OF THE POPES. lodged in magnificent apartments at the Tuileries. Many, of course, felt tlie hereditary emotions of reverence and love ; but in France the philosophers of the eighteenth century had labored too successfully to allow of any general enthusi- asm for a pope being either expressed or felt. Occasionally, Pius was treated with even contempt and insult ; and we are assured that he never failed to endure it with patience and meekness. On the second of December the coronation took place in the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The whole luxury and mag- nificence of the empire were displayed in this imposing ceremonial. The Pope offered a prayer, anointed the head of the monarch, and pronounced a benediction. Yet so lit- tle did he sympathize with the gorgeous pageant in which he acted this conspicuous part, that a shade of gloom, per- haps of foreboding, was observed to pass across his coun- tenance at the moment of chief solemnity, when Napoleon received the crown to place it on his own brow. Pius had in reality hoped for great results from this visit to Paris. Slight as were the grounds for congratulation when the concordat between himself and Napoleon was ar- ranged, he was transported with joy. " By this event," he said, " the churches have been purified from profanation, the altars raised anew, the banner of the cross once more unfurled, legitimate pastors set over the people, and so many souls that had strayed from the right way restored to the unity of the Church, and reconciled to themselves and God." And now he trusted that his presence in France would lead Bonaparte to make more generous concessions. " I go," said he to the cardinals, " to comptete the work I have commenced." Little reason, however, was there for Pius to expect much favor from Napoleon. On the contrary, the emperor had already shown a disposition to impose yet more restric- tions on the Romish Church, and it was chiefly owing to his suggestions and aid that it had been overwhelmed with THE PAPACY HUMBLED. 546 ruin in Germany only the year before ; her estates having been taken away and given to the Protestant princes. At this unexpected blow Pius himself was filled with dismay. ** What !" exclaimed he in despair, " did not Innocent III. expressly decree that heretics should not only be incapable of despoiling the Church, but that the Church might herself lawfully appropriate the estates of heretics ? Alas ! we are fallen on such calamitous times that it is not possible for the spouse of Christ to practice, nor even expedient ior her to recall her holy maxims of just rigor against the enemies of the faith." Then, filled with the indignation of injured infallibility, he continued, " But, although she cannot exercise her right of deposing heretics from their principalities, and declaring them deprived of their property, yet ought she for a mo- ment to allow that they may rob her of her property to ag- grandize and enrich themselves ? What an object of deri- sion would she become to heretics and infidels, who in mocking her grief would say, that they had found out a way of making her tolerant P^ 0 ! unalterable Rome ! Indulging these illusive hopes, and calling to mind what vast endowments Charlemagne had conferred on the Pope who crowned him with the imperial diadem, Pius VII. modestly requested of Napoleon the restoration of some of the territory which had been severed from the Papal States at the last invasion of Italy. He received this stern and peremptory reply : — " France has dearly purchased the power which she enjoys. We cannot sever anything from an empire which has been the fruit of ten years' bloody combats." Disappointed and mortified, yet still cherishing hope, be- cause of the courteous treatment he had personally received in Paris, Pius returned to his Itahan dominions, to learn there the bitter truth, that not only was his spiritual authority curtailed, but that even his chpped and fettered temporal sovereignty was now to be reduced to a shadow. The 646 LIVES OF THE POPES. wars still carried on by Napoleon rendered it needful to occupy Italy with a military force, and Ancona, and all the other sea-ports in the Papal States, were accordingly garri- soned with soldiers, in utter disregard of the Pope's ear- nest remonstrances. " You," said Napoleon, "are sovereign of Rome, but I am its emperor.''^ In vain did Pius indig- nantly reply that he acknowledged no earthly superior; that superior was at hand, and, as if endowed with ubiquity, even when beyond the Alps made his presence oppressively and painfully felt in the chambers of the Vatican. Pliable as he had shown himself in merely spiritual mat- ters, Pius VII. began to grow resolute when his temporal possessions were touched. Napoleon required that a league should be formed between France and the papacy, in the war which he was then waging with England. Pius saw in this demand, not only a disgraceful subserviency to France, but certain and absolute ruin to his power, -which- ever should be the victor. It was to make Italy the thea- tre of war, and to get no recompense for bloodshed and de- vastation but insult and oppression. He therefore firmly refused to permit the French soldiers to garrison Rome. *' The emperor," said he, " insists on everything or nothing. To his articles I cannot subscribe. There will be no mili- tary resistance ; I shall retire into the Castle of St. Angelo ; not a shot shall be fired, but the emperor will find it neces- sary to force the gates. I will place myself at the entry ; the troops will require to pass over my body." Pius even ventured to mutter something about excommunication, which, while it amused, also provoked Napoleon. In 1809 the vial of imperial wrath was poured out on the unhappy Pope. French soldiers occupied Rome, and imperiously called on the Pontiff to abdicate his royal func- tions. " The Pope is at present too powerful," said Napo- leon ; " priests are not made to govern. To the court of Rome I will always be Charlemagne." A cordon of sol- diers was drawn around the Quirinal Hill, and Pius was kept THE PAPACY HUMBLED. 547 a prisoner in his own palace. But nothing would induce the Pope to surrender his scepter and crown. At last a decree was issued bv the French general declaring that " the States of the Pope are united to the French ernpire." Guns were fired as the tricolor flag waved from the battle- ments of St. Anorelo. Then did Pius VII. launch from the "Vatican the last thunderbolt in the papal armory. A bull of excommunica- tion against the emperor was secretly aflixed to the princi- pal churches in Rome. Yet, not wholly deprived of his usual cautiousness, he took care not to mention the emperor by name. Anxious rather to conciliate than ofiend the great conqueror, he worded the bull so as to denounce only in general terms "all the spohators of the Church." Napoleon now resolved on a step which he had long been contemplating. He desired to rule the world of religion as well as the world of politics, and he saw no other method that promised success but the removal of the Pope to Paris. By having the Pope near himself, he hoped to make him a " mere President of the Church," and a president wholly subject to himself. To Paris therefore he caused the Pon- tiff to be conveyed. When the will of the emperor was announced to Pius VII. it sounded like a reprieve to one doomed to die. He had expected, or professed to expect, nothing less than death. When the officer whose duty it was to perform the task entered into the presence of Pius, pale and trembling with all the superstitious fear of an ignorant devotee, he found the Pontiff sitting in an attitude of resignation to his fate. He had called for the ring which Pius VI. had woi*n in his last moments, the gift of Queen Clotilda, and putting it on his finger looked at it, and so expected death, we are told, with calm satisfaction. We might surely have looked for something more than this in a Christian bishop ! He was first carried to Grenoble, and then to Savona, where he remained strictly guarded all the while Napoleon 548 LIVES OF THE POPES. was engaged in war, and unable to attend to ecclesiastical matters. On the conclusion of the disastrous Russian cam- paign in 1812 the emperor found leisure to inquire for the Pope, and ordered him to be removed to Fontainebleau. He was conducted thither in great secresy, divested of his pontifical robes, and not permitted to alight from his car- riage. Deplorable contrast to his former visit, eight years before ! At Fontainebleau Napoleon and Pius met once again; and the resolute energy of the emperor easily obtained all that he wanted. It is said, indeed, that he used threats and unseemly violence, seizing the aged Pope by his hoary locks, and otherwise expressing his anger. But this could hardly be requisite with a feeble old man, already more than seventy years of age. When afterward deploring the copcessions he had made, Pius blamed the prelates around him. " These cardinals," he would say, " dragged me to the table and forced me to sign." Henceforth, till the downfall of Napoleon, the Pope was the servant of the emperor. He resided at Fontainebleau, like a captive on parole. His time was passed in no very dignified employment, but at least harmlessly. He chatted affably, took prodigious quantities of snufF, mended his own clothes for amusement, and sometimes washed them. The vast library at his command was seldom used, and except that he was punctilious in observing the rites of the Church, he does not seem to have concerned himself much with ec- clesiastical aflfairs. But in the year 1814 the Pontiff's confinement came to a close. Reverses had fallen thickly on the emperor, and the defeat of Leipsic had thrown Europe into the hands of the allied sovereigns. On the 24th of January Pius was set at liberty, and commenced his return to Rome. His progress, however, was slow, and not until the 23d of May did he gaze with tearful eyes on the walls and domes of the metropolis. A procession of the people met him, with THE PAPACY HUMBLED. 549 young girls carrying gilded palms in their hands, chanting songs of triumph, and shouting " Hosanna !" With the return of the Pontiff to Rome the tide of cler- ical bigotry and selfishness set in afresh. Untaught by mis- fortune, and deaf as ever to the stern demands of an age in- creasing every day in enlightenment, the Romish clergy brought back with them all their old habits of self-seeking and peculation. By the system of finance begun under the French government, pecuniary prosperity might perhaps have been established in the Papal States. But now all was thrown into a confusion more ruinous than ever. There were taxes and duties in the French fashion — general administration in the Roman. And above all there was a spirit of intestine strife between the old and the new parties, those who advo- cated reform, and those who would have replaced everything on the former footing ; a strife which neither the ability of Consalvi, the Pope's chief adviser, nor the high and martyr- like reputation of Pius himself was able to allay. Nor was the Pontiff much comforted on looking at the mutilated domains which the devotion or generosity of the allied sovereigns had allotted him. If France had with- drawn her troops, it was only that Austria might introduce her own. Henceforth the popedom was under surveillance, and Pius found that all his zeal for the cause of the ancient monarchies had only produced him an exchange of masters. Determined to withstand the innovating spirit of the age, and hopeless of doing it by any other means, Pius VII. re- solved on reviving once more the order of Jesuits. This order, although suppressed by pontifical edict, had not ceased to exist; for when expelled from France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, they had found a refuge, strange to say, in States that did not acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope. Prussia first, and afterward Russia, had not only given them protection, but received them into their service. The Jesuits were not only teachers of Rome's theological 550 LIVES OF THE POPES. dogmas, they were the propagators everywhere of Rome's absolute and tyrannical spirit ; and this spirit it had now become needful for the Prussian and Russian monarchs to encourage and diffuse, in order to prop up the authority at home which they saw rapidly failing abroad. Those phil- osophical writings which, more than anything, had pro- duced the revolution in France, were hastening the same results in other lands ; and Frederic the Great, perceiving this tendency, and justly dreading a revolt of his subjects against his arbitrary and despotic rule, had abandoned his friendship with Voltaire at the very time of the suppression of the Jesuits in Italy. He accordingly welcomed them to Berlin, hoping by their aid to conquer the turbulent spirit of democracy ; and the same motives prompted Catha- rine II. of Russia to invite them to St. Petersburgh. Thus, under the patronage of two courts, neither of which had the least sympathy with the Pope's spiritual claims, were the Pope's most devoted and faithful servants protected until he bid them return to Rome. And within three months of his own restoration did Pius VII. publish the bull Solicitudo omnium ecclesiarum, recalling the Jesuits to the side of the Pontiff, He justified the measure by the exigencies of the times; *'for," said he, " on the stormy sea, and every moment threatened by death and shipwreck, I should violate my duty by declining the aid of powerful and experienced mariners, who offer them- selves for my assistance." So he granted them all their former privileges, reinstated them in all their functions of preaching, confession, and instruction ; and earnestly en- treated the foreign powers to extend to them the same in- dulgence. Nor were those powers, at least those of southern Eu- rope, reluctant to consent. They were just now repenting that they had ever unchained the spirit which had over- turned their thrones. They erroneously supposed that had they retained the Jesuits they might have kept down the LEO XII., PIUS VIII., AND GREGORY XVI. 551 spirit of insubordination, which eventually changed into revolution. Their mistake was the same as the Pope's, and to that error may in a large degree be attributed the convulsions which have since that time distracted France, Spain, and Portugal, as well as the States of the Church. Fearful of the hberal spirit which claimed in Italy a sim- ilar constitutional and representative government to those which had been established in the western nations, Pius adopted strong measures to repress the growth of the Car- honari party,. to which that spirit had given birth; and in 1817 he began to condemn them to severe punishment, im- prisoning some, banishing others, and putting some to death. But this only increased the rancor of party spirit, and in- duced the Carbonari, for the sake of strength, to open their ranks to every rude and boisterous spirit. Party conten- tions grew higher, day by day, and amid the turmoil thus excited, the aged Pontiflf ended his unquiet reign, in July, 1823. CHAPTER XVI. PONTIFICATE OF LEO XII., PIUS VIII., AND GREGORY XVI. THE JESUITS AGAIN. A. D. 1823-1846. The successor of Pius was the Cardinal della Genga, al- ready sixty years of age, and so infirm that when told that his friends wished to raise him to the throne, he replied, pointing to his swollen limbs and pallid countenance, " Don't think of me, for you would elect a corpse." But he pos- sessed the quahties that the dominant party in the con- clave wanted for their purpose, and he was accordingly elected. Leo XII. had led chiefly a political life as nuncio of the Pope at Lucerne, Cologne, Florence, and Paris. His con- duct had always been that of a man of fashion ; foremost in all sports, fond of the fine arts, and proud of his open 652 LIVES OF THE POPES. licentiousness, ^o the revolutionary spirit of tlie times he was bitterly opposed, belonging to that fiery party of the clergy which sought to restore all things as they were be- fore the revolution. The harshness, despotism, and intol- erance of the restoration now received a new and greater intensity. With the acquisition of the tiara, also, Leo seemed to have acquired new energy. His strength was so revived that he appeared like another man, and he used it all to enforce the coercive measures which he thought necessary for the times. His first blows fell upon the Jews. In the recent disorders they had left their quarters called the Ghetto, and were carrying on a flourishing trade in Rome. As if eager to leap back at once into the dark ages, Leo XII. forbade their dwelling within the city, and many honorable and prosperous merchants removed forthwith to Venice and Trieste. He also very consistently prohibited the practice of vaccination, restored the use of Latin in the courts of law, and, but for the sturdy opposition he met with from the people, would have gone much further in reviving me- diasval superstition, ignorance, and barbarism. Next came, in natural order, deeds of persecution and cruelty. Throughout the papal states the Carbonari party, or liberals, were very numerous, and although most of them kept their principles a secret, there were not a few bold enough to avow them, and to stir up a spirit of resistance against Leo's retrograde policy. To exterminate these, and indeed to annihilate the whole party, became a leading object with the Pope. He accordingly sent cardinals into the pro- vinces, invested with full power to seize all whom they sus- pected of liberal opinions, and to punish them at discretion. The year 1825 was thus a darkly-written one in the annals of papal cruelty. Although the restored Inquisition was more humane than its prototype, it was far too severe for the present age. No fewer than five hundred individuals were sentenced to various degrees of punishment in that year for LEO XII., riUS VIII., AND GREGORY XVI. 553 their political opinions alone. Some were put to death, others were imprisoned for life, and the remainder were subjected to milder penalties. The natural result was the rapid increase of disaffection. Not daring to speak, the subjects of the Pope thought and felt the more ; and a strong spirit of anguish and disgust was excited even in devoted papists, when they saw other nations running a new and glorious race in civilization, re- finement, arts, learning, and commerce, and themselves precluded ^om the noble strife — their natural energies forcibly restrained and curbed. While thus laboring to control the aspiring temper of the Italians, Leo XII. was not unobservant of the vast revolu- tion which had passed over the Churches as well as the nations of Europe. He saw with apprehension that a new life seemed to have entered into the Protestant Churches, and marked with an anxious eye the growth of those Mis- sionary and Bible Societies, which, although born in the present century, had already attained to a magnificent ma- turity, and which the quick eye of the Pontiff perceived would prove to be the mightiest assailants, not only of philosophical infidelity and pagan idolatry, but also of papal superstition. In an encyclical letter of May, 1824, Leo therefore conveyed to his bishops and clergy the fears he entertained. " You are not ignorant," says that memorable epistle, " that a society, commonly called a Bible Society, is audaciously spreading through the earth ; and that, in contempt of the traditions of the holy fathers, and against 'the celebrated decree of the Council of Trent, it endeavors, with all its might, and by every means, to translate, or rather to corrupt, the Holy Scriptures, mto the vulgar tongues of all nations. . . . We exhort you, venerable brethren, to remove your flocks, with care and earnestness, from this fatal pasture. ... Let not your courage be cast down. You will have with you (and for this we rely with confidence on the Lord) the poiver of the secular princes, 24 • 554 LIVES OP THE POPES. who, as reason and experience show, defend their own cause in defending the authority of the Church." The last-quoted sentence received a partial fulfillment. The restored sovereigns were manifestly of opinion that it was mainly by flattering the priesthood, or, as they phrased it, by supporting religion, that they would succeed in bringing back a spirit of loyalty, and in firmly establishing their thrones. Even the Jesuits were welcomed at first, but only to repeat their intolerable insolences, and to re- ceive a yet more ignominious expulsion than before from nearly every state. Yet the priesthood were still courted in France, Spain, Portugal, and Austria; and the detestation in which they were held by large masses of the people was either unseen or underrated by the hoodwinked rulers. For a while it seemed as if a new career of glory had opened for the papacy. Perhaps it was in Protestant Britain that the Pope ap- peared to win his greatest success. The laws of England from the days of the Reformation had laid heavy, and, as was deemed by many, unjust restraints on the Roman Catholic inhabitants of this realm. In Ireland, where the Papists outnumbered the Protestants in the proportion of eight to one, these restraints had occasioned more than one attempt at rebellion. In 1828, the demand for an equality of civil rights had risen to such a pitch that an insurrection seemed certain, and to quiet the clamor of the people, and avert the threatened danger, the "Roman Catholic Relief Act" was passed by the British parhament in 1829;;^ a measure which many deprecated as fraught < with peril, while others regarded it as a just and equitable concession of indisputable rights. Had the Romish Church in Ireland still possessed her primitive vigor, or had she retained only a moderate por- tion of spiritual life, this event might indeed have proved a great victory. But the unbinding of the cerements which surround the limbs of a corpse will only cause it to fall to LEO XII., PIUS VIII., AND GREGORY XVI. 655 pieces the faster, and so has it hitherto seemed with the papal system in Ireland. At the hour of this imaginary- triumph Pope Leo died, in February, 1829. As in the former election, so now again, the conclave was chiefly influenced in its choice by the will and policy of Austria. At her instigation. Cardinal Castiglione became the successful candidate. Pius VIII. was well adapted to become the tool of a party, and of the Austrian party especially. He was old and infirm, while he was little acquainted with public aff'airs, and his religious sentiments were of the gloomiest cast. He promptly rewarded the Austrian cardinal, Albani, whose zeal had secured his election, by making him Secretary of State, and the States of the Church immediately sank into entire subserviency to Austria. The policy of the preced- ing pontificate was steadily carried out; liberal opinions were everywhere violently suppressed ; and when the second French Revolution of 1830 gave the Italian patriots the hope that the time was at length come for their emancipa- tion from papal thraldom, the strongest measures were taken to prevent any popular outbreak. In the midst of this excitement, Pope Pius died, chiefly weighed down by the infirmities of age. This time the cardinals were not long in deliberating. The aspect of the political heavens was too loweiing to ad- mit of delay. Already there were signs of an approaching revolution, when the conclave announced the election of Cardinal Capellari to the tiara and the throne. Gregory XVI. was quite as unused as his predecessor to the business of public life. He had been a Carmelite monk, and had acquired the character of a learned theolo- gian ; but was unfitted for government, as much by the habits of his former secluded life as by the bigoted and superstitious disposition which such habits almost neces- sarily create. Scarcely had the accession of Gregory been published. 556 LIVES OF THE POPES. when revolts occurred in several of the papal provinces. Bologna took the lead, pulling down the Pope's arms from the palace of the legate, and replacing them with the tri- color flag. The commotion spread swiftly from Bologna throughout Romagna, then reached the other provinces, and in a few days prevailed in all parts of the Pope's dominions, except the metropolitan city. The avowed intention of the insurgents was to put an end forever to the temporal sovereignty of the Pope, and to unite the states of Italy in one common national bond. But the movement was altogether too sudden, and too pre- maturely contrived to insure success. There was little or no preparation to encounter the opposition that was certain to arise. It was simply a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm, excited by the revolution in Paris, which had expelled Charles X. and placed Louis Philippe on the throne. Yet so utterly powerless, so universally detested was the pontifical government, that, left to itself, it could not have survived the shock of even this unorganized insurrection. But Austria proffered aid, and pouring her troops into the disaff'ected provinces, quickly silenced the tumult of revolt. It was evident, however, that agitations like these could only be prevented by timely concessions to the people, and the powers of Europe united to recommend this course to the Pope, in order that a " new era" (as Cardinal Ber- netti, the papal secretary, said) might commence with the popedom of Gregory XVI. But the new era promised by Bemetti was slow in arriv- ing. The papal government, with its usual duplicity, forgot its promises as soon as the danger was past. Earnest peti- tions came up from the provinces to be coolly ignored at the Vatican. Indignant remonstrances, and partial attempts at revolt, rapidly followed by confiscations, imprisonments, and exiles, led the way to a complete relapse into the old system of misgovemment and steady suppression of free thought. The Papal States were now the only part of LEO XII., PIUS VIII., AND GREGORY XVI. 557 civilized Europe in which municipal institutions were un- known, and where the laity were wholly excluded from the conduct of public affairs. For many following years the people were busy in plot- ting revolutions, and the government in practicing espionage on the largest scale, suddenly searching suspected houses, punishing the suspected without trial, and every way em- bittering the spirit of hostility. Plans were formed by the exiled patriots to unite all Italy in a confederation for free- dom ; but these plans were discovered and destroyed by the Austrian police before they were ripe for execution. All Europe looked on with pity, but no State offered to in- terfere, lest commotions in Italy should lead to disturbances elsewhere. The banished Italians themselves, in a mani- festo which they published in 1845, declared that the enor- mities of Gregory's government had risen to such a height, " that each one of them more than sufficed to give the right of loudly protesting against his breach of faith, his tram- pling upon justice, his torturing human nature, and all the excesses of his tyranny." And while the pontificate of Gregory XVI. was one of perpetual domestic unhappiness, it was further degraded by the ignominious subjection of the papacy to the imperial sceptre. That sceptre had lost its majesty, and was far less potent than in former days, yet it swayed the councils of Rome as completely as those of Vienna. How great the contrast, how humihating to modem pontiffs, between the popedoms of the seventh and the sixteenth Gregory ! Nor was there much in the aspect of affairs abroad to console the humbled papacy for the mortifications she en- dured at home. The revival of the Jesuits had, indeed, given the appearance of greater vigor to papal operations in the countries they were permitted to enter. But from some of these they had been very recently ejected. France drove them forth in abhorrence when she banished her des- potic Charles X. ; and Spain also rejected then* services 558 LIVES OF THE POPES. with disdain. And althougli in England they found a quieter home, it was by no means a congenial sphere of labor. They were neither courted by the rulers, nor viewed with favor by the people. Yet it was in England that Romanism appeared, during the pontificate of Gregory XVI., to gain its most signal triumph ; no such triumphs, indeed, as they had been used to in other lands, no wealthy livings, no powerful offices, but so large an apparent increase of adherents as to fill Protestants with alarm, and excite great rejoicing among Romanists themselves. Tlie increase of chapels and priests, and the erection of colleges and cathedrals, were much rather apparent than real signs of growing strength. That strength had hitherto been concealed, for to discover it had been contrary to law ; and now that the restrictions on Ro- man Catholics were removed, it was only to be expected that they should put forth their utmost might, or even go beyond it. Many of the aristocracy, and much of the wealth of the land, belonged still to the apostate Church, and the Romish priesthood have never wanted the skill to obtain munificent gifts from either the remorseful, superstitious, or misguided devotee. Even the wretched emigrants from Ireland, who throng the great cities where Roman Catholic chapels are chiefly to be found, have been mercilessly taxed to uphold that pomp and splendor which the Romish Church so dearly loves. There seems, therefore, no great occasion for sur- prise or for alarm, if the Romanist chapels have increased from one hundred to six hundred, or if they now number ten colleges and nineteen convents where they formerly had none. These do not proceed from the proselytism of Rome — they are simply the manifestations of a strength which had before kept its existence a secret.* * The above statements of course must be viewed as the au- thor's individual opinion. It is a question on whicli public senti- ment is at present somewhat divided. LEO XII., PIUS VIII. AND GKEGORr XVI. 559 From another side proceeded a mucli greater danger to evangelical religion. In the Church of England, a party had risen to considerable importance which sympathized far more with the principles of Rome than with those of the Bible. Calling themselves Anglicans, they claimed for the Episcopal Church of England a similarity of creed and discipline with that of the Church of Rome. The doctrines of the Reformation they openly renounced, and styled that glorious event a "misfortune," The formularies of the Church of England they interpreted as teacliing some of the most anti-scriptural doctrines promulgated by Rome. This party was of course vehemently opposed by all those who held fast to the Scriptures, and who refused to admit tradition to be of equal authority with the Bible. A long and violent struggle ensued ; and at lengtli a number of the Anglican clergy and laity, including some of the most learned of the former, and some of the most distinguished of the latter, wearied and fretted by the protracted contest, abandoned altogether the Protestant profession, and became avowed members of the Roman Catholic Church. While these events were agitating England, Gregory XVI. died, June 1, 1846. His career had been one of vexation and turmoil ; a useless and always baffled conflict with the enlightened spirit of the age. Endeavoring to preserve the old and the obsolete both in government and in religion, he was always hated by his subjects, and overborne and bent down by the strong current of opinion. In so unnatural an effort the greatest genius must have failed ; but Greg- ory's was a mind of the meanest class. He made a favorite barber first groom of his chamber, decorated him with the badges of nobility, and always confided in his judgment. Under such guidance, it can be little wondered at that the papal finances were plunged into greater embarrassment than ever. Accounts were badly kept, so that there were absolutely none for ten years of the sixteen that Gregory ruled. At the end of his reign the public debt had mount- 560 LIVES OF THE POPES. ed from one million and a half to nearly twenty-nine mill- ions of crowns, and all the prisons were filled with suspected political offenders. The papal government was hated at home, and despised abroad ; all parties were anxiously watching the darkened firmament, and expecting that from the ominous clouds a tempest would shortly burst. CHAPTER XVII. PONTIFICATE OF PIUS IX. REFORM, REVOLUTION, FLIGHT, AND RETURN. A. D. 1846-1852. The accession of Pius IX. was eagerly welcomed by the people ; for although they knew little about him, they thought it impossible that a new pontiff should neglect to effect reforms that were become so palpably requisite. Moreover, the new Pontiff, when only Cardinal Mastai Ferretti, had acquired a reputation for benevolence of dis- position. And when, in July, 1846, he published an act of amnesty for all political offenders, the contrast of such lib- erality with the stern severity of the preceding pontificate seemed to the Romans like a sudden gleam of sunshine from thick and threatening clouds. ** Hosannas were count- less ; the ninth Pius was hailed as a deliverer ; thousands upon thousands of torches blazed at even ; no human tongue can adequately paint that festival of souls." Thence- forth the name of Gregory was used as a by- word of abuse, and that of Pius, with his likeness, and the colors of his shield, became the prevailing fashion. It was believed by all, though without adequate reason, that the act of amnesty was only a prelude to a complete reformation of the papal government. The *'new era," said the excited people, " has at length dawned, inaugu- rated by the benevolent Pius." Those who still labored to maintain the old and detested state of things were known PONTIFICATE OF PIUS IX. 561 as Gregorians ; and all the friends of change, of reforms, and of the benignant Pontiff, were called Pians. The first year of the new pontificate seemed hardly to justify the sanguine hopes of the people. Some reforms were accomplished, and others were promised ; but it was too evident that either the Pope was not greatly in earnest, or else that he had opposition to overcome, which did not meet the general eye. Perhaps both these surmises were coiTect ; the latter certainly was. The " Gregorians " tenaciously clung to the ancient abuses, and were by no means satisfied of what was sufficiently obvious to all but themselves, that the temporal power of the popes could be no longer supported on its decayed, and indeed rotten foundation. Alarmed at the increasing boldness and grow- ing demands of the people, and irritated at the partial coun- tenance they received from the Pontiff, they not only in- trigued and plotted to withstand the progress of reform, but even to subvert the government itself. The Romans were roused to indignation, and riots quickly ensued. It was a momentous crisis, and Austria, ever watchful for an opportunity to interfere, seized the occasion to reinforce the garrison of Ferrara with a fully equipped army, and to in- crease the rigor of police government in her own Italian provinces. *' For books and journals," says an eye-witness, " her astounding remedy was the censorship ; for the spirit of freedom, the jail ; and for the spirit of independence, the bayonet y Other events quickly occurred to urge forward the halt- ing Pontiff in the pathway of reform. The revolution of Paris, which, in February, 1848, hurled Louis Phihppefrom the throne of France, spread through the neighboring coun- tries until it reached Vienna, and afterward Milan. Great was the joy at Rome when the news of these occun-ences arrived. The citizens believed that now the hour of their emancipation had certainly come ; and the Pope, to satisfy their demands and so avert a revolt, granted by the same 24* 562 LIVES OF THE POPES. decree a constitutional parliament and a council of State, in which, for the first time, laymen were permitted to sit. In this, however, Pius did but follow the example of the other absolute monarchs of Italy, who hoped to save their thrones by making these late concessions to their people, and he took every possible precaution that the privileges of the clergy should be fully sustained. Meantime the cry for national freedom grew louder day by day throughout all Italy. The shouts that rang from the Alps and Apennines were echoed back by the rocks of Sicily. In March, 1848, Milan and Venice drove out the Austrian troops ; and then Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, hoping to turn the national movement to his own advantage, proclaimed war against Austria. Multitudes from all parts flocked to his banners ; the grand duke of Tuscany, and even the king of Naples, unwillingly but helplessly carried away by the strong tide, gave in their adhesion to the na- tional cause ; and last of all the Pope, seeing the danger of resisting the revolutionary spirit of an entire people, and hoping that a league of Italian States, of which he should be president, might be the result of the struggle, sent the papal troops to support the king of Sardinia. Thus tlie tri-color flag bore the symbol of the cross, and popular en- thusiasm rose higher than ever in favor of Pius the Ninth. Nevertheless, Pius IX. was far more a priest than a pat- riot, and had yielded so much chiefly because it seemed necessary in order to stave off the dangers which threat- ened the Church. He was trying the experiment whether it was possible for the popedom to retain its temporal sov- ereignty, by establishing a constitutional freedom ; not at all, therefore, because he desired that freedom, but because it was evident that only on this condition would his power be suffered to continue. And now, as he anxiously watched the rising tide of revolution, he began to fear that he had yielded more than prudence would have counseled; so that when reports reached him from Austria that the court PONTIFICATE OF PIUS IX. 663 of Vienna accused him of being the fomenter of revolutions, and even spoke of forsaking the Roman Church, his alarm prompted him to publish a full denial of the charges alleged against him, with a protest that he had never intended to engage in the Italian wars, and that his troops had crossed the border of the States without his consent. Unhappy- Pope ! He conciliated Austria indeed by these assertions, but at the costly sacrifice of his people's affections. The Romans now perceived that Pius was no hearty associate in the cause of Italian nationality, and the voices which had formerly chanted his praises now loudly denounced him as a traitor. For a while, however, the nation suppressed its wrath. The war which Charles Albert was waging with Austria engrossed all their anxieties and passions. But when, in August, 1848, after a most disastrous campaign, the Sardinian king resolved on giving up Milan to the Austrian troops, all confidence in princes was at an end ; Charles Albert and the Pope were both of them objects of execra- tion ; and the storm which had hitherto raged on the con- fines of Italy was now e\adently approaching the capital. Their intense vexation and disappointment at the issue of the war, the Romans wreaked on the successive minis- tries of the Pope. That of Pellegrino Rossi was especially unpopular ; and while many threats were muttered against Rossi himself, the demands of the people were chiefly di- rected to obtain a constituent assembly which should re- organize the government in accordance with the national wish. The agitation grew deeper day by day ; and when, in November, 1848, the parliament of deputies assembled for the first time, the excitement had reached its highest climax. Crowds daily gathered round the chambers, and as Rossi was one day passing from his carnage to the hall of entrance, a dagger from an unknown hand pierced his neck, and laid him at the feet of the populace. The Pope, in a wild state of consternation which deprived him of all 564 LIVES OF THE POPES. power of governing, escaped the next day in disguise, and took refuge in the Neapolitan dominions ; while the Romans, triumphing in their emancipation from the detested rule of the priesthood, placed the tri-color flag on the capitol, and proclaimed the commencement of a Roman republic. The republic, however, was not sufiered long to exist. Within a few months the cannon and bayonets of France restored the Pontiff to his slippery throne, and there con- tinue to maintain him. Under this support a third experi- ment has been tried with the worn-out papacy, to see whether it had life enough left to recover and grow again, if for a time it was screened from the blasts of popular ha- tred by the presence of an overwhelming military force. But here also the experiment fails, and all that seems pos- sible is to keep together a frail and lifeless form, which must inevitably fall to pieces the moment the protection is removed. But what humiliations and depressions will ever destroy the proud and aggressive spirit of the Romish priesthood — an arrogance which will last as long as the papacy itself? While plunged in those depths of distress which we have just described, the bold effort was made to reestablish in England the whole hierarchy of Rome in all its ancient completeness and splendor. In 1851 a bull was issued by Pius IX., ordaining that the ancient bishoprics and arch- bishoprics of the Romish Church in Britain should be once more restored. As we have already seen, these proud as- sumptions and strenuous efforts do not by any means prove that Romanism has a stronger hold upon England than in years gone by. The general shout of indignation which was raised by the whole people at the pubhcation of the bull is a further illustration of the fact. All parties united in denouncing the insulting arrogance of the Pope, which was rendered almost ridiculous by his manifest feebleness at home. One delightful truth, however, was made evident by the impudent "papal aggression" of 1851 ; it was dis- PONTIFICATE OF PIUS IX. 565 covered more plainly than had ever been hoped that the population of England, whatever its divisions into sects and parties, and whatever its leanings to various forms of error, was vastly more Protestant than Popish, and was little likely to be seduced by the mummeries and tinseled bau- bles of the popish ceremonial into a second allegiance to Rome. Thus have we traced the fortunes of the Romish Church from the first to the present. We have seen her rearing her strangely-mingled but closely-compacted authority on the ruins of the old Roman empire ; we have marked her struggle for mastery with the princedoms which arose from the barbarism of the middle ages ; we have admired the victory which she gained in that contest, and the fearful supremacy which she thenceforth wielded for many centu- ries over the mind of Europe, until the Reformation dis- solved the fatal spell ; with astonishment we have viewed the skill with which she recombined the fragments of her power, shattered well nigh to atoms by that mighty shock, and the desperate energy with which she vainly strove to seat herself once more on the throne of empire ; and finally, we have witnessed, not without joy, her decline to the very verge of ruin, amid the fierce conflicts of a revolutionary age. Abundant evidence have we found that the spirit of Rome is unchangeably anti- scriptural, exclusive, and intol- erant. Her claim of universal supremacy is as unqualified in this nineteenth century as it was in the twelfth. Her denial of the Bible to the people is as strenuous as ever. Her hatred of civil liberty was never more intense than now. To all these charges we cite the most recent pontiflfs, Pius VII., Leo XII., and Gregory XVI., as witnesses at the bar of truth. Were it possible for Rome to regain her ancient power she would, unquestionably, bring back all the intellectual darkness, the social barbarism, the priestly tyranny, and the spiritual serfdom of ages long passed away. 566 LIVES OF THE POPES. But the power of Rome is shaken. Even in her own Italy is she heartily despised and loathed, and the attempt to re- impose her hateful authority convulses the whole nation into anarchy. There, where she is best understood, she is most unequivocally condemned. Only with the ignorant or the interested have her pretensions any weight, and her decline keeps equal pace with the progress of enlightened and Scrip- tural education. ^ The " man of sin," some think, has well nigh run his eventful course. Yet, as he existed for centuries before he possessed regal power, so it is possible that the destruction of the papal sovereignty will not be immediately succeeded by the annihilation of the Romish error. To accomplish this, how great an obligation rests upon the Protestant Church ! Let them seek to maintain the highest character for intelligence and holiness. Let them be on the alert to do their whole duty, especially to scatter knowledge and truth in every direction. Then 'shall the Church of Christ be fully prepared for a decisive and final combat. Then shall she with holy confidence march to the conflict, and the towering citadel of falsehood shall fall down like the walls of Jericho. "And a mighty angel took up a stone hke a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying. Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." Rev. xviii, 21. THE END. Date Due 1 ■■> 1 — 1 . 1 ' i yi^i^i^ii^.. i BW851 .L78 1853 ^ ^ r. ^r^f^ The Lives of the Popes : from A.D. 100 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00066 3254 ;i 1 '■ . liliiliiii jiK I f, ■" < ' '!(!|i|iiM!:!int|!»niH!i»*illl!nMnMlii!ffi!l!t|!!|llt!itti(ijf!|n